//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 // Story: The Right Man in the Wrong Place... // by CORACK //------------------------------// I hopped out of the truck and took another look at the area in front of me. Like most of the surrounding desert, the ground was a dull reddish brown mixture of dirt and rocks. Small green shrubs were scattered sparsely around, growing more frequent at the base of the hill I was intending to use as a backstop. Bare rock protruded from a few distant spots on that hill where the dirt had worn away, but the area directly in front of us was almost completely covered and sported a decent number of the small plants. I had picked this spot because of the vegetation on the hill. I assumed that meant the layer of dirt was reasonably thick, which was good. I didn’t want to be firing directly into rock, that might end up causing a bullet to ricochet back at us. The tailgate let out a loud squeak as I opened up the back of the truck. I climbed up and retrieved all three gun cases and the ammo boxes to go with them. I set them on the end of the tailgate and unlocked them one by one. While I was doing that, Kitchen Sink floated the targets stands out and he and Golden Dawn got to work setting them up. Using a long piece of marked rope that Golden had brought, they put one of the paper ones at 10 yards, another at 50 yards and the steel plate at 100 yards right up against the foot of the hill. "Alright, so quick set of rules. This is our shooting range," I said pointing at the small stretch of land in front of me. "Right now the range is cold, that means nobody can shoot and hands... er hooves off the guns. When we are ready to shoot, I will ask if everybody is ready for the range to go hot. Only when everyone that is present verbally agrees is the range considered hot. Only then can you pick up and shoot a weapon." I drew a line in the dirt with my foot. "This is our shooting line. If the range is hot, DO NOT CROSS THIS LINE," I said, with more volume that was necessary. Both ponies nodded in agreement. If I was going to teach these ponies about guns, I might as well start them off correctly. Speaking of teaching them about guns, I still had to go over basic gun safety before I'd let them even hold one of the guns. Thankfully the rules had been drilled into me at a young age and they were all easy to remember. "But before we even get to touching the guns, I have a things to go over as well as a few rules," I said looking at the two ponies. Kitchen Sink had seen me shoot the lever action but Golden Dawn hadn't even seen a gun before, except for maybe while I was packing everything up earlier. This wasn't like on Earth where I could rely on people having even a rudimentary understanding of guns. Even if a person had never shot a gun before, most people knew which end the bullets came out and what a trigger was, but for the ponies I had to start fresh. This was going to take more than just verbal instructions. "Okay, I’m going to break the hot / cold rule right now, because I need to actually show you both what I’m talking about. For now, I’m the only one who should be touching anything. If you have any questions, feel free to interrupt." I picked up each gun in succession and went over the various components, how to load them, how to unload them, how to verify that they were unloaded, and everything other function I could think of. After that demonstration, I was ready to go over the rest of the rules. "I’ve heard a bunch of minor variations on these rules, but I’m going just tell you what my dad told me. First, always keep any gun that you are handling pointed in a safe direction. That means keeping the end of the barrel pointed away from anything you don't want to destroy. If you need to move around behind the firing line, keep the muzzle pointed down range, do not sweep it over someone, got that?" "What if it's unloaded?" Golden Dawn asked. "That brings me to the next rule. The gun is always loaded, or at least treat it that way. You saw when I picked up each gun that I did a visual check on it. That was me making sure that it actually was unloaded. Even though I know there’s nothing in there, I’m treating it like it is loaded. People, or ponies, aren't perfect, you might set a gun that you know was unloaded down on a table, and then leave the room to get something. What if while you are gone Kitchen Sink loads it? When you come back you might think it is empty but it's actually loaded. If you always treat it like it's loaded that will prevent fatal mistakes. A kind of side note to that is anytime you pick up a gun you should visually inspect it to confirm that it is unloaded. Even if someone else just handed it to you after checking themselves. It might seem overly cautious, but it only takes a few seconds to verify that there’s nothing in the chamber and will help prevent accidents," I said. "The third rule is to keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire. I guess for ponies this extends to hoof, wing, magic, whatever you are using to pull that trigger. The last rule is always know your target, and what is beyond your target. Bullets go a long way and if you miss, or if the shot goes through the target, they can keep traveling for quite a while and will still be deadly. That's why we're shooting in this location, the hill in front of us serves as a backstop, all of our shots will end up in the dirt." "How far do they go?" Golden Dawn asked. "I don't know off the top of my head, and there's a difference between maximum and effective range. Maximum range being how far the bullet will actually go and effective range being how far you can reliably make an aimed shot. That of course depends on the gun and shooter as well. I'd say effective range is at least 100-150 yards for the .44 magnum out of the rifle, less out of the revolver, partially from the lower velocity and partially because it's harder to aim a revolver than a rifle. The .30-06 was designed to have an effective range of at least 1000 yards, though I've heard people making kills well beyond that, up to a mile. Of course that requires a good gun and an excellent shooter. Maximum range is somewhere in the ballpark of 4000-5000 yards." Kitchen Sink's eyes went wide, "A mile for an aimed shot? By Celestia's Holy Sun, that's insane! The best range you'll see out of a