//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7: First Flight, First Crash 
// Story: Of Men and Insects 
// by VeganSpyro97 
//------------------------------//

	Allan groaned, his eyes fluttering open as he registered the early morning light hitting his eyelids, and then assaulting his retinas once they had opened. He threw a han- no, hoof over his eyes, the stumpy limb aggravating him a little less than it had yesterday, to block some of the light. 
As his synapses finally started to fire up properly, he became aware of a rather warm weight that was half draped over his upper back and lying besides him. Curious, he twisted his head around, an impossible feat for a human, to see what it was. 
Fluttershy's little yellow muzzle, partially obscured by the long pink locks of her hair, stared back at him, or would've done, if she hadn’t been sound asleep. 
A huge blush burned Allan’s cheeks, and he looked around to get his bearings and take stock of the situation. They were still in the living room, with the Equestrian history book lying open in front of him. It was early, very early. Early enough that the light coming in the windows was almost orange. The birds were chirping outside, and Allan could see that this whole situation may well have been orchestrated by a very evil bunny. 
Angel stood not three feet away, a disturbingly pleased look on his face as the little varmint noticed the horrified embarrassment growing in Allan. Worse yet, was when that grin turned sadistic, as the bunny produced a balloon, of all things, fro behind his back, and started blowing it up.
“Angel!!” Allan hissed, frantically trying to stop the little devil from going any further. He started to carefully extract himself from beneath the peacefully dozing Fluttershy’s  head and neck, without waking her, but at that exact moment, she somehow managed to convince herself that he was some pillow, or extremely pet-able animal, and wrapped her hooves around him, giving him a gentle hug. “Angel! Don’t you dare!” 
The rabbit grinned at him again, tying off the end of the balloon with a quiet snicker. Then his look turned downright cruel as the little bugger hopped over to a drawer, hopped up, grabbed the handle, and opened it, climbing inside and out of sight, emerging a moment later with something clutched behind his back. He hopped down with practiced ease, and casually moved right up to Allan, just barely out of reach, and waited there while Allan made a few attempted swipes at him. 
“Angel, if you do what I think you’re gonna…” Allan started to say to the bunny, but the rabbit pulled out a very sharp knitting needle from where he had been holding it behind his back. “Oh, you little shit! That’s it! I’m hiding every carrot I can get my hooves on if you do that!” Allan softly threatened. “And if that doesn’t work, I’ll turn you into a pair of slippers!!”
Angel held the needle up, point first, against the balloon. He held up the balloon and needle, waving them about in front of Allan. “Don’t you sodding dare!!”
Angel made a quick jabbing motion, stopping just short of popping the balloon, making Allan twitch on reflex. “You are so dead!!”
The bunny gave one last grin. *BANG!*
The balloon popped, and Fluttershy woke up with a shriek, leaping several feet into the air with minimal effort before diving behind the couch. Allan fell back with a startled yelp as well, settling on his hooves with a slightly dazed expression on his face. He recovered quickly, his gaze focused on the white furball who had just scared him with the balloon.
“Alright you little sack of shit! You’re getting it now!” Allan snarled as he launched himself at the bunny, before realizing that the little bugger had slipped between his hooves, punched him in the muzzle, and scampered off. “....Ow….” Allan rubbed his sensitive nose with his foreleg, looking down the corridor that Angel had escaped down. 
Fluttershy, having pieced together her pets nasty little prank, emerged from the safety of the space behind her sofa. “Angel, that was very naughty!” She called after the vanished critter. She paused, and looked at where Allan sat holding his nose. She looked at where he had been sat, and where she had woken up. Being a smart mare, she figured out where she had been sleeping quite quickly, and her cheeks turned red.
Eager to dissuade the tension in the room, Allan spoke up. “So...uh….what am I doing today?”
Fluttershy eagerly accepted the chance to gloss over the potentially embarrassing conversation for a more normal one. “Oh, I think that Twilight said you should go and meet some of our friends today. Although, you’ve already met all of us. So, perhaps you just hang out with one of us for the day.” 
