Chapter 6: Bishop Takes Queen
Name: MSG. Adam “Shifty” Smith
Date: August 18, 2015
Location: The Library
Time: 1336
Saying Adam was a little reluctant to eat his daisy sandwich that Twilight gave him would have been an understatement. He might have been a herbivore now, but that didn’t mean that he instantly had the craving to eat grass and flowers. He eventually finished his sandwich, not giving the taste any thought as he had a few questions he wanted to ask, like why the dragon was eating valuable gems, when a sudden urge to use the bathroom struck.
He Looked over to Twilight and asked, “Um Twilight, do you have a bathroom here?”
Twilight looked up from her own meal and replied, “Yeah, its upstairs at the end of the hall.”
“Thank you,” was all he said before making a run up the stairs for the bathroom.
Twilight giggled as she watched him go before finishing up her own sandwich and cleaned the dishes. When she had finished and was back in the main portion of the library Adam’s gear caught her eye. Walking over to it she saw a rectangular box poking out of one of the bags, drawing her attention. Using her magic she pulled it out and brought it over to a table before opening it up.
What she found inside the box puzzled her, all she saw was a bunch of little figures in two different colors and a folded up checkerboard. The little figures looked like the humans general shape, that she saw in the photos, while wearing what looked like the same armor that Adam was wearing. To top it all off, they were in different poses and were painted in either green or tan and split into equal amounts for both.
“I see you found my chess set.”
The sudden sound of someone talking behind her caused Twilight to jump into the air and spin around only to Adam standing just a few feet away, shaking his head in irritation. She never even heard him come down the steps let alone get behind her that close.
“Sorry,” Twilight said while scratching the back of her head with a sheepish grin on her face, “I saw this sticking out of your bags and it caught my interest. What was it that you called it, a chess set?”
“Yes, and this particular one me and Steve made ourselves. We played it all the time and it doesn’t surprise me that it was in his bag because I didn’t pack it in mine.”
“What makes this one different from other chess sets?” Twilight asked giving him a confused look before looking over the little figures again.
“Well for starters each piece has a little magnet in the bottom so that they don’t fall off the board and these pieces are not what are used in the game.”
He then took the board and started setting the pieces on each side separated by their color.
“These here pieces,” he pointed to the ones lined up front, “are ya’lls pawns and are represented with normal soldiers.” He then pointed to the piece that was on the back row on the end saying, “This piece is what we call a rook and is represented by a Special Forces figure. The one next to it,” he shifted his hoof over to the figure next to it “is a knight which we used an Artillery Operator to represent it.”
Twilight was nodding her head the entire time while levitating over a quill and roll of paper to take detailed notes on his explanation on the game.
“As you can see this next piece has more details than the others since it is something that we knew a lot more about and it is a sniper. We chose it to represent the piece known as a bishop in this game. Now these last two are some of the two more important pieces out of all of them, though one is more important than the other.” He removed the two pieces from the board and held them in each hoof. “This one is known as the queen,” he said this as he held his right hoof slightly higher “and we used a general to represent her.”
“Now this last piece is the most important because if you lose this piece then you lose the game.” Holding up the last piece he said, “The is the king and since we wanted it to match with the theme of everything we chose the president to represent this piece. The reason we chose him is because in our country the president is not only the chief diplomat for our country but also he is the commander and chief of all our branches of military. Now then, since I have told ya’ll what this is, would ya’ll like me to teach how to play?”
At his last question a wide smile spread across her face and she began to vigorously nod head. Ten minutes passed before she fully understood the rules and the movements of each piece. It took even less time for her to quickly begin thwarting all of his strategies leaving the their current score at thirty-one wins and eighteen loses for Twilight.
“You know I won this round, right?” Twilight commented with a smirk plastered on her face.
“You know you can SHUT UP,” Adam jokingly replied as he searched and failed to find a game changing move before looking past Twilight. He then pointed a hoof towards something behind her and shouted, “WHAT’S THAT!”
