Twilight Sparkle was having a normal day. Going around Ponyville, and getting everything she needed for Starswirl the Bearded's visit, and freaking out about it. The last part happens a lot. As always, she was making a huge deal out of things. She was zooming from stand to stand in Ponyville's market trying to find what she would expect her idol to find enjoyable. Her number one assistant Spike (who was a purple dragon with a green and tan underbelly) was speeding along with her. "Twilight, we've been going around the stands for hours!" Spike whined, "This is just a visit, not some super important meeting!" Twilight stopped and turned to talk to Spike.
"Spike, this is the first time he's visiting in awhile! I want to make sure he's comfortable and happy!" She exclaimed, "Now which cushions would he like, velvet or cloud?"
"Twilight! You're overreacting! Do you honestly think he'd care what pillow you got him to sit on?" Spike asked raising an eyebrow. Twilight bowed her head, sighing, realizing she was freaking out over nothing.
"You're right Spike, its just that after our first encounter, I didn't make the best impression."
"Yeah, fainting wasn't your best moment, but after you defeated Tirek, he realized how great you really are! You just need to remember to treat him like a friend. You hate being treated like royalty remember? How do you think he'd feel about being treated like that by one of his friends?" Twilight smiled at her assistant and hugged him.
"You're really growing up Spike. You've matured so much ever since we came to Ponyville." Spike hugged back and smiled.
"While we're here, Cloud pillows are better than velvet, we may as well get some to replace the ones at the castle." Twilight rolled her eyes but smiled nonetheless.
"Well I'm sure we have time to buy some new decorations, it's only 10 AM after all we have two hours to kill before he arrives." As soon as she said that, the manager of the Quills and Sofas shop entered the store.
"Is that clock still two hours early?! Feather!"
"Yeah boss?" The clerk said walking over.
"Fix that clock, it's been like that for weeks." The clerk got a step stool and set the clock at the proper time. The clock then read 12PM.
"Wait, why did you change the clock?" Twilight asked.
"Sorry Princess, that clock's been early for awhile now."
"But... but that means..." She gasped and grabbed Spike, "WE'RE LATE!" She screamed and flew out of the store back to the castle while gripping Spike in her forehoof. Meanwhile, the store was left completely messed up with pillows, quills and shelves knocked around.
"That princess has issues." Feather said, starting to clean up.
"I can't believe we're late, I cant believe we're late, I can't believe we're late!" Twilight yelled as she zoomed through town with her assistant holding on for dear life.
"Aaaand just like that you're Twilighting again." Spike said still waving in the air.
"Will you stop using my name as a verb?! Besides, nopony likes to be late!"
"Pretty sure most ponies say better late than never?"
"It doesn't matter! C'mon!" With that Twilight and Spike zoomed around a block, ignoring the waving ponies on the street. Finally, they made it back to the castle of friendship. It was a large crystal tree with a balcony, red curtains, and several towers. Next to it was a majestic lake with another crystal building built into a waterfall. This building was the famous, "School of Friendship", where creatures from across Equus would come to learn about the magic of friendship itself. It was currently being run by her student/friend, Starlight Glimmer.
As Twilight and Spike neared the castle, she saw, not Starswirl, but her five best friends, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy. She skidded to a halt, Spike crashing into her, sending her tumbling. "There she is!" Rainbow yelled, flying over to her. "You okay, Twilight?" Twilights eyes rolled around a little until she corrected herself and smiled sheepishly.
"Yeah, just running a bit late." She said still smiling.
"Ah'll say." Applejack said in her southern accent, "You're ten minutes late! That's a new record for you!"
"Ha ha, very funny Applejack."
"No, dear she's serious. You were supposed to be here ten minutes ago." Rarity said, "Are you feeling alright?"
"As long as Starswirl isn't here yet I'll be fine."
"Actually, he was here." Fluttershy said.
"WHAT?!" Twilight yelled.
"Relax darling! He said he couldn't stay for long and he wanted us to give you this." She pulled a scroll out of her saddle bag. Twilight took it in her own magic and unrolled it. It read:
Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,
By the time you read this I will be gone, but I must leave immediately to contact the other Princesses.
I apologize for rescheduling our meeting (I shall give you a proper time to meet with me at a later date), but I found something new in the Everfree Forest, something that may or may not be dangerous.
The creatures I found were bipedal, had the appearance of monkeys but had no fur and a taller stature, and had sorts of clothing on themselves.
