Jason awoke with a start to knocking on the door. He quickly rolled out of bed and scanned the room, grabbing his chest with his hand as his heart thundered away against his ribcage. His eyes focused on the doorway for several seconds before he finally realized the situation and looked around for his team. He quickly found them lazily rolling over and groggily crawling out of bed as the polite knocking continued.

"Seriously guys?" He deadpanned.

"What? I haven't had my coffee yet..." Rebecca whined.

"Ugh... what time is it?" Eddie groaned.

Jason looked out the window and saw the sun was already high in the sky.

"It's late. We've got someone at the door, come on and get up." He ordered, moving to see who was at the door.

"Man... sleeping in these things fucking sucks." Mike complained to no one in particular while eyeing his armor.

Jason reached the door before swiftly unlocking it and swinging the heavy wooden door open. He was immediately greeted by Spike.

"Hey. Uh, Jason, right?" Spike asked, eyeing his armor closely.

"Yeah... Yeah, that's me. Was there something you needed, Spike?" Jason replied.

"Oh, I don't need anything, Twilight just told me to come ask if any of you wanted to join us for breakfast. I made waffles." He beamed.

Jason took a moment to look back at his team. Rebecca was still struggling to crawl out of bed while Eddie and Mike looked like they were both about to pass out again.

"We'll, uh... We'll see. Maybe after we meet Lawson and discuss our situation with him, then we'll eat." Jason hesitantly replied.

"Oh, uh, alright. Well, his letter said that they'd be taking the first train here, so he should be here in a little under an hour if I remember right. Twilight'll probably have Tempest go meet him and Midnight at the train station and bring them back here." The purple dragon explained.

"Right, right. Thanks for the heads up. We'll, uh... We'll be downstairs in a little bit." Jason replied.

"Okay. See you in a bit then." Spike replied before turning away and heading back down the stairs.

Jason closed the door once the purple dragon was out of sight, and sighed as he turned around to face his team once more.

"I swear, everyone here is way too nice to be genuine. There has to be some kind of ulterior motive right now." Mike asserted.

"I don't know. Maybe by some miracle, we just landed in a world of talking horses that are all super friendly for... some reason." Jason shrugged.

"Well, I'm about ready to rip this helmet off and go take some of that food he was offering. I'm fucking starving." Mike complained.

"I know man, me too... As soon as Lawson gets here, and we get some legitimate answers, then I'm all for it, but until then... I'd prefer we just not risk it." Jason replied, feeling his own stomach growl in protest.

"Ugh... This sucks..." Rebecca added.

"How about we just go downstairs and try to get some more answers out of Twilight?" Eddie suggested.

"And be surrounded by food that I can't eat? I'm hungry enough, dude, fuck that noise." Mike retorted.

"Well we can't just stay cooped up in here like some bratty teenagers." Rebecca replied.

"Eddie's right. We need to go downstairs and talk to Twilight. I'm not sure how trustworthy she is just yet, but I don't think she has any reason to lie to us. Besides, there's still a lot we don't know about where we are, and I'd like to get some answers. First off, where's the rest of Lawson's crew?" Jason said, redirecting all eyes in the room to him.

"I don't think she ever said what happened to them." Eddie replied.

"Exactly. So either she doesn't know, or she's hiding something" Mike added, before another thought came to mind, "You don't think..." He started.

"That the ponies killed them?" Jason finished for him, eyeing Mike curiously.

"Y-yeah..."

The room fell silent for a few moments while each member of the group thought over the idea of ponies killing the human crew flashed through their heads.

"No, no, they couldn't have. I mean, look at them. They're not the killing type." Rebecca asserted.

"Looks can be deceiving... We all know that." Mike replied, shrugging slightly.

"Well then why is Lawson still alive?" Eddie asked, "-And if they wanted to kill us too, why didn't they already?"

"Fuck if I know, man... Maybe he made a deal with them of some kind?" Mike suggested.

"What? 'Spare me and I'll activate the beacon to bring more humans here for you to kill'?" Eddie asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I know it's unlikely... and I'm not entirely sold on it either, but I'm just trying to see every possibility here." Mike reasoned.

