> The Blessing and the Curse
>  by Equestria Buck Yeah
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

His shoes landed softly on the grass as he dismounted from the last rung of the ladder and tossed the few apples he could manage to hold into the basket waiting below.  He looked west to see the sun starting its trek below the horizon, already partially hidden by the rows and rows of trees in the orchard, and a light gust of wind gently tickled the beads of sweat that had formed on his brow and neck.  Matt wiped his forehead on an arm and peeled his shirt off his upper body, hoping to unstick it from his back and let some cool air in.  He stretched his spine out as well, having pulled a muscle or something at some point.

He turned around and looked over what he was able to accomplish that day.  Hm, at least six or seven hills worth.  Not too bad over the course of most of an afternoon.  Satisfied – and a bit more comfortable now – he closed up the ladder and set it on the ground beside the mostly-full basket to his left, making sure to leave himself some room to lay back against the tree he was just working on and watch the sun continue to go down.

The clock tower rang out in the distance with six loud gongs.  Jeez, he was getting pretty good at predicting when it was quitting time.  Though, considering he had been stopping by the farm at least a couple times a week after all the nonsense with Discord had finally blown over, one couldn't exactly blame him.  It gave him a semi-regular schedule in a way.  Speaking of which, didn't he have something to do for someone tomorrow?  He was sure it was in the early afternoon.  Was it to help move something or...?  Eh, whatever, he'll check his calendar when he gets home.

Despite enjoying much of the freelance work Ponyvillians requested of him, there were some days he wished he still had all that magic he stole from that mismatched freak so he could get most of the orchard picked with a few mere thoughts – or any of the other side jobs that helped pay his bills for that matter.  It would have allowed him to go fool around with his friends for the rest of the day if nothing else.  Unfortunately, the memories and nightmares that sporadically came with sharing a mind with Discord, even if it was only for a few minutes, put that idea to bed quickly enough.

It's not that he minded helping out at Sweet Apple Acres.  In fact, he'd usually find himself gravitating toward it almost unconsciously when his schedule was free.  He never gave it much thought however.  It was just something to do more often than not.

Thank God Applejack was happy to help him get out and about after the work was done much of the time these last several months.  Despite having been revealed to the public nearly a year ago, it wasn't unheard of for Matt to have trouble finding things to do.  No doubt being separated from technology that he was used to for so long had a hand in that.

The rings of the clock's bell weren't the only thing that reminded Matt of the time.  A quiet growl of his stomach got his notice.  He took a quick glance around.  Good, no one was in sight.  Wouldn't have to be embarrassed if he failed...again...but who knows?  Maybe this time he'll get lucky!  This tree didn't look terribly thick.

He stood back up, bent his knees, balanced himself out, and slammed the bottom of his foot into the trunk as hard as he could without hurting himself further.  He quickly looked up, hoping to see one those big, juicy apples over his head giving way to his might...and slouched when not even a single one appeared to wiggle on their branches.  Ugh, what else was new?  With a sigh and a roll of his eyes, he slid his shirt back on, plopped onto the ground and leaned up against the tree, facing the beautiful sunset.  At the behest of his angry stomach, he snatched an apple from his basket and took a bite.

Hm, strange.  AJ was usually able to find him and hang out for a little bit before the clock went off.  Eh, she was probably just caught up with something.  No big deal.


-----


A calm, cool breeze blew through her blonde mane, kissing the droplets of sweat that ran down her slender neck.  Applejack hoped he was still in the northern hills somewhere.  Matt did say he wanted to continue where he left off yesterday.  Returning to the same place as the day before, she looked left and noticed the newly-empty trees.  Grinning, she followed the evidence and spotted him lounging as she typically found him – gazing toward the west, watching the sun go down.

And just like every other time she'd go to meet him over the last couple months, the farm girl's stomach would suddenly start doing back-flips.  Though she was used to it by now, she could still remember the first time it happened to her.  For a couple weeks up until that point, she had thought that she was just hungry or that, Celestia forbid, she was starting to get sick.

But on one particularly rough afternoon, Matt happened to notice her standing at the bottom of the hill from where he sat.  He didn't realize she had been gazing at him in wonder for a few minutes, but his smile and little nod hello made everything right for her.  In that moment, she realized why her stomach had been in such turmoil.

Later that night, she sat by the window trying to piece it all out.  Little by little, it started to make sense.  After the whole ordeal with Discord and Matt flinging his stone body into space and all, things had cooled down, but she noticed that he frequently seemed a bit...well, lost.  He had adapted to Equestria as well as could be expected, but he still seemed to be looking for his place in the world.  It was almost as if all the insanity that Discord caused lit a fire up under him and now that things were normal again, he didn't know what to do.

One early afternoon right after lunch, he happened to show up to the farm.  She and the rest of her family were never one to turn away a visitor and when he offered to lend a hand that day, sure, she was all for it.  But even with the schedule he told her and the others about, she found him stopping by more and more frequently.  Nopony minded in the least, especially Apple Bloom.  She still saw him like an uncle she never had...that was of a different species.  After a few weeks, Applejack had offered to take him to see a movie and get something to eat as a way of thanking him for all the hard work he had done.

Now, she had never really been on what anypony would consider a date before and she didn't consider that one either.  Chores, family things, and goings-on with her friends always took away most of her time.  But after Matt told her as they ate their dinner that he was having trouble figuring out what to do for entertainment, she took it upon herself to help him in that regard.

If there was a local sporting event going on, she'd offer to take him.  A couple farming shows and competitions came and went, and sure enough, she'd want him to go.  Heck, if she needed someone to watch Apple Bloom for some reason, she knew she could ask him, and he never said no to any of her requests.  Applejack even braved the video arcade a couple times when Matt wanted to check it out.  Even though it wasn't her cup of tea, she loved seeing how much fun he had.  Thank Celestia he got bored of the place after beating all the games that he had any interest in.  Still, it simultaneously pained her and made her happy that whenever the two of them would spend time together, no matter how ordinary a day Matt said he was having, he always seemed to perk right up.  For a while, she wondered if he even realized it himself.

A couple weeks had gone by after Applejack's initial revelation, and needless to say, she had thought long and hard about what it all meant to her.  She wanted to be proactive and tell him how she felt, but every time she would start building the necessary courage to do just that, she couldn't go through with it.

She didn't think Matt knew; he never indicated anything one way or another.  It drove her more and more crazy as the days turned to weeks, but no matter much she struggled against herself, she'd always end up losing at the end of the day.  Even on days when she didn't want to see him just so she could relax a bit, opening her front door and seeing him standing there would make her forget about cooling off.

The gentle breeze may have helped cool her neck and brow at the moment, but her stomach was still dancing.  With a pat of her belly and a deep, nerve-calming breath, the cowpony trotted up to meet her friend, smiling warmly as she approached.


-----


The soft sound of hooves on the grass pulled his attention from the beams of sunshine popping out over the treeline though he didn't need to glance over to know who it was.

"You're late," Matt joked.

"Heh, yeah.  I, err...had a couple extra baskets to put away."  She noticed the half-eaten apple in his hand and smirked.  "You finally manage to buck one out of the tree?"

"Heeeeeell yeah!"  He felt the weight of her light-hearted, disbelieving glare out of the corner of his eye.  "...No."  Applejack let out a little giggle, forcing another quip out of him.  "I'll get one of those damn things down some day, you watch!"

She sat next to him, shoulder to shoulder, still chuckling under her breath.  Feigning annoyance, he gave her a playful jab with his elbow.  "I know you will."  The country girl took in a breath of the crisp air and smiled wide.  "I love the way the sun shines through all the leaves.  Looks so pretty."

"Mhm.  Be nice if it could stay just like this all day long.  Nice and cool."  Matt twirled his neck around, stretching his muscles while trying not to nod off.  Even after as long as he'd been helping the Apples, he'd still be pretty beat at the end of the day.

"Got a heck of a lot done for being here only half the day."

"Yeah, just kind of in the zone today.  Don't know why.  Don't really care either," he said, offering Applejack one of her namesake.  "Kind of surprising considering I think I threw my back out at some point."

The mare took his gift and rubbed it clean.  "Thanks.  What happened with your back?"

Arching his body and groaning, he replied, "Was reaching for one of these things and I must've stretched a bit too far to get it or something.  Been hurting since."

"I'm sorry, sugarcube."  Seeing Matt wincing and in obvious pain as he twisted around beside her was enough to calm her fire, even if only for a moment; she needed to help him.  She tossed the apple back into the basket and took hold of his arm.  "Here, lay on your stomach for a minute."

"Huh?"

"Lay on your stomach.  I'm going to try and get that knot out for you."

"Nah, nah, you don't have to do that.  I'll just sleep it off or–"

She gave him a light slap on the shoulder, very mildly annoyed but not at all serious.  "Look, I know how bad a pulled muscle can feel.  Now, get down on your stomach before I hit you!"

"But you already hit me!"  She raised up a hoof and pretended to threaten Matt again when he threw his hands up in defeat.  He knew better than to argue with Applejack.  He'd likely have more success knocking an apple out of a tree with his head.  "Okay, okay!"  Doing as commanded, he curled up his arms and rested his head on them, sighing defiantly.  "Shirt on or off?" he muttered.

She paused for a moment as she stepped overtop him, the butterflies having migrated back.  Her pulse started to race too.  He had removed his shirt around her in the past while he was working the fields, but that was just because he was hot.  This was a different story altogether.

"Err... I-I'll, um... Where does it hurt?"

"'Bout here," he said, pointing below his left shoulder blade.

"Alright."  Biting her lip, her hooves shaking just a bit, she managed to slide his shirt up to his neck.  'Come on, AJ, you can do this.'

"You realize my back is covered in sweat, right?"

"You know I can handle sweat better than most, right?"

Applejack slammed her eyes shut when she realized just how bad that question sounded.  Matt's snorting laughter didn't help either.  "Can you now?"

"Oh, you hush!  Now, come on, relax so I can do this."

"Alright, alright," he said as he finished giggling.  "Haven't had a massage since...hell, I don't know.  Long before I landed here."

As Applejack dug her hooves into his back and kneaded his flesh like soft dough, her heart finally managed to slow back to normal.  She was past the hard part, thankfully.  "You never went to the spa here?"

"Uh-uh.  Rarity tried to drag me there–"  He suddenly stiffened up and hissed through his teeth, even causing Applejack to stop short.

"Right there?"

"Right there," he wheezed.

The farm girl started up again slowly, each firm rub progressively easing the pain and turning Matt into a puddle below her over the next few minutes.  His soft, appreciative moans made her smile.  "I'm probably not as good as the spa twins, but–"

"It feels good," he mumbled lazily into his arm.

"Heh, thanks."  Noticing his closing eye a later cooled off her reddening cheeks.  "You ain't going to sleep on me, are you?"

"No, no!"  He took in a deep breath and rubbed his face.  "Okay, maybe a little."

"Good.  Cuz, um..."  Her green eyes darted around as she quickly thought up a good story.  "Well, I-I didn't want to admit it, but uh...I was carrying of couple baskets earlier and I think I felt a twinge in my neck.  Been bothering me all day, eh heh!"

Her act was convincing enough, making Matt glance up at his masseuse with a concerned look.  "You want me to–"

"I-I mean, if you don't want to, that's fine.  You don't have to," Applejack babbled, cutting him off.  "Not the first time I've ended the day and been a little sore!"

The young mare hopped to the side as Matt made his way back to his knees.  "No, no, I'm good.  It's fine."

"Are you sure?  Cuz it's really nothing I can't–"

"Yeah, yeah, it's alright."

"You don't have to feel obligated–"

"Look, you gave me a massage.  I don't have a problem giving you one.  Now turn around."

"Y-you're sure?"

"Will you just turn around?  Jeez!" he insisted, playfully backhanding Applejack on the shoulder and shaking his head.

"Okay, okay," the cowgirl chuckled, doing as he asked.  "Uh, do you want me to lie down?"

Matt spun to face the mare's back, folding his legs beneath him.  "Nah, it'll be easier for me this way."  Unfortunately, he couldn't get comfortable sitting the way he was.  He'd have to lean in too much, and he didn't want to aggravate his back again.  After trying a few positions, he finally settled with sitting several inches behind Applejack, resting his legs at her sides.  Good thing she was narrower than him.  "There we go, this works."

As he reached in, Applejack saw his legs from the corners of her eyes and nearly forgot to breathe for a moment.  Remembering to do so became even more difficult when she felt his hands firmly squeezing the back of her neck.  Though she had no idea how strong he was before he arrived in Equestria, she just knew that grip of his had to have gotten stronger thanks to all the farm work.  A long groan of pleasure got Matt to smirk and look around for anyone who may have heard the farm girl despite being in the middle of her orchard.

Applejack's head started to droop after a moment or two of ecstasy.  She may have nodded off herself if Matt hadn't spoken up.  "Feel better at all?"

"Mmmmmhmmmm."

"Good."  He paused to twist his back and neck again, grunting in approval.  "Those hooves really did the trick."

"Hm?"

"You could really dig in there, work out the kinks.  Almost kind of wish I went to that thing with Rarity now."

"I've been a few times myself, and I have to say those hands are just...yeah.  So much better."

"Why's that?"

"Can't really squeeze with hooves like you can those.  Heh, maybe you ought to get a job there.  You'd probably make a fortune."  Wait, why was she encouraging him to go away?  Not only that, he'd have his hands all over other mares!  Ugh, stupid!

"Pfff!  I doubt I could handle all the scented soaps and stuff they have all over the place there.  Noooo thanks," he replied with a purse of his lips.

As he lowered his hands toward the base of her neck, Applejack closed her eyes and bit her lip, getting lost in how sensual her massage felt.  Matt's stifled laughs brought her back to reality fairly quick though.

"You seem to be enjoying yourself," he said.

She craned her head to face him.  "Huh?"

"You, uh, flicked me in the arm with your tail," he muttered between giggles, having to hold himself up.

"I-I did?" she squeaked.

He nodded, laughing even harder at this point.  All she could do to avoid dying of embarrassment was turn away and bury her mortified face under her hat.

"Listen, um...I do feel quite a bit better now, so, uh...if you want to stop, that's fine," she said from her stetson.

"Yeah, I think I'll do that."

"Okay then."  She set her hat back atop her head, hoping to Celestia he didn't see how red she still was.  "Look, uh, it's getting kind of late in the day.  Did you want to stay tonight?  ...For dinner!" she quickly added.  "For dinner.  Y'know, the eating and...stuff."

It took every fiber of her being not to hide under her hat again.

"Well, I really didn't have any ideas as far as what I was going to eat tonight.  Uh...okay, sure, yeah.  Thanks!"  He glanced over to the ladder and the apple basket beside them.  "Guess we should start heading back then."

"Yeah, good idea."

As the two got to their feet, Applejack stood frozen in place, still dumbstruck over her actions.  She thanked Celestia Sweet Apple Acres was so isolated.

"I'll get the ladder if you want to carry the basket," Matt offered.

"Sure, toss her on."

Without a hint of pain thanks to her little massage, he picked up the apples and set them down on the farmer's back.  Grabbing the ladder in a similar fashion and tossing it onto his shoulder, they made their way back to the barn, but not before he pulled the brim of her hat just over her eyes.  With a smirk, she flicked it back into place and followed a step behind.


-----


It was a fast fifteen minutes that passed as Applejack and Matt headed home.  The cowgirl didn't say too much and left most of the talking to her tall friend.  She still couldn't believe what a fool she made of herself.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot," Matt said as he carried on, "I saw an ad in the paper earlier for some action movie that's coming out this weekend.  Looks kind of fun!  Want to go check it out?"

"I'll have to see if I'm busy, but if not, sure!  I'd like that."

"Cool, I'll check some times when I get home."  They turned the corner to find a familiar face already putting a few tools away in the barn.  "Hey Big Mac, what's up?"

He nodded hello and continued about his business, storing one thing after another.  Matt followed suit and hung the ladder on the wall inside while Applejack set the basket in a nearby cart to be taken into storage.

"You go on inside, Matt.  I'll be a few minutes."

"Okay, cool.  You mind if I take a fast shower before we eat?  I'm feeling kind of ripe."

"Nah, go ahead."

"Alright, see you inside."

As he headed into the house, whatever Applejack may or may not have needed to do was tossed by the wayside.  She was far more interested in admiring Matt.  Even after he vanished behind the door, she couldn't stop staring and thinking – about how she had messed up yet again, about what she wanted to say and how to say it, about what his responses might be.

Her sad eyes fell as she replayed what just happened not long ago in her mind once again.  Who was she kidding?  Why did she keep persisting?  What was she doing wrong?

While she wallowed, her brother had crept up beside her.  The only reason she was aware at all was because the noises that came with putting farm equipment away had come to a sudden halt as did his steps in the dirt.  They stared blankly at each other for a minute, neither one of them saying a word though she could see a hint of concern on his face.  Celestia, why was he so hard to read sometimes?

"What?" Applejack finally said.

"Why don't you just tell him?"

She froze up, her heart almost skipping a beat and her eyes darting away for a split second.  Gah, that was probably enough to give her away!  "T-tell him what?"

His soft look turned into a glare and he smirked at the stupid question.  Did she really think he wasn't aware?

"I don't know what you're talking about!" she growled, trotting away with her nose in the air.

The big red stallion sighed and shook his head as she headed into the house.


-----


The cowpony was setting her hat on its hook just inside the door when she heard pots and pans rattling around from inside.  Granny Smith was likely getting dinner started in a few minutes.  Applejack made her way there to confirm her suspicions, making sure to pet the dog as she walked.

"Howdy Winona," she cooed.  "Hey Granny Smith."

"Oh, hey Applejack!  Just saw Matt walk in about five or ten minutes ago.  He staying for supper?"

"Yeah, I asked him to, if that's okay."

"Course it is!  You know he's always welcome.  Did you happen to see Apple Bloom anywhere earlier?"

She rubbed her chin, recalling the last few hours.  "Uhhh, no, can't say that I have.  Maybe she's out playing with her friends?"

"She didn't tell me that she was staying out before she left for school this morning.  Better show up soon or I'm going to be right annoyed with her, I tell you what!" she grumbled, slamming a pan onto the stove for emphasis.

"I'm sure she will.  Ain't like her not to say something.  What've you got cooking up?"

The old pony reached into the fridge and pulled out several vegetables before moving to the cupboard, tossing the various ingredients onto the counter as she went.  "Was going to put together the best darn noodle casserole you ever had.  Should be done in about a half hour or so.  Probably going to have to make a little more with Matt here.  That boy sure does like to eat!" Granny Smith said with a chuckle.  "By the way, how're things going between you two, hm?"

The orange mare stiffened yet again.  "What do you mean?"

Granny Smith cocked her head at her granddaughter, lifting a single confused eyebrow.  Several awkward seconds passed as the two stared each other down.  But, the elder pony could see the panicked look in younger's eyes, no matter how hard she tried to hide it, and shook her head in disappointment.

"Oh Applejack..."

The young farmer's jaw clenched up, but that didn't stop her lips from twitching.  She slammed a flustered hoof hard to the floor.  "First Big Macintosh is asking me all kinds of weird questions and now you!  It sure would be nice if somepony told me what the hay was going on around here!" she hollered as she turned around and stomped her way up the stairs, leaving Granny Smith to shake her head again.

Once she was out of sight and down the hall, Applejack came to a stop by the bathroom door, collapsing up against the wall.  She stared helpless at the ceiling, trying to figure out how in the world Big Mac and Granny Smith knew.  She never said anything to either of them!  She was keeping things under wraps, wasn't she?

And how come she didn't hear the water running in the shower?

A few minutes later, Matt opened the door, fully clothed, drying off his hair and almost tripping over his host.  "Oh, hey.  Didn't know you needed to use the bathroom."

"N-no, I, uh...thought maybe I could use a shower too.  Don't want to sit down at the dinner table stinking to high heaven!  That sure was an awful fast one you took."

"Yeah, just a quick rinse.  Probably take a real one before bed tonight.  Here, let me get out of your way."

Once she saw Matt starting to go down the stairs, Applejack bolted into the bathroom and slammed the door behind her – maybe a bit too loudly.  As she clicked the lock shut, she took a hard breath and looked in the mirror.  Did she ever look ragged.  Why shouldn't she though?  She worked hard all day, sweating like a pig.  She was just tense because...because it was a rough day and her body was aching!  Yeah, that has to be it!  Well, except for her neck...

Ugh, she needed a shower.  That's all.  Just a nice, cold shower.

She turned on the faucets without focusing on the temperature and climbed into the tub, jumping at the mercifully chilly waters pelting her as she laid back and rested her head against the wall.  Unfortunately, her shivering didn't last terribly long as the shower started to warm up.  Maybe she should have paid more attention in the first place.

Still, it was relaxing.  Not quite as relaxing as when Matt was...

She closed her eyes and remembered the way it felt when he squeezed and pinched at her neck.  Rolling his fingers and thumbs and... Dear Celestia, why didn't she ask him to do that before?  As she continued to fantasize, her hind legs started to clench.  Little by little, a forelimb seemed to make its way down her stomach on its own.  When it reached its destination, she felt her body twitch and she bit her lip.


-----


The bathroom door slowly creaked open, bellowing out steam and causing Applejack to shiver as she stepped into the cooler hallway.  With a final, quick shake, numerous drops of water were launched all over the place.  Even though she was a bit tired after doing all the farm work earlier, now she felt even more exhausted.  At least she was finally feeling a little more at ease.

She trotted down the stairs and into the dining area where she found most of the food had already been distributed.  Jeez, just how long was she in there?

"Hey, she's alive!" Matt joked as Applejack walked in.  "Thought you drowned in there or something."

"Sorry, y'all.  I was...just thinking about some stuff."

"Like what?"

"Eh, n-nothing really," she mumbled.  Granny Smith and Big Mac shared a quick glance.

"Hell of a lot of time to be thinking about nothing."

"It's nothing you'd be interested in really," Applejack muttered nervously as she took a seat beside her object of affection.

Matt gobbled his first bite of dinner and shrugged.  "A'ight."  He then quickly scarfed down half his plate and let out a belch under his breath.

"Woo!  That didn't take long to get a seal of approval!" the old green pony said with a laugh.

"Granny, you must teach me your ways."

A few minutes of jokes and small talk went by before the sound of the front door opening gave them pause.  "Sorry I'm late!" a voice called out, followed by a little yellow filly galloping into the dining room and tossing her saddlebag on the floor.  "Me and the Crusaders – Matt!"  Apple Bloom dashed over to the human and gave him a hug, receiving a ruffling of her mane in return.  "I didn't know you were coming to dinner tonight."

"Yeah, AJ convinced me.  Where've you been?  It's almost, what?  Seven o'clock?"

"Yeah, I know.  It's just that me and the girls found something weird outside school in some bushes and we'd been trying to figure out what it was and what to do with it all this time," the filly explained as she rummaged through her bags, looking for the object.  "Here, this is it."

"Wait, you don't know what this thing is and you brought it home?  Apple Bloom, you know better than that!" her older sister scolded.

"We figured that maybe one of you knew what it was.  It has an apple on it, see?"

Applejack took the thing from her sister and looked it over.  She was telling the truth; there was indeed an apple on one side with a bite taken out of it, but she didn't have any idea what it was either.  It was small, rectangular and shiny with a couple buttons here and there and what appeared to be a black window or...something on the opposite side.

"Sorry, sis, I don't have–"

Matt's fork suddenly crashed onto his plate.  He stood up, grasping at his throat, hacking and choking loudly on his food.  Applejack set the strange object down and shot to her hooves, patting him on the back.

"Whoa, easy there, partner!  Easy!  You okay?  Come on, drink something!"

Finally, the last bits of casserole dislodged themselves and he was able to swallow it down.  Gasping for breath, he looked past his caretaker and stared straight at the small thing on the table, baffled and slightly horrified at what he saw.  He swiped it up in a flash, looking over every square inch of it in minute detail.  He blinked hard several times just to be sure he wasn't seeing things.  He tried to speak but words weren't able to find him.

Applejack observed how bewildered he was and it only left her with more questions.  She glanced briefly at the rectangular object and back at him.  "Sugarcube, you alright?"

"Apple Bloom, where did you get this?"
> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was no mistaking what Matt was staring wide-eyed at.  He never owned one on Earth himself yet was familiar enough with them since his old friends allowed him to use theirs if he ever needed.  But that didn't explain why it was in Equestria.

"Apple Bloom?"

"It was laying in the bushes around a tree near school.  Scootaloo was fooling around and slipped and landed in the them.  She bumped into it when she was getting back up," the filly nervously explained, fearing she may have done something wrong.  "Why?  What is it?"

With his jaw hanging open, it took him several seconds to whisper his baffled response.  "It...it's an iPhone.  But...?"

"What's that?  Does it have something to do with your eyes?" the elder sister asked.

When Matt first arrived and managed to break through his initial panic and talk with Applejack and the others, he told them about where he was from with a lot of emphasis on technology.  He loved playing with his toys after all.  After accepting that he was stuck in Equestria, talks about what kinds of things Earth had didn't come up terribly often.  What reason was there to?  He never would be able to show them how it worked before this unexpected surprise.  

"Err, no, it's just a name.  'I' like the letter, not your actual eyes.  I honestly don't remember if I ever heard what it stood for though."

"Is it yours?"

"No, I never had one.  You know the only things that I came here with were–"

Before he could finish, a sudden, horrifying idea bombarded his mind.  He only landed in Equestria because Discord brought him there.  But now, another thing from Earth...

In a flash, he got to his feet and bolted for the door, phone still in hand.  'No no no no no no!'

"Matt?  What's wrong?!"

He yanked open the door and shot out into the yard, terror-stricken panic filling his brain.  That bastard couldn't be back, he just couldn't!  Matt tossed his stone body into space!  Things had been peaceful since then!  How in the hell could he have come back, and how could Matt fight him now if it came down to it?!  Discord wasn't going to fall for the same trick twice!

He came to a stumbling stop, quickly scanned the sky, the ground, the trees and found...nothing.  The early evening sky was glowing a soft dark blue.  The moon and the first few stars were starting to come out.  None of the orchard was talking or running around on its own.  Everything looked...normal.

The livestock!  Maybe they saw something!  He sprinted off to the pens where the sheep and the cows were held, hoping to God they weren't flying around or anything crazy.  When Daisy Jo, Mooriela and the rest came into vision, Matt slowed to catch his breath, relieved to see that everything looked in order for them as well.

The bovines stared blankly as he came to a stop near the fence.  "Something we can help you with?"

He took another long, worried look around, his gaze eventually coming back to rest at the cows.  "Uh...n-no.  I'm...I'm good."

He glimpsed back and forth between the iPhone and the environment, still at a total loss.  There had to be something going on.  Nothing else had appeared from Earth up until then.  Even so, if Discord was back, he'd go out of his way to make sure everyone knew about it.  Matt was dead certain of that.  He knew what the manipulative freak was like; he did still have his memories.  So why was this thing showing up now of all times?

Matt was so lost in thought he didn't hear the soft hoofsteps of a concerned cowgirl behind him.  Her hoof in his hand brought him momentarily back to his senses.  

"Matt, what is it?"

With one last cautious check, he shook his head and answered, "Nothing."  It wasn't anything he truly believed, but there didn't seem to be anything the matter.

Applejack too scanned for anything unusual but came up empty.  "Come on.  Let's head back inside, okay?"

"...Yeah.  Yeah, alright."

As they started their walk back, the farm mare couldn't help but notice how lost in thought Matt was, likely trying to piece things together.  He was beyond shaken up when Apple Bloom pulled the device from her saddlebag.  As much as she wanted to help, she had no idea what she could do except be there, regardless of what was going on.


-----


Their quiet walk back to the house was punctuated by an equally silent entrance.  The rest of the Apple family stood patiently in the living room, all wondering why in the world Matt raced out.  Without saying a word, he and Applejack made their way back to the dining table with the others trailing a nervous step behind.

One by one, they retook their seats and tried to get back to eating, but unsurprisingly, the last thing on Matt's mind was food.  He went back to staring hard at the iPhone until Apple Bloom spoke up.

"You okay, Matt?"

"Yeah, kiddo.  I'm alright," he said with a groan.  He ran his hand across his face, desperate to relax, lest his dinner come back up.

"What was that all about?"

"I, uh...I thought someone we didn't want around was paying a visit because of this," Matt mumbled, motioning at the phone.

"What is that thing?  What does it do?" the youngster asked.

He took a moment to think of a good way to answer her but it hit him rather quickly.  "You remember that thing I gave to that dragon last year?  You could talk to someone on the other side of the world with it like they were sitting next to you?"

"Oh yeah, I remember that.  That little plastic thing that had the numbers and stuff on it," Applejack spoke up.

"Yeah, that's it.  Think of this as...mmm...its younger but smarter brother.  Y'know, I wonder..."  

With an tense breath, he pushed the small button below the screen, hoping it would come to life and then not ask for a passcode.  Though if it did, Pinkie could probably somehow get through it if he asked her to help, provided she managed to stop gawking at the thing if that were to end up happening.

Fortunately, the iPhone came alive with its 'slide to unlock' prompt displayed at the bottom.  A smile quickly formed on Matt's face and a giddy chuckle left his lips as he slid his finger across the screen.

"Buh!  No wonder we couldn't get it to do anything!" Apple Bloom huffed.  "Our hooves are too big to push that little button!  Ugh, fingers seem so much more useful than hooves!"

Giggling at her frustration, Matt looked over the various icons that appeared, seeing the usual options his friends tended to have on theirs.  Oddly, the clock that typically appeared at the top didn't seem to be working, likely thanks to a lack of GPS of any kind.  Though he didn't want to rule anything out completely.  Who knows if other things like satellites were suddenly around that he wasn't aware of before?

He noted the battery life: ninety-three percent.  Interesting.  Apple Bloom said they found it by a tree near the school.  Surely they must have passed it plenty of times before as he likely had too.  There's no way it'd have any juice left if it was sitting there, somehow unnoticed by everyone in town, for nearly a year and a half.

The Apples ditched their food, an understandable newfound curiosity taking them by the hoof.  None but Applejack and her friends had seen his original flip phone and they wanted to check the strange device out.

Matt's finger went straight for the phone list.  May as well see if he knew who it belonged to.  It was an extremely long shot, but he was going to look over the contacts eventually anyway.  The number at the top showed an area code of 513.  No such luck – he came from 251.

"What're you doing there?" Applejack asked as he poked around.

"Just seeing if I knew where this may have come from.  No dice."  Another wildly unlikely situation came to mind and he began to scroll through the list of names, stopping at H.  Whoever owned the phone put down their home number there as well.  Just what he was hoping for.  Before he finished his search though, Apple Bloom did a double-take as the names and numbers flew by.

"Wait, how does it know to do that?"

"Eh, I don't know.  Just the way it's designed.  I know how to play with it, but how it all works?  No idea."

He selected the home number and put the iPhone to his ear, turning to Applejack and apprehensively lifting his eyebrows.  He simultaneously hoped something would and wouldn't happen.  Hearing from another person for the first time in so long would be awesome, but that'd also mean something was very, very wrong.

Several seconds went by and the phone remained silent.  No dial tone, no whistling, no busy signal – just silence.  He checked the screen and it did say that it was trying to dial out but was making no progress whatsoever.

"Don't know why I thought that would work," he mumbled as he hung up.

"What?"

Matt shrugged, a bit disheartened.  None of the questions he had appeared to be answerable, at least not at this time.  "Tried to see if I could contact someone, see if...somehow there was another person running around we didn't know about.  Nothing."  He spied the Safari icon and pushed the button.  "Eh, not sure why this would work either."

Just like his attempt to call the iPhone owner's home, he was met with no success.  The display remained blank as it tried and tried and tried to find the internet only to fail.  He curled his lips, not really surprised it went nowhere, and returned to the main screen.

"That all it does?  Just used to contact others?" Applejack asked.

"Oh no, check this out," Matt said with a wry grin as he opened the camera.  He lifted it up and pointed it at the cowgirl.  "Smile!"

"Huh?"

The shutter sound made them all blink in bewilderment.  With a smirk, the human showed her the shot he took, complete with her confused look.

"Did you just...take her picture?" Apple Bloom gasped.

"Yep."

"But, where's the film go?"

"Psh, we haven't used that since I was, like, your age.  It's all stored in here," Matt explained, patting the iPhone.  Wanting to impress the Apples even more, he selected the camera's video option and began recording the ponies around him.  "Here, say something."

"Err, what do you want us to say?" Granny Smith asked.

"Well, there you go!"  He faced the phone at Applejack once more and waved.  "Hi, A.J.!"

"Uhhh...hello," she said, feeling a bit silly as she waved back.

Satisfied with what he captured, he stopped the recording and brought the beginning back up.  He pressed the 'play' button once it appeared, bringing the speakers and the screen to life.

"Here, say something."
"Err, what do you want us to say?"
"Well, there you go!  Hi, A.J.!"
"Uhhh...hello."

Four jaws nearly hit the floor.

"You can shoot movies with that thing?!" Granny Smith hollered.

"Short ones, yeah.  You'd never believe how much information and stuff some of the things we had back home could hold.  Hell, this little thing can probably hold more information than Twilight's whole library.  Oh, watch this!"

Switching back to the single photograph, Matt zoomed in and out on Applejack's startled face, garnering a chuckle from the smallest audience member.

"That is so cool!"

"Heh, y'know Matt," A.J. interrupted, "ever since you came here and told us about all that crazy stuff you had back where you came from, I've always been a bit curious about it.  Now that I see this, I almost wish I could see more of what your world had.  Heck, I'd love to see everything this can do."

"Kind of impossible, unfortunately.  I'd love to show you, but in order to do some of the things it can do, it needs, like...well, treat it as if Granny Smith was trying to toss you a ball here, but I had to take it for her and then give it you.  Without me in the middle, it can't happen.  I'm oversimplifying it, but it's basically like that.  I'm sure I probably told you a little about it when I first landed here."

"You probably did, but it was so long ago I just can't remember.  I think I understand what you're saying though."

"Now that I think about it, if those middle things start showing up, then...I don't even know.  I just hope this iPhone is nothing more than a fluke or something," he muttered nervously.

"You're not happy to see something from your old home again?"

"I'd just like to know why it's here.  I mean, it's nice, but...something feels wrong about this.  It doesn't belong here."  He could only shrug.  He technically didn't either, but there was an obvious reason behind his presence in Equestria, even if that reason was barreling through the emptiness of space.

"I hear you.  You don't think Discord has something to do with this, do you?"

"That's why I ran out before.  I thought he somehow came back and was messing around again."  Matt pursed his lips.  "But...I don't honestly know.  If he got free after everything we did to him, we'd know, wouldn't we?  I mean, with all the stuff he likes to do."

"I'd think so, yeah."  Applejack studied the small electronic in front of them, mostly looking over her terrible picture.  "You realize Twilight's going to blow a gasket when she sees that."

"Oooooh yeah.  Curious, do you know if she can detect magic on things like how the Princesses did with me when they checked to see if Discord was still in me?  Just in case there's some trace of what may have brought it here."

"I don't know but I can't imagine it'd be hard for her to learn how to."

Mat nodded though he wished he got a more definitive answer.  Ah well, no big deal.  He knew how gifted Twilight was.  "I'll stop by her place tomorrow and see what she can do."

"Why not on the way home tonight?" Applejack asked.

"I've got a thousand and one questions on my mind about this thing," he stated, setting the iPhone down and sighing.  "Would rather sleep on it and go see her in the morning before I head out to do that little job I have tomorrow than talk to her now."  He glanced over at Apple Bloom.  "I do want to pick you three up from school tomorrow though.  Can show me where exactly you found it.  Maybe something weird is going on in just that one spot for all we know."

An uncertain moment passed as Matt pondered what all he was going to find, if anything.  He searched through his thoughts, curious if he may have missed a part of Discord's plan with him in the first place.  The draconequus wasn't exactly honest about anything.  An impatient young voice made him forget about the implications the iPhone may have, even if only for the moment.

"Come on, Matt, show us some more things it can do!"

With a grin, he poked at the screen again and spotted the battery strength again.  It had already gone down one percent.  He wasn't aware how fast the phone could burn through its own power since he never had one of his own.  "Okay, a couple things.  I don't want to drain it completely though just in case I end up needing it for something."

"What all could you need it for?"

"I'd prefer nothing, but you never know."


-----


Matt hadn't slept so uncomfortably in quite a while, nightmares involving draconequi notwithstanding.

"Twilight."

Needless to say, the next morning wasn't exactly a picnic either.

"Twilight."

Especially when a particular unicorn and her assistant couldn't stop gawking at the most advanced thing in Equestria hovering in front of them while gently poking at it and sliding a hoof up and down the screen like Matt just showed them.

"Oh for God's... Twilight!"

"Huh?  Oh!  Err, sorry Matt," she muttered sheepishly.

He figured she was going to act this way, but that didn't mean he still couldn't be a little bugged by it.  "Please?"

"Sure, sure!  Um, you don't happen to have any idea if this is going to damage it, do you?"

"I do not."

"Alllllright then.  Here goes nothing I suppose."

The glow on her horn intensified just slightly and her eyes radiated a white light.  A few moments passed as Matt let her do her thing, slowly turning the phone in place so she could scan over it entirely.  When she finished, the device floated over to its new owner and he took it from her magical grip.

"Anything?"

She shook her head.  "Sorry."

He sneered as he gazed at the screen.  Wonderful.  Didn't answer a single question.

"That's a good thing, right?" Spike asked.  "It just means that Discord probably didn't have anything to do with it...right?"

"We still don't know what it's doing here," Matt clarified.

"Oh.  Yeah."

"Plus, Spike, if something is going on, we don't yet have any way to approach it.  If this is just a one-time thing then I suppose we can forget about it eventually, but if there's something bigger going on, how do we prepare for it?  And what do we prepare for?" Twilight interjected, a touch uneasy that she couldn't find a problem.

"Exactly," the human said.  Groaning, he turned for the door.  "I gotta run.  Cherry Berry wants me to fix up a few things at her place and I need to pick up some supplies.  I just hope I can cut out a little early on her.  I told Apple Bloom I'd see them after school so they can show me where they found this.  Thanks anyway, Twilight.  See you later, Spike."

"Take care, Matt."


-----


It was simple enough for him to get out of finishing up Cherry Berry's project.  An offer to stop by the following afternoon and do what needed to be done was fine with her.  Was nice living in a place where most people...err, ponies...were fairly reasonable and understood that things can rear their ugly heads at a bad time, thus throwing your schedule for a loop.

Matt followed right behind the Crusaders to a tree barely half a block away from the school, informing Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo of what his little gizmo was capable of.  Apple Bloom couldn't stop gushing about it.  The whole scenario almost felt like old times when he was first introduced to them.

"Well, this is the place," the tiny pegasus said.

"And where exactly did you find it?"

"Over here."

Matt got to his knees and dove right into the bush.  They may have been a third his size, but he still wanted to get a good look.  He clawed at the leaves and branches but everything seemed fine.  He patted and tore at the ground, half-expecting to find a hole in reality but thankfully found nothing there either.  While he was relieved that things appeared normal so far, he still felt frustrated that it was looking like he was going to still be left without answers.  His frustration escalated when a pair of voices spoke up from behind him.

"Look, Silver Spoon!  It's the Dork-saders and their pet monkey!"

"Aw, did the monkey fall out of his tree?"

"Oh, get lost, you two!" Scootaloo snapped.

"Yeah, if it wasn't for Matt, the whole town would've been destroyed!"

He was so not in the mood for Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon's bickering.  He had heard it all before, and though he rarely ever did so to anyone or anything in Ponyville, he couldn't help but flip them the bird this time.

"Tsk, and what is that supposed to mean?" Diamond Tiara snarled.

He shot her back an equally menacing scowl.  "Nice hat."

"Hat?!  This isn't a hat!  Her country bumpkin sister wears a hat!" she yelled, pointing at Apple Bloom.

"Hey!"

"This is a diamond-studded tiara and it's probably worth more than that crummy little house the mayor decided–"

He flipped them off again.

"Ugh, come on, Silver Spoon.  Let's just leave the monkey to play in the dirt with his loser friends.  Celestia knows that's where he belongs anyway."

The two weasels stomped off, mocking Matt with imitations of their pet name for him.  Rolling his eyes, he resumed scouring through the other bushes, still finding absolutely nothing.

Once the bullies were out of earshot, Sweetie Belle spoke up.  "So what does that gesture mean?"

"It means–"  He quickly cut himself off, realizing what he almost blabbed.  "–something your sisters would probably kill me over if I told you."

"Aw, now we want to know even more!"

"Me and my big mouth."

"Come on, Matt!  Pleeeeeeease?"  The trio turned on the puppy dog eyes but he wasn't buying it this time.

"Maybe later, okay?" he lied.

"Yay!"

Dodging eye contact with the fillies, he sat up against the tree on one of its bare sides, once again trying to put together what was happening.  He hadn't done so much thinking in his life.  Maybe there really wasn't anything to worry about?

"Well?" Apple Bloom asked.

He said with a shrug, "Nada."

"So now what?"

He shrugged again.
> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

That evening came and went without any unusual occurrences that Matt and those who knew of his new toy had been wary of, and the following morning did the same.  While things were as peaceful as ever in the early part of the day out on Sweet Apple Acres, peace of mind was something Applejack had not had since Matt's freak-out two nights prior.  She hadn't seen him so troubled in an incredibly long time, and although she was as fascinated by the phone's appearance as Matt was – as well as what it could do – a part of her wished it never showed up to begin with.  It also didn't help that he had been absent on the farm since then.

She hadn't said much to anypony yesterday and that morning so far hadn't been any different.  As her mind wandered and she hoped that Matt was doing better than he was that strange evening, she barely noticed her brother dragging his plow past her in the fields they were tilling together in an effort to cut the workload in half.

Normally, pulling the plow was something that took only a bit of strength on her part, but she just wasn't feeling it.  Big Mac coming to a stop several feet past her and looking back at her curiously told her he was well aware that something was troubling her.  Based on what he said the other day, it wasn't hard for her to assume that he knew what it was.  What he and Granny Smith blurted to her had gotten under her skin, even though she would never admit it.

Applejack glanced up at the big red stallion and sighed, quickly averting her eyes.  Maybe he was right.  But still, he had only been in one relationship in his life – one with Cheerilee – and that eventually turned into a simple friendship after they both agreed that they had too many responsibilities to be worrying about romance.  He wasn't any kind of expert in the matter.  However, she did know somepony who she could talk to a bit more frankly in private, provided she could muster the courage to just spit it out.

She did need to hurry along though if she planned to go talk to this pony.  It wasn't too long ago that the clock tower struck ten, and she and the girls were going to be having lunch in town that day.  A bit of solid advice could help calm her nerves and keep her stomach from tying itself in knots as well as possibly help keep her food down once she started eating.

"Err, Big Mac?"

"Eeyup?"

"I know there's a lot to do today and all, and I hate to ask, but...would you mind at all if I headed into town a little early?  There's, um...I mean, I kind of was hoping to talk to somepony about...w-well–"

Before she could think of the right words, he raised a quieting hoof.  No reason to let her embarrass herself any further.  She got the hint with a simple nod toward town and smiled.

"Thanks, Big Mac," she said with relief as she undid her harness.

"Eeyup."


-----


The farm girl crept up to the elegant door and felt her pulse start to race.  She hesitated to knock and thought about turning right around and heading back home for a moment.  No, she needed to do this.  Steeling herself with a deep breath, she gritted her teeth behind her lips and quickly rapped at the door.

She slowly glanced around as she waited, making sure nopony noticed her standing outside the boutique.  Nopony other than Big Mac and Granny Smith knew, right?  Hm, none of the others she saw walking around were looking at her, oddly or not.  Good.  That just means no fuss will be made.

Still, what will Rarity think?  She was one of her closest friends; she'll understand and give her some good advice, right?  As long as she didn't go around blabbing about what she felt for–

"Oh, hello Applejack!" the fashionista said as she opened the door, the bell overhead startling the cowgirl out of her worries.  "Come in, come in!  A little early for our midday get-together, are you not?"

The country mare trotted inside, happy to be out of sight.  "Hey Rarity.  H-how's it going?"

"Fine, dearie.  Just working on a couple projects, nothing out of the ordinary really.  Would you care for some tea?"

"Uh...sure, why not?"

Rarity took only two steps toward the kitchen before turning to face her friend, a single brow raised.  "Are you alright, Applejack?"

"W-what?!"  Oh jeez, was she onto her somehow?

"Well, it's just that you almost never say 'yes' to tea," the unicorn teased.

"Oh!  Heh, yeah, you...you got me there!  Heh heh!"

With a giggle, the designer continued inside with the farmer a tentative step behind, hoping that her heart would stop trying to make its way out of her chest.  Applejack took a seat at the table as Rarity hunted through her cabinets and pantry for the necessary supplies.

"Any particular flavor you'd like?"

"Whatever you decide is fine."

"Alright."

Rarity hummed away as she turned on the stove and filled the kettle she found with some water to heat.  A tea pot made its way to the counter beside the stove and from the cupboard floated the small box of tea packets she selected.

"How does passion fruit sound?" the dressmaker asked.

Ugh, she just had to pick one with 'passion' in the name, didn't she?

"That'll work," Applejack muttered.

"It's one of my favorites.  I think you'll like it.  So–"  The fashionista brought out a pair of cups and saucers, placing them at the table where her guest waited.  "–what brings you here today, Applejack?"

The country pony bit her lip and tap-tap-tapped her hooves on the edge of the table.  She found it just as hard to maintain eye contact as it was to answer the question.  Still, she needed to say something.

"I, uh...I wanted to ask you about...um...well, y-you've always known what you've...wanted and knew how to go about gettin' it, and I was, um...well, I've never exactly been in such a situation before and...I-I was hopin' you could give me some advice."

"Of course, darling.  What did you need advice about?"

"Err...I'm...I kinda, maybe, sorta..."

Applejack's little shrug and her constant fidgeting gave the observant unicorn all the clues she needed.  Her twinkling blue eyes burst open and she let out a giddy gasp.

"You're in love!"

The nervous cowgirl froze, briefly surprised that Rarity was able to figure it out so quickly with so few words said.  Then again, she was always pretty good at reading ponies.

"Yeah," she sighed.

"Then why are you so upset, dear?"  The fashionista gasped again.  "Does he not like you back?!"

"I...I honestly don't know."

"Oh, what am I saying?  He'd be crazy not to like a catch like you back!"  She took her orange friend by the hooves, a big silly grin across her face.  "Ooo, this is so exciting!  Tell me, Applejack, who's the lucky stud, hmm?  Is it Caramel?"

"Uh, no, it's not him."

"Lucky Clover?"

"No."

"Hm...is it that one stallion I've seen around that likes to babble on about time or something?"

"No," Applejack groaned, growing more irritated with each guess.

"How about–"

"It's Matt, okay?!" she hollered, making Rarity jump in surprise.  She instantly regretted her outburst.  "It...it's Matt."

"Why, that's wonderful, Applejack!" the unicorn cooed.

"No it isn't!"

"What do you mean?  Of course it is!"

"No, you don't get it," Applejack said as she slouched.  "It's just...what do you think of when you think of the Apple family?"

Rarity tapped her chin.  "Mmmm...dependable?  Hard-working?"

"Err, yes, but that's not what I mean."

"How about apples?  Farming?  Honest?"

"Well, those are all true, but–"

"So what exactly are you looking for, Applejack?  I'm sorry, but I've never been terribly fond of guessing games," Rarity moaned.

"I'm talkin' about tradition," the farmer replied.

"Oh!  Well, I suppose that's true too.  But what does that have to do with anything?"

Applejack let out an exasperated sigh.  Trying to explain her feelings was quickly becoming more irritating than anything.  "I've seen pictures of family that go back generations.  We've always been earth ponies.  I'm honestly not even sure if there are any pegasi or unicorns in our family tree, but if there are, they're still...well, ponies."

"What, are you worried about the fact that Matt isn't the same species as you or I?  Applejack, we're all well aware of how Spike feels about me and, though I feel the little dearie is a few years too young for me right now, there have been plenty of times when ponies and dragons had been together, according to history," Rarity retorted.

"But Spike is still Equestrian.  Matt's not.  What would the townsponies think if Matt and I got together?  What if they thought I was some kind of weirdo or something?  They wouldn't want to associate or do business with a weirdo, and if I started losin' business, I might not be able to take care of my family or the farm as well as I need to after a while, especially if everypony were to start avoidin' me because they thought I was some kind of fruitcake!  What would happen if it got so bad that we had to do something drastic all because of...well, y'know?" the cowgirl explained, becoming more and more panicked as she rambled.

The stylish unicorn glared at her friend with a deadpan look.  "Applejack, sweetie, I really think you're blowing this way out of proportion.  Everypony in town knows you and everypony in town knows Matt, especially after everything he's done for us.  I sincerely doubt they'd find anything the matter with the two of you getting together."

"Well, what if I ask him and he says no?"  Applejack's eyes started to water at the idea.

"At least you'll know!  It's something you're going to need to do eventually unless you want to drive yourself crazy for the rest of your life.  Besides, even if that does happen, he doesn't seem like the type of individual who'd stop being your friend.  From what you've told me before, he tends to show up out of the blue at the farm fairly often, yes?"

"Yeah.  Just seems to want to help out and hang around and stuff.  Occasionally we go out and do things."

Rarity slid up beside the cowgirl and wrapped a forelimb around her shoulders, poking her gently in the chest.  "There you go then!  There's no reason you shouldn't have talked to him about it by now!"

"I-I'm just afraid to take that chance.  It just feels like no matter what I do, I'm going to lose something, even if I choose never to say anything," Applejack whined, unable to look her friend in the eye.

"Well, if you want, maybe I can drop a few hints his way and–"

"No!" the nervous mare blurted.  "Err, no, that's okay.  I gotta be able to do that on my own."

The designer pulled Applejack in close, squishing their cheeks together.  "Alright.  But if you need some words or wisdom or an ear or something, you let me know, okay?  Ohhh, I'm so happy for you!"

"Heh, thanks Rares.  Just do me a favor and keep this all to yourself, okay?"

"If that's what you want, sure."

"Thanks."  She felt her cheeks turning red though it might have been because the kettle by now had a steady breath of steam pouring from its spout.  Still, thinking about the object of her affection probably had more of a hoof in her rising temperature than the boiling water.  "I think the water's ready."

"Oh, you're right!"  As Rarity prepared their drinks, Applejack could feel a weight lifting off her shoulders.  It certainly did feel a lot better to talk to somepony about how she felt.  It made her wonder why she didn't do it before, but her initial concerns remained regardless.  At least her stomach had calmed down a bit.

The teapot floated its way to the table and sat itself in the middle thanks to the unicorn's magic.  Rarity followed right behind it and made herself comfortable on her chair, beaming at her orange friend.  "Now, why don't you tell me how it all happened, hmm?"


-----


While Applejack made her way over to Carousel Boutique, Matt had still been fast asleep at home.  The last couple nights understandably left him with a lot to think about and he had inadvertently stayed up much later than he probably should have.  The tower indicated ten o'clock maybe a half hour ago but he hadn't heard it; he did however heard a knocking at his bedroom window.

He snapped awake, still incredibly groggy.  He hoisted himself up, taking in a deep breath, and looked over to the source of his disturbance.  Outside the window flapped a familiar sky blue pegasus.  Tossing the sheet off, he stumbled out of bed in all his glory, forcing Rainbow Dash to look away until he put something on.  Despite being only half-awake, he couldn't figure out why Rainbow – or any other pony for that matter – would be uptight about seeing him au natural, what with rarely wearing clothes themselves.  After slipping on a pair of shorts, he hobbled his way to the window and unlocked it for his guest but she chose to remain outside.

"Hey R.D., what's up?" Matt asked with a yawn.

"Not you, apparently."

"Yeah, yeah, I know.  Come on in."

The pegasus glanced below her and winced.  "Actually, I was kind of wondering if you could come with me.  I found something kind of...weird north of town during my weather patrol this morning."

"Like what?"

"A, uh...a house.  That wasn't there yesterday."

Whatever fatigue he may have had evaporated in an instant.  He looked back at his nightstand where the iPhone sat through the corner of his eye.  He hoped to high heaven this was just a bad, coincidental joke that Rainbow Dash was telling, but she looked just as concerned as he did the evening the phone first appeared.

"...Why come to me about this?  Why not, like, Twilight or something?" he muttered nervously.

Rainbow reached to the ground and pulled a small, plastic object into Matt's sight.  "This was by one of the doors.  I figured you may know what it is just because of what it looked like."

He took the foot-tall item into his hands, uneasily studying its pointy red hat, rosy red cheeks and stout, bipedal body.  Its little smile still looked creepy even after not seeing one in so long.

"What is it?" Rainbow asked.

"It's a...garden gnome."

"The heck's a garden gnome?"

"An awful decoration," he quipped, despite a nervous fear starting to wash over him.

The pair was silent for a moment as Matt's mind began to race all over again.  Why couldn't one of the townsfolk bring him a steak instead of what had been appearing out of nowhere lately?

Rainbow Dash finally spoke up, sounding as worried as her tall friend.  "Matt, why is there a house here when there wasn't one there yesterday?"

He shook his head.  There was no way he could answer such a thing...again.  He nodded her inside and tossed the gnome on the bed.  "Let me go brush my teeth and stuff and then you can take me to this place."

As he went into the bathroom and Rainbow shut the window behind her, she happened upon the phone, glancing over it curiously.  Just like Apple Bloom did when she and her friends first found it, Rainbow was having similar difficulty getting it to work.

"Hey, what in the world is this thing?" she called out over the sink's running water.

A couple minutes later, Matt came out and headed to the closet to grab a shirt and his shoes, noticing that she was holding out the phone for him.  "Remember that thing I gave to the dragon so he'd leave us alone that one day?" he said from the other room.

"Oh yeah!  Won't ever forget how you got rid of him.  That was awesome!  ...What'd it do again?"

"Could talk to someone on the other side of the world like they were right in front of you.  That thing does a bunch of other stuff."

She poked and prodded the phone hard enough for Matt to wince and snatch it out of her hoof as he finished getting dressed in front of her.  "It's not doing anything."

"I'll show you what it does on the way, but yeah, show me where this house is."

"Where'd you get it?" she asked.

"Apple Bloom found it near school in some bushes a couple days ago.  I went down there yesterday to check the area out, but I didn't find anything weird.  Twilight took a look at it to see if there were any traces of magic on it.  Came up short," he said with a shrug as he tossed the phone in his pocket and marched for the front door with Rainbow Dash a step behind.

"Wait, you mean that...uh..."

"Phone."

"...phone just showed up out of nowhere and...?"

"And now a house has just shown up out of nowhere," he added for her.

"Just like you did."  She held in a gasp as a horrible thought hit her.  "You don't think he has something to do with it, do you?"

"That's what I thought at first too, but I don't think so.  We'd know if he did."  He sneered and sighed long and loud.  "I don't get it either, Rainbow.  Was so hoping the phone was a one-time thing.  Can never be normal around here, huh?"

"No kidding," she mumbled as they left Matt's home.


-----


It was about twenty minutes later when Matt and Rainbow walked up the red brick trail that led to the front door of the off-white mystery house.  On the door frame sat the number '2743', obviously the house's street number.  The single-story home seemed to be well taken care of with no real imperfections across its surface.  To the right of the entrance stood a couple palm trees in the middle of a small, plain garden that was bordered by numerous smooth stones.  To the left was the garage door, but unfortunately it didn't have any windows.

Matt did his best to peer inside the large window by the garden but was having trouble seeing much.  Wasn't any reason to believe the house had any power.  He didn't see any power lines connected anywhere, and even if he did, they probably wouldn't be attached to anything.  The narrow windows on either side of the front door didn't help any either.

"Did you happen to see anyone from the window?" he asked the pegasus.

"No.  I tried knocking and yelling to see if anypony was home but I didn't get any response."

He fiddled at the doorknob and found it locked.  A quick glance around didn't seem to show any signs of life anywhere, either in or near the place.  He decided to give knocking a try.  Maybe if there really was someone inside, they got a look at the small, flying pony when she stopped by earlier and hid.

"Hello?  Uh...human being here!" he cried out.  "I'm unarmed!  ...Hello?!"

"Now what?" she asked.

"It's possible there's something inside that may show us how it got here.  Plus, well, I can't deny I'm kind of curious."

It took half a second for Matt to remember the rocks by the garden.  With a purse of his lips, he took another fast look around and snatched one up.  Still all quiet.  Good.  At least no one would see him smashing in the window panes by the doorknob, he supposed.

"Dude!" Rainbow gasped.

He shot her a sheepish look and carefully wiggled his arm through the hole in the window, fumbling for the locks.  With a couple clicks, the door unlocked.  After freeing his arm, Matt cautiously cracked open the door, inching inside and hoping someone wasn't waiting in the shadows with a shotgun or something.

"Hello?  Anybody home?" he called out, knocking again as he entered.  "Uh...sorry about your window."

A small piece of glass crunched under Matt's foot as he walked to his right toward the living room, Rainbow Dash hovering behind him and closing the door.  Even with the sun beaming in through the large window, it was still a bit dark.  Still, he could make out the dark green leather furniture, the various electronics, some shelves with CDs and DVDs, and the decor easy enough.  Unfortunately, it was excruciatingly warm, what without any air conditioning.

On the wall beside him was a few light switches, but as he expected, nothing happened when he flipped them.  Everything in the room seemed normal enough; no crazy portals or hints of unusual activity anywhere.

As Matt continued ahead to check out the musical and cinematic selections this particular family had, Rainbow zipped up to the flat screen TV, studying every inch of the strange device.  A word stuck out near the bottom of the screen.

"Pan-a-sonic.  That what this is?"

"No, that's just the company that makes it.  That's a television," Matt explained.  "It's sort of like a movie theater for your home, but if you don't like what's on, you can change the channel like you can the radio."

"And those?" she asked, flying up beside him.

He pointed to a group of cases–  "Movies." –then to a group of smaller ones.  "CDs."  He slid a DVD out and opened the case, showing Rainbow the small disc inside.

"Wow, those are your movies?  Jeez, so much more convenient than huge rolls of film."

"Mhm.  The CDs are basically our version of records.  They look like these too," Matt explained, motioning with the movie disc in his hand.

"Cool."

On top of the shelves sat a few picture frames, the owners of the home.  The photos looked to have been taken years apart.  One appeared to be a glamour shot of a couple that may have been in their late thirties and a son who obviously didn't want to be there.  He may have been preteen.  The other shot next to that showed the same couple but older, maybe by about a decade or so.  Matt reasoned that the son must have been in his late teens or early twenties if the more recent picture wasn't too old, but who knew?  They could have been senior citizens by now, but their musical selection seemed to indicate otherwise.  Baby boomers, no doubt.

Most of the albums he saw were probably played on most classic rock or top-forty stations back on Earth.  Judging by some of the artists, he could figure out a few of the discs that likely belonged to the husband and which were probably the wife's.

"Do you know them?" Rainbow asked, still staring at the pictures.

He shook his head and moved on to the dark hallway a few feet away.  Probably went to the bedrooms, bathrooms, maybe a storage closet.

The first door on the right was indeed a bathroom, as hard as it was to see inside.  There weren't any windows, but enough light from the kitchen behind them snuck in that allowed him to notice a couple things.  It would have been nice if he was able to get a better look inside in case they found the origin of whatever had been happening recently.  Moving on with a smirk, the door to their immediate left was filled with linens and towels – nothing interesting there.

Several paces forward, another door came, but this one was open.  Several sunbeams poured in through the venetian blinds, bathing the room in tiny rows of lights.  Looking across the walls, it was clear to Matt that they had entered the son's room.  Posters of hard rock and heavy metal bands as well as a few sports teams covered a sizable portion of the walls.  An electric guitar sat in its stand next to the young man's bed and a computer desk and large CD tower beside that.  Across from the bed was a dresser with a small TV, a modest stereo system, and a pair of gaming consoles sitting on top of it.

The pegasus zoomed around the room, glancing over anything and everything that looked alien in complete wonder.  "Why does this guy have two televisions?" Rainbow asked, referring to the computer monitor erroneously.

As Matt made a beeline for the window and opened the blind completely, he explained, "That's a computer monitor.  That big black box next to the desk is the actual computer itself.  The screen just lets you see what you're doing."

"And it does...?"

He sat down on the bed and strummed away at the guitar, saying, "Play games.  Communicate with others like my phone.  Store information.  A better question would probably be what doesn't it do, but without any power, I can't really explain it properly.  Just one of those things you have to see."

"That sucks.  This stuff is just...wow.  I know you told us all about a bunch of stuff when you first came here, but now that I see it, I want to play with it all!"

"Heh, A.J. said something like that when I showed her what the phone can do."

"You realize when Twilight eventually sees this, she's going to blow a gasket, right?"

"A.J. said something like that too."

The computer seemed to fascinate Rainbow the most out of everything, particularly the keyboard.  Like a child, she poked at the keys with her hooves, realizing it was designed with fingers in mind but was still having fun being ridiculous anyway.  The muted plucks of guitar strings stole her attention away though.

"Did you play?" she asked, sitting down on the bed next to him.

"Eh, when I was half my age, a friend showed me how to play a few simple things.  I asked Mom to buy me a guitar but, being a stupid kid, I didn't realize how much work it'd take to actually get good at it, so I ended up stopping after a few months or so."  Rainbow got a chuckle out of that.  "She wasn't terribly happy when I told her I stopped.  Few hundred dollars down the drain."

"Hah, yeah, I'll bet!"

Wiping the collecting sweat off his neck, Matt stood and opened up the son's closet, but alas, it was too dark to see much.  Seemed this room was normal too.  Onto the next one.

"Come on, let's keep going," he said, nodding at Rainbow to follow.

"Right."

The hall broke right and another door sat only a few feet ahead.  Inside must have been a guest bedroom – there wasn't much other than a bed and a dresser.  Still, Matt felt he should at least look around.

Another window made this room easy to inspect too, as well as the fact that it wasn't cluttered with all kinds of entertainment products.  Even so, everything looked fine there too.  The sliding mirrors on the right revealed a shallow, empty closet.  Zilch.

The two headed back out and made their way to the door at the end of the hall where they found the master bedroom, brightly lit thanks to three large windows around the room.  To the right was another door, exposing a counter top to their bathroom.

"Go check in there, see if you spot anything."

As Rainbow split off, Matt checked everywhere he could:  The dresser drawers, the bed, behind the armoire, in the nightstands.  However, like the rest of the house, there simply wasn't anything to find.  It was just an ordinary house from top to bottom.

"I got nothing," Rainbow said as she floated back into the room.

Wait a second!  "We didn't check the kitchen yet.  Could be something in there.  Hell, maybe we can find a snack if we get lucky."

"Well, me and the girls are meeting up for lunch today at about 11:30.  I don't think they'll mind if I'm a little late though."

"You mean you're not usually late to things like that anyway?" Matt joked as they headed back down the hall.

"Eh, kind of."

"No harm done then."

"Yep!"

The two passed a rather nice dining room table on their way to the kitchen, Matt taking the time to rub his hand across it.  He headed straight for the fridge once his feet hit the tiles, a curious idea swimming in his head.

He opened the appliance and grabbed hold of a can of Coke.  Strange, it still seemed a bit cool.  He checked the freezer as well and found that while everything seemed to be thawed, they weren't thawed so much that there were puddles all over its floor.  That probably meant the house couldn't have popped into existence more than a few hours ago.

It also didn't help that his search through every pantry, cabinet, cupboard, drawer and appliance for anything suspicious turned up empty.  However, as he neared the end of his scouring, he came across something that perked him up in a second:  A series of key hooks, one of which had a set hanging on it!  That means the door next to it was...

Could there really be a vehicle inside?!  Holy hell, that would be awesome!  The keychain's alarm buttons tempted him without a fight and he pressed the one with the open lock.

Chirp chirp!

Any concern about why the house was there was instantly thrown out the window as Matt giggled like a schoolgirl.  "Oh my God!"

"The heck was that?" the pegasus asked.

"Head out the front and wait by the garage door!"

"The what?"

"The big metal thing outside, you'll see it!" he instructed as he threw open the door and searched for the garage door opener, eventually finding it and pushing it repeatedly.

...Wait.  No power.  Right.

"Ugh, gotta go fumbling around in the dark.  Oh, whatever!"  He turned to Rainbow, a big stupid grin on his face, and shooed her away.  "Go, go!  I'll see outside in a few!"

"Uh, alright."

As she left, Matt took a distinctively un-cautious step into the dark garage, too excited by the prospect of finding a car, and bumped into things nearly every step of the way, swearing like a sailor in the process.  After a moment or two of feeling his way toward the garage door using what felt like an SUV as his guide, he located the lock.  It took several twists, turns and tugs, but Matt eventually triumphed and lifted the large panels up over his head.

"Whoa!" Rainbow Dash gasped.  "That's...awesome!  What is that?!"

"Ummmm–"  He snapped his fingers, trying to think of a good way to describe the red Chevy Blazer in front of them.  He knew he told them about some of the vehicles back on Earth when he arrived.  "–ah ha!  Motorized carriages, I probably told you about those.  You remember?"

"Ehhhh, not really."

"Oh!  There's a sport where smaller, sleeker versions of these things raced!"

"Now that I remember!"

"Sweet!" Matt cheered with a boisterous clap.  "Oh God, I cannot believe this!  Wait a minute...!"  His smile grew even wider.  "Rainbow, come inside again!  I have an idea!"

"Ugh, what now?"  In, out...jeez, Matt needed to make up his mind.

Matt barged back into the kitchen, diving straight for the cabinet under the sink.  "I know I saw them...here we are!"

He pulled out a box of forty-gallon garbage bags and yanked several out, tossing them all over the floor.

"What are you doing?"

In a flash, Rainbow's hoof was taken in Matt's hand and a bag was tossed into her grip.  He went to speak, but paused when he recalled how many CDs were in the son's room.  He snatched up another bag and held it open below the one the pegasus was holding already.

"Here, open that up and put it in here.  All those CDs are probably going to be a bit heavy and one bag may not be enough."

"What are you going on about?"

"Those plastic things in the son's room in that tower there.  Go grab them and toss them in here!" he commanded, albeit in a giddy manner.  "I'll grab some of the stuff off the wall over there."

"You...you mean you're just going to take them?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.  "They're not yours!"

"The car too."

"Matt!"

"Oh, come on Rainbow, I haven't seen this stuff in, like, forever!" he pouted.

"What are you going to do if the owners suddenly show up at some point too?" she asked, secretly hoping that whatever insanity that was causing houses to appear out of thin air wasn't going to become a regular occurrence.

"If I recognize them, I'll give them back their stuff and apologize.  Now, come on!  I promise you, you're going to love this!  You wanted to know how some of it worked, right?  Well, here you go!"

"Well, why do you want those records anyway?"

"Because that thing can play music and I want to hear some kick-ass stuff that I haven't heard in a year and a half," he explained, tossing a thumb over his shoulder to the waiting vehicle.

Rainbow floated there glaring at her friend, still not quite convinced nor impressed.

"I know most of the bands in those posters in his rooo-ooom.  I'll bet you'll like some of theeeeem.  They rock pretty haaa-aard."

Her eye shift was enough for Matt to know he had gotten through to her.

"They rock pretty hard, huh?"

"Mhm!"

She sighed in defeat.  "Alright, I'll give it a shot.  But remember, you promised."

"I know," he said as he got to his feet and headed into the living room.  Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash flew down the hall into the son's room, shaking her head.

Several minutes went by as Matt dumped whatever CDs he could into his own double bag.  As he was finishing up, Rainbow was making her way to him, weighed down heavily by the load she was hauling.

"This had better be worth it," she growled as she came into the living room.

"It will be," he replied.

With a heavy grunt, he threw his own bag over his shoulder, nearly falling over in the process.  The two hobbled out to the car, got the tailgate popped open and tossed the ridiculous amount of discs inside.

"Alright, get on in and we'll go!" Matt said as he closed the hatch.

Unfortunately, he failed to take into account that the handles were made for fingers, leaving an annoyed pegasus to struggle against it.  "Uh, little help here?"

He came to a sudden stop and turned right around, wondering what was up now.  Rainbow floated there glaring at him, mockingly trying to use the handle.

"Oh!  Heh, sorry about that."

With a roll of her eyes, she sat down on the seat and Matt closed the door behind her.  With that taken care of, he jogged around the car again and hopped in.  He smiled at the key before inserting it and firing up the engine.  The heart of the Blazer roaring to life made him bounce with glee in his chair.  The sudden blast of air conditioning didn't hurt either.

"Oh dear Celestia, that feels soooooooo good after being in that house," Rainbow mumbled.

Matt checked over the gauges on the dashboard out of curiosity.  Everything looked perfectly fine, but he was particularly interested in how much gas it had.  Hm, halfway between three-quarters and full – excellent!  Overhead, he happened to notice a CD holder on the visor and slid a few discs out, instantly recognizing one of them.  "Ohhh, Undertow.  I had this one."

Quickly making sure there wasn't already a disc in the player, he slid the Tool album in, skipped to the second track and smirked as the first sounds of the song erupted from the speakers.  Not having any idea what to expect, Rainbow nearly jumped out of her skin – and out of the air-conditioning-induced euphoria – but warmed up to the unique sounds quickly enough.

"Okay!  You were right!  So worth it!" she had to yell.

"Told you!" he hollered back, sharing a hoof-fist.

He threw the Blazer into reverse and whipped it out of the garage but got out to make sure both the front and garage doors were closed.  No sense in leaving them wide open for the world to see and risk something else getting taken.  He did have some decency.  Getting back in the car, he set it in 'drive', floored it and couldn't help but laugh when Rainbow Dash cheered in enthusiasm as they sped off.


-----


The rest of the girls sat outside at their diner of choice, already halfway through their meals.  While they sat patiently for Rainbow Dash to join them, it wasn't unheard of for her to be a few minutes late.  However, it was getting to be much more than that by now and a couple of them were having a little trouble hiding their disapproval.

"She did say she was going to be here, yes?" Rarity asked.  "It feels like we've been waiting forever for her."

"You know she did," Applejack replied.  "Knowin' her, she probably got caught up in one of her naps."

"Just be patient, girls.  She'll show up.  She always does."

As the group made their small talk, the shrieking of panicking ponies echoed out in the air in the distance.  Barely a minute went by when their cries were accompanied by a faint but dull roar and a weird beeping sound.

"Uh, y'all hear that?"

They turned to the strange sound and squinted to see something glistening in the midday sun barreling down on them, its steady, angry growl getting louder as it came.

"W-what in Equestria is that?!" Twilight asked in fright.

"I don't know, but it's coming right at us!"

The big red...thing with wheels came to a halt in the street in front of them, kicking up gravel and dust.  Loud, bizarre sounds that almost sounded...musical?...hummed through what looked like dark plates of glass.  The rhythmic noises quieted down and the gutteral rumbles came to a stop, but their surprise and confusion only doubled when Rainbow Dash flew out from behind the object.

"Hey girls!  Sorry I'm late."

"R-Rainbow?!  Wha...err...huh?!"

"What're you doing with that thing?  And...just...what is it?!"

As the girls fumbled through their understandable questions all at once, the window in front of them opened up to reveal the vehicle's cocky but still ecstatic pilot.

"Matt?!" Applejack blurted.  "What in the world is going on?!"

"Hey girls!  Check out my sexy new riiiiiide!   ...God, that sounded so high school."
> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Matt hopped out of the car, closed the door behind him and leaned up against the door with a ridiculous smile.  "Not bad, eh?"

"Where in the world did you get this...thing?" Twilight asked.

Being the first of the group to be aware of the presence of an otherworldly device, Applejack stepped up, silencing Matt before he could respond.  "No, wait, let me guess.  Wherever you found it, it wasn't there before."

"Close, but only half right."  Matt motioned to Rainbow Dash with his thumb.  "She happened to find a house outside of town, but this bad boy was there too."

"A whole house?!"

"But, if you want to know where it came from," he interjected, getting back in the car to shuffle through the glove compartment for the vehicle's insurance papers, "uhhh, Springfield, Missouri."

"Did... You didn't happen to find other people, did you?"

He shook his head.  "No, it was empty.  We searched the place, didn't find anything weird going on anywhere in it, just like where Apple Bloom found the phone.  Twilight, you realize I'm going to ask if you could do that thing that you did to the phone."

"Err, yeah.  But this is starting to worry me, Matt," she said with a stomp.  "I was hoping that thing you showed me the other day was just a fluke, but now entire buildings are appearing out of nowhere?  I'm sorry, but something weird's going on and I kind of want to get Celestia and Luna to take a look at this too.  I'm not going to keep them in the dark like I did with you."

Pinkie, Rarity and Fluttershy shared a look, none of whom were aware of what had happened over the last few days.  Though Applejack had wanted to tell Rarity about the iPhone and what she and Matt had talked about while they had tea earlier, it got put on the back burner for the farm girl's love-related stories instead.

"I'm sorry, but what's everypony talking about?" Fluttershy squeaked.

Matt reached into his pocket and pulled out the first misplaced object, showing the phone briefly to the trio.  "Ooo, a new toy that we've never seen before!  I love new toys that we've never seen before!" Pinkie cooed before taking a second to stare blankly.  "Uh, what's it do?"