I may have an idea to what these creatures are but they are different from the ones I remember.
I merely wish for you and the town of Ponyville to remain vigilant, as the creatures, as I said before, may or may not be dangerous.
Please update me if anything goes awry.Sincerely, Starswirl the Bearded.
As Twilight finished reading the note out loud, she rolled up the scroll and placed in into her own saddle bag. "Those creatures sound familiar."
"Yeah, it's like those weird monkey things you met in an alternate dimension to get your crown back but ended up saving our alternate selves' friendship and a school from a demon that ended up being another pony in disguise as the monkey thingies."
"Thank you for the recap Pinkie, but Starswirl said that they weren't like the creatures I met in that other world. There is a possibility that they are from a different reality than the one I went to. Follow me inside girls, we can talk more in there." They started walking in until Rainbow Dash turned and saw Spike looking around at the back at the castle.
"You okay Spike?" She asked.
"Yeah. I'm fine." He said walking back towards the door of the castle. For a few moments, Spike was sure he had seen a creature looking back at him from the Everfree Forest.
I woke up at around 10 o'clock, at least my phone said that. I was sleeping next to Ayden and Theresa. I saw that Ayden's bandages had come off in the middle of the night and his wound looked even worse. It had yellow spots and puss leaking out. His wound had gone septic. "Guys get up." I said groggily. Everyone stirred and Ayden was the first one up. "We need to find civilization today.
"Why?" James said walking out of the tent. I walked up to him.
"His wound is septic." I muttered to him.
"What?"
"Look at it." I said. James looked over at his wound and turned back to me, unable to make an excuse. Ayden could actually die if we didn't help him. "So what're we gonna do?" James looked around for a moment, then he pulled out the gun he stole from the cave.
"We could put him out of his misery..." James said cocking the gun.
"Hell no."
"Well what should we do? The wound's already infected, he'll probably die anyways."
"That unicorn we saw last night..."
"Oh here we go..." James said rolling his eyes.
"You saw it too James!"
"We were probably just hallucinating from the spores."
"Then why are the hoof prints still there?" I said pointing to the tracks on the ground. "It was real James. It had clothes on, so maybe it could help us."
"Cam, you're making it sound like a sentient creature." James said angrily.
"Because it probably was! If it wasn't, it had to at least have an owner. Maybe there's a town nearby, maybe we can get Ayden the help he needs!"
"I..." James' expression went blank for a moment. "Fine... Guys! We're moving out, let's follow those hoof prints!" Once everyone was less tired we helped Ayden get onto the toboggan and set off.
"So what happens if we end up finding this unicorn?" Mike asked.
"We see if it can help us. If it was able to get rid of those weird vines, we should be able to get medical help and hopefully a map. Maybe even service for or phones so we can call home?"
"And if we were just hallucinating?"
"We weren't. The tracks remember?"
"What tracks?" I looked down and noticed the hoof prints were gone, and we were still in the middle of nowhere.
"I knew you'd screw everything up!" James yelled. "Why did we have to listen to you?!"
"Because you agreed to! You didn't have to follow me!"
"Yes we did!"
"No James, you elected yourself leader! You should've done something!" Ayden started moaning behind us. The wound was getting worse.
"Oh I'm gonna do something alright!" He pulled out the gun and pointed it back at Ayden.
"NO!" I grabbed his arm and moved it away from Ayden's direction. We fought for it until I gained possession. I gave it to Theresa who turned the safety on and placed it in her backpack. "From now on, if you're going to be a leader, you're gonna have to step up at some points. You don't kill your peers." James nodded and bowed his head in apology. Finally after walking in the same direction, we saw a light.
"Guys! I think that's the exit to the forest!" Phillip yelled and ran to the edge. We all caught up with him a few seconds later but found the back of what looked like a big tree only... it was made of crystal. We saw a balcony in the back but that was it.
"What is that?" Theresa asked.
"It's a crystal tree." I replied.
"No... that!" I looked where she was pointing and saw what had to be the largest lizard staring back at us.
"GET DOWN!" I hissed. They all followed suit and hid behind the bushes. "That has to be the largest iguana I've ever seen."
"Whatever it was, it's gone." James whispered. We all got up and continued to look at the entrancing tree.
"That thing looks like a giant hand flipping off the world." Phillip said chuckling.
