//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: Head in the Clouds // Story: New Land Old Enemies // by Silent Scout //------------------------------// 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.