“That sounds easy enough. I take it you’re going to be busy today?” 
Fluttershy nodded. “Oh, yes. I’m afraid that quite a few pet checkups in town are booked for today, so I’ll be out all day today.” Her concerned eyes bored into his skull. “Are you sure you’ll be okay?”
Allan was tempted to say no, if only to get her to stay, but he ignored that idea altogether. He told his host that he would be alright on his own, for today, at least. He watched her pack up her various tools and equipment, bags of treats and various toys accompanying the veterinarian supplies she took with her. Allan had seen a few in use the day before, but he had no idea what most of them even did. 
She gave him a wave as she started off, the faintest hint of a blush on her cheeks, and a barely perceptible smile on her lips as she went. 
Turning away from the door and the window, Allan spotted Angel trying to sneak past him and into the kitchen. “Oh no! Not after what you just pulled, pal!!” He cried, charging after the bunny. 

********************
Rainbow Dash zipped through the sky, heading as if toward the Everfree forest. Those that knew her, and knew her friends, knew better. Her target was just before the forest, in an adorable little, out of the way cottage, owned by the kindest mare, and greatest veterinarian in all  the land. 
She had spent all night working to beat Applejack’s latest challenge, to teach the changeling how to fly. She knew that her way of learning was different than most, and she hoped she had been able to find a way of learning that would keep both of them engaged in the lesson. It wouldn’t do for her to send both of them to sleep in her own classroom! That would just be stupid!
Soaring low enough to the ground to see individual flecks of dirt rush by, Rainbow streaked up to the door of Fluttershy’s door, skidding to a grinding halt on the dirt path, leaving a fresh set of skid marks to go with the many others that she had left over the years. She fell easily into a trot, traversing the winding path and its little, stream crossing bridge, before coming to a halt in front of the door. 
She paused, her thoughts turning to the individual she was actually considering to teach how to fly. 
A changeling. Like the ones from the wedding. Like the ones that had tried to invade Ponyville, twice. Like the one that replaced her…. Like the one that caught her…. Like the one that….
Rainbow shuddered, gulping in a deep breath, trying to suppress the anger and fear that welled up within her. When she thought she had just about reigned herself in, she raised a hoof to knock at the door. 
“GET BACK HERE!!!” The changeling’s voice came from inside. “DON’T YOU OPEN THAT DO-” The voice cut itself off, as the door suddenly gave a resounding *WHAM!* which was then followed by a pained wail. “Aah-ha-how!!!”
Rainbow reached up, and managed to open the door outwards on its double hinges. 
The changeling lay there, clutching his head, moaning, and Fluttershy’s pet rabbit, Angel was rolling around on the floor, letting out peals of squeaking laughter. “You little pest! I’ll get y-” The bronze shelled changeling looked up to see Rainbow, and he stopped dead, his eyes widening as he realized who was standing there. 
“Um….hi, Rainbow Dash. What brings you out here?” He asked, not quite sure what to expect from her. “Other than the scenery?”
Rainbow rolled her eyes, a grimace barely managing to stay off her face. “Applejack told me you didn’t look like you can fly. She dared me to teach you. I’m taking the bet.” 
The changeling fixed her with a stare, before shaking his head. “I don’t know if you noticed, but you don’t exactly have wings like mine.”
Rainbow looked at the wings that adorned his back as he started to stand back up. “What’s wrong with that? You’re a changeling, right?” 
Allan rolled his eyes as he got onto eye level with the pegasus. “Yeah, and I have no idea how to be one. You think I’m going to just shape-shift, just like that?” 
Rainbow felt irritation clawing at her insides at the changelings snide tone. She turned her head to the side so that she could hide her grimace, which emerged in full force. Once again holding her anger somewhere in the pit of her stomach. She furrowed her brows in determination, and returned to staring at Allan. “Well, I’ll teach you, one way or another! I am not losing this bet!”
