The problem with staying *Edited*

“Uh, Twilight, there is one problem with taking it,to go see the princess.” Applejack stated

“Excuse me, I’m a him not a it,” Simon interjected crossing his arms as if he was angry but still kept a smile on his face.

“Oh sorry.” Applejack apologized, feeling a little awkward about her slip of the tongue. “But anyway, as I was saying, there's a small problem, how do we get him to the princess without causing any kind of panic.” Applejack looked between the girls for an answer

"Oh-oh-oh-oh I know, we can use my balloon." Pinkie quickly chipped in.

"Sorry Pinkie, but that balloon isn't big enough for all of us and I don't trust him enough for any of us to be alone with him," Twilight added.

"Not the one that attacked first purple butt," Simon said but was ignored by most of the girls, though Twilight offered a weak glare in response to the insult.

Twilight let out a sigh. "Look, my name is Twilight, not egghead and definitely not purple butt. And this is Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie," Twilight spoke pointing to each of them in turn.

"I would offer up one of my animal carriers but I don't think I have one big enough to fit him," Fluttershy added.

"It’s for the best, I don't like enclosed spaces anyway," Simon said with a wave of his hand just to be ignored again.

Rarity put her hoof to her chin before she felt inspiration hit her. "Idea! What if we give him a disguise until we can get on the train. We can rent a private car that way no one will be none the wiser."

"You want me to crawl on my hands and knees and pretend to be a pony? No thank you, that does not sound like fun." Simon piped in, cringing mentally at the thought of him in some kind of goofy looking pony costume.

"What no no, not that darling, have you heard of a Minotaur? While you’re a little on the scrawny side, you certainly look like one, just need to apply some fake fur and a mask and getting you through town shouldn’t be an issue." Rarity looked at everyone. "I will just need a few things from my shop to do it though."

"Oh well, don't let me stop you guys from getting the stuff you need. If you can't tell my way home is closed I have nowhere to go right now, plus I could use a nap." Simon said, letting out a yawn before laying back in the grass

"That should work." Twilight spoke looking down at Simon, now laying on his back, before turning back to the group. "Rarity you, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie should go get the disguise ready since you’ve actually met minotaurs before. The rest of us will stay and keep an eye on him." The named trio all nodded to Twilight before they started galloping off in the direction of Ponyville.

Twilight turned towards Simon. "Well, since we have some time how about you answer a few questions, like what were you doing with the vortex?" Simon turned to face them laying down on his side using one arm to prop his head up the other draped across his side.

"Oh, that's easy, I was closing it," Simon stated matter of factly.

"What!?" All three girls responded in unison.

"Yeah, I was setting up a device that closes the portal after a delay so that I have enough time to get back through." He smiled at them before laying on his back again and stretching out.

"Wait, so you're saying that if we hadn't interrupted you, we wouldn't be in the situation that we are now?" Applejack responded, almost flabbergasted at the revelation.

"Yep, pretty much," Simon said in the middle of a yawn and closing his eyes.

"Great, just perfect." Twilight groaned as she turned and looked at Simon in order to ask him another question only to find he was asleep. Part of her was prepared to scream to get him awake but she realized something was off.

"Umm egghead, are you seeing what I am," Rainbow asked. Twilight took a closer look at Simon. She noticed that all the color within an inch around him seemed faded. Twilight's curiosity got the better of her and she approached slowly but as her hoof got within the faded portion she felt a few tingles through her frog so she pulled her hoof away quickly.

"What is it," Applejack asked, watching Twilight’s reaction.

"I'm not sure but it might be best if we wait for him to wake up," Twilight spoke as she examined the bottom of her hoof. Sure enough, there was a spot that was slightly faded purple but she could see that it was quickly returning to normal.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

In an Unknown world

The small man once again approached the figure upon the throne. "Sir, I'm here with the status report of all our current missions in progress.” The figure waved for him to continue. "All missions are running as scheduled except...."

"Except for Simon’s. Of course, he’s always had a unique way of doing things." The figure interrupted.

"Well, you see sir, Simon’s portal has closed." The man spoke, shaking heavily out of fear of retaliation. Yet the figure didn’t react as he’d expected, remaining relatively calm.

"Let me guess, Simon said it was a world filled with nothing but broccoli again. Make sure to demote him down another 5 ranks and only give him enough magic to survive for the week. Once he’s struggled enough we’ll see how willing he will be to fight in the arena again." The figure commanded

"That's the thing, Sir Simon didn't come back through before it closed this time." the small man spoke weakly, knowing an outburst of rage was about to occur.