"On the other side of that coin, it's totally possible that these ponies are completely genuine and honest, and they mean us absolutely no harm. Hell, Tempest seemed pretty genuine and down to Earth last night." Jason explained, crossing his arms.

"Wait, what? You talked to one of them last night?" Mike asked, curiously.

"I ran into her on the balcony. We talked for a bit, and either she can display human emotions more accurately than most people, or she was being genuine with me the whole time." Jason explained.

"Still... I don't think we should go off talking to the ponies on our own... Might get kidnapped or some shit." Mike mumbled.

"Look," Jason let out a heavy sigh, "I know that not all of my decisions are the best, but maybe there's something to be said for gaining these ponies' trust if at all possible. Even if we can breathe the air here without getting sick and dying, we're gonna need to find our way back to the frigate. God knows where we landed, so my best bet right now is to get any help that we can. If that means being a little more transparent with the ponies, then that's honestly a risk I'm willing to take." He explained.

"Frankly, I don't think it matters. At this rate, we'd starve to death by the time we actually needed air. I can already feel the muscle deteriorating..." Eddie exaggerated, eyeing his bicep and frowning.

"Don't remind me... I finally hit four o' five on bench two weeks ago." Mike whined.

"Let's not dwell on that right now. As far as I'm concerned, the only thing we can really do until Lawson gets here, is to go talk to Twilight." Jason announced.

Rebecca sighed, "Alright, if it'll get us out of this room for a bit." She said, hopping out of the bed and heading for the door.

"We going down there red? Or what?" Mike asked.

"Amber. For now." Jason replied, grabbing his rifle and slinging it over his shoulder. Eddie and Mike quickly followed while Rebecca held the door open for them.

"You bringing a weapon, Chief?" Eddie asked.

"I seriously doubt I'll need one." She replied.

"Fair enough."

Jason, Mike, and Eddie were right behind her as they all stepped through the doorway and into the the crystal hallway. Jason took the lead from there and headed down the stairs with the rest of the team in tow. The sound of chatter between Twilight and a few other ponies reached their ears, causing a slightly hopeful feeling to rise in Jason's chest.

Hmm... Maybe Lawson's already here and we can hurry this up already. He thought to himself.

When they arrived at the dining room, they saw not only the Princess, Tempest, and Spike like they had expected, but seven more colorful equines as well. Jason stopped in his tracks as each new pony quickly turned to acknowledge him and his team, finding nothing but smiles and happy looks being thrown his way.

"Oh! There they are! Twilight, your human friends are here!" The pearl white unicorn with an elegantly curled purple mane and tail called.

"They sure are. Come on in. I'd like you all to meet my friends." Twilight announced, stepping out of her chair and walking over to the Marines.

"Uh..." Jason muttered, his eyes trailing from one pony to the next.

"Don't be shy, darling. We've been hoping to meet some humans ever since Twilight told us about Sky." The disturbingly beautiful white pony said.

"Girls, this is Jason, Eddie, Mike, and Rebecca." Twilight announced, gesturing to each human respectively.

"Uh... Hello there." Jason said, giving a small wave to the group of ponies surrounding the table.

"General Kenobi..."

"What was that?" Eddie asked.

"Nothing!" A violently pink pony in the back called.

"Right... Uh, Jason, Eddie, Mike, Rebecca, these are my best friends, and some of the most heroic ponies in Equestria," Twilight interrupted, "This is Rarity," She gestured to the alabaster white pony with a majestically curled mane.

"A pleasure to make all of your acquaintances." Rarity greeted.

Eddie gave a small wave to the strangely attractive equine before Twilight continued.

"This is AppleJack," She motioned to the orange pony wearing a stetson.

"Howdy, ya'll." AppleJack said, tipping her hat.

Once again, Eddie gave a small wave.

"This is Rainbow Dash." Twilight proceeded, gesturing to a cyan blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail.

"Hey dudes!" Rainbow excitedly waved.

Jason gave her a cordial nod.