"I'll let Twilight show you guys that when we decide to head over to the place."  He cocked an eyebrow at the dumbfounded unicorn.  Her big purple eyes scanned over every contour of the Blazer as she tried to piece together what could be going on recently.  "I'm assuming you're going to want to go see the house, right?"

"Of course, but I still want to send notice to the Princesses.  We really should head there, like, right now."

A disappointed groan escaped his lips.

"What?  We kind of need to get to the bottom of all this!"

"Yeah, I know," he muttered with a slouch.  "It's just that...well, I was thinking about it on the way here and I figured maybe I could treat you to a little bit of fun while we were all together, play you some music or something."  He glanced back and forth first between Twilight and the cowgirl, eventually sending a smile the rest of the girls as he argued his case.  "You said it yourself you'd love to see how this stuff works and, well, here you go.  I mean, if this is what's going to suddenly be happening for whatever reason, yeah, we're going to be busy trying to figure out why this stuff is showing up, but why not spend even just a little time having some fun with it?  Besides, it's not like the house is going anywhere."

Applejack had to do a double-take at Matt's last statement and frowned hard at him.  "Yeah, I'm sure the house's owners aren't wondering where their home just up and disappeared to or anything."

"Well... I mean, yeah, but... Come on, A.J., just a few songs?  It'd take like, ten, fifteen minutes tops!  You may even enjoy them!"  He glanced around and grinned, having noticed some of the other restaurant patrons and surrounding locals approaching cautiously from out of the corner of his eye.  Several of the girls happened to see them coming too over the last few minutes.  "So might some of the crowd we've attracted."

"Matt, you know there's more important things to worry about right now than–"

He fell to his knees and shot her a patented sad face.  It had shaken her defenses before, and under normal circumstances, she wouldn't budge – not even for Apple Bloom on most occasions.  But seeing how ecstatic Matt was over this strange wagon thing and the...rather loud noise that apparently was music pouring out of it earlier was working against her.  As much as she tried to avert her eyes, every time hers met his, her resolve crumbled further.

"It's just that... Look, I know that you... Well, what about them?" she asked, nodding toward her friends.  "I'm not the only one you need to talk to, y'know."

"I don't mind either way, but what I heard on the way here was pretty sweet.  I wouldn't mind hearing some more," Rainbow said from above.

"Well, if Matt says it'll be fun, sign me up!" Pinkie spoke up with a hop.

Fluttershy and Rarity exchanged another lost look.  Whether or not Pinkie was still unsure of what the others were talking about was anypony's guess.

"I'm sorry, but I'm still not sure what all you're going on about."

"Please, if one of you could just clarify..."

Applejack groaned and spelled it out as bluntly as she could.  "It seems twice now in the past few days, things from Matt's old home are showing up out of nowhere here.  No rhyme, no reason, and before you ask, yes, we thought it may be Discord at first, but there doesn't seem to be much evidence to suggest it."

Rarity turned to her human friend, eyeing him rather dubiously.  "Aaaand you'd rather just sit and listen to music?"

With a sheepish shrug, he replied, "Only for like, fifteen minutes or so.  Right now.  I...can't honestly promise anything later.  Or tomorrow.  Or the day after."

Several glares found him.

"Give me a break!  I haven't heard this stuff in ages and I never expected to hear it again.  What do you want?"

"But...what about the movie you wanted to go see?" Applejack mumbled sadly.  He wasn't going to forget about her despite the mess that was suddenly piling up, was he?  Not that she was totally sure what he felt about her to begin with.

"We can still go see it.  Can hang out later and just listen to some stuff afterwards if you want.  I'm sure I can find some quieter music if you're not as interested in the louder stuff I like."

The idea of relaxing after a good show, enjoying some quiet time alone with Matt, and maybe with some pleasant music to go along with them...yeah, she could get behind that.  Hopefully her reddening cheeks weren't giving away any of her thoughts on the matter.

A long, irritated groan snapped Applejack out of her fantasy and grabbed Matt's attention in the process.  "Fifteen minutes?" Twilight growled, receiving a ludicrously happy nod in response.  "Fine."

Matt hurried to his feet and scampered to the tailgate, yelling through a smile.  "You guys rule!"

Some were happy with the compliment; others rolled their eyes.  Though half of them weren't as aware of the strange events happening recently up until then, they couldn't honestly blame Matt for being elated with reconnecting with his roots.  For a while, he seemed content with how his life had turned out after the insanity with Discord was left behind, but Twilight and Applejack in particular always had a sneaking suspicion that he wished for more than Equestria could offer him.

In the very least, studying these new additions to their homeland could prove educational in more ways than one, as long as it didn't do so in a way Applejack was concerned about.  What if others of his kind did start showing up?  How would he react?  Would he or the others start thinking there really was a way for him to go home that they weren't aware of, provided they could fix what was happening?  Would he go if given the chance?

She put aside the questions for later when she heard the back of the Blazer hiss open and a bag of CDs fall hard to the ground.  A second later, the other was emptied onto the car floor.

As the rest of the group gathered, Matt told them, "Since R.D. here found the place to begin with, I wanted to play one specifically for her as a way to say thanks.  I'm willing to bet the one I'm thinking of is here somewhere.  The guy had a poster of the band on his wall, so it'd make sense."

"Awesome!"

"I'll warn you now, it's...kind of loud," he said with a wry grin.

A look was shared among the others, save for Pinkie Pie, who was bouncing with glee.  Maybe volume didn't matter so much as long as she thought it had a good beat or it could be danced to somehow.

"Well, if you don't mind, I can listen from out here," Fluttershy spoke up.  "I'm not exactly fond of loud...well, anything really."

"I will too."

"Same.  I don't need my brains to be scrambled if I can help it," Twilight joked.

"I...I'll tough it out," the farmer said, puffing her chest out.

Rarity instantly knew what her friend was up to.  Try to get in his good graces by trying out things he enjoys.  An admirable approach, as long as she didn't let it overwhelm her sensibility.  Still, it was just some music.  What harm could it do?

"So, what's the song about?" Rainbow asked as she hovered about.

After a couple minutes of shifting through the dozens of disc cases, he managed to stumble across his target and held it up, smiling wide.  "Racing."

Her blue ears perked up.  "Racing?"  A quick wiggle of his brow was all he needed to say as he made his way to the driver's seat.  "Okay, I call front!"

Before she can speed the whole five feet away, Applejack called for her to wait.  She quickly glanced behind her to make sure nopony could hear her as she whispered to her friend.  "Listen, R.D., I know this song he's picked out is for you and all, but...could you let me sit up front by him?  It'd...it'd really mean a lot to me."

"Aw, come on, A.J., there's plenty of room."

"Please, Rainbow?" she asked again, using her version of puppy dog eyes.  Though she wasn't as good as other more experienced pouters, Rainbow Dash still managed to feel a bit uncomfortable.  She'd never seen her old friend act like this.

"Uh...s-sure, okay.  Just promise me I never see you act like that again."  Applejack didn't reply with anything but a tight hug, but it got the point across and she bounded for the passenger's side door.  "Hey, Matt, you may want to get the door for her."

"Close it behind her, I can open it from inside," he requested as took his seat behind the wheel.

After popping the door and offering his hand for the cowgirl – who so graciously took it with her cheeks turning red again – Rainbow did as she was asked once Applejack's blonde tail was safely in.  With her duty finished, she zipped in through the tailgate and sat down in the middle row.

"Hey, where's Pinkie Pie?" she asked.

Almost instinctively, Matt reached for the glove compartment and opened it to reveal a hidden pink prize inside.  "Thanks, it was getting a bit cramped in there," the bizarre mare said as she bounced off A.J.'s head and into the back seat with her pegasus companion.  Oddly enough, or maybe not, neither pony was surprised by this.

"Okay, Matt, let's hear this now."

After flicking the key backwards to allow the radio to play, he ejected the Tool album they were listening to on their way to the diner and slid the new disc in, slightly cranking the volume and lowering the electric windows.  The three present ponies nearly jumped out of their skin when the first notes blasted from the speakers a second after the first lines.

"Gimme fuel, gimme fire, gimme that which I desire!"

Rainbow Dash took to the intense beat right away while Pinkie needed a moment to adjust.  However, when she saw how much Rainbow and Matt were loving every pulse-pounding slam of the drums and growls of the guitars, she started hopping up and down to the beat.  Applejack, on the other hand, had clenched up and it felt like her eyes were going to rattle out of her head as the song went on, but she was going to stick to her guns no matter what.

Matt had his eyes slammed shut and swung his head to the music the second it erupted, allowing adrenaline to take hold.  With every notable cymbal crash, he swung at the rear view mirror.  Every rhythmic guitar measure made him switch to his own invisible instrument.  Whenever the double bass kicked in, he'd pound away on the steering wheel.

When the relatively calmer bridge arrived, he swung around and waited a second for Rainbow to notice him.  They grinned with delight at each other when she finally spotted him, having been just as engrossed in the rock song as he was.  They and Pinkie Pie nodded in unison to the simple beat.  In that moment, he realized he must have looked ridiculous to the ponies who had gathered around the car, but he couldn't have cared less; he hadn't felt such a rush in a long while.

The track finally came to a close with Matt hollering the last lines and popping the disc out.  The long-forgotten ringing in his ears was totally worth it.  Rainbow and Pinkie joined Matt in howling in a frenzy as he stepped out of the car.  A few others cheered out from the small but growing crowd outside.  Whether it was the music itself or its strange source that drew them more was anypony's guess.  Rock did exist in Equestria, but what the ponies knew up until that point wasn't anywhere near what Matt had listened to most of his life.

Rainbow raced out the window with Pinkie hopping out right behind her, stopping just short of Matt's face.  "That was so awesome!  I gotta hear more!  Tell me you've got more of that in there!"

A frazzled squeak from a below answered for him.  Fluttershy, Rarity and Twilight all looked as if they'd just seen a ghost.  "Uh, i-if it's all the same, I think the three of us would prefer something a little, um..."

"Less loud, please?" Rarity finished for the yellow pegasus.

"If that's what you're going to play, Matt, I'm going to have to cut you short," Twilight mumbled through her rattling teeth.

"Aw, come on, girls!  It wasn't that bad!"

"Pinkie, darling, how in the world can you say you enjoyed that?  In all the years you've been throwing parties, can you ever say anypony has ever wanted such noise for their entertainment before?"

"Well, it had a good beat, and Rainbow and Matt could dance to it, and since they were having a good time, so was I!" she said with a happy bounce.  "Say, where's Applejack?  Did anypony see her come out?"

Matt looked inside and found the farm girl still curled up in the chair looking completely drained, her head wobbling to and fro.  "Hey, girl.  You okay?"

Slowly, she faced him, half-smiling.  "Yeah!  No problem.  Didn't quite expect that, is all."

"You sure?"

"Sure I'm sure.  Just, uh, when we go out later, can you maybe like, not put on anything quite so err...deafening?  I kinda like my hearing," she practically begged.

"Heh, alright, you got it."

"Thank ya kindly, shug."

In his next breath, he turned to Rainbow, still riding her high, and said, "So, something else?"

"Matt, please?" Twilight groaned.

"Okay, okay, I'll find something we all can enjoy.  It's just that the other bag has stuff you guys would probably like more.  Mind helping me put the other stuff away?  It'll speed this all up."

If there was a desk in front of Twilight, her face would have probably hit it.  "Fine, fine."

Rarity and Fluttershy followed a step behind.  Despite not wanting to hear any more of the ear-bleeding stuff Matt seemed to enjoy, they couldn't help be a little inquisitive as to what the covers looked like.  Hopefully there wouldn't be anything terribly garish, but knowing how most rock bands in Equestria tended to push the envelope, it wouldn't be surprising if these groups did as well.

In the meantime, Matt grabbed the empty garbage bags and opened them wide for the annoyed unicorn, allowing her to file the cases in in a row of purple magic.  While the CDs floated their way down, Rainbow poked her snout in the other bag and waded through the other collection, not really having any idea what bands or groups she was looking at but was curious nonetheless.

"Wait a minute," Matt suddenly said, grabbing a certain case from out of the air.

He had instantly recognized the front cover.  It had a mostly black background with a familiar skull-decorated cross in the center, adorned both on the top and bottom by a red banner.  Any semblance of joy that burned through his soul was snuffed out like a candle in a harsh wind.  He sat hard on the bumper, staring at the album until his gaze sank as low as his spirits.  A lump made its way up his throat and he just barely managed to hold back a hard sob.

His glistening eyes though told enough of a story to the girls, no matter how much he had tried to prevent it.  He felt a gentle tug on his leg.  A concerned pair of aquamarine eyes looked up at him.  "What's wrong?"

Before he answered, Applejack had craned her head backward, equally worried for the object of her affection.  What could suddenly be bugging him so badly?  Gradually, she climbed past the armrest and over the backseat, making sure not to step on any of the plastic cases still laying about.

Her tender hoof on his shoulder gave him the courage to open up.  "It was...a little over eight years ago now.  Turned twenty-one about three months prior."  He held up the disc.  "These guys were performing, like, several hours away.  Me and a few friends figured screw it, we'll go see them anyway, take a few days off and stuff."

The album sparkled and hovered over to Twilight.  "Guns...'N' Roses.  Appetite for Destruction," she read, eventually setting it down next to Matt.  "Err, interesting name."

"Heh.  Anyway, we got tickets, made our way there.  Show's great.  I decide to go grab a beer and while I'm waiting in line, I overheard these two girls talking and one of them mentions this professor I had in...eh, I forget what class he taught, but I knew the guy's name.  I kind of butted in and I'm like 'hey, do you mean so and so?' and she says 'yeah'.  We start talking and turns out she's from my hometown too.  She and a couple girlfriends had the same idea me and the guys had.  We hung out for most of the rest of the show.  She gave me her number, I called her when I got back.  We were together until...well, y'know."

"Rachel," Twilight suggested.  Hearing her name for the first time since overcoming Discord still made his stomach dance as much as it did on their first date.  His deep breath again barely kept his aching at bay.  "You've never really mentioned her much since you came here.  How come?"

He shook his head and shrugged.  "After you said you had no way to send me home, I-I...guess I was just trying to let go.  If I wasn't going to see them again, after a while I figured it best to move on, y'know?  Then this shows up."

"Was it because of where you met her that that particular record thing has got you so upset?  That, err, Guns 'N' Roses show?" Rainbow asked.

"It's just...well, turned out we had the same favorite G'n'R song.  Not that it wasn't a lot of people's favorite.  It was one of the most popular songs they ever released.  We...we played it a lot."

Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were on the verge of tears as Matt told his tale and, while the others felt for their friend too, Applejack was fighting hard to hold off her own sorrow.  Did this mean he didn't feel the same about her as she did about him all along?  Was he just reminiscing?  After all, she would feel just as terrible when she thought about her own lost loved ones.  Regardless, Matt needed support and she was more than willing to give it.

"Why not play it one more time?" she said, wrapping his head in her embrace.

"Hm?"

"Matt, you know ma and pa are gone.  I still think about them a lot, and it can hurt, yeah.  But–"  She paused, trying to put together the right words.  "–when I'm feeling my worst, I start to think of the good times we had while we were together and it helps a lot.  I was really young when they passed on but that doesn't mean I don't have fond memories of them.  I'll keep them with me all my life.  So, if playing that song will help you remember some of the good times you had then...I say play it."

He thought hard about it for a moment, and the farm girl seemed to make a good amount of sense.  With a sigh, he wrapped an arm around her, rubbing thankfully up and down her side.

"Just try not to make it too loud, okay?" she joked.

"It's not as bad as the other one, but I'll turn it down a bit.  Let me just finish putting the rest away here."

Setting the album aside, Matt opened the bag up again and helped Twilight finish up their previous task.  Once the final CD was put away and the bag tied off as well as it could be, he invited the girls in to listen to the Guns 'N' Roses track, promising not to blast it again.  Applejack crawled her way back to the front seat as Rainbow and Pinkie Pie eagerly sat down in the middle again.  Though hesitant at first, Fluttershy eventually flew in through a window and sat beside Rainbow Dash, leaving Rarity and Twilight to nervously take up residence in the very back.

After double-checking the track number, Matt switched discs and skipped ahead, making sure to drop the volume a notch or two.  The player whirred as it found the right spot, and after a second of silence, a simple yet familiar melody came to life.  All but Pinkie and Rainbow Dash had subtly clenched up in preparation for the worst but were pleasantly surprised that they still had their hearing intact.

The second guitar joined in and then the drumbeat after a few measures.  As the snare rang out, Matt began to tap the lower end of the steering wheel and gently nod his head to the beat.  Axl began to sing, prompting Matt to join in quietly under his breath.

"She's got a smile that it seems to me
reminds me of childhood memories
where everything was as fresh as the bright blue sky."

Like before, the two loudest and wildest mares seemed to take to the song quickly, mimicking their human friend's nods and sways.  At first, Rainbow was a little surprised how much lighter in tone the current song sounded from the one Matt played specifically for her but still enjoyed the melody.  The unicorns and timid pegasus shared a shrug, not particularly a fan nor a critic of what they were listening to but were still grateful they could at least hear their own thoughts.

Though Rarity couldn't really see Applejack that well from the back of the Blazer, she couldn't help but crack a tiny smile for the mare.  It must have taken her quite a bit of courage to suggest Matt play something that reminded him of what was essentially a rival of hers that he still obviously missed dearly, despite being a lifetime ago.  She did have the right idea though – remember the good instead of the bad.

In the meanwhile, the country girl watched intently as Matt's solemn gloom seemed to change to mild contentment as the song went on; the bitter frown he carried only a few minutes ago had left him, having been replaced with a subdued grin.  As much as he tried to hide it, she could see the heartache in his glistening eyes as plain as day.  Being just as intimate with such personal pain made spotting it easy enough.

'Where do we go now?', the speakers repeated as the song came to a conclusion.  Was that ever the question Applejack was suddenly asking herself.  How exactly was she supposed to eventually ask him how he felt about her with things now showing up that reminded him of his old girlfriend?  She'd probably need to have another sit-down with Rarity at some point.

With the last notes fading away, Matt popped out the disc, looking over it softly as he held it in his hand.  He didn't hear the few cheers and muted applause from outside, but a sweetly-accented voice caught his ear.  "Matt?"  Her warm smile made his grow too.  "Feel any better?"

He replied through a long sigh.  "Yeah, a little.  S-so, uh...what'd you think?  Of the song, I mean."

"Heh, it was alright.  Better than the other one."

"I don't know if those two in the back would agree."

"Who, us?" Rarity asked.

"Yeah, you," he retorted with a wry smirk.

"Why do you say that?"  He adjusted the rear view mirror, allowing the unicorns to get a look at themselves.  "Oh.  I'm sorry, Matt, but not all of us here care much for rock and roll.  I hope you understand."

"No, it's okay.  It's not for everyone.  I do want to find something that hopefully you'll all enjoy though," he said as he got out of the car again and walked to the tailgate.  "And I do have a few minutes still.  Here, step out a second, I'm going to need the room."

Once Rarity and Twilight cleared out, Matt hoisted the other annoyingly heavy bag into the car and dumped out its contents.  He had a pretty good idea exactly what song he hoped to find, but going through the even larger pile of older music could prove to take as long as it took to listen to the first two songs.

"Want to do the same thing as before?" he asked the nerdy unicorn as he grabbed the garbage bags.

"Sure, it'll probably be easier that way."

"Cool.  I gotta warn you though, I never had any albums by the band I'm looking for, so I see anything by them, you'll need to give a minute.  I don't know what album the song I'm looking for is on."

"No problem," Twilight said as several CDs floated into the air.

Dozens of discs made their way into the bag as Matt skimmed over them, so far having no luck.  One in particular eventually caught his eye, but not in the way he had hoped.  "Egh, this had to have been the wife's," he muttered as he plucked the culprit from the lavender line-up.  "Hey, Twilight, if I flung this one into the air, would you blast it out of the sky for me?"

She frowned in disappointment at the request.  "I'm not destroying anypony else's property, Matt."

"Meh, you're no fun."

Light blue magic took the disc from his hand.  "What's so bad about this...Kenny G person that you'd want to destroy his record?" Rarity asked.

He grabbed the case back as tossed it into the bag with its brethren.  "The guy writes the cheesiest love songs you could ever imagine."

"Hey, I like a good love song every now and again," the miffed mare retorted.

"Trust me, that guy's stuff has more sap than most forests."

The dressmaker pursed her lips.  "Oh...hmph, even I have my limits, I suppose."

"Y'know, if you want at some point, if I end up finding the guy in this pile somewhere, I could let you listen to some stuff that would get the ladies in the mood back when he was still alive and at his peak."  He wiggled his eyebrows at the suddenly blushing mare.

"Err..."

Matt leaned in close to her red cheek and put on the lowest voice he could.  "Mmmm, baby.  What do you say we head on up the bedroom and you...slip out of them clothes all nice and slow for me?  Awwww yeah."

Rarity shifted uncomfortably, avoiding eye contact with everyone, particularly Twilight, who was having a hard time holding back giggling right next to her.  "Yes, well, um...moving right along then."

"Again, if you want."

"I'll keep it in mind, Matt, thank you," the seamstress deadpanned.

A few minutes passed once Matt returned to the matter at hand.  Finally, after checking several albums by the band that passed in front of him, he found the one he was looking for.  "Bingo!  This is the one!  Was beginning to wonder if we were going to find it."

"Good.  We're running a little behind as it is," Twilight commented as she stuffed the remainder of the discs back into the bag and tied it off.

Though her magical abilities made it trivial to lift the cumbersome sack into the back of the car, she was a bit surprised how heavy a bunch of tiny sleeves of plastic could be.  Having both bags stuffed in the back didn't leave much room for her and Rarity, but they managed to squeeze back into place while Matt made his way back up front.

"The place where I worked would play older rock from like, thirty, forty, fifty years ago."

"More rock music?" Rarity asked in annoyance.

"Trust me, I think you'll like this.  These guys did play rock music, but it was a lot different when they were around for the most part," he explained.  "Hell, none of these guys had done anything for thirty or so years and half of the band is dead and they're still relevant.  Anyway, like I said, I never had any of their stuff, but hearing it on the radio every day, it grew on me."

He slipped the disc into the player and added with a grin, "By the way, I'm turning this back up," much to the displeasure of most of his companions.

"Now that's what I'm talking about!"

However, when the song finally came, the group's collective annoyance switched to confusion.  Only a piano and a pleasant voice sang to them.

"Hey Jude, don't make it bad.  Take a sad song and make it better."

"This is rock music?" Fluttershy asked.

"I know, right?  Rock's supposed to be like, loud and fast and stuff," Rainbow complained.

"I don't know, this seems...kind of nice actually," Twilight said, eventually smiling.

"Trust.  Me," Matt turned around to add, already swaying to the rhythm.  His leg was bobbing up and down right from the start as well.

Pinkie once again seemed to enjoy herself almost right away, swinging from side to side.  Fluttershy and Twilight soon followed suit, tapping a hoof against the seats.  Though it wasn't anything country, Applejack was having a good time too.  Seeing Matt jubilant over something she wouldn't have expected him to like after hearing the earlier examples – particularly with how the last one affected him – certainly helped.

Rarity shouted to Twilight as the song continued on, "I'm surprised!  This really isn't too bad!"  Eventually, she succumbed to the simple, upbeat rhythm and began rocking back and forth in unison with the others, following Matt's movements.

The only holdout for the longest time was the sky-blue pegasus in denial.  Though she wasn't as critical of the music by the time the first half was coming to a close, she couldn't let anypony think she was uncool by enjoying something like this, no matter how much the flow had grown on her.

In contrast, Matt leaned over, grinning happily at the girls, and sang along – regardless of how bad he may or may not have sounded – as the memorable second half came.

"Naaaaaa na na na-na-na naaaa!  Na-na-na naaaa!  Hee-eey Juuude."

Little by little, one by one, as the famous line repeated, the mares got swept up in the moment and joined their otherworldly friend, singing with heartwarming glee.  Twilight and Rarity ended up wrapping a forelimb around each others' shoulders as Pinkie and Fluttershy did the same to Rainbow Dash.  Finally, a smile found her cyan cheeks and she reciprocated, the infectious song taking hold of her too.

Applejack wasn't yet aware of how close her friends had become as they sang.  She was too starry-eyed by Matt's enthusiasm to notice.  The fact that he was able to sneak his hand up and take her by the hoof startled her briefly, but his warm smile while he serenaded along washed any surprise away, and she could feel her heart melting in that moment.  Any concerns she had about what he may or may not feel about Rachel disappeared; she was enjoying the 'now' far too much.

After enjoying a moment of her own personal heaven, she noticed Matt pausing to giggle and followed his eyes past her and out the window.  The crowd outside had gotten larger than before, but that wasn't what made her chuckle as well.  Most of their guests had apparently picked up on the song and were singing and swaying in harmony as they were in the car.

As the song faded finally faded away and the disc was ejected, the ponies gathered outside whooped and cheered, grabbing the attention of the other girls inside.  Seeing how elated their audience was got a cheerful laugh out of them too.

"Oh goodness, that was so much fun!" Fluttershy squealed.

"I know, right?!  That was super-duper-riffi-tastic fun!"

"You don't happen to have anything else by that band, do you?  I mean, if you'd want to play something else, that is."

Twilight giggled behind them.  "As nice as that song was, we really do need to get–"  A knock on one of the doors up front cut her off, much to her chagrin.  "–going."

An electric blue mane popped up in the window with its widely-smiling owner right behind it.  "You don't happen to have any electronica in there, do you?"

Matt thought for a second until he snapped his fingers and wiggled them knowingly at the mare.  "Y'know, I'm, like, ninety-nine percent sure I saw something by this group you'd probably like called Prodigy."

"Maaaatt..." Twilight droned.

He winced and bit his lip.  "Err...sorry, Vinyl.  Going to have to take a rain check on that.  Maybe tomorrow afternoon or something?"

"Awesome!"

"What's this Prodigy like?" Rainbow asked.

"Ohh, they're loud."

"I'm so there then!"

"And if you guys are going to be having fun, count me in too!" Pinkie added.

"What about the movie?" Applejack interjected.

"It's no problem.  It's later on that night, so it's all good.  Maybe grab something to eat beforehand if you want."

"That sounds fine."

"Cool.  Alright, let's head out then."  Matt returned the mirror to its original position and glanced at Twilight's reflection.  "Could you close the tailgate back there?  There's a handle on the back part.  Just make sure the bags aren't hanging out or anything."

"Hold on one second.  Almost forgot something," Twilight said as she hopped out to pay the bill.  As she got back in the car, the handle glowed purple behind her and pulled the door shut.  "Okay, all set."

"You mind if we head back to my place so I can drop off those bags?"

"That's fine.  It's kind of crowded back here.  It is on the way back to the library anyway, and I did say I wanted to get in touch with the Princesses."

"Then, we're off!"

With a twist of the key, Matt fired up the engine and slowly crawled past the crowd as they got out of the two-ton vehicle's way.
> Chapter 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Far below Rainbow Dash sat her friends, camped out beside the Blazer and its domicile.  Matt was still showing what his phone thing could do for the uninitiated.  While she was curious if he was explaining to them anything she hadn't seen yet, she needed to keep an eye out for the Princesses.  It had been about a half hour since Twilight got in touch with them at the library, stressing the urgency of the situation and where they could find her and her friends.

A few minutes later, a long pair of figures, seemingly on their way to the heart of town, took shape in the distance.  Certain it was them, Rainbow sped off to meet them halfway.  After a moment, sure enough, two chariots, its riders and their royal guards came into clear view.

"Princess Celestia!  Princess Luna!"

"Rainbow Dash!  So nice to see you," Celestia said with a smile.

"We received Twilight's letter." Luna spoke up.  "She said something dire was the matter but she didn't go into much detail.  What seems to be the problem?"

The young pegasus cocked her head back to the house.  "It's over this way.  Follow me."

The guards banked softly to the right, following Rainbow Dash several paces behind.  While the chariots trailed, the Princesses glanced to the ground, looking for any strange developments but fortunately finding none.  The mysterious house eventually appeared before them, but the sight of it wasn't what caught them off-guard – the odd, red chariot beside it did.  As the royal guards circled around to land, Matt and the girls got to their feet with Rainbow landing beside them.

The royal sisters dismounted and trotted over to their subjects, who had taken the time to bow as they approached, including Matt.  Though it had been a little while since he had seen either of them, he still felt it necessary to follow the standard customs.

"Come now, girls, you know you don't have to do that.  Nor do you, Matt," Celestia declared.

"Oh, err...sorry," Matt mumbled.

"No need to apologize."  Luna stepped around their hosts and up to the vehicle, running a curious hoof along its side.  "Is this what you were referring to in your letter?"

"Not entirely," the human interjected.  He held the iPhone up for the Princesses, allowing a midnight blue glow to take it from him.  "A.J.'s little sister found that outside of school a few days ago.  Now the house here is the newest thing on the list."

Luna and Celestia shared a concerned look and skimmed over the building.  "What exactly do you mean?" the dark princess asked.

Matt pursed his lips.  "These things are...from my old home, the house and that thing you're holding.  I have no idea how they got here or why they're here to begin with."

"You don't think that he's...returned, do you?" Luna muttered to her sister.

"I don't think so," Matt answered for her.  "It's what I thought too, but if it was him, we'd know.  Plus...well, sharing a mind with him, even if it was only for a few minutes, was...educational, to say the least."

"How so?"

"I know for a fact that when Discord brought me here, there wasn't a back door or a plan B involved anywhere.  The main reason I don't think this has anything to do with him."

The phone slowly spun around as the sisters meticulously examined the foreign object, thinking hard on what Matt told them.  They had been well aware of what he went through months ago after everything had been said and done.  While they had known Discord and his methods for millennia, no one had a more hands-on experience with him as their human friend did.  "That does make a lot of sense," Celestia said.

"I still can't imagine what an ordeal that must have been for you.  Do any affects...still linger at all?" Luna timidly asked.  She understood all too well what it must have been like for Matt to have been pushed to the brink of madness.

He sighed under his breath.  Even thinking about such things after so long made him uneasy.  "Here and there.  Mostly memories, a few bad dreams.  Nothing I can't deal with."

"Are you sure, Matt?" Celestia asked, an almost motherly concern in her eyes.  "You know if something is ever troubling you, you don't have to be afraid to come to any of us here for help.  It's the least we can do after everything that's happened."

"I know.  Thanks."

With a pair of warm smiles, the sisters returned their attention to the unusual object floating before them in Luna's magical grip.  "What exactly is this anyway?"

"A long-range communication device among other things."

"And it was found outside the school in town?"

"Mhm.  I went down there to see if there was anything weird going on but there wasn't.  Twilight looked it over for me too to see if there were any traces of magic or something on it.  She didn't find anything," Matt explained.  "Maybe you two can?"

"I suppose we can try," Celestia said.

She and Luna turned to each other and nodded.  The Solar Princess' horn lit brightly beside her younger sister's, and their eyes turned wholly white.  They focused their magic on the phone, causing it to glow as they cast a spell similar to the one they used when confirming Discord's spirit had been purged from Matt's body so many months ago.  A moment went by before their magic dissipated and their pupils returned.

"Any luck?"

"I'm sorry, Matt.  I couldn't find anything," the elder sister replied.

"Nor could I," Luna added.

"Eh, was worth a shot."

The Princesses returned their sights to the face of the device, noting the names of the small pictures on it.  "Calendar, map, compass, photos, reminders...this thing seems like it could be quite handy," the young alicorn commented, giving it back to its adopted owner.

"Heh, you have no idea.  I don't suppose you could check the car here, could you?" he asked, thumbing over to the Blazer.

Like two sharks closing in on their prey, Celestia and Luna cautiously circled around the Chevy, studying the unusual contours and designs.  The white alicorn noted the large wheels, asking, "I take it that this is a form of transportation?"

"Yep.  I don't suppose you want to go for a spin?" Matt joked.  He looked in through the window, remembering how crammed in Applejack and the rest were.  "Could you even fit inside?  I mean, you are a bit bigger than the girls here."

Celestia lifted an eyebrow and smirked at the human.  "Are you implying that I'm fat?"

He rolled his eyes.  "Yes, that's exactly it.  If you got any bigger, I could play a movie on your flank," he said dryly.

"Matt!  You don't say something like that to the Princess!" Applejack scolded.

"I've been telling her that for months myself," Luna wisecracked.

The solar princess couldn't help but let out a chuckle, coming to a stop by the passenger's side of the vehicle opposite her sister.  "Oh, it's alright, I know he's just teasing!  In all seriousness though, there are more important things to worry about right now than going for a spin, as you put it.  Shall we, Luna?"

Nodding, their long horns came alive again, bathing the Blazer in a soft light.  Several minutes ticked by as the Princesses did a detailed search over every inch of the SUV.  Eventually, the shine died down, the overhead sun being the only reason any light was still shimmering off the car.

"Any luck?"  The Princesses shook their heads, making Matt grunt in annoyance.  "I guess we should double-check the house then.  I gotta warn you," he said as he headed toward the front door, "it's hot as Hell in there.  I don't suppose any of you know how to make it snow indoors?"

"As useful as that may or may not be, we'll probably be too focused on trying to find the possible source of the problem to be concerned with the temperature," Twilight spoke up, glaring at Matt.

"I'm afraid she's right," Celestia added.  "If something's suddenly causing things from your old home to arrive here in Equestria – especially without Discord being the culprit – we have to be thorough in our investigation.  There could be something even more serious going on now than when you first arrived here."

"Eh, okay," he grunted.  "Oh, Twilight, can I ask a favor once we're inside?  I had to bust a small hole in the window there in order to unlock the door.  You'll see the glass on the floor.  Are you able to put it back together by any chance?"

"Yeah, that shouldn't be a problem."

"Alright, cool."  As Matt opened the door, he pointed to the debris on the floor for the mares.  No reason for any of them to step on the shards and hurt themselves.  "Here, watch out."

As he stepped over them, the fragments sparkled purple and floated over to the hole he mentioned, eventually putting themselves back together like pieces of a puzzle.  With the immediate but simple threat out of the way, most of the group headed straight for the entertainment center, just as fascinated by it as Rainbow originally was though not everypony was as equally interested in the gadgets.

"Yeesh, you weren't kidding.  It's incredibly stuffy in here," Rarity complained, popping a small fan into existence to fight off the beads of sweat already forming on her slender neck.  "I don't suppose this place has a refrigerator with some cold drinks in it, does it?"

"They're not cold anymore, I can tell you that much," Matt replied, forcing a whine from the posh unicorn.

Celestia and Luna crept by the strange electronics, their regal horns shining prominently in the shaded living room.  They too were curious and intrigued by the technology surrounding them, but first things first – check for any unusual magical activity.  Twilight had also stepped up to help scan over the residence now that the window was fixed.

"Princesses, if you want, when you're done here in the living room, we can check the bedrooms and such, see if you find anything there," Matt suggested.  "Twilight, want to check the dining room and kitchen in the meantime?"

"Sure."

"Cool.  Rainbow, while we're doing all that, you think you can answer any questions about this stuff they may have?"

"I can try," she said, rubbing her hoof on her neck as she flew in place.  "I mean, you really didn't show me everything."

"Eh, you'll be fine.  If it's about something you don't know, just tell me when we're done."

"Okay."

With that settled, Celestia took the lead down the hallway, heading straight for the master bedroom at the end of the long corridor while Luna inspected the bathroom and linen closet only a few steps away.  Matt decided to stick with the lunar princess, who quickly found nothing and decided to move on.

Once the two arrived in the son's room, Luna grimaced as she looked around at the numerous machines and electronics.  The small room looked to have even more stuff than the main living area.  Matt sat on the bed and played with the guitar again while Luna gradually glossed over everything in sight.  She picked up what she thought to be the most unusual item in the room – the son's PlayStation 3 controller.

She had already seen a few things that had screens just like the small device Matt carried with him, so she paid them little mind at this point.  The computer's keyboard looked similar enough to a typewriter that she assumed its purpose, and while the stereo didn't have a turntable like the one the DJ used at the royal wedding some time ago, its speakers told her enough of the story.  She wanted to ask her human friend what all the little sticks and buttons were for but decided against it, setting the plastic thing back down and resuming her search in the closet.

In the meantime, Twilight's examination of the dining area and kitchen was proving just as fruitless, and her friends' interests had spread out to other parts of the house.  Pinkie Pie and Applejack took to the kitchen appliances mostly, curious as to how different things were back where Matt came from.  Strangely, there were only a few things they didn't recognize, such as the microwave.  Rarity and Rainbow Dash had stepped outside to get out of the sweltering heat for a few minutes.  Fluttershy poked at the fake plants in the corners of the room, puzzled by how and why somepony would make such things.

It didn't take long for Pinkie to get bored of looking at ovens and refrigerators that she already knew about, so she decided to check out the pantries.  A shiny aluminum bag stuck out in the first one she opened.  The crinkling sounds it made as she pulled it out told the pink mare that she may have found some chips.  She slid off the strange plastic clasp and unrolled the bag.

"Dor...eye-toss Cool Ranch," she mistakenly read.  As Pinkie popped it open, the delicious scent raced up her snout and hit her like a freight train.  "Whoa!  Applejack, smell this!"

"Uh, what?"  Her friend's ear-to-ear grin gave her pause, but Pinkie did know a thing or two about tasty treats.  Eh, what harm could taking a whiff do?  "Hm, that does smell pretty good."

The two reached in and each took out a single, triangular chip, eyeing the red and green specks curiously.  With a shrug, they tossed the snacks into their mouths.  "Wow, that's some good stuff!"

Pinkie Pie, however, was not so talkative.  Her eyes had ballooned to ridiculous proportions after only a bite, an orgy of flavor dancing along her tongue.  She needed more!  Before her country friend could ask for another, she buried her face in the bag, gobbling up everything in her greedy mouth's path.

While Pinkie was receiving a glare for her inconsiderateness, Twilight had opened the door to the dark garage, barely able to see more than a few feet in front of her.  "Uh, Matt?  You got a second?" she hollered.

As he arrived from the hallway, he immediately noticed what the unicorn was up to.  "Ah, yeah.  Stay right there, be just a minute," he stated, heading to the front door and leaving a perplexed Twilight standing there waiting.  Before long, a loud, squeaky groan made her jump in surprise only for a blast of sunlight to reveal the inner workings of the garage.  The bizarre noises attracted Pinkie, Applejack and Fluttershy over as well.  "I'm assuming this is what you needed?"

"Yes, thank you.  I didn't feel like tripping over anything in here if I could help it."

"Yeah, I already did that once today myself," Matt muttered.  "I'm going to go see how the Princesses are doing.  Let me know if you need something else."

"Will do!"

As Matt stepped back into the kitchen, he noticed the bag of chips crumpled into a ball on the counter.  He knew he saw it in the cabinet earlier when it was just Rainbow Dash and himself wandering through the place, but he didn't bother to have any at the time.  His stomach decided to take that moment to remind him that he hadn't eaten anything yet, even though the blue bag had severely tempted him.

"Hey, what happened to the Doritos?" he called out, not receiving a response in return.  A bit annoyed now, he marched back to the doorway with the bag in hand.  "Girls, this was half full before.  What happened?"  Though it was difficult for her to make eye contact, Pinkie eventually gave the hungry man an apologetic smile.  He was not amused.  "You ate them all, didn't you?"  When she regretfully turned away, he stomped back inside mumbling, "Goddammit."

With a toss of the trash back onto the counter from whence it came, Matt proceeded to the hallway again.  Hopefully the Princesses would be nearly finished with their tasks.  His concerns were answered when he found both of them examining the guest room.

"Anything?"

A silent moment went by before either replied.  "I'm afraid not," Celestia said, frowning.

"I found nothing either."

"Great," Matt sighed.  "I don't think Twilight's had any luck either.  She hasn't said anything, at least.  You have any questions as far as any of the technology you saw?"

"I had a few, but they can wait for now," Luna said.  "Is there anything else that needs to be done here?"

"Mmm, not really.  Let's just head out.  No reason to stay now."

The royal sisters followed Matt through the house and back out the front door, nervously looking over their surroundings as they went.  The fact that they were unable to find any answers to this new, strange occurrence troubled them deeply.  They'd seen many odd things over their long lives, up to and including the introduction of a new alien species to their home, but even Matt's appearance had an explanation after a while.  Being at a complete loss was a foreign concept to the Princesses, one they hoped they wouldn't get used to.

Celestia closed the door behind them as the trio stepped outside into a refreshing gust of wind.  Beside the Blazer sat Twilight and the others, the young student seemingly finished with her own inspection of the grounds.  After a quick double-check that everypony was outside, Matt sauntered over to the garage and sealed it up.

"No luck?" he asked Twilight.

She shook her head.  "No luck."

He leaned with his back against the car, put a leg up and rubbed his forehead, a frustrated groan escaping his lungs.  "Another dead end.  I really hope that doesn't continue to be the case if even more things start showing up."

A moment of silent contemplation later, Fluttershy asked what was on all their minds.  "So, what do we do now?"

"We keep in tight contact and inform each other if more objects from Matt's old world appear.  We couldn't determine the source of this problem here, and until we can figure out what's going on, I suspect things are only going to get worse before they get better," Celestia suggested.

"I would also recommend that, no matter how large or small the things may be, you give them a thorough examination, Twilight Sparkle," Luna remarked.  "Just because we haven't found anything now doesn't mean something else won't reveal the solution later."

"It would be nice if we actually had the opportunity to see something appear right in front of us.  Maybe there would be enough residual energies leftover for us to examine, provided there's any to begin with."

"Maybe.  In any case, don't be hesitant to ask for our assistance if you need it.  We'll also let you know if we need to see you about something," the solar princess declared, turning to Luna.  "We should probably go through our archives again just to see if we missed something from when Matt arrived."

"Indeed."  She addressed her sister's young student.  "It would be wise for you to do the same."

"That's what I was thinking too.  We should get started right away," Twilight said as she got to her hooves.

"That we should.  It was nice seeing you all again."  With a smile upon their cheeks, despite the pressing situation, the Princesses turned to their patiently-waiting chariots only for Celestia to stop after a few paces.  A sudden question nagged hard on her mind as she pondered a few potential solutions on the way to her ride back to Canterlot.  "Matt?  May I ask you something before we go?"

He only had the chance to open a single car door before he was interrupted.  Applejack was halfway to her seat but hopped back out anyway.  No reason to sit in the car without that wonderful air conditioning cooling her off.  Besides, when Celestia spoke, one tended to listen.

"Yeah, what's up?"

The elder alicorn sat down gently on the grass, her question giving her obvious pause.  It was a simple question that she had, just one that was difficult to put into words.  "Let's say that...we figure out what's going on.  There's a...hole or portal linking our worlds and a simple spell can fix it, but...the things that are here now need to have this spell cast on them in order to send them back as well."

"I think I know what you want to ask," he interrupted.  "We know it was Discord the first time.  If this is actually something you can fix on your own...would I want to go back?"

Relieved that she didn't have to take fifteen minutes to get to the point, she nodded.

Up until then, Matt really hadn't thought about such a thing.  Ever since he saw the iPhone, he was more concerned with how and why everything was happening then instead of when he first showed up more than anything.  He shook his head and shrugged at the Princess.

"I don't know.  I'd gotten kind of used to not having all these toys and stuff around–"  He nodded over at the house.  "–and I'm not going to deny that, with it being here, that I haven't wanted to play with it all.  At the same time...well, I've probably been declared dead over there.  If I went back, I can't imagine how difficult it'd be for me to get my life back in order.  Yeah, my friends and family are there, but what do I tell them when they ask where I've been?  I got sucked across time and space by some mutant-looking thing to a world with talking ponies?  Pfff, I'd be locked up so fast, it'd make your head spin.

"Let's face it, you've all been really good to me and, well, after being here for so long I think I can say that, aside from him, things seem a hell of a lot nicer here than they were back home.  I don't know, maybe it was just the way they did the news or something, but every other day it sounded like some idiot was doing something stupid that made you want to punch him in the face.  I'm not saying shitty stuff doesn't happen here from time to time, but you guys seem to be able to deal with it and move on with your lives instead of dwelling on it like most people tended to, and I like that."

"But it is still technically your home," Celestia added.

"Yeah," he sighed.

"Perhaps what you need is just the right reason to stay, hm?  You know, something you haven't thought of," Rarity remarked, nudging him on the leg.  She then smiled at Applejack, who she correctly assumed was looking straight at her after saying such a thing.  The farmer's big green eyes begged her not to say anything further.

"Heh, like what?"

"Err...oh, I don't know, but it's possible something you just can't say no to will come up eventually."

He rolled his eyes at the unicorn and turned his attention back to the Princess.  "We'll see.  Anyway, I think it's probably best I worry about that once we've figured this all out."

"I understand.  Just know that, whichever way to decide to choose, you've been a welcome addition to Equestria, and we appreciate everything you've done for us," Celestia said, smiling warmly.

"Jeez, cut out the mushy stuff, will ya?" he moaned in embarrassment.  "Curious, what happens if you can...plug the hole or whatever but what's here now is stuck?  You think you'll have some of your scientists try and duplicate the stuff?"

The ivory alicorn stood up tall and shrugged.  "I'm not sure.  The technology in that house would be quite the radical advancement for Equestria.  I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

"Fair enough."

"Well, we should be going.  You all take care.  We'll be in touch."

As the royal sisters trotted over to their chariots and headed back to Canterlot, Matt and the others hopped back in the car.  "You guys want me to drop you all off back home?"

"Yeah, that works."

"Sure."

"Okay."

"Alright, I'll start at the library and work my way around town.  Oh, if you have any questions about any of the stuff you saw in there, feel free to ask."


-----


The rest of the day and the following evening came and went without incident.  As much as he tried, Matt couldn't help but worry that Twilight was about to come banging on his door at any minute with some more bad news.  He was able to distract himself for a while by organizing the CDs, but once he was done, aside from the fact that it was getting close to dinner, his nerves made his stomach ache.  His food hadn't sat too well with him until long after he was asleep – not that his stress levels allowed him to eat much to begin with.  His last minute shower before bed did little for his as well.

Just like the previous day, he had forgotten to have his alarm set to go off, resulting in another late start.  Fortunately, being Saturday, he didn't have any scheduled jobs to take care of; the soonest one he had was on Tuesday when Sea Swirl needed a foalsitter and couldn't get anyone else.  Either way, that night he had plans and no doubt they'd help ease his troubles away.

As he finished up in the bathroom and began getting dressed, there came a knock at the door.  After clumsily hopping into his shorts, he hobbled half-awake to see who was paying him a visit.  As soon as he saw his three broadly-smiling guests, he knew exactly why they were there and perked up instantly.  Even though he looked more forward to that night, this would certainly be a good way to start the mind-clearing process.

He invited Rainbow, Pinkie and Vinyl in and excused himself to grab a shirt, offering them full access to the fridge in the meantime.  With his shoes and socks on, he poked through his borrowed music collection and selected several discs he thought his guests would like.  Satisfied with his choices, he grabbed his wallet and keys and they stepped outside to where the red machine sat.

Not wanting to suffocate in the car, he popped the tailgate and all the doors to let any cool gusts of wind through.  Even though the air conditioning would be great, he'd have to turn the engine on to get the full effect and conserving gas was one of his top priorities.  He knew eventually he'd run out, but the longer he could stretch it out, the better.

Vinyl insisted they go out to grab lunch at her expense.  Despite not wanting to drive there, it didn't take much convincing on the DJ's part.  After all, they could listen to more music on the way!  Ah well.  So much for conserving gas.  At least he was allowed to shut the engine off while they sat and talked.

Once lunch was over, they had returned back to Matt's place to listen to some more tunes in relative peace though not all the passersby held the same enthusiasm for the ruckus blaring from the speakers.  It felt like only a few minutes went by by the time Matt realized half the day had disappeared.  Yikes!  He had to start getting ready for his early dinner with A.J.!  After the final track had faded away, he ejected the disc and killed the power to the stereo, much to the disappointment of the loud trio.

"Sorry, girls.  I got some plans tonight.  Need to get started on them," he explained.

"Awww!  Oh well.  As much as I'd like it to, the fun can't last forever!" Pinkie said, bouncing out of the tailgate.  "I gotta say, that 'fight for your right to party' song was great!  Mmph, yeah, those guys know what I like!"

"Hay yeah, it was!  We gotta do this again soon!" Rainbow cheered.

"Let me look over my calendar and I'll see what I can do."

"Awesome!"

"Matt, matt, come here," Vinyl said as the others headed home, resting a hoof on his back.  "Listen, bro, it ain't hard for me to listen to something a few times and get the beat down in my head.  Hearing that stuff over the speakers down at the club would be so off the hook!  You provide the music and I'll remix it like a pro!  We could make such a killing off the record sales, you'd never have to work another day in your life again!  We split the profits right down the middle, fifty-fifty!  What do you say?"

"What about the people who made the music in the first place?"

She lowered her glasses and smirked at him.  "Hey, how're they going to know?"

He pursed his lips after a moment in response.  As long as Los Angeles didn't land in their lap, he supposed there was no harm in it.  "Ehh, let me think about it, okay?"

"Dude!  What's to think about?"

"Come on, Vinyl."

"Haha, okay, okay!  Just let me know when you're doing this again, I'm so there!"

"I'll have Pinkie remind you."

"Sweet!  See you then!"  With a wave goodbye, the wild DJ headed home, likely to gush to her roommate about the amazing time she had.

Now that his impromptu concert was complete, he needed a shower.


-----


Once he was out the door again, he suspected that he'd find Applejack down at the market getting ready to put away her produce for the day in a little while.  Needless to say, he knew her pretty well.  Plus, being able to park the car basically anywhere he wanted was pretty cool too.

A distinct growling sound made the farmer turn her head.  Several feet away, the Blazer came to a stop, making her stomach turn yet again.  It had been a while since the two of them had gone on what Rarity would probably call a date.  She had thought about their...get-together that night for most of the day, having painted various pictures in her mind about what she figured they'd do and, in some cases, what she wanted to do.

As he stepped around the car, the cowgirl begged for some kind of distraction.  With their dinner not far away, it would be nice to not make herself sick beforehand and ruin their evening.  Fortunately, she saw a familiar pair not far off and waved them over.

"Hey Fluttershy, Twilight."  A soft flick on the back of her hat made her giggle.  "Hey, you."

"What's going on, Applejack?  How've sales been today?" Fluttershy asked.

"Not bad, not bad.  Looking to duck out a little early today and bring the goods home soon honestly."

"Was going to ask you about that, if you wanted me to just follow you home and then we'd head out or whatever," Matt said.

"Yeah, that should work."

"Oh, you two have some plans tonight?"

"Yeah, we're going to grab something to eat and catch a movie after," the earth pony said, smiling at her tall friend.

"Sounds fun!" Twilight chimed in.  "What are you going to go see?"

"We were thinking about–"

A shriek on the other side of the square grabbed their attention.  Great.  Now what?

Several ponies suddenly bolted past the numerous grocery stands, knocking barrels and bushels all over the place.  The small group looked toward the source of the panic.  Finally, it revealed itself in the form of a large, slender, tan-colored cat.  It hissed at any nearby ponies and took a swat at a few as they ran for their lives.  Once what it felt were immediate threats were gone, it crept along, sniffing and sniffing at the ground, searching for something the ponies couldn't figure out.

"What is that?"

"It looks like a...mountain lion," Matt said, just as confused as the cat.  "Are those things native to the area?"

"No!  They live at least a couple hundred miles from here," Fluttershy replied.

"Then what's it doing here?"

"I'll go ask."  The yellow pegasus glided the ten yards over to the aggravated animal, hovering just a foot off the ground.  "Um, excuse me, I don't recall any big cats living anywhere near here.  Did you get lost somehow?  Cuz if you need some help getting back home, maybe I can be of service."

It folded its ears down, snarling and spitting at its newest tiny target.  It bared its terrible fangs more and more with each passing second, insisting that the pony leave it alone.

The pegasus blinked in shock when she received no answer.  She had dealt with upset critters before, but something was off here.  "Um...h-hello?!"

In a the blink of an eye, the furious feline took a swing at the mare, missing by mere inches.  Her friends heard her terrified squeak as she barely dodged out of the way.  With another narrowly-missed swat of the cat's sharp claws, the animal lover flopped to the ground, forgetting to flap her wings.  Her shaking limbs barely allowed her to crawl away as the cougar took another predatory step.

Horrified at the turn of events, Matt grabbed a few apples and ran toward the beast.  "Twilight, get her out of there!"

Teleporting ahead of him, she snagged the petrified pony in her purple magic and yanked her away just as the panther went in for the kill.  With Fluttershy out of immediate danger, Matt launched one of the fruits as hard as he could at her attacker, hoping to scare it away.  The first of the apples nailed it square in the shoulder.  The second missed its mark and the third hit its flank as it turned to the new threat.

Unfortunately for Matt, running off wasn't what the cat had on its mind.

It charged hard right for him, closing the gap in seconds.  Without having the time to think up a plan, Matt kicked a cloud of dust into the air, blinding and choking the rampaging beast only a few feet away.

"Stay back!  I'm going to try and chase it off!" he yelled to the girls.

Twilight took Applejack and Fluttershy in her magic and blinked the three of them several feet back.  "What're you doing?!  He needs our help!" the country girl shouted.  "Matt–"

"Stay back!"

Finally cleaning its eyes out, the angry animal growled and dove for its antagonist, who jumped behind a nearby, half-empty basket of apples.  Quickly grabbing hold of it, Matt hurled the crate at his foe, smashing it against its forelimb.  All it seemed to do is enrage it further.

Matt slid behind the stand, trying to keep his distance from the hissing menace, but the panther was determined.  With another leap backwards, Matt barely missed getting his leg slashed open.  Landing in a more open area, he backed off several feet and the two started circling each other, daring each other to make a mistake.  Hoping to intimidate the cat by faking being larger than he was, he threw his arms up and growled and shouted at it repeatedly, but the beast wasn't budging.

A tiny wave of fear started to creep up on Matt as he danced with the killer.  He was running out of ideas on how to get rid of the thing, but he couldn't really blame it for wanting to sink its teeth into his neck.

He was hoping to avoid what just occurred to him, but there seemed to be little choice at this point.  "Twilight!  Run back – whoa! – run back to my house and get my knives!"

"Which ones?"

"The ones on the wall!"

Her horn lit up and in a flash, she was gone.  Barely a minute later, she reappeared, the blades Matt used to miraculously finish off the Ursa Major floating beside her.  They glided over to the battleground and waited to be claimed.

"Oh, I wish he could have thought of a better way to handle this!" Fluttershy pouted, fearful tears cascading down her cheeks.

"Fluttershy, he's gotta be able to defend himself!  That thing could kill him!  If he can get it to run away, he's not going to chase it down!" Applejack fired back.

"I hope you're right!"

As Matt strafed by the purple blades, never taking his eyes off the cougar, he carefully gripped them in his hands and loosened up his shoulders.  Now he was capable of standing his ground.  He fought back a quick swing of the cat's paw with a jab of his own, not wanting to seriously hurt the animal if he could help it.  Maybe if he got the message across that the kitty wasn't the only one that had claws, it'd leave him and the town be.

The two traded another swift pair of attacks, neither backing down nor making contact.  Feeling bold, the beast pounced high, aiming his talons for Matt's face.  Even though he was able to lean back to dodge it with little trouble, he veered too far and lost his balance.  The knives fell from his grip as he landed on the hard ground and the lion was on him in an instant.

"Matt!"

Applejack and her friends wanted desperately to charge in and get the animal off their friend, but fear and shock had frozen their hooves to the ground.

A well-placed – and well-timed – knee to the monster's ribs was the only thing keeping its full weight from falling on top of Matt, but the multitude of fangs and claws barely being held off at arm's length took priority.  He futilely tried to push the animal's right leg off-balance in an effort to get away, but the cat was too strong.  He did everything he could to squeeze at its furry throat with his own right hand and hurl it back while knocking away a frantically swatting paw with his arm.

However, his luck was only able to take him so far, and the panther managed to slash open the side of his head.

"Aaagh!"
> Chapter 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As soon as he stumbled and fell to the ground, Applejack knew Matt's fight with the misplaced animal was about to go south in a hurry.  Seeing it pounce on her friend caused her heart to nearly skip a beat and all she could manage to do was desperately call out for him.  Her legs refused to listen to her when she commanded them to run in to help, but it wasn't until his scream of pain and the splatter of his blood did they respond.

With her mind overflowing with a mixture of terror and rage, she recklessly dashed in, ignoring Fluttershy and Twilight as they begged her to stop.  Even if she had heard them, it wouldn't have made a difference.  She had already lost two loved ones in her life; she wasn't about to lose another.

However, she grinded to a halt when the beast suddenly shrieked in agony of its own, but that wasn't what made Applejack come to a stop.  A split second after connecting with Matt's head, its body almost seemed to flicker in and out with a yellowish hue the way a unicorn's horn would when its owner was struggling with magic.  It only lasted a few seconds, but whatever happened seemed to knock the cat senseless and it collapsed in a heap on top of the curled up, twitching body of its enemy.  It struggled against itself to stand back up, still mewling and shaking in pain.

Everypony who had been watching the struggle stared in confusion, including Applejack and her friends, at what had just transpired.  The Elements had never seen anything like it in all their travels and didn't know what to think or expect.  The panicking apple farmer found herself once again stuck to the ground.

As she had frozen up, Fluttershy had noticed something else just as peculiar as what happened to the large cat out of the corner of her eye.  From several feet behind the cowgirl's apple stand, it almost looked like whatever the sudden blur was that affected the mountain lion had done the same to Matt's red vehicle.  She paused a moment, wondering if she was only seeing things but ignored it upon hearing Matt's distressed whimpers.

Beneath the animal, Matt had grabbed onto his head, the slew of stabbing pain nearly unbearable.  A red river flowed from the wounds, soaking his hands and face.  He wasn't sure if his right eye had been sliced open or if it was just from the pooling blood that it burned.

He sluggishly rolled left, hissing through clenched teeth and barely managing to keep open his good eye when he spotted one of his blades laying beside him.  Though he was unaware of the bizarre occurrence the beast had just gone through, he didn't bother to stop to wonder why he was suddenly not being pulverized.  With his arm shaking, Matt reached across his chest and took the knife in his hand.

Using every last bit of energy he could muster, he swung back around and drove the weapon deep into the animal's neck.  The massive cat howled and clawed at the human's chest and legs as it slowly lost its battle against death, its talons fortunately not digging through his clothes and into his flesh too deeply.  Regardless, the tears and scratches still stung.

Matt's free hand took hold of the handle's base and forced the knife in as far as it could go, finally finishing off the cougar for good.  With its last breath, its massive body slumped hard on top of its prey, pinning him down.  Exhausted – and relieved it was over – Matt let the blade go, letting his free arm tumble to the ground.  His head and face continued to throb as the blood kept steadily coming.

Three sets of hooves galloped up to the war zone now that the fight was over, Applejack arriving several steps ahead of her friends.  The beast glowed purple and was set down a few feet away, allowing Matt to breathe easier with the weight off his chest.  The girls hid their gasps behind their hooves as they surveyed the damage.

Most of his hair was matted in dark, bloody clumps.  The top of his right ear was barely holding on.  Much of his face and neck were soaked and a small puddle had formed in the soil.  Each rapid pulse just made his agony worse, leaving him quivering like a leaf.

"Oh jeez, he's a mess!" Applejack hollered.

They needed to get him to a hospital in a hurry.  The farmer darted her eyes around, looking for some kind of transportation.  Ugh, if she had hands, she could have just used that Blazer thing!  It didn't seem too hard to operate the few times she watched Matt control it.

Thankfully, sitting beside her apple stand was the wagon she used to bring her wares to the market.  Perfect!  She was off in a flash.  While Applejack sprinted for the cart, Twilight concentrated and conjured up several small towels overhead.

"Stay here a moment," the unicorn said to Fluttershy.  "I need to get some water for these rags."

The pegasus nodded as Twilight made for the fountain in the center of Market Square not far away.  Hoping to calm Matt down even a little, Fluttershy took his hand in her hooves and caressed his forearm.  As she waited patiently for her friends to return, she glanced over at the fallen animal and quietly mourned its passing.  She wished things had gone differently, but with all the strange events happening recently, she didn't know what to think.  All she knew was that, for whatever reason, she had been unable to communicate with it and Matt was badly hurt.

Fluttershy spun her head to the sound of wheels grinding and a set of familiar hooves approaching behind her.   Applejack came to a stop just past the pegasus with the wagon securely around her waist.

"Come on, we gotta get a move on!"

"What about Twilight?"

"What about her?  She's not the one who's bleedin' all over the place!" Applejack growled.

"She just went to get some water for the wounds.  She can't be much longer!"

Okay, cleaning out the wounds didn't seem like a bad idea, but what could be keeping the mare?  Gritting her teeth, the farm pony stomped impatiently for what felt like an eternity when a burst of purple magic appeared next to them.

"It's about time!"

Ignoring her orange friend's scolding, Twilight wasted no time in gliding down the first of the wet towels.  "Try and sit still, Matt."  Whether or not it even registered with him was anybody's guess.

The first rag patted lightly on his face, specifically his blood-soaked eye and cheek.  It didn't take much for the cloth to be completely stained pink.  Tossing that one aside, Twilight took the next and cleaned off what was left.  They breathed a collective sigh of relief when he just barely managed to open his right eye and saw it was in one piece.  The unicorn dabbed gently at the side of his head, the most damaged area.  Matt winced hard at the cool water.  It stung more than rubbing alcohol on a scraped knee; the slices must have been deep.

With each soft touch of the towel, the biting sensations subsided but they never completely went away.  Every time the young mare managed to get most of the streaming blood cleaned from his wound, another fair amount would have already made its way to the surface.  It took several more cloths for the flow to diminish at all.

"Come on, we gotta get him to the hospital!  Now!" Applejack hollered, rapidly losing what little patience she had left.

Quickly wiping Matt's neck clean, Twilight decided that she had done all she could and lifted him onto the wagon, hopping in right beside him.  She continued to put gentle pressure on the lacerations though the bleeding never fully stopped.  Fluttershy fell in next to them both and took his hand again.  He seemed to have calmed down a bit but was still shaking, the trauma from the injury and the blood loss obviously taking their toll.  With her friends finally ready, the cowgirl sprinted off.


-----


An hour or two must have passed while Applejack paced back and forth in the hospital waiting area.  Maybe it was three, maybe it was six – she didn't know or really care.  The sun had already gone down and the moon was halfway in the sky.  Needless to say, their night out together was beyond shot.

As the time ticked away, one by one, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Rainbow Dash had arrived, having heard what happened thanks to the talkative townsponies.  Twilight and Fluttershy did most of the clarifying; Applejack barely said a word to any of them.  While they waited, the girls nervously argued to each other that he was going to be alright, remembering how he had been in worse spots before and came out okay.  Even so, the apple farmer didn't add to – or even acknowledge – their conversation.  She was too busy going out of her mind.

Like every time before, the opening of the double doors nearby snapped Applejack's eyes up from the floor.  Unlike every time before, however, a surgeon and nurse were rolling out their bipedal patient on a hospital bed.  Half of his head was wrapped like a mummy in bandages but fortunately, both his eyes were uncovered and he could see fine.

As the farm girl sped up and greeted him a step or two before the others, she couldn't help but notice how much he was bobbing and weaving, probably due to how utterly exhausting the whole experience had been for him.  He barely was able to summon the strength to wave hello at them.

"How's he doing, doc?" Applejack tensely asked.

The golden-maned unicorn removed his glasses and guided them into his coat pocket.  "Lucky, after everything you said happened to him.  It's a good thing you got him here as quick as you did.  Fortunately, we were able to prevent things from getting even more serious than they already were."  He hovered up his notes and glanced over the details for them.  "Those lacerations nearly cut all the way to his skull.  I had him get X-rayed, ran a few tests, just to make sure and fortunately, the animal's claws didn't penetrate through to his brain.  There simply isn't much between a pony's – or a human's – skull and their skin, but if those slices went much deeper, I wouldn't have been able to release him so soon."

The nurse delicately removed the bandages while the doctor continued, slowly revealing the train tracks along the side of his head.  Applejack and the others winced and bit their lips at the grisly sight.  "He needed nearly fifty staples, and it wasn't easy keeping his ear together, but we managed to stitch it up.  We gave him some antibiotics to stave off infection and he'll need to keep everything dry for a day or two while my healing magics do their work.  He did have a bit of blood loss, but fortunately, you kept from getting too out of control.  Still, we determined during our tests that his blood pressure was a little low, so we gave him some blood."

"Wait," Twilight spoke up, "you mean pony blood is compatible with his?"

"Actually it's not.  We asked him a short while after the Discord incident if he would be so kind as to donate a sample of his blood for us to study.  He did so and we put it on ice.  We've done some fascinating research with it since then.  But he needed some now, so we simply gave some back to him, in a manner of speaking," the doctor explained.  "Other than all that, he should be alright, but again, he got extremely lucky."

"Anything else?"

The doctor stepped back, allowing Matt to slide down off the bed.  Rainbow grabbed onto his shoulder as his first step left him a touch off-balance.  "You'll find a painkiller in a bag in his shorts pocket.  After the Novocaine wears off in a little while, it's going to feel rather uncomfortable to say the least.  What you should do for now is bring him home and have him get some rest.  The painkiller should knock him right out not long after he takes it.  Matt, I'll have the receptionist put you down to come back, say, Tuesday to get those taken out.  You should be healed up completely by then."

Groggy and barely coherent, he nodded at the surgeon and mumbled, "Sounds good."

"Alright then.  We'll mail his bill out on Monday once everything's been added up and–"

The cowgirl cut him off, shaking her head.  "Uh uh, you send it to Sweet Apple Acres instead, okay?  I'll take care of it."

"A.J., you don't have to do that," Twilight interjected.  "I'm more than willing to chip in some bits."

"Me too."

"Mmhmm."

"Don't you dare, any of you," Applejack insisted.  "Just send me the bill.  It's alright."

"Are...you sure?" the doctor asked.

"I am," she said with a firm nod.

"Well...okay.  I'll make a note of that.  Does he need a ride home by any chance?  He's still pretty woozy, as you can see, and I don't want to see him getting hurt even more trying to walk home on his own."

"Thanks, but my wagon's still waiting outside.  We'll be okay."

"Excellent."  He gave the human a pat on the back as he headed back inside.  "See you Tuesday, Matt."


-----


The walk back to Matt's home felt impossibly long and was littered with quiet, concerned chatter, most of which was directed at him.  Exactly what kinds of things they said were lost on him as his dizzy state made their queries and statements sound like a cacophony of noise more than anything else.

Rarity kept Applejack company as she pulled the cart.  She didn't want to see the farmer make herself sick with worry seeing Matt in the shape he was.  Still, she couldn't deny that she would have been just as traumatized herself if something that horrible had happened to Sweetie Belle or her parents or any of her friends.

As they plodded along, they came across the Blazer, still sitting where Matt left it hours ago.  Fluttershy ignored the conversation as the wagon passed, staring curiously as the vehicle.  Nothing looked out of the ordinary about it.  What exactly happened earlier?  Was she just hallucinating from the stress?

Putting the questions in her mind aside, the pegasus glanced just beyond the SUV and past the apple stand behind it to where the horrific fight took place earlier in the day.  The animal was gone, probably carried off by animal control and hopefully taken care of in a respectful manner.  Her ears fell as the events replayed in her head.  She was hoping to say goodbye to it one last time before it was removed.

However, there was something else from the fight that someone else may find important.  She got up from the wagon and fluttered over to the former battlefield, causing Applejack to pause.  After a minute of searching, she returned to the group hanging her head.

"You okay, Fluttershy?" Twilight asked.  "I know that couldn't have been easy for you to watch earlier."

She sighed deeply, confirming her friend's suspicions.  "It's okay.  At least Matt's alright.  That's what matters.  I, uh...I didn't find either of those knives.  I know they were important to him, but it looks like they were taken away."

"Maybe we can just replace them after all this blows over."

"I suppose so," Fluttershy whispered.  "We should go.  We need to get Matt home and make sure he gets to sleep."

With a nod, their trek home continued.


-----


Roughly twenty somber minutes had gone by when Applejack unhitched herself from the wagon.  Slowly, clumsily, Matt staggered out of the back and to his feet, leaning against its floor for balance.  The girls escorted him inside and to his bedroom with Rainbow Dash and Applejack providing him the most support.

He slipped the tiny bag with the painkiller from his pocket and set it down on the nightstand.  Almost stumbling, he turned and sat hard on the bed, removing his shirt and tossing it to a random corner of the room.  Though he typically didn't sleep with anything on, he was feeling too out of it to muster the energy to remove his shorts and slipped under the covers.

A purple glow lifted his upper body just enough to grab the pillow and fluff it for him.  As Twilight set him back down, Matt ran his fingers over his injuries several times.  If only he could have just gotten a scab from bumping into a sharp edge and bleeding a little instead of getting mauled by an animal and bleeding a lot.

"Is there anything we can get you, Matt?" Fluttershy asked.

"No, I'm good," he mumbled after a long moment of staring at the ceiling.  His eyes were getting heavier with each passing second, but thankfully, his injuries hadn't started to hurt yet like the doctor said they would.  He glanced at the yellow mare, remembering the attack.  He really never had a chance to ask her, for obvious reasons.  "You okay?"

"Y-yes.  Thanks.  I'd be better if you hadn't gotten hurt though."

He shrugged, barely.  "Eh, I'll be fine."

The girls exchanged a look.  It wasn't the first time he'd been in serious trouble.  That didn't diminish their concern for his well-being though.

"We should head out and let him sleep," Twilight softly suggested, nodding at the door.  "We'll stop by to see you tomorrow, Matt.  Get some rest."

Behind closed eyes, he nodded as his company left one by one, heading into his living room.  Applejack, however, was still sitting by his side, and Rarity noticed this as she turned to leave.  She walked up to the farmer and wrapped a comforting hoof around her shoulder, receiving a thankful squeeze in return.  The country girl looked at the designer, her green eyes barely holding back their tears.  Rarity nuzzled her cheek and let her go, leaving Applejack where she needed to be.

The dressmaker closed the bedroom door behind her and followed Pinkie Pie out the front.  As the group was about to say their good nights, Rainbow asked, "Applejack still in there?"

"Just leave her be.  They were supposed to go out tonight, so I'm sure she'd like a few minutes," the white unicorn answered.

"Yeah.  So, uh...I guess we can meet up here, say, three?"

"Sounds fine."

"Okay."

"Alright, cool," Rainbow sighed.  "See you all tomorrow."


-----


Applejack sat silently as Rarity had shut the door behind her, leaving her alone in the moonlit room watching over Matt.  It looked as if he had managed to nod off as her friends left.  As he shifted to get comfortable, the farmer noticed some of the staples just barely shining from the soft light coming in from the window.  She sobbed under her breath and a tear slid down her cheek.

A grunt from the bed caught her ear and she quickly wiped her face clean, acting as if she merely had an itch.  "Hey," Matt groaned, having heard her whispered sorrow.

"H-hey."

He sat himself up and leaned against the headboard, stretching his back out as he spoke.  "Thought you left with the others."

"I just...I just wanted to make extra sure you were alright, is all."

"Yeah, I'm good," he said with a yawn.  His fingers seemed to find the wounds on their own again and ran up and down the staples and the sutures in his ear.  "So much for our night out, hm?"

"Stop playing with those," Applejack scolded, snatching his hand.  "You don't need to make things worse."

"They feel funny," he snickered.  Before long, his head began to throb steadily and he winced in annoyance.  "Great.  I think the Novocaine is wearing off."

"I'll go get you some water so you can take the painkiller."  Applejack didn't bother to wait for an answer as she headed to the kitchen.

While she took care of his needs, Matt grabbed the tiny bag beside him and fished out the small, white pill.  Once the mare returned with a glass, he threw the medicine down his throat and chugged a mouthful of water to force it down.  Blech!  Tasted like chalk.  Even in Equestria, doctors don't seem to like the idea of slapping a liquid coating on pills too much.

He finished up his drink and set the glass on the nightstand.  "Thanks."

Applejack sighed and shook her head.  "Why'd you have to go after that thing, Matt?  Me and Twilight could have dealt with it just fine."

"Just didn't want to see you girls get hurt," he mumbled, shrugging.  "Would have been fine if I hadn't slipped."

"And you almost got yourself killed!  You and I both know this isn't the first time you've done something like this."

"I know what you're referring to, but that was different.  We know why that bear didn't want to go home."

"But you don't need to show off or whatever if that's what it is you're trying to do now!  Me and the girls have been keeping Equestria safe for a while.  I know you mean well, but you don't have to go risking your neck like that for us.  I..."  She paused, catching herself from speaking the most honest truth.  The night hid her glistening eyes just enough for Matt not to notice them.  "W-we don't want to see anything happen to you."

He smirked and chuckled to himself.  "What, are you getting sappy on me, A.J.?  That ain't like you."

"I'll get sappy if I want," she frowned, poking him in the side.  "Come on, Matt, after all this time, do you really not understand how much to mean to m...to all of us?"

