The sun’s rays slowly peeked in through the old, yellowed blinds, while birds chirped cheerfully outside as they playfully flitted from tree branch to tree branch. It was thanks to these noisy birds, and the bright sunlight, that the slumbering occupant of the room awoke.

Said occupant, grumbling softly to itself, stretched forth a limb from under the covers of its comfy bed and fumble with the nearby electric alarm clock. Grasping the clock, the lump slowly pulled it back under the bed’s covers, like some tentacle grasping its helpless victim.

However, this supposed ‘tentacle’ wasn’t attached to some monster. Instead, it belonged to a young man by the name of Allan Ross, who, if one was being charitable in their description, could be described as less than a cheerful morning person.

After a few moments of quiet fumbling, a soft sigh emanated from the lump and slowly the clock was returned safe and sound to its place on the bedside stand. Several more minutes passed before the covers were pulled back revealing the young man beneath.

Great, power’s out, and it’s probably well into the morning by now, what a fan-fucking-tastic way to start my week, he groaned to himself as he stared up at the ceiling.

Giving a final, tired sigh, Allan slowly sat up and swung his legs off the side of the bed, as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

Looking around his room blearily, he let go an enormous yawn. Running a hand through his messy brown hair, he rose slowly from his bed and stumbled across the room, opened the bathroom door before then stepping inside.

Shuffling towards the bathroom sink, he saw himself in the mirror of his medicine cabinet. His reflection’s blue eyes stared groggily back at him as he set about his morning ritual.

A few minutes later saw a less groggy Allen leaving the bathroom, though the power was out, he was still able to coax just enough water to brush his teeth and scrub the sleep from his eyes. Though he made himself a mental note to remember to flush the toilet later when power was restored.

Setting about getting dressed for the day, Allen pulled on a pair of slightly dirty blue jeans, a grease-stained t-shirt, two clean socks and his favorite pair of work boots.

Shutting the door to his room, he headed for the stairs. However, before he headed downstairs, he made sure they were clear of any of his sisters toys she might have left the night before. However, upon seeing that the way was clear, he quickly made his way down to find himself in his home’s foyer area.

Taking a right, he walked down the hall past the mudroom and into the kitchen. Popping the fridge open, he grabbed the milk jug, before quickly shutting it and gathering the rest of the materials needed to make a bowl of cereal.

Quickly scarfing down his morning meal, Allen set his dirty bowl and spoon in the sink before walking out of the kitchen.

Walking through the mud/laundry room, he snagged his worn, green ballcap from its hook next to the door to the garage.

Stepping through the doorway, Allen paused as he noticed his dad’s car was gone.

Huh, wonder where dad went? He scratched his head as he tried to recall if his father had told him about any travel plans for today, after a moment he snapped his fingers in remembrance.

Oh yeah, Dad and Laura went to go visit Aunt Sarah in Terre Haute today.

Having solved the mystery of the disappearing family, Allen continued on his way.

Having made his way through his family’s messy garage, he found himself outside, the morning sunlight warmly caressing him as he set out towards the barn.

He had only taken a few steps towards the nearby barn before he remembered the power was still out, and giving an annoyed groan, turned to head back to the garage to find the generator, head bowed low in annoyance.

Opening the left side garage door, he set about his task, and after several minutes of searching, he spotted his target. Unfortunately, it was mixed in amongst various items and other junk, thus making it difficult to get to. Cursing under his breath, Allen went to work attempting to free the generator from its junk encased tomb.

After nearly a quarter of an hour of work, he managed to pull the generator free. Giving a sigh of relief, Allen got it ready to start, and grasping the start cord in his hands, gave a mighty yank. The engine coughed once, twice, three times before it gave a loud belch of noxious grey smoke and settled into a steady drone.

Double-checking to make sure it was running smoothly, Allen turned, ready to finally get started on his morning chores. However, he didn’t take more than a couple of steps before his eyes roamed upwards, causing him to come to an abrupt halt. He found himself rooted to the spot, his mouth hanging open, and a look of shock on his face.

He didn’t know how long he stood there staring at the sight before him. Though he vaguely remembered later that he rubbed his eyes, as if the action would make the sight before him go away, but sadly, it didn’t. Instead, the fairy tale castle, set on the side of a distant mountain, stubbornly refused to disappear.

After what felt like eons, but was probably no more than a few minutes, Allen pinched himself in an attempt to see if he was in fact dreaming. When he felt the sharp pain radiate outwards from where he’d pinched himself on his forearm and not wake up, he felt an icy ball of dread congeal in the pit of his stomach.

Swallowing thickly, he managed to tear his gaze away from the castle and slowly survey his immediate surroundings. That was when he came to a second realization.

The power lines are gone, and so are my neighbors corn fields.

His body acting on autopilot, Allen ran towards the edge of his property, a small part of him hoping that his mind was just playing tricks on him and that he was somehow seeing things.

Puffing and panting, he finally made it to the edge of his property. After resting a moment to get his breath back, he slowly looked around, shaking his head in stunned disbelief.

Everything that was supposed to be there, was not. Both the telephone and power lines that had once lined the old paved road were gone. The road itself having been turned into little more than a glorified wagon trail. In addition, his neighbors crop fields had disappeared, having been replaced by a grassy plain that stretched on seemingly forever to his left, while to the right it terminated in a tree line in the near distance.

“Wha-what the hell is going on here?” asked Allen quietly to himself, as if hoping that some invisible being would respond. When no answers were forthcoming however, he blinked owlishly and giving a final look around, stumbled back towards the barn.

Stepping through the service door, he found himself greeted by the many calls of hungry animals, each bellowing, bleating, neighing or clucking for his attention. Giving his head a shake, Allen quickly set to work, hoping that a little normal routine would help calm his mind, and it did, even if what was just a little bit.

Eventually he finished feeding the last of the animals, and stepping back outside into the early afternoon sunlight, Allen stood there in front of the door, biting his bottom lip, unsure of what to do.

No power or phone lines means that the phone and internet will be out so that’s a no go. I doubt I can just waltz down the road to the nearest house and knock on their door like I’m there to borrow a cup of sugar either.

He hung his head and sighed as he felt like a drowning sailor, desperate for something to cling to in a storm tossed ocean. Shaking his head again, he squared his shoulders and walked briskly back to the garage.

Having no further need for electricity at the moment, Allen shut off the growling generator before pulling it back inside. Shutting the garage door, he strode into the house through the mudroom, muttering to himself as he walked.

“Okay Allen, we need to come up with some kind of game plan here. Let’s just set aside the fact that we’ve been somehow transported to somewhere or possibly some when else, and worry about what we’re going to do now.”

Striding into the kitchen, he immediately realized that he didn’t have the slightest clue of what to do. Pulling out one of the stools next to the kitchen island, he plopped down on it in frustration.

Staring out through the dining room window, he watched as several clouds glided serenely by in the distance, a stark counterpoint to Allen’s internal mood. After several minutes of quietly drumming his fingers on the faux marble countertop, Allen let loose a frustrated groan and stood up from his seat, unable to continue sitting in the oppressive silence of the house.

Pacing back and forth, Allen’s mind continued turning over the problem of what his next course of action should be.

Sitting around all day on my ass is out, I’ll go crazy before an hour has passed. I can’t hold up in my home forever either no matter how much I just want to barricade the doors and have a nervous breakdown. I’ve got maybe two, three months worth of food in the house at most, and once that’s gone I’m gonna be in even more trouble than I already am. So what do I do?

His pacing went on for a time, for how long, Allen wasn’t sure, but finally he came to a stop, a determined look on his face. He had made a decision, it might not have been the best one, but it was the only one that he could think of at the moment.

Allen needed more information, and the only way he was going to get it was by going out and see what the local area had in store for him.

His course of action set, Allen set about making ready to leave. However, little did he know the ramifications that his actions would have upon him and those that he would encounter.

It was well into the early afternoon before Allen had managed to gather his scouting supplies. An old canvas rucksack from his father’s Boy Scout days, a water canteen, a days’ worth of food, which mostly consisted of granola bars and sandwiches, a change of clothes, a compass, binoculars and a Swiss army knife rounded out the collection.

After getting everything packed, Allen swung the rucksack onto his back and trotted towards the front door. As he passed by the basement door, he paused for a moment as an idle thought snuck its way into his mind.

Maybe I should bring something a little bigger than a pocket knife before I go gallivanting off into the unknown.

Chewing on his bottom lip for a moment, Allen changed direction, grabbing a flashlight from an old ice-cream bucket on top of the fridge as he passed, and carefully made his way downstairs into the basement.

Shining the light around the underground room, Allen made his way over to his father’s gun safe in a nearby corner. It wasn’t much, just a large, heavy metal box that contained his father’s weapons collection, and as Allen quickly discovered, a locked, heavy metal box that contained his father’s weapons collection.

Groaning to himself, Allen rested his forehead against the cool metal door of the safe as he mentally counted backwards from ten.

Of course it’s fucking locked, and I don’t know where the damn key is, thanks Dad.

After mentally grumbling about overprotective parents, and the sheer irony of locking up something meant to help you protect yourself, Allen took another deep breath, and shaking his head, trudged back upstairs.

Guess I’m going to be MacGyvering it until further notice.

Deciding to keep the flashlight for the time being, Allen slipped it into his rucksack and resumed his journey towards the front door. Stepping out onto the porch, he shut the door behind him, after making sure that it was both locked, and that he had his house key with him.

Adjusting his pack slightly, he quickly made his way towards the barn to saddle up his horse. Well it was technically his sister’s horse, seeing as how his father had originally gotten the horse for her, but because he was the one who cared for him the most, Allen considered Reuben as his.

Stepping through the service door, Allen paused for a moment to allow his eyes to adjust to the dim light of the barn’s interior. Most of the animals were still quietly eating their late morning meal, though Allen was pleased to see that Reuben appeared to be finished with his.

Walking up to Reuben’s stall, Allen gave the horse an affectionate nose rub, Reuben whiffling a happy greeting.

“A good afternoon to you too Reuben, I see you’ve finished your meal,” said Allen as he continued to stroke Reuben’s muzzle. Giving a final parting pat, Allen said, “Alright boy, I don’t know why or how, but I don’t think we’re in Indiana anymore so I’m going to need your help to have a look around and see what we can see, alright?”

Reuben gave a happy snort in reply.

Allen smiled. “Yeah, I thought you’d be happy to get out for a nice trot. Come on, let’s get you saddled up.”

Taking his pack off and setting it down by the stall door, Allen went to go get a lead line from the nearby tack room. Stepping through the doorway, he grabbed a line and halter before then returning to Reuben’s stall.

Quickly slipping inside, he secured both the bridle and line to the horse, before then leading him out into the aisle way and threading the line through a nearby eyebolt and tying it off.

Once finished, Allen took a step back to admire Reuben for a moment, with his clean, chestnut colored coat, arched neck, and strong and compact looking physique, Reuben looked like your typical Morgan. This is to say that he looked very strong and fast, a perfect mount for a scouting mission.

Turning away, Allen returned to the tack room to grab Reuben’s saddle blanket, saddle and bridle before then proceeding to saddle him up. After a few minutes of fiddling with the saddle straps, Allen wiped the sweat from his brow, giving a satisfied nod at a job well done. Grabbing his rucksack and settling it comfortably on his back, he turned back to Reuben and quickly switched out his halter for the bridle and bit.

Giving Reuben an affectionate pat on the side of his neck for his good behavior, Allen carefully lead him outside though the open double barn doors. Once outside he set his left foot in the stirrup and swung his right over Reuben’s back, easily settling himself in the saddle with practiced ease.

Glancing around from his new vantage point, Allen felt Reuben shift beneath him as he adjusted to the new weight on his back. After giving him a moment to grow accustomed to his weight, Allen clicked his tongue and gave Reuben a tap with his heels to get him moving, Reuben obediently doing so.

As they trotted down the driveway towards the road, Allen found himself becoming more and more nervous at the thought of exploring a new and exotic location, after all, as far as Allen knew there weren’t any mountains or fairytale castles in Northeast Indiana the last time he had checked.

Speaking of said fairytale castle, a quick glance upwards, and to the north, confirmed that the castle and accompanying mountain were still there.

Yep, still there, letting go a sigh, Allen brought Reuben to a halt at the end of the driveway, just before it merged with the wagon trail. Looking around again, Allen sat there pondering which way they should go, Reuben meanwhile had contented himself with grabbing a roadside snack of grass while he waited.

To the left there’s nothing but grassland and some copses of trees here and there. So there’s little chance of running into anyone quickly if I went that way. But to my right, he swung his head around till he was staring at the distant castle.

Chewing his bottom lip thoughtfully, Allen continued to weigh his options. Finally, after several moments, he came to a decision. Giving the reins a slight upwards jerk, he said confidently, “Alright Reuben, enough grazing, I’ve made up my mind on which way we’re going to go, so let’s get going. I just hope it was the right choice,” He finished quietly to himself, before clucking his tongue, and lightly digging his boot heels into his mounts sides starting him forwards once more.

As rider and steed crossed the threshold from the comfortable familiarity of the farm and into the unknown lands beyond, Allen firmly turned Reuben to the right, his eyes steadfastly fixed upon the far distant castle.

However, unbeknownst to Allen, high above him on a fluffy white cloud, a pair of golden armored pegasi watched him ride away.

“What do you think it is Sergeant?” the younger looking pegasi asked.

His partner turned to him, and quietly said, “I don’t know, but chances are it’s probably something Discord cooked up that the Elements somehow missed when they defeated him.”

The junior guard bit his lower lip nervously. “B-but I thought that the Elements had set everything back to normal? I mean that’s what the lieutenant said before he sent us out on patrol!”

The sergeant rolled his eyes. “Son, I’ve been in the guard for going on twenty years now, and I have yet to meet a second lieutenant that can find their tail with both hooves and a map. So forget what the lieutenant said because it looks like he was wrong.”

“But how do we really know that, that...thing down there belongs to Discord?”

Glancing back down at Allen’s retreating form, the sergeant replied, “None of the maps that we have of this area list a farm being out this way, nor have I ever seen anything quite like that...being down below. On top of that we can’t be sure the Elements got everything when they hit Discord, so it stands to reason that this,” he waved a hoof in the direction Allen had gone, “could be something that Discord left behind when he lost.”

“You mean like a trap?”

The sergeant nodded. “I wouldn’t put it past him. Discord is the Lord of Chaos and Mischief after all; he could have easily set a spell that would trigger only in the event he was defeated.”

By this point, both Allen as his mount had disappeared from sight under the tree cover. Quickly glancing back to his younger partner, the grizzled old veteran barked, “Look, at this point it doesn’t matter what that thing is or what it can do, it’s heading for Ponyville and we’re the only two ponies around here who know that it’s coming.”

“But what if it isn’t heading for Ponyville? What if it heads for the Everfree instead and gets away?”

The sergeant chewed thoughtfully on the inside of his cheek for a moment before finally saying, “Alright then, since one of us needs to stay close and keep an eye on it while the other one goes and reports, I’ll stay behind and keep over watch, and you,” he pointed a golden clad hoof at his junior, “can fly back to Ponyville with our report.”

The younger pegasi gave a single nod of acknowledgment.

“Good, now enough yapping, get flapping!” and with that he pushed his subordinate off the cloud, the young guard giving a yelp of surprise before he began frantically pumping his wings, the sergeant watching him go for a moment as he swiftly winged his way towards Ponyville.

The town of Ponyville swarmed like a disturbed anthill. The townsfolk rushing to and fro as they saw to their various tasks in the wake of Discord’s attack, while the Royal Guard swiftly carried out its own business.

In the middle of it all, a lavender unicorn and white colored pegasus guard were just finishing a rather long and involved conversation at the local cafe.

“And that’s it?” asked the guard.

The unicorn nodded her head in reply. “Correct, after that everything, more or less, went back to normal save for some minor clean up,” she said, waving a hoof at the current activity of the townsfolk in the background, for while the Elements had put the major stuff back to normal. They had been unable to fix those things that had been completely broken and or knocked over, which happened to be quite a few things. Moreover, most ponies were rather inclined to make sure with their own eyes that things had been set right before going back to their daily lives.

Satisfied with the mare’s reply, the guard nodded. “Very well then, Ms. Sparkle, if you have nothing further to say on the matter. Then I suppose I should go and begin filing my report on the matter,” he said, returning his helmet to its customary place on his head and packing his papers away in his saddlebags.

Standing up to leave, he gave the mare a polite bow, to which she replied, “Oh it’s no problem Lieutenant Palisade, I was happy to give my account, and please, call me Twilight.”

The lieutenant gave a grin, a final bow, and turned to leave, however, an out of breath pegasus suddenly landing in front of him brought him up short.

“S-sir, begging to report sir,” the exhausted stallion said, giving a quick and shaky salute as he did so.

Casually returning the salute, Lieutenant Palisade asked, “What seems to be the problem trooper?”

Taking several deep lungful’s of air, the Royal Guard replied, “Sir, Sergeant Wind and I were patrolling to the southwest of town, along Apple Road, and we encountered an anomaly sir.”

Her interest piped by the sudden turn of events, Twilight trotted up next to the lieutenant and politely asked, “What kind of an anomaly?”

The young guard looked to her then back to the lieutenant in confusion for a moment, as if unsure if he should respond or not to the mare’s question.

“It’s alright trooper, Ms. Sparkle here is a representative of Her Highness in this matter, whatever you have to tell me you can tell her also,” said Palisade.

Nodding in understanding, the trooper replied, “Very well sir. As I was saying, Sergeant Wind and I found an anomaly outside of town, and the sergeant thinks that whatever it is, that Discord had something to do with it being there.”

“Go on,” came the reply.

Nodding, the trooper continued, “While the sergeant and I were not fully sure of whether or not this anomaly is in fact something Discord cooked up, we do know that whatever it is, it is not Equestrian in origin, and the timing is too close to be a coincidence.”

“Can you describe what you saw sir?” asked Twilight, a quill and parchment now floating beside her in a magenta colored aura of magic.

Blinking slightly at the sudden appearance of quill and paper from thin air, the trooper quickly regained his footing by chalking the incident up to unicorns just being unicorns.

Giving another nod, he said, “We found a farm a little ways to the south of Sweet Apple Acres,” when Twilight opened her mouth to inquire as to why this would be unusual, the guard, perceiving her question, quickly hurried on, “normally this wouldn’t be a cause for alarm, but in this case the farm isn’t on any local map. In addition, it doesn’t fit any of the local styles of construction either. Moreover, it appears to have been around for a while, suggesting that its construction isn’t recent.”

While he was speaking, Twilight was furiously writing while the lieutenant calmly watched the exchange from the sidelines. Clearing his throat, he asked, “Ms. Sparkle, do you think that I could have a copy of your notes for my report later?”

Twilight gave a distracted nod as she continued to write, before pausing a moment and saying, “Did you happen to see who owned this farm?”

Licking his lips, the pegasus replied, “We think so ma’am, though I must say it was the strangest creature that I have ever seen in my life.”

“Describe it for me if you would please,” she asked politely.

“Sure thing,” he said, before taking a moment to close his eyes as he tried to recall the mental image of the farms denizen.

“It was quite tall, probably taller than even Princess Celestia herself, horn included,” both Twilight and Lieutenant Palisade shared a worried look. The trooper continued, “It looked like somepony had taken a Saddle Arabian and fused it with a hairless and deformed Minotaur, both the sergeant and I were too far away to really get a good look at its features, but I can say for certain that it wasn’t anything natural.”

Twilight rubbed her chin with a hoof as she re-read the last few lines of her notes. Humming thoughtfully to herself she absently replied, “It could be a centaur, but nopony has actually seen a centaur outside of a mythology book.”

The trooper shook his head in reply. “No ma’am, I doubt a centaur has two heads.”

Giving the trooper a mildly disturbed look, she asked, “Did you say two heads?”

He nodded. “Yes ma’am, one at the very top of the creature and the other jutting out from the barrel. Though like I mentioned before, both the sergeant and I were fairly far away from it and therefore didn’t get a good chance to inspect it before it ducked under the tree cover of the apple orchard. So really, it could have been something else entirely.”

Twilight hummed thoughtfully to herself as she continued to review her notes, the lieutenant meanwhile had turned to the trooper and, giving a salute, said, “Very good trooper, you did well, am I to assume that your sergeant stayed behind to follow the creature?”

“Yes sir, last I knew of it, the thing was heading for Ponyville via the south road.”

“Very good, if you have nothing further to report, you are dismissed to go get some chow and rest.”

“Thank you sir!” and with a quick salute, the young pegasus was gone in a flurry of feathers.

The lieutenant watched him go for a moment before turning to a nearby guard and saying, “Corporal, gather a platoon together, I want an even mix of pegasi and unicorns, along with a pair of Rangers. The rally point will be the local schoolhouse near the southern mill pond.”

The guard gave a quick salute and quickly took off to carry out his superior's orders. Lieutenant Palisade meanwhile had donned his helmet and made ready to leave when a lavender colored hoof on his withers stopped him.

“Yes Ms. Sparkle?” he asked a questioning look on his face.

“I would like to accompany you and your stallions, if that is alright,” she said, a determined look on her face. “If this is something that Discord is responsible for, then you might need help in subduing it.”

The lieutenant stood there for a moment, as he thought over Twilight’s offer. Finally, after a few tense moments he nodded and said, “Alright, while it might not be Discord himself, I won’t turn down the help of a Beta level unicorn should things get out of hoof, though I expect you to do as I tell you and to not argue, is that understood?”

She nodded.

“Good, gather what you need, we leave in ten minutes,” and with that he turned and left.

Ten minutes later saw Twilight rushing up to the local schoolhouse, sweat running down her face as she rushed towards the meeting point.

Noticing her arrival, Lieutenant Palisade gave an amused smile at the sight of the out of breath librarian.

“I’d recommend that you set up an exercise regimen for yourself Ms. Sparkle, having a healthy body is just as important as a healthy mind.”

Panting, she retorted, “I...*puff*...thought...*puff*...that I...*puff* told you...*puff*...to call me Twilight.”

“You did, but I feel that now is not really the place for informality Ms. Sparkle, I need everypony to be at their best, and informality breeds sloppiness. You understand I hope?”

Having finally managed to gain some measure of her breath back, Twilight replied, “I guess, so what happens now?”

“Now we wait for one of the scouts to report back on the creature’s locatio-”

“Sir, we found it!” shouted a pegasus as he came in for a quick landing. Giving a quick salute he continued, “Trooper Fairweather and I spotted the creature less than a mile south of Sweet Apple Acres sir!”

“Is it still using the road?”

The guard gave a nod in reply.

Giving a satisfied smile, Palisade said, “Excellent, then we can go ahead with plan Alpha,” Turning to address the rest of his troopers and shouted, “Alright you lot, time to earn your pay! Let’s move out!”

With the well-honed precision that only comes from practice, the platoon, plus one lavender unicorn, got moving south, intent on finding out whether the unknown creature making its way towards Ponyville was a threat or not, and that if it was, to stop it, no matter what.

Riding along under the shade of the overhanging trees, Allen could almost believe that he was back home, riding along an unused road out in the countryside. However, the occasional glimpse of the distant mountain castle would shatter that illusion like a brick through a glass window.

Sighing to himself, Allen let his shoulders slump as he stared down at Rueben’s mane, content to let his mount do some of the driving for the moment.

“What are we going to do Rueben? Even if we do find other humans, who’s to say that they will be able to understand us to begin with? I don’t know about you but I ain’t looking forward to miming my way through first contact!”

Reuben gave an ear flick in reply.

Giving a soft chuckle, Allen patted Reuben’s neck with a gloved hand and said, “Yeah, I hear ya, no use in worrying about what’s out of my hands. Still, I can’t help bu-”

The sudden snapping of a twig nearby cut Allen off as he whipped his head around, his body tensing in preparation to fight or flee as he jerked back on the reins to bring his mount to a halt.

Reuben, sensing Allen’s sudden anxiety, pawed at the ground nervously, snorting in confusion as to what could have his rider suddenly on edge, but sure that if his master thought it was dangerous, then it probably was.

Scanning the nearby woods, Allen felt a drop of sweat slowly crawl down the side of his face as the seconds ticked by with no sight of what had caused the disturbance.

After a few tense moments, a brown blob jumped out of nearby bush, nearly giving Allen a heart attack before he realized that it was just a harmless little squirrel.

Letting go a nervous, and slightly embarrassed laugh at his overreaction, Allen exclaimed, “Ha! It was just a damn squirrel! Nearly gave myself a heart attack over a damn squirrel! Haha!” Reaching down again, he gently stroked Reuben’s mane in an effort to reassure the horse that everything was alright with the world once more.

“It’s okay boy, just a harmless woodland critter.”

Reuben gave an annoyed huff and stomped a hoof in reply, obviously not entirely pleased over having been subjected to a false alarm like that.

“Well, in any case, I guess we better get moving again,” continued Allen as he gave his steed a tap with his heels to get him moving forward again. However, as he and Reuben continued onwards, he failed to spot a glint of armor sparkling in a nearby bush.

The pony that the armor belonged to, upon seeing Allen move on, let go an explosive sigh of relief at having gone undetected. Turning to his partner, he gave him a slap upside the back of his head and whispered harshly, “Watch where you’re stepping next time you clumsy oaf, you nearly got us caught!”

His partner gave a soft yelp of surprise and idly rubbing the back of his head, even though he still had his helmet on, which had protected him from his comrades slap, said, “Sorry corporal, it won’t happen again!”

Giving a nod the corporal growled back, “See that it doesn’t or I’ll have you on KP duty for the rest of your time in the guard, do I make myself clear?”

“Yes Corporal Waters!” replied the hapless guard.

Satisfied that the lesson had gotten through, the corporal turned his attention back to the now empty cart path, and motioning to the rest of his hidden squad, moved out, stealthily following in Allen’s wake.

Meanwhile, another two pairs of eyes calmly watched from within an apple tree’s branches as the local guards moved out.

“Lucky for that corporal down there that his armor’s got sound dampening enchantments on it, otherwise he’d have given his position away more effectively than his friend,” drawled a brown coated pegasus.

His grey colored partner nodded his head in silent agreement. Looking away from the less than stealthy movements of their compatriots below, he said, “Well, at least we know what this so called “monster” looks like.”

His brown companion gave a soft snort of amusement. “If that there is a monster,” he said, waving a hoof in the direction that Allen had ridden off in, “then I’m secretly Princess Celestia in disguise.

“Well luckily for everypony involved, you’re not, so I would assume that means we’re dealing with something that is less of a monster and more along the line of some kind of previously unknown creature or something.”

“Right, well enough jabbering, we should probably be off,” was his reply.

The grey pegasus gave a nod, and took to the sky, his companion following close behind, their passage silent save for the rustling of the leaves that were disturbed by their passage. Keeping close to the tree tops, the two quickly caught up to, and passed by the, in their opinion, hopelessly un-stealthy Royal Guards before then spotting their target up ahead.

Having once again reestablished contact, both rangers banked away from the road, intent on finding a place up ahead of their target to land and quietly observe its progress. They didn’t have to wait long, for mere moments after they had taken up positions, the strange creature came trotting by.

Watching it trot into view, the two rangers noticed that it was not one, as had been assumed previously, but two creatures, one riding atop the other. The first creature appeared to be equine, seeing as it had the definitive, mane, tail, ears, hooves and general build of a pony. However, other than that, one would be hard pressed to call it an actual pony.

The first, and most obvious difference would be the size of the creature, easily three times that of the average adult pony, in addition, its legs appeared spindly and weak looking, in comparison to that of a normal Equestrian’s. The other and by far most glaring difference would be that of the equines head. It was longer, and appeared more rigid in nature, as if it were incapable of creating expressions. Moreover, its eyes were both small and dull, lacking that spark of sapience that could be found in all Equestrians.

While it was somewhat disconcerting to see a fellow equine as little more than a simple non-sapient creature, the being that rode upon its back was another matter entirely.

The closest analogue that the two rangers could come up with was a hairless gorilla that had had its face and body slightly rearranged. Even though it was currently sitting, its body dimensions and posture indicated that it would walk in a more upright fashion than a gorilla would. In addition, its face was also different in that it didn’t look like somepony had smashed its nose in with a brick. Though that still meant its face was flatter than that of a pony’s.

Moreover, the strange creature appeared to be nearly devoid of fur save for a small patch atop its head, of which most of that was obscured by its hat, and what looked like some stubble growing on its face. Then there were its eyes, deep blue and alert, they, and by extension, its head were constantly moving around in random sweeps of the countryside, as if searching for threats.

Both rangers already knew the strange creature was intelligent, as they had been close enough to hear it speak, though they were not confident that the Canterlot Guard had heard it speak. As a general rule Equestrian Rangers never assumed anything and always prepared for a worst case scenario, especially when it came to joint operations with the guard.

It was a well-known thing amongst those in the military that the rangers held a sort of contempt towards their brethren in the guard, viewing them as little more than glorified police ponies that couldn’t fight their way out of a wet paper sack. Of course this sort of opinion was somewhat unfair towards those in the guard.

While it was true that the guards fieldcraft was sorely lacking, in the cities they had a much easier time of it. Moreover, the guard was never meant to be an offensive tool to begin with, as such it tended to focus more on those areas that played to its strengths, such as fighting in urban environments, close quarters combat, as well as from prepared defensive positions.

However, that really only applied to those guard units who were from major cities, such as Manehatten or Canterlot. For smaller towns, the quality of those serving tended to be lower, and unfortunately, tended to stay low, as money was rather scarce in regards to training and equipping them. Thus many small town guards were little better than militia and could only be relied upon for minor matters such as repelling small scale attacks, whether it be from monsters or brigands.

In the case of Ponyville however, due to its relative closeness to Canterlot and its tendency to be relatively peaceful, at least up until recent months anyways, it was used by the Canterlot Guard as a sort of “soft duty” post for those guard members recovering from either wounds received in the line of duty or those suffering from exhaustion. This way, they could still remain on duty, but have a chance to recuperate in peace.

Unfortunately, the town was also used by the nobility on occasion as a way to punish those who had crossed them; this often meant a career ending assignment for the unfortunate guardspony that was sent here.

However, that policy was rapidly being revisited as thanks in large part to the increased activity of such little things as monster, and villain attacks in recent months. Many of the nobility in Canterlot were now searching for another nearby small town to dispose of unwanted guardsponies on.

Then there were the rangers. Considered the offensive arm of the Equestrian military, such as it was, even though their numbers were small, being only around a few hundred currently, they were both highly trained, well equipped and disciplined, and had possessed excellent leadership.

Often times they found themselves being used to take on those things that even the bigger city guards were unable to deal with, and many a guard commander thanked the heavens above when the rangers showed up to take matters off their hooves.

Of course sometimes the rangers found themselves called in for situations that didn’t require their talents to deal with. Such was the case that the two rangers now found themselves in at the present moment.

Glancing at his partner out of the corner of his eye, the brown colored ranger asked, “Well, you see anything that might be a weapon on it?”

His companion gave a shake of his head, “Nope, and it doesn’t look like it has any natural weapons either.”

“Don’t be so sure on that, I wouldn’t be surprised if it has something tucked away under all of that clothing.”

Grey nodded. “True, there is that.”

Brown glanced over at his partner and asked, “What about magic?”

Grey shook his head. “My thaum crystal isn’t picking up any magical radiation from it either.”

His partner cocked an eyebrow. “None?” he asked curiously.

“Not even a scrap, mules have more magic in them than that thing does, though I can’t be one hundred percent positive, the amount of residual magical energy from the Elements might be affecting my crystal. That or that thing has some very good magical shielding on it.”

Brown nodded again. “Right, how do you want to approach this then?”

Grey chewed his bottom lip for a moment before replying, “Probably should report back to the lieutenant and see what he has to say...or we could draw lots and the loser walks up to it and see what it does.”

His companion gave a soft chuckle. “Haha, funny guy.”

Grey gave a smirk. “I try,” however, his smirk faded as quickly as it arrived and he continued, “Though in all seriousness, that thing, whatever it is, looks about as dangerous as a bush.*”

“Agreed. So do you want to go back and report, or should I?”

“I did it the last time, it’s your turn to talk to the guard,” replied Grey.

Brown gave a sigh. “Fine, at least this lieutenant doesn’t have his head up his plot like the last one did.”

“True, but he’s still a guard.”

“Point.”

And with that, Brown crept away from his roadside hiding spot while Grey continued to watch the progress of their target as it made its way sedately up the path. Settling back into a watchful position, he glanced back towards where the guards would be, and mentally facehoofed at their antics as they failed miserably in attempting to stealthily follow the creature.

Sweet Maker preserve me, one of them just ran across the road behind it.

Meanwhile, the guard had set up a temporary command post at the local school, at which half of the platoons strength, roughly twenty ponies of various types, were stationed. The other half of the platoon had been sent out to locate, and then shadow the unknown entity as it made its way towards town. It was planned that if the entity turned out to be hostile, that the two sections would be able to swarm it from all angles in a classic encircling maneuver.

If however, the entity decided to flee then it would be surrounded on all sides by Lieutenant Palisade’s ponies, thus making it much more difficult to flee.

Currently most of the first half of Palisade’s platoon was hidden amongst the trees and bushes that surrounded the road leading to the school. However, the lieutenant, one of his sergeants and Twilight were currently standing near the school’s front door, inspecting a map that had been pinned to the ground with small stones at each corner.

“And you’re sure that the creature won’t be able to see the road heading for Sweet Apple Acres?” asked a slightly nervous Twilight.

The sergeant nodded. “Positive, we’ve got the road screened with an illusion enchantment so it looks just like the rest of the roadside. Plus I’ve left four unicorns behind to make sure the enchantment doesn’t fail as well.”

“Good work sergeant,” said Palisade, “did you leave instructions for them in case something goes wrong?”

The sergeant nodded again. “Yes sir, should the creature notice something amiss and attempt to pass through the enchantment field they are to fire a white flare into the air. If, for some reason the creature notices the enchantment, and them as well and attacks they are to fire a red one into the air.”

“What if it just notices them and doesn’t attack?”

“If that should happen ma’am then they’ll fire a green flare in the sky, either way, it won’t be good.”

“Quite, should something like that happen, we’ll have no choice but to move to their aid at once, regardless of the initial outcome. Unknown creatures are as one can expect, unpredictable,” remarked the lieutenant.

Twilight nodded in understanding and opened her mouth to reply when the light sound, and soft breeze of a pegasus landing next to her caused her to give a startled yelp, and jump to the side.

“Apologies miss, I did not mean to startle you like that,” said a brown coated pegasus sporting a pair of brown saddle bags and cloth coat, which covered his cutie mark, preventing Twilight from seeing what it was.

“Ah, Ranger Soft Wind, do you have something to report?”

Ranger Wind nodded, giving a quick salute. “I do sir, both myself and Ranger Ash Fall were able to get close to the being without it detecting us and were able to observe it for a time.”

Lieutenant Palisade smiled. “Excellent! Tell me, what did you learn?”

“We cannot say for certain at this time, but both Ranger Ash and myself do not think the creature is armed, either with magic or conventional weapons, nor did we see any sort of natural weapons upon its person. However, I should caution you sir, that this does not mean that the creature is necessarily harmless, just that we couldn’t see any obvious weapons,” replied Soft Wind.

Palisade nodded. “Agreed, we cannot be too careful when it comes to the unknown after al-”

“Sir! White flare off to the south!” yelled a nearby pegasus from his cloudy perch.

Whirling around in the indicated direction, just in time to see a green flare join its sister in the sky, burning brightly for all to see, Palisade cursed under his breath before turning to the sergeant, yelling, “Get the rest of the platoon on the move sergeant! I want you to take half on the east side of the road, and I’ll take the other half down the west side. Keep them in the trees as best you can, we don’t want this thing to see us coming if we can help it!”

Giving a quick salute, the sergeant tore off, barking out orders to the ponies around him. Watching him go for a moment, Palisade turned first to the ranger. “Return to your partner and assist if needed, I’ll leave it up to you when, and where to engage as this is something you’re far better at than I.”

“Understood sir,” replied Wind, giving a half salute before taking off as silently as he landed.

Barely waiting for the ranger to depart, Palisade was already addressing Twilight. “Miss Twilight, things might become dangerous,” seeing her opening her mouth to angrily object, he quickly cut her off, “I’m not going to send you back, I said I would allow you to help us and I meant it. Now, please do not try to interrupt me again like that,” he said, a stern look on his face.

Seeing that she wasn’t going to interrupt him again, he quickly continued, “What I was going to say was that I wanted you to stay close to me at all times. I know you can handle yourself in a fight, but you are undisciplined, and I need you to be able to follow any command that I may give you, no matter how strange or unpleasant it may sound. If you cannot do that, then I will have to ask you to remain behind, do you understand?”

Giving a shallow and somewhat shameful nod, Twilight replied quietly, “I do.”

Returning her nod, the lieutenant said, “Alright then, let’s be about it,” and with that he too took off for the nearby tree line, shouting out orders to his ponies.

Twilight, following close behind, felt a cold ball of uncertainty settling in her chest as she ran towards what could potentially turn into a fight, and praying that that wouldn’t be the case.

The shadows cast by the nearby trees were beginning to lengthen when Allen decided to take a short rest, and to stretch his legs after having been in the saddle for a while.

Hopping down from Reuben, he gave a happy groan as he stretched his arms wide, feeling several satisfying pops in his back.

Sighing in relief, Allen looked around at the seemingly endless rows of trees which stretched off for as far as the eye could see, with not a soul in sight as far as he could tell. However, unbeknownst to Allen, he was not alone.

Standing just a few yards away, concealed from Allen’s view by a magical illusionary barrier of apple trees, four royal guard unicorns tensely watched Allen as he rested.

One of them, a recent recruit, going by the name of Comet Tail, nervously shifted from hoof to hoof.

“Why doesn’t it move on?” he anxiously whispered.

“Quiet,” growled his companion, a stout and tough looking unicorn by the name of Flare Shot.

Comet just whimpered and wished with all his heart that the freaky looking biped and its pony-esque mount would move on already. Sadly for him, the creature didn’t appear to be in a hurry to move on at the moment.

“W-why can’t the rest of the platoon just hurry up and get here already?”

“Comet, I swear to Epona that if I hear one more peep out of your muzzle, I will personally launch your sorry flank into the sun!” replied Flare Shot harshly, his patience rapidly running out.

“B-but, s-sarge! L-look at it! It’s completely hideous! And look what it did to that poor pony!” continued Comet, oblivious in his rising panic, of the hole that he was quickly digging himself into.

Whirring around, Flare grabbed the gibbering Comet by the front of his cuirass with his magic, and yanking him till they were muzzle to muzzle, said quietly, “If you screw this up and give our position away, not even your father will be enough to save your sorry hide, do I make myself clear?”

Comet opened his mouth to reply, but a strained whisper cut him off.

“S-sarge, I-I’m h-having trouble keeping t-the spell g-going!”

Giving one last piercing glare into the terrified eyes of Comet, Flare Shot released him, letting him crumple to the ground in a sad looking pile of shivering pony flesh.

Turning his attention to the source of the voice, he found a worrying sight. The unicorn that had been tasked with crafting, and maintaining the illusionary spell was beginning to show signs of severe strain.

Quickly trotting up to him, Flare Shot could see the sweat pouring off the poor stallion as his horn burned bright with energy and his legs trembled slightly from the strain.

Placing a steadying hoof on the guards shoulder, Flare Shot said softly, “You’re doing good son, keep it up.”

“I-I d-don’t know if I c-can for...much...longer!” came his strained reply.

Biting his lower lip, Flare Shot quickly ran over his options, such as they were, as Lieutenant Palisade’s plan hadn’t allowed for the chance that the creature would stop right in front of the illusionary barrier that guarded the entrance to a nearby farm.

What had been intended was that the Equestrians were to use the road as a way to funnel the creature to a point where they could easily surround it, and contain it if needed. This should have been a fairly straight forward goal as the road that the creature was following didn’t connect to any other roads before it hit the outskirts of Ponyville.

Moreover, with apple trees on either side of the road, which would make any sort of quick escape difficult for the creature and its much larger mount. In addition, the trees would provide excellent concealment for Palisade’s ponies to work around its sides and rear, trapping it when it ran into Palisade’s blocking force near the schoolhouse.

All in all, a solid plan, in theory. However, the farm that they were guarding, Sweet Apple Acres, home of the Apple Clan, considered one of the largest apple orchards in Equestria, and makers of excellent apple made products. It, in addition to being the only orchard in the entirety of Equestria to possess Zap Apple trees, had to also be located on the very same road that the creature was currently traveling on.

Thus the guard had taken measures to conceal the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres by use of an illusion spell that would disguise the entrance as nothing more than another section of orchard.

Unfortunately, time had not been on their side and they had been forced to cut corners when constructing the illusionary spell. In addition, thanks in large part to Discord’s recent shenanigans across Equestria, not just in nearby Canterlot and Ponyville, the guard was stretched thin dealing with the aftermath.

Moreover, Discord had thought it would be funny to randomly teleport guards around for his amusement, making it rather difficult to get units organized on short notice.

Thus, the guard detachment currently in Ponyville found itself thoroughly mixed up, with guards from no less than four separate towns and cities, and with many of them either fresh out of training or still in training.

What’s worse, there was only one unicorn guard in the entire platoon who was rated for illusionary spell casting, and he was fresh out of basic training.

Leaning in close, Flare Shot whispered encouraging words in the struggling guard’s ear, hoping that that would be enough to keep him going. If he could have, he would’ve been adding his own mana to the spell as well, but that kind of thing was not something that could done in the middle of a spell as the different auras would cause the spell to shake itself apart.

What’s more, the fact that the illusion had to cover the entirety of the front entrance of the farm, as well as blend in seamlessly with the surrounding area, required a significant amount of mana. Mana that the guard powering the spell was quickly running out of, encouraging words or not, and since it did not appear as if the creature was planning on moving on anytime soon, it was only a matter of time before they were discovered.

Allen meanwhile, gave another large stretch, before then turning and giving Reuben an affectionate pat on the neck. “I bet that feels nice finally having me off your back for a little bit, huh boy?” said Allen with a small smile.

Reuben quietly nickered and gave Allen a gentle shove with his muzzle, an indication that he wanted Allen to continue petting him.

Chuckling to himself, Allen resumed petting Reuben’s neck. “Hehe, yeah okay, I get it, you want me to keep going. I swear, you are so needy some...times...” he said as he suddenly trailed off, eyes narrowing in confusion at a point a few feet further up the road.

Ceasing his petting, much to Reuben’s displeasure, Allen, the reins held loosely in his left hand, strode slowly forward to the aforementioned spot. Squatting down to get a closer look he studied the section of road intently.

Strange, he thought to himself as he glanced around, why would the cart trail suddenly turn into a dirt road in the middle of nowhere? Could we be getting close to a town? Looking up, he peered down the road for as far as he could, but all he saw were more trees to either side, and no signs of civilization.

Idly rubbing his chin with his right hand, Allen suddenly heard...something behind and to his right that sounded suspiciously like a muffled scream. Standing up quickly, he turned around in the general direction of the sound. Apparently, Reuben had heard it too as he gave a low, nervous nicker while shying away from the source of the noise.

“What the hell is going on around here?” muttered Allen to himself as he instinctively tightened his grip on the reins. Feeling that perhaps it was best to move on, Allen moved closer, and swung a leg into the saddle’s stirrups in preparation for resuming his journey.

Meanwhile, the situation had not improved for Flare Shot. His illusionist was rapidly running out of stamina and Comet had not calmed down in the least, in fact, he’d become even more scared in the meantime. To make matters worse, the creature had become suspicious after having noticed the road change in front of it. Moreover, something seemed to have spooked it as it had whirled around to face the direction that it had come, its mount also showing signs of nervousness.

Biting his bottom lip nearly hard enough to break the skin, Flare Shot tried to find a solution in order to salvage the rapidly deteriorating situation. Unfortunately, he didn’t find one in time.

Several things happened at once that brought the whole ordeal to its inevitable climax. The first being that Flare Shot’s illusionist finally ran out of juice, as panting and wheezing, and his horn glow waning, the poor stallion collapsed to the ground in a heap. His illusion wavered for a moment, as if it were a piece of cloth caught in a breeze before it disappeared into thin air, leaving the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres fully exposed.

The second thing that happened was that Comet, now finding that he and the rest of the squad were fully exposed, panicked, and fired a white flare into the sky before turning tail and running like Discord himself was after him.

The third thing that happened was that the source of the noise that had caught Allen’s attention earlier, finally showed itself in the form of a guardsmare bursting from a nearby bush screaming incoherently about giant spiders.

It would later turn out during an investigation, that the mare in question, a Private Daffodil, had an extreme phobia of spiders, and that just moments before the illusion failed, a rather large one from the nearby Everfree had decided that she would make a nice friend, and had proceeded to introduce itself by dropping down from above and landing on her face.

Daffodil took immediate exception to the spider’s presence and attempted to voice her displeasure in the form of a scream. Seeing that Daffodil about to give their position away, her partner, a pegasus, jumped on her and pinned her to the ground, before then shoving a hoof in her mouth in an attempt to silence her.

Unfortunately, the spider was still firmly attached to Daffodil’s face, and her terror proved to be more than a match for her compatriot’s strength, as she managed to break free and run away screaming. She would later be found almost catatonic, the spider, still on her face, near one of Sweet Apple Acres barns.

For their part, the rest of the platoon stayed in cover for a few extra seconds, as if trying to process what had happened. However, they quickly realized that, with their cover blown, and the plan compromised, that they needed to do something to prevent the creature from attempting escape.

This was why they all charged out of cover at nearly the same time, trying to take up a blocking position across the road behind Allen. Which would have worked better had they not been spread out along the roadside and had been closer together.

However, because of the need to keep down noise and their lack of experience working outside of the city, they had been forced to keep themselves dispersed lest they trip over each other and give their position away.

The end result was that, because their cover was blown before they arrived at the predetermined spot, they were struggling to get everyone close enough together to form a proper blockade, and this was leaving holes in their lines.

Allen meanwhile, unable to fully comprehend what he was seeing, sat with a dumbfounded expression in the saddle, his arms hanging limply at his sides, while his brain tried to make sense of what he was seeing.

They’re...ponies? In Roman legion armor? What. The. Fuck. Over?

