The Teacher

Chapters

Flight
Eels
Contact
Foundations
Questions
Unexpected
Ponyville
Apologies
Lesson 1: Humans
Lesson 2: An Age of Atoms
Negotiations

Flight

"Engine One? Check. Engine two? Check. Hydraulics? Check. Pressurized Cabin? Check" Houston ticked off the boxes as his eyes skimmed the instructions on his clipboard and compared them to the flight apparatuses on his dashboard.

"Prototype Big MT Transportalponder?" his eyes trailed down to the bulky square object installed underneath. A bright blue handle stuck out of it, requiring him to pull it when he reached the appropriate altitude and cruising speed. "Yep. Installed and ready"

Throwing his stupid checklist over his shoulder, Houston reached over and retrieved his headset. "This is Vegas Flight 001. All pre-flight checks reporting in green. Permission to take off on runway one?"

"Affirmative Vegas 001. Standby" replied the static voice. Despite the sputters in the radio system, Houston can still make out the voice of Jack, the Boomer he helped find a wife two years back.

He helped the Boomers with quite a lot of things now that he thought about it. Looking out the window of his cockpit, he noticed many Boomers clearing the runway as they performed the last inspections on his aircraft. Four pre-war jet fighters scavenged from the Searchlight Airport were parked to the left of his plane, their pilots lounging on the wings and watching his plane amicably as the grounds teams repaired their engines. Off in the distance, Houston saw a small jet plane scavenged from Jean's Sky Diving land on runway two.

The year is 2283, two years following the 2nd Battle of Hoover Dam, which resulted in the Free Economic Zone of New Vegas being established under Mr. House. Caesar's Legion had been shattered and broken, forced to retreat back to Arizona after being beaten back by a combined force of the NCR and the V.I.A ( Vegas Independence Army). The NCR had also been pushed out of New Vegas, forced to accept Mr. House as the undisputed ruler of New Vegas.

They, of course, complained and grumbled on their way out, threatening Vegas with military strength and trade embargos. However, their military was so crippled by the war with the Legion and corrupt politicians that their threats were as empty as their banks.

Houston inquired with House his fears, that the NCR will return one day to annex Vegas once more. House's response left him with just as many questions as he started with.

"Oh, they will be back" replied House as he and Houston stood on the edge of a cliff facing the burning Hoover Dam, "Vegas is too much of a prize for them to just let go. No matter how much their 'democracy' swings against it, the greed of their politicians will force them to forever chase the 'Shining Jewel of the Mojave'. By my calculations, the tourist will return in one year, their military in five. But I have full confidence in my odds. They cannot be stacked against me, for I have my Securitrons...and you"

"Come Courier" continued House as he beckoned the still thinking Houston towards the shining city in the distance, "Vegas awaits its hero. Besides...don't you have better things to be doing?"

And better things he did do. In the two years following the battle, he's done many things. Opening the Lucky 38 for business, restoring Freeside with the help of the Kings and the Followers, forming a military alliance with the Great Khans up in Wyoming, reactivating HELIOS ONE, and most importantly securing an airforce for the V.I.A.

Under the contract, the Boomers agreed to act as a paramilitary contractor for the V.I.A. In return for securing Vegas airspace and blowing up whoever House points his finger at, the Boomers are gifted all scavenged aircraft found in the Mojave, given full independence, and a massive supply of ordnance to sustain their trigger happy nature.

Many Boomers were skeptical of the deal at first, but many grew to embrace it as part of their identity. They felt proud to carry the honor as the V.I.A's 'only' airforce. Currently, their force consists of two Vertibirds, six Fighter Jets, two Jet Planes, and five Transport Planes. Two had been refurbished as transports, another two as medium bombers. The last one was sold to Houston.

"Vegas 001, this is Boomer Air Traffic Control. You are clear to proceed on runway 1"

"Affirmative Air Traffic Control. Tell Janet I said hi" the voice chuckled at the other end.

"Copy that Houston"

Easing the throttle forwards, the transport plane slowly picked up speed as Houston used the yoke to correctly line the plane with the runway. He then flicked a few switches to keep the engines running as he looked over to the clock.

"Time now is 2000. This is Vegas Flight 001 taking off"

"Copy that Vegas 001. Goodnight and safe travels"

Houston pushed the throttle the rest of the way, getting thrown back in his seat as the plane quickly gained speed. The old plane groaned and buckled underneath the strain from its new engines, yet it held firm as the plane reached near the end of the runway and gained the appropriate speeds. Houston then pulled back the yoke and let the plane lift itself off the ground.

"Damn, this feels amazing" he had tried flying before on the Boomer's reality simulators, but even then those machines couldn't fully create the experience of flying. He felt his stomach drop as the plane reached more and more heights into the Mojave skies.

The plane eventually reached an altitude of 2,000 feet to which Houston then leveled it to gain one more glimpse of his home before leaving it for good.

Vegas. New Vegas.

True to its name, the 'Shining Jewel of the Mojave' stood proudly in the middle of the Mojave desert. Neon lights and signs illuminate its darkness as patrons flooded its streets on their way to one of the four casinos. All the while Securitrons, Robo-Scorpions, and Cyberdogs patrolled its streets with a vigilant eye.

Then came Freeside, not as grandeur as the Vegas Strip, but just as beautiful in its own rights. Its streets and buildings repaired, trash cleaned up, and people fed, clothed and housed. Houston still remembered the daunting task of cleaning up Freeside given to him by House. Even with the help of the Securitron Army, the Kings and the Followers backing him up, it had been particularly difficult to clean up Freeside, what with the raiders, junkies and local thugs. Even then their efforts weren't in vain and in time Freeside transformed into the perfect image of pre-war Vegas.

To ensure security and the loyalty of the populace, House took his Securitrons away from the area and left the Kings in charge of security, something they did with both swank and professionalism.

The Followers opted to remain in Mormon Fort, independent from House's influence, but still administering aid and medicine to the people of New Vegas. They declined when offered the chance to restore Old Mormon Fort. Something to do with providing Freesiders a place that they can still recognize despite the rapid changes to Vegas.

That didn't stop them from taking the Mark IX Auto-Docs that Houston offered them in House's name, however.

The boundaries of New Vegas were fast approaching now. The junk fence that once separated Vegas from the outside world was gone now, replaced with a solid concrete wall. After the NCR were forced to retreat, House and the Mojave locals moved into Quarry Junction and Boulder City. Using the limestone from the mines and the processing equipment from the city, House was able to commission the construction of a massive concrete wall all around New Vegas, ensuring its security and turning it into a veritable fortress.

"Goodbye Vegas" muttered Houston as his plane finally left the boundaries of Vegas airspace. He swears to god he saw Rex and Mean Sonofabitch waving at his plane as it left the glittering city of light behind him.

After flying for five more minutes, Houston spied the cliffsides of Black Mountain getting dangerously close. To avoid colliding with the side of the mountain, he pulled his yoke back steadily to allow the plane to climb at a rapid rate speed without too much loss in speed.

3,000 feet.

5,000 feet.

7,000 feet.

9,000 feet.

Houston leveled his plane as it broke through the clouds and reached the 9,000 feet mark. Flipping the necessary switches to activate the aircraft's custom-built autopilot, Houston pushed his chair back to have a better look at the device Klein gave him.

The installed Transportalponder was really just a bigger and bulkier version of the one Houston uses to get to and back from the Big Empty. After returning to the Big MT, Houston found a new responsibility as the facility's head inspector. His job was to review each of the Think Tank's projects and determine whether or not to release them into the Mojave. Several ones have already been approved such as the Auto-Docs and Cyberhounds, while others like the Y-17 trauma harnesses immediately disapproved.

Which leads to Klein's recent device.

To be fair, the concept of long ranged teleportation wasn't too far-fetched. In one of Klein's usual rants to escape the Big Empty, he had constructed a bigger and more powerful version of the standard Transportalponder. After Houston's return to Big MT, Klein had approached him and asked him to test out his latest device.

Theoretically, it was capable of teleporting Houston as far as Kansas, before taking twenty-four hours to cool down and use again. Once Houston proposed his intentions to Mr. House, he was surprised to see the old world businessman eager for him to test the device.

He had even funded the massive ammunition payment to the Boomers in order to buy the transport plane for Houston.

The reason for the plane, however, lies in the flaws of the machine.

The device had an effective radius of 1 mile, incinerating everything within it to ash. Another flaw was that the machine needed to be 'stimulated' with a large, and continuous discharge of energy. In summary, Houston needed to link the device up to a fast-moving device in an area away from population in order to get the machine working right.

Buying the plane wasn't the problem. It was learning how to fly it. So another truckload of ammunition later, four months of flight school, and Houston was ready to begin his journey.

"Let's see...altitude...9,000 feet" Houston compared the instruments on the dashboard to the instructions Klein printed out for him, "Yep that's optimal alright. Speed...188 miles per hour. Yep, that should be all good"

Just as Houston was about to reach down and pull the blue lever, a small beeping echoed within his cockpit.

"What is it now?" he groaned as he looked up and out of his cockpit window. What he saw genuinely made him feel like throwing up.

It was a mass of clouds, towering over his plane and making look like a tiny dot within the larger landscape. Unlike the clouds he'd seen over the Mojave, these clouds were a toxic green in color, moved in a way that was completely unnatural for puffs of evaporated water controlled by the wind, and completely blocked the sun's rays, making the entire sky a sickly green.

That's not even counting the lightning and thunder.

Houston heard many sounds in his life. The screams as Vault 18's reactors went up, the snarls of Deathclaws and Lobotomites, the creepy moanings of the Ghost People, and the cries of soldiers from Legion and NCR as the Hoover Dam crumbled into a flaming wreck of its former self. But all of them failed to shake his bones as the sounds of the thunder had.

It was loud and thunderous, echoing all over the night sky and in loud increments, similar to someone beating a war drum. In addition to this, there was an ungodly moan in its tune, like the heavens themselves were crying out in pain from the radiation every time the lightning struck.

"OH HELL!!" Houston quickly turned his plane hard left in order to avoid a collision with a lightning bolt. One thing was for sure, he had to quickly fire up the machine and get the HELL out of here.

Making sure that his plane was once again leveled, Houston once again reached down to pull the switch. But luck proved not on his side as at that precise moment, a lightning bolt struck his plane right on the wing, causing engine two to burst into flames.

This sudden jolt of electricity caused the machine in front of his face to burst into wild sparks. Shielding his eyes to avoid them getting scorched by the wildly flying blue sparks, Houston reached down into the slowly burning box, ignoring the burns they caused on his hands, and pulled the blue lever with all his strength.

As he felt the all too familiar sensation of being teleported, his head suddenly slammed forwards into the controls of his plane as turbulence rocked the aging machine, knocking him out instantly.

The last thing he saw before going under was the faint outline of blue light as the Transportalponder got to work.

At first, Houston thought he was dreaming. After all, since when was there the sounds of chirping birds in the Wasteland to begin with? However, this brief moment of consideration made him realize something bigger.

HE WAS ALIVE!!

And in a shitload of pain!

Houston swore as he shot himself off his chair, his vision obscured by the amount of dried blood that coated his face and his eyes. Stumbling wildly, he fumbled around in the air until he could feel the comforting feeling of the first aid kit attached near the exit of the cockpit. Ripping it open, and hissing in pain at his burnt fingers, Houston felt around until he could feel the shape of a bottle of purified water.

Using some of it, he poured it over his eyes, rubbing the dried blood away with his undamaged hand. Now that his vision was restored, he drank the rest of the bottle and proceeded to fix his other wounds, mainly the burnt fingers on his right hand and the split on his forehead.

After using up the last of the bandages to patch his head and hands, as well as a few syringes of Med-X, Houston took the moment to hold himself up and survey the damage.

The window of his cockpit was completely totaled, no doubt about that. Thankfully the controls were still in one piece, though the concern at the moment wasn't the controls but rather the melted machine that was installed underneath his seat.

Houston's heart sank as he realized the predicament he was in. It was most evident that the plane was damaged as it crash landed. While controls were fine, Houston was more concerned with the damages sustained on engine two and the prototype Transportalponder. Repairs for planes were extremely rare to find in the Wasteland, with most merchants most likely to shoot him for the treasure trove he was carrying. And he might as well kiss the Transportalponder goodbye, no chance of finding a replacement in the Wasteland, that was for sure.

"Let's just see what the damage is," said Houston as he unlocked the door to the rest of the plane. Luckily for him, the cargo in his plane remained relatively unscathed, as well as his robot companions who were still dormant in their storage pods.

"I'll activate you guys later" promised Houston as he tapped the pod containing ED-E, B-6-RK, and A L P H A. Pulling his modified plasma pistol out of his holster and readjusting it on his undamaged left hand, Houston walked over to the exit of the place, opening it cautiously in case of a raider attack.

To his genuine surprise, however, what he saw took his breath away. His wrecked plane was currently sitting in the middle of a beautiful meadow, surrounded by green grass, an array of colored flowers, and towering pine trees. Off in the distance, he could hear the sounds of woodland creatures, all completely foreign to him as they chattered amongst themselves. Clear blue skies and puffy white clouds were above him, all against a glowing sun that looked nowhere as harsh as the one in the Mojave desert.

He had no idea if this was a hallucination, or he had simply died and gone to heaven. However, what he could say as he holstered his gun was this.

"Damn...Kansas sure is beautiful"

Author's Note

When I read MLP X Fallout stories, they mostly all have the Courier side with the NCR. Personally, I preferred to side with Mr. House, followed by Caesar, the NCR and then Yes man. So, therefore, the Courier in this story ended up siding with MR. House.

Eels

As a member of the Griffin species, Natalya likes to believe that she's been really lucky with her life. She survived her hatchling years, lived in a crumbling birdhouse which hasn't collapsed yet, and even won a bronze medal at in aerial relay for Celestia's sake!

Granted it wasn't a gold medal. But when you're competing against literal speed demons such as the Wonderbolts, or even Rainbow Dash, even Griffins have to be lenient at times.

Natalya's luckiest moment, in her opinion at least, has to be when she found out that she had a half-sister named Giselle.

Griffins have this rather peculiar culture when it comes to mating. Ponies would tell their foals that babies would come when two ponies love each other very much. Griffins would instead redefine it to say hatchlings come when two griffins hate each other very much.

After a couple of hours of heated arguing, the two griffins would end up just rutting one another like wild beasts to settle whatever argument they were having. Due to this rather 'lax' mindset towards marriage and devotion, the two griffins would just leave one another after the deed was done. The female would drop off the egg at one of the many orphanages in Griffinstone while the male would just screw around until he inevitably starts another fight, and subsequently creates another orphan.

This is to blame for the Griffin's rapidly shrinking gene pool and the massive amount of orphans that make up the griffin population. Since so many griffin hatchlings were so closely related with one another, this led to intense rivalries and a spike in hate and resentment for one another.

So count Natalya lucky when she found a half-sister that didn't completely hate her guts. Granted she didn't exactly love her- more like tolerated her- but that still counts for something amongst the griffins.

Now she was hoping that whatever luck that was keeping her alive all this time, was still working as she, Giselle and their teammate Gaston flew for their lives.

After the Equestria Games, Natalya and her teammates returned to Griffinstone with their bronze medals in claws. Griffins being griffins, the team quickly pawned them over to the local blacksmith for some quick bits, of which they later used to get drunk together at the local bar. After a night of heavy drinking and bar quizzes, the three of them departed ways with each other with promises to meet up in a few months to start training for the next Equestria Games.

One year later, they finally met up with the appropriate bits needed to start their training regime, whether those bits had been obtained legally or illegally. Having just enough for a three week holiday, in which they would train, Natalya- being the team captain and all- decided that they would be staying in Ponyville. Mainly because it was so cheap and it was close to the Ghastly Gorges, the site of their intense three-week seminar. It would have been a glorious three weeks of endless conditioning and teambuilding exercises.

So why did it go wrong? Why is it that the three of them were currently flying as fast as they could as if their lives depended on it?

Because of buckin QUARRY EELS!!!

See Natalya had designated roles for each of them to fulfill in the days leading up to their trip. After much debating, of course, it was decided that she would be managing the team's finances. Giselle would handle the paperwork for their accommodations while Gaston was tasked with gathering local information pertaining to the gorge.

Course it seems the featherbrain had completely forgotten to warn the rest of the team about the nest of buckin QUARRY EELS the size of buildings living within the walls of the gorge.

"Gaston! To your right!"

The bulky griffin gaston squawked indignantly as a massive Quarry Eel erupted out the cliffside to his tight, its jaws wide open for a tasty bird snack. Had it not been for Giselle's warning, he most likely would have been gobbled up without a single trace of his existence.

"Screw you!!!" Gaston flipped what griffins passionately called 'the bird' at the retreating eel with his wings. He was subsequently slapped across the bad of his head by Giselle as she passed by him.

"Insult them later! Keep flying!" she called back as she caught up to her sister Natalya who was currently leading their small wing formation.

"Where now, sis?" Giselle yelled over the roar of the winds and the distant rumblings of Quarry Eels moving along the hidden tunnels embedded within the catacombs of the cliff walls.

"Anywhere but here!" replied Natalya as she screamed back to her sister, "Where in Celestia's arse is Gaston?!"

"I don't know" shrugged Giselle as she looked back, "He should be...ah there he is"

Sure enough, Gaston caught up to the two griffin sisters, looking slightly roughed up with his entire face coated in a fine layer of dust.

"Don't ask..." he said dangerously as Giselle raised a talon in question, "Hey Natalya? Why are we even bothering to stay in this Gorge? Could we just fly up and get out of here already?"

"Wind currents" replied Natalya briskly as she pointed up, "Fly up and you'll find yourself smashed against the cliff walls. Best we can do right now is to find a section of this pass where the winds are weaker to leave"

"What about the Eels?" asked Giselle, "I don't hear the rumblings anymore"

That was a good question, thought Natalya. True enough, the sounds that indicated the presence of Eels had slowly faded away into obscurity. Either the Eels had lost interest in the group of griffins, or either they were...

"Stay alert" commanded Natalya to her wingmates. These Eels were obviously much smarter than they had initially let on, and Natalya wasn't willing to take any more chances that may place them in harm's way.

The wing of three Griffins continued to fly in silence, constantly scanning the side of the cliffs in case of any unexpected ambushes. To Gaston and Giselle's relief, and Natalya's paranoia, there was nothing.

"Maybe they're gone," said Giselle optimistically to Gaston. Despite her teammates boost in morale at that thought, Natalya can't help but feel that this situation was too good to be true. One moment they were being chased by Eels and the next they weren't? Nah, something had to be up.

Eventually, the wing entered an area of the gorge with a considerable drop in wind. Not enough to fly directly out, but enough for them to slow down without fear of being blown away. Looking ahead, they could see that the source of this drop in the wind was due to a divide in the gorge, branching into two pathways.

"Left or right, boss?" called out Gaston.

"Either should be okay" replied Natalya as she pointed to the right entrance, "We'll go there-"

Before she could finish her sentence, however, a loud rumbling sound could be heard all around them. While her teammates went white in the face with fear, Natalya swore loudly as she realized the rumblings were-

"EELS!!" screamed Natalya to her teammates. Sure enough to her words, a massive Quarry Eel erupted out of the cliff walls. Snarling and drooling, the buckin thing just so happened to be conveniently placed right at the fork of the two entrances. Natalya's heart sunk as she realized what would happen should the three of them remain clumped together.

"Break! Break goddamnit!!"

In response to her orders, the wing broke apart just as the Eel lunged forward and took a huge bite at the air in which the three of them were previously flying on. Gaston and Giselle were lucky, able to avoid the Eel's frills and enter the path on the right. Natalya was much more unlucky, having to avoid the Eel's flopping body, which forced her into the left passage.

'If those two have any brains, they'll fly out straight away and wait for me' thought Natalya bitterly as more rumbling sounds could be heard all around her. 'Oh for Celestia's sake'

Soon Eel after Eel erupted from holes in the walls, their jaws wide open to take a bite out of her. Luckily for her, the creatures were slow and cumbersome, making easy to dodge with her skills. However, what they lacked in individual agility, they made up for in sheer numbers as Natalya soon felt extremely fatigued from having to dodge eel after eel.

She rounded a corner, in hopes of escaping from the endless valley of eels she had just gone through. But what she saw at the end of the corner just made her growl in frustration.

The area had weak winds, that was for sure. However, there were numerous spherical white objects sitting comfortably on a nest made of sticks, mud and the occasional bones of some poor animal. To top it all off, a larger than life Eel slithered around the nest, snarling viciously in her direction when it noticed her approaching.

'I'm so screwed' thought Natalya. She had flown straight into the middle of their nest.

The matriarch eel quickly lunged at her, moving in an unorthodox manner that made dodging it much more impressive when Natalya was able to do so. Dodging to the right and avoiding the matriarch's open jaws, Natalya finally found the sweet spot that in the gorge that would finally allow her to get out. Yet as she picked up speed and height, she flew a massive pain shoot through her right hind leg. Looking down, she realized that the queen eel had clamped its jaws around her foot, drawing blood as its razor sharp teeth dug deeper and deeper. Worst still was that Natalya realized she was losing height as the creature began to pull her down.

"No, no, no, no!!" Using whatever she had at her disposal; claws, legs, and beaks, Natalya scratched, kicked and bit the Quarry eel with as much desperation and ferocity as a fat chicken. Still, eventually, the beast let go of her leg after she delivered a devastating blow up the creature's nose.

With no way to bandage the wounds, Natalya did the most logical thing and quickly flew up with as much strength as she could. Luckily for her, the winds were slow so it made it easier for her to reach the edge of the cliff. However, a combination of the pain, blood loss, and fatigue made her smash the side of the walls numerous times until she was finally able to grab the cliff's edge and pull herself up.

"Arghh...buck's sake" groaned Natalya as she laid face-first on the soft, green grass. "That's going to hurt in the morning"

All across her body, she felt as if each muscle had been ripped straight out, seared with flames and then reattached back onto her. But nowhere did it hurt as much as it did on her legs and her-

"Wait...no!" Natalya shot up, despite protest from the rest of her body and tried to fan out her wings to get a better view of the extent of the damage. However, no matter how hard she tried to do it, her wings refused to open up. Only when she arched her head back, was she truly horrified with what she saw.

The sight was...tragic to say the least. Her wings, once described as glorious with perfectly groomed black feather, were a shadow of their former selves as they were twisted in a manner that was almost impossible to conceive. Most of the luscious black feather that once covered her wings were gone, exposing the raw red meat underneath to the elements. Luckily for her, there was no blood, just badly twisted limbs, so she won't bleed to death. But the possibility of never flying again quickly extinguished what thought she might have had about not bleeding to death.

'I'm so bucked' cried Natalya softly as she gently reached out and stroked her wings, hissing in pain when she touched them. Suddenly realizing her other wounds, she immediately began applying pressure to the wounds on her leg, seeing how they were still bleeding from the Quarry eel's jaws.

Her small moment of recuperation and morning was quickly shattered as the sounds of rumblings could be heard again, paralyzing her in fear. Turning around slowly, she was greeted with the sight of the matriarch eel. Nursing a small bleeding nose that was nowhere as brutal as Natalya's wounds, the eel once again opened its jaws to reveal its razor-sharp teeth to intimidate Natalya. The is started to slowly proceed to her by sliding on its front.

Basic instinct kicking in, Natalya immediately tried getting up, only to stumble when her still wounded leg forced her back onto the ground. With her leg preventing her from running away, and her wings out of commission, she did the next best thing. She began to crawl.

Granted she was barely getting anywhere, and it was only causing herself more pain as she dragged her broken carcass along the grounds of the cliffs. However as more and more of her energy sapped away, and as the matriarch eel got closer and closer to her to the point that she could feel its hot breath, Natalya gave up trying to flee and instead surrendered herself to her fate.

"Hope the others got out" muttered Natalya as she slowly closed her eyes, "Guess my luck ran out"

She chuckled softly to herself as the darkness swallowed her.

"Either Kansas got off scot's free, or we are not even in the Wasteland anymore"

A series of beeping and robotic grunts readily agreed with Houston as ED-E and A L P H A walked alongside Houston in the pine forest.

"Seriously, look at this" Houston pointed to a nearby pine tree, pretty much the same as every tree in the forest, with the butt of his Laser Rifle. "Not a trace of radiation on the Geiger Counter. What the hell is going on here?"

What the hell is going on is the perfect question to describe the situation that Houston found himself in. Never before, in all his travels as a courier, has he ever found himself in a world as crazy as this one. And he's been to some crazy places with some crazy characters

Fort Daggerpoint and the super mutant army.

The Sierra Madre and Elijah's insane heist.

The Big Empty and the Think Tank.

And finally the Great Divide and Ulysses.

But all of them were topped by the place he was currently standing in, ironic since its the closest thing to what Pre-war American forests might have looked like. But for someone who has lived in the Wastes and has only ever seen a forest this vibrant in picture books as a kid, the shock factor was really there.

"Come on, you stupid thing" Houston slapped his wrist-mounted Pip-boy a few times in hopes of getting its MAPS to function. Ever since his plane had crashed in the forest, he had been unable to create a rough map on his Pip-boy. This was weird, considering the fact that his Pip-boy had always been able to create a map, even when he was the Divide. This was why he was seriously considering that he might not even be on Earth anymore.

"God, I could do with some Dean Martin right now" lamented Houston as he examined the blades of grass at his feet. Seems they were coated in droplets of water that weren't irradiated. "Least I saved the songs on Holotapes, now that the radio's out too"

Speaking of holotapes, Houston really should go back and finish off the tapes stored in the box labeled "history'" in his wrecked plane. He remembered winning them off some mysterious stranger in power armor after a night of drinking and whiskey at Trudy's bar in Goodsprings.

Now that he thought about it, didn't the stranger have an eyebot like ED-E with him? Also...he distinctively remembered losing to the stranger, not winning, and despite his protests NOT to have the tapes, the weirdo still gave them to him anyway.

Huh. Weird.

He won't deny though, watching those history tapes were really enlightening. Who knew that the Brotherhood of Steel was currently kicking ass in the Capital Wasteland thanks to some hero called the Lone Wanderer. Or that West Virginia was no longer inhabitable because Vault 76's population had nuked one another with the hidden ICBMs.

He just wished that the narrator would stop jumping from one story to the other. Makes it really hard to keep up with everything.

Reaching up into a pine tree, Houston snapped off one of the pine cones and tucked it into one of the many pockets in his trench coat. "Might as well take some samples while I'm here"

As he reached up to pick some more, a loud beeping distracted him from doing so. Seems ED-E had picked up something as he quickly shot off into the distance, turned around to beep some more, and then continued on his journey,

"Uhh..." Houston stared at A L P H A, who just gave him a blank stare in response.

"Just follow him" Houston rolled his eyes as the massive robot lumbered off mindlessly to follow ED-E. Pocketing the last pine cones he could find off the forest floor, Houston reholstered his Laser Rifle and chased after his two robot companions.

Houston eventually found his two robot companions hiding behind a series of bushes. Sneaking up to the two and squeezing himself between the two, he quietly whispered to ED-E, "Right. So what do we have ED..."

Houston's voice trailed off as he spied perhaps the most beautiful creature he had ever seen in his entire life. It was a weird combination of two animals, the top half of an avian's and the lower half of a feline. Usually, Houston would be disgusted with such a combination, what with seeing Wasteland centaurs, yet he couldn't help but feel strangely mystified at how beautiful the creature's white feathers were, or the grey fur on its body.

The only sad thing about the creature was its wings, which based on its angle, was most likely broken. That and the small puddle of blood that currently laid in, cause of the wound on one of its legs causing it to bleed out. To Houston's surprise, the creature displayed significant signs of intelligence as it applied pressure to its leg in an attempt to staunch the wound.

Ed-E let out a frantic series of beeps, alerting Houston to the arrival of an imminent threat. Alerted, Houston looked around to identify the threat, seeing as how the wounded creature seemed to not be identified as the threat.

His answer so arrived as a massive red and purple creature appeared over the edge of the cliff in which the wounded creature was positioned. Dark red in color, purple frills, pink dots and serpentine yellow eyes that focused on the white creature underneath it. Massive in size, Houston couldn't help but feel slightly terrified at the new monster.

So to did the white creature as it began desperately crawling away from the massive beast above it. Houston didn't really feel pity for the wounded bird-lion, after all, all things live and die eventually in the Wasteland.

It's nothing new.

Except...Houston couldn't help but feel that he was making a mistake here. As he gazed at the creature's bright blue eyes, he saw many things. Fear, desperation, despair. Yet, there was something beyond those primal instincts, something that gave him a reason beyond just leaving it there to be eaten.

Something...akin to intelligence.

Sentience almost.

"Screw it" muttered Houston as he unholstered his Laser Rifle from his back, "ED-E, A L P H A, Cover me!!"

His two robot companions quickly did as he commanded, bursting out of the bush and covering his advance with successive bursts of red laser fire. The massive monster roared in pain and surprise, angered that it was distracted from its meal and diverting its attention to the tow new adversaries that dare interrupt its meal.

Houston snuck around, out of view of the creature and reached his target.

"Seems you blacked out" signed Houston as he gently stroked its feathery head. Keeping one hand on his gun, Houston used the other arm to hook it underneath its talons and attempted to pull it with him into the bush. Sadly his status as a nerd meant that he failed miserably in his endeavors, struggling to even move it just one bit.

"Really should exercise more" groaned Houston as he heaved and heaved to no avail. Before he could reholster his weapon and try again with both arms, he noticed something was off.

Very off.

Oh yeah, seems the sounds of laser fire had stooped for some reason.

Looking up slowly, Houston noticed the unimpressed looks from the serpentine monster above him. Seems it had lost interest in his robot friends and once again turned its attention to its meal, only to be angered when it seemed as if something else was taking its meal away.

"SHIT!!" Houston let off a few blasts of green laser fire but to his horror, the green bolts of light seemed to just reflect off of the creature's scales. It got even worse when the creature opened its massive jaws and lunged at Houston and the creature in his arms, intent on swallowing the both of them whole. Unable to react in time, Houston closed his eyes and waited for the end.

A loud clang could be heard all across the valley. Opening his eyes, Houston saw A L P H A had lunged forward and held the beast's jaws open with his bare hands. Yet despite being strong, Houston could see literal steam escape the robot as it struggled to maintain its hold of the beast's jaws. This moment of relief, however, gave Houston a good idea as to how to deal with the monster.

"A L P H A, hold its jaws open! ED-E, shoot its eyes when I say now!!"

Taking a moment to hear the confirmatory beeps from his various companions, Houston reached down to his belt and unhooked one of the Plasma grenades attached to it.

"ED-E, NOW!!"

Using what strength he did have, Houston pulled the pins from the grenade and tossed it straight down the creature's open mouth, the blinking green canister quickly disappearing down the darkness that is its throat. Just at that same moment, ED-E fired a laser straight into its left eye, causing it to loosen its jaw as it reeled back to roar in pain.

Using the creature's gravity against it, A L P H A snapped its jaws close and delivered a devastating punch straight to its throat, causing it to fall backward and into the gorge in which it came from.

The sound of bones snapping echoed from the gorge as the dreaded beast collided multiple times with the sharp rocks underneath. Finally, as the sound faded from existence, the all too familiar sound of a plasma grenade going off could be heard in the distance.

"Well, that solves that," said Houston as he dusted his hands. Walking over to the still unconscious body of the white creature, he reached down and pressed two fingers into its neck.

"Got a pulse...good. A L P H A, carry this thing, would you?"

"00000011111110000011000"

With one of his usual binary grunts, the robot lumbered forwards and easily picked up the wounded creature in a bridal-carry.

"Take it back to the plane. ED-E, follow and guard him" commanded Houston. The two robots quickly left the scene, carrying their precious cargo with them. "As for me..."

Houston turned around with his rifle at the ready, swearing that he saw movement amongst the bushes before. Yet, as he looked around and noticed that there was nothing out of place, he too mounted his gun and left to catch up with his robot companions, whistling a merry tune as he went.

He never noticed the pair of bronze colored eyes peeking out of the bush right next to him as he went along his way.

Contact

There were two things that Natalya felt as she was beginning to stir from her slumber. The first was an immensely satisfying sensation of warmth. It reminded her of those cold winter nights, where the cracks in her home allowed the freezing winds in and made her only safe refuge the thick, fluffy bed that she had.

The second feeling was of bondage. It was as if someone had bound bandages around her-

Natalya's eyes slowly opened, grunting multiple times as she had to adjust to the bright lights from the crackling flames dancing in front of her. Seems she had woken up on some sort of makeshift bed on the forest floor, made up of multiple quilts with patterns akin to those of tribal buffalos.

It also seems she had woken up during the nighttime as if the bright glow of the campfire and the distant chirpings of crickets didn't indicate that much already.

"My wings!!" she quickly turned her head to examine her wings, only to be pleasantly surprised when she saw them wrapped in bandages and folded back into their original position.

"Oh thank Celestia..." she said with tears in her eyes as she reached out and stroked them carefully. Her momentary burst of happiness was quickly shunned as something struck her.

She couldn't feel a thing on them!

'No...please, no' Natalya began to sob softly as she continued to gently stroke her crippled limbs. Yet no matter how many times she continued to stroke them in hopes of provoking a feeling from them, nothing happened.

She was permanently grounded.

Natalya could have laid there and continued to cry her hearts out. Heck, she deserved it after what she had just been through. But being the strong-willed griffin that she prided herself as, she steeled herself to at least get-up and thank whoever took the effort to save her sorry flank.

Turning her head around in hopes of seeing her mysterious benefactor, she was disappointed to find that she was all alone in the middle of the meadow; a campfire in front of her and numbers metallic cases arranged in a circle around her. She noticed that the boxes seemed to link up in a line and trailed towards a-

Natalya recoiled in shock as she thought she was staring at some sort of monster. The fact that the glow of the flames gave it an eerie grey sheen, and that its BLOODY HUGE body took up a majority of the meadow seemed to really reinforce that thought.

Her trembling soon faded into obscurity and it was instead replaced with morbid curiosity. What she had initially thought as its grey skin was instead slightly rusted green metal. What she had believed to be its claws, were instead two propeller blades attached to engines, which in turn were attached to the creature's wingspan.

Overall...she didn't know what to make of it.

It obviously wasn't a monster, rather it was a machine if the propellers and the metallic hull weren't indicative of that already. Yet it was no machine she had ever seen before. Based on the wheels mounted at the bottom, its large wingspan and the propellers attached to it, it was obviously built for flight.