"Over here is Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie." Twilight pointed at a butterscotch yellow pegasus and an absurdly pink pony respectively.

"Um... Hello." Fluttershy meekly greeted, waving a hoof.

"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie! But you already knew that, hehe, I've never met a human before! Well, except for Sky, kinda, but not really because he was already a pony when I saw him, but then again, we didn't really talk that much, so instead I guess that makes you the first!" Pinkie blurted out in one breath.

"Uh... Nice to meet you?" Jason replied, giving a small wave.

"You already know Tempest," Twilight said, motioning to the mulberry unicorn with a broken horn at the end of the table."

Tempest gave a small nod to the group of humans, and received a small nod in return.

"And last, but certainly not least, this is Starlight Glimmer." Twilight announced, gesturing to the last pinkish-purple pony in the room.

"It's nice to meet you all." Starlight politely greeted.

"What's with these ponies and all the fruity names?" Mike whispered to himself.

"So, Twilight said you all crashed in the White-Tail Woods yesterday." Rainbow spoke up, "I flew by there last night to check it out. That crash site was gnarly!"

"My baby..." Rebecca frowned.

"Yeah. It was a rough landing that we weren't exactly expecting." Jason replied.

"Well I'm just glad you're all okay." Fluttershy smiled from her side of the table.

"Thank you. We all appreciate that." Jason responded, giving a polite nod.

"So, uh, what're those sticks ya'll got there?" AppleJack asked, eyeing the human's rifles.

"These are our rifles. Don't worry too much about them, they don't bite or anything." Eddie replied, holding his rifle up for emphasis.

"Hmm... Why's yours so much bigger than the rest of yours?" Tempest asked, eyeing Mike's machine gun.

"That's because I'm the SAW gunner." Mike coolly replied.

"That doesn't look like a saw..." Rarity mentioned, tilting her head to the side.

"SAW stands for Squad Automatic Weapon. Basically, my job is to keep the enemy suppressed so the rest of these guys can do what they need to do when we're on mission." Mike explained.

"Hmm... Interesting..." Tempest replied, apparently satisfied with his answer, before looking at the clock, "Oh, it is just about time. I'll go get Sky and Midnight from the train station." Tempest said, rising from her seat and making way for the door.

"When can we expect you back?" Jason asked as the mulberry unicorn walked past him.

"Maybe half an hour or so. The train station is at the other side of town and the train is supposed to arrive in ten minutes." Tempest replied. There was a slight hint of eagerness in her tone. A hint that did not go unnoticed by Twilight.

"Alright, then we'll see you in about half an hour, Tempest." Twilight said, giving off a knowing smirk.

Tempest blushed ever so slightly before ducking out of the room and making her way out of the castle. She pushed through the massive entry doors and into the bright light of yet another beautiful Equestrian morning, and found the ponies of Equestria out and about, more so than usual around the castle.

A few ponies gave her a curious glance as she stepped out of the castle and into the light, almost as if they were expecting someone else to come out. Tempest merely shrugged their apparent staring off and proceeded toward the train station.

Sky and Midnight sat together in a warm train cart while they rode to Ponyville. Midnight had her muzzle gently nested under Sky's chin, and her hooves wrapped around his barrel while she snuggled up next to him. In return, Sky wrapped his right foreleg around her barrel to pull her in closer, and used his wing as a makeshift blanket for her to snuggle under.

"Mmm..." Midnight mumbled in her sleep, gently squeezing tighter against the crimson pegasus holding her.

"Hehe, cutie." Sky whispered before placing a tender kiss on her muzzle.

The ride continued in pleasant silence for a few more minutes before the train horn sounded, and the screeching of brakes on train wheels filled the air. Sky looked out the window to find Ponyville once more appearing in his vision, before looking down to Midnight's still sleeping form.

"Hey, Mid, we're here." He whispered, gently nudging her awake with his hoof.

"Hmm? Huh? What's up?" She replied, her eyes slowly fluttering open.

"We're in Ponyville. You ready, sleepyhead?" Sky teased.