The sudden guilt he felt in the pit of his stomach took a back seat to the mare that wrapped a limb around him and was weeping into his chest.  He honestly didn't know how to respond at first; she had never done anything like this before.  Seeing her breaking down crying left a twinge in his heart, and he felt his eyes begin to water.  He slid his arm out from under her and reassuringly caressed her neck and back.  Her tight squeeze told him that it was helping, even if only a little.
> Chapter 7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Matt sat on his couch in the living room, he continued to rub at and play with the staples along the side of his head, and Applejack continued to nudge him when she'd catch him in the act.  The rest of their friends sat around the room, nibbling at the snacks Pinkie brought as a pick-me-up and making small talk.  Most of all, they were just relieved that Matt seemed to be doing okay after the horrific previous day.

Yet another swat landed on Matt's arm as he reached for his wounds.  "Am I going to have to hogtie you to make you stop doing that?" Applejack scolded.

"Maybe.  Sounds like a good time if you ask me."  As much as she wanted to fire back a sharp comment for his snark, the obvious euphemism made her clam up.  No reason for her to dig a deeper hole.  He glanced across the room, his eyes landing on his now-empty rack below his newspaper clipping, and sighed loudly.

"What's up?" Rainbow asked, following his look.

Matt nodded at the bare area.  "Just wish I knew what happened to those.  Was kind of fond of them."

"They were just knives though."

"Eh, still.  They had a history for me."

"I'll say," Twilight chimed in.  "They saved your skin twice now."

He wasn't so sure.  Once the girls had arrived to check on him like they had agreed – with Applejack arriving much earlier as she wasn't aware of their plans – he eventually learned of what had transpired after being nearly killed by the rampaging animal, particularly how it had suddenly appeared to phase in and out of reality.  Matt hadn't said much since then, being far too focused on what the creature's story was.

He had remembered that Fluttershy revealed aside two things the day before:  Large cats like that one weren't indigenous to any nearby area and that she was unable to talk to the beast.  She only repeated such news for those who weren't in attendance to the attack.  He never really understood how she could communicate with animals in the first place, but he had seen enough examples of such a talent in action not to question it too hard.

Something bothered him even more than the mountain lion however.  The shy pegasus also mentioned that she noticed his SUV had similarly been affected by the same thing the animal was, whatever it could be.  He knew the truck wasn't from around there.  Did that mean...?

"Maybe," he mumbled.

"Why 'maybe'?" Rarity asked.

"Think about it."  Matt turned to Fluttershy, making eye contact.  "When was the last time you heard of an animal like that taking down its target and just letting it go?  Or...o-or not sinking its teeth into its neck and turning it into a meal?"

The image of seeing Matt at the receiving end of what could have been a very real fate made the poor mare cringe, but she managed to respond anyway.  "Well...never really.  They only attack when they're hungry or scared.  If it was simply lost, I can see why it would be nervous in unfamiliar surroundings.  Plus, when you were trying to scare it away, it likely felt like it had been backed into a corner and was simply trying to defend itself."

"Mhm, and if I would have run, it would have either chased me down or gone after one of you instead."

"I know."  Fluttershy briefly gazed away, still a bit upset over what needed to be done.  But Matt was right.  After everything was said and done, things could have been much, much worse.  Despite her sad exterior, she smiled at the young man.  "Thanks for looking out for us."

With a nod, he bit his lip.  "My point still stands though," he murmured.  "I shouldn't be alive."

The grim remark left an awkward silence in the room, broken only by a farm girl laying her head on his shoulder and whispering, "Well, you are.  And you have no idea how grateful I am for that."

A bouncy pink pony hopped onto the arm of his couch and happily wrapped her forelimbs around his head.  "We all are!"

He took Applejack in his arm and held her comfortingly, smirking as he stifled a laugh.  "I really hope this doesn't become a regular thing again.  Was getting so used to not being Equestria's punching bag."

"Hey, we know why everything was always coming after you before," Rainbow Dash spoke up, "but whatever's going on now, it's gotta get through us first.  Don't you worry."

"Easier said than done."  He peered over at the librarian.  "I'm assuming you got in touch with Celestia at some point last night after you got home?"

"Yeah, I let her know what was going on like she requested.  She sends you her best wishes, by the way; I told her what happened to you."  He nodded thankfully.  Maybe he'll send a 'thank you' letter once he's feeling a bit better.  "She hasn't seen anything unusual in Canterlot herself since her visit here, and she's asked her guards to keep an eye out, so she'll know if something's amiss.  I just wish I could have gotten a chance to examine the animal's body."

"You have the same feeling I do then?" Matt asked.

"What's that?"

"That it might have been from home."

"I don't know," she replied, shrugging.  "Given what Fluttershy said, it's a possibility.  Up until now, we hadn't had an opportunity to look over a living thing to see if there were any answers as to what's happening recently.  But it's gone now, and I have no idea who took the body or where they took it."

"Plus, even if it could tell us what's going on... Well, maybe it would only been able to tell us while it was still breathing, y'know?" the human added.  "At the end of the day, we're still in the dark about all this."

"Yeah," Twilight sighed, "but we'll get through it.  We always do."


-----


The rest of the girl's visit had been relatively quiet.  They had talked at length about what their unexpected visitor the day before meant and constantly checked on Matt's condition, almost ad nauseum at times.  Though it was pretty nice when Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash decided to run out and come back with a few pizzas for dinner.  It had been a while since Matt had gone to bed with such a full stomach.

Tuesday felt like a long way away despite being in less than twenty-four hours.  It would have been nice if Applejack allowed Matt to kill most of the day helping out like he typically did, but she was adamant that he not risk getting his wounds infected by anything he usually assisted her with.  All the sweat, dirt and grime that came with Sweet Apple Acres could do more harm than good, she argued.  The mare even insisted that he try not to show off the injuries to Apple Bloom and her friends, lest they end up messing with the staples and making things worse.  It was a bit odd for him, seeing how protective she was being, but what could he do?  Applejack wasn't the type to budge when she made a decision.

Ah well.  He did need to pick up some things from the market and he didn't have any jobs written down to begin with that day.  Unfortunately, such an endeavor also had proven to be a bit more than he expected.  Rainbow Dash wasn't the other weather pony around, and apparently, a couple other pegasi had spotted the strange house outside of town and, slowly but surely, the question of where it came from was on the town's lips.  If the Mayor had requested for a residence to have been built, even in such an odd place, they would have seen some evidence of its construction over the course of a few months or more, yes?

Matt held back groaning when the residents he chatted with started grilling him about the subject, figuring it was only a matter of time before the house was found out anyway.  Not that it made the inevitable any easier – he really hadn't put any thought into what he'd tell them.  Why they hadn't originally asked what the story was with the Blazer made Matt scratch his head at first, but according to the stallions and mares he spoke to while he shopped, the general consensus seemed to be that they were more interested in the music at the time.  Plus, he didn't really stick around to talk with them about it either.  Others believed that he had constructed the thing himself and was keeping it secret somewhere until he was done.  If only he was that skilled!

Very few outside his circle of friends knew exactly what brought him to Equestria in the first place, and he didn't want to blame Discord for recent events.  There wasn't any reason to risk inciting panic nor did it appear true to begin with.  Still, he needed to say something that sounded believable.  The only excuse he could come up with on the fly seemed to do the trick and didn't surprise anyone, given what they knew about the mare:  He explained that Twilight had been working for a while on a way to possibly send him home – especially now that there had been peace for a while – and her initial tests of the spell didn't seem to be functioning properly.  Hopefully she wouldn't be mad if they asked her about it, though Matt was more worried that she wouldn't understand what the townsponies were talking about and inadvertently give him up.  He'd have to have a word with her soon.

Luckily for him, 'soon' would turn out to be sooner than he expected.  About twenty minutes after he returned home, a knock came from the door, and Matt ushered in his purple guest.

"Hey Twilight, come on in."

"Afternoon, Matt.  How's the head?"

"S'okay.  Tomorrow needs to get here faster so I can get these damn things out.  What brings you here?  Want a drink or something?" he asked as the mare took a seat.

"No, thank you."  A scroll materialized beside the unicorn and floated over to her host.  "This came from the Princesses earlier.  Figured you may want to see it."

Taking it from her magical grip, Matt sat back on his couch and unrolled the letter.  It wasn't terribly long but its contents made him purse his lips as he went.  "A boat in the castle ballroom, that's different."  He continued a few lines further.  "Huh.  I thought it was impossible for two things to occupy the same space at once."

"The tree sitting in the nearby shop that looks like it grew through the roof?"

"Yep."

"Yeah, I know," Twilight grumbled, "and neither of them could find anything."

With a smirk, he rolled up the parchment and tossed it back to its keeper.  "Well, uh...I guess we know it's not limited to just here, for what it's worth."

"How does that improve the situation?"

He shrugged after a moment of contemplative silence.

"You realize, if anything, that's just going to make things worse," the mare argued.  "We're used to seeing odd things in Ponyville.  Other places in Equestria...not so much."

He sighed into his hands, rubbing the corners of his eyes.  "You're right, you're right."  He leaned back, groaning in exasperation.  It was all getting old fast for his tastes.  "Oh yeah," he suddenly remembered, "if anyone happens to ask you how your efforts to send me home are going, just humor them, okay?"

Twilight lifted a skeptical eyebrow at the odd request.  "What are you talking about?"

Fidgeting, he bit his lip and darted his eyes around the room, making sure never to look straight at her for more than a second.  "I, err...may have told some people who were wondering why there's a house that wasn't there before that you may have something to do with it."

The unicorn's glare was punctuated with the tiniest of sneers.

"You were, uh...having...difficulty with it," Matt added under his breath.

"Are you looking to get another head injury?"

"No."

"Okay then."  Noticing Matt playing with the staples again, she lit up her horn and yanked his hand away, bopping him on the head with her scroll for good measure.  "And stop messing with that!"

"Oh, come on, Twilight," he whined.  "A.J. smacked me enough all day yesterday."

"Well, I can either drag you down to Sweet Apple Acres so she can smack you some more, or I can do it here now.  Your choice."

"It's starting to itch!" Matt retorted with annoyance.  "I haven't showered since before I went to the hospital.  The doctor told me not to, remember?"

"You should be able to do that tonight or tomorrow morning before you get those removed," the mare answered back.

"Eh, I guess."

"Well, you be sure to."  Twilight hopped off her chair and turned toward the door.  She had some scheduling that needed to be sorted out before she got too far behind.  "I have a feeling the girls will be stopping by tomorrow so we can accompany you to the hospital, so I'll see you then, okay?"

"Yeah, I figured.  That's fine," he said, resuming his scratching.  "And, err, sorry about that whole blaming you for what's happening stuff.  It was the only thing I could think of." 

With a roll of her eyes, Twilight said, "It's fine.  I guess it's a good thing you told me now before I found out about all that the hard way."

"Heh, yeah.  Curious, how do you think the Canterlot crowd is handling what's going on now that they're getting a taste of this?"

"Well, hopefully Celestia and Luna can think of a better explanation than me having trouble with a spell," she responded with an unamused curl of her lips.  "But, I think they'll be alright as long as they don't think–"

A strange, melodic jingling suddenly sang from deeper in Matt's house – his bedroom specifically – cutting off the mare's train of thought.  She listened intently to the musical chimes, having never heard such an odd sound before.  It almost sounded like a xylophone, but not quite.

"What is that?" she asked as Matt obliviously ventured over to his nightstand.

"I got it."  Picking up the now half-charged phone, he slid his finger across the screen and answered it. "Hell–"

Wait a minute.
> Chapter 8
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hello?  Hello?!  Goddamn it, Jack, answer me!  Jack!  ...Jack, this isn't funny!" a hysterical female voice shrieked from over the phone.

Matt pulled the phone from his ear, gawking at the sound of the first human voice he had heard in nearly a year and a half.  He glanced over at Twilight, who was more lost than anything.  The woman on the other end of the connection sounded like a quiet, steady buzz and she couldn't distinctly hear what was coming from the tiny speaker.  Even so, based on what Matt had told her about the device when he first introduced it to her, she knew what was happening in front of her wasn't supposed to be.  The horrified look on Matt's face helped to clue her in as well.

Taking a deep breath, Matt collected himself and answered.  "Uh...h-hello?"

"Hello?!  Who is this?  Where's Jack?"

"Name's Matt.  I guess Jack's the guy who owns this phone."

"Y-yeah, why do you have his phone?  Where is he?!"

"A friend of mine's sister found it.  I haven't seen anyone around here though.  We don't really get many...visitors around here."

The woman started muttering incoherently; she sounded half a step away from a panic attack.  Matt curled his lips and eyed Twilight again as the woman rambled.  Was he as terrified when he first arrived?  Maybe he'd ask her someday but right now certainly wasn't the time.

"Oh God, what's happened?  What the hell's happened?!" the mystery guest hollered.  It was about the only thing Matt was able to understand in the last several seconds.

"Alright, um...what was your name?  I don't think I got it."

Between heavy breaths, she managed to answer, "Tina.  M-my name's Tina."

"Okay, Tina..."  Matt paused, knowing he needed to choose his words carefully.  This was their first break since these bizarre appearances started, but if Tina didn't remain calm – or, if hearing the truth, she took Matt for an escaped mental patient – they'd be back where they started yet again.  "...obviously there's something bothering you.  What exactly's going on over there?"

"I don't really think you'd believe me," Tina muttered, sniffling.  Just from how much her voice was cracking, she must have been crying her eyes out most of the day – not that Matt could blame her.

"Try me.  There's been a lot weird shit going on around here lately," he retorted with a smirk.

"W-well, a...a few days ago, there was...I-I was watching TV – it was about mid-afternoon or so – and then, like, there was this...weird, yellow glow or something all over the place.  The walls, the floors, all the furniture, me.  Then, th-the power went out.  I thought maybe the house got hit by lightning or something, but it was clear out and, like, why would everything glow like that?  It didn't make any sense!  I...I-I went outside to check the roof and...a-a-and the neighborhood was just...just gone and I don't know what's going on!"

As she frantically sobbed into the phone, Matt couldn't help but feel a little sorry for her, but he needed to remain strong and in control.  First things first, he had to calm her down.  "Tina, believe me, I know exactly what you're going through."

"How in the hell can you possibly know what I'm going through right now?!" she screamed into her phone.

"Because a year and a half ago, the same thing happened to me.  Only difference is my apartment didn't come with me."

Matt's revelation seemed to worked at first only for Tina to continue losing her mind a second later.  "W-what, are you saying that this has happened to other people before?"

He grit his teeth behind his lips.  This was proving to be more difficult – and more annoying – than he anticipated.  Even so, considering the insanity that had been happening recently, the question may very well have been a valid one.  "No, it hasn't.  I haven't heard of anyone else other than you just...showing up out of the blue around here after I did.  Hell, it's been months since anything unusual's happened around here.  It's all been real recent."

"Then what am I supposed to do?!  I mean, where are you?  How'd you find the people you're with right now?"

He bit his lip as the woman's voice shook with fear, a tentative idea coming to him.  "They found me.  Way too long a story to get into right now.  But listen, a friend of mine is here with me now.  She runs a library right around the corner from me, I can see it from my house.  She probably has some maps.  We can try and figure out where you are as best we can, see if we can get someone out there to help, okay?"

"Okay, th-thank you."

Matt nodded at Twilight to follow him, though she could figure out what his plan was as soon as she heard it.  The unicorn trotted a step behind, closing his door for him, as they marched to her tree home.  She wanted to ask a hundred questions about what this Tina was talking about but chose to keep her mouth closed until Matt was ready.

"Well, don't thank me just yet.  There's a lot of area I really don't know, even if you described it to me, but hopefully we can figure out something.  My friend here knows the people in charge around here, so if we ask them, they'll probably help.  You said this happened a few days ago, huh?"  May as well keep her talking and relatively calm.  Any more information they could get out of Tina, the better.

"Yeah, that's right."

"There anyone else with you?"

"No, my son was going to be getting off from school soon and my husband was at work at the time.  I-I've tried to get in touch with them, b-but the phone hasn't worked until now.  I tried all the numbers on my list a few times, a-and this was the first time any of them worked," Tina explained.  "Why would Jack's number work now and the others wouldn't?"

"Who exactly is Jack, if I might ask?"

A hint of annoyance in Tina's sigh told Matt quite a bit of the story before she could.  "He's my brother-in-law.  He's kind of an ass sometimes.  Still, I needed to get a hold of someone, y'know?"

"Yeah, I understand.  I'll be honest, when we found this phone, it couldn't seem to dial out either.  I wonder if I should try others on Jack's list?  If this thing has enough juice for that."

"How long ago did you find that thing anyway?"

He counted on a single hand, mumbling to himself as he replayed the last week in his mind.  "Let's see, three days for you and we found it...I think it was three days before you showed up, three or four."

"Can't imagine how much of a fit he's been throwing."  Matt could practically see the smirk on her face.  At least she was able to make a wisecrack in spite of the situation.

The pair arrived at the library and swung the door open to find a small purple resident sweeping up the floor.  "Oh, hey Matt.  What's up?"

He nodded hello to the little dragon and continued his conversation with their otherworldly visitor.  "Okay, we're at the library now.  I'll see what we can find really quick."

"Alright.  Please find something, anything!" Tina begged.

"I hope I do."

Twilight skipped past her suddenly confused assistant, gently pulling him with her as Matt chatted away.  "Uhhh, who's he talking to?" Spike asked.

"Shh.  Another human," she whispered.

"What?  But...isn't he the only one in Equestria?"

The mare eyed her friend and nervously curled her lips.  "Not anymore."

Spike observed the biped and noticed he seemed to be talking at the small rectangular thing he showed them the week before.  A scaly eyebrow was lifted.  "Wait, I thought he said that thing wasn't working."

"That's not important right now," Twilight snapped.  "I need you to help me find some maps of Equestria.  We want to see if we can get an idea of where this new person is."

"Oh, err, sure!  No problem."

The two split up and headed for opposite ends of the room.  In the meantime, Matt was tapping at his head, trying to establish some directions for Tina.  "Okay, the sun's still out, it's in the middle of the afternoon.  I'm assuming it's pretty clear over there?"

"Yeah, there's not a cloud in the sky," Tina said.

"Alright, the window where the sun's shining in the brightest would be west.  Is it safe to step outside for a minute so you can look around for me?"

"I...I-I think so.  I haven't seen any signs of life since I got...wherever I am."

"Okay, go ahead and do that.  Just be careful.  Let me know if you see anything in any direction, a forest, a city, a body of water, whatever.  I'll try and pinpoint a location if at all possible," he instructed as he paced around in a circle.

Behind him, Spike had found several atlases and set them on the table in the center of the lobby and hissed Twilight over, moving the heavy stallion bust onto the floor to make room.  The books flickered purple and opened to various pages, each eventually coming to a stop at small pieces to a larger map.  Twilight set most of the books side by side, putting the diagrams together like a puzzle.  In the meantime, Spike had found a complete, two-page map of Equestria and left the book open on the floor beside his surrogate.

Whispered sounds of wooden and screen doors opening and closing trickled into Matt's ear.  "Could use some water," Tina mentioned.  "I haven't had any running water since...this."

"Ouch, I'm sorry."  He paused, cringing as he realized one of the more important things that running water was good for.  Quickly changing the subject, he asked, "Uh, what about your food supply?  How's that holding up?"

"I only have a few days worth left as far as I can figure.  I don't know what I'm going to do if I run out."

"Well, hopefully it won't come to that.  Now, what do you see outside the house?  Oh, one second, let me write this down."  Matt motioned to Spike for a pencil, and the dragon responded by shuffling over to Twilight's desk and snagging a sheet of paper and the requested writing utensil, handing them over.  "Alright, whenever you're ready."

There was a brief pause as Tina mumbled to herself, getting her bearings outside.  "Yeah, um...looks like east and a little northeast there's some trees.  They're at the top of a really small hill."

"About how far do you think?"

"Mmm...few hundred yards?" she replied.

"'Kay, go on," Matt said as he scribbled the notes down.

Another quiet moment passed.  "Uhhhh, there doesn't seem to be anything out west as far as I can see.  To the south...wait, what the hell's that?"

Matt held his breath for the worst.  "What?"

"It looks like...some kind of...buildings, I think."

"Well, that's good, no?  Haven't you gone over there yet?" he asked with an eyebrow raised.

"I didn't see them there yesterday."

Great.  Just what he needed to hear.  He jotted down what he immediately figured to be even more bad news.  If this woman wasn't aware of a series of nearby buildings, it was likely they just showed up recently as well.  "About how far away do they look?" Matt asked.

"Err...I don't know, maybe a mile or two?"

With the last details down, he replied, "Alright, Tina, give us a few minutes here.  We'll see if we can get an idea where you are and hopefully we'll be able to send out some people to get you."

"A-alright.  I'll head back inside while you do that."

As Tina went silent on her end – save for the sounds of doors again – Matt held the phone's mic against his stomach and went over what he was informed.  He explained without going into much detail to Twilight that Tina probably couldn't be more than fifty to a hundred miles away, and they scoured the maps and determined three rough areas where their guest may be based on the description.  He assumed the buildings were newcomers as well and made sure to have Twilight keep that in mind as they hunted for reasonable locations.  Whether or not they were correct was a question for another time.

"Tina, you there?"

"Yeah."

"Alright, so, we may have an idea where you are, but here's what I recommend doing... Do you have a car in the garage?"

"It's in the driveway."

"The driveway came too?" he mumbled just loud enough to be heard.

"Huh?"

"N-nothing, nothing.  Does it have a fair amount of gas in it?"

"I-I think so, yeah."

"Okay, here's what you should do then.  Go check out what's going on to the south of you.  If there are other people there, great, they'd probably be able to help you.  At least, I hope.  If the town is, um..."  He paused, trying to find the right words.  He may have to let the cat out of the bag a little bit.  "...well, if the...natives aren't people, whatever you do, do not panic."

"'Aren't people'?  What...wh-what're you talking about?"

He bit his lip and gazed nervously at his pair of purple companions.  The hole he was suddenly digging for himself just got a lot deeper.  "Let's just say you're not in Kansas anymore and leave it at that."

"What, you mean like...like aliens or something?!"  Tina's voice noticeably started to quiver again.  Hopefully she wasn't one to believe in tiny grey men with big black eyes, but Matt wasn't about to ask.

"No, no, not like that.  They'll...look familiar, they just won't be quite as large as you may have seen on TV or in the movies or whatever.  And they're a lot more colorful."  Whether or not his words were doing any good couldn't be determined by the confused stuttering that came from the phone's earpiece.  "Look, as long as you remain calm when you go there, the natives will be more than willing to help if you ask.  They did so for me.  Hell, they might wonder if you know me somehow, maybe."

"Why would they think I know you?"

Matt puffed out his chest with pride as he explained.  "About a year ago, I became kind of a celebrity.  The folks here in town and in the royal city nearby know who I am, but I have no idea if anyone else remembers me.  Tell them you know Matt, the guy who did that thing to an Ursa Major, see if that works.  If not, no big deal."

"Uh...o-okay, I'll try."

"Good.  Give me another second."  Putting the phone against his stomach again, he turned to Twilight.  "How long do you think it'd take Celestia's pegasi to fly to those areas we figured?"

"Shouldn't be more than a day," she answered with a shrug.

With a nod, he replaced the phone.  "Tina, check it out.  We're going to get in touch with the rulers and have them send out a squad to each of the areas we think you may be.  It should only take maybe a day for them to get to those places.  I'll ask for them to wait three days for you if they do happen to find your house.  What's it look like anyway?"

"The walls are off-white, roof's light brown."

"And the car?"

"A green Honda.  I've been sleeping in it at night since it's too damn hot in the house."

"I'll bet," he groaned, remembering his multiple treks through the residence outside of town.  "When you do go check those buildings out, regardless of what you find there, make sure you at least check back at the house before the three days after tomorrow are up.  I'll ask the people in charge to send out the help in the morning.  I'll give them your name, so if they ask for you, you'll know I sent them.  Just...again, don't freak out if you see them.  I know you've been through a lot, but I assure you they'll be there to help."

"That's not really helping, y'know," Tina responded with an obvious hint of snark.

Matt rolled his eyes and sneered.  After everything he'd done for this person, he really didn't need to be sassed.  What else could he say to her?  Telling her she was in a land with short, magical, talking horses would have probably made her hang up on him.  "I know.  Just trying to prep you, is all."

"Yeah.  What if I don't see them though?"

A fair question.  "I guess that'd mean we misjudged your location.  If that's the case, I'd say stick around by the buildings if things are working out alright.  If not, head home."

"But the food–"

"I know, I know.  A lot of the forests around here generally have some kind of fruit trees.  The one near you might too.  Hell, you could probably check that before you head south," Matt wisely suggested.

"Alright.  A-alright, I'll do that then.  Do you want me to call you when I find out what the story is?  You're the only one I've been able to get in touch with and you seem to know what's going on around here."

"I'm going to be too busy for a while now to answer, plus I don't know how much more life this thing has left in it and I don't have a charger.  If you have a charger for you car though, I'd take that with you, see if you can reach anyone else."

"I could text you if that'd be better," Tina countered.

Matt could have slapped himself.  "Oh.  Yeah, if the call got through, I guess that'd work too.  If you want, yeah, that should be fine."

"Okay.  I'll go ahead and go now.  I hope you're right about all this.  But, thank you either way."

"No problem," he said with a nod.  "I hope I'm right too.  Good luck, Tina."

The misplaced pair said their goodbyes and hung up.  Matt pulled the phone into view and stared vacantly at it, chewing on his lips.  He knew he wasn't hallucinating or under the effects of some spell – at least he didn't believe so.  Yet, he just finished speaking with someone from Earth for the first time in a year and a half on a device that had no reason to be functional.

Without saying a word, he shoved the phone into his pocket and shuffled over to the staircase, plopping down on the third step.  He folded his hands in front of his nose and sighed heavily into them, hoping to God he didn't send this new human on some kind of wild goose chase or, quite possibly, to an unexpected demise.  He had absolutely no idea what laid in store for her at those structures nearby.  If there were even more people there, they'd probably be just as panicky as she was, and Matt assumed he knew how large groups of people would react to such an insane event.  At the same time, he knew there was little other choice, especially since Tina was running out of food; she needed to get out and find some supplies or sustenance.

Two purple spots approached him in his peripheral vision, but he was too lost in thought to notice or care.  It took more than one attempt to get his attention.  "Matt?  Matt, come on, talk to us," Twilight insisted.

"Were you really talking to another human?" Spike asked.  He shared a look with the unicorn when an answer didn't come.  Maybe if he tried a different approach... "Soooo, how was that device working?"

From behind his balled-up fingers, his friends could hear the tension and unease in his words.  "Remember what I told you when I first showed it to you?  That it bounces a signal from tower to tower until it gets to where it's supposed to go?"

"You mean when you compared it to how the radio works?"

"Mhm."

"Yeah, so?" Twilight asked.

"Those towers need power to function.  The only thing it could possibly mean is...that more stuff has showed up than we realized.  Like, is there something relatively small that's making them work or are there a couple city blocks out there or something?  Are there even more people here that we weren't aware of?  I just don't know how we haven't heard about this yet."

The librarian and assistant glanced at each other again.  They wanted to help, but how could they answer such questions and make things better?  Every other day, it seemed Equestria was becoming progressively more nuts, but even in a crisis, they knew they could depend on the Princesses for guidance.  Unfortunately, they were just as lost as they were, if their communique was accurate.

"Well, Equestria is big and not everywhere is inhabited.  I know there are some areas where ponies live miles and miles apart.  It almost sounds like this 'Tina' person may be in one of those places.  You don't happen to know this human, do you?"

The flustered man closed his eyes and held his forehead in a single hand, shaking his head to reply.  Could he ever feel the mother of all headaches coming.

"I don't suppose you know how far away these towers you're talking about could be?"

He said with a shrug, "Some, not too far.  Others...I don't know, twenty-five, thirty miles?  Maybe more?  I have no way of knowing which it is nor what direction she may be in either."

Twilight pursed her lips and sighed in frustration.  Sitting and waiting for a solution to appear was not an approach to solving whatever problem was plaguing Equestria that she wanted to take, and yet, there didn't seem to be much else she could really do.

"I guess we should start writing to the Princess and inform her of the situation," the young mare concluded.  Matt responded with a simple, silent nod.
> Chapter 9
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After almost being torn to ribbons and the ensuing hospital visit, Matt had understandably wanted to take the previous day off more than anything.  Then Twilight showed up with Celestia's letter.  Heck, since the iPhone had shown up, peace was a thing of the past; it was a wonder Matt hadn't made himself sick out of stress and worry.  On normal days, sitting with Twilight at his home just shooting the breeze like he was at that moment as they waited for the rest of their friends to show up and walk him to his hospital appointment would be a great way to start the day.  However, the conversation he had with this Tina person about an hour after he hung up with her the night before unsettled him, leaving him even more anxious than ever.

The woman did everything he suggested.  The forest nearby had some fruits here and there, so in case she had no choice but to remain at home until she was hopefully found, she would have some food, even if her supply ran out.  But, that didn't look like it was going to be a worry; the structures she found to the south of her house was a small series of shops – a Subway and an electronics repair store specifically – and a five-story office building.  From what her texts described, he figured they arrived at some point in the middle of the night.  The only people she found were a few security guards and a handful of janitorial staff where the offices were.

The new arrivals weren't quite as terrified as Tina had been, and they all described a similar experience as to what she did – a strange yellow light encompassing everything then flashing away after several seconds.  The emergency power had kicked on soon after, allowing for limited air conditioning to be used, which Tina had found to be an utter blessing, even though her car's was working fine.  They had no issue with her asking to stay until everything had fixed itself – however that would happen.  There were a few offices they had keys for and slept on the few couches and comfortable chairs they found.  It didn't take long for them to simply smash open the vending machines in the building either.  Sure, a variety of chips wasn't exactly the most filling thing in the world, but the relatively cold drinks were more than worth it.  Either way, there was a sandwich store only two doors down that they could break into, just in case.

They said they had yet to encounter anyone else besides her up until that point, so she was still in the dark as to what the locals were like.  She told them of her chat with Matt and did her best to get his point across not to be afraid of any unexpected visitors.  Hearing that there were a couple security officers made Matt worry that they'd end up shooting at whatever ponies may show up.  Hopefully, Tina's half-informed pleas didn't fall on deaf ears.

Though it took a little convincing on her part, she managed to get one of the custodians to let her into a few of the top floor's offices to get a good look into the distance.  Aside from her own house and the forest beyond, she didn't see anything else in any direction.  What made things even worse was that, unlike her driveway, the parking lot didn't arrive with them.  If things dragged out and they felt they had to find somewhere else to go – assuming that Celestia's search parties didn't find Tina's house to begin with – moving around could be disastrous.  Plus, Tina had a small car; she couldn't fit everyone in it if she tried.

At least Matt was able to hear from the Princesses before he headed home.  They agreed with his idea to search the areas described in his notes for Tina, her home, or these buildings.  However, they also admitted that she doubted they'd find anything; Equestria was a big place and he really didn't have many details as far as where she could be, even with what he was able to get out of the panicky woman.  On a side note, the seaworthy vessel they found in the castle's ballroom revealed nothing as did the random tree down the block.

The evening appeared to go a little better at first when Applejack stopped by to spend some time with him after he left the library...until he was an idiot.  She even fixed up a meal for him despite him not having a lot in the fridge.  That girl sure knew how to cook; no doubt Granny Smith had taught her a thing or two.  If she ever got together with someone, they'd be one happily fed stallion, that much he knew.

In spite of the good food, his stomach had started to twist when he told her about the phone call and showed her the texts that Tina sent.  Applejack recalled how Matt had reacted when he first landed in their collective lap and worried what a group of people would do.  Maybe the fact that they weren't alone like he was would help keep them relatively calm?

The possibility that what was going on was irreversible had come up in conversation, given that they hadn't figured anything out yet.  It wasn't an easy thing to bring up, but Applejack still felt the need to mention it.  He hadn't thought about it himself, but she did have a point.  It was a worrisome notion, one that was compounded by a few brief but realistic things Matt suggested others humans may end up doing, even with their limited resources.  Perhaps it wasn't the wisest thing to talk about it, but it would have inevitably come up at some point anyway.

After she went home, Matt felt especially guilty for what he said and did.  Applejack came over to make him feel better and all he ended up doing was filling her head with terrible ideas that undoubtedly left her as unable to sleep as he knew he was going to be.  It was a rare thing for him to hang out with his favorite mare and not feel better afterwards, but he was the only one to blame.

As Twilight and Matt talked about the implications of Equestria's new visitors themselves, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rarity had arrived one by one.  While they waited for Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, Matt spent most of the time reflecting how A.J. and her friends had been relatively cool in spite of everything recently.  When he first showed up and had gotten used to his new surroundings, he was the one who seemed to have the coolest head of the bunch during some of their more...interesting encounters.  Now, even though he knew that everything showing up in Equestria was from Earth, he was the one stressing out the most over it.  Perhaps it felt very reminiscent to them of what Discord constantly threw at them?  After all, for the most part he'd simply turn things upside down and not send Ursas and dragons after them.  Whatever the case, it made him feel useless.

A few minutes more passed when a pair of pegasi knocked on the door.  Rarity opened it for their troubled friend and led the last arrivals inside.  With everypony there and ready to go, a gentle nudge of an orange hoof snapped him back to reality.  As he walked by his window-side desk, he snatched his wallet and keys but paused when he reached for the phone.  

After leaving the library last night, aside from when Applejack visited, he had spent most of the rest of the evening staring at it like he did the first night it arrived.  Numerous scenarios played out in Matt's head as he thought about Tina's predicament.  Even after he woke up and did his morning routine, various ideas kept coming to him.

But regardless of what may have been happening to her, the damn thing had actually worked!  Another person – who, like him, was never meant to be in Equestria to begin with – was able to make contact with it.  The others Tina found probably could too since they weren't far away from her residence.  Would there be others who would try and call this 'Jack's' number?  Could Matt himself reach others?  Were there others?

His eyes shifted as he asked himself those questions over and over.  But he couldn't stand there all day; he had an appointment to get to.  Biting his lip, he slipped the phone into his pocket.  Finally set to go, he shuffled out the door behind the girls as they waited just outside, taking a moment to rub the staples again.  Just like most of the other times, the farmer smacked him in the leg to make him stop.


-----


He said next to nothing during their walk around town.  His worries about Tina and what she was going through faded into the background of his mind when he looked at the phone on the way out, and the new idea was bugging him to no end.  He had given his flip phone to an angry red dragon over a year ago, and this new phone had only been with him about a week.  Despite it being able to receive calls – and presumably send them out too – he couldn't remember any of his old friend's numbers to save his life.  Why would he when he hasn't talked to them in so long?

Matt wasn't aware if anypony had said anything to him as they strolled down the road; he was too lost in thought.  But occasionally, he'd shoot a wayward glance at Applejack.  Whether she noticed or not, he wasn't sure.  She didn't seem agitated despite the stupid things he said the night before.  He wanted to ask her if she was okay but felt it was best not to risk stirring things up again, particularly with everyone else there.  Others may not be able to deal with what he told her as well.

As they neared the market, a familiar red machine gradually came into view.  Ah, that's right.  He knew he was forgetting something the day before.  At least the Blazer wasn't carted off like the dead cat was, though how would the citizenry have been able to do it?  Twilight was probably the only unicorn in town who could lift it with some effort and they didn't have the keys either.

With a chirp of the alarm, Matt popped open the doors for his escort and they hopped inside, figuring a short drive couldn't hurt.  It could help clear his head a bit too.  Whenever he was feeling down back home, driving around a bit with his music on usually helped.  This time would be no different.  He managed to find the will to tell the others about Tina and what she found.

Even at slower speeds to allow ponies to get out of the way, it probably wouldn't take more than about ten minutes to get the hospital.  That is, until he came to a stop several dozen yards ahead, much to his passengers' confusion.  But he had to – the octagonal sign told him to.  In that very spot, he also noticed a particular blue, metal box next to a coffee shop out of the corner of his eye.  The white eagle-shaped icon plastered on the side confirmed his suspicions.  

At least it wasn't a mountain lion again.  A stop sign and a Post Office box weren't anything to really panic about, but they still didn't belong.

"Well, hopefully nobody tossed their bills in there," Matt deadpanned.

He glanced back at Twilight quizzically.  She knew exactly what he was going to say after spotting what he was looking at.

"After everything we've looked over so far, I can't imagine I'll find anything on those two things."

"Probably not, but Celestia and Luna will want to know about it," he replied.

"Yeah, you're right," she sighed.

Her horn lit up and she popped away, reappearing in front of the mailbox.  After a few seconds, she trotted across the street to the stop sign and inspected it as well.  Matt could see her eyes glowing like before as she worked.  As they returned to normal, she disappeared again only to show up back in her seat.  She shook her head, as he figured she would.

"Eh, was worth a shot."

With that settled, they continued on to the hospital.  Didn't want to be late.


-----


"Ah, Mr. Doherty, good to see you again," the receptionist said.  "How's your head doing?"

"Itchy."

"Heh, yeah, that can happen sometimes.  The doctor will be with you shortly."

As he sat beside the girls, he couldn't help but feel sick.  Granted, he wasn't going in for anything serious, but he still hated going to the doctor's.  Hopefully getting the staples taken out wouldn't take too long, though they probably want to run a few tests just to check up on his condition.

Matt scanned around the waiting room as they sat there, his friends' conversation not registering to him.  Only one other group of ponies was there, a husband and wife it appeared.  The stallion was clutching one of his forelimbs close to his chest.  Was probably broken or something.  Ugh, what can be keeping the doctor?  He really didn't feel like waiting an hour.

Several more agonizingly slow minutes passed before he heard his name called by a nurse.  He gave the girls a quick wave goodbye and headed inside.  After his voice had faded from behind the door, Applejack got out of her seat and tapped Rarity on the shoulder, nodding for her to follow.

The pair stepped outside, letting the door close behind them before speaking.  "Something the matter, dear?" Rarity asked.

"No, I've just...come to a decision, is all...about Matt.  Wanted to talk to you about it."

"Oh!  What'd you decide?"

"Well, I went over to Matt's last night.  Just sat and talked a while.  He...he showed me these, uh...they were like letters on that phone of his.  Apparently, some more of his people showed up a couple days ago somewhere...err, well, somewhere," Applejack began.

"Oh, that isn't good."

"Tell me about it.  He was so stressed out when he showed me the, uh...texts last night.  We talked for a while about what could happen if we couldn't fix this and more of his people showed up, what they could do.  I could see it in his eyes.  I haven't seen him so flummoxed since this whole mess started."

"It's not like this has been easy on any of us, you realize," Rarity added.  "Not even the Princesses have any idea what's going on, and that's saying a lot."

The country mare peered in the windows and frowned, wondering how Matt was doing.  Sure, he was probably fine, but she could still be concerned.

"I know.  It's just...I've been thinking about it since I got home last night and...I-I think I'm just going to hold off on telling him how I feel until we fix all this.  I mean, he's got a ton on his mind right now.  I wouldn't feel right about having him suddenly worrying over me too if things went too crazy, y'know?  Provided he...even feels the same and all.  He's just got enough on his plate.  I don't want to add more to it."

The unicorn sat and took her friend by the hoof.  Their sad eyes met.  "Applejack, sweetie, you know as well as I that if things got serious, he'd look out for all of us, regardless of his feelings.  I still think you should just tell him and get it over with.  Who knows, maybe it would help relax him or distract him from all this nonsense."

"Maybe, but if he doesn't feel the same, then I could accidentally make things worse.  I'd prefer to play it safe for now," Applejack countered.  "It's not like I'm suddenly not going to be supportive if he needs me or anything."

"Well, if that's what you want to do..." Rarity muttered with a curl of her lips.

"It is.  For now."

"Then I hope we take care of this matter sooner than later, for you if nothing else."

"Me too," the earth pony sighed.  She looked once more through the window and fought back sobbing, though her quivering lips and the shake of her head gave her away.  "This shouldn't have happened."

"What, darling?"

The farmer motioned toward the waiting room, tears running down her cheeks.  "This.  When that cat pounced on him, I...I just froze.  When I saw the blood and...and heard him scream, I...I-I thought I was going to lose him.  I should've moved the moment he fell down and I just...I just stood there and it almost got him killed!"

"Applejack, listen.  From what you and Twilight and Fluttershy said, he insisted you stay out of harm's way.  Out of all of us, he's closest to you.  What would have happened if that beast decided to go after you as you charged at him?" Rarity asked as she sat beside her friend and wrapped a comforting hoof around her shoulders.  "I can tell you right now that if you would have been hurt, he would have been absolutely devastated.  He made you stay away because he didn't want to see anything happen to you."

"I would have been fine!  You and I both know I've gone up against some pretty nasty critters on my own!  But, Matt still almost got his head taken off!" Applejack snapped.

"And he almost died when he brought that Ursa down, remember?" Rarity pointed out.  "I still can't believe he was able to do such a thing.  But, he survived because we've always looked out for him, and he's always looked out for us.  I'm sure you would have been able to save him – that's not my point.  My point is that he's alive and well.  I don't know what happened to make that mountain lion...flicker or whatever it was.  But there's no reason for you to accept blame for something that didn't happen.  You three did what any of us would have done and got him here as soon as you could.  Yes, what happened was terrible, but nothing tragic came of it."

Slouching over, the miserable mare sniffled and wiped her nose on her hoof.  The rather uncouth display made Rarity squirm just a little, but she couldn't blame her friend for being broken up.  Applejack always was protective of ponies – or people, in this case – that she considered family.  Though she never really talked about what happened to her parents in detail, the unicorn wouldn't have been surprised if Applejack placed some of the blame on herself, even if she had nothing to do with their passing.

"I guess," the country girl muttered.

With a thought, a handkerchief materialized in front of the fashionista.  Rarity – still with her forelimb draped across her friend – gave Applejack an encouraging shake.  "Buck up, sweetie.  Things'll be okay, I promise.  Come now, Matt shouldn't be too long in there, and we don't want him to see you upset, now do we?"  The tissue floated across her orange cheeks and down to her hoof, wiping everything clean as it went.

The cloth went away as fast as it appeared, and with a giggle, the dressmaker trotted back inside without waiting for an answer to her question.  Despite being a little annoyed at practically being babied by her friend, Applejack took a deep breath and went back inside a few paces behind.  As she approached her entourage, a sports magazine sitting on one of the nearby end tables caught her eye.  Meh, at least she could read something while she waited.


-----


It wasn't terribly long – maybe a half hour – before the double doors opened and Matt, sans his staples, came walking out with the doctor by his side.  The girls hopped to their hooves and cantered up to him, most of them inspecting the now-bald strips of skin on his head.  Though he was glad to see them, the thoughts that were swimming through his head on the way to the hospital were still floating around.  He didn't do much more than silently nod hello.

"Well, good news," the doctor spoke up.  "His flesh has healed up just fine, no scar tissue, and according to the few tests we ran, he's in good shape.  Just make sure he doesn't tangle with any wild animals any time soon, okay?"  With a pat on Matt's back, the stallion turned to head back inside.  "Take it easy, son.  Stay safe."

"Thanks, doc."  He gazed blankly at his four-legged friends, almost as if he was looking right through them.  "Guess we can go."

"Uh, did you want to grab some lunch or something?" Twilight tentatively asked.  She, like the others, could see how preoccupied he still was.  They figured he would have been happy to have the recent nightmare finally behind him.

With pursed lips, he shook his head and answered, "Eh, not really."

"Err, are you...feeling alright, sugarcube?" A.J. eventually asked.  They had all wanted to but feared they may inadvertently set him off if he wasn't in the mood to discuss it.  Fortunately, he remained relatively calm.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine.  Just...just thinking about something, that's all.  No big deal really."

"Ooo, can we make it a guessing game?" Pinkie piped up.  "Are you thinking about a party?  How about a good book?  The fact that you've got a clean bill of health?  Is it cupcakes?"

"Pinkie, not now, okay?  Please?" he growled as he strutted past them.  The girls shared a startled glance between each other as he came to a halt in front of the exit, sighing and rubbing his forehead.  "Sorry, sorry.  Just..."  An explanation never came.  Yeah, it was definitely best not to pry and simply let it go.  "Look, you were going to eat out.  You want me to drop you off somewhere?  I really just want to go home and think."

"Well, if you don't want to go, there's not really much of a point," the pink-haired pegasus said.  "We wanted to take you to lunch to celebrate that you're okay."

Hit by a wave of guilt, the young man hunched over and groaned under his breath.  "Sorry girls, I just really wouldn't be very good company right now.  We'll do it in a couple days or something, 'kay?"

"I suppose that's alright," the bookworm hummed, the sound of disappointment obvious in her tone.  "I guess we should go on home then?"

Similarly saddened by Matt's decision, the others agreed and plodded out the door behind him.  Rainbow zipped up to meet him face to face once she left the waiting room.

"I'll go ahead and fly home.  Don't think you'd be able to drive that thing into the sky," she tried to joke.  Her heart wasn't in it though.  "Just chillax when you get home, okay?"

With a nod goodbye, the speedster raced off with her prismatic contrail following behind her.  The more soft-spoken flier glided up beside him next.  "I think I will too.  You know you can always talk to us if something's bothering you, right?"

"Yeah, I know," he smirked.

Wrapping her forelimbs around Matt's head, Fluttershy nuzzled him and gave him a goodbye kiss on his exposed scalp before flying off.  Her innocent display made Applejack's brow subtly furrow.

The Blazer's alarm turned off as Matt reached into his pocket and pulled out the keys.  One by one, the remaining mares climbed in to what had become their usual spots since the day he entertained them with the music he found.
> Chapter 10
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Matt drove the Blazer down the dirt road out to Sweet Apple Acres, a cloud of dust in his wake even at the relatively slow speed.  He had already dropped off his other three flightless friends at their homes after turning down their offer for a celebratory lunch to his good health.  Aside from saying goodbye after seeing Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Twilight off, he hadn't said anything to anyone.  Even with only Applejack left, not a word was exchanged, leaving the mare a touch uncomfortable.

Was he mad at them?  At her?  She couldn't figure out why he would be.  Even through her numerous sideways glances, it was nearly impossible to get a read on what was going through his head.  Usually when it was just the two of them, he'd have no problem opening up to her if something was bothering him.

As they arrived at the Apple family property's gate, the Blazer slowed to a crawl.  Looked like Matt could squeeze through with a few inches to spare.  He threw the SUV into 'Park' and got out to open them up while Applejack waited in the car.  He took one last glance as he took hold of the door handle.  Hopefully A.J. wouldn't be mad if he knocked over a fence post.

Moving at a snail's pace – as well as backing the truck up a couple times to straighten it out – Matt managed to get the metal monster onto the farmland without any incident.  He told the cowgirl that he'd close the gate back up again once he headed out.  It wasn't like anyone was going to show up and burglarize them in the ten or so minutes he'd be sticking around anyway.

A few honks of the horn nearly made Big Macintosh jump out of his skin as they drove by the corn fields he was working on.  The big red stallion stared in bewilderment as the big red machine cruised on by.  Though he hadn't seen it up until that point, this must have been that vehicle thing that Applejack had mentioned to him a few days ago.  His suspicions were somewhat confirmed when he briefly spotted Matt nodding at him through the window.

...Meh, he had other things to worry about.

Only a few minutes had gone by by the time they rolled up to the house.  Sure beat all that walking he usually did!  As Applejack reached for the handle – something that had been bit of a challenge for her to open on her own before – she paused and looked back at her bipedal friend, her eyes filled to the brim with concern.

"Matt, please, what's wrong?" she whispered.

"Nothing, nothing," he insisted.  "Just...thinking, that's all."

"You've been 'thinking' since you got out of the hospital."  She took hold of his hand as it laid against the arm between them, briefly upset when he didn't squeeze back like he normally did.  "Shug, if something's bothering you, you can tell me.  You know that."

He hoped his incoming venting wouldn't get on Applejack's nerves or upset her or anything.  Something told him that A.J. probably wouldn't let up about it, no matter how many times he'd try and dodge the question.  The root of the issue revolved around something he typically took pride in – being reasonably intelligent.

"It's just...I got a call from somebody."  The cowgirl shifted her eyes about, slightly confused by the foreign terminology.  She had a rough idea what he may have talking about, but...  "The phone.  Someone contacted me."

"Oh.  Yeah, so?"

"Well...we know that Tina person isn't the only one here now.  What if someone I actually know has shown up recently?"

"Can't you just get in touch with them too?"

With a smirk and dismissive shake of his head, he told her, "First off, I never had any reason to remember their phone numbers and stuff since our phones stored that kind of thing for us.  I still remembered phones numbers anyway just because I was able to, but I haven't had any reason to in forever.  Second, even if I did, I have no idea whether or not I'd even be able to reach them.  I mean, I don't know how many of those towers that let Tina talk to me are here, so I don't know if I'd be able to get the signal through to them even if they were wandering around somewhere.  Plus, what if they don't even have their phone on them?  I wouldn't be able to get in touch with them anyway!"

Applejack narrowed her eyes and tapped at her chin, the wheels turning in her head.  "Let's say that your friends or your family or whoever was here and had their phones and stuff.  Those numbers...what are they, sort of like addresses or something?"

"Sort of," he muttered with a tiny shrug.  "The first three numbers I can remember without a problem.  The rest...just...ugh!"  He slammed his free fist into the steering wheel and grit his teeth behind his lips.  "I'm usually better than that!"

"Hon, you said so yourself, it's been so long since it was on your mind.  You can't be expected to recall something from that long ago."  She continued with a bite of her lip.  "How many numbers are there in one of those addresses anyway?"

"Ten."

The mare visibly winced at the revelation.  No wonder he was so aggravated.  He was likely going through every number in the book trying to figure it all out.  However, fortunately for Matt, Applejack had a potential plan – an extraordinarily simple one.  "Matt, you...remember what Discord did when he first encountered me and the girls, right?  You have those memories of his too, yes?"

"Yeah, why?"

"When Discord turned us all against ourselves, Twilight was eventually able to fix us...with some sort of memory spell."

An eyebrow perked up.  He stared at her with his mouth slowly falling open as he searched for the right words, ultimately choosing the simplest ones.  "How far back can she go?"

Applejack shrugged.  "I don't know.  Maybe as far as you wanted her to?  She could tell you better than me how it all works, but it's worth a shot.  Better than nothing."

It was a no-brainer.  Matt's sour mood morphed into one of cautious optimism in a second.  He brought Applejack's hoof up to his lips for a long kiss, pleasantly startling her.  She had to turn away to hide her reddening cheeks.  "I'm going to go over there right now," he exclaimed.

"Heh, good luck, Matt," she said while fiddling at the door handle, figuring it was the ideal time to get out of the car.  Once she managed to pop it open, the farmer hopped out and shut the door behind her, waving from just below the window.  As the Blazer turned and quickly sped out of sight, Applejack lifted up her lucky hoof and beamed.  She had to have won a few brownie points!


-----


A distinct noise rumbled from outside the library before coming to a quick stop, causing Twilight to glance up from the book she was reading and Spike to peek out from inside the kitchen.  The already-familiar sound of the car's door slamming closed followed a second later.  The unicorn was taken aback by Matt simply barging in and not bothering to knock like he usually did.

"Oh thank God, you're here!"

"Uh...come in?" Twilight deadpanned as she got to her hooves.

"Sorry, sorry!"  Matt hunched over and grabbed the mare by the shoulders, barely holding back from shaking her in desperation.  "Memory spells!"

"Wha–huh?"

"How many memory spells do you know?"

"Err, a-a few, why?  Did you want me to perform one on you?"  A vigorous nod was her answer.  "Um...okay.  May I ask why?"

"I'm trying to remember some phone numbers so I can try and reach some people I know.  Provided they're here."

"Oh."  Twilight recalled his speaking to Tina from a couple nights ago and the realization dawned on her.  "Oh!  You're right!  It's entirely possible your family or some of your old friends may be here now!"  He nodded again.  "Sure!  Please, sit."

He landed hard on the wood floor and crossed his legs, excited and anxious to begin.  He didn't even care if a spell used directly on his brain was going to hurt.  If it was a way to achieve closure without turning into a vegetable – assuming he wouldn't go back with everything else if and when they fixed the problem – he was willing to do whatever it took.

"Hey, Spike?  Can you grab me a pencil and paper?" he called out.

"Uh, yeah, no problem!"

As the young dragon sifted through a nearby desk drawer, Twilight stepped beside Matt.  "This won't hurt at all.  How far did you want me to go back anyway?  I know you've been here about a year and a half, so, a little further than that?  Two years maybe?"

"Perfect."

"Alright!  Just relax and focus on what you're trying to remember and I'll pull it to the forefront of your mind.  Should only take a minute."

And about a minute was all it took once Twilight's horn lit up and made contact with his forehead.  All Matt thought of was his old flip phone and several names and numbers appearing on the tiny screen its face had, and amazingly, just as she said, everything became crystal clear bit by bit.

Once her purple magic went away, Matt's vision cleared up, the sights of books, a unicorn and a tiny dragon appearing in front of him.  Without saying a word, he snatched the pencil and paper out of Spike's grip, nearly tearing the sheet in the process, and quickly jotted down six particular names with a string of numbers next to each of them.  He wasn't about to risk forgetting again!  He held up the paper and let the pencil drop, a giddy smile creeping across his cheeks as he bounced on the floor.

"I take it the spell wo–hrrk!"

Before she could finish asking a question she seemed to already know the answer to, Twilight found an ecstatic arm wrapped around the top of her neck, hugging her so hard she could barely breathe.  A tap of her hoof on his arm got the message across and Matt eased up a bit, planting a big kiss on the side of her head and squishing his cheek against hers.

"Hehe, I guess so!  Go ahead!  Try and reach your friends!"

Almost forgetting why he was getting his brain kick-started in the first place, he clumsily hopped to one knee and fished out the phone.  Returning to his seat, he woke the iPhone and quickly found the keypad, punching in the first number.  Once done, he whipped the phone to his ear and widened his eyes hopefully at his otherworldly friends.  They returned grins of their own, just as excited as he was.

Matt's initial joy was shot down when the phone almost immediately beeped thrice in his ear over and over.  Damn!  That's okay, that's okay.  Was only one of the numbers.  Five more to go!

The next was met with the same result as well as the one after.  With each failure, the trio grew more downtrodden.  As the last number was met with just as much success as its predecessors, Matt hung the phone up with finality, pursing his lips in disappointment.  He glanced at the top of the screen just before he let his arm fall – twenty-two percent.  Cripes.  Even if he did manage to reach someone, he wouldn't be able to talk long before the phone started to gasp for breath.  Hell, simply dialing it out was probably having some negative consequences.

"I'm sorry, Matt."

"Sorry, bro."

A sigh gave way to a shrug.  "Hey, I have the numbers now.  I'll try again tomorrow or something; don't want to overdo it.  This thing doesn't have much life left.  Still–"  He looked over the numbers once more and bit a happy lip.  "–you have no idea how...just...mmmph!  You're so awesome!" Matt gushed, practically choking the unicorn again.

Twilight looked away awkwardly, happy for the compliment and for her friend, but not really used to such boisterous attention from anyone aside from Pinkie Pie.  Jeez, if she was present, she'd have probably thrown a party simply because Matt could potentially reach his loved ones from his old home as long as the stars lined up properly, in a manner of speaking.

"It's no big deal, really."

"It is to me, Twi.  It is to me," Matt said, glowing.

"At least you're not so glum like you were earlier today."

"Heh, yeah, no kidding."


-----


A pair of days passed by, the most incident in town being that a black Labrador had shown up in the joke shop from out of nowhere and nearly destroyed the place in a panic – as well as messing the floor in other ways.  Fortunately, Fluttershy was called in and had been able to calm it down after offering it some treats.  She had brought it back to her cottage where it remained balled in the corner for the most part, scared out of its wits.  It was more than a relief to the timid pegasus that it wasn't another ferocious overgrown cat.

It was a bit of a chore to keep the dog sitting still while Twilight examined it.  She really couldn't blame the poor thing.  It didn't know where its owners were to be found and now it was sitting in front of another four-legged thing whose head was glowing and trying to do who knows what to it.  Thankfully, it never lashed out at the purple mare; Fluttershy's soft voice was soothing enough that it curled up in her forelimbs for protection rather than attack anypony.  Sadly, like everything else they'd found up to that point, she found nothing to indicate how the dog got there.

When informed of the new arrival, Matt had to turn down keeping it at his place.  He didn't have the necessary things to care for a pet, plus he spent half the following day working on roof repair work for Carrot Top.  Besides, he didn't want to run the risk of the dog getting his teeth on his list since it was sitting on his desk in plain sight, unfortunately still yielding no results.

Another farm pony was just as delighted to see Matt the day after as Matt himself was over the rediscovery of a part of his past.  Applejack just about tackled him when he stepped out of the Blazer once he was finished parking it by the barn.  She may have told herself she wasn't going to bring up her emotions but that didn't mean she had to stop being expressive of them in other ways.

The two hung out around the farm working on similar chores together, sharing what had been going on since last they saw each other.  Applejack was thrilled that her idea had paid off, even if only in a limited capacity.  She understood better than anyone how important it must have felt to Matt to want to get in touch with people he cared about.  Hopefully it'd pay off before everything was back to normal.  If not, at least the opportunity hadn't been missed.  Strange that the only ones he mentioned specifically at all were his parents and his brother though.

Meh, whatever!  Applejack was just happy to see him in good spirits again, which is why they shared an apprehensive glance when a letter popped into existence beside the mare in the early afternoon.

Matt sat up against a nearby tree with the cowgirl crawling up next to him, unrolling the scroll for them and reading it out loud.

"Applejack,

Celestia has summoned us to Canterlot on an emergency.  Come to the library as soon as you can.  We need to leave immediately.

–Twilight Sparkle."

"You think she's found something?" Applejack wondered.

"Maybe!  If so then, shit, thank God, right?"

"Yeah, really."  The orange mare craned her head and looked over the half empty baskets surrounding them, wincing when she turned back to Matt.  "Big Mac's gonna be a bit peeved that we didn't finish what we started today."

"Eh, he'll get over it.  We should go tell Granny–"

Another letter suddenly appeared beside Matt this time, falling to the grass.

"The hell?"  He opened the second notice, reading it aloud once again.  Strangely, this one was addressed to him.  It said the exact same thing as Applejack's save for one extra ominous line, the second in his letter.

'You specifically are required to come.'

Those words made the hair stand on both their necks.

"I don't like that one bit," A.J. mumbled.

"Yeah, me either," he sighed.  "Let's go let Granny Smith know we gotta head out.  She can tell Big Mac for us."

The two rose, stretched their sore backs and headed back to the house.  Wasn't exactly the way they wanted to end the work day.


-----


The moon would be rising in the sky only about an hour after the group arrived in Canterlot.  An escort was waiting at the train station for them, ready to lead them straight to the throne room without any interruptions; the Canterlot crowd didn't see Matt very often and may be tempted to hound him with a dozen kinds of attention they just didn't have the time for.  Regardless, having armed guards walking with them must have meant something truly serious was afoot.  Nothing like this had happened the other times Matt had stopped by.  He wasn't in trouble himself, was he?

The last set of double doors were opened for them as the guards stepped aside, allowing safe passage down the long red carpet to where Celestia and Luna sat talking to a midnight blue pony – a stallion it appeared from a distance – with a salt-and-pepper colored mane.  The entrance interrupted the conversation they were having with all three sets of eyes seemingly landing square on Matt.

"Oh wow, he's really real," the stallion was heard muttering.

Matt, Applejack and the others knelt before the Princesses at the base of the stairs to their thrones.  "Celestia, Luna," the human greeted.  "Been a little while.  W-what's going on?  You wanted to see me specifically?"

"Hello, Matt.  Hello, girls," the solar alicorn said.  A grim undertone could be heard in her voice.  Something was definitely not good if whatever it was could shake the usually steady ruler like this.  "I did call for you, yes, but I needed Twilight and her friends here as well."

"Does it involve, err...what's been happening?" Twilight asked, not wanting to risk revealing sensitive details to somepony she hadn't met before.  No reason to leak information to a strange pony who may not be aware of the unusual occurrences – they could cause problems when they return home.

"Unfortunately, it does.  However, from what this gentlecolt has told us, we may have stumbled upon some good luck...in a rather...backwards way," Luna clarified.

The group faced the middle-aged stallion, who was still fairly enamored by Matt's presence.  "Err, yes, I hope so.  My name's Dark Horse, I'm the mayor of Manehattan.  It's a pleasure to meet you.  I arrived here earlier today.  I was just telling the Princesses again before you showed up about a freak flood that happened a few days ago and...well, what caused it."

"What does a flood have to do with us?" Matt asked.  "And what did you mean I'm 'really real'?"

With a scratch of his hoof on the back of his neck, the mayor explained, "Months ago, I saw something in all the papers and tabloids talking about this 'mystery creature' killing an Ursa Major.  I didn't believe it since, well, as a politician, you see so many ridiculous things written about yourself and others all the time, so I just thought it was some strange, elaborate prank.  I only remember it because it sounded so farfetched.  Seeing you face to face kind of confirms them.  I must say, if everything those articles said was true...wow."

"I'd have to see them," he said dismissively.  "But, the flood...I mean, yeah, I'm sure that sucked, but again, what's it got to with us?"

"More like you actually," Dark Horse stated, pointing at Matt.

"Me?"

"Mhm.  I know that doesn't seem to make any sense, but what I've got to tell you, I..."  The stallion paused, a quiet terror overcoming him.  "...I-I don't even know how to begin to describe it."
> Chapter 11
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"How about you start from the beginning and go from there?" Matt suggested, folding his arms.  "A few days agooo..."

The stallion nervously cleared his throat.  He really didn't want to relive the first moments of the terrible tragedy that befell his great city, but he had little choice.  He and Manehattan needed help.  "Y-yes.  A few days ago, I was meeting with a high-ranking officer of a corporation whose headquarters is downtown on the – what was it? – forty-second floor of this particular office tower.  We were going over some paperwork, you know how it goes in the political world.  It was mid-morning, I think about ten o'clock or so.  While we were talking, we both moved over to the window and looked out over the city.  We were facing the south since that's where the boardroom is.  Suddenly, there was this...bizarre, whitish, yellowish light from what looked like was across the bay.  It was so wide that I couldn't even see how far out it went; it just seemed to go on forever."

Matt and Twilight shared a curious glance.  She had spoken with him about what had transpired when the panther took a swing at him, and he had told her what Tina said had occurred when she originally turned up.  At least they could be sure that Dark Horse was telling the truth if he was describing the same thing they've experienced before.  But what in the world could it be this time?  Matt had a short list of ideas, and he didn't like any of them.

The jittery mayor continued his story.  "I thought I was hallucinating at first or that the sunlight was reflecting strangely off the windows or something, but my associate saw the same thing.  It only lasted a few seconds but when it stopped, there were these...other buildings that weren't there before.  They were huge, and they just went on and on in either direction."  Dark Horse sighed deeply as his stomach began to knot.  "A, uh...a-a few minutes later, we saw below at ground level that the streets were suddenly flooding, like a river just came plowing through the city without warning.  When the water stopped coming, it must have been a floor or two high.  I-I can't imagine how many ponies drowned when it all happened."

Hearing the tale again left the Princesses visibly shaken, as it did Twilight and the others.  Even Matt wasn't prepared to hear such a grim story.  Unfortunately, he knew there was more.  Dark Horse hadn't explained yet why he was reminded of the human in the first place.

"I'm sorry," Matt said in a solemn, hushed tone.  "What happened next?"

"Well, after we stopped panicking, we ran up to the roof to see if we could get a better view of...whatever these other buildings were, maybe see if we could figure out where they came from or...something.  When we got up there, I could have sworn that I saw some movement at the top of the skyscrapers across the way, but my eyes aren't that good.  With everything that was going on, I knew I was going to need to ask Celestia and Luna for help but I wanted to show them exactly what had occurred.  If I simply told them what was happening, I didn't figure they'd believe me.  I mean, saying it now sounds crazy.

"Anyway, one of my bodyguards was a pegasus, so I had him race over to one of the newspapers nearby and get somepony with a good camera out there.  About fifteen minutes later, he and a camerapony returned.  I told the kid to fly over and see what he could find, snap a few shots and be careful about it.  If he saw anything unusual about any of the buildings, take a picture.  Maybe the Princesses would recognize something, right?"

The mayor turned to the Princesses and met Celestia's eyes.  She nodded and hovered a file folder she was keeping beside her throne that Dark Horse had given her earlier over to Matt.  He took it in his hand and sat down in the middle of the girls so they could get a good look as well.  The mayor crept over as Matt opened the folder and revealed the first of at least two dozen photographs.

Matt had been told of various big cities Equestria had before – Manehattan, Fillydelphia, Whinnyapolis – and the first several shots didn't show him anything significant; the pictures were of what appeared to be ordinary large buildings he'd expect to see in such places.  However, the clear shot of a section of a skyline made pause.  Something about it was remarkably familiar.  When it finally hit him, his eyes burst open and he very nearly forgot to breathe.

"Ohhh God..."

He cautiously sifted through a few more shots, coming across a towering spire sitting off-center in the picture and, in another photo, the top of another steeple with its two visible sides layered with several arches shrinking in size as they reached their peak.  Yet another photo spoke to him, this time with a single word:  Metlife.  The second half of the stack was littered with pictures containing what he was afraid to see the most – dozens upon dozens of people standing on the rooftops.  Most of them were dressed for business, some staring at the camera, some looking around trying to assess the situation, nearly every one confused and terrified.  The photos were clearly taken from a distance, but there was no mistaking their content.

Matt felt his own wave of terror creeping into his being, his heart ready to burst through his chest.  Applejack saw the fear in his eyes and took hold of his arm, trying to calm him, but she could feel him shivering to the bone.

"Now you see why I was reminded of you and your newspaper article," Dark Horse commented.  The folder began to slip from Matt's limp hand, but the mayor caught it and its contents before they fell to the floor, clutching it to his chest.  "After a few days, the waters finally began to subside enough for us to get a train out of the city.  My council agreed that I had to get here to Canterlot as soon as I could and inform the Princesses of the goings-on in the city, see if we could get some help.  Maybe see if they had any idea where a...where a whole other city may have come from."

The stallion shifted uncomfortably and glanced up at the Princesses.  So far, he had recanted his story for Matt and the others step by step.  All three knew what he was going to tell them next.  Though Dark Horse himself had no real idea exactly what he had been looking at when he finally managed to get out of the city limits, Celestia was able to inform him thanks to a recent visit to Ponyville.  She nodded glumly at him, and, taking in a deep breath, he continued.

"We got lucky that the bridge out of Manehattan didn't collapse thanks to all the extra water pounding on its support beams.  But once I was out of the city, I was able to get a good look at a few things that I couldn't see before as the train veered south."

"L-like what?"

"Well, from what I could tell, several of this city's blocks were sitting on land–"

"Wait, what?"

"Err, yes, maybe eight or nine blocks is my estimate, based on what I saw.  I doubt the numbers are accurate though, was just a guess."

Matt shook his head, growing increasingly baffled and terrified.  "That doesn't make any sense."

"Well, a city did just...appear.  I don't think any of it–"

"No no no, it's supposed to be an island," Matt clarified, staring at the floor as he tried to piece together the perplexing development.

A hoof found its way onto his shoulder, but the human didn't react.  "You know where this is, don't you?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah...it's called Manhattan."  Twilight and her friends shared a curious look.  Even the Princesses cocked their heads at the familiar-sounding name.  The coincidence wasn't lost on the human either.  "Guess it lends support to the notion we've talked about that our worlds have met before somehow."

"If it's true, I sincerely doubt it happened like it has been recently.  You know that I know practically everything about Equestrian history and I've never heard of anything like this happening before," the unicorn stated.

"Nor have we," Luna added.

"Wait, you mean you've dealt with something like this before?"

Biting her tongue, Twilight's eyes met with her mentor's.  Celestia nodded again.  There wasn't any reason to hide the truth from somepony who'd experienced more in a matter of hours than they had over the course of several days.

"Yes," she admitted to the mayor.  "The largest thing that we had been aware of appearing out of nowhere has been part of a shopping plaza, I think.  This is just...way more than we expected."

"Yeah, to say this is out of the ordinary is the understatement of the year," Dark Horse muttered before clearing his throat.  "Err, as I was saying, it looked like several blocks of the city had...I suppose you could say landed?...on the mainland.  From what I could see, there were a pair of bridges that had to have been sticking out from this new land mass in a southwesterly direction – at least it would be southwesterly if the bridges were a part of Manehattan.  I believe I saw a third one jutting out over the water further east of them in the distance.

"It was weird.  The bridges didn't look as if, say, a boat had collided with them and torn them apart.  It looked as if they were just...sliced, like a hot knife through butter.  The two that were close to each other came to an end over the land, and from my window, I saw...well, I'm not sure," the stallion said, pursing his lips.  Matt looked up at the dark blue pony, worried that he knew exactly what had been witnessed.  "There were these...they looked like metal things–"

"With black wheels crunched up into piles on the ground," Matt interjected.

The stallion paused, recalling a few bits and pieces.  He bit his lip as he went to answer.  "Yes, that's right.  I imagine there were probably more of those wheeled things that fell into the ocean if that was another bridge further away.  What are those?"

"They're like a motorized carriage we control from the seat."

"Oh."  Dark Horse's face went pale when he realized exactly what he saw.  "Oh my..."

"What is it?" Applejack asked.  Matt replied with a wordless gesture, mimicking the last few seconds of who knew how many peoples' lives with a single finger arcing down and hitting the floor.  A gasp or two escaped his friends as they all eventually pieced together what he was saying.  Some stood in shock; others mourned the tragic loss.

"How many did you see?"

The mayor's eyes shifted as he tried to remember the tally.  With a wince, he responded, "At least a few dozen.  Maybe more."

"And who knows how many are at the bottom of the river back home right now," Matt whispered.  His brow furrowed as another real – and unsettling – possibility occurred to him.  "You said that several blocks made landfall, right?"

"Err, yes, why?"

"Did you happen to see anything like abandoned cars...uh, vehicles...or see any people walking out of the city from there?"

Dark Horse tapped his chin and closed his eyes, sifting through his memories hard.  "I don't think so.  Granted, I didn't stick around to watch, but I'm really not sure.  It's possible that, if there are any authorities in this Manhattan place, they tried to prevent that from happening, but who can really say?  It's what I'd do in such a situation, at least."

"Pfff, yeah, they have a few of those," the human growled under his breath.

"As would I," Celestia added.  "Curious, just how many of your kind does this city hold anyway?"

It took a moment for him to respond but not because he didn't know the answer.  His bitten lip and refusal to make eye contact made the alicorn raise a concerned eyebrow.  As Matt's silence dragged, his six friends shifted their gazes at him one after the other, and he could feel the weight of their eyes bearing down on him.

"Uh...well, the entire city of New York is made up of several – oh, what are they called? – boroughs, I think it was."

"What do you mean 'the entire city'?" Applejack queried.  "You sayin' this Manhattan is a small part of something else?"

"...Yeah."

"H-how many people does the whole thing have in it?"

"Ohhh, uh...a-about eight million or so," he mumbled.

Nine mouths fell open in varying degrees of shock.  The photo folder slid out of Dark Horse's grasp and collapsed all over the floor.

"Eight...million?!  In a single city?!" Twilight eventually blurted.

He chewed on his lip again.  "Manhattan's only got a couple million of them I think, something like that."

"'Only'?!"

"Why?  H-how many does Manehattan have?"

"About six hundred and fifty thousand or so," Dark Horse muttered.  "It's one of the biggest city's in Equestria, but...nothing like that.  Jeez, if even ten, heck, five percent of the population of that place left the city, there's no telling what would happen!  They're probably all going out of their minds like the citizens of Manehattan are, and I don't think I need to tell anypony just how dangerous large numbers of ponies can get when they're panicking."

"Yeah, no kidding."  The throne room went eerily silent as the impact of Matt's bombshell trickled away.  While they stood frozen, the worried stallion realized his mess and snatched up the folder on the floor.  After collecting several pictures, the rest began to glow yellow and coalesced into a neat little pile.  The whispered hum of Celestia's magic was the only sound aside from the flapping of paper until the human spoke up again.  "Um...is there anything else?"

The politician stuffed the folder under his forelimb again, tighter this time.  "Err, yes, there is one last thing.  The day after this all originally happened, I saw this greyish cloud overtop this new place.  I didn't think anything of it at first, but the following day, it looked...a little larger.  I noticed when I was finally on the way here that it appeared even bigger.  I'm not really sure what to make of it."

"People were probably freaking out and burning things," Matt reasoned.

"Eh, I don't know.  I didn't see any smoke billowing from anywhere, so I don't believe it had to do with a fire.  Plus, it simply didn't look as if it would have been born from a fire anyway; it wasn't thick and black or anything like that."

"A stray raincloud?" Rainbow suggested.

"I've never seen one sit in one place, get bigger and bigger, and then never rain," Dark Horse retorted.  "I'm sorry, but I just don't have any answer."

The young man stared at the mayor, quickly replaying everything they had all discussed in his mind.  With a shake of his head, a snigger escaped his lips.  "Luna, can I ask how in the hell any of this can be considered good luck like you said?"

