Night begins to fall upon the Equestrian sky. The entirety of Twilight's day, devoted to finding a solution for Timothy's dilemma. However as night begins to transition most of Twilight's friends have returned to their homes, leaving her with her assistant and one frustrated human................

As Twilight read further into the book laid out in front of her, she looked out of the window behind her. It was well into the night and all her friends had already gone home, leaving her with only Spike and the recent arrival, Tim. Twilight must have read over at least 100 hundred different spell books, trying to find anything that could help Tim get back home. Unfortunately, her results were less than satisfactory. She and her friends searched over the texts accumulated in her library for the whole day. Tim even helped. It was difficult for him at first, as he noticed the books were written in a different alphabet. Twilight quickly went over the letters with him. The more he went over them, the more he caught on to something. Their alphabet was identical to the English one, just with different symbols. It made reading for him possible, but he was at a much slower pace than the rest of the group.

With six ponies, one dragon, and one human, they made some breakthroughs on portals and dimensional travel, but nothing really aligning to what Tim had described. Twilight closed her book and looked at Spike, who was already asleep with a book over his face. Twilight knew that was typical, she herself felt like doing the same. She then looked at Tim and saw how he fared. She saw that he was sitting at the base of one of the bookshelves, reading. He was still awake, but clearly tired. Slight bags began to form under his eyes, his eye movement was slowing down, and he began dozing off and reawakening every once in a while. But despite this he continued on, still focused on what he was doing.

"Tim, we've been at this all day, I think we need to call it a night." said Twilight.

Tim looked up from his book and looked at her. It took him a while to respond, indicating he was clearly exhausted.

"We can't stop now, we only got a few leads, there's gotta be something we're missin'." he said with frustration.

"Tim, I'm sorry that we couldn't find anything, but it's almost midnight. Spike's bedtime was at least 2 hours ago, and I'm ready to go to bed myself."

Tim took a look outside the window. He saw the same moon and stars as the night prior, all shining across the beautiful night sky. He then let out a yawn, and realized Twilight was right. He might have been accustomed to late night missions and patrols, but the scenario clearly indicated that she wasn't. He closed the book in front of him.

"Hey, I've got an idea. The only other pony who might know what you’re looking for is my mentor, Princess Celestia. Since we couldn't find anything here, maybe she might know or even have what you need."

"Call? Well, no, but I can write her a letter and send it first thing tomorrow morning."

"Forgive me Princess, I realize that y'all ain't got some of the tech my people have, but I think a letter is gonna take just a bit too long."

Twilight was unsure why he said that, and then realized she forgot to mention how she delivered them.

Tim still couldn't wrap his head around the idea of magic considering he came from a world of logic and science. But as far as he knew, it was capable of doing anything in this world. He studied a bit of it while reading over the books today. Apparently it was the most powerful aspect of their world. He saw firsthand how it could levitate and move objects without any rational explanation. He figured if it can do that why couldn't it be used to do something trivial, like sending letters.

"Well, I guess I'll head back to that bench. Hope nobody took it while I was gone. Sleepin' on the ground ain't exactly ideal."

"Tim, I'm not going to make you sleep back at the gazebo, you can stay here for the night."

"Why.....why, thank you! I'll tell ya, never even thought of the idea of staying in a place as nice as this. I figured it would be askin' too much of ya. I didn't wanna impose at all."

"Nonsense, you're welcome to stay as long as you need to. Besides, it might be awhile before we find you a way back home, and I don't want anypony thinking you’re some sort of alien vagrant."

"Yeah, I bet that'd be pretty funny, but I usually don't make it a habit of sleeping in publuc places." Tim laughed.

Twilight lent her hoof towards Tim and helped pull him up on his feet. As they crossed the room Twilight used her magic to levitate Spike off the ground and onto her back, thankfully without disturbing him. As the three exited the room and walked down the hall, Twilight noticed the worrying look on her guest's face.

Tim was lying. He had been feeling dread throughout the entire day. Every book he came across had little to no benefit towards his situation, and from what he could understand, the more time he spent in this world, the more these feelings rose. He couldn't pinpoint why he felt this way, but something kept tugging at his core.

The two took a left down yet another hallway, and stopped at the first door to the left. Twilight used her magic to open it, revealing the guest bedroom. The room was decorated similarly to the rest of the castle interior, with a large window on the left side of the room. In it was bed with a nightstand at each side, a large wardrobe, a few chairs, and a large dresser.

Tim smiled as he walked into the room. Not even did he take two steps before he suddenly stopped, taking its size and regality all in and turned back to her.

"It's amazing, thank you." he said as he walked towards the bed, sitting down on it. "I really can't thank you enough."