Allan sighed, shaking his head. No doubt Applejack had already won a more recent bet, and Rainbow was desperate to show her superiority. The pegasus certainly seemed the type. 
“Well, whatever!” Rainbow took off, hovering in front of him, a tantalizing image of what he himself may one day be capable of. “We’re gonna learn you how to fly!!”

********************
Dash trotted in circles around Allan, critically eyeing his wings. They were stood in the middle of Fluttershy’s garden, and as such, had a large crowd of critters as an audience, which only made Allan all the more tense. He could almost feel nonexistent sweat pouring off his brow. 
“Alright! I don’t know what kind of instruction you had before, but…” Rainbow paused, looking at him with a flat expression. “I don’t care.”
She trotted out in front of him, and fixed him with a stare strong enough to churn milk into butter. “You get to train with me! The one and only Rainbow Dash! Wonderbolt extraordinaire and fastest flier in Equestria!”
Allan suppressed a groan and an eye roll. Of course she’d just use this as an excuse to boast at him. 
“We’ll start with the simple basics! I had to think about this after your...explanation earlier, but I think I’ve come up with some ways to train you anyway! Alright, first thing we’re gonna do…. Buzz exercises!” 
“Buzz exercises?” Allan queried, eyebrow rising up. 
“Yeah! Buzz exercises! Don’t like it?” Rainbow demanded, before producing a megaphone from under her wing. “TOO BAD!!! START BUZZING!!!”
The sheer volume of the squawking machine was enough to set his ears ringing, but he tried to get his wings moving up and down as fast as he could, trying to make the front set move in the opposite direction as the back set, with one going down while the other went up. The sheer effort to move limbs he hadn’t had before that week was tremendous, but fortunately, the yelling pegasus had gave him the push he needed, by scaring a generous amount of adrenaline into him. 
A faint hum began to grow from behind him, slowly increasing in speed to become a whir, and then, after several exhausting minutes, they turned into a buzzing noise.
Twisting his head around to see, Allan was surprised to see a vibrant blue blur in place where the paneled insect wings had been. He could feel the lift starting to take effect, his weight starting to shift slightly, his hooves having to stretch just a little further than he knew to reach the floor. 
Rainbow actually, for a moment, looked impressed. She could feel the breeze being generated, but that was because she was using her abilities as a pegasus to watch and evaluate her pupil. That meant that she was essentially hypersensitive to wind movements, and changes in pressure. And she could sense the power of that lift. It was very strong. 
"ALRIGHT NEWBIE! STOP!!"
Allan let himself slow down, let his wings slow back to a whirr, then to a hum, before they fell still. He felt exhausted already, but he couldn’t deny the rush at being able to do it.
“ALRIGHT BUG BRAIN! LETS DO IT AGAIN!!”
Again?! Was she nuts?! Whatever. Maybe if he could prove himself capable, she might lay off of him a bit. Twilight, as the Princess of Friendship, would probably want him to try and make friends with her friends first, to try and gauge how to approach his, and the other changelings, reveal to Ponyville, and the rest of Equestria. So, putting in the effort with Rainbow now? Definitely the way to go, as long as he didn’t screw it up.
He started to move his wings again, and, as it had with moving on his hooves, it came far easier the second time around. Quicker this time, he climbed through the wing-speeds, becoming full buzz in just half a minute, instead of several full ones. 
“Nice!” Rainbow nodded in approval, not using the megaphone, so that he wouldn’t hear her. “ALRIGHT NEWBIE!! LET’S TAKE THIS UP A NOTCH!! LIFT OFF AND HOVER!!”
Already? That was….quick…. 
Allan put all of his focus on putting more power into the whirring of his wings, but that was not really an option, as insect wings generally seem to have speed only. The power in those individual flaps was almost nonexistent, because the wings themselves were flimsy, and frail. 	While Allans were larger and thicker than the average insects, they still followed the same rules, and as such, all the lift came from the speed and motion of the buzzing. 
