After lunch, Golden Dawn gave me a detailed rundown of where she found me and my truck. She found me less than five miles from the edge of what the ponies called the Badlands. If I had made it past the edge of the Badlands, I would have found a road that lead right to Hoofston, assuming I had gone west.
I questioned her about the possibility of getting my truck and trailer, all my stuff was still in it and I didn't want to just leave it out in the Badlands. That meant getting the truck unstuck and that was going to take some major work. Based on what I had seen so far these ponies had 1800s level technology so getting a flatbed and driving out into the desert was out. Still there had to be a way to get it.
Golden Dawn agreed and said she had a few ideas. One of which was to just lift it out, but by her guess it would take at least four strong earth ponies to do that. I thought she was underestimating the weight of the truck, but either way that seemed risky, if it fell it could end up more damaged than it already might be.
"Any other ideas?" I asked
"Well we could put something underneath it, give it some support," she said.
"Like a bridge?"
"It doesn't even have to be that complicated, just filling trench up with dirt would be sufficient. We could block up the sides with some boards and then fill it in. Then I think we could pull it with one or two ponies, with something for the wheels to roll on we wouldn't have to worry about the truck falling into the trench."
"That might work, is there any chance we can get out there soon?"
"Not today you can't," Dusty said looking at me sternly. "You need to get some rest and let your body recuperate."
I thought about pressing the matter, but in truth I didn't feel so great. Actually since lunch I had been feeling a bit worse, my stomach felt strange and I had the early signs of a soon to be massive headache.
I ended up laying down and sleeping most of the afternoon away. When I woke up, I was feeling a bit better, the headache was almost completely gone and my stomach felt fine. I found Dusty in the dining room eating dinner; he had a tray with food on it, a meal he was going to bring me when I woke up. I joined him at the table and began to eat. As I sat there munching on fruit, he let me know that Golden Dawn had gone home for the day. She asked him to let me know that she would stop by tomorrow. Then we could discuss heading out to the truck if I was feeling better. After I finished eating I spent the rest of the evening asking Dusty questions about Equestria.
The bulk of my questions revolved around unicorns, magic and spells. I really wanted to get a handle on what my chances were to get back to Earth. If I Dusty was right and I had gotten here by magic, surely it could get me home. Unfortunately Dusty didn't have any solid answers for me, he didn't know of any pony in town that had the necessary skill in magic to get me home. My best bet he insisted, was to make my way north, to a larger town and look for a wizard or a mage. If that didn't work and I was still unable to find a pony to help, he said I could always head to the capital.
Equestria was a diarchy run by two alicorn sisters, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. According to Dusty, both of the princesses were incredibly powerful and their skill in magic was unmatched. If there was a way to get me home, they would know it.
I questioned him on that, would the princesses lock me up and try to study me? I was an alien to these ponies and didn't want run into any government officials if I could help it. Dusty thought the very idea sounded horrible, he asserted that Princess Celestia would never do such a thing unless I purposely endangered the lives of her subjects.
It also seemed odd to me that I could just swing by the capital and get have a chat with the leaders of the country, but Dusty claimed that Princess Celestia had an open session five days a week where anypony (his words, not mine) could have an audience with her for any reason. Luna did the same but her session was at night. The whole concept boggled my mind, imagine being able to drive to Washington DC and have a chat with the president, normal people just didn't get that chance.
Dusty must have been a huge fan of the Princesses, I could tell by the way he was talking about them. He rambled on about the history of Equestria the Celestia's long and benevolent reign. I vaguely remember him saying something about Celestia being in charge of the day and Luna the night, but I was finding it harder and harder to paying attention as the headache that had nearly vanished was back in full force.
Dusty must have noticed that I was in pain because he stopped mid sentence and asked if I was okay.
"Not really, I've got a killer headache, it started earlier this afternoon but then kind of died out, now its back and even worse. I don't suppose ponies have painkillers? My head feels like there's a jackhammer inside, trying to get out."
"There are spells that can dull pain, as well as potions brewed by herbologists, but for the most part we just use aspirin."
"Oh thank god, do you have any?"
He nodded and returned with a small bottle. He opened the top with his mouth, which disturbed me slightly, and then dumped two pills onto his hoof. Then he looked me over and put one of the pills back in the bottle and stretched his hoof out. I expected it to fall off when he stretched out his leg towards me but the pill stuck fast.
"Are you going to take it?" he asked, holding his hoof out.
"How is it doing that?" I asked, reaching out to take the pill.
"Doing what?"
"The pill, it was sticking to your hoof, there's nothing holding it there."
"We talked about all ponies have different abilities, this is one that all ponies share. There is a low level magical field around our hooves that enables us to grasp things," he said, dropping the pill into my hand.
"Does it work on your rear hooves as well?"
"Yes, but it is not as strong and our rear hooves lacks the ability for fine manipulation that our forehoves have."
I swallowed the painkiller with a quick swig of water. We talked a bit longer and I learned some more about ponies. After a while Dusty let out a long yawn. I looked out the window and was surprised to see the sun had gone down long ago.
