//------------------------------// // Back to Ponyville // Story: Land of Equines // by Daddy Joe //------------------------------// Back to Ponyville December 5th, 2012 When I arrived back at the train station, I had to wait for like forty minutes for the next train to Ponyville since I missed the one I was supposed to leave on because I got held back from visiting the agency. I still couldn’t believe that actually got in a super secret agency that hunts monsters or whatever. Sure, I know this job seems dangerous, but there’s no turning back now. Plus, if this job seems like a good way to pay back the community of Ponyville and all that my new friends have done to me, so now you could see why I took this job. Oh, and let's not forget about that pay of 25 bits an hour. It sounds like a pretty good deal. Once the train arrived at the trainstation again, a whole bunch of ponies all dressed up in fancy clothing walked. Most of them examined me as they walked by. I went for the train car, but was stopped by a unicorn stallion. "Hey! You there." he called. I turned my head in response. "You're that human chap everypony's been talking about." he said. "That is me." I said. "Barlow. Or Caleb? Am I right?" he asked. "Caleb Barlow. I've got two separate names." I said. "Ah, now I see. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Fancy Pants." Fancy Pants introduced, well-composedly. "Nice to meet you." I said. "And I must say, what an exquisite tuxedo that you're sporting at the moment." Fancy complimented. 'Thanks. You got a nice outfit as well." I replied. "Where are you heading?" Fancy asked me. "Back to Ponyville, where I live." I said. "Yes, yes, Ponyville. I hear it's a nice, little country village." Fancy said. "Yeah, the locals are pretty nice. They were pretty reluctant to me at first." I said. "Is that so? Well c'mon, everypony, let's at least give our human here, Caleb, a proper warm welcome to Canterlot." Fancy said as he began to clop his hooves together. Soon everypony around him were clopping their hooves. I smiled in response to the praise. "Yes, thank you, thank you. But I must get going before the train leaves without me again." I said. "Very well. Splendid to meet you, Caleb." Fancy Pants said. "You too." I said before inching my way onto the train. Like before, nobody was in the car and I was all by myself. I squeezed my way through the aisle of seat and sat down on the middle seat. I waited for the train to begin moving and the conductor from before walked in from the back car. "Hey." I said. "Ah, Caleb. How was your visit?" the conductor asked. "Went well. We talked a lot about my world and the history of Equestria. That kind of stuff." I answered. "Interesting. Anything else?" he asked. I was about to mention the agency, but remembered that I had to keep it a secret. "Nope. That was pretty much it." I said. "Sounds like a good time," he said. "Need anything before we head on our way?" he asked me. "No, thanks." I replied. "Alrighty-roo." the conductor said and walked into the next car. A few minutes later, I jumped in my seat as the sudden loudness of the train whistle broke the silence. "Dammit!" I said out loud. The train than began to move slowly while progressively picking up speed. Soon enough, the train had left Canterlot and proceeded into the mountains tunnels. When the light began to dim as the train entered one of the tunnels, I saw a glow come from rocky wall of the mountain. It was weird how light was somehow being produced from inside, unless someone's in there doing something. I brushed it off as just my imagination and continued looking out the window. Once the train made it's way back down the mountain, that's when the train entered the fields coated with that blanket of snow. "Wonder if Twilight will be waiting for me or not?" I asked to no one. It was pretty lonely in that train car all by myself, so you can probably see why I was talking to myself. After the long boring train ride, my attention was brought back when the train whistle blew again, indicating that Ponyville was close. The conductor came back in the car and announced that we were approaching Ponyville. I looked out the window to see if anyone was waiting for my arrival and sure enough, there were the the five mares and Spike. But where was Pinkie? All of them waved at me and I waved back. All of sudden, Pinkie face just appears right in front of me from the outside of window as she somehow latched onto the train sideways. I jerked my head back in response. "Hi Caleb!" Pinkie's said, her voice muffled from the window. "Hey, Pinkie! How you been doin'? I asked. "Greatastic!" Pinkie replied from the other side, still clinging to the side. "Greatastic?" I asked. "Yeah! If you put great and fantastic together, you get greatastic." Pinkie explained. "Gotcha." I said. The train slowed down and came to a complete stop. Pinkie then dropped sideways to the ground with an audible thud on the wooden surface of the platform. "I'm okay!" Pinkie said. I rose out of my seat and headed for the exit. "Well, Caleb, thanks