//------------------------------// // BANG! // Story: An Extended Holiday // by Commander_Pensword //------------------------------// Extended Holiday Chp 18: BANG! Act 2 Excerpt from Journal of Matthew Washington Conner Year Zero December 7th, A date which means nothing here. A date that is like June second. Something, normal. Yet as I sit here, I cannot help but think of just what it means back home. A world so far away. Is this how one day Space colonies will be like? How a coloniest will feel when looking up at stars foreign to the sky that humanity has grown use to? Still, I cannot help but recall the past. I woke today, and after checking the battery on my Ipod, I used it for the first time since arriving, the battery is still full, thank god for that. I played something that was one of the first things I installed on it. President Roosevelt's speech. That led to a most wonderful conversation about home, duty, nation, and when to act and when to negotiate. I also copied off a calendar list of dates for me to remember when certain things happened in my nation’s history. I still am to this day amazed that the little white lies started by Taze, and kept going by Shawn and I, are still strong. I am still unsure if Luna really knows and is just playing along, or truly believes our story. Dreams cannot lie and I feel that Shawn, and Taze have both dreamt of home at least once. I am starting to worry about Shawn, it seems I am sleeping more and he less than I though, he goes to bed after me, and wakes before me. I have talked to Taze as well, from what I am gathering, he is getting less than four hours a day. From my memory of my mom, that is not healthy. I might write to the Castle to see if they have a means to help with insomnia. I spent most of the day inside. Also, while I was able to replace Pipsqueaks command hat. I was unable to catch DT and SS in the act of anything. Although it was fun to watch the children play, makes me remember my own times from Recess in Elementary School. Also, I am continuing my practicing of the Equestrian Alphabet. I am at the moment up to simple words, Cat, Dog, Luna, Celestia is the largest word I have memorized. Dinky has started diction with the words in hopes of teaching me how to say the words, I have an strange accent as the CMC tell me, but at least they are now understanding my words. I have slowly been turning the pendant on and off. Detention is now where I no longer have my pendant on. I just hope that I can learn the language in another year. December 14, Been busy this last week I have not written in my journal much, and yet still, I look out into the sky and see steel grey clouds, the weather has been cold, and the tent city we had first built is now becoming a small wooden fort, mainly my thinking, We are going into the Everfree sometime in the future and so I am preparing seeing what can and won’t work. So far the wooden walls idea will work. I have already drawn horrible rough sketches of eventually building within the walls towers for defensive and scouting purposes. I am also taking the outpost tower idea from Age of Empires two and have those built along what will be our first road to the castle. Projects are helping the ponies not get bored. The Blacksmiths are also building and testing out idea for forges and idea, though I do not know exactly what they are doing, Shawn is in charge of that side of logistics. I think we have started to buy the town out of parchment and ink. We did get a military shipment of supplies in yesterday. Thank Luna as they say in the Lunar Guard when we saw more parchment as well as winter gear, and warm clothing and heat stones powered by some type of magic. Just, imagine that, I have two small ones in my pockets now, and they won’t wear out for at least seven days once activated. Still, it is funny to see what folks think as a good house, already with Taze teaching some of the guards who want, and at least six volunteers from Ponyville, we have a lumber company, I have submitted the forms yesterday as well to form the New Mountain Lumber company with Silver Spear as company head, boy the paper work is actually easy, since technically the company is run by the Equestrian military, it is covered by some laws and not others. It also I think is a good way for Silver Spear to retire to. Still, his progress is improving and he likes the idea of running a company of soldier lumberjacks. Still, times are getting interesting and the city of Ponyville is having a smaller enclave? Suberb? Tiny Town? next to it. Still the commerce of what is turning into an Equestrian outpost since we have been here so long is helping the economy of the town, and will in the future as they will be the gateway to the forest and one of the largest construction project planned. Which reminds me, I shall write more later, right now, we are having a meeting in the Tavern’s basement with maps, books, and ponies to plan what I like to call. “Project History” Or as Pipsqueak calls it. Invasion of the Everfree. Still, won’t let any of the foals into the forest till those outposts are manned, and built. not in that order. Matthew smiled as he shut the book once the ink dried and smiled as he capped the inkwell and placed the quill pen in a protective case. He was the only one left in the room, as he wanted to write down some thoughts before the meeting, making another promise to write daily when in fact he had not been so diligent. He stood up from the desk and looked to the window as the words from a week ago was still ringing through his mind. “Another world, and one that has not, and I hope never knows the terror of a December seventh or Nine Eleven,” he muttered aloud as he looked to the sealed window. He picked up his officer cap for his uniform, with the addition of the Phoenix feather now, making him look in his mind a little more important. He  then  made his way down the stairs to the ground floor, into the kitchen area which was empty and through a door in the back that lead into a small hallway, he took a left and another left and down some stairs into the cellar. He then moved through the area where all the Tavern’s hard stuff was before entering an old disused room that was once a personal living area for helpers of the Tavern six generations ago. At the moment the rather large room now had a large table with a map of the everfree in it. Another map on the wall was of the immediate area, which had been done by request to the castle, in fact those map makers were at the moment staying in Fort Necessity as Matthew called it. They were now working for Lord Shawn. Matthew nodded to Moonshade, Taze, Shawn, Twilight, Black Rook, and Silver Spear who all looked up from the map of the Everfree forest on the table before looking back down they were planning the trip. Already Taze had widened the entrance of the forest in teaching them wood cutting, and the Apple Family taught them of stump removal. Over all the last couple of days since the seventh had been busy, very busy. It was at that moment a scroll appeared in front of Matthew with a pop before falling into his opened hand. He blinked and opened it and looked all gathered. “The next thirty five recruits that we have to reform into a fighting unit have had their timetable moved up, Luna and Celestia are sending them on the train tomorrow. Which is good we need more than just the twenty five who are working right now on improvements.” He smiled as he looked to Twilight and the Mayor. “Are you happy now that I built Fort Necessity with room for our entire outfit? We need to have more homes built but I think the thirty five can do that themselves let the seasoned vets teach them how we are running the camp.” Taze looked to Moonshade and Rook “When you two meet them at the station I want you to assess their current abilities, split the squads up and assign at least two of our current guards to three newbies, we can’t afford major routine work to be interupted now so there going to have to learn off each other, our dates set we’re not moving it now.” Taze replied as he moved next to Matthew who had moved to stand over the map on the table. Matthew nodded his head. “Now, so we know what the date is, what is it again? The twentieth?” They knew he was asking for confirmation. “That gives us a week to get them up to speed, trained on building wooden structures. We need to clear the forest around the castle, on this side of the ravine that has created Castle Plateau.” he smiled a little at how he got to named the plateau that the castle now stood upon. He pointed to the forest on the Ponyville side. “Fortunately for us, there’s no wildlife that close to the castle.” Taze said “The Timberwolves prefer to roam this area.” He circled an area with his finger on the map. “And the Manticore nest, farther west.” Matthew smiled. “How is your special team coming along? I would like to see if we can tame any Manticores for our forces.” He looked at the map. “We know changelings infiltrated the town once, so they might have put up a base of operations to observe us. I would say the ruins would make a nice outpost for them, if so, it could become a contested point if we face invasion again.” Matthew had