The Right Man in the Wrong Place...

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
Prologue
Chapter 7

Chapter 1

"GPS signal lost," my phone chirped at me as I headed down the empty highway. Since there was nowhere else to go but straight, I kept driving, hoping the phone would pick up a signal again shortly. Aside from my headlights, the only illumination was from the occasional flash of lightning as it ripped across the sky. The rain was coming down pretty hard and even with my wipers on high, I was having trouble seeing the road.

Eventually I gave up waiting, spotted an area I could pull over and slowed down. I threw the truck into park and grabbed my phone off of the mount to take a look at it. I still had no signal, but I guessed that from the last update, my turn would be coming up in a half an hour or so. I hoped it reconnected soon since I was currently driving through middle-of-nowhere Wyoming; an area I was most certainly not familiar with. Even if it had been daytime and not in the middle of a truly epic thunderstorm, I still would have needed the GPS. I've always been hopeless when it comes to navigation. What was I doing way out here? Well, after my parents split, my dad left New Hampshire and this is where he ended up.

Cross country travel to visit my dad wasn't high up on the priority list. I just wasn't super close to him, at last not as much as I had been when I was younger. When I was a kid he did the typical dad things, taught me how to catch a ball, helped me with my homework, introduced me to video games... I still remember how annoyed my mother was when she found me playing Doom, also, he taught me how to shoot. It was my favorite family activity back then. Then, not much longer after my 13th birthday he changed jobs. Picked up a high level position at a very successful start up. He was raking in the money but the hours were long and he had to do a lot of traveling across the country all the time; I barely saw him anymore.

I think that's why my parents divorced, the distance kind of ruined their relationship. I used to walk into arguments between the two of them over how he was never home and never did anything with the family. Anyway he eventually burnt out on both family life and work, his solution was to give up. Packed his bags, quit his job and took off. Unfortunately my mom didn't take him leaving very well. She tried to fix the pain with alcohol and she became very unpleasant person to live with. The day I turned 18, I got out of that house and I hadn't done much talking to her since.

I worked a few terrible retail jobs until I managed to luck out and snag a pretty awesome job at a local gun store. It paid a little better than my last few jobs and I finally was making enough that I could save up to go to college. When I first started I mostly I just worked the counter, so it wasn't all that different than any other retail job, except since I had some experience with shooting it meant I could help customers out when they had questions.

The cool thing about this shop though wasn't the normal store section. Rick, the owner actually designed and built hand crafted double barrel rifles. These were the things you'd see taken on a safari in the early 1900s. Each one was a work of art and priced far beyond anything I could ever afford. He had an extensive machine shop in the back and was known as one of the best gunsmiths in New England. He was also a super friendly down to earth guy who was more than happy share his extensive knowledge and teach me pretty much anything I wanted to know, as long as I was willing to learn.

I had gone into the job with a decent knowledge of guns, I knew how to clean, disassemble and assemble the few that I owned, I knew about proper shooting techniques and I was a decent marksman but I had never done any repair work, or even looked at building something by hand. After working there for almost four years, I could pretty much take anything he sold apart and put it back together with ease, I picked up repair work and even helped him with a few of his rifle orders.

Since I was helping him with assembly and repair work and not just running the counter, he was paying me very reasonably. I decided to invest some of that money into an education. Working in Rick's shop hand kindled an interest in making things. I knew it would be tough but I wanted to pursue something in an engineering field. Rick was a fantastic boss and was very flexible with my schedule so I was able to continue to work full time while going to school part time. I enrolled in the local state university and was accepted.

Sadly, Rick, who was getting up there in years, had a heart attack eight months later. Fortunately he recovered, but he decided it was time to get out of the business. Being in the hospital shocked him into thinking about his own mortality and he wanted to spend what time he had left with his family instead of working all the time. He approached me and asked if I wanted to buy the store off of him and run it myself, but there was no way I could afford to pay what it was worth so I had to decline. In the end, the owner of a competing store ended up buying it. Sadly he had no intention of keeping both stores open. Instead, he fired me, closed down the shop, folded the inventory into his own store and sold off all of Rick's machinery.

With my primary source of income gone, I had to find another job. I sent my resume to dozens of places but I never got any responses. It seemed that all of the jobs that paid well enough for me to keep up with my living expenses and paying for school wanted people with years of experience or a degree I didn't have yet. Still, I wasn't ready to give up. I had been pretty good about saving money when I could and I had enough to keep me going for a while until I could find work again. To help keep my expenses down, I dropped down to a single class a semester. It was important for me to not drop out entirely, because I knew If I kept at it and got my degree it would help in the search for not just another job, but a career.

It took a while but finally I found some place hiring that worked with my school schedule and got me enough money to keep things going... barely. It wasn't anything glamorous, working the night shift as a security guard in a small warehouse, but I wasn't picky. The hours sucked, I was often the only person in the building until the next morning's shift took over, and my boss was an asshole, but it beat nothing at all. I divided my time during the day between sleeping, studying, going to class and trying to find something better.

My irregular schedule took a toll on my already anemic social life; two years rolled by and most of the people I knew in school who were going full time had started to graduate. Meanwhile I was stuck moving at a snail's pace. I tried to keep in touch with a few of them but as they moved away or started jobs with normal schedules it became harder and harder to maintain contact. I hadn't dated in years and I never went out anymore, but that was a price I was willing to pay. I only had to keep it up for a few more years until I graduated and found a real job, then I could focus on me again.

I justified it to myself, friends and fun were things you did after you had your life in order. Once I got a real job I could return to a normal schedule, I'd have time to go out and do things again, I wouldn't be stuck working a dead end job, scraping by and squirreling away what little cash I had.

Things were slow going but I was steadily making progress towards my goals. Then, out of the blue, my dad showed up at my apartment one day. I almost turned him away, I had just had finished a long shift, was exhausted and had a big test coming up the next day but those were just excuses. The real reason I didn't want to talk to him was he gave up on me and my mom and I wasn't a fan quitters.

Something stopped me though, maybe it was the way he looked at me or maybe I just had a moment of weakness. I invited him in, we talked for a while and we made an attempt to catch up on the years that we had missed. He didn't seem to want to talk much about his past, instead focused on what I had been doing and what my plans were.

We had been talking for several hours when he finally got around to telling me the real reason traveled across the country. He had been diagnosed with cancer and it was terminal; according to his doctor he didn't have much longer to live, a few months at best. It was a complete shock, both to him when he first found out and to me. Outwardly he seemed fine, maybe a little thinner than when last a saw him and with a bit less hair but he didn't look like he was dying.

We talked about the cancer for a while, then things turned to his past and that's when he really broke down. With tears streaming down his face he pulled me into a hug and began to apologize over and over again for leaving. I wanted to forgive him, but it was going to take time, time I wasn't sure he had left. It was getting late when he told me he was going to be sticking around. With his place so far away, he wanted to be closer to me until his time came. I didn't want him stuck in some hotel, so I invited him to say in my tiny apartment, it would be cramped but it felt like the right thing to do.

I helped my dad move what little he brought with him from his hotel to my place and after we got all the stuff moved in, I got on the phone with work to see about getting some time off. After arguing with my boss for a while, I managed to get a solid two weeks, though he warned me not to try to take a day more. I gave my dad the news, and promised that we could spend the next two weeks together, it wasn't possible to make up for all the missed time but at least we could really get to know each other again.

He didn't make it to the weekend.

The funeral had been small, mostly family, distant relatives I only saw on holidays, and a few people my dad had called friends another lifetime ago. My mother showed up, I could smell the alcohol on her ten feet away, she saw me and turned away before I could make eye contact. I felt bad not talking to her but a small part of me said I should seek her out in the near future. Maybe it was time to make amends. After the funeral, I wasn't in any mood to go back to work and I still had some time off left. Sitting around the house and moping wasn't really my style, and I needed to get out to Wyoming and go through his house.

He had left it to me, but I couldn't keep the thing, I didn't make enough to keep up a home half way across the country. He had figured this was going to be the case and had told me before he died that I shouldn't feel any compulsion to keep it. Sell it off he said, but there was some stuff there he wanted me to have. He left me his not inconsiderable savings and his pickup truck as well. Flying out there was a big nope, I wouldn't get into an airplane if I could avoid it, so I figured I'd make use of the truck, drive out to Wyoming and go collect what I wanted. I headed out to rent a trailer, but found someone selling an old one for a good price. With trailer in tow, I began the long drive across country.

The loud boom of thunder shook my attention back towards reality. I dug though the glove compartment until I found an old paper map. I fumbled around with it, trying to remember how to use them before I finally figured out where I thought I was. If I was looking at it correctly I was about twenty miles from my turn. I pulled back out onto the road and continued on my way.

Just as the rain started to let up, I saw the exit coming up. I pulled off the highway and followed the smaller road for a while and eventually rolled into a small town. Everything was pretty dark, not unusual this late at night in the middle of nowhere, but I did see a gas station with its lights still on. I pulled in, almost forgetting to pull up to the diesel section. I remembered at the last minute and swerved into the proper station. The display on the pump said the credit card system was down, so I ran inside to pay with cash.

"Diesel's all out." The old man behind the counter said, "My shipment got delayed, won't be here till the day after tomorrow"

"Shit, I've only got about a quarter of a tank left, are there any other stations around?" I asked.

The old man laughed, "You aren't from around here are you, next station is about 120 miles west on 14." Then he leaned over the counter taking a closer look at the truck.

"Where are you heading?" he asked somewhat warily.

"Actually I'm hoping to get some directions, the weather is screwing with my phone's GPS and no, I'm not from around here," I said, then I told the guy where I was headed.

"Why are you going up to Bill's? And why are you driving his truck?" he asked with a bit of edge in his voice.

"You knew my dad?" I asked with some surprise. Dad hadn't talked about any of his friends from out west.

"As well as anyone knew him, he mostly kept to himself, but it's a small town." he said with a shrug, "Didn't even know he had a kid, but he never really talked about his past. Now that you mention it, you look like him. Where the hell is he? I haven't seen him in a few weeks," his expression turned sour, "wait... knew?"

I let out a sigh, "He died, early last week... cancer. It was really sudden, he had flown to New Hampshire to see me, I only found out when he showed up at my door."

The old guy's gaze softened.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

We talked for a bit and then he gave me directions, including pointing out some land marks that he swore I wouldn't be able to miss.

"I don't know how long you are planning on being here, but if you need fuel before Monday, give me a call, the name's Frank," he wrote down a phone number on a piece of paper and handed it to me, "I've got some extra diesel at my place and I'll top off your tank, but check around your dad's house, I know he has a generator, he probably has some."

I thanked him, grabbed some food to make for lunch the next day, and then headed out. Half an hour later, I pulled into my dad's driveway and parked the truck. I ran through the still heavy rain to the door, dug through my keychain to find the key my dad had given me and unlocked the door. After 12 hours of driving, I was exhausted, everything looked fine at first glance, so I headed to the guest room, and collapsed on the spare bed. I was sound asleep in minutes.

I woke up the next morning to sunlight pouring in through the window; I let out a groan and did my best to ignore it but the room only got brighter as the sun crept upwards. Finally I gave up, pulled myself out of bed and shuffled off to the bathroom. A few minutes later I headed out to the truck and grabbed my small suitcase. I hadn't packed much because I couldn't stay long, I pretty much had one day to pack and then I had to get back on the road. It had taken me three and a half days of driving to get out here, if the return trip was about the same I'd have to go back to work the day after I got back. That was all the time off I could get, my jerkass of a boss had threatened to fire me if I wasn't back right on schedule, didn't even offer any condolences when I told him why I needed the time. If all went to plan, I'd pack up what I could. The rest could stay with the house or be sold off. I had already found an agent who could was going to help with all that, but he wasn't available until the end of the month.

I walked around the house looking into each room to see what kind of stuff I'd need to pack up. I had no real need for furniture, so I didn't know if I was going to ignore it entirely or take a select few things. Either way there was too much of it to fit all in one trip; I'd have to wait to see what else there was to pack. There was an old CRT TV that I was just going to toss, a nearly empty bookshelf, which surprised me, my father was an avid reader, that looked like it had seen better days and stacks and stacks of magazines that I had no interest in moving. Looking around in the daylight made me realize how empty this place was.

Still I packed up a few boxes, mostly a few small photo albums and family memorabilia that my dad had taken with him and placed them in a pile near the door. Next was the basement; it took me a moment to find the light switch, and when I could finally see I let out a small gasp. There, on the floor, was a large pile of boxes, already packed full of stuff. There was a note taped to one of the larger boxes in my dad's handwriting. It simply said "Keep all this." My eyes watered a bit and I mumbled, "Thanks Dad," before I started investigating what exactly he had packed up for me.

The first few boxes weighed a ton, I opened one and immediately realized why the bookshelf was so empty; he had already packed it all up and then some. Guessing by the few books he had left on the shelf, the ones already packed must have been what he considered worth saving. After sorting through the multiple boxes of books, I opened another and found several large bags full of pistol and rifle brass. The first few bags were labeled .44 magnum, the rest were labeled .30-06. I opened another box and found reloading supplies. My dad used to be a fairly active shooter, but he had told me that he had ended up selling most of his gun collection.

He had only kept his two favorites and he had told me about them before he passed, so I had known I'd be picking them up. What I didn't know is that he had started reloading his own ammunition. After taking an inventory, I found two presses, a progressive and a single stage. There was also powder scales, calipers, case trimmers, reloading dies, bullets, primers, gun powder and everything else a person would need to reload their own ammunition. The tools and hardware I would need to mount the presses were packed into another box and the last box was chock full of reloading manuals.

I made my way to the other half of the basement, I found a few boxes full of tools with another "Keep these" note. Then I spotted my dad's gun safe. I pulled out my phone and opened the note with the combination. Turning the dial back and forth, I unlocked the safe and opened it up. Taped to the inside of the door was a picture of me, I must have been about 10 years old in the photo. I was sitting on a bench at the range we used to go to, looking through the small scope on my dad's old .22, he was standing behind me with his hand on my shoulder.

I had to stop packing after that, I took the photo with me, wandered back to the finished half of the basement, sat down and cried. It took some time but eventually I was able to pull myself together; I went back to the safe and pulled out the rifle. I looked over the gun and then placed on the ground. A glint of stainless steel caught my eye, I turned around and looked back into the safe. There was my dad's favorite revolver, and unlike the rifle, which he must have bought after he moved, this one I recognized from my childhood. I had been too small back then to handle the recoil, so I'd never used it myself it, but I watched my dad shoot it many times. Just picking it up flooded my brain with memories of the past; for a few minutes I just held it, looking it over. Finally, I placed it next to the rifle and looked into the safe one more time to verify that it was empty.

That's when I saw a box wrapped in gift wrap and a piece of paper on the floor of the safe. I picked up the paper and turned it over. It was a note, it had been taped to the door, likely where the picture had been. It must have come loose and fallen down.

"Son, I'm sorry that I was so distant those last few years and I'm sorry that I took off. I wanted you to know that I'm really proud of you, but I do have one piece of advice. There's more to life than work, don't let your job consume your life like I did, go out and do something exciting. One last thing, don't forget to open the box in the back of the safe. Think of it as making up for all the birthdays I missed and I won't be around for. Love Dad."

I wiped a tear from my eye and pulled out the box. Slowly, I peeled back the wrapping paper and then opened it up. My eyes went wide with surprise. Inside was an absolutely beautiful lever action rifle chambered in .44 magnum. It had a gorgeous walnut stock, a shiny steel receiver, and a heavy octagonal barrel. Wrapped around the end of the stock as a leather cheek rest with little loops on the side to hold extra ammunition. To complete the package, a sturdy looking leather sling was attached to the rifle. The stock iron sights had been replaced with a peep sight, my favorite kind. I distinctly remembered talking about this gun with my dad the last time I had gone shooting with him and how badly I had wanted it. I pulled the lever down and looked inside the receiver to verify that it was unloaded. Satisfied, I closed the lever back up, enjoying the distinctive click-clack sound it made. Working the lever had cocked the hammer, so I released it, then I brought the rifle up to my shoulder and peered down the sight. The golden bead on the tip of the post was clearly visible through the ring, I couldn't wait to take it out to the range. After I finished admiring the new rifle, I carefully packed it away in the last case.

The cases for the guns were stacked up next to the safe, I went through each gun, verified that they were unloaded and then packed everything up and locked the individual cases. Not knowing about the lever action, I hadn't brought a lock for it. That made me a bit nervous as I had to drive quite a ways to get these things home and I wanted to make sure I went above and beyond federal transport laws. In theory simply being locked up out of reach in the trailer should be sufficient but I didn't want to take any chances. Not every state understands what "shall not be infringed" means and I didn't need some yokel arresting me on trumped up charges. I considered keeping all the guns in the safe, but the gun cases didn't fit and so I'd have to take them out. Loose guns in the safe was a great way to get them all banged up and I didn't have any way to prevent them from moving around so I quickly abandoned that idea. I'd have to stop at a store on the way home and grab an extra lock, preferably before I left the state.

I broke for a quick lunch, then got back to work. Next to the safe were four big ammo cans, two labeled .44 magnum and the other two labeled .30-06. I was surprised that he didn't have more, I know my dad used to buy his ammo in bulk, but I guess if he started reloading it, he could just load up more when he needed it. I locked up each of the ammo boxes and moved them into the pile that I needed to bring upstairs; then I got to work on the rest of the basement, which hadn't been packed up yet. There was a fairly large collection of tools, which I spent a few hours boxing and then I moved everything upstairs. Every once in a while I'd find another note from my dad, suggesting I keep a particular item, or just a picture of the two of us from when I was younger. By the time I finished cleaning the basement up, I was almost on the verge of tears again, but at the same time, the pictures reminded me of the happier times and I was thankful he had left them.

Finally, the only thing that was left was the garage. I opened it up only to discover it had already been cleaned out. The only thing sitting in there was a portable generator, with a big piece of paper taped to the side that said "Diesel only", a few of those yellow plastic 5 gallon jugs and lastly, a full 55 gallon drum with a note that said "Diesel" and a small hand pump sticking out of it. The drum was a little over three quarters full, just enough for me to top off the tank of the truck and fill two of the jugs.

I spent the rest of the evening packing the trailer, finishing up around ten. The hardest part was getting the gun safe into the trailer. It weighed several hundred pounds empty, I had a dolly so I was able to wheel it through the basement and out the garage, but getting it into the trailer was a monumental effort. I probably shouldn't have attempted it alone, but I didn't know anyone in town and I didn't want to pay for movers. After that I went to bed.

I woke up the next morning at 4AM. Since I had such a long drive home, I wanted to get an early start. I did one last check around the house, locked up and hopped into the truck. It was still fairly dark and another storm was starting up again when I finally hit the highway.

Out here the roads had been empty even during the day time but now at this early hour I hadn't seen a single car since I had left town. The rain was coming down fairly hard but nowhere near as bad as it had been the other night. I turned up my music to help me stay awake. A particularly good song came on and I was drumming along on the wheel when I caught a glimpse of something in the distance. A small greenish glow coming from the road ahead.

Thinking it was a flare in the road, I flicked on my high-beams trying to see if there was anyone up ahead. The heavy rain was preventing me from getting a good look at whatever it was, but I could tell that it was getting brighter as I approached. Still, I couldn't make out any source for the strange light, I'd always seen people put out flares in multiples and there was defiantly only a single light. The rest of the road looked empty. I took my foot off the gas and started to brake when suddenly the light... grew. I don't know how else to describe it. One second there was a small green spot and a moment later there was some giant swirling green surface as big as the truck. I slammed down on the brakes hard, but it was too late, I was going too fast to stop in time.

I expected a crash, but the truck just barreled through the green surface. There was a strange sensation of movement that didn't fit the motion of the truck and then suddenly I was blinded by the sun which was now right in my face instead of just barely starting to creep over the horizon. The sudden switch from darkness to light turned my vision white and I raised a hand to shield my eyes. The truck was skidding, I tried to slam on the brakes but the pedal gave a lot of resistance. Between that and the loss of power steering I realized that the truck had stalled out. I didn't have much time to think about it before there was a series of large bumps followed by a bang as truck dropped down at least a foot; I heard a wrenching sound from behind me, followed by what sounded like a chain snapping. The truck lurched again, dropping even farther, I was jolted sideways and slammed my head into the driver window. There was a spike of pain and everything went black.

A dry coughing and a desperate need for a drink was my first realization that I was awake. Something about that bothered me, but I wasn't sure what. After a few seconds of confusion, it hit me. I had no recollection of going to sleep. In fact the last thing I remembered was turning onto the highway. I jolted upright, eyes flying open as I desperately latched onto the wheel while simultaneously slamming my foot down on the brakes as my eyes tried to focus on the road in front of me. It took me another second or two to realize I didn't feel any sensation of movement, the truck wasn't screaming down the highway out of control nor had my braking accomplished anything. By then my sight had cleared up enough that I figured the best thing to do was look out the window. Instead of the winding forested highway that I had expected, before me stretched a rough and rocky reddish brown landscape with some mountains in the distance. There was a smattering of green here and there where small desert bushes struggled to grow in the obviously sun stricken landscape.

The interior of the cabin was scorching hot and sweat was dripping down my face. I reached up with my shirt to rub some of it away; the brushing motion made a sharp pain shoot though my forehead and I grunted loudly. I gently probed at the sore spot, right above my left eyebrow.

"Fuck!" I said loudly, touching it made it feel worse, much worse.

I flipped down the visor and opened the flap so I could get a look at my forehead in the tiny mirror. There was a rather sizable lump along with long shallow gash covered in dried blood. I couldn't remember hitting my head, but I suppose if I hit it hard enough, that might be why.

"But what did I hit it on?" I asked myself as I looked around the truck.

"Oh."

There was a dried smear of blood on the door window. I must have hit my head pretty hard, but thankfully both the window and my skull appeared to be intact. I opened the glove box and pulled out the small first aid stored in there. A moment later both the window and my forehead were relatively clean. I didn't bother with a bandage because as far as I could tell it wasn't bleeding anymore and I really didn't want anything touching it if it didn't need to be.

My immediate problem taken care of, I turned around and opened the cooler I had sitting on the bench. I grabbed a bottle of water, popped the top and took a long drink. There was a small pill bottle in the first aid kit, I picked it up and gave it a shake. A bunch of pills rattled around; it felt like the bottle was about half empty. I made a mental note to replace it once I figured out where I was, then I took the cap off, shook two pills into my hand then swallowed them with a swig of water.

The pill bottle and first aid kit went back into the glove box and I sat there taking another sip of water as I tried to put off the obvious problem that had been staring me in the face since I had woken up.

Where the hell was I and how did I get here? I vaguely remembered leaving my dad's house and getting on the highway during a rainstorm.

Before I got knocked out, I was up north in the mountains, and the surrounding landscape was considerably more green and forested. The view out my window looked more like the southern part of the state, or possibly Arizona or Utah. That and nowhere in my line of site was anything that resembled a road at all.

Something had to be wrong, I wasn't supposed to be anywhere near those places. Had I driven south instead of east and then gotten into an accident? The bump on my head could be making me forget things but why would I be out in a desert to begin with? My first order of business was figuring out where I was. Thankfully in these modern times, getting completely lost took some effort, and finding out where you were was fairly simple. I pulled my phone out of the dock, even if I somehow was in the middle of nowhere and had no cell service, I should still be able to get a fix with the phone's GPS.

Instead of my wallpaper, the display lit up for a moment and then showed the boot animation. I set the phone down while it continued to start up and tried to start the engine. There was a bit of hesitation but then it roared to life. The first thing I did was crank the AC up to max and then I plugged my phone back into the charger, and then glanced at the clock in the center console, trying to figure out how long I had been out.

Something was wrong, the numbers on the clock looked strange, not like numbers at all. Had it been damaged in the crash? I couldn't imagine what would cause a digital clock to show the kind of gibberish I was seeing. Perplexed I squeezed my eyes shut and then opened them again, but that didn't help. I turned my gaze towards the dashboard and that's when I knew something was wrong. Like the clock the dashboard was a mix of gibberish and nonsensical symbols. It looked like someone had replaced all the numbers and letters with some junk alien script out of a low budget sci-fi show

Maybe, just maybe, some weird damage could somehow make a digital clock's display show a bunch of junk, but there was no way my whole dashboard got opened up and changed out. I reached up to the sore spot on my head and gently felt it. As far as I could tell, other than being in pain from the crash, I felt normal enough. But, the inability to read immediately made me think drain bramage, and if that was true then I needed to get help and I needed it quickly.

Picking up the phone, I was happy to see that it had finished booting but frustrated that my inability to read extended to the phone as well. Worse still, though the text was indecipherable, the no service icon was still plain as day. Dialing 911 without being able to read the keypad wouldn't really be that difficult, but with no service I wasn't going to be making any calls anytime soon. I opened a GPS compass app I had and waited for the phone get a lock on the satellites. Unfortunately even if it did, I had no way to read the coordinates, but I wasn't sure what else to do. Ten minutes passed and the GPS icon was still flashing so I gave up and put the phone back down.

"Well this is just great!" I shouted at no one in particular. For a few minutes I didn't move, instead I tried to calm down as best I could and enjoy the fact that the inside of the truck didn't feel like an oven anymore. With nothing better to do, I decided to get out and survey the damage. I turned off the engine and opened the door, and that's when I found out why the truck was tilted at a bit of an angle. There was at least a three foot drop down to the ground below me; I carefully climbed out of the truck and dropped to the ground below, then backed up a bit so I could get a better look.

There was a long rocky trench running through the ground, maybe once it carried a stream but judging from the surrounding environment it had dried up long ago. Many of the rocks were man sized or smaller but here and there were large boulders that had survived whatever process had eroded the tear in the earth. The truck was currently straddling two of these large boulders, having made it almost, but not quite, across the gap before it had gotten stuck. Without some external assistance that truck wasn't going to be moving again.

I couldn't see the trailer at all from my current position so I decided to get out of the trench. Behind me it stretched out for a few hundred more feet, getting shallower as it went on until it all but disappeared. Rather than try to climb the potentially loose rocky sides, I followed it for a while until the grade leveled off and then walked out, circling back to check the other side of the truck.

Once I was out the trench I found the trailer resting about 20 feet back from the edge on a large flat rock, the start of the same boulder the rear of the truck was currently stuck on. The broken remains of the safety chain was hanging off the front of the hitch. Behind the trailer, where the boulder ended and the dirt began, I found a pair of tire tracks, oddly they only seemed to go back about ten feet; past that the ground was undisturbed. I walked over to the start of the tracks and tried to reconstruct what had happened from my hazy memory and the evidence before me.

I remembered being on the highway and I remembered seeing something that made me start to slow down. Kneeling down to get a closer look at the tread marks, didn't help much. There was a hard transition from undisturbed soil to tire tracks, as if the truck had appeared out of thin air. A very bright blue spot in the dirt caught my attention, but when I picked it up, it was just a piece of confetti. Strange but considering my current circumstances, it didn't register very high on the wtf-o-meter. I found a few more pieces of confetti in the dirt, before I found a green one that seemed to trigger a memory.

The thing in the road that I had been braking for, it was green or more specifically I had seen a green glow. A green glowing... something. The truck passed through it and then... I was here? I wasn't sure if there was another memory gap or this was the whole thing, but I now distinctly remembered seeing some strange green swirling... something in the middle of the road. I wasn't able to stop in time and ended up driving through it, then I remembered some pain and everything going black.

Regaining some of my memory surrounding the event didn't really help much, I was still missing something. I had driven into that green glow and the next thing I remembered I was waking up in the desert. Something happened in the gap, somehow I got from upstate Wyoming to... I dunno? Some desert somewhere? If anything, now I was just made me more confused. Trucks don't teleport into the desert, so what was I missing? Aliens? Magic? Excessive consumption of alcohol followed by a road trip?

However I had ended up here, I must have been out for quite a while. In the hour or so that I had been awake, the sky had started to get a bit darker as the sun inched ever closer to the edge of the horizon. Soon it would be completely covered by the mountain range to the west of me. Moving back to the trailer, I opened it up and took a look inside. I had done a pretty good job packing everything and on top of that there wasn't much room for stuff to move around so as far as I could tell, nothing seemed damaged from the crash. I'd have to check the boxes later, as I didn't really want to pull everything out of the trailer in the middle of nowhere.

There was one thing I did want, and thankfully it was in easy reach. There was an extra blanket in the trailer and if memory served me correctly, it got cold in the desert at night. I grabbed the blanket and then headed back to the truck.

I circled over to the passenger side so I could check for damage, but it seemed in fairly good condition. The surface of the boulder wasn't exactly level and because of that the passenger side of the truck was about a foot or so lower than the driver's side. I had a brief moment of worry about it slipping free and crashing down while I was in it, but after poking around for a bit, it looked like the truck was jammed in there pretty good.

Climbing back in was a chore but eventually I was able to get back inside. I tossed the blanket in the back and grabbed the small cooler that was back there. Inside were three more of the 24 oz bottles of water, a few cans of soda, enough leftovers to make a meal or three and a chocolate bar. I was already feeling pretty hungry but I didn't want to immediately eat the only real food that I had so I settled for the chocolate bar.

Food I could go without, heck a few days might do me some good, but if someone didn't find me soon, water was going to be a problem. My brain happily informed me that the only way someone would find me would be if someone was actually looking for me and that might take a while. Not to mention how would they know to look wherever here was.

I picked up my phone but it still looked like gibberish so I powered it off. If only I could get the truck unstuck then I could just drive out of here; I still had plenty of fuel, the gauge was still well above the 3/4 mark, and there was more in the back. I opened the windows a bit to try to let out growing heat and then I decided to get some rest. The headache that I had been sporting since waking up had only gotten worse and I had nothing else to do. I curled up on the bench as best as I could and drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

Chapter 2

I woke up in the middle of the night shivering. I had been right about the nighttime temperature drop and I quickly grabbed the blanket I had pulled from the trailer. As I wrapped it around myself, I heard howling sound in the distance. I couldn't quite place it, maybe a wolf, maybe a coyote or possibly something else entirely. My knowledge of desert creatures was fairly limited. What I was sure of is that they tended to be on the smaller side, nothing big enough to break into a car, that much I was pretty sure about. At least that's what I told myself.

Hearing those howls did get me to thinking though. As far as I could tell I only had two options. I could try to get the truck unstuck, which was going to be a lot of hard work, if not impossible. My second choice and the more likely solution, was to walk out of here, wherever that was. I wasn't really afraid of nature, I had done plenty of camping as a kid and never had any issues. But I had no idea where I was and while I figured it was unlikely I'd be running into anything dangerous, the chance existed. It might make sense to dig out one of the guns in case I had to defend myself. The choices of what to do the next day weighed heavily on my mind as I tried to get back asleep.

The sun was barely over the horizon when I woke up. Since it was still fairly cool out, I figured it would be as good as a time as ever to decide exactly what I was going to do. Freeing the truck would be a lot harder work but on the other hand I had no idea where I was, no way of knowing which was the best way to go nor how far the nearest town or even road was.

I divided out my remaining food into a small portion and ate one for breakfast, then climbed out of the truck and headed over to the trailer. It took me a few minutes but I dug out the revolver and its holster, one of the boxes of ammo and the lever action. The revolver was the easiest to carry around, and if I ran into someone, it wouldn't look as strange. Stumbling out of the desert carrying a rifle might scare a potential rescuer off. I attached the holster to my belt, loaded the revolver and put it into the holster. Then I dug around until I found a small bag, loaded it with another twenty rounds and put it in one of my pockets.

Behind the truck and the trailer was the bottom of a fair sized hill that blocked most of the view to the north and east. The vast majority of the west was covered in mountains and to the south and what I could see of the south east was nothing but mostly flat rocky desert. Climbing the hill would hopefully give me a better view and the scope on the rifle was the closest thing I had to binoculars. With any luck I'd find a road on the other side, but if not maybe, I could get some clue as to where I was.

I reached the top of the hill and began to survey the surrounding area. The hill I was standing on was actually part of a series of small hills that ran in a northeast direction, getting taller and taller eastward until they converged with a large mountain range. The mountain range formed a large semicircle around my current position, starting in the east and going up and around until it reached far into the south west. South of my position the land mostly flattened out except for the occasional butte and rocky hill, but even with the scope I could not see an end to the desert. Huge snowy peaks dotted the eastern portion of the range, then the dropped in height to the north before shooting up again as they went west, but they didn't seem nearly as high in the west as they were in the east. However, the western part of the range was far enough away that any an accurate judge of height was beyond my abilities so I couldn't be certain.

"At least this makes for an easy choice," I said to myself.

There was no way I was getting over the eastern peaks, south lead deeper into the desert and west was too far for me to walk, leaving north as my only option. The lowest part of the range I could see was north and slightly to the east so that was the direction I would go. Of course that meant traversing a series of hills and I estimated it would still take me at least three days to reach what I hoped was the edge of the desert, but it was better than sitting here waiting to die. I headed back down, put the rifle back in its case, placed that back in the trailer then locked it up.

The rest of the day I tried to remain as inactive as possible. The shade provided by the hill kept me relatively cool until about midday. At that point it got unbearably hot and I climbed into the truck and idled it while running the AC. Over the course of the day I nibbled my food, saving as much as possible for the trip north. I limited myself to a single can of soda, thinking the water bottles would be far better for when I was hiking through the desert.

Eventually the sun and the temperature started to drop and I prepared myself to leave. Through sheer luck, I found a backpack stuffed under the rear bench. Inside it was a flashlight, a small first aid kit, one of those foil emergency blankets and a folding knife. I put the knife in my pocket, threw a bit more ammo into one of the side pockets of the bag and then put the rest of my supplies in the main compartment.

I took one more look around the truck before heading out. I cringed when looking at the dashboard, still covered in unreadable gibberish. What if this was permanent? Losing the ability to read would be a huge handicap and I didn't know how to deal with it. Would I be able to relearn? What if I couldn't? I had so many questions but none of them would be answered until I got back into civilization. And I was going to do that, no matter how much effort it took. The last thing I did before heading off was grab a number of small rocks and make an arrow pointing in the direction I was heading. I placed the arrow halfway between the truck and the trailer, hoping that if either one was spotted that the arrow would be found as well.

I had been walking for hours, the sun had set long ago and I was now making my way by moonlight. Every once in awhile I could hear the sounds of night creatures roaming the desert but so far I hadn't seen anything. Barely having eaten or drank anything all day, compounded with not being in the best of shape was making the journey far more exhausting than I had hoped. On the plus side all the movement was keeping me warm in the cold night air.

Some of the hills, like the one I was climbing now, had steep cliffs that made my stomach twist in knots while forcing me to zigzag around them rather than move in a straight line. The time I had to spend searching for a traversable path was slowing down my progress even more than my lack of energy, but there was nothing I could do about it but carry on. More than once I had gotten turned while trying to figure out which way to go, one hill looking more or less like another, especially in the dark of night.

Not that it was pitch black out, in fact the night sky was lit up more than I'd ever seen it before. Wherever I was, it was far enough away from civilization that there was zero light pollution. The nearly cloudless sky was awash in starlight and the gentle glow of the moon. Billions of stars were visible, far more than I could have ever hoped to see back in my home town. I reached a stopping point, sat down and caught my breath. While I was resting I downed a soda and tossed the can onto the ground next to me. Normally I would never do such a thing, but any weight I could get rid of was less that I'd have to carry.

After I finished my drink, I decided to take my first good look at the night sky while I had a quick rest. The stars were beautiful, even the small town I lived in had enough ambient light that I never got to see anything like the serene image painted high above me. For a moment I forgot that I was stranded in the middle of nowhere, likely with some form of brain damage and that my chances of making it home alive were slim.

The the whole thing came crashing down when I noticed that I couldn't find any constellations. I wasn't into star gazing or anything but I knew enough to find some of the better known ones. The Big Dipper, part of Ursa Major, had always been pretty easy for me to find and Polaris, the north star, was the end of the handle on the Little Dipper, also known as Ursa Minor. I could not find either one of those no matter where I looked. A chill ran down my spin when I looked at the moon. Even she looked wrong, the craters that normally covered her surface were wiped away leaving a smooth texture that looked strangely alien.

Where the hell am I? I thought to myself. The night sky should look more or less the same anywhere in the northern hemisphere and the moon well, that shouldn't change at all. Could my memory be affected by whatever damage was preventing me from being able to read? That was the most likely cause, the alternatives were too improbable to consider.

Sitting here wasn't going to change anything and I still had a long journey ahead of me so I got back up and started walking. The rest of the night passed with out incident and just as the first light of dawn crept up over the distant mountains I found a rocky outcropping that would provide hours of shade. Taking the backpack off and using it as a makeshift pillow I quickly fell asleep.

The heat during the day was brutal, even hiding in the shade provided little relief; nighttime could not come soon enough. By the end of the day I was completely out of soda and halfway through one of my water bottles, I also had exhausted my food supply, my original intent had been to stretch it out over a few days but the cooler was too large to bring with me and I didn't want it to go bad in the heat so I ended up eating it all. I wasn't too concerned though, as I knew I'd die of thirst long before I died of starvation.

As soon as the temperature had dropped to bearable, I set out once more. A few of hours into the night and I knew I was in trouble; tonight, even more than the previous night I was running into cliffs, narrow trails and other impassible terrain that forced me to go farther and farther off course in attempt to make any headway. I got to the top of a hill and looked around trying to find the best way down to the other side. In front of me was a near vertical drop of about 30 feet and off to my right was looked even worse. I had only two choices, climb back down the way I had come up and try to find a new path, or head to my left which was steep but still doable. Not wanting to lose what little progress I had made in the last hour, I decided head down the left part of the hill.

A little over halfway down, I lost my footing on a loose rock, Only through sheer luck did I manage to fall backwards and land on my butt instead of tumbling down the hillside. As I sat there catching my breath a silvery glint of moonlight, reflecting off something farther down the hill caught my eye. I slid down as best as I could until I got close enough to make out what I was seeing.

"Fuck!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. It was a soda can, one of the several I had disposed of the night before; I had been going in circles. It must have happened as I was trying to get around some of the obstacles I had run into. The damn hills all looked the same at night and the completely alien sky prevented me from using any of the stars as navigational points. This was bad, real bad. I had at most a day, maybe a day and a half's water left and even if I had a straight shot to the north, my original estimate had been at least three days, which in retrospect had been rather optimistic. These damn hills were the problem, if the land was flat like to the west I could make the trip in less than half the time.

I was going to have to travel in the day, it was the only way I could reliably see where I was going. But that meant contending with the day's heat and what remained of my water would be gone before I knew it. The only way I was going to pull this off without ending up dead was to core more distance in less time while simultaneously not getting lost. If I headed to the west until the worst of the hills were behind me, then I could move north much quicker and then head back east when I got near the mountains. I decided to wait till morning, figuring any more attempts at moving at night would only likely make things worst. I found a decent spot and settled down for as good as a rest as I could get.

The next day I discovered I had been right about one thing, the with the sun providing plenty of light it was pretty easy to keep an eye on where I was headed. As for gaining actual speed that was debatable. It had taken me a few hours in the early morning to head west far enough to where the hills died away. Now I was on open desert terrain and while I had been making good time earlier on, the heat was really starting to get to me. The longer I walked the hotter it got and soon I was forced to take so many breaks that any early advantage I had gained was quickly being lost.

I had just sat down on a small boulder, ready to take another break, when the first desert life I had run across jumped out from the other side of the rock. It was a small coyote, and it sounded pissed. At a guess it had been sleeping under the shade of the rock, maybe it had a borrow under there, and my stomping about had woken it up. The thing flew out, howling and yapping like crazy; I reached for my gun, but when it saw me on top of the rock, it paused, then hauled ass as fast as its four legs could carry it in the opposite direction.

I watched as it scrambled away and then something impossible happened. There was a slight rumble and a section of ground near the coyote moved. A fraction of a second later a monstrous form erupted from under the ground, a viscous triangular mouth flew open and a set of tentacles snaked out grabbing the coyote. Before it could even begin to struggle the tentacles retracted and pulled the coyote into range of row after row of sharp teeth. I watched in utter horror as the creature chomped down on the coyote swallowing it in one bite.

Deep down in the back of my head, my brain knew what I should have done but my body wasn't listening. Before I could fully process what I had just watched I was off that boulder and running with a speed that I didn't know I could muster, back towards the hills I had spent last couple of hours trying to get away from. I had a singular purpose, escape and for a few moments it was all I could really think of. I made it a few a hundred feet before the panic subsided enough that I could manage something other than running away. Glancing behind me, I saw the giant worm thing sticking up out of the ground in the distance, looking towards me. A second later it dived back underground, heading in my direction.

This time a small voice in the back of my head, that sounded suspiciously like Burt Gummer, told me to get to a rock. Frantically I looked around before spotting a large one not too far away. I altered course, pouring on yet another burst of speed. I reached the boulder and scrambled up to it's highest point as fast as I could.

A shower of dirt exploded out in all directions as the creature shot upwards, snapping at my feet. I rolled as best as I could, pulling my legs away of its reach. It snapped two more times then opened its mouth wide and let out an ear shattering roar. It turned its head towards me, mouth opened wide. Three tentacles shot out, reaching much farther than I would have believed possible; the first two missed but the third latched onto my leg and began to drag me across the rock. With a scream I raised my other leg and slammed the heel of my boot down on the tentacle as hard as I could. The tentacle let go and the worm let out loud scream, likely unused to its meals fighting back. I scooted back as far as I could but the boulder wasn't very wide and there was nothing preventing the oversized worm from circling to the other side.

The creature swayed back and forth in front of the rock, the rest of its long body still underground, trying to decide the best way to make me its next meal. It stared at me with lifeless black eyes while I popped the snap on the holster and drew my revolver as quickly as I could.

The motion of my arm drawing the gun must have set it off because its mouth flew open again and it hissed loudly, as it prepared to grab me a second time. I quickly aimed at center of the worm's mouth, not knowing where else to shoot. It was large enough that I wasn't going to miss but I didn't know if the bullet would kill the thing or just piss it off. Three times I pulled the trigger, each time having to bring the gun back in line with the monster as the powerful kick of the .44 magnum kicked the barrel upwards. Three red splotches, much smaller than I wished they were, appeared inside the worm's mouth. One of the shots had impacted with a tentacle and it hung limply, dangling out the side of the creature's jaw.

One more shot and the worm's jaw snapped shut, the jagged teeth tore into the injured tentacle, completely severing it. The scream that it made as the tentacle fell down tore into me making my blood run cold. Dark red fluid poured out of from the spaces between its teeth and dribbled down its face. It glared at me with its haunting dead eyes; I aimed my revolver one more time but just as I was about to fire the worm decided it had had enough. It spun around and dived back down into the ground leaving the still twitching snake-like tentacle in the dirt at the base of the rock. Only a minute later when my ears stopped ringing did I realize that I was still screaming as I collapsed against the hard rock.

It was hours before I moved again and even then it was only to get a much needed drink. Struggling to sit up, I pulled off the backpack and took out a drink. After that I opened the revolver and ejected the spent brass. I threw the empties in the backpack, reloaded and then put the gun back in its holster.

Slowly I inched towards the edge and looked down. Red stains on the rock and the ground showed signs of the earlier struggle and the slimy black tentacle still sitting in the dirt offered all the proof I needed to show that I hadn't imagined the impossible encounter. The smell the thing was letting off stung at my nose and almost made me throw up.

"What do I do now? What the fuck do I do now?" I said out loud, as if the expecting an answer from the universe.

Walking across the open desert was completely out of the question. That left traveling up in the hills, they were fairly rocky which is probably why I hadn't run into this thing before. I couldn't in good conscious call it a graboid, as it only bore a passing resemblance to one, looking much more like an oversized snake with a really weird jaw, but if it exclusively traveled underground I supposed it would have a hard time with solid rock. I hoped anyway.

I tried to ignore the voice in the back of my head that told me the whole thing was impossible. Creatures like this just didn't exist, but another look at the slowly rotting tentacle quickly shut that voice up. In the end there was really only one choice. In the open desert I was likely to get eaten alive, and going back to the truck only guaranteed that I'd slowly die of thirst. That left the hills and I'd have to travel during daylight to see where I was going. That was if I didn't get eaten on the way back. With as much speed as I could muster, I headed back into the hills that I had left that morning.

I took my last mouthful of water and tossed the bottle to the ground. I'd be fine, no more impossible creatures and I had made good time yesterday. I was almost there, nothing to worry about.

A ray of sunlight on my eyes forced me awake. I got up and stretched, ignoring the dryness in my throat. I had to set out early before it got too hot.

I shivered in the cold night air, wrapping the emergency blanket as tightly as I could. I had to keep moving, even at night or I wasn't going to make it. One foot stomped slowly in front of the other as a dry cough racked my body.

Everything looked the same, I couldn't...

No this is the right way, keep going!

My foot slipped and I tumbled down a hill. I was confused as to why I hadn't thought of that earlier, it was way faster than walking. My vision turned fuzzy.

Get up! Pick yourself up out of the dirt. I don't care care about the pain, MOVE!

...thirsty...

**********

Golden Dawn landed outside of the Smokey Griddle, her stomach rumbling in hunger. It had been a few weeks since she had eaten out, mostly sticking to dinner at home with cold leftovers for lunch while she worked in her shop. She trotted inside and took a seat at one of the empty tables and started looking through the menu.

"Good morning Golden, I haven't seen you here in what seems like forever."

Golden Dawn looked up smiled, usually the pale goldenrod pegasus liked to sleep in, but a deep need for pancakes had forced her out of bed much earlier than normal, "Hey Morning Glory, yeah I've been really busy working on things, haven't had much free time. How are you doing?"

"I can't complain, it's been pretty slow so far, but I expect the morning rush to start up soon. Do you know what you want to order?" Morning Glory asked as she levitated a small notepad out of her apron pocket.

"Yep, I'll take a full stack of pancakes, oh and a glass of orange juice," Golden replied.

"Sure thing, I'll bring it out shortly."

Golden Dawn watched as Morning Glory headed to the kitchen in the back to pass off the order to Cast Iron. Like Morning Glory had said, the diner was mostly empty, the only other ponies still eating breakfast were Speedy Delivery, the town's mailpony, Justice, the sheriff and an unknown pegasus wearing a mail uniform. Probably one of the flyers who occasionally did priority mail delivery from the much larger Appleloosa to the north when it couldn't wait for the weekly train delivery. With the restaurant so quiet, she couldn't help but overhear their conversation.

"I don't know what it was Speedy, or rather what they were, as there were definitely two separate objects. They both looked like large metal wagons but one was completely covered, that was the silver shiny one. The other was black and had an open back with a small covered section and I think a glass window in front. It was hard to get a good look as I was pretty far away. But one thing I can say for sure, it looked like it was stuck. The black wagon was half way across the gap on one of those old dried up stream beds, I'm guessing somepony tried to jump the gap and didn't quite make it."

"And you saw it where?" Justice asked.

"About 50 miles south from the northern edge of the Badlands, and maybe about ten miles east of that old mining road, it was up in the hills," Pumpernickel said.

"Wow, that's a bit of a trek, I don't have time to go look now, maybe later this evening," Justice said. "What were you doing that far south?"

"You know that old miner, Rusty that lives in a cabin near the old mine?"

Justice and Speedy both nodded.

"He had a priority package."

Golden Dawn's interest was piqued, if only because an all metal wagon sounded interesting and she needed to take a break from working or she was going to go stir crazy.

She trotted over to the group of ponies. "Excuse me but what are you talking about?" Golden Dawn asked, interrupting the talking ponies.

"Pumpernickel here said he saw some sort of contraption crashed down in the Badlands," Speedy Delivery said.

"I'm not positive that it had crashed, like I said I was kinda far away, but yeah it was two big... things on wheels. The first was metal and box shaped, the other was a bit different. I don't know a great way of describing it, maybe like a wagon with an open back and the cab from train stuck onto the front."

"Did you see anypony around it?"

"Nope, but I didn't stop to look inside."

"I've got nothing going on today, I can fly out take a look." Golden Dawn replied.

"Thanks Golden, I appreciate it. Even in my younger days I couldn't cover half the area on hoof that a pegasus can on wing. I really need to get another pegasus deputy to replace Wild Sky." the old sheriff said.

Golden Dawn noticed Morning Glory walking out with her breakfast so she returned to her table. After she finished eating, she paid for her meal and then trotted outside. She headed over to the general store, bought a canteen and filled it with water, then threw it in her saddle bag. A flight to the Badlands wasn't terribly long, but if she did run into somepony that had been stuck out there she wanted some extra water just in case. Finding enough moisture to form a rain cloud that far out in the desert was job better fit for a pegasus who specialized in weather work.

With a flap of her wings, she soared into the air, heading towards the location in the Badlands Pumpernickel had described. She followed the mining road for about half an hour then turned east towards the hills. As she approached the hills she began to circle looking for the stream bed Pumpernickel had talked about. Eventually she spotted a bright light reflecting off the silver surface of the unusual object. She flared her wings to bleed off speed descended down to the ground. Trotting up next to it, she saw some wheel tracks behind the thing running through the dry dirt, but they vanished after a few feet. It was almost as if someone had dropped the metal cart in the middle of the desert. She quickly trotted back to the cart so she could give it a closer look.

Whatever it was, Golden was sure that it had crashed. The silver surface was all banged up and covered with dirt. At the front of it was two metal bars that extended out before meeting up at a single point. That paint on the front was all scratched up and the metal had some dents in it. From the looks of it, she guessed that this was a hookup to attach to the other strange vehicle. She poked a hoof on the big black tires. They appeared to be made of rubber, something she didn't often see outside of bicycles or the rare steam car.

Golden decided to head over to the black wagon and give it a better look. The thing was stuck on two rocks, as if it's driver had tried to jump the stream bed but not quite made it. Other than some scuff marks, it seemed to be in fairly good condition for having crashed. The rubber wheels on this thing were even bigger, the largest she had ever seen. They seemed to have caught on either side of the gap, suspending the thing in the air.

Whatever it was, it was impressively built, a wooden cart would likely have broken something trying to jump that kind of a gap. Judging from the rather sturdy looking construction it must have weighed several tons. That meant it wasn't getting unstuck anytime soon. It would likely take several earth ponies to pull this thing out of it's current position. Or possibly one if they filled in the gap and made a bridge. She began to fly around it trying to get an idea of what would need to be done to move the thing. That's when she noticed that one of the side windows had a red streak on it.

Oh crap! I forgot to check if anypony was inside it! she thought to herself.

She flew right up to the window and looked inside but the cabin was empty. The inside of the cabin was far more luxurious than she expected. There was a comfortable looking bench in the front with a smaller on in the back, but they were oddly shaped. There was a wheel inside, perhaps to steer the thing, again, this reminder her of the few steam cars she had gotten to look at. But this thing didn't appear to have a boiler anywhere unless it was hidden inside somewhere. Behind the wheel was a bunch of dials that had strange writing on them. There were knobs and buttons everywhere. Whatever this thing was, it looked very complicated.

That's when it dawned on her that she forgot to check the other cart. She flew back to it, and headed to the back which had looked like it opened. There was a lock preventing her from opening it, so she decided to knock. She waited for a minute or two but got no response.

Makes sense, if there was somepony in there they'd be locked in! she thought.

"Hello? Is anypony around?" she shouted out, but no reply game.

Golden Dawn wasn't sure what to do next, strange metal carts don't appear out of nowhere, so somepony must have left it here. While not exactly clean it wasn't covered in an amount of dirt that she would expect for something that had been out in the desert for a while. Plus if it had somepony would have noticed it before. Finally she decided to fly around, maybe they had wandered off and she might be able to spot them from the air.

Taking flight she looked towards the black wagon one more time. That's when she noticed the arrow pointing north made of rocks.

"How did I miss that?" she said out loud to nopony.

She quickly gained some altitude and headed north, keeping her speed down so she wouldn't miss anything. 25 miles later she still hadn't found anything of note. All she could think of was that the pony who had made the arrow had gotten out of the Badlands. But if that were the case where did they go? There was a road just near the edge of the badlands. If the pony followed it west, which any pony that knew anything about the local area would do, they would have ended up in town, it was only about 5 miles more. If a strange pony had wandered into town, Justice would have heard about it and not sent her to investigate. She supposed they might have followed it east but that was the much longer road it was at least a two days journey to the east before running into anything of note.

She was quickly approaching the edge of the Badlands when a gleaming light caught her eyes. She circled down to investigate and between two small hills. She wasn't quite sure what to make of what she found. It was a silvery foil mirror, easily the thinnest, lightest piece of metal she'd ever seen, far thinner and more flexible than tin foil.

Golden Dawn picked it up the foil, brushed the dirt off its surface and then folded it up, putting it in her saddle bag. She took off and began to circle the two hills from the air, trying to see if she could find anypony. That's when she spotted a creature lying in the dirt half way down the hill's northern side.

"Hello?" she shouted, galloping towards the thing. It didn't look like anything she had seen before but whatever it was, it wasn't moving. She reached the creature, which looked like it had seen better days.

"Are you alive?" she asked poking it with her hoof but it didn't respond.

The creature was face up in the dirt, eyes closed. The clothes it was wearing were covered in dirt and torn in a few places. The few places where its hairless skin was exposed were red with sunburn. There was a large bump and dried blood on its head. She lowered her ear to its mouth and could just make out a very quiet dry wheezing sound, coupled with the almost imperceptible rise of its chest, it let Golden know that the creature was still breathing.

If she didn't act soon though, it might not be for long. She had no idea what it was but it was a pretty safe bet that it needed water. She grabbed the canteen from her pack and opened the top. Using a wing she lifted the creature into a sitting position, gently opened its mouth and slowly poured some water in.

The creature responded with a series of coughs. She let up on the water until it had stopped coughing and then tilted the canteen back again so the creature could get a second drink. It swallowed the water greedily until the canteen was almost empty, then the creature's arm slowly raised up and weakly pushed the bottle away.

"Are you alright? Do you need more water?" Golden asked still holding the creature up.

"No... thank you," it whispered quietly before coughing again.

"How long have you been out here?" Golden asked.

"Days? I dunno, what day is it?" it answered.

"Sunday, I'm going to bring you to a doctor, is that okay?" Golden asked with a look of concern.

"Yes..." it said, its eyes fluttering open for the first time.

The creature looked at Golden Dawn, she smiled to reassure the creature.

"Everything is going to be okay now," she said.

"Oh," it replied, blinking a few times, eyes scanning back and forth as it looked Golden Dawn over. Then without warning it it collapsed, falling forward, unconscious.

"Are you okay?" Golden Dawn asked, but there was no response.

She tried to wake the creature up again but after several minutes of no success she gave up.

"Looks like I'm going to have to carry you back," she said to the creature.

She wrapped her hooves around its torso and pulled as carefully as possible. The creature ended up not being nearly as heavy as she thought it was going to be, with great care she draped it across her back, careful to not cover her wings. She tried to take off but the creature started to slide off her back, with nothing to hold it in place there was no way for her to fly without dropping it. She placed the creature back down on the ground, this time she she slipped her front hooves under its arms and gently lifted it into the air.

"Ok Golden, you can do this," she said to herself. While the creature wasn't very heavy she had at least a 15 miles flight back to the town and she wasn't going to be able to fly anywhere near top speed. Staying low to the ground just in case she dropped the creature, she started to fly back towards Hoofston.

30 minutes later, and panting heavily, Golden finally reached the outskirts of the town.

"Golden! I haven't seen you in ages. What the hay are you carrying?" she heard from above her. Looking up she saw Blue Skies, one of the town's weather ponies flying down towards her.

"I don't know!" she shouted back. "I found it just inside the Badlands, it's injured, I'm bringing it to Doctor Heart's."

"Do you need help?" Blue Skies asked, flying down to Golden's level.

"Grab it's legs?" Golden asked.

"Sure thing," Blue Skies said, swooping under Golden and latching on.

"Thanks," Golden Dawn said.

"No problem."

Working together, the two pegasus ponies flew across town carrying the creature over to the doctor's house. They set it down as carefully as possible, then Golden cantered over to the door and knocked on it.

"Coming," Golden heard from inside the house. The door creaked open and Golden Dawn saw the familiar face of Dusty Heart, the town's old earth pony doctor.

Golden Dawn explained the situation as quickly as possible, "I found him out in the Badlands when I was checking out something for Sheriff Justice." Dusty Heart looked at the creature, scratching his head with his hoof.

"I've never seen a creature like this before, do you know what it is?"

"Nope, but it can talk, I gave it some water and it woke up just long enough to tell me it had been out there for days before it passed out again."

Dusty Heart galloped inside, returning a moment later with a stretcher. "Let's get it on this, " he said carefully laying the stretcher out.

"Careful now," he said as the three ponies moved the creature as gently as possible.

Slowly they brought the creature inside and set it down on one of the the bed's Dusty had reserved for patients. It was a bit too short for the creature's height and its feet stuck out over the edge, giving Golden a good amount of perspective of how tall this creature actually was. Dusty Heart began to examine the creature, focusing on the obvious head wound first. Golden Dawn and Blue Skies left the room, heading back to the parlor Dusty used as a waiting room so they wouldn't be in Dusty's way. After a few minutes, Blue Skies turned to Golden Dawn.

"I have to get going, I'm on cloud patrol, let me know how everything turns out," she said.

"Will do, thanks for the help," Golden Dawn replied.

Blue Skies left to get to work while Golden Dawn remained, sitting and waiting for Dusty to finish. About an hour later he came out of the back room.

"It's hard to know for sure, since I have no idea what this thing is, but I checked him out as best as I could. This is what I can tell you, it's very likely that you got to him just in time. He's very weak and I'm not sure how much longer he would have lasted without your help. He was severely dehydrated and probably hasn't eaten in awhile either. He's also had some pretty bad exposure to the sun. I'm very proud of you Golden, if it wasn't for your help he'd likely be dead. Apart from exposure and dehydration the only real serious injury I could find was the bump on his head, the rest were just minor cuts and scrapes and of course the sunburn."

There was a thump in the other room and the two ponies turned to look back.

"Maybe he woke up?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Let's go find out," Dusty Heart said in reply and the two ponies headed towards the back room.

Chapter 3

I didn't remember going to bed, but it sure felt like I was in one. My eyes weren't quite ready to open and my head was pounding harder than after a weekend of partying back in my college days. As I waited for my body to catch up to my brain I struggled to think, trying to recall what had happened.

I made it back to the hills after that creature attacked me, that much was clear. I could almost still feel the sun's merciless rays beating down on me as I trudged on and on for what had seemed like forever. Eventually my water ran out but that didn't stop me, not at first anyway. The miles went on, slowly and painfully, as I edged closer and closer towards the end of the desert. I reached my limit before the barren hills ended but I pushed past it, ignoring the desperate cries of my body. In the end though, my resolve counted for nothing. I was out of energy, I wasn't going to make it.

I had stumbled and fallen, not the first time, but certainly for the last. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get back up. There was sun... and heat... my body was burning. Water, I needed water so badly.

I lay there for I don't know how long, looking up at the sky. It took all my willpower just to keep my eyes opened but time was running out. My vision began to blur, the weight of my eyelids slowly overwhelming me. Each time I blinked it was harder and harder to get them back open. Just before they closed for the last time, I saw movement. Something was circling overhead, a vulture perhaps? Come to feast on my flesh?

I hoped it would at least wait for me to die, I didn't want to feel that. It was hard to tell through my blurred vision but it looked like it was starting to descend. The last thing I could remember thinking was that the colors were all wrong for a vulture, then my eyes shut and everything went dark.

"Uhhhhhh," I groaned, slowly opening my eyes. I looked around and froze. I was in a bed, it wasn't mine, which made sense but still caused a moment of confusion. The whole room had a rather rustic feel to it, unpainted wooden walls, a small fireplace in the corner and exposed log rafters made me think of some of the old historical homes I'd visited as a child. The kerosene lamp on the table next to the bed only added to that feeling. Next to the lamp was an old fashioned style doctor's bag. Sunlight streamed through a small window, it appeared to be late morning.

The room was warm but not uncomfortably hot, still I shivered and then noticed I wasn't wearing my shirt. I looked around the room and spotted my clothes, they were folded up in a neat pile sitting on a chair across the room. The belt, holster and revolver were sitting on top of the clothes. I peaked under the covers and confirmed that I was, in fact, completely naked.

Ignoring that embarrassing piece of information, I reached up to scratch my itchy head. My fingers brushed up against something made of cloth. It was a bandage, someone had wrapped up the bump on my head that I had gotten when it smashed into truck's window. I searched and found a few more bandages covering some of the scrapes I had managed to get trekking across the desert. That had to explain the lack of clothing. Whoever had found me had checked me over to see if I was still in one piece. I felt mildly uncomfortable, knowing some stranger had stripped me down. Still it was better than bleeding all over their bed.

I did one more quick look around the room, double checking that no one was in there with me; then I got out of bed as quietly as I could and snuck over to my clothes. I threw them on as quickly as possible, then put on my belt. I took out the revolver and opened it, it was still loaded. That was... odd, but also reassuring. I thought it unusual that someone would leave a stranger alone in a room with a loaded gun. At the same time, between dressing my wounds and leaving the gun it was pretty clear they had no intention of hurting me.

Everything else in my pockets was still in place, but I was disappointed to find that my phone battery had died and while looking in my wallet I noticed I still couldn't read anything. I found my backpack leaning up against a wall and gave it a quick check. Apart from the extra ammunition, I found my emergency blanket, folded up and stored inside. I could have sworn I had lost it at some point, maybe whoever found me had found it as well.

That's when I realized I could hear talking, coming from another room.

"...This is what I can tell you, its very likely that you got to him just in time. He's very weak and I'm not sure how much longer he would have lasted without your help. He was severely dehydrated and probably hasn't eaten in a while either. He's also had some pretty bad exposure to the sun. I'm very proud of you Golden, if it wasn't for your help he'd likely be dead. Apart from exposure and dehydration the only real serious injury I could find was the bump on his head, the rest were just minor cuts and scrapes and of course the sunburn."

Reaching up once more I gently touched the side of my head, prodding at the bandages. That was not my smartest decision and a sharp jolt of pain combined with a wave of dizziness washed over me. I lost my balance and fell over, landing on the floor hard with a loud thump.

As I pulled myself up off the floor, the voices stopped. Then I heard a clopping sound as if someone was riding a horse indoors. As the sound grew closer, my head was still spinning, so I walked back over to the bed. I leaned up against one of the posts for support while I waited for the door to open.

I wasn't waiting long and less than a minute later the door slowly swung open up. In walked an old country doctor, at least old country doctor was the first impression I got. He had a grayish white beard, around his neck was a rather outdated looking stethoscope, he was wearing a button up shirt and suit jacket right from an old western movie, the cowboy hat didn't help things. Oh and he was a horse, a dull green horse.

My thoughts turned back to the head wound and my inability to read. Now, more than ever, I suspected some sort of brain damage, but damn if this wasn't the oddest hallucination I'd ever heard of. Was anything I had seen since crashing real? That monster in the desert could have been a twisted tree branch for all I knew. A part of me wanted to start screaming like a raving lunatic, but I knew my best course of action was to keep calm and try to find out what was going on.

I say horse, but in truth he wasn't really a horse, that's just the closest looking animal he resembled. He was perhaps comparable to a horse in the same way that a human was to an ape. His face was only vaguely horse-like. Though his muzzle did stick out a bit, he didn't have that long horse face. Instead his head was much rounder than an actual horse's and quite big. His legs were much wider around than a horse's legs and much less angular.

His eyes were large, huge in fact, though since his whole head was easily twice as big as mine they didn't look too out of place. In addition he had a grey beard, a feature I'd never seen on a horse before. There was nothing of a wild animal about his face, it looked as intelligent and expressive as any person's. Curiously there was an image that matched the doctor's bag on this horse's flank. It looked like a tattoo but I had no idea how one could tattoo horse hair.

A moment later a second horse stepped into the room. This one had a less pronounced muzzle, with an even softer and rounder face. At a guess, she was the female sounding voice that I had overheard. Unlike the doctor, she wore no clothing at all. She had a pale goldenrod coat. I wasn't sure what colors horses could come in, but hers looked a bit more natural than the doctor's green coat one. That thought stopped when I noticed her mane which was a impossibly beautiful mixture of colors that flowed from red, through orange and all the way to a bright golden yellow that reminded me of the sun rising up over the horizon. Somehow none of the hairs were out of place, so the flow color was even and smooth, I couldn't imagine how much work it would take to produce the effect nor how it would stay in place as she moved around, but there it was.

Looking at the two was surreal, between the green doctor horse and the fiery mane of the female. I almost imagined I was looking at a cartoon. These weren't horses, they were horses as if horses had been designed by and for a little girls. They were, and I hated to say it, cute. They could give all the cats on the internet a run for their money.

My eyes skipped back to the female. She also had a tattoo, for lack of a better word, on her butt. It looked like a piston, out of an engine or maybe from a train. A flash of bright color drew my eyes towards her tail. It matched her mane perfectly. Even though it bounced around as she trotted into the room, all the strands stayed in place. I hoped that when whatever brain injury that was causing me to hallucinate these people as horse creatures wore off, that her hair would remain that way. It was so mesmerizing that I almost missed the pair of wings tucked up against her chest...

"Wait, wings?" I thought to myself as my eyes spun back, focusing on the creature's side.

It was impossible but there they were, a pair of wings. They were folded up, making it hard to get a a true judge of their size but they had to be at least a few feet long when extended. In any case that was far too small to carry something as heavy as a horse, even a small one, into the air.

Then again, neither of them were quite as big as an actual horse. At a rough guess they were between three and four feet long, standing somewhere between four and a half to just over five feet tall with the horse dressed up like a doctor being a little larger than the other one. Their long necks and large heads made getting an accurate estimation of their height difficult but they were certainly shorter than a normal horse. I guess that made them ponies instead of horses, adorable alien ponies.

The doctor pony looked at me and smiled.

"How are you feeling son?" he asked.

"Uh, that depends. Are you really here or is this just a hallucination as I slowly die of dehydration?" I asked.

He chuckled at that. It reminded me of my grandpa laughing when I was still a kid, warm and full of care.

"You're safe now, we're here and we're real. Can you tell me your name?"

"Yeah, it's Harold, Harold Storm," I answered hastily.

The pony said something unintelligible followed by the word "Storm."

"Harold." I said repeating my name.

Once again the pony seemed to have difficulty pronouncing my first name.

"Most people just call me Hal," I said. I had never really liked the name Harold.

"Hail Storm."

"No, not hail, Hal."

Because this was a horse and not a human, I wasn't sure I was reading the baffled expression he gave me, but it sure looked like he was confused.

"Hail?"

"Eh, sure whatever," I said with a shrug. A mispronounced name was the least of my problems. "How did I get here?"

"Miss Golden Dawn," he said, glancing at the winged pony. An unusual name but it fit her coloring perfectly, which kind of made me think that also suffering from auditory hallucinations. What kind of a name was Golden Dawn?

"She found you out in the Badlands, you were in a bad state, but she got to you in time. Gave you some water, then brought you back to town. Does this ring a bell?"

"I found your wagon, at least I think it was yours, I saw the arrow you made of rocks and followed it north till I found you." Golden Dawn said.

"Wagon?"

"The big black thing, I know it isn't actually a wagon but I don't know what else to call it," she said.

"Oh, my truck," I said.

"Truck," she said slowly as if the word was strange to her. "It's still in one piece, at least as far as I can tell. Though getting it unstuck is going to be difficult. I've got some ideas though. The smaller silver cart looked like it took some damage, but the weird part was the wheel tracks, they just kind of started from nowhere."

I was beginning to wonder if I was hallucinating the entire conversation. It was one thing for me to see a couple of people as ponies, but how the heck could they not know what a truck or a trailer were? Still I agreed with her about the tracks.

"Where exactly am I?" I asked.

"You're in my home," he said. "Oh I didn't even introduce myself, name's Dusty Heart, I'm the local doctor here in Hoofston." He extended his hoof, slowly I reached out and he shook my hand. "I run my practice out of here. When Golden Dawn brought you in you were unconscious. I looked you over as best I could and bandaged up your wounds."

"Thank you for that," I said still rather confused.

Dusty Heart, another odd name. I had to be hearing things as well as seeing them. That was the most likely scenario. I really hoped I still wasn't out in the desert. Still, if this was my brain coping with imminent death, it seemed a pleasant way to go. Anyway it sounded like that pony saved my life. I guessed there was no harm in being polite to a hallucination.

"And thank you, uh, Golden Dawn. I'd be dead if it wasn't for you. I owe you my life."

She blushed slightly, which looked strange on a pony.

"Anypony would have done the same, don't worry about it," she said.

Any...pony? When my brain decided to make things up it sure went all in.

"Look, doc, you said you looked me over already, that bump on my head, is it bad?" I asked.

"I don't think so, looks worse than it is, but its hard to tell, why do you ask?"

"I think I might have brain damage," I said seriously.

"Are you having trouble remembering things?"

"Maybe a little bit, mostly just around the point where I crashed my truck which I'm pretty sure is when I banged my head. Also, the last few hours in the desert."

"Hmm, you were severely dehydrated when Golden found you, that can cause confusion. Anything else?"

"I can't read anymore. I noticed it soon after I first woke up. The dashboard in my truck, the dials, my phone. The numbers and letters all look like gibberish. I can't make heads or tails of them," I said. "Also there's the hallucinations." I mumbled under my breath.

"Hallucinations?"

Damn that doc had good ears.

"What are you seeing?" he asked.

"When I was out in the... Badlands you called it?" - Dusty nodded - "I ran into something, some sort of creature, or at least I thought I did."

"What did it look like?" Dusty asked.

"A graboid," I said flatly.

Or a really small sandworm if you prefer Dune. I kept that thought to myself.

"A what?" Golden asked.

"A graboid, you know from the film Tremors?"

Both ponies tilted their heads in confusion.

"1990 for the first film I think. Low budget monster movie series, Kevin Bacon is in the first one, had a bunch direct to video sequels which are surprisingly good."

"Kevin Bacon?" Golden Dawn struggled with the pronunciation of the name. There wasn't even a hint of recognition.

Who hadn't heard of Kevin Bacon? My explanation was going nowhere so I decided to start over.

"Ok it looked like a large worm like creature, it was nearly big enough to swallow me whole. It burst up from under the ground and attacked me after eating a coyote."

"Oh! A tatzlwurm, must have been a young one if it was that small." Dusty Heart said. "Those are pretty rare and very dangerous, you're lucky that you survived."

My jaw just dropped and I stared at the pony doctor. Some kind of professional he was, here I am trying to explain the impossible crap I'm seeing and he's playing along with it.

"Look, I'm really grateful for your help but encouraging my delusions is just plain wrong, unless you're just making fun of me and I can't decide which is worse. This is serious... and besides that's not the only weird thing I'm seeing."

"Oh, um, what else are you seeing?" he asked, he seemed unsure of my outburst.

"Okay, this is going to sound really strange and I'm not bullshitting you, so please believe me and don't just run with it." I said as seriously as I could.

"Okay..." Dusty replied.

"I get seeing something that isn't there but could a hallucination make one thing look like something else?" I asked.

"It is possible..." Dusty started to say but I interrupted him before he could finish.

"Like with my issue with reading, I remember letters and numbers but when I look at them written out, that's not what I see. It's as if my brain is showing me one thing when I look at them but that doesn't match up with what they actually are."

"Brain injuries can affect the ability to process languages, it could be some form of aphasia..."

I interrupted him again, not normally my style but I was getting pretty anxious.

"And if that can happen, could my brain show me... say a false image when I look at something that isn't text? Like for example I look at a person and see... not a person?"

"Can you be more specific?" Dusty asked.

"Well yeah... I suppose I can be blunt. When I look at you, I don't see a person, same thing with Golden. I uh" - I fidgeted on the bed - "I see a pony."

"Of course you do, that's what we are, ponies," Golden said, speaking out before Dusty could reply.

"Oh come on! I told you I'm not joking around here, something is wrong with me." My breathing became rapid and shallow as a hint of panic began to set in. What kind of people would do this? First one of them rescues me from almost certain death, then they clean me up as best they can, but when I try to tell them what's wrong they fuck with me?

"Look son, you need to calm down. Golden Dawn is right, we're ponies, I don't know why that's making you so nervous but its the truth."

"Oh sure, I'm a pony, you're a pony, we're all ponies," I said sarcastically. This was pretty sick, they just kept up at it.

Golden Dawn frowned at that, "your not a pony, we don't know what you are."

This threw me over the edge and I shouted back at her.

"Of course I'm not a pony, I'm a human! There's no such thing as a talking pony, or a whatzit worm that jumps out of the ground and eats me. I'm pretty sure I'm not dead so either I'm having a very strange dream or I'm hallucinating this entire thing, probably conversation included because I can't think of anyone that would kind enough to save my life and then turn around and spew bullshit to my face."

You know what that pegasus pony did next? She walked over and kicked me in the shin. Fucking hooves, they hurt!

"Owww! What was that for?" I asked, rubbing my leg. I lifted my pant leg to see if her kick had broken my skin, but everything looked okay.

"Golden, that wasn't very nice," Dusty Heart said with a frown.

"Now he knows he isn't dreaming," she said smugly.

She kinda had a point, that sure felt real. Which wasn't possible. I backed up, bumping into the bed and I sat down hard. I closed my eyes tightly and took a couple of deep breaths, then opened them up again. The two ponies were still there, watching me. The doctor advanced and held a hoof up to my arm.

"Why don't you lie down, let me get you something to drink," he said

I could feel the hoof on my arm, some of his coat brushed against my skin as he pulled it away. I've had dreams before, they never felt real. Real like that, or real like the kick Golden Dawn had inflicted on me moments earlier. I could still feel the fading pain in my shin. It was too real.

I felt a chill run down my spine, it all felt real, everything about this. The rapid beating of my heart as I tried to calm down. The old wooden smell in the air from the house I was currently occupying. The squeak of the mattress as I moved back on the bed. The chill worked its way out of my back and into my arms and legs, and I shivered in response. A wave of nausea started to creep up on me. I slumped forward, holding my head in my hands and tried to take slow deep breaths to hold it at bay.

"This is impossible," I said muttering to myself. "It doesn't make any sense, I was just trying to get home. I was in my truck and then there was that green light. Next thing I know I wake up in the middle of a desert and I'm seeing monsters and ponies. How could this happen? THINK HAL THINK!"

I tried to go back, to the start of all these troubles. The truck ride home, the green light. I was awake when I went through it. I hit my head and lost seconds, or minutes, maybe even days, I wasn't sure. But they were there, just beyond reach.

It was still dark out when I ran through that green swirling light. Then... then it wasn't. Daylight surrounded me and the truck, it was was skidding and sliding over a rough rocky surface. The lost few seconds rushed back and I could remember it all. I fought to keep control of the truck but I knew it wasn't going to happen. But it was that green... thing. It wasn't just a light, it was something. And when I went through it I appeared somewhere else. The lonely and cold mountain road surrounded by trees, it vanished when I drove through, instantly replaced by a dusty desert landscape.

I was no stranger to science fiction and fantasy but having something like that happen in real life, the very thought was preposterous... wasn't it? Yet here I was, sitting in a room with talking ponies. Ponies that felt and sounded as real as anything else I had experienced. I looked up at both of them, they were still watching me, both looking rather concerned. I suddenly felt even more ill, I rushed over to the corner of the room where there was an old metal waste basket, leaned over it and threw up. It stung coming up and it was mostly just liquid, the result of not having had any real food in at least a day or two... and it stank. The stench of vomit, and the pain in my throat, like everything else, they were real.

I sat there, not bothering to get back up, even after the heaving stopped. Dusty Heart asked if I was alright and I just nodded to confused to really reply. He excused himself to go get me some water and something to clean up the mess I had made; the wastebasket was a wire mesh and the gunk I had spewed was leaking out the sides. A moment later I heard the other pony approach slowly. I felt a hoof rub across my back as she tried to comfort me.

"I'm sorry I kicked you," Golden Dawn said "are you going to be all right?"

"I don't know," I said truthfully. "Physically, I think I'll be fine, at least I hope so, but... I don't even know where I am anymore."

"I take it you aren't from Equestria?" she asked.

"Equestria?"

"Yeah, that's where we are, well we're in Hoofston, a small town about 200 miles south of Appleloosa, we're right on the south-western border of the Badlands."

"Hoofston... yeah I think... Dusty... I think he mentioned that..."

Dusty walked back in carrying a tray on his back with a glass of water on it. Somehow he had a mop hooked around one of his front legs with a bucket full of water hanging from the mop handle. Because he was carrying the mop, he was only using three legs to walk, and while it looked a awkward for a four legged creature to walk that way to me, not only was he still maintaining his balance but he also was somehow managing to not drop the tray. It was an impressive show of dexterity, one that I focused on, desperate to try to not think about the impossibility of my situation. He set the mop and bucket down, then turned his head around, grabbed the tray in his mouth and set it on the table next to the bed.

"I've got that water for you, drink it slowly," he said.

"Thank you," I said, picking up the glass. It was cool and refreshing and helped with the aftertaste of vomit. My stomach was already starting to feel better.

He walked over to the mess, rose up on his two back hooves and proceeded to mop up the mess I had made, somehow holding the mop in his hooves. The first thing that stood out at me is these ponies might have been shorter than me, but the height difference made judging overall size deceptive at first glance. Watching him stand up on his rear hooves gave a good sense of how much larger he was than me. I wasn't all that tall, standing just about six feet, but with Dusty Heart on his rear hooves he had almost half a foot on me. He was also quite a bit bulkier than I was, I wouldn't be surprised if he was double my weight.

The next thing I noticed was that somehow he was both holding the broom with one of his hooves. It was so strange that it completely distracted me from both offering to help clean up the mess I had made, and that fact that Dusty wasn't wearing any pants. In retrospect Golden Dawn wasn't wearing anything at all, maybe their species didn't have a nudity taboo. I guess it made sense, ponies wearing clothing seemed more unusual to me than ponies not wearing clothing but still, these were ponies in name and general appearance, they clearly weren't wild animals.

He finished cleaning up the mess, I apologized for not taking care of it but he didn't seem to mind.

"I'm a doctor, I've seen far worse than this," he said with a shrug. Or at least what I assumed was the pony equivalent of a shrug.

After everything was cleaned up he cracked a window to let out the smell and then asked if I would be more comfortable talking in another room. I followed him and Golden to what looked like a combination waiting room / living room and took a seat. Surprisingly the chairs, and the couch, looked normal, if a tad low to the ground.

"Why don't you tell us what you remember, and then Golden can fill the rest," Dusty said.

So I went through my story, from start to finish, telling them pretty much everything that I could think of. I had to fill in a few extra details, like I was a human, what at truck was, where I was from, that kind of thing. Eventually I got through everything that had happened in the last month. How my dad had showed up at my door, the bad news, him dying, me driving up to his place to clean it out, the notes and pictures I found. I got a bit choked up when I was talking about that last part, the memories fresh in my mind. Golden Dawn, who was sitting next to me, put a wing on my shoulder and gave me a comforting squeeze. It was strange, telling these two... aliens, because essentially that was what they were, about everything that had happened, but once I started talking I found it hard to stop. Finally I got to to the end of my tale.

"So I left while the sun was still down, I had a long trip back home and I wanted to get an early start. I had only been on the road for a short time, when I saw something glowing up ahead. I thought it was a flare but when I got closer it... well it grew. It was this strange green swirling surface suspended in the air. It almost looked like like a sheet of water except for the green glow. I tried to avoid it but I was going too fast to stop. When I drove through it.. I don't really know how but a moment later I was somewhere else. The truck was skidding badly and I was fighting to keep it under control. I hit something, that's how I smashed my head, and lost consciousnesses. When I woke up I was in a desert."

The old pony sat there stroking his beard, "None of those places sound familiar to me, Wyoming, New Hampshire, America, or even Earth. You're in the country of Equestria, this is the planet Equus."

This was the kicker, and it was a doozy. Unless this pony was outright lying to me, he just confirmed what I had begun to suspect once I realized that this wasn't a dream or hallucination. I wasn't on Earth anymore. I gulped.

"I don't get it, how did I get from my planet to yours? This is impossible."

"I'm no expert but it sounds like some form of advanced magic to me. We'd have to talk to a unicorn who knows more about such things to be sure."

"Magic? Wait... there are unicorns here too?" I said raising my eyebrow in surprise.

"You know what a unicorn is?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Well, I know what a unicorn in terms of human mythology. It's a magical horse with a horn. Just like there was a horse named Pegasus that had wings, but neither Pegasus nor unicorns nor were actually real, they were just made up. Earth has ponies, and horses, but they aren't sapient, they're just animals."

"That's strange," Golden Dawn said. "I'm a pegasus pony, Dusty Heart here is an earth pony, and we've also got unicorns. Alicorns would be the fourth type but it's only the four princesses, so you're not likely to run into them.

"Alicorns? What do they have?"

"Everything," Golden said with a laugh. "Horn of a unicorn, wings of a pegasus, endurance of an earth pony, the magic and abilities of all three races concentrated into a single pony."

"Magic? Abilities?"

"Yeah, like flight and weather manipulation for us pegasus ponies. Plus we can walk and sit on clouds, they're super comfy! I'm much more resistant to cold than a unicorn or an earth pony, I have better vision, faster response times and I'm better at coping with the lower amount of oxygen in high altitude environments," she said, stretching her wings out a bit.

They were larger than I had thought, she had at least a five foot wingspan, maybe even six. Impressive but hardly enough to fly. The weather cloud thing didn't make much sense to me. I just kinda of stared at her in confusion, then Dusty spoke up.

"Earth ponies are much stronger and have more endurance. We're also usually better with living things, especially growing things. Most of Equestria's farmers are earth ponies, and we make good doctors, if I do say so myself. We can promote the bodies natural healing abilities without using spells. We also have the longest average life span, alicorns excluded of course. Unicorns are the weakest physically, but they are the only ponies who can cast spells. This is of course all on average, every pony is different, you can find earth ponies who can tolerate the cold just as well as the average pegasus or a pegasus pony who can outlast earth ponies in a marathon."

I chuckled a bit, "Using magic? Casting spells? Being able to fly? And you can't walk on a cloud it's nothing but a mist of water droplets suspended in the air. Come on, I'm on another planet with a bunch of aliens, not in a fairy tale."

Golden Dawn looked at me, tilting her head a bit, "what do you mean?"

"There's no such thing as magic, not real magic anyway, and flight? There's no way you can fly, your wings would have to be humongous to generate enough lift to pick up something so heavy."

Golden Dawn's eyes narrowed. "Are you calling me fat?" she asked.

"What?" I sputtered, "no, I... look, I'm just saying that... look on Earth we have animals called birds, they fly. Their bodies are much smaller than their wingspan," I gestured out the approximate size of a small bird with my hands. "They need such big wings so that when they flap them, they can generate enough lift to fly."

"Well there's your problem right there, you're comparing ponies to birds, we have birds here too, and like you said they need a fairly large wingspan to body ratio to fly, but their flight isn't powered by magic. Pegasus ponies have passive magic that allows flight, we don't need a gigantic wingspan," she said as she trotted into the center of the room. Then she unfurled her wings again, extending them to their full length. "For a pegasus pony, flight comes naturally," she gave her wings a couple of lazy flaps.

My jaw dropped as I watched her rise into the air. I wanted to say something but my brain couldn't figure out which words to use or what order to put them in, so all I managed was "buhhhhh."

Each wing-beat was slow and they were spaced rather far apart, there was no way she was generating enough lift to fly but I couldn't deny that she was hovering in place right in front of me.

She landed, sat back down and smiled at me. I continued to stare until my stomach growled loudly, shocking me out of my stupor.

"Excuse me," I said. It occurred to me that I hadn't eaten since the previous night.

"Oh I'm terribly sorry, I haven't offered you anything to eat, and you haven't had anything in days." Dusty said.

"I... you don't have to feed me, you've already gone way above and beyond anything I could expect. Plus... I don't think my money's any good here, I can't pay you back," I said dejectedly.

"Oh nonsense, what kind of host would I be if I didn't offer you something. Besides as you say, it's unlikely your money is good here. It's not like if I turned you lose in town you'd be able to buy any food. I've got some daisies, I could make daisy sandwiches."

Uh oh, if ponies only ate flowers and grass, I was going to be hungry for a while. Dusty must have noticed my hesitation and quickly spoke up.

"Can you eat daisies?" he asked.

"Uh no, I don't think so anyway, I mean I don't think it would kill me but I doubt I'd get any nutrition out of them. You did say sandwiches, do you mean on bread?"

"What else is a sandwich on?" Golden said with a laugh.

"Well just bread I guess but its not every day I wake on on another planet, I figured I'd double check."

"You can't just eat bread," Dusty said. "Golden, can you run down to the market, get some apples?"

He turned to me, "you can eat apples right?" I nodded yes in reply.

"Sure thing, I'll be back shortly." She walked up to the front door, next to it was a coat rack looking thing. She pulled a pack of some sort off of it and draped it across her back, careful to not cover her wings. I guessed it was the ponies version of a backpack, or perhaps a purse, though it seemed rather large for that. After that she headed out the front door.

"Now that she's gone, I'm going hazard a guess about your preferred foods." Dust said, looking at me.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You're an omnivore aren't you, meat and plants right?" he said looking at me.

"Yeah, so?" I asked, slightly confused. "Oh... OH!" I said as it hit me. Horses, as far as I knew, were herbivores. Was this going to be like a planet of vegetarians? Not that I've got anything against them, people can eat what they like but if I'm stuck here for any length of time, meals were going to suck. I love meat. Especially smoked meat... mmm ribs.

He nodded, probably guessing what was going through my head.

"So, I'm guessing you don't eat meat?"

"For the most part, no, the vast majority of ponies do not eat meat; though there are a small number who do, it's a bit more common among pegasus ponies than the other races. There's actually a subrace of pegasus, thestrals, that actually eat meat a great deal. They're very rare though, and most of them work in the night guard so many ponies almost never see them. In fact there's so few of them that many ponies don't even know they exist as a separate race or that they eat meat. A common misconception is that the night guard armor is enchanted to make the ponies look more fearsome, but I'm getting a little off topic.”

“Anyway, thestrals, they're true omnivores. The rest of us ponies... well we're not strictly herbivores, our bodies can digest and process meat, though it is not nearly as good for us as some of our more traditional foods. If you are around here for any length of time, well you may find some ponies might be fearful of a meat eater. Many others won't care, I don't think Golden will, but I figured I would let you know."

"How did you know?" I asked.

"Saw your teeth when I was examining you. It's good you aren't limited to just meat. If you were, finding you food could prove to be difficult, unless you are willing to hunt for it yourself."

Dusty Heart went on to describe the types of things ponies ate. I was pleased to find out that my initial fear of a flower based died was misplaced. While ponies did eat flowers, and grass as well, they also had a huge variety of food and all of it similar to what I would find back home, the big exception being the lack of meat.

"Well, I've never hunted before but I guess I can go sans meat for a while. All this talk of magic and spells earlier, got me thinking. You said unicorns can do magic so all I need to do is find one and have them send me home right?"

"I can't say for sure, but this is a small town, we don't have any unicorns with a special talent in magic. Your best bet is to talk to the sheriff, Justice, he's a unicorn but he's not going to know any spell to send you home. However he might know where you can find such a unicorn. More than likely you'll have to travel to another town, a bigger one, to find what you are looking for."

"Special talent?"

"Everypony has a special talent, it is represented by their cutie mark," he said, pointing to the doctor's bag tattooed on his flank. "Mine is a doctor's bag, it indicates that my special talent is at helping ponies get well, whether from sickness or injury."

I sat there in silence for a moment, processing what Dusty had just said. Cutie marks? I questioned their sanity in choice of tattoo names, but I guess it fit the whole tiny adorable horse motif these ponies had going on.

"So when you find out what you are good at, you get a tattoo about it?" I asked confused.

Dusty laughed at that. "No Hal, a cutie mark isn't a tattoo, it's created by the magic that exists inside every pony. When a young colt, or filly, discovers what they are best at, the cutie mark appears. Earning a cutie mark is a very important part of a pony's life, it's the moment when they find out their true calling."

"So one day, that just appeared on your body?"

"Eeyup, happened when I was ten. My best friend and I were enjoying the summer together. It was a partially sunny day out, quite warm as well, so we decided to head to a nearby pond hidden away in the woods to go swimming. We were jumping into the pond off a large rock but she wanted to make a bigger splash so she took flight and headed even higher."

"Oh she was a um pegasus?" I asked.

"Nope, a thestral. That's one of the reasons we headed to that pond. It was heavily shaded and that was easier on her eyes. Thestrals don't handle bright light as well as other ponies."

"Ah."

"Anyway up she went, but when she folded up her wings she didn't fall straight, she headed off to the left a bit. She didn't see the rock sticking up out of the water till it was too late. She hit her head and it knocked her out cold; I pulled her to the shore, but she wasn't breathing. If it wasn't for the training I had taken in school, I might not have known what to do. I cleared the water from her lungs, and got her breathing again. She coughed a bit, woke up, saw my cutie mark and kissed me. I had been too focused on saving her to even notice that I had gotten it."

"So you got a cutie mark because you rescued your friend?"

"I had always been interested in helping ponies. Whenever anyone in my family got sick, I'd care for them as best I could. During the school year I had taken first aid and CPR courses, even though I was still fairly young. I'm glad I did though because without them I might not have been able to save Moon Glow's life."

"Moon Glow was your friend in that story?"

"Friend, then wife."

"I guess that explains why you knew about their eating habits," I said. "Where is she now?"

"She passed away two years ago, we were married for 75 years."

"Oh, I'm sorry," I said truthfully, I hadn't meant to bring up any painful memories with my questions.

"No apology is necessary, I do miss her but we had a good life together. I remember the time we spent together fondly."

There was a knock at the door and then it opened and Golden Dawn walked in. One side of her pack had a large paper bag sticking out of it, the other had a smaller one.

"Why don't we head to the dining room and have some food," Dusty said.

We followed him into his dining room and Golden pulled both bags out of her pack. Out of the larger bag she pulled a great quantity of food, mostly fruit and veggies but also some flowers and a few glass jars of what looked like condiments. She picked up an apple with her wing and tossed it over to me, luck was on my side and I actually managed to catch the unexpected flying fruit. I took a bite and followed quickly by two more. This apple was amazingly good, so fresh and juicy that I wondered if she had picked it on the way back.

I watched as she pulled out a smaller bag from the large one. Inside were some rolls, she opened one up and put a carrot into it, then opened one of the glass jars and spread some sort of glaze on the carrot.

I laughed and then "Just like a hot dog," slipped out of my mouth before I knew what I was saying.

"Hot dog?" Golden asked, looking at me. "What's a hot dog?"

"Oh... uh... its um, its a food where I'm from. We stick them in rolls like you're doing with the carrot."

"You... you eat dogs?" Golden asked, looking horrified. That's when I found out that ponies can turn pale.

Even Dusty, who had just finished telling me his dead wife was a meat eater, looked kind of disturbed.

"What? No! It's just a name, I don't eat dogs. Humans don't eat dogs, well I guess some do, but I don't. In fact it's generally frowned upon in my country." I babbled at high speed, somehow under the impression that the faster I talked the less awkward this conversation would get. Which in fact seemed to be the opposite.

"Why are they called dogs then? What are they?" she asked, clearly unsatisfied with my rambling answer.

"Uh, beef," I mumbled under my breath.

"Beef? Like... cow?" Golden Dawn said.

Earlier she had blushed, then I made her go pale and now she was turning green. Quite the range of colors that could somehow show through her coat. How exciting.

"I... I roomed with a cow, in college."

Now it was my turn to be confused.

"You did what?" I asked.

At this point Dusty Heart spoke up, he explained to Golden that I ate meat and then to me that Equus was not just a planet of ponies. While ponies were by and far the most numerous, especially on this continent, there were many other races. Zebras, griffons, donkeys, cows, yaks, buffalo, minotaurs and even dragons were among the list that he went though.

"So, these are all intelligent races, and you mentioned that griffons, dragons and even some ponies eat meat. What are they eating? I hope griffons don't eat ponies or talking cows or something."

"Thousands of years ago, maybe, but now, virtually no intelligent race eats another, rumors persist that in the dragon territories across the sea, you should always be wary of a hungry dragon, but I don't know if there's any fact in them. There are still wild animals to be found, both here and in other lands. In Equestria, wild animals are more rare, mostly existing in places like the Everfree Forest and the Badlands. But outside of Equestria they are far more common. Because of this, much of Equestria's meat is imported." Dusty explained.

“Thanks for taking the time to explain all this. It might not seem like much but when you’re stuck in some alien place that you know nothing about, it’s good to learn a bit about it. Helps me feel not so out of place,” I said.

"Don't worry about it, anyway I think we've talked enough, let's eat."

Golden and I both nodded in agreement.

Chapter 4

After lunch, Golden Dawn gave me a detailed rundown of where she found me and my truck. She found me less than five miles from the edge of what the ponies called the Badlands. If I had made it past the edge of the Badlands, I would have found a road that lead right to Hoofston, assuming I had gone west.

I questioned her about the possibility of getting my truck and trailer, all my stuff was still in it and I didn't want to just leave it out in the Badlands. That meant getting the truck unstuck and that was going to take some major work. Based on what I had seen so far these ponies had 1800s level technology so getting a flatbed and driving out into the desert was out. Still there had to be a way to get it.

Golden Dawn agreed and said she had a few ideas. One of which was to just lift it out, but by her guess it would take at least four strong earth ponies to do that. I thought she was underestimating the weight of the truck, but either way that seemed risky, if it fell it could end up more damaged than it already might be.

"Any other ideas?" I asked

"Well we could put something underneath it, give it some support," she said.

"Like a bridge?"

"It doesn't even have to be that complicated, just filling trench up with dirt would be sufficient. We could block up the sides with some boards and then fill it in. Then I think we could pull it with one or two ponies, with something for the wheels to roll on we wouldn't have to worry about the truck falling into the trench."

"That might work, is there any chance we can get out there soon?"

"Not today you can't," Dusty said looking at me sternly. "You need to get some rest and let your body recuperate."

I thought about pressing the matter, but in truth I didn't feel so great. Actually since lunch I had been feeling a bit worse, my stomach felt strange and I had the early signs of a soon to be massive headache.

I ended up laying down and sleeping most of the afternoon away. When I woke up, I was feeling a bit better, the headache was almost completely gone and my stomach felt fine. I found Dusty in the dining room eating dinner; he had a tray with food on it, a meal he was going to bring me when I woke up. I joined him at the table and began to eat. As I sat there munching on fruit, he let me know that Golden Dawn had gone home for the day. She asked him to let me know that she would stop by tomorrow. Then we could discuss heading out to the truck if I was feeling better. After I finished eating I spent the rest of the evening asking Dusty questions about Equestria.

The bulk of my questions revolved around unicorns, magic and spells. I really wanted to get a handle on what my chances were to get back to Earth. If I Dusty was right and I had gotten here by magic, surely it could get me home. Unfortunately Dusty didn't have any solid answers for me, he didn't know of any pony in town that had the necessary skill in magic to get me home. My best bet he insisted, was to make my way north, to a larger town and look for a wizard or a mage. If that didn't work and I was still unable to find a pony to help, he said I could always head to the capital.

Equestria was a diarchy run by two alicorn sisters, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. According to Dusty, both of the princesses were incredibly powerful and their skill in magic was unmatched. If there was a way to get me home, they would know it.

I questioned him on that, would the princesses lock me up and try to study me? I was an alien to these ponies and didn't want run into any government officials if I could help it. Dusty thought the very idea sounded horrible, he asserted that Princess Celestia would never do such a thing unless I purposely endangered the lives of her subjects.

It also seemed odd to me that I could just swing by the capital and get have a chat with the leaders of the country, but Dusty claimed that Princess Celestia had an open session five days a week where anypony (his words, not mine) could have an audience with her for any reason. Luna did the same but her session was at night. The whole concept boggled my mind, imagine being able to drive to Washington DC and have a chat with the president, normal people just didn't get that chance.

Dusty must have been a huge fan of the Princesses, I could tell by the way he was talking about them. He rambled on about the history of Equestria the Celestia's long and benevolent reign. I vaguely remember him saying something about Celestia being in charge of the day and Luna the night, but I was finding it harder and harder to paying attention as the headache that had nearly vanished was back in full force.

Dusty must have noticed that I was in pain because he stopped mid sentence and asked if I was okay.

"Not really, I've got a killer headache, it started earlier this afternoon but then kind of died out, now its back and even worse. I don't suppose ponies have painkillers? My head feels like there's a jackhammer inside, trying to get out."

"There are spells that can dull pain, as well as potions brewed by herbologists, but for the most part we just use aspirin."

"Oh thank god, do you have any?"

He nodded and returned with a small bottle. He opened the top with his mouth, which disturbed me slightly, and then dumped two pills onto his hoof. Then he looked me over and put one of the pills back in the bottle and stretched his hoof out. I expected it to fall off when he stretched out his leg towards me but the pill stuck fast.

"Are you going to take it?" he asked, holding his hoof out.

"How is it doing that?" I asked, reaching out to take the pill.

"Doing what?"

"The pill, it was sticking to your hoof, there's nothing holding it there."

"We talked about all ponies have different abilities, this is one that all ponies share. There is a low level magical field around our hooves that enables us to grasp things," he said, dropping the pill into my hand.

"Does it work on your rear hooves as well?"

"Yes, but it is not as strong and our rear hooves lacks the ability for fine manipulation that our forehoves have."

I swallowed the painkiller with a quick swig of water. We talked a bit longer and I learned some more about ponies. After a while Dusty let out a long yawn. I looked out the window and was surprised to see the sun had gone down long ago.

"I think I'm going to call it a night," he said, standing up from his seat. "If you need anything, don't hesitate to wake me."

I thanked him and then headed back to the room he was letting me use. I sat in the bed for a while, staring at the ceiling. The whole situation was crazy, I still wasn't sure it was real, but it had none of the strangeness nor disconnected flow of events that I'd associate with a dream. The way I figured it, I had two choices. I could ignore everything, assume it was all some delusion and refuse to cooperate with anyone, or I could accept that somehow, an impossible event had occurred and I really had been whisked away to another planet where magic was a thing and cute colorful ponies ruled over the land.

If I went with the former, and I was wrong, things would go badly for me. But if I went with the latter, I had nothing to lose. Even if I was wrong, and all this was some sort of insane dream, it wouldn't hurt anything by participating in it. My mind was made up, and the aspirin was starting to kick in, so I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

I woke up feeling refreshed, with only the slightest pain in my head. I threw on the same clothes I had been wearing the day before. They were starting to smell, but I had nothing else till I got to the truck. That made me think a bit about my situation more. After my talk with Dusty last night, it seemed that even if everything went smoothly in my search for a way home, I could be stuck here for a while. All I had to my name were the clothes on my back, the things in my pockets and whatever was in the truck and trailer.

The most immediate problem I would have to resolve was a lack of food. With no money, I had no way to feed myself. Actually, that wasn't true. I thought about what Dusty had said, there being wild animals in the Badlands. If I really needed to, I might be able to hunt. That was, assuming I could recover the trailer, which was my top priority. I had the other two guns and a good deal of ammunition in there.

One issue with hunting would be I had no way of knowing which animals were wild, and which were not. I had absolutely no issue with hunting on Earth where animals were animals, but I didn't want shoot something, only to find out too late that I had just killed a talking deer or cow or whatever lived around here.

That reminded me, I wasn't sure what to do with the revolver, neither pony had commented on it the day before, that might mean that they didn't care or maybe they had no idea what it was. I didn't want to leave a gun laying around Dusty's house, especially if he didn't know what it was, that was just asking for trouble. In the United States, open carry laws varied widely state by state and I didn't want to end up in a pony prison. Eventually I decided to keep it in my backpack, unloaded. The ammo went another pouch which was as close to a safe storage solution that I could manage I could lock it back in the trailer or find out if I was allowed to carry it. I'd have to ask Golden Dawn about it at some point.

Circling back to my laundry list of problems, I again considered my lack of money. There was the possibility of finding some sort of temporary work, but that posed more questions. I wasn't a citizen of this country, would I be allowed to work? What kind of work would be available? I doubted any of my skills would come in handy. I guess I could always fall back on manual labor, not my favorite idea but I'd rather do that than starve.

My thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Hail, are you awake yet?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Yeah, coming," I said, standing up. Both Golden Dawn and Dusty Heart seemed to mispronounce my nickname. I might have devoted some more time to thinking about that little oddity but compared everything else that had happened to me in the last few days, it wasn't a big deal. I grabbed my backpack then opened the door.

Dusty was in the living room, reading a newspaper, I said goodbye and thanked him for helping me out. Then Golden Dawn lead me to the front door. When it came into view, I paused, standing in the hallway.

Golden saw me stop and turned around. "What's up?" she asked.

"I haven't been out there yet, at least not while I was awake. Beyond that door is a entirely new world," I said with just a hint of nervousness.

"You'll be fine," Golden said with a reassuring smile.

"Won't ponies be scared of me? If an alien showed up on Earth, there's no way it could go out in public without causing a panic of some sort. At the very least the government would get involved, it would be a major world changing event."

"Well it's not like anypony will know you're from another world, unless you tell them. But honestly it shouldn't really matter."

"I'm not a pony, I think I'm going to stand out."

"I don't know about the bigger cities up north, but here on the frontier, ponies are used to seeing other species. Remember what we talked about yesterday? Buffalo, zebras, diamond dogs, minotaurs and griffons and that's just to name a few. We even occasionally see dragons," she gave me a comforting smile and put her wing on my back, "besides you can't stay cooped up in here forever."

"I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around that," I said to her.

"Why?" she asked curiously.

"Because apparently your world is a smorgasbord of both real and mythological creatures from mine, many of which are intelligent, and on top of that you've got the whole magic thing going. It just doesn't make any sense. Do you know how many intelligent species there are on Earth?"

She shook her head.

"Just one, humans, my species. And that is it. I mean there are some fairly smart animals, but we humans are the only species to form a civilization."

"That's pretty strange," she said. "It seems... lonely somehow."

"Well, there's around seven billion of us, but yeah, I guess it is. For much of human history we've wondered if we are alone in the universe. If I ever did make it back to Earth, and had a way to prove that I didn't make this whole thing up, well it would be the most important discovery of the millennium, maybe even of all history."

Golden Dawn whistled sharply. "Seven billion? I think Equestria has just over 100 million, and that's including other species that live here, not just ponies, though we're the bulk of the population."

"Well that's the whole planet, not just my country, but yeah, there are a lot of us." I said, walking towards the door, "in any case you're right, I need to get out of here."

Golden Dawn opened the door and I followed her through. After that talk, walking out the door seemed fairly anti-climatic. One small step for man... into someone's front yard. It just looked like a front yard. There was even a white picket fence surrounding the place. The only thing unusual was the lack of driveway, but I didn't expect ponies to have cars so that made sense.

Dusty's house was a bit of a ways outside of the main part of town. We walked down the dusty dirt road heading towards the center of town. We passed a few scattered houses on the way there, but I still didn't see anything very unusual. They just looked like old houses. That changed when we reached what had to be the main street of the town. The buildings themselves were fairly normal, at least for an old western town, I looked at the signs as we walked by, a general store, a barber shop, a saloon all pretty normal for a wild west town, but the population was anything but normal. There were disturbingly cute candy colored ponies everywhere! Red, blue, green, pink, yellow, and the list just went on. Some wore cowboy hats, some wore shirts, most wore nothing. It was like I had woken up in a colony of nudist aliens.

Saddle bags, like the ones Golden Dawn were wearing were somewhat common place, but a good number of ponies walking down the street were just carrying things on their backs. I stopped for a moment to stare at the dozens of ponies; some of them gave me a curious look as they walked by, but most ignored me as they went about their business.

"This is incredible," I said. When I didn't hear a reply I looked around and noticed that Golden Dawn had kept walking, I hurried up and caught up with her.

I turned and gawked as a unicorn trotted past me, a newspaper levitating in front of him surrounded in a red glow. Some movement in the corner of my eye caught my attention and I looked to the left just in time to see a pegasus landed gracefully, she folded up her wings and then trotted into a nearby building. Up in the sky a pair of ponies were pushing small bits of cloud around. I watched a light pink pegasus with a bright yellow mane line up a dark gray cloud over a small patch of flowers growing in front of a shop. Then she flew up and landed on top of it and started to jump up and down. When the jumping started the cloud opened up and rain started falling out of it. With each jump the cloud lightened until it reached a fluffy white and the rain stopped. She stood on top of the cloud for a moment, looking around at the town below. As her view shifted towards the part of the street Golden and I were walking down, she shouted down towards us.

"Hey Golden Dawn!"

She jumped off the cloud, spread her wings and spiraled down, landing in front of us.

"Oh hi Blue Skies, what's up?"

Now that she was closer I could make out her cutie mark. It was a sun with a happy smiling face drawn inside it.

"Saw you walking around with your new friend, figured I'd fly down and say hello, now that he's more awake," she said.

"Oh yeah, Blue Skies, this is Hail Storm," Golden said, pointing at me. I took mild amusement from the name Golden Dawn introduced me as. Then again from what I knew of pony names it seemed to fit the theme. "Hail Storm, this is my friend, Blue Skies, she's one of the town's weather ponies."

"Hello," she said with a friendly smile. She extended a hoof. I reached out and she grabbed my hand, there was that strange grip again, I could feel it holding my hand in place as she shook her hoof up and down.

"Hi," I said returning the smile. "That was a neat trick with the cloud."

"Huh?" she said looking confused. "What do you mean?"

"They don't manage the weather where Hail's from," Golden Dawn said.

Blue Skies's face twisted up in disgust. "No weather ponies? Is it like the Everfree where the weather runs wild?"

I shrugged, "I dunno, like Golden said, I'm not from around here. I don't know anything about the Everfree's weather. All I know is humans, which is what I am, have no control over the weather. It does it's own thing and we're stuck with what we get."

"That sounds awful, you should look into hiring some pegasus ponies to manage it for you, there's plenty of freelance weather ponies on the market." Blue Skies said.

I laughed at that, "maybe someday I think it would be a bit of a commute though."

"Ah, far from home?" she asked.

"That's putting it mildly, " I said with a laugh.

"Hail's a bit lost, he's not quite sure how he got here, we think magic was involved." Golden Dawn said.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Blue Skies said, touching my shoulder with her wing.

"Actually, that reminds me, I figured we could stop by Sheriff Justice's office before we head out to the Badlands, it's a long shot but he might know about what kind of magic might have brought you here," Golden Dawn said.

"i just finished, I'm off till this evening," Blue Skies said, "mind if I tag along?"

Golden lit up with a happy smile.

"That would actually be great, but there's a catch if you want to tag along," she said.

"Oh what's that?" Blue Skies asked.

"Well we've got a long trip ahead of us, little over 50 miles, and Hail Storm's truck is pretty stuck. In order to free it, Hail Storm and I are going to need some help and that's going to start with helping me pull a wagon full of supplies."

Blue Skies made a sour face before expressing her disappointment.

"You're going to walk? Can't we just fly out there?" she said with a pout.

"No!" I said sharply, the very thought made me dizzy. Both ponies looked at me strangely before Golden answered.

"Do you see any wings on Hail Storm?" she said. "Besides like I said we're going to need a bunch of stuff, shovels, wooden support beams, plywood, rope, and food and water as well."

"Fine, I'm only free till dinner time though, then I've got work again," Blue Skies said.

"This is the first I'm hearing of all this," I said with some surprise at Golden Dawn's plan.

"I spent a lot of time thinking about it this morning before I headed over, I'm almost positive we can do this ourselves, but with help from another pony it will go even quicker."

"Won't all this cost money? All those supplies?" I asked.

"Nah, I got most of that at my shop, except for the food," Golden said.

"Alright, I've got to fly home real quick and grab my saddlebags, I'll meet you at the sheriff's office."

"Darn, I knew I forgot something, I left mine at Dusty's, can you swing by and grab them for me?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Sure thing, see you in a bit." Blue Skies replied, then she took off into the air.

We continued down the main street. Before long we came to small wooden building with barred windows, the sign hanging over the door said 'Sheriff'. We walked up to the front door and headed inside. Inside were two empty cells, one on the right and one on the left of the central room. There was a pale grey pony wearing a cowboy hat and a denim vest with a golden star sitting at a desk going over some paperwork.

"Hey Sheriff," Golden Dawn said.

"One second Golden Dawn," the pony sheriff said without looking up. He picked up the pile of papers he was looking at, put them into an envelope and then put the envelope into a drawer.

"Sorry about that, Wanderlust has disappeared again, Desert Cactus hasn't seen him in two days," he said as he turned his attention towards us. He noticed me first, gave me a quick once over, and finally turned to to Golden Dawn. "This must be that... what was it... human? that you were telling me about."

"Nothing bad I hope," I said jokingly.

"Nope, from my conversation with Golden last night it sounds like you might be a bit lost."

"Yes sir, I'm not really sure how I got here," I said with a sigh. Then I launched into a shortened version of my story, starting out on the road home and waking up at Dusty's. I went over some of the things that had become more clear, such as my suspicion that I was no longer even on the same planet, and briefly covered humanities complete lack of magic which would make such a trip an impossibility from my perspective.

Justice listened intently, when I finished talking he excused himself, went to a back room and returned with a large folded up piece of paper floating next to him. I watched in wonder as it unfolded itself, still in the air, and then floated down to land on his desk. Now that I could see the top of it, I realized it was a map.

"This is a map covering all of Equestria, the country spans the continent from east to west in most locations, there are a few exceptions. This large western peninsula north of Las Pegasus is unexplored, also a small section in the extreme northwest is held by the Yaks," he said pointing out a city named Yakyakistan.

I groaned inwardly, wondering what was with this world and punny names.

"Technically the kingdom's borders extend all the way to the southern edge of the continent, though much of the southern land is unsettled. Hoofston is one of the most southern pony towns. Does any of this map look familiar to you?"

It only took a quick glance at the map to make it immediately clear that it didn't match up with any continents on Earth. That settled it then, unless this was all some elaborate lie or I really had gone crazy, then this map confirmed I wasn't on Earth anymore.

