Who would've thought that being at the wrong place at the wrong time would bring something so surreal.
Life is full of surprises. I've gotten a little sister, my first game system at the age of eight, my own car seven years ago and the list goes on.
However... things will be different on the 5th of November in the year 2012. This is a surprise that will send me, Caleb, to another world where talking, technicolor equines and a dragon are my new companions, not humans.
I groaned while stuffing my face in my pillow with my digital alarm clock beeping in the background. Lazily, I waved my arm around in an attempt to press the snooze button until I finally pressed it, resetting the alarm for ten minutes.
After taking in the next ten minutes and going through that annoying beeping again, I hopped out of bed and headed off to the bathroom. I slightly brushed my hand against my hair that stood up on end in the mirror's reflection. With that, I commenced the morning routine.
Once I finished taking my morning shower, combing my hair, putting on some fresh clothes, and brushing my teeth, I walked into the kitchen and popped two slices of bread into the toaster and got out some strawberry jam.
Shortly after having my rather bland breakfast, I thought it would be a good idea to head to the market to get more food. While driving, I reached over to the radio knob and pressed it. I twisted the knob until I stopped on a news radio channel. At first they were talking about traffic conditions on Milwaukee's Zoo Interchange and then they switched to a more interesting topic.
"In other news, reports of an attack on a research lab in Vancouver, Canada has led Canadian authorities scrambling to the area. Find out why after the break." the anchor announced.
"That's interesting." I said.
A few minutes later, the news had came back on.
"All right, coming back to that attack in Vancouver. Most of the staff have evacuated the building, but many say that one is still inside and is the reason for the disturbance. Canadian news stations have connected with WISN and revealed that employees who work with the suspect are saying that he will activate "it." Very vague answer, but we will have more updates shortly. Cathy, back to you." the anchor concluded
"What the heck is "it" supposed to mean?" I thought to myself.
After driving a little while longer, I made it to the county market and headed inside. Most of everyone seemed to be going about their day and shopping for groceries, but I noticed that some people appeared to be in a big hurry and rather erratic when choosing their items. Like they were mildly panicking, but I didn't pay much mind to them when I happened to run into a friend while waiting at the checkout line.
"Sup, man." Ryan greeted me.
"Oh, hey. What's up?" I responded.
"Monday, Caleb. Monday is what's up." Ryan said.
"Same with you." I agreed, rubbing my eyes.
"Anything else besides that?" Ryan asked.
"Not much. Hey, have you heard about that attack up in Canada?" I asked.
"Nope. What happened? Did some Canadian run out of their monthly supply of maple syrup?" he joked.
"Ha-ha! I see what you did there." I said, while laughing with him.
"Do you have any idea what was going on up there?" Ryan asked.
"I heard it involved an attack at some research lab in Vancouver, that city north of Washington. Sounded pretty serious because the employee's were being evacuated." I replied.
"No way. Was it a terrorist attack?" Ryan asked.
"I don't think so. Probably just some crazy scientist that worked there." I replied.
"That's pretty weird. Wonder what he did that managed to get international news attention." Ryan said.
"You're right about that. I was thinking the same thing before I ran into you." I said.
Me and him walked to our cars while thinking up possibilities of what the crazy scientist would have possibly done before we parted our separate ways.
"You have a good rest of the day, Caleb." Ryan said.
"You too. I'll see ya when I see ya." I replied.
"Later, dude." he said before hopping into his vehicle.
While I was driving home, I switched on the radio, hoping to find out more information about that situation in Vancouver, but only got white static from the station. About ten minutes later, I made it back home and walked inside my house and hauled my groceries inside.
Unpacking and sorting through everything, I switched on the television to the WISN 12 news network and sure enough, there was a live news feed of the situation going on in Vancouver. However, something was off about the broadcast. Nobody was talking, reporting on what was happening to the public. I could hear people talking in the background but they were too incoherent to make out. I didn't pay much mind to the television at first, but that about to change.