"No it do-" I was about to say until I brought my hand up to the tree and gave a middle finger. "Huh... how about that." A perfect match.
"Well now what?" Theresa asked.
"Now we find a way in there." James said.
"Wait... what? But there could be someone living in there." Mike said.
"I know."
"Nonononono we're not stealing." I said angrily.
"Why not?! For all we know, there's no one in there and all we saw go inside was a lizard."
"Or there is someone in there and they could be hospitable and help us."
"Not taking chances. C'mon" James darted out of the shrubbery.
"No... wait James... GUYS?!" Everyone darted out of the forest except me and Ayden who I helped get up. I put his arm around my shoulder and helped him hop to the odd tree. "Goddamn it."
"So what could these creatures be Twilight?" Applejack asked.
"A few months back, when I went to that other universe for the first time, I encountered a species called humans. They were bipedal creatures with almost no hair except for their heads. They also have to live without magic."
"That must be tough." Rainbow said.
"It took me quite a while to get the hang of it. But after seeing all the new technology that they made, they probably are smarter than we are..."
"So one of them is in the Everfree Forest?" Fluttershy asked.
"Not just one... Starswirl said there was a group of them. And it might be a different species of human judging but what he wrote."
"So what do we do about it?" Rarity asked.
"We do what Starswirl wants us to do, remain vigilant and notify him if we see anything."
"Or we could handle them ourselves." Rainbow said shrugging.
"We are not going to engage with them Rainbow!"
"Fine, geez."
There was a small crash in the hallway outside. Almost like a vase being knocked over.
"Watch where you're going Cam!" James hissed at me. The vase had shattered and dust spread through the air, giving some of my friends a coughing fit.
"I'm sorry but it's tough to carry a dying friend around."
"Then let him go!" He hissed.
"NO!" I yelled. All of my friends shushed at me, then we heard what sounded like clops of hooves.
"Hello?" A feminine voice echoed through the hall. "Is somepony there?"
'SomePONY?' I wondered.
"Hurry up!" James hissed and led the others through the hall. I hesitated. I wanted so desperately to answer, maybe get some actual help, but James did make a point, whoever owned this place might not be nice like I hoped, so I dragged Ayden down the hall and carefully down some steps. I saw a wooden door and heard some clanging from inside, I slowly opened it to find my friends raiding the kitchen.
"What are you guys doing?!"
"We're getting some rations." Phillip explained. "We don't know how long it'll take for us to get home so we need stuff to eat."
"How will you guys carry the food? We ditched our backpacks remember?!"
"Relax, we found some knapsacks." He said shoving what looked like a block of cheese into the sack.
"Cam just get Ayden inside and keep watch." I huffed and rolled my eyes as I pulled Ayden in. I walked back to the door and poked my head out looking at the two hallways.
"Meh meh meh meh meh meh." I said in a soft squeaky voice to mimic James. The reason I haven't stood up to him that much is because he could easily pull out the gun and shoot me. With Phillip and Mike on his side and one of my friends out of commission, Theresa was my only line of defense. I'm not saying I'm a worthless fighter, I've taken about a decade of training in martial arts so I could handle a guy as small as James. I know better than to bring my fists to a gun fight however. I hear a loud clang of a pot that hit the floor. The noise echoed through the tree.
"I think that came from the kitchen!" I heard the same voice from before. It was dangerously close. I turned back inside to face my friends.
"Guys! They heard us! They're coming this way!"
"Shit. Hurry up!" James yelled as they tied the knapsacks shut and ran out the door. I followed with Ayden's arm around my neck. We hurried out of the room and heard a new voice at the top of the stairs.
"HEY!" A raspy, yet still feminine, voice called at us. I looked up to see who the voice belonged to, only to see... I thought I had lost my mind. I saw a Rainbow Maned, cyan pegasus, glaring at me and my friend. "WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOIN PAL?" It yelled. I double took. It talked, well yelled rather, but it still talked. I ran as fast as I could with my friend still slightly unconscious. "GET BACK HERE!" She yelled and flew at lightning fast speed towards us. I turned a corner and allowed the pegasus to whiz by us. I kept running in that direction until I saw another pony, this one was orange with a stetson hat. This one had no horn like the pony from the forest, or wings like the pegasus that nearly rammed into me. I skidded to a halt, prepared to run the other way, but it faced down another hallway, yelling at one of my other friends I supposed.
