//------------------------------// // Chapter 75. Actions and Consequences // Story: Dust on the Wind // by Sparky Brony //------------------------------// “Hey, anypony have any idea where Irony is?” I ask. Sunset looks at me, then looks away, so does Moon Shadow. I cock my head to the side, “Okay, spill.” Moon Shadow looks down, “She asked us not to say.” I look at Moon Shadow a long time, “Fine.” I put a hoof to my earring, and then frown, “She took it out?” Sunset nods, “She didn’t want you following her.” I growl and snort, “Where is Irony?” Moon Shadow stiffens, “Dust, are you serious?” I wilt, and slowly shake my head. Sunset comes over and nuzzles me, “Irony doesn’t want to be disturbed, Dust. Respect that.” I look at her, my ears falling, “Sunset, I’ve been back here three days, Irony left right after I confessed to you all, she took her car. She’s still gone, I’m getting worried.” Moon Shadow narrows her eyes, “You don’t think Irony can take care of herself?” I shake my head, “That’s not what I’m saying, and you know it.” Moon Shadow giggles and nuzzles me, “All I have to say, love, trust her.” I sigh and head back upstairs. I need a nap. *** The sun is setting, what woke me up? I hear the sound of a car door slamming, the car coming up to the house must have woken me. I heave myself off the bed and open my door. I hear the front door to the house open. “Dust.” Comes a growl. I sigh, I know that growl, and I’ve heard it way too much for my taste the last few months. “I’m here.” I say quietly. I hop over the rail and flutter to the living room floor. I turn and look at Irony, my body wilting. “I have someone for you to meet, Dust.” She steps aside. Revealing a pegasus stallion. I don’t know him. The stallion steps forward, his ears splay back, and his tail tucks under his rear, “Dust.” I cock my head to the side, taking in his pink fur and his dark mane. He turns a little bit, and I can see his cutie mark, three raindrops, “Serenity?” He nods, “I was a weather pegasus in Ponyville, I helped with the tornado.” Irony nods, “One of the best rain specialists in Equestria, actually. I remember him.” My wings are tucked tightly at my sides, my tail tight against my rump, all I can say is, “I’m sorry.” “Is that all you can say, Dust?” Irony says softly. I look at her, what else am I supposed to say? Irony sighs and sits down on her haunches, “It’s about time you learn something important, Dust.” She stops and looks at Serenity and back at me, “Being the fastest flier on Earth doesn’t mean you can run away from all your problems.” “I didn’t run away…” I start. Irony slams a hoof on the floor, “You did, Dust. You ran away from Serenity when he needed a pony’s help. Yes, his job with the Air Force was supportive. But he needed the support of fellow ponies. You were a Wonderbolt, Dust. A Wonderbolt stands up and admits when they are wrong, they don’t run away.” Her words are certainly having an effect on me, I’m backing away slowly, “What would Spitfire say? What would Rainbow Dash say?” She very nearly whispers. I feel tears leaking down my cheeks, “Irony, I’m sorry.” She looks at me, “I know you are, Dust. And intellectually, I know why you did it. But you were still wrong. You still hurt me. You hurt us all, some of the others in our herd may have been quick to forgive you. But I can’t forgive, not until I know you won’t do something like that again.” I can’t respond, all I can do is sob, Irony continues, “I know your father died. From the time I met him, and spent some time with him, I know he was a wonderful man. And you are in pain, and acting out. But the thing is, Dust. We are your support, we are your family. You should have come to us. We would have supported you, we would have helped.” She shifts and puts a hand on Serenity’s withers, “You hurt us, but your rash decision to run away hurt him too. You did him wrong, Dust.” I don’t know where she’s going with this, I take a few moments to grab onto my emotions, finally I’m able to talk, “Are you saying I should have asked him to join the herd?” Irony rolls her eyes, “Thinking with your nethers, Dust?” I shake my head, “No, I really don’t know what you mean.” She sighs, “He needed to be with ponies Dust. For his change. Henry, James, Jay, Sanchez, they all were with us during their changes. They were supported the best way possible. Serenity didn’t go through the terror we went through when we changed, thank Celestia for that. But he needed our support. You should have brought him back to New Beginnings. As Night Glider said, thousands, maybe tens of thousands of ponies are going to show up. He was one of them. We need to make their transition easier. It is our responsibility.” I sigh, and turn to Serenity, how am I going to put this? I move close to him, “I’m sorry, Serenity, I acted rashly and I shouldn’t have just run away.” Serenity looks at me, then at Irony, then back at me, “I knew when we left the bar it would likely be a one night stand. But thank