Pete Powell in Equestria

As the conversation began Luna excused herself to go deliver the mysterious sword to whatever investigators she had in the castle. Celestia, meanwhile, explained to Pete the Princesses plans of bringing humans back to Equestria. She had taken select humans from their world to Equestria, dropping them off in a clearing South of Ponyville. It was her intention that the humans seek out the natives to the North on their own. They had not. Rather, the humans had built their own crude village of sticks and leaves, and had scared off any ponies that approached. Pete groaned and rubbed his face with each added detail.

“So you expected these humans to just mix with the ponies and not question what was going on? How they got here, why there were talking horses?”

Celestia glared at the offensive term.

“That's what they're going to think, Princess. They're going to ask questions exactly like that.”

“Well, that's why I wanted to see you. I want you to go out and talk to them. Explain things. If they won't talk to ponies or griffons they should at least talk to you.”

“How could you not see this coming though? Seriously, thousands of years of experience and you didn't think-”

“I expected them to go and ask the ponies of Ponyville.” Celestia's gaze said more than her tone.

Pete opened his mouth to reply, then stopped as he remembered his first encounter with the ponies. Despite brandishing a weapon, and quickly being disarmed, they still approached him curiously. It was possible Celestia expected the humans to do the same, to act on their confusion and curiosity as the ponies had back in his world. To reach out and communicate rather than hide. He absently rubbed his face as he pondered this difference, the silence not going unnoticed by Celestia.

“Well?” She asked after a full minute of silence, startling Pete.

“I guess I can understand,” he admitted, “But you all spent quite a while with me. Surely you should have anticipated something like this might happen. A contingency plan-”

Celestia nodded. “You. I pulled you through the portal after you collapsed. I had hopes that if something went wrong you could lend us a hand.”

“Really, looking like this?” Pete plucked at his loose shirt, eyebrow raised. “They'll probably think you tortured me or something.”

“A risk we may simply have to take I'm afraid. You have been unconscious for nearly a month, and the humans have been in that clearing for just as long.” Pete opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off. “They're arming themselves, Pete. The ponies in Ponyville are becoming more and more worried that these strange new creatures are from the Everfree and that they're planning to attack. I can only assuage worry for so long before one side does something drastic.”

Pete paused and folded his arms, almost hugging himself. The worries he'd had back on Earth while hiding the ponies had followed him, been brought here deliberately.

“What's the plan?” He looked Celestia in the eyes and the princess saw something flash in the back of his eyes. A determination she had only seen when Rainbow Dash had been injured.

Celestia nodded and explained her plan. Pete would be given his own car on a morning train going to Ponyville. He would travel alone and leave before daybreak to avoid attracting any attention in either Canterlot or Ponyville. The train would stop a half mile from the clearing the humans were camping in and Pete would disembark. With any luck he could resolve the problem before noon. After that it was just a couple miles to Ponyville where a letter from Celestia and confirmation from Twilight would get the humans proper supplies.

“What if they want to leave?” Pete was sitting on a stool, the mention of all the walking having made him tired prematurely.

Celestia contemplated it for a moment and then sighed. “If they wish to leave I shall send them home myself. It was not, and is not, my intention to simply kidnap humans as it were. I want them to stay here of their own will. No matter how finely crafted a searching spell is I suppose it can't stand up to living wills.”

“Just because someone doesn't like where they live or want a fresh start doesn't mean they want to change entire realities, Celestia. That would be your first mistake.”

The princess laughed, “Perhaps I should have chosen more of you 'bronies' then?”

Pete let out a short laugh himself. “Well, you wouldn't have to explain anything to them, but they might be offended if things aren't exactly what they thought they'd be here.”

The letter drafted, sealed, and placed in Pete's pocket, Celestia sent him away with a guard to the kitchen. Solid food was next on Pete's recovery plan, according to the princess, and he would need his strength for the trip the next day. It had occurred briefly to Pete to ask about how he would get home, but he assumed himself counted in the group that would be returned if asked. It was a simple offer after all.

The guard he followed to the kitchen was another matter altogether. The stallion was silent the whole time. Awkwardly silent. Pete's few attempts at small talk were ignored, and the moments where he caught the guard looking at him with the eye of a soldier sent chills down the human's spine. The stallion was definitely sizing him up for a fight if it came to it. As Pete sat down at a large oak table, the kitchen visible from a nearby door, he wondered if all the guards were trained to check guests out in such a way, assess their chances in a fight.

