Name: MSG. Adam “Shifty” Smith
Date: August 20, 2015
Location: The Library
Time: 0530
Adam had finally had a peaceful sleep since coming to this land, although it was only two or so hours of sleep. He had elected to stay up and read most of the night until he had a good wall of books that he had skimmed through to get the important bits of information from. Turning off his watch’s alarm he gave in to his body’s desire for more sleep and decided that today would be a day of rest for him. Not even a second after his head was back down on the arm of the sofa, the one he fell asleep on earlier, was he once again dead to the world.
Twilight awoke with the sun in her eyes, like it always does at the usual time of seven thirty in the morning. Yawning she made her way down stairs only to stop half way down after hearing the faint sounds of snoring. Entering the main area of the library she saw Adam asleep on the sofa with drool flowing from his muzzle. She shook her head, understanding what its like to stay up late until she sees the wall of books he left beside him. The fact that they were no longer organized really got to her but let it slide since he probably didn’t know enough about her to understand.
Using her magic, she lifted the books and examined what he had been reading throughout the night and was surprised with what she saw. There were books on Equestria’s history and myths along with books with maps on cities and terrain. She also saw a book that she didn’t even know she had here, about war in Equestria.
While Twilight was busy replacing the books on the shelf, she was unprepared for the kick to her flank she soon received from Adam in his sleep. The sudden kick elicited a yelp from Twilight that made him begin the slow process of waking up. As he opened his eyes he saw Twilight sitting on her haunches rubbing the spot he had unknowingly kicked her before he looked down where his head was. On the arm of the sofa he could still see the pool of drool that had accumulated and was connected to him by a thin string.
“God damn it,” he said as he began to mop it up with his sleeve. “Sorry Twilight I didn’t mean to drool all over the place.”
Twilight looked back up at him and laughed at his attempts to clean the sofa before saying, “Its ok. There is a rag under the sink that you can use to clean that up. It will probably work better than your sleeve.”
Jumping off the sofa he made his way to the sink, finding the rag right where she said it would be. It took him only a few seconds to clean up his mess while Twilight put away the last of the books. Looking down at his watch he saw that it was only seven forty-two in the morning, he had only gotten roughly four hours of sleep last night and he felt it.
Well at least I can have breakfast for once.
Making his way back to the kitchen he looked over his shoulder and said, “Hey I’ll make breakfast today. I feel like having some pancakes today, what about ya’ll?”
Spike could be heard fumbling around upstairs followed by him asking, “Did somepony say they were making pancakes?”
“Yes I did, would ya like some,” Adam asked as he collected what he needed to make them as well as a bowl of small berries to add into the pancakes.
“I sure would,” exclaimed Spike as he ran to the table and sat down, Twilight shortly sat down next to him.
It wasn’t long before each one of them had a stack of pancakes sitting in front of them, Adam making sure to lather his up with syrup. The room was quickly filled with the sounds of ponies and a dragon happily chewing on their morning meal. With their meal done and dishes taken care of Adam went upstairs to check his bag in the hopes that he had his toothbrush with him and once he found his toothbrush he went to the bathroom.
As Twilight started to make her way to her own bathroom she heard Adam call out to her. “Hey Twilight, is it common for ponies to have canine teeth and other carnivore like teeth?”
Twilight stopped for a moment puzzled as to what he just asked. “No, not normally... Why?”
“No reason, just wondering.”
While looking at his sharp human teeth in the mirror the thought struck him:
Huh, wonder what that means about my diet? Can I still eat meat, because I would really like to eat some chicken.
While making his way down the stairs he saw Twilight sitting on the sofa he slept on looking over her notes that she had made while Spike was busily dusting everything. Once she heard his steps on the stairs she looked at him and smiled before turning back to her notes.
As she read over her notes she said, “I was surprised to see you were still asleep, you are normally out by the time any of us are even awake.”
Adam shrugged then replied, “I’m just going to rest today so I don’t over work my muscles. Too much exercise can be harmful to ya.”
“Well then, if you are going to use this day to relax, how do plan on spending the day doing so?”
“To be honest I have no idea. For starters I was going to go outside and go for a walk and see where that leads me.”
“Mind if I join you, we might run into a few of my friends.”
