Striving for Adaptation

Such a strange feeling.

Even though I seemed to have woken up, I simply didn’t have the strength to open my eyes. However, there was a quiet, almost lulling crackle of logs in a fire nearby. Probably Ember had lit it. Ugh, I just can’t remember how the fight ended.

Frowning, I tried to recall how it all ended. But all that flashed in my memory was the image of Daniel, and the strange feeling only intensified. It’s hard to describe. Such a fiery feeling and desire to destroy is angrily wrong. Depressed. Deprived of oxygen. On one hand, I desperately want to kill him for tearing me out of my world. But now, after sleeping. . . from his perspective, he’s right.

Like, he doesn’t know this is a cartoon world. From his point of view, Celestia is 100% a real person.

The knowledge that this is all a cartoon is my problem alone.

I couldn’t help but feel irritated with myself. Why the hell can’t I hate someone like Daniel just because he has a somewhat reasonable motive? It’s stupid to be this kind. Why am I so good!?

Not wanting to deal with my own thoughts, I slowly lifted my eyelids and looked in the direction of the fire’s crackling. My eyes met darkness all around. Night. Then, I saw a well-lit figure sitting on a felled tree, holding a branch over the fire. However, this was the last person I wanted to see right now.

“What the hell—?” I tried to say, propping myself up on my elbows, but I groaned as pain shot through my body. However, that sound was enough to catch his attention.

“Yo, Arthur. Want some meat?” Daniel asked innocently, holding out a branch with some kind of meat hanging from it. Despite its relatively fresh appearance, it smelled absolutely disgusting.

My body, despite the pain, instinctively crawled away from him. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Ember lying bandaged on a bed of leaves. Raising my hand, I saw that she was also bandaged. Frowning, I turned to Daniel and asked, “What the hell is going on?”

He moved the branch back to the fire and, scratching his chin with his mechanical finger, said, “Hmm, let’s see. We had a fight. A really cool fight, I enjoyed it. After you and your friend passed out, I felt bad and went with Plan B. That is, I swapped souls with Cozy Glow. And she betrayed me as soon as she gained power. Cool, right?”

He seriously trusted that filly? God, in the one situation where the context of the show would have been useful to me, I wasn’t even there.

With difficulty, I raised my good hand to rub the bridge of my nose and asked tensely, “I’m more concerned about what was going through your crazy head when you decided to heal us. Did you think that would immediately normalize our relationship?”

“Well, look. I healed you purely for myself. To feel better, you know?” Daniel said with a slight smirk. There’s clearly something wrong with him. Like, more than usual.

“And her? Well, hmm. Would you believe me if I said I just wanted to heal that dragon? I just looked at her and really, really wanted to.” Daniel replied, pointing at Ember. Do you think I’d believe that?

He seemed to catch my skeptical look despite the darkness and laughed, spreading his arms, “Well, tough luck because that’s the only explanation!”

There’s definitely something wrong with him.

Taking a deep breath, I lightly rubbed my temple, trying to cope with the flood of memories from the battle. Daniel had slammed me into the ground. But he could have killed me. Strange, again. Sighing, I tried to play by his rules and asked a direct question: “What happened to you? At first, you were making good, calculated moves. Then you turned into some kind of idiot.”

For a while, Daniel just sat silently, staring into the fire. But eventually, he said, “Well, you know. When you hit me hard in the head, I kind of blacked out for a moment. And in that moment, I realized I wasn’t complete. I was missing something. Emotions.”

I snorted briefly and asked, “Do you realize how primitive that explanation is? You’re twenty years old, and in a critical moment, you realized you needed emotions?”

“I’m twenty-one. My birthday was on November 4th.” Daniel replied, shrugging.

Awkward. I hope he never mentioned it earlier.

“Alright. Let’s assume that emotions are too shallow of a realization. What do you think I should have realized instead?” Daniel asked, taking the meat off the branch and cutting off a large piece.

For a few moments, I blinked, trying to come up with an answer. But nothing came to mind. Sighing, I complained, “You’re just taking advantage of the fact that I just woke up. Otherwise, I’d have figured out what to do.”

Daniel shrugged and swallowed the piece before asking, “So, what do you plan to do next? Should I start running from your deadly desire to kill me?”

