"Hey, Lacy!"

"Yes, Twilight?"

"You wanna come with us tomorrow to Appleloosa?"

"Sure, I guess... Why?"

"Just thought it would be better if all of my friends would come."

"I mean, why do you go there?"

"Oh, well Applejack wants to replant a tree in their orchard. The town was just finished building recently and it's some kind of family tradition since there lives her cousin."

"I see. Well, I guess I could do some more traveling since there is still nothing about my way to home."

"I know, that there wasn't any news but don't worry. Princess Celestia wrote a letter, saying, that she plans to come and visit soon, I'm sure, she would give you some information about your situation."

"Will you two keep quiet? I'm trying to sleep!"

"Sorry, Spike. Good night Lacy!"

"Night!"

"Thank ya kindly for coming to help me." Applejack greeted the others, then pointed her hoof at the tree she was standing next to. "This is Bloomberg. He will be the lucky tree, that gets replanted in my cousin, Braeburn's orchard. All we have to do is dig him out and then put him on the carriage and take him to the train station. There we only have to place him in the last wagon."

The ponies, Spike, and Lacy all grabbed a shovel and began to get the tree out from the ground. Not every pony was here though. Rarity didn't want to get dirty so she will be meeting with the others at the train station. Rainbow Dash wasn't here either. Lacy didn't know her that much to suspect her of napping somewhere, he thought that she had weather duty or something else.

Soon the human found himself covered in sweat and his back being in pain. After a few grunts, Applejack began to notice his condition.

"Not really used to hard work, eh?" she said to him. Lacy was hard to determine whether it was just friendly teasing, or she tried to offend him.

"The last few years, I mostly sat on my ass, being it work or free time so yeah, I'm not an example of physical work." he reacted. "But I do plenty of hard, mental work."

Applejack nodded, then continued working. Soon the tree was out from the ground and was being moved to the train station.

"So these trains can go over three hundred kilometers per hour?" Twilight asked.

"Probably a lot more but I don't know a lot about them, just that they're not connected to the rails with wheels but magnetic field and that makes possible that they can go really fast," Lacy answered.

They were already on the train to Appleloosa. Lacy didn't understand why was it pulled by earth ponies when there was a locomotive on the front but Twilight quickly explained, that it's a tradition that the first run on new lines was always pulled by ponies except when there was an emergency. And since Appleloosa was a newly built town and its railway was just finished, this was the first train ride there. But since it was relatively far away, and they only departed in the afternoon, they will only arrive the next morning, because those ponies had to rest as well.

"Sounds awesome," Rainbow said, then added, "Still not faster than me."

"Sounds a little scary to me," Fluttershy told them, though it was hard to hear her quiet voice.

"Have you ever been on a train like that?" Twilight continued the questioning. She didn't want to miss her daily session with Lacy when the man tells her things about his world and this time it was about mass transportation. The others were also curious about Lacy's world but they were content with a less detailed version but Twilight had to ask for every little thing, she could get from the man.

"Nah, there isn't any in my country and I never been in a country which has, never had the opportunity to go either." Lacy gave her the answer, which disappointed the unicorn a little because that meant, he couldn't give them any experience through words or memory viewing.

"Alright, moving on. You talked about these busses, trams, trains, and since today we only talk about ground transportation, is there something else?"

"Well there is one more, that I know of, the metro," Lacy told her. "It's basically kind of like the tram just underground."

"So it's like the Manehattan subway?" Twilight asked.

"Probably, if that's an underground train system." Twilight nodded. "Anyway, it's usually in bigger cities and probably the fastest transport in a city because it doesn't depend on traffic. All of them run on electricity, at least as far as I know, and can be really advanced."

"What do you mean by that?" came the next question by Twilight.