you, Dust. It means a lot to me.” He comes up and gives me a hug, whispering in my ear, “But you were awesome that night, any time you want a repeat, let me know, I’ll play with you, and with Irony too.” He pulls back and turns to Irony. Leaving me blushing and stammering. “I remember some of my life in Equestria. I’ve put in the paperwork. They allow early retirement for ponies that want to leave because they turned into ponies. The stop-loss orders are no longer in effect since we have Rim of the Sky, and the other pony settlements. I’ll go to get a job with the weather bureau here.” He gives Irony a hug too, and apparently he whispers in her ear. Curiously, she blushes as well, I find myself watching his tail as he walks from the house. *** “Dustie!” I hear the voice far below me, causing my ears to twitch. I’m enjoying a nice rest on a cloud. Ugh. I roll over and peek my head over the edge, “What is it Mindy?” “Our flight to the UK will be leaving in six hours, and we have a four hour drive to the airport, we need to get going. We are all packed and ready.” I sigh, “Go ahead, it’s less than a half hour flight for me.” Mindy’s horn lights and she teleports onto the cloud, settling on the fluff, “Dustie, you need to come with us. One of the busses you bought is loaded up and ready to go. Helen has your new passport and remember, the entire family is going. Even Dylan and Gold Dust’s family is going to join us. Come on Dustie, we need to get going.” The magenta mare then surprises me by bouncing up and giving me a hug, which I gladly return. Mindy hugs are awesome! She pulls away, “Dustie, I know you don’t like being stuck in a metal tube flying along impossibly slowly for your taste. But please?” Her ears drop and she looks sorrowfully at me, “Be there with your family?” I have to giggle, it’s hard to deny Mindy. I finally nod, and her horn lights again, and we are next to the bus. Irony is putting a plastic storage container in and shutting the belly door. I can see how stuffed the storage compartment is, I look around, “Where’s Rarity?” Irony looks at me oddly, “What?” I giggle again, “With that much luggage, I thought Rarity and Sweetie Belle were joining us.” Irony gently grabs my ear, rubbing it gently, she shifts back to four hooves and giggles herself, “Oh, we have a huge family to transport. And since we are going to a pony colony, I’ve got your Wonderbolt uniform, as well as your EUP Uniform packed, and I didn’t forget your armor as well.” I raise my eyebrows, “Armor?” She nods, “Mine, yours, and Moon Shadow’s. We are going to be talking to the EUP guards there, so we need our uniforms, and I guarantee you they will want demonstrations. They always do. I chuckle, EUP is just like any military, I’ve learned how that is talking to Velvet and some of the US Military member ponies. I look around, “Everyone here?” She nods, “Dylan, Gold Dust and Strawberry Sunrise have already left, it’s just us in the bus. But we have enough, with the foals, and everypony.” I turn to have Mischief attack me, landing on my back and grabbing my mane, “Mommy!” She screams. I pretend to buck around a bit, my foal screeching her joy. I finally get my wing around to swipe her off of me, and I grab her in my foreleg for a hug. Then I put her back on my back and trot up the stairs into the bus. In a matter of moments, Hannah plops down next to me as the bus door closes, and the driver pulls away from the house. I look out the window for a moment, Mischief is standing on the seat, her hooves on the window sill, looking out as we get on the highway heading north. Soon we will be in Bismarck, to catch our plane to London. Then the drive to the Shetland Isles. It’s going to be a long time travelling. We could have done it with chariots, but we have too much luggage, and it really isn’t worth it for this long a trip. Flying commercial was fine until I saw the price for seventeen first class tickets to London. Three hundred grand, round trip. Hell no! Helen insisted, so we just rented a Gulfstream G650ER. A lot cheaper, about a third of the commercial price. The road trip goes smoothly, then I’m standing on the tarmac, watching our luggage being loaded aboard the plane. I look at the aluminum tube I’m going to spend the next eight hours, or so, in. I shudder, then a hand lands on my withers, “It’s okay, Dust. Or would you like a tranquilizer?” I look up at Helen, “I can handle the flight.” I resist the urge to arch my back and spit at the airplane though. The pilot comes up, extending a hand, which I put out my hoof for, “I’m Captain Archer, I’ll be flying your family today.” I feel my wings, my pegasus weather sense is going nuts. I know pegasi all over the nation have tamed the weather, but there is still the outside chance of something bad happening, “We should get going, otherwise the front coming in from the west is going to get things a little choppy.” He looks at me, apparently at a loss, a younger man, apparently his copilot claps a hand on