“I’m sorry, my little humans,” Celestia said. “But we cannot find a way to return you to your homes. If that ever changes, we will let you know, but whatever happens, you are welcome in Equestria.”
The three stallions in front of Celestia shifted uncomfortably from the tangible sadness which the princess delivered the news with.
“Uuh, that’s ok, your majesty,” one of them said, shuffling his hoof on the carpet. “It’s not your fault.”
Celestia smiled sadly at the pony. “If somepony found themselves in your home, and you were unable to help them leave, you would apologize too, I think.”
“Oh… well, when you put it like that,” one of them said. “Thanks for letting us stay.”
Celestia’s smile relaxed. “You are most welcome. Will you be returning to Ponyville?”
The three stallions nodded. “Might as well,” one said. “That’s where we keep our stuff. We might as well get comfortable around here, and make a living.”
“Yeah, and there are less people there,” another said. “More empty space for the tests.”
This piqued Celestia’s interested. “Oh, what kind of tests?”
They shrugged at her. “Well, you know, none of us are unicorns, but we still can’t let magic just sit around, untested.”
Celestia looked at them with uncertainty. “And that is what you do for a living?” she asked.
“Uhm, well, that’s often, but not always, one of the prerequisites for our inventions.”
“Ah, so you’ve started careers as engineers,” Celestia said. “That’s heartening. Regardless, if you ever need assistance with settling into Equestria, please do not doubt to ask me for aid.”
The three stallions smiled at the princess. “Aaw, thanks, your majesty. We’ll ask if we need any startup-money.”
… And so it came to pass that the three strangers, having learned that no known magic could take them back to their homeworld, settled into the small town of Ponyville. However, they never forgot their dreams of one day returning to their homes, and applying that same, or perhaps ever-changing, logic that they engaged in everything with to find their own way back… by looking to Luna’s stars.
Twilight Sparkle looked up from her desk when she heard the knock on her door.
“Come in,” she called.
The door opened, an the mayor of Ponyville, Mayor Mare, walked in. “Hello, your majesty,” she said.
“Oh, hello, Mayor,” Twilight said brightly. “How can I help you today?”
“Well,” the mayor started, uncertainty. “You know how Knee-Deep said that the pressure was dropping at the sewage treatment-station?”
Twilight nodded. “Yes, have you found anything?”
“Yes,” Mayor said. “I asked him to look into it, and it looks like gas is being drained somewhere between the treatment plant, and southwest of Sweet Apple Acres’ northwestern field… right where our… new residents have their house.”
Twilight looked on in disbelief at this information, before rubbing her temples with her hooves, and without a word, walked over to her window, then flew out of it.
Halfway to the field, she heard the earth shake, and a great mushroom-cloud of smoke and fire rose from the outskirts of town; right where she was headed.
Twilight sped up, and reached a trench dug into the ground, with the three ponies, in high spirits, and covered in soot, were lifting up their goggles while filling glasses and clinking them against each other.
“Success!” they yelled.
Two of the stallions were looking at the almost-fallen-over tank with absolutely terrified expressions.
Twilight carefully levitated it down while looking at the two stallions with a worried expression.
“What’s in this?”
“Acetylene,” the pegasus said.
Twilight instinctively backed away from the tank.
“You said you weren’t making anything dangerous!” she protested.
“We’re not,” the earth pony clarified. “The hydrogen torch is perfectly safe, but I needed acetylene to make it.”
“Where did you get acetylene anyway?” Twilight asked.
“... Spike,” they answered simultaneously.
Princess Celestia stood and silently looked at the pony who in turn looked at the strange panel of gauges attached to the pipes before him, comparing them to a clipboard of numbers.
The stallion was utterly oblivious to her presence, until she decided to speak up.
“So, my little pony,” she said, making the stallion jump up in surprise before turning to her.
“Oh, hey, your majesty. What can I do you for?” he said.
“I was just wondering what this thing that you’re working for is,” Celestia said. “It’s quite the structure.”
“Ah, it’s a human thing, majesty. It’s called an ‘oil pipeline’.”
“Hey, Twilight,” Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle happily called in unison.
“Hi, girls,” Twilight said, tearing her eyes away from the bookshelves. “Do you need something?”
“Kinda,” Apple Bloom said. “We think the humans are building something over at the lake, but we can’t go in and figure out what they’re doing.”
Twilight paused at this, and tensed. “What do you mean, ‘can’t go in’?” she asked.
“They built some kind of weird, big metal thing that’s somehow floating around in there.” Scootaloo said. “We tried getting in, but the door on top was locked, and they had painted the frame like a bee.”
Twilight was breathing easier now, but not feeling entirely relaxed. “Big metal thing?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle said. “They put a sign on it though. it said, ‘sub-nautical hydroponics testing facility A’.”
“Alright, everypony,” Cheerilee said to her class, sounding a bit uncertain. “We have a special guest with us today. Mr Drew, the pony from another world, is here to talk about chemistry.”
In walked Drew, carrying on his bag a pair of saddlebags, which he placed on the teacher’s desk as Cheerilee sat down with her students.
“Thank you, miss Cheerilee,” Drew said, before turning to the class with barely contained excitement.
Cheerilee looked on in fascination despite herself, as Drew emptied an impressive number of objects from his saddlebag, including sealed metallic containers, and a large number of goggled gasmask.”
“Now, I know you’re all stoked to learn about chemistry,” Drew said excitedly. “And if you’re not, you should be, because today, I felt we should learn about one of the best things about chemistry: Fluorine fires!”