"None of this looks familiar, not the continent or even the layout of the oceans. Humans have mapped the whole globe and none of this is on it. Dusty Heart said the event I described to him sounded like magic and that I should talk to a unicorn. As I mentioned, magic is a a whole new thing to me, it just doesn't exist in my world, except in fictional stories. Is there anything you can tell me about how I might have gotten here?"

"Well based on your description, like Dusty I'd suspect magic, but you have to understand, I'm just a country sheriff, not a magician or a wizard. I know a few spells, mostly they help me with my job. Apart from that my magical abilities are fairly limited. I can immobilize a threat, I can analyze clues, I'm a good judge of character, I can usually tell when somepony is lying and my levitation is stronger than the average unicorn's and that's about it. What you really need to find is a magician, or even talk to one of the princesses."

"Oh," I said softly, feeling somewhat disheartened, "Dusty warned me that might be your answer, but I had hoped you might know something."

Golden Dawn bumped up against my side. "Don't worry Hail Storm, I'm sure somepony will know how to get you home."

The door opened and Blue Skies walked inside, she was wearing a pair of leather bags connected by a strap. Her cutie mark, a smiling sun, was imprinted on the bags. She turned her head around, opened the bag on her left side with her mouth and pulled out another set of bags that had been folded up. The amount of dexterity ponies had with their mouths amazed me.

"ere ya go," she said to Golden Dawn, who took the saddle bags from Blue Skies and draped them over her back. Like Blue Skies, Golden's saddle bags had her cutie mark emblazoned on it, a metal piston.

"Thanks," Golden Dawn said.

I thanked Justice for his information and we headed out. Golden Dawn wanted to stop and get breakfast before we headed out to my truck. I was getting pretty hungry myself but I still had no money, so when we got to the open market, I waited patiently to the side while Golden stood in line. Blue Skies had already eaten so she waited with me.

"So why are you two headed out to the Badlands anyway?" she asked.

"My truck is out there, uh it's like a big metal self powered wagon."

"Like a train?" she asked.

"Oh, I didn't realize ponies had trains," I said.

"Yep, we do. Golden Dawn works on them. I'm surprised she hasn't talked your head off, she can go on about steam engines or anything mechanical for hours." Blue Skies said with a laugh. "She has a degree in mechanical engineering, she graduated top of her class from the Mareachusetts Institute of Technology. She actually designed the 4-8-2 Frontier class while she was still in school, she sold the designs to Prancesylvania Railroad. I think that's how she got enough bits to start up her business down here right after she graduated."

Golden Dawn finished up in line, paid and trotted over. Her saddle bags were both clearly stuffed full, and there was two large canteens hanging off sides of the saddle bags.

"I thought you were only grabbing breakfast," I asked.

"I did, for me and you too. Plus some water, we're actually going to have to stop here one more time once we get the cart, I want to get two days supplies, just in case we have to spend the night out there. Anyway, breakfast's on the right, water is on the left. Help yourself to some food and grab a canteen."

"Thanks Golden, I feel rotten not being able to pay for anything, I'll make it up to you as soon as I can."

"Don't worry about it," she said.

"I can't help it, I'm not used relying on others, especially for something like food. I should be able to provide for myself."

"No pony is an island," Blue Skies said, "from what little I know, you've found yourself in a fantastic situation through no fault of your own. There's no shame in accepting help from a friend until you can get back on your hooves."

Golden Dawn smiled at me, "exactly and besides it's not like I can let you starve, what kind of pony would I be if I did that? Now have some breakfast."

Reluctantly I gave in, I walked over and opened the bag on the right.

"While you're in there, grab me an apple," Golden said, waiting for me to finish.

The bag jammed packed with a variety of fruits and veggies, "red, green, you got a preference?" I asked Golden Dawn.

"Nope, those are from Sweet Apple Acres, they're all good."

I handed Golden Dawn a red apple and took a green one for myself; we ate as we headed out of town. Once again it was surprisingly tasty, even surpassing the one I had eaten yesterday. After I finished it, I found myself rummaging through Golden's bag again and selected a pear. Within ten minutes I had sampled five different kinds of fruit and was busy munching on some carrots. I'm not normally a big breakfast guy, unless there's bacon involved, but these were some of the freshest and tastiest fruits and veggies I'd ever had. It was kind of like my whole live I had been eating frozen food and suddenly I switched to fresh off the farm. I don't know how the ponies did it, but I wasn't about to complain. Deep down I wondered if I ever got a chance to sample Equestrian bacon would it be as good as their fruits and veggies.

I didn't quite believe Golden when she had said she only grabbed breakfast, but then I saw how much she ate. I thought back to the previous meals and realized that both her and Dusty had packed away quite a bit of food. The more I thought about it the more sense it made. Ponies may have been shorter than me, but they were actually larger. Golden Dawn probably outweighed me by at least a 150 pounds and having now seen a number of different ponies, she was a definitely on the small side. Having a bigger appetite seemed logical, especially since she had given up on walking and was now hovering along side Blue Skies. Even though she said her flight was powered by magic, I assumed that it used more energy than walking.

"So where exactly are we headed?" I asked as we walked through town.

"To my shop, like I said, I've got a cart and pretty much anything else we will need."

Eventually we came to a double set of railroad tracks and followed them to the outskirts of town, where Golden's shop was located. Unlike the rest of the town, which featured wooden construction, her building was made of brick. It was two stories high, and rectangular in shape. A pair of massive double doors were set into both of the narrower sides of the building. Two rail lines branched away from the track, ran into the front of the building, then out the back before they rejoined with the main line.

"You own this place?" I asked looking at the large building.

"Yep, I do a lot of work on trains, I'm one of the few ponies in town with any mechanical knowledge," she said with a grin.

"I'm not like, keeping you from your work am I?" I asked worriedly.

"Nope, I've got a train coming in the day after tomorrow for some routine maintenance but that's all for this week," Golden said.

"What do you do when you aren't working on trains?" I asked.

"I've got a bunch of personal projects, but none of them are time sensitive."

I stopped dead in my tracks as a sudden wave of nausea overcame me. I ran to a small shrub and emptied my breakfast onto it. Everything came up in one massive spew, my stomach heaved a few more times but there was nothing left. I dropped to my knees trying to catch my breath.

"Are you okay?" Golden asked her voice filled with concern.

"I don't know, I just felt really sick all of a sudden." I said between heavy breaths. "I feel alright now though, maybe it was something I ate?"

"I had the same food as you," she pointed out.

"I dunno," I said with a half shrug.

Golden pulled out one of the canteens and handed it to me (or is that hoofed it to me?) I took a gulp and swished it around before spitting it out in an attempt to wash the taste of vomit out of my mouth.

"Do you want to go back to Dusty's?" she asked.

"No, I feel better now, besides we've got to go get my truck."

"I don't know, a trip to the Badlands if you are sick isn't the best idea," Blue Skies said.

"I agree," Golden Dawn said. "Maybe we should wait till tomorrow."

"Really, I feel fine. Besides you said this might be an overnight thing and you've got that train coming in in two days. If we wait you might not make it back in time and I really don't want to leave all my stuff out there for that long."

"I don't know..." Golden said.

"Look, if I get sick again we can turn around, head straight to Dusty's."

That truck and the stuff in the trailer represented the entirety of my possessions on this planet, I really wanted to recover them as quickly as possible.

Golden stood there for a moment, thinking about my proposal before finally agreeing.

"Okay, that sounds fair, I'll go get the wagon ready, you stay with him," she said, looking at Blue Skies.

"I can help." I said.

"No, you stay here, sit down, get some fresh air," she said.

I didn't want to make a big deal about it and risk her changing her mind so I walked over to the front of her shop. There was a small patio with a picnic table so I took a seat, Blue Skies sat next to me and we both waited for her to come back out. About fifteen minutes later I heard the large side doors roll open and Golden walked around the side of the building pulling small wooden wagon.

"Can you shut the door Blue?" she asked.

Blue Skies got up and trotted around the corner, I could hear the door rolling shut again and a moment later she came back.

It was a pretty basic open wagon, with large wooden wheels and a two pony hitch. Blue Skies joined Golden at the front and a moment later she was hooked up.

"You can ride in the back," Golden said.

"I can walk, no need for you two to pull me."

Golden and Blue Skies looked at each other for a moment before Golden Dawn turned to look at me.

"Look, no offense, but we've been moving at a snails pace all day, if that's your normal walking speed it's going to take us forever to get to your truck."

I thought back to when we were in town, it was true that most of the ponies were outpacing me but not by a huge margin.

"I'm not that slow am I? What about the ponies in town they weren't that much faster."

"All those ponies were walking, but when ponies are going long distances we don't walk the whole way, we trot, we canter, we gallop." Golden said. "Can you?"

"Not... as such, I can jog and run though."

"Let's see it then," she said.

Deep down, I knew it wasn't going to be good enough. I wasn't in awful shape but I certainly wasn't athletic. Back in grade school I was consistently one of the last to finish the mile in gym. I had neither great speed nor endurance, but I decided to give it my best shot. I jogged down to the railroad tracks and then followed them for a minute or two before turning around and running back.

"How long can you keep that up?" Golden asked.

"Jogging? maybe twenty minutes, running uh... I think I'm done now." I said still catching my breath.

"Get in," she said nodding at the cart.

"Aww, fine."

I climbed into the cart and we took off. They really were faster than me, by a good amount too. Their trotting was on par with my maximum sprinting speed and I couldn't hold a candle to a canter or a gallop. Even stranger was that they never ran out of steam, they'd occasionally break into a canter or gallop but they spent most of the trip at a fast trot. I didn't have a great way of judging speed but I estimated the trotting at 10-15 miles per hour while pulling a cart that had me, my backpack, 4 shovels, a bunch of sheets of plywood, assorted hand tools, two bags of food that we picked up at the market as we road through town and four long pieces of wood that looked like uncut railroad ties. And they had no issues holding a conversation with me while pulling all of this.

"So Golden, you work on trains?"

"Yep, been working on steam engines since I was six. Hoofston is the end of the line if you are coming from up north, the engines that run from here to Appleloosa or Ponyville all stop here for their maintenance. I handle all that work and any repairs that aren't big enough to warrant sending the engine all the way back to Fillydelphia where they are built."

Golden Dawn then proceeded to launch into a lengthy talk about both the history of steam engines in Equestria and the inner workings of the locomotives she dealt with. Though I didn't know much about trains, I had a basic idea of how a steam engine functioned. A container of water was heated until it boiled. The resulting steam is directed to a piston, steam occupies more space than liquid water so it creates a high pressure system. That pressure pushes on the piston which drives it forward. By alternating which side of the piston the steam is directed to you can move it back and forth. In a locomotive the piston is attached to a crankshaft which drives the wheels of the train. That about summed up my very general knowledge of how a steam train worked. But by the time Golden Dawn had finished, I was confident that I could build a working locomotive given the proper tools and parts.

"One thing I don't get, Hoofston is a frontier town, it's relatively out of the way right?"

Golden Dawn nodded.

"Well then isn't it out of the way for trains to come down for repair work? Plus what happens when you need a part, you have to wait for another train to ship it down?"

"Well, to your first question, the trains come down here to pick up raw materials. There's a good amount of mining in the Macintosh Hills, the smaller mountain range to the west of the Badlands, so we get a lot of trains picking up ore and raw gems. But the real reason is that the majority of Equestria's oil fields are located in the southern half of the Badlands, or southwest of us on the edge of the San Palomino Desert. That oil is distilled into kerosene which is used as a fuel throughout most of Equestria. The rail line to the fields in the Badlands connects to the line you saw near my shop, so it's not really that much out of the way."

"Oh, I didn't realize ponies drilled for oil or had kerosene."

"Of course we do, what do you think the lamps were running on at Dusty Heart's place?" Golden said with a laugh. "Plus the oil can be processed and used as a lubricant, for example to keep a steam train from seizing up."

"I... I didn't think about it." I said blushing slightly at my own silliness.

"As to your second question, unless it's a major repair, I can fabricate many parts in my shop, I do a lot of train mechanic work and some machinist work, did several years as a machinist to help pay for my degree. I like to build things, not all of which I can sell. The mechanic work is mostly just to pay for my hobbies."

"Oh yeah, Blue Skies mentioned you had a degree in mechanical engineering"

"Yep, got my masters."

"You have a masters? Plus you said you owned your shop, that's amazing. If you don't mind me asking, how old are you, you seem young but with ponies, I have no idea."

"She's only 25!" Blue Skies said before Golden Dawn could answer. "In case you were going to ask, yes that's young, Golden here is one smart pony."

"I uh skipped a few grades in high-school, got an early start on college." Golden Dawn said with a bit of a blush.

"Oh wow, I'm almost 28 and I'm still working on getting my bachelors. I am... or was going for one in mechanical engineering. It's taking a while because I'm only going part time, I'm about half way through my courses."

"Why part time?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Money, my job sucked and I didn't make nearly enough for full time classes. Even if I did there's no way I could schedule my job around it."

"Oh, I got lucky. My father paid for my first two years, once I started working I was able to pay for the rest," Golden Dawn said with a nod. "I'd love to know what humans classes cover, I wonder if they are similar?"

"Like I said, I'm only about half way through, but I can go over some of it," I said.

I talked about my classes for a while, with Golden Dawn interjecting with her own experiences. Surprisingly her stuff sounded very similar to my own experiences, especially the math, excluding my heavy use of computers anyway. I enjoyed the conversation, it had been a while since I got to talk to someone that shared similar interests. The fact that the someone was a pony didn't really matter to me. Eventually though, I ran though everything I could think of and decided to switch topics away from school.

"Blue Skies also said something about you designing a train?" I asked.

Golden Dawn's cheeks ran red. "Oh she told you about that did she?"

"You should be proud!" Blue Skies said.

"I would have been more proud, if I had realized how much the 4-8-2 Frontier was actually worth. Last I heard Prancesylvania Railroad is replacing their entire freight line with my engine."

"What's wrong with that?" I asked.

"I could have gotten ten times what they paid me for the designs. I didn't know, I was fresh out of school I jumped at the first big number they flashed at me."

"Ugh, that sucks. Well, besides trains, what other kinds of things do you build?" I asked.

Blue Skies snickered, "all sorts of fantastic junk, with limited practical use." she said, but it was clear the ribbing was in a good nature.

"Hey, it's not that bad," Golden said.

"The auto-cocking crossbow?" Blue Skies asked with grin.

"That worked! Or at least it did until the gem powering the cocking spell exploded."

"I warned you, cheap gems aren't used for enchantments for a reason."

"Well it wouldn't be as economical with a enchantment grade gem."

"Kind of my point," Blue Skies said.

Golden Dawn stuck her tongue out at the other pegasus.

"And let's not forget the automatic hoof polisher."

Golden shuddered, "we agreed to never talk about that again," she said sternly, but then she laughed.

"I am being a bit mean, Golden has designed some cool stuff. She has a miniature railroad in her shop, complete with tiny working steam engines. I told her she should market it as a toy."

"It's a functional scale model of the 4-8-2. I used it to demo the engine to the railroad ponies. The fun was in building it, making sure everything worked as intended, I don't want to go into business selling toys. Anyway I have a new project I'm working on, and it's going to be big," Golden Dawn said.

"Oh no, what is it this time?" Blue Skies asked with a groan.

"It's a secret," Golden said with a twinkle in her eye.

"Just to kind of butt in here, couldn't you sell the plans or pay another pony to make them? You mentioned that the train work was to fund your other projects, you could do the same with a toy train line. I know lots of children and some adults are really into model railroads on Earth, though I've never seen a steam powered one, they're all electric as far as I know."

"See?" Blue Skies said.

"I suppose, maybe I'll look at it in the future. Wait you said electric? What do they use for power?"

"Well the cheaper toy ones are sometimes battery powered, but the nicer ones are all plug in as far as I know."

"Wait, I thought humans had no magic, how do you charge a gem battery?"

I scrunched up my face in confusion, "Huh?"

"You said some use batteries, gem batteries are charged with magic which is then converted to electrical energy, enchantment grade gems are fairly pricey, we don't don't really use them in toys."

"We don't have magic, all the batteries we use are chemical batteries. I can't really explain how they work because I don't know. There's a lead-acid battery in my truck, I can show it to you when we get there," I said.

"Plug in would work," Golden Dawn mused, "though the market would be somewhat limited," she turned towards me to explain further. "Only the big cities are wired up for electricity, and even in those not everypony has it."

Trains and electricity, maybe the ponies were closer to the late 1800s than the middle of it that I had assumed. I guess it made sense that an out of the way border town wouldn't have access to the latest and greatest.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure virtually everyone in the US has access electricity in their homes."

"How do you generate it?" Blue Skies asked.

"Lots of different ways, coal, oil, natural gas, wind turbines, hydroelectric plants, solar, nuclear, those are the major ones I can think of."

"Solar, how would you get electricity from Celestia?" Golden Dawn asked looking at me oddly.

"Huh? Solar is electricity generated from sunlight," I said.

"That sounds like magic to me," Blue Skies said with a laugh.

"Oh, I guess that kind of makes sense. Solar is an old Equestrian term, it means 'Of Celestia' but it also means 'Of Celestia's Sun'," Golden said. "Though I'm surprised you use coal or oil though, with no magic to filter out the pollution, isn't it kind of dirty? Also, what's nuclear?"

"Wait filter out pollution?" I asked.

"Yeah, like steam trains burn coal, which generates a lot of nasties, there's an enchanted filter in the smokestack, it's called a magilytic converter, it processes all the exhaust and renders it harmless."

Wow, and with that one statement, I realized magic threw my tech estimates right out the window. If what Golden Dawn was saying was true, ponies had solved one of the major banes of modern human society. I realized I still hadn't answered Golden's question.

"Yeah, it is and we're slowly shifting towards cleaner forms, but we had to make due with what we had. Wind is one of those, solar is another, it involves converting sunlight into electricity. I don't know exactly how it works but I can tell you that it isn't magic. Nuclear is third, there's two versions, fission and fusion. Fission involves splitting the nucleus of a heavy element like uranium. The process generates a great deal of energy which is converted to heat that is used to make steam which spins turbines to make electricity. Fusion is kind of the opposite, instead of splitting atoms, you're combining them. Fusing hydrogen to make helium. We haven't quite gotten fusion to work yet, at least not in a form we can use constructively."

"I've never heard of either of those things," Golden Dawn said. "Also, outside of using magic, I'm not sure I've ever heard of changing one element to another."

"Me either," Blue Skies added.

"Well, I can give at least one example of fusion in nature. Stars. Stars are basically giant balls of hydrogen, slowly fusing into helium."

"I don't think anypony knows how the stars work, well maybe the princesses, but I don't know if anypony has ever asked them," Golden Dawn said. "It sounds like humans are a bit more advanced than we are."

"Well when I first woke up here, based on what I saw, I had assumed ponies were about where humans were in the mid 1800s, about 165 years ago from my perspective, but honestly not I'm not sure. When you mentioned steam engines and electricity combined with what I saw of your town that would place you closer to the late 1800s, maybe even the early 1900s. But then you mentioned that magical filter. Humans have been struggling with air pollution for many years. It's basically considered a global problem now, though there is still much debate over to what degree. I think magic is going to hinder any sort of direct comparison between human and pony society."

Eventually we shifted to a lighter topic, but I knew that I'd be revisiting this conversation in the future. Maybe when I found a pony who could get me home, they could bring magic to Earth. It could do a lot of good there.

Eventually we reached a point in the road where Golden Dawn said we'd be turning off and heading out into the desert. I could see the hills that I had gotten lost in not to far in the distance.

"Um somewhat important question that I just thought of. If we're heading off the road do we have to worry about more of those tatzlwurm things that almost ate me?"

"Not likely, they're pretty rare, and they come out mostly at night," Golden Dawn said. "Mostly."

"Plus if one did show up, we could just fly away," Blue Skies said.

"Well you and Golden can," I said nervously.

"I think we could get this thing airborne, at least for a little while," Blue Skies said, looking at the wagon.

I did not want to experience that. In fact, I thought that facing another one of those worms would be a preferable alternative to flying around. While I was still dreading the idea, Golden suggested we break for lunch. We chatted while eating and I convinced Golden Dawn to let me walk alongside the wagon when we got going again. I needed to stretch my legs and they were going to have to go fairly slow anyway due to the rough terrain.

According to Golden Dawn we were almost there, with less than ten miles to go. I followed them on foot for a while before I got my fill of walking and climbed back into the wagon. In truth I was feeling sick again, but it wasn't nearly as bad as this morning. I didn't say anything because I didn't want Golden to demand we head back to Dusty Heart's when we were so close. Besides this time it was only yet another headache and I had some pills in the truck. For all I know it could have been the weather which was running a bit on the hot side, my guess was in the 90s at least.

The worst part about the weather was that it was late March back on Earth and I had been wearing pants and a long sleeve shirt. Thankfully I had a few t-shirts in my truck but as far as I knew there wasn't a single pair of shorts that would fit me on the planet. In fact clothing was going to suck. I only had 5 days worth of shirts socks and underwear and two pairs of pants. By sheer luck I had happened to be wearing a nice sturdy pair of hiking boots. I had found a hole in my old ratty sneakers just before I began my road trip and hiking boots were the only other shoes I owned, I was annoyed at the time but now it was a blessing.

As we continued got closer and closer to the truck my headache grew worse but I hid it well. Just as I was about to give up and tell Golden Dawn how awful I was feeling Blue Skies spoke up.

"Hey, is that your truck thing?" she nodded off at an object in the distance.

The truck in sight gave me hope, and the headache seemed to lose some of its sting. If we could get it freed and back to town, it would be the first step on the road for me to get home.

Author's Note

A note on Dusty's map of Equestria.

My version if Equestria is (very roughly) based on the official map. You can see the original and updated version on the MLP wiki page

One of the big differences is that the distances on the official map not to scale for the purposes of my story. For my version of Equestria, the continent that it is on is scaled up to have roughly the area as North America (not just the US) That's excluding the undiscovered west section section of the map and any land south below the bottom of the map.

Chapter 5

I practically jumped out of the wagon, then headed right for the truck. I gave it a quick glance to make sure that it hadn't shifted position during my absence. Besides being covered in a layer of dirt and dust, everything looked more or less as I had left it. I climbed down the ditch, back up the other side and then ran over to check on the trailer. Meanwhile, Blue Skies and Golden Dawn unhooked themselves from the wagon. Golden Dawn followed me over while Blue Skies stretched her wings.

"How fast were you going?" Golden Dawn asked, looking at the tire tracks behind the trailer.

"I think I was doing 85 miles per hour, but that was on the highway before that weird green light, as soon as I saw that light I started to slow down, my guess is I was still doing at least 50 when I passed through it."

Now that I wasn't worried about starving to death in the desert, I took some time to do a quality inspection of the damage on both the truck and the trailer. The truck itself, besides being dirty, seemed to be in surprisingly good shape. It had picked up a few dings and dents but I didn't see any signs of major body damage. The only thing that seemed completely broken, besides the emergency chain, was the hookup on the trailer itself. The bar was bent from impact with the ground. Without some way to repair the hookup, I wouldn't be able to re-attach the trailer properly. Still, I wasn't going to let that get me down. We'd get the truck freed, and then I'd get the trailer reattached somehow. Then I could concentrate on getting back to Earth.

"85? What makes this thing go?" Blue Skies asked, "Equestria's fastest trains can only hit around 100 and they've got huge engines."

"The truck runs on a fuel called diesel..." I started to explain as I continued to look over the damage. I trailed off suddenly when my eye caught on the license plate. It was the only part of the truck not completely covered in dirt. The letters and numbers on the plate still looked as if someone had replaced them with gibberish. I still couldn't read anything. That and the constant headaches made my stomach turn sour with worry. My inability to read had slipped my mind earlier with all the craziness of finding myself on an alien world. I thought back to my walk through town, ponies everywhere going out their business. That's when an alarm went off in my head. I looked at the plate again, something was wrong, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

"What's wrong?" Golden Dawn asked, noticing my confused look.

"I... I'm not sure," I said scratching my head. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.

Back in the town, I had been able to read the store signs. I hadn't even thought of it at the time, I looked at a sign and read it. Why would that stand out in my memory? Being able to read something wasn't noteworthy... Unless I couldn't read because of some form of brain damage. Then suddenly it was. But why couldn't I read now and I could back in town? What was the difference?

I squatted down, reached out and touched the plate, dragging my fingers over the metal surface. I could feel the bumps from the embossed characters on the plate, but the feel of them was off. How could this happen?

I needed some time to think this through, so I stood back up and moved for the door. A minute later I was climbing into the front seat. I decided the best thing to do was to make sure the truck would still start. As a bonus, I could charge my phone once it was running. I grabbed the car charger and plugged it in, then fished the keys out of my pocket.

I left the door open so I could talk with my two new friends, they were both hovering alongside the truck watching me as I settled in. I took the key, put it in the ignition and gave it a turn.

After only a second of hesitation, the engine roared to life, I saw Golden Dawn and Blue Skies both fly back a few feet at the sound.

Stupid. I thought to myself. It was pretty clear that this was entirely alien to them, I should have given the ponies a warning before I started it up.

"It's all right," I said with a friendly wave, "that's just the truck's engine starting up." I picked up my phone to make sure it was charging, everything looked good so I set it back down and then climbed out. "Sorry about that, I should have said something, I wanted to make sure it would still start and also recharge my phone."

The ponies looked confused at that statement, but then Golden's expression changed as she looked back towards the truck.

"So you were saying this runs on something called diesel? How exactly does it work?" Golden Dawn said, as she hovered back and forth between the front and the rear of the truck.

"Steam engines, like on your trains are external combustion engine, the fuel, coal in your case, is burned outside the engine and the heat is transferred water which turns to steam that drives the engine. Diesel is the name of fuel this truck runs on, the other popular fuel for cars is gasoline. Both are refined from oil and they are used to power internal combustion engines. Unlike a steam engine, the fuel is burned inside the engine itself and directly provides the energy needed move the automobile."

"Oh my gosh, it *is* an automobile," Golden Dawn said excitedly. "I had my suspicions, but it looks nothing like any steam car I've ever seen."

"Automobile?" Blue Skies asked. I looked to Golden Dawn to see what she was going to say. It seemed odd to me that ponies would have automobiles.

"They're really new, I've only seen one before in my life," Golden Dawn said. "Have you ever seen a steam traction engine?"

"Are those the things that look like small trains but are on wheels instead, they use them on some of the bigger farms?"

"Exactly, well an automobile is like that but even smaller. Same kind of engine, but very compact. They look like wagons with a firebox and a boiler on them. It's mostly a toy for the idle rich, a way to get around in style," Golden Dawn said.

"That pretty much matches what I would have said. The first automobiles on earth were steam powered also, but that was well over a hundreds years ago. They slowly replaced horse drawn carriages on Earth as technology improved. Eventually they switched from steam engines to gasoline and diesel because of the greater power and efficiency available. Let me see if I can get a little more technical, and walk you though the process, or at least a simplified version of it. Inside the engine, there are a number of cylinders, that number varies from engine to engine, this one has eight of them. In each cylinder there is a piston, fuel and air are injected into the cylinder, and that mixture is ignited which forms expanding gasses. Those gasses push on the piston, forcing it down."

I rambled on a bit about engines, trying to remember as much as I could about how they worked. One of the main differences between a gasoline engine and a diesel is how the fuel is set off. In a gasoline engine, fuel and air are both injected into the cylinders of the engine, when the piston reaches maximum compression a spark plug generates a spark that is used to ignite that mixture. Unlike gas engines, diesels don't use spark plugs. Diesels run at a much higher compression ratio than a typical gasoline engines. Compressing air heats it up and in a diesel engine, the air gets hot enough to set off the fuel by itself. Air is injected into the cylinder, it starts to compress, the temperature rises and then when hits the top of the stroke, the fuel is sprayed in, it ignites and pushes the piston back down where the process can start again.

"The piston is attached to a crankshaft which turns when the piston is forced downward. By having multiple cylinders with multiple pistons all attached to one crankshaft you can set them up and time the ignition sequences in such a way that some pistons are returning back up while other pistons are still being forced down."

Blue Skies still looked somewhat confused but Golden Dawn seemed to be following along, she had a strange look on her face but I didn't think much of it. I talked for a bit more, Golden had a few questions and I answered them the best that I could. Blue Skies started to look bored, and my brain kept drifting to the strange text on the license plate, and my currently charging phone, so I wrapped up and then hopped back into the truck.

All the talk about engines and fuel reminded me that I was sitting here idling my truck on an alien planet with no more access to any more diesel. All so I could charge my phone, which I couldn't use anyway. I quickly climbed back up into the truck and shut it off.

I took a quick glance at the fuel gauge, like the license plate the 'E' and 'F' were unreadable but that didn't stop me from seeing that I had about three quarters of a tank left. Once again I tried to think of something that would explain why I could read in town but not out here.

A dark thought crossed my mind and I grabbed my phone, hoping the battery had gotten enough charge to start it up. I turned it on and put it back in my pocket, then practically jumped out of the truck. I wasn't sure why I hadn't thought of this earlier, it should have sent red flags up the moment Dusty and Golden told me where I was.

"Golden do you have anything with writing on it?" I asked worriedly.

"Huh? Why do you ask?"

"A theory, it's... well I want to check something, it's important, I just need something with writing on it doesn't matter what."

Golden flew over to the wagon and returned a moment later with a piece of paper in her mouth. I grabbed it from her and began to read.

It was an itemized list of the food she had bought for our trip, apples, bananas, carrots, cupcakes... each item had a number next to it and there was a total at the end. It was a receipt.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and turned the screen on, the battery icon was red but I only needed a second to see that the text was all gibberish.

"I can read this," I said, frantically waving the receipt in front of the two ponies.

"But I can't read this," I said, showing them the phone.

"What is that?" Golden asked.

"It's my phone, but it doesn't matter, that's not important. The important part is I can't read anything on it. Same with the truck."

I ran over and pointed at the license plate.

"This is gibberish."

I climbed up into the driver seat, Golden flew up along side me.

"I can't read anything in here, not the buttons on the radio, not the dials on the dashboard."

"The what?" Golden Dawn asked, sticking her head into the open door to get a better view.

I pointed at the dashboard.

"This is the speedometer, it should read from '0' to '120'. This should be '0' right here," I said pointing a finger at the bottom left of the gauge. "Every number after '0' should be ten higher than the previous.

"I don't recognize those characters," she said.

"NEITHER DO I!" I shouted, my voice filled with panic.

Golden cringed at my volume, she looked at me, unsure of what to say. I could tell from her expression that she hadn't figured out what my problem was. Probably because I was shouting instead of explaining what was wrong.

I turned away, ashamed at my outburst, but I was at the edge of a breakdown and I didn't know if I could hold it in. The truck was too confining, but Golden Dawn was blocking the door, so I slid over the seat, opened the passenger door and clambered out. The drop on that side was a bit higher and I caught my foot on a loose rock and slipped on the way down, collapsing to the ground. I picked myself up and scrambled up and out of the trench, trying to get away. I made it all of ten feet before I tripped and fell again, this time I didn't bother to get back up. I could hear the flutter of wings over my deep gasps as both ponies landed on either side of me, a moment later I felt a wing wrap around my shoulders.

"Hail Storm, can you explain what's going on?" Golden Dawn asked.

"When I first woke up, here in the truck, I noticed that I couldn't read anything. I had also banged my head pretty bad and had a nasty headache so my immediate thought was some sort of brain damage that was preventing me from reading. Since then there have a been a few things that should have bothered me but I didn't put two and two together until now."

"Like what?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Well for one you keep calling me "Hail" instead of "Hal" but that's not all. When we were walking through town, I had no trouble reading the store signs. I didn't think anything of it because why would I? I've been able to read since I was a little kid, reading a sign is no big deal, not enough to stick out."

"Hail instead of Hail? I'm not sure I follow?" Golden Dawn said.

I held my hand to my head, which had started to hurt again.

"Do you have another headache?" Golden Dawn asked, looking confused.

"I've had one almost constantly since I first woke up here, it's... not too bad right now, I can live with it. That's not the real problem though, the real problem is that I could read those signs, and your grocery receipt."

"What's so strange about that?" Blue Skies asked.

"Because I'm not from here! I'm not from this country, I'm not even from this planet! How can I read anything here, how can I even talk to you? What are the chances of an me getting dumped on a strange planet and all the inhabitants already speak and write English?"

"We're speaking Equestrian," Blue Skies said.

"I don't know Equestrian! Or I shouldn't know Equestrian, how could I? No human has ever been here before. What is the likelihood of two alien species having two different languages that are basically the same? That's impossible!"

"Well, we can understand you, so..." Blue Skies said, trailing off, her point clear.

"Yes, and if I had thought about it, maybe I would have just assumed that against all odds somehow both our spoken and written languages were the same."

"Ohhhh," Golden Dawn said as her eyes went wide with recognition. "I think I understand what you meant now."

"Then can you explain because I'm really confused," Blue Skies said.

"Hail Storm said he can't read anything in his truck, things he should be able to read, but he can read things written in Equestrian, which he shouldn't be able to do."

"Exactly!" I chimed in. "I don't know how, and I don't know why but somehow I've acquired the ability to read your language but lost the ability to read mine."

"I wonder if it's not just writing, maybe its speech as well?" Golden said stroking her chin.

"Well I wouldn't be able to tell, unless you know someone that speaks English..." I trailed off, there was one way I could check. I pulled the phone out of my pocket as fast as I could.

"What are you doing?" Golden asked.

"Shh just a minute," I replied hastily, while opening my music player. All the band and album names were unreadable as was the interface but it didn't matter, I just needed to play a song, any song, as long as it had lyrics. I had to work quickly, the battery was just about dead. I grabbed the ear buds I kept in my pocket and plugged them in, I wanted maximum clarity for this the phone's crappy speaker coupled with all the ambient noise wasn't good enough.

A moment later the sounds of heavy metal started pumping into my ear. Ten seconds after that the lyrics started up. I knew the song, I knew what they should be, but what I was hearing wasn't English. Or rather it was English, I just couldn't understand it anymore. I shut off the music and put everything away.

A magic portal was something I could comprehend, I could rattle off a dozen books, movies or games that used a portal to another world as a plot device. What I couldn't think of is why or how my ability to speak and read my native language would have been affected. Did someone or something do this to me? Was it deliberate? How could this even work? Did someone muck around in my mind and alter my memory? Could magic even do that? The more I thought about it the more questions I had.

I stood up and started to pace back and forth.

"Somehow I can understand you, but the really strange part is when I talk to you, it sounds like what I remember English to sound like. It doesn't feel like I'm speaking another language, but I must be. And even if I am, why can I remember things from Earth correctly? If I picture the speedometer in my car, I know what its supposed to look like, but when I actually look at it the numbers don't look like what they should. How does that even work? I know what a zero is supposed to look like, it looks like this."

I reached down and scratched a zero into the dirt in front of me.

"Yep, that's a zero," Golden Dawn said.

I let out a long groan, "I see it as a zero as well, which means whatever did this to me also affected my ability to write."

The two ponies followed me as I walked over to the back of my car and pointed at my license plate.

"The fourth character on this plate is a zero. I know this because I know what my license plate number is, but when I look at this, it doesn't look anything like a zero, it looks like someone just stamped a random symbol into the plate."

"Maybe our writing is different but our speech is the same," Golden Dawn said

"I thought of that, which is why I pulled out my cell phone," I said.

Golden tilted her head in confusion, "I know what a phone is and what a cell is but I have no idea what a cell phone is."

"It was that little black box I was holding onto a moment ago," I pulled it out of my pocket and showed it to her.

"That's a phone?" she asked, with a look of confused.

I hadn't seen a pony phone yet. From what I'd seen of their tech level, if I ever did see one, I guessed it would look something like an old style rotary.

"Yes, I'll show you later, but the point is it has a music player on it, that was the first thing I could think of that would let me hear some English words, so I started up a song and that confirmed it, I couldn't understand the lyrics at all."

I sat back down on the ground, struggling to come to terms with everything. The more I thought about it, the more the insane the whole situation seemed. My slow and steady breaths changed to shallow ragged gasps as I slowly lost control. Tears began to pool up in my eyes as I struggled to think about all that had happened in the last month. As I sat there on the verge of tears, the futility of the my attempt dawned on me. If someone could alter my brain in such a fashion that I couldn't even recognize that I was speaking a new language, what else could they do? Maybe all the events of the last month were a lie, fabricated by whoever brought me here. For all I knew my entire life could be a series of false memories.

That last thought did not help my mood and I sank further to the ground. The weight of everything that had happened, the death of my father, being whisked away to another world and this new revelation, that someone had screwed around in my head, crashed down upon me and what little strength I had left failed.

I was on another planet.

Someone or something had dug around in my head and screwed around with it.

No one knew I was missing and even if they did there was no way they'd find me here.

I was supposed to be back at work three days ago, I don't think I had a job anymore.

I had no way to get home, my only real hope was that a magical pony princess could solve everything that went wrong.

Everything kind of hit me at once.

I felt physically sick, like someone had kicked me in the stomach. The sickness in my gut was different than it was earlier in the day, I didn't feel like I was going to throw up, I just felt... dread. I began to hyperventilate, before I knew it tears were streaming from my eyes.

"I... just want to go home," I said, blubbering like a little kid. I could feel my face turning red but I just couldn't stop crying.

The next thing I knew a large fluffy wing was wrapping around me. It was perfectly timed, that hug. It helped more than any words would have. A part of me was a bit weirded out and quite embarrassed. I barely knew these ponies and I was having a major break down in front of them. Now one of them was hugging me in an effort to calm me down. Another part of me just told me to shut up and accept Golden Dawn's compassion. That part won. As the minutes slipped by, the tears gradually stopped and I slowly regained my composure.

I felt compelled to speak up, "I'm sorry about that," I said quietly. "I should have never lost it like that, I don't know what happened. I've never been so emotional before."

"There's nothing to apologize about," Golden said.

"Stallions," Blue Skies said with a snort, "They're the same in every species, never like to show any feelings."

Golden laughed at that, it was friendly and disarming. My embarrassment faded enough that I joined in on the laughter. That made me feel a bit better. After the moment had faded away, Golden offered me a hoof and I stood up.

"Do you still want to try to rescue the truck?" she asked.

"Yeah, I think I need that. It and the trailer are all I've got left, I can't just leave it here."

Keeping myself busy would take my mind off the whole situation. That would work in the short term, but really I needed to come up with a plan. I wasn't ready to give up on getting home but I really needed to figure out what my options were. I didn't have all the answers, but I knew step one was getting my truck. Somewhere down the line was getting to the capital and hoping that one of the princesses that I had been told about could get me home. It had to be possible, if I was sent here, I could be sent back.

We walked back over to the wagon and began to unpack our supplies. I grabbed my backpack and walked over to the trailer. I took the gun out of the bag and locked it in the trailer, I decided I'd ask Golden Dawn about carrying it around later. I headed back to the two ponies who were still busy unloading the wagon.

"Okay Golden, so what exactly is your plan?" I asked.

"Well, we can use the boards to make a wall, bracing them with these beams. Then we just fill the hole with dirt until its high enough that when we push the truck forward so it doesn't fall into the hole."

"Seems simple enough," Blue Skies said.

It was simple in planning but the execution was backbreaking. Not only was it extremely hot out, but the ground was rocky which made digging slow. The first part of the job was to get the walls up. To make sure they didn't just fall over, we took a post hole digger and made two holes on on either side of the truck. The beams went into the holes standing straight up in the air. Then we placed the boards up against the beams and nailed them in place. They weren't perfectly straight and they didn't cover from rock to rock perfectly but they didn't have to, just enough so that most of the dirt tossed between the two boards stayed in place.

Once the boards were up and we were sure they weren't going to fall over that's when we started digging. All the digging was done outside of the trench, we'd get a shovelful of dirt, walk over and toss it in. Well I walked over. Golden and Blue Skies flew over. It was interesting watching them work, they stood on their rear hooves and held on to the shovel with their forehoves. You'd think a four legged creature would lack the dexterity that humans have with arms hands but nope, that wasn't the case at all. In fact, in the same way that they left me in the dust when it came to speed, the pair far outstripped the amount of work I was able to do. And they had told me that earth ponies were the strong ones. It made me wonder how strong these little ponies actually were.

Eventually we packed as much dirt between the two boards as we could, in fact the wheels were no longer half in the air, now they were buried. I was worried that we'd just kick all that loose dirt up when I tried to move the truck so we compacted the dirt as best we could and added some large rocks on the top layer for good measure. If the wheel drove over a rock and the rock started to sink into the dirt then maybe the tire wouldn't.

Both ponies got into position to push but I told them I wanted to try driving out first. I climbed up into the truck and started the engine, then rolled my window down.

"Okay you two stand back, I don't want to run you over."

The way the truck had landed, driving forward was going to be easier than going backwards. I threw it into 4WD, put it into first gear and gave it some gas. The truck shook as I pushed the pedal closer and closer to the floor. The tires began to spin in place but then they caught up and the whole thing lurched with a mighty thump. The front tires had made it out of the gap and rears were resting on the dirt bridge we had made. A moment later there was another bump and the truck was completely free. I threw it into park and then hopped out.

"It worked!" Golden Dawn said with a smile.

"Yeah! Thanks so much for helping me, I would have never gotten it out myself."

We took a quick break for dinner, Golden Dawn broke out some peanut butter sandwiches and a box of cupcakes. The bread was a freshly baked loaf, made that very morning. The package it came in was enchanted and when Golden pulled it out it was still warm; whoever had made it really knew what they were doing, it was some of the tastiest bread I'd ever eaten.

Golden Dawn took a glance at the truck, "That was pretty impressive getting out of that rut, that thing's got some torque," she said with admiration. Blue Skies just rolled her eyes and took another bite of her sandwich.

"Yeah I'm lucky I wasn't in my dinky compact car, it would have been stuck forever," I said while spreading out some more peanut butter on my second serving. "I suppose I can drive back to town, but I need to take the trailer with me. I don't want to leave it out here, but the hookup looks kind of broken."

"I've was checking it out while you were poking around inside, I think if we can get it back to my shop, I can fix it. For now maybe we can rig something up, do you have any heavy duty rope or chain?" Golden Dawn asked.

"There are some heavy duty straps in the back of the truck, I think they are rated for 10,000 lbs," I said between bites. We finished dinner and then I climbed up into the back of the truck.

Blue Skies told us that she had to get going, she was already late for work as it was. I asked if she wanted me to drive her back to town, since it had to be faster than even galloping back. I felt bad making her late and if I had to, I could come back and get the trailer later.

"Who said anything about walking?" she said with a laugh, flapping her wings at me; then with a jump she took to the skies. I shouted a thank you as she flew away, she turned and waved at us before turning towards town and accelerating rapidly. In almost no time at all she was just a tiny dot in sky. That was the first time I had seen a pegasus in a hurry; she was moving fast, way faster than I would have expected a pony to be able to go.

I had found the pair of straps when I was looking for a way to tie down the two five gallon diesel jugs, they were overkill, but they were all I had. The jugs themselves hadn't come loose when I crashed so I guessed I had done a good job securing them. I unlocked the metal storage box in the back of the truck and pulled out the second strap.

Golden expressed some surprise at the the rating of the straps, I think she was expecting some heavy duty rope, not thin strips of a high strength synthetic fiber. I drove the truck over down and around the trench and up to the trailer. Then we pushed the trailer around so it was facing the right direction, got it lined up with the truck and then tied it up with the strap, it wasn't the safest or most sturdy solution, but hopefully it would hold until we got back to town. I pulled myself out from under the trailer and wiped the sweat off my forehead. The heat had only gotten worse and I took a big swig of my canteen, then tilted it up and dumped some over my head to help cool off.

I climbed into the truck threw it into 1st gear, and slowly started to pull forward. The straps went taught and I felt a jolst as the trailer started to roll forward.

"Everything looks good back here," I heard Golden Dawn say. "Just take it slow."

"Not a problem."

I turned the wheel until the truck was pointing towards the road, then stopped it and unrolled the window. Golden Dawn flew up along side.

"Is there anything else you want to do while we're out here?" Golden asked.

"Not that I can think of, where are we headed next?"

"I was thinking my shop, its going to be pretty late when we get back and I want to get this thing put away."

"Sounds good to me, let me park this thing and help clean up the tools."

I insisted on putting everything in the back of the truck, I felt bad enough that Golden was going to have to pull her wagon all the way back by herself, so I figured I'd at least lighten the load as much as I could. After a bit of arguing she reluctantly agreed.

"I don't know how it is for humans but ponies travel around by hoof, a 50 mile trip isn't a big deal. I guess at your speed though, I can see why you use automobiles," she said with a grin and a wink.

"Hey not all of us have four legs... or wings," I said sticking my tongue out at her.

"Still, it would be nice to ride in that thing, especially to see how you operate it," she said.

"Maybe tomorrow we can go for a drive around town, that's if you think it would be allowed," I said.

"I don't think there's any laws against it, we'll just have to be careful to not run anypony over."

"Okay why don't you take the lead, I'll follow you since I don't know exactly where I'm going."

"Sounds good to me."

Golden Dawn trotted in front of me, heading back towards the road. I rolled the truck forward, following her. The day had not gone exactly as I had expected. There were still so many mysteries that had to be answered. Still, at least I had my stuff back. Even if the road home was longer than I thought, I'd get there, eventually. I plugged my phone in and connected it to the radio. The lyrics might sound alien, but I could at least still enjoy some music on the way back. Soon, I found drumming to the beat. I forced any worries I had about getting home to the back of my head. For now, I'd enjoy the trip instead of focusing on the destination.

Even with only Golden pulling the wagon, getting back only took slightly longer than it had taken us to get out there in the first place. Golden stopped for a break exactly once. I hopped out and sat next to her so we could talk. Ten minutes later she was ready to go.

We had just gotten back to town when Golden stopped and shouted for me.

"Hey, I almost completely forgot, Dusty wanted me to have you stop by when we got back so he could give you a check up."

"Alright, lead on."

I slowly drove through the town heading for Dusty's. I got a bunch of strange looks by few ponies who were out and about, but it was starting to get dark and the streets were mostly empty. We got to Dusty's, I parked the truck in front of his house and hopped out. Dusty must have heard me pulling up and wondered what the noise was because he trotted out of the house. He saw us and headed over.

"Evening you two." he said with a smile before turning to me and asking "so how is Equestria's first human feeling?"

"Okay I guess, I got sick earlier today but I felt fine after that. I've still got a headache but I took some pills I had in the truck and its down to a dull roar, other than that I'm feeling fine."

Dusty looked a bit concerned, "Do you often have headaches for this long? Seems a bit strange to me but I don't know your species."

"Not usually," I said.

"Well, can you come in for a bit and let me give you a look over?"

"Sure,"

Golden Dawn chimed in, "Hey Hail Storm, I'm going to take the wagon back to my shop, I'll come back here after I drop it off."

"Okay, see you in a bit."

Dusty and I headed inside and he escorted me to the examination room. He had me get undressed which I was a little self-conscious about, he may have been a doctor but he wasn't my doctor or even human. He undid the bandages on my head, my shoulder and my leg, inspecting each one. When he got to the leg, the only one I could see without a mirror, I was shocked. He had changed the bandages once yesterday and the scrape on my leg was pretty nasty looking. It wasn't deep or dangerous but a good sized patch of skin was torn up. Now there was nothing but smooth skin.

I got up and walked over to wall where there was a small sink with a mirror. I used it to check the other two locations and found them to also be in perfect condition. Even my sunburn was gone.

Dusty smiled and turned towards me, "Everything is looking good, wasn't sure if it would need another day or not."

"What happened to the scrapes, the sunburn and the lump on my head?"

"They've healed up," Dusty said with some confusion.

"How? scrapes, even small ones, don't heal in a day and a half, neither does sunburn."

"Well not if you don't get them treated."

"What do you mean?" I asked feeling confused.

"Well, an untreated wound has to heal up on its own, that can take a while, but when its treated by a pony who knows what they are doing, that speeds up the natural healing process."

"Is that... magic?" I asked.

"In part yep, anypony can set a bone or bandage a wound, if they know what they are doing, and if done right things tend to heal up a bit faster. For things to really go well you need a pony with a certain talent, like myself."

"Does this tie back to cutie marks?" I asked

"Exactly, see you're getting it," he said with a smile. "Anyway your head was the one I was worried about and it looks fine, keep me posted on that headache though, if it doesn't go away completely by tomorrow come back and see me, or if it gets any worse, don't wait, come back right away."

"Alright, thanks again, is there anything I can do to repay you? I don't have any money but if you need help with anything just say the word and if I can do it I will." I said.

"Don't you worry about it, I was just helping somepony get back on their hooves."

We headed back to the front room, just as Golden was knocking on the front door. I said goodbye to Dusty and headed outside.

"So now that I don't have the wagon, I can ride with you back to my shop," she said with a smirk.

"I see how it is."

I walked around to the passenger side and opened the door for her.

"Hop in," I said.

Golden Dawn climbed up into the truck, but it was a bit of a tight fit, luckily it was a three person bench so she could sit sideways, but there was no way she was going to be able to wear a seat-belt. I kept the speed under twenty and we chatted about life here in Hoofston while I followed her directions to her shop. After carefully navigating through the town I saw the large building approaching in the distance.

Golden tried to open the door with her rear hoof but she couldn't quite get the latch, I started to reach over but she ended up reaching over with a wing and popping it open. She climbed out, telling me to wait in the truck, then trotted up to the front door and went inside. A minute later I heard the the side door on the left start to roll open. Golden walked out and around the corner and motioned for me to pull the truck right into the building.

Chapter 6

The tracks running into the building were not evenly spaced, both sets were closer to the left side of the building than the right. When I drove inside I could see why. From the left wall all the way to about two thirds of the way across was one large room. The ceiling was two stories high, plenty of space for an engine to drive into the building. The track up against the wall had a large dug out pit, allowing a pony to get under the engine if they had to work on it. I pulled my truck forward, keeping closer to the rail that had no pit. I didn't want to accidentally get my truck, or the trailer, stuck again.

After I parked, I got out and took a look around. While the left two-thirds of the building was open, the remaining part was divided into two areas, a larger closed off section and a smaller open one. The closed off section looked to be two separate rooms. An interior wall ran from the back of the workshop, three-fourths of the way to the front where I had pulled in. Another interior wall connected it with the main wall forming an enclosed area that I suspected was divided into at least two rooms since there were two doors on the longer wall. The first was around the middle of the room while the second was near the far back of the shop.

The remaining section was an open area, filled with various tools and other equipment that looked a good deal more modern than anything I had seen since arriving here. My best guess placed them somewhere around early to mid 1900s human tech level. There were drill presses, lathes, welding tools, a wide variety of hand tools - or was that hoof tools - two large workbenches and everything else one would expect to find in a workshop. There was also a staircase against the far right wall that ran up to second floor level. At the top of the staircase was a door leading into the closed off area.

The whole workshop was quite was well lit, far better than I'd expect from kerosene lamps. I glanced upward up and saw electric lighting, or at least what I suspected was electric lighting, running across the ceiling. In addition to the lights was a massive set of beams running the length of the shop. There were two large hoists, big enough that they looked like they could lift up a train, one on each beam.

"This place is impressive," I said looking out across the room. "Big though, you work here alone?"

"Not usually, I've got a part timer named Brick Wall who comes in when I need to do some heavy lifting. I had a pair of unicorns, husband and wife working for me but they moved north a month ago. Right now I don't have a ton of work coming in so I haven't looked for any new workers. I may even end up closing the shop and moving north, it depends on how some of my side projects go."

Golden Dawn gave me a tour of the first floor the shop and showed me all of her equipment. When we got over to the two doors, she opened the middle one, it was a storage room filled with metal, spare parts and many other things. Then she skipped the door on the end and headed for the staircase in the front of the building. The whole thing was an awesome sight, it definitely stood out against the western theme the rest of the town had going on. One thing did confuse me though.

"Golden, the lights, the lathe and the drills and the all the rest of the machines... do they all run on electricity?"

Golden Dawn stopped at a large metal box attached to the wall under the staircase. It looked like a very large breaker box.

"Yep, I was just going to get to that," she said.

She walked up to the box and opened a panel, exposing a row of eight massive emeralds colored gems, each as large as my first. The gems had a very slight glow to them that I almost didn't notice in the brightly lit room. There were three more identical panels on the box, for a total of 32 gems in all.

"Are these gem batteries, like you were talking about before?"

"Yep, this is how ponies do electricity on the go, or in backwater towns that don't have their own power grid yet," she said with a laugh.

"There are four main kinds of gems, rubies which have a huge capacity but can't take a high load, sapphires, which can handle very high load but can't hold much magic, emeralds, which are middle of the ground for both capacity and load and finally diamonds which have both the best capacity and can handle the highest load."

"Why don't you just use diamonds for everything then?" I asked.

"Cost, a single enchantment grade diamond of this size would run as much as this entire bank of emeralds," Golden Dawn said, pointing at the panel she had open.

She closed up the panel and lead me up the stairs to the second floor. It was actually a small one bedroom apartment. Golden Dawn explained that she had originally lived right there in the shop, but she moved out a few years ago, wanting a bigger place. The unicorn family that had been working for her lived there for a while, Golden Dawn let them use it as part of their pay. Eventually though, the wife had gotten pregnant. They decided that they wanted to move to a bigger town and get a house of their own.

She hadn’t had any luck finding any other ponies to rent out the place too. Unless you were working in the shop, living there didn't make much sense as there were nicer, quieter places available. We sat around for a while in the apartment's living room and talked about the day's activities.

Mid-sentance, Golden Dawn let out a cute little yawn. I took the time to glance out the window. I hadn’t realized how late it was, the sun had long since dropped below the horizon and the surrounding was lit only by moonlight. I figured I should probably get going, I didn’t want to overstay my welcome. I went to speak up but Golden Dawn beat me to it.

"So I've been thinking," Golden Dawn said. "Since nopony is living here right now and you don't have a place to stay, why don't I let you crash here?"

Inwardly, I sighed. I certainly appreciated the offer but my stubborn brain kept insisting that the truck was more than adequate, I didn’t want to mooch anymore.

"You don't have to do that, I can just sleep in my truck." I said.

"Oh come on Hail Storm, just do it. It's not like I'm living here right now and nopony wants to rent an apartment in a factory, the only reason there's still furniture and a bed in here is cause sometimes when I get stuck working late and don't want to fly home, I crash here myself. If I didn't do that I would have torn it down for more storage space."

"I just hate being a freeloader, I can't pay for anything and it sucks." I said with a frown.

"Well get a job then, we'll check out the town tomorrow, I'm sure you can find something you can do."

"I need to figure out what I'm going to do now that I have my truck back. I need to try to get home, the way I understand it, getting to your capital is my best chance of that. What was it called again?"

"Canterlot," Golden Dawn said. I managed to resist smacking myself in the face. "You could buy a train ticket, they aren't that expensive, unless you're taking the Express."

"Again, lack of money. More than that, if I take a train, I'd have to leave my truck here. I've got too much stuff in the trailer to just abandon it. But Dusty said the capital was half way across the country. Even if the trailer hitch wasn't broken, I can't drive that far with no way to buy food," I said, slumping my shoulders.

"I could lend you some bits," Golden Dawn said, thoughtfully.

"Thanks but I'd never be able to pay you back, I already owe you my life, I don't want to add to that debt. Maybe I should try to find some work, even if it takes a little longer. If I can find something to do for a few days I can earn some food money. An extra couple of days aren't going to do me any more damage," I said. Since I've already lost my job by now. ran through my brain, but I kept it to myself.

“Job it is then, I’m sure we can find you some kind of short term work,” Golden Dawn said.

"On that note, would I even be allowed to work? I don't have any identification and I'm not a citizen."

"Why would you need identification to work? If you think you can do a job, you just apply for it."

I briefly talked about the pages and pages of paperwork I had to go through when I started my last job. Health insurance, 401k, tax information, bank information for my pay checks, compliance training, drug checks, background checks, references and a billion other things.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but humans are insane," she said.

"You aren't wrong," I said with a laugh.

Golden Dawn wasn't sure what kind of work was available but she ran through some of the smaller jobs that she had seen. I could see she was getting tired but she trucked on until she exhausted her list of ideas. It gave me a good idea of what I’d be looking at in the morning.

"I need to call it a night, I'll be back here tomorrow morning and we can figure out what to do next. I'd also like to get a look at your truck if you don't mind. Maybe we can fix that trailer hitch.”

"That would be great! Of course if you do, I'm going to find some way to pay you back, one way or another," I said. I waved goodbye as she got up to leave. "I'll see you tomorrow."

She headed back down to the shop and closed up the side doors then took off. Meanwhile. I looked around the apartment. There was a small combination kitchen and dining / living room, a modest sized bedroom and a bathroom. All in all it wasn't much smaller than the apartment I had been living back in the states. I headed downstairs, dug my suitcase out of the truck, grabbed the bottle of painkillers from the glove box and went back upstairs.

I considered myself extremely lucky that pony bathrooms were extremely similar to human bathrooms, the only real differences were that the toilet was lower to the ground, had a foot pedal for flushing and was a fair bit larger. That and both the bathroom at Dusty's and this one lacked a shower, instead they had bathtubs. I didn’t have a chance to use the one at Dusty’s but nothing was stopping me now. I don't know how the water came out hot but it did and it was amazing. Normally I'd prefer a shower but after eight days without any real chance to clean myself, I was willing to settle for the bath and be happy with it.

I soaked in the water for way longer than necessary, then climbed out and let the tub drain, only to fill it up again. It was only after I got out the second time that I realized I didn't have a towel, nor was there one in the mostly empty apartment. I ended up sacrificing one of my spare t-shirts to dry off as best as I could, then hung it to dry. I also did my best to clean the positively filthy clothes I had been wearing since I wound up in Equestria. I actually considered burning them but they represented 1/5th of Equestria’s supply of human clothing so I decided against it. Instead I looked around, wondering if Golden Dawn had one of those old-timey washboards, before realizing that since she didn't wear anything it was unlikely she'd have one. Certainly not in an apartment she barely used.

After that I stumbled into the bedroom and collapsed on the bed which fortunately had sheets. Like the one at Dusty's it was a bit short but very wide and extremely comfortable. I quickly fell asleep.

Golden Dawn arrived very early the next morning. I was a late sleeper and had always considered mornings the worst part of the day so I was still sound asleep when she knocked on the apartment door. Still groggy, the noise confused me at first. I closed my eyes and tried to fall back asleep, but it persisted. When I was finally awake enough to realize that the knocking wasn't going to stop until I got out of bed and did something about it, I pulled myself up, threw on some pants, stumbled into the living room and opened the door, all while nursing yet another headache.

"Ehhhhh?" I mumbled still half asleep.

"I brought coffee," Golden Dawn said, holding a paper bag in her mouth.

I almost hugged her right then and there. "Oh thank god, ponies have coffee."

I waited for her to put down the bag and deliver the divine liquid unto my mouth, but she walked past me over to the small kerosene stove in the corner of the kitchen and fired it up. Inside the bag was a old fashioned stove-top percolator and a tin can full of coffee grounds. She filled the percolator up with water, opened a tin can and added the grounds and set it on the stove.

"Ahhh! Ponies need to invent Dunkin' Donuts or something, this is taking too long," I complained several minutes later.

Golden Dawn gave me brief look of confusion before turning back to the stove, she made an adjustment to the heat and then sat down next to me.

After several more agonizing minutes, the coffee was finally ready. I filled my mug, added some cream and sugar and took a sip. It was the first thing I had consumed here that wasn't amazing, it just tasted like regular homemade coffee, good home made coffee, but not the best. Even though it wasn't super amazingly awesome, it was still coffee and I was still glad to have it. As an added bonus, in my experience caffeine plus painkillers made an excellent combination for fighting headaches. I pulled out the small pill bottle I had grabbed from the truck, popped two pills from my dwindling supply and got ready to head downstairs.

Golden Dawn was already downstairs looking at the trailer, I wandered over to watch what she was doing. She spent some time looking at the broken hookup, and the hitch on the truck. Then she walked over to a work bench and pulled out some paper and a pencil, she went back and forth to the truck and trailer a few times taking measurements. She seemed to alternate between using her mouth or a hoof to write with the pencil. Both gave far better results than my own handwriting.

Eventually she finished and flagged me over. She showed me the sheet of paper where she had drawn up a replacement for the broken parts. She went over her design and how the hitch worked, checking to make sure it matched what I had expected. In truth, I had followed the instructions and only attached a trailer once before, it sounded right but the manual was currently sitting in the truck's glove box, unreadable so I had no way of checking. She made a few notes at the bottom of the page based on my feedback.

Then she got to work. She trotted over to a storage area and pulled out some bars of metal; balancing them on her back she slowly walked over to one of the machines in the shop. I was about to go sit down in the truck when she called over to me, "where do you think you're going?" she asked.

"Just getting out of your way," I said pointing over at the truck.

"Nah, you can help," she said smiling.

I shook my head, "I've got experience in a shop, but human tools and pony tools aren't exactly the same. Plus I don't know anything about fixing a trailer I'd just be in the way."

"I can show you, this isn't too complicated, think of it as a learning experience."

I shrugged and walked over. For the next hour she went through safety rules, which were more or less the same as in a human shop, basic operation of the machinery and then finally the plans she had written up. She treated it like she was teaching a class and did a few live demonstrations with her tools, even on the things that I thought were obvious. I didn't try to stop her though, watching her use tools with hooves was fascinating. I caught myself staring in wonder a few times unable to fully comprehend her magic touch.

The really interesting bits were when she had to do something that I thought would required the fine manipulation that only fingers could provide. If she could get even the tip of her hoof on something, it was enough for the magical grip to do its thing. If that didn't work, in went a wing. If anything, she could actually do more than I could with fingers alone.

When she finished with the demonstrations, we got to work on repairing the hitch. The trailer had a metal bar that extended out the front of it, at the end was a tongue that slipped over the trailer ball. The bar had bent and the tongue was also dented up, having likely struck a rock when the trailer was rolling forward. The safety chains were supposed to keep the trailer from coming loose, but they had snapped. Golden Dawn said she wasn't sure but the chain looked a bit small for it's application.

"I bought it used and cheap, maybe it had the wrong size chains on it?" I said with a shrug. I had no way to find out now.

Golden Dawn said that she had some chain in the back, all we'd have to do is replace the bent up bar and the tongue which is what she had sketched a design of. I was a little worried, since this was going to be pulling my trailer, but she insisted her replacement would work just as well. After that we got to work, surprisingly, she had me do a good portion of it. I messed up a few times trying to get used to the equipment. Not only was it horribly outdated compared to what I usually worked with, the controls were also different. Still, most of the differences were not as big as you'd expect for a race of equines. It was just enough that it threw me off and I made a few stupid mistakes.

It was actually a little embarrassing, since I knew they were silly slip-ups. I felt like it was my first day working in a shop all over again, still Golden was extremely patient and by the end I was starting to get the hang of using the milling machine that we were using. We had just finished the replacement tongue when my stomach let out a loud growl.

"Sound's like somepony is hungry," she said as she placed her pencil down.

"I've been meaning to ask, what's with the somepony thing?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know, anytime you use an indefinite pronoun where I expect it to be one or body, you use the word pony, Somepony, anypony, everypony."

"As opposed to?" Golden asked.

"You know, instead of somepony, someone or somebody."

"You just said 'instead of somepony, somepony or somepony,'" she said scrunching her face up in confusion.

"No, I said, someone or somebody," I said, shaking my head.

"You did it again."

"Someone," I said.

"Somepony," she replied with a shrug.

"What the hell? Some... one," I said deliberately separating the two words.

"Some...one? Like the number? That sounds a bit odd, especially the way you drew it out like that." Golden Dawn said.

"Well it's suppose to be one as in a single individual, kind of like some... body, both are functionally equivalent to your 'somepony' word, but apparently I can't say them anymore, at least not as a singular word."

"Maybe it's a side effect of whatever magic is making you speak Equestrian."

"That's really strange, even more so because I hear me say someone and you hear me say somepony. How does that even work?"

She shrugged in response, "You'd have to ask a unicorn."

A thought dawned on me.

"Golden, I'm going to say a word and I want you to say back to me what I've said."

"Okay?" she looked a bit confused.

"Someone."

"Somepony," Golden responded.

"Storm," I said.

"Storm."

"Hal."

"Hail." Well, that was it. If my theory was correct that explained things a bit.

"Harold Storm."

"I... can't pronounce that first word," Golden Dawn said.

"That's my name, like my actual name. Hal is just a nickname. For reasons I don't understand you appear to hear the word Hal as the word hail. I'm not sure what's causing that but I'm guessing whatever switched my language around doesn't translate names which is why my real name sounds like gibberish to you. If I'm right then maybe my original language is locked away somehow, and only partially accessible. It's the only reason I could think of that would explain why I can still understand my name but you can't."

About that time my stomach growled again. Golden Dawn asked if I wanted to break for breakfast. I still felt bad about leaching food off of someone I had just met but there wasn't much I could do about it so I nodded.

"Do humans like pancakes?" she asked.

I nodded enthusiastically. We headed out and she closed up the shop. It was a bit of a walk but we ended up at a large wooden building. The sign over the door said "The Smokey Griddle" and the smells coming from inside made my mouth water. By the time we got there I was regretting not having driven but with no additional fuel I didn't want to waste what I had left.

The place was pretty busy but also had plenty of seating so we didn't have to wait. Eventually a vibrant blue unicorn walked over to take our order.

"Good morning Morning Glory." Golden Dawn said to a blue unicorn who trotted up to take our order.

"Morning," I added, eyeing the floating notepad. I could spend a year in Equestria and still be amazed by that.

"Good morning to you as well," the unicorn said. She gave me an extra long look over.

Golden Dawn must have noticed, because the next thing I knew she was introducing me.

"This is my friend Hail Storm, he's saying in Hoofston for a while," Golden Dawn said.

"Hello Hail Storm, a pleasure to meet you. I can't say I've ever seen one of your kind before, what do you call yourself?" she asked.

"I'm a human."

"Fascinating, I've never heard of a human before. Anyway I hope you are enjoying your stay in our quiet little town. Do you two know what you want?"

Golden smiled brightly, "pancakes, lots and lots of pancakes."

"So the super stack? Buttermilk or something different this time?" Morning Glory asked.

"Yep! Oh, and buttermilk works." Golden said. "Actually, I'll take chocolate chips in mine this time."

"And for you Hail Storm?" Morning Glory asked.

"Um, I'll just have buttermilk, no chocolate chips." I almost asked for a side of bacon before I caught myself.

Ten minutes later, Morning Glory walked over carrying two gigantic plates, each piled high with the largest pancakes I'd ever seen. There must have been ten of them in each stack. As I buttered up the mountain of pancakes, I briefly wondered if the buttermilk came from talking cows. I decided I didn't want to know. Golden Dawn drenched her pancakes in a river of syrup, then passed me the bottle. I put a slight dab on my finger and gave it a taste. There was none of the cloying artificial flavor I associated with the stuff most restaurants served. Golden Dawn asked what I was doing and I explained that I was checking to see if it was real or fake maple syrup. After another minute of explaining what I was talking about, I was delighted to find out that Equestria only had real maple syrup. Golden Dawn had never even heard of the imitation stuff. High fructose corn syrup was equally non-existent. Maybe I would take my time getting back to Earth.

"If it doesn't come from a maple tree, how could it be maple syrup?" she asked.

"It can't!" I said.

The pancakes were amazing, I keep saying that about most of the Equestrian food that I had tried so far but it didn't make it any less true. Words alone cannot describe how good these pancakes were, instead I will settle for an hypothetical situation. If at that point in time, someone had walked in and put a plate of bacon next to me, I would have ignored it just to make room for more pancakes, that's how good these were. But as good as they were, in the end, I just couldn't finish the whole stack. These things were at least twice the size of the a normal pancake and there was ten of them. That was like twenty regular pancakes, maybe more. I made it through eight of them before my bloated stomach would take no more.

I looked over at Golden Dawn who was polishing the syrup off the bottom of her plate. All my life I had been a big eater, in college none of my friends came even close to packing away as much food as I could when we went out to all you can eat places. True I had slowed down as I got older but I still thought of myself as being able to hold my own. Then again I had never gotten into an eating competition with a horse before. I looked at her empty plate and felt strangely inadequate.

When the bill came up, Golden paid then looked at me and must have suspected that I felt awkward about it because after handing the Morning Glory a few golden coins she turned to me and said, "I know you don't like having to rely on somepony else but you need to not worry about it. There was no way you could plan for a situation like this, and there's no shame in accepting some help until you get back on your hooves."

"That's not it at all," I said.

"Then what?" Golden asked.

"None of my friends have ever been able to out-eat me before."

She looked at me then at my box of leftovers and bust out laughing.

As I lumbered out the door, my poor abused stomach began to groan. I wasn't sure why but it seemed after every meal I had eaten since waking up in Hoofston, I felt sick afterwards, this time though, I was pretty sure it was due to my overindulgence. I began to think about what was next; not next in the sense of what I was about to do, but instead what I needed to do to get home. I knew that Golden had talked about me getting a job, making some money would go a long way towards increasing my self sufficiency. But just making some some cash, or bits as it were wasn't going to be sufficient, it was time to go over the plan that had been formulating in the back of my head.

I went over all the details that I knew about my situation so far.

I was on another planet. Somehow I had lost the ability to speak, understand, read or write English. All the ponies that I had talked to so far agreed that it was very likely that I had been pulled here through some form of magic. Everypony, er… everyone also agreed that I needed to find a unicorn specializing in magic at the very least, just to get more information. My best bet was to head to the capital and seek an audience with one of the alicorn princesses who lived there. Canterlot was the name of the capital, and I knew it was north of here, quite a ways away. With Golden Dawn's help, I was able to recover both my truck and my trailer, and they were both in working order, but I had neither fuel, food nor money. I was completely reliant on Golden Dawn and so was stuck in Hoofston for the time being.

Going over the details made some new questions bubble to the surface. Was this planet in the same galaxy? Was it even in the same universe? Could magic fix my language issues? Since I had no way of telling them where it was, could ponies even find a way back to Earth for me? Should I abandon my truck and just take a train to Canterlot? I had told Golden no to that very thing last night, but part of me wanted to get a little more information before I made a firm decision. The rest of the questions, I couldn't answer, but I thought Golden Dawn could help with at least the last one.

"So, Golden, I think I mentioned this last night, I've been trying to come up with a plan on what I need to do to get back home, but before I can do that I need some more information."

"I'd be happy to answer as many questions as I can," she said as we walked down the street.

"I'll start with an easy one. To speak with Princess Celestia, I need to get to Canterlot, what's the fastest way there?"

"For some place that far away, by rail or maybe wing depending on the pony."

"How far exactly are we talking about?"

"Off the top of my head, I'd say about 1500 miles as the pegasus flies, but rail and road are less direct, it would be higher than that, a train ride to Canterlot on the Express takes a little over two and a half days but, as I mentioned, the tickets are very expensive. A normal train takes about five days and a half days."

"Almost three days for the Express?” I did a quick calculation in my head. “Didn't you say there were trains that did 100 miles per hour?" I asked.

"Well yeah, but that's on flat ground with no turns and it's not like you can run a train without stops. There's fuel and water, water being the big one. Most trains now-a-days pull tender cars with extra fuel and water but even then they're only going 100-150 miles between stops. All in all an express run that length will average between 30 and 35 miles per hour over the course of a day when you throw in the stops. The biggest difference between the Express and a regular train is the regular train does a lot more passenger stops and cargo transfers which means the average speed is much lower. The Express only stops for fuel and water."

"Oh wow, I didn't realize that. You said for something that far away, what beats a train in the short distance?"

"Wing, by a long shot," she said.

"Really? But didn't you just tell me that in a short distance run with ideal terrain, a train could do 100 mph?"

"Yeah, what's your point?"

I thought back the the day before when Blue Skies had taken off and had to fly back to town.

"How fast can a pegasus fly exactly?"

"That's not an easy to answer question as it varies from pegasus to pegasus. I was on the low side of average when I was back in school, my best speed was 200 mph."

I almost tripped over myself in shock.

"200 miles per hour?"

"Bear in mind that's my speed in a sprint, I can't keep that up for more than a minute or two."

"That's still insane, and you said you were slow?"

"There's a exclusive squadron in the Equestrian military called the Wonderbolts, they do trick flying, races and high speed demonstrations. To even make it into Wonderbolt training, you have to be able to hit 550 and hold that for at least 2 minutes. Their current captain, Spitfire, not only can hit 725 miles per hour, but she can keep that speed for almost twenty minutes."

I stopped walking at that point, Golden noticed a moment later and turned around to face me.

"725 mph is getting pretty close to the speed of sound," I said.

"That's nothing though, about two years ago, I went on a trip to Cloudsdale, the largest pegasus city in Equestria, to watch the annual Best Young Flyer Competition. There was an accident and one of the competitors started to fall. A mare named Rainbow Dash flew after the falling pony so fast she made a sonic rainboom."

"What is a sonic rainboom?" I asked while moving out of the way as a group of ponies tried to pass us.

"She flew fast enough that she not only broke the sound barrier but made a rainbow while doing it, creating an explosive wave of light that covered the whole city. She's the only pony in recorded history that has been able to pull one off, before her it was only theoretical."

"You're making that up."

"No! I saw it with my own eyes."

"Ponies can fly faster than sound? That can't be physically possible."

"I swear to Celestia I'm telling the truth. Look you already pointed out that these wings are far too small for me to fly," Golden said extending her wings. "But I have no problem carrying myself and you at the same time. Like carrying capacity, maximum speed isn't solely tied to our bodies. Physical strength is only a small part of the equation, strength of will and magical ability are far more important."

I closed my eyes to think for a moment, what Golden Dawn was telling me flew in the face of logic and physics.

"You're telling me this Rainbow Dash was able to fly faster than sound, because she wanted to?"

"That's a big part of it, but not the only part. Rainbow as interviewed after the competition, she's been dreaming of getting into the Wonderbolts since she was a little filly and she's been practicing for it just as long. Flying the way she can isn't based on one single factor. There is definitely a physical part, but it isn't a one to one relationship. For example if she can fly ten times faster than me it doesn't mean she's ten times stronger."

The street was getting pretty crowded and we were still somewhat blocking traffic so we decided to resume walking towards Golden's shop.

"So a combination between physical prowess, willpower and magic?"

"And even that might not be enough. Rainbow talked about how she had practiced her routine for months and never was quite able to get the sonic rainboom until that day. She kept trying though because she had done one as a filly so she knew she could."

"So what made that day different, was it because she was competing?"

Golden Dawn chuckled, "no, Rainbow later admitted that she was so nervous that she had messed up most of her routine. Rainbow thinks the real reason she was finally able to pull of a sonic rainboom was because of her friend Rarity. Rarity was the pony that was falling. In the middle of Rainbow's routine she heard Rarity scream out, turned around and went after her. Pegasus flight is powered by magic and as Princess Celestia is fond of saying, friendship is magic. Rainbow's friendship gave her the necessary magical boost to break the sound barrier and save her friend."

Friendship is magic? I'd seen some strange things since I got here but I had a hard time believing that a concept like friendship could give someone the ability pull off impossible feats. I wasn't saying that Golden Dawn was lying, maybe the actual events happened the way she had described but who can say if the reasons were accurate. Maybe this Rainbow Dash had been using pony enhancing drugs or something.

"This has all been very fascinating, but I think we've gotten a little off topic, back to getting to Canterlot, what are my chances of getting to the capital quicker than a regular train but without the expense of the Express?" I asked as we headed out the door.

"Could you drive your truck? You can get to Canterlot on roads, it's maybe a bit longer than a rail trip but I have no idea what kind of range you get on that thing. My guess is you are looking at at least 1750 miles."

"That's out then, I have no way of refueling it once my current supply is gone."

"How far can it go?"

"With an empty trailer, I was getting about 15 miles per gallon on the highway, with the trailer full it would be less, but I don't know how much less. Plus unless we're talking about a paved highway, it's going to be even less because I can't drive as fast. The tank holds 32 gallons and it's at the 3/4 mark so that means I've got about 24 gallons left in the tank. I've got another 10 gallons in the back, giving me 34 gallons. Under perfectly ideal circumstances, I could drive a little over 500 miles."

"15 miles per a gallon of fuel is incredible, given the size of that thing. Some of the steam trains I work on use over 100 gallons of water per mile! And you need about a pound of coal for every 6 pounds of water."

"Wow, and I thought the truck was a gas guzzler. See the thing is, that truck is anything but efficient. It's designed for towing or carrying a heavy load. Many cars, like the one I usually drive, are smaller and far more economical. My car gets almost 40 miles to the gallon on the highway. Of course it has a much smaller tank so the range per tank is about the same."

Golden Dawn gave a whistle, clearly impressed. "I would love to look at the engine in your truck," she said.

"That's fine with me, it's the least I can do after all the help you've given me. We just have to figure out a good time for you to do it."

When we returned to the shop, we resumed work on the trailer. The last two feet of the bar where the tongue had been attached was badly bent, she cut it off completely and fetched a similar sized bar from her storage area. She then cut off a segment of the bar, attached the new tongue it to the end of it and then bolted the whole thing onto the trailer.

"I'd like to replace that whole bar but just the end is fine for now," Golden said.

We tested the new trailer hitch and everything worked perfectly. I was pretty impressed, hoof made measurements, comparatively primitive tools, yet it worked on the first try. She didn't even have a working part to copy, she figured out how the thing went together without any explanation from me and then designed the replacement. She clearly knew what she was doing.

While Golden cleaned up, I went over the new information I had learned. I didn't want to admit it, but it looked like my best bet of getting to Canterlot was train. I'd need to get money for a ticket, that meant finding work to do. I had no issue with that, though I also had no real idea what kind of jobs would be available, or what I could do for money. I was going to have to learn a bit about the pony economy. Golden Dawn had said Express tickets were expensive compared to a regular train. How expensive? I had no idea. The only thing I had picked up so far is the ponies currency was based on a coin called a 'bit'. I had no idea what the relative purchasing power of a bit was. How long would it take me to earn enough bits to travel to Canterlot? That could be a day, a week or even a month. I had no idea.

The real issue though, was that if I was taking a train I'd have to leave my truck in Hoofston. I wasn't prepared to abandon it though. That meant even if I found a pony that could help me get home, I'd then have to convince them to come all the way back to Hoofston with me so I could get it. Or I'd have to find a way to transport the truck up to Canterlot. I suppose I could try to get it on a train but I didn't know if that was even possible and I imagined it would cost quite a bit more.

It was getting close to lunchtime when Golden walked over with a question.

"I had plans on going out to lunch with some friends today, did you want to join us? After that maybe we can try to find you some work."

"Sure that sounds good to me."

Once again the town was a bustle of activity. As we headed downtown to meet up with Golden's friends I noticed something that I thought was unusual. There were far more mares than stallions walking around town. At first I thought maybe the stallions were just off working somewhere, but it had been the same at the Smokey Griddle and when we were walking around town the previous day as well. I asked Golden about it and she told me that this was normal. The ratio of mares to stallions across Equestria was between 3:1 and 5:1 depending on what part of the country you were in. I told her humans basically at a 1:1 ratio, which she thought that was a little strange. According to her the only place in Equestria that had anything approaching a 1:1 ratio was the capital city and that was because the Royal Guard were headquartered there and they were mostly a male organization and made up a significant portion of the city's population. Even that was slowly changing though as in the last year, the Royal Guard had been taking on more recruits and more mares had been enlisting.

We met up with Blue Skies and a few other of Golden's friends for a picnic lunch. There was a white earth pony mare with a red and white striped mane and tail. She had a candy cane cutie mark and her name matched the image. Book Worm was a dull yellow unicorn with an equally dull blue mane. Her cutie mark wasn't quite as literal as Candy Cane's it was just a stack of books with no worm present. The last of the ponies was a red pegasus stallion with dark green hair. His cutie mark nearly matched Blue Skies' except that the sun was partially hidden by a cloud and not quite as happy looking. His name was Fair Weather, and he was introduced as Blue Skies' brother.

He was the first stallion I met that seemed to be about my age, though in all honesty I found it difficult to tell with ponies. He kept eyeing me and then eyeing Golden Dawn, who was sitting right up against me. It was almost as if he was jealous, which I found bizarre. Still, in conversation he seemed nice enough. He and Blue Skies worked on the weather team together, a subject that I found fairly fascinating. Imagine being able to move clouds around at will and create rain. They all seemed interested in knowing who I was and where I came from. After some prodding from the group, I ended up giving an abridged version of the events of the last week and my desire to return home. They wished me luck on my quest and let me know that if there was anything they could do to help, I only had to ask. When I mentioned that I was going to travel to Canterlot to try to get help from Princess Celestia, Book Worm spoke up.

"I take it neither of you saw today's paper?" Book Worm asked looking back and forth between me and Golden Dawn.

"No, I haven't read it yet," Golden said, I shook my head no.

"Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have left the capital to take a vacation. They've turned the country over to Princess Twilight and Princess Cadance until they get back. The article didn't have specifics on how long they'd be gone or where they'd be, but it seemed like it would be at least a month." Book Worm said.

I turned to Golden, frowning at the news.

"So what do I do now?" I asked looking for advice on how to handle this potential setback.

Golden Dawn scratched her head before replying, "I don't think this should change your plans, it sounds like a setback but it might not be. Twilight was Princess Celestia's personal student before she ascended. If she can't help you, she may know how to get in contact with Princess Celestia or Princess Luna who almost certainly will know what to do."

We said goodbye to Golden Dawn's friends, then headed to the center of town, it was time for me to look for a job.

The first thing Golden suggested was to simply look for help wanted signs. Even though most of those would generally be for longer term work, there was always a chance I could find something that could be done in a few days or a week. We began to walk down main street, looking for signs. None of the restaurants had anything posted nor did the barber shop or the saloon, but I finally spotted a sign outside of Tumbleweed's General Store. I opened the door and heard the jingle of a small bell as I walked inside.

"Just a minute, I'm just putting away some inventory," I heard a gruff voice call out from the back room.

While I was waiting I decided to look around the shop; it was pretty small by modern standards, with almost all of the merchandise behind the front counter. The counter had a glass case full of candy and other sweets, behind it were rows of preserved food in tin cans and mason jars. The next row had bathroom and cleaning supplies, I spotted some towels and remembered that I needed to get one.

"Hey Golden, I hate to impose but I took a bath yesterday and had to use one of my few spare shirts to dry off, any chance I can either borrow a towel, or the money to buy one?"

"Not a problem, actually while we're here why don't you look around and see if you need anything, then we can get it all at once."

The next row had cast iron pans, utensils and other cookware. I thought it was strange that so many pony created items looked exactly like their human counterparts, even when hooves would be less than ideal for the shape that they were. Wouldn't a fork that wrapped around a hoof make more sense than a normal handle? The only thing that seemed more pony friendly was the rarity of round doorknobs. Most doors either used latches or lever shaped knob.

The few rows had nothing of interest until I got to the end. That one had various hand tools, again looking like their human counterparts, nails, screws, nuts and bolts and what looked like mining equipment, pick axes, helmets, lanterns shovels and lastly a box of dynamite. I did a double take at that. Over the counter explosives was something you didn't see every day.

About that time an older looking light brown earth pony with a disheveled grey mane and matching beard poked his head from the back room.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

"Good afternoon," I said extending my hand as he walked into the room. He took my hand and shook it firmly.

"My name is Hal Storm and I saw your help wanted sign, are you still looking for help?" I asked.

"Eeyup, I'm going to be expanding the store soon and when I do I need to completely re-inventory my entire stock along with ordering enough to take advantage of the new shelf space. I'm going to need clerk to work the counter while I'm busy with the inventory, if you do well, the position could be permanent as the larger shop will need more attention than I can give alone. You any good with numbers?

I had done pretty well in calculus in high-school, but that's probably not what he meant. It also sounded like this pony was looking for a long term commitment and I didn't want to stick around in Hoofston that long. I decided to answer his questions and then figure out what exactly he was looking for.

"Yes sir."

"You worked in a shop before?"

"Yes I have."

He asked me a few more questions and it seemed like I had the job but then he brought up the start date. It turned out that the expansion work wasn't due to start till the end of the month and the earliest he could have me start was the week before. Then I mentioned that I wasn't sure how long I was going to be in town and he said, as I figured, he was hoping to find someone who could work on a more permanent basis. He told me that if I changed my mind and decided to stay in Hoofston, to come talk to him, I thanked him and then started to walk about before Golden reminded me that I wanted to pick up a towel.

I ended up purchasing a towel, some other basic supplies and high quality cast iron pan. I had always wanted one and I figured if I ever did get back to earth it would make a nice souvenir. All told, I now owed Golden Dawn 3 bits, probably more than that since she had been paying for my meals but this was the first transaction where I found out the total. At least the day's transactions had given me some idea of the purchasing power of a bit.

We spent the next few hours roaming the town but it was the same story everywhere. The ponies that had job openings were all looking for longer term commitments than I would be around, or at least than I hoped I would be around. There were a handful of short term jobs available but I was laughably under-qualified for them. Many of them relied on the skills that I as a human just didn't possess. Blue Skies and her brother were looking for an extra pegasus to help with an upcoming storm. There was a local taxi service that needed a pony to pull a wagon. Another location was looking for a unicorn to recharge some gems.

The next day Golden had to work so I headed into town on my own. I spent the whole day going from store to store, but it was always the same old story. By the end of the day I still hadn't found anything and was quickly running out of town. On the third day Golden Dawn joined me in the afternoon after she was finished up with her own work. She met up with me while I was heading for the post office. I had heard from another pony that they were looking for help. I talked to the manager there to find out that one of their mail carriers was out on extended leave and they needed some someone to cover the shift. It sounded like I had a decent chance until she went over the route that I would have to cover. Not only would it include half the town but I'd also need to make deliveries to the surrounding farms. The only way I'd be able to cover the distance she was talking about while also carrying the mail would be to use my truck and I'd be out of fuel in a few days if I did that.

One thing had come out of the conversation though, until then I hadn't even know there were farms outside the town, the climate seemed kind of dry, but I guess when you can control the weather that isn't a huge deal. I asked Golden about it and she said that it was a combination of pegasus weather control and earth pony skill; apparently they were excellent farmers who excelled at growing crops in nearly any environment. Then she suggested we heading out to the farms to look for manual labor. Farms always had some extra work that needed to be done and at this point I was willing to try anything so I agreed and off we went.

Unlike the town where only a small portion of the stores were actually looking for help every single farm we checked needed extra hooves but the problem that I had run into a few times before kept cropping up. Virtually all the work done on a farm was geared towards earth ponies and their insane levels of strength and endurance. One of them needed help bringing in the harvest of apples, but the barrels he was filling were so heavy I had trouble moving them empty. Another needed help plowing his fields, but I couldn't pull a plow and it wasn't like I could hook up a pair of horses and guide them, these ponies were the horses!

I think one of the ponies felt bad for me when she went out of her way trying to find something I could do. Eventually she gave me a sad look and said that if I couldn't find anything else, she could always use help gathering eggs from her chickens and splitting firewood, which I could do. It wouldn't pay much but it was better than nothing. I promised to return to her the next day if I found nothing else. After we left Golden pointed out that the pay wouldn't be worth the effort. The little money that pony could offer wouldn't leave me with enough to save up for a train ticket after food expenses.

We got back to town late that evening, I was still jobless and the painkillers I had taken earlier that afternoon had worn off hours ago. I knew Dusty had said to go back and see him if my headache had persisted but I didn't think it was worth it. He didn't know any more about me medically than I did so I figured, what was the point? I had never been one to have multi-day headaches and deep down I suspected something was wrong but I did my best to ignore it. The last few days had left me pretty bitter, reminding me of the painfully long and mostly unsuccessful job hunting back on Earth all over again. I think Golden Dawn could tell I was in a bad mood because her next suggestion lifted my spirits considerably.

"Blue Skies said she would be heading to the saloon tonight, you want to go there and get some drinks?"

"I would love to drink my problems away... er I mean go get drinks with you." I said with a laugh. Normally I wasn't that much of a drinker, I had to be in the right mood for it, but today had certainly gotten me there.

It might have been the alcohol, but after a number of drinks, I decided the best part about the saloon was it had a set of those old-timey swinging saloon doors. I had never gotten to walk through one of those before, it was awesome!

Who am I kidding? The best part of the saloon was the alcohol! I thought to myself.

I had expected a pretty limited selection but ponies apparently liked their alcohol. Which they drank in large quantities. I wasn't sure, but I think the alcohol content was also a fair bit higher than what I was used to on Earth.

"This place is so retro," I babbled between sips of the best damn hard cider I had the pleasure of drinking. "I dunno if I can use retro for something this old though? Can you be retro 1800s?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Golden said with a smile.

"I mean look at it, you've got group of cowboys over in the corner playing poker," I pointed over at one of the other tables. "Complete with hats. You've got the old fashioned bar, the staircase up to the 2nd floor that overlooks the open seating. You've got the classic swinging doors, you've even got the upright piano." I said staring at the pony sitting on the piano stool. "How is he playing that with hooves?"

Before either pony could answer my question, I started up again.

"The only difference is the horses aren't tied up outside!" I said bursting out with laughter.

"Alright, I think you might have had enough," Blue Skies said rolling her eyes.

"No you've had enough," I shouted, trying to take Blue Skies' mug. She slapped my hand away with her hoof.

"Oww, conflounded... conflounder... con... hooves, raaaah!"

"Seriously Hail, do humans have issues with alcohol? You're only on your second cider," Golden Dawn asked with a hint of concern.

"It's not my fault," I said giddily. "All your pony cups are huge!"

"See this," I held up my cider, "this is a small! It's got to be at least 32 ounces. And these shot glasses," I said pointing to the three empties in front of me, "they're at what, five ounces? Six? Huge!"

I spent the next few minutes trying to convince them to let me at least finish my cider. After that things got a bit fuzzy. I remember talking about my college days, when I first started and actually had friends on campus. That was back when I still went out drinking with friends. They were good times, while they lasted. Even though I hadn't known these ponies very long, that night felt like old times. It was... fun, something that I hadn't really experienced in a while.

Eventually I stopped talking long enough to let Golden and Blue Skies do their own talking. I listened for a while , nursing my cider as the two chatted. Eventually though I slipped back into rambling mode. It was just something I did when I drank a lot. I was a very talkative drunk.

"You're cute!" I said out of nowhere, staring almost but not quite half way between Golden Dawn and Blue Skies.

"I think he's looking at you Golden," Blue Skies said.

"Excuse me?" Golden Dawn said, her face reddening slightly.

"I said, you're cute..." I paused as my brain struggled to form words. "I think Fair Weather thinks you're cute," I said waggling my eyebrows, "but like cute cute not cute cute."

Now Golden Dawn just looked confused. Before she could speak up, I turned to Blue Skies. "You're cute too. In fact, you're all cute," I said waving my hand in the general direction of the two ponies. "Really though, all you ponies, you're all freaking adorable, you know that right? Whole damn race of pretty little ponies. Are you sure I woke up from my crash? Maybe I did suffer brain damage? I feel like I'm living in a eight year old girl's imagination. I'm waiting for a bunch of fairies to pop out of nowhere and offer me a magic spell to get home."

Both ponies just stared at me, unsure of what to make of my drunken rambling. Silence hung in the air as I tried to think of a way to explain what I was talking about. Then it was interrupted by a nasty growl coming from outside. The doors to the saloon swung open and in walked a... thing, I wasn't sure what it was but it stood at least as tall as I was but it was bulkier and mangier. As it walked past and stomped over to the bar, I also noticed it was quite a bit smellier. It was flanked by two of the meanest looking ponies I had ever seen.

Author's Note

A note on distance: If you looked at a map of the US and used Houston as your starting point, that would put Canterlot somewhere in southern Canada.

A note on pegasus speeds: Because I'm using a more realistic scale than the show for the size of the world, pegasus ponies have to be fast. If not there's no way they could manage the weather over so much of the country.

At the same time I don't want them all flying around pulling off sonic rainbooms. In the end that means that virtually every pegasus pony can hit speeds in the hundreds of miles per hour in the air. How long they can keep up their maximum speed (and what their top speed is) varies from pony to pony.

Chapter 8

We stepped over the broken wall and made our way inside. We followed the tracks that ran down the middle of the mineshaft, ignoring the smaller corridors that occasionally branched out to either side. Large wooden support beams braced the walls and ceiling every few yards. Though they were old, for the most part they appeared to still be in good shape.

Shadows danced on the walls as Kitchen Sink’s lantern floated in front of him, guiding the way. It was brighter than a normal lantern, but somehow it wasn’t blindingly bright. My guess was it had something to do with being magical. Either way I was grateful as I had no problems seeing the path ahead.

For a while we just marched straight on, until we finally came to a three way intersection where the tracks branched out in all directions. Jade Circlet had provided Kitchen Sink with a very old map of the mine. He pulled it out of his saddle bag and traced a path from our current position to the main stairway down to the level below us. Once he had our course memorized, he folded the map back up and placed it back in his bag.

There was nothing out of the ordinary on the top level of the mine. When we finally came to the first set of stairs we descended down to the second level. There, Kitchen Sink consulted the map again. As we went further into the mine, the relatively straight and plainly laid out corridors of the top level gave way to a complex web of passageways, offshoots and turns. Kitchen Sink had to bring out the map more and more often to make sure we took the correct branch.

Though old and faded, the map proved to be quite accurate. It wasn’t until we hit the third level that we ran into our first real problem. We turned around a corner and found that the passageway we needed to take had been buried. The supporting timbers in that area had rotted out and part of the roof had collapsed, preventing us from going any further.

"What do we do now?" I asked Kitchen Sink as he surveyed the cave in. I hoped he had a plan. I did not want to get trapped in a mine on an alien planet. He pulled out the map and studied it for a few minutes.

"Each floor is connected to the one above and below it, but there are emergency exits that skip over adjacent levels. One to three, two to four and so on. We can head back up to level two and take the emergency path down to four, or we can go all the way back to the first level and head down to three, hoping that the normal route to four is still open."

"Which one is closer?" I asked.

"Two to four," he said, pointing at a section on the map.

"Let's do that then," I suggested.

It took us some time to backtrack, but luck was with us and the path down to the fourth level was clear of obstruction. On the fourth floor the passageways were narrower, the ceiling lower. This far down into the mine, there were no more tracks to follow and the walls seemed to soak up whatever light Kitchen Sink’s lantern threw out. There was a distant, almost imperceptible sound that might have been running water, it stood out only because the rest of the mine was dead quiet.

On the way down, every once in awhile we would pass a section of the wall that had been under active mining. The first level had a thick seam of coal running through it, but the farther down we went the more variation in ores we found. Kitchen Sink pointed out iron, copper, silver and even some gold. It wasn't until we reached the bottom of the mine that we ran into the mithril vein that Kitchen Sink had been telling me about earlier. We followed the vein for a while until we reached what was supposed to be the closed off entrance to the cavern. Instead we found it wide open.

"Look at the marks on these rocks, these were made by tools, not by any creature." Kitchen Sink said, as he carefully studied the rubble around the cavern entrance.

We continued through the cavern, heading deeper and deeper underground. A gentle but steady dripping sound echoed off the rock walls as water slowly dripped down from the stalactites that covered the top of the cave. Eventually we came upon a small underground lake. At first it looked like this was the end of our trip, the cave had had no other branches for us to follow and we had found nothing. We were about to head back up when Kitchen Sink thought he saw something.

"I'm going to turn the light off for a moment," he said. "It might have just been a reflection off the water."

His lantern went out and we were covered in a blanket of near total darkness. Slowly as my eyes struggled to adjust, and I heard Kitchen Sink whisper.

"Look towards the lake," he said quietly.

I turned in the direction I thought the lake would be, that's when I saw it, a pale green glow coming from across the water. Kitchen Sink turned the lantern back on.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Changelings."

It took us a while to get around to the other side of the lake. While we headed over there Kitchen Sink told me about the changeling race and their failed attempt at invading Canterlot. The Changelings were a race of bug-like creatures that fed on love. That's right, they ate an emotion. Don't ask me how that worked, but apparently it did. Changelings could shape shift, being able to magically appear as anything that was of similar size to the original changeling, for example, a pony. This, combined with a natural resistance to basic detection spells, made them very hard to spot.

We finally made our way around the lake, and found a tunnel. It was the source of the green glow, or rather a hard green rocky substance that coated the walls was the source of the glow. Kitchen Sink explained to me that changelings could secrete a sticky green resin that hardened, similar to amber and also glowed in the dark. They used it for various things such as binding ponies, reinforcing the walls of their hive and of course lighting it as well.

The gentle glow provided by the walls provided ample light, so Kitchen Sink put away his lantern. As we went deeper into the hive, we uncovered at least five large chambers and dozens of smaller rooms, but they were all empty. Some of the tunnels in the hive had collapsed, and even the ones that were still standing were in disrepair. After hours of searching we hadn't found any sign of changelings, nor a path that lead out of the hive. The off feeling that had plagued me since I had put on the necklace had only grown worse. I was starting to feel feverish and, even in the cool underground air, I was drenched in sweat.

"I need to stop," I said, leaning up against a large piece of changeling resin. I found an protruding rock and sat down on it, taking my backpack off. I pulled out my canteen and took a large drink of water.

"Ever since I put this thing on," I said holding the jewel of the necklace out, "I've felt strange, I think it's making me sick."

Kitchen Sink looked at me curiously, his eyes deep in thought. "I've never heard of any sort of reaction to an enchantment, it's basically just a simple magical field, not even that strong of an enchantment."

"Well what should I do?" I asked.

"Take it off, we haven't heard a peep since we got here, at this point I think the hive is abandoned."

I reached down and took the necklace off, the effect was almost instantaneous, the moment it slipped from around my head, another wave passed over me, but then I started to feel better.

"Sweet Celestia," Kitchen Sink said, pointing his hoof at me.

"What?"

"Take your shirt off."

"Huh?"

"Just do it," he said.

Still confused, I unslung my rifle and set it to one side, then I lifted my shirt and pulled it over my head.

"Look at your chest, where the gem was touching your skin," he said.

I leaned down to look, it was at the very edge of my vision but I could just make out a large red patch, like a sunburn, exactly where the necklace had been rubbing against my chest.

"When you pulled it off, I caught a piece of that mark. Here, give me the necklace," he said.

I handed it to him, he pulled off the one he was wearing as well and slipped them both into his saddle bag.

"I've never seen anything like that," he said, clearly confused. "You might want to avoid any enchanted items, at least until you can talk to a unicorn who knows more about magic than I do.

We rested for a while, in the abandoned hive, breaking out a pack lunch. By the time I was done eating I was feeling much better. I let Kitchen Sink know that I was ready to head out. On the way back to the cavern we took a different route so we could explore some of the rooms and hallways we hadn't gone gone down yet.

At the end of one hallway was an enormous set doors. They stood twenty feet tall, and were covered with intricate carvings and studded with numerous gemstones. It took Kitchen Sink and myself working together to generate enough force to move the massive doors. We walked inside and found an equally enormous chamber.

Large stone pillars were spaced evenly around the room, supporting the rock ceiling. Between the pillars, chandeliers filled with glowing chunks of the changeling resin hung from the ceiling. The room was so large that it made getting a sense of scale difficult but it appeared to be broken up into four large rectangular areas, each larger than a football field.

In each section of the room, the floor was slightly raised except for narrow paths leading down the sides, meeting up near the base of each of the pillars and continuing to the far side of the room. Each of the raised areas were covered in small round divots spaced evenly apart.

"What do you suppose these are for?" I asked, reaching down and running my fingers over the smooth indentation in the rock.

"I have no idea," Kitchen Sink said.

We followed one of the paths down until we reached the other side. The far corner of the room was covered in shadow, so I pulled my flashlight out and shined it up at the ceiling. There was a large crack running through it with several chunks of the rock missing. Adjusting my light I found a pile of rubble and saw the twisted remains of a chandelier that had been crushed in the collapse. I caught a reflection of light beyond the collapse.

"There's something over there," I said.

We climbed over the rubble and found another set of double set of doors. These were not nearly as large as the ones at the entrance, nor quite as fancy. They were however at least a foot thick and made of a dark wood covered with a thick sheet of iron. One door was partially open, leaving a small gap between itself and the other. We struggled to open it the rest of the way but the hinges had rusted over and were completely immobile. I took another look at the gap, if I went sideways, it was just large enough for me to slip in.

"I think I can fit, should I check it out?" I asked.

"Sure, but don't go too far, I can't get in there if something happens."

Sucking in my gut I squeezed into the room.

"See anything?" Kitchen Sink shouted from the other side of the door?

I clicked the flashlight on and pointed it around. The floor was covered in a thick layer of dust, there was a long wooden table, mostly rotted in the center of the room with some chests on the ground next to it. I walked over to the first chest and opened it up, just to find it empty. One bye one I checked each of the chests but they were all empty.

"Nope, room looks picked clean," I said, as I turned around and walked back towards the door.

A small glint of light caught my eye as I swept my flashlight over a pile of debris in the corner of the room. I moved over to the corner and started searching for whatever had caught the light. Moving some boards aside I found a single golden coin, the surface was well worn but it was still pretty shiny.

Moving the wreckage caused the large part of the pile to shift and I stepped back to avoid it collapsing on me. I heard the sound of metal clinking on metal as the junk finished settling.

"Hold on, might have found something," I shouted back to Kitchen Sink as I once again went digging through the pile.

This time I didn't find just one bit, I found hundreds of them. What was left of another chest had been hidden under the wreckage, the side was rotted through and when I disrupted the pile some of the contents had spilled out onto the stone floor. I held the flashlight in my teeth and then started moving chunks of wood and stone aside. As carefully as I could, I extracted the broken chest, making sure to not spill any more of the coins. Despite being relatively small the chest was extremely heavy and I when I finally worked it free I narrowly avoided dropping it on my foot. I placed it carefully on the floor and then got to work picking up the bits that had spilled out.

Instead of trying to lift the chest again, I dragged it to the door and then pushed it out before I slipped through to the other side.

"Holy Celestia," Kitchen Sink said as he looked over the chest. He picked up one of the bit and gave it a squeeze between his teeth. "I think these are pure gold."

"So they aren't just bits?" I asked, having not really dealt with pony currency before.

"Nope, wrong size, wrong thickness and wrong weight, probably changeling currency."

"You said pure gold, they worth anything?"

"Well we'll have to get it tested, but yeah, if they are pure gold they're worth a lot."

"Can we keep them?"

"I don't see why not, this isn't the mine so nothing in here belongs to Jade Circlet." He stroked his chin for a moment. "What do you say to a 50/50 split, you found it but it's my expedition?"

"Seems fair to me," I said. I didn't really have any good idea of how much this would be worth, I'd have to talk to Golden Dawn when we got back.

We emptied the chest and split the pile in two, half going into my backpack and half into Kitchen Sink's saddle bags.

I struggled to lift the backpack, hoping that the straps would not give out; I wasn't sure how much weight it was designed for but it felt like I was lugging around a least an extra 50 lbs of metal around. I felt a slight twinge of guilt for all the hundreds of video game characters I had played over the years. Carrying loot back from a quest was a lot of work.

We climbed back over the fallen rubble and started to walk back to the entrance of the room.

"Hey, I think I see something," Kitchen Sink said, trotting down one of the side paths.

"Ugh, it better not be more gold," I said with a huff as I followed him.

"No... it's... um I think I figured out what this room is for."

I pulled up alongside of Kitchen Sink, below him was the bottom half of the largest egg I'd ever seen. It was roughly a foot in diameter at its widest. The shell was sitting in one of the indentations on the floor.

"That is one huge egg," I said. "Does Equestria have giant chickens?" I asked.

"No... I think this is a changeling egg."

"But... look at the size of this room, you could fit a million of these things in here," I said.

"Yeah... I was just thinking that myself."

"Well, I'm glad this room is empty then," I said.

"Me too."

The rest of the trip out of the changeling hive was uneventful but slow going. Eventually we reached the bottom of the mines and started our way back up again.

"So what happens now?" I asked, as we headed back up towards the surface.

"Technically we're at war with the changeling empire, though we haven't seen hide nor hair of them since the failed invasion of Canterlot. I'm going to need to report this to the royal guard, they'll dispatch a squad to search the hive and confirm that it is abandoned. Once they sign off on it, Jade Circlet can reopen the mines."

"How long is that going to..." My question was interrupted by the creaking of timbers, dust began to fall from the ceiling as one of the supports in front of us gave way.

"Look out!" I shouted. I grabbed onto Kitchen Sink's back and pulled backwards just as a large section of the ceiling gave way. The light went out and dust filled the air, making me cough as I struggled to breathe.

As the dust settled and my coughing slowed, I saw a dim glow light the room as Kitchen Sink's horn lit up.

"Oh thank goodness, " I said between coughs. "When the light went out, I feared the worst."

A moment later a light clicked on as Kitchen Sink turned on his flashlight. Less than a foot in front of us was a pile of rubble that stretched to the ceiling.

"If you hadn't pulled me back when you did, your fears would be justified. Thank you." Kitchen Sink said.

"What happened to the lantern?" I asked.

"Dropped it out of surprise when you grabbed me, it's buried under that," he said pointing at the rubble.

I pulled the flashlight he had given me out of my backpack and switched it on.

"So what now? Do we try to dig our way out?" I asked.

"That might work but more than likely we'd just cause another cave-in. I think the first thing we should do is head for the emergency exit."

"What level is this?" I asked.

"Five, which means we're headed up to three," he said.

I groaned, three was the one that we knew had been blocked off of the normal access route. That meant if the emergency exit to one was also blocked off we'd be trapped. I asked Kitchen Sink what we'd do in that situation.

"Figure out which of these blockages looks the least bad and try to dig our way out," he said.

It took us a while to reach the emergency stairs to level three. Unfortunately the stairs to the top level weren't all in the same spot. The emergency stairs for each level shifted locations in hopes that no one major disaster would cut off access to all of them. The stairs for five to three were in the far western half of the mine while the stairs for three to one were in the east.

The steady progress we had been making most of the time ground to a halt on level three. We wandered around for hours, trying to bypass the heavy deterioration that was widespread on this level. Several times we had to backtrack to get around passageways that were blocked with debris. One route after another was crossed off of Kitchen Sink's map until there was only one possible path for us to take. We followed it, getting closer and closer to the exit when we came upon a hole in the ground. It was only a little over ten feet across but at least thirty feet deep and ran from one wall of the corridor to the other so there was no going around it. I stepped up to it and peered over the edge, I immediately regretted it as I almost lost my lunch. I scooted backwards as fast as I could, leaned up against the wall and tried to catch my breath.

"I don't suppose you can jump it, then go get help or something?" I asked, keeping as away from the edge of the pit as I could.

"Not likely, I do have some rope... but see those support beams across the way?" he shined his flashlight on the beam in question. "Those first two sets looks like they are going to fall apart any second. If they weren't I could tie the rope to the angled section that's reinforcing the crossbeam. In the state they are in though, I don't dare risk it and the rest of them are too far away for me to reach with my magic."

We sat around for twenty minutes, going over the map to see if we could find any alternate route that we had missed but there was nothing.

"What about digging out one of those blocked passages?" I asked.

"I really don't think that's wise. The area around them is already unstable, any digging without being able to put up new supports is just going to bring more rock crashing down on our heads. Plus we have no idea how far the collapse goes, it could be a few feet or it could be twenty."

The idea that had been bouncing around in the back of my head started fighting its way forward. I didn't want to do it, in fact even thinking about it terrified me. Unfortunately as all other options were exhausted and I wanted to starve down here even less.

"Um, I hate to even suggest this, but how much weight can you pick up with your magic?" I asked.

"About a hundred pounds or so, if it's for any length of time. If it's just for a second or two, more but I don't know exactly... Why, what did you have in mind?"

"Toss me," I said.

"What?!"

"I cannot jump the distance, you'll have to toss me!" I said in my best Gimli impression. Of course Kitchen Sink didn't get it.

Oh yeah, make a joke about it, you'll really be laughing as you plummet to your death down that pit my brain yelled at me.

"I... I don't know," he said, looking me over. "How much do you weigh?"

"About 210."

"I don't know if I can throw you that far," he said. "It isn't a bad idea but you're just too heavy."

The intelligent part of my brain rejoiced at my poor eating habits and sedentary lifestyle.

"Actually," Kitchen Sink started to say.

I cringed in anticipation of a suggestion I was bound to not like. I might have suggested the idea but it was out of desperation and I was perfectly fine with it not being possible.

"You might be onto something, what if you ran and jumped and I gave you a push while you were in the air?"

"Uhhhh," was all I managed to get out. Visions of me at the bottom of that pit danced morbidly across my mind.

"Yes, that just might work." Kitchen Sink said hopefully. "Then I send the rope over to you and you can tie somewhere further down."

Assuming I actually manage to jump and not trip, fall on my face and roll into the pit I thought.

To maximize my chances of not dying a horrible death, I got rid of any necessary weight, I took off both my rifle and the backpack and set them to one side. Kitchen Sink levitated both across the gap and learned them up against the wall, along with the flashlight I had been carrying. Then he took off his saddle bags, rummaged around, pulled out a few flares and levitated the bags across the gap, I could tell from the sweat rolling down his forehead and occasional spark on the tip of his horn that those things were packed pretty much to his limit. After catching his breath, he took his flashlight and balanced it under one of the cross beams beams so it illuminated the area around the gap, that way he wouldn't have to concentrate on levitating the flashlight while also pushing me. To add to the light he took the flares, lit them and spread them out. He dropped one behind him where I would start running from, another right at the start of the gap, a 3rd into the gap itself, that way if I fell I'd be able to see the bottom before I went splat. Finally he threw the last one across to the other side.

"Are you ready for this?" he asked.

"No, but let's get it over with anyway." I said honestly.

Whelp, my life is over, I had a good run

"On the count of three then," he replied. "One... Two... Three!"

I took off running as fast as I could manage. Just before I reached the edge of the gap I started screaming, pushed off at the ground as hard as I could and jumped.

I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die ran through my head.

I was only in the air for seconds, sailing towards the other side, but I already felt the upward movement of my jump petering out. Then a pale amber glow lit up behind me, a violent sensation of dizziness crashed over me and my vision blurred as I felt a heavy push on my back. A second later I crashed into the ground with a mighty thump, safely across the hole. Slowly I stood up, holding my pounding head before I turned back towards Kitchen Sink.

