//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 // Story: The Right Man in the Wrong Place... // by CORACK //------------------------------// I never understood why I always feel more tired when I wake up than before I go to bed, it will forever be one of life's great mysteries. Though, this time I had a pretty good idea what had caused it. A long yawn escaped me, giving me a brief respite to the coughing that had kept me up most of the night. It had started off fairly light but grew heavier as the night wore on, by the morning my throat felt like it had been worn ragged and my lungs hurt whenever I took a deep breath. I stumbled through my morning routine, barely able to tell what was happening. If I wasn't able to force myself into an alert state soon, I'd have to ask Golden Dawn to drive the rest of the way. The street outside the hotel was a blur of colorful ponies. I mostly kept my head down, trying to block out the sun, which was only aggravating my headache. Every once in awhile, I'd look up from the cobblestone, just to see where I was going. Small shops lined the street, and the aroma of baked goods filled the air. We were halfway back to the truck when Golden stopped in front of one of the stores, a wooden sign hung over it's door, adorned with the image of a donut and what looked like a coffee cup. "I'm going to run in and grab something to eat, do you want anything?" "If that's coffee," I said, pointing at the sign. "I could really use some caffeine." "No problem, I'll get you a cup." Golden Dawn said. She looked inside the front window and saw a line of ponies. "Do you want to wait out here? There's a bench over there, you could sit down." "I might just head back to the truck, if that's okay with you," I said. There was a pair of sunglasses sitting in the truck that I was hoping would give me some relief from the painful light of day. "Okay... If you think you'll be alright to walk there alone," Golden Dawn said, looking at me with uncertainty. "I'll be fine." A few ponies gave me strange looks as I walked down the street but none of them said anything. I was halfway back to the truck when I found myself walking behind a mint green unicorn talking to a beige earth pony. "Look Lyra, I don't care if Berry Punch claims that she saw a lanky furless diamond dog last night, first off, it's Berry Punch, don't take anything she says after 6PM as fact. Secondly just because it sounds like one of your mythical humans, doesn't mean that there's one wandering around Ponyville," the earth pony mare said. I did a double take. If I wasn't hearing things, that pony just said "human". "I'm telling you Bon Bon something is going on. First Celestia and Luna go on a mysterious vacation, then there's rumors of changelings being spotted around Canterlot again, all those missing ponies, and now, well you saw that big metal thing that rolled past our window last night, and Berry Punch's description of the creature..." "Look, I don't know what that was, but I clearly saw a pegasus in the window." "But we could only see one side of it! And what about the metal box it was pulling, it could have been full of humans, maybe they're being brought in to fight the changelings." Yep, she definitely said human. I let out a quiet laugh the pony's suggestion of humans fight the changelings. As far as I knew, I was the only human around and I wasn't in any condition to fight anything. I tried to move a little faster so I could get in front of the pair. I wanted to question the mint one more about where she had learned about humans. Unfortunately, I was hit with another violent bout of coughing and doubled over. This one was far worse than any of the previous ones, and a deep stabbing pain shot up in my lungs. It felt like someone had stuck a hot iron into my insides and I let out a whimper as a wave of agony crashed through me. The coughing was getting so bad I was having trouble breathing. The two ponies in front of me began to turn around, curious to the sounds of my distress. "Are you okay?" I heard the unicorn start to say, followed a gasp and then an excited scream. "BON BON, LOOK! IT'S A HUMAN!" the unicorn shouted with way too much glee. "Lyra, that's not a..." the second pony stopped mid-sentence as she got a good look at me. I felt something warm and wet on my hand and brought it up to eye level. Streaks of blood stained the inside of my hand. That was probably not a good thing. I'm not sure if it was the sight of blood, or the short ragged breaths caused by the coughing or the general failing state of my health but I had a feeling of vertigo, things started to spin and I lost my balance and tripped. In slow motion the cobblestone rose up towards me but before I smashed into it, a golden glow surrounded my body and my fall ground to a halt. It wasn't like the time Kitchen Sink had pushed on me over the gap, or when I brushed up against Trixie's hat. The unicorn's magical field was surrounding me completely, from head to toe. For a moment, I experienced weightlessness, which was actually an interesting sensation, then everything started to burn. "Caught you," the unicorn said. I responded with screaming, which of course startled the unicorn so much that she dropped me as she started screaming herself. I hit my head on the curbstone and things got a little fuzzy after that. I remember the unicorn panicking, and shouting something, Golden Dawn was there now, I caught bits of the conversation. "hang in there..." That sounded like Golden Dawn, I tried to nod, I think I did. "...tripped... caught him... screaming" "...sick... to Canterlot... can't use magic..." "... get Rainbow..." Then things faded out completely. Golden Dawn plonked down a bit and picked up a bag of donuts and a coffee. She squeezed past the line of ponies still waiting to order and headed out to the street. Hail Storm was about two blocks