"We were actually discussing that before you arrived.  Dark Horse informed us of this peculiar 'cloud' earlier.  We too had difficulties as we tried to identify its source.  Such a thing did not seem to be present at or around any of the objects that any of us have had the opportunity to look over upon their arrival."  Luna spied Twilight with an inquisitive eyebrow raised, silently asking the young unicorn if the same was true for her.  She shrugged and shook her head, affirming the Princess' belief.  "Because of this, we believe that it may hold a clue to solving this problem plaguing Equestria."

"I suppose that's possible," Twilight muttered.  "It's true we never found anything either.  Even the live dog I told you about the other day didn't yield any results.  I was hoping to find something on a living creature if I had the opportunity to study one, but we got nothing out of it."

"What about that girl Tina I told you about?" Matt asked.  "Any word about her yet?"

"I'm afraid not," Celestia answered.  "We still have another day before the guards I sent out return anyway.  But, my sister is correct.  This could very well be the key to fixing this, or at least a good first step.  I suggest you return home tonight to get whatever supplies you feel you need, but we'll need you on the first train tomorrow morning."

The girls nodded and thanked the Princesses, as well as Dark Horse, for the information – as dire as it was.  Matt slowly got to his feet as the others turned to leave, but instead of making his way back to the train station, he turned back to the alicorns.

"Um, I'm honestly not sure if the train would be the best idea."

Applejack, Twilight and the rest spun back around, dumbfounded at the objection.  It wasn't often someone said no to the rulers of the land.

"We do need to make haste and it is the most efficient way," Celestia countered.  "Could you elaborate?"

"Well, you remember that tree you found down the street that was sticking out of that shop or whatever?  What if something like that appears on the train tracks somewhere in the middle of the night?  We probably wouldn't be able to get around it and then we'd be stuck walking for God knows how far," the young man explained.

The sisters looked at each other in thought with the younger tapping at her chin.  "He does make a fair point."

"Look at it this way too," he added, garnering their attention.  "We don't really know just yet if that cloud thing is the reason for what's happening or if it's a clue or anything.  Yeah, we're going to find that out, but even if the track is clear and we happen to be passing by another...whatever, we should still check it out and I doubt the engineer or the other passengers would appreciate the constant stops we may have to make – if they'd even let us.  The real problem could be on the way there and it'd be a lot harder for us to do anything about it."

"He does have that red vehicle," the elder recalled.  "How fast could you arrive in your...car, was it called?"

"Yeah.  How far away's Manehattan from Ponyville?"

"Four hundred and seven-point-three-two miles," Twilight replied.  Her ridiculously precise answer received several dry looks.  "He asked."

"Gotta get that point-three-two miles in there," he said with snark.

Matt hadn't driven around much since finding the Blazer; gasoline wasn't a luxury Equestria had.  Since it came to be in his possession, he hadn't bothered to read the owner's manual and check important things like the vehicle's gas mileage.  Still, if he remembered right, he had a little under three-quarters of a tank.

"Well, if I'm going to be driving mostly on grass and assuming no unnecessary stops, I could probably get there in...maybe half a day at the most.  If all of Equestria's roads were made of concrete, I could get there in, like, five hours, but that's not the case."  He pursed his lips.  "But even if I do make it, I wouldn't be able to drive back here.  Not enough fuel for a return trip.  Though if we're so close to Manehattan, we could just take the train back I suppose.  Or...steal a car if it came right down to it, provided we fail to send the city back."

The Princesses blinked in disbelief at his suggestion.  His friends could only frown in disappointment.  With a knowing smirk, he fired back, "Come on, how would it be any different than what I've done with the car I have now?  Really?"

"Because you said you'd return this one if the owners showed up," Rainbow Dash reminded him.

"And I'd be using the other one to get you home," Matt snapped.  "Trust me, with everything that's probably been going on up there, we want to get in and out of that place as discreetly and quickly as possible.  If that means I gotta steal a car to keep you safe, then so be it.  If we send the city back, then, yeah, we'll have no choice but to take the train back here."

"So, it's the possibility of speed versus the certainty of versatility," Celestia reiterated, narrowing her eyes as she mentally compared both ideas.

"And the fact that getting home may suck."

Two worthwhile prospects without an easy call to make.  The older alicorn turned and nodded for her sister to approach.  The pair privately discussed both sides of the coin for several minutes, their whispers inaudible to their subjects.  Finally, the leaders finished their talk and Luna addressed the group.

"This is indeed an important decision, and both sides do present a strong case.  We've decided since you are the ones who will be going tomorrow that you will make the choice.  We simply ask that you make your decision by the time you arrive back in Ponyville.  Once you've decided, send a letter to me informing my sister and I of what you wish to do.  I'll let her know when it is received, even if she's asleep."

Matt and the others pondered her words, one by one nodding in agreement.  Seemed like a reasonable plan.  Though, now there wasn't any time to waste talking about travel arrangements or learning further, ultimately unnecessary, details about two cities in crisis.  It was starting to get late and they were already there longer than originally anticipated.

"Alright, that sounds fine," the human said.  "I guess if there's nothing else, we'll head out then."

"It appears everything has been touched on, yes," Celestia agreed.  "Dark Horse, we thank you for informing us of this tragic event and I assure you we will do everything in our power to help."

"Us too," Twilight added.

"Thank you, your Highnesses.  If it's alright, I'd like to head back in the morning myself.  The city councilponies will want to hear about this."

"Very well.  Matt, girls, I wish you all safe travels.  Good luck."
> Chapter 12
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The walk back to the train station was relatively quiet, given how late it was.  No reason to disturb the citizens when they were most likely getting ready to turn in.  The girls voiced their opinions as to what route they should take to get to the northeast, but Matt had already made his decision and had been cataloging in his mind what supplies they may need if they chose to drive up on the way back to the station.

However, Applejack suspected that something else may have been troubling him as they returned to the train.  His furrowed brow and his anxious stare at nothing in particular gave it away.  She really couldn't blame him for being nervous though.  Dark Horse's news left her just as uneasy.  It had been a while since they dealt with anything on such a massive scale and there wasn't any time where it was involving a few million individuals at once, pony or not.  Screwing up even just a little could be beyond disastrous.

He and the others sat on their benches as the last whistle of the day sang.  The conductor yelled 'All aboard!' and with a tiny jolt, the cars started to move and they were on their way home.  At least now they could speak up a little more about what they needed to figure out.

Matt did make a good point to the Princesses – while the smoke or whatever it was may have been new, it didn't necessarily mean anything.  There wasn't a picture anywhere in the folder that Dark Horse showed them, otherwise they could have made a more informed call as to what it could be.

"I just don't think it's a coincidence," Rarity spoke up.  "Every single thing you've checked out, Twilight, hasn't shown any signs of the problem.  Now an entire city shows up out of the blue and suddenly there's some strange disturbance overhead.  Ponies and people have died because of this.  We need to get up there as quickly as possible."

"I have to agree," Fluttershy added.  "It's obvious things are getting more and more out of control with each passing day.  There's no sense in taking our time with this."

Twilight curled her lips as she glanced out the window, admiring the first twinkling stars in the early night's sky.  "Here's what I don't understand though.  When that Tina person showed up, she said that she saw several smaller buildings in the distance, but there wasn't anything over those.  Dark Horse didn't know what that cloud was and neither do we.  It may be the source of what's happening; it may not be.  We should still be thorough and investigate everything we come across, and they're simply not going to allow us to stop the train over and over again."

"Well, let's say we take the train up and we make it to Manehattan.  Do we have them hit the brakes before we get into the city and hoof it into this place or do we end up catching a boat from Manehattan and take it into their harbor?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Matt snorted cynically at the question.  "Yeah, I can just imagine how well that'd go.  They see you guys getting off the boat and...well, I can't really predict what they'd do to tell you the truth."

"What would be the big deal?  Wouldn't they be happy to hear that we were there to help?"

"Pinkie, you remember how freaked out I was, by myself, when I first came here?"  The bubbly mare nodded.  "Multiply that by a few million."

"That bad, huh?" Applejack asked.

"If you guys showed up back home, they'd probably think you were aliens or something.  The government would probably snatch you away to some unknown facility so they can figure out what makes you tick but everyday people aren't quite so predictable.  Some people would think having aliens running around would be pretty cool, others would freak the fuck out, some probably wouldn't care and others would probably think the end times were upon us or something," he explained, receiving a glare from the cowgirl.

"You really had to use the phrase 'end times' with what's been goin' on?"

"Look, I think it's safe to say everyone up there is aware of what's happened by now.  You saw some of the people in those pictures – they were looking at the camera.  They saw that photographer!  I don't know how people are going to react which means it'd be in our best interest to get in and out of there as quickly and quietly as possible once we're there."  Matt hunched over and folded his hands in front of his face.  As he sighed into them, the biggest fear he had been keeping under wraps about their new mission came out.  "It's just...the reason I want us to be all stealthy is because I'll feel responsible if something happens to you."

"Sugarcube, you know we can handle ourselves."

His eyes shifted to the floor.  "You don't understand.  These are my people.  You all took care of me when I arrived but...I don't have any way to promise that the same will happen to you.  I mean, what does that say about us?"

"That your people are afraid of things they don't understand," Twilight answered.  "Sounds a lot like your average Equestrian if you ask me."

"Your average Equestrian doesn't want to shoot the thing right out of the gate more often than not," Matt retorted, mumbling under his breath.  "Besides, let's say we get up there and, God forbid, something happens to one of you.  You guys are kind of important around here.  You know I'm well aware of that and you know what I'm referring to.  If things get a little crazy up there..."  He paused, taking a deep but nervous breath.  It did little to calm his quivering lips.  "I...I may have to..."

"To what?"

He went to answer but nothing came.  Applejack quickly figured it out when he looked away.

"Hey!  Don't go thinkin' like that!  I told you we can take care of ourselves, dangit!" she scolded.

"It's not the end of the world if something happens to me," he fired back.

"It almost was the end of the world for us after you almost got killed by that cat!"

"A few million people are a little harder to deal with than some damn cat!"

"Not my point," she said as she poked his shoulder.  "We could've handled the thing!  The six of us went through a heck of a lot before you ever showed up!  We've always looked out for each other and we've always looked out for you too!  You think we'd be able to just...just shrug it off if something happened to you?"

When he smirked at the question, she turned away from him, growling in aggravation.  The farm girl hadn't been so frustrated with Matt in a while though he hadn't been so stubborn in a while either.  Was like arguing with a brick wall!

The train car was deathly silent as the others timidly glanced at each other, the rattling of the wheels on the track being the only thing breaking the silence.  They had never seen Matt and Applejack squabble...well, ever.  Granted, they tended to spend a lot of time together alone, but still.

"Matt," Twilight finally said.  His angry eyes just barely shifted, but the unicorn knew she had reached him.  "Why didn't you voice these concerns to the Princesses?"

He sighed and shrugged.  "I don't know.  Maybe I thought they wouldn't go along with my idea or something."

"But you suggested driving there to help keep us safe, right?" Fluttershy asked.

"And the fact that if something else happened to have landed on top of the train tracks on the way at some point, it'd make it that much harder for us to get there, yes."

All but Applejack – who was still annoyed with Matt – exchanged another look.  "And if we decided that your way was the better way to go, would we need to bring anything for the journey?" Twilight asked for the group.

Gradually, he turned back to face the girls sitting in front of him.  Maybe they were coming around?  Managing to calm down a bit, he went over a mental checklist.  "Well, even if we happen to not bump into anything we have to check, it still might take, like, half a day to get there.  The car's meant more for driving around on concrete than grass or dirt or whatever.  Plus we may stop just to use the bathroom or get out and stretch.  Driving for long periods of time can suck.  I'll be honest with you too, I'd prefer not to go driving around that city at night – especially not now.

"So, assume we have to spend a night sleeping in the back of the car.  Probably need a sheet or something to lay on and maybe a blanket if you think you're going to be cold that night.  Pillows would be good.  Probably need some food and drinks.  Likely need some toilet paper and a shovel."

"What would you need to bring those for?" Rainbow Dash asked, receiving a raised eyebrow for her trouble.  Rarity cringed when she too figured it out.  "...Oh.  Right."

"Yeah, it'll be just like camping.  Just, y'know, without being fun," Matt muttered.  "Ummm, maybe some cards or a book if you wanted.  Basic toiletries.  Should be about it I think."

"There'll be enough room for all of us and the supplies?"

"Oh yeah, no problem."

"And you're sure we'd be able to sneak in and out of there relatively easy?" the bookworm continued.

"Here's how I see this going.  As long as I don't draw attention to us by doing something stupid, the only time we should risk you all being seen is when we inevitably duck into a building," Matt explained.

"Why would we need to do that?"

"Celestia and Luna think that cloud thing could be a key to all this shit, right?  Wouldn't be a bad idea to get to a tall rooftop so you can get a better look at the thing.  Plus, if people happen to see us from a building across the street or something, maybe they won't be as scared of you as they might if you were standing right next to them."  He curled his lips and added, "I just hope we don't have to climb fifty flights of stairs to do that cuz that would royally suck."

"Do you think there's any way to avoid human contact altogether?" the timid yellow pegasus squeaked.

"Ultimately?  Probably not.  But the less we encounter, the better."

The train went quiet once again as they weighed their options.  In an odd way, the situation felt a bit familiar.  Matt was alone when he arrived so many months ago.  They did their best to keep his presence hidden from the public.  Now, Manehattan notwithstanding, things were reversed.  Though who would know better about how to approach a big – and likely terrified – city than one of their own kind?

"Sooooo," Twilight chimed in, "what do you all think?"


-----


The sun had to pick that morning of all mornings to shine in the window as brightly as possible.  If only the train could fly down the tracks as fast as they supposedly did in Japan.  At least then Matt's head wouldn't have hit his pillow at nearly three in the morning.  The drive was going to be just wonderful, he had no doubt.

The girls probably felt just as groggy too.  Well, maybe not Applejack – she did tend to get up with the chickens.  They could get all the extra sleep they wanted as long as they were all ready to go when he swung by to pick them up.

As he stopped along a preplanned route, thankfully everypony was ready to go with their saddlebags draped over their backs. Twilight brought some research material, some snacks and, most importantly, a map.  Applejack brought some drinks as well as the requested shovel.  Fluttershy had a book for herself and some extra food, and Pinkie and Rainbow Dash had some sweets and a few small games respectively.  However, the streak came to an end when they reached Carousel Boutique.

Matt was afraid of this.

"Rarity, we're not going to a fashion show!  Just grab a few necessities and let's go!" Matt hollered as they waited impatiently in the lobby.  The posh mare hadn't come downstairs since she woke up and was likely doing a long but predictable list of things in the bathroom.  "The sun's already been up a couple hours!  We're late as it is!"

"Making myself looking proper is a necessity of mine!" she yelled back.

"Oh for God's sake, can someone talk some sense into her?  Please?  We gotta go!"

The speedster zipped over to the bottom of the staircase, hovering in the air.  "Rarity, nopony else is going to see you!  Stop getting all dolled up, for crying out loud!"

A rattle of noise erupted from upstairs, probably from the unicorn angrily slamming her make-up kit closed on the counter.  "Oh, fine, fine.  Need just a minute to get my things."

"Rarity!"

"They're ready to go already!"  The group sighed in relief as hoofsteps started making their way down the stairs a moment later.  As the dressmaker came down and rounded the corner, the single step Matt and the others took toward the door came to a screeching halt as one oversized bag after another after another followed behind her.  After a good half dozen bags and suitcases, a crate almost as big as her settled down on the floor.  While Fluttershy and Pinkie stared, bewildered, the others each gave the unicorn a hard glare.

"And where the hell am I supposed to put all that?" Matt asked.

"...Strap them to the roof?"  A smirk was the only response she got as the young man curiously walked over to the crate and opened it up.  He picked up the largest item inside and held it up for her, asking with nothing but an annoyed smirk what its purpose was.  "It's my industrial strength hair dryer and I can't live without it," she whined.

"No."  He unceremoniously dropped it back into its container and locked it closed.  Spying the diamond-adorned saddlebag hanging from Rarity's side, he pried it open and glanced over its simple contents – a couple snacks, some bottled water and a romance novel.  "What's wrong with this?  This is fine."

"Wait, please, just one more thing."  Not wanting to fuel any anger starting to bubble up to the surface, Rarity quickly went through her bags until she found a hair brush and slid it in beside the book.

Matt thumbed toward the door, finished with playing games.  With a whimper and a pout, the lady looked over her luggage and sadly trotted ahead of the others, leaving Matt standing there wearily, shaking his head and sighing.  "I swear if that girl ever hooks up with anyone, they better know how to tell her 'no' from time to time," he muttered to what he believed was himself.

"Come on now, you know how she can be sometimes," Applejack said, patting him on the back.  He nearly jumped in surprise, worried that others may have heard and may not be so gracious.  Fortunately, the others were far enough away, mostly out the door by now.  "Matt, I...before we get goin', I wanted to say I'm sorry for what I said on the train last night.  You're only tryin' to keep us safe.  I just...I just want to see you safe too, y'know?"

He glanced down at her only for her to avert her gaze.  With a tiny grin, he pulled the brim of her hat over her eyes and started to head out.  "Come on.  We need to get going."

"Heh, right."


-----


After finally getting on the road and out of Ponyville, it didn't take terribly long to find their first delay.  Not even out of view of Canterlot, they stumbled upon a downed telephone pole.  A quick scan revealed the same as everything else – nothing.  While they encountered mostly hilly grasslands along the way, the fact that that particular SUV wasn't made for off-road driving slowed things down more than Matt would have liked.

A thick forest had appeared in the distance not long after they started to get hungry.  The vehicle came to a stop several yards from the first row of trees.  May as well grab a bite to eat before diving headfirst into a potentially treacherous bit of land to navigate.  Plus it gave the group some time to scout for any pathways the Blazer could fit through.

Matt figured it was probably best that they were facing the worst terrain right away and while the sun was high in the sky.  According to Twilight's map, they could have gone directly north and eventually veered east later on but would have encountered a denser array of trees.  Beyond the forest in front of them was mostly smooth sailing save for a couple tricky hills.  Once they reached the beach, they could simply head north from there.

After a few hours of trudging through the woods, constantly stopping, backing up and snaking past the seemingly impassable, they finally managed to see light at the end of the leafy tunnel.  The young man glanced down at the odometer – they had barely gone a hundred miles.  Great.  Still, he did make an accurate assumption that they may have to crash in the car at least one night.

However, not far out of the woods, they came across more chaos than they had seen yet, which meant only more delays.  A few more vehicles, including a school bus, an abandoned, graffiti-riddled factory – which the group took a tour in – a toppled billboard and a small statue were among the new arrivals.  Just as before, Twilight detected nothing.

Another hour into their drive, they had stumbled upon a dark Circle-K, but not an unmanned one.  Not as soon as they had stepped inside were they chased out by a screaming man wielding a baseball bat and speaking what sounded like Spanish – he was hollering too loudly and too fast for Matt to be sure.  He also couldn't help but notice how the man barely took his eyes off the girls and had ducked behind the counter once he was sure he had scared them off.

As they hopped back in the car, Matt glanced up at the sky.  In only a couple more hours, Celestia would be putting the sun to bed and they were farther behind than he would have liked.  At least the terrain had been cooperative and he could cover some more ground faster.  He checked the odometer once more before getting a move on.  About two hundred and eighty miles.  He wondered how many extra miles he drove weaving in and out of that damned forest.

Roughly thirty minutes more passed, and he glanced to his left for a moment, taking in the lack of sights.  Suddenly, the sun decided to pick then of all times to shine brightly in through the window.  But something struck him as peculiar.  It had been a calm, quiet day out, no clouds in the sky.  The sun's rays hadn't bothered him at all.  So, why now?

"Uhhh..." Applejack muttered, still sitting in the front seat.  The girls looked up from their activities, curious as to what had shaken her up.

Matt too spun around to face her and followed her eyes out the windshield.  What he thought had been sunlight glowed just as brightly in front of him and exploded in a flash a second later, leaving the truck suddenly barreling toward a sunglasses kiosk at fifty miles an hour.  He slammed on the brakes as hard as he could, the rubber tires squealing loudly on the new tile floor below it.

"Shit!"
> Chapter 13
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was barely enough time for Matt to throw a hand in front of Applejack and even less for the others to see what happening.  The two front passengers slammed their eyes closed as the first violent impact came, spraying splintered wood and sunglasses everywhere.  The hard crash sent a shockwave through the car's frame that cracked the windshield and loudly burst open the Blazer's airbags, blocking most of the view.  The girls screamed and held onto each other for dear life with Applejack clutching onto Matt's protective arm.  Rainbow and Pinkie Pie were curled up in a ball in the back, even more panicked than the others as their lack of seat belts resulted in them being tossed around.

Despite the horrific jolt to the car and the sudden yank at his neck, Matt tightened his grip on the wheel, doing everything he could to keep them from spinning out of control.  Barely three seconds later, the vehicle crashed into something else and almost instantly crashed again, slowing them down further.  Numerous shards of glass flew past the windshield with each smash.  Soon after, the car caught something against its grill and dragged it several meters, the sound of whatever it was grinding against the floor and mixing with the screeching of tires.  The car swerved just slightly, and whatever they were pushing managed to slide under one of the wheels, crackling under the weight.

A loud, sudden 'thud!' signaled the end to their terrifying ordeal, and the passengers were launched as far as their seat belts and airbags would let them.  Pinkie and Rainbow slammed into the back of the middle seats, the pegasus taking the worst of it as she hit her head, despite one of Pinkie's forearms being wrapped around her.  Each of their hearts – as well as their lungs – was going a mile a minute as the nightmare was over as fast as it began.

Still holding onto the wheel with white knuckles, Matt eventually let his free hand fall and collapsed into the deflating airbag in front of him, breathing just as hard as the others.  Groans of pain and sighs of relief echoed around him though he didn't really register them yet.  Letting out an exasperated sigh himself, he leaned back in his chair and went to pull the pillow out of the way, wincing as he brought his arm over to do the deed.

It was fairly dark in front of him, the only relatively soft light coming from overhead, most likely thanks to Celestia's late-afternoon sun.  Only a couple feet in front of the car looked to be a stone fountain several dishes high though it wasn't spitting water anywhere.  His eyes drifted to the accordianed hood and his spirits sank, even though he knew what to expect.  He rolled his head to the side, cringing, and spied a Banana Republic staring back at him – as well as several frozen bystanders.

Tortuously turning forward again, he grit his teeth behind angered lips.  Exactly what he was afraid of with the train had to happen to them.

Of course.

"Goddammit," he muttered.  "Goddammit, Goddammit, Goddam–agh!"

Slamming his fist into the steering wheel wasn't helping either, especially with how badly he knew his neck was feeling.  Squeezing at the nasty ache while trying desperately to hold in growling in agony, he glanced at the rear view mirror.  Didn't seem to be any visible injuries anywhere.  He briefly wondered if things were going to be ten times worse the girls, given how long their own necks were.  AJ looked alright too, just shaken up like the rest.

"What...what happened?" Rainbow asked between breaths as she groggily checked past the windows.

Not bothering to answer, Matt glared at nothing in particular and slumped his hand onto the gear shift, throwing it in 'Park'.  Shit, every time he moved either of his arms or turned his head at all, he flinched.  He must have done some damage.  Hopefully it was 'just' some whiplash and hopefully magic would help, even if only a little.  He'd have to ask Twilight once they got out of the car.

May as well get that started.  They did have a mission to continue to.

Fighting through pain, he got out and slid to his feet, not worrying about closing the door behind him.  A 'splitch' came from his feet, and he looked down to see a river rapidly growing along the floor.  Okay, so they did run into a fountain.  Grunting to himself, he opened the driver's side back door to reveal a shaking yellow pegasus still clinging to Twilight.  A hand on her shoulder made her jump with a squeak, and she looked over at him with watery eyes.  He leaned in and undid her seat belt, setting it back into place.  He curled an arm under Fluttershy's rump, intent on picking her up and carrying her out, when he was reminded of how much pain he was in.

The timid mare recoiled too.  "A-are you okay?"

"Yeah, it's just...my neck."

"If you want, I...I can fly out," she offered.  "M-my wings feel alright."

He paused and weighed the option.  Any help would be nice.  "You sure?"

"Yeah, I...I just need a minute."

"Matt, if you want, I-I can get probably get us out a little easier right now if you're hurt," Twilight added as she popped her seat belt loose and rubbed her waist.  "Picking the girls up isn't going to put a strain on my magic."

Thanking her with the tiniest of nods, he swung out and headed to the tailgate, popping it for the two in the back and moving on to the passenger side back door.  Not asking for any assistance normally, Rainbow Dash glided out and landed softly on the wet tiles with Pinkie still hanging on with her eyes clenched shut.  Their appearance elicited multiple gasps and murmurs from the surrounding – albeit guarded and distant – observers.

Her ruby eyes shifted around nervously, making contact with several of the people staring in both horror and amazement at her.  She cleared her throat and her pink hanger-on finally got the nerve to look at where they were and disembarked, steadily lowering one hoof at a time onto the floor.  Normally thrilled at the prospect of meeting new folks, Pinkie chose to walk a step behind Rainbow as she followed Matt.  They had just gotten into a wreck that they would usually only watch their speedster friend get into; the party girl simply wanted to sit down.

They didn't go far though as Matt had knelt down and was picking at the pieces of the wooden bench he reasoned they must have been dragging.  He looked back behind the Blazer, surveying the damage he could see under the dim light.  Watches, sunglasses, and hundreds of chunks of glass and wood were thrown all over the place.  Fortunately, he didn't see any people laid out anywhere.  He did spot a petrified young man and woman pressed up against what was left of the watch display though.  Jeez, he must have missed them only by inches.  There could have been someone on the bench too.

The dozens of eyes glued to the scene weren't making things any easier, no matter how good their luck was, all things considering.

Grunting as he got back up and delicately stretching his neck, Matt opened Rarity's door for her.  Seems she undid her own belt, likely with her magic.  He moved onto the passenger door as a quick burst of lavender light popped up behind him, the increasingly loud gasps and cries of shock reminding him of how he reacted to such a thing so long ago.  He wished he could chuckle at the memory right now.

A pair of exhausted green eyes looked up at him.  Applejack wanted to wrap her forelegs around his arm and not let go as he reached across her to take care of her belt.  Give her manticores, timberwolves or chaos gods any day.  A purple glow took hold of her once she was free and floated her to the floor, setting her and the dressmaker down beside each other.  Rarity quickly sidestepped out of the water and craned her head backward at the gawking crowds.  Meanwhile, Matt picked the stetson up off the car's floor and delicately set it back atop the head of its owner.

He peeked inside and found the last of the group still as sitting as a stone.  "Flutters?"

Her attention was grabbed, and with a deep breath, she nodded and slid her way across the seats.  Twilight moved her to the floor as well, and with everypony finally out, Matt took the lead and hobbled to another nearby bench with the girls in tow.  He fell to the seat and leaned forward, holding his head up and rubbing his temples.  A.J. sat next to him as Fluttershy and Pinkie took to the other side.  The rest gathered together closely on the floor, cautiously scanning over the enormous hallway and its occupants.

"Where are we?" Fluttershy asked for the group.

"Shopping mall," Matt groaned.  With another gentle twist of his neck, he asked, "You all okay?"

"Eh, I smashed my head against the seat, but I've felt worse," Rainbow Dash replied.

"A-are those things talking?!" they managed to hear whispered from several yards behind them, among other things.  Most of the mares subtly glanced in the voice's direction for a moment but decided to ignore it.  There were more important things to worry about.

"My neck's a bit sore," the farmer said.

Rarity hissed through her teeth as she slowly spun her head.  "Mine too."

"My waist has felt better," Twilight added.

Pinkie and Fluttershy simply nodded.  Only their nerves were shot.

Matt sighed and pursed his lips.  Maybe driving was a mistake, but it wasn't like they could do anything about it now.  At least the girls wouldn't have been hurt the other way, as far as he was concerned.  If only he would have thought to slow down as soon as he saw that light!

"Twilight, do you think...I don't know, do you know any medical magic to help whiplash at all?"

"Ehhh, I could probably ease the pain some, but we'll probably have to see a doctor about it when we get home."

"Could you?"

"Yeah, no problem."  The unicorn took aim at her nearest friend, Rarity, and let her magic do its work.  The designer moaned as the aching gradually subsided.  Even if it was only going to be temporary, it felt so good.

Applejack was next, and while she was taken care of, she asked, "So, now what?"

Before he could answer, a clicking sound caught his ear.  His suspicions about their origin were correct when he glanced up.  A few brave souls had crept closer and had already started taking pictures with the iPhones.  Most of the girls checked out their visitor when the snapshots began too, keeping their guard up at first until they figured out what was going on.

Matt groaned and answered her back.  "We have to keep going.  What choice do we have?"

"Are we gonna have to hoof it the whole way?  About how much farther do we have to go?" Rainbow asked.

"I think a little over a hundred miles."  His own neck began to glow and tingle while his friends moaned disappointedly.  "Maybe...well, that Tina woman's driveway showed up.  Maybe the parking lot did here too."

"What's that?"

"Where people leave their cars when they come to a place like this.  If that is the case and we do find a replacement, we'll probably have to...well, basically mug the person for their keys," Matt explained with a twist of his lips.  "Oh God, Twilight, that feels good."

"Heh, thanks.  There's really no other way, is there?"

"We can't walk a hundred-plus miles.  We need a car."

Her horn stopped glowing and they sat, relaxing for a few minutes of painless peace – all things considered – trying to clear the last several minutes from their heads.  They looked again at the people around them, and most were still keeping their distance.  The initial shock had worn off and now most appeared to staring simply in fascination at the odd sight.  They hadn't been aggressive in any way, not that there was a reason for them to be.  As long as they remained passive, hopefully no trouble would befall them.

"I was so hoping to avoid this," Matt mumbled.

"What do you think's gonna come of all this?" A.J. asked.

He shrugged and replied after a minute to gather his words.  "One, if...when we send this place home, all these pictures will spread around and people will freak out and do...well, who knows what; two, the pictures will spread around and no one will care–"

"Why wouldn't anypony care?  You said your species is the only one that talks and equines don't exactly look like us," Twilight reminded him.  "I sincerely doubt they've ever seen anything like us if what you've told us before is accurate."

"It takes a lot for people to get worked up about stuff that didn't directly happen to them unless you're talking like a national tragedy or something.  Just the way they are these days.  Anyway, three, people will think this mall was pulling some kind of prank or doing a promotional thing or whatever and, again, no one will care."  The girls glared at him skeptically.  "I'm...hoping for the second option.  Just let me handle it if someone starts trying anything funny."

A few more spectators had joined in the photographing when Rarity cleared her throat and spoke up.  "As much as I usually love having my picture taken by admirers, this is starting to unnerve me a little.  Might I suggest we grab our things and get going?"

"Yeah, that's probably not a bad idea."

Standing and stretching his back, Matt took the lead back to the wrecked Blazer.  Anyone in the way quickly let them by, not wanting to risk antagonizing whatever the colorful four-legged things were in front of them.

The saddlebags sat where their owners' did – Applejack's was on the floor of the front seat, Rainbow's and Pinkie's were in the back and so forth.  One by one, Matt grabbed them and set them gently on their backs.  Hopefully it wouldn't be too much of a strain on their spines after the accident and the impromptu magical fix.

All that was left in the back once the last of the saddlebags were in place – including Matt's backpack – were the pillows, sheets and shovel that still lay on the floor in the middle of the car.  Now what?  They were too big to fit in their bags.  Although...

"Hey Twilight, you think you could, like, conjure up a plastic bag or something?"

"Easily.  What did you have in mind?"

"That stuff isn't heavy.  Could probably just carry them over my shoulder."

And as he requested, a large trash bag appeared out of thin air, spooking the people nearby all over again.  The pillows and sheets took on a lavender hue and floated over to him.  Understanding, Matt opened up the bag and let them set themselves inside.

"And the shovel?" Twilight suggested.

He eyed the contents and curled his lips after a moment's thought.  "Eh, I don't know if I want to put a dirty shovel on top of clean sheets and stuff."

"Oh, you have been paying attention!" Rarity cooed.

"Hey, give me some credit," Matt quipped.  As she giggled at his remark, the lights overhead popped on and the series of showrooms followed quickly after, exposing the group to their audience in all their glory. giving their photographers even more reason to shoot.  "Ah, they do have a back-up.  Kind of figured."

"I think I have an idea," Applejack said.  "Why not wrap my saddlebag's strap around the handle once and I'll just carry it that way."

With a quick knot, the bag was sealed tight.  "That's not going to hurt your back?"  

"Eh, my bag's not heavy.  I'll be okay."

His eyes shifted between the rugged cowgirl and the open tailgate, and the idea played through his mind for a minute.  Eventually, he accepted her plan and made his way around to grab the tool, snagging the bag off her back as he passed by her.  Settling on where the middle of the shovel was, Matt managed to win the brief battle against the stubborn saddlebag without spilling its contents all over the floor.  Gently, he replaced it on the orange mare's back, the shovel's blade resting comfortably on her flank and the handle up against the side of her neck.  Eh, could be worse.

Matt snorted under his breath at the convenient placement.  Applejack saw his reaction and wanted to shake her rump at him but instead rolled her eyes at his childishness – not that she minded his eyes drifting in that general direction.  This simply wasn't the time or place for that nor had she come clean with him yet anyway.  Rarity had to hold back a smirk as she watched the whole thing.

The young man took one last look at the Blazer, double checking that they had everything.  As much as he wanted to grab the CDs he brought, he crossed them off the list.  Wasn't any reason for them to continue the journey, and frankly, they weren't critical to the mission.  He took a second to pat down his pockets.  Yep, one had his wallet and the other had the phone and the list of numbers.  They seemed ready to go.  He sighed as he glanced over at the compacted engine.  He already missed not being able to drive it around anymore.

"Alright, let's get out of here."


-----


They barely walked a hundred feet when they were already coming to a stop.  Fortunately, there was a good reason for it.

"Why don't we just go back to that...err, Nordstrom's place?  You said there'd be an exit there, right?" Twilight asked.

"Eh, no reason to backtrack.  We were heading this way in the car, might as well keep going.  Sears isn't all that far ahead, maybe um–"  He dragged his finger along the floor map.  "–a fifteen, twenty minute walk?  Plus, we pass by a food court."

"You're thinking about food after we just got into a crash?" A.J. deadpanned.  "We have food."

"We have snacks," he corrected, "and no, I'm not thinking about food now.  Just saying that if we do start to get hungry for a real meal, there you go.  May as well have something in our stomachs tonight if we end up being forced to walk a hundred miles cuz we might not find much to eat over the next few days if that turns out to be the case."

The farmer curled her lips.  "Eh, you got a point."

Flinging the pillow bag over his shoulder, Matt and the girls marched on.  Not twenty feet later, Rarity suddenly felt herself being forcefully, almost violently, dragged away from the pack by her horn.  That usually meant only one thing to the mare, but no matter how hard she tried to stop her magic from taking her where it wanted, she just kept going.  Several patrons jumped out of the way from what they must have thought was some kind of bizarre attack.

"Rarity, what are you doing?!" Matt hollered.

"It's not me, it's my horn!"

Having been a part of their circle, the human was well aware of what their abilities entailed.  He looked ahead of where she was being taken – a Kay Jewelers – and put two and two together.  A bit annoyed but still understanding of her predicament, he and the others jogged after her.  They caught up with her just as she stopped herself from crashing face first into a wall, just below a brightly lit set of small display windows.  Noticing their contents, Matt suspected that he knew exactly what was coming and frowned hard.

The dressmaker hopped up onto her hind legs, peered in the windows and nearly forgot how to breathe.  Her eyes ballooned to ridiculous size and she covered her mouth with a hoof but the damage had been done.

"Wahahaa!"

In a flash, the posh mare darted into the nearest door.  A second later, a woman was heard to scream.

"Rari... Ah Christ."

Now visibly irritated, Matt stomped his way inside.  The others took a moment to get a glimpse at what had gotten Rarity so worked up.  It was likely what was In the center of the case – a stunning diamond necklace, easily sporting fifty stones, with three more teardrop-shaped gems hanging from the bottom and each connected by a gorgeous rectangular ruby.  Though Applejack and Rainbow Dash never cared much for such things, Twilight, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were impressed by its beauty too.

"Can we go get her now?" Rainbow groaned while the others 'ooo'ed' and 'aah'ed'.

"Err, yeah, maybe we should," Fluttershy said, blushing.

"We shouldn't be stopping to gawk at things anyway," the country girl chastised as they made their way toward the door.  "We do still have a job to do, y'know."

"No, you're right, Applejack."  Twilight shifted her gaze away.  "Still, and I kind of hate to admit it, this is a unique opportunity to study what human culture is like firsthoof, even if it's only until we get out of here."

"What about when we get to this Manhattan place?  Matt said it's supposed to be one of the biggest cities in the world back home."

"We really won't have the time to.  We'll be too busy trying to determine if that odd cloud formation may be the key to all this and then finding a solution if that turns out to be true."

"We should still get a move on," A.J. grumbled, figuring she wasn't going to win the argument.

Not wanting to continue any further, she trotted ahead and met up with Matt as he stood glaring at Rarity as she giggled and babbled nonsensically at whatever jewelry happened to be in front of her at the moment.  The woman behind the counter screamed again as the rest of the Elements filed in one by one; the older gentleman beside her stood motionless, his jaw and eyes open wide.

"Will you please not do that?" Matt growled at the hysterical lady.  "Okay, Rarity, you've seen some pretty things.  Can we go now?"

"Oh!  Err...sure, I just...ooohohohoh."

Applejack sat down next to her love interest, scowling not quite as hard as he was.  "Rares, you can see this kind of stuff any time you want at home."

She and the others sans Rainbow Dash proceeded to ignore her.  The cowgirl glanced up to see Matt more annoyed than she'd seen him in an extraordinarily long time.

"Sugarcube, I'm with you that we need to get going and all, but you look really ticked about all this.  You okay?"

Smirking, he answered, "I never gave a shit about the mall in town back home.  If I ever went there, I'd only go for, like, one or two things and then I'd go right home.  Rachel liked to shop."

Applejack subtly, angrily, pursed her lips at the mention of that name.

"When she didn't go with her girlfriends, she'd insist I come along even though she knew I didn't want to, and just about every time she'd somehow drag me there.  Was the one thing that drove me fucking crazy about her."  He motioned toward the ivory mare.  "Then I see this–"

"–And it's the same thing all over again," she finished for him.

"Eeyup."

"Well, don't worry about me, shug," Applejack sighed, "I won't go checking out any shops.  From what I've seen since the wreck, I doubt there'd be anything here that'd interest me anyway."

"There's probably some sporting good stores somewhere.  I know you're into that stuff."

Lifting her nose in the air proudly, she rebutted, "I can control myself."

A thankful pat on the neck made it all worth it though keeping her cheeks from turning red proved difficult as Matt started caressing her.  "Cool."

After a few minutes, the novelty of the necklaces and bracelets and earrings had worn off and the rest of the group had gathered with Matt and Applejack, but Rarity was still fully engrossed in everything around her.  Enough was enough already.

"Twilight?" Matt said, nodding at the fashionista.  "Would you, uh...?  We really gotta go."

Agreeing to his unspoken request, her horn glowed and the magic took hold of the giddy designer, lifting her away from the displays and toward the door.  The employees jumped away from the spectacle but thankfully didn't scream again.  Eventually, despite clawing at the air in a desperate yet futile attempt to get back to the sparkling gems, Rarity acquiesced and accepted her cruel fate as Twilight carried her away.  Matt took a moment and flashed the jewelers an awkward smile once the last mare exited the establishment.

"Uhhh...you have really nice stuff!"

"...Th-thank you?" the old man mumbled.

With a wave goodbye, Matt shrank away and finally left, tossing the pillows over his shoulder again.


-----


Several minutes passed by, filled mostly with Rarity still gushing over the jewelry though the occasional clothing store window managed to distract her from time to time.  If nothing else, she could take some mental notes on the designs humans appeared to like and maybe put together a new line when they got home.  Half the group did their best to ignore her.  The people that were getting out of their way couldn't help but do just the exact opposite.

Before he knew it, Matt had found the perfect excuse to tune her out off to the right.  His pace began to slow as the food court came into view and a plethora of delicious smells wafted through the air.  It wasn't long that he was informed that he was indeed starting to get a little hungry.

Twilight had found her own reason for paying no attention to the gabby white mare, coincidentally at that same place.  She had spotted a large, green oval sign over the entrance of a shop opposite the food court from a fair distance, and her eyes had been glued on it since.  Given how many windows made up the front of the store, it was much, much larger than anyplace they'd passed.  If she didn't know any better, she'd swear there were some peculiar, moving staircases inside near the front.

"Barnes and Noble Booksellers," she read to herself.

She bit her lip, struggling against herself as she pressed forward only to bump into Rarity.  The studious mare hadn't noticed that Matt had come to a halt – and thus so did the others – and was staring in awe at a restaurant across the large room that he had missed terribly since coming to Equestria.

Twilight turned her attention back to the bookstore, gazing almost lustfully at it.  After dragging her fellow unicorn out of her personal paradise, it would downright hypocritical of her to want to go charging into her own.  She began to fidget and shuffle her hooves in place, trying to push the idea from her head.  Suddenly, she heard footsteps starting to move away from them.

"Hey, where're you going?" Rainbow asked, not receiving an answer.

The bookworm spun around and saw Matt heading straight for the heart of the food court.

Pinkie sniffed the air and cracked a big smile.  "Guess he wants something to eat."

They trailed a few paces behind but caught up quickly enough, leaving Twilight to look back and forth between her desire and her guide.  Ugh, they had to stick together and she knew it.  Frowning sadly, she galloped after her friends and met up with them after only a few seconds.

Matt didn't care how many eyes were glued to them as they filed through the aisles.  His own never left their target and as he got closer, he decided what all he wanted to order.  Finally, he reached the back of the line, anxiously hopping up and down on his heels.

Several trays banged against the floor as the mares joined their friend, falling from the customers' grips.  The noise attracted the attention of a few of the people ahead of Matt, and they caught sight of the source of the commotion in their peripheral.  They slammed into the folks ahead of them as they tried to jump away, raising their ire for only a minute until they too saw Matt's traveling companions.  Eventually, a few of the workers saw them as well and froze up, some muttering their shock out loud.  A few more iPhones came out, too.

"Gah!" Applejack suddenly cried out, spinning away from the restaurant, eyes wide as saucers.

Matt panicked.  Was someone trying to hurt them?!  "What, what?!"

She hid her face under her hat.  "The...th-the number o-o-one...thing."

"Number...?"  Must have been referring to the menu.  He looked and nearly doubled over in laughter.  Pinkie and Rainbow quickly joined in while onlookers voiced their mind-blowing surprise over talking equines.

"That ain't funny!  I nearly had a heart attack!"

"A.J., do you really think that in the half hour or so that this place has been there they managed to drive back to Ponyville, find your brother, bring him back here and turn him into...hahaha!...into a sandwich?  Hahaha!"

She wanted to belt him one.  So badly.  "Just...just order what you want and let's go, please."

With the folks in front of them stepping out of the way, only partially thanks to his laughing like a lunatic, he slowly crept up to the front of the line, not wanting to offend anyone by doing so aggressively.  By now, the chubby girl at the counter had noticed the Elements and was as equally stunned as everyone else.

"Hey, how you doing?" Matt said, wiping away tears as he eventually calmed down.  No answer came.  He read the name tag – at least he tried to.  "Uh...La...kretia?  Hello?"

That got her attention, if only for a moment.  She faced the ponies again and almost appeared to be asking them, "W-w-welcome to McDonald's.  C-can I help you?"
> Chapter 14
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Ohhh, what do I want, what do I want?" Matt asked himself as he anxiously slapped his hands against the counter.  He had practically forgotten how a nice, greasy burger could taste even if it wasn't one that people would have ever exactly called quality.  "Uhhh, I'll take a Quarter Cheese meal, large, with a Pepper to drink.  I don't need any ice in that.  Oh, you know what?  Throw in a six-piece too, couple barbecue sauces."

He reached into his pocket and grabbed his wallet, expecting his total.  What he got was the employee still staring at his six friends.  Matt had suspected before their journey began that people might be a bit taken aback if they happened to bump into the mares at some point, but it still irked him anyway.  True, he had been dealing with ponies on a day to day basis for a while now and knew they were harmless.  Plus, they hadn't really doing anything that out of the ordinary – save for the flying and magic, of course.  Surely with all the things people had seen in movies and television, this shouldn't be that big a deal, right?

It figures that the first bit of human interaction he had with anyone in a year and a half made him groan under his breath.

Rolling his eyes, he waved a hand in the employee's view, managing to briefly snap Lakretia to her senses.  "Wh-wha?"

"You got that, yeah?"

"I-I'm sorry, c-could you repeat that?"

His shoulders ever so slightly fell as he managed to keep his growing irritation under control.  "Quarter Cheese meal, large.  Dr. Pepper, no ice.  Six piece with barbecue."  He turned to the girls.  "Any of you want anything?"

After a moment of studying the board, Twilight spoke up.  "Is this a fast food restaurant?  The menu layout reminds me of 'Hayburger's'."

"Yeah, actually.  Well, these are hamburgers, but yeah, same thing."

"Ah, okay."  The unicorn glanced at the pictures over the staff's head and bopped herself on the head.  "Oh, meat.  I guess the fish and the chicken things up there should have tipped me off right away.  Do they have anything for vegetarians?"

"Salads, but I never heard good things about them," he answered, quickly checking the surrounding court.  "If you want, we can probably find some–oh, hey, a Sbarro's!  They've got pasta and pizza and stuff.  I think you'll like them."

"Matt, darling," Rarity interrupted, "how exactly are you going to pay for all this?"

"I do still have a little money left in my wallet here."  He turned back to the still-stunned employee.  "How much?"

"Th-that'll be $8.79."

Smiling confidently, Matt opened the flap and, in an instant, his joy promptly evaporated.  All that stared back at him was four singles – the same four that had been with him since he first fell into Equestria.  Dammit!

Wait!  A slender piece of grey stuck out from its sleeve.  "You take plastic?" he nervously asked.  Lakretia responded with an extended hand, forcing a quiet sigh of relief from his lungs.

As he worked the debit card from its housing, he paused as a realization suddenly came to him.  The confident smirk found his face and he happily handed her his card.  Beside the register sat an old manual credit card imprinter.  He wanted to smack himself for not noticing it before as the employee took it and arranged the carbon paper and the card into place.

With a quick swipe, Matt was rung up and he signed their receipt.  After receiving his card back, he and the girls – and the large plastic bag – moved to the side to let the next, reluctant customer go.  As they waited patiently for the food, scanning their surroundings and trying to remain calm and collected in front of the hundreds of stares, Matt glanced over to person who had been behind him.

"S'okay, you can go.  Oh, thanks for letting me go ahead of you, that was really cool.  You didn't have to do that."

A few skittish but grateful equine smiles gave him the courage to do so though he had a hard time facing Lakretia to give her his order.

After a couple minutes, everything was laid out on his serving tray and the group casually made their way to the Italian restaurant across the courtyard, the crowds parting like the Red Sea as they walked.  Just about all of the young children were more fascinated than anything, unlike their folks.

They rounded a corner.  Matt set his tray on a nearby outer table and stuffed the pillow bag underneath, mentally noting what the girls wanted.  Seeing the pictures of the pizza Matt spoke of made Rainbow Dash's and Pinkie Pie's decisions easy.  Twilight decided on some spaghetti, but Rarity, Fluttershy and Applejack didn't really have any specific ideas, so Matt decided to surprise them.

"Alright, stay here.  I don't think anyone's going to bother you, but I want to be able to see you from the counter just in case," he instructed as they sat down.  As their saddlebags came off, A.J.'s tied-up shovel hit the floor with a loud 'klang!', making her shrink in embarrassment.  "Twilight, why don't you come with me?  I'm probably going to need some help carrying all the trays."

"Sure."

Whether they'd admit it or not, having Matt close by in the sea of people had put them at ease.  Despite him walking maybe fifty feet away, their nerves started to get the better of them.  Applejack mostly kept glancing over at their guide while tapping her hooves on the table.  Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and even the normally social Pinkie were more than a little uncomfortable thanks to all the faces staring at them.  Fluttershy had balled herself up in the chair between Rarity and Pinkie and was barely peeking out over the table.  Matt was completely right from the get go – this kind of attention they could have lived without.

Several agonizing minutes went by before the two had started making their way back to the table, four trays in tow.  Aside from a pair of slices of Sicilian pizza and Twilight's spaghetti, they had with them some ziti for Fluttershy, a vegetable stromboli for Applejack and a garden salad for Rarity.  He wasn't sure what to get them for drinks, so he asked for a few Pepsis, a couple 7-Ups – one being for Pinkie as he thought she'd like the way it'd tickle her nose – and a painfully average iced tea for the posh mare.

Finally finished distributing the food, Matt took a seat between Applejack and Pinkie with Twilight sitting at the end of the table.  There wasn't much room, but they made do.  A craving he hadn't felt in so, so long took hold of Matt as he unwrapped the burger.  Just as he was about to sink his teeth in, however...

"Alright, Matt, now tell us," Rarity said, making the poor man's shoulders sink, "how exactly did you pay for all this?"

With a deep, anger-soothing breath, he explained, "You remember by any chance how I told you guys how those plastic cards worked?"

Their hemming and hawing answered the question for him.

"Okay, usually, I give them the card, they swipe it and the store basically talks to the bank."

"You mean like how your phone thing works?" Rainbow interrupted.

"Ehhh, yeah, kind of.  It's complicated, but that's sort of how it works.  They ask the bank if I have enough money to pay for what I'm buying.  If I do, the bank gives them the 'okay', I get rung up, the end.  If I don't, they don't.  Sometimes they pay anyway, but I get fined.  Anyway, check this out," he whispered with a sly grin, "you saw that thing the girl used?"  He mimicked the back and forth motion for them for emphasis.  "They do that when they can't talk to the bank right away, but they'd put the card number into their machines by hand later on once they can.  Two things though.  One, there's no connection to the banks right now.  Whether or not they've shown up, I don't know, but even if they have, the connection itself wasn't there, so they're going to probably be sitting on that all day.  And two, and this is the best part, even if that connection happens at some point after we're long gone, remember, I've probably been declared dead back home!"

"Wait a minute," Applejack interjected.  "Are you saying you stole–"

"Shhhhhh!  But yeah, it came to me back there, so I figured why not?"

His cocky smile said it all.  Her disappointed glare did too.

"What?  I, err, borrowed that Blazer and it got us here, right?  We gotta do what we gotta do.  You seriously going to tell me you've never done something a little underhanded to accomplish a goal?  Trust me, when these people realize what's happened, they're not going to be concerned about a few lost dollars," Matt argued with a smirk.

"What makes you think they haven't yet?" Fluttershy asked between bites.

"I'm sure the people out in the department stores by the front doors probably have, but I haven't seen any windows or exits here in the mall yet.  They probably think we're the ones who showed up out of nowhere and not the other way around."  He glanced around the table to see his friends munching away on their Italian food.  "You guys like what you got?"

One by one, they gave their approval, some more graciously than others.

"Rainbow Dash, don't talk with your mouth full!  Where are you manners?" Rarity scolded.

"Hey, this is good!  Leave me alone," she fired back, diving back into her fluffy slice.

Finally with a moment's worth of peace, Matt brought the burger back up to his waiting mouth and took a hearty bite.  However, as the flavor set in, his expectations seemed to dip until all that was left was disappointment.

"What is it?  Don't you like it?" Applejack queried.

"Yeah, it's alright, I'll be able to finish, but...it's...not how I remember."

"Maybe they've changed how they make it since you've been gone?"

"Maybe?" he replied, shrugging.

"I wouldn't be surprised if you simply got used to not having them, resulting in you not liking them as much as did at one time," Twilight suggested.  "It has been quite a while since you ate anything like that, y'know."

"Yeah, that's true," he grumbled.  With a curl of his lips, he continued, "Guess I'll just have to remember then!"  With that, he took a few more bites.  Eh, he'll live.

Smiling sympathetically, A.J. rubbed his back and continued eating.  He showed his appreciation for her concern by pulling her hat over her eyes once again.  She chuckled at his seemingly favorite pastime and smiled at him once she could see again.  Rarity giggled to herself upon seeing the affectionate display too.

Still, it had to be one heck of a bummer for him.  In a roundabout way, Matt was given an unexpected gift, even if it was something simple like a meal he used to enjoy, and it had to blow up in his face.  She wished she could do something to make him feel better.

He gulped down what he had in his mouth, a question on his mind.  "Any of you want some fries?  They're made from potatoes.  Nice, greasy, salty potatoes."

"I'm okay, thanks," Fluttershy responded.

"Thank you, dear, but I'm afraid I must pass.  A girl's got to watch her figure, y'know."

"Ehh, let me try a couple," Twilight said, floating a few over.

"Sure, why not?" Rainbow replied, receiving a few on her paper plate.

"Heck yeah!  I'll make a fry pizza, hehe!"

"Errr...shucks, I already know what a potato tastes like," Applejack said, her eyes shifting about as she played out a sudden, fresh idea.  "If it's alright with you, um...could I...I dunno, try a bit of that burger of yours?"

Matt stopped mid-bite and stared at her, more than a bit surprised.  On her face was the most sincere grin she could muster.  She shifted her gaze around the table to see everypony eying her curiously with Rarity being the most suspicious.  Was Applejack seriously doing what she thought she was doing?

"Really?" Matt asked.

"Sure!  I-I mean, why not?  Nothing wrong with doing something a little out of the ordinary, right?"

He wiggled the sandwich in her direction.  "Just kind of surprised you'd be up for it cuz this is basically Daisy Jo here and these–"  He showed her a nugget.  "–are, uh...umm...Flutters, what's the name of that one chicken you like so much?"

"...Elizabeak?"

"Yeah, that's the one.  These are Elizabeak.  After Flutters, I'd figure you'd be the last person to want to try this."

"Just give me some before I change my mind," the cowgirl insisted, her discomfort having increased with his poetic descriptions.

"Well, alright, if you want."  He picked off a small bit of his Quarter Pounder and dropped it on her plate soon followed by a tiny bit of chicken nugget.  Didn't want to risk making her too sick if it didn't agree with her.

The mare scooped the chunk of 'beef' off her plate and studied it briefly.  Her stomach started to knot as what she was about to do sank in, but there was no going back.  Not to her, at least.  But she could handle this – she knew it!  Gulping down her fears, she tossed the bit into her mouth.

She downed the meat after a few quick chews.  The rest of the table sat curious and patiently for what she thought.  After a brief pause, Applejack shrugged.

"S'okay, I guess."

"Well, alright!" Matt said, nudging her for good measure.  

Smiling back, A.J. snatched the chicken and gobbled it up without the same apprehension as before.  She smacked her lips once it was down her throat.  "Wasn't bad.  I mean, I don't think I'll be making it for dinner anytime soon, heh.  But, yeah, they were okay."

"Eh, even if the cows didn't talk, I wouldn't know where to begin with all that anyway," Matt added, scarfing down a sauce-covered nugget.  "Plus, I...don't think I could get started.  I've seen what the whole process is like on video before.  Most I know how to do is light up the grill and throw it on for a little while.  Either way, glad you tried it!"

A grumble came from the across the table.  "Ugh, let me have a piece too," Rainbow groaned.

"Uh...okay, yeah, sure."  Two small chunks were dropped on her plate.  Her friends eyed her questioningly.

The high flier folded her forelimbs against her chest.  "What?  I'm not going to let Applejack be the only one to do something a little daring around here."

Several rolled eyes were what she got, but that didn't deter her.  First was the burger and then the chicken quickly after.  Once she finished, Rainbow sat there staring blankly as she made up her mind.  "Yeah...nothing special."

"Uh, so, Matt," Twilight chimed in after a slurp of spaghetti, "I was, err, kind of wondering if, after we finish eating, we might be able to take a look in that bookstore over there?"  His arms went limp and slammed on the table.  Despite his extremely unamused stare, the bookworm persisted.  "Listen, I know we have to continue north, but I'd love to take a look at some of the things your species has written.  Heck, I'd love to see bits and pieces of your history if we could take a few minutes.  I...I just may never get this kind of opportunity again."

He wasn't budging.

"Please?  You let Rarity look around the jewelry store.  I just thought maybe–" 

"I beg your pardon, but my horn dragged me over there, thank you very much," the dressmaker rebutted.

"But he still let you look!"

Rarity narrowed her eyes but said nothing, instead floating her iced tea up to her snout and taking a drink with her straw.  Wasn't going to be any point in trying to argue with her.  Plus, Matt's defenses had started to crumble when he let out a long sigh.

"Wh-what about when we let you listen to some of your music instead of rushing us over to that house, hm?  I'd say it's only fair we get to check some things out around here," Twilight argued with a firm nod.

"Okay, fine," Matt growled.  "Can we please just not take too long in there?"

"I won't.  I promise."


-----


For the fourth time, Twilight glanced at the book's cover and then flipped it over to skim the summary on the back.  Matt and Applejack stood beside the 'Best Seller' shelf waiting impatiently for the unicorn to move onto something else though Matt was more concerned that no one noticed where he was standing.  He much preferred...well, anywhere else.  He'd have his dignity then.

At least he hadn't heard any of the others crying for help or getting into a scuffle with anyone.  Like before, people were keeping their distance and snapping pictures.  He didn't want to have the girls get separated, but they assured him they wouldn't stray too far.  Twilight managed to convince him to stay close to her in case she might stumble upon a book or two that he may know something about, such as the one in front of her.

Eventually, Twilight stopped rereading the back and stared, baffled, at the apple on the front of the glossy black cover.  "I don't get it."

"Clearly, they're saying you and A.J. should hook up.  Please put it down," Matt mumbled.

The mares didn't appreciate his wisecrack as much as he'd hoped.

"I'm sure you can understand why I was curious about this book," Twilight shot back.

"Doesn't change the fact that only people with absolutely no taste like it."

"Is it really that bad?" A.J. asked.

"Let me put it this way.  If you somehow managed to convince me to buy it for you – and you won't – it'd be more useful as...I don't know, kindling or something, unless you like the idea of having your brains leak out of your head as you read it."

The nerdy mare gasped in horror, holding the novel close.  "I don't care how bad you claim it is, I would never let you burn it."

"Though, regardless if we find a new car or not later, we may need the firewood tonight anyway," he rambled on, ignoring her chastising.

She lightly bopped him on the head with said book.  "No!"

A sky-blue head peaked out from a nearby aisle.  "Uh, you guys okay over here?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Just that you were getting a little loud."  Rainbow glanced at the book Twilight was valiantly defending.  "Find something interesting?"

"Interesting, no.  Awful, yes," Matt quipped.  "Hey, what was the name of that author who wrote those books that you like so much?  Um...Daring Do, right?"

"Oh, you mean A.K. Yearling?"

"Yeah, what do you say we mail one of those off to her as a cruel prank so she can cry herself to sleep every night after reading, like, one chapter?"  A facetious grin stretched across his cheeks.

"Why would she do that?"

"You know how you say those Daring Do books are, like, the best thing ever?"

"Yeah...?"

"These are the exact opposite of that."

The pegasus blinked at his suggestion.  "That's the worst idea I've ever heard."  She flew up and met him snout to nose, threateningly tapping him on the chest.  "Ever."

Matt simply laughed her off.  His laughs didn't last long once Twilight replaced the book and dragged him away by his ear.  "Ow!  Hey!"

Satisfied with a spot a few aisles away from the butt of Matt's terrible jokes, the studious mare released him and resumed her search across hundreds and hundreds of spines for something – anything – else to peak her interest.  But where to begin?!  Does she track down science books first?  History?  Religion?  The possibilities were endless!

Unfortunately, her decision would have wait.  A few minutes had passed when they heard a familiar giggle coming from not much further into the bookstore and went to investigate.  Fluttershy and Rarity arrived barely a step behind them, coming out of whatever corner they were hiding.  It seemed that a certain pink pony had found a new plaything.

"Is that staircase moving?" Twilight asked.

It didn't surprise Matt that she and the others noticed that before she saw Pinkie slowly cartwheeling in place as the stairs climbed.

"Yeah, it's an escalator."  He brought his hands to his hips and held in a chortle.  "Having fun, Pinkie?"

Her musical laughter gave him his answer.

"Come on, get off of that.  You're gonna get hurt."

"Awww, okay."  Matt barely had time to drop their pillow bag in order to catch Pinkie as she suddenly leapt at him.

"Can we go look around upstairs?" the bookworm gleefully asked.

"I'd honestly prefer if we didn't.  We've been here a while as it is.  Plus, I don't want to see this happen when we get to the top."

Setting Pinkie down, he took a single strand of her tail and plucked it out as gently as he could.  It made her jump but she'd be fine.  The girls followed him to the downward escalator to watch in terror as he fed the hair under the floor.  Rarity protectively pulled her elegant tail to her chest, imagining with dread how disastrous something as simple as going upstairs could turn out.

"H-how often does that happen?" Fluttershy whimpered.

"Not terribly, buuuut..."  They got the hint with his nod at Pinkie's poofy tail.

"Err, yeah, let's...let's move on," Twilight meekly suggested.

"Look," Matt groaned, "if we ultimately can't fix what's going on and we end up coming across another place like this at some point, I'll help you find some things to read about us.  Deal?"

"Heh, okay, deal."  On their way toward the door, however, the inquisitive young mare came to a stop once again, snatching a book off a shelf.  "Oooo!"

"Ugh..."


-----


Matt had been worried for a little while if he would have to resort to forcefully dragging Twilight out by her tail and hoping she didn't just blink away anyway.  Maybe he could have just tossed her into the bag with the pillows and went from there.  Thankfully, logic was always the best trump card to use when arguing with her, and the fact that the tinted windows high over their heads were dimming more and more as they dawdled convinced her that they did need to get going.  If they happened to luck out and find a vehicle they could...borrow outside, having daylight to drive by would be nice.

While the light outside was no longer terribly bright, a store on the right was lit up like a Christmas tree, and Matt himself was more interested in it than anyone.  He was well aware of what kinds of things were inside, and he would have loved to go in and see them again after so long, but they had to...

Hold on.  There may have actually been a reason to stop this time.  Pausing mid-stride, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his iPhone.  Starting it up, he noted the battery strength – 3%.  Just what he was afraid of.  Surely the Apple Store in front of them had what he needed.

The girls came to a halt as he turned and made a beeline for the entrance.  "Hey, where are ya goin'?" A.J. called out.

He spun around and displayed the phone to her, walking backwards as he addressed the question.  "I might be able to get a charger for this thing."

"What do you need that for?"

"If I actually manage to get a hold of someone, I want to be able to, y'know, talk to them before this thing dies after two minutes."

His next stepped somehow missed the floor, but the purple glow around told him what was going on.  Twilight turned him around as he floated in the air.  "So, it's okay for you to go shopping for something, but if we want to look around for ourselves, you get all in a tizzy?"

"I'm trying to move us along so we can get out of here before it gets dark.  I don't want to be spending the night sleeping a mall.  Plus, I know exactly what I need.  I'm not going to be more than, like, five minutes."

The librarian shot him a deadpan glare.  After a moment, she set him down.  "If it's any more than five minutes, Matt..."  A gentle tug on his ear got the message across.

"I got it, I got it.  Come on, I'll show you how a man shops."

With smirks abound, they followed a few steps behind him.
> Chapter 15
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Matt never had any reason to set foot in an Apple store back on Earth since he generally bought his electronics from the Best Buy that was ten minutes from his home.  However, the bright lights, the numerous open laptops, the whispered hum buzzing through the air... Just for a moment, he felt as if he never left.  A gentle tap on his leg snapped him out of his euphoric state as he stood just inside the doorway with a subdued grin on his face.

Right.  He went there for a reason other than to gawk.  Besides, the girls would more than likely be doing enough of that on their own in a minute or two while they kept an eye on their pillows.

Still, it didn't mean he wasn't allowed to check out the young woman in short shorts bent over several feet ahead looking at some merchandise.

A.J. heard Matt's devilish 'Mmm!' and followed his eyes.  Even though she was unaware of what humans would consider attractive amongst each other, his smirk gave her a good enough idea.  Oh, how she wanted to throttle this temptress just for standing there!  Maybe take the shovel she was hauling and–

No, no, that wouldn't be right.  They're supposed to be keeping as low a profile as they could and beating the tar out of someone would probably send up a few red flags.  She'd just have to remember to slap Matt upside his head at some point after they had finally gotten out of this shopping plaza and he had forgotten about stopping at this particular store.

A familiar-sounding 'Whoa!' followed by the clacking of keys behind them told him Pinkie – and most likely the others right after – must have gotten her hooves on one of their computers.  She probably found one of their slideshows and was taken in by it.  The confused murmurs told him they were finally noticed by some of the more vocal disbelievers as did the stares and the jaws that were hanging open.  Matt quickly shifted his gaze when the object of his attention finally spotted him and Applejack coming her way and shrieked as she jumped away.  No need to weird the girl out on top of scaring the crap out of her.

To their left, Matt noticed a wall loaded with various accessories.  Normally, he'd have marched past the associate and gone straight for his target, but his unfamiliarity with iPhones left him no choice.  Plus, it'd be faster than sitting there hunting and pecking for what he was looking for only for it to turn out to be the wrong one later.

Smiling pleasantly, he walked up to Jeff and pulled out his depleted device.  "Hey there.  I need a car charger and a regular wall charger for this thing."

Unfortunately, Jeff didn't take his eyes off Applejack.  Her awkward wave 'hello' didn't seem to help matters either.

It took nearly all of Matt's effort to keep his smile from evaporating.  Here they go again.

He gently patted the employee on the shoulder and got his nervous attention.  Jeff glanced over the phone and managed to stutter, "Err...y-yeah.  Th-they're over here."

Sidestepping the pair and keeping his distance, the associate shuffled over, feeling around for the display while continue to stare at the cowgirl.  She looked away, growing increasingly uncomfortable, and watched her friends being mesmerized by a little window screen thing.  It almost looked like a larger version of the phone.  Was probably something similar.  Maybe she'd ask about it later if the mood struck her.

"Dude, she's not going to bite," Matt grumbled.

Grimacing to himself, Jeff pushed past his enough of his anxiousness to search through the products without worrying about the orange creature in front of him.  It wasn't really doing anything.  "Car charger...car charger..."

Suddenly a bit confused, Applejack nudged her tall comrade.  He leaned down to meet her.  "Matt, we don't exactly have a, uh...car anymore," she whispered.

"I've been thinking about that.  Just hope my hunch is right."

It wasn't long before Jeff approached them, taking one last cursory glance at Applejack again.  "N-need anything else today, sir?"

"That'll do it, thanks."

He pulled out his wallet and readied his card, relieved that everything was going nice and quick.  Jeff set the two requested items down on a nearby table and went behind the front counter, pulling out yet another imprint machine and a plastic bag.

"Oh, I don't need a bag.  I'll just throw them in my backpack."  Jeff nodded and left it next to his computer.  As he stepped back around and set the credit card machine next to Matt, he was asked, "System's still down, huh?"

Sure, Matt already knew the answer, but maybe a bit of small talk would calm the rattled associate's nerves a bit more.  He was still obviously, and understandably, very tense.

"Yeah.  I, uh...I can't even reach my wife, see if it's working at home."

The traveling companions shared a knowing glance.  "That sucks.  Eh, hopefully it won't last too much longer."

Jeff took the card and swiped it.  "Hopefully not."  Handing the plastic currency back to its owner, the employee looked across the store where the other five mares were still playing with the laptops on display.  Unsurprisingly, Twilight seemed to have figured out what the mouse did.  "Listen, um...wh...wh-what...uh...?"

Matt smirked as he signed the receipt.  He didn't need to hear the whole question to know what Jeff was getting at.  "Too long a story and not enough time, man.  Oh, check it out, is there a valet parking lot here?"

"Y-yeah, it's in front of Saks.  Just head down that way past Sears," he replied, motioning in the direction they were going anyway.

"Awesome, thanks.  Take it easy, alright?" Matt said, collecting his new belongings and stuffing them in his pack.

As he turned to leave, Jeff returned the sentiment, albeit as baffled as he was when the bizarre group entered the store.  "Have a good day?"

Without missing a beat, Applejack and Matt strutted right past the girls, grabbed their pillows and kept going.  "Ready?" he asked them.

It took a second for his voice to register as they were still fascinated by all the pretty colors, bells and whistles in front of them.  With a hint of disappointment, Twilight eventually came to and said, "Wait, you're done already?  But this...I mean..."

With a pout, the nerd followed just behind her friends as they left, eventually catching up to Matt outside.

"And that's how you do it," he declared.


----- 


Three stores.  Two clothing outlets and a shoe store later and annoyance found its way back as Rainbow Dash decided to dart across the hall.  Maybe his irritation wasn't quite as pronounced as their visit to the Barnes and Noble was, and under what used to be normal circumstances for him, Matt might have found himself perusing the wares of a shop such as this one from time to time.  Either way, he had hoped the distractions were behind them.

If only she hadn't seen the words 'sporting goods'.

Cutouts of LeBron James and Peyton Manning greeted the group just inside the store as they chased after the speedster, who had already found a basketball to play with near the back of the place.

"Brett, tell me you're seeing this," the fellow employee leaning by the register mumbled.

"Uh huh."

After weaving past the veritable mountain of shoes on display and through several clothes racks, they managed to catch up with her.  The fact that she was floating overhead made the daredevil easy enough to spot.

"Christ, Dash, don't run off like that!" Matt snapped.

She twirled the ball on the tip of her hoof only for it to fall.  "Ah, I was fine!  It's not like anypony would be able to catch me anyway if I really wanted to move my flank, y'know."

"Except if you ran into a security guard and he decided to shoot at you and got lucky!  I know I've told you about some of our weapons before."

Rainbow glided to the other side of the store as he lectured her, something else catching her eagle eye.  Her peeved friends fell in a few feet behind her and came to a stop as she returned with a white cap with a blue horseshoe on her head.

"Yeah, yeah.  I haven't seen any security guards yet.  How do you know this mall even has them?"

"Pretty much every mall does," he growled.

"Well, they ain't around here, so what's the problem?  Anyway, tell me you like my hat!"

"It's lovely.  Put it back."

With a nasty sneer, Rainbow removed the cap but wasn't ready to let it go just yet.  She turned it around and examined the design on the front.  "This a team logo?"

"Yeah, it's the Indianap–"  He paused and rolled his eyes.  Of course she'd grab that one.  "The Indianapolis Colts.  Football team."  The NFL logo stared back at him from the side of the cap.  He reached for it and turned the hat around for the mare so she could it but still took a second to point it out.  "See the ball there?"

"Oh yeah!  Cool.  Check it out, I saw this other one over there too.  It was bluish and–"

He cut her off, knowing exactly where she was going.  "And let me guess.  It had a white horse's head on it."

"Yeah!"

"Sounds like the Broncos."

"Hah!  Which team's better?"

"How would I know?  I've been here the last eighteen, nineteen months!"

Rainbow facehoofed and restated, "Alright, which was better before you came here then?"

Sighing, Matt took a moment to dig out any memories he had of the sport.  He was more into college football but was still marginally aware of what went on in the pros.  "Um...well, the Colts had a great quarterback, he always threw for, like, a million yards every year.  I think the Broncos usually had a good running game.  They were both pretty good if I remember.  But, I mean, people got traded all the time.  You honestly expect me to tell you who's on the teams now?"

She went to answer but shrugged and clammed up pretty quick.  Glancing again at the hat in her hooves, she weighed Matt's words and smirked.  "Soooo, the Colts had a good air game, huh?"

"Mhm.  They could score a ridiculous amount of points a lot."

"Then that's who I'm rooting for.  Sounds like my kind of team!"

Quickly getting tired of the banter, Matt pulled the hat away from her and hung it on the end of a nearby clothes rack.  "Can we go now?  Besides, how are you even supposed to root for a team that's not even from the same planet?" he asked as he turned to leave.

"Bah, details."  Not to be deterred even as Matt was walking away, Rainbow Dash zipped around overhead and found some footballs for sale in a basket by the front counter.  The employees nearly jumped out of their skin as she dove for one and took back to the sky, holding it like her bipedal friend would.  "Hey, Applejack!  Go long!"

The ball flew through the air but nopony bothered to chase after it as it sailed over their heads.  Before it got too far out of reach, it paused mid-air, glowing purple, and made its way back to Matt.  Almost as a singular unit, the group turned to face her with deadpan looks.

"You're no fun."

Matt casually lobbed the football back at her and she got the message.  For a brief moment, she disappeared behind the clothes, putting her oblong toy back, and returned to them, disappointed but ready to go.


-----


After roughly ten minutes of walking, they rounded the corner past the Sears they had spotted on the map earlier.  There fortunately hadn't been much for the girls to look at – more clothing stores of various quality, a music store playing an awful pop song, a video game shop that tempted Matt for a moment.  The only other things that struck anypony's fancy were a scented candle shop that Rarity wanted to visit and a Frederick's of Hollywood that she wanted to check out to hopefully get a few ideas for a more intimate apparel line back at the boutique.

