The townsfolk slowly began to leave and try and resume their normal day. The Princesses were slowly looking over my Sherman. Princess Luna turned to me and asked
"Dan, what is this machine?"
"This vehicle is called a tank, this particular tank is a M4 Sherman. Over 40,000 were built, as such it went through a few upgrades. This one is an M4A3E8 or 'Easy Eight', it has a 76mm cannon and four machine guns." I explained
"Over 40,000 what was the need for that many?" Princess Celestia asked
"World War Two." I simply said, they all gasped at that.
"So it's a war machine?" She asked, I just simply nodded my head. Princess Luna tapped her sister on the shoulder and they had a quiet conversation, Twilight walked over and joined them, leaving me alone and humming and playing the air guitar for 'Come Together' by The Beatles. They came back over to me after a few minutes.
"What's my verdict?" I asked them
"You can stay here with Twilight. We'll be back in a few days to talk to you." Luna said, something about her tone made me afraid. A bright flash blinded me again, I struggled to blink away the white from my eyes.
3rd Person POV - Canterlot Castle
"Sister..." Princess Luna began to say
"I know Lulu, if we can bring Dan here while the Griffon ambassadors are here, we may be able to scare them." Princess Celestia replied.
"But, what if it doesn't work?" Princess Luna asked
"We can only hope we can convince him to join the Royal Guard then." Princess Celestia replied quietly
Dan POV (Same time as the previous conversation)
"Well... Princess Luna seems a little..." I was thinking rude or snobbish, but I didn't want to offend anyone
"Rough around the edges?" Twilight asked, I 'hmmm' my answer "you'll have to forgive her. She's had a hard time adjusting to the modern world since she came back." She explained
"Came back from where?" I asked
"The moon." She responded nonchalantly
"Did you say the moon? As in the big rock on the night sky moon?" I asked her in disbelief
"Yes, a thousand years ago Princess Luna turned into Nightmare Moon because she was jealous that everypony would sleep through her night. She tried to plunge the world into eternal darkness, but Princess Celestia used the Elements of Harmomy and banished her to the moon for a thousand years." Twilight explained
"A thousand years? As in ten centuries?" I asked
"Correct." She simply said
"But how did she survive? There's no oxygen on the moon, not to mention no food or water either." I pointed out to her
"Magic." She simply said
"Why do I have the feeling that most things that can't be explained with simply be written off as magic?" I asked her
"It usually is the answer." She explained
"I will never get over the fact magic exists." I stated and Twiligjt gasped when I said that
"You don't have magic?" She asks, like a little kid
"No magic. no wings." I told her, I noticed the rest of her friends coming over to us. I looked back at Twilight and she had her mouth wide open.
"Whoa. What's up with the egghead?" Dash asked
"I told her that humans have no magic or wings." I said and waved my hand a few times in Twilight's face, trying to get her of her stupor. She shook her head a few times and quickly began talking.
"Then who moves the sun or the moon? Who controls the weather? Is every human really strong like earth ponies?"
"The sun sits in the middle of the solar system and the planets rotate around it. The weather does it own thing, so we can only predict it and some humans are strong, but not as strong as earth ponies." I explained, they all seemed in shock.
"Now what?" I asked them
"How about a tour of market, it wasn't open last time." Twilight suggested
"Alright." I replied
The market was definitely unique, not only did they have stands like a farmers market, but they had shops as well. The middle of the road had all the stands and stalls, where ponies were haggling over prices or gossiping and the outer edge had all stores. I noticed a mint greenish unicorn and a creamish colored earth pony looking at me, the green one was shaking the other one's arm and talking rapidly while pointing at me.
"Hey Twlight, that mint green unicorn towards the right, is talking rapidly and pointing towards me. Should I be concerned at all?" I asked
"No, unless your a human. You're not a human are you? I scheduled a Q and A at 3:00." She replied
"Yes. Yes I am. Should I run for my life?" I asked in fear. They all looked at me and said
"Yes."
"In that case, I'll be trying my hardest to remember everything on the tour to hide in." I told them and I booked it down the street, from the corner of my eyes I saw the green unicorn get up to. She started yelling something at me, but the dull roar of the market drowned her out. I ran through groups of ponies and took turns away from the market, only to run a few block and go back in. I ended up next to Big Mac and his stall.
"Hey *pant* Big Mac, *pant* can I hide in your stall? Some *pant* green unicorn is chasing me because *pant* I'm a human." I asked while trying to slow my heartbeat
"Eeyup." He said, opening the back hatch on the stall
"Thanks." I said and I hid under one of the ledges of the stall holding various apple products.
