As I looked up at the grey dawn sky, I thought about what the weather was like in Ponyville; no doubt Rainbow Dash had cleared all the clouds, leaving behind a brilliant blue sky.
I was standing outside the laboratory, enjoying what fresh air I could. Although it wasn't as fresh as the Equestrian air, I still took the time to savour it. It was certainly a hell of a lot better than being stuck in the stuffy lab all day.
It was day two of our three day wait, and I was bored. To John and I's dismay, Ace had mastered the PS3 within hours, and kicked our asses at everything we played, leading to me smashing the console in a fit of rage. He was right: I am a sore loser.
Having grown sick of the Xbox, there wasn't much else for me to do but watch the sky, and think about various things.
I did the latter a lot.
I thought about what I was going to do when I got back to Equestria, I thought about how John would cope with the sudden change of scenery, and I thought about what Ace would get up to. But it goes without saying that most of my thoughts were about how I was going to spend the rest of my life with Twilight.
I cursed myself for somehow losing the golden band I was going to give her when I proposed. It meant a lot to me, as it was the very embodiment of how I felt.
That, and it cost me a fortune.
The door to the laboratory opened with a creak as John stepped out into the cool morning air, followed closely by Ace.
Ace took a deep breath and smiled. "It's been a while since I've been out here," he said. "I get so caught up in my work, I don't usually find the time to take a break."
John laughed. "It's just good to be out of the lab," he replied. "Doc, you really gotta fix the air conditioning down there."
Ace opened his mouth to fire off a retort, but I spoke first. "So, what's the charge level at now?" I asked.
"Fifty-eight percent." Ace turned to face me. "It turned out the air conditioning was leeching a lot of power, so I turned it off. As a result, I was able to speed up the charging of the stabiliser... albeit at the cost of our personal comfort."
John narrowed his eyes, but said nothing.
"So we can hopefully go to Equestria tomorrow?" I said hopefully.
Ace nodded. "Provided the charge keeps up at its current rate, then I see no reason why not," he said, before snapping his fingers. "That reminds me, I need to go make sure Tiny has everything he needs. I don't want the widdle guy to go unprepared."
John and I looked at each other and shrugged as Ace ran back into the lab, the door slamming shut behind him. John took a seat next to me and coughed, joining me in gazing at the sky.
"So," he eventually said. "Are you excited about going back?"
"What do you think?" I grinned. "Fancy asking me that."
John chuckled. "All right, I get it, it was a stupid question." he paused for a moment. "So... um, what's Equestria like?"
"Equestria..." I sighed contentedly. "Equestria is, without a doubt, the most amazing place I have ever been to in my life."
"You haven't really told me much about it, to be fair," John said. "All you've told me is the story of how you got there. After all, I kind of want to know about the place I'll be moving to."
I smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, I did leave out some details, didn't I?" I ran a hand through my hair. "What do you want to know?"
"Well, I guess I should know more about Twilight and her friends, for a start." John said with a smile.
I nodded. "Get comfortable, then," I said. "There's a lot to tell." John put one leg over the other and leaned backwards expectedly, making a pyramid with his fingers. I rolled my eyes and cleared my throat. "Twilight Sparkle is the librarian in Ponyville, the town where she lives. She's a unicorn, meaning she can do magic; she's damn good at it, too. She studied magic under Princess Celestia, one of the two rulers of Equestria, but she cared more for studying than spending time with her fellow students."
John nodded, and I continued.
"One day, Twilight became convinced that an ancient enemy of Equestria was due to make a return. But when she told Celestia about it, the Princess instead sent her to Ponyville."
A puzzled looked appeared on John's face. "Really?" he asked. "You'd have thought that the Princess would do something about the fact an old enemy was going to be coming back."
"I'm getting to that," I replied. "Anyway, Twilight's job in Ponyville was to oversee the final preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. While doing so, she met five other mares: Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie."
"However, when the Celebration came around, Celestia was nowhere to be found. It was at this time when Nightmare Moon, the enemy I mentioned, made her appearance. She declared eternal night across Equestria and retreated to her old castle, while Twilight ran to the library in town to find a way to defeat her. It soon became apparent that the key to defeating Nightmare was by finding the Elements of Harmony."
"Elements of Harmony?" John laughed. "How cute."
"The Elements of Harmony are the most powerful weapon in Equestria," I replied. "They are capable of defeating foes with the power of friendship. The six elements are Kindness, Generosity, Loyalty, Laughter, Honesty and Magic. Twilight, as you can probably guess, represents the element of Magic."
"What about the other five elements?" John asked.
