Well, that was certainly a wild old time to be back on the move with the gang. Hitch had first set off for Zephyr Heights when I had first encountered him (and I had to pretend to be an idiot in order to avoid being spotted and to avoid raising his suspicions). Truth be told, I'm beginning to wonder if the Hitch back then was the formerly human Hitch we're dealing with in this case. This, to my mind, is likely, because he didn't entirely seem to be himself. He wasn't following the script all too precisely, and I heard him drop his speech about finding Sunny in way too early into the script.

But now I was here, and we could mess about with the scenario as we saw fit.

But that was hardly my gravest of concerns as we rolled along the landscape. We were now part of an alliance, and that meant we were expected to fight. And I wasn't too keen on that. I'm not the biggest of guys, and I had nearly been utterly clobbered by those pegasi in the bar. I either needed to bulk up (and unless I came across a magic shovel I thoroughly doubted that would happen), or simply try to stay out of trouble whilst I was on the ground.

But I didn't have to think about that right now. Instead, in my current situation I was stuck on the back of a tank that was rolling along with several others. Me, my friends, and a few others sat on the back, as it rolled along.

I should probably clarify we were each on separate tanks. Trying to fit us all on the back of one tank would have been very difficult and would probably led to the vehicle having balance problems. About 10 ponies does rather add up in terms of vehicle weight, and I'm certain they have quite enough to be moving about on those vehicles.

I sat back and sighed as we rumbled along, resting the back of my head on the turret of the tank.

Suddenly, there was a noise, and a metal lid appeared in my vision. My head suddenly saw a member of tank crew looking at me with a stern face.

"I wouldn't stick your head there if I were you," he said. "If the turret moves you'd be in for a nasty surprise. I doubt you want to be headless, so to speak."

I sat up and nodded. "Sorry. Won't happen again."

The officer nodded. "Good lad. More polite than I imagined a speedbump would be."

Speedbump?

I can only assume that's an example of gallows humor in action, as I hadn't encountered many speedbumps on my walk across Equestria.

I shifted my position a bit and tried to focus my mind on what was coming my way. The sun was shining in the sky, and the skies were blue. It was a perfect day for doing stuff at the beach or in a coastal town.

Which was why I was on the back of a tank, with my face having a good view of the exhaust ports.

Sure enough, things were a bit chaotic. There was music, with unicorns and pegasi trying to outplay one another in sheer volume (mashing these marches together sounds horrible- one upside of being turned into a pony is it gave me perfect pitch). The mess moved along, and I could see why this was causing annoyance for those observing.

There was also ground tensions between us as a group. I spotted the Queen and Alphabittle giving one another dirty looks as the tanks rolled along. I could sense they didn't really like each other. I know, I'm a great observer of clues. But the argument hadn't felt like former lovers bickering like in the movie. It had instead seemed like the prelude to war. Thankfully, we seemed to be allied for now, but for how long would the alliance hold?

Hopefully Alphabittle wouldn't find out how I felt about Misty. My heart soared for her like an aircraft slipping the surly bonds of earth and dancing on silver scented wings. An odd feeling, I know, but it certainly did the trick in my mind.

And considering how racist he seemed to be (much more than Make your Mark had implied), if he knew his daughter loved an earth pony, he'd throw a fit. In fact, I wonder how he'd react to the news that his movie fellow seemed to have feelings for a pegasus?

No doubt Misty was under pressure again from Opaline to get a move on, but the words Hitch had implied to me within the Crystal Tearooms had me most concerned of all. I could feel his disapproval bearing down on me, so I simply tried to do my best and focus on the task.

I mean, I had technically not quite done what he'd ask. Building up our armament industry wasn't starting a war, even if it was slowly leading toward a potential conflict. But how was I to know Congress would try to use this as an excuse to incite dislike of the tribes?

I didn't. And that's all I can really say to that one.

We were still on the move, and our formation was ready to kick back. Sunny had a read (and a discussion with a tank crew member), we all got thrown about, and generally didn't have a huge amount of fun.

I looked over and saw Misty's face was green, and she was desperately trying not to barf. Her mane looked pretty good on her, even if the colors were a bit too bright to be matched together, and I'd have gone for a darker shade of red myself.

I looked forward again as we moved along, and at last I could sense our journey was starting to come to an end as the sun dropped through the sky. Perhaps we would stop and rest?

My hopes proved to be unfounded.