Natalya knew that ponies had created numerous machines that were capable of flight; hot air balloons and airships were just a few that popped in her head, yet none of them looked came to mind when she stared at the foreign machine in front of them.

She could have continued to sit there and stare at the machine, but an extremely intoxicating smell quickly grabbed her attention, and her stomach's attention as well. Seems the smell originated near the campfire, straight out of a small pot that occupied one of the many stones used as foundation blocks. A quick peek at the chunky brown stew inside, plus another sniff identified to Natalya that it was meat-based, something that made her more hungry and slightly afraid at the same time.

Griffins are one of the few sentient species on Equestria that have meat as a center of their diet. But since they have to play nice with ponies now, their meat-based diet was slowly getting subsidized with vegetarian options. Personally, Natalya didn't care much for what kind of meal she ate as long as it was filling and cheap; still, she does miss the taste of a good rat steak.

This begas a question though, whose meal is this?

It obviously wasn't a pony's, that much was for sure. And definitively not a wild animal's, if the complexity of the campsite wasn't a good enough indication to its intelligence. Really the only two creatures that Natalya could think of that ate meat and is smart enough to build a campfire, was either a dragon or another griffin.

Yet neither species had any need for flight apparatuses, heck they had wings for that!

"Arghhh..." Natalya groaned and clutched her head as a migraine slowly formed. She was thinking way too hard into this. She should be glad that she was still alive and enjoy the food that was put in front of her, instead of worrying too much.

As Natalya reacted forwards with intent to grab the convenient cooking spoon sticking out of the pot, she was suddenly interrupted with the sound of several leaves crunching underneath hooves, as when as a series of guttural noises akin to metal being rubbed with sandpaper.

Turning around slowly, she was greeted with perhaps four of the most terrifying and strange creatures she had ever seen. She couldn't call all of the creatures as only one seemed to possess flesh, the rest were metal just like the flying mechanism behind her.

The first one made of metal was quadrupedal, emulating the shape and behavior of a dog. Apart from its behavior, which included the way it sat and panted its non-existent tongue, that was as far as it went to being a dog. It was covered in with crudely put together metal plating for its body, exposing many of its internal wires and the exoskeleton which held the whole structure together. On its spine was a series of wicked looking spikes which curled back towards its rump. It's most terrifying aspect, however, had to be its face. Despite its oversized yellow eyes which were meant to make it look cute, its jaws revealed rows upon rows of jagged teeth made up of drill bits, rotating threateningly every time it looked at her.

The next one was...difficult to describe. At best, she could describe it as a floating metal ball, though Natalya had no idea how the thing was capable of such a feat without the aid of magic or wings. Multiple thin metal rods stuck out of various places on the ball's rusted body, most of which were angled towards its rear. One particular rod, however, faced its front, placed underneath what she believed was its face.

The last two were common for the fact that they were both bipedal. But that was as far as their similarity went.

Of the two, the first was a massive, hulking individual made of metal. Every aspect of its body screamed power and strength; from its massive armor which gave it the unique appearance of wearing a carapace, its metal fists encased with a steel gauntlet, to its three-toed feet. the only part that Natalya felt was inconsistent with its image was its tiny head- which even then stared ominously back at her with its quadruple orange eyes.

The last bipedal held the most attention, however, as while the others were interesting and threatening in their own rights, this one was on an entirely different level. For one, it was composed of flesh- as she could see from the rolled up sleeves of its trenchcoat. On what she presumed were its claws, it wore some sort of clothing that covered a majority of its claw, but still left holes for each of its individual digits. One each of its shoulders, plates of armor were strapped overs its trenchcoat- the same armor underneath the coat as well as an array of belts and a bandolier.

The final interesting part had to be its head.

Like all of its companions, its head was unique to itself. It wore a large helmet, of which some weird language she couldn't read was scratched onto its surface. A device with a thin metal rod sticking out also was placed on the right side of the helmet. Wrapped around the helmet was a black belt, of which several perplexing objects were placed inside such as two playing cards, a metallic poker chip and what seemed to be a clip with three tiny cylinders attached together.

Likewise, with its helmet, its face was both creepy and confusing. Two small tubes ran directly into its metallic cheeks, above of which were two glowing red eyes. What she had initially mistaken to be its eyes, she soon realized that it was in fact made of red glass, one of which had been ruptured to form a small hole.

The red-eyed bipedal made more scrapping noises, this time pointing one of its digits at her. It was trying to communicate to her in some language, but all it did was made her cock her head in confusion.

"Um...what?" despite her response, the bipedal just placed its claws underneath its chin as if it was contemplating something, It then probably sighed before making more screeching noises, this time directed at the metal dog and the metallic bipedal. The two of them vanished into the dark of the forest at its command.

Turning its attention back to Natalya, it reached down to its neck, and to her surprise, lifted off its helmet, revealing to her that its metallic face was actually part of the helmet itself.

Its real face was much more different, similar to a male minotaur's but lacking much of the hair, except on its upper and lower lips as well as its head where one side was shaved completely while the other sprouted long black hair. Its nose was smaller, the mouth was more shrunken and it had higher cheekbones with olive skin. Its eyes, though a warm brown color, lack any life to them, much like the expression on its face.

She watched with a wary eye as it walked towards the campfire, depositing its helmet as well as its alien-looking weapon on one of the many cases, and instead picked up a smaller square box with the universal symbol of the healer's cross stamped on the front.

Her eyes widened in fear when the male bipedal pulled out a unique looking syringe filled with some kind of red liquid. It made several gestures and noises towards her again, this time specifically aimed at her crippled wings.

"Nuh-uh. No way" Natalya made a cross symbol with her claws and frantically shook her head, "You are not injecting me your mystery jizz"

The male bipedal just rolled its eyes and made more guttural noises, much to her annoyance.

That annoyance didn't persist long as she yelped when she felt herself getting lifted off the ground and slammed into the forest floor. Seems the metallic bipedal had snuck up on her and held her to the grounds on the command of the male bipedal, effectively trapping her underneath its weight.

Powerless to do anything, she watched with horror as the male bipedal stepped forwards and fanned her damaged wings out. Stabbing the needle deep into the feathers, she heard the soft hissing sound of escaping gas, followed by a slight feeling at the base of her wings.

Wait...she could feel something at the base of her wings?

She flexed her wings slowly, testing out the waters a bit. Yep, true to her thoughts she could feel something in her wings as she moved them. She couldn't immediately flap them, obviously, but feeling something in her wings left her in tears as she considered the possibility of recovery.

Natalya was so absorbed with her wings that she didn't even notice the metallic bipedal had let her go and disappeared back into the confines of the forest. The male bipedal then wiped the spent needle with a rag and then placed back into the case in which it was found.

"Hmm...?" She looked down to see a plate of stew placed in front of her talons, fork, spoon and all. Looking over to the male bipedal, she saw him sitting on one of the boxes and already digging into her portion of the meal.

"Is...is this for me?" asked Natalya. She frowned slightly when she didn't hear any reply from the male. He instead, just continued to eat the meal as if he didn't even hear her.

"Excuse me?" She tried a little louder this time, smiling slightly when she was able to grab his attention. Pointing to the plate, she once again asked her question, "Is this for me?"

A slow nod from the male was all the motivation she needed. Picking up her spoon she began to scoop copious amounts of stew into her beak.

The taste was...heavenly.

Oh, it was simply divine. She hadn't had this much good meat in her diet for a long time. The price of meat had inflated to extraordinary prices in the last months, forcing the money stingy griffins to instead adopt more vegetables into their diet. On the rare occasion that Natalya bought meat, it was often for special occasions such as her birthday, or when she got a promotion from work.

To her, the taste of the meat was like ambrosia. The way its distinctive flavor would just melt in her mouth was a feeling that she would always treasure-no matter how many fine vegetarian cuisines she ate.

And it was all gone. Just like that.

Natalya looked down at her empty plate in shock and disappointment. She had been so caught up in her fantasies that she hadn't realized that she had cleaned her plate in mere minutes. Looking over to her savior, she ignored his widened eyes and instead focused on the half-finished plate in his hands.

Neither of them said anything as the male bipedal followed her eyes to the treasure he held in his hands. He then looked up at her. Then down again. Then up again.

Sighing loudly, the male bipedal walked over and placed his plate down to replace her's. Grinning at her success, Natalya was going to take another bite of stew until she was interrupted by the bipedal returning again with the entire pot, which he then dumped next to her plate.

"No, wait. I didn't mean it like that" She had only meant to ask for seconds, not the entire damn pot. But before she could attempt to correct the mistake she made, the male bipedal had already waltzed off, leaving her in the presence of his floating ball and a pot full of the most divine food ever.

...

"Huh, must be my luck" shrugged Natalya as she picked up her spoon once again and delved into the heaven that was the stew.

Houston slowly dropped the blanket over the creature's snoozing figure with a slight smirk of amusement on his face. Seems it had eaten itself to sleep as she used a clean cloth to wipe the remnant of the pork and bean stew from its beaks.

"Am I now?" asked Houston to B-6-RK. Seems the robotic hound had finished its patrol routines and returned back to the base, "Do I really not smile that much?"

Okay. Now B-6-RK went too far there.

"Shut it B-6-RK" snarled Houston to his robotic dog. Holding the stack of plates in his hands, he dumped them into a larger pot simmering on the fire, as well as half a box of Abraxo cleaner in with it.

"Continue your patrol B-6-RK," said Houston again after a brief moment of silence between the two, this time in a more controlled voice, "Make sure nothing happens to her as she sleeps, okay?"

"I checked between her legs when I was operating on her" replied Houston nonchalantly, despite the small series of protest from his robotic friends, "What? At least I'm not like No-Bark Noonan"

Rolling his eyes as B-6-RK walked off to initial its patrol routine once more, Houston snapped his fingers at ED-E, who promptly followed with a bunch of cheery beeps.

Opening the door to his plane, he and ED-E climbed inside to the main cargo area. Most of the crates have already been unloaded off the plane with the only things left inside were a few crates, the robot's charge pods and Houston's personal terminal which sat on a desk.

"Let's see, password," said Houston sadly as she sat down and opened it to the password screen.

"Nah, I'm okay Ed-E" Houston shrugged off Ed-E's concerns as he typed the password in.

Hope. Always. Begins. At. Hopeville

"ED-E, I'll need to shut you down temporarily"

"I'll turn you back on later. You did record her voice, didn't you?"

Replied ED-E proudly. He floated over to Houston and allowed himself to be switched off with a flick from his owner. Placing ED-E still body next to the terminal, Houston took out several colored cables and attached them to both ED-E and his terminal.

Placing a set of headphones on his ears, Houston picked out a piece of paper and a pencil.

"Time to translate. Guess I'll be staying up all night again" mumbled Houston as he pressed the play button on the terminal and sat back to listen to the recordings.

"Time to go to bed. Thank Celestia I finished up" The alicorn princess Twilight Sparkle yawned loudly as she closed her book and placed it back upon the shelf in which she took it from.

Flicking the switch at the entrance of her bedroom, she then threw herself at her soft, warm bed, eager to fall into the blissful hooves of a good night's sleep.

She didn't get very far, cause just as she was about to doze off the doors to her room slammed open with a resounding crack.

"Ahhhh! SPIKE?!"

"Sorry Twilight. But two griffins insisted that they speak to you immediately. They said it was really important!!"

In the darkness of her room, her weary eyes could pick out the familiar outline of her faithful dragon assistant, as well as two pairs of frightened and panicked bronze eyes.

Author's Note

I feel like I didn't do a good enough job at describing the Courier's armor. So here's a URL to clarify things:

https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/64712

Foundations

"Urrrgh..."

Houston groaned as he began to stir from his short nap, rubbing the migraine at the back of his head away. Realizing that the source of his pain was from the headphones on his head, still ringing out static, he quickly switched his terminal off and peeled off the headphones to sit back in his chair.

Soaking in the patch of sunlight from the window above his workstation, Hoston sighed as he allowed himself to bask in its warmth without fears of his skin being flayed. There was something soothing about this world's sun; it wasn't harsh, or rough, or even scorching like the sun in the Mojave.

It was rather...nice.

Nice change of pace not to be roasted by radiation for once.

Pulling himself off his chair, he grunted as he stretched the joints in his back and arms. It would have been nice to and all to sit back and relax, but he had things to do and questions to ask.

"Morning buddy" replied Houston casually as he flipped ED-E on and fiddled with one of his antenna's. He had spent all night and a good portion of the early morning decoding the strange creature's sound, creating what he believed to be a successful translation program condensed into a holodisk. He just hoped that it would work as he installed it into one of ED-E's side compartments.

"Cmon pal, let's have some breakfast"

On his way to the exit hatch, Houston grabbed the two modified headsets he built last night off the table. Swinging the heavy metal doors open, he covered his eyes with his forearms to block the rays of sunlight and hovered over his campsite in order to find his target.

He eventually saw her, still sitting where he left her last night and engaging in what looked to be...preening?

He stopped and stared. Houston had never seen such an act before, so he was rather interested in how the creature delicately rearranged what feather stuck out of the bandages with its beak. She eventually stopped, however, once she noticed that he was looking at her silently with fascination.

Taking no notice of the blush on her cheeks, Houston instead turned his attention to the two other companions by the campfire.

<000011110000>

"Morning B-6-RK, morning A L P H A" acknowledged Houston as he picked his helmet off the crate which he left it on and sat down. Reaching over, he grabbed a few pieces of wood and threw them into the dying fire, "How were your patrols?"

<000011100011>

"So the area around the plane clear of hostiles?" asked Houston.

replied B-6-RK,

"What about the surrounding areas? Give me an outline of the geography" said Houston as he removed the pot of clean plates from the fire.

"Hmm...anything of interest?" asked Houston.

"Railway tracks? Good, that means there must be some form of civilization out there" Houston's eyebrow furrowed, "Have you scanned the water and the air?"

"Good, good," said Houston as he pointed to the plane, "You two can go in and charge up, ED-E and I can take it over from here. Thank you, by the way"

After dismissing his two drained robot companions back into their charge pods, Houston turned his attention back to his guest of honor, who up to this point had watched the entire conversation between him and his robot with bewildered eyes.

"That's going to get much worst, just you wait" muttered Houston while flicking the 'on' switch on one of the headsets and tossing it at the female's feet. When she picked them up slowly and still gave him that same bewildered look, his motioned to his own headset while he now wore on his head.

"Run the program ED-E" commanded Houston as the female followed his motions and finally placed her set on her head. Houston reached up and flicked the switch on his one on too. "Testing 1, 2, 3. Can you hear me?"

He sat back and allowed the program in ED-E to translate his words, smiling slightly as he watched the female's surprised expression when ED-E fed the translation to the ports on her ears. In response to his translated words, she made several squawking noises back at him.

"You...you can speak our language now? How is this possible?" The words echoed in his ears as ED-E translated her words and brought them back to Houston.

"Simultaneous Interpretation" replied Houston dryly, "Simple feedback system. I speak to you, my robot translates and he then proceeds to send it to you. Vice versa"

"This is so weird...why couldn't you do this yesterday?" asked the female with a slight frown, "Instead of leaving me in the dark with only guesswork"

"I needed a recording of your voice" replied Houston, "Only then was I able to unscramble it and develop a translating program to install in my robot- that's ED-E by the way. Finally, I had to build two devices to which I could direct and redirect communications. Pain to put together with what I had on my plane, plus the fact that I'd rather fix things, not build things"

"But enough about me" continued Houston as he walked over to where the female was currently lying, "I need to check your wounds, spread your wings for me would ya"

The creature blushed heavily as his words, not that he noticed or cared. Ignoring what little protest she did make, he reached down and took a hold of the bandaged wings himself.

"Have you been able to move it much since last night?" asked Houston as she prodded the base of the wings with his fingers.

"N-no, not r-really..." He swears he must be hearing things, but was the creature...moaning? Nah, must be just the weather. "I c-can...feel just a-a bit...n-not a lot t-though"

"Is it just condensed to the base of your wings?"

"Y-yeah...just- ahhh!"

The female snapped her beak shut with her talons, the blush adorning her face getting ever darker. Houston just frowned in annoyance before huffing as he pulled away from her wings and directed his attention instead to the next wound.

"Can I see your leg?"

This time she stuck her leg out to him with no problem. Kneeling, he slowly began to unravel the layers of bandages on the limb. SIlence permeated around the two of them as Houston did his work while the female played with ED-E, much to the little ball of metal's delight.

Eventually, Houston got the bandages undone and began examining her hind legs with a critical eye. Turning it here and there. After some time, he let go of her leg and stood back, just as she turned to him with an expectant look.

"Well?"

"Well...your leg is all fine and good. You'll probably be able to walk on it soon. I'm more concerned about your..." he bit his lips as he saw her joyful expression slowly falter as he approached the topic of her wings, "Fuck it, I'll tell it to you straight. As far as I'm concerned, you will never be able to fly again. Several severed nerves in your wings."

He pulled back, allowing that tragic news to sink into the female creature in front of him. As he watched her slowly break down into a sobbing mess, he couldn't help but feel slight sympathy for her. Not a lot mind you. But a bit nonetheless.

As she continued to cry her hearts out, he just stood there awkwardly with ED-E at his side, the robot sidekick giving him a disapproving beep.

"What? What do you expect me to do?"

"Nah, no way, I don't do that" replied Houston sternly. His robot just gave him a sarcastic beep in return and motioned to where the female was still crying. True enough to ED-E's words, her cries were slowly getting louder and louder. Any louder and it'll seriously blow a fuse in Houston's head.

"Alright, alright. I'll do something" conceded Houston, much to the little bot's delight. As he got over and sat down next to the creature, he cautiously wrapped his one of his arms around her, albeit rather awkwardly. He then slowly patted her on the back, saying soothing words that he probably didn't even mean.

Still...it got her to calm down slightly, enough for her to mumble a few words as she pressed herself against his armor for comfort, much to his malaise.

"I-I'm sorry...for acting like *hic* this. Its just...everything is so...so..." she frowned as she struggled to come up with the correct word.

"Complicated?"

"Yeah...I mean, I nearly died *hic*, an alien appears before me and saves me, then patches me up only to find out I can never fly again? Seriously,*hic* is this some sort of sick joke" She covered her puffed up eyes with her talon to stem the flow of tears, but he could still see them trickling down her talons. "Sorry if I'm sounding so *hic* ungrateful, but my life pretty much revolves around my wings. If I can't fly, then well..."

She trailed off, sighing sadly while Houston looked at her with sympathy. her situation really reminded him of something similar that happened to him once in the Mojave.

"You know...I know that feeling of utter helplessness" said Houston slowly. The female in his arms slowly craned her head up to look at him, "I once lost parts of my body too."

"How's that possible? You don't look like-"

"Like I lost something? Not on the surface, you can't tell" he smiled grimly as he remembered Big MT, "I once lost my brain, my heart, and my spine. Some sick scientists from my planet tore them out while I was in surgery. Because of that, I wasn't able to leave their facility, eternally doomed to spend the rest of my days there with the other monstrosities that they crafted"

"No way did that happen. If they did remove those vital organs then how are you eternally doomed? Wouldn't you already be dead?"

"Oh, I would have. Except they replaced those organs with robotic parts. I had to go on this massive fetch-quest to find my brain, which happened to be the only organ that the scientists somehow 'misplaced'" Staring into the flames, he smiled as he reminisced the time he did find his brain in Mobius's lair, "Turns out my brain was a complete prick and I had to have this whole philosophical debate with it. But in the end, I was able to get it back, have the scientist put them back in my body and let me leave without too much trouble"

"That is so anticlimactic" For the first time since her breakdown, she had the hints of a small smile on her face, making Houston glad as he thought he must be doing something right.

"I know right? But the point I'm getting to here is...I know the pain that you are going through. And it's because of that, that I'm telling you that there is still a way to save your wings. One that is less complex than the things I had to go through"

Squeezing her softly to provide some more support, he pointed to his downed aircraft, her bright blue eyes slowly following them. "I have a machine, called an Auto-Doc, on my plane. It comes equipped with the most expensive and state-of-the-art medical tools you could want. Guaranteed success in any form of surgery that you require. The only downside is every surgery is limited to the information that I feed it. If I were to say...make it perform a lobotomy, for example, and there is no preexisting program for the machine to conduct the surgery on, then the machine would most likely kill me"

"So if you had placed me in the machine, then I would have be killed?" asked the female as Houston nodded his head slowly, "Wow, guess that explains why I can't fly anymore"

"That fault lies in me. I accidentally severed several nerves as I was performing the surgery by hand. My apologies"

To his surprise, the female didn't react as badly as he expected her to. Rather she accepted it quietly before turning back to him.

"But there is a reason why you are telling me about this machine, aren't you?"

"Correct. This is where my idea comes in. I should be able to create a program for you, one that highlights your anatomy and biology. If successful, then the machine should be able to fix your wings better than I can. In exchange, I want information. Not just information about your species biology and anatomy, but also information about your world, your culture, your society, economics, and politics. Give me as much information as you can and I promise to fix your wings"

As the female pushed herself off him to ponder his deal, ED-E on the far side gave Houston an encouraging beep.

"Is there a reason why you want information so much?" asked the female, slowly turning to him.

"You're a smart one, you already know that I am an alien in a foreign and perhaps hostile world. The fact that you are a sentient creature capable of speech, coupled with my scout's reports of infrastructure up North, means that there are most likely societies with a sense of economics and politics out there. Contact will be inevitable, and I do not want to look bad on first impressions"

"Couldn't you just stay in the forest?"

"And live here forever? No. Supplies will run out eventually and I currently have no means of procuring more. Animals in this area are surprisingly smart, smart enough to elude all my traps and scatter when wither myself or my robots go hunting"

As Houston watched her continue to ponder, he quickly added a few last words as he held his hand out.

"Frankly this is a win-win situation. You get what you want and I get what I want. Though I recommend not leaving the forest until I fix your wings though. The way you seem to break down so easily at their loss probably means you depend on them quite a bit. It would a long walk to the nearest settlement from where we are"

He continued to hold his hand out expectantly, the female staring at them while she chewed her cheeks in thought.

"Sorry if this is taking too long" apologized the female while Houston raised a hand in apathy, "This is a hard decision...I mean you're an alien...with all these wondrous things on offer...I just..."

She looked at his hand one more time before relenting and placing hers with his, "But I guess you're words do have merits. Alright, I'll accept. But how do I know you won't back out?"

"You won't believe it but I'am actually a courier. It's my job to always fulfill my contracts" Houston gave her a cheeky smile, one that she slowly returned as the two of them shook hands/ talons.

...

"Natalya," she said simply.

"Pardon?"

"It's my name...Natalya" she repeated, "Yours?"

"Houston. Nice to meet you Natalya" replied Houston.

"Yess you too, that bucket of bolts there is ED-E" Houston's eyes rolled while Natalya gave off a light laugh, "The other two are B-6-RK and A L P H A. You can meet them later. For now, let's have some breakfast"

Questions

If any pony were to attempt to describe the myriad of emotions that currently plagued Natalya, the best analogy they could come up with is that of Zecora's pot, full of Celestia knows what and bubbling away violently without any indication of when it would burst.

Like Zecora's pot, a combination of fear, curiosity, despair, hope, and anger were all tossed in together in varying volumes, slowly bubbling away and threatening to spill over as they jostled with one another violently within Natalya.

It was just...she didn't know how to feel. Things were moving too quickly for her own liking, what with the alien named Houston suddenly speaking in her language, the revelation that she may never fly again, and the fleeting sense of hope that her wings could be restored, as long as she stuck to her side of the deal.

And therein lies the problem. The deal she made with Houston.

Despite a griffin's almost instinctive nature to be self-preserving and selfish, Natalya couldn't help but feel that by making this decision with Houston, she was not only betraying her self-integrity, but also the wider world. For the first time in her life, she felt like the responsibility that was forced into her talons were too much for her to handle. Houston may act all nice and all to her but in her eyes, he was still an alien whose full capabilities for violence was unknown. What she did know was that he somehow saved her from a full-grown Quarrey Eel Matriarch, the question of how he did it still gnawed at her, and only further the fear that she already had towards him.

Natalya sighed and held onto the mug of tea he'd given her ever more tightly. No, she shouldn't be thinking like this. She should calm down and instead focus on being a better guest. Whatever intentions the alien had for her, so far he has been extremely accommodating, making her both dinner and now breakfast. She could at least be grateful that she could still enjoy food and not be currently in an Eel's stomach.

Speaking of Houston, the bipedal alien sat with his back to her, facing the campfire and stared intently at a small black pot nested in the flames, which he stirred constantly. He would occasionally pause and take a swing from his own mug of tea which he kept to his side. Since she couldn't see what he was actually making, she devised a small game for herself to play; in which she would attempt to figure out what he was making based on the smell and the consistency in which he stirred his metal spatula.

So far, she guessed that it was something cheese-based. What type it is, though, remains up for debate. Ricoltta? Parmaresan? Mulenster?

He finally turned around and slide himself next to her, passing over a plate of steaming yellow paste in front of her. Using the spoon given to her, she poked around its mushy content, confirming that is was indeed cheese and pasta.

"Is this Mac' N Cheese?" asked Natalya as she watched the cheese slowly slide itself off her spoon in long strands.

"Yep" replied Houston simply as he pulled his own plate towards him and promptly began to dig in.

Following suit, Natalya began to eat from her plate as well, slowly at first but going faster and faster as her mind blanked to the amazing taste of the food. If she were to best describe it, she would say that its flavor was something completely out of her world; creamy, salty, sweet, bitter. A literal palate of flavors condensed into every spoonful she put into her mouth.

"How is this sooo good?" moaned Natalya as she licked her spoon clean every time before scooping up a new spoonful.

"Ha, you call preservatives good?" scoffed Houston while rolling his eyes.

"No way is that true" she stared back at him incredulously as her mood dampened slightly.

"Oh yes, in fact..." Houston frowned as he examined the lime-green box which he used, "This batch is a good two hundred years old. Don't be put off by that fact, cause it's still edible"

"Okay..." Taking his word for what it was, she continued to feast off her plate while he set his half-finished plate down to drink his tea.

"Right, I'll start off first" He slowly sipped his tea while she nodded in response. "Where am I? By that, I mean the bigger picture. What's is this world called? What nations are out there?"

"Hmm..." Natalya contemplated for a moment as she thought back to standard geography lessons back at the orphanage in which she came from. Despite the lack of enthusiasm from both the learning and teaching bodies, most were still able to at least pass, only to forget most of it down the line anyways. Natalya just so happened to be one of the lucky few that bothered to remember anything, even then that was stretching it severely. "If you are referring to the landmass in which we sit on..., then it is called Equestria. It is by far the largest continent on the planet, though there are a number of smaller landmasses surrounding it as well. Nationwide, there's the obviously named Kingdom of Equestria, Yakyakistan, Abyssinia, the Crystal Empire, the Changeling Kingdom, the Hippogriff Kingdom, and the United Arabian States made up of Monacolt, Saddle Arabia, Mustangia, Maretonia, Maretania, and Shire Lanka.

She paused for a moment to gauge the expression on his face, who just looked back with raised eyebrows.

"Then there's my home..." she chewed the insides of her mouth before spitting out bitterly, "...the Griffin Kingdom"

"Interesting" Houston said as he jotted down what she said on a piece of scrap paper, "Quite an extensive world you have here. I'll have to ask you more about this later. For now, your turn"

Scrapping off the last of the food from her plate, she washed all the cheese down with her mug before wiping her beak with her forearm.

"What are you?" asked Natalya. "Out of all the creatures in my world, the closest thing you look like is a minotaur. Even then, that's stretching it by quite a bit. So could you tell me what you are and some traits about you?"

"What am I, huh?" repeated Houston slowly, scratching his chin, "That's a good question to ask and an equally hard one to respond to."

He stopped for the moment, musing on her question before breaking into his monologue.

"I am part of a species known as Homo Sapiens, or Humans, for short. We originate from the planet Earth, once a lush and beautiful place filled to the brim with resources, now reduced to a shithole infested with an invisible poison called Radiation. This poison infects the land as well as both the oceans and the air. It reacts with animals and humans alike, creating some rather...colorful and terrifying monsters in the process. It's these monsters that we have to share the Earth with, not exactly easy when they have a plethora of weapons inbuilt on their bodies and the best we have is a rusty piece of a tire iron. But we persevere, and if I were to answer your question on traits, I'll say we have two. One is the ability to create amazing weapons when we are placed under a situation of extreme danger. The second is our stubborn inability to die out"

"Wow...you human creatures sound pretty cool" exclaimed Natalya while Houston just waved her off with a dismissive shrug.

"Nah, we're a bunch of bastards in all actuality," said Houston, "Go to my home and you'll see that no one cares for anyone else other than themselves. Your neighbors are just as eligible to shoot you in the back and steal your shit as they are to help you. In fact, the only true person you can trust is yourself"

"Still..." she frowned as she considered the things that he told her. In all honesty, his race pretty much sounded like a mirror identical copy of her own race. She couldn't help but feel a sense of respect for the alien in front of her, "I still think you're pretty cool. I mean you saved me."

"Yeah, whatever. But I still made a contract out of it afterward. My turn now" said Houston dismissively, "What about you? What kind of creature are you?"

"Well, I'm a Griffin if you didn't already figure that out from where I come from" She gnashed her beak as she struggled to come up with an appropriate description of her species. Truthfully everything Houston said about his own race accurately summarised her's as well. "Most Griffins can trace their heritage back to the 'illustrious' Griffin Kingdom"

The sarcasm in her voice wasn't missed by Houston, who quickly picked up on it.

"Why do you speak of your home with such venom?" asked Houston.

"Because it's a shithole. Perhaps it's like yours. The worst part is we caused it by ourselves. Our kingdom at the height of its power spanned the entire Griffonian continent and several small archipelagoes. While not as large as the Kingdom of Equestria, we dominated in terms of economics and technology. For generations, we held that position, until the loss of our stupid idol and the death of our last king, Guto. Since then wars, internal fighting, corruption, and general Griffin behavior have left us teetering on the edge of collapse. Most of our territories have been lost to foreign powers and the rest is divided amongst several independent Griffin clans. The 'true' Griffin Kingdom is really just one city and forty thousand Griffins packed into it"

"You make it sound like a cesspool. Don't you have a government? A king? You are a 'kingdom' after all, aren't you?"

"Once Guto died, that was the end of the royal bloodline. We've only kept the name because we were too lazy to change it. In terms of lifestyle, we generally live miserable lives in semi-anarchy. There is a provisional government who ensures that the markets keep flowing, but they are all corrupt as Tartarus and don't really care what happens outside of their luxury birdhouses"

"Amazing..." Houston said it with clear astonishment, making Natalya slight proud inside. It's not every day that someone compliments the Griffin lifestyle. Heck, most of the world even refers to the current Griffin Kingdom as the 'Sick bird of Griffonia'! It's only by the sheer influence of the Princess's in enforcing their ideals of Harmony, that the rest of the world hasn't carved up the already dying Kingdom.

"I'm surprised that your shitty society hasn't already collapsed in on itself. By the way that you describe it, it's the perfect breeding grounds for murderers and thieves"

And there goes her moment of joy.

"We used to kill and steal from each other, but once we figure no one was going to clean up the bodies we all mutually agreed to stop out of convenience sake" mumbled Natalya sadly. Despite the slight pang in her heart, she knew she couldn't disagree with the way he saw her society. Modern historians to this day are amazed at how the fractured kingdom is even able to stay together after so much internal conflict. Such an achievement was not something Natalya found much please in boasting about.

Seeing how depressed Natalya looked, Houston gave an awkward cough in his hand before gesturing to her.

"Your turn now, I guess?" he said hopefully.

"How did you save me?" Houston's mood lifted slightly as he saw the growing optimism in her eyes. It seems this was a question that she'd been longing to ask him for quite a while. "Did you also happened to see some other Griffins in the area?"

Seriously, what is wrong with her? Why is she being so concerned about her half-sister and their meat-headed teammate? Griffins are supposed to look out for themselves, not each other! Did it have to take a near death experience to make her start acting like a pony?!

"In all honesty, It was a stroke of luck that saved you. Not me" said Houston as he leaned forward to refill both of their cups with hot tea. "Had ED-E not been in the area and picked you up with his upgraded sensors, we most likely would have missed you"

Oh luck, you incredible bastard. Natalya internally cried out in joy as she once more praised whatever being above that was keeping her luck going.

"Oh..." Natalya replied softly as she reached out and grabbed the nearby floating metal ball. Placing it level with her eyes, she had to admit that it looked rather cute, what with its various little sensors and its weird face. "Thank you..."

As she brought it to her chest to hug, the little machine gave what she believed to be an appreciative beep in response.

"Yes, yes. Moving on" Houston gave a small smile in their general direction. "ED-E and A L P H A provided covering laser fire while I tried to go in and pulled you out. Surprise, surprise, plans went to shit quickly and we had to compromise on the spot. A L P H A held the creature's jaws open, I shoved a plasma grenade down its throat, ED-E stunned it, and A L P H A finished it off by pushing back into the canyon to blow up"

As Natalya stared at him in shock, he took the opportunity to sit back and sip his tea before continuing on. "As for the next one. That technically counts as two questions, but I'll let it slide because it's a short one. To put it simply, no. I saw, and in particular, saved no other creature than you"

Houston sat there and sipped his tea, unaware of the mind-blank he had just given his Griffin guest. On one hand, she was both equally glad and worried about the presumed fate of her teammates. If he had not seen them, then there was a good chance that they were either eaten or got out, but in a different area from her. On the other hand, she was awestruck and terrified at the alien that sat right next to her. The fact that he and his companions took down a full-grown Quarry Eel Matriarch and shrugged it off as nothing, based on the way he nonchalantly sipped his tea, speaks volumes to the immense power that these foreign aliens were hiding.

"Speaking of creatures, when you told me about the various factions in your world, you mentioned a few of interest. What is this about changelings and hippogriffs?"

"Huh? I'm sorry?" Natalya broke out of her stupor, missing most of the question he asked her.

"What other creatures are out there? What is the dominant lifeform? Specifically, the intelligent ones" asked Houston.

"Well...there's the hippogriffs, though they keep shifting forms so it's pretty hard to pinpoint what they are 'exactly' at this point. Then there are changelings, some bug-thingy that can replicate the forms of others--even other species if they choose to do so" She scratched her head as she tried to remember some other ones, "Ehh, Minotaurs is another one. Abyssinians, which are just cat-people. Yaks, which are well, yaks. Dragons, which are dragons. But..."

"If you want the main dominant species...then it would have to be the ponies. The Kingdom of Equestria, the Crystal Empire and the U.A.S are pretty much their domain"

She paused to look up and see his confused expression.