The Emergency Alert System had just come on. Perking my attention, I left the kitchen and glued my eyes to the black screen, reading the white text. After those three chill-inducing tones went off, as well as the one that drones on afterwards, a staticky voice began to speak.
"The following message is transmitted at the request of U.S and Canadian government authorities. At 7:49 AM, Pacific Time, an event of supernatural phenomenon occurred eleven miles north of Vancouver, Canada. An energy beam of unknown type was fired approximately one mile into the atmosphere, causing a significant amount of cloud coverage to form, power outages, and growing at an excessive rate over the city, reaching directly eastward at an extra seventy-five miles. An evacuation order has been given for all residents within a five mile radius for those in the predetermined path of the growth. Weather radars will be displayed after this message to provide the predetermined path. If you are within the five mile radius, be sure to pack food, water, first-aid kit, flashlight with spare batteries, and use only one vehicle to follow evacuation routes placed by local authorities. If you are not within the five mile zone, stay where you are. Keep up to date with your news media outlets for more information on this event."
"What? They shot an energy beam into the sky?" I said to myself.
At that point, I had forgotten what I was doing beforehand. For the rest of the day, I just took it easy and relaxed while keeping up to date with the news. I mean it's not like the clouds are much of a threat to us since I was so far away from them while everyone up there by the clouds were evacuating their homes. So yeah, I thought I was a-okay.
I slowly opened up my eyes. I could faintly hear something coming from outside. It sounded like a wail or a scream at first, but once I opened up my bedroom window, I realized that it was the blaring of the air raid siren that was not far from where I was.
"Is there a tornado?" I said, checking the weather radar to see if there was a storm approaching.
When the radar was finally brought up, I was in a mix between shock and slight panic. The entirety of southern Wisconsin was covered with a blanket of blue that indicated cloud coverage. Nothing but cloud coverage could be seen on the radar. I then quickly created a new tab and looked up the world radar to see how bad Wisconsin was and that's when I started to get scared. The United States was now nothing but cloud coverage. Mexico and three-fourths of Canada were doing fine, but the U.S was completely engulfed.
"Oh, no..." I said.
I then dashed out my bedroom door to get a better idea of what was happening, but I was stopped by a light I caught in the corner of my eye. In the distance, about a mile away, I could see a light-blue glow. I looked back and forth at the glow before I approached the back glass door. It was moving, the glow was moving to the right. I then slid the glass door open and stood on the wooden patio in my backyard.
"What the hell..." I said, unsure of whether to be fascinated of it or fear it.
As I watched the blue glow, I couldn't help but realize how quiet it was after the sirens abruptly stopped. No crickets were chirping and I could hear the leaves rustle quietly on the trees. That's when I heard a low hum in the distance, and it was moving in my direction. The humming was getting much louder, almost to the point where it was right above me, causing my eardrums tickle, which made me cover them with my hands. However, something wasn't right. The glow slowed down and stopped . Call it a hunch, but I felt no good was about to come to me.
I then turned around to head back inside, but that didn't happen. Instead, I felt something painlessly strike me in less than a second and was somewhere far from Earth.
I felt all the hairs on my body stand up on end as I entered this weird dimensional threshold. I tried to yell out loud, but I couldn't hear myself. Strangely enough, everything felt calm as before, too. My surroundings were extremely bizarre. It looked like the little color effect you see when you look at oil mixed in water, but the stillness did not last for long. Just like someone switching on overdrive, the colors began to undulate back and forward rapidly in wavy motions and my body was flung forward like a ragdoll. I closed my eyes tightly and yelled out a few times while speeding through the wavy energy. It felt like forever, but the sound of electricity running past my ear made me open my eyes. I could distinctly make out a blackhole that grew bigger in size as I gradually slowed down. I came to a halt right at the edge of the large hole and gravity came back. I then fell out of the hole and landed right on my feet, causing me to stumble and fall forward.
