Earth, Allen’s apartment

Allen burst into his tiny apartment and gave the door a swift shove closed. He tossed his work apron on his bed and flopped into his desk chair, before finally leaning back. “Home…at last!”

He ran his hand over his face and took a deep breath. “Okay, time to check out my YouTube channel.” Allen grinned as he eagerly unlocked his computer and navigated to his page. Now that he was getting the hang of audio mixing, he wanted to see how his subscribers were enjoying his latest works. Just as his excitement began to mount, Allen’s phone chirped at him. It was the same annoying bird tweet he assigned to his mom’s number.

A loud groan echoed through his apartment as Allen dug out his cell phone. Glancing at the screen, he saw he had a new text. “Seriously, I just got home from stocking shelves and already mom is pouncing on me.”

He hung his head, as he wasted no more time unlocking his phone and reading the message. Allen rolled his eyes after reading it. He promptly sent a reply. “There mom! Eight hours or mind-numbing shelf stocking and she wants to make sure I’m studying. Give me a break…she can’t even leave me alone on my day off classes.” Allen left his free arm flop lifelessly along the arm of his chair. “Isn’t it bad enough to always be on my back when I’m at the campus, but yeesh.” Glancing at his notifications, he did find some cause for joy. There were no texts from his father. “Well, at least dad isn’t jumping down my throat.” His phone chirped again.

Allen’s eyes slid down to the screen of his phone. Before he could roll his eyes again, the familiar sound of a Skype call drew his attention to his computer screen. “Oh good, it’s Jim.” He chuckled as he spoke his reply aloud to his mom as he typed it. “James is calling me, probably something about our lab project. Gotta go. I shouldn’t miss this chance to study.” Allen laughed aloud as he set his phone down and answered James.

The screen popped up with a clear picture of James staring back at him. “Ah, Allen. It’s about time you answered.”

“Jeeze, Jim, not you too?” Allen just shook his head as he slunk back into his chair and swayed back and forth a bit. “I just got home from work. First mom yells at me and…wait! Why are you calling me?”

James laughed. “That mom of yours.”

“Don’t forget my dad too.”

“How could I? They rarely give you a moment’s rest…well accept when you’re sleeping. Anyway, I’m calling because I have something you’ve got to see. How soon can you come by the lab?”

Allen closed his eyes and sighed. At the moment the thought of doing anything felt like too much as he noticed a pain in the back of his right knee. “Come on, Jim. You want me to come over there now? I didn’t even get to check my YouTube channel yet.” All Allen felt like doing was remaining part of his desk chair.

James pushed up his glasses and scratched his hairless chin. “Come on, forget your YouTube channel. This is something you’ll enjoy. And it should finally make your parents back off too.”

Allen blinked his pale green eyes as he sat up in his chair. “Wait…this isn’t about the experiment, is it?”

“Oh, you better believe it is, my friend. I’ll tell you more when you get down here. I don’t want to risk anyone monitoring this call, otherwise I’d say more.”

Allen smacked both sides of his face, as he remained upright in his chair. “Okay, okay. Just let me get myself together. I’ll be there in 20 minutes…depending on traffic at this hour.”

“Good, just get here.” James waved as the chat window closed.

Turning around in his chair, Allen ran his hand over the stubble on his chin. “Well now, this must be big. I haven’t seen Jim this excited in a while.” Allen glanced at his computer screen. “I really wanted to check my channel.” He smiled. “Well, I can do it from the lab. I’ll just change and get a few things.”

After changing his clothes, Allen grabbed his Kindle, cell phone and nabbed his charger. “There, and better bring my charger just in case.” He checked his wallet and nodded half-heartedly. “Good enough. Well, just need to use the can and I can head out…oh and might as well grab a Rockstar. Gonna need the caffeine and taurine.” He just chuckled. “It’s like Barbossa said in “On Stranger Tides” – “Sleep when you’re dead.””

