“Brazil?” I exclaimed, “How in the world are we going to get to Brazil?”
“I’m taking it that’s pretty far away?” said Rainbow Dash.
“Uh, yeah it’s far! Brazil’s easily over four-thousand miles away from here!”
“Oh, so it’s like, really far.”
Rarity then stepped forward to give her input.
“Well, I would say we have two options. Option one, Twilight could attempt to teleport us there, but if we’re talking thousands of miles, that sort of distance would almost certainly make for a disaster. Plus, it would no-doubt expend all of Twilight’s mana, leaving us vulnerable upon arrival.”
“Not to mention, with that kind of distance, we probably wouldn’t even make it to Brazil in the first place!” Twilight interjected, “We’d most likely be scattered miles apart, with no way of getting back to each other.”
“Right, well obviously not that one then.” I chirped, “What’s option two?”
“We could use one of those.” Rarity replied, pointing behind me.
I turned around to see an aeroplane take off and ascend into the clouds.
“An aeroplane! Rarity, you’re a genius!” I cheered.
“No, she is not!” Twilight barked, making all six of us jump.
Choosing to say nothing, I gestured for Twilight to elaborate, whom strutted forward to assert herself further.
“Oh, I’m sorry, am I the only one here with a shred of foresight? Rarity has just very foolishly suggested that we waltz into a highly secured location, heavily populated by humans, to board a commercial transport where we would almost certainly get discovered, captured, and then goodness’ knows what would happen to us!”
“I... I see your point.” Rarity sighed.
“It was a good first draft though.” I added, trying to cheer her up.
“Pfft, if you consider what is essentially suicide, a good first draft, I sincerely worry about our outlook for the success of this mission.” Twilight mocked, rolling her eyes.
She was right though, it was a big risk to cross the fence, in fact I had literally just told them all not to. But given the new circumstances, we now somehow needed to get all the way to Brazil, I didn’t see any other way of going about it.
After racking my brains for a short while, an idea came to me.
“What if you were to use an invisibility spell? Then we could sneak onboard a plane without a hitch.” I proposed.
“It is still too dangerous, you said there were other humans on those aeroplanes, and I can’t keep a spell like that running for however long it would take us to reach this Brazil place.” Twilight replied.
Again, she was right; there would be well over a hundred people on an international flight like that. But then it hit me, those people couldn’t reach every area of the plane, there was one place that was unmonitored, and could safely contain the lot of us for the entire flight, without the risk of detection.
“How about the cargo hold?” I suggested.
“The what?” Rainbow Dash quizzed.
“The cargo hold, it’s an area down in the bottom of the aeroplane where people have all of their luggage stored, it’s completely sealed off from the passenger’s area, so no one can get in there after take-off.”
“Why do they seal it off?” Rarity asked.
“Because when the plane takes off and it reaches greater heights, there’s a pretty drastic change in pressure, along with a massive drop in temperature, so passengers are kept in a pressurised cabin, otherwise they’d potentially freeze, or suffocate. The cargo hold, however, doesn’t have or need such pressurisation because nobody’s in there, so it would be the perfect place to sneak in and stay hidden!”
Without hesitation, Twilight had already processed the information and quipped back at me with fake enthusiasm.
“Oh yes, wonderful. What a great idea Callum! So instead of suicide via human capture, we instead off ourselves with hypothermia and asphyxiation?”
Before I could think of an argument, Rainbow Dash stepped in.
“Hang on, egghead. You’re a unicorn, don’t you have a magic spell that can bypass all that stuff?”
Humming and nodding in agreement, I guessed Twilight must have had a plethora of spells up her sleeve that could help us out, and if the My Little Dashie event truly did happen, there was no doubt that Twilight had access to magic capable of manipulating the very weather; surely she had something to negate the change in air pressure.
Rarity then spoke up too, her confidence renewed.
“Oh, and what about that warmth spell you use during the winter months? What was it called again? Ah yes, Thermic Hide, that one would certainly sort out the temperature issue!”
Did Rarity just verbally give a spell a name? I lightly tilted my head to one side, puzzled. Did spells have names then? I thought they were just, well, spells! It seemed that there was a lot about Equestria that I still had to learn.