"Hold it right there you varmint!" It talked as well. Instead, this... mare (I believe a female horse is called.) had a deeper voice and a southern accent.
"Get away from me!" I heard Phillip yell. He must've been alone, otherwise the others would've yelled. Then to my misfortune, she turned and aw me and Ayden. She pulled out her lasso and prepared to swing it at us.
"Gotcha!" She yelled, the lasso in her teeth. I took off trying to get as far away from her as possible, not wanting to know what would happen if caught. The lasso flailed through the air and slowly neared my friend and I. I felt Ayden jolt in my grip and saw that the lasso had landed around him. The mare was now attempting to pull him back. I held onto Ayden tight, trying to ensure that he never lost my grip. I eyed the rope and pulled it closer to me, the pony moved about an inch, yet she held her ground. I brought the rope closer to my mouth and bit on it hard. I moved it around on my canine and heard a SNAP! The pony fell over and the torn rope flew back. I got a better grip on Ayden and ran off in the opposite direction.
Yells echoed in the halls as I carried Ayden around. I had no idea how many ponies there were, but I had to make an escape. Whether with my friends or not. I had ruined my chances of getting Ayden help here, but that didn't mean there wasn't hope. I returned to the staircase right by the kitchen, hoping to find the exit soon. 'My best hope is to escape while the ponies are occupied. Four of my friends are on the run. If each one is dealing with one pony, then that means there could be more around here. As I turned the corner I felt a presence behind me, I turned and saw a rather cheery looking pony with a huge grin on her face. What surprised me was that despite the ceiling being so high, she was still hanging upside down, suspended in midair.
"Hiya!" She said.
"Bye!" I yelled and ran with my friend back the way we came. I turned to find the same pony running next to me.
"I'm Pinkie Pie! What's your name?"
"Not that important at the moment!" I said still running.
"Hi, Notthatimportantatthemoment! That's a mouthful! Mind if I call you Nim?" Okay, I had to chuckle a little bit. This pony just had that bubbly personality to her that whatever joke she said, I'd have to laugh. "Oooh! Do you like cake?!" I was curious as to what she was implying, I was about to ask, only to have something soft crammed into my mouth. I nearly choked but managed to swallow and Jesus Christ! My mouth was just full of flavor at that moment. That cake beat all of the ones I've ever ate. That took the cake, pun intended. I came to the conclusion that she wasn't dangerous and calmed down a bit. I slowed to a walk and took in her style. She was pink with a puffy magenta mane, like cotton candy, and bright blue eyes. "Hey why'd you stop running?" She asked, "I thought running was fun!"
"Well I was actually... trying to run from you..." I said.
"Why would you do that? I'm not gonna hurt you." She said, her smile softening to, just a caring look in general.
"Well, your friends were sort of different."
"Ah there not bad once you get to know them!"
"I guess we did provoke them by sneaking into your tree."
"Oh this isn't my tree silly!"
"It isn't? I asked.
"M-m." She said shaking her head, "This is my friend Twilight's castle."
"Nice going Pinkie! You got two of them!" It was the same raspy voice from before. Before I could get my friend and run, the air was knocked out of me and I hit the wall. I slid onto the floor, still winded. I tried to get up, only to have a hoof pressed onto the back of my head, pinning me down.
"W-Wait!" I yelled.
"Hey Applejack! We got another one!"
"Imma comin!" "Applejack" said walking closer to me. It was the orange pony from before. "Well well! This is the one who bit my lasso!" I felt the movement of rope wrapping around my torso and binding my arms together. "Get the other one Rainbow!"
"This thing's already knocked out."
"Wait, please! Y-you don't understand."
"You can talk once we get you with the others." I felt my body being pulled away from the area.
"Wait Applejack! He isn't a meany pants like the others!
"We just need to be sure Pinkie."
I saw the rainbow-maned pony smirking at me. "I'll admit it, you put up a pretty good fight."
"Please listen to me! My friend is- mmph!" I felt a strap of tape go against my mouth as I was pulled into a large open room. I would turn around to look at what was in front of me, but then I'd just be looking at a horse's behind. The last thing I want is these ponies suspecting that I'm a pervert. I'm in enough trouble as it is. I felt myself leave the ground and sat onto a table of some kind. There were six ponies and that large lizard surrounding us. My friends were silent, Theresa was on the verge of tears, James was fuming, Phillip and Mike just bore blank expressions, and Ayden was still slumped over, unconscious. I knew he wouldn't last long. I felt the tape being torn from my face only to be interrupted by the purple pony in front of me. This one was different than the others. She had wings and a horn. She was lavender with an indigo mane and a magenta stripe running through the middle of it.
