Well, that was an interesting turn of events.

As we made our way into Bridlewood proper, I had a lot of questions. So many, in fact, I suspected I would run out of space in my journal to write them all down.

We walked along into the forest, Izzy bouncing ahead of us with a spring in her step (but then again, it was rare she didn't have a spring in her step). In the meantime, I just kept a fairly normal walking pace, keen to avoid being spotted. I mean, I didn't know the Bridlewood locals all too well, but I suspect a pony in a yellow HAZMAT suit would be rather easy to spot and would stick out like a sore thumb to anypony observing.

As a result, I stuck to observing the terrain around me. The outer layer of trees felt like a fortress, protecting the inner layers of trees and seemingly acting as a safety net. If that was the case, it did its job. The outside of the forest did seem very intimidating, almost as if one wandered in there they would meet a terrible fate and never be seen again.

There's another reference in there, if you can spot it.

Anyway, as I listened in on the other conversations, I had a lot of questions. For one, what was Sprout doing here? Misty being around had confused me enough when I'd bumped into her in Zephyr Heights with the crown crystal, but she seemed to have settled in pretty well, what with the whole 'used to be a human' thing.

But Sprout? Boy, I hadn't seen that coming. In fact, I had rather thought he'd have gone against my orders and started building an army to take the fight to the other tribes whilst crashing a truck into a lighthouse.

But he wasn't.

I hadn't talked to him, but he seemed to be perfectly amicable based on how he and Misty were talking. It seemed they were close... very close, for that matter.

I shook my head to clear my mind of what was going on, and focused on another conversation. Nearby Sunny and Izzy were talking. And when they were talking, I overheard them using a name I recognised.

Chris Chan.

So, they had encountered him as well? I mean, the guy we'd encountered in the power plant matched his description to a tee- glasses with fogged lenses (seriously, dude, get a lense wipe), stripy shirts that made him look like a clown, a nasally voice, and utterly insane. But if he had been here, fighting Izzy and Sunny, then how could he have been in the power plant talking to us?

Unless, of course, he was speaking to us from a machine before he attacked my friends.

You may recall I pointed out a car with an odd license plate all the way back in the first chapter. The one that caused the crash. This is important now, because the owner of that car was Chris.

His poor driving was part of the reason I was here in the first place. The other reason being that mysterious spirit intervening and saving my life.

Anyway, I was aware he hated G5, having posted a hate filled rant about it online where he claimed it would end the world or something like that. Had he come over here to destroy the world himself instead of shouting at Hasbro to cancel this generation?

If so, that's rather hands on for him. Humans have hands rather than front hooves, allowing them to manipulate objects in a similar manner to how we do.

Historically, he'd just resorted to writing angry letters or vandalising things in shops. So for him to be bringing himself and this kit over (as the conversation implied they'd fought a mech of some description). How had he managed to bring things like that through, unless he somehow had help from the inside.

I shook my head. These questions could wait as we turned off the path and down towards the house of Izzy. The forest path was quite nice, I will admit. The pastoral tones and the gentle tweeting of birds made for a nice contrast to the hustle and bustle of Zephyr Heights, or being underground, or being stuck in a decaying power plant, or endlessly wandering across terrain without any professionally made map. After all, travelling without a map is like travelling with no map.

Once we were down at Izzy's house, we all stopped. And then Izzy started talking, but not to any of us.

"Hello house!" she said, speaking to the tree in front of her. "I've missed you!"

Why was she greeting the house? Although trees are living things, they aren't known for their ability to talk or perceive things.

Unless this was a swamp fever tree-

Moving swiftly on!

I spoke up to clear my mind of that mental image. Seriously, who in the writing room thought putting something like that in a kids' show was a good idea?

Before I could say anything, Pipp spoke. "Who greets their house?"

"Izzy, apparently," I said, giving her a quick glance.

"Perhaps it's some sort of unicorn ritual?" said Sprout. "Any suggestions, Misty?"

Misty shrugged. Curious how we can do that. Despite being ponies, our forelimbs have the same level of dexterity as a human arm, which makes carrying out tasks quite easy. "Don't look at me! I'm not from Bridlewood!"

Sunny then spoke up. "Whatever it is, it clearly means something to her. And as long as she's not hurting anybody by doing it, I don't see any reason to worry."