When the chef, a griffon, sat several plates of food down in front of him the thought about the guard was lost in a sudden storm of ravenous hunger. Pete shook lightly as his stomach started to cry out for the food before him. He had never been big on veggies, a little here or there for flavor was okay but salads and the like were out. The vegetarian spread before him though suddenly seemed like a five star meal. A spark in the back of his mind reminded him that because of where he was it likely was a five star meal, vegetables or not.

Luna entered the room and stared as Pete practically shoveled entire plates of lettuce into his mouth. She had seen very few creatures eat so primally in her lifetime, and especially not in the last several thousand years. After he finished, draining a large glass of water as well, Luna sat at the table with him. She gave a concerned smile and placed the sword she had taken from him upon the table and waited. Pete sat for a while, looking at Luna, also waiting.

“Finished?” she finally asked, half jokingly.

“Yeah, definitely finished. What's up with the mysterious sword?”

Luna let out a long sigh. “Nothing that we can tell. The blade is made of steel, the hilt a variety of common components, the sheath itself is ebony. It is, for all intents, just a sword. Why somepony would leave it in your room I cannot fathom.”

Pete bit his lip and then picked the sword up, looking it over again. “Maybe... they knew what you and Celestia want me to do and figured I could use a weapon?”

Luna looked shocked. “Pete, what you are suggesting is some kind of security breach. That somepony knows not only what my sister has done in acquiring those humans but also that you are here. A spy, Pete Powell.”

Pete sat the sword down and held his hands up in surrender. “Calm down! It's not like it's impossible, and if they're giving me a sword they're not exactly bad guys. I mean, it's not cursed or something is it?”

The Princess of the Night shook her head. “It is not cursed. The sword is just that, a sword.”

“So... can I keep it?”

“I suppose,” Luna replied, clearly exasperated. “Though do be careful, and tell me or my sister if anything strange happens. We are still not sure where it came from.”

Pete nodded and once again belted the sword to his waist. It sat surprisingly comfortably, though it did tug awkwardly at his pants with its weight.

“There is one more thing,” Luna said, a small piece of metal floating up from her side in her magic grasp.

“What's that?”

“A badge. Should you encounter any ponies, as a precaution, this badge essentially will tell them you are on official business and to stand aside.”

Pete grabbed the bit of metal and looked it over. It was rather large, almost the size of his palm, and it was emblazoned with a full moon on the front. Whatever metal it was made from was rather dark, but the badge also seemed to shine, perhaps a trick of the light in the room or maybe it was just that well polished.

“Does this mean I'm part of the royal guard now?” Pete chuckled.

Luna laughed, “We will see after your assignment.”

Something about the way Luna said that made Pete pause, but before he could point out it was just a joke the princess was already moving. She opened the door Pete had been lead through earlier and gestured for him to follow her. The Princess of Night led Pete through several floors of the castle, eventually coming to a medical office of some kind. Charts and vials littered a large desk against one wall while an eye exam chart hung next to it across the room from a bed. Whatever pony was supposed to be in the office was conspicuously absent at the moment, and Luna pointed Pete towards the bed with a wing.

Obeying without a second thought, Pete sat on the end of the bed and absently eyed the exam chart on the wall while Luna began floating various instruments with her magic. The usual assortment of medical tools floated over to Pete and began to perform their functions, taking his temperature, blood pressure, and testing reflexes all at the same time while Luna watched from a distance. It was after these minor tests were completed that Pete came to a sudden realization.

“I don't need glasses!” He jumped off the bed and rubbed his eyes, once more going down the eye chart.

Luna looked over, bewildered. “You have gone a whole day without them, and it is only now you realize they were missing?”

“Well yeah. I mean, I'm just so used to them being on I didn't think about it.” Pete scratched the back of his head. “But how?”

“We tried many things to bring you out of your coma,” Luna said carefully, setting down the chart she had been writing on. “One of them was a very rare remedy, one that could cure many ailments. It did not help your heart, but it seems to have repaired other damages.”

Pete gently ran his hand down his chest. The scars from his surgeries. That's why they were gone too.

“That should be all.” Luna tucked the chart away and turned back towards the door. “I will wait until your return to do a full physical, but for now you seem to be as healthy as ever.”