"Thank Celestia, I couldn't get a good grip on your whole body so I just pushed with all I had on your back... you okay?" he asked.

I weakly gave him a thumbs up. "Lets not do that again," I said as my heart rate slowly began to drop.

I grabbed my stuff and then used the flashlight to look around until I found a support that looked to be in good condition. Then I reached up and tied the rope around the top of it. I knotted it like Kitchen Sink had showed me and then threw him the other end of the rope.

"How exactly is this going to work?" I asked.

"I was thinking you can lower me down into the pit, I'll tie the rope to this support over here and then you can give me slack as I climb down, then you can pull me up the other side."

"I think you are vastly overestimating how much I can pull. How much do you weigh?" I asked nervously.

"460 pounds, give or take a bit, but you won't have to pull me up by yourself, I'll be hanging onto the rope and I can push up with my rear hooves. I'll tie a safety harness just in case, worst thing that happens is a fall half a foot and hang there until you can pull me up the rest of the way."

"I don't think I can't lift that much weight, even for a few seconds, any other ideas?"

"What if you lowered the rope on that side and I tied it on this end to the top of this beam. I could try to zip line across."

I looked at the beam he was talking about, it looked to be in good condition, as long as nothing came collapsing down, it might work."

"Worth a shot," I said.

Kitchen Sink worked quickly and soon had everything ready on his side. He was just about to grab a hold of the rope when the flare down back where I had started running flickered and went out. The dying light caught my eye and I looked up towards it, just in time to hear a skittering sound as a large black mass crept up out of the darkness.

Kitchen Sink's ears swiveled around, catching the sound as I shouted a warning.

"Holy shit! Kitchen Sink, look out, there's something behind you!" I screamed, pointing at the unknown creature.

Kitchen Sink spun around, his crossbow flew out from under his duster and he let off a bolt faster than I could blink. It soared through the air and slammed into what I now could see was a massive spider. It was huge, almost as large as the corridor itself. The tiny bolt wasn't nearly enough to stop the oversized monstrosity, it hissed in annoyance, pausing for only a second before leaping towards Kitchen Sink.

Kitchen Sink had started to reload the crossbow when he realized he wouldn't have the time. He dropped it and went to pull something out of his bags, swearing when he realized they were on the other side of the pit. Instead he pulled a short sword out just in time to block one of the spider's legs as it came crashing down at him. Unfortunately it did so with such force that the the sword was knocked right out of Kitchen Sink's magical field and sent it flying into the pit.

Not ready to give up Kitchen Sink tilted his horn down at the spider and snorted, preparing to charge the creature. Here was something I hadn't even considered, Kitchen Sink had mentioned horns as weapons but I had assumed through use of magic. They were fairly sharp and horns are used as weapons by animals on earth so it did make sense. Still though, it was going to be a long shot, even if he connected, the spider was big enough that it was unlikely Kitchen Sink would be able to land a fatal blow. I had to do something.

I grabbed my rifle and screamed for Kitchen Sink to get down while bringing it up to my shoulder. To his credit, Kitchen Sink dropped to the ground, not waiting for me to explain why he should place himself in such a tactically unsound position. With a speed that I didn't know I possessed, I cocked the lever, lined up the body of the spider in the sights and fired. The explosion of the gunshot was deafening, it was even worse than when I had shot the graboid knock off due to the enclosed area of the mine. The spider gave out a horrible shriek that hurt my ears almost as much as the gunshot, but I wasn't about to take any chances. I shook off the shock and quickly worked the lever loading in another round. Not knowing what it would take to kill the beast, I kept shooting till I ran through all ten rounds, by then my ears were ringing and I was shaking but the spider was down, collapsed in a puddle of blood and liquefied flesh.

I didn't remember Kitchen Sink getting back up, or me helping him climb across the pit. The next thing I knew I was staring at him, his fur was dripping with spider blood and he stank horribly. I saw his lips moving but I couldn't make out what he was saying. I shook my head in an attempt to clear the ringing.

"...what?" I asked.

"Are you okay?" he said.

"Me? You're the one who almost got eaten," I said.

"That was ten minutes ago, and you haven't said anything since."

"I... I don't know, it isn't every day I have a run in with a giant spider and have to shoot it to death." I said with a shudder.

"You saved my life, that's the second time today."

"Uh huh," I nodded slowly.

"Here, take a sip of this," he said, floating a small metal flask over to me.

I took a large gulp, and almost immediately burst into a coughing fit as I struggled to hold it down.

"I said a sip." Kitchen Sink said laughing

"Holy shit that stuff is strong." I said.

"Made it myself," he said with a smile before turning more serious. "What is that thing?" he asked nodding at my rifle.

"A rifle."

"Rifle?" It was clear from the confusion on his face he had no idea what that was.

"I take it ponies don't have guns?" I asked.

"Not that I know of. Damn though, that thing is loud, my ears are still ringing."

"Yeah I know, normally you aren't supposed to shoot one without ear protection but I didn't have time to pull out my ear muffs. When I saw the spider attacking you, I figured better partially deaf was better than completely dead."

"I think you made the right choice." Kitchen Sink said. "So, how does it work?"

"At a most basic sense, it works on the same principle as your crossbow, throw a projectile at high speeds at whatever you want dead."

"I didn't see any sort of projectile fly by. What I did see were some fairly small holes on the front of the spider. The backside was completely torn open. How does that work?" Kitchen Sink asked.

I took time to open the action and verify that the gun was completely unloaded, then I pulled one of the spare cartridges out of one of the loops.

"This is a bullet," I said holding it out. "Well, actually this little bit of lead at the end is the bullet, the whole thing is a cartridge or a round. It consists of 4 basic components. The bullet itself, which is the projectile, the case, or brass, cause it's made of brass," I flipped the round over. "And that little shiny circle is the primer."

"You said four but only listed three things."

"Yep, the fourth component is inside the case, a substance called gunpowder or smokeless powder. That is what acts as the propellant."

I tilted the rifle and cocked the hammer back. "When there is a round in the chamber of this rifle, I pull the trigger down here," I said pointing at the trigger. "That makes the hammer drop which strikes a firing pin which in turn hits the primer igniting it. The primer ignite the powder which expands rapidly, pushing the bullet forward until it flies out of the barrel."

"That bullet is so small though," Kitchen Sink said.

"Yep, it is small which is why the entrance wounds were small but it’s moving so fast that the lead expands and creates a much larger wound channel the the original size of the bullet. It’s moving anywhere from, I dunno, 1000 feet per second to 3000 feet per second depending on the gun and what type of round its shooting."

"By Luna's Moon that's fast, the bolts for my crossbow barely break 300 feet per second."

"Yep, and if I remember my physics correctly kinetic energy is 1/2 mass times velocity squared so that jump in velocity is giving them a major boost in energy. When they hit, they hit hard."

"What's that smaller thing at your hip?" Kitchen Sink asked.

"This is a revolver, it' works the same was as the rifle, in fact these two guns shoot the same cartridge, .44 magnum, which was originally a revolver cartridge, so it's actually on the slower side of the scale. At least out of the revolver where it's going to be moving about 1200 fps. The extra barrel length of the rifle might kick it up to almost 2000 fps. Back in my trailer I have another rifle that shoots a rifle cartridge, .30-06, it shoots a slightly lighter bullet at around 2800 fps."

We made our way through the rest of the 3rd level, when we finally arrived at the stairs we here happy to find that they were free and clear. We climbed on up and then headed for the exit. It was already starting to get dark so we headed back to camp for a late dinner.

"You think that spider is what got all those ponies?" I asked Kitchen Sink as we ate.

"No, they're dangerous for sure but there's rarely more than one of them in an area and I can't see even a few of them being able to kill the heavily armed force that went into the cavern."

"The changelings then?"

"Most likely, my best guess at what happened is the changelings captured the ponies that wandered in and fed on them, at some point in time they abandoned that hive for reasons unknown. Maybe because the food supply died out when the mine shut down, though I have to imagine a hive of that size needed more than just a few miners.”

“So where’d the spider come from?” I asked.

“It probably moved in when it found the mine open and empty, a perfect home for it. Still, tomorrow we need to go back in, now that I know what I'm looking for I can bring the right equipment. We'll seek out the spider's nest and make sure that if there are any eggs we kill them."

"You want to go back in?" I asked.

"That's what I'm being paid to do. If we leave the nest, Jade Circlet might find her mine infested with these things," he said.

"How are we going to deal with that pit?" I asked.

"We'll find something to bridge the gap," he said. "For now let's get a good night's rest."

"Should one of us stand watch, in case spiders come out of the mine or something?"

"I put an alarm spell on this camp the day we got here, if anything comes within 50 yards, we'll know."

We headed for the tent and I climbed into the small cot I was using for a bed. I drifted off into an uneasy sleep. Giant spiders roamed my dreams terrorizing me even as I tried to rest. After the third time jolting away in a cold sweat I fell asleep and began to dream once more. This time though when the spiders returned, I caught a flicker of moment in the corner of my eye before a gentle glow, as pure as moonlight covered everything in sight, banishing the spiders. Moments later the dream ended and I fell into a restful sleep.

I could still make out a faint ringing in my ears the next morning, it was unnoticeable as long as there was a bit of background noise but anytime that there was any extended silence it would rear it's ugly head again. After breakfast, Kitchen Sink and I explored the ghost town, until we were able to find some wooden beams that were still in good condition. It took a few hours to move them all to the pit on the third level of the mine, but when the work was done we had a makeshift bridge that would last long enough for our needs. Kitchen Sink wore a pair of goggles which he said would illuminate any areas of the mine that the spider had frequented recently. We wandered around the mine, carefully searching until we found a hidden nest down one of the areas of the mine we had not explored.

"What do we do now?" I asked, as we carefully inspected the nest.

"Burn it," Kitchen Sink said, pulling out some flares. The spider webs ignited easily and burned with a fierce heat. It wasn't long till the eggs started to pop one by one until none remained. We waited for the fire to go out and then did a careful inspection to make sure that nothing remained, then head back to the surface.

It took several hours to pack up the camp. Just before we were about to head out, Kitchen Sink called me over.

"What's up?" I asked as he opened his saddle bags.

"Jade Circlet gave me 50% of my pay in advance, the rest she's going to give me when she reaches Hoofston. Here is your share," he said floating some bits out of a small pouch.

I looked over the currency, it being the first time I had held any. There were four gold coins each a little larger than a silver dollar but a bit thicker. On one side was the face of a unicorn with a rather large horn, wearing a crown. Across the top read it read Equestria Royal Mint. On the bottom it said ‘25 bits’. The other three coins matched.

"This is 100 bits, if I'm not mistaken," I said with a bit of confusion. "I thought you were paying me 40."

"Consider the extra 60 bits a bonus, for saving my life twice, that and I remember you mentioning you had to buy fuel from Golden Dawn so that should cover my share."

"Your share and then some, the fuel wasn't that expensive," I said. "Plus there's the treasure,"

"I appreciate your honesty but still, keep them. This job earned me a good deal and ended up being far easier than I thought it would. And the treasure was a bonus, finding it doesn't change the fact that I said I'd pay you."

"This was easy?" I asked.

"Compared to what it could have been? A good deal of ponies went missing in there, one of my top guesses was that the ponies ran into a dragon, guarding an a vast underground hoard. Instead we found an abandoned hive that I don't have to deal with because as soon as the Royal Guard hears about it, they'll check and clear it for me if need be and a cave spider that you killed."

"If the Royal Guard will take care of the changelings why did we explore so much of their hive?" I asked.

"The quickest way to get the Guard to take care of the problem is to give them an accurate estimate of Changeling strength, if I had just reported a have with no additional information, they would have had to send their own scouts to investigate. That means Jade Circlet would have to wait even longer. As it stands we got this done so quickly that I'm going to get a bonus, which will more than cover the extra bits I gave you."

We headed back into town arriving about an hour before dinner. I drove Kitchen Sink to the train station where he deposited his boxes to be picked up by the next train and shipped back to his home town; then I drove him to the town’s only hotel and dropped him off.

"Are you going to be in town tomorrow or are you taking off for the capital right away?" Kitchen Sink asked me as we stood in the lobby.

"I haven't decided yet, I did promise Golden Dawn that she could look at the engine in my truck before I left but I don't know how long she needs for that, if she can do it today, maybe I'll head out tomorrow morning. I need to see if I can get a map and plan out my route, I don't want to get lost along the way or run out of fuel in the middle of nowhere." I said.

"How'd you like to make a few more bits before you leave? If you can stay an extra day that is."

"Depends what you have in mind, the last two days were certainly the most adventurous of my life, but I'm not sure I could handle any more adventure just yet."

"This has nothing to do with the mines, or any other jobs. I'd like you to give me a demonstration of your guns and I'd like to try shooting them myself. I'd be willing to pay you, say five bits?"

Kitchen Sink's offer rattled around in my head; I could always use a little more money, once I left Hoofston I had no idea what I could do to make more. On top of that, Golden Dawn had been paying for me the since I had arrived here in Equestria and I never gave Dusty Heart anything for his medical assistance.

On the other hand, I only had so much ammunition in this world and once it was gone, it was gone for good... Except, my dad had left me all those reloading supplies and equipment. The problem there was I had only a rough idea of how they worked and while the books he had given me had directions on how to set everything up, they were unreadable. I knew enough about reloading that if i put too little powder in a handload I could get a bullet stuck in the barrel. If I put too much I could blow up the gun.

Still though, if my memory was correct, I had 2000 rounds of .44 magnum and 1000 rounds of .30-06 when I left Wyoming. I had only used 15 rounds of .44 magnum and no .30-06 at all since arriving in this strange world. 5 on the graboid (I didn’t care what its real name is) and 10 on the spider.

It wasn't like I was going off to fight a war or anything, I still had far more ammunition left than I could possibly need even if I decided I wanted to hunt for food or something. And in the extremely unlikely event that I started to run low, well maybe I could find a pony that could translate the reloading manuals. Golden Dawn had mentioned that some unicorns could perform translation spells during one of the conversations we had had about how my own language could have been altered.

Finally, if I did stick around to give Kitchen Sink a demonstration, it meant a possibly delay for my trip to Canterlot. Of course at this point one extra day wasn’t really a big deal. The important part was I now had not only a plan to get to the capital, but now that I could buy fuel off of Golden Dawn, I had a way to do it as well.

A giddy feeling crept up inside me as I tried to imagine what the capital would be like. Meeting with a princess seemed like a big deal to me but Golden Dawn had said there wasn’t much too it. All I had to do was show up, wait in line, and state my case on my turn.

Mixed into the excitement some sadness. In all likelihood I would never see the ponies that I had met in Hoofston again. I decided I would miss Golden Dawn the most, she was intelligent, friendly and a pleasure to spend time with. Had I met her on Earth, I was sure we would have become great friends. Thinking about never seeing her again hurt more than I wanted to admit.

Suddenly sticking around one more day was actually sounding kind of good.

"All right, you've got a deal. You want to meet over at Golden Dawn's shop tomorrow morning, around 10:00?" I asked.

"I'll be there," he said before heading into the hotel.

I headed to the shop, when I got there I saw Golden Dawn had the side loading doors open and was fiddling with my generator.

"Hail Storm! You're back!" she shouted happily and trotted over. She placed a wing on my shoulder and pulled me down for a hug as she asked me about the mines and how the job went. I filled her in on the details, telling her about the changeling nest, the treasure I found and finally fight with the spider."

"Sweet Celestia, don't tell Blue Skies, she'll lose her feathers. I'm glad you made it back safely," she said giving me a friendly squeeze with her wing. "So, can you tell me more about that thing you used to kill the spider? The rifle?" she asked.

"Well tomorrow morning Kitchen Sink and I are going to head out into the desert so I can give him a demonstration, you want to tag along?" I asked.

"Ohhh, that sounds like fun, I used to do archery when I was a filly and it was a blast. Let's talk some more in a few minutes, I'm just about finished putting the generator back together, and I want to test it out."

She went back to work while I headed over to the trailer and pulled out my bolt action and one of the boxes of .30-06. I had to do even more digging to find the cleaning supplies and a toolkit but I figured if I was going to give a proper demonstration I might as well show them how to break the guns down and clean them as well. I was still searching for my tools when I heard the generator sputter to life. That reminded me that I had already unpacked them so I closed up the trailer and walked back over to the generator.

"Golden, I need some of the tools I lent you, what happened to them?" I asked.

"Oh, they're all over here," she said.

I found an Allen wrench set and a multi headed screwdriver which, combined with the cleaning supplies was pretty much all I needed. While I was carrying everything over to the truck, I asked Golden Dawn about the generator.

"So you took that whole thing apart and put it completely back together? I asked.

"Yep, and what an amazing piece of engineering it is, I've already started drawing up designs for a new and improved engine based on the one in the generator. I also took some measurements of its electrical output, I'm a mechanical engineer, not an electrical one but I think we could get a converter designed that would allow your devices to run on Equestrian electrical outlets."

"That would be pretty cool, the only thing that would really need it though would be my phone, but as long as I can fuel the car or the generator, I can keep it charged. Not that it's much use since I can't read anything on it."

I was packing up the guns when a thought struck me.

"I just realized something, we're heading out but we don't have any targets to shoot," I said.

"Are they anything like archery targets?" Golden Dawn asked

"Sort of, if you are shooting paper, but you can also shoot steel targets, those I think are more fun because you get audible feedback."

"Huh?"

"It goes clang. I love the clang." I said with a grin.

"What we really need is a couple of saw horses to rest some targets on," I said.

"Oh I've got a few old ones in storage, let me go grab them," Golden Dawn said.

She flew off and then returned with three saw horses a few minutes later.

"Now we just need targets. If we nail a piece of plywood here on each of these saw horses, we can pin up some pieces of paper," I said showing Golden Dawn what I meant. She got two of them setup while I found some paper to use.

"Do you have any chain, and some scrap metal?" I asked her when she was about to work on the last sawhorse.

"Yeah, why?"

"If we drill a hole in a the steel, we can hang it from the saw horse with some chain and shoot at it." I said.

She ran back into her storage room and came back with a plate of steel about half an inch thick. A few minutes later it was hanging from the last sawhorse. She loaded them up into the back of the truck while I packed all the guns and ammo in the back seat. I stressed to her that the guns should not be touched without my supervision and until after I had explained how they worked.

I was cleaning some stuff out of the truck when I saw my backpack tucked behind my seat. I pulled it out and shouted for Golden Dawn to come over.

"I meant to ask you, do you know what I can do with these?" I asked, reaching into my bag and pulling out a handful of the golden coins.

"Well we can take them to the bank, they can test them for you and you can exchange them for bits if you'd like," Golden Dawn said. "How much did you get?"

I pulled the backpack out and dumped the coins into a pile on the floor.

Golden Dawn whistled as she looked over the pile.

"If these are actually solid gold, your money problems are going to be gone," she said.

"Do you want to head into to town? We can get dinner while we are there."

"Sure thing," she said.

The drive to the bank didn't take long, I brought a handful of the coins in with me and gave them to one of the tellers, a few minutes later and he came back and informed me that my coins were pure gold and worth a little over 20 bits per ounce. I asked if I could get some more of them converted and he told me there was a small fee but otherwise that would be fine.

I proceeded to shovel out piles of the coins from the backpack onto his desk. The poor teller's jaw dropped and I think he stopped breathing for a moment. He left to go get the bank manager who informed me that they couldn't make such a large exchange but would be happy to convert some of it for me. In the end I ended up giving the bank somewhere around a tenth of the coins. This was converted into 2000 bits which Golden Dawn informed me was roughly a year's salary at a very well paying job, not bad for a 2 day expedition. I threw the gold laden backpack and the sack of bits into the back of the trailer after taking out a handful of bits so have some spending money.

We finished up at the bank and then I lead us to a pizza restaurant I had spotted while looking for work. With minimal pleading on my part, Golden Dawn agreed to let me buy her dinner to make up for all the help she had given me. Plopping down my own bits on the bill felt great after all the leaching I had done recently.

My ears still hurt the next day from the shooting in the mine. It was still pretty early so I decided to walk over to Dusty's, I could pay him for his services and also ask him to check out my ears. On Earth, hearing damage was permanent, but if I was lucky maybe pony magic could fix it.

He was surprised to see me and even more surprised when I pulled out some money. I had to argue with him for a few minutes but he finally agreed to take a small amount. I told him about the trip to the mines with Kitchen Sink and the spider and the ringing in my ears. He checked me over and then gave me some ear drops.

"These won't fix the problem but they should reduced the symptoms, I'm afraid the damage is permanent, unless you can find a unicorn doctor who can modify a hearing restoration spell to work on humans."

Dusty asked me about the headaches that I was having and I admitted that they hadn't gone away. He scolded me for not coming back sooner, but after checking me out he was still no closer to figuring out what was wrong. That’s when I remembered my reaction to Kitchen Sink’s enchanted necklace. The mark was still there and though it had started to fade, the area was still tender. I lifted my shirt to show it to him and explained what had happened.

"It's almost like you are having an allergic reaction to the enchantment, I've never heard of such a thing before. Do yourself a favor and avoid enchanted objects until you can talk to a pony who specializes in magic."

I thanked him for checking me out and then headed back to the shop; half an hour later Kitchen Sink and Golden Dawn both arrived. I was going over all the equipment when something struck me.

"I think we might have a problem," I said.

"What is it?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Well as Kitchen Sink found out, guns are loud, really really loud, like to the point that it will damage your ears. I actually went to Dusty's earlier today, he thinks my hearing is permanently damaged from the sound of the rifle. I only have one pair of earmuffs and a few disposable ear plugs and neither of them will fit pony ears. We also really should be wearing safety glasses for eye protection and I only have one pair."

"I've got extra safety glasses," Golden Dawn said, she trotted over to a workbench and pulled out two pairs. "As for the volume, is it louder than thunder at point blank range? Pegasus ears are extremely resilient to loud noises, which helps a bunch when we're working with storm clouds. Unless it's over 185 decibels we should be fine."

"What about Kitchen Sink?"

"My ears didn't stop ringing till this morning. I guess since I wasn't as close to the sound as you were, it didn't hurt me as much. I've got no desire to make it worse, but I do have a plan. Before I acquired the enchanted necklaces we used I used to rely on just sneaking around. I learned a spell that would make a bubble of silence around me, if I cast it before I shoot the gun won't make any noise at all."

"What about when Golden or I shoot?"

"The bubble doesn't let sound in or out, that's one of the reasons why I don't use it anymore. I didn’t make any noise sneaking around but I couldn’t hear anything either."

"Huh, well I guess that works," I said.

There wasn't enough room in the front of the truck for both ponies, so Kitchen Sink gave up his seat and sat in the bed. Golden Dawn gave him the blankets so he wouldn't have to sit on the bare metal and I promised him with a wink that I wouldn't go to fast. We were about to take off when Golden Dawn door and hopped out.

"What's up?" I asked.

"I'll be right back, I have an idea."

Then with a quick flap of her wings she took off into the sky. A few minutes later she returned with a small white puffy cloud about the size of a beanbag.

"The floor isn't very comfortable, but I don't want to take the blankets back from Kitchen Sink" she said and then she started to push on the the cloud with her hooves.

I had to agree with her, it was just thin carpet over the metal body, plus there was the track the bench was attached to. Still I didn't see how a cloud would help. I watched in wonder as she shaped the top of it into something resembling a pony compatible seat, basically a bench without a back. Somehow she was molding the cloud like it was a big piece of clay. She finished up and then pushed it into the open door and down against the floor. With a bit more work the bottom of the cloud was molded to fit snugly against the floor.

As I watched, Golden climbed into the truck and sat down on the cloud as if it were made of something solid. I had seen Blue Skies jump on clouds, make it rain and even wring one out but a chair out of clouds? This was new. I got into the driver's seat and reached over, my hand went right through to the floor.

"How are you even sitting on that?" I asked while starting the truck.

"Pegasus pony, remember?"

"So to you clouds are solid? And you can make things out of them?"

"When we want them to be yeah, and yes we make all sorts of things out of clouds. For example, my house is made from clouds."

"Really?" I asked while starting up the truck.

"Of course! Why do you think I've never invited you over, it's 500 feet up and you'd just fall through even if I flew you up there," she said with a laugh.

I turned around and asked Kitchen Sink if he was ready to go, he gave me a nod so I started driving.

"Unless either of you have a better suggestion, I'm just going to head into the Badlands along that mining road we were on earlier. There's a hill right off the road that we can use as a backstop."

"Sounds good to me," Golden Dawn said.

While I was driving through town, I talked to Golden a bit more about clouds.

"What else do ponies build from clouds?"

"Well there's there's a whole pegasus city, Cloudsdale, it's got Equestria’s largest weather factory, it handles almost all of Central Equestria."

"Weather factory... so wait I know you can make it rain, that much I've seen, even if I have trouble believing it, but you make other weather as well?"

"Yep, Equestria's a big place it takes a lot of coordination and work to get the weather controlled over the whole country. Anytime there is a large scale weather event planned, such as a snowstorm over a large area, it gets built up in one of Equestria's weather factories."

"I still don't get how you do it, manage weather over the entire country. Each individual weather pony must be responsible for huge sections of the sky."

"Well there are a lot of us, and while not every pegasus is a weather pony, it is the most common pegasus job. Plus every pegasus can help out in an emergency if needed since most of the basics of weather control are inherent to the species, no real need for special training. But we also don't need to cover every single square mile of the sky. We usually directly manage the weather around population centers, but there's a lot of empty area in the country and most of that is indirectly managed. Once a weather team sets something in motion it will spread out naturally until other ponies do something about it. For example it isn't like Blue Skies has to push every single cloud into position when Hoofston is scheduled for a rain storm. Her and her brother will gather some storm clouds from the local weather distribution point, or create their own for smaller showers, then they can use those initial clouds to seed the storm itself. With the right work, the small group of storm clouds will grow into a full sized storm which can then be guided over the town. It then will drift off in whatever direction it was set on, maybe over the Badlands for example, until it dissipates naturally."

"So what if it drifted over some other town that didn't want rain?"

"Well first off Blue Skies wouldn't send a storm towards another town unless she coordinated with their weather team first, but if that did happen somehow by accident, the town's weather ponies would see it coming and break it up."

Ponies might have trailed humanity in technology, but some of the things they could do with magic blew anything man had ever accomplished right out of the water. As far as I could tell they had near total control of the planet's weather. Of everything I had learned since arriving in Equestria, this had to be the most impressive thing yet. Natural disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes caused millions of dollars of damage and cost thousands of lives every year, and for all our technology, there was nothing we could do to stop a storm. Nothing I could imagine could top what Golden had just described to me. I continued to think on this as I pulled off the road and onto a flat piece of land. There was a large hill in front of us that would work as an excellent backstop. It was time to teach some ponies how to shoot.

Chapter 9

I hopped out of the truck and took another look at the area in front of me. Like most of the surrounding desert, the ground was a dull reddish brown mixture of dirt and rocks. Small green shrubs were scattered sparsely around, growing more frequent at the base of the hill I was intending to use as a backstop.

Bare rock protruded from a few distant spots on that hill where the dirt had worn away, but the area directly in front of us was almost completely covered and sported a decent number of the small plants. I had picked this spot because of the vegetation on the hill. I assumed that meant the layer of dirt was reasonably thick, which was good. I didn’t want to be firing directly into rock, that might end up causing a bullet to ricochet back at us.

The tailgate let out a loud squeak as I opened up the back of the truck. I climbed up and retrieved all three gun cases and the ammo boxes to go with them. I set them on the end of the tailgate and unlocked them one by one. While I was doing that, Kitchen Sink floated the targets stands out and he and Golden Dawn got to work setting them up. Using a long piece of marked rope that Golden had brought, they put one of the paper ones at 10 yards, another at 50 yards and the steel plate at 100 yards right up against the foot of the hill.

"Alright, so quick set of rules. This is our shooting range," I said pointing at the small stretch of land in front of me. "Right now the range is cold, that means nobody can shoot and hands... er hooves off the guns. When we are ready to shoot, I will ask if everybody is ready for the range to go hot. Only when everyone that is present verbally agrees is the range considered hot. Only then can you pick up and shoot a weapon."

I drew a line in the dirt with my foot.

"This is our shooting line. If the range is hot, DO NOT CROSS THIS LINE," I said, with more volume that was necessary.

Both ponies nodded in agreement. If I was going to teach these ponies about guns, I might as well start them off correctly. Speaking of teaching them about guns, I still had to go over basic gun safety before I'd let them even hold one of the guns. Thankfully the rules had been drilled into me at a young age and they were all easy to remember.

"But before we even get to touching the guns, I have a things to go over as well as a few rules," I said looking at the two ponies.

Kitchen Sink had seen me shoot the lever action but Golden Dawn hadn't even seen a gun before, except for maybe while I was packing everything up earlier. This wasn't like on Earth where I could rely on people having even a rudimentary understanding of guns. Even if a person had never shot a gun before, most people knew which end the bullets came out and what a trigger was, but for the ponies I had to start fresh. This was going to take more than just verbal instructions.

"Okay, I’m going to break the hot / cold rule right now, because I need to actually show you both what I’m talking about. For now, I’m the only one who should be touching anything. If you have any questions, feel free to interrupt."

I picked up each gun in succession and went over the various components, how to load them, how to unload them, how to verify that they were unloaded, and everything other function I could think of. After that demonstration, I was ready to go over the rest of the rules.

"I’ve heard a bunch of minor variations on these rules, but I’m going just tell you what my dad told me. First, always keep any gun that you are handling pointed in a safe direction. That means keeping the end of the barrel pointed away from anything you don't want to destroy. If you need to move around behind the firing line, keep the muzzle pointed down range, do not sweep it over someone, got that?"

"What if it's unloaded?" Golden Dawn asked.

"That brings me to the next rule. The gun is always loaded, or at least treat it that way. You saw when I picked up each gun that I did a visual check on it. That was me making sure that it actually was unloaded. Even though I know there’s nothing in there, I’m treating it like it is loaded. People, or ponies, aren't perfect, you might set a gun that you know was unloaded down on a table, and then leave the room to get something. What if while you are gone Kitchen Sink loads it? When you come back you might think it is empty but it's actually loaded. If you always treat it like it's loaded that will prevent fatal mistakes. A kind of side note to that is anytime you pick up a gun you should visually inspect it to confirm that it is unloaded. Even if someone else just handed it to you after checking themselves. It might seem overly cautious, but it only takes a few seconds to verify that there’s nothing in the chamber and will help prevent accidents," I said.

"The third rule is to keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire. I guess for ponies this extends to hoof, wing, magic, whatever you are using to pull that trigger. The last rule is always know your target, and what is beyond your target. Bullets go a long way and if you miss, or if the shot goes through the target, they can keep traveling for quite a while and will still be deadly. That's why we're shooting in this location, the hill in front of us serves as a backstop, all of our shots will end up in the dirt."

"How far do they go?" Golden Dawn asked.

"I don't know off the top of my head, and there's a difference between maximum and effective range. Maximum range being how far the bullet will actually go and effective range being how far you can reliably make an aimed shot. That of course depends on the gun and shooter as well. I'd say effective range is at least 100-150 yards for the .44 magnum out of the rifle, less out of the revolver, partially from the lower velocity and partially because it's harder to aim a revolver than a rifle. The .30-06 was designed to have an effective range of at least 1000 yards, though I've heard people making kills well beyond that, up to a mile. Of course that requires a good gun and an excellent shooter. Maximum range is somewhere in the ballpark of 4000-5000 yards."

Kitchen Sink's eyes went wide, "A mile for an aimed shot? By Celestia's Holy Sun, that's insane! The best range you'll see out of a pony hoof held weapon is 400 yards using a longbow and that's only useful for volley fire, not aimed shots. Even most magical attacks are fairly limited in range, it takes years of practice to hit something more than a couple hundred yards out."

"Well, like I said that's an extreme example. Guns are no different than what you just described. You need a proper gun, a properly designed bullet, and, of course, skill. Personally, I've never shot at anything farther away than 2 or 3 hundred yards."

After I finished going over the rules we were ready to shoot. I opened each of the ammo boxes and went to pull out a few rounds. I cringed a bit inwardly, neither the .44 magnum nor the .30-06 could be considered light cartridges. Neither was really great for a new shooter. Jumping right into something that has a good bit of recoil was a great way to develop a flinch which will throw off aim. Still there is nothing I could do, hopefully since ponies were so much stronger than humans the recoil wouldn't affect them as much.

"So normally for a first time shooter, we'd start with a smaller cartridge, like .22lr but all I've got is .44 mag and .30-06. Both of these cartridges have a good deal of recoil, not the worst but not light either. I'm guessing the lever action will actually be the best choice. Putting .44 magnum, which is a pistol cartridge, in a rifle, is a good way to reduce felt recoil. We'll try that first."

I donned my ear muffs and glasses and then I grabbed a single round of .44 out of the ammo box and pushed it into the loading port.

"Alright, just a refresher, this is a lever action chambered in .44 magnum. Normally this gun can hold ten rounds, but we'll start with one this time. Once your ammunition is loaded, you need to work the lever, that grabs the next round from the tube and pushes it into the chamber. Kitchen Sink, now would be the time to cast your spell, the range going hot."

Both ponies donned their own glasses then repeated "range hot" acknowledging my request.

"When you're done shooting just wave at me and I'll drop the spell," he said. Then his horn lit up and a globe of light encircled him before vanishing.

Golden and Kitchen Sink both watched on as I lowered the lever and then raised it back up. It made a satisfying click-clack and I brought the rifle up to my shoulder. I peered through the sights, lining up the front post on the piece of steel hanging at 100 yards and then gently squeezed the trigger.

The crack of the rifle echoed back and forth across the area and there was a clang as the steel plate started swinging and spinning like crazy on the chain. When I looked up Golden Dawn was standing at least two feet farther back than where she had been with her wings flared out. I put the rifle down and waved at Kitchen Sink, a moment later his horn glowed again, killing the spell.

"You alright?" I asked Golden

"Yeah, you did warn me about the noise, but it still startled me," she said folding her wings back up.

"Loud eh?" I asked with a grin.

"Wasn't bad, not as bad as working in a lightning storm, just... unexpected. When I'm bucking lightning out of a cloud, I know when it's going to go off," she replied.

"Do you want to try?" I asked holding out the rifle.

"Yes please!" She trotted over while I ejected the spent cartridge. I bent down and picked up the brass and tossed it into an empty box on the back of the truck. Since I had reloading equipment it made sense to save all my brass, plus it's just polite to clean up the range after you are done. The steel plate finally stopped swinging around and I made a mental note to go with two holes and two chains next time instead of one.

"Alright, so this is going to be interesting. You can shoot prone, though that makes it a pain to work the lever, or you can try shooting while standing on your rear legs, but I don't think you can hold it while you are on all four. So, before I load it," I opened the action to show Golden that the chamber was empty, "let's figure out what feels best for you before we load it."

Golden sat down on the ground and tried from a prone position, but like I figured it made opening the lever a bit of a pain. It would work for the bolt action but not as well for this gun. Then she stood up and balanced on her rear hooves. She flared her wings out for extra balance and held the rifle in her hooves.

"Hmm, here's something I didn't think of, I know you can use your hooves to hold things but can you squeeze that trigger or is the guard in the way?" I asked.

Golden Dawn started to turn towards me, then, as if remembering my rules set the gun down to make sure it kept pointing down range.

"Is it safe to try?" she asked, looking at me for confirmation.

"Yes, we verified that it is empty and you have the gun pointed down range, even if there was a round in there you'd only be hitting the hill. On top of that, see how the hammer isn’t pulled back, you have to work the lever to cock the hammer. It can’t fire without the hammer being cocked. Still, I’m glad you asked, and that you remembered to not point it at me," I said, giving her a smile.

She looked back, picked up the rifle and reached towards the trigger, unfortunately, as she began to poke at it, it looked like her hoof was too big to fit in the guard. She kept trying different angles but none of them gave her contact with the trigger while still allowing her to keep a grip on the gun itself. I was about to interrupt when she let out a snort and moved her hoof away. Then her wing swung in, she rested the tip of it trigger and gave a gentle pull.

"Not the best design for hooves, but I guess I can forgive your species since they didn't know about us," she said looking back with a grin.

"Hmm that might be an issue for Kitchen Sink," I said.

"Nope, I can pull the trigger with my magic," he said.

"Oh yeah, well I guess I won’t be taking any earth ponies shooting anytime soon," I said with a thoughtful laugh.

"Not without some modifications to your gun," Golden Dawn replied, sticking her tongue out at me.

"Don't you dare, it's brand new! Anyway, are you ready to shoot for real this time?" She nodded eagerly so I grabbed a round and handed it to her. She loaded the round and worked the lever. Then she raised the rifle up and took aim.

"Make sure you hold it up against your... shoulder?" I said, guessing at the pony body part name.

"And the golden dot on the post is what I'm aiming at?"

"Yep."

Kitchen Sink cast his silencing spell again, while Golden moved the front of the rifle around a bit with a look of concentration appearing on her face as she took aim. Her wing moved in once more and there was a loud bang as she squeezed the trigger. A fraction of a second later there was an equally loud clang as the bullet impacted on the steel plate.

"Nice shot!" I said, pumping my fist into the air. I hadn’t expected her to hit the target on her first try.

Golden turned around and beamed at me, "that was fun, can I try again?" she asked.

"Sure," I replied, grabbing a handful of ammo. "Pull the lever down to eject the brass and then we'll load it up all the way this time."

Golden Dawn loaded ten rounds into the rifle, then got to work unloading them the fun way, hitting the target three more times. After she was done, I bent down and picked up all the empty brass and returned them to the truck.

"Why don't we give Kitchen Sink a turn now," I said, pointing at the unicorn.

He saw me pointing and dropped his spell, "my turn?" he asked.

"Yeah, let me know if you have any questions first since I won't be able to talk with you after the spell is up."

"I think I'm good," he said.

"Start off with one shot, after you try that, then you can load all ten, okay?" I asked.

"Sure, can I try loading it myself for the first shot?" he asked.

"Alright," I said with a nod.

Kitchen Sink raised his spell and then the rifle floated over to him, he opened the action and verified it was empty. A single round floated out of the ammo box and over to the gun. I watched as it moved into the loading gate. This was going to be interesting.

Kitchen Sink took aim at the steel plate and fired. The actual boom of the gun was completely missing, but as soon as the bullet left the silenced area surrounding Kitchen Sink, it made a crack as it flew through the air, impacting on the dirt just left of the target.

Having a magically "silenced" gun made me think of the common misconceptions many people have about silencers. The average person see movies where some guy runs around with a silencer on his gun and quietly picks people off one by one. What they don’t seem to realize is silencers don’t really work like that. Most silencers reduce the gunshot sound by around 30 decibels. If your gun is making a 150 decibel bang, and it brings the sound down to 120 decibels, that’s still as loud as the siren on an ambulance. On top of that, if the bullet is moving faster than the speed of sound, which a .44 magnum round coming out of a rifle is doing, it’s going to create it’s own noise, independent of the actual sound the gun makes on being fired.

Kitchen sink dropped his spell and asked if he could try some more. I gave him a nod of approval and he floated over another ten rounds and threw the spell back up. He changed targets to the paper bullseye at 50 yards. I had to squint to see the results of his first shot which hit in the lower left corner. Each successive shot moved a little closer to the bullseye. Finally, he switched back to the steel plate and took another shot, this time it clanged loudly as the bullet smashed into it. After he fired his last shot he put the rifle down and dropped the spell.

I called a range cold so we could go look at the targets. We walked down the dusty field to the steel plate to check it out first. There was some dents in it where the bullets had hit but none of them had penetrated. We headed back to the firing line and declared the range hot again. I grabbed the revolver and gave a quick demo of how to load it before each pony took their turn.

"This is my dad's .44 magnum revolver, it shoots the same cartridge as the lever action. This is a double action revolver, that means you can fire it in two ways. First you can squeeze the trigger, that will pull the hammer back as you squeeze it until you pull it all the way back, then the hammer will drop and the gun will fire. The other way is you can shoot it like a single action revolver, you cock the hammer by pulling it back all till you feel a click. It will stay cocked until you pull the trigger."

"Why would you want to shoot single action?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Because when you cock the hammer manually, the trigger only has to release the hammer not pull it back as well, so you need much less force. Heavier trigger pulls tend to introduce inaccuracy so single action shooting usually results in a better shot."

I loaded in a single round, lifted the revolver up, pulled the hammer back and prepared to fire. Holding the revolver as steady as I could I lined up the sights on the distant steel target. I gently squeezed the trigger, the gun went off with a loud bang but I missed the plate and a cloud of dirt puffed up into the air on the hill in the distance.

"You missed," Golden said.

"I noticed," I said flatly, while rubbing my wrist. "I've never been a good shot with this thing, and I only shot the lighter .44 special loads when I was younger. They have less kick."

I opened the cylinder, ejected the spent brass and then loaded up another round.

"Here ya go, give it a try," I handed the revolver to Golden after showing her how to hold it properly. She had to modify her hold a bit due to hooves but eventually she found something that was comfortable but gave her a good grip. She missed her first shot, ejected the brass and loaded in a full six rounds. After missing the steel plate on her next three shots she swapped to the up close paper target, but her grouping was still all over the place.

Kitchen Sink also had less luck with the revolver that he did with the rifle. Once he had a feel for it, he was getting his shots on paper almost every time, but his grouping was fairly large. Honestly it made sense, rifles have a longer sight radius which helps makes aiming easier.

"Don't worry, you'll get better with practice, and like I explained earlier these are not great first guns," I said to Golden Dawn who was looking kind of bummed. "Also, as you said, they really aren’t designed for hooves."

For the next hour or so all three of us took turns, swapping the rifle and the revolver back and forth. After having some fun with those, Golden Dawn asked if we could try the bolt action, so I turned back to the truck and grabbed it.

"Like I mentioned earlier, this is a bolt action rifle and it's chambered in .30-06 which is a rifle round. It will have heavier recoil than the lever action."

The .30-06 had a scope attached to it, I knew it was a variable zoom but not being able to read the numbers on it, I had no idea what power it was. It also had iron sights which was nice as many modern rifles forgo them. I went over the loading process, showed the ponies how to work the bolt and then popped the scope covers off so I could take a shot.

I looked at the steel target through the scope, it was a bit blurry so I fiddled with some of the knobs on the scope. The one on the back of the scope adjusted the zoom level, There were three more in the middle of the scope. One sticking up, one sticking out to the left and one more that pointed right. I was pretty sure the top and right knobs were to adjust the zero but without being able to read I was guessing. That left the left knob, as I turned it the image grew clearer and clearer until it was in focus. I lined up the far plate in the scope's cross-hairs, exhaled and pulled the trigger.

The rifle kicked back into my shoulder with a fair amount of force, but I was distracted looking at the plate. Or rather where the plate had been. It had been hanging from some chain, but it wasn't there anymore.

"What happened to the plate, I was watching you," Golden asked.

"Not sure, maybe I hit the chain," I said.

"It looks fine to me," she said, looking downrange.

I squinted but I couldn't really make it out, "well let's go down and take a look." I signaled to Kitchen Sink to drop his spell, "the range is now cold, actions open and after that don't touch the guns until the range is hot again."

"Right," both ponies said and we set our weapons down.

We ran down to the foot of the hill where the target stand was sitting. Like Golden had said, the chain was still intact; the plate however had fallen off the chain and into a shrub. I leaned down and picked it up, letting out a whistle. Golden had drilled a hole in the top of the plate and we had hung it with a S hook attached to the bottom link of the chain. It looked like the plate had been hit hard enough that it had jumped off the hook, but that wasn't what I was whistling at. The plate was covered in a bunch of small dents from where it had been hit with the .44 magnum. That, we already knew about. Now though, besides the dents, it was also sporting a new hole in the bottom corner, courtesy of the .30-06 round which had punched right through the half inch thick plate. Both ponies were staring at the ruined plate in disbelief.

"Uh... I think we might need stronger targets," I said looking over the plate again. "We should probably not shoot this anymore, I'm worried that with the uneven surface we might get a ricochet."

"I didn't even think of that," Golden said.

"It's my fault, I forgot, usually the steel for rifle targets is hardened, it doesn't matter as much with pistol rounds, but rifle rounds have a lot more punch. For now we can stick to paper targets," I said.

I picked up the stand and plate and we headed back towards the truck, I stopped at the 50 yard target to throw on a fresh paper target, while Golden Dawn flew the steel target back to the truck. When we were all set to go again, I handed her the bolt action after the range went hot.

"Remember, this one kicks a bit more than the other, make sure you have it shouldered like I showed you," I said.

Golden Dawn was able to load the rounds into the rifle with her wing, she loaded it up, pulled the bolt back and pushed it forward, chambering a round. Then she disengaged the safety, took aim and fired.

"Oh wow you weren't kidding," she said before turning back to the gun. She went through the remaining four shots, as she did I watched as she cycled the bolt with her wing; the amount of dexterity she had with it was very impressive. Kitchen Sink went next and I noticed a big difference between the way he shot a bolt action and the way Golden or I did. Because he was using magic to pull the bolt back and to fire the gun, he didn't have to physically move any body part back to the trigger. The moment the bolt closed, he was able to fire, making his followup shots much faster. I had never actually seen anyone shoot a bolt action as fast as he was doing. Golden must have noticed to because after Kitchen Sink finished she turned to me.

"I like this gun, and I really like the scope, but it seems slower than the lever action because I have to move my wing back to the trigger, do you mind if I try something?" she asked.

"Sure," I said.

Golden took the rifle and walked up to the firing line. This time she got down on the ground in a prone position. She loaded up the rifle like last time but when she went to shoot she used her hoof to cycle the bolt while keeping her wing on the trigger. She still wasn't quite as fast as Kitchen Sink but it was a big improvement.

"I figured If I used my hoof to cycle the bolt, I'd be able to shoot faster. Guess I was right." Golden said with a grin.

"Yep, but remember it isn't always about speed. In any case neither of them would be as fast as a semi-automatic, or an automatic rifle if you are looking purely at rate of fire."

"What do those mean?" Kitchen Sink asked.

"So the three guns we have here all require some sort of manual action to load the next round. You either cycle the bolt, work the lever or cock the hammer, though with the revolver, pulling the trigger will also perform the movement needed to turn the cylinder, bringing the next shot in line. A semi-automatic gun uses some of the energy from the previous shot to load the next round for you, it also ejects the brass from the previous shot; all you have to do is pull the trigger. Every time you pull the trigger a semi-automatic gun will fire once. Automatic guns are similar, except if you hold down the trigger, an automatic will keep firing, generally at a very high rate, until you run out of ammo."

"How fast?"

"Several hundred to over a thousand rounds per minute it depends on the gun."

"Oh sweet Celestia!" Golden said, her tail twitching wildly. "It's too bad you don't have one of those, I'd love to try it."

"Semi-automatics are the most commonly owned type of firearm among civilians in my country. Automatics however, are much more tightly controlled. There are only a limited number of them available for civilian ownership; as such they tend to be very expensive. In addition you have to go through a lot of paperwork to buy one, it's a lengthy and somewhat pricey process."

Both of the ponies had more questions and I answered them as best I could, but it wasn't long before we went back to shooting. After a few hours of talking and shooting we decided to call it a day. None of us had planned on staying out this late, it was only a couple of hours from dinner time and we hadn't even brought food for lunch. We cleaned up the range, Kitchen Sink hopped into back of the truck while Golden Dawn sat up front again.

"Today was fun," Golden said, resting a wing around my shoulder.

"Yeah it was. It's been a long time since I've done anything like this, the last few years of my life have just been work, work and more work."

"All the more reason for you to enjoy your time here, think of it like an unexpected vacation."

"Some vacation, first I end up whisked off to another world, I get my brain scrambled, I almost die in the desert and then I almost get killed by a underground monster." I said while starting the truck.

Golden frowned a bit at that.

"I'm just joking with you," I said, sticking my tongue out. "Although the circumstances of my arrival were less than ideal, I've actually enjoyed a good bit of my time here. While it hasn't been a traditional vacation, it has been fun."

"I did have a couple of follow up questions about your guns," she said.

"Shoot."

"You went over how the guns work but you didn't really talk about the ammunition," Golden Dawn said.

"Oh yeah, I forgot, I had already given Kitchen Sink a quick run down of it while we were still at the mines."

"My guess is that there's some sort of explosive charge inside each of those brass casings," she said.

"Very good, yeah there's a substance known as smokeless powder inside each cartridge. Well sort of, there's not just one type of powder, different powders have different burn rates and thus different applications. Don't quote me on this but I think rifle powders tend to burn slower than pistol powders, the idea being that a rifle barrel is much longer, so if you used a quick burning powder it would finish burning before the bullet exited the barrel and then start to slow down due to friction."

"That makes sense, I wonder if the powers are anything like spark powder." Golden Dawn said.

"What's spark powder?"

"It's what we use in fireworks, it's a mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal and sulfur."

"Oh! That sounds like gunpowder, well, specifically black powder. Most people just call all powder gunpowder. Anyway, I don't know the actual ratios for gunpowder but those are the components."

"What's gunpowder?"

"It was the precursor to modern smokeless powders. We don't use it in most guns anymore for a few reasons, one of them being it makes a lot of smoke. That’s why the replacements, which make far less smoke, are known as smokeless powder."

"What are they made out of?"

"I'm not really sure and like I said there's not just one kind. Different powders have different burn rates. Some are good for rifles some are good for pistols, there's a lot of variety."

I told Golden Dawn about the reloading equipment I had back in my trailer, along with all the components and reloading manuals. Then I gave her the same quick rundown of the components of a cartridge that I had given Kitchen Sink. She asked many more questions and I answered them to the best of my ability.

When we got back to the shop, I headed over to one of the work benches and showed the two ponies how to break apart each weapon, how to clean it and how to reassemble it. After that Kitchen Sink thanked me for the taking him out shooting, gave me five bits and headed out.

"I'm going to be in Hoofston for another few days until Jade Circlet gets here, then I'm heading home to Canterlot. I think that's where you said you were heading, if you're still in Equestria next week, swing by," he said, giving me a piece of paper with his address on it.

"Will do," I said shaking his hoof goodbye.

After he left, Golden asked if she could look at the rifles some more, she wanted to break down the rifles again and see how they worked. At first I was going to say no, I was kind of worried about her taking them apart, but then I reconsidered. If she could build her own engine from scratch, surely taking apart a gun wouldn’t be too hard. Plus, doing a full tear down with her would be kind of fun. I locked up all the ammunition to make sure there were no accidents and then I let her have a go at it while I watched on and described each of the parts in detail. She had both of them broken down in record time and the next thing I knew she pulled out some of her own tools and started measuring each of the components and making notes. She had a pretty good sketch of the lever action's receiver when Blue Skies burst into the shop, bouncing up and down excitedly.

"Hail Storm! You've got to come with me," she said pulling on my arm.

"What's going on?" Golden asked as she walked over.

"There's a unicorn magician in town!" Blue Skies said. "Maybe you can talk to her, she might know how to get you home!"

"Oh? OH! Let me just put this away and I'll meet you outside." I said, excitedly.

"Nuts to that, you’ve got to hurry!" Blue Skies said. Before I could say anything she lifted me up, flew me out the door and dropped me off on the ground next to my truck. I didn't like the idea of leaving the guns out but they were disassembled and the only ammunition on the planet was locked up in my trailer.

Golden Dawn flew down right behind me.

"I'll come with you," she said, opening the passenger door and climbing in.

I started up the truck and drove after Blue Skies who was already flying towards the center of town. I hummed a happy tune, tapping along on the steering wheel as I stepped on the gas.

"Isn't this great?" I asked, grinning happily "I could find out how I got here! Maybe I could even get back to Earth today!"

"Yeah..." Golden replied in a quiet voice.

I glanced over at her, she was slumped forward almost laying completely flat on the floor of the truck, "what's wrong? You don't sound particularly excited."

"I just don't think you should get your hopes up, the kind of magic needed to pull you here from another world, that's no small thing. I think you're going to have to talk to the Princesses to get any real information."

Golden Dawn's statement deflated my excitement and my dancing fingers came to rest on the steering wheel.

"This pony might know something though, right?"

"Maybe," Golden said but her response felt cold and lifeless.

Fluffy feathers came to rest on my back as Golden spoke up, "if this pony can help you, are you going to leave right away?"

I almost shouted "Of course!" but just before it slipped out I noticed Golden's face. Her ears were folded down flat against her head and eyelids were half closed. I had never seen her looking so sad before.

"I... I hadn't thought about it." I replied.

"I'm going to miss you Hail Storm, I know you got pulled here against your will and I have no right to ask you to stay away from your home any longer, but I've enjoyed your company and I feel like I'm about to say goodbye to a new friend that I'll never get to see again." she said with a sniffle.

The soft grip of Golden's wing tightened as I continued to drive towards the center of town. I reached over and put my hand on Golden's shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

"I'm sorry Golden, I got so caught up in Blue Skies' news that I wasn't thinking. I will miss you too, but who knows, maybe we can arrange for some way to allow easy travel between our two worlds."

"Maybe," Golden said, but she didn’t sound convinced.

We didn't have any more time to talk because Blue Skies stopped as we reached a small field near the middle of town. At the far end I saw a bunch of ponies standing around a small wooden stage where a blue unicorn wearing a hat and cape was walking back and forth, talking to the crowd. Off to the side of the stage was a small purple wagon with yellow trim. I parked the truck, hopped out and headed across the field with Golden Dawn over to where Blue Skies was standing.

The stage was covered in various props, most of which looked exactly like what you’d expect for a magic show. The blue unicorn that I had spotted earlier, said something that made the crowd gasp. Her horn lit up brightly and a burst of fireworks exploded in the air, dazzling the onlooking ponies. Several ponies started clapping as she removed her hat and took a bow. I reached Blue Skies and watched on as the unicorn continued her act.

"For her next trick, The Great and Powerful Trixie needs a volunteer from the audience. If anypony wishes to assist Trixie, step forward."

A young pegasus colt, egged on by a group of friends shyly walked towards the wagon.

"You there, " the unicorn announced "You shall help Trixie delight the crowd with a spectacular display of magic, but first, you need to be properly dressed."

She removed the pointy, star covered hat and placed it on the colt’s head. It was far too large for the young pony and sank down deep, covering much of his face. He peered out from under the hat and watched silently as Trixie pulled off her matching cape. With a dramatic sweep she draped it over the the colt.

Trixie reared up into the air and landed with a bang, as her hooves crashed down a cloud of smoke puffed up into the air surrounding both her and the young pony. When it dissipated, the colt was gone. The crowd gasped, while Trixie trotted over to a box on the far left of the stage. She spun around and gave the box a kick with her rear hooves. The walls of the box fell outward, revealing the colt who was standing there, looking rather confused at his location change.

"Please give a round of applause for Trixie's volunteer," Trixie shouted gave a bow as she retrieved her hat and cape.

Trixie continued with her show, which rivaled some of the better magic shows I had seen on Earth. However, the audience’s reaction was mixed. Some ponies seemed genuinely impressed but other ponies seemed rather bored. I guess when you grew up around magic, a magic show wasn't all that big of a deal. By the end of the show, the number of ponies still watching had shrunk by about half. Some of the remaining ponies wandered off after Trixie wrapped up the final act of her show, but most lined up to approach the stage. One by one, they stepped forward and dropped some money into Trixie's hat which was floating directly in front of the stage, encased in a pale pink glow.

I had thought it was a pretty good show so I got in line and waited my turn. Golden and Blue Skies were in front of me, after they finished and stepped out of line, I walked forward, reached over the hat, and tossed in a bit. My hand brushed up against the pink glow as I was pulling it away. I let out a small cry of pain as the lower half of arm began to tingle, like pins and needles, but quite painful. It was not dissimilar from when Kitchen Sink had pushed me as I jumped the pit, but this time it hurt even more. I quickly retracted my hand and tried to shake the pain away. Slowly, the odd sensation began to fade until all that was left was a dull ache. I heard a pony cough loudly and looked up to see Trixie glaring at me.

"What are you and why are you touching Trixie's hat?" she asked sternly, while giving me a look over.

"Oh, sorry, I don't know what it is but every time I come into contact with magic, it leaves me feeling weird. I liked your show by the way, probably the best magic show I've ever seen."

"Thank you," she said her gaze softening a bit. "Trixie is always glad to hear that a spectator enjoyed the show."

"The name's Hal Storm, you asked what I am, well I'm a human," I said extending my hand.

Trixie hesitantly extended her hoof and then weakly shook my hand. "Good to meet you Hail Storm, now if you’ll excuse me..." She began to walk away when I called out to her.

"Actually, I was wondering if I could talk to you... about magic," I said.

"You are interested in stage magic?" Trixie asked.

"Well not exactly, look do you have some time? It's a bit of a long story."

Trixie glanced back at the stage, "Trixie needs to finish cleaning up, then she can spare a few minutes time. Meet me in my wagon in half an hour."

"Great! Thanks, I appreciate it." I said before wandering back over to Golden and Blue Skies.

"What did she say?" Golden asked, trying to hide her nervousness.

"I'm going to talk to her when she's done cleaning up," I said.

We stood around talking while Trixie continued to put away all her props. Then she disassembled the stage and it too disappeared into the wagon. Impressive since the wagon didn’t look all that big. When enough time had passed I walked over to it with Golden and Blue Skies in tow. I knocked on the door and seconds later heard Trixie say "Enter."

The door opened, and I stepped inside. I made it a foot past the door before I was overcome with a wave of nausea and I doubled over in pain. My entire body felt like it had been lit on fire. I fell to the floor in a heap, letting out a shrill cry.

"Hail Storm?" Golden Dawn asked, looking at me with worry in her eyes.

I struggled to get back up, and that's when I noticed that the ceiling was much farther away than I thought it should have been. In fact now that I was looking around the interior of the wagon was much larger than should have been possible.

"Is this wagon enchanted?" I asked Trixie weakly, as I tried to back up.

"Of course, how else would the Great and Powerful Trixie be able to store all of her equipment?" she said.

"I need... I need... to.. get" was all I managed to say before another wave of pain washed over me and I fell to the floor again. My memory went a bit fuzzy, and the next thing I remembered was Golden Dawn looking over me, her face full of worry. Trixie and Blue Skies were standing next to her. My entire body felt like it was covered in a massive sunburn and despite the warm sun, I shivered.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Ugh, I hurt all over. What happened?"

"You passed out in Trixie's wagon," Trixie said quite plainly.

"How long was I out?" I asked, my vision was fading between clarity and a massive blur.

"Ten minutes or so, we pulled you out of there almost right away." Golden Dawn said.

"Can somepony explain to Trixie what's going on?" Trixie asked.

"I don't... feel so well," I said, struggling to talk, my heart was beating so hard that if felt like it was going to explode out of my chest.

"We need to get him to Dusty's" I heard Golden say before everything went black.

A nearly inaudible sound of light breathing was my first clue that I was awake. Shortly later the sounds of birds, happily announcing that morning had come filled the air. As I sat up, the pounding in my head flared up and I let out a gasp.

"Hail Storm?"

I turned and saw Golden Dawn, stretching her wings and wiping the sleep from her eyes.

"You're awake!" she said happily, she leapt across the room and wrapped her wings around me.

"Whats going on?" I asked weakly.

"Hold on, let me go get Dusty, he'll want to know you're up," Golden Dawn said before flying out of the room. A moment later she came back with Dusty who also looked like he had just woken up.

"What time is it?" I asked, looking at the window, it had to still be early since the judging by the light coming in from the window.

"Just a little past five in the morning," Dusty said.

"How long as I out? Were you here all night?" I asked Golden Dawn.

"Golden Dawn has been here almost the whole time you were out," Dusty said. "I made her go home the first day but after that she came back and refused to leave."

Golden Dawn blushed. "I wanted to make sure you were okay," she said.

What's the last thing you remember?" Dusty asked me.

"Going to talk to that unicorn magician, Trixie I think it was?"

"You passed out when you stepped into her wagon, you woke back up for a few minutes after we got you out but then lost consciousness again, that was six days ago." Golden Dawn said.

I stared at her, "Five days?... So you hung around here for five days?"

Golden nodded meekly.

"What the heck is wrong with me?" I asked

"We aren't sure, all we know is that you had a violent reaction to the enchantment in Trixie's wagon. It had a fairly powerful spatial compression and weight displacement spell cast on it, according to Trixie."

"Huh?"

"It made the inside bigger than the outside and lets Trixie store a lot of things in her wagon without adding to the weight," Golden Dawn said.

"Oh."

"You gave us quite a scare," Dusty said. "I still can't figure out why you react so badly to enchantments, that one in Trixie's wagon nearly killed you but I don't know if it's because it was a powerful spell or it was due to cumulative damage caused by repeated exposure to enchantment. Your heart rate was through the roof when Golden got you here."

"Saved me again? You've got to stop making a habit of that," I said struggling to smile.

"Only if you quit your habit of nearly dying," she said gently punching me in the shoulder.

"I'll do my best," I said with a wince, then I frowned. "I guess I missed out on my chance to talk to a magician."

"Not exactly, Trixie is still in town, she followed us here and I told her as much as I could about you, she said she'd hang around for a few more days in case you woke up," Golden Dawn said.

"Why don't you get some rest, after you do, Golden Dawn can go get her," Dusty Heart said.

"Okay," I said and both ponies headed out to let me rest. Eventually I drifted back to sleep.

A few hours later I woke up to a knock at the door.

"Come in."

Golden Dawn, Blue Skies, Dusty Heart and Trixie all walked in.

"How are you feeling?" Blue Skies asked, looking relieved to see me awake.

"Better, head's killing me but I don't feel like I'm dying anymore."

"I'm so sorry, if I hadn't told you about Trixie you never would have gotten hurt," she said, looking guilty.

"Not your fault, you had no way of knowing."

"Trixie is... sorry as well, Trixie has never heard of anypony having that kind of reaction to magic," the unicorn magician said.

"Well, I'm not exactly from around here, so it's not like you had any way of knowing. Don't worry about it," I said.

"Do you still want to ask Trixie about magic?" she asked.

"Maybe I should start at the beginning. I know Golden Dawn probably told you a bit about my past, but I'll just start over in case she missed anything."

With that I launched into my story of the events of nearly a month ago; I had told it enough that I had an abridged version with all the important details already memorized. Trixie's face remained steady during the whole thing so I couldn't really gauge how well she was following along. A few times Golden Dawn interjected with something small details that she felt were important that I had left out.

"So you see, what I'm looking for is a unicorn with enough magical knowledge to figure out how I got here, and maybe how to send me home."

Trixie sat there for a few moments clearly trying to process everything I had just told her. Her lack of expression made me nervous. Perhaps she thought I was I'm making the whole thing up, I couldn’t get a read on her.

"Look, I know it probably sounds crazy, but the whole thing is true, right down to those bits of confetti I found. I have no idea how I got here and I'm from another planet."

After another moment of silence she floated her hat off, and set it down on the table in front of her. Her pale blue striped mane fell downward and a frown covered her face.

"Trixie believes you, she... er... I have traveled far and wide across Equestria and I have never seen any species like you before. That's not what was bothering Tri... uh, me. I... I am sorry to say that I cannot help you."

"But why not, aren't you a magician? I just watched your show, I saw you use more magic during it than every other unicorn I've met since I arrived here."

A long drawn out sigh escaped from Trixie before she continued.

"I am excellent at stage magic, but outside of that I know few spells. The enchantment on my wagon is probably the most difficult spell I've ever cast and it required no where near the amount of magic that would be needed to open a gateway to another world. As much as it pains me to admit, I am no master at all forms of magic. Pretending to be so has only caused me problems in the past."

"Is there anything you can do, even maybe determine if it was a spell that brought him here?" Golden asked.

"If I had been present at Hail Storm's arrival in Equestria, I might have been able to discern the nature of the magic that brought him here, but I doubt I could reverse it. By now it would take a very powerful pony, like Princess Celestia or Princess Luna to find anything out this long after the fact."

She sat there for a moment deep in thought, before frowning once more.

"Actually there is one other pony that could help you," Trixie said.

"Who?"

"A unicorn mare, she lives in Ponyville, her name is Twilight Sparkle."

"Twilight Sparkle? The new princess? I think I remember Golden Dawn telling me about her," I said.

"What?!" Trixie shouted, jumping out of her seat. She jumped back so quickly, her hat fell off.

"What, what?" I asked, confused at her outburst.

"Twilight Sparkle is not a princess!" Trixie said in a huff.

"Yeah she is, she was crowned a little over two months ago," Blue Skies said.

"It was in all the papers, how could you not have seen it?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Tri... I have been traveling and I do not always pay attention to current events." Trixie said with a snort.

"I thought Dusty Heart had said Twilight was an alicorn?" I asked.

"She is now, she was a unicorn before, that's how she became a princess." Blue Skies said.

"Remember I said she ascended?" Golden Dawn said.

"I thought you meant ascended as in, ascended to the throne! How does that even work? Ponies can change species?" I asked. Then again, was it really a species change? I wasn't sure how ponies classified themselves.

"Only Princess Celestia or Princess Luna could answer that," Trixie said while floating her hat back onto her head.. "Ascension is beyond rare, only a hoofful of ponies throughout Equestria's history have managed it. It figures that Twilight was one of them."

"She's in Canterlot right now, right?" I asked

"Yeah, she and Princess Cadance are running things while Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are on vacation."

"Vacation? I really need to start reading the news," Trixie said with a sigh.

"Well, I had planned on going to Canterlot before this happened, looks like my plans haven’t changed. I'm going to have to go to there to find any real answers after all," I said.

"I would offer to let you travel with me as I'm going to eventually be heading that way myself; I have... some things that I need to discuss with Twilight. But judging by your reaction to my wagon, I think it would be best if you avoided it and any other magic that you can." Trixie said.

"Yeah, that's not an experience I want to relive, in any case, I already have a way to get there, I can drive my truck," I said.

"I don't know if you should be traveling that far in your condition," Dusty Heart said. "Certainly not alone."

"But I need to get to Canterlot," I said.

"I'll go with him," Golden Dawn said. "I'm way overdue for a vacation and my dad lives in Canterlot."

"You don't have to do that," I said.

"I insist. Somepony has to make sure you get there safely, besides I haven't gotten to look at your truck yet," she said with a smile.

"Is that all I am to you, my truck?" I said returning the grin. I didn't want to force her to travel, but if she was adamant, I wasn't going to stop her. Plus I'd enjoy the company.

"Yep, that and your guns," she said rubbing my head.

"Ow, not so hard, don't further injure the poor sick man."

"Then it's settled then," Dusty said. "You go with Hail Storm and make sure he gets to Canterlot, it will be good to have a pony who's familiar with the city to help him find his way around it." Then he turned to me. "And you, make sure you don't push yourself too hard. No use getting to Canterlot if you die on it's doorstep. Oh, and try to avoid any more exposure to enchanted objects."

"I will, and thank you everyone for taking care of me."

Blue Skies, Trixie and Dusty Heart left the room while Golden Dawn helped me out of bed.

"I suppose we need to head to the center of town and get my truck since I left it in the middle of that field. It's a good thing you ponies don't have tow trucks or I'd be paying to get it out of an impound lot," I said with a laugh.

Golden Dawn gave me a nervous grin, "Um... about that. I kinda sorta borrowed your keys and drove it here."

"How did you do that?" I asked in shock. It must have been hell for her to even fit in the driver's seat.

"I sat human style! It was a little odd at first and not exactly what I would call comfortable, it's lucky that I'm a fairly small pony or I wouldn't have fit at all. But once I crammed myself in there, I was able to reach the pedals with my rear hooves. I had already been watching you drive before so I knew which pedals did what."

"You didn't hit anything did you?" I asked, glaring at her suspiciously.

"Just a few mailboxes," she said.

"What!?"

"I'm kidding," she said with a laugh. "I kept it pretty slow and was extremely careful."

"Well I guess that's good to know that you can drive."

"So you want to take turns on the way to Canterlot?" she asked with a big grin.

"We'll see."

Chapter 10

I might have told Dusty Heart that I had to get to Canterlot, but actually following through was going to be a challenge. When Golden Dawn helped me out of bed, a wave of dizziness almost made me fall over. It was only through sheer force of will that I remained standing. I rested my hand on Golden's back, using her to steady myself until the feeling had passed.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay to travel?" Golden asked with concern.

"I don't really have a choice, if I stay here, I've got no chance of getting help. I just hope your princesses can fix... whatever this is."

I felt a wing wrap around me, pulling me closer to my friend. I looked down and smiled, grateful for the support. She looked back at me, her eyes sparkling with a strength of will I wished I possessed.

"They will Hail Storm, I know it."

There wasn't a hint of doubt in that statement. I could tell, deep down, that she hadn't said it just to make me feel better. She believed it all the way to her core. Somehow, some of that strength, that hope, that rock solid faith, transferred to me. When I finally did break eye contact, I felt like some of my lost hope had been restored. I actually felt a little bit better.

With renewed strength, I walked out of the room under my own power, Golden Dawn trailing behind me, ready to swoop in if I faltered. We passed through the parlor on the way out. Trixie and Blue Skies had already left, but Dusty Heart was sitting in a chair, waiting for us. I walked up to him and extended my hand.

"Thank you Dusty, for everything." I said shaking his hoof.

"Don't worry about it, and don't try to give me any more bits, you've already given me enough. Stay safe on your journey and good luck," he said.

We headed outside and I found my truck parked right in front of Dusty's fence. I gave it a quick glance over for mailbox shaped dents but saw nothing. As I walked up to the door, I reached in my pocket for the keys and had a brief moment of panic when my fingers grasped nothing but air.

"Looking for these?" Golden Dawn asked as I remembered she had said she had taken them.

"Yep," I said, wondering where she had been keeping them. She wasn't wearing her saddle bags. I didn't really have time to mull it over since she tossed them in my direction. I reached out and caught the flying keys.

The door was already unlocked, so I climbed up in and settled down into the seat. Everything looked undisturbed, but I hadn't really expected Golden Dawn to have done anything. It wasn't like she took it out for a joy ride.

The passenger door opened with a click and Golden Dawn climbed up inside. Her cloud bench was exactly where she had left it, still as puffy as the day she had formed it. Once she settled in, I started the engine.

The drive to Golden Dawn's shop was quiet and uneventful. She insisted that I sit in the car while she packed everything that I had left in the apartment into the trailer. When it was finally loaded up she pulled it outside and hooked it up to the truck. I wouldn't be comfortable without doing one final check to make sure I wasn't leaving anything, so I got out, walked inside, and climbed the stairs. Golden Dawn followed me up.

"What about the guns? When we left to see Trixie they were both still disassembled." I asked as I looked around the apartment.

"They're all in the trailer, I put the two rifles back together and packed them up when Dusty sent me home that first day. Oh, that reminds me..." Golden Dawn spun around, glided down to the shop and then flew back up carrying a box in her hooves.

I opened up the box, inside were some pieces of metal that looked very familiar.

"Did you... Is that a duplicate of the lever action's receiver?" I asked, looking at the largest piece. I also saw a bolt, a hammer and part of the trigger assembly.

"Well it's a start, it isn't quite finished. When I was putting everything back together, I figured I'd finish taking the measurements I was working on. One thing lead to another and I found myself machining out some of the parts. This is all I managed to get done so far, but I've got detailed notes on a the rest of that gun."

"That's incredible, you did that all in one day?"

"To be honest, the lever action seems to be extremely simple, mechanically speaking. The bolt action too, I just started with the lever action because I remember you saying you had more ammunition for it."

Satisfied that I wasn't leaving anything we both headed back down. She put the box of parts back in a drawer and we headed outside.

"I'll work more on it when I get back to Hoofston," she said with a grin as we walked over to the truck.

"Remind me and you can take some ammunition back with you, to test it out once it's finished." I looked up at the truck and had a nagging feeling that something was missing.

"Oh!" I said as I realized what it was. "We almost forgot the extra fuel."

Golden Dawn had three drums of the stuff in her engine room. Using a handcart we wheeled the drums out to the truck. Golden Dawn then showed off her stupidly impressive carrying capacity, and complete disregard for physics as she flew each of the barrels up from the ground, into the back of the truck. It was obvious from her grunting that flying the barrels was a strain, but they each weighed over 300lbs, which had to be a significant portion of her own body weight, so it was still impressive. I just watched on with disbelief, then climbed up into the back and helped her strap the barrels down. She ran back inside to lock everything up and then we set off.

"I need to make a stop at my house," she said, giving me directions.

"Didn't you say you lived in a cloud?"

"Cloud home, but yeah, I just need to fly up and grab a few things."

When we got to Golden's home, I looked out the window and gawked. Sure enough there was a house, made of clouds hovering about 500 feet up in the air. It made me dizzy just thinking about it. The style reminded me of ancient Roman buildings with large pillars made of clouds and a triangular roof. She flew up and disappeared for a few minutes before returning with a large duffel bag that she tossed in the back seat. We made one last stop at Hoofston's market and purchased enough food for a few days. I was digging through the bag, figuring we could eat lunch on the road when Golden Dawn interrupted me.

"Hey Hail, let's grab lunch here before we leave, we can save that food for the road."

"Sounds like a plan, where too?"

"Smokey Griddle? I could go for some pancakes."

Truthfully, my stomach had been doing backflips ever since I had woken up at Dusty's. The problem was, I was very hungry, having not eaten anything solid in quite some time. I wasn't sure if I could hold anything down, but I wanted to try and pancakes did sound good. I put the orange I was holding back into the bag of food and drove towards the small restaurant.

Much to my surprise, Blue Skies, Dusty Heart and a few of the other ponies I met since arriving in Hoofston were all waiting inside.

"Surprise!" Blue Skies said trotting over and giving me a hug. "You didn't think you'd be leaving without saying goodbye did you?"

"I guess not," I said returning the hug.

I kept my meal light, I didn't feel any better at the end of it, but I wasn't doing any worse either. What the meal lacked in quantity, it made up for in pleasant conversation and warm goodbyes. I had only known the ponies at the table for a short while but I appreciated their friendship. Without help from Golden Dawn and Dusty Heart I would have died and even though I had been injured in the process, without Blue Skies leading me to Trixie, I wouldn't be preparing to head for the capital. When the food was finished and talking was dying down, I thanked everyone there for all of their help and bid them all a fond farewell. Then it was off to the truck with Golden as be began our journey to Canterlot.

"Crud, I forgot to get a map," I said as I was driving through town.

"I know how to get there, besides, it's hard to get lost with a pegasus... built in compass," she said tapping her head.

"I could use one of those, even with GPS I get lost."

"GPS?"

"Oh sorry, Global Positioning System. It's a system of man made satellites that orbit my planet. They send out a signal that devices, like my phone, can connect to. By connecting to multiple satellites the device can determine its exact location, accurate to within a few yards. My phone can pull up a map of all the roads in my country then use the GPS signal to determine which street is is on. Then it can plan a route from one location to almost anywhere else on the continent."

Golden Dawn mulled this over for a moment before her eyes lit up.

"Wait, man made satellites? Like humans have put things into space?'

"Yeah, lots of things. We even sent people to our moon. It was before I was born though, and we haven't been back in a while."

Golden Dawn's eyes grew twice as big, an impressive feat considering how large they were already.

"That's incredible! How did you do it? Tell me everything."

I spent the new few hours talking about satellites, space exploration, NASA and the moon landing. It wasn't an area I was intimately familiar but I answered all of her questions as best as I could. It was actually a great distraction from the long drive and I began to feel a bit better as we got farther and farther from the town. Eventually, I ran out of things to babble about and the subject drifted to Golden Dawn's future plans. She talked about some modifications she was going to be making to the next version of her engine, her plans to make a diesel powered automobile, to compete with steam cars, and the factory she wanted to set up to build them.

Golden Dawn let me know that we'd be ending up the day's travels in large town called Appleloosa. It was a located about 200 miles north of Hoofston. The road wasn't in the best of shape, which limited my top speed and was making the trip take much longer than it would have had I been on a modern highway. If the conditions didn't change, I guessed that we'd be getting to the town a little after 8 at night.

We passed one small town between Hoofston and Appleloosa, well town was maybe being a bit generous. It consisted of a water and fuel stop for trains and a single building that was combination saloon, hotel and store. We pulled in and had a quick dinner before getting back on the road.

Finally, later that evening, we arrived in Appleloosa. Just from driving down the main street I could tell that it was much larger than Hoofston. Even this late at night, ponies wandered up and down the streets heading to various destinations. I got more than a few curious looks and at least one pony saw my truck, and took off in the other direction.

We found a hotel and I parked my truck behind it. I was glad we were stopping for the night, as even though I had done far longer drives before, I was feeling exhausted and starting to feel sick again. I had thought about letting Golden Dawn take over for a while but I didn't want such an inexperienced driver behind the wheel in the dark on a dirt road. We headed into the hotel and walked up to the front desk.

Behind the counter was a tired looking pony sitting on a stool reading a book. I cleared my throat to get her attention, then she floated the book over to the counter and looked up. Her eyes opened up wide and she leaned back, falling off the stool; blushing with embarrassment she pulled herself up off the floor and looked back up at Golden Dawn and I.

"Can I help you?" she said with a squeak.

"I'd like a room for the night," I said.

"Okay." she choked out, even quieter than her last response. She turned to a book and started flipping through some pages.

After that she seemed to pull herself together, when she was done checking her book she looked up.

"You're in luck we've got one room left and only for tonight," she said. "There's a big rodeo coming up and almost everything is booked for the rest of the week."

"Seems we left Hoofston on the right day," I said to Golden Dawn.

"Oh you're from Hoofston?" the pony behind the counter asked.

"She is," I said nodding at Golden Dawn. "I'm... not from Equestria."

The pony coughed at that, "Oh, well uh, welcome to Appleloosa. I'm... sorry about my reaction. I've never seen a... what did you say you were again?"

"I didn't, and I'm a human."

"I've never seen a human before, you startled me. Can't be too careful, what with all the talk of missing ponies lately," she said. "But, I guess if you were up to something, you'd probably not announce yourself asking for a room."

"It's... okay, don't worry about it," I said, trying to sigh.

I thanked the pony and then paid for the room. As we headed towards it I turned to Golden Dawn.

"Well, I'm surprised I made it this long before getting that kind of reaction." I said. "Not her fault, but ugh, it sure doesn't feel good to be on the receiving end of that."

Golden Dawn gave me a reassuring brush with her wing. "She did seem a little nervous, but at least she apologized. You've got to understand, ponies have never seen a human before."

"Am I scary?"

"Not to me, but not everypony reacts the same way to the unknown, some might ignore you, some might fear you and others will just be curious. I'm afraid you're going to see more of this as we get deeper into Equestria where other races are less common. Don't worry too much about it, ponies are usually a friendly bunch, once they get to know you."

I set down my suitcase, opened the door and walked inside. My face immediately fell, the room had cost next to nothing and now I knew why. It was tiny, there was no bathroom and only a single small bed.

"You can have the bed, I'll sleep in the truck." I said picking my suitcase back up.

Golden Dawn looked confused. "Why? We can just share it."

I felt my face redden slightly, "Uh I don't know how it is with ponies but adult humans only usually only share a bed if they're in a relationship, or um... about to get... physical."

Without missing a beat, Golden Dawn let her lustful eyes wander over my body from head to toe. The she looked up, staring me directly in the face. "Same with ponies," she said seductively, pushing the room door closed with her rear leg.

"I.. uh... ah?" I started to stammer.

"Bwahahahahahaha" Golden Dawn burst into laughter. "I'm just teasing you... humans don't have sleepovers?"

"Not since I was a kid," I said.

"There's nothing wrong with sleeping with friends, and it's not like there's some law that says if we're sharing one we gotta have sex. But if your weird human culture says you can't do it, feel free to sleep in that cramped truck. More room for me."

I thought about the truck, 2/3 of the bench was packed away in the trailer so Golden could sit on her cloud chair. Since the bench didn't recline and I wasn't a fan of sleeping while sitting up, I gave up on that idea.

"It does look better than the truck..." I said, putting my suitcase back down.

There was a shared bathroom down the hall so I used it, got ready for bed and headed back for the room. Golden Dawn was already laying down, she scooched over as much as she could and I climbed in. The bed was about a foot and a half too short and not nearly as wide as the ones in Dusty's and Golden's apartment. And with her in the other half I couldn't curl up to keep my feet from hanging over the edge. This was going to be a long night.

"That is the last time we're sharing a bed," I said groggily, as I was packing my stuff back into the truck. I climbed in and started it up.

"Why? Did you have trouble sleeping?" Golden asked.

I just glared at her for a moment before responding.

"First I woke up in the middle of the night sneezing, it happened two more times before I figured out what was going on, your wing kept brushing up against my face and your feathers were tickling my nose. I turned around the other way which solved that problem, but then a short while later you latched onto me with all four legs. I tried to wiggle free but you had me in a death grip and somehow you slept through my attempts to wake you."

"Sorry... I've always been a heavy sleeper," she said sheepishly.

"Your fur or coat or whatever you call it is like a blanket, so I was practically dying of heat, but there was nothing I could do so I gave up and eventually fell back asleep. After that, everything was alright until right before dawn, you must have been having a dream or something because you started kicking like crazy. Four legs of doom, all aimed at me. Let me tell you something, hooves hurt!"

"I didn't do any permanent damage did I?" Golden asked, giving me a sheepish smile.

"No, but not for lack of trying. You actually kicked me off the bed entirely sometime just before the sun came up. At that point I just didn't bother getting back up and slept on the floor. I should have done that from the start, the bed was too small and not particularly comfortable."

"Yeah it wasn't great. It's too bad you aren't a pegasus, you haven't slept till you've tried a cloud bed, it's the most comfortable thing in the universe," she said.

"I'll have to take your word for it." I said with a shrug.

There had only been one road coming out of Hoofston so up until that point I hadn't had to worry about directions. Appleloosa was a good deal larger and was connected via both road and rail to several different towns. True to her word, Golden Dawn got me on the right path and we started the long drive north. The 200 mile trip the day before had taken almost 7 hours and constantly having to slow down and speed up was burning through fuel much faster than I had liked. It was a good thing we had brought all three barrels of fuel, because there was no way I would have made it on two alone. Thankfully as we left the frontier and headed further into civilization, the quality of the road improved considerably and we were making much better time.

Except for an hour when Golden Dawn took a turn, I pulled a nearly 12 hour driving shift. Had I been feeling sick throughout the day, I would have never been able to do it. Once again though, as we got out on the road I began to feel a bit better. In fact, I would have done the whole thing but she kept asking when she would be able to try it out again, so I finally caved in and let her.

For only having driven once in her entire life she did a good job, but the seat really wasn't designed for her. I think if she had been able to pull the bench out and make a cloud seat shaped more like pony chairs, she might have been able driver longer, but since she couldn't, she quickly got annoyed with the cramped conditions. Which was just as well, because, while she drove, I had to squish up on the back bench. Even if it hadn't been packed full of stuff, the back seat of the truck was no place for a full sized adult. The only reason I could even fit there is because the passenger side of the front seat removed, I had plenty of legroom.

Even though I seemed to improve during the day, I could still tell something was wrong with me. That, combined with the long road trip was taking it's toll. By my estimate, we had driven nearly half of the remaining distance, but as darkness fell, I had to call it a night.

Lack of sleep combined with my failing health was starting to cause issues. My coordination suffered and I could tell my response time was off. When I had woken, my body had started to ache all over, some of that had faded away during the long drive but I was still plagued with random bursts of pain.

To make matters worse, I was nearly out of pain killers, which I was taking every night just to get enough sleep. Deep down, I was worried that that whatever issues the enchantments had caused, were not only serious, but possibly had resulted in permanent damage. It was only Golden Dawn's firm belief that making it to Canterlot and getting help from one of the princesses would solve my problems that kept me going.

"I think we're going to have to sleep in the truck tonight," I said yawning as I pulled the truck over.

"Huh? Wha?" Golden Dawn said she jolted her head up, coming out of her half asleep state.

"You said the next town was Coltsonville?"

"Yeah."

"We just passed a sign that said 'Coltsonville, 40 miles' on the other side of the road. I think that the turn I took an hour ago bypassed the town while you were sleeping."

"I wasn't sleeping!"

"Well, zoned out then, your eyes were half closed and you were unresponsive, anyway I remember you saying it was the last town for a while right?"

"Yeah, it was," Golden said.

"All right, I'll just pull over here, it sucks but hey, I think we're more than halfway there, if we do this well tomorrow we'll make it to the capital!"

I turned the engine off and got as comfortable as I could. Golden Dawn fiddled with her cloud a bit, poofing it out and making a sort of bed, a few minutes later she was curled up and snoring quietly.

"I want a cloud," I said jealously as I leaned up against the window.

I was so tired that even the cold glass didn't keep me from quickly falling asleep.

A tapping sound coming from outside the car woke me up the next morning. While I was yawning, and debating whether or not I wanted to open my eyes, I realized that I wasn't leaning up against the window anymore. Whatever I was sleeping on was far warmer, softer and more comfortable than cold hard glass.

I hadn't noticed it at first because I hurt all over, the aches and pain of the previous day had not dropped off at all with sleep. Still though, somehow through all of this, I had somehow ended up in a very comfortable position and moving was not anywhere near the top of my priorities. It wasn't till I realized that whatever I was laying on was slowly rising and falling that I forced myself awake. With considerably more difficulty than it should have taken, I opened my eyes, sunlight filtered through something goldenrod and fluffy that was partially blocking my vision. I raised a hand and pushed away the wing that had snuck over me in the night. At some point I must have leaned the other way and ended up using Golden's chest as a pillow.

Damn, she's cute all curled up on that cloud.

I heard a tapping again.

What is that noise?

I looked up and saw a dark tan earth pony leaning against the side of the truck, tapping on the windows. He looked confused but also slightly annoyed.

I sat up as quickly as I could, which made me lightheaded, now that I was more fully awake, I could tell that the aches and pains had not dissipated with sleep. I signaled the pony to back away and opened the door

"Uh hello... can I help you?" I asked, wondering why this pony was knocking on my window.

"Yeah, your... uh... wagon. It's blocking the road," he said.

"What?" I said, climbing out of the truck. I was sure I had pulled off the road before I had gone to sleep. We had left the warmer climate of southern Equestria during the day before and were now in what I guessed was the heartland. Farms stretched out on either side of the road as far as my eyes could see, many times larger than the smaller ones that surrounded Hoofston. On either side of the smaller road, corn was growing almost up to my eye level. The small gap between the thick rows of corn wasn't just a path through the field, it was a road. Sitting in that road was a small wooden wagon full of corn, the back of my trailer blocking its path.

"I'm so sorry, I was up all day yesterday driving from Appleloosa and I missed the turn for Coltsonville and just figured I'd sleep on the side of the road, I didn't even see the intersection. I'll move out of the way right now."

My eyes went fuzzy for a moment, standing up was making me dizzy.

The ponies gaze softened. "You came all the way from Appleloosa in one day? That must have been quite a trip."

"Yeah it was a long one, give me a second and I'll get this thing moved."

"Isn't this thing a little heavy for just you, do you need to wake up your pegasus friend?"

"Oh, uh no, its um, its mechanical, uh like a train sorta."

"I see," the pony said, he didn't look all that interested, I guess he just wanted me to move out of the way.

I climbed back into the truck and started it up; sitting down helped and I felt a little better. After double checking to make sure the pony was out of the way I pulled forward a few feet, giving his wagon enough room to pass. Golden Dawn started to stir in her cloud as I was hopping out again.

"Sorry again!" I said as the pony hooked himself back up to his wagon.

He waved at me and then started pulling his wagon down the road in the other direction.

"What's going on?" Golden Dawn asked followed by a loud yawn.

"Had to move the truck I was blocking somepony," I said while pulling out a canteen. I popped two painkillers into my mouth and swallowed them, noting that there were only two more left.

Somepony, ugh, I'm going native.

"Did you sleep any better last night?" Golden Dawn asked.

"I uh..." I thought about when I woke up and my face grew warm.

"I slept perfectly, as I said clouds are the best beds and I was extremely comfortable... that was, until somepony decided to use me as a pillow," she said with a smirk.

"I'm so sorry," I said blushing fiercely. "I must have moved in my sleep."

"I don't mind, besides that window couldn't have been very comfortable."

"No, it wasn't," I said with a sigh.

"How are you feeling?" Golden asked.

I looked at her, my eyes must have been filled with fear and doubt because her expression immediately changed to one of concern.

"I don't know Golden, I've never felt like this before, I'm worried, whatever is wrong with me it's serious."

She placed her hoof on my hand and gave it a squeeze.

"It will be okay, Princess Twilight and Princess Cadance will be able to help," she said reassuringly. Once again, her unshakable faith that everything would turn out alright seemed to give me strength. I hoped it would last.

"I hope so," I said softly.

A moment of silence went by before I spoke up again.

"Golden Dawn?"

"Yeah Hail Storm?"

"Thanks for coming with me and watching out for me, I've only known you for a while but you've been a great friend."

Golden Dawn beamed at my statement but didn't say anything in reply. She had been a good friend, as had Dusty and Blue Skies. Even Kitchen Sink for the short time I had worked with him had been friendly. It had been a while since I had any real friends. Back on Earth, outside of work I had barely interacted with anyone.

I laughed to myself at the ridiculousness of the situation. It had taken being magically transported to another planet to finally make some friends. My thoughts turned to what would happen in Canterlot. If I was sent back to Earth, would I lose that friendship forever? The idea made my stomach weak.

Golden chowed down on some apples for breakfast while I picked at my own food. Though my overall state seemed to fluctuate randomly, one that that had not changed was the trouble I was having with food. Since I had woken up, keeping things down was difficult. My only recourse was to try to stick mostly water, nibbling on small bites of food from time to time.

Eventually the painkillers started kicking in and I wanted to get moving again. Golden Dawn hopped out of the car and refilled the tank before we set off.

"How are we doing on fuel?" I asked as she got back in.

"We've got a little more than a barrel and a half left."

"What about the two smaller jugs?"

"Oh I forgot about those, I've just been using my stuff."

"You're going to have to come up with a name for it."

"Ugh, I'm no good at that, I just usually call it kerosene - vegetable oil blend," she said. "What would you call it?"

"Diesel cause I'm lazy," I said with a grin. "It's not like anyone here would know it's not real diesel."

"Diesel it is," Golden said with a small laugh.

Like the day before we were making very good time, it helped that the farmer pony who had woken me up had done so even earlier than we had set out the previous day. With any luck we'd be reach Canterlot late that night.

As we drove on, I noticed the land begin to change. It started in the north, far ahead of us but still clearly visible across the vast fields of wheat that had dominated the view for the last few hours. Slowly the farmland began to dwindle; trees started popping up, first in small groups, then larger and larger until there was no telling where one group started and another began.

The road turned gradually to the west, keeping the forest to our right while the last of the open fields followed us for several more miles. Eventually even those vanished when we came to a long wooden bridge crossing a massive gorge. I slowed the truck down as we reached the bridge, it was humongous, the biggest wooden bridge I'd ever seen, the sides were open and I could see the steep drop off of the ravine. I gulped and stopped the truck.

"Uh Golden, did you know about this bridge?"

"Yeah, we're at Ghastly Gorge, not quite half way to Ponyville which is the last town before we get to Canterlot, why what's up?"

"Is there any other way around the gorge?" I asked nervously.

"Not unless you want to go all the way back to Appleloosa, go east to Dodge Junction, then head north, it would add at least another day and a half."

"Is that it?"

"The only other option would be to go south west from Appleloosa, skirt the San Palomino Desert, head north through Las Pegasus then finally take the road from Las Pegasus that meets up with this one on the other side of the gorge, that would be even slower though, why?"

"I uh... um," I swallowed what little spit I could muster. "The bridge, it uh might not take the weight of the truck."

Golden Dawn looked at the bridge, then she looked at me, then turned back to the bridge again.

"Maybe?" she said. "It's a pretty big bridge and these things are usually magically strengthened to prevent collapse."

"But ponies don't have trucks and this truck weighs a lot!" I said nervously.

"I think it will be okay." Golden said looking out the window at the bridge again.

I'd driven over bridges before of course, that didn't mean I had to like it. And those bridges were designed for cars and trucks and buses. Who knew what kind of what limitations a pony designed bridge would have? Still, Golden Dawn was probably right and we didn't have the time or fuel to go either of the other ways. I took it slow at first, inching the truck onto the bridge; the trailer followed, nearly a minute later.

Like the massive wooden train bridges you see in movies, the sides of the bridge were open and I could see I could see everything. Sheer rock cliffs on either side dropped hundreds of feet straight down to the rocky canyon floor. There was a river flowing through the center of the gorge, from this height the trees along its banks looked like miniature toy versions of themselves. My heart started beating rapidly and I shifted my eyes forward.

My hands were gripping the steering wheel so hard they were turning white and my breathing started to get erratic. I was a third of the way across when I heard a creaking sound. I slammed my foot down on the pedal, the engine roared and the whole truck jumped forward with a mighty whump. We reached the other side ten seconds later but I drove another hundred feet or so before I noticed Golden Dawn was saying something and I started to slow down.

"I'm sorry, I didn't here you can you repeat yourself?" I said, forcing my breathing back to normal.

"What the hay was that?" Golden asked, still in shock over my reckless driving.

"I heard a creak."

"So!? Wooden bridges do that sometimes, the bridge was fine!"

"I'm sorry, I just... I... look, I just... I don't like heights, okay?" I said, dumping the truth out in the open.

"Oh." Golden Dawn said, giving me a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry I yelled at you."

"No, it's not your fault, it's stupid, of all the things I've had to deal with since I got here, a bridge is not that bad. I mean I'm on another planet! That's like, I dunno, at least 100 times worse than a bridge."

"At least that," Golden Dawn said with a smile while gently running her wing up my back. "Everypony has fears. I'm afraid of spiders, if I had been with you in the mines, I would have flown away and hid in a cloud for a day. Best thing about cloud homes, no spiders at all."

"Blah, I know but heights... it has to seem silly to you, you're a pegasus, you've got wings. You can soar up into the sky without a care in the world... It must be beautiful up there."

"It is," Golden Dawn said smiling, her eyes were shining brightly and in them I could see her love for the sky. "If we can find a way for you to use enchantments without getting sick, I can bring you. There's a spell that lets anypony walk on clouds. We could go to Cloudsdale, or you could even come visit my home."

"I think I'd have a heart attack and die if you stuck me on a cloud," I said with a nervous laugh. "But... If I didn't... If I somehow lived through it, I think I'd like that."

The bridge behind us, it was time to move forward. Rather abruptly, the forest to our right grew thicker and darker, it was almost ominous looking. The road skirted the outside of the forest, getting close but never daring to enter. To the far left was a double set of train tracks, Golden Dawn said they were the same line that ran all the way to Appleloosa and then south to Hoofston. We had passed one train earlier in the day, going the other direction, but hadn't seen anything since then.

"What's up with the creepy forest?" I asked Golden who kept giving it glances every time the road got particularly close to the treeline.

"That's the Everfree Forest," she said with a whisper. "Nopony knows why, but there's something wrong with that forest. The weather runs itself, the animals that live there are wild and monsters thrive in its borders."

"I think I remember Dusty Heart mentioning that place."

"Can you feel it?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Feel what?"

"Every pony I've known who has traveled close to the forest before has said they can feel a sense of wrongness just by being near it. The deeper you go into the forest the stronger that feeling gets. I've never been close enough to feel it before though. Now I know what my friends were talking about."

"No? I don't feel anything, it just looks like a dark, and fairly wild, forest."

"Hmm, maybe only ponies can feel it." Golden Dawn said.

"Maybe. The only thing I feel right now is hungry, oh, and I can feel that the pain meds I took earlier starting to wear off. You want to stop for lunch soon? I want to try to actually keep some food down."

"Can we drive a little more, till we're farther away from the forest?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Uh sure."

Eventually the road turned away from the forest, I pulled to one side and Golden Dawn got out and stretched her wings. I took my last two painkillers and tried eating a little bit of food. The nibbling I had been doing wasn't cutting it and even though I felt kind of queasy I was also very hungry. Unfortunately, my stomach decided holding down food was not on the menu. Not more than a few minutes after finishing my sandwich, I had to run out of the car, over to a bush and quickly lost everything that I had just taken in.

In addition to my stomach problems, the constant aches had started turning into random spots of piercing pain that would flare up without warning. The pain would disappear as quickly as it had appeared with no apparent cause. I didn't tell Golden Dawn because she still looked anxious about her proximity to the forest and I didn't want to add to her worry.

After our break it was time to get moving again, within a few miles the road turned back to the right and we found ourselves alongside the Everfree again. I still couldn't feel the strange sensation of wrongness that Golden had been talking about but it was clear as day that she was very much on edge. I thought back to the times that I wasn't doing so well and when she had been there for me; there was really only one thing I could do. I put out my hand, rested it on the back of her neck and gave her a friendly squeeze. She looked over at me and smiled, after that she seemed much better.

We ran into another bridge a short while later, this one built over a small, but fast moving river. It was much smaller and lower to the ground, but even though the fear wasn't there, I still looked at it with a suspicious eye. Unlike the last bridge which had used massive logs for supports, this one had skinny boards. It looked like it was only meant for foot traffic and maybe light wagons.

"Okay so the last bridge was fine but this one I actually thing might not be sturdy enough for the truck," I said.

Golden Dawn looked up from the map she was reading.

"Actually, I think you might be right. How much does this truck weigh again?" she asked.

"I don't know exactly but somewhere in the 6500-7000 pound range, and that's not including the trailer, the stuff we have in the back, or us."

"Let me get out and take a look at it."

Golden Dawn hopped out of the car and trotted over to the bridge. She flew up and under it and then a moment later she flew over to my window.

"What do you think?"

"I don't know, if it's been magically strengthened, it should hold, but I have no way of knowing if it is or isn't. I don't want to risk it unless we have to, can you wait here a moment?"

"Sure," I said, somewhat confused.

Golden Dawn took off like a jet, up higher and higher into the sky and then started following the river downstream. I lost track of her as the distance grew but about ten minutes later I caught sight of her flying back towards me.

"There's a spot in the river about two miles downstream from here that's both very shallow and free of rocks. It's a little wider than it is here but the current slows down quite a bit at that spot. Can the truck drive across it?"

"How shallow are we talking about?"

"One to two feet."

"I think so, is the path clear from here to there?"

"Yep."

I had to take it slow, very slow, because while the truck was perfectly happy with heading off road, the trailer was not. I followed Golden Dawn through the rolling fields of grass until we arrived at the crossing she had found earlier. I was going to get out of the truck to inspect the river but a sudden wave of pain in my chest made me reconsider.

"I'll watch from out here," Golden Dawn said.

"Sounds good," I replied gritting my teeth and trying to ignore the pain. It wasn't going away as quickly as the last few outbursts had.

Once I hit the riverbed, I kept the truck moving, not wanting to get stuck on the wet stones and mud at the bottom of the river. About half way across, the truck started slowing down as the trailer sank into the mud but I gave it some more gas and was able to break free. After I reached the other side, Golden got back in and we slowly made our way back to the road. The whole thing added at least an extra hour to our trip and I was getting a little concerned about making Canterlot in time.

"How badly are we behind schedule?" I asked Golden Dawn.

"It kind of depends, I know you wanted to make Canterlot tonight but... we've been making excellent time on the open roads but I think we're going to hit a slowdown when we get near Canterlot."

"Why's that?"

"Canterlot is up in a mountain."

"Huh? Are there roads up there?"

"Well yes, but from the direction we are approaching we need to take the old road. It's much narrower than this one, there are lots of switchbacks and we may hit traffic. Even if we don't you won't be able to drive nearly as fast as you have been out in the countryside. We might consider stopping at Ponyville tonight. From there, it's only another 25 miles to Canterlot, we can do that the next morning, easy peasy."

"I guess we'll figure it out when we get closer, see how late it is."

"Do you want me to drive at all...? I've uh... noticed you seem like you aren't doing so well."

I hung my head down. "No, I'm not. If you think you will be okay, I wouldn't mind a break."

"Let's switch then, why don't you try to get some rest in the back?"

Golden Dawn climbed into the driver's seat while I made room on the bench in the back. I stretched my legs out as far as I could and leaned up against a pile of blankets, using them as a pillow.

Golden Dawn made a better pillow.

I couldn't actually fall asleep as I was in far too much pain, but at least with Golden Dawn at the wheel at least I didn't have to concentrate on driving. I eventually gave up trying and decided to look out the window. Another forest, this one much friendlier looking, sprang up on the left, and pretty soon we were surrounded by trees on both sides. As the hours rolled by the western forest started to thin out, but the treeline never vanished completely. Instead, as the sun started to drop below the horizon, we hit the start of a small white picket fence as the forest shifted into an apple orchard.

Shortly after that the Everfree dropped away and a buffer of apple trees sprung up in its place. We were surrounded on both sides with rows and rows of trees containing some of the largest, most delicious looking apples I'd ever seen. If I thought I could have kept one down, I would have asked Golden Dawn stop the truck and hopped the fence.

"That's Sweet Apple Acres," Golden Dawn said, noticing me looking out the window. "Best apples in all of Equestria."

"I had some of those, back in Hoofston, they look even better fresh," I said, wiping a bit of drool away with the sleeve of my shirt.

"Maybe when the princesses get you better we can go, they have pick your own apple days and their cider is to die for," Golden Dawn said with a dreamy grin.

"Hard cider?"

Golden nodded.

"I'm in," I said with a half smile. I loved going apple picking, adding a little alcohol to the trip would only improve things.

"Yay!" Golden Dawn exclaimed happily.

Once we hit Sweet Apple Acres, Ponyville followed not much later. I had noticed something a bit with the last few towns we had passed through. They had all been fairly small, but Ponyville was huge, larger than either Hoofston or Appleloosa, and it had the same strange makeup.

Hoofston, Appleloosa, and most of the smaller towns we had passed through on the first two days of travels looked like towns you would see in a western movie. If it wasn't for the colorful ponies inhabiting them, I would swear I had ended up back in the 1800s.

That all changed on the third day. Every town I had passed through today had a completely different style of architecture. They looked even more primitive, they wouldn't have been out of place in medieval Europe, or perhaps a cartoon version of a fairy tale.

Had I arrived in Equestria and found myself in Ponyville instead of Hoofston, I would have never suspected that ponies had anything as modern as trains or electricity, at least not until I dug a little deeper.

Initially, most of the buildings were simple wooden affairs with thatched roofs, but as we made our way through town, the fairy tale illusion started to fade. A small collection of far more modern buildings gave away that the simple construction had to be a stylistic choice rather than a technological one.

Ponies enjoyed a far more advanced society than an outside observer could spot at first glance. I saw hints of this as I drove through the town. Electric lights in windows, modernish brick buildings, disguised to match the rest of the town. I even saw a bowling alley of all things. It made me wonder how much I truly knew about pony technological advancement. Golden Dawn had mentioned that there were much larger cities elsewhere in Equestria, what would they look like?

It was late enough that most of the roads were devoid of ponies, but every once in awhile we'd pass small groups of them. For some reason almost none of them even gave the truck a second glance. Was it that the ponies of this town more used to the unusual? Or was it because Golden Dawn was driving instead of some strange looking alien? I had no way of knowing. Eventually she spotted a hotel and pulled up alongside it. There was a pony standing at the door, he saw us and walked over, Golden lowered the window so he could talk.

"Uh miss, you can't put your... wagon here, there's a small field down the street you can use though."

"Oh okay, sorry," she said, we drove past several small shops before finding the field.

"Do you want to come with me now or do you want me to come get you after I have a room?" Golden Dawn asked.

"I think I'll wait here, moving hurts."

She jumped out and began to walk back towards the hotel as I stared blankly out the window. Several minutes later a rumbling in my stomach let me know that getting out of the car quickly would be prudent.

I got out and quickly searched for somewhere inconspicuous to be sick, I found a modern looking metal dumpster on the side of one of the buildings; I lifted the lid, leaned over the side and let loose, taking care to not get anything on my clothes. The putrid bile stank to high heavens but luckily I made it just in time to get everything into the dumpster. I got back to the car just as Golden was coming out to get me.

"Sick again?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said sadly. "But I'm actually feeling a little better now." It was a lie, I hadn't felt this sick all day. I almost asked Golden to just keep driving to Canterlot, but the thought of getting back into the truck for another few hours made me reconsider.

"You look really pale," she said. She put her hoof on my forehead. "And you're burning up, maybe we should take you to the hospital."

"Dusty couldn't find anything wrong with me, and your pony doctors will have no idea what to do with a human." I just wanted to lie down somewhere and not be poked and prodded.

"Still, it might be worth trying," she said with a frown.

"Why don't we head to our room, let me sit down, get a drink and try to eat something, if I can't hold it down, then we'll go."

"I guess," she said reluctantly agreeing.

The room was much nicer than the one we had rented in Appleloosa, two beds and a bathroom were a welcome sight. Except for the missing television, and lack of an air conditioner, it was fairly indistinguishable from any other modern hotel room; there was even electric lighting. I sat down on a small couch, sipping a glass of water while Golden Dawn went in search for something that I could eat. Ten minutes later she came back with some dry toast. I nibbled at it, eventually polishing off both slices. Amazingly, it stayed down without even a bit of a fuss. I climbed into bed, got as comfortable as possible and closed my eyes.

Chapter 11

I never understood why I always feel more tired when I wake up than before I go to bed, it will forever be one of life's great mysteries. Though, this time I had a pretty good idea what had caused it. A long yawn escaped me, giving me a brief respite to the coughing that had kept me up most of the night. It had started off fairly light but grew heavier as the night wore on, by the morning my throat felt like it had been worn ragged and my lungs hurt whenever I took a deep breath.

I stumbled through my morning routine, barely able to tell what was happening. If I wasn't able to force myself into an alert state soon, I'd have to ask Golden Dawn to drive the rest of the way.

The street outside the hotel was a blur of colorful ponies. I mostly kept my head down, trying to block out the sun, which was only aggravating my headache. Every once in awhile, I'd look up from the cobblestone, just to see where I was going. Small shops lined the street, and the aroma of baked goods filled the air.

We were halfway back to the truck when Golden stopped in front of one of the stores, a wooden sign hung over it's door, adorned with the image of a donut and what looked like a coffee cup.

"I'm going to run in and grab something to eat, do you want anything?"

"If that's coffee," I said, pointing at the sign. "I could really use some caffeine."

"No problem, I'll get you a cup." Golden Dawn said. She looked inside the front window and saw a line of ponies. "Do you want to wait out here? There's a bench over there, you could sit down."

"I might just head back to the truck, if that's okay with you," I said. There was a pair of sunglasses sitting in the truck that I was hoping would give me some relief from the painful light of day.

"Okay... If you think you'll be alright to walk there alone," Golden Dawn said, looking at me with uncertainty.

"I'll be fine."

A few ponies gave me strange looks as I walked down the street but none of them said anything. I was halfway back to the truck when I found myself walking behind a mint green unicorn talking to a beige earth pony.

"Look Lyra, I don't care if Berry Punch claims that she saw a lanky furless diamond dog last night, first off, it's Berry Punch, don't take anything she says after 6PM as fact. Secondly just because it sounds like one of your mythical humans, doesn't mean that there's one wandering around Ponyville," the earth pony mare said.

I did a double take. If I wasn't hearing things, that pony just said "human".

"I'm telling you Bon Bon something is going on. First Celestia and Luna go on a mysterious vacation, then there's rumors of changelings being spotted around Canterlot again, all those missing ponies, and now, well you saw that big metal thing that rolled past our window last night, and Berry Punch's description of the creature..."

"Look, I don't know what that was, but I clearly saw a pegasus in the window."

"But we could only see one side of it! And what about the metal box it was pulling, it could have been full of humans, maybe they're being brought in to fight the changelings."

Yep, she definitely said human.

I let out a quiet laugh the pony's suggestion of humans fight the changelings. As far as I knew, I was the only human around and I wasn't in any condition to fight anything.

I tried to move a little faster so I could get in front of the pair. I wanted to question the mint one more about where she had learned about humans. Unfortunately, I was hit with another violent bout of coughing and doubled over.

This one was far worse than any of the previous ones, and a deep stabbing pain shot up in my lungs. It felt like someone had stuck a hot iron into my insides and I let out a whimper as a wave of agony crashed through me. The coughing was getting so bad I was having trouble breathing.

The two ponies in front of me began to turn around, curious to the sounds of my distress.

"Are you okay?" I heard the unicorn start to say, followed a gasp and then an excited scream.

"BON BON, LOOK! IT'S A HUMAN!" the unicorn shouted with way too much glee.

"Lyra, that's not a..." the second pony stopped mid-sentence as she got a good look at me.

I felt something warm and wet on my hand and brought it up to eye level. Streaks of blood stained the inside of my hand. That was probably not a good thing.

I'm not sure if it was the sight of blood, or the short ragged breaths caused by the coughing or the general failing state of my health but I had a feeling of vertigo, things started to spin and I lost my balance and tripped. In slow motion the cobblestone rose up towards me but before I smashed into it, a golden glow surrounded my body and my fall ground to a halt.

It wasn't like the time Kitchen Sink had pushed on me over the gap, or when I brushed up against Trixie's hat. The unicorn's magical field was surrounding me completely, from head to toe. For a moment, I experienced weightlessness, which was actually an interesting sensation, then everything started to burn.

"Caught you," the unicorn said.

I responded with screaming, which of course startled the unicorn so much that she dropped me as she started screaming herself.

I hit my head on the curbstone and things got a little fuzzy after that.

I remember the unicorn panicking, and shouting something, Golden Dawn was there now, I caught bits of the conversation.

"hang in there..."

That sounded like Golden Dawn, I tried to nod, I think I did.

"...tripped... caught him... screaming"

"...sick... to Canterlot... can't use magic..."

"... get Rainbow..."

Then things faded out completely.

Golden Dawn plonked down a bit and picked up a bag of donuts and a coffee. She squeezed past the line of ponies still waiting to order and headed out to the street. Hail Storm was about two blocks ahead of her, walking slowly towards the truck. He shuddered, then bent over as he started coughing heavily. She could hear the sickly wet hacking, even from this far away.

The ponies in front of him turned to see if he was alright and that's when everything went wrong. He tripped and started to fall, the unicorn in front of him caught Hail Storm in her magic before he could hit the cobblestone, but a second later he started to scream.

