Ganymede was flying alongside the chariot convoy as they soared through the clouds high above the landscape. Celestias earlier sympathies had caused most of the flight to proceed in silence for a time, but eventually the smaller ponies began asking questions trying to lighten the mood. The purple one, Twilight as she called herself, had asked him what his world was like, or at least had been like. He told her how as far as he could see his worlds geography was at least somewhat similar to how his local area had been, with deep forrests seperated with grassy fields.

"I can't say much about the weather quite yet though," he said as he glanced around. "i've only seen fair weather like this thus far."

"Yeah, we have the pegasi to thank for that," Twilight responded. "they usually keep it like this most days. They only really let it rain when the crops in nearby farms need the water." Ganymede shot Twilight a quizzical look.

"Wait, you mean the pegasi here are able to control the weather?"

"Well, yeah, without them our crops wouldn't get the rain they need to grow," she explained. "didn't your species have members to make the weather?" she asked as she dug out her quill for some more notes.

"No not at all, where I come from the weather just happens naturally, we didn't have any way of controlling it."

"How odd, that sounds alot like the Everfree Forest." Twilight noted.

"Without the ability to control the weather how did you get rainfall to your crops, and how did you keep lightning storms from forming?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"We didn't, if you wanted rainfall all you could do was hope that it would rain soon. Otherwise you would have to use machinery to pump water from a nearby water source out into your fields." he explained as Twilight wrote furiously into her notes. "And if a lightning storm was forming it was gonna form, simple as that."

"Sounds tah me like a pretty rough place tah live." said Applejack

"You think that's bad?" said Ganymede. "That's mildly bad weather by comparison to the other stuff that could happen."

"Like what?" asked Twilight.

"Well in the nation I lived in there was a whole region nicknamed 'Tornado Valley'." he said. The ponies were a little caught off guard by the sudden increase in severity. They could only imagine how bad it had to be for an entire region to be nicknamed after tornados of all things, especially since in their world tornados only occurred in Equestrias ancient history during times of war involving pegasi.

"Then there's things like earthquakes, hail storms and blizzards in the winter and even floods." he said as the ponies sunk deeper into disbelief, unable to believe that such things occurred naturally and with a fair amount of frequency.

"And don't even get me started on hurricane season." and at that their jaws literally hit the floors of their chariots. The only recorded instance of a hurricane occuring was during the pony civil war in their ancient history, which the pegasi used on their enemies to devastating effect, and was never used again. The prospect that Ganymede came from a world where they not only occurred naturally but with enough frequency for a season to be named after them, was almost too much for them to absorb.

"Ya know what ah take it back, that sounds like the worst place to live ever." said Applejack.

"Yeah no kidding, I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it was to live there." said Twilight.

"It could be difficult at times yes, but we managed." he replied. As they continued the others took the opportunity to ask their own questions.

"Is what you are wearing common garb amongst your species?" asked Rarity, taking note of his black trenchcoat.

"Eh, not really, some wore stuff like this but otherwise the clothes my people wore could be quite varied."

"I see." she said, a little relieved that his rather bland clothing was not all his species wore.

Applejack asked next,"You said that when you didn't have rain that ya had to use machines ta pump water over yer crops, how did ya manage that?"

"Well we gathered water from nearby water sources into large tanks, which were then attached to a large network of pipes running over the crops. When we turned on the pumps the water would rush through the pipes and out several little nozzles along the way, spreading water to all the plants." he said.

"Huh, I guess thats one way ah do'in it."

"Um...i-if it's okay for me ask...what is wrong with your wings?" asked Fluttershy

"My wings?" he asked.

"Yes, it's just that...well...I don't think i've ever seen wings shaped like yours, and you don't seem to flap them very much."

"Thats because these are not real wings, my species didn't actually have wings." he said. "These wings I created with nanomass, they have machines underneath the feathers that provide a majority of the lift and help give me more speed." he explained pointing to a feather among it's symmetrical bretheren. The mention of speed snapped Rainbow Dash out of her boredom, who for the most part had found the ride quite uneventfull.

"My race used to make flying machines that could carry over a hundred passengers and fly great distances. We called them, 'airplanes', they could make a trip that would normally take days, weeks or even months travelling across the world only take a few hours."

