//------------------------------// // Work // Story: Guardian // by Requiem17 //------------------------------// Ale breathed in deeply, letting the cool spring air roll through his helmet. It's been a while since he'd smelled something untouched from pollution or hadn't gone through some sort of sterilization process. Along with the pure air the crunch of gravel filled his senses. Ale viewed the lush green grass through his HUD. A thought ran through his mind that surprised him. ‘Am I at peace? Could I come to terms with this place?’ There were many pros to this world. He wasn't losing men, his steps didn't have the sound of crunching glass and ash, and best of all there wasn't any factions of Covenant on his tail. Ale was lost in thought and didn't notice the change of landscape. A loud crack along with something hitting his head made Ale instinctively jump to the side, taking cover behind a large apple tree, his magnum pulled out. Ale peeked around the corner, recognizing the orange mare he had met at the castle as Applejack. She was picking up a few stray apples and placing them in wooden buckets, oblivious that she had bucked an apple on the super soldiers head. Ale relaxed and clipped his weapon to its magnetic clamp. He stepped around the tree, his sheer size making him extremely noticeable. Applejack jumped and when she realized it was Ale took a deep breath to calm her nerves. "It ain't nice to sneak up on a pony like that Ale." "I'll keep that in mind." Applejack looked him over, "What can ah do for ya?" "Twilight said you had some tools I could borrow?" "Ah reckon ah do. Ah just gotta take these here buckets to the barn." She began to place them in the back of a nearby wagon. When she put the last bucket in she was surprised when the wagon began to roll forward. She ran around to the front to stop it only to find Ale pulling it with ease. She looked at him with a bit of awe. "Ah'm mighty grateful that you're pulling the cart but how do ya do it without breaking a sweat? That's a big load of apples in there." Ale looked to her and smirked behind his helmet as he raised his hand and tapped his chest harness. "A ton and some of the UNSCs best powered armor available." Applejack looked a bit shocked. "A ton? How do ya wear that around?" Now Ale might have given information to the princesses but he wasn't too keen on sharing his story with civilians. His smirk was replaced with a grim line as he looked forward. "That's classified." Applejack could hear his change of tone and found it better to not press this. They came to the barn and Applejack directed Ale to where the wagon should be put, the tension of their earlier conversation forgotten. "Thanks again for the help. Come on over to the tool shed and we'll see what we can find for ya." They strolled over to a neat shed just a little ways across from the barn. She began to unlock a massive padlock that was on the door. When she finished Ale looked to her with a raised eyebrow, then he remembered his helmet and simply gestured to the lock with his hand. Applejack understood his gesture and replied with a frown, "You'd be surprised at how many ponies would steal the equipment in here. Ah had a problem with diamond dogs not too long ago. These are expensive tools after all." Ale had read about diamond dogs when he was in the library. He didn't think much about them since they didn't prove to be a threat or a great importance within the workings of Equestria. He nodded in understanding and walked in after Applejack. He may be a super soldier and not an average human but the contents inside was still enough to make him giddy with excitement. Every man loves his tools. He picked out the ones necessary to his cause and thanked Applejack as he began walking back to town. He made it back to the library and dropped his tools off. He checked his equipment and found it to be untouched. Ale smiled as his warning, albeit a bit exaggerated, had kept Twilight and any other nosy pony well clear of it. He walked up to the door and knocked gently. He heard muffled voices and then the sound of scraping 'claws?' approach the door. It swung inward to reveal a purple and green dragon that was slightly taller than Ales' knees. Once more he had read about dragons but had not expected this. It spoke, "So you're the alien everyone's talking about. You don't look all that scary to me." His tone of voice and his smile convinced Ale he didn't mean any harm in those words. "Is Twilight in?" His radar had told him there were two beings in the house before he had approached the door. "No. She went to the market and told me to tell you to head over to Sugar Cube Corner." Ale was going to voice his observations about the inhabitants of the house when a yellow blur beat him to it. "Who's that Spike?" a young female voice spoke. Spike glanced over his shoulder, "It's just the alien Applebloom." They heard an excited squeak. Ale blinked and took a step back to find a young filly who must have been Applebloom peering into his face plate from atop his head. "Hey mister, why is your skin so hard and why don't you blink?" Ale chuckled gently as he reached over his head and gently grabbed and set the filly down. "It's my armor that's why." "Why don't you take it off?" Ale decided to skirt the answer since he knew these ponies had never experienced war in their lifetime other than the princesses. "It's like a super tough space suit. I can't breathe your air for long so I have to wear this." That seemed to satisfy the fillies curiosity. She looked at Spike while shoving a book in her saddlebag. "I found the book I was looking for. Thanks for helping me." "No problem,” Spike replied. She turned back to the super soldier, "Are you gonna stick around? My friends are dying to meet you!" Ale nodded and she 'squeed?' with joy as she raced away. Ale tilted his head slightly at Spike. Spike smiled and simply replied, "Fillies." Ale grinned and nodded. He waved goodbye and began walking towards the hustling market place. The ponies gave him a wide berth as he passed through the crowd, most had looks of fear or awe, others anger. He didn't know if this was from shattering every single window in town or just the very presence of himself. Either way he still ignored them and made his way to what seemed to be a structure built from gingerbread. He opened the door and found Twilight sitting at a booth with the rest of the ponies from the castle other than Applejack. Twilight noticed him, (How