The unicorn, clearly shocked at Hail Storm's reaction, dropped him and with a sickening thud his head smashed into the hard stone. By that moment, Golden Dawn was already in the air, she landed less than a second later and rushed over, trying to check on her friend.

"Hail, are you okay?" Golden asked, she looked down and saw that his eyes were unfocused. She waved her hoof in front of them but saw no reaction.

"I don't know what happened! He tripped, I caught him and he started screaming. Oh Celestia, what did I do?" the unicorn said.

"It was your magic!" Golden Dawn shouted.

She took a deep breath trying to calm her nerves, panic wasn't going to help anypony.

"Look he's really sick, we were on our way to Canterlot to see the Princesses in hopes that they might know what to do. He's not from Equestria, something about magic seems to hurt him, I've got get him to Canterlot and fast."

Golden Dawn bent down to pick up her fallen friend, she stuck her hooves under his arms and lifted him up.

"You can't use magic, remember?" Golden Dawn said. "I've got to fly him there,"

"Not magic, I'm going to get Rainbow Dash," and she galloped away.

"If your friend finds Rainbow Dash, send her after me, I'll be flying towards the castle."

Golden Dawn took to the sky, moving as fast as she could. Canterlot Mountain was a good 25 miles away, but worse, the castle was half way up the slope, she not only had to carry Hail a good distance, but she had to ascend around two miles while doing so.

She was less than a mile outside the town when she heard a voice just behind her.

"You look like you need some help."

Golden Dawn turned and saw the colorful pegasus flying right up alongside her. If the situation wasn't so dire, she would have asked the Equestria-renowned flyer for an autograph.

"Oh thank Celestia," Golden Dawn said. "Look, my friend is hurt, I need to get him to Princess Twilight. He's a..."

"Human? Yeah I know, Twilight's told us about them, what the hay is he doing in Equestria?" Rainbow said, looking confused.

"I don't know, he woke up in the middle of the Badlands almost a month ago. Can you help me?"

"Not a problem, I'll get him there in a jiffy, hoof him over," Rainbow said, flying up alongside Golden Dawn. "What's your name?"

"Golden Dawn."

"When you get to the castle, head for the throne room, I'll tell Twilight you're coming, she'll have the guards tell you where to go."

"What do you mean, I'm coming with you."

"You said you needed him there fast?' Rainbow asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, I'm going to go fast, you can try to keep up if you like," Rainbow Dash said with a grin.

She took off like a firework, putting on an unnatural burst of speed. A rainbow appeared in the air, trailing her movements as she quickly raised the distance between herself and Golden Dawn.

Freed from carrying Hail, Golden Dawn accelerated to her own top speed, but even burdened, the prismatic pony was still outpacing her by a long shot. She watched as Rainbow Dash and her friend grew more and more distant until a very small dot banked down towards the castle and disappeared from view as it flew behind a tower.

Ten minutes later Golden Dawn reached the castle. Ponies weren't supposed to fly in, so she circled down towards the front entrance. She hadn't been to the castle since she was a filly and she struggled to remember the path to the throne room as she galloped inside.

She quickly got lost in the maze of corridors, and cursed herself for not asking the guardpony at the front for directions. After wandering around for several minutes, she finally spotted a large group of ponies, heading towards what she thought was the way outside.

"Does anypony know how to get to the throne room?" she asked.

"Yeah, it's back that way, but they just closed court for the day," said a unicorn, wearily pointing back the way he had come from. "There was some sort of emergency."

She followed the corridor that the pony had pointed her towards until she came to a massive set of double doors, flanked by two guards.

"Court is canceled for today... " the guard on the left started to say. He stopped and looked her over, "Are you Golden Dawn?"

Golden Dawn nodded.

"Alright, you are expected, please go inside," he said. The two guards turned and opened the doors and Golden trotted inside.

The throne room was massive, easily large enough to fit all of Golden Dawn's shop and then some. It had been completely rebuilt since Luna's return and was no longer dedicated solely to Princess Celestia, bringer of the day. Gorgeous stained glass windows, over two stories high, depicted events of historical significance. They were flanked by massive marble columns stretching all the way up to the ceiling. A long red carpet extended across the polished marble floor from the door most of the way across the room until it forked, splitting off to the twin golden thrones. Golden Dawn glanced up and was surprised to see a perfect recreation of the night sky, floating high above her head where the ceiling should be. A star shot across its enchanted surface, as if to prove that this was no mere painting but instead a magical replica of Luna's domain.

There was just one problem; the throne room was empty. Golden turned around just in time to see the massive doors close with a resounding thud.

"Hello?" she called out.

"Is anypony here?"

When no pony replied, she began to pace back and forth, unsure of what to do next. She poked her head out the door and looked at the Guard she had just talked to.

"There's nopony in here," she said.

"Princess Twilight will come get you as soon as she can, please wait inside."

Golden Dawn went back in, walked over to one of the big marble columns and sat down. A tear rolled down her face as she thought her friend. She whispered a quiet prayer to Celestia, hoping that he would be okay.

It seemed like ages, but might have only been half an hour or even a few minutes, when a flash of magenta light and a popping sound startled her. She looked up to see Princess Twilight Sparkle standing at her throne. Twilight noticed Golden Dawn almost immediately and trotted over.

"You are Golden Dawn right? The human's friend?" Twilight asked.

"Yes your highness," Golden said, giving Twilight a bow.

Twilight blushed and pawed at the ground awkwardly. "Please... just call me Twilight, I'm still not used to the whole title thing, don't think I ever will be."

"Yes, your... uh, Twilight... Um where is Hail Storm?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Oh is that his name? Well, he's actually down in the dungeon, why don't we head down there and you can fill me in on how he got here."

"The dungeon! He's sick! He needs help, he's not any danger!" Golden shouted in a panic.

"Golden, please calm down, Hail Storm is not in trouble and we are trying to help him," Twilight said calmly.

"But you just said he was in the dungeon!?"

"He is, and there's a very good reason for him being there... hmm maybe I should explain a bit, but first let's head down there so you can see him." Twilight's horn glowed brightly and a sphere of energy surrounded the two ponies, seconds later Golden felt the world shatter into a million pieces. Those fragments were rearranged and then hastily put back together in a blur of movement. When the light cleared away, a stone corridor had appeared around the two ponies.

"Where is he?" Golden Dawn asked, looking around.

"We still have to walk a bit, there are security spells that prevent teleporting into that section of the castle," Twilight said. "Tell me Golden, what do you know of Hail Storm... I mean what he is and where he came from."

Golden Dawn took a deep breath and started spewing all the information she could remember.

"Well, he said he's a human, but I've never heard of a human before I met him. He had no idea where he was when I found him and had never even heard of Equestria before. He thinks he's from another planet, but he has no idea how he got here. He was on his own world driving his truck... um it's an automobile, and he saw a shimmering green light. He couldn't avoid it and crashed his truck after driving through it. I found him in the Badlands. We were on our way here because he didn't know how to get home, but worse than that, every time he's come in contact with any sort of magical spell or enchantment, it seems to make him sick."

"I have seen humans before," Twilight said, "though not exactly the same kind that Hail Storm appears to be. Hail Storm is correct, he is not from this world, but I don't think he knew the whole picture. Hail Storm isn't just not from this world, he's not even from this universe."

Golden Dawn stopped mid step. "What?" she asked.

"I encountered humans for the first time several months ago when I stepped through a portal to another dimension. The humans there were similar to Hail Storm but not quite the same. I have no way to prove this but I suspect that Hail Storm is from yet another universe, closer to theirs but even more devoid of magic. I knew the moment I saw Hail Storm that he was not native to Equus and when Rainbow Dash told me about Lyra and how her magic had hurt him, something clicked. It's still just a theory but even if I'm wrong, moving him down to the dungeon won't hurt him. If I'm right, it might buy us some time to figure out how to treat him."

"What does this have to do with why Hail Storm is in the dungeon?" Golden asked as Twilight opened a door and turned down another corridor.

"Travel from one universe to another is dangerous, very dangerous in fact. There are so many variables that can change from one universe to the next and even a small number of those changes could be lethal."

Golden tried to to put what Twilight was talking about into a concrete example.

"So like if he had ended up on a planet where the atmosphere was toxic to him?" she asked.

"That's always a possibility but it goes beyond that. He could have ended up in a universe where the very forces that hold the atoms that make up his body together ceased to exist and he would have simply dissolved into quantum dust. Even with powerful spells it is hard to breach the boundary between dimensions and it requires very special care to cross them without putting the traveler in danger."

"What kind of care?" Golden asked.

"When I traveled through the mirror portal, the magic of the spell transformed me from a pony into a human, that universe's version of a human anyway. My body was adapted to a form suitable for their universe. Somehow Hail Storm got into Equestria but whatever brought him here didn't bother changing his body to survive in our universe. Based on the information given to me by Rainbow, and the little you've told me so far, I think that Hail Storm wasn't as lucky as it might have first seemed. It's likely that magic itself is toxic to him and that's why I've brought him down into the dungeons."

They arrived at a thick iron door, guarded by a vicious looking thestral, he nodded at Princess Twilight and opened the door for them. Inside was a short hallway with a number of cells on either side. The far end of the hall had a single stone door, covered in runes. Princess Cadance and Rainbow Dash stood in front of the door, looking inside the small window.

"This is where some of the worst magic abusers in the history of Equestria have been kept. Each cell is highly resistant to magic, both from inside and out. The cell at the far end was designed in hopes that Celestia would have a cage that could hold Discord, though in testing it proved to be ineffective for more than a few moments. Even so it has the most powerful magical suppression field ever created. Even the most powerful unicorn mages wouldn't be able to cast something as simple as a levitation spell while standing in that cell. Only Celestia, Luna, myself and... Discord," she said his name with a bit of annoyance, "have managed any magic at all while within it's walls."

"So that will cure him?" Golden Dawn asked as they walked towards the door at the end of the hall.

"Err, not exactly. Magic is everywhere in Equestria, in our food, our water, even our air. Canterlot itself is enchanted, which probably isn't helping things. In fact, ponies actually give off a low amount of magic, just being near us may be aggravating his condition."

"You mean I'm hurting him just by being around him?" Golden Dawn asked, her face covered in horror.

"I don't know what amount of magic his body can tolerate yet. Individually, it's probably low enough that it shouldn’t cause any serious damage, but when you gather a large number of ponies in an area, that amount of magic will go up. Between the high population and the enchanted castle, Canterlot is likely one of the worst place for him to be. Unfortunately, it’s also the best place to work on fixing him. I think that it's likely that active magic spells cause the most damage. I'll have to run some tests to be sure. I suspect that even if Hail Storm hadn't been exposed to any active spells, over time he still would have suffered ill effects from more passive sources of magic."

"But this room will stop that right?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Exactly, while he is in there, he won't be exposed to any new sources of magic. However, it won't heal any damage that has already been done. We are going to have to come up with a way of determining how much damage he's actually suffered. There are spells that could give us more information, but casting those spells on Hail Storm might make his problems worse. It's going to take time to solve this, I have no quick fix," Twilight said sadly.

Twilight and Golden reached the end of the hall, Cadance and Rainbow Dash turned around, Cadance gave the pair a warm smile.

"You've already met Rainbow," Twilight said.

"Hey," Dash added.

"This is my sister-in-law, Cadance," Twilight said, finishing the introductions.

Golden Dawn fidgeted nervously, "um, hello" she managed to squeak out, giving a small bow to Cadance.

"Please, no formalities, at least down here," Cadance said with a warm smile. "Let's just concentrate on getting your friend better."

"Can I go in and see him?" Golden asked.

"You can, he is still unconscious but his heart rate and breathing have stabilized. I will warn you, it will feel a little strange in there," Cadance said.

Rainbow Dash opened the door and Golden Dawn trotted in. For what was essentially a maximum security cage, the inside was surprisingly well furnished. Hail Storm was laying on a large bed in the center of the room, there was a couch up against the left wall, the right wall had a small table and two chairs. A small divider had been placed up, blocking direct view to the toilet in the back left corner of the room. As soon as she stepped over the threshold of the door, she felt off.

Her senses felt muted and her body trembled with a weakness that shook her to her core. A part of her felt like it had been sheared off, a disconnection of something that should have never been disconnected. A mixture of worry and curiosity made her give a gentle flap of her wings. Panic started to set in as she remained firmly planted to the stone floor. She turned around and almost bolted out the door when Twilight walk in behind her.

"I know it feels wrong, but try to relax, as soon as you leave the room everything will be back to normal. The door will be unlocked as long as Hail Storm is in here so you can enter and exit freely at any time."

"It... feels... I don't know how to describe it. It's like I lost the use of a limb, or one of my senses just stopped working with no warning," Golden said. She turned back around and moved slowly over to the bed that Hail Storm was laying down on. She placed her head on his chest and felt the rise and fall as he slowly, but steadily breathed in and out.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Golden asked as she listened to Hail Storm's breathing.

"Right now we need information. How long has Hail Storm been here, how did he get here, what has he done since arriving? The more detail you can share the better."

Golden lifted her head off of Hail Storm's chest and headed for the exit. "We might want to find some place to sit down, this is going to take a while."

For not the first time since arriving in Equestria, I woke up in a strange bed with no idea of where I was. I had a very dull headache and the ringing in my ears stood out in the silence of the room, but otherwise I felt fine. I cursed to myself when I remembered that the ear drops that Dusty had given me were still in the truck, wherever that was.

I tried to sit up and that's when I noticed there was an IV running into my arm. Another wire ran from my chest to what looked like a heart rate monitor next to my bed. My first thought was hospital but as I looked around that thought changed. The bare stone walls and the barred window on a very solid looking iron door looked like they belonged in a prison more than a place of healing.

This time my memory was fairly clear, I remembered tripping, the mint green unicorn, the intense pain that followed after she caught me in her magic and lastly being dropped and hitting my head on the way down. It made sense that Golden Dawn would have done her best to get me somewhere for treatment, whether the hospital or to the capital as was the original plan. If this was a hospital, it was the strangest looking one I'd ever been in.

I called out, in the off chance that there was someone right outside the room but after waiting a minute and not getting any reply, I decided I would have to try to have a look around. I tugged at the tape, prying the sensors off of my chest, the moment they came loose, the monitor's steady beeping turned to one long flat note of alarm. Next was the IV, I looked it over for a moment and decided fiddling with it was probably a bad idea, instead I took hold of the base, it was on wheels so dragging it along with me would be easy enough.

This is definitely some sort of cell.

The furniture looked out of place but if I was going to be imprisoned, I'd take this over an empty stone room. What I really wanted to know was why I was being imprisoned. Maybe Golden had gotten me to the capital and the pony princesses had decided the alien from another world was dangerous. I couldn't imagine why, especially since I was unconscious at that point. Still it wouldn't surprise me, had a pony somehow found its way onto Earth, they likely would have been looked up within hours if they ran into the wrong crowd.

I walked over to the door to inspect it, the solid metal design looked heavy enough to easily stop even the freakishly strong earth ponies. There was no chance of breaking out. I leaned up against it to try to get a better look out the small window. All I saw was an empty stone corridor, with what looked like more cells on either side. In frustration, I pulled on the door with all my might and almost fell over as it swung open.

If I am in a prison, why wasn't it locked?

I stepped out of the room and began to walked towards the other end. As I passed the other doors, I looked inside. Each was another stone cell that looked like the one I had left, only without the furnishings.

I continued towards the door at the end of the hall. It was just as heavy looking at the one in my cell. If it was locked then I just had a slightly larger prison. When I reached the door, I I reached out to check if it was open, but as I did it swung towards me. I stepped back to avoid getting hit. In stepped a pony, and for the first time since I had arrived in Equestria, I found myself looking at one face to face. I mean that quite literally, the purple eyes of this pony were level as my own and her neck wasn't even extended all the way up.

"Well, this is new," I thought to myself.

"Oh, you're awake," the tall pony said as she stepped into the room, giving me a second shock. Not only was this incredibly pink pony sporting the longest horn I'd ever seen, but she also had a large pair of very large wings folded up against her body. A small golden crown adorned her head. At a guess, she was one of the princesses that I had been told about.

"Yeah, I woke up a few minutes ago," I said. Before I could introduce myself, she spoke up.

"It would be best if you remained in your room," the pony said, looking me over.

"Am I in trouble? This looks like a dungeon."

The pink pony laughed at that, it was a warm and friendly laugh that instantly put me at ease.

"Of course not, but this might take some explanation," she said as she turned and started to walk down towards the room I had woken up in. "Oh please pardon my manners, I haven't even introduced myself yet. I am Princess Cadance."

"Harold Storm," I said following the pony back towards the cell, "but everyone here calls me Hail Storm."

"Yes, Golden Dawn gave us your name," she said.

"Where is she?" I asked, perking up a bit.

"I will explain soon, but first Hail Storm, what is the last thing you remember?"

"Hitting my head in Ponyville, are we still there, or did Golden Dawn get me to Canterlot? I'm guessing this is somewhere in the castle she was telling me about."

"You are in Canterlot, in the castle, and yes, this is the castle dungeon. Let me stress that you are not a prisoner, instead we have put you down here in hopes that we can prevent any further damage to your body."

"Does this have anything to do with my reaction to magic?"

"Yes," Cadance said, scrunching up her nose. "I'm afraid I have some bad news regarding that. It's going to take some time to bring you up to speed, is there anything I can get you first?'

We reached the end of the hallway and stood outside the door to my room.

"Is Golden Dawn here? Can I see her?" I asked.

"She left about an hour ago after I insisted that she go get some rest, she is likely sleeping now. I know you can't tell down here, but it is very late. We have given her a guest room in the castle to use, I can send for her if the matter is urgent, if not I ask that you wait for morning."

"No, let her sleep, I just wanted her to know I was awake. How long have I been out?"

"A little more than 18 hours, it's just after 3:00 AM right now." Cadance opened the iron door and then looked at me. "I have a number of things that we need to talk about but after that I'm going to ask you to step into the cell, I will not lock the door but the longer you remain out here the worse it will be for you."

"Look, I don't want to be rude or anything but can you at least tell me why you have me in a cell, preferably before I voluntarily walk back into it?"

Not that it really mattered, with magic, she could easily force me into the room if she wanted to.

"This goes back to the lengthy explanation that I promised you. In short, magic is harmful to your body, and this cell is surrounded by a field that suppresses nearly all magic. It will prevent you from being exposed to further magic."

"Your horn isn't glowing, are you using magic right now?" I asked.

"And this is why a lengthy explanation is needed. While it is true that I can cast spells, using magic to actively accomplish goals, just because I am not casting anything does not mean that there is no magic in this room. Magic is everywhere, it is as omnipresent as the air around us or sunlight on a summer day. Though the amount of background magic in this room is small, it is, as most forms of magic appear to be, harmful to your body and would eventually cause damage. And given the amount of damage that has already been done, we thought it wise to reduce any further exposure. The cell before you is the best place in Canterlot, likely all of Equestria, to accomplish this."

I took a moment to let Cadance's news sink in. I had already figured out that magic and me didn't mix but learning that magic was everywhere came as a bit of a shock. Was it like some form of background radiation? I tried to think of what this was going to mean for me, would I have to spend the rest of my time in Equestria living in a magic proof room?

"If just being out here is bad for me, shouldn't I get in there right now?" I asked.

"Ideally yes, but, since we are talking now, entering the cell would cause a separate issue."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Step in for a moment and find out."

"Okay, well I'm going to to have to trust you," I said stepping into the cell. I didn't feel any different so I had no way of knowing if this magic proof room was actually doing anything.

"Are you coming in?" I asked.

Cadance looked at me sadly and said something that sounded like complete gibberish. Somewhat musical, pleasant sounding gibberish, but gibberish nonetheless.

"What?" I asked.

More gibberish and then she motioned for me to go back into the hallway, so I stepped out of the room.

"I'm confused."

"You have a translation spell cast on you, when you are in that room the magic that keeps the spell active is suppressed, so you are unable to understand us, nor are we able to understand you."

"So when I'm in that room, I'm speaking English again?"

"English? Is that what your native language is called?" Cadance asked.

"Yeah," I said with a nod. "I figured out a while back that something had happened to me, all the stuff that I brought with me, well I can't read any of the writing on it, I can't even understand any recorded words. Is that because of the spell?"

"That is unusual, the way Twilight explained translations spells to me was that it should adapt your speech to Equestrian and allow you to read and write it, but she didn't mention anything about it interfering with your native language."

"Well, I'm kind of glad to learn that it isn't permanent but at the same time does this mean I'm going to be trapped in a room and won't even be able to talk to anyone while I'm in there?"

"I'm sorry Hail Storm, I know that I'm giving you a lot of bad news, but Twilight and I will continue to work on this. We have some of the top doctors in Equestria looking into what we can do to heal the damage done to you. Twilight herself is heading the research on how to adapt your body and prevent further damage. While we are on the subject, I wanted to let you know that we took some blood samples and we cast a modified version of a medical scan spell on you while you were out. Normally we would never do that without your permission but given the circumstances we felt it was necessary."

"Oh... thanks for telling me. I would have said yes if I had been awake. What's in this?" I asked shaking the IV stand back and forth a bit.

"A powerful drug, it should be suppressing nearly all of your symptoms, tell me, how are you feeling?"

"Other than a slight headache, better than I've felt in a long time, pretty much since I got to Equestria."

"That is good to hear, now that you are awake I can get rid of the IV and you can take the drug orally. I am sorry but this drug is only safe for you in very small doses and it's extremely easy to build up a tolerance to, normally we can prevent this with a simple spell but for you..." she trailed off.

"So whatever relief it provides isn't going to last long thanks to my magic allergy, how long before it stops working?"

"I can't say for certain, it would be as short as a few days or up to a month if we are lucky." Cadance said.

"Is there any chance that you can send me home? Then I won't need all this stuff."

Cadance's eyes fell and her ears drooped downward, the look said everything that I needed to know before she even opened her mouth.

"Sending you home is going to be difficult for a number of reasons. I will let Twilight talk more about the difficulty in the actual act of opening a portal to your universe, as she is far better versed in that type of magic than I am, but beyond that, there is also your health to consider. Sending you home will not repair the damage already done to your body."

"What about human doctors? It's not like I couldn't go to a hospital or something." I asked.

"It is possible they would be able to help, though we do not know how advanced human medical knowledge is. What I can tell you is that without magic, we would not be able to heal the amount of damage that your body has suffered, had it occurred in a pony. It is quite extensive."

"Oh..."

We talked for a hour or so and she brought me up to speed on everything that had happened while I was out. Golden Dawn had already given Twilight and Cadance as much information as she could about how I had gotten here and what had happened since I had arrived. I filled in a few details that I wasn't sure Golden Dawn knew about, oddly the only thing I mentioned that seemed to get a reaction from Cadance was the confetti that I found in the dirt near my trailer. After our discussion, Cadance told me to get some rest. She promised to bring Golden Dawn down in the morning. I would also get to meet Twilight Sparkle, who could answer some more of my questions regarding going home.

The next morning I got to meet two new ponies. The first was the other princess, Twilight Sparkle. She immediately struck me as a very bookish nerdy type, apparently her knowledge of magic was second only to Celestia and Luna who were unavailable. She also had some much appreciated good news for me. Her team had been able to determine at what level magic started to become dangerous to my body. The levels of ambient magic in Canterlot was higher than other areas of the country, but even it was was safe for me if I kept exposure limited to a few hours a day.

That meant that I didn't have to spend the entire day trapped in a underground windowless room, which I counted as a plus. With that good news, Twilight invited me upstairs for breakfast and I eagerly accepted. She unhooked the IV, and gave me a small bottle.

"Drink this, it should hold your symptoms at bay," she said. "It's an oral form of the drug that is in the IV bag."

After I drank the bottle, we headed up and out of the dungeon area of the castle. The lower dungeon was cold and sterile but as we ascended into the castle proper, the cold grey stone was replaced with glimmering marble, elegant carpets and magnificent stained glass windows. I don't know how anyone kept track of all the hallways without getting lost, but Twilight seemed to know where she was going. Eventually we made our way to a small but fancy dining room where a pony waiter informed us that breakfast would be out shortly.

While I was waiting for the food to arrive, I walked over to one of the windows, it stretched nearly to the floor and the view of the countryside far below us was magnificent. As I approached the window, I immediately regretted my decision as my stomach tied itself in knots. I knew the castle was up in the mountain but when I got to the window, I could see that the mountain ended several hundred feet in the opposite direction. The portion of the castle that I now stood in jutted out into empty space, the increasing dizziness forced me to head back to the center of the room but even there I didn't feel very safe.

Twilight saw me when I was looking out the windows. She explained that Canterlot Castle was built not onto the top of the mountain but into the side of it. Almost half the castle was suspended in the air, supported by an impressive combination of magic and clever architecture.

"This castle has stood here for nearly 1000 years, you have nothing to worry about," Twilight said, noticing my nervousness. Her reassurances did not do much to help and I decided I'd avoid any windows in the future.

Just before breakfast arrived I met the second new pony, a light blue pegasus with a rainbow mane. Her name was Rainbow Dash, and she was very outgoing. I learned that she had been the one that had flown me from Ponyville to the castle after I had been knocked unconscious. I remembered Golden Dawn having talked about Rainbow Dash before.

"I think Golden Dawn mentioned you, are you the pegasus that broke the sound barrier?"

"Yep, that was me! Only pony in history to pull off a sonic rainboom." Dash said beaming with pride. She talked about some of the tricks and stunts she liked to do for a while before Twilight interrupted her with a gentle cough.

"I think Hail Storm might have some questions, maybe you can talk to him about flying later," she said.

"Will I get to see Golden Dawn soon?" I asked, she hadn't shown up yet and I was eager to see her again.

"She should be here soon, Cadance said she would be getting her and that they would meet us here for breakfast."

A few minutes later the door opened again and Golden Dawn and Cadance walked in along with a small purple and green lizard-like creature. As soon as she saw me she flew across the room at high speed, practically tackling me out of my chair.

"Hail! I was so worried, I'm glad to see you awake again," she said, rubbing her nose softly against my cheek.

I reached up and gave her a friendly scratch behind the ears which made her blush. "It's good to see you too."

"I'm sorry I didn't stay with you, Princess Cadance insisted that I go upstairs and get some sleep."

"Don't worry about it, from what Cadance told me being in that room really messes with ponies because of the magical suppression. If I had been awake I would have told you not to stay in there once I learned that. Plus we wouldn't be able to understand each other."

Twilight cleared her throat with a gentle cough and Golden and I stopped talking.

"Now that we're all here, I expect Hail Storm has a number of questions for us, and I know I have a few for him," Twilight said. "But first, let me get all the official stuff out of the way."

"On behalf of all of Equestria, I'd like to extend my hoof in friendship and officially welcome you here. I know that your journey to Equestria was unexpected, and I suspect, a bit of a shock, but I promise we will do all that we can to make your stay as comfortable as possible and that we are actively seeking out a method of returning you home."

"Thank you, I don't think I can adequately put into words how much of a shock it was when I first woke up in Hoofston and met a pair of talking ponies. Of course the bigger one came when learned that I wasn't on Earth anymore, but the ponies I've met since then have gone out of their way to not only make me feel welcome. One in particular has also been a good friend in a time where I desperately needed the support one." I looked over at Golden Dawn and gave her hoof a squeeze.

Twilight smiled brightly at that, "As the Princess of Friendship that makes me very glad to hear. Now I think you've met most everyone here individually but let me just give some quick introductions. As you already know, I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle, but please don't bother with the title. To my left is Princess Cadance and Rainbow Dash."

Both ponies gave a friendly nod.

"And this little guy is Spike." Twilight said.

"I'm sorry if this is rude, but I don't think I've seen one of your kind before, what are you?" I said looking at Spike.

"I'm a dragon," Spike said.

"Huh, I thought dragons would be bigger," I said.

"He's only a baby dragon," Twilight said. "A fully grown adult dragon would not fit in the largest room in the castle."

"Good morning," Spike said. "I didn't think I'd ever see a human in Equestria."

"You've seen humans before?' I asked, my curiosity piqued.

"Spike and I have," Twilight said. "Several months ago we traveled through a magic portal to another world, it was called Earth."

"You have a portal to my home?" I asked, practically jumping out of my chair.

"Not... exactly," Twilight said, scratching the back of her head. "There is a mirror with a portal that opens once every thirty moons, and it does go to an Earth, but I don't think that it is your Earth."

"There's more than one Earth?" I asked in confusion.

"Unfortunately, yes. Without getting too deep into dimensional gateways, a topic that could take years to cover, there are a near infinite number of dimensions, and perhaps thousands of them are accessible from Equestria with the right magic. The beings of the world I went to were also called humans but they had slightly different proportions, larger heads, longer legs. Also their skin tones matched ponies coat colors, which given what we were able to learn from our scans of you would not be true for your version of humanity. I'm guessing there is a much more limited variation in skin color?"

"Uh yeah, there's no pale goldenrod, light blue, purple or pink people running around on my planet." I said looking at the four ponies in the room.

"I didn't think so, your skin seems to lack the necessary cellular structures to produce those kinds of colors. I'm actually glad Spike brought that up because it touches on some of the problems of getting you home. One is that I was unable to find a complete copy of the spell needed to open a portal from one dimension to another. I searched all through the Canterlot Archives but all I could find were partial notes Star Swirl had taken when he was creating the mirror. Given time I could probably recreate the spell from those notes but that would only allow travel to the same world that I visited. To get you home, I'd need to modify the spell to open a portal to your world. Thankfully the very fact that you were able to get here means there is, or was a point of intersection between our universe and yours, but that's where things start to get complicated."

"If you don't know where I'm from, and there are thousands of possibilities, you don't know where to send me?" I asked.

Twilight smiled, "I'm glad this makes sense to you, I was afraid with your race's lack of magic, some of this might not be easy to follow."

"It seems my years of reading fantasy and science fiction were not wasted, dimensional travel is common enough in fictional works, though I never thought that knowledge would be at all practical."

"Oh no, Equestria's first alien and he's an egghead," Dash said with a friendly laugh. "You'll get along with Twilight just fine."

"Knowing which universe you are from is only one part of the problem, remember that I mentioned the portal I traveled through is only open once every 30 moons?" Twilight asked.

I nodded.

"The reason for that is because this universe and the mirror universe are not in always connected. They drift in and out of alignment, only reaching the necessary amount of crossover for a stable portal every 30 moons. Even if we are able to identify which universe you came from, we might find that we can only open a portal to your world once every year, once every century or worse."

"So even if you can get me home, it could take the rest of my life." I said slumping down in my chair. "Which is already going to be cut short because of my problems with magic."

"There's no guarantee, we might be able to solve this all in a week, but I wanted you to know exactly where we stand on this." Twilight said.

"As for your issues with magic, we are still working on a solution for that," Cadance said. "I am hopeful that we will have something ready in the next few days."

"The other night you were talking about the damage already done as a separate issue, I don't want to turn this into an unpleasant conversation, but how bad off am I?"

"Not very good," Cadance said with a wince. "Tell me, are humans familiar with radiation poisoning?"

"Um yes," I said with a gulp.

"Radiation poisoning is not a particularly well known or understood topic among ponies, outside of the medical and physics communities, you aren't likely to find many ponies who have even heard of radioactivity." Twilight said.

"It seems that magic interacts with your body in a similar way that ionizing radiation interacts with ponies. Excessive exposure can cause all sort of nasty problems. Burns, nausea, diarrhea, fever, dizziness and fatigue just to name a few. As the levels of magic that you are exposed to increase, those problems will worse, eventually your internal organs will start to fail. Unfortunately the only way we could repair the damage would be with a fairly powerful spell which would cause more harm than good." Cadance said.

"What's radiation?" Rainbow Dash said, looking confused.

"Radiation is the transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles." Twilight said.

"Huh?" Rainbow Dash said.

"Remember when you broke your wing, and the doctor took an x-ray?" Twilight said. "X-rays are a type of radiation, as are visible light and radio waves. Before X-rays were discovered, about fifteen years ago, the only way to look at a broken bone was with a spell."

"So how badly damaged is Hail Storm's body?" Golden Dawn asked.

Twilight and Cadance looked at each other, then turned slowly towards me but neither one of them were making eye contact.

"If we can't find a way to repair the damage I'm afraid you have maybe a month left before the compounding damage starts to cause major organ failure. Death will follow soon thereafter" Cadance said looking down at the ground.

Chapter 12

"Now look here," I said angrily. "I know I'm sick but dead in a month sick? That's impossible."

"I'm really sorry Hail Storm," Cadance said. "The damage that has been done so far is serious, once your organs start to fail, without magic, we can't do anything about it."

"No... just... no. I can't accept this," I said shaking my head.

I heard a quiet sob and saw tears dripping down Golden Dawn's face out of the corner of my eye. There was an ache in the pit of my stomach and the sound of her cries made it grow. I wanted to reach out, to comfort her and tell her everything would be okay, but I didn't have the strength. If I tried to face her now, if I looked her in the eye, I'd fall apart.

"I... I need to... go," I said, stepping up and backing away from the table.

I slowly plodded across the room in a daze of confusion. I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going until I found myself sitting down on one of the small couches lined up near the window. I glanced back at the table across the room, none of the ponies had followed me and most were awkwardly avoiding my gaze except for Golden Dawn, who was staring right at me, her eyes wet with tears.

I blinked back some of my own, it was all I could do to keep them from pouring out. The anguish on Golden's face matched my own feelings perfectly. Seeing her like that stung at my heart and I forced myself to turn around, unable to keep looking at her. Not even the terrifying drop on the other side of the large pane of glass in front of me was enough to distract me from the thoughts running around in my head.

What the fuck! I can't be dying. this is bullshit. I thought to myself.

People my age don't think about their own death, not usually anyways. Before my dad, I hadn't lost anyone close to me since my grandparents died when I was a kid. In fact neither of my parents were all that old. I hadn't even thought about their time being limited until then my dad showed up and everything changed. His death hung grimly in my mind, and for the first time I was forcing myself to think about not only my own mortality but how I had lost him.

I had never really had time to grieve. Oh sure, there was the funeral itself but right after that I was on the road. The trip to Wyoming had been more than just me going out there to pick up some things. It served as a distraction, something to do instead of sitting at home, alone. The truth of it had hit me a few times, like when I found those notes while I was packing things up, but then I ended up in Equestria and everything had been thrown into chaos. I didn't have time to think about my dad, I had to concentrate on getting home.

Canterlot and the Princesses were supposed to be my ticket to doing that, but now, not only could they not get me home, but they were telling me I wasn't going to last much longer myself.

I'll be gone, just like dad... No, worse. No one will even know what happened to me.

I thought about his funeral, it had been so empty. A handful of family members and people he hadn't spoken to in years. Would mine be like that? Who would show up? My old college roommate maybe, he was one of the few I still had kept in touch with after graduating, but I hadn't seen him since he had moved across the country. My mother? If she could put down the bottle long enough, she might even say something. Maybe a co-worker or two. My life was as much of a mess as my dad's had been. I had kept to myself, ignoring everyone and now I was being told that it might be too late to do anything about it. That I was going to die alone on an alien world.

There was a sound of hoofsteps behind me and the next thing I knew there was a wing squeezing me tightly.

No, not friendless, and not alone.

She didn't say anything, she just sat down next to me on the bench and held on tight. I leaned up against her, resting my head against her shoulder. We sat there for what seemed like an eternity, neither of us saying a word.

I spoke up, my voice barely a whisper, "Thank you Golden..."

"Hail..." she started to say.

I put my hand over her mouth, "Thank you for being my friend, it took me getting thrown into another universe to realize I needed one. No matter what happens, I'm glad I met you."

"You're not giving up are you?" she asked quietly.

I said nothing as I took a minute mull over her question, it felt like I was and the idea of giving up sickened me. I hadn't given up when I was marching through the desert, why was this hitting me so hard now? I kicked myself mentally, there was really only one thing for me to do, and it wasn't throwing in the towel. I was going to treat this like any other hard situation I got myself into, stubbornly push through it as best as I could.

"No, I'm not. We're going to figure this out," I said, defying the fate that had been handed to me. With new determination I pulled myself up and Golden Dawn and I returned to the table of ponies.

"For now, let's put the death thing to the side. I get that this is a serious situation but what I don't understand right now I feel better than I have since I first woke up in the Badlands." I said as I took my seat.

"Most of that is due to the elixir you are taking. As your body starts to build up a tolerance, your earlier symptoms will return and they will only get worse," Cadance said.

"You said the stuff in the IV bag was some kind of painkiller, I've been on painkillers before they don't hide symptoms completely."

"No, but this is more than just a simple drug, It is magically enhanced to more completely hide your symptoms. Twilight came up with the enchantment, it is specifically designed to both to work inside the suppression field of your cell and do as little damage to your body as possible."

"Wait a minute, you just told me how bad magic is for me and you're giving me some sort of magical super drug? Are you insane!?" I shouted.

"I'll take it from here Cadance," Twilight said. "Hail Storm, the suppression field isn't perfect, no field is. There is no location in this universe where you can avoid magic entirely, it's in the air, the food, even us ponies. You're always going to be exposed to some level of magic, no matter where you go. What's important is both the type of magic you are exposed to and the amount. Cadance told you we took some blood samples and ran a scan right?"

"Yeah, she mentioned that." I said.

"We've been going over the results of that scan, and running tests on the blood samples. We don't have a full understanding yet, but different types of magic interact with your body different ways. Some types of magic do minimal harm, some are quite dangerous, and some don't seem to cause any negative reaction at all. We used that information to make the enchantment on your medicine as benign as possible."

Multiple types of magic, this was news to me. "There's more than one type of magic?" I asked in confusion.

"Of course, it's far from a perfect analogy but think of the EM spectrum, just like there are differences between radio waves, visible light and x-rays, there are also different kinds of magic with varying energy levels. They interact with your body in different way, some do you no harm, while others can cause massive damage."

"So like exposing myself to a powerful spell would be like getting hit with a big burst of gamma rays, while a weaker spell might just be like shining a flashlight at me?"

"Sort of, for example if I tried to teleport with you, it would probably liquefy your insides, but you could keep taking that elixir for months without the enchantment building up toxic levels of magic. However, it isn't directly related to the strength of the magic. I don't know if anypony told you this but in Equestria, friendship is magic. That isn't just a cute saying, or a nice philosophy. It is literally true. The bonds of friendship are one of the most powerful magics known to ponykind," Twilight said, looking at Rainbow Dash with a smile.

"Yep, Twilight here led me and some other ponies to defeat Nightmare Moon! And we totally kicked Discord's butt, back when he was being a jerk." Rainbow Dash said, puffing up with pride.

"He doesn't know who they are Rainbow," Twilight said with a smile. She turned back to me, her face growing more serious. "Rainbow is right though, together, my friends and I have fought off some of the most powerful threats to Equestria, by channeling our friendship through the Elements of Harmony. If there was a simple relationship between power and damage done to you, then your friendship with Golden Dawn would have killed you already."

"That's a cheery thought," I said sarcastically. "Become friends and instantly keel over dead."

"I'm glad that didn't happen," Golden Dawn said, putting her hoof on my hand.

"Me too."

"Actually, during our studies, we actually found something interesting. The magic of friendship is not only not harmful to you, but it might even be reducing the damage done by other types of magics. Acting as a sort of barrier, partially shielding you from the full effects."

"Is that helpful?" I asked. "Can you use it to stop me from getting worse?"

"I'm not sure, it's one of the avenues we're exploring. We're going to keep working on this Hail Storm," Twilight said. "For now, try not to stress yourself out over it."

I had more questions, but the sound of a door opening interrupted my train of thought. Two ponies pushed a large cart filled with silver domed plates into the room. Judging from the delicious smells that followed those ponies in, breakfast had arrived. My stomach rumbled, reminding me how long it had been since I had eaten. The fact that I wasn't feeling nauseous at all, only reinforced my desire for some food. Any further investigation could wait.

One by one the plates were passed out, and as the lids lifted the smells of freshly baked goods filled the air. There were pancakes, waffles, muffins, and bread and they all looked and smelt wonderful. Then one of the dishes, a smaller one, was set down directly in front of me. The pony lifted the lid and there sat the most beautiful thing I had seen since I had arrived in Equestria.

"Is this...?"

"I think it's called maple cured bacon," Twilight said, scrunching her nose. "I know humans eat meat so I had the palace chef pull something off the menu that some of thestrals in the Lunar Guard like to eat," Twilight said.

There were six strips and they appeared to be perfectly cooked. I picked one up and took a bite, savoring the flavor. It had just the right amount of crispness, whatever pony had cooked this, he or she knew what they were doing.

"Oh god, this is so good," I said, drool dribbling down my chin. "I can't think of a better way of distracting me from the earlier bad news."

"I thought that might help, I remember my friends through the mirror portal raving about how incredible bacon was, personally I thought it was okay but I guess it's different if you grew up eating it."

"Wait, you've eaten meat before?" Rainbow Dash said, staring at Twilight.

"Not before going to the human world, it was kind of an accident the first time. I had no idea that humans were meat eaters and we had something called sloppy joes for lunch. It wasn't till I took a bite that I found out it had meat in it."

"Well nuts to that, if you've tried meat before I've got to too," Rainbow said.

"Well you have to ask Hail Storm, it was made for him and there's not much of it." Twilight said.

"Uh sure, who am I to deny the magic of bacon to someone," I said, offering Rainbow the plate.

"It's magical?" Rainbow Dash said, as I passed her the plate.

"No it isn't," Twilight said, raising an eyebrow. "That's actually the other reason I had it prepared. Food grown in Equestria is saturated in earth pony magic. Golden Dawn mentioned you'd often feel sick after eating. That's the reason. This bacon is imported from griffon lands. Their food isn't completely devoid of magic, but there's less in it."

"I didn't mean it was literally magical, just that it tastes amazing," I said, rolling my eyes. "Wait... hold on, should I not eat anything else then? If the other food is making me sick..."

"There's enough residual magic in the food to make your stomach hurt, but it shouldn't be doing long term damage. The elixir should prevent that reaction for now, if that stops working, we can try to feed you only imported food, but even that has some magic in it," Twilight said.

Rainbow Dash broke one of the strips in half and picked up one portion with her hoof. She stared at it for a minute before popping it into her mouth and chewing slowly. She swallowed a moment later.

"Not bad, but I don't see what all the fuss is about," she said coolly, but I thought I caught her eyeing another piece.

"Cadance? Golden? Either of you want some?" I asked holding the plate out.

Cadance turned a paler shade of pink and politely declined; Golden looked at it her eyes unsure. Finally she took the other half of Rainbow's piece and took an experimental nibble before spitting it out.

"You don't like the bacon?" I asked.

"No," she said, taking a large gulp from her water.

"I don't think we can be friends anymore," I said trying to put on my best serious frown but a moment later the facade cracked as it turned into a smile.

I finished off the rest of the bacon, except for a slice I put on Rainbow's plate. She said nothing but gave me a smile. After I finished eating the rest of my food, I turned to Twilight.

"So Twilight, you've already told me how hard it will be to actually send me home, but what I don't get is how did I end up here in the first place?"

"We aren't completely sure but we think we have an idea. Is it true you found some confetti near where you first entered Equestria?"

"Um, yeah... but... how did you know that and why is that important?" I asked.

"I told her," Golden Dawn said. "Twilight was very insistent that even the smallest detail could be important."

"And I was right! In this case it was very important. The timing of you arriving here matches up with an incident with a being called Discord. Discord is... well he's the embodiment of chaos, he is incredibly powerful but also very unreliable. He opened a portal to... somewhere, there was an accident, the portal came into contact with magical artifact, lost stability and shattered. The shards of his portal broke apart into confetti when they dissipated. We think you came through the one of the portal shards, we had thought them all destroyed but we must have missed one."

"But why confetti?" I was still confused. "That doesn't even make sense."

"Discord is... the king of not making sense," Rainbow Dash said through a mouth full of pancakes.

"So, I wasn't brought here on purpose?" I asked. "That seems... wrong."

"Not to our knowledge, but we haven't been able to check with Discord since the incident, he's... missing," Twilight said, her ears going flat.

"Could he have ended up on Earth?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Possibly, but we can't be sure," Twilight said. "Do you think you were brought here on purpose Hail Storm?"

"Well, maybe not on purpose, but if it was by accident, why am I able to understand Equestrian? I figured whatever or whoever had brought me here knew I wouldn't be able to, so they gave me the ability to do so. The way you're describing it, it sounds like I just had the bad luck to fall through a portal."

"So, we're not actually sure. It may have been bad luck or it might not have. There's a number of rather unusual circumstances around how you got here and your current state. Throw in how random Discord generally acts, and it makes it very hard to know if he brought you here on purpose or not," Twilight said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"As far as I could tell, Discord's portal was very similar to the portal spell that the mirror portal I talked about earlier uses, except it was sustained with chaos magic. As I mentioned, the mirror portal was created by a pony named Star Swirl. He went through great pains to make sure that any travel through it would be safe for ponies. The spell that powers the mirror will scan both it's current location, Equestria, and the end point, the human dimension I visited. It will then make adaptations to any ponies that travel through it, changing their form to allow them to safely exist in on the human world. In addition there is a translation spell cast which allows communication with the humans on the other side." Twilight said.

"So, that sounds kind of like what happened to me, except clearly it didn't make any changes to me to make your magic filled universe safe for me," I said.

"The thing is, it took Star Swirl months to create all the spells that power that portal and set them up to work together. Discord generally doesn't put that much thought into his magic. It's much more... chaotic... more random," Twilight said. "You are right though, translation spells generally need to be tailored for the languages that are being translated for them to work optimally. If he was using the same spell the mirror uses, it would mean Discord would have to have known about your species and crafted a spell that translates English to Equestrian."

"What about when you went through the mirror portal?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Didn't that let you speak English?"

"There's no guarantee that the English of that universe is the same as English in Hail's universe, it could be, or it might not be. The thing is, Discord's spell is working differently than any translation spell I'm familiar with."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You've lost the ability to understand your native language. That's unusual. On top of that, entering that cell would normally break the translation spell until it was re-cast. Instead, it just stops working while you are inside and then resumes working after you come out. I don't know if your lost ability to speak English is because of a problem with the spell, or if Discord's translation spell just works differently than the one I'm familiar with, and until I can scan that spell, I won't be able to find out how it isn't broken by the suppression field," Twilight said.

"Is there any way to find out why he can't understand English?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Yes, the same scan I was just talking about. Normally, it would be easy enough to analyze the active spells on your body, determine which one is the translation spell and then figure out how it works. In fact under normal circumstances, I wouldn't even bother, except to satiate my own curiosity. I'd just start from scratch and work with Hail getting the base spell tweaked until it could handle his language. It isn't a hard process, it just takes a few days of work."

"The more you talk, more I'm thinking Discord pulled me here on purpose. Or at least, pulled a human from Earth," I said.

"You're not wrong, the chances of all this happening the way it happened by accident seem very unlikely. On the other hand, if Discord was planning for a human to come to Equestria, he did a bad job at it,"

"You mean how magic is hurting Hail?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Exactly, dimensional travel is dangerous. Real dangerous. It takes a very high level understanding of magic to create a portal that is safe for ponies to use. Just breaching the barrier between our dimension and another involves huge amounts of magic that cause cause catastrophic results if the spell is miscast and that's just the first step. Not every dimension is conducive to pony life, many are downright hostile to it. I don't mean from the inhabitants either, though that can happen. I mean the nature of the universe does not allow ponies to exist. For example, there could be a dimension where the magical energies that exist in every pony can't function and tear themselves apart, violently," Twilight said.

"Which is why Star Swirl took so long in making that mirror?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Correct, sometimes magic can be used to counter the danger, by adapting a pony to survive in the other dimension, but sometimes it just isn't possible. For safe travel you have to be able to detect whether or not it's ok for a pony to enter the other dimension, and if it isn't, to take the proper precautions. Two things stand out about this. First, if Discord knew a human was coming here, he didn't plan his spell very well, since Hail is suffering from exposure to magic. Secondly, planning ahead just doesn't seem like Discord's style."

"Wouldn't he be worried about popping into a dimension that was lethal to him?" I asked

"Discord? Think about consequences? That's rich," Rainbow Dash said with a laugh.

Twilight nodded in agreement.

"Discord is very much a 'live in the moment' type of being, I've never known him to plan anything. Even so, it is unlikely he'd have anything to worry about. Discord isn't a physical being like you or I. Discord is the embodiment of chaos itself. If there's one multi-universal constant, it's chaos. I think he could survive anywhere."

"So, this brings us back full circle. If he intended for Hail, or some other human to come here, he didn't try to give them any resistance to magic, but if he didn't plan this, then how did Hail Storm end up with a translation spell on him?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Yep, that's why we're so confused. If it had been random chance, it would be unlikely that going through Discord's portal would have also cast a translation spell tailored for Hail Storm's language. If he had planned it though, you would think he would have built in some sort of adaptation spell so when Hail Storm came through he wouldn't end up being slowly poisoned by magic."

"Not if he didn't care if I die," I said.

"Discord is..." Twilight stated to say.

"Crazy, loony, insane, bonkers," Rainbow Dash said, interrupting Twilight.

"Yes, those things do describe him, but more importantly, he's a trickster, but he isn't cruel. I've never known him to purposely kill anypony," Twilight said. "I don't think he'd have brought you here if he thought you'd die. In any case, I'd really like to get a closer look at that translation spell he cast on you, it might give me a better idea on the magic you were exposed to when you went through the portal. For now though, I need to come up with a better way of doing that, right now the normal method is too dangerous."

"Because that would be exposing me to extra magic, right?" I asked.

"Exactly. Speaking of which, we should really be getting you back to the cell. I hate to make you go so soon but delaying will only accelerate your deterioration," Twilight said.

We headed down, deeper into the castle, back to the dungeon and my cell. Twilight promised that I could come out again for another hour or two after dinner. She said that she would post a guard outside the cell and if I needed anything I could step out and ask, but I should avoid leaving as much as possible. Golden Dawn asked if she could go with me to which Cadance said that was fine.

"You understand as long as Hail Storm is in the cell, you won't be able to talk to him?" she asked.

"I know but I can't just leave him down there alone all day," Golden said.

Of course as soon as we stepped into the cell, I tried to talk to Golden Dawn but she only responded in the same gibberish that Cadance had spoke in the day before. What was worse is that I could see the effect that the suppression field was having on her. The hairs on her back stood on edge, her eyes darted back and forth nervously and every few minute her wings would twitch. In an attempt to pass the time, I tried to teach her some very basic English, but I could tell that she was very distracted.

I got up and walked out of the cell, Golden Dawn followed, the moment she stepped outside, I saw her body relax. The guard standing outside of the room looked at me but I waved him off.

"You can't stay in there," I said "You've been on edge the whole time, I don't know what it feels like to have your magic suppressed but I can tell it isn't good for you."

"I can't just leave you to sit in that room alone, all day long," Golden Dawn said with a sigh.

"What if you sat just outside the room? It's not like I can talk to you either way, I'm pretty sure we can leave the door open."

"That wouldn't be a problem," the guard said, overhearing our conversation.

"Though we still have nothing to do," I said. "I wish I had some books to read, or a game to play or something."

"That's a great idea!" Golden said, leaping up into the air at my statement.

"Huh?"

"A game to play, we can take that table in your room, stick it between the door. I can go find some games and we can play them." she said with a smile.

"Hmm, that would be better than sitting here waiting. Though it would have to be a game that doesn't require reading or talking."

"I'm sure I can find something that will work, I'll be back in a bit, I'll go ask Twilight where I can get some games, if she doesn't have any I'll take a trip into lower Canterlot and buy something." Golden said, flying down the corridor. I went back into the cell, sat down on the couch and waited for her to get back.

An hour later, I heard the door at the far end of the hall open up. I looked and saw Golden Dawn flying towards me carrying a large box. I took one of the chairs and brought it out into the hallway so I could talk.

"Did you find anything?"

"Yeah! Twilight thought it was a great idea, she used to play checkers and chess with Princess Celestia when she was a filly so she found Celestia's copies and lent them to me. We uh, should be careful with them, Especially the chess set, it looks really fancy."

"Checkers and chess? That's odd, those are human games, I wonder if they play the same," I said.

It turned out that they both did. I moved the table right outside the door and pulled my chair up to it on the inside of the cell. The checkers set was pretty normal, if a bit fancy, with a wooden board that had intricate carvings running along the side. The pieces were gold and silver instead of red and black and judging by the weight of each token, I think that they were actual gold and silver. We played a number of games before we switched to chess.

My jaw dropped when Golden Dawn pulled out the chess set. The board was made up of a golden frame, inlaid with very expensive looking stone squares. The pieces themselves were solid gold and platinum, studded with various gems. The detail on each piece was amazing, right down to the feathers on the pegasus knights and the spirals on the unicorn and alicorn horns.

Now I knew the rules of chess, but I never got really into it. I was at best, an average player. Golden and I had roughly a 50-50 win ratio in checkers, so I went in expecting something similar with chess.

Nope.

She destroyed me, every... single... time.

They weren't even close games, by the time the fifth game rolled around, I had pretty much had it. I took one last look over the board, she was going to mate me in three moves and there wasn't a damned thing I could do about it. I toppled my king, stood up and moved the table out of the way so I could walk out into the hall.

"Well that didn't go so well for me," I said giving her a bit of a glare.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly. "My dad taught me to play. He uh... was Equestria's grand master from 4840 - 4842."

"How wonderful for him," I said, faking annoyance. "Still though, thanks for sticking around. I think I'm going to lay down for a while, try to take a nap. Why don't you go enjoy the castle or something. I don't want you stuck here all day."

"Are you sure?" Golden asked.

"Yeah, getting a little tired,” I said. I was, but more importantly I was starting to feel awful and I didn’t want her around if it got much worse. The elixir was starting to wear off and I wasn't due for my next dose for another hour at least.

"Alright, I'll see if I can find anymore games for us to play," Golden said before taking off.

I stretched out on the bed trying to get comfortable, but no matter how hard I tried, sleep evaded me. Everything I had learned since waking up in the castle was running around in my skull, and now that my brain wasn't otherwise engaged, it was busy trying to process everything. What scared me the most was my survival was completely dependent on the success of Twilight and Cadance. I didn't know anything about magic or inter-dimensional travel. Even the human part of this, me, I didn't have nearly enough medical knowledge to offer any real assistance. My fate was entirely in their hands... er hooves... horns? In any case, the lack of control was deeply unsettling.

Eventually Golden Dawn returned with lunch and a bunch of new games, right after Cadance had brought me another vial of the elixir and lunch. I chomped down a peanut butter sandwich while she went over the games; some of them I recognized, others were completely new to me. We started with the pony equivalent of connect four and then moved on from there. Before I knew it, more than half the day was over and Twilight and Cadance had arrived. I stepped out into the hall so I could talk with them.

"We need to run a few more tests," Twilight said with a slight frown.

"Did you find something?" I asked warily.

"Nothing new, I'm afraid, the blood samples we took earlier have degraded beyond usability from magical contamination, we need fresh ones and a few other samples as well."

I followed them through the castle until we came to an examination room. Cadance had me lay down on a bed; a few moments later a purple unicorn doctor came into the room. He introduced himself as Steady Beat. Where Dusty Heart was clearly an old country doctor, Steady Beat had all the makings of a pony of modern medicine

Beneath his lab coat was an expensive looking suit, complete with tie. A stethoscope hung around his neck, along with a bag with a red cross on it. He pulled a syringe from the bag and told me that he needed to take some blood. After he was finished, he gave me a cup and asked for a urine sample. The ponies left the room to give me some privacy and I filled it up. Steady Beat came back, retrieved the cup and left with Cadance, leaving only Twilight and Golden Dawn.

"They're going to go run some more tests on that, but I need to run another scan on you..." she said. "This... isn't going to feel very pleasant."

Her horn lit up and my body was covered in a glowing field of magenta. My skin felt dry and hot, like I had been sitting out in the sun too long. Worse, I could feel the heat inside me as well. It grew in intensity until I felt like every part of me was on fire. Tears streamed down my face as I struggled to hold back a cry. Golden Dawn reached over with a wing and gently rubbed it across my forehead, I did my best to give her a smile before a surge of pain caused me to yell out again.

"I'm sorry," Twilight said resting a wing on my shoulder. "I know it hurts but I am getting a lot of useful information from this."

A moment later the light from Twilight's horn cut out abruptly and the pain began to fade away.

The next few days went pretty much the same. For breakfast I would join Twilight, Cadance and Golden Dawn for a meal outside of the cell. After breakfast I'd head back to my room and spend all day there, playing games with Golden Dawn.

The worst part was as long as I was in that room, I couldn’t even talk with her. Sometimes, when I was feeling too sick to concentrate on a game, I’d push the table out of the way and go sit in the hallway with her. She always protest, saying it was going to make me get worse quicker, but she never forced me back in. Instead she’d curl up on the floor and let me lean up against her and we’d just talk for hours. Twilight caught me once and scolded me, but I could tell that her heart wasn’t in it. She didn’t want to condemn what might be my last few weeks to sitting in a cell, unable to even communicate with the best friend I had in years.

At dinner time, I’d head up into the castle with Golden Dawn to have dinner. Sometime we ate with Twilight and Cadance other times we ate alone. The only other interruptions to my days were the excursions to Steady Beat's office for my daily battery of tests. Each time the number of tests and the number of ponies that came to check up on me grew, until we had to move to a larger room just to fit them all. By the evening, I'd be head back to my cell where I'd meet up with Golden Dawn for a while before she went to sleep elsewhere. At first she tried to stay with me, but when I saw her reaction to the suppression field, I insisted that she go get some good sleep somewhere else. Twilight kept a guard posted to watch over me in case I needed something, while she went off to sleep in one of the castle's many guest rooms.

I met a couple more of Twilight's friends during this time, the first was white unicorn named Rarity. Rarity ran a small boutique in Ponyville and seemed very interesting in my clothing. When she found out that humans wore clothing all the time and I only had a few days worth with me, she looked distraught. She took some measurements and promised that when she returned to Ponyville she'd make me some new things to wear. Extra clothes was the last thing on my mind, but she seemed so happy talking about it that I didn't bother trying try to talk her out of it.

The day after I met Rarity, a pink explosion bust out of nowhere, shoved a cupcake in my mouth and then proceeded to give me a great big hug, nearly knocking over the chess set. Golden Dawn, who had been just about to move her queen, steadied the table. The look on her face told me she was as confused as I felt. Neither of us had seen the pink pony approach and between the table with the chess board and Golden sitting on the other side of it, the only entrance to the cell was completely blocked. We moved everything out of the way and stepped out into the hall where the crazed pony introduced herself as my new friend Pinkie Pie. A moment later a flustered looking Twilight opened the door at the far end of the hall and hurried over to us.

"Pinkie, you were supposed to wait for me," she said, panting heavily.

"I know but I wanted to go meet my new friends..."

"Hal Storm." I said, rolling my eyes, "and Golden Dawn."

"My new friends Hail Storm and Goldie" Pinkie said with a smile. Then her eyes lit up as if she had forgotten something, she reached into her mane and somehow pulled out another cupcake. A second later later Golden got the same treatment that I had received back in the cell. I thought about complaining but the cupcake was just too tasty. Judging by how quickly Golden was scarfing hers down, she must have agreed.

It didn't take me long to learn that this completely bonkers behavior was just considered typical Pinkie Pie. Her outgoing personality took a little getting used to but her happy demeanor and genuine desire to become friends helped smooth over some of the craziness. Dinner that evening consisted of a light meal followed by a storm of deserts, most of them made by Pinkie herself, brought up from a shop in Ponyville that she worked in. Pinkie regaled us with tales of adventures that she and Twilight had been on before Twilight became a princess. Some of them sounded so fantastic that I was sure she must have exaggerated the real events but she promised me, giving her word with a cute little rhyme, that they were all 100% true. I remained out of the cell perhaps a few more hours than I should have and when I finally returned I wasn't feeling very well.

I mentioned it to Twilight and she informed me that my body was starting to build up a tolerance to the medicine I was taking. She had already tweaked the enchantment as much as she could and the only way to increase its potency would make it unsafe for me to use.

The days flew by and the amount of time I had to spend with Golden Dawn steadily declined as more and more of my free time was taken up with an ever increasing number of tests. It had been nearly two weeks since I had arrived at the castle and as far as I could tell, no real progress has been made. Worse still, I was no longer showing any response to taking the enchanted drug that Twilight had prepared for me. My headaches had returned in full force and I was having trouble holding down any food. Twilight tried to keep my spirits up but I could tell that she was worried herself. The medical staff themselves were hard to read, but as I continued to meet with Twilight, each time she looked just a little more tired, a little more strained.

As my condition worsened I talked to Golden Dawn in private, I didn't want her to have to watch me slowly deteriorate and tried to convince her to return to Hoofston, but she refused.

“No,” she said sternly.

“But what if I…”

A hoof slapped me across the face before I could finish the sentence.

“You WILL get better Hail Storm,” she said. There was a trickle of moisture in her eyes. “Don’t even think about giving up.”

“I’m not… I just, I don’t want you to have to watch this,” I said, slumping over.

The next thing I knew, she had me in a hug, her head buried in my chest.

"I'm not going anywhere until you are better," she said resolutely. The strength in her voice let me know that it was pointless to argue.

I was having trouble getting out of bed each morning and no matter how much I slept, I always felt exhausted. My skin had started to turn pale and the last time I had taken a shower, I had found clumps of hair in the drain. I was forced to give up my morning meals with my friends as the number of tests increased. When I inquired about the progress in finding a way to cure me, Twilight informed me that though they had a number of theories, nothing concrete had come up yet.

Eventually even the testing started to dwindle which was just as well as I was having problems even getting out of bed. I slept most of the day away, waking up only to nibble on some food and then struggle to keep it down. Golden Dawn moved her chair into my cell, right against my bed. I'd find myself waking up with her wing around me, tears staining her muzzle. I tried once more to get her to go but she wouldn't listen. I didn't want to admit it but I knew things were looking bleak.

Things went from bad to worse when I had a heart attack during one of my examinations. I didn't even realize it was happening, everything had been hurting for so long that I hadn't noticed the pain in my chest. I remember hearing Twilight yell something and everything went fuzzy as I started to pass out. I woke up to Twilight standing over me holding a defibrillator and an intense fire in my chest.

I went back to my cell after Twilight revived me. Against my protests, Golden Dawn elected to stay with me that night. She followed me into the room and helped me into the bed. Then she pushed the couch up next to me and curled up into an adorable ball. I reached an arm out and rested it on her back. She reached out with a wing, draping it across my chest. The hours passed slowly but I eventually fell asleep.

I was jolted awake as I heard the door to the cell fly open. A disheveled looking Twilight stood directly in front of the bed I was in, her eyes were bloodshot, as if she had been up all night, but her expression was calm.

"We need to go," Twilight said, her voice shaky.

"What's going on?" Golden asked. "Do you to talk to Hail Storm? I can help you get him out of the cell."

"No... I understood her question." I said with a bit of confusion.

"I dispelled the suppression field, can you walk?" Twilight asked, looking at me.

"Not very well, what's going on?"

"You need to come with me if you want to live," Twilight said.

"Did you figure something out, can you cure him?" Golden Dawn asked.

"No, not exactly, the damage to Hail Storm's body is too severe to cure without magic and the magic to cure him would kill him," Twilight said.

"Then what's going on?" Golden Dawn asked as I struggled to get out of bed.

"All I can offer is a chance, but we should hurry, the weaker Hail Storm is the less it is likely that he will survive it," Twilight said.

Golden helped me out of bed, while Twilight urged us to hurry. When it was clear that I wasn't able to move fast enough, Golden Dawn lifted me up and placed me on her back. She was a little short compared to the horses I had ridden on before, and I'd never ridden one without a saddle, but unlike a normal horse she was actually concerned with keeping me from falling off. Somehow, likely though the impressive balance I'd seen ponies use to carry things on their back before, she managed to keep me from slipping as we galloped down the hall, following Twilight as she twisted and turned through hallway after hallway until we finally arrived at a large door.

Twilight opened the door, revealing what looked like a small study. Books lined the walls and at a small desk a huge pile of scrolls reached toward the high ceiling. The only thing else in the room was a large mirror on a very fancy pedestal. The frame of the mirror was encrusted in red jewels and resembled an archway made up of an upside-down horseshoe. Twilight headed for the mirror and Golden Dawn followed.

"This is the mirror I told you about, the one that took me to the human world, I had it shipped here from the Crystal Empire after you showed up," Twilight said.

"I don't understand, are you going to send me there?" Whatever Twilight's plan was, I wasn't following it.

"No, I've been trying but I can't open the portal to that world right now, our universes have drifted too far apart for a stable connection to be made. It's only fair that I go over my plan first, let's get Hail Storm in that chair over there."

Twilight floated the chair behind the desk over to us and Golden got me sitting in it.

"I've been trying to figure out the adaptation part of the portal spell since I first learned about you but as I said I was unable to find a copy of the spell in the archives. The enchantment on this mirror consists of two major parts. First is the spell that pierces the dimensional barrier and opens the portal from our world to the next. The other part is the adaptation spell. Both spells are extremely complex, rivaling the one that I used that granted me these," Twilight said flapping her wings.

"Of the two parts, the adaptation spell is more complex and unfortunately the surviving notes only briefly touch up upon it, so figuring out how it worked has taken me a great deal of time. My hope had been if I could determine how it made changes to a body that passed through the portal, I'd be able create a spell that used a similar process to change Hail Storm's body enough that magic was no longer deadly."

"Ok, I'm following that," I said, Golden Dawn nodded as well.

"The problem is, like I said, it's a very complex spell. I still don't understand enough to reproduce it, but I have an idea. I have been able to learn enough about the dimensional gateway and I think I can change the location and shift the mirror to point at a different dimension."

"So you can send me home?"

"No, well maybe, if we knew where your home was, but I don't. In fact I don't even know yet how to locate your dimension. I haven't gotten that far yet, but I might be able to point this portal at our own dimension."

"What good would that do?" Golden Dawn asked. "If I'm understanding you correctly, it sounds like he's just step through and come out the other side."

"That's exactly what would happen... I hope. But there's more to it. If I can get the portal to open, and Hail Storm steps through it, the adaptation spell should try to change him."

"And that will cure me?" I asked.

Before Twilight answer the question, Princess Cadance stepped into the room, her lips turned downward in a deep frown.

"No Hail Storm, in all likelihood, it will kill you," she said sadly.

Before Cadance could say anymore, Twilight spoke up again.

"I won't lie to you Hail Storm, this is risky, very risky. There are a number of problems. The amount of magic the portal will expose you to is high, if you were still healthy it might not be a problem but in your condition it could kill you."

"The portal I took here didn't seem to do any serious harm," I said.

"Discord's portal worked similar to this one, but it was cast with chaos magic. As far as I can tell, you're actually far less vulnerable to chaos magic than the magic used to create the mirror," Twilight said.

"Can you make a portal with chaos magic?" I asked.

"No, I can't. The best I can do is try to simulate chaos magic and use that to power the mirror instead of the normal magic. Discord's magic and pony magic are just too different for me to create actual chaos magic. Besides that, the portal spell isn't designed to link up to the same dimension, I think it will just dump you on the other side of the mirror, but there's a chance you could end up at a random spot almost anywhere."

"Could it be worse than popping up in the middle of the Badlands? I survived that," I said with a weak chuckle.

"Er... yes, when I said random spot anywhere, I meant anywhere in the universe. Given that most of the universe is empty space, you'd more than likely appear in hard vacuum, but if you did find yourself on Equus, you could find yourself materializing inside the planet instead of on its surface..."

"So yeah, a bit worse than a desert," I said with a gulp.

"Even if you end up on the other side of the portal, and the adaptation spell works, you still won't be healed," Cadance said. "And even if Twilight powers the portal with her simulated chaos magic, it's still going to do more damage to you if you go through it. It might even cause enough damage that we might not be able to fix it, even with a powerful healing spells."

"What kind of odds are we talking about here?" I asked.

"That you'll end up in the other side of the portal, at least 80%, that I'm sure of," Twilight said.

"That's not too bad, what about adaptation spell?"

"If it doesn't kill you outright, it's pretty much guaranteed to work, maybe a 20% chance to survive the the portal itself. I can't speak for healing the damage after, there's too many factors to make an accurate prediction," Cadance said. She saw me wince at her statement and gave me a sad look. "I told Twilight that I didn't want to try this, it's too risky."

Golden Dawn had remained silent during the explanation, but now she spoke up, her voice strong and unwavering.

"I think you are forgetting something, Hail Storm's chance of survival is zero if we don't do something. He's dying right now and this is the only thing you've been able to come up with, will he last long enough for you to figure something else out?"

"Golden Dawn is right," I said pulling myself up off the chair. "In any case, it's my life, and I really don't want to die waiting for a better solution. I’d rather go out trying something. Shouldn't I get to choose if I want to take the risk or not?"

Cadance sighed and then nodded slowly, "Very well, since you are aware of all the risks and it is your life that is on the line, I will not stand against your decision."

"I do have one question though," I said while pulling myself up and out of my chair. "You keep saying that this adaptation spell will change me. What exactly is it going to do?"

"That's the one part of this whole thing I can answer with absolute certainty," Twilight said with a small grin.

"And...?"

Her ears flattened out and she scratched at the floor a hoof as she gave me an innocent smile. "It will turn you into a pony."

"What?"

Chapter 13

Now I wasn't really all there, so it was distinctly possible, I had misheard Twilight. Actually, it was taking a good deal of concentration to keep my knees from buckling out from underneath me. Now that I had a second to think about it, there's no way that's what she said. That would be utter nonsense. You can't just change someone's species, what a ridiculous concept. I let out a small chuckle.

"Can you please repeat yourself?" I asked with another giggle. "For some reason I thought you said your mirror would turn me into a pony."

Of course, before Twilight could answer, Golden Dawn shattered any hope I had that either my ears weren't working or Twilight had an unusual sense of humor and a horrible timing for jokes.

"What kind of pony?" she asked, looking at the purple princess.

Twilight, of course, had a short speech prepared to answer the question. I leaned up against Golden Dawn for support as she began her needlessly complicated explanation.

"I've gone over all the notes I could find and done some analysis on the mirror itself. If a pony travels through it, they are turned into a human. Not Hail's kind of human, but the humans that live in the mirror universe. On the return trip, they are transformed back into their original body. The mirror isn't really setup for non-pony races, and if a non-pony goes through, it uses a best guess algorithm to determine what species to pick. This algorithm isn't Star Swirl's best work and definitely needs some tweaking, according to the notes I read, he was forced to rush that part of the spell and never fully tested it. I suspect that's why Spike ended up as a dog when we visited the other world. Anyway, I'm getting off track. When a being goes through, his or her original form is stored in a spell matrix that is maintained inside the subject's new body. Except, and this is important, the transformation spell only affects the pony's, or other race's corporeal form. It does not touch the internal magic of the subject. For a pony, this is important, because unlike the other races of Equus, ponies have clearly defined sub-races. As you know Golden, but Hail likely does not, a pony's race isn't determined by purely by genetics. The parents of the pony influence the outcome, increasing the probability that their children will be in the same tribe as the mother or father, but ultimately, it is the magical properties of his or her soul that determine which tribe they are born into. Hail isn't a pony, he has no inner magic at all. The mirror will have to graft magic onto his soul in order for the transformation to be successful," Twilight paused to make sure that we were still listening to her. I was, but I had only a vague idea of what she was talking about.

"In Star Swirl's time, study into soul magic was in it's infancy, the only spiritual structure that had been completely mapped out, and thus reproducible by spell, was that of an earth pony. In truth though, I haven't actually been able to find any past records of a non-pony race traveling through the mirror, nor one of the humans from the mirror universe coming to Equestria, so I can't say that a human to pony transformation has ever been tested."

"What?" I asked. Twilight rolled her eyes and dumbed it down for me.

"The spell that mirror users was designed by a pony, for ponies to travel between dimensions. While I'm not aware of a non-pony visiting from another dimension, at least before meeting you, I have been able to determine that any non-pony species stepping through from the other side will take the form of an earth pony, but it's never been tested. That is, unless they are originally from Equus, in which case they would simply return to their original form. For example, if a griffon went through the portal, and then came back, they'd revert to being a griffon, not a pony," Twilight said.

"So you're telling me that when I step through your portal, I'm going to come out as a... earth pony?" I asked, still not quite believing such a thing was possible.

Twilight nodded.

"A pony...? Like with hooves and a tail and everything?"

"Those are generally things found on a pony," Cadance said with a bit of a giggle.

"But... wouldn't it be easier to like, make me magically resistant or something?"

"Not really, that would involve modifying your existing body, while it's still very complex, it's easier to shift someone’s soul to a new body of a known species than it is to try make changes to an existing body, especially when it is of a species we know so little about," Twilight said. "In fact the only magically modified species I know of are thestrals, and Princess Luna did that spell work. I asked her about it one time and just the theory behind the changes was beyond my knowledge at the time."

"Will it be permanent?" I asked nervously. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be stuck as a pony.

"The transformation will persist as long as you are in Equestria. Once we figure out how to send you home anyway, we will need to open a portal to your own world, either with this mirror or a duplicate. At that point you'll step through and be returned to your original form."

"I need a few minutes to think," I said. I tried to sit down, so I could concentrate, but my knees finally gave out and I ended up collapsing into my chair. Part of my brain shouted at me, giving up my body was unacceptable, but another part screamed that survival at any cost was preferable to death. Twilight's talk about souls made me a bit nervous. I had never been a deeply religious person, but I had to wonder, if I did have a soul as Twilight claimed I did, and Twilight's mirror was going to alter it, would I still be the same person after I went though? I was still deep in thought when Golden Dawn sat down next to me and extended her hoof, resting it on my lap.

"What's the matter Hail Storm?" she asked. "You seemed fine until you found out that the portal would transform you into a pony."

"That's just the problem," I said with a sigh. "All this talk about souls and transformation, I'm just a bit freaked out. I thought after this, I'd be back to my old self but healthier. Will I still even be me after I go through that portal?"

"Of course you will," she said with a gentle smile. She reached up and poked my nose with her hoof. "Yes, it will change your physical body, but who you are, that won't be affected."

"But Twilight just said it would do something to my... soul," I said.

"That's what makes me so confident that you'll still be you. I might not be some magical master, but everypony knows how resilient a soul is. You can't just change who a pony... or a human is with a spell."

"She's right you know," Cadance said. "We can add the necessary magical properties to allow you to become an earth pony, but we can't change who you are. That's the strongest part of your soul, it is, for all intents and purposes, immutable."

"How is adding something different from changing me?" I asked.

"Well... it isn't a perfect analogy, but think of your soul as the clothes you are wearing. You can add a hat but that doesn't change your outfit, you're only adding to it," Cadance said.

"I'd still be giving up my humanity... I'd still end up as a pony," I said glumly.

"Hey, being a pony is great, I've been one all my life and I've got no complaints," Golden Dawn said with a laugh.

"You promise it won't make me... not me?" I asked.

"Obviously, your body will be different. Though you will gain earth pony magic, the changes will not affect any aspects of your soul that make you you. However, I must point out that addition of pony magic to your soul will permanently alter your... base species. Once the addition of pony magic to your soul is made, it cannot be undone without killing you. Ponies cannot survive being completely separated from their magic. If we can ever locate your universe, this won't actually matter. We can still transform you back to your human self if I can get the portal pointing to your universe, but on the inside, you will be a pony. If you ever did return to Equestria, you'd revert back to your pony body," Twilight said.

"That's... disturbing isn't the right word, maybe unnerving?" I said. I guess in the long run it didn't really matter, if... no when Twilight was able to find my Earth, I could still go back to being human.

"I know it's scary... but if you don't do this Hail, you'll die," Golden Dawn said, tightening her grip on me. "I... I don't want to lose you," she said in a half whisper.

"You're right," I said with a sigh. The part of my brain that was arguing for preservation at any cost had only gotten louder and louder as time had passed. I wasn't ready to die, if becoming a pony is what it took to live, I'd do it.

"That's what this ultimately comes down to. When I eliminate all other variables, the choice is pony or death and I'm not going to choose death. Being human is great, and someday, if I'm lucky, I'll get that back, but staying human, that isn't worth dying for," I said. In a small way, it felt like a hasty decision, but when I narrowed everything down, the binary solution set I was presented with made it made the choice an obvious one.

"Okay Twilight, let's do this," I said as I stood up on my own two legs, perhaps for the last time.

Twilight gave me a nod and turned her attention to the mirror. Her horn lit up with a fierce glow, magenta stars sparked in all directions. Slowly the glow began to shift until it was a mishmash of blue hues with red, purple, and green bolts of energy running through it. Beads of sweat rolled down her face and she began to tremble.

Twilight grunted as her magic began to to encase the mirror. It shimmered brilliantly and for a brief moment the surface rippled as if it was made of water. The glow subsided but a radiant beam of energy still flowed from Twilight's horn to the top of the mirror's frame. The surface of the mirror shifted slowly from a pond like surface to what appeared to be hard glass.

"The portal is still active, you can step through now. Please... hurry," Twilight said, her voice clearly strained. She closed her eyes, turning her concentration back towards maintaining the portal.

I leaned up against Golden Dawn for support, she helped me up to the front of the mirror. My own sickly reflection gazed back at me, as far as I could tell it was a solid piece of glass. I glanced over at Twilight and she gave me a nod.

"Remember Hail Storm, if you survive the transformation, you will not be in any better shape than you are now. The mirror will not heal you, only give you a new body. In fact, you might be even sicker, if the mirror itself causes any further damage as you pass through it. I will be here to render immediate aid but should that be insufficient we will be taking you directly to Canterlot Hospital," Cadance said.

I extended my hand and brushed my finger against the mirror. Even though I knew what to expect it was still surprising when my finger slipped through and vanished into the glass but not-glass surface. It was cool to the touch, but oddly not wet, sort of like sticking my finger in a pond but at the same time not. A small ripple shot out from the point of contact.

"Chevron 7 locked," I said before I pulled my hand back.

That's when things went wrong. As my hand left the portal surface the coolness changed to a horrible burning sensation. That only lasted a moment before I lost all feeling in the hand that had entered the portal.

My brief wonder at the mirror portal turned to alarm as I caught sight of my finger, the skin around the end had changed, from pale to black and cracked. It took me a moment to realize that not only could I no longer feel the tips of my fingers but I couldn't move them either. I gently tapped the end of my index finger with my other hand and watched in horror as the top of the skin crumbled to charred dust. The waxy remains of the muscle and ligaments that held the end my finger together sloughed off in a sickening pop, leaving the bone segment exposed and dangling by a thread of flesh.

Nothing could have prepared me for that sight, and I let out a scream of pure terror. In my panic I nearly tumbled back down off of the mirror's pedestal, clutching my hand to my chest in hopes that I didn't damage it any more. I would have fallen completely if not for the quick reaction time of Golden Dawn, she caught on the way down and helped me back to my feet.

"He needs to go through, all of him, for the spell to work," Cadance said with worry clear in her voice. "His hand was exposed to the magic of the spell but the partial transformation was reversed when he pulled it back out. That much magic exposure is going to kill him!"

"Hail Storm, step through," Golden said, her voice filled with worry, but I was too much in shock to move. She repeated herself, with more urgency than before. It was just enough to kick my brain into gear.

I tried to lift a leg but it was like trying to move a mountain, my body sagged under enormous weight as I struggled to push forward. I managed half a step before my body gave out and my vision started to darken.

"Hail Storm!" Golden Dawn shouted again as I felt consciousness being to slip away. I fell over completely, hand outstretched towards the mirror. Golden Dawn bent down and wrapped her forehooves under my belly, she lifted up and I felt myself rise up off the floor.

There was a sensation of movement as I felt her rocket towards the mirror.

"You can't go in with him, it's not safe!" I heard Cadance yell, but it was too late, I felt the cool ripple of the mirror's surface again as we plunged through, together.

There was another sensation of burning, but different this time, it was followed by a pain that was like nothing I had ever experienced before. Every part of me was in agony, as my body was forcibly reshaped into something else. An instant later all pain ceased, leaving nothing but the memory. All that remained was a sensation of movement, I was falling, but somehow I had no idea how long that had been happening. The pain I had experienced seemed like it had happened only seconds ago, but also a lifetime. I fell for an eternity, or maybe for not time at all. I couldn't move, talk or even scream. Nor could I see myself, the only thing visible was a brilliant light in the distance, growing closer at an indeterminate pace.

Did I die? Is that the cliche light at the end of a tunnel?

I refused to accept that possibility, but there wasn't anything I could do except continue move towards it. If I still had a body, I had no control over it. Except... except I could sense something. Someone else with me in this void. Golden Dawn. I don't know how I knew it was her, but I did. She was still there, her hooves wrapped around my non-existent chest. She had carried me into the mirror and we were moving through this place, whatever it was, together.

I didn't have any more time to think about it because the trip ended with a flash. There was light everywhere and it touched everything. It was bright, painfully so, and I closed my eyes instinctively. Then the feeling of falling returned for a second as Golden Dawn and I came flying out of the mirror. We went down in a pile of hooves, legs and tails.

"That's... hmm. I was concentrating on keeping the portal up, what happened?" Twilight asked.

"Golden Dawn carried him through the portal," Cadance said.

"I see," Twilight said.

There was a clopping of hooves as one of them walked over to us. I struggled to move, I wanted to get up, but things weren't moving correctly.

"Hold still Hail Storm, this will make you feel a little... strange," Cadance said gently, laying a hoof on... some part of me.

One of my eyes crept open just enough to see her looking down at me. Her horn lit up and everything tasted blue as her spell wrapped me in a magical glow.

"Oh thank Celestia, the damage isn't as bad as I feared," Cadance said as her spell continued to work it's magic. "We still need to get him to the hospital, we aren't out of the woods yet but I he will make it. I just need to get some more experienced eyes on him..."

My eye fluttered shut as she kept talking but I wasn't paying much attention to the words. Sometimes, I'd catch a sentence or two, but I'd forget what was said as quickly as I heart it. I felt Golden Dawn disentangle herself from me, it was almost enough to make me try to open my eyes again but then another surge of magic hit me and that plan went right out the window as I lost completely control of my body.

"He's in stasis now, let's get him to Canterlot General," Cadance said. Her voice was distant, muted.

Something important had just happened but I was having trouble concentrating on what. Memories of the last few moments that were crystal clear began to go fuzzy. I think Cadance had just hit me with a spell, but that didn't make sense. Magic hurt me, she wouldn't do that... Oddly, I felt no pain, instead I just felt... relaxed. It was like I was half awake, wrapped in a warm blanket. I could hear the ponies in the room talking but their words were just so much noise. The last thing that slipped through my mind before I dozed off completely was something about hooves.

I stepped through the mirror, there was a sensation of disorientation as I popped back out the way I had gone in. Something had gone wrong, terribly wrong. I looked down and cried out in terror. The terrible burning that had washed over me had taken its toll. My clothes were burned away and I could see every inch of my skin charred to a black crisp. I took a step, the slight tremor of movement enough to start a chain reaction. Layers and layers of burnt and cracked skin dissolved away like ash in the wind. I could see my intestines, with no skin to hold them in place they started to unravel, cascading out of my stomach and onto the floor. I tried to grab them, to hold them in but my bony fingers couldn't quite latch on as more and more blood and guts spilled out in a puddle around me.

I looked up desperate for help even though I knew that it was too late. Golden Dawn stood only a few feet away, I reached out towards her and she screamed as the last bits of flesh on my hand melted away and the bones dropped to the floor. I tried to close my eyes and wait for the end, only to find that my eyelids themselves had already dissolved into nothingness. There was a gurgling noise as I tried to scream for help. I was forced to watch as my body slowly began to collapse on itself, the last thing I saw was one of my eyes as it fell out of my skull and dropped down with a splash into pool of blood beneath me.

"Hail Storm."

My heart was beating a mile a minute, I felt cold and sweaty and my breaths were coming in short panicked gasps. I heard a voice call out again, it was Golden Dawn's.

"Hail Storm can you hear me?"

Golden Dawn's muzzle was the first thing I saw upon opening my eyes. She looked... different. The best way I can describe it is that it was like every other time I'd seen her it was without glasses and now I was wearing them for the first time. At least that's what I thought, my eyesight wasn't bad enough for glasses so I'd never had the experience before. Her face seemed sharper, her goldenrod coat seemed more vibrant than I remembered, everything just seemed more detailed. The worry etched on her face quickly distracted me from the unusual experience. A second later she noticed I was awake and her expression shifted to relief.

The gruesome scene I had just been part of, it had been nothing but a dream. Slowly the feeling of dread melted away as my heart rate returned to normal.

"You were screaming," she said, still looking me in the eyes.

I felt my face heat up, nightmare or not, I'd never known myself to scream out in my sleep before.

"I think... I think I had a nightmare," I mumbled under my breath and then let out a long yawn. The details of the dream were already fading away, something about burning and... I don't know. Whatever it was, it was gone, the only remnant was the speed at which my heart was pounding and even it was beginning to slow. Another yawn escaped my mouth, I felt tired, more tired than I ever had felt before.

That's when I noticed something else, how I had missed it when I first opened my eyes, I wasn't sure. There was a grayish violet patch of... something extending out in front of my face. It was a bit too close to focus perfectly on and too large to be my nose. It followed my eyesight as I turned my head back and forth.

"Do I have something on my face?" I asked as I reached up, my arm felt like lead but I wanted to figure out what it was. A second later I let out a painful yelp as I clocked myself in the nose.

Golden Dawn struggled in vain to hold back a snort as I tried to figure out what my nose was doing several inches farther away from my face than it should have been and why my hand had caused it so much pain. Except, as I caught sight of it, it wasn't a hand. Hanging in front of my face was a hoof attached to what was very clearly a pony leg.

I moved my arm up and down and watched the leg mirror the mirror my commands. There was a moment of confusion, but as the pony leg continued to mimic everything that I was telling my arm to do, the truth dawned on me.

"WHAT THE HELL?" I screamed.

"What?" Golden Dawn asked, tilting her head slightly.

"Pony leg!?" I shouted nearly as loudly. I tried to point at it with my other hand, but that just brought a second leg into view.

"Oh shoot, Cadance said you'd have some memory loss, what's the last thing you remember," Golden Dawn asked.

"WHAT THE HELL?" I said again, now staring at two forelegs.

"Hail Storm!" Golden Dawn said loudly, while placing a wing on my shoulder... I hoped. "What's the last thing you remember?"

I fought back the panic and tried to concentrate.

"I... we were in the dungeon. Twilight burst in and said she had a solution. Everything's a bit... unclear. We followed her somewhere, I don't remember the trip, but I remember another room. There was something in it... a mirror?"

"Do you remember anything else?" Golden Dawn asked.

"She... to save me she had to send me through the mirror. It was... some sort of magical portal. Except sending me through... it would turn me into a pony? That's not right? Is it?" I asked.

"Afraid so," Golden Dawn said with a sympathetic smile.

"But... that means... Holy shit, she turned me into a pony." I said out loud echoing my inner thoughts as they came to the inescapable conclusion. I couldn't remember any of the details, but there were bits and pieces... Fragments of memory bubbling to the surface. Twilight talking, the portal lighting up, horrible pain, and for some reason, the taste of blue.

"Not a bad looking one either, I might add," Golden Dawn said with a wink.

I felt my face heat up a bit at Golden's teasing, then slipped my hoof back under the sheet. I wanted to get a good luck at my new body so I pushed it off to the side. I glanced downwards and let out another yelp this time in embarrassment; scrambling for the sheet I tried to pull it back over myself as my face reddened even more. Getting a grip on the sheet now that I lacked fingers proved to be a bit tricky and I got more and more flustered as I tried to grab the sheet only to watch it slip off my hoof. Giving up, I wriggled back and forth until I finally managed to partially cover myself. My valiant effort to cover myself had taken a lot out of me. I panted as I struggled to catch my breath.

"What the hay was that?" Golden Dawn asked as she watched me scramble about the bed.

"I'm... not... wearing... any... clothes," I said, stretching out each word as I attempted to hold my cover in place.

"Neither am I?" Golden Dawn said tilting her head in confusion.

"..." I held my hoof up in the air while my mouth hung open dumbly, I couldn't think of any legitimate response. She was, of course, right. Most ponies wore nothing pretty much all the time, and none of them ever seemed to care. What little they did wear seemed to mostly be for fashion, or as part of a work uniform. It hadn't even occurred to me that after getting turned into a pony I'd be walking around naked like the rest of them. That was going to take some getting used to. I let out a sigh of defeat and kicked the sheet half off myself.

"Is this a human cultural thing, like with sharing a bed?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Yeah..." I said with nod as I felt my face light up with embarrassment.

That caused Golden Dawn to start giggling which only made me turn redder.

"This isn't funny," I said grumbling.

"Oh but it is, funny and adorable."

I wanted to be mad but any sort of strong emotion felt too exhausting. I was still breathing heavily and my body was screaming at me to go back to sleep, but I wanted to find out what was going on.

Trying to steer the conversation in another direction, I spoke up. "Why do I feel so tired?"

"Cadance said that as the healing spells continue to work on your body, you'd be in a weakened state, it will wear off in a week or two," Golden Dawn said.

"What happened to my clothes?" I asked, as I contemplated how I was going to get off the bed and not fall on my face. I kept my vision firmly locked on Golden Dawn, I wasn't quite ready to be forced to acknowledge that I was now a small horse.

Small alien horse... drifted across the back of my mind.

"You uh, kind of destroyed them. Human clothing isn't really the right shape or size for your new body and they were shredded when you exited the portal. Twilight found some stuff scattered about the room, probably from your pockets. She's got it stashed away somewhere for safekeeping."

The only things that should have been in my pockets were my wallet and my keys. The phone I had left in the truck's glove box since I couldn't read anything on it and outside of the car charger I had nowhere else where I could recharge the battery. Actually that reminded me, I had no idea where the truck was. Asking about the truck would give me a precious few more seconds where I could ignore the new body I had acquired.

"Another random question... What ever happened to my truck?" I asked, I finally managed to shift myself into a position that I hoped would allow me to get off the bed without getting tangled in the sheets, falling over and making a fool out of myself. I took a moment to look around the room and almost let out a whistle, assuming I could still do that with my new mouth shape. Extravagant was the proper word, expensive looking furnishings, marble flooring, and a truly massive window that overlooked what looked like a large city below. Based on that observation, I assumed I was somewhere in the castle.

"It's still in Ponyville, Twilight sent a letter to the mayor, letting her know to leave it alone and somepony would be by to pick it up eventually."

I nodded in acknowledgment then returned my attention into the task of getting out of bed. Trying to sit up like I would if I was still in my old body didn't seem right. Ponies were amazingly flexible for being a creature that shared the same basic shape with a horse so I could probably do it, but I had a pretty good idea what would happen if I tried to walk on my rear hooves. It mostly involved falling flat on my face and maybe Golden Dawn laughing a bit.

That's why I had turned myself over onto... all fours. I had seen Golden Dawn get out of a bed before, I just had to try to emulate that. It's just that doing so would be a lot like trying to fall out of a bed and land on my hands. Not exactly a comfortable thought for a former human.

Golden Dawn saw me getting ready to get off the bed. "Hold up a second," she said. She opened the door and trotted into the other room, returning with a wheelchair.

"The nurse left this in case you were unable to walk," she said.

I eyed the chair.

"Do my legs not work?" I asked suspiciously.

"No but Twilight said between the weakness caused by the healing spells and having a whole new body, well she thought you might want to use the chair."

"Unless it's medically necessary, I don’t want it. I'm going to have to learn to get around as a pony at some point."

"Alright," Golden Dawn said reluctantly. "But let me know if you change your mind."

I shimmied around and got myself pointed in the correct direction then slipped off the side of the bed. I caught myself at the last second, face inches from the ground. I stepped forward and felt my rear follow. It dropped down until I was standing on the floor on all fours. Something on my sides jostled as I hit the floor.

"Why are you looking at the ground?" I heard Golden Dawn ask. I felt my ears swivel towards the sound of her voice which totally threw me for a loop and distracted me enough that I almost forgot to answer her question.

"I... don't know?" I said a moment later, while moving my head upwards.

Pony necks are way longer than human necks, and quite a bit more flexible. I was standing upright but my mouth was so close to the floor I could eat off it. Which, I guess made sense, I'd seen ponies snack on grass before. Slowly I lifted my head up... and up... and up... and up. At it's highest, I gained an impressive amount of height. I still felt... shorter than I had been but it wasn't as bad. Now that I had gained mastery of moving my head around, it was time to look at the rest of my body.

"Wow, ponies necks are really long. This is... well... weird doesn't seem strong enough, but I'll settle for that for now," I said as I began to turn look at my back. "And so flex..." I stopped mid-sentence.

"Golden Dawn."

"Yes Hail Storm?"

"There are wings on my back."

"Yeah, So I know..."

"Wings. On my back," I said as I stared at one of them. It was folded up along my side, but was still clearly visible.

"Yes, I know," she said. "We were surprised too. Do you remember Twilight telling you that you'd end up as an earth pony?"

"Um no, everything's before and right after the mirror is still kind of hazy, but if she did, she was wrong."

"Well, you were supposed to end up as one. But... well, you fell and you weren't going to make it through the portal. I picked you up and flew into it. Twilight could probably explain the whole thing in exquisite detail but, the short version is, my pegasus magic kind of rubbed off on you."

"Oh... are you okay?" I asked. I had no idea how this transformation thing worked but I didn't want to find out I had hurt her somehow.

"Yep, I'm fine, I was a little tired after I went through, but I was completely back to normal after a couple of hours."

"Good. And thank you. Like I said, I don't really remember most of what happened but it sounds like you saved me once again."

"I'm considering starting to charge a fee," Golden said brushing up against me with a friendly bump.

Of course, I wasn't really prepared for that, stumbled sideways a bit before I caught myself.

"Whoops, sorry about that," Golden Dawn said as she trotted over along side me.

"No worries, I'll just deduct a portion from your payment. Now, I guess I better get to figuring out walking."

I took an uneasy step forward. Then another. It was slow going but I made some small progress as I concentrated on walking forward. My front legs felt like they had a similar range of motion as my arms had before, but my rear legs bent differently and my first few movements of them were clumsy. The exhaustion didn't help things, just standing up was proving difficult.

I fought the urge to climb back into bed and forced back a yawn, instead I took a few more steps forward. They were shaky and slow and I nearly stumbled. Golden Dawn inched closer, gently brushing up against me. It wasn't much but it offered me just enough support to steady myself. I turned and gave her a smile of thanks.

"If you need some more support you can hold onto me," she said.

I looked at her, then down at my hooves, though I appreciated her offer I wasn't sure how I could take her up on it.

"Um... how? I don't exactly have arms anymore, if I throw a foreleg around you, I'll fall over."

"Use your wing silly," she said with a laugh. "Wrap it around my back."

I was so busy trying to walk that I had already forgotten about my new appendages. I tried to open one but it just sat there, resisting my efforts.

"I don't know how to move it," I said with a bit of embarrassment. "I've suddenly gained two more limbs, I can feel them but I my brain doesn't know what muscles to move to open them."

"Hmm, I have an idea," she said.

Golden Dawn backed up a step or two and then reached up with her hoof, I felt my wing extend outward as she gently pulled it away from my torso. She raised it up and down a few times, which let me feel exactly what was moving. I was about try moving it myself when she sat down, then used one forehoof to hold my wing open and reached upwards slowly with her other.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

Golden Dawn said nothing but an evil grin spread across her face. Her hoof reached under my wing, where it connected with the rest of my body and then I almost fell to the floor as I erupted in uncontrollable laughter.

"Hahahahahah... st... haha...st... haha.... stop!!!!" I choked out between laughs. I felt my wing reflexively try to fold back up, in an attempt to guard against Golden Dawn's invasion of what was apparently an extremely ticklish spot on a pegasus' body. She wasn't about to show me mercy though, and kept my wing spread wide as she continued to torment me for until I collapsed to the floor, unable to stand her assault any longer.

"What... was... that...for." I said as I struggled to catch my breath, I had been laughing so hard there were tears in my eyes.

"I felt your wing try to close," she said with a smirk.

Golden Dawn was right, between her moving my wing up and down and the reflexive movement of the wing itself, I had gotten a good feel of how they moved. I wasn't going to be flying anytime soon, in fact the idea of leaving the ground terrified me. Still, I could at least manage uncoordinated flapping now. More importantly, at least for the time being, I was able to rest my wing over Golden Dawn's back

My initial impression of pony wings, back when I had first seen them, was that they were delicate and far underpowered to lift something the mass of a small horse. Now, having wings of my own, I could feel the powerful muscles in it, easily bearing a good portion of my weight. In fact, even struggling to stay awake, it felt like I had Golden Dawn in a bear hug.

"I'm not squeezing too hard am I?" I asked.

Golden Dawn laughed.

"Not even close, don't worry, you won't hurt me. I'm glad that worked, you're going to have to learn to use those wings eventually," she said with a smile as we slowly shuffled forward.

I turned my head to face Golden Dawn. "So what exactly happened after I stepped through that portal?" I asked while leaning up against her.

"Twilight and Cadance brought you to the hospital, you had an entire team of ponies working to repair the damage done to your body. Thankfully Cadance was able to stabilize your condition long enough to get you there. Some of the doctors were worried that you might not make it but I knew you weren't going to give up. It took several days of treatments to get you in a completely stable condition. If I understood Cadance correctly, most of the damage is either fixed or will be fixed as the spells finish up repairing the damage. That's why you feel so weak, you're past the critical stage and in recovery mode now. Cadance had you moved here so she and Twilight could keep a closer eye on you, we're in the castle in one of the guest apartments."

"Yeah I guessed that much, so how many days did I lose this time?" I asked.

"You've been unconscious for ten days. There was a nurse here earlier, she removed the last of the medical equipment. You were kept in a magically induced sleep up until this morning, but since you were going to be waking up, it wasn't need it anymore. She's actually supposed to be back very soon to check up on you again."

"Well that's good," I said while trying to take another step forward. Golden kept up alongside, providing me with needed support.

"Going anywhere in particular?" she asked.

"Yeah, I think I need to go to the bathroom," I said.

"You think?" she asked.

I glanced down at the empty space between my forelegs. "Not everything's in the same place anymore!" I said with both embarrassment and exasperation.

"Well it's that way," Golden said, turning a little red herself, as she jostled me into a turn towards one of the doors. "I'll help you to it but you're own your own once you're inside," she said, making a face. "I'm guessing no, but you want to use the chair?" I shook my head no and leaned up against her as we inched across the room.

Like the bedroom, the bathroom was overly extravagant in addition to being huge. The tub alone was larger than the entirety of the bathroom back in my old human apartment. Golden Dawn helped me into the room and then exited, closing the door on her way out.

I shuffled over to the toilet and reached for my zipper out of habit, nearly falling over when I unbalanced myself by lifting a forehoof. This was going to take more than some getting used to. It was while I was facing the toilet that I realized I had no idea if stallions took a leak standing up or sitting down. The whole situation was embarrassing enough, I wasn't about to ask Golden Dawn and in all actuality, I wasn't confident enough with my new body to rear up and lean against the wall. That left sitting down, so I slowly turned myself around did my best to balance myself on the seat. That wasn't actually so bad, sitting down like that was more or less close enough to how I'd sit on a toilet as a human. I looked down, curious about my repositioned parts, I hadn't really gotten a good look at anything when I was flailing around earlier. I goggled.

Well... all that's... bigger

Moving on from that bit of strangeness, I took care of business. I got back up, then turned to the large mirror that hung over the counter where the sink was. I took the few steps over to it with a tad bit more confidence than the last few. Unfortunately being able to see anything but my head and insanely long neck would require me to left myself and lean up against the counter. Again, that meant balancing on my hind legs, something I knew ponies could do but I, obviously, had no practice in as a pony. Lacking a good sense of balance for my new body, I misjudged the jump up and fell over backwards, landing on my back on the hard stone tile with a thud.

"You okay in there?" I heard Golden Dawn ask from the other side of the door.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I answered quickly. I didn't want her to come in and see me sprawled out on the floor like a drunk turtle, stuck on its back.

"I'm glad she didn't see that," I mumbled to myself while I took a moment to catch my breath. I picked myself up off the floor, ignoring the protests that my body was making, I tried again.

My second attempt went much more smoothly and I managed to get my front half securely resting on the marble counter-top. I reached forward, turned the sink on and washed my hooves as best as I could. Finishing up with that, I turned my attention to the mirror. It was the first good look I got of my new face. A violet grey pony stared back at me, mimicking my every movement.

"This is unreal," I said to myself, watching the pony's lips move in synchronization as I spoke. My new face was completely alien to me, everything was different, even my eyes had shifted from a dull green to a brilliant gold. Like every other color I had seen since being transformed, it seemed far more vibrant than I would have thought possible. My dirty blonde hair was now gone, replaced with a pale grey blue mane that had a single silver streak running through it. I turned away from the mirror for a moment to inspect my tail. It matched my mane perfectly right down to the streak. When I realized what I was doing, checking my tail color, a shiver ran down my spine, as my brain began to come to terms with the entirety of the situation.

Tail, hooves, wings... wings... wings!? My brain got stuck in a loop on that last one. If I had to pick one aspect of my transformation that stuck out, that had to be the weirdest one. Sure, parts of me had changed shape, size or location, or gone away entirely, but wings... That was something completely new. They had no human equivalent. Slowly, still in a state of shock, I lowered myself off of the counter.

I turned my head and gave my body yet another once over. Besides being much farther away than I was used to, something struck me as unusual as I looked at my rear. It took me a moment to figure out what was so different about it. In the end it wasn't that it was a pony butt, though that was new too, it was the blank coat, devoid of a cutie mark. I'd never seen an adult pony that didn't have one before. It seemed... empty somehow.

I guessed it made sense though. The way cutie marks were explained to me, a pony had to discover themselves in some fashion to earn their mark. I wasn't a pony so I never had that discovery happen. Still thinking about my species change, I tried to walk over to the door just to trip over my hooves as I shifted back to walking like a person out of habit. I went down with another thud, but this time the door opened and I saw Golden Dawn peak inside.

"I'm fine! Just... well I guess walking isn't automatic." I said as I stood up. "If I think about what I'm doing, I can move, but the moment I stop paying attention I switch back to the way I used to walk, which doesn't work as a pony. My hooves get all tangled up and down I go."

"Twilight said she had some issues when she turned into a human," Golden Dawn said sympathetically. "Maybe you can talk to her for advice."

"I'm surprised I haven't seen either of our royal friends this morning," I said as I shuffled out of the bathroom.

"They do have a country to run," Golden Dawn said with a laugh. "Twilight stopped by with the nurse, which was only about half an hour before you woke up, she mentioned that she and Cadance had a very busy morning but they would be around for lunch. If you hadn't woken up by 10:00 I was supposed to go get one of them."

"What time is it now?" I asked.

"I think it's almost 10:00," Golden said. "There's a clock in the other room, we can go check."

The guest apartment consisted of two bedrooms, a bathroom and a small, but cozy, living room. We made our way to the living room and I collapsed onto a couch that looked far too expensive for me to sit on. Golden climbed up and sat down next to me. A quick glance at the clock confirmed Golden's guess was accurate, it was just a few minutes before 10:00. Next to the couch was a coffee table with one empty plate and a second that had a half eaten breakfast sitting on it.

"I uh, kind of ate some of yours," Golden Dawn said rubbing the back of her head before pointing at the second plate.

"Do you want the rest of it?" I asked. I wasn't sure if I was hungry or not yet, just kind of sleepy.

"Nah, I'm good, you should probably eat something though. It's been awhile since you've had real food."

"I suppose you're correct," I said as I moved closer to the plate.

Just as I was about to reach for my food, I heard knocking on the apartment door.

"Come in," Golden Dawn said.

The door opened up and a pink unicorn walked in. From the bandaid cutie mark I gathered she was the nurse Golden Dawn had been talking about. She saw me on the couch and immediately scolded me for getting out of bed without waiting for her to return, then Golden for letting me get up. After the stern lecture about the importance of taking it slow ended, she ran though a number of checks to make sure that I wasn’t having any issues. She gave me a slightly more detailed summary of my condition that Golden had been able to provide. It was only when my stomach made a loud rumbly noise during one of her checks that she asked if I had eaten anything since waking up.

When I told her no, her horn lit up and the half eaten breakfast floated over to me.

"Make sure you eat this whole thing, you're going to need extra food until you have fully recovered," she said. With a quick application of magic my breakfast was reheated and the aroma of fresh pancakes filled my nostrils. Like my vision, my sense of smell seemed to have gotten an upgrade in the transformation and it wasn't a moment later that I felt a tiny bit of drool dribbling down my lips.

"I'll let you eat in peace. I'll be back tomorrow morning to check on you again," she said, excusing herself.

I reached down, picked up the fork and knife and began to cut a piece of the pancake. A moment later the sweet flavor of maple syrup drenched pancakes danced on my tongue and I savored the taste before going for a second bite. It was while I was cutting my next piece that I realized I was holding my utensils. I stopped and stared, as I realized I could feel a slight pulling sensation holding them against my hooves. I put the fork down on the table and poked at it but it didn't stick to my hoof until I consciously tried to grab it. I set it down then picked up my plate, set that down, picked up the empty plate, set that down and picked up a glass of water, took a drink and then finally picked up the fork one more time.

"Having fun?" Golden asked with a snicker.

"I don't think my brain can take this," I said, giving her a half lidded stare. "Nothing about ponies makes any sense, I'm going to be in a constant state of confusion until Twilight figures out how to get me back to Earth."

"It's actually kind of neat, how the simplest things amaze you," Golden Dawn said. "Your face fills with wonder, it's almost like the expression a pegasus foal has the first time he takes flight. You wore it almost constantly during your first week in Hoofston, it's nice to see it again."

"Great, so I look like a baby?" I said rolling my eyes as I took another bite.

"It not a bad thing, it's actually kind of cute," she said, her cheeks colored slightly a moment after the words had left her mouth.

I shifted in my spot and felt my wings twitch as I tried to get comfortable.

"So what are we supposed to do now?" I asked, changing the topic.

"We can just hang here till lunch." Golden Dawn said. "Do you have any questions? It's not every day that you wake up a different species, and I figure you're still probably trying to get comfortable in your new body."

"If I talked about everything running around in my brain right now, I think we'd miss lunch, and dinner, possibly tomorrow's breakfast," I said before stuffing the last piece of pancake in my mouth.

"Pick a few things?" she said with a shrug.

I went over a short list of questions, most of them revolving around what was going to happen next and what, if anything, I needed to know about being a pony. The pony questions were my main focus, Golden was right, it wasn't every day you woke up as a new species.

Did I need to know about any special dietary needs? As far as I had observed ponies could eat pretty much the same things I had eaten as a human, minus the meat but I didn't want to make any assumptions and eat something poisonous accidentally. I had no idea the proper terminology for half of my new body parts, and calling them by their human names in conversation might get me some strange looks. Was I completely immune to the harmful effects of magic now? Golden Dawn answered most of them, though for a few things she said that I'd have to ask Twilight when I saw her at lunch time.

After the flood of questions began to die down, I turned around and looked at my bare backside again. "So, no cutie mark I noticed, but that makes sense."

"I'll admit, It is a bit jarring," Golden Dawn said with a noticeable shiver, "to see an adult pony with no mark."

"Well humans don't get cutie marks, getting one at random wouldn't really make all that much sense." I said.

"Yeah, I guess. You'll just have to earn one the old fashioned way," Golden said.

That made me pause for a moment, would I even be able to "earn" a cutie mark like a real pony? It's not like I thought I needed one but just the idea of whether or not it would be possible for me to get one something to think about. That and what would it be? From my understanding, a cutie mark was a visual representation of a pony's special talent. Golden Dawn's piston was pretty obvious. It didn't take long for me to realize she was a whiz when it came to machines. The ease at which she picked up on how the engines in my truck and generator ran and how easily she'd been able to disassemble and reassemble the later had impressed me to no end. Was I good at anything like that? All my skills had taken practice to learn, was it different for ponies? Did they magically acquire a skill at birth and then have to discover it? Or did it take years of practice and learning for them too and that act is what earned them their cutie marks?

"So, did you have any other questions?" Golden said after I failed to speak up.

"Oh sorry, got distracted thinking about cutie marks." I said.

"You aren't the first pony for that to happen to."

"No, but I'm probably the first human," I said with a smile. "Or I was? I'm not really human anymore." I gave my wings an awkward flap.

Golden Dawn nodded in agreement.

"Except... you were right, I was worried before that I wouldn't be me anymore. Well I don't feel any different, on the inside I mean. The outside, yeah that's changed, really changed, like I'm still trying to come to terms with how big of a change it is. But as far as I can tell I'm still me, still the same person I always was so I guess I'm still human, but also a pony...? This is getting a bit more philosophical than I'd like, I'm going to talk about something else now."

Golden laughed at my rambling, it was a joyful sound that quickly spread its warmth and happiness to me and I joined in. After it died down I put my hoof on her foreleg.

"Thanks for sticking around. It means a lot to me."

"You're my friend Hail, I couldn't just abandon you," she said giving me a hug.

I heard the clock chime, it was quarter of noon. I noticed Golden looking at the clock as well and she let out a cute gasp when she realized what time it was. She quickly stood up and then helped me up off the couch.

"We've got to get going, we're supposed to be on the other side of the castle," she said. "It's a bit of a walk, last chance for the chair."

"Nope, not happening," I said stubbornly. I needed the walking practice.

She lead me out of the apartment. I wanted to walk alone, without her support, but after the third faceplant, Golden Dawn insisted that I at least let her help me. Inwardly I wondered what a cutie mark with a special talent in being a klutz would look like. I knew that it would take some time to get used to, but so far, coordinating three sets of limbs was giving me a headache, sometimes I moved a rear leg when I should have moved a fore leg, sometimes I moved a wing, I kept getting everything mixed up. It didn't help that I felt as weak as a newborn foal, my legs felt like lead and I was worried about falling asleep mid stride. None of that changed the fact that I would have to learn if I was going to be spending any significant time as a pony, so I wasn't about to let Golden push me around in a wheelchair while my legs still worked.

"It will be quicker to cut through the courtyard," Golden said as she turned down yet another hallway. I'm glad she knew where we were going because I was lost already.

