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// Didn't Think this Through! 
// Story: Rebirth of Magic: Cold, Cold Heart 
// by JimmyHook19 
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I was soon on my way once more, ready for whatever might be coming my way. The place seemed to be nice once more, but what surprised me more was that the Palace of the Two Sisters seemed to now be within pegasus territory. Surely the unicorns would want such a monument to their own power and might incorporated into their own lands?

Or had they just forgotten that the place existed?

The latter is probably a lot more likely, given that this racially divided world seems to have forgotten that once members of all three tribes saved the world from destruction, only to fall back into their old prejudices and feelings about one another.

Is change truly possible under such circumstances? Or are we simply going to fall back and repeat the same mistakes as our forebears until the end of time? It was a sobering thought, I must admit. And one that made me determined to help to build a better future. I kinda knew Sprout's reputation as a punching bag in the main show and the catalyst of the tribes coming back together, but this time I wanted to help them come back together, not ignite a race war in the process!

Even if it seemed my actions had done that anyway. Which is why I had to hurry on my way.

This was where the map began to let me down. I fully understood that cartography of other lands seemingly was not very good despite us having planes (as presumably unicorns and pegasi would not take kindly to an earth pony aircraft flying through their airspace), and this meant our maps were pretty bad. The pegasus ones are probably better (as if they have internet they probably have satellites and a space program to get said satellites up into orbit), but I didn't have one. And this map was very unhelpful.

I studied it, with its questionable markings like 'possible swamp here' and 'death awaits here'. What a joke of a map. A toddler could have done better than this! How does 'death awaits' help anypony in any way?

The map also had no marking for north, or even a scale. I know old maps are often meant to be read with east at the top (this, incidentally, is the route of the word 'orientated', which means 'face the east'), but that wouldn't have made sense with this one. North equals top has been the standard for a very long time, and should stay that way as it's easy to read!

I pushed onwards through the dark lands, until I entered more sandy terrain. I was on a cold desert highway with the wind blowing through my mane, and I had to stop for the night as the wind was picking up, threatening a storm in the local area.

"There has to be a town around here somewhere," I said to myself as I pushed onwards. The darkness was refusing to yield anything useful, though, and it seemed at first my search was hopeless. But, after a long time on the move, I finally found what I was looking for.

A small town loomed out of the darkness, sitting there before me like a beacon of civilization in a landscape of barbarity and potential savagery. Here I could finally get a rest, something to eat, and hopefully get my bearings for heading away from this place and travelling into wherever Hitch was.

I walked down the street, noticing only a handful of pegasi outside. My disguise seemed to be holding, so I kept going, and eventually found a building helpfully labelled a tavern.

I opened the door and stepped inside- and there couldn't have been a greater contrast to before.

Inside, a great fire blazed in a massive fireplace. The landscape glowed with warmth on the brick and wood walls, covered with all sorts of unusual objects the owner had presumably collected. The tables were packed with ponies discussing things, and sharing drinks. Or three, depending on how many there were and what they were drinking. I only hoped pegasus ale was not stronger than what I was used to in the human world. I liked mine quite weak, so anything stronger and I'd probably be seriously drunk in no time.

But it seemed nice to stay in, and the alternative was wandering through the cold with a lack of a powerful light source. I chose to stay, and took a seat at a table with a number on it. Sitting in front was a digital display, and I took a look. It provided options for food and drink to order, and seemed to be much more advanced technologically than what the earth ponies had.

Which makes sense, given the pegasi have tech dominance in this timeline. I scrolled through the options, eventually settling on a chicken dish with two vegetables (what we would have called 'meat and two' back in the old world), and what looked like a rather light ale.

A few minutes later, the food was delivered with the drink, and my eyes noticed my colleagues were all eating meat as was I. So that answers the age old question bronies have over whether Equestrian ponies can eat meat. I dove into my food and drink as I clearly hadn't eaten properly in some time. I relaxed as the music flowed onwards and the warmth became a friendly place for me.

Unfortunately, my suspicions about the drink were rather correct. I hadn't realised it at first but pegasi brew their beer a lot stronger than earth ponies do, and as a result after a bit the world began to spin a bit. I can't remember a huge amount about the night as a result, but safe to say I remember something about falling over on some stairs and being pulled somewhere.

It was all very odd. Whomever would have guessed my first experience of being drunk would be as a pony, huh? Never again, that's all I say.

I woke up the next morning with a splitting headache, and lying on a bed in a room overlooking the street. The sun was up, and I groaned as I rolled out of bed and looked out. "That was rough," I groaned as I looked down. My eyes traced activity in the street, and to my surprise plenty of ponies were already on the move, getting on with frontier life. Did they mostly heard cattle out here? Or did they plant cash crops? I'll need to look into this more later on, or maybe ask Sunny when she's done talking to the pony over there. Seriously, how long has that conversation been going on?

I had to head downstairs to settle my tab, so I did. I stumbled down the stairs and stopped outside the door, then opened it and stepped through. The last thing I wanted was to pay for a new door. I was at the bar, and stopped at the pony cleaning some glasses.

"I'd like to settle my tab, please," I said.

"Sure, that'll be six and sixty," the bartender replied.

I placed some coins on the bar, and he picked them up. "Thank you for... hold on a minute. This isn't pegasus currency."

Wait, what?

He put the coins back. "These aren't pounds and pence. Those are earth pony coins. How exactly does a pegasus have earth pony coins on him?"

I gulped. I hadn't even considered the possibility that the three tribes had their own currencies. I was truly screwed. "Uhh, well, you see, I, erm, happened to find them and-"

Suddenly, somepony else pulled the bungie chords securing my disguise off, and it fell to the floor, along with the wings I had made. "Hey, what in the world?"

The entire tavern fell quiet, and the eyes all looked over in shock. And then somepony spoke up.

"That's no pegasus! He's an earth pony! Gulfstream was right! They are invading us!"

Well, shit. The band had seemingly anticipated chaos, as they started playing a jaunty, upright tune. But it didn't really fit what was going on, as suddenly objects began flying through the air. Glasses exploded on the floor, covering the ground with alcohol. This made it extremely slippery. Chairs roared through the air like missiles, slamming into objects and walls. I ran for it as best I could until my hoof got stuck on a patch of sticky ground, and I rolled out of the door and onto the floor.

"GO AWAY AND NEVER COME BACK, TINY BRAIN!" shouted one of the patrons.

I hauled myself to my feet and dashed off as quickly as I could. So, you think I have a tiny brain, huh? Well, they'd all be looking pretty silly a few weeks down the road. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I had escaped one crazy situation, but had soon blundered into another one, which wasn't much fun. How in the world was I going to navigate now?