//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: The Right Man in the Wrong Place... // by CORACK //------------------------------// I practically jumped out of the wagon, then headed right for the truck. I gave it a quick glance to make sure that it hadn't shifted position during my absence. Besides being covered in a layer of dirt and dust, everything looked more or less as I had left it. I climbed down the ditch, back up the other side and then ran over to check on the trailer. Meanwhile, Blue Skies and Golden Dawn unhooked themselves from the wagon. Golden Dawn followed me over while Blue Skies stretched her wings. "How fast were you going?" Golden Dawn asked, looking at the tire tracks behind the trailer. "I think I was doing 85 miles per hour, but that was on the highway before that weird green light, as soon as I saw that light I started to slow down, my guess is I was still doing at least 50 when I passed through it." Now that I wasn't worried about starving to death in the desert, I took some time to do a quality inspection of the damage on both the truck and the trailer. The truck itself, besides being dirty, seemed to be in surprisingly good shape. It had picked up a few dings and dents but I didn't see any signs of major body damage. The only thing that seemed completely broken, besides the emergency chain, was the hookup on the trailer itself. The bar was bent from impact with the ground. Without some way to repair the hookup, I wouldn't be able to re-attach the trailer properly. Still, I wasn't going to let that get me down. We'd get the truck freed, and then I'd get the trailer reattached somehow. Then I could concentrate on getting back to Earth. "85? What makes this thing go?" Blue Skies asked, "Equestria's fastest trains can only hit around 100 and they've got huge engines." "The truck runs on a fuel called diesel..." I started to explain as I continued to look over the damage. I trailed off suddenly when my eye caught on the license plate. It was the only part of the truck not completely covered in dirt. The letters and numbers on the plate still looked as if someone had replaced them with gibberish. I still couldn't read anything. That and the constant headaches made my stomach turn sour with worry. My inability to read had slipped my mind earlier with all the craziness of finding myself on an alien world. I thought back to my walk through town, ponies everywhere going out their business. That's when an alarm went off in my head. I looked at the plate again, something was wrong, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. "What's wrong?" Golden Dawn asked, noticing my confused look. "I... I'm not sure," I said scratching my head. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. Back in the town, I had been able to read the store signs. I hadn't even thought of it at the time, I looked at a sign and read it. Why would that stand out in my memory? Being able to read something wasn't noteworthy... Unless I couldn't read because of some form of brain damage. Then suddenly it was. But why couldn't I read now and I could back in town? What was the difference? I squatted down, reached out and touched the plate, dragging my fingers over the metal surface. I could feel the bumps from the embossed characters on the plate, but the feel of them was off. How could this happen? I needed some time to think this through, so I stood back up and moved for the door. A minute later I was climbing into the front seat. I decided the best thing to do was to make sure the truck would still start. As a bonus, I could charge my phone once it was running. I grabbed the car charger and plugged it in, then fished the keys out of my pocket. I left the door open so I could talk with my two new friends, they were both hovering alongside the truck watching me as I settled in. I took the key, put it in the ignition and gave it a turn. After only a second of hesitation, the engine roared to life, I saw Golden Dawn and Blue Skies both fly back a few feet at the sound. Stupid. I thought to myself. It was pretty clear that this was entirely alien to them, I should have given the ponies a warning before I started it up. "It's all right," I said with a friendly wave, "that's just the truck's engine starting up." I picked up my phone to make sure it was charging, everything looked good so I set it back down and then climbed out. "Sorry about that, I should have said something, I wanted to make sure it would still start and also recharge my phone." The ponies looked confused at that statement, but then Golden's expression changed as she looked back towards the truck. "So you were saying this runs on something called diesel? How exactly does it work?" Golden Dawn said, as she hovered back and forth between the front and the rear of the truck. "Steam engines, like on your trains are external combustion engine, the fuel, coal in your case, is burned outside the engine and the heat is transferred water which turns to steam that drives the engine. Diesel is the name of fuel this