pony hoof held weapon is 400 yards using a longbow and that's only useful for volley fire, not aimed shots. Even most magical attacks are fairly limited in range, it takes years of practice to hit something more than a couple hundred yards out." "Well, like I said that's an extreme example. Guns are no different than what you just described. You need a proper gun, a properly designed bullet, and, of course, skill. Personally, I've never shot at anything farther away than 2 or 3 hundred yards." After I finished going over the rules we were ready to shoot. I opened each of the ammo boxes and went to pull out a few rounds. I cringed a bit inwardly, neither the .44 magnum nor the .30-06 could be considered light cartridges. Neither was really great for a new shooter. Jumping right into something that has a good bit of recoil was a great way to develop a flinch which will throw off aim. Still there is nothing I could do, hopefully since ponies were so much stronger than humans the recoil wouldn't affect them as much. "So normally for a first time shooter, we'd start with a smaller cartridge, like .22lr but all I've got is .44 mag and .30-06. Both of these cartridges have a good deal of recoil, not the worst but not light either. I'm guessing the lever action will actually be the best choice. Putting .44 magnum, which is a pistol cartridge, in a rifle, is a good way to reduce felt recoil. We'll try that first." I donned my ear muffs and glasses and then I grabbed a single round of .44 out of the ammo box and pushed it into the loading port. "Alright, just a refresher, this is a lever action chambered in .44 magnum. Normally this gun can hold ten rounds, but we'll start with one this time. Once your ammunition is loaded, you need to work the lever, that grabs the next round from the tube and pushes it into the chamber. Kitchen Sink, now would be the time to cast your spell, the range going hot." Both ponies donned their own glasses then repeated "range hot" acknowledging my request. "When you're done shooting just wave at me and I'll drop the spell," he said. Then his horn lit up and a globe of light encircled him before vanishing. Golden and Kitchen Sink both watched on as I lowered the lever and then raised it back up. It made a satisfying click-clack and I brought the rifle up to my shoulder. I peered through the sights, lining up the front post on the piece of steel hanging at 100 yards and then gently squeezed the trigger. The crack of the rifle echoed back and forth across the area and there was a clang as the steel plate started swinging and spinning like crazy on the chain. When I looked up Golden Dawn was standing at least two feet farther back than where she had been with her wings flared out. I put the rifle down and waved at Kitchen Sink, a moment later his horn glowed again, killing the spell. "You alright?" I asked Golden "Yeah, you did warn me about the noise, but it still startled me," she said folding her wings back up. "Loud eh?" I asked with a grin. "Wasn't bad, not as bad as working in a lightning storm, just... unexpected. When I'm bucking lightning out of a cloud, I know when it's going to go off," she replied. "Do you want to try?" I asked holding out the rifle. "Yes please!" She trotted over while I ejected the spent cartridge. I bent down and picked up the brass and tossed it into an empty box on the back of the truck. Since I had reloading equipment it made sense to save all my brass, plus it's just polite to clean up the range after you are done. The steel plate finally stopped swinging around and I made a mental note to go with two holes and two chains next time instead of one. "Alright, so this is going to be interesting. You can shoot prone, though that makes it a pain to work the lever, or you can try shooting while standing on your rear legs, but I don't think you can hold it while you are on all four. So, before I load it," I opened the action to show Golden that the chamber was empty, "let's figure out what feels best for you before we load it." Golden sat down on the ground and tried from a prone position, but like I figured it made opening the lever a bit of a pain. It would work for the bolt action but not as well for this gun. Then she stood up and balanced on her rear hooves. She flared her wings out for extra balance and held the rifle in her hooves. "Hmm, here's something I didn't think of, I know you can use your hooves to hold things but can you squeeze that trigger or is the guard in the way?" I asked. Golden Dawn started to turn towards me, then, as if remembering my rules set the gun down to make sure it kept pointing down range. "Is it safe to try?" she asked, looking at me for confirmation. "Yes, we verified that it is empty and you have the gun pointed down range, even if there was a round in there you'd only be hitting the hill. On top of that, see how the hammer isn’t pulled back, you have to work the lever to cock the hammer. It can’t fire without the hammer being cocked. Still, I’m glad you asked, and that you remembered to not point it at me," I said, giving her a smile. She looked back, picked up the rifle and reached towards the trigger, unfortunately, as she began to poke at it, it looked like her hoof was too big to fit in the guard. She kept trying different angles but none of them gave her contact with the trigger while still allowing her to keep a grip on the gun itself. I was about to interrupt when she let out a snort and moved her hoof away. Then her wing swung in, she rested the tip of it trigger and gave a gentle pull. "Not the best design for hooves, but I guess I can forgive your species since they didn't know about us," she said looking back with a grin. "Hmm that might be an issue for Kitchen Sink," I said. "Nope, I can pull the trigger with my magic," he said. "Oh yeah, well I guess I won’t be taking any earth ponies shooting anytime soon," I said with a thoughtful laugh. "Not without some modifications to your gun," Golden Dawn replied, sticking her tongue out at me. "Don't you dare, it's brand new! Anyway, are you ready to shoot for real this time?" She nodded eagerly so I grabbed a round and handed it to her. She loaded the round and worked the lever. Then she raised the rifle up and took aim. "Make sure you hold it up against your... shoulder?" I said, guessing at the pony body part name. "And the golden