“If you want. I can’t very well stop you, now can I?”
She chuckled at his response before setting her notes on the table next to her and made her way to the door with him. It was a nice sunny day outside like the day before but with a slight chill in the air.
“What time of the year is it? It seems to be cooling off here compared to where I was last.”
“Well today is December fifth and we are entering winter at the moment.”
“Huh, I don’t believe I have my winter gear packed,” he said with a laugh while shaking his head.
“I’m sure Rarity can help you if you need her to.”
“Before I do anything like that though I need the money to pay here because I refuse to take anything else from her without paying her for her efforts. So one of the things I will be doing while we walk around is look for possible jobs, though with my skill set that might be a little hard. Being a career soldier does have its drawbacks when it comes to things like that.”
“Well I’m sure we can find something that you’re good at.” Even though she said this there was the ever lingering doubt that could be heard in her voice.
They soon found themselves in the middle of the market with many different ponies moving around doing their daily business. It wasn’t hard to spot the orange pony selling her apples to those passing by with a large red stallion Adam hadn’t met before. Twilight directed him over to the stand to say hello to her friend, seeing as he had nothing better to do he followed. Upon closer examination he noticed that the red pony was much larger than most ponies he had yet to see and stood over a head taller than Adam in his current state.
Once Applejack caught sight of her friends she called out, “Well howdy Twilight and Adam. What brings ya’ll here to the market?”
Twilight replied, “Hello Applejack, we were just going out for a walk and found ourselves here is all. Have you seen the others while you’ve been here?”
Applejack tapped her chin in thought before replying, “Well Ah did see Rainbow Dash flyin’ around doin’ one o’ her routines, but I haven’ seen any o’ the others.”
As if on cue the sound of flapping wings could be heard above them followed by that scratchy voice saying, “Hey guys. Whatcha all up to today?”
Adam replied this time saying, “Hey Rainbow Dash, we were just going out for a walk, using today to relax a bit. What about yourself?”
“Oh nothing, just got my own practice in for the day. I half expected you to be in my floor this morning like yesterday.”
Adam gave an irritated huff, “Ya not going to let one go are ya?”
Rainbow Dash scratched her chin as if in thought but then gave a devilish smirk and replied, “Nope. But hey if you need any help with your flying, just let me know and I’ll give ya a hoof.”
“Well I’ll have to take you up on your offer sometime I could always use the help.”
Their conversation was shortly interrupted by a voice coming from the other side of the stall, “Hey mister what’s yer name? Ah’ve never seen ya around here before.”
Leaning over to the side Adam could see a small yellow filly with a large bow in her mane looking at him with a curious look in her eyes.
“Um, my name is Adam what is your’s?”
Before the little filly could reply Applejack said, “Ah shoot where are my manners, let me introduce you to my family. This here is Apple Bloom,” she pointed at the small filly, “and this here is our brother Big Macintosh,” she finished by pointing at the large red pony behind her.
Adam nodded his head to each and said, “Its nice to meet ya’ll.”
Apple Bloom just said “Howdy,” and Big Mac said, “Likewise.”
“So why is it that ya are wearin’ all that stuff,” asked the inquisitive filly.
“Well this here stuff is my gear for my job helps keep me alive.”
“What is it that ya do?”
“I’m a soldier.”
“Whatsa soldier?”
“Umm, I guess they would be somethin’ like ya’lls royal guard.”
After his explanation something lit up in her eyes and she quickly ran off muttering something about Cutie Mark Crusaders.
“Cute kid, wish my son got to meet her, they would have gotten along well. Anyways Twilight is there anythin’ else you want to do, because I got nothin’.”
“We could go visit Fluttershy, she doesn’t get many visitors. I’m sure she’ll be happy to see everypony and it will allow you to see more of the town.”
“Alright then I guess I’ll just follow you then.”
“I guess I’ll join you two as well, now that I have finished my practice and don’t have any weather duties to take care of today,” announced the cyan pegasus.
