Jason inhaled slowly through his nose, before breathing out fully, and looking up at Eddie.

"Are you crazy!?" Eddie shouted.

"Sarge, that was reckless, even by my standards." Mike said, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Well we only had another day of oxygen left anyways. I figured if anyone was going to check this planet's air first, it should be me." Jason replied.

"Hold on, you were all running out of air?" Tempest asked, a hint of worry in her voice.

"Yeah. Chief has it worse than the rest of us with her helmet cracked the way it is." Jason explained.

"I mean... I have another twelve hours of air..." Rebecca mentioned, "Thanks for taking the risk from me." She acknowledged.

"Don't mention it, Chief." Jason smiled.

"How do you feel?" Twilight asked, walking over to him and eyeing him closely.

"Honestly? I feel fine. Actually feels pretty damn good to get that helmet off after a while." Jason said, shrugging slightly.

"Oh my gosh! So that's what humans look like?" Rainbow exclaimed, springing off her seat and flying over to Jason's side at a frighteningly quick pace, "So cool!"

"Uh..." Jason managed before more ponies spoke up.

"Darling, you have just the cutest little nose! And I absolutely adore your eyes. They're like little green buttons." Rarity gushed.

"Thank... you?" Jason hesitantly replied.

"Ah've gotta admit, fer once I agree with Rarity, partner," AppleJack added, before turning to the rest of the humans, "You all look like that?"

The three remaining humans in the room shared a quick glance with each other before looking down at Jason once more.

"Uh... Are you sure you're good, Sarge?" Mike asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm good. The air is breathable and everything, so I'm pretty sure we'll all be fine." Jason replied.

The rest of the crew once more shared a look before collectively sighing.

"Well, go on then. Might as well." Jason shrugged.

One by one, they all removed their helmets, and breathed Equestrian air for the first time. Eddie was the first to go, freeing his tan skin and patchy scruff to the outside world. His hazel eyes and blackish brown hair shown brightly under the light, although he wore a slightly nervous expression on his face.

Once he was sure Eddie was not going to die any time soon, Mike followed suit. He quickly removed his helmet, revealing his pale skin and much bushier beard to the world. Much like Eddie, he had blackish brown hair that almost resembled dark chocolate, although, it was buzzed down to just under a half inch in length. Two dark brown eyes that radiated with a sense of eagerness greeted the world around him, and he turned to Rebecca as she reluctantly moved to grab her helmet.

As Rebecca pulled her pilot's helmet off, her long, blonde hair, and sparkling blue eyes shown with a kind of lightheartedness that was uncommon in her line of work. Her light beige skin was soft, and tender, making almost all of the ponies in the room gasp.

"Oh... my... goodness... You're all so cute!" Pinkie cried, the sheer overwhelming amount of joy in her voice making her literally vibrate with excitement.

"Uh... Right... Anyways..." Jason trailed off in an attempt to change the subject.

"I just wanna give you a hug!" Pinkie shouted, suddenly appearing next to Jason.

"What the fuck?" Jason barely managed before being swept up in a tight hug by the pink party pony. She nuzzled her cheek against his while he struggled to get out of her grip.

Twilight smiled away as the rest of her friends hopped out of their seats to gush over the humans and how cute they were, however, one pony in particular caught her eye. While the rest of her friends talked away and interacted with them, Tempest simply stood still, here eyes wide as saucers as she simply watched Jason. Barely suppressing a snicker, Twilight walked over to her guard and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Huh? What?" Tempest jumped, suddenly startled from her mesmerized stupor.

"Caught you staring." Twilight teased, grinning all the while.

Tempest immediately looked away as if the nearest wall was suddenly the most interesting thing in the whole world. Her cheeks burned from the embarrassment of being caught so easily, and her ears pressed fully against her skull.

"I-I wasn't..." She mumbled.