"Sheesh! Princess, I know what a bed is, we have those back where I'm from. Though I have to say I can't recall the last time I slept in a real bed. Sheets, pillows, and all."

Twilight's curiosity for him had been peeked since that morning. If not for his dilemma she probably would have spent the whole day just asking him questions. What his world was like on a day-to-day basis, his species' history, how far they progressed without magic, and most importantly what kind of technology they possessed. However it was late, and she was rather tired from reading all day. She let out a yawn.

"Well, I'm glad you like it, Tim. Go ahead and make yourself at home.” Twilight invited. “Do you need anything else?"

"Nah, I should be good, besides you look like you're ready to hit the rack yourself."

“Military. I thought he might be a soldier, but he doesn't look like one. He doesn't have the elegant look like the ponies of the Royal Guard. In fact I'd have to say he looks a little unkempt. Not to mention he has no armor, no weapon, no.......” she thought to herself.

She the realized that the strange thing across his back might be his weapon. She couldn't believe that one slipped her by. She didn't assume it to be anything important, it didn't even look dangerous. If she had known she probably would have asked him to turn it over. But she pondered that notion for a moment.

“Well, now that I know what kind of pony, or human, he is, and considering how he hasn't threatened or tried to hurt anypony with it, I suppose it's okay if he holds on to it. He might-”

Twilight snapped out of her train of thought, realizing she was just standing there in awkward silence.

And with that she shut the door to his room, leaving Tim to his lonesome. Tim's dreadful feelings returned immediately. He looked over his surroundings once again. He got up from the bed and began to search for places to house his belongings, hopefully that would shake some of the feelings off. He took off his hat and placed on one of the nightstands. He then slung off his rifle and placed it inside the wardrobe. Normally he would have it at his side at all times, but seeing as this wasn't the wasteland, chances of being jumped by something while sleeping were low. After that he took off his belt, satchel, and backpack and placed them across one of the chairs. He unzipped his jacket and stuffed it into one of the dresser doors, and finally took off his boots, putting them at the foot of the bed. All that was on him now was his cargo pants and undershirt. He walked over to the bed once again. He pulled over the covers and positioned himself under them. He sunk into the mattress.

As he laid his head on one of the pillows, he turned to gaze upon the moon and stars. He really began to take in just how beautiful the nights were here. Better than back home, where the sky just turned black when night fell. The nights here were a gorgeous mosaic of shining stars and a bright moon. As he gazed upon it he felt the exhaustion pass over him. His eyelids felt heavy, and he slowly began to fall asleep.

Blackness, this is all he could see. In the midst of the blackness, a light was found. He approached, cautiously at first, then transitioned into a running-like state. He could hear the echoes of voices in the distance, but could not make out what was being said. Then the loud whisper came into earshot. RUN! It said. But he couldn't turn back, not now, it was too important to ignore, even if he was unaware of what it was.

The blackness began to retreat, revealing in its wake a shattered landscape of dust and sand. The voice whispered loudly once more. GET OUT OF HERE! But once more, he ignored it. He traversed across the remains of rusted out cars, rocks, and crumbled buildings. He then turned a corner, and before him stood a masculine figure with its back turned towards him. His stance and features seemed familiar, really familiar.

The figure must have realized it was being watched. He turned towards him, eyes glowing a bright white. His expression was blank at first. But once it had its sights on him, the expression turned to fear. It screamed.

And with that came a loud crack in the distance, and in its outburst came the yellow stream of light that touched the figure in a frightening display, shattering him like glass and the world returned to black again.

Tim woke up, desperately gasping for air. His vision returned to him from the nightmare he just experienced. He was in the castle guest room, as he was before he went to sleep. His body was covered in sweat, and he was breathing heavily. He placed his hands on his forehead.

He looked outside his window. The moon was still up, but he could see the faint hints of dawn in the distance.

"Must be about six o'clock. Good a time as any to get up, sure as hell ain't goin' back to sleep."

With that he got out of bed. Tim went and grabbed his coat. But he stopped to think for a moment on what he had just dreamed.

Tim shook his head violently. He didn't want to think about it, he refused to think about it. Tim resumed what he was doing, putting the coat, and the rest of his equipment on his person. After a short while of getting everything together, he then went over to make his bed. He returned everything back to what it was like before he had used it. It didn't take him very long to do. Since he was military, he had to do this everyday and knew the whole process by heart.

With those two things out of the way Tim grabbed his hat and placed it on his head. Opening the bedroom door, he walked outside into the empty hall. Tim began searching all the rooms to see if he could find Princess Twilight, and verify if she was awake or not. He searched door after door throughout the castle. Most of the rooms were empty. When Tim finally did find her room, he saw that the door was partially open. He peeked inside, and saw that Twilight was deep into her sleep, and her friend Spike was in even deeper into his. He thought it would be rude to wake them, especially since they stayed up with him all of last night. Feeling that they more than deserved a fair amount of rest, Tim slowly pulled his head back out into the hallway and began to think.