ahead of her, walking slowly towards the truck. He shuddered, then bent over as he started coughing heavily. She could hear the sickly wet hacking, even from this far away. The ponies in front of him turned to see if he was alright and that's when everything went wrong. He tripped and started to fall, the unicorn in front of him caught Hail Storm in her magic before he could hit the cobblestone, but a second later he started to scream. The unicorn, clearly shocked at Hail Storm's reaction, dropped him and with a sickening thud his head smashed into the hard stone. By that moment, Golden Dawn was already in the air, she landed less than a second later and rushed over, trying to check on her friend. "Hail, are you okay?" Golden asked, she looked down and saw that his eyes were unfocused. She waved her hoof in front of them but saw no reaction. "I don't know what happened! He tripped, I caught him and he started screaming. Oh Celestia, what did I do?" the unicorn said. "It was your magic!" Golden Dawn shouted. She took a deep breath trying to calm her nerves, panic wasn't going to help anypony. "Look he's really sick, we were on our way to Canterlot to see the Princesses in hopes that they might know what to do. He's not from Equestria, something about magic seems to hurt him, I've got get him to Canterlot and fast." Golden Dawn bent down to pick up her fallen friend, she stuck her hooves under his arms and lifted him up. "You can't use magic, remember?" Golden Dawn said. "I've got to fly him there," "Not magic, I'm going to get Rainbow Dash," and she galloped away. "If your friend finds Rainbow Dash, send her after me, I'll be flying towards the castle." Golden Dawn took to the sky, moving as fast as she could. Canterlot Mountain was a good 25 miles away, but worse, the castle was half way up the slope, she not only had to carry Hail a good distance, but she had to ascend around two miles while doing so. She was less than a mile outside the town when she heard a voice just behind her. "You look like you need some help." Golden Dawn turned and saw the colorful pegasus flying right up alongside her. If the situation wasn't so dire, she would have asked the Equestria-renowned flyer for an autograph. "Oh thank Celestia," Golden Dawn said. "Look, my friend is hurt, I need to get him to Princess Twilight. He's a..." "Human? Yeah I know, Twilight's told us about them, what the hay is he doing in Equestria?" Rainbow said, looking confused. "I don't know, he woke up in the middle of the Badlands almost a month ago. Can you help me?" "Not a problem, I'll get him there in a jiffy, hoof him over," Rainbow said, flying up alongside Golden Dawn. "What's your name?" "Golden Dawn." "When you get to the castle, head for the throne room, I'll tell Twilight you're coming, she'll have the guards tell you where to go." "What do you mean, I'm coming with you." "You said you needed him there fast?' Rainbow asked. "Yeah." "Well, I'm going to go fast, you can try to keep up if you like," Rainbow Dash said with a grin. She took off like a firework, putting on an unnatural burst of speed. A rainbow appeared in the air, trailing her movements as she quickly raised the distance between herself and Golden Dawn. Freed from carrying Hail, Golden Dawn accelerated to her own top speed, but even burdened, the prismatic pony was still outpacing her by a long shot. She watched as Rainbow Dash and her friend grew more and more distant until a very small dot banked down towards the castle and disappeared from view as it flew behind a tower. Ten minutes later Golden Dawn reached the castle. Ponies weren't supposed to fly in, so she circled down towards the front entrance. She hadn't been to the castle since she was a filly and she struggled to remember the path to the throne room as she galloped inside. She quickly got lost in the maze of corridors, and cursed herself for not asking the guardpony at the front for directions. After wandering around for several minutes, she finally spotted a large group of ponies, heading towards what she thought was the way outside. "Does anypony know how to get to the throne room?" she asked. "Yeah, it's back that way, but they just closed court for the day," said a unicorn, wearily pointing back the way he had come from. "There was some sort of emergency." She followed the corridor that the pony had pointed her towards until she came to a massive set of double doors, flanked by two guards. "Court is canceled for today... " the guard on the left started to say. He stopped and looked her over, "Are you Golden Dawn?" Golden Dawn nodded. "Alright, you are expected, please go inside," he said. The two guards turned and opened the doors and Golden trotted inside. The throne room was massive, easily large enough to fit all of Golden Dawn's shop and then some. It had been completely rebuilt since Luna's return and was no longer dedicated solely to Princess Celestia, bringer of the day. Gorgeous stained glass windows, over two stories high, depicted events of historical significance. They were flanked by massive marble columns stretching all the way up to the ceiling. A long red carpet extended across the polished marble floor from the door most of the way across the room until it forked, splitting off to the twin golden thrones. Golden Dawn glanced up and was surprised to see a perfect recreation of the night sky, floating high above her head where the ceiling should be. A star shot across its enchanted surface, as if to prove that this was no mere painting but instead a magical replica of Luna's domain. There was just one problem; the throne room was empty. Golden turned around just in time to see the massive doors close with a resounding thud. "Hello?" she called out. "Is anypony here?" When no pony replied, she began to pace back and forth, unsure of what to do next. She poked her head out the door and