"Well, there are some metro lines, including one in the city, I live in, which runs by itself," Lacy told her but had to explain it further after seeing the confused glares that he received from Twilight and the others as well. "I mean, it doesn't need a human to drive it. It's fully controlled by a computer." That got some reaction. The ponies could hardly believe what they were hearing. Of course Twilight had to ask how does it work. "I don't know exactly how, but it goes on the given track, stops at the stations, opens the doors, closes them after some waiting, then goes to the next stop. I don't know much about it, I was just a passenger on it, and the place I'm working didn't create the program for it so I have no knowledge."

After some more talk, he decided to go to sleep. He was pretty tired after the work with the tree. He walked back into the train car which was for Bloomberg. Sadly for Lacy, the beds on the train were too small for him, it was designed for ponies so he had to improvise. They took all the unused bed sheets, pillows, blankets and made a makeshift bed big enough for the human. But to not to take all the place in the passageway in the car, the ponies were, they decided that he will be sleeping in Bloomberg's car since that was almost completely empty save for the tree.

The tree was placed on a bed big enough for Lacy but Applejack wouldn't let him use it as the bed was so 'Bloomberg won't be too stressed'. Lacy gave in, of course, saying, he had worse but of course Applejack had to warn him to be careful with Bloomberg even though, he'd sleep in the other end of the car.

A few minutes later, the car door's opened and a silhouette of a little dragon walked in, on his way to the other end of the car, where the tree was.

"Hey Lacy, mind if I sleep here, with Bloomberg? The girls can't keep quiet." Spike said.

"I don't mind."

"I have to warn you though, that I tend to snore a bit."

"Me too, but my grandpa always said, that at night, you have to sleep, not listen," Lacy told him.

"Can't argue with that. Anything else, he said?"

"I remember, once asking him, when I slept at my grandparents, that what will happen if I snore. He told me, that he'll kick my as... um... butt." both of them chuckled. "Then I asked, what if he snores. He said, that then I won't sleep." they laughed at this for a moment, then said their 'Good night!'s. Spike fell asleep immediately and began snoring. "Snore a bit my ass..." Lacy let out a sigh, after hearing, that there was somebody who could be worse than his father. It was strange, though, that even though, he slept in the same room with the dragon ever since he got here, he rarely snored and it was never this loud.

The next morning was the worst awakening, Lacy ever had. The whole car was moving and not only forward on the railroad. Something was constantly hitting it from the sides with such force, that he was flying from wall to wall, hurting himself pretty hard. The bed, with Bloomberg and spike on it, was moving too and Lacy hoped, it won't hit him because that would mean bone-breaking at best. He didn't want to imagine the worst.

Spike woke up too and started yelling. Meanwhile adrenaline and panic kicked in Lacy. He tried to grab something, he can hold on, so he won't be dropped back and forth, like a sack of potato. The only thing, he found was the window frame but that wasn't exactly suitable for this.

Fortunately, the whole thing stopped, and the car started to slow down. The ground was still shaking, while the car completely stopped, then started to go in the other direction. Lacy was still in shock from what happened and didn't even notice Spike, who in the end somehow ended up hugging his leg, now was climbing on him, and after getting upon his head, he looked out of the window and started yelling for help.

"Spike! What's going on?" Lacy finally could ask.

"Buffalos are dragon-napping us!" Spike shouted in panic.

"What? But why?"

"I don't know! What do we do?" the dragon looked at the man. They both were scared but Lacy had to act like an adult and take care of Spike.

This was the first time when Lacy had to take care of himself and someone else in this world. The others were further by the second and this was a dangerous situation. They've been kidnapped and he had no idea what will these buffalos do to him and Spike. He considered jumping out of the train but they were moving too fast and even if they manage to land without any serious injury, they wouldn't be able to outrun buffalos.

"Spike. Listen to me. When we stop, I'll try to distract them. When they're all looking at me, you escape. Try to be quiet and always search for tight places, where only you can fit in case they discover you. And try to follow the railroad." Lacy told his plan to the little dragon.

"But wha-" he was cut off when the car suddenly stopped.

By the sounds of it, the buffalos were cheering out there, and their numbers were great. Lacy wasn't so sure of his plan, because the more their kidnappers are, the higher the chance they'll discover Spike's disappearance. Only now did a little change in his plan into his mind. Telling Spike to hide here, because they'll likely leave the train car on the rails.

