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The ground below our chariot changes from some sprawling, open fields to an incredibly rocky and ravaged area that fits the word “wasteland” quite nicely.

“So, you’re both clear on the plan?” I ask Celestia and Twilight.

“I hope this works,” Twilight says nervously, looking over the side of the chariot.

“Are you sure about this?” Celestia asks, sounding incredibly worried.

“Not in the slightest,” I admit. “But it’s really the best thing we have going for us right now.”

We go a few more minutes of the trip in silence. “We should be landing in their city soon,” Celestia informs us.

“Right.” I turn to Twilight, who looks like she's going to start puking. “You bring that package I asked you to?”

She pulls a small box out from under the seat and passes it to me. “What’s inside?” she asks.

I open the box and pull out a set of kid’s toy handcuffs. “These.”

Both the ponies look at the cuffs like I just pulled out some alien device. Actually, I guess I just did, so I can’t really blame them.

“What are they?” Twilight asks with a sense of wonder reminiscent of my first days in Ponyville.

“Handcuffs.” I put them around my wrists and lock them, then unlock them again.

“I don’t remember those as a part of the plan,” Celestia says, confused.

“They’re really just for believability.”

“How so?”

“Simple, really.” I put them back on to demonstrate. “See? My hands can’t move around to do anything. When they’re behind my back, I’m pretty much entirely confined.” I take them off and set them to the side.

The chariot starts dipping a little bit, and a bunch of buildings come into view that look like they’re a combination of stone and insect hives. “Now or never, guys,” I tell them. I pull the little key for the handcuffs out of the box and hold it up. “This is the key for these things. If you use it, they’re locked, and you’ll need to use the key again to get them off.”

“I see,” Twilight says, looking at the shackles next to me.

“So, to reiterate. The handcuffs are unlocked, could I escape if they were put on my wrists?”

“Yes,” she says. “Where are you going with this?”

I toss the key off the side and turn around, straightening my arms and putting my hands next to each other. “Someone put them on me.”

“What?” Twilight asks. “But they won’t work if they’re unlocked, and you just threw away the key!”

“Exactly. Come on, Twilight. I’ve trusted you on a whim plenty of times before, and I just need you to do so once for me.”

Reluctantly, she comes over and puts them on. I pull a little to see if they’re good, and they’re nice and tight. I turn back around and smile. “Well, guess the only thing we can do now is just to go for it.”

The chariot makes a hard landing on the rocky ground, and Twilight and the princess get out. They have to help me a little bit, but I still take a rough landing and nearly fall over.

A large group of changelings masses a hundred or so feet in front of us and eye us angrily. When I see them, I actually feel a little twinge in my heart. Some of them look malnourished, sick, scarred, or all of the above. Still, they’re over there, staring us on.

A large, wispy-haired changeling walks around them, and all the other changelings bow to it. “At ease,” it says in a feminine, commanding voice. The other changelings get up and glare back at us.

“Well, well,” the queen says slyly. “Princess Celestia. To what do I owe this honor?” she says, bitingly sarcastic.

“Queen Chrysalis,” Celestia says, equally irked. “We understand you have another human. We are just wanting to know if you would be willing to trade.”

“Trade?” Chrysalis asks, incredibly surprised. “You seem to have changed so drastically in such a short time. What has caused this?”

“Drastic times call for drastic measures,” she responds. “We are just wondering if you would trade.”

Chrysalis nods to a changeling standing beside her, which runs off. “I am interested. If you send your human over, we’ll send ours right as soon as he arrives here.”

“How about you send yours first?” Celestia suggests.

Chrysalis laughs as a hairy man in rags moves next to her. “I am not stupid. If you send yours over, I promise that we’ll send ours.”

“And I am not stupid either,” Celestia quips back. “Perhaps we could perform a prisoner exchange?”

“Prisoner exchange?” Chrysalis says slowly, almost if feeling how the words sound in her mouth. “I am intrigued.”

Celestia uses her magic to levitate a rock and draw a line in the ground about halfway between us and the changelings. “Both of them start walking over to the other side at the same time. They cross over at the same time, which means they are passed over simultaneously.”

“That sounds…agreeable,” she says. One of the changelings stands next to the man, and Twilight comes next to me. Slowly, both us and the other couple start walking.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Twilight whispers to me as we’re walking.