looked at the Guard she had just talked to. "There's nopony in here," she said. "Princess Twilight will come get you as soon as she can, please wait inside." Golden Dawn went back in, walked over to one of the big marble columns and sat down. A tear rolled down her face as she thought her friend. She whispered a quiet prayer to Celestia, hoping that he would be okay. It seemed like ages, but might have only been half an hour or even a few minutes, when a flash of magenta light and a popping sound startled her. She looked up to see Princess Twilight Sparkle standing at her throne. Twilight noticed Golden Dawn almost immediately and trotted over. "You are Golden Dawn right? The human's friend?" Twilight asked. "Yes your highness," Golden said, giving Twilight a bow. Twilight blushed and pawed at the ground awkwardly. "Please... just call me Twilight, I'm still not used to the whole title thing, don't think I ever will be." "Yes, your... uh, Twilight... Um where is Hail Storm?" Golden Dawn asked. "Oh is that his name? Well, he's actually down in the dungeon, why don't we head down there and you can fill me in on how he got here." "The dungeon! He's sick! He needs help, he's not any danger!" Golden shouted in a panic. "Golden, please calm down, Hail Storm is not in trouble and we are trying to help him," Twilight said calmly. "But you just said he was in the dungeon!?" "He is, and there's a very good reason for him being there... hmm maybe I should explain a bit, but first let's head down there so you can see him." Twilight's horn glowed brightly and a sphere of energy surrounded the two ponies, seconds later Golden felt the world shatter into a million pieces. Those fragments were rearranged and then hastily put back together in a blur of movement. When the light cleared away, a stone corridor had appeared around the two ponies. "Where is he?" Golden Dawn asked, looking around. "We still have to walk a bit, there are security spells that prevent teleporting into that section of the castle," Twilight said. "Tell me Golden, what do you know of Hail Storm... I mean what he is and where he came from." Golden Dawn took a deep breath and started spewing all the information she could remember. "Well, he said he's a human, but I've never heard of a human before I met him. He had no idea where he was when I found him and had never even heard of Equestria before. He thinks he's from another planet, but he has no idea how he got here. He was on his own world driving his truck... um it's an automobile, and he saw a shimmering green light. He couldn't avoid it and crashed his truck after driving through it. I found him in the Badlands. We were on our way here because he didn't know how to get home, but worse than that, every time he's come in contact with any sort of magical spell or enchantment, it seems to make him sick." "I have seen humans before," Twilight said, "though not exactly the same kind that Hail Storm appears to be. Hail Storm is correct, he is not from this world, but I don't think he knew the whole picture. Hail Storm isn't just not from this world, he's not even from this universe." Golden Dawn stopped mid step. "What?" she asked. "I encountered humans for the first time several months ago when I stepped through a portal to another dimension. The humans there were similar to Hail Storm but not quite the same. I have no way to prove this but I suspect that Hail Storm is from yet another universe, closer to theirs but even more devoid of magic. I knew the moment I saw Hail Storm that he was not native to Equus and when Rainbow Dash told me about Lyra and how her magic had hurt him, something clicked. It's still just a theory but even if I'm wrong, moving him down to the dungeon won't hurt him. If I'm right, it might buy us some time to figure out how to treat him." "What does this have to do with why Hail Storm is in the dungeon?" Golden asked as Twilight opened a door and turned down another corridor. "Travel from one universe to another is dangerous, very dangerous in fact. There are so many variables that can change from one universe to the next and even a small number of those changes could be lethal." Golden tried to to put what Twilight was talking about into a concrete example. "So like if he had ended up on a planet where the atmosphere was toxic to him?" she asked. "That's always a possibility but it goes beyond that. He could have ended up in a universe where the very forces that hold the atoms that make up his body together ceased to exist and he would have simply dissolved into quantum dust. Even with powerful spells it is hard to breach the boundary between dimensions and it requires very special care to cross them without putting the traveler in danger." "What kind of care?" Golden asked. "When I traveled through the mirror portal, the magic of the spell transformed me from a pony into a human, that universe's version of a human anyway. My body was adapted to a form suitable for their universe. Somehow Hail Storm got into Equestria but whatever brought him here didn't bother changing his body to survive in our universe. Based on the information given to me by Rainbow, and the little you've told me so far, I think that Hail Storm wasn't as lucky as it might have first seemed. It's likely that magic itself is toxic to him and that's why I've brought him down into the dungeons." They arrived at a thick iron door, guarded by a vicious looking thestral, he nodded at Princess Twilight and opened the door for them. Inside was a short hallway with a number of cells on either side. The far end of the hall had a single stone door, covered in runes. Princess Cadance and Rainbow Dash stood in front of the door, looking inside the small window. "This is where some of the worst magic abusers in the history of Equestria have been kept. Each cell is highly resistant to magic, both from inside