But it was too late. The door opened. A little buffalo came in. She was barely taller than Spike. As she looked at them, her eyes grow wide.

"Oh no..." by the sound of it, Lacy guessed that this one was a female. But it was only a subconscious observation since his mind was mostly confused. She seemed genuinely surprised, that there was somebody in this car. "Chief! There is a problem here!"

A head of another, bigger buffalo came in, looking equally surprised. Lacy and Spike looked at each other, not sure how to proceed.

"Mighty dragon!" The big one started. "Please forgive us for any harm done to you! Let us make it up to you by inviting you and your companion to our town, where we will treat you with the respect your kind deserves." He bowed his head, so did the calf. Lacy and Spike looked at each other, then back at the chief.

"Um... sure," Spike said, then got up and looked back at the man. "Come on Lacy!"

"Spike, I don't think we can trust them," Lacy whispered to the dragon.

"Why not?" Spike asked.

"Do I really need to explain it to you?" Lacy deadpanned.

The little calf walked to them and bowed her head again.

"Please! Let us make it right! You will be our honored guests! Just give us a chance to explain ourselves!" she begged.

"Just look at her, Lacy!" Spike stood up for her. "She must be feeling awful about it. Plus I don't think we could walk all way to Appleloosa."

Lacy had to admit, that the dragon had a good point. So far the ponies were peace-loving, friendly, and could be trusted, why shouldn't he give a chance to the buffalos. He already learned, that even if there are many things that similar to his world, the common mentality is not among them. It seemed unbelievable at first but almost every time proved to him that this world was really like Twilight told him. Of course, that didn't mean that all of the ponies were like that. The rule of big numbers states that eventually, he had to meet the worse kind of them. And Twilight warned him that Fancy Pants was probably the best among the nobles since most of them usually acted like snobs.

"Alright..."

Twilight was worried. According to Braeburn, those buffalos want them to remove the trees but he didn't know why. And now they took Bloomberg, Spike, and Lacy. Rainbow went after them alone and Pinkie Pie was missing. She trusted Lacy to take care of Spike the best way he can but someone had to take care of him too since his knowledge of this world was still full of holes.

She didn't know a lot about buffalos but they were never described as aggressive species, according to that one book, she read and mentioned them, they were almost as peaceful, as ponies, just had different traditions and political systems. They were a tribal community.

She had to consider Lacy's situation though. He was still lacking some knowledge that was considered basic for most creatures in Equestria. Lacy and Spike needed help and she wasn't sure that Rainbow could handle the rescue alone. They all needed to go out and help them. Twilight started to prepare for this rescue mission. She tried to gather more information about the buffalos and the conflict but didn't learn anything useful. The sun was already close to the horizon and there still wasn't any news about Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie. She knew, that today, there's nothing else she could do, so she went to the local inn to turn in early. The others followed her example. They all needed to get up early to go and find the others as soon as possible.

"Are you fucking serious?!" Lacy was furious.

After getting to the buffalo village, and a short Q&A about what Lacy is, the chief explained to them, that the ponies planted their apple orchard on their traditional stampeding grounds, where they run every year. The ponies started to build their town after last year's stampede and the buffalos didn't even notice because according to them, they only go and check the ground a few days before the stampede. What made Lacy angry is the fact, that the buffalos didn't even try a peaceful approach, they saw it as an offense on their ancient grounds.

"You have to understand!" Little Strongheart, the calf that they met after they took the train car was trying to calm him down. "They came and planted their orchard without even asking us."

"And have you ever considered, that maybe they didn't know about it?" Lacy reacted. "No! You had to become goddamn terrorists!"

"What's a terrorist?" asked the calf and Spike at the same time, the others were just looking at him questioning.

"Not important. What's important is that you could've caused serious injuries!"

"I thought, that car was empty save for the tree, I didn't see anything else! It was never our intention to hurt anyone!" Little Strongheart was on the verge of crying now.