"WHAT!" the figure shouted, practically leaping out of his chair, nearly giving the messenger a heart attack. "Get all of our portal engineers working on opening that portal immediately. I don't care how many capacitor deities we kill in the process, get it open.”

"Of course sir. Right away sir." The small man disappeared again.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Everfree Forest

Rarity and the others came running back with the Minotaur disguise, with Rarity carefully levitating it with her magic, as they made their way to the spot they’d left earlier. "Sorry it took so long everyone, I had only seen the Minotaur the one day and I didn't have time to properly measure the subject before we ran off." Rarity spoke as she approached the others. Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked up from where they were hoof wrestling and Twilight lifted her head off her hoofs where she was obviously made to mediate. Simon all the while was still on his back asleep. "Has he been sleeping this entire time?" Rarity asked tilting her head to the side curious.

"Yeah, pretty deeply too." Rainbow Dash snickered pointing at the pile of sticks and leaves that she had piled on top of his chest, meriting a giggle from Pinkie. Twilight just rolled her eyes at the pairs immaturity.

"Alright, let's get going then we don't have much time to lose," Twilight spoke taking the disguise with her magic and tossing it on top of Simon, finally jolting him awake. Simon immediately shot up, startled and unintentionally sent the pile of sticks and rocks flying in every direction. As he flailed around in response to the surprise, he accidentally kicked the speaker away, though thankfully not enough to damage it. Twilight quickly levitated the device with her magic and moved it back over towards him. "My friends are back with your disguise. So let's make sure it fits properly so we can walk into town without causing a panic." Simon shrugged picking up the blue suit covered in fur and looked it over.

"The only thing we couldn't come up with was a way give you face the same shape as a minotaur," Fluttershy spoke.

"Oh, I can help with that," Simon said he then reached out his hand disappearing into the same black spot as before pulling out an animal-shaped mask.

"Actually I've been meaning to ask you what is that thing you keep pulling all this stuff out of," Twilight asked

"Oh, umm, it is a fourth-dimensional space where I can store any number and size of items as long as I have the magical energy to open it to the correct size. I guess you can think of it like a closet that I take anywhere I go." Simon shrugged

Twilight’s eyes lit up in excitement as she thought of all the things she could do with that kind of ability. She then gave Simon a slightly confused look, "but wouldn't your world's fourth dimension be different from our world's dimension so you wouldn't have your stuff here." She would have liked to ask more questions, except for the fact that He was an invading force.

Simon smiled at her. "Ah, I see you're the smart one of the group." Simon stood up and took off his shirt to change into his disguise. Twilight immediately noticed two things, the first was the reason he wore the clothing was that his body was completely devoid of fur so he needed something to protect him from the elements, the second was that his body, if his lower half looked anything like his upper half, was covered head to toe in scars. Twilight wanted to ask about them when he suddenly spoke up again. "You see, while our worlds may have different fourth-dimensional space, you're not thinking of something so much more simpler if our worlds have a fourth-dimension tied to it and so too would our personal bodies." Simon picked up the disguise, flipping it around until he found the hole that he needed to slip in. He then proceeded to place it on the ground and unbuttoned his pants, removing them before stepping into the disguise, eventually covering his entire body, save for the head. Once the costume was in place, he wordlessly picked up the rest of his discarded clothing.

"Oh, I will take that darling." Rarity spoke, quickly removing the clothing from his hands. "I thought this might happen so I brought my saddlebags." Rarity used her magic to place the items in her bag.

"Okay," Simon said, he then picked the mask up off the ground and affixing it to his face before picking up the translation box and disconnecting the two earpieces so he could place one in his ear and readjust the mask, finally completing the disguise. Some parts of the costumes were a little snug while some were a bit looser, but it wasn't bad fitting for something done without measurements. Simon then held out his hand with the other earpiece, which Twilight quickly levitated back onto her ear.

"Alright, let's get this show on the road," Rainbow said taking to the air and pointing in the direction of Ponyville before moving ahead of the group. The remaining members just shrugged and started following after the rainbow mare. As the made their way to town, the mares settled in around Simon, hoping that if they did run into somepony that was curious about him, they could deflect them enough to not notice that he didn’t speak.

