My Little Pony: Thunder Dash

Chapter 6: That was, Unexpected

After several more minutes of walking we finally arrived at the train station. It consisted of a wooden platform and a single building, several benches lined the platform and there was a single ticket booth in the side of the building along with several bags that I assume where to be loaded on the train.

“The train should be here any minute now.” Twilight said.

“At least we got here ahead of time.”

“True.” She replied. We walked up the steps and towards the ticket booth where a brown unicorn sat behind the glass. He sat up when he saw the princess.

“Ah, what can I do for you princess?” He said, bowing his head slightly as he finished.

“Two tickets to Canterlot please.” She said smiling.

“Official business I take it.” He said, grabbing two papers from a stack behind him and levitating them over to the desk in front of him.

“Maybe.” She said with a giggle.

“Well, here you go.” He pushed the tickets through the hole at the bottom of the glass window.

“Thank you.” Twilight replied, grabbing the two papers with her own magic and walking over to one of the benches.

“Free tickets for the Princess I take it.” I sat down beside her.

“For official business only, still have to pay for personal travels though.”

“Makes sense, but how’d he know? You said ‘maybe’.”

“We’ve known each other long enough, besides if it’s not official I tell him, he trusts me.” She said, “Plus I have said yes before and it’s attracted some unwanted attention from other ponies at the station.”

“I see, got it.” I say with a smile.

We sat and chatted about the weather for a bit before the train pulled in to the station. The conductor walked out from one of the cars, “Train to Canterlot station, tickets please.” He shouted from where he was standing, a small line formed in front of him in a short time, we where near the front.

“Ah good morning Princess Twilight.” The conductor said taking the tickets from twilight using his magic, he punched them and handed them back, “Welcome aboard.”

“Thank you, and good morning to you as well” She replied with a smile, before leading us onto the train and to a seat near the window.

“Comfortable seats, only the best for the princess I take it.” I say, sitting down on a comfortably padded seat in the train car.

“No, all the seats are this comfy, most of the train is like this.” Twilight says sitting down next to the window on the opposite side.

“I would’ve thought you had a private car by now.” I said, glancing around to notice that al the seats were in fact the same cushioned chair. The conductor then called to the engineer with the usual “All aboard!” and the train lurched forward.

“To be honest, the thought never really crossed my mind about having a private car for my friends and I, we just ride the train together like every other pony.” She said.

"Heh, if all these seats are this comfortable," I say, leaning back in the seat and relaxing more, "Then I don't know how these could be better." I looked out the window to see the trees pass by as we climbed higher and higher heading closer in the direction of Canterlot. "How long is the ride?"

"It's about 45 minutes, why you ask?"

"Just curious, anything I should know about the Princesses before I get there?"

"Well..." She started talking, we chatted for what felt like hours, most of what she said didn't surprise me, she made sure that I understood how to treat them, and how to behave during the meeting, which I had already knew how to do, at least I thought I understood it and her explanation confirmed it.

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"Canterlot Station!" The engineers call broke our conversation, we had switched topics a while back from the Princesses to science. There was some basic biology that Twilight wanted to know about Humans, as unknown as Humans where to her, she understood them quite well, most of our names for things matched up, hands where a bit tricky to explain at first, but I just referred to Spike's claws and she got the idea. After we had finally stopped moveing we got up and stepped onto the white tiled platform that was Canterlot Station.

"So, this is Canterlot." I looked around at the purple wall of the station and the yellow roofed arch.

"Yeah, you impressed." She said, nudging my side with her wing.

"Yeah, it's much more beautiful in person." I said, still looking around in aw as we stepped from the platform to the street and started to walk down what I assumed was the main road to the castle.

We walked for a while, most of the shops where bustling with the morning traffic, the sun was higher in the sky and the air started to get warmer.

"So, where did you live when you where here?" I asked having finished gawking at the city's design and the scale of it all.

"Well, up over there," she pointed with her hoof over towards our right, the view blocked by buildings, "Maybe I could show you after we finish the meeting." She finished with a smile.

"That's be fun." I said, smiling back keeping up a steady trot beside her. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a poster, I couldn't quite make it out, but something made me want to stop and see it, curiosity mainly. I stop trotting beside Twilight and walked to the poster. "What is this?"

"What?" Twilight said, catching my exclamation and she turned to see what I was looking at.

"This," I pointed with a hoof to it as she trotted over to where I was. When she reached me, she turned to me first.

"We don't have time for this we have to..." She turned her head and her words stopped, "What is this?!" Her surprised tone was very warranted, the poster on the wall of the alley way was a badly drawn image of Luna with a red line painted through it and a circle around it, the text reading 'Down with Luna' another next to it showed a drawing of the moon with Nightmare Moons silhouette still on it, 'Send her back' was written in text on this one. "When did this start?"

