For however many times it has been this past week, the Changeling was secured into a dimly lit cobblestone chamber, and seated behind a wooden table. One of the two royal pegasus guards who had escorted him into the chamber, stood at the other end of the table, while the other ensured the heavy oak door could not be breached.

Every day, it would be the same; he would be dragged into the room, questioned, and thrown back into an enchanted holding cell. The Royal Guard's attempts at getting the Changeling to speak were utterly futile. He would never break; he was far too loyal to his queen to just let every little pony know what the Changeling army was planning.

This day of questioning started off as usual, but after being seated, the guard who usually took responsibility for the questioning just stared him down without saying a word. No matter, He wasn't going to speak even if he was spoken to. There was no possible way they would get him to open up.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna descended into the depths of Canterlot itself, into the underground correctional facility. As they finally approached the heavy wooden door of the questioning room, Luna held out a hoof, pausing their advance as she spoke. "It's obvious, dear Sister; it will not admit anything. It refuses to answer any questions regarding it's reasons for being in Ponyville."

Princess Celestia lowered her head slightly, "Perhaps Luna; but what we do know is that they are here, and they are hiding somewhere. The best we can do is prepare ourselves for when they do end up coming out of hiding."

"How do thy suggest that we prepare ourselves if one is not even certain where, or when these creatures end up coming out of hiding?"

Celestia sighed, "I am not sure, sister. The Royal Guard has assured me there is nothing more they can possibly do to get him to talk, and that is why we are here."

Luna lowered a brow and shot a quick look at the door, where just beyond the Changeling was secured. "What possible outcomes do thou have with this creature?"

"I'm afraid our choices are very limited; we simply could not just banish him to the Everfree forest, as he would surely find a way to rejoin with his kind. Surely if we allowed that to happen, we would have an inevitable conflict on our hoof, and one at that we cannot afford; several of the Royal Guard is still spread abroad Equestria with the Royal Express still under repairs. Perhaps we should consider an option that could potentially benefit not only the creature, but ourselves as well. Hmm..." Princess Celestia brought a hoof to her chin as she thought.

"Then what option do thy leave us with? We aren't gaining anything from it being here, and thou would gain nothing if it were to be banished."

There was a pause for a few moments as Princess Celestia conjured up a plan.

The noble white alicorn's eyes widened, and she returned her hoof to the floor, growing a determined look about her face. "If these creatures want to gain power from the generosity, laughter, loyalty, honesty, and kindness of others, then we shall teach him to do so in such a way that doesn't bring harm to anypony."

Luna's mouth dropped. "Sister, surely thou don’t mean..."

"I do. It's the only choice we have that favors our success." Celestia gave a confident nod of her head. "These creatures may be parasitic in their ways, but perhaps we can teach this one to change."

"Are thou suggesting we help them even after they tried to sabotage a wedding and tried to steal thy throne!?" Luna was becoming more and more concerned by the second.

Celestia had to think again for a moment, "You see Luna, the more we learn about this creature, the more well-prepared we will be for when the rest of them do end up revealing themselves. So, if we are successful with him, then yes."

Princess Luna felt a bit put off to the slightly indirect response, but realized that her sister took the current situation to be bigger than her desires to pursue a vendetta. Luna finally began to understand and consider what Celestia had in mind. Luna nodded her head in agreement to her sister's plan.

The guard holding down the only exit of the room took a step to the side, and the heavy oak door creaked open; Princess Celestia entered the chamber, closely followed by Princess Luna. The pegasi guard secured the door after the princesses, and the Changeling reared back slightly at the royalty's sudden presence.

Celestia tried to reassure the dark blue alicorn with a gentle nod, then trotted a few steps up to the table and eyed the Changeling.

"It's clear that attempts of questioning you are useless. As it serves no purpose keeping you confined here or banishing you to someplace, we have come up with a useful punishment for your actions."

The Changeling didn't even appear phased in the slightest. He just blankly blinked and continued to stare at the Princess before him.

With a small white flash of Celestia's horn, a scroll appeared. She laid it to rest before the Changeling, who glanced down at the parchment; his eyes widened slightly at the words on the scroll, and he peered up to the Princess, wearing a very confused look about his face.