"Oh, come on. You don't have to be so embarrassed about it. I remember feeling the same way when I first saw Sky." Twilight replied, placing a comforting hoof on Tempest's wither.

"I... I don't know what you're talking about." Tempest stubbornly replied.

"Alright, alright. I won't pry. Just know that he pet you first." Twilight teased, walking away and flicking her tail at Tempest.

The mulberry unicorn fought hard to hide the increasingly large blush on her face, but to no avail. Twilight's last words sent her into yet another embarrassing fit of reddening cheeks and nerves. After a few moments, she managed to control herself and calm down. With a deep sigh, she made her way over to the rest of the room just in time for Jason to speak up.

"Alright, alright, thank you. All of you. We appreciate the attention, but we were kind of in the middle of something if you all remember?" He insisted, straining to remove Pinkie from his torso.

"I'm afraid Jason's right. We have a unique problem that we need to solve, and as cute as humans are, we need to focus." Twilight announced, managing to break the rest of her friends attention from the humans.

"Aww..." Pinkie grumbled, releasing her death grip on Jason and walking a few feet away to mope.

"Thank you." Jason said.

"Don't mention it. Anyways, that does bring us to the matter at hoof. While I'd like for all of you to stay, you simply can't. Not until we can figure out a way to keep our magic from hurting you." Twilight said, adopting a more professional tone.

"I don't suppose you're close to a break through in that particular department." Rebecca said, crossing her arms skeptically.

"Well... no, no I'm not. We haven't had any humans here since Sky landed and well... he's been a pony for over a year now." Twilight explained, deflating slightly.

"Well... is this whole planet affected by your magic? Or is it just this particular section of it." Eddie asked, eyeing the map of Equestria once more.

"The Northern Hemisphere is particularly dense with magic, however, while the Southern Hemisphere has magic as well, it has a lot less. I honestly think that if you were still down there, you'd have years before our magic became an issue for you." Twilight explained.

"So we just need to get out of the Northern Hemisphere then?" Eddie pieced together.

"I'm afraid that even if I were to teleport you as far away as possible, it'd still be at least another year long journey through some of the most perilous terrain Equis has to offer." Twilight sadly replied.

"So what do we do?" Mike asked, more to Jason than Twilight.

Jason clicked his tongue in thought for a few moments and looked down at the floor. For a few moments, his attention seemed completely focused on that one particular spot of crystal just in front of him, but eventually, he gazed up. The first thing to greet his vision, was the graphite mare married to Sky.

"Midnight, right?" Jason asked.

"Huh? She replied, gesturing to herself with a hoof, "Me?"

"Yes."

"Um, yes, that's me." She said, eyeing Sky for possible advice. He shrugged.

"You said you almost used a... 'chaos crystal' to change Lawson back?" Jason continued.

"Y-yes. That was over a year ago though." Midnight explained.

"And there aren't any left here, at all?" Jason pressed.

"Midnight had the last one." Twilight answered for her.

"Well what happened to it?"

"Chaos crystals are... finicky. Like I said, they're only found on one island way up north, and they can't survive outside that island for more than a few weeks. The crystal Midnight had disintegrated less than a month after she got it." Twilight explained.

"But... these have the power to keep us from dying? Right?" Jason deduced.

"Well... it would require a charged spell, or something to that extent, but your average unicorn could probably take care of it no problem. It's just that getting the crystals in the first place is the problem." Twilight elaborated.

"Well, again, we don't know what it'll do to humans, right? So there's a chance that we could go up there, get the crystals, and have you work your magic, right?" Jason pressed.

"Well... once more, you're right about one thing. We don't know what that island will do to you. It could make everything a hundred times worse, or it might not affect you at all... There's a lot of unknown factors about that place. I'm not so sure it's a good idea for any of you to go there." Twilight reasoned.

"Well it doesn't look like we've got any other options at this point." Mike pointed out.

"Yeah, it's either 'go try the island and maybe die in the process', or 'stay here and for sure die within six months'." Eddie agreed.