dot on the post is what I'm aiming at?" "Yep." Kitchen Sink cast his silencing spell again, while Golden moved the front of the rifle around a bit with a look of concentration appearing on her face as she took aim. Her wing moved in once more and there was a loud bang as she squeezed the trigger. A fraction of a second later there was an equally loud clang as the bullet impacted on the steel plate. "Nice shot!" I said, pumping my fist into the air. I hadn’t expected her to hit the target on her first try. Golden turned around and beamed at me, "that was fun, can I try again?" she asked. "Sure," I replied, grabbing a handful of ammo. "Pull the lever down to eject the brass and then we'll load it up all the way this time." Golden Dawn loaded ten rounds into the rifle, then got to work unloading them the fun way, hitting the target three more times. After she was done, I bent down and picked up all the empty brass and returned them to the truck. "Why don't we give Kitchen Sink a turn now," I said, pointing at the unicorn. He saw me pointing and dropped his spell, "my turn?" he asked. "Yeah, let me know if you have any questions first since I won't be able to talk with you after the spell is up." "I think I'm good," he said. "Start off with one shot, after you try that, then you can load all ten, okay?" I asked. "Sure, can I try loading it myself for the first shot?" he asked. "Alright," I said with a nod. Kitchen Sink raised his spell and then the rifle floated over to him, he opened the action and verified it was empty. A single round floated out of the ammo box and over to the gun. I watched as it moved into the loading gate. This was going to be interesting. Kitchen Sink took aim at the steel plate and fired. The actual boom of the gun was completely missing, but as soon as the bullet left the silenced area surrounding Kitchen Sink, it made a crack as it flew through the air, impacting on the dirt just left of the target. Having a magically "silenced" gun made me think of the common misconceptions many people have about silencers. The average person see movies where some guy runs around with a silencer on his gun and quietly picks people off one by one. What they don’t seem to realize is silencers don’t really work like that. Most silencers reduce the gunshot sound by around 30 decibels. If your gun is making a 150 decibel bang, and it brings the sound down to 120 decibels, that’s still as loud as the siren on an ambulance. On top of that, if the bullet is moving faster than the speed of sound, which a .44 magnum round coming out of a rifle is doing, it’s going to create it’s own noise, independent of the actual sound the gun makes on being fired. Kitchen sink dropped his spell and asked if he could try some more. I gave him a nod of approval and he floated over another ten rounds and threw the spell back up. He changed targets to the paper bullseye at 50 yards. I had to squint to see the results of his first shot which hit in the lower left corner. Each successive shot moved a little closer to the bullseye. Finally, he switched back to the steel plate and took another shot, this time it clanged loudly as the bullet smashed into it. After he fired his last shot he put the rifle down and dropped the spell. I called a range cold so we could go look at the targets. We walked down the dusty field to the steel plate to check it out first. There was some dents in it where the bullets had hit but none of them had penetrated. We headed back to the firing line and declared the range hot again. I grabbed the revolver and gave a quick demo of how to load it before each pony took their turn. "This is my dad's .44 magnum revolver, it shoots the same cartridge as the lever action. This is a double action revolver, that means you can fire it in two ways. First you can squeeze the trigger, that will pull the hammer back as you squeeze it until you pull it all the way back, then the hammer will drop and the gun will fire. The other way is you can shoot it like a single action revolver, you cock the hammer by pulling it back all till you feel a click. It will stay cocked until you pull the trigger." "Why would you want to shoot single action?" Golden Dawn asked. "Because when you cock the hammer manually, the trigger only has to release the hammer not pull it back as well, so you need much less force. Heavier trigger pulls tend to introduce inaccuracy so single action shooting usually results in a better shot." I loaded in a single round, lifted the revolver up, pulled the hammer back and prepared to fire. Holding the revolver as steady as I could I lined up the sights on the distant steel target. I gently squeezed the trigger, the gun went off with a loud bang but I missed the plate and a cloud of dirt puffed up into the air on the hill in the distance. "You missed," Golden said. "I noticed," I said flatly, while rubbing my wrist. "I've never been a good shot with this thing, and I only shot the lighter .44 special loads when I was younger. They have less kick." I opened the cylinder, ejected the spent brass and then loaded up another round. "Here ya go, give it a try," I handed the revolver to Golden after showing her how to hold it properly. She had to modify her hold a bit due to hooves but eventually she found something that was comfortable but gave her a good grip. She missed her first shot, ejected the brass and loaded in a full six rounds. After missing the steel plate on her next three shots she swapped to the up close paper target, but her grouping was still all over the place. Kitchen Sink also had less luck with the revolver that he did with the rifle. Once he had a feel for it, he was getting his shots on paper almost every time, but his grouping was fairly large. Honestly it made sense, rifles have a longer sight radius which helps makes aiming easier. "Don't worry, you'll get better with practice, and like I explained earlier these are not great first guns," I said to Golden Dawn who was looking kind of bummed. "Also, as you said, they really aren’t designed for hooves." For the next hour or so all three of us took turns, swapping the rifle and the revolver back and forth. After having some fun with those, Golden Dawn asked if we could try the bolt action, so I turned back to the truck and grabbed it. "Like I mentioned earlier, this is a bolt action rifle and it's chambered