That also posed the question, how on Earth was Twilight able to remember all of them if they had individual names? Say what you will about the mare’s attitude, there was no questioning her intelligence, that was for sure.
“Heat is one thing, air pressure is another, and although there’s a spell for that, I’m not wasting my mana on such a risky endeavour. We’ll find another way to Brazil, we are not getting inside one of those flying metal death-traps!” Twilight growled.
{Well, looks like someone’s afraid of flying...} I mused.
“And since when did you become in charge?” Rainbow Dash challenged.
“Uh, since Princess Celestia said that I was in charge of this group, right before we came here!” the unicorn clapped back.
I admittedly almost chortled aloud at that, for as much as Twilight was being unreasonable, she at least had a point there, she was technically in charge. I realised there was a slight flaw in her argument, however.
“As much as you are in charge of your group, the Princess also said that I was your guide, and that you are to listen to me, and I say that if the majority of us vote to get on the aeroplane, then that is what we’ll do.” I said.
She was stunned for a few seconds, unable to come back at me. Princess Celestia had clearly ordered her to listen to me for guidance and instruction, and so she was at a dilemma; she didn’t want to listen to me, but she couldn’t disobey Celestia.
Her nose scrunched up and she gritted her teeth. She visibly grew more and more frustrated as she searched for a point to come back at me with; her cheeks and forehead began to ever slightly grow red as the mare desperately tried to find a justifiable way to go against the Princess’ orders, but alas, she could not find one.
“Ugh! Fine! But just know that if we die up there, I will not be held accountable!”
She turned around and began heading back to the woodland, I turned to face the others and gave a toothy smile, to which they giggled; the fact that I could win in a logical argument with Twilight, especially in her current state, had seemed to impress them, and honestly, knowing how intelligent and stubborn she was, I was impressed with myself too.
“So, when are we going to head over there?” Rainbow Dash asked, clearly eager for some action.
“I think it’s best that we make camp here and get a good night’s sleep. This is going to be quite the undertaking, so we’ll need to be well rested.” I said.
As much as the pegasus seemed quite disappointed with the decision, she accepted it with no complaint. Much like her, I was thirsty for a real adventure, but it was getting rather late into the afternoon now, it would be much more sensible to depart in the morning when we were all bright eyed and bushy tailed.
Walking over to Rarity, I inquired as to how the group’s portable camp worked exactly. Clearing her throat, she explained how the tents, sleeping bags, and pillows had all been magically altered. With just a touch of magic, they could be shrunk down to a mere fraction of their ordinary size. The tents were self-erecting too, meaning that all one needed to do was place them on the ground, tug a cord, and they would deploy themselves in seconds.
“Heh, erecting.” Rainbow Dash snickered.
“Inappropriate!” Rarity droned loudly, scowling.
Rolling her eyes, the white unicorn continued to explain how it was simple and handy to relocate the miniature tents to their desired spot, before expanding them back to their regular size. Reaching into her saddlebag, she retrieved one of the tents and offered to give me a live demonstration, to which I happily agreed to. She placed the tent onto the ground, which was currently no bigger than a DVD case, and then told me to tug on the small string that was attached to it. Following the instruction, the little thing unfolded and propped itself up, now only a little bigger than the size of a bowling ball. Other than its size, it hardly seemed any different to the various self-erecting tents that we humans had on Earth, it was a pale blue, with a dark grey trimming, nowhere near as colourful as I’d expected it to be. Rarity’s horn then lit up in a bright cerulean glow, and then the tent did the same; and then, it began to grow. It grew bigger and bigger until it was eventually the size of a car, to which it finally stopped. It may have been a simple tent, but the mere addition of a magical change in size had completely enthralled me, witnessing genuine unicorn magic before my very eyes blew me away; I was dead certain that I’d never tire of seeing it in action.
“Wow… That was, amazing!” I exclaimed.
“Pretty neat huh?” Rarity giggled.
“So, how do you shrink it again?” I asked.
“That’s the most bothersome part, as it requires somepony to manually fold the tent again, and these pesky things most certainly do not play ball. Oh and obviously you can’t shrink it back down without a unicorn present.” she explained.
“Yeah, we have tents just like that on Earth, albeit without the magic, and they’re a bloody nightmare to fold. You’ll be so close to having it put away and then it’ll suddenly spring back open and hit you in the face.”