"Ponies? As in the extinct creature known as a horse? How is a mere horse the dominant lifeform when I've seen plenty of other creatures on this planet much more biologically superior than a horse ?"

"Oh yeah? Like who?"

"You, for example," pointed out Houston before jabbing his thumb in the general direction of the Ghastly Gorges, "And those monsters in the canyons. Your body is built like a predator, strong and flexible, while your wings give you an aerial advantage over a mere horse"

"Well, thanks for saying that but it's not as a simple" she had to admit, she felt quite a bit of pride when he complimented her, "These ponies are actually divided into three sub-categories. You've got Unicorns, Pegasi and Earth ponies"

To her surprise, Houston didn't seem as shocked to that revelation like she thought he would. He instead just snorted sarcastically and sat back to rub his forehead.

"Guess I should've seen that coming. Considering I'm talking to a Griffin of all things, let me guess is there the bullshit known as 'magic' in this world? Seeing as how you have unicorns?" He really seemed to emphasize the term 'magic' with clear venom in his voice, making sarcastic gestures with his claws.

"Yeah?" answered Natalya in an unsure tone. Houston sighed and pushed his mug away.

"Great...just my luck. A world where horses are the dominant lifeform and 'magic' exists. What. The. Fuck. Is this a 'Tæles of Chivalrie' comics book gone bad?"

"D-do you hate magic?" asked Natalya curiously.

"I. abhor. magic" He looked at her with a frown in his face. "I'm a man of science, not of the fantasy. And magic is definitely fantasy. It is a scamming technique used to bedazzle and mystify the ignorant with spectacles of light and loud bangs. It may look spectacular, but underneath its really a complex illusion that profits off the stupidity of people"

"What you are talking about is showbiz magic" explained Natalya, "In our world ponies use it extensively as a tool to manipulate the weather and the planet to sustain life"

"Greaaat," said Houston with even more venom now, "Another reason for me to hate magic. It breaks the laws of the universe and makes things too easy. Why work through sweat, blood, and tears when you could just solve it with a poof of magic? Magic makes the process of progress through experimentation mundane. It confirms the hypothesis without the method. It devalues concepts such as reliability, validity, usefulness, and accuracy. It's too, what's the word..., unfair"

"I don't agree with most of the things you are saying. But I do agree with you when you said that magic can be unfair" said Natalya, "I mean, the pony's diarchy moves the sun and the moon. Can you believe how unfair that is? Pretty much life on this world depends on the two of them, which isn't so bad if they stayed neutral in politics. Instead, they rule the largest nation on the planet together, making the rest of us curry favors with them to survive."

"Can't any other creature use magic?"

"Hippogriffs and Changelings can. But...no, we Griffins cannot" If Natalya actually had any sadness as she said it, she skillfully hid it behind a mask of apathy. "That's why back in the days there were so many wars between the majority of species in the world and the ponies. The pony's natural affinity for magic made them pretty easy to hate, considering how they would flaunt how they could easily solve things while the rest of us couldn't. While they manipulated the weather whenever they wanted, the rest of us had to endure through famines and droughts on our own. While they solved every one of their problems with a simple spell, the rest of us had to innovate our way around it with technology"

"They hoarded their magic?"

"Pretty much" shrugged Natalya, "These days they are much more lax about it, using their magic wherever they can to help, mostly in part due to the princess's philosophy of Harmony. But there is still some lingering resentment amongst the species towards the ponies. It doesn't help that they own most of the land mass, and as I said before, control the sun and the moon.

Natalya watched with piqued interest as she watched him sit back. He had that look on his face that indicated he was doing something more than just thinking. No, rather he was strategizing, planning out his actions; something commonly seen across the faces of Griffins as they interacted with other creatures. To a Griffin, every conversation was like bartering, so over time most of them developed a second-nature ability to observe body language.

"This complicates things..." Natalya could see Houston literally chew one of the digits on his claw.

"How so?"

"It complicates how I'm going to act with the ponies" replied Houston, "I pretty much have to play nice with a bunch of talking animals"

"What about me?"

"You're different. You don't use magic. Talking to these ponies will be harder cause I have to hold back my...disdain of magic"

"Yeeeah...about that..." Natalya tapped the headset that she currently wore, "I've been thinking. These things are nice and all, but they only work for one person at a time. Quite a problem if you are considering talking to a large crowd"

"I know that," the bipedal alien grumbled, "But I currently don't have any other ideas for talking with large crowds. Either I make a shitload more of those headsets, or I..."

He trailed off as he stared into the distance, particularly his robot ED-E. Natalya watched at him with interest as she saw the muscles near his forehead tensing up, indicating he was thinking rather hard on something.

"I may have an idea..." said Houston slowly, "But it will be arduous and this will mean...he...is coming back"

"Whose 'he'?"

"Don't worry about that" Houston waved her off dismissively and gestured her over to his spaceship, "Come...looks like breakfast is done for now. We'll continue our conversation on the plane, you can look at the Auto-Doc and whatever else catches your fancy. I'll get started on my next project"

"I can see the device that will fix my wings?" Now Natalya was getting excited.

"Yep, just keep talking to me and I promise I will" Houston reached down and helped Natalya get up with his arms. Helping her limp as she walked side-by-side with him, her body pressed against his, the two of them eventually reached the entrance to the plane which Houston opened for Natalya.

"Ladies first"

"You gentleman, you" Natalya playfully punched him on the shoulder in appreciation. Houston just smiled as he helped her fit through the narrow framework before squeezing himself in with her. As the heavy metal door closed behind the two of them, they both remained blissfully unaware of the creatures slowly inching towards their camp.

Author's Note

Going to be a long wait until the next chapter. Grandpa just died a few days ago

Unexpected

Twilight sighed dejectedly as from her position on the elevated hill, she watched Celestia's sun slowly sink beneath the horizon. Based on the positioning of the sun and its rustic orange hue, a far cry from its standard yellow, there were at least thirty minutes left until the sun completely vanishes, suspending the day and making way for Luna's night.

It would also mean a suspension of the day's search efforts.

Directing her attention away from the celestial bodies, she turned towards her friends, or rather most of them, bar a particular pink one. Their normally jubilant selves were instead replaced with ragged manes and gaunt looks. Notable examples include Rainbow's vibrant rainbow (ironic much?) colored mane coated in a fine layer of mud, dirt, and grime. Or Rarity's usually immaculate mane reduced to a frizzled mess, not unlike that of Pinkie Pie's.

They all huddled around a small campfire started by Applejack, every single one of their exhaustions indicative on their faces.

But none of them were nowhere as exhausted as Twilight was.

To say that her week has been bad would be the understatement of the century. It was a complete and absolute NIGHTMARE!!

It all started with the princesses announcing their retirement and plans to hand control of the entire Kingdom to Twilight and her friends. While that had been shocking at the moment, it took a failed invasion from a recently resurrected King Sombra to nail home the daunting responsibility of running a kingdom.

The paperwork.

Oh how she loathed the paperwork, and this is coming from a pony who usually likes that sort of thing. Within a few hours of the stuff, even Twilight couldn't hide her disdain as papers after papers of complaints flooded the office of her school. Ranging from nobles to the common folk, these complaint files all related to the latest debacle that Equestria had to face. Most were complaints about the destruction of property and simple requests for monetary insurance. Others tackled more extreme problems that highlighted some points; such as how the Crystal Empire and Canterlot had been so easily taken, or how the 'esteemed' Royal Guard wasn't even able to repel a SINGLE crystal-obsessed maniac and his army of brainwashed Equestrians.

Now those brainwashed Equestrians were mainly civilians, so that could explain the guard's hesitation to fire upon the crowd. But that doesn't excuse the fact that a sizeable portion of the city and the main castle LITERALLY fell without so much as a single shot fired.

Some called for an investigation into the practices of the Royal Guard and how they spent the budget.

Some called for the replacement of the guards with a more militarized force.

Others even called for the princesses to take control of the armies.

Twilight just slammed her face into the table with a migraine at the back of her head.

Twilight tore out her mane as she signed and stamped papers, having to explain and make up excuses for the conduct of the military, the princesses, and the state of the Kingdom's security. She wasn't the only one, as Celestia and Cadance were also being bombarded with complaints from their dissatisfied citizens. Even Luna had to be taken off night duty to assist her sisters in filing the reports.

To make matters worse, assessment season was in full swing at the School of Friendship. So in addition to the large influx of paperwork being given to her, she had several student friendship projects to mark and provide feedback for. She would have buckled under all the stress, had it not been for her faithful assistant Spike.

Speaking of Spike, she really should do something back for him that shows her appreciation for everything he'd ever done for her. Maybe she should request a double-layered sapphire cake for him from Pinkie. Or maybe give him an extended holiday.

In one of her occasional bouts of insanity, dubbed the "Twilinanas Moments" by Spike, he had to quite literally slap her across the face to knock some sense into her. He then shoved her into her bedroom with her favorite book, a large mug of hot chocolate, and a platter of her favorite fruits; before locking the door behind him and telling her not to worry about a single thing.

Sure she spent quite a while clawing at the door and attempting to break free, strangely enough, the castle seemed quite adamant in keeping her in her room, but after a while, she eventually calmed down and made do with what Spike had given her.

Overall, it was a much-needed break. And it would have been perfect too, had it not been for the situation that Spike brought to her attention as she was about to retire for the night.

In summary, two Griffin tourist staying in Ponyville had come to her saying their friend had been abducted by a bipedal alien somewhere near the Ghastly Gorges. Apparently, they were training, or something along that line, though for all her logic Twilight couldn't understand why they would purposefully put themselves in an area known for its large population of dangerous Eels.

Either way, this was a problem that required her immediate attention and response. Telling Spike that he and Starlight were in charge of the school and castle until she was done, she had raced out immediately and into the dead of night to gather up her friends. Not before informing the two terrified Griffins that they were allowed to stay in the castle as long as they like until their friend had been found.

That was four days ago.

"Yah alright sugarcube?" Twilight nodded towards Applejack who poked the slowly burning fire with a large stick. Applejack had been one of the first that Twilight picked up, having nearly gone to bed after a long day of apple-buckin, yet still pulled herself up to help her.

"Yeah, I'm okay" replied Twilight as she plopped herself next to Rarity and Fluttershy. The ragged unicorn smiled slightly as she scooted over to make room for Twilight, before directing her attention back to her pocket mirror as she tried to fix her mane. Rarity had been one of the harder ones to convince, as she had already been deep in her beauty sleep and wasn't quite happy with being woken to go on another adventure. Despite being convinced by both Applejack and Twilight, she still spent a considerable amount of time packing supplies, some of which seemed rather unnecessary at the moment, but now were godsent essentials as they didn't anticipate the length of time they would spend in the woods.

"Twilight, dear, you need more sleep," said Rarity simply as she reached over and touched the areas underneath Twilight's eyes, exposing the bags that she had underneath, "It is seriously affecting your health if you continue like this"

"Thanks for your concern Rarity" Twilight smiled while she pointed a hoof over to Rainbow Dash, "Shouldn't you be more concerned about Rainbow? I'm pretty sure she worst off than me"

"Don't worry about me! I'm fine" called out Rainbow Dash on the other side of the fire. Despite her words, the exhaustion was just as evident on her face as it was for the rest of them. However, unlike the rest of them, she had her back to the fire and instead watched the forest with a watchful eye.

Out of all of them, Rainbow Dash was the most dedicated to the task they currently had, having jumped at the moment she heard the news, slept the least out of all of them when they got here by train and covered the most ground due to her natural flying ability. Most of the gang believed her extra conviction was due to the Loyalty element that she embodied, but Twilight understood that it was because Rainbow Dash knew the Griffin currently in trouble. Something to do with the Equestria Games and being fellow competitors or something along that line.

Speaking of the missing Griffin, her friends had testified that her name was Natalya. Thirty-two years olds, hails from Griffinstone and works at a fruit stand in the day before being an athlete at night. Last known location was on the fringes of a pine forest on the edge of the Ghastly Gorge. She had been injured and was saved from a Quarry Eel Matriarch by the alien, before being abducted by said alien herself. Alien is described as a tall bipedal with a body that composes of both flesh, metal, and some unknown brown material. When asked what was the most striking part of the alien's features, both had given different two interesting points that raised some eyebrows.

The male Griffin, Gaston, had said that the alien was accompanied by two other creatures, both made of metal that acted semi-autonomously on the commands of the alien. One was described as a floating eye that shot a red bolt of magic from a tube underneath it. The other was a creature that held some form of magic shooting device in its arms, in addition to an ironically small head to accompany its hulking frame.

Terrifying? Sure. But nowhere as ominous as the second Griffin's account.

"Its eyes," said Giselle when she had been interrogated by Twilight, "I'll never get the sight of its eyes out of my head. Red as a manticore's mane, but broken like a porcelain vase"

"Broken? How so?" asked Twilight as she wrote everything Giselle said on a notepad.

"Its eyes are unnatural. They don't blink like normal and they glow, even in daylight. Also, one of its eyes is broken, as if something ruptured them and left cracks in it"

"Mr. Bushel, you should really get back to your family. It is getting late and I'm sure that they are extremely worried. Still; thank you for sharing that information with us" Fluttershy lowered the squirrel down onto the forest floor and let him scamper off.

Now Fluttershy had been the hardest to convince. When they first arrived at her place and told her of what was happening they were quickly met with a door to the face. Forcing their way through her home, they found her hiding underneath her bed and had to quite literally drag her all the way to the train station. So far her animal-speaking skill has proven to be an invaluable asset, having helped them the most when trying to make through the dense pine forest.

"So what did he say Flutters?," asked Applejack.

"Same thing all the animals in the forest said. A few nights ago they all felt and heard distant rumblings deeper in the forest. Others that were closer swore they saw a large green monster fall out of the sky, though they don't know exactly where it landed as every time they try to go towards it, there are always large monsters attacking them" replied Fluttershy.

"Did they say they were made up of metal?" asked Twilight curiously,

"Yeah...they did actually" frowned Fluttershy, "Why do you ask Twilight?"

"Just confirming what we are going up against. Giselle and Gaston said they saw other creatures besides the alien. Two creatures made up of metal"

"Well...most of the animals I've talked to said there are three different creatures that attacked them"

"Anything different about the description?"

"Apart from the one that looks like a buckball and the one big as a bear, there is also another one that looks like a dog"

"A...dog?"

"Weird isn't it" Fluttershy agreed, "Do you think the aliens have dogs on their planet?"

"Anythin possible at this point, Flutters" injected Applejack, "If worst comes to worst, we can always use the Elements against it"

"That's the thing though, Applejack. We don't know if the Elements will work against this alien. All our previous enemies were known to be evil, so the Elements could easily take them out" said Twilight

"Yah sayin abuducting that Griffin doesn't make it evil?" asked Applejack incredulously.

"I'm saying that the whole picture isn't entirely clear-cut" replied Twilight calmly, "The alien is probably just as confused as we are, and only abducted the Griffin because it was curious. I think when we meet the alien, we should attempt to befriend it and talk it into giving Natalya back"

"And what if by the time we find it, it has already done something to Natalya?" asked Rainbow Dash from the other side.

"As long as it hasn't killed her, I'm sure we could work something out. Imagine all of the things we could learn from it!" Nearly everyone around the campfire rolled their eyes at Twilight's nerdiness.

"Personally darling, I think don't think we should waste any more time talking to this...alien," said Rarity as she snapped her pocket mirror shut and placed it inside her dainty decorated handbag, "I think we should just recover the Griffin and get out of this atrocious forest as quick as we can"

"I'll second that" pointed out Rainbow Dash as she stomped her hooves together threateningly, "But if it does turn violent, then you can bet I'll be right in the thick of it"

Before Twilight could reprimand Rainbow Dash for her rather unexpected brashness, Fluttershy gave out the loudest shriek of fear that any of them have heard yet. Turning to where the timid pegasus was screaming, they were all greeted with a demented black and white face peeking at them from the dark confines of a nearby bush.

"RAWAHHHHH!!!"

"ARRRRRGGHHH!!!!"

What happened next happened in a hailstorm of feathers as Rainbow Dash launched herself at the masked figure in the bush. A resounding crack echoed throughout the campsite as two figures came tumbling out of the bushels of leaves, the obvious body of Rainbow Dash on the top and a rather familiar pink one underneath.

"What? Pinkie?!" yelled Rainbow Dash out in shock.

"Umm...bad time for a surprise?" The pink mare underneath gave a wary smile towards her best friend, something that wasn't exactly returned.

"You think?" asked Rainbow Dash unamused as she reached down and pulled her friend back, "What in Celestia was that for?!"

"Oh come on Dashie. I was only having a little fun!" Pinkie waved off her friend's annoyance with a dismissive hoof and threw the black and white mask she got from Zecora back into her bag, "You all looked so uptight and depressed! You guys needed a laugh!"

"We can laugh after we save the Griffin from the alien," said Rarity with a disappointed frown, "Honesty Pinkie, that joke was just distasteful, even for you"

"Yeah, sorry Pinkie but I'ma with Raras on this" added Applejack

"Not very funny this time, sorry Pinkie" agreed Rainbow Dash

"Unnecessary Pinkie," said Twilight disappointedly

"It was...rather mean" mumbled Fluttershy

"Oh...sorry" Pinkie's mane deflated slightly and everyone in the camp felt a little bad for being too hard on the fun-loving pony. Her mane quickly poofed up however as she smashed clapped her hooves together, "Oh yeah! Speaking of aliens, I got something to show yooou~!"

Pinkie reached out into her mane and pulled out a large object too big to even possibly fit in her already large bundle of hair and chucked it onto the forest floor. Craning over to look, the other mares of the group looked uncertainly at the large circular object thrown at their hooves. Quite big, the main circular component wasn't that different from the same object they'd seen on a train's wheel. Yet, on each of the circle's side, two small metal bars extended from it and connected over the wheel, from which another small metal bar extended from their point of contact. Snaked along the body of the forked metal were several wires and tubes, now separated from whatever they were originally connected to, but still visible on the body of the metal bar.

"Is that...a wheel?" asked Applejack with raised eyebrows.

"I...think it is" Twilight spoke up as she poked the object cautiously, "It's got the shape and the rubber component down. But...I have no idea what is the purpose of all these wires and tubes"

Twilight's eyes darted to Pinkie who was smiling at all of them innocently, "Where did you find this?" she asked warily.

"And how did you fit it into your mane?" added Rarity.

"IfounditjustoutthereandthereasonthatI'mabletofitintomymaneisbecauseofasecretPiefamily-" Pinkie started in a flurry of gibberish before a hoof was quickly shoved into her mouth.

"Stop. Just stop. You overloaded my brain in seconds with that!" moaned Rainbow as she rubbed her ears.

"Also, nevermind about how Pinkie got this thing in her mane, Do you still remember where you got it specifically?" asked Twilight.

"Yep indeedilly!" Pinkie gave off a mock salute in response, "I found it right next to the path of destruction wrought by the alien's flying plane when it fell out of the sky"

"A...what now, Pinkie?"

"A plane. You know, a flying machine with two engines and large wings. The alien probably crashed it when it went through the warp hole and ended up in our world"

"Pinkie, please," said Applejack firmly, "Ya not makin' ah licka sense right now. What is this 'bout warp holes and planes?"

"You don't know it?" Pinkie's eyes expanded to the size of dinner plates as she stared rather unnaturally at Applejack, "It's one of the most cliche things fanfiction writers do when making crossover stories. I know cause I read a few of them myself!"

"Pinkie. Just...take us there" said Twilight slowly as she rubbed her head from the migraine forming, something all too common whenever she engaged in typical 'Pinkie' Business.

"Awwwwh...but I wanted to keep criticizing the fandom" Pinkie tossed away a peculiar hat she wore that had a Rainbow Dash plushie sown to the rim of the cap into a nearby bush, "Oki Doki Loki though Twilight, follow me, everyone!"

The rest of the gang just watched with slight wariness as Pinkie Pie bounced off into the foliage, humming the tune of 'Winter Wrap' as she went along. Most of them turned to the campsite that they will probably be leaving with heavy hearts, especially Rarity who sighed sadly at the prospect of missing out on extra sleep. They did, however, notice Twilight doing some complex spell on the object still left on the floor, shrinking it to the size of a button.

"Umm...what are you doing Twilight?" asked Fluttershy curiously.

"Just keeping this with me for now. You know, for research purposes" Twilight's slight giddiness in her tone wasn't lost on anyone as they all trotted after their pink friend.

Nightfall soon was upon the group as they followed Pinkie who just bounced along happily in front of them. Twilight's watched with curiosity as the happy mare continued to lead them further into the depths of the forest, surprised at how far Pinkie had strayed from the main camp.

Pinkie had been the most...compliant when the group had come to Sugarcube Corner to pick her up. Surprisingly enough, a sleep-deprived Mr. Cake had opened the door for them and led them directly to her room, saying Pinkie had been acting strange all day; well...stranger than Pinkie strange.

When they entered her room, (Mr. Cake quicly shut the door behind them) they were met with a crudely made fort, consisting of mainly her bed, cardboard boxes, several party cannons mounted on a badly drawn fake castle wall, and Gummy dressed in a soldier's costume perched as a sentry; all of which were held up haphazardly with ropes.

"Halt!" A voice called from within the monstrous structure, "Who comes there?"

"Pinkie, it's us, you're friends," Rainbow Dash said calmly while she tried to fly over her constructed fort. She promptly squawked when a large stick with a flat metal circle poked her out of the sky, causing her to crash at everyone else's hooves in shock.

"Friends? Hah! Don't you lie to me, I armed to the teeth here!" Pinkie poked her head over the ramparts, dressed in some sort of camo, the same they wore when watching the dragon migration together. In her hooves was a strange device with a massive tube and a small blue gas canister connected to it. They watched as Pinkie shoved a cupcake into a chamber above the tube and aimed the contraption at them. "Speak fast 'fore I blast you right out of here"

"Pinkie...what are you doing?" Twilight said slowly while she trotted slowly to the edges of the fort.

"What does it look it?!" she replied in an exasperated tone, "I'm preparing for the end!"

"By building...a crude fort?"

"You may call it 'crude', but we'll see who's laughing when I'm the last one alive" Pinkie yelled back, just as one of the ramparts collapsed right next to her, complete with comedic dust clouds.

"Pinkie, Yah not makin' a licka sense right now," Applejack said.

"That's what I said!" Pinkie sighed as she raised her rump for all of them to see. To all their great fear, her bushy pink tail was twitching and swaying back and forth erratically. Most of them dived under anything that provided a remote sense of cover, be it a table or even section of her fort, their eyes focused up as they awaited the eventual coming of a falling object.

"Umm...what are you guys doing?" asked Pinkie with a raised eyebrow as she stared down at Rarity and Twilight underneath the table.

"What do you expect? Waiting for the falling object to pass" said Rarity as she closed her eyes and covered her head.

"Wait...where is it?" Twilight peeked her head from underneath the table, as did everyone else, "How is this possible?! Your Pinkie Sense's never been wrong before!"

"Exactly!!" cried out Pinkie as she once again raised her rump, "And my tail won't stop shaking! It's been shaking all day and I can't get it to stop!"

"What does that mean?" asked Rainbow Dash cautiously

"I have no idea!" yelled Pinkie as she leaped from her place on the fort to land in front of the group, "But I'm prepared. Whatever happens, will be in for a nasty surprise when it does eventually find me!"

To further accentuate her point, she kicked a nearby box next to the entrance of her fort, spilling its contents of rockets and party cannon canisters all over the floor. Most of the girls widened as she took in the armory she had stashed away.

"Look...I don't know what you constantly twitching tail means, but we need your help at once" said Twilight, "A Griffonian tourist has been abducted by an alien and-"

"What did you say?!"

"Waah?" Twilight yelled out as Pinkie grabbed her by the shoulders and began shaking her back and forth. "Pinkie?! What are you-"

"What are we doing here then?!" Pinkie stripped the suit she wore off and grabbed a conveniently full backpack out of one of the cases in her fort, "Let's go immediately! We don't have any time to be playing around!"

She quickly zoomed straight out of the room, leaving several rightly confused mares behind. Most just choked on the dust cloud she left behind, but one particular red-faced Twilight yelled out in anguish.

"THAT'S MY LINE!!"

"HERE! THIS WAS WHERE I FOUND IT!!"

The gang rushed over to where Pinkie was standing, smiling like a hound-dog that just retrieved a stick for its master. She pointed to a slightly crumpled bush, not unlike the many bushes that currently surrounded them.

"That's it?" asked Rainbow Dash unimpressed.

"Well, duhhhh...you expected more Dashie?"

"Yes?"

"Well, I didn't exactly state that there was going to be anything else. You just told me to take you to the place I found the wheel thingie, so here we are"

Most of the gang grumbled as they all realized that they left the comforts of their camps all for nothing. As they began to slowly lumber back to the camp, however, is when Applejack noticed something rather peculiar lying nearby.

"Now hang on yah'" she said slowly. The others watched in curiosity as Applejack went over to where the thing was and brushed aside the large tree branch covering most of its body and rendering it elusive to the eye.

"What is is that?" asked Rarity, taking particular note of the rusty orange hues on the surface of the object.

"Ah don't know" Applejack slowly lifted it off the forest floor and turned it over in her hooves, "Looks like some kinda' metal, rather rusted piece ah metal to be precise"

"Can I see that?" Applejack hoofed it over to Twilight, who began rotating it in the air with her magic.

"Seems complicated" muttered Twilight while turning it back and forth, "For a piece of rusted metal that is. There are all these holes drilled into it, some of it in places that wouldn't make sense from a practical point of view"

"Maybe this fell off the alien's ship" suggested Pinkie Pie helpfully, in an effort to cheer her friends up and make up for annoying them before.

Could be...thanks Pinkie thought Twilight as she pulled out a small cloth pouch she brought along, the miniaturized wheel stored safely within.

Twilight replicated the spell she did on the wheel-like object before, once again shrinking the slab of metal into the size of a button and placing it into the bag with the wheel. "Spread out and see if you can find any more of these objects, maybe it can make a path directly to the alien's machine"

Soon the gang had split off into different directions, not too far from one another as to ensure safety, but far enough that they were able to conduct their private matters. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash mostly flew around, scanning the tops of trees, pulling any pieces of metal down from the leaves and returning to Twilight to dump them off. Applejack bucked trees whenever she saw a glint of metal in the foliage, else she would go around and pick up the pieces from the forest floor by hoof. Rarity made the greatest use of her favorite spell and used it to find mostly metal-based objects, levitating them over to Twilight. Pinkie was the most random, finding objects in the weirdest places; such as a pit of leaves, lodged into tree branches, and perhaps the weirdest of all, a half-filled bottle of brown liquid elevated on a small shrine most likely made by the woodland critters.

All in all, by the end of it there was a neat pile of different objects lying at their hooves. Some of them were normal things that ponies themselves seen before, such as nails, screws, cutlery, and glass. Other things were much more complex, such as a small fan blade that had way too many fins to even be considered useable by normal standards.

Twilight wasn't sure to what some of the things were, but she began shrinking them and pilling them into the cloth pouch she brought nonetheless.

"Quite a haul we got here," said Applejack as she poked around the pile like everyone else and open a strange canister in some unknown language. A quick whiff of the cloudy liquid inside sent her reeling as the fumes of petrol flooded her head, "Wooaah, nelly. These are some fancy trinkets"

"Agreed. Though I must admit some of this cutlery is in real need of a good polishing" Rarity inspected a spoon with a critical eye, gagging slightly when she took a whiff of it. "That's icky!"

"What do you have there Pinkie?" Twilight eyes widened when she saw the pink mare open the bottle in her hooves and began taking big gulps of the brown liquid inside, "PINKIE!! SPIT THAT OUT RIGHT NOW!!"

Using her magic, she ripped the bottle out of the mare's mouth and threw it to the side, unaware that she accidentally dumped the entirety of the contents on Fluttershy's head as the bottle flew over her head, drenching the mare's coat in sticky brown liquids.

"HEY! What was that for?!" yelled Pinkie indignantly.

"Sorry, but that could have been poisonous for all we know. What were you thinking, drinking that stuff without any thought for your safety?" reprimanded Twilight with a disappointed frown

"Umm...actually, it rather nice" a quiet voice mumbled behind them. Turning around, Twilight stared in disbelief at the yellow and pink mare, dripping in brown liquid and licking the stuff off her forelimbs with her tongue.

Rainbow Dash got close to Fluttershy and took a sniff of her fur.

"Huh, smells sweet," said Rainbow Dash simply while the mare continued to lick the stuff off herself, "Taste good?"

"It does actually. Reminds me of all the fruits I've fed the animals before, just blended"

"Watcha say they'd be?" asked Applejack as she too took a sniff of Fluttershy's fur. Both Twilight and Pinkie also joined with Applejack and Rainbow Dash to take a sniff of the mysterious liquid that coated the shy mare. Only Rarity stayed back as she was too distracted by something moving in the bushes.

"I'm not sure actually" frowned Pinkie as she took another sniff of Fluttershy's fur and followed up on Applejack's question, "There's no smell that specifies a particular fruit"

"Umm...girls?" stammered Fluttershy, red in the face

"It is a rather unique smell, to be honest," Twilight took a deep sniff, rather creepily now that everyone thought about it, "I don't know about you guys but it's rather...intoxicating"

"Girls?" Fluttershy repeated, this time squealing when four of her friends began piling around her to get a sniff of her fur, "Please stop...you're scaring me"

"Ain't nuttin to scare of Flutters" crooned Applejack while taking a deep whiff of her ears, "Ain't nuttin at all"

"Yeahhhh...you might want to retract that statement Applejack" called out Rarity from the sidelines.

"Why's that?" as Applejack and the girls retracted from a relieved looking Fluttershy, their eyes widened as they saw what Rarity was pointing at. Every one of them recognized the familiar body structure, the brown and green color scheme, and the glowing green eyes that made them feel as if the creature was staring directly into their soul.

It was a Timberwolf. A Timberwolf King to be precise if the larger body and the crown on its head was any indicator of what it was.

Yet...there was something completely wrong with this particular Timberwolf. Instead of attacking them straight away, it instead just stared at them- and they at it- without any of the usual bloodlusts in its eyes. In addition to that, there was a hobble in its steps, made all the more clear by the lack of one of its hindlegs.

As it moved closer and closer to the group of mares, it whined piteously, as if it was screaming out for help from the group of shocked mares. For all its ferocity and reputation, the group of mares couldn't help but feel pity for it-especially a particular yellow mare.

"Awww...are you hurt?" Fluttershy said in a motherly tone as she slowly edged towards the wounded creature.

"Umm...are you sure about that Fluttershy?" asked Rainbow Dash warily, whilst watching her hold one of the Timberwolf's paws in her hooves.

"Of course, he won't hurt anyone" hummed Fluttershy softly while stroking its paws, "Will you-"

"GET BACK!!"

With of all the skill of a gymnast, Applejack flung a coil of rope around a confused Fluttershy's waist and tugged her back, away from the equally confused Timberwolf King.

"Uwahh?! What was that-" Before she could finish, a resounding boom diverted all their attention to back to the TImberwolf King.

A large creature had fallen directly on top of the Timberwolf, snapping its woody spine and effectively severing it in half from the waist up. Two large metal hands then clenched over the pitful creatures skull, before compressing together and crushing its head entirely. Bits of wood and leaves scattered all across the forest floor, and upon the still shocked group of mares.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash stood in combat stance, ready to pounce upon the latest threat, should it do anything suspicious.

Rarity and Pinkie Pie surrounded Fluttershy protectively, who in turn was stammering away in shock at how quickly the fierce predator had been brutally murdered.

Twilight stood where she was, shock and fear coursing through her veins as she took in everything that happened in the blink of an eye. Yet as she looked at the creature, she took particular note of its exceptionally large body, the two rims near its shoulders that gave it the distinction of an insect's carapace, and the quadruple orange eyes on its small head.

To all the girls shock the latest creature just ignored them. It turned its back to them and proceeded to walk deeper into the forest as if nothing was wrong.

"Twi? What should we do?" asked Applejack carefully whilst staring at the creature's large back. Twilight gulped as she put two and two together, finally realizing what they are going to have to do if they want to follow up on this latest lead.

"We follow it"

Author's Note

I feel like I make the Mane 6 way too OOC. Much hard to write characters if they already have a well-established personality. Did I do it right?

Ponyville

"This...is where we're going to be staying?" Houston stared at the abnormal structure that towered before him, Natalya, and his group of robots. Overshadowing all of them, the early morning sunlight made it rather hard to make out but he could still see it enough to get a clear picture of it. Its design was similar to that of a tree fused with three pillars of a building. Yet, it wasn't as if the building was built externally and then installed into the base of the tree. Rather, it was like the building had grown with the tree. Speaking of the tree, its material was definitely not wood, its unnatural purple shine, and translucent blue hue quickly identifying it as crystal. Two structures made of gold and some other purple material sprung out of the infrastructure, creating a balcony and an entrance. To top it all off, a large eight-pointed star decorated the top of the tree building, like the star on the top of those pre-war Christmas trees Houston seen back in California before he moved to the Mojave.

Overall, Houston was having troubles wrapping his heads around the design of the building. But...since this was the castle of a princess, he guesses he should be too surprised. Historically, such extravagance wasn't uncommon for monarchs.

"Yeah! So...what do you think?" asked Twilight curiously. Of the original group of equines that Houston met since his arrival on this world, the only one that stayed with him so far was the one called Twilight Sparkle. All the rest had broken off once Twilight teleported their merry band to the fringes of the town in the early morning. Why early morning's? Twilight said it was to minimize shock should the townsfolk realize there was an alien suddenly walking amongst them.

Anyhow, of the group, some left immediately without another word; like that extremely quiet pink and yellow one and the male/female (Houston wasn't exactly sure what gender that particular one was) rainbow-haired one. Others were more friendly with their departure, such as the one with the stetson, the white, prissy one, and the pink one which he swore was on Jet or something. Twilight remained behind to escort Houston and Natalya to the castle since that was where it was decided he was going to be staying as part of their agreement.

"Its design is...unique to say the least" Houston turned and pointed to the smaller buildings that surrounded the area. Their straw-thatched roofs and simple wooden frames a far-cry from the crystal palace that stood in between them. "Sticks out like a sore thumb amongst all the derelict shacks, doesn't it?"

"Well, I'd prefer to call Ponyville's houses modest. Since the town is a quaint village, we just choose not to expand heavily on the infrastructure side of things" laughed Twilight humbly, "But yeah, it does stick out rather badly. Are you new to thing like this?"