"Hehe, yeah," Midnight yawned, ending with a slightly squeaky sound, "I'm ready whenever you are, big guy." She smiled.

Sky kissed her one more time before they both hopped off their seats and headed out of their train cart. A few moments later, they arrived at the entrance to the train, and stepped out onto the train station. There were a few ponies out and about, but one in particular stood out above the rest, literally.

"Tempest!" Sky cheered, making his way over to her with Midnight trotting in behind him.

"Sky!" Tempest called back, hurriedly meeting him halfway and pulling him into a hug.

"Long time, no see." Sky teased, squeezing her tight.

"Hehe, it's always good to see you." She replied, releasing the hug and turning to Midnight.

"Midnight, I'm glad to see you." Tempest said, pulling the graphite mare into a hug.

"It's great to see you, Tempest. I am really sorry I couldn't make your knighting ceremony. Sky told me it was awesome, and I really wanted to go, but I just couldn't make it was all the crap Luna threw on me at the last minute." Midnight explained.

"Oh, don't even worry about it. I'm just glad to see you again." Tempest dismissed.

They held the hug for a few more moments before releasing each other and turning to Sky.

"So, you excited?" Tempest asked.

"Oh, you know. A little bit." Sky nonchalantly replied with a shrug.

Tempest just raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, a lot. It's pretty exciting... and scary. I'm not sure how they're going to react once they see I'm a pony now, but regardless, It's exciting." Sky explained.

"Okay, that's more like it." Tempest grinned, "Come on, there's a bunch of your people you need to meet." She teased.

The three ponies turned and made their way off the train station platform. Within a few minutes, they found themselves trotting through town and passing the Ponyville residents as they went about their day to day tasks.

"So... How are the new humans?" Midnight inquired.

"They're... interesting... to say the least. I think you'll like them, but they're pretty hesitant to trust anyone here so far... At least, most of them are." Tempest explained, gazing off toward the castle while her cheeks heated up slightly.

"Well, if I'm being honest, I'd be worried if they weren't a little suspicious of this place. I know I was for a while," Sky replied, "How many of them are there?"

"So far, only four. They mentioned something about a larger group of them, but so far, they're the only ones anypony has seen. Twilight sent you that letter as soon as she had them in the castle, so not much information has been exchanged since." Tempest explained.

"Ah, okay. Well that's good. At least I'm not gonna have to talk to an entire army of people, hehe." Sky nervously chuckled.

"You'll be fine, trust me. These humans; their leader is named Jason. He's pretty calm and seems pretty understanding for the most part." Tempest mentioned.

"Jason, huh? I knew a Jason way back. Well, if nothing else, this will be exciting." He said, shaking some nerves off in the process.

"Well, we're about to find out." Tempest replied as they rounded the corner and the Castle of Friendship came into full view. There was a smallish crowd of ponies gathered around outside, but they paid the small group no mind as they seemed to be focused on the castle itself. The trio made their way through the scattered crowd of ponies waiting outside the castle while Midnight and Sky glanced back and forth between the ponies.

"So, uh... Are they all here for the humans?" Midnight asked.

"I think so. They were here earlier this morning, but it looks like they've grown in numbers since I left earlier." Tempest replied.

"Well, it's good to see that humanity can at least still draw a crowd." Sky commented.

"Honestly, I'd be more surprised if there weren't any ponies interested in the new creatures showing up out of nowhere." Tempest remarked.

After a few moments of walking through the crowd, the trio arrived at the front door of the Castle of Friendship, and Tempest pulled the doors open for them.

"Well... Here we are..." Midnight trailed off.

"Remember what I told you yesterday." Sky said, nuzzling his cheek against her neck.

"Thanks, big guy. Love you." She whispered.

"Love you more."

They headed inside while Tempest closed the door behind them. Immediately, all three of them could hear voices coming from the dining room. Sky and Midnight both nervously gulped as Tempest led the way inside and they hesitantly followed behind.

"-So then I said 'You've only got yourshelf to blame'!" Pinkie exclaimed, doubling over in laughter.