"That's amazing!" said Twilight as she wrote furiously into her notes.

"So how fast could these 'air-planes' go exactly?" asked Rainbow Dash with newfound interest.

"Well, the fastest ones could actually--"

"Now now my little ponies, you'll have to save the rest of your questions for later, we're almost at Canterlot." said Celestia in her motherly voice.

As they crested a hill of clouds, Ganymede could make out tall white spires tipped with golden roofs. The palace certainly looked like a center of power, built on the cliffside of a mountain, with small rivers running down the mountain and through the palace. The scene was quite picturesque, the architect must have been told to build a palace that was the spitting image of beauty. Mission accomplished i'd say. Ganymede thought.

Finally Rainbow Dash couldn't contain herself any more, she jumped out of the chariot and flew alongside Ganymede, keeping in mind his greatly enlarged wings.

"Hey Ganymede, how about a race against the fastest pegasus in Equestria?" she asked in a challenging tone. Ganymede had never really been all that into racing before, but right now he felt up for just about anything, that, and he could tell that Rainbow Dash wasn't going to let this chance pass her up. Besides, it was a good opportunity to make a first impression, and to show off a little too.

"If you want to lose be my guest." he snarked back. That encouraged a smirk out of Rainbow Dash.

"Pfft, are you kidding me, with those hefty wings of yours i'm surprised you were even able to get off the ground."

"Hey, maybe this way you might be able to 'almost' make first place."

"Alright on three--" Rainbow Dash began.

"THREE!" shouted Ganymede as a high pitched whine escaped from the thrusters in his wings. He sped past Rainbow Dash at a fairly respectable speed, he didn't want to completely own the competition after all. By all means he could have hit mach speeds within a few seconds if he--.

A large boom could be heard behind Ganymede, when he looked he saw a rapidly growing ring the color of a rainbow spreading out behind him as Rainbow Dash rocketed past him leaving a rainbow colored trail behind her.

"Try to keep up to this!" she shouted behind her.

Well give the girl credit where credit is due, he thought as he watched in disbelief as a small pony with wings was actually outflying him. she's almost hit the speed of sound. he watched as Rainbow Dash's speed bottomed out at half way to the finish. That's when Ganymede allowed himself to let out a large grin as his thrusters finnished charging to maximum output. Almost.

______________________________________________________________________________

"THREE!" Ganymede shouted and took off before Rainbow Dash could begin to count. As she flew after him she couldn't help but admire how much ground he had managed to cover in his current speed. She was sure that he would go slower with how large his wings were. Unfortunately for him, he still wasn't going as fast as he would need to go. Let's see him outrun a rainboom. she thought as she began to increase her speed more and more until it happened.

With a loud boom a rainbow colored ring spread left and right as she rocketed forward at incredible speed. It wasn't long before she passed right by him, she could see the look of utter perplexion on his face as she did. She turned her head to look behind her at Ganymede.

"Try to keep up to this!" she shouted as she quickly approached the halfway mark. Ha, looks like i'm also faster than strange interdimensional aliens too. she thought. Suddenly she could see Ganymede speeding past her field of view.

What? That's impossible, no one can go faster than a sonic rainboom! she thought, utterly bewildered at how fast he was going. Then it hit her, Why didn't I hear him? Shouldn't I have-- she was cut off from her thoughts as she heard a deafening crash moments after Ganymede passed her. The noise was so intense it disoriented her slightly and forced her to slow down to avoid crashing into something.

She looked behind her for the telltale rainbow colored shockwave of a sonic rainboom, but she couldn't see one at all. She looked back towards Ganymede to see him flying circles around the castle, he was going so fast he was almost a blur. All she could do however was look with a blank expression as one thing kept running through her mind. She, Rainbow Dash, the fastest pegasus in all of Equestria, had just lost a race.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ganymede circled the castle a few times to get a good look of the place, it was definitly quite imaculate, although he probably would not have built it hanging over the side of a mountain. He spotted a clearing that looked safe to land in, he swooped down low amongst the palaces' spires and came to a soft landing in the courtyard. A minute later Rainbow Dash came to a landing in the clearing and immediately trotted over to Ganymede wearing an annoyed exspression on her face.