Pete nodded, “More than ever.”

Back in his room, or what he assumed would be his room, Pete began inspecting things he had passed over earlier. Rushed as the day had been he'd neglected minor details that suddenly became interesting. The lighting, for example, appeared to be mechanical despite looking like candles in many places. Medieval was almost an aesthetic rather than a sign of the time. Where or how the lights got their power was a mystery to him, but there was no smoke, and no fire from any of the candle like lights in his room. Ultimately it took nearly fifteen minutes scouring the polished stone walls to find a control for the lights.

Once the lights were out Pete stood at the window and watched the sunset, acutely aware that in this world it was done via magic spell and not a force of nature. It made the view both awe inspiring and terrifying at the same time. A few hours later, when darkness had completely taken over the room, Pete found himself asleep on the same bed he'd already spent a month in. The sense of oddity was not lost that for having slept for so long already a single day had tired him out so much. Everything was new and exciting, yet so similar to before.

His sleep was deep and peaceful. The bed was soft and warm, the blankets thick but light. Pete almost considered spending another month asleep in the bed. A cold, plated hoof came before sunrise to give him another idea. Startled awake, Pete made a sound of surprise and almost launched himself off the back end of the bed. Whoever had woken him up emitting a loud squeak at his movement.

Pete shook his head and squinted into the darkness, making out a very small pony in dark colored armor. The mare, he assumed by the sound, was at least a foot shorter than any of the mane six. Her mane was obscured by her helmet, but her bat wings were very noticeable at her side. Slowly his mind caught up.

“You're a night guard, right?”

The mare made another squeak and then nodded. “Y-yes, sir. Stellar Glow, sir.”

Pete wiped the crust from his eyes and crawled out of bed, sliding his pants and shirt on. “I'm not a sir. I'm not … well, I'm just a guest.”

The guard nodded in agreement, “And we refer to all guests as politely as possible.”

“That sounded more military sir than guest sir,” Pete noted aloud while he attached his sword and pocketed the badge Luna had given him.

“Well, I am part of the night guard. W-we don't usually interact with any guests. Mostly we just patrol the city at night.”

Pete stepped around the bed, unsure if his questioning look could be seen in the dark. “Hence the title 'night guard' perhaps?”

He felt like the tiny mare blushed, but he couldn't see and moments later she was leading him out of his dark room and into the bright corridor. In the light he could see that her armor was a shade of purple, much like her tail and presumably her mane, with a gold trim around the edges. She had no weapon, which struck Pete as odd but then again he didn't know how they would fight with a weapon using hooves.

The small mare led him out of the castle past a pair of golden armored royal guards at the gate, who only gave a moment of pause to stare at the first human to walk Equestria in who knew how long, and out into the city proper. Once there she turned to him and pointed straight forward with a hoof.

“The train is at the station and ready to go. It's right down there. Your trip should take no more than an hour and the sun will be up by the time you arrive.”

Pete nodded. “So far it's all according to plan then. All right, thank you.”

The mare nodded once then extended her wings and took off into the sky in a single motion. The gust she produced left a chill on Pete's skin. Even Rainbow Dash hadn't taken off that fast after being holed up in his apartment for weeks on end.

Taking a deep breath and shaking himself slightly to warm up, Pete started off down the street towards the train station. His eyes wandered as he walked, of course, to every store front and building in the city. There was a definite architectural style to the stone and wood, everything looked polished and clean even after the previous day of business. Now and then he would see shadows pass over head, either the night guard mare or some other night guard watching out for him, or perhaps just on a typical patrol. Pete glanced down a few alleys as he went and saw nothing out of the ordinary, other than the absurd cleanliness standards for a city of this size. He wondered if they really needed to patrol this part of the city. Shortly after he wondered if they needed to patrol at all. The attacks on Canterlot he was aware of suddenly came to the forefront of his mind and he disregarded his previous thoughts. They were watching out for threats beyond the city as well as within. The Princesses weren't stupid after all. Canterlot was on a mountain, easily defensible, hard to assail, and their height meant spotting trouble coming was even easier.

The trip to the train was uneventful and Pete climbed aboard without incident. Once he closed the door the train began moving, making no sound other than the engine starting and pulling the vehicle along the track. He'd half expected a whistle, but considering he was supposed to be moving undetected it made sense there wouldn't be.

