//------------------------------// // Chapter 80: Ryan // Story: Forbidden Places // by Starscribe //------------------------------// Dear Journal, Haven't had the time to record one of these in a while, sorry about that. Turns out there's a lot to get down, and maybe not so much time to do it. Here goes. We've been in the castle for over a week now, between hospitals and guestrooms. At first we were basically prisoners, with guards waiting just outside the hospital so we couldn't escape. Things are different now, for the better. Princess Twilight was way more accommodating than most leaders would be on our side. She even let us make a trip down to the Bright Hawk to grab our stuff. We didn't fly it back, though. See, we kinda pissed off the ruling class of Canterlot. They think we're prisoners still, and they don't know about the Bright Hawk as far as we can tell. Best way to keep them from waiting to take 'justice' into their own hooves for that 'attack' on House Shimmer is to make sure they feel like we're getting it even worse from the princess. Given how much they fear her, this works out. Really it's just Vesper and Blake who have to worry long-term. I'm a changeling, good luck tracking me down. And Kaelynn was a prisoner, she didn't attack anyone. Maybe Blake will stay on Earth so that doesn't become a problem, but that's a long-odds maybe. I can tell how he feels about Vesper.  I'm not the same kind of changeling I was before, and there are some differences. Kept the changing, kept being able to read and feed on feelings. But I don't have to anymore. I can just eat. Have to sleep too, probably the worst part of this whole transformation. Goodbye eight extra hours in the day. Probably why I haven't recorded these as often. Worth the trade to get Kaelynn back. She's still recovering from her time as a hostage. It feels like she's told me the truth about what happened to her. It wasn't as terrible as it would have become, given enough time. But Morningtide was trying to break her down, and even a week of that leaves scars. She doesn't like being alone, there's this constant fear around her now like she'll be taken all over again. I even went with her when she visited Tellin in the castle's pond. She needs to spend time underwater, we learned that last time. I can keep her company if that means going under. Poor Tellin isn't a fan of me, probably doesn't think he'll ever get a girlfriend now. But lucky for him, there's apparently more of his kind out there. He's gonna need a lifetime of therapy after where he grew up, but that isn't something we can help with. Time for the last leg of our mission. It's everything we hoped it would be, maybe—take the pony team across to Earth, help them connect up with the humans on that side. Perfect! Or maybe terrifying. It would be one thing if it was downtown in a country we knew a little better. But nobody speaks the language, except Janet and Galena for some reason. So we're making first contact in a country we barely know, with a language we don't know, for an alien nation we don't know. I see no potential for issues here, none at all. This is exactly what we hoped for. It's just that most people don’t expect the pressure of a whole civilization to settle on their backs. We made videos about going places you weren't supposed to see. We entertained people with little history lessons while the audience wondered if Kaelynn and I would ever get together. Guess that story isn't going to end very well. There's all this development, but it happened while we couldn't keep giving them videos. Ah, whatever, they'll have to survive. Maybe with the whole crew we can shoot a dramatization of our time in Equestria. We spent the last few days talking over how we're going to make this happen. Blake doesn't have special forces friends, but he does have an officer friend who knows someone at the Pentagon. If that doesn't work, we're basically just gonna post our videos all over the internet and hope for the best. This Worldgate isn't really an American thing anyway. Poland will have control, and the EU in general. We have people in the other crew who might be able to get us the right numbers. But we can't exactly ask them right now, being in another universe and everything. Vesper's pretty confident in her decision to stay in Equestria. Blake isn't exactly thrilled, but I can't tell how Kaelynn feels. Before she got kidnapped, I think she was going to stay too. But now she has all these dark memories. She says she talks about wanting to help Janet meet back up with her family. Can't lie to me, I feel the fear underneath. I know how scared you are. Hopefully things get better. She did like the idea of sailing her little project back to Mount Aris, or somewhere else. That's the... only little snag in that math. Once we're south of the border, pirate assholes are waiting to kill us. The Bright Hawk really works better inside Equestria's safe territory. Maybe if we asked nicely enough, the Equestrians would help us repaint it, rebuild the old top deck. Griffon pirates can't be harassing every single ship, or they'd get themselves killed by now. But would they really wait months on the border to get revenge? We plan to never find out. And personally, I plan on following Kaelynn wherever she goes. We didn't go through that whole rescue just to lose her out in Poland somewhere. -Ryan Compared to sneaking past tour groups, squinting down at old maps, and occasionally dodging bits of collapsing rubble, Ryan preferred traveling with the Equestrian expedition. They moved at a plodding pace, with two bat cavers at the front to scout the route. More than once Blake had to step forward to argue with the pony team about what direction they would travel. The locals knew their own caves, but the way down to their destination was along a trail of connected passages the ponies really didn't want to use. That made perfect sense of course—if the path brought them any direction the locals actually used, they would've found it by now. "We'll have to