"Uh... hehe, that's a... good one..." Jason awkwardly replied.

"Holy shit, how many more bad jokes do we have to hear today?" Mike whispered under his breath.

"Yes, yes, Pinkie. You got me good," Twilight sighed, "Anyways, Tempest should be back soon-" She stopped short, as the sound of the front door opening and multiple sets of hooves on crystal reached her ears, "-and speak of the devil, I think they're here."

All eyes in the room darted to the doorway just as the mulberry unicorn came rounding the corner. She greeted them all with a curt nod, before two more ponies walked in behind her. The first, was a crimson red pegasus with a chocolate brown mane and tail. It had friendly brown eyes, and a muzzle that seemed a bit broader and jutted out further than any of the other ponies in the room, leading to the assumption that it was male. Most of all, there was a uniquely friendly complexion that gave way to its nervous expression. Following just behind, was a dark grey unicorn with a jet black mane and tail. Two absurdly gorgeous sapphire eyes looked back at them, seemingly taking the room in its entirety before making any judgements.

"So... Cute..." Rebecca whispered.

Jason immediately raised his eyebrow.

"Uh... Where's Lawson?" He asked, turning back to Twilight.

"Right here." A masculine voice spoke out from behind him, making Jason spin around and face the pegasus.

Jason looked down on the pegasus stallion with a mix of emotions on his face, "What? Lawson is human. We're not here for a pony." He somewhat angrily replied.

"I know that... I am David Lawson," Sky explained, turning to Twilight, "Twi, did you not tell them?"

All eyes immediately darted to the lavender pony princess in question.

"Well, I wanted to, but they were having such a hard time believing everything else I said that I didn't think they'd believe me." Twilight replied, stepping out of her chair and making her way over to the group of humans.

"Hold on a second, you're not seriously trying to tell me that you turned Lawson into a pony, are you?" Jason asked, glancing back and forth between the ponies.

"That's exactly what happened." Sky replied.

"What the fuck?" Mike whispered.

"I don't believe this..." Jason said.

"I mean, I can prove it. Ask me anything only David Lawson would know." Sky declared.

Jason crossed his arms, "We don't have time to play games like this."

"It's not a game. Believe me, I know it doesn't make any sense, but I swear it's the truth." Sky persisted.

"Jesus... Fine. If you're really David Lawson, then what city were you born in?" Jason relented.

"Los Angeles, California." Sky replied.

"Did you serve in the military at all?" Jason continued.

"I was in the Army for three years. Stationed at Fort Valor in Florida." Sky immediately replied.

Jason bit his lip and pulled a notebook out of his admin pouch. He flipped through a few pages before arriving at the page he wanted and skimming through the notes.

"And... What year was interstellar space travel made possible?" He asked, wearily.

"Two thousand thirty seven." Sky instantly replied.

"Okay... What was the name of the first ship to make the journey?"

"The Icarus... my ship." Sky replied, a bit more melancholy than before.

Jason bit his cheek, "And... who were the other five crew members?"

"There were only four of us on the ship." Sky replied.

Jason nodded, "Just confirming. What were their names?" He pressed.

"... Richie Vilovoy, Roman Doss, and Isaac Clarke. My best friends... And all dead." Sky trailed off.

"Son of a bitch..." Eddie said aloud.

"How?" Jason asked.

"Died in space. I was the only one to get off the ship and land here." Sky explained.

"Fuck..." Rebecca whispered.

"So you actually are David Lawson... how in the fuck did they turn you into a pony? And why?" Jason asked, gesturing to the rest of the room.

"I can answer that," Twilight spoke up, directing Jason's eyes to her specifically, "If you recall, yesterday morning, I told you all that Equestrian magic is dangerous to humans. Well, that's because Sky over here almost died within his first six months here. The magic of our world formed a tumor of sorts in his brain, which eventually led to severe hemorrhaging that almost killed him. It wasn't our first choice, not by a long shot, but we had no time to think of something else, so we used an ancient spell to turn him from human to pony." She explained.

"You can just fucking do that?" Eddie asked, astonished.

