Douglas shut the door slowly after what Twilight had said.
"She'll find me," he thought, "Can she do that?"
Douglas walked out of Twilight's house and was ambushed by a hail of confetti streamers. Douglas dropped to the ground and aimed his rifle in the direction of the party streamers. He aimed upwards and saw Pinkie standing in front of him.
"Sorry, did I scare you?" she asked sheepishly.
"No, I just have a habit of diving to the ground when attacked by confetti," Douglas said as he picked himself up, "Do you do that to every newcomer?"
"Only if I need to welcome them!" Pinkie exclaimed. She then dove behind a bush and returned with a box on her back. She handed it to Douglas who took it, a little unsure about what it was. He opened it up and inside was a cake with "welcome to Ponyville" written in pink icing. Douglas smiled a little.
"Aw, thanks."
"No problem."
"So the confetti, where did that come from?"
"Oh that's easy, I never leave home without my party cannon?"
"Party cannon?" Douglas asked. Pinkie wheeled out a massive pink cannon and stood proudly next to it. Douglas stood amazed by the weapon.
"That's a bloody twenty pounder," he said.
"Isn't it awesome?" Pinkie asked.
"Where the bloody hell did you get such level of armament?"
"I just got it one day," Pinkie said as she fired another round of streamers. Douglas was impressed, but he thought that it could do more.
"Pinkie, have you ever thought of improving the firepower?"
"What do you mean?"
"I think that if we try we can get a much bigger bang."
Pinkie's eyes lit up.
"So you want to make the party cannon even more awesome than it is?"
Douglas nodded and then followed up on what Pinkie was thinking.
"And I do believe that we should give my parents a nice surprise, just for fun."
Meanwhile by the river, Barry and Margret were sitting with Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash and the fillies. The two were telling the ponies about their life in Ireland and what happened to them that had them end up in Equrestria.
"So you were stuck by some sort of green lightning bolt?" Twilight asked.
"Yes, it was really unusual," Barry said, "I've never seen anything like it before."
"Kinda weird that it was green," Applejack said, "That sounds like something Princess Celestia would do by mistake."
"I don't think that the princess would do," Margret said as she massaged Scootaloo's wings. Scootaloo sat on her lap and sighed in relief.
"Thanks," she said. Margret smiled in reply.
"So is it true that our world is a cartoon in your world?" Rainbow Dash asked Barry.
"Yes, you guys are very famous in our world."
"How famous?" Rarity asked.
"There are entire conventions based around each of you, we've never been to one ourselves but we know that they are very good."
"I never knew that we were so famous," Fluttershy said.
"It's not all good," Margret said, "There's some nasty stuff with you guys."
The ponies all stared at Barry and Margret in suspicion. They both exchanged glances and then went back to the ponies.
"I don't think you'd want to know," Barry said as he read the expressions of the ponies. Apple Bloom tugged on his jacket.
"Are you sure we shouldn't know?" she asked.
"Yes, it's best for us all," Barry said as he tousled Apple Bloom's mane.
"No worries the party's here!" a yell came. The group looked up and saw Douglas and Pinkie approaching them, Douglas was pulling on a rope that was connected to the party cannon.
"Is that Douglas with Pinkie's party cannon?" Twilight said.
"What's he doing with it?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Ah don't remember the cannon being so big," Apple Bloom said.
Douglas and Pinkie wheeled the much bigger cannon up to the group and aimed it towards the distance.
"Pinkie, what did you do?" Twilight said as she looked at the massive cannon.
"Me and Douglas improved it," Pinkie said.
"How?"
"I added a nitroglycerin based charge rather than what Pinkie usually uses," Douglas said.
"Isn't that a little dangerous?" his dad asked. Douglas snorted in reply as he positioned the cannon.
"Science isn't about why, it's about why not!"
"Okay Douglas," Pinkie said, "Get ready to fire!"
Douglas took hold of the string that triggered the cannon and stood back, grinning as he got ready. The group all backed up wondering what was going to happen.
"FIRE THE CANNON!"
Douglas pulled on the string and a ball of compacted confetti shot out of the cannon with a thundering boom. Douglas watched as the cannonball flew over the river and into the forest, a distant and muffled crash signaled that the cannonball had hit something.
"Aww, it wasn't meant to do that," Pinkie said.
"No worries we'll find it and reload the cannon," Douglas said as he picked up his air rifle.
"You're going to try again?" Applejack asked.
"We both want to get a storm of confetti and we're not resting until we achieve our goal of biggest confetti blast ever."
"Come on Douglas!" Pinkie said from across the river. Douglas didn't know how she got over there but he crossed a small bridge and joined Pinkie. They both walked into the woods and set about their search of the confetti cannonball.