Rolling my eyes, I sat up with a brief groan and asked, “First, I want to understand your whole plan to save Celestia. To save you time, I’ll tell you that Ahirata told me all about the soul stuff.”

In response, he stretched with a satisfied sigh before starting, “Alright, alright. The main problem is that because of the stone shell, neither I nor Ahirata can reach Celestia’s soul to return all the pieces. At first, we tried to remove the stone.”

“But that led to me being here.” I interrupted, sighing in annoyance.

Daniel nodded slightly before clapping his hands and continuing, “So, I decided to find a more refined method of soul transfer that doesn’t require interacting with the chest. The only place where that might theoretically exist is the so-called Dread League, a nation of necromancers in the northeast of this continent.”

“Where did you get the information that they have something like that?” I asked, frowning. That wasn’t in the canon at all.

I was met with a wide smile and closed eyes, followed by a brief answer: “Absolutely nowhere, just a guess. I put everything I had on the only available slot.”

You’re absolutely insane.

Sighing, I asked, frowning, “So, what do you plan to do next?”

Tapping his fingers on his knee, Daniel said, “Well, let’s see. Apparently, Cozy is going to reach the Dread League. I need to intercept her, simply to take a piece of Celestia’s soul. So my plan remains exactly the same as before.”

“The only question is whether you’ll chase me, go to Equestria, or come with me.” He suggested, his gaze lingering on me.

“Are you completely stupid? Why would I choose anything other than the first option?”

Daniel spread his arms and began listing, “Let’s think. If Cozy Glow reaches the Dread League, theoretically, she could gain the knowledge to at least stabilize her body. Are you interested in the filly gaining power?”

“Nooo.” I reluctantly admitted.

Nodding a couple of times, he continued, “Plus, there’s a chance she’ll realize her ability to control the sun. Then things will get very, very inconvenient, especially considering Celestia is in a coma.”

“Really?”

“Oh, Luna really did a great job! Never doubted her.”

My eyes widened before I blurted out, “Who’s controlling the sun now?”

“Ahirata. She also has a piece of Celestia’s soul, but fortunately, she has no trouble holding onto it.” Daniel replied with a brief nod. I sighed heavily.

Cozy Glow in the show was dangerous enough just because of her intelligence. With magic, she’s even more dangerous. And really, I don’t want to imagine what she could do controlling the sun.

Exhaling heavily, I replied calmly, “I’ll help you. But don’t think that when this is over, our conflict will be resolved.”

“Of course, Arthur, of cour—” Daniel began, but suddenly there was a rustling of leaves from the side. And in the next moment, Ember flapped her wings and flew into him!

As soon as Daniel fell to the ground, he grabbed her snout with both hands and laughed, “Oh, you’re awake! Want some meat? There’s still a bit left.”

Ember tried to slash him with her claws, but she simply couldn’t reach him. Daniel kept her at a distance, then looked at me and asked, “Uh, don’t you want to explain the situation to her, Arthur?”

Honestly? Not really.

He seemed to guess my thoughts because he snorted and said, “Hey, Ember, that’s your name, right? Listen, I get that you want to avenge your father. But, like, killing me won’t give him his arm back.”

Judging by her look, she was absolutely furious, but she stopped swinging her claws. Sighing, Daniel continued, “Listen, Arthur and I discussed what to do next. He agreed to go on a cool adventure with me! So, it’s either you against two.”

“I’m not helping.” I replied, pushing myself up from the ground to slowly stand up.

“Ahem, one against one! And you couldn’t beat me even two against one. So, you can either come with us as a third wheel, not necessarily useful, but you’ll get to write yourself down as a great hero. Daddy will be proud. Or you can go home as a closer! You should have realized that you couldn't beat me one-on-one. The only way to make this adventure not completely pointless is to come with us.”

Are you an idiot? No sane person would agree to that.

For a few moments, Ember continued to squirm before reluctantly sitting down and saying, “Fine—”

“OW!” She yelped slightly, covering her mouth with both hands.

Daniel chuckled and explained, wagging his finger, “Yeah, my current magic is only enough to heal your external wounds. So for now, you’ll have to stay quiet.”