* * * * * *

James paced around with his arms crossed as he and the others waited for Allen. Thomas looked over at James and smirked. “Come on, Jim, if you keep pacing around like that, you’re gonna wear out the tiles.”

He gave Thomas a blank look. “We both know that’s nonsense. These tiles are quite durable to say the least. And it’s “James”. Only Allen may call me “Jim”.”

A giggle wafted through the air. Sarah flipped back her long auburn locks as she shook her head. “Careful Thomas, you don’t want to hurt James’s feelings. Only his close friends can call him “Jim”.”

Thomas threw his arms up in the air. “Whatever. And seriously where is…”

The door to the science lab flung open, and in dashed a winded Allen. “I…I’m here…here. Sorry, they decided to work late paving 9th Street.”

James shook his head and uncrossed his arms. “It doesn’t matter. At least you’re here. Now we can get started.”

Allen took a swig of his Rockstar energy drink and licked his lips. “What do you mean get started?”

A suave expression encompassed James’s face as he walked over to the large table where all their equipment was sprawled out, include an odd boxy black hexagon-like circle. “We’re finally ready to give the projector a real test this time.” Excitement and pride decorated each of James’s articulated words.

“For real?” Allen had to double check. “And where’s the professor?”

Thomas scoffed. “Oh, please who needs that pompous old windbag. We’re the ones doing the lion’s share of his work. Why should he get all the credit for this experiment?”

Taking one last sip of his energy drink, Allen looked to the ceiling, then said, “Well, he is the one heading this project. Thus, he has all the know how.”

James slammed his fist on the corner of the table. “No he doesn’t! Until I started helping him. The best that ignoramus was working on was a low-grade laser. He had no idea how to properly tune the projector so it could manipulate two points in space.” He then pointed to the rear of the projector. “It was my idea to harness the power of four compressed UltraBatteries, so that the energy demands of the device wouldn’t pull so hard on the power grid and risk limiting the energy we need for this to work.”

Allen swallowed hard. He knew when James got like this that he’d better listen. “Okay. You make a valid point. But what makes you think this will go any better than the last time we tried this? The professor was here and…”

“Yeah,” James began as he pushed up his glasses. “He was the problem, that dolt. Half the wiring wasn’t hooked up correctly, we were only working with a quarter of the power we could have used.”

Sarah laughed as she checked the notes from the folder that she was holding. “Oh yeah. I remember that day. All the test did was give us all a bad case of super frizzy hair.”

Allen nodded. “Yeah, see? Sarah remembers.”

“Yes well, today we’ll be working with full power. I checked the connections seventeen times and ran twenty promising simulations on the lab computer. Only one time was there an anomaly and it was only a minor fluctuation of 5% on the focal stream. I’ve since corrected that issue. Oh and here.” James handed Allen a flashy looking black rod.

“What’s this for? Wait…the Recall Rod?” He glanced at James curiously.

James nodded. “Exactly. Since the lab has the only working Portal Frame. We need the Recall Rod to serve as a proxy for the Portal Frame.”

Allen playfully smacked his forehead. “That’s right. I remember you telling me about this thing.” He secured the rod and stood in front of the frame. “So, is there anything else you want me to do? Should I check the flow regulators? Or is this where you need me?”

“Perfect. That’s right where I need you. Thomas, Sarah, energize the projector. I’m going to make sure the destination coordinates are set correctly.” James typed on the keyboard as he checked the necessary fields. “Hmm, this looks right. If all goes well.” He turned to the others. “Allen and I will walk through the Portal Frame and emerge in the Rocky Mountains. Based on the time there, we should be in time to see the sun start to set over the valley.”

“The UltraBatteries are reading at 100% charge.” Sarah doubled-checked the readout and nodded. “Yep, good to go here.”

Thomas glanced at the capacitor and then looked over to the group. “Everything checks out here. We’ve got power coming in from the grid. Let’s do this.”