"Ahh!" I exclaimed on impact.
Slowly, I raised myself back on my feet and looked around. It was late at night. The moonlight was my only way of knowing where I was at the time. I appeared to be in an open field with knee high grass and I could make out the silhouettes of trees and hills in the distance. But what I really thought was odd was this castle that protruded from a mountain miles away. It was so far away, but still distinguishable from the interior lighting.
"Where the hell am I?" I asked myself.
Finally, I decided that I needed to find my way back to or find the nearest point of civilization because I was in the middle of nowhere at the moment. I couldn't get to the strange castle because it was on the side of a frickin mountain. I wandered around and searched more and spotted a gravel path that pointed into a heavily wooded area that read, "Ponyville." I knew I had to go through the woods in order to get to this village. I stared into the dark forest and took a deep breath.
"This idea is going to bite me in the ass." I said to myself.
With caution, I started heading into the woods and it was nearly pitch black when I got in there. While slowly walking, the gravel pushing onto my bare feet, I heard the snap of a twig on my right, in the woods. I flinched and my adrenaline began to take into effect. Quickly, I started walking away from the sound in the dark and looked back only to find a pair of glowing green eyes following me.
"Holy shit!" I cried in fear.
With no hesitation, I sprinted and made a life saving decision to quickly make a left turn and climbed the nearest tree. I jumped as high as I could and pulled myself up in one explosive movement and kept climbing upwards. Looking down, those glowing eyes looked right up at me, scratching at the tree in an attempt to reach me. The eyes and I made contact with each other for what felt like forever before the creature or whatever it was decided to move on and leave me alone.
There was no doubt in my mind that I wasn't going back down until it was morning. So, I decided to feel around for a sturdy branch that could support my weight and I slouched uncomfortably on it, leaning my head against the tree before closing my eyes for the rest of the night.
I squinted my eyes as they slowly opened, adjusting to the brightness of the sun's rays peering through the leaves in the tree. After rubbing them to get rid of the crust, I began to slowly climb back down the tree while being cautious of the creature that chased me. I jumped off the lowest branch and landed with a grunt. Upon inspection of the bark, I had discovered nasty looking gashes or claw marks on the side and huge paw prints that led towards the opposite side of the woods.
"Uh-uh, that ain't happening." I said to myself.
I walked back onto the gravel path and looked both ways to remind myself where I was heading to and continued westward. Along the way, I encountered rather smaller and friendly animals such as rabbits, squirrels, and birds. Pretty much the common animals you would see in the woods, but I still didn't let my guard down on that creature I saw last night.
It felt like I was walking forever until I came across a T-intersection with a sign that pointed towards Ponyville, and headed to the right. The woods became less dense than before and I could see through the trees more easier. As I continued onwards, I came across something new. There was an apple tree that was filled with bright, red apples.
"Alright! Something to eat."
I rushed over to the tree and jumped upwards, grabbed an apple, and plucked it on the way down. I then took a big bite into the fruit and my tastebuds were hit with a burst of sweet flavor and a hint of sour from the juice inside. Finishing the apple, I collected two more and continued on down the path for a little bit longer. To my surprise, the sunlight was dimming a tiny bit before I realized that sunset was near.
"Sunset already? How long was I asleep for?" I questioned myself.
I now needed to hurry because if I wasn't out here when nightfall hits, I had no doubt that monster would not hesitate to come find me again. To speed things up a bit, I started to jog.
I had been jogging for a short amount of time before I came across some hoof prints, pausing to inspect them. When I mean hoof prints, I mean the footprints of a horse. The hoof prints were relatively small, could possibly be a small horse or a donkey. This sparked a thought. If there are hoof prints on a path and they go in a straight direction towards the supposed village, then that means there are possibly people with domesticated horses in the area.
"Okay, just gotta follow these prints and they should lead me to somebody….. Hopefully."