With a sigh he settled into an almost comically small seat and tried his best to get comfortable. He had a walk ahead of him when the train stopped and he still wasn't sure he was up for it. His mind remained empty but aware. Sleep did not come to him, but neither did any thoughts. When the train finally stopped he felt a little better but he wasn't sure if that was just a placebo effect.

Pete climbed out of the train and onto a grassy field. Ahead of the train was a winding track further South leading into a mountain range far in the distance. In front of him he could see the forest he was supposed to walk towards. To the North he could just make out Canterlot in the distance up on its mountain perch. He slammed the door to the train car and gave it a couple of bangs for good measure. Whether the conductor needed the extra sound or not the train began moving again, leaving the man standing in a field damp with dew and a whole day ahead of him.

He set out at a steady pace, glad to have woken up to find shoes next to the rest of his clothes that morning. The moisture from the grass did manage to get into the shoes however, and without socks it quickly became his least favorite part of the journey. The hike was mercifully short, however he was still out of breath by the time the human's camp was in view.

Stopping to catch his breath, Pete examined the cluster of huts from afar. There were fewer than there were people, that he could tell right away. He counted eight roofs and Celestia had said there were twenty humans. The huts were made out of sticks, bound with what he assumed were vines, and topped with large leaves. In the middle of them sat a fire pit, obvious only by the large rocks around it. Someone in the community was a camper, or a survivalist.

Rested, Pete resumed his walk, coming up to the huts at a slow and casual pace to avoid alerting anyone. He stopped a distance from the structures and made his way to the left and right to see around them. There was a sudden twang and a crude arrow wedged itself in the ground to his right. Pete drew his sword in both hands and took a ready stance. Turning himself slightly and aligning the blade with his body, doing everything he could to make himself a smaller, harder to hit, target.

After a tense moment a man in a jacket stepped out from behind one of the huts holding the makeshift bow that had fired the arrow. A moment more and he relaxed his grip on the bow. Pete followed suit, returning to a normal stance and lowering his sword. The man before him was trained. That was the only way he could have come that close with a bow made out of roughly hewn wood and what looked like a vine. He was muscular, but not large, and his blue eyes were striking as they poured over Pete.

“Where did you come from?” the man asked with a tone of authority, the bow and arrow still in his hand.

“That way,” Pete pointed behind him, “About half a mile.”

The man stopped and thought for a moment. “The rest of us got dropped off here, without weapons. Why are you different?”

Pete held his hands up and put his sword away, keeping his hands up and palms out. “I'm just here to talk. I know what's going on and I know a lot of you are probably scared out of your minds.”

“And just what do you know?”

“I know how you can get home.” Pete mustered up every ounce of conviction he had for that line and he hoped that would be enough.

A woman came out of the hut the man in charge was standing by and ran half way to Pete before stopping herself, seemingly realizing at that moment how little she knew of the stranger that had approached them. She took a step back, but she didn't stop looking at Pete.

“You can send us home?” She sounded equally disbelieving and relived.

“I can't, but I know who can. The same one that brought you here.”

The man raised his bow and nocked the arrow. “Those monsters?”

Pete sighed, “They aren't monsters. Well, the fuzzy horse looking ones aren't. Listen, can we put the weapons down and talk about this? I'd rather not go back to the hospital after I just got out.”

The woman turned and put her hand on the man's shoulder and whispered something. Blue eyes looked Pete over again and then lowered the bow.

“What happened to you? You look like jerky.”

“Long story, but I was in a coma. I kind of just came out of it yesterday.”

The man sighed and motioned for Pete to follow him to the middle of the camp. As Pete came in and sat down on a log positioned in front of the fire pit he made note of the various people in the camp. He counted twenty, as Celestia had said, all different races, ages, sizes. He was slightly impressed they managed to keep together.

“You said we can go home?” a young man, no older than twenty, asked immediately after exiting his hut. Apparently several of them had been hiding and awake.

“Yes, you can. You might not trust me on it at first, but I promise you, you can. I just need you all to hear me out first.”

“About what?” the man with the bow asked, sitting down across from Pete on another log. It was clear he was the leader by now.

“I have to explain to you whats happened, why you're here. And if you don't like it, if you want to leave after that, you can go home.”

