The Right Man in the Wrong Place...

by CORACK

Chapter 14

The next morning came earlier than I wanted. My physical therapy began at 8:00 and I needed enough time to actually get there. It was a 10 minute trip to Canterlot General at regular pony speeds but I gave myself a half an hour since I knew I was still fairly slow. Golden Dawn and I ate a light breakfast and then headed out of the castle.

I was still taking it slow, but I had kind of picked up walking between what I had done the night before and earlier in the morning. I was still paying attention to the individual moves of all four legs, but I at least hadn't fallen over or tripped myself up since the night before.

Even at this early hour there was a good number of ponies walking around the capital streets, heading off to work or some other appointment. Most of them looked as tired as I felt, but every once in awhile I'd getting random stares, double takes and straight up looks of confusion from one of the more awake ponies. A few times my ears swiveled towards the sound of hushed whispers. By the time I turned my head they had stopped, but more than once I could have sworn I had seen somepony pointing in my direction.

This continued on and off, the whole way to the hospital. I was getting more than a bit confused since I was no longer walking around as a potentially mythological bipedal fantasy creature. It wasn't until Golden Dawn brought it up that I realized it wasn't what they were seeing, but what they weren't.

"Sorry about all that," she said after we passed a pair of unicorn mares who practically tripped over each other's hooves as they both turned and stared as they walked by.

"What exactly is going on? That's like the fifth group of ponies that I caught staring at me," I said. "I didn't get that many looks walking around as a human."

"A random unknown creature walking around, that's an oddity, but an adult pony with no cutie mark? That's unheard of."

"Oh..." I said, trailing off. Any progress I had made about ignoring the fact that I was parading around naked vanished as I realized I actually was a different kind of naked. It wasn't the cutie mark itself, the concept of them interested me, but I didn't have any special need to gain one. At least, I didn't think I did. But, I had never liked being singled out in a crowd and now I apparently stood out like a sore thumb. I felt my face heat up and I ducked my head down towards the ground.

"Don't worry about them Hail," Golden Dawn said, brushing up against me.

"You'd think that by now, I'd be used to standing out..." I said, pawing at the ground with a hoof.

"Well, there's a simple solution," Golden Dawn said with a laugh. "We'll just have to earn you a cutie mark."

"Do you think it's even possible?" I asked.

"Twilight did say you were fully a pony now, and everypony gets a cutiemark... eventually. So I don't see why not. I suppose you could check with her the next time we see her."

"I might. It's not the mark itself, but I would appreciate not sticking out. Plus, I do find myself wondering how the whole thing works. This image just appears on your butt and suddenly you know what your destiny is or something. It's both wonderful and crazy at the same time."

Golden Dawn laughed. "Well, it's not exactly like that... but... I guess you'll get it when you get yours."

We arrived at the hospital with ten minutes to spare. Honestly, it looked very much like a modern hospital building. The only real difference was the lack of a parking lot full of cars. We walked inside and the receptionist gave us directions.

A few hallways, twists and turns later we arrived at a small waiting room. They took my name and we sat down on a couch and waited for them to call me.

"I've never had physical therapy before, I wonder what exactly they're going to make me do?" I said as we sat there. "I hope it's not just walking around, I had plenty of that just getting here."

"I don't know, I guess we'll find out," Golden Dawn said.

A few minutes later a nurse came out from a back room, clipboard hovering in her magic. She called my name so I stood up and walked over.

"Hello Hail Storm. Princess Cadance sent us a file on your case. I've just got to check up on a few things before we get started.

She took my height, 4 foot 2 at the withers, and weight, 385 lbs. I also learned that I had an 8 foot wingspan. All in all, I was just slightly on the large side of average for a pegasus. She also checked up on the healing spells that were still working on my body. She confirmed that the vast majority of the actual healing was done and the spells were in recovery mode now. As time went on, I would feel less drained until the spell matrixes finally collapsed and I went back to normal pegasus energy levels. Whatever those were.

"You're all set now, just wait here and your therapist will be here shortly," she said after she finished going over her findings with me.

Golden Dawn and I didn't even have time to chat before the bulkiest pony I had ever seen before walked into the room.

"Hello, I'm Bulk Biceps," he said extending a massive foreleg. It was almost as thick around as my chest.

"I'm Hail Storm, and this is my friend Golden Dawn," I said

"I've been reading over your case file.. Very unusual. Am I to understand this correctly, you aren't a pony... or weren't is more accurate?"

"That's correct."

"Normally, I'd assume this is some sort of joke but I got called in from Ponyville for this by the department chair. He said it was a special favor for Princess Cadance and frankly, he's not one to mess around. So, how did you end up as a pegasus?"

"Well, it's a bit of a long story but the short version is Princess Twilight..."

"Ah, say no more. I'm from Ponyville and I'm quite familiar with the shenanigans that seem to happen around Twilight Sparkle."

Bulk Biceps asked me a few more questions and then we headed to a room with a treadmill.

"I'm going to start you off at a very slow walk. You seemed to be handling things fine on the way over, so I don't expect any real problems, but your gait is a little abnormal. I think this is probably being caused by your transition from bipedal to quadrupedal motion. I'd like to get that corrected before we move on to anything else."

"Alright," I said and I climbed up onto the treadmill.

The moment I began to walk the soft spoken pony turned into an entirely different per... pony. A much louder pony.

"LEFT HIND! LEFT FRONT! RIGHT HIND! RIGHT FRONT! ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR! ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR!" Bulk Biceps shouted as he counted out my hoof positions.

The first shout almost made me fall off the treadmill. At first I thought I had done something to upset him, but I quickly realized he was just very very... very passionate about his work

He had me keep walking and he'd point out whenever I messed up my gait and how to correct it. It actually was helping, before his instructions I didn't really stick to any sort of pattern with my hooves. Sometimes I stepped in order but other times I had been moving my hind and forelegs at the same time. It hadn't felt exactly right but I had never really paid attention to how ponies walked before my transformation so I didn't know how to emulate it.

He kept me going at it until I could carry on a conversation with Golden Dawn, without tripping up, and not looking down at my hooves.

"YEAH!!!! YOU'RE GETTING IT! YEAHH!!!!!" He shouted more words of encouragement.

Eventually, I dismounted the treadmill and he immediately moved into wing exercises. It wasn't until he went to demonstrate what he wanted me to do that I realized he was a pegasus. His wings were tiny, maybe a foot in length. Yet even though he looked like he weighed upwards of 800lbs he was still able to hover in place.

I wasn't ready to do anything of the sort and I told him so, but I was willing to do the stretches and attempt some wing-ups.

Finally, the session came to an end and Bulk Biceps dismissed me.

"I do have some homework for you though, keep walking, as much as you can. Tomorrow we're going to do some trotting," he said.

---

"You did well today, I think you're going to pick this up quick. By the time I'm back from Hoofston you'll be flying around just as good as any pegasus," Golden Dawn said with a warm smile as we walked away from the hospital.

"I don't even want to think about flying right now," I said with a sigh "My wings ache from Bulk Biceps' stupid exercises and I'm getting dizzy with hunger, let's go back to the castle and get something to eat."

"Nope! Remember your homework, you've got to walk around, and I've got the perfect way to do it. Let's head downtown and find something to eat there." Golden Dawn said.

I reluctantly agreed and we headed deeper into Canterlot. I had thought that the streets were busy earlier in the morning when we had headed in, but now, they were packed with ponies. Unlike Hoofston, Canterlot seemed to be heavily skewed towards unicorns. At the same time there were also plenty of pegasus and earth ponies as well. We made our way through the city weaving back and forth down narrow streets. Buildings towered over us on either side, most of them seemed residential but as we got closer to the center of the city, more and more shops started to appear. Eventually we turned a corner and arrived at a street lined with restaurants on either side. My nostrils flared as the scent of freshly cooked food wafted through the air, I breathed in deeply enjoying the aroma. Window after window showed crowded tables packed with ponies enjoying lunch. If every place was like the few we had passed, finding a seat was going to be a pain.

"Restaurant Row," Golden Dawn said as I eyed the various eating establishments, wondering which one we were going to go to.

"There's so many choices, where are we going to eat?" I asked, sucking back a bit of drool.

"Eh, most of these places are big on the fancy uptight dining experience. There are a few hidden gems though, assuming they are still here. It's been awhile since I've been to Canterlot."

"Lead on," I said and I followed her as we made our way down the street.

Eventually we the place Golden Dawn was looking for, a small pizza joint tucked down one of the side alleys. Apart from the complete lack of meat toppings, it was great. After lunch we decided to head back to the castle but first we stopped at a store so I could pick up some saddle bags. Virtually every adult pony had their cutie marks embroidered into their bags. Normally when you bought a new bag, you picked out the one you wanted, paid for it, then the clerk would send you to the back of the store where another pony would get your cutie mark on the bag. When I stepped up to pay and the pony behind the counter noticed my lack of cutie mark he looked puzzled but thankfully didn't say anything. Instead, I simply paid and we headed out the door.

We also tried to stop by Golden Dawn's Dad's house but he wasn't home. A neighbor who recognized Golden Dawn came out and let us know that he had gone on a trip to Manehatten and would be back the next week. Since Golden Dawn was planning on heading back to Hoofston by then, she asked the neighbor to let her dad know she had stopped by and that she was heading back to Hoofston but hoped to be back in the Canterlot area in a few weeks.

The next few days were mostly the same. Early mornings, I'd meet up with Bulk Biceps, do some exercises and then head into Canterlot for lunch with Golden Dawn. Afternoons were spent walking around as much as I could. As I got used to my new body, I added trotting, but the city was too packed to really get a good gallop going. At the end of the day we'd head back to the castle. Sometimes we met up with Twilight and Cadance for dinner, other times we headed back into the city in search of some new place to eat at.

The physical therapy with Bulk Biceps was going, for the most part, alright. At least in terms of ground based movement. Walking I had picked up more or less the first day, it helped that I was walking everywhere so I got a lot of practice. It was anything faster than a walk that was still giving me occasional trouble. Managing four legs instead of two went against years of muscle memory. It was proving complicated because unlike bipedal movement, which really only involved putting one leg in front of the other, ponies had different gaits which used entirely different leg movement.