“Oh at last, someone who understands!” Rarity laughed.
We chuckled about it for a moment, before the mare went digging into her bag to find the other tent. It was then that I heard something in the distance, and gestured for Rarity to stop for a second, putting a finger to my lips.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Sshh!”
“That isn’t very polite, you know?”
“Seriously, shush!” I commanded.
Realising that something was genuinely wrong, Rarity kept quiet and allowed me to cautiously listen out for danger, I tilted my head to one side, and soon enough I could hear it, the rumble of a nearby car’s engine.
“Shit…” I mumbled.
“What did you just sa-”
“We’ve got to hide, now!” I commanded, cutting Rarity off.
The other girls came rushing over to me, to which Twilight demanded to know what was going on.
“We’ve got company.” I stated.
“What!? But you told us it was safe!”
“Yeah, well that was before I realised you were going to summon a lightning bolt from the bloody heavens!”
“I had to cast that spell, or we wouldn’t know where the first shard is!”
“Look, that doesn’t matter now, we need to hide! There’s a car close by, and I’m willing to bet my damn life that someone’s come to investigate. So, can you cast a cloaking spell on us or something?”
“I can, but I won’t be able to sustain it for long, not with all seven of us. As I mentioned earlier, I think you’re resistant to magic, because it takes a lot of magic to manipulate you for some reason. Using the Pullie Portal on you took more mana than it did for both Rarity and Fluttershy combined!”
“Don’t you think you could have mentioned that a little sooner, Twilight?” I snapped.
“We don’t have time for this!” Applejack cried out.
She was right, we didn’t have the time. I told Twilight to just cloak the girls and the tent, meanwhile I would find somewhere to hide. At the end of the day, I had committed no crime, nor was I trespassing, (yet). So even if I got discovered by the authorities, the absolute worst-case scenario was that I would simply get questioned at the local police station, and then be let go. Then I could just find the girls again, and we could continue onwards.
So long as the girls didn’t get discovered, there was no major risk to me getting found.
“Are you sure?” Twilight asked.
“Yes, I’m sure. Take my bag, get by the tent, and cast the spell.”
Nodding, the girls headed over to the tent, all except Rainbow Dash.
“I’ll fly to the clouds, I can keep watch from above, and it’ll be less mana for Twilight to use.”
After receiving my nod of approval, the pegasus shot into the sky and disappeared in mere seconds. The car’s engine was much louder now, although I couldn’t see the vehicle itself just yet; with the area being a patch of woodland by the airport, it would take a while for whomever it was to reach this spot.
That was no reason to dally though, after giving my bag to Pinkie Pie, I looked around in search of a hiding place, and quickly picked one of the many oak trees dotted around, and decided it would be best to hide up high.
The sound of the car’s engine came to an abrupt halt, and following that was the slam of a door. Without a second to think, I shot up the tree like a caffeinated squirrel, I clambered all the way up to the point where the trunk began to split into other branches. I didn’t even bother to think about how high up I was, I didn’t have time to, I just hugged the highest branch that could still support my weight, and listened.
“The witness said the bolt struck right around here.” a man stated.
I slowly peeked out to see two police officers standing near the fence, one of them pointing to the point where Twilight used her spell. One of them was tall and slender, about six feet high with blonde hair. The other man was shorter with much darker hair, and he was a lot more plump; I could’ve sworn I had seen them from somewhere, but I just couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
“Well Danny, I’m not seeing any signs of scorched earth, nor damage to any of the surrounding foliage. Are you absolutely sure this is the spot?” the taller man spoke to the other.
“Yes, I’m positive! She said it was on the other side of the fence just at the edge of the woodland, not far from the flight tower. It should have struck right here.”
The shorter one, (presumably named Danny), stamped the ground with his foot to emphasise the point. The taller officer squatted down to impolitely match his height, indicating that they were no strangers to bantering with each other.
“Well it’s very clearly not here, is it?” he spoke.
“Maybe it was aliens.”
The tall one burst into a loud chuckle.
“Alright sure, if you say so.”
Despite brushing off the notion, Danny continued to theorise, clearly the more open minded of the two.
