Around Town
After a while of walking through the orchard, Geronimo decided to tuck his wings back into his uniform. He had everything he owned in the pockets of his uniform, which basically consisted of an assortment of letters, and his hair dye.
He couldn't help but feel as though sompony was watching him. He decided to keep his cool and not let it get to him.
The longer he walked the more he felt like he was being watched, so he decided that whoever it was, he was going to freak them out when he got to town. He focused on his hearing, and everything that he could see, without moving his head.
The being that was following him was apparently everywhere. He could tell that it was only one, but the extremely light noises that it made in the trees seemed to show that it was not a physical being, tied down to being at one place at one time. They came from all over. Geronimo's confusion grew with every sound. It wasn't the sound of walking, or even physical contact with the ground of any sort. Whatever was following him was bouncing with an unnatural springiness.
After ten minutes of walking Geronimo was able to identify an extremely erratic pattern in this being's movement, and just before they arrived at town, he kicked a small rock to just where it was going to be next.
'Thunk' "Ouch!" whatever it was it talked, "what was that for?" in a high-pitched hyperactive girl voice.
"That was for stalking me for the past fifteen minutes." he said while continuing on his way. "Why we're you doing that? If I may be so bold." after he asked that, a pink mare emerged from behind a tree and had a mane that appeared to be a pink cloud, like the ones when discord took over the world.
"Well I my Pinkie Senses told me that there was going to be somepony new at Sweet Apple Acres today and I just had to know if it was true so I came down here as soon as I could and then I saw you and I was like 'is that the new guy?' so I was following you trying to figure out what kind of pony you were so I could tell what kind of surprise party to throw you-"
"Wait, wait, wait. Surprise party?" Geronimo cut her off from her one-breath, run-on sentence.
"Yep! But now you know about it so it won't be a surprise. Shoot."
"Well, throwing me a surprise party would be a vey bad idea, miss...?"
"Pinkie Pie! But why don't you want a surprise party?" and with that her mane began to deflate slightly as though it were a balloon and her smile became a slight frown.
"I love parties, miss Pie," with that her smile returned and her hair re-inflated. "but surprises are a bad idea for a war veteran with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder."
"Okie Dokie Lokie! Oh and call me Pinkie!" and then she bounced off, unnaturally, into the town, her mane and tail bouncing behind her.
Geronimo shook his head to try and get that confusing conversation out of his head, before continuing on into town.
The mayor was sitting at her desk doing routine paperwork, when her secretary knocked on her door.
"Come in." She said with the fluid perfection of one who does this everyday.
"Mayor Mare, there is a stallion here requesting citizenship, he says that he has a letter from Princess Celestia that should aid in the process." the secretary said with a tinge of suppressed boredom in her voice.
"Well let him in." the mayor requested.
The secretary turned and left, shortly returning with the aforementioned stallion. He was a tall, strong, stallion with a scarlet coat and a short, brown, military manecut, and similarly well-kept brown tail. But the most noticeable thing was his well decorated ENAF uniform, which was weird because he was an earth pony by the looks of it.
"How may I help you today sir?"
"I am Sergeant Geronimo, and I'm one of the Mustangs of the 51st, and I would like to gain citizenship in this town." then he began digging through many papers in his uniform to pull out one specific one and pushed it to the mayor. "I believe that this might aid in the process."
She looked down at the letter and broke the Sun Seal that was adorning it, which symbolized that it was written and sent by the princess herself. The mayor donned her glasses and began to read,
To whom it may concern,
Sergeant Geronimo is under my command and is to be granted citizenship in whichever town he so pleases. If there are any questions that you may have concerning the process, please feel free to write to me and I will help however I can.
In Peace and Harmony,
Princess Celestia
"Well, Sergeant, we will begin working of this immediately, so I suggest that you find a place to stay before it gets dark." she said while pulling some paperwork out from her desk and getting to work.