reinforce the whole tunnel, Miss Dash," said the lead thestral, an older male named Subsonic. He spoke to the Equestrian expedition leader—not the princess herself, she was far too important for that. Apparently she had some close friends for a mission like this, two mares who everyone spoke to with respect and deference. Ryan lacked the historical context to understand what made them so respected—neither of them had dressed up particularly for the role, though at least they had brought a crate of clothing along with all the other supplies. Blake had the foresight to explain the importance of modesty in the world they would be visiting. They could only hope their companions wouldn't mind waiting a little past the designated rendezvous time, because such a careful trek into Canterlot Caverns meant that it would be late into the evening on the other side. Still, they eventually found the site. Ryan felt it before he saw it, as a wave of excitement passed through the Equestrian group. They soon crowded through the doorway, filling the ancient structure with its tile mosaics and marble pillars. "Ancient Unicornia construction," someone said. "So well preserved! I had no idea they made it this far west!" "This will rewrite everything we know about the antebellum migration," somepony else said. Ryan rolled his eyes, but didn't correct them. Sure, it looked obviously Roman to him, but maybe that was his own bias at work. Maybe the locals had another name. Or maybe they weren't different societies after all. We don't know how often travelers made it across. Some members of the group were more discerning, including the two the princess sent to lead it. They walked all the way over to the pool, staring down through the water at the portal's shimmering barrier. Ryan followed them over, while the other members of his group argued with the archeologists, or explained what they'd done on previous visits.  "You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" asked the earth pony, in an accent as thick as it was familiar. The blue pegasus nodded sharply, touching one hoof to the water's edge. "I saw something just like this with Starlight. Twenty bits says it's the same magic." "Twenty?" The mare raised her eyebrows. "Somepony's feeling lucky today." They finally noticed Ryan approaching, and turned to watch. It might be annoying to have to sleep every night the way he used to. But there was one benefit so great that Ryan would trade it again without even thinking: he no longer provoked disgust. The Equestrian ambassadors just smiled politely at him, as friendly as anyone. They weren't just forcing it either—even the archeologists, cave explorers, and assistants in the Equestrian expedition didn't seem afraid of him. "You've done this before, right?" asked the blue one—Rainbow Dash, her name was. "What's it like?" All around them, the expedition started setting up. They rolled in carts of strange machines, made with equal parts glowing crystals and other inscrutable magical mechanism. Their porters and cave-explorers helped with more mundane tasks, dragging out the old furniture into the cavern, or laying down tarps to protect the delicate tile under their hooves before setting up new furniture. In a few minutes, the darkness was transformed by bright crystal lights, glittering through the room. "It doesn't hurt. I did almost drown once, but that was when I had..." He reached to the side of his throat with one leg, touching cautiously. Okay, so he still had weird bug holes. He would need to be just as careful when they went through. "Just hold your breath. When the magic hits you, the first instinct is that you must be out in the open, but you're wrong. It's just as much water on that side as this one." "And get dressed before you cross," Blake added, from not far behind. He stood beside the crate of Equestrian clothes, now open. He selected a jacket and trousers from inside, levitating them on. "The Worldgate changes what you're wearing, and what you're carrying, but we never learned its limits." "Wet clothes again," Vesper groaned. Yet despite her voice, she still radiated anticipation. Even the one who didn't plan on living in the same world anymore was eager to see how this rendezvous would treat them. Admit it, you can't stand not being part of all the fame and fortune. You want to be interviewed, you want the book deal. You just want to keep flying when it's over. Maybe there were more complicated gender issues involved in that equation somewhere. Being a changeling made that so much simpler. "How do you ponies want to handle this?" the earth pony mare asked. Applejack, Ryan thought. "Do ya'll want us leading the way through, or do you want to check it for safety first. You're the experts here, so I reckon we follow your lead." "More waiting, great," Rainbow whispered, her wings slumping to either side. She pawed at the ground, like she was waiting for the starting pistol in a race. "You didn't have to volunteer that." Blake was the first one to get dressed. Ryan walked back to the crate, digging through it with his own magic. Convenient, though he suspected it came more sluggish to him than it had to the kirin. Being a changeling meant he could play with almost any of it, but none was "natural" to him either. Levitating more than one thing at a time took some concentration.  Kaelynn didn't have wings anymore, since her last trip into the water and out again. They'd lost her songbook somewhere in House Shimmer, which meant she had to improvise anytime she did magic. This time that meant she had a horn too, though clearly no understanding of how to use it. She dressed with her hooves, the same way the two Equestrians did. "It makes sense to send us ahead," Blake said confidently. "If things went to plan, there are as many as a dozen humans waiting just across this barrier. It would be best if they see us, instead of strangers." "Okay," Rainbow said. "You go on then. If you don’t come flying back across screaming in terror, we'll follow a few minutes after you."