James walked over to Allen. “Just think, Allen. If this works, we can eventually use the projector to send people to distant planets in mere minutes. Think of the cost saving on not needing space ships, or having to spend countless years traveling in the vacuum of space. And best of all, if anything goes wrong, simply use the Recall Rod to return to the projector’s point of origin. It’s brilliant!” James took a deep breath and clenched his fist holding it close to his chest in a triumphant manner.

Allen liked science well enough, but not to the same degree as his fellow lab partners. Still, he was quite excited to be part of all this. It was thanks to Allen’s overbearing parents that he met James. Originally he started off tutoring Allen, but over time they found common interests in science as well as music and video games. The later was more to Allen’s liking. In fact James was the one that helped him with his passion for audio mixing and the layout for his YouTube channel.

This experiment reminded Allen of so many things he’d seen on the Science Fiction shows and movies that he loved to watch. To think, he and the others were about to attempt something that many believe to be nothing more than the offspring of scientific theories. He smiled as he looked over at James. “This is exciting! And I know a lot of people that will be thrilled it if this works.” Allen grinned.

“I know. We could use this to start terraforming other worlds.” James chuckled in a giddy fashion, before holding his arm out. “Okay, throw the master switch. Activate the projector!”

“Okay.” Sarah walked over to the emitter part of the device. “Here we go.” She clicked the switch and the device began to buzz and whirl.

Thomas checked the energy flow. “Everything looks good. The power flow is holding steady.”

Sarah checked the projector matrix. “The emitter’s projector matrix is building to critical. 50% and rising.” She looked over at them and back to the monitor. “65%.”

James pulled Allen close as his excitement continued to build. “This is it, Allen. Any second the Portal Frame will engage.”

Allen just looked at the blank boxy circle, hoping nothing would explode.

Sarah continued reading the emitter’s charge rate as they all waited. “85%…95%…100%.”

The focal point of the projector began to buzz and crackled as in mere moments a powerful beam of energy fanned out into the Portal Frame. The receptors on the frame lit up and began glowing a brilliant shade of electric blue. The center of the aperture began to glow with the same light as the beam resonated off of it.

The lights dimmed only for a split second, and a strong rush of air burst forth from the aperture. James stared on with trembling delight. “It worked! Look, Allen! There’s actually something on the other side.”

Allen blinked in disbelief. Before him stood a spinning vortex of sorts and at its center was what appeared to be the Rocky Mountains. “Wow, Jim, you did it!”

“Yes. Let’s go through and make history, buddy. Just think, your parents can finally get off your back!”

“Yeah.” Allen grinned as the two of them stepped toward the portal.

“Good luck you two!” Thomas called after them.

“I’ll be looking forward to your call.” Sarah grinned as she gave them a two-finger salute.

In seconds the two had crossed through the Portal Frame. They emerged and saw the blazing sun slowly setting above. “We did it, Allen! We’re here in the Rocky Mountains!” James was overjoyed as he started a disjointed dance of celebration.

Allen fished out his cell phone and figured now was a good time to call Sarah back at the lab. “Ok…here we…wait.” He couldn’t believe his eyes. “No service. Wait, let me see…wow, not even 911 service.” Allen felt a moment of panic, then he realized the mountains might not have any cell towers near by or perhaps he needed to try for better reception.

James was still dancing as he walked over to Allen. “Oh yeah, we did it, we did it!” He saw the bummed look on Allen’s face. “What’s wrong?”

“I can’t get anything on my phone. No service, no Internet, nothing.”

James waved a dismissing hand. “No worries. My phone has a satellite uplink with it. Hmm…” He checked his phone closely. “That’s odd. I don’t have any service either. Not even with my uplink.” James smiled as he shook his head. “Oh well.” He glanced back and saw no trace of the portal, which meant that it had simply closed after they stepped through. “Everything worked as it was supposed to. We’ll just use the Recall Rod and head back.”

“Oh, right.” Allen put his phone away and went for the rod.