As I was following the hoofprints, the sky was dimming even more. When I looked up, the sun was on the verge of descending. I was now jogging even faster now because I just wanted to get to the end of the trail of the hoofprints before it ended up being too late. But however, there was something up ahead
It was something small; yellow and red at the top. I started to close in on it and realized it was a small pony with a yellow coat and a red mane. It also appeared to have a bow in its mane. As I got closer, it turned around and its face made me stop dead in my tracks.
First of all, the shape of its face is not like any equine I've ever seen. The head more rounded and has this rounded triangular muzzle. Second, its eyes were big and somewhat resembled a humans, complete with a set of eyebrows and eyelashes, but they do fit the size of the head. Strangely enough, despite all of that, the face, including the body, looks like it was pulled out of a cartoon and put into reality. I was questioning whether I was truly awake or dreaming. I proceeded to pinch my side and nothing happened.
"Welp, I guess I'm not dreaming."
Me and the pony made eye contact and I could see it was absolutely terrified by the facial expression it made. The pupils had creepily shrunk a little bit and its mouth remained wide open. The pony turned around and got the hell out of dodge before I could continue.
"Huh. Must've scared it off."
The pony continued to sprint further away then took a left. Shortly after, I heard a voice shouting in the distance that sounded like a little girl and I could make out what it said. It said, "Applejack." The weird thing was that it came from the direction of the pony. Maybe the left turn the pony made was a path that lead to a house and the shout could've been the owner of the pony calling for it.
"Yeah, that seems like a pretty legit explanation." I assured to myself.
I had to figure out if what I just saw was real, so I decided to follow it. As I got to the left where the pony turned, I quickly took notice to the sign above me that read, "Sweet Apple Acres." No wonder there were apple trees everywhere. It was an apple orchard. The pony came back with slightly larger orange pony…. And they were talking.
"C'mon Applejack! Its right here! Some kind of monkey!" the yellow pony exclaimed in a southern accent.
"Monkey?"
"Alright, Applebloom, let's see what this thing i-." the orange pony said in a feminine, southern accent.
The orange pony stopped and stared right back me with the same shocked expression I probably had when I saw the smaller yellow one.
"My stars... It's wearin' clothing and everything. Who... Who are ya?" Applejack asked.
I parted my lips and stood there in silence. I was at such a lost of words for what I was seeing that I couldn't even respond. Confused, I tightened my fists and furrowed my brow at the two ponies. Applejack must've noticed how I was presenting and probably considered it hostile.
"Alrighty then. Applebloom, go get Big Mac and tell him to get the rope. I'll keep an eye on him." Applejack calmly demanded.
"It doesn't look that harmful. It looks rather friendly to me. Maybe it's lost." Applebloom replied in a sympathetic tone.
"Well I've never seen a monkey like this. Maybe we can find someone who can take it back to its natural habitat." said Applejack, sternly.
With that, Applebloom took one more look at me before she ran off towards the other direction.
Now it was just me and Applejack. She began to scrape her hooves against the dirt, kicking dust behind her, indicating she was about to charge. I was still somewhat lost in a trance of bewilderment due to seeing two ponies talking in perfect English. Before I knew it, Applejack was running towards me. Quickly, I dodged to the left, avoiding the tackle. Finally, I spoke up to the pony.
"Hey, ease off! I wasn't going to attack you." I said, hastily.
"What in the hay? You can talk?!" Applejack asked.
"Yes! And I mean you no harm! I exclaimed.
With that, Applejack slowly returned to a neutral stance, still staring me in surprise.
"Yeah... Thanks for a warm welcome, pony." I replied, sarcastically.
"Hey, I said I was sorry for gettin' to rough on yah'. I just took you for a threat at first." Applejack explained.
"Seems like you've never seen anything like me before." I said.
"Never in all my days." Applejack replied while examining me with great interest.