"Looks like we have a pretty serious decision to make." Jason said.

"Hold on, hold on. You could all die going up there, and you're just going to do it anyways? I mean, I know staying here isn't safe either, but there's at least six months of study we could do and maybe find a way to protect you from magic if you stay. If you're hundreds of miles north, we can't do anything to help you." Starlight exclaimed.

"Unless we go with them!" Rainbow exclaimed.

All eyes in the room darted to the prismatic pegasus while everyone processed her words.

"Uh... sugarcube, I hate to break it to ya, but I don't think we can just drop everything like that." AppleJack reasoned.

"I can't leave Angel bunny all alone for months. Who knows what kind of trouble he'll get into." Fluttershy agreed.

"And who will run the boutique if I'm gone? Sweetie Belle?" Rarity questioned.

"I'd like to go just as much as the rest of you, but I can't leave the school without a head mare." Starlight added.

"Most importantly of all, if we all leave to head North, how can we take over Celestia and Luna's jobs when they retire?" Twilight finished.

"So basically, it's a resounding 'no' from all of you." Jason surmised.

"Honestly, if you can give us some good maps, and point us in the right direction, we should be fine." Eddie chimed in.

"Hold on, before we go and decide anything, you should all talk to Celestia and Luna first. If anypony will have any knowledge on the island, then it'll be them." Twilight said.

"Well where are they?" Jason asked.

"They should be here any minute." Twilight replied.

"Wait, why are they coming here?" Starlight asked.

"Well, yesterday when I was having my meeting with them, I told them about our four human guests, and they immediately wanted to visit. Obviously, they want to meet you all." Twilight finished, looking at Jason.

"I know you said you're taking over for them in a bit, but who are they again?" Jason asked.

"Celestia and Luna are the two ruling princesses of Equestria. Celestia raises the sun every day while Luna raises the moon every night. There's another princess named Cadence- she's married to my brother- but she doesn't have power quite to their level. Anyways, Celestia and Luna are both well over a thousand years old and have been taking care of Equestria almost the entire time. " Twilight explained.

Jason stared at her with a blank look.

"They raise the sun and moon?" He deadpanned.

"I know it sounds like bullshit, and I didn't believe it for a long, long time, but after some of the shit I've seen here, I honestly do believe it now. Celestia and Luna do control the sun and moon." Sky explained, taking a step towards the still seated man.

"Alright, so can't they help us out with our little predicament, you know, since apparently they can move a fucking star?" Eddie reasoned.

"While I'm sure they would want nothing more than to help you, I don't think they'll be able to do much more than me when it comes to teleporting you anywhere. The only thing I'm sure they can provide is knowledge of the island." Twilight said.

"Fucks sake... So when are they supposed to get here?" Jason asked, hitting his head against the crystal pillar.

As if to answer his question, there were three loud knocks on the front door that sounded out through the halls and into the dining room. Every head in the room turned to the source of the noise before Twilight took the initiative and made way for the door.

"Right now, I suppose." She said.

Twilight walked over to the front door and pulled it open to reveal two large alicorns. Standing to the left, was a very tall pony of pure white. Her mane and tail flowed as if the wind was spurring them on indefinitely, and her calm rosy eyes gazed into the castle with a hint of excitement behind them. Next to her, stood a slightly shorter, yet still fairly tall midnight blue alicorn. Her mane and tail followed suit, flowing about in some nonexistent wind while her teal eyes scanned the foyer, almost as if she was looking for trouble.

"Celestia! Luna!" Twilight exclaimed, darting forward and giving a big hug to the taller mare.

Jason stared at them in wonder as Twilight moved to hug Luna. Eddie, Mike, and Rebecca shared his feelings, and glanced back and forth as they sized the new princesses up. Meanwhile, the rest of the ponies in the room, barring Tempest, made their way over to the new ponies and exchanged their greetings. Sky and Midnight quickly joined the group, and made their way to the front.