truck runs on, the other popular fuel for cars is gasoline. Both are refined from oil and they are used to power internal combustion engines. Unlike a steam engine, the fuel is burned inside the engine itself and directly provides the energy needed move the automobile." "Oh my gosh, it *is* an automobile," Golden Dawn said excitedly. "I had my suspicions, but it looks nothing like any steam car I've ever seen." "Automobile?" Blue Skies asked. I looked to Golden Dawn to see what she was going to say. It seemed odd to me that ponies would have automobiles. "They're really new, I've only seen one before in my life," Golden Dawn said. "Have you ever seen a steam traction engine?" "Are those the things that look like small trains but are on wheels instead, they use them on some of the bigger farms?" "Exactly, well an automobile is like that but even smaller. Same kind of engine, but very compact. They look like wagons with a firebox and a boiler on them. It's mostly a toy for the idle rich, a way to get around in style," Golden Dawn said. "That pretty much matches what I would have said. The first automobiles on earth were steam powered also, but that was well over a hundreds years ago. They slowly replaced horse drawn carriages on Earth as technology improved. Eventually they switched from steam engines to gasoline and diesel because of the greater power and efficiency available. Let me see if I can get a little more technical, and walk you though the process, or at least a simplified version of it. Inside the engine, there are a number of cylinders, that number varies from engine to engine, this one has eight of them. In each cylinder there is a piston, fuel and air are injected into the cylinder, and that mixture is ignited which forms expanding gasses. Those gasses push on the piston, forcing it down." I rambled on a bit about engines, trying to remember as much as I could about how they worked. One of the main differences between a gasoline engine and a diesel is how the fuel is set off. In a gasoline engine, fuel and air are both injected into the cylinders of the engine, when the piston reaches maximum compression a spark plug generates a spark that is used to ignite that mixture. Unlike gas engines, diesels don't use spark plugs. Diesels run at a much higher compression ratio than a typical gasoline engines. Compressing air heats it up and in a diesel engine, the air gets hot enough to set off the fuel by itself. Air is injected into the cylinder, it starts to compress, the temperature rises and then when hits the top of the stroke, the fuel is sprayed in, it ignites and pushes the piston back down where the process can start again. "The piston is attached to a crankshaft which turns when the piston is forced downward. By having multiple cylinders with multiple pistons all attached to one crankshaft you can set them up and time the ignition sequences in such a way that some pistons are returning back up while other pistons are still being forced down." Blue Skies still looked somewhat confused but Golden Dawn seemed to be following along, she had a strange look on her face but I didn't think much of it. I talked for a bit more, Golden had a few questions and I answered them the best that I could. Blue Skies started to look bored, and my brain kept drifting to the strange text on the license plate, and my currently charging phone, so I wrapped up and then hopped back into the truck. All the talk about engines and fuel reminded me that I was sitting here idling my truck on an alien planet with no more access to any more diesel. All so I could charge my phone, which I couldn't use anyway. I quickly climbed back up into the truck and shut it off. I took a quick glance at the fuel gauge, like the license plate the 'E' and 'F' were unreadable but that didn't stop me from seeing that I had about three quarters of a tank left. Once again I tried to think of something that would explain why I could read in town but not out here. A dark thought crossed my mind and I grabbed my phone, hoping the battery had gotten enough charge to start it up. I turned it on and put it back in my pocket, then practically jumped out of the truck. I wasn't sure why I hadn't thought of this earlier, it should have sent red flags up the moment Dusty and Golden told me where I was. "Golden do you have anything with writing on it?" I asked worriedly. "Huh? Why do you ask?" "A theory, it's... well I want to check something, it's important, I just need something with writing on it doesn't matter what." Golden flew over to the wagon and returned a moment later with a piece of paper in her mouth. I grabbed it from her and began to read. It was an itemized list of the food she had bought for our trip, apples, bananas, carrots, cupcakes... each item had a number next to it and there was a total at the end. It was a receipt. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and turned the screen on, the battery icon was red but I only needed a second to see that the text was all gibberish. "I can read this," I said, frantically waving the receipt in front of the two ponies. "But I can't read this," I said, showing them the phone. "What is that?" Golden asked. "It's my phone, but it doesn't matter, that's not important. The important part is I can't read anything on it. Same with the truck." I ran over and pointed at the license plate. "This is gibberish." I climbed up into the driver seat, Golden flew up along side me. "I can't read anything in here, not the buttons on the radio, not the dials on the dashboard." "The what?" Golden Dawn asked, sticking her head into the open door to get a better view. I pointed at the dashboard. "This is the speedometer, it should read from '0' to '120'. This should be '0' right here," I said pointing a finger at the bottom left of the gauge. "Every number after '0' should be ten higher than the previous. "I don't recognize those characters," she said. "NEITHER DO I!" I shouted, my voice filled with panic. Golden cringed at my volume, she looked at me, unsure of what to say. I could tell from her expression that she hadn't figured out what my problem was. Probably because I was shouting instead of explaining what was wrong. I turned away, ashamed at my outburst, but I was at the edge of a breakdown and I didn't know if I could hold it in. The truck was too confining, but Golden Dawn was blocking the door, so I slid over the seat, opened the passenger door and clambered out. The drop on that side was a bit higher and I caught my foot on a loose rock and slipped on the way down, collapsing to the ground. I picked myself up and scrambled up and out of the trench, trying to get away. I made it all of ten feet before I tripped and fell again, this time I didn't bother to get back up. I could hear the flutter of wings over my deep gasps as both ponies landed on either side of me, a moment later I felt a wing wrap around my shoulders. "Hail Storm, can you explain what's going on?" Golden Dawn asked. "When I first woke up, here in the truck, I noticed that I couldn't read anything. I had also banged my head pretty bad and had a nasty headache so my immediate thought was some sort of brain damage that was preventing me from reading. Since then there have a been a few things that should have bothered me but I didn't put two and two together until now." "Like what?" Golden Dawn asked. "Well for one you keep calling me "Hail" instead of "Hal" but that's not all. When we were walking through town, I had no trouble reading the store signs. I didn't think anything of it because why would I? I've been able to read since I was a little kid, reading a sign is no big deal, not enough to stick out." "Hail instead of Hail? I'm not sure I follow?" Golden Dawn said. I held my hand to my head, which had started to hurt again. "Do you have another headache?" Golden Dawn asked, looking confused. "I've had one almost constantly since I first woke up here, it's... not too bad right now, I can live with it. That's not the real problem though, the real problem is that I could read those signs, and your grocery receipt." "What's so strange about that?" Blue Skies asked. "Because I'm not from here! I'm not from this country, I'm not even from this planet! How can I read anything here, how can I even talk to you? What are the chances of an me getting dumped on a strange planet and all the inhabitants already speak and write English?" "We're speaking Equestrian," Blue Skies said. "I don't know Equestrian! Or I shouldn't know Equestrian, how could I? No human has ever been here before. What is the likelihood of two alien species having two different languages that are basically the same? That's impossible!" "Well, we can understand you, so..." Blue Skies said, trailing off, her point clear. "Yes, and if I had thought about it, maybe I would have just assumed that against all odds somehow both our spoken and written languages were the same." "Ohhhh," Golden Dawn said as her eyes went wide with recognition. "I think I understand what you meant now." "Then can you explain because I'm really confused," Blue Skies said. "Hail Storm said he can't read anything in his truck, things he should be able to read, but he can read things written in Equestrian, which he shouldn't be able to do." "Exactly!" I chimed in. "I don't know how, and I don't know why but somehow I've acquired the ability to read your language but lost the ability to read mine." "I wonder if it's not just writing, maybe its speech as well?" Golden said stroking her chin. "Well I wouldn't be able to tell, unless you know someone that speaks English..." I trailed off, there was one way I could check. I pulled the phone out of my pocket as fast as I could. "What are you doing?" Golden asked. "Shh just a minute," I replied hastily, while opening my music player. All the band and album names were unreadable as was the interface but it didn't matter, I just needed to play a song, any song, as long as it had lyrics. I had to work quickly, the battery was just about dead. I grabbed the ear buds I kept in my pocket and plugged