"I think I'm going to call it a night," he said, standing up from his seat. "If you need anything, don't hesitate to wake me."
I thanked him and then headed back to the room he was letting me use. I sat in the bed for a while, staring at the ceiling. The whole situation was crazy, I still wasn't sure it was real, but it had none of the strangeness nor disconnected flow of events that I'd associate with a dream. The way I figured it, I had two choices. I could ignore everything, assume it was all some delusion and refuse to cooperate with anyone, or I could accept that somehow, an impossible event had occurred and I really had been whisked away to another planet where magic was a thing and cute colorful ponies ruled over the land.
If I went with the former, and I was wrong, things would go badly for me. But if I went with the latter, I had nothing to lose. Even if I was wrong, and all this was some sort of insane dream, it wouldn't hurt anything by participating in it. My mind was made up, and the aspirin was starting to kick in, so I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.
I woke up feeling refreshed, with only the slightest pain in my head. I threw on the same clothes I had been wearing the day before. They were starting to smell, but I had nothing else till I got to the truck. That made me think a bit about my situation more. After my talk with Dusty last night, it seemed that even if everything went smoothly in my search for a way home, I could be stuck here for a while. All I had to my name were the clothes on my back, the things in my pockets and whatever was in the truck and trailer.
The most immediate problem I would have to resolve was a lack of food. With no money, I had no way to feed myself. Actually, that wasn't true. I thought about what Dusty had said, there being wild animals in the Badlands. If I really needed to, I might be able to hunt. That was, assuming I could recover the trailer, which was my top priority. I had the other two guns and a good deal of ammunition in there.
One issue with hunting would be I had no way of knowing which animals were wild, and which were not. I had absolutely no issue with hunting on Earth where animals were animals, but I didn't want shoot something, only to find out too late that I had just killed a talking deer or cow or whatever lived around here.
That reminded me, I wasn't sure what to do with the revolver, neither pony had commented on it the day before, that might mean that they didn't care or maybe they had no idea what it was. I didn't want to leave a gun laying around Dusty's house, especially if he didn't know what it was, that was just asking for trouble. In the United States, open carry laws varied widely state by state and I didn't want to end up in a pony prison. Eventually I decided to keep it in my backpack, unloaded. The ammo went another pouch which was as close to a safe storage solution that I could manage I could lock it back in the trailer or find out if I was allowed to carry it. I'd have to ask Golden Dawn about it at some point.
Circling back to my laundry list of problems, I again considered my lack of money. There was the possibility of finding some sort of temporary work, but that posed more questions. I wasn't a citizen of this country, would I be allowed to work? What kind of work would be available? I doubted any of my skills would come in handy. I guess I could always fall back on manual labor, not my favorite idea but I'd rather do that than starve.
My thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.
"Hail, are you awake yet?" Golden Dawn asked.
"Yeah, coming," I said, standing up. Both Golden Dawn and Dusty Heart seemed to mispronounce my nickname. I might have devoted some more time to thinking about that little oddity but compared everything else that had happened to me in the last few days, it wasn't a big deal. I grabbed my backpack then opened the door.
Dusty was in the living room, reading a newspaper, I said goodbye and thanked him for helping me out. Then Golden Dawn lead me to the front door. When it came into view, I paused, standing in the hallway.
Golden saw me stop and turned around. "What's up?" she asked.
"I haven't been out there yet, at least not while I was awake. Beyond that door is a entirely new world," I said with just a hint of nervousness.
"You'll be fine," Golden said with a reassuring smile.
"Won't ponies be scared of me? If an alien showed up on Earth, there's no way it could go out in public without causing a panic of some sort. At the very least the government would get involved, it would be a major world changing event."
"Well it's not like anypony will know you're from another world, unless you tell them. But honestly it shouldn't really matter."
"I'm not a pony, I think I'm going to stand out."
"I don't know about the bigger cities up north, but here on the frontier, ponies are used to seeing other species. Remember what we talked about yesterday? Buffalo, zebras, diamond dogs, minotaurs and griffons and that's just to name a few. We even occasionally see dragons," she gave me a comforting smile and put her wing on my back, "besides you can't stay cooped up in here forever."
"I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around that," I said to her.
"Why?" she asked curiously.
"Because apparently your world is a smorgasbord of both real and mythological creatures from mine, many of which are intelligent, and on top of that you've got the whole magic thing going. It just doesn't make any sense. Do you know how many intelligent species there are on Earth?"
She shook her head.
"Just one, humans, my species. And that is it. I mean there are some fairly smart animals, but we humans are the only species to form a civilization."
"That's pretty strange," she said. "It seems... lonely somehow."
"Well, there's around seven billion of us, but yeah, I guess it is. For much of human history we've wondered if we are alone in the universe. If I ever did make it back to Earth, and had a way to prove that I didn't make this whole thing up, well it would be the most important discovery of the millennium, maybe even of all history."
Golden Dawn whistled sharply. "Seven billion? I think Equestria has just over 100 million, and that's including other species that live here, not just ponies, though we're the bulk of the population."
