Canadian Pacific 5-5

As I hopped onto the trailer Twilight spoke up.

“I didn’t want to interrupt you earlier but why doesn’t Andrew just use his shadow portals to take us where we need to be?”

“Good question,” I replied, “It’s not because he only had it while he was evil but because of Equestria. Something about Equestria itself is throwing off his portal’s quantum waveform due to Equestria’s radically different physics. The whole thing has rendered his portals extremely dangerous to use. He even showed us why. He created portals on either side of my house’s basement and chucked a bundle of pencils through. Normally they would have exited at the same time they were entering but they completely disappeared for a few moments. When they did start re-appearing they materialized in random locations between the two portals. Out of the 100 Andrew tossed in about twenty wound up fused to the central, cinderblock wall and another 12 disappeared for good.”

“Ok…” Twilight said, eyes wide, “Um…what about making an airplane or giant disc for them to stand on?”

“I’m going to have to cover all the plot holes, aren’t I?” I sighed, “Well, first off you have no idea just how claustrophobic a lot of ponies are, especially Newfoals. Second, imagine how draining it would be to levitate 20 to 30 ponies over long distances. See why we do what we do?”

“Alright,” Twilight replied, “I guess that’s all I’ve got. Thank you.”

“Anyone else?” I asked.

“Well……” Rarity said more dramatically than necessary, “I was just wondering why the Writer doesn’t just give you unlimited energy.”

I sighed again, “Look, we’re already overpowered as it is. The Writer didn’t want to produce five ‘Superman’ characters in the same story. That and the whole ‘conservation of energy’ thing means that we have to draw the energy from the area around us. We can only do that so fast and if we exceed that we start draining our own energy reserves. When that runs out we hit the metaphorical wall. Face it we’re already flying in the face of conventional physics. If we broke any more universal laws we’d probably begin falling up!”

“Well, actually…” Twilight began.

“I know, I know,” I interrupted, “We’d actually be launched due east along a tangent line at a velocity equivalent to the earth’s rotational speed. I was just trying to make a point. Any other questions?”

“Actually Ah do,” Applejack said, “I get the emotional reason why yer flyin’ yer flag but what doesn’t make sense is why you’d advertise yerselves like that. It’s almost like yer beggin’ fer a fight.”

“Quite simple AJ,” Brent said, “Scares off the few and makes the many too cocky.”

We all stared at him for a moment before I spoke up, “Let me translate. The flag warns small groups of HLF that they won’t be able to take us on. In the reverse it makes larger groups of HLF too cocky in that they figure their superior numbers will be able to take us on. They make more mistakes that way.”

We sat in silence for a while before Fluttershy spoke up.

“I hope I’m not bothering you, Mr. Earth Magnet sir,” she started.

“‘Conner’ will be just fine,” I said.

“Ok,” she said timidly, “I was wondering why you haven’t fixed your arm and leg using the Automail you have.”

“Oh, you mean why haven’t I made my limbs human again?” I said, Fluttershy nodded, “Well there’s a few reasons but it goes something like this. In the time shortly after I got my Automail I honestly didn’t think of that. Later, when I did, we were a little preoccupied saving the world and I couldn’t afford being out of the picture for two weeks. Eventually it got to the point that I honestly just kept putting it off. When Equestria showed up I knew then that I would never get the chance to. I also realized why else I wouldn’t trade it in. These things are way too useful.”

To demonstrate I reconfigured my arm and leg into large bore cannons, chainsaws, a pair of machine guns, and finally I turned the plating on my arm into a large, wide blade.

“Ok,” Fluttershy said, “Sorry I brought it up.”

“No, that’s ok,” I said, gently lifting her chin, “To tell you the truth; I wouldn’t have done it even if I had the chance.”

I smiled and, eventually, she smiled back.

“Hey guys,” Andrew called, leaning out his window, “There’s a roadblock ahead and it’s not friendly.”

“Which does it look like?” Brody asked.

“HLF,” Andrew replied.

“Grab the tarp,” Brent said.

“Eeyup,” I replied.

We quickly pulled out the tarpaulin that we kept for just such emergencies and I strapped it to the deck.

“What are you doing this for? Shouldn’t you be out and ready to fight any HLF?” Fluttershy asked.

“That’s just it,” I replied, “Most of the roadblocks we’ve encountered that look like they were made by the HLF are actually crewed by the PER. Besides, we’ll be flying through it fast enough that…”

CRUNCH!

“There’s the sawhorses and…” I said.

Smash, crash, clatter, SPLAT.

“…Those are the potions,” I finished, “Brent would you mind washing the tarp?”

“Sure thing,” he replied as the sound of rain hitting the tarpaulin reached our ears.

“How long?” I asked.

“Judging by the colour of the water running off right now, I’d say about five minutes,” Brent said, “Might be best to wait seven though.”

“Alright,” I said, “We’ve still got plenty of time till we get to Sudbury. I was at chapter 9, correct?”

“Yep,” Brody replied.

“I’ll get to it then,” I said.