While Allen was trying to reboot his brain, Reuben's was firing on all cylinders, and it was telling him was that it was well past time to, “get yo ass home son”.

So that is precisely what he did. As the ponies struggled to get into position, Reuben took off as if he were a racehorse at the Belmont.

Meanwhile, Flare Shot was cursing his luck as he watched the whole plan fall apart right before his eyes. As the larger equine and its rider, who now appeared to be screaming at the top of its lungs, tore off back the way they had come. He could only watch in helplessness as the beast bore down upon the still forming blocking force with no intention of stopping.

For Allen, the fact that he wasn’t prepared for Reuben to take off like a rocket, left him struggling to just stay in the saddle, let alone bring his obviously panicking animal back under control.

However, even if Allen wasn’t trying to just merely remain in the saddle and had the time to try and bring his mount under control, Reuben wouldn’t have let him, as he was determined to thread himself through the holes left in the Equestrians lines and get home.

Which is precisely what he did, though credit where credit is due, the guards did try and stop him, but when you have an animal that is nearly three times as big, barreling down on you at around twenty miles per hour, and you’re by yourself, you’d get out of the way too.

Flare Shot watched in disbelief as Reuben literally tore through the Equestrian lines like a knife through wet tissue paper. Any place that he met resistance, and he couldn’t find a big enough opening, he simply jumped over, clearing their heads by inches and scattering the ponies as they dove for cover. It was over in less than a minute, from the moment the illusion spell failed to the moment when the creature and its mount escaped.

Gritting his teeth in frustration at their failure, Flare Shot threw his head back and launched a green flare into the sky to alert his superior of the creature’s escape, before then turning to the nearest pony and barking out orders in an attempt to salvage the situation.

“You two,” he yelled, pointing at a pair of nearby pegasi, “get up there and follow it, and get as many of the others to go with you as you can while you’re at it!” The two gave him a shaky salute and took off.

Whirling around, he opened his mouth when the sound of approaching wing beats cut him off. Turning toward the direction, he spotted both rangers coming in for a landing.

“I thought you rangers were supposed to be quiet?” he said testily.

Ash gave a wing shrug. “We can be as loud or as quiet as the situation requires, in this case we were able to get your attention faster by being loud.”

Flare Shot gave an irritated grunt and snapped. “Well what are you standing around for then?! Get your flanks in the air and follow that creature with the others!”

The two glanced silently at each other for a moment, as if exchanging a mental conversation before Soft Wind took off, this time quietly, much to Flare Shots mounting irritation.

Opening his mouth to see why the other ranger hadn’t left yet, he was cut off by Ash’s raised wing. “I’m staying behind to leave a report with the Lieutenant about this debacle. By the way, I saw your wayward guard hightailing it back to Ponyville on the way over, might want to send somepony to fetch him,” finished Ash, a small smirk on his lips.

When I get my hooves on you Comet...

Reuben, blowing hard and with foam falling from his mouth, tiredly walked over the threshold between Allen’s farm and the surrounding countryside. Allen meanwhile was just as tired, as the boost of adrenaline from the mad dash that Reuben had made home had worn off, and left him feeling spent.

Glancing back the way they had come, Allen spotted a glint of metal in the fading afternoon light, as one of the winged ponies that had chased him and Reuben home ducked behind a cloud.

Allen felt a rush of nervousness course through his system as thoughts of being plucked from the saddle by one of those winged ponies, taken high into the sky, before then being dropped, and dashed to pieces on the ground filled his mind.

Shivering at the terrifying thought, Allen gave his tired mount a gentle kick with his heels, hurrying him along in an attempt to get undercover as quickly as possible.

Angling Reuben towards the barn, Allen guided him in before dismounting, taking his saddle and bridle off, and quickly, but thoroughly brushing him down before putting him back in his stall for the night.

Shutting and locking the stall door behind him, Allen quickly locked up the barn and fed the animals in record time, as he wanted to spend as little time outside as possible, and he just couldn’t bring himself to let his charges go hungry no matter how scared he currently felt.

Though that did not mean he went unarmed, a three foot piece of slightly rusty angle iron served as a makeshift sword in case any of those strange, alien ponies felt the need to show up and cause trouble; even though he doubted that it would do him much good in a straight up fight with them, it at least made him feel a little better.

After filling up the last of the animal’s water buckets, and silently patting himself on the back for having the foresight to fill up a couple of unused water troughs before he had left that morning. Allen cautiously poked his head out the service door, checking to see if the coast was clear.

Spotting nothing, he made a dash for the garage, his makeshift sword clutched tightly in his grip, head on a constant swivel for any signs of trouble.

Reaching the door, Allen all but burst through it, slamming and locking the door behind him. Carefully, so as to not trip and fall in the dim confines of the garage, he threaded his way through to the back door and eased it open before then slipping inside.

Shutting and locking that door as well, he proceeded to carefully rush through the house, shutting and locking doors and windows before then retreating to his room and locking himself inside.

Leaning his back up against the door, he slid down till his rear hit the floor, his hands still gripping the piece of angle iron tightly as he stared out the nearby window.

A sudden shadow flitting across the moonbeam on the floor in front of him caused him to tense up, and the sound of an owl hooting outside did nothing to help his fraying nerves.

It was at this point that Allen realized that he would not be getting any sleep that night.

The sun had set hours ago, casting the countryside into peaceful darkness. However, at Sweet Apple Acres, things were neither peaceful nor dark as the farm had been transformed into a makeshift command post, with ponies coming and going while magical lights were set out to help push back the night.

Of course the Apple family wasn’t particularly happy, what with all of the ruckus caused by the guard as they came and went from the farm. However it couldn’t really be helped as Sweet Apple Acres was deemed the logical place to set up a command post. As there were spare buildings readily available for both storage and sleeping arrangements, it was easy to find in the dark, and the fact that the farm had running water didn’t hurt either.

Of course from the way Granny Smith, the matron of the farm, made it out to be, one would think that the guard had let the creature get away on purpose just so that they could bother the farming family.

Naturally this was completely unfair to the guard as the rest of the platoon had arrived within minutes after the first flare had gone up. Unfortunately, they had been still been too late to do anything to stop the creature from getting away, thus forcing them to alter their plans accordingly.

Currently those plans included stomping ones hoof in mounting frustration, at least if you happened to be Lieutenant Palisade listening to the final bit of Sergeant Flare Shot’s report.

“...and then it was gone sir.”

“Did you send anypony after it?”

Flare Shot nodded. “Yes sir, I had the few pegasi that were here follow it along with one of the rangers, the other one’s over by the house waiting to give you his report...I think.”

Palisade rolled his eyes before saying, “Thank you Sergeant Shot, I’ll be sure to mention you in my dispatches back to headquarters, as well as your illusionist.”

“Don’t forget Comet Tail sir, the coward bolted at the first sign of trouble.”

Palisade nodded and waved a hoof dismissively. “Yes, yes, I’ll be sure to mention him in my report as well. I should also mention that we managed to apprehend him and he is currently in the Ponyville jailhouse right now, in case you were wondering sergeant.”

“Thank you sir, that’s a load off my mind at any rate. Was there anything else that I can help you with?” asked Flare Shot. When Palisade shook his head, Flare gave a quick salute and departed.

Watching him go for a moment, Palisade let out a tired sigh.

“Are you alright Lieutenant?”

Glancing over to his right he said tiredly, “No Miss Sparkle I am not ‘alright’. This whole situation has gone from bad to worse. Not only has the creature escaped, but now it knows that we are aware of its presence and may do something tonight while it is dark out and difficult for the guard to operate. That and your friends grandmother seems to have it in her head that all of my ponies are complete idiots.”

Twilight gave a sheepish smile. “You’ll have to forgive Granny Smith; she gets a little cranky when her afternoon nap is interrupted.”

Palisade rolled his eyes. “Be that as it may, the current situation is hardly ideal seeing as I have one pony in jail for attempted desertion and another one comatose in a first aid tent nearby...from a spider. All this, on top of having to contain a potentially dangerous creature on its own turf while being short hooved as it is.”

“Now let us not be too hasty in our judging of the current situation Lieutenant,” a posh voice said suddenly from behind Palisade.

Startled, the frazzled lieutenant whirled around, intent to chew out the idiot who had startled him, but upon seeing exactly who was behind him, the fiery words died on his lips.

“Prince Blueblood! I didn’t know that you were here, let alone aware of the situation yet, sir.”

“Both myself and the princesses have been aware of the...situation here in Ponyville since this morning, thanks to Ranger Feather Down sending us a message via the new telegraph line from Ponyville.”

“Wait, are you telling me there was another ranger here in Ponyville this whole time and I wasn’t made aware of that?!” replied the lieutenant hotly.

Blueblood gave him a rather cool look which quickly smothered Palisades’s temper.

“Yes, there was, and the reason you weren’t made aware of her presence was because she was here at the behest of Princess Celestia and myself on another assignment, and thus was not available for your use,” replied the prince calmly.

Turning to regard Twilight, he gave a polite nod of his head in greeting, as was customary amongst those of the nobility, of which Twilight’s family was a part of; though hers were from a minor noble house rather than one of the great houses, such as Blueblood’s family.

“Ms. Sparkle it is nice to...see you again,” said Blueblood politely.

Twilight returned a forced grin and replied, “The pleasure is all mine, Your Grace.”

Giving her a satisfied smile, he turned his attention back to the lieutenant.

“Now, as I was saying before you interrupted me,” at this, Palisade averted his gaze slightly in embarrassment, though if Blueblood noticed, he made no mention before continuing on saying, “both Princess’s Celestia, Luna, and myself have been made aware of a creature that may have ties to Discord. As such, Princess Celestia had me come down here to oversee things personally. I trust that this will not be a problem lieutenant?”

Glad to finally have somepony to shoulder the burden of leadership off on, Palisade replied quickly, “Not at all, Your Grace, I am more than happy to hoof this mess over to you, sir.”

“Good, then why don’t the both of you bring me up to speed on what has been happening since the initial letter we received this morning,” responded Blueblood simply as he sat himself down on a nearby camp stool.

Giving a tired nod, Palisade quickly brought the prince as up to speed as he could; given the information he currently had, with Twilight interjecting where needed. When Palisade finally wound down nearly an hour later, Blueblood gave a curt nod and turned to Twilight saying, “Anything else that you wish to add Ms. Sparkle?”

“No, that should be just about it,” she replied, though when she saw the cross look Blueblood gave her, she quickly added, “Your Grace.”

Giving a pleased nod that protocol had been maintained, he remarked while glancing through the notes supplied to him by Twilight, “It seems as if this creature is an odd one. You say that it was a...” he trailed off for a moment as he double checked one of the papers before continuing, “…hairless, stunted and deformed minotaur? Not really much to work with I’m afraid.”

Twilight shifted nervously from hoof to hoof before replying, “I wasn’t able to see it for myself, so I had to rely on what the guards told me.”

Blueblood gave a thoughtful hum as he leaned back from the table and tapped his chin, as if pondering something.

“Are you sure there was nopony else who got a better look at the creature, perhaps one of the rangers, mayhap?”

Palisade groaned to himself in annoyance at having forgotten in all the excitement that the rangers had in fact gotten close enough to view it. Turning to a nearby unicorn, he said, “Go and fetch which ever ranger is close by, tell them that I need to debrief them.”

The guard gave a quick salute and took off. With the guard gone, the three ponies had little to do until his return; as such an awkward silence quickly filled the room. Not a big fan of awkward silences, Twilight cleared her throat and asked, “So...anything new happen in Canterlot recently, Prince Blueblood?”

Blueblood, who had been examining another paper, glanced up at Twilight and replied curtly, “Yes, but now is really not the time to distract ourselves with small talk. Perhaps later,” he paused for a moment as he glanced away from the paper in his magical grip, and said, in an amused voice, “Though if the silence bothers you that much, you are welcome to step out for a moment until the guard returns.”

Suddenly feeling as if she were being tested, Twilight hastily replied, “Oh, thank you for the offer Your Grace, but I’m fine...really! I was just curious is all, and seeing as we had some time before...um...they got...back? I...” noticing the unimpressed look that Blueblood was sending her way, Twilight quickly wilted, her words trailing off into an even more uncomfortable silence.

Seeing that there would be no further interruptions, Blueblood returned his attention to the papers before him, the perfect picture of a noble, calm, collected and aloof.

Thankfully for Twilight, she didn’t have to suffer in silence for long as the sound of approaching hoofsteps signaled the return of the guard, and hopefully the ranger as well.

Looking up from his current paper, Blueblood allowed himself smile and rising from his stool, and much to Twilight’s surprise, he greeted the new arrival warmly, “Ah, Ranger Ash Fall, a pleasant surprise, I was not aware that you were back from your assignment to the southern border so soon. Tell me, how is your wife and son?”

Ash gave the prince a courteous bow and replied respectfully, “She is well, and so is my son, though she does wish I would be home more often than I am, Your Grace.”

Blueblood chuckled and replied cheerfully, “Well, I’ll just have to see about convincing old Colonel Hickory to let you have some time off after this is all over with.”

“Thank you, Your Grace, you are too kind,” replied the ranger, bowing once more in thanks.

Blueblood gave a casual wave of his hoof, as if to dispel the gratitude directed towards him as if it were smoke.

“Think nothing of it, I wouldn’t be a very good friend if I did not offer my assistance to my friends once in a while now would I?” was Blueblood’s cheerful reply.

Ash gave a shallow nod. “I suppose so, though I doubt that you are here to catch up on old times and conduct small talk, sir.”

Blueblood shook his head. “No unfortunately, I am not, perhaps some other time in the near future,” he said somewhat sadly; that sadness didn’t last long however as he quickly gave himself a shake and continued on saying, “Now, enough about that, down to business. What is this that I hear about some creature that Discord has managed to summon to our fair realm?”

Ash adopted a more relaxed posture as he replied, “To be honest, Your Grace, I doubt that the creature is directly affiliated with Discord. Though I should hasten to add that does not mean that it is inherently harmless, merely that it is non chaotic in origin.”

Blueblood gave a thoughtful hum as he considered what Ash had told him. After a few moments of quiet thought, Blueblood said, “Give me your reasons for why you think it may not be related to Discord.”

“Very well,” replied Ash as he began to list off the various points that would support his hypothesis. “Firstly, Ranger Soft Wind and I managed to get within less than ten hooves of the creature at one point. Naturally it did not notice our presence and we were able to get a rough reading of its magical signature...or I should say its lack of one.”

“What?! How is that possible, it is proven fact that all creatures have some sort of magical signature in them! To say that it had none whatsoever is impossible!” Twilight shouted incredulous, cutting off Blueblood’s own query in the process and earning the mare a rather frosty glare from the prince.

Twilight, noticing the prince’s unhappy gaze, visible shrunk away from the unhappy royal, her ears pinning flat against her scalp, squeaking out an apology as she did so.

After glaring at her a little longer to make sure he got his point across, Blueblood turned his attention back to Ash, and asked, “Right, well as Ms. Sparkle so eloquently put it, I would have to agree that this revelation seems quite unlikely. I assume that you used a standard issue thaum crystal?”

“Yes, Your Grace,” replied Ash.

“And you are sure that it was working properly at the time, fully charged, no obvious signs of damage or magical tampering?” queried Blueblood.

Ash shook his head. “Not possible sir, that crystal was brand new, and was certified to be in perfect condition when I picked it up this morning.”

“Mayhap you accidently damaged it during the day?”

When Ash gave Blueblood a look that screamed, “You do realize who you are talking to right?” Blueblood awkwardly cleared his throat and hastily added, “I’m just trying to rule out possibilities here Ash, I didn’t mean to imply that you were being less than professional in your duties.”

Accepting the unvoiced apology, Ash gave a grunt before saying, “As I mentioned earlier, Your Grace, the crystal was in perfect condition, and it did not pick up any chaotic magic, beyond the remnants of what were already floating around. Though to be fair, getting a reading on a weak magical signature right after an extreme magical event, such as the activation of the Element of Harmony, tends to be more difficult. However, I can say with at least ninety-five percent confidence that the creature had either no magical signature or that it was so weak as to be nearly non-existent, and thus little to no threat.”

Bringing a hoof to his chin, Blueblood hummed thoughtfully to himself. “If what you are saying is true,” he began, looking down at the straw covered wooden floor of the barn as he did so, “then we should have little to fear from the creature. At least in terms of magical ability, though that does not mean that it might not have some other ability that we are unaware of at this time.”

Ash gave a nod in agreement. “That was my thoughts as well. Though honestly, the creature didn’t look all that frightening when one got close to it.”

Blueblood cocked an eyebrow. “Oh, pray tell what did it look like. As of right now, all I know about it is that it’s some sort of strange hairless minotaur. Honestly, you would think that we’d have a clear understanding of just what this creature looks like by now, seeing as there were dozens of witnesses present when it ran away earlier.”

Lieutenant Palisade cleared his throat in an attempt to catch Blueblood’s attention. Turning to look at the officer, Blueblood gave a nod of his head, an invitation for the lieutenant to proceed.

“Thank you, Your Grace,” began Palisade, when Blueblood waved his thanks away and motioned for him to continue, he quickly did. “Well...none of my ponies here are really qualified in regards to sketch work, nor in giving the best of descriptions. Honestly sir, most of my ponies aren’t even from the same units or have any real experience in fieldwork. Hay, my illusionist only recently got out of basic training less than a week ago.”

“Is there some kind of point that you wish to make here Lieutenant Palisade, or are you just trying to cover your flank?” asked Blueblood, his face a mask of perceived indifference.

Feeling himself in the proverbial hot seat, Palisade quickly shook his head and replied, “No sir, what I mean to say is that the guard is...lacking in a lot of skills when it comes to these types of situations. As much as it pains me to admit it, especially when a ranger is present,” he muttered that part to himself, “but the guard really isn’t much better than a glorified police force currently. I’ve submitted several reports on the less than...adequate training available at present, but they’ve been ignored as far as I can see.”

Giving another thoughtful hum, Blueblood turned back to Ash and asked, “What do you think of the lieutenant’s thoughts Ash?”

Ash gave a solemn nod in response. “I would say that he is understating the problem sir. As you know sir, we in the rangers are called upon to be the offensive arm of Equestria. In the past this usually meant that we fought terrible monsters or took care of delicate political situations. However recently, I, and my superiors, have noticed that we are being called upon more and more for things that the guard used to take care of themselves. The end result being that we are stretched thin, as you probably know, I haven’t been home in over four months, and some of my fellows haven’t seen home in nearly a year.”

Blueblood frowned at Ash’s reply. “I did not realize that things were getting that bad, at least not until Discord showed up, though at the time I chalked up the guard’s poor performance as little more than sending foals to fight a giant. I shall look into the matter further upon my return to Canterlot.”

Turning suddenly to the lieutenant, Blueblood said, “Lieutenant Palisade, as of now, you and those ponies currently under your command are to remain in Ponyville.”

“Sir?”

Blueblood sighed. “If what you are saying is true, and that you submitted reports attempting to bring to light deficiencies within the guard, then I want you right where I can easily find you, in case I have further questions on the matter. Moreover, seeing as how there is an unknown creature near Ponyville, it would behoove us to increase Ponyville’s defenses at this time.”

“However,” continued Blueblood, “this can all be discussed later, and in a more...private setting than a country barn. Now,” Blueblood turned his attention back to Ash, “Ranger Ash, seeing as how you were able to get close to the creature, am I correct to assume that you were able to get a good look at its features?”

“Yes, Your Grace, in fact Ranger Soft Wind was also able to draw a rough sketch of the creature and its companion as well,” he replied, taking a moment to pull a piece of sketch paper from his cloak.

Waving the ranger closer, Blueblood said, “Well then let’s see what we are dealing with here then, bring it over here please.”

Trotting over to the temporary table and its magical lantern, Ash set the paper down next to it with a hoof and slid it across to Blueblood. Taking it in his magic, he gazed at the paper for several moments before turning to regard Twilight with a calculating gaze. As if he were a teacher trying to determine if she actually knew the answer to a question he wanted answered.

Twilight for her part was one part excited, one part nervous and another part impatient, she was dying to see what was sketched on that paper!

Finally, after several long moments, Blueblood lowered the paper to the table and slid it across to Twilight, who all but pounced on it, snatching it up in her telekinesis. Palisade, also curious, edged around Ash to stand next to Twilight before then peering over her shoulder to see what was on the paper.

What they saw could only be described as something out of fable, because that was what it was.

Slowing looking up at Blueblood and Ash, Twilight said, “This-this is impossible!”

“And why is that?” asked Blueblood tiredly, as he cocked his head to one side.

Licking her lips nervously, Twilight glanced back down at the paper and replied; “Because, if this is an accurate sketch, then we might be dealing with...” she trailed off, as if unable to bring herself to say what she was thinking of saying. As if the mere thought of a creature such as this actually existing was so far beyond the realm of possibility that it bordered on the impossible.

Blueblood, quickly growing irritated at the lavender unicorns antics that night snapped at her saying, “Well? Are you going to finish speaking or just stand there with your mouth hanging open like a fish out of water?!”

Startled by the prince’s outburst, Twilight stammered out, “I-I’m s-orry, but, if this sketch is true then we might just be dealing with a...hoomun.”

An awkward silence descended upon the room as the ponies stared at one another before Palisade cleared his throat and asked hesitantly, “Um...what’s a “hoomun?”

“What’s a hoomun?”

The room was silent following Palisade’s question as everyone waited for Twilight to reply.

After several awkward moments, Twilight hesitantly said, “W-well, it’s not supposed to be anything other than a mythical creature, found in old mare’s tales and recently used as a quasi-antagonist in a popular fictional series...that...um...” noticing Blueblood’s unamused look, Twilight felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment as she trailed off.

“So what you are saying is, that we are dealing with a make believe creature?” asked Blueblood.

Feeling as if her cheeks would suddenly combust from how hot they felt, Twilight stammered, “W-well, t-the evidence that w-we currently have s-seems to indicate that it could be a hoomun...um...maybe?”

Blueblood rubbed his forehead with a hoof. “So you are not sure then?”

Twilight merely shook her head in reply, which elicited a sigh from the tired prince.

“Well then, seeing as how none of us here have a detailed knowledge of this ‘hoomun’, perhaps we should look for somepony who is familiar with mythical creatures,” letting his hoof drop from his face, he swept his gaze across the room, “I don’t suppose any of you know where we may obtain said pony?” he asked tiredly.

Clearing her throat, Twilight hesitantly raised a hoof and said, “I think I might know of somepony who can help, and if memory serves me right, which it usually does, she should be in town for the week visiting her friend.”

“And just who is this pony, Ms. Sparkle?”

“Oh, just an old acquaintance of mine from Canterlot, her name is Lyra Heartstrings, she’s really big into mythology, and mythological creatures, at least she was when I was living in Canterlot that is.”

“And why would that make a difference?” asked Blueblood.

“Weeeellll,” began Twilight, a sheepish look on her face, “Lyra’s prone to...oh, how to put this? Um, flights of fancy on occasion. She’ll find a topic that interests her, pursue it with a determination that sometimes borders on obsession for a time, grow bored with it, and promptly drop it in favor of something new. Though she did say that she was going for a doctorate in mythology while I was there, but knowing her, she probably didn’t finish it. Just like all the other times before that,” finished Twilight with an eyeroll, though by this point she was talking more to herself than the others in the room.

“I see, well, in anycase it is a lead worth pursuing. I trust that you know where we can find your friend?”

“I wouldn’t really call her a friend per se...” began Twilight, though at seeing Blueblood’s frown deepen, she quickly continued on saying, “But, yes, I do know where to find her!”

Giving a single nod, Blueblood quickly rose from his seat and trotted towards the exit.

“Excellent, then you will lead myself, and Ranger Ash Fall to your friend’s home and we'll see whether or not she can be persuaded to lend us her knowledge and talents. Lieutenant,” continued Blueblood, having turned his attention to Palisade, “I want you to remain here and make sure that the hoomun doesn’t escape,” when he saw the lieutenant open his mouth, he quickly cut him off saying, “I know you are not well versed in containment operations, nor that your guards are well versed in nighttime maneuvers, but I have faith that you will be fine. Moreover, I shall be leaving Ranger Soft Wind behind to assist you and your pony’s in your duties. Now, you are dismissed.”

Giving a salute, Palisade quickly re-donned his helmet and took off into the night to relay the Prince’s orders.

Meanwhile, Blueblood had already departed, trotting briskly towards town, and forcing Twilight and Ranger Ash Fall to play catch up. Luckily there was a full moon that night, and the sky was cloudless, giving decent illumination for the small party as they made their way back to Ponyville.

Glancing back over his shoulder, Blueblood called back and asked, “So tell me Twilight, where exactly does your friend live?”

Pausing for a moment to orient herself, Twilight replied, “She lives close to Sugar Cube Corner on Mane Street. It’s this way,” she said, quickly setting off in the direction of Sugar Cube Corner, with Blueblood and Ash Fall following close behind.

After a short time, they arrived at a modest two story home and shop about a block down the street from the bakery. A cheery looking sign hung above the door, the words, Bon Bon’s Confectionary and Coffee Shop emblazoned on it in flowing purple letters in front of a cream colored background. A steaming mug of coffee with a pair of bon bons framing either side of the mug further identifying it as a place to find tasty treats and a quick pick me up for those needing it.

In addition, the shop had a large display window that allowed ponies to see what tasty candies were being offered that day in an attempt to entice them inside and get them to part with their hard earned bits. Currently however, the inside of the shop was dark, and when Twilight looked up at the second floor windows, she found that they too were dark, which most likely meant that the inhabitants were asleep.

Drat, looks like they’re both asleep, guess we’ll just have to come back in the morni-

The sound of hooves knocking against wood derailed her train of thought as Twilight turned to stare incredulously at Blueblood, who was still knocking rather loudly on Bon Bon’s door.

“What are you doing?!” she cried, aghast at Bluebloods lack of thought for common decency.

Cocking an eyebrow at her, Blueblood deadpanned, “I’m knocking on the door, obviously.”

Sputtering, Twilight shot back, “I know that! What I meant is, why are you knocking on their door so late at night?! It’s rude you know!”

Blueblood opened his mouth to respond, however the sound of somepony crashing into something, and cursing, from the second floor cut him off. Moments later a window was thrown rather violently open and an angry, and rather tired looking, cream colored face glared down upon the group from above.

“What in the hay do you three want!? Do you have any idea of what time it is?!” screeched Bon Bon, a vein visibly throbbing on her forehead.

Stepping back from the door slightly, Blueblood called up, “I am Prince Blueblood, nephew to Princess Celestia and Luna, and Duke of Canterlot, I am here with Ms. Sparkle and Ranger Ash Fall to talk to a Ms. Lyra Heartstrings, I was told that she was here tonight.”

“She is, but whatever it is you want, you can come back when the sun is up, like decent ponies! It’s three in the morning for Epona’s sake!”

Unswayed by her outburst, Blueblood replied, “I am aware of the time, but we don’t have time to wait for morning. We must speak with Ms. Heartstrings now!”

Opening her mouth to give another angry retort, Bon Bon found herself cut short as a pair of mint green hooves sleepily snaked their way around her neck and gently pulled her back into the darkened interior of the room. After a moment, a muted conversation began that lasted for several minutes before a sleepy looking unicorn stuck her head out the window and said, “Sorry about Bon Bon there, she’s not much of a morning pony until she’s had her coffee, if you’ll give me a sec, I’ll come down and unlock the door for you.”

With her piece said, she pulled the window shut with her golden magic, leaving the three ponies to wait below.

As they waited, they watched as the golden glow of Lyra’s horn faded from the upstairs window, leaving it once more dark, it reappeared moments later as Lyra reached the lower floor of the shop. A soft golden light bathed the three through the window as Lyra turned on the lights within, before unlocking and opening the front door, a sleepy expression on her face as she gazed at the three late night visitors.

Letting loose a large yawn, Lyra motioned for them to come in, shutting the door behind them, as the last of them filed inside. Trotting sleepily towards a nearby table, she flopped down on one of the colorful cushions surrounding it.

Taking that as an invitation to do the same, Twilight, Blueblood, and Ash each took a cushion for themselves, once everyone had settled, Lyra gave another large yawn, before asking, “So, what’s up?”

Blueblood cleared his throat, and replied saying, “First of all, I would like to apologize for waking you at such a late hour, but I am afraid that it could not wait till morning. As you know, Discord was recently freed from his stone prison. This naturally caused a fair amount of chaos across the countryside due to his antics.”

Lyra nodded sleepily, her eyelid struggling to stay open due to the late hour.

Seeing that he was losing her to sleep, Blueblood decided to get straight to the point.

“Ms. Heartstrings,” he began, “what can you tell me about ‘hoomuns’?”

At first Lyra didn’t react, beyond her ear giving a twitch, and at first Blueblood was afraid that she had fallen asleep. However, after a moment, Lyra managed to pry her heavy head from off the table to give Blueblood a tired glare.

“It’s pronounced humans, not, hoomuns,” she said, before getting up from the table and trotting to the service counter behind her, muttering to herself as she went, “Stupid authors, can’t be bother to properly research things anymore,” her mutterings became indistinct as she ducked behind the counter, the sounds of her rummaging around quickly drowning out her voice.

Blueblood meanwhile shot Twilight a confused glance, to which she shrugged in response, equally as lost as he was as to Lyra’s behavior. After several moments, a triumphant, “Ah ha!” sounded from behind the counter as Lyra emerged with a small coffee container and measuring scoop.

Setting the container on the counter, she began the process of brewing herself a strong cup of coffee, as she figured she wouldn’t be getting back to bed anytime soon.

As she worked, she called out, “Did any of you want any coffee?”

Mute nods from both Twilight and Blueblood were the only response. Turning to look at Ash Fall, she asked, “And what about you?”

He shook his head. “No thank you, I never acquired a taste for coffee.”

Shrugging, she replied, “Suit yourself, more for me,” and with that she returned to her task, humming quietly to herself. After several minutes, the coffee was done, and a pair of mugs landed in front of both Twilight and Blueblood, the fresh smell of coffee tickling their noses with its alluring scent.

Thanking their hostess, both Twilight and Blueblood each took a sip, taking a moment to savor both its flavor, and its energizing effects, however brief they may be.

Letting loose a content sigh, Blueblood gently set his mug down on the table in front of him, before turning his attention to Lyra.

“Now, you were saying something about hoomuns, Ms. Heartstrings?” he asked, an inquisitive look adorning his face.

Letting go a happy sigh of her own as the caffeine took effect, Lyra nodded. “Yes, but as I said before, it’s pronounced human.”

“Human,” muttered Blueblood to himself, he repeated it quietly to himself several times, as if in an attempt to commit it to memory. After a few moments of this, he glanced back up at Lyra and said, “So, humans, what can you tell us about them?”

Lyra hummed thoughtfully to herself before replying, “What did you want to know?”

Blueblood’s answer was immediate. “Are they dangerous?”

Lyra blinked, nonplussed by the sudden turn of the conversation. After several silent moments, she scratched her chin with a hoof before saying, “Well, not really, at least if they are by themselves and you don’t give them any reason to fear for their lives that is.”

“Could you elaborate on that please?” asked Twilight, a quill and parchment piece appearing out of thin air in her magical aura.

Scratching her chin once more, Lyra hesitantly replied, “Well, currently I’m doing research for my doctorate’s thesis at Canterlot University. While I was looking through the archives, I came across several old manuscripts from the Classical Age, luckily I was able to have them translated into modern Equinish, and-”

“Wait,” interrupted Twilight, “are you saying that you’re still working on your doctorate right now?”

Lyra gave a happy nod. “Sure am! I’ve got about a year and a half left before I’m finished.”

Twilight stared dumbfounded at Lyra, as if unable to process the fact that Lyra of all ponies was about to graduate with a doctorate from one of the most prestigious universities in Equestria.

Lyra smiled at seeing Twilight’s shocked expression.

“Oh come on Twilight, is it really that difficult to believe that I’m actually about to graduate from Canterlot University?”

“Yes,” was Twilight’s deadpan reply.

Lyra snorted in amusement, and took a quiet sip of her coffee.

“Well anyways, Twilight,” began Lyra, setting her mug of coffee down in front of her, “yes, I am going to finish something for once, in this case, my degree. What I do with it afterwards is another question entirely, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out, worst case scenario, I just come work for Bon Bon and play my lyre in the park on the weekends.”

She flashed the other three ponies a tired smile, though a hint of sadness dimmed the smile slightly, Blueblood, not wishing to waste anymore time, nor wanting to be dragged into something emotional, abruptly cleared his throat.

“Yes, well, back to the subject at hoof. You were mentioning something about ancient manuscripts?”

Lyra’s expression immediately brightened in scholarly excitement, after all, it wasn’t every day that she got the chance to talk about mythology to somepony who was actually interested in the topic.

“Of course! Well, as I was saying before, I had these manuscripts translated by a friend of mine. Most of what they contained wasn’t really relevant to my research topic, however, there was one manuscript that was. We don’t know who wrote it, as it was fairly degraded, but what we did find was that it gave some rather extensive detail about the mythological creatures known as humans.”

By this point Twilight was furiously scratching away with her quill and ink, hanging on each of Lyra’s words. Blueblood meanwhile was quickly becoming impatient.

“Yes, yes, I am sure that it is very interesting, Ms. Heartstrings, but time is rather short right now. We must know more about these humans and what they are capable of, do they possess dangerous or unknown types of magic, are they hostile to ponies? I need to know these types of things, and I need to know now.”

Lyra merely took another sip of her coffee, effectively finishing it off in the process. Setting her mug down for the final time, she regarded Blueblood with a thoughtful expression, finally, after a few moments, she replied, saying, “So where is it?”

Blueblood blinked in surprise. “I beg your pardon?”

“The human, where is it? And don’t try and deny it, the only reason you would be knocking on my friend's door at three in the morning, agitated and demanding to know about humans is if there were a human nearby. So, I’ll ask again, where is it, and what have you done to it?” she said again, a hint of impatient annoyance coloring her voice.

Blueblood sat there, a stunned look on his face. Nopony had ever dared to speak to him in that manner since he’d taken his father’s place as Duke of Canterlot and Prince of Equestria.

The tense silence was shattered by Ranger Ash Falls amused chuckle.

“Looks like she’s got you figured out there Your Grace, though if I’m going to be honest, you didn’t make it all that difficult in the first place, lack of sleep and stress will do that to you I guess.”

Shooting Ash an annoyed look, Blueblood, took a deep breath to help compose himself before replying, “I suppose you are right, Ranger Fall, I do tend to get a little sloppy and...impatient when I’m not at my best.”

This time Ash let loose a hearty belly laugh.

“That’s understating it I would think, sir.”

Blueblood merely grunted, before turning his attention back to Lyra.

“Very well, Ms. Heartstrings, you caught me, and I will admit, I did not make it hard. However, the matter remains that a potentially dangerous creature and its domicile have appeared to the south of Sweet Apple Acres, and you are the only pony around who has any idea what that creature is capable of. Therefore, we need your help so as to prevent any further...difficulties.”

Lyra’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What did you do?” she asked in a tone that was usually reserved for when a mother was trying to determine how much trouble their young ones were to find themselves in.

“Now see here, Ms. Heartstrings-!” began Blueblood hotly, but a gray hoof on his shoulder stopped him.

Leaning in close enough so that only Blueblood could hear him, Ash quietly said, “Let me take it from here, sir, you’re tired, and with all due respect sir, everypony knows that you become a major pain in the flank when you’re like this.”

Giving an unhappy huff, Blueblood visibly relaxed, grabbed his hitherto untouched mug of coffee in his magic, and took a hearty pull from it.

Seeing that Blueblood wouldn’t be an issue now, Ranger Ash Fall turned to Lyra, and with an apologetic smile said, “Sorry about that Miss, His Grace has been under a great deal of stress these past few days, and I am afraid that has been affecting his mood a bit today.”

Lyra waved away his apology and replied, “I owe His Grace an apology as well, my own behavior wasn’t exactly the best either.”

When Blueblood failed to say anything in response, Ash gave him a nudge with his hoof.

“Your apology is accepted, Ms. Heartstrings,” was Blueblood’s reply, and when he made no move to apologize himself, Ash simply sighed before turning his attention fully to the mint green mare across from him.

“Anyways, in regards to your question, Ms. Heartstrings, while the human and its equine companion haven’t been physically harmed, as far as we can tell anyways, they both received a less than warm welcome this afternoon. As such, it stands to reason that both of them are at the least wary of us, and at the worst may feel physically threatened by our presence.”

“So that’s what all that fuss this afternoon on the south road was all about?” asked Lyra.

Ash nodded.

“We had hoped to trap the human and its companion just past Sweet Apple Acres and bring them both into custody in an attempt to determine whether they were a threat or not. Unfortunately, circumstances prevented this, and they were able to escape back to their domicile. We currently have the property under surveillance, in addition to being surrounded. We hope that this will dissuade the human from attempting to escape into the nearby Everfree, though with its current abilities unknown, whether we can actually prevent that is currently up for debate.”

“So that’s where I come in,” said Lyra, finishing the unspoken portion of Ash’s speech.

“And that’s where you come in,” he confirmed, “at least, that is the hope anyways.”

Lyra gave him a small smile. “I think I could be persuaded to help out, on two conditions.”

“And those would be?”

Leaning back slightly, Lyra replied, “One, I get full access, meaning I can go anywhere, and request anything that is relevant to the human, and that I have a major say in what happens to it. Second, I reserve the right to publish anything we learn from the human first.”

“What?!” Shouted Twilight as she jumped to her hooves in outrage.

Lyra gave a small sly smile. “Sorry Twilight, but research papers before friends. This is an opportunity of a lifetime here, and I’m not going to waste it.”

Twilight sat back down on her cushion with a heavy thump, her face contorted into an unhappy pout at the thought of being forced to wait to publish what could turn out to be a ground breaking scientific paper.

Seeing Twilight’s pouty face, Lyra gave a giggle and said, “Oh come on Twilight, do you think that I would leave you out to dry? You can be my co-author, on the condition that my name comes first.”

Mollified by Lyra’s slight concession, Twilight gave a grumbled “fine” as she took a sip from her now lukewarm coffee.

Ash meanwhile, just smiled, and said, “Well alright then, I’m sure His Grace and the crown wouldn’t have any issues with those two conditions,” he paused a moment to glance of at Blueblood, who in turn gave a nod in reply. Seeing that there would be no problems, Ash Fall continued, saying, “We are happy to have you aboard Ms. Heartstrings. Welcome to the team.”

It was still dark out when Blueblood, Twilight, Lyra, and Ash Fall trotted back into the pony’s base camp at Sweet Apple Acres. Both Twilight and Lyra were showing signs of tiredness, as evident by their drooping eyelids and shambling gait, and while Prince Blueblood and Ranger Ash Fall hid it better than the mares, they were also beginning to show signs of exhaustion.

Coming to a stop outside of one of the barns that had been commandeered as a temporary command post, much to the Apple family’s irritation, Blueblood took a deep breath, and using his magic, straightened his tie and mane before striding confidently inside, the others following close behind. Inside, it was controlled chaos, with ponies talking, giving, and receiving orders, and rushing around to complete tasks unknown. Through it all, Blueblood strode towards the center of it, a single table with a map spread out over it, and several ponies clustered around it talking.

“...And you are sure that this report is accurate?” asked Lieutenant Palisade.

The guard he was talking to nodded and replied crisply, saying, “Yes sir, as far as we can tell, the hoomun is still inside the house.”

“Has anypony looked inside any of the other buildings yet?”

The guard shook his head in reply. “No sir, it was felt by the NCO’s that it was too risky to perform a night recon.”

Palisade nodded absently, before dismissing the guard with a distracted wave of his hoof, as his attention was now solely focused on the map in front of him. In fact, so lost in thought was he that he didn’t notice the return of Prince Blueblood until said prince noisily cleared his throat behind him.

Blinking tired eyes, Palisade turned around to see who wanted his attention now, but when he saw Blueblood standing behind him, his eyes shot wide open and he came to attention.

“Forgive me, Your Grace, I didn’t realize that you had returned yet! Was your mission successful, sir?”

Blueblood absently nodded in reply, his eyes focused on the map in front of him. It was a local map of Ponyville and the surrounding area, and in particular, this map had been recently updated to include the human’s newly appeared homestead as well.

Turning away from the map, Blueblood motioned to Lyra with a hoof and said, “Lieutenant Palisade, may I introduce to you, Ms. Lyra Heartstrings, the pony who will be helping us resolve this little issue with, hopefully, minimal fuss.”

Palisade inclined his head respectfully, “Ma’am.”

Lyra giggled and gave a friendly wave of her hoof.

Blueblood had meanwhile found himself a chair and settled himself, before clearing his throat to regain everyone’s attention.

“Now that we are all here, I’d like to get started with our discussion on how to resolve this problem. So if you all could take a seat, we’ll get started.”

Several minutes later saw everypony seated around the map table. Blueblood, seeing everyone was as ready as they were going to be decided to get the ball rolling.

“Now that everyone is here and ready, let’s get started.” Turning to address Palisade, who was seated to his left, he asked, “Lieutenant, can you fill us in with the details of what has been happening since we left? We’ve already given Ms. Heartstrings a basic rundown of what occurred between the time the human showed up yesterday, and the time we left to acquire her services.”

Palisade gave Blueblood a confused look, “Human?”

“Yes, human,” replied Blueblood, “apparently the original word was mistranslated.”

A look of sudden comprehension blossomed on Palisade’s face, “Oh! Well, alright then, as far as we know the human is still inside its home.”

“Excellent,” replied Blueblood, a pleased smile on his face, “Were there any other new developments since we’ve been gone?”

Palisade shook his head, “No sir, there hasn’t.”

“I see.” Turning to Lyra, Blueblood continued, “Now, Ms. Heartstrings, we did not have much time earlier to go over what you know about humans, and seeing as we are all here, would you kindly inform us of what you know?”

Lyra gave a happy smile and nod, “Sure thing, Your Grace!” Standing up, she quickly trotted over to a nearby chalkboard, and, grabbing it with her magic, pulled it over in front of the table. Levitating up a piece of chalk, Lyra began to write, all previous signs of tiredness dissipating as she began.

“Now, I know that I went over a couple of things with Prince Blueblood, Twilight, and Ranger Fall on the way over, but for the sake of the new ponies, I’ll just go ahead and start at the beginning. Now, first of all, humans are very intelligent, easily as intelligent as ponies, and maybe even smarter in some areas.”

“I’m sensing a but in there,” commented Blueblood dryly.

Lyra gave a happy nod in return, much like a teacher would with a clever foal who quickly figured out a problem on the board.

“Very observant of you, Your Grace!” Turning back to the board, she continued writing and speaking, “Now, while humans are very intelligent, according to the records, they appeared to have difficulty making friends with other members of their own species, let alone other species entirely. The records characterized humans as seemingly distant, mistrustful, and aloof from those that they did not consider their friends, which were very few in general.”

“So what are you saying here?” asked Blueblood patiently.

Lyra paused for a moment to collect her thoughts before saying, “I guess what I’m saying is that, humans didn’t tend to have a very large circle of friends. In most cases, humans seemed to consider friendship as little more than a convenient, and temporary, condition. Often times, it was observed that humans would casually discard these relationships after they had served their purpose.”

“That’s terrible!” cried Twilight, horrified at the thought of someone so casually tossing aside their friendship like a used juice box, “Friendships shouldn’t be something that one just tosses away like that!”

Lyra gave a shrug, “Well, from a pony’s perspective I suppose that would be true, however, from a human perspective I suppose it was just what it was.”

“So what does this mean in regards to how we should approach this human?” inquired Blueblood.

Lyra rubbed the back of her neck, an unsure look on her face.

“I’m...not entirely sure. In our case, it probably means that it’s going to very hard to gain this human's full trust. That in human culture is something more valuable than gold or precious gems. Which I guess kind of explains how odd human friendships seem to be to us.”

“What do you mean?” asked Palisade curiously.

Lyra began pacing back and forth in front of the blackboard as she slipped fully into lecture mode.

“Well, simply put, we ponies are fairly trusting of others in general, or at least other ponies, thus we tend to make friends easily. However, with humans, it’s the opposite. Because they are mistrustful of those who they are not familiar with, building friendships is often times more difficult. Therefore, when a human finally does earn the full trust of another, that makes it all the more special, and thus something worth keeping, and fighting for.”

A stray thought suddenly struck her as she was pacing in front of the board, and turning to fully look at the other ponies, Lyra said, “You know, I’m suddenly reminded of a small saying in an old record that I read, about humans and friendship.”

“What did it say?” asked Palisade curiously.

Lyra scrunched up her face as she tried to remember the exact words, but in the end she couldn’t fully recall and said, “I don’t remember the exact wording, but it was something like, ‘The pony who secures a human's true friendship is very blessed indeed, but the pony who betrays that friendship shall be cursed, and pay a price so very steep.’ Or something to that effect anyways. I’m not one-hundred percent sure.”

“I think we get the general idea,” replied Blueblood dryly, “In any case, do you think that we will have to worry about anything this human can do, does it possess dangerous abilities?”

Lyra shrugged.

“Depends on what you mean by ‘dangerous abilities’. Humans, by their nature, are creatures that were capable of great acts of kindness, but also great acts of cruelty, especially against those who they felt wronged them in some way. Moreover, there were several records that indicated that humans fought with, and against ponies on several occasions, however, they’re incomplete, so I can’t really tell you what happened to cause these wars or how well the humans did in relation to ponies on the battlefield.”

“So what you are saying is that you have no idea what physical or magical abilities this human may have?” asked Palisade, a worried look quickly forming on his face at the thought of having to fight a human whose abilities he had no knowledge of.

Lyra shook her head.

“Not quite. While the records are incomplete, they do provide some indicators of what these ancient humans were capable of.”

“Such as?” asked Blueblood when Lyra failed to continue quickly enough for him.

Lyra gave another shrug, replying, “Like I said, the records were hopelessly incomplete, some went into great detail about certain aspects of humans, such as their intelligence, while others just provided vague generalities about their physical abilities. As of right now, I can only really give you three definitive traits that these humans possessed in these records. The first,” she paused for a moment to turn around and write her thoughts down on the board, “was that they had excellent stamina. Ancient pony scholars seemed to believe that they had better stamina than earth ponies. Though, I should make mention that these Earth Ponies were both smaller and weaker than modern day earth ponies, so this trait might be less evident today.”

