Endangered

Ponies gazed at me in surprise. I was hidden away from the public for a few days, with little information revealed about me. I was still walking with a limp, my leg wasn't going to fully heal for a while. I could try to ditch this situation get to my car and go somewhere else. Though it pretty much was pointless. I had nowhere to go and I sticked out like a sore thumb, I was a human after all.

"So, do you know how you got here?"

"Nope, just woke up in my car. With no memory of what got me there. I had no memories of what I was doing hours earlier either," I responded to Twilight.

"Strange," she said.

"Your kind was to me when I got here." I added. "There are no intelligent ponies where I come from."

"Really? It must of been hard to adapt," Fluttershy spoke quietly.

I walked with a slight limp still, I was amazed at how fast it was healing. "Yeah but you get used to magic and walking among another species after a little while."

Twilight curiously asked "What do you mean 'used to magic'?"

"Well" I began. "To put it simply, there is no magic in my world. Or at least from what I can tell."

"No magic?"

"Nope, just us versus the wilderness and ourselves I guess" I started gloated "Though humans on Earth have accomplished things you would see as impossible by non-magical, or even magical means."

"Like what?" pondered Rainbow Dash.

"Well, we achieved supersonic flight," I responded with a smirk.

This stroked Rainbow Dash's ego a little. "I've done that," she said. Yeah, I'm not buying that for a second. She has wings, not jet engines.

"Flying that fast would be impossible without wings of your own," Twilight remarked with a smart voice. All they had were hot air balloons and zeppelins.

"That's why we built our own," I put on a slight smirk.

"Impossivle, I'm the fastest thing in the skies!" gloated the cocky Pegasus. Her face held confidence in it.

"I doubt that, there are things we built that are faster than pretty much every living being where I'm from," She looked at me with slight anger. "I mean no bird can go that fast back on Earth."

"Try me. Tough guy!" She huffed in a modest snobby tone at me. I was right, they were going to view it as impossible. "I bet I could go way fast--"

"C'mon y'all," Applejack interrupted looking at both of us. "There's no point in arguing. We gotta find that carriage o' yours." Finally directing her gaze to me.

We started to move again, Fluttershy and Rarity started a conversation about what I briefly caught was something about dresses, that I did not know fully about. Ponies kept staring but some just ignored me now, I heard that other intelligent species were had been introduced to the nation in the past. It like I was becoming a normality. This was slightly comforting.

My stomach groaned, breaking the awkward silence. "I could go for some kind of meat right now, jeez," I voiced. The elements stopped. They just started at me. "What? I'm an omnivore," I gave a slight smile at them, their society was not used to species of different diets.

Rainbow Dash finally spoke up "What's an omnivore?" The others were static still looking at me in unease.

Twilight then explained "Well, its a creature that eats foods of animal and plant origin."

"Eggheads," branded Rainbow Dash.

"Hey!" me and Twilight said in sync, stopping ourselves momentarily.

"I'm not an Egghead!" objected Twilight.

"C'mon, we're pretty close to my car," I put on a smile as I pointed behind me. The streets didn't seem as busy as they did a few days ago. The street we were specifically on seemed familiar to me, more so than the countless others we strolled through. I felt like my navigation skills were on point as I looked around. I had a resolute feeling that I had been here before.

I spied a small alleyway to my left. I leaded myself over to its entrance. I meandered before it, peering into the coat of black that filled the depths before me.

"Where are you going?" Twilight asked behind me.

I responded "Gimme a second, here." I continued my way into the hallway of brick and stone. I had a better look of the area now that I had a little more time to take it all in. A fence was at the back of the alley way, I vividly remembered acknowledging a barrier of some form at the back of the alley. Or was there? I wasn't directly sure

It seemed like it was the place where I encountered my assaultants "Ray, what are you doing?" Twilight again asked.

It was the only thing assuring the path I was taking was correct. I was navigating off of fuzzy memories mixed with a concussion. I decided to think it was the alleyway where I was met with a bow, knife and a bat. I abruptly strode out of the alley.

"So, what was relevant about that alley other than the countless others that we passed through?" uttered Twilight.