"Not exactly, no" replied Houston as he thought of New Vegas and the Lucky 38, "I'm also having trouble understanding the logic behind using the crystal as a building material. Rather unusual, don't you think?"

"Perhaps. I didn't build it though" agreed Twilight as she swung the heavy golden doors open and made room for all of them to fit through. Houston's head near whacked the door frame as he squeezed himself in. A L P H A wasn't so lucky and his tiny head made a loud crack as it collided with the heavy metal, causing Twilight to winch in the background as she noticed the large dent left behind, "Ouch! Is he okay?"

"He's a robot. He doesn't feel pain" replied Houston briskly as he took in the decor around him. He whistled slowly as he noticed the high ceilings, large purple banners decorated with gold trimmings, and several crystal pillars lining the hallways. The crystal from outside extended even to the inside of the building, with every inch of the surface being made of the cool, clear material. Houston looked further down and noticed that they were standing in the middle of a long hallway, several bronze doors with stained green glass, probably that of other rooms lined the sides of the space in which they stood. "I take it you didn't build this either?"

"Most of it came with the castle, yes" laughed Twilight. Houston frowned slightly as he took in the area they were in and noticed the lack of individuals. Now ignoring the fact that it was still early in the morning, what is an indisputable fact in any house of authority was the presence of some form of a security force. He'd seen this with the NCR, Legion, and House. Yet, here he was standing in a massive castle with not another soul in sight other than the current entourage.

"Where's your security?"

"Oh I don't have security" replied Twilight with a sight sense of pride in her tones, "It's just me, my assistant Spike and my protegee Starlight Glimmer. She's also another member of the staff over at the School of Friendship, just so you know. I hope you'll be able to meet the rest of them soon, but we'll focus on where you'll be staying for now"

"Say, princess, you said you didn't build this castle. Where did the castle come from then?" called out Natalya from behind Twilight as she scratched her talons on one of the crystal pillars with interest.

"Umm...it, grew?" replied Twilight as she walked over to one of the bronze doors near the golden entrance and knock three times with her hooves, "Hopefully they're in"

"Whose in?" Natalya soon got her answer as the door Twilight knocked on swung open slowly and a figure poked its head out. The figure was a griffin like Natalya, albeit a little bit smaller. She had ashen grey fur for her feline body, a dark grey beak and a head full of streamlined black feathers. Bronze eyes stared at them lazily as the griffin yawned loudly and rubbed her eyes.

"I swear Spike...if you came here cause you left your prized figurine, then you'll be disappointed to-" Her eyes widened as her fatigue quickly evaporated on the spot and she noticed the white-feathered Natalya standing next to Houston. Her eyes lingered on Houston for a moment, before refocusing on her sister who stared back at her awkwardly.

"Um...hi sis?" said Natalya unhelpfully. She still sputtered in surprise however when the black and grey griffin jumped towards her and pulled her into a massive hug. "G-Giselle?"

"Thank Grover, you're okay" muttered the now named Giselle as she buried her beak into her sister's neck to hid her tears of joy. "Gaston and I had just about lost all hope. You've been gone for so long and the princess hadn't been responding to Spike for the last four days. I...We...feared the worst had come to you"

"Awww...you really mean that sis?" Natalya poked her slightly with a playful tone, but all that did was made her choke a bit more as Giselle tightened her hug.

"Yes...I really do..." mumbled Giselle miserably as she hung her head in shame, "I'm so sorry for everything I've ever said about you. You know, all that stuff about me wishing you were never born or how you were never my sister. I just...It took losing you for so long for me to realize how wrong I was"

"Hehe...don't sweat it, sis," Natalya reached a talon around and patted her sister's head. With some difficulty of course. "You and I were drunk at the time. And I threw some nasty comments back at you too, remember?"

"Yeah...well...I'm just so glad you're back" Giselle sighed softly as she finally directed her attention back to the elephant in the room. Her eyes first focused on Twilight, giving her what seems to be a thankful expression, before they moved across towards Houston. They widened for a moment as they trailed up and down, taking in his appearance. They then moved onto ED-E attached to his head, B-6-RK who sat down next to Houston's leg with a blank expression, and finally A L P H A standing behind Houston. Each time she did, the same look of surprise only grew larger and larger. "Sooo...about the alien"

"He saved me" replied Natalya simply as she raised a talon before Giselle could ask any more questions. She turned back to Houston who still watched the entire exchange with mild interest, "You don't mind if I retire with the rest of my team, do you? You know, do some catching up?"

"Not at all Birdie" replied Houston. It would make the tour with Twilight much easier if he didn't have a third wheel, "Take all the time you need"

"Thanks, Houston. Come on sis" said Natalya as she took her sister's arms around her own and begun dragging her back into her room.

"What? Oh. Yes." Giselle gave one last thankful look towards Twilight, and one worried look towards Houston and his entourage of robots before shutting the heavy bronze doors behind her, leaving Houston, his robots and Twilight alone in the hallways.

"Wasn't that heartwarming?" asked Twilight happily as she led Houston up to a flight of crystal stairs.

"Perhaps" replied Houston as he marveled at the architecture around him. He had to admit, for a building made out of rather perplexing materials, it didn't hold back on design. Everything seemed to be tree or rock-based with specific cracks in the wall shaped to look like the branches of a tree swaying in the breeze, complemented with a structure made to look like a pile of bright crystals erupting out of the walls. "Makes things easier for us"

"Umm...not sure what you mean by that" Twilight finally reached the door on the utmost part of the stairs and pushed it open gently. Gesturing to Houston, he was greeted to a rather nice, though slightly cramped, suite. Granted it wasn't Lucky 38 level of luxury, but all in all, it was rather nice for what was provided. To start off, the most striking part of the room had to be the massive four-poster bed that sat to the left of the entrance. Made up of primarily crystal as its base, two rustic yellow frames decorated with trees held it together at the base and the head. Purple curtains were tied up at each of the four posts, exposing the purple blanket that covered the mattress and the two purple pillows underneath.

Directly in front of the entrance was a large oakwood table, big enough for Houston should he decide to install a terminal at the center of it. A large purple armchair also complemented the table, giving him a fabulous view of the outside world if he chooses to swing his chair around to stare out of the massive glass door behind him that also led to a small golden balcony.

Finally, to the right of the table and the left of the bed was was a small carpeted area, complete with several bookshelves stacked with books titled in a language Houston didn't understand, two comfy purple armchairs, a small coffee table and a crystal fireplace, where a small orange flame currently sat glowing away. Picture frames of meadows and a few books also sat atop the surface of the smooth white crystal.

"It's not much," said Twilight as she closed the doors behind her and gestured the room to him, "But it's the only one in the castle with a bed big enough to fit your size. I apologize, if it's not any bigger than that"

"That's okay Ms. Sparkle," said Houston as he brushed a finger over the smooth crystal structure of the fireplace and examined the small layer of dust that coated his finger afterward, "Just needs a little cleaning. Other than that, it's perfect as it is"

"Really? Thank goodness!" Twilight sighed in relief as she levitated the pouch containing the rest of Houston's aircraft shrunken down, "Should I leave you to get settled in while I go and resize your plane?"

"No...not yet," Not until this equine princess answers some questions that's been tearing up at Houston all day. "Please, take a seat. I have some questions I've been meaning to get off my chest"

"Okay...?" Slightly confused, Twilight followed Houston's gesture and sat down on one of the armchairs by the fire. Houston sat directly opposite her in the other armchair. "So, what do want to know?"

"Where to start," Houston chuckled to himself lightly as he pointed to the entire room with a spinning circle, "I'll start with you. What is your role in all of this?"

"I...beg your pardon?" asked Twilight back equally confused.

"Your role" repeated Houston, "Your stance on the political hierarchy of your government, to better summarise it. From what Natalya has told me so far, your system is an obligatory diarchy with the majority of power centered around the sphere of influence emanated by your dual bodies of authority. The two princesses are allowed to set what rules they want, as long as it lies within acceptable parameters of social values. You, on the other hand, represent an outlier to the model. She never mentioned the third princess. So I'm interested in what role you actually play in the decision-making of this nation, enough that it gives this castle and all this luxury in the middle of this dilapidated village"

"Oh, well my role in Equestria is the Princess of Friendship" replied Twilight proudly. Too proudly, might he add.

"Friendship?"

"Yeah! You don't know about it?" asked Twilight as she watched Houston's unamused expression with a worried look.

"I know about it, don't you worry"

"Then why do you look so...displeased? Do you not have friends?"

"Oh, I had friends" Houston internally grimaced as flashes of the burning Hopeville and Ashton flooded his mind. Then there were the bodies scattered around him, burned beyond all comprehension and reduced to piles of pulpy flesh and molten metal. He shuddered, forcing those images out of his head, "I don't talk about it though. Besides, don't you think your title is rather...childish?"

"No, I don't" Houston had to admit, the equine did look rather adorable as she pouted her cheeks in childish disappointment at him. "Friendship is not something to laugh at. It is a core tenant of our philosophy of harmony"

"Explain this...harmony philosophy"

"It's our main belief," said Twilight simply as she sank back into her armchair to get comfortable, "Before we were unified, ponies were split into three tribes, all based on their races. Unicorns with unicorns, Pegasi with pegasi and Earth ponies with earth ponies. We had peace, but it was a fragile one built on interdependency and plagued with generations of mistrust and paranoia"

She bit her lips and her ears faltered.

"We learned though. Quickly learned how disharmony could have, and nearly, destroyed us. Funny enough, the threat that faced all tribes was of our creations, feeding off our hatred and distrust of one another. It nearly consumed us" Her ears peaked up slightly and an optimistic look carved itself on her face, "But in our hour of darkness, we saw the flames that friendship brought forth. It pushed back the monsters we created and saved us. Which is why we had so adamantly held onto the ideas of Harmony. It saved us and gave us the chance to rebuild again"

"This translates into your system of government?" asked Houston with keen interest. He had to admit when he heard all this talk about Friendship and Harmony, he thought he was going be bored out of his mind as they talked about holding hands and frolicking in the fields without a single care for the reality of life. But now, he had to respect them slightly. Theirs was a culture build on despair and pain, not that different from his. The only difference was they found that Equilibrium. Humanity still had a way to go.

"Correct. There are actually four princesses in total. Celestia and Luna are the main ones in charge but they represent the Sun and the Moon respectively. Their diarchy is mean to represent the balance and Harmony between day and night. Cadence, which I have yet to introduce you to, is the princess of Love, meant to represent the harmony amongst families. Me, I represent Friendship, the harmony between ponies. Mutual respect and trust"

"But what you do specifically?" emphasized Houston

"Well, I run a school, to begin with, teaching the principles of Friendship for anyone willing to learn. I know that may sound rather shallow, especially compared to Celestia, Luna, and Cadence who run countries. But Celestia and Luna are retiring soon, and it's up to me and my friends to take over in their place" Twilight got out of her chair and walked over to the exit, exhaustion visible on her face, "I enjoyed our talks, but I must really go and resize your plane and then rest, sleeping on the forest floor isn't exactly the best for my health"

"Please, do. A L P H A, follow the princess. Make sure that she sets the aircraft down without damaging anything. Once that's done, return to me for further commands" commanded Houston to which the robot gave a garbled grunt in response. Houston then turned his attention back to Twilight standing by the door waiting for A L P H A to follow her, "Where are you going to set the aircraft down anyways?"

"Just outside on the hills between the castle and the school. If you go to the balcony in this room, you should be able to see it"

"Very well. Thank you, Ms. Sparkle" Nodding to Houston, she and A L P H A quickly left the room and the heavy door shut closed with a light tap. Houston stood there for a moment, watching the area in which his bodyguard and his host left, before reaching up and ripping the cords attached into his skull. He shuddered as he felt the familiar rush of hormones and endocrine fluids flood his systems, drowning out the flamboyant voice of his brain and melding together to form the real courier, the real Houston.

"Harmony, huh? Cute, but ultimately garbage" muttered Houston as he detached the wires from ED-E's ports and placed them on the table. He then stripped off the outer layer of metal from his armor and threw himself onto the bed, sighing heavily as he felt the softness of the pillows and blankets envelop him in their warmth. "Still...they seem to be doing well for themselves. Perhaps...maybe I can afford to...dream a bit"

B-6-RK also injected with ED-E.

"Do whatever you want, as long as you don't cause trouble in any way" shrugged Houston on the bed as he wrapped the blankets around himself and closed his eyes, "But if you really want to do something, I guess you could go and patrol the castle or something like that"

Surrounded by his warm blankets and his thoughts, he heard his robots exit the door, closing it quietly behind them as they left. Enjoying the brief moment of peace, he prepared to lay back and let sleep embrace him, hopefully without any nightmares for once.

"Humph?"

Reaching underneath his pillows, he found the source the discomfort poking at him in the back of the head to be a white envelope. Written in a language he couldn't understand, he huffed as he crumpled it and tossed into the wastepaper basket by his desk, glad to rid himself of the unnecessary distraction to his rest.

"So...did the alien impregnate you?"

Natalya did the most comical spit-take ever with the glass of water Gaston had given her. The big lug had been ecstatic to see her the moment Giselle woke him up by kicking him off the top of the bunk bed. Greetings were made, hugs were given out, and Natalya sat back to just enjoy the moment of being reunited with her team.

Then Giselle dropped the bombshell question, causing Natalya to douse Gaston sitting directly in front of her with water. As Natalya spent the next few moments beating the cough out of her chest, the bigger and soaked griffin turned to a sheepish Giselle with an unamused expression.

"Where did you get that?" asked Gaston as he rubbed some of the spit-water out of his eyes.

"What? You've never seen the alien movies and comics? There's always some scene where they bring back a survivor of an alien attack, only for their chest to burst open by some space fetus or something" said Giselle simply as she jumped onto Gaston bed and made herself comfortable.

"Never mind that," said Natalya once she composed herself, "Since when were you into movies and comics?"

"I always did, I just never bothered to show you, that's all. Remember, I didn't really like you before this" shrugged Giselle.

"Well I didn't know until last night, so you're not the only one Natalya," said Gaston from the back as he used a towel to dry himself off, "That does explain why she was getting it 'pretty' well with that dragon last night"

"Ha! Is this true? Did you hit on the princess's assistant last night?" Natalya turned back to see Giselle looking back at her unashamed as can be.

"What? He likes Ogres and Oubliettes. I like Ogres and Oubliettes. What's not to love?"

"He's so young though, even by dragon standards!"

"He lives a long life. I live a short life. Might as well enjoy it while I still can" Giselle brushed off Natalya's comments with apathy and instead redirected the attention back to her, "This brings me back to my original question, Did the alien impregnate you?"

"No!!"

"Are you sure? No even a little? Cmon, he must have done something" teased Giselle, though her playful tone went quiet as she noticed the abundance of bandages wrapped around Natalya's wings and midriff. "W-what happened to your wings?"

"You asked me what he did to me, didn't you," said Natalya, wincing as she tried to flex her wings with limited success. Despite injecting her with what he called a combination of chemicals called Stimpaks, Hydra, Med-X, and Fixer, she still found it pretty hard to move her wings. Granted there were feelings near the base of it, but that was about as far as it went.

"B-but...you're wings..." sputtered Giselle completely horrified.

"Yeah... sorry about that sis" Natalya also shot a regretful look towards Gaston who watched from behind with a flabbergasted expression, "Guess we won't be competing for the next Games, huh?"

"Forget about the Games!!" Natalya physically recoiled as her sister sprung from her perch on the top buck and scrambled to Natalya in panic. Talons clung at Natalya's wings as Giselle fanned them out herself and stared at them in shock.

"W-what in Tartarus are you doing?!" Natalya shoved her sister aside and edged back away from her.

"What am I doing?! What about you?!" screamed Giselle back. Natalya and Gaston stood in shock as Giselle emulated the famous 'Griffin Screech', one said to be so strong that it was capable of sending a pony flying on just sheer force alone. Of course, being Griffins, Gaston and Natalya were able to dig their talons into the ground and take the blast, though the shock was still there as they marveled at the voice strength of this small griffin. "How could you be all lovey-dovey with that...that THING, after all, it's done to you! It took your wings and you're okay with that?!"

"Giselle...please...calm down" pleaded Natalya.

"Calm down?! How can I calm down when my sister had her wings clipped by a space monster?! What else did that creep do to you, huh? Huh?!"

"Sis..." growled Natalya. Okay, now she was getting rather annoyed herself.

"You might not even be my sister. You might be a carbon copy of her or something! I've seen aliens in the comic books do that. Just take an anal probe and then-"

"GISELLE! SHUT UP!" As Giselle's rants got more and more paranoid, Natalya, in turn, responded with her own 'Griffin Screech'. Much louder than Giselle's rather adolescent level, Natalya's immediately commanded respect from not just Giselle, but also Gaston whose been watching from the sidelines for a majority of the conversation.

"He did nothing to me, okay?" said Natalya slowly, once she recollected herself into a much more calm persona, "Not intentionally anyways"

"What do you mean?" asked Gaston, considering how paralyzed Giselle remained.

"It was an accident. The Matriarch Quarry Eel. It left me broken on the edges of the Gorge. Had it not been for Houston, for his robots, I may have not lived to be here with you today" She turned to her sister who by this point had recovered and looked back at her with a remorseful expression, tears forced back by will, "What happened to my wings...was just a result of miscommunication. But it's okay, I've made a deal with him in exchange for fixing my wings"

"What...kind of deal?" Gaston sounded cautious as he asked that

"Nothing much. Tell him about our world and in exchange he'll fix my wings" shrugged Natalya, "My part of the deal is even more unnecessary now that he's staying in the castle. The only downside is he insisted I stay close to him while he researches. Don't know why though"

"Sis...I'm sorry...sorry for losing my head there for a moment" Giselle's eyes widened as Natalya pulled her into a warm hug.

"Nothing against you...you featherbrain"

"Still, you don't think the alien might have impregnated you?"

"Giselle...how many time must I keep telling you this. He. Didn't. Impregnate. Me" The firm tone in Natalya's voice pretty much snuffed out any energy in that conversation anymore and Giselle fell silent as she let her sister gently hug her. "Also his name is Houston. I'll have to introduce him to the two of you later"

"Funny name. Houston" pointed out Gaston sitting across from the two sisters and grabbing a pillow to use as a headrest. Natalya deadpanned.

"Gaston, we are literally in a land where ponies are named Happy Days, Cotton Candy and other nonsense. Why would you think Houston's name would be any different?" asked Natalya

"It's funny because it's nothing like pony names. That's why. Just food for thought" responded Gaston

"Since when were you a thinker?" laughed Natalya, "Honestly are you guys even my team anymore? Since when was my sister such an emotional wreck and since when did you become a philosopher"

"You being gone...it's given us time to rethink ourselves, to be honest" confessed Giselle miserably, "I just hope that-"

She stopped as she felt behind the pillow she was using to prop herself on the floor. Fiddling around in it, she found withdrew three white envelopes.

"Who are they for?" asked Natalya as she and Gaston watched Giselle slice open the top with the tip of her talons and removed one of the sheets of paper inside to read it.

"One for each of us, it seems" She frowned as her eyes trailed over it, "Seems there's going to be a party in the Town Hall. A welcome party for the alien. Come and see the wonders of the cosmos for yourselves."

"Does it say when?" pointed out Gaston.

"Tonight. 7 o'clock. Here" Giselle passed over an envelope to Gaston and Natalya. Ripping her's open, Natalya too read it and confirmed the location and time of the party. Seems the pinkie pony had decided it would be funny to make a sketch of Houston and his robots to accompany the invitation. Not saying that it was bad it was rather accurate with the visual details. But it all felt out of place more than anything else.

"Perfect then. It'll be the perfect place for me to introduce you guys to him" Tossing her invitation expertly over to the top of a dresser, Natalya leaned back and sighed in relaxation. "So. What do you guys want to do now?"

Twilight quietly sipped from her glass of punch as her eyes skimmed across the heavily decorated town hall. Once again, Pinkie Pie had outdone herself with the decorations and the catering. Streamers, balloons, confetti and a large banner with the words: Welcome to Ponyville filled the main atrium of the town hall. Party foods of all kind filled the tables of the party, of which many residents of Ponyville currently stood near, eating and conversing with one another.

Twilight had to admire how Pinkie Pie quickly put together the party with no stones uncovered and no corners cut. Twilight herself had just gotten back to her room, exhausted after draining her magic to resize Houston's plane, only to find Pinkie Pie standing at her door to give her a party invitation before racing off to the next resident. Seems she was determined to invite everyone in town to the party.

And everyone did arrive. All eager to catch a glimpse of the human mentioned in Pinkie's invitation. Twilight caught a glimpse of several notable figures; Spike and Starlight standing with the CMC near party cannon positioned at the doors to surprise Houston when he walks in, Mayor Mare speaking with the Rich family as they talked over cups of punch, and her Canterlot friends who had arrived to visit Lyra but soon found themselves invited to the party as well.

Speaking of Houston...he's late. Profoundly late to be precise. The party was scheduled at 7 o'clock and yet he still hasn't arrived yet, despite the time nearing the 9 o'clock mark.

Twilight skimmed her eyes over to the doors with worry. Natalya and her group of Griffins had arrived early, so Twilight thought Houston was shortly behind them. But it seems not to be and the suspense of waiting for him to come was tearing at her from the inside.

It also seems quite a number of the guests were getting agitated too. Pinkie had tried her best to satiate their boredom by doing the thing she was best at most, hosting the party. Music, dancing, and games were all well and good in giving the guest a good time. But if the guest of honor didn't get here soon...

"Sugarcube, yah wanna go check up on him?" Applejack asked as she sipped her punch besides Twilight. Of all her friends, baring herself and Pinkie Pie, only she and Rarity had been the most receptive of their new guest. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had been reluctant to attend the party; Rainbow Dash because she was still annoyed over the human mistaking her gender, and Fluttershy because she was terrified of him, yet both still came once they were convinced to give him another chance at mending things over.

"Yeah...I think I will" agreed Twilight as she set down her cup and charged up a teleportation spell. Nodding to Applejack besides, Twilight vanished in a flash of purple light, leaving the country mare all on her lonesome as she gave an apologetic look to the guest around them blinded by Twilight's sudden disappearance.

"Hey AJ, where did Twilight go?" asked Rainbow Dash as she trotted over and grabbed a cup of punch herself.

"She's gone lookin for that Houston fella" replied Applejack as she slid a tray of Sweet Apple Acre tarts over to her, "Tarts? Granny made them for this occasion. But seein how Houston ain't shown up yet, might as well not waste the food"

"Definitely" Rainbow Dash accepted them gratefully and delved right into them.

Twilight popped right back into the physical realm with a bright flash of light, not that there was anyone in the dark hallways to notice. As the residue light of her spell dissipated and Twilight was once again shrouded in the darkness of the night, her eyes spotted the dull shade of light emanating from Houston's room. That and the faint sounds of what could only be described as music akin to jazz flowed from behind the confines of his door.

"Strange" muttered Twilight as she listened to the tunes. It was somber, unique for a jazz track.

She reached over and gently pushed open the doors, only to be visibly shocked at what she saw.

The room...it had been utterly transformed in her absence. The crystal floors that once were bare were now constricted by a mass of wires and cables, all linked up to various ports on massive machines she'd never seen before. Littering the various cabinets were bits and bobbles in small containers, presumably for machines, though arranged with sticky notes written in a language she couldn't read apart from the numbers. Boxes and crates, the same as the ones from the planes, laid stacked and ordered to the right of the entrance, some of them opened and their contents unveiled for all to see. The crystal walls now had images plastered onto them, some of the posters of male and female humans in clothing similar to formal wears with visceral imagery to accompany them, others black and white photos of desert landscapes.

Finally, there was the table placed in the middle of the room, where Houston currently sat with B-6-RK lounging on his right and ED-E floating behind him. Houston had complete swept it clean and replaced it with his own things. A large curved machine with a screen and several buttons arranged in a complex formation stood on his right, while a small device with two spinning disks was on his right, spewing out the tunes that Twilight's been hearing since she arrived in his room.

Twilight shook her head in an attempt to shake away the amazement. Directing her attention back to the human of the hour, she noticed he was also staring back at her, as he was-

Was that her media player?

Yes, it was! It was her media player!

The device in question laid strewed across the middle of Houston's table, its body ripped open and its wires severed. Seems Houston was fiddling around with the player, connecting it with the device attached to his wrist. As he moved the wires around and plugged them in several ports on the player, he would then reach over and press and few buttons on the device on his left with one hand expertly. Honestly, Twilight was impressed at his level of multitasking.

A garbled screech that caused Twilight to flinch came from Houston's throat. He gestured to a metal case near the door. Peering inside, Twilight saw a green and brown headset.

Is this...what I think it is? thought Twilight. Turning over to Hoston, she saw him place his own green and brown headset on his head. It was then that she finally realized that he wasn't wearing his wires.

Placing the headset on her head, accommodating for her horn, of course, she gritted her teeth as static filled the chambers of her ears, before slowly dropping until there was a faint hum at the back of her head.

"Sorry for coming in unannounced" Twilight might as well test the waters here. If the device worked like she thought it would...

"Not at all Twilight Sparkle. I have been...eager to speak with you" said Houston as he tapped the two spinning disk device on his right with the screwdriver in his hand, "Tell me, do like this tune?"

"It's interesting..." replied Twilight uneasily. She couldn't help it but feel slightly on edge with the way the music sounded and the way Houston spoke. It was so different from the flamboyant tone she was accustomed too. It sounded...gruff...and tired. Like an old stallion speaking despite him looking no older than thirty years old. The way he moved was also unexpected. When he had been connected to his floating machine, his body was limp and vacant, like a puppet that moved with strings but no life. This Houston carried himself with an aura of authority. He genuinely made her feel like she was the smallest pony in the room. It was like...Celestia. And Luna. When they're judging in Day and Night Court.

"Interesting..." repeated Houston before chuckling lightly, "I guess that is a good way to describe it. Where this specific radio wave was captured, I guess it is an interesting place"

"Is that my media player?"

"Is it? Apologies for taking it then but I need it for my lessons" Houston ripped out a blue wire and casually tossed it over his head, "Makes them learn better. If they see it. By the way, the first lesson is tomorrow. Can I get an outline of the classroom?"

"Oh! Erm...I was thinking you teach the entire school all in one go instead of teaching it to class by class" Twilight materialized her notebook and flipped it open until she found the pages she was looking for, "How does the first lesson in the morning sound?"

"Perfect. But enough about me" Houston placed down his screwdriver and directed his attention completely onto Twilight. "You didn't come here to for me to ask questions about tomorrow. You came here for a specific reason. So...how can I help you?"

"Why didn't you come to the party? Pinkie Pie said she mailed you an invitation" Guess Twilight should start off with the reason she came here. What she didn't expect was for Houston to reply with one of the smuggest looks she'd ever seen. It was catty and child-like, yet there was a hint of cold ruthlessness behind those brown eyes.

"Ah yes. The party" Houston gave snarky grin as he sat back, "The better question is why should I be wasting my time with such frivolous events?"

"I...I beg your pardon?"

"It's stupid really, your parties. Honestly, they are a waste of time and resources. Resources that could be spent elsewhere" Houston barely flinched as Twilight teleported directly in front of his face, her eyes thunderous while he just stared back at her coolly. "Oh, struck a nerve did I?"

"How dare you say that!" yelled Twilight as she flared her horn up threateningly, "Do you have any idea how much effort Pinkie put in that party for you?!"

"And did I ask her to make me a party?!" He smirked as Twilight faltered for a moment, "I don't know how much effort she put into it and frankly, I don't care. The contract never stated that I had any obligation to attend any events that you might host. The extent of my side was to make lesson plans and teach your students. That was it"

"How could you say that?!" Twilight was furious now, she could feel her blood boil with a desire to do nothing more than zap the human before her, "How could you be so dismissive of her efforts? Does the fact that she did everything for you just because she wanted to make you feel welcomed mean nothing to you?"

"Really now?" Houston raised an eyebrow in suspicion, but quickly pushed it down as he replied, "Then that is her loss not mine"

Twilight snarled at him before forcing herself away from him in disgust. No. No way would she allow herself to be provoked by him and relegate herself to his level.

"You...you are a nasty person. You know that?!" How do you honestly expect any friends in this world if you continue to act like that?!"

"I don't." With those two words, Twilight's heart froze over. Turning to him slowly, she saw him look back at her coldly with those brown eyes. Gone were the warmth that she saw when she first came in the room, nor the empty glaze whenever he was plugged into his machine. These eyes were cold, lonely but with hints of malice behind them.

"W-what?" This time she couldn't raise her voice. She was too stunned to try.

"Friendship. Is a joke." said Houston slowly as he emphasized each word clearly to the point that they felt like darts to her heart as he said them, "There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who sit at the top and those like me, the gears of the machine. From my experience, those at the top never care about the ones at the bottom. They may say they do or offer the hands of 'friendship'. But all of them, except for one, always made their dealings excessively extravagant whilst holding knives behind their backs. I want my contracts, to be clean, and professional. None of this excessive nonsense to distract me"

Twilight remained silent as she heard him speak. What terrified her wasn't how he was so adamant against Friendship. It was the fact that she saw a bit of herself in him. A bit of her old self. Before she met her friends from Ponyville and neglected her ones from Canterlot.

"What about Natalya?" asked Twilight hopefully. Surely he must be bluffing. He took care of Natalya while she was hurt after all. Perhaps...maybe he wasn't so...

"Ah yes, the griffin" Houston gave a predatory grin, "Rather convenient. Wasn't it. Her injuries by the way"

"What do you mean?" Twilight almost regretted asking him that question.

"I lied when I said I'm an average doctor. In truth, I'm actually an expert in medicine. A rarity where I come from. I could fix anything; humans and most animals" Houston placed his cheeks in the palm of his hands, "But consider this. If I did mess up on one wing, why are there the same scaring patterns on both of them"

The pit in Twilight's stomach grew worst as she considered what he might be referring to.

"Y-you did that to her? You purposefully severed the nerves in her wings?" Houston shrugged at Twilight's question.

"Maybe I did. Maybe I didn't. I'll leave that for you to decide. I won't lie this time when I say that her biology was rather hard to wrap my head around. But at the same time, her wounds remain rather convenient, no?"

"I've had enough" Twilight edged away from Houston's desk and started trotting towards the door, "I...I don't think I can do this anymore. Goodbye"

Despite her attempts to quickly pull out of the room and find a place to vomit, she still found herself edging back as Houston called out to her before she could remove the headset.

"Twilight Sparkle. Before you go."

"What?"

"This morning you spoke to me about Harmony and Friendship. I just want to know...would you go far to ensure Harmony?"

"I don't see the reason why I should be answering this for you"

"You don't have to" replied Houston, "Just merely curious"

Twilight bit her lips as she stood there, silent whilst Houston just watched on from behind. One part of her told her to ignore him and just leave. Another was debating in her head as to the motives behind his question. The final part just told her to answer him and be done with it so she could retreat back into the safe confines of her friends.

"Yes. Yes, I would" answered Twilight back really tired.

"Even at the cost of Friendships?"

Twilight bit her lips at that one. That one was a hard one to respond to.

"No. Never" And with those final words, she removed the device from her head and walked out of his room, closing the doors behind her and allowing the darkness to once again overcome her. Sighing, she charged up a teleportation spell, regretting what she was going to have to say to Pinkie and the rest of the guest at the party.

"Pathetic" snorted Houston as he kicked his feet back onto the table and watched the princess leave his room with exhaustion. "If that is how one of the leaders of this worlds think, then I worry for the stability of this country"

Pushing his chair back, Houston walked over to the balcony door behind. him. Unclasping the lock, he stepped into the night and sighed as he allowed the soothing winds to slowly wash over him.

"At night. It's rather beautiful" Houston swung himself onto the edges of the railings and stared into the darkness. Off in the distance, he saw the outlines of the lights coming out of the large spiral building sitting in the middle of the town. Silhouettes could be seen moving against the yellow backdrop, all of them ponies though he did see the occasional griffin body in the mix.

He frowned. It kind of hurt to confess to Twilight Sparkle that he purposefully severed the nerves in Natalya's wings. It pained him to inflict damage on such a beautiful specimen, but the opportunity that she provided him proved to be far greater than if he tried to fix her wings. Not that he was sure he could have fixed her wings even if he tried.

Make no mistake, he still intends to fulfill his side of the agreement. It's just...

Nevermind. He'll think about that bridge when he gets there. For now, he should be worrying about the bigger picture. Telling Twilight Sparkle what he did had been a great gamble, bigger considering how villainous he made himself sound. But, if it all works out, Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the townsfolk will get the message to leave him alone and let him focus on fulfilling his side of the deal.

No parties. No friendships. No unnecessary distractions.

It will make it all less painful.

Peering down the edges of his balcony, Houston spied A L P H A hard at work arranging his plane in an order that made it look like its original purpose, should Houston ever find the motivation to repair the plane. Seems quite a few parts were missing in the forest, something he will have face down the line. But everything else apart from that seems to be in order, so it should be fine for now. Twilight Sparkle promised to keep everyone away from his plane, which was another added bonus.

"Huh?" Houston reached into his pants and withdrew a small cylinder vial of amber liquids. Oh, there it was! He forgot he still carried these things around with him.

"Might as well get stoned before my first lesson" muttered Houston. Jumping off his seat and walking back into the warm confines of his room, Houston sat back into his chair and pulled open a case in one of the drawers. Taking out a thin, clean needle, he dipped the thin metal into the vial and pulled up the lever until it was three quarters filled with the amber liquid. Then, using his belt, he wrapped it around his left arm three times until the veins bulged, allowing him to stab the needle into his arm and push the lever own.

Houston sighed as he placed the needle onto the table, pushed his chair, and sat back to allow the homemade concoction of Mentats and Med-X to work their way onto his brains.

Just focus on the contract. Just focus on the contract.

Focus on the contract.

Author's Note

And now lessons will finally start!

Apologies

Houston stared at the scene behind the glass of the Lucky 38 cocktail lounge before him silently, watching the fires of Hoover Dam rage in the distance and choke the Mojave sky with its thick black smoke. It reminded him of Nipton, except larger, as if a statement to the very heavens was being made when the Bear and the Bull simultaneously tore each other's throats out. Their claim over the Dam and the Mojave. Futile to the end.

Ulysses was right in a sense, he had to admit that. They both held enormous potential as empires. The NCR with its democracy and the Legion with its Hegelian Dialectics. But both saw nothing beyond the Dam. And each other.