“Really, it could have been aliens! Just think about it, Nick. A massive lightning bolt strikes the ground, right by the airport, on a day when it’s not raining, followed by absolutely no signs of impact. Don’t you think that sounds sketchy? It might be like that War of the Worlds movie.” he mumbled.
“It seems more to me that this is nothing more than a false report. But if you happen to see any gargantuan tripods walking about, vaporising people and destroying civilisation as we know it, by all means, let me know.” the tall one replied dryly.
Ignoring the blunt assessment of this Nick fellow, Danny practically danced around his colleague with yet another bizarre theory.
“Hey, what if it’s like a Jedi mind trick from Star Wars? What if we’re being tricked into believing there are no aliens here, but in fact we’re surrounded by them? Or better yet, what if they’re using some kind of cloaking device?”
Sighing heavily, Nick shook his head with exasperation.
“Look, I’ll happily enjoy a sci-fi film as much as the next nerd, but keep the conspiracy theories to yourself until you find concrete evidence to them. As I previously stated, there’s no visible impact to the area, let alone damage to the foliage, so I’m calling this in as a false alarm. It was either a trick of the light, or someone’s decided to spice up their day with a woefully unfunny prank on the police whilst waiting for their flight.”
“You’ve got no imagination whatsoever, you know that Nicholas?” Danny muttered.
“I am more than capable of having an imagination, thank you, but I’m more inclined to properly do my job. Now, let’s call this in and head back to the station.”
Huffing, Danny gave a shrug and conceded.
“Fine, I was just hoping something interesting would be about. This place is duller than Sandford.”
“Well, Ifield needs the staff. I’m sure we’ll get posted back there eventually.”
“Hope so. Anyway, fancy doing something tonight after our shift?”
“What did you have in mind?” Nicholas asked.
“I don’t know, pub?”
The officers laughed, and then got back into their police car to inform their superiors over the radio that it was a false alarm; the car started up and the two of them eventually drove away, allowing me to let out a loud sigh of relief. Peering down at where the girls were, I noticed that they were still under the invisibility spell.
“Alright, it’s safe to come out now!” I called down.
“Are you sure?” Twilight’s voice hollered up to me.
“Positive!”
With a faint crackle, the tent reappeared, along with the girls, whom were all looking up at me. I began to climb back down, when the branch I was lying on begin to creak loudly.
“Ah. Bugger.” I muttered to myself.
I tried to slide myself backwards, which was when the entire branch cracked all the way down the middle, before snapping entirely.
“Shiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!!” I yelled as I fell to the ground below.
“OOF!” I cried as I hit a large branch on the way down.
“ARGH!” I shouted as yet another branch.
“GOD!” branch number three.
“EFFIN’!” branch number four.
“DAMMIT!” branch number five.
“YEEAHAHAHOOOW!!!!” I cried as a branch shot up between my legs and smacked me in the nuts.
I hit another several branches on the way down, thankfully reducing my velocity before finally smacking into the ground, causing mud to splatter all over me. The girls came rushing over to me in a panic, desperate to make sure I was okay. Meanwhile, I simply lay motionless as I simply processed the fact I’d just fallen from the top of a bloody tree, which needless to say, bloody hurt.
“Callum!?” Rarity cried out to me.
“Mmnnn...” I groaned, remaining motionless.
Suddenly I was grabbed by a pair of hooves and forcefully rolled over as Pinkie Pie seized me and basically tried to shake me back to life.
“CALLUM! TALK TO ME!” she bellowed.
“I’m alive! Get off me!” I wailed in response, lightly pushing her away.
She released me and bounced back, allowing me to properly sit upright and start dusting myself off.
“Dude, are you okay?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Anything broken?” Applejack added.
Finally summoning the strength to get to my feet, I gave myself a little shakedown and wiggled all my extremities, but despite the various spots of pain around my body, it didn’t seem like anything was actually damaged, except for a large bruise on my wrist that was already forming.
“I mean, that bloody hurt, but I think I’m all good.” I murmured.
“Are you sure? That was some fall, Sugarcube.”
“Yeah, I’m okay, really. I just really need to work on my landings.” I chuckled.
Rarity then came forward and began to fuss all over me.
“You’re not okay darling, just look at you! You look an absolute mess!” she whimpered.