read a little and from talking with Mutatio and Me-Me changelings liked ruins and deserted places. Made their work easier, and if a pony vanished, it was chalked up to the ruins and not changelings. “It’ll be contested at some point anyway.” Taze nodded to Twilight who approached with a large tome. “The royal records regarding Gryphon flights in Equestria.” Twilight explained “Yearly one flight uses the castle as a pitstop, the information is vague but it’s likely they’re mercenaries.” “We need to have a position of strength before that.” Taze said “Our first priority should be the primary defenses.” Matthew nodded his head. “We have once tomorrow is done, a platoon of sixty armed military ponies. Plus the two blacksmiths and their helpers, that adds to our numbers. Plus we are getting a dedicated Military blacksmith who was promoted from apprentice to become our dedicated main arms manufacture, with his new crew he picked. Each blacksmith squad as I want to call them consists of fifteen ponies. That is a total of forty five more blacksmith ponies with different training.” “Shawn, have You, Storm Hammer and Steel Weaver got the bridge base setup?” Taze asked. Shawn nodded. “Yeah, I finished the schematics for it awhile ago, and worked it out with them, the supplies and tools are ready so all we have to do is just set it up.” “And thats your groups priority then?” Taze asked. “Yeah. I made sure they knew what to do.” Shawn replied. Matthew looked at his friends. “We three are good leaders.” Matthew replied. “Now..” he pulled from his pocket. “As this path will become a main road. I have sketched this from memory.” he showed them a small outpost of just four posts with an enclosed platform with a fabric roof. “Outposts. That way we can raise concerns or pass messages quickly.” He pointed to the area Taze had indicated. “As well as a means to ward off and eventually deal with the Timberwolves population in the forest.” “My guards have made great strides with their bladework.” Taze nodded. “The outside help isn’t hurting things.” “Yeah if you don’t mind the fact that as soon as the others hear we’re getting taught footwork by a filly we’ll be a laughing stock.” Rook rolled his eye’s Matthew looked sideways. “Which Filly? I had Applebloom start work on a working concept in minature. I am calling this the Apple Outpost.” “Bladework requires graceful footwork, so I asked Scootaloo to give them some pointers.” Taze said “They were making leaps and bounds in these last four days.” Matthew looked at the others. “I dare to ask, but we may need to make them honorary members of this cololitian.” He muttered. “Anyone opposed to making the CMC logo some part of our military insignia?” Taze grinned “We do need morale captains.” he noted. Matthew grinned. “I shall see what their families will say. To this band of Everfree, the CMC logo will mean joy.” He nodded his head. “I still have my CMC cape.” He shook his head before moving to a wall map. “So… this is the plan for the first camp?” he asked. He looked to the left and saw the current map of the forest. The one he was in front of, to the right of the current map had a design, the forest around the old bridge had been cleared out to create a half circle with the Ravine. “Good size, gives a parade ground. THe Bridge I see as improves and wider. He smiled as he noticed something. “Is this a trail to the old quarry? How do we plan on draining it?” “Pegasus tornado, We plan on donating that water to Cloudsdale for snow, either that or ask the Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to help teleporting the water.” Twilight replied with a smile. “If that does not work.” Matthew asked only to see Twilight make a strange face as if realizing that she didn’t have a plan. Matthew didn’t even react. He turned to Taze. “You think you can buy any empty barrels from Berry Punch we can saw in half and use as buckets to pull the water out? Pegasus can fly in, drop them like those fire fighters and then lift them out.” Matthew grinned a little. “Plan C.” Taze nodded, looking to Shawn “And the deal is done with Sweet Apple Acres? Two weeks after we get there we start receiving supplies?” “Should be good to go. If you want I can check in again and make sure of their date.” Shawn replied. “Nah Applejack should be dependable.” Taze nodded. “So is there anything we’re missing in these plans?” Taze looked around. “Good, we are only doing this once.” Taze said. “It’ll cost way too many resources to move over seventy ponies next time, lets do this right.” Taze whistled as he approached Fluttershy’s cottage. He gave the door a gentle rap and waited patiently as he had done every day for the last four days. What he heard was Fluttershy actually trot to the door and he heard another sound, a yip like sound of a puppy. The door opened, rather the top half of the door opened and Fluttershy smiled as she stuck her head out a little. “Hello.” She replied with a grin. “I have to say he is doing much better, like to come in and let him get use to your scent?” She smiled as she saw Taze nod his head. “Okay, now…” She looked behind her and at Taze. “You might want to climb in over the bottom half of the door, I don’t want him getting out just yet. Also he is thankful for being rescued.” “Thanks Fluttershy” Taze said as he stepped inside. Upon entering the house he was immediately greeted by a wooden ball of energy. “Hey there little guy.” Taze smiled getting on his knees. Reaching into his back pocket he pulled out a small rod of cherry wood and offered it to the pup. Immediately the Timberwolf took it into his mouth and started chewing. “Has he been eating ok?” Taze asked gently rubbing behind his ear. “Oh yes, I have been using some of our local dog food that Applejack uses, with a little of my own extra additions, I suggest to let him hunt in the forest a little, but with your last few visits he is starting to view you as part of his pack.” She smiled as she started to walk to the door, “I’ll leave you two be, you might want to talk to him, remember no baby talk, and make sure that he knows you are the Alpha.” She smiled and hopped threw the door and glided towards some of the bird feeders around the building. “Got it.” Taze responded just as she was leaving. Turning to the wolf he continued to rub behind the ears, quite a few questions going through his head as he did. “How do you even feel that through the wood?” He wondered aloud. “So what am I gonna call you then? Can’t refer to you as little guy for your life. The wolf pup only tilted his head to the left and looked confused before he turned and returned to gnawing on the cherry wood. Making some cute sounds as he did so. “Hmm... Oakie?” Taze asked the pup. To his wonderment the wolf actually made look at him as if to ask with his eyes. ‘Really? You really want to use that?’ “Yeah thats pretty bad” He said with a dry chuckle. “Hmm… don’t really wanna call you something to do with the snow, and white fangs kinda cliche… lets see if Shawn were here he’d suggest something latin, lets see if I remember enough here… Sylva? Was that wood? Sylva Lupis?” he asked the pup. The pup blinked and yipped with a small noise before making a small puppy like howl. He looked up at Taze wagging his white wood tail quickly. He liked it before he turned around and attacked  the, how was the cherry wood he had brought was wet with slobber Taze wondered in confusion. Equestrian magical creatures were odd. “Ok Sylva Lupis it is” he smiled reaching to rub the pups ears again. something caught his attention, before the wolfs hide had seemed more like softwood, firm yet rough and with enough force it could be broken, but now it was smoother and hard, hard like cherry wood. “wait a minute, Fluttershy’s been feeding you dog food, that poles the only wood anyones given you in days, do you take traits from the different types of wood you can chew on?” Taze raised an eyebrow. Sylva stopped chewing to give him a confused stare. “Well now we’ll have to see if we can get you some stronger wood to chew on.” Taze smiled rubbing the pups back. “A hunter and a wolf, I think me and you are gonna get along great” The Pup only yipped before rolling around on the floor before turning around looking around. “No, don’t chew on that.” Taze yelped himself as he moved to pick up the puppy who seemed to want to test this new theory. The rest of the hours Taze was there was spent really trying to both train the Wolf not to eat the furniture, and, a quick trip outside in the starts of housebreaking the puppy. Shawn pointed down to the drawings below him. “Alright, so.” He pointed towards the base of the drawn bridge. “The supports are going to be the hardest, the crevasse around the castle could be shaped in any way, so we need to work on this, its a sort of adjustable design based off what we need, but we have a limited time to work on it.” “We can’t support it from beneath, the crevasse is too deep, it would drain our resources” Storm Hammer noted. “And it’s going to be too large for a rope bridge.” Shawn pointed again at the base. “As said, that's why we’re going with this, we have to adjust it to the sides of the crevasse, of course we need to know the basic shape first.” He leaned forward onto the table. “We can’t work much on it now in all honesty, but as long as we have the pre-built parts, we can throw it together easier.” He said, rotating his hand in a gesture. “And these parts need to go together without needing too much extra heat, the most we’d have available is unicorn welds.” Storm Hammer noted. “And most of our unicorns don’t have the power for real large scale welding.” One of the workers muttered under his breath. “I doubt Princess Celestia would lower herself to weld a bridge for us.” Shawn could tell he was a very young and new Apprentice to Storm Hammer. “Are we asking for her help in the project?” Shawn asked, turning towards the voice with a slight glare. The earth pony who had spoken turned and faced not just Shawn but the others. He lowered his head. “No,” he muttered softly. “I doubt we could even get a letter to her in time to even ask.” Shawn raised a brow, his eyes still squinted as he turned back towards the parchment. “I have ways of getting it there, but still, this is an assigned task, I doubt she would even have time in all honesty anyways.” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t want to bother her with something we can do, if we can’t do it, then we search for help, if we can’t get that, I would talk with her on the subject.” “Now be quiet lad.” Steel Weaver spoke up. “We’re smiths, born to work the fire and bend the steel, if there isn’t a way, then by Celestia we make a way, now quit your yammering and work dem bellows.” “Yes Steel Weaver.” Came the voice of the young apprentice. Turning fully to their work. Shawn shrugged. “Anyways, if you both don’t see any flaws, then we should be good to go.” He said rolling up the parchment and holding it out to Steel Weaver. “I trust the parts should be good to go by the time we head out?” “If I don’t have them packed and ready by tomorrow night I’ll be buying you a round” Steel Weaver responded. Storm Hammer rolled her eye’s. “I don’t know if we’ll have everything ready at that exact time, but we’ll have them ready before we move out.” She said grabbing her hammer. Matthew had once again found himself in Twilight’s basement. This time it was dealing with something else. He had delegated so well to not just his friends, but Moonshade, Silver Spear, and an up and coming Pegasus named Storm Front. That he was suddenly, with a lot of free time. So, he was doing something that he hoped would be long winded, easy to learn but long to master. He looked at a blown up map of the Kingdom of Equestria. He wanted something simple to start out on. Twilight and he were doing a mathematical moment. “So I move my army of eleven to Canterlot from Cloudsdale, and role for hits.” Matthew replied as he moved from the map and some chalk notations. Twilight nodded her head and picked up her group of dice. “Right, So, let’s roll.” Matthew smiled as they rolled dice, while Matthew did have the number advantage, his army of eleven vs her army of five, plus one alicorn princess. Which counted as one re roll per roll of any misses. Matthew smiled as he saw his army reduced to seven, and her reduced to four. He wanted something simple so he was going off Risk Rules, he would create values and items for any future sets that might expand to actually showcase pegasus, Unicorn, Earth, Griffon, Dragons, and even Alicorns. At the moment he was just going with factions of markers and alicorns. It was three more rolls that saw the fall of Canterlot to Matthew’s two remaining forces. The Alicorn marker was set off to the side, so that Twilight could place her again in three turns. The last couple of days had seen Matthew and Twilight pretty much be trapped inside her basement working on this. Not even Spike was in the know how. Yet he would learn later that he was placed on one of the founders list for the copyright. Still, in the end of fourteenth of December, Matthew, Twilight, and Spike all had played a final rough draft of the game. Next up, since the copyright was now firmly in Twilight and Spikes possession. They would mass test it with the troops once they reach Everfree. Matthew looked at the two others. “Well, I think, do you mind,” Twilight cut him off. “I’ll do final packaging, and have the five first drafts to the camp tomorrow for them to play.” Matthew smiled and bent down and signed his name on what was to be board number zero zero zero zero of the first Edition of Equestria Defense. Matthew did not like that name but it had come from compromises between he and Twilight. Matthew then had Twilight wrap up the board in paper and handed it to Matthew who nodded his head and turned to leave. “Now… for my first test group. Let’s see how Shawn, Taze, Moonshade, and Mutatio or Me-Me handle this game.” With that he started up the stairs and to the outside world. Already he knew one problem point, Cloudsdale may just have to be be re worked, but more testing would be required. After all, at the moment cloudsdale was attackable on all sides, and it could attack all sides. It will be interesting to see what happens. Taze stood behind the Punch Bowl, a few days back he had set up haybales with paper targets out back with Berry’s permission and he was actively using them for target practice both with his throwing blades and the pistol Shawn had given him. After regretfully leaving Sylva for the night he went to his nightly routine. in the morning he worked out, in the evening he worked on his aim. Sighting down the barrel with his arm outstretched Taze concentrated, picturing the site and where he wanted it to go. Taze had never been good with guns, not even the airsoft rifle his family had lying around the house, but he knew that all things come with practice. Inhaling a deep breath he exhaled and squeezed the trigger. The ball shot from the barrel with the usual puff of smoke and hit just inside the outer ring. “Damn.” Taze said, looking to one of the other targets, six throwing blades dug into it, three in the inner ring one just outside it and one in the center, why could he throw better than he could shoot? A few moments later Matthew rounded the corner and blinked as he looked at the range in the back. “Taze, you, you built that?” “If we’re gonna fight we need to practice.” Taze said throwing another blade at the other target.  It embedded itself again near the center. Matthew smiled a little. “Can I join? I might need to practice my throwing Knives skill.” Taze looked at Matthew. “Really? I thought you were good at all things military combat?” Matthew could see Taze was just teasing him a little, yet he decided to show how bad he was. He took the knife out, his KA-BAR actually, and threw it at an untouched paper target. It hit the target, hilt first before tumbled to the ground. Matthew then went through loading his own pistol, took a step back, steadied his stance, looked down the barrel, and fired. The metal ball went right through the center of his target. Matthew paused and blinked as he looked at his results. “I, that isn’t suppose to happen, these flintlocks historically were not that accurate.” He smiled. “Oh I forgot to yell that the range was hot.” Taze pointed to the surrounding fences. “Berry doesn’t let a lot of ponies back here” Taze explained. “So for now it’s not that big of a problem, and by the way.” Taze handed him a few blades. “The K-bar is great for combat but the handle throws off the motion, the less weight in the back means the more likely you are to hit with the front.”. Matthew nodded his head, and after watching Taze do two more moves, he tried again, only to have the blade smack the hay bale target sideways, and clattered to the ground. At that moment a few pegasi were in the air looking down but passed over the two humans throwing knives, Berry’s backyard was not in flames so it was all good. But Matthew and Taze did not know that. “Wonder what they were looking for?” It was here that the back door to the tavern flew open and Berry had, what looked to be a rather old fashioned Fire Extinguisher ready to use, and in fact, Taze’s upper body got a good shot of it on him before Berry realized it was just the two. “Oh, Sorry, I just thought the still blew up, again.” She smiled and turned around walking back into the Tavern. Matthew looked at Taze, to the haybales. Then back to the door, to Taze and smiled. “I, I think we may want to move locations.” “You got another location where we won’t have to worry about collateral damage?” Taze asked. “Back end of Sweet Apple Acres, that butts up against the Everfree Forest?” He looked at the yard. “I know this is good because of the empty space behind Berry, but I am not going to shoot around stills.” “Ok.” Taze said “Not like I was gonna hit the target anyway, maybe I should see about getting a long barrel.” Taze holstered his pistol, Rarity had been a little confused by the idea of a holster at first but eventually she had relented. Matthew nodded his head and put his back into his own holster which had fancy scroll work on the outside. He smiled as he looked around. “Let’s work on setting up the Range tomorrow, tonight, I have a game I want to test out on a group of five total.” “Yeah we can do that.” Taze said