“Fascinating,” mumbled Twilight as she furiously copied down Lyra’s words on parchment before looking back up and asking, “did the records say how much stamina these humans had and how far they could go before needing to stop and rest?”

Lyra shook her head sadly.

“No, unfortunately, they did not,” when she saw Twilight's disappointed look, she gave the other mare a sympathetic smile and continued saying, “yeah, I was real disappointed too when I found that there was no more information on it either, but I digress.”

Turning back to the board, she quickly wrote down the second trait.

“The second trait should be fairly obvious because of their well-developed hands, but humans are extremely adept at manipulating things in their environment and their craftsponyship was exceedingly fine. The ancient scholars indicated that a human’s hand was superior to a unicorn’s telekinesis when it came to fine manipulation and control."

Lyra paused once more in her lecture to organize her final thoughts. However, the silence was quickly filled in by the mumblings and quill scratchings of Twilight, who by this point was completely hidden from view behind her parchment, which had grown considerably longer in the few minutes that Lyra had been talking.

Blinking at the somewhat comical sight of seeing a floating piece of parchment obscuring her friend from view, with only the tip of a furiously wiggling quill jutting up from behind it, Lyra turned her attention back to the board.

“So that brings us to the final commonly attributed characteristic that I could find, and that was that humans possessed a rudimentary form of magic.”

Twilight’s quill came to a screeching halt, and she slowly lowered her parchment so that she could look at Lyra. Though, Lyra wished that she had kept the parchment up, as Twilight’s face had contorted into a creepy looking expression, with a smile that was just a little too wide, and too excited looking for her tastes, like she was high on sugar or something.

“Did you say that they had magic?” asked Twilight giddily.

Lyra gave a hesitant nod, wondering if Twilight was going to be okay, especially when she saw her friend begin to vibrate in place with excitement, much like a certain pink party pony that she knew.

Glancing over at Blueblood, and Palisade, Lyra could see that Palisade was equally...concerned by Twilight’s reaction, while Blueblood simply rolled his eyes and sighed, before motioning for Lyra to continue.

Swallowing, Lyra turned her attention back to the board and hesitantly continued.

"R-right, well as I was saying,” she flinched slightly when she heard Twilight resume writing, though it sounded as if Twilight had doubled her writing speed. Giving herself a mental shake, Lyra continued on, “humans possessed a rudimentary form of magic, and from what I’ve been able to glean, their magic was similar in nature to that of earth ponies and pegasi, in that, because they didn’t have a focal point, i.e. a horn, their magic was generally diffused through their whole bodies. Though, a unicorn researcher by the name of Sharp Wit, hypothesized that humans could focus their magic like a unicorn's to cast spells if they had a means to channel it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to verify if his assumptions were true or not.”

Twilight’s quill scratching has grown louder, as had her mumblings, which seemed to keep including the words, “fascinating”, and “this is so exciting” over and over again.

Blueblood cleared his throat to bring Lyra’s attention back to him as he asked, “So this human is able to cast magic?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” replied Lyra with yet another shrug, “As I said, most of these records are incomplete and only referred to humans that lived in our world at that time. With this human? Anything might be possible, in fact, for all we know, it might not even be a human in the first place.”

“Right,” said Blueblood tiredly as he massaged his temple with a hoof in an attempt to quell a rising headache. “Well, is there anything else that you can think of that can help us when we make formal contact with it, Ms. Heartstring?”

Lyra set her chalk piece down and quietly rubbed her chin in thought. Finally, after several moments she said, “Well after what happened yesterday, I doubt you’ll just be able to waltz right up to its front door and without issue.”

“Thank you for pointing out the obvious, Ms. Heartstrings,” replied Blueblood, an unamused look on his face.

Pretending not to notice his sarcastic response, Lyra continued on saying, “Probably the easiest way to defuse the situation would be to simply back off and to offer an apology in someway. Though if the human is hostile, it might not be a bad idea to have ponies who are capable of defending themselves along for protection.”

*“How do you think we should approach this then if we went with this option?” asked Blueblood.

“Well, first, we have to show that we mean it no harm,” replied Lyra simply.

“Yes, but how would we do that?”

Lyra opened her mouth to respond, but found that she didn’t actually know the best way to show the human that they didn’t want trouble. So, she pulled up a nearby stool with her magic and sat down, a thoughtful frown creasing her muzzle, as she tried to figure out a way to do exactly that. Everypony else, seeing that Lyra didn’t know what to do either, also adopted thoughtful looks to one degree or another as they too tried to figure something out. Finally, after several minutes, Twilight jumped up exclaiming, “I’ve got!”

Startled, Palisade fell out of his chair, while the others merely gave a start.

“Got what?” asked Lyra, equal parts curious and hopeful.

Striding from her seat to the chalkboard, Twilight gave an inquiring look at Lyra, who, upon realizing what she wanted to do, gave a ‘go ahead motion’ with her hoof. Seeing that she had permission, Twilight quickly wiped the board clean and began writing.

“Now, we know that approaching the human physically would be difficult at best, and dangerous at worst. Especially seeing as how we don’t know what it has inside its home or to what degree it feels threatened by us. So, what if we built a large sign saying that we’re sorry, and that yesterday was just a big misunderstanding, and that we just want to talk with it? That way we can show that we want to talk, without having to risk anypony getting too close initially!”

Blueblood stroked his chin thoughtfully, and said, “Well...I guess that’s one way. What do you think Ranger Fall?”

Ranger Fall twitched his wings in the pegasi equivalent of a shrug, and said, “Well it’s either this or we go in their after it, and I’d rather not risk pony lives doing that if I don’t have to, so I suppose we can try it out and see if it works; if not, then at least we tried.”

“But how will we know if the human even sees the sign?” asked Palisade.

“Simple, we put it out front, next to the road and we make it so that it can’t miss it; after that, I suppose we just wait and see what it does. Oh!” she said, a sudden thought hitting her, “I can go and grab my telescope from the library and we can use that to observe the house from a discreet distance for any signs that it’s moving around inside.”

“Fine, but what if it does miss it? Then what do we do, and furthermore, what if it can’t read Equestrian, what then?” asked Blueblood, a bit of impatience coloring his voice.

“Well, as for the first part of your question, if the human doesn’t respond to the sign, then I suppose we can get a couple of ponies to go up to the house and knock on the front door,” said Lyra simply. “As for the second part, we might try a pictograph in conjunction with the words just in case it can’t read our language.”

“That’s all well and good ladies, but I think you’re forgetting something,” interjected Palisade suddenly.

“What’s that?” asked Lyra confused.

Palisade sighed, and not liking what he was about to bring up hesitantly said, “That the human may, in fact, turn out to be hostile, and that we’ll have to find a way to deal with it.”

Both Blueblood and Ash nodded in grim agreement, their faces showing their unhappiness at the thought.

Twilight and Lyra each winced at the unpleasant turn the conversation had suddenly taken.

“A-are you sure we need to discuss this?” asked Lyra hesitantly, her discomfort obvious to all present.

“As much as I’d rather not, I’m afraid we must,” replied Blueblood somberly, “if our initial efforts fail we’ll need to at least have some kind of backup plan ready to go.”

“So then what would you suggest we do, if the peaceful approach doesn’t work?” asked Lyra, a scowl darkening her face.

“Well, I’d think we should attempt to subdue it through non-harmful means, a sleep spell, for instance, failing that, we’d naturally have to move on to more...violent methods.”

Lyra’s face darkened further, the hairs on her neck bristling at the casual way in which Blueblood discussed the potential harming of another being that had so far proven not a threat, even if it was just a hypothetical scenario.

Twilight, seeing her friend’s anger, quickly stepped over to her and laid a calming hoof across her withers, and said, “Please Lyra, calm down, I don’t like the idea any more than you do, but...His Grace has a point, if the human does turn out to be dangerous, we wouldn’t want ponies getting hurt because we didn’t think of a fall back plan ahead of time.”

Lyra took a deep breath, and held it for a moment, before letting it out in an explosive snort. Turning away from Blueblood and the others, she said, “I’m going to go and wait outside, let me know when you’re done,” and with that, she quickly trotted out of the room.

Blueblood feeling a headache coming on, massaged a temple with his hoof and said, “Well, that could have gone better, but in any case,” he paused, and turned his full attention to Twilight, “Ms. Sparkle, we’ll do the sign first and see what happens; since this is your idea, I’ll leave this in your capable hooves. While you are doing that, Lieutenant Palisade, Ranger Ash Fall, and myself will go ahead and formulate a contingency plan or two in case things go south, though I pray that they don’t.”

Twilight gave a squee in happiness, and feeling herself relax slightly, quickly ran out of the barn, a quill and parchment suddenly popping into being and floating along in her wake as she quickly began organizing her list, as she quickly set off to complete her mission, leaving the three stallions behind in the command post, both Palisade and Ash Fall looked confused, while Blueblood just looked tired.

“I must say Ms. Sparkle, I am somewhat impressed,” remarked Blueblood several hours later, upon seeing the hastily erected sign outside the human’s property. It was at least two stories tall, and large enough to write, ‘We’re sorry, can we talk?’ on it in large bold letters, with a pair of pictures underneath that showed several ponies offering gifts to the human, and another one showing the human and pony exchanging hoof bumps, that would, hopefully, be visible from the house.

“Why thank you, Your Grace! I’m glad it meets your approval! I must say though, that I couldn’t have done it without the help of Applejack and Big Macintosh; without them being willing to lend us the materials, and provide the necessary labor and building expertise, we wouldn’t have been able to get it done so quickly!” exclaimed Twilight happily.

“I see, well then, thank you very much then for your help Ms. Applejack, and Mr. Macintosh,” said Blueblood, giving a slight bow of his head in thanks to the two Apple siblings who were just now finishing putting away their tools.

Hitching himself up to the cart, Big Mac gave a silent nod in return and quietly headed home, Applejack also gave a nod, but as she passed by the Prince, she hoofed him a piece of paper.

Looking down at it in confusion, he asked, “What’s this?”

“Yer bill,”replied Applejack simply, as she walked away.

"Right,” sighed Blueblood, as he gave it a quick once over, before sending it away with a burst of magic, “I’ll see that it gets taken care of promptly then, even if it is a rather large sum for just building a sign,” he said tiredly, slightly irked at the amount, but at the same time, he didn’t feel like trying to haggle her down. After all, it wasn’t like it was his money being used to pay the bill after all. That’s what the taxpayers were for.

Applejack tipped her hat to the Prince and replied over her shoulder, “Oh, the majority of that bill is fer the use of our barns and property, and fer yer guardponies running around and keepin’ us up all night too.”

“Of course,” was his deadpan reply, “we are so sorry to have inconvenienced you and your family with all the noise last night.”

“Apology accepted, now,” she turned her attention to Twilight, “looks like I ain’t the only pony round here who’s had a long night. You doing alright there sugarcube?”

“Oh I’m fine Applejack,” replied Twilight with a tired smile as she set up her telescope, “hopefully this will all be over soon and I can get some rest.”

“Yeah, me too, speakin’ of which, what is going on ‘round here anyways?” she asked, pushing the brim of her hat back and looking at the strange looking buildings not far away.

“I’ll tell you and the rest of the girls about it later, but the short version is that Discord left us a little something to remember him by when we turned him back to stone again.”

Applejack gave an irritated huff, “Figures that varmint would leave us something nasty in case he lost.”

Twilight felt her ears pin themselves flat against her skull as an unsure look settled over her face, “I’m...not sure if I would call ‘nasty’, but it’s definitely...an issue, one that should hopefully be taken care of soon.”

Applejack gave a single nod, “With you on the case Twi, I reckon you’ll have this problem whipped lickity split! Anyways, I better git going, see ya around Twilight!”

Twilight gave a friendly wave good-bye in reply, though inside she felt a ball of nervousness settling in her gut, I sure hope you’re right Applejack, and that we can take care of this problem. I’d hate to see what would happen if we couldn’t.

With Applejack now gone, Blueblood trotted up next to Twilight and remarked casually, after noticing that there was little else to do but wait, “Well, I suppose all we have to do now is wait for daylight and hope our guest is willing to come and talk with us.”

“Guess so,” replied Twilight as she turned her attention back to her telescope. Fiddling with the knobs, she said, “You know, I really hope this works, I’d hate for things to turn violent.”

Blueblood merely grunted in reply, as he settled in next to Twilight to wait for the human to make its next move, whatever it may be.

It was morning, and Allen had managed to fall asleep sometime during the night. As the sun’s rays peeked through his bedroom window and landed on his face, he slowly roused from his fitful slumber.

Blinking away the sleep induced crud from his eyes, Allen gave a mighty yawn and stretched his sore and tired muscles. As he stretched, his leg bumped into the piece of angle iron he’d brought in the previous night. Looking down at it, he stared at it dumbly for a moment as his mind slowly booted up.

Then suddenly, like an old truck slipping into gear, memories from yesterday tore through his mind. The strange horse creatures that had confronted then chased him and Reuben, him panicking and running home to lock himself inside and pray that whatever crazy dream he’d been dreaming would end already and that he would wake up back in the normal world.

Unfortunately, from where Allen was sitting, last night did not appear to be a dream, if the detailed memories, sore muscles and piece of scrap metal lying against his leg was any indication.

Grabbing the metal in his hand, Allen eased himself up, grunting in discomfort as his muscles protested from having been forced to lay against an uncomfortable surface all night.

Creeping cautiously up to his bedroom window, Allen risked a look outside, but he didn’t spot anything immediately threatening. So relaxing slightly, he decided to leave the safety of his room, and try and at least get something to eat while he appeared to be alone.

Allen made his way swiftly downstairs to the kitchen, his stomach urging him forwards by growling angrily at him to feed it. However, he took a moment to glance through each window that he passed on his way to the kitchen for signs of activity outside.

Reaching the kitchen, he crept up to the sliding glass doors, and their partially drawn blinds, that lead out onto the back patio, and glanced through them. What he saw outside made him pause. For there, on the edge of his property beyond the boundary fence, a large billboard had been erected. Standing at least two stories tall, and at least half as wide, and on it, plain as day were five words that made Allen’s heart skip a beat, We’re sorry, can we talk? And if that hadn’t been enough, underneath the words, the English words, was a caricature of a human and ponies, where the ponies were giving the human gifts and then both the human and the ponies were giving each other fist bumps, or would that be hoof bumps? Allen wasn’t sure, and at that point, he didn’t really care.

What he did know and care about was the fact that somehow these pony-like creatures could, at least, write English and were attempting to communicate with him. The sixty-four thousand dollar question though was, did they really want to talk to him or were they just trying to lull him into a false sense of security to make it easier to capture him?

Noticing movement near the sign, Allen cautiously pulled on of the blinds to the side slightly to get a better look. Unfortunately, he couldn’t really make out what was going on out there, as whatever was moving was too small to see clearly from this distance.

Pulling away from the window, Allen went over to a nearby shelf and grabbed a pair of binoculars from it. Walking back to the sliding door, he once more carefully pulled the blinds aside just enough so that he could see outside with them. Looking through the binoculars he saw several of the armor wearing, pony creatures milling about the sign.

However, what really drew his attention was a pair of ponies sitting off to one side of the sign, both of them appeared to be unicorns, judging by the spiral horns protruding from their foreheads. One of them, was large, and sported a white coat and blonde mane, Allen assumed from its large stature and physique that it was a male. He had one hoof raised above his brow and was looking intently in the direction of the house. The other one was about a third size smaller than the first one, and probably a female. She sported a lavender coat, with a dark purple mane with several pink highlights running through it.

And she was looking right at him through a fancy looking telescope.

The sun had been up for over an hour by this point and Twilight hadn’t moved from her spot behind her telescope since she’d taken it over two hours ago. Her back muscles ached from the strain of being bent over and stationary for the past two hours. In addition, the coffee she’d had earlier had worn off, and she found herself struggling to stay awake through sheer willpower. Unfortunately, willpower alone wasn’t going to be enough, and Twilight found it harder and harder to remain awake and alert.

She was just about to take a break at that point when she thought she saw something move in the house. Adjusting her telescope, she focused on a pair of what she assumed were glass doors that lead out onto a wooden deck behind the home.

Blueblood, noticing that something had caught Twilight’s attention, asked, “What do you see?”

Biting her lower lip, her aches and exhaustion momentarily forgotten, Twilight replied, “I’m not sure, I thought I saw something move the blinds behind the glass doors at the back of the house, the ones that lead out onto the deck.”

Blueblood brought a hoof up to his brow to help shield his eyes from the morning sun, and leaning forward slightly, tried to see what Twilight was talking about while cursing the fact that he didn’t think to have one of the guardsponies bring him a telescope too.

After a minute or so of not seeing anything, Blueblood was about to say something when he heard Twilight let loose a gasp of surprise and excitement. Dropping his hoof to his side, he turned to look at her, and asked, “What, what did you see?”

Leaning back from her telescope, Twilight replied in wide-eyed excitement, “I saw it! I saw the human through the blinds, it was looking back at us with a pair of binoculars!”

By this point a large smile had appeared on her face, Blueblood meanwhile felt a frown tugging at the corners of his. Keeping his face neutral, he calmly asked, “Well, was there anything else that you saw?”

Twilight’s smile waned slightly, and she replied, “Not really, I think the human saw me looking at it, and got scared, seeing as how it ducked back out of sight shortly after spotting me.”

Blueblood placed a hoof to his chin and tapped it thoughtfully for a moment. At least they knew that the human was still in the house. However, it didn’t seem to be interested in coming out anytime soon, so the question now was, how did they get it to come out or at least talk to them without them having to do something drastic? Sadly, Blueblood didn’t have an answer to that question.

Sighing, he turned to a nearby guard and said, “Report back to the command post that we have confirmation that the human is still inside the house.”

The guard gave a quick salute and galloped off.

“So, now what?” asked Twilight uncertainly.

“Now, we go back to waiting,” replied Blueblood.

Twilight just gave a nod and turned her attention back to her telescope, and by extension the house. They had made the human aware of their presence and intentions, now it was up to the human to make the next move, whatever it may be.

Back inside the house, Allen sat by the sliding glass doors, trying to figure out his next move. From the look of things, he felt reasonably certain that he’d been spotted. However, the ponies hadn’t really done anything other than that one armored one taking off into the distance. Allen figured that it was most likely a messenger, intent on relaying word of current events back to their higher ups or something. Regardless, Allen knew that he was running out of time, events were in motion and he needed to do something soon. The question however was, what should he do?

Fiddling with the binoculars in his hands nervously, Allen wracked his brain for an answer to his dilemma. Sadly, his brain didn’t really have any good options at the moment.

Can’t run, too much open ground. Can’t really stay here, too many ways to get in, and not enough people to defend the house. Plus I can’t get in the stupid gun safe since I don’t know where the key is, so defending myself is going to be much harder. Though...

His gaze wandered back to the sliding glass doors to his left, and moving carefully, he brought his binoculars up to his face again and took another peek outside through the blinds. The sight that greeted him hadn’t really changed, the sign was still there with its friendly-sounding words and pictures on it, and the two unicorns were still standing near the sign, the lavender colored one again looking through its telescope. And once again, it looked like it spotted him if its ears perking up and the sudden straightening of its body posture was any indication.

Feeling as though his mouth had turned into a desert, Allen forced himself to remain where he was, observing the ponies out beyond his property line. When the lavender unicorn saw that he wasn’t ducking out of view again, it raised one of its hooves and waved at him. Allen did not return the gesture, instead opting to remain still and continue watching. When the unicorn saw that he wasn’t waving back, it let its leg fall limply to its side, its ears turned down as if in disappointment.

Allen continued watching, his thoughts flowing through his mind as if they were part of a powerful river that threatened to breach its banks and flood the countryside. Finally, Allen couldn’t stand the scrutiny anymore and pulled back away from the blinds.

Leaning up against the wall, he let loose a shaky breath that he didn’t realize that he’d been holding and quietly said to himself, “Okay, let’s take stock of the situation here. I am alone in an alien world, surrounded by aliens, I have limited resources, and no way to get home or get help. I was chased home yesterday by the same creatures that are now saying that it was all a misunderstanding and that they just want to talk. They obviously outnumber me and could force their way inside whenever they want to, so the question is, why don’t they?”

It was a valid question, if the ponies outside had the ponypower to breach his flimsy defenses, which it looked like they did, then they question becomes, why hadn’t they done so already? Did they think he was some kind of powerful being that could decimate them with but a thought? He shook his head-it didn’t make sense, if that had been the case, they wouldn’t have chased him yesterday.

Therefore, the logical conclusion was that, maybe, just maybe, they were serious and that something else had been going on yesterday, and that he’d just had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Because, as far as Allen could see, the ponies should have had no qualms about busting in his front door and taking him prisoner during the night or just simply bombarding his house with ranged weapons and killing him outright. At least, that is what Allen hoped was the logical conclusion; if he was wrong, then he was going to be in serious trouble.

However, seeing as how his options were limited, to say the least, trying to open up communications with the ponies was probably one of his best options at the present. The sixty-four thousand dollar question however was, how was he going to talk to them? Just walking outside seemed kind of dumb, as apparently some of them could fly, which meant they could grab and drop him from on high if things went south, and even though he wasn’t entirely certain that the unicorns could do magic, he wasn’t ruling that possibility out either. So no, going outside did not seem like the best choice of action.

“But if I can’t go outside, then how am I going to talk to them?” grumbled Allen to himself as he mulled over his options, “I probably can’t yell at them from the house as the road’s too far away for them to hear me well, and I am not going to just walk up to them after what happened yesterday, even if it might have been a misunderstanding. So the only real option that I can see is to get one of them to come to me. But, how would I do that?”

Allen felt his frustration mounting as the seconds ticked by, and his tired mind failed to provide him with any good solutions. Shaking his head angrily, he decided to take another look outside at the ponies to see if anything had changed since he’d last looked.

Bringing his binoculars up to his eyes again, he looked out towards the road to see that other than the either another guard showing up or the previous one returning, nothing had changed. The white coated unicorn was still standing, gazing at the house, and the lavender one was still bent over the telescope, and once again, the lavender pony seemed to become more alert, its ears perking forward and posture straightening up, when Allen reappeared. However, unlike last time, it did not try to wave at him again.

Looking from the lavender pony up to the sign again, Allen was suddenly struck with an idea. If the ponies used English, or at least their equivalent of it, to communicate, and they had used a sign to try to get his attention, then why couldn’t he too?

Of course he didn’t have access to a two story tall wooden billboard, but he shouldn’t need one as he already had their attention, and, if the lavender pony’s telescope was powerful enough, they should be able to read whatever message he wrote on a piece or two of paper.

Now to just find some paper, and something to write with.

Pulling away from the window, Allen set the binoculars down on the counter and quickly set off in search of paper and pen. Unfortunately, this proved much more difficult than he originally thought, as while he was able to easily find some note paper, each pen he found ended up not working. Leading to Allen becoming more and more frustrated as the search progressed and the minutes ticked by, finally after several minutes, Allen found a pen that seemed to work at first, but after writing the first few letters, it also ran out of ink.

His frustration boiling over, Allen threw the now useless pen across the room, his face a mask of frustration.

“Stupid, fucking pen!” he exclaimed angrily as he threw his hands up in the air, “Why is it that whenever I need something around here, I can either never find it or it doesn’t fucking work?!”

Letting loose a frustrated growl, Allen angrily scrubbed his face with a hand as he tried to figure out what to do next. Casting his eyes around the room for an alternative, they finally settled on a whiteboard hanging on the basement door.

Hope rising within him, Allen quickly crossed the room. Grabbing the black marker that went with the board, Allen wrote a couple of test words to check if the marker was still good, and seeing the letters appear in strong black marker ink, a smile blossomed on his face while he lifted the board from its mounting pegs on the door and brought over to the dining room table.

Setting it down, he quickly wiped away the current writings and messages and wrote a short simple sentence. Satisfied with his work, he recapped the marker, and grabbing the whiteboard, went back to the sliding glass doors. Pulling the blinds aside slightly, he held up the whiteboard so that the ponies could see it clearly. With that done, all he had to do now was wait for their response, he just hoped that it was a good one.

Twilight was beginning to get worried now. It had been nearly a half hour since she had first noticed the human, and in that time, she’d seen it come back to the glass doors again. This time, it had remained at the door watching her with its binoculars for several minutes instead of ducking back out of sight when it realized that it had been spotted.

Encouraged by this turn of events, Twilight had waved to it in the hopes that her friendly gesture would elicit a positive reaction. Sadly, that had not been the case, in fact, the human hadn’t even acknowledged her, electing to instead to just keep watching her and the others, leaving her feeling awkward for her efforts. Letting her hoof drop down, she felt her ears pin back in a mixture of disappointment and embarrassment.

Several moments later, the human ducked back out of sight, and for the past twenty minutes or so, there had been no new changes. What was going on inside that house? Was the human panicking, or was it formulating a response to what they had done? Was it going to be a friendly or unfriendly response? Twilight just didn’t have the answers to those questions, and it left her feeling very nervous and unprepared, such as when Princess Celestia had on one occasion popped a surprise quiz on her on a subject she hadn’t really studied before.

Her ensuing meltdown had been the talk of the castle staff and nobles for weeks, and even Princess Celestia, a mare who had had hundreds of students before Twilight, had been taken aback at Twilight’s volatile reaction to the simple pop quiz. Twilight herself didn’t really recall what had happened, and no one would tell her either; all she knew was that Princess Celestia had been required to sedate her with a sleep spell, and to make a note to both herself and all other teachers to never give Twilight a surprise test again.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of somepony clearing their throat loudly next to her. Giving a quick shake of her head, Twilight banished those old memories back to the dark corners of her mind where they had come from and refocused her attention on the present.

Turning to the source of the noise, she saw that Blueblood was trying to get her attention, and feeling her cheeks heat up in embarrassment, she said, “I’m sorry, what was that again?”

Blueblood waved her apology away with a hoof, “It’s alright, anyways, I think our human guest has decided to respond,” he said, pointing a hoof at the house where a white board had suddenly appeared in the window. Her heart beating faster, Twilight practically smashed her eye to the telescope lense and quickly made a couple of minute adjustments to bring the whiteboard into better focus.

When she saw the words written on it, she let out a gasp of both excitement and astonishment.

“What, what do you see?” asked Blueblood, a hint of excitement and impatience coloring his tone.

“It’s...it’s in Equestrian!” exclaimed Twilight, her excitement building ever higher, like steam pressure in a boiler, “The human can understand Equestrian!”

“But what does it say?!” exclaimed Blueblood in exasperation.

“It says, ‘Okay, let’s talk.’”

“That’s it?” asked Blueblood flatly.

Pulling her head away from the telescope, Twilight nodded her head, “That’s it.”

Blueblood sat down on his haunches and rubbing his chin thoughtfully said, “Alright, go get Ms. Heartstrings, let’s see if we can talk to our human guest finally.”

Giving a single nod, Twilight leapt from her sitting position and took off at a brisk canter, leaving Blueblood alone with his thoughts.

Let’s hope this goes better than last time.

It didn’t take long before Twilight returned with Lyra in tow. While she had been gone, Blueblood had taken the opportunity to take a peek through the telescope at the human’s home. As nothing had changed in the time it had taken for Twilight to return with Lyra, Blueblood calmly turned his attention to the two mares.

“Thank you for coming so quickly, Ms. Heartstrings.”

Lyra waved a hoof and chuckled, “Like I would miss this once in a lifetime opportunity, Your Grace!”

Blueblood gave a return smile and said, “Be that as it may, I wasn’t sure if you were still readily available, seeing as how we all but dragged you out of bed so early in the morning.”

Lyra just smiled, and replied, “Like I said, Your Grace, I wouldn’t miss this for the world!”

Blueblood simply smiled at the younger mare’s enthusiasm. “Right, well, now that we’re all here, I think it is time that we get the next phase of our plan rolling. Our guest,” he inclined his head towards the distant house, “has informed us that it is willing to talk, and before you ask, it can at least understand written Equish, so it is probably safe to assume that it can also speak it. Naturally this makes our jobs a little easier, but still, we are dealing with an unknown alien who is understandably confused and frightened, so we’ll need to be cautious as you know, but it never hurts to be reminded. Now, Ms. Heartstrings,” said Blueblood as he turned his full attention to her, “seeing as how you are our resident expert on all things human, how would you recommend we approach this first proper meeting?

Lyra quietly surveyed the human’s house as she thoughtfully rubbed her chin with a hoof. Different scenarios and outcomes raced through her mind as she pondered their next move. “I think we should calmly approach the place where the human was last spotted, stop a short distance from the home and attempt to talk to it. If we can show it that we mean no harm and calm it down, then everything else should fall into place more easily.”

Blueblood and Twilight nodded in reply, with Blueblood saying, “Simple, but sometimes the best plans usually are. Alright then, I’ll go inform Lieutenant Palisade of our plans and have him and his ponies get ready in case things go south; you two make whatever preparations you need to before I get back. I want this over and done with before noon if possible.”

With that, Blueblood turned and trotted off to find Palisade. Lyra and Twilight, meanwhile, simply waited for his return, both mares as ready as they felt they could be for the coming encounter.

Allen watched from his vantage point as the white unicorn spoke with its lavender counterpart for a few moments before the lavender one trotted off, returning a few minutes later with another unicorn, this one colored a mint green with white highlights in its mane. Raising his binoculars, Allen watched as the three had a short conversation.

Probably trying to figure out who gets to come and talk with me.

After a couple minutes, the big white unicorn trotted off to do who knew what, leaving the other two behind to stare at Allen’s home. It took a bit longer for the white one to return, but when it did, all three of them had one last short discussion before giving each other a nod, and as one, they turned and trotted down the driveway towards his house.

Allen could see, looking through his binoculars, that both the white and lavender ponies had determined and serious expressions on their faces, while the mint colored one, judging by her poor attempts to keep a spring in her step and a smile on her face, seemed more excited than anything else.

I’m not sure if I should feel relieved by that one’s expression, or worried.

In any case, it did not take long before the three ponies had crossed over into Allen’s side yard and were standing a few yards away from his deck. Licking his suddenly dry lips, Allen rose from his sitting position by the sliding glass door and slowly pulled the blinds to one side, at least enough so that the ponies could see him standing by the door. Reaching for the lock with a trembling hand, Allen unlocked the door and carefully pulled it ajar enough that he could both hear and speak to the three unicorns outside.

Well, here goes nothing, thought Allen as he took a deep breath, and offered up a silent prayer before calling out, “What do you want?” at the three. Their reactions were instantaneous, the mint colored unicorn’s face lit up with a million watt smile, while the lavender one seemed shocked, if her open mouth and wide eyes were any indication at least. However, it was the white one that had the most interesting reaction, in that apart from one of its eyebrows raising ever so slightly in response to Allen’s question, it barely reacted at all.

Aside from their reactions, nothing else happened for several awkward seconds. Allen saw the white unicorn look at its compatriots, and upon seeing that they were currently unable to form any kind of coherent response, uttered a tired sounding sigh before straightening up, looking Allen in the eye and saying, “I am Prince Blueblood, Grand Duke of Canterlot, direct descendant of Princess Platinum, ruler of Unicornia, and nephew of Princesses Celestia and Luna. I and my fellows here, come before you to hopefully resolve the current stand-off without any further issues. Would you be willing to speak with us at this time?” It–no, he-asked in an imperial and borderline haughty manner.

Allen blinked. His entire train of thought had suddenly derailed and exploded into a million fiery pieces and as a result, he just stood there like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. All he could say in reply was, “Uhh...”

“Uhh...” was the human’s only reply, and Blueblood fought with every fiber of his being to not facehoof at the current lack of progress. What with his supposed ‘human expert’ having a sudden nerdgasm at the sight of the human, the princess’ ‘prized pupil’ suddenly locking up next to him in shock at finally confronting the human face to face, and the human itself unable to give a proper reply to a simple introduction made, Blueblood felt very, very tired.

Nevertheless, Blueblood reined in the urge, and instead, he lifted his head high and said confidently, “I know that you are probably extremely overwhelmed at this point. You are tired, stressed, and concerned for your continued welfare. I realize that our actions over the last day have not helped matters, and I wish to apologize personally for them. We ourselves have been dealing with a national emergency for the past few days, and we had reason to believe that your sudden appearance was linked to the cause of said national emergency. However, regardless of our thoughts and assumptions, our handling of the situation could have been better than it was, and I both ask for your forgiveness and your cooperation in sorting this mess out in a quick and easy manner.”

For several tense moments, the human said nothing, simply staring at Blueblood as if the prince had suddenly grown another head and had burst out into song and dance. Finally, however, the human gave its head a shake, cleared its throat nervously and replied saying, “Uh, I...accept your apology...uh...Your Highness...um...and...” the human trailed off, unsure of how to proceed.

However, enough had been said for Blueblood to see an opening in the conversation, and he took it. Putting on an easy and comforting smile, he extended a hoof towards the human. “On behalf of the Equestrian government and people, I thank you for your generous willingness to forgive us, and it is our hope that we can put this misunderstanding behind us and move forward towards a friendlier relationship.”

The human glanced around nervously for a moment, before nodding once and, slowly and hesitantly, stepping out of the safety of the doorway and onto the edge of the porch to shake Blueblood’s hoof. Blueblood felt a sense of elation at seeing the human leave his home, and come out into the morning sunlight. Even though it took much longer than under normal circumstances for the human to shake his hoof, Blueblood never let his smile fade nor his relaxed posture change as the human’s hand clasped around the end of his hoof and gave it a single, firm shake before withdrawing.

With that out of the way, Blueblood cleared his throat. “Well, with that out of the way, I think introductions are in order. You already know my name, “he said, pointing at himself with a hoof. Then turning to his right, he pointed a hoof at the two mares besides him. “This mare here is Princess Celestia’s personal student, and the Element of Magic: Ms. Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight had finally managed to recover enough to give a small, forced-looking smile and wave with her hoof. Pointing to the other mare in the group, Blueblood said, “And this is Ms. Lyra Heartstrings. She’s currently a student at Canterlot University, where she is working on obtaining her doctorate in Mythology and Archaeology; her main area of expertise is the study of humans.”

Turning his attention back to the human, Blueblood extended his hoof as if in invitation and asked, “So, now that you know our names, may I ask for yours?”

The human shifted slightly, as if uncomfortable, and after a few moments of nervous indecision, he said, “My name is Allen Ross, it’s...uh...nice to meet you?”

A sudden *squee* from Blueblood’s right caused him to look over and see Lyra’s smile had somehow gotten larger, and for a moment he thought he could see little stars in her eyes from how happy and excited she was. In fact, she seemed so excited that Blueblood was suddenly worried that she might try and pounce the hum-Allen and ruin their chances of defusing the situation. Thinking quickly, Blueblood trotted over, and laying a hoof on her withers, he gave her a gentle shake to get her attention.

Luckily, that seemed to have done the trick of knocking Lyra out of her euphoric state. She looked around in confusion for a moment before her eyes met his and he gave her a “you need to calm down before you do something we all regret” look, that she returned with a sheepish smile.

Taking a deep breath, managed to compose herself enough that she didn’t look like she was going to try and jump Allen in an overly eager frenzy. Giving a sheepish chuckle, Lyra said, “Sorry, got a little excited there, Your Grace,” and turning her attention to Allen, she gave a little bow of her head. “Sorry about that, Mr. Ross, it’s just that I have always been fascinated by your species and now that I finally get to meet one of you face to face, well… I guess I got a little excited, hehe.”

“Uh, okay?” replied Allen, an unsure look on his face. He still hadn’t left the relative safety of the deck, nor had he made any move to invite the ponies to come up and join him, so they were forced to crane their necks back to look up at him. Needless to say, it was starting to get uncomfortable. However, Blueblood did not want to antagonize the human further by making a misstep at this point in the proceedings, and so he just dealt with the discomfort.

Twilight, by this time, had recovered from her shock at finally coming face to face with a creature that was only supposed to be considered a myth. Even though she had already ‘talked’ with the human before now, that was at a distance and impersonal. Now, however, she was standing a mere few strides away from him! The combination of stress caused by the events of the past few days, the lack of sleep and then finally actually coming face to face and hearing the human talk for the first time all combined to overwhelm her senses.

Plastering a hasty smile on her face, she thrust her hoof forward awkwardly and said, in as friendly a tone as possible, “Hello! I’m Twilight Sparkle, as His Grace, Prince Blueblood mentioned earlier. Welcome to Equestria!”

When Allen didn’t immediately shake her hoof, she began to wonder if she had somehow insulted him, and her mind quickly began imagining up terrible scenarios in which the human went on a rampage and she was blamed for the destruction and Celestia would be disappointed in her and send her back to Magic Kindergarten and-

“Uh, nice to meet you too, I guess,” said Allen, as he carefully took her hoof in his large hand and gave it a shake before letting go, like he did with Blueblood.

Twilight felt her brain screech to a halt at the sudden, soft feeling of Allen’s hand around her hoof, the terrible thoughts coursing through her mind quickly dissipating as fog before the morning sun. When he let go of her hoof, Twilight felt a little of the tension in her body leave her. Taking a deep breath to help calm herself further, she felt her smile assume a more natural and relaxed state.

Allen, noticing that the ponies appeared to be relaxing as time went on, also felt himself relaxing in response. However, he still did not invite them any closer to him than they already were. In fact, once he had shaken Twilight and Blueblood’s hooves, he quickly backed away from the edge of the deck and the ponies. The ponies took notice of this, but made no comment at Allen’s behavior; after all, progress was still progress, even if it was slow.

Nevertheless, they still had a job to finish, that being making proper first contact, calming tensions, and setting boundaries and rules for future contact. The first two steps had already been completed, now it was time for the third. Clearing his throat to get everyone’s attention, Blueblood said, “Mr. Ross, it is a relief to see that you do not appear to hold any ill will towards us for yesterday’s circus, and I want to make perfectly clear to you that we are civilized ponies and as such we have no intention of causing you harm.” He paused a moment to let Allen digest his words, and when he saw Allen nod in response, he continued, “As such, I think it best that we end our meeting here quickly, so that I can make the necessary arrangements to see to it that you are not overly bothered and to allow you some time to get your bearings. I am sure that you are under some considerable stress at the moment.”

Allen gave a soft snort, and for the first time since he arrived in Equestria, he felt a small, wry smile form of his face. “Understatement of the century, I think.”

Blueblood gave a humorous chuckle at Allen’s witty reply. “I can only imagine.” His smile, however, quickly disappeared, replaced with a more serious businesslike expression. “And we ponies haven’t helped matters either, I’m afraid. I hope that your friend wasn’t injured because of us? If they were we can offer medical aid, no charge.”

Allen blinked in confusion at what friend Blueblood would be referring to, before quickly realizing who he was talking about... and when he realized that, he also remembered that he hadn’t fed Reuben, or anyone else, since yesterday morning due to all the ‘excitement’. Wincing at the thought of his careless neglect – even if he did have an excuse, he still felt it was a weak one – Allen replied, “No, Reuben is alright, though he’ll probably be pretty skittish around you guys for a while till he realizes you're not going to hurt him. Speaking of Reuben, I’m afraid that because of yesterdays events, I wasn’t able to properly tend to my animals, so no offence but I hope we can wrap this up quickly so I can go take care of them. I’ve already messed up once before this week, any more and they’ll probably think I’m not feeding them on purpose!” he finished with a humourless chuckle.

Blueblood gave a small commiserating smile in return at the thought of circumstances making you look bad. However, he quickly pushed that thought from his mind and said, “No offence taken, Mr. Ross, we wouldn’t want to keep you from your responsibilities any longer than necessary. Though, if there is anything that we can help you with, to show our good intentions, please feel free to let us know. We’ll keep a couple of guards close by in case you need to relay a message to us.”

“Thanks, Your Highness, and I appreciate your willingness to help me out. If what you say is true, regarding your willingness to help me out, then I do have an urgent need that needs to be taken care of soon,” said Allen.

“And what is that?” asked Blueblood.

Allen answered Blueblood’s question with one of his own, “Do you guys have electricity by any chance?”

Blueblood gave a single nod in reply.

Allen felt a smile form on his face at the knowledge that he wasn’t stuck in the dark ages. “Oh man, that’s a huge relief to hear. Any chance you guys would be able to hook me up to the grid quickly?”

“I’m...not sure,” was Blueblood’s uncertain reply, “I’m not familiar with that portion of Equestria’s infrastructure well enough off the top of my head to say for certain without having to consult additional resources. Sorry.”

Allen felt a stab of disappointment, but a thoughtful hum from Twilight gave him a spark of sudden hope. “If I remember correctly, Ponyville was added to the national electrical grid a couple of years ago when they completed that hydro-electric dam just west of town. Though most of the town is not connected yet, though that’s mainly due to ponies not having a need for electricity in their homes yet. I know for a fact that the hospital, town hall, and many of the local businesses are all on the grid, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to run electricity out to you. In fact, depending on what priority it gets, you might have power in just a couple days!”

Allen blinked for a moment, stunned at Twilight’s announcement and pleased smile, and then turned to Blueblood. “Do you think you could do that for me?”

Blueblood closed his eyes in thought for a few moments. “Mr. Ross, I believe that we can make that happen, and I shall personally see to it that it gets done, you have my word on that. After all, I feel that it is the least we can do considering what you’ve been put through these past few days.”

Allen gave a thankful nod in reply. However, his expression quickly shifted to a more serious one as he asked, “That reminds me, do you guys happen to know how I got here?” he swept his right hand out to emphasize his point.

The ponies’ ears fell flat against their heads, all three suddenly uncomfortable, and Allen felt a cold weight form in the pit of his stomach at their reaction.

Why do I get the feeling that I’m not going to like what they have to say?

Blueblood looked as though he was going to say something, when Twilight suddenly took a step forward, a sorrowful expression darkening her face. “Mr. Ross,” she began, her voice soft, “several days ago, an old and powerful enemy of our nation managed to break loose from the prison that he had been trapped in for the past thousand years. His name was Discord. My friends and I fought against him to prevent him from destroying Equestria and turning it into a land of chaos and disharmony. We narrowly managed to defeat him and return him to his stone prison using the Elements of Harmony, however before we defeated him, I fear that he might have done something that caused you to end up here in Equestria. Why he did this I don’t know, and while I don’t know if we can send you home, I promise you that we will do everything we can to fix this!”

Her sudden and forceful declaration, punctuated with a hoofstomp, caused Allen to take a step back in surprise, just because of the sheer amount of determination and presence that had suddenly blossomed as her speech went. Inwardly, Allen felt touched by her words, though more questions had been raised than answers given. Who was this Discord? Why did he do what he did? Why was it him that got pulled here and not somebody else? And most importantly of all, was it even possible to send him back home?

Oh this is heavy.

“Do… do you think you guys will be able to send me home soon?” he asked, equal parts hesitant and hopeful.

Both Twilight and Lyra looked at each other. Their uncertain looks told Allen everything he needed to know, even before their words confirmed his worst fears. “I’m...not sure we can, Mr. Ross,” said Lyra, a sad look on her face, “this kind of magic isn’t something just anypony can do. We’re not even sure how Discord did what he did in the first place, so the odds are pretty low.” When she saw Allen’s shoulders slump and his head hang down in dejection, she hastened to add, “But that doesn’t mean we won’t do everything we can to get you home!”

Sadly, her attempt at buoying Allen’s spirits didn’t seem to help much. He gave a sad and tired sigh. “Thanks, Ms. Heartstrings, for trying to cheer me up, but if what you say is true, then the odds are pretty much impossible at this point... but I appreciate the thought all the same.”

An uncomfortable silence descended upon the group at that point, broken only by the quiet sounds of the wind and the distant calls of birds. Finally, after several moments, Blueblood broke the silence. “Mr. Ross, while things might seem...difficult now, it won’t last forever; eventually, they will get better.”

“Thank you, Your Highness,” replied Allen despondently.

Seeing that his attempt at cheering up Allen hadn’t worked either, Blueblood decided that it was time for the three of them to depart and give Allen some time to digest this new information. Turning to regard the two mares with him for a moment, he gave a nod towards the distant property line to indicate that it was time to leave. Both Lyra and Twilight gave a wordless nod, and after saying their goodbyes to Allen, they turned to leave. When Blueblood didn’t immediately follow, Twilight turned and gave him a questioning look. Blueblood simply waved a hoof, indicating that he would be along shortly. Twilight gave a return nod and continued on.

When both mares had gotten out of hearing range, Blueblood turned back to Allen and said, “It is about time for me to go, Mr. Ross, but before I do, I’d like to clarify something with you.”

Allen gave him a curious and slightly concerned look.

“You’re not in trouble if that is what you are thinking,” replied Blueblood quickly, “I just wanted to help you avoid any future faux pas.”

Now Allen was really confused. What did he do wrong?

Blueblood chuckled softly at Allen’s expression. “Don’t worry, it’s a common mistake, even in our world. I noticed earlier that you referred to me as ‘Your Highness’.”

“Is that not right?” asked Allen.

Blueblood shook his head. “Not anymore it isn’t. For various historical and political reasons, only three ponies in Equestria can be called ‘Your Highness’. Those three are of course Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadence, and to call anyone else by that title is considered bad manners. It can lead to...issues, shall we say.”

“But, I thought you were a prince?”

Blueblood nodded. “Yes I am, but it is an honorary title that has been passed down in my family since before the founding of Equestria. Of course, back then, it carried more weight, but things change. In any case, the proper way to address me would be ‘Your Grace’, as I am the Duke of Canterlot officially, and therefore, I am addressed as such.”

Allen shook his head, still confused, even with the explanation. Seeing that Allen hadn’t quite grasped the concept, Blueblood simply said, “I know it is a bit confusing for somebody who isn’t from Equestria, but the ‘why’ of the matter isn’t what is important. All you need to remember is that only the three princesses are to be referred to as ‘Your Highness’, and no one else.”

Rubbing the back of his neck, Allen replied, “Alright, if you say so, 'Your Grace’. I still don’t understand it, but whatever.”

Blueblood chuckled. “Yes, yes, I know. It is a strange concept that only Equestria seems to have adopted, but it is what it is, and as such I felt it necessary to educate you a little on this strange custom of ours, least you accidentally offend somepony and make things more difficult for yourself.”

