//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8 Danger Is Our Middle Name 
// Story: WHY DO I HAVE HOOVES?! 
// by Cydon 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 8 Danger Is Our Middle Name


I return to the waking world to the clatter of pots and pans. "Ah darn it." I open our eyes and look around. Applebloom was sitting by the fire next to a pot that was lying on its side.

"What's up Applebloom?" I say before yawning. A glance out of the hole in the roof to the starry sky which tells me that the sun has yet to rise.

"Whuh? Oh hey Kevin I was just tryin to fix up some breakfast." Applebloom says as she struggles to lift the large pot that is almost as big as she is. I slowly stand up and stretch feeling a few things pop in the process, I wince in pain when I stretch the side the Manticore smacked. 

"Isn't it a little early to be up?" I ask as I carefully so as not to aggravate the bruise walk over to the filly and sit down next to her.

"Naw, Mac an Sis get up earlier than this to do their chores every mornin." She says lifting up one side of the pot.

"Need some help?"

"If'n ya please." I reach out and grab the other end of the pot with a hoof, we lift it up onto the stand Applebloom had set up earlier. 'Wait a second. How did I grab the pot without fingers?' I stare down at our hooves trying to solve the mystery. The blue appendage hovers in front of our face revealing no answers. *Ahem* I look up at Applebloom. "Since you're up ya mind helpin me cook some stew?"

I stare dumbly at her for a moment before realizing that she meant me. "Oh you mean me, sorry just used to Rainbow doing everything. What do you need?" 

"We need some more firewood to keep the fire goin could you get some?"

"On it." I salute Applebloom before trotting towards the door gently pulling it open in an attempt to keep it quiet for the still sleeping fillies. *SQUEeeeaaak!* I wince at the loud noise before trotting outside. Outside the walls of the castle and the comforting light of the campfire the dark forest is just as eerie as ever. A light fog rolls gently across the forest as I make my way down the steps. 'Okay I just need to get some wood for the fire nothing to worry about I mean Scootaloo went out last night with no problems so I'll be fine.' I trot over to a tree and feel about in the fog for some wood. 

After successfully stubbing our hoof into a few branches I manage to gather a decent pile of firewood. 'Nothing to it, now just to carry it all back.' I toss the wood onto our back and start off towards the castle. *Snap* I freeze mid step and slowly turn towards the trees behind us. Peering into the darkness of the forest I try to find the source of the twig snap and what I find kills any chance of a good mood today. 

A Manticore, but not just any Manticore it was the same Manticore from yesterday, its lip was no longer bleeding but its face was still bruised as it glared daggers into me with all the hatred it could muster. 'It must have spent all night climbing back up here.' The Manticore starts to growl menacingly. 'I'd applaud its persistence if it wasn't trying to eat us. Also hands but I should be more focused on running right about now.' Without further ado I spin around on our hooves and take off back towards the castle. The Manticore roars as it gives chase, I dodge left and right as it swipes at us with its massive clawed paws. "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" I scream like a girl as a massive paw knocks us into a tree.

*Groan* Still slightly dazed from the impact I hold our head and moan in pain, the Manticore takes its time walking over, getting mere inches from us before taking a big sniff, it sucks in our scent and grins wickedly. I shake the stars from our eyes as the Manticore readies its scorpion tail for the fatal blow. With adrenaline, and fear coursing through us I dodge to the side just in time causing the razor sharp barb to stab into the tree. The Manticore howls angrily as it thrashes its tail about in an attempt to free itself. Seeing my opportunity I run for the castle and burst into the entrance hall like a bat outta hell. "WAKE UP!"

The three Crusaders jump from their spots next to the fire and turn to look at us. "We are up! And why are you shouting?"

"MANTICORE!" I shout as I try to push several chunks of masonry in front of the door. The loud crack of splintering wood signals the Manticores freedom as I work even faster to barricade the door. The Crusaders move quickly to pack up their stuff managing to get the last of it back into their saddlebags just as the Manticore slams into the castle door. The door jars a little but holds as the Manticore continuously rams into the heavy door. Unfortunately for us time had taken its toll on the old oak frame and the Manticores persistence began to pay off as several cracks formed along it.

"We have to go deeper into the castle!" With the Manticore still attacking the door we sprint down a hallway in search of a safehaven. As the sound of flesh on wood faded into the distance we began to slow down, before long we began to tire from our run. "Anything yet?"