"Well that's the whole planet, not just my country, but yeah, there are a lot of us." I said, walking towards the door, "in any case you're right, I need to get out of here."
Golden Dawn opened the door and I followed her through. After that talk, walking out the door seemed fairly anti-climatic. One small step for man... into someone's front yard. It just looked like a front yard. There was even a white picket fence surrounding the place. The only thing unusual was the lack of driveway, but I didn't expect ponies to have cars so that made sense.
Dusty's house was a bit of a ways outside of the main part of town. We walked down the dusty dirt road heading towards the center of town. We passed a few scattered houses on the way there, but I still didn't see anything very unusual. They just looked like old houses. That changed when we reached what had to be the main street of the town. The buildings themselves were fairly normal, at least for an old western town, I looked at the signs as we walked by, a general store, a barber shop, a saloon all pretty normal for a wild west town, but the population was anything but normal. There were disturbingly cute candy colored ponies everywhere! Red, blue, green, pink, yellow, and the list just went on. Some wore cowboy hats, some wore shirts, most wore nothing. It was like I had woken up in a colony of nudist aliens.
Saddle bags, like the ones Golden Dawn were wearing were somewhat common place, but a good number of ponies walking down the street were just carrying things on their backs. I stopped for a moment to stare at the dozens of ponies; some of them gave me a curious look as they walked by, but most ignored me as they went about their business.
"This is incredible," I said. When I didn't hear a reply I looked around and noticed that Golden Dawn had kept walking, I hurried up and caught up with her.
I turned and gawked as a unicorn trotted past me, a newspaper levitating in front of him surrounded in a red glow. Some movement in the corner of my eye caught my attention and I looked to the left just in time to see a pegasus landed gracefully, she folded up her wings and then trotted into a nearby building. Up in the sky a pair of ponies were pushing small bits of cloud around. I watched a light pink pegasus with a bright yellow mane line up a dark gray cloud over a small patch of flowers growing in front of a shop. Then she flew up and landed on top of it and started to jump up and down. When the jumping started the cloud opened up and rain started falling out of it. With each jump the cloud lightened until it reached a fluffy white and the rain stopped. She stood on top of the cloud for a moment, looking around at the town below. As her view shifted towards the part of the street Golden and I were walking down, she shouted down towards us.
"Hey Golden Dawn!"
She jumped off the cloud, spread her wings and spiraled down, landing in front of us.
"Oh hi Blue Skies, what's up?"
Now that she was closer I could make out her cutie mark. It was a sun with a happy smiling face drawn inside it.
"Saw you walking around with your new friend, figured I'd fly down and say hello, now that he's more awake," she said.
"Oh yeah, Blue Skies, this is Hail Storm," Golden said, pointing at me. I took mild amusement from the name Golden Dawn introduced me as. Then again from what I knew of pony names it seemed to fit the theme. "Hail Storm, this is my friend, Blue Skies, she's one of the town's weather ponies."
"Hello," she said with a friendly smile. She extended a hoof. I reached out and she grabbed my hand, there was that strange grip again, I could feel it holding my hand in place as she shook her hoof up and down.
"Hi," I said returning the smile. "That was a neat trick with the cloud."
"Huh?" she said looking confused. "What do you mean?"
"They don't manage the weather where Hail's from," Golden Dawn said.
Blue Skies's face twisted up in disgust. "No weather ponies? Is it like the Everfree where the weather runs wild?"
I shrugged, "I dunno, like Golden said, I'm not from around here. I don't know anything about the Everfree's weather. All I know is humans, which is what I am, have no control over the weather. It does it's own thing and we're stuck with what we get."
"That sounds awful, you should look into hiring some pegasus ponies to manage it for you, there's plenty of freelance weather ponies on the market." Blue Skies said.
I laughed at that, "maybe someday I think it would be a bit of a commute though."
"Ah, far from home?" she asked.
"That's putting it mildly, " I said with a laugh.
"Hail's a bit lost, he's not quite sure how he got here, we think magic was involved." Golden Dawn said.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Blue Skies said, touching my shoulder with her wing.
"Actually, that reminds me, I figured we could stop by Sheriff Justice's office before we head out to the Badlands, it's a long shot but he might know about what kind of magic might have brought you here," Golden Dawn said.
"i just finished, I'm off till this evening," Blue Skies said, "mind if I tag along?"
Golden lit up with a happy smile.
"That would actually be great, but there's a catch if you want to tag along," she said.
"Oh what's that?" Blue Skies asked.
"Well we've got a long trip ahead of us, little over 50 miles, and Hail Storm's truck is pretty stuck. In order to free it, Hail Storm and I are going to need some help and that's going to start with helping me pull a wagon full of supplies."
Blue Skies made a sour face before expressing her disappointment.
"You're going to walk? Can't we just fly out there?" she said with a pout.
"No!" I said sharply, the very thought made me dizzy. Both ponies looked at me strangely before Golden answered.
"Do you see any wings on Hail Storm?" she said. "Besides like I said we're going to need a bunch of stuff, shovels, wooden support beams, plywood, rope, and food and water as well."