and out. The cell at the far end was designed in hopes that Celestia would have a cage that could hold Discord, though in testing it proved to be ineffective for more than a few moments. Even so it has the most powerful magical suppression field ever created. Even the most powerful unicorn mages wouldn't be able to cast something as simple as a levitation spell while standing in that cell. Only Celestia, Luna, myself and... Discord," she said his name with a bit of annoyance, "have managed any magic at all while within it's walls." "So that will cure him?" Golden Dawn asked as they walked towards the door at the end of the hall. "Err, not exactly. Magic is everywhere in Equestria, in our food, our water, even our air. Canterlot itself is enchanted, which probably isn't helping things. In fact, ponies actually give off a low amount of magic, just being near us may be aggravating his condition." "You mean I'm hurting him just by being around him?" Golden Dawn asked, her face covered in horror. "I don't know what amount of magic his body can tolerate yet. Individually, it's probably low enough that it shouldn’t cause any serious damage, but when you gather a large number of ponies in an area, that amount of magic will go up. Between the high population and the enchanted castle, Canterlot is likely one of the worst place for him to be. Unfortunately, it’s also the best place to work on fixing him. I think that it's likely that active magic spells cause the most damage. I'll have to run some tests to be sure. I suspect that even if Hail Storm hadn't been exposed to any active spells, over time he still would have suffered ill effects from more passive sources of magic." "But this room will stop that right?" Golden Dawn asked. "Exactly, while he is in there, he won't be exposed to any new sources of magic. However, it won't heal any damage that has already been done. We are going to have to come up with a way of determining how much damage he's actually suffered. There are spells that could give us more information, but casting those spells on Hail Storm might make his problems worse. It's going to take time to solve this, I have no quick fix," Twilight said sadly. Twilight and Golden reached the end of the hall, Cadance and Rainbow Dash turned around, Cadance gave the pair a warm smile. "You've already met Rainbow," Twilight said. "Hey," Dash added. "This is my sister-in-law, Cadance," Twilight said, finishing the introductions. Golden Dawn fidgeted nervously, "um, hello" she managed to squeak out, giving a small bow to Cadance. "Please, no formalities, at least down here," Cadance said with a warm smile. "Let's just concentrate on getting your friend better." "Can I go in and see him?" Golden asked. "You can, he is still unconscious but his heart rate and breathing have stabilized. I will warn you, it will feel a little strange in there," Cadance said. Rainbow Dash opened the door and Golden Dawn trotted in. For what was essentially a maximum security cage, the inside was surprisingly well furnished. Hail Storm was laying on a large bed in the center of the room, there was a couch up against the left wall, the right wall had a small table and two chairs. A small divider had been placed up, blocking direct view to the toilet in the back left corner of the room. As soon as she stepped over the threshold of the door, she felt off. Her senses felt muted and her body trembled with a weakness that shook her to her core. A part of her felt like it had been sheared off, a disconnection of something that should have never been disconnected. A mixture of worry and curiosity made her give a gentle flap of her wings. Panic started to set in as she remained firmly planted to the stone floor. She turned around and almost bolted out the door when Twilight walk in behind her. "I know it feels wrong, but try to relax, as soon as you leave the room everything will be back to normal. The door will be unlocked as long as Hail Storm is in here so you can enter and exit freely at any time." "It... feels... I don't know how to describe it. It's like I lost the use of a limb, or one of my senses just stopped working with no warning," Golden said. She turned back around and moved slowly over to the bed that Hail Storm was laying down on. She placed her head on his chest and felt the rise and fall as he slowly, but steadily breathed in and out. "Is there anything I can do to help?" Golden asked as she listened to Hail Storm's breathing. "Right now we need information. How long has Hail Storm been here, how did he get here, what has he done since arriving? The more detail you can share the better." Golden lifted her head off of Hail Storm's chest and headed for the exit. "We might want to find some place to sit down, this is going to take a while." For not the first time since arriving in Equestria, I woke up in a strange bed with no idea of where I was. I had a very dull headache and the ringing in my ears stood out in the silence of the room, but otherwise I felt fine. I cursed to myself when I remembered that the ear drops that Dusty had given me were still in the truck, wherever that was. I tried to sit up and that's when I noticed there was an IV running into my arm. Another wire ran from my chest to what looked like a heart rate monitor next to my bed. My first thought was hospital but as I looked around that thought changed. The bare stone walls and the barred window on a very solid looking iron door looked like they belonged in a prison more than a place of healing. This time my memory was fairly clear, I remembered tripping, the mint green unicorn, the intense pain that followed after she caught me in her magic and lastly being dropped and hitting my head on the way down. It made sense that Golden Dawn would have done her best to get me somewhere for treatment, whether the hospital or to the capital as was the original