Ponyville, USA

by Rox

Chapter 14: Lessons

"- none of us expected it to get so out of control like this. I mean, the first time in Colorado was already so far fetched that I just didn't think it was something that could ever be repeated. Now, it's happened over a dozen times within two weeks. We should have prepared."

"How? I somehow doubt the Department of Defense ever even so much as dreamed that something like this would-"

"Authorities in Canada report that they have made personal contact with the Equestrians of the crystal city, which appropriately enough has been confirmed to be named 'The Crystal Empire.' Despite it's name it appears that this 'Empire' still falls under the jurisdiction of the previously known Equestria-"

"- the Cardinals and Reds games were both postponed out of the interest of safety, however after a quiet night it appears that they are both planning to go ahead and even host doubleheaders against the Pirates and Cubs respectively tonight. What do you make of this, good or bad idea being this close to one of those towns?"

"For once, I just don't know..."

David was so over it.

Well, not in the way that he didn't like the ponies. In fact he got along really well with the Apple family and alright with the others. But he was so over this hype that had taken over the news. It had only been two weeks since the world found out about Ponyville, and only one since that day so many came through at once, but David was already sick of it. Sure it was understandable, but that didn't mean there wasn't anything else to talk about.

It was all the news ever covered, it was the only thing on Facebook, it was the only thing his friends ever called or texted about, and for some reason people kept knocking on their freaking door! There was no established path other than the conveniently paved driveway that could get people to Ponyville, so some of them decided that knocking on the door was somehow the best way to get there. Yeah, it didn't make sense to David either.

The Ponyville police force was pretty busy. The ponies were allowing humans to come to town, but were wisely limiting the potential human tsunami to a trickle. So far the biggest group was an Albertson's worth of food supplies that they couldn't grow themselves. David had never seen so much sugar in his life, especially in one place. He now had a small understanding of a certain pink pony's excitable personality.

But for now, he was just sitting in a liquid-like position on the couch, his brother Patrick on the lazy boy to his left, and both holding game controllers in their hands. Not really talking much between each other, but rather just enjoying a lazy round of Super Smash Brothers to eat up the time. It was quickly becoming apparent that even having talking, flying, magic ponies drop into your life could not overcome the suffocating power of summertime boredom.

And David was on a hot streak. Patrick was no slouch when it came to their favorite game, but his Kirby was getting its can kicked by David's Link.

David didn't look up when the back door opened and somebody stepped inside, opting instead to say "Hey" in an unenthusiastic manner.

The voice that returned the greeting wasn't who he expected at all. David looked over his shoulder to confirm that it was indeed Rainbow Dash leaning over the back of the couch. He peered over farther into the room where it became apparent that Asher had not brought her down this time. Though she had brought along those three little fillies and the hyperactive Pinkie Pie, who was shutting the door like it was the happiest day of her life. Not that it was, she always looked like that. Before David or Patrick could ask if they had knocked and just somehow not heard it, they were hijacked by five very interested ponies.

"This looks like a crazy movie!" Pinkie Pie said as she pounced onto the couch from behind, lifting David off his seat a little.

"So what's the story?" Rainbow Dash asked curiously "How is that pink blob standing up to a guy with a sword?"

"It's not a movie!" Scootaloo said with excited realization.

"It's a video game!" Apple Bloom exclaimed, happily hopping forward to get a better look.

"Anne showed us some at the party last week!" Sweetie Belle added as she pulled herself up onto the couch with some assistance from Pinkie.

"Though this one looks a bit more.... violent then the last one," Apple Bloom said, tilting her head in concern as an onscreen blast sent David's swordsman rocketing into a spectacular crash off-screen. David hit the pause button so as to not allow any further hiccups in his win streak

"Wait, a game? You're controlling that!?" Rainbow Dash suddenly perked up, noticing the controllers in both their hands. "Oh, I am so in!"

"This is gonna rock!" Scootaloo interrupted, leaping onto David's knee and managing to somehow perfectly impact his charlie horse, leaving David unable to respond as he grimaced at the sudden flash of pain. This was also why he did nothing to stop Rainbow from taking the controller out of his hands when she flipped over and onto the couch with a twisting somersault.