retrieving the blades from the targets and the ground. “Here.” Taze handed him the handle of his K-bar. Matthew smiled and took the blade from Taze. “Thank you.” “So where are we doing this game of yours?” Taze asked as he left his room, they had recently discovered they had use of not the one room, but the entire top floor and such Taze had moved to a free room to allow for more space. Currently he was wearing his bicorn hat from the snowball fight. Me-Me and Mutatio had taken the last room in the hallway so as to be protected, They had also brought in one more Thestral from Taze’s group to act as a permanent guard for the two incase any others attacked. Matthew and Moonshade had stayed with Shawn just because Matthew didn’t feel like moving, and he got screeched at by Shawn’s friend the Phoenix when he did try moving some of his stuff out of the room. Moonshade also was staying by Matthew’s side as an advisor. Matthew blinked and realized he had zoned out when Taze poked him and asked again. “One of the empty rooms. I had Mutatio and Me-Me move the beds and placed a table between them. As for what we are playing? That is a surprise.” He grinned as he patted the still wrapped parcel under his arm. “Come on, I think the others are waiting. He was wearing his Tricorn hat at the moment with one of Rarity’s camouflage designs she made right after the snowball fight. He looked down at his friend. “Also Rommel is joining us tonight, funny thing, the men in what is my squad seemed to be trying to adopt him as a squad mascot.” “Ok.” Taze said. “You got the snacks looked after?” Heavy footfalls began up the steps, with a glance down the hall Matthew and Taze were able to see it was Shawn walking up, placing his coat folded over his left arm. He looked over to see them both looking at him, all he did was raise a brow in a silent question of ‘what?’. “Game night.” Taze said Matthew smiled and patted the wrapped parcel that looked like a normal thick board game. “First Edition.” Taze sounded as Matthew knocked on the door and Moonshade opened it for the three humans to enter the room. “Now, We need more pony volunteers to take on a side. That way we have a full five player game.” He did not even finish before Moonshade raised a batwing. Matthew nodded and smiled at Me-Me raised a hoof. She then asked a question. “Will I be able to attack Mr. Name Caller?” she asked looking right at Taze. Matthew only smiled and nodded his head. Once they were all inside he untied the bow around the parcel, unwrapped it and opened the unadorned box. “Everyone, and Pony, welcome to Equestrian Defenders.” He looked at Shawn and Taze, “Otherwise to us, known as Risk.” He smiled at the expressions on his friends faces. “This intrigues me.” Taze said tenting his fingers. Shawn could only smirk an evil smirk, one that promised he had a plan. Matthew sat down. “Right, now simple rules, quick and easy. See the numbers here, and how the colors go with the colored territories around Equestria. Those are Bonus Armies. Now, to get the armies you do get outside of those bonus, you take the total number of territories you own, divide by three, and that is your number of armies you can place, you cannot get less then three. Now, when you take a territory you get a card, once you match up either three unicorn, three pegasus, three earth, or one of each you can trade them here.” He pointed to one of the long edges of the board where numbers grew higher and higher. “Now, this is a test game, if you think it is broken, let me know.” Moonshade looked at the board which was a map of Equestria, with it divided up into smaller regions. “You think this up or did you have help?” Matthew smiled. “Help, see here,” He pointed to where the ocean was. There were three signatures in Equestrian. “This is the original Dev Team. Twilight, Spike, and myself. Now… shall we play a game?” “Tis war then.” Taze nodded excitedly. The three humans starred in a bit of shock at the rather bemused smirk that Moonshade had given. All five players looked down at the map and back up at Moonshade then back at the map, where Black, the player color she picked had dominated the entire map. Matthew pulled out his pocket watch. “I, Three hours?” he asked in shock before looking at Taze and Shawn. “I, Feel that this would be a record of shortest played conquest style games I have played.” He looked to his other friends. Shawn chuckled. “It’s been awhile since I’ve played, but hey, good way to get warmed up again.” He commented, leaning back in his chair, hands behind his head. “My first time playing.” Taze chuckled. “Not bad.” Matthew nodded his head, “Considering you had me on the ropes almost from the start.” Matthew replied. “Shall we play again tomorrow? I am planning to introduce Changelings as the next set of troops and expand to the badlands, I think this game actually went well, you all grasped what I hoped with the Alicorn piece. So, any suggestions of what the Changeling Queen could do?” He held a hand out before anyone spoke. “I am looking for her special talent other than Change once per combat or in defense move to act like any other remaining piece, SO if we have an Alicorn piece, she can become an Alicorn, a Griffon General, or Dragon Lord, those specials as well. But what would make the Queen unique?” “What about taking control of one attackers army for a set number of turns or something?” Taze asked looking at Meme. “You guys have that mind control magic from what we saw.” Me-Me only nodded her head agreeing to it. Matthew looked to each of the others in the room before writing down the idea. “Right. That shall be the power, We can discuss more armies later, and What do you say to us Expanding the Equestria board to be not just a stand alone, but also be able to expand to other areas? I doubt we will be expanding north on the map. Only ice and snow up there.” “You ever think about releasing this too the public?” Taze asked. “Well, yes, but I would rather have us get this worked out as a training game first, and then like how most tech in my world, it gets released into the civilian world.” Matthew responded with a chuckle. “But yes, I do plan to have this, well it was Twilight who is setting it up, but it will be a means for me to earn bits here in Equestria, not too much we think but I would become a rather… niche market of Military strategist.” He smiled a little, “Also, when I can figure out some way to restore batteries, I am going to be transposing the entire Axis and Allies game into Equestria.” He looked at the blank looks, two poker faces really, and the other three were blank expressions. “Uh, rather large epic board game that is set against one of the largest conflicts on our nations history.” “Well, looking at the moon I’d say we’re somewhere between late and very early.” Taze said looking outside. “Great game Matthew, and congratulations on your victory comrade” Taze smiled saluting moonshade. Moonshade returned with a Lunar Guard salute. Before leaving the room to start her nightly patrol of the hallway. Matthew yawned and nodding goodbye to his friends he left, only to have Taze follow him as he actually had to pause at the door and lean against the wall. “Shouldn’t have stayed up this late.” He went to his room, too tired this time to complain about Taze following him, but once Taze had made sure that Matthew was going to be fine, and then left. Matthew quickly changed into his sleep cloths and quickly settled into bed. He had already taken the potion he needed to keep his blood thinner than others, but still he was uneasy about it. He yawned and slowly crawled into bed and unlike the last few nights he was out like a light. Once his friend was asleep Taze stopped by Shawn at his desk and set his pistol down. “I may need some modifications.” He explained. Grabbing the pistol Shawn gave it a quick run down. “What do you have in mind?” “I had a bit of an obsession with the development of weapons when I was younger.” Taze said. “From what I remember of the gunpowder age, you could increase the accuracy of a flintlock with a longer barrel.” Shawn hummed in thought. “You can also do that by adding a notched spiral through it.” “Whatever works, I need to be more accurate, also seeing as it’s a one shot gun, maybe you could add a blade too it? stiletto or something?” Shawn sighed. “I’ll have to see what is available with what limited tools we have for the time being.” He said, about to pocket the flintlock pistol. “But as said, you might not get all these upgrades for awhile, we might not have the supplies, so if you want to hold onto it until then, tell me now.” “Could you at least add that spiral too the barrel first? Currently I’d have this thing pointed at a building and have a better chance of shooting the person behind me.” Taze noted. “I’ll have to see if we have the proper drill bits, might take some time though.” Shawn sighed. “That’s fair, I’ll make do with throwing knives.” Taze said. “Just figured I’d ask, nothing ventured nothing gained right?” Shawn only nodded in response. “Night Shawn, try to sleep tonight I get the eerie feeling something big is on the horizon for us.” Taze said before leaving the room. Shawn shrugged. “Never