in .30-06 which is a rifle round. It will have heavier recoil than the lever action." The .30-06 had a scope attached to it, I knew it was a variable zoom but not being able to read the numbers on it, I had no idea what power it was. It also had iron sights which was nice as many modern rifles forgo them. I went over the loading process, showed the ponies how to work the bolt and then popped the scope covers off so I could take a shot. I looked at the steel target through the scope, it was a bit blurry so I fiddled with some of the knobs on the scope. The one on the back of the scope adjusted the zoom level, There were three more in the middle of the scope. One sticking up, one sticking out to the left and one more that pointed right. I was pretty sure the top and right knobs were to adjust the zero but without being able to read I was guessing. That left the left knob, as I turned it the image grew clearer and clearer until it was in focus. I lined up the far plate in the scope's cross-hairs, exhaled and pulled the trigger. The rifle kicked back into my shoulder with a fair amount of force, but I was distracted looking at the plate. Or rather where the plate had been. It had been hanging from some chain, but it wasn't there anymore. "What happened to the plate, I was watching you," Golden asked. "Not sure, maybe I hit the chain," I said. "It looks fine to me," she said, looking downrange. I squinted but I couldn't really make it out, "well let's go down and take a look." I signaled to Kitchen Sink to drop his spell, "the range is now cold, actions open and after that don't touch the guns until the range is hot again." "Right," both ponies said and we set our weapons down. We ran down to the foot of the hill where the target stand was sitting. Like Golden had said, the chain was still intact; the plate however had fallen off the chain and into a shrub. I leaned down and picked it up, letting out a whistle. Golden had drilled a hole in the top of the plate and we had hung it with a S hook attached to the bottom link of the chain. It looked like the plate had been hit hard enough that it had jumped off the hook, but that wasn't what I was whistling at. The plate was covered in a bunch of small dents from where it had been hit with the .44 magnum. That, we already knew about. Now though, besides the dents, it was also sporting a new hole in the bottom corner, courtesy of the .30-06 round which had punched right through the half inch thick plate. Both ponies were staring at the ruined plate in disbelief. "Uh... I think we might need stronger targets," I said looking over the plate again. "We should probably not shoot this anymore, I'm worried that with the uneven surface we might get a ricochet." "I didn't even think of that," Golden said. "It's my fault, I forgot, usually the steel for rifle targets is hardened, it doesn't matter as much with pistol rounds, but rifle rounds have a lot more punch. For now we can stick to paper targets," I said. I picked up the stand and plate and we headed back towards the truck, I stopped at the 50 yard target to throw on a fresh paper target, while Golden Dawn flew the steel target back to the truck. When we were all set to go again, I handed her the bolt action after the range went hot. "Remember, this one kicks a bit more than the other, make sure you have it shouldered like I showed you," I said. Golden Dawn was able to load the rounds into the rifle with her wing, she loaded it up, pulled the bolt back and pushed it forward, chambering a round. Then she disengaged the safety, took aim and fired. "Oh wow you weren't kidding," she said before turning back to the gun. She went through the remaining four shots, as she did I watched as she cycled the bolt with her wing; the amount of dexterity she had with it was very impressive. Kitchen Sink went next and I noticed a big difference between the way he shot a bolt action and the way Golden or I did. Because he was using magic to pull the bolt back and to fire the gun, he didn't have to physically move any body part back to the trigger. The moment the bolt closed, he was able to fire, making his followup shots much faster. I had never actually seen anyone shoot a bolt action as fast as he was doing. Golden must have noticed to because after Kitchen Sink finished she turned to me. "I like this gun, and I really like the scope, but it seems slower than the lever action because I have to move my wing back to the trigger, do you mind if I try something?" she asked. "Sure," I said. Golden took the rifle and walked up to the firing line. This time she got down on the ground in a prone position. She loaded up the rifle like last time but when she went to shoot she used her hoof to cycle the bolt while keeping her wing on the trigger. She still wasn't quite as fast as Kitchen Sink but it was a big improvement. "I figured If I used my hoof to cycle the bolt, I'd be able to shoot faster. Guess I was right." Golden said with a grin. "Yep, but remember it isn't always about speed. In any case neither of them would be as fast as a semi-automatic, or an automatic rifle if you are looking purely at rate of fire." "What do those mean?" Kitchen Sink asked. "So the three guns we have here all require some sort of manual action to load the next round. You either cycle the bolt, work the lever or cock the hammer, though with the revolver, pulling the trigger will also perform the movement needed to turn the cylinder, bringing the next shot in line. A semi-automatic gun uses some of the energy from the previous shot to load the next round for you, it also ejects the brass from the previous shot; all you have to do is pull the trigger. Every time you pull the trigger a semi-automatic gun will fire once. Automatic guns are similar, except if you hold down the trigger, an automatic will keep firing, generally at a very high rate, until you run out of ammo." "How fast?" "Several hundred to over a thousand rounds per minute it depends on the gun." "Oh sweet Celestia!" Golden said, her tail twitching wildly. "It's too bad you don't have one of those, I'd love to try it." "Semi-automatics are the most commonly owned type of firearm among civilians in my country. Automatics however, are much more tightly controlled. There are only a limited number of them available for civilian ownership; as such they tend to be very