"Where's Asher?" Patrick asked, bringing up his absence.

"Still with Twilight doing egghead stuff, what else?" Rainbow Dash insisted as she fiddled with the game controller. That figures, though from what they understood on the rare occasion that Asher came home and actually talked about what they were doing up there, it seemed that Asher had gone full Harry Potter. Apparently he had thrown himself into learning all about how their "magic" functioned. David personally didn't know how or why it was his older brother who had ended up in that position. He was smart, but he was more of a critical thinker rather than a scientist. Not who he would pick to try and crack the mysteries of physics.

"I'll get the other remotes," Patrick said, who was barely concealing his mirth at his brother's barely concealed pain.

"Oh oh oh me! I want to play!" Pinkie Pie clamored as he did so. David snatched the remote out of Rainbow's hooves with surprising difficulty so that he could exit their current game. He had no idea how they were going to pull it off without, you know, fingers, but he had to be honest with himself. He was actually looking forward to showing them this.

Patrick handed Rainbow Dash a remote, which was a little, rectangular, white device with even smaller buttons. She flexed her hooves as she held it, not sure how she was going to do this but that did not lessen her determination. This was a competition, and Rainbow couldn't stand the idea of a competition that she didn't have a chance in heck of winning just because of her hooves.

That didn't change the fact she could only bend her hooves so much. They were slightly more flexible than a Minotaur or a cow hoof, but they weren't exactly soft either. She hadn't even started and frustration was already building.

"I'll get this started," David said, who for some reason sounded like he was blinking away pain.

"Aw, can we play?" Sweetie Belle complained.

"I think only four can at once," Apple Bloom said observationally. "Remember, I think Anne had said that last time."

"But we didn't have to press any buttons last time," Scootaloo said, answering an unasked question floating in Rainbow Dash's mind. Dash shook it off. How hard could it possibly be? On the screen several menus flashed by as David apparently got the game ready. To her shock she hadn't been listening to the conversations around her closely enough because she caught the end of the one Patrick was having with Pinkie Pie.

"- and then just try to press the buttons in different combos to get the different moves," he explained as Pinkie nodded enthusiastically. "You two got it?"

Rainbow wasn't about to admit that she had heard absolutely nothing so she nodded her head despite the humble side of her brain screaming that she should at least find out the controls. But that side of her brain was quickly silenced and beaten into submission by the much larger pride side of her psyche. I can do this. I've played the arcade before and it looks like they use A and B button too. How hard could it really be?

"Hey! Dash! Helloooo! You gotta pick a player," David was trying to get her attention as he picked up Scootaloo off his knee like a puppy and put her on the floor. "Just point the remote at the screen and press that button when you got the one you want."

Dash followed the instructions, awkwardly pointing at the screen. The names and faces on the screen were totally meaningless to her, and dots labeled one through three were covering three of the boxes that the others had selected. Dash moved her green dot over and more or less picked one randomly, deciding to take a big dragon-turtle looking thing called Bowser.

"Okay, the game'll get started here in a second," Patrick said as someone selected the "map" that they would be competing on. Rainbow Dash bent over her controller, both hooves gripping it firmly. She got a bright idea just as the game announced it's start, unfolding her wings and extending the tips towards the buttons. Maybe I won't win right away, but at least I should beat Pinkie Pie. she thought with satisfaction at her idea, glancing at the wingless, pink earth pony still perched on the couch beside Rainbow.

"Game on!" she said.

I could get used to this.

Discord was currently sprawled out on what was possibly the very first bed, not of his own creation, that was suited to his size. And he was 99% sure that this bed was actually small by human standards. He still couldn't move much, feeling very much like he had been tackled by Cerberus, then punched by a dragon, thrown into a tornado made of boulders, before finally being squashed underneath Fluttershy's bear named Butch.

Interestingly enough he knew what each and every one of those actually felt like. But at any rate his current position was quite comfortable as his body scrambled to try and replenish his used up magic, mostly failing. He was getting better but at a snail's pace.