"You attacked the whole train! You cannot deny that! You have no idea what damages could've been done. I knew someone who lost his ability to walk in a train accident! He lived his life in a fucking wheelchair!" Lacy continued yelling.

"I'm sorry..." Strongheart said between sobs, while Lacy was fuming.

"Calm down, Lacy!" Spike tried to ease the situation. "They're sorry and nobody's got hurt badly."

It took him a few minutes but eventually, Lacy's breathing went back to normal so did his facial expression. This lasted only for a moment though, when he suddenly got a headache. He groaned and put his right hand onto his forehead. The others looked at him concerned but fortunately, the pain slowly weakened until it was gone.

"Alright... I think I'm over it," he said. "Still what I don't understand is why didn't you at least try to communicate with them before going aggressive and threatening?"

"Because they didn't even ask us if they could plant their orchard there!" the chief answered.

"Okay, let's get one thing clear. Who does that land belong to? Is it part of Equestria? Or the Buffalo Tribe?"

After the question, the chief told Lacy a long tale about how his ancestors got the land from the Princess of the Sun. They were nomads before because they couldn't find a place to call home. When they arrived here, they saw it as the perfect place to call home. As they explored these lands, they met the ponies, who told them, that they're in Equestria. Soon the chief met with Princess Celestia, who let them live in this land, in exchange for being peaceful towards the ponies. From what Lacy could deduct, both of them have the right to use that land and this just made the whole conflict harder to resolve. Not like, Lacy felt it's his responsibility to handle the situation and find a solution, but he would gladly be an assistant if needed. However, so far he only heard one side of the story. He didn't even realize, that the story was so long, the sun was replaced by the moon and night fell on the land.

Somewhere in the middle of the chief's tale, a group of buffalos along with Spike went out, because they spotted two ponies. Lacy guessed, that it was their friends and he was proven right when Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie showed up, and the chief told them too about their situation.

Rainbow quickly decided to side with the buffalos and was ready to help them out. She completely ignored Lacy as he tried to tell her to calm down and at least listen to what the appleloosians say before judging, however, he had to admit, that he himself was also with the buffalos right then. After all, there were many similar situations in human history, just those that were usually more violent.

The chief provided a tent for them to rest for the night. It was a nice gesture but unfortunately, the buffalos didn't have any bed or anything to lay on. The buffalos didn't need them, since their fur was really thick. Lacy laid on his back, hoping, that the ground won't hurt his back too much in case he manages to fall asleep. Fortunately for him, today's events did tire him out, mostly the morning, which was full of adrenaline during the train attack, and the chief's tale, which would make a good bedtime story, because some buffalos even fell asleep during it and a few times even Lacy was getting close to it as well.

At some point, he felt multiple things touching him. Opening his eyes, he saw, that the ponies and dragon were already sleeping, and decided to use his torso as a pillow since they too didn't get anything to sleep on. He just grunted in annoyance but didn't have the heart to wake them up or toss them away.

He didn't get much sleep. A few times woke up during the night and every time it was hard to go back to the realm of dreams. Now he woke up because he heard snickering. As he opened his eyes, the light that came from a small gap where the entrance of the tent was showed him, that it was morning.

As he looked around, still lying on the ground, he found the source of the voice. It was Pinkie Pie, who was standing beside his head and looked towards his torso. He looked at her questioningly, she only pointed towards where she was looking. He raised his head a little and saw what was that funny.

On his left, Spike was curled up, like a pet, and was hugging his left hand. Just now he realized that he felt his scales and claws touching him. However, he felt another thing as well. On his right, Rainbow Dash, her head is still on his stomach. In her sleep, she took his right arm and pulled it over her and holding it, as it was some kind of blanket. She must've gotten cold during the night, or it was just reflex and his arm was the only thing she could grab, even if it wasn't really effective for the role, she intended to use it.

He heard Pinkie whispering something to his ear, while still giggling. It was an idea for a prank. Lacy rolled his eyes but did as she asked.