"Great job girls!" That voice... it was the one I heard a while ago. "To think that we only heard about all of you today and you just appear in my castle!" She sounded almost... excited, as if she had wanted to see us for herself. "Buuuuut, Starswirl did want me to report you all, so i better send him a letter that you're here."
"What'll happen to us after that?" Mike asked, "Nothing bad I hope."
"Well, tests might be run on you for a start, then they might ask you a lot of questions. Breaking and Entering however is a punishable crime here in Equestria, so you might have to do some community service."
"You're bluffing." James said, "We were only doing what we had to to survive. It's called survival of the fittest."
"I'm well aware of that theory, except you could've just asked us for help instead of breaking in and attempting to steal. I really don't want you all to be punished, but it's up to the higher up princesses to deal with crimes." She said sadly. I was getting more nervous than I was before. If we were put into custody, then Ayden would have no chance of survival.
"Wait a minute Twilight!" Pinkie to the rescue! "The one with the spiky hair in the front, his name is Notthatimportantatthemoment"
"That's an... oddly specific name..." She said looking over at me.
"Actually my name is Cameron... Cam for short."
"Cam! Don't tell them your name!" James hissed.
"Will you shut up James?! We're in enough trouble right now because of you." I hissed back. He rolled his eyes and left me alone. "Sorry about that."
"No worries... Cameron... anyways, what about him Pinkie?"
"He just seemed really nervous about something out in the hall..."
"That's because he got caught Pinkie Pie." Applejack commented, "A criminal always regrets their decisions once they are in trouble."
"Well that's partially true... I'm mostly worried about my unconscious friend right beside me."
"I'm sorry I knocked him out, but he would've run otherwise." The Rainbow one stated.
"No please you don't understand! He's hurt! Really hurt!" I actually felt tears forming in my eyes. It felt pathetic, but I couldn't help it if I was worried. The girls and the dragon took notice of this and they stopped glaring and just looked concerned. "He was terribly injured yesterday and we haven't been able to get anything to help him. I really didn't want to break in... none of us did... but if you do turn us in... he will die!" My tears are flowing down my cheeks. One of the other ones walked up to me with what looked like a box of tissues. This pony was a pegasus with a yellow coat and a long pink mane and tail. She gave off the vibe that she was shy, but regardless, she walked up to me and wiped my tears with the tissues. "Th-thank you." She nodded gave a small smile and backed away. "Please... help him. There must be a hospital somewhere?"
I saw the purple pony looked to the ground and finally she looked at me with a smile. "Applejack... let them go." The binds loosened and my friends and I were free. I heard Ayden moan again. "Cameron, you, your friend, Fluttershy and I will go to the hospital. I want everypony else to stay here and keep watch on the creatures. C'mon." I saw Ayden being lifted into mid air.
"Holy-" I shouted as I jumped back.
"Don't worry, it's just magic, it won't harm him in any way." She gave me a reassuring smile and walked out of the room with Ayden in the air behind her.
"I'll see you guys later." I gave them a nod and walked out of the room.
To get to the hospital, we had to walk through the town called Ponyville. There were some ponies in the street that glanced at me. I saw some with children pull them indoors, I saw a couple at a flower stand faint, and I saw one that just stared at me. I made a mental note to avoid that green one at all costs. We finally made it to a hospital in a small clearing at the edge of town. It was a white and brown building with a red and white cross, but it seemed more like a retirement home with the fancy little accents on the borders.
I held the doors open for the mares being the cursed gentleman I was. Seriously, I can't go one place without holding the door open for someone. They briefly thanked me and walked up to the reception desk. "We need to get this creature into the ER stat!" Twilight yelled.
"Of course Princess!" The receptionist pony said, running into the back. Wait... PRINCESS?! A little while later, some ponies dressed in white came out and put Ayden onto a stretcher. They rolled him deeper into the hospital, leaving me to hope that he would be alright.
Waiting is such a pain in the ass. I couldn't read any of the magazines due to the fact that although the ponies' language comes out as english, when written down it's completely different, neither Twilight nor Fluttershy had wanted to talk to me, and I had no idea if my friend was still alive or not. Well, the doctor hadn't come outside yet to tell us any news so he wouldn't be dead yet.