"Well, no. It wasn't easy, not by any stretch of the imagination. We needed both Celestia and Luna to help with almost all of their magic on top of mine to get the spell to work, but the end result, as you can see, is a perfectly healthy pony stallion." Twilight beamed.

"Uh... Can you not talk about me like I'm a lab experiment, Twi? I'm right here." Sky asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Right, sorry. Hehe, I'm just a little proud of my hoofwork, is all." Twilight replied.

For a moment, the room fell silent, as the humans all shared mixed looks of silent communication.

"So... what, we have to get off of this planet or we're all gonna die?" Jason asked.

A more uncomfortable silence fell over the room like a blanket, before Twilight awkwardly coughed into her hoof and spoke.

"Um... Well, while I can't say for sure, I think six months would be the limit of human tolerance for our magic." She explained.

"Fuck me..." Eddie whispered.

"Well that's not so bad, I mean, all we need to do is just get back to the frigate and get out of here before that, right?" Mike suggested, trying to be optimistic.

"Yeah, that's gonna be tough. When I was still human, I was losing my memory and having the worst migraines every day. By the tail end of those six months, I was having a hard time remembering much of anything." Sky chimed in.

"Shit... This isn't good." Rebecca whispered.

Jason slowly walked over to the nearest wall and leaned his back against it, before sliding down until he was sitting on the floor. All eyes in the room slowly turned to face him as he sighed and gazed up at the ceiling.

"Welp... Just one more thing to worry about, I guess." He muttered, disdainfully.

"I-I'm sure there's a way we can get you all to your people." Twilight spoke up redirecting eyes to her.

"Yeah, Twi, can't you just teleport them over there?" Rainbow asked.

"Well... I'm not entirely sure where they originally landed," Twilight explained, "Teleporting over long distance gets increasingly inaccurate the further away you try to do it, not to mention the risks of teleporting a non-magical species."

"We know where we landed. If we show you on a map, do you think you can send us there?" Jason asked, tilting his head down to look at the lavender alicorn.

"Well... I can try. Here." She replied, igniting her horn and popping a scrolled up map into the room.

Twilight laid the map out on the table while Jason rose to his feet. Soon enough, the entire room was huddled around the map and looking intently at where the humans had arrived.

"Right there," Jason said, pointing to the Southernmost corner of the map, "We landed there and flew out about two hundred and forty miles before we crashed." He explained.

Twilight's brow immediately furrowed and she glanced up at him for a moment.

"Are you sure?" She asked.

"Positive."

"Well... this... isn't going to be within my abilities," She admitted, with a sigh, "You landed on the complete other side of the planet, on the southernmost hemisphere. How in the hay did you land there and end up in the White-Tail Woods?" She asked, more to herself than to Jason.

Jason's shoulders immediately slouched, and his head dipped down just a tad.

"We... We don't know... There was just some weird lightning, and we ended up here. Are you sure you can't do anything?" He asked, straining for a ray of hope.

"I... I'm sorry, Jason... If I try to teleport you that far, you could end up any number of places. You could end up a thousand feet in the air, you could end up a mile underground, you could even end up-" Twilight explained, before being cut off.

"Ah think they get the point, Twilight." AppleJack interrupted.

"Right, sorry." She replied.

"Well... What if you teleported us somewhere closer? Somewhere where you can still be accurate enough to not kill us or anything, and we can just walk from there? I mean, you said we got six months, right? That shouldn't be too hard." Mike chimed in.

"I wish it were that easy... But if you look at the map, the area you landed in is surrounded by the harshest terrain on the planet. Right here, there's a gorge that's twenty miles wide and over a mile deep," Twilight explained, pointing to a section of the map, "Even if I did teleport you just outside that, which could possible kill you outright, it would still take you well over a year to travel all the way back to your ship."

Once more, the room fell silent, and the four humans in the room appeared completely crestfallen, despite their faces still being hidden by their helmets. Every pony in the room shared mixed glances of sympathy and concern over the otherworlder's well-being, before Tempest slowly walked over to Jason's side.