"It was where I met the thugs that wanted the scrolls." I then placed a hand on my neck and shyed my view slightly away from hers. "...And it was the place where I lied about having the scrolls to let them leave another pony alone."

"Did you even know, that they weren't common criminals in the first place?" Twilight put in a frustrated emphasis.

"Look, let's focus on the current task. We are very close. Like a couple hundred meters away." We soon came across the street at which I had rolled my car into. Currently a few ponies idled in the street. Wind reverberated across the mundane stone floor and against the walls of the buildings, playing its mundane song.

The next street led out of Canterlot and to the forest. Fewer ponies were in the street here, looking at me ponderously as we moved to the forest. "It's in this forest here. Not that far, fewer than 200 meters."

"If you say so," said Twilight.

We rigorously looked into the forest as we moved down the road. I parked my car on the left side from our view and did the best job I could at covering up in fallen leaves and twigs. There is only so much you can do with very few leaves and pine needles did not really work at covering it up.

Applejack stated in a straight tone "I see nothin'."

"Well, your 3ft tall... You can't really see above these bushes all too well." I replied. I identified a glint from the depths of the forest.

"That's easy for you to say," She then started to respond. "Bein' 6ft and everythin'."

I was too immersed in this beam of light to really care. However, I did say "There is something glistening in the sunlight over there." I stepped over a few shrubs into the forest. The trees laid bare of leaves as birds compassionately hollered their music into the the blue sky.

Twilight yelled as I trampled and clambered my feet over small shrubs."Is it your car?"

"I think so," I told as I continued into the amalgamation of trees. They started to slowly follow before me as I got closer to the shine. Rainbow Dash hovered curiously above the ground to see my car.

"So this is your car," She said as the red paint came into view. The others were busy discussing and trying to get a good view of the machine.

My feet stamped into a clearer area which I had parked my car in. "Yeah, this is really just it," I declared, scratching the back of my head. I was mentally preparing myself to explain it to them all. I started to rake some of the sticks leaves from the hood of the car. I did a bad job at covering this up. I guess it was from disbelief that this was all real.

Rainbow Dash eyed it judgmentally "It looks too bulky to move." It was a Ford Fiesta Mark III, a red hatchback. I bought it for cheap at a dealership a few years ago. The generation stopped production in the late 90s. It was a real bargain for what I got. It just needed a little repairing after I bought it, nothing extremely difficult.

Looking at the rest of the company, they all studied it intently. Twilight especially glimmered fascination in her eyes "This... is a lot different that I expected. I have so many questions," she said

"I didn't expect it to have such bright color, Darling." Rarity inquisitively looked at the vehicle.

"It a pretty common color for cars. Though cars were a lot less variant in color these days," I pulled my keys out of my wallet as I replied. The car was covered in odd sticks and old leaves from fall that remained from winter.

Twilight brushed her hoof across the car as I walked to the door "What do you mean cars are less variant in color these days?"

I then turned to face her, postponing getting into my car. "Well, this car is like 20 years old." I fiddled with the key for my car as I continued "Cars have been around for over a hundred years now and these days, people just have blander colored cars."

Twilight just stared at me and my car, she was probably marveling at how old the technology was. "So, do cars look like this?" Rainbow Dash was hovering above my car lazily before landing on it.

"Nope. There are many different types of cars. Some are over double the size of this one to transport goods places," I said while looking up at rainbow dash.

"Bet these things don't go that fast though." She smirked.

"You're pretty wrong on that one, my car does 144 mph. What's that like 230 kmh?" I did some rough math but that was about it. "This is the type of car, an economy class car that anyone would have."

"Are you being serious?" Twilight doubted me again on my technology.

"Yes. Why would I lie about something I can show you?" a hint of annoyance slithered off of my tongue as I finished speaking.

Twilight then excitedly ran up to me and said, "Can you please show me?" It was kinda adorable actually, her just staring at me expectantly with a passion to learn.

I chuckled "Well, lets start it up." With this I unlocked the car, making all of the ponies jump a little to the sudden mechanical clunk. Swinging the door open, I rested a leg in the car while the other was spread out idly on the grass. I put my cap in the glove box and slotted the keys into the ignition. I turned the keys and... it didn't start.