Trotting was one leg in front of the other, but my rear left leg moved with my front right leg and vise versa. Cantering involved pushing myself forward with one rear leg and then landing on the other three while galloping involved moving all four legs at a different times. I was surprised to find that in a gallop, there was a brief moment where I was completely airborne with not a single hoof on the ground. Picture a human getting around by jumping instead of running. It sounded weird but that's how it worked.

Flight was going... not as well. I had basic wing movements down but anything more than a clumsy hover terrified me. A large part of a pegasus' ability to fly relied on confidence and willpower I had neither. If I got more than a few feet off the ground my wings would slam shut as the panic of falling to my death began to rise. Of course, then I'd fall down and slam into the ground. That only made things worse because the next time I tried to fly, I instantly focused on the pain from my last failure. Logically I knew it was in my head but breaking past it was proving to be very difficult. Bulk Biceps kept me practicing but he acknowledged that it was going to take time for me to trust my newfound abilities.

As the days went by the weakness that I had been feeling began to subside. By the end of the week I was feeling completely back to normal. Cadance's warnings of a sudden change in energy had apparently not been necessary. I was a feeling pretty happy that it had only taken the week since Cadance had given me a longer timeline, I wasn't about to complain about a speedy recovery. My last session with Bulk Biceps had gone very well and I had even managed a very short, very low flight, all indoors of course, if I had my way, I'd never go up into open sky.

---

"You almost ready Golden?" I asked, as I waited for her to finish up whatever it was that she was doing.

"Yep, be out in a moment," came the reply from her room.

The end of the week had come sooner than I expected and she was due to head back to Hoofston by train later that afternoon. We were going to have lunch together before we went to the train station.

I heard her door open up glanced up as Golden Dawn trotted out. My eyes immediately began to track her as she moved across the room. She looked... different. Her coat was smoothed out and far shinier than normal. She had done both her mane and tail up into a fairly intricate looking braid Even her wings looked amazing, with every visible feather perfectly aligned. A simple chain necklace that matched the gold in her mane hung around her neck. I realized I was staring and quickly shifted my eyes somewhere else.

"You... you look nice," I stammered out as she walked over. I had never really noticed before.

"Thanks!" she said with a smile. "I'm going to be in first class on the Express, figured if I'm traveling in style, I might as well look the part. Are you ready to go?"

"You still haven't told me where we're headed," I said.

"Lunch!"

"Yeah but where? Pizza? Sandwiches? It's not somewhere fancy is it," I asked, suddenly feeling a bit scruffy standing next to her.

"Nope! You'll find out when we get there," she said, her eyes aglow with a mischievous look.

"Well, lead on then," I said.

We headed out of the castle and proceeded towards Restaurant Row at a quick trot.

"So, this is going to be our last lunch together, at least for a while," Golden Dawn said as we headed arrived in downtown Canterlot.

"Yep," I said somewhat glumly. I had gotten used to spending my free time with Golden Dawn and after she left I wasn't sure what I was going to do. Twilight and Cadance were too busy running the country to "hang out" and I didn't really have any other friends.

"Don't look so down, I'll be back before you know it. And as a going away surprise, I've got a new place for us to try. Twilight told me about it the other day, I think you'll like it."

"Oh, what is it?" I said mildly curious.

"I told you, it's a surprise," she said with a grin.

I followed her as we wove between the crowds of hungry ponies looking for a bite to eat. She turned abruptly and headed down an alleyway before stopping in front of a dark brick building that was almost completely hidden from the main street.

The sign in front of the building said "The Griffon's Nest" unlike the rest of the restaurants we had passed there was no window at all. In fact the whole building was kind of dark. If it wasn't for an open sign on the front door, I'd have thought the place closed. Well that and something cooking in there smelled absolutely fantastic.

"Is this it?" I asked, sniffing the air again. I thought the scent was familiar but I couldn't quite place it. With my new nose, everything smelled a bit different. The succulent aromas of food from a dozen other restaurants mixed in weren't helping things.

"Sure is," Golden Dawn said and we headed inside.

The moment I stepped through the door I immediately knew what I had been smelling.

Meat. Glorious tasty meat.

"I think you might have wandered into the wrong building," a gruff voice said. I turned towards it and and found myself looking at what had to be a griffon standing behind a counter. I didn't know how big griffons got but he was quite large, towering over me by at least a head and a half. He looked down at Golden and I and gave a bit of a smirk.

"Not based on what I'm smelling," I said. "Do you have a menu?"

The large griffon rolled his eyes and pointed me to a pile of them on the counter.

"You do know this is a griffon restaurant right?" he asked with a bit of a smile.

"Um so?" I asked.

"We don't get many ponies on account of the menu, cept bat ponies."

"Bat ponies?" I asked slightly confused.

"Thestrals, kinda an informal name." Golden Dawn said before turning to the griffon. "Don't worry we know you serve meat, that's why we're here."

I felt like a kid in a candy shop as I quickly glanced through the menu.

"Thanks Golden, this means a lot to me, it's been way too long," I said giving her a quick hug with my wing.

She returned the hug and threw in a warm smile as well. "I knew you'd like it, now let's sit down. I'm sure I can find something meatless on the menu for myself."

"We do have salad and daisy sandwiches," the griffon said helpfully before turning to me with a look of confusion. "You eat meat?"

"Sure do, love the stuff. I could practically go meat exclusive, at least if it wasn't for pizza."

"Huh, interesting."

"You wanna grab a seat?" Golden Dawn asked.

"You can sit anywhere," the griffon said as he reached down with a massive talon holding out a menu. To his right was a curtained off area, I could just make out some conversations happening and the sounds of eating coming from behind the curtain. Golden Dawn took it in her mouth and we stepped through the curtains.

There were only half dozen tables, which made sense as this was a smaller building. Three of them were occupied with griffons, I glanced at one table as we walked by and noticed that the pair of griffons at that table were deep into enjoying what looked like raw meat. One of them had a dead, but whole chicken on her place. It was a bit of a shock, I knew they ate meat but I assumed it was cooked. Still, I could definitely smell cooking meat so I knew they had to serve some. Golden must have noticed too, she was looking a bit queasy. I guessed the curtains and lack of windows were to keep ponies that passed by or stopped in from having to see anything too shocking.

The two back tables were open, and we headed towards one of them. At the table next to it sat a pair of ponies that caught my eye. They must have been the thestrals or bat ponies that I had heard about. Oddly, they appeared to be twins, I wondered if that was common among ponies. Dark grey coat, almost black leather wings, yellow eyes that were almost but not quite slits and when one of them took a bite of his food, I could see sharp teeth. Both wore purple armor that covered them from head to tail it even covered their cutie marks. Without being able to see their cutie marks, I wondered how anypony actually told them apart. One of them eyed me as we sat down but said nothing.

Golden Dawn grabbed the menu and hoofed through it pretty quickly. Then she placed the menu down in front of me so I could take another look.

"I already know what I'm getting," she said after a minute. "So we're just waiting on you."

The menu was short and simple, just a few pages, arranged into categories. First, I had my choice of four different kinds of uncooked animal flesh, pig, cow, deer or chicken. There wasn't any details as to what part of the pig, cow, deer or chicken that was being served, it just listed the animal. They had the same options available cooked and thankfully the cooked pieces were a bit more specific. Pork chops, ribeye steak, grilled chicken breast and a venison burger. I've always been big on steak so I decided to go with that and put the menu down.

A few moments later the griffon from behind the counter walked over to our table and took our order. When I asked for the steak, he sighed.

"I had assumed you were joking about liking meat, do you actually want that?"

"Um no, I wasn't joking I really want a steak."

"Your bits," he said with a shrug.

"Oh, medium rare on that steak please." I said as he started to walk away. This got me another eye from one of the armored bat ponies.

Golden Dawn and I chatted idly while we waited for our food, thankfully the service was quick and it arrived only a short while later. As our waiter placed my plate down on the table my eyes went wide as I stared at the large chunk of meat sitting in front of me. It was easily the largest steak I'd ever seen. I was guessing at least 32 ounces. Sitting next to it were two large baked potatoes. Ponies did eat a lot of food but this was ridiculous. Still trying to get used to my hooves, I carefully picked up my utensils and cut into the gigantic steak. A perfect pink center greeted me and I eagerly took my first bite. The griffon, who had been standing next to the table watching me grunted in surprise and walked away.

Turns out that not only was I hungry but my new body's appetite could easily handle the massive steak. Even better, my sense of taste hadn't shifted in the transformation either. I had been a bit worried that with new taste buds I might not like the same things anymore. If anything though, now my food tasted even better. Like the rest of my pony senses, it was heightened well over what it had been when I was still human. Golden Dawn watched between bites of her own food as piece by piece the steak disappeared. When it was finally gone, the waiter returned with the check. I picked up the paper and read it over, blanching when I got to the bill.

"Hey Golden, I'm no expert on Equestrian economy isn't this bill on the expensive side?" I asked.

"Let me see," she said taking it from me.

"The sandwich is pretty standard for Canterlot but your steak, five bits, that's enough to eat for almost a week!" Golden said as she read the bill.

"Wow, well I mean I have the money but damn..." I said as I instinctively reached for my wallet. Which wasn't there. Mostly because I wasn't wearing any pants.

"Crap, I'm so used to carrying a wallet around with me that I didn't think to get any of my bits. In fact I don't even know where they are."

"Don't worry about the money, I can cover you. Actually it's my fault anyway, Twilight stopped by last night after you fell asleep. She had gone down to Ponyville and picked up your truck, it's actually parked somewhere on the castle grounds. I not exactly sure where. What I do know is I mentioned that all of your money along with that gold you found was in the trailer and she said she'd take care of it. I was supposed to tell you to talk to her but I completely forgot."

"It's expensive because they have to import most of their meat from the Griffon kingdom." One of the thestrals sitting at the table next to us had turned around and was looking at Golden Dawn and I. "Also did I hear you correctly, were you talking about Princess Twilight?" he asked.

"Um yeah," I said.

"Why does Princess Twilight have your money? If you don't mind me asking."

"It's a long and complicated story," I said.

"I could tell there was a story behind you the moment I saw you walk in," the other guard said turning around as well.