“Are there really people out there who would get offended over something like that?” asked Allen skeptically.

“Oh yes, there are,” replied Blueblood gravely, his previously amused expression gone. “While I doubt any of the princesses would be overly offended by your actions – they tend to be very forgiving, at least Princess Celestia and Princess Cadence are. Princess Luna on the other hoof is a bit… out of touch, shall we say, with modern customs.” Seeing Allen’s questioning look, Blueblood quickly said, “ let’s just say it’s a long story and leave it at that.”

“Alright, if you say so.”

“Anyways, as I was saying before we got sidetracked there: while the princesses are very forgiving of unintentional faux pas, there are some nobles who are rather… enthusiastic about protecting the honor of our princesses, and will go to great lengths to see to it that those who they feel have insulted the princesses are punished, with or without the crown's permission,” finished Blueblood, his face taking on an unhappy look.

Allen felt a distinctly uneasy feeling in his gut at Blueblood’s explanation and asked hesitantly, “You wouldn’t happen to be one of those nobles, would you?”

Blueblood gave a vigorous shake of his head, a strand of his well-groomed mane escaping in the process. “Absolutely not! I can assure you Mr. Ross, that I am an honorable pony, and would never do such things as theydo.”

Allen let loose a sigh of relief at Blueblood’s declaration. “I’m glad to hear that. Sorry if you felt that I was lumping you in with them, whoever they are.”

“No offense taken, Mr. Ross,” replied Blueblood with a smile, however, his smile slipped slightly when he continued saying, “regardless, I do recommend that you acquaint yourself with Equestrian culture and history as quickly as possible, so as to lessen your chances of making powerful enemies while here.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Blueblood gave a single nod. “See that you do, and if you want, I can recommend several excellent books on both subjects that will be very helpful to you. In any case, unless there is anything else that you require at present, I believe I should be going now, reports to write and meetings to attend, you understand.”

“Right, I wouldn’t want to keep you,” came Allen’s reply.

“Well seeing as there is nothing else, I shall be off then,” said Blueblood as he turned to leave. However, as a thought suddenly struck him he stopped mid-turn and turned back to Allen. “Oh, I just remembered, I was meaning to ask you if it would be alright for Ms. Sparkle, and Ms. Heartstrings to come back at a later time to interview you and learn more about yourself and your people, and if so when would be a good time?”

Allen shrugged. “Not like I’ve got any place to be, so I guess tomorrow would be fine.”

“Excellent, I’ll let them know that you’re willing to have them back then. In any case, do take care Mr. Ross, and until next time,” said Blueblood as he finally turned to leave.

“Same to you too, Your Grace,” replied Allen as Blueblood trotted away.

Allen watched Blueblood as he trotted back up his driveway towards the road for a few minutes before shaking his head and turning to go back inside to get ready to start his morning chores for the day.

As he reached for the door handle, he noticed that his hand was shaking slightly. He clenched it into a fist and waited for the shaking to stop. When he felt that the tremors were gone, he took a deep breath and opened the door stepping inside. Turning around to shut the door, he managed to spot Blueblood speaking with several ponies in golden armor; he couldn’t see either Twilight or Lyra, and figured that they had already left.

Shutting the door, he stayed there for several minutes, letting his mind work over the information that he had gained from this meeting. On one hand, he felt confident that he didn’t have to worry about being attacked and carted off to some lab somewhere. On the other hand, he felt as though he’d found himself suddenly dropped into the middle of an ocean with nothing but a life jacket to keep his head above water. So many unknowns waited for him beyond that property line, and although he wouldn’t admit it to anyone, Allen found himself secretly terrified by the thought that he was truly and utterly alone in a world that he knew nothing about, with little chance of getting back to where he belonged.

Turning away from the door, Allen grabbed the dirty dishes that he’d left on the table and went to put them in the sink. As he laid them down, his eyes glanced over to a collection of empty beer bottles sitting on the counter, and a thought struck him. Looking at the clock on the wall nearby, Allen saw that it was a little after nine in the morning, and staring at the clock as it ticked the seconds away, he came to a decision. Squaring his shoulders, he walked over to the fridge, yanked the door open, grabbed the nearest beer bottle and popped the top open.

Fuck it. If there was ever anyone in the world who needed a beer, it’s this guy.

It had been three days since Allen and the ponies had made proper first contact with each other. In that time, Allen had often found himself on the receiving end of a barrage of questions from two, overly excited, and very inquisitive mares intent on wringing as much information out of him as possible. In addition to that, Allen had needed to keep on top of his chores, and with the electricity still being provided by his gas generator, that wasn’t as easy as before. Moreover, Allen was still dealing with the shock that came from the many bombshells that had been dropped on him in the past few days, and he found it becoming increasingly difficult to sleep at night, the end result of this was that he was constantly tired.

However, today promised to be a good day in that, he was finally going to get power back, or at least he hoped he was. He had received a message, delivered to him by a pegasus courier, from Blueblood. The letter had informed Allen that ponies from the power company were going to meet with him to get him hooked up to the electrical grid. Something that Allen was very much looking forward to. As such, Allen now found himself standing next to his mailbox at the end of the driveway waiting for these ponies to show up.

As he was waiting, he took a moment to glance around him, as a few things had changed in the last few days. The first obvious change was that the giant billboard that the ponies had used to contact him had been taken down. Additionally, there were fewer guard ponies trotting around beyond his property. Instead of hundreds, as there had been before, now there were only about ten or so, and they mainly kept to themselves, content with patrolling the wagon trail and keeping close to their campsite near the apple trees.

Of course, Allen had also been busy, when he hadn’t been answering questions from either Lyra or Twilight or taking care of his regular chores, he’d been busy taking stock of what he had on the farm. It wasn’t much, unfortunately. Allen’s family had been having a rough few years, and their farm wasn’t very big by modern farming standards, being only three hundred acres.

Most of the land that Allen’s father had farmed was rented, and rent prices had been going up, while corn and soybean prices had been going down. Couple that with large, unexpected expenses, and one had a recipe for hard times ahead. In fact, things had gotten so bad, that Allen’s father had been forced to sell off some of their newer equipment, as well as some of their animals, as he couldn’t keep up with the loan payments anymore. This left the Ross farm with precious few farm animals such as cows and pigs to sell later on, and it became more difficult to plant more crops using older equipment. However, they had done the best they could, same as thousands of other farmers across the country, and they’d managed to get by, for the most part.

The problem that Allen faced right now, however, was that, while the ponies had electricity, he doubted that they had the thousand and one other things that he would need to keep his farm going. Parts for old rusting equipment, new tires, coolant, lubricant, and most worryingly of all, gasoline, to feed those machines hungry appetites. Even though, like many farmers, Allen had large storage tanks for fuel on his farm, and they were full, for which Allen thanked his lucky stars, these fuel reserves would not last forever, and when they ran out, that was it, unless he could find another source of fuel.

However, that was something for future Allen to worry about, as at that moment, Allen spotted a group of ponies, pulling a wagon behind them, heading his way. As they came closer, he could see that there were four ponies in the group. Two earth ponies, who were pulling the wagon, a unicorn trotting alongside them, and a pegasus gliding along above them on the late morning thermals.

It was about this time that the pegasus noticed Allen, saying something to its companions, it gave a powerful flap of its wings and quickly closed the distance between it and Allen.

“Hi there,” it...no, she greeted as she came in for a smooth landing in front of Allen, he still had some trouble telling the pony sexes apart sometimes. Holding out a hoof the pegasus mare introduced herself. “Names Lightning Catcher, my team and I,” she waved a hoof to indicate the ponies pulling the wagon, “were told that you needed to get hooked up to the grid, is that right?”

Allen nodded. “Yeah, that’s right.”

She gave a happy smile in return. “Well, alright! We’ll go ahead and get to work getting you hooked up and stuff, should have it all done either today or tomorrow at the latest, depending on how much wire laying and splicing we gotta do.”

“Sounds good,” replied Allen, a feeling of relief washing over him at the thought of having power back soon.

One less problem I have to worry about.

“Well, if you don’t need me for anything else, I suppose I’ll let you get to your jobs then,” said Allen, as he turned to go.

“Okay, Mr. Ross, though...” she trailed off suddenly, an unsure look on her face.

“What’s up?” asked Allen.

Lightning pawed at the ground uncertainly for a moment before saying, “We were given a short briefing about what to expect when we took this job, that includes what, and who you are, where you came from and why you’re here, but I gotta admit, it all sounds a bit fantastical to me.”

Allen chuckled. “Believe you and me, I feel the same way,” he paused and gazed off into the distance, as if looking at something only he could see, “I’ve been here for less than a week and sometimes I wonder if it’s all just a dream...or a nightmare and if I’m going to wake up.”

Lighting Catcher gave Allen a sad look as he stood there staring out into the distance, temporarily lost in his own thoughts. However, he soon gave himself a shake which brought him back to the real world. Turning his attention back to Lighting he gave her a sad smile.

“Well, don’t let me keep you from your job now, if you need anything or have any questions, I’ll be in the house. I turned off the generator, so there isn’t any power for you to worry about.”

Lighting gave a happy smile. “Thank you, I was actually going to ask you about that, but it seems you’ve already thought of that! Though before you go, could you tell me how you got your electricity where you were from?”

“Sure,” replied Allen with a shrug, pointing to a nearby power pole he said, “Our electricity came in through those power lines over there, and that grayish cylinder up top there stepped down the voltage so that it could be used by our house. You might just be able to hook straight up to that pole there without having to lay any new wire unless you guys use something different than what we did.”

Lightning's eyes lit up in both excitement and joy. “Oh no, Mr. Ross! We here in Equestria use wires to transport electricity too! Though we don’t string them up along the top of long poles like you guys do.”

Allen gave her a quizzical look. “You don’t?”

She shook her head. “Nope! All of our lines are buried underground in an insulated and spell treated pipe. Digger,” she pointed at the group's sole unicorn, “is our pipe layer. He’s naturally talented in geomancy and uses his magic to lay the wire underground without us needing to dig a trench.”

“Isn’t it hard to do inspections on the lines if they’re all buried underground, and what about somebody accidentally digging one up? Wouldn’t they run the risk of electrocuting themselves by accidentally cutting into the line?”

Lightning shook her head again. “To answer your first question, nope, all lines come with a special spell attached to them through a series of runes etched into the pipe. Anyone with the proper equipment or magical talent can find a line and determine if it needs to be repaired without having to dig it up. As for your second question, these pipes are also reinforced by the same runes to prevent most things from cutting into them. Besides, we bury the pipes at about three to four hooves deep, so there is very little chance of somepony accidentally digging into them unless they’re going to be doing some major construction work.”

“Huh, fancy that,” remarked Allen.

“Yep! It’s pretty neat stuff, the upfront costs can be a tad pricey, but the lines will pay for themselves over time as they require practically zero maintenance, and are expected to last for fifty years before they need to be replaced. They also have the added benefit of keeping the airspace clear of additional obstructions for us pegasi, and we don’t have to worry about lightning storms taking them out either!”

“Well alright then, guess I’ll let you guys get to it,” replied Allen with a nod.

“Sounds good! We’ll let you know when we’re finished,” said Lightning with a happy bob of her head, and with that said, both she and Allen gave each other a wave good-bye. As Allen watched Lightning trot back over to her crew, he felt his spirits lift a little.

Finally, something is going my way for a change. Now, let’s just hope my other appointment goes as well as this one did.

As the power crew set to work, Allen remained where he was because they weren’t the only ponies that he was expecting this morning. Blueblood’s letter had also mentioned that the prince himself, along with several other government officials were going to be visiting Allen’s farm today, in an effort to get Allen’s paperwork sorted out. Allen, naturally, was not looking forward to the meeting, but he didn’t really have much of a choice in the matter, seeing as how he was kind of stuck in Equestria for the time being, he would need to get his bureaucratic ducks in a row or face the consequences of being an undocumented person in Equestria.

So, even though he’d rather walk across a mile of broken glass barefoot than deal with the coming bureaucratic meeting, he didn’t have many choices to choose from, and so he figured it was best to just get it over with.

And speaking of getting it over with, it looks like His Grace has just arrived, thought Allen as he saw a fancy looking coach, pulled by a pair of sharply dressed earth ponies drove into view from the distant tree line. As the coach came closer and closer, Allen could see the little intricate details that festooned the coach. Painted a royal sky blue with gold trim, the carriage gave a person the impression that its occupant was loaded with cash, however, it wasn’t opulent to the point of being overbearing. However, it still made one feel humble, which Allen summarized was the intent of the coach’s designers.

As the coach came to a stop in front of Allen, he could see Blueblood looking at him from one of the windows. One of the earth pony pullers quickly unhitched himself as the coach came to a complete stop, and after setting a step stool down in front of the coaches door, he opened it with a bow, allowing the occupants inside to exit.

Stepping down from the coach, Blueblood greeted Allen with a polite smile. “Mr. Ross, it is good to see you again.”

“Likewise, Your Grace,” hooking a thumb over his shoulder at the nearby work crew, Allen remarked, “Those ponies from the power company got here just a few minutes before you did, and from what they told me, I should have power back either tonight or tomorrow morning. I really appreciate your help on getting my power problem fixed.”

Blueblood’s smile grew a bit warmer. “Think nothing of it, Mr. Ross. After what you’ve been through, it is the least that I can do to make your stay here as pleasant as possible. Unfortunately,” his smile suddenly lost some of its previous warmth as he noticed another pony exiting the coach, this one a unicorn, “I’m afraid this meeting will not be as pleasant as we would like.”

Looking past Blueblood to the other unicorn, Allen noticed that everything about this guy seemed to scream bureaucrat, from his average build and height to his precisely combed beige coat and brown mane. His simple gray suit was both neatly cleaned and pressed, and his gold, wire-rimmed glasses were so thoroughly polished that they reflected the early morning sunlight at his every move. In addition, Allen could see that the stallion was floating a rather large briefcase from inside, and when he turned around, Allen could see that his cutie mark was that of a sheaf of papers bound by several strands of red tape.

Well fuck.

Setting the briefcase down, the unicorn turned to regard Allen, and extending a hoof, asked in a clipped tone, “Are you the human that His Grace spoke of?”

Allen nodded hesitantly.

The unicorn gave a satisfied nod. “Excellent, then allow me to introduce myself. My name is Red Tape, and I am with the Royal Equestrian Department of Records.”

Allen fought hard against the temptation to facepalm at learning the bureaucrat’s name. Oh God, even his name is bureaucratic, I’m doomed. However, Allen did not let his inner despair color his outer facade and instead replied with a somewhat forced smile. “Nice to meet you Mr. Tape, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company today?”

“I am here at the behest of my superiors to make sure that you are compliant with Equestrian law. The Department of Records deals primarily with paperwork regarding a being’s ability to reside here in Equestria. Naturally, this includes, but is not limited to things such as residency, and or citizenship, the ability to obtain and retain employment legally, as well as the ability to own property within Equestria,” replied Red Tape simply.

Allen gave Blueblood a pleading look that screamed, “Please, save me!”

Sadly, Blueblood could only shake his head in reply as if silently saying, “Not even I can save you from the bureaucracy.”

Letting loose a defeated moan, Allen stepped slightly aside and dejectedly said, “Okay, if you follow me, we can head inside.”

Red Tape smiled for the first time since he arrived, his red colored magical aura quickly surrounding the briefcase as he trotted after a now more subdued Allen, with Blueblood bringing up the rear.

Even though Allen had expressed a reluctance at the thought of dealing with Red Tape, he had quickly led the group to the front entryway of his home and ushered them inside. Striding quickly, he beckoned them to follow him deeper into the house. Blueblood took a moment to glance around the foyer as he trotted after Allen and Red Tape. The hardwood floors had a layer of dust along the walls where hooves, or in this case, feet, seldom traveled, indicating that they hadn’t been swept in some time. Looking up at the walls, Blueblood could see several pictures hanging from them, no doubt their frames held photos of Allen and his family from days gone by.

Turning his attention back to the matter at hoof, Blueblood noticed that he’d been left behind and quickly got moving again. Trotting past a staircase that led upstairs, he soon found himself in what he assumed was a kitchen, and just beyond it, a dining room/living area. It was there that Blueblood saw Allen and Red Tape seating themselves at a table across from each other. Quickly walking over, his hooves clicking rhythmically against the hardwood floor, Blueblood used his magic to pull out a chair next to Allen and sat down. Though he soon noted that these chairs had not been designed with pony posteriors in mind.

Shifting slightly in his chair in an effort to get more comfortable, Blueblood turned to Allen and said, “Mr. Ross, before we begin I would like to thank you for allowing us into your home. It is my understanding that we are the first ponies that you have allowed inside if what Ms. Heartstring and Ms. Sparkle reports about you times together are correct.”

“They are,” replied Allen simply.

Red Tape used his magic to adjust his glasses as he gave Allen a curious look. “Was there a reason for you to prevent these two mares from entering?”

Blueblood shot Red Tape an irritated scowl, though Red Tape either didn’t notice or didn’t care. Allen simply stared across the table at Red Tape, a neutral expression etched on his face.

“There wasn’t a major reason,” he began neutrally, “but I did not feel comfortable allowing them instant access to my home till I got to know them better.”

Red Tape gave Allen a searching look. “I see, but that then begs the question, what about us? You don’t know us very well, so why let us in immediately and not them?”

If looks could kill, then Red Tape would have been reduced to a pile of ash by now from how hard Blueblood was glaring at him. Allen’s expression however never changed as he said, “Several reasons,” he began as he raised a hand and began ticking each point off on his fingers, “the first is that I have had a chance to become better acquainted with your culture, not a lot but some, so that helps reduce my uncertainty around you guys. The second is that Prince Blueblood here,” he jerked his head at Blueblood, “was kind enough to arrange for power to be restored to my home quickly and at no upfront cost. Just for that, he’s earned the right to come into my home.”

“And what about me?” asked Red Tape searchingly.

Allen shrugged. “You’re just his plus one, as it were, plus I didn’t want to try and fill out all of these papers on the porch where the wind might get at them. Kind of hard to sign my soul away when the paper I need to sign it on is halfway into the next county.”

Both Red Tape and Blueblood sat there in stunned silence at Allen’s candid reply. However, the silence didn’t last for very long before Red Tape burst out laughing at Allen’s reply.

After several moments of deep, belly aching laughter, Red Tape managed to calm down enough to speak. “Hehe, oh that is a good one, hehe, ‘sign my soul away’, hah! I’m going to have to remember that one for when I get back to the office, the others will get a good chuckle out of it!” Wiping away a tear from his eyes, he continued saying, “My apologies Mr. Ross if I have caused any offense, I’m afraid that my social skills are somewhat lacking.”

“None taken,” was Allen simple reply.

Giving a nod in thanks, Red Tape took a moment to resettle his glasses before reaching into his bag and pulling out a thick sheaf of papers. Plopping on the table between him and Allen, he explained, “While I can appreciate your humor Mr. Ross, I do not believe you need fear having to, as you say, ‘sign your soul away’. Nor do you need to worry about papers blowing away in the wind, we have spells to keep that from happening, though the thought is appreciated all the same. In any case,” he said as he pulled an inkwell and quill from within his briefcase and set them next to the sheaf of papers, “we should probably get started.”

Allen let out a morose sigh at what was to come next. Red Tape simply chuckled good-naturedly at Allen’s antics, and giving a playful tut-tut, said, “Now, now, Mr. Ross, there is no need to get all melodramatic. We are just signing a few forms and going over some basic knowledge that you’ll need to know for future reference should you plan on staying in our fair country for the long term.”

“Yay,” was the unenthusiastic reply.

Red Tape frowned. “Look, Mr. Ross, I know that not all...beings are as happy as I am in regards to doing bureaucratic paperwork, but this is very important. If this paperwork isn’t properly filled out, then...well let’s just say that you don’t want to know what will happen, as I can assure you it will not be a pleasant experience. Besides, these,” he waved a hoof to indicate the stack of papers that stood about four inches tall in front of him, “are all the papers that you’ll have to sign for a while. Though, even I realize that this is a bit much at one time. However, I’m afraid it is necessary as these papers are all the ones critical to being a full Equestrian citizen.”

Long since resigned to his fate, Allen reached out with a hand and said, “Fine, let’s just get this over with, go ahead and hand me those papers, and I’ll get a pen to fill them out with.”

Red Tape gave him a confused look for a moment before letting loose with a humor-filled chuckle. “Hehe, I believe that you are under a false assumption in regards to how bureaucratic paperwork is handled here in Equestria, Mr. Ross.”

Now it was Allen’s turn to look confused.

Seeing his confused expression, Red Tape elaborated. “I’m not sure how your people do this sort of thing in your world, Mr. Ross, but here in Equestria, the bureaucracy does most of the work. Most ponies simply show up at their appointment with the needed information and a civil servant will fill in the paperwork, after that, the only thing the citizen needs to do is to review the documents for errors and then sign them.”

“Wait, are you saying that I don’t have to fill out all of these papers? That I just have to review and sign them?!” exclaimed Allen incredulously.

Red Tape gave a confident nod. “Of course, doing it this way prevents confusion, as all civil servants are properly trained and certified in the handling of civil documents. Moreover, it eases the burden on the system by lessening the chances of errors due to confusion when a citizen fills in information. Often times a pony is in and out in under twenty minutes or less, though in our case it’ll probably take a few hours to get through all of this.”

Allen looked to Blueblood, as if to double check that what Red Tape had said was true. Blueblood for his part simply nodded, a small smile tugging the corners of his muzzle upwards at the sudden look of relief that washed over Allen’s features. However, as Allen turned back to the small pile of papers, he felt a twinge in his hand at the thought of having to sign all of those papers.

As if sensing his renewed worry, Red Tape levitated the quill and inkwell over to Allen before saying, “Oh, I almost forgot to mention, you will only need to sign your name once, after that the quill will do the rest.”

Once again, Allen’s face betrayed his confusion. “Huh?”

“Oh, do you not have self-writing quills in your world?”

“Self-writing quills?” parroted Allen.

Red Tape nodded, a joyous smile on his face. “Oh yes! They are so convenient! A self-writing quill is...well a quill that has been enchanted to remember a set amount of words and write them down when you use a verbal command. They are commonly used for either short phrases or signatures, in our case, it will be the latter. All you will have to do, Mr. Ross is write your name once in the designated area and then say a simple phrase that you would generally not use in a normal conversation. The quill will ‘remember’ what you wrote down and will only write it after you say the special phrase.”

Allen slumped down in his seat, a flurry of emotions swirling through him, disbelief, shock, and hope being the strongest. Licking his lips, he leaned forward, and grabbing the quill gingerly in his grasp, dipped it into the open inkwell and then set quill to paper and with a quick flourish signed his name at the bottom of the top page in the stack.

He paused for a moment, trying to think of a word or phrase that he could use to activate the quill. After several moments, he finally said, “YOWO.”

“Yowo? What is a yowo?” asked Blueblood, a confused look on his face, Red Tape was also confused by Allen’s choice of activation word.

Allen, a smile on his face, nodded sagely and clarified, “It’s an acronym I just made up.”

Blueblood and Red Tape looked at each other, and then back to Allen. “But...what does it mean?” asked Blueblood again.

“It’s a modification on another acronym from my world called, YOLO, which stands for You Only Live Once, YOWO,” he paused as the quill sudden jumped from his relaxed grip and darted to the next paper in the stack and wrote out a perfect carbon copy of his signature, right down to the final flourish at the end. Seeing this, Allen let loose an impressed whistle. “Wow, and here I was thinking you guys were blowing smoke up my ass, but hot damn it works!”

Red Tape, leaned back in his chair, a smug smile on his face. “Of course, it is as I said, the quill is enchanted and will record what you write down before you utter the activation word or phrase. Believe me, these things are worth their weight in gold,” waving a hoof at it as it returned to its inkwell he continued, “this one is yours to keep if you so wish, consider it a gift for having to do all of this at once.”

Allen found himself struck dumb in amazement at Red Tape’s generosity. “Wow, Mr. Tape, I don’t know what to say, other than thank you, I mean, one of these things can’t be cheap to make.”

Red Tape waggled a hoof back and forth in a ‘so-so’ gesture. “Depends on the brand, some are fairly inexpensive, but their enchantments run out fairly quickly or they are locked into whatever their first input was for the duration of their life. This particular set, however, is one of the more expensive sets and should last you a long time. Plus you can reset it later if you want to have it write something different.”

“And you’re just giving it to me? Just like that?” asked Allen incredulously.

“Just like that,” replied Red Tape with a friendly nod. “Though you still haven’t told us what YOWO means yet.”

“Oh right, well like I said, it’s a modification of YOLO and it means You Only Write Once. I figured it was appropriate for the situation,” was Allen’s sheepish reply.

Both Red Tape and Blueblood looked at one another for a moment before they burst out laughing, Allen quickly joining them in their merriment over his little joke. After their laughter subsided, Red Tape, while wiping an errant tear from the corner of his eye said, “Well, while that was enjoyable, I believe that we should probably get started in earnest, Mr. Ross.”

Allen let loose a sigh. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Oh don’t sound so glum. It won’t be as bad as you think it will be. After all, between myself, answering any questions you might have and filling out the forms for you, His Grace, for moral support, and your quill doing all of the signing, you won’t really have much to worry about or be fearful of.”

Allen gave a rueful chuckle. “I guess so. Sorry if I come across as being a bit petulant when it comes to filling out paperwork. Back in my world, we’re just kind of handed the paperwork and expected to fill it out, and nine times out of ten the people giving us the paperwork to fill out don’t care or are assholes. You’re actually the first bureaucrat I have ever met where I haven’t wanted to strangle.”

Red Tape gave a bit of a nervous laugh. “Hehe, well, I’m very glad to hear that, Mr. Ross. Though I am sorry to hear that your world doesn’t put as much care into making sure that the interactions between the civil service and the citizenry are positive ones.” He looked down at his hooves for a moment and fidgeted with the stack of papers in front of him, as if unsure of whether or not he should continue. However, after a few silent moments, he looked up, a determined look on his face. “Mr. Ross, while I can’t help you deal with your previous experiences dealing with bureaucracy, I can help you with this experience, and while I’m sure you won’t find it as enjoyable as I do, I think that you’ll at least be content with the experience,” he said, a hopeful smile on his face.

Allen returned Red Tape’s hopeful smile with one of his own. “I hope so too.”

Giving a satisfied nod, Red Tape grabbed the first piece of paper that Allen had signed and said, “Very well then! If you have no further concerns on the matter, let us begin!” and with that, he began.

Allen for his part felt himself relaxing a little more as they began.

Maybe this won’t be so bad after all.

The clock on the dining room wall read half past nine at night, and Allen was tired. Even with all the help from Red Tape, Blueblood, and the self-writing quill, it had taken them most of the day to get through the stack of paper that Red Tape had brought with him. Even though Red Tape had said that the Equestrian civil service did the best it could to minimize the pain of dealing with paperwork, that didn’t mean that there was no pain, just that there was not as much as there could be. In Allen’s case, it was still a lot, though he repressed a shiver of dread at the thought of having to deal with the amount of paperwork that he’d just gone through in the way he was used to dealing with paperwork back in the U.S.

I’d kill myself before the end of the first hour.

Casting aside those thoughts, he idly shuffled some of the pamphlets and booklets that Red Tape had left for him on the table. Each one provided greater detail on what was expected of Allen as a soon-to-be citizen of Equestria. Casually picking one up at random, he was greeted by the sight of a trio of smiling ponies, one of each tribe, their hooves held out wide in greeting. The title, a cheery pink and blue ribbon of color across the top asked, So you want to be an Equestrian? Allen gave a humorless snort. “Not really, but it’s not like I have much of a choice in the matter at present,” he said as he tossed it back onto the cluttered table.

Leaning back in his chair, he scrubbed his tired face with a hand before getting up and going to the sink for some water. As he let his cup fill up, he thought back on what he had learned in the process of getting his citizenship papers in order. He’d actually been surprised when Red Tape had asked him to provide his human world information, such as his birth certificate, social security number, educational background, criminal record, and on and on and on. By the time they’d finished, Allen had felt as though he’d run a marathon from the amount of running he’d done around his house looking for the needed paperwork, and his brain felt like a pool of melted goo from how hard he had been thinking that day, trying to recall to the best of his ability information he hadn’t had available at the house.

One of those pieces of information was in regards to how much money he’d had before being brought here. Taking a sip of water from his glass, he gazed out the window at the darkening skies and thought back to that moment.

“Why do you want to know about my finances?” asked Allen, confused at Red Tape’s sudden question. “Anything having to do with them is on Earth, and I have no way to access them here, so they’re useless to me.”

Red Tape took a sip of water, which Allen had helpfully provided earlier in their meeting. “There are several reasons, Mr. Ross. The first being, since you are applying for citizenship with us, we need to do a background check regarding your financial assets for tax purposes and such.” He held up a hoof to forestall Allen’s reply. “Now, I know that currently there is no way for you to access your financial assets right now, and you might not have complete records of them, but anything you can give us would be welcome.”

When Red Tape paused to take another drink of water, Allen interjected, “Okay, but what’s to prevent me from lying to you about, well… anything? I mean, I could have been making everything up as we’ve been going along.”

Red Tape set his glass back down and fixed Allen with a serious look. “Mr. Ross, if you had been lying to me, I would know. These,” he pointed to his glasses, “are not just for helping me see better, they are also enchanted to detect when someone is not being fully honest with me. Now granted, the enchantment isn’t perfect, but it’s good enough. Besides,” he gave Allen a confident smile, “I’ve been a civil servant for a long time, Mr. Ross. I can tell when somebody is trying to be sneaky, even if they are not a pony.”

Allen licked his suddenly dry lips. “I-I see, well, okay, I was just curious is all.”

Red Tape chuckled and waved a hoof in dismissal. “Hehe, of course, of course.” His smile faded and a more neutral look took its place. “In any case, let’s move on, shall we?”

Allen simply nodded.

“Very good. Now, while the first reason is not as applicable to you in this regard, we would still like to have as much information about you as we can get. This will help us when we move on the second reason we need this information.”

“And what reason is that?” asked Allen.

“So that we can reimburse you for those lost assets,” replied Blueblood.

“Reimburse me?” asked Allen, confused. “Why would you guys do that?”

Blueblood sighed. “Because you were negatively impacted by Discord’s escape and since the Equestrian government is partially responsible for said escape, then it behooves us to at least provide some form of compensation to ease your suffering. Hence why we need your financial information: if we have that, then it will be a simple matter of opening up a savings account for you at a bank of your choosing and transferring the funds to you.”

Allen felt himself slump down in his chair slightly from surprise at Blueblood’s explanation. When he looked over at Red Tape and saw the stallion nod in confirmation, he just didn’t know what to think. After all, what kind of government willingly gives out money to people it hurt, especially if it was indirectly, at the drop of a hat like this? Licking his dry lips, Allen asked, “So let me get this straight here: you guys are going to just give me money, just like that? No strings attached?”

Blueblood nodded, though he had an odd look on his face as if he was wondering why Allen was so disbelieving at the thought. “Of course, it is only proper. While the Equestrian government didn’t intentionally free Discord from his prison to go on a chaotic rampage, he still did, and because of his actions, you were, for all intents and purposes, turned into an interdimensional refugee. Therefore, it is only right that you receive some form of compensation in regards to your suffering. Besides, both princesses have ordered it so anyways, so even if the rest of the government was against the idea, you would still receive compensation, either because the princesses demanded it or they provided you the funds from their own pockets.”

“That’s... very generous of you guys… I’m not sure what to say honestly, other than thank you,” replied Allen gratefully.

Blueblood returned Allen’s thanks with a warm smile. “You are welcome, Mr. Ross, it is the least we can do.”

“Though I do believe that you are entitled to additional assistance beyond compensation for lost assets,” interjected Red Tape. When Allen gave him an inquiring look, he continued, “As His Grace said, you were harmed due to Discord’s actions and made a refugee. Therefore, you are currently classified as one. Though,” he waved a hoof to indicate the pile of papers in front of him, “after we get through this, you’ll be well on your way to citizenship here in Equestria. However, due to the nature of your arrival here, both Princess Celestia and Luna have decided to grant you tax exemption status for this tax year to give you time to both become acquainted with our tax laws and secure a steady income.”

Allen was so surprised that he nearly fell out of his seat.

Seeing Allen’s stunned look, Red Tape chuckled. “Yes, I know, it seems too good to be true. However, Princess Celestia, and to a lesser extent Princess Luna, are very concerned with maintaining a good public image, especially in the face of something like Discord getting free. That has created no small amount of work for us as we try to reassure both the citizenry and the international community. Moreover, since you were directly impacted by Discord’s… shenanigans, they felt that it was necessary to provide you with these benefits as a way to show both you and others that we do care and are willing to take responsibility to make things as right as possible.”

Allen sat there, blinking as his mind processed what Red Tape had told him. After a few moments, he cocked his head to a side. “So what you’re saying is that I’m some kind of PR stunt?”

Red Tape waggled a hoof side to side. “Sort of. Don’t get me wrong, the princesses do care about your situation and want to do everything they can to make your stay more comfortable while you are here.”

“I’m sensing a ‘but’ in there somewhere.”

Red Tape shrugged. “But they also have to make sure that Equestria as a whole is safe, both from foreign powers who may take Discord’s release as a sign that we are weak or use it as a way to gain concessions out of us at the diplomatic table, as well as to protect us from the more… ambitious elements within.”

“What do you mean, ‘ambitious elements within’?”

Blueblood quickly interjected, “Nevermind about that, Mr. Ross, you don’t need to worry about that sort of thing.”

Glancing over at Blueblood with a searching eye for a moment, Allen decided to let it go. “If you say so.” Turning his attention back to Red Tape, he asked a final question, “So is there anything else, or was that it?”

“That was it, as far as financial matters are concerned. When the time comes we’ll send somepony to go over the finer details with you and get you set up with a bank account and such.”

Allen nodded. “Alright, sounds good.”

After that, Allen’s quill had signed the various papers that Red Tape had placed in front of him. It had been an interesting experience for Allen, with both Red Tape and Blueblood helping him to get his affairs in order, for which he was eternally grateful. As such, the majority of his time with the prince and bureaucrat passed without issue, though there had been a hiccup or two along the way.

Turning away from the kitchen sink, Allen walked back to the table, and setting his glass of water down, he scanned the table until he found what he was looking for. It was a colorful pamphlet with three ponies in armor lined up in profile on its front, the heading, in big bold letters proclaiming, Join your local guard today! Allen stared at it for several moments before reaching out and lifting it off the table; he’d already looked through it earlier, but for some reason, he felt compelled to do it again. Opening it up, he read through the information contained within again. It was all the standard info that could be found in a recruitment pamphlet, such as details about benefits, pay rates, how it would help you become a better person, how you could become a hero, etc. Allen shook his head as he set the pamphlet back down and thought about what he was going to do going forward.

The reason he had the pamphlet and was in this situation, was because Red Tape had asked him during their discussion if he possessed any weapons or armor in his home, which of course he did, - after all, what self-respecting farmer wouldn’t? –, though he was presently unable to get at: as his dad had hidden the gun safe’s key somewhere where he couldn’t find it. However, whether he could access the guns wasn’t the point, the point was that he had them in the first place, and as such, Allen had felt that honesty was the best policy, in this case, so he’d nodded his head.

The conversation that had followed had been… interesting.

Red Tape hummed thoughtfully to himself as he used his magic to sort through several papers that he had pulled from his seemingly bottomless briefcase. After a moment of this awkward silence, he gave a slight nod. “Very well.” Turning his attention back to the paper in front of him, he began to write. “I will need a list of all weapons in your possession, as well as any magical artifacts or armor, magical or otherwise, that you may also possess.”

Allen crossed his arms over his chest, an unhappy, almost combative, look on his face. “Why do you want to know that?” he asked flatly.

Red Tape glanced up from his papers for a moment before giving Blueblood a look that said would you take this, please? before then returning to his work.

Blueblood simply nodded, and turning to face Allen, he said, “I am not sure what your world’s laws are concerning the possession of armaments, Mr. Ross, but in Equestria, ownership of a weapon or magical artifact used for battle is generally restricted.”

“Restricted in what way?” asked Allen warily.

Blueblood sighed. “Broadly speaking, only those affiliated with the government such as police or military personnel are allowed ownership of weapons, though there are exceptions that are granted, such as settlers living in or near dangerous areas such as the Badlands to the south, or adventurers who travel to said areas, but those types of dispensations are uncommon, as few ponies have the need for a weapon in the first place.”

“So if you don’t let ponies own weapons generally, how do they defend themselves if they are attacked?” asked Allen.

Blueblood’s response was to light up his horn. “Well, unicorns can use their magic to help keep themselves safe, as there are many different types of defensive spells available for use by the general public that does not require a permit to use.” He let his magic fade from his horn as he continued speaking. “Pegasi are often able to fly away from danger, much like birds do, though there are some that will use their ability to fly as a means of attacking those that threaten them. In addition, pegasi can use the weather as a weapon in extreme circumstances. Finally, earth ponies can either run from danger thanks to their enhanced endurance or use their natural strength to pummel it into submission,” he finished with a shrug.

Allen meanwhile, sat chewing his lower lip as he digested this new information. Finally, he said softly, “But I don’t have any of those abilities. Is it really fair to place me at a disadvantage like this when I never asked to come here in the first place?”

Both Red Tape and Blueblood looked at each other for a moment, as if hoping the other would have an answer to Allen’s question. Finally, Red Tape sighed and replied, “No, Mr. Ross, it would not be fair to put you in that position. Even though – and of course I realize my own bias is showing a little here – Equestria is one of the safest places in the world in terms of things such as natural disasters, crime, and conflict, I do see your point. I take it that you come from a world that is less… friendly in nature?”

Allen laughed, and for some reason that neither pony could determine, a chill ran down their spines at the harsh sound of it. After a few moments, Allen’s laughter faded to mere chuckles, and as he wiped a stray tear from the corner of his eye, he replied, “That, Mr. Tape is the understatement of the century. If it wasn’t for the fact that humans breed like rabbits, our species would have probably died out by now. But I digress,” he finished, waving a hand as if to close the matter.

Clearing his throat awkwardly, Red Tape fiddled with his glasses for a moment. “I… I see. In any case, Mr. Ross, seeing as how you do not seem to be willing to relinquish your weapons,” Allen’s amused snort gave him pause for a moment, “then we have two options available to us.”

“And those are?” asked Allen, as he leaned forward and placed his elbows on the table while steepling his fingers in front of his mouth, as if he were a corporate CEO waiting to hear a subordinate’s sales pitch for a pet project of theirs.

“Well, of course, the first solution would be to grant you a special dispensation, though that would require more paperwork, and a special hearing in front of one of the upper members of the nobility, and slash or the princesses. This usually depends on the size of the requesting group and their justification for wanting the weapons. In our case, His Grace’s presence should be sufficient in that regard, so we won’t need to travel to Canterlot and schedule a hearing.”

“Thank God for small favors then,” cut in Allen, a tinge of humor coloring his voice.

Clearing his throat, Red Tape resumed speaking, “Yes, well, the second option, and probably easiest, from our standpoint anyways,” he pointed a hoof at Blueblood and himself, “would be to have you join the local guard unit here in Ponyville. You would then be considered an employee of the Crown and as such, would be allowed to keep your weapons. This also has the added benefit of granting you a small stipend each month and gives you the opportunity to become better acquainted with your neighbors. There are also the educational opportunities – even if, considering the small size of Ponyville, they would not be as good as those found in larger cities, but still, I believe that this would be the best solution to our problem!” he finished, a happy smile on his face.

“Except it isn’t,” Allen shot back. When he saw Red Tape’s happy expression melt away to confused disappointment, he explained, “While on the surface joining the guard would seem like a good idea, and one where everybody wins, the way I see it, it’s only a win for you, not me.”

“I don’t understand,” said Red Tape, unhappy at the rejection.

Allen sighed. “Alright then, I guess I’ll just spell it out then. I do not want to be drafted into military service. It’s bad enough that I got pulled here to your country against my will, it’s another thing entirely for you to coerce me into joining your military!”

Red Tape opened his mouth to reply, but a raised hoof and look from Blueblood silenced him. Turning his attention to Allen, Blueblood asked softly, “Mr. Ross, in your world, did you have an equivalent of a local guard force?”

Allen shrugged. “Probably, if I assume we are talking about the same thing. My country had a National Guard that was split up by states rather than towns, and they would often times get sent overseas to fight, and I don’t want that.”

Blueblood nodded, understanding growing in his mind. “I think I see the problem, then.” Turning himself to fully face Allen, he said, “Mr. Ross, I feel as though there has been a miscommunication here, and for that I am sorry. Both Mr. Red Tape,” he glanced at the aforementioned stallion for a split second out of the corner of his eye, “and I only want to help you adjust to living in Equestria with as little trouble as possible. While it is certainly possible for us to grant you a special dispensation allowing you to keep and use your armaments as necessary for your defense without you having to join the local guard, it might cause tension between you and your neighbors should word get out. This is a relatively safe area, and ponies might wonder why you have weapons if you don’t intend to use them to help keep them safe by joining the guard force. Moreover, should word get back to Canterlot, it could also create trouble with some of the other nobles who are… less than friendly towards other species, shall we say.”

At hearing Blueblood’s reply, Allen sighed and rolled his eyes. “Of course magical rainbow and sunshine land has racists too, I mean, why the fuck not? Do they wear white robes and hoods that have a smiley face on their backs that say ‘Have a nice day’, and go around burning crosses, too?”

Blueblood grimaced, his ears pinning themselves flat against his scalp. “I… don’t know, to be honest, they have never contacted me. Most of what I know comes from rumors and the occasional guard or police report. Princess Celestia frowns upon that sort of activity, and so they tend to keep to the shadows. However, that is not important right now.”

“And what is?” shot back Allen, a hint of irritation coloring his voice.

“To make sure that you have good relations with your neighbors,” replied Blueblood flatly, his own patience also starting to run a little thin by this point.

Noticing Blueblood’s less than happy mood shift, Allen grimaced and said, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to take my frustrations out on you, it’s just...” he trailed off.

Blueblood sighed. “I accept your apology, Mr. Ross, I can only imagine how you must be feeling right now. You’ve had a lot of things thrown at you in the past week, so much so that I think a lesser p-I mean being, would have probably broken down by now. We,” he pointed a hoof at Red Tape and himself, “want to help reduce the number of problems coming your way. That is why we wanted you to join up with the Ponyville Guard, as a way to justify your possession of weapons and to place you in a position where you can be seen in a positive light by the citizens of Ponyville.” Leaning forward, Blueblood gently placed a hoof on Allen’s shoulder. “I’m not sure how humans are in regards to new things, but it sometimes takes ponies a little bit to get comfortable with something that they are unfamiliar with, and until they do, they tend to act skittish around it, some even outright afraid; just ask Ponyville’s resident zebra about her first few months living here.”

“What, are you saying that ponies are going to run screaming for the hills at the first sight of me?” asked Allen tiredly.

Blueblood waved his hoof back and forth in a ‘so-so’ gesture. “It depends on the pony. Some will, others will be polite but distant, some will go out of their way to avoid you, along with a dozen different reactions from a dozen different ponies. However, they all have the same root and outcome: fear of the unknown, and unhappiness, respectively. We were hoping that if you joined the local guard it would be seen by the local populace as a sign that you want to be part of their community. That you want to help protect them and that you don’t want to just skulk around at the edges of their group like some nefarious entity.”

“So what you’re saying is that, if I join the local guard, the ponies of Ponyville will what, like me more or something?”

Blueblood nodded. “In a way, it’s more that they will get used to you and trust you more. Ponies like a person who is willing to lend a helping hoof, or hand, in this case. Moreover, the more they see you working with those that they know, trust and respect, the quicker they will subconsciously adopt you into their ‘herd’, so to speak.”

“Adopt me into the herd?”

Blueblood waved a hoof dismissively. “It’s a figure of speech. It means that they will come to see you as a friend, even if you’re not a pony, and that you are someone that they can trust to keep them safe, as well as someone for them to keep safe. In addition, it will give you the chance to make some more friends. Friendship is a very important concept here in Equestria, and having friends can help smooth tensions between you and others.”

Red Tape nodded, his happy smile back, and added his own two bits, “Yes, yes, and you won’t need to worry about being asked to ‘go overseas’ as you put it! Local guard units are only responsible for their immediate areas, though in extreme circumstances they may be drafted into the regulars, but if something like that happens, most citizens would also be drafted as well.”

“It still feels like you guys aren’t giving me much of a choice here,” said Allen as he rubbed the back of his neck tiredly.

The two ponies looked at each other for a moment, each holding the other’s gaze with his own until finally, they turned back to Allen. “Mr. Ross,” Blueblood said, “while we feel it would be best if you were to join the local guard… I feel that the circumstances surrounding your arrival would be sufficient to grant you a special dispensation at this time.”

“So I don’t have to join the guard if I don’t want to?” asked Allen hopefully.

Blueblood nodded his head with a sigh. “Yes, Mr. Ross, you will not be forced to join the guard, and I apologize if we came across as trying to force you to do so. That was not our intent. We just felt that it would be the best course of action and that it would give you the opportunity to be seen in a positive light by your new neighbors. Moreover, I figured that you would appreciate the benefits and pay attached to the position.Mr. Red Tape mentioned them, but I believe that on the second page,” he pointed at the enlistment papers, “is a more detailed list of all the responsibilities and benefits that you can expect from joining the guard.”

Allen flipped the page and glanced down the list. Fully covered health insurance, training, and equipment provided, a monthly stipend, and hazard duty pay? That’s...not bad, still, his eyes continued to scan down the list coming over to the responsibilities of the guard. As far as Allen could see, a guardsman, or guardspony in this case, seemed to just be a glorified first responder in that they were expected to help put out fires, rescue hurt or lost individuals, provide basic medical aid in emergencies and help keep the peace by supplementing the local police and military forces.

The benefits weren’t spectacular, but they seemed alright. Of course, he couldn’t be one-hundred percent sure on that fact, as he didn’t really know all that much about Equestria’s economy, but still, it was probably better than nothing.