"I-I'm sure there's a way we could help you. I'm not an expert by any means, but there has to be some way." She comforted, placing a hoof against his thigh.

Jason slowly looked down at the mare for a moment before gently taking a hold of her hoof with his hand.

"Thanks." He said.

"Um, what about the chaos crystals?" A new voice spoke up, prompting all eyes in the room to dart over to the graphite mare who, thusfar, had been completely silent.

"What?" Jason asked.

She seemed to shrink in on herself just a tad as his gaze fell on her, but continued nonetheless, "The chaos crystals... They're rare, almost unheard of even... but I almost used one to turn Sky back into a human... They might be able to help keep you all from dying." Midnight explained.

"Are you serious?" Mike exclaimed.

"Twilight?" Midnight asked.

Once more, all eyes in the room unanimously darted to the lavender alicorn at the far end of the table while she stuck her tongue out in thought.

"Well... I mean, they could work... but you had the last one in Equestria. To get any more... We'd need to travel all the way to..." She trailed off.

"Where?" Jason pressed.

"The Island of Magicae Artes Earumque... It's uh, it's not exactly an easy journey." Twilight explained.

"The island of what now?" Pinkie chimed in.

"Magicae Artes Earumque. It's a lone island in the northernmost corner of the planet. Allegedly, it's the source of all magic in Equestria. To get there... it'd be extremely dangerous." Twilight clarified.

"How far away is it?" Jason asked, eyeing the map closely.

"It's... If I were to take you as close to it as possible, it'd still be another few months of travel... but I have to warn you, it's extremely dangerous to ponies to travel there. We have no idea what the island would do to you, especially since you have no magic." She explained.

Jason's shoulders slumped some, and slowly gazed over towards the other side of the table, where Sky happened to be standing. A thought popped into his head immediately.

"How do we even know if your magic is going to affect us at all? We haven't even breathed any of your air yet." He pointed out.

"If you want, I can bring in a scanner I made after Sky became a pony. I know you're having a hard time believing a lot of what we're telling you, but maybe that could serve to prove it?" Twilight suggested.

"Do it. 'Cause I need something concrete here." Jason exasperatedly said.

Twilight quickly ignited her horn and summoned her magic into a bright light. A moment later, there was a loud 'pop', and a strange device that somewhat resembled a mirror appeared in her magical grasp.

"This is kind of like an MRI, only it detects magic under the skin. Here." Twilight said, holding the device in front of her horn with her magic. Immediately, a bright flashing light shown on the screen facing Jason, indicating the presence of magic just inches away from the sensor.

"Let me see that." Eddie chimed in, holding his hand out.

Twilight quickly magicked the device into his hand, and he aimed it at the closest pony available, who just happened to be Sky. At first, there was no sign of any magic, but as Eddie brought the device closer to Sky's wings, the light flashed to life once more.

"Pegasi have a lot of magic in our wings. It's how we fly so good." Rainbow Dash pointed out with a grin.

"Seems that way..." Eddie replied, turning around with a frown.

Eddie brought the device over to Jason and held it over his head. Instantly, the light flashed brightly, and the presence of magic was detected. Jason sighed while Eddie brought it over his own head, only to have the same effect. One by one, Eddie went to the remaining humans and checked them for magic, and just like before, the light flashed brightly.

"I can't say for sure that you'll die in six months if you stay here... but our magic is clearly affecting you already. There's a chance that you'll be fine either way... but I'd rather not take that risk." Twilight explained.

"How in the hell could this happen... We've been completely sealed off from the environment this whole time." Jason muttered.

"Magic can flow freely through just about anything except specifically anti-magic material. I'm afraid your suits won't stop it." Twilight sadly admitted.

Jason sighed again.

"So... what? We just wait here to die?" Mike questioned.

Jason didn't answer. Instead, he gazed out the window for a few moments before glancing over at Sky once more.

"How did you survive breathing the air here? Isn't there bacteria and other shit that should've killed you a long time ago?" Jason asked. There was a certain lack of life in his voice that did not go unnoticed by Eddie.