"Is this piece of junk on yet?" Rainbow Dash yelled from the roof.

"It's not junk! And, no it's not." I said. I turned the key and the car struggled to come to life. I needed to check under the hood in case there was a problem. I hoped that I didn't have to push this all the way to the castle. Sliding my hand under the wheel, I pulled back a yellow piece of plastic. The front of the car clunked.

"What was that!?" Twilight yelped as I got out of my seat and briskly walked passed her and Applejack who was on the left of the car to the hood.

"Don't worry, I'm just checking the engine." I then stopped in front of the car.

She trotted up to my right and asked, "Why? is something wrong?"

I fumbled around with a switch just under the tip of the hood. "Well, it's not starting and I had fuel, so something may be wrong with the engine," I said with an audible click. I pushed up the hood.

A gust of feathers swiftly flew into my face. "AHH!" I cried. Like that it was gone. A bird somehow managed to get into my car hood. "Jesus Christ, man!" I reacted to the fright, jumping back. Rainbow was laughing her ass off on the roof of my car.

"You should'a seen your face, dude!" she managed as she pointed a hoof at me. All the others were smirking at me and my display.

"Ray you've got something in your hair." Feathers were all over the ground and in my hair. I ruffled my hair to get them out.

"Heh, I guess it was kinda funny." I acknowledged. "Let's see if I can get it running."

I started to fiddle around the dirty engine, removing the feathers from it and scanning the parts for the source of the problem. I rolled up my sleeves and started to move my hands around the engine. I'd think it would be something to do with the spark plug or something but I wasn't too sure.

"So how does it work," Twilight evaluated the internals of the mechanism, looming above it. She had her hooves on the front of the car, she was standing on her hind legs. She was shorter than me, about 5,9. "Well, basically it works through pistons. Air, fuel, pressure, and electricity come together and form an explosion inside a chamber which moves the pistons. Thus creating power to move the vehicle."

"Steam engines work similarly to that but not with combustion to move the pistons," she said to me.

I motioned to the entirety of the workings of the car. "I know, we had steam engines in my world but of course better things came and replaced them."

"Jeez, you're much more of an Egghead than I thought." Rainbow was behind us and listening in to our conversation. "But your still Eggheads," Twilight just glared at her while I just shot her an unamused look. She then proceeded to fly up in the air and away from us.

Turning to Twilight, I declared with a smile. "I'll explain more about it later, we need to get this to the Castle."

"You're right. We need to fix it. And I don't have anything to write this all down on." I could give her my notepad and a pencil. I ran the thought over my head until I came upon an outcome.

I placed my pack on the dirt and I pulled out some of its contents. I tore a few pieces of paper from my notepad. "Will this do" I grasped a pencil and papers in my hands.

"Really. I mean, are you sure? Because I haven't been that useful."

Twilight levitated them in a raspberry aura towards her. "It's cool, I don't use my notepad that much and I can't say I've not enjoyed answering your questions." At this response, she smiled.

"So are you going to help me with this or what?" I motioned to the car's engine.

She started "Well..."

"It's fine, I think you can help me with this a little," Twilight gave me a quick smile before I continued checking the spark plug.

I discussed the basic car parts to her as I repaired it. She always wanted the most in-depth answer about the various components of the metallic beast. She helped me slightly with her magic as we conversed about my car. Presently, we had finished with the repairs and started to figure out how to get it through town.

Turning the key, the engine rumbled to life with an earthquake of shuddering from the idling motor.

"Woah!" Rainbow Dash called out as she was taken by surprise by the unexpected feeling.

Applejack scoured the front of the car. "Is it suppose' to make all of that racket?"

"Yep! Its all repaired!"

"Well, let's get this back to Celestia!" Twilight reminded with a smile.

I stretched my arm and opened the door on my right. They all just looked at me, puzzled. "Aren't you going to get in?" I spoke through the window.

Twilight let out a squee of joy as she suddenly radiated light from her horn. Twilight was engulfed in a blast of purple light. The light then amasses into the seat next to me. She in the seat next to me.