"I've only been here a day, I don't know?" Trying to add some levity to the situation.

"Down with Luna!" A voice exclaimed from the other end of the alley.

"Come on, lets go figure this out." I ran down the alley way in the direction of the voice.

"We have a meeting, ugh." The purple alicorn groans, starting to run before she turned and magically removed the two posters.

I arrived shortly at the end of the brick-walled alley way looking around to see where the voices came from, but could find no one, Twilight caught up to me.

"Let the guards handle it Thunder, come on we have to get to the meeting." She poofed the posters back and held them in the air, "I'll give these to the princesses, see what they know." She poofed them away again, and started trotting in the direction of the castle.

Something inside me to stay and try and help find these ponies, but Twilight was right, we had a meeting, the guards could handle it, and besides I wouldn't even know where to look for them, heck I'm just following Twilight to the castle as it is.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We walked silently the rest of the way to the castle, not sure why we did, but Twilight did seem lost in thought, those posters must have been a new development, unless they have been there before, who knows. I could only speculate as I followed her to the castle entrance, which was now in view, A large white wall with a purple top, it was rather beautiful for what was simply a defense measure, there was an archway where two guards stood.

“We’re here to see the princesses.” Twilight said when we finally reached them.

“Ah, princess Twilight, we were informed of your immanent arrival, please follow me.” A third guard spoke walking out from behind the wall on the right side. His uniform was a little fancier then the others, he looked more distinguished then the other two, a captain maybe. Twilight acknowledged the guard and followed his lead as we started to walk up the steps of the castle. Once through the archway you could see a beautiful garden the lined the insides of the wall, not to say that the outside didn’t have its share of flowers and vines, but the inside had a pond, some willow trees, or what looked like willows I couldn’t tell. The stairs to the grand entrance where large and ornate, but the steps themselves where lined on both sides with plants of varying types, clearly mirrored on both sides, so that neither side looked different. The steps where a polished white, for the exterior of a building it kept its lustrous look, they must have been made of marble and kept quite clean.

We walked up the steps and the large doors opened, revealing two guards on the inside and one at each corner of the large entrance way, banners hung from two sides of a large window, one of the moon and one of the sun, there was a doorway under the window, which was on a second balcony like floor which was accessed by a stairway in the middle of the room, to either side of it there where balcony like areas with railings. The walls where painted in a light purple with the corners and base of the wall being of a different piece of wood and in a soft yellow color. The guard led us through the large arch to the left and down a hallway. After many changes in direction we reached a door, the guard opened it, “This way your highness.” He said, motioning with his hoof to enter the room through the open door.

“Thank you.” Twilight said, bowing, the guard bowed in return and she entered, I bowed to the guard as well and followed. The guard shut the door behind us and the room was silent.

"So, what's with the silent treatment?" I finally said to Twilight after the long quiet walk we had.

"Oh, sorry, yeah, it's just, these posters have taken me by surprise." She pops them back into existence, "I've never seen anything like it before, I always thought most ponies where happy having Luna back."

"It does seem odd." I walked over to the large square table with two chairs on two of the sides, two where smaller and the ones on the other side where larger and with a sun on one and a moon on the other. “Should we sit?”

“No, wait for the Princesses.” Twilight said, as she finished the door creaked open, Twilight poofed the poster away just before the two royal sisters walked through.

“Good morning to you Twilight.” Celestia said as she entered, Twilight bowed and she bowed back, “And you must be Thunder Dash.” She said, turning to face me.

“Yes, your majesty.” I replied, bowing to the two of them as Twilight had told me I should do.

“You may rise.” She said in a kind voice, I returned to my original position and watched as the two gracefully walked to their chairs and sat, placing a folder from under her wing onto the table in front of her. “You may be seated.” She spoke, cueing us to sit in our seats. “So, Thunder, we hear that you are from the Human world, is that correct?”

“Yes, your majesty it is.” I said, the air about this meeting felt formal, yet it also had a touch of a laid-back feel, it was rather comforting, for what I thought would be a nerve racking experience.

“What did you do?” Luna asked, finally speaking.

“I was a high school student, I was working a volunteer job at a science facility before I came here.” I stated bowing slightly once I had finished, she felt harsher then her sister, but even through that she seemed, curious.

“How did you arrive here, in Equestria?” Celestia asked, the meeting was jumping off quite quickly into the questions, perhaps it was to keep me on my toes, or hooves to be more precise, maybe they felt being upfront was better to judge better if I were lying.

"Would you like the direct version or the in-depth version?" I asked.

"We have time for the in depth and it is important to hear all the details." She said.

"Very well, it all began..." I began to explain how I found the machine and how the monorail went haywire and how we were curious and how David got shot and "Well that's pretty much it." I said.