“Okay, so they're both asleep, and I don't wanna wake em'. So Tim, what can you do to pass the time?”

Usually he didn't have to do exercise, as most of his days were spent trucking from one end of the wasteland to the other while on assignment,
. While that would seem like a cop-out, that particular task involved a lot of walking, lifting, occasional running for dear life, and of course, fighting. It pretty much made up his usual exercise routine, but without a wasteland he'd have to resort to doing the "Militiaman Standard" 200 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 pull-ups, and a 10 mile run. Although Tim considered cutting the last part out, not because he didn't want to do it, but more along the lines of him unable to do it. Leaving the castle without the Princess was just asking for trouble, and he very much doubted that she would have a track inside her home.

Despite this he continued to go through with his plans, and returned back down the hallway towards his room. Once he was back in the room, he set took his belongings off of him once again. He laid down on the ground and began performing the push-up stance. His arms were spread out with elbows bent, his legs stretched without his knees touching the floor. He then began to lift his body up and let it descend, beginning the exercise routine.

Twilight's eyes began to open at the sight of sun rays coming into her room. As she lifted herself up from the covers, she began to rub her eyes. She looked around the room. In the small bed on the floor lay Spike, as usual. She then remembered the day before and what transpired. She immediately got out of bed, tip-toeing past Spike and to her desk. Her horn began to glow, as she opened one of the drawers pulling out quill, ink, and parchment. She placed it on the desk and she began to write a letter to her teacher.

I have an urgent matter that requires your attention. Yesterday my friends and I came across one of the most peculiar creatures I've ever seen. His name is Timothy Berfield, and he refers to himself as a "human". He seems to be from another world, or dimension. He told us that he was brought here against his will via some sort of portal, from the way he's described it. However, he's desperately trying to find his way back home, and we were unable to find anything helpful inside my library. I was wondering if you could help us. Maybe you know something I don't. If you could stop by my castle whenever you have the chance, I can introduce you to him, I would really appreciate your insight on the matter.

With that she cleaned off her quill and set everything back into the drawer, except the letter. She looked over at Spike, who was still sleeping. She walked over to him with the letter levitating at her side, and gently tapped him on his shoulder.

"And I intend to, I just need you to send this letter to the princess really quick and I'll be out of your head."

Spike attempted to grab the parchment from her grasp twice, only succeeding with his third attempt. He brought it over to his face and sent a burst of green magical flame to send it in.

With her confirmation, he returned to his slumber. She turned around and exited the room.

Twilight made her way down the hallway, and took a left to where Tim was sleeping. When she opened the door she expected to see Tim sound asleep, instead she saw that he was exercising on a makeshift pull-up bar. It consisted of two sets of stacked chairs, with the strange weapon Tim carried acting as the bar. Tim noticed her entrance.

Tim turned around to look at her. He found it rather odd that she asked the question in the first place.

"Well, I wasn't entirely certain until now. Soldiers here usually don't look like you do."

"No, not that, it's just, they usually wear armor, and have a weapon that actually looks like, well, not that." she said pointing to Tim's AK.

Tim just stared at her awkwardly. From the way she was putting it, it sounded like they hadn't even progressed out of the dark ages when it came to technology.

"Princess, I am a soldier, and I can assure you this is a weapon, I just hope you don't see what it can do."

"Considering how you described your race, I won't doubt that. Still, a part of me is still curious. It just feels like your leaving a lot of things out in your story."

Tim really didn't want to talk about this, he tried to find some sort of distraction. That's when his stomach began to growl.

"I'll tell ya what Princess, you get me somethin to eat and I'll answer what I can. But you got to promise me you won't tell anyone. And I mean anyone, if I tell you somethin' important."

Twilight saw how his tone turned serious. He felt very strongly about this subject, and she knew the best course of action would be to comply.

"You have my word, but I can tell you first hand nopony here wants to bring harm to you or anyone you may be protecting. You can trust us Tim."

"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!" she said with a smile.

Tim shrugged for he didn't have the answer. Twilight just rolled her eyes and gestured for him to follow her. Before he did, he quickly grabbed his things, and raced to catch up with her. As he properly positioned his hat and tightened the strap of his backpack, he turned to look at Twilight.

"A little place we like to call, Sugarcube Corner. I have a feeling you're going to like it." she said with a grin.

The Ones From Beyond

by Lordvessel

Chapter 8: Stuck for Now