"Well, to cut a long story short, Twilight and the other five tracked Nightmare Moon to the castle. Along the way, they encountered many challenges which were a reflection of each element. For example, Fluttershy calming a manticore by removing a thorn from its paw proved that she was the embodiment of Kindness."
"Applejack is Honesty, Rarity is Generosity, Rainbow Dash is Loyalty and Pinkie Pie is Laughter. Together, they tracked Nightmare Moon down and defeated her. It turned out that Nightmare Moon was actually Princess Luna: Celestia's sister, and the other ruler of Equestria. She became the Nightmare after becoming jealous of ponies enjoying the day and sleeping through the night. Celestia raises and lowers the sun, and she raises and lowers the moon."
"Twilight realised that these five mares were indeed her friends, which is something that Celestia wanted her to discover," I said. "It turned out that Celestia knew about Nightmare's return, and knew that Twilight would be key to defeating her. But first..."
"She had to make some friends," John offered. "Right?"
I nodded. "Exactly. This all happened a couple of years ago, and they've been best friends ever since."
"I see," John replied, his hand on his chin. "Can you tell me about the other five now? Starting with... uh, Applejack."
"Applejack, like Pinkie Pie, is an ordinary 'Earth' pony. Earth ponies can't do magic or fly like pegasi can, but they make up for this with increased strength. Applejack runs her own farm, Sweet Apple Acres, which grows apples for consumption... and cider."
John's eyes lit up at the mention of 'cider,' and he licked his lips.
"Applejack's family consists of her grandmother Granny Smith, her brother Big Macintosh and her little sister Apple Bloom. Their parents – Temple Orange and Ariane Apple – passed away some years ago, and it's a subject which still pains her to talk about."
"I'll need to make sure I'm introduced to her first," John replied. "I could do with getting my hands on some cider. Continue, please."
"Rarity is a unicorn like Twilight. She's a fashion designer and runs her own shop, the Carousel Boutique. She is a very generous pony, and will often put her friends needs before those of her customers. She has a little sister named Sweetie Belle, who gets into all sorts of mischief with Apple Bloom and a pegasus filly named Scootaloo."
"Rainbow Dash is a pegasus. Pegasi are born to fly, and Dash is no exception. She is capable of flying at speeds so intense, she can produce a sonic rainboom; think of it as a sonic boom, but more colourful. She is fiercely loyal to her friends, and will do anything to help them... even if it means getting her hooves dirty."
John's eyes widened when I mentioned the Sonic Rainboom. "Holy crap," he muttered. "Now that is something I have to see."
"I'm sure she'll show you eventually," I replied. "Anyway, moving on, Fluttershy is also a pegasus. True to her name, she is rather timid, but she's the sweetest pony you could ever hope to meet. Unlike other pegasi, though, she doesn't care much for flying."
"She is extremely kind, especially to animals. She takes care of a lot of sick and injured creatures and cannot tolerate anyone hurting them. If the situation calls for it, she can shed her timid nature and become a force to be reckoned with. Hell, Twilight told me she stood up to a dragon once. A fucking dragon!"
John nodded slightly, a look of respect on his face.
"Finally, there's Pinkie Pie. She's the most... random... of Twilight's friends, but she's great nonetheless. She's a great laugh, and her parties are to die for. In fact, it was after one of her parties that Twilight and I first kissed." I smiled at the memory. "Pinkie is a bit erratic, but she's still a good friend; always there with a smile and a sympathetic ear. She doesn't let anything get her down, and if it does... well, she's very good at hiding it."
"They sound like a terrific bunch," he said. "I hope they'll eventually grow to accept Ace and I as friends."
"They will." I stood up and patted him on the shoulder. "After all, you're my friend. And if I trust you, so will they."
John stood up and smiled at me. "That's all I needed to hear." he stretched his arms, groaning as his joints popped. "Come on, let's go and see how Ace is getting on with the repairs to his PS3."
"Oh, fuck off," I grumbled, and walked into the laboratory.
***
Twilight kicked open the library door and threw herself onto the couch, starting at the ceiling and sighing wistfully.
"Maybe the Princesses are right," she muttered. "Maybe he isn't coming back, and that I should stop hoping." She thought for a moment, then slapped herself. "No, you stupid mare, don't say that! He is coming back... it'll just take a while. In the meantime, though, I guess I just pretend that I'm going to move on."
A smirk spread across her face as she contemplated her plan, but her face soon fell as other thoughts came to mind.
"Hmm, but what if the others try to set me up with somepony in the future?" she tapped her forehooves together. "No, I don't think so; they probably won't try that for a few months, as it would be rather insensitive of them to do it so soon."
A small sigh of relief escaped her lips.