plan. If this was a hospital, it was the strangest looking one I'd ever been in. I called out, in the off chance that there was someone right outside the room but after waiting a minute and not getting any reply, I decided I would have to try to have a look around. I tugged at the tape, prying the sensors off of my chest, the moment they came loose, the monitor's steady beeping turned to one long flat note of alarm. Next was the IV, I looked it over for a moment and decided fiddling with it was probably a bad idea, instead I took hold of the base, it was on wheels so dragging it along with me would be easy enough. This is definitely some sort of cell. The furniture looked out of place but if I was going to be imprisoned, I'd take this over an empty stone room. What I really wanted to know was why I was being imprisoned. Maybe Golden had gotten me to the capital and the pony princesses had decided the alien from another world was dangerous. I couldn't imagine why, especially since I was unconscious at that point. Still it wouldn't surprise me, had a pony somehow found its way onto Earth, they likely would have been looked up within hours if they ran into the wrong crowd. I walked over to the door to inspect it, the solid metal design looked heavy enough to easily stop even the freakishly strong earth ponies. There was no chance of breaking out. I leaned up against it to try to get a better look out the small window. All I saw was an empty stone corridor, with what looked like more cells on either side. In frustration, I pulled on the door with all my might and almost fell over as it swung open. If I am in a prison, why wasn't it locked? I stepped out of the room and began to walked towards the other end. As I passed the other doors, I looked inside. Each was another stone cell that looked like the one I had left, only without the furnishings. I continued towards the door at the end of the hall. It was just as heavy looking at the one in my cell. If it was locked then I just had a slightly larger prison. When I reached the door, I I reached out to check if it was open, but as I did it swung towards me. I stepped back to avoid getting hit. In stepped a pony, and for the first time since I had arrived in Equestria, I found myself looking at one face to face. I mean that quite literally, the purple eyes of this pony were level as my own and her neck wasn't even extended all the way up. "Well, this is new," I thought to myself. "Oh, you're awake," the tall pony said as she stepped into the room, giving me a second shock. Not only was this incredibly pink pony sporting the longest horn I'd ever seen, but she also had a large pair of very large wings folded up against her body. A small golden crown adorned her head. At a guess, she was one of the princesses that I had been told about. "Yeah, I woke up a few minutes ago," I said. Before I could introduce myself, she spoke up. "It would be best if you remained in your room," the pony said, looking me over. "Am I in trouble? This looks like a dungeon." The pink pony laughed at that, it was a warm and friendly laugh that instantly put me at ease. "Of course not, but this might take some explanation," she said as she turned and started to walk down towards the room I had woken up in. "Oh please pardon my manners, I haven't even introduced myself yet. I am Princess Cadance." "Harold Storm," I said following the pony back towards the cell, "but everyone here calls me Hail Storm." "Yes, Golden Dawn gave us your name," she said. "Where is she?" I asked, perking up a bit. "I will explain soon, but first Hail Storm, what is the last thing you remember?" "Hitting my head in Ponyville, are we still there, or did Golden Dawn get me to Canterlot? I'm guessing this is somewhere in the castle she was telling me about." "You are in Canterlot, in the castle, and yes, this is the castle dungeon. Let me stress that you are not a prisoner, instead we have put you down here in hopes that we can prevent any further damage to your body." "Does this have anything to do with my reaction to magic?" "Yes," Cadance said, scrunching up her nose. "I'm afraid I have some bad news regarding that. It's going to take some time to bring you up to speed, is there anything I can get you first?' We reached the end of the hallway and stood outside the door to my room. "Is Golden Dawn here? Can I see her?" I asked. "She left about an hour ago after I insisted that she go get some rest, she is likely sleeping now. I know you can't tell down here, but it is very late. We have given her a guest room in the castle to use, I can send for her if the matter is urgent, if not I ask that you wait for morning." "No, let her sleep, I just wanted her to know I was awake. How long have I been out?" "A little more than 18 hours, it's just after 3:00 AM right now." Cadance opened the iron door and then looked at me. "I have a number of things that we need to talk about but after that I'm going to ask you to step into the cell, I will not lock the door but the longer you remain out here the worse it will be for you." "Look, I don't want to be rude or anything but can you at least tell me why you have me in a cell, preferably before I voluntarily walk back into it?" Not that it really mattered, with magic, she could easily force me into the room if she wanted to. "This goes back to the lengthy explanation that I promised you. In short, magic is harmful to your body, and this cell is surrounded by a field that suppresses nearly all magic. It will prevent you from being exposed to further magic." "Your horn isn't glowing, are you using magic right now?" I asked. "And this is why a lengthy explanation is needed. While it is true that I can cast spells, using magic to actively accomplish goals, just because I am not casting anything does not mean that there is no magic in this room. Magic is everywhere, it is