"I just performed a sonic rainboom," she said. "it's something only I have been able to do because I am the fastest pony in all of Equestria. But you still beat me, which means you had to have gone faster than that. How fast were you going? And why couldn't I hear you when you passed me?" she asked in an irritated tone.

"I can answer both those questions with one answer," he responded, "I simply went faster than the speed of sound."

"What?" she said, a look of disbelief on her face. "That's impossible, that doesn't even make any sense, how can somepony go faster than sound?"

"Because even sound travels at a certain speed, in fact, at this altitude it is 343.59 meters per second. I was flying at 350 meters per second, thereby breaking the sound barrier. In short, you couldn't hear me because I was traveling faster than the noise I was making."

Rainbow Dash was having a hard time absorbing what she had just been told. She had always believed sound was instantaneous, that when something made noise it would instantly hit your ears and that was that. Now here was Ganymede, this extradimensional alien, telling her that sound actually had a speed limit. Not only that, but that sound itself could actually be beaten in a race.

At that point the convoy of chariots landed in the courtyard as well. As the ponies in the chariots got out and trotted over to the group Applejack called out to dash.

"Well..." she said in a confident voice, "how does it feel ta beat an alien from another world Dash?"

"I don't know..." responded Dash, her voice somewhat trailing off.

"Whad'ya mean ya don't know? It must feel fantastic ta win against somethin like him."

"But I didn't win...I lost." she responded. That made every pony that heard her collectively gasp in shock at what she just said.

"WHAT!!!" said the other five ponies, before turning to face Ganymede.

"Ya actually beat Rainbow Dash in a race!" yelled Applejack in complete astonishment.

"Yep" said Ganymede

"Well ah'll be a baked apple pie, someone actually beat Rainbow Dash in a race!"

"How did you do it?" asked Rarity. "I've never seen anyone beat Rainbow Dash before."

"Easy, I broke the sound barrier." That made Twilight shove the others out of the way to get to the front of the group.

"Excuse me!?!" she said as she took out another scroll. "Did you just say you broke the sound barrier?"

"Um, yes." he said, a bit taken aback by her sudden outburst.

"That's incredible!" she said as she furriously wrote in her notes. "How fast did you go exactly?"

"About 350 meters per second." he answered.

"Amazing."

As the ponies showered Ganymede in admiration for his feat, Celestia and Luna glanced at the sky and realized it was time for their daily ritual.

"Ganymede," Luna called, Ganymede looked over towards the princess's. "Come hither for a moment, we wish to show thee something."

Ganymede walked over to the princess's position and stood between them. "What did you wan't to show me?" he asked.

Celestia was the one to respond "It is time for me to lower the sun and for my sister to raise the moon."

That made Ganymede pause, what did they mean by that? He didn't have to wait long for an answer however as the princess's horns each glowed and suddenly the sun, which had been in an evening state, abruptly dropped down from the sky over the horizen.

He then watched as the moon then sped up over the horizen to take it's place. It was then that it became abunduntly clear to him that this world did not follow the same laws of physics as he was used to.

"Well it's getting late my little ponies," said Celestia, "how about we all get some rest and we'll meet up again tomarrow. Guards escort the elements to some of the guest rooms."

"Yes your highness." they responded before leading the six ponies down a nearby hallway.

"You two, escort our guest to one of the larger guest rooms." said Celestia, pointing to two more guards.

"Thank you for your hospitality your highness." said Ganymede as he bowed to the two alicorns.

"You're welcome Ganymede. Rest up, we will have much to discuss in the morning."

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

By the time Luna had finished with her night time duties she was exhausted, having skipped sleep during the day in favor of investigating Ganymede. She was quite eager to get to bed when she was approached by a royal guard.

"Excuse me Princess Luna, may I have a word." he asked.

"Of course Swift Spear," she replied. "what troubles thee?"

"It's about our 'special guest' your highness, I think there is something wrong with him."

"How so?" asked Luna with newfound curiosity.

"Well i've checked in on him a few times now your highness and, well, he hasn't moved."

"*sigh* Yes Captain, ponies tend to do that when they sleep" she said, her voice almost dripping with sarcasm.