Setting the pamphlet down again, Allen turned his attention back to the two ponies. “I think I’d rather not join up with the guard at the moment,” and when he saw Red Tape’s ears wilt in disappointment, he hastily added, “but that’s not to say I never want to join, just that I don’t want to right now.”

Blueblood gave a disappointed sigh but nodded in acquiescence to Allen’s wishes. “Very well, Mr. Ross, we will respect your wishes at the moment. However, I should point out that if word gets out about your situation, it could damage your reputation with your neighbors.”

“I’m aware of the risks,” he said flatly, though after a moment he allowed his gaze to fall slightly and his expression to soften. “I’ll think about it, and maybe after I get everything settled, I’ll do some research on the matter, maybe see if I can talk with someone who is a local member, and see what they do,” he finished with a shrug.

“Well, I suppose that is that, then,” replied Blueblood tiredly, turning to Red Tape. “I’ll let you take care of the paperwork. Just send whatever you need signing to me, and I’ll see that it’s taken care of.”

“Very well, Your Grace,” replied Red Tape softly. “Mr. Ross,” he said, turning to Allen, “I will still need to know what type of weapons, armor and magical artifacts you have for our records, as well as what they can do.”

Allen grimaced. “That might be a while, seeing as how they’re locked in a safe that I don’t have the key to at the moment.”

Red Tape gave an unhappy sigh of disappointment. “I see. Well, I suppose we’ll have to get a locksmith out here to have them open it, then.” Shuffling the papers in front of him, he continued, “In any case, I believe that we have plowed this particular field enough, so shall we move on?”

When neither Blueblood or Allen objected, Red Tape gave a nod and they continued.

Sighing at the memory, Allen set the pamphlet back down on the table and scrubbed his tired face with his hands for a moment before leaning back in his chair to stare at the ceiling. The overhead lights cast a warm glow that served to chase away the gathering darkness outside, and Allen felt grateful for the fact that he didn’t have to rely on his gas generator for power anymore. On the other hand, he did have a small moment of… concern earlier, when Lightning Catcher and her crew had finished hooking his house up to the grid.

For some reason, it had completely slipped his mind that Equestria’s power grid might be incompatible with his home electric grid, a possibility which, if true, would have meant that the moment he turned the power on, things would have either not worked right or blown up in his face. Thankfully, that didn’t happen, as, by happy coincidence, Equestria’s power grid parameters were identical to home’s. Allen had had a small ‘oh crap’ moment when Lightning had turned on the juice and flipped the hallway light switch on, as he had forgotten to ask what the ponies used as far as voltage and such for their electrical devices, but when nothing bad had happened he relaxed.

When he’d mentioned his concern to Lightning, she had given him a confident smile, and said, “You shouldn’t have worried, Mr. Ross, we’re professionals! We always check the compatibility of the location with the regular grid before we hook up to the main.”

Chuckling at the memory, Allen let his chair fall back to all fours as he stood up and took his glass back to the sink. Setting it aside, he began making his way to bed. By now the clock on the wall read half past ten, and he wanted to get an early start tomorrow, as he was expecting yet more company. This time it would be his new neighbors, the Apple family. Apparently his land was actually occupying their land currently, and unfortunately, Blueblood and Red Tape hadn’t had time today to get that sorted out, so as a consequence, they were returning tomorrow, bright and early, to iron out the details.

Turning the kitchen lights, off, Allen double-checked to make sure his front door was locked before he ascended the stairs. As he climbed, he thought about the other two ponies who were going to be showing up as well. The first was the mayor of the nearby town – ironically called Ponyville of all things, Allen shuddered in thought of the fact that pretty much everything in Equestria was a horse pun – and while the mayor was coming to represent the town, the other pony that was coming by represented an organization called the Department of Occupations, Talents, and Industries. Allen wasn’t sure what to expect from them, but from what he could see, Blueblood wasn’t exactly their biggest fan, which meant that Allen likely wouldn’t be their biggest fan either.

Only time would tell in the end.

Allen eased himself into bed after a long day with a tired sigh. Over the past several days he felt as though he’d been run ragged. Most of his exhaustion was mental in nature, dealing with what felt like mountains of paperwork could do that to a person. There was also the physical exhaustion of having to run around and do things. Things such as getting tested for unknown diseases, as well as getting vaccinated for diseases native to this world before they could cause him any harm.

Allen was just glad he hadn’t been anywhere near the hospital when the local medical establishment had been informed of his presence. From what he’d been able to glean from Red Tape, his conversation with the head nurse of the Ponyville General Hospital, a Nurse Redheart, hadn’t been pleasant. Red Tape had actually admitted to Allen that he’d been concerned that Redheart looked about ready to place the entire area under quarantine, at least till he’d admitted to having left Ponyville and traveling back to Canterlot with Blueblood the previous day. At that point, she’d just about blown her metaphorical stack and it was only the timely intervention of the head doctor, Dr. Stable that had managed to calm the irate nurse down.

Unfortunately, even with the calming influence of the doctor, Nurse Redheart had still been rather upset with being left out of the loop and the casual disregard for proper first contact medical procedures. That had translated into a rather uncomfortable and awkward first meeting for Allen with Equestrian medicine, his butt was still sore from all of the rather, energetic shots he’d been given. What was worse, he still had several more shots that he needed to go in for later on, but that was future Allen’s problem.

Luckily for everyone involved, Dr. Stable and Nurse Redheart hadn’t found any diseases that could easily transfer over to ponies in the short space of time Allen had been in Equestria, and with culture samples from pretty much everything they could think to get from him, they were confident that any potentially dangerous diseases that had come through from Allen’s world would be swiftly countered before they could grow to plague sizes.

Though it wasn’t just samples from Allen that they’d taken. They’d done an extensive collection of samples from all corners of Allen’s farm as well, soil, water, manure, hay, and the list went on. It had taken them nearly a full day of tireless work to sample and catalog everything they could think of, and it would take them even longer to fully analyze the samples for potential problems. As such, until the farm had been given a clean bill of health, it had been placed under a semi-quarantine, meaning only a select few ponies could enter the premises. That also meant that Allen was not allowed to sell anything from the farm until told otherwise. Thankfully, he was told it wouldn’t take long, a few days, maybe a week at the most, as the hospital was currently in between crises at the moment, and thus the staff didn’t really have anything to do other than the occasional bout of sickness or injury.

As Allen finished making himself comfortable for the night, he felt his mind wander back to the day when the representative from the D.O.T.I. had arrived with the local mayor to begin negotiations. However, he’d noticed that the Apple’s hadn’t arrived with them and when he had inquired as to where they were, he was told that, ‘they had other pressing matters to attend to and would be unable to come. The D.O.T.I. rep, a young Earth Pony mare by the name of Checklist, had assured Allen that she had already met with them and taken care of their side of things and would be representing them in the coming meeting.

The mayor, an Earth pony mare named Ivory Scroll, didn’t really have many issues to discuss, she’d been there mainly to represent the town and its concerns, which as mentioned, had been few, thankfully. However, the same could not be said of the D.O.T.I. representative, as she had caused the most grief, at least for Blueblood that is, Allen had gotten off relatively lightly in that regard, though some of it had still splashed onto him.

The meeting had pretty much gone as follows, both the mayor and Checklist had arrived slightly before Blueblood and Red Tape, and had introduced themselves, after several minutes of small talk, the aforementioned stallions arrived. Allen had invited everyone into the dining room and they had all taken seats around the table, Allen at the head of the table while the two mares sat to his left, and the stallions to his right. Mayor Ivory Scroll, though she said that most ponies around here called her Mayor Mare, which Allen found odd, but decided not to question it, had started off the meeting by asking a couple of questions.

These were questions that had for the most part been addressed by both Red Tape and Blueblood when they had initially met with Allen, such as what he was planning to do with the farm, what his legal status would be, and so on. However, once those questions were out of the way, the harder ones started coming from Ms. Checklist.

Most of these difficult question were directed at Blueblood. “Tell me, Your Grace,” began Checklist, an inquiring look on her face, “who is going to pay for the various damages done to my client’s, the Apples?” She turned her fuchsia-colored eyes to Allen as if silently measuring his bank account and finding it wanting. “I highly doubt, Mr. Ross is capable of paying for these damages.”

“It was my impression that the D.O.T.I. had an insurance pool for things such as this,” replied Blueblood frostily.

Checklist smiled, it wasn’t a happy smile but was more like the smug smile of a predator who had successfully baited their prey into a trap and were merely savoring the moment before they moved in for the kill.

“We do, however, in this case, our lawyers feel that the government should pay the damages, seeing as this disaster was due primarily to the royal governments... mismanagement of Discord’s holding facilities. Thus, we feel as though the cost should be paid by the royal treasury instead of the D.O.T.I.”

Blueblood’s face scrunched up as if he’d bit into a particularly sour lemon. “I do not believe that we should be discussing this topic right now unless you intend for, Mr. Ross to pay a share of the damages as well.”

Checklist merely laughed, though there seemed to be little genuine amusement in her laugh. “Don’t be absurd, Your Grace, there is no way on Epona’s green Equus that the D.O.T.I. would ever expect someone who is in the situation that, Mr. Ross is in to actually pay for anything. Especially when they themselves are as much the victim as the injured party. However, if you don’t want to negotiate here, then I suppose we can put that off for a later date,” she said, before then reaching into her bag and extracting a manila folder about an inch thick. “Until then, I’ll just leave you with our preliminary damage estimate.”

Taking the thick folder in his magical grasp, Blueblood gingerly floated the papers over to Red Tape as if it were a disgusting piece of trash that he wanted to keep as far away from his pristine, white coat as possible. Red Tape for his part accepted the folder without complaint and transferred it to his saddlebags for later perusal.

Checklist meanwhile had turned her attention from Blueblood and Red Tape to Allen, and her demeanor changed from that of the preverbal cat who ate the canary, to a more motherly expression, whether it was genuine or not, Allen couldn’t really tell.

“So tell me, Mr. Ross,” began Checklist, her tone of voice having changed to reflect her outward expression of a mother like figure hoping to provide comfort, “what has His Grace told you about the D.O.T.I.?”

“Not much,” replied Allen, somewhat hesitantly.

Checklist gave a mirth-filled chuckle. “I’m not surprised, to be honest, the nobility and us haven’t really gotten along since our founding over five hundred years ago. Probably has something to do with the fact that we helped curtail their economic power over their fellow ponies, and won’t let them exploit the working class like they used to.”

Blueblood replied with an irritated huff. “Or it might have something to do with the fact that your organization has nearly caused ruin upon the economy several times over the past five hundred years, what with your attempts at central planning nonsense.”

Checklist waved away Blueblood’s words as if they were smoke from a bothersome fire. “And those programs would have worked if you nobles hadn’t sabotaged our efforts!” she replied with a scowl on her face.

“If we hadn’t intervened, thousands would have died from starvation and our economy would have collapsed under the weight of an inefficient system of bureaucratic meddlers, no offense, Red Tape,” he said quickly to the bureaucrat next to him.

“None taken,” replied the bureaucrat.

Checklist rolled her eyes. “Well, we’ll never know will we, seeing as how your ancestors stopped Director Steel Plow and the others from going through with his vision,” replied Checklist frostily.

“And thank Epona for that, of course, that didn’t stop you ponies from trying to ruin my family financially twenty years ago, now did it?”

Checklist sighed, and placed a hoof against her temple in an attempt to stop a headache from forming, she was partially successful. “For the last time Your Grace, what happened back then was not some sort of revenge plot against your family, but an honest mistake, that need I remind you, was not only rectified, but that the Director apologized for.”

Blueblood huffed and leaned back in his chair, an unconvinced look on his face as he folded his forelegs across his barrel. Allen for his part just sat there, quietly hoping that he wouldn’t be noticed as the tension in the room ratcheted ever higher.

Finally, when it felt like the silence couldn’t get any more oppressive, Mayor Mare decided to step in. “Yes well, as fun as it is listening to the nobility and working class go back and forth, as usual, I think our energy would be better spent helping, Mr. Ross adjust to his new situation, wouldn’t you both agree?”

For their parts, both Checklist and Blueblood suddenly seemed very interested in Allen’s dining room table, if their blushes and embarrassed expressions were anything to go by.

Clearing his throat, in an effort to save some face, Blueblood replied, “Yes... that would probably be for the best,” turning his attention from the table top to Allen, he continued, “In any case, you shouldn’t have to worry about the details regarding the compensation of the Apple’s for damages to their land, Mr. Ross, isn’t that right, Ms. Checklist?”

Checklist gave a vigorous nod of her head in reply. “Of course, I was hoping to simply have Blueblood over there sign off on the damage values, but since he’s going to try and weasel out of paying,” she shot him an annoyed look, before turning back to Allen with a kind smile, “we’ll just have to take care of that at later date, so you needn’t worry about that.”

Allen simply nodded. “I see, and so long as I won’t need to worry about paying anything in regards to that, I guess that’s that?”

Checklist’s ears folded back against her scalp, and her smile became a bit more strained. “Well, I wish that was it, but there are a few more things that we’re going to need to do before the D.O.T.I. can fully sign off on your farm, Mr. Ross.”

Allen had a sudden sinking feeling form in the pit of his stomach.

And here comes the other shoe.

“Such as?” he asked with a tired sigh.

Checklist once again reached into her bag and withdrew a small stack of paperwork, and sheepishly pushed it towards Allen.

“Well, for starters we’ll need to get your farm registered with the Ministry of Agriculture, which shouldn’t take very long with our help. After that, we’ll need to inspect the buildings, land, animals and your equipment. This part is mostly to make sure that both safety and health standards are met.”

“Of course, and how long will that take?” asked Allen.

“Well, it really just depends,” replied Checklist.

“Depends on what, exactly?”

Checklist twirled a hoof, which to Allen was something amazing to see an equine do, and replied, “How many buildings you have, acreage, the state of your equipment, and most importantly, what you intend to do with your farm.”

“What’s that got to do with anything?” queried Allen.

She gave a slight shrug. “As I said, it depends. If you intend to supply domestic markets, then you’ll have to adhere to strict quality standards, whereas if you decide to supply the export market, you’ll have a little more wiggle room as it were.”

“I would think that the export market would just as strict on standards as the domestic one,” replied Allen, a confused look on his face.

Checklist shrugged again. “You would think, and we have tried in the past to get that changed, but certain ponies keep blocking us,” she shot Blueblood a dirty look. Who for his part returned her look with an air of unconcerned disinterest.

Turning to regard Allen, he clarified, “The export standards are set by the receiving country at the time of trade negotiation, it is not our fault if that country’s safety standards are not to the same level as that of Equestria. Furthermore, I might add that while we don’t use our countries high, and some might say, burdensome standards, we do make sure that our exports meet a minimum level of acceptable safety. If for no other reason than to protect our reputation. Besides, Checklist, you are making a mountain out of a molehill, most exporters use Equestrian standards for their goods anyways, as to do anything else would prevent them from selling on the domestic market.”

“Ah yes, most of them do, so you say, but what of the ones that don’t, Your Grace,” she replied, her words dripping with venom as she all but spat out Blueblood’s title.

Blueblood for his part simply rolled his eyes. “They are of course dealt with according to the law if they have broken it. However, I have yet to hear of a major incident regarding our exports in terms of safety. I would think that anypony worth their cutie mark would do their best to make sure that their reputation would remain untarnished. Therefore, it is a moot point at this time, as Mr. Ross is currently unable to sell anything until his farm is given a clean bill of health by the local authorities.”

“Which should hopefully be done within a week or two, or so I am told,” interjected Red Tape.

Checklist gave a curt smile to Red Tape and replied, “Thank you, Mr. Tape, I assume, that you’ll forward us the reports when they are finished?”

Red Tape gave a shallow nod in reply, “Of course, I’ll have them sent over as soon as we receive them.”

“Thank you,” replied Checklist with a curt nod of her head, turning her attention back to Allen she asked, “Was there anything else that you wished to discuss at this time, Mr. Ross?”

Allen shook his head. “No, I don’t believe so, unless you have more paperwork for me to sign or something else that needs to be brought to my attention, I can’t think of anything at this time, other than the obvious matter of my limited funds, but between the funds from the government, and loans from a bank, I’ll probably get by.”

“Mr. Ross, I would just like to mention that the D.O.T.I. does have financial assistance programs available for those who are financially stressed. I’m sure that the government’s assistance will help somewhat, but I doubt it would be enough to help you secure a strong future by itself.”

Allen nodded. “Probably,” nodding his head towards Blueblood and Red Tape he continued, “Both His Grace, and Mr. Tape have already gone over some of that with me the other day, though we have yet to finalize any amount yet. Besides,” he gave a humorless smirk, “it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had to make do with a shoestring budget before, I’m sure I’ll manage just fine.”

Checklist fought the urge to let her ears fold back against her scalp. Instead, she pricked them forward and said, “Mr. Ross, while I am sure that, His Grace and Mr. Tape have in fact told you that you are owed compensation by the government, as I mentioned before, I doubt it would be enough to allow you to get a strong start. I’ve got some literature here on several programs that we offer, along with low-interest loan options,” she said as she again reached into her bags and slid several pamphlets towards Allen from across the table.

Taking the pamphlets in hand, Allen glanced through them and said, “Thank you, I’ll take a look at them later, and think about it.”

“Of course,” replied Checklist, a happy smile forming on her face. “Well, if you have no more questions or concerns at this time, let’s go ahead and get started on this paperwork, and then we can begin the preliminary inspection, sound good?”

“I guess,” replied Allen, and with that, the group got to work.

The paperwork, while tedious, wasn’t painful, of course when you have four individuals whose job it was to deal with paperwork on a regular basis, you tend to have a lot of support that cuts down on the uncertainties. That being said, it still took nearly four hours to sort through and sign everything that the D.O.T.I. would need for their purposes, and Red Tape had not been idle either, he’d brought fresh paperwork for Allen to look through and sign as well.

Most of it had been simple things that pertained to his finances before he was brought to Equestria. Luckily, with the power now restored to his home, he had been able to fire up his father's office computer and sift through whatever financial information had been on it, which was a lot more than Allen thought. The ponies for their part had been amazed by his dad’s computer, Red Tape, in particular, had been practically gushing over the Microsoft Office programs, and it had taken a concerted effort to get him back to the dining room once they had gotten the needed information from the computer.

The rest of Red Tape’s paperwork involved Allen’s citizenship status. Due to his sudden, and unconventional arrival. Allen was being fast-tracked through the application process, and as a consequence, he’d inadvertently ruffled some feathers.

Obviously, someone was going to take exception to being delayed in getting their citizenship, but due to circumstances, it really couldn’t be helped, and this was the lesser of two evils in regards to public relations. Both the princesses and Blueblood were keenly aware of how the papers were covering this story and they didn’t want public opinion to go against them.

Therefore, they had been determined to sort this mess out as quickly as possible, with as little fuss as possible. Currently, Allen’s property had been quietly ‘seized’ by the crown and was being held temporarily by the government, in which they were the ‘official’ owners of the land as far as the law was concerned, and that Allen was just a ‘resident caretaker’ for the time being. However, as soon as the necessary paperwork had been completed, it would be officially, though quietly, returned to him. Allen for his part was unaware of this particular development, as nopony had thought it would be necessary to tell him, seeing as how it would all be sorted out in a timely manner, or so they hoped. In the meantime, everyone just tried to push through the legal briar patch they had inadvertently stumbled into, without breaking too much in the process.

“And done,” said Red Tape, as Allen signed the last page of his citizenship related papers.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Allen set the pen down and stretched. “Finally, I thought this would never end,” he complained.

Red Tape and the others chuckled. “Oh trust me, this isn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. Seeing as you are from a country that we don’t have any diplomatic relations with, it could have been a lot worse, luckily for you, Princess Celestia felt that you had suffered enough, and so we just went with the standard citizenship packet instead.”

“How generous of you guys,” replied Allen sarcastically, before turning to regard Blueblood and Checklist and asking, “So now what?”

Both Blueblood and Checklist looked at each other and after a moment replied, “I believe that should be everything, save for the inspection, which we can do now if you want,” said Checklist, while Blueblood simply nodded in agreement.

“As she said, that should be all that is left to do at the present time.”

Sighing, Allen replied, “Yeah, might as get it over with, where would you like to start?”

“Well, I suppose the nearest barn would be fine,” she replied, pulling out a clipboard and pencil.

“Alright then, if you’ll follow me, we can get started.”

Giving a nod, Checklist and the other three ponies, followed him outside. Walking across the farmyard, Allen suddenly felt self-conscious over the condition of his farm. Every building was in some state of disrepair, paint flaking off of wood, rust on metal, weeds growing in the old flower beds, grass poking up through the sidewalks and cracked concrete pads, rusting machinery sitting around unused. Not too mention his dad’s ‘resource pile’ a massive collection of various junk that his dad had thrown thereto, as he claimed, ‘store for later use,’ when in reality it was just going to sit there and rust and or rot away. All in all, Allen’s farm was in poor shape.

Walking into the main barn, an old wooden gambrel style barn, Allen flipped on the light switch, which bathed the inside of the barn with a warm glow. Checklist immediately began her inspection, poking around and looking over various things, occasionally she would ask Allen a question, but for the most part, she was content to silently judge the dilapidated surroundings.

After several minutes, she turned to Allen and asked, “I see that you have some animals here, Mr. Ross,” she pointed to several cows in a nearby stall, calmly chewing their cud, their tails lazily swinging back and forth.

“Yes, I do,” replied Allen, unsure of what she was going to say next.

“Tell me, are these animals from your world?”

“They are,” he replied simply.

“Are they sapient?” she inquired.

Allen blinked, his brows suddenly knitting together in confusion. “I’m afraid I don’t follow.”

“It’s a simple yes or no question, Mr. Ross,” replied Checklist with a huff, “they are either sapient or they are not, now please answer the question.”

“Uh, not that I’m aware of if you’re asking if they can talk, then no, none of my animals can.”

Checklist’s face relaxed, and she smiled. “Good, I’m sorry if I caused any confusion, but there are many species that are sapient here in Equestria, and we don’t want to see anyone held against their will. Not only that, but I assume you keep some of these animals for food purposes?”

“Well, I like a good steak as much as the next guy, yeah.”

“I see, well, in that case, you’ll need to be aware that bovines are sapient here in Equestria, though there are other breeds outside our country that are not. Therefore it is very important to us to make sure no sapient bovine ends up as someone's dinner by mistake. I trust that you understand what I am getting at?” she replied, a less than warm smile adorning her face.

Allen gulped. “Yep, I fully understand, no eating things that talk back.”

The cold smile quickly disappeared and was replaced with a warm one. “Super! Let’s keep going, shall we?”

“Y-yeah, after you,” said Allen, motioning to the stairs leading down into the old milking parlor.

As Checklist descended the stairs, Allen whirled on Blueblood and angrily whispered, “Why didn’t you tell me that you guys have cows that can fucking talk?!”

Blueblood felt his ears pin back and a nervous smile overtake his muzzle. “I’m terribly sorry, Mr. Ross, but in all the excitement, I’m afraid it didn’t come up. I apologize for how Ms. Checklist reacted to you there. I had thought she was informed of your animal's sapience, or I should say, their lack of it. I can assure you that this won’t happen again.”

“Good, see that it doesn’t, I don’t like being accused of slavery or that I eat people in my spare time.” And with that, he stomped off after Checklist.

Blueblood for his part turned to Red Tape and asked, “I thought you said that you included the Guard’s sapience report with Ms. Checklist?”

“I did!” countered Red Tape. “I made sure that it was one of the first things that they saw!”

Blueblood’s eyes narrowed in suspicion as he watched Checklist’s backside disappear into the lower floors of the barn. Either she didn’t see the report, or she did and wants to make sure that Allen knows we don’t tolerate that kind of behavior. Either way, it made me look like an idiot in front of Allen. Which is probably what she wanted in the first place, the irritating nag. Thought Blueblood bitterly. Shaking his head, he dispelled those thoughts from the forefront of his mind and hurried off after Checklist and Allen, while Red Tape and Mayor Mare brought up the rear.

Down below, Allen watched as Checklist picked her way through the cramped and dingy milking parlor. The parlor hadn’t been used in several years, as his family hadn’t been able to compete with the bigger dairy operations in the area, and so had been forced to sell off their cows when feed prices got too high. Though for whatever reason, his dad had kept the equipment. Of course, that equipment was now covered in dust and cobwebs, and Allen wouldn’t have been surprised if some of the non-stainless steel pieces had started to rust.

Guess that’s why Checklist is here, don’t want to take the risk of selling contaminated milk, though, seeing as I don’t have any cows, it’s a bit of a moot point.

“And what was down here?” asked Checklist, as she continued her inspection, occasionally stopping and jotting something down on her clipboard.

“Milking parlor,” he pointed to a large door at the back of the room, “cows would come in there, and we would tie them up in these stalls here and use a milking machine to collect their milk every day. The milk would end up in a giant metal tank in the next room over for collection. Course I don’t have any milk cows anymore, the family had to sell them, seeing as how we couldn’t compete with the bigger dairy farms in our area at the time.”

“And how do you keep it all clean?” she asked.

Allen shrugged. “How else, hot water, soap, disinfectants, and a good scrubbing. Our machine has ports at several points that allowed us to inject high-pressure water and cleaning solutions through the various parts. It worked pretty well too, as we never failed an inspection nor did we ever receive a complaint about contaminated milk.”

“Hmm, I see, well judging by the current state of your ‘milking parlor’ you won’t be selling any milk or milk products anytime soon.” Tearing a piece of paper from her clipboard, she handed it to Allen and said, “This part of your farm doesn’t pass inspection I’m afraid. This room is too small and constricted, not to mention that it’s dirty down here, and there isn’t enough ventilation or proper escape routes in case of an emergency. So I’m afraid until you modernize your milking operations, you will not be allowed to partner with any dairy co-ops, sorry.”

“Dairy co-ops?”

Checklist nodded. “Yes, it’s how most cows in Equestria make their money. They will sign up with a co-op, usually, the one their mothers were part of, and sell their milk to various companies and farms in Equestria. The co-op negotiates the terms and conditions of the milking contract, and how much the co-op will receive in compensation. Then they will distribute the money to each member within the group, this gives the cows a stronger collective bargaining influence when compared to a single cow on her own trying to negotiate a contract.”

“What about the bulls? What do they do?” asked Allen, now genuinely curious.

Checklist shrugged. “They’re also part of the co-op and are usually contracted out for hauling and other agricultural work. While cows aren’t as strong as an earth pony pound for pound, they come pretty close, so they often do a lot of the same jobs as a traditional earth pony would do. They make up about fifteen to twenty percent of the agricultural labor force, so they have a pretty strong presence.”

“And how do they determine who gets paid what in the co-op?”

“It depends, some have a more egalitarian model where everyone gets an equal share, while others are based on how much each individual member brought in, meaning the more you made, the more you keep. The co-op obviously takes a cut of the pay, but they use it for various services, such as schooling, healthcare, and pensions for older members.”

“I see, so if I want to milk cows again, I’d have to deal with one of these co-ops?”

Checklist shook her head, “Not necessarily. While most cows elect to join a co-op, there are those that don’t want to deal with the politics of being in one, so they elect to go solo. Of course, these cows tend to have a lower standard of living as they don’t have the same protections as those in a co-op. The D.O.T.I. has been working over the years to put stronger protections in place for these individuals, but...”

“Special interests get in the way,” replied Allen with a knowing look.

Checklist soberly nodded. “Yes, ‘special interests’ get in the way.”

A contemplative silence fell upon the two as each stood there with their own inner thoughts. This silence, however, was broken by the clunking of hooves on wood as the other three members of their party carefully made their way down the narrow stairs. Giving herself a shake, Checklist turned back to Allen and said, “Well, as I mentioned before, your milking parlor did not meet minimum standards, and as such until you fix the issues that are outlined on that sheet I gave you, you will not be allowed to partner with any dairy co-op or individual cows.”

Allen glanced down at the sheet in his hand, giving it a cursory look. Well, judging by the list of ‘recommended’ fixes, I won’t be having any milk cows anytime soon. I mean seriously, she wants me to put a freaking door that leads outside at each milking station? I’d have to knock the entire north wall down to accommodate just this requirement. Scratch that, I’d have to build a new barn as there’s no way I can fit a milking parlor that conforms to the minimum floor space they require in this barn. Sigh, and here I was hoping for some easy money.

Stuffing the paper in his back pocket, Allen turned his attention back to Checklist and asked, “Anything else that you wanted to look at while we’re here?”

Checklist flipped through her clipboard and after a few seconds asked, “Where do you keep your hay and grain products?”

Allen motioned to the stairs they had just come down. “I keep hay in numerous locations around the farm. The hay for my animals is kept in this barn, any hay we intend to sell is kept in another barn. We have a couple of silos for grain, but we haven’t used them in a few years, so I don’t think they’d pass your inspection.”

Checklist hummed to herself. “Well, I’ll still need to inspect them, whether they’ll pass inspection or not, would you lead the way please?”

“Sure, this way,” replied Allen, as he headed back upstairs, Checklist hot on his heels, while Blueblood and the rest groaned to themselves as they turned around and headed back the way they had just come.

The rest of the day had gone about as well as Allen had expected. Checklist had pretty much failed every aspect of his farm in regards to his ability to sell on the Equestrian market. She’d found that his main hayloft had been full of old dusty hay, some of it moldy and that various animals had left droppings behind. Not too mention that his roof had a few leaks in it and that several sections of hay had been ruined by moisture leaking through the roof.

That had just been the main barn. The silos had also failed inspection, leftover moldy grain, rat and bird droppings everywhere, not to mention that there were leaks in the roof of the silos as well. Needless to say, Checklist had not been impressed. The only bright spot in the whole affair had been that the secondary hay storage barns, being newer pole type barns with concrete foundations, had passed muster, if barely. Though Checklist strongly recommended that Allen make some improvements to them before the next hay season to ensure that there wouldn’t be any future issues.

Allen had promised that he would see what he could do.

The final stop on their tour had been Allen’s equipment sheds. These were the buildings that stored what was left of his family’s farm equipment. It wasn’t much. Years of financial troubles made it hard to keep equipment running, and in some cases, they’d had to sell some of their better equipment to help make ends meet, so most of what was left were the tired, worn out machines that weren’t worth selling save for scrap.

As he opened the door and flipped on the light inside, he heard a gasp behind him. Turning, he saw Checklist staring opened mouthed at the various farm implements scattered throughout the shed. Carefully trotting through the maze of equipment and junk, she came to a stop next to an old looking machine that said ‘Super M’ on the side in faded white letters, and gazing up at it asked, “What is this?”

“Just an old tractor, we use these instead of horses or oxen to pull our farm equipment these days,” replied Allen, an almost bored expression on his face.

“How does it work?” asked Checklist.

Allen shrugged. “It runs using a liquid fuel called gasoline. The gas, goes into the engine,” he pointed to a big block of metal at the front of the machine, with wires and tubes coming out of it, “and using air and a spark, it creates small explosions inside the engine, which force pistons inside to turn a crankshaft, that then creates mechanical power to the gearbox which in turn allows the tractor to move. More or less.”

“Can you show us?” she asked.

Allen shook his head. “Naw, that tractor hasn’t run in a couple of years, and I’d rather not waste fuel getting the other one to start just to show you that it can. I’m afraid you’ll just have to take my word for it. Unless you need to see it run as part of the inspection.”

Checklist’s ears fell in disappointment. “Ah, no, not really. I was just very curious is all. My father was a tinkerer when I was a little filly, and I guess a little of his love of things mechanical rubbed off on me over the years.”

“Well, if you want, when I’m ready to do first cutting, I’ll let you know and you can come out and see the whole process from start to finish. How’s that sound?”

Checklist’s face lit up with a huge smile. “That would be wonderful, thank you!”

Allen gave a sheepish smile in return. “Though I do have to ask, are there any rules regarding the use of mechanical power to harvest food for you guys?”

“There are, but so long as the minimum standards of contamination are met, there shouldn’t be any issues. Ponies have been using muscle, and steam-powered machines for years, and oil and grease does tend to get into and onto the food from time to time. So long as you don’t try to sell anypony any oil/grease-soaked food products, there shouldn’t be any issues.”

Allen let out a sigh of relief. Thank god, I was afraid she’d tell me that I couldn’t use my equipment because it was too dirty or something.

“Well, that’s good to hear,” replied Allen aloud. “Was there anything else that you needed to look at today?”

Checklist took a look around the large shed and replied, “Well, not at the present. I do want to come back later and see how your equipment works. As well as make sure it is in line with safety and health codes, but as of right now, I think we’re pretty much done. You need anything else from him, Your Grace?”

Blueblood shook his head. “No, I believe that we have everything that we need from Mr. Ross at the present,” he paused and looked to Mayor Mare, “anything else you can think of madam mayor?”

Mayor Mare brought a hoof to her chin and tapped it thoughtfully a few times before hesitantly replying, “I can’t think of anything that I need from him. Both you and Ms. Checklist seem to have gotten all the legal stuff squared away.”

Blueblood nodded. “Very well then, was there anything else that you wanted to ask us while we are here, Mr. Ross?”

Allen feeling tired and overwhelmed shook his head. “I’m sure there’s something I’m forgetting, but I can’t think of anything right now.”

The ponies all nodded in agreement. “I understand that this is overwhelming, Mr. Ross, just remember that if you need anything from us, we have a small branch office that recently opened here in Ponyville. You can use them to get in contact with me at any time. I’ll be sure to leave them my contact information when I head back to Manehattan today,” said Checklist helpfully.

Blueblood, not wanting to be outdone, quickly replied, “And if you need anything from either myself or the crown, please don’t hesitate to let us know. Here,” he floated over a small card to Allen who gingerly took it in hand, “is my card, just send me a letter if you need anything at all, and I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind,” replied Allen as he carefully stuck the card in his pocket.

“And don’t feel shy if there is something that I can do for you,” chimed in Mayor Mare, a wide smile on her face, “after all, as the Mayor of Ponyville, it is my duty to see to the needs of all our local residents, no matter how big or small those needs are.”

Yep, I bet it is, and that this isn’t your attempt to butter me up before the next election in any way. Thought Allen skeptically to himself.

“And what about you?” he asked Red Tape.

Red Tape gave a small smile and a shallow bow of his head. “If you require anything from Her Highness’s Bureaucracy, then I shall do my best to aid you. However, it would probably be best if you went through either His Grace, the D.O.T.I. or your local government first. We, bureaucrats, are difficult to get a hold of at the best of times.”

“Yeah, I kind of figured, bureaucracy seems to stay the same no matter which world you happen to find it in, big and always expanding,” replied Allen humorously.

Everyone laughed at Allen’s witty reply. However, after a moment the laughter died off, but their smiles remained.

“Ha, so very true,” remarked Red Tape, as he wiped a tear from his eyes, “however, as I said before, your best bet is going to them for help before coming to me. In any case, the hour grows late and the prince and I have to get back to the capital.”

“And I need to get back to Manehattan,” remarked Checklist, “I’ll send you a full list of recommendations in the next few days on what you can do right now to get your hoo-er, feet under you. Additionally, it’ll also have a complete and detailed list of everything that needs to be fixed, and what we recommend that you do to fix them. If you have any questions, our office here in Ponyville should be more than willing to help you.”

“I...appreciate that, Ms. Checklist. I won’t say that I’m happy with the knowledge that my farm isn’t up to snuff, but I can’t say I’m surprised. But I suppose that’s life.”

Checklist quietly nodded. “I understand that no one wants to hear that their business isn’t the best. But they would probably like it even less if they found out that their products made others sick because their business wasn’t up to code either.”

Allen shook his head. “No, probably not.”

“Well, until next time, Mr. Ross, have a good night,” said Checklist as she turned to leave.

“Indeed, have a pleasant evening, and remember if you need anything, I’m only a letter away,” said Blueblood as he and Red Tape also bade their farewell, leaving just Allen and Mayor Mare behind.

As Allen watched the three ponies trot off into the waning evening sunlight. He couldn’t help but feel as though he was being used. Especially considering the open hostility between Checklist and Blueblood throughout the day. Even now, as they left, both of them were trotting as far apart from each other as they could manage without making it super obvious and making a point of keeping Red Tape between them as a buffer. Turning to regard the mayor, he asked, “So, think they’re far enough away now that they can’t overhear us yet?”

The mayor gave him a quizzical look. “And why would you want to know that?”

“Because I wasn’t born yesterday, and I can tell when someone is buttering me up,” replied Allen flatly.

Mayor Mare’s ears fell flat, and she shifted back and forth on her hooves slightly. “Well...” she began, uneasily, “I won’t lie and say that I know all the details, but...” she paused, and gave a quick look around as if worried someone would overhear them. After a second or two to reassure herself, it was safe, she continued, “The D.O.T.I. and the nobles have never gotten along.”

“I kind of figured as much, seeing as how Checklist and Prince Blueblood got along about as well as cats and dogs do.”

She gave a humorless chuckle. “Yes, it is rather obvious isn’t it,” she sighed, “needless to say, you are probably right that they are trying to win you over to their side, one way or the other.”

Allen felt a chill wind blow past, and he shivered for a moment. Motioning for the mayor to follow him, he started back for his house. The sun had since set, and the first few stars were twinkling into life in the night sky above.

As they walked, Allen said, “But I thought Checklist said that they had curtailed the nobility’s economic influence?”

“Curtailed yes, eliminated, no,” replied the mayor, “ever since the D.O.T.I. was founded as a way to help the common-born ponies improve their lives, and have a common, united voice against the excesses of the nobility, they and the nobles have been fighting each other for control of Equestria’s economy. Right now, they share it equally, and the system more or less works. But as you told Red Tape, bureaucracy likes to grow, and the D.O.T.I.-”

“-is like any other bureaucracy. It too wants to grow,” cut in Allen.

“Precisely,” replied Mayor Mare with a sharp nod of agreement.

“So where do I fit in?” asked Allen confused.

Mayor Mare shrugged. “I don’t know, I’m just a small town mayor, but if I had to guess, I’d say Blueblood is trying to maneuver his way into your good graces in case more of your kind shows up. I mean, only a blind fool could see that if you could be brought here along with your farm, who or what else could as well? I believe he thinks that if he can keep you happy, you’ll be willing to tell any newcomers that the crown, and by extension Blueblood, and by extension the nobility are good for them too.”

“And that they should throw their lot in with the status quo as it were,” replied Allen.

“At the minimum, yes, that and make them more money through investments,” said Mayor Mare with a nod, “at best, it’ll give them more influence and power than the D.O.T.I. and allow the nobles to roll back some of their changes. Same goes for the other party I would imagine. You represent an unknown potential in the world of high stakes politics, and while I can’t speak for every noble out there, I know for sure that Blueblood would do anything to keep his aunt’s on the throne.”

“Why, are they in danger of being ousted?”

“Oh, good heavens no!” replied Mayor Mare with a hearty chuckle. “I highly doubt that any sane pony would want the two guiding lights of our nation thrown out of office. I mean, Princess Celestia has been ruling for over a thousand years, and has been responsible for raising the sun, and until recently, the moon.”

Allen felt an eyebrow reaching for the heavens.

“It might sound strange to you, but it is the truth, both Princess Celestia, and her recently returned sister, Princess Luna, have control over the heavenly bodies and are considered immortal and ageless. Without them, Equestria, and the rest of the world would be forever locked in perpetual day or night, along with all the consequences that go along with that.”

Allen held up his hands in defeat. “Okay, I ain’t gonna argue about who does what around here, for all I know, you’re right, but that’s beside the point. What should I do?”

Mayor Mare shrugged. “Do what you think is best. I highly doubt you’ll be able to single hoofedly swing the balance of power one way or the other. Right now, the D.O.T.I. have a large membership and have gained a lot of good favor with the common folk. The nobility on the other hoof really hasn’t done much, until recently, to fix their image so to speak. Don’t get me wrong, there are good nobles, and for all his... eccentricities, Blueblood is a good duke. He takes care of those under him, and doesn’t do anything outrageous... usually, and there are other nobles out there that are good ponies at heart, just as there are those who aren’t. The same could be said of Ms. Checklist’s organization. I guess, what I’m trying to say is that not everything is black and white like we would like it to be. Blueblood has worked very hard over the past few years to rebuild his family’s shattered financial fortunes, and he might see you as an opportunity to help him reclaim lost glory. Checklist might just see you as an individual who just needs someone to help them navigate through the complexities of a new world. Or they could each have ulterior motives that neither of us can see.”

“And what about you?”

Mayor Mare turned to look up at the night sky and didn’t respond immediately. Finally, she said, “I’m just trying to keep my town from burning down what seems like every week now. So long as you follow the law and pay your taxes on time and don’t cause trouble for people, I don’t really care what you do, Mr. Ross,” turning back to regard Allen with a small smile she said, “I just want everypony to get along, that and re-elect me come fall!” she finished with a laugh.

Allen gave a snort of amusement. “Heh, and there’s the hidden motive.”

“What can I say, I’m a politician, campaigning and schmoozing the voters is what I do!” replied Mayor Mare with a sly grin.

“I guess that’s fair,” said Allen, with a simple grin. Though after a moment, his grin faded. “That still doesn’t leave me with a lot of options though. I don’t like being someone’s pawn in a game that I can’t even see.”

Mayor Mare’s grin softened and she placed a comforting hoof on Allen’s leg. “I didn’t mean to make you think that you’re some sort of helpless pawn in a game of power. For all I know, both His Grace and Checklist are being sincere in their efforts to help you, and there isn’t any hidden motive behind their actions. Don’t feel that you have to pick a side because you think one group will turn on you if you do. If they offer you help, take them up on it, if that help comes with strings attached, then figure out how to keep from getting caught in them or avoid them entirely. Remember, at the end of the day, you should be playing for your welfare, not somepony else's.”

Allen gave a thankful nod. “Thanks, anyone tell you that you give good speeches?”

Mayor Mare’s sly grin came back in full force. “Only every other day,” taking her hoof from his leg, she turned to leave and shooting him a sympathetic smile said, “if you feel you need somepony to talk to, my door is always open. Unless the towns on fire or a monster is attacking, then it might not as open as normal.”

Allen gave a chuckle in response. “Understood, thanks, I’ll keep the offer in mind. Have a goodnight mayor.”

She gave him a cheery wave good-bye. “The same to you, Mr. Ross,” and with that she turned and trotted off, leaving Allen alone.

He watched her go for a moment before turning and going inside. Shutting the door behind him, he turned the lock and proceeded to get ready for bed. Twenty minutes later, with all the lights turned off, doors locked and nightly rituals concluded, Allen felt himself drifting off to sleep as the day's events slowly faded from his tired mind. Though one thought that kept playing over and over in his tired mind was.

Where do I go from here?

The morning sun was barely up and already Allen was up and working. He was still confined to the farm and would be for another few days. As such, he decided that since he couldn’t go anywhere, he’d best take this opportunity to get as much prep work for getting his farm repaired as he could while things were still relatively calm.

The first step was making a list. Having finished his daily morning chores a few minutes ago, Allen found himself sitting at the kitchen island with a notebook, pen and coffee mug full of his limited supply of instant coffee.

God, I hope they have coffee here or things are gonna suck when I run out.

The sound of a hoof knocking on Allen’s front door caused him to pause in his ruminations and list making. Leaning back in his chair at the kitchen’s island, he looked down the hallway towards the front door. Unfortunately, whoever was at the door wasn’t visible. So, sighing to himself, he pushed himself out of his seat and headed for the door.

Another round of loud knocks rang out before he made it even a few steps. “I’m coming, I’m coming, geez!” called out Allen irritably. Closing the last few steps, he opened the door and looked down to see who this mornings visitor would be.

“Good morning, Mr. Ross!” said a peppy sounding Red Tape.

“I thought you were done here,” said Allen, confused as to the beige unicorns sudden return.

Red Tape gave a sheepish smile. “I thought so too, but my boss informed me last night when I got back that we never got around to cataloging your weapons and armor.”

“Oh,” replied Allen sullenly.

“I understand that you are not happy with this, Mr. Ross,” said Red Tape, a sympathetic look on his face, “but I’m afraid the law is very clear about this, all weapons, armor and magical artifacts are to be cataloged and if considered dangerous to the public, to be confiscated. Of course, that is unless the individual is a public servant of the crown or a private individual with a compelling need and is in good standing with the law.”

“I thought that you guys were going to give me a special dispensation?” replied Allen testily, his arms crossed belligerently over his chest.

Red Tape pulled a small envelope from his saddlebags and floated it to Allen. Grabbing the envelope, he glanced at it. It had a red wax seal, with what appeared to be some kind of coat of arms on it, though Allen couldn’t really make it out very well. Other than that, it was blank on the outside. Looking at Red Tape, he asked, “What’s this?”

“That is your dispensation from His Grace,” was his curt response.

Nodding, Allen opened it and glanced through it. Sure enough, it was the special dispensation granted to him by Prince Blueblood and co-signed by both Princess Celestia and Luna which allowed him to keep his weapons.

Folding the letter up, he slipped it back inside and said, “Okay, well, thanks for getting this to me, makes me feel a bit better.”

“You’re welcome,” replied Red Tape, a happy smile on his face.

“But,” said Allen, a serious look on his face, “I still don’t want to join your Royal Guard or whatever it is called.”

Red Tape couldn’t quite hide the look of disappointment on his face. “I was afraid you would say that.”

“And can you blame me? I mean, it wasn’t like I was just kidnapped and brought to this world against my will or anything, losing everything and everyone I’d ever known, and being told that I have an almost zero chance of being able to go back. So I don’t really think you should be all that shocked that I’m not super gung-ho about this whole guard thing.”

“Well, first of all, I wasn’t shocked or surprised that you said no, just that I was disappointed. Secondly, we never mentioned about you joining the Royal Guard, just the local Ponyville guard,” replied Red Tape.

“Say what?” said Allen, a confused look on his face. “But the pamphlet that you guys gave me was about-”

“Was about the Royal Guard yes, I know,” cut in Red Tape, “But if you had read the entire thing, you would have found a section talking about enlistment opportunities for your local guard forces. As well as for the navy, the Wonderbolts, the civil air patrol, weather patrol, rangers, and all of the various military/civil defense groups in our nation. We combined all of their literature together into a single pamphlet to make it cheaper and easier to distribute, as well as giving all groups an equal chance of being looked at by ponies wanting information. You would probably have known this if you had read the entire thing, but judging by the way you are going on about the Royal Guard, you didn’t, did you?” asked Red Tape with an eyebrow arched upwards in judgment.