could anybody mi- anyPONY- Right, right Pinkie. Anypony miss him?) and waved him over. He sat down with the seat only giving slight groaning sounds. The mares giggled a bit. Ale smiled slightly and looked over to Twilight, "Do you know where I can get some wood? I'm going to need it to make some counter space." Twilight nodded and replied, "It's about two blocks away from the city hall. It's a huge warehouse and lumber yard. You can't miss it." Ale nodded. "Oh and you're going to need these." She handed him a weighty sack that had the unmistakable jingly noise of change. "The princesses have given me an allowance to give to you. They're called bits." Ale thanked her and made to get up when Pinkie interrupted his getaway. "Aren't you gonna stay and have some food?" Ale carefully replied, "I can't eat certain things plus you don't want to watch me eat." Twilight looked confused as she was told about Ales endeavors in the Canterlot castles kitchen and knew full well that even though he ate meat he still ate leafy greens as well as fruit. She was about to voice her observations when Ale gave her a slight elbow. She winced and swallowed her voice. Her friends looked a bit confused before Ale spoke up, "Well I got to go. It was nice seeing you guy- er mares?" With that awkward statement Ale made his escape. "Well that was strange,” Rainbow Dash giggled out. The other mares smiled except for Rarity who had a look of horror on her face. Twilight noticed this, "What's wrong Rarity?" She looked at her and scoffed like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Why his armor of course! Did you see how drab it was?" All the other mares rolled their eyes. ----------------------------------------------------------- Ale walked swiftly towards the large metal building that was the warehouse. He had denied eating because that required his helmet to be taken off. There was still only one pony who had seen his true identity. He shook these strange thoughts and feelings from his head as he approached the building. Behind it he could see the massive lumber yard. He entered the doors and walked over to the receptions desk. The mare behind it was reading a magazine, obviously bored. Ale tapped the table gently to get her attention. She set her magazine down and gasped at Ale. The next second all that remained of her was a dust cloud shaped like her. Ale shook his head, annoyed at this worlds sense of physics. He pondered on what to do when the staff door swung open loudly. A well muscled stallion walked through with the receptions mare cowering behind him. The stallion saw Ale immediately and walked over to him with a bit of awe in his eyes. He then asked warily with a gruff and gravelly voice, strained from years of shouting commands over the loud sounds of machinery, "What can I do for you?" Ale replied, "I'm here to buy some lumber." He then quickly added, "And I didn't mean to scare your employee." The stallion looked a bit relieved at his words and turned to the mare. "It's okay. You can return to the desk now." She nodded and walked a fair distance around Ale to return to her desk still a bit shaken and untrustworthy of the alien. The stallion watched this and turned to Ale, "Sorry about that. Now you said you wanted some lumber?" Ale nodded and the stallion smiled. "Well then by all means follow me." The stallion and Ale walked throughout the lumberyard, Ale pointing out what he needed and how much with the stallion taking note of his requests. They returned to the office where the stallion tallied up the expenses. "That'll be 325 bits please." Ale hefted the sack from a clip on his 'space diaper' as the techies liked to call it. He counted them out with ease and gave them to the contractor. "Thank you for your business. Now I'll take you to the loading doors where we have a wagon that can transport the materials for you." Ale walked with him to the loading area and saw his shipment being strapped together before they were to place it on a nearby wagon. Ale sized it up to be around 300 pounds and knew he could carry it with ease. He voiced his thoughts and the contractor looked incredulous. "That has to weigh an upwards of 300 pounds!" Ale nodded. The stallion could sense his air of confidence and narrowed his eyes. "I'd like to see you try." Ale smirked and walked over to the stack of wood. He crouched and slipped his dexterous fingers underneath the pile and slipped his hands under. He picked it up and hefted it onto his right shoulder. He waved his left hand at a few workers who were gawking at him. Ale walked down the ramp and had almost passed the gate when he heard a shout. "Wait!" Ale stood and turned carefully to prevent his over sized cargo from whacking a poor pony in the head. The contractor ran out to him. "Alright I'm impressed. How much can you lift?" Ale pondered this. They had tested him and he knew that with determination he could lift a weight similar to that of a Scorpion. He had heard stories of some Spartans lifting more when they were pumped full of adrenaline. He shrugged and replied, "A couple tons for sure." The contractor looked flabbergasted. He stuttered out, "Do you need a job? I could sure use a pony- er whatever you are. The pays good!" he added quickly. Ale thought about this. He was on leave from the Lunar Guard until further notice. He could only do so much with his equipment back at the library. He figured it wouldn't hurt. "Sure, but I'm only on temporary leave from the Lunar Guard so I'll have to go back when they request me." The stallion once more looked lost for words. He regained his senses and said, "The Lunar Guard heh? Son you got some story around yourself." "You have no idea." The stallion smiled, "Can you start tomorrow morning? It is an all day shift just so we can get you acquainted with the workings of the warehouse." Ale nodded. "Great. See you at 7:30 sharp." The stallion turned and walked away. Ale began walking back to the library. He was happy that he had found something to pass the time before Luna would call him back. Ale smiled at the thought of her and entertained the thought of when they were to next meet. A strange feeling washed over him. Sure she would just be briefing him but- ‘What am I doing?’ Ale smacked his head with his free hand, shaking those thoughts from his head. He had no idea where they kept coming from or why Luna seemed to pop up in his mind. He shook the foreign emotions out of him as he walked back to the library.