"A pegasus, clearly fully grown, but still lacking a cutie mark brings his marefriend on a date to the only Griffon restaurant in the city, then orders a steak, medium rare mind you, and then when he takes his first bite and I expect him to spit it out in disgust, he instead very clearly enjoys it and puts the whole thing down almost as fast as a griffon with a fresh kill. Mentioning the princess's name only added to the mystery."

"Marefriend...? Date...? Oh... I couldn't... no we're not..." I stammered out, turning a bit red.

Golden Dawn put a hoof to her mouth and suppressed a giggle. "And what a romantic first date it was, watching my new special somepony devour cooked cow flesh, and then, after all that, he makes me pay for it."

I rolled my eyes and gave her a look which only made the giggling worse.

"Are you done?" I asked a few seconds later.

"Yes, I think so," she said with one last giggle.

"Oh, my apologies on the assumption. In any case the rest of what I said still stands. I'm Silent Night," he said extending a hoof. I took hold and gave it a shake. "And this is my partner Thunderbolt."

"I'm Hal... Hail Storm." Even though I was used to hearing it, I still had to make a conscious effort to introduced myself as my adopted pony name. Oddly I was kind of comfortable with it, I liked the fit, but a lifetime of saying Harold or Hal made it a hard habit to break. "And this is my friend Golden Dawn."

"Lunar Guard?" Golden Dawn asked.

Silent Night let out a chuckle. "Did the armor give it away?"

"Kind of late for you stallions, isn't it? Or early?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Yeah," Thunderbolt said with a sigh. "We just got back from yet another mission outside the city, it's thrown off our regular schedule but the upshot is we've got the rest of today and tomorrow off. This is the only place to get some meat outside of the mess hall and though the selection is small and the prices high, the quality is a bit nicer than the mess hall's normal fare."

"Yeah, it is a pretty small menu, what's up with that?" I asked.

"It changes, it's based on what Gus can get a hold of." Silent Night said.

"Gus?" I asked.

"The griffon that brought you your food. Chef, waiter, owner and sole employee of The Griffon's Nest." Silent Night said.

"Gotcha, I guess I'll have to keep coming back see what else they have." I said.

"There isn't usually a huge amount of variety, fried or grilled chicken, beef and venison is usually a steak or burgers, and for pork, it's pretty much just pork chops, sometimes he does bacon for bacon burgers, ham and very rarely roasted tenderloin." Silent Night said.

Even though I had just put down at least 2 pounds of steak I felt my mouth starting to water.

"I don't suppose he ever does any barbeque? Ribs, pulled pork, brisket?" I asked.

"Sadly no. You sure you're actually a pegasus, not a bat pony in disguise?" Thunderbolt asked.

"Huh?"

"Griffons pretty much stick to raw meat and grilled meat. I figured low and slow barbecue style was exclusively a bat pony thing. My cousin down in Appaloosa makes the best damn brisket in Equestria," Thunderbolt said.

"Damn, I need to go back to Appaloosa," I said.

"Back?"

"Passed through there on the way up from Hoofston," I said. "Part of that long story I mentioned earlier."

"Hey Hail Storm, I hate to interrupt, but we've got to get going in a few, I have some places to stop at before the train," Golden said.

"Oh yeah," I said. I turned back to the other two ponies. "This has been a good chat, but I'm afraid we've got to get going."

"You're said you're staying at the castle? You know if we ever meet up again you're going to have to fill us in on your 'long and complicated story', it's getting more interesting by the moment," Silent Night said.

"Sure but it will have to be another time. Maybe we can meet up here again, if not well, you know I'm at the castle."

"I'd tell you to swing by the barracks, but we're rarely there." Silent Night said.

"Guard work keeping you busy?" Golden Dawn asked.

"You have no idea, most ponies think that the guard only operates in Canterlot. While a large portion of the guard do stay in the city, the majority of us us are travelling constantly, there's a whole country out there and the Guard's work is never done," Thunderbolt said.

"Anyway if you want, feel free to try the Night Guard Barracks, if we aren't around talk to Colonel Moonlit Shadow. She's the Night Guard Base Commander, she'll know if we're out on a mission or in Canterlot," Silent Night said.

"Alright, will do, hopefully I'll see you later," I said.

Golden Dawn paid the bill and we headed out. She wanted to trot through the downtown shopping district in Lower Canterlot, stopping to browse the many small stores before she had to catch her train. Back on Earth I'd have made any sort of excuse to avoid this kind of shopping trip, but now, everything in Canterlot was still so new to me. Wandering around seemed like good time to start investigating the city I was now living in.

The cobblestone streets that stretched out before us were in immaculate condition, unusual if you considered the time period that the pony capital seemed to be in. Medieval cities were not clean, they were cesspools, full of filth and disease. But even though the castle overlooking us looked like something out of a Disney movie, one only had to step inside a random shop for the facade to fall away. Inside any one of them was a nearly modern store, wearing a theme that fit the quaint medieval kingdom surroundings. It was almost as if we were in a themed amusement park, except Canterlot was an actual functional city.

Modern conveniences abounded in Canterlot. Nearly every building we visited had electricity and electric lighting, they all had indoor plumbing and some, based on the inside temperature, even had air conditioning, or perhaps a magical equivalent. It was a vast difference from the small frontier town I had first found myself in.

Golden Dawn picked up a few small touristy trinkets. As a former resident she wasn't really interested in them for herself but a few of her friends back in Hoofston had never been to the capital and she thought they would make nice gifts. When we finished up there, we headed back up the mountain towards the train station.

---

It was a long trot to Canterlot's train station, at least I thought it was. Even though I now had the body of a pony and I was no longer feeling the weakening effects of the healing magic I still had no idea how ponies managed to walk everywhere without getting tired. Sure my hooves didn't hurt as much after a day of trotting about as my feet would have, but I still didn't think I was up to any multi-mile hikes. It would have to be something I'd get use to over time, a life of driving almost everywhere had spoiled me and even though I still had the truck, I doubted I'd be using it as often.

Canterlot mountain was huge, it easily dwarfed any of the mountains I had grown up near. Canterlot Castle itself was situated on the western slope; on a large flat area roughly three square miles in size. The extreme western portion, where the castle was actually located, had a sharp drop off to the fields and forests below. The castle actually jutted out from the mountain flagrantly ignoring gravity and any sense of danger. To the side of the castle, a tall waterfall poured down from a lake somewhere higher in the mountain. It formed a small pond that fed a moat surrounding the castle's main entrance before it cascaded further down the mountain.

The rest of land surrounding the castle and extending all the way down the gently sloping eastern side of the mountain made up what was known as Upper Canterlot. Upper Canterlot was a mix of large grandiose homes occupied by city's wealthiest citizens, elegant (and overpriced) stores and most of Canterlot's high culture, Restaurant Row, opera houses, museums, art galleries and the like. Upper Canterlot was also the location of Canterlot General, the hospital I was doing my physical therapy at.

Lower Canterlot started near the base of the mountain, and encircled a large portion of that base. That was where the majority of the city's population lived, Canterlot's open air markets, and the largest shopping district in the city. Canterlot had two train stations, one in Upper and one in Lower. Golden Dawn would be leaving from the Upper Canterlot station, which was still about half way between where we had done our shopping and the castle. It had taken us around an hour to get down to the shopping area and that meant the return trip was going to be similar.

When we finally arrived, I stopped and marveled at the wonder before me.

I had arrived to Canterlot by air and unconscious so I hadn't seen the Upper Canterlot station before. Hoofston's had just been a wooden platform with a small booth out of which a single pony sold tickets. Canterlot's was reminiscent of the grand stations of the early 1900s. A massive building serving 12 tracks coming in from all over the country, the station loomed over the rest of the surrounding buildings. The only larger construction I had seen was Canterlot Castle itself. Gigantic pillars of stone supported an imposing roof which functioned as open second floor for the stations non ground traffic. I stared in awe as a large airship descended and ponies began to disembark, flooding into the station.

Ponies had their own take on airships, the actual ship part more or less matched that of an ocean going craft. It was suspended from a gigantic balloon many times larger than any blimp I'd ever seen. I had never seen an actual zeppelin before but my guess was this beast was easily as large as anything humanity had ever produced. Unlike its human counterpart I saw no obvious method of movement. There were some small side sails that were likely used to turn the ship but I had no idea what moved it forward.

"I did not know ponies had those," I said nodding towards the airship as Golden Dawn and I worked our way through the crowds.

"Oh yeah, they're kind of new, I think the first one was launched about ten years ago."

"What makes it move?"

"There's a gem battery on board that powers a wind spell which pushes the ship. Not exactly the fastest things around but they can go pretty much anywhere, no tracks required."

"Are they filled with hydrogen?"

"Yeah," Golden Said as she squeezed between two well dressed ponies carrying large suitcases.

"Isn't that a big dangerous?" I asked as I tried my best to keep up with her. "Humans used to use that in our airships but we had problems with fire."

"There's a magical field surrounding each of the of the hydrogen cells that prevents the hydrogen from igniting, you could put a torch to one of those things and it would be fine."

"Of course there is." I briefly wondered if the Hindenburg had access to those magical fields, would airships still be in use? Maybe they'd act like an airborne equivalent to cruise liners, taking people to exotic locations.

We finally arrived at Golden Dawn's platform and just as her train was pulling in. While the ponies who were arriving began to disembark Golden Dawn turned to me. For a moment she said nothing, so I spoke up to break the silence.

"So this is goodbye, for now." I said sadly.

"Yep, but don't worry, I'll be back before you know it," she said. For a moment I thought I saw a brief glimpse of sadness in her eyes before they returned to their normal happy sparkle.

"When do you think you'll be back?" I asked.

"It's hard to say because I'm not sure how long it will take to get all my equipment torn down and packed up. If everything goes well, I'll be back here in two weeks but it could be up to a month. I'll send you a letter once I have an idea." She paused for a moment to look at the train. Ponies had began to board and she was going to have to go soon.

"A letter? How will it reach me?"

"Twilight said I could send mail to the castle, if your name is on the letter the staff will bring it to your room."

"Oh that's neat. It's been a long time since I've gotten a physical letter. They've mostly gone out of style on Earth."

"What are you going to do while I'm gone? Golden Dawn asked.