"No nothing, how long is this hallway?"

"I dunno but I hope we find something soon mah legs are too short for all this running." The castle shook beneath our hooves as the Manticore roared in triumph.

"It sounds like the Manticore got through the door, we have to hurry!" We continued to run until we came to an intersection. One side led up and the other side led down. 'Maybe we can find a small room to hide in if we go deeper.' "This way!" We trot down a flight of stairs and into a hallway lit by glowing green gemstones. The hallway continued for a short distance before the light from the gemstones cut off leaving the rest in pitch blackness.

"What is this place?"

"I don't know. But look at these glowing rocks!"

"ROOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRRRR!"

"No time! We have to find a place to hide!" I spot a small doorway and quickly rush over to yank it open. "This ones a broom closet!"

"Over here!" We all hurry over to Sweetie Belle and look inside the large double doors. The room through the doorway is huge, with multiple long wooden tables complete with benches and what appears to be a small back room.

"It looks like a cafeteria."

"There's some armor over there." Scootaloo said pointing to a black breastplate lying against the wall.

"If guards ate here then maybe there is a safe room." I trot over to the back room and hop over the low wall with the fillies right behind me. Metal cabinets line the lower walls with various cooking utensils strewn across the ceiling on hooks. A large brick fireplace sits at the back of the room the ashes long since grown cold.

The thud of the cafetorium doors slamming open fills my heart with fear as the sound of claws clacking across the old stone floors echoes across the room. 'Oh crap I should have known better than to go underground! Now theres nowhere left to run! What am I going to do now? We're all going to die down here and it's all my fault!' With one last look around the room I decided. 'I won't let these girls die, they're out here because of me so they're my responsibility.' "Girls, I want you three to hide in these cabinets until I say it's safe to come out." Applebloom and Sweetie Belle nod their heads fearfully as they pull open a cabinet door and climb inside.

"But what about you? Rainbow is too big to fit in one of these cabinets." 

"I'm going to distract it and lead it away so you guys will be safe."

"No! The Manticore will kill you!"

"If I don't we all die." Scootaloo sagged into our hooves as I picked her up and carried her over to the cabinet her friends were hiding in. "Take care of each other okay?" They nod and pull Scootaloo into the cabinet, I close the door and go over to the low wall separating the kitchen from the cafeteria. Carefully peering over the wall I spot the Manticore halfway between me and the doorway its head was next to the ground as it seemed to be taking large whiffs of air. 'Almost like a dog tracking a racoon.' And then it dawned on me, before it tried to stab me it got a big whiff of Rainbow's scent and now it was coming right to us. 'This persistent bastard is clever. But lets see if it can outwit a human.'

With the Manticore thoroughly distracted by its attempts at tracking I snuck over the wall and over to the armor Scootaloo had spotted earlier. Carefully so as not to alert the beast I try to slide it on, after a bit of struggling I manage to slide it over our wings and find two slots in the armor for them to slide through. 'Pegasus armor? Even better.' The armor was several sizes too big for our small frame but it would have to do. 'Okay i'm slightly less likely to die today, now what?'

The Manticore growled as it reached the low wall to the kitchens. 'No time for a plan A time to go straight to doing something stupid!' With as fearsome a warcry as I can muster from a female pegasus I charge the Manticore. The beast turns around and stares confused at the partially armored pony charging fearlessly at it. When we got close I jumped up towards its face hoping to slam into it with the metal chestpiece. The Manticore seeing the pony jump towards its ducks low to the ground. We fly over it and land on its back with a thud as the armor absorbs most of the impact, I get back to our hooves and grab hold of the beasts scorpion tail. First the pony had tried to jump on its face and now it was hanging onto its tail tightly, the Manticore swung its tail around violently in an attempt to remove the edible nuisance.

The Manticore swung us around and around back and forth left and right in its frantic attempts to shake us off. I held on tight but all of the spinning was making me dizzy, and I had to let go. We flew away from the Manticore crashing into a table and shattering it into pieces. The armor took most of the blow but in the process had been badly dented, fortunately because the armor was too big for us the dent was not enough to crush us inside of it. I slowly roll to our hooves as I try to shake off the dizziness of the impact. The Manticore stomped up to us still quite thoroughly pissed off, the beast stood over us glaring down with all the hate of a thousand suns. As I squirmed in the armor trying to get it off the Manticore raised both its front paws off the ground up and up until it was almost touching the ceiling. Then with a roar it brought its paws crashing down. The floor cracked from the blow as the black armor was flattened becoming nothing more than a pancake under the weight of the beast. The Manticore roared in triumph before looking down to see nopony? 