as omnipresent as the air around us or sunlight on a summer day. Though the amount of background magic in this room is small, it is, as most forms of magic appear to be, harmful to your body and would eventually cause damage. And given the amount of damage that has already been done, we thought it wise to reduce any further exposure. The cell before you is the best place in Canterlot, likely all of Equestria, to accomplish this." I took a moment to let Cadance's news sink in. I had already figured out that magic and me didn't mix but learning that magic was everywhere came as a bit of a shock. Was it like some form of background radiation? I tried to think of what this was going to mean for me, would I have to spend the rest of my time in Equestria living in a magic proof room? "If just being out here is bad for me, shouldn't I get in there right now?" I asked. "Ideally yes, but, since we are talking now, entering the cell would cause a separate issue." "What do you mean?" I asked. "Step in for a moment and find out." "Okay, well I'm going to to have to trust you," I said stepping into the cell. I didn't feel any different so I had no way of knowing if this magic proof room was actually doing anything. "Are you coming in?" I asked. Cadance looked at me sadly and said something that sounded like complete gibberish. Somewhat musical, pleasant sounding gibberish, but gibberish nonetheless. "What?" I asked. More gibberish and then she motioned for me to go back into the hallway, so I stepped out of the room. "I'm confused." "You have a translation spell cast on you, when you are in that room the magic that keeps the spell active is suppressed, so you are unable to understand us, nor are we able to understand you." "So when I'm in that room, I'm speaking English again?" "English? Is that what your native language is called?" Cadance asked. "Yeah," I said with a nod. "I figured out a while back that something had happened to me, all the stuff that I brought with me, well I can't read any of the writing on it, I can't even understand any recorded words. Is that because of the spell?" "That is unusual, the way Twilight explained translations spells to me was that it should adapt your speech to Equestrian and allow you to read and write it, but she didn't mention anything about it interfering with your native language." "Well, I'm kind of glad to learn that it isn't permanent but at the same time does this mean I'm going to be trapped in a room and won't even be able to talk to anyone while I'm in there?" "I'm sorry Hail Storm, I know that I'm giving you a lot of bad news, but Twilight and I will continue to work on this. We have some of the top doctors in Equestria looking into what we can do to heal the damage done to you. Twilight herself is heading the research on how to adapt your body and prevent further damage. While we are on the subject, I wanted to let you know that we took some blood samples and we cast a modified version of a medical scan spell on you while you were out. Normally we would never do that without your permission but given the circumstances we felt it was necessary." "Oh... thanks for telling me. I would have said yes if I had been awake. What's in this?" I asked shaking the IV stand back and forth a bit. "A powerful drug, it should be suppressing nearly all of your symptoms, tell me, how are you feeling?" "Other than a slight headache, better than I've felt in a long time, pretty much since I got to Equestria." "That is good to hear, now that you are awake I can get rid of the IV and you can take the drug orally. I am sorry but this drug is only safe for you in very small doses and it's extremely easy to build up a tolerance to, normally we can prevent this with a simple spell but for you..." she trailed off. "So whatever relief it provides isn't going to last long thanks to my magic allergy, how long before it stops working?" "I can't say for certain, it would be as short as a few days or up to a month if we are lucky." Cadance said. "Is there any chance that you can send me home? Then I won't need all this stuff." Cadance's eyes fell and her ears drooped downward, the look said everything that I needed to know before she even opened her mouth. "Sending you home is going to be difficult for a number of reasons. I will let Twilight talk more about the difficulty in the actual act of opening a portal to your universe, as she is far better versed in that type of magic than I am, but beyond that, there is also your health to consider. Sending you home will not repair the damage already done to your body." "What about human doctors? It's not like I couldn't go to a hospital or something." I asked. "It is possible they would be able to help, though we do not know how advanced human medical knowledge is. What I can tell you is that without magic, we would not be able to heal the amount of damage that your body has suffered, had it occurred in a pony. It is quite extensive." "Oh..." We talked for a hour or so and she brought me up to speed on everything that had happened while I was out. Golden Dawn had already given Twilight and Cadance as much information as she could about how I had gotten here and what had happened since I had arrived. I filled in a few details that I wasn't sure Golden Dawn knew about, oddly the only thing I mentioned that seemed to get a reaction from Cadance was the confetti that I found in the dirt near my trailer. After our discussion, Cadance told me to get some rest. She promised to bring Golden Dawn down in the morning. I would also get to meet Twilight Sparkle, who could answer some more of my questions regarding going home. The next morning I got to meet two new ponies. The first was the other princess, Twilight Sparkle. She immediately struck me as a very bookish nerdy type, apparently her knowledge of magic was second only to Celestia and Luna who