"Finish up with the PT I guess, I know I don't really want to, but I should probably learn how to use these properly," I said, giving my wings a quick flap. "Or at least enough to satisfy Bulk Biceps."

"I know they said they aren't usually around but try to meet up with Thunderbolt and Silent Night, it's a good opportunity to make some friends. Oh and look up Kitchen Sink, he'd be happy to see you again."

"Probably won't recognize me though," I said with a small laugh. "Any other homework for me?"

"Not really, Except I know you don't like heights, but do try to keep working on those wings. I expect you to have mastered indoor flying when I get back mister." Golden Dawn said sticking her tongue out at me. "On a more serious note, if you get the chance, look into what you'd need to start your business, I was serious about that, I think you'd do very well."

"I'll look into it, though I imagine that will take a while to do all the research. I don't know how much progress I'll make in the short time you are gone," I said.

"Still, see what you can find out," she said.

"Will do," I said raising my hoof to my forehead in a mock salute.

The flow of ponies still boarding the train had turned into a trickle. The conductor was looking around to see if any more ponies were boarding.

"You better get on that train before you miss it," I said as I watched the last other group of ponies still at the platform step on.

"Yeah your right," Golden Dawn said. She shuffled a little closer and wrapped a wing around me.

"I'll miss you, see you in a few weeks hopefully," she said as I returned the hug. She put a bit of an extra squeeze into her embrace. A second passed by, then two, three and four. I felt a tinge of sadness creep into my heart, it wasn't going to be that long but I was still going to miss her. She had been by my side nearly every day since I had woken up in Dusty Heart's house. I might have only known her for around a month and a half but I had spent more with her than I had with any person back on Earth in the last year.

"All aboard!" I heard the conductor shout. A second later and Golden Dawn still hadn't let go yet so I moved back a little bit, breaking off the hug so she would not miss her train.

She glanced up at me, her mouth opened for a second but then she quickly turned and trotted quickly towards the train.

"Bye!" I shouted as she reached the door. She paused for a moment, craned her neck back and looked at back at me. She looked indecisive, as if some thought was gnawing at her and she couldn't make up her mind. That only lasted for a moment before she spread her wings and rocketed away from the train and right towards me.

"What are you..."

Golden Dawn swooped in and before I could process what was happening I felt her lips brush up against mine. I was so shocked that I just stood there, not moving a muscle, her eyes opened and she saw the uncertainty in my own. Her face flushed a deep red and she ended the kiss. Before I could say anything she was gone, hightailing it back onto the train. She jumped on just as it started to move.

Stunned, I felt my butt plop down onto the cold stone floor as my brain replayed the last few seconds. I shook my head and looked up just in time to catch a glimpse of her fiery mane in the window of the car she had jumped into before the motion of the train broke my line of sight.

My body was on automatic during the walk back to the castle, my brain was too busy thinking about Golden Dawn's kiss to really pay attention to where I was going. I liked Golden Dawn, she was a good friend, but I had never even considered the possibility of something like this happening. When did her interest first start? Was it before or after I was transformed into a pony? I dove into my memory, trying to pick out all of the details from past interactions that might have revealed the truth.

A small voice in my head screamed that giving even a second more thought of this was wrong. Golden Dawn wasn't human and any sort of relationship would be abhorrent. But surely she didn't see it that way, I knew from conversations that ponies having relationships with other species, while rare, was not considered wrong or unnatural. Yet another voice chimed in, Golden Dawn might have been a pony but she wasn't an animal. She may have been a different species but she was just as much as a person as I was.

In fact, there was not even a species barrier anymore. I stopped in the middle of the street, only moving to one side when I realized I was blocking traffic. I looked down at the hair covering my body, my hooves resting on the cobblestone, my wings folded up against my barrel and even my tail. I wasn't human anymore. This wasn't new information to me, but more than ever before this fact hit me like a sledgehammer. I was a pony and I would continue to be one for the foreseeable future. The chances of getting my old body back and making it back to Earth were minuscule.

So what did I want to do? I didn't know. But at least I had some time to think about it. Maybe I could talk to Twilight or Cadance. I wasn't particularly close with either one of them, but they were the only other ponies in Canterlot that I knew.

By time time I reached the castle I still didn't know what I wanted to do.

---

Evening came around and I met up with Twilight for dinner. I didn't want to talk about my experience with Golden Dawn earlier so instead I told her about the thestrals I had met at the Griffon's Nest. Twilight seemed happy that I was meeting new ponies and began to talk about her own experience in making new friends. It started out interesting but Twilight somehow managed to turn the whole thing into a lecture about friendship and my mind kept slipping back to Golden Dawn's kiss earlier at the train station. When she finally hit a pause in her story, I interrupted, desperate to change topics.

"That's very fascinating Twilight, but before I forget, Golden Dawn said you moved my truck to Canterlot? Is there any chance you can show me where it is?"

"Oh um, sure. If you're done eating I can take you there now. Oh that reminds me, I moved your money and gold into the royal vault. Let me know if you need access to it"

"Can we swing by there on the way to my truck so I can grab some of the bits for spending money? The rest of it can stay there for now," I said as I stood up from the table.

"Sure, no problem. I can tell you about Rainbow Dash's first Sonic Rainboom and how it brought me and my friends together on the walk over."

I held in a groan and put in a serious effort to give Twilight a smile. "Sounds good."

We stopped by my room so I could grab my keys and then headed towards one of the castle's many gardens. It was only a ten minute walk to the truck so thankfully Twilight gave me an abridged version of the story. I have to admit, it was actually kind of interesting, was fate a thing in Equestria? It seemed a virtual impossibility that Rainbow's sonic rainboom could have affected the very same six ponies that would later become the Elements of Harmony. My mind turned to my own experiences. Was it also fate when Golden Dawn had found me in the desert?

"Oh I almost completely forgot, I have something for you," Twilight said.

I had never believed in predestination, but I had never believed in magic either. This just opened up more questions. If fate existed here, was my coming to Equestria also predetermined? If so did that mean fate existed in my reality as well?

"Hail Storm?"

"Oh, huh?" I said as I spun around. "Did you say something?"

"Yeah, I was saying I had something for you," Twilight said. "You've seemed awfully distracted tonight, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, just... thinking about some things." I said. Part of me wanted to talk to her about Golden Dawn, but I didn't know how to bring it up. On top of that, just thinking about it was making me jittery.

"If you need somepony to talk to, just let me know," she said with some concern in her voice.

"Thanks Twilight, I'm... I'm fine for now but I'll keep that in mind... You were saying you had something for me?

Way to chicken out

There was a flash of light and scroll appeared out of nowhere, floating in front of me. I looked at it with some confusion until Twilight indicated that I should open it. I grabbed it, untied the ribbon holding it closed and unrolled it so I could read it over.

"It's a certificate of citizenry," Twilight said as I read it over. "I figured, if you're going to be stuck here for a while, I might as well offer this to you. I didn't want you to feel like an outsider trapped in a foreign land. Equestria can be your home, for as long as you need it to be."

"Thanks Twilight," I said, with sincere gratitude. I really was touched at the unexpected gesture. "I really appreciate everything that you and your ponies have done to make me feel at home here."

"It's no big deal," Twilight said with a bit of a blush. "Plus, it was fun doing all the paperwork for that. I got to fill out ten different forms!"

I chuckled at Twilight's statement, I had never met any other person, or pony, that enjoyed paperwork as much as this mare. We finally arrived at my truck and I trotted over to it

I dug the keys out of a small side pouch on my saddlebags and then took a moment to try to figure out how I was going to accomplish my goal. I kind of wished I had gotten hovering down, thanks to the large off-road tires and high suspension, the door was tall enough that I had to rear up and balance on my rear hooves to reach the lock.

Doing that kind of balancing was still a bit troublesome for me so I had to hold myself steady with my forehooves. With those occupied keeping me from falling over, that meant I had to use my mouth to unlock the door. Twilight offered to help as I was struggling with it but I figured I needed the practice so I politely declined as best as I could while holding a set of keys in my mouth. Thankfully pony necks are incredibly flexible so once I got the key between my teeth and pointing the correct direction I was able to turn it without too much trouble.

Getting the door open was both easier and harder. I couldn't lean against the door which meant balancing without support, but when I started to fall back I just grabbed the handle and let that motion pull the door open. I did end up losing my grip and falling over but the truck was now open. I laughed at the ridiculousness of it all, picked myself up and climbed inside.

Golden Dawn's cloud seat was still resting in the passenger spot, right where she had left it. I reached out poked at the cloud with a forehoof. When my hoof met resistance, which I found hard to believe even though I was seeing it with my own eyes, I was shocked. Feeling like it was time for a little experimentation, I carefully climbed onto the cloud. What Golden Dawn had said before was accurate, that cloud was the most comfortable thing I'd ever sat upon. Bundled up in the clouds amazingly soft surface I felt a powerful urge to close my eyes and take a nap. Only the sound of Twilight clearing her throat was enough to for me to climb off the cloud and back outside.

---

I didn't have to meet up with Bulk Biceps on the weekend so I spent most of Saturday and Sunday digging through my trailer, pulling out some of the reloading manuals and reading them. If I was going to be setting up the equipment anytime soon, I wanted to know their workings inside and out. There were also dozens of other books that I had taken from my dad's place and I had yet to look over what I had ended up with. That however, was a task for another day, for now I was satisfied with trying to come up with a plan to start the my business.

The easiest thing to do would be to hack together a pipe rifle. Anyone with even basic skills with hand tools could swing by a hardware store, pick up and build something that shoots .22lr or even a 12 gauge shotgun shell for less than $20 out of a section of pipe, some spare pieces of wood and a few nuts and bolts. While it was likely the first few things I built would be on that level of roughness, I didn't want to sell anything like that.

At the same time, designing something from the ground up took a lot of time and skill that I wasn't sure I had. When I was working for Rick, he had specs on all the parts that I needed to build that I could follow. That wasn't going to work here, I had nothing to reference. Nothing except my own guns. Which meant that copying the designs of what I already had was likely going to be my best bet.