his shoulder, “She’s a pegasus, John. She can tell the weather.” The pilot looks sharply at the copilot, then at me, then he nods. I turn to the family, “Okay, everypony aboard.” *** I was actually able to sleep, Captain Archer was an absolute professional behind the yoke of this very nice airplane. He was ex-US air force, so his touch on the plane was gentle. Not like a typical Navy pilot, landing with authority as though the runway was going to get away from him. The rear wheels of the plane kiss the ground at London’s Heathrow airport. Soon we all pile out, time for the entry rigmarole. I present my passport to the clerk, who blinks a few times, looking at the mass of ponydom coming to visit. He looks at the passport, which has my smiling face on it, along with my cutie mark. He looks at me, then back at the small booklet in his hand. Mine just has a few Canadian stamps from my occasional visits to the land up north for shopping trips. “Purpose of your trip?” I think for a moment, “Business.” “How long to do you plan to stay?” “Two weeks, I think.” “Anything to declare?” I suppress a giggle, and shake my head. My passport is stamped and I move on. Before too long, we are in a puddle jumper, then into a rental bus over to a ferry, and then a short drive and we are pulling into an apparently prosperous town. Though the pedestrians are all I need to see that we are here. The van finally stops and Irony opens the door, relaxing back onto four hooves. It’s raining. Why is it raining? Don’t the pegasi keep the weather here nice? I walk through the gentle downpour, my family following behind. Quickly, the rain stops falling on me, I look back at Sunset, her horn is glowing. I smile gratefully, I don’t mind the rain, but I’d rather not be sopping wet. We eventually get to a nice manor house, facing the sea. Helen knocks on the door, and we all wait, and then the door slams open, and a small magenta shape is there. I get a glimpse of pink hair before two big blue eyes are right in my face. “Ohmygosh, it’s Lightning Dust! Is it true you slept with Rainbow Dash? I totally shipped you with Rainbow Dash and Spitfire! I heard you were kicked out of the Wonderbolt Academy for sleeping with Spitfire! I can’t believe you’re here!” I sit down, looking at the small… Dragon, I think, “Do I know you?” The dragon looks around, “Oh, I don’t know. I’m Mina.” I think for a moment, that name doesn’t come to mind. I shake my head slightly and smile, “Sorry.” I offer a hoof. Only to nearly get it shaken off, with her grasping it in both of her claws, “So, are you going to answer my question? I mean, you used a tornado for cloud busting, nothing wrong with that, those silly filly’s in the balloon shouldn’t have been in restricted airspace near the Academy anyway.” I blink a few times, remembering, then I grin, “Oh, that was the reason I got canned. Putting civilian lives at risk was the official reason.” She looks down, a little sad, then I move over and whisper in her ear, “I didn’t sleep with Spitfire until after I became a Wonderbolt, right before the second Changeling war.” She giggles. I sit down and introduce my herd, she bounces between everypony, shaking hands, hooves, whatever. She seems to be a boundless source of energy. I finally hear a soft laugh from farther in the house, “I see you’ve met Mina.” I turn and see the white unicorn, she smiles and comes forward. I bow formally, “My Lady.” Magic brings me out of the bow, “We’ll have none of that, Lightning Dust. You are an honored guest, you and your entire herd. You are here at our request, right?” I nod, “Some of the local members of our EUP corps have asked for some training assistance, and we are responding to your inquiries regarding deer showing up in our corner of the world.” I nod again, getting a brilliant smile from the white mare. I look back at my family, and back to the white unicorn, “We have been traveling for a good while, we have rooms booked at the inn in town. Are you up for a tour tomorrow?” She smiles, “Of course, Lightning Dust. Always glad to have visitors.” *** I awaken to big blue eyes right in front of my face, I blink a few times, then a voice penetrates, “Wakey wakey.” I put out a hoof, “There is such a thing as personal space, Mina.” She giggles, “Sure, when all you ponies are in one big pile, personal space, hah.” I extract myself from Sunset Shimmer and roll out of bed, the window is showing the beginnnings of the sun peeking over the horizon, I glance at the clock, “Seriously? Four thirty in the morning?” The dragon shrugs her shoulders, “I couldn’t sleep, and I couldn’t wait to get to know you.” I have to sigh at that, I look back at my herd, and push the duvet back over Sunset, who snuggles into it and sighs, getting a smile from me. I turn back to the dragon and let her lead me out the door of the suite. Soon we are walking along the streets, I see the early risers moving about, getting set up for the day. I look around, “Food.” I need coffee too. Jet