The walk across the town only took them thirty minutes and another five minutes from there to get to Fluttershy’s cottage. Twilight used that period of time to show the remaining buildings that Adam didn’t know about from his previous tour of town. Beyond the mixture of looks he was receiving along the way, nothing out of the ordinary happened, it was obvious not all the ponies trusted him or liked him for that matter. He did have the oddest sensation that they were being followed about half way there and he didn’t like it, he had learned to listen to his gut so he stayed on guard the remainder of the trip. When the group had finally made it to Fluttershy’s he could see animals everywhere and of all different kinds.
“Hey, why does FLuttershy have all these animals?”
Twilight responded as she knocked on the door, “She is the local vet, so she takes care of all creatures that are hurt.”
While the group was talking the door slowly opened just enough for them to see a tuft of pink mane and a single eye through the crack. A few of the smaller animals used that moment to push their way through the door to go outside, forcing the door to open even more, much to the discomfort of the shy yellow pegasus.
“H-h-h-hello everypony.”
Seeing her opportunity Rainbow Dash shot forward and pulled the yellow pegasus outside saying, “Hey Fluttershy, why don’t you come outside the weather is great. You don’t need to stay inside all say, even Twilight is outside for once.” Rainbow Dash then turned to Adam and asked, “You need to tell me how you did that by the way.”
He just shrugged, he had been doing that a lot over the past couple of days, and replied, “All I said was that I was going for a walk, nothing special.”
Rainbow Dash just hovered there giving Twilight interesting looks nodding her head, seemingly forgetting about Fluttershy. Adam was starting to look inside now that the door had been opened further and saw a small white rabbit standing in the doorway. The thing that made this rabbit stand out from any other rabbit that he had seen was the fact that this rabbit was giving him a death glare for some reason. Against his better judgement he decided to approach the strange rabbit to get a better look.
“Hey there little guy, what's wrong.”
The rabbit continued to glare at him then threw a half eaten carrot into his face, then he kicked him in the shin before running off.
“Sonava- I swear I am going to turn you into rabbit stew. Did ya’ll see that,” he turned back around to see the three mares in the middle of a conversation.
The three of them glanced over at him with quizzical looks and Twilight replied, “See what?”
His pride caught up to him and he quickly stammered, “Nothing, nothing at all,” then turned back to give the doorway his own death glare.
“Well anyways, me and the girls have decided to take you to Sugarcube Corner for lunch.”
“Alright, I could go for some lunch, but I don’t have any money to pay for it.”
“Its alright I’ll pay for this one, you can just buy me lunch when you get a job as payment. Oh, but before we go I have something that belongs to you.” Her horn began to glow and opened up a saddlebag, he hadn’t noticed she was carrying, and levitated over to him his Ipod and speakers. “I used a simple spell after studying its power source so now it will use the magic that all ponies emit from their bodies at power.”
Adams eyes widened as he unconsciously rubbed the back of his head with a hoof feeling around for anything out of place, “So I’m a battery.”
“Well if you want to look at it that way, then yes I guess you would be considered a battery, but you can just charge the battery inside of it.”
Taking the Ipod and speakers he placed them in his pockets and pouches on his vest and pants. After he had everything put away they headed off towards Sugarcube Corner. The trip to the store was similar to the trip to Fluttershy’s except that Adam noticed there were a lot less ponies out and about and that same feeling of being watched was still there, he didn’t like it. Letting his experience kick into action he took the lead of the group and began scouting out the area to find who was following them without alerting anyone. It wasn’t long before they were in front of the store and from what he could see it would have made any child want to eat it on the spot.
Hansel and Gretel can bite my ponified ass.
Slowly opening the door, he came face to face to a barrel of a canon, all his training kicked into play as he quickly shoved the mares behind him to safety and out of the way of the canon before he spun around forcing his back against the wall outside. There was an explosion of confetti came shooting out of the door with a loud shout of “Surprise” following it.
Realizing he wasn’t in any immediate danger he poked his head into the room to see a bunch of ponies throughout the room smiling at him and a few laughing at his reaction. He could hear laughter coming from behind him that he recognised as belonging to Rainbow Dash and the sounds of apology coming from Fluttershy. Behind the canon he saw none other than Pinkie Pie with her trademark smile covering the majority of her face bouncing in place.
“What the hell is going on here,” he exclaimed, extremely agitated at the surprise and ashamed at his own initial reaction, he had nearly attacked one of the ponies thinking there was a threat.