“Why we're here?” the woman from before stood half inside of a hut, her arms wrapped around herself in reassurance.

Pete nodded and began to explain to them where they were and what had happened. He briefly explained Equestria, what he'd come to know of it from Celestia and Luna, as well as who they were and that it was them that brought the humans over. Before questions could be asked he segued into the history of humans. How they had come from Equestria, been banished for their nature unjustly and that the rulers wanted to set it right.

Several humans didn't believe it and it was clearly written on their face. Magical lands where ponies were sentient had banished humans to an alternate dimension? It was outlandish for sure. A few people though seemed sympathetic to the idea. Especially after hearing that the emissaries they had scared away had been sent to give them supplies and shelter. It took over an hour, but Pete finished his explanation and then let out a large sigh.

“Are you done?” The leader was one of the ones that didn't believe it. “When can we go home?”

Pete nodded and stood up. “A couple of miles to the North is a town. We go there, we talk to a pony by the name of Twilight. She'll call Celestia and Celestia will send whoever wants to go back to their home.”

The humans started to mutter to each other with a level of excitement. Several stepped out of huts ready to leave at that moment, but their leader was still skeptical.

“Listen. I'm sure you understand just how insane this story of yours sounds. You met these things, housed them, then they chose you to come here and tell us that we should go to this town whether we want to leave or not? That sounds like a trap to me.”

The young man from before looked at the older man in confusion. “How is that a trap? You want to leave, you have to go talk to whoever brought us here to begin with.”

“And if we don't want to leave we still have to go see them. Either way we have to do the one thing we've been trying to avoid!”

Pete stood up, “Yeah, and you're living in sticks drinking mud water when there's bathes and tap water two miles up the road.” Everyone stopped and looked at Pete once more. “I get the suspicious stuff. I know it's hard to swallow, but if your only logic on this being a bad thing is that they want you to and its leaving you to suffer here...” Pete paused and looked around at a loss for words.

“We aren't suffering, we're surviving in a hostile environment.” The man growled between his teeth.

Pete turned around and did his best to look condescending. “Could have fooled me. The big omnivore scared of some three foot tall herbivores? Very hostile.”

“Not the horses, you moron.”

As if on cue a large tree from the South side of the clearing exploded, firing splinters and branches all the way to the camp. Pete turned, resting his arm on his sword, and saw a large beast slowly stomp out into the clearing.

“That's what's hostile!” The man stood and drew his bow, firing several arrows in succession at the creature.

Pete drew his sword and looked at the shocked humans. “Run! North!” he pointed towards Ponyville, “Get to the town as fast as you can.”

The creature, Pete identified as a chimera, roared and charged towards the humans. Pete placed himself between the monster and the people and took his ready stance again. The beast stopped and watched him, even the snake tail coming up to have a look. The seconds dragged on like minutes as the adrenaline rapidly built up inside him.

After a while he looked back and yelled, “Go!”

Another roar erupted in front of him, it or his yell finally getting the humans to move, Pete turned back to face the chimera. A few more crude arrows sailed over his shoulders and harmlessly bounced off the creature's hide and he heard the leader of the humans growl and snap his bow. It might have been effective for hunting and looking intimidating, but clearly wood wasn't going to harm the chimera. Pete suddenly felt a surge of thankfulness that he was holding cold steel.

He quickly judged the chimera's size. It was taller than he was, heavier, and had a better reach. Nothing about attacking it was a good idea. Pete also noticed that the chimera was slowly losing interest in him and was following the trail of fleeing humans. The stragglers, the easiest to catch. He had to distract it. He was the only one that could.

As slow as he could, Pete closed the distance between himself and monster. Step by step, watching as many heads as he could, ready to stop if he caught its attention again. With just a few feet left Pete gambled. He felt his muscles tighten and he rushed forward, the movement getting the chimera's attention, but just a moment too late. Pete slashed and caught the tiger head across the nose. The beast reeled back and roared louder than before, angry now rather than trying to intimidate. Pete jumped back, hoping to be out of range, and stood again. Glancing back he saw the leader, the last of the humans, out by the road next to the clearing. He wasn't running any more though. For whatever reason he was watching now.