were unavailable. She also had some much appreciated good news for me. Her team had been able to determine at what level magic started to become dangerous to my body. The levels of ambient magic in Canterlot was higher than other areas of the country, but even it was was safe for me if I kept exposure limited to a few hours a day. That meant that I didn't have to spend the entire day trapped in a underground windowless room, which I counted as a plus. With that good news, Twilight invited me upstairs for breakfast and I eagerly accepted. She unhooked the IV, and gave me a small bottle. "Drink this, it should hold your symptoms at bay," she said. "It's an oral form of the drug that is in the IV bag." After I drank the bottle, we headed up and out of the dungeon area of the castle. The lower dungeon was cold and sterile but as we ascended into the castle proper, the cold grey stone was replaced with glimmering marble, elegant carpets and magnificent stained glass windows. I don't know how anyone kept track of all the hallways without getting lost, but Twilight seemed to know where she was going. Eventually we made our way to a small but fancy dining room where a pony waiter informed us that breakfast would be out shortly. While I was waiting for the food to arrive, I walked over to one of the windows, it stretched nearly to the floor and the view of the countryside far below us was magnificent. As I approached the window, I immediately regretted my decision as my stomach tied itself in knots. I knew the castle was up in the mountain but when I got to the window, I could see that the mountain ended several hundred feet in the opposite direction. The portion of the castle that I now stood in jutted out into empty space, the increasing dizziness forced me to head back to the center of the room but even there I didn't feel very safe. Twilight saw me when I was looking out the windows. She explained that Canterlot Castle was built not onto the top of the mountain but into the side of it. Almost half the castle was suspended in the air, supported by an impressive combination of magic and clever architecture. "This castle has stood here for nearly 1000 years, you have nothing to worry about," Twilight said, noticing my nervousness. Her reassurances did not do much to help and I decided I'd avoid any windows in the future. Just before breakfast arrived I met the second new pony, a light blue pegasus with a rainbow mane. Her name was Rainbow Dash, and she was very outgoing. I learned that she had been the one that had flown me from Ponyville to the castle after I had been knocked unconscious. I remembered Golden Dawn having talked about Rainbow Dash before. "I think Golden Dawn mentioned you, are you the pegasus that broke the sound barrier?" "Yep, that was me! Only pony in history to pull off a sonic rainboom." Dash said beaming with pride. She talked about some of the tricks and stunts she liked to do for a while before Twilight interrupted her with a gentle cough. "I think Hail Storm might have some questions, maybe you can talk to him about flying later," she said. "Will I get to see Golden Dawn soon?" I asked, she hadn't shown up yet and I was eager to see her again. "She should be here soon, Cadance said she would be getting her and that they would meet us here for breakfast." A few minutes later the door opened again and Golden Dawn and Cadance walked in along with a small purple and green lizard-like creature. As soon as she saw me she flew across the room at high speed, practically tackling me out of my chair. "Hail! I was so worried, I'm glad to see you awake again," she said, rubbing her nose softly against my cheek. I reached up and gave her a friendly scratch behind the ears which made her blush. "It's good to see you too." "I'm sorry I didn't stay with you, Princess Cadance insisted that I go upstairs and get some sleep." "Don't worry about it, from what Cadance told me being in that room really messes with ponies because of the magical suppression. If I had been awake I would have told you not to stay in there once I learned that. Plus we wouldn't be able to understand each other." Twilight cleared her throat with a gentle cough and Golden and I stopped talking. "Now that we're all here, I expect Hail Storm has a number of questions for us, and I know I have a few for him," Twilight said. "But first, let me get all the official stuff out of the way." "On behalf of all of Equestria, I'd like to extend my hoof in friendship and officially welcome you here. I know that your journey to Equestria was unexpected, and I suspect, a bit of a shock, but I promise we will do all that we can to make your stay as comfortable as possible and that we are actively seeking out a method of returning you home." "Thank you, I don't think I can adequately put into words how much of a shock it was when I first woke up in Hoofston and met a pair of talking ponies. Of course the bigger one came when learned that I wasn't on Earth anymore, but the ponies I've met since then have gone out of their way to not only make me feel welcome. One in particular has also been a good friend in a time where I desperately needed the support one." I looked over at Golden Dawn and gave her hoof a squeeze. Twilight smiled brightly at that, "As the Princess of Friendship that makes me very glad to hear. Now I think you've met most everyone here individually but let me just give some quick introductions. As you already know, I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle, but please don't bother with the title. To my left is Princess Cadance and Rainbow Dash." Both ponies gave a friendly nod. "And this little guy is Spike." Twilight said. "I'm sorry if this is rude, but I don't think I've seen one of your kind before, what are you?" I said looking at Spike. "I'm a dragon," Spike said. "Huh, I thought dragons would be bigger," I