“Its your surprise party silly, I told you I would make you a party and here it is.”
Sure enough hanging from the ceiling was a banner that read ‘Welcome to Equestria/Ponyville’ in large letters. There was a table set up along the wall with snacks and punch while there was even a DJ playing over near a dance floor. Everywhere else was an assortment of games set up with ponies playing and having a good time.
“Now that the main guest of the party is here lets get this started! Shifty follow me I have a couple of ponies that would like to meet you.”
He watched as she bounced over to the DJ and a grey earth pony, and started talking to them, who in turn smiled at her and glanced over at him when he saw Pinkie Pie finish talking to her. He couldn’t make out what was said, due to the loud music that was playing that reminded him of the music back home, but continued watching them in interest to see what was going to happen. The DJ was a white unicorn with electric blue mane and a large pair of sunglasses, while the grey earth pony was wearing a bow-tie and seem to have the air of high class about her.
The three mares walked back to him, as they got closer he began by introducing himself then held out a hoof to shake. The grey pony shook hooves with him then said that her name was Octavia and that it was a pleasure to meet him. When it came time to do the same with the white pony, she didn’t shake his hoof but instead gave it a bump.
This unexpected difference caused him to burst into laughter and say, “Well I wasn’t quite expectin’ a fist bump but I’m cool with that.”
“The names Vinyl Scratch, its nice to meet ya. I’ve heard that you have a magic box that plays some pretty rad music. Care to show us?”
Octavia didn’t seem to care for the way that Vinyl went about introducing herself but was still very much interested in the device that was mentioned.
“I don’t see why not,” he pulled out the rectangular device from his pocket, “do ya’ll think ya could hook this up to your setup?”
Vinyl examined the box for a moment before replying, “I think I can manage something just give me a moment and I’ll need you to work it.”
A few seconds later Vinyl was able to connect the Ipod to her sound system with the use of her magic before nodding towards Adam to choose the song.
“Now Vinyl, I think you will like this song quite a bit, and Octavia you might enjoy it more than Vinyl's...”
“Wubs,” Vinyl answered his unasked question.
“This song was done by an orchestra for a game that I like to play back home.”
At the very word orchestra Octavia lit up while Vinyl gave him odd looks, as if he was mad.
“I think you might have us backwards here.”
“You will see or hear soon enough.”
Vinyl had a dumbfounded expression on her face while Octavia seemed to have a smug grin on her own. She seemed to take pleasure in the fact that an orchestra could play something that could get everyone’s attention as the room had quieted down considerably to listen to the music as it played. Most had been jamming to the music as it played while others just listened, but still seemed to enjoy it.
“You're saying an orchestra played that,” was all that Vinyl could say.
“I have another song that you would probably enjoy more, Octavia. Its by the same orchestra but something more traditional, so to speak.”
Taking the Ipod again he thumbed through the songs but this time without it being connected to the speakers he let it play from its built in speakers so that only those nearby could hear. The music he was going to play, he knew wasn’t really party music so he let Vinyl begin one of her songs for the rest of the crowd to listen to and continue the party festivals.
Octavia’s smug grin turned to that of true joy after hearing the song and said, “This is much better. You can feel the emotion in the music as its playing that, unlike other genres of music, words are not required in the piece to express them.”
A crowd had started to form around them in order to listen in on what was being played, to the point that Adam started feeling uncomfortable. The party continued on like that for the rest of the day and went a little into the night. Many songs and games were played along with large amounts of food consumed. Octavia and Vinyl seemed to enjoy the songs that were played throughout the night, while Vinyl showed him some of her own works. During one of the songs Derpy approached him, he took notice of the nervous glances the other two mares in his company were giving her and fully intended to ask about it later.
When Derpy came up to him she came carrying a tray full of muffins that she had made, and shortly there after spilled on him and followed it with a stream of apologies. He found her company enjoyable nonetheless and even saw her bouts of clumsiness as cute in there own way. As the party started to die down later into the evening Derpy, Vinyl and Octavia were some of the last ponies to head to their respective homes, each one wishing him a good day and trying to plan future meets with him.
To Adam, today was a great day that he fully enjoyed and the next day he knew he would be ready for. Tomorrow he would be meeting the princesses for the first time.