“I see,” She replied, her face turning a maintained a more serious look while I spoke, and continued as she finished jotting down notes from my story onto a paper she had, her face then relaxed, as did Luna’s, “Well, now that that’s over you can relax, I noticed you where getting quite tense there.” There change in attitude caught me off guard, but it wasn’t something unexpected.

“Heh, it has hasn’t it.” I spoke, realising that my neck had stiffened quite a bit, I stretched it out a bit and relaxed a bit in the chair.

“So, I assume Twilight has been a gracious host to you?” Celestia asked, “Oh, and sorry about the quick-fire questions, we wanted to make sure you where telling the truth, and it helps to put someone on the spot to find out if they’re lying.” She finished, putting away the note paper back into the folder she had with her.

“Oh, she’s been great your majesty.” I replied, still a little stuck in the formal routine from earlier, it was obviously ok to be more laid back, but I still felt the need to make good first impressions.

“I’m glad to hear that, now, there is something more we need to discuss.” She levitated the folder up and pulled out a smaller folder, she the placed the smaller folder in front of me. “There are a few interesting things we have found, I thought you should see them.”

I opened the folder with my hoof, the first page contained my medical record, height, weight, age, birthday, blood type, name, the usual one would expect. I turned to the next, which was mostly blank, it was a list of all recent doctor visits. I turned it again, the contents of which where a family tree, the page, made me freeze. “Wait…what!?” I exclaimed, all formality lost in my voice. I nudged it over to Twilight as she seemed curious.

“Wait, what?!” Her response identical to mine, her face, getting more and more shocked as she read.

“This can’t be right, could it?” I asked out loud, not to anyone, but just in general.

“It is.” Celestia said.

“Our doctors have checked it several times, you have a genetic relation to these ponies, and as far as it looks, you where never anything other then a pony, however,” Luna paused pulling out another piece of paper from the folder, this contained a list of genetic matches in a pie chart, most of it was Pegasus, other then 5 percent, which was unknown. “This unknown part, we believe is human DNA, meaning that your story checks out.”

“But, but how? I’m human, I’ve always been, but according to this, my fathers name is Star Drifter, and my mothers name is Fire Fly, but that can’t be right, I know my parents, they’re human.” I said, dumb founded at the results on the page. “Also, I can’t be related to her, even though it says half sister, it can’t be right, can it.” I stopped, reading the name again, ‘Rainbow Dash’, stared back at me from the page, ‘relation: Half Sister’ in brackets ‘Genetic’.

“We know it’s a lot to take in, but I see no reason why we have to try and send you back.” Celestia said, “From the answers you gave, and the genetics you have, I see no reason why you can’t stay here, unless you wish to return home that is?” She asked, magically pulling back all the papers strewn across the table and placing them back into the folder.

“I-if I’m aloud to, I think I’ll stay.” I said, the realisation hitting me, I was a Pegasus, by blood, by genes, no magic had made me this way, I was, and was always a Pegasus, questions burned inside of me, but all that didn’t matter now, because I was too excited. My brain filled with ideas, I could learn to fly, I could live a life, here, settle down, find a job, I had options. Where would I live though, that I hadn’t thought about.

“I’m sure Twilight can accommodate you till you can find a place of your own.” Celestia said, looking a Twilight, whom nodded in agreement.

“You’ve been a perfect house guest, I see no reason not to.” She replied in my direction.

“Thank you, I’ll repay you in whatever way I can.” I said, before turning back to the two sisters.

“Also, Twilight, what where those papers that you poofed away before we entered?” Luna asked a curious tone on her lips.

“Um, we found these, well, Thunder found these.” She said, poofing them back into existence on the table in front of us. “Thunder saw them on an alley way, I grabbed them down and thought I should bring them to you.”

The two looked them over, Luna’s look of curiosity turning to sadness quite quickly, “These are very disturbing, thank you for finding them Thunder, I’ll have the guards keep a lookout for them from now on.” Celestia said, looking at me when she said thank you I bowed in respect, realising that formality was the safe route now. “You two should go, I thank you again for finding them, and I look forward to hearing about your progress on getting used to life here from Twilight.” She said putting the poster down, Luna still hiding her face behind the other.

We stood up from our seats and bowed, “Your majesty’s” We said in unison.

“Thunder, it was once to meet you.” Celestia said, I stood back up, Luna having put down the poster, her face looking sadder then before she had taken a closer look at the poster.

“It was nice to meet you as well Thunder Dash.” Luna said, her voice quivering slightly, she was trying to hold her composer.

“It was nice meeting you too, your majesty's” I said bowing again, then standing up and heading for the door.

“It was nice seeing you again, Princess Twilight.” Celestia said, Luna having returned to being behind the poster, I certain she couldn’t hold her composer any longer.

“It was nice seeing you two again, your majesty's” Twilight said, standing from her bow and heading to meet me at the door. We both left, shutting the door behind us, one last bow and then.