“I’m aware this might be hard for you, but you’re going to need to trust me,” I reassure her. “Just remember; as soon as he gets over the line, quickly get him back to the princess. Then, charge up.”

“Right,” she whispers again, completely terrified. “And if this doesn’t work?”

“Then you get a whole new human to study,” I say in the happiest tone I can. Truth is, I agree with her concerns; I’m also really scared that this could go south.

We get to the line, and both Twilight and the changeling stay back a little bit. “Nice to finally see someone else,” the guy says. I can recognize the voice as Jay's, but it sounds like he's really weak and tired.

“You’re going to love Equestria,” I say back.

“Turn around,” he warns. “These things are evil. They’ll destroy you.”

“You have so little faith in me,” I say jokingly. “I’ve come a long way from falling in a pit on a virtual beach. I’ll survive.”

“I tried,” he says somberly. "It didn't work out so well."

“I’ll be fine. On the count of three, step over. Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” he whispers hollowly.

“One…two…three.” I step over the line, and so does he. I look back really quick, and Twilight’s rushing him to the princess. I can then see her horn start to faintly glow. Perfect.

I walk a few more steps and the changeling pokes me with his spear, then comes to stand right next to me. As discreetly as I can, I take off the handcuffs.

I take a deep breath. With adrenaline coursing through every inch of me, I drop the handcuffs and quickly grab the changeling’s spear. He gives it up fairly easily, so I can tell I’ve taken him by surprise. I whack him in the head with the shaft, making sure not to fatally wound him since one cold-blooded murder on my hands is good enough. I toss the spear on the ground and start sprinting back to the ponies.

“Seize her!” Chrysalis demands. I can hear a few pairs of wings start flying toward me, but Celestia shoots some yellow magic out of her horn and knocks them down.

By the groan she just made, I can tell that Chrysalis is completely pissed off by now. There are some stronger, heavier wings behind me, and that certainly doesn’t sound good. Celestia tries shooting some more magic, but the buzzing of insect wings stays.

As Twilight’s horn lights up bright purple, I know there’s almost no time left. I go into an all-out sprint and take a huge leap, and soon feel the teleportation wrap all around me. When the sensation stops, I ram face-first into a shelf and have all sorts of books come toppling down on top of me.

“Are you okay?” Twilight asks, running over to me.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I say, rubbing my head. I get up and walk to Jay, who’s sitting on the floor. “You okay?” I ask him.

“Where are we?” he asks.

I sit down next to him. “We’re in Equestria now. No more changelings.”

“I know that,” he says emptily. “But where is this?” he asks, spreading his arms out.

“I’m not exactly sure what you mean.”

“This world. It’s not ours.” He gets up shakily and points at the ponies. “It’s theirs. But then why are we here?”

“We came through the portal,” I remind him. “Don’t you remember?”

“I remember. But…why? There has to be more to it.”

“I guess I don’t know what you’re asking,” I admit. This is starting to sound more like philosophy with Will.

“Start with the portal,” he says. “How’d that work?”

“Magic.” As soon as I say that, I realize how stupid that must make me sound, but there’s no way I can say it without sounding like that.

“She’s right,” Twilight backs me up, walking beside me.

“I don’t know if I should believe you,” he says. “I walked through a portal to be tortured for months by those things, then some talking horses teleport me to a tree, so I guess I should believe anything just about now.”

“Ponies,” I correct him. “And a lot of this stuff’s hard to believe, but it’s real as far as I can tell.”

“So, the portal?” he asks. “Magic, really? Or can you just not understand how it works?”

“It’s really magic,” Twilight says. “It’s everywhere here. Even in-“ I shove my hand over her mouth to shut her up.

“Don’t explain too much,” I whisper to her. “The man’s just been freed from nearly a year of torture. Since we don’t have magic, that’s a lot to take in.”

“What was she saying?” he asks, looking suspiciously at me with my hand pressed against Twilight’s mouth.

“It’s a long story,” I say as to avoid any awkwardness. “She’ll explain later.”

Twilight pulls off my hand and looks at me a little irritated. “I will explain later?”

“You’re the expert on this mumbo jumbo.”

“Is this a bad time?” Jay asks.

“I’ve had better.” I walk next to him and put my arm around his shoulder. “But come on. We need to get you all better."