expensive. In addition you have to go through a lot of paperwork to buy one, it's a lengthy and somewhat pricey process." Both of the ponies had more questions and I answered them as best I could, but it wasn't long before we went back to shooting. After a few hours of talking and shooting we decided to call it a day. None of us had planned on staying out this late, it was only a couple of hours from dinner time and we hadn't even brought food for lunch. We cleaned up the range, Kitchen Sink hopped into back of the truck while Golden Dawn sat up front again. "Today was fun," Golden said, resting a wing around my shoulder. "Yeah it was. It's been a long time since I've done anything like this, the last few years of my life have just been work, work and more work." "All the more reason for you to enjoy your time here, think of it like an unexpected vacation." "Some vacation, first I end up whisked off to another world, I get my brain scrambled, I almost die in the desert and then I almost get killed by a underground monster." I said while starting the truck. Golden frowned a bit at that. "I'm just joking with you," I said, sticking my tongue out. "Although the circumstances of my arrival were less than ideal, I've actually enjoyed a good bit of my time here. While it hasn't been a traditional vacation, it has been fun." "I did have a couple of follow up questions about your guns," she said. "Shoot." "You went over how the guns work but you didn't really talk about the ammunition," Golden Dawn said. "Oh yeah, I forgot, I had already given Kitchen Sink a quick run down of it while we were still at the mines." "My guess is that there's some sort of explosive charge inside each of those brass casings," she said. "Very good, yeah there's a substance known as smokeless powder inside each cartridge. Well sort of, there's not just one type of powder, different powders have different burn rates and thus different applications. Don't quote me on this but I think rifle powders tend to burn slower than pistol powders, the idea being that a rifle barrel is much longer, so if you used a quick burning powder it would finish burning before the bullet exited the barrel and then start to slow down due to friction." "That makes sense, I wonder if the powers are anything like spark powder." Golden Dawn said. "What's spark powder?" "It's what we use in fireworks, it's a mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal and sulfur." "Oh! That sounds like gunpowder, well, specifically black powder. Most people just call all powder gunpowder. Anyway, I don't know the actual ratios for gunpowder but those are the components." "What's gunpowder?" "It was the precursor to modern smokeless powders. We don't use it in most guns anymore for a few reasons, one of them being it makes a lot of smoke. That’s why the replacements, which make far less smoke, are known as smokeless powder." "What are they made out of?" "I'm not really sure and like I said there's not just one kind. Different powders have different burn rates. Some are good for rifles some are good for pistols, there's a lot of variety." I told Golden Dawn about the reloading equipment I had back in my trailer, along with all the components and reloading manuals. Then I gave her the same quick rundown of the components of a cartridge that I had given Kitchen Sink. She asked many more questions and I answered them to the best of my ability. When we got back to the shop, I headed over to one of the work benches and showed the two ponies how to break apart each weapon, how to clean it and how to reassemble it. After that Kitchen Sink thanked me for the taking him out shooting, gave me five bits and headed out. "I'm going to be in Hoofston for another few days until Jade Circlet gets here, then I'm heading home to Canterlot. I think that's where you said you were heading, if you're still in Equestria next week, swing by," he said, giving me a piece of paper with his address on it. "Will do," I said shaking his hoof goodbye. After he left, Golden asked if she could look at the rifles some more, she wanted to break down the rifles again and see how they worked. At first I was going to say no, I was kind of worried about her taking them apart, but then I reconsidered. If she could build her own engine from scratch, surely taking apart a gun wouldn’t be too hard. Plus, doing a full tear down with her would be kind of fun. I locked up all the ammunition to make sure there were no accidents and then I let her have a go at it while I watched on and described each of the parts in detail. She had both of them broken down in record time and the next thing I knew she pulled out some of her own tools and started measuring each of the components and making notes. She had a pretty good sketch of the lever action's receiver when Blue Skies burst into the shop, bouncing up and down excitedly. "Hail Storm! You've got to come with me," she said pulling on my arm. "What's going on?" Golden asked as she walked over. "There's a unicorn magician in town!" Blue Skies said. "Maybe you can talk to her, she might know how to get you home!" "Oh? OH! Let me just put this away and I'll meet you outside." I said, excitedly. "Nuts to that, you’ve got to hurry!" Blue Skies said. Before I could say anything she lifted me up, flew me out the door and dropped me off on the ground next to my truck. I didn't like the idea of leaving the guns out but they were disassembled and the only ammunition on the planet was locked up in my trailer. Golden Dawn flew down right behind me. "I'll come with you," she said, opening the passenger door and climbing in. I started up the truck and drove after Blue Skies who was already flying towards the center of town. I hummed a happy tune, tapping along on the steering wheel as I stepped on the gas. "Isn't this great?" I asked, grinning happily "I could find out how I got here! Maybe I could even get back to Earth today!" "Yeah..." Golden replied in a quiet voice. I glanced over at her, she was slumped forward almost laying completely flat on the floor of the truck, "what's wrong? You don't sound particularly excited." "I just don't think you should get your hopes up, the kind of magic needed to pull you here from another world, that's no small thing. I think you're going to have to talk to the Princesses to get any real information." Golden Dawn's