Earth

Valley Flats

Science Facility

"Why won't you let me go?" David said, still sitting in the rather comfy chair the iv having been removed.

"We needed to make sure you where feeling better before we let you go, you where shot after all." Mr. Ericson said from a chair across from his.

"Fine, I'm better, you removed the iv, now let me go." David said getting angry that he hasn't been allowed to leave.

"We still need to know what you saw, and where Wesley went," Mr. Ericson said standing up, "The memory was wiped due to the disruption from the bullet hitting the portal, so we need to know what you entered."

"I don’t remember." David said, looking to the floor.

"This is getting no where, perhaps we should just," The other man spoke, but was cut off.

"No, give him time, he's scared." Mr. Ericson said, cutting the man off. "Please, we really need to know." The look on his face of legitimate concern.

"I really don't remember…wait." David said, sitting up straight.

"What was it?" Mr. Ericson asked, sitting up straight himself, could he have remembered after all.

"EQP4O9N7Y1, yeah, that's what it was." David said, speaking it slowly trying to remember exactly what was on the screen when the portal was opened.

"He...he did it." Mr. Ericson said under his breath, his eyes lighting up, but no one seemed to notice or here his words. "You, escort him back to the lobby, make sure he gets home safe." He said standing up and looking to the other man that was in the room.

"Understood, sir." The other man walking over to David and putting out his hand, "Come with me.'" He stated to David, his outstretched hand at David's eye level.

David hesitated for a moment, and grabbed hold of the man's hand, who then pulled him up. "David," Mr. Ericson said, drawing his attention, "Don't tell anyone about what you have seen, as far as you are concerned you had an accident."

"Understood." David said, being helped along by the other man.

"Help him to the lobby, I need to speak with Professor Issac." Mr. Ericson said, walking towards a different door then the other two.

"Understood sir, I'll take him there." The other man said, leading David to another door.

"I'm sorry all this happened David, I truly am." Mr. Ericson said, after opening the door leading to a long hallway where Issac's office was.

David just bowed his head and was lead out the other door, it closed behind him. Mr. Ericson shut the door he was holding open and walked down the dimly lit hall to Issac's office.

He arrived, and opened the door, "You should have killed him." A voice from within spoke, his voice smooth, his tone of 'I told you so' clearly annunciated within his statement to Mr. Ericson, "He's seen to much."

"He's a family friend his parents are family friends, I would never." Mr. Ericson replied, shutting the door behind him and sitting in a chair at Issac's desk, the room was rather small and messy, it wasn't that the room was dirty, but cluttered, stacks of paper littered the tables around the room, various models on top of that. A computer monitor, sat to the right of Issac displaying security cameras of the room Mr. Ericson and David where just in.

"By the way Richard, what was the conclusion? Where did he go?" Issac asked, throwing a small orange stress ball around as he did so.

"He did it." It took a while for Richard to answer, "He opened the portal to Equestria."

Issac stopped, and turned to face Richard Ericson, "He did what?! That was to never be done again!" Issac slammed his fist onto the desk, he reached for his phone and hit 999, "Execute plan Epsilon."

"Wait, what?" Richard said, having no idea what plan Epsilon was. On one of the screens he caught a glimpse of David and the other man who was taking him back up, two more guards came out from an adjacent hallway, stabbing a what looked like a syringe into David's neck and carrying him back down the hallway the two guards had came from. "Wait, what the hell! I told him he could leave! Where are they taking him?"

"They're taking him to a staging room, we are getting your nephew back." He said, placing his hands onto the desk in front of him, his hands together pointing at Richard.

"Why do we need him? he has done nothing." Richard said, still confused as to why Issac would execute this plan, finally it hits him. "Wait, by plan Epsilon, you mean that invasion protection plans you had on paper, she promised she would never attack us!"

"I know, but I don't trust her, you remember what they did to Robert." Issac said, reaching into a drawer beside him.

"That wasn't them, that was a problem with the portal and you know it!" Richard said, his face and voice having an angry air about them.

"Don't make me use this on you," He said, pulling his hand from the drawer, holding a gun, "I would hate to have to use this on you but I can't have insubordination, not now."

"Issac, have you gone mental?! We are friends!" Richard said, putting his hands up by his head, palms towards Issac.

"I am doing what needs to be done, you told me you wanted your nephew back, so this is my way of doing it." He said still pointing the gun at Richard, "So, do we have a deal?"

Richard could see no way out of this now, "I'm with you."

Issac smiled and put the gun to his side getting up from his chair, and placing it in the holster on his hip. "Good, now, let's go." He said walking to the door, "Oh, and one more thing," He paused, "You step out of line, and you're done." Issac said, opening the door out of his office.

"Understood." Richard said, standing up slowly and walking to the door, which Issac was holding open.

"Good, then let's go get your nephew back." He shut the door to his office behind them.