them in, I wanted maximum clarity for this the phone's crappy speaker coupled with all the ambient noise wasn't good enough. A moment later the sounds of heavy metal started pumping into my ear. Ten seconds after that the lyrics started up. I knew the song, I knew what they should be, but what I was hearing wasn't English. Or rather it was English, I just couldn't understand it anymore. I shut off the music and put everything away. A magic portal was something I could comprehend, I could rattle off a dozen books, movies or games that used a portal to another world as a plot device. What I couldn't think of is why or how my ability to speak and read my native language would have been affected. Did someone or something do this to me? Was it deliberate? How could this even work? Did someone muck around in my mind and alter my memory? Could magic even do that? The more I thought about it the more questions I had. I stood up and started to pace back and forth. "Somehow I can understand you, but the really strange part is when I talk to you, it sounds like what I remember English to sound like. It doesn't feel like I'm speaking another language, but I must be. And even if I am, why can I remember things from Earth correctly? If I picture the speedometer in my car, I know what its supposed to look like, but when I actually look at it the numbers don't look like what they should. How does that even work? I know what a zero is supposed to look like, it looks like this." I reached down and scratched a zero into the dirt in front of me. "Yep, that's a zero," Golden Dawn said. I let out a long groan, "I see it as a zero as well, which means whatever did this to me also affected my ability to write." The two ponies followed me as I walked over to the back of my car and pointed at my license plate. "The fourth character on this plate is a zero. I know this because I know what my license plate number is, but when I look at this, it doesn't look anything like a zero, it looks like someone just stamped a random symbol into the plate." "Maybe our writing is different but our speech is the same," Golden Dawn said "I thought of that, which is why I pulled out my cell phone," I said. Golden tilted her head in confusion, "I know what a phone is and what a cell is but I have no idea what a cell phone is." "It was that little black box I was holding onto a moment ago," I pulled it out of my pocket and showed it to her. "That's a phone?" she asked, with a look of confused. I hadn't seen a pony phone yet. From what I'd seen of their tech level, if I ever did see one, I guessed it would look something like an old style rotary. "Yes, I'll show you later, but the point is it has a music player on it, that was the first thing I could think of that would let me hear some English words, so I started up a song and that confirmed it, I couldn't understand the lyrics at all." I sat back down on the ground, struggling to come to terms with everything. The more I thought about it, the more the insane the whole situation seemed. My slow and steady breaths changed to shallow ragged gasps as I slowly lost control. Tears began to pool up in my eyes as I struggled to think about all that had happened in the last month. As I sat there on the verge of tears, the futility of the my attempt dawned on me. If someone could alter my brain in such a fashion that I couldn't even recognize that I was speaking a new language, what else could they do? Maybe all the events of the last month were a lie, fabricated by whoever brought me here. For all I knew my entire life could be a series of false memories. That last thought did not help my mood and I sank further to the ground. The weight of everything that had happened, the death of my father, being whisked away to another world and this new revelation, that someone had screwed around in my head, crashed down upon me and what little strength I had left failed. I was on another planet. Someone or something had dug around in my head and screwed around with it. No one knew I was missing and even if they did there was no way they'd find me here. I was supposed to be back at work three days ago, I don't think I had a job anymore. I had no way to get home, my only real hope was that a magical pony princess could solve everything that went wrong. Everything kind of hit me at once. I felt physically sick, like someone had kicked me in the stomach. The sickness in my gut was different than it was earlier in the day, I didn't feel like I was going to throw up, I just felt... dread. I began to hyperventilate, before I knew it tears were streaming from my eyes. "I... just want to go home," I said, blubbering like a little kid. I could feel my face turning red but I just couldn't stop crying. The next thing I knew a large fluffy wing was wrapping around me. It was perfectly timed, that hug. It helped more than any words would have. A part of me was a bit weirded out and quite embarrassed. I barely knew these ponies and I was having a major break down in front of them. Now one of them was