"I'll just keep leaning on you," I said, trying to pick up the pace. Mostly, things worked fine if I kept my concentration but the moment it slipped my hooves would snag up on each other. At the same time, I was trying to glance around at where we were going. For one, I wanted to be able to get around on my own if I had to but also, this was the first time I had been anywhere near this portion of the castle.

Before being transformed, most of what I had seen was a dungeon, the rooms where all my tests had taken place in, and the room I ate in. That last one was the only room that had an outside view and it was not one that I appreciated. I hadn't really gotten to look around, certainly not at these nicer areas and my inner child was giggling with delight at being in an actual real castle.

Sure it was a magical pony castle, but that still counted. Massive stone walls spread out in all directions as far as I could see. Large arches formed walkways between the visible section of the outer wall and the towers that stretched far up into the sky. A large cobblestone track around the outside of the courtyard but the inner portion was covered in grass. A number of small gardens sprang up around the base of the few towers we were near, the rest too far away for me to get a good look. We shuffled past a large fountain decorated with a statue of a massive pony. She wore a crown, a golden sun adorned her flank and her wings stretched out forever. I had never been to a castle on earth but this place seemed enormous. The courtyard we were walking through now could easily fit at least 20,000 ponies in it.

We finally got to our location and Golden turned us so we could head back inside. A pair of guards dressed in shining armor stood at a door. They saw us coming and opened it up letting us out into a large garden. The walls I had thought were the outer ones were apparently only an inside set.

We followed a path across the garden until we reached the other side. There was another set of doors, leading into a new section of the castle. Once inside, Golden Dawn lead me down a hallway and then we took a left. Two more corridors and we finally reached a door with two guard ponies standing outside of it. One of them asked for Golden Dawn's name, after she gave it the pony nodded and opened the door, letting us in. Twilight and Cadance were already sitting down at the table inside. There was also a white stallion with blue hair sitting next to Cadance. I was pretty sure I hadn’t met him before. They looked up as we entered the room.

"Hello," Twilight said with a friendly wave. "I'm glad to see you up and about. I'm sorry neither of us could stop by earlier and check up on you but it's been a pretty hectic day at the castle."

"That's alright, I had Golden Dawn looking after me," I said returning her smile.

"I don't think either of you have met my husband yet," Cadance said. "This is Shining Armor."

"Cadance and Twily have told me all about our visitor from another dimension, it's good to finally meet you," Shining Armor said extending his hoof. I put out one of mine, carefully balancing on the other three and shook hooves with him.

"Twily?" I asked.

"Just a nickname for my little sister," Shining Armor said as Twilight blushed a little. Shining then introduced himself to Golden Dawn and we sat down at the table.

Over the course of the meal, I brought up a few questions that Golden Dawn had been unable to answer. I was glad to find out that I now had more or less a clean bill of health. Even the damage I had done to my ears back in the mine when I killed the overgrown spider seemed to be healed, the constant buzzing that had been plaguing me was completely gone. The way Cadance explained it, the spells had already done most of the major repair work, but they still had some things to finish and the rate at which they worked was slowing down to bring my new body back into it's natural state. While they were active, they drew energy directly from me in a similar way normal recovery would, but highly concentrated.

Cadance confirmed that the weakness I was feeling would go away. She warned me that process would be gradual at first as the healing spells made the final repairs and gradually began to fade, but there would be a sharp change as they collapsed entirely. She estimated I'd be back to normal in two weeks. Twilight also reassured me that the transformation had completely taken care of my issues with magic. As long as I was a pony, I had nothing to fear about long term damage.

"Oh, there was something I wanted to bring up," Twilight said after we finished eating. "After you were transformed into a pony, I was able to take a look at the translation spell, the one that lets you understand us."

"Yeah, you had mentioned that you thought it wasn't working correctly or it was different or something?" I asked.

"Exactly, and now I know why. First off, it’s a much older version of the spell, which is saying something since the one the mirror uses is pretty old itself. Secondly it’s being held together with a patchwork of chaos magic. That's why it didn't fail completely when you were in the suppression field. This is definitely Discord’s work. I’m just not sure how it happened. He had to deliberately cast this spell on his portal for it to function. I can’t think of any reason he’d do that unless he knew someone was going to come through it. In any case, I can remove the enchantment and cast the newest version of the spell on you if you’d like."

"Does that mean I'd be able to read and understand English again?"

"Sure does, with the latest updates to the translation spell it will switch you back and forth between modern Equestrian and English as needed. That way you won't be thinking in one language and speaking in another. I always found that a bit confusing."

"How will that work exactly?" I asked.

"Well the default language will be Equestrian, but if you happened across somepony who spoke English, you'd be able to understand and speak it to them. Or if you pick up a book written in English, the spell will switch automatically. It can even handle doing English and Equestrian at the same time."

"That sounds pretty handy, I don't think I'll need to be speaking English anytime soon but being able to read the dials in my truck again, and all the books I've got stashed in the trailer will be great," I said. "When can you do whatever it is you need to do?"

"Right now," Twilight said as her horn lit up. I felt a tingling in my head as it was surrounded by her magic for a moment. I almost flinched as a brief pulse of panic ran through me. Every other time I had been exposed to a spell it caused me no small amount of pain. What if Twilight had been wrong and I wasn't immune?

It turned out that my fears were unfounded as less than a second later the magical field disappeared, without even a tiny bit of discomfort.

"All set Hal," Twilight said.

"You... you said my name? Or at least my real nickname instead of Hail."

"The newest version of the spell handles name translation much better than the old one. What's your full name?"

"Harold Storm," I said.

"Har-old... hmm sounds a bit strange." Twilight said.

"Oh wow, well that's better than any other pony's attempt," I said. "I kind of thought it had something to do with names but since I don't know how magic works, it was just a theory. Any idea why every pony I ever talked to pronounced Hal as Hail?"

"Hal?" Golden Dawn said slowly, as if testing the word to see how she liked it.

Twilight's horn lit up. "Say those again, I'm going to analyze how each version of the spell is handling the translation."

"Hal, not Hail."

Twilight laughed as the magic surrounding her horn winked out.

"So that's kind of funny. It just so happens that "Hal" is close to the pronunciation of the Equestrian word "Hail" The spell thought you were deliberately saying a word in Equestrian and didn't bother translating it. The spell can't pick up the intent of other speakers so when they said what they thought you were saying, it translated back to the word ‘hail’ which explains why you heard everypony mispronounce your nickname."

"Well what about my last name, Storm?"

"Storm might be your last name but it's also a word for weather event. The english word Storm also sounds nothing like the Equestrian word so it just translated straight."

"The mystery has been solved I guess," I said.

"So, um Har-old, what do you want us to call you?" Golden Dawn asked.

"That's a good question. Hail Storm isn't my name but... I never really liked Harold and after a month of Hail Storm, well it's kind of grown on me. Plus it does seem more like a pony name and... well..." I trailed off, looking down at my new body.

"If it counts for anything, I like Hail Storm..." Golden Dawn said. I thought I caught the slightest tinge of red on her cheeks as she turned away. Was she blushing?

"It is a good strong name", Cadance said.

"I guess Hail Storm it is," I said with a shrug.

"Great, well now all that's left is making sure you can read and understand your old language," Twilight said with a smile. "Oh I know how we can confirm it."

Twilight's horn lit up again and a small box floated up from under the table, it glided over and landed in front of me. I lifted the top and looked inside. My wallet and keys were sitting inside. I reached in and pulled them out, then with a bit of a struggle, I opened the wallet and got my license out.

"It's working!" I said happily as I read my license. It took me a minute or two of fumbling but I managed to get the license back into the wallet and then put it back on the table. I looked at the two items then down at myself, how was I supposed to carry them around?

"I'm going to need something with pockets," I said mumbling to myself.

"We can head down to Canterlot Market and get you some saddle bags," Golden Dawn said.

"That works, uh if I'm allowed to leave the castle?" I looked at Twilight and Cadance.

"Of course, you don't need permission or anything, you're a guest here not a prisoner," Cadance said.

Golden Dawn stood up, and I followed, without thinking I tried to get up on my rear hooves and promptly fell over.

"I would think having four legs would make me more stable, not less," I said as I stood back up.

"I know how you feel," Twilight said. "When I went to Earth, the whole time I felt like I was about to fall over. I don't know how humans manage to move around on two legs so quickly. I don't know if you've got it worse or better, four legs does provide more points of contact but there's more to get in the way if you don't know what you're doing."

"Humans, well we move their arms to help balance themselves, it isn't required, I mean I could walk without moving my arms, but allowing them to move feels more natural. If I'm not paying attention sometimes I'll try to move my forelegs as if they were my arms swinging back and forth. If that happens in the middle of a step it throws me off balance, but it's not just that. I've got an entire extra set of limbs now," I said extending my wings slightly. "Sometimes I move the wrong one, or the right one at the wrong time."

"My wings had a mind of their own when I first got them," Twilight said knowingly. "If you aren't opposed to it, I have an idea. I can talk to one of the doctors who were working on your case and see if we can get you enrolled in some physical therapy. There are trainers that help other ponies learn to walk and fly again after serious accidents. That should be able to help you. I wish I had thought of that instead of letting Rainbow Dash try to teach me how to fly." Twilight gave a slight shudder.

"That sounds like a good plan, " I said with a nod.

"I'll talk to somepony today and let you know when you can start," Twilight said.

"Maybe we should skip out on the market for now?" I asked Golden Dawn.

"I guess, I was hoping I could be the one to teach you to fly, but somepony trained for stuff like this will probably do a better job." Golden Dawn said.

"That's okay, I don't think I want to leave the ground anyway," I said with a small shudder. The thought of being high up in the sky made my stomach churn.

"Are you ready to head back to our room?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Yeah, I just have to get all this stuff," I said looking at the pile of things in front of me.

A thought popped into my head and I grabbed the keys and wallet and put them back into the box, then picked it up with my mouth. I'd seen plenty of ponies carrying things on their backs and trotting around. Not once, even when it should have fallen off, had I ever seen anypony drop something. It stood to reason that if they had magic grippy hooves, then maybe they had magic grippy backs. I turned around and placed it on my back, opened my mouth, the box rested there perfectly. Smiling with pride, I took a single step backwards and felt the box shift, then heard a thud as it landed on the ground, dumping my keys and wallet on the floor.

"What gives? I've seen plenty of ponies carry things like that, don't you have like magic balancing powers or something?"

Golden Dawn burst out laughing, "What gave you that idea?" she asked.

"Because I've never seen anypony drop anything before and nothing about your race makes any sense." I said, rolling my eyes. "Wait, did I just say anypony?"

"Yes, though technically you were saying it before also, you just didn't hear what you were saying correctly. Now that the spell is fixed you should hear the same thing as everypony else. To answer your other question, no ponies don't have magical balancing,” Twilight said with a smirk. “We just have regular balancing, and it takes practice to do that."

"Darn."

"I'll carry it back to the room for you," Golden Dawn said and she picked up my stuff and placed it on her own back.

We arrived back in the room and I immediately sat down on the couch, panting from mild exhaustion.

"Hey Hail Storm," Golden said, taking the spot next to me. "I've got to talk to you about something."

"What's up?" I asked after I caught my breath.

"Well first, let me ask you something, what do you plan on doing while you wait for Twilight to try to find a way to send you back to Earth?"

Now that I wasn't on the verge of death anymore, the truth hit me and hit me hard. All my energy had been focused on not dying and I hadn't even begun to think about the future. It had been almost six weeks since I had woken up in the Badlands. Back on Earth I must have already been declared missing. I had most certainly lost my job and my rent was overdue. How much longer would it be before I was declared dead? At what point did it stop making sense to even try to return home? A small voice in the back of my mind asked me if I had already crossed that point but I ignored it.

"I... uh..." I tried to think of something to say, it was almost like I was in one of those interviews and the guy asks you where you see yourself in 5 years. I didn't have a plan that far out past get home if I could. When Golden Dawn saw that I didn't have an answer planned she spoke up.

"You don't have to come up with anything right now, but you should start thinking about it," Golden Dawn said. She stretched her wings out and let out a cute little yawn. "So, while you think about that, I've got a few things on my mind. First now that you're doing better, I need to go back to Hoofston."

It was a simple statement and it made perfect sense, she had a job back down in Hoofston and she's already spent weeks away from it helping me get through a very trying ordeal. Still it didn't sit well with me, she was my closest friend in this crazy magical world and I didn't want her to leave. Worse still, what would happen if Twilight did figured out a way to send me home while she was gone. I'd never get to see her again, never get to say goodbye. That thought formed a dark pit of unease, deep in my chest.

"Like now?" I asked with a mixture of nervousness and sadness.

"I think it would be best if I headed out at the end of the week, I checked the schedule earlier this morning, there's an express train that I can catch that's headed to Hoofston."

"Oh..." I said with a sigh, I felt my ears drop down as my lips twisted into a frown.

"I've got to... " Golden started to say before she noticed my reaction. "What's the matter?"

"Will I see you again? I mean I know you've got to work but Hoofston is far away and I'm not sure if Twilight is going to want me to leave Canterlot, in the off chance she does find something out about me going home."

"Of course you will silly!," she said, tousling my mane with her hoof. "I do need to get back to Hoofston but I'm not planning on sticking down there too long."

"What about your job?" I asked.

"Well that's the thing, you know about my engine, I can't keep working on it down there. Hoofston is great because it gave me the privacy and time I needed to get the prototype working but it's too remote, too out of the way. I need to move closer to Equestria's industrial centers. I've actually been planning this for a few months now, if I hadn't met you I might have already moved. But you showing up threw everything for a loop."

"Heh, sorry about that," I said sheepishly.

"Oh don't worry, I'm glad it happened, to be completely honest, I had kinda gotten stuck in a rut back in Hoofston. I was making progress on the engine but I was ignoring my friends, I never went out and did anything, just sat around and worked on the engine."

"I know that feeling," I said with a sigh. "The last few years of my life on Earth I had less and less time for others, my schedule was just too damn busy."

"Well then, it's a good thing we met each other, for both of us," Golden Dawn said with a smile. "Anyway this is why I wanted to talk to you first. Originally I was going to head for Detrot, it's about 500 miles north of here, just west of Neighagra Falls. It's the center of some of Equestria's largest industries, but with you here, I'm seeing a few unique opportunities and I'm not sure if heading for Detrot right away is the best of plans anymore."

"What kind of opportunities? I asked.

"Well two things really. One is that I'd still like to take apart your truck and see how it works, not just the engine but as much as I can get my hooves on. I'd even be willing to pay you for the trouble, if I can duplicate that thing, I could revolutionize Equestrian transportation. But that's just first."

"Go on," I said.

“Well, this goes back to me asking if you have you given any thought to what you'd like to do now that you're kind of stuck in Equestria. I interrupted you before, so I'll re-ask the question, have you?” Golden Dawn asked

“Not as much as I should have,” I said hanging my head. “I know one thing, I’m not going to be satisfied sitting around the castle, waiting for Twilight to find me a way home. The problem is, the scope of everything has changed now. It could be years before I get back to Earth, it could be never. It’s no longer a question of what am I going to do while I wait, now it’s a question of what do I do with the rest of my life.”

“That is a tough one, and you don’t even have a cutie mark for guidance,” Golden Dawn said. “How do humans normally figure that out?”

“If I ever learn, I’ll let you know,” I said with a joyless laugh. “I hadn’t even thought that far ahead back on Earth. I was going to school and I knew I wanted to get a job afterward, but doing what? I had only a vague idea. Most of the higher tech stuff that I thought was interesting probably won’t exist in Equestria… I don’t suppose ponies have robotics?”

“I can’t say I’m familiar with that term,” Golden Dawn said. “I could always use a good engineer to help me out. In fact I intend to hire quite a few ponies. You do have more experience with engines than any other pony on the planet, except maybe me.”

Now there was an idea, Golden Dawn was right, even though wasn’t an expert on diesel engines, I knew enough about them to give me a pretty large advantage over other ponies. On top of that, working with Golden Dawn meant I wouldn’t lose contact with her. She was my closest friend in Equestria and I didn’t want to lose that to distance.

“You do raise a good point, and I think I’d enjoy working with you…”

I was about to say it was worth a shot, but something stopped me. I can’t explain it, but it was like something in the very core of my being said, ‘no, this isn’t right for you.’ I paused, to collect my thoughts. If that wasn’t to be my path, then what would be?

“That face you just made says you’re having second thoughts,” Golden Dawn said.

“I… I don’t know. Thinking about working with you sounds great. Thinking about working on engines… they just…” I trailed off.

“Just not your passion?” Golden Dawn asked.

“I… yeah, I mean… well I guess a better way of saying it is transportation just isn’t my passion, I’ve never been a huge car guy. Kind of strange for someone going into mechanical engineering now that I think about it…”

“Why did you choose mechanical engineering?” Golden Dawn asked.

I could tell by the tone in her voice, she wasn’t questioning my decision, instead she was trying to help me reach a reason.I thought back, back to when I first decided to go to school.

“It was the work I did, in Rick’s shop…” I said.

"Working as a gunsmith right?" Golden Dawn asked.

“Yeah. I enjoyed that, I probably didn’t need to go to school to do something like that, but I figured I’d find something else that was similar, but where I could work a steady job at a big company. Maybe even work for one of the big gun companies, design new stuff. That would be cool...”

"So, start one." Golden Dawn said.

“Excuse me?”

“Start your own company. Make guns. You did that with Rick right?”

"I did… and I did learn a fair amount working there, but it's a skill I haven't used in a while. Even if I could get my hooves on some tools that were similar to what I used, which I doubt, I'd still be only a little better than an amateur and I don't know if I could build anything with these." I said waving one of my front hooves in the air.

“You won’t know unless you try,” Golden Dawn said. “I loved that bolt action rifle, I’d buy one off of you.”

"Well, the rifles Rick and I put together were a bit different that the ones I showed you, they were break actions and though I've done repair work on everything from a bolt action to a semi-auto, I've never built anything from the ground up by myself. And that isn't even getting into manufacturing ammunition."

"I thought you had equipment to do that in the truck?" Golden Dawn asked.

"I sort of do, it's for reloading, but I've only got so much powder, primers and bullets, once they are gone, I can't make any more. Well maybe the bullets, lead casting is easy enough I suppose, but I know nothing about making smokeless powder or primers. Black powder is about as advanced as I can get and even that I know what it's made from but I've never actually made any."

"So you find other ponies who do. You've got enough bits from your expedition with Kitchen Sink to rent out, or even buy a building and hire some ponies. Look I know it will be a lot of work but hear me out. If you can find somepony that can handle the chemical side of things, you get them to work for you. You don't have to do all the work yourself. Heck hire me out and I'll help you build parts. I'd also be glad to teach you how to use your hooves. I've got a machine shop, though I admit it is a bit outdated. I can't put a huge amount of time into it but I'm going to need to make money on the side to pay for my engine work, especially after I leave Hoofston. There's too much competition up here for me to make good money as a train mechanic."

"I suppose I could. I might not be confident enough with my hooves to do any delicate work but I do know the mechanics. I could design thing things and work with other ponies to get them built." I said nodding slowly. This was actually starting to sound like an good idea. Not only that but a fun one.

"Exactly, I think you can make a ton of bits, you'd basically be entering a market with zero competition."

"Would there be that much of a market? How many ponies would even want to buy a gun?"

"Look there's no guarantees but I think you could create a market. For one thing competitive archery is one of Equestria's largest sports. And your rifles can out shoot any bow I've ever seen. You could try to market it as a target shooting device. There is also a reasonable portion of the population that own weaponry, especially on the border towns. Any pony that feels the need to carry something for self defense would be crazy to not switch to a gun, they'd make crossbows and regular bows obsolete as weapons instantly. You might even be able to secure a military contract, sell them to the Royal Guard."

"You know, you could have basically cornered this market yourself, you've already got schematics on one of my rifles," I said.

"Yeah but I wouldn't do that to you, besides guns are neat but engines are my passion. Though if you decide you aren't interested, I might end up trying to balance the two things later down the road because I'm not going to ignore a license to stamp bits forever."

"Well, I suppose it's worth a shot," I said. "But all this is going to have to wait till after my physical therapy. I'm not going to try to make any business deals until I can walk without tripping over my own hooves."

"You know who you might want to look up? Kitchen Sink, he should be back in Canterlot by now. It might be worth finding out where he gets his weapons from, if you talk to somepony already in the business maybe you can find some contacts or even find a partner to go in with you. Just don't give away any information without setting up a business contract first. Most ponies wouldn't try to screw you over but some ponies are scum, they'll see the same opportunity that I see and they'll try to take it from you."

We talked for a bit longer, discussing possible business plans but exhaustion started to creep in and I felt my eyes drooping lower and lower as Golden continued to talk. I must have passed out entirely because the next thing I knew I was waking up. I was still on the couch, Golden Dawn had curled up next to me, snoring quietly with her wing draped over my back.

It was an adorable sight and her wing on my back felt nice. As comfortable as I was, I felt myself begin to drift back to sleep. The nap hadn't really made me any less tired, and bundled up against Golden Dawn was extremely relaxing. Alas, it was not meant to be for a moment later there came a knock at the door.

Golden Dawn stirred, and her eyelids slowly fluttered open, she raised her head and looked directly at me.

"Uh, Hi," I said, looking deep into her magenta eyes.

"Hi," she replied softly, as a light blush crept up on her cheeks.

There was another knock at the door and I realized I was staring at her, I shook my head as she stood up, walked over to the door and opened it up.

"Hello," Twilight said, stepping into the room. "I don't know if you've eaten yet but I stopped by to invite you to dinner if you haven't."

"Oh huh? What time is it?" I asked looking at the clock. It was nearly 7:30 at night. "Oh no we didn't, we kind of fell asleep."

"Well I just got done with court. Shining Armor and Cadance are still busy but if you'd like to join me you are more than welcome to," Twilight said.

Golden and I both nodded in agreement, and we followed Twilight to the dining room. Spike was there waiting for us. I hadn't seen the little guy in a few weeks so I asked where he had been. I was surprised to find that he had been staying with a pony named Applejack in Ponyville. He told me that he and Twilight normally lived in Ponyville but Twilight had temporarily moved to Canterlot while she was helping run the country. Spike helped Twilight run the library back in Ponyville so he had taken to staying with friends so it could remain open while Twilight was away.

Speaking of Twilight, she let me know that she had found a trainer to work with me and I could start my therapy the very next day. I asked her about leaving Canterlot and she said that she had no problem with it, though it might be best to stay close by in the off chance she found a way to send me home.

"You are of course welcome to stay in the castle as long as you like, I know you probably don't have a way of supporting yourself financially and I'd be a terrible princess if I let you end up on the streets," Twilight said.

"Would it be okay if I got a job?" I asked.

"Oh, yes, of course. Did you have anything in mind?" Twilight asked.

"Um I don't know yet, I've been talking about a few things with Golden Dawn," I said. I wasn't too sure how the princess would react if I told her I was looking at becoming essentially an arms manufacturer. I'd have to ask Golden Dawn about the legalities of it later, I didn't want to end up breaking any laws.

Golden Dawn shared her plan of heading back to Hoofston, if all went well she'd be getting back to Canterlot roughly when I was finishing up physical therapy. After dinner we headed back to the room and since I was still feeling weak, I decided to call it an early night and went to bed.

Chapter 14

The next morning came earlier than I wanted. My physical therapy began at 8:00 and I needed enough time to actually get there. It was a 10 minute trip to Canterlot General at regular pony speeds but I gave myself a half an hour since I knew I was still fairly slow. Golden Dawn and I ate a light breakfast and then headed out of the castle.

I was still taking it slow, but I had kind of picked up walking between what I had done the night before and earlier in the morning. I was still paying attention to the individual moves of all four legs, but I at least hadn't fallen over or tripped myself up since the night before.

Even at this early hour there was a good number of ponies walking around the capital streets, heading off to work or some other appointment. Most of them looked as tired as I felt, but every once in awhile I'd getting random stares, double takes and straight up looks of confusion from one of the more awake ponies. A few times my ears swiveled towards the sound of hushed whispers. By the time I turned my head they had stopped, but more than once I could have sworn I had seen somepony pointing in my direction.

This continued on and off, the whole way to the hospital. I was getting more than a bit confused since I was no longer walking around as a potentially mythological bipedal fantasy creature. It wasn't until Golden Dawn brought it up that I realized it wasn't what they were seeing, but what they weren't.

"Sorry about all that," she said after we passed a pair of unicorn mares who practically tripped over each other's hooves as they both turned and stared as they walked by.

"What exactly is going on? That's like the fifth group of ponies that I caught staring at me," I said. "I didn't get that many looks walking around as a human."

"A random unknown creature walking around, that's an oddity, but an adult pony with no cutie mark? That's unheard of."

"Oh..." I said, trailing off. Any progress I had made about ignoring the fact that I was parading around naked vanished as I realized I actually was a different kind of naked. It wasn't the cutie mark itself, the concept of them interested me, but I didn't have any special need to gain one. At least, I didn't think I did. But, I had never liked being singled out in a crowd and now I apparently stood out like a sore thumb. I felt my face heat up and I ducked my head down towards the ground.

"Don't worry about them Hail," Golden Dawn said, brushing up against me.

"You'd think that by now, I'd be used to standing out..." I said, pawing at the ground with a hoof.

"Well, there's a simple solution," Golden Dawn said with a laugh. "We'll just have to earn you a cutie mark."

"Do you think it's even possible?" I asked.

"Twilight did say you were fully a pony now, and everypony gets a cutiemark... eventually. So I don't see why not. I suppose you could check with her the next time we see her."

"I might. It's not the mark itself, but I would appreciate not sticking out. Plus, I do find myself wondering how the whole thing works. This image just appears on your butt and suddenly you know what your destiny is or something. It's both wonderful and crazy at the same time."

Golden Dawn laughed. "Well, it's not exactly like that... but... I guess you'll get it when you get yours."

We arrived at the hospital with ten minutes to spare. Honestly, it looked very much like a modern hospital building. The only real difference was the lack of a parking lot full of cars. We walked inside and the receptionist gave us directions.

A few hallways, twists and turns later we arrived at a small waiting room. They took my name and we sat down on a couch and waited for them to call me.

"I've never had physical therapy before, I wonder what exactly they're going to make me do?" I said as we sat there. "I hope it's not just walking around, I had plenty of that just getting here."

"I don't know, I guess we'll find out," Golden Dawn said.

A few minutes later a nurse came out from a back room, clipboard hovering in her magic. She called my name so I stood up and walked over.

"Hello Hail Storm. Princess Cadance sent us a file on your case. I've just got to check up on a few things before we get started.

She took my height, 4 foot 2 at the withers, and weight, 385 lbs. I also learned that I had an 8 foot wingspan. All in all, I was just slightly on the large side of average for a pegasus. She also checked up on the healing spells that were still working on my body. She confirmed that the vast majority of the actual healing was done and the spells were in recovery mode now. As time went on, I would feel less drained until the spell matrixes finally collapsed and I went back to normal pegasus energy levels. Whatever those were.

"You're all set now, just wait here and your therapist will be here shortly," she said after she finished going over her findings with me.

Golden Dawn and I didn't even have time to chat before the bulkiest pony I had ever seen before walked into the room.

"Hello, I'm Bulk Biceps," he said extending a massive foreleg. It was almost as thick around as my chest.

"I'm Hail Storm, and this is my friend Golden Dawn," I said

"I've been reading over your case file.. Very unusual. Am I to understand this correctly, you aren't a pony... or weren't is more accurate?"

"That's correct."

"Normally, I'd assume this is some sort of joke but I got called in from Ponyville for this by the department chair. He said it was a special favor for Princess Cadance and frankly, he's not one to mess around. So, how did you end up as a pegasus?"

"Well, it's a bit of a long story but the short version is Princess Twilight..."

"Ah, say no more. I'm from Ponyville and I'm quite familiar with the shenanigans that seem to happen around Twilight Sparkle."

Bulk Biceps asked me a few more questions and then we headed to a room with a treadmill.

"I'm going to start you off at a very slow walk. You seemed to be handling things fine on the way over, so I don't expect any real problems, but your gait is a little abnormal. I think this is probably being caused by your transition from bipedal to quadrupedal motion. I'd like to get that corrected before we move on to anything else."

"Alright," I said and I climbed up onto the treadmill.

The moment I began to walk the soft spoken pony turned into an entirely different per... pony. A much louder pony.

"LEFT HIND! LEFT FRONT! RIGHT HIND! RIGHT FRONT! ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR! ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR!" Bulk Biceps shouted as he counted out my hoof positions.

The first shout almost made me fall off the treadmill. At first I thought I had done something to upset him, but I quickly realized he was just very very... very passionate about his work

He had me keep walking and he'd point out whenever I messed up my gait and how to correct it. It actually was helping, before his instructions I didn't really stick to any sort of pattern with my hooves. Sometimes I stepped in order but other times I had been moving my hind and forelegs at the same time. It hadn't felt exactly right but I had never really paid attention to how ponies walked before my transformation so I didn't know how to emulate it.

He kept me going at it until I could carry on a conversation with Golden Dawn, without tripping up, and not looking down at my hooves.

"YEAH!!!! YOU'RE GETTING IT! YEAHH!!!!!" He shouted more words of encouragement.

Eventually, I dismounted the treadmill and he immediately moved into wing exercises. It wasn't until he went to demonstrate what he wanted me to do that I realized he was a pegasus. His wings were tiny, maybe a foot in length. Yet even though he looked like he weighed upwards of 800lbs he was still able to hover in place.

I wasn't ready to do anything of the sort and I told him so, but I was willing to do the stretches and attempt some wing-ups.

Finally, the session came to an end and Bulk Biceps dismissed me.

"I do have some homework for you though, keep walking, as much as you can. Tomorrow we're going to do some trotting," he said.

"You did well today, I think you're going to pick this up quick. By the time I'm back from Hoofston you'll be flying around just as good as any pegasus," Golden Dawn said with a warm smile as we walked away from the hospital.

"I don't even want to think about flying right now," I said with a sigh "My wings ache from Bulk Biceps' stupid exercises and I'm getting dizzy with hunger, let's go back to the castle and get something to eat."

"Nope! Remember your homework, you've got to walk around, and I've got the perfect way to do it. Let's head downtown and find something to eat there." Golden Dawn said.

I reluctantly agreed and we headed deeper into Canterlot. I had thought that the streets were busy earlier in the morning when we had headed in, but now, they were packed with ponies. Unlike Hoofston, Canterlot seemed to be heavily skewed towards unicorns. At the same time there were also plenty of pegasus and earth ponies as well. We made our way through the city weaving back and forth down narrow streets. Buildings towered over us on either side, most of them seemed residential but as we got closer to the center of the city, more and more shops started to appear. Eventually we turned a corner and arrived at a street lined with restaurants on either side. My nostrils flared as the scent of freshly cooked food wafted through the air, I breathed in deeply enjoying the aroma. Window after window showed crowded tables packed with ponies enjoying lunch. If every place was like the few we had passed, finding a seat was going to be a pain.

"Restaurant Row," Golden Dawn said as I eyed the various eating establishments, wondering which one we were going to go to.

"There's so many choices, where are we going to eat?" I asked, sucking back a bit of drool.

"Eh, most of these places are big on the fancy uptight dining experience. There are a few hidden gems though, assuming they are still here. It's been awhile since I've been to Canterlot."

"Lead on," I said and I followed her as we made our way down the street.

Eventually we the place Golden Dawn was looking for, a small pizza joint tucked down one of the side alleys. Apart from the complete lack of meat toppings, it was great. After lunch we decided to head back to the castle but first we stopped at a store so I could pick up some saddle bags. Virtually every adult pony had their cutie marks embroidered into their bags. Normally when you bought a new bag, you picked out the one you wanted, paid for it, then the clerk would send you to the back of the store where another pony would get your cutie mark on the bag. When I stepped up to pay and the pony behind the counter noticed my lack of cutie mark he looked puzzled but thankfully didn't say anything. Instead, I simply paid and we headed out the door.

We also tried to stop by Golden Dawn's Dad's house but he wasn't home. A neighbor who recognized Golden Dawn came out and let us know that he had gone on a trip to Manehatten and would be back the next week. Since Golden Dawn was planning on heading back to Hoofston by then, she asked the neighbor to let her dad know she had stopped by and that she was heading back to Hoofston but hoped to be back in the Canterlot area in a few weeks.

The next few days were mostly the same. Early mornings, I'd meet up with Bulk Biceps, do some exercises and then head into Canterlot for lunch with Golden Dawn. Afternoons were spent walking around as much as I could. As I got used to my new body, I added trotting, but the city was too packed to really get a good gallop going. At the end of the day we'd head back to the castle. Sometimes we met up with Twilight and Cadance for dinner, other times we headed back into the city in search of some new place to eat at.

The physical therapy with Bulk Biceps was going, for the most part, alright. At least in terms of ground based movement. Walking I had picked up more or less the first day, it helped that I was walking everywhere so I got a lot of practice. It was anything faster than a walk that was still giving me occasional trouble. Managing four legs instead of two went against years of muscle memory. It was proving complicated because unlike bipedal movement, which really only involved putting one leg in front of the other, ponies had different gaits which used entirely different leg movement.

Trotting was one leg in front of the other, but my rear left leg moved with my front right leg and vise versa. Cantering involved pushing myself forward with one rear leg and then landing on the other three while galloping involved moving all four legs at a different times. I was surprised to find that in a gallop, there was a brief moment where I was completely airborne with not a single hoof on the ground. Picture a human getting around by jumping instead of running. It sounded weird but that's how it worked.

Flight was going... not as well. I had basic wing movements down but anything more than a clumsy hover terrified me. A large part of a pegasus' ability to fly relied on confidence and willpower I had neither. If I got more than a few feet off the ground my wings would slam shut as the panic of falling to my death began to rise. Of course, then I'd fall down and slam into the ground. That only made things worse because the next time I tried to fly, I instantly focused on the pain from my last failure. Logically I knew it was in my head but breaking past it was proving to be very difficult. Bulk Biceps kept me practicing but he acknowledged that it was going to take time for me to trust my newfound abilities.

As the days went by the weakness that I had been feeling began to subside. By the end of the week I was feeling completely back to normal. Cadance's warnings of a sudden change in energy had apparently not been necessary. I was a feeling pretty happy that it had only taken the week since Cadance had given me a longer timeline, I wasn't about to complain about a speedy recovery. My last session with Bulk Biceps had gone very well and I had even managed a very short, very low flight, all indoors of course, if I had my way, I'd never go up into open sky.

"You almost ready Golden?" I asked, as I waited for her to finish up whatever it was that she was doing.

"Yep, be out in a moment," came the reply from her room.

The end of the week had come sooner than I expected and she was due to head back to Hoofston by train later that afternoon. We were going to have lunch together before we went to the train station.

I heard her door open up glanced up as Golden Dawn trotted out. My eyes immediately began to track her as she moved across the room. She looked... different. Her coat was smoothed out and far shinier than normal. She had done both her mane and tail up into a fairly intricate looking braid Even her wings looked amazing, with every visible feather perfectly aligned. A simple chain necklace that matched the gold in her mane hung around her neck. I realized I was staring and quickly shifted my eyes somewhere else.

"You... you look nice," I stammered out as she walked over. I had never really noticed before.

"Thanks!" she said with a smile. "I'm going to be in first class on the Express, figured if I'm traveling in style, I might as well look the part. Are you ready to go?"

"You still haven't told me where we're headed," I said.

"Lunch!"

"Yeah but where? Pizza? Sandwiches? It's not somewhere fancy is it," I asked, suddenly feeling a bit scruffy standing next to her.

"Nope! You'll find out when we get there," she said, her eyes aglow with a mischievous look.

"Well, lead on then," I said.

We headed out of the castle and proceeded towards Restaurant Row at a quick trot.

"So, this is going to be our last lunch together, at least for a while," Golden Dawn said as we headed arrived in downtown Canterlot.

"Yep," I said somewhat glumly. I had gotten used to spending my free time with Golden Dawn and after she left I wasn't sure what I was going to do. Twilight and Cadance were too busy running the country to "hang out" and I didn't really have any other friends.

"Don't look so down, I'll be back before you know it. And as a going away surprise, I've got a new place for us to try. Twilight told me about it the other day, I think you'll like it."

"Oh, what is it?" I said mildly curious.

"I told you, it's a surprise," she said with a grin.

I followed her as we wove between the crowds of hungry ponies looking for a bite to eat. She turned abruptly and headed down an alleyway before stopping in front of a dark brick building that was almost completely hidden from the main street.

The sign in front of the building said "The Griffon's Nest" unlike the rest of the restaurants we had passed there was no window at all. In fact the whole building was kind of dark. If it wasn't for an open sign on the front door, I'd have thought the place closed. Well that and something cooking in there smelled absolutely fantastic.

"Is this it?" I asked, sniffing the air again. I thought the scent was familiar but I couldn't quite place it. With my new nose, everything smelled a bit different. The succulent aromas of food from a dozen other restaurants mixed in weren't helping things.

"Sure is," Golden Dawn said and we headed inside.

The moment I stepped through the door I immediately knew what I had been smelling.

Meat. Glorious tasty meat.

"I think you might have wandered into the wrong building," a gruff voice said. I turned towards it and and found myself looking at what had to be a griffon standing behind a counter. I didn't know how big griffons got but he was quite large, towering over me by at least a head and a half. He looked down at Golden and I and gave a bit of a smirk.

"Not based on what I'm smelling," I said. "Do you have a menu?"

The large griffon rolled his eyes and pointed me to a pile of them on the counter.

"You do know this is a griffon restaurant right?" he asked with a bit of a smile.

"Um so?" I asked.

"We don't get many ponies on account of the menu, cept bat ponies."

"Bat ponies?" I asked slightly confused.

"Thestrals, kinda an informal name." Golden Dawn said before turning to the griffon. "Don't worry we know you serve meat, that's why we're here."

I felt like a kid in a candy shop as I quickly glanced through the menu.

"Thanks Golden, this means a lot to me, it's been way too long," I said giving her a quick hug with my wing.

She returned the hug and threw in a warm smile as well. "I knew you'd like it, now let's sit down. I'm sure I can find something meatless on the menu for myself."

"We do have salad and daisy sandwiches," the griffon said helpfully before turning to me with a look of confusion. "You eat meat?"

"Sure do, love the stuff. I could practically go meat exclusive, at least if it wasn't for pizza."

"Huh, interesting."

"You wanna grab a seat?" Golden Dawn asked.

"You can sit anywhere," the griffon said as he reached down with a massive talon holding out a menu. To his right was a curtained off area, I could just make out some conversations happening and the sounds of eating coming from behind the curtain. Golden Dawn took it in her mouth and we stepped through the curtains.

There were only half dozen tables, which made sense as this was a smaller building. Three of them were occupied with griffons, I glanced at one table as we walked by and noticed that the pair of griffons at that table were deep into enjoying what looked like raw meat. One of them had a dead, but whole chicken on her place. It was a bit of a shock, I knew they ate meat but I assumed it was cooked. Still, I could definitely smell cooking meat so I knew they had to serve some. Golden must have noticed too, she was looking a bit queasy. I guessed the curtains and lack of windows were to keep ponies that passed by or stopped in from having to see anything too shocking.

The two back tables were open, and we headed towards one of them. At the table next to it sat a pair of ponies that caught my eye. They must have been the thestrals or bat ponies that I had heard about. Oddly, they appeared to be twins, I wondered if that was common among ponies. Dark grey coat, almost black leather wings, yellow eyes that were almost but not quite slits and when one of them took a bite of his food, I could see sharp teeth. Both wore purple armor that covered them from head to tail it even covered their cutie marks. Without being able to see their cutie marks, I wondered how anypony actually told them apart. One of them eyed me as we sat down but said nothing.

Golden Dawn grabbed the menu and hoofed through it pretty quickly. Then she placed the menu down in front of me so I could take another look.

"I already know what I'm getting," she said after a minute. "So we're just waiting on you."

The menu was short and simple, just a few pages, arranged into categories. First, I had my choice of four different kinds of uncooked animal flesh, pig, cow, deer or chicken. There wasn't any details as to what part of the pig, cow, deer or chicken that was being served, it just listed the animal. They had the same options available cooked and thankfully the cooked pieces were a bit more specific. Pork chops, ribeye steak, grilled chicken breast and a venison burger. I've always been big on steak so I decided to go with that and put the menu down.

A few moments later the griffon from behind the counter walked over to our table and took our order. When I asked for the steak, he sighed.

"I had assumed you were joking about liking meat, do you actually want that?"

"Um no, I wasn't joking I really want a steak."

"Your bits," he said with a shrug.

"Oh, medium rare on that steak please." I said as he started to walk away. This got me another eye from one of the armored bat ponies.

Golden Dawn and I chatted idly while we waited for our food, thankfully the service was quick and it arrived only a short while later. As our waiter placed my plate down on the table my eyes went wide as I stared at the large chunk of meat sitting in front of me. It was easily the largest steak I'd ever seen. I was guessing at least 32 ounces. Sitting next to it were two large baked potatoes. Ponies did eat a lot of food but this was ridiculous. Still trying to get used to my hooves, I carefully picked up my utensils and cut into the gigantic steak. A perfect pink center greeted me and I eagerly took my first bite. The griffon, who had been standing next to the table watching me grunted in surprise and walked away.

Turns out that not only was I hungry but my new body's appetite could easily handle the massive steak. Even better, my sense of taste hadn't shifted in the transformation either. I had been a bit worried that with new taste buds I might not like the same things anymore. If anything though, now my food tasted even better. Like the rest of my pony senses, it was heightened well over what it had been when I was still human. Golden Dawn watched between bites of her own food as piece by piece the steak disappeared. When it was finally gone, the waiter returned with the check. I picked up the paper and read it over, blanching when I got to the bill.

"Hey Golden, I'm no expert on Equestrian economy isn't this bill on the expensive side?" I asked.

"Let me see," she said taking it from me.

"The sandwich is pretty standard for Canterlot but your steak, five bits, that's enough to eat for almost a week!" Golden said as she read the bill.

"Wow, well I mean I have the money but damn..." I said as I instinctively reached for my wallet. Which wasn't there. Mostly because I wasn't wearing any pants.

"Crap, I'm so used to carrying a wallet around with me that I didn't think to get any of my bits. In fact I don't even know where they are."

"Don't worry about the money, I can cover you. Actually it's my fault anyway, Twilight stopped by last night after you fell asleep. She had gone down to Ponyville and picked up your truck, it's actually parked somewhere on the castle grounds. I not exactly sure where. What I do know is I mentioned that all of your money along with that gold you found was in the trailer and she said she'd take care of it. I was supposed to tell you to talk to her but I completely forgot."

"It's expensive because they have to import most of their meat from the Griffon kingdom." One of the thestrals sitting at the table next to us had turned around and was looking at Golden Dawn and I. "Also did I hear you correctly, were you talking about Princess Twilight?" he asked.

"Um yeah," I said.

"Why does Princess Twilight have your money? If you don't mind me asking."

"It's a long and complicated story," I said.

"I could tell there was a story behind you the moment I saw you walk in," the other guard said turning around as well.

"A pegasus, clearly fully grown, but still lacking a cutie mark brings his marefriend on a date to the only Griffon restaurant in the city, then orders a steak, medium rare mind you, and then when he takes his first bite and I expect him to spit it out in disgust, he instead very clearly enjoys it and puts the whole thing down almost as fast as a griffon with a fresh kill. Mentioning the princess's name only added to the mystery."

"Marefriend...? Date...? Oh... I couldn't... no we're not..." I stammered out, turning a bit red.

Golden Dawn put a hoof to her mouth and suppressed a giggle. "And what a romantic first date it was, watching my new special somepony devour cooked cow flesh, and then, after all that, he makes me pay for it."

I rolled my eyes and gave her a look which only made the giggling worse.

"Are you done?" I asked a few seconds later.

"Yes, I think so," she said with one last giggle.

"Oh, my apologies on the assumption. In any case the rest of what I said still stands. I'm Silent Night," he said extending a hoof. I took hold and gave it a shake. "And this is my partner Thunderbolt."

"I'm Hal... Hail Storm." Even though I was used to hearing it, I still had to make a conscious effort to introduced myself as my adopted pony name. Oddly I was kind of comfortable with it, I liked the fit, but a lifetime of saying Harold or Hal made it a hard habit to break. "And this is my friend Golden Dawn."

"Lunar Guard?" Golden Dawn asked.

Silent Night let out a chuckle. "Did the armor give it away?"

"Kind of late for you stallions, isn't it? Or early?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Yeah," Thunderbolt said with a sigh. "We just got back from yet another mission outside the city, it's thrown off our regular schedule but the upshot is we've got the rest of today and tomorrow off. This is the only place to get some meat outside of the mess hall and though the selection is small and the prices high, the quality is a bit nicer than the mess hall's normal fare."

"Yeah, it is a pretty small menu, what's up with that?" I asked.

"It changes, it's based on what Gus can get a hold of." Silent Night said.

"Gus?" I asked.

"The griffon that brought you your food. Chef, waiter, owner and sole employee of The Griffon's Nest." Silent Night said.

"Gotcha, I guess I'll have to keep coming back see what else they have." I said.

"There isn't usually a huge amount of variety, fried or grilled chicken, beef and venison is usually a steak or burgers, and for pork, it's pretty much just pork chops, sometimes he does bacon for bacon burgers, ham and very rarely roasted tenderloin." Silent Night said.

Even though I had just put down at least 2 pounds of steak I felt my mouth starting to water.

"I don't suppose he ever does any barbeque? Ribs, pulled pork, brisket?" I asked.

"Sadly no. You sure you're actually a pegasus, not a bat pony in disguise?" Thunderbolt asked.

"Huh?"

"Griffons pretty much stick to raw meat and grilled meat. I figured low and slow barbecue style was exclusively a bat pony thing. My cousin down in Appaloosa makes the best damn brisket in Equestria," Thunderbolt said.

"Damn, I need to go back to Appaloosa," I said.

"Back?"

"Passed through there on the way up from Hoofston," I said. "Part of that long story I mentioned earlier."

"Hey Hail Storm, I hate to interrupt, but we've got to get going in a few, I have some places to stop at before the train," Golden said.

"Oh yeah," I said. I turned back to the other two ponies. "This has been a good chat, but I'm afraid we've got to get going."

"You're said you're staying at the castle? You know if we ever meet up again you're going to have to fill us in on your 'long and complicated story', it's getting more interesting by the moment," Silent Night said.

"Sure but it will have to be another time. Maybe we can meet up here again, if not well, you know I'm at the castle."

"I'd tell you to swing by the barracks, but we're rarely there." Silent Night said.

"Guard work keeping you busy?" Golden Dawn asked.

"You have no idea, most ponies think that the guard only operates in Canterlot. While a large portion of the guard do stay in the city, the majority of us us are travelling constantly, there's a whole country out there and the Guard's work is never done," Thunderbolt said.

"Anyway if you want, feel free to try the Night Guard Barracks, if we aren't around talk to Colonel Moonlit Shadow. She's the Night Guard Base Commander, she'll know if we're out on a mission or in Canterlot," Silent Night said.

"Alright, will do, hopefully I'll see you later," I said.

Golden Dawn paid the bill and we headed out. She wanted to trot through the downtown shopping district in Lower Canterlot, stopping to browse the many small stores before she had to catch her train. Back on Earth I'd have made any sort of excuse to avoid this kind of shopping trip, but now, everything in Canterlot was still so new to me. Wandering around seemed like good time to start investigating the city I was now living in.

The cobblestone streets that stretched out before us were in immaculate condition, unusual if you considered the time period that the pony capital seemed to be in. Medieval cities were not clean, they were cesspools, full of filth and disease. But even though the castle overlooking us looked like something out of a Disney movie, one only had to step inside a random shop for the facade to fall away. Inside any one of them was a nearly modern store, wearing a theme that fit the quaint medieval kingdom surroundings. It was almost as if we were in a themed amusement park, except Canterlot was an actual functional city.

Modern conveniences abounded in Canterlot. Nearly every building we visited had electricity and electric lighting, they all had indoor plumbing and some, based on the inside temperature, even had air conditioning, or perhaps a magical equivalent. It was a vast difference from the small frontier town I had first found myself in.

Golden Dawn picked up a few small touristy trinkets. As a former resident she wasn't really interested in them for herself but a few of her friends back in Hoofston had never been to the capital and she thought they would make nice gifts. When we finished up there, we headed back up the mountain towards the train station.

It was a long trot to Canterlot's train station, at least I thought it was. Even though I now had the body of a pony and I was no longer feeling the weakening effects of the healing magic I still had no idea how ponies managed to walk everywhere without getting tired. Sure my hooves didn't hurt as much after a day of trotting about as my feet would have, but I still didn't think I was up to any multi-mile hikes. It would have to be something I'd get use to over time, a life of driving almost everywhere had spoiled me and even though I still had the truck, I doubted I'd be using it as often.

Canterlot mountain was huge, it easily dwarfed any of the mountains I had grown up near. Canterlot Castle itself was situated on the western slope; on a large flat area roughly three square miles in size. The extreme western portion, where the castle was actually located, had a sharp drop off to the fields and forests below. The castle actually jutted out from the mountain flagrantly ignoring gravity and any sense of danger. To the side of the castle, a tall waterfall poured down from a lake somewhere higher in the mountain. It formed a small pond that fed a moat surrounding the castle's main entrance before it cascaded further down the mountain.

The rest of land surrounding the castle and extending all the way down the gently sloping eastern side of the mountain made up what was known as Upper Canterlot. Upper Canterlot was a mix of large grandiose homes occupied by city's wealthiest citizens, elegant (and overpriced) stores and most of Canterlot's high culture, Restaurant Row, opera houses, museums, art galleries and the like. Upper Canterlot was also the location of Canterlot General, the hospital I was doing my physical therapy at.

Lower Canterlot started near the base of the mountain, and encircled a large portion of that base. That was where the majority of the city's population lived, Canterlot's open air markets, and the largest shopping district in the city. Canterlot had two train stations, one in Upper and one in Lower. Golden Dawn would be leaving from the Upper Canterlot station, which was still about half way between where we had done our shopping and the castle. It had taken us around an hour to get down to the shopping area and that meant the return trip was going to be similar.

When we finally arrived, I stopped and marveled at the wonder before me.

I had arrived to Canterlot by air and unconscious so I hadn't seen the Upper Canterlot station before. Hoofston's had just been a wooden platform with a small booth out of which a single pony sold tickets. Canterlot's was reminiscent of the grand stations of the early 1900s. A massive building serving 12 tracks coming in from all over the country, the station loomed over the rest of the surrounding buildings. The only larger construction I had seen was Canterlot Castle itself. Gigantic pillars of stone supported an imposing roof which functioned as open second floor for the stations non ground traffic. I stared in awe as a large airship descended and ponies began to disembark, flooding into the station.

Ponies had their own take on airships, the actual ship part more or less matched that of an ocean going craft. It was suspended from a gigantic balloon many times larger than any blimp I'd ever seen. I had never seen an actual zeppelin before but my guess was this beast was easily as large as anything humanity had ever produced. Unlike its human counterpart I saw no obvious method of movement. There were some small side sails that were likely used to turn the ship but I had no idea what moved it forward.

"I did not know ponies had those," I said nodding towards the airship as Golden Dawn and I worked our way through the crowds.

"Oh yeah, they're kind of new, I think the first one was launched about ten years ago."

"What makes it move?"

"There's a gem battery on board that powers a wind spell which pushes the ship. Not exactly the fastest things around but they can go pretty much anywhere, no tracks required."

"Are they filled with hydrogen?"

"Yeah," Golden Said as she squeezed between two well dressed ponies carrying large suitcases.

"Isn't that a big dangerous?" I asked as I tried my best to keep up with her. "Humans used to use that in our airships but we had problems with fire."

"There's a magical field surrounding each of the of the hydrogen cells that prevents the hydrogen from igniting, you could put a torch to one of those things and it would be fine."

"Of course there is." I briefly wondered if the Hindenburg had access to those magical fields, would airships still be in use? Maybe they'd act like an airborne equivalent to cruise liners, taking people to exotic locations.

We finally arrived at Golden Dawn's platform and just as her train was pulling in. While the ponies who were arriving began to disembark Golden Dawn turned to me. For a moment she said nothing, so I spoke up to break the silence.

"So this is goodbye, for now." I said sadly.

"Yep, but don't worry, I'll be back before you know it," she said. For a moment I thought I saw a brief glimpse of sadness in her eyes before they returned to their normal happy sparkle.

"When do you think you'll be back?" I asked.

"It's hard to say because I'm not sure how long it will take to get all my equipment torn down and packed up. If everything goes well, I'll be back here in two weeks but it could be up to a month. I'll send you a letter once I have an idea." She paused for a moment to look at the train. Ponies had began to board and she was going to have to go soon.

"A letter? How will it reach me?"

"Twilight said I could send mail to the castle, if your name is on the letter the staff will bring it to your room."

"Oh that's neat. It's been a long time since I've gotten a physical letter. They've mostly gone out of style on Earth."

"What are you going to do while I'm gone? Golden Dawn asked.

"Finish up with the PT I guess, I know I don't really want to, but I should probably learn how to use these properly," I said, giving my wings a quick flap. "Or at least enough to satisfy Bulk Biceps."

"I know they said they aren't usually around but try to meet up with Thunderbolt and Silent Night, it's a good opportunity to make some friends. Oh and look up Kitchen Sink, he'd be happy to see you again."

"Probably won't recognize me though," I said with a small laugh. "Any other homework for me?"

"Not really, Except I know you don't like heights, but do try to keep working on those wings. I expect you to have mastered indoor flying when I get back mister." Golden Dawn said sticking her tongue out at me. "On a more serious note, if you get the chance, look into what you'd need to start your business, I was serious about that, I think you'd do very well."

"I'll look into it, though I imagine that will take a while to do all the research. I don't know how much progress I'll make in the short time you are gone," I said.

"Still, see what you can find out," she said.

"Will do," I said raising my hoof to my forehead in a mock salute.

The flow of ponies still boarding the train had turned into a trickle. The conductor was looking around to see if any more ponies were boarding.

"You better get on that train before you miss it," I said as I watched the last other group of ponies still at the platform step on.

"Yeah your right," Golden Dawn said. She shuffled a little closer and wrapped a wing around me.

"I'll miss you, see you in a few weeks hopefully," she said as I returned the hug. She put a bit of an extra squeeze into her embrace. A second passed by, then two, three and four. I felt a tinge of sadness creep into my heart, it wasn't going to be that long but I was still going to miss her. She had been by my side nearly every day since I had woken up in Dusty Heart's house. I might have only known her for around a month and a half but I had spent more with her than I had with any person back on Earth in the last year.

"All aboard!" I heard the conductor shout. A second later and Golden Dawn still hadn't let go yet so I moved back a little bit, breaking off the hug so she would not miss her train.

She glanced up at me, her mouth opened for a second but then she quickly turned and trotted quickly towards the train.

"Bye!" I shouted as she reached the door. She paused for a moment, craned her neck back and looked at back at me. She looked indecisive, as if some thought was gnawing at her and she couldn't make up her mind. That only lasted for a moment before she spread her wings and rocketed away from the train and right towards me.

"What are you..."

Golden Dawn swooped in and before I could process what was happening I felt her lips brush up against mine. I was so shocked that I just stood there, not moving a muscle, her eyes opened and she saw the uncertainty in my own. Her face flushed a deep red and she ended the kiss. Before I could say anything she was gone, hightailing it back onto the train. She jumped on just as it started to move.

Stunned, I felt my butt plop down onto the cold stone floor as my brain replayed the last few seconds. I shook my head and looked up just in time to catch a glimpse of her fiery mane in the window of the car she had jumped into before the motion of the train broke my line of sight.

My body was on automatic during the walk back to the castle, my brain was too busy thinking about Golden Dawn's kiss to really pay attention to where I was going. I liked Golden Dawn, she was a good friend, but I had never even considered the possibility of something like this happening. When did her interest first start? Was it before or after I was transformed into a pony? I dove into my memory, trying to pick out all of the details from past interactions that might have revealed the truth.

A small voice in my head screamed that giving even a second more thought of this was wrong. Golden Dawn wasn't human and any sort of relationship would be abhorrent. But surely she didn't see it that way, I knew from conversations that ponies having relationships with other species, while rare, was not considered wrong or unnatural. Yet another voice chimed in, Golden Dawn might have been a pony but she wasn't an animal. She may have been a different species but she was just as much as a person as I was.

In fact, there was not even a species barrier anymore. I stopped in the middle of the street, only moving to one side when I realized I was blocking traffic. I looked down at the hair covering my body, my hooves resting on the cobblestone, my wings folded up against my barrel and even my tail. I wasn't human anymore. This wasn't new information to me, but more than ever before this fact hit me like a sledgehammer. I was a pony and I would continue to be one for the foreseeable future. The chances of getting my old body back and making it back to Earth were minuscule.

So what did I want to do? I didn't know. But at least I had some time to think about it. Maybe I could talk to Twilight or Cadance. I wasn't particularly close with either one of them, but they were the only other ponies in Canterlot that I knew.

By time time I reached the castle I still didn't know what I wanted to do.

Evening came around and I met up with Twilight for dinner. I didn't want to talk about my experience with Golden Dawn earlier so instead I told her about the thestrals I had met at the Griffon's Nest. Twilight seemed happy that I was meeting new ponies and began to talk about her own experience in making new friends. It started out interesting but Twilight somehow managed to turn the whole thing into a lecture about friendship and my mind kept slipping back to Golden Dawn's kiss earlier at the train station. When she finally hit a pause in her story, I interrupted, desperate to change topics.

"That's very fascinating Twilight, but before I forget, Golden Dawn said you moved my truck to Canterlot? Is there any chance you can show me where it is?"

"Oh um, sure. If you're done eating I can take you there now. Oh that reminds me, I moved your money and gold into the royal vault. Let me know if you need access to it"

"Can we swing by there on the way to my truck so I can grab some of the bits for spending money? The rest of it can stay there for now," I said as I stood up from the table.

"Sure, no problem. I can tell you about Rainbow Dash's first Sonic Rainboom and how it brought me and my friends together on the walk over."

I held in a groan and put in a serious effort to give Twilight a smile. "Sounds good."

We stopped by my room so I could grab my keys and then headed towards one of the castle's many gardens. It was only a ten minute walk to the truck so thankfully Twilight gave me an abridged version of the story. I have to admit, it was actually kind of interesting, was fate a thing in Equestria? It seemed a virtual impossibility that Rainbow's sonic rainboom could have affected the very same six ponies that would later become the Elements of Harmony. My mind turned to my own experiences. Was it also fate when Golden Dawn had found me in the desert?

"Oh I almost completely forgot, I have something for you," Twilight said.

I had never believed in predestination, but I had never believed in magic either. This just opened up more questions. If fate existed here, was my coming to Equestria also predetermined? If so did that mean fate existed in my reality as well?

"Hail Storm?"

"Oh, huh?" I said as I spun around. "Did you say something?"

"Yeah, I was saying I had something for you," Twilight said. "You've seemed awfully distracted tonight, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, just... thinking about some things." I said. Part of me wanted to talk to her about Golden Dawn, but I didn't know how to bring it up. On top of that, just thinking about it was making me jittery.

"If you need somepony to talk to, just let me know," she said with some concern in her voice.

"Thanks Twilight, I'm... I'm fine for now but I'll keep that in mind... You were saying you had something for me?

Way to chicken out

There was a flash of light and scroll appeared out of nowhere, floating in front of me. I looked at it with some confusion until Twilight indicated that I should open it. I grabbed it, untied the ribbon holding it closed and unrolled it so I could read it over.

"It's a certificate of citizenry," Twilight said as I read it over. "I figured, if you're going to be stuck here for a while, I might as well offer this to you. I didn't want you to feel like an outsider trapped in a foreign land. Equestria can be your home, for as long as you need it to be."

"Thanks Twilight," I said, with sincere gratitude. I really was touched at the unexpected gesture. "I really appreciate everything that you and your ponies have done to make me feel at home here."

"It's no big deal," Twilight said with a bit of a blush. "Plus, it was fun doing all the paperwork for that. I got to fill out ten different forms!"

I chuckled at Twilight's statement, I had never met any other person, or pony, that enjoyed paperwork as much as this mare. We finally arrived at my truck and I trotted over to it

I dug the keys out of a small side pouch on my saddlebags and then took a moment to try to figure out how I was going to accomplish my goal. I kind of wished I had gotten hovering down, thanks to the large off-road tires and high suspension, the door was tall enough that I had to rear up and balance on my rear hooves to reach the lock.

Doing that kind of balancing was still a bit troublesome for me so I had to hold myself steady with my forehooves. With those occupied keeping me from falling over, that meant I had to use my mouth to unlock the door. Twilight offered to help as I was struggling with it but I figured I needed the practice so I politely declined as best as I could while holding a set of keys in my mouth. Thankfully pony necks are incredibly flexible so once I got the key between my teeth and pointing the correct direction I was able to turn it without too much trouble.

Getting the door open was both easier and harder. I couldn't lean against the door which meant balancing without support, but when I started to fall back I just grabbed the handle and let that motion pull the door open. I did end up losing my grip and falling over but the truck was now open. I laughed at the ridiculousness of it all, picked myself up and climbed inside.

Golden Dawn's cloud seat was still resting in the passenger spot, right where she had left it. I reached out poked at the cloud with a forehoof. When my hoof met resistance, which I found hard to believe even though I was seeing it with my own eyes, I was shocked. Feeling like it was time for a little experimentation, I carefully climbed onto the cloud. What Golden Dawn had said before was accurate, that cloud was the most comfortable thing I'd ever sat upon. Bundled up in the clouds amazingly soft surface I felt a powerful urge to close my eyes and take a nap. Only the sound of Twilight clearing her throat was enough to for me to climb off the cloud and back outside.

I didn't have to meet up with Bulk Biceps on the weekend so I spent most of Saturday and Sunday digging through my trailer, pulling out some of the reloading manuals and reading them. If I was going to be setting up the equipment anytime soon, I wanted to know their workings inside and out. There were also dozens of other books that I had taken from my dad's place and I had yet to look over what I had ended up with. That however, was a task for another day, for now I was satisfied with trying to come up with a plan to start the my business.

The easiest thing to do would be to hack together a pipe rifle. Anyone with even basic skills with hand tools could swing by a hardware store, pick up and build something that shoots .22lr or even a 12 gauge shotgun shell for less than $20 out of a section of pipe, some spare pieces of wood and a few nuts and bolts. While it was likely the first few things I built would be on that level of roughness, I didn't want to sell anything like that.

At the same time, designing something from the ground up took a lot of time and skill that I wasn't sure I had. When I was working for Rick, he had specs on all the parts that I needed to build that I could follow. That wasn't going to work here, I had nothing to reference. Nothing except my own guns. Which meant that copying the designs of what I already had was likely going to be my best bet.

Which one to do first was the big question. The revolver was the most complex while both the lever action and the bolt actions were comparatively simple. The bolt action was a little simpler but there was at least one disadvantage that I could think of off the top of my head. The bolt action I had was chambered in .30-06. That round had a high enough velocities that using pure lead projectiles was out. I'd have to use jacketed bullets and that was an extra step of complexity in manufacturing. For .44 magnum I could use cast lead bullets, those were easy to make. All I'd have to do is create a mold of one of the existing bullets, melt some lead and I was good to go.

Pure lead is actually too soft, I'd have to alloy it with other metals to bring up the hardness. But as luck would have it, one of the manuals I was reading had an entire section on lead cast bullets. It went over, in detail, the various lead alloys, what hardness they would yield and what velocities they were optimal for. Hard cast lead bullets would fit well with .44 magnum velocities and there was the added advantage that if I could build a revolver based of my current one I'd have two guns that fired the same round. Also, if I had to, I could load .44 magnum up with spark powder, the pony version of black powder. I'd never seen a .30-06 load that used black powder but I'd seen 44 loads using the stuff before.

The weekend was over so it was back to PT with Bulk Biceps. There was rain scheduled for that morning and grey clouds coated the sky as far as I could see. The steady cascade of water kept most of the streets free of ponies which only added to the loneliness of my trot down to the hospital. It was the first trip I had made without being accompanied by Golden Dawn, which didn't help things. I had kept myself fairly busy during the weekend but I was already missing her pretty bad. I hoped that everything went smoothly down in Hoofston and that she'd be back soon.

The session itself went well and I continued to make progress with my wings. Bulk Biceps had me doing a number of wing exercises as well as slow laps around an indoor track, flying both backwards and forwards. Bulk Biceps insisted my wings were more than ready for regular use but I still struggled with the idea of leaving the ground. At least inside, where was a roof over my head and I never got more than a foot from the floor.

After the session, I headed over to The Griffon's Nest. I was hoping to run into Thunderbolt and Silent Night again but they weren't there. Still, it gave me the opportunity to enjoy another good lunch. I talked to Gus, the griffon that ran the restaurant and he mentioned that most time Lunar Guard showed up for late dinners, usually right before he closed up shop. Since it was still early afternoon, they were probably still be asleep or they were off on a mission again. That meant my afternoon was open, I could head back to the castle and get some reading done, but I had a better idea.

I swung by hardware store and filled one half of my saddle bags with some supplies. Then I took off at a canter, heading directly for my truck. When I got there, I got out my keys and unlocked the trailer and climbed in. After some digging I came back out with my two rifles and a toolkit that would have everything I needed to take them both apart. I slipped the toolkit into the empty half of my saddlebags and attempted to pick up both rifle cases. It didn't take me long to discover I lacked the balance to carry both of them. Deciding to go with the lever action, I returned the bolt action back to the trailer. I was about to lock it up when I saw the revolver case, my holster and belt.

A few minutes later I exited the truck with belt slung around my chest and the revolver holstered. It was easier than trying to carry a second case and carrying it that way I could still bring two guns back to my room. When I got back I took the belt off and hung it on a chair. I cleared everything off the table and then pulled the revolver out of the holster. After double checking that it was empty I placed it on the table. The lever action was next, when I was done the two guns sat there in front of me.

Next came out my tool kit and my purchases, a huge stack of paper, an entire package of pencils, a ruler, a compass, a protractor, a pair of calipers and an eraser. It had been a long time since I had done anything like this and that was back when I had hands. I expected that this was going to take a while with hooves. Deciding to start with the rifle, I moved the revolver off to one side, picked up my tools and began to measure.

I started with easy things, total length and barrel length. Each time I took a measurement, I stopped and wrote it down. As I got more used to writing with my hoof, I took more and more measurements. Eventually I had numbers for every major exterior surface. It took me several attempts but I eventually produced a passable sketch of the rifle and then went through the painstaking process of labeling each measurement that I had taken on the drawing.

When that was finished, I pulled out my tools and carefully began to take the rifle apart. Again, the work was slow as I relearned how to use tools as a pony. My hooves worked most of the time but I found delicate work was much easier with wing or mouth. I worked at it slowly and with as much patience as I could muster, nearly two hours later I had the gun completely taken apart.

One by one I began to measure and sketch each part. The work was painstakingly slow but I enjoyed the opportunity to practice getting used to my new body. I hadn't even made it a quarter though all the parts when my stomach grumbled loudly. I looked over at the clock and noticed it was dinner time. I sighed and put down my pencil, this was going to be a multi-day activity, but I had already come to that conclusion while I was taking the rifle apart.

Every day after physical therapy I headed back to my room and worked on my project late into the night, stopping only for a quick dinner by myself. I did swing by the barracks one night, it took me a while to find Moonlit Shadow but she let me know that Thunderbolt and Silent Night were unavailable.

Visiting Kitchen Sink was on my to do list, but I kept getting distracted working trying to finish my drawings. Progress was slow in the beginning, but as time went by the work became easier as I grew more and more used to my new pony body. By the end of the week I had a stack of papers detailing each component of both rifles and the revolver. I had even started working on sketches for a gun of my own design, a single shot break action shotgun. I decided that if I had problems building the lever action, I could fall back to that. A break action with a smoothbore was just about as simple as one could get. I wasn't sure if I could create the plastic hulls that modern shotshells use but before plastic became common, brass and paper shells were used and either of those would be comparatively simple to trying to figure out how to make plastic.

It had been one week and a day since Golden Dawn had left for Hoofston and nearly two since I had woken up as a pony. I was sitting in my room trying to work on the plans for the break action shotgun. Unfortunately I was feeling very fidgety and was having trouble sitting still. When I heard a knock at the door I jumped up, eager for a distraction. I trotted over to the door and opened it up to find a red pegasus carrying a large mail bag.

"Are you... Hail Storm?" she asked.

"Yep, that's me," I said.

"I've got a letter for you," she said, reaching inside the bag and pulling out a small envelope.

I thanked the pony, took my letter and headed inside. I sat down on the couch and looked at the front of the envelope. My name was spelled out in neat cursive writing, the castle address listed underneath it. I glanced at the return address and saw Golden Dawn's name and address. Carefully I flipped it over, opened the envelope, which was actually kind of tough to do with hooves, and pulled out the letter.

"Dear Hail Storm,

I hope this letter finds you well. I've reached Hoofston and begun work on packing up all of my equipment. By the time this letter reaches you, I should be nearly done. I expected the work to take longer, but it turns out that I will not have to move everything up north as I had originally planned. Steam Gauge, one of the mechanics that does occasional work down in the oil fields, is going to be buying a large chunk of my inventory off of me for a fair price. With me moving out of town, he's going to expand into train maintenance since work at the oil fields is sporadic. I'm going to try to convince him to buy the shop itself but I don't know if he will yet. Either way Blue Skies is going to handle selling the building for me so I don't have to stay in town. Speaking of Blue Skies, both her and Dusty Heart were glad to hear that you are doing better. Blue Skies can hardly believe that Princess Twilight was able to save you by turning you into a pony. She made me promise to ask you to come down to Hoofston someday so she can see for herself.

How are your own business plans going? I look forward to hearing about any ideas you've had when I get back. I also look forward to meeting some new friends of yours, don't spend the whole time I'm gone shut up in your room. Have you mastered flying yet? Maybe we can go for a flight when I get back."

There was a large paragraph that was heavily scratched out making reading what it said impossible. After that the letter continued.

"I... I am sorry about the kiss at the train station. I saw the confusion in your eyes, it was clear that you do not feel the same as I do. I hope that my forwardness did not ruin our friendship. Please just forget the whole thing, I won't bring it up again."

Your friend,

Golden Dawn."

I folded the letter back up, sitting quietly in thought. Golden Dawn had been right, I was confused when she had kissed me, but not for the reasons she thought. A relationship with a non-human was something I had never considered before, the shock of the kiss had derailed my train of thought. I didn't mean to reject her, but I still did not know if that is what I wanted. I had better come to a decision quickly though because whether or not she had said that she wouldn't bring it up again, I needed to talk to her, to explain why I had reacted the way I did. I had a feeling that when that conversation reached a conclusion, I would need to have an answer for her.

I decided to go for a walk to clear my head. With no real destination in mind, I ended up off to the side of the royal gardens where my truck was parked. Part of me wanted to hop inside and just drive, but there were a number of problems with that. First off, I had never driven as a pony, secondly there were no roads out of this area of the castle. The only way my truck was getting out of here without driving through areas that I was pretty sure I should not, was with whatever magic Twilight had used to bring it here in the first place. Lastly, I just didn't feel like driving right now, instead I wanted to move on my own power.

I don't know what it had been going on, but all day I had been feeling like I needed to get out and do something. It hadn't helped that there was no PT this morning so I didn't do my normal exercises. Still, I didn't want to go running through the castle grounds like some sort of nut, so I decided to settle for a long walk.

I had never gone through the gardens before, but with them right next to me that made a good first choice. If that didn't tire me out, well I suppose I could head down to the train station and back again a few times.

I wasn't really much of a garden person but I had to admit whoever maintained these certainly knew what they were doing. Row after row of colorful flowers spread out before me, broken up by the occasional statue or fountain. Eventually I came to a clearing filled with a large number of statues. Off to the side was what appeared to be a hedge maze. I shrugged to myself and walked into the entrance.

Five minutes of twists and turns later, I was hopelessly lost. Well, not hopelessly, but I knew it was going to take me a while to find my way out, but that was half the fun of these things. In fact I was fairly confident I could get out and I found myself thinking about those twists and turns that I had gone through. As my route drifted through my mind, I realized I sort of had a feeling of which directions I had been going. There was something inside me that gave me a feel of which way north, south, east and west were. Extrapolating from that, if my memory was accurate, I could trace back my steps and hopefully find the exit.

I wasn't quite ready to leave yet though, so until then, I found a bench and I decided to take a seat and do some thinking. I wanted to give Golden Dawn's letter some extra thought and I couldn't really do that and figure out my newfound compass powers at the same time.

I climbed onto the bench, but it was almost immediately apparent that while I wanted to sit down and think, my body did not. I couldn't get comfortable and I could feel my wings and hooves twitching, as if they were ready to get going.

I was debating what to do when I my ears swiveled towards the sound of hoofsteps coming from around one of the many corners that lead to this small opening in the maze. Unlike in the gardens, which had a little more traffic than I cared for, I hadn't run into any ponies inside the maze itself. I wasn't entirely sure if I was supposed to be in here and I didn't want to get in trouble, so I stood up, picked a direction and began to walk away as quietly as I could.

I heard the hoofsteps start to fade away but as I rounded another corner they grew louder again. I turned randomly, only to run smack into Princess Cadance.

Princess Cadance was a good deal larger than I was so she came out of the encounter just fine. I picked myself up out of the dirt and looked up to her.

"I'm terribly sorry about that," I said, I hadn't seen the princess since before Golden Dawn had left. If I wasn't supposed to be in here, I was about to find out. At least it would be from a pony I had met before instead of a random guard.

"Don't worry about it Hail Storm, what brings you in here?"

"A combination of things, um I am allowed in here right? I didn't see any signs or anything at the entrance."

"Of course, like the rest of the gardens, the maze is open to the public. The maze just doesn't get as many visitors as it used to."

"Oh, why is that?"

"When Discord broke free from his stone prison, he took over this maze during his confrontation with Twilight and her friends. The entire area was heavily warped with chaos magic, even though that magic has since been purged, the maze gained a reputation for being tainted. Many ponies are still afraid of Discord and anything that has been touched by him, even after his reformation. The maze was never the most popular location in the garden but after that day, traffic dwindled even further."

"Why are you here then?" I asked.

"For that very reason, I like the maze because it allows me to get away from the crowds of Canterlot and have some time to myself. It is rare for me to run into any other ponies in here and I appreciate the solitude."

Suddenly, I felt even more like an intruder.

"Oh, do you want me to leave? I don't want to bother you," I said.

"No, it is alright, I don't mind running into ponies in here, it just doesn't happen often. There's a clearing with a bench not too far from here, why don't we go sit down and talk, I haven't seen you in a while. I'd like to hear how you are doing."

"I might have just been there, but I'm not positive I know how to get back," I said sheepishly. "I just figured out I can tell directions now, but honestly when I heard somepony coming I tried to sneak out since I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be here or not and I kind of wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

Cadance giggled at my honestness.

"Follow me," she said as she lead the way.

A few minutes later we were back at the bench I had just left. We took a seat and I made a serious attempt to keep my fidgeting to a minimum while Cadance asked me to fill her in on everything that had happened in the last week.

I focused mostly on my progress with Bulk Biceps and only briefly mentioned talked about Golden Dawn, mentioning that she had gone back to Hoofston for a while. I had started to talk about the work I had been doing in my room, with the drawings of the gun components when Cadance interrupted me.

"That's very interesting, I'm sure Shining Armor would like to hear about these firearm devices, but what of Golden Dawn?" Cadance asked, smiling gently down at me.

"What about her?" I asked.

"You came in here to think about something, that is what most ponies who venture into the hedge maze tend to use it for, and since you've been avoiding talking about her, I must assume that she is the subject of your thoughts."

"She uh, yeah, she is." I said, as I felt my face heat up.

"Do you miss her?" Cadance asked.

I did miss Golden Dawn but at the same time I was afraid of her coming back. I knew that we were going to have to talk but I still hadn't figured out what I wanted to say.

I nodded. "A lot."

"But it is more than that," Cadance said with a mischievous smile. It was almost as if she could sense the feelings racing around inside me.

Ordinarily, I would have tried to shift the topic, but I could tell I was outmatched. On top of that something deep down inside me told me, I had to talk to somepony. Cadance, being one of the few ponies around that I sort of knew, seemed like a reasonable choice. Plus, ever since she had shown up, I just felt... calmer.

"Yeah, it is. Before she left, when we were at the train station, she um, she kissed me."

Cadance's face lit up and her smile broadened.

"Oh that's wonderful!" she said before her smile turned into a frown. "Though I can see why that would weigh so heavily on your mind."

"You can?" I asked. How could Cadance even begin to understand it when I didn't myself.

"Believe it or not, but as the Princess of Love, I do have some expertise in these areas," Cadance said. "It helps that my magic allows me to get a good sense of the emotions that are ponies are feeling."

That explained how she knew, except... she had just said the l-word, I nearly choked in surprise.

"L-l-love? Between me and Golden Dawn?"

"Not yet I would say, but there is a good foundation there for it to grow. You are both friends, you care for each other, perhaps even more than you realize. But back to the matter at hand, you are concerned with the possibility. Appearances aside, you are not truly a pony, at least not in mind. From talking to Twilight, I understand there are no other sapient races on your world. That would make inter-species relationships unheard of. In addition, unless I am mistaken, you still yearn to go home someday. A relationship in Equestria would complicate that."

"I hadn't even thought of the second thing, my mind was still focused on the first." I admitted. "Though now that you bring it up, I'll add it to my list of things to worry about. Right after that letter I got from Golden Dawn."

"Letter? If you don't mind me asking, what did it say?"

"She saw my reaction to her kiss, I was confused, and she could tell. But she thinks I was confused because she thinks I don't have feelings for her. She apologized and said she wouldn't bring up the whole thing again. That's not why I was confused. I do like Golden Dawn but... like her in that way? I really don't know, the thought had never even crossed my mind. For humans, it is as you say, we are alone and there are no other intelligent races on our world. This is completely new to me, it's so... alien. I don't know what I should do."

Cadance nodded, took a moment to think and then spoke up. "If Golden Dawn was a human female, what would your reaction have been?"

"Probably... probably kick myself for not having seen it earlier," I admitted.

"Would you have returned the kiss?"

"I... don't know. It's so hard to answer... But... I'd like to think, if I had found a girl as smart and friendly and kind as Golden Dawn back on Earth, well if she was single and I thought I had a chance... I'd have asked her out by now."

"Then I think you have your answer of what you should do when she returns. Might I suggest you start by explaining things as you did here, I find honesty is another wonderful foundation for a good relationship. Her species, and your former one should not come between you two. I do hate to be so blunt but do not forget that it is very likely you will remain a pony for the rest of your life. How terribly lonely that life will be if you reject any chance at loving relationships."

"But what if I hurt her? What if I find a way home and I have to leave?" Questions started spilling out as fast as I could think of them.

"How is that different than any other budding relationship? Opening up to some pony, getting close to them, there is always a certain amount of risk involved. As for leaving Equestria, why not cross that bridge when you come to it? It is possible you may wish to say in Equestria, you are certainly welcome to do so. On the other hoof, Golden Dawn may wish to travel to Earth which could possibly be arranged."

"What if I find out I only like her as a friend? You said there wasn't love there."

"It's true, things may not work out between you two. As for love, well it does not always spring into existence on first sight. Sometimes it grows slowly as two ponies get closer to each other. Spend some time with her, it may lead to a deeper relationship or you may go back to being just friends. The important part is trying. What's the alternative? Putting the chance at serious relationships on hold in the off chance that Twilight might find you a way home?"

Cadance was right, on all counts. I didn't want to be alone the rest of my life, either due to me rejecting my new species or because I was afraid of what would happen should I be able to go home. That really left only one possibility. I had to talk to Golden Dawn, explain the situation and then move forward, if she still wanted to. My species might have changed, but this was no different than any other relationship.

It had been a while since I'd been in one, so taking it slow was probably the best idea. That was, if Golden Dawn was still interested. If she was, I suppose I'd be the first human to date an alien, that had to be something. Captain Kirk would be proud, well, maybe not, he'd likely already be off sleeping with Twilight and getting some redshirts killed.

I thanked Cadance for the talk, I still had some things to think about, mostly how I was going to approach Golden Dawn, but I was in a much better state than I been. Cadance must have sensed me coming to terms with things and she volunteered to lead me out of the maze. I kind of wanted to try out my new found navigational skills, but I could save that for another time, honestly I was starting to feel a bit jumpy and I didn't feel like taking it slow as I figured them out..

It wasn't very long before I recognized the entrance at the other end of the path we had just turned down. I was a few steps behind Cadance when I felt something click. A surge of energy shot through my body and I felt an uncontrollable urge to move. I took off like a rocket heading down the path and out of the maze, barreling past a very surprised looking Cadance.

A small part of my mind told me to slow down and wait for her but the rest of it was focused on running so I just kept going. A moment later Cadance caught up with me.

"Hail Storm? Are you alright?"

"Fantastic, I need to move." The words just slipped out of my mouth, without any thought but I found they were true. I felt like I was bursting with energy and if I slowed down, even for a moment, I'd explode. It was like the ultimate sugar rush combined with a hefty dose of caffeine high. Even running full speed I wasn't using enough energy. I wanted to move faster but I couldn't, I was already at a gallop and was quickly running out of garden.

Cadance's horn lit up and I felt a magical tingle from all around my body as she cast some sort of spell on me.

"Oh, of course, it's the healing spells. I know what's wrong with you, they're in their final stages now. They starting to collapse and your body is bouncing back as all the stored energy is being released. It's kind of like a super sugar high, but you should end up with the normal energy levels for a pegasus."

"This is normal?" I asked. I had almost completely run out of room, the walls of the castle were fast approaching, so I turned the only direction available to me, and headed right, picking up speed again. Even galloping flat out wasn't doing any good anymore. My wings felt itchy and kept trying to flare open. Deep down I knew what my body wanted to do.

"Well, yes and no. You're feeling such a rush because up until now your body has been under fairly heavy strain and it just suddenly returned to full strength. That should wear off in a bit, remember I warned you about this?"

"Vaguely, is it dangerous?" I asked as we ran past a very surprised gardener.

"Nope, honestly what you are doing now is the best thing for it. Though this isn't the best place to be running around. Care to take to the skies?"

Normally, my very reasonable fear of crashing to the ground and dying in a horrible splat would have had me saying no before Cadance had even finished the question, but I wasn't really thinking straight. Every ounce of my being was screaming at me to fly.

I had mastered hovering with Bulk Biceps and even flying around the room at low speeds but there just wasn't enough room for me to do any sort of fast flying inside the hospital. Previously, this hadn't been a problem, since I hadn't wanted to fly. Now though, the situation had changed. It was taking every ounce of effort I could muster to not start flapping my wings like a crazed madpony. In the end, my mind lost out and my body took over. My wings popped open and I felt them line up, angling into the wind to gain the maximum amount of lift. Then they slammed shut with a powerful flap.

I was already moving pretty fast, as a pony, galloping full speed made any sort of running as a human look like a pitiful crawl. But, when my wings came down, and I lifted into the air, that's when the real speed began. It was as if I was a muscle car and my rear tires, which had been spinning madly, suddenly got some traction. I shot forward and upward at an incredible speed. I didn't have any way to clock myself but I would have been prepared to swear in court that I was doing at least 150 miles per hour.

That only lasted a moment as my lack of skill almost immediately caused me to botch my wing movements and I spun sideways. I let out a gasp and tried to correct myself just as a glowing field of magic surrounded me and found myself re-oriented.

I heard some flapping from above me and looked up, to see Cadance hovering in place with her horn glowing.

"Why don't we take it slowly at first?" Cadance asked as she let the magic surrounding her horn go out. I dropped about an inch, which made my stomach curl, but then my wings took over and I immediately stopped falling as I switched to a hover. That much at least I had some good practice in. Still, my body wanted to do more and my brain wasn't really in control yet, so I began to work on gaining some altitude, bringing myself up to Cadance's level.

As I rose up to meet her, Cadance kept the distance between the two of us more or less consistent. We flew higher and higher as I attempted to catch up. I poured on some extra speed as I followed her towards some low hanging clouds. She flew past them, banking widely and then began to circle back. Finally, she settled down on one of the larger ones.

I knew from the cloud currently in my truck that I could sit on them but I still didn't quite believe it as I flew towards the cloud next to her. With some trepidation I slowed myself down, I had never done a real landing before and I needed to make sure I didn't overshoot the cloud. I slowed my flapping down even further and continued to decelerate. Finally I folded them up completely as I reached my target. I was just a little off and landed with a whump on the cloud, bouncing gently on it's fluffy surface.

I still felt like I had enough energy to fly all the way to Ponyville, which was clearly visible from up here, and back again, but I no longer felt like I had the need to do so. It was at that point that my mind caught up with my body and I looked at the ground hundreds of feet below and very nearly had a panic attack.

I felt a sick feeling start to creep up into my stomach and a shiver went down my back... but then, unlike so many times before, it just stopped.

Looking back, that was the moment that began to accept what I was now.

An endless field of blue stretched out before me, only interrupted by the occasional small puffy white island. I looked down at the castle grounds below me, at the rest of Canterlot and at Ponyville off in the distance. From up here, I could see thousands of ponies down below going about their daily business. I spotted some other pegasus ponies in the sky, some were moving clouds, others were flying to their destination or perhaps, just for the joy of it. The detail I could see, even from way up here, was incredible. I had known my eyesight had improved but this gave me a whole new appreciation of how much it had. My mind began to process what had happened over the last few minutes and a realization dawned upon me.

I flew up here.

I flew up here!

I... flew... up here!!!

A wide grin spread across my face as fear melted away and was replaced with laughter. There was no reason for me to be afraid of heights anymore, I was a pegasus now, the sky belonged to me!

Chapter 15

After my transformation, I had picked up walking as a pony relatively quickly. The big reason behind this is because as a pony, I was walking everywhere. There was no hopping my car or riding a bike or taking a train, at least not for getting around Canterlot. However, now that I had embraced my new body to the fullest, my wings were on track to replace hooves as my primary method of locomotion. As my fear of heights had vanished, I quickly found that I was in love with the sky. How much of this was pegasus instinct versus the sheer freedom that flight brought, I wasn't sure. Now I knew why most pegasi tended to fly around everywhere rather than walk unless they were in mixed groups of ponies. Our bodies were built to fly and they knew it.

At first, I figured I would be limited to only a little bit of flying around a day. In my mind, the act of flight had to be immensely tiring, it involved lifting my not inconsiderable weight on a pair of roughly four foot wings. Pegasus ponies were lighter than similarly sized earth ponies and unicorns, I was a just barely on the heavy side at 385 pounds but that far exceeded any lift I should have been able to generate. I had assumed flying around all the time would be like sprinting everywhere as a human, immensely tiring. Instead, if anything it actually took less effort to fly unless I was going all out.

It had to have something to do with how pegasus flight was powered by magic, I could think of no other explanation that would allow me to zip around for hours at a time without wearing myself out. And zip around I did, forwards, backwards, up down, left right. No bird on Earth had as much skyward mobility as I now found myself possessing. The only thing that even came close was maybe a hummingbird. Like them, I could even hover in place. Except unlike hummingbirds, who had to beat their wings up to 50 times a second I could get by with a few lazy flaps once every second or so.

On top of my new found freedom of movement came the speed. After making very good progress on Monday through Wednesday's sessions with Bulk Biceps, he told me that Thursday would be my last day with him. That morning we headed to the outskirts of the city to an open field that a nearby school used for sports. It was large enough that I had plenty of room to push myself as hard as I possibly could.

Bulk Biceps brought some equipment to measure my performance. After he set it up, I flew a number of laps around the field at various speeds and then did a few flybys at my fastest possible speed. On my best run I topped out at 165 miles per hour, over twice as fast as my typical highway driving speed. This was actually on the lower end for most pegasus ponies, but Bulk Biceps was confident that with practice I could easily hit 200 in a few months.

While I could only keep my top speed for about a minute, more impressive was what I could do at what pegasi called their cruising speed. The speed that they could keep up anywhere from an hour to a whole day, depending on their abilities. I was able to do just under an hour of laps at 90 mph before I started getting tired. Just like my top speed, Bulk Biceps stated that would also improve over time, though he couldn't say how much. Maximum endurance was often related to a ponies talent.

For example, Wonderbolts, who generally had talents in high speed precision flying, typically, though not always, had endurance on the lower end but excelled at bursts of very high speed. On the other hand a mail pony might top out at 200 mph but they could fly at their cruise speed while carrying a heavy load for most of a day without getting too tired, allowing them to cover a huge amount of ground. I still didn't have a cutie mark, so I had no idea how that would ultimately affect my flying.

After we finished, Bulk Biceps packed up his equipment and headed back into Canterlot. I decided that I'd spend the rest of the day flying around for the joy of it. I found myself in Ponyville when I realized I was getting hungry. I stopped in the open market and picked up some apples from a friendly earth pony mare wearing a cowboy hat. After making quick work of them, I was about to fly back to Canterlot when I spotted a building that looked like it was made out of various confectioneries. I was still kinda hungry and the cupcake on the sign outside looked delicious so I trotted towards the entrance.

"So it's been like that all morning?" I heard a pony ask. Her voice sounded familiar.

"Yeppers. Itchy nose followed by flappy ear. And that means I'm going to see a friend from far away," I heard a different pony say. "The weird thing my ear flaps the farther away the friend is from and this started hours ago. Whoever is coming to visit must be from super duper far away."

The second voice also sounded familiar and as I stepped inside, I saw Rainbow Dash standing at the counter talking to Pinkie Pie who was restocking some cupcakes. I had met each pony only once, unless you counted the time Rainbow carried my unconscious human body to Canterlot and both of them had been before my transformation, so I expected re-introductions were in order.

"Hey, it stopped!" Pinkie said, looking up.

I didn't make it another step before Pinked noticed me.

"Hail Storm!" A moment later I was being ambushed by a pink blur. Pinkie gave me a great big hug before I knew what was happening.

"Wait, how did you know it was me?" I asked in confusion.

"Not many other adult pegasus ponies walking around without a cutie mark," Rainbow Dash said as she walked over.

"You knew about this?" I asked, using a wing to gesture at my body.

"Of course, We're both friends with Twilight, she's been keeping us up-to-date on your condition."

"Oh, that makes sense," I said nodded in understanding.

"What brings you to here?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Cupcakes obviously," Pinkie said happily as let go of me and bounced back to the counter. She rummaged around for a moment behind the glass before finally selecting two different cupcakes and pulled them out.

"Actually yeah, well if you mean this store anyway, I saw the sign and a cupcake seemed like a great idea."

"Two cupcakes you mean, these are for you," Pinkie said.

I hadn't had a chance to look at what was available, but something told me to just trust her judgement when it came to cupcake selection.

"Just one will be fine," I said.

"But we're having a buy one get one free sale for all inter-dimensional travelers today."

I sighed, pulled out my money and paid.

The first was a simple chocolate cupcake, which suited me just fine. Chocolate was my go-to pick when I had a selection to choose from and whoever had made this cupcake knew what they were doing. It tasted even better than the one Pinkie had jammed in my mouth the first time I met her. Though, I suppose that could have been from my now enhanced sense of taste. The second cupcake looked to be vanilla but there were bits of something in the frosting. I took a bite and my eyes lit up.

"Pinkie, are there bacon bits in this frosting?" I asked staring at the pink pony in wonder.

"Yep! We had a griffon place a special order for maple bacon cupcakes yesterday. There were just enough left overs for one more cupcake. I had a feeling I'd find a customer who wanted it."

"It's so good," I said. A tear came to my eye as I devoured the last of the cupcake.

"So, what I really meant is what brought you to Ponyville." Rainbow Dash asked as I licked the last bit of frosting from my hoof.

"Nothing really, I was flying around and I got hungry so I landed looking for food." I said.

"Flying? Now that is a surprise. The last time Twilight talked about you, she said you were having some difficulty with your wings."

"It was... more of a mental block," I said, pawing at the floor. "I uh, well to be honest, I had a thing with heights. As in they and I didn't mix."

I had kind of expected Rainbow Dash to laugh, how could a real pegasus even comprehend a fear of heights. Instead she gave me a look of understanding.

"So what changed, how did you overcome it?"

"That doesn't seem strange to you?" I asked. "Especially now that I'm a pegasus."

"Nah, someday we'll have to introduce you to our friend Fluttershy. She was born a pegasus and she doesn't like heights. Everypony is afraid of something, you just gotta learn to deal with it in your own way."

"Well, thanks for not laughing, I kind of figured most pegasi would think a pegasus being afraid of heights would be ridiculous." I said. "I wish I could give some heroic tale of my overcoming my fear but honestly I don't have one. The healing spells Cadance and her team had used to repair the damage to my body were sapping my strength. When they finally finished their repair work and faded away, it was like someone had lit a fire under me. Cadance had told me it was coming but I was not prepared for how much energy a pegasus body has, I thought I was back to normal last week. I was overcome by the need to move, and running just wasn't cutting it. I knew I had to get off the ground."

"Oh yeah, I know that one, the instinct to fly for a pegasus can be pretty powerful. Our bodies know what they were made for," Rainbow Dash said knowingly.

"Well, the next thing I knew I was hundreds of feet up in the air. I ended up flying up to a cloud and landing on it. Seeing everything from up there, the tiny ponies down on the ground thousands of feet below, the sky stretching out before me, it was breathtaking! Something just clicked inside me and my fear died right there. Anyway, I think I'm addicted now, I finished my PT today and I've been flying all afternoon."

"That's awesome dude, keep it up!" Rainbow Dash said happily.

"I will, it's such a rush, I can't get enough of it. I only wish Golden Dawn had been here to see me take off," I said somewhat sadly.

"Flying is good like that, being in the air has this incredible feeling of freedom that I just don't get while I'm on the ground. Sometimes when I'm up there, I feel bad for earth ponies and unicorns." Rainbow Dash said.

"No offense Pinkie," she added, looking at Pinkie Pie.

"None taken Dashie," Pinkie said with a smile. "I get a feeling like that when I pull off a perfect party for somepony."

Pinkie turned to me, "speaking of which. Twilight said I couldn't throw you one when you were sick. You're better now, so expect one when you least expect it."

"Huh?" I asked.

"A party, you need a few, maybe I can combine them..." Pinkie said as she whipped out a notepad and pencil out of nowhere and started to write down what looked like fake gibberish math equations on the paper.

"Don't even try to figure her out," Rainbow Dash said as she noticed my mystified expression. "You said you wished Golden Dawn could have been there, where is she?"

Golden Dawn hadn't exactly sworn me to secrecy about her plans but I figured it was better to not go into specifics.

"She's back in Hoofston, she had to head back down there. She runs a workshop, doing work on steam trains and other things. Anyway, she went there to close down her business. She planning on moving up north to work on a project."

"What kind of project?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I'm not really sure if I'm supposed to say, I don't think it's a secret or anything but I don't think it's public knowledge yet."

"Fair enough, what about you, you mentioned being done with therapy. I know Twilight had said figuring out how to get you home would take a while, any plans while you wait?"

"Well, when I stumbled into Equestria, a bunch of my stuff came with me, if I can reproduce some of it, I'm thinking about opening a store to sell it. It would be similar to work I did back on Earth."

"Is it food?" Pinkie asked as she continued to fill a page with nonsensical numbers.

I laughed at that.

"Nope, in any case, I don't think human food would sell here very well. To be honest, everything I've had here that both ponies and humans eat, well the Equestrian versions have blown away anything I've had back on Earth. Besides I'm not much of a cook, unless we're talking about grilling up a steak or making some bbq, neither of which I think would sell well here." I said with a smirk.

"Well, you could always sell it to griffons and thestrals," Rainbow Dash said, "but that's a pretty small segment of the population."

"So what are you planning on making?" Pinkie asked, finally finished with whatever it was that she had been doing.

"Something called a firearm or a gun. It's uh, well it's a projectile weapon, kinda like a bow or crossbow but more advanced. Humans use them as weapons but also for hunting and recreational activities like target shooting."

Rainbow Dash perked up at my mention of target shooting.

"What kind of target shooting?" she asked.

"Well, there's lots of kinds. Silhouette shooting, 3-gun, cowboy action shooting, trap, skeet, bowling pin shooting, long range shooting, and more," I said listing as many different shooting sports as I could think off of the top of my head.

"Oh, I don't know what any of those are," Rainbow said. "is it like archery where you shoot at a target with a bullseye on it?"

"Kind of, let's grab a seat and I'll explain."

Rainbow Dash and I sat down at one of the small tables, ordered some drinks and for the next hour or so I prattled on about guns, sport shooting and anything else related that I could think of. Pinkie Pie continued to go about her work in the bakery, listening in from time to time but Rainbow seemed much more interested. I realized that although I knew of many of these sports I wasn't familiar enough with all the ins and outs of their rules to accurately describe all of them, but I did the best I could. When I rarely had time to go to a range, I mostly just did some plinking. Still I had enough knowledge to get the general idea across.

"Wow, those all sound kind of cool. I used to do archery back before I joined the Junior Speedsters. Sometimes I regret not keeping up on it." Rainbow Dash said.

"Well once I figure out where I'm going to set up shop, I'll have to invite you over for a demonstration. That is if it's okay for me to actually do this. I don't know anything about the legalities of making these things."

"What do you mean?" Rainbow asked.

"Well, for one, I have no idea what you need to do to start a business in Equestria."

"You make something, and you start selling it," Pinkie said, bouncing over to refill our drinks.

"You don't have to like get a license or something?" I asked.

"What like, permission to sell cupcakes? That sounds silly." Pinkie said giggling.

"It does, but what if you made terrible cupcakes with shoddy ingredients that made ponies sick?"

"Why would you want to do that?" Pinkie asked, looking horrified.

"I wouldn't but what if somepony did."

"Well, they wouldn't stay in business very long then, who would want to buy cupcakes that made you sick?"

"I suppose so, but what about weapons. They're a little more serious than cupcakes. There's all sorts of laws about what kinds of guns you can sell and to whom you can sell them to."

"Like what?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Well, there's a federal background check, it's illegal for criminals to buy guns."

Rainbow Dash snorted in laughter spewing some of her drink on the table.

"Wait, wait, you've got these guns, and you don't want criminals to get them, so the solution was to make it illegal for criminals to buy them? Criminals don't follow the law! That's why they're criminals!"

"I said it was a law, I didn't say how effective it was. It does stop them sometimes, but the truth is most criminals get their guns illegally. The idea behind it is to try to keep somepony from buying a weapon that they could cause problems with if they had ill intentions."

"I kind of see what you're getting at, but it seems like the only foolproof way to know a pony wasn't going to misuse a weapon would be to read their mind, and that's super duper illegal, at least without their consent," Pinkie said. "Anyway, if you really want to know, I suppose you could check with Mayor Mare, if she didn't know, she could at least point you in the right direction."

"I might have to do that," I said. "There's more beyond just legal questions. If I did open a shop, don't think that Canterlot would work very well. It's far too crowded for my tastes and I couldn't demo the guns in the middle of the city. I'd like to get a decent sized chunk of land," I said while finishing off my soda.

"How much land are you talking about?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"That's kind of a hard question. While I could get by with a small shop and do all my testing out in the woods somewhere, I think it would be pretty beneficial to setup a range right on my own property. It would be good for when I need to do any testing but on top of that it would give me room to actually introduce ponies to shooting. Since firearms are virtually unknown, being able to do that is pretty important. If that's the case, well, maybe 10-20 acres, maybe more depending on the price of land. Also preferably not in a high population area, guns are loud and I don't want to disturb my neighbors."

"You're absolutely correct about Canterlot, no way you're going to find that amount of land in the city unless you're insanely wealthy. Even finding space for cloud homes above Canterlot are getting hard to do."

"I probably would have been better off in Hoofston, middle of nowhere like that, land is gotta be dirt cheap."

"Not much cheaper than here in Ponyville, in fact the only places I can think of that are getting costly are the really big cities, Canterlot, Manehattan, Las Pegasus, Fillydelphia and a few others," Pinkie said as she swung by to refill our drinks. "I remember Rarity was looking into opening a second shop in either Canterlot or Manehattan and mentioned the huge difference in price for renting a small one room store compared to what she paid for her whole boutique here in Ponyville."

"Maybe I should look in Ponyville then. It seems like a nice town and I like how it's still close to Canterlot, I don't want to get too far just in case Twilight finds a way to open a portal back to Earth."

"Would you go back immediately if she did?" Rainbow asked.

"Of cou..." I began to say. It was the automatic reply and I only caught myself halfway into saying it before I stopped. Had she asked me in the first few weeks of arriving in Equestria, I wouldn't have stopped myself, but things were different now. I had been in Equestria for over two months now, back on Earth I was probably already declared missing, maybe even dead. My job would be gone too, even if the position was still open, there is no way that I'd get it back without an explanation of where I had been. Somehow I don't think my old boss would accept 'trapped in a magical pony dimension' as a valid excuse.

I ruffled my wings as I thought about the other issues of returning back to Earth. I'd never be able to go back as a pony, would Twilight actually be able to restore my original form? She said it would be possible, if she could ever find my universe. More importantly though, would I want her to? I had spent the last few weeks getting used to being a pony and going back to human... well it some ways it seemed almost like a step backwards. I was stronger, faster and had far more endurance as a pegasus than I'd ever had as a human. Not to mention flying, that was something I'd never get back as a human.

On the other hand, I had family back on Earth. Sure I didn't get along with my mother, but that didn't mean I couldn't try to offer her an olive branch. Then there were friendships that I had let decay. If I stopped ignoring everyone, maybe I could rekindle those. Then there were the everyday things. Internet, TV, video games. They didn't seem as important as they used to, but I did miss them. There was more I could do back on Earth, especially if I pushed myself to, I just had to remember to not try to be an island, resisting forming ties with anypony... or anyone else. My time in Equestria had taught me that well.

Finally, I had to face the thing I'd put off thinking about for a while now. I had built friendships here in Equestria over the last two months. Saying goodbye to the ponies I met in Hoofston hadn't been easy but that would pale in comparison to having to say goodbye to Golden Dawn. I had spent more time with her than any other pony, hell, I'd spent more time with Golden Dawn than any other human in the last few years. Her interest in me only complicated things.

"Equestria to Hail Storm, come in Hail Storm," Rainbow Dash said as I sat there, deep in thought.

"Sorry, I... I don't... I just don't know. Maybe not immediately, but I guess it depends if it was a single chance to get home or I could get home anytime. I miss Earth and I miss some parts of my life there, but... Equestria is so... amazing. I have friends here now, and it would be tough to leave it and them all behind if it meant never coming back."

What I stopped short of saying was that I wouldn't go back. I wasn't ready to say that. Earth was still home and I didn't want to abandon it forever so quickly.

The conversation turned lighter as we talked of less serious things. Eventually Rainbow Dash had to excuse herself, she was on the Ponyville weather team and there was some storm clouds leaking from the Everfree Forest that she had to bust up as they crossed into the town's borders. It was getting somewhat late and I was eager to get some more flying in before the day was done which the trip back to the castle would more than satisfy. I said my goodbyes to both Rainbow and Pinkie and took off.

I took the scenic route on the way back to Canterlot. Then again when you can fly wherever you want, everything is the scenic route. My wings were starting to ache as the castle came into sight. I was making my descent when a thought crossed my mind. Thinking about friendships that I had made in Equestria, I was long overdue to give Kitchen Sink a visit. Getting out to Ponyville and running into Rainbow and Pinkie had made me realize how quiet things had been since Golden Dawn had taken off. My afternoons and and evenings had been almost devoid of pony contact. Sure I saw Twilight or Cadance and Shining Armor every once in awhile but for the most part they were busy running the country. Now that my work with Bulk Biceps was done, if I didn't make an effort to go out, I'd be spending the every day until Golden Dawn got back barred in a room with nopony to talk to.

I began to bank towards Canterlot town, only stopping when I realized with a bit of embarrassment that I was in no state to go visit anypony. I was drenched in sweat from my long flight and a quick sniff informed me that I was in dire need of a shower. Instead I landed as originally planned, trotted into the castle and quickly made my way to my room. Half an hour later, after taking some time to clean up, I headed back out of the castle.

Kitchen Sink had given me his address before we parted way, I swung by the truck and dug around until I found the paper he had written it down on. I slipped the paper into my saddlebags and trotted into town. I spent about twenty minutes wandering around the only parts of Canterlot that I really knew where the route to the hospital, the market and shopping district and Restaurant Row.

At first glance it didn't look it but Canterlot was actually huge. Due to the terrain, the only part of it that you could really see from Ponyville was the castle itself. When you actually got a look at it from the air however, you saw an entirely different picture. When you combined the castle grounds, the upper and lower portions of the city, the whole thing it covered just over 50 square miles with the bulk of it wrapping partially around the base of the mountain. From what I've been told, Canterlot was the second most densely populated place in Equestria holding just over half a million ponies. Only Manehattan was higher, with nearly two million ponies in an area not much larger.

Wandering around trying to find Kitchen Sink's street randomly was not going to work. I didn't even know if it was in Upper or Lower Canterlot. Instead I really only had one choice. Ask somepony for directions. Fortunately that was fairly easy, I just walked up to a random pony and asked. The first pony I talked to didn't know exactly where the street I was but he did know that it was in Upper Canterlot. That narrowed things down considerably. Eventually I found another pony who pointed me to the lower east section. Each time I talked to a new pony, I narrowed down the search area. I found that most ponies were of the friendly sort and each one I asked seemed genuinely happy to help as best as they could. In fact my searching stopped at pony number eight who not only knew exactly where the street was, but lived only a few streets over so she volunteered to show me exactly where it was.

On arriving at Purple Dart Lane, I thanked the unicorn for her help and then began to look for number 172. The houses here weren't weren't the largest or most opulent in the city, but they did look to be fairly high end. Elegant stone structures topped with slate roofs and generously sized yards, at least for the compactness of the city. Finally, I arrived at my destination, a large white house that looked just a little run down compared to the rest of the area. I trotted up to the door and gave it a knock.

When nopony answered, I tried again two more times. I was never one for patience and I began to hover back and forth unsure if I should wait around or come back another time. It had been nearly three minutes with no answer, and at that point I was almost sure Kitchen Sink wasn't home. Finally I gave up and had just taken off when my ears swiveled backwards catching the sound of the door opening behind me.

"Hello?" Kitchen Sink asked, sticking his head out of the door before spotting me.

I dropped back down and folded my wings up and turned to face him.

"Oh, you are home. Good to see you again Kitchen Sink."

He gave me a once over, a look of confusion spreading across his face. With that he stepped completely out of the house and closed the door behind him. The trench coat was missing but he was still wearing those same overstuffed saddlebags that he had on when we had first met. If anything they looked like he had packed a few more things into them.

"Do... I know you?" he asked.

"Do you know me?" I asked with mock outrage. "Do you know me? Oh come on. You'd think an adult pegasus with no cutie mark would be something you'd remember." I said with a huff.

He looked at me again, I saw his eyes turn towards my backside and then they bugged out a bit. It was a somewhat common reaction, but I had gotten to ignoring it. If I ever got one, it would be interesting but until then I wasn't going to fret over it. A pony born in Equestria might be self conscious about a missing their mark so late in life, but as a former human, I was more interested if it was possible for me to get one than in actually having one.

"I'm... I'm... sorry?" Kitchen Sink looked confused beyond belief. I felt a twinge of guilt, for all I knew, to a pony that might have been like calling him out for forgetting I was missing a limb.

"It's only been like two months and you'd think you'd remember the pony that saved your life," I said shaking my head in disgust.

This just drove Kitchen Sink into a deeper state of confusion.

"I remember it clearly, I heard some timbers creaking and then before either of us knew what was going there was a crack as the rotten support fell to pieces. Not a moment later rocks started pouring down as the roof collapsed on itself," I said.

"What? You're talking about when I was in the Sliver Stone Mines with that human... Hail Storm... How do you know about that?" Kitchen Sink asked.

He obviously had no idea it was me, of course why would he. I obviously looked completely different as a pegasus, the only thing that had more or less remained the same was my voice but it had been a while and Kitchen Sink hadn't known me that long, for him to remember it without me pointing it out and then make the jump to my transformation was a bit too much to expect.

"Oh, so close. You're almost there," I said with a smile.

"What?" he asked.

"It's me Kitchen Sink. I'm Hail Storm."

"Hail Storm is a human, you're a pegasus. A crazy pegasus..." Kitchen Sink, narrowing his eyes. His look told me that he thought I was a complete loon.

"Okay, think back. Remember the enchanted necklaces we wore into the mine? Remember how it was making me sick and you noticed it left something like a burn on my chest?"

"I... I didn't tell anypony about that," Kitchen Sink said, his eyes growing wide.

"Well you remember my story, of how I got to Equestria. I'm not even from this universe. Magic and my old body just didn't mix. It was making me sick, not just your amulet, all magic, even the background magic of Equestria. It was slowly killing me. This was the solution," I said gesturing at my body with a wing.

"What?" he asked, still looking confused.

"Hail Storm was a human, he's not anymore," I said. "Listen to my voice, it's about the only thing that didn't change."

"But... but... how?" Kitchen Sink asked as he stared at me.

"You got time for the whole story or you want me to summarize it?" I asked.

"Uh, well I'm not doing anything right now, I was thinking about going to get dinner though."

"Great, have you been to the Stumbling Unicorn before?" Golden Dawn had pointed it out at one point. We were supposed to go we never made it.

"The tavern down in Lower Canterlot over near Donut Joe's'?" Kitchen Sink asked.

"That's the one."

"Plenty of times."

"Is it any good?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said with a nod.

"Good, I've been wanting to try it out. I'll share my tale over some drinks," I said with a grin.

"I guess that works," Kitchen Sink responded.

"So let me get this straight, you were on your deathbed when Princess Twilight came galloping in just in the nick of time and her solution was to turn you into a pony?" Kitchen Sink asked.

I took a swig of my beer before replying. "That's pretty much the gist of it. Damn mirror nearly killed me too, but once the transformation was complete, Cadance and her team were able to use some crazy powerful healing magic on me. I've spent the last couple of weeks recovering and getting used to my new body."