Allan focused again, this time trying to figure out how to go faster. Thankfully, it wasn’t all that hard. The longer he tried, the easier it became to keep his wings buzzing, and in fact, he barely felt tired now. The benefits of being able to live off of your own emotions, perhaps? 
“WELL DONE!!” Rainbow called, her megaphone boosted voice coming from below him. 
Allan opened his eyes, not sure when exactly he had closed them, but when he did, he realized that the sensation of the ground beneath his hooves had disappeared. He looked down in awe, his eyes wide as dinner plates, quite literally, as he stared in wonder at the ground at least three feet beneath him.
“Whoa…..” Allan waggled his legs beneath him, the feeling of his weight shifting while in mid-air an entirely alien sensation. It was certainly not like swinging on a rope, or climbing up or across a ladder or swing bars. Gravity itself was beginning to let him go, though it still clung to him and tried to recapture him, tried to drag him back down. The trees around him seemed smaller now that he was seeing them from a higher vantage point. 
Allan felt like singing. The elation that welled up within was enough to get him laughing, even happy. “Thi-THIS IS AMAZING!!!” Allan cried out, feeling like he was on top of the world. “HA HA!!”
Rainbow grinned at the exuberance. She could remember her first time flying, and how she herself had felt the rush, the adrenaline and the freedom. She remembered her father applauding her efforts, while her mother had looked on with the same worried expression that all mothers have when their child starts to venture further out into the world, but still filled with pride. 
Allan wanted to try something more. He’d already gotten into the air pretty easily. Now he wanted to try the next step. 
But, how did one fly, exactly? 
Allan decided that shifting his balance and weight around would direct him, like a hovercraft or a helicopter. He leaned forwards, slowly tipping himself forward, and being rewarded with him moving several feet forward before he managed to stabilize himself again. 
“HA! AJ’s gonna miss those bits now!!” Rainbow snickered, imagining Applejack's face when she saw the changeling airborne. That is, if he didn’t tire himself out first. 
“ALRIGHT, THAT’S ENOUGH!! COME ON DOWN FOR TODAY!!”
Allan felt a pang of disappointment lance through his chest, but he swallowed it. His wings did feel a little sore now, and he shouldn’t overdo it. He started slowing his wings down, lowering slowly downward towards the ground. 
As he came closer to the ground though, he realized that he had moved over an incline, and started to shift his weight, forgetting that doing so… 
“OH SHIT!!!” Allan cried, as he realized that he had just sent himself flying forward, and in his panic, his wings stopped dead in mid-air, sending him on a graceful downward arc towards the ground. 
The first thing that he registered was the impact of his muzzle with the soft dirt of one of the flower beds dotted around the garden, several tulips and roses going flying. The second thing he registered was the sudden shift in his spacial orientation, as his momentum at his front was abruptly interrupted, and the momentum in his rear half continued uninterrupted. The third and final thing that he registered, was the sudden, and painful impact of his back, and his wings, against a tree.
Allan groaned from where he fell, not even trying to respond to Rainbow laughter.

*******************
“So then, he pitches forward, trying to land on an incline, which sends him flying at one of the trees, which then makes him panic and stop flapping, which drops him face first into a flower bed and then rolling into the tree!” Rainbow crowed, laughing at the humiliation her student had endured. “I’m telling you, for a guy who just learned how to fly, he sure did learn how to crash in epic fashion!!” 
Fluttershy rolled her eyes at her friends insensitivity. Sometimes it irked her just how many social cues the spectrum maned athlete missed or casually ignored, but that was one of the things that made Rainbow Dash Rainbow Dash, and it couldn’t just disappear overnight.
Allan sat opposite her, with Rainbow in between, a dinner placing that she wouldn’t have recommended after the days earlier embarrassments. He looked miserable. As she always did for any poor, unfortunate soul who found their way into her company, she felt pity for him. 