His outburst caught Twilight off guard; as she turned around to see what was there. Within the few seconds that her back was turn Adam swiftly spun the board around and acted like nothing had changed.
After a few moments had passed and Twilight was turning back around to face him he said, “Guess it was just my imagination, I better just make my move then.”
Twilight examined the board again then narrowed her eyes at him as she realized what he had done before saying, “You know this just counts as my thirty second win right?”
He sighed, placing his hooves on his head and replied, “Yeah. I’m going to stop playing while I still have a little dignity left.”
Twilight nodded and packed up the game before sliding it over to Adam. He looked at it for a second then slid it back to her and said, “Ya’ll keep it. I have had all the use out of it that I will ever want. Ya know ya’ll would make a good strategist if ya ever wanted to be one.”
“Are you sure? You even said yourself that you made it with your friend, wouldn’t you want to keep it for the memories?” She looked between him and the small box the game was in quizzically.
He chuckled before he replied, “I don’t need that to remember the things we did together. Besides I’m sure ya going to have more fun with it than I will.”
It was at that moment that there was a knock at the door that grabbed their attention. Twilight set down the game on a shelf, then trotted over to the door, listening to the sound of more knocking. When she finally opened the door and was about to say something, she was surprised to see that there was no one there to greet.
Adam on the other hand could suddenly smell cotton candy but couldn’t place the source of the smell anywhere. He watched as Twilight poked her head out the door to look around, then shrug her shoulders and close the door turning back to face him. When she was looking back at him again, her eyes widened followed by her hoof going up to her face with an aggravated sigh.
He raised an eyebrow at her strange behavior and was about to say something when she asked, “Pinkie what do you think you are doing?”
“What are ya-”
“Oh just having a little fun here with Shifty.”
The sound of Pinkie Pie’s voice brought his attention away from Twilight as he began scanning the room, not seeing any of the pink pony anywhere. This was seeming to be a repeat of the forest and upon realizing this he looked at his back to find no one there but he could still hear giggling that seemed to be coming from everywhere. Looking at Twilight with a look of agitation from not being able to locate the pony he saw her point to the top of his head. Taking the hint, without looking, he wrapped his right foreleg around anything above him. He came into contact with a fluffy but firm mass that he then quickly pulled off the top of his head and placed on the floor. He was going to stick to the advice Twilight had given him in the forest and not question how she yet again broke all forms of physics while standing on his head without alerting him.
“Ah, darn Twilight, you cheated. You weren’t suppose to tell him silly, wheres the fun in that? Oh, speaking of fun, I brought you something Shifty.” She was saying this in between fits of laughter that would leave anyone gasping for air but not apparently Pinkie.
“And what would that be exactly?”
“This!” Twisting around she pulled out a platter piled high with cupcakes that would give a person diabetes just from glancing at it.
“Um, thanks. What made ya decide to bring me some cupcakes?”
“Wweeeelllllll, when we first met you had been down and acting all Mr. Grumpy-Pants, so I thought I would come and bring you something to cheer you up while we tell you about some of the adventures we have been on, and we could learn more about you too. Also there are two ponies that would be happy to meet you after I told them about that iPod of yours.”
Whatever she had said was lost to him, as she seemed to speak faster than what could be understood and in a single breath too. Rubbing his temples to lessen the migraine that had been brought upon by this pink fluffy hericane, he looked to Twilight hoping for a translation.
Twilight sighed understanding the effects Pinkie could have on ponies who were not used to her antics before saying “She wants to tell you of our adventures and she wants to introduce you to two other ponies that are interested in your music.”
“Ok, I’m fine with the first part but the iPod does not have much of a charge left and I don’t have a way to change that anytime soon.”
Twilight began tapping her chin with a hoof in thought before asking, “Is it alright if I take a look at it? I might be able to find a way to power it or recharge it so it can be used more.”