He couldn't complain though. The decorating choices of his caretaker were a little more... macabre than Discord's usual taste but he wasn't complaining. She was currently hiding him from the world, including her parents, and would bring him orange juice whenever he wanted something to drink. She had also left on one of their television machines for his entertainment while she went off to her job, giving him a steady source of entertainment. He found himself switching between several of the channels, depending on his mood mostly. Here and there some shows passing as comedy would catch his attention, while during others his boredom would catch up and he'd lay there through something a little more serious.

He did find History Channel quite hilarious though. Seriously, he once woke up his host in the middle of the night with his raucous laughter.

Speaking of which, he could hear her now. Phoebe worked at a restaurant of some kind but clearly did not enjoy it one bit. She appeared to be more partial to art, as dark as it may have been, but for yet another unknown reason was not pursuing it in any way. He wondered if that was common among the humans. Having something they love but then doing something else entirely for a living? True, it wasn't like they had cutie marks like ponies did but it still shouldn't be that hard. After all, I figured it out Discord reasoned.

The girl opened the door without knocking. Had his chaos magic been functional he might have pulled the classic modesty gag, but alas it proved way too much effort.

"Still here, huh?" she asked nonchalantly. She was still going with the "this is probably a hallucination" idea and handling it rather well.

"Yes, my dear Pheobe," Discord said with false drama. "It appears my magic shall not return for a while yet. Shame really. We could be having so much fun!"

"Uh-huh," Phoebe said. "You sure your pony friends can't help you?"

"I'm afraid not. My magic functions quite differently from theirs, so getting help from them would only be a waste of time," Discord said. That was only half true. He was sure that Princess Twilight and her friends could actually be quite helpful. In fact, getting inside a magic field would have been incredibly useful to his recovery. But the fact remained that he was a little... nervous. He had spent all this time already in this world, not long, in fact, after Ponyville itself had been sucked through the rift. He was honestly afraid how they would react to him not even stopping by to say hello or lend a helping claw in their situation.

And that Luna would probably try to turn him to stone again for disappearing unannounced like he had done. So for now, he'd just wait. The magic fields were probably getting closer anyway, and once they reached the city of Reno his recovery would speed up dramatically.

"Whatever, not that really I care," Phoebe said with disinterest. Discord sometimes had a hard time reading her, though he was pretty sure a lot of her disinterest was actually just heavily guarded curiosity. "How'd you get like this anyway?"

"I told you already, I stopped Equestria from falling here in its entirety. Sure it would have been a lot of chaos but I am reformed after all so I suppose I should act like it Phobo," Discord said.

"Pheobe."

"Isn't that your name?"

"You said Phobo."

"That's what I said."

"No, my name's Phoebe not Phobo," the girl insisted.

"Really? Silly me," Discord mused with a playful expression on his equine face. Phoebe stared at him, blinking slowly for a few seconds, before waving it off (again) and heading out of the room.

"If you need me I'll be downstairs," she called back with a dismissive wave.

"Good bye! Don't be late for dinner!"

"Whatever. Wait, what?"

Discord smiled as she disappeared down the staircase, once again leaving him alone with the delightful Seinfeld characters on the television. If he wasn't much mistaken, Discord believed he had made a new friend. Fluttershy would be so proud.

Rainbow Dash was not the only one staring slack-jawed. David and Patrick looked thoroughly stymied too. David had won the game, but it had been really close, and it had been Pinkie Pie who had mashed her way into second using an annoying little yellow mouse that kept zapping everypony with lightning bolts. Pinkie didn't seem to notice the looks of straight disbelief she was getting.

"Yay! Let's play again! Let's play again!" she chanted, bouncing on the couch like a trampoline.

"I got beat... by a pony..." Patrick looked like his world was shattered.

"Pink, how in the hay..." Rainbow trailed off. She had been easily beaten, losing all her "lives" first, despite using her wings to press the little, teeny-tiny, buttons. It was difficult but doable.

"Wow!" Sweetie Belle cheered at Pinkie's feet.