"Right, so that's what I'll do." she giggled. "I'll put on the 'broken and forlorn mare' act in front of my friends, but behind closed doors... I'll be more hopeful than I've ever been."
In the darkness of the library, her giggles soon turned into laughter.
***
As John and I helped Ace load Tiny with various pieces of equipment, my attention was drawn to the robotic camera in the corner of the room. It was this camera that helped the doctor to explore Equestria while he was working on his stabiliser, and had taken all of the photos I was looking at earlier.
I thought back to the picture of Twilight, and sighed. She had been walking through Ponyville's market, oblivious to the strange device overhead; the fact the camera was disguised as a bird probably having something to do with that.
"So, Ace." I asked. "I've been wondering about those cameras of yours. What do you call them?"
"Oh, those little guys?" Ace strapped a box of construction materials to Tiny. "I call them BIRDs."
"Hmm, that makes sense," I replied. "Since they look like birds."
"I didn't call them 'birds,'" Ace replied, giving me a deadpan stare.
"But you just said they were birds." John shot back, a confused look etched on his face.
"No, I didn't call them birds," Ace said huffily.
"Well, if they're not birds, what the hell are they?" I asked gruffly.
"They're BIRDs," Ace said proudly, and maybe a little smugly. "It's an acronym; stands for 'Bionic Investigative Robot Devices.'"
"So..." John said sheepishly. "They are birds?"
"No, they're BIRDs," Ace replied, narrowing his eyes.
"That's what we said!" I snapped.
"No, you called them 'birds,'" Ace replied, sighing heavily. "When in fact they're supposed to be called 'BIRDs.'"
"I don't see the difference!" John yelled.
"Of course not!" Ace replied. "Your eyes are photo-receptors with natural lenses, designed to bend light into an image your brain can comprehend. You don't hear with your eyes, that'd just be silly."
We stood in silence for a while as we stared each other down, but eventually John and I gave up. We knew better than to get into an argument with a guy who probably knew several ways to kill us and not leave any evidence. And who had a giant robot tank as a pet.
"What's the charge level at?" I asked, trying to break the tension.
Ace glanced at the control panel. "Eighty-six percent," he said with a smile, before turning his head to look at John. "I knew that turning off the air conditioning would help!"
John stuck his tongue out at him while using a hand to fan his face in a sarcastic manner. Ace ignored him and looked back at me.
"So... tomorrow then?" I said. "We can try tomorrow?"
Ace nodded. "Hopefully," he said. "Although without any way of knowing exactly which universe we're going to, your chances are getting back to Equestria on the first attempt are miniscule."
"What about your notes?" I asked. "Since it was one of your portals which sent me to Equestria in the first place, surely you would have something lying around here somewhere?"
Ace shook his head. "My notes only recalled where the renegade portals opened," he replied. "In order to open a portal to Equestria, I would need something from that universe."
"Wait..." I thought for a moment, then reached around my neck and pulled out my pendant. "What about this, Ace? Twilight gave it to me before I ended up back here."
"Let me see that." Ace walked over with his hand held out, and I took the pendant off so he could hold it. "Incredible... this could be exactly what we are looking for! I'll need to run some tests on it to ascertain the energy readings, of course, but it should work."
"If it helps us, then go for it," I replied. "Just... be careful with it, please. That thing means more to me than you might think."
Ace nodded. "You have my word," he said, then walked over to one of his many machines. "All right, let's see what we've got here..."
He began muttering to himself about various scientific things, all of which flew right over my head, so I sat down next to John.
"Well then," I said. "I hope that Lady Luck is in a good mood tomorrow, because if I have to wait three more days I'm probably going to kill myself and see if that works."
John looked at me blankly and sighed. "It'll work, Geo," he said reassuringly. "It has to work."
"Why?" I asked, looking at him with a blank stare of my own.
"Because you want it to work. You want it to work more than anything else in the entire. Fucking. World." he prodded me in the chest with each of the last three words.
"Yeah, mate, you're right," I replied. "Why the fuck am I being so pessimistic about this? It's going to work."
"Atta boy." John nodded. "Now, you keep telling yourself that."
"It'll work," I said, looking up at the ceiling and raising both arms above my head. "It'll work, because I say that it'll work!" I shouted. "Nothing will stop me from getting back to Equestria."
I slammed my fists down against my sides.
"NOTHING."
"There's that optimism!" John said cheerfully.
I looked at the control panel, which was saying ninety percent, and a smile spread across my face.
"I guess you could say that tomorrow is the day of reckoning," I said. "And I reckon that by the end of it..."
I looked towards John and then to Ace, who was watching one of his computers analysing my pendant.
"... I'll be snogging Twilight's face off."