"Fine, I'm only free till dinner time though, then I've got work again," Blue Skies said.
"This is the first I'm hearing of all this," I said with some surprise at Golden Dawn's plan.
"I spent a lot of time thinking about it this morning before I headed over, I'm almost positive we can do this ourselves, but with help from another pony it will go even quicker."
"Won't all this cost money? All those supplies?" I asked.
"Nah, I got most of that at my shop, except for the food," Golden said.
"Alright, I've got to fly home real quick and grab my saddlebags, I'll meet you at the sheriff's office."
"Darn, I knew I forgot something, I left mine at Dusty's, can you swing by and grab them for me?" Golden Dawn asked.
"Sure thing, see you in a bit." Blue Skies replied, then she took off into the air.
We continued down the main street. Before long we came to small wooden building with barred windows, the sign hanging over the door said 'Sheriff'. We walked up to the front door and headed inside. Inside were two empty cells, one on the right and one on the left of the central room. There was a pale grey pony wearing a cowboy hat and a denim vest with a golden star sitting at a desk going over some paperwork.
"Hey Sheriff," Golden Dawn said.
"One second Golden Dawn," the pony sheriff said without looking up. He picked up the pile of papers he was looking at, put them into an envelope and then put the envelope into a drawer.
"Sorry about that, Wanderlust has disappeared again, Desert Cactus hasn't seen him in two days," he said as he turned his attention towards us. He noticed me first, gave me a quick once over, and finally turned to to Golden Dawn. "This must be that... what was it... human? that you were telling me about."
"Nothing bad I hope," I said jokingly.
"Nope, from my conversation with Golden last night it sounds like you might be a bit lost."
"Yes sir, I'm not really sure how I got here," I said with a sigh. Then I launched into a shortened version of my story, starting out on the road home and waking up at Dusty's. I went over some of the things that had become more clear, such as my suspicion that I was no longer even on the same planet, and briefly covered humanities complete lack of magic which would make such a trip an impossibility from my perspective.
Justice listened intently, when I finished talking he excused himself, went to a back room and returned with a large folded up piece of paper floating next to him. I watched in wonder as it unfolded itself, still in the air, and then floated down to land on his desk. Now that I could see the top of it, I realized it was a map.
"This is a map covering all of Equestria, the country spans the continent from east to west in most locations, there are a few exceptions. This large western peninsula north of Las Pegasus is unexplored, also a small section in the extreme northwest is held by the Yaks," he said pointing out a city named Yakyakistan.
I groaned inwardly, wondering what was with this world and punny names.
"Technically the kingdom's borders extend all the way to the southern edge of the continent, though much of the southern land is unsettled. Hoofston is one of the most southern pony towns. Does any of this map look familiar to you?"
It only took a quick glance at the map to make it immediately clear that it didn't match up with any continents on Earth. That settled it then, unless this was all some elaborate lie or I really had gone crazy, then this map confirmed I wasn't on Earth anymore.
"None of this looks familiar, not the continent or even the layout of the oceans. Humans have mapped the whole globe and none of this is on it. Dusty Heart said the event I described to him sounded like magic and that I should talk to a unicorn. As I mentioned, magic is a a whole new thing to me, it just doesn't exist in my world, except in fictional stories. Is there anything you can tell me about how I might have gotten here?"
"Well based on your description, like Dusty I'd suspect magic, but you have to understand, I'm just a country sheriff, not a magician or a wizard. I know a few spells, mostly they help me with my job. Apart from that my magical abilities are fairly limited. I can immobilize a threat, I can analyze clues, I'm a good judge of character, I can usually tell when somepony is lying and my levitation is stronger than the average unicorn's and that's about it. What you really need to find is a magician, or even talk to one of the princesses."
"Oh," I said softly, feeling somewhat disheartened, "Dusty warned me that might be your answer, but I had hoped you might know something."
Golden Dawn bumped up against my side. "Don't worry Hail Storm, I'm sure somepony will know how to get you home."
The door opened and Blue Skies walked inside, she was wearing a pair of leather bags connected by a strap. Her cutie mark, a smiling sun, was imprinted on the bags. She turned her head around, opened the bag on her left side with her mouth and pulled out another set of bags that had been folded up. The amount of dexterity ponies had with their mouths amazed me.
"ere ya go," she said to Golden Dawn, who took the saddle bags from Blue Skies and draped them over her back. Like Blue Skies, Golden's saddle bags had her cutie mark emblazoned on it, a metal piston.
"Thanks," Golden Dawn said.
I thanked Justice for his information and we headed out. Golden Dawn wanted to stop and get breakfast before we headed out to my truck. I was getting pretty hungry myself but I still had no money, so when we got to the open market, I waited patiently to the side while Golden stood in line. Blue Skies had already eaten so she waited with me.
"So why are you two headed out to the Badlands anyway?" she asked.
"My truck is out there, uh it's like a big metal self powered wagon."
"Like a train?" she asked.
"Oh, I didn't realize ponies had trains," I said.