"Tia, Luna." Sky smiled.

"Princesses." Midnight greeted, giving a friendly wave.

"Sky, Midnight. It's good to see you both again so soon." Celestia smiled a warm, toothy grin.

"Indeed. Oh, I am terribly sorry about all of those last minute changes, Midnight. I understand you wanted to be here the other day for the knighting ceremony, but I simply could not trust any other pony to get the job done." Luna explained, an apologetic look in her eyes.

"Oh, don't worry about it, princess. It's fine." Midnight dismissed with a wave of her hoof.

Celestia, having been satisfied with the greetings, turned to address the group as a whole.

"It's wonderful to see you all again. However, as I'm sure you know why we're here, we'd very much like to meet the humans." Celestia announced. Her voice was soft, and smooth. Despite his initial reaction being one of distrust, Jason felt slightly more at ease just from her voice alone.

"Of course, they're right this way." Twilight said, gesturing toward the dining room and the humans standing around inside.

Celestia and Luna made their way through the crowd and arrived in front of the group of Marines within a few moments. Jason stood upright, his back rigid, as she approached, and the rest of the Marines quickly did the same.

"It's very good to meet you all. I am Princess Celestia," Celestia said, gesturing to herself before pointing to Luna with a hoof, "And this is my sister, Princess Luna."

"It's an honor to meet you both. I'm Sergeant Jason McKnight. This is Corporal Eddie Icon, Lance Corporal Mike Jones, and Chief Warrant Officer Rebecca Williams." Jason replied, gesturing to each squad-member respectively.

"It's a pleasure. I hate to just jump straight to the point, but I take it you've met Sky, correct?" Celestia continued.

"We have. We're aware of his situation and the rest of the crew he was with." Jason said.

"I see. It was a tragic loss of life that I wish we could have prevented... Might I ask what your intentions are with him?" Celestia pressed, eyeing Jason critically.

"I'm not sure I follow." Jason replied, glancing at the crimson pegasus in question.

"From what Twilight told me the other day, you've come to recover the lost crew, correct?"

"Yes, that is our mission." Jason coolly responded.

"Well... Sky is the only surviving member of the crew. I'd like to know if you're planning on taking him back with you." She explained.

"What?" Sky jumped in, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks.

"We're... not sure. He isn't human anymore, that much is for certain. Even if we did take him back with us, I don't think we could change him back." Jason replied after biting his lip.

"Uh... Why are you guys talking about me like I'm not right here?" Sky interrupted, looking at both parties with a frown.

"Sky's not going anywhere. Not unless he wants to." Midnight spoke up, darting in and wrapping her hooves around him in a protective manner.

"While... it is our mission to bring him back... Ugh... Look, things are complicated enough with us just trying to get off this planet alive... I'm not planning on ripping him away from a life that he clearly has here if that's what your worried about. If Lawson wants to stay, then he's more than welcome to do so." Jason decided, glancing curiously at how defensively Midnight was holding onto the crimson pegasus.

"Thank god." Sky sighed, leaning into Midnight more as he exhaled.

"Thank you. I'm glad to hear that," Celestia relented, "Now, as for you four, I'm sure you're aware by now what our magic does to humans."

"From what we've heard, it'll kill us in a matter of months if we don't get out of here." Jason replied.

Celestia seemed to frown slightly as he spoke, but she quickly hid her reaction before anyone could read into it much.

"Indeed. While I am glad to see more of your kind here, I'm afraid that you simply can not stay for you own sake." She said.

"Yeah, we were just trying to figure out how to deal with that little issue when you got here." Eddie chimed in.

"What is your plan? We might be able to assist you." Luna responded.

"At the moment, our plan is pretty much the dumbest thing I can think of, but Twilight said that teleporting us away isn't going to be an option." Jason explained.

