Sol and Twilight were currently walking through Ponyville. Ponyville was quiet, except for the marketplace of course. Foals running around, Ponies going about their day to day lives, the whole scene was just picturesque. Apparently it was an Earth Pony town originally, which made Sol wonder… how did Earth Ponies build houses with only their hooves?
Twilight was talking and explaining various things about Ponyville but Sol wasn't listening.
‘When should I leave?’ He stared at a curious group of colts who were watching from the bushes, they left immediately,
‘Tonight? Yes, I shall learn the layout of this town, and leave tonight. Hopefully not stressing Twilight until after she has had a good night’s rest.’
Since Sol was wrapped in his thoughts, he never noticed the group of three fillies who were sneaking up on him. When they close to him, they started their plan.
“GOTCHA MON-”
The three fillies were silenced by Sol grabbing the Unicorn with his Data Knife at the ready.
When Sol realised what he did, he immediately let go of the Unicorn. He turned to see Twilight with her eyes wide in surprise but then in anger with her horn glowing. Sol threw down his knife.
“Sorry Twilight, It was just my reflexes!”
Twilight’s horn stopped glowing, “It’s not me who you should be apologising to.”
Sol turned to see the three fillies cowering below him. He felt awful, how could he scare such adorable little things! He bent down and reached his hand out to the white Unicorn filly. She flinched, but was surprised to feel Sol’s hand scratching her fur.
“I'm sorry for frightening you,” She looked up to see Sol smiling, “Are you okay little Sheila?”
The filly stared at Sol for a moment, but then started to giggle. “You have a funny accent.”
Sol started to laugh as well. “Finally, Someone commented on my smashing voice!”
The other two still looked a bit scared, so Sol knelt in front of them. “G’day mates! Throw another shrimp on the barbie will ya!?”
The two glanced at each other, before looking back at him. Sol saw a chuckle from the Pegasus, before both started crying in laughter. When they stopped laughing, Sol stood up and looked at all of them.
“So what would your names be?” Sol asked, “My name’s Sol.”
The white Unicorn answered first. “My name is Sweetie Belle!”
The orange Pegasus next. “Mine’s Scootaloo!”
And the yellow Earth Pony last. “My names is Apple Bloom! Nice ta meet ya!”
“And we’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” All three of them shouted.
At hearing all their voices, Sol was curious. “Are you, Apple Bloom, by chance related to Applejack? And you Sweetie Belle, Rarity?”
“How'd you guess?” All three of them breathed.
“Magic!” Sol twinkled his fingers.
“You have magic?” Sweetie Belle sounded sad. Sol guessed she was a bit of a late bloomer. Now that he paid attention, he noticed none of them had a cutie mark.
“No, I was just joking. I don't have any magic, but why did you jump me?”
The three shuffled around awkwardly, staring at the ground. “We tried to get our monster catching cutie mark,” Scootaloo mumbled.
Sol arched an eyebrow. “So the point of your group is to get your cutie marks?”
“That's right!” Apple Bloom answered.
Sol turned around to Twilight. Looking back, he said, “I guess I'll see you three later?”
“Yep!” The three of them ran away, laughing as they went.
Sol looked back to Twilight, who had the biggest smile on her face. “Seems you’re pretty good with foals.”
Sol shrugged. “Guess kids have always loved me.”
“I forgot to ask you last night, but does your name mean anything? It sounds familiar to me, but I don't know why.” Twilight started walking again.
Catching back up, Sol wondered if he should tell her, but realised it couldn't hurt.
“In Spanish, it is the word for the Sun. And in Latin, Solis means the Sun too.”
“Ah that's why! One of our old languages used Solis as its word for the Sun,” Twilight remembered, “Did your parents name you that for any reason?”
Sol laughed out loud, it brought back pleasant memories. “My dad told me they named me Sol, because it was the name of a beer company,” Sol chuckled, “My mum gave me the more likely explanation. My mum was learning Spanish as a hobby, and decided to name me Sol, so I could light the way for humankind. I know, it's super cheesy. But it was also to go with my sister’s name. Her name was Luna, funny, considering where I am now.” Thinking about his sister, he didn't really find it funny.
“Was your sister younger or older?” Twilight looked at Sol, worried what he was thinking about.
“Older, hah, the Celestial Siblings, what we called ourselves when we were kids. Not too different to Celestia and Luna, hm?”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Twilight looked back ahead, “Let’s continue our tour.”
Sol noticed that Ponies took nervous glances at him every so often. Twilight noticed his gaze. “Forgive the Ponies, they aren't used to new species.”
“It's alright, if I saw a Pony walking around in a human city, I would question my sanity,” Sol saw a mint green Unicorn staring at him from across the street, looking up and down his body. He gave her a wink, to which she blushed and ran away.
They kept walking until they stopped outside a large apple orchard, with a sign reading ‘Sweet Apple Acres’.
“This is where Applejack works! Come on!” Twilight looked eager to go in.
“Alright, let's go.”
Sol couldn't help but count all the apple trees he walked past. He got to 100 and gave up. “Applejack works here? I sure hope she ain't the only one on the job!” He exclaimed.
“Oh, she has her brother, Big Mac, to help her.” Twilight didn't seem affected by the sheer amount of apple trees. Of course, this would just be because she's used to them.
They stopped at a barn house to see Applejack kicking a tree.
“What's she doing?” Sol asked Twilight.
“She's applebucking, kicking the tree so the apples fall down for her to collect.”
“Huh.”
Twilight ran up to Applejack and tapped her. “I've brought Sol just as you asked!”
“Ah! Perfect. Come on out Mac!” Applejack called to the house.
And out comes the biggest Pony Sol had seen yet. Sol was still taller, but total mass? This guy was huge! Applejack went up to him and gave him a pat on the back.