"I'm sorry." I heard a voice mumble.
"What?" Twilight spoke up.
"I shouldn't have scared you and your friends like that. I'm really sorry."
"Nono... we should've asked for help instead of breaking and entering."
"But it was because of me that-" I stuck up a finger to silence her. I was nervous that I did that to a princess, but she wouldn't have expected me to know that, so no harm in milking that situation.
"Let's just agree we were both in the wrong." I said smirking. She giggled.
"Sure. Let's just start over." I humbly nodded.
"Thank you by the way. You carried Ayden all the way here. It means a lot to me."
"Of course... I could tell you really cared for him... are you two?" I knew what she was asking.
"No. We... aren't a thing. I don't feel that way towards my gender."
"Oh... sorry. So what is he to you?" I sighed and sat back in my seat a little.
"He's my brother. Not by blood, but we act that way towards each other."
"How do you act like a sibling?" Fluttershy asked.
"W-well..." I thought about that. "We just goof off and treat each other like brothers, we get into arguments, overcome them, we don't judge each other. It's like you and your friends I'm guessing."
"From time to time we get into some trouble, but it's because we work together and use our strengths to each other's advantage."
"Well... we have some time... mind telling me a few stories?" And for the next four hours they told me about their lives. Twilight began as an introverted excelling student to the co-ruler of this world, and now she's the Princess of Friendship. Her responsibility is for her and her friends to solve friendship problems all over Equestria (their homeland as I learned.). Fluttershy told me about Rainbow Dash (That was the rainbow-maned pony's full name) and how it was because of her that she and her friends learned their special talents. It was actually very interesting hearing about their misadventures, challenges, and how they defeated their villains. They even reformed some of them, which I found not so surprising.
Finally, after four hours of waiting, a nurse with a white coat and a pink mane came out of the OR to give us the news. "Your friend will be fine. He woke up a little earlier but got rather frightened seeing the doctors and nurses, so we had to sedate him to keep his heart rate low."
"Thank you." I said bowing my head. "Could we go in to see him?"
"You may, but he'll be out for a few hours so you won't be able to talk. Hurry now, visiting hours end in a few minutes." She said walking back to the station. We entered the recovery room and saw him there. The wound was no longer yellow and had multiple stitches attached to it.
"I didn't realize he was hurt so badly." Twilight said getting closer to him.
"What could cause a wound like that?" Fluttershy asked.
"A gun." They cocked their heads at me. I thought for a second. "Do you have cannons here?"
"Yes actually, except they're antiques. There hasn't been a proper war in Equestria for a few decades now."
"Well think of a gun as a tiny, hand-held cannon, shooting a tiny ball of metal at the speed of sound."
"But... but that could kill anypony!"
"That's the point. Back on my world, guns are used every day to kill another human being just for different opinions or grudges. Sometimes they're used for no reason at all, or even suicide."
"Suicide?!" Fluttershy yelped. I saw Ayden jolt up at the sudden noise.
"Who?! What?! Where?! When?! How?!" He yelled. I ran over to him.
"Easy buddy! You okay?"
"Cam? Hey pal. I must've overslept, did I miss school?"
"Urm sort of?"
"What do you m- HOLY SHIT!" He backed against the head of the bed. Twilight and Fluttershy recoiled in shock.
"Whoa! Easy! It's okay they won't hurt you!"
"How do you know?"
"I'm here with them aren't I?"
"Fair point, tell me something the real Cam would know."
"You didn't hit puberty until age fifteen."
"That... that was our secret." He said blushing. The girls giggled. "Really dude you had to say that in front of the ladies?!"
"Relax! They'll keep it a secret! Right girls?"
"Cross My heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." They chanted doing a couple of movements with their hooves. Ayden and I both stared at them.
"What was that?" He asked.
"A pinkie promise." Fluttershy happily stated, "Don't you both have something like that?"
"Yeah except we spit on our hands and shake." He said spitting on his hand. Reluctantly, I spat on my own and shook his hand. The girls groaned in disgust.
"Oh come on, it's a guy thing!"
"Well, actually Applejack and Rainbow Dash do something similar, except their spit isn't as disgusting." Twilight said eyeing our hands.
"Eh, spit's spit." The nurse came back into the room and told us to leave.
"How long does he have to stay?"
"About a day or two."