Looking down at myself, I was indeed, a mess; my whole torso and face was coated in dirt, leaves, and bits of bark; it seemed I had hit the ground hard enough to partially merge with the very Earth. I started brushing myself down, to which Rarity all assisted in with her magic. She conjured up a telekinetic mass, and then reshaped it to take on the form of a feather duster, which then proceeded to lightly sweep at my back and shoulders; in all honesty, this barely made a difference in actually cleaning me up, but the magical aesthetic was certainly welcome.
“Well thankfully, nothing hard hit my face on the way down, so at least I’m still beautiful.” I joked.
“Still beautiful? Like you were to start with!” Rainbow Dash sneered.
“That’s bold talk, coming from you, have you seen a mirror lately?” I retorted, winking at her.
“Um, dude, I hate to break it to you, but even on my worst day, I’d still look better than you! Because let’s face it, you basically look like a monkey and a diamond dog had a hairless baby together!”
“Rainbow Dash!” Rarity gasped.
“Oh come on, Rare. I’m kidding, obviously! Callum here knows how to take a joke!”
I was indeed no stranger to banter, and playfully stuck my tongue out at the pegasus, and immediately regretted it as I ended up licking the bitter dirt on my face, I spat it out and shook my head in disgust. The lot of us laughed, even Twilight was unable to stifle a giggle; the only one unamused was Rarity, whom continued to brush me down.
“This is no laughing matter, you could be seriously hurt!”
She lifted my left arm at the wrist, accidentally making contact with the bruise, causing me to wince and recoil from her.
“You see? You’re in pain!” she said, prodding my wrist again.
“Ow! Yes, that tends to happen when one pokes a bloody bruise! And you’re not going to make it any better by poking it more, so stop that!” I complained, batting away her invasive hooves.
“But you’re absolutely sure there are no breaks?” Applejack queried.
“Yes, I’m sure. I’ve never broken a bone in my life, and I’m not planning on changing that fact any time soon. I’ve fallen from plenty of trees throughout my childhood, I like to climb. Now quit jabbing me, Rarity!”
Rare finally backed off, and I asked Pinkie for my bag back so I could use some of the bottled water to wash more of the mud off.
“Oh don’t waste your drinking water, there’s a small stream just over there!” Pinkie said.
She pointed to a more dense patch of woodland and I looked at her, puzzled.
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Just a hunch.” the pink mare replied, humming.
Curious as to whether Pinkie’s unfathomable ‘Pinkie Sense’ was effective on Earth, I headed over in search of this supposed stream. Rarity and Rainbow Dash accompanied me, while the others remained to set up the other tents.
Lo and behold, it turned out there was indeed a stream; never again would I doubt a Pinkie hunch. I bent down and started to wash all the dirt off my face and arms; I barely began when Rarity emitted a small shriek, I whipped around to see on Earth the matter was.
“You’re bleeding! Callum, your leg is bleeding!” Rarity bleated in a panic, prodding my right calf muscle.
As soon as her hoof made contact, a stinging pain shot into my leg, making me jump.
“Ow!” I yelped.
I turned my head and arched my back to get a look, and sure enough, there was a fair amount of blood smeared on the back of my right calf, along with a little rip in my jeans where a sharp bit of wood had torn it, along with the skin beneath.
“Sweet, let’s see it!” said Rainbow Dash, clearly possessing a morbid curiosity.
“Aww, I liked these jeans!” I grumbled.
“Oh forget the clothes, I can stitch that up! But your leg is bleeding!”
Rarity was about to jab at the injury again, to which I seized her wrist.
“If you poke me one more time, I may actually kill you.”
Nervously chuckling, Rarity backed off, allowing me to roll up my trouser leg and inspect the wound for myself. Applejack and Fluttershy arrived at the scene, alarmed after hearing Rarity’s scream.
“What’s going on?” AJ demanded to know.
“Well judging by Rarity’s reaction, it would seem I’ve been dismembered or something.” I deadpanned.
“Oh, you cheeky little... It just caught me off-guard, alright?” Rarity argued defensively.
She then pointed at my leg, tutting as she did so.
“As you can see, he’s hurt!”
“Hm, that’s actually pretty deep.” Applejack hummed.
“Think we should put some Oozima on it?” Rarity asked Fluttershy.
{Some Oozima? What the heck is Oozima?} I thought to myself.