"And now you're stuck here?"

"Sort of, last I talked to Twilight, she's still searching for a way to figure out how to send me home, but it isn't going to be quick. It could take years. Thankfully I'm not in any danger of dying while I wait anymore."

"What about that cute pegasus you were hanging around with, uh... Golden Dawn I think it was?"

"Yep that is her, she had to go back to Hoofston, but hopefully she should be back in Canterlot soon," I said with a sigh. I missed her and I had a lot to talk about with that mare.

"So what have been doing these last few weeks then?" Kitchen Sink asked.

"Well I spent a few weeks in physical therapy. I had to learn how to walk again, not to mention how to fly. Turns out having your species changed doesn't magically make you able to use your new body."

"Oh yeah, I can only imagine the difference, especially since you were a biped."

"Apart from that, I've been working on something which might interest you. Since I'm going to be stuck here for quite possibly a very long time, I figure I should find some way to occupy my time. Back on Earth I had some experience working for a guy that built custom rifles. I'm going to try my hoof at designing and building guns."

"Now that is interesting, if you're successful I might need to buy one off of you."

"I'm confident that I can replicate the guns I've got with me, but there is one thing that is going to be a bit of a problem. The ammunition is going to be the tough part. I'm not a chemist, I have no idea how to make smokeless powder. I need to find a pony who knows about that sort of thing."

"I know a pony who might," Kitchen Sink said.

"You do?" I said leaning in a bit closer.

"I buy all my dynamite from a pony named Short Fuse. She runs a small store that sells two things. Dynamite and fireworks. She came highly recommended when I was looking for a supplier. I even heard that Princess Celestia uses her fireworks for all events at Canterlot Castle. If you want a pony who knows chemical explosives she's your mare."

"That sounds exactly like the kind of pony I need to talk to. Where can I find her?"

"You know where Ponyville is?" Kitchen Sink asked.

"Yeah, I just flew in from there."

"She's based out of a building a little over an hour's trot north of there. It's about two and a half hours west of here, near at the edge of the easternmost part of the White Tail Woods. It's kind of out in the middle of nowhere which is good..."

"Because explosions are loud?" I said with a grin as I finished Kitchen Sink's sentence. He nodded. "Hmm, I wonder if she wouldn't mind a noisy neighbor?"

"What do you mean?" Kitchen Sink asked.

I downed the rest of my drink and then looked at Kitchen Sink. "I'm going to have to set up shop somewhere, and as you found out, guns are loud. I'm going to have to do a lot of testing which means I'll need both land and distance from anypony that might not mind if I'm making a lot of noise."

I picked at another celery stick, scooping up a blob of blue cheese. Pony food, for the most part, was excellent, but celery sticks and bleu cheese without buffalo wings was just a recipe for depression. I'd have to see if I could get my hooves on some, even if I had to kill the chickens myself. As we waited for the main course to be delivered I laid out my my plans to Kitchen Sink. My drawings were more or less complete, it was time for me to start the real work.

Over the last week I had been working on an overall plan. The first order of business was going to be finding a place to call my own. Lots of ponies seemed to live at their place of business and that seemed perfectly fine to me. After I secured a building, the next thing I would do is unpack all of my stuff. Getting the reloading equipment setup was my first priority. It would give me a chance getting used to working with tools in my new body and at the same time I could take an inventory of what I had ended up in Equestria with me.

The next step would be to start buying my own Equestrian made equipment. I knew I had a decent set of hand tools from my dad's place but no where near what I'd need to start up a gunsmithing business. Once I had a decent set of tools, I could work on modifying my existing guns. A trigger with a bit of a lip would make it easier to fire with hooves and a modified grip for the revolver would make it easier to hold. Apart from that, I didn't really want to touch them. Any major modifications would be saved for when I was ready to build my first gun.

"I think I'm going to pay Short Fuse a visit tomorrow," I said as we were both wrapping up with our dinner. "Do you want to come with?"

"It just so happens that tomorrow is the only day I am free. After that, I am heading out of Canterlot on another job," Kitchen Sink said with a happy grin. "Meet up at my house tomorrow morning?"

"That works."

Kitchen Sink headed back home and I returned to the castle. I had to stop by my truck and dig around in the trailer for a while to get everything that I needed for the next day.

The only downside to traveling with Kitchen Sink was that I couldn't fly there the fast way, instead I had to settle for a slow hover as Kitchen Sink trotted along. Still, it gave me time to catch up with the unicorn. The previous night he had spent nearly the entire time asking me questions about my journey to Canterlot and transformation. Now it was my turn to find out what he had been up to.

The work he had done for Jade Circlet had been quite a boon for the adventurous pony. Because of the information we had gathered Kitchen Sink was able to file a very detailed report with the Canterlot Guard. The guard dispatched some ponies who were based out of a town not too far from Hoofston to check out the hive. It was quickly deemed abandoned and Jade Circlet was given the go-ahead to reopen the Silver Stone mines. She had been so pleased with the speed at which Kitchen Sink had taken care of her problem that she was spreading the word of his efficiency to many other wealthy ponies who had problems of their own.

Kitchen Sink had been inundated with problems that needed to be looked into. Many were fairly mundane but a select few promised to be of the adventurous variety. In fact the very next day he was heading north, up to a placed called the Crystal Empire to help a pony search for a magical relic that had been lost during the reign of some pony named King Sombra.

Kitchen Sink was trying to explain the story of King Sombra to me when we finally arrived at Short Fuse's building. I landed and we trotted up to the door. Attached to the brick wall was a large sign, on it were the store hours, and the words "NO OPEN FLAMES PAST THIS POINT." in large red lettering next to the heavy iron door. Tacked on under the metal sign was a smaller paper one taped to it that read "THAT INCLUDES MAGICAL SPARKS!"

Kitchen Sink opened the door, setting off a small bell attached to the doorframe. We trotted inside and I began to look around. We were in a room that only occupied a fraction of the total building. It was divided into two parts by a chest high separator running from the door almost all the way to the other side of the room. On the smaller side of the store the shelves were packed with crates of dynamite. The larger portion of the store was entirely dedicated to fireworks. As I looked up and down the aisles I saw virtually everything I would expect to see in a fireworks store back on Earth. Mortar tubes, roman candles, sparklers, those funny little rockets on sticks, this place had it all.

There was a small counter at the far end of the room, behind the counter was a door that presumably lead to the rest of the building. I didn't see any pony at the counter but as I began to walk over the door opened up and out walked a smokey white earth pony. Unlike her coat, her cutie mark was bursting with color, quite literally since it appeared to be a firework, mid explosion. She saw me and gave me a friendly smile.

"Good morning, how can I help you?" she asked.

"Hello Short Fuse," Kitchen Sink said, stepping forward.

I was a bit surprised that the earth pony standing before us was Short Fuse. I had expected her to be a unicorn. I figured magic would make working with explosives easier.

"I recognize you... Kitchen Sink was it? You bought some dynamite a while back."

"Yep, that was me," Kitchen Sink said with a nod.

"Back for more?" she asked.

"I haven't had a chance to use the first set, still it's better to have and not need than not have and need."

"Pity, nothing quite like a good bang," she said with a gleeful laugh. "I would have already told you this but don't forget to leave it in the original packaging until you are ready to use it. The boxes are enchanted to keep the dynamite stable. You wouldn't want it to go off unexpectedly."

"I have, but thanks for the reminder." Kitchen Sink said. "But dynamite isn't what we came to talk to you about. This is my friend Hail Storm. He's wondering if you could take a look at something for him."

"Hi, good to meet you," I said, extending a hoof.

She shook my hoof and asked, "What can I do for you?"

"I've heard that you are the mare to talk to about chemical explosives."

"That is my area of expertise, strictly speaking I'm a chemist it just so happens that I happen to like explosions and the two jive quite well," she said with a smile.

"I've got a sample of, well it's an explosive, I'm not quite sure what is made from I was wondering if you can take a look at."

She tilted her head a bit, "That's a bit of an unusual request, what exactly is this stuff?"

"I could tell you it's a variant of smokeless powder but I don't think that will mean anything to you. It's um, well it's similar to spark powder, except that it burns cleaner and with much less smoke, hence the name. Thing is it's not from around here, nor am I. I have a limited quantity of the powder with me, but eventually I will need more of it and I don't have any way to get more. I'm hoping I can find somepony to help me replicate it. Or at least come up with something that matches it's burn characteristics."

"Interesting, what exactly do you use this powder for?" Short Fuse asked.

"Ah, as a propellant... of sorts."

"I'm going to need a bit more information than that. No offence, but for all I know I help you figure this stuff out and suddenly I find out that you're my newest competitor." Short Fuse said.

I considered Short Fuse's request. I didn't want to straight up give away my plans but without her help, I'd have to fall back on using gunpowder, spark powder to ponies. In a pinch it would work but gunpowder is far less powerful than modern smokeless powders and quite messy. If I ever wanted to design a modern semi-automatic or even automatic weapon gunpowder was going to cause issues.

"I understand where you are coming from but I have my own interests to protect. How about a deal. I am willing to give you a demonstration on what I use this powder for, and of course I will give you a sample. If you are able to reproduce it, or something comparable, then I will purchase all the powder I need from you and only you without seeking alternate sources for a period of 1 year... provided you are able to meet my requirements and the price is fair."

"How much of this stuff will you be needing?" Short Fuse asked.

"That entirely depends on how well my business does."

"What are you selling?" Short Fuse asked.

"Firearms."

"Never heard of them." Short Fuse said.

"A fair point, they don't really exist in Equestria. I'd be building and selling the first ones."

"I don't know, how do you know there's even a market for these... firearms?" Short Fuse asked. "What exactly is a firearm?"

"Primarily, a weapon, specifically a projectile weapon. But it can also be used for sport, target shooting for one," I said.

"Now I'm interested. A weapon that uses something similar to spark powder? I take it you aren't just throwing a jar of it. A stick of dynamite would work better in that situation in any case. Maybe aimed fireworks, packed with charge of spark powder? I tried to convince a friend I have in the guard that they'd be a great replacement for catapults, but I never had any luck."

Now this had promise. She clearly had an understanding of projectile weaponry.

"Your friend should have listened to you. What you are describing is basically a primitive rocket. Correctly used, they would vastly outstrip what you could do with a catapult," I said.

"Primitive? This would have been far more advanced than anything the Guard has access to." Short Fuse said with a hint of annoyance.

"Sorry, I meant no offense. Look, I said I'm not from around here, well it's a long story, but where I'm from, we've got stuff that would instantly obsolete any of the non magical weapons your Guard uses."

"So you say, but I've not seen anything yet." Short Fuse said.

"If I might interject here, I've seen Hail Storm's firearms in action, they are impressive. Hail, why not this. Demo your gun first, you are asking Short Fuse for a good deal."

"Fair enough," I said with a sigh. "If that works with you?" I asked looking at Short Fuse.

"That's fair. Where are you going to give this demonstration?"

"It would have to be outside somewhere. I can just shoot the gun at some trees or something, as long as there's nothing behind my target."

"Gun?" Short Fuse asked.

"Another word for firearm."

"I've got some leftover junk behind the building from when we were doing some work, maybe you can use your gun on something from the pile."

"Sure... oh damn I just realized something."

"What is it?" Kitchen Sink asked.

"My earmuffs aren't going to fit anymore and neither are my safety glasses. I guess you can do that silence spell for the noise though."

"I've got ear protection and glasses, though you probably wouldn't need the ear protection, you're a pegasus. Unless this firearm is insanely loud."

"I'm not sure exactly. At least 140 -160 decibels maybe louder."

"You'll be fine, but I can grab some if you want it," Short Fuse said. "I've got to go into the back and let my assistant know I'll be stepping outside anyway."

"Sure thing."

"I'll be right back," she said before heading back through the door.

A few minutes later she came back carrying three pairs of goggles hanging from her neck as well as three necklaces. She gave one set to Kitchen Sink, one to me and kept the last set for herself.

"How do these work?" I asked looking at the necklace.

"Magical sound dampener. They reduce any sound above a 100 decibels down to safe levels. 120 decibels is pretty much the maximum a pony can handle before possible hearing damage for non pegasi. Your ears should be good till around 185 decibels but there's no harm in having extra protection."

Short Fuse took us behind her building where there was a large field bordered by dense woods. There was a pile of scrap wood, empty paint cans and other assorted junk pushed up against the building.

"Anything you want to use as a target in here is fine." she said, nodding to the pile.

I looked it over. I could just shoot at some plywood but it wasn't very exciting. Instead I opted for the paint cans. It would be interesting to see if I could hit them, I hadn't used a gun as a pony yet and I only had the revolver with me. As I still didn't have the whole balancing things on my back without dropping them yet, Kitchen Sink levitated five cans out of the pile. We headed for the edge of Short Fuse's property.

Just before the treeline ran a small fence, marking the boundary of the Short Fuse's land and the start of White Tail Woods. The relatively flat property gave way to dips and bumps covered in a thick layer of trees surrounded dense undergrowth. I walked along the fence until I to an area that had a moss and fern covered mound of earth about thirty yards into the woods. I positioned the paint cans on the fence so that any stray shots would impact into the dirt.

"Just to be clear, there's nothing but trees behind this right?" I asked Short Fuse. I couldn't see any trails, indication of pony hikers, or other signs of life, but I didn't want to make any assumptions.

"Nothing but trees for miles," she answered.

First I put my goggles on with Short Fuse and Kitchen Sink following suit. Then I opened my saddlebag and pulled out the revolver. After verifying that it was clear, I reached back in and pulled out a box of ammo. Using my wing, I opened the cylinder and loaded six rounds.

"For reasons I can get into if you really want to know, I am not sure how good of a shot I'm going to be. I've never shot a gun like this before."

Short Fuse looked at me curiously and gave a bit of a nod.

I still hadn't mastered standing on my rear hooves so instead I sat down on my butt, holding the revolver in my two front hooves. Not feeling confident about shooting double action, I carefully pulled the hammer back until I heard a click. I centered the sights over the largest of the cans which was about 20 yards away. Reaching the trigger with my hoof was possible but difficult, instead I opted to do what Golden Dawn had done, using my wing. I reached into the guard and gently applied pressure to the trigger until it clicked and the hammer dropped. There was a loud bang and the paint can spun sideways before falling off the fence.

"What? All I heard was a bang, I didn't see anything," Short Fuse said, looking confused. "Is it some sort of magic?"

"Nope."

"Do it again."

"Alright," I said with a shrug as I lined up a second shot. Luck was with me, or perhaps it was my highly improved vision, a moment later another paint can was down.

"I saw you put six small round things into that device, is that what it is shooting?" Short Fuse asked.

"Sort of," I said with a nod.

"Does that mean you have four shots left?" Short Fuse asked.

"Yep."

"Can I try it?" she asked.

"It isn't exactly designed for hooves but I'm willing to let you try, we just have to be very careful. I'm going to unload the gun first and you can try operating it while it is empty. Then I'll load a round."

I pulled out the two empty pieces of brass and the four unfired ones, placing them back in the box.

"Alright, come here and let me show you how it works," I said, beckoning Short Fuse over.

I quickly ran through shooting safety rules, feeling a bit guilty that I had not done so before I started the demonstration. I had not originally planned on making this a shooting session, which in retrospect was a bad idea on my part. If I wanted to make a business out of this, I wanted ponies to want to pick up shooting. Short Fuse could very well be one of my first customers.

Short Fuse took the revolver from me, after looking it over she held it up like I had showed her and attempted to pull the trigger. Fortunately her hooves were a bit smaller than mine. She was just able to contact the trigger blade with the very tip of her hoof which was all she needed for that magical pony gripping force to allow her to successfully dry-fire the gun. She practiced the movement a few more times before she gave the go ahead for being read to try it with a live round.

"Just... don't aim up. Bullets can travel quite a distance and that hill we're using as a backstop isn't very high," I said.

I showed her how to open the cylinder and loaded a single round. I spun the cylinder into position and then closed it up. A moment later she took her shot, and a third can joined it's fallen brethren on the ground.

"Oh wow. Just wow. Now you said this thing isn't magic, so you're going to have to tell me it works. If you do, you've got yourself a deal. Well, almost. If you're going to be making these things, I want one. Throw one in for free and I won't charge you for the research I put into your smokeless powder, you'll only have to pay for the product."

"Just to be clear, this isn't the only style of gun." I said as I took the revolver back from the excited pony. "Also the ones I'm going to make aren't going to be exactly like this, at least not at first. I'll be making something called a rifle first. It's a bit larger than this one, meant for two hand... er hooves but will be shooting the same ammunition."

"So you're going to be making a few different varieties?" Short Fuse asked.

"Eventually."

"How about this, I'll wait till you get some variety and claim my free gun after I get to see a some different styles in action."

"Deal," I said shaking Short Fuse's hoof. I had plans for a shotgun, two rifles and a revolver. I didn't really mind which one Short Fuse chose.

"This is obviously not part of the deal, but I'd really like to know where this thing came from, it's clearly not made for ponies, where did you get it?"

"From my home country. For now, let's just say that I'm from very, very far away and leave it at that. I don't mind sharing my story, but it's a long one." I said.

"Fair enough, let's save it for another time. For now I want to know how this works," Short Fuse said.

"Do you have a bench I can use?" I asked. "I've can show you an assembled cartridge out here but I've got the individual components in a box, I'd rather not take it out outside, I don't want to lose anything."

"Yeah, let's head inside, we can use a workbench."

Short Fuse took us in a back door that opened up into a hallway. There was a strong smell of chemicals as we passed one of the rooms before she lead us into a workshop area. Standing behind one of the tables was a dark blue unicorn carefully packing up some fireworks into a box.

"Hey Sparks, we're going to be in the test room," Short Fuse said. The unicorn nodded in acknowledgement.

"That was my assistant, Dazzling Sparks," she explained to us as we headed across the room. We arrived at another door that was heavily reinforced. There was a sign on it that said "Open Flame Permitted Beyond this Point Only." I felt an odd twinge of energy as I walked through the door.

"That sensation you just felt is an active enchantment on the room. In the off chance that any sort of spark or fire makes it out of this room, that enchantment will put it out," Short Fuse said, apparently reading my mind.

We headed over to an empty table and I rummaged around in my saddlebags for a moment before pulling out a small wooden box. I also pulled out the box of .44 magnum ammo that I had been shooting earlier.

"This is a cartridge or round. Different guns can shoot different size cartridges. This one is a .44 magnum." I hoofed the round to Short Fuse so she could look at it more closely. When she was done she put it down on table.

I opened the wooden box and took out two small sealed glass vials, a 240 grain bullet and an empty .44 magnum brass case. As I went through each item I described them and their function to Short Fuse.

"These are the components of a cartridge. This brass cylinder is the case, it holds the cartridge together. This is the projectile, it's known as a bullet."

In the first glass vial was a primer. Primers kind of look like those super tiny hearing aid button batteries, except one side is smooth metal while the other is open. The primer is sensitive to pressure and a hard enough strike will cause it to go off.

"This is the primer. Primers have a compound in them that is very sensitive. When the primer is struck by the firing pin it ignites, providing the flame that will set off the powder. The powder is in this second vial," I said moving to the next tube. "This is 23 grains of one type of smokeless powder. It is the minimum load for this weight bullet in this cartridge with this specific powder."

"It isn't spark powder?" Short Fuse asked.

"Nope. It's similar, but it burns cleaner and faster."

"Hmm okay. What do you mean, minimum load?" Short Fuse asked.

"Most powders have a minimum or starting load. For the powder to work properly you should not go below them, there's also a maximum load."

"What happens if you go above the maximum load?" Kitchen Sink asked.

"It would be bad." I said flatly.

"What do you mean, bad?" Kitchen Sink asked.

"Try to imagine a very loud bang and fragments of the gun exploding at you at supersonic speeds."

"All right, that's bad." Kitchen Sink said.

"Truthfully that's a worst case scenario, the more powder you use the more pressure is generated and the faster the bullet goes, up to a point. Guns and the cartridges themselves are designed for specific pressures. If you exceed them, you might just destroy the brass, but you could damage the gun, possibly catastrophically."

"You're right, this is similar to spark powder! Out in the open it just burns really fast but put some in a sealed container and set it off, and you've got yourself a bomb. It's not nearly as powerful as dynamite but it will still do some damage," Short Fuse said.

"Well then this should make sense to you. The brass is sealed on one end so when the powder goes off, all that force has to go somewhere. It pushes on the bullet..."

"Which is then pushed out the open end of the gun." Short Fuse said excitedly. "It's like a shooting a mortar off except the propellant stays in the gun and isn't part of the firework. It's so obvious!"

"Frankly I'm surprised you ponies have gunpowder and have never used it to make anything like this before," I said.

"Gunpowder?" Short Fuse asked.

"Oh sorry, spark powder, it's called gunpowder or black powder where I'm from. For the most part we don't use it anymore it's dirtier, corrosive and not as powerful as smokeless powders."

"You mentioned that there is more than one kind of smokeless powder?" Short Fuse asked.

"There are dozens, if not hundreds, I only have two kinds with me though. Some are meant for pistol rounds, like this .44 magnum other for rifle rounds. I know that different powders have different burn rates. Pistol powders usually burn faster than rifle powders. I know that the size of each grain of powder can affect its burn rate, I have no idea if the different powders are made of completely different chemicals or are just different sizes."

"It occurs to me that you're going to need me to analyze not just one substance," Short Fuse said with a bit of an evil grin. "You have two types of powder and will need to make primers as well."

"This is true, the first gun I wanted to design will be using a pistol powder, but I will need a rifle powder eventually. I also have a lot of primers but I'll run out eventually."

In fact I had found out last night that I had an insane number of primers. Primers are really really small, they come in boxes of 1000, each box has 10 packs, each with 100 primers. The entire box is only a little bigger than a can of soda. There are 10 boxes in a case. For reasons completely unknown to me, my dad had left me 20 cases of primers. 10 of the large rifle primers for the .30-06 and 10 of the large pistol primers for use in .44 magnum. That was 100,000 primers for each cartridge. Either my dad had been a secret doomsday prepper or he must have cleaned out a shop. Maybe some local gun store was going out of business and he bought out their inventory. I'd never know.

"Throw in a second gun and I'll look at the those too," Short Fuse said.

"Done." It was worth it. I had no idea how much setting up a shop was going to cost me so any deals that didn't require me to draw from my limited supply of bits were good ones in my opinion.

"Just be careful with the primers, they are designed to be easy to set off. If you hit one with a hammer, it's going to go bang."

"I work with nitroglycerin, I am quite familiar with unstable chemicals."

"Fair enough." I said. I went back into my saddlebags and pulled out another wooden box. "Inside this is a large glass tube with 700 grains of powder. There are 7000 grains in 1 pound so that's 1/10th of a pound. If you need more, I can get you more, but I do have a limited supply."

I also gave Short Fuse 1 pack of primers.

"Is there anything else I need to know?" Short Fuse asked.

"Not that I can think of, but I've got a question or two for you."

"Sure thing," she said.

"Who owns all the land around here?"

"I own the shop and the five acre plot it sits on. White Tail Woods is owned by the crown. The rest of the land is too but technically this is part of Ponyville, we're on the outskirts of the town's borders, so it's managed by the town. Why?"

"How are you with neighbors?"

Short Fuse harrumphed. "About five years ago a pony tried to start up a farm across the road. He spent the first six months sending noise complaints to Mayor Mare before she got fed up and told him that he moved next to me knowing I made and tested fireworks and dynamite on location and that he could either live with it or move. He chose to move."

"Well what if your neighbor didn't mind the noise and might be making some of his own?" I asked with a smile.

"You mean you?" she asked.

"I've got to set up shop somewhere, preferably away from town so I have enough room to built a shooting range where I can test my stuff. If the land is for sale, this might make a good location, especially if I'm buying powder from you."

"I'm sure you can come to an arrangement with Mayor Mare. Honestly I wouldn't mind some neighbors if they could put up with the noise."

"I'll have to talk to her. One question, I see you've got electricity here in the shop, I didn't see any power lines, are you running of gem batteries?"

"I have a back up, but no, there are power lines they are just buried."

Kitchen Sink nodded. "There's a hydroelectric dam near the base of Canterlot mountain that supplies the entire region with power. We keep all our lines buried around here, less of an eyesore. If you need power it shouldn't be a problem to get you hooked up."

"Well that's good to hear."

Short Fuse gave me directions to Ponyville's town hall so that I could talk to the mayor about buying some land. The downside to buying land in the middle of nowhere was that there was no building on the property. Kitchen Sink insisted that would not be a major issue. Unless I wanted something super fancy, I could get a building built in a couple of months. I had never looked into construction times back on Earth but that seemed kind of quick. Either way, I was in no real rush. Short Fuse would need some time to create a smokeless powder substitute, I had enough ammunition and powder from my dad's supplies that I could easily test any prototypes but I didn't want to start selling anything until I at least had a plan for making all of the components here in Equestria.

Finding the town hall was actually fairly simple, it was not only the tallest building in town, but it was smack dab in the middle. I spotted the large round building from the air before I even got close to the center of town.

I landed a fair distance from it, if I was going to be starting up a business in Ponyville, even if it was on the extreme outskirts, I wanted to get a better feel for the town.

I received and returned a number of warm hellos as I trotted deeper into the small town. Like Hoofston, Ponyville seemed to have a lot of earth ponies, but it wasn't nearly as monolithic. Ponyville was larger than Hoofston, that much I was positive about. The outskirts seemed to be mostly residential areas, as I moved closer to town center, I saw more and more businesses.

I trotted around for awhile until I found myself in the open market I had visited the day before. The pony with the apples wasn't there, which bummed me out a little. They had been delicious and I wouldn't have minded picking up a few more. Instead I picked up a bag of carrots from a earth pony mare who introduced herself as Golden Harvest. Her cutie mark was carrot, I figured if her destiny was carrots, they ought to be good. I wasn't disappointed.

As I munched on the carrots, I turned down a random street and followed it, keeping an eye open for either Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie. Rows of neat little cottages eventually broke into a small field where a large round building sat apart from the rest. It wasn't the town hall building but it was still quite fancy looking. There was white unicorn trotting up to the door, floating a large bag next to her. It took me a moment to realize that it was Rarity, one of Twilight's friends that I had met at the castle back when I was in my human body.

"Rarity!" I called out as I trotted towards her. She turned at the sound of her name.

"It's me, Hail Storm." I said as I closed the distance.

"Hail Storm? Oh, yes, Twilight's human turned pony. How are you doing?" she asked.

"Great, I think." I said.

"What brings you to my boutique today?" she asked.

"Your boutique?" I asked.

"This is the Carousel Boutique," she said, nodding at the building. "It's where I practice my art, crafting some of the finest dresses in Equestria."

"Oh, I didn't know. I was actually just exploring the town a bit when I saw you. I figured I'd say hello. I ran into Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie the other day at Sugarcube Corner, you're the only one of Twilight's friends that I hadn't seen since ending up like this," I said gesturing at myself with a wing.

"Well, do come in for a few minutes and we can catch up," she said as her horn lit up and the door swung open, ringing a small bell.

We trotted inside and I tried not to gawk at the grandiose interior. I knew absolutely nothing about pony fashion, but judging from the view, I was sure Rarity's store was on the high end side of things. I chuckled to myself thinking about her offer to make me some clothes, I probably would have ended up with a suit that cost more than my entire wardrobe back on Earth.

Directly across the room from the entrance was a small platform partially surrounded by three large golden framed mirrors. This area was flanked on both sides with pony mannequins, each wearing a different, and expensive looking dress. Off to the side were what appeared to be changing rooms. Since the vast majority of the population wore nothing all the time, I didn't really understand the need for those, but there they were.

Rarity set down her bag and I gaped when I noticed it was packed to the brim with what looked like blue precious stones. Rarity must have caught me staring because she cleared her throat and spoke up.

"Ah yes, I just got back from picking up some sapphires for a special order. Let me put those away and then we can catch up."

She floated the bag into a back room and then returned. She led me into another room that a set of couches and we took a seat. I filled her in on what had been going in since I had been turned into a pony. She let out a squeal of delight when I accidentally mentioned the whole Golden Dawn thing.

"Oh, how romantic, a relationship with a mysterious alien from the stars," she said excitedly.

"I haven't even talked to Golden Dawn yet!" I said, blushing fiercely.

"Well, when you do you simply must let me know. I suppose I can't make you human clothing anymore, but if you ever need a proper suit for a night of fine dining and high culture in Canterlot, come and see me."

I quickly changed topics and brought up my plans to buy some land in Ponyville and set up a shop.

"That's kind of the real reason I'm here, I was exploring the town to get a feel for it, but I need to go see the Mayor to figure out some legal bits."

"Oh, well I better not keep you too long, you'll likely have to setup an appointment. I..."

My ears swiveled towards the sound of the door bell jingling.

"It sounds like I might have a customer, let me go check I'll be right back," Rarity said.

She trotted out and I heard some voices speak up. One of them was Rarity's but the rest I didn't recognize. I couldn't quite catch what they were saying but I heard at least three new voices, all talking excitedly. A moment later Rarity came back into the room.

"Hail Storm," she said with a quiet hiss. "I need to get you out of here."

"Is something the matter?" I asked. Her calm demeanor had evaporated into a look of mild panic.

"It's my younger sister, Sweetie Belle. She and her two friends just arrived. I'm probably overreacting, but well, those three are completely obsessed with getting their cutie marks. They have a club for it and they cause no end of trouble. I'm afraid if they notice your... blank flank as it were, well you might get drafted into their shenanigans. Forcibly."

"They're just a few kids right?" I asked.

"Do you really want to get followed around constantly by a bunch of hyperactive preteen fillies?"

"I see your point. What do I do. That's the only exit," I said nodding at the door. "Unless that staircase leads somewhere."

I heard hoofsteps heading towards the door.

"Up the stairs!" Rarity almost shouted.

We reached the top and I jumped into the next room just as the door at the bottom opened up.

"Rarity, are you talking to somepony?" I heard a younger sounding pony ask.

"Uh, no no, Sweetie Belle. Just getting something, I'll be down in a minute," Rarity said before she closed the door and followed me in.

"Where do I go now?" I asked in a hushed whisper. "Is there another staircase down?"

"No, that's the only one," Rarity said.

"Well, then why did you tell me to go up the stairs?"

"I panicked!"

She took another look at me and then smiled.

"Quick, over here," she said, leading me to a very large window. It was already lit up with her magic touch and starting to open.

"Out the window," she said.

"We're on the second floor," I said.

"You're a pegasus!"

"Oh... yeah."

"Just get going! We'll talk more later."

"Well, this has been... strange," I said.

And with that, I jumped out of Rarity's bedroom window. I spread my wings and glided down, landing about a hundred feet or so from the boutique. I turned around and saw Rarity closing up the window and gave her an awkward wave goodbye.

"I guess I better go see the mayor now," I said to myself, still not quite believing what had just happened.

It was a quick trot from Rarity's store to the town hall. Once inside I found myself in a line of ponies. I waited my turn until a pegasus pony called me over.

"Hello, I'm Quill Pen, how can I help you?" she asked.

"Hi, I'm Hail Storm. I'm thinking about moving to Ponyville."

"Oh! Well, let me extend a welcome. Are you planning to move into an existing location or did you want to settle on some new land?"

"New land. Specifically I was looking for something on the outskirts of town. Maybe over near Short Fuse's fireworks store," I said.

"I'm familiar with that area," Quill Pen said with a friendly smile. "All that land is managed by the town, and there are some plots available for purchase, but you're going to have to talk to Mayor Mare for more information."

"Can I see her today?" I asked

Quill Pen pulled out a notebook and skimmed through it.

"Unfortunately, her schedule is pretty booked right now. I can schedule something for you but it won't be until late next week. Is that okay?"

"I'm not in any rush, that would be fine."

"Great! How does next Friday at 3:00 PM sound?" Quill Pen asked.

"Works for me," I said.

"Hail Storm right?" she asked as she picked up a pencil and started writing something in the notebook.

"Yep."

She finished with the notebook and put it down.

"You're all set, was there anything else?"

"I'm thinking about starting up a business, once I figure out the property situation. Is there any sort of paperwork I'd have to fill out or anything?" I asked.

"I don't think so, but that's not really an area I'm familiar with. You can ask the mayor for more information when you meet with her," Quill Pen said.

"That works," I said. "Thanks for your time."

"No problem, have a wonderful day," she said.

With nothing left to do on Ponyville, I flew back to Canterlot. It was strange to think about setting down roots in Equestria. It was only a little over a month ago when I had been heading to Canterlot in effort to get back to Earth. With that path closed off, at least for the time being, what else was I going to do? This was just another stumbling block in my life, and I wasn't going to treat it any differently.

My thoughts turned to when Rick had sold his store. I hadn't expected to lose my job and it was a major financial hurdle. I had a choice back then as well. The first few places that had actually gotten back to me, would have provided me with enough money to live, but I would have been forced to drop out of college due to scheduling conflicts. Instead, I hung on until I finally found something that let me keep taking classes.

Taking that security guard job had felt like choosing the least bad option from a bundle of crap choices. This felt different though. It was unexpected, but it felt like opportunity. A new path, an uncertain one for sure, but an exciting one. Someday, I might make it back to Earth, but while I was here, I wanted to make the most of my life.

I could have given up when Twilight told me I wasn't getting home anytime soon. She had already told me I could stay at the castle as long as I wanted. I could have hung around there moping around until she figured out how to send me back to Earth. Which, for all i knew, could take the rest of my life. That wasn't good enough for me though. If I was going to be stuck in Equestria, something I truly had no control over, I still wanted to do something productive with my time. Being turned into a pony might have given me some new interests, flight chief among them, but I still had my old ones.

Golden Dawn's idea had sparked something inside of me. I was in a position I would have never been in on Earth. With the money I had from the changeling treasure I had acquired, I could start something here, taking an activity I already enjoyed and building it up into something I could support myself on. Sure, there was risk, but that held true of anything worthwhile.

Chapter 16

I spent the next few days working on refining my technical drawings. The original set was somewhat rough, since I had been still learning to write as a pony, I ended up redoing much of it. By halfway through the following week, I had a new set, and even had drawn up designs with some alterations that would hopefully would make it easier for earth ponies and pegasi to shoot.

Life at the castle was getting to be fairly lonely. I knew I should have made some effort to go out and make some friends but I wasn't sure how best to meet new ponies. I did make some effort to get in touch with a few of the ponies I knew. I stopped by Short Fuses' once to check up on her progress but she let me know that she had to catch up on some orders before she could take a look at my powder. Kitchen Sink was still out of town and I hadn't been able to get in touch with either Silent Night or Thunderbolt. Cadance and her husband had traveled north to a city in the Crystal Empire to take care of some sort of legal dispute and that had left Twilight to run things in Canterlot all alone.

Sadly that meant she had zero time for spending any time with me, in fact I saw her exactly once during that entire week. When getting back from a late night bar run, I ran into her stumbling down the hall, a look of exhaustion plastered on her face. She let me know that court had run well into the night due to the number of ponies that had shown up that day and then she mumbled something about solar alignment. I had done more than my fair share of drinking and I had to piss like... well like a horse so I nodded and suggested we meet up at another time.

On Thursday I was going stir-crazy so I did some more traveling. This time, instead of heading southwest towards Ponyville, I went north. I flew for several hours, but for the most part it just seemed to be farmland and open fields. Eventually, I spotted a huge cloud formation in the distance. As I got closer I saw hundreds, if not thousands of tiny moving dots, hovering in and around the clouds. It took me a few moments to realize that they were pegasus ponies. The clouds formation was a massive city, floating in the sky. It had to be Cloudsdale, Golden Dawn had mentioned once before. I thought about visiting, but it was still at least an hour's flight away and by then I was getting tired. I decided to turn around and save visiting Cloudsdale for another day, perhaps with Golden Dawn.

When I got to my room, I found a letter had been slipped under the door. My heart skipped a beat when I noticed that it It was from Golden Dawn. Hurriedly, I tore it open and read it. I let out a whoop of joy when I saw that she was going to be arriving back in Canterlot in the morning. She wasn't sure if the letter was going to reach me in time but if it did she asked if I could meet her at the station. I still wasn't sure what would happen between the two of us, but no matter how things turned out I was glad that she would be back. I missed her terribly.

The next morning, I woke with the sun. After shaking off the bonds of sleep, I threw on my saddle bags and flew to the train station. Golden Dawn's train was due to arrive at 7:00AM. I found an empty seat at the busy station and waited patiently for the train to come in.

When 7:30 rolled around and the train still hadn't arrived, I checked the board and saw that Golden Dawn's train arrival time had been updated. It now just read 'Delayed'. I trotted around until I found a station worker to see if I could get some more information. Finally I spotted a unicorn tending an information booth that didn't already have a long line. I galloped over to the booth before anypony else could slip into line and asked about Golden's train. Unfortunately information was sparse, the only thing that the pony knew is the train had some mechanical issue. It had been fixed and would be arriving as soon as possible.

I headed back to find my former seat occupied so instead I stood at the platform. Half an hour later I was just about to go see if I could get an update when I heard a loud whistle in the distance. I looked up to see a train pulling into the station.

The train slowed to a halt and let out a loud hiss as a puff of steam was released from the engine. It was on the right track and had the matching number of Golden's train so I headed towards it.

Ponies began to disembark, hurrying off to their destinations. I watched and waited, looking up and down the platform for any sign of Golden Dawn. The stream of ponies dwindled down to a trickle but I still hadn't spotted her. I was about to take off so I could get an aerial view when a very dirty and disheveled Golden Dawn stormed out of the first car, her pace only slowed by the enormous amount of luggage she was struggling to carry. Besides a very full set of saddlebags she was carrying a large duffel bag, with the strap in her mouth. She also had two small bags tied by a rope draped over her body, covering up most of her wings.

"Golden Dawn!" I shouted, trying to get her attention as she headed away from me.

Her ear swiveled towards me at the sound of her name, she stopped and turned, looking around for the source of the sound. A haphazard smile replaced the frown that she wore when she finally spotted me in the crowd. I trotted up to her, getting a better look as I cleared the crown of ponies that separated us. Her mane was completely frazzled and her forelegs and wing tips were covered in dark black splotches.

She put the duffel bag down and breathed a sigh of relief. "Hail Storm!" she said tiredly. "Am I glad to see you. I was afraid you wouldn't get my letter till after I got back."

"Likewise, I've missed you." I reached in for a hug but she brushed me away.

"Watch it, you don't want to get this crap all over you," she said, indicating at the greasy oil stains covering the front of her body.

"What happened?" I asked.

"There was a problem with the train. One of the brakes seized up and I volunteered to help fix it. Of course they didn't have the right tools so I had to futz it with what they had... it got a little messy," she said with a sigh. "It's been a long trip and I just want to get back to the castle and take a bath."

"Can I help carry some of that stuff?" I asked nodding at the two extra bags she was carrying in addition to her overstuffed saddle bags."

"That would be great," Golden Dawn lifted the double set of bags laying across her back. I took them from her and carefully stuffed them into my own saddle bags. Then I ducked my head under the saddle bag strap and let it rest on my shoulder.

"Where's the rest of your stuff, I thought you were bringing up most of the shop?" I asked.

Golden Dawn smirked. "That's all coming up on a freight train silly, I don't have anywhere to put it yet. I've arranged to have it stored at one of the Canterlot warehouses until I buy a new place."

"Oh that makes sense," I said feeling kind of dumb.

As we began to trot out of the station, I asked Golden Dawn how things had gone in Hoofston. After she finished filling me in she wanted to know about what I had been up to. I wanted to talk to her about the kiss at the station all those weeks ago but my stomach was jittery with nervousness, so I didn't bring it up.

Instead I filled her in on all the work I had been doing in preparation to start up my business. Being able to talk about the progress I had made seemed to give Golden Dawn a boost of energy and soon she was grilling me on every little detail. I brought up my meeting with Kitchen Sink and the told her about Short Fuse. Golden Dawn was very excited when she heard that I had found a pony that might be able to help with creating smokeless powder.

"So while we are on the subject, I've got a meeting in Ponyville this afternoon, I'm going to talk to the mayor about buying some land. I know you just got back from a long trip but if you can make it, I'd appreciate it. I don't know anything about land prices in Equestria, I want to make sure I'm not overpaying. I can show you the area while we are down there."

"You're right it has been an exhausting trip, but if I can get a quick nap in before you leave, I think I'll be okay." Golden Dawn said as we navigated our way out of the crowded station. "When were you planning on leaving?"

"The meeting is at 3:00 so maybe 2:00." I said, giving it some thought.

"Is that enough time for you to get down there?" Golden Dawn asked. "You're going to have to gallop the whole way."

"Oh I was going to..." I trailed off. I hadn't told Golden Dawn I could fly yet. Hmm, what was the best way to go about this?

She raised an eyebrow curiously. "What was that?" she asked.

"Oh, I um. Maybe you're right, I might want to leave earlier. But that means you might not have enough time to nap. We should hurry up and get to the castle," I said, plan formulating in my mind.

"It's too crowded to run," Golden Dawn said pointing at the thousands of ponies bustling about.

"Run? Who said anything about running?" I asked. Before Golden Dawn could answer, I unfurled my wings and took off, straight up, as fast as I could. Once I was clear of the crowds, I aimed myself at the distant castle and began to accelerate to a comfortable speed.

A few seconds later, my ears swivelled towards the sound of wingbeats coming from behind me. I turned and looked, just as Golden Dawn pulled up just above me.

"Hail Storm.... you.... you.... featherbrain! You didn't tell me you could fly!" she shouted at me, before she deftly maneuvered in close, kicking me in the shoulder with one of her forehooves. The hit caught me off guard and I wobbled in the air a little, futility trying to dodge a second blow that never came.

"You didn't ask!" I said, beaming back at her while I corrected my flight path. I was slightly drifting to the right, most likely because I had never flown while carrying so much stuff before and the unbalanced load was throwing me off a bit.

"Sweet Celestia, this is awesome! I noticed you were moving around on the ground just fine, but I was nervous that your fear of heights would keep you grounded for a while," Golden Dawn said, returning the grin.

"When those healing spells went out, the jolt of energy I got was insane. If I had been inside I would have been bouncing off the walls. Instead, I was walking around the castle garden, talking with Cadance. Suddenly, I got overwhelmed with a need to move. I just started running, I couldn't really focus on anything else but even that wasn't really helping. Cadance caught up with me and let me know what was happening. The need to fly was too strong and it only took her bringing it up and the next thing I knew I was rocketing skyward."

"Were you scared?" Golden Dawn asked.

"I didn't have time to be scared, I didn't even realize what I was doing at first, I was just so focused on flying it didn't even occur to me to me that I was several thousand feet up. I was following Cadance and she eventually landed on a cloud. I followed her in and when I landed that's when I noticed where I was. I almost had a heart attack, but then my fear... it just kind of fizzled out. Sitting up there, I was forced to face the reality of what I had just done. My fear... it was a human fear, and I won't say it was completely unreasonable to have it when I was human. But... as a pegasus, it just didn't hold the same weight anymore. I can fly now, what do I have to fear of the sky?

"That's awesome Hail Storm," Golden Dawn said with a huge grin.

"It is, it was like I had an epiphany, as long as I'm a pegasus, I don't think I could ever be afraid of heights again. Flying is... It's freedom. Just look at all of this," I said, pointing my hoof at the sky, "it's just too amazing to be afraid of. Being up here, it's like nothing I've ever experienced before."

A chill ran down my spine when I felt Golden's wing tips brush up against my own. She was looking at me with a smile as wide as the open sky before us. "I'm so happy for you," she said, eyes glowing in delight.

Canterlot Castle was below us, and we began to circle downward. The balcony to our room came into view as we rounded the building.

"I know both of us are going to be busy for a while, but we should take a day off now that you're back. We can just go flying, just you, me and the sky. It will be great." I said, as we came in for a landing.

When I didn't hear a reply I glanced back to see if Golden Dawn had heard me. Unfortunately at that moment the duffel back I was carrying shifted just enough to throw me off balance again and I clipped my wing on a large potted plant sitting on the balcony railing. The pot was knocked off onto the balcony and shattered into pieces spilling dirt everywhere.

My hooves hit the ground with a thud but after a second of stumbling forward, I was able to catch my balance and keep myself from face planting into the floor. Lucky for me, four legs made for a fairly stable platform. My wing hurt a bit but I didn't think it was serious. Still, I wasn't sure so I gave it a look over.

"You alright?" Golden Dawn asked, as she landed next to me.

"Nothing hurt but my pride," I said as I looked myself over. "Then again, first crash in almost a week of flying on my own power. That's got to be a world record for humans."

Golden Dawn laughed at that. "I thought you had accepted being a pegasus now?" she asked.

"I have but... well it's weird. I'm still human on the inside no matter what body I might be in, I've just got pegasus mixed in with it as well," I said, as I folded up my wings.

The wing that had hit the flower pot was a little sore. A few of the feathers were slightly bent or misaligned and the wing itself was covered in dirt but nothing felt broken and there was no blood. Other than being a little sore, everything looked to be in good shape.

"You want to go unload your stuff, I'll clean this up," I said, pointing my nose at the mess I had just made.

"Unless you've got a dustpan hidden out here, most of it is going to have to wait." Golden Dawn said.

"That's true, maybe I can find something inside." I opened the glass door and Golden Dawn followed me in.

We searched around the apartment for several minutes. Golden Dawn excused herself and headed off to the bathroom to clean off the dirt and the grime she had picked up working on the train. I kept looking but eventually gave up. I took a seat on the couch, waiting for her to return, the butterflies in my stomach a constant reminder of what I had to talk to her about. On top of that my injured wing was feeling itchy. One feather in particular seemed like it might be loose. I stretched out the wing so I could get a better look at the damage. I was so engrossed in looking it over that I nearly jumped off the couch when I heard a disapproving hum coming from behind me.

"You've got to clean and straighten those feathers," Golden Dawn said.

I turned towards the bathroom door, Golden Dawn was standing in the entrance watching me. I felt my jaw open slightly. The oil and dirt stains had been washed away, leaving her coat pristine and shiny. Her mane hung down flat against her back, the hair still wet from her bath. As she turned her head slightly her eyes, those lovely eyes, sparkled as they caught a bit of light. I felt the bottom of my stomach drop out as part of my brain informed me that cute was perhaps no longer the right word to describe her. Beautiful worked though. All through this, the human part of my brain fought with the pony part. Part of me still wasn't sure if I was physically attracted to ponies, but I could tell my body sure was.

This was the second time I had found myself staring at her since I had been turned into a pony, but unlike the first, this time I got caught. She shifted her gaze a bit and for a moment our eyes locked. I forced myself to turn away, hoping she wouldn't notice the flush in my cheeks. I fiddled with my wing, pretending to inspect it, half hoping she wouldn't say anything, but half hoping she would.

When she didn't, I started to actually inspect my wing. I brought a hoof up to poke at the messed up feathers.

"So... um, like I was saying, If you don't fix those, they're going to interfere with your flying," Golden said.

I continued to concentrate on the wing and avoided looking back at her. I moved my hoof to the feather that was most out of alignment. I pushed and poked at it, trying to get it to go back into place. I heard Golden Dawn start to giggle.

"What in the world are you doing?" she asked.

"You said to straighten the feathers! I'm trying to."

"Yeah, by preening them, with your mouth!" she said with a snort.

"Preening? Isn't that something birds do?" I asked.

"Birds, pegasi and griffons, anything with feathers," Golden Dawn said with a smirk. "Why don't you go wash the wing, get the excess dirt out, it doesn't taste good. Then I'll show you how."

A few minutes later I was rinsing off my wing under some warm water. The big loose feather came out entirely as the stream of water rushed over it. I finished cleaning off the wing and then picked the feather up in my mouth. It was enormous, which only made sense giving the size of my wings. I brought it out of the bathroom with me and trotted over to Golden Dawn who was sitting there, nose buried in one of the drawings I had left out on the table.

"Hey, " I said, poking her with the feather to get her attention. I held it out towards her as she looked up. When she saw the feather, her eyes instantly locked onto it.

A moment of silence passed, I wasn't quite sure what was going on. She was still looking at the feather and I didn't know why. I decided to speak up. I let the feather drop out of my mouth so I could talk.

"I lost a feather, is that bad?" I asked.

"Oh... " Her ears drooped slightly and there was silence for another moment. "Oh... um no, that's fine, it will grow back in a week or so," Golden Dawn said before letting out a sigh.

I felt like I had done something wrong but before I could ask, she began to talk again.

"Hail Storm, I know it wasn't intentional but..." she sighed again. "Look, you know how I felt... still feel, about you. I said in my letter that I wasn't going to bring it up, but I need to. Back when we were flying in, you asked if I wanted to spend a day flying with you. That sounded to me like you were asking me out. That's a fairly common first date for pegasus ponies."

Suddenly four legs weren't enough, as knees started to feel weak. I wanted to talk to Golden Dawn about it, but I just wasn't ready. I didn't know if I would ever be ready. The entire thing made me nervous and procrastination seemed like a good idea.

"And, when I looked up and saw you holding out that feather... we share feathers like... well, you'd give them to your marefriend. Just like you said humans give flowers to girlfriends. I know you had no way of knowing either of of those things and it wasn't intentional and I know you aren't interested but it's still throwing me for a loop because it reading like very mixed signals," she said with a shaky voice. Her wing moved to clear away the mist from her eyes as she looked at me sadly.

"I... didn't'... um" I stumbled over my words. I had never been good at relationship conversations. Talking to women was no problem, unless I wanted to ask them out, in which case I was reduced to a bumbling fool. I wanted to talk to her, but I didn't know if I could. My mouth moved and a few incomprehensible sounds came out. It was clear that the lack of nerves had followed me both into Equestria and my new body as well as I tried to stammer out a reply.

"Look, I know, you didn't know." Golden Dawn said with a sniff.

"No, it's not that, it's uh..." I managed to get out half a sentence before I gave up. Talking wasn't going to work.

"Screw it," I mumbled to myself. Actions spoke louder than the words I couldn't get out. I leaned in and returned Golden Dawn's kiss three weeks late.

There was a moment of hesitation from Golden, but then she responded, joining into the kiss. It was a simple kiss, but the seconds it lasted stretched out towards infinity. I enjoyed the happy warmth that spread throughout my body as time slowly ticked by. When the moment was done, I broke away and looked into Golden's eyes. There was a happiness in them, but also a hint of confusion. She started to talk.

"But... at the..." I gently placed my forehoof on her mouth, silencing her. I had to get this out, even if it if came through half mumbled.

"At the station... I... I didn't respond, not because it was unwanted. I mean... it was unwanted. Well not unwanted. More like unknown. I didn't know I wanted it. I..." I said, babbling on. I stopped and swallowed hard and took a deep breath as I struggled to put the thoughts racing around my mind into coherent sentences.

"Look, the whole station thing. I was caught off guard... that's all. Humans, well... to put it simply, we don't have interspecies relationships. There are no other species where that kind of relationship would be appropriate. I was so surprised because the idea of it hadn't even crossed my mind. But after some confusion... and some helpful advice, I figured things out."

"Advice?" Golden Dawn asked.

"I had a run in with Princess Cadance."

"You went to the goddess of love to talk about us?" Golden Dawn asked in shock.

"Went to is a bit of a stretch... I ran into her, literally. She figured out something was up and sort of lead the conversation into me talking about it," I said with nervous laugh.

"So what does all this mean?" Golden Dawn asked quietly.

"It means." I stopped for a moment to collect my thoughts. "It means... um what are you doing tomorrow?"

Golden Dawn tipped her head to the side, shooting me an expression of confusion. "Um... I don't have anything planned?"

I took her hoof in my own and looked deep into her eyes.

"Do you want to go out with me tomorrow, like on a date? We can just go flying, just you, me and the sky." I said with a smile, echoing my earlier question, but this time I made the intention clear.

"Yes... I'd like that," she said with a happy smile. She leaned in and nuzzled me gently. My heart soared with joy as I returned the affectionate touch.

Golden Dawn fell asleep on the couch while I went and found something to clean up the mess I had made earlier. I tried to keep the noise down while I worked but tip-toeing on hooves is hard. Fortunately she slept through my bumbling and soon all evidence of my crash had been taken care of.

She was still asleep so I flew down to the market and bought two sandwiches so we'd have something to eat when she woke up. Just as I arrived back in the room, Golden woke up from her nap and let out a cute little yawn. We ate a quick lunch and then headed to Ponyville.

Since we were early, I suggested stopping at Sugarcube Corner and getting an after lunch snack.

"Goldie, Hail Storm!" Pinkie said as we walked in.

"Hi Pinkie," I said with a wave. "How's it going?"

"Terrific! I thought I had baked an extra cake but now I know who it was for," Pinkie said before disappearing into the back of the store.

"Wait what?"

Pinkie trotted out with a small cake and placed it down on a table in front of us with two sets of utensils.

"Double chocolate surprise cake," Pinkie said.

"What's the surprise?" Golden Dawn asked.

Pinkie Pie leaned in really close, her eyes darted back and forth as if checking to see if anypony else was listening.

"The surprise is it's a triple chocolate cake," she whispered loudly. "But don't tell anypony."

"I guess we're having cake?" I said, looking to Golden Dawn. She gave a shrug so we took a seat.

"Dig in you two!" Pinkie said as she returned to the counter to help some customers that had just walked in.

"Are we really going to eat a whole cake? I asked.

"Well, it is a small one..." Golden Dawn said, she cut out a slice and took a bite. Her eyes lit up and she quickly shoved another piece into her mouth. "Yes... yes we are."

Once again, I was not disappointed in Pinkie's ability to match ponies to confectionery. We finished our dessert, paid, and then headed to the town hall.

There was no line today so I walked right up to the counter. Quill Pen was sitting there going over a large notepad, she glanced up as I approached.

"Hello, I'm here to see the mayor, I have an appointment," I said.

"Oh yes, Hail Storm. You're right on time, Mayor Mare is ready for you, go on in," she said, nodding to the double doors off to the left.

We entered and found an older looking earth pony sitting behind a large desk. She looked up as the door opened and gave us a smile.

"Hello, you must be Hail Storm. I'm Mayor Mare. Please, take a seat."

Golden and I sat down on the bench in front of her desk.

"Yep, that's me, and this is my friend Golden Dawn," I said.

"I understand you are interested in purchasing some land over near Short Fuse's place?"

"Yes, I think so, but right now I'm just trying to get a feel for the price."

"That's fine. Do you already know what you are going to be using this land for?"

"Well," I said scratching my head. "I'd like to open up a business. But, I'm not originally from Equestria and I don't know the legalities involved in doing that."

Mayor Mare cocked an eyebrow at that but didn't say anything about it.

"I see. Well, first things first. I went over the area you showed Quill Pen and it is directly across the street from Short Fuse. She has been running her store from that plot of land for years. Due to the nature of her work, she generates a lot of noise on occasion, which is why she's located so far outside the town. I warning you about this now and I want to make something absolutely clear, I will not tolerate complaints about the noise."

"Oh yes, I heard somepony tried to start a farm and gave you some trouble?" I asked.

"I take it you've talked to Short Fuse then?" Mayor Mare asked.

"Yes I did, and I won't have any complaints. In fact, one of the reasons I'm looking in that area is I'd be generating quite a bit of noise myself. I'd rather set up shop somewhere that's already noise so I'm not disturbing anypony."

"Well that's rather thoughtful. May I ask what exactly you'd be doing?"

"I'd like to open up a target shooting range, along with store where I'd design and create firearms."

"What kind of target shooting? Is this like archery? Also, I'm not familiar with the term firearm, can give me some more detail?" Mayor Mare asked.

"So yes, there would be some similarity to archery. Actually it would be a bit closer to crossbows. Firearms, or guns well, they don't exist here yet. They're kind of a new invention in Equestria. Think of them as a very advanced crossbow with much longer range, more accurate and quite a bit noisier. That's one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you, although I'd only be using these devices for target shooting, they, like bows or crossbows are weapons, I don't know if there are any restrictions I need to be aware about."

"I'm glad you asked, we used to have a pony who sold bows here in Ponyville, so I'm familiar with the law. There are a few restrictions. First, in order to sell weaponry, you must be a citizen of Equestria. You said you weren't from Equestria, have you applied for citizenship?" Mayor Mare asked.

"Actually, I am a citizen now. Princess Twilight gave me this," I said. I dug through my saddlebag and pulled out the scroll Twilight had given me.

Mayor Mare took the scroll and looked it over before giving it back to me.

"Very good, this appears to be in order. There are two other things you need to know. First, you are not allowed to sell weaponry to minors without a guardian's permission which must be given in pony."

"What constitutes a minor in Equestria?" I asked.

"Anypony under 15 years old. The only other restriction is that you aren't allowed to knowingly sell to a criminal or anypony you suspect is going to use the weapon for a criminal act. That being said, since this is something new, I'd like a bit more detail about these firearms."

I gave Mayor Mare the best explanation I could, sweating with nervousness the whole time. If this plan fell through, I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I gave some basic information on the model guns I was planning on making and gave some examples of different styles of target shooting. Lastly, I went over all the precautions I would be taking at the range to ensure that everypony stayed safe and the basic rules of gun safety. She had a lot of questions, but in the end I must have done a good job presenting my information because she let me know that if I wanted to, there was no legal reason I couldn't start production.

With that we moved into discussing the actual land. Because I hadn't yet made concrete plans on how much I was looking to purchase, she gave me an estimated cost per acre and let me know to setup a meeting with the town surveyor when I was ready to make a purchase.

The land itself seemed fairly inexpensive, I was tempted to just buy a huge plot, but Golden Dawn pointed out that I should find out how much it would cost to get a building built before I made any purchases. She believed I had enough bits from the treasure I had acquired that I would be fine as long as I didn't go too overboard but it made sense to check first. I didn't want to get caught in a situation where I ran out of money before I had bought everything that I needed. That evening we looked into construction firms and found a few based in Ponyville that we could check out when we had some time. Some of the tools I was going to need, I could get at a hardware store but others Golden informed that that I would have to special order, which I could do through the mail or from a store.

On the way back to the castle, we flew over Short Fuse's shop and I showed Golden Dawn the surrounding area. I gave a rough description of what I wanted to do and how much land I needed. Golden Dawn looked around and gave a nod of approval.

Saturday morning we slept in late, only rising well after the sun had come up. We packed a picnic lunch and set out on our date. Flying as an date activity was new to me so I hadn't thought to plan a location. After we had been up in the air for 20 minutes I began to get a bit jittery, not knowing if I was supposed to have an actual plan. I nervously explained the situation to Golden Dawn.

"We don't need somewhere to go. Just being up here and spending time together is nice. But, if I might make a suggestion, we should circle the mountain. It gives a great view and I know where there's a small lake on the other side of the mountain where we can stop and eat lunch. There's a trail that leads up to it but it's a tough hike so for the most part only pegasi go there."

I agreed and let Golden Dawn take the lead. We left the sky around Canterlot Castle, flying higher and higher until the grand towers looked no bigger than a child's playset. Around us were other pegasi, diligently working on managing the city's cloud cover, running mail routes or enjoying the sky as we were, but as we moved farther from the city the number of ponies began to thin.

Forests circled around two thirds of the mountain, stretching out as far as even my pegasus eyes could see. In the distance I could make out Ponyville and to the north, the general area of the clearing where Short Fuse's shop was. As we flew, Golden Dawn pointed out different areas of interest. The surrounding forests and the mountain itself had quite a large number of hiking trails, each with their own unique scenery and breathtaking views.

"I've missed this area, Hoofston was nice but it's just too... dry. I grew up on this mountain. I love the forests, the rivers and waterfalls, it's so green and full of life. It's good to be back," Golden Dawn said as we continued to fly.

As we moved further north, the forests began to thin, the rolling green hills eventually giving way to endless fields. Far to the northwest I could just make out what I thought was Cloudsdale, from here it looked like a massive stormfront, except more white than grey. Golden Dawn saw me looking at it and spoke up.

"That's the outskirts of Cloudsdale, that pegasus city in the clouds that I told you about. We should go visit it someday."

"I thought so, I actually flew up this way the other day. I was maybe 20 miles north of where we are now, so I got a decent look at it," I said. "As for going there with you, I was going to ask you that, let me know when you want to go."

It was early afternoon when we finally reached the eastern side of the mountain. A range of smaller, but still impressive mountains ran eastward. The gap between Canterlot mountain and the other range formed a snaking valley, in the center of which a mighty river flowed gracefully. A number of smaller rivers and streams flowed down Canterlot mountain, coalescing into one large river which itself met up with the central one in the valley. Golden Dawn turned and began to descend towards one of the many waterfalls.

At the base of this waterfall was a small blue lake. A curtain of mist, coming up from the rapidly falling water, surrounded the base of the falls. Under the mist, the water frothed and churned as it ran up against the rocks jutting up out of the water. Farther from the falls, the motion of the water slowed down, giving the majority of the lake a clam and peaceful quality.

Much of the shore and part of the falls were shaded by tall rocky cliffs on one side and a green wall of trees on the others. It wasn't until near the middle of the lake that the sunlight finally broke through the thick canopy, making the water there sparkle and shine as it reflected off the glassy surface.

True to her earlier description, the lake was virtually devoid of other ponies, I saw only a hoofful of other pegasi sitting around its shores.

I spread out the blanket I had brought on a large gray rock and unpacked our lunch while Golden Dawn patiently waited. I tried to make small talk, a skill I was sorely lacking in, while we ate our sandwiches but it was obvious I was fumbling around for something to say.

"Relax Hail Storm, you're doing fine." Golden Dawn said. I caught myself staring deep into her magenta eyes as she she rested a wing on my shoulder.

"This is, as far as I know, the first human - pony date in the history of the universe, it's a little nerve-racking," I said with a timid laugh. "Well, sort of human," I said as my tail flicked involuntarily, as if reminding me of my current state.

"It's a first date and we already know each other. Just talk to me like you normally would," she said with a gentle smile.

"Alright," I said, forcing a smile of my own.

I put my best effort into controlling my nerves, and to my relief it worked. Soon we were deep into a conversation about our upcoming plans.

"So what do you think about those land prices?" I asked.

"They're fair, though depending on how many acres you end up buying, you might want to see if you can get a bulk discount," Golden Dawn said. "Actually, I was thinking of something. Did you notice the rail line running near that land? It was about a mile down the road from that fireworks store."

"Fireworks and dynamite, an odd combination, but who am I to judge," I said, after finishing the last piece of my sandwich. "And no, I didn't notice it."

"It looks like there was a small loading station over where the road and rail intersected. It makes sense. Shot Fuse must get supplies and also ships her products out. Rail is the best way to do that."

"If so, that would make me getting my own supplies a bit easier, with luck I can get my powder straight from Short Fuse, but I'll still need wood, steel, lead and other stuff too."

"This is true, but I wasn't just thinking about your own place. Don't forget that I need to set something up too. I had been originally thinking about settling closer to Fillydelphia or possibly Detrot because of their industrial bases, but now that I'm back in this area, I'm not sure I want to leave. Canterlot isn't known for big industry but we're still close enough that I can get what I need fairly quickly. It's not like when I was in Hoofston and I had to wait a month or more for orders to be delivered."

"So what exactly are you thinking then?"

"Well, we'd have to work out the financials, but why not pool our resources? We could buy a large amount of land, and set up both of our buildings on it. If I do that, I could design my own workshop instead of buying an existing building and renovating it. I'll have to set my schedule back a bit while I wait for the building to go up but that's not so bad."

"That certainly sounds like a good idea. On Monday we should head to Ponyville, talk to those construction ponies and see if we can get some quotes." I said happily.

"Good idea," she said as she stood up suddenly.

"What are you doing?" I asked curiously.

"I do like talking business with you, but this is a date, so let's leave that behind for now," she said as she started to walk towards the lake.

"Where are you going?" I asked as I got up and followed her.

"I'm not going anywhere, we are going swimming!" she shouted with glee. With that she took off at a fast trot and jumped into the lake. I charged after her, plunging chest first into the cool water.

I stuck close to the shore while I tried to familiarize myself with swimming in a pony body. My rear legs had a different range of motion and my forelegs, while far more flexible than an earth horse's, were still less useful at propelling me forward. Between my barrel, which was quite buoyant and my long neck, I was able to keep my head well out of the water as I got further out into the lake. I watched Golden Dawn, she was doing a sort of underwater trot to move forward. I quickly got the hang of it, though it seemed slower and more unwieldy than swimming as a human.

That was until I saw Golden stretch out her magnificent wings and make a large sweeping motion in the water, propelling her forward quite quickly. I experimented with the technique and once I had it down I followed her out towards the middle of the lake. I wasn't quite as graceful as she was, but like everything else I did as a pony, I expected I'd improve as I got more practice.

Once Golden Dawn noticed I had joined her, she quickly initiated a game of water based tag and I spent the next half an hour fruitlessly chasing her around the lake only to find her employ her much better skill in the water to narrowly escape at the last moment.

I eventually had my fill of our very one sided game of tag. Since we were both getting tired, we decided to return to the shore. There we cuddled up in one of the few spots where the sun broke through on the shoreline and waited for our coats to dry off.

After we were dry, Golden Dawn suggested that we circle the lake and then follow the stream that it emptied into for a while before heading home. We followed a small hoof-worn path through the trees that ran around the outside of the lake. As we got closer to the base of the falls, the muddy path gave way to large moss covered rocks, half submerged in the water.

From the angle we were approaching, I could see that the constant flow of water from the falls had eroded a small cavern like overhang in the rock wall behind the water. Getting there required abandoning the path, which had more or less ended at that point anyway. We climbed up and over the rocks, getting closer to the cascading stream of water.

I would have never attempted something like that as a human. The glistening surface of the rocks, wet from all the moisture in the air, proved to be quite slippery. More than once I had to rely on my wings after an ill-planned jump. In my old body a near fall like that would have sent my heart into my stomach, but now I wasn't phased in the slightest. One moment my hooves were skidding on the wet rock and the next moment my wings were beating without me even having to put thought into it.

After several minutes we reached the rocky overhang. The constant spray of water quickly undid what progress we had made on drying off. Golden Dawn said something but the roar of the water made it hard to hear her. I trotted over to where she was standing.

"What was that?" I asked, leaning in so I could hear her better.

"This was a good first date," Golden Dawn said, leaning in and giving me a peck on the cheek.

"It was," I said smiling brightly.

On Sunday Golden Dawn and I went over our financial data, Golden Dawn had 10,000 bits earmarked for purchasing land and her new building while I estimated the bits I already had, plus the gold to be worth around 20,000 bits based on the exchange rate I had been given in Hoofston. Golden Dawn let out a whistle when I gave her my totals. She had been with me at the bank when I first converted some of that gold into Equestrian bits but she had never seen the entire treasure so I don't think she had realized how much I had sitting around. If needed, Golden Dawn was sure she could secure a loan but with the price Mayor Mare had quoted us per acre, we could each easily afford a good sized plot and still have bits left over even without pooling our resources.

Golden Dawn said that she didn't want to make it seem as if she were partnering up with me just to increase the number of bits she had access too. She decided that we'd each be responsible for our own portion of the purchase, not excluding the contribution we had made, but when making the purchases we'd act as a single entity to try to get any sort of discounts for bulk purchasing possible.

"I don't think you'll have to worry about running out of money, I'm pretty sure you could pay for the land and both of our buildings and still have some left over," she said.

"Well, I guess if this doesn't take off, I'll still have enough to prop me up while I find something else I can do," I said. "Actually I've been meaning to ask you. I know that you are planning on building more of your engines, but do you have any idea what you will be doing with them?"

"I've actually been thinking about this quite a bit. There are a number of things I could do. Generators should be easy enough to design. I've got a few sketches for a diesel train that should be significantly more efficient than even the best steam powered ones. But I want to start smaller than trains," Golden Dawn said.

She stood up, walked over to a box, opened it up and dug through it before returning with a cardboard tube. She opened the tube up and pulled out a roll of paper. She spread out the paper on the table in front of me. On it was a number of sketches of something that looked suspiciously like an old fashioned car, blended with a modern truck.

"This is my top plan right now. I had started working on this before I met you but I've made some adaptations from the studies I did on your truck," she said. "It won't be anywhere near as powerful or versatile as yours, but it should be able to fit two ponies comfortably and still have room for cargo in the back. I have another design that sacrifices cargo capacity for two more seats in the back, but I think a utility vehicle will sell better than a passenger one. At least at first."

"This fantastic!" I said as I looked over the blueprints.

"Thanks, I plan on marketing them to farmers, workponies, mailponies. Anywhere a pony would normally have to pull a cart, one of these should be able to pull as much as the average earth pony without the need for rest."

In terms of horsepower that didn't seem all that high, but while ponies in Equestria were smaller than their Earth counterparts, they were stronger and had far more endurance due to their magically enhanced bodies. I had once seen a team of four, admittedly very large, earth ponies pulling a broken locomotive with the rest of the train cars still attached. Sure it was on rails but the engine alone must have weighed 20 tons, not to mention the rest of the passenger cars.

I had to talk to Twilight to get access to the vault. Once she let me in, I grabbed the rest of my money and the gold and we headed to Canterlot Central Bank. It was much larger than the tiny bank back in Hoofston and they had no problem converting the rest of my treasure to bits. In fact I lucked out, because of some fluctuations in the price of gold, I received a better rate than I had back in Hoofston. Golden Dawn and I opened a joint account and we deposited our funds.

When the weekend ended we headed to Ponyville and setup appointments with the three different construction companies based in Ponyville. Golden Dawn had actually drawn up a blueprint of how she wanted her own store laid out, while I was hoping they had a some sort of standard workshop layout. The first two dealt primarily with new homes, they could do the work but we both wanted something that was a larger than they typically dealt with and they'd both be custom jobs, which both drove up the cost and meant I would have to design my own building, something that I didn't really have the skills to do.

We met up with a salespony for the third company, Grey Hammer Construction. Gray Hammer Construction did have considerable experience in setting up larger buildings, typically used for businesses and in fact had a number of pre-designed templates to choose from. I chose one that I thought would be suitable, Golden Dawn looked it and agreed. Running some numbers in my head, the building and the land, assuming I went with a 15 acre plot, the smallest amount I figured I could fit both a building and public range on, would run me approximately 8000 bits, about 40% of the money I currently had.

Golden Dawn's building was significantly larger than my own, and it was custom design. After some discussion around the design and some colorful swearing when she saw the price, Golden Dawn decided that a custom building wasn't going to work for her. Instead, she looked through the list of templates until she found the closest thing to her original design. After a good deal of haggling the salespony agreed to some minor modifications she wanted to make, without the normal customization surcharge, provided we purchased both buildings from them. Even with that fee waived, her building was still going to run her 8000 bits all by itself, nearly her entire share of the pooled supplies.

I asked about how quickly construction could start and about how long it would take to get the buildings up. The salespony insisted that if we signed a deal that day, he could have construction in progress before the end of the week. Total time would be about two months. They had a separate team for each building so they could go up simultaneously. Golden Dawn and I discussed the offer privately and then gave the salespony our tentatively acceptance, contingent on being able to secure the land itself.

It was still early in the day so we headed to town hall and met up with the town surveyor, a pegasus pony named Treasure Map. We had initially looked at purchasing 20 acres which would allow us to each have 10 but when we inquired about a discount for a bulk purchase Treasure Map informed us that there was one, but it had a minimum of 25 acres. In the end I decided to purchase an extra 5 acres.

I drew the oddly shaped perimeter on the map, the extra acreage went into a narrow but very long strip of land that gave me enough room to set up a 1000 yard range. As to whether or not any guns I'd be building could reliably hit something that far away, that was yet to be seen, but it sure gave me a nice goal. Treasure Map recorded the boundaries and we returned to his office to fill out some paperwork.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that paperwork was an area ponies had humans beat hands down in. The process for buying the land involved signing a single sheet of paper and presenting the bits, or in this case, because large sums of coins were unwieldy to carry, a banknote from Canterlot Central Bank. Before flying back to Canterlot we met up with the salespony from Grey Hammer Construction, signed another sheet of paper. Then we hightailed it back to Canterlot so we could pick up our banknotes.

"If I ever make it back to Earth, I'm going to miss this," I said to Golden Dawn as I handed over the note for our land payment.

"What do you mean?" Golden Dawn asked.

"It took me an hour to go through the purchasing process for my first car. I must have signed 50 pages. If we exclude travel time, it took us like half an hour to buy 25 acres of land and pay for 2 buildings."

"50 pages!" Golden Dawn exclaimed in shock.

"Well that might be a slight exaggeration but it was a lot."

All in all we had spent 22,473 bits, leaving just over 10,000 bits left over from my exchanged gold. Golden Dawn had spent her entire contribution but she had a separate budget for updating her tools, buying supplies and hiring ponies.

Grey Hammer Construction was actually even faster than the salespony had lead me to believe and they started work two days later. We stopped by the fireworks store after taking a look at the initial construction and I introduced Golden Dawn to Short Fuse. They immediately hit it off and quickly started talking about everything and anything until the topic turned towards me. Short Fuse still hadn't learned of my origins and Golden Dawn started telling an exaggerated story of the alien she found, dying of exposure in the Badlands.

"I might as well join in if you want an accurate version of the story," I said hopping into the conversation.

Between the two of us, we filled Short Fuse in on nearly everything that had happened in the nearly 3 months I had been in Equestria for.

"You're pulling my leg," Short Fuse said as we finished the tale. "You're not really a pony?"

"Well, I am now, but I wasn't always," I said. "In fact it was just about two months ago when Golden Dawn and I stopped in Ponyville on the way to Canterlot."

"You know, I think heard something about that. Supposedly it was a sickly bald diamond dog riding in some sort of mechanical contraption. That was you?"

"Eeyup," I said nodding. "Went into shock when somepony caught me in her magic field when I tripped."

"I guess that explains the missing cutie mark, I just guessed you had some sort of disability or magical ailment, I didn't want to bring it up."

I laughed at that. "So far only a hoofful of ponies have mentioned it to me directly. I've caught a few ponies staring but for the most part ponies seem to just pretend I have one. Honestly it doesn't bother me, humans don't get cutie marks, so not having one as a pony isn't a big deal. Though if I am completely honest, I do wonder if I could get one. I don't really understand magic so I haven't the foggiest idea how they work."

"You said you know Princess Twilight, you could ask her. If anypony besides Princess Celestia or Princess Luna knew, it would be Princess Twilight," Short Fuse said.

"You aren't the first pony to tell me that. I keep meaning to ask her about it, but then I forget to bring it up. To be honest, I haven't seen much of her lately either."

"I ran into her the other day," Golden Dawn said. "She seemed really tired. I asked her if she was doing alright, she said she was fine. I wonder if the stress of ruling is getting to her. I can't imagine having all that responsibility."

"Princess Celestia managed it for her considerable reign," Short Fuse said. "I think Princess Twilight just lacks the experience, her heart is in the right place though. My theory is that this whole thing with Celestia and Luna needing to go on vacation is just Celestia helping Twilight grow into her new role of Princess."

The topic shifted towards the politics and I sat there quietly, not having any real knowledge in that area. Eventually Short Fuse had to get back to work so we headed back to Canterlot. Golden Dawn and I had a second date that evening and I promised to take her to her out to eat at any restaurant that she wanted. I had expected her to pick some form of upscale dining, of which Canterlot had plenty, but she surprised me with a hole in the wall pizza parlor.

"We'll save the fancy dining for another date. Say the fifth?" she said with a wink. "That will give you time to get a suit."

I groaned loudly. "I need a suit? I thought I had escaped that nonsense by joining a race of nudists."

"Nope."

"Well poo. I guess I'll have to go talk to Rarity, she offered to make one, but I was hoping I didn't need it."

The date with Golden Dawn went swimmingly, after splitting what was one of the best pizzas I had ever eaten, we took a stroll through the Canterlot gardens and attempted a no flying, no pegasus navigation powers run through the hedge maze that I had spoken to Cadance in weeks prior. It was getting quite dark when we both agreed that finishing the maze with the sun down was hopeless and flew back to the castle.

That weekend I was going over a copy of the blueprints for my building when something struck me.

"Hey Golden, can you come here?" I asked.

She got up off the couch and walked over to the table.

"I... think I might have made a serious error when I picked out my building."

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"Well most of the businesses I've seen in Equestria, they all have a living area, usually on the second floor for the ponies that run them. But this is setup more like an actual workshop, there's no living area at all. I didn't even think to check for it."

"Oh... I thought you would just be staying here in the castle. Twilight did say you could stay as long as you wanted."

"I mean I could, it's not that long of a flight, but I'd really like to have a place of my own. I'm getting sick of mooching off of Twilight's hospitality. It was understandable when I didn't have a job, but if I launch a business of my own and start making money, well I'm not going to be content living off of someone else's bit."

"Well you could buy an existing house in Ponyville, you have the bits, or if you didn't want to buy, you could rent."

"I suppose that will have to do. I'll have to check prices, I kind of want to keep as much of my leftover bits saved as possible, just in case this gun thing doesn't pan out. I don't really have any other skills that would be useful in Equestria."

"Nonsense, you could always come work for me. In any case, you could just do what I'm going to do."

"What are you going to do?"

"My building doesn't have a living area either, heck even if I had been able to afford the building I designed, that one didn't have living space either. I'm going to build a cloud home."

"Cloud home... oh yeah, you showed me the one back in Hoofston. How does that even work?"

"Well you know as a pegasus you can stand on clouds, we can also form them into permanent shapes. It's pretty easy, I can teach you."

"How much does a cloud home cost? Are they cheaper than regular houses?"

Golden Dawn burst out laughing. "It's made of clouds! It doesn't cost anything. You just have to assemble it yourself, or I suppose you could pay somepony to do it for you, but it's so easy I've never heard of a pony paying somepony else to do that."

"If it's so easy and free why would a pegasus ever live in a regular building?"

"Well, I guess it isn't completely free there are some costs involved. Everything in the house that isn't made of cloud has to be enchanted so it doesn't fall through, but that enchantment is so basic that it only adds a small amount to the cost of most items. As to why all pegasus ponies don't live in clouds, well it makes it tough for non pegasi to visit. A cloudwalking spell for occasional visits isn't too bad, but imagine if you live in a mixed tribe family. There's also less modern comforts. You can't really get electricity in a cloud, anything powered has to be run on a gem-battery."

"Hmm, that does make sense. So you can show me how to build one of these things?"

"Well, I can teach you, but why don't we just build one together?"

"You wouldn't be inviting me to live with you if you had seen the garbage pit of my old apartment back on Earth," I said with a laugh.

"Nonsense, we're sharing this apartment here in the castle and it's fine."

"That's because I don't have any stuff to make a mess with, this is more like a hotel than an actual apartment, the only thing in here that's mine are my drawings and a few things I've pulled out of the trailer, most of my junk is still packed away. When I get my own place I can start acquiring piles of useless junk," I said with a grin.

"You can keep your own room looking however you want." Golden Dawn said. "But the rest of the house will be kept relatively clean and you will help keep it that way."

"Ah well, I suppose if I can have at least one room for junk, I can live with that," I said, adding a fake pout. "It really will be my room through right?"

"Sure, why not," she said. "But if you're good, you won't have to sleep there," she added a wink.

The next day Golden Dawn took me up into the sky so she could teach me cloud shaping. As she had promised, it was very easy and I picked it up quickly.

While the work itself was as easy as Golden Dawn had said, it did take us the week to assemble the whole thing. We had to fly quite a ways around, covering a considerable amount of distance to find enough clouds to actually find enough spare clouds to actually assemble a house. We spent the first two days gathering those clouds and the rest of the time forming them and assembling the building piece by piece.

Putting it together was as simple as gathering up a bunch of cloud, shaping it as needed and mushing the new part into the house itself. Except for the scale, it was almost exactly like building a model out of clay, except the clouds were even better at sticking in the shape you wanted them to. Golden Dawn followed the same basic design as the home she had in Hoofston. The only difference is we slapped an extra bedroom into the house and doubled the size of the living room.

Cloud homes definitely had to be the lowest cost living structures I'd ever encountered. You didn't even have to buy land. A pegasus was allowed to build their home pretty much wherever they wanted. It was considered polite to ask before building over another pony's privately owned land or a public space like a park but virtually anywhere else was free game. And if you grew bored of the location, it only took a little bit of effort to move it from one place to another. We decided on a spot on the outskirts of the town, just about half way between Ponyville's center and where our buildings were going up.

When the house was finished, Golden Dawn hired some pegasus movers to unpack some of her belongings that were in storage. Everything she had from her old house was already enchanted. On looking into what I would need to do to get my own belongings enchanted, I found that generally speaking only large items, such as our refrigerator had their own enchantment. I didn't actually have to get every single one of my things enchanted, instead I could buy a gem that projected a spell on every object in the room, preventing them from falling through the cloud. These gems were usually embedded in something that you'd need anyway such as a bed, a desk, or a storage container.

That Saturday we finished putting the final touches on the home and called it complete. We were getting ready to head down to Ponyville so I could buy some household items that I desperately needed. I headed outside and a thought crossed my mind. Golden Dawn walked out of the house a minute later and noticed me staring at the small cloud "yard" we had surrounding the house.

"What are you looking at?" she asked.

"I'm trying to figure something out. If I built a cloud garage, how exactly would I get my truck in it?"

We flew into town, landing on the main street. While larger than Hoofston, when compared to Canterlot, Ponyville was still a tiny town. It didn't have nearly the amount of hustle and bustle going on that you'd find in the capital. For me this was an improvement, I was never much of a big city guy, though I had to admit Canterlot was no where near as bad as when I would have to make the occasional trip to Boston. Driving through there gave me nightmares.

Smaller size meant less stores and it also meant less crowds in the stores. We went straight to the general store and I filled my saddlebags with all sorts of the necessities I'd need for a new place. I paid for my purchase and then we headed back out.

"You hungry?" I asked Golden Dawn as we trotted along the street.

"A little, not eat a meal hungry, but I could go for a snack," she said.

"Sugarcube Corner for cupcakes? I'll buy."

"You had me a cupcakes," Golden Dawn said, giving me a squeeze with her wing.

The store was in sight when a yellowish blur zoomed past us, bumping into me. I stumbled as the speeding pony took off down the street. When I caught my balance I noticed there was brightly wrapped gift at my hooves that hadn't been there before.

"That pony dropped this," I said to Golden Dawn. She picked it up and tossed it on her back as I turned to call out to the pony. At first I couldn't find her but then I caught the end of a tail disappearing down a narrow alley.

"She ran that way," I shouted, charging after the pony.

We gave chase but every time we turned a corner, the quick pony would turn down another side street or alleyway and while we weren't losing ground we weren't catching up either. I tried shouting out but the pony either didn't hear us or didn't know I was trying get their attention.

"Wait, why aren't we flying?" I asked just as we were about to round another corner.

"I... don't know?" Golden Dawn asked.

We spread our wings and leapt into the air. A few flaps later and we were rising up, giving us a bird's eye view. Of course that's when the pony we were chasing chose to run into tree. Actually a more correct statement would be the pony ran inside a tree. The tree she ran inside was huge, it was nearly as wide as it was tall and it looked like someone had turned it into a building. I even saw a balcony right around 3rd floor height as we landed in front of what appeared to be the entrance.

"Golden Oak Library," Golden read the sign on the door out loud as we walked up to it.

"Someone built a library inside a tree?" I asked without really expecting an answer.

"Looks like it."

It had to be a fairly small library. The tree was large but it looked more appropriately sized for maybe a small 1 pony cottage, not a library. I opened the door and we walked inside.

The first thing I noticed was that it was dark in the tree. Like almost can't see the hooves in front of my face dark, if it wasn't for the narrow sliver of light coming in from the open door I wouldn't have been able to see anything at all. Considering the number of windows and the fact that it was mid afternoon, this seemed strange.

"You think it's closed?" I asked Golden Dawn.

"But we just saw that pony run in here." she said.

"Hello?" I asked taking a few steps forward. Golden Dawn followed me and the door swung shut behind her.

"Well, now I can't see anything," I said as I turned, hopefully towards the door.

"Sorry, didn't mean to let that shut," she said.

"Can you..." I started to ask when I heard a giggle.

Without any warning at all, light returned in full force to the room. It was joined with a loud shout of "SURPRISE!" by at what sounded like at least a dozen ponies but as my eyes were still adjusting I couldn't actually see anything. A second later, sight returned. Since I had successfully turned around, all I could see was Golden Dawn. Her wings were spread wide, feathers fluffed up in shock and her jaw hanging open.

"You're facing the wrong way Hail Storm!" I heard a familiar voice say.

Turning towards the sound, I saw Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, Spike, Cadance, Shining Armor, Short Fuse, Dazzling Sparks and about a dozen other ponies I didn't recognize standing next to an enormous sign that was stretched across the room which was much larger than I had thought the size of the tree would allow.

The sign read "Welcome to Equestria / Congrats on not dying / Welcome to ponykind / Welcome to Ponyville"

The conversation I had with Pinkie weeks ago bubbled up to the top of my memory. Pinkie had mentioned a surprise party, but since she told me about it, I had assumed she was joking.

"You were serious?" I asked looking to the pink pony.

Her face hardened and she looked me right in the eye. "I'm always serious about parties."

The gift we thought had been dropped was actually intended for us. Golden Dawn and I opened it together. Inside we found a map of Ponyville, a coupon for a free dozen cupcakes at Sugarcube Corner and library cards.

Over cake and punch, Pinkie Pie introduced us to the ponies we had not yet met yet. One of them was a butter yellow pegasus named Fluttershy. The name fit her perfectly and even with my fantastic pony ears I could barely make out the "hi" that she squeaked out.

"Wait a minute, you're the pony we were chasing," Golden Dawn said. I hadn't gotten a clear look at the pony but now that Golden said that, I was I was sure they had a yellow coat. I looked around and no other pony had a coat that color, it seemed strange to me, this shy little pegasus didn't seem the type.

"Nope, that was me," I heard from behind me, I turned around and there was an exact duplicate of Fluttershy where I thought Pinkie had been standing.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"It's me, Pinkie!" the pegasus said. There was a zipping sound and Pinkie Pie stepped out of a suit as it collapsed to the ground. "I wanted Fluttershy to do it because you hadn't met her so you wouldn't be suspicious but she wasn't up to it."

"Why do you... " I turned to Fluttershy. "Why does she have a... you suit?"

"I... don't know?" Fluttershy choked out, hiding her face behind her pink mane.

"Alright, moving along." Pinkie Pie said as she nudged me with her nose, pushing towards some ponies I hadn't met yet.

A mint green unicorn named Lyra spent five minutes apologizing to me and then another ten asking me questions about hands. I didn't recognize her but apparently she had accidentally exposed me to some magic back when I was in Ponyville as a human. My memory of that day was hazy at best. I told her not to make a big deal of it, since she had no way of knowing and didn't intend any harm.

The pony I had purchased apples from a few weeks ago when I first visited Ponyville as a pony turned out to be a friend of Twilight's. Her name was Applejack. She and her brother, a very large red earth pony appropriately named Big Macintosh, ran Sweet Apple Acres together with their grandmother, Granny Smith.

Eventually we had made it through the group and Golden Dawn and I split up. I headed over to Twilight who was motioning for me.

"Hello Hail Storm, it's been a while." Twilight said.

I hadn't gotten to talk to Twilight since when I let her know I was going to be moving out of the castle the day after Golden and I had started building the cloud house.

"Yeah, I haven't been seeing much of you lately. How goes it?"

"Running Equestria is a lot of work. I don't know how Celestia managed it on her own. But, I don't want you to think I've given up on trying to find you a way home. I haven't had a lot of time to look personally but I have a few very smart unicorns working on it."

Home... I had been thinking of it less and less lately. Or more accurately, I had been thinking of a different home. I glanced over at Golden Dawn. She was chatting with Cadance in the corner of the room. Cadance noticed me looking over at her and Golden Dawn and winked at me.

"Is everything alright?" Twilight asked.

"Oh yeah, sorry. You were saying?"

"Well that was kind of it. I've got ponies working on it but nothing yet. With you moving out of the castle, I'm going to be seeing even less of you. If you ever have any questions, please feel free to stop by. I know what it's like being in an unfamiliar world."

"Actually, I have two right now, if you don't mind."

"Go on," Twilight said.

"Is this tree... bigger on the inside?" I asked looking around at the room we were standing it. The tree was big but from what I remembered of the outside, there was no way the 20 something ponies and a baby dragon could fit inside even if there hadn't been shelves full of books. And that was just this room, I saw a few other doors and a staircase leading to another floor.

"Indeed it is, the tree has what is known as a spatial compression field cast inside of it. When Ponyville was first founded the library was tiny, only a few dozen books, so it actually did all fit in here, but as the town grew so did the library's collection. Eventually they ran out of space. There was talk about setting up a new library but the town didn't want to lose this unique building so they hired a unicorn to enchant it."

"I think that's what was on Trixie's wagon that made me pass out. I don't really remember it though. The other question I had was... Can I get a cutie mark?"

"Well I can't give you one, if that's what you are asking." Twilight said shaking her head. "Not even magic can make a cutie mark appear before it's time." The way she recited that made it sound like she had given a lecture about this before.

"Sorry, that's not what I meant. I meant, am I able to get a cutie mark? I'm curious. Humans don't get them, and I'm not a real pony so I wondered if it would even work."

"Well first off, you are a real pony, at least you are now. Just because you weren't born one doesn't make you any less of a pony than anypony else. Secondly, yes, as a pony you can do all the things any pony can do, including earn a cutie mark. If I might ask, why the interest? Is anypony bothering you about not having one?"

"No, not really," I said shaking my head. "Sometimes, I'll get the odd stare, or a double take, but most ponies seem to avoid talking about it. I'm just curious that's all."

"Oh alright." Twilight said. "Was there anything else?"

"Actually, I've got one more thing, I heard you moved my truck to the castle, can you help me get it back to Ponyville? I didn't see a good way to drive it out of the castle grounds. I assume you got it there with some form of magic."

"Sure thing, how's tomorrow work for you?" Twilight said.

"Fine for me."

I wandered around the room, eventually making my way over to the dessert table and snatching up yet another piece of cake. It was too good to pass up seconds. I had a feeling that I'd be eating thirds before the party was over. As a pony I had a far more active lifestyle, I could afford some extra cake.

I saw Golden Dawn talking to Short Fuse and I trotted over.

"Good to see you Hail Storm" Short Fuse said. "I've made some progress with your smokeless powder. It's definitely based on some sort of nitrocellulose compound. I haven't narrowed it down quite yet, but I'm getting closer."

"I've heard of nitrocellulose but I don't know exactly how it's made, is that something that ponies can make?" I asked.

"Yeah we can, it's tricky to work with, very flammable, but as long as you take the proper precautions, it can be done," Short Fuse said.

"That's good to hear," Golden Dawn said.

The party flew by and before I knew it, the number of guests had dwindled to Pinkie, Twilight, Spike, Golden Dawn and myself. Cadance had left hours earlier, only able to stay for a short time before she had to return to Canterlot so Twilight could stay longer. I didn't get a chance to talk to her but I did talk to Shining Armor. When I told him about my business plans he seemed interested and said he'd try to find some free time to visit, once I went into production.

"Ready to go home?" Golden Dawn asked I was helping Pinkie put away a table.

Home, not the first time that day I had thought about the word. I had been in Equestria for just over three months now and I had stayed in many places but I hadn't called any of them home. Up until recently, I had just been passing through, still trying to reach my real home. And while Earth would always be my first home, I was finally starting to feel that I could make Equestria into a new one. I set the table down in the corner, walked over to Golden Dawn and wrapped a wing around her. "Yes, I am."

The next day I was going to head up to Canterlot to get my truck but I found it sitting under the house when I flew outside. I shook my head and made a mental note to send Twilight a thank you letter.

Golden Dawn and I had quite a bit to do while the buildings went up. I was starting up a small workshop with no tools and no supplies. Golden Dawn was setting out to start an automobile factory. By human standards it was tiny, but she wasn't going to be able to run it all by herself. She needed to hire a crew. She already had made contact with a few ponies she knew from school and was waiting to hear back from them. Apart from that she needed to start ordering supplies and purchase additional machinery. The stuff she had in Hoofston was, according to her, antiquated, but inexpensive. She couldn't afford the latest and greatest but there were a few things she absolutely needed.

I found myself in basically the same situation. When it came time to order tools, Golden let me know that there was no way I was going to get brand new, modern equipment on my budget. The best I could do is pick up some older tools, similar to what she had. Apart from tools, I also needed to order supplies. Fortunately, since I was going start at a relatively small volume, I could get most of those locally. What I really needed help with was figuring out exactly what I needed. The only reference I had was what had been in Rick's shop. That wasn't going to be enough though, since some parts, like barrels, he didn't produce himself. I decided to ask Golden to see if she had any advice.

"I meant to tell you this earlier, but I got sidetracked looking at my own stuff. You should look into hiring some ponies to help you out. Look for a metalworker, a unicorn if you can find one," Golden said.

"Why a unicorn?"

"Some of the parts you need to make will be hard to do without developing new tools to make them. You mentioned barrels, you could drill them out with a lathe but it's going to be tough. Most lathes, especially the ones in your price range, aren't likely to work great for drilling out holes that deep with the amount of precision you want."

"Yeah, that's one of the things I'm a little worried about. I've heard it's possible to do it on a regular lathe but normally there are specialized drills, they're actually called gun drills, in fact. How's a unicorn going to help with that?"

"We didn't always have machines to make things Hail, and we still don't use machines for everything," Golden said with a smile. "In fact, going back in history, many of the tools ponies have invented have been done to try to emulate what unicorns can do with magic. Earth ponies and pegasi can't manage the fine manipulation unicorns can do with magic. In the same way that unicorns are always building better spells, we're always building better machines. The real interesting stuff is what we've started doing in the last 10 years or so though. Mixing technology and magic together, that's going to be the future I think. Anyway, what I'm specifically talking about is magical forging, you want to find a unicorn that can do that."

"Magical forging?" I asked. "Is that like making magic weapons or whatever?"

"No, that's enchantment. Forging is shaping metal using compressive forces, you know like when you beat on it with a hammer."

"Yeah, I know what regular forging is," I said. "In ye olden times it you might have a blacksmith with a hammer but now we've got machines that do the hammering."

"Exactly. Well, you've seen what unicorns can do, levitate things, move them around with magic. Apply those forces to a piece of hot metal. With a hammer you can really only beat on the one side of the metal, with magic you can apply force on any part at all, even the inside of something. Of course the more complex the thing you're trying to make the harder it's going to be and the longer it's going to take. Unicorns with the right skillset can also do magical casting. Instead of having to make the mold they can form one out of magic."

"That's... I mean I haven't even considered that, that's incredible. How come you didn't have a unicorn to help you out back in Hoofston?" I asked.

"I told you, Hoofston's in the middle of nowhere, plus it's got a pretty low unicorn population to begin with. Not every unicorn has the skill to do something like that, and you have to find one who's good at it if you want to do anything complex. I knew a few, but I'm trying to get them to come work for me," Golden said, sticking her tongue out at me.

"Alright, I guess I'll add that to my list of things to do."

"Good, magical metalworking is usually good for low volume production of custom parts, but it's going to be slower than what you can do with the proper machinery. It does however, mean that you don't have to put everything on hold to design the machine first. Eventually, if you need to expand, you can automate more of the production. I know that as soon as they are available, and I can afford them, I'm going to buy some MNC machines to cut down on the manual labor," Golden said.

"MNC machine?"

"Magic numerical control. It's a pretty new concept, still mostly in the development stage. There really aren't any commercial products yet and the experimental ones are are pretty expensive. They use a combination of magic and machinery to automate machining. Let me give you an example. Say you want to cut a unusual pattern from some sheet metal. You could get a unicorn who knows a cutting spell to do it, but that's slow and requires a unicorn with the proper skills if you want it to be consistent. Same deal with cutting it with a torch, and, depending on how you are doing it, you may lose the precision that you can get with magic. If you've got a MNC cutter, it will have an cutting tool that can freely move around on multiple axises. The movement of the tool is controlled by an enchantment programed into the machine. It will follow the pattern automagically, over and over again. If you need to change the pattern you just get a unicorn to modify the enchantment."

"Wait... that sounds like a CNC machine, or... at least the magical equivalent of one," I said staring at Golden Dawn in shock. Just when I thought I had pony tech figured out, Golden Dawn threw another curveball at me.

"CNC?"

"Computer numerical control. What you just described sounds like some sort of CNC controlled cutter, like CNC laser cutting."

This lead to even more discussion as I attempted to explain what computers were to Golden Dawn. The existence of MNC machines intrigued me greatly. It was so hard to pin down how advanced ponies actually were, once again magic was throwing things for a loop. It reminded me of a discovery I had made earlier in the week. The local newspaper had an article about the 10 year anniversary of the Equestrian State Building, the tallest skyscraper in Manehattan. The images of the city looked like something out of the 1940s, far different from the western town I had arrived in. Golden Dawn had repeatedly told me that Hoofston was not representative of modern Equestria, and that image had cemented that statement.

At Golden Dawn's suggestion, I placed an ad in the paper, looking for a metalworker experienced with magical forging. With any luck, by the time my building was finished, I'd have gotten a response.

We were both very busy, but Golden Did ask that we set aside some time so I could meet her dad. We flew into Canterlot one day and after a quick lunch, headed to the house she had grown up in. Her father's name was Deep Blue and true to his name, he was a dark blue unicorn sporting a very distinguished looking grey beard. The unicorn part came as a bit of surprise to me, seeing as Golden Dawn was a pegasus. Ponies didn't seem to follow any sort of genetic rules that I was aware of. Identical parents typically had offspring of the same race. Or, if your parents were mixed races you had a very high chance of ending up as one or the other. Neither of those circumstances guaranteed the race of offspring, in all actuality, parents could end up with any kind of pony. On top of that, there was no hybrids of the races, for example, a half earth pony, half unicorn.

The only exception to that was the extremely rare alicorns, who apparently weren't born that way if Twilight was any indication. You were either born a unicorn, a pegasus, a bat pony, or an earth pony.

I learned these fun facts about pony reproduction when I whispered to Golden asking her how she ended up a pegasus with a unicorn father. First she whispered back that Twilight had already told me all this before I went through the mirror.

I barely remembered anything that had happened right before I went through, so I let Golden Dawn know that. When I did she told me that her mother was a pegasus, but then she decided to fill me in on the entire topic. It had something to do with a pony's soul, which could be influenced by the parents but could end up as anything. Deep Blue overheard her talking and pointed out that he was rather confused as to why I didn't know these details already. I then found out that this was taught to ponies when they learned where foals came from and he was deeply concerned that his daughter's new coltfriend didn't know these very basic facts.

That lead to Golden Dawn filling him in my entire story, at which point he gave me a pass on my lack of knowledge. Of course now he knew his daughter was dating an alien, so I wasn't sure if I was in a better situation or worse. Still, he seemed like a genuinely pleasant pony once I got to know him. I also took perverse pleasure when I saw him pull out a chess set and ask Golden Dawn if she had been keeping up on her skills. Even though Golden Dawn was his own flesh and blood he held nothing back and proceeded to crush her nearly as bad as she wrecked me whenever we played.

Speaking of chess, it wasn't a few weeks later while in the middle of a game where I was actually holding my own we heard shouting from far below us. I paused the clock, got up from the table headed outside and peered over the edge of the cloud down at the ground below. Short Fuse was standing down on the grass next to my truck looking up. She saw me and motioned me to fly down. When I reached her she had a huge grin on her face.

"I've got it!" she said loudly. "It's a double base compound, using a mixture of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin. There are some stabilizers to prevent the powder from decaying and the flakes are coated in graphite."

"So what does this mean?" I asked.

"Well, I looked at the two powders you gave me. They do burn at different rates. The rifle powder uses those small stick shapes, they have less surface area and are larger which helps contribute to the slower burn rate. The pistol powder uses much smaller ball shaped particles which burn much faster. By varying the combination of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin, the size of the grains and the surface area of the shapes I can adjust the burn rate. I've already synthesized some that matches the burn rate of your pistol powder almost exactly." Short Fuse said.

"How much is it going to cost?" I asked.

"Well that's the rub, it really depends on how much you need. If I'm making small batches by hoof it's going to be kind of expensive but if you are ordering in bulk, I can work on automating the process. I could probably get it down to near spark powder prices."

I was happy to hear that, spark powder was cheap so if I could get smokeless powder for anywhere near that price, I'd be in luck. Still I'd only be needing smokeless powder in quantity if my business took off.

"I guess I'll have to wait and see how sales go," I said.

"The primers are giving me trouble. I'm not sure what they are using yet, but whatever it is, it's got some kick to it. More than the powder. I had an idea of using mercury fulminate, it's what we use in blasting caps but mercury fulminate goes bad over time and I'm afraid the mercury will interact with the brass in your cartridges and weaken it. That would cause issues with reloading, which you mentioned wanting to be able to do. Either way, I'm going to have to get help for these once I've figured out a good compound to use. It's a matter of time but eventually I'll figure out something that can be used for a priming compound but I can't manufacture the primer itself and making them in quantity is going to be a pain in the flank."

"Why's that?" I asked.

"Well the primers are made up of three parts. The cup, an anvil and the priming compound. An impact on the cup squeezes the priming compound between the cup and the anvil which sets the primer off. For this to work, the priming compound has to be very sensitive. That means it will be very easy to set off. To prevent accidents, the primers will either have to be assembled by hoof, which will be a painstakingly slow process, or a very complex machine. Since I don't have the skill to build such a device, I thought about asking Golden Dawn about it."

"I'll let her know," I said.

I had plenty of primers so that wasn't an immediate concern. Worst case scenario I could ask Short Fuse to look into making ones with mercury fulminate. Not being able to reload brass wouldn't be the end of the world. As long as I could make cases, which I planned on doing anyway, I didn't need to have them be reloadable.

My building was finished two weeks ahead of schedule which worked out great because I misjudged how quickly my order would come in which arrived the same day Grey Hammer Construction handed me the keys. Thankfully that meant that Golden Dawn was still free because I was in way over my head. I had experience in a modern human workshop in assembling custom firearms, but, while some of the pony tools were similar to their modern counterparts, there were tools I had never used before. Golden Dawn went over everything with me, multiple presses, lathes, milling machines and more. Without the help and instruction that I got from her I would have never gotten my business off the ground.

In addition to the new machinery that I ordered, I also setup all the reloading equipment that I had brought with me from Earth. That part was quite simple and in a few hours I had reloaded a number of cartridges using my existing supplies.

Golden Dawn's factory was up and she was getting shipments of supplies by train almost daily. My own place was well stocked, but I still hadn't figured out how I was going to make barrels.

Nopony had responded to my advertisement, which meant I was going to have to try drilling them out with a lathe. Shorter barrels wouldn't be too bad, but I had a feeling I wasn't going to be able to do a 20" rifle barrel with the equipment I had.

While I was waiting, I got to work on my other problem. Once I had barrels, I was going to need to rifle them somehow. Fortunately, I had once seen a homemade rifling machine and had a pretty good idea of how it worked.

The idea was to make a number of grooves in the barrel that twist at a specific rate. As the bullet moved through the barrel, the grooves would cause the bullet to spin which would help stabilize the bullet's trajectory.

I started by taking a long sturdy steel pipe and and some twine. I carefully twisted the twine around the pipe, and then traced the spiral it made. From there I took a small steel rod and twisted it around the larger one, following the pattern I had traced out. The twisted rod was welded to the pipe creating what sort of looked like an oversized screw.

I built a long frame with a some holes that the pipe could pass through. Then I attached a handle on one end of the pipe and stiff steel road at the other end. As the pipe was pushed through the frame, the guide rod caused the pipe, and the rod that stuck out of it to twist at a fixed rate. A cutting bit was attached to a rod. The frame held a barrel in place and the rod went into the barrel. As it twisted the bit would cut a single groove. When that groove was finished, the barrel would turned 1/6th of a turn and the next groove would be cut. This was repeated until all 6 grooves were cut.

Since I didn't have any barrels to test it on, I tried it out on a piece of pipe that had a diameter similar to the barrels that I wanted to produce. I had to make a number of adjustments, but eventually I got it cutting consistent grooves.

The next thing to do was to try drilling out a barrel from some round bar stock. In order to produce a hole deep enough and straight enough with the equipment I had, I was going to have to make some modifications. I wanted to run some ideas by Golden Dawn before I tried anything but our busy schedules were making things difficult to get some free time. Once again, I found myself on hold until a unknown pony walked through my front door.

Chapter 17

He was an older unicorn, perhaps in his 60s, though I was a terrible judge of pony age. He had a steel grey coat and a short reddish brown mane that almost looked like a patch of rust on his metal colored coat. Though he walked with a slight limp in his left rear leg, it was clear that his years had not yet made him frail. Powerful muscles bulged in his forelegs with each step he took towards me.

"You Hail Storm?" he asked, as he slowly made his way across the room.

"That would be me," I said. "I'm not quite open for business yet, can I help you?"

"I saw your advertisement, you're looking for a metal worker?" he asked.

"Oh! Yes, yes I am."

He reached me and extended a hoof. I put out my own and we shook hooves, his grip was like a vice, and I tapped my hoof on the floor after he finally let go.

"Name's Iron Anvil," he said, glancing around my empty storefront. At the moment it consisted of a few empty display cases built into a counter and some racks that I hoped would eventually hold some weaponry.

"I'll guess by the name, you've got some experience with working with metals?"

Iron Anvil snorted, his lips turning up into a half grin.

"You could say that," he said. "50 years working for the crown at the Solar Forge in Canterlot."

"Solar Forge?" I asked.

Iron Anvil gave me a puzzled look of confusion.

"You know, the same forge Celestia crafted the armor she wore in the when she battled the mighty Dragon Lord, Trogdor the Burninator? Where the Royal Guard armor has been crafted for more than 2000 years?"

"Sorry, my knowledge of Equestrian history is... lacking," I said with a shrug.

"Sweet Celestia, what do they teach ponies in schools these days," he said, shaking his head.

"I have no idea," I said with a chuckle and a shrug.

"Well that's... disappointing. Anyway, I've got nearly 50 years as a blacksmith, forging weapons and armor for the Royal Guard. I can do tier four magical casting and forging, though unless you've worked in the business yourself, I don't expect you to know what that means. If it matters, I can even so some simple low-level enchantments."

"Yeah, you're right, I don't know what any of that means, sounds pretty impressive though." I said.

"So... what do you actually need here, the ad was lacking in detail."

"Sorry about that, I've got zero knowledge with any sort of magical metalworking. And, to be direct, I'm looking at manufacturing weapons. I put the add out because I need help producing a specific part. The work requires precision that I can't replicate with my older equipment. I don't have the bits to buy any custom machinery right now and a friend suggested I look for a unicorn with what sounds like your skillset."

"I've got more experience with armor, but I'm quite familiar with weapons as well," Iron Anvil said.

"Not these weapons," I said. "This is something new, nothing in Equestria like it."

"Alright, you've managed to pique this old stallion's interest" he said. "What exactly are you making here?"

"Follow me into the back and I'll show you," I said.

We headed through the door behind the counter. The back of the building consisted of a bathroom, a small break area, a storage room, and a large open workshop. I caught Iron Anvil looking at the reloading presses with interest, but quickly directed him over to a workbench next to my rifling machine.

"Interesting setup you've got here. I'm a little confused, weapons are usually forged by magic or by hoof over open flame, but this looks much more modern than any smithy I've seen," Iron Anvil said, continuing to look around.

"There's a reason for that. Can you wait right here, I need to go grab something," I said.

"Sure."

I galloped over to the storage room and unlocked it, the rest of my guns were back at my house but the lever action was sitting inside. I slung it over my neck and then headed back over to Iron Anvil.

"What do you have here?" Iron Anvil said, looking at the gun with interest.

"Hold on one moment, let me verify that it's not loaded," I said. I opened the action and did a visual inspection to make sure the chamber had nothing in it. Satisfied, I place the gun down on the table.

"I'm looking to build something similar to this. The part that's giving me the most trouble is the barrel," I said pointing at it. "My lathe can't really drill that deep. I've got some ideas on how to work around the problem, but I haven't gotten around to testing them yet. Honestly though, besides the barrel, I could use help in general. I figure two ponies working to produce these things will be faster than one."

"May I inspect this... device?" Iron Anvil asked.

"Normally, I'd give you a long speech about proper handling, but in the interest of time, let me sum it up quickly," I said. "This is a gun, specifically, it's a lever action rifle..."

I quickly ran through the important bits, no touching the trigger, no pointing the rifle at me or anything else. Since all the ammunition on the planet was currently locked up in my house, I wasn't too worried.

"So it's a projectile weapon," Iron Anvil said as the rifle floated in his magic field.

"Yep, I can show you what it shoots, I don't have any assembled cartridges here, but I've got the component parts. We could even load a few rounds and I could give you a demonstration if you'd like."

"I think I would," he said. "The workmanship on this is incredible. How in Equestria did you do it? This wasn't made with magic."

"No, it wasn't, how can you tell though?" I asked.

"When metal has been worked with magic, you can feel it," he said, still looking the rifle over. He pulled the lever down, causing the hammer to go into a cocked position with a click. "How do I reset this?" he asked, glancing at the now cocked hammer.

"First, close the lever until it clicks shut. Then hold the hammer so it can't slam down. Gently pull the trigger, you should feel the hammer try to move, lower it slowly until it's gone back into position,"

Iron Anvil did as I said, and then set the rifle down on the workbench.

"This thing's got quite a bit going on inside," he said. "I can feel it with my magic, but I'd like to get a look, if possible."

"Sure, I can run you through disassembly."

As I took the rifle apart, I gave a brief talk about the gun, how it worked, and I explained the function of all the components. I did a complete tear down, the bolt came out, along with the trigger assembly, the stock was removed and lastly the barrel from the receiver.

"There are some very tight tolerances at work in here, for a mass produced item, made without magic, I am impressed," Iron Anvil said as he floated the parts in front of himself. "You are right, you'd need some fairly expensive machinery to pull this off."

"And that's my problem. Do you think you could replicate the barrel?"

"This is a pretty hard grade of steel, 0.4% carbon, 0.8% chromium, 0.8% manganese...", Iron Anvil said as he started to list the composition of the barrel.

"How can you tell that?" I asked.