"So Douglas," Pinkie said, "Have you always had a special talent with stuff like my cannon?"
"Nah, I was just taught a few things by my uncle."
"What was your uncle like?"
Douglas rubbed the bandage on his head and sighed.
"I don't remember."
"Aww, it's okay. I'm sure that once we get the princess here she can send you and your parents home."
Douglas pulled Pinkie closer.
"I'm sure that until then we can be friends," he said.
"Aren't we already?" Pinkie retorted.
Douglas gave a small laugh and let Pinkie lead him through the woods, they almost gave up searching when Douglas spotted some sheared treetops. He took over leading when they came across something out of place, it was a wrecked car. A Ford Cosworth.
"Is that our car?"
Pinkie stood next to him as they viewed the wreckage.
"It looks really beat up."
"I know, I think that the lightning hit us while we were driving. Looks like the front of the car has been disintegrated."
Pinkie and Douglas walked up to the wreckage to examine the damage closer.
"Wow, there's pieces everywhere," Pinkie said as she looked at the metal shards on the ground.
"Shame there isn't anything worth taking," Douglas said.
"Maybe Twilight can study it once we tell her where it is," Pinkie said. Douglas nodded and looked on the ground, he had stepped on something that felt quite large. He lifted his foot up and saw a piece of jagged metal on the ground.
"Hello what's this?"
He picked up the piece of metal and examined it closely. It didn't seem much, a seven inch long piece of steel that seemed to curve near the point. Douglas held the metal like a knife and he then suddenly realized that he was missing just that. He opened up the car door and, using his Swiss army knife, cut off some seat leather and pulled out some wiring. Within just a few minutes Douglas had his own improvised knife.
"What did you make?" Pinkie asked him. Douglas slid the knife into a side pocket in his jeans.
"It's something that we call a 'shank'. It's like an improvised knife, very popular among prisoners in maximum security prisons."
"It's kind of scary looking."
"Most of the time they have rust on it but I guess I'll have to make do with this one without the rust," Douglas said, "Come on, lets find the cannonball.
Pinkie and Douglas wandered around the woods, following a mix of damage and animals who pointed them towards the direction of the cannonball's impact zone. After several minutes of weaving through bushes and trees Pinkie and Douglas came into an opening and saw the crater that was caused by the cannonball, sadly it was gone, confetti and streamers was all that remained.
"Well, looks like we're not putting out another shot," Douglas said. Pinkie huffed and turned around, Douglas knelt down next to the crater and tried to see how the impact made the cannonball explode.
"Douglas," Pinkie said. Douglas turned around and saw what had Pinkie sounding uneasy.
"Bloody hell."
The tree house where Douglas had slept the night before had been destroyed. Douglas stood dumbstruck as he looked up at the tree house. Almost nothing remained except for the floor and one of the walls, he shook his head and dragged Pinkie from the tree house.
"We have to tell them," she said.
"Bugger that, I'm not going to be held for blowing that thing up," Douglas replied.
"But-"
"But nothing, Pinkie. What we just discovered we never saw okay? Nothing happened that we know of."
Pinkie cringed but saw the knife in Douglas' pocket and decided to stay quiet, not wanting to see what Douglas could do with the 'shank'. Douglas led the way back to the others who were talking to another pony, this pony was purple with three flowers as a cutie mark.
"Who's this?" Douglas asked as he approached his parents.
"This is Cherilee," his dad said, "She's a teacher around here."
"Oh, nice to meet ya," Douglas said as he shook her hoof.
"No no, nice to meet you," Cherilee said, "I've always like to meet new folk, no matter who or what they are."
"So you're a teacher? What is it that you teach?"
"Well I came looking for something new for the students to learn but I've been having trouble lately."
"Oh, I have an idea," Margret said, "Why not let us teach your class."
"What?" Douglas and Barry said.
"It's a nice little idea, we help Cherilee out in her class and we can tell the kids about where we come from."
"Oh no," Douglas said, "I'm not allowing that, you'll say something stupid and make a fool out of us."
"When have I ever done that?" his mother asked.
"I don't remember any incident but I'm sure that by tomorrow I'll think of something."
"So can you do it?" Cherilee asked.
"Just me by myself?" Douglas asked.
"Oh yes, I'll only need one of you and I think that you're the most interesting."
"I was hoping that it would be me," Barry said.
"Too bad," Douglas said slyly, he then turned to Cherilee, "When do you want me to show up at the school?"
"We can go right now if you want to."
Douglas shrugged and rested his rifle on his shoulder.
"Alright then, let's go now. I've got nothing better to do."