Suddenly, a big red pony that was much more larger than Applejack came around the corner with a rope in its mouth while lassoing it.
"H-H-Hey! Stop him!" I exclaimed to Applejack, prompting her to intervene with the pony.
"Hold up there, Big Mac! Turns out he ain't no threat after all." Applejack confirmed.
Big Mac quickly came to a halt and stared at me with this look as if he just saw a ghost.
"Um... Uh... Howdy there." I greeted to the pony.
"Howdy to you too." Big Mac replied in a deep southern voice.
"You see, Applejack? I told you it was friendly." Applebloom exclaimed, sprinting around the corner.
"Well, you sure did prove me wrong, Applebloom." Applejack admitted
The small filly gazed at me in amazement and excitement rather than the shocked expressions of Applejack and Big Mac.
"So, this little pony's name is Applebloom?" I asked.
"It can talk, too?! I can't believe it! And it said my name too!" Applebloom cried while jumping up in place. "I can't wait to show you to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo!"
"Scoota-what? Who are they?" I asked.
"Those two filly's are just Applebloom's little friends. And, Applebloom, you can't just take... By the way, you got a name?" Applejack asked me.
"Oh, right. My name is Caleb." I answered.
"Nice name ya got. As I was saying, you can't just take Daniel here around as some show and tell item." Applejack scolded.
"Don't worry about that, Applejack. If I'm gonna be new around these parts, I might as well make myself known anyways. I'd rather not have a similar encounter like we did a few minutes ago." I said.
"Well you do have a point there, Caleb. Sorry again." Applejack agreed.
"So... you'll stop over again?!" Applebloom asked, eagerly.
"I don't know about that. I'm looking for that nearby village and plan on continuing. So, uhhh, I best be going. Really nice to meet you pony-folk. Have a nice, uh, evening." I farewelled, shaking my head as I just came to terms with talking to multi-colored ponies.
Right when I turned to walk away, I was suddenly stopped by Applejack.
"Caleb, wait!" Applejack yelled.
"Um, yes?" I asked.
"Look, we can't just let you out on your own this late." Applejack said.
"Why? Would that be because of a certain pair of glowing green eyes?" I asked in curiosity.
"Yep. You may be quite the shocker to us, but not to Timberwolves. You would just be a snack to them." Applejack said. That was enough for me to reconsider my decision to venture on.
"Yeah, I had a close encounter with one last night." I said.
"Well in that case, you should stay for the night. In the morning, we'll give ya directions to Ponyville. How does that sound?" Applejack offered.
"Really? Oh, well, uh, I guess I could stay for the night... If you insist. You guys have a house around here?" I asked.
"We sure do. Follow us, we'll get you all set up." Applejack instructed.
“So, how long has this orchard been in business?” I asked.
“For sixty-six moons.” Applejack answered.
“Ever since Granny Smith first settled here.” Applebloom added.
“Granny Smith? Jeez, what's up with all the apple themed names?” I thought to myself. “That’s quite the time. I’m guessing your farm is mainly based on growing and selling different types of apples?" I asked.
“There's that, and we also grow other crops, such as carrots. But yes, it's pretty much apple based.” Applejack explained.
“I have to admit, Sweet Apple Acres grows some decent apples.” I complimented.
“Oh, so you had some for yourself?” Applejack asked.
“Yes. I hope you don’t mind. I was pretty hungry.” I admitted while pulling an apple out of my pocket.
“Don’t worry about it. That one apple was just one of the thousands here.” Applejack said.
I continued to follow the Apples through a little entryway that led to the actual farm. The farm was complete with a barn, chicken coops, a pigsty, and the list goes on. Pretty much what a stereotypical farm would have. Eventually, all four of us arrived at a farmhouse that looked rather inviting
“And here’s where you will be staying at.” Applejack said.
“Huh. Not too bad. Looks pretty cozy to me.” I said.