"Spell," he said. "This falls within the specs of 4140 chromoly steel. I'm guessing this is to deal with the temperatures and pressures you're seeing. Do you have a comparable steel?"

"Yeah, I do. I've got a bunch of bar stock in that grade in the back," I nodded over at the storage room.

"There's some grooves running on the inside of this thing," he said as the barrel floated in front of him. "That's the rifling you were talking about. I can replicate this, but it will be slow work. Might take me an entire day to produce one barrel. That rifling is going to be the hardest part."

"You could do the rifling too?" I asked. I still had no idea how magical forging worked but being able to reproduce that kind of work using no tools at all was damn impressive.

"I can," he said.

"I didn't actually expect that, I've got a tool I've thrown together to do that work. It's a prototype but I've tested it on some pipes and it seems to do a decent job."

"Show me," he said.

It's actually right here," I said, stepping to the side so he could get a look at it. I took out the section of pipe that was mounted and hoofed it to him so he could take a look. Then I gave a quick demonstration of how it worked.

"Not bad," he said. "Not as precise as what I could do, but faster. If I'm just doing the bore in the barrel and then we cut the rifling, that should be quicker. I suppose you'd want a demonstration."

"Um, yeah, like I said though, I've got no idea how this works, do you need anything?"

"A piece of steel, also do you have welding goggles?" Iron Anvil asked.

"Yeah."

"Grab two pairs," he said.

I opened a drawer in the work bench and pulled them out. Iron Anvil took one and put it on, and I did the same. I trotted over to the storage room, opened it up and grabbed a steel bar. Upon my return Iron Anvil floated the bar off my back and held it in front of himself.

"Can I cut this short? It will take too long to do a full length demonstration."

"Sure," I said. "You need a torch?"

"Nope."

Iron Anvil's horn lit up, the glow grew in intensity until even with the goggles it was hard to look at. When I thought it couldn't get any brighter, an equally brilliant spot appeared on the bar. I watched in awe as Iron Anvil began to slice through the bar using nothing but his own magic. Sparks and bits of metal flew in every direction as the magical focal point moved slowly across the bar, but nothing larger than a speck made it to the concrete floor, most of it was caught in Iron Anvil's magical field and hung in the air. A minute later, he finished cutting a six inch segment off the end of the bar. When the two pieces finally separated, his horn slowly dimmed to a normal level of glow. The longer bar floated over to the workbench as he set it down.

"It's quite cool," he said as he noticed me eyeing the end that he had just cut.

He turned his attention back to the short bar of steel, and his horn began to brighten again. This time there was no single point of light on the bar, instead, the entire thing began to slowly glow, first a very dull red, then brighter, it went through orange and then finally reached almost orange yellow in color. If my memory was correct, the color the steel was glowing indicated that Iron Anvil had brought the bar up to somewhere around 2200 degrees fahrenheit.

I could see movement in the bar, a rippling, as if it was being struck with thousands of tiny hammers. It was hard to tell exactly what was happening due to the intense glow, but the steel was definitely changing shape. Iron Anvil continued to work in silence, I was afraid to say anything as I didn't want to break his concentration and have him drop the bar.

The process was slow, when almost half an hour had passed, I heard Iron Anvil let out a sigh and the bar slowly started to cool down. His horn flashed brightly one last time and in an instant the bar cooled down and lost it's glow entirely. Except it wasn't a round bar anymore, it had been hollowed out into a barrel.

"Sorry it took so long, I made that as precise as I possibly could," Iron Anvil said, panting slightly. "It's actually has about 1/10th the variance that your barrel has."

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, that took a lot out of me, I'm not used to having to do everything through magic. Keeping the steel hot for that long uses takes quite a bit of concentration. Usually I'll have a forge to heat the metal for me and a slack tub with water or oil to quench it."

"You think you could do this for a 20" barrel?" I asked.

"You get me a proper forge, and a few other things, so I don't have to do everything myself and yeah I could. I can work with plain old charcoal, but there are enchanted forges that have far more accurate temperature control, they're not particularly expensive either."

"Alright, as far as I'm concerned the job's yours if you want it. All that's left is to discuss pay." I said. As long as Iron Anvil didn't want too much, he had exactly the skills that I was looking for.

"Sounds good."

Pay turned out to be a non-issue. Iron Anvil wasn't looking for much at all. He had retired from his work at the Solar Forge, but the reason he came looking for a job is that he found retirement boring. He wanted to get back into working but didn't want to move back to Canterlot. His children and grandkids lived on Ponyville and he wanted to stick close by so he could spend time with them. It was more important that I have a flexible schedule for him, which I didn't see as a problem. We settled on a reasonable rate and I threw in free membership at the range once it opened for him and his family.

I gave him a demonstration of the loading press and I loaded fifty rounds of .44 magnum. Then I took him out back to the newly constructed range and showed him the rifle. He was impressed and had what seemed like an endless stream of questions about it. This of course eventually lead me to explaining my past and where I had come from when he wanted to know where I got the rifle from.

We spent the rest of the afternoon going over what he would need. He was going to set up a small outdoor smithy right behind the main building. We could build what he wanted ourselves and when we went to the hardware store to get the lumber we needed, he placed an order for all the equipment he needed.

After Golden Dawn assembled a full team, they got to work, setting up all the machinery that she needed to ramp up production. Her hours were long and I found myself seeing less and less of her during the day. That wasn't to say we didn't have time for each other, in fact nearly every night and weekends we were off on some sort of date. Hiking around Canterlot Mountain, picnics in the park, fancy dinner parties, we did it all. Still though, it was a change from the past where I had spent nearly every day with her by my side. It wasn't a bad thing though, we both had a good deal of work going on in our lives, and f anything it just made me look forward to our time together even more. I didn't take me long to figure I was falling head over hooves for that mare. I had dated a few women before but I had never felt as close to any of them as I did to Golden Dawn.

Back at my shop, work was going well. Iron Anvil's help was exactly what I needed to finally be able create all the parts I needed to assemble Equestria's first firearm. It was, more or less, an exact duplicate of the lever action I had based it on. The woodwork was rough, really rough actually, and I didn't bother with any of the polish or fancy engraving, but mechanically, it was identical. More importantly, when I test fired it, it didn't explode and that was a win in my book.

The major downside was the amount of time I had put into it. If I tallied up all the time I had spent working on the various pieces, that first gun was a week long project. One of other issues that became apparent was that my woodworking skill was really subpar. I made a note to look into hiring a carpenter pony. Things would be quicker now that I had Iron Anvil to help me out for the entire process, but I really needed to ramp up production. There was no way I could run a business off of producing a gun or two every week.

That might have worked back on Earth, where people knew what they were buying, but in Equestria, where guns were completely new, if I was too slow producing them, ponies would lose interest. I had to get my production rates up. I knew that as I got better, I'd be able to work faster but that was going to take time.

My solution was to go back to the drawing board and simplify things. If I could decrease the complexity of what I was making, I could build more of them in a shorter period of time. More importantly though, I needed a way to generate interest in my product. I realized, probably too late, that I might be able to build the firearms, but I was completely clueless about marketing. Of all the possible ponies that could help me with the that problem, I hadn't expected it to be Pinkie Pie.

"You need to come up with a game," she said as I was discussing the problem with Golden Dawn over an after dinner snack at Sugar Cube Corner.

"Huh?" I asked.

"Something sort of fun activity to do, then use it to demonstrate your guns. You don't need to sell them, at least not right away. Instead, rent time to use them, that way it doesn't matter if you only have a few of them. You could make it like a carnival game, ponies come up and pay to play."

"Hmm, that's not a bad idea, once ponies know what they are, I can start selling them," I said.

"And if demand outstrips production, hire more ponies to help you assemble them," Golden Dawn said.

I already had the ability to build lever actions. If I built a few more I could set up some paper targets and rent them out but I wanted something that was a bit more unique. Ponies could already go shoot archery targets and I wasn't sure if this would be enough of a draw to pull them in.

I had to find something exciting that wasn't just shooting a smaller paper bullseye. Something that couldn't be done with a bow and arrow. The answer hit me when I thought about the plans I had drawn up for a break action shotgun.

Unless Equestrian archery was completely different than human archery, I imagined most ponies were just going to be shooting at static or, at best, slow moving targets. As far as I knew there was no archery equivalent to shooting clay pigeons. That would be my draw. I quickly explained the concept to Golden Dawn and Pinkie and thus the game of skeet was born.

It wasn't really skeet, I had never played the human version of the game so I didn't know the actual rules, all I knew was it involved shooting clay pigeons with a shotgun. But, when I brought the idea up and started explaining it, Pinkie thought the name was funny and insisted I call it that. She also got me to drop the "pigeon" from clay pigeons because she thought the idea of shooting a bird was horrible. I ended up called them clay disks instead or just clays.

For this to work, I had to start making shotguns but that wasn't too bad. I had already come up with a design for that back when I was in Canterlot. In fact, it would give me the chance to test some of the changes I wanted to make that would allow shooting by hoof easier.

I went over the design with Iron Anvil, the barrels for the shotguns were even easier to make since they didn't need to be rifled. We got to work the next day and finished the whole thing, from planning to the actual machining and assembly in a day.

There were still a number of issues to deal with besides assembly. I didn't have any shotgun shells, shotgun powder, shotgun primers or shot.

Because no one made shot I had to make it myself but that ended up being fairly simple. I built a frame that held an angled pan with a burner underneath it. A block of lead went into the pan, which started to melt as the pan heated up. The liquid lead flowed down to the edge of the pan where there were a number of small holes. From there dripped through the holes, the drops fell a few inches and then hit a sharply angled, and polished plate. They rolled off that plate and into a large bucket filled with water. The water cooled the lead drops causing them to harden into tiny balls. They weren't perfectly round, but they were close enough for what I wanted to use them for. I was pretty proud of the thing because I designed the contraption completely on my own and it worked on the first try.

The last thing I had to do was design a shell. Modern shotgun shells are all plastic. Ponies did have plastic but I had no idea what kinds of plastic, nor did I have any ability to manufacture plastic shells. Before plastic shells were used, shotguns used both paper shells and brass shells. Paper would be extremely simple but brass shells would be far more durable, and suitable for reloading.

I decided to go with brass shells, there was even a modern 12 gauge brass shell that used pistol primers so I copied that design. To make the brass cartridges we employed the use of a hydraulic presses with some custom carbide dies that Iron Anvil helped me create. First the sheets of brass were punched out into what looked like a small thick brass cup. Those brass cups then went through a series of presses. The process, known as deep drawing because the part's depth exceeded its diameter, was repeated three times, each until the cup was pulled out into a thin long tube of brass, sealed off at one end. Between each pressing the brass was heated up, annealing it which softened the brass and allowed it to stretch better during the pressing process. Those brass tubes were then measured by hoof and trimmed if needed to bring them to the proper length. Lastly, they went into one final press that formed both the primer pocket and rim, completing the cartridge.

The powder we used was a modified version of the original formulation from Short Fuse. The new powder had a faster burn rate to bring it in line with some of the Earth powders listed in my manuals. On top of the powder sat a cloth wad, then the shot itself and I sealed the rounds with candle wax.

Reloading ammunition was a fairly simple process, as long as you followed the directions. It wasn't so different than baking a cake, you look up the cartridge you want to make, follow the recipe, or load data, and put it all together. Except with this kind of cake if you used the wrong brand of flour the cake could explode. Different powders burned at different rates and every single one of them had a minimum and a maximum charge for each different type of cartridge. Put too little powder in and the bullet might get stuck in the barrel, put too much powder in and... boom. In fact since you could load different weights of bullets in the same cartridge you could easily find half a dozen different loads per type of powder per cartridge.

Since Short Fuse's powder was not in any of my books, I had to come up with a safe powder charge, or load. That took some experimentation, during which I erred on the side of caution. Precautions were taken in the very real possibility that I used too much powder and had an accident. In fact I did and I went through 3 guns before I found a load that gave the shot sufficient velocity while also not exploding the gun. Thankfully they were my first three and every one I put together was coming out nicer than the last, so I wasn't too concerned with their destruction.

I briefly had a moment of panic as I was surveying the skeet range. Unlike the rifle ranges where a pony would be shooting into a backstop, the skeet range involved shooting clays that were up in the air. This wasn't really a problem on Earth, as long as there was nothing immediately beyond the range. Unlike bullets, birdshot doesn't travel very far. However, if a pegasus happened to fly over at an inopportune time, that could result in problems. I talked to Golden Dawn about this and found that that my big worry was already a solved problem. Ponies had a method of designating an area a no fly zone. Clouds were positioned at the corners of my range and magical beacons were placed inside them. Any pegasus, or griffon who got within 500 yards of a beacon would be warned not to enter the area.

The last thing I needed were the clay disks. I found a pony with a kiln and paid her to make me a thousand small clay frisbee shaped discs out of her cheapest clay while I was still working on the cartridge design. When I went to pick up my order I found the pony's daughter, a unicorn, playing with what I hoped was an extra. Taking the disk in her magic she threw it high into the air. It lazily sailed before reaching the top of an arc and then spun down towards the ground. Right before it smashed into a million pieces, she caught it and then perfectly repeated the throw.

"Lemon Drop! I told you to quit playing with those!"

"I'm bored mom!" the young unicorn shouted back. "All my friends are out shopping and I don't have any money."

"Then get a job, you're old enough."

As she threw one of the disks into the air again, it occurred to me that I didn't have a launcher built.

If I was going to have a bunch of ponies come and shoot, it meant having sufficient ammo for them to do so. It wasn't like they could buy it anywhere else. Iron Anvil and I took a break from making guns and spent the week loading thousands of rounds. Then I hired Pinkie Pie to give my store a grand opening party the following Monday. She insisted before she could do that I'd need to give her a demonstration.

"Alright, so you remember all the safety rules I went over?"

"Yeppers! Let's get this show on the road." Pinkie said, bouncing up and down in place.

I double checked that Pinkie was wearing her ear and eye protection. I had talked to Short Fuse to see where she got the amulets and ordered a box of them. The safety goggles came from the local hardware store.

"Ready when you are," I said.

Pinkie opened the breach and loaded a shell into the chamber. It clicked closed and she pulled the hammer back.

"Pull!" she shouted.

I was holding the clay plate in my wing, as soon as I heard Pinkie shout pull, my powerful wing muscles contracted like a bear trap, whipping the clay disk into the air. It spun upwards into Pinkie's line of sight, she began to track it and a second later the shotgun went off with a loud bang as roughly 350 tiny pellets each less than a tenth of an inch in diameter exploded out the front of the barrel at close to 1300 feet per second. The clay disk powdered into a satisfying cloud of fragments as was struck dead on by the ever expanding cloud of lead.

"Nice shot Pinkie!" I shouted.

She gave me an enormous grin and made what sounded like a high pitched squeak of excitement before asking for another go.

She kept me throwing those clay disks for two hours. When I complained that she was going to run though all my disks before I even opened she asked how much I was going to charge and plopped a pile of bits down on the table. I still think the only reason I got her to stop was because it was getting dark and was getting hard to see the disks as the sun went down.

That Saturday, Storm Munitions, had its grand opening party. To keep me from having to sit there throwing disks all day, my wing was still sore from Pinkie's marathon, I hired Lemon Drop and another young unicorn to throw the disks into the air for the event. About a hundred ponies showed up, not a huge crowd, but after my first demonstration every single one of them wanted to try it out. What I hadn't counted on was Pinkie's knowledge of the towns-ponies. I assumed she'd just put up some banners and ponies would show up because they knew Pinkie was involved. Instead she talked to ponies and described in detail what it was the event was about. More importantly, since she knew everypony in the town so well, she sought out ponies that she knew would be interested.

I actually ran out of clays before everypony was done shooting. Fortunately I had prepared for that possibility, and had purchased a bushel of apples from Sweet Apple Acres that hadn't met their quality standards. They didn't fly quite as well as the clay pigeons but they also cost a tenth what the clays cost. I made a note to switch to apples until I could start ordering clays in large enough quantity to bring the price down.

That weekend was a big one for Golden Dawn as well. On Sunday her factory put out its first truck. We rode it into town together to pick up our groceries. Ponies do eat a lot, but I think Golden Dawn went a bit overboard just so everypony in the market would see how much we could put in the back of that thing. She was approached by no less than ten ponies asking where she got it.

Time, like the pegasus, flew. The days were growing shorter and the air had the slightest hint of a chill in it. Actually it was a fair bit cold, winter was almost upon us, but as a pegasus I barely felt it at all. It had already been a month since the leaves on the trees had turned from green to a vivid array of oranges,yellows and browns. That's when I got introduced to more of the magic of Equestria. Fall didn't kick into gear slowly like it did back on Earth. It was a sudden and quick thing, brought about by the ponies themselves.

When summer had run it's course the leaves began to shift colors in record time. Less than a week after the process had begun, the entire town of Ponyville gathered together on a cool autumn morning. Everypony lined up to run a course through White Tail Woods. As we stormed through the forest, the thundering of our hooves started a chain reaction, causing the leaves of the trees we zipped past to start to fall. By the end of the day, every tree in Ponyville and the surrounding area was bare. After that there were no more surprise warm days, Fall was officially started and the pegasi that ran the seasons made sure that the weather followed their schedule.

Business was going well for both of us, Golden Dawn in particular. It quickly became apparent that she was going to need to expand production. She was under an incredible strain due to her huge backlog of orders. She had 30 ponies working for her now but they still couldn't keep up. She had plans to hire more but It wasn't going to be long before she hit a wall due to lack of available space. We were headed to Canterlot, Golden Dawn had an appointment at Canterlot Central Bank so she could secure a loan for what would be a full sized factory. I was going with her to look into the possibility of getting a loan myself. I had been talking with Short Fuse and wanted to buy her business so I could bring all aspects of gun manufacturing under my control. Right now I was buying my powder and primers from her while I produced everything else.

Golden Dawn wasn't worried about the loan, she had excellent credit and was making bits hoof over wing. I however, was a tad nervous. I had no real credit history in Equestria and although I was making a profit, my volume was fairly low so I wasn't drowning in money. My real problem was production rates. I had also hired some ponies to help me, and we were now putting out nearly ten guns a week. In addition, the range was open 6 days a week and the crowds hadn't really died down despite the cold weather. Still, powder and primers were a fair amount of my costs, especially primers. Short Fuse had finally nailed down the primer compound, lead styphnate, and with some help from Golden Dawn designing a machine to form the primer cup itself, was producing them at a slow but steady pace.

The problem was that priming the primers was a fairly manual process. Lead styphnate was just too sensitive and she hadn't figured out a way to automate the process yet. Manual labor kept the costs relatively high. If I owned the method of production though, I could invest my own bits into figuring out how to automate things and hopefully lower those costs. I ended up with a choice, I could expand gun production like Golden Dawn was doing and hope that Short Fuse could keep up with demand, or I could focus on powder and primer production first. I decided to go with the latter and hold off on expanding production until after winter.

It was just about lunchtime when we arrived in Canterlot. Our meeting at the bank was in two hours so we decided to stop and get food on the way.

"Would you mind if we went to The Griffon's Nest for lunch? I haven't had meat in what seems like ages," I asked Golden Dawn as we trotted through Restaurant Row.

She made a bit of a face, but then shook her her head. "I was going to say I'd rather pass but I know how much you like it and I was just going to get a sandwich and their sandwiches are actually pretty good."

Restaurant Row was crowded, which was pretty typical for this time of day. Unlike the last time I had gone to The Griffon's Nest, we didn't have to stick to the street. With a few quick flaps we rose above the crowd. I couldn't resist grinning like an idiot as the ponies below us shrank away. The sheer joy of flying was something I was never going to bored with. I let Golden Dawn take the lead since I still wasn't great at navigating the complicated layout of downtown Canterlot from an aerial perspective. We made our way over the rooftops, occasionally passing other pegasi who probably had the same idea we did. I spotted the restaurant just as Golden Dawn started swooping down for a landing.

The heavy aroma of cooking meat filled my nostrils as we walked inside. I saw Golden scrunch up her nose for a second, but it was quickly back to normal. I hadn't noticed any sign of discomfort the first time we had come here, but then again, I was much better at reading pony expressions now that I had been, especially hers. I was going to have to make this up to her. A surprise box of chocolates was as good of a way to do that as it was on back on Earth. I made a mental note to swing by Sugar Cube Corner the next time I had a chance.

"Hey, Hail Storm, Golden Dawn!" I heard a voice call out to me. I was so engrossed in my thoughts I hadn't looked around the room yet.

Sitting at the same table they had been when we first met were Silent Night and Thunderbolt.

"Hey you two, fancy meeting you here again," I said as we walked over.

"You have excellent timing, we just sat down a few minutes ago. Want to join us?"

"Sounds good to me," Golden Dawn said before I could answer.

Silent Night moved to the other side of the table, opening up a place for me and Golden Dawn to sit together.

"Did you order yet?" Golden Dawn asked.

Thunderbolt shook his head no. "Just our drinks."

Gus came by and took or orders. I went with the same as last time. It was good enough that I didn't feel compelled to try any of the other items. Golden Dawn and I engaged the two guards with some small talk. After that kind of trailed off, I mentioned that I felt bad about not ever having caught back up with them.

"I swung by the barracks a few times but Moonlit Shadow said you two were out on 'guard business.' I would have checked back some more but we moved to Ponyville back in August," I said.

"We?" Thunderbolt asked, raising an eyebrow. "As in both of you, together?"

"I seem to recall you saying she was not your marefriend," Thunderbolt said thoughtfully.

"Oh, well I mean..." I started to sputter.

"How do you know we're not just roommates?" Golden Dawn asked.

"I think Hail Storm's reaction makes it quite clear," Thunderbolt said with a laugh.

"True, he's so cute when he's embarrassed," Golden Dawn said, she leaned over and kissed me on the cheek, which only made my face run hotter.

"Well, now that the cat's out of the bag, you'll have to tell us how it happened. He seemed so insistent last time that the two of you were not a couple," Silent Night said.

"It took me a while to figure things out," I said.

"You weren't the first oblivious stallion in Equestria's history, nor will you be the last. Given your background though, I can't really hold it against you," Golden Dawn said as she gently bumped up against me.

"Does this have more to do with your mysterious past?" Silent Night asked.

"Will we finally learn the origin of the carnivorous adult blank flank?" Thunderbolt asked. Silent Night gave him a bit of a glare at that. At first I was confused but then I remembered Golden Dawn telling me that blank flank was used as an insult for ponies who got their cutie marks later in life.

"Sorry, that was a bit rude," Thunderbolt said, as he noticed Silent Night's glare. "If it's any consolation I was the last in my class to get my mark. It must have been tough for you."

"Not really," I said with a smile. "I wasn't the only blank flank. In fact, where I come from nopony gets a cutie mark."

"Impossible," Silent Night said.

"Well no, it's very possible. Mostly because where I come from there are no ponies to get them. I'm not a pony, or rather I wasn't."

I launched into my story. First I gave a brief background on humans. From there I moved into driving through the portal and everything that happened to me in Hoofston. I skipped over some bits, I didn't really want to get into my father's death. I didn't want them to think I was a walking tragic backstory looking for pity. Quite the opposite, the last few months had been some of the best in my life. I wouldn't have changed anything, even if I could. Every once in awhile Golden Dawn would confirm something that I had said, or fill in bits from periods of time where I was unconscious. I ended more or less with Golden Dawn and I going on our first date. By the time I was done, both Silent Night and Thunderbolt were staring at me.

"You know... It's a crime to lie to a member of the Royal Guard," Silent Night said.

"Only if he's under investigation and under oath," Golden Dawn said. "It's perfectly legal to make things up to fool some friends that happen to be in the guard. Though it doesn't really matter, since the whole thing's true."

"What do you think Thunderbolt?" Silent Night asked.

"My head says no but my gut says yes. The story's too detailed for him to have just made it up, unless he's got quite a bit of practice telling it."

"Honestly, I kinda of do," I said with a bit of chuckle.

"You're not helping your case," he replied. "Still though, I remember hearing rumors about a strange creature staying in the castle about 6 months back. Also, if you recall, when we first met him, and no offense to you Hail Storm, but he seemed kind of... uncoordinated, which makes sense if he had just gotten dumped into a new body."

"None taken, you're right, I had only been a pony for a couple of weeks at that point, and the first ten days I wasn't even awake for."

"Anyway, the klutziness, the lack of an aversion to meat, the missing cutie mark. It's a heck of a story but all those things fit if it's true," Thunderbolt said.

"I dunno..." Silent Night replied.

"Five bits says he's telling the truth," Thunderbolt said.

"How do we prove it one way or another to collect?" Silent Night asked.

"I figure we'll find out eventually. Pay when we've got confirmation," Thunderbolt said.

"Works for me," Silent Night said.

I watched as the two ponies shook hooves. Not the outcome I had expected, but an interesting one. The food arrived and we got to eating. Between bites I asked what they had been up to.

"Well, I guess it's not so secret anymore, it was in all the Sacramareto newspapers and I expect it to travel across the country now that the story leaked. A few months back a class went missing. They were on a field trip to collect some plant samples from a nearby forest. Anyway twenty colts and fillies, the teacher and two adult chaperones all vanished without a trace. We were out there helping with the investigation," Silent Night said with a sigh.

"That's terrible." Golden Dawn said with a frown. "Did you find them?"

Thunderbolt's ears folded down and he bowed his head. "Sadly, no. Nor did we find any clues at all. Months of work and not even a hint of a lead."

"The investigation was started and botched by the local sheriff, who clearly had no idea what he was doing," Silent Night said, the annoyance clearly visible on his face. "If the Guard had been called out there right away, I'm sure we could have found something. We have unicorns with tracking spells exactly for this sort of thing, but once the locals got their hooves all over the scene it became impossible to sort things out."

"I'm really sorry to hear that," I said. I wasn't sure what else to say.

"That's alright, not your fault. Let's talk about something else though. Like what are you two doing in Canterlot?" Silent Night asked.

Golden Dawn gave a quick summary of her business and how she was looking to expand it. Neither of the two guards had ever seen an automobile, steam or one of Golden's but I think they got the gist of it. When it came to my turn, I brought up Storm Munitions, and what I wanted to do, and both ponies sat up straight.

"I've heard of your stuff! I didn't realize it was you!" Thunderbolt said excitedly, Silent Night nodded in agreement. "A friend of mine's buddy visited your range last week, my friend was telling us about it secondhoof two nights ago."

"Heh, wow. That's good to hear," I said. "Except for Pinkie Pie's initial advertising, most of my business is from word of mouth. I'm glad news is spreading."

"So when can we come down and check it out?" Silent Night asked.

"Well the range is open Thursdays, except today since we're here, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, but I'll be honest with you guys, it's been packed all week. If you show up, chances are you're going to have a hell of a wait. I'm working on hiring some more ponies so we can start catching up on orders. I'm also going to be expanding the ranges, so I can get more ponies shooting at once, I've got the land for it, just not the headcount right now."

"Even at night?" Thunderbolt asked.

"No but we usually close up when the sun goes down. Can't shoot if you can't see," I said.

"We can see just fine at night, and we're not normally up during the day anyway. You've once again managed to catch us after we covered an early shift," Thunderbolt said.

"Hmm, well I wouldn't be able to see and seeing as you've never shot a gun before I'm a little iffy about opening the range at night," I said.

"Don't worry about that, the Guard have enchanted amulets that will give a normal pony night-sight. We can borrow one," Silent Night said.

Ponies have night vision, I thought to myself. Of course they do.

"Well, in that case I think we can arrange something. How about this Saturday night? That gives me time to give Short Fuse a heads up that we will be making a lot of noise after dark," I said.

"Bring a second amulet for me," Golden Dawn said.

"We're both off this weekend so that works out great," Thunderbolt said.

I gave them directions to the range. It was getting kind of late and we had to head out to get to our appointment. We said our goodbyes, paid the bill and took off.

Golden Dawn was easily able to secure her loan. It helped that she had hundreds of signed orders for more of her trucks that pretty much proved she had guaranteed income. I wasn't quite as lucky. The most they would loan me was 75% of what I wanted. I wasn't sure if Short Fuse would drop her price so I asked if I could get back to them, which they said was fine.

I talked to Short Fuse later that night and she agreed to accept the reduced price, but at a cost. She wanted 33% ownership in Storm Munitions, which I agreed to. We also officially changed the name to Storm & Fuse Munitions. I went back to Canterlot with Short Fuse the next day, secured the loan and then handed the banknote to Short Fuse who deposited it in her account.

The sun had just dipped below the trees, creating a weave of shadows cast by the leafless branches that stretched across the back of the range. I was outside, getting things ready Silent Night and Thunderbolt arrived. Golden Dawn was finishing yet another extended shift trying to catch up on her orders, and would be heading over as soon as she could.

Since the two Night Guards were more friends than customers, I decided to bring out my personal collection instead of sticking to just the shotguns and lever actions that we were making. My stuff was a bit more polished than the Equestrian made counterparts, though we were getting better everyday. One of my newest hires, a unicorn named Table Saw, had extensive carpentry experience. He almost had a heart attack when he saw some of my earlier works. I had gotten better since my first few attempts, but I was nowhere near the level of quality he could put out and he worked much faster than I did.

Presently, we were selling about twice as many shotguns as we were lever actions, and skeet shooting was also where we saw our most range business. I was actually hoping to change that soon by getting some long distance steel shooting up... Working with Golden Dawn, I had made a number of steel targets suitable for both .44 magnum and .30-06, though the latter was restricted to 100 yards or farther.

In order to be able to stand up to the bullet from a .30-06, the targets had to be made from a very hard grade of steel. Far harder than what was normally used by ponies. Ponies tested hardness in a similar way humans did. A small steel ball is pressed into a material and the force needed to form an indentation is recorded. Using this method you obtain a number called the Brinell Hardness Number. The lead I used for my cast .44 magnum bullets ran about 18 BHN. Mild steel is around 120 BHN.

The steel I was using for my new targets was designed to be abrasion resistant and extremely durable. Ponies used it in mining equipment and other high wear applications. It had a hardness level of 500 BHN which factored into its common name, abrasion resistant 500, or AR500.

A 3/8th inch sheet of AR500 can stop a .30-06 round at 100 yards with no surface damage while a 3/4ths inch mild steel plate would be severely cratered or even punched through. Cratering is something you want to avoid on steel targets because the uneven surface increases the chance of a ricochet back at the shooter.

"Hey Hail Storm," I heard from behind me. The voice was completely unexpected and I nearly dropped the heavy steel plate I was carrying in my mouth. I set it down on the bench I was standing next to and turned around and caught a glimpse of two thestrals, Silent Night and Thunderbolt landing on the ground. Somehow, even with my enhanced pony hearing, their hooves didn’t make a sound as they landed on the hard dirt.

"Holy shit, were you guys trying to sneak up on me?" I asked, trying to catch my breath. "I didn’t know ponies could fly so quietly."

"Sorry," Thunderbolt said, looking sheepish. "Habit from working in the Night Guard, we’re trained to keep noise that might give away our position at a minimum. Plus bat ponies are naturally quiet."

"So what’s up with the bat pony, thestral thing, is it..." my words hung up mid sentence as I got my first good look at the pair. It was the first time I had seen them out of their armor and their coats were different.

Thunderbolt had a dark grey coat, more or less the color of a thundercloud. His mane was cut very short, almost like the ponies version of a buzz cut; it was just a lighter shade of grey. The only reason I knew it was him was because I recognized his voice when I heard him talk. His cutie mark was a white forked bolt of lightning.

Silent Night, on the other hoof, sported a cloud with a moon partially hidden behind it. He had a dark greyish purple coat and an electric blue mane that was cut in the same style as Thunderbolts’. The only thing that looked more or less the same as when I had first met them were their dark yellow slitted eyes.

"Did you guys like dye your coats or something?" I asked, more than slightly confused.

Silent Night gave me a toothy smile. "Nope, Guard armor is enchanted. It changes our physical appearance to give the Guard a look of uniformity. Anyway to answer your question, we’ve had many names over the years, I think in Old Equestrian, when Luna created our race, we were simply called Pegasus Nocturnus. Thestral came about roughly around the same time as Nightmare Moon’s banishment, uh 1000 years ago in case you don’t know our history. Bat pony is a modern term, popular among ponies our age or younger. Older ponies usually use thestral more, younger ones usually use bat pony more, either is acceptable."

"Ah, I did not know any of that. Well, I’m glad you could make it. Golden Dawn should be along soon, I’m just about ready setting up here, I just need to fly this target out," I said pointing at the steel plate. "Soon as I’m back, I’ll run you through the rules."

"We’ll wait here," Thunderbolt said.

My face turned serious for a moment as I nodded at the pile of weapons on the bench. "Oh, and no touching the guns until after I’ve done that, and especially not while I’m down range."

"Eeyup," they both said in agreement.

I picked up the plate and flew down to stand I had at 100 yards. I hooked the plate into the stand then flew back to the two patiently waiting ponies. As I was running through the range rules, Golden Dawn flew in, landing behind us.

After I finished with the rules, I answered a few questions the two ponies had and then Silent Night pulled two small necklaces he was wearing off of his neck.

"You may experience a brief moment of discomfort when you put those on," he said. He gave one to me and the other to Golden Dawn.

I slipped the necklace around my neck. For a second I felt dizzy and my vision went blurry but, then everything cleared up. The field, all the way back to the berm at the edge of the woods was lit up clear as day. Farther than that, the details began slowly fade out until, maybe 200 yards out, everything looked about normal. It completely blew away the grainy green night vision I had seen in movies and video games. Any qualms I had about shooting at night were quickly laid to rest.

"Oh wow, is this how you guys see all the time?" I asked in wonder.

"It’s not quite as good as our vision, we get a bit more range, of full light, maybe 500 yards, and even at max range things look a little brighter for us. The downside is we can’t turn it off, which makes working in the day somewhat painful. Our helmets actually have a enchantment built in for day time ops that help tone down the brightness of Celestia’s sun," Thunderbolt said.

Since we were already at the rifle range, we started with the rifles and the revolver first. The shotguns would have to wait till we moved over to the skeet range. Everypony put on their eye and ear protection and I gave a quick demonstration, taking two shots at the plate I had hung up at a 100 yards.

Both ponies looked fairly impressed and they both wanted to go first, so I set Silent Night up with the lever action and Thunderbolt with the scoped bolt action. Both ponies seemed to acclimate to the guns fairly quickly and it wasn’t long until the sounds of gunfire, followed by the ring of a hit on the steel target, filled the air as they went through shot after shot.

After a few minutes they swapped guns. Golden Dawn and I watched on as they each went through about 50 shots each. Thunderbolt in particular seemed to enjoy the bolt action, and he let out a cry of joy as he lined up and hit shot after shot in the scope’s crosshairs.

When they had their fill, I gave them a go with my revolver at a plate I had hanging at 25 yards. They were amazed at how small the revolver was, while still being able to shoot the same round as the lever action. Silent Night made a comparison to hoof crossbows vs full sized war crossbows. Hoof crossbows shot a much smaller bolt and couldn’t reliable penetrate Guard Armor except at point blank range.

"On that note, you said it wasn’t safe to shoot the plate at 25 yards with the rifles?" Silent Night asked.

"Well, the lever action would probably be fine. .44 magnum is a pistol round so even though it picks up some speed in the longer barrel of the rifle, it’s still not going to punch through 3/8ths AR500," I said.

"So what exactly is AR500 and... wait, did you say 3/8ths of an inch? Would the .30-06 punch through that?" Thunderbolt asked.

"AR500 is just a name for the type of steel we’re using in those targets. It’s hardened all the way through to resist wear and abrasion... Hold up, I’ve got another plate of it here," I said. I reached down into a box that was under the bench and pulled out another sheet. "As for punching through at 25 yards, I’m not sure, but even if it didn’t penetrate, it would likely damage the surface and that makes a ricochet more likely, which is dangerous."

I passed Thunderbolt one of the steel targets.

"You’re telling me that there’s a chance those tiny little bullets could penetrate this?" He asked, clanking his hoof against the heavy piece of steel.

"Well yeah, they may be small but they’re moving pretty fast. .30-06 is throwing a 168 grain bullet at roughly 2800 fps, that packs quite a bit of punch," I said.

"Show them what happened to the mild steel target," Golden Dawn said.

"Sure, one second."

I dug around in the box of targets again, pulling out of one the old pieces of mild steel we had done some tests on. It was half of an inch thick, the surface was pitted with craters and there were a few holes where .30-06 rounds had penetrated all the way through.

"This is what happens when you shoot a .30-06 at mild steel," I said.

"Celestia have mercy, it looks like swiss cheese," Silent Night said as I brought the plate into view. Both ponies looked rather disturbed.

"You two look... not as amused as I would have thought," I said, unsure why they were so upset.

"The heaviest Guard Armor, and I mean the stuff worn by the biggest, meanest earth ponies around, these guys are living brick walls, is only 8 gauge steel, less than 3/16th of an inch thick. Sure, it’s enchanted to give almost double that in protection, and it’s case hardened, but even with enchantments, you’re still talking about less than the equivalent of a half inch of steel’s worth of protection, under the best circumstances," Silent Night said.

"So?" I asked.

"So, you’ve invented a device that just rendered all the armor in the Royal Guard’s possession completely and utterly obsolete," Thunderbolt said. He actually turned a bit pale while saying it.

"I.. uh, well I haven’t built one of these yet, this one’s from my homeworld. The .44 magnum doesn’t have the same penetration power... but I can see what you’re getting it. I never really thought about it like that before," I said. "Armor, like the kind you ponies wear, it was outdated centuries before I was born, pretty much by the introduction of guns, though the early ones were way more crude than what we’ve got here."

"I think... It’s just the shock of it that surprised us, we heard that you could shoot clay targets in the air with your shotguns, but I never had any idea your weapons would be so powerful. They are weapons right? From your world, I assume they have replaced bows and crossbows at some point and humans just use them for sport as well as their obvious military application. Though I’d imagine you don’t go fighting many wars, not with weapons that deadly."

"Uhhhh, yeah I can’t say your last assumption is correct. We don’t really have a lack of wars. I mean I can probably name a dozen off the top of my head, for my country alone."

"Since you invented guns? How long ago was that?"

"Oh no, I meant since it’s inception, 240 years ago. We invented guns at least 500 or 600 years ago, maybe more, I don't know their exact history."

Now all three ponies were staring at me, including Golden Dawn.

"A dozen wars in less than 250 years?" Thunderbolt asked.

"I don’t want to make it seem like we’re a bunch of jerkwads but yeah, we’ve had our fair share of wars. Some of them for good reasons, others, not so much," I said.

"Chrysalis’ attack on the capital, and our subsequent declaration of war on her hive, should we ever locate it, is the only war Equestria has been involved in over 1000 years." Silent Night said.

Now it was my turn to look shocked. 1 war in a 1000 years, that was a damn good record.

"That's... I mean, I've never been involved in a war myself, but on behalf of humanity, I'm pretty jealous of that record. Humans, well most of them anyway, don't want war and while some of them could probably have been avoided, other times, you just have to fight."

"If it hadn't been for the Princesses, I think that Equestria would have fought far more often in its history. Like how the Griffon tribes are constantly involved in some conflict or another," Silent Night said.

"This does make me think though. I'm a little unsure at how to take all of this. Back on Earth, I had never used a gun for anything but sporting purposes. That doesn't mean I don't know or understand they are weapons, but... well, nothing I'm making here would have the potential to cause any major power shifts. You guys don't think it's wrong of me make these... do you?" I asked.

Thunderbolt and Silent Night looked at the guns, both deep in thought. I tapped my hooves nervously as I waited for a reply. Eventually Silent Night spoke up.

"First off, you haven’t broken any laws that I’m aware of. The only legal restrictions I can think of on dangerous items all deal with magical artifacts or spells that could possibly cause destruction on a massive scale. There’s no legal precedent on denying weaponry to citizens. Quite the opposite, when Equestria was first founded, an armed populace, having access to the same equipment as the old Guard, was prefered. Before the Princesses, we did have to defend our borders and an armed civilians are harder to conquer than unarmed ones."

"Exactly, my thoughts as well," Thunderbolt said. "What makes this unique is, as far as I am aware, this is the first time I can think of where a civilian designed weapon has so far outstripped what the Guard has available to it. That isn’t to say you are in the wrong here, but we need to make our superiors aware of what you have created. I see no problem with ponies owning guns, but we need to make our superiors aware that the Guard is now using antiquated armaments."

"Actually, you know what this reminds me of..." Silent Night said. "Offensive spells, something like the lower level ones warmages use."

"Didn't you say spells were restricted?" I asked.

"Some are, but you're talking about spells that could level a city. I'm more thinking about the lower level ones. Any unicorn can go out and learn the spell to cast a fireball or a lightning bolt if they really want to. In the wrong hooves they could be far more deadly than a sword or a bow. There's some difference, only a unicorn can learn those spell, and it does take some effort, but even though they are dangerous, there's no restriction on them."

"I haven’t sold anything that shoots .30-06. For now I guess I can hold off, until I have a more clear answer of what’s going on," I said. "A shotgun, shooting what is essentially birdshot, isn’t going to be nearly as effective against an armored target. A .44 magnum, well, it would probably still penetrate, but not at the same distance.

"Either way, the Guard will have to seriously consider arming itself with these things. The cat’s out of the bag now, you’ve explained to us how these work and it seems relatively straightforward, I doubt it will be long before some smart pony figures out exactly what’s going on here and start producing their own. Again, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s not like ponies will turn into monsters just because they have access to a new form of weapon. However, we of the Guard still need to be prepared. Eventually this technology will leave Equestria and we have real enemies outside of our borders. Luna forbid the Changelings get a hold of this technology before the Guard does," Silent Night said.

"Enough of this though. What’s done is done and I’m glad we found out about it now, from you, rather than than later on on the field of battle. Anyway, we came here to have some fun, how about we go try those shotguns out," Thunderbolt said.

I nodded, but I was still deep in thought. Guns are weapons, a fact that I’ve never really forgotten. However, on Earth guns weren’t new. On Earth you couldn’t give a few hundred guys rifles and have them suddenly better armed than the military. Even though I hadn’t intended it, my work here had just caused a massive leap forward in Equestrian weapon technology. Shining Armor had once said he was going to visit, he hadn't shown up yet, but if these two were going to write a report on firearms, I suspected I'd be seeing him eventually.

Author's Note

Fun fact, I discovered while doing research for this chapter that clay pigeons that they aren't actually made out of clay anymore. They are made out of limestone and pitch.

Chapter 18

"Okay, remember this isn't like a rifle. You aren't aiming down the sights as much as you are pointing the gun at the target. Try to wait till the clay is at the top of its arc, if you shoot while it's still going up or heading down, you need to lead it a bit," Lemon Drop said to the young unicorn standing at the firing line.

I watched on as Lemon Drop gave a few more tips before asking the colt if he was ready to try again.

The colt nodded and pulled the last round from the box of shells on the table next to him. I watched as he walked up to the small slab of concrete embedded in the ground that designated the shooting location. He chambered the round, and brought the shotgun into a firing position.

"Whenever you're ready." Lemon Drop said.

The Equestria version of skeet had changed a bit since its inception. When it was first introduced the thrower would do a series of nice gentle arcs, giving ponies plenty of time to hit their targets. Repeat customers had started getting better and better at hitting all of their targets and wanted more of a challenge so the game had evolved into its current form.

The basic premise hadn't really changed much. A player was still still trying to hit a small clay disk, but instead of a series of relatively slow moving predictable targets, the unicorn in charge of throwing the things would progress through a series of harder and harder throws. A standard match consisted of 4 sets of 5 disks.

The first set of 5 throws were just tossed into the air much like a static launcher would throw a clay pigeon back on Earth. On the second, the clays would be launched much faster and at varying angles. From the 3rd set on, the thrower was allowed to use their magic to make minor course changes on the disks mid flight. By the time the 5th set rolled around the clays were zig-zagging across the field as the thrower did their best to prevent a hit.

The game could be played in either a team vs team configuration where each team provided their own thrower or in a individual competitors mode where a single unicorn was chosen to throw for everypony.

Lemon Drop had been working for me since I first opened the range to the public. She had been our first thrower and had been the one to suggest the new gameplay style as she noticed at repeat customers having too easy a time with her standard throws. Like all my employees, she got free time at the range and had also gotten quite good at hitting targets as well. In fact she had recently moved up from her original position and was now acting as an instructor, though she was still one of our best throwers.

Lemon Drop's horn glowed and a clay floated out of the box. Meanwhile the young colt brought the shotgun into a ready position.

"Pull!" he shouted out.

With a flick of her magic, the clay was hurled into the air. Since this was the colt's first time at the range, she went with a fairly easy toss. I tracked the disk as it climbed into the air, getting higher and higher until it reached the top of it's arc. There was a loud bang and the disk exploded into a fine powder.

"I got it!" the unicorn shouted out. "Did ya see dad? I got it!" He turned and was about to bolt over to his father who was watching from behind the firing line. A gentle cough from Lemon Drop gave him pause and reminded him to follow proper range safety rules. He opened the breach of the shotgun, ejecting the spent round and placed the empty shotgun, still with breach open, down on the table.

He hastily shouted out a "range cold" and she gave him a nod. With that he bolted over to his grinning dad. I walked over and collected the shotgun and placed it in a holster on my back before walking over to the pair.

Normally the ranges weren't open to the public on Mondays, but when the father and son had shown up at my door, not knowing that fact and hopeful to try some shooting out before they had to return to Manehattan from their trip to Canterlot I just couldn't say no. Since I owned the place, it was easy enough to clear a little bit of time for the two ponies.

"Thank you again," the father said to me as I lead them off the range.

"Don't worry about it," I said. We headed in, the two ponies collected their saddle bags and left via the front door. I put the shotgun away and walked over to break room to grab a drink.

As I sipped on my water, I could hear the occasional distant pop of gunfire. It sounded like it was coming from the 100 yard range. Probably Iron Anvil doing some test shots with a new batch of rifles. In the nearly eight months that had gone by since my grand opening I had acquired a small team of ponies. Six machinists, four ponies who worked on ammunition manufacturing, two ponies with wood working experience, a unicorn who specialised in industrial enchantments and a few helpers that worked on the range. That didn't even include Short Fuse or her employees.

The time had gone by far faster than I had thought possible. It was nearing the end of spring in Equestria when I had driven through the portal. Twilight had turned me into a pony a little over a month later. I had been flying around Equestria on my own set of wings far longer than than the short time I had walked around it in my original body.

With the changing of the seasons came holidays. Some of the pony ones were very familiar to me, even if the names were different. Only a short time before we ran the leaves off the trees they celebrated Nightmare Night which was effectively Halloween with a background story about some scary monster named Nightmare Moon. Towards the end of the year came Hearth's Warming Day. It wasn't exactly Christmas, but many of the traditions were the same. It was a time to spend with friends and loved ones, gifts were given, trees and decorations were put up. I smiled warmly thinking about the moment on Hearth's Warming Eve when Golden Dawn had pulled me under a mistletoe.

Time continued to pass swiftly, New Year's, Hearts and Hooves Day, and Winter Wrap Up Day. If I had to pick my favorite thing about pony holidays it was how musical they were. These ponies seemed to have songs for everything, not only that but I suspected there was some sort of magic at work when ponies gathered and sang. I nearly had a heart attack the first time I was involved in it. At the town's Hearth Warming's gathering, Pinkie had started singing a song and the next thing I knew everypony, including myself was joining in. I didn't even know the words, but I was somehow singing them with every other pony and I was singing well, something I had never been able to do as a human.

Actually, that was wrong. If I had to pick my favorite part of the holidays, it was spending them with Golden Dawn. Even with our busy lives, our relationship had flourished and grown, quite fast in fact, faster than I had ever thought possible. I was madly in love with her which both made my heart rejoice and terrified me. There was a constant inner war between my love for her and my desire to return home. I tried to picture what would happen if Twilight finally contacted me and told me that a trip back to Earth was one way and I was afraid to admit that there was no way I could leave Golden Dawn.

I didn't tell her about the internal conflict, but, after having perhaps a bit too much drink on New Year's Eve, as the New Year rang in at the stroke of midnight, I let slip to her that I was well and truly past the like stage and quite passionately confessed my love. When she responded with a kiss, I knew that she felt the same. Neither of us got much sleep that night, as I boldly went where no man had gone before.

Eventually, the holiday season passed by, winter was more or less finished with spring right around the corner. Silent Night had been right with his guess, it was just over four months after his visit with Thunderbolt, that a company based out of the Crystal Empire started selling break action shotguns and lever actions similar to my own.

I began to suspect that the large number of horse puns that seemed ever present in Equestria was actually caused by some function of the magical nature of the ponies' universe. I let out a groan when I read about them, Whinnychester Repeating Arms Company. They used spark powder in their loads, which meant they weren't quite as clean as the smokeless stuff Short Fuse was making, but I figured it was only a matter of time before they figured that out as well. Not that I had a problem with competition, if anything my own sales went up because now more ponies were being exposed to shooting as a sport.

I still hadn’t heard anything official from either the Guard or any other sort of government branch about the guns I was making. I asked Silent Night during one of his visits if anything official ever came from the report he and Thunderbolt had made, unfortunately paperwork moved slow in the Guard and he said he wouldn’t be surprised if it took six months to a year for anything to come of it.

On the other hoof, the was a huge influx in guards coming by to the range to shoot, they were perhaps my largest unified block of customers. Silent Night and Thunderbolt were regulars at the range and they spread the word amongst their own friends, who spread the word to their friends and so on and so forth. This created a huge bump in business and just a month ago a huge upgrade to my facilities was completed. It turned my small shop into Equestria's first real firearm factory.

The building itself had been expanded, giving us almost triple the square footage to work with. On top of that, most of the hoof operated equipment was upgraded with automated or partially automated machines. The part of the process that was still done completely by pony was the barrel construction. Iron Anvil wasn't working on those alone anymore though, he had two assistants helping him out and they were cranking the things out as fast as they could.

With the upgrade to the facilities, came a new lineup of guns. We were selling four different kinds now. First was the Model 120, a refined version of the original single shot break action that I designed. The Model 240 was a side by side double barrel variant. Both were only offered in 12 gauge, I saw no reason to introduce a smaller cartridge since even young ponies could easily handle the recoil of a 12 gauge.

The Model 4873, named after the previous year, when it first went on sale, was my .44 magnum lever action, it was nearly identical to my original, with minor modifications to make firing by hoof easier. The 4873 held ten shots in its tubular magazine and sported adjustable peep sights. It was accurate out to about 150 yards with a skilled shooter. In addition, we introduced the Dragoon, Equestira's first revolver. It had a six inch barrel and fired the same .44 magnum cartridge that the 4873 did.

We were now producing everything locally. Primer production had long been one of the the slowest part of the process, but eventually we were able to come up with a solution. On Earth, primers are actually primed by hand due to the unstable nature of the compound. There’s no easy and safe way to automate the process.

Here in Equestria though, we found a way. By using a spell developed by Dazzling Sparks that prevented the primer compound from prematurely detonating, we were able to automate the priming process. Primers, like cartridge are made of brass. A large punch press took in sheets of brass and punched out a huge number of primer cups in a very short amount of time. These were loaded into groups of 100 and then sent into the priming machine.

Inside the priming machine was a supply of lead styphnate, the primary explosive used in our primers. Ordinarily this compound is extremely sensitive to shock, but a magical field inside the machine stabilized the lead styphnate to such a degree that it was impossible for it to detonate. The primers each had a preset amount of lead styphnate inserted into each cup and then the anvils were inserted last, completing the primer.

Before this breakthrough I was having to rely on my limited supply of Earth made primers to supplement the limited number we were able to make by hoof. Now that the process was automated, we could easily scale our daily primer yield as demand rose.

Manufacturing had grown immensely as I hired more and more ponies to help out. Many of the ponies that worked for me had previous experience in machining, automated production and assembly, so I was quick to use their expertise to kick production into high gear. The biggest difference between what I was doing here in Equestria and how things would have worked on Earth was the blend of technology and magic.

Another example of this that stood out to me was how quickly I was able to ramp up ammunition assembly. To load ammunition on a commercial scale on Earth required complex machines that required an extreme degree of precision. You didn’t want to end up in a situation where your loader put too much powder in a cartridge and caused a kaboom. Ponies could, and did, design machines with that much precision, but I was finding that they could also create simpler machines with a similar amount of precision by mixing magic into the equation. For example, a simple spell could measure the amount of powder going into a load with perfect precision, over and over again, with virtually no chance of failure. I would have never even thought of such a thing, if it wasn’t for one of my own employees pointing it out when I was struggling on how to meet the constantly rising demand for more ammunition.

I sold off the fireworks portion of Short Fuse’s business which gave me a good amount of capital to reinvest in my own expansion. She and Dazzling Sparks were among my top employees and directly responsible for many of the advancements that had been made since I had opened my first tiny shop six months ago.

If Storm & Fuse Munitions was doing well, Golden Motors was doing fantastic. In just two short months her business had attracted backing from a number of large investors. Between funding from those investors and money she had made on deposits from ponies seeking to buy a truck, she ordered a brand new factory to be built.

It dwarfed the small workshop, where her and her team of ponies had been assembling trucks by hoof. It took six months to go up but once it finished, Equestria’s first assembly line operated automobile factory started churning out new vehicles. Golden's workforce ballooned from just herself and 20 other ponies to well over 500. Ponyville was growing so fast that they were in the midst of a housing shortage as more and more ponies moved to work in her factory.

Even with the new factory, which was putting out around 50 trucks per day, they had a backlog of orders a mile long even though she kept production going 6 days a week. It seemed like every farm in 500 miles of Ponyville wanted at least one of her trucks, not to mention shipping companies, construction companies and half a dozen other businesses. Some ponies were ordering them just for the novelty of having an automobile.

The new factory employed a full style assembly line style production. Instead of following the vehicles as they were produced, workers stayed in one spot, doing one job, which they got very good at doing. She believed that as her force got better at their jobs, she could bump up the production rate at least another 25%. That was, if she could procure supplies fast enough. As it stood, she was already negotiating with the rail lines to expand the size of the nearby station so it could handle larger shipments.

At first, there was only a single model, Golden Dawn, not being much for names had decided to name it Model A. I was secretly hoping she made it up to 'T' before she came up with a better naming scheme, even though I'd be the only one on the planet who would think GM putting out a Model T would be funny.

The GM Model A closely resembled an early 1900s truck, though with a larger cabin sized to fit two ponies. The engine was rated at 25 horsepower and it could haul 1 ton of ponies and cargo at speeds up to 30 miles per hour. The truck was rated at 20 miles per gallon of fuel while carrying 3/4th of a full load. With it's 10 gallon tank it could drive up to 200 miles before needing to refuel. It was designed to run off of a blend of kerosene and vegetable oil which Golden Dawn sold as diesel but could run off of either one of those substances without blending in a pinch. The truck cost 300 bits, around 6 months wages for the average pony.

For comparison the best steam auto on the market only generated 20 horsepower, cost 3000 bits, got 10 miles per gallon of kerosene which it burned to heat it's boiler. Even though it had a larger fuel tank, it used a gallon of water every 4 miles, giving it only half the range of the Model A before needing to refill it's boiler.

When the new factory had finished, she retired the Model A and introduced the Model B. It had a heavier, stronger frame and a more powerful engine, rated at 35HP. In addition, it had 25% more carrying capacity and could handle rough dirt roads better thanks to wider tires. The Model B also upgraded from a crank start to an electric start powered by a small gem battery. In case of battery failure, it still had a crank for backup.

None of the steam auto companies could keep up with her rate of advancement, by the time they had some competition for the Model A, the Model B production ramping up. We didn't expect this lead to last forever, like with the guns, somepony was bound to start making their own internal combustion engines at some point, but for now Golden was enjoying dominating the field.

"What time will you be getting out of work next Friday?" Golden Dawn asked me over dinner.

"Tomorrow?" I asked between bites.

"No, next week," she said.

"I don't think I have anything special going on. I've got a shipment of lead coming in but Lemon Drop can pick it up from the station,"

"You're going to make her pull a cart of lead all the way from the station? She's tiny and that stuff weighs a ton." Golden Dawn said with an exaggerated look of shock.

"Nah, I'm going to give her the keys to my truck. They'll load it up at the station for her and Iron Anvil can help her unload. She won't have to lift a hoof."

"She should be driving one of mine, it would be good advertising," Golden Dawn said with a smirk.

"I tried to get one, but even though I'm dating the owner she said I still had to wait in line," I said sticking out my tongue. "Anyway I can get off work any time, why what's up?"

"I thought we might fly into Canterlot, get dinner somewhere nice."

"I'm fine with that," I said. Cautiously I asked "What's the occasion?" I was never great with dates and the pony calendar threw me off a bit. Their months were all 32 days long, a year in Equestria was 384 days exactly. I hoped I hadn't forgotten her birthday or something.

"Don't worry, you didn't forget anything like our one year of dating anniversary, you still have a little while before that comes up. Though in a way, it is an anniversary of sorts. A year ago from next Friday is when I found you in the Badlands," Golden Dawn said.

"Oh wow, and that means this Saturday is a year from when I stumbled into Equestria," I said. "I was too busy trying to not die in the desert to pay much attention to the date." I said with a grin.

"Completely understandable, especially since it changed when you crossed from Earth to Equus," Golden Dawn said.

Golden Dawn ears fell flat as she stared off into nothingness. I recognized it as a sign that something was bothering her. I walked over and nibbled affectionately on her ear, shaking her out of her trance.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Have you heard anything from Twilight recently?" she asked.

"No, it's been at least a month since she we last talked, why?"

"Princess Celestia and her sister Princess Luna are supposed to be coming back soon. The papers said would be gone a year, and they left the same day you arrived. I just think it's odd that Twilight hasn't asked you to come to Canterlot to see them when they get back."

"Why's that?" I asked.

"Princess Celestia, well she's been around forever. If anypony knows how to find your universe, it will be her. And even if she can't I'm sure she'd like to meet you."

"Maybe Twilight's is waiting till after she's back before she schedules a meeting. I'm sure there are more important things for Princess Celestia to look at when she gets back than one lost ex-human."

"Maybe, still you know how Twilight likes to plan ahead, it still seems weird that you haven't heard anything."

"Well we both have Saturday off, we could head to Canterlot if you want. Twilight did tell me I could stop by anytime," I said.

"Maybe, I don't want to bother her, especially with Princess Celestia returning. I guess if we don't hear anything we can always stop by after our date next week."

We decided not to bother Twilight on Saturday. Then on Sunday, I woke up to Golden Dawn shaking me, her eyes were puffy as if she had been crying, and she was trembling. I had never seen Golden Dawn like this before, she looked terrified.

"What's wrong?" I asked, reaching over and putting a hoof on her.

"It's Princess Celestia, she's gone!" Golden Dawn said, holding up the Sunday paper. The front page article read "Equestria in Shock: Princess Celestia and Princess Luna Missing."

Between tears Golden Dawn told me what she had read in the paper. Both princesses were due back the previous day. When they did not return as schedule, Twilight held a press conference. She revealed that Princess Celestia had gone on vacation because she had been injured and needed time to heal. That alone was a huge shock to Golden Dawn. I still didn't know much about Equestria's other two alicorns but Celestia, and to a lesser extent, her sister Luna were revered almost as gods among most of the ponies I knew. The fact that Celestia had been seriously wounded had sent Golden Dawn into a panic.

Luna was also suffering from something, and the two sisters had decided to leave Twilight and Cadance in charge while they rested and recuperated. What Twilight hadn't revealed was any reason behind the disappearance nor when contact was first lost with them. She had promised to give an update in two weeks if Celestia and Luna had still not returned. The rest of the article was rife with theories as to what had happened to the two princesses. Everything from a simple delay to Celestia and Luna abdicating, to them both having been killed.

"Is there anything I can do?" I asked as I held Golden Dawn tightly in my wing. Her body continued to shake as she struggled to keep back the tears.

"Just... don't go anywhere," she said looking into my eyes. "I'm scared Hail Storm. Princess Celestia, she's always been there for us. I remember when I was a filly and my great grandmother would talk about the time she met Celestia at the first Summer Sun Celebration after the family had moved to Canterlot."

Golden Dawn paused to inch closer to me.

"Great gram was just six years old, the family had only been in Canterlot for a few months and weren't prepared for the crowds that the Summer Sun Celebration brought. When they were heading out to get a spot, she got separated from her parents. She was running around in a tears trying to find her mom when she rounded a corner and ran straight into Princess Celestia. The princess brought her up on the stage while she raised the sun and then helped her find her mom and dad, my great great grandparents, in the crowd."

I held her tightly and eventually the tears stopped. When Golden Dawn looked ready to talk again, I asked her something that had been bothering me since she told me the story about her great grandmother.

"So wait, the story with Celestia, that was your great grandmother you said?" I asked, scratching my head. I had no idea what a Summer Sun Celebration was nor did I know what Golden Dawn meant by raise the sun but if Golden Dawn's great grandmother had met Princess Celestia that would make her very very old. At least I thought so, I actually didn't really know how long ponies lived.

"Yeah," Golden said.

"I um... odd question, how long do ponies live? Because if your great grandmother met Celestia as a filly... wouldn't that make Celestia really old?"

"Celestia... old" Golden Dawn said with a giggle. I wasn't sure why she was laughing but it was good to see that she had calmed down completely. She must have noticed my confusion because then she started to explain.

"I'm sorry... your statement, it just threw me for a loop with its absurdity. It's not your fault, you didn't know it was absurd. It was nice though, distracted me a for a moment. Anyway to answer your question, I think the average life expectancy is just under 100 years for pegasus ponies. Earth ponies it's a little lower, unicorns it's a bit higher. As for Celestia being old, well that's a bit of an understatement. She's ancient... and immortal."

"Wait what? Like she doesn't age?" I wasn't sure if I believed this.

"Yeah, she's been ruling Equestria for thousands of years."

"Seriously?" I asked.

"Hail, I wouldn't joke about Celestia at a time like this," Golden Dawn said seriously.

"Yeah... sorry. I just well, I know Equestria is different than Earth and pony magic still amazes me, but immortality? That's just a hard pill to swallow."

"It's alright, I mean even as ponies go, Celestia's unique. Well, Celestia and her sister Luna."

"This Luna is immortal too?" I asked.

"Yes, I mean I think so, Luna went away for a long time but she just came back recently. We don't know as much about her or much about either of their pasts, but we think they were the original alicorns. "

"Is immortality an alicorn thing? Is Twilight immortal too?"

"I don't think so but I don't really know, you'd have to ask Twilight."

"I'm almost afraid to ask... but what did you mean by raise the sun?"

"Oh my. If immortality threw you for a loop, I'm really not sure what you will make of this. You know how ponies control the weather?"

I nodded, I had watched pegasi move clouds, form storms, change the seasons, I had stopped trying to make sense of it a long time ago.

"Well, Celestia kind of does too, she um... well, she uh controls the sun... starting both the day and the night by raising and lowering it. In the past, Luna handled the moon, I except when she returned she resumed doing that. Anyway, Equestria is as habitable as it is because of the adjustments Celestia makes to the sun in its orbit around Equus. Without her controlling the sun, even every pegasus alive couldn't maintain control of the planet's natural weather," Golden Dawn squeaked out.

"Care to run that by me again?"

"Celestia controls the sun. She begins the day by raising the sun and when it is done she lowers the sun so night can start."

"Golden the sun doesn't get raised or lowered. It only looks like it does because of the planet is rotating. As it spins, the sun appears to move up over the horizon, across the sky until it reaches the other side and goes down again. Night time is just when the other side of the planet is facing the sun."

"That's how it works on other planets, but not Equus," Golden said.

"How do you know that?"

"Celestia told us."

"If it were true, how come Equestria still has days and nights while she's missing?" I asked, in a more snarky manner than I had intended.

"The article covered that, Twilight and Cadance are managing it in her absence."

"You can't raise a sun, it's a star, they're massive," I said with a bit of annoyance "Earth's sun is so big that you could fit over a million Earths inside of it. I mean maybe Equestria had no rotation and if she turned it, that might make it look like the sun was being raised. But even that's impossible. You can't move a planet and if you could, well it would disastrous for everypony on it if the rotation was stopped and started up every day."

"This isn't Earth!" Golden Dawn said, raising her voice. "You said so yourself, you're currently sitting on a planet in another dimension in the body of a pony because of magic. Something that doesn't exist in your world. How can you know what is possible or impossible?"

I almost yelled back, but a terrible sick feeling in my stomach forced me to hold my tongue.

What the hell am I doing? I asked myself. I loved this mare and here I was arguing with her about her beliefs for no good reason. She was afraid and hurt and I was just making it worse.

"Golden... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cause an argument. Whether Celestia can move the sun or not, that's not important. What's important is the love of my life is hurting and I'm just being a big jerk, I said sadly. I gave myself another mental kick. I should have been trying to comfort her and here I was arguing what was probably religion for Golden Dawn, maybe even the whole country. Hell since Celestia was a princess it was religion and politics. It was the perfect recipe for a disaster of an argument and I had galloped right into it.

Golden's stern expression softened.

"I'm sorry too, I shouldn't have yelled. I understand your skepticism, with you living so much of your life with no magic, somepony like Celestia would be impossible for you to relate to," she said, as she leaned over and nuzzled me. "She'll be back someday and when she is, well you'll be able to see for yourself, then you can choose to believe it or not. Either way I'll still love you."

The news of Celestia's disappearance seemed to hit everypony else as hard as it had hit Golden Dawn. The next day at work every single pony on my crew was distant. I could tell their minds weren't really on the job. That wasn't going to fly working with guns and explosives. If a distracted worker was loading ammo incorrectly or a gun wasn't assembled to the proper specifications, somepony could get hurt, severely. I didn't want to seem like an insensitive jerk and I certainly didn't need a repeat of my argument with Golden Dawn so I gave them the rest of the day off and closed the shop.

I found Golden Dawn at home, she had done the same for her workers. In fact many places ended up closing down for the next few days. I might not have believed Golden Dawn about Celestia's sun controlling powers but it was clear that she, and the rest of the country loved their ruler deeply.

By the end of the week, things were mostly getting back to normal. There was still a lot of speculation going on over what had happened to Celestia and Luna but life went on. If Twilight kept to her schedule, we'd know the truth in a week. And from what I knew of that pony, she always kept her schedule.

In light of the situation, Golden Dawn and I postponed our plans to visit Canterlot the following weekend. Instead we shared a simple picnic meal on a cloud under a starry night sky. After we returned home, we began to talk of business as we often did.

"I've been going over the books and when I compare the number of orders to our production speed, it's clear that we're being held back," I said as I flipped through the notes I had made earlier in the day.

"Time to expand?" Golden Dawn asked.

"That's what I've been thinking. Take a page out of your book and revise my production methods. The parts are all standardized but the workflow could be greatly improved. I'm also going to need more ponies but that means I need more space."

"Land's cheap enough, but even after expanding it, your building is awfully small. You going to do another expansion?"

"Nah, the last one was annoying. Work kept getting interrupted during construction. Instead, I'm going to break this into two parts. First I'm going to set up a whole new factory. All gun production will eventually be moved there, my current building will be the storefront and used to do repairs or custom work. I'll hire additional staff for the factory, as for the work flow, I'm going to take a page out of your book. Full on assembly line, instead of one pony following the gun from start to finish."

"Did you have a chance to look at the plans for the barrel drilling machine I sketched up?" Golden Dawn asked.

"I did, and I'm impressed. Barrel production is currently our biggest bottleneck. Iron Anvil has helped me make some improvements to the rifling machine I built, but it still doesn't have the best of tolerances. Also, I think he'd love a break from forging barrels day in and day out. Thanks for working on that by the way. How you have time to help me with my problems while running your own company, I don't know."

"I think I can get one built before your new building is up," Golden Dawn said.

"That would be fantastic. Once we've got one of them, I think my ponies can duplicate it."

Quite a few of my workers were machinists before I convinced them to jump ship on their old jobs and come work for me. None of them were quite as good as Golden Dawn, but if she supplied the blueprints, we could get more built.

"Though I'm not sure I can afford it right now though, if I'm going to be buying more land and putting in a payment for a building I'm not going to have a surplus of bits laying around," I said as I thought about my current funds.

I turned back to my notes and started running some numbers. Golden Dawn had put the estimated cost of the building the machine on the plans. It wasn't cheap but in the long run it would pay for itself in time saved. "Maybe we can work something out, a payment plan of perhaps? If you need the bits upfront I'm not sure how I can pay you."

"I can think of a few ways," Golden Dawn said with a grin. She leaned over and licked the tip of my ear, causing my wings to flare out completely on their own.

"Oh... um... yeah I can look at this later," I said as I dropped my notes and turned my attention to Golden Dawn.

"Afternoon Hail Storm, what brings you here?" Spike asked as I trotted into Golden Oak Library.

"Just looking for a book," I said.

"Well, you've certainly come to the right place," he said with a smile and a laugh. "Any book in particular?"

"Oh, I dunno, I thought I might just look around for a bit and see what you've got," I said.

It was true, I wasn't sure exactly what book I was looking for, though I think I'd know it when I saw it. Either way, I wasn't sure if I wanted to involve the young dragon. He might be responsible enough to run the library on his own in Twilight's absence, but he was still a kid and I had a very adult decision to make.

"Okay, let me know if you need anything," the dragon replied, he gave me another smile and then headed over to a stack of books and started placing them up on a shelf. "

I looked around and found the rest of the library empty. Good, except for Spike, I had the place to myself. That gave me time to think while I browsed the shelves.

Shelves upon shelves stretched up, nearly all the way to the ceiling. A rickety looking ladder leaned up against the wall, waiting for some poor earth pony, or perhaps dragon, that needed to reach the top shelf. Thankfully, my wings would save me from putting my trust in that thing, should the need arise.

Most of the shelves were filled with books, but the section I was standing in front of was filled with dusty old scrolls that looked like they hadn't been touched in ages. The sign at the top indicated that they were magical spells. I moved on, circling the room as I tried to make sense of how the library was arranged. As I did, my thoughts turned back to my reason for being here.

As I had said to Golden Dawn in the past, I was horrible with dates. This had been made even worse when I arrived in Equestria. Not only did Equestria have a slightly different calendar system, but I no longer had access to an internet based calendar to keep track of everything for me. So, a few weeks ago, when I was supposed to be working, I took a two hour break and sat down with a paper calendar and worked backwards through all the events that had happened in my life since arriving in Equestria.

That's how I figured out that my 1 year anniversary (Equestria years) was a week away. Thankfully, that was more than enough time to plan something nice for Golden Dawn. We took some time off of work and headed up to Neighagra Falls for a mini-vacation. During that trip I spent a lot of time reflecting on the past year of my life in Equestria and I realized something.

It had been the best year of my life.

I smiled as I thought back to that kiss, technically our second, as I had been returning the one she had given me weeks earlier, but it was the first we had both participated in. The smile only grew as I thought about New Year's Eve, I had finally told Golden Dawn that I loved her, just as the year ended. The night had only gotten better from there and I'd never forget it as long as I lived. But, my activities with Golden Dawn weren't the only thing special about that night. I had also made a decision then. If I had to choose between Earth and Golden Dawn, I would choose her.

It was many months later and I still hadn't had to make that choice. News from Twilight about the search for my home had dwindled to a monthly report which always said the same thing. No luck yet. I honestly was beginning to suspect I never would be forced to choose, but I still hadn't told Golden Dawn of my decision.

When we finally returned back from Neighagra Falls, all I could think of was what we were going to do for our next year, or the year after that, or the year after that. I had to have a talk with Golden, specifically about Earth. I had been putting it off for a while now, I couldn't help it, I was nervous. I didn't think she knew I had noticed, but whenever the subject of Earth came up, there was a sadness in her eyes. She didn't want me to leave, but at the same time, I knew my marefriend. If I told her that I was giving up on Earth to stay with her, well she'd be happy, but I was also afraid she'd also be mad at herself for forcing me into that decision, even though she wasn't.

Just like choosing to let Twilight turn me into a pony, staying in Equestria was, after all, my decision to make, and I didn't see it like that. What I needed was a way to show her that I wasn't giving up on Earth because of her. Instead, I was choosing to stay with her, even if that meant not going back home. In fact, if my plan worked out the way I wanted it to, I wasn't going to just choose to stay with her for a while. I'd be with Golden Dawn for the rest of my life.

I just had one problem I had to deal with, well maybe not one. There was always the nervousness factor. Thinking about my plan both gave me the jitters and gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. I knew i'd get past that eventually, so that left another issue, which is why I was in the library today. Our relationship had been a good one, but well, when you're dating an interdimensional alien pony, there are bound to be cultural differences. I had run into the first before we even kicked things off, when she had thought I was giving her one of my feathers.

"Hey Hail Storm," Spike said, interrupting my thoughts.

"Huh... Oh, what's up?" I asked.

"Just a bit of a warning, I've got to close up the library a little early, I'm heading up to Canterlot and I've got to catch a train."

"Oh, meeting up with Twilight?" I asked.

"Yeah, I've got to help her with some... research," Spike said.

"When you see her, tell her I said hello," I said, then something struck me. "Wait, did you say a little early? What time is it now?"

"Almost 3:30, you've got another half an hour," Spike said.

"Shoot, sorry. I didn't realize how late it had gotten, I'll be done soon." I said, reassuring the dragon. I had zoned out and lost nearly an hour. I quickly resumed my search and my thoughts.

Hooves off the cutie mark while in public was another thing I had found out, fortunately we were in our home when I learned that bit of information. Not like when I found out that playing with Golden's wings was definitely not an appropriate thing to do in the park. I had gotten an earful from the local school teacher, Cheerilee. She and her class had been sitting just a short distance away and apparently her and some of her students had seen me.

Anyway, the point was, pony and human culture, while often similar, occasionally didn't line up. Since I was planning something big, I wanted to make sure I knew exactly what I was getting into. That meant doing some research.

"Ah ha," I said quietly to myself. I had finally found what I was looking for.

I picked up the small book and then sat down on the floor so I could look it over. I flipped open the cover and turned to the first page. Marriage Traditions in Equestria. I had some reading to do.

**********

"Thank you all for getting here so early," Twilight said. To her left sat Cadance and Shining Armor, on the other side of the table the rest of her closest friends sat. Applejack and Fluttershy were both wide awake, both of them were used to early mornings and had been the first to arrive. Rarity was currently taking a sip from a teacup, while Pinkie was shoving yet another doughnut into her bottomless stomach. Rainbow Dash, clearly the most tired of the group, was struggling to hold back a yawn.

"Where's Spike?" Rarity asked as she put down her tea.

"Still sleeping, he was up late last night helping me set up this meeting, I gave him the morning off." Twilight said. "If everypony is ready, I'll begin."

There was a series of nods and grunts, so Twilight kicked off the meeting.

"As you know, the Princesses were expected to be back almost three months ago. With still no word from either them or Discord, it seems likely that either they can't get back or somepony is preventing them from returning."

"Discord! He's got to be holding them somewhere," Rainbow Dash shouted out.

"I don't know, I really think he's past that," Fluttershy said quietly.

"I considered that, but it just doesn't seem his style. If he had turned on us, why hasn't he shown up to gloat? What purpose could it serve to simply vanish? Twilight asked.

"Have you been able to find anything at all?" Rarity asked.

"Yes, as you know from the monthly updates I've been providing, Cadance and I have been searching all of Equus. We finished that last night. Through a combination of search spells I've been able to confirm that they are no longer on on Equus at all. Does everypony remember the Crystal Mirror that I traveled through when Sunset Shimmer stole the Element of Magic?

"You mean the human world? With the other us-es?" Pinkie asked.

Twilight nodded.

"Could they be there?" Rarity asked.

"That was the first place I wanted to check since I knew Discord knew about it. But the portal was closed so I had no easy way to do so. But I discovered a thread of magic that was holding the portal just barely open and by using that I was able to open the portal up to that world ahead of schedule. Other than their human counterparts, there is no sign of Celestia or Luna on that world either. Based on what I was able to study from the portal Discord used and from the appearance of Hail Storm I strongly believe that Discord went to a previously unexplored dimension.

"Just how many other dimensions are there?" Rainbow asked.

"Clover the Clever's Multiverse Theory hypothesizes that there are a nearly infinite number of dimensions," Twilight said.

Applejack let out a long whistle, "I reckon it's going to be a long search then?"

"Well I won't have to look through all of them," Twilight said. "Every dimension is its own contained universe, and normally there's no way to bridge the gap between one universe and the next. The exception to this is when one universe intersects with another, a hole or gateway can be made at the point of intersection. These intersections are rare, but because there are so many different dimensions there may be thousands of dimensions that brush up against our own. If the dimensions don't intersect, no portal can be opened. Though it is possible for the dimensions to drift in and out of contact. That's why the Crystal Mirror normally only works every 30 moons. The rest of the time that dimension point of intersection is weak enough that a portal can't normally be opened. I had to use a considerable amount of energy to force the mirror to work outside of it's normal schedule."

Cadance coughed quietly, "I think we're getting a bit off track of the original reason for calling this meeting," she said.

Twilight looked at Cadance with a blushed, "Sorry, I was in lecture mode, " she said before turning back towards her friends.

"Have you been able to find anything out about Hail Storm himself, or where he came from? Shining Armor asked.

"Unfortunately no. I've been working on a spell that can detect the dimensional phase alignment of an object. If I can get it working, I can sample one of the items he brought with him, then setup a spell to scan through every reachable dimension until it finds a match. It's a top priority for me right now, since Hail Storm came through a fragment of Discord's portal, I strongly suspect that Celestia and Luna ended up in either Hail Storm's dimension, or one linked to it."

"So what do we do now?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Well after a good deal of discussion between the Cadance and I we're going to work on expanding the number of ponies working on the problem. The public already knows some details, that Celestia and Luna are missing but we haven't gone forward with anything about Discord's involvement yet. That information is going out publicly out in the next few weeks. There's going to be a lot of questions, so to get on top of the situation ahead of time, we want to share what we know with a select group of ponies ahead of time. Later today, Cadance and I have a meeting with the High Council. In addition we will be reaching out to the leadership of both the Royal Guard and the Wonderbolts."

Rainbow Dash's ears perked up, "Wonderbolts...? You mean Spitfire?"

"Yes, she should be here shortly, along with Iron Fortress." Shining Armor said.

"I thought Shining Armor had resumed his duties as Captain of the Guard?" Rarity asked.

"I have," Shining Armor replied, "and as as the Captain of the Guard I also represent the Royal Guard on the High Council, but that takes a lot of time and I have to delegate most of my Guard duties to Iron Fortress. He has a better handle on the Guard's current state and more importantly, the Guard's personnel. If there are any ponies in the Guard that can help with the search, he'll know about them."

A loud knocking echoed through the room.

"That's probably them right now, I'll get the door," Twilight said. Her horn lit up, the door opened and in stepped a large white earth pony in full guard armor. Behind him the yellow form of Spitfire, Captain of the Wonderbolts could just barely be seen. The door shut behind the two ponies with a resounding thud.

"Iron Fortress reporting as ordered," Iron Fortress said, giving Shining Armor and the two Princesses a salute.

Spitfire was a bit more cavalier in her greeting and merely offered a "Good morning."

"Please be seated," Twilight said and the two ponies walked over to the table. Spitfire sat down in the empty spot next to Rainbow Dash, who looked like she might explode in excitement. Iron Fortress took up the chair across from Shining Armor, giving the unicorn a respectful nod.

"I'm going to assume this is about Celestia and Luna," Spitfire said. "You know, normally Celestia provides us with an agenda before meetings."

"I am sorry about that, I had one prepared but ultimately decided it would be best to go everything face to face due to the nature of this meeting," Twilight said. She looking genuinely sad about being accused of not providing enough paperwork.

"Anyway, let me get started and please hold all your questions for the end," Twilight said, looking down at her notes. "So... we have a bit of a problem..."

Twilight, with help from Cadance and Shining Armor, went over the events that had occurred inside Canterlot Mountain a little over a year ago. By the time the story was done, Spitfire's jaw was hanging open, while Iron Fortress maintained a stern look.

"Wait, so they aren't just missing... You lost the Princesses?" Spitfire shouted as Twilight concluded the story.

"We didn't lose them, Discord did," Twilight said.

"I still think he just crashed their vacation and took them somewhere else," Pinkie said in between bites of a cupcake that she hadn't been holding a moment ago.

Twilight rolled her eyes, "Even if that's true Pinkie, we still need to find them. They've been gone over a year, they are supposed to be back by now. You know how unpredictable Discord is, what if he took them somewhere dangerous?"

"Do you have any input Iron Fortress?" Shining Armor asked, looking at the other guard.

For a few moments, Iron Fortress gave no response. His face remained blank, showing no expression; if the story behind the princesses' disappearance had unnerved the stoic guard, nopony in the room could tell. At a best guess he looked as if he was deep in thought, so when he finally opened his mouth every pony turned to hear his response.

The high pitched cackle that escaped the stallion's throat only caused a moment of confusion, for barely a couple of seconds after it started, Iron Fortress stood up and in a flash of green fire his body burned away revealing the Queen of the Changelings.

Chrysalis stood tall and strong, gazing out at the group of ponies as if daring them to make a move.

"You do have a problem," she said with a sneer, "and you do not know the half of it."

Author's Note

Meant to have this posted on Friday, once again real life gets in the way. :pinkiecrazy:

Sorry about the delay!

Chapter 19

Rainbow Dash was the first to react, in a fraction of a second she was out of her chair and flying at the changeling queen. Before any other pony had even moved she was halfway to Chrysalis, her hoof was extended like a spear. She smashed into her target, knocking Chrysalis her backwards across the marble floor. The changeling queen slammed into the wall, knocking down a painting of Celestia. She let out a grunt of pain as Rainbow flew back, preparing to slam into her again.

"Cease your attack!" Chrysalis yelled as she stumbled to her hooves.

Rainbow didn't listen and instead flew at the changeling again. Less than a second before she could strike another blow, a green barrier flared into existence between Chrysalis and the prismatic pony. Rainbow crashed into it, and careened off to towards the wall. With a reaction time that no other pony could hope to match, Dash flared her wings, recovered, spun around mid air and launched herself yet again, just as the other ponies were beginning to react. Spitfire took to the air, swooping in from the opposite direction. Both ponies' attacks were blocked as the green barrier had expanded into a half dome surrounding Chrysalis completely.

By this time Shining Armor had raised a shield around himself, Cadance and Twilight. Twilight was staring at Chrysalis, her eyes wide with shock, but with a shake of her head she forced herself into action. Seconds later a pair of magenta bolts slammed into the green shield. The first glanced off, nearly hitting Fluttershy, but the second bolt hit with such force that a large crack spread over the barrier.

Cadance, not to be outdone, fired a continuous beam at the damaged shield. It ground against the green barrier, sparking and sputtering until Chrysalis's defenses failed completely and the entire dome shattered. Most of the beam’s power was spent in the act of breaching the shield, but a tiny fragment of magic continued through and struck Chrysalis in the back right near one of her wings with a pitiful amount of force. To everypony's surprise, Chrysalis dropped to the floor with a bloodcurdling scream of pain.

Just as Chrysalis fell, Applejack reached the door and flung it open, calling for the guards. The two guard ponies standing outside ran in, spears aimed at the downed changeling. When they reached her, the first guard spun around, let out an unpony-like hiss, and shook his spear threateningly. The other dropped his spear to the ground and with a flash of green flames it's disguise burned away revealing a small changeling. It bent down and nuzzled Chrysalis, then it's horn lit with a gentle green glow and a stream of magic flowed into the queen. Then it picked up it's spear, re-disguised itself and joined the other guard.

Chrysalis coughed and slowly pulled herself to her hooves.

"Two more changelings won't save you Chrysalis," Cadance said. She took a step towards the two guards and her horn lit up as she prepared another attack.

Chrysalis smiled weakly at the pink alicorn, "you would attack children to get to me?" she asked with a ragged laugh.

Cadance stopped mid step, "children?"

"Stand down," Chrysalis said, still panting as she looked at the two disguised changelings.

Both of them immediately lowered their spears and dropped their disguises. Like the changeling that had helped Chrysalis, the second one was also quite small, no bigger than a Applejack's sister, Twilight noted. Each of the small changelings wore a necklace with a glowing green gem.

"I... am here... to talk" Chrysalis said as she brought her heavy breathing under control. "I came here to find out where Celestia and Luna had disappeared off to. Now that I know, Equestria is likely doomed, but not by me. I have neither the strength nor the will to fight you, it pains me to say this but I am in need of aid and I have an excellent reason for you to give it to me."

"How do we know we can trust you?" Cadance asked.

"You don't, but if you promise to see my proof and hear me out, I will explain my situation and then you can decide what to do from there. If you listen, I will not resist."

"How do you know you can trust us?" Shining Armor asked.

Chrysalis laughed, "I am a changeling, I excel at reading ponies and other creatures, one of the reasons I can mimic them so easily. I can detect a pony lying as easily as you can lift a quill, you have no hope of deceiving me."

"Fine," Twilight said rolling her eyes, "we will hear you out, what proof of the need for aid can you offer?"

"This," Chrysalis replied, a small flash of green flame lit up on her back where Cadance's spell had struck the changeling. A large jagged hole appeared on her back, at the joint of her left wing. The wing itself vanished, nothing was left of it but a small burnt end, the one that had been visible moments before was nothing more than an illusion. The injury ran deep, black charred flesh mixed with pus stained muscle was visible inside the hole and the surrounding carapace was cracked and covered with dried green blood. Twilight gasped and turned to Cadance with a puzzled look.

Cadance looked bewildered, she turned and met Twilight's gaze, "impossible, my spell didn't do that, I'd never put that much power into an attack."

"No, it did not, it was merely misfortune that you happened to hit an already existing wound," Chrysalis said. "I will tell you how I received this injury but it will require a lengthy explanation."

The rest of the ponies stood by while Twilight and Cadance talked quietly with Shining Armor, after a minute Twilight turned back towards Chrysalis and nodded, "start talking."

"Wait!" Fluttershy shouted, interrupting Chrysalis before she could begin. When she realized everypony was staring at her, she ducked behind her mane, "I'm sorry for yelling but we can't just ignore that," she said pointing at the wound. "Chrysalis is hurt she needs medical attention, "

Twilight's face turned red, burning with shame as she realized she hadn't even considered offering any help, but Chrysalis just laughed.

"Fluttershy speaks and she is true to her Element, but still, I expect the rest of your friends to be wiser, they will not help me until I convince them that they must."

"No, Fluttershy is right, at this point Chrysalis is either our prisoner... or a guest," Shining Armor said somewhat reluctantly. "I'm not sure which she is yet, and honestly I'm leaning towards prisoner until I have reason to otherwise, but Equestria does not mistreat either."

Cadance stepped forward, "I will look at it."

"You don't have, we can get a doctor," Shining Armor said.

"No, it was my spell that hit the wound, I feel responsible," Cadance said quietly.

"You will not succeed," Chrysalis said, her eyes narrowing as she gazed down at Cadance. "Changelings have amazing regenerative powers, this wound should have healed months ago, instead it festers, a side effect I fear of the dark magic which inflicted it."

"I can try," Cadance said, as she returned Chrysalis's stare with a look of defiance.

She cautiously approached Chrysalis, keeping her eyes locked on the queen's face watching for any sudden movements. Chrysalis for her part just eyed Cadance wearily, looking no more comfortable at the alicorn's closeness than Cadance was. A light blue glow surrounded the wound as Cadance prepared her spell. Cadance grunted with effort as she directed her magic to heal the wound, Chrysalis bared her teeth, as the pain of the muscle and chitin slowly regrowing coursed through her. Some of the burns began to fade away and turn pink again as living tissue replaced scorched flesh. Cadance beamed with pride as her spell slowly repaired the damage, but her smug look quickly vanished as her progress slowed and then halted completely. She grimaced, sweat dripping down her face as the glow of her horn increased twofold and she poured more and more magic into the spell but the wound refused to heal further. A moment later, her stamina exhausted, she collapsed, panting heavily. Shining Armor rushed over to her side and helped her to her hooves.

"I'm sorry, it was working but then I felt a resistance begin to build up and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't heal anymore," Cadance said.

"I warned you! Only Celestia, or perhaps her sister, would have the power needed to heal this wound," Chrysalis said as if annoyed with the alicorn's attempt. Then she turned to inspect the small amounts of progress Cadance had been able to make. Her stern, almost angry look, faltered and dropped away.

"Still, I thank you for your efforts," she spat out. "It is more than I expected after what I did to you and your husband."

"I don't mean to sound callous, but we still need to know why you are here," Twilight said.

Chrysalis took on a more serious look, she sat down on the floor and began to speak.

"After the wedding, the changelings that survived Cadance and Shining's retaliation were scattered for miles around Canterlot."

"Wait, survived? What do you mean?" Shining Armor asked, looking puzzled.

"You didn't know? Your spell destroyed most of my army outright. The few of us that were not killed were left nearly powerless. Even I took days to recover access to my magic, days that I had to spend in hiding instead of gathering my scattered warriors. When my powers returned, I sought out those that remained alive, so I could return them to the safety of the hive. How many changelings died while I was recovering or still searching? I do not know. With their magic disrupted they were unable to disguise themselves and as a result could not feed. The ones that had enough energy to make it home on their own did so, some others I was able to rescue. The rest starved to death."

Cadance went pale while Shining Armor stared in shock, horrified to learn what had happened as a result of his actions. The rest of the ponies in the room stood still in mute silence unable to believe what they had just heard.

"I... I had no idea, " Cadance said stammering, her ears hung limply against her head.

Chrysalis scoffed at the ponies reactions. "We invaded your capital and you fought back, It took me a long time to come to terms with what happened but after the rage passed and I was thinking more clearly I realized that the fault was my own. If my hive had been attacked in such a manner, I would have responded the same as you."

"Of the 50,000 changelings, nearly a quarter of my total forces, that marched on Canterlot, less than 5,000 returned, so many changelings were lost that day, so many of my subjects... my children," Chrysalis said slumping downward.

"The invasion was a mistake on my part, changelings have avoided open war in the past, preferring to stay in the shadows, but I foolishly believed I had grown powerful enough to deal with any resistance, but as I said, it took me a while to come to terms with that. After first being cast out, I went mad with grief and a burning need for revenge. Yet even in my madness I knew I did not have the strength to succeed. To accomplish my goals I would need a new power, something more reliable than the stolen love of a pony."

"I still don't understand why you attacked us to begin with," Cadance said. "What did we ever do to you?"

Chrysalis raised her head back upwards and smiled at Cadance's question, her one remaining wing bouncing up and down as she shook with laughter. "Did? You did nothing, it is what you offered that fueled my desire to control Equestria."

"What we offered?" Twilight asked.

"Tell me Princess Cadance or Princess Twilight," Chrysalis said, stressing their titles with a hint of disdain, "what would either of you do if your subjects were slowly starving to death?" She spread her wing and reached out towards the two small changelings. "If the vast majority of your young never reached adulthood due to a lack of food, while a neighboring nation had an overabundance of the very thing you needed for sustenance?" she paused as her head sank down. "How far would you go to save them?"

The pair of changelings nestled up against their queen, hissing and clicking contently, Pinkie Pie let out a squeak in excitement, she looked at the adorable duo and asked, "how old are they?"

"Six and seven years," Chrysalis replied, nuzzling each of them.

"Changelings are not like ponies, the love of another does not just feed our magic, it sustains us, we consume it like ponies consume food. Without it we will slowly wither and starve."

"You don't eat food?" Rainbow asked confused.

"We do, though a changelings diet is more... carnivorous in nature, than your average ponies," Chrysalis said with a smile, a small pair of fangs clearly visible. "But alone it is not enough."

"Y'all don't eat ponies do ya?" Applejack asked slowly.

"Of course not," Chrysalis said shaking her head in disgust. "Changelings don't eat sapient species anymore than griffons or even some ponies do. Only for love do we need to feed off of an intelligent species and that is not normally dangerous, at worst it may result in some bad headaches," she said glancing at Shining Armor who looked a little relieved at the news.

"If your kingdom was in trouble why did you not just ask for help?" Rarity asked. "I'm sure Princess Celestia would have offered assistance."

"The thought had crossed my mind, I have been around long enough to see what Celestia does to her enemies, but I have also seen her great compassion, I knew it was if I approached her for aid, it was possible that she would help, but in the end I decided that I could not take the risk. A decision that was heavily influenced by a lust for power that grew as I became drunk on the strong love Shining Armor has for Cadance."

Shining blushed at that statement and Cadance gave him a quick nuzzle.

"You were saying you needed to find a new form of power?" Twilight asked.

"The Elements of Harmony are not the only magical artifacts of great power in this world, I believe you are familiar with at least a few others..." Chrysalis said trailing off.

"You mean the Crystal Heart?" Cadance asked. "You could no more bend that to your will than you could the Elements."

"That is one, but it is not the artifact of which I speak, nor the only one Twilight had dealings with. And while the Element of Harmony and the Crystal Heart would never lend their power for misuse, not every ancient relic has such restrictions."

Twilight gasped, "You don't mean the Alicorn Amulet do you? How do you know about that?"

"You are a quick one," Chrysalis said with a wicked smile. "I have ears and eyes throughout Equestria, even now when there are few of us that remain, your kind are hard pressed to keep secrets from me. I knew that the princesses were missing before I arrived, though the reason eluded me, which is one of the reasons I came. In the same way, I heard about your run in with the Trixie and was shocked to learn that the amulet had surfaced again after all these years."

"All these years?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Surfaced again?" Twilight asked at almost the exact same time.

"This is not the first time that amulet has caused trouble, but I am guessing from your reaction that not every event of significance is recorded into pony history. Suffice it to say, Trixie's use of the amulet caused far less serious problems than that amulet has been involved with in the past. You are lucky she only wore it for a few days. The last pony to find it murdered a whole town in a fit of madness."

"If it's not in this history books, how do you know about it," Spitfire asked, breaking her silence.

"As I said before, I have been around a long time. Celestia and Luna would call me young but I have walked this world for almost 3,000 years and I have seen many things."

"3000 years? Are you immortal?" Shining Armor asked.

"Trying to determine the vulnerability your enemy?" Chrysalis asked with a grin as she stood up and walked towards Shining Armor.

"I am ageless, not immortal," she said before leaning in very close.

"But should you try to kill me you will find out that changeling queens do not die easily," she whispered in his ear before walking away.

"How do you tell?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Tell what?" Chrysalis asked.

"Agelessness and immortality, until the pony, or in this case changeling died, how would you know the difference?"

"Well, for one, none of my predecessors were immortal. Nor is my hive the only changeling hive on Equus. I have personally seen other queens rise to power and fall from it. None of them were withered by time's cruel touch no matter how old they grew, nor did any die of natural causes," the dark queen replied.

"I do not expect myself to be any different than those who preceded me. The high honors, or perhaps curse, depending on your point of view, of true immortality belong to a very small group of beings, I know of only three in existence and you have managed to somehow lose track of them all," she said smugly.

"How do you know..." Rainbow Dash began to ask but Chrysalis interrupted her.

"I was there, in the shadows, unseen and unknown, watching as the fate of Equus was decided," she said with a slight tremor.

"No mortal could have survived the onslaught your lost princesses loosed upon Discord in a futile attempt to stop him, nor could any mortal pony have survived his counter attack as he tried to dispense of what he thought were two mere ponies trying to stand to his might. It was only after that great battle did the two sisters finally turn to the Elements," she said paling slightly.

"Now that I am no longer drunk on Shining's love nor mad with revenge, my thoughts often turn to the day of the wedding. I do not know how Celestia did not destroy me, I made a challenge that should have killed me yet I still live..." she said trailing off.

There was an awkward silence before Twilight spoke up.

"I think we're getting a little sidetracked," she said "You still haven't told us why you are here."

"If you do not want to get side tracked, then stop asking so many questions!" Chrysalis said sharply.

"She's right, why don't we let Chrysalis speak, we can hold any questions till the end." Shining Armor said.

Everypony nodded in agreement, Twilight pulled out a scroll and quill, ready to take notes as Chrysalis resumed her tale.

"Finding the amulet was easy enough, let this be a lesson to you Twilight. Hiding an artifact of unimaginable power is a poor substitute for true security. Especially when you practically gave the location away in your letter to Celestia."

"Only Celestia has access to those!" Twilight exclaimed.

"And as far as the guards at her room were concerned none but Celestia has ever entered her room without permission," Chrysalis said her horn lit up and with a flash her body morphed into a perfect duplicate of the solar princess. Seconds later she dispelled the disguise and returned to her true form with a laugh.

"Even if your letters had not made the location so obvious, in the long term that which is hidden tends to become lost, lost to memory and lost to time. Then, after it is long forgotten, somepony stumbles upon it and by the time anypony remembers why it was hidden, it is too late," Chrysalis said sternly.

"With the amulet in my possession and plans of revenge brewing, I began my trip back to the hive. I had not worn the amulet yet for even in my madness I knew its power would corrupt my goals, so I needed to do some research. The amulet you see, has a terrible side effect. If worn for long enough it will drive the bearer insane. A lack of mental control had already cost me dearly, if my plans were to succeed I needed a way around that unfortunate side effect. But research takes time and I felt that visiting the Canterlot Royal Archives for days at a time were too risky, even for me. In the end I went to the only other place that would have the records I would need. The once great but now abandoned library in the ancient Castle of the Two Sisters in the Everfree Forest."

"It was at that castle I ran into somepony I did not expect, tell me is anyone familiar with Lord Tirek?"

"I don't think I've heard of him," Twilight said shaking her head. The rest of the ponies nodded in agreement.

"I did not think you would be. As I said before, not everything makes it into your history books," Chrysalis paused in thought before continuing.

"Sometimes I think you ponies do not know how lucky you are. Power corrupts, is something that is often heard, but I disagree with it. Instead I say power, without the responsibility to wield it, corrupts, but it is perfectly possible to be powerful and remain pure. I offer this as proof, one of the most powerful beings that has ever existed rules over your kind with benevolence. She uses her strength not to bend others to her will, nor to further her own goals, but to keep her subjects safe so they can learn and grow as a species, often placing herself in harm's way to do so."

"Celestia has fought so many to keep ponykind safe. Discord, Sombra, myself and even her own sister, of those you are familiar with. They all have something in common. None of them, myself included, started out with the intention to do evil. Discord wields unimaginable power, but he is not evil, instead he is more like a child, driven purely by wants and desires, but with no regard for others. Luna wanted nothing more than the love of her ponies, a desire that I can relate to. Though we wanted love for different reasons, the need for it drove both of us to do horrible things. Sombra was nothing more than a scholar and a wizard. His obsession with immortality eventually drove him to delve into forbidden texts and experiment with dark magic before he was prepared to properly control it. Let this be a warning, the quest for knowledge can often have unintended consequences," Chrysalis said, glancing at Twilight.

Twilight gulped and smiled nervously as Chrysalis resumed talking.

"But there was one in the distant past, a being whose intentions were evil from the start. He came to Equestria's shores from a distant land, drawn by tales of the great magic flows that through all ponies. With his brother, Scorpan, he worked on a way to take that magic and make it his own. They designed a spell that would allow them to steal a pony’s magic, as they took more and more their own power would grow."

"You can't completely separate a pony from magic, not without killing them. Suppress it yes, drain it for a time, sure, but completely take it? That's just not possible," Twilight said.

"True, Lord Tirek could only hold onto that power for a limited amount of time, but while drained, the ponies he attacked would be left weak, practically helpless. No more enhanced abilities, no flight, no spells. Even a pony's cutie mark would be stripped. If left alone, in time they'd recover, but there was nothing to stop Tirek from simply draining them again."

"Where is this story going?" Cadance asked.

"So much for holding your questions," Chrysalis said with a laugh. "He was stopped before he could carry out his full plan. Scorpan became friends with a young unicorn named Star Swirl, long before he became famous. Scorpan told Star Swirl of Tirek's plan and Star Swirl went to Celestia and Luna with that information. They stopped Tirek and cast him into Tartarus."

"Why didn't he just steal Celestia and Luna's magic?" Applejack asked.

"Draining a pony of magic is a little like drinking water. Some ponies might have barely a glasses worth of magic, others may have a barrels worth. Trying to drain either of those two sisters would be like trying to drink the ocean. The analogy is not perfect, for the more ponies Tirek drains, the more magic he can hold. He believed that in order to contain the magic of either of them, he would first have to drain every other pony in Equestria. Whether or not that would actually allow him to succeed, I do not know."

"While that's extremely fascinating, I don't get why you are telling us this," Twilight said.

"Because he escaped! A little over a year ago, when Cerberus left his post at the gates of Tartarus, Tirek broke out. I found him wandering in the ancient library, greatly weakened by the centuries he spent in Tartarus but slowly recovering. He was researching the vilest of dark magic, spells he would have never had access to in the past. He learned of the amulet and also wished to obtain it. I struck a deal with him. Tirek desired the magic of ponies and my changelings need your love. Since we wanted separate things but had a common enemy, I saw no reason to not work with him to discover a way to use the amulet."

"I brought him back to my hive and allowed him to feed off the magic of captured ponies, Tirek slowly regained strength; as he did we researched the amulet in the texts stolen from the Castle of the Two Sisters. It was there that we learned where it had come from. Would you care to make a guess?"

"No games Chrysalis, just spit it out," Shining Armor said sternly.

"A pony that you and your wife are intimately familiar with. The former ruler of your Crystal Empire, King Sombra."

The crowd let out a collective gasp.

"As I said earlier, Sombra was obsessed with finding a way to escape death. Celestia and Luna had been around for several thousands years in his time and he wanted, more than anything else, to find a way to extend his own life indefinitely, as theirs seemed to be. The Alicorn Amulet isn't named that way because it grants it's bearer great power. While it does enhance one’s abilities, according to what we discovered, it was originally meant to help Sombra ascend."

Chrysalis stood up and began to pace back and forth as she continued her story.

"We had learned all that we could, but it gave us a clue as to where to turn to next. Sombra's castle. I disguised myself and journeyed to the Crystal Empire. Because I had already read your report to Celestia about the hidden staircase you had discovered, I was able to gain access to it but found nothing. For months, a select group of my best changelings and I scoured the Crystal Empire for any information related to the amulet. While I searched for answers the rest of the hive focused on rebuilding my army. If I were to attack again, I wanted a vastly superior numerical advantage."

"You already outnumbered the Royal Guard if 50,000 changelings were a quarter of your forces," Shining Armor said.

"I know, I keep tabs on the size of the Royal Guard," Chrysalis said smugly. "I cannot engage with all my forces. My hive is both the largest and the strongest, and so I have many rivals. If I were to use all my forces to attack Canterlot, it would be a virtually guaranteed that another queen would invade my hive while I was gone.

"I thought you said your children were starving to death, how could you support more soldiers?" Twilight asked.

"No, my adult subjects were starving, the children, they do not reach adulthood. Changelings... they do not follow the same life cycle that ponies do. Physical growth halts between 10 and 12 years of age. At that point a changeling will be a little smaller than the average pegasus pony. They are known as worker drones at this point, still considered children. While they are physically strong, they do not have access to all the abilities that adult changelings have. They can not fly, nor can they disguise themselves. Their magic is limited to the transference of love and simple levitation."

"You said these changelings were 6 and 7 and they were disguised as guards," Cadance said.

"The gemstones they wear around their necks mimic a changelings ability to disguise themselves. It is limited to a single form and they must be recharged once a day," Chrysalis said.

"So how does a changeling reach maturity?" Twilight asked. A notepad had appeared and she was quickly writing down everything that Chrysalis had just said.

"Changelings need love to finish growing. Until they first start absorbing love, they can get by on normal food alone. When they absorb enough love, it resumes the normal growth process, they will then reach maturity in 6 months to a year, depending on how much love is available. The vast majority of a hive's population is made up of children and worker drones. This helps protect the hive from outgrowing its supply of love. It also allows us to quickly repopulate after a population loss, or grow our numbers rapidly when love is in abundance. In my hive, they outnumber adult changelings 10 to 1, they are just over four million in number."

"Four million!?" Shining Armor shouted out in shock.

"As long as they do not reach physical maturity the aging process is halted. They do not die of old age and I have been laying eggs for a long time," Chrysalis said.

"You... you could have overrun half of Equestria by numbers alone with an army that size," Shining Armor said weakly.

"Were you not paying attention at all? These are CHILDREN! Would you send colts and fillies off to war?"

"No...I would not. I'm sorry," Shining Armor said.

"I suppose it is to be expected, after the first impression that I made," Chrysalis said, shaking her head. "In any case, worker drones are not fighters, their function is to build the hive, digging the vast network of underground tunnels that form a changeling home."

"That still doesn’t explain how you could feed your adult population," Twilight said.

"Surely you are not oblivious to the many reports of missing ponies throughout the Equestria?" Chrysalis asked. "A single pony can feed many changelings, but there are many in my hive and many hives. In the past we would kidnap what ponies we could, but we couldn't risk exposing our existence so the numbers had to be kept low.

Shining Armor gulped, "I’ve been reading up on them, the numbers have been increasing rapidly and not a single pony has been found."

"My foalish attack on your capital is to blame for that change. Before it, often the ponies kidnapped would be fed upon and then released after a memory wipe. Now changelings are becoming more bold, worried that it is only a matter of time before ponykind seeks us out. They gather what strength they can now for the inevitable clash, keeping the ponies they enslave in perpetuity as a renewable food source."

"So all the missing ponies are in your hive?" Shining Armor asked.

"Some yes, but not all. As my own hive grew in number, other hives have stepped up their own abductions in order to grow their own numbers and keep a balance of power."

"Great, so now there are more changelings than ever." Shining Armor said with a hint of annoyance.

"Getting back on track... Were you able to find a way to safely use the amulet?" Twilight asked.

"Eventually I found a tome hidden in the depths of the catacombs below the Great Crystal Library. It spoke of the magical door that Twilight used to reach the Crystal Heart. King Sombra was extremely paranoid and he used powerful magic to hide not only the Crystal Heart but many other things as well. That door was the key to reaching those places. Twilight, you discovered that with the right spell the door brought you to the top of the tower. But that is not the only place it lead. The tome indicated that by altering the magic fed into the door it would take you to many other hidden locations. I was only able to find the correct spell for one additional area, a workshop hidden under the castle. It was where Sombra created the Alicorn Amulet."

"You mean to tell me that there is more of Sombra's dark magic still hidden in my empire?" Cadance asked.

"I suspect so, but as I said I only found one additional room. Sombra's notes were very clear, the Amulet was designed to drive anypony that used it utterly insane, save for Sombra himself. There was however, a single exception. Another being could use the amulet if they had the Will of Sombra."

"What the hay is the Will of Sombra?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"A small black gem that fits into a slot on the back of the amulet. I found the Will of Sombra in this room, the notes say that Sombra had never found another pony worth of using the amulet so it had never left the workshop. I took the Will of Sombra, all the notes I could find and headed back to my hive."

"In my absence, my army had been rebuilt. With Tirek helping us capture ponies to supply my forces with love we were able to sustain an enormous number of mature changelings. I now had over 150,000 changelings in my main force with a reserve of another 150,000 that could defend the hive."

"But as Tirek and I discussed our plans of attack and I brought him up to speed on my findings about the Alicorn Amulet, I grew unsettled. The things I had read in Sombra's notes had disturbed me greatly. They were not the writings of a pony simply seeking immortality at any cost, they were the works of a raving lunatic. Though I was alive during his reign, my hive is very distant from the Empire, I did not know the details of his reign, nor did I know of all the travesties he committed on his quest for immortality. I only learning what little Celestia had written down after she and Luna had banished him. It was one thing to read about Celestia's version of Sombra's history and the decisions he had made, but it was entirely different when I had at my hooves a firsthand account of the things he had done."

"I wasn't sure what to do anymore, in the back of my head a small voice told me to reach out to Celestia. But that was impossible, she had already left on her vacation, leaving you and Cadance in charge," Chrysalis said.

"I found it odd that I could not locate either of the two princesses, wherever they had gone, it was the first pony secret I had been unable to discover. That meant dealing with the ponies I had hurt the most during my invasion, while I believed Celestia would have at least heard me out, I did not think either either you or Cadance would be so forgiving," Chrysalis said, looking at Twilight.

"Well you did come to us, what changed your mind?" Twilight asked.

"Tirek did. Even as my burning desire for revenge slowly waned, Tirek's lust for power grew. I could sense it growing and knew he would betray me if he thought he could get away with it. I thought I could control him, but I was wrong. He demanded we use the Alicorn Amulet and launch an immediate attack. I stalled him so I could consider my options, but when the news that Celestia and Luna were not just on vacation but were missing entirely, he refused to wait any longer."

"They have lost their greatest defense, the time to strike is now!" Tirek shouted, slamming his fist down on the large wooden table before them. The table shook with the force of the impact. His voice echoed off the black stone walls, stronger by far than it had been when Chrysalis had first found him. The steady infusion of magic over the last six months had caused him to grow in size. No longer withered and frail, he now stood nearly as tall as Chrysalis herself.

"It is MY ARMY! We will not attack unless I am sure we have a path to victory. I do not believe that 150,000 can hold the capital perpetually. The Royal Guard has grown since my last attack, eventually they will rally and take it back. And do not underestimate Twilight Sparkle or Cadance. The two of them working together nearly cost me my life the last time I attacked Canterlot."

Tirek reached down and picked up a miniature of a changeling warrior from the map sprawled out on the table. It represented one of the many battalions at the dark Queen's command. He looked at the tiny spear it carried, the armor it wore and he narrowed his eyes. He closed his fist and crushed the figure, dropping it on the table.

"If you would use your workers, you could call upon an army of millions," he said, the annoyance in his voice was clear.

There was a scraping sound of stone on stone as Chrysalis pushed her chair back and slowly rose up. She walked over to the centaur and glared at him.

"Are... you... insane? Those workers are changeling children! You don't send children off to war!"

"Children nearly as strong as a pony. Even with their limited magic they would still make a formidable force," Tirek said.

"No! And don't suggest it again."

"Fine!" Tirek shouted. He paused to collect his thoughts. "There is another option..."

"What is it?" Chrysalis asked with a sigh.

"The other hives. If you were to conquer them, unite all the changeling hives under one banner, you could have an army of millions, even without using your children."

"Such a thing has never been done. Every queen that has attempted it has failed, and died in the attempt," Chrysalis said wearily as she returned to her seat.