“Yeah, keep hoping.” I snorted before raising my hand and starting to create a rune. It consisted of an outer circle with spikes pointing outward, a central circle with no effect, and a plus symbol in the center. After activating it, the rune turned into a green beam and flew toward Ember.

“Huh!? What happened?” She asked before awkwardly running her fingers over her lips. Honestly, I didn’t think it would work. I hadn’t really tried combining known rune elements before.

Suddenly, Daniel was next to me and smirked, hitting my shoulder, “Ha, now you’re the main mage in our party.”

“Are you really that weak?” I asked, brushing his hand off my shoulder with a light motion.

“I almost died trying to heal her lips. Not surprising, walking around with a filly’s soul.”

“Ah, right. That’s why you’re acting so weird.”

Daniel briefly flicked my nose and said, “Unfortunately or fortunately, the soul doesn’t affect personality in this world.”

Too bad.

“Let’s speed this up. What needs to be done?” Ember asked, crossing her arms and looking at both of us with clear disapproval. I wonder who’s more unhappy with this alliance?

Daniel snorted and crouched down before saying, “Alright, first we need to explain what we’re going to do.”

He pulled out a rolled-up map from his pocket and unfolded it, revealing a map of the continent of Griffonia, the continent we were on. To my own disappointment, the only location I recognized was Griffonstone.

“So, first we need to get to my acquaintance to get supplies. And so I can fulfill my promise. We agreed to meet here.” Daniel explained, tapping his finger on a city labeled Skyfall. And, well, to put it mildly, judging by the map, the route there was twice as long as the distance we had sailed.

“How do you plan to get there?” I asked, crossing my arms.

“Wait.”

“We haven’t considered all the problems yet.” He replied with a toothy grin.

Of course. . .

“You see, the direct route is the fastest. But the catch is that the direct path goes through the kingdom of Aquileia. Simply put, it’s the local France. The problem is that the only thing I know in French is ‘Vous vendez de la viande de cheval?’.”

“And what does that mean?” Ember asked, raising an eyebrow. Huh, didn’t think she’d even pay attention to that.

“Do you sell horse meat? My grandpa used to say that in Quebec, sellers at the market can give a discount for your knowledge of French.” Daniel chuckled briefly before turning his gaze to me.

“I don’t know French.” I sighed, shaking my head slightly.

“So, because of the language barrier, we’ll be completely dysfunctional. We probably won’t even be able to buy a train ticket. Especially considering the currency difference. So, I have a plan.”

Daniel ran his finger over the city we had recently left, New Manehattan, and said, “To our great luck, the local colonial administration of Equestria and the kingdom are on good enough terms to connect their railways. So my plan is quite simple. Hijack a train.”

Are you serious?

“Genius, how do you plan to hijack a train? And make sure it goes where we need it to?” I asked irritably.

Daniel smirked and replied, “Don’t worry, Arthur, big brother has it covered. We get to the station and board the train. By board, I mean right on the roof. We’ll let the train go for a while until it leaves the city limits. Then we’ll enter the cabin and uncouple the cars so we won’t be slowed down. The remaining coal in the tank will give us a bit more travel time.”

Before I could process his answer, Ember said with satisfaction, “Ha, I like it. Bold enough for me to say it’s draconic.”

“Yo, well, in the worst case, two against one. A rare situation where democracy leads to something good.” He replied smugly, not even looking at me.

“What do you plan to do if they just block the road? Or switch the tracks?” I asked irritably, stepping forward to get into his line of sight.

In response, Daniel calmly raised his hand and said, “You and your friend have wings. If needed, one of you can just fly ahead, switch the tracks, and come back.”

Ohh.

“Alright.” I reluctantly replied.

“Excellent, hold your bag. And mine.” Daniel said, quickly slinging two rather heavy bags onto me. Before I could say anything, he quickly turned and ran toward the steep hill where the tank had fallen earlier.

Disappointedly sighing, I flapped my wings and rose high into the air. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Ember doing the same. Exhaling, I leaned forward slightly and began flying forward, keeping an eye on Daniel, who was running up the slope extremely quickly.