The candles did smell nice, and Matt wouldn't have minded looking around in Frederick's either for other reasons, but they really needed to continue.  Besides, Rarity had already led them into a jewelry store and Matt had firmly decided along the way that everybody gets one, including him.  Yeah, he stopped for food as well as phone chargers but both were more out of necessity rather than entertainment, he argued.  Her pouting wasn't going to work this time.

But, as Matt's nose took hold of him back at the food court, Pinkie's suddenly kicked into high gear.  She certainly recognized something sweet.  Taking wingless flight and confusing the hell out of everyone around them after observing Rainbow Dash flapping next to them, the party girl floated on a breeze into a candy store a few shops in front of them.

She might as well have died and gone to heaven.

Giddy with excitement, she bounced around from one display to another, utterly lost at where to start.  Oh, if she could only try everything!

Matt pointed out that quite a bit of what she saw she could easily get back home.  While that was true, there was so much more Pinkie could sample here!  All the unusual jelly bean flavors, the sour treats, the numerous chocolate things, the hard candies – she was practically drooling a waterfall onto the floor!

Yet another argument he wasn't going to win.  Maybe he should just stop trying.  At least the kids in the establishment seemed to be amused by her hijinks.  Their parents, not so much.  Slightly embarrassed at her antics, Matt turned away and pretended not to know her.

Pinkie Pie stopped mid-bounce next to a bin that caught her eye.  The tiny pieces in gold foil looked kind of cute, and she never really saw any treats designed in such a way.  Obviously the candy was inside it.  So, she reached into the plastic bin and tossed the miniature peanut butter cup into her mouth, masterfully unwrapping it with her tongue.  Once it was finally off, she slid the flattened foil out from between her lips and set it on the clear tub.

The taste hit and she froze up, her tongue kissed by the new, orgasmic flavor.  "Why have I never had this before?!" she shouted to the heavens.

"Jesus, Pinkie!  Calm down!"

"Err...hehe, sorry!"

Not satisfied with only one, the party mare scooped out another and undid the wrapper in the same way, this time with Matt watching.

"...Pinkie, you're going to make some guy very happy some day," he muttered, not terribly surprised by her tongue's versatility.  Honestly, knowing what he knew about her by this point, little she did surprised him anymore.

Though the others really didn't get it, the joke wasn't lost on Rarity.  "Matt!"

"I'm just kidding, jeez!"

"But I love making guys and girls happy all the time, silly!" Pinkie said.

Matt didn't need to look to know the fashionista was glaring at him expectantly.  "I-I'm not touching that one."

"Touching what?"

"...Never mind."

With a shrug, the bouncy mare hopped and hopped to her next target, this time some Twizzlers Minis.  They were decent, but she liked the peanut butter cups better.  A few bins further down, she spotted the name of the treat in front of her and giggled.

"Gummy bears?  Does that mean I should bring some home for Gummy?  Heehee!"  Her attention shifted from one tub to the next to the next.  "Ooo, gummy worms, gummy letters... Gummy cherries!" she gasped.  "I love cherries!"

Curious if they did indeed taste like their namesake, Pinkie tossed a sample down her throat.  After a moment, a blissful smile stretched across her face.  Soooo good!

Matt had been keeping a diligent eye on the hyper pony just in case she started making too much of a mess or having more than one or two pieces.  However, as she gobbled down the sugary goodness, he began to remember something about her selected treat.  When it all finally came back to him, he had to fight off wincing over what one of the main ingredients of the sweets was.  Granted, Applejack and Rainbow Dash had voluntarily chowed down on something not normally incorporated into a pony's diet, but what the gummies contained were typically leftover for the dog after eating a rack of ribs.

Mercifully, Pinkie wouldn't have any way to be aware of this.  Matt was intent on keeping it that way since she was thoroughly enjoying her sugar rush, but he'd be damned if he was going to spill the beans.  Out of sight, out of mind!

That didn't mean he was going to let her continue to unknowingly devour something whose contents would horrify her under normal circumstances, though.

The zany mare tossed another cherry into the air, intent on catching it in her mouth, when Matt stepped up and caught it instead, forcing laughter as he put it away.  "Hah hah!  Pinkie, you don't want to fill up on just these!  See over here?  You've got these, uh...Reese's Pieces, those are really good.  Little lumps of peanut butter.  Errr...oh, these!  Oreo cookie crumbles!  Yeah, have some of those."

"Oooo, those do look good!"

"Mhm!  Yeah, just don't go too overboard, okay?  You just ate not too long ago.  Don't want to be...sick or anything," he said, sliding a sideways glance at Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

The speedster glided up to them with a raised eyebrow.  "Overboard?  With chocolate and candy and stuff?  You have met Pinkie Pie, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know."  Matt's face twisted as he watched crumbs and bits fly from Pinkie's lips as she munched away like a starving filly.  "Tsk, you're making a mess..."

Happy with her fill of cookies and cream, she hopped off to the next delectable delight only for Matt to call it a day for her.

"Okay, um...I-I'd say that's enough for now, okay, Pinks?"

"But there's seventy-two more tubs that I haven't tried yet!"

Perplexed at how she came up with such an odd number, he paused and began to count what they hadn't touched yet.  Only three tallies under his belt was enough for him to shake his head, remembering who he was dealing with.

"We can't really dawdle too long at these places.  You know this."

"Aww, okay," the poor mare pouted.

With a gentle nudge, Pinkie turned and headed towards her friends.  Rainbow sped right past her in the meantime.  

He awkwardly turned to face the teller across the room.  "Err, s-sorry about, um..."  He motioned to the littered floor embarrassingly.

As they passed by the gummy area, Matt held up for a second, staring at the same temptation that snagged the party girl.  Biting his lip and hating himself for it, he reached into the bin and grabbed a couple more cherries, quickly throwing one into his mouth.  His eyes scanned over the girls as he slowly, slowly chewed.  It felt so wrong.

But, damn, did it taste so right.

"They're good, huh?" Pinkie giggled, having seen what he did.

"Mmm!" he said with a phony smile.  "Heh...yeah."


-----


It was only a few minutes before Matt was able to see down the hall the fancy white letters that made the Saks Fifth Avenue sign overhead.  Jeez, finally!

Now as long as the valet parking lot came with the mall...

With a sigh of relief, Matt picked up his pace.  They'd spent more time in this place than he would have liked.  Just as the group was about to pass below the sign, however, Fluttershy came to a stop, glancing at a store a few doors down from the retail giant.

When the yellow pegasus didn't appear in the corner of Rarity's eye, she paused as well to look behind her.  "Fluttershy?"

As Matt and the rest turned around too, he managed to hear what no doubt was on the timid mare's mind – a loud, high-pitched yipping and barking.  Surely enough, she was staring at a nearby pet store, particularly the display next to the window where a handful of puppies were playing and pawing at the window.  Interesting.  The mall he used to be dragged to never had one, if he recalled right – not even when he was a kid.

Meh, whatever.  Didn't mean other places couldn't have them.

Once the initial surprise settled, Fluttershy blinked and gazed back at the group.  "Oh.  I-I'm sorry.  We do need to keep going."

Hiding behind her mane, she crept up and waited patiently for Matt to continue leading them.  But, he was still watching the furballs and smirking as they romped.

"Alright, go ahead."

Her ears twitched and she looked up in surprise.  When he didn't see her flying or galloping away, he cocked his head to the side to see her still standing there gawking at him.

"Go ahead.  Everybody gets one, remember?  That can be your one."

A dainty pair of hooves were suddenly wrapped around his head.  He patted her back with his free hand and she was off, flying gracefully for a few feet before deciding on sprinting away.  She practically knocked an unsuspecting woman to the floor as she rounded the corner inside toward the display up front.  Taking to the air, Fluttershy scooped up one of the puppies, smiling almost as widely as Pinkie Pie typically does.

"Oooh, aren't you just the cutest little thing?!  Yes, you are!"

"Mommy, mommy, I want that one!" a small nearby child cried out while her mother tickled a kitten in its play area.

"You see one you li–oh my God!"

As the mom pulled her little girl away from the distracted Fluttershy, the scrawny teenager behind the counter spotted Matt and the rest of the girls as they walked in, barely able to take his eyes off the yellow mare as she nuzzled the tiny beagle.  "Uh...s-sir, you're supposed to have your pets on a leash when–"

"Pets?!" Rainbow growled, getting right in his face.

"Buh!"

"Rainbow Dash, he doesn't know," Applejack groaned.

Eh, she did have a point.  The high-flyer narrowed her eyes at the clerk and pointed threateningly at him before flying off.  She wasn't having any of his crap!

The mares spread out, heading for their animal of choice.  Rainbow zipped over to squawking and chirping in the back with Twilight following on the ground behind her while Rarity went to look at the kittens in their exhibit, lifting one out with her magic and snuggling with it.

Matt and Applejack stepped around the cooing pegasus and stuck their arm and forelimb in the display, almost instantly attacked by several tongues and tiny sets of teeth.  A couple furry companions jumped to their hind legs and leaned on the glass, begging for more direct attention.  Matt picked one up, a golden retriever pup, and offered the little yellow ball of energy to the little pink ball of energy hopping excitedly beside them.

She took it in her hooves with a squeal.  Plopping onto her rump, the dog licked and licked her face, its tongue tickling.  Once it stopped for a moment, she set him on the floor and hopped to her hooves, leaning forward and barking at the playful puppy.  More slobbery kisses were her reward.  Her laughter only got louder when she rolled over onto her back and the pooch tried climbing onto her chest, growling and playfully nipping at her forelegs.

Matt returned to Applejack's side and went back to his new four-legged friends, scratching at ears and tickling tummies.  Okay, this stop wasn't a bad one.

"Winona's gonna be piiiiissed," he joked, getting a laugh out of the cowgirl.


-----


Though they lingered longer than Matt would have initially liked in the pet store, playing with the animals made the experience quite a bit better than a few of the prior places they visited.  Either way, he felt like kicking himself for all the ultimately wasted time.  Once they left the pet store, he had looked overhead through the skylights and there was nothing but darkness.  Either the sun was already down or it was far too low in the sky for them to see any of its precious light.  If the moon was going to be the only thing helping them see, it had better be nice and clear out.

It was simple enough navigating through Saks thanks to the signs overhead showing them the way out.  He was quickly getting tired of looking at clothes, clothes and more clothes.  At least the perfume and make-up counters were a little different among the monotony.

Finally nearing the exit, many yards ahead, they heard the carrying on of what sounded like a crowd of people.  Uh oh.

Checking their surroundings, Matt nudged them into hiding between some clothes racks and listened for any clues as to what was going on.

"Why won't you let us go outside?!"

"We can't be expected to stay here!  What's the idea?!"

"I have to get home to my family!"

"Listen, we've been over this!  Until we figure out what's going on, we've been instructed not to let anyone out of the building!"

"This is for your own safety!  Now step back!"

"Hey Rainbow, you wanted to know where the security guards were?  I think we found some of them," Matt said.

"What are we going to do?  They're not going to let us out," Fluttershy wondered.

"How about we go up there and Twilight teleports us outside?" A.J. suggested.

"Ehhh, if they turn around and see us, they'll just come after us, probably guns a-blazin'."  Matt cocked an eyebrow.  "Wait, you can send things away too, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"What does that take?"

With a tap of her chin, Twilight answered, "Just need to think of a place I know how to get to and then just...focus, really."

"You remember how to get to the car we crashed in?"

"Err, yeah.  You want me to send them there?"

"Only as a last resort.  I'll snap my fingers if it comes to that, then you get rid of them.  Hopefully they'll be like, 'hey, something weird is going on outside and then there are these weird...well, you guys...in front of us.  Maybe there's a connection and we should let them through!', but I doubt that'll happen," he explained.

"What do you mean 'weird'?" Rainbow asked, a bit peeved at Matt's choice of words.

"Let's face it, darling, we're not exactly a normal sight to these people," Rarity replied.  "Why don't you think they'd see things like that anyway?"

"Eh, most cops aren't exactly hired for their brains."

"Now, what happens when we get outside?" Twilight queried.

"Well, assuming the parking lot came with this place, that one guy said this is where the valet is supposed to be.  If that's true, we'll probably see a stand with a bunch of keys in a box or something.  There'll probably be an SUV somewhere, we find its key and get the hell out of here.  But we've gotta be quick about it."

"Why's that, shug?"

"Once those guards figure out what the hell happened, they'll probably radio for help and send some more of their friends our way in a hurry."

"Sounds like this is gonna be real fun then," Applejack remarked.

Matt nodded and took a breath.  Showtime!  "Yep.  Alright, let's go.  No one make any sudden moves, and stay behind me."

With the escape plan set, they pressed on and snuck up behind the angry crowd without incident.  All the furious words being thrown around were enough to keep their attention away from the group.  Now how to actually get past them...?  Speaking up probably wasn't going to work since everyone was getting loud and belligerent after however long they'd been standing there.

Ah!  A simple tap on the shoulder.  It's always the easy things.

The woman whose attention Matt got shrieked when she turned her head, nearly falling over into those in front of her in an effort to get away.  Others next to her jumped when she let out her yell and looked behind them to see what was going on only to back off as well.  The chain reaction was set.

"Excuse us, we'd like to get through," Matt said, smiling facetiously.  "'Scuse us... Pardon us... Sorry... Comin' through."

Little by little, the crowd died down as the unusual visitors were seen and a wide berth was given to them.  Once the ten or so guards spotted them and the initial surprise wore off, they took a defensive position, reaching for their weapons.  Matt quickly scanned where their hands were, and they weren't holding their guns.  Probably going after pepper spray or tasers or something.  Still, no need to antagonize them.

"Hey there, we need to get through," he pleaded.

"The heck are those things?!"

"Watch it, guys!"

One of the middle guards offered his hand out to Matt.  "S-sir, come with me!  We'll get you away from those...things!"

Wow, it didn't take them long to insult his intelligence.

"They're with me, you idiot."

Ugh, so much for not antagonizing.

"Look, we need to get out of here.  Are you going to let us out or not?"

"Sir, something weird is going on outside–"

"Oh yeah, and things are completely normal in here.  Right."

"We don't know what's going on and until we figure it all out, nobody is allowed to leave these premises!  We don't know what's out there!  Now step back and keep those things of yours away!" one of the younger guards hollered.

"Is it wrong of me to want to go up there and knock those fools' lights out?" Applejack growled under her breath.

"We do know what's out there and what's happening.  That's why we need to go.  Now," Matt snarled, quickly losing himself to the anger he had managed to keep subverted for so, so long.

"Sir, this is your last warning!" he heard as the line of guards started pulling out weapons.

"Oh, we don't have time for this shit."

He snapped his fingers and a few seconds later, the men began to glow purple.  Before they could register what was going on, they vanished into thin air, sending the crowd into a brief panic.

"...Assholes."

Shaking his head in disgust, he stepped up to the automatic door, but nothing happened.  It should be working.  He dropped the pillows and tried prying the door open, but to no avail.  Great.  They must have locked it.  With a sneer across his face, he stepped up to Applejack and unwrapped the shovel from its make-shift holster, swung around and smashed the glass into a thousand pieces.

"Err, you know I could have just popped us outside, right?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah, but I needed to hit something after all that bullshit."

"But now there's glass all over the place."

Using the garden tool, he scraped what he could to the side, making a narrow but useable path.  "There you go.  Come on, we gotta move.  Just be careful."

Once the girls trotted and flew outside, he turned and gave the crowd one last threatening glare, daring anyone to follow them with a wave of the shovel.  Good.  Didn't look like there was going to be any trouble.  Squinting, he snatched their pillows and chased after the ponies.

"Look, over there," Matt said, pointing to the valet stand.  Sure enough, it – and a fair portion of the lot, from what he could see under the functioning street lights – made the trip to Equestria.  He skimmed through the cars and spotted a rather large SUV of some kind.  "Rainbow, you see that white one there?"

"Yeah, you want me to go check it out?"

"Yeah, there should be a logo or a word or something above the plate in the middle."

"On it!"

As she raced away, they approached the large, black metal box that contained the keys but found it locked.  "Goddammit, the valet guy probably has the key for this thing.  Shit!  Twilight, you think you can cut through this without slicing all the way through it?"

"Yeah, that shouldn't be a problem."

"Okay, good."

Focusing a beam of magic like a welding torch, Twilight was only a few inches into her task when Rainbow returned.  "It said 'Hummer' on the back.  That what you wanted?"

"That's a Hummer?  Oh, nice.  Nice and roomy."

After only about a minute, the last of the lock was cut loose and Twilight swung the door open.  Inside had to have been nearly a hundred keys.

"Ugh!  You gotta be kidding me!" Matt snarled, dropping the shovel and bag to the ground.  "Okay, okay, um...keep an eye out for any guards or whatever.  I gotta look through this."

Most of the selection had familiar logos carved into their plastic heads but none of them seemed to reveal themselves as the target he was searching for.  Anything that looked like an 'H' he recognized as Hyundai and Honda.  He started to panic until about three-quarters through, he spotted another 'H' that didn't look like the others.  Clumsily peeling it off its hook, he swiveled the key so the light struck it right, revealing a '2' next to it.  This had to be it!  Of course it needed to have an alarm clicker.  Couldn't be that easy, could it?

"Rainbow, go see if this is it.  See that button with the open lock?  Click on that and see if the thing's lights flash."

"You got it!"

With the key in hoof, she was off again.  When the speedster zipped away, Matt checked back toward the Saks.  People seemed to be slowly, cautiously filing out the door, no doubt curious about what the guards were going on about.  Thankfully, there wasn't much other than the moonlight illuminating the landscape and they couldn't see past the parking lot lamp posts.

"Um, Matt?  I think we may have a problem!" Fluttershy cried, pointing to the side.  In the distance, he could see several narrow lights swinging back and forth.

"Ah shit, here they come!"

"Matt!" Rainbow hollered from the car.  "It worked!"

"Oh, thank God."  Quickly grabbing their supplies, he commanded,  "Twilight, get us out of here!"

The group gathered in close while the librarian's horn glowed brightly.  A second later, they popped up beside their new ride though Matt didn't enjoy the trip; the few teleportations he ever took always left him dizzy for a moment.  He'd never get used to them!  Once his head stopped spinning, he took the key from Rainbow and opened the tailgate, tossing the pillows, his backpack and the shovel in.

"Wow, this thing's massive!" Pinkie blurted.

"Hell yeah, it is.  Toss your bags in quick!  We gotta go!"

The unicorns grabbed everypony's saddlebags for them and simply flung them inside.  Fluttershy, Rainbow and Pinkie dove in through the back right after, taking their original seats.  Matt slammed the tailgate closed and hurried to the passenger side where he opened the doors for Twilight and Rarity and lastly for Applejack up front.  All set finally!  He sprinted around the vehicle and jumped in behind the wheel, jamming the key in the ignition and starting the monster up.

"Matt, our belts!" A.J. suggested.

"No time!"

The Hummer swung hard and fast out of its parking spot, screeched to a halt and made a break for it.  Matt adjusted his rear view mirror and saw the flashlights arriving at the stand as well as a man running after them swinging his arms for several yards before giving up.

"Well, looks like we figured out who this thing belongs to," he quipped as they sped away.


-----


Once they were out of sight from the mall and were sure they were heading in the right direction, Matt slowed up and they sighed collectively with relief.  Confusing them for a moment, Matt came to a stop and stepped out, heading toward the back and popping it up.  He was after his backpack, specifically what he threw in there earlier that day – the car charger for his phone.

He tore it from its plastic and paper holster with a smirk and flung the debris back inside, shut the back and slid the now-dead phone from his pocket.  Though he never had one of his own, he had charged phones for his friends in their cars back home before, so he was familiar enough with them.  Sitting back down behind the wheel, he set the charger in the cigarette lighter's slot and plugged the iPhone in.  The device chirped, letting him know the connection was made.

They carefully continued under the cover of darkness for a few more miles until they found a few trees they could hide among – as well as a Hummer could anyway.  The group hopped out of the car to stretch their legs, but Matt let the car run for a little while so the phone could charge.

The night had already started to get a little cold.  A fire would be nice before they decided to turn in.  Rainbow and Fluttershy volunteered to search the trees for some decent branches to burn while Twilight grabbed the shovel and dug a shallow pit several feet away.  The librarian offered to get the fire going too.  They didn't exactly have any strong string that would help them rub a couple sticks together the way Applejack had done before.

Most of the twenty minutes following the birth of the warm glow they sat around, talking about their wild experience earlier, Matt sat in relative silence.  Aside from answering an occasional question or two about the mall, Matt was decidedly distracted.

Ever since Twilight helped him remember the numbers that were on the list in his pocket, he was hoping to get a hold of someone.  He had yet to try them again that day, but considering that the phone had died on their way, he didn't have much choice.  In a strange way, what happened to them couldn't have been more fortunate.  The car was still purring and the phone still charging.  It had to have some life by now.  Hopefully a signal would be able to get through – if it was going to reach anyone at all, that is.

With a grunt, he got to his feet.  "I'll be right back."

He reached into the Hummer and killed the engine.  No sense in wasting gas.  He wasn't exactly sure how much was left since he had been sitting there burning it for the last twenty minutes, but he'd worry about that later.  The thing probably had a large tank, so traveling a hundred miles probably wouldn't be terribly difficult.

He sighed nervously as he pulled the folded sheet of paper from his pocket and took the phone in his hand.  With a quick glance over his shoulder, he quietly walked several feet away from the girls, the crisp grass crunching under his shoes.

The phone came to life with a touch – 37%.  Not bad!  He read the first number on the list and punched it in, hoping beyond hope that he'd make a connection somehow.

That wouldn't be enough, however.  The speaker beeped in his ear three times, over and over.  Maybe the next one?

A cold wind blew that sent a shiver down his body as he dialed only to hear the same whistling again.  The third and the fourth on the list met him with the same fate.

Only two numbers left.  The first of the final two he looked at longingly.  With every attempt, he was becoming more and more disheartened.  Upon punching the digits in, there was a strange pause.  It hadn't done that with the previous four.

Suddenly, the other end began to ring.  His eyes lit up in shock and his heart began to race.

After several rings, a long lost voice answered on the other side, "H-h-hello?!"

He tried to answer, his jaw hanging open, and the words very nearly escaped him.

"Hello?!  Who's there?  Wh-who is this?" the woman tried again.

"...Rachel?"

The silence was deafening.  For a moment, he worried that it was someone else.  But the voice was still unmistakable to him.

"...Who is this?"

"Rachel, it's me... It's Matt."

The line went quiet again until he heard the sound of their phone falling to the floor.
> Chapter 16
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

For a moment, Matt thought the line had gone dead until he heard the sobs away from the phone on the other end.  It wasn't often that he heard Rachel cry back home, but he knew these tears weren't thanks to sorrow.  He gulped down the aching that was rising in his own throat.

Waiting patiently for her to return, he quickly checked over his shoulder for any guests.  Nothing so far.  Must have been far enough away that they couldn't hear him over the crackles of the fire they made.  Hopefully it'd stay that way.

He took a deep, calming breath.  Even before the phone made the connection, Rachel must have been going nuts after what undoubtedly happened to her however long ago she arrived.  Matt needed to remain collected for her.  Sounding panicky could easily make things worse for her than they already were.

Still, hearing from the man she spent years of her life dating for the first time in what must have felt like forever probably made things a little better.

The phone rattled in Matt's ear followed by the voice he'd missed screaming at him.  "Oh God!  Oh my God, it's really you!  Matt, what the hell happened to ya?!  Ya...y-ya just up 'n...a-a-and disappeared!  We didn't know what happened!  Nobody had any idea where ya went o-or how or why!  You were just...gone!"

"Rachel, I–"

"Where'd ya go?!  Why'd ya go?!  Why didn't ya call or somethin'?!  W-We all started thinkin' you were dead 'n we weren't gonna see ya again a-a-and Ah didn't wanna believe 'em–!"

"Babe, listen–"

"–but you're alright!  Oh God, please tell me Ah'm not just imaginin' things!"

"No, no, you're not imagining things, I promise," he chuckled.

"Ah have to be!" she insisted.  "A-Ah mean, a few days ago, some weird yellow...light...thing happened all over the apartment – Ah don't even know how ta explain it – a-and then the lights went out 'n Ah saw out the window that the sun just...vanished or somethin' 'n it was nighttime outta nowhere 'n the next day, half of the apartments 'n half the parkin' lot weren't there a-and now you somehow call me when Ah haven't been able ta get a hold o' anybody 'n... Oh God, Ah can't believe it's you!  Oh my God!"

His throat started to ache again and water pooled in his eyes as Rachel sobbed into her phone.  Another breath was needed.

"I didn't think I'd ever hear from you again either, Rach," he said, smiling.

"Matt, please tell me ya know what's happenin'!  It's like the world just went crazy or somethin'!"

He paused briefly.  There was no way he could describe all the details to her without sounding insane or confusing her further.

"I do, but I doubt...actually, I know you wouldn't believe me.  Well, you might if you saw the kinds of friends I've made here."

"Whaddaya mean?"

"Let's just say they're a hell of a lot different than what you're used to seeing and leave it at that for now."  An idea came to mind – a great idea if it worked.  Matt raised an eyebrow and turned around, facing east.  "Rach, do you still have your truck?"

"Yeah, it's downstairs.  Why?"

"It came with, alright," he muttered under his breath.  "Really hope I don't send you on a wild goose chase here.  You know how much gas you got?"

"Err, Ah filled it up a couple days before...this all happened.  Why?" she asked again, chasing away a sniffle.

He chose his next words carefully.  "Babe, you trust me?"

"Course Ah do."

Sighing, he spun back and not-so-subtly implied what he wanted.  "Do you think you could pack a couple days worth of clothes and some food and stuff?"

"What, ya want me to come find ya?"

His eyes sparkled at the thought.  "I do."

"Ah do too, Matt, but Ah don't have any idea where ya are!  Ah don't even know where Ah am!"

"Just...just listen to me.  You've gotta be sorta close to be getting this call.  The other day when you looked outside, did you see any odd landscapes or anything?"

"Uh...no, Ah don't think so.  Buncha grass everywhere."

"Dammit," Matt growled.  He gritted his teeth and squeezed at his temples.  Figures it wasn't going to be easy but having no idea at all which direction she could be wasn't exactly helping either.  "Okay.  Before you turn in tonight, pack up the stuff I said.  When the sun comes up in the morning, head toward it – that's east.  When you hit the coast...well, I'm not honestly sure then.  I want to say turn left and head north, but you could be further north than either of us realize.  Only reason I'd guess that you'd want to make a left is because me and my friends are still heading in that direction and I'm figuring you're in the general area, sort of, even if it's a couple hundred miles away."  He curled his lips.  "Though we're only a bit over a hundred miles away from where we're going.  Hm."

"What's up north?" she asked.  "Not only that, how would Ah know if Ah'm goin' the wrong way?"

"If you drive for a few hours and don't see New York, then you're going the wrong way."

Ugh, perhaps he shouldn't have just blurted it out like that.  As Matt repeated it in his head, it sounded just as out of left field as he was afraid of.  Rachel was already in hysterics and something as overblown and dramatic as that wasn't going to help matters.  Well, the cat's out of the bag now, but he should still try and corral it.

"...Why in the hell did ya run off to New York without sayin' anythin' to anyone?!" Rachel shrieked.

And now would be an excellent time to do so.

"We're not in New York.  Not yet.  This is going to sound bizarre, but it's not supposed to be here."

Oh good, that's not going to sound even worse or anything.  He slammed his eyes shut and bit his lip.  Definitely needed to tone it back before he dug himself too deep and simply get back to the driving directions.

"What...?  Matt, hon, you're not makin' any sense.  What's goin' on?  Please tell me!"

"Look, there's...a city real close to the place, and the mayor stopped by a few days ago to pay us a visit.  He said there was something really weird going on, even for here.  So, we were asked to go check it out by the people in charge.  Like I said before, when you see my friends, it'll make things a little easier to understand...I hope.  Anything I try and explain on the phone isn't going to make any sense whatsoever.  But, anyway, we're not there yet.  I just need you to do one thing for me when you get there, and I'll tell you now, something's going to look a little...off...when you get there."

"What's that?"

"Call this number and let me know when you get to the city, but don't go into it until I say.  We've been on the road for a while and it hasn't exactly been a fun experience.  We were probably going to head to bed soon, but I was thinking about trying to find us a room at a hotel or something.  I'm sure there's a way we can finagle one if we had to.  I really haven't thought about where we'd stay yet, but I'll let you know once I figure it out."

"A-Alright.  Alright, Ah'll do that.  What all's gonna look off, by the way?"

He winced and hissed uneasily through his teeth.  Could he maybe stop bringing things up that would be best left unsaid for now? 

"Ehhhh, well, you know New York's an island, right?  Err, Manhattan, whatever.  Anyway, it's...not much of an island right now."

"...What?  What do ya mean?"

"Like I said, Rachel, lot of weird shit.  Oh yeah, I almost forgot.  Do you still have your gun?"

"Yeah, why?"

He gazed north into the softly moonlit distance and narrowed his eyes.  He was hoping to see a flood of rectangular electric stars painting the horizon and forming the outlines of various-sized skyscrapers by now.  Eh, maybe they were just out of reach where they were.

Though who's to say they even had power?  Matt didn't know the layout of the island and had no idea if any of the utilities were actually controlled from inside the city itself or were fed in from the outside.

He certainly hoped everything was functional, including the water.  He really didn't want to go too much long without a shower if he could help it.  Rarity would definitely see eye to eye with him there.

"I have a pretty good feeling that it's gotten pretty insane over there.  Couldn't hurt to have it just in case.  I don't have one, but I'll be alright cuz my friends are...well, if I can hide them from the public, we should be able to do what we need to do without any interruptions, but if it comes right down to it, they can handle themselves pretty well."

"Okay, Ah'll throw it in my bag too then."

"Okay, good.  Take it easy on the drive over.  I obviously don't have any idea what the landscape is like where you are and I don't want to see you get hurt."

"Ah'll be careful."  A quiet sob sighed into his ear as Rachel started to cry again.  "Ah just...Ah wish Ah knew what was happenin'.  Ah know Ah've already said it a dozen times, but Ah can't believe Ah'm hearin' from you again!"

Smiling softly, he replied, "Me too, hon.  But hey, we're gonna be seeing each other again soon, right?"

She sniffled into the mic and hopefully wiped away some of her tears.  "Right."

"Pack up your things and get some sleep, okay?  I'll get in touch with you once we've settled down in the city."

"Okay."  The waterworks turned on again.  "Ah missed ya, Matt."

His eyes glistened again.  Damn...dust in the air or whatever.  "I missed you too."  He wished he could continue until the sun came up, but it had been a long day and they weren't going to be up much longer.  Tomorrow was probably going to be harsh too, and they needed their rest.  "G'night, Rach."

"G'night."

The line went miserably silent as he hung up the call.  For several minutes, he stood there staring at the screen, still in shock at the turn of events.  Fortunately, the jolt was downplayed by the warm feeling in his chest and the uncomfortable yet welcome knot in his stomach.

It was all so odd as he thought about it.  He had accepted his fate a few months after his arrival.  He had forced himself to move on after it was determined he couldn't go home.  Now, only a handful of days apart, their favorite song was gifted to him and then he hears what was his favorite sound in the world – one he had nearly forgotten.

He likely would have never completely erased her from his mind; they had spent years together and made many fond memories.  Heck, in not so many words, he even admitted to Rarity on that crazy day when the Ursa stomped through town that he had been thinking about asking Rachel a certain dreaded question before he landed there.

The corner of his lip curved and he slid the phone back into his pocket.  Shivering as another breeze blew by, he spun about and headed back to the warm fire.  Time to break the news!


-----


The crunching of dry leaves beneath his shoes and the squeak of his hand being dragged across the hood of the car told the girls Matt was coming.  As the conversation carried on and they shifted their attention back to each other, Applejack stayed focused on the young man, smiling as he got closer.

His rather boisterous and relieved sigh drowned them out for a moment when he practically crashed onto the ground beside the cowgirl, but they paid it little mind.  While they talked, he sat patiently and with stars in his eyes, gradually catching up on the conversation.

"So, where'd you run off to?" Rainbow Dash eventually asked.

He cleared his throat and smiled even brighter.  "I, uh, got in touch with someone."

Nearly all their eyes widened.  "You mean with your phone?" Fluttershy asked.

"Mhm!"

"Oooo, that's so exciting!  Who was it, who was it, who was it?!"

He shifted a bit and it felt as if his face reddened.  Though it might just be the heat from the fire.  Jeez, he was acting like a teenager all over again, even with the half-assed way he was communicating with them.  "It was, ummm...it was Rachel!"

"Your old girlfriend?" Twilight asked.

The word struck a terrible chord with Applejack.  She stared numbly at him, as if he just told her a loved one had died.  In a way, a part of her suddenly started to believe that to be true.

Beside her, Rarity had frozen up too.  She herself had dealt with love-related pains more than once and was waiting to see what all her country friend would do.  She knew Applejack hadn't had any real experience with such things based on some of the girl talks they'd had.  Thus, the designer wasn't sure if A.J.'s temper would explode or if she would go sulk in the corner.  Care had to be taken either way if things escalated.

"Yeah, she's going to try and make her way to New York in the morning.  If we get lucky, she'll meet up with us later or the next day or something.  So, yeah, we're going to have a visitor.  Hope that's okay.  I mean, I know we're supposed to be checking out what that cloud thing is and all," Matt explained, shrugging bashfully.

"Hey, that sounds great!" Twilight declared.  "I know I'd want to see my friends or family again if I hadn't seen them in a long time and was given the opportunity to.  I think it'd be interesting to meet her."

While the others nodded and agreed, Applejack's ears folded and her eyes fell back to the crackling fire where she watched the branches burn up in the cold night just like her hopes.  She fought tooth and hoof to keep her cheeks dry and to keep her expression as neutral as possible.  She wasn't going to sit and talk about what was bothering her if somepony asked, especially with Matt right next to her.  Even the supportive white hoof tenderly gripping her own garnered no reaction.

Meanwhile, Matt discussed with them what to expect the next day: the city itself, the potential chaos, the possibility of martial law, the hotel room he wanted to get for them, and that Rachel was going to contact him once she was nearby.  The one thing he stressed repeatedly was that, for safety's sake, the only time they should get out of the car was when they came across the hotel he was hoping to shack them up in for the night: the Waldorf Astoria.  He didn't know where it was – nor did he know how he was going to score a room – but hopefully he could get the location out of one of the locals without any fuss if they happened to spot one.

Besides, if they were going to be doing the hero thing again after everything was said and done, why not live like kings for an evening?  Well, a king and several queens.

"I'm going to go get the truck set up for bed.  It's getting kinda late," Matt said as he got back to his feet.

"What do you mean?  I thought we were going to sleep sitting up or something," Twilight asked.

"Oh no.  There'll be a lot of room, but one of you might have to curl up on the chair up front.  Don't know if we'll all be able to fit in the back."

The troupe aside from Applejack shared a quizzical look until Rainbow Dash sighed.

"I guess I can do it.  I'm used to doing so on the clouds."

"It may get cold.  We only have the one sheet, and I'm...starting to wonder if that'll be enough."

"Eh, I'm a pegasus.  I can handle the cold," she smirked.

Shrugging, Matt turned and got to work.  He opened the back doors and tossed the saddlebags to the front, allowing himself to unhinge the locks and let the seats fold down.  It wasn't quite as flat as he wanted though and adjusted the driver's and passenger's seats until the make-shift floor couldn't go down any further.  Still, the very slight angle it finally laid at could prove relaxing.

He reached into the open back and snatched up Pinkie's and Rainbow's saddlebags – and his own backpack – tossing them with their counterparts.  An extra shove was needed when Pinkie's bag refused to fall to the floor.  Spotting the cable hanging from the cigarette lighter, Matt reached into his pocket, leaned in and plugged the phone back in.  However, with the car being turned off, it wasn't going to get any more juice.  No big deal.  There was going to be plenty of time for that tomorrow.

The only thing left was the large garbage bag with all their linens and pillows.  Closing the four passenger doors, Matt stepped to the tailgate and popped it open.  All but the miserable orange mare turned to gawk at the loud rustling as their friend rummaged through the bag.  Occasionally, he glanced around too, wondering if some hungry animal wasn't going to jump out of nowhere, attracted by the commotion.  He assumed the fire would keep them away, but you never know.

The last pillow bounced softly off the floor followed by the slightly unfolded pair of sheets.  He spread the first out to lay on, moving their fluffy cushions out of the way as he went.  He couldn't imagine trying to rest on an itchy carpet.  The second he opened up halfway for them to crawl under when it was time to turn in.  Hopefully there wouldn't be any fighting over the thing.

He crawled inside to set Rainbow's pillow in place as well as his own.  It'd be the best option to sleep against one of the sides himself.  That way, one of the girls could lay perpendicular to everypony else, provided the space was there for it.  Though if they could all lay side by side, why not?

With a stretch, Matt removed his shirt and lobbed it over the driver's seat.  The air breathed against his skin and the hairs on his arms perked up.  Whew, it was chilly out!  Maybe he should've waited until he was ready to lay down before getting topless, but what's done is done.  Even in his bed on frigid nights, he could never wear much more than a sheet and blanket.  Those were always relaxing nights.

Closing and locking the tailgate with the key, he stepped around the Hummer to the passenger's side back door.  Pinkie whistled provocatively at him.

"Yeah, yeah," he replied, rolling his eyes as the girls giggled.  "It's...it's been a day, that's for sure.  Rainbow, make sure to lock the door behind you, and whoever comes in last too.  Oh, if no one's going to use the shovel, I'll put it away."

Dismissive grunts and shrugs were his reply.

"Eh, I think we can find a bush somewhere nearby if it came down to it," Twilight remarked, floating the tool over.

"Or simply hold it in," Rarity added with a cringe.

"Suit yourself."  With a quick scratch, Matt crawled inside and wedged the shovel into a convenient place.  The shorts came off soon after.  "Come to bed whenever you're ready.  G'night."


-----


One by one, the tired mares called it a night and filed into the SUV.  Fluttershy went first followed by Rainbow Dash.  A short while later and Pinkie Pie was feeling the effects of the sandmare.  After a few more minutes, Twilight joined them, leaving only Rarity and a melancholy Applejack by the dimming fire.

The unicorn took a quick glance behind her toward the dark vehicle.  Seemed quiet enough.  Didn't appear to be any movement in the windows.

She turned back to her pouting friend.  Now that they were alone, Applejack could let her eyes water.

Rarity broke the ice as delicately as she could.  "You've been awful quiet."

"Come on, Rares, what do you expect me to say?  Was stupid of me to wait until we fixed all this to tell him.  I should've said something!  Figures his old girlfriend has to show up and she's on the way here," she grumbled.  "What am I supposed to think, huh?"

The designer sighed and curled her lips.  One thing she knew about the country girl was that she was sometimes a little short sighted, and it seemed to be evident here too.  Not wanting to step on any hooves, she continued carefully.  "Listen, I'm not saying you're right or he's right or anything.  But I can understand why he'd insist that she try and find him."

"Yeah, I know why too,"  Applejack snarled.

"Actually, I think you're missing a rather important point, dear.  Let's say that...your parents simply disappeared one day instead of...passing on.  After a while, yes, you'd believe they'd have gone on to a better place.  But then, one day, they manage to contact you.  Why they couldn't get in touch with you before then is irrelevant.  Don't you think you'd do anything to find them, especially when they give you directions to where they are?"

The country girl peered gently at her white friend only to hang her head further in shame.  It did make a heck of a lot of sense.

Rarity further explained, placing her forelimb around the farmer, "Do you remember what Matt said that day when we were listening to those...horrid songs with him?  Well, actually that last one was pretty nice, but–"

"Y-yeah, yeah, I remember."

"Err, yes, well... Anyway, when he saw that one in particular, he told us that he had moved on and seeing that record brought some memories back up to the surface.  I'm sure that before Twilight revealed that she and the Princesses couldn't figure any way to send him home, he was thinking about...Rachel quite a bit, and I'm sure she was thinking about him as well.  They did spend several years together after all."

The cowgirl glared as the conversation went on.  "If you're tryin' to make me feel better, Rarity, you ain't doin' a good job."

"Let me finish.  My point is that Matt had moved on and only because of a strange circumstance did she even enter his mind again.  If I was seeing somepony or...somedragon for a long time and they suddenly vanished one day, it would be hard, sure, but eventually I would have to move on.  I can assure you that she did as well and only because of a strange circumstance, such as hearing him on that phone thing for the first time in what must have felt like an eternity, did he enter her mind again."

"And what if she never did?" Applejack countered.  "What if she practically tackles him as soon as she sees him again, if she does find us?"

"Well, I'm sure they'll be happy to see each other again regardless, but..."

As hard as she searched for a more positive answer, Rarity couldn't find one.  She had hoped not to hit such a brick wall so soon.  Even though Applejack knew she was just trying to help, it was rubbing raw one of her last nerves and staring into the normally relaxing fire wasn't making things any better.

Sighing long, Rarity went on.  "Look, I can't pretend to know what that girl is thinking or what's gone on in her life since Matt came here.  I know this is going to sound really...tacky, but...maybe once we take care of this problem we're up against, maybe everything that's landed here will...go back – including her.  At least then you could talk to Matt like you originally planned."

"And what if we do succeed in fixin' things and everything that's here now is stuck?"

Rarity's eyes joined Applejack's in the campfire.  "I don't know.  But–"  The unicorn took A.J.'s chin in her hoof and their eyes met.  "–I do know one thing.  Matt isn't the kind of pon...person who'd set out to deliberately hurt you.  Regardless of what happens after everything is said and done – and I've said it before and I'll say it again – you know as well as I that he cares about each and every one us, especially you.  He wouldn't spend so much of his free time with you if he didn't."

Her green eyes rained down her cheeks and her lips quivered.  "Why does it have to hurt so much?"

The ivory mare smiled.  "It'll do that when it's genuine.  Let's just wait and see what happens, okay?  No need to jump to any conclusions."  Rarity turned and gazed off nervously in the direction of the massive city.  "Besides, if what Matt said about this New York is true, we're going to have to keep our wits about us, and we're very well not going to do so if we're worrying about what an old flame may or may not do."  The dressmaker faced her friend once more, grinned again, and wiped her orange cheeks clean.  "Come on.  We should probably get some rest."

"Yeah, you're probably right.  Just...give me a few minutes, okay?"

The fashionista pulled Applejack in close as she got to her hooves, nuzzling her affectionately.  "Of course!  Don't be too long, alright?  Who knows what all's out here."

"Yeah.  G'night, Rares."

"G'night, dear."

Glowing a faint blue, the back door swung open and the designer hopped in, finding a spot available next to Twilight.  She fluffed her pillow and curled up beside the bookworm, a bit peeved at the accommodations.  Why couldn't it be in her own comfortable bed they were nodding off in?  Hopefully this 'Waldorf Astor-whatever it was' will be better suited for a mare of such class.

That was for another day though, and Rarity didn't feel like having any insects buzzing around her face or anypony else's.  The other occupants stirred just slightly as she closed the door as quietly as she could.

Finally, Applejack could be alone with her thoughts and stare contemplatively at the flickering, popping flames.  She wished they could tell her what to do – or the twinkling stars above.  She didn't care which.  It wasn't like the idea of seeing Matt happy wasn't something she wanted.  Quite the contrary.  But, why couldn't it have been with her already so none of this would have been a concern to begin with?  Sure, it wasn't like she wasn't happy with the girls and all, but this was something more, something bigger.

Thank Celestia she could go to Rarity about it this, at least.  She was the only other one in the group who had any kind of knowledge about such things.  Who knows how badly things would've gone if she had no one to turn to; it was the last thing she wanted to think about.

Still, Rarity was correct – they weren't mind readers.  For all they knew, Rachel was seeing someone and now they were going what she went through a year and a half ago.  Regardless, she can take her sweet time finding them.  Or getting lost, whatever.

Bah!  Why can't somepony just...click their hooves and make everything go back to the way it was?

With a frustrated sigh, Applejack stood and kicked some loose dirt onto the fire with her hind legs, snuffing it out.  Making sure to stomp out any excess soil from her hooves, she trotted up to the tiny quarters, studying the finger-friendly door handle.  Honestly, she sometimes wished she had a horn or wings.

It was a bit of a struggle, but she managed to pop the knob and wiggle the end of her hoof under the handle enough for her to pull the door open.  Jeez, they were really crammed in there, weren't they?  Fortunately, there looked to be some room by their hooves, up against the tailgate.

With a tap, she woke Rarity, who hadn't quite gotten to sleep yet anyway.  Applejack suddenly found herself being lifted into the air and floated to the far end of the car.  Her hat took its own flight path to the driver's seat.  As the country mare touched down, the door was closed and locked for the evening.

Despite the dipping temperature outside, the plethora of ponies and the lone human made the inside rather warm and cozy.  In comparison, the cool sheet felt extra soothing as she slipped underneath and laid her head on her apple-decorated pillow, giving Rarity's hind hoof a thankful squeeze.  She waved back and promptly nodded off.

Applejack's spine popped a few times as she stretched out and got comfortable.  A second later, her breath stopped short when she accidentally brushed her hooves against the unmistakeable feel of bare skin.  Matt twitched in his sleep, worrying the young mare into thinking she woke him.  He didn't say anything, however, and she let her heart start back up again.  As a result, a bit of extra blood rushed right to her cheeks.

She eventually let her eyes close once she rolled over and faced the wall.  It was already turning into a long night.
> Chapter 17
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sheets were pleasantly cool and Matt really didn't want to wake up.  However, the thin beam of light sneaking over the bottom of the window convinced him otherwise when he rolled over, facing east.  Grunting, he ducked under the covers and shifted about, but it wasn't going to do any good.  His brain had kicked on and it was time to rise.

He yawned, sat up and looked to his left, only one eye barely open and hidden by a hand.  Jeez, that kind of light was punishing so early in the morning – at least it was before taking a shower, getting a quick bite to eat and letting his eyes adjust.  He closed them hard and let the spots stop flickering in the darkness before opening them again.  Was a little better.

Shouldn't an alarm have gone off?  He did set one, right?  Not wanting to disturb the girls, Matt gingerly scooted up to their make-shift headboard and reached clumsily for the phone.  The icons at the top only told him that it had lost a little power during the night and what time it was – just before eight.  Was a good thing he was able to figure out how to manually set the clock.  Not having a satellite system feed him the information was a bit of an inconvenience but not one he hadn't gotten used to anyway.

Still, nothing had been set.  Must have been in too much of a fog last night when his head hit the pillow, and he was sure he was forgetting something.  Oh well.  Thank you, Celestia, for the wake-up call, in a manner of speaking.

Tossing the phone back down and returning to his seat, Matt's senses finally returned to him in a most painful way.  Twilight's spell must have worn off during the night at some point and the neck injury he received in their little wreck returned with a vengeance.

He groaned and hissed through the throbbing pain, enough to cause a stir in his traveling companions.  One by one, they fought through the grogginess and woke up.  Bright eyes were not as prevalent as bushy tails.  Some yawned, others shook thanks to the crisp air, a couple stretched.  Soon though, the others whom Twilight nursed back to some degree of health in the mall felt the effects of the accident attacking them again.

Fighting the pain, Rarity's flicked her horn on and peeled open the door.  If Twilight was going to fix them up again, she might as well do so while they didn't feel so cramped inside the back of a car.  Barely half awake, they filed out of the car only the bump into Rarity's rump after a few steps.  They followed the direction she was staring – ahead from the car – and found themselves briefly surprised too.

Seems they had a few more uninvited things show up during the night.

Twilight groaned at the abandoned, graffiti-covered three-story building and pair of similarly derelict, stripped cars in front of it.  Further away and to the left was a bus stop and an accompanying garbage can.  She really didn't want to scan over things this early – nor did she really want to do it at all at this point.  They had their primary target and up until that point, nothing she had checked ever bore any fruit.  Celestia would still probably want to know about it though.

Either way, her friends came first.

It didn't take long to help Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and herself out.  Matt took a few minutes to grab his backpack and get into a new set of clothes first.  Despite still being a little upset over learning who was on the way last night, the cowgirl couldn't help but sneak a peek.

"Oh goodie, more things," Matt said as he walked around the front of the vehicle, studying the new arrivals while not-so-subtly zipping up his shorts.  His neck started to tingle and gradually, the ache went away.  "Ohhhh, thank you."

"I figured you were hurting again too," Twilight reasoned.

"You figured right."  He noticed her ragged morning hair and playfully flipped it about.

"Yeah, I know," she mumbled, swatting his hand away.

"Well, I'm going to go brush my teeth and I'll be all set.  Eh, suppose I gotta clear out the front seat too."

"Would be nice if there was a shower around here," Rarity whined.

"Don't worry.  If we can get to that hotel I told you about, you'll love the place so long as they didn't change or anything," Matt assured her.  He glanced at the abandoned building and smirked.  "There could be one in there, y'know.  Granted, it probably wouldn't work..."

The delicate mare cringed.  "I...think I'll just brush my mane in the meantime.  Could you grab my saddlebag for me, please?"

Needing to clear out the front anyway, Matt nodded and yanked open the passenger's seat.  He held out the first bag he found and wiggled it for its owner, Fluttershy.  Pinkie's followed and then Rarity's came behind it.

"And you all probably thought I was silly for grabbing my hair brush," the designer joked.


-----


The musty building took the group longer to navigate than they originally anticipated; there were more storage closets and small rooms than expected.  Exactly what the structure could have been was anybody's guess as there wasn't anything found anywhere aside from mildew and gang signs on the walls.  Just as Twilight suspected, they didn't find any traces of magic on any of the alien architecture either.  Another necessary but ultimately useless endeavor.

It took nearly an hour and a half to get back on the road after everything was said and done.  They hadn't traveled more than twenty-five miles before they were forced to stop again.  This time, however, what they stumbled upon looked very used, and the handful of cars they found in the parking lot told them there could be others there too.  They had to be cautious.

Matt brought the Hummer to a stop in front of the series of barrier poles guarding the doors.  The Wal-Mart was dark inside, and according to the signs, it wasn't a twenty-four hour store.

The young man took a tentative glance.  He didn't see any movement in the shadows.  Could just mean they were hanging out somewhere inside or out back, but if it was anything like the house Rainbow Dash stumbled upon, it could be sweltering inside.

"What's this place?" Applejack asked.

"Grocery store.  Some of these places are big enough to be like their own shopping mall with a bunch of other stuff."

"Another one?  I got my fill with the last place."

"Still should go check inside," Matt insisted.  Several moans answered him.  "Yeah, I know.  Look at it this way, it won't be much longer and we should be there."

The Hummer stopped humming and they hopped out.  Matt cupped his head against the glass and had as much luck seeing anything as he did from the car.  The doors were all locked too.

"I can pop us inside if need be," Twilight said.

Matt curved his lips at the thought.  Damn that disorientation it left him with!  How she was able to handle it without a problem was a mystery for the ages.

"Alright, go ahead," he sighed.  "We need to be really careful.  There doesn't look like there's any lights in there, not even skylights."

"We can generate it with our horns if you'd like, darling," Rarity reminded him.

"I know.  Would just like to see where we were going in the first place.  Plus, I don't feel like running into another security guy, this time with a light and the drop on us, that's all."

"After what happened on our way out of that last place, I can understand why," Fluttershy added.

Matt nodded and found the nerve.  "On you, Twi."

With that, she focused and blinked them inside, catching Matt as he stumbled.  Once his head was clear, they marched on ahead.  Rarity lit her horn for them to see while Twilight activated her magic detection spell.  It gave them some light but not as much as the dressmaker did.

To their right sat an army of shopping carts and ahead of them was the line of check-out counters.  Moving on, to the right once more, the first of several grocery aisles, the store's produce, and a deli waited.  Further in front of them were even more goods.

"So, which way?" Pinkie asked.

Off to the right looked like a fine place to start.  With a nod, the girls followed Matt into the unknown.

The deli was their first stop.  Matt put his hand on the glass and found it to be warm, not even the slightest hint of cold to be found.  Plus, several of the blocks of cold cut meat were missing.

It told him two things:  First, this place didn't appear just last night like the abandoned building did, and second, someone had to have been here and could possibly still be lurking about.  The cars they found out front hinted at that, and now he had more evidence to support the theory.  A place like Wal-Mart simply wouldn't let their food supply dwindle like this on their own without replacing it.

Matt tugged at his collar, already bothered by the unspeakable heat inside.  Behind them were several fruit and vegetable stands.  Nothing seemed really out of the ordinary here, but he wasn't about to go digging through the produce to see how rotten things may be.

Moving on, the meat department just ahead was practically barren.  The inability to keep things cold likely had a hand in that as well.  There wasn't any frozen – or even warm – seafood waiting for them either.  Good Lord, the stench would be beyond overpowering if there was.

They took a left and went down the first aisle to the far side of the fruits.  Just more greens and little else.  A lot of it was wilted.  They didn't bother to dwell on the circumstances as to why that was the case.

Breads and grains of all kinds, condiments, canned goods and candy were what they found as they snaked their way through the next several grocery aisles.  Just like everything before, the supermarket was failing to tell them anything.

"Feels like we're getting nowhere with all this.  Do we really have to stop and check everything?" Rainbow groaned.  "I mean, we haven't found squat at any of the–"

Matt suddenly clamped a hand over her mouth.  Voices seemed to be approaching though they were still distant.  Two of them, one maybe middle-aged male and one female.  His eyes darted back and forth as he glanced up, focusing hard on the conversation though he couldn't make anything out.  He noticed the groceries on the top shelves were fairly well illuminated and motioned an open palm downward at Rarity.  She finally got the hint when he pointed at her horn and dimmed the area.

He let Rainbow Dash go and hushed them with a finger to his lips.  Tiptoeing, he made his way to the end of the aisle where the people were heard.  Using the stacks of goods as cover, he peeked around to see a pair of flashlights wobbling their way in his general direction.  They stopped and turned two, maybe three rows away to look up at the signs overhead and then down the aisle.  Whatever they were looking for must be close.  However, it wasn't where they stopped and they moved one closer.

From what he gathered, it didn't sound like they were talking about anything in particular – small talk to pass the time.  For people displaced from home, they were surprisingly calm.  Perhaps they've been here a while and had simply adjusted?  A Wal-Mart obviously didn't have a few million people in it.  Maybe they could actually talk to them in a rational manner.  Perhaps they'd seen something that could give them a clue and they wouldn't have to worry about going all the way to New York?  Just because Twilight hadn't found anything yet didn't mean that was going to be the case the entire way up.  Plus, Matt did argue before the trip that it would be easier to converse with a small group rather than a large city.

The clothes he could barely make out didn't look like security's.  If anything, they looked like they could have been customers or maybe employees.  If they worked there, there really wouldn't be any reason to keep wearing their aprons in such a situation.  Aside from helping them feel hotter than necessary, it would look just plain silly.

They were in a tough spot.  If Rarity and Twilight killed their light source completely, they could easily bump into something and give themselves away.  Plus, if the mares moved too much, their hoofsteps could easily be heard on the tile floor.  Not moving and waiting them out may not work either; they had no idea if these people were going to head down their aisle nor did they know how long they were going to be in the first place.  If worse came to worse, at least they had the intruders outnumbered.

Matt made a brash decision and took a courageous breath.  Here goes nothing!  He stuck his head out and spoke up quietly, almost feeling like Fluttershy for a moment.  "Err...hello?"

The flashlights pointed his way, almost immediately right into his face.  It was first morning light all over again.

"Hello?  Who's there?" the male asked.

'Christ, please don't pull out a gun and shoot me.'

Matt stepped into the open, hands spread wide.  "I'm unarmed."

"Who the heck are you?"

"Eh, me and my friends were just...passing by.  Saw this place, thought maybe we'd find some other people, maybe something to eat."

It wasn't really a total lie.

"Passing by?"

"Jerry, don't you see?" the hefty woman interrupted as they approached cautiously.  "He and his friends must have... Well, whatever happened to us must have happened to them too!"

"Ehhh, kinda sorta.  Name's Matt."

"I'm Valerie.  This is Jerry, as you heard."

"Hey.  Odd that we didn't see you come in.  The front doors are locked, right?"

"They should be, unless someone opened them.  Don't know why anyone would though," Valerie stated.

Matt lowered his hands and shrugged sheepishly.  "Yeah, we just sorta...popped in, heh.  You guys aren't the only ones here then?"

"No, the place's night crew is here.  Stockers, receiving, cleaning people, that sort of thing.  Twenty-seven people I think it was, Val?" Jerry said.

"Something like that, yeah."

"How long've you guys been here?" Matt inquired.

"This'll be the, uh...fourth day now," Jerry replied.  "What about you?  Like she said, you must've gone through whatever the hell happened to us, yeah?"

"Eh, been a little while."

"Don't suppose you have any idea what's going on, do you?" Valerie asked.

"There was some weird yellow light and then suddenly all your lights and shit went out, and then when you went outside, you were somewhere else, right?"

She nudged her co-worker.  "See?  It did happen to them."

"That doesn't mean they know why it happened," Jerry countered.

"He's...right.  We don't," Matt interjected, shifting his eyes back to the group for a moment.

"Where are you friends anyway?  They in here somewhere?"

Matt felt his stomach drop.  He took a gamble by revealing himself and, inevitably, the girls too.  So far, Jerry and Val seemed okay, but who knew what they had in their pockets?  Who knew how the others would react?  Plus, those heavy-duty flashlights they were holding could easily knock one senseless.

He did admit that remaining completely out of sight was going to be near impossible no matter how hard they tried, and they had already been in probably a thousand snapshots as they went through the mall.  Surely this experience wasn't going to be worse than that in any way.

"Yeah, they're...over here," Matt muttered, nodding down the aisle.  The pair before him took one step before he threw up a hand, making them come to a stop.  He bit his pursed lip.  "I have to warn you, they're...uhh...a little unusual."

"What do you mean 'unusual'?" Jerry demanded.

Okay, maybe not the best choice of words.

"Well, they're harmless.  They wouldn't hurt anyone unless provoked, but I mean, heh, who doesn't act like that, right?"

Ugh, those weren't either.  Matt wanted to smack himself after seeing his interrogators share a suddenly weary glance.

"Just...please don't freak out.  I had enough of that when we were getting out of that damned mall yesterday," Matt continued.

"Mall?"

"Long story.  Just..."

Not sure what else to say at this point, Matt extended his arm and took a step back, allowing Jerry and Valerie to step forth and shine their lights down the narrow hall.  Their jaws fell open when they revealed their guests.

"What the hell...?" Val mumbled in shock.

"They can talk too," Matt bluntly said.

After an awkward moment, Rainbow Dash decided to try and break the ice with a joke, blurting, "Err, sometimes Pinkie Pie doesn't know when to stop talking!"

"Rainbow!" Twilight scolded.

Eyes were rolled and faces were hoofed.

"Hey, I do too know when to stop talking!  You don't hear me talking now, do you?  I mean, if I was, I..."  The pink pony blinked.  "Never mind!  Heehee!"

Matt addressed the perplexed pair, noting that they never looked at him as he spoke – not that that surprised him.  "I wasn't kidding when I said we didn't know why this all was going on, but we should be finding out soon.  If you want, we can tell you a little more about it, but...could we do it outside?  It's hot as Hell in here."

Jerry eventually came to his senses and stared at Valerie.  It took another moment, but she managed to return the look.

"Uh...y-yeah.  Sure, why not?  It's, uh...we're outside this way," the older man said, thumbing the way back.


-----


It couldn't have been more fortuitous for the employees that fate decided to bring the market with them.  It must not have taken them long – once they realized and accepted that everything had gone topsy turvy – to decide that staying inside, particularly to rest, would be insanely uncomfortable.  Out back where company trucks normally would deliver their wares, the group of men and women sat in various lawn chairs they had brought from the outdoor department, listening to mostly Matt and Twilight explain the predicament.

Here and there, tents had been taken from the sporting goods section and pitched, and no doubt the pillows, covers or sleeping bags that had to be inside could be found on some of their shelves.  Near the center of what could be described as their campsite was a large barbecue grill with a few bags of charcoal by its side and a box of matches on one of its small counters.  They had also managed to drag a few patio tables, some bags of paper plates, numerous non-perishables and what looked like all the bottled water they had in the store outdoors.  A giant plastic garbage can with a half-full bag inside completed the set.  All in all, they weren't doing too badly for themselves.

Compared to what they experienced at the mall, very few pictures were taken of the bizarre group after they were introduced by their escort.  While many were separated from their families back home, they could easily ask a number of co-workers to confirm the wild story they'd have for their loved ones – assuming the Elements could send everyone back.

Besides, dealing with only a couple dozen individuals was nothing next to a couple thousand.  After a little while, and following some stories over what they did during their first nerve-wracking twenty-four hours there, the employees seemed more relaxed and not quite as speechless over seeing six colorful talking ponies.  It was most likely due in part to Matt dominating much of the early conversations.  Hearing the mares speak for the first time quietly stunned the group at first, but their pleasant demeanor helped them move past it quickly enough.

When they finally had composed themselves the day after arriving, a number of suggestions were thrown around to figure things out:  Try and call friends or family, build some smoke signals, maybe have someone hop in their car and just drive somewhere, hoping to find help.  Eventually, they decided not to separate or waste materials if they could help it.  They hadn't turned on their emergency generator since after they set up camp outside.  Any treks into the store would be done by flashlight.

The meats and frozen goods weren't going to be of any use after barely a day in an un-air-conditioned store.  Thus, they found it best to cook what they could on the grill and abandon the rest a distance away so as not to attract predators.  If that still didn't keep them away, the multiple rifles up against the wall – and assumedly in their tents – would hopefully do the trick.

The speed at which the misplaced denizens were able to cope with their new surroundings was rather surprising to Matt and his friends.  Perhaps the fact that they all already knew and could rely on each other helped.  Maybe whoever took charge was just damn good at his job.  It probably also didn't hurt that they weren't visited by any strange talking creatures up until now, especially since these particular creatures came with their own personal human.  The communication gap would have been nearly impossible to cross without Matt being able to speak up on the Elements' behalf. 

One thing he made sure not discuss with their hosts was the events regarding Discord.  Instead, he wove a tale that he'd been there only for a few weeks and that the girls stumbled upon him and, as protectors of the realm, took him in for his own safety as well as the populace's, what with being the first thing to appear on their world since the whole mess started.  The fibbing was true enough in most respects.  Being completely honest and talking about some all-powerful madman being able to do whatever was on his mind with a snap of his talons could easily stir things up again, regardless of the fact that he was no longer there.  Twilight, in the meantime, told them about their visit from the mayor of Manehattan, the photos he brought with him, and their mission to track down what could be the source of the insanity.  Only briefly did they touch on their shopping experience the previous day.

One of the men in the group shook his head.  "Y'know, we're sitting here listening to this, experiencing it, and I'm still having such a hard time believing it.  It's just...nuts."

A younger member chimed in, "Could always look at it this way:  The conspiracy theorists were right all along.  We just didn't picture the aliens right."  Few were amused by the gag.

"So that cloud...smoke...thing, whatever, in New York.  You get up there, you find the thing and whatever you intend to do doesn't work?  What then?" a woman about Matt's age asked.

The silent response made most present exchange nervous looks.  Twilight pursed her lips and shrugged.  "I really don't know.  I know that our country's rulers have been trying to find something back in the capital city since this started that may give us an answer we don't have yet.  They may just need to find the right spell to simply reverse the effect, but they have a lot of research to go through."

"How do you know this cloud you're after is even what the problem is?" Valerie asked.

"We don't completely, but we have strong reason to believe it's related," Twilight replied.

"Why's that?"

"Several things and members of your species have been appearing ever since Matt did.  However, this is the first time any unusual activity – aside from, well, the obvious – has occurred.  This phenomenon only showed up when your city did, and I haven't heard from our leaders that any else on such a grand scale has come over."

"How do you know that another city hasn't popped up out of nowhere somewhere else though?" Jerry interjected.

"They're able to contact me from just about anywhere.  If what was happening over this 'New York' was happening somewhere else too, they would have been informed about it and then would have told me."  With a thought, a glowing piece of paper materialized in front of the startled employee.  "Like that!  All they have to do is address it to me and it'll find me."

The older man took the parchment and looked it over in amazement.  "Jeez, makes email look inefficient."

"I think I speak for everyone when I say I hope your gut feeling's right," Valerie said with several others nodding in agreement.  "I don't think I have to explain why."

"Yeah, me too."  The purple mare looked toward the heavens and shielded her eyes from the sun.  They had shared a light lunch with their new, gracious acquaintances, but they had to press on, especially so close to their goal.  "We really should get going.  We had hoped to have been in the city by now, and we probably would've been if it wasn't for that shopping mall landing on us."

"Hey, before we go...err, I have a rather difficult question," Matt spoke up.  "Was thinking while she was talking there about New York.  I was going to try and find us a hotel room so we didn't have to hide in the car all day.  I mean, the place is probably still going nuts in plenty of areas.  I can't imagine what they'd do to us, especially them, y'know?"  He nodded at the girls.  "Anyway, I can't imagine this place has much food left, if any at all.  The place has been there about, what, a week now, right?"

"Yeah, it's been about that long."

"Right.  So, I was thinking if there was anyone who could actually hook us up with a room that maybe a little bit of food would make for some decent trade bait."  Matt winced helplessly for them.  "I don't suppose I could...maybe ask to get a little bit from the store?  Like, I don't know, a paper bag's worth or something?  I can understand if you'd be against it though."

The twenty-plus people glanced around, muttering opinions to each other.  Eventually someone asked, "What do we do if, like, it takes you longer than expected to get us back or we're stuck here or something?"

A valid concern.  "Well, you shouldn't be terribly far from the east coast.  If it comes down to that, there's always fishing," Matt suggested.

"Plus, if I know my geography correctly, there should be a forest with some fruit-bearing trees about a day's walk to the northwest of here," Twilight added.

"Could be some game out there," a middle-aged man in the crowd said.  The idea seemed to appease the doubters but made Fluttershy bite her lip at the thought of any of her little friends being hurt, even if it was for survival purposes.

"Seems okay by most of us, yeah?" Jerry confirmed.  Nods and shrugs were his response.  "Alright.  How about I turn the lights on for you, you get a few things and come see me when you're ready?  All we ask is that you not take too long.  We don't want to waste too much power considering how little we have."

"Yeah, sure.  Thanks!"


-----


It was refreshing feeling the sweet gusts of air conditioning after sitting outside just after high noon with no breeze anywhere.  If only it could help unstick the shirt off Matt's back.

Even though he had been aware of their wings and horns ever since seeing them in the light, Jerry couldn't help but look dumbfounded at the sight of a tiny blue horse racing away to the check-out counters to retrieve a bag and leaving a streak of prismatic glory in her wake.  Curious as to how they felt, he knelt down to caress and gently extend Fluttershy's wing, forcing her cheeks to redden behind her mane.  Once the speedster returned, the seven made a beeline for the nearest grocery aisle while Jerry headed back to the generator to wait.

They moved through the food aisles at a quickened pace, not finding many small goods they could use.  Matt figured to grab a six-pack of Coke bottles in case the water in the city wasn't working.  He passed on the potato chips across from the drinks though.  There were smaller, more filling things found in cans somewhere else, but they still thought it a good idea to check each lane.  Overall, the number of products in the single aisle that they passed by was nothing short of astounding to mares.  Twenty, thirty different kinds of drinks alone, maybe more?  The outdoor markets they perused in Ponyville didn't prepare them for anything like this!

Several corridors and a few items later, Rainbow Dash forced the others to pause as she returned from up ahead of them with a box in her hooves, laughing her head off.  An apparently hilariously-named cereal was in her possession.  The cowgirl smirked.  Pinkie Pie joined in the merriment.  The rest gave her deadpan looks.

"I never had those before.  I always liked Corn Flakes or Cocoa Puffs or Rice Krispies, stuff like that," Matt mentioned.

Still cracking up, Rainbow Dash asked, "So you don't know if these taste like apples then?"

He shrugged and set their groceries down.  "Guess we can find out."  Matt knelt beside Applejack and snatched her hat off her head.

"Huh?"

Before she knew it, a set of teeth were nibbling on the end of her ear.  She stiffened up, bit her lip and was twitching in unexpected delight – not that she would ever admit to it in public.  By now, the others were having a good chuckle at Applejack's expense too.

After a moment, Matt released her and smacked his lips, concluding, "Nope.  Tastes like fur."

Once she regained her composure, the flummoxed farm girl gave him a slap on his leg as he stood up and replaced her hat.  "Don't do that!"

"Ah!"

Barely able to contain herself, Rarity added, "Yes, you really should buy her dinner first!"

If looks could kill, they'd suddenly be short one unicorn.

Rolling his eyes and chortling, Matt grabbed the paper bag and marched ahead.  "Come on, Rainbow, put it back.  We all had our fun now."


-----


They zipped up and down the remaining aisles as quick as they could to make up for lost time, as amusing as it may have been.  A little over fifteen minutes later, they were making their way back toward Jerry with a comfortably full bag containing canned fruits and vegetables, pork and beans, some soups, and chicken chunks.  Rarity offered to carry the bag for Matt as it was starting to get a bit heavy for him.  Hopefully the bag would actually hold together.

As they headed to meet Jerry, Matt happened to see out of the corner of his eye the sign for the sports department.  He was curious if what was suddenly on his mind could be found over there.  Been understandably a while since he used one, but it would be like riding a bike.  If the city was as crazed as he expected it to be, the food may only get them so far.  Guess he'd see if Jerry would continue to be as generous as he was with the groceries.

Matt and the girls made their way through the stock room and found their new friend checking some of the inventory that would have to wait until they made it home before being shelved.

"Got everything you need, son?" Jerry asked, happy to see them again.

"Just about, yeah.  Was wondering something though."

"What's on your mind?"

"Do you think it'd be possible to get one other little thing that we may need once we get to New York?"

"What's that?"

"Protection."
> Chapter 18
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sighting seemed to be just a bit off on the shotgun Matt held firm in his grip.  He knew how to correct it, but he didn't have the tools nor the time really.  He wished they had some handguns, but according to what Jerry told him, all they're allowed to carry rifles and shotguns.  Didn't make any sense to either of them, but hey, as long as Matt was able to keep himself and the girls safe...he hoped.

There were only a few choices left on the wall as the rest had been pilfered and were sitting outside with the rest of the employees.  A sleek black one in particular caught Matt's eye and he hoisted it off its rack.  Sights seemed okay, was of average weight, twelve gauge.  The pump-action made him feel like an action movie star.  The name Remington on the side told him it was most likely quality too.

He turned his attention to his four-legged friends, leaning the gun on his shoulder.  With a smirk, he asked, "What do you think?"

They simply stared blankly at him.  A few shrugged.

"Uhh...it looks, err...nice?" Twilight answered for everypony.

The young man nodded at Jerry, who was standing beside him.  "Guess this one'll do.  Probably take a few extra rounds too."

"Sounds good.  How many more do you want?"

"What does this thing hold?  About five or six?" Matt pondered.

"Something like that, yeah.  You know how to handle it, kid?"

"Yeah, I've fired these things before."  He shook his head and chuckled to himself.  "Been a hell of a long time, but I'll be fine."

With a nod, Jerry opened the drawer behind the counter and scrounged around for a moment before finding the correct box.  "And here we go.  Take what you need.  Hopefully it'll be none, but where you're going?  I can see things getting a little hectic."

"To say the least," Matt added nervously.  As he finished loading his new toy, he glanced at the bookworm.  "Hey, Twi, you think you could carry some slugs in your saddlebag?  You'd probably be able to fish them out faster than I could out of my backpack if things got hairy."

"Ewww!  Why would I want to put slugs in my bag?!"

"No, no, it's just a name for these."  He tossed her a round that she caught with her magic.

"Oh!  Uh, sure.  How many?"

"'Bout a dozen or so."

The bullets hovered their way over to float beside their friend and eventually find their new home out in the car where her bag was, making Jerry blink and shake his head again.  The sparkling purple light just weirded him out to no end.

"Guess you're all set then," Jerry confirmed.

"Looks like it."

"Alright, I'll walk you out."


-----


The two humans shared some small talk as the group headed to the front of the store, most of it retreading old ground.  Matt talked a bit more about what happened in the shopping mall the previous day.  Jerry revealed that their store was located in northern Virginia before the event.  They shared a quiet laugh when the older man said that, once they got home, he wouldn't care what the higher ups would think about them using store supplies to survive an unusual situation and that he'd find another job if they got on his case about it.  It wouldn't have been the first horror story he'd heard about the regional managers and their buddies being pricks for no good reason.

As they passed the check-out counters, Matt reached into one of the warm coolers and pulled out a bottle of Coke.  "Hope it's okay if I use this for target practice outside."

"Psh, go ahead.  Those things are disgusting warm."

"Heh, yeah.  Hopefully it'll only take one shot.  I was always pretty good with these things."

"And I'll tell my people what was going on, if they happen to hear you," Jerry said.  The large white SUV greeted them from the other side of the door.  "That yours?"

Matt innocently swung his head at the question.  "Sort of.  We had to...kind of...borrow it."

The old man curled his lips.  "Gotta do what you gotta do, I guess."

"Yep."  The youth offered an appreciative hand.  "Thanks for everything here, man.  Was really cool, what you guys did for us."