statement deflated my excitement and my dancing fingers came to rest on the steering wheel. "This pony might know something though, right?" "Maybe," Golden said but her response felt cold and lifeless. Fluffy feathers came to rest on my back as Golden spoke up, "if this pony can help you, are you going to leave right away?" I almost shouted "Of course!" but just before it slipped out I noticed Golden's face. Her ears were folded down flat against her head and eyelids were half closed. I had never seen her looking so sad before. "I... I hadn't thought about it." I replied. "I'm going to miss you Hail Storm, I know you got pulled here against your will and I have no right to ask you to stay away from your home any longer, but I've enjoyed your company and I feel like I'm about to say goodbye to a new friend that I'll never get to see again." she said with a sniffle. The soft grip of Golden's wing tightened as I continued to drive towards the center of town. I reached over and put my hand on Golden's shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "I'm sorry Golden, I got so caught up in Blue Skies' news that I wasn't thinking. I will miss you too, but who knows, maybe we can arrange for some way to allow easy travel between our two worlds." "Maybe," Golden said, but she didn’t sound convinced. We didn't have any more time to talk because Blue Skies stopped as we reached a small field near the middle of town. At the far end I saw a bunch of ponies standing around a small wooden stage where a blue unicorn wearing a hat and cape was walking back and forth, talking to the crowd. Off to the side of the stage was a small purple wagon with yellow trim. I parked the truck, hopped out and headed across the field with Golden Dawn over to where Blue Skies was standing. The stage was covered in various props, most of which looked exactly like what you’d expect for a magic show. The blue unicorn that I had spotted earlier, said something that made the crowd gasp. Her horn lit up brightly and a burst of fireworks exploded in the air, dazzling the onlooking ponies. Several ponies started clapping as she removed her hat and took a bow. I reached Blue Skies and watched on as the unicorn continued her act. "For her next trick, The Great and Powerful Trixie needs a volunteer from the audience. If anypony wishes to assist Trixie, step forward." A young pegasus colt, egged on by a group of friends shyly walked towards the wagon. "You there, " the unicorn announced "You shall help Trixie delight the crowd with a spectacular display of magic, but first, you need to be properly dressed." She removed the pointy, star covered hat and placed it on the colt’s head. It was far too large for the young pony and sank down deep, covering much of his face. He peered out from under the hat and watched silently as Trixie pulled off her matching cape. With a dramatic sweep she draped it over the the colt. Trixie reared up into the air and landed with a bang, as her hooves crashed down a cloud of smoke puffed up into the air surrounding both her and the young pony. When it dissipated, the colt was gone. The crowd gasped, while Trixie trotted over to a box on the far left of the stage. She spun around and gave the box a kick with her rear hooves. The walls of the box fell outward, revealing the colt who was standing there, looking rather confused at his location change. "Please give a round of applause for Trixie's volunteer," Trixie shouted gave a bow as she retrieved her hat and cape. Trixie continued with her show, which rivaled some of the better magic shows I had seen on Earth. However, the audience’s reaction was mixed. Some ponies seemed genuinely impressed but other ponies seemed rather bored. I guess when you grew up around magic, a magic show wasn't all that big of a deal. By the end of the show, the number of ponies still watching had shrunk by about half. Some of the remaining ponies wandered off after Trixie wrapped up the final act of her show, but most lined up to approach the stage. One by one, they stepped forward and dropped some money into Trixie's hat which was floating directly in front of the stage, encased in a pale pink glow. I had thought it was a pretty good show so I got in line and waited my turn. Golden and Blue Skies were in front of me, after they finished and stepped out of line, I walked forward, reached over the hat, and tossed in a bit. My hand brushed up against the pink glow as I was pulling it away. I let out a small cry of pain as the lower half of arm began to tingle, like pins and needles, but quite painful. It was not dissimilar from when Kitchen Sink had pushed me as I jumped the pit, but this time it hurt even more. I quickly retracted my hand and tried to shake the pain away. Slowly, the odd sensation began to fade until all that was left was a dull ache. I heard a pony cough loudly and looked up to see Trixie glaring at me. "What are you and why are you touching Trixie's hat?" she asked sternly, while giving me a look over. "Oh, sorry, I don't know what it is but every time I come into contact with magic, it leaves me feeling weird. I liked your show by the way, probably the best magic show I've ever seen." "Thank you," she said her gaze softening a bit. "Trixie is always glad to hear that a spectator enjoyed the show." "The name's Hal Storm, you asked what I am, well I'm a human," I said extending my hand. Trixie hesitantly extended her hoof and then weakly shook my hand. "Good to meet you Hail Storm, now if you’ll excuse me..." She began to walk away when I called out to her. "Actually, I was wondering if I could talk to you... about magic," I said. "You are interested in stage magic?" Trixie asked. "Well not exactly, look do you have some time? It's a bit of a long story." Trixie glanced back at the stage, "Trixie needs to finish cleaning up, then she can spare a few minutes time. Meet me in my wagon in half an hour." "Great! Thanks, I appreciate it." I said before wandering back over to Golden and Blue Skies. "What did she say?" Golden asked, trying to hide her nervousness. "I'm going to talk to her when she's done cleaning up," I said. We stood around talking while Trixie continued to put away all her props. Then she disassembled the stage and it too disappeared into the wagon. Impressive since the wagon didn’t look all that big. When enough time had passed