"I'm gonna have to stay longer with the cabin fever I'm gonna have." He and I chuckled a bit at the terrible joke. "You'll come visit right?"
"Of course! I'd never leave you behind!" With that, the girls and I left the room.
"How are you feeling sir?" The nurse asked.
"A lot better now. Just call me Ayden. Thank you nurse erm..."
"Redheart. Nurse Redheart. I'm glad you're okay Ayden." She turned off the lights and Ayden went to sleep.
It was night by the time we had exited and I noticed how lit up the sky was. The stars swirled around making it appear like galaxies were visible. "Wow... you never get nights like this back on Earth. It's breathtaking."
"What are nights on Earth like?" Twilight asked.
"Boring." I bluntly stated. "Not enough stars, too much darkness and clouds. With all of the stars in the sky, I'd probably wake up thinking it was day."
"There are ponies that are nocturnal. They take the nightshift as guards. You'll probably notice that they will stand out a bit more than most ponies."
"I need to get back to my cottage and tuck all of my animals in. Goodnight Twilight. Goodnight Cam!"
"Sweet dreams Fluttershy." She flew off in the direction of the Everfree Forest where she told me her cottage was.
"Let's get back to the castle." I noticed Twilight looked really tired. It had been a long day after all. I would've offered to pick her up, but she was about my height and judging by how strong Rainbow and Applejack were, we humans are inferior. Instead I allowed her to put a forehoof around my shoulder so she could be better supported. She smiled a little at the gesture and we continued to the castle.
When we entered we heard a crash from the room my friends were being kept in. 'Oh No.' was my only thought. Twilight and I opened the door to find my friends wrestling with the ponies. "Excuse me?" I asked, they didn't stop. "HEY!" I yelled. They stopped and turned toward me. "What the hell is going on here?!"
"Have you all lost your damn minds?!" Twilight asked, surprising my friends and I. We all didn't think she would ever curse.
"I just found some weird tool in his knapsack," Rainbow pointed at James, "And I just wanted to know what it was. He threatened me and said he'd use it on my if we didn't let them go. So I took it and he just attacked me!" To keep everyone safe, I ran over to Rainbow Dash and took the gun out of her hoof. "HEY!"
"You don't know what you're messing with!" I yelled. I turned on the safety, as Theresa had taught me, and gave it to Twilight who only looked at it with a mixture of fear and interest. "That is a dangerous weapon you shouldn't have been messing with." I scolded. I then pointed at James, "As for you! If you are our leader, then you need to be the bigger man. Don't threaten what doesn't hurt you. Now.. I think we're all tired, so I say we go outside, set up the tents, and go to sleep."
"I have some spare guest rooms here. You're more than welcome to stay." I looked at James.
"F-fine." He mumbled.
"Thank you Twilight."
"I'll get Spike to help me get them ready for you all." She walked out and that left me and the others.
"On behalf of all of us, I'm sorry that we gave you all so much trouble."
"It is our fault darling," A white unicorn with a purple mane and tail said (I believe her name was Rarity.), "If we hadn't used brute force, maybe the fighting would not have occurred." She glared at Applejack and Rainbow who just sunk back and smiled sheepishly. "Well, I best be getting home. My sister might be awake and I don't want her to be sleeping during school tomorrow."
"Same here. I'll see y'all tomorrow." Applejack and Rarity left.
"Eh I might as well head out. Later dorks." Rainbow said flying out of the room.
"And I have work tomorrow!" Pinkie said cheerfully. She turned to me and gave me possibly the tightest hug ever. "Bye Cammy!" She hopped away with the smile still on her face.
"She's weird." Phillip said. "I like her."
"Okay guys, you're beds are ready. Have a goodnight sleep." She walked away to her room and we walked to ours.
"So how's Ayden doing?" Terri asked.
"He's alright. He'll spend one or two days in recovery but that's it."
"He got lucky if you ask me." James muttered. I ignored him.
"Well goodnight guys." Mike said as he entered his room. We all said goodnight as we entered our respectful bedrooms.
Meanwhile back on Earth... the circle was still glowing in the back of the cave. Then shadows appeared, accompanied by two purple, green, and red eyes and a long curved horn. It gave a hearty chuckle and looked around. In front of him was the corpse of a bald man and towards the end of the hall a man dressed in black was also dead. "Perfect." The shadow hummed, "A way back.". The shadow entered the hole and closed it off. Cutting off Earth from Equestria, King Sombra's Home.