Jerry shook on it, nodding firmly.  "Hey, if you guys can get us home, it's all worth it.  Good luck out there, son."

"I have a feeling we're going to need it," Matt replied.

"Take care, girls.  It was nice meeting you."

The mares said their goodbyes as Jerry let them out and locked the door behind them.  They smiled contently while he walked back into the heart of the store, pleased that their first face-to-face encounter with any new arrivals had gone so well.  It gave them confidence enough to believe that their time in the Big Apple would go just as swimmingly, but other ideas passed through Matt's mind as he looked to the north.

Putting the worries aside for now, he opened the tailgate for Rarity to rest the bag of groceries next to his backpack.  In the meantime, Twilight opened the passenger side back door and placed the bullets in her saddlebag as requested.

"So that thing is a weapon, huh?" Rainbow said, flying up to the Remington and poking at it.

"Yep!"

She raised an eyebrow, looking over it dubiously.  "Doesn't look all that impressive to me.  I mean, it doesn't have a pointy end and I can't imagine it can do what we've seen Twilight do, like, against that army of changelings for instance.  She was all like 'pew pew pew!' and they were falling over left and right!  It was awesome!"

"Yeah, I remember you told me about that, but I know I told you about a few of these a long time ago.  Some of our army's attack vehicles have one of these things that can fire several thousand rounds a minute, and I'm not kidding," Matt countered.

"Come on, that just sounds ridiculous," the pegasus fired back, receiving a stern glare from her bipedal friend.  After a moment, she backed down from the staring contest.  "Eh, whatever.  Didn't you say you wanted to test your aim on that bottle?"

As Rainbow asked, the others gathered around to see the upcoming spectacle.  Should prove interesting, they imagined.

"I did.  Rares, catch," he said, tossing the Coke bottle into the air.  Before it could hit the ground, a soft blue magic grabbed it, turning it upright.  "Alright, go ahead and move it back about twenty, thirty feet."  The target floated away until Matt gave it the 'okay'.  He checked the safety and pushed the tiny button, hopefully unlocking it.  Would only make sense that it was on while it sat on display in a store.  He smirked confidently at the six by his side.  "You may want to stand back a bit."

Matt took on a strong stance and rested the butt of the gun firmly into his shoulder.  Was already starting to feel like riding a bike.  He carefully peered down the sights and steadied his hand.  When he was ready, he held in a breath and fired off a round that struck the Coke with precision that blew the plastic bottle to pieces.  The kickback was brutal but Matt held his ground admirably despite not having fired a gun in a couple years.  The loud blast made everypony jump out of their skin, and Rainbow stiffened up so hard, she collapsed to the pavement below.  They cowered in horror of the powerful firearm, balled up on the ground with their hearts collectively trying to smash out of their chests.

"Good gods, Matt!" Twilight shrieked, shaking like a leaf.

"I-I-I t-take it back!" Rainbow Dash stammered.

They weren't the only ones adversely affected by the metal monster.  Matt paused and stretched open his mouth, trying to pop his ears.  When that didn't work too well, he dug a finger in.  "Christ, I forgot how loud these things could be," he muttered.  "Still got it though!"

When his ears were as good as they were going to be for the time being, he cocked the gun proudly and ejected the empty case onto the sidewalk.  The girls leapt out of its way as it bounced, terrified that it might somehow blow up again.

The shooter eyed the barrel up and down with a smile, paying no mind just yet as to how his small friends were doing.  "Last time I used one of these things was...back on Rachel's uncle's ranch, I think.  Every so often we'd go visit them, and while Rachel and her aunt were inside doing...I don't know, girl stuff, I guess...me and her uncle would chill on the porch, maybe smoke a little weed, sit around bullshitting.  But usually, we'd end up shooting some beer bottles and shit off the fence posts at some point.  Good times."

"S-s-sounds...f-fun," Pinkie Pie fearfully whispered.

Matt flicked the safety back on and finally noticed the girls shivering.  He suddenly felt rather embarrassed.  It probably would have been best to warn them before shooting, but he wasn't exactly thinking clearly when he was admiring his new toy.  He was a fan of guns, despite never owning one himself, and wanted to test his mettle.

"Err, you guys go ahead and take a minute before we get going again.  I'm going to put this away," he said, setting the weapon on the floor in the middle of the Hummer.

It was an arduous task convincing Fluttershy, Twilight and Rarity to return to their seats once everypony was ready.


-----


After only a little over an hour passed before the passengers' jaws collectively dropped.  Finally, after what felt like forever, the city of Manhattan had become visible in the distance.  Out in the water, it almost appeared to go on forever, and it looked as if the buildings were trying to touch the sky.

Before long, they happened upon the two beached bridges Dark Horse said he saw from the train.  The tracks couldn't have been too far away from their current location, but they couldn't see them from the car.  Several things they did see, though, were the numerous pulverized cars the mayor said he also saw from his ride, piled on the ground in two crumpled, broken heaps a relatively short distance apart.

Matt didn't say anything as they crawled past the wreckage.  Neither did the girls, but they still mourned for the dead in their thoughts.  Was a terrible way to go, no matter how one looked at it.

He headed toward the city just past the second bridge.  He wasn't sure if it was the Brooklyn Bridge, the George Washington Bridge, the...Whatever Bridge – Matt had never been to New York before.  Either way, it felt strange driving under a bridge that would normally be above the water.

Halfway to what appeared to be a small dock of some sort not far from the bridge, Matt came to a stop and cautiously looked over the buildings and streets ahead of them as best he could.  The worst that he feared was upon them.  Fortunately, for the moment, things looked alright.  However, from a distance, most things looked alright; one couldn't see the chaos in front of them until it was too late.

Matt killed the engine and got out of the car.  Still checking over their surroundings, he opened Fluttershy's door and silently waved them outside.  "A.J. hop out this way for me," he asked.

Despite being a tad confused, she climbed past the armrest and honored his request.  Once the middle seat was cleared out, Matt pulled the gun out and leaned it against the side of the car with most eyes watching it anxiously as if it was going to attack them on its own.  Next, he reached in and grabbed the saddlebags of the misplaced mares, including climbing back in the driver's seat to get Applejack's from her side, and tossed them all in the back beside Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash.

His task was almost finished, but two important parts still remained.  One section at a time, he lowered the middle seats.  He wasn't going to take a nap, was he?  The thought passed through a few of their heads when he pulled out the sheet and stretched it overtop the two hyper mares, hiding them underneath it.  Finally, he slid the shotgun beneath the sheet as well, flicked the safety off and set it right up against the underside of the midsection.  Pinkie and Rainbow weren't terribly keen on its resting place.

"What are you doing?" Twilight asked.

"Hiding you," Matt replied, lifting up the linen and motioning them inside.

"We've told you before we can handle ourselves, shug."

"I know you have, but I'm not taking any chances in there with you.  I don't know if they've already seen some of your friends across the bay or whatever, but I really don't want to give anyone a reason to go nuts on us face to face."

A peeved look was shared among the group save for Fluttershy.  He did have a point, but it's not like they were children.  With irritated grunts and disgusted sighs, they crawled in one at a time.  Before Twilight stepped inside, she asked, "So, how long should it take before we get to that hotel you mentioned?"

His gaze shifted away as he smirked in annoyance.  "I don't know."

The bookworm raised an eyebrow.  "You don't know?"

"I've never been here before!"

"We could be running around for hours and never find this place then!"

"Oh, come on, there's a few million people crammed into this place!  If we find anyone who's not a cop, I'll ask them for directions, maybe give them a couple cans of food for their trouble or something," Matt suggested.

"What does being a cop have to do with anything?" Twilight wondered.

"Look, this place is probably under martial law or something right now.  I wouldn't be surprised in the least if they want the streets cleared out to avoid the city blowing itself up or whatever.  Think about it!  They're in some place they're not supposed to be, probably haven't been able to reach anyone outside the city they know and are probably on the verge of starving.  I can tell you right now this place doesn't have enough food to feed a few million people for a solid week.  Right now, that bag of groceries is worth more than all the money in the world to them and if we actually find the hotel, I'm going to use it to buy us a room for the night," the young man ranted.

"And what about us?  We only have a few snacks."

"Then grab a couple cans for ourselves.  I know we're okay on drinks.  Once we do what we came here to do, we'll just make our way to Manehattan and head home from there.  I'm sure you can do something like, write Celestia a letter and ask her to vouch for you so that we don't have to pay for a meal or two."

Twilight scowled fiercely.  She loathed the idea of mooching off anypony and Matt suggesting to use her connection to the Princess so blatantly left a foul taste in her mouth.  Hopefully they wouldn't get that desperate.

"Let's just go," she muttered.

"One last thing, Twi," Matt said, stopping her before she got back in the car.  "If we do get into any trouble...well, you think you could do what you did to those security guards yesterday?"

"What, you mean send them away?"

"Yeah."

"I...suppose.  Is there some signal I should look for?"

"Snap of the fingers like before."

"Okay.  Where would you want them sent?"

"How about by that first big wreck way back there?" he proposed, nodding his head in its direction.

"Uh, yeah, alright."

"Cool.  Oh!  Can you make a piece of paper too, to write directions on?  Rachel's not going to know how to get here either."  With a thought and a flash of magic, his request appeared in front of her.  "Nice.  I know I saw a pen up front, I'll get it for you."  He looked around one last time.  Seemed as clear as it was going to be.  "'Kay, we should be ready to go."

Taking a quick cursory glance herself, Twilight joined her friends, huddled out of sight.  Her door was closed and Matt took his own seat.  There was some clacking noises coming from up front, most likely Matt digging through a small mess, followed shortly by a pen being handed to them.

"Alright, take down what I tell you," he said as he started up the car and threw it into 'Drive'.  "We're on the left side of the left bridge, like right next to it."

A white wooden fence quickly approached them and they came to a stop about ten yards in front of a section without any benches, trash cans or other obstacles to worry about.  Its concrete foundation was only a few inches off the ground – nothing the Hummer couldn't get over.  Even so, Matt preferred not to damage the SUV much if he could help it.

"Actually, Rares, can you take down the directions?"

"Sure, why?" she replied, taking the pen away from her friend.

"Twilight?  Those bubble barrier things you can make... How durable are they?"

"Err, just depends on how hard I concentrate really," the mare answered.  She peeked out from under the sheet with an eyebrow raised.  "Why?"

He narrowed his eyes at the barricade.  "Put one over us.  About a foot or two bigger than the car all around."

"I think I know what you're up to," she said, focusing her energies.  A purple barrier suddenly popped around the vehicle, shimmering over once.

Matt stretched his fingers out and gripped the wheel tightly.  Taking a deep breath, he accelerated fast, panicking the mares who dared to sneak a look from under their cover.  The fence broke hard against the magical hamster ball though the car still jolted as it crunched over the short layer of cement.

"Oh, this is gonna be fun!" Matt growled despite his enthusiastic grin.

"Matt, darling, I just want you to know that I think you're insane."

"Love you too!"


-----


While he didn't know exactly how to get to their ultimate goal, Matt suspected it was closer to the center of the city.  Perhaps he saw it online or in a movie before and didn't remember the exact source, but a hunch told him to head inward.  He dictated what was a short drive that involved carving out a destructive path with flung garbage cans and a couple dented traffic light poles.  The sidewalk was thankfully clear compared to the pile-ups that littered the roads, but the relief didn't last long once he made a right at the first major intersection he came across.

They had just went past the bridge's on-ramps when Matt spotted several boys in blue with guns drawn coming their way.  Joy.  Maybe he could simply talk to them and he'd get a free pass.  As long as they didn't see the strange purple light surrounding the car, no hard questions would hopefully be asked.

"Ah shit.  Twilight, drop the barrier, quick."

"What's going–?"

"Just do it!  Everyone shut up and stay down."

The last of Twilight's shield went away just as the first, stocky officer got up to the door.  It almost looked like the guy could be a fullback during his off-days.  Matt put the car in 'Park' and rolled down his window, ready with a script in mind.  Now, as long as they were reasonable–

"Sir, you need to return to your home right now or we'll be forced to take you in.  You know the city's under lockdown."

...So much for that.

"Sorry, man, I'm not from around here.  I'm–"

"Then you need to go back to wherever you came from.  Until we figure out what's going on, no one's allowed in or out, mayor's orders."

"Look, me and my friends can help!  We know what's going on and we think we know how to send this place back!  I just need–" Matt growled before being cut off again.

"Sure, pal.  You and everyone else.  Now, turn around and go home, or we can make a nice cell your home if you want," the cop shot back.

"Did you not hear–"

"Sir, turn around and go home."

Sneering by now, Matt berated the officer as passive-aggressively as possible, shaking his head and babbling to himself.  "Un-fucking-believable.  Someone tells you they can help you get home, but nope!  You'd rather stay and be stupid about it.  That's great.  That's just fucking great."

Six guns were trained on him, the cops ready to do what they felt was necessary.

"Alright, step out of the car.  Step out!"

Beneath their sheet, the Elements were sharing worried looks and shaking in fear of the unknown just a few feet away.  None of the officers seemed to noticed the strangely-shaped lumps in the back seat, but that could change in a second.

"Mmm, no, I-I don't think I will," Matt countered, lifting his hand and swiveling it around in a mocking manner.  "You see this?  Huh?"

"Get out now!"

With a smirk, he snapped his fingers and waited patiently.  He knew a pair of purple eyes would be stealthily checking out her targets and it was only a matter of time.

"Last chance before we drag you out of there!"

"Three, two..."  The policemen suddenly glowed lavender, making the arrogant young man smile.  "One."

And like that, the threat was gone.

"You're a saint, Twilight."

As he rolled the window back up, Matt took a quick look around, both to check for more trouble and gather bearings he never really had in the first place.

After a moment of just sitting there, Fluttershy spoke up from her hiding place.  "Um, Matt?  How come we're not moving?  It's clear, isn't it?"

"I, uh...still don't really know where I am."  He sighed heavily and slouched over, mumbling to himself.  "I know I'm going to regret this.  Twilight, do you think you could maybe bring that one guy back?"

"What?  Why?"

He spun around and eyed the two unicorns.  "So when you guys get his guns away from him, maybe I can talk him into giving me directions to the hotel.  I hope.  I'm sure you can figure out what his weapons look like, yeah?"

"Like..."  Rarity nodded at their own weapon for clarification.

"Mhm.  Just be ready.  On you, Twi."

Against her better judgment, she focused on the large cop that had just been badgering them – his face, hair color, body shape.  Once she was ready, it was a simple task to bring the man back to them.  The window came right back down and Matt's heart nearly dropped as well when he quickly realized what was coming out of the officer's mouth.

"–body read me, over?!  We...we just..."  The large white vehicle took a second to register to the cop.  Once it did, he swung the shotgun up in a hurry and pointed it right at Matt.  "The hell did you do?!"

"I didn't do anything!  You ready to talk to me like a human being yet?" he snapped, raising his hands up for good measure.  

Fortunately, Rarity was quick at disarming the panicking official and he watched dumbfounded as the firearm began to sparkle with a light blue hue and float into the sky and out of his reach.  Unfortunately, he clumsily grabbed his sidearm out of its holster in a heartbeat and they were back to square one.  But, he didn't get much of a chance to scream at Matt until his handgun was flying away from him too.

Baffled and quickly becoming incensed at the turn of events, the burly cop reached again for the radio hooked to his shoulder.  "Officer needs assistance at Pearl and Wagner Senior!  Pearl and–!"

Before the cry for help was even done, Matt's fight or flight response had kicked in.  Like usual, he stupidly chose 'fight'.  As fast as he could, he undid his seat belt and bounded out of the car, attacking the mounted device with everything he had.

It wasn't hard for the flatfoot to swing his opponent around like a rag doll, however.  He had a good fifty pounds on Matt, and the damage had already been done anyway.  Cutting the cop off would just get reinforcements there that much quicker, and Matt wasn't holding his own as well as he'd hoped.

They grabbed at each other's shirts, pulling and tearing in a struggle for dominance.  The two combatants danced with the officer winning most of the battle, despite the both of them smashing violently against the Hummer.  As he further gained the upper hand, the cop slid Matt down the side of the vehicle and slammed his shoulder onto the ground.

"He needs help!" Rainbow hissed from under cover.

"But he told us–!"

"Look, you can sit here and do nothing if you want!  I'm going!"  With that, she leapt across to the front seat, dove out the window and took off without being noticed.

"I'm going too!" Applejack said.

She quickly peered out the window to see the cop successfully having pinned Matt down despite what little fight he could muster at this point.  A blue blur collided with the back of the lawman's head, sending him and his hat reeling.  As he looked around for this second attacker, the farmer grabbed the handle without the usual struggle and threw the door open as hard as she could, knocking the big man to the ground and off of her friend.

Matt stumbled to his feet, annoyed with the scrape on one of his hands, as the cowgirl hopped out and made her presence known, growling like a rabid beast.  Her enemy finally saw her, and looked more curious than anything else.  He must have seen her kind somewhere since he arrived, and considering Manehattan was just across the water, it was a real possibility.

As he got up to go after her, a streak of prismatic colors dive-bombed him again, latching onto his face and pounding at his head.  The policeman managed to peel Rainbow Dash off and tossed her aside only to receive a vicious headbutt in the stomach.  He lost balance but caught himself on the hood of the car.

Feeling something tugging at something on his belt made him lash out again.  Matt had shuffled up and had been reaching for his cuffs, but he just missed snatching them up.  Instead, he was the one snatched in a fast headlock.  If not for Pinkie suddenly popping out of the back of the cop's shirt and bopping him repeatedly on the skull, Matt might have found himself tackled again.

"Stop being a meanie pants!"

The distraction was enough and the handcuffs were his.  Despite her ducking and dodging, the officer grabbed Pinkie and launched her off his back.  For his efforts, a hard left connected with the side of his face, bring him down to a knee.

"Enough is enough!" Rarity said as the fight went on outside.  Turning on her magic, she yanked the furious cop to the pavement, keeping him frozen in place.

Matt dug a knee into his enemy's back and forced his wrists together, clicking the handcuffs shut around them.  The irony was lost on him in the heat of the moment.

With his heart racing and nearly out of breath, the raging victor screamed, "I should fucking kill you!  All we wanted was some goddamn directions, you stupid bastard!"  While recovering, he glanced off to the left and saw an ominous blackness floating in the distance, far above the city.  He knew immediately what he was looking at.  Strangely, it almost felt as if it was watching him.  "I know you know what that is!" Matt continued, pointing at their ultimate goal.  "We can fix it!  I told you this!  Do you not want to go home?!  The fuck is wrong with you?!"

"Sugarcube, calm down!  It's over!"

"And I still don't know where we are!" he hollered, his frustration getting the better of him.  Even though he wasn't snapping at Applejack and the others, they backed off a step.  They knew what his temper could be like despite not having seen it in all its fury in a long while.  "Come on, get back in the car.  If someone shows up and takes a shot at you..."

"Dude, we'll be fine!" Rainbow growled.

"Hey, you six are the Elements!  You think you could use them if something happened to one of you?  Get in the car!" Matt demanded.

Applejack wanted to bite his head off.  Now he was yelling at them.  But he had a point.  Frowning, she let Pinkie go ahead of her while Rainbow flapped her way in through the window.  Closing the door behind her, she asked, "You still gonna use him for directions?"

The last of his energy returned and he nodded in response.  Sneering, he grabbed at the subdued officer's collar.  "Come on, get up!"

Not wanting to instigate the strange creatures that bounded out of the vehicle while unable to defend himself, the cop acquiesced and let himself be shoved to the tailgate.  Matt popped open the back hatch and the policeman got the idea.  He glared hard at the six tiny horses looking him over as they parted in the center.  Once inside, he sat up and gradually spun around until he faced forward.  A foot in front of him, laying on the carpet, he noticed the shotgun and curled his lips, almost as if he was expecting it.

"I-I'm so sorry about all this," Fluttershy said.

"Fuck you."

The poor mare's eyes started to water, forcing her closest friend to get nose to nose with the sore loser.  "You talk to her like that again and I'll buck your teeth out."

"Rainbow, let's not start again, okay?" Twilight groaned, pulling her away with a hoof on her shoulder.

Meanwhile, Matt got back in the driver's seat and rolled up the window for hopefully the final time.  Still scowling, he threw an arm over the seat and turned around.  "I'm going to make this real simple.  We're tired and we're dirty.  We need someplace to stay so we can rest up and be ready to send people like you back.  You're going to give us directions to the Waldorf Astoria, and if you lie to us, I'll blow your fucking balls off."

"Eat shit, asshole."

Baring his teeth, Matt snatched up his weapon and drove his point home, making the cop scrunch his legs together.  He wasn't about to inform him that the safety was still on though.  "Go ahead and push me!"

"Please just do what he says.  Nothing's going to happen to you if we work together, okay?" Twilight pleaded.

"Alright, alright, fine!  Just stop pointing that thing at my dick!" the officer snarled.

Glaring suspiciously, Matt retracted the Remington and rested it up against the passenger's seat.  "Rarity, you got the pen ready?"

"Mhm."

"Twilight, the bubble thing, please?"

The magic purple ball returned.  The cop blinked and studied the small space surrounding the Hummer.

"Now, which way?" Matt asked, facing forward again.

His brow furrowing, the lawman replied, "Straight ahead.  It's on Park Avenue, but you'll never get there.  Everything's gridlocked."

"We'll see about that."

As they pushed forward again, one obstruction after another were shattered and tossed aside by the so-far impenetrable barrier.  The violent collisions made the passengers jolt in fear, including the seemingly unshakeable policeman.  Any cars that had been left sitting up on the sidewalk at all were left crunched, dented, and sometimes simply flicked aside in the Hummer's protected wake.  Shards of glass from the windows of cars and buildings alike littered the pavement.  Matt smirked as they went, feeling like he was in his own personal pinball machine.  He just hoped that Twilight would be able to maintain the shield.  Otherwise, this was going to be a real short drive.
> Chapter 19
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Several blocks worth of lamp posts, traffic lights, windows and waste baskets had been turned into wreckage under the glowing, purple boot that was Twilight's bubble shield.  From time to time, when they managed to pick up some speed and plowed into an oddly placed car or ran into the corner of a building, it managed to crack under the duress, but thankfully, all she needed was a moment to compose herself again.  Matt seemed to be the only one in the Hummer not panicking whenever they smashed into something that compromised their defenses – or even when they hit something simple.  It was a good thing the sidewalks were wide enough to allow them to drive around the occasional subway entrance.

Seeing one of the biggest cities on Earth seemingly deserted made an uneasy, creeping feeling crawl its way up Matt's spine as they drove.  He had half-expected zombies to suddenly start popping up from behind random cars as they got deeper into the city.

They had made it about halfway to their destination and were cruising smoothly along a sidewalk when something entered Matt's line of sight from around the corner several yards down the way.  Despite the lavender presence in front of his eyes, it was obvious that it was a small group of people and that they had ducked behind a couple cars further ahead.  What they might have been doing out was clarified in a flash as a flurry of sparks suddenly flew off Twilight's barrier.

"Holy shit!"

The vehicle swerved back and forth, its shell tearing into its more fragile surroundings.

"W-what's going on?!" Fluttershy screamed.

Even their hostage instinctively balled up in the middle of them.  "It's my back-up!"

"Tell them to stop!  Fuck!" Matt hollered as he straightened the Hummer out.  A small gap between cars off to the left caught the corner of his eye.  It was a risk, but if something happened to the shield, they'd be sitting ducks with a bunch of cops no doubt on edge due to recent circumstances and ready to shoot at the drop of a hat.  "Stay with me, Twilight!  Got an idea!"

"I'm trying!" she hissed through gritted teeth.

The sharp turn into a street full of carnage didn't help her focus.  Their bubble shattered, leaving a two-foot wide hole, as they plowed into the first bumper in their path.  Matt's tires squealed on the pavement as he continued dragging his battering ram to the left and around the back of the next car.  The shield clipped the rear and splintered further.  The fact that the girls were being tossed around wasn't helping matters either.

Just ahead was enough room for them to reach the sidewalk with minimal problems, but one last large one was still in the way.  With a hard right, Matt curled around and wrecked their way into the front end of a cab, breaking open another hole in their bubble.  Fortunately, the officers firing at them wouldn't be able to take advantage of this one, being on the driver's side.

The cab was stubborn and refused to make way though.  With the shield weakening and stuck, the Hummer rolled up against its underbelly.  Matt had to floor it, resulting in the front end crumpling and his tires blowing out a thick pillar of white smoke.

"Come on, come on!"

Fortunately, the much larger SUV was more than a match for the small yellow taxi and slowly but surely skidded it to the side.  Several lavender shards crackled off and fell to the ground.  As soon as they broke through, Matt nearly had to slam the brakes into the floor as they jumped the curb and came within inches of the building in front of them.  He quickly threw it in reverse, straightened their ride out and pushed ahead once more.

"We've still got holes here!" Matt yelled.

"I can't concentrate!" Twilight fired back.

"Can't you just fill them with something as long as they can stop bullets?!"

The shaken unicorn snarled and redoubled her efforts, plugging the barrier with a thin wall of magic.  Was better than nothing.

"Dammit, make them stop shooting at us!"

"Uncuff me!" the cop demanded.

"What?!"

"Get me out of these things!  I don't feel like getting shot either, y'know!"

Matt growled as he made his quick decision.  "Fine!  But if you try anything..."

"Yeah, cuz I'm in a real position to."

"Rares, you see his keys?"

The officer leaned slightly, and the white mare spotted them hanging from a belt loop.  Her magic fiddled with them for a moment until she figured out the key ring's mechanism and unhooked it.  Now the fun part began.

Rarity quickly skimmed through the myriad of options and bit her lip.  "Which one is it?"

"Long and thin; only like, one tooth on it."

One by one, the fashionista slid the duds along the ring until she found a match.  Taking a cuff in her hoof, Rarity found the keyhole and, after adjusting to the shaking and shimmying of the vehicle, managed to unlock the restraints.  The officer whipped his now-free hands apart, snatched the keys out of the air and undid the other cuff.  As soon as the metal rings were off, his thumb found the radio.

"This is Officer McCarthy, listen up!  If you're shooting at a–"  He sneered at what was probably going to sound ridiculous on the other end.  "–purple...thing heading down Park Avenue towards Midtown, cease fire!  Do you hear me?  Cease fire!"

The little speaker buzzed back with gunshots going off in the background, "Say again, officer?  Something purple?"

"Dammit, I can see you from in the car!  Now stop shooting at us!"

"Which car?"

"The one under the purple ball!  Now, hold your Goddamn fire!"

Shortly after McCarthy's angry request, the popping and blasting of gunfire came to a halt.  They must not have heard him shouting the first time.  Finally with a moment to catch her breath, Twilight repaired their barrier to full strength.

"Are you alright in there?  What the hell is that?" a different voice asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine.  Just..."  McCarthy glared at Matt but was spotted in the rear view mirror.  "Can I tell them where you're going?"

"Why in the world would we want you to do that?"

"You want to get to the Waldorf without any problems?"

It was Matt's turn to glare.  Still, if the officer could prevent others from being aggressive, it would definitely be beneficial.  As long as he kept his word.

"Yeah, alright."

"Officer?" the radio said.

"I'm here.  Don't worry about the purple thing, okay?  Just don't fire on it, and get word around about that.  I'm...escorting someone and his friends to the Waldorf Astoria.  Says he can help us get home."

"And you believe this why?"

McCarthy eyed his four-legged traveling companions, all of whom were watching him carefully lest he say just the wrong thing.  Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity were the least trusting of him.

"You know those things we've seen news reports about?  Those...creatures flying around that city across the water?"

"Yeah."

"He's traveling with a few of them.  Don't worry, they're harmless."  McCarthy shot Rainbow Dash a nasty smirk, hoping that she realized he was doing her a huge favor – and himself too, in a way – by not mentioning her more violent tendencies.  The pegasus smirked right back.

"I still don't understand what that has to do with us getting home," the radio said.

"They had knowledge about what was going on before I even said anything about it.  Kinda tells me like they may actually be able to do it, y'know?"

The radio was silent for a minute, in all likelihood due to the cops on the other end discussing the situation.  "Let's say we believe you and that this guy happens to be telling the truth.  What're we supposed to do?" a fellow officer finally said.

"Just let this thing through and don't shoot at it.  I already told you that."

"Couple other things," Matt interrupted, speaking up a bit to be heard over the destruction he was causing.

"What?" McCarthy asked, his thumb still pressed down on the button.

"When we get to the Waldorf, you think your boys can keep people away from the place?  I don't know what's going to happen once we actually get to work fixing things.  Why have an audience, right?"

"I'm sure we can probably arrange that, yeah.  What else?"

"I'm...expecting a visitor.  I don't know when they'll be here, but, provided she hasn't gotten a new car since I saw her, she'll be driving an old, beat-up blue truck.  An F-150.  Name's Rachel.  Can you make sure she gets through?  I can tell her to give her name if she's stopped so your friends know not to throw her out."

"That it?"

Matt spotted the shotgun out of the corner of his eye and winced.  "Yeah, she's going to have a gun on her too.  I suggested she bring one, considering...well, I'm sure you can understand with what's going on."

"You could say that," McCarthy deadpanned.

"Just don't shoot at her, please?"

"Long as she doesn't give us a reason to, I don't see why that'd be a problem."

"I'll let her know."  They paused briefly, waiting for Matt's next demand.  "Oh...uh, that's all."

McCarthy and the girls flinched as another obstacle was run through.  "You guys get all that?" he spoke into his mic.

"Loud and clear."

"Good," the cop sighed.  "Over and out."

"Now then," the dressmaker said, floating the pen in the air and causing the officer to stare at the oddity, "which way do we go?"


-----


About another hour had disappeared before the last abandoned vehicle was forced out of the way, allowing them to come to a stop in front of the luxurious hotel, just barely squeezing under the overhang.  As the bubble faded away, Matt grabbed his weapon and stepped out first.  He made his way to the tailgate while scanning the area for any signs of trouble.  All he happened to notice were a few groups of policemen who had converged on their location as per McCarthy's request.

For a moment, he was worried that they'd see his shotgun and start firing again anyway – and they did look a bit anxious from what he could see – but he decided to just play it cool and act as if nothing was the matter.  Maybe they'd get the hint.

The back door was popped open and the girls filed out one by one, their saddlebags, groceries and Matt's things all in tow, followed by Officer McCarthy.  Matt wasn't the only one who noticed the blue crowd gathering from around the block.  While the Elements huddled together nervously, the lawman waved his associates back.  It seemed to do the trick, though after seeing the colorful equines face to face, the police looked more curious than anything.

Matt slamming the tailgate closed got McCarthy's attention.  He turned to see the young man's backpack hovering in place and before he grabbed it and slid it on.  He also saw the large gun in his hand.  But, thanks to his fellow officers surrounding the area, McCarthy knew Matt would be crazy to actually try anything now.

Still, no one really did anything even after the handcuffs were undone.  Not that the officer would have been able to defend himself in such tight quarters against six...horse things.  Even after spending more than an hour driving around with them, it was still a little hard for him to take in.

The two men's eyes met, both exuding caution as they glared at each other.  McCarthy smacked his lips and went first.  "Well, here you are."

"Mhm."

"I'll do what I can to keep our end of the deal as long as you do too."

Matt shifted his eyes and lifted a brow.  "My end?"

The officer sighed and answered, "Getting us home."

Folding his lips in, Matt nodded firmly.  "Oh, uh...sorry about..."  He wiggled his Remington and motioned at McCarthy's crotch.

It wasn't something he wanted to be reminded of any time soon, but as long as they were being somewhat diplomatic, the cop figured it best to return the gesture, awkward or not.  "Yeah."

As he turned to join his brethren, Matt added, "The...safety was always on.  So, uh...y'know."

McCarthy stopped mid-step, let the words sink in and shook his head.  Been a long couple hours.  Not wanting to bother anymore, the officer continued on his way.

Matt and the girls breathed a collective sigh of relief as they were left alone.  The human took the lead and marched up to the revolving doors.  He expected to find them locked, but on the other side, there appeared to be a piano leaning up against the entrance.  The other sets of doors were also blockaded with chairs on top of being locked as well.  It was all rather flimsy and he could have easily just shot through the glass and pushed the barricades out of the way, but that could stir things up and he'd rather continue to keep things quiet.

"Twilight?"

"Way ahead of you."

Her horn glowed fiercely, and in a flash, the group warped only a few feet away, safely behind the frail rampart.  The forces outside stood there ranting in shock, trying to piece together what in the world just happened.  Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy took to the air to hold Matt up once again after the teleportation.

Once he shook off the cobwebs, they turned around to be greeted by a staircase decorated with an elegant, swirly tan carpet.  Matt held his shotgun tightly and flicked off the safety as they quietly crawled up the stairs, keeping their eyes and ears peeled for any danger.

Upon reaching the top, Rarity immediately spotted the enormous mosaic in the center of the floor – a large bushel of flowers with numerous people surrounding it   They laid eternally in each others' embrace, waiting to be walked over by honored guests.  To the sides were more staircases, leading who knew where.  The massive, crystal chandelier with its countless prisms and beads and dozens of electric candles overhead was nearly blinding.  The glossy marble floors, large stately vases, tremendous space, and whispered golden colors told the story for the high class mare.

She knew just by the first room alone that they were standing in the lap of luxury.  Her heart pounded hard in her chest and heavy breaths escaped her as she took in the glamourous sights.  Even Canterlot would play second fiddle to what she saw in terms of beauty.  Still, Matt found it a little odd that nothing seemed terribly out of the ordinary here, especially since he assumed that the typical resident of such a hotel would probably be among the first to go completely off the deep end upon realizing what was wrong.

They pushed forward past a hallway with several square pillars and then beyond several elevators.  Just ahead was a tall clock tower in the center of a large room – the main lobby – each of its eight sides adorned with an undoubtedly important person's face.  On the top stood a familiar majestic lady and her torch.  The soft blue and white carpeting kissed their hooves in an almost relaxing way as they walked, and if they had laid down on it, they could have easily nodded off.  A 'Help Desk' stood empty on the far side of the lustrous brown room as did the check-in counters off to the right.  To the far left of the lobby was what appeared to be a restaurant or lounge of some kind at a quick glance.

The only thing they didn't see was another person.  Not really a surprise.


-----


A sweep of the first floor didn't provide any results the group was hoping for.  They had found a few torn-up restaurants built into the hotel with any doors leading to the outside blocked by tables and chairs, some relaxation areas scattered strategically, numerous antiques and historical remnants stored safely behind glass that looked as if they should be in a museum, and other assorted amenities one would expect to find up and down a city block rather than in a single floor of a hotel.  But for their efforts, all they found was ghost town.

Gathering again in the lobby, Matt made the bold suggestion to broaden their search by heading to the next floor.  If there were any hotel employees anywhere, they had most likely taken up residence in one of the hotel rooms.  It'd make logical sense.

The girls followed their bipedal leader to a series of silver double doors where he pushed a small button with an arrow.  After a few long minutes, they heard a ding and climbed into a cramped metal box.  Matt told them what an elevator was, but they had heard of such things in the skyscrapers across the bay in Manehattan; none save for Rarity had yet to experience one thanks to visiting a few big cities for fashion-related reasons.  It was a bit refreshing for Matt to not have to explain what something was in detail for a change.

They disembarked at the next floor – technically the third of the building – and strode down the long hallways, knocking on each door as they went.  If there was anyone in any of the rooms they stopped at, they were keeping silent.  Maybe they saw his brandished weapon, perhaps it was the ponies at his side, who knew?

With so much time being wasted hunting for another human being, Matt started gritting his teeth.  This was one of the most famous hotels on Earth!  Where was everyone?!  His irritation came to a boil and he started hollering at the top of his lungs.

"Hello?!  Anyone work here?!  Just want to find someone who works here!"  A stupid, nonsensical idea came to mind, one he couldn't believe he was about to say.  "I have a Pinkie Pie and I'm not afraid to use it!"

Six sets of eyes blinked as one and the Elements could only stare at him, utterly baffled.

"...What?"

He shrugged sheepishly.  "I dunno, maybe if they heard someone yelling something just...completely fucking bonkers, they'd check to see what the hell was going on?"

They continued to silently stare.  "Why me though?" the party planner eventually asked.

"Pinkie, I've been here a year and a half and I've seen you do things I'll never be able to explain, no matter how used to it I've gotten."

The bubbly mare tapped her chin.  "Hmmm... If you say so!" she giggled.

"That was still rather rude, dear," Rarity scolded.

"Can you explain it?" Matt retorted.

The refined lady gazed at her silly friend.  A moment of deep thought later, she answered, "Alright, point taken."  Pinkie beamed brightly and bounced with more giggles.  Sheesh, did anything phase her?

Matt smirked in annoyance as he scanned up and down the corridor.  "Suppose I could always start shooting to get some attention."

"Um, could you please not?  That...thing is so loud and scary," Fluttershy pleaded.

He saw the anxious looks on their faces.  It wasn't like he was really going to, but considering all the things they told him they had experienced before he first landed in their laps, he was surprised that they were so uneasy around it.  Surely they knew he wasn't going to hurt them with it, no matter how loud it got.

"Eh, was just kidding."  He sighed heavily, wishing for something – anything – to hurry up and happen.  He really didn't want to keep pestering Twilight about popping them in an out of places nor did he know where exactly the largest rooms were, never mind the temporary dizziness he was always left with.  "Guess we should keep going."

A few more unresponsive doors under their belt was starting to irk them.  He was sure there were people on the other side of them but had no way to confirm anything.  So far, no one had made a sound after they knocked.  That would change when he finally heard a muffled shriek inside one of the rooms.

"Hello?  Come on, we need some help here," Matt yelled.  When no response came, he gritted his teeth and leaned his shaking head against the door.  "Well, could either shoot the door knob off or..."

He glanced at Twilight and smirked.  With a groan, she lit up her horn and burst them into the entrance of the room.  The middle-aged couple screamed and backed up until they had nowhere left to go, despite seeing Matt stumble for a moment.  The wife curled up in a ball in a corner and wouldn't stop whimpering, much to the annoyance of the two invaders, while the husband couldn't stop shifting his gaze between Twilight and the shotgun.  Shaking, he stepped in front of his panicky spouse and cautiously lifted his hands, silently begging not to hurt them.

"Maybe you should wait outside," Matt quietly suggested.

With a nod, Twilight magicked the door open and went to be with her friends.  Matt went to speak a few times but was noisily interrupted by the woman on the other side of the room.  As he slouched, he realized what he still had in his grasp and gently set it down beside him.  The husband lowered his hands as the Remington was placed on the floor and stared at the intruder.  Unfortunately, that didn't stop the woman's blubbering.

"For God's sake, dude, could you please shut her up?" Matt groaned.

The girls waited and waited for must have been a good five to ten minutes or so.  Ever the embodiment of patience, Rainbow Dash was slumped against a wall tapping her hooves on the floor.  Twilight took a moment to take a couple of the canned goods from their grocery bag and was examining them curiously with Pinkie Pie.  Rarity was gushing over what they had seen so far into Applejack's indifferent ears, and Fluttershy was vigilantly keeping watch more than anything.

A creak behind them snapped them from their activities as Matt slipped out of the room.

"Find out anything?" Applejack asked.

He nodded back in the direction they came from and continued on.  "Room 404, next floor up.  They said they bumped into one of the front counter guys at some point and he said he was staying there in case anyone needed anything.  Guess he'd have access to stuff they wouldn't since he works here.  If this guy isn't found, I'm going to hit something cuz this is getting old."


-----


It was a short trek to the door once they disembarked from the lift.  Matt went to knock but hesitated, remembering what happened in their previous encounter with other people.  He set the gun down a few feet away and whispered to the girls as he waved them back, "Stay out of sight for the moment.  But, I will take this."

He took the grocery bag from Rarity's magical grasp and put on a nice, facetious smile.  Hopefully he didn't look like a door-to-door salesman.

Taking a breath, he knocked on the door and waited patiently.  The man who answered looked to be maybe a few years older but his disheveled, salt-and-pepper hair and week-old beard betrayed his youth.  The eyes were bloodshot and the bags underneath looked to be almost as large as the luggage their bellhops must have brought up before this whole mess began.  His clothes, likely his only set, were unkempt and stank a bit.

"Yes, can I help you?" the host mumbled.

"Hi!  We heard that you worked here, yes?"

"That's right."

"Oh, good.  Well, um, this is probably going to sound a little odd but...I was wondering if me and my friends might be able to get a room?"

The employee stared blankly at Matt.  "You...y-you can't be serious."

"I am.  We're from out of town and–"

"Listen, sir, I don't know how you got in.  I mean, I could have sworn all the doors were barricaded, but in case you haven't noticed, we–"

Matt smirked and pulled out a can of pork and beans from the grocery bag, displaying it in all its tin glory.  The shaggy worker's eyes made a beeline for the gift.  Checkmate.

"For you – and all the rest of what's in here if you can help us out."

The food and drinks were given to the clerk and he went wide-eyed at the sight.  No doubt by his reaction, the hotel had run out of food, as Matt had predicted.

"Uh...y-yeah.  Yeah, okay, sure.  Are you friends here?"

His eyes shifted to the side and back.  "Yeah, they're right here."  As the hotel worker went to look, Matt raised his hand up before he could see the big reveal.  "Err, tell me something.  Is TV still going?  Like, are any of the channels playing anything?"

"Some are.  Even the news stations are playing reruns though."

Oh, nice.  While they wait for Rachel to arrive, he could show the girls some good old-fashioned human entertainment.  If he was lucky, maybe some of the news reruns would catch him up on a few things that had happened since he disappeared.

"Did you, by any chance, happen to hear about something...weird after that yellow glowy thing happened about a week ago?  Like another city appearing across the water?"  Matt asked.

"Yeah, it was on... You said you were from out of town.  How do you know about that?"

Matt lowered his hands and took a step back, nodding at the patient ponies.  "Did its residents look something like this?"

With an eyebrow raised, the employee stepped out and jumped in surprise upon seeing the girls.

"They're with me, it's cool."

"Um, hello," Fluttershy squeaked, forcing a smile.

"Did...d-did that...thing just–"

"Yes," Matt stated bluntly.

"Wh-what are they doing here?"

"Did you see anything on the news reports about that black cloud thing hanging over the city?"

"Y-yeah, what about it?"

"We, uh...we think it's the reason this all happened and we believe we can get you home," he solemnly explained to the employee.  "Not sure how just yet, but we're fairly confident.  They're kinda the go-to guys when it comes to, err, serious shit around here.  Like Green Berets or Navy SEALs or something."

"What makes you think they can do anything about...this?"

"We've...kind of saved the world a few times, sir," Twilight spoke up.  "Just our thing really."

The hungry man looked at the girls curiously.  It definitely wasn't something he ever expected to hear or see in his lifetime.  He knelt in close and studied the girls' shape, their large sparkling eyes, their wings and horns.  "I-I saw something like them on TV from the news helicopters.  I...I didn't think they were really real.  I mean, I figured they were making things up for...some reason, I don't know.  Just what the news always seems to do, yknow?"

"Heh, they're real alright."

As they were looked over inquisitively, Rainbow leaned back awkwardly and chimed in, "Yeah, that's not creepy or anything."

"Rainbow, be realistic.  You did the same thing to me when I landed here," Matt grumbled.

"That is true, darling."

"...Eh, I suppose you're right," she groaned back.

"You happen to know if anyone's run into them over here?  Like, have them come over to investigate at any time?" Matt asked.

"I'm not real sure.  I don't think so.  I haven't seen anything on TV that's indicated as much anyway.  What makes you think that cloud or whatever it is is behind everything?" the man asked Matt as he stood back up.

"There are a bunch of other places and things that shouldn't be here.  We bumped into a lot on the way here and we had to deal with a bunch of shit back in their hometown.  This is the only time one of those...things showed up.  And nothing as big as New York has landed in our laps either, not by a long shot."  Matt gave the gentleman a tired, pleading look.  It wasn't far from how he was really feeling.  "Can you help us out, man?  We've had a hell of a hard time trying to get here."

The clerk glanced down at the mares.  Half of them were playing along and giving him sad, pathetic looks, eyes wide, ears folded, and lips pouting.  It broke through his last defenses quite quickly.

"Uh, y-yeah.  You said you needed a room, right?"

"Please," Matt happily sighed.  "You have any available with, like, three or four bedrooms?  I'm..."  He paused, a small smile creeping across his cheeks.  "I'm expecting a visitor soon.  I'm figuring today or tomorrow at the most, hopefully.  Plus, there's six of them here too, so..."

Applejack fidgeted and shifted her frustrated gaze to the side.  It rubbed her raw every time she was forced to think about it, whether she had anything ultimately to worry about or not.

"Well, if I remember right, the President's Suite is available.  That's one of the biggest and most luxurious suites in the building.  Should fit what you need."

"Ohhh, the name alone screams 'decadence'!  Matt, say you'll take it!" Rarity squealed.

"Uh, yeah, that's kind of a given.  Seriously though, man, you don't have to do that much.  I mean, shit, we appreciate it–"

"Look, I haven't eaten in almost three days and my wife's gotta be worried sick.  I have no idea if you can actually undo this mess, but if you really can, then yeah, I'm going to scratch your back a little.  Let me just go put this down inside."

For a moment, as their gracious host went to deposit his new bounty, Matt worried he'd lock the door on them – not that it would have done any good, of course.  But when the entrance was left ajar, any doubt left him.  They had been getting lucky with the right people.  Their new chum stepped out not long after, sliding his plastic key card in his pocket.

"Name's Matt, by the way."

"Frank," he said as they shook hands.

"Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy," he noted, each of them waving or nodding as Matt introduced them.  Whether the names would actually be remembered or not was anyone's guess.

"Uh...h-hello."

Matt grabbed the shotgun off the floor and slung it over his shoulder as they headed back toward the elevator.  Frank did a double-take upon seeing the weapon but quickly put any worries aside.  If Matt was going to shoot him, wouldn't he have already done so?  And why give him a bag full of food in the first place?  Wouldn't have made any sense.  He nervously cleared his throat anyway.

Matt noticed Frank's reaction and shrugged.  "Figured we oughta be prepared in case any crazies came out of the woodworks on the way here, y'know?"

Their host stifled a chuckle.  "You should have seen what they showed on TV those first couple days."

"Yeah, I can imagine."
> Chapter 20
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Matt slid the plastic key card into its holster and quickly back out, popping the lock and opening the door to the magnificent, thirty-fifth floor suite.  The girls followed a step behind followed lastly by Frank.  However, despite having to step around their suddenly dumbstruck guide as soon as they went inside, they too came to a screeching halt, bowled over by the level of class that permeated about the room.  Even the high-society fashionista was at a loss for words.  It wasn't anything Frank hadn't seen before.

It didn't look as if a single spec of dust was on any of the furniture.  The chairs and couches were a soft, cream color similar to the flowing drapes lining the windows.  The frills on the bottoms of both spoke of the elegance and expense they just walked into.  The few various coffee and end tables practically glowed and could double as mirrors despite being made of some of the finest wood on Earth.  The pair of decorative vases sitting on the table behind the couch in front of them probably cost more than Matt's last car.  Even the TV didn't look to have a single scratch anywhere on its frame.

"Ho-ly shit," he muttered.

"This sure is, um...snazzy," Applejack agreed.

"Snazzy?  Snazzy?!" Rarity gasped, snapping out of her beauty-induced coma.  "This...this is...sweet Celestia, it's stunning!  It's beyond exquisite!"

"Err, thank you," Frank said with a smile.  "We do our best to keep our rooms and suites as immaculate as we can, especially the really important ones like this.  As the suite's name implies, we've had several presidents stay here.  This'll definitely be a first."

"Why don't you girls go look around for a bit?"

At Matt's suggestion, the mares eventually remembered how to walk and went to take a look around when Frank motioned their friend over.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"I...don't want to sound, well, like an ass or anything, but could you make sure they're careful?  Some of these things are quite valuable, and if you do manage to send us back and things are damaged..."

"Oh yeah, no problem.  Yeah, management would probably have your ass.  I'm sure the stuff will be fine once you're home.  I mean, everything made it here in one piece, right?  But, how would they know anyway?" Matt asked.

"Well, you know we have power, and we do have cameras here and there.  Wouldn't be hard to figure out."

"Wouldn't the equipment have run out of room recording by now?"

"I honestly don't know.  I don't remember the last time I was in the security room and I don't know how their stuff works in there," Frank confirmed with a shrug.

"Fair enough.  Question, you said the power is working, obviously.  Is...the water?" Matt wondered, biting his lip in worry.

"It wasn't for the first few days, but it is now.  The mayor insisted to the utilities companies to get everything working.  May as well keep people as comfortable through a crisis as possible, right?"  As Matt nodded in agreement, Frank watched Twilight disappear into the next room behind the rest of the girls and lowered his voice.  "Listen, I didn't want to ask in front of them, but are they, uh...err, well, housebroken?"

Matt nearly fell over laughing, making his new acquaintance feel a touch embarrassed.  "Dude, they're basically four-legged people.  Yes, they have bathrooms in their own homes and know how to use them.  Speaking of which, a shower sounds really nice about now."

"I'll bet, after what you've told me you've been through."

"Mhm.  Well, I think I'll head inside, check the place out."  He stopped himself just as he was about to depart.  "Oh!  Do you know how to get to the roof for tomorrow morning when we go see what that stupid thing floating overhead is?"

"Yeah, but the maintenance crew has keys for that, and I haven't seen any of them in a few days.  No idea if they've tried to get off the island or are holed up in one of the rooms or whatever.  It's not like they wouldn't be able to get a room key on their own, y'know?"

"Could always blast the doorknob off if need be," Matt suggested, smirking as he motioned at the shotgun.

Cringing, Frank answered, "Eh, I suppose if it came down to it.  Would prefer not to, if we could help it."

"Look at it this way, a doorknob is cheaper to replace than a Ming dynasty vase, right?"  Not wanting to think about either, the employee curled his lips and shrugged.  "Alright, well...call you in the morning?"

"Sure, that'll be fine," Frank said.  "There are instructions by the phone that'll tell you how to call another room.  Not hard."

"Figured so, yeah.  Thanks again for this.  You really didn't have to."

"Not a problem.  The food for the room was a fair enough trade if you ask me.  Give me a holler if you need anything before then."

"Will do."

The two shook hands firmly and Frank headed out.  With that, Matt turned and entered the living room.  Twilight had found a bookcase with a fine selection of literature which she was more than happy to go through.  Rainbow Dash was already comfortable on another heavenly couch they had stumbled upon, even with Pinkie Pie hopping on the cushion next to her.  Matt got her attention and crossly shook his head at her.  She got the hint quick enough and stopped in midair a few inches above the pillows only to flop down beside her cyan friend.  Applejack and Fluttershy were by the window admiring the astonishing view.  The timid pegasus made the mistake of looking down and gulped back her fear.

Just as Matt was about to ask for the food and drink they brought to toss it in the fridge over in the kitchen, the quiet was broken by a loud, ecstatic wailing from the next hall over.

"This should be good," Rainbow muttered as she and the rest left what they were doing to investigate what had gotten Rarity hyped up this time.  Given how starry-eyed she became ever since they entered the hotel, it could have been just about anything.

After a brief search, they found the unicorn in the bedroom at the farthest end of the hall with her hooves practically glued onto the tile floor in the attached lavatory.

"What'd you find, Rares?" Matt asked.

"Th-th-there's a hot tub in the bathroom!" she sputtered.

Some smirked.  Others blinked.  A few rolled their eyes.  None were terribly surprised in the slightest.

"Oh.  Couldn't have been something more interesting like a dead body or something, huh?" Matt quipped.  The girls were a bit more surprised and confused by his own ridiculous comment.

Despite what he said – though whether or not she heard him was anypony's guess – Rarity bounded out with a wide smile and leapt to her hind legs, wrapping her forelimbs around Matt's unsuspecting head and nuzzling his neck affectionately.

"Whoa, watch the horn."

"Ooo, Matt, sweetie, this is the most extravagant place I've ever been!  I mean, I've stayed at places that've had hot tubs outside in the pool area, but in their very own room?!  Why, even the castle in Canterlot can't compare to this place!  Oh, thank you thank you thank you so much for selecting this hotel for us to stay at!"

The angry clear of a certain mare's throat snapped her out of her enthusiastic rambling.  The dressmaker knew immediately who it was and sheepishly set herself back on all fours, blushing in embarrassment when she saw Applejack glaring fiercely at her with a single raised brow.

"Err, what I meant to say is – and I think I speak for all of us when I say – that we truly appreciate this incredibly thoughtful gesture, Matt.  I mean, we could have stayed in that...vehicle and instead you decided we should experience the fabulous lap of luxury that this city has to offer," Rarity babbled, desperately trying to save face.  "You really didn't have to do this."

"You know we're not really here on vacation, right?" Fluttershy interjected.

"I, uh...yes.  Yes, of course!  First thing in the morning, we take care of that...thing outside and all this will be put behind us."  She turned back to her best friend.  "Applejack, dear, would you like to bunk with me tonight?  As you can see, there's plenty of space."

While the cowgirl was still a little miffed at Rarity for getting a little too chummy with Matt for her liking, she buried her irritation for the moment and glanced over at the king-size bed.  Its tremendous decorative pillows and fluffy bedspread certainly did give the whole thing a cozy look.  Deciding to check it out, she snatched her saddlebag off her back and tossed it lazily on the chair in the corner of the room.

"Sure, why not?" she said, hopping onto the bed and setting her stetson beside her.  She could have fallen asleep right there as she sank into the comfortable mattress.  "Oh wow, this is nice!"

Rarity floated her own bag to sit alongside her friend's and climbed up to join Applejack, moaning in delight.  "Sweet Celestia, this must be what sleeping on a cloud feels like!" she squeaked.

As the pair got lost in euphoria, Matt went from one saddlebag to the next, collecting the food and drinks.  "Well, you two can get comfy if you want.  I'm going to go put this away, take a shower and then make a phone call.  The water's running, so yeah, probably wouldn't be a bad idea if you wanted to clean up a bit.  And yes, you could probably hop in the hot tub at some point if you want.  I call the biggest bed here, by the way."

Applejack shifted uneasily at mention of the phone.  Guess it'd likely only be a few more hours and then she could see what was so damn special about this Rachel girl, provided she was going to arrive that day.  Even Rarity stopped swooning for a moment and looked over with concern for the farmer.

"Why do you get the biggest one?" Rainbow asked.

"...Cuz I'm the biggest one here?" he replied with a stupid grin.

"These beds are plenty big enough already.  Heck, you could probably fit just about all of us on one of them and still have room," Twilight remarked.

"Then it should be real easy for you guys to stretch out.  Anywho, I'll be inside.  Why not see if there's anything on TV if you got nothing else to do?"

"Do...what?"

"Y'know, this thing?" Matt said, thumbing at the one on the wall across from the bed.  "There's one in the first room too.  There's probably one in every other room in this place.  Go check it out.  Maybe some of the stations have stuff playing to help keep people distracted.  Most of that shit's probably automated anyway."

"Um, we don't know how to work that thing," Fluttershy reminded him.

"Oh.  Err, yeah, good point."  Matt could have smacked himself in the head hard enough to dislodge his brain until he spied the remote on the end table beside Rarity.  "Here, float that over."

Taking the familiar electronic, he displayed it for the girls to see as he gave them a brief introduction.  "This is what the remotes look like.  I guarantee the others will look similar enough.  The only things you have to know is that the 'power' button here turns it on, the 'volume' buttons should be obvious enough, and push 'oh-two' to start from channel two and then just work your way up and down with the 'channel' buttons.  Some of them may have static, but whatever."

The TV came to life as he demonstrated its abilities for them in case they didn't understand.  Upon finding a functioning channel, the Elements stared in awe at the new toy as the commercial displayed some rather amazing special effects – amazing compared to their average cinema, at least.

"That's really it?"

Matt flicked the set off and lobbed the remote onto the bed.  "Basically."

Rainbow lifted her hoof and looked it over with a discerning eye.  "And if we can't manage to push the buttons?  I mean, you know we don't have fingers like you do."

Matt snatched the hoof and tapped the edge.  "So use here.  You'll be fine!  And if not, I'll be in in a little while.  I've seen you use your wings like hands before, so don't give me that."

"Yeah, and I can fly up and smack you upside the head with them."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," he said dismissively as he exited the room and went for the kitchen.  The girls followed aside from Applejack and Rarity.

Once they were safely away, the country girl grumbled, "Wish I could take that phone thing and just flush it away."

The fashionista took hold of her orange hoof and squeezed it warmly.  "Listen, I know I was going on and on about it earlier like a little filly, but if you want to wash up, you can go on ahead of me.  Maybe a hot shower will help you relax, melt some of the worry away?"

With a heavy-hearted sigh, Applejack rolled over and crawled off the covers.  "Maybe."

As the bathroom door closed behind the apple farmer, Rarity let out a sigh of her own.  After everything she had tried to do and recommend, the last couple days threatened to have everything come crashing down, and that threat was only a short time away.  She silently begged that Rachel's appearance would result in nothing more than a long lost reconnection.

A distraction.  Yes, she needed a distraction as much as the rest of the humans in the city did right now.  The television on the other side of the room called out to her, and curiosity got the better of her.  With a smirk, she sat up and willed the remote beside her head.  She loved a good book as much as the next pony, so this tiny movie screen thing just seemed silly and low-brow, especially after what Matt had said about it from time to time.  Remembering what he showed them a moment ago, the 'power' button obeyed the lady's command.  Might as well see what the fuss is about.


-----


"Just, well, follow the path of destruction and you should be fine.  Pretty much looks like we ran a bulldozer through the streets.  Mostly on the sidewalks, whatever.  Couple of tight spots along the way, but you should be able to get around them without any trouble.  Once you get the white Hummer, that'll be it.  We parked it in front of the hotel," Matt told his phone as he paced in his room with a towel around his waist.

"How the heck am Ah supposed to get in?" Rachel asked.

"We have our ways, don't worry.  Can you see the city yet?"

"Yeah, it's just like ya said it'd be.  May be, Ah dunno, half hour, forty-five minutes away from that spot ya told ya busted through."

"Good.  Just be careful.  It'll probably be a little dark by the time you get here.  I mean, shit, the sun's almost on the way out of here already.  If you bump into any cops, they shouldn't give you any trouble – at least I hope they don't, as long as that one guy wasn't bullshitting me," Matt muttered with a sneer.

"Who?"

"Eh, this cop I got into a fight with.  Said he'd tell his buddies you were on the way and to let you by after me and my friends took him down.  We'll see, I guess."

"What was the guy's name in case they do stop me?"

"McCarthy.  Not a bad idea."

Rachel breathed deeply into her phone, trying to calm her nerves as she got ever closer to the metropolis.  "Still can't believe all this."

"Heh, yeah.  Pretty crazy."

"Ah better get off the phone.  Gonna need to pay attention 'n, like ya said, it's gonna be dark soon."

"Right, right.  Call me when you get here, okay?  We'll come down to get you."

"Ah will."

Matt laughed to himself.  "You're gonna love this room we have.  You'll...you'll just die when you see it.  It's awesome!"

Rachel chuckled too, but it wasn't hard to hear from her voice that a tear or two must have rolled down her cheek.  "Can't wait.  Ah'll see ya soon, 'kay?"

He felt his own eyes starting to water a little as well.  "You know it."

As he hung up, Matt breathed deeply and calmed the nerves in his chest that were starting to flare.  It almost felt like he was preparing for his first date with her all over again.  So much for his shower relaxing him almost to the point of falling asleep.  At least his nerves were firing on all cylinders for a good reason this time unlike so many others in the last several days.

He flung the phone onto the bed and finished toweling himself off.  It felt good to be clean again.  It was a good thing he brought an extra set of clothes with him.  Putting the same stuff on that he'd be wearing on his back for two solid, sweaty days would have made the shower feel like a bit of a waste.

Once dry, he folded the towels, replaced them on their racks and pulled his fresh wardrobe from his backpack – a pair of loose, beige shorts and a simple gray t-shirt with a trio of blue diamonds sewn wear a breast pocket would be.  That mare was always promoting her product, but she always did make quality merchandise.

Matt slid his iPhone into his pocket and headed to the foyer where he found all but Fluttershy and Twilight.  Everypony else had cleaned up by then; only they were left and would most likely be out soon enough.  The others had curled up on the couches and chairs and were arguing over what things to watch.  He had to hold in a snort of laughter once he saw the bickering.

But now it was his turn.  Snatching the remote from Rainbow's feathered grip, he flopped onto couch next to Applejack and spread out like how he used to back in his old apartment.  Set a beer in his hand and he would've been all set.

The TV switched to channel two and almost immediately flipped from one station to the other.  Most of the channels were static, as Matt expected, but from time to time he'd land on something only to move right past it a few seconds later.  It seemed like about a third of the stations were functioning.

"Come on, slow down!  How are we supposed to know what we're looking at when you're going that fast?" Rainbow criticized.  God, it sounded like he was at his parent's house when he was a youth and had a chance to take over the tube all over again.

"I'll find something, don't worry."

For the first several minutes, Matt proved to be a liar, though most of the things he found were commercials at the time.  He eventually settled on a ridiculous action movie that he didn't recognize.  The explosions and gunfire were excellent testosterone fuel, but it didn't take long for the girls to voice their displeasure in his viewing choice.  The only one that showed any mild interest in the show at all was the speedster, and she lost the vote to keep watching four to three once Twilight and Fluttershy eventually joined them in front of the idiot box.

Matt was a bit surprised at first when Twilight of all ponies sat and watched with them, but considering how novel something as simple to him as TV must have been to her and her friends, it started to make sense.  Whether she'd wish it were still around once everything was sent back home, they'd just have to wait and see.  He was just glad they didn't ask many questions about what was going on in the programs he put on for them.  Equestria may not have had CGI in their movies, but the girls seemed to get the idea that some of the things they saw must have just been some complicated special effects they were unfamiliar with and accepted a fair amount of it at face value.

After a couple more half-hour programs were under their belt, the channel surfing commenced once again.  As he landed on the intro of one of the city's functioning cable news networks, something caught Matt's eye.  The times they had zipped through the news channels before, there was some text in the top corner indicating that the broadcast was a rerun.  However, it wasn't there time.  Strange.  Did something else crazy happen in the last couple hours to bring this about?

The disheveled newscaster came on as soon as the opening credits ran with a typical 'startling development'.  The first clip of several stringed they showed, which looked to have been recorded by a phone or some other amateur recording equipment, just about made their hearts stop.

"Ohhhhh shit."

Matt was shown on the screen brawling with McCarthy earlier that afternoon with half of his entourage jumping in to help.

"Hey, look, it's us!  We're gonna be famous!" Pinkie cheered.

"That's not what we wanted, remember?" Applejack snarled.

"Oh... Oh yeah."

"Shh!"

Next were a few grainy shots of their protected Hummer plowing through various parts the city and lastly, the seven of them standing outside the hotel before disappearing in a flash of purple light.  The person filming the final scene was bleeped out several times when they teleported away.

The video looped as the reporter asked numerous questions as to what their purpose in the city was.  Did the mysterious equine creatures in the clips have anything to with their situation?  Were they up to something malicious?  Scouting ahead for some kind of invasion from the city across the bay?  Was the young man caught on film working with them or did they have him under their control somehow?  What's the significance of the Waldorf Astoria?

"We're going to try and get a camera crew out to the Waldorf and see if we can get a statement from the authorities.  We'll bring you more as this story develops."

Matt held his face in his hands.  "Juuuuust wonderful."

"Are we going to be safe here?" Fluttershy asked.

"As long as the cops do what they said they would, we should be.  I hope.  If nothing else, they never exactly saw us walk directly into this place.  Lot of rooms here too."

"So what do we do in the meantime?"

He thought hard for a moment, curled his lips and shrugged.  "Not answer the door?"  A better idea came to mind, and he got up to head off to his bedroom.  "Actually, I'm going to go get the gun, keep it close.  Might as well play it a little safe."

"I really wish there was something else you could use to scare any potential threat away," Rarity pouted.  "I just...hate that thing!"

"A big gun people are familiar with; they know to stay away.  What they don't know is how much ass you six know how to kick," he retorted with a wide smirk on his face.  The roundabout compliment got a giggle from a few of them.


-----


It took a quick channel change and most of an hour-long program to put aside any fears of the public suddenly coming down on them that night.  Roughly every ten minutes, Matt would switch back to the news networks only to find that they had yet to be harassed at ground level.  Fortunately, a few skipped checks almost made them forget altogether as they were too engrossed by a bad comedy.  The girls missed many of the jokes, but considering the cultural differences, it wasn't much of a surprise.

As the silly movie started approaching its climax, the phone rang out on the coffee table.  Matt perked up in an instant and correctly assumed who it was, especially considering the number on the caller ID and the fact that there was only one other person in Equestria that had the means to contact the phone, as far as he knew.  He quickly turned the TV off and answered the phone.

"Hey hey, what's up?"

"Ah'm finally here.  Ah should've gotten here a little faster, but Ah got stopped a few times.  They let me through though, so, whatever, y'know?" Rachel replied.

"Any other problems?"

"Nah, not really.  There're a few news crews out here, had to practically fight to get around 'em.  Didn't see any vans or what not though.  Kinda weird."

"Eh, probably came on foot or something.  Where are you outside?"

"Ah'm right by that Hummer ya told me to look for."

A smile quickly streaked across his cheeks.  "Cool, cool.  Hang tight, we'll be down soon.  Probably take longer to go down the thirty-five floors we gotta go down than to get through the lobby!"

"Ah'll be here."

"Sounds good.  See you soon."

"Bye."

He hung up and shared his wide grin with the Elements.  They were all excited to finally meet Rachel – save for two.  Applejack's smile was as genuine as she could muster, but Matt didn't see through her ruse.  Rarity managed to fool him as well, and after he got up from the couch and sauntered to the door with the others in tow, she glanced at her orange friend and blew out a heavy breath with her eyebrows raised.  Here went nothing!  Could only cross their hooves and hope for the best.

Just as Matt went to close the door behind them, he checked his pocket and, sure enough, the key card was there.  That would've been embarrassing!  As they strolled toward the elevator, Pinkie spoke up with a question that was on everypony's lips.

"So, what's she like?"

"She's...well, she's beautiful.  Dirty blonde hair, about half-way down her back.  Pretty good head on her shoulders, but I always liked teasing her when I knew something she didn't that was kind of important to the situation.  Always got her a little worked up. Was pretty funny but she always knew I was just fucking around.  Could be pretty snarky when she wanted to be though.  I remember once how we were at a sports bar watching...I think it was an Alabama game...and this drunk asshole comes up and starts hitting on her right in front of me.  I was about ready to kick this guy's ass, but the shit she said to get him to fuck off was kinda hilarious.  She probably would've knocked him on his ass either way if he kept it up for another minute or so.  Was a country girl through and through."  He smiled proudly at Applejack.  "Y'know, I'll bet you two would probably hit it off pretty well."

She fought through gritting her teeth behind her lips.  "Yeah, heh.  Sure sounds like we would."

"Did she have any pets or anything?" Fluttershy asked.

"No, her apartment complex didn't allow them.  Probably would have had a hard time taking care of one anyway.  She was a waitress at a place with some ridiculous hours, and she had to put in a lot.  Sometimes, they'd do things like have her close and then open the next morning.  They did that a lot, actually.  The money was decent but, yeah, she wouldn't have been able to take proper care of one with her wonky schedule," Matt explained.  "Last time she had an animal, she said, was the last year that she was living at home with her folks.  Think it was her second year in college and then she moved into one of the dorms if I remember right."

They reached the elevator and pushed the button.  A couple minutes passed before the light went off and the doors opened, but Matt continued fawning over his old girlfriend in the meantime.

"After the first few years we were seeing each other...well, we used to go out, do this, do that, but after a while, we just kind of stayed in more and more.  We'd go over to each other's place and curl up on the couch together and put on some movies we liked or watch a game if there was one on.  Every once in a while, she'd put on a rom-com she knew I couldn't stand.  Was probably punishment for when I'd tease her."

"'Rom-com'?" Twilight asked as they boarded the lift and began their descent.

"Romantic-comedy.  Chick flick."  He turned to Rarity with a smirk.  "Bet you've dragged a guy or two to see one, eh?"

"I...can't really deny it, no," she responded, blushing.  "It's not a bad test to see how the stallion handles something a little feminine without being completely direct, if you ask me."

"I knew it!" he hissed, jokingly shaking a fist.  "Funny though, it doesn't sound like you even like those movies to begin with."

She lifted an eyebrow and waved dismissively.  "I've seen a few decent ones, but more often than not, those 'chick flicks', as you call them, use just about every cliché in the book.  The stories are usually quite ridiculous."

"And yet you read romance novels," he countered.

The white mare stiffened up, realizing she'd been caught in a bit of an inconsistency.  "It's...I...th-the books, um, typically go into more...err, detail that I...sometimes enjoy.  In the privacy of my own home."

"'Detail', eh?  That's what you're calling it now?" Matt quipped, chortling under his breath.  "Okay."

The innuendos didn't register to the rest through the awkward silence.

"Uh, right.  Anyway, if you don't like them, then why do you go see them?" Applejack queried.

With a toss of her mane and a bite of her lip, she answered, "My dates usually like to take me to dinner first."

"So you get a free meal out of the deal," Matt observed.

"Dear, you know me by now.  I want to be wined and dined, swept off my hooves.  It's just...nopony's really done much for me.  They always make it rather obvious they only want one thing by the third or fourth date.  Sometimes not even that far in.  Would be nice to meet someone who desired me for more than just...that.  Honestly, I wonder sometimes if I'm doing something wrong," the fashionista sighed.

"Eh, maybe you're just not showing interest in the right people," he suggested, subtly glancing away and hiding a knowing grin.

The hint wasn't lost on the unicorn, but she played dumb nonetheless.  "And what might you be saying, sir?"

"Nothing," Matt quickly replied.

The moment of silence as the ride continued was broken by the blue pegasus.  "What are they talking about?"

Twilight snorted and lifted a brow.  "You mean you don't know?"

"Foreveeeer!" Pinkie hissed.  Her protective glare sent her purple friend shrinking into her shoulders, looking like she was worried that she was about to be killed at a moment's notice.

"...Know what?"

"Uh, heh, i-it's nothing.  Don't worry about it!"

Rainbow shrugged and looked up at the numbers overhead.  Ugh, the descent was taking forever!  But finally, the elevator came to a rest on its springs and the doors slid open.


-----


Matt and the Elements stepped down the familiar staircase that led to the entrance.  It had gotten dark out and there were few lights directly outside, mostly thanks to when they carved a path of destruction up to the front door.  The few bright lights that shone through appeared to be coming mostly from what must have been the live reporters and their camera crews.  A handful must have set up their equipment close enough that the cops outside would allow.

Through the sharp beams of light, a figure paced back and forth on the other side of the door, looking around at the goings on in the street.  A backpack sat draped across their shoulders, just barely hiding flowing dark yellow hair, and a small cooler sat hanging in one hand.  They were hugging themselves as the crisp northern air had started nipping at their skin.  Maybe it would have been better if they didn't wear shorts, but it was far too late now.

"There she is," Matt whispered just loud enough for the girls to hear from behind him.

"In the purple shirt?" Twilight asked.

"Mhm.  Bring her in here?"

"Of course."

As her horn lit up, so did Rachel as a layer of magic surrounded her.  She stopped in her tracks and looked over her body in panic before appearing four feet behind herself and inside the building.  Like with Matt, the teleportation knocked her for a loop.  A long forgotten pair of hands grabbed onto her arms and helped her keep her balance.  Her free hand found his forearm and then her eyes his.

The cooler fell hard to the floor.

Despite speaking to him several times, the sight of the man she had thought lost left her without words.  He stared back into her soft, blue eyes as they began to water, equally speechless.  A warm smile found his lips, and he casually cocked his head as if only a weekend had gone by since last they saw each other.

Wanting to make sure she wasn't just seeing things, she cautiously reached up and caressed his cheek.  Tears rained down her own as she suddenly threw her arms around his neck, burying her face in his neck and sobbing.

"Oh my God!"

His arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her comfortingly into him.

"Hey baby," he whispered.

Two-thirds of the mares smiled happily for the reunited couple, but it took every ounce of Applejack's willpower to keep a stone face.  Unfortunately, it didn't stop her stomach from tying itself in knots or the lump in her throat from nearly choking her.  A gentle hoof found her shoulder but she pulled angrily away from it.

The pair eventually let their embrace go and gazed at each other face to face.  Sighing blissfully, Matt motioned off to his side.  "Rach, these are my friends."

She nearly jumped out of her skin.  While most were sitting calmly and nodding hello, the hopping pink one wasn't making a great impression.  "M...M...M-M-Matt, wh-what–"

"I know, they're not what you expected, but they're good people.  They helped me after I disappeared and...well, ended up here.  And they talk too, so don't be alarmed when you hear it."

"What?!"

"It's true," Twilight muttered, not wanting to spook her further.

Rachel looked them over, studying every hoof, every smile, the wings, the horns, their rather large yet human-like eyes.  She blinked in disbelief despite what was clearly right in front of her.  If not for Matt being there to assure her, she would have probably began shrieking in terror.

"Ah...A-Ah don't understand.  What is all this?  Where are we?"