“YEAH!! WE DID IT!! WHOO HOO!!!” James continued to celebrate, shouting toward the mountain, not a care in the world.

“Are you sure that’s such a good idea?” Allen cautioned attempting to activate the recall rod.

“Why, what could…” He was cut off. A loud piercing roar ripped through the air.

“Um…you might stir up a wild animal.” Allen felt a nervous sweat from on his brow and he pressed the power switch.

“Big deal. That’s just some panther or lion.”

Allen gulped fearfully as he held up the Recall Rod. “Uh, this sounded a lot bigger than a lion.”

They heard the roar again, only this time, it was much closer to them. “Allen, you’d better activate the Recall Rod. I suddenly have that sinking feeling.”

“Working on it. There, I was right, that was the power switch.” Allen let out a sigh as the device illuminated and whirled to life.

A large dark shadow fell across them as the ground began to quake. “Allen…hurry!”

The two looked back and could not believe their eyes. “No, it’s not possible!” James shouted. “Allen, run!!”

“There’s no way that could be a…”

“Dragon. Well, it sure looks like it. Any luck with that thing?” James looked fearfully to his friend.

“Yeah, here we go!” Allen held up the rod and a jolt of energy shot out ahead of them, opening another portal. “Yes! It worked!”

“Good, then lets get out of here!” James tore off for the portal, with Allen right behind him.

The dragon roared again, before opening its large mouth and blowing a cone of fire at them. Allen veered to the right, while James dove for the portal. After making it inside the aperture, the portal began to collapse. “Allen!” James called to his friend.

“Jim!!” Allen yelled as he tried to make it for the portal. But, it closed just before he could enter. The shadow of the dragon fell over Allen as he whimpered. “Oh, God.”

* * * * * *

Equus Prime, Ponyville General Hospital

“NO!” Allen gasped awake and sat up snapping his eyes open.

Nurse Redheart carefully placed her hooves on his arms. “Easy there. Try not to move around too much.”

Allen laid back and let his head sink into the soft pillow. The incessant beep of what sounded like a heart monitor filled his ears. “Huh?" He looked around and saw what looked like six ponies and a seventh one dressed like a nurse. They were all standing around his…hospital bed? His pale green eyes widened in disbelief as the memories started to gel in his mind. “Jim…” He looked around frantically. “Where’s Jim?”

“Who’s Jim?” asked Twilight.

Allen glanced at his visitors and recognized two of them. He recalled the cyan Pegasus with the colorful hair flying at…a dragon?! Allen blinked twice as he then saw the orange one still wearing a cowboy hat.

“Ooh,” he groaned, a few jarring twinges of pain flew up his legs and arms. “W-What happened and where am I?”

Allen noticed one with a horn on her forehead stand up and step closer to him. Her body was clad in lavender fur and her mane and tail were mostly dark sapphire with a streak of violet and rose trailing through them, topped off with matching bangs. She can’t be a unicorn, he thought.

“Oh, good.” Twilight smiled. “Applejack was right, you can talk. Now who is this "Jim" you’re looking for?”

Allen grimaced and grunted a little, trying to get comfortable. “He’s my friend…someone similar to me, only skinnier and he wears glasses. Have you seen him?” The human looked around the room but saw no trace of his friend.

Applejack looked at Twilight curiously then turned her eyes to Allen. “Um, we didn’t find anyone else but you in the mountains.”

“Oh.” Allen lowered his head. “So he wasn’t there.” Then Allen remembered – the recall rod worked, and James made it back through the portal, but it closed before he could get through. “That’s right, he must have made it back then.”

“Back where?” Twilight asked, blinking her eyes.

Allen shook his head and sighed. “It’s a long story.” The human looked himself over then back to Twilight. “What happened to me?”

The unicorn giggled. “That’s also a bit of a story. Hang on a second.” Twilight walked over to the doctor. “So what’s his prognosis?”