"Yep, we do. Golden Dawn works on them. I'm surprised she hasn't talked your head off, she can go on about steam engines or anything mechanical for hours." Blue Skies said with a laugh. "She has a degree in mechanical engineering, she graduated top of her class from the Mareachusetts Institute of Technology. She actually designed the 4-8-2 Frontier class while she was still in school, she sold the designs to Prancesylvania Railroad. I think that's how she got enough bits to start up her business down here right after she graduated."
Golden Dawn finished up in line, paid and trotted over. Her saddle bags were both clearly stuffed full, and there was two large canteens hanging off sides of the saddle bags.
"I thought you were only grabbing breakfast," I asked.
"I did, for me and you too. Plus some water, we're actually going to have to stop here one more time once we get the cart, I want to get two days supplies, just in case we have to spend the night out there. Anyway, breakfast's on the right, water is on the left. Help yourself to some food and grab a canteen."
"Thanks Golden, I feel rotten not being able to pay for anything, I'll make it up to you as soon as I can."
"Don't worry about it," she said.
"I can't help it, I'm not used relying on others, especially for something like food. I should be able to provide for myself."
"No pony is an island," Blue Skies said, "from what little I know, you've found yourself in a fantastic situation through no fault of your own. There's no shame in accepting help from a friend until you can get back on your hooves."
Golden Dawn smiled at me, "exactly and besides it's not like I can let you starve, what kind of pony would I be if I did that? Now have some breakfast."
Reluctantly I gave in, I walked over and opened the bag on the right.
"While you're in there, grab me an apple," Golden said, waiting for me to finish.
The bag jammed packed with a variety of fruits and veggies, "red, green, you got a preference?" I asked Golden Dawn.
"Nope, those are from Sweet Apple Acres, they're all good."
I handed Golden Dawn a red apple and took a green one for myself; we ate as we headed out of town. Once again it was surprisingly tasty, even surpassing the one I had eaten yesterday. After I finished it, I found myself rummaging through Golden's bag again and selected a pear. Within ten minutes I had sampled five different kinds of fruit and was busy munching on some carrots. I'm not normally a big breakfast guy, unless there's bacon involved, but these were some of the freshest and tastiest fruits and veggies I'd ever had. It was kind of like my whole live I had been eating frozen food and suddenly I switched to fresh off the farm. I don't know how the ponies did it, but I wasn't about to complain. Deep down I wondered if I ever got a chance to sample Equestrian bacon would it be as good as their fruits and veggies.
I didn't quite believe Golden when she had said she only grabbed breakfast, but then I saw how much she ate. I thought back to the previous meals and realized that both her and Dusty had packed away quite a bit of food. The more I thought about it the more sense it made. Ponies may have been shorter than me, but they were actually larger. Golden Dawn probably outweighed me by at least a 150 pounds and having now seen a number of different ponies, she was a definitely on the small side. Having a bigger appetite seemed logical, especially since she had given up on walking and was now hovering along side Blue Skies. Even though she said her flight was powered by magic, I assumed that it used more energy than walking.
"So where exactly are we headed?" I asked as we walked through town.
"To my shop, like I said, I've got a cart and pretty much anything else we will need."
Eventually we came to a double set of railroad tracks and followed them to the outskirts of town, where Golden's shop was located. Unlike the rest of the town, which featured wooden construction, her building was made of brick. It was two stories high, and rectangular in shape. A pair of massive double doors were set into both of the narrower sides of the building. Two rail lines branched away from the track, ran into the front of the building, then out the back before they rejoined with the main line.
"You own this place?" I asked looking at the large building.
"Yep, I do a lot of work on trains, I'm one of the few ponies in town with any mechanical knowledge," she said with a grin.
"I'm not like, keeping you from your work am I?" I asked worriedly.
"Nope, I've got a train coming in the day after tomorrow for some routine maintenance but that's all for this week," Golden said.
"What do you do when you aren't working on trains?" I asked.
"I've got a bunch of personal projects, but none of them are time sensitive."
I stopped dead in my tracks as a sudden wave of nausea overcame me. I ran to a small shrub and emptied my breakfast onto it. Everything came up in one massive spew, my stomach heaved a few more times but there was nothing left. I dropped to my knees trying to catch my breath.
"Are you okay?" Golden asked her voice filled with concern.
"I don't know, I just felt really sick all of a sudden." I said between heavy breaths. "I feel alright now though, maybe it was something I ate?"
"I had the same food as you," she pointed out.
"I dunno," I said with a half shrug.
Golden pulled out one of the canteens and handed it to me (or is that hoofed it to me?) I took a gulp and swished it around before spitting it out in an attempt to wash the taste of vomit out of my mouth.
"Do you want to go back to Dusty's?" she asked.
"No, I feel better now, besides we've got to go get my truck."
"I don't know, a trip to the Badlands if you are sick isn't the best idea," Blue Skies said.
"I agree," Golden Dawn said. "Maybe we should wait till tomorrow."
"Really, I feel fine. Besides you said this might be an overnight thing and you've got that train coming in in two days. If we wait you might not make it back in time and I really don't want to leave all my stuff out there for that long."