"It's a looooong story," Matt said.  "Come on.  Let's get back up to our room and we'll tell you everything."

Nodding timidly, she grabbed her cooler and followed Matt up the stairs with the ponies a step behind.  She barely took her eyes off him as they went, as if she was afraid he would vanish all over again.
> Chapter 21
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once back at their room, sitting on the comfortable chairs and sofas in the study area, Matt dominated the conversation, spending most of the next hour telling Rachel everything, a lot of which involved Discord and why the menace brought him to Equestria to begin with.  Nearly every other sentence he spoke resulted in another question though they couldn't blame her for being curious and not understanding everything at face value.

"It's all just so much to take in.  Just sounds...crazy," Rachel said.

"I know."  Matt sat with his arm around her shoulder and cradled her tightly.  "But, y'know...here we are, right?  And once we straighten this all out, everything will be fine again.  Kind of wonder how things are going to go down back home once everyone else sees what was on the news earlier today?"

"You'll come back too, right?"

The room went awkwardly silent.  It was something Matt was afraid she'd ask, and it wasn't something he wanted to answer – not truthfully, at least.

Twilight spoke up before he could get a word in.  "Celestia and I tried for a while to find a spell that would send him back to where he came from.  We...never had any luck."  Matt shot her a firm glare when Rachel's eyes fell.  The unicorn got the hint and clammed up.

"Hon, look, we don't know what that thing is outside hanging over our heads.  Once we figure it out, it's very possible they can put something together and...well, back I go.  We'll find out tomorrow morning."

"And what if they can't?"

Nopony had an answer; neither did Matt.  He shrugged gently and whispered, "Let's try not to worry about that right now."

"Try not to worry..." Rachel muttered.  "Ah worried for months after ya disappeared.  Your family too."

"How've they been anyway?"

She shook her head.  "Ah don't know.  Ah haven't spoken to them in, like, over a year.  What was Ah supposed to say to 'em after we had moved on, y'know?  What would Ah say to 'em now?"

Curling his lips, he replied, "If I actually do manage to get back this time, I'll figure something out.  If not–"  He sighed deeply as he imagined how his folks would react to such bizarre-sounding news without a personal appearance.  Hopefully they wouldn't see him on a television news report like he did earlier.  "–then don't say anything.  Let's face it, up until yesterday, you and everyone else thought I was dead.  Just...let them continue thinking that."

Even though it was the only logical choice to make, Rachel leaned her head on his broad shoulder, her eyes watering a little.  Matt didn't want to see her upset, and he figured she'd be ecstatic to see him again.  She probably was, but remembering the ache of his disappearance must have reopened a wound that had been festering in her subconscious for a long time.  A quick change of subject was needed.

"Curious, uh...did you see anybody else after you had moved on?" he asked, smiling softly for her.

Her silent laugh eased the tension a little for her.  She wiped her eyes on the back of her hand and told her simple tale.  "About...eh, five or six months after ya left.  Your friend Jake was a shoulder to cry on for a while.  We ended up seeing each other for only a month or two, but it just didn't work out 'n we understood that.  Still talked from time to time.  You remember Carol?  She eventually introduced me to a...girlfriend's brother or something, Ah don't even remember.  He was an asshole.  Went on one date, told him not to bother me again.  Then, about four or so months ago, this guy, Aaron, from work asked me out.  He was alright, but after a while, he got all clingy 'n jealous 'n shit.  Guess he thought Ah was getting too friendly with some of the customers or something.  He eventually quit 'n Ah hadn't heard from him since."

"Matt told us you were a waitress.  This was at a restaurant, I assume?" Fluttershy asked.

Rachel jumped nervously despite Matt's comforting presence.  She wasn't quite used to the idea of talking ponies just yet, but she was getting there.  Maybe things would be better in the morning.

"Y-Yeah.  S-Sports bar."

"What did this 'Aaron' do there?"

The country girl sneered, not at the pegasus but at the answer to the question.  "A waiter."

Matt guffawed loudly.  "Wait, this guy had the same job you did?"

"Mhm."

"He does know that sexy girls like you tend to act all super nice to customers to get better tips, right?" he asked, reaching under her shirt and tickling her belly.

"S-S-Stop!" she giggled, playfully slapping at him.  "Ya never forgot that, huh?"

He shrugged nonchalantly.  "I suddenly remembered."

As the two briefly bantered, Applejack felt an eye – and then an ear – twitch.

Rachel eventually caught her breath, giving her last thoughts about Aaron.  "Yeah, Ah realized he was kind of an idiot after that."

"Sounds like a winner."

"What about you?  Ah don't suppose you...?"

He shook his head.  "I'm one of a kind around here, so... Well, I was, but you know what I mean."

"Yeah, Ah do."  With a smirk, Rachel kissed his stubbly cheek and curled her arms around his head.  "And, yeah, ya are."

Stifling a growl, Applejack hopped off her couch and turned around toward the kitchen.  It was a wonder she didn't grind her teeth into dust.  Despite an equal amount of misery and rage bubbling up, she managed to keep a straight face.

"Where are you going, dear?" Rarity asked.  The others turned to see the cowpony walking off as casually as she could.

"Just...need a drink, that's all."

A pained smile went across her face, but only the dressmaker knew what was hiding behind it.  In a way, it was fortunate the rest weren't aware of what was bothering her.  In an effort to cheer her up – in the very same room of the source of her heartache, no less – they'd probably just get on her nerves and upset her further.  Plus, it'd suddenly put Matt in an awkward position, and despite how hurt she was, Applejack wouldn't want to do that to him.  Best to just get out of there and blow off some steam...somehow.

"Oh.  Err, alright."

The orange mare cantered out and made her way to the dining room next door as Matt continued the conversation.  She slid around the corner and peeked behind her, not wanting to be spotted.  As long as they thought she was actually going off to the kitchen, she should be okay for a moment before they started to wonder what happened to her.  Matt's little story, which from what she overheard was about that damned song that reminded him of that hussy, would probably distract them enough.

A long, silent sob escaped her and she hoped to Celestia they didn't hear her.  With her eyes watering, she marched ahead and through another open door to the right that led into the lobby room.  The soft carpet hid her hoofsteps well enough and, with one last look around, she took hold of the doorknob and turned it as quietly as possible.  The hinges didn't even squeak as she stepped out into the hallway and shut the door without a sound.

She looked up and down the corridor and found no one up and about.  They had only been down this particular way once, but it wouldn't be hard to navigate the area anyway.  Hanging a left, she marched down the hall and hung a right, eventually finding the elevator.  Her hoof refused to cooperate with the button and some of her fury crept up to the surface as a result.  After several frustrated jabs, she managed to call the elevator.  She could almost feel her eyes becoming increasingly bloodshot as she stood there waiting and waiting.

Finally, the bell chimed and the doors opened.  She stepped inside and immediately spotted the next button on her hit list as she was sealed in.

Fourth floor.  Hopefully the guy was there.


-----


Room 404.  This was the place.

Applejack quickly wiped her eyes clean and clear and knocked on the door.  Frank answered with his shirt barely buttoned and obviously tucked in only a second ago.

"Oh!  Uh, hello.  Something I can do for you?"

"I hope so.  Down by the lobby, there was a restaurant, right?"

"There was, but if you're looking for something to eat, there isn't anything left in there."

"No, no, it's not that."  The farmer smirked and hung her head.  "Was wondering if there was maybe something to drink down there.  Something strong."

He blinked at the revelation.  "You have alcohol where you come from?"

"My farm brews some every year.  Hard apple cider."

"I see.  Well, I believe we do have a few things still stored away.  Your suite has a bar though.  Do you not have anything there?" Frank asked.

"I can't be up there right now."

"Is there something wrong with the room?"

"Oh, no, the room's...well, amazing.  It's just...I-I really don't want to get into it, if that's okay," Applejack sighed.

Frank paused, trying to decipher what she could be talking about.  When nothing came to him, he shrugged and said, "Yeah, that's fine.  Let me go put my shoes on and we'll see if we can get you something."

"Thanks."


-----


Applejack followed Frank into Peacock Alley, across from the sign-in desks in the hotel lobby.  Located conveniently at its entrance was the bar, and by the looks of things, they'd need to immediately place an order for half of their drink selection once they were returned to Earth.

The mare climbed a nearby stool and rested her hat beside her as Frank made his way behind the counter.

"I've never done any bartending, so if you want any mixed drinks, I don't know how to put them together, I'm afraid," he mentioned.

"S'okay.  I can handle 'em straight."

"Alright."  Frank hummed to himself as he looked over what was left, trying to make a best guess as to what the obviously upset mare may want.  "Any preferences as to the type?  Vodka, whiskey, tequila?"

"Whiskey's fine."

With that, he glanced across the few rows of bottles, searching for an adequate target.  He came across one in particular – about a quarter empty – that just may do the trick.  He turned and eyed the stetson sitting on the counter.  Just from how she sounded, she may appreciate what he chose, but how would he know?  "How about this?" he asked as he presented Applejack with a bottle of Southern Comfort and a glass to go with it.

"It's fine," she muttered as he poured her some.  She looked over the selection across from her.  "I'm going to need some more – and you can leave the bottles."

Frank wasn't sure how to respond to that.  Yes, she and her party had provided him with some food, but handing out booze like it was going out of style was... Actually, considering the situation, it was a wonder the tenants hadn't stripped the hotel completely dry by now.  Maybe he should take some back up to his room himself.

"Uh, sure.  More of that one in particular or whatever or...?"

"Whatever."

"Okay.  I know I saw something here... Ah, here we go."  A bottle of classic Jack Daniels was placed beside its brother.  It wasn't that much more empty than the SoCo.  "Think that'd do it?"

Applejack looked over the pair of flagons.  "Yeah, I think so," she answered.

"Do you need...some...?"  Frank cocked his head as he watched the mare grip the tumbler and throw the golden liquid down her throat.  "How are you holding that?"

"Just am," she hissed, wincing as her throat burned.

"But you don't have fingers and–"  He stopped his inevitably nonsensical rambling before it got going, realizing he was having a conversation with a small, orange horse.  Nonsensical things had been the norm since appearing wherever it was that they were.  "You know what?  Never mind."

Applejack didn't reply.  There was only one thing she was interested in doing at the moment and describing how her hooves worked wasn't it.

Frank wanted to ask 'why the long face?' but thought better of it.  He could see she was upset and such an inane joke would probably just anger her.  Still, it wasn't the first time he had seen someone depressed and hovering over an empty glass.  "You're sure you don't want to talk about it?"

"I'm sure.  Thanks for this."

"Not a problem.  Do you need me for anything else?"

She shook her head.  "I just need to be alone for a little while."

"You'll be alright here by yourself?  I mean, I don't know how others will react if–"

She quickly cut him off with a dismissive wave of her hoof.  "Y-Yeah, yeah.  I'll be fine."

Nodding cautiously, Frank spun around and selected a half-empty bottle of scotch for himself and went to leave, but not before telling her, "Good luck with...whatever it is."

Her ear spun as he headed through the lobby and back to the elevators.  As Frank disappeared inside, she looked up at her reflection in the mirror wall across from her.  Celestia, was she stupid.  If only she could reach over and slap her stupid face for being so...so...stupid!

Eventually, Applejack went to pour herself another glass but decided against it, sliding the mug away and guzzling straight from the bottle.  It wasn't as good as her family's famous cider, but it'd do the job.  Flavor wasn't exactly a main concern of hers at the moment, anyhow.


-----


For nearly twenty minutes, Matt's equine friends had gotten lost in sharing some stories with Rachel, telling her about their likes, their hobbies, their adventures together – things to pass the time and help her feel more relaxed around them.  So far, it seemed to be working.  Their missing friend had come up occasionally in conversation, but nopony had yet to comment that she hadn't be present for a while.

Perhaps they thought she was cooking up something in the kitchen.  Maybe she had gotten distracted by some odd human stuff.  Still, it was peculiar that she hadn't returned from getting her drink – or even made a sound from inside, for that matter.

"Hey, A.J., what the hell are you doing in there?" Matt yelled out.  No response came.  "A.J.?"

The girls shared a curious look.  All except Rachel got to their feet and took a peek in the dining room.  No sign of her.  Maybe the kitchen?  They ventured further ahead, spreading out and calling for the cowgirl.  With each passing minute, they found themselves getting closer and closer to full blown panic mode.

Rainbow Dash zipped back through the study area and down the hall to scope the bedrooms with Fluttershy a few paces behind her.  Pinkie Pie was checking under and behind every nook and cranny imaginable.  Rarity and Twilight ran throughout the suite on hoof, sometimes hitting the same rooms two or three times.

"Guys, I can't find her," Matt hollered as he rampaged throughout the entire place.

Eventually, they came back together in the study room.

"Any luck?!"

"She's not in any of the bedrooms!"

"Not in the den!"

"Or the bathrooms!"

"The hay is she?!"

Amidst the commotion, Rarity ceased her bickering, trying to figure out what in the world could have happened to Applejack.  She bit her lip as she recalled what the cowpony said before vanishing – she needed a drink.  The suite had a bar, but they didn't find her in its vicinity – or anywhere else!  If she was going to go anywhere to drown the sorrows Rarity knew she likely had, that...

Wait.  Wasn't there a bar near the lobby downstairs?  They did rummage around through a restaurant when Matt was getting his room key.

No, she couldn't have.  She didn't...did she?  Well, maybe.  It was starting to make a lot of sense.

"Girls, girls!" Rarity yelled over them.  "I think I know where she is."

"Then let's go get her!" Rainbow shouted.

"No!" the fashionista said, halting the hyper pegasus with a well-placed hoof.  "This is something I have to do alone.  I know you don't understand why, but you just have to trust me on this."

"No no no, you stay here!" Matt demanded.  "If someone's come across her and done something, seeing more of you–"

"Matthew James Doherty!"

It had been many, many years since his entire name was screamed at him by anyone.  It still managed to shut him up instantly – as well as everyone else in the room.  He had no idea why Rarity was going off on him with such hostility, but considering she felt the need to do so, he really didn't want to continue pushing her buttons.  The righteous fury in her eyes was evidence enough that she wasn't to be trifled with at the moment, even causing the much more magically-inclined Twilight to back off.

The lady cleared her throat and subsided her anger since ladies do not flip out, even on their closest friends.  "Matt, I insist you stay here.  I can assure you that Applejack is not so stupid as to leave the premises, considering what's going on outside, and you know damn well she can handle herself in a scuffle as can I.  Now, like I said, I suspect I know where she is, I have to go alone, and that's final."

"But you–"

"Matt," she repeated fiercely, "you know what I'm capable of.  You know what I did to that police officer earlier today, and if I must, I will do the same to you.  Now sit down – all of you!  I appreciate your concern, but you know I'll be alright."

The anger crept back into her voice, and one by one, the girls took a terrified seat.  They had never seen Rarity so incensed before.  Finally, Matt carefully sat back down next to Rachel, who was equally as stunned as everyone else.  Hopefully, all the pleasantness and good cheer they shared with her wasn't already tossed out the window with such an outburst.

"Thank you.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be back with Applejack as soon as I can."

Satisfied that she was finally being listened to, Rarity stomped her way out of the room, through the entrance area and out the door, nearly slamming it behind her.

"What was that all about?" Rainbow asked for everyone.

"I think maybe it would be best to just leave her alone until tomorrow morning," Fluttershy whimpered.

"Yeah, I kinda like living," Matt added.


-----


A quick visit to Frank's door was all Rarity needed to confirm her suspicions.  If anyone else in the building would have had an inkling where Applejack went, it would have been him.  The mare disembarked from the elevator and made a beeline for Peacock Alley.  She sighed to herself when a familiar orange friend came into view.  She then smirked when she noticed Applejack wobbling ever so slightly in her chair.

Rarity carefully crept up to the bar and came to a stop next to the drunken farmer.  Her green eyes hung heavy, one more so than the other.

The upper class unicorn's heart fell.  So much for all the talks they had.  But she needed a friend right now.

"Is this seat taken?"

Applejack mumbled incoherently back at her.  She'll take that as a 'no, by all means'.

Once she was comfortable on the bar stool, Rarity spotted the empty bottle sitting next to her trademark stetson and then the one in her hoof.  If Applejack had already downed a full bottle in the short time since she'd been gone, it would certainly explain why she looked as if she was about to fall over.  An awkward, silent moment went by before anything was said – other than a noticeable glug of alcohol.

"Sweetie–"

"Don't wanna hear it."

"W-We didn't see you anywhere in the suite, so I came looking."

"You saw me.  Now go away," the cowgirl blubbered.

"I'm truly sorry, Applejack.  I wish there was something I could do."

The earth pony snorted.  "Pick her up an'...th-th-th-throw her out the window," she said, taking another swig.

Rarity managed to crack a little smile at what she hoped was just a joke.  "You know I'm not going to do that."

"F-F-Figures he'd go running back to his...h-his little...her.  Had to show up all...all here and stupid like me."

"You are not stupid," the fashionista firmly stated.  One thing she wasn't going to stand for was self-depreciation.  "Look, Applejack–"

"Oh dammit, just stop it, Rarity!" she suddenly hollered, causing her ivory friend to jump in surprise as she swung her bottle around rather recklessly.  "Will you think about it already?!  We're both blonde, sh-she's sounds all country!  Just give me brown eyes and put me on two legs and I'd be a s-s-spittin' image of her!"

In her rage, she launched the Jack Daniels at her sickening reflection and shattered everything into pieces.  The ear-piercing shrieks of glass and mirror snapped Applejack back to reality, and upon realizing just what she did, the heartbroken mare slumped her forehead onto the edge of the bar.  The spinning floor looked a mile below her.

Rarity uncovered her head and frowned at the destruction.  She bit her tongue before deciding it was pertinent to point out superficialities like the fur and the tail and such where Rachel did not; that kind of thing wasn't important in the long run and it wasn't anything Applejack needed or would want to hear.  Trying to convince her that the similarities were merely a coincidence or that Matt didn't even realize it probably wasn't going to work either.  If anything she'd likely just bite Rarity's head off again.

That didn't mean it she wasn't allowed to sympathetically rest a hoof across her shoulders though.

"Let's go back to the room, okay?  Lay you down and get you some rest.  Tomorrow morning, we're investigating the disturbance overhead.  We need you to be there and be ready alongside us in case anything happens, and Matt needs you ready too."

"Yeah, right.  What does he care?" Applejack growled.

"You know he does, and whether you'll admit it or not, you wouldn't be doing this if you still didn't too," the designer countered.  "Besides, do you think he'd want to see you like this?"

Rarity was right on all counts and she knew it.  Little by little, her anger faded away as they sat there quietly, patiently, as a memory or two of more fun times with Matt decided to say hello as her head spun.  The lump in her throat and the water in her eyes chose that time to return, too.

Slowly, the cowgirl sat up in her chair, still very woozy, and fumbled for her stetson.  It suddenly took on a soft blue color and floated onto her head.  Using the bar for leverage, she clumsily climbed off the bar stool.  Unfortunately, her hooves forgot how to hit the floor in stride and she took a tumble, slamming her back against the short wall and knocking the wind out of her as well as the hat off her head.

"Oh goodness!  Are you alright?!" Rarity gasped as she leapt off her own chair and to her friend's side.

She was, but she didn't bother to answer with anything other than a blank stare.  She must have looked ridiculous; she couldn't even stand up straight!  Applejack changed her mind in that instance.  Rarity was wrong about one thing – she was stupid.

The devastated mare's facade finally crumbled as she began to quietly weep.  Rarity's eyes began to tear up as well.  She sat down beside her closest friend, wrapped her forelimbs around the poor girl and rested their heads together.  Applejack buried her face in the unicorn's chest, and for once, she didn't care if her pristine white coat got a little dirty.


-----


Matt, Rachel and the others sat around the TV in the first room, trying to find something distracting to watch.  Unfortunately, no matter what they flipped to, it wasn't doing any good.  They tapped their feet, fidgeted in their seats, or kept glancing the door.  First Applejack and now Rarity were God knows where.

Several times, they considered heading out to search, but after how ballistic Rarity went, they were a bit nervous about potentially bumping into her and setting her off all over again.

It was getting close to an hour that Applejack was last seen when the front door started to rattle.  The party jumped off their chairs and bounded for the door.  Matt yanked it open to find Rarity standing there with Applejack draping a leg around her and seemingly in a fog.  Slowly, they hobbled inside together, never separating from each other.

"Girls!  Are you okay?"

"What happened to you?!"

"Jesus Christ, A.J.!  Where the hell were you?!  We were worried sick that–"  Matt paused when he noticed how the mare staggered back and forth, barely able to hold herself up.  Even her head seemed to sway like a sheet in the wind.  "Is...is she drunk?"

It wasn't the first time he had seen her in such a state – in fact, more than once they had gotten buzzed when they'd go see a game or visit a bar in Ponyville – but this hardly felt like an appropriate situation for it.

"Err, yes, I believe she's a bit tipsy," Rarity confirmed.

"Don't we have a bar here?" Rainbow asked.  "Why leave?"

Ah yes, a question she was expecting.

"You know, I asked her that very thing and she basically told me that the, uh, selection here didn't interest her, so she decided to see if the bar at the restaurant downstairs had a better one.  She wanted to celebrate the fact that we're going to be fixing this whole mess up tomorrow morning and everything will be good as new!"

"By herself?" Twilight asked.

"That does seem a little weird, and coming from me, that's saying something!" Pinkie Pie added.

Hm, that's something Rarity wasn't prepared for.  She'd have to improvise.

"Weeeell, she said that you were all enjoying talking with Rachel, but she felt she didn't really have too much to add to the conversation and didn't want to disturb you all, so she headed out."

They looked over the high society mare skeptically as she kept on her wide grin.  Her story seemed to be sticking.  As long as they didn't ask any other hard questions, they should be able to dodge a bullet.

"I still don't get what's wrong with the bar we have.  I mean, how would she know what's good or not?  This is...human booze," Matt pointed out.

"She looked over the labels and made a judgment call.  Don't forget, she does make Apple Family Cider every year.  If anypony here knows what goes into making good, quality alcohol, it's her," she said confidently.

Her reasonable argument sunk in and eventually, he twisted his lips and shrugged at them.  "I...guess.  Still, she could've told us!  Jesus!"

"Ah sarr..." A.J. mumbled.

Matt had heard enough drunkenese over his life to understand her apology.  At least she was alright.  As much as he wanted to chew her out some more, he didn't have the heart to stay mad at her.  Frustrated, yes, but not mad.  He looked into her hazy, bloodshot eyes and blinked.

"Are...you okay?  You kinda look like hell."

She replied with an affirmative hum and a crooked nod.

"If it's alright with all of you, I'd like to put her to bed," Rarity pleaded.  "I think she needs the rest."

"Yeah, go ahead.  Hope she doesn't have a hangover in the morning," Matt commented.

"Eh, even if she does, I know a spell that can fix that in a jiffy!"

"Wait," Rachel said, "you can cure a hangover like that?"  She snapped her fingers.

"Heh, yeah, I've...cast it once or twice," Twilight squeaked as her cheeks reddened.

"...That's one hell of a talent."

"Yes, well... Anyway, good night, girls, Matt, Rachel.  We'll see you in the morning," Rarity said, receiving similar well wishes as they departed inside.

Matt watched with concern as Applejack was escorted out of sight.  Once she was gone, he sighed and returned to his seat as did the rest to finish watching the show.  Rachel announced that once the program was over, she'd head off to take a shower.  It was starting to get a little late and she had had a busy day.

Meanwhile, Rarity and Applejack crept along down the hall until they arrived at their room.  While she could have simply levitated the orange mare, doing so may have resulted in accidentally stirring the contents of her stomach around, resulting in a rather unpleasant situation.  Thus, they took it one step a time.

Once they reached the bed though, the cowpony simply didn't have the energy to lift herself up onto the mattress.  Going against her initial reservations, the unicorn made a compromise and gently lifted her the couple extra feet into the air and down onto the cool, waiting sheets.

"Dear, why don't you sleep on my side?" the dressmaker offered.  "It's closer to the bathroom...just in case."

It was a hard battle, but Applejack eventually managed to slide across and found a lazy, comfortable position, curled up in a ball.  She was instantly out like a light, a faint hint of drool already leaking onto the pillow.

With a sigh, Rarity slid under the covers and willed her saddlebag over to her.  Out came her romance novel to help her fall asleep too.

After about half a chapter, there was a gentle knock on the door frame.  She looked up to see Matt standing there.  With Rachel in the bathroom now, he figured he'd check in on his country friend again.

"Oh, good evening, darling."

He checked over his shoulder.  No one was around.  "Hey.  How's she doing?"

"Fast asleep," she replied with a warm smile.

"Cool.  So, what's really up?"

"What ever do you mean?"

"Look, Rares, I'd like to think I know you fairly well and while a story like the one you told us might work on them, it's not going to work on me.  I'm not an idiot.  So, what's really going on?"

Oh Celestia, was she ever in a spot and he knew it!  She took a few extra seconds to unhurriedly mark and close her book and set it on the nightstand.  Any way she could stall to come up with an answer that didn't give Applejack away and betray her trust would be welcome.

Her mouth hung open as she formed the right words.  "I'm really not at liberty to say."

He rolled his eyes.  "Rarity..."

She quickly hushed him with a raised hoof.  "It's not something that I can really discuss.  That's up to her.  If she wants to talk about it, she will.  You know how she can be.  For the time being, it really is best not to worry about it."

Well, that de-escalated quickly.  But, what was he going to do?  If neither of them wanted to talk, just like Rarity said, they weren't going to.

"Alright, alright.  I'm heading to bed.  See you in the morning."

"Sleep well, dear."

As he walked off, yelling good night to the others, Rarity glanced at her slumbering friend and sighed sadly.  The unicorn slid under the covers and flicked off the light.

It really was a heavenly bed.


-----


As soon as he got to his room, Matt closed the door and peeled his clothes off, tossing them on a nearby chair.  The bathroom door was still closed; Rachel was probably doing her nightly routine.  Probably never stopped doing it even after so long.

The bed called out for him and he answered heartily.  He set a few pillows against the headboard and grabbed the TV remote off the nightstand beside him.  May as well watch a bit of tube before turning in, see if there's anything good on.

A few minutes and several channel changes later, the bathroom door creaked open and Rachel stepped out wearing only a pair of towels, one on her hair and the other around her body.  A seductive look was all she needed to get Matt's attention.  She slinked over to the door to the hall and locked it shut.

In one fluid motion, both towels fell to the floor.

The TV went off.  Sleep could wait.


-----


Matt and Rachel wished that the night could have lasted a little longer.  Before they knew it, morning was upon them and they had an important task ahead of them: tackling the mystery of the cloud.  After about an hour of getting ready, the Elements and their two human friends were set to go – right after Twilight cast a spell that shook off Applejack's nasty hangover.  If Rarity hadn't insisted in looking ready for a date, they could have cut their wait time in half.  More than a few bites of food would have also made their morning a little better, but what could they do?

While waiting for the fashionista to primp herself, Matt made the call to Frank downstairs.  He was fortunately already up for a short time as well and had been expecting to hear from them.  He didn't know why he didn't think of it the day before, but Matt informed the hotel employee that they didn't have any need for the maintenance key to get onto the roof, much to Frank's relief.  His concerns about having the doorknob simply shot off were tossed away too.  

Rarity had only just finished up by the time Frank was ready himself and had made his way to their hotel room.  Before departing, however, Matt insisted he bring his shotgun and the rest of his rounds just in case anything went further out of control.  Following his example, Rachel grabbed the Beretta 92S that she brought with her, along with a spare magazine, and wedged it in her shorts pocket as best she could.

Being near the top of the tower already made the rest of their ascension nice and quick; maybe fifteen minutes went by and they found themselves in front of the grey door that led outside.

"Alright, we're here.  So, now what?" Frank asked.

"Now you watch and be amazed, sir.  And again, thanks for all your help.  Once we've checked into this and figured out what we're going to do, we'll probably head out.  I'll stop by your room and give you back the key."

"Very well."

Matt turned to Rachel and smirked.  "Come on in close.  I also have to warn you, this is going to feel funny and you'll probably fall over.  It happens to me every time."

"Doing what?"

"On you, Twilight.  Think you'll be okay?"

"Well, it's only going to be a foot forward, so I should be alright.  Here goes!"

Her horn sparked, and in a flash, the eight of them vanished before Frank.  He shook his head in disbelief and blinked over and over.  A knock came from the other side of the door after a moment.

"We're okay!" Matt hollered.

"Err...great!  Good luck!"  Despite having no further reason to stick around, Frank's feet were temporarily glued to the floor.  "What the hell did I just witness?"

Rachel was still reeling a little from the sudden jump in location, just as confused as their host was.  Fluttershy and Pinkie helped her to her feet where she simply stared at her lover.

"Teleportation.  Like in videos games and movies and stuff.  Pretty handy, but even after so long, it still shakes my brain around.  No idea why."

The view of the city was nothing short of breathtaking.  Even being on the top of a nearly-fifty story building, there were plenty of other skyscrapers that rivaled it in sheer size.  While no one in the group went much farther than the center of the roof, Matt dared not go near the edge.  He wasn't terribly fond of being carried so high in the air when he killed the Ursa so long ago, and that nervousness still hadn't left him.

Just off to their right was their target.  Curious, Matt took a few steps forward and cocked his head.  "Is it just me or does that thing seem...closer?"

"What do you mean?  Why would it be closer?"  Pinkie Pie asked.

"I don't know.  But I know I saw it yesterday when we kicked that cop's ass and it seemed really, really...distant."

"Maybe it was just because we were so much farther away than we are now?" Twilight suggested.

He squinted at the formation and then glanced back and forth at some of the buildings a couple blocks away.  The reflections on the windows sure seemed to indicate it was fairly close as did the shadow it cast.  Plus, unless he was terrible at perspective, it just seemed a lot larger than it should be, even in spite of how far they were when he first noticed it.

"Want me to go fly up there and check it out?" Rainbow suggested.

"Mmmm...no, stay here," Matt said.  "We don't have any idea if there's any story behind this thing yet.  Twilight, you think you're close enough to scan over this thing, see what's up here?"

"Should be."

"I hope this is quick and easy.  I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd like to head back home soon," Fluttershy said as Twilight stepped up and let her magic do its thing.  The others nodded in wholehearted agreement.

As the powerful unicorn concentrated, the cloud gradually became surrounded in her signature purple glow.  After only a few seconds, though, a sudden vicious jolt of feedback knocked her off her hooves and threw her hard into the group.  "Agh!"

"Holy shit, what happened?!"

"Twilight!"

"You okay?!"

The unicorn sat up in pain and tried to catch her breath.  "Dear Celestia, I've...I-I've never felt anything...anything so...ngh!"

As one, they looked over at the black entity, even more baffled now at what it could be.  Even more questions were raised when it started to approach them, eventually coming to a stop only a few feet away.  Matt and Rachel drew their weapons as everybody backed off.

"What in the hell?"

While they stood there speechless, the unusual, poofy phenomenon seemed to compress itself into a different, slender form.  The wonder on their faces slowly turned to horror – with Matt nearly turning white as a ghost – as the entity morphed into a long, serpentine figure with a stubby pair of legs, a mismatched set of arms and two irregular protrusions at the top.

"No..."

The ebony eventually faded into his erratic color scheme as his body solidified properly, and he smiled wickedly at the stunned party.

"Girls, Matt!  So nice to see you again!"
> Chapter 22
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Over the last several months, long after he and the Elements seemingly defeated Discord once and for all, Matt had gradually mellowed out.  Without having something thrown at him every so often simply to fuel his anger and chaos-feeding abilities, it wasn't terribly difficult to go with the flow and make the best of his out-of-the-ordinary situation.

All of that fell apart in a heartbeat.

Snarling like a crazed animal, Matt stomped his way forward, unloading slug after slug at the renewed monster that tore him away from his home.  Each bullet hit its mark with Discord cringing and gripping at his strangely bloodless injuries in fake pain.

Matt pumped the shotgun, sending another cartridge flying past his face, and pulled the trigger once again.  Unfortunately, the last bullet was spent and he was too furious to go digging through his pockets for more rounds, choosing to wildly throw the gun at the entity, who dodged it with little effort.

As Matt's rage continued further off the charts, Discord simply laughed at his frustration.  The wounds sealed themselves shut, and the amused spirit forced the bullets up his throat, spitting them casually onto the rooftop.

"I must say, those things taste terrible," he quipped, only to find a sudden annoying pair of hands wrapped around his throat.

The enraged young man yanked his enemy down to scream at him face to face, squeezing as hard as his anger let him.  "You son of a bitch, you fucking bastard!  This just had to be you, didn't it?!  How?  How did you do it?!  How are you here?!  We beat you!  I threw you into fucking space!"

An effortless magical flick sent Matt flying back into the group end over end.  A fresh scrape burned his hand, but he was too incensed to care much.

Discord rose back into the air only to gasp at the group's newest member.  "Oh.  My.  Stars!  Rachel, is that you?  It is!"

Her jaw nearly hit the floor.  "Hon, how does that...thing know who Ah am?"

"That's the son of a bitch that brought me here in the first place and tried to kick me out of my own body."

"And I still know everything you knew up–"  A series of irate shots rang out from Rachel's handgun.  "Ugh, this again?  Put that away.  You're embarrassing yourself."

The Beretta left her grip and floated its way back into her pocket which was sealed with a zipper that wasn't there a second ago.  The evil spirit leaned in and smiled smugly right in her face.  For his trouble, she slugged him with everything she had square in the jaw, sending his head spinning around and around.  Rachel jumped back at the bizarre anatomy lesson.

"Ooohoohoohoo!  It really does make sense why you got together with her, Matt!" Discord chuckled as he grabbed his head and spat out Rachel's bullets.  "She is feisty!  Anyway, as I was saying – yes, I still know everything you did and were up until when you beat me, and vice versa, I'm willing to bet.  Now, how long have I been gone?" he asked as a newspaper popped into being in front of him.  "Oh my!  It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Matt had told the girls of that very thing more than once up until that day.  Twilight had offered to erase the experience from his mind, but Matt found the memories interesting in a strange way, plus it allowed him to see pieces of history before the original acquisition of the Elements of Harmony by Celestia and Luna, among other things.  The nightmares were an unfortunate side effect but one he could deal with.  Besides, he rather liked reminiscing over how he pummeled the entity into oblivion.

Still, he wasn't going to give Discord the satisfaction of being right.

"Answer my question:  How did you do this?!" Matt snarled as the paper disappeared.

"You also asked how I'm here."

"Fuck you!"

Laughing and curling himself around the group, he explained, "Silly little man!  I was born from chaos; I'm the physical manifestation of an intangible idea.  You can't get rid of me any more than you can the air you breath.  Though I will admit you came mighty close."

With a talon on his chin, the draconequus separated from the pack and skimmed over the massive buildings around them.  "As for how I'm doing all this though?"  Suddenly, a calender and quill appeared into view before his adversaries.  "You may want to mark this one down, because for once, I'm being completely honest when I say I didn't have anything to do with it."

"Oh, cut the bullshit!  You brought me here and now stuff from Earth's been popping up all over the place the same damn way!  Who else could have done this?!"

"Don't be stupid!  If I could've brought an entire city over here in the first place, why would I have wasted my time with only you?" Discord retaliated.

"Because this isn't exactly subtle!"

The chaos spirit paused.  Maybe Matt knew him better than he gave him credit for, memories or not.  Shrugging, he said, "Fair enough, but if I was going to throw subtlety out the window, I would've just put myself back together as soon as I was conscious again and stopped by Ponyville or Canterlot instead of waiting around here."

"What's your point?" Twilight growled.

"Once I was aware of where I was and what was going on and all that, I figured that Princess Celestia was sooner or later going to send her little goon squad to investigate, and no doubt she'd insist their prized pet go with them as a guide or something," Discord explained, poking his rival in the chest.  "But you're missing something far bigger than me simply sightseeing."

Sans a snap of his fingers, the entire group vanished and reappeared in the middle of the street below, much to the dizzied annoyance of Matt and Rachel.  The police patrolling the block and the clusters of reporters who camped out nearby jumped to their feet at the sudden sight of the monstrosity in front of them, murmuring in wonder and confusion.  The cluster of cars they appeared in the middle of made Discord feel a bit crowded, so, with a thought, the demigod parted the rows of vehicles like the Red Sea, nonchalantly sending them crashing into their metal brethren.

A voice shouted 'Open fire!' and the mares and their human friends ducked for cover as a hail of gunfire flew at the freak of nature.  

"Really?  We're doing this again?"

As he rolled his eyes, the assault rifles and sidearms ceased their loud voices and instead shot out confetti, streams of water, 'Bang!' flags, fake flowers and an assortment of other random things.  The cameras he allowed to keep filming.  He did have an image to show off, after all.  Cautiously, Matt and the others stood back up as the noise died down, still glaring at the villain.

"As you know, dear sir," Discord continued, "when I brought you here, I imprinted myself on you for three reasons.  One, to feed off you from a city away.  Two, to use you to call out for something to come get you after I figured I was finished with you, and three, to potentially use you against them if push came to shove."

"What did being a city away have to do with anything?" Rainbow Dash interrupted.

"Curious, are you even aware of how I managed to escape my stone prison before our first encounter?"

"Princess Celestia said she and Luna were no longer connected to the Elements of Harmony like they were when they first stopped you and you were able to break free," Twilight asserted.

"Correct, but it's more than that.  Did you know your bratty little sisters got into a fight near me and that little bit of chaos was enough for me to make that last push to freedom?"  The girls immediately knew who he was referring to, and as expected, Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were the most dumbstruck.  "No?  Really?  It's true.  I didn't even have to imprint on them either.  It just sort of happened!  Now, if I had dropped Matt into Canterlot instead of Ponyville, attaching myself to him to leech off him would have been redundant.  I don't need to be attached to somepony to be affected by the chaos they create – I just have to be close enough to them when they cause it."

Discord snapped his fingers with glee, and numerous city blocks lit up with the presence of what must have been thousands upon thousands of people crammed onto the streets like sardines.  Perhaps he summoned everyone who was still trapped somewhere in the city.  Screams of terror rippled through the air around them as they gradually recovered from their short bouts of vertigo.

"Look around, Matt," Discord instructed.  He wrapped an arm around the man's shoulder and got cheek to cheek with him.  "All these people?  I didn't attach myself to a single one.  Why would I need to?  I've been floating around just over their heads this entire time.  And how many of your kind are in this 'New York' place?  Millions?"  He uncoiled himself from around Matt, asking him a horrifying question.  "Surely you remember how powerful you alone made me, hmm?"

The terrible reminder made their stomachs drop and their eyes go wide.  Matt himself almost forgot how to breathe.

"You should have seen how much insanity and mayhem all these people caused those first few days before they were finally corralled into these buildings!  The fires, the overturned cars, the destroyed store fronts, the bodies they left in their wake – oh, it was glorious!  This isn't how my original plans were meant to go down, but I don't care in the slightest!  Somehow, I've been reborn stronger than I ever thought possible, and no one – not even me – has any idea how it all happened in the first place!"

He doubled over in laughter while the Elements, Matt and Rachel stood frozen in fear.  What were they supposed to do now?  Their jewelry didn't have any effect on him last time when he redirected its blast out of the way.  Would he even need to do so now if they were to fight back?  Any questions they may have had on their mind were cast to the side when Discord abruptly stopped laughing and glared menacingly at Matt.

"But I'm still salty over what you did to me," the spirit growled as he yanked his hated enemy over, a bright glow clinging to his body.  

"I-I don't suppose we can talk about th–yaaaah!"

"Matt!"

Before the mares could react, the terrified young man was whipped through the air and thrown viciously into a nearby car, denting the door so hard that the window shattered upon impact – payback for the savage beating he received so many months ago.

"NO!"

Before his broken body even collapsed onto the concrete, all Hell suddenly broke loose across the entire island.  The people, the vehicles, the buildings, everything around them began buzzing in and out, swallowed up in golden static.  Below their hooves, the streets almost appeared to be vanishing from underneath them.  While Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash took to the sky, the others stutter-stepped in place, afraid they were going to fall through the ground at any minute.  It only took a second for them to realize they were safe from that conundrum, if nothing else.

Everyone around the mares, including Rachel, were falling over one after another screaming in agony, clutching at their chests and stomachs as if they were being torn apart.  Even Discord stopped in his tracks, just as baffled at their surroundings.

"What's happening?!" Fluttershy screamed.

Applejack wasn't waiting for an answer.  She sprinted over to Matt with Rarity and Rainbow Dash a step behind her and skidded to a halt next to his unmoving, crumpled form.  He was barely breathing.  "Matt!  Matt!"

With their old friend being checked, Twilight, Pinkie and Fluttershy looked over Rachel.  The strange flickering made them hesitant to touch her.  They had no idea if something serious would happen to her if they did.

Before they could come to a decision on how to help the poor girl, something else just as bizarre stole their attention.  In the middle of the street, Discord had collapsed and was breaking apart as well, the pain on his face not just a gag this time.

As he struggled and hollered in anguish, he caught eyes with Twilight.  Only a moment ago, he was boasting about his return.  Now, it felt as if something was killing him all over again.  Though he didn't see them around the ponies' necks, if their leader had learned a spell to somehow summon the Elements of Harmony from wherever they may be, he could easily be in serious trouble despite his incalculable strength.  Whatever was doing this to him was leaving him vulnerable and open to attack.

He sat up on one knee, straining against the agony, and swung an arm at his enemies.  They vanished from in front of him and reappeared in the center of Ponyville after a brief moment, as far away from him as he could think to send them at such a time.  It took the girls a second to realize where they suddenly were, being too focused on Matt and Rachel.  The town hall and Carousel Boutique down the block gave it away.

A small crowd gathered around to gawk at the screaming woman and the unconscious savior of their town that randomly materialized in front of them.  But there wasn't any time to sit and chat and explain what happened with them; Matt and Rachel needed more help than even the magically-adept celestial student could give them.

Throwing caution to the wind, Twilight gently lifted Rachel into the air, pausing to make sure nothing crazy happened.  Somehow, despite looking as if her body was not completely in reality, she managed to stay in the unicorn's clutches.  Even more carefully, Twilight raised Matt overhead, doing everything she could to keep his body as still as possible.

"Get out of the way!  Move!" Rainbow Dash shouted as their audience parted.

Twilight and the others bolted in the direction of the Ponyville Hospital without saying a word.  Reattaching a few broken ribs when he first crashed into Sugarcube Corner was one thing.  She just knew by watching how hard Discord smashed him into that vehicle that this was a hundred times worse.

As they sprinted, they couldn't help but notice the few things they ran by that were alien to their world in the same state that Rachel was.  But they had bigger concerns and pushed on ahead.


-----


The seconds that went by may as well have been hours as they sat and paced and silently panicked while they sat in the lobby.  Hardly a word had been said among them after their friends disappeared into the heart of the facility.  Anything they did to try and help themselves relaxed was met with failure.

Outside, the moon had already been up for hours.  A few of them had started to nod off, too exhausted from all the emotional stress.  Their naps would be put on hold when a familiar golden-maned doctor opened the double doors in front of them and met their eyes.

"Would you like to see them?" he asked.

The six hopped off their seats, stretching their tired necks and spines, and followed the concerned physician.  Room after room they passed by as they walked down the long hallway.  Eventually, they were led to the recovery wing where they found Matt propped up on a smaller bed than he was used to sleeping on.

Most of his upper half was encased in a body cast and a brace was wrapped around his neck.  Wires and tubes connected him to a handful of pieces of hospital equipment that beeped slow and steadily.  He almost looked like some sort of monster from a horror movie.  In the corner, Rachel was sprawled out in a chair with a leg draped over one of its arms.  Both were fast asleep, but only she woke up when she heard the chorus of hoofsteps against the tile floor.  She rubbed her weary eyes and sat up straight.  If given the chance, she could have probably slept for a week.

"How are you feeling?" Fluttershy asked.

Rachel didn't answer, choosing to look past the mares and at her unconscious lover.  She stood, cracking her back, and dragged the chair to his bedside.  She took his unresponsive hand in her own as she sat back down.

"Ah see him for the first time in what feels like forever, and in less than a day, some freak son of a bitch nearly kills him.  How do ya think Ah'm feelin'?"

The Elements averted their eyes and shrank away.

"A-Ah'm sorry," Rachel sighed.  "Ah know what you were askin'.  Ah'm okay...physically, at least."

"How's he?"

"Ladies?" the medic spoke up.  "If I could speak to you outside, please?"

"Excuse us," Twilight said.  Rachel ignored them as they left.  The door glowed deep blue once they all were in the hall and quietly shut behind them.  "Tell us you have some good news, doctor."

He curled his lips and looked away sadly.  "It's...hard to say.  I haven't seen anypony's body in such a state in a long, long time."

"How bad are you talking?" Applejack whimpered.

With a sigh, he went down the list.  "Most of his vertebrae were seriously damaged, and he has extensive nerve damage up and down his spinal column on top of that.  Several of his ribs were in pieces, and he was lucky that none of them managed to pierce either of his lungs.  He sustained a few minor fractures to his skull, but fortunately none of them were so bad that he had started to bleed internally.  If they did, he probably wouldn't be laying in there right now.  His shoulder blades fractured, both of his arms dislocated... We did everything we could using our medicinal magics, but there's only so much they can do."

"So what now?"

"Well, we managed to stabilize him a few hours ago, finally.  As you saw, he's unconscious.  His vitals aren't bad considering his condition, but who knows how long they'll stay that way?  We may need to get in there and fix him up manually, but we can't make that call until we see how much good the magic does over the next couple days."  The doctor turned and faced the door to Matt's chamber, the other patient on his mind.  "There's something else I wanted to tell you, too – involving Rachel."

"What is it?" Twilight asked.  "Is she alright?"

"I'm...not sure.  I think so.  It was strange.  When you brought her in here, she was...all fuzzy and...I don't really know how to describe it.  I've never seen anything like it, well, ever."

"That part we're aware of," Rarity interjected.  "What happened later?"

"Yes, right.  Anyway, we eventually decided to bring her into the, err...the maternity ward.  She had been screaming for hours and was disturbing many of the other patients.  The maternity ward is kind of used to screams like that and we needed to try and diagnose her, run some tests, things like that.  However, due to her...unusual condition, we were afraid to touch her or use any magic on her."

"So why does she seem normal now?" Fluttershy asked.

"That's the strange part.  According to their charts, she appeared to stabilize very soon after he did.  The poor girl had passed out long before then thanks to whatever it was that had her screaming for so long.  When we finally were able to administer a few tests, we found that she was perfectly fine aside from some exhaustion.  We still don't have any idea what caused them both to stabilize at roughly the same time."

"Could just be a coincidence," the farmer suggested.

The doctor replied with a shrug, "Maybe.  Either way, we're at a loss.  But, after she came to, she demanded to see your friend, so we brought her down here.  She's been sitting in there ever since.  One thing I'm especially curious about though – where did she come from?  I'm aware of who brought Matt here thanks to that newspaper article last year.  From what I understand, you all managed to get rid of him for good, yes?  Does her presence mean...?"

The girls shared a defeated look.  So much for being Equestria's protectors.  "I'm afraid so," Twilight whispered.

"...Oh dear."

"He claims he didn't have anything to do with it, but considering who's saying it, there's no reason to believe him.  Just promise me that you won't say anything.  It's probably inevitable that he's going to show up here in Ponyville, but if we can delay having a panic on our hooves until we can figure out how to fight him off again..."

"O-Of course.  Is...he what happened to Matt?"  They nodded their heads.

"Twilight," Fluttershy spoke up, "it's probably not a bad idea to let Princess Celestia and Princess Luna know what's going on.  I have a feeling we're going to need their help more than ever if what you-know-who said was actually true."

"I will.  We should probably talk about what all we can do ourselves back at the library too."

"We're going to be keeping an extra eye on him in the meantime.  It's been past visiting hours for a little while, but considering who you all are and the condition he was in when you arrived here, we figured it was alright for you to stay a little longer," the doctor explained.  "Still, we're going to need to space to work and I'm sure you want to head home."

"Not really.  What if he–"

"I'll have our fastest pegasus on standby for you if things take a turn for the worse.  You're going to have to bring Rachel with you though.  I know she'll want to stay too, but there's nothing wrong with her, and like I said, we'll need the room."

With a sigh and a nod, Twilight cracked open the door and peered inside.  Rachel hadn't moved.  Rainbow Dash, taking to the air, pushed the door ajar and glided inside with her companions right behind her.  The young woman didn't respond as they approached her.

"Rachel, we need to be going," Twilight whispered.

"Ah'm stayin'."

"I'm afraid we really can't allow that, Miss," the doctor said.  "I understand why you wouldn't wish to go, but we need to room to work.  Matt has told us before about the hospitals on your world.  Surely they have similar rules in place."

She didn't reply but understood his point.  It was unlikely her stubborn streak was going to win in this battle of wills, but that wouldn't stop her from trying.

"Rachel, you're in good hooves with these ponies, I assure you.  I've also already promised to notify them immediately if anything happens here."  He stepped up to the heartbroken girl and rested a hoof on her shoulder.  "We'll do everything in our power to help him.  You have my word."

She looked over at Matt's face and followed the tubes to the apparatuses keeping him going.  A lonely tear trickled down her cheek as the machinery sang their songs.

"Will Ah be able to see him tomorrow?"

"And every other day after that, yes."

She rubbed her tired, watery eyes.  It wasn't going to be of any use.  The doctor wasn't going to budge, and this was their city – their world – no matter how familiar it felt.  At least Matt was still alive, and the times that she was awake in his room, the monitors seemed to indicate that his vitals were steady, just like everyone who came in to check on him said.

The physicians and nurses she talked to had briefly explained their healing magics, much of which she couldn't understand.  She still had next to no idea how these talking horses had magic or how it worked, but she had no choice but to trust in them.  The purple one had shown a few demonstrations the night before at the Waldorf, so if it could do things humans could but only easier or even better – including mending injuries – what else could she do?

Never mind the fact that she was completely drained of strength and the chair she had nodded off in was horrendously uncomfortable.  Plus, it was unlikely at this point that the hospital would allow her to crash in one of the vacant rooms.

"Alright," Rachel sighed, squeezing Matt's hand one last time before standing up.

"Thank you, Miss, we appreciate it.  I'm sure you'll all come as well?" the doctor asked the group, receiving affirmative replies all around.  "Very good.  I'll escort you out."


-----


There was hardly anything going on around town as the Elements walked Rachel to the only place that made sense to bring her – Matt's house.  As they went, the new Ponyville guest received a few curious looks albeit brief ones.  If the citizenry hadn't been used to seeing Matt for so long, they probably would have been more nervous.

Fortunately, nopony stopped to ask who she was and simply minded their own business.  The woman's misery was written all over her face, and they felt it best to just leave her be lest they inadvertently make things worse by asking her about it.

Rachel barely said a word as they walked, mostly nodding or mumbling the occasional 'uh huh' when the girls told her that they'd help in her any way that they could while she was in Equestria.  If she was forced to stay any significant amount of time, they would need to show her a few things in town or assist her with various chores like getting groceries and the like.  It would likely be similar to what they did for Matt when his presence was finally revealed to Ponyville.

After a while, they arrived at his quaint little home within sight of the library.  Like most of the houses in Ponyville, it was unlocked, even while they had traveled north.  Rarely having to worry about burglary was a nice perk of living in a small town, and the townsponies respected Matt too much to think about breaking into his home.

"Well, this is his place," Twilight said, opening the door for Rachel and flicking on the light.  They stepped inside to the usual, simple decor.  "It's not terribly large, but he never bothered to buy too much stuff.  Did you want us to show you around?"

"No thanks.  All Ah really wanna do is pass out."

"Alright.  We'll stop by to pick you up about lunchtime, take you to get something to eat, if that's okay?"

"Yeah," the melancholy young lady muttered.

The unicorn gently set a hoof on Rachel's arm though it garnered no reaction from their new human friend.  "He'll be alright.  He told you how much he went through when he first came here last night, and he always turned out fine before.  They're good doctors.  We know he'll be okay this time too."

Whether or not Twilight reached her was up for debate.  Rachel just stood there silently in the entranceway, cold and numb.

"Well, if you don't need anything, we'll let you be.  There's a lot we need to do back at my place.  If you want something – anything at all – just say the word.  Sleep well, okay?"

With heavy hearts, they filed out one by one and left Rachel to her own devices.  Applejack was the last to leave, taking a moment to gaze sadly at the girl and making a decision for tomorrow.

It took Rachel a few minutes to even turn the living room lights off and march on ahead into the residence.  To her right, she saw the kitchen and dining area, visible thanks to moonlight sneaking in a window.  She wasn't interested in the least despite how her stomach was fussing.  The hall to the left must have gone to the bedroom.

Her assumptions were correct.  The full size bed greeted her, still messy from when Matt slept in it last.  She slipped off her shoes and tossed them by the nearby nightstand.  With the last of her energy, she crawled under the covers and tried to get comfortable, but getting her mind to turn off was a challenge unto itself.  Amid her tossing and turning, she snatched one of the two pillows in her arms and squeezed it tightly.  A short time later, her muffled crying ceased and she drifted off to sleep.
> Chapter 23
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rachel buried her head under the pillow when the morning sun crept in through the blinds and hit her.  She tried desperately to fall back asleep, but the chilly morning and the annoying light wouldn't let her.  She groaned as she sat up and wiped her eyes clean.  She got her first look around the simple bedroom where little more than a nightstand, a bed, a mirror and a small dresser sat.

It may have been a bit late in the morning when the sun eventually reached the right spot to wake her – a little past eight – but she looked and felt half dead.  Sleep didn't exactly come easy to her that night.  The last time she felt so terrible in the morning was the day after Matt had been officially determined to have gone missing.  The shower she finally managed to take after slogging out of bed didn't do much for her, just like it failed to so long ago.

After finishing drying herself off and dragging herself through something only partially resembling a morning routine, Rachel realized after briefly searching the house for her backpack that the only things that monster-thing sent her away with were what she was wearing and what was in her pockets.  She must have been in another world last night, but thinking straight wasn't really on the table for her the entirety of yesterday.  The lack of clothes itself wasn't anything tragic, as she had worn Matt's clothes before.  Still, it was mildly irritating.  At least he had a couple belts to choose from to keep his shorts from sliding off her.

Before she left the room, she got a good look at herself in the mirror and all she could see in Matt's shirt was him, his arms wrapped around her and holding her close.  For a moment, she almost swore she could smell him with her.  She hugged herself and slowly slinked away into the living room.  A distraction was sorely needed and she didn't really take any time to look around the previous night.  Maybe she'd find something inside.

Unfortunately, Matt's living room was only slightly less barren than his bedroom.  His half-empty bookcase didn't appeal to her.  The desk by the window had some papers on it, and the calendar sitting underneath them was clean save for a few days noted with times and what may have been names.  With names like Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, it was a reasonable notion.

Her angry stomach led her to the kitchen.  Okay, sure, making some food could help take her mind off things.  A search of the pantry revealed some coffee, and she definitely go for a cup or three.  It was a little strange seeing a coffee maker sitting on the counter considering what Matt had told her about Equestria.  It just seemed to be a century behind her home technologically in some areas but not in others.  She shrugged it off and checked the fridge. Several kinds of drinks, a pizza box – it certainly felt like his old place.  There wasn't much else to choose from, and she wasn't in the mood for the few fruits and vegetables that sat in the chill drawers.  Matt's breadbox was keeping some muffins fresh, so she opted for a couple with some butter.  At least he had a toaster to make one process easy.

When breakfast was ready, Rachel carted them into the living room, set them on the coffee table and dropped onto the couch.  While she might have been hungry, the knot in her stomach kept her from enjoying the food, and the lack of things for her to do to kept allowing her to fall back into a state of misery.

The clock beside the couch read a few minutes before ten.  Shouldn't it be after noon by now?  As if things couldn't drag any slower.

A knock on the door rang out as Rachel took a sip of coffee.  She figured it was Matt's friends, but it was a bit early for lunch.  Perhaps they were there to help get her better acquainted with the town while they waited for him to recover like they said they would?

Rachel's assumption would be tested as she found the orange one standing alone in the doorway.

"Oh, err, hi...Applejack, right?  Ah'm sorry, Ah'm...kinda bad with names sometimes."

"It's alright.  You've been through a lot the last couple days.  And, y-yes, that's my name."

"Where are your friends?" Rachel asked as she looked around.

"I just thought I'd stop by a little early.  I honestly kind of expected Twilight to already be here.  I mean, she lives right over there, right?" Applejack quipped, nodding at the nearby library.

"Ah guess so."  With a nod of her own, Rachel invited the cowpony in and shut the door behind her.

Applejack approached one of the chairs at the center of the room, but paused to look around before taking a seat.  Not seeing Matt hanging out and chatting and sometimes being ridiculous almost made it feel like she was in the wrong house.  Her ears slumped as she took in the quiet, foreign atmosphere, remembering days that didn't involve demigods and general insanity.

"Some night last night, huh?" A.J. muttered.

"Yeah," Rachel sighed.

The pair sat in silence briefly, lost in thought.  Making small talk with a romantic rival was harder than the mare anticipated.  Though it wasn't as if she had experience having a rival not related to something athletic.

"So...how'd you sleep?"

"Didn't really."

"Yeah, me neither."

More awkward silence.  Rachel re-broke the ice, biting her lip.

"Ya think...ya think he'll be okay?"

Now that had an answer she knew.  She replied with a smirk, "Yeah...yeah, I do.  Matt's been through, um...some interesting things since he's been here.  Heck, he told you back at that hotel about that big cat we had to deal with a few weeks ago."  The cowpony cringed at the worst part of the story, wishing she could erase the memory of a river of blood gushing from the side of his head.  "I hadn't seen him look so awful in a long, long time.  But, the doctors are real good and he's a tough bronco himself, despite being a little...mmm, I'll say off his rocker sometimes."

"What do ya mean?"

"You remember those things Matt told you about called the Elements of Harmony?"

"A little.  Refresh my memory?"

"Course.  Me and my friends are connected to these ancient artifacts that allow us to tap into some powerful magic somehow.  We've had them for a couple years now and I still don't understand how it all works.  That's Twilight's job," she chuckled.  "Anyway, we've been through some pretty nasty situations that required us to use them – and a bunch where we didn't – and we've always come out okay.  I know we could've handled that lion or whatever, but Matt insisted we stay out of harm's way.  He's done that kind of thing more than once.  He figures that if one of us, well, kicks the bucket that we wouldn't be able to use them.  He may be right, but still."  Applejack's orange cheeks turned a rosy red.  "I ended up yelling at him about it a couple times.  It's nice that he's protective of us and all, but I think he goes a little too far sometimes."

Rachel laughed to herself.  "That sounds like him.  Those first couple years we were datin', we got thrown out of more than one bar and other places thanks to him.  He'd get all up in a guy's face if he thought they were hittin' on me or somethin'.  Ah had to tell him to knock that shit off from time to time too.  Ah'm honestly kinda surprised that temper of his didn't get him into more trouble."

"Funny enough, he seemed to calm down quite a bit after he got the best of Discord last time."  Applejack pondered why for a second and shrugged.  "Maybe it's because, like, he kicked the guy's flank that screwed his life up and felt vindicated after that?  Who knows."

"Maybe.  Just accepted what he had and where he was.  Y'all did say ya couldn't find any way to send him back, so..."

"Yeah."  The apple farmer's eyes drifted around the room and landed on a familiar framed clipping.  "Y'know, if you want to talk surviving crazy odds, every time I've stopped by here and looked at that picture on his wall, I still can't figure out how he managed to crawl out of that monster, even after he told us."

"What do ya mean?"

"You saw that newspaper article on the wall, right?"

"Actually, Ah hadn't really noticed it.  What is it?" Rachel asked as she and her rival got to their feet.

"Remember when he told you about that mountain-sized star bear thing?"

"Mhm.  Thought he was just telling a joke or something, it sounded so crazy."  She gently pulled the frame from its setting and removed the folded paper, skimming briefly over the article.  "Didn't y'all try to stop him?"

Ashamed, Applejack shifted her gaze away from Rachel's accusing eyes.  "He...didn't tell us anything.  He asked us to get some things he needed, but the only one he said anything to was Twilight and that was after we gathered what he asked for.  She didn't want to do it, but Matt wasn't budging.  We wouldn't have either though if he had said anything to the rest of us, but that's probably why he didn't – he knew we would have tried to stop him.  But we owe him our lives...our town.  Needless to say, he's...pretty special to us."

The country mare's tone changed and she held her head up high, proud and confident.  "When Twilight found him hanging out of that thing's mouth after he killed it and dragged him out of there, he was in bad shape.  But we didn't give up on him and he pulled through.  I can promise you we ain't gonna give up on him now."

They shared a smile.

"Me either," Rachel said.  She nodded curiously at the small, empty plaque just above where the frame hung.  "What's this?"

"He held onto the knives he used.  When that mountain lion showed up, he asked Twilight to pop over here and get them for him.  Whoever took the cat's body away must've taken his knives too.  Unfortunately, we don't know who took them or where.  It's a shame, really.  I can understand why he'd want to hold onto 'em.  Now it's almost like a part of him is gone."

"Yeah."  The young woman's content smile faded, replaced with one of sadness.  "Y'know, Ah...Ah never really thanked y'all for lookin' after him with everything that's happened...keeping him safe."

Applejack joined her in glumness and sighed.  "I just wish we could've done so this time."


-----


Eleven long days went by while Rachel became a bit more accustomed to the quiet, small, equine town with help from Matt's friends.  They had no problem paying for what she needed and introduced her to some of the ways to pass the time.  In a way, it was reminiscent to them of how they looked out for Matt when he first came to Equestria.

Over those eleven days, the party made eleven visits to the hospital.  There had been little change in Matt's condition.  His vitals were still there and he was doing alright, but that was about as far as it went.

Aside from a couple more new and harmless additions to Ponyville from Earth, there hadn't been anything out of the ordinary.  Mercifully, there hadn't been any sign of Discord either.  The Elements figured it was only a matter of time and had alerted the Princesses about what happened.  For what little good it would probably do, Celestia and Luna tripled the number of guards throughout Canterlot in case he decided to show up.  Sleep for them suddenly became a thing of the past.

Celestia also left the Elements of Harmony with Twilight and her friends just in case.  They were never seen without them on, and the six mares spent most of their time together in preparation for the worst.  Still, they worried that the relics wouldn't be enough as they were ineffective last time.

It had gotten late on that eleventh day with the moon halfway in the sky, and Rachel and the girls had left the hospital a few hours prior.  When she wasn't thinking of Matt while she sat in his home, the dreadful boredom was most days fairly overpowering to young woman.  How he managed to cope for so long without all their little electronics and gadgets baffled her.  Though she didn't know it at first, a knock at the door at such a strange hour would be the thing that cured what was ailing her.  A turquoise pegasus greeted her with some good news and would be off to six other places after delivering it.


-----


If it wasn't so late the night before and far after visiting hours, Matt would have been bombarded by a group of relieved friends.  The staff at the hospital would probably have still been reluctant to let them stop by and see him since one of the first things they did when he woke up was run some tests.  He was understandably weak, but they found everything to be as good as they could be given what he went through.  His bones, having been shattered so badly, hadn't been completely repaired by the doctors' healing magics just yet, so removing the numerous casts was out of the question.  Whether or not there was any permanent damage remained to be seen.  At least he got a lovely morphine drip.

Three more days with numerous, irritating tests crawled by with Matt showing very gradual signs of improvement.  Obviously, he felt his best when his favorite girls stopped by to say hello.  It was lucky he was able to get any better with Pinkie jumping on his chest to give him a hug every day despite being told to stop doing that.  When they weren't around, he usually slept.  Without even being able to turn his head to look out the window or space out with a television on, there wasn't anything for him to do.  He was offered the radio, but to be honest, he wasn't the biggest fan of most popular Equestrian music.

The following afternoon, it was business as usual with only a little over an hour of visiting time left.  During their stays, doctors and nurses would come and go, see if he needed anything, and inform everyone of any changes.  With all eyes on him, the sound of somepony entering the room and grabbing his charts didn't get their attention.  A voice did.

"Oh my my my, that doesn't look good at all."

They spun around in horror to see Nurse Discord skimming over the information.

"You!" Rachel snarled.

Despite the cramped quarters, she leapt to her feet and grabbed her chair, intent on smashing his head in.  A snap of his finger stopped everyone in their tracks.  Once he finished reading, he replaced the chart and walked up to the most helpless – but by far his angriest – of his victims.

"So, how are you feeling, Matt?  You've certainly looked better.  But today's your lucky day!  You're being released!"

The traction and bandages were replaced with the clothes he was wearing in New York, dropping him onto the soft mattress.  Half of Matt's vertebrae felt like they broke all over again from the short fall.  His painful hollering could be heard through half the hospital.  A steady chorus of approaching, stomping hooves made Discord raise a wall out of the floor and block off the doorway – not that anypony in the facility would have been able to do anything anyway.  He just wanted to amuse himself without interruption.

Matt's cries made the spirit gasp.  He almost seemed to have a look of genuine concern on his face.  "I'm so, so sorry, pumpkin.  Let me fix that."

His friends started to panic as Matt was gently lifted off the bed and a glow overcame him.  Little by little, the agony subsided and eventually disappeared, leaving Matt and everyone else perplexed.  Discord's eyes shimmered white and he glanced over every inch of his enemy's form, double checking his work.  His brilliant eyes shifted yellow in color and he stared intently at Matt's chest.  With a curious rub of his chin, the monster set the man on his feet, feeling as normal as can be.  None of the pain was there and he could move all his limbs without a problem.

Matt jumped away, into his group of still-immobile companions, nervous but ready for an attack of some kind that just never came.  If only the rest of them could help do...something, anything – if it would even matter!

"What the hell do you still want with me?!  You fed off all those people!  Just leave me the fuck alone!" he screamed at the monster.

"I just need to check one little thing first, okay?"

With a thought, the contents of the room vanished and in the center appeared a shallow pool of water.  Without warning, Discord grabbed the back of Matt's neck and forced his head under.  Matt kicked and twisted and fought but couldn't get free as he rapidly started losing air.  Eventually, his body slowed and twitched.

"Stop it!"

"You're killing him!"

"Let go of him, you bastard!"

As he began to drown, Rachel suddenly started screaming.  Her body was glowing gold and fading in and out of reality as it was before.  It caught everyone by surprise save for Discord.  A few seconds later, he started to do the same.

After fighting off the agony he was in for as long as possible, the menace yanked Matt out of the water and collapsed to all fours, breathing hard and clutching his chest.  The man hacked up what felt like a lung's worth of liquid.  It took a moment for everyone to recover, but Discord was first to his hooves.

"You...y-you s-s-son of a bitch!" Matt wheezed.

"Just as I thought.  Anyway, relax, sonny boy.  Allow me."  In a flash, his heart rate was restored and any lingering fluids were taken out.  That didn't stop his shaking, but it would do.  "There we are.  Right as rain again!"

Did Matt ever want to take a swing, no matter ineffective it'd be!

"Now, if you don't mind, girls, I need to step up to the plate and take charge of this simply awful situation you've all put him in," Discord continued.

"Us?!  You're the one who nearly killed him, you maniac!" Applejack shouted.

"You can't see the danger he's still in?  No matter.  I've got the perfect place set up for him to make sure he's out of harm's way once and for all.  Toodles!"

And in a puff of light, Matt and Discord disappeared.  With their enemy gone to who knows where, the girls were able to move again and the barricade in the doorway went away.  Rachel fell to her knees, frozen in disbelief after watching Matt be taken away yet again, this time right in front of her.

"Wh-what happened?!  Where'd they go?!"

"Matt!  Matt!"

"Can you hear us?!"

"Where are you?!"

"Matt!"
> Chapter 24
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a burst of light, Discord and Matt materialized in a new yet familiar-looking room.  As per usual, Matt stumbled and nearly fell over due to the teleportation, but before he could crash onto the floor, a yellow glow snagged him halfway down and held him in place.  Instead of a bout of expected pain or violence, the nervous human found himself floating gently like on a cloud and laid on a strangely comfortable bed.  He looked around and saw what would have passed for a decent sized studio apartment, complete with all the amenities – a small full kitchen, a dresser, a cushy-looking chair and small table with a computer sitting on it, even a TV with what looked to be several various gaming consoles sitting around it.  What was Discord up to this time?

The demigod grinned and spread welcoming arms.  "Well?  What do you think?"

"Put me back!" Matt snarled as he climbed off the bed and got nose to nose with his enemy.

"Don't you like your new place?  It's got all the creature comforts of your old home, and I should know what they are."

"Drop dead!"

Discord raised a dramatic paw to his forehead, worthy of an acting award.  "Oh dear.  All my hard work to make everything just right and he doesn't like it.  I suppose you should just be rid of me once and for all then, for I am such a failure!"

A snap of his fingers summoned the same shotgun Matt fired during their last encounter and he let the confused young man take it.  A few bullets followed suit and made their own way into the chamber.  Though it did nothing the last time, Matt wasn't about to pass up a chance to fire away at him again.  Baring his teeth, he aimed the barrel straight between Discord's amused eyes and pulled the trigger.  A blast rang out and left the maniac's head split into pieces.  After a brief moment, he chuckled and put himself back together, not even so much as leaving a stain on the wall.

"Y'know, if I was like you, that probably would've hurt.  Would you like to know what it feels like?"

Before he could react, Discord snatched the firearm and spun it back around at its owner.  He smiled maliciously as Matt shrunk back.  Just because the gun didn't do much for him didn't mean the same would happen in Discord's magical hands.  Why exactly the monster felt the need to use a weapon that was beneath him wasn't a question Matt cared to ask himself.

"Bang!"

Instead of being taken by nothingness, however, Matt was sprayed with several streams of harmless water.  His sudden, warranted display of fear left Discord to laugh some more.  The annoyance that came with being wet for no good reason only made him crack up harder.

"Oh, that look!"

"Goddammit, what the hell do you still want with me?!  You can't get anything more out of me than you can from someone else now that a fucking city is here!"

"You're absolutely right, Matt.  But that doesn't mean I can't give my best pal the life in Equestria he truly deserves."

"B...best pal?" he sputtered.  "A-are you high?  Are you a fucking idiot?  Why in God's name do you think I'd want to be friends with you?"

Discord swung around him and curled an arm across his shoulders, squeezing him tightly.  "I'm giving you things here out of the kindness of my heart that you haven't played around with since you came here.  Anything you want is just a thought away in this place!"  He stretched his arms over to the empty fridge and threw it open, pulling out a random assortment of mostly unhealthy but still delicious food.  "Some macaroni and cheese made just the way you always liked it?  Chicken parmigiana?  A bacon double cheeseburger?  How about some Mountain Dew or Cherry Coke or something, hmm?  Perhaps we could be drinking buddies if it came right down to it.  Heck, if you want to cook something up for yourself, anything you can think of that you may need will pop up in here, perfectly fresh."

His numerous limbs put the grub back and swung over to the top drawer of the dresser across from the bed.  "What about these?  Some of your favorite titles?"  Each time he yanked the drawer open, a new set of cartridges and game CDs appeared.  He recognized all of the names he saw.  "Granted, you won't be able to play any of those...oh, what do you call it?...online things, but surely that's not that big a deal, no?  Oh, and don't you fret over how this little pad has electricity and plumbing.  I've got it covered."

"How do you know about all this anyway?"

The trickster tapped at his own forehead and then his rival's.  "Remember?"

Ugh, that's right.  He could kick himself for his sudden absentmindedness.

"It gets better though.  Check this out!"

On Discord's command, a fork made its way out of one of the kitchen drawers and into Matt's hand.  The room's night stand graciously slid out of the way to expose an electrical socket.  Magic took control of the utensil and dragged its wielder straight for the dangerous opening.  No matter how hard Matt tried to combat it, he couldn't release it or stop himself from being pulled along.  Just as the prongs were about to drive themselves into the hazard, the plastic face ducked and dodged and raced around the wall, aggressively avoiding being stabbed at every turn.  The fork suddenly vanished, making the socket zip back into place.

"Or how about this?"

The television took flight and launched itself into Matt's head with the consistency of a feather-soft pillow.  After a merciless beating, Discord set it back on the dresser, solid as it was supposed to be.

"Would you like me to throw you against the wall or drop you head first onto the bathtub faucet inside?"

"I think.  I get.  The point," Matt droned.  "You still didn't answer why you still want me around."

Discord gasped and slapped his hands to his cheeks.  "Indeed!  Tell you what.  You see the door right over there, yes?  You can leave now and go back to your friends and I won't bother you again.  But if you decide you simply love it here and wish to stay instead, I'll fill you in."

Matt glared right through the spirit, figuring he was up to something as always.  Still, what if snatching him away was just another part of a stupid, unpredictable game that was simply meant to annoy him and the girls?  He spied the door across the room out of the corner of his eye but quickly darted back to Discord.  The amused megalomaniac floated overhead, relaxing in an invisible hammock.

Taking a chance, Matt crept toward freedom, always making sure to keep a watchful eye on his enemy.  His shoulder eventually bumped into the door and he fumbled around for the knob.  Once he found it, he paused to take one last look at the strangely calm draconequus who swayed a lazy leg back and forth and waved goodbye.  With a final smirk, Matt threw open the door and charged into...