Dr. Screen reached for Allen’s chart. “Ah, here we go.” After giving the notes a quick glance, he turned to Twilight. “He should be fine. The wounds he suffered were mostly superficial. A few required a stitch or two, but it’s a good thing you and the others intercepted him before he fell the whole way to the ground. It could have been a lot worse.”

“Thank you, doctor. Oh, and does he need to…” Twilight looked at the doctor questioningly.

“What? Stay in the hospital? No, the heart monitor was just to keep an eye on his vitals for the time being. He’s stable and in no danger. I’m still not sure what he is other than mammalian. It’s possible he really is some breed of hairless ape, but I’ve never seen anything like him in Equestria…at least not any place I’ve been. Regardless, I don’t see any reason why we can’t release him into your custody.”

Nurse Redheart walked over to one of the nearby shelves. “Here’s where we placed his belongings. He didn’t have much, other than his clothes and some strange-looking items.”

Twilight nodded thankfully and looked at Allen and then back to the nurse and doctor. “All right. Thank you both for all of your help.”

Nurse Redheart smiled. “Of course. We’ll leave you alone for now. Just stop by the font desk when you’re ready to check out.”

Dr. Screen turned to Twilight. “And if he should feel any worsening pain or discomfort, be sure to bring him back here.” With that he and Nurse Redheart stepped out of the room.

Twilight sighed briefly as she rejoined her friends. “Are you okay?” She asked Allen.

He shook his head. “I’m not sure.”

Twilight offered him a smile, and took a deep breath. “Well, at any rate allow me to introduce myself. I am Twilight Sparkle and these are my friends.” She waved her hoof past each of them. “This is Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.”

He nodded politely to all of them. “It’s nice to meet all of you. You’ll have to forgive me, but this is a lot to take in. So, you are all ponies…and uh Pegsuses?”

“Pegasi,” said Fluttershy, smiling as she helped him with the correct word.

“Right, Pegasi…and unicorns? That can all…talk?” He blinked incredulously.

Pinkie Pie smiled grandly. “Yep, we sure are.”

“Wow. I can hardly believe it.” His eyes widened. “Oh, I’ve been rude. I’m Allen, Allen Benton. And.” The human looked around. “Other than in a hospital, can you tell me where I am?”

Twilight Sparkle nodded. “Of course.” The unicorn knew this wasn’t going to be a simple first encounter as she prepared to answer Allen.

* * * * * *

After answering a few of Allen’s questions and getting him to address a few of her own, Twilight suggested they take things back to her place. Since Allen was cleared to leave the hospital, she said the setting would be more relaxed and conductive so they could talk and explain things in better detail.

Close to an hour and half had gone by since they arrived at Twilight’s home in the Golden Oak Library. Allen sat there on one of the easy chairs in Twilight’s living room. The human sighed as he sipped from a glass of cold apple cider. He smacked his lips, enjoying the beverage’s sweet and lightly tart apply aftertaste. “And that’s pretty much what happened.”

There was a wide array of emotions pasted on the faces of the main six following Allen’s explanation of how he ended up in their world. Most were fascinated, Rainbow Dash was trying to hide her boredom, and Pinkie Pie was surprisingly not in the room. Though as Allen cast his gaze about the room, and the many shelves housing books, the one thing that stuck out the most to him was the unending intrigue present on Twilight’s face.

“That’s amazing. So you’re telling me…uh, humans…is that what you said your race is called?” Twilight’s eyes were glistening as she smiled at him.

Allen nodded as he took another sip from his cup. “That’s right.”

Twilight continued to smile as she clapped her hooves together. “Great. So, you’re telling me your kind has developed some kind of device that allows for teleportation?”

Setting down his glass, Allen nodded. “That’s right. It’s still experimental, and doesn’t seem to have worked right. Well, at least James made it back.” The human sighed. “I can’t believe all this is really happening.” All of this still seemed like one big dream he was trying to wrap his head around.