"Hey ugly! Looking for somepony?" I shouted from behind a nearby table I turned and tried bucking the table at the beast but instead only split it in two. 'Well that didn't work.' The Manticore roared and stomped forward creating more cracks in the floor as it walked. It continued to stare at us unaware of the cracking floor as its eyes were locked on us. 'Aha! I've got it! I just hope it works.' As the Manticore closed the distance I stood up on our hind legs, I looked down at the beast as it got within a few feet still stomping the floor heavily. With a smirk that Rainbow could be proud of I slammed our hooves down onto the floor with all the force I could muster. The spread wider spider webbing their way out away from our hooves and over to the Manticore who stopped with one final stomp of its paw.

The floor began to shift beneath us as bits of cracked floor started to fall away. The Manticore finally looked down and realized what was going on. It roared at us furiously one last time before leaping at us the floor giving way just as it lift off the ground. The beast slammed into us paws outstretched as the floor beneath our hooves gave way to our weight. "AHHHHHHHHHHH!" We tumbled as we fell into the dark abyss below our hooves flailing wildly in every direction. In my flailing I managed to strike the Manticore in the eye temporarily blinding it. The beast howled in pain as it continued to tumble end over end. As it covered its face with a paw I attempted to open our wings, the unruly appendages flapped about in the wind before finally spreading out fully and catching air slowing our descent like a parachute. From below a loud smack echoed as the Manticore found the bottom. As we glided down I kept our wings locked in place not wanting to risk our lives to my inexperience. 

We landed roughly jarring our legs but in one piece and not a pancake unlike the Manticore. I risk a glance at the remains and shudder before looking away, it was definitely dead. And so I stood there, panting from the fight and unsure what was next. 'I..I did it, I won, I'm alive.' "Ha. Haha. Hahaha! FUCK YEAH! TAKE THAT YOU MOTHER FUCKING MANTICORE ASSHAT! I BEAT YOU! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" My shout echoed around the dark cavern reminding me of my location. 'Now where the hell am I?' I hear some scuffling from above and look up at the hole n the ceiling.

"Kevin? Are ya alright down there?" Applebloom called from above.

"Nothing to worry about except it's dark and I can't get out of here."

"I got an idea hang on!" Scootaloo disappeared from the edge and returned a minute later a glowing gem in her mouth. "Camph!" She dropped the gem. I rushed over to it and managed to catch it in our forearms.

"Good idea Scoots!"

"Thanks! Can you see anything?"

"Hold on a sec!" I fiddled with the gem in our hooves for a bit. 'How am I supposed to hold this thing? Guess i'll just use our mouth.' With plenty of reluctance I put the gem in our mouth and bite down to hold it in place. Besides being really dusty the gemstone was flavorless. With my new light in mouth I set about exploring the cavern I found myself trapped in. 'I need to learn how to use these wings.' The cavern stretched out in a kind of oval shape, on one side a tunnel led off into the dark, on the other a set of stairs went up for a ways before being cut off by a collapsed roof. "I found a tunnel! I'm going to go check it out, you three stay safe until I get back!" 

"It's not like we're going to get into any trouble, in a ruined castle, alone... No promises!" With as good a smile as one can give while holding a glowing gemstone in ones teeth I shook our head and trotted towards the tunnel entrance. The opening was small, barely three feet across and not even five feet high. With a gulp I pushed into the darkness the pale green light lighting my path. I traveled like this for probably fifteen minutes as the tunnel slowly curved to the side until finally the tunnel opened back up into another chamber. The light from my gemstone shined out into the darkness pushing it back but not to the extent of the cavern.

Looking about the edges of the chamber I came upon a carving engraved into the old stone walls. The engravings while not quite stickponies were rather crude. 'Okay so this one here looks like a pony and he seems to be holding a rock these markings might mean light so a glowstone? This one shows the pony next to three carvings it presses something then a different one then the third. Then bip bop boom something happens, question is... what?' With no more clues popping out of the air I searched the rest of the cavern, on the far side of the room from where I came in three carvings each situated over a square stone button and an engraving. 