Rainbow Dash came up to me and ogled at the wound, to which she gave an impressed whistle.
“Now that’s a cut! But I’ve had worse.”
“Oh spare me, you ain’t never had a cut that deep.” Applejack remarked.
“I have so! Remember when I broke my wing that one time? I crashed right into a rocky outcrop and ended up with a huge cut on my shoulder!” Rainbow Dash argued.
“You consider that puny little scratch a cut? That was nothing!”
“Was to!”
“Was not!”
I stood there chuckling as the two mares began to argue over the severity of Rainbow’s past injury; I then felt a stinging sensation on my cut as a hoof began to lightly dab at the cut.
“Rarity, for the last time…” I growled as I turned to face her.
But it was not Rarity, it was Fluttershy whom was inspecting the wound.
“Sorry if it hurts, but it’s really for the best if I take a look at this.” she quietly insisted.
“I appreciate that, but honestly, it’s fine. Just let me wash it myself, thanks.” I replied.
“Oh, um, alright... But I have some antiseptic wipes in my bag, can I recommend you use one of them? I’d hate for that to end up getting infected.”
Nodding my head in approval, she went off to fetch me one of the wipes while I finished cleaning myself up.
“You guys can go back to the tents, I won’t be long.” I encouraged to the others.
“You sure, Sugarcube?” Applejack asked.
“Absolutely, go on, bugger off.” I confirmed merrily.
They obeyed and left me in peace; it wasn’t that I didn’t like having the girls around, but I was just so uncomfortable with all of the attention I had suddenly been getting. The last time I had been genuinely injured, my brother had simply told me to man up and deal with it, and my mother had pretty much done the same. Now, I suddenly had a group of girls consistently around me, doting on me, and I wasn’t sure how to deal with that. I was sure that I would eventually get used to it, but for now, I just wanted to keep the girls at an arm’s length, at least when it came to my personal space.
While I washed the dirt away, I thought to myself more about the police officers from earlier; that Danny fellow had theorised that aliens were responsible for the lightning bolt, and it struck me that he was actually spot on. These girls came from another world, by literal definition, they were extra-terrestrial creatures; I had literally befriended aliens!
I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself over the thought, what a crazy and amazing life I’d signed myself up for...
When I was finished cleaning up to the best of my ability, I gave the leg wound a proper inspection. I had thought the girls had been overreacting at first, but it was admittedly quite deep; blood was still oozing out of it, but it otherwise wasn’t all that serious. As long as I made sure to bandage it, I was sure it would heal up in a good handful of days, especially with Fluttershy’s antiseptic wipes, and perhaps I’d let her use some of that stuff Rarity mentioned.
What was it called again? Oozie-something?
I looked up to the sky and noticed it was getting darker, dusk was here and the night would soon follow; I stood up and headed back over to the tents, or at least, where the tents should have been.
They were gone.
“Uh, guys? You there?” I asked out loud.
I listened and looked around, nothing.
And then at last, there was a small fizz of energy, as Applejack materialised a small distance away, it was as if she had come out of thin air. She smiled and beckoned for me to come over to her.
“Over here Sugarcube, we got the camp cloak working!”
She took a few steps back and quite literally faded out of existence again.
I walked over to where she had been, and started to feel a warmth radiating from the area in front of me, it was as though a fire was close by, I continued my approach and it grew warmer and warmer. Then without warning, everything in my vision briefly shimmered as I passed through some sort of invisible barrier; I rubbed my eyes and then witnessed the most incredible sight.
There were now three large tents before me, along with a campfire, (which certainly explained the warmth). The girls were all sat around it on big square pillows, with a seventh on the ground just for me.
“Wow...” I breathed.
“Pretty cool huh?” said Applejack.
“Come, sit!” Rarity sang, pointing to the spare pillow.
Shaking my head and grounding myself from my whizzing thoughts, I came and sat cross legged on the pillow, carefully making sure my bleeding calf wasn’t touching the ground as to not get it dirty again. It was then that a delicious, almost sickly sweet smell wafted into my nose, my mouth immediately began to salivate and I licked my lips.
“Do you have a sweet tooth, darling?” Rarity asked.
I nodded, to which the unicorn smiled merrily.
”Excellent! Because you, my dear, are about to taste marshmallows from another planet.”