Fluttershy walked over beside him and place a hoof on the arm of his chair. “Um, are you okay, uh…Allen was it?”

“Yeah. You’ll have to forgive me, uh…Fluttershy?” She nodded. “It’s not everyday I end up in an alien world with talking ponies.” He felt around the back and sides of his head. “Nope, no bump.” His hand found nothing on his forehead either. “Well, I don’t appear to have hit my head. Guess the doctor was right.” Allen smiled looking out at his hosts. “And if I didn’t already…I want to thank you all for saving me and helping me.”

Twilight smiled after wetting her whistle with some of the cider. “You’re quite welcome. It’s not everyday we get such…uh, a unique visitor like you in Ponyville.”

Rainbow Dash snickered. “Yeah, I’ll say.” She proceeded to take a large gulp of cider from her glass. “You’re the first hairless ape I’ve ever seen.”

Allen swayed his head a little, that was the first time anyone had every referred to him as an ape. He wasn’t quite sure how to take it. Rarity caught that look in his eyes and fought to keep from spitting out her mouthful of apple cider. The unicorn quickly composed herself, and very ladylike, cleared her throat. “Now, now, Rainbow Dash. Our guest has a name. Allen, please excuse this ruffian. I guess not every pony has manners.”

Rainbow Dash glared at Rarity, slanting her eyes. “Manners? What do you mean manners? All I said was…”

“It’s not what you said, it’s how you said it. Allen is hardly an ape.” Rarity turned to Allen. “I do apologize for her, darling. It’s just how Rainbow Dash is.” She turned the Pegasus’s way and lightly glared at her. Rainbow Dash just crossed her forelegs and let out a light huff.

Allen held up a hand and replied. “It’s all right. No harm done. I just haven’t been called an “ape” before.” A less than pleasant silenced formed, and Allen wasn’t sure what to say, then he spied Applejack, resting on the couch with Twilight. He smiled and held up his glass. “Applejack, did I hear you right? You said your family makes this amazing cider?”

The earth pony waved a hoof. “Aww heck, it’s nothing too fancy, but you bet your buttons we do. It’s part of my family’s tradition. And I’m d-lighted to hear ya like it some much.” Applejack gave a nod.

“Of course.” Allen smiled.

Twilight cleared her throat. “Now, I’m guessing what’s on your mind at the moment is wondering how you’re going to get home.”

He sighed, sinking back into his chair. “Yeah. But, we checked my things at the hospital, and the recall rod wasn’t there. Without it, I’m not sure how I’ll be able to get home.” Allen lightly groaned. “And that’s if it still works. I managed to get it work long enough to send James home. But there’s no telling if it has enough power to work more than once.”

Twilight placed a curious hoof to her chin. “Hmm. Even if the power did run out, maybe we could find a way to recharge it…or even come up with an alternative power source.”

Allen partially nodded his head. “That’s a definite possibility. But, until I find it, there’s no telling” He mimed punching himself on the head. “How could I have been so careless and just dropped it?”

“Well, ya were running from a dragon.” Applejack interjected while she sat up. “In the confusion it’s possible you dropped the darn thing.”

“Yeah, that sounds like me.” Allen sighed.

“Hey, everypony! Who wants nachos?” Pinkie Pie came into the living room, lightly bouncing and had a great big smile on her face.

Spike followed behind her carrying a large platter piled high. “I hope you’re all hungry.” He sat the platter on the sizable coffee table.

Allen smiled. He hadn’t realized how hungry he was. “That’s right, I never ate dinner. Everything happened so fast. Oh, but are these overly spicy?”

Spike waved a claw. “Nah, there’s nothing too spicy in them.”

“Wait…Spike, what are you supposed to be?” He eyed up the scaly lizard, noting his claws and tail.

Spike blinked. “What? I’m a baby dragon.”