"Hey, what if she just teleported us short distances over and over again until we were far enough away to get out of here?" Mike suggested.

"I'm afraid that won't work either. Teleportation is an extremely difficult spell. To do so with all four of you, especially considering how large you are compared to a normal pony, would be extremely taxing on even Twilight. Not to mention the effect teleportation could have on you all." Luna replied.

"What do you mean? What effect?" Jason asked.

"Well, Sky was never teleported as a human. We were afraid of multiple abnormalities from such a sudden shift in position. There are literally thousands of things that can go wrong, especially when you consider your species' lack of magic. In all honesty, teleporting would probably kill you all the first time, let alone ten to fifteen times." Luna explained.

"Well I guess that narrows our options down a bit, doesn't it." Rebecca sarcastically spoke up.

"I suppose so. What were the other options you were considering?" Celestia replied.

"Twilight, what's the name of that island again?" Jason asked, promoting the lavender alicorn to speak up.

"The Island of Magicae Artes Earumque." Twilight replied.

"Oh..." Celestia trailed off.

"We understand the dangers presented with going there, at least, some of them," Jason elaborated, "But we were hoping that you might be able to tell us more before we fully commit to this."

"Are you absolutely sure there are no other options?" Luna asked, there was an almost pleading tone in her voice.

"We've gone over just about any other option I can think of. Our radios are completely shot, so we can't communicate with the rest of our forces even if we got close enough. Trying to walk out of here simply isn't going to happen, and we only have six months..." Jason trailed off.

"Well, we're not one hundred percent sure if that's exactly how much time you each have-" Celestia began before Jason interrupted.

"No, not for us... For the rest of our guys on the other side of the planet... I just remembered... Fuck... They're leaving in six months." Jason's shoulders slumped and he visibly staggered back a step.

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck..." Mike whispered.

"Son of a bitch." Eddie cursed.

"Oh... Oh no..." Rebecca sighed.

"What do you mean? Why are the rest of your people leaving so soon?" Twilight interjected.

Jason didn't reply for some time. With the many eyes in the room staring at him as if he held all the answers, time seemed to slow to a crawl, and the thirty or so seconds before he finally replied dragged on for what felt like hours.

"They have a mission... We have a mission... It's why we came here in the first place." Jason spoke slowly, as if finding the words was proving increasingly difficult as he went on.

"What mission?" Sky spoke up.

"We were at war... It was a war that spanned all the way from the Milky Way to Andromeda..." Jason trailed off again, a deep frown on his face.

"What happened?" Twilight asked, stepping towards Jason with a worried look on her face.

"It started like just about any other war, I guess... I barely remember how. Andromeda wanted something, the Milky Way wanted something else. It's a long discussion- the point is, a lot of ships went down over the course of the war, and our jobs for the last year have been to search for and rescue lost crews throughout space. That's what got us on Lawson's trail, and that's why our people are leaving. There are literally hundreds of distress calls still out there. We can only afford a few months per planet." Jason explained, huffing slightly.

"So... what happens if we don't get you back before you're supposed to leave?" Twilight pressed, a look of worry creeping onto her face.

Jason did not reply. He gazed at the floor as if it was the most interesting thing in the room, before Eddie spoke up for him.

"We get left behind." He said, frowning heavily.

Painful silence filled the air while the ponies in the room tried to think of some way to respond to that. Twilight pawed at the floor while Celestia and Luna shared a look of concern with each other.

"Well... what about your ship? The one that crashed in the White-tail woods? Can't you fix it?" Spike chimed in after some time.

"Same thing with our radios... Even if we had the tools to fix all the obvious damage to her... the wiring's all fried. We'd have to completely replace two thousand meters of wiring and electronics. That bird's never flying again." Rebecca mournfully replied.

"What... what are you planning to do then?" Luna asked.

"I think that really does only leave us with one choice... We have to go to the island." Jason said, shaking his head.