Allen rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and looked around at anything other than Red Tape for a moment. “Well, no, I didn’t.”

Red Tape, his mouth a thin line of understanding, gave a single nod, and said, “Well, I suppose I can’t really blame you, we did throw a lot of information and pamphlets at you. In addition, I don’t think that either myself or His Grace did an adequate job of describing what responsibilities and benefits that the local guard units have.”

“Ah, not really, no, but I guess I never really asked for clarification either,” replied Allen as he continued to rub the back of his neck sheepishly.

“True, but at the same time, I suppose I never really thought to put myself in your metaphorical shoes as it were. Here you are, a single individual, torn from everything he knows and loves, and surrounded by a people that you don’t know anything about. For all you know, they are out to take whatever you have left from you, and might just be toying with you for their entertainment. So I can understand your reluctance to part with anything that you could use to protect yourself with, especially when you find out that magic is real and that these people can use it.”

“I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around the fact that you guys can use magic and fly. Back home, unicorns and pegasi are just myths, same with griffons, and dragons.”

Red Tape gave a soft chuckle. “And we thought that humans were a myth too,” a thoughtful look suddenly came over Red Tape. “You know, now that I think about it, you said that we were myths in your world and you are a myth in ours, I wonder if...”

“It could be related somehow?” finished Allen, when Red Tape trailed off.

“Yeah,” he said, nodding, “it’s an interesting theory at any rate. The idea that our peoples at one time or another interacted with each other isn’t outside the realm of possibility. I mean, you are a prime example, a human in Equestria, for the first time in who knows how many years. If you could be brought here, who is to say that others haven’t been here as well?”

Allen shrugged. “Who knows, all I know is that I’m here now, and I’ve got to figure out what I’m going to do with the rest of my life.”

“As are the rest of us I suppose,” replied Red Tape, a thoughtful and distant look coming over him. However, he gave his head a quick shake and continued, “Sorry, but we got off topic there. We were talking about the local guard weren’t we.”

“I guess,” shrugged Allen, “still not all that thrilled with being pressured to sign up for them when I don’t really see the need to. I mean, hell, I’m not even an official citizen of this country yet, so I don’t really have any strong ties to bind me to you guys yet.”

“That is true, being a loyal public servant to a country you are not really attached to is sort of difficult. Especially when that country hasn’t really given you a strong reason to be loyal to it, at least in the long term.”

“Yeah, just cause you signed some papers that say you're allowed to be a citizen and live in a country, doesn’t automatically make you a patriot who is willing to put their life on the line to defend it,” agreed Allen.

Red Tape sighed and gave Allen a tired looking smile. “You are right, Mr. Ross. Looking back, I believe that it was inappropriate of His Grace and I to pressure you into joining up, even if it was just with the local guard force. In addition, it was also inappropriate of us to make you feel as though you had to join the guard in order to be fully accepted into the community. I’m afraid we were not at our best at that time,” he paused, and squaring his shoulders, he looked Allen in the eyes and asked, “Mr. Ross, would you accept my humble apology for the way we treated you that day? In our effort to save ourselves a little extra work, we didn’t think how this request was unfair to you and how selfish we were being, asking you to do something you were not comfortable with.” He finished by bending one knee and bowing his head in contrition to Allen.

Allen stood there, stunned by the sudden apology and the fact that someone was bowing to him. No one had ever done something like that before.

Feeling uncomfortable at the sudden turn of events, Allen kneeled down and lifted Red Tape’s head back up so that they were eye to eye. “Red Tape,” he began, a serious look on his face, “I accept your apology, and thank you for it. But, you don’t need to bow to me when you apologize, it makes me uncomfortable.”

Red Tape straightened up, and sporting a relieved smile, replied, “Thank you for accepting my apology, I’m sure if His Grace were here, he’d be offering you one as well.”

“I’ll take your word for it, though it would mean just a bit more if he actually did come out here and apologize in person, even a letter would be nice,” said Allen.

“I’ll be sure to pass that bit along, but he is pretty busy at the moment, so don’t be surprised if he doesn’t respond quickly,” cautioned Red Tape.

Allen shrugged. “I’m used to political figures not really caring about those they are supposed to serve, and I’m really used to them either giving a half-hearted apology or none at all, so if he doesn’t, he doesn’t, and I’m not going to worry about it.”

Glancing up from Red Tape, Allen looked down his driveway and saw three ponies headed their way. “Who’s that?” he asked, pointing.

Turning around, Red Tape replied, “Ah, that would be Lt. Palisade and two of the local townsponies. I believe one of them is a certified locksmith, and the other is a member of the local guard. They’re here to help me inspect your weapons and armor, and certify that it is safe for you to keep it under the special dispensation rules.”

“I see,” was Allen’s reply, his face an unreadable mask.

As the trio of ponies trotted closer, Allen took a moment to look them over. Both Lt. Palisade and the local guard member were pegasi, and judging by their builds, Allen guessed that the local guard was a female. The lieutenant seemed to share the standard palette of all the other guards that Allen had seen so far, white coat, blue mane, and light blue colored eyes. Allen still hadn’t figured out why they all looked that way or how they managed it. Probably either a lot of dyes, or magic. He thought to himself. He wore gold colored armor, styled to look like that of a Roman legionary, which incidentally also covered his cutie mark, and his helmet came complete with a blue colored crest of hair on top.

The female pegasus, on the other hand, wasn’t wearing anything at all, save for a pair of saddlebags, though these didn’t hide her cutie mark, which looked like a sun peeking out from behind a white cloud. She was a pale, purplish indigo, and her mane was a light amber with bright yellow streaks running through it, and her eyes were a light fuchsia. She was talking with Lt. Palisade and judging by the way the guy was blushing, and how she was constantly bumping his side and flicking him with her tail, it was probably safe to say she was a shameless flirt.

The final member of their group was a middle-aged unicorn stallion, he carried a pair of saddlebags bulging with tools, and his gray coat was matted in a few places as if he’d just gotten up and hadn’t been given time to brush himself. His light blue mane carried several streaks of gray in it and was also a mess, and he sported dark bags under his cobalt blue eyes.

Geez, that guy looks like he’s about to fall asleep on his hooves.

When the group had drawn closer, Red Tape lifted a hoof and waved. “Good morning, Lt. Palisade! Thank you for coming so early, who are your companions may I ask?” called Red Tape cheerfully to the group.

Palisade, seeing an opportunity to escape the flirtatious mare next to him, quickly trotted ahead. Coming to stop at the foot of the steps, he snapped off a quick salute and replied, “Mr. Red Tape, it is good to see you again,” turning to Allen he inclined his head in greeting, “and to you as well, Mr. Ross.”

Allen waved back in response.

Turning his attention back to Red Tape, Palisade said, “I’d like to introduce my... companions, this,” he said, turning to the tired unicorn, “is Mr. Lock Box, he’s the towns resident locksmith, and this is the 2nd Lt. Cloud Kicker, second in command of the local Ponville guard. I’m afraid 1st Lt. Willow is in Canterlot visiting family and so she couldn’t be here today, thus Lt. Kicker's presence.”

Cloud Kicker came forward and shook Red Tape’s outstretched hoof, though she leaned in close to him and whispered something in his ear that caused him to suddenly go ridged and blush. Pulling away from the flustered stallion, a sly, flirtatious smirk on her face, she looked up at Allen and with a seductive wink said in a playful tone, “And good morning to you too, big guy.”

Ladies and Gentlemen, the town flirt. Thought Allen dryly to himself.

Rolling his eyes, he gave a small wave. “Good morning, Lt. Kicker.”

Allen’s lack of a flustered response threw the mare for a moment, a surprised look flashing across her features. However, it was gone as quickly as it came and she eased back into a more seductive and relaxed pose, a look of determination settling on her face as she opened her mouth to say something more. However, the third member of the group cut her off as he came forward and grumpily said, “I didn’t come all the way out here to listen to you make passes at anything with a pulse, miss. So if we could kindly move this along, I’d like to go back to my bed sometime this morning, please.”

Shooting the unicorn an unhappy pout at having her fun ruined, Cloud Kicker stepped back and proceeded to sulk. Everyone else meanwhile released a silent sigh of relief. Palisade, sensing an opportunity to move things along, said, “Well, now that introductions are out of the way, would you be willing to let, Mr. Lock Box have a look at your safe, Mr. Ross?”

“Sure, it’s downstairs, follow me,” he said, waving the group inside.

A few minutes later found everyone standing in Allen’s basement. His parents had never finished it, so the floor was just bare concrete and the walls and ceiling had exposed insulation, wires, and pipes running everywhere. The basement also suffered from the same fate as the garage, namely that it was full of his dad’s junk. Boxes were everywhere, and Allen could only guess as to what was inside any of them, but the one box they were interested in wasn’t made of cardboard, but steel and this one came equipped with a lock.

It was an old safe, one that his dad had found at an estate sale years ago. There wasn’t any branding on it, and it had plenty of dings and dents, but it did the job of keeping him and his little sister from getting inside, which was what his dad had bought it for all those years ago. Pointing to it, Allen said, “Well, here it is, knock yourself out.”

Lock Box set his saddlebags down, gave his neck a crack, and set to work. The first thing he did was try to open it with his magic by turning the large wheel on the front of the safe. When it didn’t budge, he began his inspection. The safe had both a key and combination lock and required either one or the other to open the safe. Since Allen didn’t know the combination and couldn’t find the key, he had, of course, been unable to open it earlier.

Giving the dial a few spins, Lock Box carefully listened and apparently, not hearing what he wanted, stepped away and began digging through his saddlebags for some tools. After a few moments of rummaging around, he pulled out a small L shaped piece of metal, and a lock pick and set to work. He carefully inserted his tools into the key slot and applying pressure in a clockwise motion, began caressing the pins inside the lock. After several minutes, the lock suddenly gave, and giving the large wheel a spin, he opened the safe, a satisfied smile on his face.

Turning to the others he said, “Normally, this is the point where I would be giving you your bill, but your costs have been covered by Mr. Red Tape there,” he indicated the aforementioned stallion with a nod of his head, “as such, I’ll just go ahead and take my leave.”

“Alright, and thanks for your help, Mr. Lock Box,” replied Allen gratefully.

Lock Box returned Allen’s thanks with a smile. “Piece of cake. Though, word of advice, I’d invest in a better safe if I were you. I had that sucker open in only a couple of minutes, not a single damn ward on that hunk of junk and no anti-pick spells to be found either. A foal could get into that thing. Here,” he reached into his saddlebags and pulled out a slightly crinkled business card, “give me a holler when you want to get a real safe. I’m quite proud to say that my safes come with the very best security spells on the market, and for the right price, I can put a few on that aren’t widely available on the market.”

Allen took the card. “Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.”

“As I said, just give me a holler, I’d hate to see you get robbed because your house wasn’t properly warded against a home invasion. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back home, today is supposed to be my day off, and I have a bed that is calling my name.”

And with that, he left. Looking down the card he was given, Allen read the simple text. Lock Box’s Safes and Warding Inc. We keep you and your goods safe!

Interesting, might have to look into this at a later date. I would guess that magic can make it easier to get into places your not supposed to get into. Damn, that’s probably gonna be expensive as hell to get my locks upgraded. Thought Allen unhappily to himself. Giving himself a shake, he tucked the business card into his pocket and turned back to the remaining ponies, all of whom had gathered around the now open safe and were carefully looking at the contents inside.

Striding forward, Allen looked inside, and promptly facepalmed. Figures that dad would leave the damn keys in the safe by accident. Sighing to himself he turned to Red Tape and asked aloud, “Alright, what’s next?”

“Well, now that we can get to them, we need to catalog them. Though I don’t really recognize any of them, do you Lt. Palisade, Lt. Cloud Kicker?” he asked.

The two pegasi leaned in to get a better look inside the safe. Allen noticed that Cloud Kicker had dropped her previous flirtatious attitude and adopted a more serious expression. Palisade, on the other hand, looked openly curious. Reaching a hoof out, he made to grab one of the strange looking weapons when Allen said, “Hold it!” His hoof froze just inches from one of the weapons. It was made of wood and steel and had a long, thick tube coming out of one end.

Looking back over his withers, he gave Allen a confused, and slightly concerned look. Returning his look with an apologetic one, Allen strode forward and after letting the two pegasi step aside for him, reached in and grabbed the weapon, making sure to keep the end of the tube pointed upwards as he did so.

Turning around, he turned it so that it’s left side was facing downward, he pulled his left hand back towards him. This caused the weapon to make a loud *ka-chick* sound, which made the ponies flinch. Ignoring them, Allen looked inside a hole that had just opened up on the right side of the weapon, and then after looking down the tube from the rear of the weapon, gave a satisfied nod that the weapon was safe.

Turning his attention back to the ponies, he let tube of the weapon rest in the crook of his left elbow and made sure to keep it pointed up and away from anyone. Giving the group an apologetic smile, he said, “Sorry about that, didn’t mean to scare you but, I had to make sure the gun was unloaded and safe to handle. Wouldn’t want it going off by accident and hurting somebody because they didn’t know it was loaded.”

Adjusting his glasses, Red Tape replied somewhat hesitantly, “R-right, of course, no one would want that, uh what did you call it?”

“A gun, or more specifically, a shotgun, 12 gauge to be specific.”

“Ah, yes, a uh, shotgun, yes we wouldn’t want it to go off accidentally and hurt someone. Uh, does that happen often with these types of weapons?” he asked nervously as if the slightest movement would set it off.

Allen grinned and replied, “Naw, not if you’re careful and treat it with respect. We, humans, have developed a few rules on safe firearm handling procedures. First,” he held up his thumb, “always treat the weapon as if it is loaded, two,” his pointer went up, “never point the gun at something you don’t intend to destroy or kill, three,” middle finger now, “finger off the trigger until ready to fire, and fourth,” ring finger this time, “always be aware of what is behind your target. There are more rules, but those are the basics. Follow those and you’ll greatly reduce the likelihood that you’ll hurt yourself or someone else that you didn’t mean to.”

“I see, thank you for clarifying that for us,” replied Red Tape. Though he still seemed a bit nervous.

Cloud Kicker, on the other hand, had a very interested look on her face and came closer to get a better look at the shotgun in Allen’s arms. Glancing up at Allen, she asked, “So how does it work?”

Reaching behind him into the safe, Allen pulled out a small plastic tube, with a brass cap on one end. Holding it down closer so that the ponies could see better, Allen explained, “This is a shotgun shell, inside are a bunch of little lead balls. This,” he flipped the cartridge around till its brass section was pointing at Cloud Kicker. She noticed that there appeared to be a small button in the center of the cartridge, “that” said Allen, pointing to the button with a finger, “is what’s called the primer. Inside the gun is a small metal rod that is under tension when the gun is cocked. When released, it strikes this button here, which has a sensitive chemical compound inside that when hit, creates a spark. That spark ignites the gunpowder inside, which is highly flammable, and as it burns it creates gases that create pressure that has only one way to go, down the barrel here,” he tapped the end of the shotgun’s barrel with the cartridge, “and as a consequence, the gas pushes whatever is in front of it down the barrel very quickly, which in this case is the lead balls, and sends it downrange to its target. That’s the dumbed down version,” he said, giving a shrug as he did so.

“So it’s kind of like how a firework launcher works?” she asked.

Allen shrugged. “Sort of, with a firework launcher you load everything from the muzzle, here I can load it from the breach,” he tapped the open port at the other end of the gun, “but the principle is the same. I’m not sure what kind of powder you use for your fireworks, but this powder is designed to burn slower so as to create less smoke and residue when fired.”

“Interesting,” she replied, a thoughtful expression on her face. “Do you think you could demonstrate this for us?”

“Sure,” replied Allen easily. “I’ve got several different types of weapons here, did you want me to show you all of them or just a few?”

“They all look the same to me,” interjected Red Tape.

“To someone who’s never seen a firearm before that might seem true, but each of these weapons is different from the other. Some, like this shotgun, can shoot multiple projectiles at the same time, but they don’t have good accuracy over a long distance and are only really effective at closer ranges. Others can only shoot one projectile at a time, but they are able to send it farther and more accurately. You have different caliber sizes and powder loads, different types of projectiles, as well as reload speed of the weapon and so on. The basic premises is the same, but they all have different things they are good at doing. Take, for example, you wouldn’t use a longsword in a tight space, nor would you want to use a dagger against a heavily armed opponent out in the open.”

“I... suppose so, weapons have never really been something that I was interested in learning, so I wouldn’t really know. I’m only here to record what you have and relay the information to the proper ponies. Anything technical would be taken care of by Lt. Palisade, and Lt. Kicker. I just record what they tell me to in regards to the technical side of things.”

Allen shrugged. “That’s fair, I wouldn’t know the first thing about how to navigate my way through government bureaucracy. I would just stumble along and do what other people tell me. So, to each their own I suppose.”

“Quite,” replied Red Tape simply. Turning to the two pegasi he asked, “How many of Mr. Ross’s weapons do you feel you need to see in order to get a good understanding?”

Lt. Palisade thoughtfully chewed the inside of one of his cheeks while looking into Allen’s gun safe. After several moments of silent contemplation, he replied, “Obviously we’ll need to see the one you just pulled out, that uh, shotgun, I believe you called it,” Allen nodded in understanding and leaned the gun against a nearby wall, in preparation for retrieving more guns from the safe.

Pointing at a few random guns, Palisade said, “Those three, I think we should have a decent idea what these weapons can do after you show them to us in action.”

Pulling the three weapons out of the gun safe, he made sure that they were unloaded and safe to handle. Setting them aside, he pulled out the necessary ammo for each gun. Better take only a few rounds, I doubt I’m gonna be able to get any more for a long time, if ever.

With the ammunition collected, Allen grabbed the four guns and carefully cradled them in his arms, though thankfully, Palisade had also selected a pistol, so Allen simply stuck that one in his waistband... after double checking to make sure it was unloaded. With guns and ammunition selected, he, and the ponies headed upstairs and outside. Looking around for a moment, Allen tried to figure out where would be the best place to shoot at. Now that he was in Equestria, all of the previously safe places that he used to shoot were now unknown in regards to what was beyond the range, and the last thing that he wanted was for a stray bullet to go flying off into a populated area.

Turning to look at Cloud Kicker he asked, “Any place around here that doesn’t have anyone close by. Maybe a large hill that I can shoot into perhaps?”

Cloud Kicker thoughtfully tapped her chin and replied, “Well, the Everfree Forest is just to the south of us, in fact, if I remember right from the flight over, your property borders it, we could head over that way for the demonstration. There is a small river that runs along the edge of the forest in this area and the only things that live out there are monsters and wild animals. Well, Zecora lives in the Everfree too, but I think her hut is further east, on the other side of Ponyville, and it’s pretty deep in the forest, so there shouldn’t be any issues there.”

Allen nodded. “Alright, and did you guys have anything that you planned to use to test my weapons on?”

“Test?” she asked.

“Well, I just figured you guys would like to see what effect my weapons have on various targets, you know, maybe shoot a watermelon or a piece of thick timber, that sort of thing. Be kind of pointless for me to just shoot the bullets off at nothing in particular,” replied Allen.

“You do have a point there,” said Palisade with a nod. Turning to Cloud Kicker he said, “Lt. Kicker, why don’t you go and collect some watermelons and I’ll go and see what I can find back at camp. We’ll meet back here in twenty minutes.”

Snapping off a quick salute, Cloud Kicker took off, followed shortly by Palisade. This left both Red Tape and Allen alone. Looking down at the unicorn, Allen said, “Well, I guess we should go find a good range spot then. Oh, almost forgot, we’re gonna need a blanket or tarp to lay down when we get there. I know where one is, come on.”

Allen quickly set off for the nearby barn, with Red Tape in hot pursuit. As they walked, Red Tape asked, “What is the blanket for?”

“Just something that’ll let me put the guns down without getting any dirt or debris on them. That and it’ll help catch the spent shell casings, waste not, want not as they say.”

Red Tape nodded in understanding. “I see, uh would you like for me to carry it for you? You seem a little burdened at present.”

Reaching the barn, Allen stepped inside and motioned at a nearby pile of tarps. “Sure, thanks. Go ahead and grab that light blue one, should be relatively clean and hole free.”

Lighting up his horn, Red Tape grabbed the aforementioned tarp in his magic and with it trailing behind him in his aura, followed Allen back outside. From there they set off towards the southern part of Allen’s farm. After a few minutes of walking, Allen saw a dense wall of trees appear on the horizon.

“That it?” he asked, pointing at the tree line with his chin.

Red Tape squinted and placed a hoof above his brow to help shield his eyes from the sun so as to get a better look. “I believe so. I’ve never personally seen the Everfree myself, but I would hazard a guess and say that is it.”

“Alright, well, I guess here will be fine. At least Discord was kind enough to keep my farm aligned with the four cardinal directions. So at least my south fields are still on the southern side of the farm!” he said with a passing chuckle.

Red Tape grinned as he set the tarp down on the ground and smoothed it out so that it lay as flat as it could in the grass. “That’s the spirit, Mr. Ross, always try and look for the positive in life. No matter how dire the situation is, I believe that if we look for the positives, we’ll always be able to work through the bad with a smile on our face!”

Allen’s smile faded slightly, and he gazed south into the forest, an unreadable expression settling on his face. “Yeah, but some days it’s hard to find the good in all the crap.”

Red Tape nodded solemnly, his previous smile also having faded. “Agreed, some days it can be quite difficult.”

They both fell into a contemplative silence as they set up for the return of the two pegasi members of their party. Red Tape, using his magic, unrolled and spread out the tarp on the ground, while Allen set the four weapons of choice down on the tarp, and laid out the ammunition next to each firearm. A few minutes later, the sound of wing beats signaled the return of Cloud Kicker and Palisade.

Cloud Kicker had several watermelons wrapped in a sling beneath her. As she slowly touched down, she kind of reminded Allen of one of those heavy cargo helicopters dropping off a load, except there was less dust flying around, and it was quieter.

Palisade, by contrast, was pulling a small, covered sled behind him with a pair of short wings sticking out of either side. As such, he had to glide in and landed running so as not to trip and crash, rather than hovering, much like a fixed wing aircraft did. After coming to a stop, and panting slightly, with a light sheen a sweat coating his fur, he said, “I managed to find an old seat of armor that’s due to be retired, and the armorer was kind enough to lend it to me. I also brought a couple of poles to hold the armor up, and a hammer to pound them in.”

Allen nodded as he strode forward. “Sounds good, let’s get it set up, and we can get started,” glancing over at the three watermelons that Cloud Kicker had brought, he smiled and said, “Those look perfect, thanks, Lt. Kicker.”

She grinned back and replied, “No problem, Mr. Rind was gonna throw them out anyways, apparently they had some worms in them, so he couldn’t sell them, so I didn’t have to pay for em.”

“That’s good, I’d hate to have you pay for this on my account,” replied Allen.

“Don’t sweat it, I’d just get a reimbursement from the Guard is all,” replied Cloud Kicker nonchalantly.

With a final nod, Allen and the group got to work. A few minutes later, the watermelons and armor were set up and they were ready to begin. Turning to the group, Allen cautioned, “I forgot to mention earlier, but firearms tend to be pretty loud, so I’d recommend covering your ears when I shoot.”

“Thank you for the warning, Mr. Ross, I’ve got a spell that I can cast that’ll deaden the sound, so it shouldn’t be an issue,” replied Red Tape.

Giving an understanding nod, Allen fished out a pair of foam earplugs and inserted them in his ears. Following that, he proceeded to load the first firearm, his father's 12 gauge shotgun. Racking the shell home, he called back over his shoulder, “Alright, the range is live, cover your ears!”

Red Tape promptly cast his spell on the three of them and waved that they were ready. Allen gave a nod of understanding and took aim at the first watermelon. They had decided to keep the distance close for two of the watermelon targets, being no farther than thirty feet, while the other two were further away. The third watermelon was set up at the fifty-foot mark, and the old armor set was one hundred feet away.

When they had been setting it up, Allen had noticed that this set of armor was different looking than the ones currently worn by the Royal Guard, it being a dull silver color, rather than gold, and a few of the design elements were different as well. He had asked Palisade about it, and Palisade had just said, “It’s an older design that was intended for field use rather than garrison duty. However, nowadays our armor is able to be fitted with specially enchanted gems on the breastplate that can alter the color of the armor so it doesn’t stand out as much. Though we’ve been having some problems getting enough enchanted gems for the new armor, so some ponies don’t have the ability to change their armor’s color right now, but that’s life I suppose. Anyways, this armor has similar protection capabilities but lacks the ability to accept the new enchanted gems, so it’s being retired. There were still a few ponies wearing these older armor sets when Discord got out, but since then they’ve been issued the new ones.”

“Ah, makes sense I guess,” replied Allen simply.

Now, in the present, Allen got ready to put that armor’s protection capabilities to the test, right after he got done murdering the helpless watermelons in front of it of course.

Bringing the shotgun to his shoulder he released the safety, took aim, and fired. The shotgun boomed and sent eight, double aught pellets downrange, which decimated the poor defenseless watermelon, sending fruity pieces flying in all directions, and causing what remained of the watermelon to fall to the ground. It brought a smile of satisfaction to Allen’s face upon seeing the carnage.

Ejecting the spent shell from the gun, Allen thumbed the safety on, double checked to make sure it was unloaded and carefully set the shotgun down on the tarp. Turning to the stunned/horrified trio of ponies, he said with a smile, “Well, what did you think? Pretty neat, huh?”

Both Red Tape and Palisade stared at the blasted remains of the recently demised fruit, not saying anything. Cloud Kicker meanwhile trotted forward for a better look at the melon, after asking if it was safe to do so, and carefully studied it.

Sweet, merciful Celestia, that thing tore it apart. She nudged the largest piece with her hoof and it rolled over, exposing the red, seed-filled insides. She felt her ears fall flat against her head at the thought of what that gun would do to a pony should they be unfortunate enough to be shot by it. Turning to glance back at Allen, she saw that he was giving them all a strange look, as if unsure why they were suddenly so subdued.

Giving her head a shake, she turned and trotted back over to him. “Well, you certainly taught that melon a lesson,” she quipped dryly.

The smile returned to Allen’s face, and for some reason that made Cloud Kicker shiver as if she had suddenly found herself standing next to a friendly manticore. She wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

“Yeah, it did alright,” replied Allen, “though, the farther away you are from the target, the less likely you are to hit them or if you do, you won’t do as much damage, these,” he reached down and picked up a shell, “are just full of small pellets that by themselves won’t do a lot of damage, unless you get unlucky of course. But up close, they’re nasty,” his smile suddenly morphed into a grimace, “real nasty.”

An awkward silence fell over the group for a moment, before Allen gave himself a shake, and plastering another friendly smile on his face asked, “Well, shall we continue?”

When the rest of the group voiced no objections, they continued. The next two guns Allen used were what he had called a ‘pistol’, and a ‘varmint gun’. The pistol was an old .38 caliber revolver that had belonged to his grandfather and had been his duty pistol when he was a deputy for their local county back on earth, as Allen had explained when asked. While the varmint gun was just a .22 caliber rifle used to hunt small game, such as rabbits and the like, that his father had given him when he was twelve.

Unlike the shotgun, the pistol simply fractured the melon into large pieces that were barely held together in some spots, while the .22 made a few small holes that didn’t seem to do a lot of outward damage. When Palisade commented on this, Allen replied, “Just because there isn’t a lot out external damage, doesn’t mean anything. .22s have been used to kill large animals, such as deer, though it is much more difficult and shot placement is critical. The advantage to a .22 is that it rarely over pens what you shoot, which means that it has a high chance of ricocheting around inside the target and causing more internal damage. Though it’s pure stopping power isn’t anything to write home about, it still pays to respect it.”

When Palisade nodded in understanding, Allen set the .22 back down and picked up the next, and final rifle.

“What kind of rifle is that?” asked Palisade.

Looking at him as he loaded the rifle, Allen replied, “It’s a bolt action rifle, unlike the .22, which is called a semi-auto, and uses the excess gas created by the gunpowder to cycle the next round, this one requires me to do it manually.” He proceeded to demonstrate by opening the bolt and loading several cartridges in the magazine well. He held up one the rifle’s rounds and showed it to the ponies. Unlike the smaller .22, this one was much bigger, almost as big as Allen’s pointer finger, and just as thick.

“This is an old military surplus rifle called a Mosin-Nagant, they’re not the best rifles in the world, and definitely not the prettiest, but they get the job done, plus the ammo is stupid cheap, so it’s a fun gun to take to the range and shoot targets with.”

Palisade blinked slowly as he digested this new information. A military surplus rifle? What does that even mean? What kind of military would let just anyone have their old equipment? Aren’t they concerned about it being used against them? These humans are so confusing. He shook his head and felt a headache coming on.

Motioning to Allen with a hoof he said aloud, “Alright, I’m not going to pretend I fully understand what you mean by this being a ‘military surplus’ weapon, but go ahead and show us what it can do. That,” he pointed to the old armor sitting downrange, “has a fully charged shield gem inserted inside the breastplate. We use them to help turn aside arrows and low-level spells in combat. Even though it’s an older gem, and not as powerful as the newer ones, it should still give us a basic idea what your rifle is capable of at this range.”

Allen nodded in understanding. “Alright, well go ahead and cover your ears, cause the range is going live,” and with that, he brought the rifle to his shoulder and pulled the trigger. A sharp *crack* rang out across the field, and Allen saw sparks fly from the light blue shield that had suddenly appeared just in front of the armor as his bullet bounced off. Glancing back over his shoulder, he saw Palisade with a satisfied smirk on his face, confident in the old armors abilities. Chambering a new round, he felt a sudden determination to wipe that smirk off Palisade’s face, and so he didn’t even hesitate before the next round was sent downrange. Again the bullet bounced off in a cascade of sparks, but this time, the shield didn’t seem as colorful as before.

Working the bolt, not even bothering to look back this time, Allen again sent a third bullet downrange. This time the bullet didn’t bounce off. Instead, it caused the shield to disappear in a shower of blue motes of light as the shield failed. Though it still didn’t hit the armor, whether the shield had caused it to ricochet or simply drop to the ground its energy spent, Allen didn’t know. Working the bolt a fourth time, he sent one more bullet down range, and this time, it struck the breast plate just to the right of where a real ponies heart would be, and knocked the armor from its makeshift stand, as if an invisible pony inside it had been actually killed.

Opening the bolt and extracting the last live round, Allen made sure the rifle was safe and without glancing back, strode down range. Palisade for his part was left speechless, his mouth hanging open.

I can’t believe it! He took down that shield in only three shots! Those shields were rated to take up to fifty arrows before they failed! Looking down at the rifle on the tarp, Palisade felt a cold shiver run down his spine. I better report this immediately. I don’t think even the new gems would stand up to much more than this one did. I’m just glad that Allen isn’t interested in causing trouble, because if he was, he’d probably be able to take a lot of ponies with him before we took him out.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Palisade noticed that the rest of the group had trotted off after Allen while he had been lost in thought. Shaking his head, he quickly caught up with them at the downed armor, and the sight that greeted him left a icy ball of worry in the pit of his stomach.

The final round that Allen had fired at left a small entrance hole in the front of the chest plate, but there was a much larger one at the back of the armor, and the metal had been punched outwards by the terrific force of the rounds passage so that it looked like the petals of a flower. He suppressed a shiver at the thought of what that round would have done to the pony in between those two points.

Picking up the chest plate, Allen stuck a finger in the hole and carefully inspected it. He wore a curious, and unconcerned look on his face as if this were an academic curiosity and nothing more. Leaning down, he showed the results to the others. “Punched right through the front, and then out the back. I bet it kept going for a little more before tumbling to the earth.” Turning to look at them he asked, “So, that answer your questions then?”

Palisade licked his suddenly dry lips, and carefully replied, “I believe so, yes. Granted I didn’t think that your weapons would be this... destructive.”

Allen shrugged as he let go of the armor in his hand, letting it fall back to the earth with a rattling clang. “What can I say? Humans are good at making tools, and a lot of our tools are good at killing and maiming living beings. I might as well comment about how the sky is blue or the ocean is wet, it is what it is. I can see that you’re upset by this, I hope you’re not planning on reneging on our deal?”

Palisade quickly shook his head, as did Cloud Kicker and Red Tape. “Good heavens no! His Grace said that you could keep your weapons, and keep your weapons you shall be allowed to do, unless you bring cause to have them taken away through a criminal or negligent act.”

Allen held Palisade’s gaze for several moments, as if gauging the truth of his words. After several tense moments passed, Allen quietly nodded. “Alright, guess we’ve got an understanding then. For what it’s worth, I just want you to know I have zero intention of causing anyone any harm, intentional or otherwise. These guns will remain locked up, unless needed. Besides, I’ve only got so many rounds for them, and once those are gone, these guns just become hunks of wood and metal, no more dangerous than a spear or club.”

For some reason, Palisade felt a sense of relief wash over him at Allen’s reply. Maybe it was the conviction in Allen’s voice or the solemn way in which he made his promise, but, Palisade felt that he could trust this human to keep his word. He just hoped that somepony wouldn’t come along and force him to break it.

It was late afternoon, and Cloud Kicker, Palisade, and Red Tape sat at a corner table in Sugar Cube Corner. Red Tape, was busily going over several papers, while the other two sat quietly and nibbled on their pastries thinking about the days events.

“So, what do you think, Lt. Kicker?” asked Palisade.

She glanced up from the table and gave the Royal Guard a thoughtful frown. “About what?” she asked.

He groaned. “You know what I mean.”

Her frown deepened before it gave way to a tired sigh, and she went back to staring at the table, her ears folded flat against her head. “I don’t know. I think we can trust him, but a part of me is worried that it’s all just a ruse and that he’s secretly working for Discord. Hay, he might be doing Discord’s dirty work for him and not even be aware of it himself. But, something tells me that what we saw, was what we got.”

Palisade nibbled on his pastry. “You think he’s on the level then?”

Cloud Kicker nodded. “I do, everything I saw and heard seemed like he’s just from a different world and culture than we are. What are big, red warning flags to us, as far as his behavior go, don’t seem to be an issue for him or are even considered to be good things. Conversely, the same could be said of us from his perspective.”

Palisade nodded and sighed. “I would agree with your assessment. He kind of reminds me of a griffon, proud, independent, and unwilling to fully trust somepony lest they take advantage of him. And in this case, he doesn’t have very many beings that he can trust.”

“I believe you are correct in your assessment, lieutenant,” replied Red Tape softly, though he kept his gaze focused on the papers in front of him.

“So that just leaves what?” asked Cloud Kicker. She herself had also met griffons before. Being part of the Kicker Clan, and having done a stint in the Royal Guard before being discharged and moving to Ponyville, had given her ample opportunity to meet other species, and Palisade’s assessment of Allen’s temperament seemed fairly accurate.

Not many ponies really thought about it, but there were other countries out there that had griffons in them, not just the fabled country of Griffonstone. Even though it was the most well known, thanks to the Daring Doo books, there were many others, just as there were many other countries out there besides Equestria where ponies lived. New Mareland came to mind, she’d even done a six-month deployment over there as part of the guard detachment assigned to protect the Equestrian Consulate.

It had been rather nice, being further south, and next to the ocean, tended to give New Mareland a rather temperate climate throughout the year, and she had enjoyed her time there. But she was glad she lived here in Equestria, rather than on the griffon continent. That place tended to get a little too politically exciting for her tastes. Of course, now that Discord had done whatever it was he had done, it looked like Equestria might get a little bit more exciting in the near future too.

“I believe it means that we take him at his word and go from there,” replied Red Tape, quill busily scratching away as he worked to finish his report. “Personally, I think he’s rather nice, and he hasn’t tried to hide anything from me that I’ve asked of him. My glasses would have told me if he had,” he emphasized his point by gently removing them and cleaning them with a summoned cloth.

“Right, I forgot that you wore enchanted glasses,” said Palisade, “they must have cost a pretty bit.”

Red Tape chuckled. “Oh trust me, they did. However, it was well worth the investment. Just the ability to know when somepony is fibbing has saved me countless hours of headaches and reprimands from my superiors. So all in all, I’ve never regretted getting them.”

“Do you even need them to see?” asked Cloud Kicker, a hint of teasing in her voice.

Red Tape simply smiled and went back to his work. Rolling her eyes at the obvious dodge, Cloud turned her attention back to Palisade and asked, “Okay, so we’re all in agreement that while his guns are dangerous, they don’t warrant seizure, correct?”

Palisade nodded. “Yes, I was very concerned during the demonstration, the power that his weapons have against unarmored targets is quite frankly, terrifying to me. Not only that but what his...uh, what did he call it again, the last one?”

Red Tape flipped back through his papers for a moment before saying, “A ‘Mosin-Nagant’, he called it a ‘bolt action rifle’.”

“Yes, that one, thank you,” Red Tape inclined his head in response. “That rifle,” continued Palisade, “Worries me the most or I should say what it fires worries me.”

“How so?” asked Cloud Kicker idly as she drained the last of her milkshake noisily, much to the other two ponies annoyance.

Clearing his throat, Palisade shot her an annoyed look before saying, “Allen said that the shotgun was only really dangerous at close range and that his pistol and .22 weren’t very powerful, at least not when compared to his rifle. However, it only took three shots before he destroyed the shield, and only one to go through that armor like a hot knife through butter. Now, imagine if he paired the rapid rate of fire of his .22, with the power of his rifle’s cartridge, and you have a recipe for a bad time. Those shields were designed to withstand up to fifty arrows before they failed, or ten minutes of low-level spellfire. Moreover, that armor was rated to resist long-range arrow fire to a degree and be able to take a couple more spell hits before it failed. I saw how fast he was able to shoot his .22, hay, he even told us that his bolt action rifle was obsolete, and even showed us what replaced it! What was it called again, Red Tape?”

Again Red Tape flipped through his notes. “He called it an ‘SKS’. According to him it can hold ten rounds and fires a slightly smaller cartridge than his Mosin, though according to him it was still ‘pretty powerful’.”

“And did he not say that there were weapons out there that could fire even faster?”

Red Tape nodded again. “He did, though he also stressed that he didn’t have any of those as they were more heavily regulated by his government and that they were expensive to maintain.”

Pushing her empty milkshake glass away, Cloud propped her face on her hoof and with an unconcerned look on her face asked, “Okay, so what’s the big deal here then? We’ve already established that he is being honest with us and that we don’t think he’s a bad guy. Plus, he doesn’t have any of those guns that you are so worried about, and of the ones that could pose a danger to a guard ponies armor, he only has a very limited supply of ammunition for them,” turning to Red Tape she asked, “how many did he say he had anyways?”

Red Tape readjusted his glasses and flipped through his book, coming to a stop near the back. Quickly reading the numbers he said, “Less than eight hundred rounds of 7.62x54r, and only four hundred rounds of 7.62x39, which are the calibers for his Mosin and SKS respectively.”

“Okay,” began Cloud as she casually leaned back in her chair and began doing mental math, “so let’s assume that the new guard armor’s shields perform exactly the same as the old one; which we know they won’t because their spell matrices are much more efficient, and while I’m not in the Royal Guard anymore, my parents are and we talk occasionally. My dad said that the new shields were able to withstand nearly one hundred arrows before they failed, which is double the amount the old one could. But let’s just say for argument's sake, that the new shields only stop three shots before failing. That means that he would only be able to break a bit more than one hundred shields with his SKS, and less than three hundred with his Mosin. Which means, that less than four hundred ponies would be potential casualties if it came to fighting him and he only used those two weapons. With the new shields, I’d say less than two hundred would be at risk, and even then, I doubt he’d be able to get more than a few shots off before we closed to melee range, that’s, of course, assuming we only had earth ponies and pegasi. With unicorn back up, he’d be hosed, and he probably knows it. So I don’t really understand why you’ve got your feathers all ruffled, Palisade.”

Palisade sighed. “It’s not so much that I’m worried about, Allen, it’s that I’m worried about what else might show up. If Discord could bring him here, then who is to say that someone or something else might also show up? We have no idea if whatever Discord did to bring Allen, to our world didn’t also bring other things or beings here as well. Not too mention that using that kind of magic might have unknown consequences. The truth is that we just don’t know what kind of damage Discord did to our world to bring Allen here, nor do we know if the Elements fixed it or not,” he paused and rubbed the back of his head nervously, “maybe I’m just being paranoid here, but I’d rather not take the risk that Discord did more damage than we think he did, and have something that isn’t nice show up and bite us in the flanks.”

Both Cloud Kicker and Red Tape glanced at each other and then silently nodded in understanding. “So what you are saying is that you think there might be a hidden threat, and that because Allen was able to beat an older set of guard armor more easily than you thought he should, you’re worried about whether or not the guard will be able to take on the next potential threat?” asked Red Tape seriously.

Palisade nodded. “I am, I don’t want anypony to think that Allen is a threat, personally, I think he’s fairly harmless, even with his weapons. Honestly, I think that all he really needs is a couple of good friends to help ground him in his new world, and to teach him how things are done around here so that he doesn’t get hurt or hurt somepony else by accident.”

“A fair point,” replied Red Tape thoughtfully, “I know that Ms. Sparkle and Ms. Heartstrings have been speaking with him on a regular basis about his world, but I’m not sure if they’ve been teaching him about ours. The poor soul probably hasn’t the faintest idea about what is and is not socially acceptable behavior to regular ponies. I’d hate to see him get in trouble because he said or did the wrong thing.”

Cloud Kicker nodded. “Yeah, I can say from personal experience, not knowing the local customs can get you into big trouble.”

“I feel as though there is an interesting story there,” said Palisade, a smirk on his face.

“There is,” replied Cloud Kicker coyly, “but I’m afraid you’ll just have to keep wondering what it is.”

Palisade chuckled. “Fair enough, maybe when things settle down we could swap ‘war stories’. I’ve got a few embarrassing stories of my own to tell.”

“Then it’s a date then,” replied Cloud Kicker, a flirtatious look in her eyes.

Palisade turned beet red and sputtered, “I-I wasn’t... I mean, I-I!”

Cloud Kicker snickered, and then began laughing uproariously as Palisade turned into a blushing, sputtering mess. Seeing her laughing, and knowing he’d been had, the pegasus stallion quickly tried to compose himself and shot the now giggling mare an annoyed glare. Red Tape for his part simply sat on the sidelines, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips at his companion’s antics.

However, his smile slowly faded, and rapping a hoof on the table to get their attention, he said, “Well, as funny as it is to watch Lt. Palisade change coat colors,” Palisade promptly stuck his tongue out in reply. Rolling his eyes at the foalish response, Red Tape continued, “I’m afraid the day is getting late, and I’ve got a train to catch. So in the interest of time, do either of you have any further recommendations for me to give upon my return to Canterlot?”

“Other than to work on finding ways to improve the strength of the new shields, and to develop better tactics for dealing with something that fires as quickly, accurately and powerfully as Allen’s guns, no, I don’t think so,” supplied Palisade.

“And you Lt. Kicker?”

She shrugged. “More of what he said, but I’d add in the fact that we should remain at a higher state of alert for things outside the norm and to not engage them till we can properly determine their threat level unless civilians are threatened of course. As for Allen, I would add that our current assessment of him is that he is a non-threat and that we should focus on repairing the damaged relations between him and us as soon as possible.”

Red Tape nodded. “Of course, I thank you both for your help in this matter. I’ll be sure to stress your recommendations to His Grace when I return. If there was anypony in Canterlot besides the princesses who can influence public and court opinion, it’s him,” he said as he finished his writing. Casting a quick drying on the fresh ink, he closed his binder and slipped it into his saddlebags. Standing up from the table, he inclined his head in farewell, “Now, I bid you both good night, and I will be sure to send you both the results of our joint report as soon as I have it. If you have anything further to add at a later date, you know where to send it. I’ll be sure to pass it along to the proper ponies.”

“Thank you, we’ll keep that in mind. Have a safe journey home,” said Palisade.

“Yeah, take care, and don’t be afraid to come and visit again sometime,” added Cloud Kicker, a friendly smile on her face.

Red Tape returned the smile with one of his own. “I’ll keep that in mind, until next time, farewell,” and with that, he turned and left.

Turning back to her pegasus partner, Cloud Kicker asked, “So, Palisade, what’re you planning on doing for the rest of the night?”

Palisade paused as he was getting up to leave as well, and placing a hoof to his chin thoughtfully said, “Well, I’ve got a mountain of reports to fill out before tomorrow afternoon, and I need to oversee the construction of our new barracks. Oh, and there’s that leadership meeting tomorrow at 0800 I need to be at, plus-”

“I get it, I get it, you’re busy, sheesh,” cut in Cloud Kicker, as she rolled her eyes in exasperation. “I was just asking if you were free to chat or hang out for a bit, not get read your entire schedule for the next day.”

Palisade offered an apologetic grin. “Sorry, got a bit carried away there.”

“Ya think?” replied Cloud Kicker with a raised eyebrow.

Shrugging Palisade replied sheepishly, “Sorry, it’s just...”

“This your first time in solo command?” she asked, a knowing look on her face.

He hung his head, a tired sigh escaping his lips. “Yeah, it is. If I’d know being an officer was going to be this stressful, then I’d have just stayed a sergeant.”

Cloud Kicker gave him a sympathetic smile. “Been there done that. I felt the same way after I got my first command after completing West Hoof. If you need any advice, I’d been happy to share.”

He gave a grateful smile. “Thanks, uh, would you happen to be free around 1700 tomorrow by chance?”

She gave him sudden, sultry smile, as she leaned in close, she whispered in a husky voice, “For you, I can free anytime.”

Turning bright as a tomato, Palisade beat a hasty retreat sputtering as he went, “T-that w-would be lovely... I-I mean... I-I’llseeyoutomorrowat1700thengottagobye!” and with that, he tore out of the bakery as if his tail were on fire leaving a smirking Cloud Kicker behind.

Stallions are so fun to tease. She thought, a mischievous grin on her face.

Just then Mrs. Cake, the bakery’s plump matron trotted up and asked, “Chased off another one eh?”