for riding with Friendship Express." the conductor said. "No, thank you. Couldn't get to Canterlot without Friendship Express in the first place." I said. "That's right," the conductor replied. "Have a good day, sir." I turned around to head out the door and I barely had time to react as I accidentally smacked my head on the door hinge with a klunk. My head threw back a little and I placed my hand on my forehead. "Do'h! Y'alright?" Applejack asked. "Yeah. I didn't really feel it at all." I said. "You didn't feel it?" Twilight asked. "Looked like it hurt." Spike said. "I felt the impact and it hurts a tiny bit, but not as much as it should have." I explained. "That's odd. Your nervous system should've sent a signal to yo--" Twilight began before being cut off by Rainbow "Hey, Twilight, I don't think Caleb came back to hear a lesson on how pain works." Rainbow Dash said. "Right. My bad." Twilight said. I laughed in response. "Oh, Twilight." I said. "How was your visit with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna? Did it all go good?" Twilight asked with interest. "It actually went really well! We talked about all kinds of stuff." I said. "What kind of stuff?" Fluttershy asked. "For instance, Princess Celestia mentioned the Elements of Harmony." I said with a raised eyebrow. "Did she?" Twilight responded, her eyes perking. "She did. Why didn't you tell me at first?" I asked. "I thought it would be a good topic for you and the princesses to talk about." Twilight said. "Is the magic Celestia told me about inside you right now?" I asked. "Technically it is because we are basically living representations of the Elements." Twilight said. "Nice. Demonstrate." I said. "About that. We need the elements in order to manipulate the magic of friendship properly." Rarity said. "Plus, we only use it in a crisis or a situation that can jeopardize the future of Equestria." Twilight said. "Oh yeah, I suppose because you used those to defeat Nightmare Moon." I said. "Correct." Twilight replied. "What about you, guys? Anything happen here while I was gone?" I asked Twilight "Nope. At least from what I know. What I did was invited them to your arrival back in Ponyville" Twilight replied, directing her hoof towards the other five and Spike. "Well, thanks for coming guys." I said. "Speaking of which, this'll be a great photo op." Twilight said, taking a camera out of the pouch on her back. "Good idea." I said. "Caleb, since you're the tallest, you go behind everyone. Spike will go in front and everypony else huddle together." Twilight instructed. Everypony got into their positions and Twilight levitated the camera a good distance away from us. Rainbow Dash flew all the way up to my height to stand out more, which I found funny because she stood out of the most out of all six of the mares due to her color scheme. "Ready?" Twilight asked us all. "Yep." we replied. With that, I smiled and put my thumb up. Twilight then pressed the clicker on the camera, creating a bright flash. "I'll take on more just in case that doesn't develop correctly." Twilight said. She winded up the camera and took another picture. "We're good?" I asked. "Uh-huh. I'll have to take this in sometime to get it developed." Twilight said. "Why not just take it in now?" I asked. "There's more film on the roll that I want to use for scientific purposes." Twilight said. "Gotcha." I said. "Girls, thanks for coming by for greeting, Caleb." Twilight said to the other five. "We parting ways now?" Rainbow asked. "Yeah. It's getting colder by the minute." Twilight said. "Oh, I couldn't agree more." Rarity said. "See ya girls." I said as I walked away with Twilight and Spike. Later that night, we had some good ol' corn on the cob. I would kill for a steak right about now, but corn's okay. "So Canterlot....." Twilight began. "What about it?" I asked. "What did you think of it?" Twilight asked. "I thought it looked very high end and architecturally superior." I said. "So you liked the building's designs?" Spike asked, biting into his corn. "They were just real interesting to me." I said. "Me too," Twilight agreed. "In fact, I used to live there." "You did?" I asked. "Yep," Twilight said, "I grew up there with my mom, dad and brother." "Oh, you're brother. Just to let you know, I saw Shining Armour." I said. "What does he have to say? Any big news?" Twilight asked with interest. "Nothing new, but he misses you Twilight, he really misses you." I said. "Yeah...." Twilight trailed off with a smile. "I told him that you missed him dearly as well. You should write a letter to him sometimes, that's what I told him to do." I said. "That sounds like a great idea, Twilight." Spike agreed. "Y'know, I should do that after I'm done eating." Twilight said. Twilight's smile widended knowing she had reassurance on her brother. It was very touching to see. "I, uh, also have some information about humans in Equestria." I brought up from Celestia's revelation earlier. "I should write this down then." Twilight said. She got up to get a piece of paper and a writing