“So, can you clarify why you even agreed to cooperate with him? Last time, you were planning to kill him.” Ember asked surprisingly calmly. As if she initially thinks my decision is reasonable. Hmm.

“Turns out, he’s been carrying around a little filly. A filly who’s very dangerous just because of her brain. Now, she has powerful magic. Plus, after sleeping, I calmed down a bit. Daniel’s a jerk, no doubt. But he has a tiny bit of justification.”

“What?” Ember asked, raising an eyebrow. DAMN!

Did I really need to say that last part?

Exhaling heavily, I tried to gather my thoughts. Calm down and speak, it’s easy to wrap this up. Just don’t think about this being a cartoon world. Finally, I said, “Princess Celestia is very sick. And he’s desperately trying to save her. It’s kind of stupid, but I feel like it partially justifies him.”

“Hmph, not a justification for making my dad disabled.” Ember replied irritably, snorting and lowering her gaze. Despite the extremely steep slope, Daniel continued running upward. I have to admit, at this moment, I’m glad I got wings.

Sighing, I suggested with a slight smirk, “Well, if Daniel’s friends made him a prosthetic, maybe they can make a similar one for your dad?”

“HA! Alright, that’s, ha, a convincing reason to tolerate his presence. I just want to see how the little ponies will assess the scale of the work.” Ember briefly laughed.

Let’s consider that settled.

After that, we continued flying in silence. Periodically, I glanced down to see where Daniel was and followed him. Eventually, this approach led us to a large building with a glass roof next to which a railway was laid. If this isn’t a train station, I don’t know what is.

Descending, I spread my wings, slowing down, and landed on the roof. Awkwardly staggering, I almost fell, but suddenly felt someone grab me by the scruff of my neck. This was followed by a brief chuckle from Ember: “I have to admit, although your landings are still amusing, they’ve gotten much better.”

“Uh, thanks. Great flight master?” I asked, straightening up. Before she could snort in amusement, a shiver ran through the glass beneath our feet.

Turning around, I saw Daniel, who had already climbed up here. Approaching both of us, he said, spreading his arms, “So, everyone’s here, no one’s lost. I hope you didn’t forget my simple-as-a-steam-engine plan and are ready to jump on the first train you see.”

“By the way, how do we know the train is going to Aquileia? There are several railways here, you know.” I pointed out, gesturing to the rows of tracks visible through the glass. Besides that, about a dozen ponies were visible. Yeah, waiting for a train at night.

Daniel shrugged and replied, raising his hands, “Why have a reliable plan? Just go with the flow!”

.

.

.

Snorting, he crossed his arms and said, “Alright, got it. You see, there is only one north direction in this city, to Aquileia. So, we just need to see a train heading north.”

Alright, you’ve managed to keep at least a drop of sanity, good.

"It’s funny that the ponies still haven’t noticed us," Ember snorted, pointing her claw at the glass through which the crowd was visible.

"Yeah," Daniel and I replied simultaneously. Wait, seriously?

"Literally just one person," he smirked, walking to the edge of the roof. Honestly, I expected a dumber remark.

Quickly shaking my head, I asked, "Where are you going? Doesn’t look like the train is close."

Daniel stood right at the edge of the roof and said, pointing to his eye, "If you haven’t forgotten, Arthur, I’m almost blind without my glasses. Blind people usually have good hearing."

I frowned, about to demand a full explanation, but suddenly a loud train whistle was heard. Turning toward the sound, I saw a small light in the distance, rapidly approaching through the night darkness. It was at that moment that Daniel added, "Yeah, I’m sure. It’s coming from the south to the north."

How convenient, the first train to arrive is exactly the one we need.

After a while, the train finally arrived and stopped. As soon as I took a step forward, Daniel said, "Oh, you want to hurry? Alright, let’s go."

"Wait, I’m just prepa—" I said, but it was too late. He jumped off the station roof onto the train. Why did you even bother making any kind of plan before this!?

Ember and I watched as Daniel landed, did a quick roll, and ran toward the locomotive. A loud gasp of surprise was heard from the crowd of ponies, to which he waved his hand and said, "Sorry, your trip will be delayed. Feel free to scream, I allow it."