"That's just the thing your highness," he replied,"he isn't asleep, he's been standing out on the balcony of his room for the past few hours." That seemed odd, why would he just be standing out on the balcony? "He must be having trouble sleeping, that can happen to people when they change enviornments." she thought.

"Thank you Swift Spear, i'll see what the matter is." she said. She used her magic to teleport to the doorway leading into Ganymede's room, as she peeked into the doorway she could see that Ganymede was indeed standing at the balcony, looking out over the landscape. She stepped inside and made her way towards him.

"Ganymede," She said, "art thou alright?" she asked as she neared his position. Ganymede turned his head to glance in her direction before returning his gaze to the small town in the distance.

"Good evening Princess," he said "yes i'm fine."

"What are thee doing out here?"

"Just intertaining myself."

"Thou should be getting some sleep after the day you just had."

"I would but I can't sleep." he said.

"What do you mean, did you have a bad dream?" she asked, "I can help with any dreams thou may have."

"You misinterpret my words, It's literally impossible for me to fall asleep."

"Why can't you fall asleep?" she asked.

"It's because my mind is not organic, it does not fatigue like a biological one and therefore it does not need to rest like your minds do." he explained, "As a consequence my mind is constantly active, always making calculations, running through scenarios, finding the best option out of thousands, and constantly collecting data on my surroundings."

"What do you mean by that?"

Ganymede quickly turned and look Luna in the eye's, "Your heart is currently beating 104 beats per minute, your body tempature is 92 degrees farenheight, your breath smells of bread, daisy's and hay, a sandwich maybe? Your body language upon entering my room indicated worry, probably of my health." he said as he made his way to a nearby sink grabbing a glass and filling it with water, not breaking eye contact.

"You also are not picking your hoove's up as much as you usually do, that plus your slightly drooping eyelids indicate you are fairly exhausted, I would guess you have been awake for roughly 37 to 38 hours." He walked over to Luna and held up the glass of water. "And you are also slightly dehydrated."

Luna took a minute to process everything she was just told before grabbing the glass with her magic, levitating and tilting the glass of cold water into her mouth. How had he been able to tell all those things about her just by looking at her? After handing her the glass he walked back to the balcony and resumed staring off into the distance. Curious Luna walked over to his side and tried to see what he was looking at.

"What are thou looking at." she said, while she was getting better at talking more normally she was still awkward with her high canterlot voice.

"That little town, down there." he said as he pointed at a small village nestled into the valley below.

"That would be Ponyville, though I don't see how thou could stare at it for several hours." she said.

"It somewhat reminds me of what life in my world used to be like." he said, "I can see a woman and her husband closing up their shop, a candy store by the looks of it." he continued as his gaze flowed over the town, drinking in the sights of life that he had missed so dearly.

"A group, fairly young by the looks of it, waiting in line at a night club, all manner of colored lights peeking out the entrance. A colt, a guard by the looks of it, kissing his wife goodnight. A smaller filly, a foal, runs outside, she hugs his leg, he smiles and returns the hug, a caring father and loving husband, he heads out on a night shift...the filly doesn't get to see him much."

As he continued looking across the town he notices a sight he remembers all too well. "A little filly sitting in her bed, hugging her mother with a frightened look on her face." He continues, not realizing he is speaking out loud.

"A nightmare? Afraid of the dark? Her mother says something, reassuring the young filly that everthing is alright. She returns to the door says goodnight, and closes the door after shutting off the light. The filly gets a worried look on her face but attempts to go back to sleep, dragging the covers up to her chin before closing her eyes."

Luna stared at him as he recounted what he was seeing, she could see many things in his eye's that she had seen many times before in her long life. Happiness, joy, warmth, as well as sadness, regret, loss. But above all others, and perhaps more strongly than she had seen in a long time, hurt. She could see in his eye's that what he was seeing had brought on a very painful memory.

"Did you have a young foal too?" she asked, hoping it wasn't too painful a question.

He gave a soft nod but did not look at her, "A son, of sorts." he said, his voice now just above a whisper.

"And a wife of your own?" at that he shook his head.

"Never had one, I had adopted him." he said.