Both had waged war against each other for so long that they've become blinded to the noose around their necks, not until House pulled the lever at Hoover Dam. Both had killed each other as if it was second nature, bending the principles they so vehemently embodied to justified their ever-increasing brutality. Both offered the Mojave the same future, under a different coat of paint, sure, but the same nonetheless. A future of continued war.

Kimball and Caesar. Oliver and Lanius. Moore and Inculta.

Now though, their empires lie with its throats slit, bleeding and dying slowly. Whether or not they have the brains to put a hand to the wound or keep stumbling forwards towards Vegas is another story for another day.

Houston watched apathetically as the sun in the distance slowly sunk beneath the horizon. Dusk is settling in, soon it will be night and the smoke will not be visible anymore, shrouded by the darkness and watched only by the stars. But the darkness cannot hide the flames, nor the amount of human suffering constricted within those walls of that accursed Dam. NCR will be up all night collecting their dead and burning the bodies of Legion men that paint the walls red, only adding to the flames that already engulf those decrepit walls.

"Quite a sight. Isn't it boss?" A raspy voice came from behind him. Turning around, Houston saw the last of his companions, Raul Tejeda in his vaquero outfit, sitting on one of the bar stools and taking shots of tequila whilst smoking a cigarette. "When I was a little boy, I always heard stories of it from my papa back at the ranch. He told me of the man they named it after and how he expelled one million of my people from these lands for economic reasons. Papa was always resentful of that long-dead ghost, mainly cause my family lost so much as we were being deported, despite being registered citizens."

"Do you any of hold those resentments?" asked Houston.

"Perhaps a bit" replied Raul as he reached over and refilled his tumbler with more tequila, "But never to the extent of papa's. I never believed that I would see America for my own eyes, much less the Dam. Guess I was wrong"

"So you're departing?" Houston took notice of the travel pack lying next to Raul's feet.

"I'm afraid so boss" Raul swirled his glass slowly, letting those few precious ice cubes inside tumble around as they chilled his drink, "My time with you's been brief. But you gave me a lot to think about. You made me realize I can still do a lot of good in this world. And I realized the same thing about you"

"Boone, Cass, and Arcade didn't think so" mumbled Houston as he went up to shake the old ghoul's hand. Despite feeling like rotting flesh, there was warmth and strength in those tired old bones.

"Don't let them get to you, boss" The old ghoul gave him a genuine smile, "Considering the circumstances, I think we left on the best terms we could. A word of advice though, you should try the tequila behind the counter. It's as delicious as I remembered it as a boy"

"Sure...bye Raul"

"Bye, boss"

The doors of the elevator clicked shut, its familiar hum indicating the departure of the ghoul from the building. And his life.

< Beep. Beep. Bloop. Beep?>

"I'm fine ED-E" responded Houston as he threw himself onto one of the couch with a tumbler full of ice and a bottle of the tequila Raul said was behind the counter. How could Houston forget this bucket of bolts? Of all the companions he'd gathered for the final push at Hoover Dam, ED-E was the only one that stayed behind with him in the end. Rex went back to the Kings, Lily returned to Jacobstown as soon as they finished up at the Dam, Raul stayed until his last goodbyes just now. Boone, Cass, and Arcade...

Well, that was a complicated matter.

Boone and Cass weren't happy with him, Boone especially. Both had told him directly to his face that he had made the lives the NCR thrown at the Dam completely wasted. That it was his fault alone that the NCR lost thousands of soldiers to Caesar's Legion in a campaign that stretched for ten years. Years of tax money, resources, military equipment, and lives wasted. All because he decided to side with the ghost man of Vegas.

They left soon afterward. Houston didn't try to stop them cause he'd knew they wouldn't listen to him no matter what he said. Who knows? He may have made the situation worse if he tried to. It was better this way, better to depart as neither friends nor enemies.

Arcade was...much more difficult to rein in. The guy went on a rant the moment Houston stepped into the Old Mormon Fort to survey the damages to Freeside. He went on and on about how Houston had given New Vegas's freedom up to a dictator, that he had gotten rid of both the NCR and Legion and how Mr. House's army is now going to enforce totalitarian rule over the 'innocent' people of Freeside. At that point, Houston was so pissed off from being called a traitor by Boone and Cass that he gave Gannon a solid punch to the face. As Gannon sat there, stunned on the ground and holding his cheek, Houston told his party of companions to just leave.

So yeah, not the best of outcomes.

But hey! He still had ED-E. Once again, of all his companions. The only ones that came back to him, were his robots.

"Howdy partner!" came a robotic voice behind him.

"Victor" acknowledged Houston tiredly. "I trust you have my payment?"

"That I do. Say, is that the tequila you drinkin?"

"Yes, it is. Strong, I must admit" Houston whistled lightly as he opened the briefcase Victor placed next to him and took in the sight of all those bottlecaps neatly stacked like casino chips, "How much is this?"

"5,000 caps. I've counted them myself" said Victor proudly. His cowboy monitor gave a cheeky grin to Houston as he closed the briefcase and handed it back to Victor to place in his suite, "Boss also wants you downstairs proto, somethin to do with another job"

"As long as the pay is consistent, then sure" Houston drained his tequila down and whistled to ED-E, the little robot squeaking in response as he floated to his master's side. Thanking Victor for holding the door open for him, Houston punched in the button for the penthouse and stood in silence with ED-E as the elevator descended the main body of the Lucky 38, the cheerful ambiance of Frank Sinatra's voice doing very little to soothe the screams in Houston's head. Staring at his blood-stained boots also did very little to set his mind at ease.

He blinked slowly as his vision returned to him, the vast expanse of the crystal ceiling above him slowly coming into focus. Confused, he wondered for a moment as to why he was staring at the ceiling of all places when he woke up. Then he realized.

Of course, he must have fallen asleep while the drugs worked their way through him last night. The fleeting images of last night's dream still plagued him, drilling themselves into his head as he pushed himself up and straightened himself on his armchair.

He's forgotten that mixing Mentats and Med-X would turn it into psychedelic anesthesias. Quite useful, as the Followers of the Apocalypse soon found out, for putting people under when surgeries require more...professional hands. The only downside was its tendency to reenact memories in the forms of dreams. Vivid and visceral dreams.

Houston licked his lips. For a moment there he thought he could taste the ashes in his mouth, just like he did when he returned from the 2nd Battle of Hoover Dam and watched its flames burn from the top of the Lucky 38 casino. Raul left him afterward, he got paid for his work, and then Mr. House wanted him for another job.

Heh.

Mr. House.

He must admit, NCR and Legion were very tempting options. Both NCR and Legion were rich, he wouldn't have minded working for either of them. But in the end, the only thing they would ever talk about is principles.

NCR was nothing more than a loose amalgamation of a recently failed state. Democracy, freedom, liberty. All very nice sounding things but so quick to push aside when your neighbor has better things than you. NCR is brutal like that. If you got something they want, they'll take it. Except they'll justify it under the guise of protection or civilizing barbarians. Bullying and sabotage are not completely out of their vocabulary. Not bad tactics, but just annoying how they keep denying responsibility or deflecting it on third party involvement. Always maintaining the moral high ground while crushing their enemies in brutal ways.

Speaking of brutal.

Legion is much more compelling than NCR in terms of effectiveness. Sure the slaves, and the crucifixions, and the bomb collars are quite off-putting. But compared to some of the shit he's seen in the Wasteland? Not the worst thing. They are honest. Unlike NCR who hides their malicious and selfish intents behind the illusion of morality and their philosophy, Legion conquers simply cause they are the bigger power, while not denying who they are or what they are. Legion soldiers actually gain and hold territory better than the NCR, culling all dissidents while instilling discipline in their conquered foes. Brutal and morally bankrupt? Absolutely. But this is the Wasteland after all. The only difference is Legion can maintain that peace with just one company of legionaries, unlike NCR whose constantly putting out the fires they themselves start and lack the logistical competency to allocate soldiers properly.

Too bad he never gave a shit about any of that.

Principles Houston thought disdainfully, What good is principles in the Wasteland? Would the merchant exchange principles for ammunition? Does it put food on your table? Can it keep you warm and safe at night?

No. It can't. Only hard cash can do that.

House can say all he wants about restoring Vegas, but as long as he is the man with the money, Houston will work for him. Fulfill his side of the deal and House will fulfill his side. Simple rules between the employer and the employee. Something as simple as that doesn't need principle or friendship. House doesn't need to pretend that he's Houston's friend.

Friendship. Houston's conversation with Twilight from last night came rushing back at him within an instant, most noticeable part being the distressed look on her face as she slammed the door on her way out. Houston bit his lips. He had to admit he might have taken his 'bad guy' performance a tad bit far there. He disagreed with their philosophy of Friendship and Harmony and he let her know that, so he will not take back the things he said about that. Lofty ideals of Harmony and Friendship have no place in Wasteland ethics.

But...

Maybe he shouldn't have been so quick to dismiss the pink one's party and her efforts to make him feel welcome. That part was unnecessarily cruel, no matter how much potential it may convince the horses that he wanted to be left alone. A small part of him, a very small part but a part of him nonetheless, may even be feeling regret for condescending her efforts. Still, he can't help but feel that he's leaving something out...

SHIT!!

Houston mentally kicked himself as the weight of his actions hit him like a mini-nuke. He just remembered something he said last night that was so critical to the contract he made. One that might even jeopardize the entire thing.

HE TOLD TWILIGHT ABOUT NATALYA!!

"Stupid. Stupid! STUPID!!" screamed Houston as he slammed his head into the table over and over against, ignoring the pain and splinters finding their way into his forehead. ED-E and B-6-RK watched from behind him with fear, and maybe a bit of worry, though not like he noticed them or anything.

Why the hell did he go and babble to Twilight that he purposefully severed Natalya's wings?!

Okay, so maybe she had it coming when she asked him about Natalya. But why the hell did he pretty much admit to Twilight that he severed her wings purposefully? He may still intend to fix her wings, but Twilight didn't know that! From her perspective, he may have well just tortured Natalya for fun. Combine it with the limited knowledge of what he knows about this world and their philosophy of Harmony.

Yikes. And this is not taking into the account that he said it whilst acting in his 'bad guy' persona.

Goddamn it. He really took his 'bad guy' persona too far there. Shit.

Houston looked around the room in a panic, making sure that he was actually in his room and not in a prison. His heart slowly calming down as he took in his surroundings. Robots? check. Terminal? check. Cables and wires? Definitely checked.

Okay, he's good for now. But that doesn't stop the possibility of a group of armed horses rushing through his door right now and taking him away. To be honest, he wouldn't mind prison. Not when there are worst things to be subjected to in the Wasteland. In prison, he would still get food, medicine and a place to sleep. The only trouble being his robots and his plane.

He had half a mind to go and trap the door with plasma mines at this point. It was then that he finally saw what's been in front of him this whole time.

Is that a slice of cake?

He rubbed and blinked his eyes multiple times, confirming to himself that what currently sat in front of him was real and not a trick of the light. No, it was true. There before him, with a small teaspoon, sat a little pink frosted cake, sliced neatly and decked with an unknown red fruit on the top.

Cake...

He vaguely remembered having cake, back when he was still a kid in Vault 18. Those were the days. You would get one cake, and one cake only, on your birthday and it was customed to share it with friends that you had. Not that Houston had may friends to share it with, to begin with. Most of the other kids avoided him like the plague and the only ones that actually bothered to acknowledge him were his sister, his two brothers, and two other kids named-

Crap. What were their names again?

...

Anyways, you stopped getting cake once you turned 18 years old, or a party in that regards. By that point, the Overseer didn't see the necessity of hosting a birthday party for an adult, considering how much of the Vault's population already consisted of an elderly population. It would have been considered a waste of the precious Hyperfood stocks. By that point, Houston's already forgotten the limited friends he had.

Houston pondered for a moment as he stared at the treat before him. The cogs in his head spinning as he wondered why there was a cake in his room in the first place. His little stunt last night was to affirm to the ponies to keep away from him, that he didn't want to be associated with any of their parties or anything. Yet, here in front of his very eyes, was a cake that looked like it had been sliced, and left for him specifically.

Was it laced with poison? Maybe, the princess was so terrified of him last night that she ordered a batch of poisoned cake to be delivered up to him, in hopes of wiping him out before he could cause any more trouble. But then...why didn't they just kill him while he was high up in his head?

Maybe it wasn't poison but rather a sedative. Knock him out and then cart him off to whatever prison these horses had in their land of peace and harmony. Would make more sense, considering this was a land of peace based on what Twilight told him. But then again, if that was the case then why bother putting it a cake? Like with the last theory, they could have carted him off while he spent the night stoned.

Houston reached forwards for the plate. He was thinking too hard into this. Whatever it may be, there was only one way to find out. If its a poison or a sedative, it wouldn't matter. As long as as the strain of Project Brazil is still slightly active within his body, a quick swig of Antivenom combined with a few pills of Fixer would be enough to quickly flush the chemicals out.

Using the spoon, Houston's eyebrows raised in astonishment as the metal instrument easily broke the layer of frosting and sunk deep into the fluffy yellow layer of sponge and cream underneath. It was completely unlike the Vault-Tec cakes made with Hyperfood proteins. Those things were so tough that you quite literally needed a Mr Handy's buzzsaw to penetrate the surface, much less divide it into equal portions. Funny, considering how Hyperfood stocks should've been able to fully replicate the formula for cake, but then again, it may just be improperly preparation on their part.

Scooping up a sizeable chunk of the cake, Houston plopped it into his mouth, quite convinced that he might drop dead or the familiar feeling of darkness would consume him. Instead, it did something he never expected. Something he'd hadn't done since Hopeville.

He froze up.

B-6-RK's question went unnoticed by Houston, who remained just as silent as before, the spoon hanging from his mouth and his body stiff with shock. Then the tears came rushing down.

At first, it started slow. A few drops of liquids dripped from his eyes and splattered on the oak wood table. Then the tears became a steady stream as Houston felt the foreign feeling of something stuck in his throat.

The cake...it was good.

No. Scratch that it was excellent. It was completely different from those Hyperfood cakes in every regard; taste and texture included.

It was so light, and despite the enormous levels of cream and frosting that went over the fluffy layer of sponge cake underneath, in no ways did it envelop it completely. Instead, they worked together like a fine cocktail. Each part distinguishable and impactful in taste.

Speaking of taste, it was godly. Unlike Hyperfood cakes which were tough as rocks and synthesized to imitate the blandest flavor of cake to preserve excess stocks, this cake went all in the flavor department. Cream, frosting, and the small fruit on top which Houston now remembers as a strawberry imploded together to create a symphony of sweet flavors. Honestly, he's surprised he could still remember how sweet things tasted, considering he mainly lived off a diet of desert plants and animal meats.

But that wasn't the source of his tears. No. There was something else within the cake, something that made it felt as if his heart was being squeezed with a particularly strong vice. It left him breathless and shocked, every vein in his body screaming with joy, yet his brain couldn't function well enough for him to pinpoint what it was.

Houston's vision became almost inoperable as he robotically kept shoving more and more cake into his mouth, determined to keep feeling that moment of joy. He never really ever felt happy after Hopeville and Ashton, the only time he could remembering something remotely like that was when he returned after the ordeal with Ulysses and dug A L P H A and B-6-RK from the rubble. Took months for him to clean out their servos and use his contacts to order the appropriate parts, but the moment life returned to those robotic eyes, there was a flicker of joy in his empty heart.

And now that same feeling was coming back, over and over again. Except more intense, like the detonation of a mini-nuke in the distance.

B-6-RK gently nudged his leg with her nose and rubbed herself again it as if to provide him a sense of comfort. ED-E blipped and beeped in the back with concern, staying close unless his master needed something.

Seeing B-6-RK and ED-E, his robots, try to comfort him. It brought upon him regret.

A wave of shame hit him so hard that he almost felt like dropping the plate, falling to his knees and crying his hearts out. But he stopped himself, and with great difficulty, was able to place the demolished plate of cake back on his table and sit down gently on a part of the ground clear of wires and cables.

What if...what if I was wrong? Houston repeated the thought in his head over and over again, much to his annoyance, it did nothing to quell the sense of dread coursing through his veins nor the tears from his eyes. He brought his knees up and held them tightly in his armsWhat if I'm wrong? What if I'm wrong? What if I'm wrong?

B-6-RK slide between his arms and flopped her head down on his lap. Smiling sadly, Houston reached down and stroked his robot, appreciating her for what she was trying to do. He must have done something right as B-6-RK growled in content and continued to let him scratch her robotic ears.

Cold metal thought Houston. House said robots could never emulate the connection that a human could feel with another human. Robots, at best, are programmed to provide comfort. But it's not their own feelings of concern that was driving them, no it was their command scripts. That was why he built Jane. And a recently repaired Marilyn.

Yet, before Houston's very eyes was a living contradiction of that claim. Here was a robot that didn't need a command script or a line of code to provide comfort. It provided comfort to him just because it saw the sadness in him.

It was just like that pink one, Pinkie Pie if he remembered properly. She tried to help because she must have seen the cold exterior in his eyes, translated in his actions. So she made a party just so he could feel welcome.

And he crushed it all under his foot. Without so much as a second glance for what it may do to her.

And yet she left this cake for him despite that.

He was despicable. And above all, he finally realized now that he was wrong. He cannot apply Wasteland ethics in a world like this. He did it with Twilight last night, and even if she did what he intended for her to do, then the results have backfired immensely.

Friendship. Twilight's insistence on that word...it was still hard for him to understand it, but he could get a glimpse of its outline. Like mist on glass.

He can remember now. The ghosts of his past. The last ones that he shared a slice of cake with for Vault 18 blew itself to kingdom come.

Ben Kurtz.

Kira Mann.

"Goddamn ponies..." Houston clutched onto B-6-RK all the tighter, compressing the metal dog to his chest. He needs to find Twilight after all of this. Tell her he's sorry. But for now, though, he's comfortable with just sitting on the crystal floor and being comforted by his robots.

"How the hell did I end up in the exact same place for the third time?!" Houston gritted his teeth as he stared back at the same goddamn vase for the third time. This particular vase, or rather a pot plant, has a small cactus within in topped with a bright pink flower. Not an issue, but considering this was the third time he found himself in the same place since leaving his room, he couldn't help but feel extra irritated as he stared back at that cactus. It was like it was mocking him.

Or maybe because it reminded him of a particular incident back in the Mojave also containing a cactus. Either way, it made his blood boil!

Oh, by the way. His brain no longer takes control when he plugs himself into ED-E. Convenient, huh? Must've had something to do with the cake cause Houston was confused as hell when he plugged himself in and found that he still retained control of his body instead of being bathing in that familiar feeling of walking through a cloud of mist. A quick check on his terminal found that electrical activity in his brain was off the charts, most likely a result of that hormone explosion after he consumed the cake. A few times he ripped them out and plugged them in over and over again, only to find the same result every time.

Still can't talk with his mouth though. Either way, this makes speaking with the ponies much easier now. Now he wouldn't have to explain why he sounded different in different conversations. Shame about the brain, but that was a sacrifice he just had to accept.

Now...where the hell does he go now?!

"Yo, what's up Houston?"

A tomboyish voice called out from the hallway behind him, breaking from his little staring contest with the prickly plant. Turning around, Houston was greeted with the sight of a blue-furred and feathered pony with a vibrant rainbow-colored mane.

"Oh. Morning Ms. Dash" Rainbow raised a curious eyebrow as he uttered those words.

"Huh, you finally got that I'm a mare. Did my awesomeness get through your thick skull?" teased Rainbow Dash lightly, "Also, none of the fancy-schmancy stuff like Miss whatever. That stuff's for ponies like Rarity"

"I'll keep that in mind" for the first time since he plugged himself in, the echo of a chuckle came out from the translator installed in ED-E. Not only that, but his face made the motions too, instead of the usual blank expression. Something not lost on the mare in front of him.

"Okay. Now, this is creepy. Did you bump your head or something?"

"I had a...what's the word? Epiphany"

"What's an epiphany?" Rainbow Dash laughed as hovered in front of him to punch his shoulder with her hoof. Houston internally grimaced as he felt the flat bone of her hoof collide with the gap between his humerus and his acromion. "But whatever it is doesn't matter. I'm already liking this new version of you"

"So...why are you staring at that cactus" continued Rainbow Dash as she peeked over his shoulder and noticed the offending plant.

"I'm just lost. I've been trying to find my way around here for god knows how long, and I've been ending up in the same place three times now" explained Houston.

"What are you looking for anyways?" asked Rainbow Dash curiously.

"I'm looking for Twilight Sparkle," Houston said uneasily as he hoped Rainbow would pry into it any further, "I have something to say to her"

God. Please don't ask why.

"Egghead stuff eh? Don't worry, I think I know where she might be. Follow me." Sighing in relief, Houston, and ED-E followed closely to Rainbow Dash as she led him down a different section of the hallways he didn't see before. B-6-RK decided to stay back at the room to recharge and A L P H A was probably at the crashed plane still going through the salvage.

"Shame you didn't come to the party last night. It was fun, as Pinkie's parties always are, but it would have been more so if you came"

"Didn't Twilight tell you all why I didn't show up?" Now was the moment of truth he's been waiting for.

"Yeah, she did. Pinkie was quite sad when she said you couldn't come because you were too busy planning your lessons" replied Rainbow Dash as she motioned for him to proceed down a flight of stairs, "But she cheered up once Twilight mentioned that you appreciated what you did for her"

She...did? But that means...that means.

She didn't tell them.

"Anywhoo, hope your lessons are going to be good. Seeing as how you skipped the party and all. Please, for Celestia's sake, don't make them boring though, cause us teachers are going to be watching too and I don't want to be bored out of my mind for two hours straight." continued Rainbow Dash while Houston pondered to himself about this latest revelation. "Pinkie left you a piece of cake. Did you like it?"

"What?" Houston broke out his thoughts and turned over to Rainbow Dash who looked at him expectantly. The memory of this morning's cake rampage was fresh in his mind as he responded, "Oh yes. Very much"

"Glad you liked it. Speaking of which, I think she'd be pretty happy to hear you say that, seeing as how she's the only one in right now. We usually come here to eat breakfast together" Houston watched as Rainbow Dash reach out and pushed a simple wooden door open. The pleasant smell of cooked food wafted out of the room and filled the air in which they stood, causing Rainbow Dash's stomach to growl loudly, "Sorry about that. No matter how times I taste it, Pinkie's food always gets to me"

Houston peeked his head through as Rainbow Dash trotted in enthusiastically, quite surprised to see the room not made completely out of crystal-like most of the main building. Instead, architecture similar to that of the Sierra Madre Villa made up this room, with stone walls imbued with uniquely colored rocks. A long red wooden table sat in the middle of the cramped room, underneath a massive green and gold lamp from which several pots and pans hung. Attached to the walls were coal-fired stoves and ovens, of which a single pink mare currently stood over a sizzling pan and a plate stacked with what Houston assumed was pancakes.

"Heya, Pinkie!" called out Rainbow Dash as she raced over to look at the pancakes Pinkie Pie was making.

"Mornin Dashie. Heyyy, Houston" She gave each of them a big grin before directing her attention back to the pan.

"Good morning Ms. Pie" greeted Houston.

"Awhh...shucks. You can just call me Pinkie! We are friends after all!"

"Yeah...sure. Friends" Houston swallowed nervously, "Listen...about the cake"

"Oh! Did you like it?! I made sure you got the best slice out of all of them! Shame you couldn't come, but that's okay cause I'll plan another party for you soon" Houston's heart felt heavy as the pink pony rounded towards him with genuine joy. Rainbow Dash in the background grabbed a plate, stacked a few of the pancakes on them and then squirted syrup on them with a bottle from the top cabinet, before flying over to a table by the wall to eat.

"It was delicious" Pinkie gave him an appreciative smile before turning back to her pan, scolding Rainbow Dash slight for grabbing the cakes from the bottom of the plate instead of the top ones, "Say, about the cake, what did you put into it?"

"Oh you know, the standard stuff. Eggs, milk, sugar, cornstarch"

"No way...there had to be more than just that. To you, what's the most important ingredient in a cake? Something that you absolutely cannot make a cake without"

"Well..." Pinkie Pie chewed her lips as she turned down the oven and grabbed her own plate of pancakes to join with Rainbow Dash, "Honestly speaking, I think the most important part in any cake, is passion"

"Passion?"

"Of course" replied Pinkie as if it was the most simple thing ever, all while dousing her stack with diabetical levels of whipped cream, sprinkles and fruits. "No matter how high-grade your ingredients are, or how much time you spend on the finer details, if there's no passion in the things you do then the cake will always come out tasting and looking bad. To me, my passion is knowing that the ponies that I bake my cakes for, will find some comfort, no matter how little, in every bite that they take"

Pinkie Pie's widened as the door behind Houston opened, "Morning Twilight! You look really bad today. Is there anything I could get you?"

Houston swung around and lo and behold, the mare he'd been looking for this entire time stood there at the door frame. She looked horrible, clear signs of sleep deprivation near her eyes and her cheeks and her mane was frizzled up in all the wrong places.

"Some coffee would be nice, thank you Pinkie. Good morning to you too Rainbow Dash" Her eyes narrowed coldly as she finally took notice of Houston in the room, "Houston..."

He shivered. Guess he should've expected that kind of reception from her. What was he thinking, acting the way he did last night?

"Twilight. I need to speak to you. In private"

"Yeah? Well, I want to go and enjoy my coffee. Alone. And without you" replied Twilight brutally as she accepted the cup of steaming beverage from Pinkie. Pinkie Pie gave her a confused expression as she watched the growing exchange between Houston and Twilight.

"Please Twilight...I have something I need to say" Goddamn he's pathetic. Who'd thought this was the guy the talked the 'Monster of the East' down at Hoover Dam.

"I think you've already made your intentions quite clear last night" She sipped her coffee haughtily and turned to exit out of the door. As Houston walked he slowly walk away, he pulled out his final card.

"I'm sorry..."

Twilight Sparkle froze in place. Shock visible through every strain of fur on her body as they stood erect. She then turned slowly back and looked at him with an incredulous, and slightly suspicious look The silence was palpable throughout the entire room, with neither Dash nor Pie speaking as they watched the silent staring contest between Twilight Sparkle and Houston.

"Come with me" The silence was finally broken as Twilight spoke out in a measured and calm tone. Grabbing Houston by the arm when he walked over to her, her horn flared up and in a bright flash of light, she, Houston, ED-E completely vanished from the kitchen.

"So...what do you suppose that was all about?" asked a nervous Pinkie Pie to a stunned Rainbow Dash.

"I...I don't know. And I think I'd rather focus on my breakfast instead" She looked down at the two remaining pancakes on her plates, still doused in a thick layer of maple syrup. Apart from that, it did look rather bland. "Mind sliding over the whipped cream?"

"Sure Dashie" smiled Pinkie, passing over the pressurized can.

"So what is this about?" demanded Twilight as she clamped down on him and charged her horn up threateningly, "Is it money? Do you want to be paid before you've even had your first lesson? Is this about some unspoken rule that you just so happened to leave out of your contract until now? Spill it!!"

Houston gulped. He had to admit he didn't expect this kind of response from Twilight. Considering the world that he found himself in, and the philosophy of harmony that these ponies keep talking about, it's hard no to assume.

Speaking of which, he was tackled to the ground by Twilight just as the teleportation spell waned, so he couldn't tell exactly where she took him. But based on how loudly the wind was roaring, and the cold crystal floor which she pinned him to, it was safe to assume that they were somewhere high up on the castle.

"I wanted to apologize, for what I said" he flinched as she laughed out loud. Rather sarcastically might he add.

"Oh that's rich, coming from you" She glared at the human underneath her, "Do you have any idea, of the gravity of your actions"

"Lay it on me?" She snarled in his face getting off him and flaring her horn up to life her coffee cup. As Houston propped himself up, with the help of ED-E, he noticed Twilight looking over the ramparts with her levitated cup of coffee, sipping it in massive gulps.

"You insulted me, that's a start" She turned back to give him the stink eye, "But I personally don't care about any of that. Being a ruler means there are some things that I just have to let go, your insults towards me being one of them. What I cannot let slide is the fact that you insulted Pinkie for all her efforts! You insulted the philosophy that saved my people from the brink of war and has hence so far, kept us at peace for the last thousands of years! And worst of all, your actions towards Natalya now threatens to drag Equestria into a war!"

"Wait, what?" Houston wasn't expecting that. Were the consequences of his actions really as big as...a war?

"Oh, you forgot that little detail about her, didn't you?" Twilight shook her head in disappointment, "Natalya is not a registered citizen of Equestria. She's part of Griffonia, which already considering how unstable the region is, could unite under the banner of revenge and declare war on Equestria if they find out that we've been harboring an alien that pretty much mutilated one of their citizens!"

"So why didn't you order me thrown in a dungeon then?" asked Houston with a little more tone this time. This was a question he's been wanting to get to the bottom of ever since he woke up, "Why lie to the pink one and say that I appreciated her efforts? Why did you let her sent a cake up to my room? Why haven't you terminated the contract now then, if I've fucked up this badly already?!"

Twilight glared back with just as much intensity as he did to her. After a while though, she drained the rest of her mug and then teleported it off to god knows where.

"Before we continue," said Twilight in a more calmed and controlled voice, "I want you to promise this for me. No more lies, no more manipulations. Transparency. Can you promise me that? Cause if you can't...then our conversation is over"

"I promise" His words weren't empty this time. He, at this point, wouldn't lie anymore if he's to get the truth of why she did what she did. That, and the fact that his hormones were going completely to shit after the incident with the cake, so he'd have a hard time lying even if he wanted to.

She gave him a long hard look, staring into his eyes as if scanning him with an x-ray machine and trying to determine if there were any lies or malice at all. Eventually, though, she capitulated and turned away to hang over the balcony and stare outwards. Feeling rather awkward standing behind her, Houston slowly walked up and stood at a comfortable distance beside her, relaxing slightly when she didn't protest.

"You've changed. Haven't you?" asked Twilight.

"What gave it away?"

"Your body language for one" replied Twilight, "Also the way you speak. While the tone is still flamboyant, how you project your voice doesn't capture the zest that was once there"

She sighed loudly as she stared at the horizon of Ponyville, bathed in the yellow glow brought upon by the rim of the early morning sun just peeking over the horizon. Their simple straw-thatched roofs came together to create a sea of gold.

"I come up here sometimes. To think" Twilight's ears folded as she gazed at the town longingly, "Sometimes, I wish I could go back to how things were before. It used to be so simple back then. There wasn't a castle, and I wasn't a princess"

"You weren't a princess before?" But if she wasn't a princess before, that must mean...

"I guess you are smart enough to figure it out by now" Twilight opened her wings and gave them a slight flap to accentuate her point, "You probably noticed that I'm an alicorn. Alicorns are very rare in Equestria. We exhibit traits of all three pony races and as such, being an alicorn almost certainly guarantees you a position of power"

"So does that mean..." The gears in Houston's mind clicked as he remembered what Twilight told him yesterday, "The other princesses are alicorns too aren't they?"

"Correct. But unlike the others, I wasn't born as an alicorn. I guess you could say I was...transcended into one"

"Transcended?"

"It's complicated. Don't worry about it" Twilight waved a dismissive hoof at him, "What I'm trying to say is...I was a unicorn before I was an alicorn. I was also a student. Life...it was simple. I lived and learned about the magic of Friendship with my friends by my side. But once I learned everything and became an alicorn, the responsibilities just kept pilling up. First as Princess of Friendship, then as headmistress for the School of Friendship. Now with Celestia and Luna stepping down...I have to face the prospect of being the ruler of an entire country. As such there are times where I have to make hard decisions..."

"And I'm one of those, aren't I?" Houston was starting to see where this conversation was going.

"Exactly. You have to understand that you are an abnormality" explained Twilight, "I've seen humans before. In another world. But no creature in this world has even heard of what a human is, let alone seen one. You share biological features with the humans I know, especially your hands. But in terms of culture, language, and technology? No, you are completely different in that regards"

"I should've had you thrown into Tartarus for what you've done" continued Twilight in a low tone, "Not because you insulted me but because you freely admitted that you tortured Natalya. Such actions like that in this world are completely unacceptable"

"So why didn't you?"

"Because of Pinkie's party" replied Twilight, "The party was already underway. And if I had told everyone there what you had told me, how do you think they would have reacted? Personally knowing them, I believed they would have panicked before running you out of town"

"Twilight...I can't see the problem with that" Houston interjected, "It sounds bad for me, of course. But wouldn't that have been the most logical thing to do?"

"You don't get it, do you Houston?" Twilight chittered and gave a shake of her head, "You're right, it would have sounded logical in the moment. But I then considered what might happen afterward"

"Such as...?" He had to admit he was rather impressed at what the princess was telling him. His initial thoughts of her only sparing him because of friendship quickly faded away as he admired her for her ability to think beyond such flowery thoughts.

"Must I remind you, that you are an abnormality? What would have happened if we ran you out of town? Would you have retaliated by attacking us? Based on how you acted back at the Ghastly Gorges, I could tell that you had experience using violence. I'm not sure about the rest of my friends, but I noticed the subtle hints of power you displayed. The stunt with the knife. The rabbits. The constant presence of your robots wherever you went" Twilight huffed and took a deep breath before continuing, "And then there was the problem of your plane and every bit of technology that was crammed into it like a treasure stash. I noticed that whenever I asked about your things, you would only ever give a brief explanation or deflect the conversation onto something else. What would have happened if we ran you out of town without your plane and your gadgets? Would you have returned to reclaim it from us? Would you have attacked us to destroy them? Any scenario was a possibility"

"So you lied and kept the information from everyone else to prevent them from doing anything stupid. To prevent me from retaliating if they did. Clever..." Houston was liking this version of Twilight already. This was a person (pony?) that was thinking like someone he knew very well. However, there was one thing missing from her explanation, "What about the contract? Why didn't you just terminate it?"

"Do you want me to?" Houston shook his head slowly in response to her question, "I figured as much. If I had terminated the contract, then there would've been nothing to hold you down. Nothing to prevent you from going and wreaking havoc on the rest of Equestria. As much as I don't like placing my students in harm's way but you interacting with them would've given me a place to keep a closer eye on you. To intervene if anything went awry. Everything I did was to protect every creature. Or as best as I thought I could"

"My turn now" Twilight turned towards him and gave him a piercing glare, one he found rather hard to turn away from, "Why did you do the things you did? Talking to you now, you are not as disrespectful nor evil as you made yourself out to be last night. What purpose would it have served acting like...like a monster?"

"I...I" Houston bit his lips but eventually gave in to her pressure, "Do you want me to explain the whole thing or in simplistic terms?"