Princess Celestia continued, "You will be burdoned with 8 tasks. You will report to me your results upon completing a task, each of which you must learn and apply." The Princess stared right through the Changeling. "After you have completed these 8 tasks and learned to exercise them into your everyday life, then you will be free to do as you wish."

I opened the door to my quaint little Canterlot hotel room which resided a few storeys above the busy streets. It wasn't quite as big as my apartment in Ponyville, but it did the trick; I was only residing here for the week until the train was fixed anyways, which now it thankfully was. I'll be returning to Ponyville soon enough I hope.

I shut the door after myself and collapsed right onto the floor. God was I tired! Really only having applied knowledge on where to even start with repairs on a train proved a challenge before I could even start my work. After an entire week of grueling 16-plus-hour days, working on an armored steam locomotive, wiped me the hell out. I was practically dead by the end of any given day for this past week, and that didn't really help with thinking to myself that I'm any less of a wimp.

The entirety of fixing the train was a nightmare all in its own; there were tons of large parts that were bent and damaged beyond repair, so even attempting to repair it seemed like a waste of time. But of course, this world had yet another surprise in store for me; I guess a spell existed that could bend objects into any shape without them becoming work-hardened or brittle. Upon finding this out, I had to fight the thought of why they would even freakin' need me at all to help fix anything; all I was basically doing was ensuring that the parts were placed into their proper positions, and put together properly. Well, maybe not. I'll give myself a little credit; the few unicorns that were in charge of supervising the train's condition were performing most of the reforming repairs with their magic, while I basically explained to them what parts needed to be reformed and why, all the while doing the manual wrench-turning.

It's still beyond me how one of the the largest cities in Equestria lacks proper technicians for this kind of job, but whatever. I guess that's what I'm here for. Who knows...

Oh, and another thing; Boilers and steam power was a bitch to learn. Of course, steam power is similar to conventional gasoline and diesel internal-combustion engines when it really comes down to it, other than the fact that steam powered vehicles apparently retain A LOT of residual pressure within their cylinders, even after they cool down and the boiler hasn't been burning for days; which of course, I learned the hardest possible way...

I found myself in a situation where I had to release the primary steam pressure valve manually, using nothing but a wrench; which of course, was jammed tight, and I wasn't expecting it to hold enough steam pressure to blast me straight up into the air, which it did... Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that the landing hurt my ass so much, I would've laughed along with the few of the royal guards who were lucky enough to witness it all happen. Learned my lesson though. STAND BACK.

I can't really say the same would occur with steam power back on Earth, because magic has a way of changing the way you think about physics and how things behave; and simply, because I haven't had much of a chance to work on any heavy steam powered vehicles before now. A bit of logical improvising is required, that's for sure, and experience is a definite must!

I can't get over how much magic makes even the simplest tasks like 1000 times easier than back home. Man, I can't wait 'til I can try my hoof at it again; I'd probably kill to have that kind of power back home now if there was any possible way for me to go back! I wonder how much longer I have to wait until I can use magic? I mean, it's grown back about an inch now... Huh, I don’t know. As for the train though, I just hope that the damn thing stays fixed!

"Another late day, huh?" a mare's voice cooed, breaking my train of thought.

I stood back up and flicked on the light.

What? Lyra? OH MY GOSH, LYRA!

"What are you doing here?!"

"I got your letter," She trotted up to me and offered me a hoof up with a cheery smile. "I figured I'd take the last train out of Ponyville and come by and surprise you! I would've come by and seen you at work, but the guard outside kindly insisted that it would be ok if I waited for you here, and he allowed me in."

"He... did?"

That’s rather alarming knowing he would just allow anypony in here, but whatever. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't happy to see her!

"Yeah! So how have things been going with the train? Did you fix it all up yet?"

"Heh, yeah. It got finished today, actually."

"Oh that’s perfect!" Lyra clapped her front hooves together, "So the Royal Guard and the Princesses will be able to make it down to Ponyville for Cider Season after all!"

Oh right! Cider season is tomorrow. I hope AJ and the gang didn't have any problems with those apple juicing machines; if they did, I couldn't hold anypony but myself responsible if they had to cancel Cider Season. Lord, please don't let that be the case...