Which one to do first was the big question. The revolver was the most complex while both the lever action and the bolt actions were comparatively simple. The bolt action was a little simpler but there was at least one disadvantage that I could think of off the top of my head. The bolt action I had was chambered in .30-06. That round had a high enough velocities that using pure lead projectiles was out. I'd have to use jacketed bullets and that was an extra step of complexity in manufacturing. For .44 magnum I could use cast lead bullets, those were easy to make. All I'd have to do is create a mold of one of the existing bullets, melt some lead and I was good to go.

Pure lead is actually too soft, I'd have to alloy it with other metals to bring up the hardness. But as luck would have it, one of the manuals I was reading had an entire section on lead cast bullets. It went over, in detail, the various lead alloys, what hardness they would yield and what velocities they were optimal for. Hard cast lead bullets would fit well with .44 magnum velocities and there was the added advantage that if I could build a revolver based of my current one I'd have two guns that fired the same round. Also, if I had to, I could load .44 magnum up with spark powder, the pony version of black powder. I'd never seen a .30-06 load that used black powder but I'd seen 44 loads using the stuff before.

---

The weekend was over so it was back to PT with Bulk Biceps. There was rain scheduled for that morning and grey clouds coated the sky as far as I could see. The steady cascade of water kept most of the streets free of ponies which only added to the loneliness of my trot down to the hospital. It was the first trip I had made without being accompanied by Golden Dawn, which didn't help things. I had kept myself fairly busy during the weekend but I was already missing her pretty bad. I hoped that everything went smoothly down in Hoofston and that she'd be back soon.

The session itself went well and I continued to make progress with my wings. Bulk Biceps had me doing a number of wing exercises as well as slow laps around an indoor track, flying both backwards and forwards. Bulk Biceps insisted my wings were more than ready for regular use but I still struggled with the idea of leaving the ground. At least inside, where was a roof over my head and I never got more than a foot from the floor.

After the session, I headed over to The Griffon's Nest. I was hoping to run into Thunderbolt and Silent Night again but they weren't there. Still, it gave me the opportunity to enjoy another good lunch. I talked to Gus, the griffon that ran the restaurant and he mentioned that most time Lunar Guard showed up for late dinners, usually right before he closed up shop. Since it was still early afternoon, they were probably still be asleep or they were off on a mission again. That meant my afternoon was open, I could head back to the castle and get some reading done, but I had a better idea.

I swung by hardware store and filled one half of my saddle bags with some supplies. Then I took off at a canter, heading directly for my truck. When I got there, I got out my keys and unlocked the trailer and climbed in. After some digging I came back out with my two rifles and a toolkit that would have everything I needed to take them both apart. I slipped the toolkit into the empty half of my saddlebags and attempted to pick up both rifle cases. It didn't take me long to discover I lacked the balance to carry both of them. Deciding to go with the lever action, I returned the bolt action back to the trailer. I was about to lock it up when I saw the revolver case, my holster and belt.

A few minutes later I exited the truck with belt slung around my chest and the revolver holstered. It was easier than trying to carry a second case and carrying it that way I could still bring two guns back to my room. When I got back I took the belt off and hung it on a chair. I cleared everything off the table and then pulled the revolver out of the holster. After double checking that it was empty I placed it on the table. The lever action was next, when I was done the two guns sat there in front of me.

Next came out my tool kit and my purchases, a huge stack of paper, an entire package of pencils, a ruler, a compass, a protractor, a pair of calipers and an eraser. It had been a long time since I had done anything like this and that was back when I had hands. I expected that this was going to take a while with hooves. Deciding to start with the rifle, I moved the revolver off to one side, picked up my tools and began to measure.

I started with easy things, total length and barrel length. Each time I took a measurement, I stopped and wrote it down. As I got more used to writing with my hoof, I took more and more measurements. Eventually I had numbers for every major exterior surface. It took me several attempts but I eventually produced a passable sketch of the rifle and then went through the painstaking process of labeling each measurement that I had taken on the drawing.

When that was finished, I pulled out my tools and carefully began to take the rifle apart. Again, the work was slow as I relearned how to use tools as a pony. My hooves worked most of the time but I found delicate work was much easier with wing or mouth. I worked at it slowly and with as much patience as I could muster, nearly two hours later I had the gun completely taken apart.

One by one I began to measure and sketch each part. The work was painstakingly slow but I enjoyed the opportunity to practice getting used to my new body. I hadn't even made it a quarter though all the parts when my stomach grumbled loudly. I looked over at the clock and noticed it was dinner time. I sighed and put down my pencil, this was going to be a multi-day activity, but I had already come to that conclusion while I was taking the rifle apart.

Every day after physical therapy I headed back to my room and worked on my project late into the night, stopping only for a quick dinner by myself. I did swing by the barracks one night, it took me a while to find Moonlit Shadow but she let me know that Thunderbolt and Silent Night were unavailable.

Visiting Kitchen Sink was on my to do list, but I kept getting distracted working trying to finish my drawings. Progress was slow in the beginning, but as time went by the work became easier as I grew more and more used to my new pony body. By the end of the week I had a stack of papers detailing each component of both rifles and the revolver. I had even started working on sketches for a gun of my own design, a single shot break action shotgun. I decided that if I had problems building the lever action, I could fall back to that. A break action with a smoothbore was just about as simple as one could get. I wasn't sure if I could create the plastic hulls that modern shotshells use but before plastic became common, brass and paper shells were used and either of those would be comparatively simple to trying to figure out how to make plastic.

---

It had been one week and a day since Golden Dawn had left for Hoofston and nearly two since I had woken up as a pony. I was sitting in my room trying to work on the plans for the break action shotgun. Unfortunately I was feeling very fidgety and was having trouble sitting still. When I heard a knock at the door I jumped up, eager for a distraction. I trotted over to the door and opened it up to find a red pegasus carrying a large mail bag.

"Are you... Hail Storm?" she asked.

"Yep, that's me," I said.

"I've got a letter for you," she said, reaching inside the bag and pulling out a small envelope.

I thanked the pony, took my letter and headed inside. I sat down on the couch and looked at the front of the envelope. My name was spelled out in neat cursive writing, the castle address listed underneath it. I glanced at the return address and saw Golden Dawn's name and address. Carefully I flipped it over, opened the envelope, which was actually kind of tough to do with hooves, and pulled out the letter.

"Dear Hail Storm,

I hope this letter finds you well. I've reached Hoofston and begun work on packing up all of my equipment. By the time this letter reaches you, I should be nearly done. I expected the work to take longer, but it turns out that I will not have to move everything up north as I had originally planned. Steam Gauge, one of the mechanics that does occasional work down in the oil fields, is going to be buying a large chunk of my inventory off of me for a fair price. With me moving out of town, he's going to expand into train maintenance since work at the oil fields is sporadic. I'm going to try to convince him to buy the shop itself but I don't know if he will yet. Either way Blue Skies is going to handle selling the building for me so I don't have to stay in town. Speaking of Blue Skies, both her and Dusty Heart were glad to hear that you are doing better. Blue Skies can hardly believe that Princess Twilight was able to save you by turning you into a pony. She made me promise to ask you to come down to Hoofston someday so she can see for herself.

How are your own business plans going? I look forward to hearing about any ideas you've had when I get back. I also look forward to meeting some new friends of yours, don't spend the whole time I'm gone shut up in your room. Have you mastered flying yet? Maybe we can go for a flight when I get back."

There was a large paragraph that was heavily scratched out making reading what it said impossible. After that the letter continued.

"I... I am sorry about the kiss at the train station. I saw the confusion in your eyes, it was clear that you do not feel the same as I do. I hope that my forwardness did not ruin our friendship. Please just forget the whole thing, I won't bring it up again."

Your friend,

Golden Dawn."

I folded the letter back up, sitting quietly in thought. Golden Dawn had been right, I was confused when she had kissed me, but not for the reasons she thought. A relationship with a non-human was something I had never considered before, the shock of the kiss had derailed my train of thought. I didn't mean to reject her, but I still did not know if that is what I wanted. I had better come to a decision quickly though because whether or not she had said that she wouldn't bring it up again, I needed to talk to her, to explain why I had reacted the way I did. I had a feeling that when that conversation reached a conclusion, I would need to have an answer for her.

I decided to go for a walk to clear my head. With no real destination in mind, I ended up off to the side of the royal gardens where my truck was parked. Part of me wanted to hop inside and just drive, but there were a number of problems with that. First off, I had never driven as a pony, secondly there were no roads out of this area of the castle. The only way my truck was getting out of here without driving through areas that I was pretty sure I should not, was with whatever magic Twilight had used to bring it here in the first place. Lastly, I just didn't feel like driving right now, instead I wanted to move on my own power.

I don't know what it had been going on, but all day I had been feeling like I needed to get out and do something. It hadn't helped that there was no PT this morning so I didn't do my normal exercises. Still, I didn't want to go running through the castle grounds like some sort of nut, so I decided to settle for a long walk.

I had never gone through the gardens before, but with them right next to me that made a good first choice. If that didn't tire me out, well I suppose I could head down to the train station and back again a few times.

I wasn't really much of a garden person but I had to admit whoever maintained these certainly knew what they were doing. Row after row of colorful flowers spread out before me, broken up by the occasional statue or fountain. Eventually I came to a clearing filled with a large number of statues. Off to the side was what appeared to be a hedge maze. I shrugged to myself and walked into the entrance.

Five minutes of twists and turns later, I was hopelessly lost. Well, not hopelessly, but I knew it was going to take me a while to find my way out, but that was half the fun of these things. In fact I was fairly confident I could get out and I found myself thinking about those twists and turns that I had gone through. As my route drifted through my mind, I realized I sort of had a feeling of which directions I had been going. There was something inside me that gave me a feel of which way north, south, east and west were. Extrapolating from that, if my memory was accurate, I could trace back my steps and hopefully find the exit.

I wasn't quite ready to leave yet though, so until then, I found a bench and I decided to take a seat and do some thinking. I wanted to give Golden Dawn's letter some extra thought and I couldn't really do that and figure out my newfound compass powers at the same time.

I climbed onto the bench, but it was almost immediately apparent that while I wanted to sit down and think, my body did not. I couldn't get comfortable and I could feel my wings and hooves twitching, as if they were ready to get going.