Sure enough we picked up some more soldiers who had apparently defected from the enemy army. Safe to say they were more than happy to join us on the battlefield, and with their numbers added we soon marched onwards. They even brought instruments as well, including some bagpipes.

Pipp didn't enjoy that at all! She had her hooves in her ears the entire way, which was awkward. Still, it was pretty funny nonetheless. We were always powering forward with that in our ears, and the sun continued to decline in the sky and drop below the edge of the horizon.

I leaned over. "Pretty good singing, huh?" I said.

Sunny looked back. "Solid bases, but a little weak on the top tenors!"

Was Sunny referencing something? If so, I didn't get what it was. I might need to do some research if I was to make sense of that one at all.

Anyway, we were soon within the base of the city itself. Zephyr Heights seemed to glow like a gem in the night sky, the massive lights reflecting downwards and upwards as we looked at the region.

"I see they still haven't turned the lights off," Hitch grumbled. "They were on when I was approaching the place."

"And when I was on my way there!" Misty said, before dropping back. "Sorry!"

That Colonel guy who seemed to be leading things called a halt. "That's far enough for one day!" he said. "Unpack the tents and prepare to make camp!"

So we did. I groaned as we hopped off the vehicles and were recruited to assemble tents. Izzy had somehow got tents on her, and laid them out in a line- except one for me, as apparently she hadn't anticipated me turning up. Oh, wow. Guess I'm still the butt of the universe's joke.

I sighed as I propped my own one up. Hitch was having an easier time helping to assemble other ones, but I was still effectively left on my own to assemble one to sleep under.

I sighed as I continued working. At least the camp was done soon, and we could rest. A fire soon began to burn in the middle of the camp, and this was quite good for keeping warm from the weather. Once the sun is gone, it does drop cold remarkably fast, especially when you consider how far north the Pegasus Empire is.

Once that was all over, we were ordered to report to the biggest tent for something important. Which turned out to be food, which was really nice. Turns out the soldiers we picked up had a mobile kitchen unit, and had prepared a meal for us which was quite a nice gesture.

Although protocol required Pipp and Zipp to eat separate from us, we still enjoyed our time together. As we relaxed and let the conversation flow like wine, I came to realize something.

I was feeling the most normal I had for a very long time. Considering who I was, I could tell the others regarded me as a true friend now. I was in the company of fellows who were my legitimate friends.

Whilst the original Sprout may not have been a nice guy, I wanted to make things right, and that meant amending my own mistakes and making the world around me better.

The meal continued with music too, some nice tavern stuff that made me feel like I was in the middle of a fantasy campaign. Which I suppose I was. The world I was in was what a fantasy fan would term technofantasy, which is a setting which has a blend of modern technology and fantasy elements. In literature this is what would be called magical realism, where the world is rooted in reality but has magical or fantasy elements.

I mean, we had phones and computers, but also the magic crystals and three fantasy species at least (four, assuming Sparky plans on turning up). It made for an interesting juxtaposition over all the other elements, as otherwise this was a fairly straight setting apart from all the major groups being ponies rather than humans. Of whom I was one.

I was shaken out of my thoughts when the figure at the top of the room spoke. "We all have a long, hard day tomorrow," he said, looking at all of us with a hard, stern face. "So make sure you get plenty of rest. We meet for the briefing at 05:00, so prepare for sleep as soon as possible and ensure you're up for the bugle."

I hate waking early!

But we filed out and said our goodbyes before heading for our tents. Me to my own, which helpfully had a bit of red on it. I noticed Izzy had color coded the other tents, which made finding them easier.

I tried to sleep, but it was difficult, so I got up to go to the firepit. And sure enough, I found Misty there, staring into the flames.

"You can't either, huh?" I asked.

Misty jumped, then looked at me. Her face softened to one of relief when she saw it was me. "Yeah," she said, looking into the fire as if it were about to speak. "Sleep is the one thing I can't get. I'm worried, and confused, and so, so lost."

I felt her pain, so rested a hoof on her shoulder. "You may be going through a hard time, but you aren't going through it alone," I said. "You're just in the same boat as the rest of us. And I say we have plenty of chances to fix things for the future."

To be honest I was saying that partly to convince myself as much as Misty. At least I could count upon the others to help me through this matter.

Misty yawned loudly. "Maybe I should turn in," she said.

I nodded. "See you in the morning." I had to sleep too. No point in seeing the elephant on no sleep.

Author's Note

And now it's time for more of Sprout Cloverleaf for this week. =3