"So Simon, does your world have any animals," Fluttershy spoke up, trying to pass the time as they walked towards Ponyville. Simon looked over in Fluttershy's direction and spoke something but without the translation device, she could no longer understand him. "Oh..umm that's oka..." Fluttershy started but she was suddenly interrupted by Twilight.

"He says yes, they have a lot of different species of animals in his world including some that seem to be the same species as us," Twilight looked over at Fluttershy.

"Oh, that's really interesting, did you have any pony friends in your world," Fluttershy asked hopefully. Once again Simon said something she couldn't understand, though this time after he was done she looked at Twilight eagerly, though the purple pony seemed a little surprised by his response.

"Simon said that the ponies in his world aren’t like the ponies here in Equestria. They don’t have magic and they aren’t especially intelligent either. They make good companions like a dog but they couldn't exactly hold a conversation," Twilight spoke matter of factly, still a little stunned by the notion of a world where ponies lacked even the ability to speak.

"So Simon what are farms like in your world." This time Applejack spoke up, looking back at the group. Like with Fluttershy, Twilight was needed to translate the otherwise incomprehensible noise that came from his mouth.

"Apparently, the farms in his world are largely industrialized, meaning that they have chosen quantity or quality," Twilight spoke even as everyone including herself was taken by surprised by this answer.

"Now why would they go and do that?" Applejack asked shocked because she could never think of doing something like that with the apple farm. Simon closed his eyes as he thought for a second and then began speaking.

"Hmm, it seems that in his world the population of his species exploded out of control so they industrialized a lot of things in order to keep up with demand. He also said that it wasn't a popular choice, a lot of them were against it but due to the circumstances, it was a necessary sacrifice." Twilight translated, with Applejack seeming to accept the answer, but her dislike for it was written all over her face.

Rainbow Dash who had been mostly uninterested in the conversation suddenly flew back from the front of the group and up to Twilight.

"Oh, ask him if there's anything like the Wonderbolts in his world." Twilight seemed slightly annoyed by the Pegasus that was suddenly in her face.

"Rainbow he can hear you, you can ask...." Twilight stopped mid-sentence as she looked at Simon who looked confused by the question.

"Well, the Wonderbolts are a group of aerial performance Pegasus that also act as reserve forces in case of an emergency." There was a silence for a while as Simon spoke Twilight, giving the occasional nod to what he was saying. "Okay, so he says that humans, which are what his species is called, do not have a natural ability to fly but they do have these things called planes which are like giant metal birds that they can use to fly. Some of the more famous groups of fliers out there are part of military organizations." Rainbow Dash seemed satisfied with the answer Trying to imagine what giant Wonderbolts would look like. They all looked forward to where the forest cleared, finally giving them a clear view of Ponyville. They walked in silence for a bit as they entered town before Rarity decided it was her turn to ask a question.

"So I must ask does the rest of your race have as bad as a sense of fashion as you do. I mean, I know black is a slimming color but you had two outfits that were entirely composed of it." Rarity asked causing Simon to start laughing before he spoke.

"Really?" Twilight looked to Simon before she turned to the rest of the group. "Apparently, Simon was never really one for fashion, he just sorta grabbed stuff and put it on, he never worried about colors or how they looked. Also, the first outfit he was wearing wasn't his choice it was a standard unit of cloth that all the infiltrators use. Anyways, he says there is actually a very big fashion industry since wearing clothing in public is a requirement for his species."

"Well, I hope you don't mind, but I would like to make some alterations to your wardrobe." Simon nodded giving her permission to do as she pleased. "Thank you, and don't worry, by the time I am done you will be the best-dressed human in Equestria."

"Uh, Rarity he'll be the only dressed human in Equestria." Applejack commented.

"Good, then he won't have any competition, I'm not a miracle worker after all." Rarity joked. This caused all of them to laugh as they continued to walk through the town. After a little while, they were approached by another pony, a mint green unicorn by the name of Lyra

"Hiya girls, what are you all up to today?" Lyra asked she then spotted the minotaur that was behind them. "And who is your handsome friend." She asked then gave a small flirty growl. Pinkie was the one that stepped up next to Lyra.

"Hey Lyra we are just traveling with our friend Simon here we are supposed to escort him to the princess as fast as possible." Pinkie said putting her hoof around Lyra, which the mint colored pony was quick to slip out of and approach Simon.