He freed his left hand and started petting Rainbow's head.

"Good morning, dear! Did you have nice sleep?" He spoke gently. Even he started to having fun as he saw Rainbow smiling and a small nod from her. "Good, after all, last night was really tiring." he heard Pinkie's chuckling getting louder, as she clearly fought to keep her laughter at bay. Lacy decided to take it a little further. "You were so active and loud."

The pegasus continued to smile, as she clearly enjoyed the petting and ignored everything he said. Lacy however couldn't say anything else, because he too had to fight, not to laugh out loud. The constant snickering made Rainbow open her eyes. She looked at her torso and saw an arm across it, which was held there with her hooves. She also felt something touching her head and soon she saw her two friends, who were grinning at her.

She yelped and a moment later, she was in the air. This woke up Spike but for him, the next seconds were occupied rubbing his eyes.

"What in Celestia's name are you doing?" Rainbow asked angrily but Lacy could see, her blushing, she probably just caught up, with what Lacy said to her earlier.

Ponies could blush. A thing, that Lacy experienced when Twilight did it after Lacy gave a more adult answer to one of her questions, and of course there was also some assumption from both sides, that resulted in an embarrassed blush. It was a funny thing when Twilight explained how it works. Lacy didn't understand at first, how could they do that since they have fur. Just like with cutie marks, when a pony blushes, their fur on their cheeks and sometimes at the base of their ears change color.

"Wasn't my idea." Lacy threw up his hands in defense. "Though, it was funny."

"I will get my revenge on you," she spoke in a scary tone, but Lacy was sure, that she meant, she'll prank the life out of him.

Spike wasn't happy for the sudden wake-up, but before he could say anything, a buffalo's head came into the tent, telling them, that they're welcome for breakfast.

Last night, they got dinner, though the man couldn't eat that soup thing, they made, because it contained many things, he couldn't digest. That didn't mean he got to go sleep with an empty stomach, luckily Bloomberg had some apples on him, which was edible. But two apples are hardly a filling dinner meal, not in the long run anyway. He really hoped, that after breakfast, they'll go to Appleloosa immediately and he could get some decent food there.

After they all ate, Little Strongheart led them towards Appleloosa. The town wasn't that far, the walk only took forty minutes. Of course, it felt much longer, because of Rainbow's constant whining, while they weren't going faster. It was because Lacy wasn't an athlete and he couldn't have to keep up with their gallop speed, and they couldn't even carry him as they would Spike.

When they were close to the village, they heard, their friends' voices, and then spotted them running towards them. The moment they noticed the two ponies, the dragon, and the human, they stopped for a second.

"Hi, guys!" Pinkie greeted them.

"Pinkie!" to everyone's surprise, Fluttershy flew to her and tackled the pink mare to the ground. "We're so glad you safe!"

The others came closer as well, nuzzling each other, even Lacy got a face rubbing his legs, namely Rarity. That earned a jealous look from Spike.

"How did you escape from the buffalo?" Twilight asked.

"We didn't." Pinkie answered, and the calf came out from behind a rock. That made the ponies gasp.

"We promised the buffalo a chance to talk." Rainbow explained.

"Oh yeah?" Applejack asked, clearly not happy to see someone, who was among the tree thieves. "'Bout what?"

"We brought our new pal Little Strongheart here to explain to the Appleloosans why they should move the apple trees off buffalo land," Rainbow told her, as she pushed the young calf towards them until she was standing before a stallion, who had a yellow coat and orange mane. He wore a hat, a jacket, and a saddlebag, just like the other ponies. Lacy guessed, that he was Applejack's cousin.

"That information would be quite helpfu-" the stallion was cut off by Applejack.

"That's weird. 'Cause my cousin Braeburn here wants to explain to the buffalo why they should let the apple trees stay." She pushed him closer to the buffalo.

Both Braeburn and Strongheart looked awkward at each other, clearly feeling uncomfortable in the situation, especially after Rainbow Dash and Applejack began speaking in their name. Well more like arguing, then they were really close to fighting each other.