“Rainbow, please stop.” She whispered. It was far too low for Allan to hear, but a pegasus like Dash had hearing stronger than most.. “Can’t you see how uncomfortable he is?” 
Rainbow stopped, her ears twitching as she heard Fluttershy’s whispered plea. She stared at Fluttershy for a moment before glancing toward the changeling, who picked at his food, face lowered over the dish. 
The look that appeared on Rainbow face surprised Fluttershy. It was one of… well… confusion was the closest she could come to describing it. The athlete seemed torn between guilt and satisfaction, as if she wasn’t quite sure what she should be feeling. 
Allan's ear twitched. 
Rainbow turned away from the changeling, and she shook her head. “Whatever. It was funny! He’d be laughing too if it were somepony else!”
Fluttershy felt her stare start to harden. 
Rainbow fell quiet. The mere sight of Fluttershy gearing up to use her infamous stare was enough to shut her up. While the mild mannered pegasus disliked using the stare on others, she had found it quite the useful fallback on occasion, such as preventing particularly poorly practiced pony conversationalists from saying the wrong thing.
Allan swallowed what little food he’d been able to pick up with his half-hearted fork jabs, and stood up. “I’m sorry Fluttershy… I’m just not that hungry tonight….”  He turned and started to make his way out of the room, his head and tail listlessly hanging down as he trudged away.
As soon as he was gone, Fluttershy turned to look at Rainbow with a frosty glare. 
“What?” The pegasus asked, raising her forehooves in a questioning  gesture.  
“Rainbow, that was rude, and insensitive. Just because you don’t like changelings very much doesn’t give you the right to be…..” Fluttershy struggled to find the right word, before settling on one she’d heard Allan muttering after his run in with Angel. “An ass.”
Rainbow mouth fell open. Fluttershy just….swore? What in the name of Celestia!? 
Fluttershy ignored her flabbergasted stare, and instead continued on. “You are going to leave now Dash, and you are going to come back in the morning and apologize.”
Despite the tone of authority in Fluttershy’s quiet voice, Dash sputtered in protest, only to receive one final word in response. “Now.”
Rainbow stood up, and moved over to the door, turning slightly to look back at the pale yellow mare still sat at the table behind her. Fluttershy remained motionless. Rainbow sighed,  and pushed the door open, stepping outside. As she had a thousand times before, she spread her wings and took off into the sky, relishing in the cool afternoon air rushing through her mane and her feathers. It was an action she had done so often that it was as much a part of her everyday life as blinking. 
So why did this time make her feel so horrid?

********************
Allan's head met the pillow, and his eyes closed immediately, whisking him away from the world he had come to dwell in, and sending him through the hallways of his own imagination. He didn’t know why, or even understand how, but he felt like he wasn’t so alone when he dreamed here. There was a comforting presence that seemed to permeate his dreams, a presence that had made all his dreams lucid, since his arrival. He roamed the hallways of his memory, where it sometimes looked like his old schools, and where it sometimes looked like the streets of Vancouver, or the dusty corridors of the old sanitorium he had once explored with his friends, Mike and Joshua, when they were fourteen. Anna had been there too. It was the first time Allan had really started to appreciate how close they were. 
The dream solidified as he relived the memory, the entrance to the abandoned building creaking open as a much younger Allan poked his head in first. He was the quiet one in school, but he was braver than the others, always talking about going off on an adventure and living a life full of excitement. Josh was the smart one. He played tabletop games like a pro, and his strategies made him the champion of champions when it came to anything with a set of rules. He was the most talkative in school, the young African american was always talking about something new he’d found out about from some documentary or science journal. Mike was the sporty one. He was an avid soccer and football player, the biggest of the boys and easily the strongest. His parents had been russian, so he spoke with hints of a russian accent, imparted to him by his parents. And Anna? She was the real brave one. She out-dared, and outwitted them all, either with brain, brawn, or both. She had bested Mike in a wrestling match, had tricked Josh into a loss when playing Risk, and frequently went into the places that even Allan, with all his talk of adventure, never went, even when dared. 