I was debating what to do when I my ears swiveled towards the sound of hoofsteps coming from around one of the many corners that lead to this small opening in the maze. Unlike in the gardens, which had a little more traffic than I cared for, I hadn't run into any ponies inside the maze itself. I wasn't entirely sure if I was supposed to be in here and I didn't want to get in trouble, so I stood up, picked a direction and began to walk away as quietly as I could.

I heard the hoofsteps start to fade away but as I rounded another corner they grew louder again. I turned randomly, only to run smack into Princess Cadance.

Princess Cadance was a good deal larger than I was so she came out of the encounter just fine. I picked myself up out of the dirt and looked up to her.

"I'm terribly sorry about that," I said, I hadn't seen the princess since before Golden Dawn had left. If I wasn't supposed to be in here, I was about to find out. At least it would be from a pony I had met before instead of a random guard.

"Don't worry about it Hail Storm, what brings you in here?"

"A combination of things, um I am allowed in here right? I didn't see any signs or anything at the entrance."

"Of course, like the rest of the gardens, the maze is open to the public. The maze just doesn't get as many visitors as it used to."

"Oh, why is that?"

"When Discord broke free from his stone prison, he took over this maze during his confrontation with Twilight and her friends. The entire area was heavily warped with chaos magic, even though that magic has since been purged, the maze gained a reputation for being tainted. Many ponies are still afraid of Discord and anything that has been touched by him, even after his reformation. The maze was never the most popular location in the garden but after that day, traffic dwindled even further."

"Why are you here then?" I asked.

"For that very reason, I like the maze because it allows me to get away from the crowds of Canterlot and have some time to myself. It is rare for me to run into any other ponies in here and I appreciate the solitude."

Suddenly, I felt even more like an intruder.

"Oh, do you want me to leave? I don't want to bother you," I said.

"No, it is alright, I don't mind running into ponies in here, it just doesn't happen often. There's a clearing with a bench not too far from here, why don't we go sit down and talk, I haven't seen you in a while. I'd like to hear how you are doing."

"I might have just been there, but I'm not positive I know how to get back," I said sheepishly. "I just figured out I can tell directions now, but honestly when I heard somepony coming I tried to sneak out since I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be here or not and I kind of wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

Cadance giggled at my honestness.

"Follow me," she said as she lead the way.

A few minutes later we were back at the bench I had just left. We took a seat and I made a serious attempt to keep my fidgeting to a minimum while Cadance asked me to fill her in on everything that had happened in the last week.

I focused mostly on my progress with Bulk Biceps and only briefly mentioned talked about Golden Dawn, mentioning that she had gone back to Hoofston for a while. I had started to talk about the work I had been doing in my room, with the drawings of the gun components when Cadance interrupted me.

"That's very interesting, I'm sure Shining Armor would like to hear about these firearm devices, but what of Golden Dawn?" Cadance asked, smiling gently down at me.

"What about her?" I asked.

"You came in here to think about something, that is what most ponies who venture into the hedge maze tend to use it for, and since you've been avoiding talking about her, I must assume that she is the subject of your thoughts."

"She uh, yeah, she is." I said, as I felt my face heat up.

"Do you miss her?" Cadance asked.

I did miss Golden Dawn but at the same time I was afraid of her coming back. I knew that we were going to have to talk but I still hadn't figured out what I wanted to say.

I nodded. "A lot."

"But it is more than that," Cadance said with a mischievous smile. It was almost as if she could sense the feelings racing around inside me.

Ordinarily, I would have tried to shift the topic, but I could tell I was outmatched. On top of that something deep down inside me told me, I had to talk to somepony. Cadance, being one of the few ponies around that I sort of knew, seemed like a reasonable choice. Plus, ever since she had shown up, I just felt... calmer.

"Yeah, it is. Before she left, when we were at the train station, she um, she kissed me."

Cadance's face lit up and her smile broadened.

"Oh that's wonderful!" she said before her smile turned into a frown. "Though I can see why that would weigh so heavily on your mind."

"You can?" I asked. How could Cadance even begin to understand it when I didn't myself.

"Believe it or not, but as the Princess of Love, I do have some expertise in these areas," Cadance said. "It helps that my magic allows me to get a good sense of the emotions that are ponies are feeling."

That explained how she knew, except... she had just said the l-word, I nearly choked in surprise.

"L-l-love? Between me and Golden Dawn?"

"Not yet I would say, but there is a good foundation there for it to grow. You are both friends, you care for each other, perhaps even more than you realize. But back to the matter at hand, you are concerned with the possibility. Appearances aside, you are not truly a pony, at least not in mind. From talking to Twilight, I understand there are no other sapient races on your world. That would make inter-species relationships unheard of. In addition, unless I am mistaken, you still yearn to go home someday. A relationship in Equestria would complicate that."

"I hadn't even thought of the second thing, my mind was still focused on the first." I admitted. "Though now that you bring it up, I'll add it to my list of things to worry about. Right after that letter I got from Golden Dawn."

"Letter? If you don't mind me asking, what did it say?"

"She saw my reaction to her kiss, I was confused, and she could tell. But she thinks I was confused because she thinks I don't have feelings for her. She apologized and said she wouldn't bring up the whole thing again. That's not why I was confused. I do like Golden Dawn but... like her in that way? I really don't know, the thought had never even crossed my mind. For humans, it is as you say, we are alone and there are no other intelligent races on our world. This is completely new to me, it's so... alien. I don't know what I should do."

Cadance nodded, took a moment to think and then spoke up. "If Golden Dawn was a human female, what would your reaction have been?"

"Probably... probably kick myself for not having seen it earlier," I admitted.

"Would you have returned the kiss?"

"I... don't know. It's so hard to answer... But... I'd like to think, if I had found a girl as smart and friendly and kind as Golden Dawn back on Earth, well if she was single and I thought I had a chance... I'd have asked her out by now."

"Then I think you have your answer of what you should do when she returns. Might I suggest you start by explaining things as you did here, I find honesty is another wonderful foundation for a good relationship. Her species, and your former one should not come between you two. I do hate to be so blunt but do not forget that it is very likely you will remain a pony for the rest of your life. How terribly lonely that life will be if you reject any chance at loving relationships."

"But what if I hurt her? What if I find a way home and I have to leave?" Questions started spilling out as fast as I could think of them.

"How is that different than any other budding relationship? Opening up to some pony, getting close to them, there is always a certain amount of risk involved. As for leaving Equestria, why not cross that bridge when you come to it? It is possible you may wish to say in Equestria, you are certainly welcome to do so. On the other hoof, Golden Dawn may wish to travel to Earth which could possibly be arranged."

"What if I find out I only like her as a friend? You said there wasn't love there."

"It's true, things may not work out between you two. As for love, well it does not always spring into existence on first sight. Sometimes it grows slowly as two ponies get closer to each other. Spend some time with her, it may lead to a deeper relationship or you may go back to being just friends. The important part is trying. What's the alternative? Putting the chance at serious relationships on hold in the off chance that Twilight might find you a way home?"

Cadance was right, on all counts. I didn't want to be alone the rest of my life, either due to me rejecting my new species or because I was afraid of what would happen should I be able to go home. That really left only one possibility. I had to talk to Golden Dawn, explain the situation and then move forward, if she still wanted to. My species might have changed, but this was no different than any other relationship.

It had been a while since I'd been in one, so taking it slow was probably the best idea. That was, if Golden Dawn was still interested. If she was, I suppose I'd be the first human to date an alien, that had to be something. Captain Kirk would be proud, well, maybe not, he'd likely already be off sleeping with Twilight and getting some redshirts killed.

I thanked Cadance for the talk, I still had some things to think about, mostly how I was going to approach Golden Dawn, but I was in a much better state than I been. Cadance must have sensed me coming to terms with things and she volunteered to lead me out of the maze. I kind of wanted to try out my new found navigational skills, but I could save that for another time, honestly I was starting to feel a bit jumpy and I didn't feel like taking it slow as I figured them out..

It wasn't very long before I recognized the entrance at the other end of the path we had just turned down. I was a few steps behind Cadance when I felt something click. A surge of energy shot through my body and I felt an uncontrollable urge to move. I took off like a rocket heading down the path and out of the maze, barreling past a very surprised looking Cadance.

A small part of my mind told me to slow down and wait for her but the rest of it was focused on running so I just kept going. A moment later Cadance caught up with me.

"Hail Storm? Are you alright?"

"Fantastic, I need to move." The words just slipped out of my mouth, without any thought but I found they were true. I felt like I was bursting with energy and if I slowed down, even for a moment, I'd explode. It was like the ultimate sugar rush combined with a hefty dose of caffeine high. Even running full speed I wasn't using enough energy. I wanted to move faster but I couldn't, I was already at a gallop and was quickly running out of garden.

Cadance's horn lit up and I felt a magical tingle from all around my body as she cast some sort of spell on me.

"Oh, of course, it's the healing spells. I know what's wrong with you, they're in their final stages now. They starting to collapse and your body is bouncing back as all the stored energy is being released. It's kind of like a super sugar high, but you should end up with the normal energy levels for a pegasus."

"This is normal?" I asked. I had almost completely run out of room, the walls of the castle were fast approaching, so I turned the only direction available to me, and headed right, picking up speed again. Even galloping flat out wasn't doing any good anymore. My wings felt itchy and kept trying to flare open. Deep down I knew what my body wanted to do.

"Well, yes and no. You're feeling such a rush because up until now your body has been under fairly heavy strain and it just suddenly returned to full strength. That should wear off in a bit, remember I warned you about this?"

"Vaguely, is it dangerous?" I asked as we ran past a very surprised gardener.

"Nope, honestly what you are doing now is the best thing for it. Though this isn't the best place to be running around. Care to take to the skies?"

Normally, my very reasonable fear of crashing to the ground and dying in a horrible splat would have had me saying no before Cadance had even finished the question, but I wasn't really thinking straight. Every ounce of my being was screaming at me to fly.

I had mastered hovering with Bulk Biceps and even flying around the room at low speeds but there just wasn't enough room for me to do any sort of fast flying inside the hospital. Previously, this hadn't been a problem, since I hadn't wanted to fly. Now though, the situation had changed. It was taking every ounce of effort I could muster to not start flapping my wings like a crazed madpony. In the end, my mind lost out and my body took over. My wings popped open and I felt them line up, angling into the wind to gain the maximum amount of lift. Then they slammed shut with a powerful flap.