utensil. "Go on." Twilight said. "Okay. Humans were apparently here long before Equestria became a nation and were considered outcasts'." I paused so that Twilight could write down my words. "Mm-hmm." she hummed. "The humans were eventually wiped off the face of this planet from the winters that Windigo's brought upon Equestria during the time where ponies feuded with each other." I said. "Interesting." Twilight said as she wrote down. "That's pretty much all she had to say." I concluded. "Never thought humans would ever live here long before us ponies." Twilight said. "Out of all of these books here, you don't have any on humans?" I asked. "Not one. I don't even know if any exist." Twilight said, biting her corn. "Well, a mare named Lyra Heartstrings must have books because she studies the old myth on humans." I said. "If I see her sometime, I'll ask her if I can borrow one." Twilight said. After we finished eating, Twilight went upstairs to write her letter. "Caleb, I'm hitting the hay. I'm tired." Spike said. "Do what you want." I replied. He then headed upstairs to go to sleep, leaving me by myself downstairs. I looked through the alphabetic rows of books and found a book on Windigo's in the W section. Not only did they cause winters that wiped the humans when earth, pegasi and unicorns argued with each other, but they also created the holiday called Hearth's Warming. This is a holiday where all three races joined together to form one big nation that became Equestria. It's commonly celebrated similar to Christmas, but instead of celebrating the birth of Jesus, it's the creation of Equestria. Traditions are also similar since they give gifts on Hearth's Warming Eve as a representation of peace and harmony between all three races. All that this holiday is missing is a Santa Pony, that would be hilarious. After finishing my reading session, I wondered what I would tell Twilight when I had to go to a training program from recruiting C.A.M.A agents. I knew it would be a bad idea to lie to her because she'll figure out either way. Twilight is also the only pony I would trust to tell this secret that I'm meant to keep to myself. "Screw it." I said as I headed upstairs. I reached the top of the stairs and the only light on was Twilight's lamp that illuminated the paper she wrote on while Spike was sleeping in his small bed. "Twilight" I whispered. "Hmm?" she asked, turning around. "When you're done, I need to talk to you downstairs." I said, quietly. "Okay." she replied, quietly. I headed back down and waited in a chair for about ten more minutes. "What is it?" Twilight asked. "Look.... Twilight," I paused. "I'm about to tell you something that I'm not supposed to share, and I'm telling you because this must remain a secret between you and us. Not even Spike must know." I said. Twilight stared blankly at me, unable of what to say. "Do I have your word that this will between me and you?" I asked. "Of course. Tell me." Twilight said. "Okay. Twilight. While I was up in Canterlot, I stumbled across an agency that hunts creatures who pose a threat to Equestria." I revealed. "Caleb.... Did you?" Twilight said, realizing what I was about to tell her. "Yes, Twilight. I joined the Everfree branch and i'm due back in Canterlot on the 7th for a four month training program." I said. Twilight sat in silence from what I said. "Twilight?" I asked. "Oh, Caleb. If you go out there in the Everfree, you'll get yourself killed!" Twilight exclaimed. "Twilight, the time for me to go into the Everfree has not come yet. If I were to go into the Everfree with no training experience, such as this moment, I agree that I would be dead. But once I do this training program, I'll bet you my bottom bit that I will survive and fulfill my job. Now, i'm guessing that they're going to give me stuff for protection and I also have the Land Rover to navigate the Everfree at night." I said. "Okay, fine, fine. But why did you do it?" she asked. "Frankly, it looks like something I'd like to do and I also wanted to repay Ponyville and my friends, including you, for all that you've done for me." I said. "Really?" Twilight asked. "Of course. So we'll keep this topic between us?" I asked. "I promise." Twilight said. "Remember, I'm only going up to Canterlot for a training program. A training program, not the real thing." I said. "I understand." Twilight said. "Good. Now let's just continue on with life and go to bed, okay?" I asked. "Okay." Twilight said. As Twilight and I headed upstairs, we didn't say a word to each other. I can tell that Twilight is worried for me, greatly. I laid on the couch wondering whether this was a good idea or not, but I convinced that it was a good idea. I could hear Twilight let out a loud sigh as she laid in her bed, probably not a good sign. Another note, later in the middle of the night, I had a bad dream. The dream consisted of me running from Timberwolves, just like on my first day here in Equestria, but this time they caught me and.... you know what happens when a predator catches something lower on the food chain.