Twilight teleported next to me.

She just teleported.

"I... Uhh..." I stammered at Twilight. I didn't even know they could do that.

She seemed slightly bewildered by my reaction. "What is it?"

"Y-you just... teleported!" I stuttered.

She chuckled "Oh yeah... We can do that!" Twilight shifted her gaze away from mine and started to write on the paper that teleported with her. her scribbles were probably about the interior of the car as her eyes darted off of the paper a lot. She already wrote a lot about the exterior already.

To be honest, I didn't know what I was expecting from them at this point.

"...Okay..." The rest were looking at me, snickering at my fascination with the spell. I put on a more annoyed face and hollered out of the window "You guys gonna get in or what?" I started to step out of the car.

"Why are you getting..." -Twilight trailed off as I folded the seat so the three of them could get in- "out?" She looked at it and realized its function. "Genius."

"There is only space for three more though so two of you will have to stay outside," I sheepishly grinned over to them.

Rainbow Dash said, "I was gonna hang out here anyways."

Fluttershy nervously said, "I'll stay out here too." That was really useful that they both stayed out here. They could fly on top of the car but it wasn't like I was gonna go fast through the hordes of ponies in Canterlot.

"Okay, Cool. The rest of you can climb into the backseat." I rested a hand onto the head of the folded seat.

One by one, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie slowly and sat down in the back of the hatchback. "Cozy!" Pinkie added as they bundled together. They sat almost like humans did. I guess, standing on their back legs they could be at about average human height. I then thought how Princess Celestia and Luna would be if they stood on their back legs. Not exactly a comforting thought either.

"Pinkie, Darling. This isn't cozy, it's cramped," Rarity said. She wasn't even touching Pinkie but to be fair, it was a small hatchback

I folded back the seat. "Okay..." I uttered as I slammed the door behind me. "Let's get moving," I focused as I rolled the window beside me down. I grasped my seatbelt and pulled it over me, forcing it into its paired slot. "You guys might want to do buckle your seatbelts as well."

Twilight looked at I in a questioning expression. "What are they for?"

"Safety."

I slotted the gear into reverse. Twilight was then fixated on it with a shine of inquisition in her eyes. "What does that do?" I opened my mouth to respond but she cut me off "Actually, what does everything in here do?" She started at me

I chuckled slightly at her enthusiasm "I'll explain later. We're burning gas."

I couldn't turn around so I just looked in a mirror and reversed out onto the road. I drove pretty much every day on Earth since I got my license so I was alright at it.

"This is a lot different than I expected," said Twilight as I turned my car swiftly towards the city. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were now flying just above the car, startled by the sudden movement. They had previously been on top of the roof.

"Could you give us a little warning next time?"

"Was that a little too fast for you, Dash?" I smirked as I peeked through the window.

She tried to retain her cool from my remark "No! Just a warning would be nice next time!"

Placing my hand onto the gear, I tugged it and shifted it into first. And gradually pushed on the gas. The car accelerated down the dirt road at around 30mph. I presumed the pegasi were flying above the car but I couldn't be sure.

"This thing's pretty fast," Twilight commented on the acceleration of the car.

"We're not going that fast, I'll be going slower through the town. We don't want to hit anyone." The thought of accidentally hitting a pony had lingered on the edge of my mind for quite some time now. I wasn't too sure on how to deal with the outcome of hitting them. However, my horn would yell at them to move out of my path if things got a little too hectic.

"So when are you going to tell me about your vehicle?" Twilight asked me as I stared ahead.

I started to slow down as buildings coated the sides of the road. Ponies began to notice the large metal beast rolling into the street. "Like, after I talk to Princess Celestia? I dunno." Her eyes narrowed slightly at this vague response. I was doing 10 in the street as ponies responded with mixtures of shock, curiosity, and fear.

As we turned various corners, the number of ponies only grew larger. This only made me more nervous as we ventured closer to the Castle. The gate the market area was now down the road. There was only one problem at this point was that the car was entirely surrounded and ponies were all around the car. I couldn't even reverse out anymore. Now the car was at a dead stop and the crowd surrounding my vehicle were conversing and curiously looking at me and auto.