These carvings were carved with much greater care than the engraving from before, as they actually resembled real life ponies. The first carving was of a pegasus clad in armor resembling that of ancient Roman centurions, the pony stood steadfast with wings spread wide. The second carving was of a old unicorn, she wore a cloak and she looked down on her viewer with wizened eyes. The final carving was of an earth pony wearing a strange shirt and wide brimmed feather hat, below each carving the engravings read.

Always first through the storm, feel a pegasus might, be loyal and kind even in the darkest of night.

Creative and wise is the unicorn way, be generous with magic to light the way.

Brave and strong is the way of the earth, never second in bringing laughter and always honest at heart.

'What the hell does that mean? Okay lets recap the other engraving showed a pony touching three things in sequence and now these things have what? A message? A riddle? How am I going to figure this out?' "Pegasus. Unicorn. Earth pony." I move closer to the pegasus carving and take a closer look at the words. "Always first." I raise a hoof to the button. 'I hope this isn't a trap.' I squeeze our eyes shut and press the button it causes a series of clanks to sound from behind the rock face before falling silent once more. I open our eyes and look around, the button is pressed into the wall but other than that nothing has changed.

"Phew!" I rub a hoof across our brow in relief at not getting us killed. 'Why didn't anything happen though? Oh wait! I have to hit all three so which one next?' I move over to the remaining two engravings to read them again. "Creative and wise is the unicorn way, be generous with magic to light the way. Hmm. Brave and strong is the way of the earth, never second, ahah! Then that must mean the unicorn one. I hope." With slight hesitation I raise a hoof to the unicorn button. 'Here we go.' I press down on the button causing another series of clanks before they go silent again.

"And the last one." With a bit of confidence I depress the final button. The clanking reaches a crescendo as the entire cavern begins to grow brighter, small holes are revealed as small boulders are rolled away revealing the same glowing gemstones (albeit much larger.) as the ones up in the castle. As I was distracted by the lights I failed to notice as seams appeared around the unicorn carving, the seams grew until it revealed itself to be a stone door. As it  swung open I turned to see it just in time to get hit in the face.

"Oww! Kevin!" Rainbow shouted rubbing our muzzle with a hoof.

'Sorry! I got distracted.' As Rainbow finished rubbing our muzzle she looked around realizing we were not in the castle entrance hall. She opened our mouth to speak but I cut her off. 'Were in the castle underground and no we're not here on purpose that Manticore from yesterday showed up and boy was he angry.' 

"Bu-" 

'The CMC are fine and the Manticore won't be bothering anypony ever again.' 

"Uh okay then?" 

'Any questions?' 

"Just one. What's that?" She asked as she raised a hoof to point through the doorway and into another room. The room is about thirty feet in diameter and the ceiling stretches off into the darkness far beyond the light of the gemstones but the most interesting thing was a pedestal in the center of the room. Atop the pedestal was an amulet, it was silver in color and spiraled out from a center where it connected to an octagon shaped ring. 

'I don't know you think it's what we're looking for?'

Rainbow shrugged and grinned as she stared at it from across the room. "I dunno but it looks pretty cool to me."

'Well lets get it and go the girls are waiting and who knows what they might do alone.'

Rainbow cringed at the thought. "Good point, i'll hurry." Rainbow flew up to the pedestal, we carefully checked for traps and seeing none she picked up the amulet in out hooves. "Heh piece of cake." Suddenly the pressure plate the amulet had rested on lifted and the room began to rumble and shake. "Maybe not." The clanking began again as the door began to slowly close while large boulders began falling from the ceiling above.

'Get us out of here!'

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Rainbow took off for the door closing the distance quickly as it inched closer and closer shut.

'Were not gonna make it!'

"Oh yes we are!" As the door got barely wide enough for a pony Rainbow tucked in our wings as we flew through the opening just in the nick of time. We landed in a heap in the carving room as the door clanked shut behind us.

'Too close for comfort.' 

"Not *pant* a problem. *pant* " With the roof no longer coming down on us we trot over to the tunnel on the far side of the room.

'Remind me to never go on any adventures with you or anypony ever again.'

"Good luck with that something weird seems to happen in Ponyville every other week. And if I go you go. Now what happened this morning?" As we started off into the tunnel I began a detailed explanation of everything I went through while Rainbow slept through it all. By the time we reached the other side I had finished.

'So how did you manage to sleep through all of that anyway?'