Geronimo showed himself out of the town hall and began to wander around town. His stomach decided that it was time to start searching for somewhere to eat. Eventually he found a nice outdoor place where he ordered a daisy sandwich for lunch.
He bit into the food that was not prepared months in advance and loved every bite of it. Just before he finished however he was interrupted by a pony speaking in what was apparently a Bitish accent.
"Ooohh darling! I simply love the ensemble! As well as the look of a stallion in uniform." Geronimo noticed the mare that was gushing over his dress uniform. She was a unicorn that had a white coat and a very styled bluish-purple mane.
Deciding to have a little fun, he adopted the same accent as her and responded with, "Oh, thank you darling. I do try to look my best on special occasions. And today is a very special day indeed."
"And why is that dear?"
Geronimo dropped the accent and said, "Because I just moved in this morning, in fact, I just got out of a meeting with the mayor." he allowed his smug smile to get a little bigger as he watched the mare's reaction to his accent switching.
"We-were you making fun of me?" she accused him.
"No I was not making fun of you ma'am. I was merely entertaining myself by switching accents, to watch your reaction. By the way my name is Sergeant Geronimo, and I was a mustang of the 51st, and your name, miss?" He made his introduction as courteous as he could to make up for his lack of respect earlier, plus she seemed like the kind of mare that would demand respect, adding a small bow to add to the effect.
She blushed slightly at his bow and cleared her throat before continuing, "my name is Rarity, and I am the owner of the Carousel Boutique. I would just love it if you came by my shop and would allow me to make a suit for you, Sergeant."
"I may just have to take you up on that someday, or at least have you mend these." gesturing to his well worn uniform.
"Well if you ever need help from me or want a new set of clothes for any reason at all, please don't hesitate to come by the boutique." Rarity said with a kindhearted smile, before leaving him to his lunch.
The communications unicorn aboard Sergeant Hotshot's airship looked at the letter that her commanding officer had entrusted her to send to the princess.
"Now, how do I do this?" she wondered out loud. "I can't remember the protocol for sending urgent mail to the princesses. Do I send it to her advisors, or is there a way to get it directly to her?"
She decided to try sending it directly to her ruler. She concentrated on the letter, as well as the princess. Suddenly the letter burst into a magical green flame with the smoke heading out the window and heading to Canterlot.
"I think that that worked..."
Princesses Celestia and Luna were sharing tea together, when suddenly a letter materialized out of its magical smoke, and unfurling in front of the sun princess.
"I wasn't expecting a letter from Twilight and she is the only one who sends letters this way... Hmmm..." she trailed off as she was reading the letter, her face contorted deep in thought.
"Is something wrong sister? You seem perplexed." the night princess asked.
"I don't know. One of the greatest Training Sergeants in our nation's air force has just been honorably discharged, but the thing that worries me is that he is now in Ponyville. I don't know why, I just feel that there was something I should be worried about with him there."
"Sister, you worry too much, with the Elements there, there is nothing to worry about." the darker of the immortal princesses reassured her sister before finishing her tea. "Now, if you will excuse me, I must go prepare the night."
"Alright sister, I will see you later, but I just can't stop feeling like there was something I should remember, oh well."
And with that, the princess put away the letter, and returned to her tea.
After finishing his lunch Geronimo headed out, attempting to gain a better lay of the land. The whole process was much more difficult when he couldn't fly. Even the past eight years, which he spent without wings, he was in the airship with a birds-eye view of everything. Now he was landlocked, only able to see to the next corner before his line of sight was blocked by something. He felt claustrophobic, like he was trapped. He began to look for a way out of town, searching for some open space where he could breathe.
His search became more frantic as he started trotting through the streets weaving through the ponies littering the streets. His trotting became a full-blown gallop, to a passing pony he was just a blur.
Suddenly he saw an opening, so, putting on an extra burst of speed, he leapt over several ponies and a fruit stand, flying straight into...
Town square.
