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.