"What happened?" she asked, Ganymedes grip on the railing visibly tightened.

"He was killed," he said his voice gaining a deeper tone. "if it's alright with you Luna i'd prefer not to talk about it right now."

Luna tensed at his more aggressive tone, but she got the hint. "It's fine Ganymede, just let me, my sister or the guards know if you need anything." she said as she exitted the room.

Ganymede couldn't take his eye's off of the little filly, she twisted and turned in her bed as she attempted to get a good night's rest. As much as he tried he couldn't stop the sudden onslaught of memories.

A house

A room, a bed, a tv, watching, motion, color, sounds

dark all around, nighttime

A flash, out the window, a low rumble, a loud crash

Another room, smaller, a voice, small, frightened, a shout, "Daddy!"

Ganymede shook his head to get his mind off the subject, he needed to find a book or something else to think about. He turned and took a few steps before stopping, he turned around and looked back across the town. The little filly now had something of a slight scowl as she continued to toss and turn, trying in vain to get to sleep.

He tried to tear his gaze away but found that to be impossible, with a heavy sigh he summoned a copy of himself out of the nearby nanomass cube and, leaving his first body in the same position it had been, he jumped over the railing and began his flight.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ganymede landed just outside the front door of the small house, the moon still high in the sky. It had taken Ganymede about 15 minutes to get here after he climbed high enough into the clouds that he wouldn't be noticed as he flew. He looked up at the window that contained the filly he had noticed earlier at the castle, it was still dark inside.

This was a stupid idea, he knew he shouldn't be doing this, that it could lead to a real awkward situation. But...he just had to have a look, if only to make sure she was alright.

He climbed up the side of the house until he was able to peek in through the window, she was still asleep but she was still restless in her bed as whatever troubled her continued to do so. He backed away from the window and began to change his shape.

If he got caught he didn't want anyone to know it was him if he ever returned to the town. Quickly his body began to melt and deform until he appeared as an unformed blob of nanomass, he colored himself black so that he could disapear into the shadows if he had to make a quick exit.

With that he slithered in through the window, being careful not to wake it's inhabitants. The room was a soft blue with purple trim and a deep blue carpet on the floor. A built in closet was located on his right and what could be a toy chest was placed next to it. As he quietly approached the bed he could begin to make out the little filly in greater detail. He could make out the wings of a pegasus on her back, like her room she had a light blue coat and a deep purple mane.

As his form loomed over the filly's bed he found himself staring at her again. It had been a very long time since he had ever seen something so young, a long time since he had seen a child. He could hear her breath softly and lightly while she slept, her whole presence emanating that feeling of pure innocence that only a child could have. He remembered his own adopted son, how he would peek in at times to check on him, only to find him fast asleep with the moon shining into his window.

He remembered how he would sometimes read him a bedtime story, or let him sleep in his bed during lightning storms. He remembered walking into his room as he slept, running his hand through his curly black hair and skin. Without knowing it Ganymede had formed an arm and hand from his body and began to reach out to the filly. Then his hand made contact with her mane, it was soft and flowed through his fingers as he massaged her head.

Suddenly she rapidly started to stir in her bed, she was waking up. You fucking fool! he thought as he quickly searched the room for somewhere to hide. He saw the closet in the opposite wall and quickly slithered into it, not bothering to close the door. No sooner had he done so the filly shot up from her bed and grabbed a flashlight on the desk near her bed and switched it on.

"Who's there?" she called out, strafing the light across the room.

Shit shit shit. He thought to himself. Then the filly shined her light at the closet, Ganymede tried to manuever himself away from the beam but it just barely managed to shine on him, initiating a yelp of fright from the filly. Damn damn damn!

"Who are you!?!" she said as she accidentally dropped the flashlight and saw it roll under her bed. Ganymede had to diffuse the situation quickly or this could get bad, he had to make it clear he wasn't a threat. First off his form was built not to be seen, and certainly didn't look inviting in the least.

He considered transforming into something like a pony, but he didn't want to risk resembling a local pony and getting that pony in trouble so he thought of something different. He changed to a more humanoid form and then produced a cloak that had nano bots built to mimic the surrounding enviornment, giving him somewhat of a ghostly look. It wasn't perfect but it would have to do.