know. G’night.” He replied reaching for the parchment in one of the drawers. Matthew blinked as suddenly, to him the world stopped and he felt like he had awoken a little. He blinked before smirking a little as he saw where his dream was taking place. Currently he was dreaming of a movie set, mainly where Captain America was born. He turned around as he blinked and saw Luna looking around in a curious manner. “What manner of place is this?” She asked before stopping at the reveal of Captain America. “Who is he?” “A comic book character taken to the silver screen.” Matthew replied. “A hero in my eyes, the setting was World War Two, and,” he paused as Luna held up a wing. “I saw enough to get the gist of it, Your nation looking for a way to defeat a great evil, went to find and work on this. It succeeded it seems.” Matthew nodded. “However Hydra, the Evil Empire’s secret science branch, killed and destroyed any notes on this formula, Captain America is the only super soldier. What is interesting is that the serum took not just the body and expanded it. But also, the content of one’s heart.” Matthew stepped up to the capsule a little and touched it softly, almost reverently. “I was told by a very close friend that when they saw the movie, they said that Steve Rogers reminded them of me, only thing is, we don’t have this super soldier serum.” He did not see Luna looking sad behind his back before she composed herself when he turned around. “I, I want to thank you for letting me have this, brief moment of time where I could have my skills used to better a society for good, and be a standard of truth and justice.” Luna only nodded her head. “Thank you for being open and honest. You, have dreams that some may call troubling, but they are the dreams of one who has fought for life and to leave a mark.” She smiled and turned around. “I may have something, I worry that today is the first day I can visit even one of your groups dreams.” Matthew nodded his head as the dream slowly fractured around him. “That is interesting.” He saw her moving away from him even though they were standing still. “Good bye Luna, see you I hope at a later date.” Luna did not say anything until she was in her chambers. She magiced a scroll and inkwell before picking up a quill pen from her desk. “I, even with all of our science, we cannot keep something artificial pumping. What to do.” Across Ponyville the next day, not only had the snow melted but most of Ponyville awoke to a bang before rolling over. The only folks not going back were all housed in the Punch Bowl Tavern. Matthew was sleeping when he found himself not only waking up  to the sound of something but the noise catapulted him from the bed to a crouch by it as he looked around. “Status Report.” He called out as Moonshade was already at the window, she turned around a shocked look on her face. “I did not know an entire library could fly up in the air over the tops of all the roofs, I think it went taller than the Town Hall.” Moonshade spoke as Matthew walked to the window and looked out. “I, Library? Twilight's abode?” Matthew asked only to get a nod. “We might want to head over to see what happened. “Go get the others, and I shall get ready here. I think the Dress Uniform is best.” Taze groaned loudly as he hit the floor hard. “What in the feraligator was that?” his voice was muffled by the floor as he spoke. Taze slowly pulled himself off the ground. Leaving the room to see what the commotion was. He walked right out of his room as Moonshade walked out of Matthew’s room. She only smiled and pointed downstairs before moving to knock on Shawn’s door. Shawn was looking out the window at the time. “Well then…” He returned to working on something on his desk when he heard a knock on his door. “Meeting downstairs in five minutes, Matthew will be there to asses what to do.” Shawn heard the clip clop of the hooves on the wood as she moved to the Changelings room to also let them know. Fifteen minutes later all three Humans, two Changeling in guise, and one Thestral exited the tavern just as Applejack was walking towards the door whistling a calm and happy tune. Matthew was the first to speak as he waved to Applejack. “What happened? I woke to a bang and I was told that the library went, well right up into the air, what happened?” Matthew looked to the others in the group before looking back at Applejack, she could see real concern in his eyes. “Best I know,” Applejack responded. “Twilight received a letter from the princess about some kinda test and started well… being Twilight, Spike tried talkin some sense into her being that it was just a test and all, and next thing ya know, the library takes a jumper larger than a prize bull frog doing a long jump.” Matthew just raised an eyebrow. “A test, from Celestia, and, so, she is in Canterlot right now? And..” he paused and blinked. “Hold on… you, said Spike was talkin’ sense into her head. Were,” he paused and swallowed. “Were you in the library when it happened?” “Yeah.” AJ nodded. “We were there sugarcube, Twilight and Spike just left on the train, the rest of us well take a later one to offer moral support” “So no giant monster attacks, major earthquakes or other emergency that requires help?” Taze asked yawning. AJ shook her head. With a yawn Taze turned back inside. “Well, better get my stuff and start working out early today seeing as I’m already up.” With that he left. Matthew looked to the others. “I don’t know, something, feels funny.” he muttered. “Might be my own body, but, I will be at Fort Necessity if you need me. Going to see how,” he trailed off as a scroll appeared in a magical poof and landed on Matthew’s head before rolling forward and he caught it. “Uh… Royal letter with the seal of Celestia.” Mutatio who was pretending to be a Lime Green Unicorn only looked at Matthew. “How do you know?” “Because I looked at a book of royal seals that one of the guards had.” he looked to Moonshade. “You still up to meeting the new recruits today at noon?” Moonshade only nodded as Matthew broke open the seal and began to read the letter aloud. “Matthew, please read this aloud to your friends,” It started, Matthew and his friends chuckled at what was happening before he continued to read it. ‘Matthew, Shawn, and Taze, I am writing to you for a request. Today, I have been given a test, and with this, I am to travel to a once lost city, and I would like to request that you three come with. Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy have received a letter just like this with the same request. If you are to accept, please head to the train station at one thirty sharp, Rarity will give the tickets to each of you, depending on if you show up. I hope to see you all soon, as I feel you three could really use a break.                                         ~ Twilight Sparkle’ “Well then.” Shawn said aloud. “I’ll go get Taze…” He said, heading to where he saw Taze go. In his room Taze just finished sheathing his swords. Taking a long stretch he went to the door and opened it getting ready for his morning run. “Shawn?” He questioned upon seeing Shawn in the doorframe. “Stay ready, we’re headed out.” Shawn said, turning around and heading towards his room. “Okay, that was weird.” Taze said “Well I’m gonna just head for my run.” He called out. “Be back soon.” As he exited the room he saw Matthew entering into his room already rattling off items that he needed to pack for a trip. Moonshade only saluted as he turned around. “I want, you are in charge of the Recruits you’ve been around us long enough, you will know what we like to do for training, we should be back in a few days. Just, stay safe.” Moonshade only replied before smiling. “Also I found Rommel again, seems your troops have adopted him as a mascot.” Matthew only nodded his head, and again to her next question. “They are wondering if they can keep him as one.” “Also, let them take care of him while I am away,” he chuckled. “Free boarding.” Matthew looked to Taze and waved as he entered his room, and Taze down the stairs to run. “Well whatever it is seems like it’s going to be fun.” Taze told himself as he finally exited the door. “I should double check on sylva while I’m out.” He reminded himself of. An hour later Taze knocked on Fluttershy’s door. “Fluttershy you in?” he called. He then noticed a note addressed to him. Taze, I had to take Sylva to get some shots, and then I am placing him with a good friend while I am on an assignment with Twilight, I hope you are fine with this, and I will be covering his bills for these shots, so do not worry about paying me back.” “Huh” Taze shrugged before heading back to the inn. Matthew stood ready with of all things a metal framed rucksack on his back, wearing at the moment jungle camo, with his combat boots and the black beret. At his feet was another sack, one he had gotten from the supplies of the pony guard. He looked the most ready and he pulled out his pocket watch to look at it before looking around. He had arrived early and in fact gave a few orders to the troops before turning command formally over to Moonshade. Now, now he was standing and waiting for his three friends. The train to, well to their adventure was