Cloud Kicker just chuckled. “You know I just do it for fun. It’s so funny to get them wound up so much that they can’t even talk straight, let alone think!”

Mrs. Cake giggled. “Oh, I know. Back when I was your age, I used to do that all the time to my Carrot Cake! He’d turn into a sputtering mess and try and stammer his way through a conversation. In fact, there were a few times he took off just like your friend there, course I always made sure to tease him, after we’d paid the bill,” she said, a knowing smile on her face as she dropped said bill in front of a suddenly not so smug Cloud Kicker, “just bring that to the register when you’re ready to settle your bill!” and with that she trotted back into the kitchen. Leaving Cloud Kicker to stare at her bill in the sudden realization that she'd just made a huge mistake.

Ah, ponyfeathers, I left my bit bag at home.

“And that’s the last one.”

Allen breathed a sigh of relief and pulled his pants back up when the nurse finished removing the last needle from his buttcheek.

“How many shots was that today?” he asked sarcastically, “felt like you stuck me about a million times back there, and was it really necessary to stick me so hard too? I felt like you were trying to run me through a few times.”

The nurse, a white coated, pink maned, earth pony mare named Nurse Redheart, finished capping the dirty needle and dropped it in the biohazard waste bin before sarcastically retorting, “Actually it was only around half a million or so, and don’t be such a foal, I didn’t stick you any harder than I did the last time you were here.”

Allen rolled his eyes at the nurse’s sass. “Oh, well then, don’t I feel lucky?”

“You should, considering that we determined that you were susceptible to several diseases that we couldn’t vaccinate you for in our first round of testing because you hadn’t had the preparatory vaccines and medicines given to you yet. Diseases that would have had very unpleasant effects on your biology if we hadn’t vaccinated you in time.”

Still a little miffed by her lack of bedside manners, Allen shot back, “And what kind of ‘unpleasant effects’ are we talking about here?”

“Death most likely,” she shot back evenly, not even bothering to look up from her clipboard as she finished her report.

Allen blinked, and like a balloon who’d been punctured, he felt the remaining irritation drain from his body. “Oh, right.”

Letting go a sigh, Redheart turned to regard Allen and said, “I am sorry for the inconvenience that you endured here, Mr. Ross, and I’m sorry that you felt more pain than you should have. Getting stuck with a lot of needles and pumped full of medicine all at once isn’t anypony’s idea of a good time. However, we had to get you back in here quicker than we initially thought due to one of the tests coming back saying that you were critically vulnerable to several rather common diseases here in Equestria. One of them being pony pox.”

“Pony pox? What does that do?” asked Allen.

“It usually manifests itself in young foals, common symptoms are fever, headaches, loss of appetite, tiredness and red bumps and blisters on the skin that will usually break after a day and then scab over. It is highly contagious and in severe cases can result in blisters in the mouth, throat, eyes, and anus. Adults that get it tend to fare worse than foals, and it can lead to pneumonia and meningitis or encephalitis, which is an infection of the brain. If left untreated in an adult or if they’re immune system isn’t strong enough, it can also result in death.”

“That sounds an awful lot like chicken pox, which I had as a kid.”

Nurse Redheart shook her head. “Not quite, pony pox, while similar to chicken pox, is more dangerous to non-ponies. Even though you had chicken pox, that won’t be enough to keep you from getting the pony pox. If you had contracted it, inflammation of the brain would have likely occurred, followed by massive organ failure, in addition to the aforementioned symptoms. We’re not sure why pony pox is so deadly to other species, but it is, so you getting the vaccine was critical. Luckily you haven’t been exposed to any so far, so you should be fine now.”

Allen gave a mental sigh of relief. Glad that he had dodged that particular bullet. “Well, that’s a relief, guess I shouldn’t have given you so much grief then, sorry.”

Redheart gave him a curt nod as she finished putting things away. “Apology accepted. And I apologize if I’ve been less than gentle, your skin isn’t as difficult to get through as a pony’s is, so I apologize for any excessive force.”

“It’s alright, I know I didn’t make it easy. I’ve always hated needles, and being around them tends to make me squeamish and irritable.”

Redheart smiled. “I completely understand, trust me when I say that you’ve been the most cooperate patient I’ve had today when it comes to giving them their shots. Trust me, nothing is more frustrating than a unicorn foal going through their magical surge phase who doesn’t want to get their shots.”

Allen gave her a curious look. “Magical surge phase?”

Redheart twirled a hoof nonchalantly and replied, “Oh it’s just that when the magic in a young foal is still developing, it’ll sometimes ‘surge’ and allow the foal to do extraordinary things. Unicorn foals are the worst, I can’t tell you how many times one of the little rascals has teleported on me or cast a shield spell on themselves to keep from getting stuck. Pegasi come a close second as they tend to just zip around the room like a little rubber ball that’s been thrown too hard,” she sighs, “before I worked here in Ponyville, I did my residency at Canterlot General, and some of the stories I heard from the staff about their encounters with a surging foal left me fairly anxious the first time I had to work with one. It’s why they finally invested in a null room a couple of years ago, helps keep the young one's magic from surging when they’re working with them.”

“What did the foals do to the staff?” asked Allen as he and Redheart walked back to the checkout desk.

“You name it, teleportation, shield spells, fireballs, ice shards, transformation, phasing through solid objects, strong levitation spells, pretty much any kind of spell you could think of, they somehow managed to cast. Nopony is really sure how they can do it when they surge, but then are unable to later, but such is the mysteries of life I suppose.”

“Wait, you said transformation spells? As in, turning something into something else? That’s a thing here?” asked Allen, a hint of nervousness coloring his voice.

Redheart nodded. “Yeah, rumor has it that Twilight accidentally turned her parents into house plants when she surged during an entrance exam at Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. I’ve never asked her if it’s true or not, but I wouldn’t be surprised. I remember when I was still in Canterlot, one of the doctors said that he and a nurse had their genders reversed by a young filly when she was in to get her shots. Luckily, those spells either don’t last for very long or are easy to reverse.”

“Twilight turned her parents into house plants?” said Allen, a shiver running down his spine at the thought of being turned into a ficus.

Redheart placed a calming hoof on his thigh and said with a soothing tone, “Like I said it’s a rumor, and trust me, we ponies have ways to figure out if somepony has been transformed into something else. That kind of magic leaves large traces behind, and it’s a simple matter of reversing the spell. Besides, there are very few ponies out there who have that kind of magical power, so you’ll be fine.”

“Somehow that doesn’t reassure me very much,” replied Allen, a concerned look on his face.

Seeing that he hadn’t calmed down, Redheart tried again. Standing on her hind hooves and resting her forehooves on his chest, she looked him square in the eye and said in as calming a voice as she could, “Mr. Ross, I can assure you that the one pony capable of potentially casting transformation magic in this town is Ms. Sparkle, and she would never do something like that without a pony’s permission. Additionally, every unicorn is rated on their power level when they are in school, and they are given a designation as a result, and as that pony grows, they are re-evaluated on a regular basis. For instance, Twilight is an upper beta level unicorn, and before you ask, yes, that designation is supposed to be public knowledge. The reason is that each of these designations allows others to know roughly how powerful that unicorn is, which means they’ll have a decent idea of what kind of spells they are able to wield. Furthermore, there are strict laws in regards to the misuse of magic, and very few unicorns would risk the kind of punishments those laws entail should they break them.”

“But what about those foals you were talking about? They can do that too, right?” Allen had calmed down a little, but for some reason, his heart was still beating hard in his chest. The idea of being transformed into something against his will terrified him like nothing else.

Seeing that her words weren’t having a strong impact on him, Redheart softened her gaze and spoke even softer. Luckily they were in a wing of the hospital that was currently not being used, and as such, there wasn’t anypony to see Allen have his little panic attack. “Allen,” she began, using his first name for the first time since meeting him, “I told you, foal magic doesn’t work the same as adult magic. The effects can be easily reversed by any competent adult because a foals magic is unstable. That is what gives spells their power. If a spell is cast in an unstable manner, it will either not work, be weak, and thus easy to counter, or will simply explode in the casters face. With transformation magic, it takes a great deal of power to permanently change something or someone into something or someone else. That is because the spell has to spend so much of its energy converting one type of matter into a different type that it can’t sustain itself unless the caster is able to pour enough energy into the spell to overcome the power drain. Not only that, but every living creature has a magic resonance inside them, so in order to change something permanently, you have to overcome the magical resonance of whatever it is you are transforming, and that is extremely difficult. So, I will say this again, you are in no danger from some random unicorn coming along and zapping you with a spell and turning you into a begonia on the side of the road for the rest of your life.”

Allen slowly felt his heart rate returning to normal, but then he felt it skip a beat or two, his legs suddenly felt weak, and he lost his balance. Throwing a hand out, he caught the nearby wall, and using that, tried to lower himself to the floor. Redheart, having been using her forehooves on Allen’s chest to keep herself upright, suddenly found herself falling forward when Allen fell backwards, the end result being that Allen suddenly found the nurse sprawled across his lap in a very awkward manner. Checks flaming red, Nurse Redheart quickly extricated herself from the somewhat compromising position of having her rear stuck up in the air, while her face was buried in Allen’s lap.

Thank Epona that nopony saw that or I’d never hear the end of it. Thought Redheart thankfully to herself as she readjusted her nurse's cap, which had gone askew in the tumble.

Having finished adjusting her cap, Nurse Redheart took a moment to awkwardly clear her throat and said, “Sorry about that, are you alright? You lost your balance so suddenly, I didn’t have time to catch myself.”

Still feeling weird, and breathing slightly hard, as if he’d just climbed several flights of stairs at a run, Allen shakily nodded, “I-I think so. I don’t know why, but I feel a little funny.”

Upon hearing Allen’s reply, Redheart’s nurse mode instantly kicked in, and she moved forwards to examine him.

Drat, I don’t have a flashlight to check his pupil dilation. Leaning her head against his chest, she listened to his heartbeat. Heartbeat seems a little fast, better check his pulse. Grabbing his wrist with a hoof, she placed her frog against it and felt his pulse. Hmmm, I don’t like it, it feels off slightly, not as strong as it was when he came in this morning. I’d better have Dr. Stable check on him, he might be having a reaction to one of the vaccines.

Glancing up at Allen, she asked calmly, “Do you think you’re able to walk? I’d like to have Dr. Stable take a look at you, I think you might be having a reaction to one of the vaccines.”

Allen blinked several times as he tried to focus, and giving his head a shake he said, “I don’t know, what’s going on?”

Crap, I was afraid this might happen, too many medications in too short a time. His body isn’t handling it well. Biting her lower lip, she quickly made a decision. Turning around, so that her rear was to him, she said, “Climb on, I’ll carry you to the ER, and don’t give me any excuses, I might be smaller than you, but I’m an earth pony, and we are stronger than we look.”

Giving a shaky nod, Allen shakily climbed onto her, his chest flat against her back. Grunting under the sudden weight, Redheart shifted Allen slightly with her shoulders and feeling that he was as settled as he was going to get, carefully trotted down the hall towards the ER. She was sure under different circumstances, this would be a comical sight. Allen had his arms wrapped around her neck in an attempt to keep from sliding off her back, while his legs, being so long, dragged along behind her, occasionally leaving a scuff mark behind.

Dusty is gonna have a fit when he sees those scuff marks. She thought quietly to herself as she half carried, half dragged Allen down the hall.

A few minutes later, and they arrived at the ER. Pushing open the door with a foreleg, Redheart stumbled inside. Luckily, Dr. Stable was already there, and upon seeing them, he immediately made a beeline for the pair.

Lighting up his horn, he quickly removed Allen from Nurse Redheart’s back, to which she was grateful as, while he wasn’t heavy per se, he was big and awkward to carry around. Thankfully, she hadn’t had to carry him very far. However, there were more pressing matters at the moment than complaining about carrying big and awkward objects, namely that they had a sick human on their hooves.

“What happened,” asked Dr. Stable, a light amber colored unicorn, with an electrocardiographic monitor as his cutie mark.

Redheart shook her head. “I don’t know, we were talking on the way to the checkout desk and he suddenly became upset when I brought up that transformation magic was possible. I tried to calm him down, and it partially worked, but then he lost his balance and collapsed against a wall, and I had to carry him here as he said he felt funny and was unable to walk. I think he may be having a reaction to one of the vaccines we gave him today.”

Wasting no time, Dr. Stable quickly used his magic to remove Allen’s shirt and placed several EKG pads on his chest with his magic, it's cyan glow quickly moving from the pads to the nearby heart monitor and flipping several switches, bringing the machine to life with a rhythmic beeping sound. Turning to look at the heart monitor, he watched as the lines went up and down for several seconds before turning back to Allen and beginning his examination.

After several tests, he turned to Redheart and said, “Get him started on a saline drip, and give him a mild relaxant, five milligrams should be enough. He’s having a mild panic attack and that’s causing his body to dump adrenaline into his bloodstream. Did you happen to give him the pony pox vaccine today by chance?”

She nodded. “Yes, it was the last one I gave him.”

He nodded in sudden understanding. “I thought so, then it’s no wonder he’s reacting this way. That was a new one that we just got, and it has to be administered separately at least twenty-four hours before or after another vaccine or medicine. Additionally, the patient can’t do any activities that would elevate their heart rate for at least two hours, preferably three. They changed one of the ingredients in it, don’t know why, the old one was just fine, but they did. Anyways, as I said, get some saline in him along with a mild relaxant and he should be fine.”

“Wha-why didn’t anypony tell me about the vaccine change?! I thought it was the usual one!” replied Redheart angrily.

Dr. Stable held up a calming hoof. “I know, I’m sorry, I had thought everypony had been told this morning. We used up the last of the old vaccine yesterday afternoon, and I had Nurse Tenderheart bring up the new ones from storage. I’ll be sure to double check and make sure everypony knows about the new procedures with this vaccine. We don’t want another repeat of this,” turning to regard Allen with a contrite look, he said, “Mr. Ross, I am so very, very sorry about this, but don’t worry, you are in good hooves and we will correct this, Nurse Redheart, if you please?” he asked as he turned to leave, presumably to make sure everyone else was up to speed on the new changes.

“Of course Dr. Stable, I’ll get right on it,” she replied before quickly getting to work. A few minutes later, and the drip was going, and Allen could already feel the relaxant kicking in. Giving a contented sigh, he relaxed further into the surprisingly comfortable bed. Nurse Redheart, upon noticing that he was shivering slightly, had gone and fetched a pre-warmed blanket from one of the warming cabinets and gently placed it over him.

Giving her his thanks, Allen felt his eyelids grow heavy and he found himself dozing off. However, all too soon he felt a hoof shaking him awake. Glancing over at the pony the hoof was attached to, he found himself looking at Nurse Redheart. Blinking blearily at her, he glanced around the room in confusion before asking in a slurred voice, “Wha time iz it?”

“You’ve been asleep for a couple of hours, Mr. Ross,” she replied softly, “I’m sorry to wake you, but I need to examine you to see if your condition has improved.”

He blearily nodded for her to go ahead. Quickly setting to work, Redheart asked as she took his pulse, “How are you feeling? Any tightness in your chest, labored breathing, is your heart beating strangely?”

He shook his head. “No, I just feel a little tired is all.”

She nodded, a pleased smile on her face. “That will be the relaxants, which is good, we don’t want your heart beating too fast or it could trigger a reaction.”

“Why?”

She continued working as she replied, “All vaccines and medicines have magic in them. These spells are classified as ‘ingredients’ by the Ministry of Health, and most of them are just meant to keep the medicine from degrading or to boost its potency. However, like all things, if you change an ingredient, even slightly, it can cause... complications. In your case, the pony pox vaccine had one of the potency spells changed, apparently the company that makes it thought that we were due for a more virile strain this year and wanted to get ahead of it, so they made it stronger. Problem is, by doing that they made it so that the vaccine won’t play nice with the other ones we gave you. So now we have to wait for them to work themselves through your system so that it doesn’t get overloaded. Unfortunately, in your case, nopony told me that we had run out of the old one and that they had brought the new vaccine out of storage, and the bottle looked like the usual one. So, I assumed we still had some of the older ones left, which we could inject with other medicines at the same time without issue. Moreover, since you hadn’t had any reactions to the previous round of vacancies and boosters, your body is obviously able to properly absorb and metabolize the magical ingredients without issue, so I figured that this round wouldn’t be any different.”

“But it was,” cut in Allen.

Redheart nodded as she finished her exam. “Yes, it was. By increasing the potency of the vaccine, your bodies immune system became overloaded. However, it seems as though that by itself wouldn’t have caused any issues or at least that is what Dr. Stable thinks. So, if you had gone home and taken it easy for the rest of the day, you would have probably been fine, maybe you would have felt a little off, but not to the degree you do right now.”

“So what happened then?” asked Allen as Redheart removed the blood pressure cuff from his arm.

She shrugged. “Near as we can tell, you became upset when you and I discussed the effects of a foal’s magical surges. As a consequence, your body entered into a ‘flight or fight’ mode and began dumping adrenaline into your system, elevating your heart rate among other bodily functions. This, in turn, caused a negative reaction with the recently injected vaccines, which then caused your body to become ill from the effects. Which in turn, made the body dump even more adrenaline into your system, and made the problem worse.”

“So it created a positive feedback loop?”

“Precisely,” replied Redheart with a nod, “as your body tried to counter the negative reaction to the medicine, it just made the situation worse. The only way that we could hope to reverse it was to get you to relax, hence the use of the mild relaxants, coupled with the saline drip. Which, if your vitals are anything to go by, seems to be working. Heart rate is back down to normal levels and your heart's rhythm is working properly again, breathing levels are normal and so is eye pupil dilation. I’m very glad we got a good baseline for you during your initial check-up,” finished Redheart, half to herself and half to Allen.

Turning to leave, she called back over her shoulder, “I’ll go and get Dr. Stable, and we’ll see if he thinks you are good to go home or if we should keep you overnight.”

“But I’ve got animals to feed,” protested Allen.

Nurse Redheart gave him a stern glare. “If you think I’m going to let you go home and work yourself back into a hospital bed after I just got you out of it, you’ve got another think coming mister! No strenuous work for the rest of the day, do I make myself clear?” she asked in a tone that brooked no argument.

Allen meekly nodded his head and seeing that he was going to behave himself, she gave a satisfied nod of her head and trotted out the room to fetch, Dr. Stable. A few minutes later, and Redheart returned with the doctor. Taking a look at the clipboard at the end of Allen’s bed, Dr. Stable looked it over before nodding to himself and putting it back. Glancing up at Allen he gave the human a happy smile. “Good news, Mr. Ross, it looks like you are going to be just fine.”

Allen returned the doctor’s smile with a grateful one of his own. “That’s good to hear doc. I was afraid you were going to be forced to keep me overnight.”

Dr. Stable’s smile quickly turned upside down. “Well, actually I was planning on keeping you overnight. Even though your vitals have normalized for the moment, I’d still feel better if we kept you close by in case anything else cropped up. Not only that, but I know how you farmers like to ignore my advice when I tell you to take it easy. So, I’m not going to give you the chance to ignore it.”

“But-!”

“No buts,” cut in Dr. Stable, giving Allen a stern glare, though a second later it softened, “I’m sorry, Mr. Ross, but what with your alien physiology, and your recent complication, I’d rather play it safe than have you be at home without somepony keeping an eye on you in case you have a relapse.”

Allen felt himself deflate in defeat, and he hung his head. “So who is gonna take care of my animals?” he asked unhappily.

“Well, is there anypony who you think would be willing to help you out? We could send somepony to go and get them real quick. I’m sure they would be happy to help you.”

Allen let his head fall back onto his pillow as he stared up at the ceiling and he thought carefully for a few moments before saying, “Well, the only ponies who’ve really been to my farm who live close by are Lyra and Twilight, they might be willing to help, though I don’t know where they live.”

Redheart gave a gentle smile and said, “Don’t worry, Mr. Ross, I know where both of them live. They’ve been patients here several times and we have their addresses on file,” turning to Dr. Stable she asked, “if you’re alright with it, I can go get them right now.”

He nodded. “I don’t see why not, I’ll keep an eye on our patient while you’re out, see you when you get back.”

Turning to leave, she gave the two a wave goodbye and trotted out. Dr. Stable, watched her go for a moment before turning back to Allen and continuing his examination.

Nurse Redheart quickly trotted through the sun-drenched streets of Ponyville as she headed in search of Twilight and Lyra. She first decided to see if Twilight was home, as even though she hadn’t had many opportunities to get to know the mare, Redeheart had heard that Twilight would often be found with her muzzle firmly planted in the middle of a book. So to that end, she figured her best chance of finding the mare was to head to the one place in town that had plenty of books for a pony to plant their muzzle in, the Golden Oaks Library.

Nopony was quite sure who had built the library or even how. The tree housing the library had been there for decades, and as such, it’s origins had been lost to the foggy mists of time. However, regardless of who had built it, one thing was for sure, it was one of the unique landmarks of Ponyville, and locating it was not very difficult, all one had to do was search the rooftop skyline for a giant tree and head towards it, they’d eventually find themselves in front of it in no time. Such was the case with Redheart as after a few minutes walking, she found herself at the front door, a stylized candle holder with a lit candle carved into it greeted her as she knocked.

After a few minutes, the sound of approaching hooves, and indistinct mumbling, reached her ears and a moment later the door opened to reveal one of the mares she was looking for.

“Oh, Nurse Redheart! What brings you here at this time of day? I would have thought you’d still be at the hospital,” greeted Twilight, a confused look on her face.

Nurse Redheart returned Twilights greeting with a nod. “I actually just came from there. Do you happen to know where Ms. Heartstrings is? This concerns her too.”

Twilight, having picked up on the serious look on the nurse’s face, nodded. “Yes, she’s actually here with me right now. We were working on our research paper together and working up another list of questions to ask Allen, why, what’s wrong?”

Redheart grimaced and said, “Allen had a bad reaction to one of the vaccines we gave him,” she quickly held up a hoof upon seeing the growing look of alarm on Twilight’s face, “he is stable right now, but Dr. Stable wants to keep him overnight just to be on the safe side. So he asked me to come and see if you would be willing to take care of his animals for him tonight, as he’s confined to the hospital till tomorrow morning.”

“Oh my gosh! Of course, we will. Lyra!” she shouted back over her shoulder, causing the mint green mare to come trotting over, a concerned look on her face upon seeing Twilight’s distressed look.

“What is it, Twilight?” she asked.

“Allen’s in the hospital, and needs our help,” she quickly explained, before turning and rushing back into the depths of the library, calling for Spike to come help her pack various things before she left.

Lyra, having been too far away and fully engrossed in her work to hear the full story turned to Redheart and cautiously asked, “What happened to him, is he going to be okay?”

Redheart quickly waved away her concerns with a hoof and gently replied, “We think Allen had a bad reaction to one of the vaccines we gave him. Thankfully it happened at the hospital while he was walking to the checkout desk, so I was able to quickly get him to the ER. Dr. Stable has him on a saline drip and mild relaxant right now, and we intend to keep him overnight as a precaution. However, that means he can’t go home to tend to his animals and seeing as you and Twilight are the only two he really knows that well, he asked us if we could come and ask you for your help.”

A determined look flashed across Lyra’s face and she replied without a second of hesitation, “Of course! Let me go grab my saddlebag and we can head there right now.”

Lyra hadn’t even had a chance to turn around before a pair of saddlebags, matching her coat color, and with her cutie mark printed on the side, were all but slammed onto her back and she was quickly pushed out the door by Twilight’s magic. “Okay, we’re ready to go now!” exclaimed a suddenly frazzled looking Twilight. Her usually neatly combed mane had a few stray hairs poking out at odd angles and her slightly off-center smile made her look a little unhinged.

“Are you alright, Ms. Sparkle?” asked Nurse Redheart, a sudden concerned look on her face at the sudden change in demeanor of Twilight.

“I’m fine! Fine, just fine, yep, nopony is more fine than me, I’m not worried about anything, cause obviously there is nothing to worry about right now, not one little thing!” she replied, her smile having become steadily creepier as she prattled on, leaving Nurse Redheart feeling less and less sure that the mare was in fact, ‘fine’.

Lyra, having been a friendly acquaintance with Twilight for several years, could see that her friend was quickly winding herself into a full-blown panic attack or mental breakdown, probably due to finding out that Allen was in the hospital so suddenly. Twilight had never been very good at handling stressful situations reliably. Thankfully, Lyra had experienced a few ‘Twilight Freakouts’ and knew some ways to mitigate them before they got too big, so she decided to try and soothe her by distracting her using one of the most reliable ways she knew how.

“Hey Twilight,” she said, in an almost conversational tone, a sly glint in her eye.

Twilight, a few more hairs having popped free of her mane, while one of her eyes started twitching, turned slowly to regard her friend and asked in a strained tone of someone trying to keep it together and failing, “Yes?”

“What’s your opinion on Haycarts Treatise on Ponies? I always thought he and his work were a little over-hyped myself.”

You could almost hear the needle scratch, as Twilight’s brain crashed, then rebooted, at Lyra’s remark. Giving her friend a look that practically screamed, ‘are you crazy’? She took a deep breath and proceeded to launch into a long lecture about how Haycart’s research and philosophy were a critical departure from the old ways of thinking and had helped usher in a scientific renaissance across ponydom.

And there we go, lecture mode engaged, and she’s already forgotten whatever it was that was bothering her, score one point for Lyra Heartstrings!

Giving Nurse Redheart a covert wink, Lyra inclined her head towards the hospital to signal that they should get going. Redheart, gave her a grateful smile, as she had heard about Twilight’s... eccentricities when she became stressed. Most of this was second hoof as she hadn’t been in town the day that Twilight had tried to figure out how Pinkie Pie worked, but from what she had gathered, it hadn’t ended well.

Shaking her head to get her mind back on task, she quickly set off, with Lyra pulling Twilight along behind as the bibliophile unicorn continued her one-sided argument concerning the merits of Haycart’s treatises.

By the time they reached the hospital, Twilight had entered full-on lecture mode, lecture aids included. Lyra, being the friend she was, was politely listening as Twilight talked. Redheart had stopped listening after the first few minutes, as nearly everything the book-loving unicorn said went right over her head.

“And that’s why Haycart is not over-hyped,” said Twilight, a satisfied look on her face as she poofed away her lecture aids. “Hey, when did we get here?” asked Twilight upon noticing they were standing outside the hospital now.

Lyra just smiled and rolled her eyes. “We just got here, you know, by walking.”

Twilight, realizing that she’d been completely engrossed in her lecture and had zoned out, blushed and awkwardly clearing her throat, sought to change the topic. “Well alright! Since we’re here, we should probably go see how Allen is doing,” and with that, she quickly rushed inside. Redheart and Lyra just looked at each other and giggled at the flustered unicorn’s antics before following her inside.

Inside, they quickly made their way to the ER and found Allen lightly dozing in his bed, though he was awakened fully when Twilight and Lyra approached him and they began talking. Dr. Stable meanwhile, having nothing better to do, had elected to remain in the ER and monitor Allen’s vitals, though as Redheart approached him, she could see that he had a puzzled look on his face, and he was idly chewing on his pencil again. He always did that when he came across a problem that didn’t seem like a problem at first, but that his gut said was a problem and that he just couldn’t see it.

Clearing her throat to get his attention, she gave him a smile and asked, “Found them, they were at the library working on research apparently. Though I’m a little worried about Twilight, she suddenly became upset rather quickly for some reason just before we left.”

Dr. Stable hummed in reply, “She’s a high-level beta unicorn, almost alpha level if we’re going, to be honest, it comes with the territory. Plus she’s an adolescent, hormones and magic never did mix very well.”

“Still, I’m worried about her mental well being, to go from calm, if concerned about Allen, to the early stages of a mental breakdown, to back to calm and focused again when Lyra distracted her, I think she should be evaluated again. If her power levels are increasing, it could be serious.”

Dr. Stable nodded. “I’ll broach the subject with her at her next physical evaluation next month. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.”

Redheart gave him a grateful smile. “And thank you for taking me seriously. It’s very nice to have a doctor who will listen to their nurses about this sort of thing, especially in regards to mental health.”

“I wouldn’t be worthy of my cutie mark if I didn't. A proper doctor has to look at all the information given to them about the health of their patients, regardless of where it comes from. Which is why I’m starting to question if my initial diagnosis of Mr. Ross’s condition was correct in its entirety.”

Suddenly feeling worried, Redheart moved closer to him and in a lower voice asked, “What’s wrong, I thought we determined that his system was just overloaded?”

Dr. Stable nodded. “That’s the thing, even if his system was overloaded like a pony’s would be after all those shots we gave him, he shouldn’t have exhibited the severity of symptoms that he did. After you left, I decided to take a second look at the new pony pox vaccine instruction booklet that they sent us, and according to them, Allen’s symptoms should have just been mild nausea, flushed face, and mild dizziness, not what he had.”

“But those symptoms are in regards to ponies, are they not?” asked Redheart quietly.

Stable shook his head. “No, they did a rigorous battery of testing before sending this on the market. The results were uniform across all demographics, with little variations. Granted there were outliers, but my gut tells me that there is something more going on here, and I’m just not seeing all the pieces.”

“Is he having any additional issues?” she asked.

Dr. Stable shook his head. “None so far, but I’m still worried. His physiology seems similar in many respects to our own, but there is just enough difference that I’m worried he could be experiencing an issue and we just can’t identify what it is based on his symptoms. Plus, we only did the bare minimum tests needed to establish normal baseline conditions and took the usual fluid, stool and tissue samples needed to test for diseases and such. While we did a full x-ray of him, we never did a Magical Resonance Imaging scan, but now I’m thinking we should, just to be on the safe side.”

“Have you discussed this with him?”

Again, he shook his head. “Not yet, I wanted to wait till after he had a chance to talk with Twilight and Lyra first. Because I plan to run him through the full battery of tests until I’m sure there is nothing wrong with him, and I don’t need him anymore stressed than he’ll already be.”

“Alright,” said Redheart with a nod, “that seems prudent.”

Turning to give her a wry grin he joked, “Glad you agree, nurse, wouldn’t want to overstep my authority or anything.”

She swatted his rump with her tail, though it didn’t hurt as much as it should have, as his white doctor's coat took the brunt of the mock attack, and stuck her tongue out at him. “Jerk,” she replied half-jokingly, as he chuckled in response.

However, his expression turned serious again, and turning to face her, he lowered his voice further, causing Redheart to lean in closer to hear what he said, “All kidding aside though, as soon as Twilight and Lyra leave, I want to get him to the MRI room and take a look inside. I’m wondering if his body is having trouble metabolizing the magic inside the medicine.”

“But wouldn’t these symptoms have shown up the first time we gave him shots?”

Stable shook his head. “Not necessarily, remember what he told us the first time we saw him, his world either didn’t have any magic or there was so little as to be unnoticeable. I looked over the first round of shots we gave him, and those contained fairly low doses of magical ingredients. However, this round was much heavier as we needed to shield him against the more dangerous diseases that we couldn’t do last time because he didn’t have the preparatory meds in him yet.”

Redheart felt the gears grinding away in her head as she slowly nodded, a thoughtful look on her face as she brought a hoof to her chin and idly rubbed it with her frog. “I think I see what you’re getting at. During the first round his body only needed to metabolize a small dose of magic, and so it didn’t affect him or the effects weren’t noticeable, but now...”

“Now the dose was too big for his body to keep up and coupled with his mild panic attack, he had a reaction. To be honest, I’ve never seen a reaction like this before to magical medicine. I’m worried we might need to have some none-magical medicine on hoof in case something happens to him.”

“It might not be a bad idea, but we should probably do the tests first and see what comes up before we go and blow the hospitals budget on chemically treated medicine, I know for a fact that the prices for those are much higher than our own.”

Stable nodded. “Indeed,” he said before sighing, “hopefully I’m just worrying over nothing and this is just a result of him being an outlier rather than something more serious. Stress might have also played a role in the matter. I can only imagine what kind of pressure and stress he is under right now.”

Turning to regard Allen and the two ponies across the room, Redheart nodded in agreement. “Agreed, might be a good idea to see if he’d be willing to have a psychiatrist talk with him, being ripped from everyone and everything you know and love isn’t something one can just brush off and walk away from unscathed.”

“I’ll see if he’ll talk with Dr. Sunny Skies, she has a way of getting ponies to open up and work through their issues,” he said before noticing that Twilight and Lyra seemed to have finished their conversation with Allen and were preparing to leave.

I wonder what they were talking about, it looks like Twilight made one of her lists again. I guess Allen wanted to make sure they knew exactly what he wanted them to do while he’s here. Thought Redheart as she and Dr. Stable slowly trotted over to Allen’s bed.

Giving the three a smile, Dr. Stable asked, “So, got everything squared away?”

Allen gave a tired nod. “I think so. It should be pretty straight forward, and Twilight made a...list if you could call it that.”

Redheart and Dr. Stable chuckled, while Twilight gave a sheepish smile as she tucked the thick, rolled up list away in her saddlebag.

Clearing her throat to cover up her embarrassment, Twilight replied, “I just wanted to make sure that we didn’t miss or forget anything, after all, what kind of good friend would I be if I didn’t listen and follow my friend’s instruction properly?” she said, a slightly strained smile forming on her muzzle, while a couple of previously straight hairs popped out of formation.

There she goes again, thought Redheart to herself, though she didn’t let her concern show. Shooting a glance at Dr. Stable, she slightly inclined her head at Twilight as if to say, ‘You see what I was talking about earlier?’ Stable just gave a shallow nod in reply while keeping his expression friendly.

Allen didn’t seem to notice Twilight’s sudden shift in demeanor, instead, he said sleepily, “I really appreciate this, girls, thank you.”

Twilight shot him a million-bit smile and replied, “What are friends for?” glancing up at the nearby clock on the wall, she suddenly gasped and exclaimed, “Oh my gosh, it’s nearly four o’clock, Lyra, we gotta go! Don’t worry Allen, just leave everything to us, no need to worry! Okaygottagonowbye!” she said quickly, as she all but dragged poor Lyra out of the ER with her magic.

Lyra was naturally not amused. “Twilight, let go of me, I can walk just fine you know, ow! Stop pulling! You’re gonna mess up my mane and tail!” any further words were muted as the doors to the ER shut behind them leaving two ponies and a recovering human behind.

Glancing at the two, Allen quirked an eyebrow and thumbing his thumb at the doors, he asked, “Either of you two know what all that was about?”

“I wouldn’t worry about, Mr. Ross,” replied Dr. Stable easily, “it’s probably just Twilight being all excited at the chance to help you and gather more data for her and Lyra’s paper.”

Shrugging, Allen just said, “Don’t think I’ve ever seen someone that enthusiastic about helping someone out, but that’s just me. So,” he said suddenly changing gears, “I noticed you and Nurse Redheart quietly chatting across the room, and I’ve been in enough hospitals and seen enough doctors and nurses trying to hide the fact that they’re talking about how they want to break the bad news to a patient. So out with it, what’s wrong now?”

Dr. Stable’s ears fell flat and he bit his lower lip as he tried to think of a way to tell Allen about his suspicions without upsetting him further. However, with being on the spot so suddenly, he couldn’t find an easy way to say it, so he just told Allen the un-sugarcoated truth.

Nearly twenty minutes later and Allen didn’t really know how to feel about what both Dr. Stable and Nurse Redheart had told him.

Just great, something else is going wrong. He sighed as he massaged the bridge of his nose with his fingers. Finally, after a few moments of silence, he asked, “Do you think you can subject me to even more magic without there being more problems. I mean, you just said that you think my body is having trouble with magic, so wouldn’t adding more magic make things worse?”

“This magic is different, you’re body isn’t going to ingest it, and while it’s true that some of it may be absorbed as it passes through during the scan, it wouldn’t really be any different than the radiation from the sun hitting your body. The mana will have a shorter life span than that found in medicine so it shouldn’t cause any additional issues.”

“But there’s no guarantee,” said Allen, finishing what the doctor hadn’t said.

Dr. Stable just shrugged. “Is anything in life?”

Allen sighed. “No, I guess not.”

“Look at it this way Allen, yes there is a risk, but there is also a risk of not doing the procedure, and in my opinion, the risk of not doing anything outweighs the risk of doing the scan. Short of opening you up and looking inside, we don’t have any equipment that can look inside you with the level of detail that we need to see what may be wrong. Besides, if something does happen, both myself and Nurse Redheart will be there to counter whatever it is that happens.”

Allen just lay quietly in his bed for several minutes as he weighed his options, finally, he said, “Alright, let’s do this then and get it over with.”

Nurse Redheart nodded and said, “I’ll get the machine prepped and get Nurse Love to help power it.”

“Alright, I’ll get Allen prepped, and we’ll be along shortly.”

Nurse Redheart nodded, and with that, she took off to get the MRI room ready, while Dr. Stable got Allen prepped for transport. Allen meanwhile didn’t have anything to do other than hope they were worrying over nothing.

As Twilight and Lyra trotted down the dirt road leading past Sweet Apple Acres, Lyra shot Twilight an unhappy look and asked, “Was it really necessary to pull me out of the hospital by my tail?”

Twilight gave Lyra a sheepish smile. “Sorry, I just...well, um, wanted to get started as soon as possible?” she finished lamely.

Lyra wasn’t convinced, as she continued her withering stare. “Something tells me that you’re not being entirely truthful with me here,” she replied.

Now Twilight began to sweat. “No! I-I mean, n-no of course not, don’t be silly! Why would I lie to you about something? I mean, we’re friends after all right?”

Lyra came to an abrupt halt and said, “Okay, several things, first,” she tapped the ground her hoof for emphasis, “if we really are friends, then I feel that you shouldn’t be keeping whatever it is that is bothering you from me, and that you should be able to trust that I will listen to and help you. Second, you’re terrible at lying, and I would recommend not trying your hoof at poker.”

Twilight bit her bottom lip, the tension ratcheting ever higher until finally she couldn’t take it anymore and exclaimed, “Okay fine! I admit it! This past week has been really busy, what with Allen showing up and dealing with Discord, and I got distracted and forgot to write Princess Celestia a reportaboutwhatIlearnedaboutfriendshipandI don’thavealotoftimelefttowriteonetoherbeforetheendofthedayandifIdon’t, I’ll be tardy!” she finished in a big rush, her sudden rant leaving her breathless as she fought to draw air into her lungs.

Lyra just stood there staring at Twilight, a confused expression on her face. “What?” she finally said after several seconds of silence, interposed by the sound of Twilight’s labored breathing.

Finally having caught her breath, Twilight looked up at Lyra, an incredulous look on her face. “What do you mean ‘what’? I just told you! Weren’t you paying attention?!”

Lyra slowly nodded. “Yeeees, but you kinda started freaking out and sped up at the end there, and it’s kind of hard to follow what you’re saying when you do that.”

Twilight felt her cheeks flush red in embarrassment. Seeing her friend’s distress, Lyra moved to the side of the road and patted a spot next to her and said, “Alright, get your flank over here and tell me what’s bothering you...slowly this time please.”

“But!”

“No buts! Either you tell me what’s going on or I’m going to go get Nurse Redheart to sedate you. You’re kind of starting to scare me right now Twilight, and I don’t want to see you get hurt, so the sooner you tell me what’s going on, the sooner we can get things done, okay?”

Twilight nervously trotted in place, unsure of what to do. Her head jerking back and forth as she watched the sun slowly moving closer to the western horizon. Finally, she realized that Lyra wasn’t going to budge, and it was best to just try and get this out of the way as quickly as possible, lest she fail in her mission.

Heaving a sigh, she quickly trotted over and told Lyra everything.

“Spike!” yelled Twilight as she tore through the lower level of the library in her quest for her saddlebags and supplies.

“What is it Twi?” asked the purple-scaled drake from his corner of the library distractedly, where he was currently engaged in reading the latest Power Ponies comic.

“Allen’s in the hospital and I need your help to pack my bags so that Lyra and I can go see him!” replied Twilight as she frantically tore through the various piles of papers and research material that she and Lyra had collected over the course of their current study session.

Spike lazily pointed to a nearby pair of hooks on the wall next to the door that lead down to Twilight’s underground laboratory. “Your bags are on the hook where you girls left them, and your extra set of quills and ink are in the top left drawer of your writing desk, extra parchment is in the center one.”

“Thank you, Spike!” exclaimed Twilight gratefully as she quickly gathered the necessary supplies, “do you kno-” she began, but Spike cut her off with another pointed claw towards a stack of books, already anticipating what she wanted.

“Mythology of Humans is in the first pile next to the end table, the third book from the top.”

Twilight quickly collected the tome, and carefully slipped it into her saddlebags. Shoot Spike, a happy smile she quickly trotted over and levitating him up in her magic gave him and hug and said, “What would I ever do without you, Spike?”

“Probably forgot to take care of yourself, and stay a shut-in for the rest of your life,” he replied sarcastically.

Twilight gave him an unamused look. “Haha, very funny, Spike. I’ll have you know that I’m doing a lot better about taking care of myself since I came to Ponyville,” she said, a faux haughty look on her face.

Spike rolled his eyes. “Yeah, real improvements being made Twilight, I only had to carry you to bed three times this week instead of every night.”

Twilight rolled her eyes in response and made to head out, having decided to leave Spike and his snark to themselves. However, as she was trotting away, Spike suddenly asked, “Oh, I almost forgot! Did you get a chance to write a friendship report for me to send to Princess Celestia for this week? Cause you haven’t given it to me yet, and it’s been a week since your last one. I know you’ve been really busy lately, so it wouldn’t surprise me if you forgot to give it to me.”

Twilight froze. Turning slowly, she fixed Spike with a blank look on her face and calmly asked, “What did you say, Spike?”

Spike, having gone back to his comic didn’t see Twilight’s expression at first. “I just asked if you had a friendship report for me to send to Princess Celestia is all. I know how you get when you’re busy, so I just wanted to see if you had one for me to send is all, if you don’t, that’s fine too, I’m just making sure.”

Twilight blinked once, twice, three times, before her brain finally caught up. Snatching Spike up again she brought him up so that they were snout to snout and she asked in a tone of voice that said, ‘I’m just seconds away from snapping, so please tell me what I want to hear,’ “What do you mean that it’s been a week since my last friendship report?!”

“Just what I said, you haven’t sent Princess Celestia a report in a week. If you want, I can send her a letter telling her you’ve been too busy with Allen and the fallout over Discord to write one this week. I’m sure she’ll understand,” he said with a shrug.

Twilight was suddenly hyperventilating now. “No, nononononono, that won’t work, Spike! Princess Celestia expects a friendship report every single week! Not every ten days, not every other week. Every. Single. Week. If I don’t find a friendship problem to fix and write about in the next,” she jerked her gaze away from Spike to the nearby wall clock, it’s hands read just after one in the afternoon, “eight hours, then I’ll be tardy!” she finished, her voice having taken on a whine.

Spike pushed himself away from Twilight and brushing himself off began, “Twilight, I’m sure-”

“And if I’m tardy, then Princess Celestia will not think I’m taking my studies seriously, and then she’ll give me a surprise test, and since I haven’t been studying, I’ll fail and she’ll send me back to...Magic Kindergarten!” exclaimed Twilight, now in full-blown panic mode.

Seeing his adoptive sister breaking down in front of him, Spike did the only thing he could think of, he slapped her.

*Smack!*

“Twilight, snap out of it! Princess Celestia isn’t gonna send you back to Magic Kindergarten, you’re overreacting, again!”

Twilight brought a hoof gingerly to her suddenly smarting check and quietly said to herself, having tuned Spike out, “You’re right, she won’t send me back to Magic Kindergarten if I can find and fix a friendship problem before sundown today! I know what to do, thanks, Spike!” she exclaimed as she grabbed Lyra’s saddlebags from the hook where they were hanging and rushed to the front door, leaving Spike alone with a foreboding feeling in his gut.

“This won’t end well.”

“And that’s it,” finished Twilight a slightly less distressed look on her face.

Lyra just sat there and stared at her companion. Oh boy, she’s on the edge of a breakdown, I can feel it. Okay, Lyra, you can do this, all you have to do is keep her calm and figure out some kind of simple friendship problem that you guys can quickly fix. That way she can get her report done before sundown, which is in, she glanced up at the sun and grimaced, six hours give or take. No pressure.

Outwardly she sighed and giving Twilight a confident smile said, “Alright, well I’m not sure what kind of friendship reports you have done so far Twilight, but maybe we can use our experience of helping Allen as one?”

Lyra’s suggestion seemed to perk Twilight up a bit. “Y-yeah, that's what I was thinking when we left the hospital earlier too.”

“I’m sensing a but somewhere,” replied Lyra.

“Well, I think I already learned that lesson when the girls and I helped Applejack during apple bucking season last year, and then there was also Winter-Wrap up, and maybe-”

“Okay, okay, I get it, you’ve learned the value of helping friends in need. Maybe we can find something else out of this to write to Princess Celestia between now and then.”

“But what if we don’t? What if we can’t find anything meaningful to write to the princess?” she asked, a shudder running down her spine at the thought of failing Princess Celestia.

Lyra placed a comforting hoof on her friend's withers and said, “Then we don’t find anything, and that’s it.”

Twilight whipped her head around to face Lyra, a panicked look in her eyes. “What do you mean that’s it? If we don't find something, we’ll have failed!”

Lyra nodded. “Yep, you’ll have missed a deadline and failed. But you want to know something Twilight?”

“What?” she asked, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes.

“Sometimes ponies fail, that’s life, and that’s alright.”

“No, it’s not! Failure is, is a terrible thing! If I fail-”

“Then you learn from it,” cut in Lyra when she saw Twilight getting ready to wind herself up again. “Twilight, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve failed at things over the years. I mean just the other day I got a test back from one of my classes and the professor gave me a D- for it. But I’m still here, and Equestria is still standing, does it hurt to fail, yes, but sometimes we learn more from failing than we do from succeeding. It’s like one of my professors said, ‘If you fail at something, then it was just your First Attempt In Learning’,” she said, having dropped the pitch of her voice to make it sound deeper in an attempt to mimic her professor's speech pattern.

She saw Twilight’s lips twitch in an attempt at a smile, but the smile died stillborn on her lips as she went back to worrying. Sighing, Lyra said softly, “Look, do you think that Princess Celestia hasn’t failed at something herself before in her long life?”

“No, of course, no-” began Twilight hotly.