Looking at all the ponies enclosing me, I uttered, "This isn't good." I poked my head out of the window and yelled, "Could you get out of the way?" Many of them didn't even acknowledge my words as they conversed in their confusion.

I heard many words like "What is it? The Human is inside it! Where did it come from?" This only made me feel more anxious about all of it. Rainbow Dash started to tell ponies to move out of the way.

I looked at my wrist to my watch... 11:34 am.

I let out a sigh at our immobile status as Rainbow Dash now argued with a stubborn stallion about who knows what. I had contemplated honking the horn at them throughout the trip. The palm of my hand slammed against the center of the wheel. A bellowing noise erupted from the car as all the ponies moved away from the noise.

---------Twilight---------

A monotonous, abstract bellow came from the metal beast I was in. I was alarmed at first until I realized that the human slammed his hand against the steering device of the vehicle. He let go after a few seconds and the car lurched forward out of the crowd which had spread away from us. My safety strap tugging onto my coat.

"What the hay!" I exclaimed as the car came to a slow steady pace. Ponies eyeing us as we passed through the gateway into the market area.

"Sorry, Twilight," apologized Ray, you could tell he wasn't used to doing that sort of thing. "Hey, at least we are out of that crowd now!" He was optimistic about all of this oddly, he had no idea what would be his future at this point. From what he has told us, his world is drastically different from ours and that pretty much anypony from Earth would be out of their field here in Equestria.

"Yeah, I guess so," I smiled at him before looking ahead and out of the window. The sun was falling into the market area, there was barely a cloud in sight at this point in the day. He looked actually quite happy, he had a cheery tone about him. It was still amazing to me that I got to speak to this hairless ape at all let alone actually see some of its technology.

Humans have never really been a species of diverse natural color like every other species on Equus. The white-skinned human next to me seemed to be the most boring in natural appearance with his brown eyes and hair.

My gaze floated to the control in front of me. Ray called it a 'dashboard'. An accumulation of buttons and switches stood proudly untouched in the middle of the car. In front of Ray were gauges and dials of all sorts that were left unexplained to all of ponykind. I was becoming increasingly curious. It was somewhat maddening that he decided to take a break from explaining all of it to me. Directly in front of me was only a plastic surface with a handle on it. It looked like to be openable and led to a small compartment behind it.

I enveloped my magic around the handle and pulled it open. Ray noticed the action but seemed to take no care of it and kept slowly driving toward the castle gate. I pulled out all of its contents with my raspberry magic. My excitement got ahold of me as I saw a letter and a small wrapped object.

All of my attention was diverted to the mass of paper in front of me. These were the only familiar thing in this marvel of technology.

The object was rectangular in nature and wrapped like a package in brown paper with tape sticking sealing it. It was about as big as a book.

The letter simply read For Raymond..

"Can you... uhh, leave those alone?" He perked up next to me, trying to dodge ponies in the street. He put on a half-smile.

"Oh sorry. I was just curious." It was pretty rude of me just to go poking around his car. I quickly floated all of the contents of the compartment back into it. My mind still was in the mysterious letter.

The stairs ahead of us came to my attention as the guards looked alerted of the vehicle's presence. Rainbow Dash flew up to the top of the stairs and softly landed.

"Alright..." Ray murmured next to me.

"What's your plan here?" I asked.

"Well..." He started. "Pretty much nothing." This annoyed me that he displayed such carelessness in possession to a technology which is far advanced than anything on the planet. "But I did think it over and judged how I would get up the stairs." This didn't really change the fact that he didn't make a real plan for this.

Inquiring in a moderately annoyed tone, "Why didn't you plan this out?"

The others now were all looking at him with slightly disappointed expressions as the car jutted to a stop just before the first step. He turned to me, "C'mon, don't be annoyed about this. I didn't have much time to plan anyways and what was I even gonna plan out, an average speed I'll drive at through the streets?" His face held a friendly smirk of jokey reassurance.