“Ok, just be careful its the only one I got and I don’t think I’ll be able to buy a new one anytime soon.” He said with a chuckle at his own joke.
Twilight proceeded to float the Ipod over to the desk nearby and began to examine the power source as Adam grabbed one of the cupcakes with his hoof. The ability to hold objects in his hooves was still not something he was used to doing without fingers. He took his first bite just like he did with the sandwich, slow and uncertain. What came as a surprise was the fact that the cupcake was not overly sweet and that the bread was nice and fluffy too, nothing like the cupcakes he was used to eating at base. Giving his approval of the cupcakes he began to listen to the adventures the girls had participated in over the past two years since Twilight moved into the library in Ponyville.
It was towards the beginning of the conflict that occurred at Canterlot, during a wedding, a few months back that Rainbow Dash showed up again for her weather duties. She added her own flare to the story on how much ‘flank’ she was kicking and was more than willing to show off her moves while describing it. This obvious over exaggeration caused Adam to laugh then choke on some of his cupcake, which in turn got him laughed at by Rainbow Dash.
After the stories of their adventures had been told Rainbow Dash asked, “So Adam, do you have any stories that you would like to tell?”
“Yes, tell us one of your stories, I bet it will be so much fun!” exclaimed the ever energetic pink pony.
“Sure I have a story that I am willing to share with ya’ll. Its actually after I had served a few years with Steve and Sarah had just made it through boot to become an Apache pilot. To celebrate her new promotion to lieutenant, out of boot, because she wanted to be Ms. Smarty-Pants decided to go off to college first, so now she outranked us.”
Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie giggled while we could practically hear Twilight roll her eyes at them. Rainbow then asked, “Who is Sarah?”
“Sarah was a friend of ours since way back when we were little and later married Steve. She was the third person in that photo that ya’ll saw with Steve’s gear. Well anyways I was looking around the bar that we were at and found some girl that I thought looked pretty good. I walked over to her and started hitting on her-”
“WHAT!” the three ponies screamed, “You starting hitting her?!”
“Wha-,” then it dawned on him what had just happened before he could stop himself he was on the floor laughing, at the misunderstanding, for a few minutes before getting back up. He could see that the three were changing their opinions of him and Rainbow Dash was not even bothering to hide her disapproval with an intense glare.
“No no no no, not that kind of hitting. What I mean is that I was flirting with her, ya know showing my moves, what I said was just another way of saying it. I don’t go around fighting women nor would I normal lift a hand towards one, call me old fashioned.”
The girls’ looks softened and Pinkie even started laughing along too now that he was sure he wasn’t going to be interrupted again he continued.
“I thought I was doing pretty good from the reactions I was getting from her, that is until her boyfriend showed up. I didn’t even get a warning from her(I think she got off on this sort of thing) before I felt myself being picked up off the ground and hurled into the table that Steve and Sarah were sitting in, breaking the table and scattering the beer in the process. Now my friends at the time only just stood there and laughed until they realized that not only was the table gone but their beers along with it. It was once they came to this realization that they then jumped in to woop this guys ass. Lets just say the fight didn’t end there and soon everyone was fighting each other, we were later banned from that bar because of the damages and were fined. It was still one hell of a night though.”
At the end of his story there was the sound of a burp that came from the floor above followed by the sounds of dragon running to the stairs yelling, “Twi a letter came for you from the princess.”
Everyone watched as the scroll in the dragon’s hand was covered in a purple glow and floated over to Twilight as she then began scanning it.
“What does it say Twi?” Rainbow asked as she flew over and hovered right over Twilight’s shoulder.
Twilight cleared her throat before reading:
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
I would like you and your friends plus Master Sergeant Adam Smith to come to Canterlot in three days time. My sister, Princess Celestia, will be back from her diplomatic visit with another country by then as well as give me time to tell her of these events. I am sure that with her we will be able to help the Sergeant with his needs and I am quite interested in learning about him and how he came to Equestria. In the meantime show him around and help him get situated and educate him on our customs so he does not cause a commotion.