hugging me in an effort to calm me down. Another part of me just told me to shut up and accept Golden Dawn's compassion. That part won. As the minutes slipped by, the tears gradually stopped and I slowly regained my composure. I felt compelled to speak up, "I'm sorry about that," I said quietly. "I should have never lost it like that, I don't know what happened. I've never been so emotional before." "There's nothing to apologize about," Golden said. "Stallions," Blue Skies said with a snort, "They're the same in every species, never like to show any feelings." Golden laughed at that, it was friendly and disarming. My embarrassment faded enough that I joined in on the laughter. That made me feel a bit better. After the moment had faded away, Golden offered me a hoof and I stood up. "Do you still want to try to rescue the truck?" she asked. "Yeah, I think I need that. It and the trailer are all I've got left, I can't just leave it here." Keeping myself busy would take my mind off the whole situation. That would work in the short term, but really I needed to come up with a plan. I wasn't ready to give up on getting home but I really needed to figure out what my options were. I didn't have all the answers, but I knew step one was getting my truck. Somewhere down the line was getting to the capital and hoping that one of the princesses that I had been told about could get me home. It had to be possible, if I was sent here, I could be sent back. We walked back over to the wagon and began to unpack our supplies. I grabbed my backpack and walked over to the trailer. I took the gun out of the bag and locked it in the trailer, I decided I'd ask Golden Dawn about carrying it around later. I headed back to the two ponies who were still busy unloading the wagon. "Okay Golden, so what exactly is your plan?" I asked. "Well, we can use the boards to make a wall, bracing them with these beams. Then we just fill the hole with dirt until its high enough that when we push the truck forward so it doesn't fall into the hole." "Seems simple enough," Blue Skies said. It was simple in planning but the execution was backbreaking. Not only was it extremely hot out, but the ground was rocky which made digging slow. The first part of the job was to get the walls up. To make sure they didn't just fall over, we took a post hole digger and made two holes on on either side of the truck. The beams went into the holes standing straight up in the air. Then we placed the boards up against the beams and nailed them in place. They weren't perfectly straight and they didn't cover from rock to rock perfectly but they didn't have to, just enough so that most of the dirt tossed between the two boards stayed in place. Once the boards were up and we were sure they weren't going to fall over that's when we started digging. All the digging was done outside of the trench, we'd get a shovelful of dirt, walk over and toss it in. Well I walked over. Golden and Blue Skies flew over. It was interesting watching them work, they stood on their rear hooves and held on to the shovel with their forehoves. You'd think a four legged creature would lack the dexterity that humans have with arms hands but nope, that wasn't the case at all. In fact, in the same way that they left me in the dust when it came to speed, the pair far outstripped the amount of work I was able to do. And they had told me that earth ponies were the strong ones. It made me wonder how strong these little ponies actually were. Eventually we packed as much dirt between the two boards as we could, in fact the wheels were no longer half in the air, now they were buried. I was worried that we'd just kick all that loose dirt up when I tried to move the truck so we compacted the dirt as best we could and added some large rocks on the top layer for good measure. If the wheel drove over a rock and the rock started to sink into the dirt then maybe the tire wouldn't. Both ponies got into position to push but I told them I wanted to try driving out first. I climbed up into the truck and started the engine, then rolled my window down. "Okay you two stand back, I don't want to run you over." The way the truck had landed, driving forward was going to be easier than going backwards. I threw it into 4WD, put it into first gear and gave it some gas. The truck shook as I pushed the pedal closer and closer to the floor. The tires began to spin in place but then they caught up and the whole thing lurched with a mighty thump. The front tires had made it out of the gap and rears were resting on the dirt bridge we had made. A moment later there was another bump and the truck was completely free. I threw it into park and then hopped out. "It worked!" Golden Dawn said with a smile. "Yeah! Thanks so much for helping me, I would have never gotten it out myself." We took a quick break for dinner, Golden Dawn broke out some peanut butter sandwiches and a box of cupcakes. The bread was a freshly baked loaf, made that very morning. The package it came in was enchanted and when Golden pulled it out