I was already moving pretty fast, as a pony, galloping full speed made any sort of running as a human look like a pitiful crawl. But, when my wings came down, and I lifted into the air, that's when the real speed began. It was as if I was a muscle car and my rear tires, which had been spinning madly, suddenly got some traction. I shot forward and upward at an incredible speed. I didn't have any way to clock myself but I would have been prepared to swear in court that I was doing at least 150 miles per hour.

That only lasted a moment as my lack of skill almost immediately caused me to botch my wing movements and I spun sideways. I let out a gasp and tried to correct myself just as a glowing field of magic surrounded me and found myself re-oriented.

I heard some flapping from above me and looked up, to see Cadance hovering in place with her horn glowing.

"Why don't we take it slowly at first?" Cadance asked as she let the magic surrounding her horn go out. I dropped about an inch, which made my stomach curl, but then my wings took over and I immediately stopped falling as I switched to a hover. That much at least I had some good practice in. Still, my body wanted to do more and my brain wasn't really in control yet, so I began to work on gaining some altitude, bringing myself up to Cadance's level.

As I rose up to meet her, Cadance kept the distance between the two of us more or less consistent. We flew higher and higher as I attempted to catch up. I poured on some extra speed as I followed her towards some low hanging clouds. She flew past them, banking widely and then began to circle back. Finally, she settled down on one of the larger ones.

I knew from the cloud currently in my truck that I could sit on them but I still didn't quite believe it as I flew towards the cloud next to her. With some trepidation I slowed myself down, I had never done a real landing before and I needed to make sure I didn't overshoot the cloud. I slowed my flapping down even further and continued to decelerate. Finally I folded them up completely as I reached my target. I was just a little off and landed with a whump on the cloud, bouncing gently on it's fluffy surface.

I still felt like I had enough energy to fly all the way to Ponyville, which was clearly visible from up here, and back again, but I no longer felt like I had the need to do so. It was at that point that my mind caught up with my body and I looked at the ground hundreds of feet below and very nearly had a panic attack.

I felt a sick feeling start to creep up into my stomach and a shiver went down my back... but then, unlike so many times before, it just stopped.

Looking back, that was the moment that began to accept what I was now.

An endless field of blue stretched out before me, only interrupted by the occasional small puffy white island. I looked down at the castle grounds below me, at the rest of Canterlot and at Ponyville off in the distance. From up here, I could see thousands of ponies down below going about their daily business. I spotted some other pegasus ponies in the sky, some were moving clouds, others were flying to their destination or perhaps, just for the joy of it. The detail I could see, even from way up here, was incredible. I had known my eyesight had improved but this gave me a whole new appreciation of how much it had. My mind began to process what had happened over the last few minutes and a realization dawned upon me.

I flew up here.

I flew up here!

I... flew... up here!!!

A wide grin spread across my face as fear melted away and was replaced with laughter. There was no reason for me to be afraid of heights anymore, I was a pegasus now, the sky belonged to me!

Comments

[Ron Jeremy Pony]

I've been reading and following this for a while now. I love the story, the chapters, and it's been practically perfect, but my friend, you've placed the best line from a story ever in here.

It had been a while since I'd been in one, so taking it slow was probably the best idea. That was, if Golden Dawn was still interested. If she was, I suppose I'd be the first human to date an alien, that had to be something. Captain Kirk would be proud, well, maybe not, he'd likely already be off sleeping with Twilight and getting some redshirts killed.

Well done, well done

[CORACK]

8057512

We all know it's true.

Of course the Enterprise being his true love, he'd be forced to return to his own universe in time.

[Lanafilly]

I was a pegasus now, the sky belonged to me!

[CORACK]

8057639

I miss that show, might need to binge watch it again.

[Lanafilly]

8057700

One of the best shows i've ever seen

"When you can't run, you walk, when you can't walk, you crawl, and when you can't crawl..."

=3

[harts fire]

I have followed this story for a while now and it is really good, but this chapter just wow this is really a super good chapter.
and how you are so vary slowly building the romance is perfect.
but the last statement perfect.
A wide grin spread across my face as fear melted away and was replaced with laughter. There was no reason for me to be afraid of heights anymore, I was a pegasus now, the sky belonged to me!

[Hein des Nisseroi]

You're friend,
Golden Dawn."

You mean ‘‘your’’.

[Neko-]

This chapter did manage to make me feel like I should say something on the direction you're taking the story.

You started out interingly enough. Made sure there were little to no ties to Earth before landing the protagonist on Equus (or however you want to call the planet/dimension/timeframe). A stash of stuff (mostly guns, but little else of note so far) in the trailer. An intolerance for magic, unable to read things.

And then you went and clipped every one of these potential avenues. A desire to go home, mostly curbed by Twilight, with little to no info from Discord wherever he might be. So going home is considered impossible at chapter 14.

You discard his intolerance for magic (likening it to radioactivity) by changing him into a pony (essentially making you a liar on the choice of title for your story. I can hardly say he's the 'right man' anymore. And since he is a pegasus, while I'm not sure about being the 'right' one, I can say he's currently not in the 'wrong place'). Said transformation was pretty much straight forward too, with little time to think about for Hal. Granted, there was a pressure of time with his magical malady, but still. Dropping 20 years (or however old he is) on a dime, because some pony princess says so, essentially turning your back on who you are up to that point. That's scary. Especially knowing you'll no longer be human after the fact. Some people would seriously consider NOT going through with it. And yet Hal went through this with little consideration of what it would entail. Not just for the short term (getting used to a new body, and no longer having your own body), but also for the long term (what are the 'rules' of pony society, and how do I see the rest of my life ahead?) Plenty of high-school kids have issues with that already, and they don't have to deal with a body-alteration in the process.

The reading issue was solved with a minor bit of spellcasting, killing off any potential issues that might have brought.

While you've allowed for a means to provide guns and ammo to Hal as part of the story, you mean to tell me he's seriously considering actually building and selling guns, in a country/on a planet that has no equivalent available? Even on Earth gun laws are in place in the USA, but even then, most countries on the planet do not even HAVE the ability to own guns, or if they do, highly restricted. A planet that is unaware of what guns can do would demand you get that cleared by the ruling class before you could even consider starting up a shop on them. And even then someone (or somepony in this case) would seriously consider giving deadly things to a population he knows little about in the grand scheme of things.

As a governmental body I'd seriously contemplate (and likely discard) the proposition of making guns available to the public, or even the military, except in the case of a war breaking out. Even if that didn't happen, giving guns to ponies would amount to making the bow and crossbow obsolete, and in essence feel like handing a kid on Earth a gun. Something that very easily could go wrong in so many ways. Knowing some of the 'rougher' folks already walked into your story (the saloon), picturing those kinds of people armed does NOT invoke a vote of confidence on my watch. And yet Hal seems to want to do this without much of a second thought. Could he live with the fact that somepony might reverse-engineer his gun? Could he accept the fact that his introduction could end up claiming lives (not just a few, but possibly HUGE amounts)?

Then the kiss. I get it. Some romance sprinkled in. You do address the fact that Hal is hung up on the pony/animal thing. As is a right thing to do. You've been ingrained with the statement that that is considered bestiality in the culture you came from. It doesn't matter that you're the same species, or this culture doesn't give a hoot about it... Your upbringing and culture lead you in this, and again: 20 years of conditioning are smashed out of the way in the course of one talk with Cadence. Logically loving somepony the same species as you makes sense. The heart is known to not always be logical, but upbringing also has a HEAP of influence on the matter. And you just shoved influence aside as if it wasn't even there.

And the final piece that irked me... He has an ingrained fear of heights. As all humans have. And at the end of chapter 14 you waltz over that fear like it wasn't even an issue. Again, 20 years of ingrained bahvior patterns will NOT just fade because you changed body, and rationally you know it's no longer an issue. That will take time, and a whole lot more than the depicted couple of weeks. And even then it might just lessen and not disappear. Unless you want to push for the 'instinct' that may come with the pegasus body, in which case I foresee an introspective bit as Hal would start wondering what 'else' has changed, and if that would still make him 'him'. Heck, if his talk with Cadence on the kiss gave his reaction to be also due to instinct

Not sure where you're going with this, but the latter chapters seem to have provided you with a means to get rid of his problems (relativly easily), and his conditioning. Probably to get the story ready for the 'meat and potatoes' you want to tell us about. But the story suffers for it in my opinion. The latter chapters have seriously curbed my interest to see where you're going with the story.

[CORACK]

8058452

Yes, yes I did.

Will fix.

[CORACK]

8058466

Wow, that's a long comment. Let me see if I can respond to everything.

So going home is considered impossible at chapter 14.

It is improbable, not impossible. Really, Twilight just doesn't want to sugarcoat the truth for Hail.

You discard his intolerance for magic (likening it to radioactivity) by changing him into a pony (essentially making you a liar on the choice of title for your story. I can hardly say he's the 'right man' anymore.

I don't think that changing him to a pony really does the things you say. He has human knowledge and human experience. Mentally, he will always have some humanity, that's not to say that there are no mental changes, there are, but he will never be 100% pony.

As for the title, I'll say this. I have a story that I want to tell and I knew, before I set out writing this, that there was no way it was happening in a single fanfic. If you check the description, there is mention of this being part 1 or a 2 part story. TRM grew so much in the process of writing it, that I don't even want to rule out that there may more than 2 parts, but there's no way the whole thing was getting told in TRM. If it was we'd only be (estimating here) something like 1/4-1/3 of the way through instead of closer to 3/4s)
This whole story is acting like a prequel for the second (unwritten, but I'm working on it) story. That's not to say that this story is unimportant, instead of jumping right into that second story, I wanted to use TRM for establishing Hail's backstory. The reason Hail is the right man isn't apparent yet. A big reason for it will show up in this fic, but... well, I don't really want to get any more spoilery than that in a public comment. I suppose if you really want to know where I'm going, send me a PM.

Dropping 20 years (or however old he is) on a dime, because some pony princess says so, essentially turning your back on who you are up to that point. That's scary. Especially knowing you'll no longer be human after the fact. Some people would seriously consider NOT going through with it.