Sincerely,
Princess Luna
The room was silent for a moment before Adam spoke, “At least we now know when I get to meet your leaders. And from the sounds of things, she hasn’t received a report about me and what I did earlier today.”
“Hey Twi, I thought you said that previous letter was from Celestia, but if she is away, how would she know of the magical surge in the forest?” The group glanced over to Rainbow Dash before coming to understand what she was asking.
“Well the letter was not actually signed, but it still had the seal of the princesses so I had just assumed it was from Princess Celestia, since I rarely receive a letter from Princess Luna.”
“Well either way, we at least now have a fixed date on when the meeting will be taking place and I can start preparing what I need to say. That and learn a little about etiquette when dealing with your rulers. No need making myself and my country look like a bunch of idiots.”
Rainbow Dash interrupted the conversation with a loud yawn before announcing, “Well since its getting late I need to head home and get some sleep, I have weather duty tomorrow morning and I can’t sleep in.” She then quickly took off through an open window over by the balcony. Her little take off gave Adam an idea.
If I can’t push myself like I would normally do in my PT, why not add something different. Flight practice.
A wide smirk grew across his face at the thought.
Tomorrow is going to be a fun day.
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Very nice job, I normally don't like humans as ponies stories, but you are doing very well.
1684826
Why thank you, the reason I thought to make him a pony is so that he has to at least relearn somethings and to level the playing field so to speak. It would have been a little over kill for him to come straight in being able to use his weapons to their full extent.
1684907
Yeah, I guess that makes sense. However I always like the initial confusion and shock of meeting a human. Well, anyways keep up the good work
1684959
Oh don't you worry about not getting it that little shock I have something in mind.
1684989
ahh excellent. Well, good luck sir or ma'am.
1684907
Speaking of weapons, I was wondering what happened when the timber wolves attacked. He opened up with that 50-cal and the mares didn't react at all to it. Correct me if I'm wrong but guns in general are quite loud and machine guns are very loud, especially to somepony who's never even seen one before. Why didn't most of Ponyville come looking to see what was making all that racket? Aside from thunder and DJ Pon-3's base cannon, I doubt there's anything as loud as his guns.
p.s. He needs to conserve ammo since there's no way to replace it. Assuming it's not all confiscated by Celestia.
1686708
Actually during the fight he used the M16 which fires 5.56×45mm NATO rounds, not quite as loud but you do make a good point as there would still be noise. I am for the most part having the story follow Adam and since he was preoccupied with what he was doing, he was not aware of the girls reaction to his weapons. If more people are wanting that detail however I am sure I can make it fit.
a guy threw him across a table that dude is a cockmonster
1687400
I'm just going by what nearly every encounter before has done when you show off guns to the natives. Either they run off screaming (pacifist types would, especially Fluttershy, if not faint dead away on the spot)... or try to swipe them so they can make their rival natives run off screaming (Rainbow Dash comes to mind here, "I haz thunder sticks!"). This analogy also works when you have aliens land on Earth and show off their zappy guns. Needless to say, more than a few scheming humans get all sneaky and grabbylimbs to possess a leg up in the arms race on that horribly violent planet.
In any case... please do continue. I'm looking forward to how modern tactics will compare to Equestrian military ideas. Magic stunting the growth of technology, while replacing it in other areas. And from an alien point of view [human] I'm really curious why ponies haven't tried crossing higher technology with magic in a synergistic cooperation. (Well, that's easy, Equestria doesn't need giant technomagic robots stomping around. They're peaceful, you bloodthirsty barbarian) Ah, I seem to have answered my own question there. Carry on.
I love military in equestria stories, there should be more of them, yours is especially awesome!
1705281
Why thank you. I too am always looking for a good human military in Equestria story myself and decided to throw in my hat.