lag sucks. I’m led to a small restaurant that seems to be open all night, so the few ponies working seem happy to have customers this early. I order an omelet and a large cup of coffee, and sit down, “So, what do you want to know?” While my food is being prepared, I tell the small dragon about my time in the Wonderbolts, my role in the Second Changeling war, and some other fun tidbits. Mina, for her part, raptly watches me as I talk. Eventually, after three cups of coffee and a very good omelet, I finally wind down. I have to notice though, during the entire meal, pegasi would come in, grab hot bags full of food, and rush off. I ask Mina about it. "Oh, we provide hot food delivery to several of the rigs out there. They love getting food from here, and the pegasi are making a mint. Pizza is pretty popular out there." I look at another pegasus fluttering in, and trotting over to the counter. These ponies are keeping busy. But that's typical of us ponies, we have to keep active. The sun is finally fully up, so we head to the inn, and find the family in the process of waking up. Mina and I are loaded down with coffee and tea for the family to wake up to. And bagels, and croissants, and all manner of breakfast foods. I take a few moments to don my EUP dress uniform. So does Irony. Soon, we are heading in the direction of the EUP station. I’ve got my ever present Mischief on my back. After Mina spent a good ten minutes playing with her, and telling me what a beautiful foal I’ve got. Of course she also said the same for Mindy’s, Irony’s, and Moon Shadow’s foals as well. But it helps that Mischief is that adorable. “Good morning Dust.” My internal musing is interrupted by our host. I turn and bow once again, “My Lady.” Once again magic grasps me gently and forces me to look at her in the face, she looks sternly at me, “Now Dust. You are a guest, I’m not an alicorn like the Princesses. You needn’t…” She trails off at the grin on my face, “Oh, you scamp.” Which gets me a whap from a wing from Star and a faint laugh from the white unicorn. She turns and walks with my family, “This is our town, we’ve decided to call it New Poniesburge, the population is around twenty five hundred Equestrian ponies, as well as some other refugees from Equestria.” I frown, “Back home, a good portion of our ponies work in weather management or crop growth. That doesn’t sound like enough ponies to control the weather.” She chuckles, “Oh, we control the weather, locally. Though the natural weather here is for an average of almost two hundred fifty days of rain a year. The environment around here needs that kind of moisture, so we usually just break up the larger storms, and don’t allow too much severe weather to hit. About a third of our population is pegasi, but a full thirty-five percent of our population is foals. So, we are a growing community, but we can’t have the effect on the area around us until we have a much larger population.” I look around, ponies are walking the streets, they seem to be pretty happy, though I spy a hippogriff and a couple of griffons as we walk, “All of you from the UK?” She shakes her head, “Oh, no. A lot of ponies from The Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium and such have made it here.” I nod. I watch a trio of pegasi take off, heading towards the ocean with a purpose. I look at our host, “A problem?” She looks at them, then at me, “Oh, none at all. You see, local companies are saving millions of dollars by hiring pegasi. There are off shore wind turbines as well as oil drilling rigs out in the middle of the ocean. It’s a lot cheaper to have a pegasus check out a malfunctioning wind turbine than to either have it break itself apart in high winds, or send a helicopter or a boat to check them, for a problem that can easily be fixed.” She giggles, “And having pegasi delivered hot fresh pizza’s has been pretty good. Pegasi handle a good portion of the deliveries out here.” I think for a moment, quite a bit of oil drilling in the Gulf, perhaps the New Pony Express can do those kind of deliveries as well. We keep walking, and chatting, I look at a couple of local equines. They aren't Equestrian, they are Earth ponies, as in the Shetland pony variety. Three of them are walking towards our group. I nod politely, and one of them whinnies in Eponese, "Good Morning." I stop dead in my tracks. Our host laughs, "And I see you know about our locals now. About fifty of the local Shetland ponies have joined us. Most of them can understand our language, and five or ten of them can actually speak like we can." I shake my head, then look back at my daughter, who is on one knee, feeding one a carrot and scratching the pony behind the ear, then I look at our host, "Equestrian magic?" She nods, "And earth magic too. We affect everything around us. Just by our nature." She walks on, continuing on, “We do have an orchard up and running now. With earth pony work, the trees matured in less than a year, and we’ve got bountiful