it was still warm; whoever had made it really knew what they were doing, it was some of the tastiest bread I'd ever eaten. Golden Dawn took a glance at the truck, "That was pretty impressive getting out of that rut, that thing's got some torque," she said with admiration. Blue Skies just rolled her eyes and took another bite of her sandwich. "Yeah I'm lucky I wasn't in my dinky compact car, it would have been stuck forever," I said while spreading out some more peanut butter on my second serving. "I suppose I can drive back to town, but I need to take the trailer with me. I don't want to leave it out here, but the hookup looks kind of broken." "I've was checking it out while you were poking around inside, I think if we can get it back to my shop, I can fix it. For now maybe we can rig something up, do you have any heavy duty rope or chain?" Golden Dawn asked. "There are some heavy duty straps in the back of the truck, I think they are rated for 10,000 lbs," I said between bites. We finished dinner and then I climbed up into the back of the truck. Blue Skies told us that she had to get going, she was already late for work as it was. I asked if she wanted me to drive her back to town, since it had to be faster than even galloping back. I felt bad making her late and if I had to, I could come back and get the trailer later. "Who said anything about walking?" she said with a laugh, flapping her wings at me; then with a jump she took to the skies. I shouted a thank you as she flew away, she turned and waved at us before turning towards town and accelerating rapidly. In almost no time at all she was just a tiny dot in sky. That was the first time I had seen a pegasus in a hurry; she was moving fast, way faster than I would have expected a pony to be able to go. I had found the pair of straps when I was looking for a way to tie down the two five gallon diesel jugs, they were overkill, but they were all I had. The jugs themselves hadn't come loose when I crashed so I guessed I had done a good job securing them. I unlocked the metal storage box in the back of the truck and pulled out the second strap. Golden expressed some surprise at the the rating of the straps, I think she was expecting some heavy duty rope, not thin strips of a high strength synthetic fiber. I drove the truck over down and around the trench and up to the trailer. Then we pushed the trailer around so it was facing the right direction, got it lined up with the truck and then tied it up with the strap, it wasn't the safest or most sturdy solution, but hopefully it would hold until we got back to town. I pulled myself out from under the trailer and wiped the sweat off my forehead. The heat had only gotten worse and I took a big swig of my canteen, then tilted it up and dumped some over my head to help cool off. I climbed into the truck threw it into 1st gear, and slowly started to pull forward. The straps went taught and I felt a jolst as the trailer started to roll forward. "Everything looks good back here," I heard Golden Dawn say. "Just take it slow." "Not a problem." I turned the wheel until the truck was pointing towards the road, then stopped it and unrolled the window. Golden Dawn flew up along side. "Is there anything else you want to do while we're out here?" Golden asked. "Not that I can think of, where are we headed next?" "I was thinking my shop, its going to be pretty late when we get back and I want to get this thing put away." "Sounds good to me, let me park this thing and help clean up the tools." I insisted on putting everything in the back of the truck, I felt bad enough that Golden was going to have to pull her wagon all the way back by herself, so I figured I'd at least lighten the load as much as I could. After a bit of arguing she reluctantly agreed. "I don't know how it is for humans but ponies travel around by hoof, a 50 mile trip isn't a big deal. I guess at your speed though, I can see why you use automobiles," she said with a grin and a wink. "Hey not all of us have four legs... or wings," I said sticking my tongue out at her. "Still, it would be nice to ride in that thing, especially to see how you operate it," she said. "Maybe tomorrow we can go for a drive around town, that's if you think it would be allowed," I said. "I don't think there's any laws against it, we'll just have to be careful to not run anypony over." "Okay why don't you take the lead, I'll follow you since I don't know exactly where I'm going." "Sounds good to me." Golden Dawn trotted in front of me, heading back towards the road. I rolled the truck forward, following her. The day had not gone exactly as I had expected. There were still so many mysteries that had to be answered. Still, at least I had my stuff back. Even if the road home was longer than I thought, I'd get there, eventually. I plugged my phone in and connected it to the radio. The lyrics might sound alien, but I could at least still enjoy some music on the way back. Soon, I found drumming to the beat. I forced any worries I had about getting home to the