"Oh, so your somepony important enough that the princess wants to meet with you?" Lyra slipped past the girls and put one of her hoofs around his waist leaning on him and used her other hoof to slide it up and down on his leg. "You know, once you're done with your official business with the princess you should come back here and visit me. I'm sure I could show you a few things about pony culture that you didn't know." She looked up at his face and gave him a little wink. This caused all the girls to blush except for Pinkie who was giggling to herself and Rainbow Dash who was frozen in place with her mouth hanging open at the blatant flirting. This time it was Twilight who stepped in

"Well Lyra, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but we have important business to take care of." Twilight started to say using her magic to pull Lyra off of Simon but as soon as Lyra looked to Twilight she interrupted her.

"Oh, what's that on your ear Twilight. Can I try it on?" Lyra spoke quickly moving from Twilight’s magic to her side staring wide eye at the device on her ear.

"What oh..." Twilight quickly looked side to side trying to come up with a convincing lie, afraid that Simon might talk to her and blow their cover. "No, I can't let you try it on cause it was given to me by somepony important."

"Oh, somepony important huh." Lyra smirked and for a moment Twilight thought that she was caught lying. "Did you finally get you a special somepony Twilight, I'm so excited for you, though I have to say that they have some interesting tastes in accessories."

"What no it's not like that." Twilight blushed a little bit at Lyra's statement. She tried to say more but she was at a loss for words.

Lyra laughed. "Relax Twilight, I'm just teasing you." Lyra bumped Twilight in the side with her elbow. "Anyways I gotta get going, I promised Bon bon I would help her with her shop today." Lyra and the group parted ways as Simon and the girls walked away Lyra saw a piece of paper on the ground, quickly picking it up and bringing it closer to her she found it was written in some sort of language she couldn't read. Her eyes quickly shifted back to Twilight and her group, as her curiosity had now officially been piqued.

"What in tarnation was that all about," Applejack asked.

"What, I panicked," Twilight replied trying to explain herself.

"No, ah know that Twilight, I meant what was with Lyra. Ah don't think ah have ever seen her act that way." Applejack stated, looking at everyone.

"Oh, that is cause Lyra has a biped fetish." Pinkie Pie chirped in. Simon took a quick look back, seeing Lyra looking at them while holding the note he left with his name and number. he made, the call me sign with his hand which only served to confuse her more since she had no clue what the meaning of the thing he just did with his hand. Thankfully, they made it to the train station with no more interruptions. Twilight approached the ticket counter.

"I would like to buy tickets for a trip to Canterlot, preferable a private car that is able to hold larger species," Twilight told the ticket pony, who took a quick glance a Simon to confirm the necessity of the cabin. After looking through a few pieces of paper he looked up to Twilight.

"I'm sorry but it appears all of our private cars for larger species have already been booked, but we still have a few pony sized car's if it's okay with your large friend." Twilight looked back at Simon who just nodded his approval.

"Sure, we’ll take that one." Twilight nodded producing a bag of bits and using them to pay for the tickets. Twilight then used her magic to hand each of the tickets to everyone. "Okay, follow me our car is this way." Twilight lead them through the station towards the back of the train. They got into the car without much trouble, though Simon had to lean back and place his legs forward, pretty much taking up two spots just so he wouldn't hit his head while sitting. Once they were all seated, Simon removed the head and mask of his disguise, as well as pulling the speaker from before and holding out his hand to Twilight She understood what he wanted right away pulling the device from her ear and putting it into his hand. Simon took it and hooked it back up to the speaker like he did before so they could properly communicate again. "So Simon, tell us what is it that your world wants with ours," Twilight asked him as the train started to move. Simon closed his eyes thinking on this subject for a while before he spoke again

"How can I explain this?" Simon paused a brief moment then started speaking again. "In simple terms, they want magic." He then went quiet again.

"What," Twilight asked looking confused at him.

"it's hard to explain but you see magic in our world magic is a limited resource but we didn't realize that until it was too late. Most of my world runs on magic, and it’s been filtered through machines, refining it allowing it to be used in several different ways," Simon spoke grimly.

"So what's so wrong with letting your world have a little bit of magic," Rainbow added.

Simon smiled at her. "Well there's nothing wrong with giving a little magic, hell from what I have seen your world seems to be an entire ocean of magic, but the gods wouldn't stop at just a little, they wouldn't stop until they left your world as a husk, with not a single drop of magic left.”.