Upon entering, an aroma was present throughout the house, kind of like an apple-cinnamon scent. This lead me to believe something good was cooking. I also took notice of how much wood was used to build this barnhouse. The floors were wood, the walls, and even the stairs that led to the second-floor. It definitely looked like a house that was built sixty-six years ago. However, I really loved the decor.
“Granny! We’ve got a guest.” Applejack announced.
“Oh, now who would that be?” replied an elderly southern woman's voice.
Just then, the source of the voice came around the corner. It definitely had to be Granny Smith herself. She had a light green coat, her facial features definitely showed signs of old age in a pony, not that it's a problem, and she had a pie on the side of her flank rather than an apple. I’ve really gotta ask them what those tattoos are for sometime.
Granny paused for a second and squinted her eyes to get a better view of me.
“Hello there.” I greeted in a kind tone.
“Why hello there. And what might you be?” Granny asked.
“A human, but you can call me by my name, which is Caleb.” I said.
“Well it's mighty fine to meet somepony like you. Never seen anything like you in all my days.” Granny said.
“You too.” I replied.
I’m quite surprised how Granny took in seeing me for the first time. She was calm, collective and polite. Unlike Applejack who almost ran me down. But I can still see why Applejack was so defensive, she was just trying to protect her family from a possible threat.
“Well, Caleb, welcome to our little home. Judging by the scent, we arrived just in time for supper.” said Applejack.
“Sound good. All I had to eat today was just one apple.” I said.
“One apple? Why this youngster needs to eat. He got to have his supper.” Granny said.
“You got that right, Granny. Come on into the kitchen and we’ll get ya situated then.” Applejack said.
“Lead the way.” I said.
I followed Applejack into the kitchen and the scent grew even stronger. It was definitely an apple pie or something like that.
“Applejack, would you mind getting the cobbler out of the oven?” Granny asked.
“You bet, Granny.” Applejack replied.
"Apple Cobbler for dinner? This family isn't as bad as I thought."
“Big MacIntosh, would you set up the chairs in the dining room?” Granny asked again.
“Eeyup.” Big Mac replied.
“And Applebloom, be a good little filly and set up some silverware.” Granny instructed.
“Yes, Granny Smith.” Applebloom replied, obediently. All three of the ponies dispersed and went to do their assigned tasks.
“You’re like the matriarch of this family.” I remarked to Granny.
“Well you know what they say, ‘respect your elders.’ Granny said.
Applejack grabbed a heat protection cloth with her mouth and opened up the oven door. She then picked the baking pan up and placed it in the dining room. Me and Granny followed behind her into the room.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here?” I asked.
“What we have here is Apple Cobbler.” Applejack said.
“Sure looks and smells good.” I said, hungrily.
“You can thank Granny for this home-style cooking.” Applejack remarked.
“Thank you, Granny Smith.” I said.
“Your welcome, youngin’.” Granny replied.
“Seat for you.” Big Mac said, as he slid a chair towards me.
“Oh. Thank you.” I said.
“Eeeyup.” he replied.
After everyone got a chair, we sat down and began to get our servings of cobbler. Since I was the star guest of the evening, I was the first to get a helping. I picked up my knife, cut a fine square of cobbler and placed it on my plate.
“Go on and take a little more.” Granny Smith insisted.
“You sure? Will there be enough for everyone?” I asked.
“Don’t fret about it. You did say that all you had to eat today was a tiny, little apple.” Granny reminded.
“You’re right, I did say that.” I said as I got myself another square.
After I got an extra helping, I passed the cobbler to Granny Smith. Granny then passed it to Applebloom, then to Applejack, and finally Big Mac. Once everyone had a piece, I took a bite of the cobbler with my fork. As I chewed, I started nodding in approval.
“Pretty good, ain’t it?” Applebloom asked.
“Better than I expected! Granny sure knows how to bake.” I complimented.
“Thank you, sonny.” Granny replied.
“What do you like most about it?” Applejack asked.