"The Island of Magicae Artes Earumque is still a perilous journey at best... Are you sure there are no other options?' Luna pressed.

"It's either we leave for the island, or we stay here and hope you can find a way to protect us from your magic. Honestly, I'm leaning towards taking our chances with the island." Jason replied.

"I still say that we can figure it out. We have some of the brightest minds on the planet here now. Don't you think you're making that decision just a tad too quickly?" Starlight spoke up once more.

"We're not rushing into a decision. We just don't have much time to chose. The sooner we get to that island, the sooner one of you can work your magic to help us, and we live. If we wait and try to figure it out here, and you can't help us, then we miss our window and die no matter what." Jason replied.

Starlight frowned and cast her gaze to the floor while the rest of the ponies in the room shared contemplative looks with each other. After a few moments, it was Celestia who broke the silence.

"While I can't say I believe the island is the only course of action for you, I do believe it might be the best. As dangerous as it may be, we have next to nothing when it comes to your species and magic. For you, the journey could be a simple affair, however, just as easily, it could be the most extreme and painful experience of your lives. Many ponies have died along that path, but we simply don't know how it will affect all of you." She explained.

"Regardless of whether or not it's the best choice, we're still going to discuss it more. I'm not deciding on anything right now. I want more time to think about the risks and what our best course of action is going to be. Tomorrow morning we'll probably decide." Jason declared.

"I understand. We will stay for the night. Please, inform us of your decision in the morning. We'd all very much like to know what you decide." Celestia calmly replied.

"We will. In the meantime... I think I speak for the four of us when I say that we should get some food." Jason said, feeling his stomach grumble in agreement.

"Oh! We have food! I just made breakfast." Spike eagerly piped up, gesturing to the rest of the table.

"I appreciate the offer, but I'm not sure we can eat your food... can we?" Jason asked, turning to Sky.

"Oh yeah, you can eat the food here. I mean, I wouldn't have made it six months if I couldn't." Sky replied, dismissively waving a hoof.

"At this point I'm starting to think that this planet is just a second Earth with magic radiation." Mike shook his head as he walked over to the table and grabbed a muffin.

"Seconded." Eddie agreed as he followed suit.

Jason and Rebecca were quick to follow, prompting a small chuckle from the day princess.

"It appears you were all quite famished." She joked.

"Well, not eating for a day and a half will do that to you." Jason shrugged before biting into a blueberry muffin.

The warm, moist bread practically melted in his mouth, and blueberry flavor quickly followed suit. It was all he could do to not moan from the taste right on the spot.

"Hehe, I do believe a meal is in order then. Let us discuss more serious manners afterwards then." Celestia offered, already well aware of the answer.

The group of humans shared a collective nod, much to the amusement of everypony in the room.

.

.

.

.

.

Hours later

With the sun high in the sky, and everypony else moving along with their day, Sky and Midnight took to one of the many balconies in the castle. The warm sunlight gently heated their coats and brought a calming sense of relaxation to the world around them. Unfortunately, calm and relaxed were the last things Midnight was feeling.

"You can't be serious!?" She questioned, raising her voice.

"Mid, I know it's not the best idea I've ever had, but I really feel like I need to do this." Sky reasoned.

"No! Absolutely not! You can't just go with them to that island! Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to ponies!? You'll die!" Midnight shot back, pressing a hoof against his chest.

"I'm not going to die... but I can't just let them go without me." Sky said, his eyes falling to the floor.

"Why!? Nopony asked you to go with them? They didn't even ask you to go with them!" Midnight shouted.

"I know... but I just... I can't let them go alone, Mid... I mean... I just can't."

"Why?" Midnight questioned, tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

"Because what kind of person would I be if I just let them go and risk their lives when they're only here because of me?" Sky said, stopping Midnight in her tracks.

"W-well... I-You..." She trailed off.