“Ay asked Twilight to bring ya, so ya can have a hoof wrestle with ma brother!” Applejack announced excited.
“You what mate!?” Sol gulped.
Big Mac walked to him. “Eeyup.”
Just when Sol was about to ask for a table, Applejack put one right between them. Placing his wrist against Big Mac’s hoof, they waited for a countdown. Applejack provided.
“3!” Sol sized his opponent up again, which just resulted in him audibly gulping again.
“2!” Both of them stared at each other with determination.
“1!” Their eyes squinted.
“Go!”
Both Sol and Mac pushed, neither giving way… until Sol utterly gave up. Apple whooped and started dancing, obviously happy to have revenge.
“And the winner is… Big Macintosh!” Applejack announced.
As Sol stared at Applejack’s display with a smile, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw a confused Twilight.
“How did you beat Applejack so easily, but then get destroyed by Mac?” Twilight pulled out her notebook, ready to record this.
“Well, the main reason I beat Applejack so easily is because she underestimated me. Like, come on! I don't look like I'm that strong!” Sol pointed to his body to emphasise, “I may be strong, stronger than Applejack definitely. But although I can bring down a wall, I think Big Mac can bring down a house!”
Twilight giggled at that. “You'd be surprised…”
“What do you mean?”
“He was tied to a house while he was on his way to see Cherilee, but he just pulled it with him.”
Sol turned to Big Mac, who just gave a smile and said, “Eeyup.”
Sol offered his hand to Big Mac, who took it. They both shook and Sol started to walk out of the farm.
“Don't you want a tour of Sweet Apple Acres?” Twilight ran up to him.
“We don't have much time left in the day. We've gotta hurry it up if we want to see all of Ponyville.”
Twilight thought about it for a moment. “Fair enough, let’s go.”
////\\\\
For the rest of the day, Twilight took Sol around Ponyville. Showing him everything from the school to Sugarcube Corner… Sol liked Sugarcube Corner in particular. It was a nice change from the food that was served on the ship. It was also where he learnt that Pinkie and physics don’t particularly go hand in hand. ‘Definitely a Pony Dylan. I wonder how he's going, last I heard he got promoted to Vanguard,’ It was pleasant to think of his goofy friend. But their current stop however, was the one that truly interested him.
“And here is the Ponyville Train Station!” Twilight said as they turned the corner.
Sol stared at the Station and the train with its absurd paint job. ‘I'll come here at night and sneak on a train going to Canterlot, but I've gotta check if there is a train late at night first.’
Sol turned to Twilight. “I'll just be a second, please wait here.”
Sol walked up to the ticket booth.”Hello sir,” He said the stallion behind the booth, “Do you have a train going to Canterlot late at night?”
The stallion squinted his eyes at Sol, obviously suspicious at a strange creature asking for a ticket to the capital. “We got one at 10pm. It'll cost you 5 bits.”
“Oh no, I was just asking for a friend of mine. Thank you!” Sol walked back to Twilight.
As they started to walk away, Twilight turned to him. “What did you ask him?”
“Oh, just questions about the train,” Sol answered.
“Ok, but you could've asked me as well.”
“I thought asking someone who worked there would be better, besides, I didn't need to know much. Humans mastered trains a long time ago, they are now considered obsolete,” Sol already had this prepared when Twilight told him they were headed to the Train Station.
“Alright! I think it's best we had back to the castle,” Twilight said.
////\\\\
They arrived at the castle at 7pm; Sol and Twilight had dinner, and said good night. But instead of going to bed, Sol went to Twilight’s library. He needed to learn about the Canterlot Castle.
He entered the library and when he saw the insane amount of books, he almost fainted. ‘How the hell am I supposed to find the one I need in here?’ He thought.
As he walked through the library, he noticed one thing. It was in alphabetical order. And not by author thankfully, but rather the title of the book.
‘So C then?’ He looked through the C section until he found a book titled, ‘Canterlot Castle: A History’.
He took the book out and started to read through it. It was actually quite enjoyable for Sol, since he had a knack for history. But then he found what he was looking for. A chapter titled: Dungeons.
‘Aha!’ Reading through it, he learnt that the Dungeons were below the Guards Barracks, and that the Canterlot Castle was built around it, meaning it would be the furthest underground level. Why this book showed the location of the Dungeon, Sol didn't know. Until he saw that the author was Twilight. ‘She obviously wrote this for her own personal use,’ Sol thought as he put the book back.
Looking at a clock in the corner of the room, he saw that it was 9:40. ‘SHIT!’
Sol started back towards his room. Reaching it, he entered and closed the door quietly. Opening the closet, he took out his helmet and put it on. Then he grabbed his firearms and put those in their appropriate places. Opening the window, he looked down, breathed in and out, and jumped.
Upon landing, he checked the time on his HUD. 9:50. He set a waypoint for the Train Station and sprinted. When he got close to a building, he grappled the roof and when it hit the roof, he flared his Jump Kit at the same time. This pulled him over the building and shot him through the air. When he started to descend, he activated his Kit again and shot himself up.
Sol landed a block away from the Station, looking back he grinned. 'I love Grapple!' He repeated this process but didn't jump again in the air. Landing in front of the Station, he saw the train come into the Station. He saw a mare unloading baggage from a cargo carriage. Activating his cloak, he snuck into the carriage.
Finding a spot to hide at the back of the carriage, he waited until the carriage closed. When the train started to move, he tested if he could open the door. He couldn't, it was locked. Although he could probably bust through it, he didn't need to. Every time that door opened, he'd check where they stopped until they reached Canterlot.
Lying down in the corner, he held his R-201 at the ready. It was at this point, Sol really wished he had taken that music player upgrade for his helmet. Sol looked at the roof and sighed: It was gonna be a long ride filled with boredom.