"Well, we have all the time, for now," Twilight motioned to the landscape once more, which still had the sun slowly rising in the horizon, "Depends, how long are you going to make it?"

"Point taken" Houston leaned forward on the railings of the balcony and got comfortable with his forearms as a pillow, "As for the reason why. I guess it was to keep you ponies away"

"But what kind of purpose would that serve?!" yelled Twilight exasperatedly, "And no, this is not coming from me as the Princess of Friendship. There is absolutely no benefit in trying to alienate yourself from the rest of society!"

"And I'd agree with you, looking back on it now" Houston smiled sadly into his arms, something not lost to the irritated princess next to him, "To understand my reasoning, you must understand first where I come from. But I can't convince you now because that stuff takes hours to explain. No, just know that I agreed with you when you said I cannot completely isolate myself from this world of ponies. But at the same time, you ponies come off as nosey, which I don't mind, and suspiciously friendly, which I really do mind"

"So? What's wrong with trying to make a good impression? What's wrong with being friendly?" asked Twilight.

"The problem is where I come from most of the friendly people are dead" Houston could see she visibly froze at that comment, "The rest quickly wised up or else ended up just like the rest of them in the bottom of a grave. To be honest, the extent of friendliness where I come from is a mutual agreement not to interfere with one another's businesses. Overly friendly people, often have something to hide. You ponies, with how nice you acted, put me on high alert. I didn't want your attention cause I feared there was another reason behind it. But at the same time, I couldn't completely avoid you. So I found an equilibrium, I acted like a jerk to let you ponies know that I wanted to be left alone. At the same time, I made contracts with you to maintain a stable, but a mutually beneficial relationship. All together it created a wave of mediocracy"

"And you would've been able to ride it" mumbled Twilight as she came to the same realization as he did, "But what was the end goal of it all?"

"What else?" rebutted Houston as he turned to her and opened his arms out as if inviting her to answer it herself, "Survival"

"Survival?" Twilight stared at Houston dubiously, "That's it?"

"Well what else is there?" rebutted Houston, "Maybe to you it's a horrid excuse for everything I've done. But where I come from, survival is the language of the day. People can spout all the philosophy they want but it won't mean anything if they don't live long enough to see the sunrise"

Twilight fell silent, so too did Houston, as the two of them just stared out into the horizon of Ponyville, their thoughts clouded with the arguments that the other had put forth. The only thing that could be heard around them was the chirpings of birds as the sun finally broke over the horizon. Off in the distance, Houston could see the outlines of ponies, just as vibrant and in multiple colors, leave their homes and wander off to where ever they needed to get, completely unaware of the two figures that watched them from atop the castle.

"Look, Twilight..." started Houston as he broke the silence, "I don't understand Friendship. Or rather I can't bring myself to take it seriously enough anymore. But please, understand that I truly do mean it when I say that I'm sorry for what I said last night"

"Apology...not accepted" was her response. Damn, that was brutal. But not unexpected.

"No?" Houston tested the waters a bit here.

"No" reaffirmed Twilight as she gave him a pouty face. Still...it was better than her enraged face before, "Do you any idea what kind of emotional roller-coaster you put me through last night?! If there is anypony you should be apologizing to, it's Pinkie Pie for everything she's done for you"

"I..." He clamped his mouth shut as he thought about that. It was a good point, now that he thought about it, "I'll tell her the truth...in time. Just not now"

"You'd better" huffed Twilight as she directed her attention back to the scenery before them, "So where does this leave us?"

Of all the questions she had to ask, this was the only one that he had no response to. On the one hand, a part of him still wanted to ride the wave of mediocracy and keep his contract. On the other hand though, after his enlightenment this morning with the cake, he felt disgusted with himself for considering carrying on as he now.

"Honestly...I don't know" replied Houston.

"Do you still want your contract as a teacher?" asked Twilight without looking at him.

"Are you still offering it to me? After everything, I've done? Cause I won't blame you or do anything against you if you decide to tear it up right now. After how I acted, for the first time in my life, I feel too ashamed to take on another contract" admitted Houston. At this point, he didn't even have a clear goal for what he wanted anymore.

There was a paused silence between the two of them as Twilight thought to herself, Houston twiddling with his thumbs as he awaited her response.

"I'm willing to maintain your contract as a teacher for the school...on one condition," said Twilight slowly.

"Name it" responded Houston as he gave her a questioning look.

"I want you to give friendship a try" She raised a hoof to silence him before he could interrupt what she was about to say next, "Now I understand that you might not believe in it. But whether you like it or not, you are now living in our world that abides by it heavily. I will not force you to accept Friendship, what I'm offering is that you at least give it a chance. I've seen people who've done worse than you and some of them were able to accept Friendship in the end. This conversation that we're having right now, convinces me that you've changed from the last time we've talked and that you've become much more reasonable than before"

Houston stayed silent as he let Twilight's words sink in. Seeing as how he wasn't saying anything, Twilight decided to continue.

"Houston, you said to me that you had friends before" stated Twilight matter-o-factly, "So why wouldn't take this chance to start again?"

"My friends..." They were but a fleeting memory at this point. Some of them, he could barely remember their faces anymore. However their names...

Ben Kurtz. Kira Mann. Jenn Hail. Yetti Hail. Eric Campbell. Jamie Campbell. Johnny Matheson.

"I killed them all" whispered Houston quietly. Twilight, in his surprise, did manage to hear him and maintained a respectful silence as she allowed him to keep speaking, "I'm scared. It's as simple as that. The circumstances of my world...makes it hard to make friends, or rather it makes the pain even worse when you inevitably lose them. I can't...can't explain it all now. It's too convoluted and complicated for you to understand"

"Then help us understand" For the first time since all their interactions, Twilight reached forwards with one of her wings and patted him reassuringly on the back, "How can we help you if you never let us try to understand you in the first place? I have an idea. Why not use your lessons as a teacher to teach us about your world? Maybe then we can start understanding how you think and how to change your mind"

"Wouldn't that undermine your own students?" asked Houston. The things he'd seen. The things he'd done. The things he'd learned about. They did not belong in a world like this and he was afraid to show it to them, "What if they start to question your philosophy as well? What good would I do then?"

"Part of the learning experience is to challenge yourself" explained Twilight, "My students...I'm proud of them. I believe that they will have to face things in this world that will challenge how they see Friendship. But if they can overcome it, then it would only enrich their understanding and value for Friendship even more. I could ask the same for you. Why not let yourself be challenged? Perhaps then, you may even find that equilibrium you seek for"

She got him there. Teaching these students...as much as he didn't want to show them the realities of his world, these lessons could be the perfect outlet for him to explain the things he'd done. He wouldn't have to lie anymore. The topics began to trickle into his head like water from a bucket. The Atomic bomb, The Great War. The NCR, Legion, and House. All tragics...but if his dream about Raul and his experience with the cake told him anything...perhaps he could still do some good. Not in his world anymore, but this world.

Perhaps it's time he donned that coat the Followers gave him. Wear the symbols of healing with pride as Julie told him to.

"Alright..." said Houston slowly as he turned to her and brought a hand out to shake, "I...I'll accept your offer"

"This is what humans call a handshake, isn't it?" Twilight also turned to him and raised a hoof to shake with his. He must admit it felt rather weird to grip her hoof, instead of the usual appendages of a human hand. However as she gave him a small smile, a genuine one this time around, he couldn't help but feel at ease. This didn't even feel like the signing of a contract anymore. It felt...nice.

Heh. Goddamn ponies.

Her smile must've been infectious, cause he gave a small, and just as genuine one, back to her.

Lesson 1: Humans

"Oooohhh!! This is so exciting!!" Most of the Young Six smiled as their bubbly hippogriff friend hovered above their heads, excitement positively radiating from her as she did loop de loops, "I can't believe we're going to a class taught by an alien! I mean, coming back to the surface after being living underwater for so long has been really cool and all! But a class with an alien?! I just...I can't-!"

Silverstream pulled out a brown paper bag and took several deep breaths in and out with it, the flimsy material quickly rupturing from the force of her breathing.

"Meh," said Gallus and Smoulder together as they pulled bits of brown paper from their feathers/scales.

"Oh, come on!" whined Silverstream towards her more complacent friends, "This is an alien we're talking about! Surely you must be excited, I know my brother Terramar's going to be super jellyfish when I write home about this"

"I think I had quite a bit of excitement already when we came back early to help the Tree of Harmony" replied Gallus, "Besides, It's probably going to be boring anyway. More homework to do if you ask me"

"Yeah" agreed Smolder, "Remember the first classes we had with the professors? Those were so boring you could convince us dragons to write poetry instead"

Smolder and Gallus did raise up good points. The first time the School of Friendship opened, they had all been super excited to see what the school had to offer, barring Gallus and Smolder. Just what were the famous heroes of Equestria, who vanquished so many evils such as Tirek and the Storm King, going to teach them?

Memories of the heavily structuralized lectures set forth by the EEA quickly left a bitter taste in each of their mouths though.

"Come on guys, classes have gotten better haven't they? " reminded Sandbar as he noticed the strained looks on his friend's faces, "Ever since headmare Twilight decided to ditch that book"

"Yona agree with good friend Sandbar. School more fun now, even better with friends" Not that any of them noticed, but Sandbar blushed quite heavily when Yona stepped up to support him, "Yona wants to know what alien look like though"

"Shame we didn't get to see it at the party last night too" Ocellus, ever the studious one amongst them, carried several thick notebooks with her in preparation of class, compared to the one the rest of them brought along, "Though if it was too busy working on its lesson, then I can't wait to see what it's going to teach us"

"Yeeeah...I don't think it was working on its lesson" said Smolder.

"And how could you be so sure about that?"

"Because I told her" replied Gallus as he gave Smolder a fistbump, "Seriously. Did you guys not notice how tense Professor Twilight was when she came back and Professor Pinkie started questioning her? Her ears were twitching like crazy. Smolder saw too after I told her"

Most of the group thought back to the party. Thinking back to it, Professor Twilight did seem rather frazzled when she returned through the door. They must have missed it since they were also so disappointed that they weren't going to see the alien.

"Why Gallus know so much about professor anyway?" asked Yona curiously.

"What?" Gallus raised his arm up defensively, "I'm young"

"Ever the griffin, huh?" The group smiled as Gallus flustered from Smolder's comment. As the group got closer and closer to the main auditorium, which Twilight told them to all go last night, the number of fellow classmates in the hallways quickly got bigger and bigger. All ponies, most were just as excited as Silverstream as they chatted amongst their own friends about the upcoming lesson.

"Are we having one big class with the rest of the school? That's so cool!" Every creature, even Gallus and Smolder, had to agree with Silverstream on that. Most of the time classes were split into smaller groups to accommodate the variety of classes taught at the school. But seeing as how the alien's class was first up in the morning, seems Twilight had decided to combine all the classes for one big lesson before they broke off for the rest of the day.

The alien's class was being taught in the main auditorium, usually used for the drama club or when there is a massive presentation by Twilight. It consisted of a depression where the main stage was placed in the middle with a large blackboard in an apple-themed frame behind it. Surrounding the center stage was a semi-circle seating area, multi-tiered with crystal stairs and decorated with plush magenta cushions. Surrounding the walls were shelves upon shelves of books, many open to whatever creature was interested. Finally, a large bronze model of the solar system hung above all of them, giving off the impression of staring into space if they were lying on their backs and turned off the lights.

The Young Six were quickly ushered through one of the two doors to the auditorium with the rest of the student body by Spike and counselor Starlight, quickly finding seats in the middle row. In time too, as just as the last student was seated, the other door to the auditorium opened and their professors walked through in single file. It was a pretty standard procedure. Twilight was holding flashcards with her magic, Rainbow Dash hovered above the ground like she always did, Applejack was talking with a hyperactive Pinkie Pie, Rarity came dressed in another one of her... 'interesting' outfits, and Fluttershy took up the rear.

This time, however, significant attention from every student in the room was placed on the figure coming up from behind Fluttershy.

The first thing they all collectively noticed was how tall the alien was. Tall as Celestia, he (it probably was male based on its looks alone) had features very similar to that of minotaur's, except for the excessive furs. He had small, brown beady eyes, a shrunken mouth, high cheekbones, olive skin and long locks of black hair on only one side of his head. The other side was completely shaved, making room for the blue and red wires attached to the surface with metal clamps.

Sandbar, and probably most of the students in the room, winced. Prosthetic technology existed, but it was primitive at best and it was limited to loss of limbs only. The markings on the alien's head looked like they had been drilled directly into the flesh, without any prior wounds. Sandbar wondered if the alien did that to himself, though that was something he couldn't fathom any creature doing.

Most of the class 'oohed' and 'ahhed' when they noticed the floating creature attached at the end of the alien's wire, with even a particular griffin whistling in astonishment.

"Hey Ocellus what is that thing?" asked Smolder in a hushed tone voice, as Silverstream and Yona squealed at how cute the thing looked.

"I think that's a machine" replied the changeling to her roommate, "How is it floating though? Is it magic?"

"Nevermind that. Why is the alien covered in so many...wires?"

That may have been an exaggeration, but it certainly got the class to break out of their stunned trance and whisper amongst one another. In addition to the wires out of the alien's head, the outfit that it wore also had a few pieces of tubbing too. The alien wore a faded white lab coat that was covered a considerable layer of grime, so much so that Sandbar was impressed with how Professor Rarity was able to stand to be next to him. While others were interested in the wires wrapped around its body, what really interested the Young Six, however, where the two symbols etched to the shoulders of the coat. The first was a rod with a snake enveloping its body around it. The second was a rusty red circle with what looked an elongated healer's cross extending from the red circle in the middle. Several smaller markings stuck out from the larger points, so they couldn't really be sure if it was a healer's cross or not.

It sure looked like one.

"May I please have every creature's attention!" announced Professor Twilight as she folded her flashcards up and vanished them with her magic, "As many of you should realize now, we have been graced with the arrival of an extraterrestrial being from another world" She paused for a moment as she let the students whisper excitedly amongst themselves, "Many of you would have been introduced to him last night, but due to certain...complications that wasn't possible. So let me be the first to introduce you to Houston. Under a contract, he's agreed to teach classes for the duration his stay here about his world. I'll let him tell you more about it, but for now, give a warm welcome to Equestria's first visitor from another world"

There was polite applause from the students as the alien, now named Houston, and his attached floating machine made their way up the steps to the stage and thanked Twilight. As he got himself comfortable behind the wooden podium, Twilight returned to her seat with the rest of the professors in the front row of the seating area.

"Thank you. Thank you Twilight, for that warm welcome" The Young Six, and probably the rest of the class too were quite surprised to hear the voice come out of the floating machine instead. While the main body of the alien still emulated the features and expressions of what he was saying, the only thing missing was movement of the mouth. Weird, but not too weird.

"Before I begin though...I would like to make a confession" He looked gravely at the class while they looked at one another in synchronized confusion, "When I first came to this world, the first thing I noticed was how it was so different from my mine. There were forests that stretched as far as the eyes could see. There was water in abundance and untainted by pollutants. The air...it did not hurt to breath in the air. This place is veritable utopia"

Some of the sympathetic students smiled towards him, as they could only struggle to imagine a world which the alien described. More attentive ones clung onto the alien's every word as they had better attempts in picturing it. Only Gallus and Smolder, who lived in places similar to what the alien described, could picture it the most accurately, not that they realized it.

The dilapidated Griffonian Empire. The Dragon Lands. That was the gist of what they believed the alien's world to be.

"And then I saw the inhabitants of this world. And I said to myself, what a pathetic and sad bunch of animals. Friendship? What kind of garbage was that?" Houston watched as the mood in the room quickly dropped, many of the ponies glaring at him in offense. There would have been a much more volatile reaction, if he didn't raise a hand up to silence them, "Horrible. I know. And until recently, I believed every word of it. That was why I didn't show up at your party last night. Neither did I acknowledge the efforts of one Pinkie Pie like your princess might say. I was not in the market, nor did I care about making friends"

He looked at them, almost sadly. "But I learned rather quickly afterward. And since then I have only regretted what I did" He directed his attention to Pinkie Pie, whose mane and color palate had gone stiff and grey slightly. Still, she didn't look at him with anger like Professor Rainbow Dash next to her but stared at him intently. It was almost as if she was expecting something.

"I'm sorry. Please believe me when I say from the bottom of my heart that I'm sorry" As if she'd been hit by a party cannon, her color and mane returned to her in the blink of an eye, accompanied by the familiar sounds of said cannon.

"That's okay Houston! You owe me another party though!" She called back to him. Her cheerful laughter and the alien's light chuckle brought a few smiles back to the class's faces, though quite a few remained cautious.

"Thank you. Now before we can begin class, I have to give you all a warning" He leaned forward from the podium and smiled at all of them gently, "To teach you about my world, what I have to teach you is a story. Or rather a collection of stories. The beauty of these lies in their tragedies, for there are no traditional archetypes written within these passages of blood. There are no definitive evils, nor are there paragons of justice. Every good is just as evil as every evil is just as good. These will...scar you in some way or another. Be it emotional or mental, I assure you that you will not be the same creature you were stepping through the doors. You shall see me differently. You shall see my world differently. You shall see your world differently. And above all, you shall see yourselves, and each other, differently"

Houston paused as he watched the looks of anticipation on the faces of the class. Most showed excitement. But there were a select few that showed a hint of fear.

"If..." continued Houston, "...you believe that you are incapable of handling the stress of what I am about to teach you, then the door to your left is open for you to leave" Their eyes wandered to the door he gestured, "I will not hold it against you, and neither will those who remain behind to learn. You also shall not fail. You will merely get the average of your classmate's marks from the end of semester exam"

"Now..." He stepped away from the podium and begun walking down the stairs of the stage, "You have five minutes to make your decision while I go get the materials for the first class. Choose wisely"

"So Gallus...do you still think this is boring?" asked Smolder to the blue and yellow griffin teasingly.

"Yeah, yeah. I was wrong. I get it" He glared at her lightly as she gave him an arrogant smirk back. The moment their newest professor, Houston, left the room, it became a flurry of activities as groups formed and discussions rang about this latest turn of events. Some conversations were about how interesting the alien and his machine looked, but the majority was on what he said as he left the room.

"What about you? Do you think it's boring?" rebutted Gallus to the dragon.

"Meh, I think its fine for now," said Smolder lazily, "Got my blood pumping with some of the things he said. Though, what did he mean by stuff like traditional archetypes and passages written in blood?"

"Yona agree. Alien interesting, but speak too complicated" complained Yona.

"I think when he said no traditional archetypes, it means there are no definite good guys and bad guys" explained Ocellus with some thought, "Guess that means we're going to see some morally grey things. I have no idea what he meant by passages written in blood though"

"Then why alien not say that, to begin with?!" asked an outraged Yona, "Just say no good guys and no bad guys!"

"I don't know why. Must be his way of getting us interested in his lesson"

"Well I for one am really excited about this!" added Silverstream with a wide grin, "All of this is so exciting! The mystery! The suspense! This is better than the first time I discovered stairs"

They all smiled at the hippogriffs optimism, something expressed in a number of their classmates around them. While there were a few dissenters, they quickly caved in to the pressures of their more prospective peers and agreed to stay with them.

"So are we all staying?" asked Gallus to the rest of his friends.

"Definitely!" chirped Silverstream.

"I'm quite interested where this goes, so yes, I'm staying" added Ocellus.

"Yona stay. But hopes alien gets less confusing" frowned Yona.

"Me too" replied Smolder lazily.

"If you guys are staying, then I'm staying" Sandbar smiled mischievously to Gallus, "What about you?"

"*Pffft* Though you guys knew me better. Of course, I'm staying" replied a flustered Gallus, "Besides, what am to do for the next few hours if you guys aren't there with me"

"Aww...do we really mean that much to you?" squealed Silverstream as she reached over and pulled Gallus into a friendly hug. The embarrassed griffin snuck a glance around the room to see if anyone else was watching, before patting her gently on the sides and pushing her away gently.

"Guess we are all on the agreement then" laughed Sandbar light-heartedly. Looking around the class it seems no one else decided to leave the room too. Some of them, he recognized as well, such as Patty Peppermint, Huckleberry and End Zone. Of their professors, all remained behind to observe as well, though Spike pulled out a comic book to most likely entertain himself and Professor Fluttershy looked as if she was already greatly regretting her decision.

It couldn't be that bad thought Sandbar as he sat back with the rest of his friends to wait for their mysterious professor to return, Professor Fluttershy is probably exaggerating. Sure he gave us quite a foreboding warning, but what's the worst that could happen?

Oh, how he would regret saying that later.

"Not one of you left?" Houston expressed genuine surprise as he wheeled in a cart through the doors, "Perhaps all you creatures deserve more credit than I give you. You have bravery, that much is assured"

What he wheeled to the back of the class and behind the seating area was some sort of media-playing contraption, though mutilated beyond what a standard media player would look it. Parts of its main chassis was ripped out, the internal wires within severed and reattached to numerous external ports and other devices. The usual two wheels mounted at the top to play the tapes were removed, instead, replaced with two large disks lined with wires and flashing light. A singular antenna stuck out of the machine and to top it all off, their teacher removed the device on his arm and plugged it into the machine with a large spike attached to a red cable. Flicking a section of the device open, he placed a small rectangular cartridge in and closed it up, pulled out a small grey remote, and then pressed one of the buttons built on it.

The media player sparked to life, ejecting out beams of lights that collided with the projector screen Houston pulled down to formulate images. The class leaned forward eagerly as the images got clearer and the room got darker.

Images of a small town came into fruition; trees, white picket fences, houses and streets, all rather standard things in a town. Some things of noticeable interest, however, were the large poles of wood jutting out of the grounds connected by black cables, and the strange box-like machines with wheels that took up the sides of the road. Some were small, others large. Some were unnecessarily complex with metal tails, others simpler with spaces at the back.

"Aww...they look so cute!" A student, Pizzelle, called out as small creatures emerged from the houses. Dressed in loosely-fitting flannel shirts for the males and spring dresses for the girls, the group of children picked up various toys scattered around to play. The students smiled as the boys raced each other down the footpaths with their bicycles and the girls played with skipping ropes.

The happy smiles on their faces just made the students more confused at their professor's words. Based on what they currently saw, it didn't seem as bad as they thought it would be. So why did he have to warn them beforehand?

They soon their answer as an ear-splitting siren erupted from the speakers of the media player. All of them flattened their ears and held hooves to their heads in hopes of drowning out the demented choir that screamed at them. Though they couldn't understand where the sound was coming from, it seems the children in the footage did as their smiles quickly vanished and they looked at the skies in terror. The doors to the houses in which they came from slammed open and what was probably their parents came rushing out to scoop up their children.

The students watched with one-parts pain and the other parts dread as the parents scooped their children up in their arms and rushed them back into the house, into the strange box-like machines, or simply held them in their arms tightly as they braced for something inevitable.

"What in tarnation is goin on here?!" yelled Professor Applejack as she brought her stetson down to her ears in an attempt to muffle the sound. Her question was promptly answered.

An explosion. Louder than anything any of them ever heard with their ears, erupted in the distance in a bright flash of white light. The distinctive resulting mushroom cloud loomed over the spot where the explosion took place, larger than the tallest building in Manehatten.

An upside of the explosion was an abrupt end to the screeching siren noises, so the students were able to quickly recover to continue watching the images on the screen. Their hearts dropped as they saw the parents hold their children even closer to them as the resulting clouds of ash and dust enveloped them, as well as the houses around them.

Houses enveloped by the shockwave of ash and dust quickly buckled underneath the force of the clouds, crumpling like paper mache to water. Roofs were torn off buildings, walls collapsed and the strange box machines from before were swept off the ground and flung hundreds of meters away. To their horror, a few bodies could be seen being tossed around as well, some smashing to the ripped up ground in platters of blood, others smashed into or against buildings, wooden poles and the box machines.

"What...What is this?" Ocellus's question was the question of the entire class as they watched the destruction of the dust cloud slowly die down. What was once a peaceful town was now reduced to a pile of rubble. Houses were completely wiped off from where they originally sat - and those that weren't laid in dilapidated states of ruin. Trees were uprooted from the ground, smashed into houses, machines, wooden poles, and the occasional human as indicative by the limbs that occasionally poked out.

"This is a story of tragedy" Those words brought their attention back to their professor, who watched the screen with an apathetic expression. "Now I am become death. The destroyer of worlds"

Instantaneous, students broke themselves out of their shocked trance and quickly scribbled what their teacher said down into their notebooks. As the scratching sounds of quill points on paper contrasted with the distant rumblings from the media player, the gravity of the nine words they wrote down left shivers down their spine.

"Julius Oppenheimer, the man who created this monstrosity, thought these very words as he watched his creation detonate in the distance" continued Houston while his students continued to write notes based on what he said, "He saw the light show touch the tips of the heavens, he felt the warm glow that came from its discharge. It was a monster, born not from the deepest pits of hell, but created by the hands and minds of people. Its carapace, not chitin, nor fur, nor flesh. But cold, hard metal. And its kill count is by far greater than anything the world has ever seen, or will ever see again. It is the single greatest mass murderer in the history of humanity. It is the atomic bomb"

Atomic? Now that was a word foreign to every creature in the room, apart for say Twilight, who still then only had a basic understanding of particle theory. Bomb, however, was something they'd seen before though it was usually small and used only in parties.

Putting the two words together, they stared in awe and fear at the destruction wrought on screen. What was this atomic that he spoke about? And how does this connect with a bomb?

"But why, you would ask yourselves, would such a weapon be created? To what purpose can truly fathom its creation?" He gave a light, and slightly sinister chuckle, "Simple. War"

War.

That small word brought dread to each and every one of them in the room. Each of them had never seen a war on a large scale before, only read about it in history books or heard from the mouths of veterans, but all were fully aware of its destructive capabilities.

To the ponies like Sandbar, War was something that they hadn't had to deal with for as long as they can remember. Their philosophy of Harmony and Friendship had kept them to their longest period of peace yet. In fact, the only war that they have any distant memory of is the war between the original three pony tribes and a brief squabble with the Minotaurs over trading routes.

Ocellus bit her lips. War was something still very fresh in her mind. Though she was too young to participate in the invasion of Canterlot sanctioned by Queen Chrysalis, her parents had fought in it and her mother specifically nearly died to a Royal Guard's spear. Chrysalis was prepared for another attempt with the ponies and had spent many resources rebuilding up her forces. This meant a new generation of warriors, including Ocellus, had to bred and trained up. She could still remember the days when her trainer, Pharynx, taught her to sink her fangs into a replica pony's neck and inject venom. It took her a lot of attempts, but she was eventually able to do it properly and was expected to do so when the second invasion was to be called.

Now with Thorax as their king...let's just say she's really glad Chrysalis was dethroned before she was sent to war.

Silverstream was in the same mindset as Ocellus. Being born after the fall of Mount Aris to the Storm King, she grew up in an environment very suspicious of the outside world. Despite retreating to Seaquestria, there was always a sense of paranoia in the waters. How many times had she been warned not to go too far when exploring with her cousin Skystar? How many times had she and her brother watched their parents constantly train in case the Storm King ever came back to finish them off?

War...it drove her people to the brink. It cost them huge chunks of their culture, something they still struggle to recover from to this day and sowed paranoia and suspicion into their future generations. It was only until Twilight and her friends defeated the Storm King that the Hippogriffs were able to recover.

As a Yak, the term 'war' was thrown around quite often in their culture, so it didn't instill the same level of dread in Yona as it did with the rest of her classmates. It did get her thinking though. Yaks usually declared 'war' on one another or another tribe when that yak or tribe in question did something extremely insulting to the other. 'War' really just consisted of yaks smashing the opposing yak's things until both sides were satisfied. It wasn't as destructive as the images on the screen and felt more like a sport to the yaks, something to easily resolve their disputes in a way that they all knew and treasured. That was why Prince Rutherford declared war on the ponies, much to Twilight's ignorance of what it actually meant.

Seeing the level of destruction wrought on the screen...it made Yona think deeply as she wondered whether Yaks, while best at smashing things, had gotten the concept of war completely wrong.

Being a dragon and griffin, Gallus and Smolder were the least concerned amongst all their classmates. Sure the level of damage surprised them, maybe even excited them a bit, but it wasn't something new for the students of traditionally warring species, especially since the effects of these wars still plagued their societies to this day. Griffins for one, are pretty much broken at this point - many of their people scattered amongst numerous principalities and fiefdoms that made a mockery of the original Empire. Not that the original empire has much left to say either.

Same for the dragons who, despite their natural raw strength, were the most stunted in technological development amongst all species. Despite changes from Dragon Lord Ember, the generational scars of constant wars could still be seen in the Dragon Lands to this day.

For all their thoughts, attention was quickly brought back to the screen as the images changes and a new slide was brought in.

"Humanity is not a unique species" Two images of creatures, most likely a male and female of this human species they were learning about, came up upon the screen. Correct to their teacher's words, the creature called humans didn't really look special in any way. In fact, they all looked lame by Smolder's definition, "We exhibit no external traits that made us special in anyways. We are not physically strong nor are we fast. We cannot breathe underwater and any temperatures above 104 Fahrenheits would most likely kill us. But we are a resilient bunch, and what we do possess is an...appetite and ingenuity for war"

"Ironically enough, the destructiveness of war is what the foundations of humanity's history is built upon. Every technological achievement we've ever created, its purpose of manufacturing, can be traced back to a specific war with a specific need" What followed next was a slideshow of images involving humanity at different stages of history.

"Our first war started with sticks and stones. Wars for survival" The accompanying images showed two primitive humans dressed in loose garments made of animals furs, fighting over the carcass of a large mammal. Wielding crudely made spears and slings, the students watched with growing concern as they saw the bloodlust in both the human's eyes as they clashed with one another.

"In our second war, we found ways to tame the beast of the earth to fight with us. Wars for land" The next images were much larger than the last one, this time scoping an entire landscape. Two armies clashed this time, dressed in better fur outfits and sporting more deadly looking spears. Some even had bows, peppering the opposing side with arrows. What really made this scene stand out were the wolves and dogs that accompanied the humans, much to Fluttershy and a few of the student's chagrin. Fluttershy felt especially green when she noticed one of the dogs rip a man's throat out with its teeth.

As the students saw the massive lake and meadow in the background, the reason for the humans to be fighting over land made all the more sense.

"With the third war, we tapped into and forged from the lifeblood of the earth itself. Wars for religion" This time the armies fighting were decked out in full suits of metal. Some of their faces were covered up with helmets, others had their visors lifted up to provide a better view. Clearly a massive upgrade from the last images, these humans bludgeoned and sliced each other with metal swords and clubs. The metal tips of archer's arrows shone in the sun's light as it pierced the exposed flesh of any unfortunate soldier on the battlefield.

"Is that a pony?!" shouted one the students from the back. True to her words, the faint outline of an equine being mounted by a human could be seen in the far corner. The horse looked nothing like the ponies in Equestria, and it was equally decked in metal plating like its rider. Before they could stare at it any longer, the image changed.

"The coming of the fourth war taught to use to sling hot lead at our enemies with the power of thunder. Wars for culture" continued Houston without any notice of the student's outrage. Contrary to the last image, the combatants in this one had less armor and no heavy-looking weapons. In fact, all they had were these weird poles like things in their arms and wore uniforms deeply dyed blue or red, depending on what side they were standing on.

Humans showed more discipline in this picture. Rows upon rows of them stood in formation, taking turns to aim their poles at the opposing army. They couldn't see what came out of the poles, but the large clouds of smoke produced at every volley probably indicated something small and too fast for them to see with the naked eye. Cannons were also in play, more complex than Pinkie Pie's party cannons and fired massive balls of lead the size of a small rock. It was particularly brutal when they saw a soldier get his legs blown off by the resulting cannonball, flying at least 3 feet away from the force alone and screaming his head off.

"In the fifth war, we manipulated and weaponized the matters of the universe. Wars for ideology" The most distinctive thing about this image were the symbols worn on the armors of the fighting humans. One had a yellow star against a red background. The other had red and white stripes with a small corner dedicated to a blue box with white stars. The armor that they wore was like a fusion of the last two, with several metal components placed over the clothes of the soldiers.

Their weapons were the most distinguishable. While once side still utilized the same pole-like weapon from before, though much more advanced in design and fired faster, the side with the red, blue and white symbols used some sort of weapon that fired beams of red lights, or glowing balls of green fire similar to that of unicorn magic. Whenever these would hit the opposing soldier, to the student's horror, he would disintegrate into ash or be reduced to a pile of green goo.

"Just how many wars do you humans have?" asked Twilight bitterly from the sidelines. She had a steely-eyed look as she stared at the images on the screen, something her friends looked at her with concern.

"Just the one more" replied Houston with a sad smile and one raised finger. Then came the final image.

It was a mushroom-shaped cloud. The same one that they saw before at the beginning of the lesson. However, this time, as they skimmed the image to look for the humans, all they saw were the bones lying in the dirt together. Tragic enough, these bones were arranged in a way that made it look like in their last moments, they were crawling towards one another with knives still clutched in their hands. Poised to kill.

"And in the sixth, final, and most distinguishable war of humanity, we remolded the particles of life itself. That is what the atomic bomb is. And used it to destroy not only ourselves but also the world. This was a war unlike any other before it, for it was a war of annihilation"

The image stayed on the screen for a considerable amount of time, enough for them all to feel slightly ill as they stared at the skeletons. Eventually, the lights came back on in an instant and the projector turned itself off with a simple press of a button from the device in Houston's hand.

"Let us have a recap of what you have learned so far," said Houston as he allowed the class to regain their bearings and return their attention to him in the center of the stage, "You've been introduced to the species known as humanity. You have seen our physical limitations and where we are placed on the natural order. And most importantly of all, you have learned our illustrious history of war"

"But..." he seemed to focus on each of them individually as he skimmed his eyes across the room, "Devastating as humans are, the world I come from wasn't created by just humans alone. The atomic bomb is also equally responsible. And by now, you should all have a good understanding of what it does"

True to his words, the memories from before came flooding back to all of them, especially that memory of the destroyed town.

"Oh no..." Fluttershy's little squeak was the only thing that came out across the room. They all had the same thing in mind.

The atomic bomb.

Seems class is not over yet. Not by a long shot.