"I can answer that too," Twilight spoke up, and Jason slowly turned his head to look at her, "I had similar concerns when Sky first landed here, so I, along with an expert medical team, ran tests on his body to see if any bacteria or germs would make him sick or worse. The results... were astonishing. As it turns out, there simply aren't germs strong enough, or bacteria powerful enough on our planet for the human immune system. Sky's white blood cells simply dealt with literally everything that came into his system and he barely even got a cough." She explained.

"Are you serious?" Rebecca asked.

"I didn't believe it at first either," Sky chimed in, "But after a month living here, and Twilight checking every disease or bacteria known to Equestria, she couldn't find anything stronger than the common cold against my immune system. Ponies don't exactly have a super strong immune system like humans do, and anything their bodies couldn't normally handle, they have magic to deal with." He explained.

"So hold on a second, you're saying that ponies don't have things like Measles? Whooping Cough? Small Pox?" Eddie asked, tilting his head to the side in disbelief.

"We do," Twilight replied, "The difference is that our versions of all of those diseases are extremely weak compared to yours. If ponykind were to go to Earth at any point, we'd need to use our magic to keep your germs and diseases from killing us. However, since your immune systems are so much stronger than ours, you can survive on our planet without worry of getting sick. As long as none of you have compromised immune systems, you'll be fine."

"Well, we're all clean there, but... Aren't we all just giant germ factories that'll kill you all if we touch you then?" Mike quizzically asked, looking at his hands as if they were murder weapons.

"It's extremely unlikely. The magic in all of our bodies deals with foreign germs and diseases particularly well. Midnight was with Sky for pretty much the entire time he was still human and never got sick from any germs in his body or whatnot."

"Plus, we were all cleared of any illnesses when we left port, remember?" Eddie replied.

"And we had to go through the ray shields every time we went outside the ship. They kill literally everything not wearing an environmental suit." Rebecca pointed out.

"The ship was scrubbed bow to stern too... There wasn't a germ in that damn frigate when we got there." Jason said.

"So... can we take these helmets off?" Mike hesitantly asked.

Jason glanced up at him for a moment, before his gaze slowly trailed over to Sky once more.

"You're sure there's nothing special about you? No gene that makes you immune to germs here or something?" He asked.

"Positive. I swear to god that I was as normal as you. I still am, to a certain extent. I still have my human teeth." Sky replied, grinning in such a way to show off his canines.

"Huh... How about that?" Rebecca asked to no one in particular.

"Welp, if that's the case, then I guess it's time to take the plunge." Jason said, moving to grab his helmet.

"Wait, Jay!" Eddie cried out.

He was too late, and Jason clicked the manual switch on the back of his helmet, depressurizing it in the process. The sound of venting air quickly filled the air, before he grabbed the helmet and twisted it to the side, fully breaking the seal. In one fluid motion, Jason slid the helmet off his head, tugging at his hair slightly in the process.

For the first time, his grassy green eyes opened to the world around him without a visor in the way. His unkempt, charcoal hair settled back down, framing his squared jaw-line. His warm beige skin felt the suns rays for the first time as they passed through the crystal glass, and even his relatively long stubble didn't interfere with the subtle heat that found its way settling onto his skin as it was bathed in light.

Tempest blushed, hard.

Author's Note

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPpdVB10ExM

Military Terminology for this story:
Red- Round in the chamber, magazine in the weapon, and safety on.
Amber- Magazine in the weapon, no round in the chamber, and safety on.
Green- No round in the chamber or magazine in the weapon. Safety on.

Okay, I know I'm going to get at least one person freaking out in the comments saying "ThAT's NoT HoW ScIeNcE WoRkS!! ImMuNuE SyStEmS DoNt WoRk LiKe ThAt!"
and to that I say, just suspend your disbelief for a little bit, okay? I mean, there's so much crazy stuff happening in this story, if that's what you can't believe, then I don't know what to say to you. Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I know that for an "adventure" story, we haven't adventured all too much yet, but I promise that soon enough we'll start exploring.