"I guess they will." I shrugged, "Do you know if Applejack or anypony has had any problems with the equipment at Sweet Apple Acres?"

Lyra placed a hoof to her chin then shrugged. "Not that I know of. As far as I know, Cider Season is still on, and everypony can't wait!" Lyra's enthusiasm dropped to a bit of dread, "Especially Pinkie Pie."

I couldn’t help but chuckle at that. I remember my first day here; even then how excited Pinkie seemed about it, and that was almost 3 weeks ago! I can't imagine how off-the-wall she must be about it now...

"Yeah I bet she is!" I shook my head and sighed. "So how have things been in Ponyville otherwise? Anyone miss me there yet?"

This got a giggle out of her. "Nopony more than me, you goof." She playfully jabbed me with a hoof.

I felt my face get a bit hot at that, but I tried my best to cover it up. "So anyways, I guess my plans for sitting around and doing nothing tonight are out the window! You know anyplace around here where we could go get a bite to eat?"

"I know a few good places, but they might be a little too brash for your tastes." Lyra circled around me, and flicked me in the snout with her tail.

Oh, ho, ho! Challenge accepted.

"We'll see about that."

She giggled before taking my side out the door and into the evening streets of Canterlot.

After a good while of walking through the streets and talking about the highlights of working on the train as well as things I've missed in Ponyville this last week, we finally made it to whatever place Lyra was taking me. It looked like a club of some sort, and as we got closer I could hear low frequency bass pulses.

So Equestria has clubs too... Huh. Cool, I guess. Wonder what kind of music they play? Speaking of music... It's been forever since I've listened to anything! Before coming to Equestria, I constantly had music blaring. Didn't even matter what genre! Well actually, before the incident back on Earth, I really started getting into EDM, like... A LOT. Trance, techno, dubstep, oh man... Wow, I just realized how much I miss my iPod!

"So, they serve food here?" I scoured up at the title of the establishment, entitled 'Scary Monsters & Nice Sprites'.

"You bet! It's not bad stuff either." She nudged me with a hoof, encouraging me to come inside.

"Uh, ok."

I don’t know why, but I'm getting that feeling that it is going to be a long night.

I followed Lyra into the club, to find out it was pretty much a pub/club cross-mix thing, I'm not sure. Smooth dubstep was playing on tall speakers on either side of a large mix table, which fronted a pretty well-sized dance floor. The more I looked through this place, the more I was impressed. This place also had a kitchen towards the back, and quite a few tables where several ponies were enjoying all sorts of food; no food that had meat though, unfortunately. Ah well, it's something I'm getting used to. Other than burgers, pizza toppings, and occasional steak back home, I didn't eat all that much meat anyways.

Lyra and I took a seat at a table, and a waitress soon came to our table.

"Hey, what's up you two? Can I start ya off with some drinks?"

Clearly her demeanor didn't parallel the waitress from me and Lyra's first date. What can you expect from a place like this though? Ah well, this may be fun. And honestly, I could use a drink to celebrate finishing that damn train; I think I deserve it.

"I'll have a berry cooler please." Lyra smiled up to the waitress, who turned to me.

"And for you?"

I'm drawing a blank... hmmm... I really don't feel like apple cider tonight. "Uh, what do you guys have?"

"Well, there's this really cool new drink called Lager that’s supposed to be pretty good. We just started selling it this past couple days, and a lot of ponies seem to love it. Mainly the stallions." The waitress shrugged.

"D-did you just say Lager?!"

The waitress seemed a bit put off by my reaction, "Uh, yeah."

I glanced over at Lyra, who had the most confused look I had ever seen on her face.

They all of a sudden have Lager now?! Like, say whaaat?? No way! I have to find out who brews the drinks around here! They clearly overheard me and Pin Stripe's conversation about beer a while back! I mean, unless Pin Stripe found himself involved with somepony in the brewing industry... I'm thinking too much into this.

"I, uh... I'll take one of those!" I was doing a terrible job of containing my excitement, and I think I might've been scaring Lyra a little.

Ok, maybe it wasn't such a good thing I was getting this excited over alcohol; possible sign of alcoholism? Nah.

The waitress left with a coy smile and nod of her head.

"Well you seem awfully excited." Lyra lowered a brow towards me.