puffing and waiting. He looked again only to sigh. It was only one in the afternoon but it seemed he had always been different in that he liked to be early. Being over an hour early, was an interesting experience for Matthew. Taze looked around, a simple sack slung across his back carrying the few things he needed he couldn’t carry on him. “And so we hit the road again.” Taze said. “What adventure awaits us this time?” “No, Clue, but I packed for weather, ceremony, and tactical if needed.” Matthew replied with a smirk. “Still, this is going to be fun, we get to see someplace other than Canterlot and Ponyville, and to think, a lost city found again. Imagine the history, the events, items untouched by years.” “Things are about to get all timey wimey aren't they?” Taze chuckled. “I sure hope not, I like where I am.” Matthew muttered. “Besides, I packed my crossbow, lost city, I have more of a vibe of Indiana Jones then time travel.” He paused and smirked. “Besides, Tardis or H.G. Wells?” he asked with a laugh. “I’d have to say Tardis.” Taze noted “Wells time machine was too easy to sabotage.” Matthew looked at Taze. “Really, the book version was not sabotaged.” He chuckled and little and did a small visual cue as to remind Taze about his cover story of being from Pokke. “Remind me to tell you more about some of the different fictions from my world sometime.” “Your World? I thought it was the same.” He heard a voice call from behind him. “Well it sure does feel like a different world at times, even if the countries are on the same physical sphere, you cannot tell me that at times you feel like visiting another country is visiting another world.” Matthew shot back with a friendly ribbing before sneezing and almost right away winched. “Ow,” He shook his head. “Still hurts to sneeze even now.” “Can’t they find something for that?” Taze asked. “Gesundheit by the way.” Shawn said, walking up. Matthew nodded. “I wrote a letter and mailed it yesterday by way of Spike Mail to see what Canterlot can do in experimental medicine, so, who knows, maybe I will have an answer when we are back to Ponyville.” “All aboard Canterlot” the engineer called out. “Whelp that's us.” Taze said. “You need me to get that?” Taze asked pointing to Matthew’s bag on the ground. “Sure, just make sure it goes with me on the passenger coach, no way am I putting it on a baggage car, I like to keep my gear with me.” Matthew adjusted the pack and hide another winch. Today was not a good day he felt. It didn’t help he was bruising from the roll from bed due to a flying library, nor the fact that he had bumped his hip in the bathroom this morning. Still he was hiding it very well from his friends. He walked forward as Rarity was passing out tickets to her friends and then to Matthew who plucked it out of the air and boarded the train car. The conductor would punch the ticket later. Taze hoisted the bag with surprising ease. His time working out seemed to be doing him some good, though there was no real reason for the muscles to knit this fast. He raised an eyebrow but shrugged maybe it was all in his head. He followed after Matthew, getting Rarity to place the ticket in his bandolier. Shawn simply got his ticket with a thank you and followed the group in. Soon they settled in before Matthew realized something. “Don’t tell me, private car again?” he asked as he looked around. “Dang, you sure get to travel well, still anyone else unnerved by the fact that we have the car to ourselves?” Shawn shrugged. “Doesn’t bother me that much in all honesty.” Taze sat back. “Well if you gotta travel might as well be in style.” He laughed “Wait wait, we’re having what happen?” Shawn questioned Celestia. Celestia looked at the group. “Because the Crystal Empire is only now emerging, we feel it might not do well having you three showing up, as you are now. So, we might like to do some, tests for you. See how your body would handle changes.” Luna nodded as she stepped forward. “In Equestria, magic can be used to turn beings into other beings, now do not be freaked out, the caster will have a mental place to store the original form, so once you return from the Empire, you shall return to human form.” She turned to look at the three before blinking. “Is your friend alright? Did he stay up last night all night?” Shawn and Taze turned around and found Matthew leaning against a pillar dozing. Shawn was the one to answer by shaking his head. “No, he slept all the way here in the train.” Celestia only nodded to Luna, “Then,” Luna spoke, “Let’s see what happens if he is the first one?” She asked with a look Shawn and Taze recognized, it was one that Rainbow Dash got when she wanted to prank somepony. “Maybe you should make sure this doesn’t affect the heart first.” Taze suggested. “Yeah, I would rather not test his heart, as said, being startled awake by that? That would bring a rush.” Shawn said with a glance at Matthew. “Are you sure it will work fine with us in the first place?” He said, looking back to Celestia. “I understand that it has been tested before, but not on our kind, that and the fact of thaumaturgy, the magic field around us… I just can’t help but be worried something might happen, if it still needs testing, I’ll willingly go first.” Celestia only smiled. “We can both work on it.” She looked to Taze, “Do you wish to go first as well?” She looked to Luna. “You may take the Warrior as he was your responsibility when they first showed up. Luna only grinned as she slowly began to circle Taze like a Shark while Celestia did the same thing. In the back of the hall twilight was watching wide eyed at what was happening. “I know thou hast had time to study our citizen’s, which creature do you think you would fit?” Luna asked Taze with a smirk. She had an idea already but she wanted to ask first. Celestia only looked at Shawn neither one talking yet, it seemed something was going on between the two as if they were conversing by body language alone. Suddenly Shawn shrugged and Celestia’s horn started to glow. “In all honesty, a gryphon.” Taze answered. “Where I hail from, the lion is considered a symbol of power and ferocity well an eagle is considered the representation of foresight, if I am to be something, i’d prefer to be a mix of the two” Luna grinned and shot a look to Celestia’s advisor before looking to Taze, “A choice I felt you would have make.” She rolled her tongue a little at the words. “Most curious these words are.” She smiled before her horn glowed and Taze’s world was blocked by the color of Luna’s magic. To Shawn, his world was blocked by Celestia's magic as well as the magic around both started to cocoon and created an almost tangible shell around the two before the two shells started to do different things as it mixed with the magic already wrapped around Taze and Shawn. Taze felt nothing at first, but soon he felt an immense but not painful pressure on his body. The skin on his arms began to dry out and become scaly as his nails shifted into talons. His middle finger merged with his pointer finger as his thumb shifted to the back of his hand, it still felt like a thumb but the positioning was weird. He fell forward as his armor began to shift allowing for thin rugged fur to cover his body under his armor which seemed to adjust as his form changed thanks to luna's magic. His blades moved so they sat vertically side by side down his spine as two slits developed in his armor allowing two large eagle like wings to grow outward. his legs cracked and popped as the bone structure shifted forming larger lion back paws. His belt and bandolier shifting into packs that positioned themselves under where his wings folded. Finally his mouth and nose hardened pulling outward into a curved raptor beak as feathers covered his head. His hair and mustache receded into his body as a feline tufted tail grew out completing his shift. Shawns expression didn’t change at first, but soon his eyes widened as a jolt of energy shot off him causing decent discomfort, building steadily. ‘Something’s not right.’ He could hear Celestias voice in his head. ‘Your magic is attempting to defend you. Is this your doing?’ Shawns right hand raised and he grabbed his wrist with his left hand, more discharges sparking off him, it starting to sting. He twitched slightly as the shock went off again. ‘It’s starting to feel odd.’ Celestia looked at him, her spell still going on. ‘Should I stop? If it gets too bad you must tell me.’ ‘No, keep going, don’t stop, it worked for him, it will work.’ He replied as another discharge went off, causing him to wince. ‘Keep going.’ As the spell continued Celestia and the other could see the static discharges growing more often and the pain he was feeling more apparent, his expression didn’t show much but his eyes were wider, and they could see his eyes constantly shifting across, following the discharges. ‘Keep… Going...’ He fell to his knees and his left arm began to shift, the fingers merging together, but in the process his whole hand was covered in power, it shifting its form seemingly matching something as it shifted from an electric style to a golden flame around his arm. “Gah…” He called out, placing his hands on the floor in front of him. Celestia didn’t know if she wanted to continue or not, something was hurting him and his magic was lashing out around him, pulling in Celestia’s energy, now literally adding scorch marks to the floor where the now hoof was. “Keep. Going!” He called out through his grunts of pain. Celestia only followed what he said, trusting he would tell her if it was too much, he did stand up to death three times. The hair on his arms began to grow out, covering his arm, now turned hoof as his body shifted, and turned a peach like color. The golden flame surrounded more of him, making him brighter by the second. His bones shifted, coming together and pulling a bit closer to his body. Taze started attempting to say something as he watched his friend changed but it came out garbled as he was still attempting to familiarize himself with his new form. His body was fully covered in golden flames, making himself only visible to Celestia as she watched carefully. His bones shifted, his nose pushing out into a snout, his hair grew a bit in length and shifted its position to his mane, his goatee followed the movement of his jaw. His clothing had thankfully shifted, his long coat shifting into the pony equivalent. After a bit the glow around him seemed to center itself around his hind leg, the rest dimming down to a faded look. Soon the glow faded and there was now a Cutie Mark of a smiths hammer mid swing. “Sh-Shawn?” Taze managed to get out with a rasp. Shawn was only staring forward with a glazed over expression, Celestia being the only one able to hear his thoughts, which seemed to be calculating something that she couldn't keep up with. Taze looked to Luna for help, trying fruitlessly to walk. Luna slowly walked over to Taze. “Now… I guess, walking might seems strange at the moment, just, repeat what I do, and soon, you should be able to walk.” It took a few minutes but eventually Taze was able to master the locomotion enough to move. Slowly he moved over to Shawn and tapped his shoulder questioningly. Shawn shook his head before looking at Taze. “S-” He twitched slightly. “Sorry…” He shook his head again. “T-Thinking. And processing the amount of pain I just felt.” He looked forward again. “It-It’s the field of magic, c-counteracting in an automatic defense.” He exhaled shakily. “In order for the s-spell to work, I think Celestia literally had to overpower my own power.” He shrugged lightly with one arm. “The book s-said so. T-then again, I’ve been, actually messing with it. Studying it…” Turning around Taze made his way to Matthew and gave him a gentle shake. Matthew blinked and woke up and blinked as he saw the Gryphon or Griffon as he thought they were spelled. “Oh, did we get a delegate from the Griffon Empire?” he asked as he Yawned, stretching his back before winching and quickly went back to leaning back on the pillar. “That hurt.” he shook his head and looked to Luna and Celestia before his mind starting to catch up. “Oh… mission, guises? So,” he pointed to the Earth pony in the rather fancy outfit. “Shawn?” he asked, before looking at the Griffon staring at him, Matthew blinked and poked the beak. “Taze?” He smiled. “Griffon, nice look.” He moved a little and smiled a little. “Not sure why I am so tired today, Shall, I guess I am next?” Taze nodded “M-made sure s-safe” he rasped out. “Ah, well, you didn’t have to do that, I am willing to take a risk.” he looked at Luna. “Like Steve Rogers did, or George Washington.” he sighed as his smile faltered. “Just, let’s get this over with, No time like the present to see if this makes me stronger or not.” he chuckled weakly at the joke. Luna looked to Celestia, “I shall take this one.” She walked up and bowed her head. “From one military to another.” She muttered to explain her logic to this time. To all present unlike the last two. This one while taking the color of Luna’s magic, where Taze was slow, and Shawn was full of pain, this was it seemed to be warm and calm. The magic wrapped around Matthew and to him it felt like a warm blanket and he closed his eyes as he mentally nestled into the magic and curled up around it. On the outside, they could see the magic starting to pool first right around the heart as if creating a ball before spreading out and blocked all from seeing what happened, when the magic dissipated in a burst of magic that seemed to turn into tiny sparkling stars. There on the ground in a Navy blue coat of fur and wings, with a mane of white Matthew rested. On his flank was a cutie mark already, two items crossed as if in combat, a quill feather, and a sword. He slowly opened his eyes before they widened and he got to his hooves. “Woa.. WOW!” he yelled as he turned his head around. “That, woah ponies have better hearing, the smell.” he was starting to remind Taze of the tenth doctor regenerating into the eleventh. “Eye sight is about the same and..” he blinked as he was already bouncing a little bit in front of Taze, before he blinked and looked at Taze and gave a wink. “New heart…” he paused and blinked before sitting down. “new heart? NEW HEART!” he was suddenly to his hooves and looked at everyone. “THE TICKING IS GONE!!!!”  He looked at Taze right in the eyes. “I, I can feel it pumping but the mechanical clicking that noise that i have been with for over a year, gone, all gone… and… and…” he blinked as he tilted his head and his wings extended and flapped a little in a way that reminded Taze of a parrot stretching his wings but not taking off. “I, I am… oh wow. This is,” They could see the excitement from the bright blue eyes dancing with joy. Shawn, Taze, Twilight all could see and hear that his voice was stronger, a little faster and just, he seemed a lot more perky. Also his color wasn’t as pale as before. Matthew paused and looked to the two Princesses, “How long?” “How long what?” Celestia asked with an amused look in her eyes. “How long will this last?” Matthew asked as he started to already move and smirked as he got two steps in. “Just like marching.” he laughed before looking back at Celestia with a look of wonderment. “We,” Luna spoke this time. “Do not know, we can see and let this run its course, rather interesting to say… Captain Inkstrike.” She replied with a smirk. “Ca… Captain?” he looked around to Taze and Shawn. “Super Serum, they have… look at me, Look at me, I can,” he was giddy and was already trying to push himself in walking, “I mean, look… I can, this is,” He stopped talking as it dissolved into giggles and smirks as he was, well a term to use from Earth was a child on Christmas that got exactly what he wanted from Santa. Taze smiled at his friend as best he could. He experimentally practiced the movements of his beak rolling his tongue as he tried to figure out how it worked. “Good for you, congratulations” the words were still clunky in his mouth but smoother now. Matthew only grinned a little. “Well, shall we be going? I doubt, well I sure wouldn’t like keeping others waiting. Isn’t Princess Cadence and Captain, Prince? Shining Armor waiting for us as well?” He looked to Twilight. “Sorry for the Delay Milady.” Twilight shook her head. “Oh no, don’t start on that, just Twilight, just because my brother married the best foal sitter in Equestria does not mean you can call me that.” She looked to her friends who were laughing. “Oh, laugh it up but I still won’t call you by your ranks from Discord, we are friends.” Taze attempted to pick up his sack, spearing it on his talon. He attempted again and snipped a small piece off the top. Five tries later he managed to get the sack up and across his shoulder. “We go.” He nodded before moving towards the door. “Agreed.” Matthew replied before smirking. “Ink Strike, I like that sound.” he looked down and smiled as he looked to Luna. “Uh, I guess I get to learn to use wings to pick things up.” he wanted to wear his Beret. “Still, Allonsy.” he cried as he sat down to pick things up, it took him ten tries to pick up his beret and five more to get it on his head. But finally he sat there smiling like he had just climbed Mount Everest with the Beret right where he wanted it to be. “One small victory at a time.” he moved to walked to Shawn and he poked him with a hoof. “Come on we are moving out you can finish those thoughts on the train ride over.” He turned around only to see Rainbow Dash right in his face. “Okay… when we get to that Crystal Empire I am so teaching you how to fly new flying buddy.” She was grinning as she turned around and started to walk towards the doors. “Who knows you might cut it for weather control,” She turned around with a smirk. “Imagine that Mr. I live in a wild world, you can control a cloud, and make it rain when you want it to.” Matthew just stopped as his mind realized that and his mouth opened as a small sound that Celestia remembered, it was the same sound Twilight would make upon finding a new book. Mainly the sound of an e sound. He kept that up as he started walking again. Taze’s ears noticed something else, Matthew had been taking less breaths as if his lungs capacity had increased. As soon as Rainbow Dash opened the doors a shriek and two Phoenix's flew in, one landing on Celestia’s raised hoof, the other landing on the back