"Just a heavy sleeper I guess." Rainbow grimaced at the sight of the Manticore before looking away. "Oh yeah, that's gross." With a flap of our wings we took to the air rising up to the hole in the floor and back into the cafeteria. We looked around the damaged lunchroom, tables and benches were broken across the room but what was really interesting was the array of medieval weaponry up next to the wall ranging from a catapult made from a pot, rubber tubing and wood scavenged from the tables, to a pike made from a kitchen knife tied to a piece of wood with a kitchen rag. Over in the corner of the room was a wooden 'castle' and I use that term lightly as it was made of two tables that were flipped onto their sides and pushed up against the wall, three knights guarded this castle with pots on their heads and makeshift crossbows in hoof as they watched the door to the cafeteria for intruders. "Girls!"

At Rainbows shout the three knights looked up from their fortress staring at us intently for less than a second. "RAINBOW DASH!" The orange knight zoomed up to us quickly grabbing hold of our foreleg in a tight hug.

"Heya squirt. What were you three up to?"

"Well first we tried to wait for you to get back but we got bored so we tried to play a game but then we heard a noise and Sweetie got scared so we made a castle to defend ourselves with from the scary monsters."

"How long ago was this?"

"Ah think it might ah been about ten minutes."

So you built all of this. in ten minutes?"

"I reckon so."

"Hey what's that?" Sweetie Belle squeaked as she ran out of the 'castle' and over to us. She took the amulet out from our hooves closely examining it from mere inches away. "It's just as pretty as the picture in Twilight's book."

"Wait Are you telling me we actually found the thing?"

"Mmhmm!" Sweetie hummed as she nodded vigorously. Before we could say anything more a loud growling came from the other side of the cafeteria door. The fillies tense up as they stared at the door deathly afraid of what may be beyond it.

"Quick hide!" Sweetie Belle grabbed us by the hoof and dragged us into their castle as the others ducked inside. Just as we got out of sight the door creaked open and the sound of several sets of hoofsteps entered.

"Ah told ya Twi ya shoulda ate somethin before we left now yer stomach's a grumblin louder than a Timber wolf."

"I know! I'm starving! But I couldn't waste time eating when Rainbow and the fillies could be in danger." 

"Honestly dear you could have at least made a sandwich to go." The eyes of the fillies hiding next to us lit up at the sound of their siblings. Rainbow peeked over the wall.

"Twilight? Rarity? AJ? What are you guys doing here?"

"Rainbow?" The fillies hopped the 'castle' wall and rushed over to their sisters quickly embracing them as Rainbow flew out of the small fortress with Scootaloo close behind. At the door to the cafeteria stood three ponies all shocked by our sudden appearance.

"Rarity!"

"Big sis!"

"Sweetie Belle?"

"Applebloom?" 

"Just what in tarnation were you doin out here? You told us you were goin camping not gallivantin through the Everfree!"

"Indeed I would like to know as well."

"Rainbow Dash you've got some explaining to do." Twilight said stomping over to us a small disapproving frown on her face.

"Look I know what this looks like but I can explain!"

"I'm listening."

"Well I..." Rainbow started before trailing off.

"It's our fault." Scootaloo said as she stepped in front of us head down.

"Scootaloo?" 

Applebloom left her sisters embrace to stand by her friend. "Yeah it's our fault we're all out here." 

Sweetie Belle let go of her sister to stand by her friends. "When I overheard Twilight talking about an amulet that could help Kevin get home I told the girls and we told Rainbow and Kevin."

Scootaloo stepped in front of her friends. "Rainbow wanted to go alone but we convinced her to let us go."

"We're sorry." They said in unison.

"Wait. You went looking for the Depellendam Anima Amulet?!"

"Yeah! And we found it too show her Sweetie." Sweetie Belle stepped forward with the amulet in hoof. Twilight picked it up with her magic bringing it in for a closer look.

"By Celestia! You really did find it!"

"YAY!" They cried in unison.

"But."

"But?" Applebloom asked.

"I'm afraid this amulet won't help Kevin get home."

"It won't?" Sweetie Belle squeaked.

"No, this amulet was said to rid a pony of evil spirits. This amulet while a wonderful find for archaeology won't help Kevin get back home any faster."

"So this was all a big waste of time? We risked our lives for nothing!?" The ponies gathered stepped back at my sudden outburst. Their fearful looks filled me with regret immediately but I was not done yet. 