"I don't know..." Golden said.
"Look, if I get sick again we can turn around, head straight to Dusty's."
That truck and the stuff in the trailer represented the entirety of my possessions on this planet, I really wanted to recover them as quickly as possible.
Golden stood there for a moment, thinking about my proposal before finally agreeing.
"Okay, that sounds fair, I'll go get the wagon ready, you stay with him," she said, looking at Blue Skies.
"I can help." I said.
"No, you stay here, sit down, get some fresh air," she said.
I didn't want to make a big deal about it and risk her changing her mind so I walked over to the front of her shop. There was a small patio with a picnic table so I took a seat, Blue Skies sat next to me and we both waited for her to come back out. About fifteen minutes later I heard the large side doors roll open and Golden walked around the side of the building pulling small wooden wagon.
"Can you shut the door Blue?" she asked.
Blue Skies got up and trotted around the corner, I could hear the door rolling shut again and a moment later she came back.
It was a pretty basic open wagon, with large wooden wheels and a two pony hitch. Blue Skies joined Golden at the front and a moment later she was hooked up.
"You can ride in the back," Golden said.
"I can walk, no need for you two to pull me."
Golden and Blue Skies looked at each other for a moment before Golden Dawn turned to look at me.
"Look, no offense, but we've been moving at a snails pace all day, if that's your normal walking speed it's going to take us forever to get to your truck."
I thought back to when we were in town, it was true that most of the ponies were outpacing me but not by a huge margin.
"I'm not that slow am I? What about the ponies in town they weren't that much faster."
"All those ponies were walking, but when ponies are going long distances we don't walk the whole way, we trot, we canter, we gallop." Golden said. "Can you?"
"Not... as such, I can jog and run though."
"Let's see it then," she said.
Deep down, I knew it wasn't going to be good enough. I wasn't in awful shape but I certainly wasn't athletic. Back in grade school I was consistently one of the last to finish the mile in gym. I had neither great speed nor endurance, but I decided to give it my best shot. I jogged down to the railroad tracks and then followed them for a minute or two before turning around and running back.
"How long can you keep that up?" Golden asked.
"Jogging? maybe twenty minutes, running uh... I think I'm done now." I said still catching my breath.
"Get in," she said nodding at the cart.
"Aww, fine."
I climbed into the cart and we took off. They really were faster than me, by a good amount too. Their trotting was on par with my maximum sprinting speed and I couldn't hold a candle to a canter or a gallop. Even stranger was that they never ran out of steam, they'd occasionally break into a canter or gallop but they spent most of the trip at a fast trot. I didn't have a great way of judging speed but I estimated the trotting at 10-15 miles per hour while pulling a cart that had me, my backpack, 4 shovels, a bunch of sheets of plywood, assorted hand tools, two bags of food that we picked up at the market as we road through town and four long pieces of wood that looked like uncut railroad ties. And they had no issues holding a conversation with me while pulling all of this.
"So Golden, you work on trains?"
"Yep, been working on steam engines since I was six. Hoofston is the end of the line if you are coming from up north, the engines that run from here to Appleloosa or Ponyville all stop here for their maintenance. I handle all that work and any repairs that aren't big enough to warrant sending the engine all the way back to Fillydelphia where they are built."
Golden Dawn then proceeded to launch into a lengthy talk about both the history of steam engines in Equestria and the inner workings of the locomotives she dealt with. Though I didn't know much about trains, I had a basic idea of how a steam engine functioned. A container of water was heated until it boiled. The resulting steam is directed to a piston, steam occupies more space than liquid water so it creates a high pressure system. That pressure pushes on the piston which drives it forward. By alternating which side of the piston the steam is directed to you can move it back and forth. In a locomotive the piston is attached to a crankshaft which drives the wheels of the train. That about summed up my very general knowledge of how a steam train worked. But by the time Golden Dawn had finished, I was confident that I could build a working locomotive given the proper tools and parts.
"One thing I don't get, Hoofston is a frontier town, it's relatively out of the way right?"
Golden Dawn nodded.
"Well then isn't it out of the way for trains to come down for repair work? Plus what happens when you need a part, you have to wait for another train to ship it down?"
"Well, to your first question, the trains come down here to pick up raw materials. There's a good amount of mining in the Macintosh Hills, the smaller mountain range to the west of the Badlands, so we get a lot of trains picking up ore and raw gems. But the real reason is that the majority of Equestria's oil fields are located in the southern half of the Badlands, or southwest of us on the edge of the San Palomino Desert. That oil is distilled into kerosene which is used as a fuel throughout most of Equestria. The rail line to the fields in the Badlands connects to the line you saw near my shop, so it's not really that much out of the way."
"Oh, I didn't realize ponies drilled for oil or had kerosene."
"Of course we do, what do you think the lamps were running on at Dusty Heart's place?" Golden said with a laugh. "Plus the oil can be processed and used as a lubricant, for example to keep a steam train from seizing up."
"I... I didn't think about it." I said blushing slightly at my own silliness.