The girls gasped at the same time before becoming silent. "Wait, you said, gods, what did you mean by that." Twilight asked this once again made Simon pause before he looked up

"Well, in my world there is a hierarchy, with the gods being at the top. There are a total of four of them and each one has their own private army of humans serving them. They’ve been around for as long as anyone remembers and they are the only beings in our world to passively generate their own source of magic. Next in line are deities, now there are three different types of deities, with fighter deities being at the top. They battle against each other in the arena to entertain the gods and are given ranks based on their standings, the higher their rank the more respect they get as well as they get a larger ration of magic along with pretty much anything they want. They are also the ones that primarily get sent on infiltration jobs, though they will send anyone that they feel is qualified." Simon paused giving a chance for this information to sink in. some time during the story Pinkie had laid her head down on Simon's lap. Simon had taken to absent-mindedly scratching behind her ears.

"Pinkie! What are you doing." Twilight said surprised looking down at Pinkie in his lap.

"I don't know what's going on but this is heaven." Pinkie Pie answered dreamily, practically melting into Simon’s hands.

"Anyway, please do continue darling." Rarity spoke up trying to ignore the odd behavior from their friend.

Simon nodded as he continued to scratch behind Pinkie’s ears before he spoke again. "Middle tier deities are the Creator Deities, whose job is to use magic in the creation of objects as well as finding new uses for magic. The last is the Capacitor Deity, who are the lowest ranked as they don't have much ability to use magic but they are very good at absorbing it and hold a large amount within themselves. Finally there are the normal citizens which are just ordinary humans. Unable to use magic themselves they hope that by working for the gods that upon their death they will be resurrected as a deity."

"Oh my that sounds terrible," Fluttershy spoke up once his story had ended.

"Wait, hold on one second you said deities are resurrected, like zomponies." Rainbow Dash quickly asked, mentally shivering at the image, along with Fluttershy and Rarity.

Simon shrugged. "I guess, I mean what happens is that when one of the gods takes particular interest in a citizen once they have died the God will place some of their own magic in the human causing them to come back to life as a deity, but they need to keep an ample supply of magic within themselves to stay alive."

"You said that they would dry up our world like they did yours. What is your world like?" Applejack asked

"Well, my world used to be a lot like this one, very lush and green, but then the gods showed up and showed the normal humans how to harvest magic and some ways how it could be used to make their lives easier. Everyone was excited for the life of leisure that they could have naturally started using magic in large amounts, but eventually, the planet started dying. All the plants started dying at just about the same time. We tried our best to keep them alive, even using magic to sustain them, but it took too much magic. Eventually, the plants all started to rot and eventually, our soil turned to sand without the plants and most of the animals either went extinct or are now kept in large zoos. The only spots in our world that are able to sustain life are the few cities we’ve managed to build. Everywhere else is just... The Deadlands." The girls shared a moment of silence after hearing the grim tale of what happened to his world. The train started to slow down and a voice came over a loudspeaker telling everyone that they had reached their destination. Simon picked up the speaker detaching the device from it, he held out the device again to Twilight. Twilight was about to pick up the device and placed it back on her ear when it was suddenly picked up by Rarity.

"Hold on darling, why are you the one dooming themselves to be his translator while we are out and about. Why not let one of us work as the translator for a while?" Rarity moved the device up to her face and looking it over, seeing how it goes and then placing it on her ear. "Is this correct?" Rarity turned her head towards Simon allowing him to see how she was wearing it

Simon gave her a thumbs up. "Yep, looking good."

Rarity turned her head back. "Thank you dear, well shall we get going?" Rarity put Simons clothing back into her saddlebag from where she had been working on them the entire train ride. Simon put his mask and the head of his disguise back on. They all exited the train and proceeded out of the station. Simon stopped and took in the sights looking all around at buildings and busy everything seemed it reminded him of the cities in his world. “Oh yes, it's quite a sight here isn't it." Rarity asked seeing his reaction

"Yeah, it reminds me of some the towns I saw in my world." Simon stopped looking around and looked down at Rarity. "So what way is it to this princess."

"It's right this way." Rarity spoke as she started leading the group towards the palace. Everyone was moving except for Applejack who pulled Twilight aside as soon as she was sure they were out of hearing range of the device.

"Ah, don't know about this Twi, he seems a little too eager to meet the princess don't you think?" Applejack looked back to where Simon and the others were, eyeing him suspiciously.