Pete wanted to turn and call him a moron, tell him to run again, but the chimera in front of him began to demand attention. It started to move, to circle around him, and Pete followed moving so that it was always facing him. He couldn't afford to be distracted now. His only hope was that the chimera would give up when it realized an easy meal was out of the question. It was a dim hope.

The chimera began attacking back, Pete adjusted his sword to block but continued to move backwards as well. With any luck, he figured, the chimera would never hit his blade or him. After being on the defensive for only a minute though, Pete began to wish he had a longer sword. Something he could safely retaliate with, to keep the chimera from being in control of the fight. Finally Pete swung after hopping back, thinking perhaps he could trick the creature into backing up and give him some room. What he didn't expect was that his sword suddenly extended. The tip once again managing to slash the tiger head and send the creature jumping back in shock and pain.

Pete blinked and examined his sword. It was longer by almost a foot, but now lacked a guard. It was also a different style of weapon altogether. It was only bladed on one side and it was much heavier. Taking the sword back in both his hands Pete took up what he felt was a more threatening posture. He had reach now, it could buy him time if he could press this new advantage. Lunging forward and stabbing, Pete landed a glancing blow on the chimera's shoulder, his aim thrown off by many factors including the difference in sword weight. He was no expert after all and even if the sword was magic, which it seemed to be after changing forms in his hands, skill was still paramount in a fight. His aggression worked though and the chimera seemed to back off. Pete smiled and readied himself again. That was his mistake.

The chimera lunged, catching Pete off guard and knocking him to the ground. A claw tore at his chest causing him to scream in pain and fear. It hurt like nothing he'd felt before. It dawned on him that he could very well die here, in this clearing. His body becoming food for this beast. And a hate welled up inside him. Between the pain and the fear and the screaming, Pete became angry. Angry at whatever twist had brought him here, whatever speck of decency had made him sacrifice himself for those people, and whatever was making his right hand ache. The sword obeyed.

Twisting and changing, the blade in Pete's right hand warped, turning a jet black and becoming covered in thorns down to the handle. Thorns that dug into Pete's palm and fingers, deeper even. A feeling surged from Pete, a desire to kill the chimera on top of him, its eyes looking down on him. Pete gritted his teeth in defiance of those eyes and thrust his sword into the monster's side. It roared into the air and Pete joined in as a blistering heat came from his arm. The chimera tried to move, but the thorns of the blade caused it more pain, blood poured freely onto Pete's stomach from the hole he'd made in its side.

The sound was so fast that Pete wasn't sure he'd heard it. It was as if he went deaf before the blast, but there was a blast. A wave of heat pushed him into the ground and he closed his eyes. The chimera was blown away, crashing through several huts before landing a dozen yards away, dead. Pete's arm fell to his side and he opened his eyes slowly. Everything was blurry and his whole body was aching and hot. He turned his head towards the forest, unable to move anything else. A shape moved, large, humanoid, with red eyes, or so he thought. Pete wasn't sure any more what the thought, or saw, or heard, or anything. He was tired. A deep tired. A tired he'd never known before in his life as a writer. With one final exhale, Pete relaxed and closed his eyes.

Twilight saw the explosion from a mile away and changed her method of travel. Her horn lit up and she teleported to the clearing. She gasped at the sight as she hoovered above the scene. Landing carefully and dissipating her levitation she ran straight to the crater that Pete Powell laid unconscious in. Magic leaping from her horn she quickly checked his internal organs. Most of the blood wasn't his. Cracked ribs, a broken arm, dangerous, but stable. The burns confused and concerned her however. Nervous, she turned and looked at the remains of the chimera. She had spotted them when she was hoovering, but she tried not to think about it. The front half of the creature was gone, burned or scattered by the explosion. What she couldn't figure out was what had caused it.

A rustling from the treeline caught her attention and she turned, scanning the shadows quickly. There was a dreadful cold that wasn't natural. It was nearing noon but it felt like the dead of winter. Movement behind Twilight broke her concentration and she turned around, ready to fight, only to find a human.

“W-what did he do?” The man was shaking and staring at Pete.

Twilight looked at Pete then back to the man. “What are you talking about?”

The man swallowed and looked at Twilight, whatever he'd seen overpowering the aversion that had kept them from talking to the ponies before.

“He stabbed that thing and then... he started glowing.” Twilight's eyes went wide. “Then the damn thing exploded.”

Twilight turned and looked at Pete again. They had to get to Ponyville.