William's eyes slowly fluttered open as the morning sunlight came through the window. He grunted as he lit up his horn and closed the curtains, but just as he was about to fall asleep again there was a knock on the door.

"William! Get up. We're going to Canterlot." Twilight said on the other side of the door.

William grunted in response as he dragged himself out of bed and put on his tie and lab-coat before exiting the bedroom. When he came downstairs Twilight was standing by the door with a saddlebag strapped on.

"Come on, we're gonna be late for the train." she said with a sense of hurry in her voice.

William yawned before giving a nod as he walked over to her.

"Okay...looks like I'm gonna have to teleport us to the train station." Twilight said when she realized that William wasn't fully awake.

William didn't have time to respond as Twilight's magical aura surrounded them both and then in the blink of an eye they were standing at the train station.

"Stay here while I buy tickets." Twilight said before walking off.

William just nodded while he mumbled to himself.

"I could use a cup of coffee right now..." he said with a yawn.

Just as he was about to fall asleep in a standing position Twilight came up to him with two tickets.

"All set. Ready to go?" she asked.

"Yeah...which carriage?" William answered.

"Carriage 2, seat 7." Twilight said as she turned to board the train with William sleepily walking behind her.

The two entered the carriage and sat down on their seat as the train whistle eventually sounded and the train begun moving. Twilight looked out the window to see the landscape as the train continued towards Canterlot. Suddenly she felt something warm touch her shoulder. She slightly flinched as she turned to see William resting his head on her shoulder, sleeping soundly. Twilight did her best to ignore it, but it was impossible for her to hide the embarrassed blush on her face. After a few minutes she began hearing William mumbling in his sleep. She managed to lean closer in an attempt to hear what he said. He was mumbling some kind of lullaby that Twilight couldn't hear clear enough to decide which it was. After the lullaby ended he started to mumble something else. However this time it wasn't as light hearted from what Twilight heard.

"You think I didn't know you were coming?" he mumbled "I'm not handing over anything." he continued.

To say Twilight was confused would be an understatement, but she kept listening as the mumbling turned to single words and short sentences.

"No.....Sherry...……..Where are you?.....Help me."

The last one was the last straw for Twilight and she shook William awake.

"Huh! Wha- where- who?" he rambled in confusion.

"You were talking in your sleep." Twilight explained.

"Okay...what did I say?" he asked curiously.

"You started with mumbling a lullaby, then you said to sentences about someone taking something from you and after that you said no to something, you said a name, you asked someone for their location and then you asked for help. Does it ring any bells?" Twilight said.

William searched his memory, but couldn't remember any of those kinds of things.

"No. I don't remember something I can describe with that." William answered.

"How about the name Sherry?" Twilight asked.

Once again William thought of it for a little while.

"It sounds familiar, but I don't remember." he answered.

Twilight sighed, but she dropped the subject. There was no reason to talk about something he didn't remember.

The train slowly came to a stop at the train station in Canterlot and ponies began exiting the train. Twilight and William walked through the streets as William looked around. They noticed that a few ponies around them whispered to each other when they saw the two, but they paid it no mind. When they came up to the castle entrance Twilight looked over to see William's mouth hanging open.

"I knew that Equestria's capital would be beautiful, but this is a whole other level!" William exclaimed.

"Just wait until you see the inside." Twilight said as she walked up to one of the guards standing by the gate.

After a few moments of talking the guards opened the gate to let Twilight and William through.
The two walked through the beautifully decorated halls towards the throne room. Twilight walked there like she knew what the halls looked like with her eyes closed, while William looked around at such speed that it looked like he had five heads. After a few minutes they came to a large double door that opened to reveal the large throne room. Princess Celestia looked up from her paperwork to see the two standing there.

"Twilight. I'm glad you could come." she said as her eyes moved over to William. "So he is William?" she asked.

Twilight looked over to William who was bowing for the princess before she looked back at her former teacher.

"Yes." she answered as she gestured for William to stand. "He is a virologist and he wanted to set up a lab where he could do research. I told him that the best bet was here in Canterlot." she explained.

Celestia thought for a little while about what Twilight had said before she answered.

"What kind of research?" she asked.

"He wanted to help create vaccines against diseases that are caused by viruses." Twilight answered.

Again Celestia needed a few minutes to think, but from what Twilight told her it seemed okay.

"If he only means it for the better of Equestria then I'll allow it. We can take one of the spare rooms here in the castle and convert it into a laboratory, but I will have you under a watchful eye." she explained.

William's face brightened with a smile as he bowed one more time before speaking.

"Thank you so much your majesty. I will not let you down."

Author's Note

I intentionally made it seat 7 on the train. Can you find out why?