back of my head. For now, I'd enjoy the trip instead of focusing on the destination. Even with only Golden pulling the wagon, getting back only took slightly longer than it had taken us to get out there in the first place. Golden stopped for a break exactly once. I hopped out and sat next to her so we could talk. Ten minutes later she was ready to go. We had just gotten back to town when Golden stopped and shouted for me. "Hey, I almost completely forgot, Dusty wanted me to have you stop by when we got back so he could give you a check up." "Alright, lead on." I slowly drove through the town heading for Dusty's. I got a bunch of strange looks by few ponies who were out and about, but it was starting to get dark and the streets were mostly empty. We got to Dusty's, I parked the truck in front of his house and hopped out. Dusty must have heard me pulling up and wondered what the noise was because he trotted out of the house. He saw us and headed over. "Evening you two." he said with a smile before turning to me and asking "so how is Equestria's first human feeling?" "Okay I guess, I got sick earlier today but I felt fine after that. I've still got a headache but I took some pills I had in the truck and its down to a dull roar, other than that I'm feeling fine." Dusty looked a bit concerned, "Do you often have headaches for this long? Seems a bit strange to me but I don't know your species." "Not usually," I said. "Well, can you come in for a bit and let me give you a look over?" "Sure," Golden Dawn chimed in, "Hey Hail Storm, I'm going to take the wagon back to my shop, I'll come back here after I drop it off." "Okay, see you in a bit." Dusty and I headed inside and he escorted me to the examination room. He had me get undressed which I was a little self-conscious about, he may have been a doctor but he wasn't my doctor or even human. He undid the bandages on my head, my shoulder and my leg, inspecting each one. When he got to the leg, the only one I could see without a mirror, I was shocked. He had changed the bandages once yesterday and the scrape on my leg was pretty nasty looking. It wasn't deep or dangerous but a good sized patch of skin was torn up. Now there was nothing but smooth skin. I got up and walked over to wall where there was a small sink with a mirror. I used it to check the other two locations and found them to also be in perfect condition. Even my sunburn was gone. Dusty smiled and turned towards me, "Everything is looking good, wasn't sure if it would need another day or not." "What happened to the scrapes, the sunburn and the lump on my head?" "They've healed up," Dusty said with some confusion. "How? scrapes, even small ones, don't heal in a day and a half, neither does sunburn." "Well not if you don't get them treated." "What do you mean?" I asked feeling confused. "Well, an untreated wound has to heal up on its own, that can take a while, but when its treated by a pony who knows what they are doing, that speeds up the natural healing process." "Is that... magic?" I asked. "In part yep, anypony can set a bone or bandage a wound, if they know what they are doing, and if done right things tend to heal up a bit faster. For things to really go well you need a pony with a certain talent, like myself." "Does this tie back to cutie marks?" I asked "Exactly, see you're getting it," he said with a smile. "Anyway your head was the one I was worried about and it looks fine, keep me posted on that headache though, if it doesn't go away completely by tomorrow come back and see me, or if it gets any worse, don't wait, come back right away." "Alright, thanks again, is there anything I can do to repay you? I don't have any money but if you need help with anything just say the word and if I can do it I will." I said. "Don't you worry about it, I was just helping somepony get back on their hooves." We headed back to the front room, just as Golden was knocking on the front door. I said goodbye to Dusty and headed outside. "So now that I don't have the wagon, I can ride with you back to my shop," she said with a smirk. "I see how it is." I walked around to the passenger side and opened the door for her. "Hop in," I said. Golden Dawn climbed up into the truck, but it was a bit of a tight fit, luckily it was a three person bench so she could sit sideways, but there was no way she was going to be able to wear a seat-belt. I kept the speed under twenty and we chatted about life here in Hoofston while I followed her directions to her shop. After carefully navigating through the town I saw the large building approaching in the distance. Golden tried to open the door with her rear hoof but she couldn't quite get the latch, I started to reach over but she ended up reaching over with a wing and popping it open. She climbed out, telling me to wait in the truck, then trotted up to the front door and went inside. A minute later I heard the the side door on the left start to roll open. Golden walked out and around the corner and motioned for me to pull the truck right into the building.