"Do you think we should go down?" she asked, leaning slightly toward me as Daniel was almost at the locomotive cabin.

"Nah, let him handle it himself. We’ll fly over once the train starts moving," I replied, crossing my arms while continuing to watch. Reaching the locomotive cabin, he hooked onto the roof with his prosthetic and quickly jumped through the open window, disappearing from my view.

Eventually, from where Daniel had jumped just a few seconds ago, two hands emerged, holding a shocked mare. After setting her on the ground and running a hand through her mane, both limbs disappeared back into the window. The next moment, the train started moving again, and it quickly became clear that the cars had been successfully uncoupled earlier.

"Hm, he’s fast," Ember snorted.

"Now it’s clear how he managed to beat your dad?" I smirked.

Slowly, with a slight crack in her neck, she turned to face me and said completely calmly, "That was a really bad joke."

Uh, I should’ve thought about that earlier.

Awkwardly scratching my cheek, I replied, "Sorry. That really was a bad joke."

Ember slowly nodded before flapping her wings and flying toward the train. Sighing, I adjusted the bags on my shoulders before following suit.

When my feet touched the small platform in front of the locomotive cabin, I saw Daniel looking at the burning furnace with a self-satisfied smile, while Ember, on the other side, rested her claws on the window and gazed at the night landscape.

"I still think this is kind of gross. These ponies paid for the train, and now they have to wait who knows how long," I muttered, tossing both bags into the corner.

Unfortunately, Daniel turned to me with a smile and replied, "Arthur, the country with the largest GDP was born from people who threw tea into the sea. Sabotaging colonial administration is the key to success."

"Alright, try not to open your mouth anymore," I shook my head before sitting on the bags in the corner like a pillow and closing my eyes.

I need to tolerate him somehow. After all, I’ve wanted to steal at least part of his heroic image for a long time.

A lone train was making its way through the snowy wastelands. The ponies who were supposed to be riding in it could only make do with sitting in the detached carriages to warm themselves up a bit. Even if the local police were to come and investigate at this point, it was unlikely they could do anything. Besides, the criminals were already far away, and the local guard was tiny, even compared to Equestria's.

Speaking of Equestria. Far beyond the endless sea, the country continued to live on. Almost no one in all of Equestria suspected that something was wrong with Celestia. And why would they doubt it? If the sun rises, everything must be fine.

In reality, the Princess of the Sun was lying on a bed in her room. Her mane, which once flowed as if caught by an invisible wind, now lay disheveled on the pillow. The curtains were drawn, and the door was securely closed to ensure no one could see her dire condition. Beside her were Princess Luna and Ahirata, the creator of Tartarus.

"How is she feeling?" Luna whispered, as if a loud sound could disturb her sleep.

Ahirata carefully ran her clawed paws over Celestia's forehead and took a deep breath before methodically answering, "A high fever. Dangerously slow pulse. And rapidly declining magical activity. There's so little magic in her veins that I can't even intercept it."

Luna sighed heavily and asked, trying to remain calm, "Can you give me an approximate timeline?"

Ahirata sighed and ran her hands over her forehead before saying, "I'd say four to five days. What's certain is that due to the lack of tension, her soul is disintegrating quite slowly. It seems that before the collapse, she simply stopped producing magic."

"Do you think Daniel will succeed?" Ahirata asked, turning to face the princess.

Luna bit her tongue slightly before exhaling and answering, "I hope so. Just in case, I sent Captain Rising of the guard to assist him. Having friends nearby should at least lift his spirits."

In response, Ahirata slowly shook her head and asked seriously, "Let's think about a backup plan. If they don't succeed."

"They will succeed. They have to," Luna replied firmly, though her voice cracked slightly at the end.

"I can manage the sun if things go wrong. I'm kind of doing that already. But you know—"

"Don't say it," Luna whispered, lowering her head.

"I'm not immortal. I've lived this long only because the Elements of Harmony sealed me away," Ahirata finished with a slight hint of regret in her gaze.

"I know. . ." Luna sighed in disappointment.

"And what will we do?"

"I don't know. . ." she replied, almost in despair. After that, a heavy silence fell over the room, broken only by Celestia's labored and very rare breaths.

Our only future is to save Tia.