It'd been 2 weeks after Celestia somehow felt the need to put her lips against Sam's. He'd just shrugged it off as an act of kindness. But he sensed Celestia didn't think of it as that. He'd gone off into the royal garden and sat down next to a tree. Celestia had followed. She walked slowly up behind him.
"Sam...why are you out here?" He looked up at her. Even with his visor up, she could tell he was sending a death glare her way.
"I'll give you the short version. I've only been stuck here 2 weeks and I'm already missing Elena. Burns..not so much." He chuckled at that last sentence, remembering his attitude towards him. He looked back at her and noticed that she now had a confused look on her regal, white face.
"Who is Elena and...Burns was it?" She walked towards where he was and sat down beside him on all fours. He nodded.
"Yeah, Burns is his name. Well...was his name I should say."
"Was?" She then finally realised what he meant by that statement. "Oh..you don't mean..."
He nodded once again. "Yup, he died. I was the one who had to kill him. I did try to save him at the end, but he decided not to let me." Sam pulled out a cigarette as he finished his sentence, also de-activating his helmet in the process. "It's a long story."
"Oh...I'm sorry. I did not mean to pry into...forbidden territory. It must have been horrible to have to..kill your friend." She put a comforting hoof over his shoulder. He pushed said hoof off of his soldier, lit his fag while it was in his mouth and started to continue the conversation.
"He wasn't a friend. Well, not really. He was more of a colleague. Still hurt to have to do that shit to him though." He took a drag on his cigarette and went to stand up. He began to walk back into the castle, but was stopped by Celestia's hoof touching his shoulder again.
"That is sad to hear..I'm so sorry Sam. But moving on...tell me...who is this 'Elena' you mentioned?" He sighed, threw his cigarette to the ground, activated his helmet and looked back at her as he started to walk off again.
"I don't want to talk about it."
A few hours had gone by since Celestia had her little chat with Sam. They hadn't talked again since. Celestia had gone to her quarters to sort something out and Sam had gone back to his room. It was now time for Sam to meet the royal family. Celestia had told him she wanted him to meet the family a few days ago and had arranged it for today. He really didn't want to go to this, but it was either this or listen to Celestia bitch at him, which he didn't need right now. Since she had kissed him, he hadn't really been 'friends' with her. He'd ignore her whenever he could and if she actually succeeded in finding him, he didn't listen to her. He had more important things to think about, such as why the fuck was he going to this 'meeting of the family?'
He made his way downstairs to find something to eat. What he did find, however, was a few ponies sitting with Celestia. He guessed this was her family she talked about.
"Oh boy. This is going to be annoying as hell." He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard Celestia call his name. He went over to the table, all of the ponies smiling at him. She motioned for him to sit down next to a pony he did not recognise. It was a dark blue in colour, had wings and a horn. When he did sit down, the dark blue alicorn smiled at him.
"Hello fair creature. Our..my...name is princess Luna. I am the princess of the night. My dear sister has told me very much about you in the past..2 weeks that you've been here?" Sam nodded.
"That's correct. Two whole long weeks. It's good to meet you Luna."
"So that's Celestia's sister? I wondered when I was going to meet her." He came out of his thoughts and smiled at her.
Her face beamed. "Likewise. I think my sister said your name was Sam. Is that correct?"
"Yes ma'am." Before she could say anything else, the chefs brought out the food and placed it on the table. Sam looked at his plate and frowned. The other ponies noticed this.
"Is there something wrong?" Sam leaned back in his chair.
"Not really. I just miss eating meat is all. 2 weeks without meat is a hell of a long time for me." He then heard a couple of CLANK! sounds which startled him and brought his attention back to the ponies sat around the table. Luna was the first one to speak up.
"You...eat...meat?" Sam looked at her in confusion.
"Well...yeah...I'm an omnivore. I told Celestia a week ago that I eat meat and veg. She must not have told you." Luna sent a scowl at her sister upon hearing this and Celestia just gave her a sheepish smile.
"Heh. Sorry about that Luna. Anyway, let us eat everypony."
He still hadn't gotten used to that term. Sam preferred to use 'everybody', but what the hell. Before he could 'dig in' to his food (which was an assortment of vegetables and fruits), he noticed that a big, bulky white unicorn had got his attention by calling his name. Sitting beside this unicorn was a pink alicorn. The unicorn spoke first.
"I am sorry. Where are my manners? I'm Shining armor, captain of the royal guard. And this is my wife, princess Cadance." Shining went to hug Cadance as Sam looked at them both casually.
"It's nice to meet you both. As you both should know by now, I'm Sam." Before he could continue, Cadance raised a question.
"What is that you're wearing?" Sam sighed. He REALLY didn't want to explain this again. "I'll put this as short as I can. It's a prototype battle suit called the ARS suit which augments my reactions in critical fight or flight situations, basically making it look like time has slowed down to me. It also has boosters which allows me to slide around at high speeds and evade at high speeds. It gives me a LOT more strength and agility that any of my species possess."
Shining and Cadance looked at him in awe. Surprisingly, Shining continued where Cadance left off. "That sounds...amazing. Your species must be pretty damn smart to come up with something like that."
Sam sat up and smirked. "Thanks. It was actually me who came up with the idea and brought it into reality. The corporation I work for funded it. I am actually an engineer, believe it or not."
Celestia spoke up, her plate empty and her belly full. "I thought you were a soldier?"
Sam started to eat his food because if he continued at this rate, he wouldn't get to eat it. And he was starving. After eating a bit, he answered her.
"No. I just went with the marines to test out this battle suit. As I stated before, it's only a prototype. Did I already tell you this?"
Celestia shrugged with a sheepish smile. "I don't know actually. I seem to have forgotten if you have or not. My apologies."
Sam shot her an annoyed look before continuing to eat his meal. After he had finished, he got up out of chair and said goodbye to everypony as he went back to his room. As he was just outside his door, he felt a hoof on his shoulder. "Celestia, I.."
When he turned around, he saw that it wasn't who he expected. It was actually her sister. "Oh...hello Luna. What do you want?"
She smiled. "I was wondering, as we didn't talk much during dinner, that maybe we could just...sit outside and watch my night for a little while tonight? If that's alright with you?" Sam shrugged.
"It's fine by me." He was met with yet another warming smile.
"That's good to hear. I'm glad you accepted my offer. I will see you tonight then. Goodbye Sam." And with that, she was off on her merry way. Sam opened his door, took off his suit and laid down on the bed. One thought was crossing his mind right now.
"That was boring as shit."