"Show yourself!" said the filly, obviously getting more anxious by the second. Ganymede decided his normal voice might be too intimidating so he brought his voice down to a loud whisper.

"I'm sorry if I scared you." he said.

The little filly jumped at actually being responded to, "How did you get in here?" she asked in a nervous tone.

Well now how was he going to explain that?

"I've always been here."

The filly became confused at that statement, "What do you mean by that? Who are you?"

Well now he had painted himself into a corner, who could he say he was now. Then he thought of something so crazy it might work, the flashlight on her desk could possibly indicate one thing.

"The dark, I am the dark."

The filly visibly tensed, "Well why are you here? Why don't you just go away and stop scaring me?"

Well at least she isn't panicking, "I can't go away, I didn't mean to scare you I was just lonely." he said. He decided that it would be best to play off the child's fear and imagination rather than introduce something else to be afraid of.

"Why can't you go away?" she asked.

"It is nighttime, therefore I am everywhere."

The filly became puzzled at that, "If you are everywhere at night, how can you be lonely?"

"Because, have you ever talked to the dark? Everyone is either asleep, or they cower in fear of me."

"I guess you have a point, but i'm not afraid of the dark exactly, i'm just afraid of what might be in it...er...you." she said, "Could you at least step out from my closet so I can see you?"

"Then you would be afraid of me." he said.

"I promise I won't scream or anything, you can come out." she said, trying to sound reassuring.

Ganymede hesitated but he decided that it was already bad and couldn't really get worse. He creaked open the closet door a little bit more before stepping one foot outside the door. Then he placed a hand on the door as he leaned out the door to expose the one red eye of his new form, his cloak camoflauging most of his body that seemed to make the air shimmer.

"Well you do look a little strange. Do you have a name?"

"Just Dark will do." he said. "What is yours?"

"Bright Brush." she said.

"Well, Bright Brush, you should get some sleep, it's almost morning."

"I don"t know if I can go to sleep, i'm still kinda scared."

Ganymede thought for a second before he lifted his arm and began extending it across the room to the table next to her bed. She leaned away from his arm as it neared the table. When it arrived it deposited a small black box on the table, with his hand he lifted the lid of the box to expose a small orb that slowly floated about a foot into the air before it emitted a glow that managed to illuminate the room in a soft white light. And then the music began to play.

It was a soft flowing melody, somewhat sad but beautiful nonetheless. It was like a lullaby where every note was seeped in a cocktail of sedatives, as if it was trying to gently tug the entire room into a state of sleep. Already Bright Brush was yawning, as all the energy in her rapidly drained from her body. The room itself seemed to react to the music, the mattress in the bed seemed to actually slacken, the pillow become softer and even the blankets seemed to slowly creep closer to her.

"Bright Brush listen," he said, gaining the filly's attention. "it might be best not to tell your mother about our little meeting, I do not wish to scare her." As he said that he sank back into the closet.

"Wait," she said, holding out a hoof in his direction. "will I ever see you again?"

"Don't worry, you will." he said as his body melted back into the closet, shutting the door.

Bright Brush looked around the room, as if looking to see if she had anymore visitors, before she stretched and yawned, then crawled back into bed, pulled the covers over herself and closed her eyes. If Ganymede still had lungs he would have let out a sigh of relief. Knowing that it would be awkward to be found in the closet by her or her mother, he melted back into a formless mass. Then began to cover the walls of the closet, camoflauging his nanites to match the color and texture of the wall.

After he finished, his body back in Canterlot, who had been watching the window's of Bright Brushes house, set off for the guest rooms library.

What the hell am I doing?

Author's Note

Wow longest chapter i've written thus far.
First and foremost I am SO SORRY this chapter took so long to finish, I have been unbelievably busy the past month with school, family and now a hiking trip, I have been hard pressed to find time to write more.
Also I would like to thank the people leaving comments on my story, been incredibly thankful for all your criticism and praise on what i've done so far, really makes me feel good to see them.
Thats all I wanted to say for now, remember if you have any questions about me or the story feel free to ask away either in the comments or my personal webpage. Thanks for reading and I will see you guy's next chapter.