When Allan had climbed a tree during a dare, Anna had been right there with him, and when he stopped, for fear of snapping a branch and falling, she climbed on. When Allan had tried his hand at archery, Anna beat his scores. And when all three of the boys had dared each other to actually try to learn how to dance during that particular session of gym class, Anna had not only done the same, but became known as ‘twinkle-toes’ after she got the highest marks on school record. 
Allan stood and watched the four children enter, himself leading the way, with Anna right behind him. They came to stop in front of him, his strange, alien, equine, insectoid body. He knew that, had this been real, those children would have screamed at the sight of him, and then run right back out that door. But it was only a dream, and so they stared right through him, to the room behind him. 
“People say this place is haunted….” Josh said in a low, scared sounding voice. 
“People say a lot of things.” Allan heard himself say, and he remembered standing in that spot, saying that very sentence. “Most of them aren’t true.”
“How do you know they aren’t true?” Mike asked. He was a little more at ease than Josh, but he still looked ready to run at a moments notice. 
“Because most of what those people say is just pure crap.” Anna responded, having already moved over to what looked like an overturned bench, set against a moss covered wall. She turned her head back to look at them over her shoulder. “Plus, it’s really dumb to get scared of people who’ve been dead for over fifty years.” Allan's past self moved over to her and gave her a high five. 
John frowned. Mike coughed. Allan grinned. 
The other two boys had always been jealous of the bond between their other two friends. It was something, a bit more than a normal friendship, and they had made mention in the past of wanting to have a friendship that strong. 
Allan smiled, watching himself and Anna as they fearlessly went looking amid the rotten bed sheets and abandoned wheelchairs for something interesting. 
The dreamer watched them and their friends for what seemed like hours as they explored the sanitorium, peering into closed cell doors and making disgusted faces at rats that scurried by. 
The changeling felt his ears drop when the troupe of kids, now satisfied that the sanitorium was just an old, empty building, left it, and the dreamer, behind. 
That memory done, Allan let the image collapse, the sanitorium fracturing, as though struck by an earthquake, the roof suddenly shattering into huge chunks of masonry that clattered to the ground around him. The building fell apart, and then the rubble eroded away, eventually being overtaken by trees and bushes. Although it was sped up for the dream, Allan knew that he had somehow just witnessed the passing of decades within the space of a heartbeat. 
Then even that too vanished. 
Allan let himself fall, his body easily settling into a sitting position akin to a dogs, as he surveyed the empty space around him. It was too quiet here. Too lonely. 
The images of his friends faces appeared in the gloom, smiling at him, but not moving, memories of the pictures he had taken of his friends at various times of their young lives instead of actual memories of them. He sighed. Lucid dreaming may make you the master of the dream, but only if you could learn how to shape it. Sometimes, you were still just as helpless as anyone else. 
“How peculiar…” Came a murmur behind him.
Allan whirled about, his blue, gradient eyes widening in shock at the sight of a pony, an ALICORN pony, of all things, striding towards him from a strange tear in the fabric of his conjured reality.
“Who are you?” He asked, fearful. “I’ve never met you before. How am I dreaming about you?”
The pony laughed, wings flaring slightly. “Do not fear, young changeling. I am Luna, Princess of the Night, and guardian of dreams. You aren’t dreaming of me. I’m really here.”
Allan just stared, unable to think of some suitable response. His mouth flapped open and close as he tried to say something. 
She reached him then, just out of reach of his foreleg, should he try to touch her. He did not try, for that seemed like sacrilege somehow. How could a mere mortal ever hope to touch a god? 