"Shut the fuck up!" Lacy yelled at them, after having enough of both of them. The others flinched at his choice of words.

"Look!" Twilight began, after Lacy's shout. "Both the settlers and the buffalo have good reasons to use this land. There must be something we can do."

"I've got an idea!" Pinkie yelled.

"I have one too," Lacy added.

"I'd rather go with Pinkie's plan," Applejack told to him.

"We didn't even explain it..." Lacy pointed out. "Wouldn't it be better to hear both of us, before choosing? Maybe we have the same plan? What then?" he asked a few questions.

"I don't care." Applejack simply said then turned her back to him and began walking back to the town.

Lacy was confused. For some reason Applejack rarely talked to him, most of the time, she just glared at him, or trying to offend the man. The worst part is, that Lacy didn't know what he said, or did to earn this kind of behavior from the farmer pony. Of course, there is a possibility of him being basically an alien in this land but that was unlikely, since most ponies didn't fear or hate him for it, and Applejack was always described as a kind and welcoming pony, someone who, like Pinkie Pie could be friends with anyone.

The others wore similar looks as Lacy did, only Twilight gave him a sad face. The man knew immediately, that the unicorn had an idea, why did Applejack act as she did.

"Later..." she said quietly, Lacy barely could hear her.

A few hours passed, while Pinkie made the appleloosians build a stage and invited the buffalo tribe as well. Ponies and buffalos stood next to each other, waiting for something.

There was a piano there, and Spike was the pianist. Lacy even asked Twilight if he could play. The mare answered that he learned a few things when she was too deep in studying and didn't need his help. The dragon needed to find some entertainment, besides cooking and comics.

Soon the show started. As the curtains were pulled aside, a giant seashell was revealed, and inside it was Pinkie Pie in a dress strange dress. And then the music began and she started singing.

It was horrible. Lacy's first thought, that this performance itself is a reason for war. Her singing was really fake, and when she started to dance the can-can, that was too much for the man and turned away with his hand on his head. The meaning of the lyrics was something, that Lacy could agree with, but in this serving...

Luckily the song wasn't a long one but judging by the audience's silence which was interrupted by Spike's clapping and praising, they didn't like it either.

"I think we should've gone with Lacy's idea, that can only be better than this," Rainbow whispered to her friends.

"It appears, that Sheriff Silverstar and I have come to an agreement." Chief Tunderhooves announced.

"We have." the Sheriff confirmed.

Lacy couldn't believe what he heard. Maybe they could concentrate only on the lyrics instead of the whole thing? Maybe Pinkie's idea was good after all? Everyone looked hopeful for a moment.

"That was the worst performance we've ever seen," Tunderhooves said, Silverstar agreed. "The time for action is upon us. Our stampede will start at high noon tomorrow. And if the orchard is still there, we'll flatten it... and the whole town!"

"An' we Appleloosans say you'd better bring yer best, 'cause we'll be ready and waitin'." the sheriff answered. Little Strongheart and Braeburn both tried to calm them down but it was futile.

Everyone gasped. This meant war. No one wanted this to happen. And while the ponies and the buffalo just stared at their leaders in surprise, Lacy got a feeling inside of him.

Twilight told him, that Equestria and its neighbors were in peace for hundreds of years. There weren't any inner or outer conflicts. That was something, the man could hardly believe, and after telling Twilight about how much humanity loves war, she could understand. Lacy himself luckily was born in an age and country, that was in peace for some time, and hasn't been part of war yet but the history classes and his grandfathers' stories, and even some video games, movies, and books taught him, that war is something, that must be avoided at any cost. Especially in a place that lived in peace and prosperity for so long.

His first thought was to get Twilight to send a letter to the princess, but she probably wouldn't make it in time. Also, this feeling inside his body told him to step on and stop them himself.

"Enough!" he yelled and looked at the two leaders who stopped glaring at each other and their eyes were on him. "Both of you are idiots!" another wave of gasping went through the land. "You just have to find a compromise, but that would require you to tell each other what your fucking problem is!"