said. "He's only a baby dragon," Twilight said. "A fully grown adult dragon would not fit in the largest room in the castle." "Good morning," Spike said. "I didn't think I'd ever see a human in Equestria." "You've seen humans before?' I asked, my curiosity piqued. "Spike and I have," Twilight said. "Several months ago we traveled through a magic portal to another world, it was called Earth." "You have a portal to my home?" I asked, practically jumping out of my chair. "Not... exactly," Twilight said, scratching the back of her head. "There is a mirror with a portal that opens once every thirty moons, and it does go to an Earth, but I don't think that it is your Earth." "There's more than one Earth?" I asked in confusion. "Unfortunately, yes. Without getting too deep into dimensional gateways, a topic that could take years to cover, there are a near infinite number of dimensions, and perhaps thousands of them are accessible from Equestria with the right magic. The beings of the world I went to were also called humans but they had slightly different proportions, larger heads, longer legs. Also their skin tones matched ponies coat colors, which given what we were able to learn from our scans of you would not be true for your version of humanity. I'm guessing there is a much more limited variation in skin color?" "Uh yeah, there's no pale goldenrod, light blue, purple or pink people running around on my planet." I said looking at the four ponies in the room. "I didn't think so, your skin seems to lack the necessary cellular structures to produce those kinds of colors. I'm actually glad Spike brought that up because it touches on some of the problems of getting you home. One is that I was unable to find a complete copy of the spell needed to open a portal from one dimension to another. I searched all through the Canterlot Archives but all I could find were partial notes Star Swirl had taken when he was creating the mirror. Given time I could probably recreate the spell from those notes but that would only allow travel to the same world that I visited. To get you home, I'd need to modify the spell to open a portal to your world. Thankfully the very fact that you were able to get here means there is, or was a point of intersection between our universe and yours, but that's where things start to get complicated." "If you don't know where I'm from, and there are thousands of possibilities, you don't know where to send me?" I asked. Twilight smiled, "I'm glad this makes sense to you, I was afraid with your race's lack of magic, some of this might not be easy to follow." "It seems my years of reading fantasy and science fiction were not wasted, dimensional travel is common enough in fictional works, though I never thought that knowledge would be at all practical." "Oh no, Equestria's first alien and he's an egghead," Dash said with a friendly laugh. "You'll get along with Twilight just fine." "Knowing which universe you are from is only one part of the problem, remember that I mentioned the portal I traveled through is only open once every 30 moons?" Twilight asked. I nodded. "The reason for that is because this universe and the mirror universe are not in always connected. They drift in and out of alignment, only reaching the necessary amount of crossover for a stable portal every 30 moons. Even if we are able to identify which universe you came from, we might find that we can only open a portal to your world once every year, once every century or worse." "So even if you can get me home, it could take the rest of my life." I said slumping down in my chair. "Which is already going to be cut short because of my problems with magic." "There's no guarantee, we might be able to solve this all in a week, but I wanted you to know exactly where we stand on this." Twilight said. "As for your issues with magic, we are still working on a solution for that," Cadance said. "I am hopeful that we will have something ready in the next few days." "The other night you were talking about the damage already done as a separate issue, I don't want to turn this into an unpleasant conversation, but how bad off am I?" "Not very good," Cadance said with a wince. "Tell me, are humans familiar with radiation poisoning?" "Um yes," I said with a gulp. "Radiation poisoning is not a particularly well known or understood topic among ponies, outside of the medical and physics communities, you aren't likely to find many ponies who have even heard of radioactivity." Twilight said. "It seems that magic interacts with your body in a similar way that ionizing radiation interacts with ponies. Excessive exposure can cause all sort of nasty problems. Burns, nausea, diarrhea, fever, dizziness and fatigue just to name a few. As the levels of magic that you are exposed to increase, those problems will worse, eventually your internal organs will start to fail. Unfortunately the only way we could repair the damage would be with a fairly powerful spell which would cause more harm than good." Cadance said. "What's radiation?" Rainbow Dash said, looking confused. "Radiation is the transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles." Twilight said. "Huh?" Rainbow Dash said. "Remember when you broke your wing, and the doctor took an x-ray?" Twilight said. "X-rays are a type of radiation, as are visible light and radio waves. Before X-rays were discovered, about fifteen years ago, the only way to look at a broken bone was with a spell." "So how badly damaged is Hail Storm's body?" Golden Dawn asked. Twilight and Cadance looked at each other, then turned slowly towards me but neither one of them were making eye contact. "If we can't find a way to repair the damage I'm afraid you have maybe a month left before the compounding damage starts to cause major organ failure. Death will follow soon thereafter" Cadance said looking down at the ground.