"You know he does seem to be in a bit more of a rush to meet the princess and he did say that his gods would do anything to get this world." Twilight whispered back to her. "Still he did say that he was going to close the portal of his own free will. For now, we will just have to keep an eye on him while he is in the princess’s presence. If anything goes wrong, then we’ll act.”

"Okay Twilight." Applejack nodded and the two of them sprinted to catch up to them. Soon enough they were walking up the stairs to the palace the guards eyeing the large minotaur as they made their way towards the throne room. Twilight stopped them just outside the large doors to the throne room and started talking to one of the guards.

"Excuse me but we are here to see the princess, we have something very important that needs her attention right away," Twilight spoke very matter of factly with the guard showing that she had some pull around here.

The guard nodded to her. "Yes, of course Ms. Sparkle." the guard opened the door slightly slipping through very quietly there were a few murmurs from the other side of the door and a minute passed before the guard came back out. "Princess Celestia is almost done with her current meeting it will only be another minute then she will speak with you." Twilight nodded and returned to the group and told them it would only be a minute.

Suddenly Simon spoke up. "Umm, is it alright if I take this disguise off yet?" They all looked to him after hearing his weird language, the guard's in particular looked surprised and suspicious. Rarity looked around a bit at the rest of the girls looking at her before she realized that she was the only one that understood what he had said

"Oh, right, he asked if it would be alright for him to change back into his clothing." Rarity stated

"Well sure I guess...but just let me warn..." Twilight started to say but it was too late Simon had removed the head and mask. The guards reacted immediately thinking that it was some kind of monster. The five guards jumped into action two of them with swords and three of them with spears. They all charged at Simon to hold him in place but they were caught off guard as five black spots appeared with two hands popping out before grabbing the two swords and holding them in place. Out of the other three holes came weapons similar to what the puppets had wielded, each one had cut the spear in half. This caused all the guards to stop in place staring wide-eyed at the scene that had unveiled in front of them in just five seconds of time. That is when Twilight stepped in picking up all five guards in her magic. "Will you all calm down, he is a guest of Princess Celestia and you," Twilight said turning her attention to Simon. "Equestria's guards are trained to subdue, not kill, you would have been fine if you didn't move." Twilight said angrily.

Simon pulled the speaker out and plugged his earpiece into it. "Hey, in my defense I'm new here so I don't know that and secondly once again I was not the one to attack first." Simon stated.

Twilight ignored the last comment from Simon, but before she could put the guards down the doors to the throne room burst open. "What is going on out here," Princess Celestia demanded. Twilight quickly put down the guards before all the girls and guards bowed before the princess. Simon smiled and waved at her as the hands let go of the swords, dropping them on the ground before retreating back into the black spots with the weapons and disappearing. Celestia gave the creature that was the same height as her a confused look. Though she could feel some magic radiating off of it trying to get into her mind her own magic managed to overpower it. Moving her attention to Twilight she spoke.

"I assume this individual is what you wanted to talk about?" Celestia asked looking back and forth between them.

"Uhh, yes." Twilight sighed

"Very well, we can discuss this more in the throne room." Celestia then walked back into her throne room Twilight followed motioning for the girls to follow along with Simon while the guards all moved back into position, though still shaken up by how easily the stranger dispatched them. Inside the throne room, Celestia ascended the stairs sitting on her throne next to her was Luna on her own throne. "So Twilight, my faithful student, please tell me what happened and who is the unusual creature that you have brought here."

Twilight took a deep breath. "Well, first this is Simon." Twilight motioned to Simon. "He came out of the portal as we were preparing to use the Elements to close it." Twilight relaid the story of what transpired to the princess, stopping when she got to the part where Simon had somehow gotten out of the shield that she had used to trap him. "By the way Simon how did you get out of my shield?" Twilight questioned him.

Simon smiled at Twilight. "Well, you see, I simply used my fourth-dimensional space to move my body. I could demonstrate if you wish." Simon looked up to the Princesses as he spoke. Luna nodded vigorously, excited to see this creature in action while Celestia only gave a slight nod. Twilight's horn lit up as she once again placed a shield around Simon. Simon started walking around running his hand around the inside of the shield again. He stopped once he had found the point he was looking for before he took a step back, reaching out right Before his hand made contact with the shield a black spot appeared but instead of digging around in it, he pressed further the black spot slowly growing in size as he pressed further and further.
Right before the last part of his body disappeared another black spot opened, this one just outside the shield. After it opened, a hand came out as it pressed forward more and more came out until finally Simon was free and the black spot disappeared. Simon turned to the princess before taking a bow. Both Celestia and Luna looked stunned they have never seen magic used in that way before. Simon collapsed down onto one knee, instead of trying to get back up he chose to sit down on the spot giving a big yawn.