of Shawn’s noble pony coat. They both made bird calls to one another as Renati seemed to soak in a bit of the heat and leftover magic that would crackle over Shawn’s body here and there. The Phoenix looked over to Matthew and have a cheeky like sound with a bob of his head. Matthew looked at Shawn. “I still have no clue what he is saying, but I do know this, he was sleeping on my chest last night again.” He missed a look Celestia gave Luna at that comment before Shawn only shrugged with one hoof again as the two started walking again to the doors and to the train once more to head north. Approaching the track they found the royal car waiting and prepared for them. Taze wasn’t able to centrate on the guards outside it at the moment nor much else, he was feeling more and more fatigued the further he went. Upon entering the car he walked over to the set of cushioned seats and slumped across them, slipping into unconsciousness automatically. Matthew on the other hoof. He actually giggled at thinking that thought. Was a little more energetic and actually was sitting in a seat bouncing like Pinkie Pie on a little amount of sugar. It was Applejack who asked the one question on her mind. “Aren’t you freaked out about this? Changing forms and what-not?” Matthew actually shook his head. “Heck I wasn’t worried, miffed maybe when they had to put mechanical valves in my heart to keep me alive, I see this as another way that I have prolonged my life.” He blinked as Applejack gave him a stare and his sighed and actually seemed to darken a little in his coat. “Frankly, yes I am a little freaked, having to relearn to walk, but imagine the new possibilities, I can learn to fly, control weather, I mean… we had fiction about weather machines, but here… I am a living weather machine.” He looked at his friends. “I can spend more time with my friends, I get to see more of the world, and…” he put a hoof to his chest and his heart. “But this, a measure of a man to me is not the form or outside appearance, but what is in the spiritual heart of the man. That is what to me makes humanity, humanity.” he smiled a little. “Not even a hundred years ago my nations practiced slavery, and, now, a man of that same race is running to be elected as the leader of my nation.” he looked at Applejack. “When we get home let me play you a speech by one Doctor Martin Luther King Junior. About his dream for a society.” He sighed as he looked out the window. He chuckled a little. “Oh to be alive, and, not be tired and full of life.” He smiled and just looked out the window as the train lurched and started on its journey northward. Applejack only nodded before moving to another part of the coach. Still Matthew smiled and bounced a little as he opened his mouth in excitement. “Oh, a Reverse bend you can can see the locomotive, and, is that a tunnel coming up? I mean..” He turned around to look to Shawn. “We are going through a Train Tunnel, a real live working train tunnel, that is, this is so awesome, how long is this tunnel?” “It takes five minutes to get to the other end once you enter it.” Spike replied with a look of bewilderment at Matthew before looking at Twilight. “I never seen a pegasus get so excited about a steam train.” Matthew sat down and folded his forehooves, across his chest. “What? I like steam trains.” Taze mumbled in his sleep turning a little bit. “Don’t get him started on the Titanic.” He moved his wings a little before falling into a deeper sleep. Needless to say, the rest of the trip down to the valley floor would go about the same, With Shawn in his own little world, Taze sleeping, and Matthew being almost as chatty about Pinkie Pie, only about the train or the scenery around him. Taze woke up suddenly from where he slept, he felt alert, like his brain was on fire as he looked around. Upon seeing most of the others sleeping he wondered why everyone was out cold in the middle of the day, where upon looking out the window and seeing the moon in the sky he found himself trying to process what was happening. “What time is it?” “Somewhere around two thirty to three AM.” “But it’s so bright outside?” He questioned looking around. “Perhaps a bit brighter than home, but not that bright.” Shawn replied. “Feeling rested? You passed out around the time Matthew was talking about trains and ships, and steam powered things, etcetera.” “I feel more then rested, I feel alert, listen to me I’m talking normally, this body doesn’t feel awkward at all.” Taze said stretching out his limbs experimentally. “What happened to me? Someone cast a spell on me well I was asleep?” Shawn looked over at him with a raised a brow. “Only me and you awake, trust me, you can hear when a hoof hits these floors if you listen carefully.” Shawn said with a light tap on the floor. “Huh.” Taze scratched his head, “I’ll have to ask Twilight about it tomorrow, don’t see how they can all sleep with the giant energy bubble on the horizon.” Shawn hummed to himself. “Whelp, looks like a sleepless night for me, ah well.” He shrugged. “I slept well last night, I should last.” He turned towards the window once again. “I guess we are headed there, or someone is very good with special effects, slash, magic.” “Well it’s definitely bright.” Taze noted. “You don’t think my eye’s are acting like a cats do you?” Shawn simply shrugged in response. “I’m not sure, then again for me I have light sensitive eyes so I’m not sure what is considered ‘normal’ by most means.” “Well I can definitely see why you have trouble sleeping with this.” Taze said looking around. “It’s crazy.” “You get used to it.” “So what exactly are we supposed to do anyway? I mean nobody has seen this city for a thousand years.” Taze looked at Shawn. Shawn shrugged again. “Beats me, we were really only told of this being a break for us.” “And I’m sure you believe that as much as I do.” Taze rolled his eye’s. “Of course not, do you take me for a fool?” Shawn questioned. “Honestly, all six of them, and the three of us? I could understand perhaps us and Twilight, but I have already heard enough of bad feelings, I have my own feelings on this, and you know what it is?” Taze raised a brow. “Yes?” Shawn looked at Taze with a focused gaze. “Something, big. Something, bad. You can literally feel it in the air.” He said, looking back into the air. “Well lets hope we make our way through it all again.” Taze said. “Lady lucks been with us so far.” “As well as death pushing me back apparently.” Shawn chuckled darkly. “I think he might have something against me.” “There are worse people to have a grudge against you.” Taze noted. “And worse ways they can show it.” “Oh yeah they do.” He chuckled darkly. “And I’ll be waiting for them.” The two sat in silence for the next four hours, eventually as the sun poked it’s head out, ponies began to stir, Matthew woke up and blinked. “OH WOW!!! Look outside it’s snowing!!!” He cried out with joy. Rainbow Dash grumbled. “Anypony else regretting the Princesses getting him a new body? He’s as excitable as the CMC on a new crusade.” Twilight yawned before looking at Rainbow Dash and then smacking her with a rolled up copy of the yesterday newspaper. “Behave, you’d be like that too if you got a new chance at life.” “Ouch, okay, okay Twilight no need to hit me with the newspaper, I am not a dog you know.” Rainbow muttered rubbing her hoof over her head. “Rainbow? Do gryphons have night vision?” Taze asked her. “Yeah, freaky in how Gilda could see around some of the darkest hallways when we pulled some of our pranks as Fliers camp.” She shivered. “And the way any little light hitting the eyes just made them glow in the dark, freaky.” She chuckled before looking to Twilight. “Wait, does that mean I am an expert on something?” She threw her hoofs up into the air. “What are you doing to me Twilight? I am a future Wonderbolt not an egghead.” “I heard you used to hang out with gryphons.” Taze shrugged. “still trying to adapt” “Ah, well, just don’t come running to me for every question, I am not some egghead on Gryphon stuff.” She muttered before turning around to face him. “Still, what are your questions.” “Other than the eye thing not a lot, woke up this morning and felt like my brain was on fire, now I seem to understand myself for the most part.” Taze noted. “Even talking is easier.” “Well.” Twilight spoke up. “Sounds like the reason you passed out was so your brain could figure out how to work with the new synapses and nerve endings, when you woke up your brain had pretty much figured out how to use your new body like it was the one you were born with.” Most of the ponies present stared at her blank faced. “His brain had to rewire itself.” She put it bluntly. “Are we there yet?” Pinkie asked. “Judging by low visibility, and the fact I can feel the slowing of the train. I would say, possibly so.” Shawn replied still looking out the window. Matthew did not say anything as he kept looking outside. “Really, this is getting to be a bad storm, and, they say there is a lost city up here? No wonder it got lost look at the snowstorm.” “Snowstorm?” Taze looked at him. “You call this a storm?” He chuckled to himself as he clipped on his simple traveling cloak. “This is but a wee flurry lad.”