//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Forward March // Story: New Land Old Enemies // by Silent Scout //------------------------------// 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.