crops of apples, along with some other farming for pony friendly food. We are quite well set up up here, Lightning Dust.” I smile, “I’m glad to hear that. I know you ponies sent some pegasi for weather training, as well as some unicorns and earth ponies for other training, as well as finding out how we are doing things on our side of the pond. What about your guard detachment?” “Oh, you’ll get to meet them soon. Less than a hundred guards here. But we don’t really need more.” I think for a moment, “I hope you are right. We’ve had some human problems back at home.” She chuckles, “Oh, we very rarely get any bronies here. We aren’t widely talked about. Most UK bronies actually head to Florida for your colony there. Don’t even know we exist, something we like.” I sigh, “I don’t mean bronies.” I spend a few minutes telling her about the Spectrum mercenaries, as well as some other problems we’ve had. She puts a hoof to her heart, “Oh dear, we haven’t had anything like that. Though some of our magic users have created some of the same wards that you have to alert you to potential problems.” We finally get to the small guard outpost at the eastern edge of town. The door opens, and I find myself having to bow, “My Prince.” The white unicorn stallion steps forward, “Welcome to our home, Lightning Dust.” I blink a few times, when I’ve had to deal with Prince Blueblood back in Equestria, he barely acknowledged my, or any Wonderbolt’s existence. He breaks into an easy smile, “I’m not the same as you remember me.” He smiles at our host and gestures for us to enter, as I pass him, I hear him murmur, “My life because of the five score curse has helped me not be an entitled brat.” I look at him seriously as I get inside, getting a happy smile from him. The door is opened out to the training area, as the door is opened, I hear calls for attention. I step out and look at the sixty ponies standing at attention. I’m a major by the rank on my shoulders. I stand in front of the group, looking at all of them. I step forward, “At ease.” They all relax a bit. “Good morning, as you all know, I’m Lightning Dust, and I was asked to come over here and work with you all when it comes to training. I have with another member of the EUP. Princess Twilight Sparkle’s personal bodyguard. Appointed so after the second changeling war. That would be Irony Sheildbreaker.” Irony steps forward. I continue, “I’m quite certain you have been trained pretty well. But we will see how you have adapted to living in this world. This is not a world of swords, but of guns. I am trained in the use of wingblades, as are all Wonderbolts. But I also can use some of the pony designed firearms we have been developing in New Beginnings and other places.” I look over at our host, “I’m sure you will do New Poniesburge proud.” I’m not much for speeches, I look at all the faces, “Fall out, we’ll get some training done.” Shortly I’ve exchanged my uniform for my armor. And I’ve got a griffin standing in front of me, her wings also carrying blades. Both of our blades are sheathed, for safety. “An honor to spar with you.” The griffon says, her faintly accented voice rather melodious. I glance over at some of the earth ponies, Irony is sparring with them. I grin, this is going to be fun. The other griffon in the guards here strides forward, she puts her wing between us. I tense, my blades ready. “Fight.” I’m not waiting for her to come to me, I flash forward, she barely gets her blade out to stop it. She swipes with the other, but I’m already twenty feet in the air. With a growl she takes off. Then tumbles to the ground as a swipe from my sheathed blade gets her in the shoulder joint. I land on my hooves, “Had this not been practice, you would have lost your wing. Always watch out for speedsters.” I grin, “Again?” She growls and brings her blades to a ready position again. The other griffon calls out, and I wait patiently as she rushes towards me, I flash to the side, but she anticipated me this time. Her blade is coming at me, I get one wing out to block and at the same time, swipe out with my other. She jumps over the swipe and takes to the air. I grin and follow her up. I think I’ve upset her, getting her so easily the first time. She uses her greater strength to bat at me several times, though I see everything coming and block. Then she surprises me, her claws flash out and she grabs me by the armor. She brings her armored helm right at my face. Impacting right above my eyes, I’m dazed, and my descent is far less graceful than my ascent. I blink blood away, shaking my head. She’s hovering just above the ground, “Remember, griffons have claws.” I grin and leap at her. We tangle, moving too fast for most to understand what is going on. Finally I get her on the side of the head with a blade, then I catch her and bring her to the ground. She’s going to feel that one when she wakes up. I set her down gently and look at the other griffin. She’s grinning too. “Wanna spar?” I ask. She