"Then let me use the Alicorn Amulet. With it's power I would be able to strip hundreds or even thousands of ponies of their magic at a time. Maybe even permanently. Their armies would only fuel my growing strength," Tirek said.

"I have told you already, I am still not convinced we can control it, " Chrysalis said, lifting a hoof to rub her head. "I do not want to risk using it unless we have no other choice."

"But the notes you found..."

"TO TARTARUS WITH THOSE NOTES! Have you read them? Sombra was completely insane, driven mad by his obsession! I would not place my trust in anything designed by him."

"Do not speak to me of Tartarus," Tirek growled, "you were not confined there for thousands of years."

"No, I wasn't. And I have no intention of going there either. Which means not attacking Canterlot a second time. If the ponies find that I survived the first encounter they may decide to banish me there when the second attempt fails."

"So now you will not attack at all?" Tirek asked.

Chrysalis let out a sigh, "I don't know. Part of me agrees with you, strike while they are weak. But another part says that maybe it is time I made peace with the ponies."

"That is unacceptable!" Tirek shouted, his rage growing anew. "Maybe you could find a way to coexist but they will never willingly give up their magic and nothing you can do will convince me to not take what is rightfully mine."

"Then perhaps it is time for us to call an end to our cooperation. Leave my hive, I will not stop you. You are doing exactly what King Sombra did, your lust for the ponies magic will destroy you just as Sombra's quest for immortality did him."

Tirek glared at Chrysalis, then his lips twisted upward into an evil grin.

"You were off in the Crystal Empire for quite some time. While you were away I learned much about changelings and their magic. I am particularly fond of how your species can ensnare the minds of their victims," Tirek said. His two horns began to glow and a green sphere of energy formed between them. A black beam lanced outward, striking Chrysalis in the head. "I am not going anywhere and you will help me whether you like it or not"

The glow around Chrysalis's head brightened, for a moment, her eyes went pale and lifeless. Then they lit up a dark green flash.

"MIND CONTROL!?" Chrysalis screamed. "You dare try to use changeling magic on me!? Her horn brightened and a pulse of magic traveled back up the beam, knocking Tirek backwards. "Changelings are highly resistant to that spell, you couldn't hope to command a single drone."

Tirek picked himself back up. "Not immune though, I just need more power." His horns lit up again, summoning a large ball of energy. He directed it at Chrysalis who raised a shield just in time to block the attack. The ball of energy glanced off the shield, hit the table, and exploded, sending chunks of wood and miniatures in all directions. As the smoke cleared, Chrysalis caught glimpse of Tirek running out of the room.

"Guards!" she shouted, as she ran into roughly hewn hallway. "Stop him!"

A contingent of changelings rounded a corner down the far end of corridor, responding to the shouts from their queen. Tirek ran in the opposite direction, heading deeper into the hive. He slipped through an open passageway, just as another two more changelings appeared from a nearby room, trying to block his way. Chrysalis and the rest of the guard chased after him. The guard's horns lit with a green glow, they fired shot after shot of sticky green goop, but Tirek managed to dodge each attack as he headed towards Chrysalis's private quarters.

"What happened next?" Twilight asked.

"He made it to my chambers, it was where I was keeping the Alicorn Amulet. I suspect he had been planning this for some time because he was able to bypass the enchantment I had protecting it in seconds. My guards and I entered the room, the first thing I saw was the pedestal that the amulet had been resting on, the protective shield it was encased in had been dispelled.

"From the darkened corner of the room, Tirek stepped forward, just as he finished inserting the Will of Sombra into the back of the amulet. I tried to stop him from putting it on but I was too late. He blocked the first attack and then put the Alicorn Amulet around his neck before we could break his shield. The amulet began to glow, a dark blood red. He began to grow until he was even larger than Celestia. His horns lit up and a green ball of magic formed. It was so bright it hurt my eyes to look. A massive wave of energy went out in all directions and I and all my guards were knocked to the ground."

"I remember... a feeling of distance. I watched through my eyes as my body got up and moved about the room. I heard orders given by... somepony or something. I began to follow them. I didn't know what they were nor did I care. All I knew is I was going to follow them and everything would be alright. I... I…"

Shining Armor looked at Chrysalis knowingly. Slowly he opened his mouth, his voice barely a whisper.

"That was how I felt... before the wedding."

Chrysalis lowered her head and turned away from the white unicorn. Tears started to grow in her eyes, she tried to hold them back but it was too much. Her willpower crumbled and they began to fall freely. She collapsed to the floor, and quickly tried to bury her face in her hooves. The two young changelings galloped over to her and nuzzled up against her. She kept her face down, hidden from the rest of the room, unable to gather the will to look Shining Armor in the face.

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry... so sorry..." she cried out over and over again, stumbling over the words as sobs racked her body.

Shining Armor took a step forward, hesitated and began to turn his head, looking back towards the rest of the group. Before he made eye contact, his head drooped down. He turned back towards Chrysalis and took two more steps forward until he was standing at her side. He brought a forehoof up and rested it on her back.

"I forgive you."

Slowly, the flow of tears diminished. Shining Armor kept his hoof on Chrysalis' back until they stopped entirely. When her breathing had calmed down she spoke again, still refusing to make eye contact with any of the ponies in the room.

"Tirek’s spell had given him complete control over myself and the hoofful of guards present, but even with the amulet’s power there was no way for him to maintain dominance over my mind forever. Eventually my body’s natural resistance to mind control would adapt to the spell and break me free of his hold. He must have known this, known that he needed a weaker, younger mind, for over the next few weeks, he forced me to act the fool."

"Under his control, I made many decisions that were clearly terrible for the hive’s well being. Unrest began to grow as I mismanaged our love stores, wasted the royal treasury on insane projects, and raised taxes to burdensome amounts. Finally, after a month of misrule, I rescinded my policy of letting proto-queens live."

"Proto-queens?" Twilight asked.

"Very rarely, a changeling is born that has the ability to grow into a queen. One of the reasons my hive has grown so large and so well without collapsing on itself, is that unlike most hives, I do not kill off internal rivals. When I find a proto-queen, I encourage their growth. When they are ready, I allow them to leave the hive with a few thousand changelings and start up their own hive. For this, my people love me, and the new hives, more often than not, ally themselves with mine."

"Tirek forced me to make a very public tirade about the dangers of proto-queens and how all the ally hives were rightfully mine. I ordered Nymph, a proto-queen I had been helping prepare to start her own hive, arrested as an enemy of the state and personally killed her husband, right in front of her."

"I… I can remember everything I did under Tirek’s control, with perfect clarity. I will never forget the look on Nymph’s face as I looked up at her, Iron Pyrites's blood still dripping from my horn." Chrysalis said, her face covered with grief while her eyes burned with rage.

"It wasn’t your fault," Shining Armor said, "You had no control over your actions."

"That is a lovely sentiment, but it will not bring Iron Pyrite back. I will have to live with what I did from now on," Chrysalis said.

"So, how did you escape then?" Spitfire asked.

"Sheer luck. After killing Nymph’s husband, it would have made sense for me to kill Nymph as well. Instead she was left to rot in prison, while I continued to mismanage the hive. Nymph began to gain support as the hive began to look for an alternate queen. Her followers broke her out of prison, while I ignored the pleas of of my dwindling support to do something. Instead I locked myself in my throne room and refused to take action, which only made me lose support faster."

"The mind control spell finally failed when I was alone in my throne room with Tirek and the guards he controlled. He tried to regain dominance over my mind but this time, I was able to block it. Seeing a chance to deal with him, I attacked while he was still trying to attack my mind."

"I intended to kill Tirek, once he was dealt with, I would do my best to reverse the damage he had done to my hive, starting with making amends with Nymph."

"I hit Tirek with the most powerful attack I could muster, completely disregarding my own defense, a decision that cost me my wing and nearly my life. However I believed it was worth it. He had not yet raised his defenses up since he was concentrating on his mind control spell. I struck what I thought was a fatal blow upon the centaur. He saw my attack coming, but it was too late, he didn't have time to mount a defense. Instead he lashed out and I took a direct hit from him, the wound you now see on my back. But, when the dust cleared, I was still standing and Tirek was broken. My attack had shattered one of his horns and ripped open the top of his skull."

"With Tirek's influence interrupted, the rest of the guards in the room should have been released from his spell, but it was clear that they had not. Instead they stood as if waiting for orders. I was unsure of what to make of that, so I limped over to one of the guards and was preparing to attempt to discern the cause when I heard the door to my throne room open."

"Nymph burst into the room with a contingent of guards. She accused me of crimes against the hive and stated that my rule was over and she was officially challenging me to for the hive. She began to attack while the guards watched on, waiting to see who would be the victor. In my wounded state I could barely defend myself, nevermind counter-attack. I tried to explain what happened, how Tirek had taken control and forced me to do all those horrible things, but they would not listen."

"I heard a dark laughter coming from the other side of the room. I stole a glance between blocking shot after shot. Tirek was pulling himself up off the floor, the Alicorn Amulet was shining fiercely but it was no longer with a dark red light. Instead it was a black glow that seemed to leech all light from the surrounding area while still being far too bright to look at."

Slowly Chrysalis turned to face the ponies, her voice dropped down to a whisper and look of fear washed over her.

"He spoke again, but his voice sounded different, it was ragged and twisted. The sound grated on my ears as if the very depths of Tartarus were howling at me."

"What did he say?" Cadance asked.

"Nymph will not listen to you, she lives only to serve my will, as soon shall all. Join her, or perish."

"What the hay?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Tirek must have placed her under the same spell he had me under. I believe now that he would have made me lose the fight, then he would have complete control over Nymph who would control the hive as the new queen. She is young enough and weak enough that he could maintain that control indefinitely."

"However, he made a mistake in declaring his deception. When the guards that arrived with Nymph heard him say that, they knew I had been truthful. They immediately turned on and tried to attack Tirek. Unfortunately, between Tirek, Nymph and the guards still under Tirek’s control, they were hopelessly outmatched. One by one they began to fall, in the confusion of the slaughter, I fled the throne room."

"One of the loyal guards followed me and explained the situation as we escaped. The hive was in the midst of a civil war between Nymph’s forces and ones that were still loyal to me. The loyalist changelings were severely outnumbered . I told him to round up any loyalist changelings he could and flee the hive, heading to the hive of Queen Nixe, my most loyal ally."

"The hive was in disarray, there were small battles going on everywhere. There was no way I was going to make it out the main entrance, so I headed for the caverns, deep under the hive. It was there that Nymph and Tirek finally caught up with me. Nymph attacked and I allowed myself to be hit. The force of the blow knocked me into a chasm. With one of my wings destroyed and no ability to fly, the fall should have been fatal. Instead I was able to cushion the landing using a small amount of magic. I shifted my form so that I would appear to have been impaled on a jagged rock at the bottom. Nymph, the youngling that she is, couldn't tell the vision was an illusion. She flew down and inspected my corpse, then flew back up. It was only after she did not return that I made my way out of the caverns."

"I made my way east, along the shores of the South Luna Sea, to a mountain in the area you ponies refer to as the Undiscovered West. That is where Nixe’s hive is located . I had chosen her, because of all my allies, she was the least likely to betray me and because she holds one of the eastern most hives. It put the most distance possible between myself and my former hive."

"I’m going to interrupt now, what exactly do you want from us?" Cadance asked.

"Don’t you see? Tirek, through Nymph, now controls the strongest changeling army ever assembled. Over the last few months, we have received reports from Nixe's spies that Nymph is already moving against some of the smaller neighboring hives. She will continue to annex hive after hive until she has united all changelings under one banner. When she does, Tirek will turn his gaze on Equestria. They will march east, with a force in the millions, until they reach your borders. Then they will roll over your cities, one by one until they all fall. You must begin to prepare now while there is still time."

"I will help you prepare as best I can, in return I want amnesty for any changelings still loyal to me or Nixe. If you are able to defeat Tirek and after he is dealt with, and my kingdom restored, I will pay reparations for the damage I caused to your capital." Chrysalis said. "At least that was what I was going to offer to Celestia, without her or Luna to lead the battle, I do not think you stand a chance."

"You said, ‘while there is still time’," Spitfire said. "How long do you think it will take Nymph and Tirek to reach Equestria?"

"Based on the latest reports Nixe had received when I left her hive several weeks ago to head here, a year at least, two at the most. It depends on how quickly they are able to conquer the other hives. Even after that has happened, assembling and arming an army that large will take time."

"This is a lot to take in and I have many questions that need to be answered before we can even think about how to deal with Tirek," Twilight said. "My first is..."

Before Twilight could finish asking her question the door to the room burst open and Iron Fortress along with a dozen guards ran in.

"Princesses, Chrysalis is..." He trailed off when he saw the changeling Queen sitting out in the open.

"Thank you Iron Fortress, as you can see, we are already aware of her presence," Cadance said.

"Would you like me to arrest her?" Iron Fortress said, his eyes gleaming at the thought of hauling Chrysalis down to the deepest dungeon in the castle.

"That won't be necessary at this time," Cadance said.

"But..." Iron Fortress looked back and forth between Cadance and Shining Armor in confusion.

Chrysalis stood up and looked at the armored guard, "I am sorry for having to incapacitate you, I had much to discuss with Twilight and Cadance and needed to gain entry to this meeting."

"That will have to stop, " Twilight said, looking at the changeling. "Until further notice you are not to hide who you are, if you want us to trust you, there will be no more sneaking about."

"Can we really let Chrysalis wander around the capital, ponies are going to start talking," Shining Armor said.

"You raise a good point," Cadance said. She turned her eyes to Chrysalis, gears turning in her head.

"You'll have to pick a pony form and stick with it, there will be no more impersonations for the duration of your stay."

"Very well," Chrysalis said with a snort. She closed her eyes in concentration, deciding what form to take. Her horn began to glow and there was a burst of green light; it faded away revealing a tall slender white unicorn mare with a theater mask cutie mark. "I will not disguise myself as another pony for now, but I will have to feed myself. What of the changelings still loyal to me? Eventually Nixe will have to abandon her hive and move her subjects and what are left of mine to Equestria or Tirek will conquer them. My changelings are prepared to help fight against Tirek, but if they come to Equestria they will need a supply of love or they will starve."

"You said changelings don't need to feed on intimate love, can't you just make some friends?" Applejack asked.

"But who would want to be friends with her?" Dash asked, glaring at Chrysalis.

"I will! Just because she was a big meanie-pants before doesn't mean she can't learn to be a good friend." Pinkie said happily.

Chrysalis just snorted and rolled her eyes.

"Iron Fortress, please dismiss the rest of your guards, have them wait out in the hall. For now, order them to keep quiet about Chrysalis's presence. We need to fill you in on what you missed," Cadance said.

Iron Fortress gave the order and the rest of the guards filtered out of the room. Working together, Twilight and Cadance brought Iron Fortress up to speed.

"So both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are missing, perhaps with Discord to blame, and now we face a potential war with this Tirek and his changeling army?" Iron Fortress asked, like the changeling that had been imitating him, he kept a neutral expression.

"That's the short of it," Shining Armor said with a nod. "We are going to have to work hard and fast at enlarging the guard, and expand our training. Equestria has not fought a real war in so long that I worry about the Royal Guard's effectiveness. Chrysalis's invasion exposed a weakness in the Royal Guard, with centuries of stagnation, we no longer possess the skills to fight off an invading army."

Iron Fortress nodded in agreement, "Right now most of the guards' schedules are heavily weighted towards patrolling and very light on training. I'll work on correcting this. I assume for now we want to keep this information on a need to know basis?"

"That's correct," Twilight said with a sigh. "I hate keeping ponies in the dark but we don't want to cause a panic."

"This is going to cause a big stir, but I think we can keep the information contained for now. I can already think of a number of problems but there is one that needs to be addressed right now," Iron Fortress said.

"What is that?" Twilight asked.

"We can recruit more ponies, that should not prove to be too difficult, in fact since the invasion we've had more ponies signing up for the Guard than we could handle. We've actually had to turn many away. The Royal Guard just isn’t designed this kind of operation. I don’t mean to speak ill of the Guard, but we’re really just a glorified police force," Iron Fortress said.

Shining Armor snorted, "I hate to agree with you, but it’s true."

"Equestria is going to need more than that, we’re going to need an army. That presents it’s own set of problems. Arming and armoring an army is far beyond the capability of the Guard. As it stands we don't have enough to go around right now. Weapons and armor are still crafted by hoof at the Solar Forge. We will need to modernize the system to increase production rates or I fear we will be galloping off to war with half of our forces not equipped properly." Iron Fortress said.

"We can do that," Twilight said. "Whatever kind of funds you need, Cadance and I will approve them."

"Even if we can rapidly expand production and recruitment, I'm still not sure how we are going to stop a force of millions. Every sword in Equestria would go blunt before we cut through a quarter of a force that size. We could cut down all of White Tail Woods and not have enough arrows," Iron Fortress said, sadly.

"Maybe it isn't arrows we need... " Shining Armor said, scratching his chin. "Twilight, Cadance, I need to free my schedule tomorrow so I can make a trip to Ponyville. I have a report to read on Hail Storm's firearms that I've been putting off for a long time now. After that, then... I think I need to have a talk with him."

Epilogue

Risa's sun was slowly sinking under the horizon, its brilliant light reflected off the ocean, causing the surface of the water to sparkle and shine. A warm and gentle breeze swept over the beach and ruffled through Luna's feathers. Her mane ignored the breeze and instead rippled to an unfelt wind, as the stars inside it shimmered and shined. Two alicorns and a not-quite-human stood on a walkway adjacent to the sandy shore.

"What, pray tell, is the hold up Discord?" Luna asked, tapping her hooves impatiently on the sand covered walkway.

For the last year Celestia and Luna had enjoyed a much needed vacation. Apart from a small adventure here or there, most of their time had been spent relaxing on the pristine beach that stretched out before them. The native inhabitants of Risa had initially been confused over Luna and Celestia's appearance, having never met another species quite like the two ponies, but after they had gotten used to the two alicorns, they had proved extremely hospitable. A small and private bungalow had been assigned to the two sisters, who preferred to spend most of their time enjoying peace and quiet. Occasionally they ventured into the more populated areas to enjoy the local entertainment and learn more about Risa's culture.

The vacation had been a good one, but now it was time to return to Equestria. Luna watched the demi-god. He was still in his human form and still wearing the same ridiculous red and black uniform that he had donned the moment they arrived in this dimension. A large portal sat directly in front of the three immortals. As Discord rapidly snapped his fingers, the surface of the portal phased from solid to permeable as it jumped through dimensions.

Unusual for the chaos god, he wore a grim mask of determination on his face that betrayed the fact that something was not quite right. Luna hadn't noticed it yet but Celestia picked up on it the moment his lips twitched into a frown.

"Discord, stop," Celestia said.

Discord snapped his fingers one last time and the portal vanished.

"You're having trouble opening the portal back to Equestria," Celestia stated, looking at the draconequus in human form.

"Yes," Discord said as he hung his head in shame.

There was a thud as Luna dropped her piña colada in surprise. The cup bounced off the sand, spilling the rest of her drink. She had been paying more attention to the final drink of her vacation than to Discord's attempts to open a portal. That changed when she heard him confess his difficulties, she frowned, partially over the lost drink but mostly over the news itself.

If Celestia was nervous about Discord's statement, she didn't show it. Instead her horn lit up, glowing dimly. She concentrated, focusing her magic as best she could as looked for the source of Discord's issues.

"The alignment between dimensions has shifted... but they still should be close enough to form a portal... barely," Celestia said. "That much I can still feel."

During their extended vacation, both sisters had recovered fully, but the nature of the universe they now occupied prevented them from accessing their full range of magic. They were mostly limited to holding their pony forms, magical levitation, simple spells and flight. It had been disturbing at first, but since the two were trying to refrain from using magic, in the end they had grown to enjoy the restriction. That however, meant they could not assist Discord in opening the portal back to Equestria. If he was having problems, they could be trapped.

"You had a portal open, and it did pierce the veil, where did it lead too?" Luna asked.

"I can get close... dimensionally speaking, but I can't reach Equestria itself. I've tried everything I can think of," Discord said.

"Breaking through the barrier between dimension is the hardest part of the spell, how is it that you can handle that but not aligning it with our home universe?" Celestia asked.

"The alignment isn't the only issue. There is... there is a time differential between the dimensions as well," he admitted as he took a seat on a chair that he materialized out of nowhere.

"What!?" Luna asked as she started to tap her forehooves nervously. "If time flows differently in Equestria we could be late. Very late. This is serious."

"What is the differential?" Celestia asked, maintaining her clam.

"Faster... or slower... I can't tell, it might not even be consistent," Discord said.

"That would make opening the portal more difficult, but it shouldn't be impossibly so," Celestia said. "Unless you were having trouble summoning the energy to overcome the temporal gradient and the dimensional shift at the same time, but I know you should have the power to do so."

Discord winced, then quickly tried to hide the fact by looking away. This time even Luna noticed.

"You said you have come to this dimension before, many times in fact. That captain seemed to know you quite well, if by a different name. What hath changed?" Luna asked.

"Never directly from Equestria before, but yes, I've been here before," Discord said as he slumped in his chair. He snapped his fingers and a marble chess set appeared in front of him. The pieces began to move around the board, playing out a game. He watched for a few moments and then shuddered.

"I tried to plan this out, but in the end, it's just not my thing. I've never really cared for this, too many rules and too orderly," he said, looking at the chess set. "It's more Celestia's game."

"Discord, you are not acting like yourself. If something is wrong tell us, we may be able to help," Celestia said, gently placing a hoof on Discord's shoulder.

Discord slumped even farther down and let out a sigh.

"I have been maintaining a spell on an individual in Equestria," he said.

Both sisters stared for a moment before Luna spoke up.

"That would take an enormous amount of magic," she said. "You are not originally from Equestria so maintaining an active connection to that dimension for this entire time... if you were mortal you'd have killed yourself."

"Who, and what was the spell for?" Celestia asked.

"It was a translation spell, more or less, and it was for a human."

"There is a human in Equestria? How in Tartarus did a human get into Equestria?" Luna asked.

"Discord, if that human is anything like the humans from this universe, Equestrian magic would quickly poison them," Celestia said with concern.

"The translation spell had some additional properties, it didn't straight up protect the human, but it reduced the effects," Discord said glumly. "Or it did, it was terminated not too long ago."

"The human will die!" Luna shouted. Discord merely laughed.

"I don't think so. It was Twilight who severed my connection, though I do not think it was on purpose. I could tell that mare's magic even from here. That human isn't human anymore. She found some way to transform him. He's probably learning to walk on hooves now," Discord said with a smile. Despite the seriousness of the situation, the thought of a human bumbling about on all fours sent him giggling.

"Why did you send a human to Equestria?" Celestia asked, her expression turning serious.

"If there's one thing that's surprisingly consistent across the dimensions, it's that humans are... special. More often than not, they lack any sort of magical abilities, yet even in the dimensions that this is true, they still tend to thrive, against all odds. They are curious, adaptable, unpredictable... chaotic. They overcome their own limitations through an almost innate ability to master technology. Look at the humans in this universe. Not a single drop of magic, but they travel the stars," Discord said.

"They are a curious and interesting species, but that hardly answers the question," Luna said.

"There is one other skill that seems almost innate to humanity," Discord said grimly. "One other area that they seem excel at."

"What is that?" Luna asked.

"War."

Neither Celestia nor Luna spoke up for several moments. Even Celestia's normally unreadable expression had changed to a look of shock. Finally, she opened her mouth.

"Why...?

Discord didn't even let her finish.

"I warned you that Chrysalis was not the only threat to Equestria. I felt something coming, something that you would not have been able to handle in your condition. Equestria's future is not clear to me, I could not determine the exact source of it but something happened in the not-too-distant future. A war, leading up to some event that was so chaotic it sent ripples back in time that I was able to feel. The only thing I could tell with any certainty was that a massive conflict, larger than any Equestria had seen before was coming, cumulating in a final event that involved my own powers, that of your own and destruction beyond belief."

"WHAT?! Why didn't you say anything!?" Luna demanded.

"If I had, would you have left?" Discord asked. "I knew something had to be done, but every action I took only made the ripple stronger. Our very presence seemed to agitate things, the only solution seemed to be to remove us from the game."

Discord turned back to the chess game and removed the kings and queens from the board. "I did what I could, I gave Equestria a fighting chance. The portal spell I cast as we left fragmented into thousands of shards. Each was designed to scour a multitude of dimensions and find something or someone that would tip the balance in Equestria's favor. When it latched onto a human, I was at first concerned something had gone wrong, but the more I think about it, the more I think it went right."

"Is this human some great warrior from another universe?" Luna asked.

"Perhaps, I am not sure, all I really know is that it pulled in a human and if my spell was woven correctly, it pulled in the right one."

"What do you mean, the right one?" Celestia asked.

"The spell was supposed to analyze any beings it could find and choose one that had a high probability of being able to help based on a number of criteria. Celestia, you of all ponies should know, a warrior isn't always the right tool for the job. Twilight certainly isn't one, but look what she's accomplished," Discord said.

"That is true," Celestia said. "Sometimes, the right pony in the wrong place can make make all the difference in the world."

"Or in this case, the right man," Discord said with a laugh.

"I still think this is grave news. The fate of our world lies in the hands of an unknown human with unknown abilities," Luna said. "How do you know this human will be able to do anything at all?"

"As I said, the future is hazy, even more so since we are separated from Equestria. I can only sense probable outcomes based on the strength of ripples and clouded visions of the future. Removing us from Equestria shifted the odds, favoring a positive outcome for ponykind, the great cataclysm we were involved with seems to have all but vanished, but war it seems, is still inevitable. All I can really say is ever since the human arrived, Equestria's odds have steadily improved."

"What are they now?" Celestia asked.

"A coin flip," Discord said, pulling a bit from thin air and tossing it into the air. "They aren't getting any better than that, but neither are they growing worse."

"We can't just sit here, what are our options?" Luna asked.

"I can't tell what would happen if we returned while the human was still there, too many variables. We may be able to help or we may make things worse. One thing is for sure though, I'm too drained to open a portal to Equestria, we'll have to wait till I recover." Discord said with a shrug.

"Unacceptable," Luna said loudly as she stamped a hoof down, kicking up some sand.

"There is one other option Discord," Celestia said. "You can open a portal to other dimensions, but not back to Equestria. We can't assist in this universe, but in another, where we had access to more magic, we could."

"That would be risky sister, not every universe has a path to Equestria. We may have to travel through several before we find one that does," Luna said.

"I could do it, but the number of dimensions I can reach right now is limited. And even I have not explored them all. The more we travel through though, the more energy I will have to use. Eventually we're going to get stuck somewhere for a very long time," Discord said.

"That's just a chance we will have to take. Luna is right, we can't just sit here," Celestia said.

"I can try to steer us towards a dimension where your magic will work better in, but we may have to make several jumps through a chain of universes. None of the ones I can reach directly right now will improve our situation at all," Discord said.

"Let us be off then," Luna said.

Discord stood up and snapped his fingers again. A portal opened, swirling and pulsing with magical energies.

"Ladies," he said. "After you."

Luna and Celestia stepped through and Discord followed. A moment later the portal vanished, leaving no trace of the three beings who had stood there just seconds ago.

Author's Note

Risa, for those not in the know, is a resort planet in Star Trek: TNG.

Well, that's the end of part one. It's been a long time getting there, way longer than I had originally planned and I've still got a lot of work to do on part 2.

I'll be making a blog post in a few days diving into some details of my plans. (no big spoilers or anything)

Anyway, if you're reading this and you've read through the rest of TRM, thanks a bunch. Double thanks for every reader who's given me feedback, favorited the story, or taken the time to give it a thumbs up. I hugely appreciate that. This has been my most successful story by a wide margin and I will endeavor to make the sequel even better.

Prologue

"Soon, my changeling army will break through. First, we take Canterlot. And then," Chrysalis said as she launched herself into the air "all of Equestria!"

"No."

Chrysalis turned back, towards the single voice of defiance.

"You won't." Celestia said, stepping forward.

"You may have made it impossible for Shining Armor to perform his spell, but now that you have so foolishly revealed your true self, I can protect my subjects from you!"

Celestia spread her great wings and rose into the air. Her horn began to glow, brighter and brighter till it rivaled the sun itself. A beam of pure solar energy erupted forth and lanced across the room on a direct path towards the changeling queen.

Chrysalis reacted faster than Celestia had expected, summoning her own considerable power into a counter attack. The beams slammed into each other, sparks flew as the two torrents of magic vied for supremacy. Chrysalis let out a grunt of pain as the strain of fighting Celestia's magic slowly took its toll. In a few seconds she would run out of magic and her spell would collapse entirely. Desperate for more power she dug down deep into herself, calling upon the great reserve of energy she had gained over the last month as she fed on Shining Armor. Chrysalis felt a surge of power course through her veins and dumped all of that extra magic into her attack.

Celestia winced as the pain of her greatest secret climbed higher and higher until it was nearly unbearable. She watched in horror as her own spell was pushed back, inching closer and closer until the sickly green magic was about to overtake her own. Ignoring the agony in her horn, she drew upon her nearly limitless reserves, pouring more and more magic into her spell.

Celestia could feel Chrysalis's magic brush up against the tip of her horn, but her renewed effort was working. Even as the changeling used up more and more of her stolen power, Celestia was able to match and then exceed her and the progress Chrysalis had been making began to reverse. Her heart leapt forward, she was turning the tide, she was going to win.

Seconds later a massive wave of pain shot through her horn, there was a sickening crack and before Celestia could cut off the flood of magic she was channeling, her horn exploded. Shards of bone flew out in all directions, embedding themselves in anything or anypony unlucky enough to be caught in their path. She felt the sun, her eternal charge slip from her grasp and fly off into the depths of space as the magical tether she had maintained for eons came unraveled.

With nothing to stop Chrysalis's attack it slammed into her skull. She was thrown into the ground with such force that she cracked the stone tile. Celestia skidded until she impacted with the wall on the far side of the room. The last thing she heard was her crown clattering to the ground.

~~~~

Celestia's senses slowly came back into focus, as the waking dream faded away. She could hear something, a loud wailing sound, it was distant but growing closer. As her brain once again began to process reality she realized the screaming she could hear was her own. Since no guards had come running in, she assumed the noise suppression spell she had setup had kicked in automatically as it was meant to do.

Her mind quickly processed what had just happened and she turned to the glass of water on the desk in front of her. She raised it to her trembling mouth and drank greedily trying to bring her agitated body under control. The throbbing pain in her horn was a welcome reminder that the events of the past few moments had not actually occurred.

The growing number of nightmares had already lead to more than one awkward situation and she was running out of excuses. Her coat was heavy with sweat and her heart was beating so fast it felt as if it was about to explode out of her rib cage. Her chest rose and fell in unsteady heaves as she struggled to get her ragged breathing under control and bring her heart rate down.

Before Celestia could completely compose herself, the door to her study burst open. She didn't even have to look up, only one pony in all of Equestria would dare make an entrance like that.

"Hello Luna," Celestia said, hoping that her sister didn't catch the slight shake in her voice.

"Do not hello Luna me sister!" the small blue alicorn shouted. "And do not think that mask you so hastily donned can prevent me from reading you like an open book. This is the tenth nightmare this month."

Celestia chose to keep her eyes pointed down at the book in front of her. There was no way she could look her sister in the eye as she readied what she hoped was not an obvious lie.

"I don't know what you're talking about Luna," she said, as she pretended to scan though the lines of tax code. "I'll admit that our tax codes could use some revisions, but they are hardly a nightmare."

"That is not what I am talking about sister. You were dreaming and this is not the first time. I have counted ten nightmares this month and each one has been darker than the last," Luna said.

"Luna, I don't sleep. You know that." Celestia said, gently flipping a page.

"LOOK AT ME WHEN I AM TALKING TO YOU!" Luna shouted out, the walls of the room shaking under the full force of her voice.

Celestia tilted her head up slowly, readying a false smile and some flowery words as she prepared to disarm Luna's temper. It would have been so easy, she had done it many times over the millennia. In fact, like most skills, Celestia had nearly perfected the art of calming down her short tempered sister. In all her long life she had only failed once.

Once.

Her eyes made contact with her sister, still trapped in the young body she had worn since the Elements had cleansed the Nightmare away. Luna looked as she did in her youth, before their true power had manifested itself. Her coat was lighter, her form smaller. A mane of light blue hair stood where a vast field of stars once flowed in an aura of magic so powerful its owner could move whole galaxies, rearranging the night sky as she saw fit.

Luna was a perfect reminder of their own innocent youth. Before they rose up to positions of power, before the many mistakes that they had made as they stumbled through their new roles in pony society.

It was the final straw. The lie had persisted too long and Celestia could no longer maintain it. Her mask shattered and the calming words she had prepared died in her throat, replaced with an unstoppable sob.

Luna, for her all her bluster, had not expected that reaction. Celestia had always been an unshakable pillar of strength. Even in their worst moments, the elder sister had always been a master at hiding her own feelings. If it weren't for the powerful bond the two ponies shared, she was sure Celestia would be as unreadable to her as she was to all other ponies. Luna rushed over to Celestia, wrapping her small wings around the much larger alicorn.

"I am sorry, I am so sorry, I did not mean to yell," Luna said, stretching up to brush her nose against Celestia's neck.

"I can't..." Celestia choked out between sobs. "I... can't do this anymore Lulu."

"Cannot do what Tia?" Luna asked softly.

"There... there's something you need to know..." Celestia said, forcing the flow of tears to stop as best she could.

Celestia bent her long neck down so Luna could get a good look at her horn.

Luna scrunched her nose in confusion. "What am I looking at?"

There was a gentle golden glow as Celestia dispelled the magical disguise that she had been keeping up for over a thousand years.

Luna let out a gasp as she watched as the gentle unbroken spiral that ran from the base of Celestia' horn to the tip fade away. The surface of Celestia's horn was pitted and fractured in multiple locations. A jagged crack surrounded by black scorch marks ran half way up the horn. The crack was deep enough that the living core of the horn was exposed.

"By the stars Tia, what happened!?" Luna asked, she was mortified, an injury this severe could only happen by channeling far too much magic. Given how much power flowed through Celestia's horn just to keep the heavens in order, Luna struggled to think of what kind of spell her sister must tried to cast to cause such a grievous wound.

"Surely this was not from your battle with Chrysalis?" Luna asked, still staring in disbelief at the sight before her.

Celestia winced at the mention of the changeling queen's name. "No Luna, this wound is much older than that." Celestia said with a sigh. "This is the price I paid for wielding the Elements on my own."

"But sister," Luna said with a gasp. "That was a millennia ago."

"I know," Celestia said, tears streaming down her face.

"How... how could you live like this?" Luna asked. But she already knew the answer to that. Celestia lived with it because she had no other choice, the two sisters were beyond the reach of death. True immortals inhabiting mortal shells, the only two known to exist. Divine beings bound to bodies of flesh and blood; while their bodies were amazingly durable they were still susceptible to damage. Like their mortal kin, their bodies healed best with rest and time. If Celestia continued to use her injured horn, say, by holding the solar system in place, the cracks would never heal. The realization hit her like a ton of bricks.

"My confrontation with you took more out of me than you knew Luna. The first cracks had already started to form before our battle drew to a close," Celestia said sadly.

"I do not remember suffering such a thing," Luna said.

"You were always the stronger Luna. While I maintain most of the solar system, the entire night sky bends to your will. You moved whole galaxies of stars with ease. It was taking all I could muster just to keep you at bay, but I knew it wouldn't last. I turned to the Elements of Harmony in desperation, knowing full well that they would not work, could not work for a single individual. But I forced them to and paid the penalty. My already weakened horn nearly shattered under the strain."

"And then you were just as trapped as I was. If you withdrew your grip on the sun to allow your body time to heal the planet would freeze as the star flew off into the depths of space," Luna said.

"Yes, for the same reason I cannot sleep until your power fully returns, I also cannot turn off the flow of magic though my horn," Celestia said, hanging her head.

"The pain, Tia, it must be unending," Luna said her eyes misting over. "I am so sorry sister, this is all my fault."

A large white wing descended and wiped the tears from Luna's eyes.

"No Lulu, I saw the signs of you slipping away from Harmony and in my hubris I made no attempt to reach out to you before it was too late. I too share blame in this. And I would endure this pain gladly for the rest of time if it meant I would never lose you again," Celestia said, hugging her sister tightly.

"I love you Tia," Luna said, struggling to hold back tears.

"And I you."

For several minutes the two sisters held each other and no more words were spoken. The tension in the room began to drop but Luna knew it would not be completely resolved without more words. Grudgingly she broke the silence.

"I do not understand then, what has changed? I may still lack the ability to assist with the heavens but I've been able to do my dream duties since my return and I did not sense any of these nightmare of yours until recently. And how are you dreaming if you do not sleep? And while I can sense your dreams I have not been able to enter them."

"It is a side effect of the spell I use to hold back my body's need for sleep. Nopony, not even us, are meant to go without rest for so long. Eventually dreams started slipping through, a way, I suspect, for my brain to deal with the lack of sleep. It is a waking dream that I slip into, losing contact with my outside senses even though I remain awake. They were infrequent in the beginning, I don't think the first one showed up until nearly 300 years after your banishment, but they've grown in both number and frequency in the last 50 years. I fear the spell may soon fail entirely and I will be forced to rest. As for the dreams themselves, you could not enter them because I was blocking you."

"Tia, I could have helped with the nightmares. It is the one thing I still can do in this useless body," Luna said, glaring down at her immature form.

"I did not want you to worry, we both know it will take time for you to regain the rest of your power and nothing we can do will speed that up," Celestia said.

"I know," Luna said with a pout, "but I still do not understand. If you had been having these nightmares for so long I would have sensed them when I returned. A happy or neutral dream I might overlook since I was not searching for them but a nightmare, they shine out like a beacon to me and they did not start till after... after Cadance's wedding," Luna said, slowly as she put the pieces together.

"It was Chrysalis's attack, was it not?" Luna asked.

Celestia's ears flattened against her head and she looked down at the floor.

"I couldn't stop her Lulu. Equestria had 1000 years of peace because there was no one left who could challenge me and the world knew it. But they didn't know that nearly every ounce of magic I could muster in my injured state was tied up holding the sun in orbit around the planet. I got by on reputation alone and it worked until that wretch of a queen called my bluff, even if she did so unknowingly. Had I not been in my current state I could have squashed her like the bug she is but when I fought back I was forced to use more magic than I had in centuries. The pain grew out of control, it was beyond words, beyond any ability to bear. I stumbled and she nearly took the kingdom."

Celestia sighed and pushed herself deeper into Luna's hug.

"The nightmares came soon after. Sometimes I am just forced to relive the events of that day, other times my horn shatters when I push through the pain. In one I pushed too far and broke the seal..."

Luna shuddered involuntarily. The price to take mortal form had been to seal away the infinite power of the gods. Access to such magic would have instantly destroyed even their enhanced mortal bodies. The seal that held that power in check existed outside the physical universe. It was normally untouchable, even beyond the reach of any form of Equestrian magic. But the sisters created the seals and could break them with enough effort. The results, if not done in a controlled and deliberate manner, would be catastrophic. Not just for Equestria, but for the planet.

"Finally, a bit of honesty between the two of you," a familiar voice stated as Discord appeared in front of the two ponies.

"Discord!" Luna hissed in annoyance. "We are having a private conversation, remove your foul presence at once."

Discord ignored the smaller alicorn and instead turned his gaze upon Celestia.

"I was wondering when you'd get around to telling her," he said. Celestia found the serious expression he wore on his face unnerving, it clashed with his normally flippant demeanor.

"You knew?" Celestia asked, trying to cover the shock in her voice.

"I had my suspicions that something was up when you summoned purple whats-her-face and her friends to deal with me. Shunting the fate of Equestria on other ponies? That was nothing like the Celestia I remembered. They were confirmed when I took the Elements, your "powerful protection spell" fell apart like a wet paper bag. I remember when your spells actually gave me trouble."

Discord snapped his claws and a small pink book appeared floating in the air in front of him.

"I still haven't been able to break the one on your diary," he said with a laugh. Bulging muscles appeared on his arm as he strained to pry the book open. He huffed and puffed but the cover didn't budge an inch.

"Put that back!" Celestia shouted in annoyance, cheeks tinting red.

"Why are you here?" Luna asked, her patience for the chaos entity rapidly diminishing.

"I merely wanted to show my sympathy for a friend in pain, and perhaps suggest a solution."

"Tia needs rest, it is the only way she will be able to heal," Luna said flatly.

"Oh I know, I know. And she deserves it too, working for years without a single day off. What she could really use is a vacation," Discord said.

"Which you know full well that she cannot take until my powers have returned. You add nothing with your statements of the obvious!" Luna shouted.

"Please Lulu, I'm sure Discord meant no offense," Celestia said. She turned to Discord. "Perhaps you have a plan, a way that I can take some much needed time off to heal?"

"He probably wishes you to turn control of the heavens over to him," Luna spat, glaring at the draconequus.

"You know my powers don't work that way. Your method of running Equestria requires far too much order. Unless you want the sun zipping across the sky at random intervals I can't help you," Discord said.

"Then you offer nothing!" Luna shouted. "Get out! My patience with you is at an end."

"Fine," Discord said before his face once again took on an unnatural seriousness. "But it would behoove your sister to get some rest. Chrysalis is not the only powerful threat to Equestria and next time Celestia might not be so lucky."

A massive pair of hedge shears appeared, floating in the air next to the draconequus. Out of nowhere, he pulled a sun bonnet and a pair of gloves. The bonnet went on first, followed by the gloves and then finally, he snagged the hedge shears out of the air.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some gardening to do."

"Wait!" Celestia said, but it was too late. Discord disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving the two alicorns to consider his warning.

"As much as I hate to admit it, he may be right," Celestia said. "There must be some way I can take some time off even if only to get a little rest."

"I do not trust him. He is the only being left with the power to challenge you."

Discord had been a major reason the two sisters had chosen to take mortal forms to begin with. A powerful entity from another dimension that just eked under the bar for true godhood, he represented one of the greatest threats to Harmony in existence. Because he was not quite divine, the Creator's laws prevented them from directly countering Discord until they shed their godly forms. But once they had, he could match them as long as they played a limited game. It wouldn't do to stop Discord and destroy the planet in the process. It took a divine gift, the Elements of Harmony, to give them the edge they needed.

"Chrysalis would not dare try again and the rest who might we either destroyed or trapped in Tartarus long ago," Luna said.

"That thinking is what got me in trouble to begin with and he is right, I do need a vacation," Celestia said with a sigh.

"But who can carry your load? You ca not just dump this on your student like your previous problems..."

"Maybe not just her... but... I have an idea." Celestia said.

Twilight waited patiently as the two guards opened the large set of ornate doors to the throne room. Behind her, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash stood in silence. Even Pinkie Pie, standing over to her left, was uncharacteristically quiet. Twilight had spent the whole train ride to Canterlot worrying about what possible reason Princess Celestia and Princess Luna would have to summon her and her friends. Royal summons had a disturbing track record of being used to inform Twilight about some new danger looming over Equestria. For not only Twilight but her friends as well to be called upon in the middle of the night did not bode well.

The grand doors swung open revealing a darkened room. Surprised, Twilight turned to the guard, "Where are Princess Celestia and Luna? We're supposed to be meeting with them."

"They should arrive shortly, please wait inside," the guard replied.

The group shuffled into the throne room and the doors closed behind them with a thud.

"Ow! Somepony just stepped on my hoof," Rainbow said.

"Sorry, can't see nuthin in here," Applejack replied.

"Twilight dear, why are the lights all out?" Rarity asked.

"Oh oh oh, maybe it's a surprise party!" Pinkie exclaimed, "Is it Princess Celestia's birthday?"

"Princess Celestia invited us here, why would she throw a surprise party for us on her birthday?" Applejack asked.

"I dunno, but it certainly would be surprising," Pinkie said.

"Oh, I hope not, I don't like being surprised," Fluttershy said quietly, ducking behind her mane.

"I don't think that's why we were summoned, as for why the lights are out it's because nopony is here," Twilight said.

"That's not true," said a familiar stallion's voice in the darkness followed by a yawn, "we're here."

"Shining Armor?" Twilight asked, "Is that you?" Unwilling to wait for a reply her horn flared to life and she turned on the throne room's lighting. Everypony blinked as bright white light filled the room.

"It is you, and Cadance too... what are you doing on Celestia's throne?"

Shining Armor and a gently snoring Princess Cadance were curled up on Celestia's large golden throne. Shining Armor poked Cadance with his hoof, she lifted her head, blinked her eyes a few times.

"Are they back yet?" she mumbled in a half whisper.

"Not yet honey, but Twilight is here, along with the rest of her friends."

Cadance sat up, struggled in vain to suppress a yawn and then rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

"Alright, what's going on here?" Twilight asked.

"We don't know Twily, we were both fast asleep when a messenger burst in with an urgent letter from Princess Luna. When I opened the letter a spell activated and teleported us here. The letter just said to wait in the throne room. That was at least two hours ago, we were both so tired that we fell back asleep, I woke up when I heard the door."

"You haven't seen Princess Celestia or Luna?" Twilight asked.

"No, we don't even know why we are here."

"That pretty much describes us as well; I'd just hit the hay when Twilight here came a knockin on mah door looking for me. She had a letter from the Princesses' saying we were needed in Canterlot immediately," Applejack said.

"That was almost midnight AJ, what were you still doing up, apple bucking in the dark?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Farm work doesn't end when the sun goes down Dash, I was going over the sales records with Big Mac."

"I think we need to get back on track, we were all summoned in the middle of the night, something big must be going on. Maybe Sombra is back? Or Discord has turned on us? Or it could be Chrysalis... what if it's all three of them! THEY MIGHT BE WORKING AS A TEAM!" Twilight said, getting louder as she grew more panicked over the possibilities.

"Oh Twilight, it's nothing like that."

Everypony turned around, and the room immediately went quiet. Standing behind the group stood Princess Celestia. Her royal torc was missing entirely and in its place was the gaudiest Hoofwaiian shirt Twilight had ever seen; in place of her crown a large straw hat sat upon her head. Next to her stood Princess Luna, she had a matching shirt, and was wearing a dark pair of sunglasses. Rarity took one look at the two alicorns and fainted while everypony else just stared in silence, unsure what to say.

"Buh? Bwa? Whuh?" Twilight lifted a hoof and pushed her jaw closed, "what is going on?"

Celestia smiled back at Twilight and set the two large suitcases that had been floating gently next to her down on the ground.

"We have called you here for some very important news," there was a pause and she continued, "Luna and I are going..." she paused for effect, "on vacation."

"What!?" Twilight said, her wings fluttering nervously.

"Vacation Twilight, we're taking time off, 1 year to be precise."

Twilight sat down hard and then repeated her statement, "what!?"

"We are taking a break Twilight, a break from ruling over Equestria, a break from maintaining the heavens, a break from everything. We called you here because we need your help," Celestia said.

A murmur went over the group of ponies as they tried to guess what Celestia meant.

"You can't take a break, certainly not for a year; it isn't just Equestria that needs you, what about the planet?" Twilight said loudly.

"Luna and I have discussed this at great length, this is no trivial matter, nor do we ask for your help lightly. If we do not get some much needed rest, we could cause more damage to all of Equus than any of the trials you have faced in the last two years."

"But... but... but."

"Twilight, I have not slept a single night in over a thousand years..." Celestia began, as she talked she let her the spell that held up the mask that she maintained every day fade away. Her gently flowing iridescent mane faded into a tangled, discolored, uneven mess. Her tail was split and knotted, her eyes were bloodshot and dark circles told the tale of a desperate need for sleep. "I need this. If I weren't immortal, I would have dropped dead from exhaustion centuries ago."

"Tia, show them," Luna said before turning to Twilight. "This goes beyond mere exhaustion. My sister is in desperate need for time to rest but also to heal. From a wound she has concealed from all of us."

Celestia sighed and let the disguise on her horn fade as the mask had moments ago.

A gasp went up among the crowd, Rarity who had just woken back up, looked at Celestia's horn, screamed, and then fainted again.

"By the Creator, what happened to you Auntie!?" Cadance said.

"She has carried this burden since my fall from Harmony," Luna said. "Injuries caused by going well beyond her body's limits when we clashed, compounded by forcing the Elements to work as they had never been intended to."

The group of ponies stood in muted silence, not quite grasping the full extent of Luna's explanation.

"Let me take some time to explain it," Celestia said. "But first why don't you wake up Rarity."

Applejack gently shook Rarity awake so she could hear Celestia's story.

"You know that a unicorn can injure their horn by trying to force too much magic though it. Well it is no different for us. Though our limits are far higher these physical bodies can fail. I pushed mine far beyond safe levels of magic when I fought Nightmare Moon 1000 years ago but even that was not enough. I knew if I didn't stop her the eternal night she sought would mean not only the death of Equestria but all of Equus."

"Luna, you said something about the Elements?" Twilight asked.

"The Elements of Harmony are fantastically powerful artifacts that were created to assist us in our fight against Discord. To contain a entity of pure chaos requires nothing less than the power of Harmony itself. The six Elements each represent an aspect of Harmony and they can only be used by ponies that carry those aspects within themselves. But they require something more than that, true friendship. For just as musical harmony is the combination of notes, working together to create something beautiful so the Elements require ponies working together in order to function," Luna said.

"Nightmare Moon was too strong, I knew I could not stop her, so I turned to the one thing that could. She had strayed far from Harmony so the Elements would work on her, but Luna and I had always used them together. I did not share a sufficiently strong enough friendship with anypony else that would allow me to wield them. I forced them to work without another. Such a thing is completely against the nature of the Elements, it took a phenomenal amount of magic and I was already suffering from an overuse. That final bust of magic nearly destroyed my physical body," Celestia said.

"My power was locked in the moon, sealed by the Elements. With me out of the picture, Celestia had to maintain the heavens alone," Luna said, dipping her eyes in shame.

"We've already been through this Luna, you are forgiven and I to shared in the blame," Celestia said, lifting her sister's chin up with her wing. "My horn will never heal until I am allowed to rest. I am at my limit tending to the sun and moon, it is why I was unable to fight Chrysalis. Had I expended the energy needed to beat her, I likely would have shattered my horn and doomed the planet."

"But can't Luna help out now that she's back?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Luna's current condition was not known by the public. Nopony remembered Princess Luna and so nopony knew that she still wore the body of her younger self, before she reached the age where her true power had been unlocked.

Luna bowed her head in embarrassment, "The Elements did more than free me from the Nightmare's grip. They wound the clock back, to give me a fresh start, erasing the stain of disharmony from my body. This," Luna said motioning to her body, "is how I appeared before I grew into my full power. While I have access to the dream world and can still cast nearly any spell that a unicorn could, I still lack the power to move any of the heavens."

"Luna was in affect de-aged by the Elements, if you scanned her body with a spell, it would read 24 years old instead of... Well instead of a much higher number, we'll leave it at that. We both unlocked our full powers around 25 years of age. That is why we are taking the year off. When we return, Luna will be able to resume her duties and we can rule not just over Equestria but the heavens as we were meant to, together."

"What about your horn?" Twilight asked.

"If I could relax my magic, my own wounds would heal in a few weeks," Celestia said.

"This whole thing... I had no idea Princess, why didn't you just ask for help?" Twilight asked.

"Twilight, I told nopony. Not even Luna knew until last night. As for help, well I have, and you gave it. Why do you think I set you up to deal with Nightmare Moon, with Discord and Sombra. I was too tired, too strained. I would have only made mistakes, or worse, injured myself more. Like I almost I did with Chrysalis, had I known she could must the power that she did, I would have never challenged her in my current state," Celestia replied.

Shining Armor spoke up, his tail twitching in confusion, "I don't understand though, even if you take a break from ruling Equestria, would you not still need to guide the sun and the moon?"

"That is why we have summoned you, we will need the help of everypony here for our plan to work. Twilight, Cadance and you, Shining Armor, will need to rule over Equestria in our place while we are gone."

"Me your highness? I can understand Cadance and Twilight, they're both princesses, but I'm just a unicorn."

"An alicorn you may not be, but with your time in the guard, you have more experience in leading ponies than Cadance and Twilight combined. They will both need your guidance, and do not dismiss your own position so quickly; you are married to Princess Cadance, and are brother to Princess Twilight, you are the most politically powerful unicorn alive," Celestia said.

"I never really thought about it like that before," Shining Armor said.

"Tis a good thing Shining Armor, it means you have not let that power run to your head, a lesser pony would have sought ways to use or abuse it the moment it became available," Luna said with a smile.

"That's all well and good, but you'd still have to manage the sun and the moon," Cadance said.

"Perhaps not," Celestia said with a twinkle in her eye. "And that is why you were summoned at such a late hour."

"You're going to teach us how to move the sun and moon?" Twilight perked up, "I didn't think we'd be strong enough."

"Directly no, if you attempted to channel the magic required to move either of our charges your horn would shatter into a million pieces, but we have another way," Luna said.

"Gather around my little ponies, we need to leave the castle," Celestia said.

One by one the everypony stepped forward. Celestia's horn began to glow, there was a great flash of light and the group vanished.

The ponies reappeared in a massive rocky chamber, before them was a gigantic blue gem, glowing with a faint light and larger than anything else any of them had seen before. The was a large crack running down its side and it was obvious that this was only a fragment of a much larger gem. Still, even broken as it was, Twilight could feel the power running through it.

"Where are we?" Fluttershy asked quietly.

"In a cave at the top of Canterlot Mountain, there is a tunnel system that will take you back to the castle directly," Celestia said.

"What happened to that gem? It is the most magnificent thing I have ever seen, however did it get damaged?" Rarity asked.

"It was shattered in a great war, long ago," Luna said.

"What kind of a villain would do something so horrid to such a thing of beauty?" Rarity said, aghast.

"Discord," Celestia said flatly.

"Is that?" Twilight started to say.

"Yes Twilight, it is what is left of the once great God Stone," Celestia said.

Millennia ago, long before Celestia and Luna took pony bodies, Equus was a chaotic world. It suffered from long winters and harsh summers that made life for ponies very difficult. Ponies of that day believed Equus to be the center of the universe, the poor seasons were blamed on the sun's distance from the planet which varied greatly depending on the season. To combat this, the unicorn tribe gathered their most powerful magicians to come up with a solution.

One was found in the God Stone. The largest and most pure gem ever discovered, it's ability to enhance and amplify unicorn magic was beyond compare. A unique spell was created, one that allowed the combined magic of the entire tribe to work together in harmony. That magic was then amplified by the God Stone, providing enough magic to alter the orbit of the sun. It didn't matter that before the tribe took over it was the planet that circled the sun and not the other way around. The God Stone allowed the unicorns to impose their will on the star. As long as they maintained the spell, through daily input of magic, it would circle Equus. But should the magic fail, the star would be lost, flung off into the depths of space.

"I thought it had been destroyed," Cadance said.

"What the heck is the God Stone?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"In the past, before Luna and I took over the duty of controlling the night and the day, the ancient unicorn tribe used this gem to amplify their magic, with it they could control the orbit of the sun," Celestia said.

"It was shattered by Discord somewhere during his long reign. For a long time the existence of the God Stone was hidden from him, but eventually he discovered it. He feared that the unicorns would find a spell that, when amplified by the stone, could contain him. After it was shattered, he took over the maintenance of the sun for the rest of his reign, but he obviously cared little for the orderly path the unicorns had set it upon. Once again Equus's seasons turned chaotic and they remained so until we stepped forward and defeated him. By then both the God Stone and the spell to control the sun had been lost, so we took over," Luna said, she turned to Cadance and continued, "the Crystal Heart that protects your empire was carved from a fragment of this gem."

"Will it still work?" Twilight asked.

"Not in the way it was originally used, which in truth is a good thing, the unicorn tribe would select the eight most powerful unicorns of the day to serve as a focal point for all of the tribe's magic. Those eight unicorns lived with the God Stone which eventually was moved here, to this mountain. Without their constant watch over the sun's course it would have strayed off of its unnatural path. Even with the magical boost provided by the God Stone, the strain was incredible. The average lifespan once a unicorn had been selected was ten years," Luna said.

"When Discord shattered the God Stone, it lost much of its power; even if we still had the same spell it would no longer be able to channel the magic of all the unicorns in Equestria as it once did, but the portion that remains intact is still the best focusing gem known to us and that is what we need it for," Celestia said.

Celestia stepped forward towards the gem and she placed a hoof on it, then turned back to the group of ponies before her.

"Each of you," she said looking at Twilight and her friends, "represent the best of ponykind. The Elements of Harmony chose you because of this. The God Stone, even broken as it is, can focus the power of your friendship in a way that the Elements cannot by themselves; with Twilight and Cadance guiding that power, you should be able to hold the sun and moon into a stable orbit around the planet. It will require periodic adjustments, which can be made here at this site, but for the most part it will be hoofs-off once the spell has been cast."

"Oh my gosh! Then you and Luna can take a break!" Pinkie said excitedly, "this calls for a party!"

"We were thinking a cruise," Celestia said with Luna nodding in agreement, "a one month trip out to Hoofolulu, a few months on the beach, a few more to explore the island and then one more for the return trip."

"So how exactly is this going to work?" Twilight asked.

Luna gave the group a detailed explanation on the workings of the spell, what they would require from everypony and then explained to Twilight and Cadance how to properly move the moon.

"Please do not attempt to move the stars, even when the God Stone was whole, it did not generate enough power to move the rest of the night sky, that is something only Celestia and I can do," Luna said, warning the young alicorn.

"How will we know where to position the sun and the moon?" Twilight asked.

"The moon knows her place, she requires only occasional adjustments. The sun's pull on her sometimes bring her out of alignment which can cause issues with the tides, among other things. The sun however, like all stars, has a hot temper, made worse by her close proximity compared the rest of her sisters. Celestia will show you how to reign her in before we depart."

The rest of the group had a few more questions, Celestia and Luna answered them to the best of their abilities, finally when everyone was satisfied, Celestia stepped forward.

"If everyone is ready, it is nearly dawn and we should begin. Twilight, you will find the Elements of Harmony in the trunk by the far wall.

Twilight trotted over and opened the trunk, she retrieved the Elements and passed them out one by one to her friends.

"When you are ready Twilight, provide the spark and then direct the magic of the Elements into the God Stone. Then you and Cadance should begin the spell that we showed you. The Elements will separate from the Bearers and then Luna and I will relinquish control of the sun and the moon to you," Celestia said.

Twilight's horn lit up with a bright glow, sparks of magic ignited on the tip and she began to rise in the air; one by one the Elements lit up and her friends floated up alongside her. The Elements of Harmony activated and a rainbow beam flew out from Twilight and struck the God Stone. The faint glow it had been emitting grew brighter and brighter until it became painful to look at. Cadance stepped forward and her own horn began to light up. Twilight concentrated on activating her portion of the spell. A brilliant glowing orb formed between the two ponies, connected to their horns by tendrils of magic. Luna and Celestia stepped forward, Luna touched her horn to Cadance's and Celestia to Twilight's and all four horns began to shine brightly.

The Elements of Harmony responded to the increase of magic and their glowing intensified. First Kindness, then Loyalty, Generosity, Honesty, Laughter and finally Magic detached from their owners and began to orbit the large gem.

Twilight could feel both the sun and through her shared connection with Cadance, the moon as well. She felt Celestia adjust the sun's position, and reached out to take it from her. Her magic touched the sun and she recoiled from the intense heat, it felt as if her horn was going to burst into flames, she cried out unable to take the pain. Celestia wrapped a wing around the young alicorn and delivered a burst of magic directly into Twilight's horn. The intense burning died down quickly, the heat was still there but it felt more distant.

Twilight analyzed what Celestia had done, saw her mistake and compensated. Celestia once again tried to pass the sun over to the young alicorns; this time Twilight reached out in a whole different way. The fire of the sun no longer burned her and she was able to take it from Celestia's grasp. It required a monumental amount of effort but she could make extremely minor adjustments to its path. She could feel Cadance helping her along, adding her own magic to Twilight's. When they focused their power together the strain of moving the sun went from nearly impossible to just difficult. Slowly they pushed it into orbit and it started to crest over the horizon.

For the first time in thousands of years, Celestia sat by and felt the sun rise without having directed its path. She wished that the God Stone was not buried so deep in the mountain, to see a sunrise crafted by the horn of another pony, it was a magical thought.

Next Luna took over, Celestia moved over to her sister's side, leaned up against her and whispered, "let my magic be yours my sister and show these ponies the proper way to end the night."

Luna felt strength flow into her through the bond that was unique to the two sisters and for the first time in what felt like forever, she took the moon gently into her grasp and lovingly moved it across the sky. This time Cadance and Twilight paid attention to how Luna handled the moon and when control was passed to them, they reached out in unison and gently finished lowering the moon, ending the night.

All four alicorns slowly backed away from the God Stone, each of them covered in sweat and panting from the effort of the spell.

"You did that every day for a thousand years?" Cadance asked, while swaying back and forth as she fought to stay standing. Shining Armor rushed over to her side and she slumped up against him. "By yourself?"

"Now you see why I need this vacation," Celestia said with a weak smile.

The Elements of Harmony continued to glow brightly and orbit the God Stone. Celestia showed Twilight and Cadance a spell to check on the status of the Elements and went over how to check how the God Stone was fairing.

"You and Cadance will need to come back here at least once a week to realign the orbits of the sun and the moon. After you make your adjustments, there are two more things you should check. First is how much power remains in the Elements of Harmony. Separated from the bearers they will eventually run dry and will need to be worn again to recharge them. However, by our calculations, they should easily last the entire time we are away. Still, make sure to check each time you visit the mountain. Of course should there be an emergency, you can send for us. If the strain proves too much for you, I should be able to resume control of the heavens in a few weeks time. The second thing you should look at is the state of the God Stone, it is damaged and running this much power through it will likely cause it to slowly degrade. Again, this shouldn't cause any problems in the time we will be gone, but keep an eye on it," Celestia said.

By now everypony was beginning to yawn, none of them except Celestia and Luna were used to being up all night.

"We are almost ready to depart, you can take this tunnel back, it leads straight to a hole in the mountain near the castle's western gate, there are no side tunnels so you can't get lost. When you need to come back up here, you can either teleport, or take the tunnel.

Celestia trotted back over to the trunk the Elements had been in, she opened it up and produced some scrolls.

"Shining, the spot you left vacant in the guard has yet to be filled, we would ask you to resume your duties as Captain while you are here in Canterlot. Please talk to Iron Fortress, he has been temporarily running things since you left. We have already made him aware of our plans and we've also left word with the High Council though neither know why we are taking this time off."

Celestia paused to levitate a small bag over from where the trunk with the Elements was sitting.

"These scrolls detail the transference of power. Our vacation is not meant to be a secret one, so you may inform the mayors and governors of the various cities and towns of Equestria at your leisure but please do not make my wounds public unless you feel it is necessary. One thing we ask of you is to not share our destination with anypony outside this room, we will be traveling in disguise and we want to rest and relax, not get swarmed," Celestia said as she passed out the scrolls to Twilight and Cadance.

"Are there any final questions?" Luna asked as she looked out over the group.

"I have one," a voice called out from four different directions at once, "did you completely forget about me or did my invitation get lost in the mail?"

The trunk that had held the Elements, stood up, bent over double, and flung itself open. Then it proceeded to vomit out a large wad of pink cotton candy onto a round stone slab that hadn't been there before. The trunk then stood up, let out a burp, excused itself and wandered off. Meanwhile the stone began to spin round and round and slowly the cotton candy started to rise like clay on a potter's wheel. It began to take shape until it morphed into a familiar form and Discord stepped off the spinning disk.

He wobbled back and forth for a second, clearly dizzy, his eyes still spinning in their sockets. He removed his head, gave it a shake and placed it back on his neck.

"Discord, what are you doing here?" Luna asked in annoyance.

"Why I've come to join in on the vacation. We immortals have to stick together," he said, grabbing Luna and pulling her towards him, "besides it's been ages since I've had a break myself."

Twilight raised her hoof to her forehead and muttered something under her breath.

"What was that my dear? I didn't quite catch what you said," Discord said as Twilight's words took physical form and flew across the room towards the draconequus who was now dressed to play baseball. He jumped up in the air trying to catch the flying letters in a large mitt, but he missed and they shattered on the floor.

"I said, a break from what, you don't do anything!" Twilight said louder.

"Me? Not do anything? Why Twilight, I'm hurt. I'll have you know that it isn't easy spreading chaos across Equestria, especially now that I must take such care as to not allow that chaos to harm anypony."

"ENOUGH, DISCORD YOUR PRESENCE IS UNWANTED, BEGONE!" The room shook slightly as Luna used the full Royal Canterlot Voice, Discord spun around at the sound of his name.

"Now this one knows how to enunciate," Discord said, popping across the room and patting Luna on the back. "Perhaps, Twilight, you should take lessons from her."

Celestia stepped forward and looked Discord right in the eye and placed a wing gently on his shoulder.

"Discord, please. I need this. Luna needs this. I appreciate that you helped set us on this path, but we want nothing more than to take a peaceful cruise out to Hoofolulu, would you really be satisfied laying in the sun all day?"

Discord looked back at her and opened his mouth. Then he paused, closed his mouth and scratched his forehead. He opened his mouth one more time and held up a claw. A moment passed and he lowered his arm and closed his mouth again.

"You're right, that does sound incredibly dull," he said looking glum.

"Well then, why don't you stay here, and we'll be on our way."

Suddenly Discord brightened up as he got an idea. Then he yanked on a pull chain sticking out of his ear and his head stopped glowing.

"But I know of a way to make it more exciting," he said with a snap of his fingers. "You don't want to waste your time in some 2 bit tourist trap, why settle when we could visit strange and exotic places."

"Discord," Celestia said with a sigh, "we don't want an exotic vacation, we just want to relax."

"We must hurry sister, the cruise ship leaves port very soon," Luna said.

"So focused on a ship, ship this, ship that, well if it's a ship you want let's at least hit up a good one," Discord snapped his fingers again and a red and black suit appeared over him. A second later a large oval shaped green portal opened up right next to the God Stone. He grabbed a hold of Celestia and Luna and jumped through the portal, pulling the two alicorns with him. As Discord crossed through the portal, he bumped the edge and it slowly started to tip over sideways.

Discord shouting, "Bonjour mon capitaine, how good it is to see you again!" was the last thing Twilight and the rest of her friends heard before the portal fell over completely, landing on the God Stone. The moment the portal brushed up against the side of the gem, there was a loud fizzing noise, followed by a pop as the portal exploded, shattering into hundreds of glowing shards. The shards flew out at high speed in all directions, twirling and corkscrewing in random directions, one passed in front of Twilight, curious she trapped it in a magical field and began to examine it.

A few moments later when she realized what she was holding, Twilight let out a gasp. It wasn't just remnant magic from whatever portal spell Discord had cast, this shard was a fully functional, if tiny, gateway to... somewhere. The contact with the gem, or perhaps it was merely caused by Discord's peculiar brand of magic, seemed to have caused severe instabilities in the gateway. Its quantum resonance was in constant state of flux which, if Twilight remembered correctly, meant that the other end of the portal was rapidly shifting, the other end could be anywhere on Equus or even in another dimension. She grabbed three more shards, inspected them and found the same thing each time.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a yelp coming from Fluttershy, Twilight looked up just in time to see a shard soar over her friend's head and smash into the cavern wall where it exploded into a cloud of confetti. She was so surprised she dropped the spell holding her shards in place. Free of the confines of Twilight's spell they flew off across the room. The air was starting to get thick with confetti as the illogical movements of the shards caused more of them to come into contact with the walls of the room and explode.

"These are active gateways, don't let them touch you, or you may be pulled through," Twilight shouted out, warning her friends.

Shining Armor threw up a shield around himself and Cadance; he left a section of the shield at the bottom open so more ponies could take refuge from the shards.

"Quickly, girls, get under here." he called out.

The rest of the ponies moved to get under his shield, shards bounced off the top of it, picking up speed whenever they did. One by one Twilight and her friends took cover under Shining Armor's shield. The only pony still out in the open was Rainbow Dash who had been on the far side of the room. Rainbow was making her way towards safety when Twilight spotted a shard heading directly towards the colorful pegasus.

"Rainbow look out, behind you!" Twilight shouted.

Just as the shard was just about to collide with Rainbow an unusual thing happened, scant inches from Rainbow's back it began to expand in size until it was large enough for Dash to fit through with ease. Fortunately as the shard expanded in size, it slowed down. Rainbow turned, saw the approaching portal and with a burst of speed only she could have managed dodged out of the way at the last possible second, only for the now full sized gateway to collide with the ground poofing into a giant pile of confetti.

Rainbow managed fly under Shining Armor's shield with no more close calls, he sealed up the shield and everypony stood still, watching in awe as one by one the remaining shards broke apart against the cavern walls. When the confetti finally settled down, everypony looked around the room in complete and utter shock.

"Is everypony OK?" Cadance asked.

The rest of the ponies nodded.

"What just happened?" Applejack asked.

"I think Discord just foalnapped the Princesses," Twilight said in a panic. "I don't know where he took them, this is bad, this is really bad."

"I don't think he foalnapped them, I think he was just trying to spice up their vacation," Pinkie said. "It sounds like he just took them somewhere else."

"Well what are we going to do about it?" Rainbow asked.

"I don't know if there is anything we can do," Twilight said, "I only had a few seconds to analyze those shards. They were gateways, similar in nature to the mirror portal that took me to that other world. What I couldn't determine is where they exited, it could have been here in Equestria, somewhere else on the planet or even another dimension. They were very unstable, but I'm not sure if that is because Discord's original gateway broke apart or because it was Discord who cast the spell. If I had more time to analyze one I might have been able to figure it out."

"Uh Twilight," Fluttershy whispered softly.

"Yes Fluttershy?"

"Why did that shard grow when it almost hit Rainbow?" Fluttershy asked.

"My best guess is that it was re-sizing itself so Rainbow could fit through," Twilight said.

"But I was too fast for it!" Rainbow said, pumping her hoof up and down in the air.

"So each of those tiny shards could have opened up into full sized portals?" Applejack asked.

"Well if they hadn't all turned to confetti, possibly."

Rainbow Dash scratched at her chin for a moment, then her eyes lit up.

"Twilight! I can't be sure but when those portal shards were bouncing around all over the place, I may have seen one fly down that tunnel," she said pointing at the tunnel Celestia had said would take them back to the castle.

The whole group turned and charged down the tunnel following it for twenty minutes until they came out exactly where Celestia had said they would.

"Darn, I was hoping to analyze one more of those shards, it might have helped me track down Discord."

Rainbow scratched her head with a hoof, looking confused.

"The more I think about it the more I am sure I saw one fly down that way," she asked.

"Maybe it hit the wall and broke apart like the rest of the shards," Rarity said.

"Nope!" Pinkie said bouncing up and down.

"How do you know?" Twilight asked.

"We didn't find any confetti along the tunnel, I know cause I was looking for it, I'm gonna go back and pick up the rest of it, there's enough of it there to keep my party cannon loaded for a month!"

"Well, maybe you were mistaken Rainbow" Shining said.

"I don't think so, but where could it have gone?"

High up in the sky, a single shard flew through the air, heading in a vaguely southern direction. It was already miles away and the distance only grew as it began to accelerate.

Chapter 7

"He's not cute," I whispered loudly to Golden Dawn, pointing at the dog-like creature in a very obvious manner. Then I waved at the two mean looking ponies. "Neither are they."

Golden Dawn let out a giggle, but Blue Skies kicked me in the shin, "shut up!" she said, glaring at me.

Fortunately, whatever the thing was, it was too busy heading over to the bar to notice me. When it got there, it let out a growl to get the barkeeper's attention then gruffly placed an order in a deep raspy voice.

"That's a diamond dog," Golden Dawn said. "They live underground in large caverns, do a lot of mining. Not the friendliest bunch, though none of the ones I've met have been nearly as mean as their reputations have made them out to be."

I watched as the diamond dog shouted at the pony to the left of him, a moment later the pony cleared away from the bar, making room for the dog's friend. This was the first time I had seen anything remotely close to violence since I had arrived in town. Up until then my observations of of pony society had been shown me something practically idyllic, but when you've only had a limited glimpse into a new world, it makes sense that your perceptions won't match reality. After all, the town did have a sheriff, it made sense that there were lawbreakers and malcontents.

"Then again, some match their reputation perfectly," Golden said.

I eventually lost interest in watching the jerk and his rather rowdy friends and turned my attention back to the table. For the next hour or so, our conversation drifted to the ongoing job search. I voiced my frustration over the lack of progress and explained that this was not the first time it had happened to me.

“I can’t even do something simple like manual labor, because all the available work is scaled for ponies. I just don’t have the strength to compete. Nevermind the jobs that require flight or magic,” I said with a sigh.

“I know you said no before, but if you just let me loan you the bits, you could buy a train ticket and be on your way to Canterlot on the next train out of here,” Golden Dawn said.

"”Ugh, I know. If I can’t find something in the next few days, I might have to take you up on your offer. I just hate the idea of it, I’m already leaching off of you. What I really need is something that pays a lot of money for a very short amount of work," I said, after taking another drink.

"Don't we all?" Blue Skies added with a laugh.

Short term, my chances at finding something to do were looking fairly slim. If I didn’t care about speed, I could pick up a service job at a store. Heck if it was really long term I could probably try to work for Golden Dawn or in another machine shop. Once I got the hang of pony style equipment, it wasn’t so different than what I had been doing Rick’s shop. Helping Golden Dawn fix the trailer made me realize how out of practice I was, but I was sure I could pick things up fairly quickly if I had to.

It was getting kind of late, the saloon was almost completely empty. The groups that remained were me, Golden and Blue Skies, the dog and his friends, and a mysterious looking pale cream colored unicorn wearing a duster and large hat who was sitting off in the far corner of the bar. Finally, after much complaining I agreed that I would go out one more time the next day before giving up and borrowing the money from Golden Dawn. She was about to go settle our bill when I heard a loud series of footsteps behind me and then a large paw landed heavily on my shoulder.

"What isss this thing?" the diamond dog asked while spinning me part way around. Even over the heavy smell of alcohol, I could smell its rancid breath. I came very close to throwing up, it was just that bad.

I, with some difficulty, removed the paw from my shoulder before responding.

"Not a thing, a human." I mumbled.

"Never heard of a human before. Why all the fancy clothes, you too good for this place?"

The two ponies that had come in with the diamond dog started chuckling.

I looked down at myself, I was wearing cargo pants and a long sleeve t-shirt, hardly what I would consider fancy, but given that most ponies, and if he was any indication, diamond dogs, went either naked or with minimal clothing, I guess it didn't take much to consider something fancy dress.

"Humans wear clothing all the time," I said with a shrug. "Now if you'll excuse me, my friends and I were just about to leave." I stood up out of my chair slowly, hoping the dog would be satisfied and walk away.

"Friendssss? Yes, pony friendsss. What does scrawny thing like you need with two hot maresssss." he said, he gave Golden Dawn and Blue Skies a slow and lecherous once over with his eyes.

I almost burst out laughing at that. Did he think Golden Dawn and Blue Skies were my dates?

"You don't need two ponies, maybe one come sit with us." the dog said, reaching a paw over at Golden Dawn.

Golden was not about to take any of that and she kicked his paw away, the dog let out a yelp and pulled his arm back.

"Youu'll regret that pony!" the dog shouted drunkenly while standing up to his full height. This close to him I could tell that he had at least four inches on me as well as at least a hundred pounds. More importantly, that weight looked to be in muscle where as more of mine than I cared to admit was comprised of late night pizza binges, a deep love of barbecue and all you can eat wings specials.

I stepped forward, placing myself between him and Golden Dawn who was twitching nervously. With a push that I was sure could move my truck, the dog shoved me back down into my chair. I stood up again but as I did he punched me in the stomach, knocking the air out of me. I had never gotten into a real fight before and the amount of pain was completely unexpected. Golden Dawn yelled something at the dog and Blue Skies stood up as well. Still gasping for breath, I stumbled forward and joined my two friends, my brain tried to tell me that Golden Dawn and Blue Skies were far stronger than I was but the alcohol in me shouted something incoherent about girls and fighting and what I, as a man, was supposed to do. In retrospect, I should have listened to my brain, it was far more sensible.

The diamond dog looked down at all of us, you could see the gears in his head cranking and sputtering as he tried to process if three was bigger than one. It took him a minute but eventually he reached the conclusion that he was now outnumbered. A situation that did not last long as the two ponies who had come in with him decided now was a good time to back up their friend. They stood up from their seats at the bar and started advancing towards us slowly. My brain, which was starting to win the fight against the alcohol fueled courage, immediately insisted that it did not like where the situation was headed.

While the numbers were even, the species were not, ponies seriously outmatched me in the strength department and judging from what I’d seen of him so far, diamond dogs did too. I tried to look on the bright side, both of his friends were earth ponies, which meant they couldn't simply hit me from across the room with magic, but at the same time, I remembered Dusty explaining how they had even higher levels of strength and endurance than other ponies.

The barkeeper shouted at the dog to pay his bill and get out but the lumbering moron wasn't listening, instead he turned his head downward, giving me a nasty glare.

"Hey mutt, I think you were asked to leave," a voice from behind us said. I turned to the back corner of the bar where the pony in the duster was standing up.

"What you call me pony?" the dog barked.

"You heard me mutt, go on, get out of here." the pony said.

The dog, easily distracted, immediately forgot about us and turned towards this new pony. He took about two steps before the ponies horn lit up. I could see his duster moving around as if the pony was rummaging for something. A hint of worry flashed in the pony’s green eyes as he continued to dig around under his duster. They lit up in as he found whatever it was he was looking for, just as the dog was about to enter punching range. A small trinket floated out from under the duster, the green glow on the pony’s horn brightened slightly, and the thing, whatever it was, began to glow with a green light.

Suddenly every other pony in the room winced, I saw Golden Dawn's wings fly up and cover her ears. Whatever effect the trinket was having on the ponies, it was far worse on the dog. His collapsed to the ground and began to rolling back and forth, letting out an almost pitiful whining sound. He desperately tried to cover his ears with his paws, but judging from his continued wailing, it wasn't helping much.

The objects glow faded quickly, at which point every pony seemed to relax. The dog's recovery was taking a little longer, so his two friends walked over and picked him up off the floor. He looked up and let out a growl at the pony.

"Ah ah ahhh." the pony said with a big smile as he twirled the device around in his magic. His chestnut tail flicked back and forth, as if daring the diamond dog to make another move.

The dog watched as the trinket spun around in the air. He started to swear up a storm, but he knew he was beat. He turned around, pushed his friends out of the way, threw some money at the barkeeper and stormed out. Seeing their numbers dwindle, the two burly earth ponies gave us one last glare and ran after their friend.

Golden Dawn asked if I was alright and I gave her a look of confusion.

"He punched you, in the stomach. Remember?"

"Oh yeah, no I'm fine." I said. It had hurt at first, quite a bit, but the combination of adrenaline and alcohol had dulled most of the pain away.

She walked over to the barkeep to settle the bill while I sat down at the table with Blue Skies.

"You didn't have to get back up," she said looking at me.

"And let you face the thing alone? I’d rather stand with my friends," I said, seriously.

"She's right you know, that dog could have broken a skinny little thing like you in two."

The pony from the corner had wandered over to our table.

"I said it seemed like the right thing to do, not the smart thing." I said with a bit of a smile. "Thanks for the intervention, name's Hal Storm, pleased to meet you."

I stuck out my hand, the pony reached up and shook it, "Kitchen Sink," he said. He took off the duster, exposing a set of very over stuffed saddle bags which more or less matched his cutie mark, a small crossbow and a very sharp looking sword. How all of that fit under the duster without being noticeable, I had no idea. He opened one of the flaps and a number of small items spilled out. Each was caught in the amber glow of his magic and he proceeded to stuff them and the device he had used to disable the dog back into the bag.

"What was that thing?" I asked, curiously.

"Non lethal magical deterrent, specifically designed to be most effective on diamond dogs," Kitchen Sink said as he struggled to close up the flap on his bag. "It lets out a very high pitched sound that's very hard on their ears. Ponies can hear it too but not as well."

"And you just happened to have it on you?" Golden Dawn asked, as she rejoined us at the table.

"You'll never know when you might need it, I like to be prepared," Kitchen Sink said as he finally got the buckle buckled.

"I can see that, " I said. "I'm guessing that also explains the crossbow and sword? First time I've seen anyone carrying weapons since I got here." I said

"It's not as common in the bigger cities, but you'd be surprised how many ponies own and carry weapons out on the frontier, especially when they are traveling outside of towns. Having to actually use what they're carrying though, that's pretty rare. More often than not, it's easier to just get away." Golden Dawn said as she got back to the table.

"The way I see it, a pony is always armed, they are born with their first weapons, hoof, wing and horn." Kitchen Sink said.

He had a bit of a point there, earth ponies, whether they looked like it or not, were built like tanks. Pegasus ponies were amazingly quick both on and off the ground and I'd seen Blue Skies coax lightning out of a cloud before. Unicorns, well, I'd seen even small ones levitate and manipulate heavy objects from across the room. Used offensively that could be devastating.

"I couldn't help but overhearing your predicament," Kitchen Sink said to me. "It just so happens that I'm looking for some assistance. I've got a bit of work that needs to be done, it shouldn't take more than two or three days but could go as long as a week. I can offer excellent pay, say 40 bits for up to the first 3 days and then 10 bits a day afterward?"

40 bits for two to three days of work sounded amazing. The highest paying job that I had found so far was 4 bits a week and that was one of the ones I had to pass on due to lack of ability.

"That would be enough to get you to Canterlot and have more than enough left over for food,” Golden Dawn said, then she turned towards Kitchen Sink. “Though it seems like a lot of money for such a short time, what kind of work are you offering?"

"You know the Sliver Stone Mines south of here?" Kitchen Sink asked.

"Those are the abandoned mines in the Badlands right? That the old road leads too?" Blue Skies asked.

"Yep, well old Silver Stone passed away a year ago, he had no children and his wife had died a few years before. He left the mines to his niece, Jade Circlet. She was going through some of his old journals and discovered something. Those mines weren't closed because they went dry, they were closed because something was in the mines."

"What do you mean? What kind of something?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Nopony knows, it started with a couple of missing miners, a new level of the mine had just opened up and as the miners were digging they broke into an underground cavern. Two of them went in to check it out but they never came back. A small rescued party was organized, but it too vanished without a trace. They sealed the entrance to the cavern up but over the next few months more and more ponies went missing. Sliver Stone's grandfather, the original Silver Stone, went into the mines with a large security force to try to find something, anything that could explain the disappearances. Only one pony made it back, screaming about shadows in the dark. Silver Stone's father was forced to close the mines and paid a huge number of bits to cover the whole thing up." Kitchen Sink said.

"And the point of this story was... what exactly?" Blue Skies asked.

"Jade Circlet wants to reopen the mines, like I said they hadn't run dry, in fact just the opposite. The miners had just hit a major deposit of mithril, and that wasn't the only thing down there."

"They were digging for mithril?" I asked before starting to laugh.

"Very rare metal, stronger and lighter than steel and extremely easy to enchant, makes for very good armor, among other things." Golden Dawn said. "Wait, why are you laughing?"

"A bunch of ponies dug too deep in their quest for mithril and let some underground horror loose, next thing you're gonna do is tell me you figured out what they unleashed and it's a balrog."

"No? Those were hunted to extinction by the Princesses millennia ago." Kitchen Sink said looking puzzled.

"I was... wait what? Ugh, course balrogs are, or were, real here, nevermind" I said bringing my hand up to my head in frustration.

"So what's the real deal here?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Jade Circlet wants me to check out the mine before she reopens it, make sure it's safe and if it isn't, make it so."

"Aren't you worried that whatever was down there is still hanging around?" Blue Skies asked.

"Not particularly, it's been over 120 years since the mines closed, and even if there is something down there, I'm confident that I'm prepared for it," Kitchen Sink said.

"Have you done this kind of thing before?"

"Of course!" Kitchen Sink shouted out loud. "Well sort of anyway..."

"Sort of?"

"I've been doing odd jobs all my life, more than a few of them could be considered dangerous, but what I was specifically referring to was a time I took up a job to retrieve a long lost heirloom that had ended up in a dragon hoard."

"And you pulled it off?" Golden asked with a look of disbelief.

"Yeah... except when I got to the cave the dragon was gone, but I did fight off a bugbear that had moved in!"

"You guys have bugbears here too? I've got to hand it to you ponies, this place seems pretty peaceful considering how many different kind of monsters seem to be real here." I said.

"There's still a lot of dangerous places left in the world, places where dark and foul creatures roam unchecked. And we ponies are always growing, always moving into new areas. Sometimes the things that live in those areas don't like that very much and somepony has to step up to deal with them. I'm ready to be that pony." Kitchen Sink said seriously.

"So what do you need me for?" I asked.

"Well to be honest, I'm still kinda new at this, at least the more dangerous tasks. Having a partner who can see what I might have missed is going to be beneficial. But the biggest thing I need you for is moving my equipment, it's supposed to be coming in on tomorrow's train. I could haul it all down in a wagon but uh, I packed a lot of stuff and I'm not built like an earth pony. I don't care much for pulling a wagon that far. But you've got that thing, that device that I saw you driving through town the other day, it looks like it could haul all my stuff in one go."

"You mean my truck?" I asked

"If that's what you call it, the big metal wheeled thing."

"No offense but wouldn't paying some ponies to pull your stuff be cheaper?" Blue Skies asked.

"Yeah, but I’m going to be down there for at least two days, maybe three. I’ve got enough stuff coming that I’d need to hire two ponies. I figure one is cheaper to hire than two. Also, if you’re up for it, I’d like to have a second pair of eyes when I'm investigating, and I like to know that second pair of eyes isn't going to disappear at the first sign of trouble. Your friend here stood his ground against that diamond dog."

"That might just have been the alcohol," I said with a snort, "besides so did Golden Dawn and Blue Skies."

"Only after you made it clear you weren't going to back down. Individually, the natural reaction to danger for most ponies is to flee, if possible; it usually takes training to overcome that. We face danger best as a group, when one ponies stand together, the rest will usually join in, it comes from being a herd species."

"Back to the part where you need my truck, I'm not sure I can use it. I've only got so much fuel and there isn't anymore available in Equestria." I said.

Kitchen Sink began to muse this over, I don't think he was particularly happy to hear it, but before he could say anything Golden Dawn spoke up.

"I might have a solution for that," she said.

"Oh?" I asked.

"Yeah, I can't really talk about it right now, but I will meet you in the morning at the shop."

"The whole things sounds kind of dangerous." Blue Skies said.

"Why do you think I'm paying so well? Look I don't expect we'll actually find anything, it's been a very long time, but there's always a chance," Kitchen Sink said, then he turned to look at me. "In the end it's up to you to determine if the risk is worth the reward."

I thought quietly for a few minutes. Even with my limited knowledge of the Equestria economy, 40 bits was a lot of money to pass up. If I did this 1 thing, I could be on my way to Canterlot by the end of the week. The downside was the risk, but it sounded like that was minimal. Plus, Kitchen Sink was basically offering to take me on a quest. I was already in a fantasy world, how could I refuse something like this? It was, very likely, a once in a lifetime opportunity. My mind made up, I looked up at Kitchen Sink and responded. "I'll do it, provided we can figure out something for my truck."

"Meet me at the train station at noon tomorrow, bring the truck if you are in," Kitchen Sink said.

"Do I need to bring anything, besides myself and the truck?" I asked.

Kitchen Sink scrunched his nose up in thought for a moment.

"I um, well I've got a lot of stuff being delivered, I'm pretty sure I've got everything we might need. That being said, if you have your own weapons and want to use something you are comfortable with, feel free to bring them."

We had to get going after that, as the saloon was closing down for the night. Golden and Blue Skies walked back to the shop with me. Blue Skies expressed more concern over Kitchen Sink's job offer but Golden Dawn thought it was exactly what I was looking for. When I pressed her for more information on the possible fuel substitute her eyes twinkled in the moonlight.

"I'll show you in the morning," she said with a grin.

Even the excitement of the day wasn't enough to keep me from quickly falling asleep.

True to her word, Golden Dawn was there the next morning, bright and early. This time she let herself in and had the coffee brewing before she woke me up. I couldn't tell if the splitting headache I had when I woke up was because I was hung over or if I was still sick. So I did what I had been doing every morning, I popped down some painkillers. After that Golden Dawn and I shared a quick breakfast and she led me downstairs to the third room, the one that she had skipped over during the tour.

She opened the door and hit a switch, lights blinked on and the smell of oil singed my nostrils. Work benches lined three of the four walls, all of them covered in parts. Off in the corner of the room were two large barrels. I recognized them as the barrels that ponies stored kerosene in. There were two bulky objects covered in tarps in the center of the room. Golden walked over to the first tarp and pulled at the cord that tied it down with her teeth. The knot came loose and then she pulled the tarp away.

A large metal contraption was unveiled, standing nearly the height of the room. Golden trotted over to the device and inserted a small ruby into a slot, I hadn't even seen her pick it up. Then she trotted over to one of the barrels, next to it was a smaller container with a spout. She walked over to the contraption, opened a tank and poured in some liquid. She twisted a knob then walked behind the machine. I headed to the other side and watched her make a few more adjustments before turning a crank. Seconds later the entire device sputtered to life, I could see a piston pumping in and out and attached to a large metal wheel which was spinning at a rapid pace.

"Is that what I think it is?" I asked.

"If you think it's Equestria's first internal combustion engine, then you'd be right."

"You built this?" I asked while walking around the machine, watching all the moving parts. Golden nodded.

The wheel continued to spin steadily; a muted rumble and a rush of warm air washed over me as I passed the exhaust pipe of the machine.

"Should you be running this indoors? What about the exhaust?"

"We're fine, that ruby I inserted powers a modified pollution filter off a steam engine. It ran me a good number of bits but I wanted to be able to work on it in secret."

"When did you build this?"

"This one I finished about three months ago, the next version is under that tarp, it isn't done yet, in fact I may scrap it entirely."

"Why?"

"I came up with the idea for this engine back when I was in school. I've been putting every bit I could spare into getting it up and running. I've gone through dozens of variations and modifications before I finally came up with something both stable and efficient. What you see before you, I could bring that to the market right now as it is. It would revolutionize Equestria's transportation systems, power generation, anywhere steam engines are used today. As it stands, this engine is four times as efficient as the average steam engine and twice as efficient as magically boosted steam engines. But I learned a lot building it and the next version would have increased reliability and maybe even efficiency even further."

"Then why are you going to scrap it, what happened?"

"You did," she said with a smile.

"Me?"

"When you were describing your truck's diesel engine, it hit me. Your engine and mine, they both work on the same basic principles. A four stroke process, air is drawn in, compressed, fuel is injected and set off by the heat of the compression and finally exhaust. I don't know exactly how your diesel is made, but as far as I can tell, it's quite similar to what I use, a blend of kerosene and vegetable oil. I suspect my fuel would work in your truck... I have a confession to make, I took about a gallon of your fuel to run some tests, my engine burned it just fine," she said scratching the back of her head in a sheepish manner.

"You stole some of my fuel?" I was surprised.

"I'm really sorry, I should have just asked, but I didn't want to get your hopes up in case it didn't work. And if it destroyed my engine, well I was going to build a new one anyway, but your truck, it's one of a kind."

I sighed, "Alright, next time please ask me though, I would have said yes."

"I'm sorry, I promise I'll never do it again," she said bowing her head.

"I'm still a little worried about trying an unknown fuel, but I now that you mention it, I am pretty sure that some people make a fuel called biodiesel from vegetable oil, so your idea is probably sound. What I don't know is if there's any sort of conversion process that I need to do to the truck or if it will just run it as is."

I began to pace back and forth, if Golden's fuel did work I could buy some and drive all the way to Canterlot, which was much preferable to taking a train. The only risk was that if it didn't work, it could wreck my truck. Then an idea dawned on me.

"The generator!" I shouted, jumping up and down happily.

"The what?"

"That big metal box thing in the back of my truck, its a diesel generator, another engine that runs on the same fuel. We could test your stuff in that, if it's safe for the generator, it's probably safe for the truck and if the generator breaks, well, it's not as big of a deal."

We moved the generator outside and about a hundred feet from Golden's shop. I was fairly confident that if Golden's fuel didn't work the generator would just not run, but I didn't want to take any chances. Golden Dawn flew up into the sky and grabbed a large dark cloud just in case there was a fire. In the end our precautions were not needed. I drained the generator of the small amount of diesel that was in its tank, filled it up with the oil and kerosene blend and pulled the cord. A few more pulls and it sputtered to life. Golden Dawn leapt up into the air pumping her hooves in excitement. I left the thing running for a while, I wanted to make sure that it didn't have any issues after long term use, but a couple of hours later it still seemed fine.

Golden Dawn had barrels of the stuff, literally she had them in what looked like big 55 gallon drums, having made a large quantity of it in preparation for the work she was going to be doing with her own engine. The stuff was insanely cheap, at least from my perspective, 8 bits a barrel. Two of them should be enough to get me to Canterlot, but I asked Golden if I could buy three off of her after my work with Kitchen Sink was done. It would take a good chunk of the bits I was going to be earning, but I thought it would be worth it since I didn't know how easy it would be to get the components to make more fuel once I left Hoofston. She agreed and said she'd top of my tank as well before I left.

"But only under one condition," she said with a devious smile.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Before you take off to Canterlot, you gotta let me look at the engine in your truck."

"I would have let you do that anyway!"

I pulled up to the train station in my truck, parking a short walk from the building. I wore the revolver at my hip and back in the truck my lever action sat in the gun rack. In the back seat of the truck was a case of .44 magnum along with a pair of ear muffs and shooting glasses. I hoped I wouldn't need the guns, but Kitchen Sink had suggested bringing weapons and I was bound to be far more comfortable with these than whatever he had.

Kitchen Sink must have seen me coming because before as I was stepping out of the truck, I heard a pony walk up behind me.

"Just in time, the train will be here any minute." Kitchen Sink said. "I take it you solved your fuel problem."

"Yeah, I'll tell you about it on the way there," I said as we walked towards the unloading area.

He nodded towards the revolver, "that a weapon?"

"Uh yeah, that's not going to be a problem around here is it?" I asked nervously.

"Not unless you do something stupid with it." Kitchen Sink said with a smile.

Off in the distance the shrill whistle of a steam train cried out, alerting ponies to clear the tracks. The gentle chugging of a steam engine filled the air followed by the squeal of steel on steel as the approaching train began to slow down. It pulled into the station with a hiss and a puff of steam. Ponies began to disembark while Kitchen Sink and I headed towards the rear of the train. We waited as a team of unicorns began to unload crates, boxes and packages from the car. When the unloading process was finished, I followed Kitchen Sink over to a large stack of wooden crates.

"This is all yours?" I asked looking it over in awe.

"Yep, now you see why I didn't want to pull a wagon all by myself."

There was at least ten different crates and the pile was large enough that I was nervous about fitting it all in the back of the truck. I borrowed a dolly, while Kitchen Sink levitated some of the smaller crates over to the truck. The back of the truck was just big enough to fit everything without having to stack the crates too high.

Kitchen Sink carefully climbed into the passenger side.

"Not a lot of room in here," he said, having to sit almost sideways on the bench to fit even uncomfortably.

"Sorry, it wasn't designed for ponies." I said while starting the engine.

"So I know you said this place is down the old mining road, and I'm going to assume that is the one I took with Golden when we got my truck out of the Badlands, but how far is this place exactly?" I asked.

"Bout 160 miles from here, there's nothing else out there anymore, there had been a small town built up around the mine but it closed down when the mine did, so we're going to have to bring our own supplies. If it lasts long enough we'll either have to hire somepony to bring us more, or head back to town when we start to run low." Kitchen Sink said.

"What's in the crates?" I asked.

"Shelter, cookware, traps, gadgets and weaponry."

"I thought you were already carrying weapons."

"I am, but since I didn't know what was in there I brought a variety, I like to have the right weapon for the job."

“You sure you didn’t overpack?” I asked, looking at the stack of crates again.

Kitchen Sink looked genuinely confused at my question. “Overpack? There’s no such thing.”

We stopped by the market and bought enough food for a few days, I packed as much as I could fit into the cooler, for once being glad that I only owned an oversized one.

"I've got to make one quick stop and then we can get on our way," I said.

I drove over to Golden Dawn's shop and then asked Kitchen Sink to get out. Climbing behind the front seat, I took a look at how the bench connected to the floor of the cabin. At first glance it looked like one long unit but there was separation about 1/3 of the way from the driver's side. I reached under and found a lever which disconnected the seat from the rails that held it down.

With a bit of struggling I was able to remove the bench, making a lot more room. If Kitchen Sink was willing to sit on the floor, he’d have plenty of room now. All I’d really need were some blankets piled on the ground, they’d make for a decent cushion. Of course this meant no seat belt but they didn’t fit ponies anyway.

Kitchen Sink opened the door for me while I carried the bench inside, the main room was empty but the door to where Golden's engine was sitting was open. I put the bench down in the corner near my trailer and walked over. Golden was inside making some adjustments to her engine.

"Hey Golden," I said waving to get her attention.

She looked up and gave me a bright smile, "hi Hail Storm, you headed out?"

"Sure am, I should be back in a few days, I just wanted to swing by before I left and give you something."

"What is it?" she asked curiously as she leaned sideways, trying to see if I was holding something behind my back.

"The generator we tested the fuel on, it's not my truck but unlike the truck you can take that thing apart and if you can't get it back together... well I was going to sell it anyway."

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Absolutely, think of it as a thank you for saving my life."

Golden Dawn jumped up, beaming with joy, she was so happy I swear I heard her squeak with glee.

"Thanks Hail! This is awesome!"

I was about to head out but then a light bulb clicked on in my head.

"Hey Golden, my guess is none of your tools are going to fit the bolts or screws on that thing," I said pointing at the generator.

"Oh you're right, probably not," she said dejectedly. "I can make custom tools but that will make everything take longer."

For once, I had a quick solution.

"No need! I've got a whole boatload of tools in the back of my trailer."

I ran outside to tell Kitchen Sink that it was going to be a few minutes, then hurried back in to unlock the trailer. I proceeded to dig through it, looking for the tools my dad had left me. It took about ten minutes to find all of them and dig them out. I put them on one of the workbenches and then headed back to the trailer. I grabbed a few spare blankets, the big kind you use to protect things when you’re moving. They’d make for a good padding on the floor of the truck so it wasn’t so uncomfortable for Kitchen Sink. I locked up the trailer and walked back over to Golden Dawn.

"That's everything I've got, hopefully you can figure it out, if not you'll have to go the custom tool route. Oh and you can still look at the truck when I get back, but maybe you'll learn something from the generator."

“Thanks Hail Storm. Good luck with Kitchen Sink, and stay safe,” Golden Dawn said, she jumped up and gave me a hug.I hesitated for a moment, then returned the gesture.

With that settled, I went back outside. Kitchen Sink was standing next to the truck, patiently waiting for me. I apologized for the delay, opened the passenger door, and spread the blankets out on the floor.

Kitchen Sink climbed in, mussed with the blankets and then sat down. I got into the driver's seat, started the truck up and headed out of town. 15 minutes later I was pulling on to the old mining road. The trip down to the mines took about four hours, the beginning of the road was in pretty good condition, but the farther we drove, the words it got. I would have never been able to do the last ten miles in my normal car, thankfully the truck had big tires and 4WD. On the way down Kitchen Sink asked me about myself and I gave him a quick summary of the recent events in my life that had lead me to Equestria.

"So you're from another world?" he asked, eyes wide with disbelief.

"As far as I know, I mean maybe this could be Earth, super far in the future, or something but I doubt it."

"I can see why you want to get to Canterlot. Well, the ponies you've talked to are right, if anypony can help you, it's going to be one of the princesses. I’d almost say send a telegram, but no offense, if I hadn’t seen you and your stuff, I’d not believe it. First relay station your telegram hit and they’d think it was a practical joke."

“Golden Dawn was thinking about sending a letter, but she had no idea where to send it. I also didn’t realize you guys had telegrams, where are the lines?” I asked.

“They run along the train tracks, in underground pipes. Most places use buried lines, only in some cities, like Manehattan, do you see above ground lines on poles.”

“What about phones? Could I like call the princesses? Golden Dawn mentioned knowing what a phone was,” I said.

“Pretty new, there’s no cross country phone system in place yet. Manehattan and a few other of the larger cities have semi-public networks but that's it. Canterlot is not one of them. As far as I know Hoofston isn’t either. There’s talk about eventually connecting all the cities but my guess is it’s years off.”

We bantered back and forth about Equestrian and Human technology. I showed Kitchen Sink my cell phone and did my best to describe what it could do. He was really taken with the idea of being able to make a phone call from pretty much anywhere, no wires needed. As we got farther and farther from Hoofston, I began to notice something. I didn’t know if it was the excitement of finding some work, or maybe I was just starting to get over whatever had been plaguing me, but as we drove out towards the old mine, I actually started to feel better. Better than than I had for the last few days anyway. Even my headache had all but disappeared.

Finally, we arrived at a small box canyon, nestled up between the walls of two of the taller western mountains. Sheer rock walls rose up at least 100 feet on either side of us and the road narrowed for about a quarter of a mile before flaring open again into a ring of stone. Here and there the partially collapsed skeletons of buildings stood strewn throughout the small canyon floor. The only building that still looked completely intact was a large stone structure built almost right up against the far wall. Kitchen Sink instructed me to pull in front of that building and then we got out.

"So what do we do now?" I asked.

"First we setup camp," he said and I helped him unload the truck.

One by one he opened the various crates, as he did I let out out a long whistle, one crate after the other were packed full of various types of weaponry including crossbows, regular bows, swords, spears, knives, hammers and more.In addition to that there was at least a half dozen heavy steel bear traps, and what looked like parts to build some other traps as well. One of the smaller crates was marked dynamite, I wasn't sure how I had missed that one earlier. I raised my eyebrows at it but said nothing.

The collection of weapons was an impressive but it did strike me a bit odd how… archaic… they all were. My initial impression of an 1800s western level of technology I had been proven wrong, but in the opposite direction. Ponies appeared to at least have technology comparable to the early 1900s, even without bringing in the things they could do with magic. The weapons on the other hand looked like they were from the medieval era.

"Planning on arming a band of ponies and terrorizing the countryside?" I asked, pointing at the pile.

"I'll have you know that each of these weapons has specific uses and since I don't know what is down there, it's safer to bring everything."

"Okay, I get that you want to be prepared, but a lot of these weapons look similar to me, like what's the reasoning behind bringing 4 different swords?"

"Enchantments, " Kitchen Sink said while picking up one of the swords I was looking at. "This one, for example, will cut through damned near any type of unenchanted armor." He put the sword down and picked up another, I could just make out a very faint glow when he picked it up. "While this one is specifically for dealing with undead."

"Undead?"

"Yeah like vampires and zombies."

Whelp that settles it, this can’t be a universe spawned by a little girl’s imagination. Unless she’s into Dungeons and Dragons. What have I gotten myself into?

"Why can't you just have one weapon with multiple enchantments?" I asked.

"How heavily you can enchant something depends on a variety of things, the skill of the enchanter and the material the object is made out of. Most metals don't hold enchantments very well, the exception to that being mithril, and even then it takes an entirely different kind of magic to work with metal than gems, which are how most things are usually enchanted. But even with mithril some enchantments will interfere with each other. For example, it's impossible to mix a hellfire blade with a frost enchantment, even with mithral."

"Ok, instead of multiple enchantments what about a combining the properties into a single enchantment? Like you mentioned the super sharp blade and the other one that will hurt undead. Why not just create an enchantment that's super sharp plus hurts undead?"

"You've got a good mind for this, coming from a species that doesn't know magic exists." Kitchen Sink said looking impressed.

"Thanks, I credit it to an unhealthy obsession with fantasy games for much of my teens and early twenties."

"In fact, you are correct, that is how ponies have gotten around the limitation of lesser metals in the past, but there's a catch. Enchanting an object is a fairly complicated procedure and requires a great deal of practice to do it correctly. The more complicated the enchantment, the harder it is to successfully pull it off. Something like my eversharp blade enchantment, even a student could probably pull off, but each subsequent property adds to the complexity and the effect is multiplicative. Even a grandmaster level enchanter would have trouble combining more than five or six properties into a single enchantment, only somepony like Princess Celestia could hope to do more."

Kitchen Sink pulled out a large canvas tent and got to work setting it up while I gathered some rocks and made a fire pit. There was a severe lack of trees inside the canyon, but there were plenty of decrepit buildings so firewood wasn't going to be an issue. An hour later we finished with setting up the camp to Kitchen Sink's satisfaction. Kitchen Sink suggested that we should take a break and have some food, my stomach agreed, and we headed back to the truck to retrieve the cooler.

"I assume you have a plan?" I asked Kitchen Sink between bites of my sandwich.

"The entrance to the mine is on the right side of the old company headquarters, the building in front of us. First thing to do is go get it unsealed, then we head in and make our way down to the lowest level, that's where the cavern entrance is. We're going to have to unseal that as well and then we head in."

"You brought all these weapons and each has a specific purpose, but you aren't going to be able to carry them all, how does that work."

"Because our first time down there, we're going to be scouting it out. We investigate, search for clues and avoid conflict until we know what we're up against, once I know what we're up against, we'll return to the surface and formulate a plan of attack."

"What if we get spotted and attacked before we can get back up here?" I asked.

"Well, we're going in armed and a weapon is better than no weapon, but that's what these are for." he said, levitating a pair of necklaces up from the box he had just opened.

At the end of each necklace hung a small green jewel. He placed one of them around his neck and the jewel flashed brightly for a moment before fading to a dim but steady glow.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I'll show you in a moment, I'll be right back." Kitchen Sink set the second necklace back down and then got up and headed over behind one of the crumbling walls of a partially collapsed building where we had dug a pit to use as a latrine. I patiently waited for him to finish his business, but after several minutes he still hadn't returned.

"Kitchen Sink?" I called out.

When there was no reply I stood up. I was about to walk over when Kitchen Sink told me to sit back down.

"What the?" I asked, confused. He was sitting on the rock in front of me, exactly where he was before he left. He had left, walked behind the wall and then walked right back out and sat down. I could remember it clearly now.

"You came back right away and then sat down, it wasn't like invisibility or anything, I remember you walking back there now, but I didn't actually notice you until said something."

"The enchantment on the necklace makes you hard to notice, by altering the memory of anyone that sees you, and making them immediately forget that they did see you. It doesn't work if you're seen putting it on, until you are able to break line of sight, which is why I had to go walk behind that wall. Drawing attention to yourself will also breaks the spell and the alterations to your memory will fall apart almost instantly. Even without breaking the spell, those alterations don't hold up, within half an hour they fade away. The two necklaces are linked so we won't lose track of each other while we wear them."

"That's incredible," I said with awe.

As it was growing late, we decided to hold off on going into the mine till the next morning. I woke up to the crackle of a campfire and crawled out of the tent. Kitchen Sink was standing over over the fire tending to what looked like two cast iron pans stuck together on a hinge. He lifted it up, opened the top pan and tipped the bottom upside-down. A large waffle fell out of the pan onto a stack that he had behind him. He passed me a plate and two of the waffles. After breakfast he walked back over to the box that had the enchanted necklaces and grabbed them, slipping one over his neck.

"Are you ready to head in?" Kitchen Sink asked, floating the second necklace over to me.

"As ready as I'll ever be." I said, taking the necklace. My hand brushed up against Kitchen Sink’s magical glow. I had never come in contact with a unicorn’s magic before.My whole arm went numb and I almost dropped the necklace. Then, as quickly as the feeling appeared, it vanished as Kitchen Sink’s horn went dark and the field dissipated.

I placed the necklace over my neck and a wave of dizziness washed over me.

"Whoa, is it supposed to feel so strange?" I asked, looking to Kitchen Sink.

"Huh? No, you shouldn't feel anything," he said.

"When I put it on, I felt really dizzy, but I think it's starting to fade."

After a minute it had all but disappeared, but I still felt off. It wasn't easy to describe, the closest I could compare it to was the onset of a cold when you know you're going to be sick soon but the real symptoms haven't quite hit you yet.

"I think I'll be okay," I said "Let me grab my stuff and then we can head out."

"Alright, but let me know if you have any more issues."

Kitchen Sink had a pair of sturdy metal flashlights, he gave one to me and kept the other for himself, placing it in his saddle bag; then he picked up a large lantern with a crystal inside the glass. Then he walked over to the crates of weaponry and selected a sword. He switched it with the one that he had been carrying but kept the same crossbow. Finally, he picked up a small quiver of bolts which he then looped around his neck.

I ran to the truck, grabbed my rifle and slung it over my shoulder. I opened the ammo can that was sitting on the seat and took out ten rounds. One by one, I inserted them into the rifle’s loading gate. Then I took another then and pushed them into the loops on the rifle’s cheek rest.

Lastly, I loaded six rounds into the revolver and placed it back into the holster. The earmuffs went into my backpack, along with my first aid kit and a canteen of water and some food. It would be too dark in the cave to wear the tinted safety glasses that I had so I left them. I did one final check to make sure I wasn’t missing anything and then ran back over to where Kitchen Sink was waiting.

We followed some rusty tracks around the stone building and up to the face of the cliff. The entrance to the mine was supposed to be sealed and it looked like it had been at one point. Now though, it was only partially blocked by a broken wall of rocks. In front of that wall was a scattered pile of rubble.

"Maybe somebody broke in?" I asked.

Kitchen Sink trotted up to the entrance and peered inside.

"Look at the wreckage," Kitchen Sink said, as he pointed at the debris strewn around. "It's all on the outside, the inside of the mine is clear. Nopony broke in, somepony or something broke out."

He took one more look into the tunnel, then back at the camp as if trying to make sure he had remembered everything. Then he turned to me and asked.

"Probably a little late to ask but you're not claustrophobic are you?

Tight enclosed spaces? Where I'm surround by the ground? That actually doesn't sound bad at all.

"I've never had any problems with small spaces before."

"Good."

Kitchen Sink's horn lit up and the lantern floated in front of him. The crystal began to glow with a very bright white light. It was time to go down into the mine.