Despite his earlier doubts of the power the two sisters could have, the mere presence of the mare standing in front of him, was overwhelming. He could sense the power she possessed, a cold, steely strength and endurance that spoke of great wisdom and knowledge. Her sapphire eyes were filled with old scars, pain and guilt swirled beneath the crystal surfaces, joined as well by the promise of hope and good things to come. None would know looking at her, but she was old, her eyes the only thing that indicated her age, so filled with experience they were. 
Allan felt cowed by her. 
“How… can you be here? In a dream?”
The Princess chuckled. “Magic is a rather amazing thing, young changeling.”
Allan grunted. “So… why did you come to visit me? I would think that you would have more important people to attend to.”
Luna dismissed the notion with a wave of her hoof. “They are fine tonight. Simple nightmares and late night spooks, nothing more. You on the other hoof, are rather more interesting. Who, and what were those young creatures in your dream?”
Allan sighed, his eyes taking on a faraway look as he regarded the space where the memory had played out before him. “They were humans. It was me and my friends.”
“Ah, so that is who you are. The former human that my fellow Princess informed myself and my sister of in her most recent correspondence. Allan, correct?”
Allan nodded. “That’s right.”
“I have found my curiosity piqued by this strange world from which you hail.” The Princess trotted into the darkness in front of Allan. “Pray tell, what was the place that was in your dream?”
Allan moved up to stand beside her, and the memory reconstructed itself, the rotten and dilapidated building appearing from the gloom as before. Some of it, the parts that Allan had not thoroughly explored when he had been there, were blurry, but most of it was clear. 
“This was an old sanitorium, up in the woods above the city I lived in. People who weren’t…. Mentally stable…” He explained carefully. “They were put here under the care of doctors and nurses who were supposed to take care of them. If anything, they just made it worse because they didn’t know how to treat the patients. It was awful.”
Luna looked disgusted. “DId they not have any magic? Such diseases and disorders are usually quite manageable here.”
“No. We didn’t, and have never had magic, as far as I know.” Allan stated, plainly, as his past self and his friends entered once again. “All we had were our wits, and the tools we could build.”
Luna frowned. “I thought all beings possessed magic. How could your people not?”
Allan felt irritated by the comment, and couldn’t stop the snarky comment from leaving his mouth. “Don’t ask me, I only work here.”
Luna looked surprised, then a little irritated herself, before she finally began to chuckle, which soon developed into full blown laughter. “Nopony has addressed us in such a tone for the better part of ten centuries!” 
Allan balked, a hoof slapping itself over his mouth. Of course he’d gone and disrespected royalty! It was about the only thing he’d not screwed up since his arrival, and now he’d blown it. He wondered what sort of punish- wait, was Princess Luna still laughing?
Indeed she was. “I have missed such normal words from those with whom I speak, it is rather refreshing!” She smiled at him. “Please, tell us about your world. Mayhaps then, in the future, we might better understand what troubles you.”
Allan inwardly groaned, but decided that it might be better to simply allow the inevitable to happen. With a flick of his head, he constructed a rough approximation of his neighborhood. Buildings sprung up, neat, orderly little houses, each one slightly different. Some were more run-down than others, but all of them were generally quite comfortable looking. 
“My…. they look much different than most Equestrian homes. They seem far more… practical.” She noted the details of the nearby houses. “They remind me of buildings back before my banishment.”
Allan shrugged, seeing as he had no idea what the buildings looked like then. “Well, not all homes look like this. Some rich people owned expensive apartments or mansions that cost millions of dollars sometimes. Personally, I wouldn’t want a house that big and that empty.”
Luna looked distant for a moment, a wistful look in her ancient eyes. She shook her head, dispelling whatever thought had momentarily plagued her. “Well… either way, this world is… different.”
“Oh yeah?” Allan grinned, making a car appear coming down the street, engine roaring as it went by. 
“By all the gods!!” She exclaimed. “What foul contraption was that?!”
“A car.” Allan said, smugly. He created another car, this one motionless, and moved up to it. “Would you like to go for a ride?”
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