"Are you okay?" Twilight asked, worried about Simon for a moment.

"I'm fine, it just takes a lot of magic to move like that." Simon waved his hand like it wasn't any big deal. "Anyway, I'm sure your princesses want to hear the rest of your story." This caused Twilight to look up to the princesses, who looked clearly concerned but after hearing him say he was okay they gave Twilight the nod to go on.

"Okay, where was I, oh, Rarity could you come over here?" Rarity nodded moving over to Twilight. Twilight pointed out the device that was on Rarity's ear. "Simon gave us this device, it seems to act as a translator." Twilight continued on with the story, leaving out the encounter with Lyra, when Twilight got to the train ride she began describing what Simon had told them about his world. The princesses listened intently to Twilight only giving the occasional nod. When the story finished with the incident that happened outside the throne room the princesses quietly discussed something between the two of them. They then asked a question that none of the girls thought to ask back on the train.

Celestia looks down to Simon. "So Simon, you said your world consisted of ranks, where do you fall in these ranks?"

"Oh, I am considered a Creator Deity. My specialty is fourth-dimensional space." Simon gave another yawn.

"You said that your world refines magic may we see this?" Luna asked quizzically.

Simon shrugged. "I guess I could try, do you have like a garden nearby that we can go to."

Celestia nodded. "Of course, right this way." Celestia and Luna stood as they led the way to outside to the nearby garden. Once they were all there they all turned to Simon, who was looking around, until he reached a bed of flowers.

"Do you mind?" Simon asked motioning to a flower. Celestia motioned for him to go ahead. Simon picked the flower holding it up and examining it then turning to all them. "Now, usually the refining process takes some very large machinery but I have been working on something. It's still experimental so it might not work." Simon reached out his hand reaching into the black spot and when he removed it, his hand was covered in cloth with a small, half circle device on the back of his hand. Simon turned towards the group kneeling down so that they could all see he held the flower in one hand and covered it with the gloved hand. Several lines on the device lit up, glowing a faint blue for a while before it stopped. When Simon removed his hand the flower had been crystallized. It took everyone by surprise including Simon. "Wow, normally a flower that size would only produce a small crystal of refined magic not this much."

Twilight came closer looking it over. "Simon may I have a piece of that to study."

Simon shrugged "Sure." He broke a leaf off the flower stem and held it out. Once it was taken Simon took the rest of the flower and swallowed it whole. Twilight saw ever curious, brought the crystallized leaf close to her face before sticking out her tongue to lick it. However, Simon stopped her. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, it's a highly addictive substance and we don't know how it would react to your species, since you’re already filled with magic and everything."

Twilight pulled her tongue back in moving the leaf away. "Interesting. I can’t wait to study this" Twilight spoke looking the crystallized leaf over again. this time she took the leaf and moved it towards Rarity. "Here Rarity, could you keep this safe until I can get it back to my lab." Rarity nodded taking it in her magic and moved it into her saddlebag.

Celestia cleared her throat to make herself know before she spoke. "That was an interesting demonstration, though I think we need to return to the throne room, Luna and I have a decision to make." With that, they all moved back to the throne room, Celestia and Luna quietly returning to their respective thrones before quietly discussing their next course of action. The rest of them sat around waiting. once a decision was made Luna spoke up.

"Very well, we have made a decision." Luna spoke up gaining everyone attention "Simon, your cooperation so far has been noticed and taken into account."

"But your kind's abilities are still very dangerous." Celestia spoke up after Luna was done "Therefore we have decided that we will allow you to live here for as long as it takes to get you home. For the time being, you will be staying with Twilight and her friends in Ponyville, but because of this familiarity aura you possess we don't know how the long-term effects of exposure are. Therefore, you will be rotated one week at a time staying at each of their houses. Twilight we would like you to be the first for him to stay with, your understanding of magic may help to find a counter to the familiarity magic that he has."

"What!" Twilight exclaimed looking between Simon and the Princesses.