"Mid, trust me, I'm just talking about asking them if they'll let me tag along. I'm not saying it's even for sure yet. Besides, I'm not planning on going all the way to the island. If it's as dangerous as everyone keeps saying, then I'm just gonna hang back while they get the crystals. I promise I'm coming back to you either way." Sky explained, gently caressing her cheek with a hoof.

Midnight sighed and dropped her gaze to the floor.

"I know you feel like you have a responsibility to help these people... but... we had plans... we were just about to start a family." Midnight whispered as a tear streaked down her cheek.

"I know... and I want to have a kid just as bad as you do... but how can I look my son or daughter in the eye and tell them I stood idly by while good people died and I did nothing? I can't, Mid... I just can't." Sky pleaded.

Midnight closed her eyes to stop anymore tears from falling and shakily nodded.

"Alright then... I'm coming with you." She declared.

"What?" Sky did a double take.

"I'm coming with you. You want to risk your life like this, then I'm coming with. At least that way I can make sure you don't kill yourself doing something stupid." She said, the firmness of her voice declaring that this wasn't up for debate.

"Mid, I can't let you put yourself at risk like that. I love you way too much to- ooooh... I see what you did there, you flipped it on me." Sky realized.

"Heh, exactly. And it's not up for debate. If you're sure about this, then I'm coming with you. End of discussion." Midnight said, giving a cheeky grin.

"Are you sure? It's not exactly gonna be a cake walk." Sky reasoned.

"Neither was carrying your heavy ass up that mountain, but I did that and I can do this. Anywhere you go, I go, big guy." Midnight shot back.

"Fair enough. Let's just be careful then. If something happened to you, I couldn't live with myself." Sky replied, nuzzling his cheek against her neck.

Midnight quickly returned the gesture and pulled Sky a little closer with her foreleg.

"You just remember whose bright idea this was." She whispered, before nipping at his ear.

Jason paced back and forth while the rest of the team sat around in their room in various positions. Mike took up his spot laying down on his back on the bed while Eddie sat on the floor with his back against a wall. Rebecca took to simply laying down on the bed next to Mike and staring straight up at the ceiling.

"So, uh... you have a plan yet, Sarge?" Mike asked, eyeing him as he paced to and fro.

Jason paused in his pacing to sigh and shake his head.

"Not yet, Mike." He said.

"Alright, just checking." Mike shrugged as best as he could from his position.

"We've all been sitting up here thinking about what to do since breakfast. That was four hours ago now. I think getting some air might do us all some good." Rebecca suggested.

"You're welcome to go outside and get some air, Chief." Eddie replied.

"Okay, but I mean like, all of us. Especially you." She said, pointing at Jason.

Jason raised an eyebrow at her gesture, "What? Why me?"

"Because you're clearly driving yourself insane over there trying to figure out the best course of action right now." She replied, a slight tone of parental disapproval in her voice.

"It's not an easy decision to make... I went over the route we'd have to take with Twilight and... it's gonna be rough. There's a desert, mountains, months of sailing... Regardless of what we end up doing, I don't think we're getting out of here any time soon." Jason sighed.

"Well, our first issue is the magic thing, but after that's solved, I can get our radios working. It's just going to take... a while to make the parts that're fried. Once that's done, and they work, I can radio up to one of the comms buoys and get us an evac." Eddie shrugged.

"How long is 'a while'?" Mike asked squinting slightly.

"Uh... depends on how long it takes to process the raw materials here, but... maybe a year? Two?" Eddie shrugged once more.

"A fucking year..." Mike whispered, looking back up at the ceiling.

"I wish I had a better answer, but the way things are here... it looks like they don't even have the methods of production that we had back in the early two thousands. To fix just one of our radios is gonna... it's gonna take some time." Eddie replied, looking down at the floor.

"Of course, none of that matters if we're all dead in six months anyways." Jason spoke up, directing all eyes towards him.

"Man, are we really sure that we believe them about all that shit? Like, do we really believe that 'Sky' is actually David Lawson? It just seems like too much to be true." Mike pointed out.