"Heh, sorry. One of those 'reminds me of home' things."

"Oh?"

"Don’t worry about it." I pawed a hoof in the air trying to brush it off.

Lyra giggled with a somewhat worried tone and rolled her eyes. "Alrighty, then!"

"Step right up little fillies and colts! Get your 'cave explorer' helmets here!" The tour guide, who was a slender earth-pony stallion with a light red coat, enthusiastically encouraged all of Miss Cheerilee's class to grab themselves a bright yellow helmet, with a single light mounted to the front. Diamond Tiara was unluckily first in line, and the guide plopped a helmet onto her head.

"There ya go! Look who's ready to do some exploring!" he chuckled.

"Ugh." Diamond Tiara cringed and groaned as she adjusted the helmet from covering her eyes, and glared at the tour guide who was wearing an enormus gleeful smile.

Diamond Tiara stopped at the mouth of the cave and waited with the few gathering foals for Silver Spoon. "Why do we have to go into these filthy caves?"

Silver Spoon, hesitantly picking up a helmet for herself, trotted next to the little pink earth pony. "I don't know, it doesn't seem fair. If we don't want to go, then we shouldn't have to!"

A little ways behind the bickering fillies, the Cutie Mark Crusaders couldn't contain their excitement as they awaited their turn for their helmets.

"After looking up to this for over a week, it feels like we've been waiting forever!" Scootaloo hopped in excitement and her wings buzzed as the tour guide passed her a helmet.

"Speakin' of waitin' forever, we might jus' get our cutie marks too!" Apple Bloom cried out, standing on her hind legs and pumping both her hooves into the air. Her voice echoed through the opening of the cavern, earning groans from several of her classmates.

"Cutie Mark Crusaders Cave Explorers!" Sweetie Belle squeaked happily.

"YAY!!" In perfect unison, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom cheered and bumped their hooves together.

The cave quickly darkened as it spiraled down into the mountainside, requiring everypony to use their helmet-mounted light to illuminate their way through. The cavern quickly narrowed down to a single path, just wide enough for any full grown pony to make it through. On the ceiling and floors of the cavern hung brilliant stalagmites and stalactites; some revealing small crystals, which increased in size dramatically as the path continued on.

Eventually, the path opened up a bit more leading onto a wooden and rope suspension bridge, which hung over an enormous underground geode, entirely composed of enormous crystals. The helmet lights reflected off the flat facets, filling the cavern with light and giving the cavern a surreal glow of pink, orange and blue.

The tour guide addressed the class, "Now just beyond here, is where the old Canterlot dungeons used to be!"

"Now remember my little ponies," Cheerilee added, "some of the old dungeons were lost in a cave-in. Now can anypony tell me how many years ago that was?"

Sweetie Belle excitedly raised and shook her hoof in the air, "Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!"

"Yes Sweetie Belle?" Cheerilee peered over the group of little foals to the single exited little white unicorn flailing her hoof.

"500 years ago!"

"That’s right!" The tour guide added with just as much enthusiasm as before, "Thankfully, the dungeons haven't been in use for just about that amount of time, so nopony worry about any 500-year-old evil zombie ponies coming after you or anything!" the tour guide laughed heartily.

A few laughed, while others were suddenly concerned about their safety and the mental well-being of their tour guide.

The group of students followed the guide and their teacher over the bridge through the enormous geode, through several passages and tunnels composed almost entirely of crystal, until finally reaching the old Canterlot dungeons. The cavern opened up into a gigantic chamber, were hundreds of holding cells were composed of crystal formations and metal bars. Off to one side of the chamber, was the clear evidence of the cave-in of the past. Huge slabs of rock seemed to cut the chamber short, and looked completely out of place against the colorful and reflective crystals that made up most of the chamber. The tour guide began giving yet another knowledgeable notation on the method of punishment of the prisoners, while Scootaloo and the other two Cutie Mark Crusaders found themselves quickly becoming bored of his lecturing.

Speaking just loud enough for her friends to hear, Scootaloo grumbled. "I don't know about you two, but all this lecturing is getting dry."

"Yeah, it was fun at first, but we're being told about things that we could actually go up and see for ourselves." Sweetie Belle's muzzle scrunched up a bit in disapproval.