"Here she comes." He told me quietly
"Hey Big Mac." I heard her say
"Howdy Lyra, what can Ah get ya?" He asked
"I'll take a dozen Honeycrisps." She said
"That'll be five bits." He said as he grabbed a bag, I heard coins jingling.
"Have you seen any humans?" She suddenly asked, Big Mac chuckled
"Hoomans? Nnope they're a little foals tale Lyra." He said
"No they aren't! I saw one on the other side of the market." She told him
"Maybe it was a traveling merchant."
"He had no fur. I have to find him."
"Well, I haven't seen him, but good luck on your search." He said, and she kept trying to find me. I sat there waiting to come out.
"Ya can come out now." He said
"Thanks Big Mac, you're a life saver. Who was that anyway." I said, looking at her and her friends back as they kept trying to find me.
"That's Lyra and her marefriend Bon Bon." He told me
"Marefriend? Oh wait, I get it now, girlfriend." I said, he just raised an eyebrow at me. I just shrugged.
"I have a feeling I'll be here for a while, need some help?" I asked him
"Eeyup, could have hand me a bag on Golden Delicious, its marked GD." He said, I grabbed a bag and handed it to him. I glanced over at Lyra and she turned around and we locked eyes. She grabbed her friend and tried to fight through the crowd to get to me.
"Oh my God, she saw me. Well Big Mac, it's been fun, but I have to run for my life. See you later." I said as I vaulted the stand.
"Eeyup" he said, and causally went back to running the stand.
I began taking random turns, trying to throw her off my trail. I turned down a small road, only to go into a deadend alleyway. I was about to run back out, when I heard her voice. I looked around for a way out. There was a bunch of crates, I started to stack them to climb on the roof and live another day.
"C'mon Bonnie he went down this alley." Lyra said
"How do you know that it's a he?" Another voice asked her, that must be Bon Bon.
"Because he looked exactly like the book said: no fur and a short mane. They look almost like us, but with no wings, horns or fur." She explained, I began climbing the crates.
"There he is wait!" I heard her say I sped up the climb, when I reached the roof I kicked the top box off to slow them down. I slid down the roof and landed on the other side of the house, right in front of Twilight and her friends.
"Oh hey, what's up?" I asked nonchalantly
"Dan? Why on tarnation were ya on the roof for?" AJ asked
"Running from Lyra and her girlfriend, that why." I said, as I brushed the dirt off my clothes, a light blue aura surroundied the rest and removed of the dirt.
"Thanks Rarity."
"Of course darling, but please do be more careful."
"Alright, I'll be in the market, maybe the crowd can help hide me." I told them and I began to run to the market
"Don't t forget the Q and A at 3!" Twilight called after me.
I was in the market, just walking around and looking at the stalls and eavesdropping on local gossip. I checked my phone, 2:00. I still had an hour to hide from Lyra. I should probably go check on my tank, make sure no one stole anything. On my way back to it, I passed a cluster of flower stands, which somehow seemed bad, yet good for their business. They were all singing a song, I didn't really pay attention to the lyrics, I took a quick moment to stop and glance around for my stalker. Suddenly, music began to play and everyone converged on the stands, I had no idea what was happening, but I ran for my life. I fought against the crowd and made it out of there in one piece, more ponies were coming to join. I saw Scootaloo running away as well.
"I HATE when they get all mushy!" She said as we ran away
"Quick! In the tank." I said to her. We jumped in and sat there, looking through the periscopes at the flash mob.
"Scootaloo, what the hell is going on?" I asked her
"It's something to do with magic, for some reason when a pony began to sing, it kinda attracts other ponies to join in and then the music plays and they all sing." She explained
"That makes no sense. How long does this last?"
"Should be a couple more mi- Sweet Celestia they're coming this way!" She begins to answer, bu the crowd come our way. I start the engine and back up a little, before fully turning around and driving away. I drove to Twilight's house.... castle... crystal castle... place of residence, since that's where we were supposed to meet her at. I pulled out my phone to check the time, 2:20, I started to play some games on it while we waited.
"Whoa, what type of phone is that?" Scootaloo asked
"It's an iPhone 6." I told her
"Look like my uPhone. Is it new?"
"It's about a year old, too bad my service provider doesn't cover other planets." I said jokingly
"You could probably have Vinyl transfer your stuff over to a uPhone."
"Who's Vinyl?" God these ponies have some weird names.
"She's the local DJ and runs an electronic store in town." She explains, her phone started ringing
"Hello?.... At Twilight's castle... Yea he's here too... We did... Ok.. Bye. That was RD wondering where we were." She told me after her call, we climbed out and waited for them to arrive.