While we were waiting for Twilight to regain her composure and come back downstairs I collected up the pens she had dropped, easily identifying mine. The rest, while good reproductions, were crudely made, most of them not even being made of a thick metal like mine is. Sorting through them I tried clicking them, most of them not even doing that. Finally, finding a piece of blank parchment I tried to write with them. All but one failed in someway or another, hell one of them somehow managed to burst into flames.
Rainbow Dash, who had taken it upon herself to attempt to explain to Big Mac what the joke was, had ignored my experimentations with the pens, probably finding it too boring.
“So what do you think?” Asked Twilight as she came down the stairs, still blushing.
“That one exploded, you owe me an eyebrow now.” I said pointing at the guilty pen. “And that’s the only one that works.” I said pointing at the shiny wooden pen sitting separate from all the others.
“Oh.” She said, looking disappointed.
“You should see the rest of my gear, a lot of it is much more advanced than just a simple pen. Heck, I don’t think you would even know what half of it would even do.”
“And you would be right.” she said, “Princess Luna asked me to look at everything you brought back and I couldn’t tell head from tails on most of it.”
“Wait, is that where my gear went, I’ve been wondering where it all went!” I said, looking around hoping to catch a glimpse of the familiar digital tans and organic browns that made up the DACU camo.
“Yeah, I got it all down stairs, follow me.” She said leading me to a door I hadn’t seen before.
At the bottom of the stairs a rather large room sat filled with various kinds of important looking machinery. In the middle of the room under a spotlight sat all of my gear, carefully laid out, with little tags, that reminded me of the toes tags they would use in a morgue.
“It’s good to see most of it survived the transition into this world.” I said as I picked up my trusty rifle, ensuring that it was clear.
“Yeah, thats one of the things I couldn’t quite figure out.” She said sheepishly as I used a trained hand to quickly disassemble it.
“I figured that, this is called a M-4, it’s a type of rifle, specifically a carbine. It’s a tool of death where I’m from.” I said quietly, grabbing a magazine from my assault vest I loaded it and asked, “Is there anything in this room you wouldn’t mind getting destroyed?”
She thought for a moment before levitating a couple of sacks of potatoes out from underneath the stairs.
“That’ll do, just set them in the corner.” I said as I took aim through the red dot sight. Stopping just before I fired, I grabbed my helmet and handed it to her.
“Put this on, and try to have the earmuffs on your ears as tightly as you can.” She merely nodded and pressed them into the side of her head.
Aiming again, I slowly exhaled, pausing at the natural low of my breath, squeezing the trigger.
“BLAM BLAM BLAM!”
The sack of potatoes exploded in a mist as I released a burst, the rounds hitting low from where I was aiming, but that was to be expected.
“What was that!?” Yelled Rainbow Dash as she zipped down the stairs, closely followed by Big Mac and Spike.
“Just demonstrating to Twilight that some of these, tools, should not be copied by your peaceful people who have no need for such dangerous things.” I said as I unloaded the rifle and ensured it was clear.
“So what do you want me to do with your...carbine?” She asked fearfully, looking at the destroyed potatoes.
“Do you have a sturdy safe?” I asked, when she nodded, I continued, “I want you to lock these up in one,” I said handing my rifle back to her and gesturing towards my pistol, "and lock these up in a separate safe that has a different key or combination." Handing her the magazines for both.
Looking back at the table I notice my pocket knife sitting on top on my hat. Instantly I grab it and open it with practiced ease, seeing it was no worse for wear.
“Is that a tool or weapon?” Asked Twilight warily.
“Neither, my dad gave me that knife just before I left for basic, that was also the only time I’ve heard him talk since Washington. All he told me was to make sure I came home safe.” I barely noticed the tear rolling down my face, thinking about how he would take my ‘death’.
Twilight, seeing me starting to slip into depression, pointed at a random object at the table and asked, “And what is this?”
Looking down I see her pointing at my radio. “That’s a radio, it allows communications between two or more distant points.”
“Oh like a megaphone, just smaller.” She said with a smile.
“Not quite, in this top part there is a speaker that generates the sound that the other radio hears. So in-between the two you would not be able to tell people where talking unless if you heard the noise from one of the radios itself.”
“Oh that would make it easier to talk to all my friends if they had one, just talk into the radio and they would all hear!” She said excitedly.
“Yeah but how much do you know about electricity and circuits?” I asked.
“Do you mean lightning bolts? You know, when rain clouds store up energy and release it suddenly?” Asked Rainbow Dash who was hovering behind me.
“Yes, exactly, just with much less power and more... control.” Surprised to see that the seemingly dim mare was actually knowledgeable about weather.
“Umm, as far as I know we don’t really harness the power of lightning for anything other helping with the production of rainbows.” Rainbow Dash added.
“And you're right.” Said Twilight, who also seemed surprised at her friends knowledge.
There was a crash upstairs, startling me.
“I got this.” Said Spike as he climbed the stairs, only to be nearly run over by Applejack running down the stairs.
“What in tarnation is goin’ on?” She half yelled at me.
“Umm, what?” I asked, clueless on what I had done now.
“The town is in an uproar looking for you because you bewitched mah brother and beat the tar out of Rainbow Dash and fillynapped her in plain daylight! The bewitched part ah’m half believin’ ‘cause they said you two were getting along with each other!”
“Oh, thats nothing.” I said with a smile, “We just had some ‘gentle’ nudging from a certain hostage, who by the way, is feeling much better now that Twilight used her magic on her. So, do I need to go turn myself into the lynch mob before or after they break out the pitchforks and torches.” I said with a chuckle.
“This ain’t no laughin’ matter!” She yelled loudly, gesturing towards the stairs, “They’re considerin’ kickin’ you outta town, fer GOOD!”
Sombering up, I add, “Well once they see that Rainbow Dash and Big Mac are okay surely they’ll see that they are overreactin’ and decide not to hang me?”
“You didn’t see how they reacted to Zecora did ya?” asked Rainbow Dash dryly.
“Maybe we should move that visit to Princess Luna up, stay out of town until they start actin’ sensibly again. Rainbow Dash, you mind finding the other ponies who want to come with us and bring them here please, the faster the better.” With a grin the blue pegasus snapped a sharp salute at me before streaking off in a rainbow blur.
“Can you, ugh, shoot what’s that word I’m lookin’ for....?” I said motioning at Twilight.
“Teleport?” She said helpfully.
“Yeah, can you do mass teleportations?” I asked.
“Ummm, yeah, let me get the scrolls for that.” She said as she also trotted upstairs.
Turning to the Apple siblings, “Can you two go make sure we have everything we need for the trip, all the luggage and extras, possibly some food and money?”
“Eeyup” said Big Mac.
They stood there for a moment or two, waiting on something, until Applejack nudged him in the ribs and gestured towards the stairs. Big Mac blushed as he left us alone in Twilight’s basement.
“You need me for something?” I asked.
“Ah don’ wanna know what you did to suddenly get along with him, but it’s good that ya did.” She said as she leaned up and kissed me on the cheek.
With that she left me standing, basking in the happy warmth that had flooded my heart.