"Kevin? You okay dude?" Rainbow whispered as she set back down on the ground sitting down on our rump.

"Okay? Okay!? No i'm not okay! I want to go home! I mean look at me! I was recently unwillingly sucked from my world and shoved into another body! Not only that but I changed species, and genders! Do you know how strange it is to go from an average human guy living his life to a pegasus girl?! It's freaking weird! At first I thought it was all just some sort of freaky dream and if I went to sleep I would wake up in my bed back home then I could go to work and laugh it off with my coworkers. But it's not! All of this, it's real, it's, all real." Twilight had slumped down as my tirade began but was now lying on the floor under the weight of my words. As the fillies cowered behind the two remaining mares who stood aghast at my frustrated rant.

"I'm sorry" Twilight said quietly.

"Now sugar it's not your fault."

"It is all my fault! Kevin would still be back on his world right now if it wasn't for me!" She shouted pounding her hooves onto the floor.

"That may be darling but you're doing everything you can to get him back are you not?"

"Of course!"

"Then cheer up. We'll never get anywhere if all you do is wallow in self pity." Rarity said as she helped Twilight back to her hooves before turning to us. "And you. Don't you think that just because you're trapped in a strange new world and body that you gain the right to yell at everypony here. I understand that this situation is very unorthodox but there is nothing we can do about it now. So I must ask that you apologize." Rarity glared at us hard causing the brave Rainbow the pony who stood down a hungry Manticore to flinch.

"I...I.. you're right Rarity. I'm sorry for venting on all of you especially you Twilight I know you're doing your best to help me get home and that you didn't mean for this to happen." Twilight perked up from her slouch to give us a smile.

"I promise you Kevin that I will get you home I just need a little more time."

"Thanks Twilight. That means a lot to me." 

Rainbow stirred from our sitting position standing up and stretching out our wings. "Well, i'm sick of this old castle lets go home."

"Indeed this dirty old place is ruining my mane. Twilight would you be a dear and take us home?"

"With pleasure." Twilight's placed the amulet in her saddlebags as her horn lit up growing brighter as the air filled with magic. "Stay close to me and hold still everypony." We shuffled close and waited for Twilight to finish. The glowing from her horn grew increasingly brighter and brighter until we had to cover our eyes with our hooves and then with a *pop* we looked around at the edge of the Everfree forest. "Phew! That takes a lot out of a mare. I'm going to go home and put this amulet away for safekeeping, goodnight girls!" 

"Yes we must be off as well it is getting late. Come along Sweetie!" Rarity sing songed as she trot towards town.

"Coming Rarity! Bye everypony!"

"Come along Applebloom we still have to talk about yer punishment fer goin into the Everfree, again." Applejack said with a very unamused look on her face.

"Ah sis! Do we have to?"

"Don't you backsass me let's go."

"Aww. Bye Rainbow, bye Kevin." Applejack trot off to Sweet Apple Acres a downtrodden Applebloom close behind.

"What about you Scoots? Need somepony to walk you home?" Rainbow asked turning to the last remaining filly.

"No, i'll be okay my house isn't that far from here."

"Okay then see ya later squirt." We took to the sky as the orange coated filly waved us off. We flew lazily back towards the cloudhouse seemingly in no hurry to arrive.

"Hey Kevin?"

'Hmm?'

"You know i'm not too good with all this emotional stuff but I just wanted to say that you can always talk to me if you need to vent, okay? I mean I opened up to you so it's only fair."

'Thanks for the offer Rainbow but I don't think I want to vent anymore tonight.'

"Oh." She muttered quietly. We flew on in silence landing softly at the doorstep of our cloud home. We opened the door to find Tank eagerly awaiting us. With a small smile for the airborne tortoise she prepared a bowl of lettuce for him which he ate happily. A growl from our stomach reminded us that we had yet to eat today so she grabbed an apple before heading upstairs to her bedroom. After eating the apple and tossing the core into a cloud bin she hopped up onto the bed. "Well, goodnight Kevin."

'G'night Rainbow. With a contented sigh Rainbow closed our eyes and fell into the realm of dreams. 'So, this is it. This is my life now, sharing a body with a pegasus mare in a strange new land. I hope Twilight figures out how to get me home soon. I don't know if I can live like this for much longer without snapping and hurting somepony again.'