Lesson 2: An Age of Atoms

"I can see it in all your eyes. Every single one of you thinks that my species is petty. That we are ignorant. That we are capable of breaking out of our cycle of violence and war" He gave them all a sympathetic gaze, though many were put off as to how their teacher knew what they were thinking. Some avoided his gaze guiltily, "I don't blame many you. So many of you've grown up, or been taught, that friendship, love, unity, and peace are all miraculous and wonderful things. Perhaps that is true. And perhaps it's because you believe in that so adamantly, that you find it a necessity to want to fantasize that my species, so eerily similar to yours yet so different, can rise above such a destructive lifecycle"

His eyes sweep across the auditorium. The class was silent, some in embarrassment, others considering to themselves if what he said about them was true.

"You are not wrong. Humanity is petty. As demonstrated in the slides before we've fought wars and buried our sons and daughters for some of the most trivial things. Honor. Legacy. Traditions. Pride. Did you know that two countries fought over a bucket? Or that one of the greatest wars in the world fought was a war between family members? When you consider such a...perculiarity from our perspective as history's educated, you are not wrong nor should you be embarrassed to come such a conclusion"

There was a sigh relief from the students as they realized their teacher wasn't going to give them a hard time on their opinions. Some, like Gallus and Smolder, even had a hearty laugh over the idea of a 'bucket' war.

The lights dimmed once again and the projector fired up once more. Houston returned to shadows of the darkness, the students only having occasional glimpses of his figure.

"But even our pettiness had a limit. Over time we had slowly learned to gauge war, reflecting on its destruction not only on nation-states and human populations but the soul of humanity itself. Bit by bit, our dogmatic pursuit of instigating war died with every new war that began. But that was a minority. Their opinions, and hence change, couldn't come fast enough. People wouldn't listen" said Houston, "That was...until the atomic bomb"

Boom. More shots of atomic bombs going off. No matter how many times the students watched it, they always got a foreboding feeling coursing through their nerves. For some, it was the destruction. For others, it was the bright lights. For a lot of them, it was the distinctive mushroom cloud that hung over the skies ominously, like one of those massive monsters that acted like end bosses in comics.

"So what was the atomic bomb?" asked Houston rhetorically, "Simple yet not simple. A bomb yet a weapon much more than just a conventional bomb. What matters, however, is the impact that it made on humanity. Visceral impact, might I add. Driven by the science of nuclear theorem, which I can explain at a later date for some of our more...inquisitive students-"

The majority of the Young Six looked over to two creatures, in particular, Headmare Twilight and Ocellus. Yep. They pretty much called that it would be those two that had the most vested interest when Houston spoke of Nuclear Theory.

They weren't the only ones. As there were a few others that had an interest. They just tried, badly, to feign neutrality.

"The force of the atomic bomb, or nuclear bomb, was equivalent to the force of 20,000 tons of TNT detonating simultaneously. Some bombs could even reach numbers higher than that. And the damage from such a weapon? The results speak for themselves. Hiroshima. Nagasaki. The bombs designated Little Boy and Fat Man rendered those cities null. In an instant, two cities that took generations to build up were destroyed. And with it, 105,000 souls incinerated. A further 146,000 would die later, bringing the total death count up to 251,000 people killed by just two uses of the atomic bomb"

The numbers were truly staggering. So it was therefore expected that a wave of shock and even awe overcame the class. Many of them needed to repeat the numbers over and over again to even comprehend the scale of death that the teacher spoke of.

251,000 people. To the pony students in the room that was the equivalent to the entire populations of multiple cities, even Manehatten the most populated one, combined together. And for a weapon to be capable of killing that many creatures in an instant?

Simply horrifying.

Every creature was silent, even Gallus and Smolder who usually interject something witty by now. All of them just stared with mixed emotions, ranging from grief to despair, at the devastated landscape shown on the projector. What they thought was once the site of a great city, now laid only ruin and rubble. Worse off, they could see the survivors of the atomic bomb, their stomachs lurching as they took in the wounds that clung to the human's body as they shambled mindlessly around the ruined city. Tumors, boils, rashes, and burn marks clung themselves to the bodies.

It was like a scene right out of Tartarus.

"Humanity fell silent. Some later cried. Some later cheered. But so many died for our realization to come to fruition. We had finally created a weapon that could usher destruction in not only cities on a mass scale, but also further our extinction as a species. A weapon that could bring the apocalypse." Houston spoke the next part with a hushed tone, forcing many of the students to listen eagerly to what he was saying, "And so we waited. And waited. And waited. Waited to live. Waited to die. Waited for an armageddon of our own making."

They all knew what was going to happen. If what their teacher taught them so far was true, then the only plausible conclusion for such a war-driven species was evident. Still...though they knew the answer, many waited in anticipation for the answer to come from Houston's lips.

"Instead...something miraculous happened. Humanity banded together." Houston smiled at all of them as he took in the visible confusion on their faces, "The United Nations was formed; a global initiative to prevent wars through diplomacy and collective security. Europe, a hotbed of generational conflicts and strife, banded together to form the European Commonwealth, where European nations shared territories and an economy with one another. The Geneva Conventions were outlined, emphasizing human rights and the rules of war to prevent unnecessary suffering in war."

"It may be hard to believe it but it is true." Houston honed in on that as he noticed a few looks of uncertainty and skepticism from the students, "Humanity broke out of our cycle thanks to the atomic bomb, the very weapon we had created to destroy ourselves. Some say it was desired for self-preservation. Maybe it was because we truly had grown sick of war. The truth of intent from my perspective is this; M.A.D."

"M.A.D, or Mutually Assured Destruction, is a concept of thinking rooted in preventing the consistent use of atomic weapons in war. Say there are two sides with atomic weapons. Should one attack the other with their nukes, then it is almost assured that the attacker would be retaliated in return, often with nukes. Both sides are destroyed. Both sides lose everything. Mutually. Assured. Destruction."

Houston's explanation did make a lot of sense but at the same time, it got them thinking critically. Was constant fear of being destroyed truly a good way to prevent conflict? Surely there must be something better. Something like the United Nations and European Commonwealth looked like great places to start.

"No nation wanted to be the first to fire its nukes because it would have been a guaranteed death wish, not only for themselves but for the rest of the world. And so we lived in peace. Was it a peace ruled by fear and paranoia? Yes. But a peace nonetheless for a species with such an illustrious history of war such as ours. And from that peace, we lived."

The next image on the screen showed them amazing industrial structures that reach up to the skies. From massive funnels that belched enormous columns of white smoke, to the production lines in which shiny and strange trinkets of all shapes and sizes were being assembled by droves of human workers, every creature in the room watched with growing interest and amazement at the scene that was laid out for them.

"Humanity learned that our ability to create needed not to be aligned with our wars. Music and the arts were expressed. Food and freshwater became commonplace. Machinery and tools to improve the lives of people were mass-produced and sold in large bulks. The boundaries of medicine were constantly being broken every day. Consumerism dominated our lives and central to all of this, was atomic energy." A picture was shown depicting what every creature presumed was a family holding hands with a smiling symbol of atomic energy. Though it did look rather stupid, it was quite heartwarming to see the smiles on the human's faces, even though it was a picture, "Ironic isn't it that the symbol of our possible demise became the symbol of our hopes and optimism. People looked at atomic energy as not something to be feared but something that held untapped potential. The creation of the atomic bomb had unlocked the code to the nearly unlimited power of atomic energy, bring us out of the Industrial Age and into the Atomic Age. Therefore, it is only fitting that many of our creations had deep links and paid homage to this new form of energy. Nowhere was this more evident than in one of the world's superpowers, the United States of America"

The globe on the screen shifted, changing to another continent on the other side of the world. As the landmass was highlighted blue to better illustrate the boundaries of the country, the students marveled at how massive it was. It was as big as, if not bigger than even Equestria! And for this entire continent to be united under a single banner? Amazing.

"America. Land of the free and home of the brave. The bedrock of democracy, freedom and above all else, capitalism. Through capitalism, the American Dream was fostered. The modest suburban home, the white picket fences, and the ideal Nuclear Family consisting of the father, the mother, daughter, son, dog...and in due time, the robot butler"

Robots?!

What was shown next got a very noticeable reaction from the students, especially Gallus and Sandbar as well as a few other boys in the room who squealed in delight the moment Houston mentioned a robot. The *robot* shown was a strange floating machine that levitated from the ground through the use of a fire being fed to the tube on the bottom. Made of spotless steel that shone against the camera, there were "ooooh"s and "aah"s from every creature in the room as it used its many tools attached to its three limbs to do a variety of house chores. Whether it be cooking for the American family, washing the dishes, gardening or even teaching a frustrated human boy his homework, none of them could doubt just how cool the machine was, nor how they themselves would use it had they had one for themselves.

"Through the gift of our technological prowess, we invented Artificial Intelligence or A.I. We created life and placed it in machines" The next show up was an amazing lineup of robots. The first one was the same three-eyed robot butler from before. Another one was the exact same machine but colored white instead. The final one was a large clunky robot with short and stubby arms and legs. Compared to the other two who had distinctive eyes, the final one's top was made of glass and showed the intricate machinery that buzzed and whirled inside, " We then marketed it. Sold it to the whims of people. But even then that wasn't enough. Companies that built them profited immensely but always competed with one another to create better machines that would meet the ever-growing demands of people. See here some examples..."

He motioned them to focus on the screen.

"The humble Protectron built by Rob-Co Industries, able to fulfill an enormous array of civilian roles ranging from personal assistants, law enforcement, construction work, and even emergency services such as firefighters and paramedics." The model of the Protectron changed shape and colors in conjunction with the roles that Houston stated. Some looked like recolors of the standard Protectron. Some had more unique features such as flashing lights and industrial claws.

There was a general chuckle as they watched a lone Protectron painted red struggled to put out a small fire with a hose. The robot would fly back pitifully as the force of the water from the hose knocked the poor machine back.

"In response General Atomics, the main competitor of Rob-Co, developed the Mr. Handy line to serve as robot servants in the Nuclear family concept, as you all saw before. They even developed a female version called the Miss Nanny. For those who prefer a...feminine touch to things." Students smiled as they watched a Miss Nanny robot rock a crying baby in its arms while humming a soothing tune.

The images changed. They saw the same box-like machines from before growing more and more outlandish in design the time lapsed. They saw massive machines within dimly-lit rooms, their minds only guessing at best what the flickering lights on the knobs meant. The sense of wonder only grew as they watched a human male place his arm through a massive device, switching the machine onto life as it attached to his arm.

"Many more things were developed in this time, of course, but these are just some of the amazing things that humanity created, proving we had a spark of ingenuity when we weren't killing one another. With every year that passed without a major war, more and more milestones and inventions were being achieved. We developed vehicles that could travel faster than sound. We shot satellites into space to connect people all over the globe. We built rockets and landed on the moon. Truly, it was the Golden Age of human civilization. Peace had brought prosperity and with it, every day the American dream became more and more like a reality."

There was an elated sense of hope and joy among the student body. Many of them talked to one another in hushed tones over everything that they just saw. They talked about the clothes, the Nuclear Family, but almost all of them unanimously chattered about the robots.

Ocellus barely listened as her friends went on and on about robots. There was a nagging feeling at the back of her mind, finding its way into her stomach and making her feel queasy. Unlike the rest of her friends, her mind kept coming back to the words that their teacher spoke of back at the beginning.

Tragedy.

Just how was this a story about tragedy then? Everything that he taught them so far seemed to end off really well, despite her own grievances over the atomic bomb.

No. There had to be something more. She could taste it just by noticing the presence of their teacher standing beside the projector. He tasted...dull, emotionless, and apathetic.

Just as Ocellus opened her mouth to warn her friends, she found to her great horror that human teacher had beaten her to the... what's that pony saying again? Punch?

"But alas, that was not how it was to be" Houston looked away from his class, staring out of the window while continuing to speak, fully aware of the confusion settling in on the student's faces, "Dreams are just that in the end. Dreams. Though pleasant, it often blinds us to the cruel reality we so often try so desperately to hide from. But one must eventually awake from it."

"And that was the same thing that happened to humanity" He turned back to them, allowing them to see the blank expression on his face, "In 2052, after 107 years of the long peace, humanity awoke from the 'American Dream' of our own creation. Years of decadent spending, consumerism, and consumption had led to shortages of every major resource in the world. The oil and petroleum to run our cars increased in prices to match the scarcity. Uranium for all the fancy gimmicks, robots, and trinkets we used, ran dry. Oil wells stopped pumping. Uranium mines were stripped clean. And desperation set in as the delusional luxurious lifestyle came crumbling down upon us."

From his spot in the dark, Houston noticed a single hoof sticking out from the crowd of jaw-dropped students, "Yes, you there!"

He pointed over to the greenish-looking pony sitting among a crowd of students. To his surprise, the five creatures sitting around the male pony were completely different from the rest of the students in the auditorium.

"What is your name, boy?" asked Houston, quite interested to be receiving his first question of the lesson from a student.

"S-sandbar, sir!" replied the pony nervously. Houston could see the boy positively shaking as he kept his hoof up in the air, "I-I'm having trouble understanding how humanity consumed so much energy in the first place. Didn't you say at the beginning that atomic energy had almost unlimited power?"

The male pony quickly dropped his hoof, sweating and breathing profusely as if he'd just done a cross-country marathon. While his friends consoled him, a large portion of the class looked towards Houston, eager to see how he would respond.

"Very good question, kid." said Houston, a little pleased at the pony's courage to speak up, "You are right, I did say that we had a source of nearly limitless power. But even near-limitless has a limit. Humanity's fault was that we used that near limitless too quickly."

Houston raised a single finger. "The first is the population. At the time of 2052, the earth's population sat at eight billion people in total. That's right. Eight billion. Thanks to the lack of a major conflict and multiple advancements in the field of medicine, the standards of living increased. Childbirth rates increased and mortality rates decreased. The elderly lived longer. With all that growth in population, comes a great demand for resources to even compensate a suitable standard of living. The second is this device."

Houston reached into his pocket and pulled out a fist-sized object, one he then placed upon the podium up for all of them to see. It was a strange cylindrical object made of glass. The top of the machine was black and at the bottom, there were six spikes. Housed within the glass chamber, were little machines too foreign for any of them to understand.

"The vacuum tube. All, of our wondrous devices required constant flows of electricity to maintain themselves. The vacuum tubes were therefore built to serve this purpose, through a process known as Thermionic Emission. By heating the cathode metal at the top of the vacuum tube," He pointed to a small piece of wire that laid on the top, "electrons gained enough energy to jump a short distance once it reached a high enough temperature. By keeping this heat constant, the electron flow, hence the electricity, remains constant all throughout the complex machines we used."

"However, there are drawbacks to the use of vacuum tubes. For one, it was large and cumbersome. Second, it required exuberant amounts of energy to maintain the electron flow. And finally, it was often prone to failure. Now apply this concept to the machines that we built, all of which required the use of a vacuum tube. You saw the robots. You saw the hand-held computers that we attached to our wrists. Each one of them was necessarily large to accommodate for the massive sizes and energy consumption of the multiple vacuum tubes used at the same time. And finally, when vacuum tubes eventually broke down, the growing consumeristic nature of humans meant that they would often throw away the devices to buy new ones. Often better and more energy-consuming ones"

"That was consumerism at its best, and worst" explained Houston, "Now imagine combining that with the eight billion people on the earth that each wanted a hand in the 'American Dream'. I think each and every one of you doesn't need further explanation as to why humanity ran out of resources so quickly."

They didn't. They really didn't. Everything just added up and made sense together. There was nothing they could feel but dread and sadness as they comprehended the situation that humanity found themselves in.

Many of them looked at the small device that now sat on top of the podium. A single question all plagued their minds.

How could something that looked so innocent, cause a global strain on resources?

"S-so...what happened next?" asked a small filly, sitting near the back.

"Humanity returned to its nature." replied Houston grimly, "It was inevitable, really. We returned to war. To what would be known to history as the Resource War."

The students watched in silent horror as footages of war played on the projector. Rows upon rows of cannons were fired. Droves of soldiers accompanied by large box-vehicles with trends met against another army on the other side of the desert. Buildings were lit alight, flames growing to the size of large trees.

And there were so many bodies. Lying everywhere.

Some students gasped and covered their mouths, feeling sick. Others shielded themselves with a hoof over their eyes, blocking out the scenes of carnage. The more steel-nerved students stared at the screen with gritted teeth and.

"The Middle East had long been the heartland from which the world got the majority of its oil and uranium," said Houston. The images changes to land completely covered in sand. In the distance, the students saw massive structures extracting what looked like black sludge from the ground, "But as it's oil wells depleted, the neighboring European Commonwealth looked on with fears as the oil prices increased and their own reserves became dangerously low. As a result, in April of 2052, the European Commonwealth invaded the Middle-East with military action to secure the wells. It was a brutal war , one that ended in no victories for either side. For the Middle-East, they collapsed under small exchanges of atomic bombs between them and the Commonwealth, as well as the boot of the Commonwealth's better army. However, for their part, the Commonwealth fared little better. Ironically the wells they so vehemently fought for over the span of eight years were completely dried by the time they got their hands on it."

Some students gave defiant glares as they watched footage of Commonwealth soldiers waltz into an oil refinery, only to respond with shock as they realized the machines were empty. After all, it was kinda hard to feel sympathy for the Commonwealth, who were clearly the aggressors in this instance.

"When they realized that there was no oil for any of them, the European Commonwealth broke down. Nations plotted and backstabbed one another in a desperate bid for the last drops of oil in the land. One would think the UN would step in, but even then that was not possible. Desperation turned nations on nations and over time the UN, too, broke down as nations voluntarily left to fight each other without reprimand. Eventually, the UN faded away as another obsolete human experiment on the lofty ideals of global peace"

It could be said that the students were, if not a little, disappointed and disgusted with how things turned out. The UN and the European Commonwealth sounded like splendid concepts, but it soured their mouths a bit to see the humans turn on each other so easily over resources that could've easily been shared if they cared for one another instead of their machines more.

Their minds wander over to America. Was America doing better than the disastrous European continent? After all, surely the idyllic Nuclear families would never turn on one another, right?

Somehow in their hearts, they didn't believe themselves to say yes.

"Surprisingly, America did okay for itself. That's not to say that they didn't have their own shortages, they did. But unlike the rest of the world, America still had at least a few more years before they went completely dry. A long-term solution to the energy crisis was needed. And that solution came to fruition six years later. In the summer of 2066, America unveiled the first-ever, cold fusion power cell."

Houston placed another device on the podium next to the vacuum tube. The device was bright yellow with two ports at each end making it similar to a battery, although fatter and a lot thicker. To many of them, they already could tell that the device was a lot more advanced than the vacuum tube next to it.

"The fusion cell is the epitome of all our years delving into atomic science. We had finally found a way to miniaturize a small nuclear fusion reactor into a battery. It was expensive, true, but it had the potential to solve our reliance on fossil fuels. Soon America expanded int placing fusion reactors into cars, thereby breaking the consistent need for fossil fuels. However, the cars were extremely expensive so not all of America could convert to using fusion power in one go. Petrol and demands for it remained in circulation, but the thought was there. And that was what mattered at the end of the day. A small glimmer of hope."

"But outside America thing were not so hopeful." continued Houston, "The rest of the world was burning. And the moment America unveiled their first fusion cell, that proved the final straw for the People's Republic of China."

The globe spun and revealed to them all another country just as big as the United States of America. Colored red to distinguish themselves from the American's blue, the students gaped in wonder at the size of the country. Yet again another marvel at the size of humanity.

"Long reliant on fossil fuels, the Chinese demanded that America share its fusion technology. America adamantly refused, as the two have long been political and ideological opponents." The students frowned. Many of them felt an equal measure of disdain and dismay at the selfish actions of the Americans. From their point of view, the human species was collectively facing a massive problem. Wouldn't it be more logical to work together, as they have all been taught?

"In the winter of 2066, a desperate China invades the U.S state of Alaska, hoping to seize the oil lines that held the last reserves of oil in the world. Thanks to a combination of surprise and human-wave tactics, the Chinese invaders swamped American defenses and made massive gains, capturing the vital city of Anchorage."

When they learned that Alaska was the last place in the world to hold oil, every student shuddered. Just how badly did humanity consume resources to the point that a single piece of territory was the last place in the world to have oil?

At the same time many of them could see things from the point of the desperate Chinese, even if they personally abhorred and condemned invading another country. Desperation had forced them to play their armies and the students couldn't help but feel that the Chinese had an almost justifiable motive for invading America. Still, many of them watched with anticipation to see how America would react.

"And so America went to war, once again igniting their industrial complex towards building weapons of war. In a display of that of creative human ingenuity, all manners of breakthroughs in the field of science were accomplished under the strain of war. Laser and prototype plasma weapons began to replace conventional firearms. The companies of Rob-Co and General Atomics militarized their creations; Rob-Co inventing the Assaultrons as well as the stocky Sentry Bots. General Atomics played their part by creating the Mr. Gutsy, armed with deadly 10mm submachine guns as well as even prototype plasma casters."

There was another line-up of impressive robots for all of them to gawk at. The first was a slim machine with a striking resemblance to a female human. On its arms were deadly rotating claws and mounted on its alien-looking head was what many of them presumed was a laser cannon. In many of their minds, they could tell that this was not a machine to be messed with.

In contrast to the sleek and agile looking Assualtron, the Sentry Bot looked like an absolute monster. Being much more massive in size compared to the Assualtron, the students gulped as they took note of the excessive armor plating, the ominous red eye that glared back at them from the screen, and the arguably terrifying tanks trend it's used for legs.

Then there was the Mr. Gusty. On the surface, the students couldn't see much difference between that robot and the Mr. Handy. Sure it may have looked different in terms of color, but how was this thing meant to fight in wars when its counterparts served as domestic workers.

Turns out it could fight very well, as they all saw in the next footage. It consisted of stock footage depicting a fight between American soldiers and Chinese soldiers on a snowy battlefield. In the distance, they could see the outlines of robots fighting for the American side, gasping in horror when they saw a Mr. Gusty decapitate a Chinese soldier with its buzz saw.

Their blood froze over just as much as the blood from the soldiers in the film stained the snow. It was a complete and utterly sickening bloodbath to watch, yet many of them found it hard to peel away from the screen, entranced by continual deaths of soldiers by the hundreds.

"But for all their robots, America stood at a stalemate with China. While America ruled the day with their weapons and their robots, China ruled the night with their own trump cards; stealth technology. The Chinese's specialization in stealth technology was years ahead of whatever the Americans could dream replicate. Stealth suits. Stealth submarines. All put to great effect in the assassination of officers, disruption of supply lines, even hit-and-run tactics."

They watched with amazement as a man dressed in armor as black as the night materialized from thin air to slit the throat of a sleeping soldier. He then disappeared, nobody none the wiser to a murder that took place in less than a minute.

Their minds, and their fears, wandered for a moment as they considered the potential of such a power.

"The war stretched on, straining resources on both sides until American scientists finally unveiled the weapon that would break the stalemate for America. Power armor. Though amazing in its own rights, it took a combination of combined-arms tactics to utilized the armor properly in pushing back the Chinese."

Barely anycreature heard the last part as they were to busy gawking at the suits of power armor. Impressed gazes littered the room as all of them tried to comprehend the technological marvel that stood before them. Towering above the soldier that stood next to it and made of shiny metal, the suit radiated off a sense of honor and justice, the same way one would feel if they looked at gallant knights within a comic book. Just looking at the armor made them all feel a sense of ease and comfort, which was only heightened when they watched the footage of the power-armored soldiers enter the battlefield.

An entire squadron of them, like a tidal wave of metal, descended upon the group of Chinese soldiers, killing them left and right with rotating guns as big as they were, despite the fact that there were more Chinese soldiers then there were power-armored ones. Though slightly off-put by the excessive killing all of them, even Professor Fluttershy who at this point had been cowering in her seat, watch the scene with a small sense of awe.

"Finally, after eleven years of war, America pushed out the Chinese forces and retook the city of Anchorage. Within months, America had reclaimed the entire state of Alaska. By the tenth of January 2077, the war was officially over in Alaska."

To drive this point home, a scene was shown of a victorious power-armored soldier planting the American flag atop the roof of a bomb-struck building. To the sunrise in the distance, the Chinese forces could be seen retreating while robots, soldiers and power armored Americans pursued them relentlessly.

Some students smiled. If not for an American victory, then at least an end to the war.

"But the war was not over. Not by a long shot." Their hearts sank the moment Houston said those words as if he mockingly snuffed out their optimism. Just what did he mean by that?

"Almost immediately, soldiers were redeployed to the Chinese peninsula where, three years ago, America had landed soldiers into eastern china with the goal of easing tensions on the Anchorage Front. Now that Anchorage had been liberated, America could concentrate all its efforts into defeating China." When Houston noticed the shocked looks on the student's faces, he shot them all a surprised look, "Wait...you thought that this was a war of self-defense? I'm sorry to tell you this but the Sino-American War had long been forgotten as a war of self-defense. At this point, it was a war of desperation."

"Desperate nations went to war with desperate nations and as such, the desperation only intensified as the war consumed what scant resources America and China had left. Stressed and angry at the situation, more brutal and horrific actions began to surface from the American government and army, paling in comparison to the invasion of mainland China."

"Mexico and Canada, two of America's neighbors from the north and the south were forcibly annexed by America to secure its northern and southern borders, as well as to exploit what natural resources those countries still had. At home, the American government was rounding up people of Chinese descent, suspected communist sympathizers, and generally anyone remotely suspicious enough to be determined a threat to American interest, placing them into concentration camps. On the battlefield, the concepts of human rights and the rule of wars were thrown out the window, seeing as how there wasn't anyone left to speak up against it. Soldiers, spurred by years of propaganda, mutual hatred and paranoia of the enemy, took no prisoners even when they had long surrendered. The wounded were shot where they laid. Mass executions of innocent Chinese civilians became commonplace."

As if to hone in on his words, the following few footages were by far the hardest to watch for all of them. The battlefield that was shown was unlike any of the battlefields before, for every surface of the wintery land was covered with bodies. Be they of American or Chinese, none of the students could tell. All they could tell from the blankness in their eyes and the blood covering their snow-stained uniforms was that they were all universally dead.

There was a moan, something that all of them took notice of immediately. In the middle of the field of bodies, a lone arm stuck up into the air, pleading, crying for his mother.

Their hearts clenched in grief as they watched the soldier do something that sounded so...so akin to a child. Innocent-like.

Their grief only intensified as they watched an Assualtron walk over to where the man laid, flipped him over with its rotating claws, before proceeding to melt his face off as it pinned him down. As the machine finished and the man's screams died down, all that was left of the man was the lower half of his body, the rest having been melted into a vibrant orange puddle.

The scene changed again, this time to a crowd of what looked like Chinese peasants, men, women, and children, being forced to dig a large trench by a group of American soldiers in power armor. The mysterious purpose of the trench was soon discovered as the American soldiers mercilessly fired on the crowd of peasants once they were done. Time seemed to slow for all of them as they watched the bodies stump in the trench before the dirt dug out before was once again thrown back in, hiding the bodies.

One more change. This time the footage was from within a city. In the distance they could see fires raging, black putrid smoke clouding the sky for miles. In front of them, two power-armored soldiers forced a man holding a sign to kneel. Students screamed as they watched one of the soldiers put a bullet in the man's head, splattering the concrete floor in front of him with red. What truly sickened them the most was how the soldiers laughed as the now headless body slumped forwards lifelessly.

Suddenly those gallant knights didn't feel so gallant anymore.

The lights flickered back on so suddenly that many of them had to rub their eyes to get it to adjust again. As they did so, Houston returned to the podium and stood silently while he waited for the class to recover from their shock. Only when he saw that ample attention had been redirected onto him, did he begin to speak once more.

"War brought out the worst in all of us," said Houston quietly. "What you just saw was a fraction of the atrocities committed on the battlefield. Many accounts went undocumented, including those committed by the Chinese. We never got to collect information on their war crimes, for the war ended before we could. Ended in the worst way possible."

He began to speak softer, so much so that many students had to strain to hear what he said properly.

"It was destined to happen eventually. Anyone could see that the end was coming, if not by war than by our dwindling resources. As American forces closed in on the Chinese capital city of Beijing, the dragon gave its last breath to sink its teeth into the eagle. They retaliated. With everything that they had. Or rather what they had left at that point. Atomic bombs targetted directly at America."

Houston took a deep breath, calming himself down before speaking again.

"America returned with their own nukes, of course, regardless of their own soldiers fighting in China. After all, M.A.D had broken down and those with their hands on the nuclear buttons thought not of the ones they could've saved, but only those that they could take to the grave with them. Didn't matter if it was military bases or cities with innocent people. How could one possibly distinguish nor want to distinguish the difference when all one wants to do is kill at this point?"

Silence. Houston even had to hold up a hand to steady himself as he swallowed the tension building up on this throat.

"The Great War was our last greatest war. As China and America destroyed each other with nuclear fire, what countries remained outside, too, launched their atomic weapons. If not out of paranoia for nukes that may or may not be coming for them, then out of an opportunity to use it to settle old scores. In only two hours. The Old World died, consumed in the fires of the very weapons that defined it, and with it, America, China, and all the other petty and long-forgotten nations that condemned their people to die for a cause whose meaning faded too ago."

"But not all of humanity died out," said Houston softly, "The apocalypse had come and would remain. The landscape as we knew it was destroyed beyond belief. Over ninety percent of the world's population would perish instantaneously. Millions more would follow in the aftermath. Yet humanity lived. And will have to continue to live in the world that we've created."

He stopped again, this time to gaze at each and every one of them slowly. As he did so, shivers went their spines as the vacant look in his eyes made it all the more disturbing.

"And so the torch of our civilization was passed to a new generation of humans. A generation born into a world without meaning. A world that hated them for the follies of their forefathers. A world choked by ash and bones of the long dead. It would, however, be from their hands using the tools of dead men, that new meaning is brought to our aptly named new home; The Wasteland."

His cryptic message aside, that was a pretty good indicator to the students that class was over. Two hours had flown by and not one of them had noticed, having been too invested in his lesson.

As they filed out of the room slowly, not one creature spoke about the things they had just witnessed. Nay, not even a single word was uttered among any of them.

There was just something weird about Houston, in general, that made them hold their tongues until they were sure they had left the auditorium. Even though he had his back to them as they left, the way he stared at the blackboard vacantly really gave them all a sickening feeling in their stomachs, akin to everything that's been taught to them so far.

Negotiations

They had been following the strange creature for a good long while now as it proceeded deeper and deeper into the forest, passing more pieces of debris on the way. Making sure that they weren't detected, they sadly had to let many of the pieces go and made sure to stay at least a few feet away from it at all times. Not that they knew it, but the creature ahead actually had no idea it was being followed as it walked back to its main camp.

What started as excitement and optimism soon faded away as the exhaustion of the day's search efforts and the constant walking finally caught up to them. In Twilight's case, a combination of sleep deprivation, severe depletion of magic, and excessive stress meant that she quickly fell to the back of the line. Every step became a struggle to stay awake as she continued to shamble on like a zombie.

"Hang on yall," warned Applejack as she extended a hoof out and stopped Rainbow Dash who was following close behind her, subsequently halting their entire convoy. "Ah think it's doing somethin'"

Sure enough, the creature passed through a particularly large clump of trees by parting the overlapping branches with its massive arms, briefly illuminating the lights beyond, before the trees once more returned to their place and their darkness once more surround the group of mares.

Nodding to one another in acknowledgment, the group of mares sprung right through the bundle of trees, ready to face whatever laid ahead of them.

...

To their surprise, however, nothing of the sort happened. Instead, they were greeted to the sight of perhaps one of the most normal campsites that they've ever seen in their lives.

That's to say if they could even call a majority of it a campsite, to begin with.

The only thing that made this place resemble a standard campsite was the orange flames that danced on the bed of wood in the center of the camp and several crumpled sleeping bags, as well as several blankets with tribal patterns, not unlike those of buffalo tribes, sown into the stitchings. Apart from that, everything else was completely foreign to the group.

The first thing they noticed was the mass amount of wires and cables that ran along the forest floor. Some were as thick as tree branches, others much shorter, but all interconnected with numerous ports and machines that scattered the campsite. Speaking of the machines, while there were several small square machines around, the ones that caught the group's attention were three large cylinder-like containers that stood side-by-side once another. Next to them was a table with a machine not unlike the ones Twilight had in her laboratory. Within the glowing blue hues of the containers, the creature they had followed stood limply within, its body held within the confines by wires and cables that connected to ports all over its body. Its once-vibrant quadruple eyes were now faded as currents of electricity flowed into its depleted body.

Further away from the mess of objects, several rectangular and square boxes stood stacked in neat piles. Some were made of metal, others made of wood. But all were stamped with a symbol, be it two interconnecting hexagons or a large white star within a large circle. As Twilight and her friend's eyes wandered over the stacks of boxes, that was when they finally saw it.

A large machine, presumably the alien's ship, laid across the grass of the meadow like a dragon sleeping on its hoard of jewels. The machine was a behemoth in size, easily four times bigger than the average pony and taller than Princess Celestia herself by at least two times. Rusted green in color, it laid slightly on its side, its flanks dotted with smaller circles of a different color and material. Two wings stuck out from the middle of its sides, each sporting large cylinder-like objects with propellers facing the forwards. To the rear of the craft, its tail divided into three parts; two of which stuck to its sides just like the wings, and one which shot right up.

All in all, while the sight was eye-boggling, Twilight herself was slightly disappointed with how things turned out. Make no mistake, while she was rather intrigued by the technologies that laid across the campsite, she wasn't completely blown out of this world. Some of the technologies looked rather similar to their Equestrian tech, such as the alien's craft which featured the same propeller system utilized in Equestrian airships, except the blades faced forwards and the frame was composed of much more metal than wood.

The same couldn't be said for her friends, who began exploring the site and rummaged through some of the cases already slightly open with keen interest. Rarity winkled in disgust at a footlocker of clothes, Pinkie Pie stared into the cylinder containing the creature with apt curiosity, Applejack and Fluttershy poked around with several green metal boxes and pulled out various food items. Rainbow Dash...

"Hey, Twi! Look at this!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash as she pulled out a contraption from one of the metal cases with hexagon markings and turned around to display it to Twilight in her hooves. Before Twilight could reprimand her for possibly injuring herself with unknown alien tech, she found her attention encapsulated to the device instead.

Twilight...wasn't sure what to make of it. In Rainbow's hooves was some sort of ring-like object, easily a head wide in diameter and shimmering a bright blue aura, yet it didn't seem to be made of any form of metal, even though Rainbow physically held it. Rather, the thing looked as if it was made of light itself.

"Oooohhh," said Pinkie as she bounced over and took a keen interest in the device, "Very alien-like"

"Nevermind that!" Rainbow Dash positioned it above her head, "How do I look?"