For once I agree with you, Sunny. Once Izzy was done opening the door, having somehow produced a key from nowhere and slotted it into the lock, we made our way towards the door and pushed our way inside the door.

Once we were inside the house, I had to admit it was pretty nice. The home was neat, well kept, yet clearly a personal space for the unicorn. Some arts and crafts sat on walls and on tables, clearly unfinished. Paintings sat nearby, and a few machines sat about, with supplies of food sitting about ready for our consumption.

How were they out? "Izzy, you do know leaving food out is bad for your health, right?"

"No worries!" Izzy said. "This is just cereal!"

"Don't you normally eat cereal for breakfast?"

"Ain't no rule saying you can't eat it at any other point in the day!"

She did have a point there, and I walked over to a piece of art made from macaroni. I looked at it, closely.

And then the eyes moved.

I jumped back in fright. "AAH!"

Misty popped over it. "This is a little party trick I've been working on! Good for kids, huh?"

Once we had all finished settling in, we sat down for some tea. Which was very relaxing indeed. A good brew at the station is a good way of calming down after all sorts of the mishaps which afflict Maretime Bay this day. I must ask Izzy to top up my tea dispenser and give it another test.

Once we were done drinking tea, I raised an obvious point. "I know I'm stating the obvious here, but we kinda don't blend in. Earth ponies aren't known for existing in large numbers in these parts."

"Nor pegasi, for that matter," Pipp said. "Right, Zi- oh. Still feels weird her not being here." I agree. Her not being around is slightly odd. I mean, she still hasn't been passive aggressive with me yet!

"And I'm not even here at this point!" Sprout added.

Suddenly, Sunny's voice came from near a pointy object. "In short, we can't afford to stick out like sore hooves," she said. Her position and the object relative to her forehead made her look like a unicorn. Real subtle foreshadowing, writers.

Once that was done, we got a basic version of the plan nailed down and got ready. Izzy wasn't quite ready to launch the makeover plans just yet as she didn't have quite enough supplies for all of us, so we'd have to wait until she'd done her shopping trip in Vanhoover.

There's another place that's survived from G4, interestingly. According to my notes it's the Unicorn capital, so we're near their seat of power. Is Bridlewood a suburb, then? That would explain Izzy's remark about not having seen a movie despite Bridlewood and the fact she has a film made by unicorns in her collection. If so, she probably goes into the city to see a movie.

Also, who expected Make your Mark to reference an old British rom-com, eh?

As I helped the others pull out beds for the night, I could do with a sleep. My back ached, and lugging all this gear around had done a number on me. A few days to heal my wounds and rest my weary bones would do me good, I thought.

Then I could pin down more of the truth.

Author's Note

We are back with Hitch, making his way into the forest and exploring what there is to offer. Hitch's journey is partly one of confusion, as he's partly playing catchup, but at the same time he had a slightly easier time of not having to negotiate suddenly being female.

Chris Chan has owned many cars over the course of his life; namely, a Ford Escort, a Cadillac Seville, a Ford Focus, a Dodge Caravan he shared with a family member, and most recently a Chevrolet Aveo. All of them have been fitted with a vanity plate reading SON-CHU (or SONCIHU in the case of the Aveo), and all of them have not been maintained properly, which is how he went through so many in only 20 years (in one video he uploaded, the Focus is rattling badly and a sticker on the windshield reveals the car's oil change is a year overdue). To put that in perspective, my parents have owned two cars in the same time frame. Considering how erratic Chris' behaviour is, it's a miracle the State of Virginia gave him a driver's license.

Swamp fever, funnily enough, is based on a real parasitic disease, specifically cordyceps. This, thankfully, can only infect insects. The name of the disease in the show is a reference to a condition that only affects horses IRL.

The comment about cinemas is meant to address a common poor faith argument made about G5. In the film, Izzy mentions that she hasn't seen the film being shown in Maretime Bay's cinema (a spoof of Terminator: Judgement Day, no less). This was taken as evidence of poor worldbuilding by critics, who claimed that as Bridlewood has no visible cinema the writers hadn't thought the world through. However, the unicorns clearly have a film industry, as demonstrated when Izzy mentions that watching Trotting Hill (a ponified version of the 1999 British film Notting Hill) is a sleepover tradition for her. Therefore, it's entirely within the realms of logic that Izzy goes somewhere else if she wants to see a movie (something which is quite common in the UK as many towns no longer have cinemas).

Next time: decoding!