"You hafta show us how ya did that!" Apple Bloom pleaded with bright eyes.

"...on her first try.... without fingers," Patrick was still in some sort of mental disaster zone which was most likely akin to how Rainbow Dash felt whenever somepony ever actually bested her in any sort of flying competition. It didn't happen often.

"I call for a rematch!" Rainbow Dash said, her competitive nature rising up once again. Besides, despite losing, that had actually been pretty fun.

"I'm in!" Patrick said emphatically.

"Hey! I want a turn!" Scootaloo complained, quickly joined by the pleas of her friends.

"Okay, you take loser's spot," David said as the game started up once again.

"Then you better get ready to lose," Rainbow challenged, sticking her tongue out sideways in zealous concentration.

Asher wore a shallow frown as he stared at the book page before him. That frown had been a near permanent feature of his face for the last week, or at least during these study sessions with Twilight. A glance at said pony showed that she was quietly absorbing the newest book he had brought up with him, a six year old history book that she was reading through like it was the most interesting novel in the world. Her thirst for knowledge and capacity for study were absolutely unrivaled, a notion that was emphatically confirmed by her friends.

However his own capacity was being severely tested. Somehow he hadn't anticipated just how... complicated it would be. Guess he always figured that if magic was real it would be something like recitations and potions, like the movies. In hindsight it was incredibly juvenile of him to think so, especially when he already knew the massive disparity in ability between Twilight and Rarity despite the latter being slightly older.

Asher's feet rested on the center table, where books both Human and Equestrian lay stacked in wobbly towers. On a nearby desk the old globe that Jonathon managed to dredge out of storage sat motionless, with pins sticking every which way out of it. That particular endeavor had been part of a short lived effort to find a pattern on a global scale. The only "lead" they gained out of that is that the phenomenon did appear to be centered on the North American/Equestrian continent, not that helped them any. Realizing this Asher had approached Twilight with a request: to learn how their magic worked. She had agreed a little bit too excitedly, and his worry had been compounded when Rainbow Dash had given him a "you are so doomed" expression.

Little did she know that Asher had sat through a lot worse in high school math classes and college lecture halls.

Actually, on its own it was relatively simplistic. It was reconciling it with what he had already learned in 14 years of schooling that was difficult. For one, It ignored the Law of Conservation of Energy. Either that or it took that principal and throttled it to the max. That was the thing. He couldn't tell! And Twilight had informed him, much to his embarrassment, that the books he was grappling with the ones she had studied out of in magic kindergarten. The only bit he could take comfort in on that front was that it was obvious she was and probably always had been gifted beyond her years, so perhaps it was an advanced kindergarten book.

Nope. It was still pathetic.

Asher was honestly beginning to doubt it was even possible for him to really get it. As far as he could tell most magic was just the channeling of instinct. It was kind of like getting good baseball instincts. It could be taught, but only after years of actually doing it. He had learned just three things for sure: This "magic" was a physical, measurable force, it was renewable and regenerated naturally, and all beings are born with it - Well, at least in Equestria. Unicorns were the only ones who could physically bend magic to their will, while for most of the other races magic was just part of their everyday function, such as how pegasi could walk on and manipulate clouds and earth ponies most commonly use it in conjunction with cultivation. Some, like donkeys, mules, cows, and goats, were mysteriously without such abilities but still had natural magic performing an unknown function. Good to know they still have plenty of mysteries of their own. It really was comforting to have the knowledge that at the very least the ponies didn't outclass them on the science front. In reality, they were roughly in the same place, just in different terms.

A deep grumbling sound took Asher's eyes away from his book. Twilight's stomach had perfectly imitated the sound of a growling dog, and was just about as loud as one.

"I take it you're hungry?" Asher asked with a grin.

"Starving," admitted Twilight. "Wow, I hadn't realized how late it was." A glance at the clock showed that it was already late afternoon, way past lunch time.

"Welp, I'm hungry too. Think I'll grab some lunch at home," Asher said, getting up and making for the door. "Wanna come?"

"Sure, but only if we get more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches," Twilight said, trotting over to join him. "Spike! We're leaving for lunch! Want to come?"