"As to your second question, unless it's a major repair, I can fabricate many parts in my shop, I do a lot of train mechanic work and some machinist work, did several years as a machinist to help pay for my degree. I like to build things, not all of which I can sell. The mechanic work is mostly just to pay for my hobbies."
"Oh yeah, Blue Skies mentioned you had a degree in mechanical engineering"
"Yep, got my masters."
"You have a masters? Plus you said you owned your shop, that's amazing. If you don't mind me asking, how old are you, you seem young but with ponies, I have no idea."
"She's only 25!" Blue Skies said before Golden Dawn could answer. "In case you were going to ask, yes that's young, Golden here is one smart pony."
"I uh skipped a few grades in high-school, got an early start on college." Golden Dawn said with a bit of a blush.
"Oh wow, I'm almost 28 and I'm still working on getting my bachelors. I am... or was going for one in mechanical engineering. It's taking a while because I'm only going part time, I'm about half way through my courses."
"Why part time?" Golden Dawn asked.
"Money, my job sucked and I didn't make nearly enough for full time classes. Even if I did there's no way I could schedule my job around it."
"Oh, I got lucky. My father paid for my first two years, once I started working I was able to pay for the rest," Golden Dawn said with a nod. "I'd love to know what humans classes cover, I wonder if they are similar?"
"Like I said, I'm only about half way through, but I can go over some of it," I said.
I talked about my classes for a while, with Golden Dawn interjecting with her own experiences. Surprisingly her stuff sounded very similar to my own experiences, especially the math, excluding my heavy use of computers anyway. I enjoyed the conversation, it had been a while since I got to talk to someone that shared similar interests. The fact that the someone was a pony didn't really matter to me. Eventually though, I ran though everything I could think of and decided to switch topics away from school.
"Blue Skies also said something about you designing a train?" I asked.
Golden Dawn's cheeks ran red. "Oh she told you about that did she?"
"You should be proud!" Blue Skies said.
"I would have been more proud, if I had realized how much the 4-8-2 Frontier was actually worth. Last I heard Prancesylvania Railroad is replacing their entire freight line with my engine."
"What's wrong with that?" I asked.
"I could have gotten ten times what they paid me for the designs. I didn't know, I was fresh out of school I jumped at the first big number they flashed at me."
"Ugh, that sucks. Well, besides trains, what other kinds of things do you build?" I asked.
Blue Skies snickered, "all sorts of fantastic junk, with limited practical use." she said, but it was clear the ribbing was in a good nature.
"Hey, it's not that bad," Golden said.
"The auto-cocking crossbow?" Blue Skies asked with grin.
"That worked! Or at least it did until the gem powering the cocking spell exploded."
"I warned you, cheap gems aren't used for enchantments for a reason."
"Well it wouldn't be as economical with a enchantment grade gem."
"Kind of my point," Blue Skies said.
Golden Dawn stuck her tongue out at the other pegasus.
"And let's not forget the automatic hoof polisher."
Golden shuddered, "we agreed to never talk about that again," she said sternly, but then she laughed.
"I am being a bit mean, Golden has designed some cool stuff. She has a miniature railroad in her shop, complete with tiny working steam engines. I told her she should market it as a toy."
"It's a functional scale model of the 4-8-2. I used it to demo the engine to the railroad ponies. The fun was in building it, making sure everything worked as intended, I don't want to go into business selling toys. Anyway I have a new project I'm working on, and it's going to be big," Golden Dawn said.
"Oh no, what is it this time?" Blue Skies asked with a groan.
"It's a secret," Golden said with a twinkle in her eye.
"Just to kind of butt in here, couldn't you sell the plans or pay another pony to make them? You mentioned that the train work was to fund your other projects, you could do the same with a toy train line. I know lots of children and some adults are really into model railroads on Earth, though I've never seen a steam powered one, they're all electric as far as I know."
"See?" Blue Skies said.
"I suppose, maybe I'll look at it in the future. Wait you said electric? What do they use for power?"
"Well the cheaper toy ones are sometimes battery powered, but the nicer ones are all plug in as far as I know."
"Wait, I thought humans had no magic, how do you charge a gem battery?"
I scrunched up my face in confusion, "Huh?"
"You said some use batteries, gem batteries are charged with magic which is then converted to electrical energy, enchantment grade gems are fairly pricey, we don't don't really use them in toys."
"We don't have magic, all the batteries we use are chemical batteries. I can't really explain how they work because I don't know. There's a lead-acid battery in my truck, I can show it to you when we get there," I said.
"Plug in would work," Golden Dawn mused, "though the market would be somewhat limited," she turned towards me to explain further. "Only the big cities are wired up for electricity, and even in those not everypony has it."
Trains and electricity, maybe the ponies were closer to the late 1800s than the middle of it that I had assumed. I guess it made sense that an out of the way border town wouldn't have access to the latest and greatest.
"Oh, I'm pretty sure virtually everyone in the US has access electricity in their homes."
"How do you generate it?" Blue Skies asked.
"Lots of different ways, coal, oil, natural gas, wind turbines, hydroelectric plants, solar, nuclear, those are the major ones I can think of."