shakes her head, “Wingblades are old school for me. I may not be fast, but few ponies could lug a 25mm cannon into the air with them. You are insanely fast, Lightning Dust.” I puff my chest out, “They don’t call me Lightning for nothing.” She snorts, “I’m Greta, that griffon you just pummeled is Natalya.” I hold out a hoof and get it shaken gently, “Well, anytime you gals want to spar, let me know.” She smiles, but it slides off her face as the PA system blares out, “Call out, Group 3 we have an emergency. Fishing boat, without power, four crew on board, she clipped the rocks. She's taking on water and her engine compartment’s flooded. Pumps are a no go. 60.667272, -1.310639" Four pegasi rush over to a storage locker. They pick up a couple of packs and take off, full power. I watch them leave. Blueblood comes over to me, “Life Boat Rescue Squadron, they patrol and perform S&R.” “Oh.” I look at him, “They need any help?” He smiles and shakes his head, “Oh, no, they have it well in hoof. Those packs are personal life boats, they weigh about four pounds, but can save lives. We keep a stock of them for such occasions.” He turns and gestures, and I follow. He continues, “I think you’ve done enough for now, Lightning Dust.” I swipe a hoof over my face, “I’m fine. It’s a good workout.” “I want a unicorn healer to fix you up, Lightning Dust.” “It’s just a scratch.” He chuckles, “Oh, I insist.” A unicorn trots up, her cutie mark a red cross. Her horn lights and a cool chill washes over me. As she moves away I glance at Blueblood, “The Prince Blueblood I remember from Canterlot wouldn’t care whether or not a mare was injured, especially an EUP member. We were just living furniture as he was concerned.” He chuckles, “So much of my life, I was like that. It took me growing up as a woman to find out how wrong I was.” My eyebrows raise, “Well, if it’s any consolation, I grew up a man.” He chuckles, “Well, you are quite a bit different from the Lightning Dust I knew. She was arrogant, and almost pompous enough to be royalty herself. Always sure of herself, no matter what.” I sigh, “I’ve grown up a lot since then.” I look at my foals playing with some of the local foals. Hannah is even rolling around with them. She’s sixteen now, but she still plays with them like she’s a child like them. Blueblood notices me looking, “One of them yours?” I nod, “Hannah is there, and so is Mischief.” “Human and pony?” I nod, “Hannah was mine before the change, Mischief after. I love them both.” I’m actually nuzzled buy the white stallion, “Being a mother is a wonderful thing. And it changes you.” I nod, then look at the Prince, “You have changed from then. For the better, I think.” He chuckles, “I think a lot of us have changed a lot from how we were before.” *** A few hours later, we are walking sedately east from the shore. And soon we come to a large sign, “Bright Apple Acres” I have to smile at the name. Soon we are at the farmhouse, and three ponies walk out to greet us. The stallion is Big Mac size, he trots over and offers a hoof, “Welcome to the Acres, Lightning Dust. I’m Bushel.” He points to the mare, “That’s Apple Bumpkin, and there,” He points to the filly, “Is our little Apple Crumble.” I must say, I enjoy at times having ponies recognize me, but this is getting insane, every pony knows my name here, I smile, then I look at Apple Crumble, she’s a bit old to have been born on Earth. She’s probably twelve now, she bounces up, “Hi there, Lightning Dust. I can’t believe a Wonderbolt is coming to visit our little orchard.” I smile, “Thanks.” Before I can say another word, the filly is continuing, “We’ve gotten the trees to grow, and we have enough Equestrian magic here, we even have zap apple trees, we actually just finished harvesting them.” I look at the two adults, “Seriously?” Bumpkin smiles, “Oh yes. It takes an Apple, trained by Granny Smith herself to grow them. We have a dozen of the trees growing. Though with the seeds from this batch, we’ll be trying to double that, or more. Our first crop of zap apples a year ago sold out in less than ten minutes. We’ll be making the jam over the next couple of days. Though we have a few jars left from last year’s crop that we saved for personal use.” I find myself drooling a bit, I love zap apple jam. Apple Crumble seems to notice, she giggles, “I think I can arrange for you to have some jam with us. In fact, we were about to eat supper, you and your herd are welcome to join us.” She doesn’t have to ask me twice. *** We spend a wonderful two weeks in New Poniesburge. Two deer did show up. They are happy where they are right now, but I promise them we will make sure they make it to the portal the next time it opens. Prince Blueblood and the rest of the ponies will ensure their safety. And as we are loading up, the pilot comes over to me, “Back to Bismarck?” I shake my head, “No, we need to go to visit the pony colony in Florida.” “Ahhh, I’ll land you in Orlando.” He walks off to file his flight plan.