...the same doorway all over again.  From across the room, Discord said, "You can leave any time you want, bucko."

Matt blinked and spun around.  There sat his foe too.  It sank in quickly what was going on.  Sighing in defeat, the young man miserably closed the door and stepped back inside.  The demigod dismounted from his perch and twirled around the broken soul.

"Oh, you chose me!  You really didn't have to but you did anyway!  That simply warms my heart!"

"Go fuck yourself."

"Now, now.  Don't make me wash your mouth out," Discord joked, a bar of soap suddenly in hand.  "But first, I'll show you what's going on.  It took a little bit of effort and putting a few pieces together, but I managed to figure it out."

A snap of his talons seemingly transported the pair across the cosmos.  The room had flashed and left the Earth before them with all the stars and the moon in familiar positions.  It took a moment, but Matt eventually realized that he was still breathing and not becoming a human ice cube.  Must have been either an illusion or a memory or something.

"It wasn't hard for me to find your old home, Matt," Discord began, conjuring a map.  "I simply recalled the directions that little bit of me went when I first began this whole hullabaloo all those months ago.  It took a little while to get there, even knowing where it was.  Anyway, I sat on its moon and looked and looked and looked and nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

"Then I thought, 'What if I'm simply not looking at this the right way?'.  I tweaked my vision ever so much and found a most interesting magical...accident."

Matt's eyes joined Discord's in glowing a deep shade of yellow, revealing an enormous whirlpool of similar color spiraling in Earth's orbit, hidden in plain sight.  Several tendrils snaked toward the surface, no doubt plucking up random objects, people or places and sending them to his new home.

"What the hell is this?" Matt asked.  "A-and how is this even here?  They blasted your ass away when you were in me, so how could you have done this?  I know I didn't throw you in Earth's direction."

A claw rested gently on his shoulder.  "Sonny-boy, you know what magic is like better than just about anyone.  You learned from the best after all, right?"

"What are you getting at?"

"Some ponies believe that magic is all about the wielder, that magic itself isn't inherently harmonious or chaotic, good or evil, all that jazz – and in most instances, they're right."

"I already know that.  So what?" Matt snapped.

"Two things.  First, some spells, once cast, are designed to maintain themselves on their own.  Do you happen to know any like that?" Discord retorted.

He hunted through memories of things and ponies around Ponyville, around Canterlot.  Aside from some basic levitation, there wasn't that much magic that many ponies did other than Twilight.  He thought of objects large and small, buildings, food, animals, the weather, the...

"Tank," he mumbled.

"Rainbow Dash's pet?  What about him?"

"His...propeller that lets him fly around.  It...it moves on its own."

"An astute observation!"  Discord extended his fuzzy beige arm at the vortex.  "As with your friend's little turtle, this is acting on its own volition; I had nothing to do with it – not entirely directly, at least."

"Well, if not you, then what?"

"I know you remember the spell I used to bring you here in the first place, Matt.  I know you're aware that I had never cast it before, which brings me to my second point, one that, again, you already know," the spirit said, wiggling a pair of fingers in his face.  "Some spells, when cast or tested for the first time, can have some...unusual and unexpected side effects.  Heck, you read about some of them while you were still living in Twilight's library.  Oh, the things that Starswirl the Bearded went through back in his heyday, hahaha!

"It gets even better though!  You're probably wondering what this all has you."

"Wow, for once, we're on the same page," Matt growled.

Once again, their surroundings changed to a memory that Discord would prefer to forget.  Frozen in time stood Matt a moment before being hit by the Elements of Harmony while fighting a certain would-be body snatcher.  The two approached past Matt, his chest shining brightly to them.

"Do me a favor.  Rewind this back a few extra minutes.  It's my favorite part," the young man snapped, grinning sarcastically.

"Watch yourself, kiddo.  A broken leg won't set everything off again.  Of that I can assure you," Discord fired back.  His rival quickly shut his mouth and went back to paying attention.  "See that glow?"

"That had to have been you.  So what?"

"So it's me, huh?  Let's watch and find out."

The scene unfolded, moving at twice the normal speed until it reached the old Matt laying on the ground with his blade by his side.  Strangely, there was still a miniscule shine emanating from his heart.  It was almost difficult to spot at first, but with his visuals having been slightly altered, Matt could see it clear as day once he found it.  For fun, Discord poked and poked at the image.

"But I don't get it.  What the hell is it then?" Matt asked.

"I wondered that at first too when I checked this out before.  If that was me, why didn't the Elements get rid of it?  After all, I was able to toss aside their little rainbow of doom before this.  Surely all that power I had would have been able to stand up to them even if I hadn't, regardless of the fact that you had a hand or two in taking me down.  But that's when it hit me, how magic can be unpredictable and all!  From what I could piece together, I wasn't the only thing that latched onto you when you were brought here.  The side effect that created that hole in reality must have sunk its teeth into you too and grew stronger over time until when you got 'harmonized'."

Matt blinked, still confused at the wild explanation.  His brow furrowed and he glared at the demigod again.  "Let's say you're telling the truth.  How did the Elements not bitch-slap it out of me then?"

"Like I said, magic is all about the wielder's intentions, but when the magic itself takes on a life of its own, it's not good or evil.  The Elements may have had a passing effect only because it took a moment for their magic to understand that what was a part of you at that point was neutral.  Trust me, I know more about those little artifacts than anypony, even Celestia and Luna.  They're nearly as old as Equestria itself – just like me – and the Princesses haven't been around forever."

"Yeah, and you've been blasted by them more than once, if I recall correctly," Matt added, poking Discord's forehead and then his own.

"Eh heh heh heh."

Despite his deliberate pushing of buttons, however, Matt was starting to believe the madman.  There were still a couple things he needed answered though.  He began to stutter, giving himself away and leaving him right where Discord wanted him – afraid.

"Okay, um...but...but why now?  W-why didn't that thing start bringing other shit here until recently?"

"Bringing you alone was easy.  That magic was trying to build a superhighway across the galaxy big enough to transport things a little bigger than a single person.  You don't honestly think it would take a weekend, do you?" the spirit chuckled.  "It would have gotten started if a certain group of ponies hadn't blown up the bridge and left it to start over from scratch."

"But...um...Celestia and Luna, they...they looked me over.  They–"

"Ah yes."  The scene changed once more.  The Princesses flanked Matt on either side, their long horns glowing as they scanned over him like they would with a metal detector wand at an airport.  A few feet away, six tense mares watched and waited for the results.

"Any sign of him, sister?" Luna asked.

"I haven't found any.  He certainly appears to be gone."

"And from what you all have described, he could very well be gone gone."

"It's possible," Celestia said apprehensively.  "We should still keep on guard though, just in case.  He's always been quite crafty."

"So, I get a clean bill of health?" the former Matt asked.

The alicorns deactivated their horns and smiled proudly at the hero.  "It looks to be that way," Luna beamed.

"Woohoo!  Then you know what this calls for!" Pinkie cheered.

The illusion paused with Matt sadly mouthing the next obvious two words to himself.  He felt a fuzzy arm lay across his shoulder but paid it no mind.

"They were looking for me," Discord whispered in his ear.  "If they had searched for anything and everything, they probably would have found what was left and cast a counterspell and that would have been the end of it.  But they didn't!  If they had been more thorough in their search, this likely would never have happened!  Oh, the irony.  It's always the little things that cause the biggest problems, eh?"

The small apartment reappeared around them, the journey through the past seemingly over.  Matt stared at nothing, any fight or disbelief left in him having been stripped away.  Everything Discord had shown him started to make a lot of sense.  Applejack and the others had told them what happened after the mountain lion nearly took his head off and again when he woke up in Ponyville Hospital after he had been slammed into the car outside the Waldorf – the strange static, things suddenly been torn from reality. If that thing really was tied to him...

"You should see what it's like outside.  It's almost what you would call trippy!" Discord said as he clutched onto Matt's shoulders and zapped them outside.  High above the city of Canterlot, on the tallest spire of the castle, the two appeared in a dizzying blink.  The broken man looked down once his head stopped spinning and froze up.  Damn the heights!  "Don't worry, I've got you."

Discord lifted his prey's chin to the heavens and allowed him to see the rogue magic like he did.  An enormous, twisting portal covered most of the sky with several of the same gangly fingers transporting new additions somewhere in the world.  It was strangely beautiful and terrifying all at once.

Figuring Matt had seen enough, the pair vanished and reappeared back in the residence.  Another spell of wooziness and the vertigo he got from being half a mile in the air left the young man ready to throw up.  Not wanting to bring up more than his low opinion of his captor, he laid down on the bed.

"They...Twilight and...and the Princesses...they looked over just about...everything," Matt mumbled as his stomach eventually settled down.  "They didn't...they didn't see anything."

"There wasn't any residue of any kind on the stuff that made the trip?" the curious draconequus asked.  Matt shook his head.  "Interesting.  They must have simply been moved and nothing else.  I suppose when the floodgates are already open and working just fine, there's no sense in infecting something else.  Did they ever bother to look up in any of their searches, by any chance?"

He thought and thought over what they'd seen over the last several weeks.  Every sign, every creature, every building, every everything.  He sadly shook his head again.

Discord giggled and shrugged.  "Well, I suppose there's no telling whether or not they'd have seen that thing overhead.  It's all how you look at things – in more ways than one, I suppose.  You see an utter nightmare, and I see victory, all because I took the time to see...uh...erm...eh, you know what I'm saying."  The menace floated Matt back to his feet and mockingly straightened out his shirt for him.  "So, have you figured out yet why I made this place for you and why I made it the way I did?"  No response came.  "I'll take your silence as a 'yes'."

Now that his enemy had been completely crushed, it was time to leave and find some fun place to watch the lunacy continue.  But first, he turned back to Matt.  "A couple quick things before I go.  First, you really should be thanking me.  You'll be safe and sound, sitting by my side – well, sort of – in the one and only place I should have always been from the start, and I can assure you it'll be for quite the long time as I've also designed this place to keep you young and spry.  I've always wanted a court jester for all eternity!  It's almost a shame you won't see my court though – I've spruced it up nicely now that its previous tenants have been evicted.  Second, if through some miracle your friends happen to find you and break you out of here...well, let's just say that I can't afford to have them risking your life by bringing you back out into that awful, dangerous world.  I'd have to take some rather...drastic measures," he explained with an evil grin.

That got Matt's attention in a heartbeat, but what could he do?  Trying to stop him now was like an ant trying to punch God.  Plus, Discord had made it more than clear why he was trapped there.  He gritted his teeth behind his lips and fought his eyes as they started to water.

"Toodles, Matt!"

And with that, the Spirit of Chaos departed out the door, able to leave without any problem.

He stared blankly at the exit.  Little by little, his anger built up until it exploded in a fury.  Matt swung around and slid the TV onto the floor.  The screen split as it landed.  Stomping past the appliance, he grabbed the chair beside the table and launched it randomly into the air.  The mirror above the dresser shattered to pieces as the seat smashed into it.  He was seeing red at this point.  The table met with a similar fate followed by the dresser's shelves been tossed into the wall, scattering games and clothes everywhere underfoot.  Every punch he tried to throw was absorbed by the caring room, leaving everything he tried to physically assault – as well as himself – unharmed.  It only fueled his anger.  His last effort came at the expense of the bed with most of his strength poured into trying to lift it and fling it across the small room, but much of his energy had already burned out.  When the mattress refused to move any further, Matt spun about and collapsed onto his knees, breathing like it was to be his last, and screamed to the heavens.  Every ounce of rage he had left poured down his cheeks as he began to sob there on the floor.


-----


Fifteen minutes of grief dragged by as if an entire day had come and gone.  He felt numb all over.  He could barely think straight.  Exhaustion had started to claim him.  Hobbling to his feet, Matt turned and crashed onto the bed.  Rachel and his four-legged friends came to mind as he tried to get as comfortable as he could.  They were probably going just as much out of their minds as he was a few minutes ago.

The pocket of his shorts felt strangely tight as he stretched and adjusted his legs.  Becoming irritated again, he reached to grab at whatever it was that was causing the discomfort only to feel something rectangular in his hand.  Curious, he stumbled back to his feet and found the phone in his pocket, now sporting a couple nasty cracks across its face.  Everything else looked to be working.

But why was it there in the first place?  Discord wouldn't have left it with him deliberately.  Did he have it with him the entire time and not realize it?  He examined his clothes carefully.  Were they the same thing he was wearing when the monster almost broke him in half?  Well...maybe.  It was a couple weeks ago and he didn't really remember anything that happened between then and waking up in traction.  Plus, there's no reason the hospital would have had a change of clothes lying around for him.

Still, even he if knew where the little room was hidden, he couldn't ask the girls to come get him.  Discord said it himself – he'd kill them.  There wasn't any way he was going to let that happen.  Either way, he still owed it to them to say goodbye.  But would the electronic even work from there?  Was the room hidden in plain sight?  In a pocket dimension or something?  He didn't really have anything to lose by trying.  Besides, if it didn't work, maybe if the conniving bastard stopped by again at some point, he could ask to write them one last letter, assuming it would even be delivered in the first place.

With a sigh, he slid his finger across the screen and brought up the main menu.  The familiar number he found at the top of the list of recent calls greeted him.  His throat suddenly got tight as he touched the selection.  Silence whispered into his ear.

But just as his spirits could sink no further, a dial tone buzzed from the speaker.
> Chapter 25
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Barely fifteen minutes ago, Discord had arrived at the hospital and snatched Matt away, surprisingly healing all his wounds before doing a one-eighty and trying to drown him before they left.  The Elements were screaming and panicking, understandably assuming the worst.  Rachel had fallen to her knees, sobbing quietly to herself.  The doctors and nurses that had been barricaded outside the crowded room weren't sure how to approach the situation, but the head doctor had made it a point to tell his fellow colleagues not to let word spread around that a particularly vile villain had returned.  No need to have a mass panic break out in Ponyville if they could help it, let alone the hospital itself.

Eventually, Applejack, who had remained mostly silent, staring in horror at the now-empty bed at where Matt laid for over a week, shouted over the hollering.  "Everypony!  Everypony, knock it off!  Quiet!"  The room went dead quiet, all eyes on her.  "All this bickerin' ain't getting us anywhere.  I-I think we...we need to get a hold of the Princesses.  I have a feeling we're gonna need their help with this."

"Yeah.  Yeah, that's not a bad idea at all," Twilight said.  "Let's go.  We don't have any time to lose."

As they stutter-stepped past the hospital staff, Rachel remained kneeling there on the floor, too mentally exhausted and broken to move.  One of the nurses got Applejack's attention just before she was out the door.  The cowgirl paused, seeing the emptiness in the heartbroken young woman's eyes.  Sadly, the mare shuffled up to her and rested a hoof on her shoulder.  Now was not the time for any rivalries to be anywhere near the surface.

"It'll be okay," Applejack whispered.  "We'll find him.  I promise."

Drying her tears, Rachel slowly got to her feet, nodded and joined them on their trek back to the library.


-----


Twilight couldn't understand it.  If anypony knew where Discord might like to hide out, or where he kept any prisoners he may have ever taken all those centuries ago, Celestia and Luna would know where he'd be, and she had sent Celestia at least half a dozen letters by now.  She knew they were received pretty much instantly.  The Princess was always busy, sure, and she was aware of Discord's return, but surely she had enough tricks up her sleeve to handle herself in case he decided to stop by, right?  She and Luna were okay, weren't they?

The couple hours of waiting for a reply was starting to worry them.  Twilight's pacing around the library lobby wasn't helping matters either.  Still, it wasn't like the Princesses to be unresponsive.  Something must have happened.

Rachel was leaning up against one of the bookcases, fidgeting most of the time.  It may not have been the most comfortable thing in the world on her back, but her stomach was tying itself more and more painfully into knots as the time passed.  She wished there was something she could do, but they were treading in grounds of which she had absolutely no knowledge.

"Look, we can't just sit around waiting for the Princesses," Rainbow Dash finally groaned.  "We know what he's like.  Who says we can't find him ourselves?"

"It could take forever, Dash," Applejack countered.  "Equestria's a big place, y'know."

"We could always look around Ponyville if nothing else," Fluttershy suggested.  "He did try to make it the chaos capital of the world when we first encountered him.  Maybe he's trying to hide in plain sight?"

"It beats sitting around here doing squat.  I hate waiting like this."

The troubled unicorn stopped her circling and glanced over at the book that held their fabled necklaces and tiara.  While she was usually patient with her mentor, with every second that went by, it looked more and more certain that they'd be forced to move ahead without her.

Gritting her teeth behind her lips, Twilight marched over to the bookcase and floated the thick novel from its shelf and over to the floor in the middle of her friends.  They shared a tentative look, none of them particularly looking forward to hunting the demigod who easily tossed aside the Elements' power last time and was even stronger now.  But, it needed to be done.  They weren't going to give up on Matt, no matter what it cost.

The gems shimmered softly when placed on their respective owners' necks and head.  Rachel reasoned they must have been those relics Matt talked about.  They seemed so unassuming from what she was expecting.

Twilight turned to Rachel.  "Things might get really dangerous.  You don't have to come if you don't want to."

"To Hell with that," she said as she rose to her feet.  "Ah...Ah know it didn't really do anythin' last time, but would it be possible if Ah went and grabbed mah piece over at Matt's place?"

"Your 'piece'?"

"Mah gun.  Maybe...maybe if that bastard didn't see it comin', it'd do somethin' to him, I don't know.  Worth a shot."

"Suppose any little bit may help," Applejack said with a shrug.  "Guess we'll see."


-----


Rachel took the lead as they stepped into the vacant home and went straight for the bedroom.  The girls waited quietly in the living room, looking over the little details of the room.  Most of them stopped briefly when they came across the newspaper clipping with the barren rack above it.  They hoped to Celestia Matt was alright.  Dragging him out of a colossal bear's throat was bad enough.  Now this...

In Matt's bedroom, Rachel went straight for the her target sitting on top of the dresser.  She grabbed the gun and stared over the barrel hopefully.  In a world full of magic, the idea that it would be terribly effective in most situations seemed laughable, but she had to try again.  As she went to leave, she noticed her phone sitting on the night stand next to the bed.  Another decent idea.  Maybe if they got lucky, she could try and reach him, provided he even had his phone to begin with.  She had no clue either way.  Would she be able to get through to him if he had it?  Another unanswerable question.

One that would be answered when she looked at the tiny screen and saw three missed calls.

She blinked and snatched the phone, sliding her weapon into her pocket.  Her eyes went wide when the number she pulled up was the same one he had when he contacted her.

Selecting the number and hoping Matt was still there, she crept back out into the living room, the device in her hand with the speaker on.  The Elements' own ears perked up upon seeing the phone possibly working.  The first several seconds offered nothing but dead air, but eventually the line came alive, ringing for all to hear.

"Rache?"

"Oh God, Matt!  Where are ya?!  Are ya okay?"

"Yeah, I'm...I-I'm fine.  Been trying to get a hold of you, but..."

"Ah didn't have the phone nearby.  Listen, your friends have those jewel things you talked about.  We're gonna come get ya.  Now, where are ya?"

Matt went silent.  Though they couldn't know, his stomach was twisting in knots when she asked that.

"Look...I know you're all worried, but...it'd be best if you just forgot about me.  Don't come looking, okay?"

"What?" Rachel gasped.  "Don't be ridiculous!  We'll find ya, we'll get ya out of there!  Now tell me where ya are, baby!"

"Even if I did want you to come find me...I-I don't know where I am.  All Discord said was something about always ruling from here or whatever.  I'm a court jester now, according to him."

Even over the speaker, Matt's brief stutter made Applejack lift a brow.  Something was wrong, she knew it.

"Sugarcube, you know everything Discord knows.  If anypony knows where he took you, it's you.  Can't you tell us anything?"

He paused again.  "I wish I could, alright?  I'm sorry.  Just...I know it doesn't make any sense, but you need to stay away."

"But why, Matt?  Tell us, please," Twilight begged.

"Because I'm trying to keep you safe, okay?" he growled, nearly yelling.  "S-sorry.  He pretty much told me that he's not going to bother you.  Guess he figures you can't touch him anyway, so what's the point?  Look, I have no idea when or if he's going to show up again, so I better not stay on anymore.  Don't want to give him a reason to come after you.  Just let me go."

"Sweetie, don't talk like that!"

"I'm sorry.  I love you all."

"Matt!  Matt!"

The only response they received was the line disconnecting.

In his new home, Matt stared long at the device, already missing the ones he cherished.  He didn't have a choice.  He wasn't going to throw seven lives away for his.  He went to throw the phone against the wall to destroy its existence but paused halfway.  If Discord decided to stop by and saw it laying smashed on the floor, he may figure out what had happened and go after his friends out of spite.  Instead, he simply shut the phone off completely and buried it in one of the drawers left in the dresser under some of the clothes Discord gifted him.  Hopefully he wouldn't have any reason to look in there.  With any luck, the furniture itself wasn't aware enough to alert him to its presence either in some bizarre way.

He looked over the destruction in the room, at a loss at what to do now.  He felt physically sick and mentally exhausted.  His normal life was over.  Resigned to his fate, he crawled atop the mattress and flopped his head onto the pillows.  As tired as he was, he couldn't fall asleep.  Instead, he stared and stared at nothing.

Meanwhile, at his old home, six worried mares, and one distraught woman were left speechless at Matt's abrupt departure.  While they exchanged frightened looks, Applejack never took her eyes off the phone, the long, low whine of a dead phone line piercing her ears.  For a moment, she saw her parents laying in their hospital beds after the accident with a similar-sounding 'bweeeeeeee' emanating from the equipment.  Her eyes rained down her cheeks at the memory just as they did when it actually happened.

"Oh gods, we gotta find him," she wheezed.

"But where are we supposed to look?" Fluttershy spoke up.

"We had decided to check around Ponyville first, right?  Let's start there," Pinkie Pie suggested.

"And what if we don't find him, dear?  Where do we go from there?"

"We'll just have to figure that out as we go," Twilight said.  "Maybe we'll hit the Everfree afterwards, but we're not sitting around here anymore.  Come on!"


-----


They had wandered and searched for at least a couple hours, every step they took being just as fruitless as the last.  Nopony in Ponyville had seen anything out of the ordinary or even mentioned Discord.  The hospital staff must have been keeping quiet as asked, but who knew how long that'd last?  The only reason they could think of as to why Ponyville hadn't been turned on its head was because Discord had some new toys to play with and wanted to see how far he could push the envelope messing with the other humans around.

Twilight's mind was going a mile a minute ever since they left Matt's home.  With their worst enemy returning, Matt being kidnapped to who knows where, and Celestia not replying to her numerous letters, no one could blame her.  While she usually took charge and would've spoken to the denizens of the tiny town, she was far too distracted.  In her stead, Applejack took the reins.

The unicorn kept replaying what Matt said on the phone most of their journey.  Ruling from there and court jesters – it had to have a significance, even if their friend didn't realize it.  Though it was doubtful Discord would have come right out and told him where he was, the menace loved a good riddle.  She paused on their way to the Everfree Forest and narrowed her eyes, a hoof scratching at her chin.

"What is it?" Rachel asked as they came to a stop.

Without saying a word, Twilight slowly craned her head around, gazing at the strangely normal-looking, mountain-dwelling city in the distance.


-----


The train ride took far too long for Twilight's taste, even if it took no longer than it usually did.  Her stomach was doing back flips as they approached Canterlot's platform.  Even if they were unsuccessful in locating Discord in the royal city, at least she could track down the Princesses and ask why they never bothered to reply to them – as long as they were safe themselves.

They had expected the usually pleasant greetings from local guardsponies upon departing the train.  What they got was a creepily barren station straight out of a horror movie.  It made their flesh crawl – even Rachel's.  There was no doubt anymore.  He had been there.  What exactly he had done was anypony's guess, but they were going to find out.

The mares took off in a sprint to the throne room with Rachel in tow, following their lead.  Even on the way, no guards or advisors or anypony were anywhere to be seen, and their steps echoed loudly in the empty halls as they ran.  After several minutes of racing, they finally arrived at the large double doors that led to the long corridor.  They took a moment to let the less than physically fit catch their breath before they went in.

"You...you sure they're...gonna be in there?" Rachel asked between gasps.

"Honestly?  No.  But that'd be the first place to check.  It's where they do most of their work from, so..." Twilight explained.  The woman nodded as the purple mare willed the doors open.  "Princess Celes–"

A collective gasp left their lungs.  At the other end of the hallway stood the Solar and Lunar Princesses, their normally radiant coats having been replaced by dusty grey stone.  Their faces were frozen in horror.  The group cautiously approached the two figures, dumbstruck and holding back sobs.  Twilight, however, was already crying.

"Those aren't just statues, are they?" Rachel inquired, though she already knew the answer.

"I thought he said once that he didn't turn ponies into stone," Fluttershy whimpered.

"He probably did this just to mix things up.  You know how he is," Rarity retorted.

"And we still ain't any closer to finding Matt," Applejack muttered.  "I mean, we still have the rest of the castle to look through, not to mention the entirety of Canterlot, and that could take all night!  What're we supposed to do?"

Almost in response to her heartache, the Elements suddenly began to glow on their own, making the girls jump in surprise.  Rachel took a few steps back, unsure if this was what the gems were supposed to do.  Either way, she wasn't going to get in their way.

One after another, they began to channel a colored beam into a singular point of nearly blinding white light.  After a moment, the orb fired a focused blast of magic past the powerless Princesses and came together with...something...a few feet in front of their thrones.  The beam shifted to the right, then down to the floor, over to the left and returning back to its point of origin, drawing a rectangle.  The ray then began to expand, blanketing the shape in luminescence and revealing what it found – a simple door.

"What's that doing there?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"It makes sense now," Twilight commented.  "Discord's always wanted to rule Equestria.  Where better to rule it from than a throne room?  And as far as court jesters go, royalty used to have them before the Princesses came to power."

"You really think he's in there, dear?  Maybe it's just more misdirection."

"Let's find out."

The purple mare galloped ahead and carefully took the knob in her magic.  Didn't want to set off any potential traps.  She took a quick look around to make sure everything was unaffected, and it seemed to be so.  Steeling herself, she flung open the door to discover a tiny, hidden room.  She saw see a familiar pair of legs in her immediate field of vision laying on a bed.  The rest of the place looked like a hurricane had gone through it, but that wasn't a concern to her.

"Matt!"

He sat up quickly upon hearing the small equine.  "No..." he mumbled to himself.

As soon as Twilight saw his face, she was immediately troubled.  She expected to see joy but was instead greeted with misery; he looked as if he was about to break down any minute.  She shook off wanting to ask what was wrong, figuring they just needed to get out of there first and foremost.  Not wasting another second, she grabbed him with her magic and carried him outside past the door's threshold to their waiting friends.  Rachel was the first to embrace him.  Holding back tears, he squeezed her close.

"You've got to put me back," Matt demanded as he let his lover go.  "Like, right now!  He's gonna know!"

"What do you mean?  We gotta get you out of here!" Twilight said, ignoring his pleas.

Unbeknownst to her and the others, however, Matt's assumption was correct.  While Discord had taken a sabbatical back to New York to taunt and tease the people there, a flicker of magic hit him.  An alarm had been triggered when the door was pried open.  He had underestimated Matt and his little four-legged friends before; he wasn't about to make the same mistake again.

The monster glanced up in annoyed surprised.  "No.  No, it can't be!  How'd they...?"  With a snarl, he vanished from the metropolis and reappeared a few seconds later beside his enemies, glaring hard at them.  "You girls really know how to put a damper on my fun, don't you?"

Rachel quickly snatched her handgun from her pocket, ready to go 'round two' with the demigod.  Before things could get even further out of hand, Twilight thought quickly and lit up her horn, sending Matt and Rachel away and slamming the giant double doors.

"Really?" Discord said with a bored smirk as the mares snarled at him.  "This is how it's going to go down?  Well, I suppose I can have a little fun before I finish you."  He continued, addressing the biggest piece of his puzzle from afar.  "Oh, and Matt?  I do hope you get a chance to say goodbye to your little girlfriend before I'm done with your pony friends.  You better hurry though.  This shouldn't take long."

He and Rachel popped into the world with the usual accompanying dizzy spell.  It almost looked like they were still in the castle – and if Matt wasn't mistaken, the doors he saw behind them several feet away were the doors to the throne room.  Maybe Twilight couldn't warp them across large distances?  Either way, the pair heard the voice echo through the air as they came to their senses.

While they were struggling to stand, Discord grinned wickedly at his most irritating opponents and their gemstones.  "First things first.  A little something Matt showed me last time in that little illusion of his."  With a wiggle of his finger, the Elements were ripped from their owners and crushed into dust.  The mares froze up as they crumbled and fell to the floor in front of them.  "May as well not take any chances, right?  Was so easy to do when I'm brimming with all this chaos energy, not to mention the looks on your faces are gold!"

Outside, Matt finally managed to get to his feet, hollering at Rachel tearfully.  "Why did you come?!  I told you all to stay away!  Wh-why didn't you listen?!"

His girl grabbed him by the hand, not answering his frustrated questions.  "Come on, sweetie, we gotta get out of here!"

"It doesn't matter!" he growled, yanking his arm away.  "I-it doesn't matter anymore."

He eyed the weapon in Rachel's grip and grit his teeth behind his lips.  Before she could react, he wrestled it out of her hand and slammed the barrel against his temple – as well as his eyes shut.

"Baby, what're ya doing?!"

The trigger tickled his finger as he fought against himself.  All it would take was a gentle squeeze, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.  Opening weeping now, he fell to his knees, his arms going limp and the gun slipping out of his hand.  Not wanting to stir things up again, Rachel tentatively knelt down and took the gun away, her free hand rubbing his wet cheek.

"Matt, what was that all about?"

"It...i-it's all my fault," he sobbed.

"What?  What is?"

"Everything.  You, Discord, all the buildings and stuff...everything."

"What do ya mean?"

"Discord, h-he showed me what happened.  He–"

"That monster?  Ya gonna believe him after everything y'all told me about him?" Rachel groaned.

"Dammit, everything he and they said adds up!" he snapped back.  "When he smashed me into that car, when that damn cat almost took my head off, everything went crazy!  Everything that happened to you and everything else!  Discord put me in that room so...so nothing would happen to me!"

"But how does that–"

"He was going to leave you all alone if you stayed away!  Now he's...he's in there with them and...well, you heard him!  He'll be after you next!"

She slowly rose to her feet, trying to look calm and unphased, but Matt knew her too well.  He could see her subtle flinch, the slight bulge in her fearful eyes.  He rose to meet her face to face, staring grimly at the worried young woman.

"Ya don't really think he'd...?"

His silence said enough.

"But...but, then what do we do?"

A muffled scream from the next room swung them around.  Their stomachs twisted in knots.  His eyes started to water again.  Slowly, and with the heaviest of hearts, he turned back to Rachel.  She prayed that Matt wasn't going to say what she was afraid of.

"I-I'm sorry."

He brushed down her arm, making his way down to the gun in her hand.   She immediately jerked away, quickly catching on to what he was doing.

"No!  Don't ask me to do that!"

His hand found her cheek, his thumb wiping away the first tear.  "If you don't, he's going to kill you – and I'm not going to let him hurt you."

"Come on, baby, there...there has to be something we can do!"  He remained silent and steadfast, frowning as she begged.  "Please...Ah...Ah already lost ya once," she sobbed, her lips quivering.

A warm, reassuring smile crept across his face.  "You had to move on once before too."

Any defenses she had left finally broke down.  No amount of comforting words was going to make the inevitable any easier to bear.  They stared at each other silently for a moment, their hearts already breaking as they reluctantly accepted the unacceptable.

"It's not fair," Rachel muttered.

"I know."  Taking her cheeks in his hands, he leaned in and met her lips one last time.  Once again, he reached down and rested her gun against his gut, holding her shaking hand firmly so she couldn't pull away.

Her finger refused to move.  Whimpering, she broke the kiss and laid her forehead against his.  "Ah can't.  Ah j-just...Ah just can't!

Her hand was suddenly squeezed tightly for her, and a horrific, thunderous bang echoed through the hall.  Matt's clenched face went limp as he was thrown off his feet.  Rachel's world grinded to a halt while she watched her love – and his blood – spill onto the floor.

In just the next room over, the eyes of a single, multi-limbed amalgamation that was the Elements of Harmony went wide at the blast.  Discord paused his theatrics, frozen in disbelief.  He too recognized the sound from his visit to the Big Apple as well as Matt's numerous memories.

"What was that?" he mumbled as he turned around.

He received his answer by tumbling to the floor, wracked with pain and glowing with a familiar light as he faded in and out of existence.

Laying near Matt, Rachel was failing to maintain her solid form as well.  Despite the agony she was in, she crawled the few feet to his side and laid her hand on his rising and falling chest.  Ignoring his own searing torment from both his entrance and exit wounds, with the last of his strength rapidly leaving him, he reached up and tenderly took her hand.  He apologized again with a final, solemn glance before she was ripped away altogether.  His palm, now empty, fell lifelessly and slid onto the floor.

With no anchor left to sustain him, Discord let loose an ear-piercing shriek as his body dematerialized as well, fluttering into the air as a wave of flickering sparks.  A few seconds after he vanished, the Elements popped back into their six normal forms, wings, horns, tails and the rest where they were supposed to be.  Their gems then returned to their original, undamaged state in a flash of undone magic.  The statues that were the Princesses began to crumble and break, eventually allowing them to break free from their stone prisons.

"Twilight!  Thank goodness you're–"

The solar ruler paused as she watched her most trusted students bolt for the door one by one, Applejack wasting no time and leaving Twilight to bring up the rear.

"Where are they going?" Luna asked her sister.  "And what was that noise?"

Celestia followed a few steps behind the group with Luna right behind.  Just outside their royal court, they found six friends rooted to the floor, their jaws dropped in shock and eyes starting to water.  The siblings came to a halt next to them, just as stunned as the others.  Applejack dove for Matt's body as commotion began to stir.

"You sent him here?!" Rainbow screamed.

"I panicked, alright?!  I wanted them out of there and it was the first place I could think of!"

"Why didn't they run?!  And where's Rachel?!"

"All of you stop it!" Rarity screamed.  Her outburst worked, leaving the only sound in the room to belong to a whimpering farm pony caressing his head.

"C-come on, Matt.  You've been here before.  Time to get up!" she said, chuckling slightly, desperately trying to bury her worst fear.  When no response came, she laid her free hoof on his chest and waited – and waited.  "Come on!  Please don't go!"  Breaking down in tears, she leaned over and cradled his head against hers, rocking back and forth.

Celestia suddenly sucked in a breath, her long horn glowing violently.  All but one paid it any attention.  In a burst of light, they were transported to the middle of the emergency ward of a Canterlot hospital, briefly shocking the staff and patients out of their wits.

"Your Highnesses!" a closeby doctor said with a bow.  "Err, what brings–"  The heartbroken mare on the floor told him everything he needed to know.

"Please, you have to help him!" the Princess commanded.

"Yes, of course!"

Applejack was lifted away from her love, clawing away at the air as she was moved.  Rarity wrapped her forelimbs around the distraught mare, clutching her tightly.  The farmer's struggling stopped and she went utterly limp.

With her out of the way, the doctor was allowed to do his work.  He gently tore open the blood-stained shirt, revealing a large wet sea of red.  A noticeable hole on the left side of Matt's abdomen, surrounded by a faint burn mark hidden under all the blood, greeted them.

"Piercing injury," the unicorn muttered to himself.  Carefully, he lifted his new patient up and quickly felt the back under the shirt.  "Exit wound too."  He set Matt back down on the floor and placed his hoof on his chest, correctly assuming where his heart was.  After failing to find a pulse, he called out for a stretcher.

Several painfully long seconds later, one came with a trio nurses in tow.  He quickly hoisted the man up onto it, finding it to be a bit too small.  Luna focused her magic and made the craft stretch to an appropriate size.

"Thank you, Princess Luna."  The doctor addressed his assistants.  "Get him to emergency room six.  He has a severe piercing wound through his stomach.  No pulse either."

As they carted their friend down the hall, the group of friends sat silently, their eyes wet and some covering their mouths in disbelief.  Their stomachs twisted more and more as  the staff fired off their jargon, the things they could make out over the whispered hum of the hospital crushing their spirits and breaking their hearts.
> Chapter 26
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Let's clean this off here."

A warm, damp cloth floated over to the patient and dabbed at the blood on his shaved skin.  Once it was gone, a dry rag followed behind it, rubbing away any moisture that may have been left over.

"Alright, let's close him up.  Suture."

The requested item made its way over and was traded between magical auras.  Stitch by stitch, the gaping wound was sealed as well and tight as it could be.  A nurse cut the excess string once it was tied off and set it to the side.  Two of Matt's surgeons glanced at each other and exchanged a nod.  Their horns lit up and their magic once again took hold of the injury as it did on Matt's back a couple hours earlier, the healing abilities hopefully accelerating the restoration process.  It seemed to do alright with the burn marks on his abdomen when they began working on it, so they were reasonably confident the rest would be okay.

With the surgery finally coming to a close after several hours, the head doctor snapped his rubber hoof-gloves off and breathed a sigh of relief.  He and his co-workers had done all they could, and it felt like it took forever given how much damage there was.  He wondered if it'd be enough as he looked to his side, the heart monitor beeping faintly and less often then he'd like.

"Nice work, doctor," one of the nurses said as they started straightening things up.

"Don't congratulate me just yet," he muttered.  "It's up to him now.  I'll go talk to his friends, let them know what's going on."


-----


It was generous of Celestia and Luna to allow Applejack and her friends to stay at the castle until the hospital came calling.  She wasn't sure what made her feel worse – hearing that Matt may not wake up or the waiting to see if it becomes true.  Staring out the same window looking at the same view hour after hour had been excruciatingly dull as well.

If Rarity hadn't been sharing the room for these last three days, giving her someone to talk to, she probably would've gone stir crazy.  She wondered what the others were up to and how they had been keeping themselves distracted.  It probably wouldn't have been a bad idea to go spend more time with them, but she simply didn't have the energy to move.

The farm girl had heard from the Princesses during a get-together that the bizarre happenings around Canterlot had gone away.  She figured the ones around Ponyville and the rest of Equestria had as well, but she'd be damned if she understood what all had gone down.  There hadn't been any reports of the deformed maniac either.  Everything he had done to them in that throne room had undone itself when he vanished, so maybe he – and, frankly, everything else – was gone again.  She really hoped that to be the case; enough was enough with all the stress.

Just as the miserable mare was going to lay down yet again, there was a knock at the door.  She and the dressmaker met up to greet their guests together.  They were met by four welcome smiles, two being the royal sisters, the others belonging to Twilight and a hopping Pinkie Pie.

"Howdy, y'all.  What's got you so chipper?"  A letter with the hospital's header floated down to meet her.  As Applejack took it and read it, a relieved smile crept across her lips.  Rarity patted her on the back happily.  "Guess we should go pick up Rainbow and Fluttershy and make our way over then, huh?"

"Indeed," Celestia said, magically placing the stetson on its owner's head.


-----


The loud creak of Matt's door stirred him from his slumber.  Eight concerned but joyful mares stepped in one by one.  Applejack was half-tempted to leap onto the bed and squeeze him until his eyes popped out of his head but she knew better than to risk reopening any wounds.  Hopefully Pinkie Pie would come to the same obvious decision.

"Take all the time you need, your Highnesses," the nurse said as she left them alone.

"Thank you.  How are you feeling, Matt?"

He groaned and shrugged tiredly to answer.  At his side, the bed controls sat.  May as well sit up a bit, make it a little easier to talk with them face to face instead of staring at the ceiling.  With the push of a button and a soft hum, Matt's bed slowly bent upwards, its passenger taking in a deep breath as he rose.

"Hey," Matt groaned, not really answering the question.

"Been waiting to see how you were, mostly," the farmer answered.  "Been pretty quiet otherwise.  Those things that popped up in Canterlot seem to be gone."

"No boats in the ballroom?"

"No boats in the ballroom," Celestia replied.

"That's good."  He wasn't sure why he felt the need to ask the next question.  It was probably just for reassurance more than anything.  The bastard had come back from nothing once already.  "What about...him?"

The girls shared a collective glance.  It was something they had double and triple-checked what felt like every other hour since he vanished in front of them.

Luna eventually spoke up.  "We have not seen or heard from him since...that day."

"Good," Matt grunted.  "Fuck him."

Applejack walked up beside him and laid a hoof on his arm.  "Shug, I know this is probably something you'd prefer not to think about again, but...well, what in Equestria did he want with you?  Why'd he hide you the way he did?"

Was the cowgirl ever right.  All it did was remind him of what it cost him to overcome the spiteful prick for the second time.  He looked around the room at his friends, each just as curious as the last, and sighed, letting his eyes fall sadly.

"He, uh...he showed me everything.  What was bringing things here, why...all of it."

"What all was it?" Twilight asked.

"Long story short, when...when he first brought me here, he wasn't the only thing that latched onto me apparently.  He said that he never used that spell before and there were some side effects or something."

"But we hit you with the Elements.  Shouldn't that have destroyed them?"

"He said that they must have determined it wasn't bad magic or whatever and didn't get rid of it completely."

"I'm a bit confused myself," Celestia said.  "Luna and I looked you over and found no trace of Discord."

"He mentioned that too," Matt grumbled, still only half awake.  "He said if you looked for more than only him, you may have spotted it, but...well."

"And you believe what he told you?" Rainbow spoke up.

"Think about it.  You told me what happened to that cat when it almost sliced my face off and when that bastard smashed me into that car.  He figured it out.  He knew if..."  Matt gritted his teeth and sneered, remembering again what he had lost and the kind of agony she must have endured being thrown back home – all because of him.  Try as he might, he couldn't hide the bitterness in his voice over it and the pain in his eyes.  "He knew what would happen if something happened to me.  I didn't want you to look for me cuz he said he was going to kill you just so he wouldn't run the risk of you possibly finding me again if you found me to begin with."

The color nearly left their skin upon the revelation.  The princesses were not quite as surprised.  They had experienced what he was really like long ago.  He wasn't above torturing ponies for amusement or worse, should the right mood have struck him.

Celestia took a step forward, eyeing his chest with concern – the same spot they had focused much of their attention on when Discord was vanquished so many months ago.  "Matt, if what you said is true, I think it would be in our best interest to look you over one more time, this time in much more detail.  If there is any trace of any kind of magic still inside you, it needs to be found."

"Especially if it could potentially start everything all over again," Luna added.

Ugh, even after it was over, it wasn't over.  But it was a reasonable concern.  If that link to Earth wasn't completely stamped out, they'd be back to square one; it had to be done.

"Two things," he mumbled.  "First, this is going to take a while, isn't it?"

"If we are to be thorough, yes."

"Figured.  Second, do I need to be awake for it?"

The royal sisters shrugged at each other.  "No, you don't have to be."

"Good.  I'm passing back out now."  And with a gentle rolling of his shoulders, he flopped onto his pillow, dead to the world as soon as he closed his eyes.

"Aw, come on, Matt.  You can stay up a little longer, can't you?" Pinkie insisted to no avail.  He wasn't budging.

"Come now, dear.  He's been through...well, more than a lot over the last few days.  We should let him get some rest."

They were all thinking the same thing in both respects.  As much as they would have loved to chat with him some more, he had to have been physically and mentally spent.

Celestia turned to address the group.  "I can imagine you all want to stay, but if you wish to head back to your rooms or stretch your legs around Canterlot, I'm sure he'd understand.  Either way, Luna and I must look him over again, and like we told him, it's going to take some time."

Applejack and her friends shared a disappointed look, but what Celestia was subtly suggesting was probably for the best.  It was rather obvious Matt didn't want to be bothered right now.  How much of that was because of the surgery and how much because of his sour mood was up for debate.

"You'll...let us know if there's any change in his condition while you're here doing your thing, right?" the cowgirl asked.

"Of course we will, but I don't think that's going to be a concern.  The note did say he was doing fairly well, all things considering."

"Yeah, that's true.  What do y'all think?  Should we...I don't know, head back to the castle or something?"

One by one, the girls eventually – reluctantly – conceded and filed out, taking one last look at the slumbering young man.  Applejack was the last to leave, gazing longer than the rest.  She could only imagine what he was thinking about as he fell deeper into dreamland, but the list she came up with was fairly short.  She had gotten to know his mannerisms especially well for a while now.  It only lasted for a second or two, but the subtle twitch, the anguish written on his face when he told them what Discord wanted with him, told enough of the story.  Her ears drooped sadly as she sighed to herself and stepped into the hallway,  the Princesses' horns lighting up being the last thing she saw as she quietly closed the door.


-----


A solid buck to the tree sent its fruit falling into the well-placed baskets sitting on the ground beneath it.  Applejack looked up and surveyed the branches, adjusting her stetson just enough to block the high sun from her eyes.  As usual, the tree was cleared in a single kick.  A few stray apples had landed on the ground, but that was par for the course.  Satisfied with her work, she glanced around through the orchard toward the south – the direction of the farm's front gate.

As it had been every day for the past two-plus weeks since they departed from Canterlot, nothing and nobody was coming to greet her.  She sadly curled her lips and returned her attention to her namesake.  She caught herself constantly looking and waiting even though she always assumed correctly that it was never coming.  Sometimes only five or ten minutes passed before she'd look again; sometimes it was a few hours.  Either way, the result was always the same, and the heartache was always real.  Why she constantly felt the need to search for a ghost was beyond her.

She went to pick up the basket and fling it onto her back when she paused.  It wasn't the first time she had been so agitated since everything had settled back down to normal again.  The poor mare was getting rather sick of it though.  She had chores and responsibilities around the farm and she couldn't afford to be distracted so much, especially as much as she had been recently.  

Fortunately, it was a simple thing to make it stop – she had just chosen not to think about it until now.  With a miserable grunt, Applejack put her harvesting duties aside and walked up to her nearby brother.  It was about time she put things to rest once and for all.

"Hey, Big Mac," she muttered, not looking him in the eye.

He set a powerful hind leg back to the ground before he could convince the tree he was working on to cough up the goods and nodded casually at her.  He suspected he knew what was troubling her...again.  She was never very good at hiding her emotions, plus he had seen her looking the way she was on plenty of occasions.

"Listen, um...there's...th-there's something I really need to do in town and...well, would it be a big deal if–"

With a clear of his throat, he got her attention and cut her babbling off.  No need for her embarrass herself further.  For a moment, they stared at each other in silence, but the message became loud and clear when he jerked his head to the side, letting her know that she could get going if she wanted.  Before she left, though, she wrapped a forelimb around her brother's neck and hugged him tightly.  It took him a bit by surprise.

"I should've listened to you."

"'Bout what?" he asked, trying to play dumb.

She backed off and stared sadly at the question.  The big red stallion glanced away, ashamed at his less-than-stellar attempt at small talk.  They both knew what was being referenced.  Big Mac's heart went out to his younger sister as she walked off with her head hanging, shuffling through their home-grown forest and gradually disappearing from sight.

"It'll be okay," he called out.  Whether she heard him – or believed him – was anyone's guess.


-----


Applejack couldn't be sure exactly how long it took her to wade through the orchard and into the heart of the quiet little village.  She spent most of her walk staring at nothing, lost in thought.  About the only thing that made her mind change the subject was the slight pinch in her neck that she had gotten from time to time for a little while now.  She reasoned it was probably thanks to that crash into the fountain in that shopping place.

The couple doctors she had talked to about it did all they could, given their extremely limited knowledge on how one could be injured in one of those car things, but it still surfaced occasionally.  She may have have been stuck with it permanently for all she knew, but it was a minor inconvenience to her at best.  Even when it'd occur during some apple bucking when she would put her back and neck into a good kick, she'd grunt, shake it off and get back to work.  None of her friends had mentioned any pains of their own; perhaps they just got lucky.

After a while, her goal was finally upon her.  The familiar small home that she had visited quite frequently in recent memory stood before her, its dark blue curtains drawn.  She hoped the door was unlocked.  She could always ask Twilight or Rarity to help her pick the lock or open it from the inside with a little unicorn magic if it was sealed up tight, but that would be unlike her.  Neither of her magically-inclined friends would probably be too keen on honoring such a request though Rarity may be easier to convince.

The fashionista really had been an angel to Applejack through the entire ordeal.  She'd have to do something nice for her at some point, maybe treat her to dinner at a fancy restaurant or something.  Rarity would probably insist that the cowgirl not pay her back and that she was more than happy to help, but Applejack wasn't going to be having any of that.

Taking a deep breath, the farmer walked up to the door and took hold of the knob, giving it a slight twist.  It was open, thank Celestia.

The door whispered a creak as Applejack pushed it open, finding the living room barely lit by the sunlight.  It wasn't so dark that she didn't see the hole in the wall immediately upon stepping inside and the broken bottle laying on the floor below it.  A quick survey of the rest of the carpet didn't reveal any more shards of glass in the way to the couch where Matt lay face down and sprawled out.

A lazy arm hung over the side and the other barely held a mostly empty bottle of whiskey in its drooping hand.  Applejack could see on the far side of the coffee table what looked to be a white case of said alcohol.  Strange, none of her friends mentioned seeing him up and about to go pick it up at the local liquor store.  She figured he had holed himself up in his house after they returned him and he grunted at them to be left alone.  Either way, it was rather obvious what he had been doing when she spotted three more empty bottles and another two laying on the floor.  A couple of plates with a few crumbs here and there laid on the small table, but thankfully there didn't appear to be any bugs crawling on them.

She had never seen so much facial hair on Matt before.  Was he still wearing the same clothes he had on when they released him from the hospital in Canterlot?  It was entirely possible; she could smell him from across the room.  It wasn't so powerful that it made her gag, but it was still noticeable.  A simple, unpleasant odor was easy to deal with where the fact that he may not have been laying there if it weren't for the surgeons in Canterlot would have crushed her.

At least she didn't have to worry about random things showing up out of nowhere anymore.  The Princesses had looked Matt over more meticulously than she thought they would have needed to.  It was, frankly, quite astounding how long they took, but it was a necessary evil that gave him an absolutely clean slate.  As another bonus, Celestia and Luna had eventually received reports of things such as that New York place disappearing, assumedly going back to where it came.

If it wasn't for Matt's gentle snoring, one could have easily assumed he had left them again.  Biting her lip, Applejack quietly approached her dozing friend and gave him a gentle nudge.

"Matt?"  No response.  She poked at him again.  "Hon?"  He stirred with a muffled grunt.  "I'm sorry to wake you, but...I needed to come see you."

"You saw me.  Now go away," he grumbled into his pillow.

"Come on, Matt, you've holed yourself for too long now.  We've...I've been worried sick about you."

With a long sigh, he sat up, wobbling as he got to an upright position.  His eyes were bloodshot and he looked half dead.  Applejack climbed onto the couch next to him only for Matt to grab onto her shoulder for a moment so he could finally sit still.  Unfortunately, the little bit of movement was all it took for his stomach's contents to start making their way back up, and he threw himself onto the floor at the only container in the area – his half-empty case of booze.  The farmer winced as she watched her love interest bury his face into the box and then listen to what he drank spilling all over the bottom of the crate.  Once his stomach was emptied, he fell back against the sofa and wrapped his arms around himself, shaking and cold with a few leftovers dripping off his lip.

"Don't move, sugarcube.  I'll go get a paper towel," Applejack said, hopping right back off the couch.  She returned shortly with what she needed and sat up against him again, wiping his mouth clean.  "Jeez, Matt, you're destroying yourself."

Another indignant grunt was his answer.

"Don't give me that.  This isn't any way to handle what happened and you know it."

"She's gone again," he muttered.

Applejack set the rags on the table and stroked a hoof through his hair.  "I know.  I know what it's like to lose someone you love.  It took a while for me to move on after my folks passed on, but it did happen eventually."

"You've never lost someone you loved twice," he growled under his breath.

The mare held a breath as her inside suddenly starting tying themselves in knots.  She saw a palace floor, a puddle of blood.

"I almost did."

To her surprise, Matt didn't ask what she meant, but instead hunched over and broke down crying.  It was New York all over again, only A.J. was doing the rescuing this time.  She pulled his head into hers and curled her limbs around him, quietly nuzzling him as he let everything out.  Eventually, he calmed down enough for her to speak what had been on her mind, the reason why she ventured to his home in the first place.  She took a deep breath, hoping to Celestia she wouldn't sound like a foolish schoolfilly.  She let his head go and held his cheek, looking straight into his eyes.

"Matt, listen..."

She stopped and chewed her lip.  Okay, so it wasn't going swimmingly so far.

"The main reason I came over here is, uh...well, I-I know that this...may not be the best time, but...there's something that's been eating at me for a while now – something real important – and...and I almost never got a chance to say it, y'know?  I...um..."

"What is it already?" Matt groaned.

Her hoof left his cheek and squeezed his hand.  She sighed again.  "We need to talk."


-----


"–sident Obama still declined comment on the strange events that first started occur–"

"–have kept turning up over the last several days, bringing the death toll up to twelve hund–"

"'–want to really make this easy on yourself, you'll help us find this guy.'
'That depends on wha–'"

Rachel shut off the television and set the remote on the end table next to her cushy chair.  There never seemed to be anything on these days, and whenever she'd flip past the news networks, most of their coverage still revolved around what she went through, even after a few weeks.  Why couldn't they just give it a rest?  She didn't need the news to help remind her of what was gone.

At least everything seemed to get put back where it originally came from, if nothing else.  When Rachel realized where she was when she came to, it left her confused as Hell for thankfully only a short time.  Before she recognized that she was back in her apartment, she worried it'd be another impossible journey to get home again, especially after stranding her car in New York.

She had no way to determine exactly how her complex was back where it was supposed to be when she looked out the window and saw what she usually did, but she didn't really care in the end.  Finding her vehicle downstairs where she originally left it was another welcome relief.  The fates of everyone and everything else didn't become a concern of hers until she was bombarded by TV news stories speculating what had happened.

She yawned and rubbed her tired eyes.  Might as well get ready to get yet another night's restless sleep soon.  But first, she had a visit to make.

Next to the remote was her phone.  It had become almost a nightly ritual.  Sometimes when she sat in front of her computer, she'd pull it up on her hard drive, having emailed it to herself to save.  She opened the camera selection and found the short video she recorded when they were sitting in the Waldorf Astoria's living room.  She could probably do it with her eyes closed at this point.

The familiar picture came onto the tiny screen and, like always, a warm but sad smile crept across her lips.  The multicolored ponies greeted her the way they did every time:  the orange one with the hat waving awkwardly, the yellow one hiding behind her long hair, the one with the rainbow mane smiling confidently, the purple mare saying hello and then putting her nose back in her book, the white unicorn fluffing her mane and the pink one acting silly.  Pinkie blowing a raspberry at the camera always made Rachel laugh to herself, no matter how often she saw it.  

Finally, Matt came on at the end of the pan.  He blew her a kiss and tickled her stomach, making the camera flinch and the photographer laugh.  Lastly, before the short film ended, he told her he loved her.

A lump formed her in her throat.  The smile she started with had slowly disappeared as she watched her memories but returned when she glanced down at her belly and rubbed it lovingly.


-----


It was the eleventh day after Applejack's little visit.  Life had continued on as it usually did, particularly at Sweet Apple Acres.  In the heart of the trees, a stallion stood under the branches and leaves of his bucking target, taking careful aim on its trunk.  Something he saw out of the corner of his eye made him stop in his tracks, however.  He blinked at what caught his attention – a familiar, two-legged chum walking toward him, his hands in his pockets and his eyes hovering toward the ground.  Matt's clothes looked cleaned and possibly pressed, his face clean shaven.  After what his sister told him, it was refreshing to see Matt in a better state.

The two finally came face to face, not saying anything for several seconds until the taller of the two broke the ice.  "Hey, Big Mac."

"Hey," he replied with a nod.

Another awkward bit of silence.  "How're things?"

"Fine."

"Good, good," Matt said.  "Business been okay?"

"Eeyup."

"Cool."  The two stood in silence aside from a cleared throat, waiting for the other to say something.  With a nervous stutter, Matt eventually was the one to do it.  "Look, Big Mac...I-I'm sure A.J. told you about...y'know, what happened and all, and I understand if you want to kick my ass, I wouldn't blame you.  I'm...I'm really sorry about–"

The stallion waved a hoof and shook his head, cutting his taller friend off.  "You didn't do anything wrong.  She should've said something a long time ago.  But if you're looking to apologize to somepony, it ain't me you need to talk to."

Matt bit his lip as he nodded.  "Yeah.  I don't suppose you have any idea where she is?"

"Should be at the corn field," Big Mac replied.

"Would it be a big deal if I...?"

"Go on ahead.  She'll be happy to see you."

Matt gave the apple bucker a casual salute and smirked.  "Alright, cool, I'll go say hi then.  Was nice seeing you, man."

"Eeyup."


-----


Applejack plucked another ear of corn and tossed it into the cart with its numerous brethren.  She hoped she could get at least half of the large field done by the time the sun started going down, but something told her that wouldn't be a problem.  Ever since she sat down and came clean with Matt, she had felt a huge weight lifted off her shoulders, allowing her mind to be relatively free of distractions.  It still hurt a bit, sure, not hearing from him since then, but she had been able to rest a little easier.

She turned back to the harvest but caught a glimpse of something she hadn't expected to see.  It was a figure approaching her in the distance that she could have spotted anywhere.  Her heart suddenly started racing more and more with each step Matt was taking, and her mouth fell open in pleasant surprise.

Ugh, she needed to keep her cool!  It's not like she hadn't seen him before.  Had to keep it together.

After a couple long minutes, Matt came to a stop a few feet in front of her.  It was clear as day on his face that he was feeling just as awkward as she was.  They stared at each other for a moment, sizing up the situation.  Things seemed to be normal.

"Hey," Matt muttered.

"Hey."  If she was ever going to say something sweet, now was the time.  "...You shaved."

Yeesh, smooth as sandpaper.  He didn't really seem to notice.  At least they were talking.

"Heh, yeah, it was starting to get kind of itchy.  Don't know how you guys deal with it twenty-four hours a day."

"Eh, you don't really notice when you're born with it, I suppose," she said.  "So, uh...how've you been?"

"Okay.  Been doing a few jobs here and there.  Still gotta pay the bills, right?"

"Ain't that the truth."

"What's been up with you?"

Applejack shrugged.  "Not much really.  Work and chores, chores and work, you know how it is."

"Yep," Matt replied, rolling back and forth on the balls of his feet.  "How's the family doing?"

"Good, good.  Granny's been wondering where you've been."  The mare glanced away and poked at the ground.  "Apple Bloom misses seeing you around too."

"I'm honestly kind of surprised she and Sweetie Belle and Scoots didn't stop by when I was, uh...well, y'know."

"Yeah, I told her to leave you be while you cleared your head.  She probably told her friends to do the same, or Rarity and Rainbow Dash told them or something."

"Ah."  He stepped around the cowgirl and sat on the ground, leaning up against the wagon and letting out a relaxed sigh.  Applejack followed suit, planting her flank right beside him.  She could take a few minutes off her hooves; she'd be busting her rump pretty hard so far that day.  Another silent moment passed by.  "You haven't heard of any...strange stuff anywhere, have you?"

"No, looks like everything's a-okay."

"Yeah, I checked around too since you stopped by and I haven't found shit either.  Nice to have things back to normal for a change."  Matt bit his lip before the conversation continued.  He had danced around the real issue at hand and the pleasantries had all been gotten out by now.  "A.J., listen...I'm...I'm real sorry about, Hell, everything.  I mean, I'm all flirty with you and teasing you and stuff the whole time and it was probably driving you crazy.  For God's sake, I was sitting there...biting your ear that one–"

"N-no, no, it's...i-it's okay, Matt, it's okay.  You didn't know.  I should've told you – a long time ago," she said, eyeing the dirt sadly.

A smirk found Matt's face.  "That's what Big Mac said when I saw him earlier."

The farm girl nodded.  "He and Granny Smith I think knew for a while."

"Anyone else?"

"Yeah, I talked to Rarity about it.  She said the same thing, that I should've just been straight with you."  She shook her head and curled her lips, mentally kicking herself.  "Really was a stupid reason I didn't, looking back.  I was just so scared, y'know?"

Just then, she felt a comforting arm wrap around her, caressing her shoulder.  Her eyes met his, which were just as warm as his gesture.  Utterly content, she closed her eyes and leaned blissfully into him, any fears or concerns she may have had melting away.  There was still something left that she wanted to tell him when she finally spilled the beans but didn't feel it was quite the right time.  Now seemed to be just that.

"Matt?"

"Hm?"

"I've...been thinking a lot lately about what you must have gone through thanks to Rachel arriving here and then eventually...well, y'know.  But, the way I've been seeing it, it's not every day that we get to see those we cherished in our lives a second time once they're taken away from us.  So, even though it was...kind of a nightmare in the end, in an odd way, it's not unreasonable to see what happened as kind of a gift."  She smiled softly at him, adding, "And thanks to those doctors, I'd like to think I was given one too."

Hm, he hadn't thought of it that way.  He shifted his eyes away and cocked a wry smile, letting her words sink in.  Her last comment was making him blush a little.

"You're not getting all sappy on me, are you?" he joked.

"Eh, maybe a little," she said, her own cheeks turning a shade of red.  "You, uh...can I ask you something kind of odd, shug?"

"Go 'head, you know you can."

"Alright."  The farm girl bit her lip, fumbling for the right words.  The butterflies really needed to pick a better time to decide to start migrating back to her stomach.  It wasn't an easy question she wanted to ask, but it had eaten at her for a bit ever since she came clean with him.  "Erm... Let's say that you never spotted that one record thing when you were playing us that music that one time.  Do you think that...?"

"What, that I wouldn't have thought of her at all?" he clarified.

"Yeah."

His lips pursed and he pictured various scenarios in his head.  In all honesty, it was probably too difficult to answer.  If he could make predictions like that, he would have probably found a lottery to play.  He shrugged and said, "I don't know.  Doesn't really matter anymore.  Here we are now, right?"

"Yeah, that's true."  She took in a deep breath and steeled herself.  There was one other, much more important thing to her that she needed to know.  "Matt?"

"Sup?"

Of course, she had to get tongue-tied now.  "I...err...if I had said something...y'know, um...before that whole big mess started...well...w-what would you have said?"

Ah yes.  Matt half-expected Applejack to ask such a thing.  He had thought about it more than once since her visit.  That was even harder for him to figure out than the last one, and like before, he was never able to really put together a clear answer.  He had never really thought about such a thing, despite living in Equestria and adopting their culture and norms as his own for so long – as well as spending so much time hanging out on the farm.  Plus, any time he was feeling antsy, so to speak, he took care of things himself and he was able to get by just fine.

What all could he tell her?  If he said no, she'd likely be utterly devastated, even if she'd never admit it.  If he said yes, she'd probably get down in the dumps and feel stupid for not speaking up sooner.  He didn't want to see either of those happen, and neither answer would have been entirely true anyway, so he replied in the best way he knew how.

He reached across and pulled her hat down over her eyes, making the nervous mare giggle like always.  She nudged the brim away from her face and glanced up to see him pretending to be uninterested.

"Y'know, we never did get to see that movie thanks to that friggin' mountain lion. Well, and everything else too, I guess."

Applejack's smile got just a hint wider.  "No, we didn't."

"I happened to pass by the theater earlier, saw that that one we were going to go see wasn't playing anymore.  But I talked to the guy at the ticket counter.  He said there's this one that, like, all the critics hate.  Said he doesn't even remember the last time he sold a ticket for it."  Matt lifted a brow and spied the country girl from the corner of his eye.  "Want to go check it out?  Show starts at 7:20."

A brow of her own was raised.  "Err, why would you want to go see something like that?"

With a hard shrug, he explained, "Well, I figured that, like, we could be all loud and obnoxious and yell at the screen and stuff and there wouldn't be anyone there that would care at all."

Alone...in a dark theater...with Matt.  Okay, maybe she could get behind that.  Her eyes lit up and her cheeks again went red at the thought.

"If I remember right, we were supposed to get something to eat first," she reminded him.

Playing along, he gave her a slow, sure nod.  "This is true."

"My treat."

"You don't have to do that."

"I want to," she said, poking his chest.  "Though I can't promise we'd be able to find a place that serves, y'know, chicken or cow or whatever."

"Eh, I went for over a year and a half without eating that stuff.  A little longer ain't going to kill me.  Soooo, pick you up about 6:15-ish?"

"Sounds good."

"Alright, cool," Matt said happily.  "I better be heading out.  Got a couple things I need to do before tonight, and you probably want to finish up some more of the field here too, I'll bet."

"Heh, yeah.  Never ends around here!"

"Yup!"  As he rose to his feet, he smiled mischievously and tapped her on the nose.  "I'll see you later."

"Take care, sugarcube," she giggled.

Applejack's heart fluttered in her chest as Matt turned and began heading out, a noticeable spring in his step.  It had been quite a while since she had such high spirits.  For a moment, she got lost in her thoughts, dreaming of what may come of that night.  Matt had long since vanished in the distance by the time she blinked and came back down off her cloud.  With renewed vigor, she stood up and looked back over the rows and rows of light green stalks.  Matt was definitely right about that – she needed to get back to her chores.  But, something told her the rest of the work day was going to fly by.
> Epilogue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Applejack stared back at her reflection in the mirror hanging in her room upstairs, an anxious hoof fussing with her mane, making sure everything was as straight and kept up as it could be.  The shower she stepped out of not long ago was probably the best shower she could argue that she ever had, but where a nice warm one could calm the nerves or settle one down, right now she was feeling the complete opposite.

The last time she could remember going out on a date was back when she was a dumb teenager making dumb teenager decisions and thinking she was madly in love with the first colt who gave her a smile.  She couldn't imagine the basic concept behind a night out had changed much, if at all.  In fact, playing with her appearance for a good twenty or thirty minutes before it was time to head out felt oddly familiar despite her not having to do such a thing...well, ever really.  She must have been paying some attention to Rarity without even realizing it.

It would've been nice if she had some perfume somewhere.  Would Matt even go for the perfume?  She never wore it any of the other times they hung out and he never said anything.  If she did have some and used it, would it leave any noticeable residue on her shiny coat?  She did just finish getting a bunch of sweat out of it after a day's work in the fields.

What about the mane style or the tail?  Keep them the same or do something different?  Keep them tied up or let them down?  Hm, if he was punctual, there may not be enough time to dazzle them up if she decided to do so.  It was just after six and he said he'd pick her up in about fifteen minutes.  Ugh, too many decisions!

She bared her teeth and quickly checked them over.  They looked fine, nothing stuck in between them anywhere.  It was probably a smart idea to give them a quick brushing.  Minty fresh breath is always a plus!

The deep breath Applejack took in did little to relax her.  Still, what in the world was she even worrying about anyway?  They always had a lot of fun when they'd spent time together before and there's no reason to think it'd change now.  Besides, this time there was a little more weight behind their evening, and Matt was the one who brought up the idea.  Of course he's going to like however she presents herself, as long as she was there.

Alright, she was definitely ready to go.  Might as well head downstairs and hang out a bit until he showed up, shoot the breeze with her brother and Granny Smith.  Apple Bloom was busy in her room doing some homework, but there wasn't any reason that she shouldn't see them off.  If only she could see the look on her little sister's face when she figures out who her date was that night.  Seeing her pout and throw a little tantrum about not being told who the lucky 'stallion' was had already been pretty amusing.

She paused as she reached for her hat hanging on a nearby hook.  Hm, to wear it or not.  Usually, one only wore hats when they went to some place fancy, and the hat would have to be equally as fancy.  But, they were just heading to a bad movie and a down-home restaurant, nothing extravagant.

...Yeah, she's wearing the hat.

Planting it firmly in place, she left her bedroom and headed down the hall.  Halfway down the stairs, a knock came, setting Winona off.  He was early?  Awesome!

"I'll get it!" Applejack called out, picking up her pace to the front door.  Upon arriving, she stopped to give her hair another quick fluff and catch her breath again before greeting her date.  Gah, there she went fretting again.  Now, if only the dog would be quiet and get out of her way.  "Winona, hush!"

Properly ready now – and with one less barking dog – she opened up the door to Equestria's only simply-dressed man with a single, red rose in his hand and a smile on his face.  "Evening, miss."

"Hey you," she said, standing up to hug him tightly.  She nearly melted when a sensual fragrance tickled her nose.  "That cologne smells nice."

"Heh, thanks.  A last-minute errand I decided to run after I headed out earlier."  They broke their warm embrace, and the mare was offered the flower as he stepped inside.  "For you.  I...honestly wasn't sure if you'd see it as a snack or whatever since, y'know, you guys do eat some of these."

She took the rose and sniffed it gently, letting out a little giggle while she shut the door.  "Some, yeah.  But there are a few like this one where it's understood that it's supposed to be a gift.  It's lovely.  You didn't have to."

"Eh, I wanted to.  Figured this could be a good way to start this possible-maybe new level of a relationship thing we've got going on."

Her cheeks turned almost as red as her present.  "I'd like to think so.  Go ahead and sit down for a minute.  I'm going to go put this in some water."

"Sounds good," Matt said, plopping himself down on the couch and scratching a happy Winona behind the ear.  "Hey puppy!"

As Applejack went on her hunt for a vase, Big Macintosh and Granny Smith came out from the dining area to greet their guest, each having noticed the flower in their relative's grasp as she passed them.  Their hoofsteps on the wood floor caught Matt's notice, but he waited until they joined him before saying anything.

"Hey guys, what's going on?"

"Well now, look who's here!" the old timer cried out.  "Land sake's, sonny boy, where've ya been?  Feels like a dog's age since I seen ya 'round here last!  How ya feelin'?  Applejack told us you been through a whole heap o' stress and stuff lately."

"Yeah, it's been pretty crazy, but...I'm doing okay now I think," he said, nodding.  "Things seem to be normal again, so that's good."

"Well, we're happy to hear that.  I also hear you two got some plans tonight, eh?"

"Yeah, should be fun!  Pretty basic stuff, dinner and a movie.  Maybe go get some drinks later or something, who knows.  See if she's interested.  Feels weird in a way.  I mean, I haven't been out on a date date in...Hell, I don't know how many years.  I'm a little nervous, to tell you the truth."

"Oh, I know you'll have a good time together.  Applejack always liked it when you all would go see some sports thing or just hang out at the park or whatever.  Y'know, now that I think about it, we aren't the only ones that have missed ya."  Granny Smith turned to yell toward a certain filly's room.  "Apple Bloom!  Ya got a minute?"

"I'm kinda busy up here, Granny!" she called back.

"Don't be rude, child.  There's somepony here you oughta come see!" She looked back to Matt as the youngster could be heard presumably jumping off her bed thanks to the 'thud' that came from upstairs.  "She knows Applejack's going out tonight, but we haven't said with who!"

"Ah, I see where you're going with this," Matt snickered, as did the others.

A moment later, a set of tiny steps bounded down the stairs and rounded the corner into the living room.  "Who all's he–"  She nearly forgot how to move when she spotted her bipedal friend on the couch – until she barreled toward him and hopped up next to him, nearly squeezing his head like a grape in her limbs.  "Matt!"  Her hug quickly turned into a jab on the shoulder.  "Where in Equestria have you been?!"

"Ow, not so rough!  I bruise easy."

"Yeah, yeah.  Seriously, I haven't seen you in forever!  What happened to you?  And why do you smell funny?"

"Oh, that!  That's a, err...a new shampoo I'm trying out.  You like it?"

"It's okay."

"Cool, cool.  As for where I've been..."  He paused briefly, trying to pick the right words.  Even if he had time to get into any kind of detail, he's wasn't really sure how much she needed to hear.  Ignorance really was bliss for the filly in this case.  "I...needed to sort some things out for a little while, but I'm doing okay now."

"That's good."

"Mhm!  What about you?  You been behaving?" he asked, ruffling her red mane.

"Ah, there's no fun in that!  Are you here to have dinner with us or something tonight?"

"Mmmm, something like that.  Why?  What's up?"

"We're not gonna be all here.  Applejack's got a date!" Apple Bloom teased.

"Ooo-oooo!  Who's she going out with?" Matt asked, playing his part.

"I don't know. They haven't told me," the little one huffed.

"Well, I'll tell you what.  If word gets to me that they treated her bad, I'll knock them out.  How's that?"

"Not if I do it first!  Ain't nopony gonna get away with hurtin' my big sister."

For her proud boasts, she received a noogie.  "S'right!"

"Whew!  Not sure why it was so hard for me to find a vase in this house," Applejack said as she returned.  She and Matt looked into each other's eyes and smiled.  "Ready to go?"

"Let's do it!" Matt said, hopping to his feet.

Apple Bloom blinked in confusion.  "Wait, what?"

The couple waved goodbye as they stepped out the door.  "Don't wait up for me!"

"Have a good time!"

Granny Smith and Big Mac watched happily from the window as Matt and Applejack headed out for the evening.  Meanwhile, Apple Bloom spun around and stood on the couch, the obvious realization quickly setting in as the pair walked away.  Still bewildered, the youngster stammered and sputtered as she tried to find the right words, giving her elders a reason to chuckle at her as they headed back inside to continue making dinner.

"You mean A.J. and Matt are...?!  When did...?!  Why am I always the last one to know about these things?!"