"Ain't goin' and seein' things up close the whole point of a field trip?" Apple Bloom lowered a brow.

"Yeah, you're right Apple Bloom! Let's check this place out!"

"Um, I don't know girls. I don't want Miss Cheerilee getting mad at us."

"Oh y'all worry too much Sweetie Belle!"

"Apple Bloom's right. C'mon Sweetie Belle, it'll be fun! We might get our cutie marks too!"

"Uh, a-alright girls, if you say so." Sweetie Belle hesitantly paced after the girls towards the few holding cells near the cave-in, and began their own exploration; all completely overlooked by their teacher, the tour guide, and their fellow classmates.

"Oh cool!" Scootaloo exclaimed upon seeing a few scattered bones inside of a cell, "Apple Bloom! Come look!"

Tentatively trotting over, Apple Bloom took Scootaloo's side. "What is it Scoots?" She gasped upon seeing what Scootaloo was pointing a hoof at through the jail cell bars, "That's gross!"

Scootaloo rolled onto her back in laughter. "I've never seen such a grossed-out look from you before! You should see the look on your face! Hahahaha!"

"SCOOTALOO! BEHIND YOU!" Apple Bloom cried out, pointing a hoof towards the back of the underground chasm.

"Huh? What? What's behind me?!" In a blur of orange and purple, Scootaloo cowered behind the yellow earth filly.

Seeing there was nothing but empty cave, Scootaloo's fear dropped to annoyance as Apple Bloom began laughing hysterically.

"Oh Scoot, yer such a chicken!"

"I am not a chicken!!" Scootaloo screamed, stomping a hoof on the cavern floor, causing a part of the caved-in wall of the cavern to give way to a neighboring opening.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked at each other for a moment, then trotted up to the opening, peering inside.

"Aah!!!" As a reflection of two green orbs stared their direction, the two fillies shot a meter back, and held each other in fear.

Poking her head in through the other side of the opening, Sweetie Belle had a laugh. "You two are such scardy-ponies! It's just me!"

"Heh, good one, Sweetie Belle..." Scootaloo rolled her eyes as herself and Apple Bloom broke away form each other, awkwardly rubbing the back of their heads.

"Hehe." Sweetie Belle put a hoof to her mouth as she giggled, "C'mon you two, it's a lot less boring on this side!" with that, she disappeared back through the opening to the other side.

"You first, Scootaloo." Apple Bloom nudged the orange pegasus with a hoof.

"No way, you first!" Scootaloo pushed Apple Bloom towards the opening.

"Fine." Giving up, she crept up through the opening. Scootaloo came through shortly after, falling a foot or two down atop Apple Bloom on the other side.

"Ugh, watch where yer goin', Scootaloo!" Apple Bloom bucked off the orange pegasus from her back.

"C'mon girls! Come check this neat stuff out! I don’t think anypony has ever been back here!" Sweetie Belle was a ways ahead, and her helmet light could be seen wandering about the cavern.

"She's definitely enjoin' herself, ain't she?"

"Sure seems like it! C'mon, let's catch up with her."

This side of the cavern definitely wasn't as forgiving as the other; the beautiful crystal makeup was masked by a dark, damp soot, almost like ash. Empty jail cells the guise mentioned earlier, still littered most of the cavern's interior.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo quickly caught back up to Sweetie Belle, who was now frozen on the spot.

"Sweetie Belle, what's wrong?" Scootaloo waved a hoof in front of her face.

Apple Bloom raised a brow at her stunned friend, then peered over to what Sweetie Belle was looking at. Apple Bloom's mouth dropped at the sight illuminated before her, and Scootaloo gasped.

*knock knock*

"Ugh..."

*knock knock knock*

"What..."

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

"Ok, what the hell." I stepped out of bed and trotted towards my hotel room door and begrudgingly swung it open.

"Yes?" I asked, not taking any extra effort to cover up my annoyance without taking notice to who was standing on my doorstep.

"Sir, your presence is required aboard the Royal Canterlot Express." Two Royal guards, one unicorn, one pegasus, stood on the doorstep.

"My... what?" still being half-asleep, I looked over at the alarm clock next to the bed. "Oh shit! Lyra, we gotta go! The train for Ponyville is leaving already!"