To all of their surprise, except Rainbow Dash of course who didn't notice, the moment she raised it above her head the device locked itself into place around her forehead. It hovered mystically, seemingly without any trances of magic, and it really did give Rainbow the impression of an Angel.

At the same time, her rainbow-colored mane completely vanished from sight, giving her the image of a bald Angel, so that was a bonus.

Really...the sight was so silly to look at! So the rest of the group couldn't help but laugh at Rainbow Dash who remained oblivious to her situation.

"What? What is it?" Her eyes widened as she followed Rarity's hooves pointing at her head. Panicking, she quickly ripped the device from her head, sighing in relief as her mane came back to her.

"Just this once...I'll agree with Rarity" mumbled Rainbow Dash as she stroked her mane possessively, "I do not look cool without my mane"

"See Rainbow Dash, It's not such a bad thing" Rarity eyes sparkled as she looked Rainbow Dash up and down, "If you just let me make a few...adjustments here and there and-"

"Nah. No way" screeched Rainbow Dash as she took several steps back, "NEVER! AGAIN!"

"But you look so good in a blouse" pouted Rarity.

"Rainbow's fashion sense aside" stepped in Applejack quickly, before the situation could blow itself even more out of proportion, "Any yall see that Griffin anywhere?"

That was a good point thought Twilight, ever since they had arrived in the alien's camp they had been so preoccupied with examining the uniqueness of its machines that they've forgotten why they even came here in the first place,

"Yes, yes, back to work" Twilight cleared her throats as she once more took command of the group, "Everypony spread out and look for the Griffin, If each of us takes a specific part of the alien's camp, we can cover more distance and hopeful-"

Before she could finish, however, the sounds of a door opening were heard behind her, cutting her off from her train of thought and directing everypony's attention to the alien's ship.

Out of a hatch on the side of the ship the black and white griffin, Natalya, emerged. Looking rather well for an alien captive, she emerged with a large pot in her beaks as she hummed a tune to herself. In her claws were several sharpened sticks, most likely done by the Griffin in question.

Natalya turned around and swung the hatch closed behind her. She then turned around as was going to keep walking until her eyes widened as she finally noticed the group of mares staring right back at her.

The meadow was deathly quiet. So quiet that it almost felt like the forest animals had gone quiet to spectate the silence between the group of mares and the griffin. For several minutes, the two groups just watched one another carefully, Natalya with suspicion and some form of relief, the Mane 6 with worry and fear.

Eventually, though, the griffin continued to walk and pushed herself pass a confused Fluttershy and Rarity laid near the campfire. Using her beak, she edged the pot she had been carrying in her beak into the heart of the flames and laid the sticks in her claws next to the flames.

"Apologies about that," said the Griffin gruffly as she straightened her feathers out and directed her attention back to the group, "Had to put the pot down. Still...awkward, no? You ponies sure took your sweet time getting here, didn't you?"

A wave of shame hit Twilight as she realized how long the griffin must have been suffering under the alien's grasp. "I'm so sorry about that. You're sister and friend warned us days ago, but finding you proved to be so...difficult " said Twilight mournfully. She was going to say more until the Griffin raised a claw in understanding.

"Gaston and Giselle? Never knew I meant that much to them. Still...nothing against you, your Highness" replied the Griffin, "The pine forest is rather tricky to navigate. Nothing against you too, Elements"

Natalya's eyes skimmed over the other group of mares, hovering over each of them in time before a particular blue one caught her eye. her eyes widened in realization before the griffin chuckled lightly. "And Rainbow Dash. Still causing trouble?"

"You know her?" asked Rarity incredulously.

"Yeah, I do" replied Rainbow Dash, the tension between the two was so thick, you could cut it like one of Pinkie Pie's cheesecakes "Met her during the Equestria Games. Quite polite...for a griffin at the time"

"And your quite arrogant and brash...for a pony" Natalya and Rainbow Dash smiled to one another, "But you've got the skills to back it up. Either way, It's so good to see you again. Better than the first time we met"

"You know what would be even better?" asked Rainbow, "If we got out of here as quickly as we can. You know where the alien is anyway?"

"Umm...he's not here right now" replied Natalya uneasily as she crossed her arms.

He?

Surely Twilight wasn't the only one that picked up on that. Glancing over to the rest of her friends, not one of them seemed remotely concerned as to how Natalya knew the alien gender. They all instead looked relieved to know that the alien wasn't there, to begin with. Twilight couldn't help it, but there was something off with the griffin. It was almost as if...she looked reluctant when Rainbow Dash opened her mouth about leaving.

"Perfect!" smirked Rainbow, completely missing the point about the alien's gender. "Let's go then! Quickly, before the thing comes back. We have a campsite not far away, so we can rest there until dawn, then we'll be on our way again"

As the majority of the group made headways into departing, Fluttershy and Twilight were the first to stop and notice the griffin not following them. Rather she had sat back down near the fire and was instead warming her claws.

"Um...are you not coming?" asked the timid mare.

"Yeeeah...It's a bit complicated" Natalya chuckled nervously as she scratched the side of her cheek, "I'll make it simple. I'm not going to leave"

"WHAT?!"

"WHAT THE HAY?!"

The entire Mane 6 yelled out in shock, but no pony was louder than Rainbow Dash who stared at sheepish griffin with a stony-look.

"Ah don understands, why 'tcha not wanna leave?" stammered Applejack.

"Oh make no mistake, I appreciate you coming all this way out here to rescue me. But I just can't...return yet. Not until my business is concluded"

"Oh yeah? What business are we talking about?" asked Rainbow Dash dangerously. Twilight noticed that the griffin looked extremely uncomfortable as she squirmed in her spot near the fire, "What business is so important that you'll-"

Rainbow's voice trailed off as she finally noticed it, as did Twilight and everyone else in the group too.

Natalya's wings, unfurled in her moment of agitation, gave the group a clear view of the layers of bandages underneath. Though a majority of her wing looked normal, the group could only shudder at the thought of what lay underneath the bandages.

"W-what happened to your wings, dearie?" cried out Rarity, absolutely mortified at what she saw. Natalya guiltily looked back at them as she mumbled.

"Nothing much...it's healing slowly...just takes time. But-" She was cut off as Rainbow Dash leaped forwards and grabbed Natalya by the shoulders with her hooves. The look that she gave the griffin could freeze water if she was a unicorn.

"What. Did. The. Alien. Do. To. You?" Said Rainbow Dash dangerously as she glared at Natalya. Slightly off-put by the pegasi's action, but not entirely surprised, Twilight watched closely as the Griffin sweated under Rainbow's gaze.

"He...he severed the nerves in my wings" replied Natalya slowly as she dropped her head. She quickly bounced back as she noticed Rainbow's thunderous expression. "But I swear it wasn't on purpose!"

"How can you say that?! Those were your wings! Without them, you'll never fly again!" argued Rainbow Dash back, "Nevermind that, Once I get my hooves on that damn alien, I'm going to-"

"And just what is it you plan to do to me, equine?"

A rustic voice entered the conversation from behind every single one of them. Its metallic tone gave it the impression of a voice spoken through a badly tuned microphone, yet there was a hint of flamboyancy there. Turning around slowly, Twilight was immediately hit with a wave of relief as she took in the alien before her.

It was human.

Granted the human looked nothing like the humans she'd seen on Sunset Shimmer's world. Whilst those humans were much more colorful in their skin tone, this human was much more gruff-looking with his olive-colored skin. The human was towering in height, easily the height of Princess Celestia herself, with sharp brown eyes, a small nose, and high cheekbones. A cascade of long black hair flowed from the left side of his head, while the other side was shaven away.

Twilight bit her lips.

This was where all resemblance to the humans in Sunset's world was completely gone. The shaven part of it head was home to a metal plate with several holes, most likely surgically done, as numerous blue and red wired connected directly into those metal ports. These wirings then trailed towards the floating robot next to the alien, plugged directly underneath the machine and formed what looked like an odd connection between the human and his machine.

Now that she had a closer look, the human seemed to have quite a preference towards metal. Apart from the fact that there was metal drilled into its skull, the human wore several pieces of metal armor over and underneath its brown trenchcoat. On its left arm was a device also made out of metal, as well as several dead rabbits hanging from a metal wire that is held in its left fist.

Twilight felt her voice hitch in her throat. Turning slowly to her friends, she observed every single one of them closely. Rainbow Dash and Applejack seemed to be the only ones on high alert. Rarity and Pinkie Pie merely watched from the outside with curiosity. While Fluttershy...

Twilight really had to feel sorry for Fluttershy. The already timid mare had gone completely pale the moment the alien had entered the camp. But she hadn't been frightened of the alien. No, rather her attention had been fixated on the dead rabbits that hung from his hands since the beginning. Twilight knew that such a sight would most likely be traumatizing for the poor mare, especially since she was so loving to all kinds of animals.

"You're a human" blurbed Twilight slowly without thinking. Her friends stared at her wide-eyed, before directing their attention back to human in question.

"You know what I am...that is...unexpected" What made this human disturbing was the fact that the voice didn't come out of his mouth, but rather the speakers on his robot. The same could be said for the expression on his face, which remained blank despite the emotions in its robotic voice.

"I must admit though, the way Natalya described you, I didn't expect you equines to be so...rough on the eyes" continued the human.

"What? What did you say buster?" Rainbow Dash, ever the hothead that she was, floated over to the human until she was eye-level and peered directly into its brown eyes. "I dare you to repeat that"

The human stared back at her, before placing two claw digits onto her nose and pushed her back slightly, "Yeah...you? Definitely rough on the eyes"

The alien pushed himself pass the fuming rainbow-maned mare and plopped himself next Natalya by the campfire. For a moment, there was an awkward standoff between the alien and the Mane 6 as they stared back and forth at one another.

"Well? Are you going to sit down or not? Fire's not getting any colder" the human asked impatiently

The Mane 6 stiffened at the human's request. Not one of them moved for several minutes, before Pinkie Pie and Twilight slowly stepped forwards and placed themselves directly opposite the griffin and the alien. Eventually, Rarity joined them, followed by Applejack, a sobbing Fluttershy, and finally Rainbow Dash.

"Looks like we're going to have guests for dinner" The group stared in silent confusion as the voice chirped sarcastically whilst the main body of the alien clapped, albeit with a lackluster effort. The alien held up the limp forms of the rabbits for all of them to see, "Question. Are you capable of digesting meat-based sustenance?"

At his words, Fluttershy completely broke down into a flood of tears. Her shrieks of pain could be heard all across the meadows, causing quite the ruckus as Twilight could see several forest animals poke their heads out from bushes to see what all the commotion was about. As Applejack and the girls surrounded Fluttershy to calm her down, Twilight watched closely to see how the human would react.

"Hmm...overly dramatic, but not unexpected" Twilight couldn't believe it, but there was a hint of a chuckle in its tone, "Quite stupid of me to think that herbivores could digest meat. We'll have to see what else is there"

Ignoring the crying yellow mare, the human got to his feet and proceeded to one of the crates close to the crashed airship. He rummaged through the wooden crate for quite a few minutes, before extracting several lime-green colored boxes from its confines.

The alien took another pot from the crate and filled it to the brim with the contents of the lime-green boxes. He then removed the pot Natalya had left in the flames and replaced it with the one in his claws.

"Natalya, be a good birdie and get me some plates"

Birdie?

"How many do you want?" asked the griffin in question as she opened a green crate.

"Around a dozen or so would do"

The plates were collected and passed onto the alien, which gratefully accepted them. He then reached into Natalya's pot and attempted to grasp onto a small bar simmering away in the boiling water, but retracted it quickly due to the heat.

"Let me get that for you" Using her magic, Twilight levitated the object out of the boiling water and handed it over to the alien who accepted it cautiously.

"Thank you...equine," said the alien slowly.

"My name's Twilight Sparkle, Mr. Human"

"Very well...Thank you. Ms. Sparkle"

The alien flipped the knife in its claws and positioned it near its eyes. The normally vacant eyes squinted slightly as the group watched its actions silently.

"Yes...very good. Cleaned."

"Pardon me for askin', but why's that there knife glowing purple?" asked Applejack curiously.

"Do not worry about that...erm, name?"

"Name's Applejack"

"Ms. Applejack" insisted the human, "As for why the knife glows purple. That's just Red Cloud residue in the Saturnite's corrosion reacting with basic solutions. Nothing harmful about it"

"Saturnite?"

"A ceramic and metal composite alloy" explained the alien, "'Space-age' metal. Lightweight, durable and able to absorb enormous amounts of kinetic and heat energy. Uses include artillery shells, armor plating, even kitchen knives. Although..."

The alien twirled the blade in its hands with expert precision, "The knife is uncanny in its sharpness, almost ridiculously so. The number of chopping boards this thing can go through..."

The alien chuckled to himself darkly before turning back to the stunned group of mares, "I'm sure you all have many questions, but we shall skip those for now and focus on introductions. You are?"

"Oh-oh, me next, me next!" Pinkie Pie jumped up and down like a filly high on sugar and bounced over to the alien to shake his claws, "Pinkie Pie's my name. Party's are my game."

"Nice to meet you, Ms. Pie," said the alien as he let his claws be moved up and down erratically by the enthusiastic mare.

"Call me Pinkie" Pinkie got scooted closer to the alien and her voice lowered, "Say...do you like parties?"

"No" replied the alien simply. Pinkie's wild mane quickly deflated like a balloon, sounds and all included, as well as her joyful expression.

"W-what? How could you not enjoy parties?!"

"No reason to. Been so long since I had one."

"Well...we can't have that now, can we?" Pinkie's mane inflated once more as a determined expression drew itself on her face, "Once we get back to Ponyville, I'll make you the greatest party ever! Just you wait!"

Pinkie jumped back to her spot, mumbling to herself about many things party related. The alien watched her with apt curiosity before directing his attention back to mares yet to introduce themselves.

"Next?"

"Rarity, darling" Rarity moved over and shook his claws with slight hesitation. Her eyes twinkled as she took in the alien apparel, "You simply must visit me once we get back to Ponyville. I'll need to do something about that dreadful attire of your's"

"Excuse me?" In a remarkable display of emotion, one of the alien's eyebrows rose in question, "What's wrong with what I'm wearing right now?"

"Why, everything!" Rarity cried out as she reached up and touched the brown material on its trenchcoat. "This material is simply dreadful. I've never seen such a badly degraded piece of material. What is this by the way?"

"Leather"

"Oh! I use leather quite extensively myself, dearie. Where do you get your leather from?" Rarity asked with felicitous curiosity as she placed her head closer to the material to get a better look at it.

"Brahmins"

"What's a Brahmin?"

"Mutated cows"

COWS?!

Twilight wasn't the only one to gag at that thought. Most of the girls turned either green or white at the mere thought of it. Poor Fluttershy was on the brink of fainting.

"Right...apart from that..." Rarity grimaced as she pulled away and directed her attention to something other than the leather the alien wore. "We'll have to fix that. Oh, yes. The metal plates will have to come off too"

"Sorry Ms. Rarity, but that is a no-no" replied the alien.

"But what is the point of it?! It makes you look so bulky, and it simply must be uncomfortable as Tartarus to wear with all that weight" argued Rarity.

"But it serves its purpose and that is all that I need. As long as the armor that I wear can soak up bullets, plasma, and lasers, then that is all that is necessary"

Rarity tsked and pouted her lips as she pulled back and returned to her place by the fire, "This isn't over, just so you know"

Next to come up was Rainbow Dash, who still remained rather annoyed at how the alien treated her before, but still stuck her hooves out to shake the alien claw.

'Rainbow Dash. Wonderbolt" she eyed him up and down with a critical eye, "I don't know what you did to Natalya, but if it was something bad, then I'll make sure that you'll regret ever coming here"

"Rainbow Dash!!" reprimanded Applejack, "Was that really necessary?"

To her surprise though, the alien's voice chuckled rather sinisterly from the robot ball. "Don't worry about it Ms. Applejack. I take no insult to the statement. All shall be explained shortly. But for now, I'll like to ask a simple question; What is this Wonderbolt thing you mentioned?"

"Thing? The Wonderbolts aren't a thing, they're the thing" bragged Rainbow Dash.

"You didn't answer my question"

"I was getting there. Simply put, the Wonderbolts are the best of the best, the greatest thing to have ever existed in Equestria" Rainbow placed a hoof over her chest proudly, "The best flyers in all of Equestria, and I'm proud to be a part of it"

"Sure..." the voice responded as if it was unsure of itself, "I bet they are...Mr. Dash"

With just one word, the tense atmosphere of the conversation came crashing down. Animals and insects went as quiet as death, leaving the only sounds of the campfire crackling eligible. Everyone in the camp froze, with the only oblivious one been the human who stirred the pot with a metal spatula.

The first sounds that broke out were Pinkie's bad concealed laughter, then Rarity joined it, then Twilight, Natalya and Applejack too had to shove hooves/talons over their muzzles/beaks to muffle their own badly concealed laughter. Giggling echoed across the meadow and even Fluttershy, who had been terrified up to this point, gave a small smile.

Funny of all was of course Rainbow Dash, who froze in midair and somehow suspended herself despite her wings not actually moving. Her tail had gone completely stiff as her mouth hung open.

"M-m-m-Mr?!" croaked Rainbow Dash with barely suppressed rage.

"Why yes, that's what you are after all, aren't you?" The human looked her up, though he sounded unsure of himself as he spoke again, "Aren't you a male?"

"I'M A MARE!!"

"Huh, who would have guessed. Sorry, but you..." The alien gave Rainbow Dash another scrutinizing gaze, "Don't really accentuate the 'feminine' persona"

"See Rainbow Dash? Even the alien agrees with me" added Rarity from the sidelines, "Now if you would just let me-"

"NEVER!" screamed Rainbow Dash to the high heavens as she zoomed back to her seat, "Just...never mention this again!"

"Sure...sir," said the human cheekily.

"Argh!!' screamed the furious mare exasperatedly.

"And you are?" The human directed his attention to the final member of their group, the one that Twilight had the greatest fear for. She found her fears warranted, as the yellow mare went pale and quickly scooted as far away from the human as she could.

"Sorry about Fluttershy," said Twilight protectively as she stood in front of her before the human could take a step towards her. "She is terrified of you. Mostly because of the rabbits"

"Is that so?" Fluttershy nodded her head slowly behind Twilight's back in response to the alien's question, "Apologies, but that is the way of nature. My species is capable of digesting both meat and plants, however, such scarcities in resources often make the choices a...luxury that I cannot afford"

"But...those rabbits had a f-family...a...life that they had,...you took that...away from them" mumbled Fluttershy.

"True, but I'm not going to put their lives above my own. If what is necessary for survival is to take a few lives, then I shall do so without hesitation"

The alien flipped his knife around until the blade ran underneath his claws, "Look away if you must. Birdie, pass me the plates. Watch closely at what I'm about to do"

Twilight watched with closely at what the alien did, as well as a majority of the girls and Natayla. The alien made a few quick incision near the rear of the first rabbit. He then grabbed the flap of skin that hung from his incisions and with one quick tear, he skinned the entire rabbit in one fell swoop. Twilight felt the pit in her stomach grow as he then discarded the fur and flipped the raw, red carcass around, dissecting the rabbit and opening its insides for all of them to see.

"What you want to do is use the other side of your knife. Easier to cut through the meat and a less likely chance to pierce the internal organs" instructed the alien as Natalya slid a plate over to him as he worked. The alien reached in and pulled out several strands of entrails, as well as a large ball-shaped organ. "See this? Bladder. If we had pierced this then most of the meat would have been spoiled. Discard the bladder, guts, brains, head, and stomach. Don't need those. What you can have for extras are the..."

A small piece of vibrant red meat was placed on one of the plates. "Heart"

Two smaller purple pieces placed next to it. "Kidneys"

Two flabby pieces of meat came next. "Lungs"

For the final piece, the alien examined it lovingly in its claws for a brief moment.

"Ah yes. The liver. Such a powerhouse, it cleans stuff, detoxifies stuff and synthesizes proteins. Such a valuable organ" He gently placed it away with the rest of the accepted organs on his meat tray, "And yet...leave it on the pan for a few seconds longer than it must and you've already blown it. Such a delicate thing"

He soon fell silent as he scooped the last of the rabbit's innards out and flipped it around once more. He then flipped the knife to its other side and began making cuts out of the outer flesh. Soon, the plates were stacked with chunks of rabbit meat, the repugnant smell emulating to the group of mares and turning them all green.

"Here" The alien flipped the knife around and offered it to Natalya handle first, "Your turn. Careful with the knife, can't remember the number of times I nearly sliced off my fingers."

As he left Natalya to try her luck with the second rabbit, the alien directed his attention to the fire and pushed the pot he had placed before in there slightly to the side. He then took out a small pan and began slowly placing the chunks of meat on it to fry.

"Umm...Ah don't mean to inject mah' self" Applejack flinched as the meat made contact with the hot pan and the sizzling of fat became apparent, "But we never got yah name"

"Who I am is....difficult to explain," said the alien, "But if you want the most simplistic answer. This body's name is Houston. If you want the complicated answer, then the one currently speaking to you is Houston's brain"

"I'm sorry, brain?" asked Rainbow Dash incredulously.

"It was Birdie's idea to tackle the language barrier" Houston pointed towards the griffin still butchering away at the rabbit, "She raised a good point. I had built a device for communication, but it was limited to one creature at a time. I didn't have the time to build a hundred more, so I just did the next best thing. I plugged myself in a machine, and now the brain is the one talking"

"You say that the brain is the one talking, yet you refer to yourself in the first person. Why is that?" asked Twilight.

"Cause whether it is the brain who speaks or the body that speaks. We are Houston in the end" replied the brain, "Heart, Spine. Whatever it may be, they are all intricate parts of you"

"Cool! Does this mean my heart and spine can talk too?" asked Pinkie excitedly.

"Erghh...you do realize that those particular organs lack neurons, don't you? That means can't speak?"

"But a brain lacks a mouth! Rebut that Mr. Smartypants" argued Pinkie.

"I...I...My inferior frontal gyrus is wired up to both a language translator and a thought-synthesizing processor in my robot. Your heart and spine can't be wired up to thought-synthesizing processors! They can't SPEAK!!"

"Hey, Twilight?" Rainbow Dash nudged Twilight gently, "Can you explain all this egghead mumbo-jumbo to me?"

"Very Well, let me put it in simplistic terms for you. Brain. Smart. Heart. Stupid. Spine. Very stupid. You? Exceptionally stupid" Applejack and Rarity had to push themselves against Rainbow dash to hold her back from pouncing on Houston.

"Why are you such a jerk now?" asked Twilight slightly annoyed.

"Meh. Just felt like it" yawned the brain, "But don't think that it is limited to me. If I were to plug your brains into thought-synthesizing processors, then you might be just as bad, if not worse. The reason most of us aren't complete and total bastards in public is that our true opinions are held back by morality, a sense of social pressures and fear of social stigmatization"

"So the reason that you are so snarky right now..."

"Its because the outlet has allowed me to speak my thoughts without filters such as second thinking. What's the expression? 'Speaking your mind?' I just took it literally. The real Houston is closed off, calculative, and hides his manipulations behind a veil of sympathy and care. Now I'll admit that I'm partially responsible for that persona, but in all honesty, I'm one of the many pieces that make up the complexities of a sentient being."

"This...is so weird. A talking brain is making me rethink myself" mumbled Twilight as she rubbed her head. The alien sighed before taking several plates and distributing the yellow pasta he'd been cooking evenly.

"Might as well get comfortable, Ms. Sparkle. Dinner has just begun" The alien slid a plate to each of them, forks and spoons accompanying each of their plates. Twilight, too exhausted and hungry to care at this point, dug in without a second thought.

Overall, dinner with the alien wasn't as bad as Twilight thought it would be. The food Houston (calling him brain would just be complicated) served them wasn't as bad as she expected. After he and Natalya assured them that it contained no meat, most of the group was more than happy to start eating. Fluttershy just needed a few minutes to mop up her crying.

Speaking of the meat, Twilight watched with fascination as Houston and Natalya consumed the meat. While sickening at first, she soon grew accustomed to it as she allowed herself to delve into her more nerdy side and watch the human's teeth tear apart the meat with ease.

Of course, there were moments where her curiosity couldn't even hide her disdain. Especially when Natalya and Houston took their time consuming the rabbit's hearts with relish.

Conversations were polite as the two groups exchanged comments back and forth. After it was established to the human that he was in Equestria, and to them that he was from another world, the conversation so took a more casual tone. Twilight for one had a rather extensive debate with Houston of the principles of magic, seeing as how he said he came from a world that didn't have such a thing and seemed to have quite a scornful outlook towards it. He, in turn, gave brief descriptions of the technological marvels of his world, never telling her how they worked, just a vague illustration of what they did.

"I must admit...I may have been too quick to judge on magic. I did not expect it to have such a strong dependence on the field of science. Nor that its limitations, too, lie within the realms of science" said Houston as he discarded another bone onto the slowly growing pile. The human had made sure to make the bone pile far away from Fluttershy, just in case she breaks down into another outburst.

"Yes, yes," said Twilight impatiently as she waited for her turn to ask the next question. She had to admit, it felt absolutely frustrating talking to this alien. Every time she tried to squeeze any more information out of the alien about his technology, he would skimp out of the detail and move on to another topic. It was like he was purposefully only giving her the hints and minor details, skipping on all the intricate workings of the tech he was talking about. "You were saying something about medical technology"

"Hmm...? Oh yes, humanity has developed several medicinal technologies. Our greatest advancement's in that field has to be the Auto-Docs line"

"Auto-Docs?"

"Automated Doctors," said Houston, "Machines capable of performing any forms of surgery, as long as you have the appropriate programs to supplement them. Try to use them without the correct programs and the machines will tear you apart in confusion. Other than that, the machines have an almost completely 100% success rate"

"Could these machines of yah's fix a pony's hip?" asked Applejack as her eyes lit up, no doubt thinking about Granny Smith.

"Of course they can. But as I said, only if the correct program is fed to the machine's databanks" replied Houston as he took a sip of his tea, "Why? Are you interested?

"Perhaps" whistled Applejack innocently, "Yall have that machine with ya?"

"I do. It's in my ship" Houston waved down Applejack's excitement though, "But Birdie's gotten first dibs. Sorry"

Natalya?

The group turned their attention back to the griffin, whose head current laid across the human's lap and snoozed away peacefully. Having fallen asleep with a chunk of meat in her mouth, Houston reached a finger in a retracted it and consumed it himself, much to the rest of the group's disgust.

"You never did tell us how you met Natalya, dear," said Rarity as she stared at the griffin's sleeping form. "Or why she refuses to leave and chooses to stay with you"

...

The human fell silent, slowly stroking Natalya's feathered head. As the group watched on from across the flames, they felt as if they had encroached on a topic they perhaps shouldn't have brought up so soon.

"Your...early...arrival sparks a problem. I knew that contact with your world's populace was inevitable. Natalya was the first that I met and her...predicament was a perfect place to start"

"I'm sorry, predicament?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Her wings. I found her lying on the fringes of a canyon. I did his best to fix her up, but...complications in her biology resulted in an unfortunate loss of limbs" Houston poked the dying fire to get more out of it, "Hope was not lost. Communications were established. And a deal was struck. She would provide information about your world, in response, I would repair her wings"

"But how can you repair them when you were responsible for breaking them in the first place?" asked Twilight.

"Hold on, this has somethin' to do with that there machine of yours, innit?" interjected Applejack.

"Correct. If she provided all the information that I needed, then I could have developed a program for the Auto-Docs to fix her wings. We did not expect a...search effort to come looking for her" Houston readjusted himself to get a more comfortable position whilst keeping her dozing head on his lap, "It is not in a griffin's nature to care for one another. Or so she told me. Our plans relied on that aspect of griffin nature. If successful, she would return to the general population without any harm and I could have taken my time to slowly reveal myself. But now that plan is trashed and we find ourselves at an impasse"

"How so?"

"What to do? By contract, she is yet to receive the treatment I promised her and at the moment I lack the knowledge to make it happen. You come here, to my home, and no doubt wish to take Natalya back with you and return to civilization. That spells problems for my current dealings with her"

"Couldn't you just come with us?" asked Rainbow Dash simply as if it was the clearest answer in the world.

"And leave my plane, my weapons, my technologies in the middle of the forest?" rebutted Houston, "I will die before he allows anyone else to touch my technology. No...if I'm to go anywhere, then my tech must come with him"

"Wait. I think I have a solution to that problem" Twilight pulled out the bag she had brought with her, which up to this moment she had neglected to bring up. "If I use a shrinking spell, I should be able to put it in this bag and take it back with us"

"Maybe...Magic might work," said Houston uneasily, "But what about accommodation? Where am I suppose to stay? Especially in a world that has never seen me before and most likely will not respond well. How am I meant to integrate into a world like that?"

"I-I can put in a good word for you" responded Twilight, "I am a Princess after all"

The human chewed his lips, which was quite unsettling considering the fact that his eyes remained blank and vacant. "Should have guessed that you were someone important. But fine. Considering the fact that you give a good word. What am I suppose to do with that without any legitimate way to back it up?"

'You could always work for us!" Twilight had a sudden stroke of genius as an idea came into her head, "We wouldn't mind having another teacher at the School of Friendship"

"A teacher?" For the first time since they've met the human, this was the first time that there was genuine uncertainty in his tone. All the other times were either cleverly faked, or so perfectly acted unless Twilight took the time to listen in and get a closer look. "I don't know Ms. Sparkle. A teacher is perhaps one of the last things you would want me to be. Especially...friendship"

"That won't be necessary" assured Twilight. "You could teach my students about your world. In fact, you could also teach us about it as well. We've just begun to learn about your world and there's still so much left to learn"

"But...but..."

"Or" interrupted Twilight, "You could just stay here in the forest for a long time"

It wasn't in Twilight nature to act so manipulatively. At the moment, however, her excitement grew so it clouded her usual better judgment. She was just so excited at the prospect of a human in her world and all the knowledge they could get out of him, that he smile grew wider and wider as she watched the human sit and ponder.

"How soon can you shrink my equipment?" asked Houston slowly as his resolve capitulated and Twilight internally squealed.

"Around tomorrow"

"Tomorrow morning it is then" replied Houston slowly as he removed Natalya's head from his lap and got to his feet. He whistled loudly and soon a robotic dog emerged from the shadow of the forest's edge. "B-6-RK will guard you for the night. There should be some extra blankets and the such in that brown case over there. Take what you need, but don't touch anything else"

With a loud hissing sound, the pod containing the creature they followed, emerged and waddled over to Houston and the group. Bending over, it reached down and picked Natalya gently, before following his master over to the hatch of Houston's plane.

Opening the heavy doors, the robot came in first, Houston remained behind to give the group a few parting words.

"I hope this contract proves to be long and beneficial for all of us. Sweet dreams" And with that, the heavy metal doors slammed closed. Leaving the group of mares to their thoughts, their fears, and their excitement.

"Set her down A L P H A" commanded Houston while pointing to the retractable bed built near the cockpit, "You can return to your charge pod afterward. You shall need all the strengths for tomorrow"

After making sure that the griffin was carefully tucked into the bed, A L P H A quietly retracted himself from the tight and cramped area. Houston too was going to join his robot and grab a sleeping bag to sleep at the back of the plane, until he noticed he was being held back by a talon.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" Houston turned around and stared down at the offending griffin, eyes wide awake and holding no trances of exhaustion.

"I want to speak to Houston," said Natalya simply, pushing herself up into an upright position.

"You can speak to me right now"

"Not you" Natalya's eyes flashed dangerously, "The real you. The real Houston I know. Not some alien comic book cliche, but the Houston that healed me. The Houston that fed me. Warmed me. Saved me"

The symbiosis of man and machine fell silent as the griffin continued to apply pressures to his wrist. Eventually, he sighed and a hand reached up and ripped the blue and red wires out of their ports on his head. The moment he did that, color flushed his cheeks and life returned to his previously blank eyes. As the eyebot floated away from Houston, he reached over to the table and fetched the headsets he built a few days ago, passing one to Natalya and keeping the last for himself.

"Hey, Birdie" He flinched as the griffin threw herself at him and into his chest, "Happy to see me, aren't you?"

"It's great to hear your voice again. Not that garbled mess that came from the speakers" mumbled Natalya in his chest. She quickly pushed herself away from him and took a few deep breaths. "I was so afraid when you came out of that Auto-Doc. You sounded so different"

"We knew the risks Natalya" Houston patted her shoulders reassuringly, "Still, it all worked out so no harm was done, yeah?"

"Perhaps" She crossed her arms, "So...what is this about a deal you've made with the princess and her gang of lackeys behind my back?"

"Hehe..." Houston laughed nervously, "I take it you didn't like it?"

"Not at all. I think you and I know that it was bound to happen sooner or later. What I wanted to know is why you'd manipulated them into thinking you were desperate. Or how you attained so many conditions onto your side of the contract?"

"How'd you find out? Are you mad at me?" Natalya smiled for the first time and shook her head.

"To read character is every griffin's gift. Nah, you did something every griffin does. Bend the conditions so that you get the better end of the deal" she punched him playfully on the shoulder, 'I find that admirable, really. Still, why did you do it? Most griffins don't even have the guts to bargain with royalty. Much less a pony princess"

"Basic rules of the bargain. Always. Make sure that you the better end of the deal. Doesn't matter with who. Doesn't matter what it takes" Houston threw himself into a chair adjacent her bed and leaned back in contentment, "I'm getting accommodations, I'm getting paid, no one touches my tech, and all I have to do is traumatize a bunch of kids about my world. What's not to love?"

"Exactly! Feels great to speak to someone about things like this. Griffins are too selfish to bother being my friend and ponies are too busy buried in flowers to even consider such a pessimistic thing. Still..." Natalya trailed off as her smile slowly dropped, "What about the contract you've made with me? Where does this leave me?"

"Birdie..." Houston got up and slowly stroked her cheek, forcing her head up to look into his warm brown eyes, "I expected more faith from you. Didn't I say? I always fulfill my contracts. It doesn't matter how many I take. I will always finish all of them...to the best of my ability. If it makes you better, hopefully where we are going has a library with plenty of books on Griffin biology"

"Now sleep" He lightly pushed her back and forced her onto the bed, "Tomorrow is going to be hectic"

Getting off his chair, Houston stared out of one of the plane windows, seeing the silhouettes of the pony princess and her friends. Sighing in exhaustion, he shut the covers and walked down the hallways to set his sleeping bag down on the cold metal.

"Goodnight Houston" yawned the griffin from her place of the bed.

"Night...Birdie"