"I hope you know what you're doing," I reminded him as he regained his attention to the stairs in front of us. The wheels jerked onto the first step. It slides onto the next and the next after until the back wheels of the alien craft lurched onto the steps.

It was a slow and anxious ascend to the top. The tugging of the car on the steps made me fear for the worst in the scenario but Ray had an expression of concentration painted over his face as the car worked along.

Sooner than I had anticipated, the ride of bumps and monotonous shaking was over and the car was at the top of the stairs at the gateway to the castle.

The guards looked at the car like it was a manticore in their astonishment as Fluttershy, who flew off the car earlier, landed back onto it with a soft *clunk*.

"Hey!" Ray smirked at the guards as we passed them by. The car was going faster than in the bustling streets of the city. They had barely anypony on them so it must of enabled Ray to drive without running down ponies constantly on his mind. We were just heading through the enclosed area just before the entrance to the castle.

"So is driving taught to humans when they are kids?" I asked.

He tried and failed to stave a snicker behind his hand while the other held the steering wheel. "No, not really." This caught the attention of the others as well. "You have to get a license to drive legally, which I have of course. You can get a license at 17 which is when I got mine."

Trying to keep my questioning in check, for now, I quickly noted down the information, still meagerly excited to learn more about this alien human's world.

We entered the castle through the heavy doors which had guards positioned on either side. The car buzzed it's way into the hall and ran along it passing guards that were surprised by the vehicle. It seemed like the halls could fit the width of about two and a half of these 'hatchback' cars in them

We twisted and turned into the hall toward the throne room where Celestia was. She was likely expecting us.

The heart of the car slowed as we gradually halted to the closed door. Ray poked his head out the window, "Hey, could you open the door?"

The door was draped in yellowy magic as it started to creak open. Ray gave them a brief "Thanks," in return.

He continued to guide the auto into the room where Celestia and Luna were busily reviewing scrolls of various inscriptions on them. They noticed the light hum of the engine as it flowed deeper into the room. The sun poured into the room through the windows like this morning with the only change being their angle.

Ray, again, put his head out of the window as the car heaved to a stop. "I got my car," he joyously said with a happy look. He had an upbeat air about him even though he had an argument with Rainbow alongside his current situation.

They were now staring at the car, Celestia and Luna's faces were seas of astonishment and confusion.

Ray got out of the car and stepped onto the carpet, "Well, what do you think of it?"

The sisters edged slowly to the vehicle as the rest of us got out. Rainbow and Fluttershy were already at the side of it. Ray stopped about 20 meters away from the stairs to the sister's thrones.

"Well, it's certainly... different from what I was expecting..." Luna opinionated to Ray who was by the driver's door, leaning onto the car. "Well, I thought it would look different and be a bit more... understandable," she paused again through her sentence.

"I agree with my sister that it may indeed need some explaining to us," Celestia stated.

Ray perked up slightly at this. "I'd thought you'd never ask."

With that, he opened up the internals of the car with a -click-. Thus began a long period where he explained pretty much everything about the car for an hour and me taking down more about this strange machine!

---------Ray---------

I kind of dreaded explaining this all to them at first, especially briefly going over the engine with Twilight, but I managed to get through with my mediocre at best skills in teaching.

I let out a sigh in my mind to complete it all. Twilight was busy inscribing down about what the indicators did. Everyone was standing in the front of the car with the exception of Rainbow Dash who left out of boredom. The others were talking to each other.

"Certainly remarkable. What does a mechanical engineer exactly do from your world?"

Celestia had turned to face me. "Well, mechanical engineers design, analyze, manufacture, and maintain mechanical systems. This ranges from internal combustion engines like the one in my car to home appliances like refrigerators." Luna was also now diverting her attention to me. "In short, I build machines. Don't you have mechanical engineers in Equestria?"

"We do but mechanical engineers from your world seem to do many more things than in ours?" Celestia looked towards the car and then back at me. "I may have a proposition for you."

"Shoot."

"Would you care to design an engine like the one in your car here?" she requested

A job in an alien world where you design technology? Seems pretty sweet if you ask me. "Sure, what else have I got to do anyways?" I smiled.