I walked over to it with Golden and Blue Skies in tow. I knocked on the door and seconds later heard Trixie say "Enter." The door opened, and I stepped inside. I made it a foot past the door before I was overcome with a wave of nausea and I doubled over in pain. My entire body felt like it had been lit on fire. I fell to the floor in a heap, letting out a shrill cry. "Hail Storm?" Golden Dawn asked, looking at me with worry in her eyes. I struggled to get back up, and that's when I noticed that the ceiling was much farther away than I thought it should have been. In fact now that I was looking around the interior of the wagon was much larger than should have been possible. "Is this wagon enchanted?" I asked Trixie weakly, as I tried to back up. "Of course, how else would the Great and Powerful Trixie be able to store all of her equipment?" she said. "I need... I need... to.. get" was all I managed to say before another wave of pain washed over me and I fell to the floor again. My memory went a bit fuzzy, and the next thing I remembered was Golden Dawn looking over me, her face full of worry. Trixie and Blue Skies were standing next to her. My entire body felt like it was covered in a massive sunburn and despite the warm sun, I shivered. "Are you alright?" she asked. "Ugh, I hurt all over. What happened?" "You passed out in Trixie's wagon," Trixie said quite plainly. "How long was I out?" I asked, my vision was fading between clarity and a massive blur. "Ten minutes or so, we pulled you out of there almost right away." Golden Dawn said. "Can somepony explain to Trixie what's going on?" Trixie asked. "I don't... feel so well," I said, struggling to talk, my heart was beating so hard that if felt like it was going to explode out of my chest. "We need to get him to Dusty's" I heard Golden say before everything went black. A nearly inaudible sound of light breathing was my first clue that I was awake. Shortly later the sounds of birds, happily announcing that morning had come filled the air. As I sat up, the pounding in my head flared up and I let out a gasp. "Hail Storm?" I turned and saw Golden Dawn, stretching her wings and wiping the sleep from her eyes. "You're awake!" she said happily, she leapt across the room and wrapped her wings around me. "Whats going on?" I asked weakly. "Hold on, let me go get Dusty, he'll want to know you're up," Golden Dawn said before flying out of the room. A moment later she came back with Dusty who also looked like he had just woken up. "What time is it?" I asked, looking at the window, it had to still be early since the judging by the light coming in from the window. "Just a little past five in the morning," Dusty said. "How long as I out? Were you here all night?" I asked Golden Dawn. "Golden Dawn has been here almost the whole time you were out," Dusty said. "I made her go home the first day but after that she came back and refused to leave." Golden Dawn blushed. "I wanted to make sure you were okay," she said. What's the last thing you remember?" Dusty asked me. "Going to talk to that unicorn magician, Trixie I think it was?" "You passed out when you stepped into her wagon, you woke back up for a few minutes after we got you out but then lost consciousness again, that was six days ago." Golden Dawn said. I stared at her, "Five days?... So you hung around here for five days?" Golden nodded meekly. "What the heck is wrong with me?" I asked "We aren't sure, all we know is that you had a violent reaction to the enchantment in Trixie's wagon. It had a fairly powerful spatial compression and weight displacement spell cast on it, according to Trixie." "Huh?" "It made the inside bigger than the outside and lets Trixie store a lot of things in her wagon without adding to the weight," Golden Dawn said. "Oh." "You gave us quite a scare," Dusty said. "I still can't figure out why you react so badly to enchantments, that one in Trixie's wagon nearly killed you but I don't know if it's because it was a powerful spell or it was due to cumulative damage caused by repeated exposure to enchantment. Your heart rate was through the roof when Golden got you here." "Saved me again? You've got to stop making a habit of that," I said struggling to smile. "Only if you quit your habit of nearly dying," she said gently punching me in the shoulder. "I'll do my best," I said with a wince, then I frowned. "I guess I missed out on my chance to talk to a magician." "Not exactly, Trixie is still in town, she followed us here and I told her as much as I could about you, she said she'd hang around for a few more days in case you woke up," Golden Dawn said. "Why don't you get some rest, after you do, Golden Dawn can go get her," Dusty Heart said. "Okay," I said and both ponies headed out to let me rest. Eventually I drifted back to sleep. A few hours later I woke up to a knock at the door. "Come in." Golden Dawn, Blue Skies, Dusty Heart and Trixie all walked in. "How are you feeling?" Blue Skies asked, looking relieved to see me awake. "Better, head's killing me but I don't feel like I'm dying anymore." "I'm so sorry, if I hadn't told you about Trixie you never would have gotten hurt," she said, looking guilty. "Not your fault, you had no way of knowing." "Trixie is... sorry as well, Trixie has never heard of anypony having that kind of reaction to magic," the unicorn magician said. "Well, I'm not exactly from around here, so it's not like you had any way of knowing. Don't worry about it," I said. "Do you still want to ask Trixie about magic?" she asked. "Maybe I should start at the beginning. I know Golden Dawn probably told you a bit about my past, but I'll just start over in case she missed anything." With that I launched into my story of the events of nearly a month ago; I had told it enough that I had an abridged version with all the important details already memorized. Trixie's face remained steady during the whole thing so I couldn't really gauge how well she was following along. A few times Golden Dawn interjected with something small details that she felt were important that I had left out. "So you see, what I'm looking for is a unicorn with enough magical knowledge to figure out how I got here, and maybe how to send me home." Trixie sat there for a few moments clearly trying to process everything I had just told her. Her lack of expression made me nervous. Perhaps