"No thanks!" Spike called down from above.

"He's probably still nose deep in his comic books," Asher joked.

"I said that would happen when you gave them to him," Twilight responded. "You should hear him. Now all he talks about is Batman."

"Sorry, next time I'll bring him Spiderman."

"Aaaa! No! That sounds extra creepy," Twilight shuddered.

"It's cooler than it sounds."

The day was a perfect, cloudless, slightly windy, summer day. It would probably rain later, but for now it was clear. And besides, if they didn't want the rain it was hardly work for the pegasi to bust through it.

"Ooh, wait," Twilight suddenly said as they made their way down the boulevard, turning back to towards the library. "I forgot my quill and scrolls."

"Waddya need that for?" Asher asked to her back.

"I figured we could use the Internet while we were there, and I want to take some notes," she called back. "Just go ahead, I'll meet you down there."

Asher just shook his head in disbelief as they split ways. She was relentless. He waved hello to many ponies as he walked through the town and, in stark contrast to that very first time he and his brothers had stumbled in shock through the villa, ponies waved back with cheery greetings. They were a very friendly lot, as much of the world was beginning to discover. Except in Spain. Apparently Griffons have abrasive personalities to match their aggressive appearance.

But just about everywhere else they knew about was going swimmingly. There were now three Princesses on the North American continent, and it was visibly a source of relief to the Equestrians in Canada and the US. Twilight now mentioned often that she wanted to find a way to meet with Cadance in Canada, partially because the Princess was married to Twilight's older brother. And he had already met Luna.

Imposing and intimidating were two words that still failed to describe her.

As Asher strolled through Sweet Apple Acres, he looked back wondering why Twilight hadn't caught up to him yet. She had probably decided to gather more than just note taking materials again. He shook his head again as he said hi to Applejack as she carried another bushel of the seemingly endless supply of Apples towards the barn. About ten minutes of walking later he finally reached his family's back door and stepped inside.

"You can never defeat me!"

"We'll see about that!"

Asher stopped to take in the scene dominating the living room. David was hunched over in concentration with the controller in his hand, Pinkie and Rainbow Dash on either side. Rainbow Dash was using her wings to aide her in operating the game controller, her face hard set with a look of competitive determination, as Pinkie Pie (who had been the one to call out, sending odd shivers down Asher's spine) stuck her tongue out through a broad grin as she... somehow... wrangled a controller of her own. On the armchair Patrick was looking on stoically and with a glare that gave off the idea he thought himself the victim of some great injustice, while at his feet it appeared that Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were teaming up to work one controller, with Sweetie Belle cheering them on. The chatter was non-stop as their characters battled out on the screen.

"Combo! Combo! Combo!"

"GASP! Go for the hammer!"

"Hee Hee! I got it!"

"OH NO!"

"Gaaargh! Fly you stupid turtle! Fly! Gaaa!"

"Rainbow, if you just used the button combinations right it would be really easy, see if you press...."

Twilight was standing next to Rainbow's perch on the couch, but the pegasus was actively ignoring her as she played. Asher however, couldn't stop looking at her. He looked back over his shoulder out of a double take in the direction of Ponyville, and looked back. She had beat him here, and obviously by a lot. He shook it off, rationalizing that she had just flown back, though she had done it carrying a healthy stack of books.

"Oh, Asher, you're here," the purple alicorn said, noticing him. "Sorry I didn't walk down with you. But I decided to bring along our books as well and they were pretty heavy so I decided to-"

"Move, Twilight! I can't see!" Rainbow Dash cut her off, brushing her aside with a hoof. Twilight gave her friend a dirty look as she ducked under the pegasus’ line of sight and around the couch.

"Never get in the way of a gamer," Asher laughed, to which Twilight just snorted in reply.

"What happened, Patrick, you look like someone died," Asher berated his younger brother, even though he already had pretty good idea why. Patrick gave him was an icy glare. He always was a sore loser.

"Let's see you do better," Patrick spat, obviously at a loss for comebacks at the moment.