“Nightmare Moon,” cut in Lyra, a serious expression on her face.

Twilight gaped at Lyra, her mental cogs having jammed at the mention of Princess Luna’s alter ego.

Seeing that she had the advantage, Lyra pressed on. “Think about it Twilight, how did Nightmare Moon come about? Princess Luna became jealous of her sister and Princess Celestia either didn’t notice or didn’t care enough to help her sister before it was too late and so Princess Luna was consumed by her jealousy and anger and became Nightmare Moon. As such, Princess Celestia had to banish her to the moon for a thousand years. Now I don’t know about you, but if I had to do that to my sister, and there are some days where Strumming really makes me wish I could,” replied Lyra, an annoyed look on her face at remembering the times when her sister could be quite trying on her patience. However, she shook her head and got back on track, “but in all seriousness, if I had to do that, I’d feel like the biggest failure in Equestria. You don’t think that hasn’t weighed on Princess Celestia’s mind for over a thousand years? And that’s not counting the day to day stuff that comes with ruling a nation. Equestria has gone to war on a couple of occasions, and I’m sure Princess Celestia has felt like those times were failures too.”

By this point, Twilight had brought her tail around to her front and was holding and stroking it like a young foal would their blanket when they were upset.

“So with all of that being said, do you really think Princess Celestia is that petty that she would send one of her best students back to Magic Kindergarten over a missed ‘friendship report’? Especially considering the circumstances that have happened over the past week or two, I mean really?”

“Well...when you put it that way,” said Twilight quietly as she continued to idly pet her tail.

Lyra sighed and moved forward to give her friend a hug. “Listen Twilight, I’m sure that you could easily send Princess Celestia a letter asking her for an extension on turning in your report, and she would probably be fine with it. Besides,” she said, letting go of Twilight and placing her hooves on Twilight’s shoulders and looking her in the eyes, “if Princess Celestia is really that petty and sends you back to Magic Kindergarten, you won’t be alone.”

“What?”

“I mean, that I’d come with you,” replied Lyra.

“Really, you’d come with me?” asked Twilight, flabbergasted that Lyra would be willing to sacrifice her entire scholarly career for her.

Lyra gave a firm nod. “Yep, in a heartbeat. You’re my friend, and that is what friends do for each other when times get hard. They are there, ready to help support you, and they stay with you, no matter what.”

Twilight felt more tears welling up at the corners of her eyes, and she all but flung herself at Lyra, wrapping the mint green unicorn in the mother of all bear hugs. “Thank you,” she said, as she buried her face in Lyra’s shoulder.

Lyra smiled. “Hey, it’s what a good friend would do.”

“Indeed it is,” came a sudden and unexpected voice from behind.

The two unicorns, startled at the sudden intrusion into their friendship moment, collectively yelped and spun around on the spot to see none other than Princess Celestia herself standing before them. Both of them sat there on the side of the road, gobsmacked at the sudden appearance of the princess of all ponies. However, after a moment they promptly prostrated themselves in front of her.

“Princess Celestia!” exclaimed Twilight, “What are you doing here?!”

Celestia chuckled and calmly said, “Rise my little ponies, there is no need to bow. This is a personal visit. Twilight,” she said as she strode forward and lowered her head so as to not look down on her student, “Spike sent me a letter telling me about your...concerns regarding your delayed friendship report today.”

“Princess I’m so, so sorry, I didn’t realize that it was due today an-” began Twilight, however, a gold-clad hoof gently placed to her lips silenced the panicking mare.

Giving Twilight a motherly smile, Celestia said, “My most faithful student, you have nothing to worry about. I am not angry or disappointed in you for not sending me a friendship report, even though,” she glanced up at the sky to gauge the position of her sun before saying, “you still have some time to do one if you want, as we have around five and a half hours till it’s time for me to put the sun to bed.”

Placing a wing across Twilight’s back, much like a mother hen would her chicks, and continued with a gentle smile, “However, if you do not have a new lesson about friendship that you learned to share with me, that is alright too. When I sent you to Ponyville to learn about friendship, I did not do so because I expected you to report to me every week as you do with your other subjects. Unlike them, friendship isn’t something that has easy to recognize lesson plans or examples. Often times we find ourselves learning something new by accident in our day to day lives. I wanted you to come to Ponyville and study the magic of friendship because I saw you isolating yourself from others using books and your studies as an excuse. Studying and learning are wonderful things to do, but many of life’s greatest lessons cannot be found within the pages of some dusty old book.”

Twilight stared down at her hooves, tears beginning to fall, and quietly said in a voice that nearly broke the older mares heart. “I just wanted to be a good student.”

Feeling a tear forming, Celestia hastily leaned down and wrapped her student in a proper hug and huskily said as she fought back the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes, “You are a good student, Twilight,” pulling back and giving her student a sad smile, she continued, “it’s just that sometimes I worry that you become so focused on one thing that you shut out everything else around you, and that is not healthy. Ponies are not meant to spend their days alone reading books. I have seen what can happen when a pony isolates themselves like that, and it is never good. So, please do not think that I am disappointed in you, I am not, I am happy that you have been able to make a friend who is willing to stand by your side and comfort you in your hour of trial. Hold on to those kinds of friends Twilight, for they are more precious than all the wealth of the world.”

Twilight fixed Celestia with a determined look and nodded, her tears having stopped. “I will princess, I promise!”

Celestia returned Twilight’s look with a happy smile, glad to see that her student was doing better. “I am glad to hear that,” glancing over at Lyra, she said, a mischievous look on her face, “Especially when they are willing to go back to Magic Kindergarten with you, in case their friend's teacher is ‘that petty’.”

Both Lyra and Twilight blushed at her quip. Chuckling at their embarrassment, Celestia let go of Twilight and said in a thoughtful tone, “You know Twilight, I think that this would make a wonderful friendship lesson to write about.”

Twilight’s face lit up with a smile and she immediately grabbed a quill and a piece of parchment and began muttering to herself as she wrote. Letting her student write her letter in peace for a moment, Celestia turned her attention to Lyra and said, “Thank you Ms. Heartstrings for being there for Twilight, I know that she has a propensity to let little things get to her, I’m glad to see that she has a friend who is willing to help her through those moments as you did.”

Feeling embarrassed at the princess’s praise, Lyra kicked a loose pebble with her hoof and replied, “I just did what anypony would do.”

Glancing over her shoulder and seeing her student was fully engrossed in her essay, Celestia leaned down so that she was next to Lyra, she quietly said, “Not everypony, I’m afraid. When Twilight first became my student she had difficulty interacting with the other students at the school. It is a sad fact of life that foals can be quite cruel to each other, and she had trouble making friends. As such, she quickly turned to reading books as a way to cope with the stress, of course, that created its own set of problems.”

Lyra gave Celestia an incredulous look. “Seriously? She didn’t have any friends besides the girls and me?”

“Are you referring to her Ponyville friends? I thought she didn’t meet them until she came here last year,” asked Celestia.

Lyra shook her head. “No, back in Canterlot. Twilight would sometimes hang out with myself and four other mares, Lemon Hearts, Minuette, Twinkle Shine and Moon Dancer. In fact, we were going to have a party for Moon Dancer the day Twilight left Canterlot,” her ears fell at the memory, “Moon Dancer didn’t take it well.”

Both mares glanced back to see Twilight was still writing, oblivious to the world around her. Celestia suppressed a grimace at the thought that she had inadvertently caused Twilight to miss her friend’s party. Though from the sounds of it, Twilight at the time hadn’t thought of them as friends, acquaintances, maybe, but not friends, at least not like her and her Ponyville friends were now.

Turning to look at Lyra, she said, “Perhaps it is not too late to amend that particular broken fence?”

Lyra gave the princess an unsure look, and replied hesitantly, “I don’t know, after Twilight missed her party, Moon Dancer turned into a complete recluse. Every time the girls and I would try and cheer her up, she’d just ignore us or push us away. I’m not sure if she’d be interested in talking with Twilight either.”

Celestia sighed, disappointed that she had inadvertently caused a potential friendship to wither away before it could properly take root. It was possible that her student could patch things up with this Moon Dancer, but it would be difficult for Twilight.

Twilight has overcome difficult challenges before, she freed my sister from her madness when I could not, and she and her friends sealed Discord in stone again. Shooting a covert glance at the mint green mare beside her, she felt a flitter of hope in her heart. And with her newly kindled friendship with Lyra and support from her friends here in Ponyville, I have faith that she could do the same with this Moon Dancer.

Giving a subtle nod, Celestia turned her attention back to Lyra and quietly said, “Ms. Heartstrings-”

“You can call me Lyra, Your Highness, when you or somepony else calls me that, I think they’re talking to my mother,” she said, a cheeky grin on her face.

Returning the grin with one of her own, Celestia responded, “Very well then, Lyra, I was about to ask you if you would help Twilight with repairing her relationship with Moon Dancer when things are not quite so...busy, as they are now. I know that if Twilight realized that she had caused your friend to become so withdrawn because she thought Twilight did not care about her, that it would cause her great distress.”

Glancing between Twilight and Celestia, Lyra gave the elder princess a confident smile and said, “Don’t worry, princess, Lyra Heartstrings is on the case!” she finished with a mock salute, and Celestia chuckled at her antics.

Opening her mouth to respond she was cut off by the sudden appearance of a rolled scroll held aloft in a field of magic in front of her face and Twilight all but shouting, “Done!”

Looking down at her student, Celestia saw that Twilight had a look of giddy anticipation plastered on her face, though Celestia could see that there was a hint of nervousness lurking beneath the surface. No doubt due to Twilight hoping to please her mentor by showing off her abilities in learning about friendship.

Taking the scroll with her magic, Celestia quickly opened it and read through it. When she was finished, she rolled it back up and sent it away in a burst of magic to her office back in Canterlot. Turning to regard Twilight, she gave her student a bright smile and said, “Well done my faithful student, you did a wonderful job, and I am very proud of you.” If Twilight’s smile had gotten any brighter, she could have used it in place of a lighthouse to guide ships at night. “However,” her smile dimmed a bit, “please do not feel as though I expect a report every week from now on, Twilight. Your letters have been a wonderful way for me to see you grow into a bright, caring, young mare and as such, I want you to only send me a letter when you have learned something new about friendship.”

Nodding her head vigorously, Twilight replied, “Of course, Princess Celestia!”

Celestia smiled. “Thank you, Twilight, I look forward to your next letter. To be honest, when I received Spike’s letter earlier I thought that you might try and create a friendship problem to solve!” she said as she chuckled at the thought.

Twilight joined her mentor in laughter, though hers was a bit more forced. “Yeah, create a friendship problem. As if I’d ever do something like that! Ehehe...”

Bringing her laughter under control, Celestia turned to regard the two ponies with a curious expression. “Well, now that we have that particular issue out of the way, I must confess, I am curious as to why you two are all the way out here if you were trying to find a friendship problem to fix.”

Twilight, glad for the change in topic latched onto it like a drowning sailor would a life preserver. “We came out here because Allen is sick and he needed help taking care of his animals while he’s in the hospital.”

Celestia’s expression morphed from curiosity to worry, and she asked, “What happened? Is he going to be alright?”

Lyra stepped forward and replied, “We’re not sure, Nurse Redheart said that he had a bad reaction to one of the vaccines that she gave him earlier. Thankfully he had his reaction while he was still at the hospital and they were able to get him treatment quickly, and when we were there, he seemed to be doing better, but, Dr. Stable wanted to keep him overnight in case there were any further complications.”

Celestia nodded, a serious look on her face. “I see, I am glad that he is doing better, and even though I have limited medical knowledge, I believe that keeping him overnight was the right call,” glancing up from the conversation, she looked back towards Ponyville and said, “I think I might pay him a visit before I return to Canterlot for the evening. However, I am quite curious to see this fabled farm of his. I’ve read Blueblood’s reports, however reading about something and seeing it for oneself are two completely different things. Would it be alright if I came along with you two?” she asked politely.

Twilight immediately replied with excitement at being able to spend more time with her mentor, “Of course princess, we’d be happy to have you come with us!”

“Is that alright with you, Lyra?”

Lyra smiled up at her princess and replied happily, “I’d be honored, Your Highness.”

Giving a happy nod, Celestia replied, “Then it’s settled, off we go!” and with that she, Lyra and Twilight set off for Allen’s farm.

It didn’t take long for the apple trees of Sweet Apple Acres to turn to rolling grassland on one side and fenced in pasture on the other. As the group trotted along, Celestia could just begin to make out the roofs of buildings on the horizon up ahead of them. As they got closer, she could see a gravel roadway connect with the dirt trail up ahead along with a beat-up mailbox to one side. As they passed it, Celestia took a moment to casually look it and the nearby fence over.

Hmm, they seem a bit worn. The fence looks like it hasn’t been painted in years, and this poor mailbox looks like somepony hit it with a bat at some point. I wonder if the rest of his farm looks as run down? Looking forward, she could now see both the barns and the house come into view, and her suspicions were confirmed when she saw their state.

Like the fence and mailbox, the various buildings on Allen’s property were all in need of some TLC, with paint peeling from the walls, rust forming on the metal roofs, weeds growing in the sidewalks and the flowerbeds and the yard poorly trimmed, it gave the farm a depressed looking atmosphere. As if the farm realized that it wasn’t long for this world, and had simply given up on taking care of itself.

Following both Lyra and Twilight, who were busily discussing various things related to Allen and his culture, Celestia contented herself with quietly observing as she trotted along. She quickly noticed that they were headed for the nearest barn. Looking it over, she saw that it had probably been the pride of the farm, with its high gambrel roof and stout wooden walls. However, those days were long gone, she noticed that the roof was sagging slightly in several spots, and the previously white metal roof was rusting in places, giving it a look of having open sores. It’s formally bright red paint and white trim having faded and flaked off in many areas, leaving the dull weathered wood exposed to the elements. Some of the wooden planks had even fallen off, leaving gaping holes in the side walls, looking like a pony with a missing tooth in their smile.

It pained her heart to see Allen’s farm like this. His family must have been going through some difficult times for his farm to become this rundown.

Seeing that they had arrived at a small side door, Celestia gave her head a shake to clear her thoughts and bring her back to the real world. Ducking her head slightly, so as not to bump her horn, she carefully stepped through the doorway into the gloomy interior. Lyra, having already been inside before, quickly located the nearby light switch and flipped it on, bathing the interior in a warm glow as the incandescent lights blazed to life.

Immediately, every animal inside began bellowing for food, thinking that Allen was finally there to feed them. However, the barn soon fell relatively silent as the animals realized that Allen wasn’t there, but the strange looking horse like creatures from before.

“Okay, that’s freaky,” said Lyra as Allen’s animals just continued to stare at them, blank expressions on their faces.

“Ehehe, yeah, we...should probably get started, the sooner we start the sooner we’re done,” agreed Twilight as she quickly brought out the list and glanced at the first item. “Okay, the first thing is to make sure everyone has water.”

Lyra nodded and began checking each stall for a water bucket. Celestia meanwhile contented herself with watching Lyra and Twilight work. However, her curiosity quickly overcame her and she decided to poke around while they were otherwise occupied.

Trotting away from the two unicorns, who were currently busy working on filling up a large water trough from the barns hydrant. Celestia poked her head into a nearby room and took a look around. The various saddles and tack strewn around the room at first glance, made her think that she had mistakenly walked into an adult toy shop in the seedier part of Canterlot. Either that or a farm supply shop in a small rural town, she sometimes found herself confused by her little ponies and their...interests. Shaking her head of the thought, she backed out of the room and continued looking around.

As she walked along she heard a soft nicker to her left. Glancing that way she felt herself pause as she spotted a large equine in a nearby stall. It reminded her of a Saddle Arabian in its physical build, though it’s facial movements were less flexible, and overall it seemed less graceful then they were.

Trotting closer, she carefully extended a gold-clad hoof towards the large equine, and it responded by leaning forward and sniffing her hoof.

This must be that equine that Allen was riding the day he ran into Lt. Palisade’s attempted ambush. Glancing down to her right, Celestia noticed a metal plaque with writing on it. Leaning down to get a better look she read what was written on it.

Reuben. Hmm, that must be their name. Turning her attention back to Reuben, Celestia continued studying them. Reminds me of those old fossils of our ancestors in the Canterlot Natural History Museum. To think that this is what ponies could have looked like if things had been different in our world. Though, it’s not every day that I run across someone who is taller than me. She thought to herself with a giggle.

Stepping closer, Celestia let Reuben lean in closer and sniff her again, the short hairs on their muzzle tickling her slightly. However, after a couple of sniffs, Reuben seemed to lose interest and turned to regard the other two visitors further away, of course in doing so, Reuben gave Celestia a free look at his equipment.

Oh my, blushed Celestia upon seeing his...package. Naughty thoughts flitted unbidden through her mind and she quickly shook her head to dispel them, a hot blush betraying her inner thoughts to the world.

Ugh, I’ve been celibate for too long. I need to find somepony to help me scratch that particular itch. Ripping her gaze away from Reuben, Celestia quickly moved on.

Leaving Reuben behind, she once again found herself trotting further into the interior of the barn. Normally she wouldn’t be this adventurous, but after reading about the many adventures that her student had gotten up to over the past year, Celestia found herself wanting to explore more and sit less.

Oh it feels so good to get out of that stuffy castle and just wander a bit. She thought pleasantly to herself as she poked her head into various nooks and crannies, the thrill of discovering new things slowly building up within her as she continued. However, a sound quickly put a damper on her sudden adventurous spirit, one that she hadn’t heard in years, and had hoped to never hear again.

The clucking of chickens.

As soon as she heard that first cluck, Princess Celestia, raiser of the sun, ruler of Equestria and a thousand and one other titles, stopped where she was, turned on her hooves and without a backward glance quickly noped out of there.

On second thought, being in a stuffy castle doesn’t sound so bad right now. She thought to herself as she beat a hasty, but not too hasty, retreat, appearances had to be maintained after all.

Quickly, but not too quickly, she passed her two unicorn companions as she headed for the exit.

“Princess,” called Twilight when she saw her teacher was about to leave, “where are you going?”

Coming to a halt, Celestia turned around, and with what she hoped was a calm smile replied, “Oh, I’m afraid that I need to leave, Twilight, something has...come up, yes, something has come up back in Canterlot, and I’m afraid I must go. I hope you understand.”

“Of course, princess!” replied Twilight, as she quickly trotted over to give her mentor a goodbye hug. Celestia, with a warm smile, bent down to return it, however, she froze when she spotted the first chicken come around the corner. An almost pained look came over her face, and she felt her muscles tense as her body went into fight or flight mode. Twilight, having let go of her end of the hug, either didn’t or pretended not to notice her mentor's sudden anxious expression as the flock of chickens came steadily closer.

“Well, I suppose I should be going now,” said Celestia quickly as she backed carefully away from the flock of slowly approaching chickens.

Both Twilight and Lyra gave Celestia a courteous bow of the heads in goodbye. “Goodbye, Princess Celestia, thank you for coming with us, we were happy to have you with-” the sudden flash and sound of teleportation magic cut Twilight off as Celestia vanished in a shower of golden sparks.

“Huh, that was kinda weird,” remarked Lyra.

Turning to her friend, Twilight cocked her head and asked, “What do you mean?”

Pointing a hoof at the spot where the princess had stood just seconds ago, Lyra replied, “Well, didn’t she seem kind of nervous at the end there? I don’t think I’ve ever seen Princess Celestia nervous before.”

Twilight pursed her lips together in a thoughtful expression as she replayed that last minute of conversation with Celestia in her mind. “Yeah, she did seem kind of upset by something, probably something to do with having to return to Canterlot so quickly. I hope everything is going to be fine.”

“I’m sure it’ll all work out, it usually does,” replied Lyra, unconcerned as the sound of clucking grew noticeable and she looked down to see a rather large group of chickens milling about their hooves, pecking at the ground in their eternal search for seeds.

Meanwhile in Canterlot.

“Seriously, Tia, We’ve been gone for a thousand years, and you are still terrified of chickens?” asked Luna, an irritated and tired expression on her face as she found herself suddenly sharing her bed with her older sister after said sister teleported into her room, and woke her from her sleep.

Celestia replied from under the covers where she cowered shaking like a leaf in the wind, “Well excuse me for being afraid of something that was responsible for a very traumatic incident during my foalhood!”

Rolling her eyes, Luna sighed to herself and laying a gentle hoof on the lump that was her sister she said, “Forgive Us, sister we shouldn’t have snapped at thee, We are simply stressed from Our re-adjustment to modern life.”

“Apology accepted,” sniffled Celestia as ancient memories came unbidden to her mind, memories full of sharp beaks, talons, and that infernal clucking.

As she continued to comfort her sister, Luna felt her own memories turn to the distant past as well. Well, at least the foals who put you in that situation all those years ago dear sister are naught but dust on the wind, and thou remainest, and so long as thou continueth to fear, We shall stand firm in our duty to chase those fears away. Whether they be in the waking world or the realm of dreams.

And so the Princess of the Night stayed up into the early hours of the evening in an effort to comfort her troubled sister.

Back near Ponyville, nearly an hour later after Celestia left, two tired and slightly dirty unicorns could be seen trotting back into town.

Turning to Lyra, Twilight said, “Thanks Lyra, for everything today, I’m not sure what would have happened if you hadn’t been there for me.”

Lyra simply smiled. “You’d probably have had a major freakout and used a spell to brainwash the entire town into liking an old doll of yours, thus starting a riot.”

“Oh hardy har har,” replied Twilight, an unamused expression on her face.

Lyra just chuckled. “But in all seriousness, you’re welcome, Twilight, that’s what friends are for.”

Twilight returned Lyra’s chuckle with one of her own before suddenly grabbing her friend in a surprise hug. Returning the hug, the two mares sat there on the side of the road for a few moments as they basked in the happy glow of their increased friendship. However, like all good things, the hug ended and the two continued on their way.

As they walked, Lyra turned to Twilight and asked, “I wonder how Allen’s tests went?”

Twilight bit her lip and replied, “I don’t know, but I hope they didn’t find anything wrong, and that it was just a case of a bad reaction to the medicine, I mean, it does happen from time to time, and Allen isn’t a pony, so there is a higher chance that he could be more sensitive to certain things.”

“True, and I’m sure he’s fine, I mean, if they did find anything massively wrong with him, they’d have probably sent somepony to find us about now.”

Twilight smiled and opened her mouth to respond when the sound of somepony calling their names cut her off. Turning to look down the road, they both saw one of the hospital staff running towards them, a concerned look on their face.

Shooting Lyra an ‘are you serious’ look, Twilight sighed as Lyra simply facehoofed and said, “Me and my big mouth.”

Meanwhile, at the hospital, two ponies stood around a bed with one human laying in said bed a look of disbelief on his face as he tried to process what they had just told him was wrong.

Finally, his brain caught up and he blurted out, “My what is too small?!”

“From what we can see, both your thaumic pathways and appendix are too small and underdeveloped to cope with the amount of mana your body is being required to metabolize,” said Dr. Stable matter of factly.

As Allen laid back on his bed, not sure what to think about Dr. Stable’s pronouncement, he thought back to earlier in the day when he went to get his MRI.

When he’d been wheeled in on the gurney, he hadn’t been sure what to make of the MRI machine. Unlike the ones back on Earth, this one was more open, with a pair of glass ovals the size of watermelons attached to a silvery colored metal ring that was maybe a foot wide and circled under a wooden table. The circle appeared to be attached to some sort of mechanism under said table that would allow it to rotate the two glass ovals as it scanned the patient.

As Nurse Redheart and Dr. Stable prepped Allen, Nurse Love, a unicorn with a light golden coat, purple mane, orange-colored eyes, and a heart-shaped lollipop for a cutie mark stepped into the room and began charging the machine with her magic.

Allen watched as her magic was absorbed by the two glass ovals, which up to this point had been a dull gray color, now they suddenly began glowing a soft orange as well as emitting a low hum. Tearing his gaze away from the nurse back to Dr. Stable, Allen asked, “So how is this gonna work?”

Carefully levitating Allen from the gurney to the table and gently setting him down, Dr. Stable explained, “All you need to do is remain still while the MRI scans you, you’re a little bigger than most patients we have, but I believe so long as you keep your arms and legs inside there should be no issues. These,” he pointed at one of the glowing glass orbs, “will scan you and send the images over to a screen at that work station over there,” he pointed to a nearby window that held a small desk and chair, with a flat plate of what looked like refined quartz sitting on top of the desk. “The procedure should only take about twenty to thirty minutes after which we’ll transfer you back to your room while we go over the results, and then we’ll let you know what we found.”

Allen nodded, a little wary of the fact that he was going to have a solid ring of metal spinning around him with nothing between him and it. “And you’re sure this is safe?”

Dr. Stable nodded. “Of course, the scanning ring spins very slowly as that gives us the best resolution of your insides, and as I mentioned before, this magic won’t be absorbed by your body, so there should be no side effects from the procedure.” Looking up, he noticed that the nurse charging the machine was finished, and giving Allen a reassuring smile said, “Don’t worry, Mr. Ross, you’re in good hooves, just lay back and relax, we’ll be in the workstation monitoring everything.”

Giving a final nod, Allen replied, “Alright, let’s get this over with then.”

Shooting Allen one final smile, Dr. Stable turned and trotted out of the room, shutting the workstation door behind him. Once inside, he leaned forward and hit a button on the desk, his voice suddenly emitting from a pair of nearby speakers, “Alright, Mr. Ross, we’re starting the procedure, please relax and we’ll let you know when we’re done.” With that said, he turned off the mic and started up the MRI machine.

With a low hum, the machine came to life as the two softly glowing orbs began rotating around Allen in a slow circle, starting at his head before then slowly working their way towards his feet. In total, the machine performed two passes, each one taking about fifteen minutes for a total of thirty, when the hum finally died down, Allen heard Dr. Stable say over the intercom, “Alright, we’re finished, Nurse Redheart will take you to your room for the night and I’ll be along later with the test results.”

Allen cautiously sat up and nodded at the doctor on the other side of the glass divider. Meanwhile, Nurse Redheart came out and helped him back onto his gurney. She then wheeled him out of the examination room to where he would be staying for the night.

A few minutes later and Allen found himself in your typical hospital room. Cream-colored walls, a white-tiled ceiling, and floor along with a pair of beds, with a green curtain separating them, made up the room. Settling back into his bed, Allen made himself as comfortable as he could while Nurse Redheart fussed over his IV and various monitors. After several minutes, she gave a satisfied nod and said, “Alright, I’ll be back with Dr. Stable and your results in a bit, but if there is anything you need, just push this little button on the side of the bed and one of the on-duty nurses will assist you.”

“Thanks,” replied Allen with a nod.

Redheart smiled in reply before turning and leaving.

When both Dr. Stable and Nurse Redheart returned later, Allen could tell that they didn’t have great news. Of course, nothing could have prepared him for what Dr. Stable had just told him.

Rubbing the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, Allen replied tiredly, “Okay, doc, walk me through what it is you found, why it’s bad, and what can be done to fix it, in the simplest way possible.”

Dr. Stable replied with a sigh and rubbed the side of his head as he thought. Finally, he said, “Alright, I’ll start with your appendix then, as that is where the process starts. Now, as you can see here,” he said, as he held up a large image of what Allen assumed was his lower abdomen. Pointing at a small worm-like appendage that was attached to the bottom of his large intestine with the tip of his hoof, Dr. Stable continued, “this is your appendix. At first, we weren’t sure if you even had an appendix, seeing at how small the little bugger is,” he jokingly grumbled to himself, “however, we managed to find it, so that alleviated some of our worries.”

“So that’s good then? That I have an appendix?” asked Allen, not sure if he should be happy or worried.

Thankfully Dr. Stable put any worries to rest with a nod of his head. “Yep, the simplest way is to think of the appendix as a second stomach if you will. Except in this case, instead of digesting food, it ‘digests’ mana into magical energy that your body can use.”

“Mana? You mean magic right?” asked Allen, a confused look on his face.

Dr. Stable shook his head, an amused smile on his face. “No, Mr. Ross, well, not entirely wrong, but not correct either. You see, mana is basically a form of raw energy that is the building block that we use to create spells. As such, nearly everything in the world contains mana to one degree of concentration or another.”

“Okay, not sure I’m really following here,” replied Allen tiredly, “I thought you guys just pulled magic or mana, whatever, out of the air or from ley lines or something.”

Dr. Stable gave a soft chuckle. “No no, mana doesn't really work like that in our world. It might work like that in some other world, but not here. So while it is true that mana exists around us in an ambient form, and that there are such things as ley lines. We ponies can’t just pull it out of the air or directly from the ley lines and use it whenever we want. Instead, we need to consume it, usually through food and water intake. Though there are potions that can be used to increase a pony’s mana reserves. However, using them too much puts a strain on the digestive system and isn’t healthy. It would be like if you were to drink several gallons of coffee at once. Your system would be overloaded with caffeine, and that isn’t good for you.”

Allen felt his ears metaphorically perk up at the mention of coffee, and turning to the doctor he asked, a hopeful expression on his face, “You guys have coffee here?”

Giving a happy nod, Dr. Stable replied, a wistful smile on his face, “Of course! That stuff helped me through many study nights. It’s widely available so you shouldn’t have too much difficulty obtaining some when your supplies run low.”

“Thank God,” said Allen softly to himself, as he’d been dreading the day he brewed his last cup of joe, but upon hearing that coffee was freely available in this world, that was one less worry he had to deal with, of course, that still left plenty more on his plate.

Shaking his head to bring his thoughts back on topic, he said, “Alright, getting back to the matter at hand.”

Clearing his throat, Dr. Stable continued, “Right, the matter at hoof. As I was saying, while ley lines and ambient mana do exist, we as ponies cannot directly use them to power our magic. Instead what happens is the mana from these sources is soaked up by various things in the world around us. Such as plants, water, minerals, etc. We as animals consume those things and turn the mana into usable magical energy that allows us to power our spells and abilities. Such as pegasi being able to fly, earth ponies being able to use their talents to grow food and the like or unicorns to cast spells. I suppose another way to think of it is that mana is just another nutrient that our bodies need to function properly. The appendix, therefore, is a critical part of the digestive system that allows the mana to be properly absorbed by the body and used without issue.”

“So what went wrong with me then?”

Dr. Stable sighed. “Well...I’ve never personally run into anything like your condition, before Mr. Ross. However,” he held up a hoof to forestall any outburst from Allen when he opened his mouth to speak. When Dr. Stable saw Allen wasn’t going to interrupt him he continued, saying, “I have run across cases where a pony, usually because of a compilation during pregnancy, was born with an underdeveloped appendix, and by extension, a weak thaumic network, it’s a rare issue, and thankfully treatable.”

“I’m sensing a ‘but’ here,” said Allen warily.

Dr. Stable nodded. “But, all of these cases are in young foals whose bodies are still growing. Additionally, there is also the consideration that your gut bacteria isn’t properly suited to breaking down the mana into usable energy that your body can absorb properly. This is primarily due to your underdeveloped appendix, as that is where the bacteria and enzymes that your body uses to break down mana into energy are created and stored, and since your appendix isn’t properly developed, it can’t produce the needed bacteria and enzymes necessary for your body to function.”

“So, what your saying is that I have magical diabetes?” asked Allen, a quiet look on his face.

Dr. Stable waggled a hoof back and forth in an unsure motion. “I suppose that is one way to put it. However, it’s a bit more complex than that, and we don’t have all the information that we need to make a proper diagnosis. When you first came in we didn’t think to do a gut floral test on you or any other tests beyond what was needed to identify potentially deadly diseases, as we were more concerned with keeping you from getting sick or getting us sick with a new disease. However, now that we have that particular issue sorted out, I’d like to do a full battery of tests on you to see what we can find.”

“Okay, and what all does that entail?”

“Needles, lots of needles...and samples can’t forget those,” replied Dr. Stable absently on the last part.

“Joy,” sighed Allen.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Ross, we’ll be sure to use a local numbing spell, that should hopefully take care of the majority of the discomfort.”

“Okay, so what happens after that?”

“That’ll depend on what your test results give back to us, the worst-case scenario is that you’ll need months worth of intensive treatments to bring yourself to a level approaching that of a healthy adult pony. At best, you’ll just need a couple of weeks to a month or two to get to a level where you don’t need to worry about mana overload. Though in your case, I’m leaning more towards the latter than the former.”

“Why’s that?” asked Allen.

In reply, Dr. Stable grabbed another blown-up image and, using the tip of his hoof again, pointed at Allen’s liver. “Sitting just below and behind your liver is your gallbladder, and right next to it, is your pancreas. These two organs also help process mana, just in different ways. Now, in general, we ponies do not have gallbladders. However, alicorns, on the other hoof, do have one as well as the appendix and pancreas.”

“What’s an alicorn?”

“They are a pony that possesses the magic of all three tribes, unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony, as well as their physiology. Meaning, they can cast magic with a horn, fly using their wings, and possess enhanced endurance and strength. Now, the only alicorns that are currently known in the world right now are Princess Celestia, her sister Luna, and their niece Princess Cadenza. However, I’m getting off-topic, now,” he said, clearing his throat as he tapped the image again, “as I said, ponies generally don’t have a gallbladder, we just have an appendix, also called a cecum and a pancreas. These two organs allow us to digest and use mana in our daily lives. However, the fact that you have all three organs, means that your body is better able to process and absorb mana for later use.”

“Alright, so if I have all three then, shouldn’t there be enough redundancy to keep me from having these kinds of problems?” asked Allen.

“If it was just due to your underdeveloped appendix, then yes, you would be mostly correct. However, your body’s thaumic pathways are just too weak to handle the strain imposed on them. Think of them like blood vessels, except that they carry mana instead of blood. The main problem with yours is that they are so small and weak, that if you were to try and push any normal amount of mana through them they wouldn’t be able to handle the pressure and would burst. Like trying to hook a garden hose up to a fire hydrant and turning it on full blast, the hose would rupture from the pressure after a time. Thankfully, the fact that you even have any pathways, to begin with, is a good sign. It means that your species at one point had access to mana and maybe used it in some fashion.”

“So does that mean I’ll be able to do magic spells and such?” asked Allen, hoping that something good would come of this uncomfortable mess that he’d found himself in.

Dr. Stable’s ears fell flat and an unsure look crossed his face. “I...do not know, to be honest. We know so little about your species that anything could happen. In fact...” he trailed off as if unsure he should finish the thought.

Sensing that the doctor was holding out on him, Allen gave him a firm look and said, “Spill it doc, if there is one thing I hate, it’s when people try to sugarcoat something, just give it to me straight.”

Sighing, Dr. Stable relented. “Very well, I was about to say that considering your world doesn’t either have mana anymore or that the mana is so weak that you might not even be able to properly process, let alone use it anymore.”

“Which means?”

Dr. Stable shrugged. “As this situation has never happened before that I can recall, where a pony was unable to process mana. All I can say is that if your body can’t properly process and use the mana that you consume, that you’ll likely...well, die.”

Allen sat there blinking, feeling as though someone had just punched him in the gut. “What?” he croaked out, “what do you mean, die?”

Dr. Stable gave Allen a sad look, “Think of it as a steam boiler if you keep shoveling fuel into the firebox and don’t use any of the steam created by the fire, eventually the boiler will explode. It’s the same thing with mana. If your body can’t process, absorb, and use the mana, it will just build up in your system until your internal organs become overloaded and shut down. I mean, look what happened today, we just gave you a very small amount of magical based medicine and you reacted poorly to it. What happens when you eat our food, drink our water , and consume other things that have mana in them on a regular basis? If your body can’t handle it, then...well, you’ll die.”

“Well...I did say not to sugarcoat it didn’t I?” replied Allen humorlessly, a dry smile on his lips.

Dr. Stable wasn’t smiling however, his lips were pressed together in a thin line, and his brain was shifting into overdrive. However, he quickly placed a comforting hoof on Allen’s arm and said, “Mr. Ross, I promise you that I will do everything in my power to keep that from happening to you. We have time, you still have food from your world that shouldn’t have any mana in it. Moreover, judging from our previous experience, your body can to some degree consume magically laced food and medicines, though only in extremely low doses. So you are not one-hundred percent intolerant to mana, so there is some hope there. Additionally, once we have some of your blood and stool samples, and analyze them properly, we should have a good idea of what we’re dealing with here. I have a feeling that you will, at a minimum, be able to absorb and process mana like anypony else. Whether that leads to you being able to do magic,” he shrugged helplessly, “only time will tell.”

“Still gonna suck,” replied Allen petulantly, crossing his arms in annoyance.

Dr. Stable gave him a wan smile. “Nopony said it wouldn’t, but I think you’ll pull through this.”

“So what did they look like?” asked Allen curiously.

“What did what look like?”

“My thaumic pathways,” replied Allen.

Dr. Stable grimaced in reply. “Nearly translucent, which is a bad sign. I almost didn’t see them. But thankfully the pathways around your heart showed up better than those further away. So there is that.”

“So how come nobody back in my word has seen these ‘thaumic pathways’?”

Dr. Stable shrugged. “Most likely they didn’t realize what they were looking at or they didn’t have the ability to see them. Thaumic pathways are generally easy enough to see in our world, as they are usually well developed and have mana flowing through them, which makes them stand out when we are taking scans or are operating. In your case, the pathways are small and thin, and there isn’t much mana flowing through them, so they are hard to see unless you are using a special piece of equipment, such as an MRI machine. Even then, we almost missed them entirely.”

“Well, at least you were able to see them,” said Allen with a resigned sigh.

“Quite. Now,” said Dr. Stable, as he and Nurse Redheart began trotting out of the room and he used his magic to flick the light switch off, “I believe that it is time for you to get some rest, and in the morning we’ll get those samples from you, and then go over what we found.”

Allen nodded. “Alright sounds like a plan doc, thanks for your help, and have a good night.”

“You as well, good night, Mr. Ross,” and with that, he shut the door, plunging the room into darkness. Allen let himself relax into his pillow and found himself drifting off to sleep.

Hopefully they’ll have good news for me in the morning. Was his last thought as he drifted off to sleep.

The following morning found Allen eating a simple bowl of oatmeal as Dr. Stable came in.

“Good morning, Mr. Ross, did you sleep well?” he asked, a cheerful expression on his face.

Allen nodded between spoonfuls of oatmeal. “Yeah, your hospital beds are more comfortable than the ones back home, it feels like I’m sleeping on a cloud or something.”

“Well, technically, you are,” replied Dr. Stable.

“Wait...what?”

“All of our beds have special clouds inside them, the mattress cover is specially enchanted to prevent the cloud from dissipating as well as to provide support for non-winged beings.”

Allen shot his mattress a dubious look but decided not to press the matter further, instead electing to focus on the doctor's apparent good mood. “So, is that smile a professional one, or do you have some good news for me?” asked Allen hopefully.

Dr. Stable floated a small folder in front of him and replied happily, “I indeed have good news, we just finished your tests this morning and the initial results look very promising.”

“How so?” asked Allen, hope welling up in his chest.

“Well,” began Dr. Stable, “we’ve found traces of the microbes in your stool sample that are necessary to the processing of mana. There aren’t very many of them and they are very weak, in fact, we nearly missed them because of that, but one of the lab techs is very good at his job and managed to spot a few. As such, that somewhat answers our question regarding why you didn’t have an initial reaction when we first had you here last time.”

“And why is that?” asked Allen curiously as he polished off the last of his oatmeal, and it was his oatmeal, as Dr. Stable had asked if they could retrieve some food supplies from Allen’s home the previous night so that he could have something to eat that wouldn’t upset his condition.

“I don’t have a fully fleshed-out theory yet, I would have to go to your world and take measurements of the various plants, animals, and minerals there to see if there is any mana present in the environment. But, what I can say is that from what we have found in those samples we took from you, that your world at one point had more magic in it. Now as to whether that was enough to allow for spells or just a healthier and longer life span, I don’t know. However, the fact that you have an appendix, even if it is underdeveloped, along with the microbes needed to process mana, and that you possess a thaumic network are strong indications that your world still has magic in it. It’s just that it’s so weak that no one can detect it.”

“So what does that mean for me?”

Dr. Stable set the folder down on the bedside table and stood next to Allen’s bed. “Well, it means that your treatment won’t be nearly as long or as difficult as we initially thought. Moreover, it will mean that your animals should be fine as long as we give them the needed probiotics, same as you, to get your, and their, gut flora in balance with their new environment.”

Allen nodded. “That’s good to hear.”

Dr. Stable smiled. “Indeed it is. Now, did you have any concerns or questions for me? We’re still working on getting the needed medicines and specialists in to get you up to snuff.”

“Yeah, I had a few,” replied Allen.

“Alright, lay them on me,” replied Dr. Stable as he magically levitated a clipboard and pencil in front of him, in case he needed to write down a request from Allen.

“Okay, well the obvious first question is, who’s going to pay for all of this? I know that Blueblood and Red Tape had mentioned the Crown would pay for my vaccines and stuff, but they didn’t say anything about this, and I don’t have any insurance here.”

Dr. Stable nodded as he made a note on his clipboard. “A fair question. I’m afraid I don’t know, I would assume that the Crown would be willing to pick up the tab considering everything, but then again, they might not, it’s hard to say. We won’t know until we hear back from His Grace, as we only got around to sending out a message late yesterday, so it might be a day or two before we have any official response. However, even if the Crown says no, which I highly doubt they will, the hospital will be more than happy to work with you to manage your bill.”

“And how much is this bill going to come out to?” asked Allen as he braced himself for the inevitable wallet shock.

“At least a few thousand, but probably no more than ten, maybe fifteen thousand depending on if we need to do further treatments.”

“That’s it? For all of that, it’s only gonna cost me at most fifteen thousand bits in total for everything?” asked Allen incredulously.

Dr. Stable gave Allen an odd look. “Of course, why wouldn’t it? It’s not like you’re having a major operation such as heart bypass surgery, and even then it’d only be around forty or so at most. Why, how much is it back in your world?”

“Uh, a lot more than that,” replied Allen, still shocked at how little they were going to potentially charge him.

Now curious, Dr. Stable set his clipboard down and pressed Allen for further details. “Well, how much more?”

“Well, I’m not sure what the exchange rate is between our currencies, but,” Leaning back in his bed, Allen screwed up his face as he tried to recall how much medical care cost back home, finally, he said, “if I remember correctly a heart bypass alone would cost nearly two hundred thousand dollars on average. Of course, that’s not taking into account things like room cost, lab work, transportation, etc. A lot of people report having medical bills in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, some even millions.”

Dr. Stable felt as though his jaw was about to hit the floor. “M-Millions?!”

Allen nodded.

Dr. Stable spluttered in shock at the price. “How in Equestria do they justify that price?!”

Allen shrugged helplessly. “A lot of reasons I guess,” holding up a hand he began ticking off reasons with his fingers, “an overweight, aging, and unhealthy population coupled with government regulations, doctor and nursing shortages, and expensive medicines all make it more difficult to get quality and affordable care.”

“My word,” exclaimed Dr. Stable, astounded that medical care could be so expensive.

“Yeah, it sucks, but it is what it is, and there isn’t much that can be done to fix it, or at least, there aren’t many people who can fix it that are willing to do so. Of course, since you guys have magic, that probably makes things a lot easier for you. I bet you guys have spells to fix all kinds of problems near instantly.”

Dr. Stable chuckled. “While it’s true that magic is pretty good at taking care of minor issues and helping to speed the healing process along, it’s not perfect. Some things can’t be healed by simply waving a horn at them and casting a spell.”

Allen nodded. “Yeah, if that were the case, I wouldn’t be stuck here in this condition.”

“Agreed, now, what was your other question?” he asked.

“Well, what all is involved here? I mean, is my appendix going to get bigger or what?”

Dr. Stable nodded. “Yes, it’ll need to be a bit bigger in order to properly work, I’m not entirely sure yet, as we’re still working on fully figuring out your physiology in comparison to ours. So that adds some additional complexity to the issue. Additionally, we’ll need to get your gut bacteria up to snuff so that they can properly handle the influx of mana and be able to turn them into energy that the body can use. Moreover, since your body has been starved of mana for so long it will need time to adjust. Too much mana at once will send it into shock, much like it would if you gave a starving pony a cake after only having lived on dried straw for months. Their system wouldn’t be able to handle it and would go into shock.”

“Yeah, let’s not do that,” replied Allen.

Dr. Stable nodded. “So in your case, we will have to carefully monitor your mana intake and make sure you’re not getting too much at once.”

“Makes sense, so how long do you think it will take then?”

Dr. Stable waggled a hoof back and forth in an unsure manner, “I’m not one-hundred percent sure, but the treatment itself should only be a few weeks, after that, we will slowly give you more and more mana rich food until your body is used to it.”

“So different foods have different levels of mana in them?”

Dr. Stable nodded happily. “Oh, of course! While everything in the world has mana in them, some have more than others. For instance, grass has a very low amount of concentrated mana in it. That means if you eat grass, you’d get very little in the way of magical energy from it. However, milk from a cow that has eaten grass is chock full of mana!”

“So basically mana gets absorbed and passed along up the food chain?” asked Allen.

Dr. Stable nodded, a pleased smile on his face. “Naturally whatever doesn’t get consumed by the organism for its daily needs is stored in its cells and other areas, in our example of the cow, her milk. For plants, seeds are often chock full of mana as the future generation will need the energy to get started and grow.”

Allen gave a thoughtful nod. “Makes sense, back home it’s well known that nutrients work their way up the food chain, often becoming more and more concentrated the further up they go. I guess the same principle applies here as well.”

“Exactly the same,” nodded Dr. Stable, a pleased grin on his face. Looking up at the clock on the wall, Dr. Stable then said, “While I wish I could stay, Mr. Ross, it’s getting late, and I have other patients to see and paperwork to do. If you have any questions, concerns, or need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

Allen gave the pony doctor a return smile and said, “Alright, thanks doc.”

With that, Dr. Stable bid Allen goodbye and shut the door behind him. As he walked along the quiet hallway, he mentally began compiling a list of everything he needed to do, along with everypony he needed to talk to before the day was over. All in all, it was shaping up to be a long day, and an even longer night.

But it’s all worth it when I see a happy and healthy patient leave my care. He thought to himself with a happy smile as he continued down the hallway to his office.

Of course, coffee helps too.