"Solar, how would you get electricity from Celestia?" Golden Dawn asked looking at me oddly.
"Huh? Solar is electricity generated from sunlight," I said.
"That sounds like magic to me," Blue Skies said with a laugh.
"Oh, I guess that kind of makes sense. Solar is an old Equestrian term, it means 'Of Celestia' but it also means 'Of Celestia's Sun'," Golden said. "Though I'm surprised you use coal or oil though, with no magic to filter out the pollution, isn't it kind of dirty? Also, what's nuclear?"
"Wait filter out pollution?" I asked.
"Yeah, like steam trains burn coal, which generates a lot of nasties, there's an enchanted filter in the smokestack, it's called a magilytic converter, it processes all the exhaust and renders it harmless."
Wow, and with that one statement, I realized magic threw my tech estimates right out the window. If what Golden Dawn was saying was true, ponies had solved one of the major banes of modern human society. I realized I still hadn't answered Golden's question.
"Yeah, it is and we're slowly shifting towards cleaner forms, but we had to make due with what we had. Wind is one of those, solar is another, it involves converting sunlight into electricity. I don't know exactly how it works but I can tell you that it isn't magic. Nuclear is third, there's two versions, fission and fusion. Fission involves splitting the nucleus of a heavy element like uranium. The process generates a great deal of energy which is converted to heat that is used to make steam which spins turbines to make electricity. Fusion is kind of the opposite, instead of splitting atoms, you're combining them. Fusing hydrogen to make helium. We haven't quite gotten fusion to work yet, at least not in a form we can use constructively."
"I've never heard of either of those things," Golden Dawn said. "Also, outside of using magic, I'm not sure I've ever heard of changing one element to another."
"Me either," Blue Skies added.
"Well, I can give at least one example of fusion in nature. Stars. Stars are basically giant balls of hydrogen, slowly fusing into helium."
"I don't think anypony knows how the stars work, well maybe the princesses, but I don't know if anypony has ever asked them," Golden Dawn said. "It sounds like humans are a bit more advanced than we are."
"Well when I first woke up here, based on what I saw, I had assumed ponies were about where humans were in the mid 1800s, about 165 years ago from my perspective, but honestly not I'm not sure. When you mentioned steam engines and electricity combined with what I saw of your town that would place you closer to the late 1800s, maybe even the early 1900s. But then you mentioned that magical filter. Humans have been struggling with air pollution for many years. It's basically considered a global problem now, though there is still much debate over to what degree. I think magic is going to hinder any sort of direct comparison between human and pony society."
Eventually we shifted to a lighter topic, but I knew that I'd be revisiting this conversation in the future. Maybe when I found a pony who could get me home, they could bring magic to Earth. It could do a lot of good there.
Eventually we reached a point in the road where Golden Dawn said we'd be turning off and heading out into the desert. I could see the hills that I had gotten lost in not to far in the distance.
"Um somewhat important question that I just thought of. If we're heading off the road do we have to worry about more of those tatzlwurm things that almost ate me?"
"Not likely, they're pretty rare, and they come out mostly at night," Golden Dawn said. "Mostly."
"Plus if one did show up, we could just fly away," Blue Skies said.
"Well you and Golden can," I said nervously.
"I think we could get this thing airborne, at least for a little while," Blue Skies said, looking at the wagon.
I did not want to experience that. In fact, I thought that facing another one of those worms would be a preferable alternative to flying around. While I was still dreading the idea, Golden suggested we break for lunch. We chatted while eating and I convinced Golden Dawn to let me walk alongside the wagon when we got going again. I needed to stretch my legs and they were going to have to go fairly slow anyway due to the rough terrain.
According to Golden Dawn we were almost there, with less than ten miles to go. I followed them on foot for a while before I got my fill of walking and climbed back into the wagon. In truth I was feeling sick again, but it wasn't nearly as bad as this morning. I didn't say anything because I didn't want Golden to demand we head back to Dusty Heart's when we were so close. Besides this time it was only yet another headache and I had some pills in the truck. For all I know it could have been the weather which was running a bit on the hot side, my guess was in the 90s at least.
The worst part about the weather was that it was late March back on Earth and I had been wearing pants and a long sleeve shirt. Thankfully I had a few t-shirts in my truck but as far as I knew there wasn't a single pair of shorts that would fit me on the planet. In fact clothing was going to suck. I only had 5 days worth of shirts socks and underwear and two pairs of pants. By sheer luck I had happened to be wearing a nice sturdy pair of hiking boots. I had found a hole in my old ratty sneakers just before I began my road trip and hiking boots were the only other shoes I owned, I was annoyed at the time but now it was a blessing.
As we continued got closer and closer to the truck my headache grew worse but I hid it well. Just as I was about to give up and tell Golden Dawn how awful I was feeling Blue Skies spoke up.
"Hey, is that your truck thing?" she nodded off at an object in the distance.
The truck in sight gave me hope, and the headache seemed to lose some of its sting. If we could get it freed and back to town, it would be the first step on the road for me to get home.