Fluttershy giggled as she patted Allen’s arm. “Oh, don’t worry, unlike that big mean dragon in the mountains, Spike’s all right. And he’s so adorable.” Fluttershy cooed, smiling over at him.

“Cut it out, Fluttershy.” Spike turned his head and couldn’t help but blush a little.

Allen let out a relaxed sigh. “Okay, that’s a relief. Sorry, Spike, I’m just not used to being anywhere that has dragons.”

“It’s cool. But in the meantime, go on everypony, dig in?” Spike grinned, waiting for them to sample the fruit of his and Pinkie Pie’s labors.

Twilight smiled at their guest. “Go on, Allen. As our guest, you can be the first to try them.”

Allen shared Twilight’s smile as he eyed up the small mountain of nacho goodness. “It’s certainly inviting. What all did you put in them? They smell amazing.” His stomach gurgled and growled.

“I’ll field this one, Spike.” Pinkie Pie stood behind the platter. “These are made with shredded cheddar, shredded jack cheese, nacho cheese, diced tomatoes, sautéed red and green peppers and all this rests on a bed of yummy tortilla chips. Oh, and there’s mild salsa and some sour cream for dipping them in.”

Allen reached out and grabbed a nicely coated chip, inviting the culinary delight into his mouth. He crunched down on it. His eyes widened. “Wow, what a taste, even without the salsa and sour cream.”

“Oh good, he likes them, Spike.” Pinkie cheered. Spike crossed his arms and nodded contently.

The human reached for some more and made use of the small plates he saw Pinkie Pie sit on the table. “Come on, dig in every…uh pony.” Allen grinned. “Mmm, these are amazing, Spike.”

“Aww, go on. I make them all the time.” The dragon grinned.

As they ate, the scent of something else caught Allen’s nose. “Wait…sniff, sniff. Spike, what is that heavenly aroma coming from the kitchen?”

Spike took a whiff and smiled. “Oh, those, are just my special freshly baked homemade triple-decker nut crazy vanilla cream cookies.” There was a ding from the kitchen. “Ah, the first batch is done.” He grinned heading for the kitchen. “If you’ll all excuse me, I’m gonna be busy in the kitchen.”

The others just chuckled at Spike’s enthusiasm as he returned to the kitchen. And it didn’t take the group long to devour the mountain of nachos.

Patting his belly, Allen leaned back in the chair and sighed. “Mmm, that was good.”

“It sure was…burp.” Rainbow Dash giggled. “Oops, excuse me.” She grinned. “Ah, well, after the cookies get out here, I think I’ll be heading out.”

Rarity lightly fluffed her mane. “Yes, I suppose I’ll be doing the same. As much as I enjoyed our outing and meeting you, Allen. There are outfits I have to get back to working on. I fear tomorrow will be here all too soon.”

Applejack nodded. “Yeah, I reckon we all have things to get to.” She looked over at Allen. “So, partner. Where are you going be shacking up tonight?”

Allen’s arm dropped lifelessly along the side of the chair. “You know, I have no idea.”

Twilight Sparkle shook her head. “Nonsense. I have plenty of room, you can just crash here tonight.”

Allen ran a hand through his short raven hair. “Well, if you’re sure it won’t be any trouble, Twilight.”

She just smiled. “Nope, it’s fine. Besides, you’ll need somewhere to stay, at least till we can find that, did you say…recall rod?” Twilight endeavored to remember.

“Yeah, that’s right.” Allen nodded, sitting up and resting his arms along those of the chair.

Then before anyone else could speak, Spike came out with a plate loaded with cookies. “Here you go, guys. I’m still working on the rest, but you can start with these.”

Allen smiled as he and the ponies enjoyed Spikes cookies. Things may not have been going quite as he expected, but he was glad that it didn’t appear he would have to face this new land all on his own.

Author's Note

I just thought I'd include these links about UltraBatteries. I stumbled upon these when I was researching energy storage mediums.

UltraBattery
http://ultrabattery.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UltraBattery