Lyra mumbled something before lifting her head up and looking towards me standing at the door.

Oh man, her hair was a tangled mess; it was so adorable!

I turned back towards the guards; one of which lowered his brow at me.

"Ok, before you go assuming anything happened--"

"I'm his marefriend." Lyra cut in bluntly, face down in a pillow.

"Uhh..."

Well gee whiz, Lyra. That doesn't really help what I'm trying to prove here. God.

The one guard on my doorstep blankly shook his head.

"K, well I'm gunna get ready..."

After a record breaking time to get ready and pack, Lyra and I made our way to the train station and boarded the newly repaired Royal Canterlot Express. I guess I had a good feeling of self accomplishment as I approached the train and saw the royal crest perched at the front of the boiler.

Man I love fixing things and seeing them work as they should; such a fulfilling feeling to see all that hard work pay off.

Lyra and I took a seat near the back of the train, a few rows away from the chatter of the Royal Guard on leave conversing amongst themselves.

"Uh, Lyra?"

"Yeah?"

"You don’t feel like..."

Oh, hello again, shitty self-confidence!

"...that maybe, uh..."

Lyra lowered a brow as she tried to take a guess at what was on my mind.

"...That maybe we're rushing things a bit?"

Lyra's confusion shifted into a reassuring smile. "Oh, Davin... No. I don’t think we are."

Ok, well that's at least a bit of a load off.

"Alright. I was just concerned about it is all... Don’t be afraid to tell me if anything makes you feel uncomfortable, ok?"

"You're such a sweetheart." She leant over and gave me a peck on the cheek, and my worries were tossed out the window.

If she's ok with everything, then I am too.

"Ahem... Excuse me sir?" Catching both our attention, a white stallion with a 3-tone blue mane and tail stood before us. He wore the royal crest upon his chest. I suddenly felt like I was an ant.

"Forgive me if I am mistaken, but you were the stallion who was in charge of repairs on this train, right?"

"Uh..." I stood up from the bench, nervously trying to hold my composure. The stallion wasn't quite my height, but he was close. Nonetheless, he was still pretty intimidating. "Yes I am. Name's Davin." I stuck out my hoof, which he seemed gracious to shake in return.

"I'm Shining Armor. Captain and chief of the Royal guard."

Whoa...

Cherry Jubilee's health took a plummet. That certain glow of her face had seemed to nearly completely fade out, and she could barely muster up the strength to turn her head. Unfortunately, Braeburn wasn't fairing much better. He developed a dry cough and a cold sweat; the first of few indicators of impending sickness.

Not much was said between the two for the past unknowable number of days, but their minds were screaming. Cherry was not only split from her drive to keep going, but also torn because of her found feelings for the kind stallion in the cell next to her. She was quickly and regretfully accepting that this was her unfortunate fate.

Braeburn stuck his hoof through the separating bars of the cell to Cherry. Somehow, she mustered the strength to shakily reach her hoof out to his.

"B-Braeburn," Cherry coughed, "I-I really wish t-that we didn't meet under these unfortunate c-circumstances."

This tore Braeburn's heart in half. "Now Miss Jubilee, don't go talkin' like that. Ya'll are gunna be fine. Ya hear?"

"You're t-too kind, Braeburn." Cherry barely managed a shallow, half smile. "Even when you know a-a mare won't be able t-to pull through, you still try to give h-her some comfort."

Braeburn had to fight back tears. "Y-You’re gunna be fine Miss Jubilee. You're gunna be fine! Don't go sayin' things like that, I need ya here!"

"B-Braeburn, how many times must I tell you t-to call me C-Cherry?"

The tan stallion couldn't hold them back any longer. "C-Cherry, ya can't go! I need ya here! Please!"

Cherry managed a smile and she gripped Braeburn's hoof with her own. She held her smile and closed her eyes...

"Cherry..."

"..."

"C-Cherry...?"

"..."

Author's Note

*cue pissed off readers* Don't worry guys, everything's gunna be ok!
It may take another couple days to get Part 2 up, but blame school because homework is stupid.
I'm definitely trying to be a little more descriptive with my writing, so don't hesitate to tell me if you approve or not.
Oh, and to those of you who find and point out those errors I keep finding myself making, THANK YOU!