"You know what, I think I will," Asher accepted, plopping down on the couch behind the crusaders.

Two games, dozens of matches, and a broken coffee table later, someone finally switched off the video game machine. There had been many hard fought victories and stinging losses, but one thing was quite apparent. These games were addictive. They weren't even all that complicated. The first one had been no more than an all out brawl that could just as easily be won by randomly pushing buttons as it was by using actual strategy and patterns. Twilight of course had memorized all the patterns and soon she and her Princess Peach had been racking up consecutive victories (much to Rainbow Dash's dismay). She did have the great advantage of using her magic to manipulate the finger sized controls, though, so she didn't rub it in -- too much.

Her streak wasn't broken until Pinkie Pie's incessant button mashing came to the rescue and David finally offered to change the game. That's when Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy showed up, apparently worried that they had been gone all day and nopony had seen them. That's also when things got really crazy for three reasons: One: Applejack's inability to back down from a challenge. Two: Rarity's inability to back down from a challenge coupled with a taunt. and Three: It was a racing game -- with explosions.

Rainbow Dash threw her whole body into the using the controller, leaning every which way as her digital (that's a new word she picked up a couple days before, and consequently despised it as Pinkie took a liking to it and repeated it nonstop for half an hour) vehicle swerved at high velocity over a convoluted course full of booby traps. Applejack wouldn't give in and mirrored the movements, and adding in the fiery competition of Patrick wanting to redeem himself from a string of losses and his two older brothers doing everything in their power to prevent that, the result was mayhem. The coffee table met its premature end as three ponies and one six-foot-two human jockeyed each other and tumbled like dominoes.

Somehow Fluttershy was the one who ended up explaining to Mom, a shrewd move by AJ and Dash as the latter nudged the pegasus forward. Always send the meek one to the authority figure when in trouble, a strategy Asher and his siblings had used on many occasions. Luckily, or perhaps because their plan worked, Candace was quite understanding and said that her boys would just have to fix it later. But she did spare them a brief, piercing glance that made Asher and his brother's visibly flinch.

"Perhaps we should call it a day on the XBOX," Asher suggested as he pressed the green circle until it turned off, giving a warning glance at Patrick. Twilight concurred and stared down Rainbow with her own glance to keep her from protesting, the pony not satisfied with finishing third in their last game. To give the pegasus credit though, she had become quite dexterous with her wing tips for those buttons. Applejack hadn't been able to match with just her hooves, but somehow Pinkie Pie was. That pony was certainly weird.

"Oh wow, is it getting dark already?" Rarity asked, looking out the window at the dimming sunlight.

"Time flies when you're having fun," Asher quipped.

"Ooh boy. C'mon Apple Bloom, we best be gettin' home," Applejack said.

"And my animals will be expecting their dinner," Fluttershy added as she followed the two sisters out. "Angel Bunny gets really cranky when he doesn't get it when he wants it."

Rainbow Dash stretched and mumbled something about needing to make sure that our "ridiculous weather" hadn't messed everything up again and flew out and up while Rarity trotted into the kitchen, probably to chat with Asher's Mom for a minute before taking Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo home.

"Well, I suppose we'll meet up again tomorrow," Asher said as Twilight gathered up the books with her magic, which honestly made Asher feel a little guilty for completely forgetting about them. "Same time?"

"Sure," she replied. "I think you've probably looked over enough of the basics that we can start talking theory. Then maybe we'll have a lead on our problem."

A knock at the front door interrupted them. Asher, being the only one of his family in the room and standing up, sighed and trudged over to open it. On their doorstep stood a young couple, the man with a short, scraggly beard and hipster glasses and a women in clothes that even clashed in Asher's fashion-challenged eyes. They were essentially what Asher imagined when he thought of Oregon.

"Can I help you?" he asked, though he honestly didn't have to ask.

"Hi, we're trying to get to Ponyville," they said, peering into the home like a couple of geese looking for someone to toss them bread crumbs.