I guess maybe we're looking at this differently. I don't see Hail as going pony as a giving up. It's kind of the opposite, he can choose to live on or he can give up and accept his fate (death). Going pony is a way to keep fighting as it were. At the same time, it give him a chance, even if it's a minuscule one, that he can someday return to Earth.

And yet Hal went through this with little consideration of what it would entail. Not just for the short term (getting used to a new body, and no longer having your own body), but also for the long term (what are the 'rules' of pony society, and how do I see the rest of my life ahead?)

I don't disagree that some of this was a bit fast. I probably could have spent more time on this.

While you've allowed for a means to provide guns and ammo to Hal as part of the story, you mean to tell me he's seriously considering actually building and selling guns, in a country/on a planet that has no equivalent available? Even on Earth gun laws are in place in the USA, but even then, most countries on the planet do not even HAVE the ability to own guns, or if they do, highly restricted.

I think a big part of this will be swayed be an individuals stance on firearms. Yes, if misused a gun can be a deadly thing. That being said, guns are not inherently evil. Any competent adult can learn to own one safely.

A planet that is unaware of what guns can do would demand you get that cleared by the ruling class before you could even consider starting up a shop on them. And even then someone (or somepony in this case) would seriously consider giving deadly things to a population he knows little about in the grand scheme of things.

I'm trying to keep any diving into pony politics at a minimum, but if I had to sum up my take on things this is what I'd say. Equestria is ruled over by a benevolent monarch (though this has expanded from just Celestia to include Luna, and now Cadance and Twilight) but for the most part, pony society doesn't really fall into the all powerful ruling class with downtrodden peasants thing we see in a lot of more medieval setups. Instead ponies are more or less free to do what they want, as long as they aren't infringing on the rights of other ponies. There are far fewer restrictions than you'd see on Earth.

As for giving ponies access to firearms, again I think this falls back to individual views. Having access to guns doesn't mean that people (or ponies) are going to suddenly turn bad and start to spring up out of nowhere and make the streets run red with blood. Ponies already have access to things they can use to kill other ponies, weapons, spells, you name it. Having access to yet another isn't going to seriously change the day to day lives of ponies. What it would / will change is how war is fought.

As a governmental body I'd seriously contemplate (and likely discard) the proposition of making guns available to the public, or even the military, except in the case of a war breaking out.

I'm unsure if you are talking human or pony society here. If human, I'd disagree. If pony... well by then it's too late. Isn't it? You can't spin production for a war at the drop of a hat when the thing you want to produce has never been made before.

Even if that didn't happen, giving guns to ponies would amount to making the bow and crossbow obsolete, and in essence feel like handing a kid on Earth a gun.

I can see what you're getting at, in terms of they have no knowledge of these things so they don't know what they can do. I'd argue that it's relatively simple to demonstrate the capabilities of a gun versus say... a crossbow (grab a watermelon) The ponies in this story are adults, nor are they unintelligent. As adults they are capable of handling adult things.

Then the kiss. I get it. Some romance sprinkled in...

As I mentioned earlier, I have kind of a grand plan for where I 'm going with this and the next story and I had that plan before I started writing. The romance bit though, that actually showed up while I was writing and honestly, even though I hadn't planned for it, I felt it was the right direction to go as it helps act as an offset for Hail to not immediately want to go back to Earth and even start thinking about whether or not he wants to should the opportunity arise. I'm deliberately slowing things down, or at least that was my intent, with Hail and Golden not instantly falling in love. I will be honest though, never even considered writing any sort of romance before. I've got no idea what I'm doing

And the final piece that irked me... He has an ingrained fear of heights. As all humans have. And at the end of chapter 14 you waltz over that fear like it wasn't even an issue.

Do we? If we do, it's certainly not to the same level that Hail had. I can only speak for myself but I've got no problem with flying or bridges or other high things. About the only thing that I think might give me pause is skydiving, though I've never tried so I don't really know.

I thought I actually took this a bit slow. Hail doesn't go from human to pegasus and then start flying almost immediately. He slowly learns how to fly over the course of a couple of weeks of training. At this point he's already flying but he's staying indoors and keeping to what he thinks is safe distances. It isn't really until his pegasus instincts kick in and force him into flight that he really has to face that fear for the first time since he was turned into a pegasus. At that point, there are two components at work.

1. Is is him logically looking at that fear. The reason for it no longer exists. He can fly now, there's no real danger of falling to his death.

2. The irrational side of the fear can't be reasoned away with logic but... this goes back to his transformation. Maybe humans do have some ingrained fear of heights. At the very least, something about Hail's brain made him fearful. Except the way his brain works has changed now. Even his core being was altered a bit, with some of Golden Dawn's pegasus magic being infused with him. The first time (as a pegasus) that he actually had to face his fear of heights, he found that those changes combined to give him the power to overcome his fear.

Not sure where you're going with this, but the latter chapters seem to have provided you with a means to get rid of his problems (relativly easily), and his conditioning. Probably to get the story ready for the 'meat and potatoes' you want to tell us about. But the story suffers for it in my opinion.

I've never written anything on this scale before, so I can't really argue that I know what I'm doing. I don't. I have an idea of what I want to do, but the actual implementation of that is definitely a new process. I think I've gone through and answered most of your points, but just because I have answers for them all doesn't mean I'm ignoring the feedback. Some things I'm pretty happy with, other things I think I could have slowed down or gotten more in-depth into. You are right about this kind of leading up to the 'meat and potatoes' a lot of which will show up in the 2nd part of the overall story. At the same time, I don't want to dismiss TRM as simply intro fluff.

I do appreciate the feedback and you've given me things to think about. I don't agree on all your points but I can see where you are coming from.

[Death Pony]

8058687
Right. There should be a 'Ponification' tag, except that's not a real word.

[CORACK]

8058759

It might not be, but I've used it before

[Neko-]

8058671
Glad you've atleast taken notice of my comments. Not like I want to force you to guide the story to points based on my views (I'm a mere reader, not the author - that's you).

Hope the comments will prove useful in building the character. Tho you've already hinted at the fact that instincts have ingrained themselves into his body, and thus it could beg the question if he's still himself seeing his responses to some situations will be destinctly different from whatthey would be if he was still a human.

My harping on the guns.... I'm not in the USA, and only fired a couple of guns when at a friend in the USA. That said, I have a high respect for them, to the point where I'd personally would rather not own/touch one. Being raised with guns probably eases that. But knowing what a gun can do, and actually holding/firing one are two different things IMO.

Still keeping track of the story, despite my reservations on it. Lets see where this goes.

[CORACK]

8059335

Tho you've already hinted at the fact that instincts have ingrained themselves into his body, and thus it could beg the question if he's still himself seeing his responses to some situations will be destinctly different from whatthey would be if he was still a human.

When it comes to humans, we aren't a slave to instincts, but I think it's reasonable to assume if you were suddenly in a different body with different instincts you could certainly be swayed by them. But, if instincts tried to push him to do something dangerous that's when he could approach the situation with logic. That's kind of a big reason he was able to overcome his fear relatively quickly. His new instincts pushed him to do something he wouldn't ordinarily do, while the instinctual fear of heights was greatly lessened (pegasus brain vs human brain). He's kind of forced to look at it logically. And, as a pegasus, there is no logical reason to be afraid of heights.

My harping on the guns.... I'm not in the USA, and only fired a couple of guns when at a friend in the USA. That said, I have a high respect for them, to the point where I'd personally would rather not own/touch one. Being raised with guns probably eases that. But knowing what a gun can do, and actually holding/firing one are two different things IMO.

I did not grow up with them and actually only picked up the hobby as an adult. As I've learned more about them, it has, to me, become apparent that they are like any other tool. They can be used or misused. If you use them responsibly they are no more dangerous than a car, in fact, statistically (at least in the US) they are even less so. That is of course when we are talking about being dangerous by accident.

When it comes to intentional misuse, obviously they can be very dangerous. The thing is, anything can be dangerous when intentionally misused. People have been killing each other for all of history. Lack of guns aren't going to stop someone from trying to kill another person if they really want to. It isn't the gun that's the problem, it's the person who wants to use it to do something nefarious.

The thing is, I think most people are inherently good. This goes doubly so for ponies. There will always be some bad apples that are going to cause problems, but you can't blame the gun, blame the person using it.

[Mr Swanky Hat]

It was proving complicated because unlike bipedal movement, which really only involved putting one leg in front of the other, ponies had different gaits which used entirely different leg movement.

Something interesting that this made reminded me of, when humans are walking, we are basically falling continuously, a combination of good timing and balance prevents us from landing on our faces. It's kinda fascination when you think about it (or at least when I think about it)

[wildlander84]

8061334 fir more accurate information, look at the following link.
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EAT THE WEEDS

[Canary In The Coal Mine]

I really enjoyed this latest chapter. It had a lot of internal growth of the protagonist, especially at the end when he finally let his body fool him into confronting his fear of heights with the fact that he flew up there.

The relationship with Golden Dawn was very sweet, even if it led to backtracking on her part. We've seen the protagonist's POV here, but we haven't seen hers. She must have been beating herself up over it quite badly, and the scratched out parts of the letter was a good way to show that.

[Always Breakfast]

So...wait a minute. I get that meat in general isn't that huge a deal but why is everyone okay with cow steak specifically? Didn't Hal already have an existential crisis about cows being intelligent and how Golden roomed with one in college or something?

[CORACK]

8413047

The sapient talking cows (like we see in the show) live mostly in and around Equestria (I suppose they might have there own kingdom but I never really thought about it) The way I look at it, most animals in Equestria have at least some level of intelligence above and beyond what you'd normally find in nature. This being a side effect of all those magical ponies concentrated in one area. Outside of Equestria's borders regular animals (not mythical races) are, more often than not, more like their Earth counterparts. That's why most of the meat that is consumed in Equestria is imported from outside the country and thus pricey.

[Kadigan]

Captain Kirk would be proud, well, maybe not, he'd likely already be off sleeping with Twilight

That is how you spell Best Pony, yes. ;-]

But damn if I ain't Kirk. Still, being literally the only one of my species would probably lend me some extra charm... Some go for that sort of thing... Too bad my black heart and rotten personality would likely spoil it all in very short order. ;D