"How dare you speak to me like this?" the Sheriff questioned the man.

"I treated you as a guest of my tribe and you insult me?" Tunderhooves' angry look, made Lacy step backward.

Without another word, the buffalos left.

"That wasn't the message of my song at all." Pinkie said.

"With a horrible show, like that, it's no surprise, what happened..." Lacy murmured.

"That's just rude, at least she tried to make things better, not insulting others." Applejack came to Pinkie's defense. "I told you, that I don't wanna hear your idea, that included, not wanting to try it."

"That wasn't what I had in mind!" Lacy replied, getting angry again. "I just didn't want to hear that pointless fighting! Because they acted like children! No... Worse! Because my four-year-old half-sister could act more mature sometimes, than those woodheads!" his voice raised again. "And instead of antagonizing me, you could start explaining to me, what the fuck is your problem! Because you obviously don't like me is one thing, but you didn't even give me a fucking reason, that's for sure!" with that, he left.

Lacy wasn't sure, where to head since he didn't have the chance earlier to explore the town. Eventually, he found himself out of town, around there, where he stood when he with Rainbow, Pinkie, and Spike reunited with the others. He just sat on a rock, looking forward. He thought about how a bad idea it was to come along with the others. Of course, everyone is smarter in hindsight.

"Pinkie told me, you haven't eaten much at the buffalos," Twilight's voice made him jump a little, he was so deep in thought, that he didn't hear her approach. A big slice of apple pie was floating beside her, surrounded by her magical aura.

"Thanks," he grabbed the food, and started eating, after all, the unicorn was right, he hadn't eaten much since yesterday morning, only a few apples, even after getting to Appleloosa, because of the tension there, he forgot to eat properly.

"It's my fault," she simply said, which earned a confused look from the man. "I told my friends a few things about your world, and Applejack got the conclusion, that you'll cause trouble."

"What kind of trouble? What did you tell them?"

"Just some things, like you, are more advanced technologically, some basic social things, and that you are more violent, and there's a lot of conflicts there. I guess, she's thinking, that you'll ruin the peace and harmony here," she explained.

"That's just stupid! I mean, sure, humanity is kinda cruel and self-destruction, but mostly in groups, and I consider myself a peace-loving individual. Well at least in reality, in games, movies, books, I can enjoy a good battle scene, or whole warfare if it's well-made, but that's just imagination."

"I was trying to tell her that, but she could be really stubborn. By the way, what was your plan?" Twilight asked, changing the subject, and waited patiently, as Lacy quickly finished the pie.

"Something like Pinkie's idea just presented a much better. Simply they should just cut the land in half. One half is for the apple orchard, the other is for the buffalo." Lacy told her, what he made up with his common sense.

"There are some problems, though. If they remove half of the apple trees, there won't be enough to provide food for all the ponies. Besides, the rumbling from the stampede would make the apples fall, even the unripe ones. Hmm... however..." Twilight began rubbing her chin with her right forehoof, then suddenly her eyes widened. "I know, what to do!"

She shared her idea with Lacy, who mostly nodded, while she was explaining to him, what she came up with. A few minutes later Rainbow Dash showed up with Spike. They were planning to go and talk with Thunderhooves, trying to convince him to change his mind. Twilight asked Lacy to go with them, and persuade him to agree to another meeting, meanwhile, she stays here and tries the same with Silverstar. Thonderhooves was still angry at Lacy for insulting him, but he heard him out after Lacy apologized.

The next day, it was noon, when the whole buffalo tribe showed up. Chief Thunderhooves was open for another meeting after Lacy and Rainbow promised him, that there won't be any show this time. But he warned them, that this was their last chance, and they're ready to stampede if things won't go well. The same was with the appleloosians. The sheriff agreed to Twilight's plan, but they prepared for the worst too.