"The road's over there. First, check in with the customs booth the ponies set up," Asher deadpanned. He would usually be more polite with strangers but he and his family had been answering their door to this very same question practically non-stop for a week. A detachment of the Army Corp of Engineers had quickly bulldozed a dirt road wide enough for a truck around the Burgess home and through the more wild parts of their land right up to the previously useless Ponyville Train Station (the tracks had not been among the things the storm had transported over).

The couple waved their thanks and walked over their grass and onto a slowly forming path towards their destination. Little did they know that they would most likely be put on a waiting list to get in. The ponies were being very cautious and careful about how many people they let in at a time, not wanting to be overrun by curious humans. That, and Princess Luna was apparently still trying to help figure out how the bit to dollar exchange should work. In the meantime Asher had advised them that they do not use bits to buy human items without first figuring out the gold exchange. No need to get gypped, even though the ponies thought it was straight shocking to pay for a whole truckload of sugar with no more than 50 bits or so.

"More tourists?" Twilight asked as she watched them leave.

"Yep," Asher said dismissively. "None of them have been causing trouble have they?"

"No, not yet," Twilight said. "Ponyville's not used to having tourists of any kind. The biggest event we've ever hosted was a Summer Sun Celebration, and even then most ponies just stayed home to celebrate. But don't worry, we'll adjust."

"And I'm sure the longer you're here the quicker the novelty will fall off," Asher added, which she nodded to. Though neither one ever outright said it, both had begun to consider the implications of this new arrangement being permanent. Considering her home and much of her country had literally been ripped out of place and tossed into an unknown world, they were handling it pretty well.

Twilight levitated the books into a precariously balanced stack on her back and placed others into a saddlebag as she walked out the door. Asher turned into the kitchen to find that Rarity had already set off after conversing with his mom about something, before he went back to the door to ask one more thing. He was a little more than confused to find that Twilight was already nowhere to be seen, and a glance at the sky revealed nothing but a rainbow contrail beating a large cloud into nothingness high above. Asher shrugged as he went back inside, deciding that she must be getting a lot better at flying.

It wasn't until he was just about to fall asleep that he realized an entire week had passed and there hadn't been any more towns from Equestria.

Asher ran for it. He could feel the weight of what felt like some sort of rifle resting on his shoulders with a strap that held it in place on his back. He felt exhausted, and a quick wipe of his face revealed he had a rough beard. When did I get that? He also didn't have a clue where he was, or why he was running. He just knew that they had to if they wanted to survive. Wait, they?

Asher glanced around. He was holding the hand of a young woman that his mind tried to tell him was Anne, though he felt conflicted because she was easily ten years older than he remembered her. He was pulling her along, urging her to run faster. She also had a gun, a shotgun that she held in one hand as she was scanning all around them even during their flight.

There was also a pony he didn't quite recognize, yellow in color but with reddish hair and a simple braid held together with a pink bow. She was galloping alongside them and was glaring at the desolate landscape around them. The skeletons of once living trees were everywhere, standing tall as the ruins of a once great forest. She had a strange contraption strapped to one leg which Asher's brain informed him was the pony version of the very gun he had holstered on his waist, and that the pony was Applejack's little sister.

A shadow flew over them, effectively startling Asher with a terror he didn't even understand, though he calmed when he noticed it was a pegasus. Also yellow in color, but with a raggedly cut, short pink mane, and once again he protested as his mind registered the pony as Fluttershy -- A much angrier, aggressive Fluttershy, but Fluttershy nonetheless. Asher then tripped, tumbling into a somersault. His body didn't feel right, feeling like he had aged much more than his sister had.

There was a warning scream from behind, and a bright flash, filling Asher with the momentary despair of his imminent-

Asher jolted awake. He blinked his eyes to try and focus them as his heart raced from the sudden wake up. The clock read just 2 in the morning. Asher turned over in his bed, re-situating his blankets to regain his much needed sleep. What a weird dream he thought as he drifted back off. The first dream would fall mostly forgotten in the morning, exchanged for the much more "normal" dream which involved Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash going to high school with him and bringing all sorts of shenanigans like causing raining chocolate milk and embarrassing him in front of this girl he liked. Honestly that was more of a nightmare than the first dream had been.