"He knew things that only Lawson would know." Jason replied.

"I mean, they could have just tortured the information out of him." Mike suggested.

"They tortured every single piece of information out of him that he could have possibly known, in the hopes of us showing up just so that they could lie to us and have a random pony pretend to be him by answering questions they couldn't have possibly known we would ask?" Jason raised an eyebrow.

"Well... when you put it like that..." Mike petered off.

"I think we're down to our last option here, then." Rebecca said.

"Looks that way. I guess we're gonna have to make the trip to the island." Jason replied.

"Welp, I always did want to die somewhere tropical." Mike shrugged.

"It's in the north man. If anything, it's gonna be like Antarctica." Eddie pointed out, holding up a finger for emphasis.

"...Fuck." Mike sighed.

Before any of them could say anything else, there was a knock at the door. Jason made his way over to said door and opened it, revealing Sky and Midnight.

"Lawson- Er, Sky... what're you doing up here?" Jason asked.

"Well... We wanted to talk to you guys. You got a minute?" Sky replied.

"Uh, yeah. Sure, come on in." Jason held the door open for them as the two ponies entered the room.

"So, I know that you guys don't really know me... and I know that you're hesitant to trust anyone here, but I really need to know... Are you going to the island?" Sky said, speaking calmly and slowly.

"We're... still deciding on that. For now, it looks like that's our plan." Jason replied, crossing his arms.

Sky sighed slightly, "Alright. Can we come with you?"

Jason simply stared at him as if he heard something wrong while Eddie did a double take. Mike and Rebecca both rose up to sitting positions to make sure they understood him correctly.

"Wait, you wanna go with us?" Mike asked, puzzled.

"I know it probably sounds crazy. Mid and I... Well, we talked about this a lot while you were up here... and I can't help but feel like you guys being here is my fault." Sky explained shyly rubbing a foreleg with his hoof while Midnight rubbed his wither.

Jason sighed, "It's not your fault. This was our mission, plain and simple. We all knew what we signed up for. Don't blame yourself."

"I know. All the same though, I'd like to help you guys if I can. I remember my first month here and how alone I felt, and... well, you guys are likely the only humans I'm ever going to see again. It just wouldn't feel right to me if there was something I could do to help you out and I didn't... and if any of you died because of that..." Sky continued, looking at each human in the room one by one.

Jason, Eddie, Mike, and Rebecca shared mixed looks of appreciation, disbelief, and gratefulness before Jason looked back at the two equines standing in front of him.

"What about you, Midnight? I can't imagine you want to go off and do something so dangerous with us." He pointed out.

Midnight tensed up slightly at the sudden attention, but took a small breath and spoke.

"I've already talked it over with Sky a bit, and there isn't a chance in Tartaraus that I'm letting him go do something this dangerous without me. Besides... I really appreciate the fact that you weren't going to just take him away without regards for his feelings on it. So, thank you. I'd like to help you all too." She explained squeezing Sky just a tad tighter in the process.

"Jesus they're so cute..." Rebecca whispered.

"Well... thank you. I think we're going to need all the help we can get on this one. If you're both sure... then we'd all greatly appreciate the help." Jason replied, giving a friendly smile.

"I'm not too sure just how much help we'll be, but every little bit counts, right?" Sky said, giving a small grin.

Author's Note

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsMqp85TtaM

Alright guys, so here we are. I know things are progressing kinda slowly, but I promise that the story will pick up soon. There's just a lot of stuff I have to cover before we get there. IF you all recall, in The Discovery, I made a point that ponies find humans adorable just like we think they are. This trend continues in this story. I hope that you guys like that idea, because I love it and it's not going anywhere. Hopefully you guys see the logic behind Sky's decision and agree with it. I do feel that after everything that's happened, he would be very inclined to offer his help to potentially the only humans he's ever going to see again. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed :)