A bridge between two worlds has been set, contact has been made but tensions are still high. Trust and understanding must be established. Can a technician help that along? Can the Humans and Ponies benefit from each other?
Charlie was never the most sociable person on the base, but he was dedicated. Little did he know that his skills and introverted nature would make him perfect for one of the most adventurous missions in human history.
He's tasked with providing technological assistance to the newly discovered Equine homeland whilst discovering all he can for the benefit of Mankind back home. He'll also discover more about himself as he's thrown headfirst into some very strange situations.
It was quiet. Much more quiet than usual. Charlie sat outside his commanding officer's main office, occasionally glancing over to the secretary to see if it's finally time to get this over with. "Why the hell was I called to see him so late?" Charlie thought. "Surely that webcam incident is behind us by now. Although, I can't blame him for still having ill thoughts about that mess I put him in. But seriously, how was I supposed to know the web-cam he bought had an auto-record feature? All I did was install it! Some serious spy shit right there." His attention was brought back into the room by the secretary’s desk phone ringing.
“Yes sir?.....I see......very well, I’ll send him through” she said in a bland tone.
Charlie could barely hear his officer's voice through the tiny speaker. He couldn't make out the words, but he definitely didn't sound cheery.
“Well shit” he thought.
Charlies relationship with his superiors has never been top notch. He's always been more of a 'Leave me alone and i'll do it myself' kind of guy. Silly really, he thought that would be what commanding officers wanted. Someone who'll just get on with the job and not get caught up in the pointless chit chat. But no, apparently they want someone who'll tell them anything and everything about what you're up to.
“He'll see you now” spoke the bland female voice behind the desk.
Charlie rose to his feet, past events running through his mind.
“Sure my track record with the bosses hasn't been great. But I get on great with my other colleagues. Yeah OK, maybe I don't talk much...but I’m there for them when they need me. Surely that's gotta count for something, right?” He thought as he opened the door.
Charlie stepped through the double doors and into the office. Closing the doors behind him, he glanced around the room. The blinds were half drawn over the large window that spanned the right side wall, allowing only a dim light into the room. Cabinets and desks sprawled the outer edges of the room with most holding books, papers and small models of various military vehicles. Running parallel with the window, stood a large desk and chair. Charlie felt the familiar texture of the expensive carpet under his shoes. He was no stranger to this room, nor to the man who stood peering out through a slit in the blinds.
Charlie took a breath and stood at attention. “Well, best get this over with.”
“Sir!” he said with purpose.
…
…
“...uhh...do I say it agai-”
“Take a seat, Corporal.” the Captain spoke, still staring outside.
Charlie sat down in the single chair opposite the desk. He figured he's just wait for the Captain to make the moves from here on out.
… …
Still nothing
…
“Fuck, is he seriously gonna drag this out?” Charlie thought, feeling this stellar awkwardness starting to affect him.
At that moment, the Captain sighed and slowly turned around. Staring right into his eyes, Charlie saw an expression he very rarely saw on his superiors face: neutrality. Charlie always knew this man, Captain Swanson, as a very busy and expressive man. He was very passionate about his work, and demanded the same out of his subordinates. This was probably a prime reason as to why Charlie didn't really see eye to eye with the Captain that much.
“Let me start off that this isn’t going to be what you’re probably expecting it to be.” The Captain said slowly.
Charlie remained quiet.
“I’m going to explain the situation, and then i’m going to ask you a question. I’m afraid that due to the nature of what’s happening, you’re going to have to answer the question only knowing half of what’s going on. Do you understand?” The Captain placidly said.
Charlie was getting slightly more worried, yet remarkably, also a little curious. This had never happened before.
“I understand, sir”
“I can’t tell you the details of what’s going on, but I can tell you why I specifically requested you. A mission, or rather an operation is about to go underway in a foreign territory. But here’s the catch: I don’t need soldiers.”
“Uhh...What?...None at all? I’ve never been away from homeland bases before, but i’ve heard that even when other techs like me have to go abroad, soldiers ALWAYS go as well. It goes without saying! “ Charlie thought.
“No soldiers at all, sir?
“None at all” The captain responded.
“Okay then, why me? I’m not the highest ranking technician here, nor am I the most experienced. Especially on Ops abroad.” Charlie said sitting back in the chair.
“Are you familiar with Lieutenant Vasquez? The Captain said suddenly.
Taken back with the sudden digression, Charlie responded after slight hesitation. “Yes sir, i’ve worked with her many times”.
Out of everyone on the base, Lieutenant Sophie Vasquez was the only one Charlie made the effort with socially. She also made the effort too. She was a decent soldier, always putting the recruits through their paces. Especially in the hand to hand combat ring. Fortunately, Charlie never had to experience that ‘privilege’ but she always found the time to playfully tease him about being a ‘nerd’. Still, she always seemed to appreciate him fixing her electronic equipment, to the point where she would specifically request him whenever something was on the fritz. Even during the early hours of the morning (much to his annoyance) but even then he still got up and did his job. He didn’t even moan about it because he always enjoyed their talks.
“Well it just so happens that she’s my step daughter” The Captain said.
...
The Captain continued, “She spoke highly of you. Said you were modest and dedicated. Yes, you may not be the highest ranking technician here, but she’s said specifically that she recommended you for this Op. I’ve personally overseen her military career so far and i’d trust her judgement in a heartbeat.”
“After this, I gotta get back to her office and change her desktop background back to the way it was before she gets back from her training. I’m suddenly having second thoughts about having changed her slideshow of favourite animals to internet sloth memes” Charlie thought.
The captain’s words brought Charlie’s attention back into the room. “I’ll have you know that without her personal recommendation, you would not be sitting here right now. I would not have selected you for this Op.”
“Sir, what is this Op? You still haven’t said.” Charlie responded.
“And i’m not going to. Not in detail at least. I’m afraid it’s top secret, and I still don’t have your consent. If you say no to this Op, I can’t have you leave here knowing the details.”
This really got Charlie’s attention. He actually had to provide consent!? Usually, you get what Ops you’re given and just deal. Charlie knew this must be serious. The Captain had a stone expression on his face, projecting a very serious mood.
“So, I get to choose whether or not to accept this Op. But you won’t tell me what it is?” Charlie said calmly as he could.
“Yes and no. I can tell you that this is a hearts and minds mission of sorts. You’ll be conducting technical assistance with the locals using a site facility of our own construction. As I said before, Soldiers are no good here. The leaders of this land have specifically requested that no soldiers are to take part. We need someone with particular skills together with a particular personality and mind set. So far, you fit the bill. This is a special Op. You’ll be away from home for a long time, but the rewards are worth it.” The Captain said.
“Rewards sir?”
“Yes, on top of your normal salary, you’ll have access to state of the art equipment for use in this Op. As well as the great sense of adventure, something you’ll not likely find again in your future military career.” The Captain replied.
To say that Charlie was intrigued would be putting it lightly. Although the Captain was being rather reserved in the ultimate details, things seemed placid on the face of it. Although the lack of security was nagging in the back of his mind.
“Any expected hostilities, sir?” Charlie asked.
“The area is not a combat zone, if that’s what you’re asking. I have no reason to believe you’ll threatened during your Op.” The Captain replied quickly.
“Well, doesn’t seem so bad I guess. I’ve always wanted to try something more. I don’t think i’ll get something quite like this again. And state of the art equipment! I bet i’ll have access to everything i’ve asked for in the past that’s been rejected. Awesome!” Charlie thought to himself.
“That’s all the information i’m allowed to give you. What’s it to be? Yes or no?” The Captain said bluntly.
Charlie sat for a minute or so, trying to analyse what he’s been told and figure out the best decision. Weighing up all the worst case possibilities and trying to figure out if it’s worth it. But in the end it was all for nought, for his sense of adventure was always drawing him to the same answer.
“Yes sir, i’ll do it.” Charlie said firmly.
“Very well. From here on out, there’s no going back. I’ll expect you in the sub-level lab 1B tomorrow morning at 0600.” The Captain said. “And i’ll leave you with this one final detail, now that you’ve said yes.”
“What’s that, sir?” Charlie said anxiously.
“The territory you’ll be stationed in is not on this planet ... and it’s called Equestria.”
Charlie stepped into the elevator and brought out the security pass that the Captain had given him yesterday. He swiped it across the scanner and the small touch screen displayed various floors. He noticed there was one extra option showing on the screen than usual: Sub-Level Lab 1B. Pressing his finger over the option, the doors closed and the elevator began to descend.
The same thought was running through his mind that had kept him from getting much sleep last night: “Another world.”
The elevator reached the destination floor and the doors opened. Charlie stepped outside and took in the very different surroundings.
Everywhere was the colour white, the walls, floor, machines and even the clothes the scientists wore. There were too many screens dotted around the place to count. Oddly enough, not a single scientist looked up at Charlie considering how out of place he looked. Charlie couldn’t see the Captain anywhere.
Charlie looked at his watch: 05:58am.
Suddenly, two heavily armed soldiers stood either said of Charlie. “Follow me” the one on the right said.
The two soldiers led Charlie around the outside of the Lab. Charlie peered around the soldier on the left to see the scientists still rushing around.
“How could they be working that hard at this hour? There’s not even any coffee!”
Charlie reached a set of double doors and the two soldiers turned and stood at attention either side of the door.
“Guess I......just go in.” Charlie deduced. Stepping inside, Charlie saw it was a large conference room. A large meeting desk stood at the center of the room and immediately Charlie spotted Captain Swanson, Lieutenant Vasquez and a scientist he didn’t recognize.
Lieutenant Vasquez smiled warmly at him, while the scientist gazed curiously towards him. The Captain remained expressionless.
“So this is the tech you want to send?” The scientist said to the Captain. “He’s younger than I expected”.
“Don’t underestimate him, Johnson.” Replied Vasquez. “He’s a nerd alright!”
Charlie sighed lightly and then stood at attention.
“Take a seat, Corporal” Captain Swanson said.
Charlie took his seat, and the Captain spoke again. “This is the part where we explain the details of the Op you’ll be undertaking. You’re already familiar with the lieutenant.”
Lieutenant gave Charlie a slight nod and smile. The Captain gestured to the scientist and continued. “This is Peter Johnson. He’s head of research on this base. He has no military rank, but make no mistake, he’s your superior.”
Charlie nodded to Peter, “A pleasure, sir.”
The Captain stood up. “Now then, with the formalities out the way, let’s get on with it. Corporal, i’ve already informed you that your Op will be conducted in a foreign world. I suppose you’re wondering how that’s possible.”
“It crossed my mind.” Charlie said nonchalantly.
Peter leant forward on his chair, “A few months ago, we finalised work on a project we were conducting regarding research into recursive energy transitions. As with most cutting edge science like this, we could only hope to achieve our desired results by over sizing the machines we were using. Our plan was to miniaturise the technology at a later date once we worked through the inevitable teething issues”
Charlie quickly glanced over to lieutenant Vasquez but she only had a bored look on her face as she rested her head on her hand. Charlie returned his attention to the scientist, peter.
“Recursive energy transitions? You mean like, self renewing energy movements?” Charlie asked.
“Precisely. We were originally planning to use it in batteries, so we can install them to run vehicles and replace forward base generators. But it never got to that stage. There was an unexpected result from our initial tests. Instead of creating a stable renewing energy loop, we read both an input and output of energy. A perfect balance at that.” Peter said.
“So it was drawing and providing energy at the same time? I take it your machines could throw off the balance by trying to draw energy from it.” Charlie said, getting a little more interested.
“I can see why you recommended this one lieutenant. Thinks like a scientist!” Peter said, a little surprised.
“Just wake me up when you guys finish geeking out with each other.” Vasquez said sounding half asleep.
“To answer your question, Corporal, we tried doing exactly that. But the energy field didn’t respond at all. The machines we used could draw no power from it either. It baffled us, so we put a sensor probe into the field hoping to get some readings. Not only did we get no different reading from it when we pulled it back, but something else came out the field with it.” Peter said, clearly enjoying the tension he was making.
“I think I know where this is going. But i’ll have trouble believing it.” Charlie said slowly.
“A small glowing rock or more precisely, a gem, came through the field. It was then pulled back through by the string that was attached to it. We had created some kind of portal, and whoever was on the other side was doing the exact same thing as us. Testing what was on the other side.” Peter said.
Captain Swanson suddenly piped up. “From that point on, the armed forces had to take over. With help from Peter’s scientists, it was finally established that Humans could safely pass through the portal. We went through and what we found was nothing short of amazing”. The Captain flipped on the overhead projector and images appeared on the display screen at the other end of the room.
Charlie couldn’t believe what he saw. The landscape looked remarkably similar to earth on the face of it. Trees, mountains and rivers dominated the landscape. But what was really strange was the small equine creatures that were standing in the pictures next to the military officers. They were brightly coloured, with large eyes and only slightly shorter than a standing human.
“These are the locals. I can understand that they are rather unusual but I assure you that they’re intelligent and, so far, peaceful. Take a good look Corporal, you’ll be seeing and working with these locals for a while.” Captain Swanson said, with his back to the table looking at the display wall.
“How are the language barriers, Sir?” Charlie asked as calmly as he could. The realisation of what he was about to do what slowly sinking in his mind.
“Non-existent. They speak perfect English, both verbally and literately” The Captain replied.
“WHAT!?” Charlie thought. He looked around at both Peter and Lieutenant Vasquez. They both had serious expressions on their faces. Vasquez had even seemed to wake up a bit.
“How’s that possible?” Charlie asked looking over to Peter, perhaps the best one in the room to answer his question.
“We’re still working on that one.” Peter replied, looking a little sheepish.
“We’re not complaining” The Captain added. “It’ll make your job easier when you get over there”.
“And what is my job, Sir?” Charlie asked.
“You’ll be running a small facility near a rural town. It’s a multi-purpose facility which you’ll be living at as well. Its main purpose will be research for our benefit, and communications for their benefit. They may also require some tech development from you, as they seem very interested in our toys. You may provide them with whatever you have available to you at your discretion. I expect the facility with be changing quite rapidly in the near future, so much of it you’ll have to deal with as it comes.” The Captain said, turning around to face the group.
Peter spoke up. “We’ve only been in contact with this world for a few months, so really this’ll essentially be the main constant point of contact between us and them. So because of that, we’ll be providing you with the best hardware we have. We need you to be fully capable while you’re out there.”
Lieutenant Vasquez stood up. “We’ve already discussed with their apparent leaders and they have agreed to allow us to send in very small numbers of armed personnel to oversee the security of the construction of your facility. My team are in there right now, along with a construction team finalising the job. It should be more or less ready.” The lieutenant said.
“We got word back from the construction team last night that the facility has been built.” The Captain said. “They’re ready when you are, Corporal.”
“Certainly not wasting any time here are you?” Charlie said under his breath.
“We’re aiming to improve diplomatic relations with this world, Corporal. That’s what i’ll be covering with you when you’re out there. Peter will be covering what research he wants done from you. Is that understood?” The Captain said straightening up.
“Yes Sir.” Charlie said, staring blankly ahead of him.
Charlie stood with his mouth wide open. Sure, he had been amazed at what he’d seen just walking through the labs but this huge machine in front of him took the biscuit. It really reminded him of a Stargate, standing at about a 50ft diameter. Scientists were all around it, looking at clipboards and instructing other scientists of what calibrations needed doing. Charlie had never seen anything like it before.
“Quite a sight isn’t it, Corporal?” Peter said proudly.
“She’s certainly something.” Charlie said slowly.
“All your equipment and supplies have already been passed through. You’re the only thing left on the list. Let’s fire it up and get you across.” The Captain said, followed by a wave of his hand to the control room. The scientist inside gave a thumbs up and began punching buttons and flipping switches. Shortly after, a low hum could be heard from the mechanical ring. The noise grew slowly and a small blue glow could be seen from the coils that surround the large ring. The noise grew and grew before a voice could be heard over the speakers.
“Initialization complete. Engaging primary systems now. All personnel stand clear!”
The hum changed into a loud crackle and a bright blue beam projected from each glowing coil with each beam meeting in the middle.
“Primary systems reading nominal. Engaging stabilization systems.”
The area between each beam began to be slowly filled with a flat blue mist, before completely filling the area of the ring. Charlie just stood staring at the wonder before him with his mouth wide open. He didn’t even hear Lieutenant Vasquez standing behind laughing at him.
“Stabilization complete. Energy successfully charged. All pre-fire procedures confirmed. Firing in...three...two...one”
A loud crack could be heard as the light from all the beams suddenly intensified. Charlie had to close his eyes because of the sheer brightness. As quickly as it started, everything became quiet. He opened his eyes and saw the all the beams were gone. The entire area of the ring was a moderately bright sky blue mist. It was flat and all seemed to be contained within the center of the ring.
“Portal established.” The voice over the speaker said.
The Captain looked at his watch. “Right on time. Alright Corporal, let’s go.”
Charlie followed the Captain, the Lieutenant and Peter up the ramp. Surprisingly, all three just walked straight through the mist. Charlie stopped about a meter away.
“This is it. There’s a whole new world on the other side of this apparently. Will it hurt when I go through? The others walked in without second thought. Maybe they’re used to it? Fuck!”
Charlie took a step back.
“C’mon you pussy! Surely you’re not gonna fuck this up before you’ve even started! Just walk through!”
He took a breath and closed his eyes. “Don’t think about it. Just........go!”
Charlie clenched his fists and took long strides, keeping his eyes closed and went through the portal.
He felt absolutely nothing. To the point where he thought he just walked through and down the other end of the ramp. That was, until he opened his eyes.
He was outside, the sun shining on his face. There were mountains in the distance and grass beneath his feet. He saw various ponies walking around, some with clipboards in their mouths while others glanced over at him. He stared back. If it wasn’t for the images the Captain showed him in the briefing room beforehand, he wouldn’t believe what he was seeing. Ponies of various colours with large eyes all moving around working. Some of them were even dressed in what seemed to be scientist clothing. He saw other ponies which were dressed in golden armour and held spears. They held a very serious expression on their faces, many of which were staring right at Charlie. His heart was racing by now, his eyes panning around taking in everything he could. He looked up and saw a few Pegasus ponies flying overhead. Again, Charlie was thankful for the images at the briefing otherwise he’d have probably fainted by now.
“You’re taking this better than I thought you would, Corporal.” The Captain said walking up to Charlie’s right side.
“This is unbelievable.” Charlie responded slowly.
“You’ll get used to it. Come on, we’re on a schedule”.
Charlie followed the others, but couldn’t resist swiveling his head back and forth taking in everything around him. The Captain led the group into a tent not far from the Portal. Inside was a large wooden table with wooden chairs surrounding it.
“Take a seat everyone, we’re expecting company.” The Captain said.
Charlie sat in the chair in front of him with his back to the entrance, slowly getting to grips with everything. He felt it was easier to do this now he was inside the tent. The lieutenant spoke up. “You should have seen Peter during his first time. He couldn’t stop poking and prodding the plants, objects and even the ponies.” She said giggling.
“Oh c’mon, can you blame me? This place is fascinating.” Peter said defensively.
“I don’t argue that, but that poor mare probably had nightmares that night from all your poking. We had to pull you away before you could cut her hair for samples! Bless her heart, she just stood there petrified.” Vasquez said shaking her head.
“Hey! I apologised!” Peter responded quickly.
“Yeah, followed quickly by you asking her for a snippet of her hair again!” Vasquez threw back at him.
Peter crossed his arms and sat back in his chair.
Charlie decided to ask the question that was on his mind. “Sir, who are we expecting to meet?”
“Before we can do anything, we need to meet the leaders of this country you’ll be working in. They’re on their way here to see you.”
This made Charlie nervous. Although, thinking about it he found that he shouldn’t really have been surprised. “And who are they, Sir?”
The Captain didn’t respond, but Charlie could see that he was looking at the entrance to the tent.
“Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.” A voice said from the entrance.
Charlie quickly turned around to face the entrance and his mouth dropped open again. Stood there, was a large white pony with both wings and a horn. She had a flowing multicoloured mane that seemed to actually move. She wore golden regalia, signifying that she was indeed the leader in question. She stood much taller than the other ponies Charlie had seen so far. He guessed she probably stood at the height of a tall human, not including the horn.
“Ah, Princess Celestia. It’s good to see you again.” The Captain said from across the tent.
“The same to you, Captain.” Celestia responded with a nod. “Lieutenant Vasquez. Peter.” She nodded to the two.
Her attention turned towards Charlie.
“And I don’t believe i’ve met you before. I am Princess Celestia, one of the rulers of this land. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She said politely.
Charlie stood up. “Corporal Charlie Williams, your highness.” He decided to add a salute.
“At ease there, Corporal. Given what you’ll be doing in the coming future, i’d like to try and tone down the formality as much as can be allowed.” Celestia said smiling. As Charlie sat back down, Celestia turned her attention back to the Captain. “I must apologise Captain. My sister cannot join us today, she has been working very hard recently and is bedridden.” Celestia's smile dropped.
“I’m sorry to hear that, Princess. Is she going to be OK?” The Captain asked, concerned.
“She’s just mildly exhausted. We expect her to be back to herself by tomorrow hopefully. With what’s been going on over the recent months, our workload has increased significantly as i’m sure you can appreciate.” Celestia briefly paused. “I have however, brought some other guests who will be working closely with Corporal Williams here during his stay.”
Celestia stepped further into the tent and stood to one side, allowing 6 smaller ponies to enter after. They were all of different colours, but all were mares. Once they were all inside, they stood next to each other peering around the tent at the four humans in front of them.
“From left to right, we have Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. They are all residents of the town of Ponyville, which is the nearest town to where Corporal Williams will be staying.”
They all offered their own quick greeting but because they did so at the same time it was difficult to pick out everyone. It was clear that there was a hint of nervousness coming from each of them. Each of the humans in the tent offered their own greeting in return after being introduced by the Captain.
Celestia smiled. “Now that we’re all acquainted, let’s sit and discuss what’s going to happen.”
Everyone was now sitting around the meeting table inside the tent. Celestia had placed her royal guards outside the entrance to make sure there were no interruptions, not that she really expected any. Charlie couldn’t help but notice that the 6 smaller ponies were holding their gaze at him longer than at anyone else sat at the table. Most held fairly nervous expressions, except for Pinkie Pie. She seemed rather excited for some reason. He tried his best to keep a neutral expression, but their stares made him very uncomfortable. He was pretty sure his nervousness showed, despite his efforts. Celestia spoke first.
“I must admit, the facility you’ve been constructing has been completed quicker than I expected.” She said to the Captain.
“The construction work was finished slightly ahead of schedule. The workers there should be finishing up with the final testing of everything we’ve installed there. Most of it is fairly basic right now, but we have built the facility to allow for the addition of more equipment in the future if and when it’s needed.” Captain Swanson replied.
Peter leant forward in his chair. “I’ll be sure to run through everything with them when we arrive. Just to make sure everything has been covered.” He said to the Captain with a nod.
“I trust it will be able to provide Ponyville with the ability to communicate to other nearby cities, as we agreed?” Celestia said.
“Absolutely, princess. There’ll be a fair amount of work to be done before everything will be up and running, but that’s why we have out tech here. He’ll work with the ponies to get everything set up and then he’ll oversee its operation once it’s working.” Peter replied.
“Excellent. As we agreed, I'll have my team of mages sent here so you may research our use of magic.” She said smiling.
This piqued Charlie’s attention. “Uhh, i’m sorry. Magic?” He said looking at Celestia.
Twilight cleared her throat. “Yes, magic is a type of energy we ponies can use. We can use it to manipulate the world around us. It can be transferred into objects or even into our bodies.” She said factually. Charlie noticed this actually seemed to relax her a little.
“O.....K, am I getting the right idea here? When I hear magic, I think of stuff like levitation and card tricks.” Charlie said, tilting his head towards Twilight.
“Well I don’t know about card tricks, but levitation is an easy one. See?” She said as her horn lit up and Peter’s clipboard rose in the air in front of him. Charlie looked across the table at the floating clipboard, not quite believing what he was seeing.
“I can certainly see why the higher ups wanted to research these mages the princess was talking about.” He thought to himself.
Twilight set the clipboard back down in front of Peter, who immediately starting scribbling notes on it.
“That’s amazing! Can you all do that?” Charlie said, panning his eyes across the group.
“Not all of us can do that, no. Only unicorns and alicorns can do levitation like that, basically anypony with a horn.” Twilight replied. Charlie looked over at Rarity and then Celestia who both gave him small smiles.
Twilight continued, “Although, other ponies use magic in other ways. Everypony uses magic to pick up objects with their hoofs. You can consider it a form of short range levitation.” She demonstrated again by picking up Peter’s clipboard again whilst he was writing, much to his irritation.
“Oh wow! I did wonder if you ponies had to use your mouths all the time, like I saw the other ponies doing outside. Not very hygienic.” Charlie said.
“Precisely!” Twilight replied smiling, as she put Peter’s clipboard back down again. With a grumble he unclipped the paper, put the empty clipboard in front of Twilight and continued scribbling his notes.
“I’m sure you noticed the pegasi flying around outside. They also use magic for that. When they take off, their bodies surround themselves in a field of magic which drastically reduces their body weight, allowing their wings to give them flight.” Twilight said, giving a small nod to Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow got the hint immediately and spread her wings. With a few flaps she took off and hovered above her chair. The sudden rush of air from Rainbow's wings blew Peter's paper all over the place.
“Oh c’mon!” Peter yelled, throwing his hands in the air.
Everyone but the Captain and Peter giggled at that, washing away some the nervousness of many at the table.
“Hehe, sorry about that.” Rainbow said a little sheepishly as she slowly descended back into her chair.
Twilight continued, “And Earth ponies can use magic to increase their physical strength. Not all of them need to use it much though. But for ponies such as my friend Applejack here, it’s invaluable. She works on an apple orchard.”
Charlie looked over to Applejack who tilted her hat slightly. “Yup, don’t know where i’d be without ma buckin’ legs. Those trees aint gonna harvest themselves all by their lonesome now are they?” She said with a smile.
“So, she kicks the apples out of the trees? That’d be something to see.” Charlie thought.
“We all use magic to help us, but it doesn’t determine how we live our lives. Fluttershy, for example, is a Pegasus but she spends most of her time on the ground.” Twilight said, looking over to Fluttershy who’s now hidden behind her mane.
“And why’s that?” Charlie asked looking over to Fluttershy.
Everyone waited for Fluttershy to answer, but she simply gave a small squeak and continued to hide behind her mane. When it became clear that Charlie wasn’t going to get a response from her, Twilight answered for her. “She takes care of animals. She’s an expert on nearly every kind. So she spends her time on the ground looking after them.”
“That makes sense. I always liked animals. Very fond of cats, actually.” Charlie said, smiling at Fluttershy from across the table. This caused her to peek out a little from behind her pink mane. Celestia smiled.
“So you all have different work and hobbies, I presume?” Charlie asked turning back to the group.
“Of course! Rarity is a clothes designer. She’s an expert on the latest fashions.”
“But none of you are wearing any clothes.” Charlie said a little confused.
“We don’t need to right now, darling. My work is usually worn for more special occasions.” Rarity piped in. “Do humans wear clothes like that all the time? I thought it was just your uniform.”
“Well, yeah is it. We wear clothes pretty much all the time. Everyday clothing is something more casual.” Charlie said noticing Rarity’s eyes widen.
“You all wear clothes the whole time? That’s fantastic! You must show me what these everyday clothes are like!” she said excitedly.
“Uhh, sure. No problem.” Charlie said plainly. "I wasn't allowed to bring any of my casual clothes. I hope the civvie clothes they gave me will be alright." Charlie thought.
As Rarity got lost in thought, Twilight continued.
“Pinkie Pie works in a bakery but her main talent is throwing parties. I’m sure she’s even planning you a welcome party right now.”
“WRONG!” Pinkie shouted with a large smile on her face.
Everyone just looked at her. Her pony friends all looked a little surprised.
“Well thank god for that. I hate large parties, especially with guests I don’t know.” Charlie thought to himself.
Pinkie slowly leant forward over the edge of the table. “That’s because I already planned it the moment we started! WOOHOO!!” She said bouncing up and down.
“Fuck”
Twilight smiled and turned back to Charlie. “Well, there you go. One welcome party.”
Charlie didn’t like that idea one bit, but he figured it was actually part of the job. Hearts and minds. All that jazz.
“Rainbow Dash works as part of the weather team. Their job is to help regulate the local weather systems around Ponyville. Her hobb-“
“Wait a sec, hold up.” Charlie interrupted. “Regulate weather?”
“Yes, that’s right. Pegasi manipulate clouds to control our weather. So if we need some rain or shine, they set it up.” Twilight said.
“This place is very...VERY...different” Charlie said. “Although, being able to manipulate the weather may help with atmospherics for these communication systems I gotta setup. Don’t really know enough about it just yet. Guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.”
“Well magic plays its part there as well. Weather isn’t manipulated in your world?” Twilight asked curiously.
“No. Weather is completely natural. We have spent a lot of money, time and effort into predicting it though. Don't always get it right, mind you." Charlie replied.
“That’s very interesting." Twilight said getting slightly lost in thought. "Anyway, as I was saying, Rainbow works on the weather team and her hobby is aerial acrobatics.” Twilight said looking over to Rainbow.
Rainbow spread her wings as Peter jumped over his notes on the table. She puffed out her chest as she flapped her wings and rose up out her chair. “Fastest flier in Equestria I’ll have you know!” She said proudly.
“And completely modest.” Applejack said rolling her eyes.
“I look forward to seeing you prove that, Miss Dash.” Charlie said as rainbow looked back with a competitive smile.
“Alright, well as far as magic goes, I guess it’s something I’ll just have to get used to.” Charlie said as Rainbow lowered herself back into her chair.
“If there’s anything that concerns you regarding magic, Twilight here is an expert on the subject. She’ll be able to explain anything about it that’s troubling you.” Celestia said, as Twilight blushed at the compliment.
“I’ll be sure to keep that in mind, Princess. Thanks for explaining all that, Twilight.” Charlie said, giving her a nod.
Her smile seemed to grow at that. “You’re welcome!”
Charlie gave a quick glance over to the other side of the table, where he saw Lieutenant Vasquez giving the Captain an ‘I told you so’ look. Captain Swanson merely rolled his eyes at that and then stood up.
“Corporal, your mission has been explained to you and you’ve been properly introduced to these 6 ponies. These mares are all residents of the town you’ll be working in and around. The town isn’t large, so these mares are well acquainted with almost everyone in it. They’ll be your first point of call, should you need any help regarding life here. We’ve set up a communications tower outside which will be used in conjunction with another tower at your facility. This is how we’ll keep in communication with you during your stay.” The Captain said.
“Understood, sir. How far is it to the facility?”
“About 5 miles”
“Hmm, not far at all.” Charlie thought.
“We have an Osprey outside. We’ll be taking that to get to the facility. We’ll need to transport the construction team and the lieutenants security team back here after we drop you off.” The Captain said.
“Understood, sir.” Charlie responded.
“Well then, while the humans take their ‘Osprey’ vehicle, my royal chariot will take the rest of you. I must depart back to Canterlot, for I have much work to catch up on.” Celestia said, rising up to stand once again. “Won’t you be coming with us, princess? It is your chariot after all.” Rarity questioned.
“It’s been a little while since I got to properly stretch my wings. I think the flight back to Canterlot will do me some good. The fresh air is always welcome also.” Celestia said, ruffling her wings slightly.
Everyone exited the tent and started to walk towards where the Osprey and the carriage were at. Charlie spotted the Lieutenant walking alone a little ahead of him. He quickened his pace and caught up.
“Thanks for making me look good.” She said when she noticed him.
“I’m sorry?” Charlie said a little confused.
“You did good. I’ve actually never seen you so talkative to others before. Proved to the Captain that my recommendation was justified.” She said with a slight smile.
Thinking back, Charlie did have to admit that he was more sociable with these ponies than he has been with most others. He wondered why that was.
“I guess so. Thanks for the recommendation by the way. I just hope I’ll be able to stand up to this expectation of yours.” Charlie said looking ahead.
“Just keep doing what you did back there, and you’ll be fine.” she said.
“There’s something else that’s also been on my mind.” Charlie said plainly.
“Oh?”
“The Captain. He’s been really placid about everything. Still serious, but much less expressive than usual. What happened?” Charlie asked, turning his head towards the lieutenant.
“Didn’t you think it was strange that he’s the highest ranking officer you’ve seen involved in all this so far? The commanders and generals have been here before. But things didn’t go so well. Disagreements formed almost immediately between them and the Princesses. The word is, that the Captain was pretty much the only one who Celestia opened up to. As a result, she refused to see any of the commanders or generals but still met Captain Swanson.”
Charlie was a little surprised to hear this. “Whoa, what were the disagreements?”
“Couldn’t tell you. The Captain wouldn’t even tell me. But obviously the Captain’s superiors, no longer directly involved, are breathing down his neck to try and get what they want out of all this. My bet is that he’s trying to keep his composure so as to do the best job he can and not upset them. You know how he is when he gets flustered.” Vasquez said with a smile.
“I had no idea. Although thinking about it, it does seem a little strange that there’s not any of the brass here.” Charlie said.
“And I think the princesses want to keep it that way. I’ve noticed, with Celestia especially, that she judges people more on their personality than their power and influence. We’re here because of what we’re like as individual people. Our personality and nature. That’s really what that meeting back there was all about. She was trying to see what you were like and how you got on with her subjects. My security team went through the same thing.” Vasquez said as she looked over to a tent full of royal guards polishing their armour.
“Well she hasn’t kicked me out yet, lieutenant. I take it the human side of the portal hasn’t been so restrictive of ponies crossing over?”
“There’s been a couple of ponies who have crossed, but they came back almost immediately. Celestia isn’t yet comfortable with her subjects staying for long periods of time on the other side. I reckon it’s because of those higher ups she met. She’s very protective. I think she wants to discover more about us on this side, where things are more on her terms.” she said.
“That’s why this ‘Hearts and Minds’ thing has been pressed on me so much then?” Charlie asked.
“That’s right. You’re here to help strengthen our rather shaky relationship with the ponies. So don’t fuck it up!” Vasquez said with a large smile.
“Lovely.” Charlie said blandly, looking forward again.
They reached the makeshift heli-pad where the Osprey was. Charlie could see a human ground crew performing some checks on it. He also saw the royal carriage sitting nearby with some royal guards strapped to the front. Celestia was speaking to the lead guard as the other ponies climbed into the carriage. She took off shortly after the carriage door closed behind them. The four humans climbed into the back of the Osprey as the pilot got the go ahead from the ground crew. As the engines came to life, Charlie leaned over to Vasquez.
“Won’t this be a little unfair? This thing will clearly do 5 miles faster than a horse drawn carriage!” He shouted as the engines whirred.
“Be careful, Corporal. I wouldn’t go around calling them horses! And I wouldn’t worry yourself! That’s no ordinary carriage!” Vasquez shouted back.
Charlie looked out the window as the carriage sped up and took off into the sky.
Charlie has spent the last few minutes staring out the small window by his seat. He noticed that the landscape appeared very lush and almost untouched. He saw roads and the occasional house or two, but mostly just green. Suddenly, he felt the Osprey lurch forward and he felt the vehicle slowing.
“We’re here?” He asked the Captain.
“Nearly. We’re slowing because we’re approaching Ponyville.” The Captain responded.
Charlie looked out the window and could see the outskirts of the town but he could only see a few houses due to the angle of the Osprey.
“Why are we slowing then? Aren’t we high enough to clear any towers they have down there?” Charlie asked.
“We need to slow down in case there are any pegasi flying in Ponyville airspace. Don’t want to have an unsuspecting Pegasus meeting our rotor blades.” Vasquez replied as more of the town came into Charlie’s view.
“Approaching LZ!” The Co-Pilot shouted back to the group.
Charlie continued to survey the town below him. Captain Swanson was right; it wasn’t very large at all. Just a little larger than a typical village back on Earth. He saw many houses, all had a fairly old fashioned look to them. Very colourful as well, he noticed. He spotted what seemed to be a town hall and a few shops near the town centre. He also saw many market stands lined down the edges of some of the streets. He could see many ponies going about their business, but he couldn’t make out any details from that height.
“Looking forward to your welcome party?” Vasquez said, looking over at Charlie and nudging him in his rib.
“Oh I bet you think you’re so funny, huh? You know that I struggle with meeting new people.” Charlie said, turning back from the window. “Considering all that’s going to happen, I’m more worried about that party than anything else.”
“Yeah, but you won’t be meeting new ‘People’.” Vasquez said, smiling.
“No difference.” He said glumly.
“I disagree. You did fine with those other 6, didn’t you?” She said, tilting her head slightly.
He was still wondering why that was. “Perhaps, it was the excitement of being in a strange new world that rubbed off? If that’s the case, I’ll be in trouble when that wears off.” He thought to himself.
Charlie was about to respond, but the Osprey suddenly leaned back and slowed into a hover. He felt that they were starting to descend. About half a minute later, he felt the Osprey make contact with the ground. They had landed.
“We’re here. Let’s get you introduced to where you’ll be staying and working, Corporal.” Captain Swanson said, unfastening his seat belt. Charlie, Vasquez and Peter did the same and all stood up as the unloading ramp opened slowly.
The group walked down the ramp and Charlie got his first glimpse of the facility. The first thing he noticed was that they were about one third the way up a small mountain overlooking Ponyville. He saw a moderately sized central building with solar panels on the angled roof. It had thick industrial windows and a small mechanical sliding door. Next to it, he saw what appeared to be a garage. He saw several smaller cylindrical buildings a little further away, which had no windows or doors. He saw a couple of small wind turbines built into the rock a little further up the mountain. He could see that the tips of the blades were painted bright orange and were turning slowly. Looking around, he could see various construction workers all hard at work. He also saw Lieutenant Vasquez organising her security team with the Captain.
Peter walked up beside Charlie. “Right then, let me explain what’s what. Power is generated from both the solar panels and the turbines you see up there. The weather ponies have informed us that there is pretty much constant wind against this mountain, so you should be good for renewable energy. Still, if something goes wrong, we have set up some large battery gems in the power regulation building over there.” he said as he pointed over to one of the small windowless buildings.
“Gems?” Charlie asked.
“Yeah, gems can be charged with magic to perform various functions. Very useful. I’ve been leading a team of researchers back home to see how we humans can use it on Earth.”
“Seems like a very expensive method, if I’m honest. What’s the other one for?” Charlie asked, pointing at the other small building.
“Waste management.”
“Ah, umm...am I going to need to know how that works? Cos I didn’t bring a HAZMAT suit.” Charlie said.
“Actually, I don’t think so. The ponies mainly took over construction of that building. They used special gems which convert bio-waste into non-toxic gases. As long as they’re charged every once in a while, they’ll just do their thing. Shouldn’t need to get involved at all, so I’m told.” Peter replied. “Apparently, any unicorn can charge the gems. Perhaps you can ask Twilight or Rarity to help you on that one?”
“I don’t think Rarity will take it very well if I asked her to charge my poop gems.”
Peter laughed. “No, I guess not! Anyway, most of the working parts of the facility are underground. Except for the broadcast tower, which is all the way up there.” Peter pointed up the mountain.
Charlie squinted his eyes from the sun, but could barely see a large communication tower on the peak of the mountain. “That’s what I’ll be using to connect Ponyville to the other nearby towns and cities?”
“That’s right. Other similar towers have been constructed next to the other towns and cities. If the service coverage is to be expanded in the future, and it almost certainly will be, then we can use them as broadcast relays to the new towers we’ll have to build.” Peter said looking up.
“So I guess no satellite network?” Charlie asked.
Peter chuckled. “No, not yet. We don’t know nearly enough about this world to be able to send one of those up. Although, we believe magic may be able to help us on that front as well. It may involve the direct help of one of the princesses.”
Charlie spotted the carriage make a landing a little further away. The door opened and the 6 mares stepped out. Twilight trotted over to take a closer look at the solar panels, while Pinkie Pie was transfixed with the spinning blades of the wind turbines. She had her focus set on one blade in particular and Charlie watched as her head made large circular motions as it turned. The others just sat where they were, glancing around whist talking amongst themselves.
“C’mon, i’ll show you the inside.” Peter said.
As they made their way over towards the large central building, Charlie called to Twilight. “Hey Twilight! We’re going inside, wanna come see?”
She looked over to her friends and saw them keeping their distance, just talking. She saw Pinkie still gazing at the turbine with a big smile on her face. She looked back to Charlie and made her way over.
“Are your friends coming?” He asked.
“They’ll be okay out here. I don’t think they’re all that interested.” She replied.
The three of them made it to the door and Peter spoke up. “Now then, this door uses biometric security. Corporal, please place your hand on the pad.” Charlie looked at his hand and then placed it on the security pad next to the door. A pair of bright blue horizontal and vertical lines crossed the area of the pad, scanning Charlie’s hand. The pad made a beep and the pad turned green. Charlie removed his hand and the door opened.
“Now I know why I had my fingerprints taken when I signed up.” Charlie said.
“Well, one of the reasons. Shall we?” Peter said, extending his arm towards the door.
Charlie walked in and made a light gasp. All around him were various machines and computers. A series of monitors and keyboards lined the wall by the windows. There were three more doors on the opposite side. Various workers were sat at some of the computers.
“Wow. Now this is cool! Not seen hardware like this before!” Charlie said excitedly.
“Latest tech, as I said earlier. You can control everything from this room. Power, communications, hardware control and everything in between.” Peter said. “Those doors over there lead to your kitchen, bedroom and basement. You have an en suite bathroom.”
“What will I find down in the basement?” Charlie asked.
“Server racks mostly. Other critical machines are also down there. Those are pretty much as advanced as they’re gonna get, so we haven’t needed to develop them further. You should be fairly familiar with them from your past experience.” Peter replied.
Charlie looked over to Twilight, who was surprisingly quiet. Her eyes were wide and he could see a very slight hint of a smile on her face.
“You alright, Twilight?” He asked.
She snapped out of her zoned out expression and shook her head before turning her attention back to Charlie. “I’ve never seen anything like this before. We have machines and all, but these are so different!” She said excitedly.
“Well, Ponyville should benefit from this place. Let’s hope the process goes smoothly.” Charlie said plainly.
Twilight nodded quickly before Peter spoke up.
“Well, that’s pretty much it. Here.” Peter handed Charlie a small memory stick. “This’ll help you setup the software security. There are manuals on that stick that’ll help you setup the security procedures you want in place for these systems. Once they’re in place, please forward the report to me and i’ll archive it back at base. The stick will purge itself once the security systems are online.”
“Understood, sir.” Charlie rubbed his hands together. “This is gonna be awesome!”
“Corporal! Manuals first. Play solitaire later.” Peter said sternly. “You’ll find system manuals once you’re successfully logged in. They’ll explain how all the software and systems work.”
Charlie groaned. “Lots of tedious reading.”
“Lucky you!” Peter said sarcastically. “Right, I need to oversee the conclusion of the final testing phase. They should be pretty much done by now anyway.”
Peter walked away towards one of the workers at a computer, leaving Charlie with Twilight.
“Don’t like reading?” Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow questioningly.
“I don’t think anyone in the world likes reading instruction manuals. My world or yours, I bet.” Charlie replied.
“Ah, I must admit, I’m not overly fond of them myself. And I love reading!” Twilight said happily.
“Yeah? You do appear quite studious. Especially concerning magic.”
Twilight’s face lit up. “It’s my talent! See?” Twilight nodded to her flank. “That’s my cutie mark.”
Charlie scrunched his face as he focused on her strange tattoo. “You mean that star thing on your butt? What’s it mean?”
“It represents our special talent. Everypony has one. Since my special talent is magic, my mark shows this star.” She said factually.
“I did see the others with strange little pictures as well. Applejack had some apples on her if I recall, so her special talent is growing apples?” Charlie asked.
“That’s right! Some cutie marks might not seem so obvious at first, but once you get to know the pony a bit more it starts to make sense.”
Charlie looked up thoughtfully. “I wonder what Earth would be like if every human had a small picture of their special talent stuck to their butt.”
Charlie’s attention was brought back as the Captain entered the room. “Corporal, we’re about ready to leave. I have a few final points to go over with you.”
“Yes, sir?”
“We’ve stashed some basic food supplies down below. Non-perishable stuff, so pretty basic. We’ll supply you periodically with more in the future, although we know the food here is safe to eat so feel free to partake in local cuisine. After knowing what we’ve put down there for you, I know what I’d rather eat.”
“You explained their currency system before we came. Won’t I need money to eat down in the town?” Charlie asked.
“You’ll be receiving a monthly stipend from Princess Celestia to cover your living costs. Materials and other payments will be covered by us.” The Captain replied. “Things like clothes, toiletries and other things more specifically for humans will be supplied by us. Make sure to keep your end of communications open at all times. I’d like to keep confusion to a minimum.”
“Yes, sir.”
“All good here, Captain!” Peter called from across the room.
“Understood, pack up and get your team to the Osprey. The lieutenant and her team are already waiting.” The Captain called back. Peter rallied his team together and they all filed out the main door one by one.
The Captain looked back to Charlie. “Well that’s it. You’ve got everything you need. And it looks like you’re in good hoofs.” He said glancing down to Twilight.
“I’m looking forward to working with him, Captain. I think we’ll both learn a lot from each other!” She said smiling.
“Agreed.” Charlie nodded.
“We’ll be off then. I think your friends are still outside Twilight.” The Captain said, making his way towards the door.
Charlie and Twilight followed the Captain outside where the Osprey was starting up its engines. Twilight looked over to her friends. They were all saying their farewells to Peter and Lieutenant Vasquez, except for Pinkie who was on her back with her hoofs in the air still spinning her head in large circles.
“I better go see if she’s OK.” Twilight said.
As she trotted off, Charlie heard the Lieutenant shout over the now whirring engines. “We’re ready to go, Captain!”
Captain Swanson turned back to Charlie. “We’ll be in touch. Good luck Corporal.” “Thank you, sir. I’ll do my best.” Charlie saluted. The Captain saluted back and turned toward the Osprey. The rest of the workers security team were already on board.
Charlie covered his eyes from the dust being picked up from the rush of air by the Osprey’s engines. He could just about see the Captain making his way up the ramp. Charlie saw Vasquez looking out to him giving him a thumbs up while Peter simply smiled. The ramp slowly closed shut as the Osprey’s engines slowly lifted the vehicle into the air. Charlie brought his arm to his face to shield him from the mass of dust thrown at him. When the dust came to settle, he watched as the Osprey flew slowly into the distance.
Before he knew it, they were gone and all was quiet.
“Quite a contraption y’all got there.” Applejack said, now standing next to him.
“It gets us from A to B.” Charlie responded nonchalantly.
“Pinkie’s fine. Well as fine as Pinkie usually is anyway.” Twilight said walking towards Applejack and Charlie.
“Ah shoot, sugarcube! We checked on her.” Applejack said. She looked up to Charlie. “She seemed to be enjoyin’ those fancy windmills y’all got.” Applejack said
“Well, she’s seen nothing yet.” Charlie said smiling.
Rainbow, Fluttershy and Rarity made their way over. “So Charlie, what are you going to do now? Would you like us to show you around Ponyville?” Rarity asked.
“Uhh, if it’s alright with all of you, I’d like to get myself settled in here first.” Charlie replied. “Perhaps tomorrow, though?”
“Sure thing!” Rainbow said enthusiastically. “I have tomorrow off so I can come get ya!”
“Sounds good Rainbow. I’ll see you then. I have a lot of work to do tonight but I should be done by tomorrow.”
Twilight looked over to Pinkie who was slowly getting to her hoofs. “Well I think we better get Pinkie home. I’m sure she’s eager to get Charlie’s party planned.”
“Oh Christ”
“If you need me Charlie, I live at the Ponyvillie Library. There are signposts to it around town so you can’t miss it.” Twilight said.
“Got it, thanks Twilight. I’ll see you all tomorrow.” Charlie said smiling.
Everyone said their goodbyes. Even Fluttershy gave Charlie a small smile as she followed the others toward a now standing Pinkie Pie.
Charlie turned and walked over to the edge looking over the vast landscape. He could see the slowly setting sun on one side of the sky and the slowly rising moon on the other.
“Well Equestria, what have you got in store for me?”
Dark, motionless and the aroma of coffee. Pretty standard scene for an overworked, bored and grumpy human. Sure enough, there at the desk with his face planted firmly on the keyboard sat Charlie. Out the corner of his eye, he peered over at the clock.
“3:36 am. Been at this for ages now.”
He lifted his head to look up at his screen once more. He had the imprints of the keys from the keyboard on his forehead. He had no idea how much left he had to do. He had already configured the security systems and sent the report of to Peter a good few hours ago. Since then, he had read through dozens of documents detailing the systems built into the facility.
“This is ridiculous. A single man needing to remember all this? I had to re-read the last one twice just so I could remember what it meant! And THIS one doesn’t look any better.” He thought, looking as the mass of text on the screen. “Not to mention that these systems have been modified so extensively by Peter and his team that they don’t even resemble the original versions. Some of these even have small magical modifications. Like he expects me to grasp that right off the bat!”
He looked down into the now empty coffee mug in his hand.
“Between setting up the security systems and using the coffee machine, I can safely say I got the more important jobs done.”
Charlie sat back in his chair and gazed up at the ceiling. “I guess I’ll call it quits for tonight. I don’t know what time Rainbow Dash will be arriving, so I best get as much sleep as I can.” He said to himself.
He locked his workstation, stood up and stretched the cracks out of his back. He groggily made his way into the bedroom, changed out of his clothes and got into bed.
“I bet she comes at 6am.” He mumbled, before giving an unsuppressed yawn and falling into a deep sleep.
5 Hours Earlier in Canterlot Castle
“Glad to see you’re feeling better, sister.” Celestia said from across the large table.
“If I had my way, I would not have been in that bed at all. It was only due to your stern suggestion that I conceded rest.” Luna replied from the other end of the table.
Celestia chuckled lightly. “Yes, you always were so stubborn. Still, I’m glad to see you rested. You were just in time to raise the moon as well.”
“Even with your requests, I would not let mere illness prevent me from performing my duties. However, it did stop me from assisting with yours. How did the meeting with the humans go?” Luna asked curiously.
“Very well, actually. It seems my trust Captain Swanson was well placed. He has performed well in his selection of his colleagues. This new one, Charlie, seemed nice. Although I shall be keeping an eye on him.” Celestia replied.
“And the elements? Did they fair well?” Luna asked.
“They were reserved at first. But they opened up to the humans nearer the end.” Celestia replied.
“Understandable, I suppose. Meeting strange aliens for the first time is quite the experience.” Luna sipped at her coffee. “This Charlie, would you like me to watch over his dreams? See if there is anything suspicious afoot?”
“No, not just yet. After all, our first meeting with him went very well and he is not yet accustomed to the ways of our world. I fear that imposing on his dreams may upset him. I trust Twilight and her friends can handle the situation for now. Let’s put our faith in them for the time being.” Celestia replied with a serious expression.
“As you wish, my sister.” Luna said before finishing her coffee.
A few moments passed as the two sat in comfortable silence. Celestia contemplated the potential future. What would the humans do as the two species become closer? How would the other nations of this world take to the arrival of the humans? So far, she had kept the humans operations strictly near the portal. She knew, however, that it would only be a matter of time until the rest of the world hear about the humans. Especially with this operation involving Charlie. She knew that she would need to be as involved as possible when that day came. The last thing she wanted was humans like those generals meeting the egotistical leaders of the Griffin and Minotaur kingdoms without her being present. That would not end well. Still, she had a little more time before that happened.
“Well, I think I shall retire to my chambers. I wish you well, Luna.” Celestia said, rising from her chair.
“You too, my sister. Sleep well.”
9am Ponyville
The library was quiet. Not unusual for a library, even more so at this hour. Technically speaking, it was opening time but nopony ever needed to come here this early. This meant Twilight was usually still in bed after a late night of reading. Spike, her assistant, was awake and taking care of the morning chores. Although only being a small dragon, he was able to take care of pretty much anything Twilight needed doing and he was immensely proud of that. He did, however, mess up from time to time. This morning was no exception.
*CRASH*
“AHH!” Twilight sat bolt upright in her bed. “What in the blue blazes is going on down there?”
Twilight got out of bed and made her way downstairs. She had her suspicions that Spike was in the kitchen. Making her way into the kitchen, sure enough, there was Spike with a pile of pots and pans across the floor. Spike stood in the middle with a sheepish grin on his face.
“Uhh, sorry Twilight. Slipped out of my claw trying to put one in the cupboard and....well.....it sort of brought the rest down too...hehe.” He said rubbing the back of his head.
Twilight sighed. “Oh Spike, if you have too much trouble with putting them in the high cupboards, just leave them on the counter. I can put them away easily with my magic.”
“No! I can do it fine! It’s just....that one was being uncooperative.” He said pointing at one of the pots on the floor.
Twilight walked over to Spike. “I know how seriously you take your work, Spike. Believe me, I appreciate all you do for me but I don’t want you getting hurt because of it. Can you understand?”
“Yeah, I know.” Spike sighed. ”I’ll be more careful. Thanks Twi.”
Twilight gave Spike a hug and helped him put away the mess of pots and pans. The both made some breakfast and sat down at the table together.
“So, how did your meet with the humans go yesterday? You didn’t talk much when you came home last night. You just locked yourself in your room with a load of books.....again.” Spike asked between mouthfuls.
“Yeah, sorry about that. It went very well. The human I’ll be working with is called Charlie. I got to see some of the technology the princess mentioned and, my gosh Spike, you have to see it! It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before!” Twilight replied excitedly.
“Would I be correct in assuming that’s what you were researching last night?” Spike asked.
“Absolutely! I had to see if we had anything similar. Even just a glint of something that could resemble those machines...but there was nothing.”
Spike finished his orange juice. “Well, I reckon you’ll know those machines inside out within a few months. You will be working with the human after all.”
“That’s right! Oh, I’m so looking forward to this. There’s so much we can learn!” Twilight said before finishing her breakfast. “Speaking of which, where’s Rainbow?”
“You expecting her?” Spike asked.
“Her and Charlie. Although we never agreed a time....stupidly.” She said looking at the clock.
“They’ll turn up. No rush.” Spike said casually.
“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s get all this cleaned up while we wait.”
With that, Twilight and Spike set about cleaning up their breakfast.
Charlie’s Facility
Charlie groaned as he lifted his head up off the pillow and looked over to the alarm clock. He never was a morning person.
“9-ish” He mumbled as he slowly blinked his eyes in a feeble attempt to wake himself.
...
...
“SHIT!”
He jumped out of bed, opened the blinds and peered out the window. The sun was shining, birds chirping and all seemed normal. More importantly, there wasn’t any sign of an angry Rainbow Dash looking for him.
“Fuck, may have dodged the bullet this time. Gotta shower and get ready, quick.” He said before dashing into his bathroom.
20 minutes later, Charlie emerged out of the bathroom, put on some casual clothes and made his way into the work room. A quick once over the computer systems showed all was well. He opened the from door and went outside, expecting to see a certain cyan pegasus around. However, he saw no sign of her.
“Did I miss her? Surely she’d leave a note or something if so. Although, she seems more the type to just bash on the window until I woke up.” He said, looking around. “Guess I’ll give her some more time. She’ll fly back if she’s already come and gone.”
Charlie made his way back inside for some coffee and light breakfast.
-------------- 40 minutes later ----------------
“Where on earth is she? If I have to eat anymore of this ready-breakfast i’ll-“
Charlie was interrupted by a rapid knocking on the front door. He walked over, pressed the button to open the door and saw Rainbow standing there. Not only that, but she stood there bold as brass. Not a hint of guilt on her face.
“Morning Rainbow, or is it afternoon by now?” Charlie said sarcastically.
“Hey, it’s my day off. That means I get to sleep in a bit. Technically, this is early for my day off!”
“Well to be fair, I overslept a little myself. Although, if I knew you were coming over this late, I would have overslept some more.” Charlie said jokingly.
“Yeah well, ready to go?” She said, rolling her eyes.
“Been ready for about 40 minutes now. Let’s go.”
Charlie and Rainbow made it over to the mountain edge overlooking Ponyville. “You can’t fly can you? You’re gonna have to walk down there.” Rainbow said, pointing over toward a winding path down the mountain side. “Man, that will take you ages! Darn it.”
“Hold that thought.” Charlie said, turning and quickly dashing back. He made his way to the garage building and opened the sliding door.
“I’m sure it mentioned something in one of those manuals I read about- AHA!” Charlie spotted a large sheet covering a moderately sized object. Grabbing the sheet, he pulled it away revealing what he was looking for.
“A quadbike! Sweet!” He said, smiling.
Hopping on, he saw another one of those fingerprint scanners on the handlebar only much smaller. Shrugging to himself, he placed his fingertip over the scanner. Shortly after, it made a small beep and the engine started. “Ho HO! This is gonna be fun!” He grabbed the helmet that was resting over one of the handles, put it on and slowly drove out of the garage.
“What’s going on in there?” Rainbow called over from outside. She then saw Charlie roll out on this strange machine. “Whoa, what’s that?”
Charlie came to a stop just in front of Rainbow. “This’ll get me down there quicker. Fancy a race to the bottom?”
This peaked Rainbow’s attention. “A Race!? Yeah! Oh you’re so going down!”
Charlie laughed from under his helmet. “Alright then.” Charlie pointed his quadbike toward the winding path. ”Ready?”
“Set” Rainbow said, getting into a low stance.
“GO!” Charlie opened up the throttle causing a thick cloud of dust to spew up behind him. He saw Rainbow leap off the mountain side, wings spread wide open. She was heading straight to Ponyville. Charlie raced forward down the path.
“Yeah, she’s obviously gonna win. Still, this is awesome!”
Down the mountain he went, winding down the dirt path. The quadbike was handling beautifully. He had used them many times before, back home on Earth. As he drifted round one of the corners, he could see Ponyville getting closer. The incline of the path started to level out, but Charlie kept up his speed. He raced down the path, leaving a thick cloud of dust behind him. He could see the outskirts of the town approaching. The path he was driving started to line up along the river bank that ran around the outskirts of Ponyville. Ahead of him, Charlie saw a bridge...with a very smug cyan pegasus hovering above.
“There’s the modest victor.”
Charlie reduced his speed and rolled to a stop at the bridge. Rainbow didn’t even look out of breath.
“Now who’s late, hmm? Geez, you took forever!” She said, smirking.
“Pfft, if this thing could fly, I’d give you a run for your money.” Charlie said, turning off the engine and taking off his helmet.
“Yeah yeah. Hey, what are you stopping here for? We’re going into town.” Rainbow asked.
“I don’t think it would be a good idea to bring this thing into town. Might scare the locals.” Charlie said, getting off his quadbike. “I can leave it here. It won’t be going anywhere.”
“Suit yourself. I think it’s pretty cool.”
Charlie and Rainbow crossed the bridge and made their way into town. What Charlie noticed most was how traditional all the buildings looked. They were grand and colourful. They both entered one of the main market streets and Charlie saw many ponies going about their daily routines. Many of them stopped to look over at him. None of them said anything.
“The mayor has told the town that you’ll be around. Although I don’t think anypony here has actually seen a human before.” Rainbow said, hovering above him. “They’ll be a little nervous at first, but they’ll open up once they get to know you.”
All the stares that Charlie was getting from various ponies were making him very uncomfortable. He told himself before coming down to try to smile and appear friendly, but right now he was struggling to do anything even close to that. He kept his gaze to the floor as he walked down the street, following Rainbow’s shadow as she hovered above him.
Eventually, they made it to the library. Charlie peered up and saw the large tree in front of him. “Wait, that’s the library? Where Twilight lives? It’s a tree.”
“Well it’s a library.....made out of a tree. Not all houses here are the same, y’know. Like mine being made of cloud.” Rainbow said, pointing up to the sky.
“I think I’m just gonna have to accept whatever’s thrown in front of me in this world. There’s too much stuff that’s different.” Charlie said, shaking his head slowly.
Rainbow knocked on the door and they both waited. A few seconds later, Spike opened the door.
“Hey Spike! We’re here, is Twili-“ Rainbow trailed off as she noticed both Spike and Charlie staring at each other. “Oh, almost forgot. Spike, this is the human, Charlie. Charlie, this is Twilight’s assistant dragon, Spike.”
“Uhh...hey there” Spike said cautiously.
“D-Dragon?” Charlie asked taking a small step back. “Like, fire-breathing dragon?”
“Yeah, what about it?” Rainbow said, cocking her head to one side.
“I don’t do well with dangerous fire-breathing dragons.” Charlie said nervously.
“Oh relax. Spike’s not dangerous. He’s our friend.”
Charlie stood where he was, staring at the small dragon before him. Spike managed a smile which eased Charlie a tiny bit.
“SPIKE! Who’s at the door? Is it Rainbow?” Twilight called from inside.
“YEAH! AND THE HUMAN TOO!” Spike called back.
Quick hoofsteps could be heard, getting louder as twilight trotted to the door.
Rainbow sighed. “Yes, I know! But we made it didn’t we? So why don’t we get a move on?”
Twilight nodded. “Agreed. Spike, can I leave you here to take care of the Library while I’m gone? I’m going to show Charlie around Ponyville.”
“Sure, no problem.” Spike said, turning back into the library. Twilight closed the door behind him and turned toward the human.
“So, where would you like to go first?” She said, smiling.
“Well, I got to see where you live. How about we go see the others?” Charlie suggested.
“Great idea! Let’s go see Applejack first. She’ll be in the orchard today.” Twilight said.
“If that’s the plan, then I think I’ll head over to Fluttershy’s. Give her some warning beforehand. You know what she’s like.” Rainbow said, rolling her eyes.
Twilight nodded. “That’s probably a good idea, Rainbow. We’ll meet you over there.”
With that, Rainbow sped off over the rooftops to Fluttershy’s. Charlie and Twilight departed for Applejack’s.
Charlie had never seen so many apple trees in all his life. Granted, he had never been to an orchard before, but the sight was still amazing none the less. “This place is huge!” Charlie said, leaning on the fence looking into the orchard. “How are we gonna find Applejack in there!?”
Twilight giggled. “They keep a clipboard on the side of their house over there. It shows which section of the orchard they’re working today. Let’s go see.”
They both made their way over the house and looked at the clipboard hanging by the front door.
“Hmm, looks like she’s working the southern section today. C’mon.” Twilight said, putting the clipboard back on the hook.
They walked in comfortable silence for about 5 minutes. Charlie just looked at the masses of apple trees surrounding him.
“It’s like a massive organized forest. There must be loads of ponies working this orchard.”
Eventually, they found Applejack bucking apples into various buckets surrounding one of the trees.
“Hey Applejack! How’s it going?” Twilight asked as they approached.
“Hey there! Hard at work still. Got a load of trees to harvest today.” She noticed Charlie. “Well hey there, sugar cube. Come to see the apple trees I was telling ya about?”
Charlie nodded. “That’s right. Didn’t quite expect the orchard to be this big though. I haven’t seen anyone else out here working either.”
“It’s just me and Big Mac right now. Sometimes we hire some help when we get behind schedule. Hey, maybe you should try it sometime! Never had a human work this farm before.”
“I think I’d be more of a liability than an asset regarding manual labor.” Charlie chuckled. “Although, I did notice a few trees with apples still on ‘em when we came. The others around it where all harvested, so I can only assume that they were missed.”
“Ah shoot! This gals slipping in her years! Thanks, pardner. I’ll head on back and nab ‘em after I'm finished with this one.” Applejack turned back and bucked the tree trunk, knocking the last of the apples into the buckets.
Charlie got to thinking. “I may not be much help with the harvesting, but I bet I could devise something better than that basic clipboard. Maybe some kind of tablet with a map of the orchard on it? I could somehow tag each tree and as Applejack goes round she can-“
Charlie was brought out of his thoughts by Twilight. “Hey Charlie, you alright?”
“Huh? Oh yeah, what’s up?”
“Applejack just asked you how you’ve been since yesterday.”
Charlie looked over to Applejack, who was casually leaning on the tree expectantly.
“Uhh, well I spent most of last night reading through manuals about my facility. It seems Peter has a cruel sense of humor.” Charlie said.
“Pah, ah’ve always been more of an up and go kinda gal. Why read about it when ya can jus’ go do it?” Applejack said, tilting her hat slightly. “Trust me Applejack, if I could get away with that, I would. But unfortunately, I’ll be more help to you if I actually know what I’m doing up there. And unfortunately for me, that means a lot more reading.” Charlie said.
Twilight frowned slightly. “I’m starting to think it’s more than manuals that you don’t like to read.”
“Well...err...” Charlie decided to change the subject quickly. “We’re going round visiting the rest of your friends, Applejack. We’ve already met Rainbow. Who would you suggest?”
Applejack took off her hat and wiped her brow. “Well, the closest one to here is Fluttershy. Her cottage is around the other side of the Everfree.”
“Cool. Rainbow should have arrived there by now considering how fast I’ve seen her fly. Thanks Applejack. We’ll let you get back to work.” Charlie said, turning with a wave.
“Take care you two! I’ll see ya later!” Applejack replied back with a wave.
About 15 minutes of walking and chatting later, Charlie and Twilight could see Fluttershy’s cottage in the distance.
“So, she lives with all the animals she takes care of?” Charlie asked.
“That’s right. She’s worked with so many, she’s practically an expert on them.” Twilight replied.
“Any dangerous ones? Since I’m not of this world, it might not be unusual to expect them to be slightly alarmed.” Charlie asked nervously.
“Oh I don’t think that will be a problem. Fluttershy’s animals are always very well behaved.” Twilight said with a smile.
They reached Fluttershy’s front gate and already Charlie could see various animals scurrying about the front garden. “On the face of it, they don’t look much different from the ones back home. Odd.”
They made their way up to the front door and Twilight knocked lightly. After a few moments, the door opened slightly revealing two eyes partially hidden behind a pink mane.
“Hello Fluttershy! Charlie and I came for a visit.” Twilight said, smiling.
Charlie smiled as well. “Hey there, Fluttershy. Hope this isn’t a bad time.”
Fluttershy opened the door fully and smiled. “Oh no, it’s fine. Rainbow Dash came by just a few minutes ago and told me you were both coming.”
“Did she not stick around? I said I'd meet her here.” Twilight asked.
“No she didn’t. She said something about catching up on some sleep.” Fluttershy replied.
“It wasn’t even that early!” Charlie thought, casting his mind back to earlier this morning.
“Umm...would you like to come in?” Fluttershy asked timidly.
Twilight and Charlie both nodded and followed Fluttershy inside. Charlie was surprised to see just as many animals scurrying about inside than in the garden. Even the walls were covered in birdhouses and suspended beds for various small creatures. Twilight and Charlie both sat down while Fluttershy went to make some tea.
“I seriously can’t get over how many animals are here, Twilight. There are dozens!” Charlie said before ducking as a small bird flew past his head.
“Yeah she’s got quite the animal magnetism. And from the looks of things, so do you.” She said, gesturing to Charlie’s feet.
Charlie looked down and saw a black and white cat brushing up against his legs. “Oh!”
“I guess you do have a thing for cats.” Twilight giggled.
The cat jumped up and started kneading his thighs. “Yeah, I always did have a soft spot for ‘em.”
Fluttershy came back in from the kitchen with a tray of tea. She spotted the cat on Charlie’s lap. “Oh, my! Oscar, you’re feeling better?” She set the tea down on the table and went over to see the cat settling down on Charlie’s lap.
“His name is Oscar? He’s nice.” Charlie said, stroking behind one of Oscar’s ears.
“Yes, he’s been a little under the weather for the past week. He hasn’t been very sociable. But he seems to be much better now and has taken very well to you!” Fluttershy said happily.
“There you go, Charlie. Your first friend.” Twilight said, pouring the tea.
“So it seems.” He said, looking down to the resting cat.
--------------------------
Twilight, Fluttershy and Charlie chatted for about an hour. They mostly talked about differences between their worlds. Charlie mentioned how all the animals he’d seen in Fluttershy’s cottage weren’t very different from those back on Earth. This sparked a conversation about the other, more dangerous, types of creatures in Equestria which weren’t seen back home. He was relieved to hear that they usually stay away from civilized areas. Eventually, Twilight and Charlie silently decided it was time to leave.
“So Fluttershy, we’re visiting the rest of your friends today. We’ve already met Rainbow and Applejack. Who do you think would be the best to see next?” Charlie asked.
Fluttershy looked up thoughtfully. “Umm, well I’m not sure what Pinkie is up to today. But I know Rarity is working at her boutique. I would suggest going to see her...umm...if you want to.”
“Then it’s settled.” Twilight said, moving the squirrel that had perched on her head. “Thanks for the tea Fluttershy.”
“Oh it was no problem. Thanks for stopping by.” Fluttershy said, smiling.
Charlie was carefully trying to move Oscar, who had fallen asleep on him. He finally managed to move him onto the sofa without waking him. “It was a pleasure Fluttershy. Please give my regards to Oscar when he wakes up.”
“Oh I will. It was nice to see you again, Charlie. Please come visit again” Fluttershy said, following them to the door. "Don't worry Fluttershy, I will. Take care!” Charlie said, joining Twilight in a wave as he followed her out the door.
Twilight and Charlie made their way along the path leading back into Ponyville centre. Charlie thought back to their meeting with Fluttershy.
“She seems very timid, but nice as anything. A shame I didn’t get to talk to her much yesterday.”
Twilight spoke up, “I hope Rarity isn’t too busy to see us. Sometimes she gets very into her work.”
“If so, we’ll just try again another time. No biggie.” Charlie said.
He looked up to the sunny sky as they walked. “This place aint so bad.”
“Not far now, just at the end of this road” Twilight replied.
They had been walking for about 10 minutes, which was far too long for Charlie’s liking. “Maybe leaving the quadbike wasn’t such a good idea” He thought.
As they made their way over a small bridge, Twilight spotted her friend's boutique. “There it is, Charlie”
Charlie saw a fairly large and fancy looking building. To him, it seemed a little over the top.
“Wow, looks fancy. Really stands out from the other houses next to it. I know she works in fashion, but is all this really necessary?” Charlie asked.
Twilight rolled her eyes as they walked. “Well, she doesn’t really settle for bland or basic. If you haven’t figured that out already, you’re certainly about to.”
They arrived at the front door of the boutique. Twilight knocked and they both waited.
And waited....
Waited some more...
Twilight knocked again a little louder. “Fluttershy said she would be here. Perhaps she’s out getting materials.”
They both waited, before impatience prevailed. Just as they were about to leave, the door opened.
“Darlings! Whatever are you both doing out here? Why didn’t you just come in?” Rarity said, standing to one side to allow both the human and unicorn inside.
“Sorry Rarity. I would usually, but since this is the first time Charlie has been here, I figured I would knock first.” Twilight replied as they both made their way inside.
“Nonsense darling! You’re both most welcome here. Even some of my least regular customers don’t hang around on the doorstep. How are you both? Giving Charlie a tour?”
Twilight nodded. “That’s right. We’ve been to see Applejack’s farm and Fluttershy’s cottage already.”
Rarity smiled. “Excellent! It’s good to see you again, Charlie. I trust you’ve had a pleasant day so far?”
“It’s nice to see you again too, Rarity. Today’s been great so far, thanks.” Charlie looked around. “Quite a place you have here. Quite large. You live here as well as work?”
“Oh yes, me and Sweetie Belle. She’s at school right now.” Rarity said, smiling.
“A pony called Sweetie Belle? For real?” Charlie thought.
“She’s Rarity’s sister. I guess you’ll meet her another time.” Twilight said.
“Oh you certainly will. A human living in Ponyville? Timberwolves couldn’t keep her away” Rarity said, rolling her eyes. She lead Twilight and Charlie to the sitting area. “Can I get you both some tea?”
“Oh, no thank you. We just had some at Fluttershy’s” Twilight said sitting with Charlie who nodded in agreement.
Rarity sat took a seat across from them. “So Charlie, I suppose you would like to know some more about what I do”
Rarity has been talking for about an hour......non-stop. Charlie had managed to throw a question in once or twice, which simply added momentum to the already high speed and one sided conversation. Twilight simply sat in silence. Charlie suspected she had heard all this before.
“- and that’s why Canterlot nobles are so important to the fashion industry. Even if I have a strong distaste to most of them....on a social level of course.” Rarity said, matter of factly.
When Charlie realised Rarity wasn’t really paying much attention to anything else other than what she was saying, he figured he could use the opportunity to properly look around. He glanced over to what he assumed were some works in progress.
“Those dresses look quite fancy on those....mannequins.....ponyquinns?......does ‘man’ even mean anything in mannequin? Oh crap, I hope she doesn’t ask me any questions about....anything.” He thought.
Much to his surprise, she hadn’t asked him a single question about human fashion. He didn’t mind, of course. He had very little knowledge or interest in fashion and he knew that perfectly well. He definitely didn’t want Rarity finding out about it though.
Rarity simply kept on the subject of Equestrian fashion. She clearly knew almost everything about it, inside out and back to front. She was just beginning to start describing her view on royalty’s influence on fashion, when she glanced at the clock.
“Oh my! That’s not the time is it? I’m late to pickup Sweetie Belle from school!” Rarity said, suddenly in a fluster.
“Oh, well...uhh” Twilight stumbled over her thoughts that were suddenly brought back into the room.
“I didn’t even get to ask Charlie about human fashion culture. Simply horrible!” Rarity said, now at her dresser looking for her things.
“That’s OK, Rarity. Perhaps another time.” Charlie said, slightly regretting saying that shortly after.
“Oh absolutely! You must come back at a later date so we can resume where we left off.” Rarity said making her way to the door.
Both Twilight and Charlie followed Rarity out the door. Closing it behind them, Rarity looked up to Charlie.
“And I mean that, mister. I expect to see you again very soon.” She said with a smile.
“Oh don’t worry, I won’t keep you waiting.” Charlie said with a nod. “Thanks for having us over.” “It was as delightful as it was short, darling. Sorry but I must dash. I fear I won’t hear the last of this from my dear sister.” Rarity said, looking down the road.
“No problem Rarity.” Twilight said, leading Charlie down the road. “See you soon!”
“Take care!” Rarity called back, heading the other way.
Both Charlie and Twilight walked down the path, slowly making their way further into town.
“Well she certainly seemed......devoted.” Charlie said looking up to some pegasi flying about in the sky.
“Rarity’s....particular. Didn’t you like her?” Twilight asked with slight concern.
“Oh! Of course! She was very nice and welcoming. All of your friends have been. My positive assumptions when I first met them yesterday were pretty accurate. I’m just learning a little more about their personalities.” Charlie said.
“That’s good. But in all fairness, we haven’t really gotten to know much about you. I realise that this is a whole new world for you and you're probably well outside your comfort zone, but you still seem a little....closed up. Is something wrong?” Twilight asked, still holding that concerned look.
Charlie’s gaze lowered to the ground just in front of him.
“C’mon, you’re doing well so far. There’s no need to share anymore with these ponies than you need to.”
Charlie looked up back in front of him. “Don’t worry, Twilight. Give me a few days to get used to it all. I’ll be fine.”
Twilight held her gaze a little longer, until she noticed they had arrived at their destination.
“Ah, we’re here. Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie Pie lives and works here helping run the bakery.” Twilight said, gesturing with her hoof.
“This building stands out even more than Rarity’s boutique.” Charlie said, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. “It looks like it’s made out of cakes and sweets.”
“Trust me, it’s not. The foals can attest to that.” Twilight said with a slight giggle. “C’mon, let’s get inside.”
Twilight led Charlie through the front door. Charlie could see a couple of ponies standing in a queue in front of the counter where another pony was serving. He could smell a strong aroma of baked goods. He could see a doorway to the kitchen but not much of the kitchen itself, although he could hear various sounds of activity from inside. Shortly after they entered, some of the ponies looked over at Charlie. He actually recognised some of them from his earlier stroll through the town centre. Everypony still gave him long stares, although Twilight’s presence next to him seemed to keep them from freaking out entirely.
“I don’t see Pinkie behind the counter. She must be in the Kitchen, c’mon.” Twilight said as she joined the back of the queue. Charlie followed shortly after.
One by one, the ponies in front of them got bought their goods and made their way out of the shop. Strangely, no pony entered after Charlie and Twilight had come in. Charlie wasn't all that surprised.
“They must have seen me walk in and not want to follow. I feel welcome already.”
It wasn’t long before the final pony left and they both reached the counter. A middle aged mare was just finishing putting away the last few bits into the cash register when Twilight greeted her.
“Hello Mrs Cake. How are you today?”
“Oh hello there, Twilight. It’s been a busy day today so I’m a little frazzled.” Mrs Cake said, still sorting the bits. “Are you looking for-“
Mrs Cake trailed off as she looked up and her eyes met Charlie. Her pupils immediately shrank. He did his best to keep a neutral face. Due to his nerves, a smile was out of the question. Twilight’s eyes were darting between both the human and the mare.
“Uhh, Mrs Cake, this is Charlie. A human who’ll be working in Ponyville. I’m showing him around.” Twilight said a little awkwardly.
Still silence.
“aaaaaand, Charlie, this is Mrs Cake. The owner of Sugarcube Corner.”
Mrs Cake just stood, staring at Charlie. He knew he had to say something.
“Uhh, hi there......pleasure to meet you” He said, still without a smile.
“H-hello. I, uh, can’t say I’ve met someone like you before.” Mrs Cake said nervously.
“No I don’t expect you have. From the numerous nervous stares I’ve been getting plus the distance the ponies have been putting between me and them, I get the impression I’m in the first human here.” Charlie said.
Both Mrs Cake and Twilight drooped their ears slightly at that. “Oh, I’m sorry about that. I know that we can be a skittish bunch.” Mrs Cake said.
“But that will change!” Twilight piped up. “Once everyone gets to know you, you’ll be making loads of friends in no time!”
“I don’t know. I haven’t really been that good in the friends department in the past. I think I’ll focus on my work here in Ponyville, at least for now.” Charlie said, glancing down slightly.
Twilight kept her gaze locked on Charlie, before Mrs Cake stole her attention.
“Speaking of friends,” Mrs Cake said, “are you both looking for Pinkie?”
“Yes we are” Twilight replied with a nod. “Is she around?”
“She’s in the back. Go right in.” Mrs Cake said. Charlie and Twilight started making their way into the Kitchen. “Oh and Charlie?” Mrs Cake said behind him.
Charlie stopped halfway through the kitchen door and looked back to Mrs Cake.
“Please don’t be a stranger. You’re welcome here anytime, despite my shaky first impression.” Mrs Cake said with a smile.
Charlie smiled back for first time. “Thank you, Mrs Cake.”
Charlie entered the kitchen and saw Twilight standing in the middle. No Pinkie in sight.
“Mrs Cake said she’d be in here. Now where’s she gotten to?” Twilight mumbled, looking around.
“HEYA!” Pinkie yelled as she jumped out from inside a cupboard. Both Charlie and Twilight yelled and visibly jumped in surprise causing Pinkie to fall on the floor in a fit of giggles.
“Hahaha! You should have seen your faces! You were all like ‘oh my gosh’! Hahahaha!”
Twilight grumbled to herself. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this.” She glanced over to Charlie, who had his hand on his chest, trying to get his breathing back under control.
“Sorry about that. It’s just Pinkie being Pinkie.” Twilight said.
“Don’t worry about it.” Charlie said between gasps. “This better not be a regular thing or I’m not gonna last that long.”
“So” Twilight said as Pinkie got back onto her hoofs. “I’ve been showing Charlie around Ponyville. We’ve met everyone else and now we’re here to see you, Pinkie”
Pinkie made an exaggerated gasp, “Oh my gosh! I can show you how to bake super nice cakes and stuff! You’ll love ‘em! You’ll be the first human Ponyville baker, Charlie!”
Pinkie started hopping up and down on the spot.
Charlie realised that he was starting to get a little hungry, something that was exacerbated upon smelling the sweet aroma of the bakery.
“Sure, Pinkie. That sounds really good actually.” Charlie said, now having gotten his breathing back into a slow rhythm.
Another giant gasp from Pinkie, who was still bouncing on the spot. “Ohhhh, this is gonna be so much fun!”
They were now 20 minutes into baking some muffins. Pinkie was adding some final ingredients into the mixture that Charlie was mixing. Twilight was sat on a stool in the corner, writing on a notepad.
“Not gonna help, Twilight?” Charlie said.
“No Thanks. I think Pinkie wants you to do it. Besides, I’m getting some great insight into how differently you humans go about certain tasks. Those hands of yours seem very useful.” Twilight responded without looking up from her page.
Charlie rolled his eyes and shifted his focus back to the mixing bowl.
Once the muffin mixture was in the baking tray, it was put in the oven and the tedious waiting began. They decided to pass the time with some conversation.
“So Charlie, whatcha planning on doing while you’re here in Ponyville? You could come and work here in the bakery! Oh that would be fantastic!” Pinkie said cheerfully.
“Thanks for the offer Pinkie, but I already have a job to do.” Charlie replied.
“Ooooooo, what’s that? Special human stuff?” Pinkie asked tilting her head slightly.
"Wasn't she already told this?" He thought.
“Well yes, I suppose. I have to set up some equipment here in Ponyville and in the neighbouring towns. Hopefully, if everything goes well, that will allow the towns communicate in a special way.” Charlie said plainly. He didn’t expect Pinkie to be all that interested in the more technical explanation.
“What do you mean special? We already have postal system that runs between towns for messages. Spike even uses dragonfire for instant messaging between me and the princesses. Although that’s a pretty rare thing in all fairness.” Twilight said.
Charlie scratched his chin. “Well, are you familiar with video?”
“Yeah” Twilight and Pinkie said in unison.
“Well, I plan to setup a system that will allow for video messaging in real time. That is where you can talk to the person...uhh, pony....and see them on a screen at the same time.” Charlie said.
“How can you do that? Video, at least how it works here, has to be recorded onto some kind of medium and then played back. We usually put video into gems using magic. Although it can be put into tapes and such as well.” Twilight said.
“Well, we use digital data which I don’t think you ponies have yet. Or you may have it but in a different form. Regardless, that’s how we stream the video. Using digital information transmitted through a signal through the air, we can stream audio and video from one point to another across considerable distances.” Charlie replied.
“Wow! I really look forward to seeing that in action.” Twilight said, smiling. “That would be really useful.”
“Oh! I could call my family back at the rock farm! The worst part about writing to them is waiting for the reply” Pinkie said with a tinge of a frown.
“Rock farm?” Charlie thought. “Well like I said, I need to setup some equipment first. I’ll need to do some trial runs once I get a small system in place just to make sure everything works properly. Then I can roll it out for everyone, but it’s going to take some time.”
“Of course, as you said, you need to have something in place to send and receive this ‘signal’ of yours.” Twilight said, thoughtfully.
“I’m glad to have you around, Twilight. I may need some help with this in the future, and it’ll be good to know you’re here.” Charlie said.
Twilight gave a small blush while Pinkie’s smile grew even wider.
*DING*
“MUFFINS ARE DONE!!” Pinkie yelled as she raced over to the oven. Both Twilight and Charlie jumped again at the sudden outburst.
“Is she always like this?” Charlie whispered to Twilight.
“She get excited when a new pony, or in this case human, comes to Ponyville. She’ll calm down......a bit.” Twilight replied, rubbing her left ear which was still ringing.
Pinkie came back and split the muffins three ways. She made two bags of muffins for Charlie and Twilight.
“Thanks a bunch for the muffins, Pinkie. Still too hot for me right now but they certainly smell nice.” Charlie said following Twilight to the door.
“No problem! You helped make ‘em too y’know!” Pinkie said before gobbling down one of her own piping hot muffins.
Charlie gawped at her. “How? They’ve just come out of oven.” He asked.
“Years of practice, my human friend. Years of practice.” She said with a smile and a wink.
“Ah forget it.” Charlie made his way outside where Twilight was waiting for him. “It was nice seeing you today, Pinkie. Hope to see you again soon.”
“Thanks, Pinkie. I’ll see you later.” Twilight said, turning away.
“I’ll see you both at the party! I'll let you know once I've planned it!” Pinkie called, waving as Twilight waved back. Charlie was carrying the two bags of muffins.
“Ah, crap. The party. And apparently everyone in town is going to be there. Everyone who was giving me those stares.......lovely” Charlie thought.
He looked up and saw the sun starting to set. Twilight seemed to have clocked this too. “Well, Charlie. I haven’t shown you all of Ponyville but I think we should call it a day. You’ve met all of my best friends at least.”
“It’s been a great day, Twilight. Thanks a lot for showing me around. And I agree, I’d like to head back. I didn’t get the best nights sleep.” Charlie replied.
“Do you need me to walk you back?” Twilight asked.
“No thanks, I think I know which part of town I’m in right now. I can make it back on my own.”
With that, Charlie handed Twilight her bag of muffins and they said their goodbyes. Sure enough, his quad-bike was exactly where he left it. He stashed away his bag of muffins inside the quad-bike and started the engine. With his helmet firmly placed on his head, he set off back up the mountain.
“No plans with the ponies for tomorrow. I should probably get to work on those dish calibrations.” He thought as he raced up the dirt path.
“Don’t want the first report to the captain to consist solely of my increased muffin consumption.”
Charlie sat at his workstation, typing away. He was feeling fairly content after waking up from a good nights sleep. He figured that today he would get down to work.
Charlie heard a familiar, computerised voice from across the room.
*DIAGNOSTICS COMPLETE*
Charlie looked up to his other workstation across the room, to which he had one of the small communication dishes attached. He scooted over to it on his wheelie chair and peered at the results on screen.
“Well, everything looks to be in order. Proof’s in the pudding though”
He detached the cable that connected the dish to the workstation, and lifted it off the work surface. With a bit more effort than he would have liked, he opened the main door and took the dish outside. It was a slightly cloudier day than yesterday, but nothing too miserable. He had missed seeing the pegasi setting up the weather this morning but the fruits of their labour were evident. He sat down and set up the dish on a small tripod on the ground. He brought out a small PDA from his pocket and connected a small cable into the now standing dish.
“I hope I don’t have to do this with every single dish”
After waiting for the PDA to confirm the pairing with the dish, he pointed the dish up towards the communication tower up the mountain. He twisted and turned the dish, this way and that, waiting to hear the expected beeps from his PDA to confirm the alignment with the tower.
Nothing.
“Oh for the love of-“ He grumbled.
He continued to twist and turn the dish, even placing his head directly next to it in some desperate attempt to try and see the alignment with his own eyes. He could see the dish pointing directly at the tower. He knew that this should be one of the easiest parts, especially at this distance. Grabbing the PDA, he saw that it displayed no sign of a connection to the tower.
“Something wrong with the PDA maybe?” He said to himself.
After removing the connected PDA and grabbing a different one from inside, he connected it and tried again.
Still nothing.
“Oh for Christ’s sake!” He said irritably.
He leant back on his hands, staring up at the tower above him. The clouds had become slightly darker, as if to reflect his souring mood. “Well this is a bit of a show stopper” He said to himself. He continued to gaze up at the tower, pondering what the problem could be.
...
...
“Surely it can’t be the tower itself, can it?” He questioned out loud. He stood up and made his way back inside. Sitting back down at his workstation, he opened up the systems status tab. An obvious glowing red box confirmed his suspicions.
“Tower transmission error” He read aloud. “Well fuck”
After running diagnostics on the communications tower, the problem was made clear. One of the antennas had broken.
“Crap, gotta fix that. The captain might want to get in touch.” He said, before quickly making his way back outside. He started walking over to the storage unit. His mood slightly lifted when he realised that at least he’d get to have another ride on his quadbike. He opened the storage unit door and pushed his quadbike outside before heading back in to find a spare antenna. He emerged shortly after, carrying what he was looking for.
“These things are a lot bigger up close” He thought as he began strapping the antenna to the quadbike. “Is it getting darker?”
After successfully securing the antenna to the quadbike, he went back into the storage unit to fetch his maintenance bag. After strapping his maintenance bag to his quadbike as well, he figured he was ready to go. He climbed onto the quadbike and put on his helmet. Pulling his visor down in front of his eyes, he looked down and flicked the switch. He felt the familiar vibrations of the engine coming to life beneath him. With a twist of the handle, he began driving up the mountain.
The dirt path going up the mountain was much narrower than the one he used the day before going down into town. He even had to slow right down to a walking pace at some points to make the turns. But it wasn’t long before he found himself approaching the base of the communications tower. He pulled up next to its large frame and switched off the engine. He unpacked the gear from the quadbike and began unpacking the safety gear from his maintenance bag.
“Don’t think I’ll need the pulley for this one. I reckon the antenna is small enough to just carry on my back”
After putting on his harness and climbing helmet, he strapped the spare antenna to his back. He connected the tether to his maintenance bag, securing it to the harness he was wearing. Finally, he made his way over to the ladder.
“I remember doing this a couple of times back at base when the engineers decided to have a bad day. Don’t have anyone to help me this time. Even though they always made me do the climbing. Lazy bastards.”
Charlie began his climb, dangling his maintenance bag below him. He wasn’t particularly scared of heights, but he was still nervous enough to double check that his safety hook on his harness was always attached to the tower when he moved. He could feel the moderately strong wind blowing against him as he climbed.
“Slow and steady wins the race.” He thought as he climbed slowly higher.
He eventually reached the broken antenna. It wasn’t at the very top, but it was close enough in Charlie’s opinion. He reattached his safety hook and lifted up his bag. He could hear the low hum of the red tower light about three feet away from him. The wind blew in his face with considerable force, but Charlie stood firm. He secured the bag next to him and opened it. He didn’t notice the clouds looming over him growing ever darker as he searched for his tools.
“Alright, so I can take the old antenna down first, secure that to one side while I put the new one in place.”
Charlie started to unbolt the old antenna. Just as he was about to start on the last bolt, he felt the first few drops of water drip onto his face.
“Bloody perfect” He thought to himself. “Gotta get this done quick”
He successfully unbolted the old antenna and carefully pulled it from place. He strapped it to his back next to its replacement. Charlie wasted no time in retrieving the new antenna as carrying both proved heavier than he thought. He could feel the rain becoming stronger and stronger as we worked on installing the new antenna.
“Shouldn’t the pegasi give weather reports?” He thought. “They even know what’s going to happen!”
Charlie sighed with relief as he secured the last bolt. After reconnecting the wire to the antenna, it was now officially installed. The rain was now lashing down.
“I sure hope there’s no lightning scheduled.” He thought as he placed his tools back in the bag. “Alright, best get down quick”
Charlie started his descent whilst the rain whipped across his face relentlessly. He grumbled and groaned in annoyance with each step. He continued to descend slowly, with his maintenance bag dangling below him. He was soaked to the bone now and very irritated. He decided to quicken his pace. The dark clouds loomed over him, releasing an arsenal of rain upon the mountain. His mind was now focused on one thing: getting back inside his home. He was about three quarters of the way down, when his soaked left foot suddenly slipped. The sudden unexpected weight burden on his wet hands was enough to make him lose his grip. The fact that one foot and two hands were no longer on the ladder, brought a split second realisation to mind:
He’d forgotten to attach the safety hook.
The weight from the maintenance bag pulled him backwards, away from the ladder. His right foot was also pulled from the ladder and with that, he plummeted toward the ground.
“AAAAAAH!”
His maintenance bag slammed into the ground a few feet from the base of the ladder. Charlie hit the ground right next to it, slamming his head into the bag full of tools. He felt a sharp pain in his left foot. He lay on the ground, staring up at the tower. The rain lashed against his face as he tried to focus his blurry vision. He groaned as darkness faded in and out. He could hear the faint sound of beating wings, before everything faded into darkness.
“...long do....will.......awake?”
“......on.....far the fall”
Charlie could hear voices around him. Voices he didn’t recognise. His body was aching but he felt warm and dry. He stirred.
“He’s waking up!” The voice closest to him said.
Charlie tried to open his eyes, but quickly shut them due to the horrendously bright light. Instead, he opted for a groan. “...ugh...my head....hurts”
He heard the sound of hoofsteps slowly approach. “Easy there, Charlie. You took quite a nasty fall. Try not to move, at least for now.” A soothing feminine voice said. “Can you open your eyes for me?” Charlie attempted to do so, but at a much slower pace than before. After fighting through the bright light assaulting his eyes, he slowly opened them fully. He saw a white mare peering down at him. She wore a nurse’s hat and had a concerned frown upon her face. “Welcome back, my name is nurse Redheart” she said.
“Where am I?” He asked, looking around.
“At the Ponyville hospital.” Redheart replied. “You were brought here when you fell from that tower. You took a knock to the head and also sprained your ankle.” Charlie tried to move his feet and instantly felt a sharp pain from his left foot. Redheart held open his left eye and shone a light into it, before doing the same with the other. “Well, nothing seems critical. It was a good thing you wore that helmet. You were only brought in about 20 minutes ago, but I think you’re through the worst of it.”
Charlie gave another groan. His head was throbbing. “I don’t remember anything after the fall. I guess I was unconscious the entire time....ugh....who brought me in?” He asked.
“Miss Hooves, the town mailmare. She’s right over there” The nurse said, gesturing over to the other side of the room. Charlie tilted his head to peer over to where Redheart was pointing. Standing in the corner, was a grey Pegasus. He quickly noticed that both her eyes looked in slightly different directions. Her ears were flat and she peered to the ground shyly, circling one of her hoofs on the ground.
Charlie simply watched, before the mailmare spoke. “Umm, I came to deliver your mail. But I didn’t know where to put it. Since it was raining, I couldn’t leave it by your front door. So I went to look for you.” She raised her head as her ears suddenly perked up. “That’s when I saw you climbing down that big tower on top of the mountain. I started to fly up to give you your letter, but then I saw you fall.” Her ears drooped again.
Charlie couldn’t believe how lucky he was. This mare just happened to be around when he came off the tower. He knew he owed her big time.
“And you brought me all the way here? In the rain?” he asked.
“Well, when I saw that you were knocked out, I went to go find Rainbow Dash. I brought her back and she helped me bring you here.” The mailmare replied.
“Where is she now?” Charlie asked.
Nurse Redheart stepped forward. “She’s gone to find Miss Sparkle. I expect they’re both on their way here by now.”
“Brilliant. Both of them are gonna chew me out for this.” Charlie thought before turning his attention back to the mailmare.
“Miss Hooves, I can’t thank you enough for helping me. I really do owe you one.” He said with a slight smile. This immediately perked her up.
“Oh that’s ok! Oh, and please call me Derpy.”
Charlie was about to reply, before the door swung open. Standing in the doorway in front of Rainbow, was a very wet and upset looking Twilight. “Where is he!?” Her eyes scanned the room before quickly meeting Charlie’s. She rushed over. “Oh my goodness, do you have any idea how worried I was when Rainbow told me what happened!?”
“Uhh” Charlie managed to get in before Twilight interrupted.
“And why were you doing such work on your own anyway!? You should have had help!” She yelled with her nose pressed against his.
“Twilight I-“
“You’re lucky Derpy was around to send for help and bringing you back here. Do you realise what would happen if you were killed!?” Twilight yelled, now pacing around the room. ”A human killed in Equestria!? It’s not even worth thinking about!”
“TWILIGHT!” Charlie interjected. She stopped suddenly and looked over to him. “Listen Twilight, I’m fine. It was my own stupidity that led me to this, not the work. I’m sorry if I worried you but I was just doing my job. I lost my focus because of the rain. I’ll try to be more careful next time.”
Twilight sighed before slowly walking over to him. “I know it’s your job, but please do be more careful. We don’t want to see you getting hurt, ok?”
Rainbow made her way into the room. “Yeah, doofus! I had to take the afternoon off to drag your sorry butt over here.” She said jokingly.
“Heh, sorry about that Rainbow. But thanks all the same. I owe you one too” Charlie replied. Rainbow simply smiled back.
“So are his injuries serious?” Twilight asked Redheart.
“Fortunately, no. He should stay tonight, just to be sure. But I honestly expect him to be fine.” Redheart replied.
“So I don’t need to send word to Princess Celestia?” Twilight asked. “That’s what I’ve been instructed to do if something serious happens to him.”
Nurse Redheart waved her off. “Absolutely not. I should be able to handle things now that he’s safely in this hospital bed. If things escalate, I’ll be sure to let you know Miss Sparkle.”
“By the way, nurse.” Charlie said, looking over the Redheart. “How do you know so much about humans? Y’know, medically.”
Nurse Redheart smiled. “Well, you’re not the first human I’ve treated. The construction of your facility didn’t go without its accidents. Thankfully none too serious, but I received quite a bit of training from the human medical teams that were around for that. But let me assure you, I only know the basics. If you come back here with anything serious, we’ll need to send you back home for human treatment. I believe that’s where Miss Sparkle comes in.”
Charlie smiled back. “Well, thanks”
“I’d like to keep you here overnight, just to make sure everything’s fine.” Redheart said, looking at her clipboard. “Is there anything you need taken care of at your facility?”
Charlie thought for a few moments. “Oh! The dish and PDA! Could you bring those to me? I don’t really want them out in the rain overnight. It’s all waterproof, but the weather still won’t do ‘em any good.”
“I can get ‘em.” Rainbow said confidently.
“There’s three parts: The dish, a portable battery and the tablet PDA. They should be the only things outside the front door. Just bring the lot, please.” Charlie said. With a salute, Rainbow opens the window, jumps out and takes to the sky.
“She never uses the door.” Redheart said rolling her eyes. “Well I believe that’s everything. We better leave you to your rest.”
The three ponies started to make their way out before Derpy gasped. “Oh! I almost forgot. I still have your mail to deliver!” She made her way back over to Charlie and pulled a single letter from under her wing. Charlie began to open it, not really able to guess what it could be. He wasn’t expecting any mail from anyone. A single piece of paper came from the small envelope. When he inspected it, his left eye began to twitch.
“Oh” He said irritably. “Today’s weather schedule forecasts heavy rain.”
The rays of the morning sun broke through the openings of the curtain. All was still in the hospital ward as Charlie slept peacefully in his bed. There was total silence in the ward, except for Charlie’s light snores. Even the door made no noise as it was slowly opened. The barely audible patter of hoofsteps echoed around the room, not nearly loud enough to wake the sleeping human.
“Is this him?” A voice whispered.
“Looks like it. Certainly matches the description.” Another voice whispered back.
“Alright then.” A third voice whispered. “Let’s get to work.”
Charlie remained asleep as the new arrivals surrounded his bed. He didn’t even stir as one of them pulled out a small object. “We need more information about him before we can start the operation.” The voice said. “We can’t risk waking him.”
“His mouth is closed. We can’t do it unless we open his mouth.” The voice across the other side of the bed whispered.
“That will wake him up. How do we know that’s the best place anyway? We’ve never seen a human before.” The other voice across the bed whispered.
“We need this data. We’ll just have to improvise.” The owner the object whispered. “Here goes.”
Charlie’s blissful sleep was suddenly interrupted as a thermometer was shoved up his nose.
“AAAHHH!” Charlie yelped as he jerked bolt upright.
“You put it in too hard, Scootaloo! Why’d ya stick it up his nose!?”
“How was I supposed to know how hard to do it!? I guessed!”
“We need to get it out, girls! Quick!”
Charlie was trying to kick away the covers as he suddenly clocked the three fillies surrounding him. The orange one quickly leapt up at him and snatched the thermometer dangling awkwardly from his nose.
Charlie quickly covered his nose. “OW! Owowowowow!”
“Omygosh! We’re mighty sorry, mister.”
Charlie looked up and saw the small yellow filly with a large bow in her mane gazing up at him apologetically. Next to her, was a white filly with a similar expression. “What did you do that for?” Charlie asked from behind his hands.
“We were trying to treat ya. Seeing how you’re in the hospital an’ all.” The yellow filly said.
The obvious question came to Charlie’s mind. “Why?”
“You’re a human! When we overheard Rainbow Dash that you were in the hospital, we came over to try and fix you up!” The white filly said, excitedly.
“I can’t believe this” Charlie thought to himself.
“Who are you three?” He asked.
“Ahm Applebloom.” The yellow one replied.
“I’m Sweetie Belle.” The white one followed up.
“Scootaloo.” The orange one finalised.
Charlie groaned to himself as he lowered his hands from his nose. It was way earlier than he would have liked but, after everything that just happened, there was no way he was going back to sleep now. He was still too tired to care about the cute faces these fillies were making right now.
“Well, you three. Nurse Redheart is already taking care of me. Besides, you lot don’t strike me as medical professionals.” He said as his aching nose twitched as if to prove the point.
“Well, duh!” Scootaloo replied, causing Charlie to raise an eyebrow at her. “That’s why we did it, to see if we’d be good at it or not.” She elaborated.
Charlie sighed, truly confused. “Why me?” He asked.
“To see if we could get our human medical practitioner cutie marks!” Sweetie Belle chirped.
“You’ve got to be joking.” Charlie thought to himself.
Charlie scooted back so he could rest back against the headboard of the bed. Scootaloo had moved round to stand next to her friends next to the other side of Charlie’s bed.
“Listen Applebloom, Scootaloo and....Sweetie Belle was it?” Charlie asked before seeing the white filly nod. “Well, I don’t think that you’re gonn-“ He stopped in realisation. “Sweetie Belle, you’re Rarity’s little sister?” She nodded again before replying.
“She told me about you, mister. She didn’t tell me what you’re name was, but she told me to stay out of your way until you settled in.” she said.
“And you thought sticking a thermometer up my nose was an exception?” Charlie deadpanned.
Sweetie Belle looked to the floor, feeling slightly embarrassed. “Please don’t tell my sister. She’ll kill me.”
Charlie sighed. “Only if you promise not to do it again. And the name’s Charlie”
Sweetie Belle’s face lit up. “Oh thanks, Charlie. We promise!” “Well girls, we better go before Nurse Redheart finds us. It won’t be easy sneaking past her again once she’s had her morning coffee.” Scootaloo said, turning towards the door.
“Yeah, ahm coming. See ya mister Charlie!” Applebloom said, following Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle gave Charlie a smile before following her friends. Both Applebloom and Sweetie Belle wore content expressions on their faces, but Scootaloo seemed a little down in the dumps.
“Must be feeling down after their failed attempt to get their cutie marks.” He thought as the fillies left the room. “Pfft, Cutie Marks. What a sissy name. I wonder if the stallions call them that.”
Charlie leant over and drew the curtains, revealing a sunny morning. He figured he’d just wait in bed until Redheart came to check on him.
It was late morning. Nurse Redheart had come to check on him about an hour ago. She brought with her Charlie’s equipment that Rainbow had gone to collect last night. With a quick check-up, Redheart confirmed that he was OK and should be ready to leave once she finishes the paperwork. In the meantime, Charlie decided to finalise yesterday’s work.
Charlie currently had the dish setup on a desk next to the window. Thankfully, he could just about see the tower from the window. Happy with the dish pointing at the tower, he booted up his PDA.
*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*
Charlie smiled as he heard the PDA chime and saw the text flash on the screen.
*ALIGNMENT CONFIRMED - CONNECTION ESTABLISHED*
“Finally.” He thought to himself. “One working dish.”
With the test complete, he began packing up his gear. Nurse Redheart would be back soon to approve his discharge from the hospital.
--- 30 minutes later ---
“Well that proves my theory as true. The scenery outside the window does not become more interesting after 25 minutes of staring at it.”
Charlie had been staring out the window, feeling rather bored. He was still waiting for Redheart to appear.
“Where is she? Something must have come up in the hospital this morning” He thought.
His attention shifted as he heard a knock at the door. “Come in” he called.
The door opened, revealing Twilight. She stepped into the room. “Good morning, Charlie. Thought I’d come see how you’re feeling.”
Charlie smiled as she made her way to his bedside. “Morning, Twilight. Yeah, I feel much better today thanks. My head’s stopped throbbing but my foot’s still a little stiff. I reckon I’ll be fine to leave as soon as Redheart will turn up to discharge me.”
Twilight sat down in the chair next to his bed. “Yeah, I met her at the front desk just now. She did seem a little flustered though. I think there must have been an emergen-“ Twilight was interrupted as the door was quickly opened. Redheart quickly walked in, carrying a clipboard. “Sorry about that. A stallion decided to get his head stuck in a garden gate this morning and we had to get it off rather quickly. It wouldn’t usually cause such a fuss, but he started to panic when my colleague mentioned a saw.” She said nonchalantly. Twilight and Charlie gave each other awkward glances. “Anyway! I have your discharge papers here Charlie. I trust you’re still feeling OK?” Redheart asked.
“Yeah I’m OK. My foot’s still a little stiff.” Charlie replied.
“That’s because of the support magic that’s been administered. It simply restricts the movements and pressure applied to your ankle and foot. It should wear off in a couple of days. I wouldn’t suggest any running during that time.” Redheart said in a professional manner. After a nod from Charlie, she handed over the clipboard. “Please sign at the bottom. After that, you’re free to leave.”
Charlie signed the discharge papers before packing up his stuff. He was handed back his work clothes, which he quickly changed back into. He absolutely didn’t want to stroll through Ponyville in nothing but a hospital gown. It wasn’t long before he was all packed up and ready to leave. Twilight led him out of the hospital after exchanging farewells to the hospital staff.
“So, would you like me to walk you back home?” Twilight asked as they walked out the hospital entrance.
“Actually, yes I would. I was wondering if you could help me with something.” Charlie replied. This peaked Twilight’s interest.
“Oh?” She said as they began walking down the street toward Charlie’s facility.
“I’ve finished calibrating this communications dish. And now that I’ve fixed the main tower, I’m ready to start work on the first installation. I figure, you might be interested?” Charlie said with a slight smile.
Twilight’s eyes widened, before a smile spread across her face. “You mean, I get to have the first try?”
Charlie shrugged. “Sure, I first have to get the terminal hardware from the facility. Then, after bolting this dish to the side of your library, I can get to work on installing the terminal somewhere inside. Obviously, I’d need your input for a lot of that.”
Twilight couldn’t keep the smile off her face. To say that she was excited about the prospect of getting her own human technology to use was a grave understatement. She continued to ask Charlie a myriad of questions about what was to happen as they continued their walk out of town and up the mountain. For the majority of the trip, Charlie tried his best to answer the barrage of questions coming at him from the unicorn. The stiffness of his foot, however, was a considerable distraction. He was quite thankful when he spied the front door of his facility.
“Alright” he said as he opened the door. “Let me just get changed out of this suit, and then we’ll start collecting what we need. I won’t be long, so just wait for me.” He started making his way to his bedroom. “Please don’t touch anything.” he called as he walked through his bedroom door, closing it behind him.
Twilight immediately walked over to the closest computer terminal. The various flashing lights and scrolling text fascinated her. She could read the words ‘SYSTEMS STATUS’ written at the top. There was a small box underneath containing the word ‘SUMMARY’. Under that was a lot of text which was slowly scrolling down.
“Broadcaster, Receiver, Main Power, Sub-System Power, Ventilation, Lighting” she muttered to herself as she read the list. Each one had the word “OK” written in green next to it. She looked up and saw another terminal across the room. The screen looked different to the one in front of her. She made her way over to the other terminal. This screen was titled ‘HARDWARE DIAGNOSTICS’. She saw that the screen was divided into two sections that were titled: ‘Diagnostic Processing/Results’ and ‘Calibrations’.
“Charlie mentioned hardware earlier. He also said he was calibrating that dish. This must have been what he used to do it. I wonder how it works.” She said to herself, not really noticing her hoof slowly approaching the screen.
“What did I say about touching anything?” Charlie suddenly said from his bedroom doorway.
“Oh! Uhhh...” Twilight stammered as she quickly retracted her hoof away from the screen. “This is all so interesting. I don’t really know what any of this does, but I know that we have nothing like it in Equestria.”
Charlie walked over to her. “Well, interesting or not, if you had gone all the way and touched that screen with your hoof...you would have blown up this place.”
“WHAT!?” She yelped before quickly backing away from the terminal.
Charlie tried to stifle a laugh, but failed. Upon seeing Twilight’s now irritated expression, he brought himself down to a chuckle. “Oooooh, that’s rich! But seriously, it’s OK. You can’t blow up the facility with this thing. It’s just for checking and setting up some of the hardware I use.” Charlie managed another chuckle. “Sorry about that, Twilight. I shouldn’t take advantage of your ignorance like that.”
Twilight said nothing. She simply gave him her best attempt at a death glare. Charlie thought it best to move things along.
“Anyway, shall we get packed? I think I could use your help moving some of the heavier equipment, especially with this foot.” He said.
“I suppose.” Twilight replied, still rather annoyed. Charlie led her outside and over to his garage. He opened the garage door and went inside. Twilight followed his instructions and waited outside. Twilight heard a lot of rummaging around come from inside. She decided to take the opportunity to relax and feel the sun warm her coat.
“Hiya, Twilight!” A familiar voice chimed above. Twilight looked up to see her friend, Rainbow Dash. The cyan pegasus slowly descended until she landed next to Twilight.
“Good morning. Looking for Charlie?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah, has he fallen off anything yet? Do I need to drag his sorry butt back to the hospital again?” Rainbow joked.
Twilight chuckled. “No, not yet. He’s getting something from in there.” She said as the gestured to the garage behind her. A loud crash could be heard from inside as if to prove her point. “Aren’t you supposed to be working today, Rainbow?”
“I am. I’m doing it right now, actually. I’m clearing this cloud sector. I’m ahead of schedule, so I figured I’d check on the big guy. I figured he’d be out of hospital by now.” Rainbow replied.
Another loud crash echoed out the garage. “I’m okay!” Charlie called after. Both Rainbow and Twilight rolled their eyes. Charlie stumbled out the garage shortly after.
“Oh, hey Rainbow. Oh! This is perfect. You got a minute?” Charlie asked.
“Sure, what’s up?” Rainbow replied.
“I just remembered, I left my quadbike up at the tower after yesterday’s fiasco. While I go up and get it, can you both drag out some stuff from in there?” Charlie asked as he gestured into the garage. “Alright” Twilight replied. “What do you need?”
Charlie led them into the garage.
“Well, I’ve secured and bagged all the loose parts I need.” He said as he pointed to a fairly large green bag. It was roughly the size of a mini-fridge. ”It needs to be loaded on this trailer. Then the trailer needs to the brought out the front.”
Both Rainbow and Twilight nodded before getting to work. With both of them on the job, Charlie headed out to retrieve his quadbike. He knew it would be a considerable walk, but the strengthening magic placed on his ankle was helping. It took him about 15 minutes to reach the tower. Looking up, he could see the point up the ladder where he fell. He actually felt quite impressed with himself that he fell from such a height and only got such minor injuries. Shaking his head to get the thoughts away, he made his way over to his quadbike. Going through the familiar routine, he jumped on, set himself up and started the engine. Opening up the throttle, he began his drive back down to the garage.
“Well, that seems to be everything. Guess we just need to wait for Charlie to come back.” Twilight said, leaning against the now packed trailer.
“I’ll leave you to it, Twi. I gotta get back to work. See you later!” Rainbow said before taking off, not even waiting for a response.
“Yeah, OK by-...hmppf...Probably wants to finish up her work so she can get a head start on her afternoon nap.” Twilight muttered to herself. She heard a distant noise approaching from up the mountain path. She looked over and saw a small cloud of dust rising in the distance. Squinting her eyes, she could just about make out a human riding some machine coming towards her. “That must be him.”
Charlie could see that Twilight and Rainbow had managed to pack the trailer like he asked. He drove toward the trailer before slamming on the brakes. He came to a stop just next to the trailer as the cloud of dust engulfed the small area. “Alright” Charlie said though his helmet. “Ready to go?”
Twilight covered her eyes while the dust settled. When everything cleared up, she fixed her gaze on the quadbike. “What’s that?” she asked.
Charlie looked down at the machine he was sitting on. “This? It’s my quadbike. It’s pretty useful to get around quickly. I’m gonna use it to bring the trailer you packed to the library. It's also carrying my tool bag. Fancy a ride back to the library?”
“Umm, is it safe?” Twilight asked nervously.
“Well, I’m not going to drive too fast dragging that trailer.” Charlie shrugged. “I think you’ll be alright if you hold on tight. Certainly beats walking.”
Twilight thought for a moment. “It will be much safer if I just teleport back home...buuuut...this could be interesting....might even be fun”
Twilight nodded. “OK, if you say so.”
Charlie nodded back before getting off the quadbike. “Alright, lemme just connect the trailer.” As he did so, Twilight took a closer look at the quadbike which she quickly noticed was still switched on. Charlie finished connecting the trailer. He sat back on the quadbike.
“Are you sure you won’t go fast?” Twilight asked.
“I promise.” He replied. “Now, take a seat behind me, just like I am.”
Twilight did as he said. She sat on the back seat with one leg either side of the bike. She could feel the vibrations of the engine underneath her. Charlie twisted around as best he could to see how she was doing. “OK, good. You need to keep your back hoofs on the footrest like you are. You also probably want to keep your tail away from those exhaust pipes. They can get pretty hot.” Twilight swished her tail back around and wrapped it in front of her. Charlie continued to inspect how she was sat. Satisfied that she was as safe as she was going to be, he turned back around to face the front.
“Sorry, but I don’t have a helmet that will fit your head.” Charlie said as he checked the fuel gauge.
Twilight swatted his back lightly. “Are you saying I have a big head?”
Charlie chuckled. “I’m saying that we don’t make helmets shaped for any pony’s head.” He said as he tapped his own helmet to emphasise. “OK, now you’re going to need to stay on the bike when we start moving. Hold onto my waist so you don’t fall off.” Twilight wrapped her hoofs around his waist, a bit more tightly that Charlie expected. “Alright, if you need me to stop, just shout. OK?”
Twilight rested her head against his back. “OK” she called.
Charlie couldn’t remember the last time someone had been this close to him before. He quickly shook those thoughts out of his head. “Ready to go?” He asked.
“Umm, yeah.” she called back.
Charlie twisted the throttle slowly and the quadbike revved. It slowly began to creep forward, pulling the trailer behind them. Satisfied that everything was connected and working, he increased their speed slightly. Twilight quickly realised that it wasn’t as bad as she feared. In fact, it felt rather nice. She continued to watch the scenery pass by them as they slowly drove down the mountainside.
Charlie and Twilight arrived outside the library. They had been driving for about 15 minutes, of which most of the time was spent travelling through Ponyville streets. Charlie had to slow right down just to be sure that everypony didn’t freak out. They both got their fair share of awkward glances from the ponies they drove past. After all, it’s not that usual to see a human and pony riding some strange machine through the middle of Ponyville. Charlie was actually quite thankful they had finally arrived. He brought the quadbike to a slow stop outside the front door and switched off the engine.
“Twilight, we’re here.” He said, looking over his shoulder.
She didn’t respond. She just sat there with her eyes closed. He also noticed a very small smile on her face. But it wasn’t long before she noticed the soft vibrations and the sound of the engine had stopped.
“Huh? What’s that?” She mumbled.
“I said we’re here. We need to unpack the trailer.” Charlie replied, taking off his helmet.
“Oh? Oh!” Twilight said as she hastily got off the quadbike. “I’ll get the door.”
As Twilight made her way to the library’s front door, Charlie started untying the trailer cover. He could hear the unicorn calling her dragon assistant from inside the library.
“I wish I had a little assistant. Maybe I could ask the other eggheads back home to make me one. Like a small robot butler! Yeah, that would be awesome.” He thought as he worked.
It wasn’t long before he had the trailer cover removed. He went around and checked that everything inside the trailer looked fine. He saw that everything he needed was inside, including the most important part: the client terminal. He knew that Twilight was going to love this. The all in one piece of hardware would allow her to call up other ponies with the same kit and have video calls with them.
Twilight came back outside to meet him. “Need any help?”
“Yes please. Can you levitate that thing out on your own?” He asked.
“Oh, sure! Easy.” She said before lighting up her horn. The terminal became shrouded in a lavender aura before slowly floating out of the trailer.
“Wish I could do that.” Charlie thought as he began making his way inside, carrying his tools. Twilight followed, bringing the floating terminal with her.
“Alright, where do you want it?” Charlie asked as he stepped inside. Twilight made her way through and placed the terminal by the wall next to one of the bookcases.
“Here.” She said with a smile.
“Ok, good. I’m afraid I’ll need to drill a hole in the wall to put a cable through to the outside. Is that okay?” Charlie asked as he began unpacking his tools.
“Umm, sure I guess. Would you like a drink?” She said back.
“No, thank you.” He replied. “I’m just gonna get right to it.”
With that, Charlie began working on the terminal.
~1 hour later~
Charlie walked back in through the front door followed closely by Twilight. “Thanks again for letting me use your ladder. That new dish on the side of your library took a lot less work that I thought.” Charlie said as he made his way over to the terminal. “I can’t believe I forgot the friggin’ ladder”
“No problem!” Twilight replied as she followed.
Charlie put away his drill as he reached the terminal. He had spent 45 minutes configuring it before heading outside to install the dish. He was now near the end of the installation and he had a feeling that Twilight knew it.
“Alright, let’s boot her up.” He said as he switched the power back on. The splash screen displayed the familiar logo of the base’s research division before the setup screen appeared. “Okay, Twilight. Each terminal, including this one, has its own ID number. You use these to identify which terminal you wish to contact. Other people...uhh...ponies will need to know yours if they wish to call you.” Charlie pointed at the 11 digit number displayed in the top right corner. “This is yours. “
Twilight watched in fascination as Charlie pointed to various parts of the screen as he explained how the terminal worked. Her anticipation continued to grow.
“Great! So who can I call?” She asked.
Charlie rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, only me right now. No-one else has a terminal yet. I’ll need to install some more.” He scratched his chin in thought. “Speaking of which, have you got anyone in mind who you’d like to try it out with?”
Twilight looked away before replying. “Actually, there is someone. Or rather, two.”
“Oh?” Charlie asked.
“My parents.”
Charlie raised his eyebrows at that. He was honestly expecting her to suggest her friends. He’s seen how close she is with them all.
“I actually have a particular reason too.” she continued. “Ever since I moved from Canterlot to Ponyville, I’ve been in contact with them less and less. I figured that something like this would help immensely.”
That made much more sense now. Charlie knew the feeling all too well. Being sent away somewhere can bring these problems. He knew he’d lose contact with his family when he crossed over to Equestria. But he was prepared for that, even before he went. There was one small problem to deal with however.
“Where are your parents?” He asked.
“Canterlot.”
“Thought so.” He thought to himself.
Charlie assumed that Twilight had lived with her parents in Canterlot, but he hoped they had moved away from the big city since Twilight left. Canterlot was the capital city of Equestria. It was predictable bad luck that her parents were there and that Charlie would need to take a trip to the city. Charlie had seen the maps given to him when he first moved in. Canterlot was a long train-ride away. The journey plus the installation would mean that he would almost definitely need to spend the night there. He would also need to get this cleared with Celestia before going. He had no idea how the ponies of Canterlot would react to him. All in all, it was going to be a hassle.
“Is that going to be OK?” Twilight asked, slightly concerned by his silence.
“Oh....uh, sure! I’ll just need to let Celestia know that I’ll be working out of Ponyville. I think it might be a little sooner than she planned, that’s all.” He said with a smile.
“Oh, I can handle that. I’ll have Spike write a letter.” She said with relief before becoming more excited. “I’ll also write a letter to my parents asking if we can stay over for a night! Oh I think they’ll be just as excited as I am!”
“Woopie” He thought.
“Well I think that’s everything ready to go here, Twilight. I’m gonna head back home and we can test if it all works. I’ll give you a call from the facility. Just follow the instructions on screen and you’ll be fine.” Charlie said, packing up a few tools he had left out.
“Okay! Thanks!” She called back as Charlie opened the front door. He looked back and saw her attention completely fixated on the terminal screen. Shaking his head and holding a smile, he made his way out and closed the door.
~Charlie’s Facility~
Charlie rolled up to his facility on his quadbike. He opened the garage and disconnected the almost empty trailer. After packing away the quadbike and trailer inside the garage, he made his way back inside his home. He sat down at his main work terminal and placed his head in his hands before sighing.
“Canterlot.” He mumbled. “The capital city of Equestria. Won’t this be fun?” He said sarcastically.
Lifting his head from his hands, he began typing away on his terminal. He opened up the communications tab before setting up the call to Twilight.
“Bet she’s still sat in front of it, waiting for the call.”
He punched in her terminal number before hitting the ‘CALL’ button.
~Twilight’s Library~
Twilight sat in front of the terminal screen, reading through the myriad of information displayed. She had not moved away from it since Charlie had left. She had figured out how to navigate from screen to screen using the touch buttons. She was jumping from one screen, reading everything on it, before jumping to the next. She was about halfway through reading the current page before it suddenly changed.
*INCOMING CALL*
The terminal chimed at her. Twilight jumped back slightly in surprise. She quickly noticed some more text underneath. She saw the words ‘Equestrian Communications Facility’ which preceded two coloured boxes. The green box read ‘ACCEPT’ whilst the red one read ‘REJECT’. Twilight pressed her hoof against the green box.
Charlie’s face appeared on the screen. “Hi Twilight.” he said plainly.
“OH MY GOSH! It works!” She said excitedly. “Can you see me?”
“I see an overexcited lavender unicorn. Yes.” Charlie replied.
Twilight scowled. “Oh very funny. I’ve never done this before.”
“Well, the next step is to get one installed at your parent’s place.” Charlie said, leaning back in his chair. “Got a plan for that?”
“I’ll let you know once I get a reply for the letters I’m about to send. Then we can get started.” Twilight replied before taking a closer look at the camera. Charlie chuckled as he saw the two large eyes on his screen.
“I await your call then, Twilight.” He said, leaning back forward. “There’s a user manual stored on that terminal. You can read it on screen from the main menu.”
Twilight brought her head back from the camera. “Oh, I think I already found it before you called. I was just starting on the first section.”
“Alright, I’ll leave you to it then. Take care, Twilight.” Charlie said.
“Bye, Charlie!” she chirped before the video feed closed down, quickly replaced by the text she was reading before. She sighed as she switched off the terminal. “I better get those letters done before I get too engrossed in this thing.” She mumbled to herself. “SPIKE!” She called. “I need your help!”
Charlie stood up as he ended the call. Stretching his back, he felt a few pleasant cracks before relaxing again. His foot still ached, but it wasn’t really that bad. He actually felt more tired than anything. However, he knew he still had some work to do. Although it had only been a few days, he figured that he should send a report back to base. He needed to let them know what he had done and what he planned to do. Staring down at his terminal in front of him, he made another critical decision.
“Need coffee”
He turned and made his way over to the coffee machine. He was going to need it for what was about to come.
~Canterlot Castle~
Celestia sat comfortably on her throne. She wore a neutral expression, but inside, she was tired. The noble in front of her had been moaning about the impact of some new establishment constructed in the high street. She knew it wasn’t really that important. She had other things on her mind.
Human activity had slowly been increasing over the last few days. She knew it was only a matter of time before she would have to reveal to the world their existence in Equestria. She would also have to be ready for the repercussions of that revelation. Both expected and unexpected.
That worried her the most.
At that moment, a scroll appeared in front of her in a puff of smoke. Twilight had sent her a letter. The noble had noticed this as well, putting a quick halt to their session of moaning. Celestia opened the scroll and began to read. The throne room was completely silent as Celestia’s eyes scanned the text. A few minutes passed before her eyes went wide. She quickly looked up and locked eyes with the nearest guard.
“Summon my sister to the meeting room immediately! Day court is now over.” She said swiftly.
“Yes, your highness!” the guard replied before rushing out the room.
The noble sighed before turning to leave. Celestia could barely make out irritated muttering from the noble as they left. But she had a bigger problem to deal with: A human was coming to Canterlot.
~Sugarcube Corner~
Pinkie pie sat at her desk in her room. Stacks of paper towered over her and she was visibly agitated. It’s been days since Charlie’s arrival, and she still hasn’t thrown him a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party. Twilight had made her promise, a Pinkie promise at that, to not throw a party for him until Twilight gave the go ahead. She knew this was important, otherwise Twilight wouldn’t have mentioned it. But she had no idea why the party had to be delayed for so long. This frustrated her.
So she sat at her desk, working on the only benefit she could see from this: Planning. She took a sip from the cup of hot chocolate next to her. Planning a party wasn’t something usually that difficult for Pinkie. But this was special. This would be the first Pinkie party for a human. A party for someone from a different world.
It had to be perfect.
So she continued to work, scribbling down ideas, schedules, contingency plans and everything else she could think of onto various sheets of paper. She knew that when it finally came around to throwing this party, she was going to be ready.
~Charlie's Facility - A few hours later~
Charlie pulled his gaze away from the screen and chanced a peek out the window. He could see that it was now fully into the evening. He had been working on his report for a couple of hours now. He had a guideline to follow when writing these reports. A guideline which he greatly underestimated. Oddly enough, the majority of the time consuming parts had more to do with the social aspects of the operation rather than technical. Even though most of the report was of a technical nature, he just couldn’t write down the social parts the way he wanted to. Naturally, he had spent most of his time writing, deleting and re-writing his analysis of these parts.
He stood up and went to re-fill his coffee cup.
“I wonder how Twilight’s doing with that comm terminal? I hope she hasn’t decided to try and take it apart.”
He breathed in the welcome aroma of coffee as he filled his cup. Once it was full, he made his way back to his terminal. He sat down and quickly glanced over his work. He had proof-read it once already, but he was one of those guys that tried his best to be safe rather than sorry. Satisfied that it was as good as it was ever going to be, he hit ‘Send’. A progress bar appeared in the middle of the screen showing the transfer progress. Charlie took a sip of coffee as the progress bar slowly filled. A few moments later, the report was sent.
“I wonder how they’ll react to my fall from the tower. They’ll either find it funny or embarrassing.”
With that, he decided that he’d done enough work for the day. He put on some headphones that were connected to his workstation, and decided to listen to some music before turning in for the night.
It had now been a week since Charlie first arrived in Equestria. He had spent the last few days indoors. This was partially due to the discovery of the huge library of films and music that was stored on the local server. He figured that even the higher ups felt a little bad for him spending so much time away from home. That, or the other techies who helped build this place were simply looking out for him. Either way, he was grateful.
Twilight had called occasionally, mostly to inquire about something she had read in the user guide for her terminal. Pretty simple questions: ‘Can I call two ponies at once?’, ‘What happens if I use the same contact name twice?’, ‘Can I distribute the signal across multiple frequencies to broadcast an academic lecture to other students across Equestria in an automated manner?’. Pretty ordinary questions...for her.
Some other ponies had come to visit him every now and then. He got to know Derpy a lot more as she delivered his mail each day. He even put in an old fashioned mailbox outside his front door. In his opinion, it looked too out of place but Derpy insisted that he have it. Something about it being important to keep her job as simple as possible. It seemed a little strange, but Charlie shrugged it off.
He was currently sitting at his workstation listening to some music as he checked through last night’s event logs. A notification appeared at the top right of his screen. Clicking on it, he was brought to a new screen.
*INCOMING TRANSMISSION*
Charlie checked the details which revealed that Peter had replied to the report Charlie had sent a few days ago.
“Took longer than I expected” He thought to himself.
The note of the reply read:
--------------- Sorry for the late reply. Since you suffered an injury that required medical attention, your report had to be passed upstairs for further review. I personally don’t know what all the fuss was about, but you know how it is. Protocols are protocols. Thankfully, they felt that it was all dealt with in a satisfactory manner so no further action or amendments to procedure are needed.
Since the majority of the issues covered in your report are of a technical nature, I’m responsible for the reply. Good to hear that the first terminal is up and running. Since they use a combination of Equestrian magic and our own technology, they are the first of their kind. There was always a little concern regarding their functionality since we didn’t have a huge amount of time to test the design. Still, it all sounds like it’s all OK.
Regarding the faulty antenna, it must have been busted right after installation. We did test it when we flipped the switch for the first time and it all worked. Bad luck on that one. Unfortunately, I have a nagging feeling that something else will go wrong with that tower. Don’t ask me why, but I do. It’s actually one of the simplest bit of tech at your facility. That’s why I never really had much input towards its construction. I’d like you to make regular inspections of the tower, both visually and through system diagnostics. It may be simple, but its still very important. It’s your lifeline connection to us back here, after all. Due to your last mishap when climbing the tower, I’ve sent you a little gift in the next re-supply visit. I think you’ll like it but NO SPOILERS!
That brings me to my last point: The re-supply will be done today (15:00 hrs approx). So make sure you’re at the facility. You’ll be pleased to know that Lt.Vasquez will be leading the re-supply team. They’ll be coming over the same way as before.
OK, that’s it. Try not to fall off anymore ladders. As funny as everyone in my department found it, it was a lot more hassle to process the paperwork.
Regards,
Peter Research Director ---------------
Charlie read the reply with interest. Not only would he get to catch up with Lieutenant Vasquez again, but Peter had also sent him a gift. Probably some new toy, Charlie hoped. He closed the report and re-started his music.
~Twilight's Library~
Twilight sat at her desk, engrossed in a book. Not unusual for her. Spike was wandering about, cleaning up various shelves and surfaces. Twilight took the last sip of her drink before setting the cup back down on the desk beside her. Spike came over to take it away, but stopped as he felt the familiar pressure building from within his stomach.
*BUUURRP!*
Twilight looked up to see that a scroll had materialized from Spike’s dragonfire. Celestia had sent her a letter. Floating the scroll over to her using her magic, she unraveled it and began reading.
------------- Dearest Twilight,
Thank you for informing me about your wish to bring Charlie to Canterlot. I must admit that this is happening much sooner than I anticipated, but I don’t wish for your endeavors to be impeded. I have made a public appearance specifically to inform the residents of Canterlot of Charlie and his kind. I’ve explained that he and his kind are not a threat, but ponies should stay out of your way during your visit. I’ll be honest; the general response was a nervous one. But I trust my subjects to remain calm around you both. All the same, I would like you to be with him at all times if possible. I don’t want Charlie wandering around Canterlot on his own. You of all ponies should know what many Canterlot ponies are like, especially the nobles. A lone human wandering around Canterlot could only spell trouble. I was contemplating allocating two guards to accompany you both during your visit, but I trust you enough for that to not be necessary. I assume your parents have been informed of the upcoming visit? You always were very organized so I suppose that was a silly question. I’m afraid that it’s most likely that I won’t be able to visit you during your stay. I’ve been very busy as of late and it doesn’t look likely to change.
Thank you again for getting in touch.
Kindest regards,
Princess Celestia -------------
“After reading that, I can see that she’s right. This is going rather fast. Charlie’s only been here a week and we’re going to Canterlot already? He’s barely settled into Ponyville.” Twilight thought as she set the scroll down on her desk.
Spike looked at her expectantly. He’s gotten used to attempting to read her expressions shortly after getting a letter from the princess. News from the princess could be anything, something which Spike knew perfectly well.
“But then again, the princess has made the effort to prepare Canterlot for his visit. To not bring Charlie would taint her image. I couldn’t do that to her!” Twilight thought, with a determined expression forming on her face. “It’s settled. We’re going ahead with it.”
“What’s it say Twilight? Is everything alright?” Spike said, noting the change in her facial expression.
“Yes Spike, it’s fine. Princess Celestia has prepared our visit to Canterlot. I just have to wait for a reply from my parents. Then I can plan the trip.” Twilight said as she nuzzled him. “Will you be okay taking care of things here at the Library while we’re gone, Spike?”
Spike gave a salute. “Of course! I can handle it”
Twilight smiled down at her faithful assistant. He had his flaws, but she knew that she could always count on him.
~Charlie's Facility - A few hours later~
Charlie took off his earphones. He heard the familiar sound coming from outside: Rotor blades. Getting up from his chair, he made his way outside. He looked over to the source of the growing noise. Approaching his facility was the Osprey. Charlie shielded his eyes with his right arm as the vehicle slowly descended in front of him. It didn’t take long for the Osprey to land about 25ft away from him. He waited as the engines slowly began to slow down. Charlie casually took a few steps forward as the cargo doors began to open. He smiled as he saw Vasquez stride down the ramp.
“Long time no see, Corporal.” She said with a smile.
Charlie gave her a casual salute. “Absolutely Lieutenant. Only been a week, though.”
“And from what I’ve heard, you’ve already managed to get yourself into hospital. Can’t even leave you alone for a few days can I?” She joked.
“Humorous as ever, I see.” Charlie replied. “I heard you have some supplies for me.”
Vasquez didn’t reply. She simply turned around and barked orders at the rest of her team who began disembarking with the cargo. They received their orders and began moving the supplies to the facility.
“They know where to put the stuff. And I trust you’ll know what to do with it.” She said after turning back to Charlie.
“You know I do. Shall we head inside? I have a couple of questions I'd like to ask you.” Charlie said, gesturing for her to follow.
They made their way back inside and Charlie made two cups of coffee. Giving one to her, they both sat in the living area.
“So” Charlie began. “What’s the situation? Any developments on the Equestrian front back at base?”
“Yes and no. Yes in that there’s been some escalations. No in that we’re spending a lot of time on our asses.” She replied.
“Escalations?”
“The higher ups are not happy about the pace in which things are going. They want more Humans across the portal. They’ve spent the last week attempting to move over people and equipment. Each time, being denied by the Equestrian guards. Celestia has made a point about keeping all Human activity in check, and it seems that she’s sticking to her guns.” Vasquez said before taking a sip of her coffee.
“Pressure’s mounting then?” Charlie asked.
“Oh yeah big time, especially after the first falling out between the brass and the princesses. Unfortunately, it’s getting worse.” She said.
“Shit” Charlie mumbled to himself. He’s never really been one to take an interest in politics. He’s always just done his job. He could admit to that being a bit of a ‘drone’ attitude, but he was content with it. But now, he felt as if these ‘politics’ were right on his doorstep. One wrong move could affect him greatly.
“If it wasn’t for Peter’s hard work, I think things would be massively worse than they are now” Vasquez continued.
“Oh?”
“Yeah, these machines all around you. Much of it uses Equestrian magic. This new tech is going to be huge back home. At least the brass has something from all this.” Vasquez took another sip from her cup.
“I guess he’s quite the hero. Keeping the humans back home happy.” Charlie said with a chuckle.
“Don’t forget why you’re here.” Vasquez said with a stern tone. “You’re here to keep the Equestrians happy. Your actions also have a big influence on Human/Pony relations. Peter’s handling stuff that can help us while you make sure to help them in return. This whole thing is give and take.”
Charlie looked into his coffee cup. “That’s true. I can’t spend so much time worrying about things back home. Sure, they might mess up. But that doesn’t mean I can’t screw it all up either. One wrong move from me and....”
Vasquez noticed the slightly stressed look dawning on Charlie’s face. “Hey, don’t sweat it dude” She said with a smirk. Charlie looked up before she continued. “Celestia personally approved your work. She believes in you, so that’s good, right?”
“Yeah, I suppose. I just realised how much influence my actions could have. This isn’t just some techie job where I can sit on my own. I can see that there’s a lot more to it. Everything I do has an effect. I have to make a positive impact on this world. Just, pressure y’know?” Charlie said glumly.
Vasquez opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by the door opening. “Supplies are secure, ma’am.” A soldier said from the doorway.
“Quicker than I expected. Didn’t even finish my coffee. Thank you, private. Good work.” Vasquez said before standing up. “Get everyone on-board the Osprey. We’re leaving.”
“Yes, ma’am!” The soldier said before quickly leaving.
Vasquez turned back to Charlie. “Alright, looks like we’re done here. Stay out of the hospital, alright?”
Charlie stood up and gave her a casual salute. “Yes, Lieutenant.”
With that, Vasquez left the room to follow her squad to the Osprey. Charlie remained inside, still thinking about their discussion. As the muffled sounds of the Osprey’s rotor blades increased in volume during its takeoff, the same thought was looping through Charlie’s head: “Don’t screw up”.
Charlie opened the storage unit doors. He had decided to double check all of the new stock that had just been delivered. There wasn’t a whole lot that was new, but he could tell which bits were. A few things weren’t in the places he would have liked, but it wasn’t a big deal. One box, however, did catch his eye. It was a white, plastic box with the research division’s logo printed on the side. He pushed away a few loose creates that were in the way and made his way over to it. Releasing the straps which secured the lid, he opened the box. The first thing he saw was a handwritten note.
“Thought you might like this,” Charlie read aloud. “I built this baby myself. It should help with inspecting the tower without the need for those infamous ladders. I trust a techie such as you to take good care of it. I know the soldiers back here wouldn’t!"
Charlie saw that it was signed from Peter. Discarding the note, he opened up the polystyrene packaging. His eyes widened when he saw what was inside.
“A Quad-Rotor Surveillance Drone!” He said with unsuppressed excitement.
He had seen the early stage schematics for these when they were proposed to the base’s development department. It turned out that the need for them wasn’t great enough to justify the financial investment. So the development never got underway.
“I guess it was Peter who came up with those designs. When its development request was denied, he just went ahead and built it anyway. Sneaky bastard!” He thought to himself.
He saw that the drone had all the parts he previously saw in those designs. There were four dinner plate sized rotors which all connected to a central orb-like body. Inside the body was a multi-directional camera. Small retractable legs were connected to the outside of the body, whilst a compact antenna protruded out the top.
He carefully lifted the drone out of its packaging which revealed a small controller underneath. On top of which, was another note.
Charlie began to read the note aloud again. “I wish I could see your face right now! Well, I’m afraid I must go through the boring stuff: This was a pet project of mine so there’s only one of it. I must stress that it’s not a toy. I followed the original designs to the millimeter, so remember that it was meant to be for military deployment.
The controller can be connected to your main workstation, and the signalling up-linked to the main broadcast tower you have there. That will extend its range to well over four times what’s mentioned in the manual. It has thermal imaging, IR tracking and GPS capability (although that part won’t really help you). I admit that it’s a little overkill for tower inspections, but I really want to have it flying out in the field! Better than sitting in my personal storage here at the lab.
Let me know how it goes!”
Charlie smiled as he put the drone back in its box.
Charlie awoke to the sound of loud banging on metal. Groggily, he sat up in bed before rubbing his eyes. The banging continued as he noticed it was coming from the front door. Someone was knocking on the front door and they seemed impatient. As fast as he could in his sleepy state, he put on a t-shirt and began shuffling to the front door.
“Why do they always knock? I have a doorbell.”
He opened the door which revealed a rather flustered Rainbow Dash.
“Dash? Why are you here so early?” Charlie asked groggily, rubbing his eyes.
“Is she here!?” she asked hastily.
“Huh? Who?”
“Scootaloo. Has she been here? Is she here now!?” she asked, speaking a mile a minute.
Charlie's nose twitched at the name. He remembered her from his hospital visit a few days ago. He hasn’t seen her since.
“No, she’s not here. She’s never been here.” Charlie leant on the door frame. “How did you even think I knew her?”
Rainbow started to take off. “She told me she’s met you. But she’s not here. Gotta go.” She began to try and fly off, but Charlie grabbed her tail, stopping her.
“Wait a sec! What’s going on? Why are you looking for her?” he asked.
“SHE’S MISSING!” Rainbow yelled in his face.
Charlie took a step back, quickly noticing the look of worry on Rainbow’s face.
“I spoke to her two days ago, but that was the last day anyone’s seen her. Everypony is worried sick!” she continued.
Charlie was getting the picture now. “Where was she last seen?”
“Walking down the eastern road out of Ponyville. It leads right round edge of the Everfree Forest and branches off to the only entrance to it. Me and the girls have formed a search party. We’re going to the Everfree to look for her. I thought I’d quickly come here to see if she was around here before we went, since she mentioned you before.” Rainbow replied quickly.
“I’ll come with you.” Charlie said without hesitation.
“No way!” Rainbow immediately replied. “You’re still new round here. It’s dangerous in the Everfree. Besides, you’ll just slow us down.”
“No, I won’t!” Charlie defended.
“I don’t have time to argue!” Rainbow said, now nose to nose with Charlie. “Now let go of my tail!”
Charlie let go as Rainbow prepared to fly away.
“Dash, wait!” he called.
“Oh for- WHAT IS IT NOW!?” she said angrily.
“Just hold on, lemme give you something. It’ll help.” he said before rushing inside. He came back out shortly after. He threw two small black objects to her.
“What’s this?” She asked.
“A portable radio and a beacon. Don’t worry about it, just give them to Twilight to put in her bag.” he replied.
“Alright, whatever!” At that, Rainbow flew off down the mountain.
Charlie made his way over to the storage unit.
“Man, she was really upset. Although, from what I’ve heard, it IS very dangerous in that forest.”
He slid open the door and made his way over to a white box.
“Thank you, Peter. This thing’s gonna get a test of a lifetime.”
~The edge of the Everfree Forest~
“Where in the tarnation is Rainbow? It don’t take that long to fly up the mountain and back” Applejack said with a huff.
“Oh, an expert on flying are we?” Rarity said sarcastically.
Applejack shot her a stern look. “Not the time, Rares. It shouldn’t take her this long and you know it.”
“Don’t worry!” Pinkie said, looking up to the sky. “Rainbow’s the fastest, zoomiest, flashiest flyer in Equestria!”
“Just make sure you’re all ready, girls.” Twilight said, not looking up from the map she was studying. “We’re moving out as soon as she gets back”
As if on cue, Rainbow Dash zoomed over to the group. She landed next to Twilight, who quickly put away her map.
“Was she there?” Twilight asked.
“No. Charlie said he hadn’t seen her. He also wanted to come but I told him ‘no’ just like you wanted.” Rainbow replied.
“I didn’t think she would be up there. Thanks for that, Rainbow. I knew he would want to help, but it’s better for everyone if he stays there.” Twilight said.
“Oh! But he wanted to give you these, Twi. Said to just put ‘em in your bag.” Rainbow said, bringing out the radio and beacon from her small bag.
“What are they?” Twilight asked, taking them from Rainbow.
“Uhh......shoot, he told me but I kinda.....forgot” Rainbow said, sheepishly.
“Well, nevermind. I’ll just put them away for now, like he said. We can worry about it later” Twilight said, putting the items into her saddlebag.
“How did he know I would be taking a bag with me? Am I really that predictable?”
With everything packed away, Twilight led her five friends to the path which entered the forest.
“Alright, girls! Since we’re the only ones who have been in the deep parts of the forest before, we’re the only search party. The rest of the townsfolk are going to keep searching the town, in case she comes back. I’ve already been to see Zecora and asked her to keep an eye out for Scootaloo. If she’s in here, I don’t have to tell you that we need to find her quickly. Stick together at all times. Got it?” Twilight said, receiving silent nods from her friends.
“Alright, let’s go!”
With that, the six ponies entered the forest.
~Outside Charlie’s Facility~
Charlie stood up, looking down at the drone which he had just finished setting up. It stood on its now extended support legs, ready to go. With a nod, Charlie flipped the power switch on the drone and made his way back inside. He sat down at his workstation and plugged in the drone controller.
*INSTALLING DRIVERS AND OPERATION SOFTWARE – PLEASE WAIT*
“Some things never change.” He thought to himself as he waited for everything to install.
Shortly after, the screen lit up with the Research Division’s logo before showing the interface. Charlie could see that three quarters of the left side of the screen displayed the camera feed. The rest of the screen contained some touch controls. The camera feed showed the dusty ground and the bottom of one of the drone’s legs.
“All looks alright. Let’s get this show on the road.”
He slowly pushed the elevation stick up. He saw the dust pick up around the camera before the ground slowly fell away from it. Charlie smiled with the result. It was airborne.
“Alright.” he said to himself. “Rainbow said she was by the eastern road out of Ponyville.”
He twisted the joystick and pointed the camera towards the Everfree. He saw the road he was looking for. Tilting to joystick forward, he began moving to drone towards the Everfree. It slowly moved away from the mountain, holding its altitude. As the Everfree got slowly closer, Charlie gave the touch controls another check. He could see a number of buttons followed by a small top-down diagram of the drone, indicating its condition. He made a mental note of what modes the buttons offered him:
-DAY- -NV- -FLIR- -GPS-
He pressed the GPS button. A small screen appeared with a message in red:
*MAP DATA UNAVAILABLE – NO SATELLITE SIGNAL*
“Didn’t think so.”
He closed the screen down and returned his focus to the camera feed. He could see that the Everfree was practically under the drone. Tilting the camera down forty-five degrees, he pressed the FLIR button. The entire feed switch to black and white thermal vision. Two extra buttons appeared next to the ‘FLIR’ button: ‘WHT-HOT’ and ‘BLK-HOT’. The first was highlighted in green, indicating that it was the currently selected mode. Looking back at the feed, Charlie could see a small blue diamond about 300 feet into the forest. A small white flash appeared periodically within the diamond.
“There’s Twilight and the others. The beacon’s working” he said with a smile.
Pushing the stick forward, he began moving the drone towards the search party.
~Search Party~
“SCOOTALOO!” Rainbow called.
“SCOOOOOOOTALOOO!!”
Applejack trotted up to Twilight. “I’m all fer findin’ Scootaloo. But do ya think it’s a good idea for Rainbow to be yellin’ so loud, Twi? We can’t forget where we are.” she whispered.
“It’s a risk, yes. But it’s one we must take. The quicker we find her, the better.” Twilight whispered back. Rarity caught up to the both of them.
“Why doesn’t Rainbow fly up above the trees? Won’t she get a better view from up there?” Rarity asked. “Not here.” Twilight replied. “It’s difficult to see the forest floor from above the tree canopy. The Everfree’s magic is particularly resistant to natural light. It’s not impossible, but we can see better down here.”
Fluttershy looked to Rainbow sympathetically. She knew how close she was to this filly. Scootlaloo certainly meant a lot to Rainbow.
Rainbow continued to call as the others searched for the filly. They knew she couldn’t have made it too far into the forest. What they didn’t know, however, is that they weren’t the only ones searching.
Charlie slowed the drone down to a walking pace as it flew above the six ponies below. It was high enough to be out of earshot. The blue diamond moved slowly as the ponies continued further into the forest. The tree canopy was too dense to see the ponies. Every now and then, Charlie could see a bit of white thermal from one of the ponies he could see through a break in the trees, but it soon disappeared just as quickly.
“Curse these trees. If I can barely see the search party, I wonder how I’m gonna find Scootaloo.” Charlie thought to himself.
Charlie swiveled the camera around, scanning the area. Charlie just saw gray and black on the camera feed from the mass of trees. He switched off thermal mode and returned to the normal day mode. Swiveling the camera once more, he could see the various colours of tree tops. He noticed, however, that there were a few openings in the tree tops a few hundred yards away.
“Better than nothing.”
Twisting the joystick, he turned the drone towards the area of openings. As the drone slowly made its way over, Charlie increased its altitude gradually. It wasn’t long before he could see the ground at the bottom of the break in the trees. Charlie could see a series of clearings, each roughly thirty meters wide. He brought the drone to a steady hover and switched back to thermal mode. A couple of white specks appeared in and around the clearings. Zooming in, he could see that there were a couple of small animals scurrying about. A few rabbits, squirrels and shrews were darting around. Swiveling the camera to each clearing, he saw the same thing each time.
“Crap, that was probably my best shot. I don’t see any more openings around.” he thought.
With the camera tracked to the last clearing he searched, he turned the drone to return to the search party. He let out a long sigh.
“Wait!” he said out loud as he leant in closer to the screen.
As the drone moved, the camera angle slowly revealed a new heat signature from behind a tree trunk at the edge of the opening. The more the drone moved, the more of the signature could be seen. Suddenly, the tree tops of the edge of the opening blocked the view. Charlie quickly brought the drone to a stop. With the camera still tracked to the same point, he tilted back on the stick to bring the drone slowly backwards. As the tree tops moved out of view, Charlie positioned the drone at a point where he could see the signature the most clearly. He maximized the zoom and switched off thermal. Charlie could see the tree trunk, but could only see a gray mass behind it in the shadows.
“Damn, it’s too dark. I can’t see enough of it.”
He switched to night vision. The screen turned bright green, but slowly faded into focus. Charlie could see the partial outline of the small mass, but nothing else. It was all green due to the night vision. Charlie leant back in his chair.
“No good. Need a better angle or some colour.”
Just at that moment, he noticed movement. The mass shifted and turned. Charlie turned off night vision and peered closer to the screen. He saw orange fur emerge out of the shadow. A face crept around the tree trunk as it emerged into the light. Purple hair and two large eyes entered the sunlight. Charlie saw it clear as day.
“IT’S HER!”
Charlie practically fell out of his chair. He quickly zoomed out and took a few mental notes of the area around Scootaloo. Swiveling the camera, he looked for the search party. The small blue diamond appeared on screen as he scanned the distance. Looking at the small digital compass on screen, he determined his relative position. Grabbing the radio, he pressed the transmit button.
Twilight brought out her map again. She looked at her compass and marked down another ‘X’ on the map where she thought they were.
“SCOOOTALOOO!”
Rainbow hadn’t lost any breath as she continued to call out. She was looking more and more upset by the minute. The other ponies in the group frantically kept up their search.
“I hope we find her soon. Not just for Scootaloo’s sake, but also for Rainbow’s.” Twilight thought.
Just at that moment, a loud crackling sound came out of Twilight’s bag. Twilight visibly jumped.
“Ah! What’s that?” Rarity shrieked.
Pinkie zoomed over and grabbed the crackling radio out of Twilight’s bag.
“Isn’t this what Charlie gave you, Twilight?” Pinkie asked.
“That’s right. What’s it doing?” Twilight replied as she grabbed it in her magic.
*SCRRRRRRRRRRR-READ?-SCRRRRRRRR-HEAD NORTH!-SCRRRRRRRRR-YOU NEED TO-SCRRRRRRRR*
“I can hear Charlie’s voice in that there mess, Twi.” Apple said as she came over.
“Yeah, me too. Something about north?” Twilight replied.
“I think he wants us to head north.” Fluttershy said quietly.
“How does he know where we are?” Pinkie asked, looking around.
“I have no idea. But he wouldn’t have given us this thing unless he had a plan, I’m sure.” Twilight replied.
“Absolutely. This is the best lead we have.” Rarity said.
“Agreed.” Twilight said before looking over to Rainbow Dash. “What do you think, Rainbow?”
“Let’s go north.” She said.
After looking at her compass, Twilight pointed the way.
Charlie watched as the blue diamond changed direction and began moving north. He swiveled the camera back to Scootaloo. She was still looking around her tree, her ears turning this way and that. Her expression held a hint of sadness. Charlie wondered how things had gotten to this point.
“Did she run away? Nah, she probably got lost. But why would she go into this forest in the first place? She must know of the dangers.”
Charlie held the camera on thermal mode with no zoom. He could still barely see Scootaloo’s heat signature. It wasn’t long before the blue diamond appeared at the bottom of the screen. The search party were closing in. Charlie was in luck, given their current bearing, they would hit the clearing. Charlie kept his eyes fixed on Scootaloo, until the search party finally entered the clearing.
“He did mention a clearing. Anypony see her?” Twilight asked.
“SCOOOOOTALOOO!!” Rainbow called.
Faint sniffling could be heard to their left. Everyone looked over to see a glimpse of orange fur slumped against the bottom of a tree trunk.
“Scootaloo? Is that you?” Twilight asked softly.
Scootaloo peered around the corner of her tree, tears streaming down her face. She opened her mouth to speak, but couldn’t get a word out before a cyan Pegasus appeared in front of her. She was instantly pulled into a tight hug.
“WE FOUND YOU!” Rainbow cried.
Scootaloo didn’t say a word as Rainbow hugged her tightly. After a few moments, she returned the hug. Everyone else let out a sigh of relief before making their way over to them both.
Rainbow pulled away from Scootaloo. “What on earth were you thinking, coming in here like that? You know how dangerous it is. You could have been killed!” Rainbow lectured.
“You don’t understand.” Scootaloo said with a quiet and croaky voice.
“What happened, darlin’?” Applejack asked softly.
Scootaloo held quiet for a few moments and wiped away her tears before looking around the group. She let out a sigh. “I can’t take it anymore. Day after day of the same thing.”
The rest of the group remained silent. Rainbow watched her intently as she waited for the filly to explain.
“It never ends. The pain. I get it from everyone. Most of my classmates and even some of the adults, they all treat me differently. As if I’m less of a pony.” Scootaloo said with a depressed tone.
“Whatever for, darling?” Rarity asked.
“Being an orphan.” Scootaloo replied without hesitation.
Everyone gasped. Scootaloo’s expression shifted to one of slight confusion.
“You didn’t know?” she asked the group.
Nobody said anything but slowly shook their heads.
“I thought Sweetie Belle or Applebloom would have told at least one of you.” she said, before looking at the ground. “I get teased about it by my classmates. Other ponies just ignore me as if they think I'd be some kind of bad influence. Every day after school, I see other colts and fillies rushing off to meet their parents. They all look so happy.”
Scootaloo gritted her teeth and looked up to the group in front of her.
“Why can’t I have that happiness, huh!? WHY NOT ME!?” she yelled, tears streaming down her face again. “Day after day I go back to the orphanage! No-one ever comes for me!”
Tears began to well in the eyes of everypony around her. It hurt to see this filly cry her heart out. What hurt more, however, was the feeling of guilt that none of them even knew Scootaloo was suffering so much. Rainbow brought her into a hug again as the filly buried her face in her chest and sobbed. Twilight slowly sat down and thought back to her discussion with Charlie a few days ago. How she asked Charlie to help her get back in touch with her parents. How much she missed them. She realised how much it must have hurt Scootaloo to not even have them in the first place.
“I just want someone to go home to.” The muffled voice of Scootaloo sobbed. “Someone to see and care for me each day.”
Pinkie couldn’t hold back anymore. She rushed over to Rainbow and Scootaloo and joined the hug. It wasn’t long before they were joined by the rest of the group.
Charlie watched the group hug from above. He had no idea what was being said, but he had a fair idea that Scootaloo was upset about something and that she was being comforted by the others. He leant back in his chair as watched the scene develop on the screen.
Something caught his eye. There was movement between the trees about a hundred feet away from the group. Thermal picked up nothing, but he could still see something moving on the black and white screen.
“What on earth is that? It’s got no heat signature.”
He zoomed in the camera to see if he could get a better look, but the trees were blocking most of the movement. He noticed similar movements near the first one, all moving in a synchronized manner towards the group of ponies. He zoomed in further on one of the moving masses. He switched to night vision, and with a pure stroke of luck, he caught a good glimpse of it through a small break in the trees.
“Wood?” He thought as he watched the camera feed. “The trees are moving?”
He suddenly got a flashback of a conversation he had with Fluttershy and Twilight a few days ago. They had a long discussion about some of the creatures that lived in the Everfree. Panic hit Charlie like a brick when he realized what he had spotted and that they were slowly advancing on the group of ponies below.
Everyone pulled away from the hug, revealing a still sad filly. Twilight lifted her chin with her hoof. Scootloo looked up to see a teary but smiling Twilight.
“Don’t worry, Scootaloo. We don’t think any less of you. Don’t let anypony else make you feel like you’re less of a Pony, because you’re not. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle don’t think of you like that, right?” Twilight said softly.
Scootaloo sniffed. “No. They’re the only ones who I can really call my friends.”
“See? You haven’t been left alone.” Twilight said with a smile. “But doing what you did was dangerous.”
Scootaloo looked down, before slowly nodding in agreement.
“We’ll help ya Scoots.” Applejack chimed in. “But we need to get back home first, don’t ya think?”
Scootaloo was about to reply, before she was interrupted.
*SCRRRRRR-HAVE TO-SCRRRRRRRRRR-NOW!”
Twilight jumped again as her bag called out.
“What’s that?” Scootaloo asked.
“Charlie gave us something. He’s been talking to us through it. He helped us find you.” Twilight replied, bringing the radio out of her bag. “I don’t think it’s working properly, though. I wonder what he’s trying to tell us now.”
“Oh I know! Rainbow, can you fly up with this? Maybe the magic from the Everfree is causing this.” Twilight said.
“Sure!” Rainbow said, grabbing the radio and flying up just above the trees. Everyone could still hear the crackling of the radio as she hovered above.
*BEHIND YOU! LOOK BEHIND YOU! TIMBERWOLVES!*
Everyone’s eyes in the group went wide when they heard what came out the radio. All heads quickly turned to the tree-line behind them. Multiple glowing eyes were watching them from the shadows.
*GET OUTTA THERE NOW!*
The Timbewolves gradually emerged from the shadows, their faces now visible in the dim light. Five wolves crept into the clearing, slowly approaching the group. Their aggressive snarls could be heard over their footsteps.
Everypony held their breath as their faces quickly paled. Twilight was the first to recover.
“EVERYPONY, ON ME NOW!” she yelled.
The rest of the group snapped out of their fear stricken trances and quickly jumped next to Twilight. Rainbow quickly dove down to join the group. The Timberwolves launched forward in a beeline sprint towards the group. Twilight charged her horn with magic. She could hear the snarls and barks of the Timberwolves as they charged towards her. She closed her eyes and quickly focused on everybody she could sense around her. Suddenly, with a bright lavender flash, the group of ponies vanished.
Charlie had his eyes glued to the screen, radio tightly held in his left hand. He rubbed his eyes from the flash that he had just seen on the camera feed. Searching the screen, he saw no sign of the ponies. He could see that, from the looks of it, the Timberwolves had no clue where they went either. They circled the area where they just were, sniffing the ground, trying to pick up any scent. Charlie let out a sigh of relief.
“Must have teleported.” he thought to himself.
He put down the radio and grabbed the controls. Turning the drone around, he pointed the camera towards the eastern road of Ponyville in the distance. After increasing the altitude slightly, he saw a blue diamond appear in the middle of the screen.
“Phew, there you are.”
Pushing the stick forward, the drone slowly began making its way back to the group.
*POOF*
Everyone in the group fell to the ground, with Twilight panting heavily.
“Is.....everypony.....OK?” she asked between breaths.
“Yeah, I think we’re good.” Rainbow said, checking that everyone was accounted for.
“Y’all seen Timberwolves that big before?” Applejack asked.
“No, and I don’t ever want to again.” Fluttershy said, shaking slightly. Rarity went over and gave her a hug as Twilight got to her hooves.
“Looks like we’re in the clear.” she said, rubbing her head. “We can get back to-“ she trailed off as she heard an unfamiliar sound.
“You hear that?” She asked the group.
Everybody looked up to where the noise was coming from, slowly getting louder. A buzzing sound could be heard as Rainbow spotted a small black object approaching from above.
“Look, there! What’s that?” Rainbow asked.
Twilight squinted her eyes to get a better look at it against the sun. She could make out four circles connected by a small orb. As it got closer, she could see that it looked mechanical. It flew overhead, away from the blinding sun. Everybody in the group got a good look at it as it brought itself to a hover in front of them.
*Hey everyone* Twilight's bag blurted out.
Twilight’s ears flicked back to the radio in her bag, but she held her gaze at the flying machine in front of her. She could see the small orb rotating slightly.
“Charlie? Is that you controlling this thing?” Twilight asked.
*You gotta press the button on the side of the radio, Twilight.* Twilight’s bag said.
Twilight brought the radio out of her bag and looked for the button.
*Press to speak, then let go when you’re finished* The radio said in her hoof.
She pressed the button and asked again. “Charlie, is this thing yours?”
*That’s right. Thought I could use it to help your search. It’s been flying above you guys for quite some time now* the radio said. The drone did a quick three-sixty spin.
“Whooooa” Rainbow said, before grabbing the radio from Twilight. “How fast can it go?”
*Hold it there, Rainbow. It’s not for racing. It’s for searching. It’s a surveillance drone.* the radio said.
Rainbow gave a disappointed look, before Twilight snatched the radio back. “Is this how you found Scootaloo?”
*Yep. Saw her on the camera feed. Only by chance, mind you. Quite lucky actually.*
Small smiles appeared on everybody's face, except for Scootaloo who simply looked at the ground.
*Well done getting away from those Timberwolves, by the way.*
“Couldn’t have done it without your help, Charlie.” Twilight said before having the radio pulled away by Rarity’s magic.
“Yes, darling. We might not have even found her if it wasn’t for you” Rarity said cheerfully.
Rainbow looked at the ground with a slightly guilty expression before taking the radio from Rarity. “Hey, Charlie? About earlier up on the mountain, I just wanna say that-“
The drone suddenly sparked and the rotors came to a stop as it fell the last remaining feet to the ground. It dropped onto its extended landing legs with a crash. Everyone stared at the lifeless drone, now sitting on the floor with a small amount of smoke rising from it.
...
*It broke, didn’t it?*
“Yeah”
*Could one of you bring it back up here? It’s kinda....not mine*
Charlie sat at his desk, with various drone parts scattered across it. It had been a few days since it just up and died. He was tinkering with the now disassembled drone with a screwdriver. Twilight had been by earlier to drop off what remained of the broken drone. She expressed her thanks for his help in finding Scootaloo and she briefly explained everyone’s plan for her. It was agreed that she would be taken back to the orphanage for the time being and everyone would pay her daily visits whilst they searched for someone to adopt her. Charlie figured it would be best to stay out of it and let the ponies deal handle it. He thought it might be a good idea to pay her a visit of his own sometime. For now though, he had a drone to fix.
“Friggin’...god....damn....mmpf” he grumbled as he had his screwdriver wedged inside the drone in an attempt to dislodge a small component.
The screwdriver slipped causing him to scrape the head of the screwdriver across the drone’s insides.
“Ah, fuck this!” He cursed, throwing his screwdriver across the desk. He folded his arms and leant back in his chair.
“Bloody Peter and his super shit. Can’t make head or tail of it.”
Charlie wasn’t really cocky, but he was proud of his skills. So he wasn’t happy about failing at something he felt he should be good at. But even he had to admit his weaknesses. Although, a part of him did find it funny that he found himself actually wishing for a manual.
“It's only a drone, I should be able to fix this easily" he grumbled as the eyed the broken device. "He's secured all the components into metal containers which are welded into the frame. How can I fix it if I can't even get to the parts that are broke?"
He sat in silence glaring at the drone. He sighed as he finally came to a conclusion.
"Looks like there’s no way outta this, gonna have to send it back. That means facing the music.” he grumbled to himself. "Probably don't have the parts to fix it anyway."
Standing up, he made his way over to the window. He couldn’t complain about the view. From this height, he could see almost all of Ponyville and the surrounding areas. Lifting his gaze upwards, he noticed the beaming sunshine.
“Hmm, I think a bit of fresh air will be nice. Been indoors a lot lately.” he said to himself.
Grabbing his coat and putting on his boots, he made his way out the front door and over to the storage unit. If he was having a day out, he sure as hell wasn’t going to spend all of it walking.
Charlie reached the bottom of the mountain. Driving along the river side, he could see the bridge where he met up with Rainbow before. A smile formed on his face under his helmet as he recalled her smug face.
He slowed down as he rolled up to the bridge. He didn’t really enjoy riding his quadbike through town as much as he did going up and down the mountain path, so he figured he’d walk from here. He’d also see more of the town that way. Switching off the engine and taking off his helmet, he got off the quadbike. He placed his helmet over the handlebar and turned toward the town centre.
“Let’s go see what we can find” he said as he began walking across the bridge.
He barely made it over the bridge before he spotted a pony approaching from the town. Squinting his eyes, he recognised the face.
“Hi Fluttershy!” He called as she trotted up to him.
“Hi Charlie! I didn’t expect to see you here. How have you been?” she asked as she stopped in front of him with a smile.
“Just having a walk into town. I’ve been cooped up on the mountainside doing some repairs, and I just had to get some fresh air.” He replied before looking down and noticing the many bags she was carrying. “Doing some shopping?”
Fluttershy noticed his gaze. “Oh, I don’t usually get this much, but Angel has been asking for a new salad for dinner. So I needed some extra things.”
“Oh, well we best not keep him waiting. Seems like he might get grumpy.” Charlie said jokingly.
“Yes, I’m working on that.” Fluttershy replied in a slightly embarrassed tone. “Have a nice day, Charlie.”
“You too.” He replied as he began to continue down the road.
“Oh, Charlie! I think Twilight said she wanted to talk to you!” Fluttershy quickly called back.
Charlie waved back. “OK, thanks!”
With that, Fluttershy headed home and Charlie continued on into town.
“Something is different.” Charlie thought to himself as he walked down the pony filled street. “Something is very different.”
Charlie looked around as he walked. Ponies filled the street, doing business at the market stalls and wandering in and out of various shops. Charlie stuck to the very middle of the street. He wasn’t planning on doing any shopping anyway.
“Is it busier today?”
Ponies looked over to him as he made his way down the street. He expected it. As he watched the many ponies glancing over at him, he realised what was different.
“Where’s all the nervous looks?”
Everypony who glanced over at him showed some genuine interest. Some even gave him a smile. Some even a wave. Charlie looked around, trying to suppress his surprise at all this sudden positivity coming at him from the townsfolk. He continued to make his way down the street before absent-mindedly arriving outside Rarity’s boutique.
“Meh, why not?”
He knocked on the door and waited for a response. As he waited, he glanced back at some of the ponies who were still smiling over to him. He gave them a questioning look in return.
The front door opened, revealing Rarity.
“Charlie! What a lovely surprise.” she greeted.
“Hi Rarity. How have you been?” Charlie asked.
“Oh just fine, darling. We can’t have you just standing on the doorstep. Come come.” She said before moving to one side. Charlie stepped inside.
“It’s good to see you. How have you been?” she asked as they both took a seat on one of the sofas.
“Feeling a little cooped up at home. Figured I’d take a walk and clear my head. Other than that, pretty good.” he replied.
“Ah, I can imagine. I sometimes feel like that, especially when I’m working on a large project.” Rarity nodded. “Oh, I almost forgot. Thanks for your help in the forest. Who knows how long we might have been in there if you weren’t watching over us.”
“Heh, no problem. Is everything alright on that front? Scootaloo doing okay?” he asked.
“Things are improving, but slowly. We should expect as much. We visit her everyday and we’re working with the orphanage to find someone to take care of her.” she replied.
“Any luck?”
Rarity shook her head. “The ponies here in Ponyville are nice enough, but adopting a filly is a considerable responsibility. But now that everypony knows how upset she is, I’m hoping ponies will make more of an effort around her.”
“It certainly sounded like a surprise. I haven’t really been here long enough to tell first hand though.” Charlie said.
“I’m a little ashamed to not have noticed sooner, especially since she’s Sweetie Belle’s friend.” Rarity said looking down at the floor.
“Well it’s not too late to help and it sounds like you all have the ball rolling. I’m sure it will all work out.” Charlie said reassuringly.
Rarity let out a sigh. “Yes, I guess this will take some time.”
Charlie didn’t say anything, bringing a slight pause to the conversation. Rarity decided to change the topic.
“So, how has work been up there? Things progressing?” she asked.
“Yes and no. I’m still waiting for Twilight’s go ahead before I can make the next move forward. I’m heading over to see her now actually. Fluttershy said Twilight wanted to talk to me.” he replied.
“Oh! Yes she did. She was quite excited about it actually.” Rarity said in realisation.
“Something important?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I think it is actually, she was quite excited. Well, if you’re heading over to find out, I better not keep you.” she said standing back up.
“Right. I bet I interrupted your important work anyway by coming over.” Charlie chuckled as he began making his way over to the door.
Rarity rolled her eyes as she followed. “You should know by now that you shouldn’t worry about that.”
“Take care of yourself, Rarity.” Charlie said as he stepped outside.
“You too, Charlie. Give Twilight my regards!” Rarity replied from the doorway.
With that, Charlie began walking toward the town Library.
“Still the same looks.” Charlie thought as he made his way down the street.
Everypony had been giving him the same looks as before he went inside the boutique. Everywhere he looked, everypony had a warm and welcoming expression toward him. The complete opposite to his first few visits to Ponyville.
“What happened?”
Still, he stayed in the middle of the street. He was thankful nopony approached him during his walk. He wanted to get the low down from Twilight first before anything progressed. It wasn’t long before he spied the Library down the street he was walking.
“Oh yeah, didn’t get lost. Nailed it.”
He quickened his pace toward his destination. He made it about 20 feet or so down the street, when he was suddenly stopped.
“Hi!”
Charlie looked over to his right to see a young mare trotting up to him. She had a dark blue coat and a pale yellow mane and tail. She stopped in front of him and gazed up with a bright smile on her face. Charlie blinked a few times as he looked down at her.
“Uhh...hi...” he replied nervously.
“My name’s Nova!" she said enthusiastically. "What's yours?"
"Charlie." he said as looked down at the mare beaming up at him. He can't say he'd seen her before, but she was acting like he was some kind of treat to meet.
"That's a strange name. Although, I suppose that shouldn't be much of a surprise coming from you!" she said with a giggle.
"Yeah." Charlie said while awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.
Nova kept gazing up at him. She tilted her head to the side before continuing. "Hey, listen. I wanted to ask you i-"
She was interuppted by a stallion calling her from over the street.
"Nova! You're order's ready!" the stallion called as he walked out the store. "Would you like me-" he paused as he noticed Nova's new companion.
"Be right over!" Nova called back over her shoulder. She looked back up to Charlie. "Sorry, gotta go. Talk later, mkay?"
Charlie didn't get a chance to respond as Nova quickly darted back across to the store. He could barely hear the stallion asking her some questions as he led her back inside.
Charlie let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Well, that was new." he thought to himself. "A pony that actually came over to me."
He looked back down the street toward his destination and decided to not keep Twilight waiting any longer. With his hands in his pockets, he headed to the library.
----------------
Inside the library, things were predictably normal. Twilight sat at her desk, engrossed in a book. Spike was pattering about, taking care of his chores.
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*
"Spike, can you get the door please? I just want to finish this chapter." Twilight softly called over to the small dragon.
Spike put down the duster in his hand and made his way over to the door. Opening it revealed the human.
"Oh, hey Charlie. Didn't expect to see you today." Spike said slightly surprised. "I don't remember any of the girls saying they were going to get you."
Charlie scoffed at that. "Well, Spike! I'll have you know that I don't need someone to escort me into town every time."
He clasped his hands together in front of him before continuing.
"I made it down here all by myself!" he said sarcastically, swaying side to side.
Spike rolled his eyes. "You're hopeless."
Spike turned around to let Charlie inside. The dragon made his way back over to where he left his duster as Charlie closed the door behind himself.
"Geez, who peed in your cereal this morning?" Charlie asked, noticing Spike's rather blunt behavior.
"Oh, he's just a little cranky because he has some extra chores to do before he's allowed to visit Rarity." Twilight said, closing her book before looking over to the human. "Heya Charlie, nice to see you again! How's the drone?"
"Heya, Twilight. Ah, it's properly busted. I'm going to send it back when my next supply shipment comes in." Charlie replied just as he could barely hear some grumbles coming from the now cleaning dragon.
"Oh, that's a shame. We would have liked to have seen it working again. Especially Rainbow Dash." Twilight said.
"Rainbow?" Charlie asked raising an eyebrow.
Twilight smiled before replying. "Oh yes, what was it she said now?" She held a hoof up to her chin in thought. "Oh I remember! It was something along the lines of: Tell that doofus to fix his toy quickly."
Charlie narrowed his eyes. "It's not a toy."
Twilight snickered at his irritated expression before deciding to switch the subject. "This is great timing, actually. I was just about to schedule my next trip up the mountain to see you. I've got some news." she said enthusiastically.
"I heard. That's why I came over. What's the scoop?"
Twilight gave a slight pause. She sat there for a brief moment with a smile on her face. Charlie opened up his upturned palms and tilted his head, gesturing for her to continue.
"We finally have to go ahead to go to Canterlot!" she said with a small squeal. "I got a letter back from my parents!"
"Ooooh! That's great news." Charlie said with a neutral expression. He wasn't against the idea. After all, he was eager to continue developing the communications system. But he wasn't too fond having to leave, even if it was only for a couple of days. He had just gotten used to Ponyville.
Twilight didn't seem to notice Charlie's lack of enthusiasm. "It's going to be great! I'll introduce you to my parents. My mother will cook us one of her famous dinners. My father will tell us what he's been working on. I can tell them of all of my adventures with my friends. Eeeee!"
Charlie just stood there. He figured he'd let her get all of the excitement out of her system. Although, looking at how she was bouncing up and down around in a circle, he was concerned it might be a while. He crossed his arms and waited for the mare to stop bouncing. Twilight eventually noticed.
"Oh, uh, sorry." she said sheepishly. "Umm, they said we can visit them whenever."
"Got a date in mind?" Charlie asked.
"Well, as you can tell, I'm pretty excited. So the sooner the better for me." she replied.
Charlie rolled his eyes. "So I'm guessing you want to leave tomorrow."
"YES!"
"Well, you sure are excited. Why didn't you leave to visit your folks sooner?" he asked.
"I've always been busy. Being one of the elements as well as Celestia's student doesn't leave me enough time. The only trips I make nowadays are for business." she replied. "But now the visit will be for business! As soon as tomorrow too!"
Charlie expected as much. That didn't leave much time to sort out any of his formailities. He figured he would just have to wing it.
"I suppose I can get the logistical end of things done just fine. Just pack up the equipment and some personal belongings. Just like any other trip back home.
He walked over to the window as Twilight looked over to him with slight concern.
"Is everything alright? You don't seem very excited." she asked.
Charlie noticed her concerned tone. "Oh, it's fine. Just running through some stuff in my head. Lot's to sort out and all that."
Twilight realised that she might be throwing him in the deep end with this trip. It was the capital city of Equestria after all. She was well aware of his social reluctance. She made her way over to join him by the window.
"Hey, don't worry about it. I'll be with you the whole time. I kinda have to be. Celestia's orders." she said reassuringly. "You're doing fine in Ponyville so far!"
"Yeah, about that." Charlie began. "Have you noticed anything...different...about the ponies here recently?"
Twilight gave him a quizzical look. "No, not really. Have you?"
Charlie looked out at the ponies passing by the library. "I dunno, they just seem less skittish around me today. One pony even came up to me to say hello."
"Aaaaaand, that's bad?" Twilight asked.
"No!" Charlie replied as he took a step back. "No no no, it's just such a dramatic change in such a small amount of time. Just a few days ago, everyone tried their best to stay at least ten feet away from me. Now, they're smiling and waving at me in the street. C'mon, even you can see that's rather odd."
"Aaah, I think I see what's going on here." Twilight said with a smile.
"What? What's going on? What happened?"
"Well, Ponyville is a pretty small town. Probably one of the smallest in Equestria. So it should be no surprise that news around here travels pretty fast." Twilight explained.
"So?"
Twilight sighed with slight irritation. "So, when we got back from finding Scootaloo in the Everfree Forest, everypony wanted to find out what happened. To stop all of their constant questions, we told them.
Charlie gave her a confused look. "So what? You found her in the woods."
Twilight gave out a huff. "No, Charlie. YOU found her!"
Charlie blinked a few times. "The drone?"
"Yes. You didn't think we would take the credit, did you?"
"I honestly didn't give it much thought." Charlie shrugged. "You six did the hard work. You even got chased out by Timberwolves."
"Yes and everpony appreciates the risks we took. We got our fair share of thank you's but I don't think you're seeing the point: We wouldn't have found her if it wasn't for you, not before the Timberwolves. It was all thanks to you that Scootaloo is safe, and everypony appreciates that." Twilight explained.
Charlie looked back out the window. "So that's why they're being nicer to me?"
"They didn't know what you were like, so they were nervous about you." Twilight said before peering out the window too. " They're not nervous of you anymore, Charlie."
"I don't think I deserve it. All I did was sit on my butt and look at a screen." Charlie said.
Twilight huffed shaking her head. "Honestly, it's like you don't even want to make any friends."
Charlie scoffed. "Yeah, well. I don't think that'll be a problem anymore. Not if there are anymore ponies like that Nova one."
"You've met Nova?"
Charlie gave a small smile. "Yeah, she said hi to me on the street. Seemed nice enough."
"Hmm, I think it's time then." Twilight said, rubbing her chin with her hoof.
"Time for what?"
"Hm? Oh nothing!" Twilight answered quickly.
Charlie narrowed his eyes at her. "Doesn't sound like nothing."
Twilight remained silent with a forced smile on her face. Charlie wasn't in the mood to pry, so he decided to let it go for now. "Alright then, I'll meet you here bright and early tomorrow morning?"
Twilight beamed up at him. "Perfect! See you then."
With that, Charlie made his way to the front door. "See ya, Spike!"
Charlie got a muffled reply from upstairs. He shrugged before stepping outside and closing the door behind him. He peered around at the ponies in the street. Most didn't notice him, but some others still gave him some lingering glances paired with smiles. With his hands in his pockets, he began making his way back to where he left his quadbike. As he walked, he cast his mind back to home.
"I wonder if relations have started improve yet. I haven't heard anything from home since the last re-supply."
He brought his gaze up to the sky as he continued to walk.
"Nah, can't think about that. Just gotta focus on the here and now." he thought before bringing his gaze back down to the ponies around him. "Things seem to be progressing nicely so far."
He continued down the path before reaching the outskirts of town. As he approached the bridge, he looked up at the mountain looming up in front of him. About half way up, he saw his facility standing proud.
"I'm willing to bet things will get bigger soon though. Very soon."