she thought I was I'm making the whole thing up, I couldn’t get a read on her. "Look, I know it probably sounds crazy, but the whole thing is true, right down to those bits of confetti I found. I have no idea how I got here and I'm from another planet." After another moment of silence she floated her hat off, and set it down on the table in front of her. Her pale blue striped mane fell downward and a frown covered her face. "Trixie believes you, she... er... I have traveled far and wide across Equestria and I have never seen any species like you before. That's not what was bothering Tri... uh, me. I... I am sorry to say that I cannot help you." "But why not, aren't you a magician? I just watched your show, I saw you use more magic during it than every other unicorn I've met since I arrived here." A long drawn out sigh escaped from Trixie before she continued. "I am excellent at stage magic, but outside of that I know few spells. The enchantment on my wagon is probably the most difficult spell I've ever cast and it required no where near the amount of magic that would be needed to open a gateway to another world. As much as it pains me to admit, I am no master at all forms of magic. Pretending to be so has only caused me problems in the past." "Is there anything you can do, even maybe determine if it was a spell that brought him here?" Golden asked. "If I had been present at Hail Storm's arrival in Equestria, I might have been able to discern the nature of the magic that brought him here, but I doubt I could reverse it. By now it would take a very powerful pony, like Princess Celestia or Princess Luna to find anything out this long after the fact." She sat there for a moment deep in thought, before frowning once more. "Actually there is one other pony that could help you," Trixie said. "Who?" "A unicorn mare, she lives in Ponyville, her name is Twilight Sparkle." "Twilight Sparkle? The new princess? I think I remember Golden Dawn telling me about her," I said. "What?!" Trixie shouted, jumping out of her seat. She jumped back so quickly, her hat fell off. "What, what?" I asked, confused at her outburst. "Twilight Sparkle is not a princess!" Trixie said in a huff. "Yeah she is, she was crowned a little over two months ago," Blue Skies said. "It was in all the papers, how could you not have seen it?" Golden Dawn asked. "Tri... I have been traveling and I do not always pay attention to current events." Trixie said with a snort. "I thought Dusty Heart had said Twilight was an alicorn?" I asked. "She is now, she was a unicorn before, that's how she became a princess." Blue Skies said. "Remember I said she ascended?" Golden Dawn said. "I thought you meant ascended as in, ascended to the throne! How does that even work? Ponies can change species?" I asked. Then again, was it really a species change? I wasn't sure how ponies classified themselves. "Only Princess Celestia or Princess Luna could answer that," Trixie said while floating her hat back onto her head.. "Ascension is beyond rare, only a hoofful of ponies throughout Equestria's history have managed it. It figures that Twilight was one of them." "She's in Canterlot right now, right?" I asked "Yeah, she and Princess Cadance are running things while Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are on vacation." "Vacation? I really need to start reading the news," Trixie said with a sigh. "Well, I had planned on going to Canterlot before this happened, looks like my plans haven’t changed. I'm going to have to go to there to find any real answers after all," I said. "I would offer to let you travel with me as I'm going to eventually be heading that way myself; I have... some things that I need to discuss with Twilight. But judging by your reaction to my wagon, I think it would be best if you avoided it and any other magic that you can." Trixie said. "Yeah, that's not an experience I want to relive, in any case, I already have a way to get there, I can drive my truck," I said. "I don't know if you should be traveling that far in your condition," Dusty Heart said. "Certainly not alone." "But I need to get to Canterlot," I said. "I'll go with him," Golden Dawn said. "I'm way overdue for a vacation and my dad lives in Canterlot." "You don't have to do that," I said. "I insist. Somepony has to make sure you get there safely, besides I haven't gotten to look at your truck yet," she said with a smile. "Is that all I am to you, my truck?" I said returning the grin. I didn't want to force her to travel, but if she was adamant, I wasn't going to stop her. Plus I'd enjoy the company. "Yep, that and your guns," she said rubbing my head. "Ow, not so hard, don't further injure the poor sick man." "Then it's settled then," Dusty said. "You go with Hail Storm and make sure he gets to Canterlot, it will be good to have a pony who's familiar with the city to help him find his way around it." Then he turned to me. "And you, make sure you don't push yourself too hard. No use getting to Canterlot if you die on it's doorstep. Oh, and try to avoid any more exposure to enchanted objects." "I will, and thank you everyone for taking care of me." Blue Skies, Trixie and Dusty Heart left the room while Golden Dawn helped me out of bed. "I suppose we need to head to the center of town and get my truck since I left it in the middle of that field. It's a good thing you ponies don't have tow trucks or I'd be paying to get it out of an impound lot," I said with a laugh. Golden Dawn gave me a nervous grin, "Um... about that. I kinda sorta borrowed your keys and drove it here." "How did you do that?" I asked in shock. It must have been hell for her to even fit in the driver's seat. "I sat human style! It was a little odd at first and not exactly what I would call comfortable, it's lucky that I'm a fairly small pony or I wouldn't have fit at all. But once I crammed myself in there, I was able to reach the pedals with my rear hooves. I had already been watching you drive before so I knew which pedals did what." "You didn't hit anything did you?" I asked, glaring at her suspiciously. "Just a few mailboxes," she said. "What!?" "I'm kidding," she said with a laugh. "I kept it pretty slow and was extremely careful." "Well I guess that's good to know that you can drive." "So you want to take turns on the way to Canterlot?" she asked with a big grin. "We'll see."