Four creatures were standing away from the others. Chief Thunderhooves and Sheriff Silverstar were facing each other, while Lacy and Twilight stood between them. The atmosphere was tense, the two leaders were just glaring at each other.

"Please! There is no need for this! We can talk, like friends!" Twilight tried to ease the mood but was unsuccessful.

"I will not be friends with the appleloosians as long as at least one tree remains on my tribe's stampeding grounds!" the buffalo chief stated.

"Alright, enough!" Lacy said before Silverstar could've responded. "First of all, I apologize again for yesterday's insult and if you start acting like adults, then I'll mean it," he got some stink eye from both of them, and even Twilight hit his leg. "Nevermind... The point is, that we are here because Twilight came up with a solution for this conflict."

"Actually the idea is from Lacy, and we worked on it, so it will be beneficial for both parties." Twilight, then stepped a little closer to them. "Make a path through the orchard, wide enough for three or four buffalo to run next to each other, so the buffalos can run their annual stampede, meanwhile the rest of the orchard stays. If the stampede could start a few days later, than it used to be, then it will be parallel with the main harvesting times, and the stampede shakes the ground so much, that it'd make the apples close to the path fell so it'll help during the harvest." Twilight explained, but Thunderhooves cut in.

"And what's in it for us?" he asked the important question. After all, so far it was mainly for the ponies' advantage.

"The ponies will provide you food," Lacy answered his question. The chief shot him a questioning look. "No offense, but what you call food is horrible and not just because I can't digest it, it doesn't need a biologist to tell, that that's bad for herbivores too. However, the apple pie for example, which I tasted here is really good and I think it's better for the organism than what you've been eaten."

"Let me be the judge of that." the chief didn't hide the skepticism in his voice.

Twilight went to get a pie for Thunderhooves, while the sheriff told Lacy and the chief, that he is agreeing to these terms. Yesterday Twilight could convince him to be open for the peace because even if they win at the end, the buffalos could easily destroy their town, and no one wanted to start again after they're finally finished it.

After tasting the apple pie, Chief Thunderhooves agreed to the peaceful coexistence too. Ponies and buffalos cheered together, as the Thunderhooves and Silverstar shook their hooves and announced the friendship between the tribe and the town.

A few days later Lacy and the ponies were on the train back to Ponyville, after the path was finished and both parties were satisfied. Twilight wrote her lesson to the princess and Spike sent it.

"So what do you think of this part of Equestria?" asked Twilight her human friend.

"Never was a big fan of the western genre but, I've had worse moments at vacations." Lacy's answer earned a confused look from the mare.

"Thank you for the help to solve this conflict and learn a new thing about friendship!" Twilight nuzzled the man's right arm, which felt a little weird for Lacy.

"Eh... Probably could've come up with the same idea from Pinkie's show your mind wouldn't have been occupied with the thought of how bad was it," this earned a 'HEY!' from the pink earth pony, but everyone laughed a bit after.

"Now we just have to solve your conflict with Applejack!" Twilight was determined, but Lacy just waved it off.

"No need, I don't really care about it. If she really has a problem with my species based on what I've told you and you told them, then that's her problem. I don't plan on staying here long, so it's not necessary." he explained. Applejack was listening to them, just like the others, but none of them commented on this.

"But I don't want my friends to be on bad terms!" Twilight raised her voice a little. "And it could be another great friendship lesson too!"

"Later maybe," Lacy said after a sigh, though mostly because he wanted this conversation to end, so he could rest a little. Ever since they left Ponyville, he was kidnapped, then part of solving a conflict and preventing a fight, then working on creating the path for the buffalo stampede. Fortunately Twilight saw that he was tired and with a smile, she let him rest. Her mind began to wander to another topic.

Preparing for Princess Celestia's coming in a few days.

Author's Note

Well, here we are again. I wanted to write a little story for the Friendship is Optimal contest, so that's why it took longer, than I planned, but in exchange, a much longer chapter than I thought, it'd be.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, that Lacy got a little more active role in this, though not much... but don't worry, I have many plans for him.

Until the next chapter!