He landed on his hooves and skidded to a stop, where he looked around, trying to find a way out to any open area. Luckily there was enough open air in the town square to allow him to calm down.
Once he had calmed his nerves, he looked around to see what there was. The saw many interesting buildings, including what appeared to be a life-size gingerbread house, and a tree house.
What?
A tree with living space hollowed out of it and built onto it. A very impressive structure indeed. Geronimo decided to go and see what this impressive building was all about.
Upon closer inspection it appeared to be the public library. Geronimo decided that, even though he hated almost all reading, he should catch up on more recent history and important events.
As he stepped inside, a small ding from a bell greeted him, and he was struck by a realization. It was bigger inside than outside.
The main floor couldn't have fit inside of the tree trunk that it was hollowed out of. As he was standing there and marveling at what he saw, a small, purple, unicorn mare came trotting down the stairs, levitating a stack of books behind her.
The purple unicorn looked at Geronimo and introduced herself, "Hello! My name is Twilight Sparkle, I run the library here in Ponyville. Can I help you, sir?" she said with a polite smile.
"Uh, yeah, my name is-" he was then cut off by a small, purple and green reptile coming into the room carrying a mountain of books.
"Twilight, where do you want these? They're really heavy." it said, obviously straining due to the weight.
Just put them somewhere else Spike, I'm busy right now. You were saying." Spike then waddled back towards the back of the room and set down the books, only to have them bury him in a pile of paper.
"Riiight... Anyways my name is Sergeant Geronimo, I have just reached the end of my service, and I am rather out of the loop. I know very little of what took place, outside of military endeavors, in the past nine years. Do you have anything here that could help me?"
At the mention of his military service, Twilight Sparkle's eyes got huge, her ears perked up, and a huge smile spread across her face. Spike also popped his head out of the pile of books. "What?" Geronimo said, beginning to worry about what may, or may not happen.
"You must have so many exciting stories! Could you tell us some?" as Twilight was talking papers, quills, and ink wells were all floating towards the very excited mare. "We could write a book! Historians all over Equestria would love to hear about this! There are so many things that you could tell us!"
Spike then chimed in with, "Did you ever kill somepony?"
"Whoa, Whoa, whoa. Calm down. I am sure that someday you will hear all of my stories, but for now, how about I get caught up on what has happened in the past few years? Is that ok with you?" Geronimo pled, trying to avoid reliving those memories, for now.
Twilight let out a depressed sigh, disappointed about not hearing any of this veteran's exciting war stories. "Fine, let's see what we can find for you. And Spike clean up that mess."
The little lizard-thing grumbled something about having already cleaned it up once, while the other two began scouring the shelves.
After a couple hours, Twilight had found a very recent history book that told everything he needed to know. So he checked out the book and left to find somewhere to read it. He found a large tree, outside of town, he then took off and folded his uniform, before he laid down and read until it got dark. While he was reading; however, he stumbled across something very, very fascinating, the Elements of Harmony.
Now he had heard of the Elements, every foal heard of how the princess had used them to defeat Nighmare Moon and Dischord, he had even heard that there were six ponies who had become the bearers of the Elements two years ago. He did not know who they were until just now.
There was a picture of the stained glass window portraying the six ponies and a name to go with each. He recognized four as ponies that he met today, the orange one, apparently named Applejack, the pink one named Pinkie Pie, the white one named Rarity, and the purple librarian named Twilight Sparkle. There was one he didn't recognize though, a cream colored pony, with a pink mane, named Fluttershy.
But he did recognize the last one. Rainbow Dash.
"No way... it can't be her... What are the odds? How could I have stumbled upon all of this by accident? And why wasn't I informed about this? I think that I deserve to know that she has become one of the Bearers of Harmony."
He made a decision, "If she lives nearby, I need to find her, I need to apologize to her for everything she lost... Crap... She's gonna kill me. Why did I have to pick this town?"
Geronimo laid down his head on a patch of moss and went to sleep trying to think about how he could best avoid getting pummeled.