“I think the best part is the filling. It’s perfectly thick, not runny, and that tiny hint of cinnamon within it is a very nice touch.” I said.
“I agree with you on that.” Applebloom said.
As we continued eating cobbler, I noticed Applejack staring at me, but she wasn’t staring at my face. She was staring at my shirt.
“Something up, Applejack?” I asked.
“Yeah. Is Under Armour supposed to be your nickname or something?” She asked while pointing her hoof at the center of my shirt.
“That’s actually a brand name of the company that makes athletic clothing. Do you kn I confirmed.
“Oh. Well why didn’t I think about that? You into sports?” Applejack asked.
“I haven't played anything in years, but I used to play baseball all the time.” I said.
“What made ya stop?” Big Mac asked.
“Baseball just got really old to me as time went on. Just felt very repetitive for me because each game was just standing out at left-field and batting. That’s why I stopped. Do you know what baseball is?” I concluded.
"Sure. It's the game where you hit the bat with the ball. There's also hoof-ball and all kinds of other sports as well." Applejack replied.
"Hoofball? That really reminds me.... Can you tell me where exactly I'm at? Like, what state of providence am I in?" I asked.
"You're in Equestria, Caleb. Like you said, we're not too far from Ponyville." Applejack replied.
"Are there more there? More ponies like you?" I asked.
"You betcha. Hence the name, of course." Applejack replied.
I awkwardly chuckled in response.
While we continued to eat, a thought came to my mind.
“Hey, Applejack. What exactly is a Timberwolf?” I asked in curiosity.
“Those things are mean as sin. If they see something that’s smaller than them, they’ll go after it. But if it’s something bigger than them, they’ll turn into cowards.” She said in a slightly louder tone.
“Nasty varmints.” Granny added.
“But what exactly are they?” I asked again.
“They’re these big wolf like creatures that are made up of branches, twigs, or any kind of wooden material.” Applejack described.
“Heck, they probably would go after me.” Big Mac said.
“I suppose. I’m much taller than you and that one Timberwolf went after me with no hesitation.” I said.
“But the point is, it’s best to just stay inside during nighttime.” Applejack said.
“No kidding there.” I said.
Shortly after the conversation, the cobbler went from three-fourths to nothing as quick as a flash. Not even a crumb was left on the pan. I than proceeded to pat my belly with my hand. Applejack was now washing the dishes and drying them while I sat in the chair with my eyes half open.
“Stuffed?” Applejack asked.
“That cobbler filled a hole, Applejack. Hey, Granny, thanks again for the cobbler.” I said.
“You’re welcome.” Granny said.
“Actually, thank you all. Thank you for being so accepting and compassionate towards me. My time here at Sweet Apple Acres has been a great start in this world and I am grateful for your hospitality.” I said.
“No problem, sugarcube. If you ever need anything, come to us. We’ll always lend ya a helping hoof.” Applejack said, supportively.
“Yeah! And we’ll als-” Applebloom said before she was cut off from her yawning and rubbing her slightly weary eyes.
Granny Smith looked at the clock and saw that it read eight-twenty one.
“Woah, nelly! It’s way past our usual bedtime.” Granny exclaimed.
“Would you look at that.” Applejack said.
“That’s alright. I’m feeling a bit tired after that cobbler myself.” I said.
“I guess that means we should all hit the hay.” Big Mac said.
“I agree. I’m feeling tuckered out myself.” Applejack said with a yawn.
“Where am I sleeping at?” I asked.
“Unfortunately, Caleb, we don’t have a guest bedroom. The best we can give you is the couch in the living room. Hope that's not too bad.” Applejack offered.
“I’ll take the couch. Doesn’t bother me.” I said.
“Good. Living room is left of the hallway and I’ll be right with you with a blanket.” Applejack said.
“Okay.” I said.
I exited the dining room and head down the hallway and into the living room. Right when I walked in, I heard little pitter-patters on the woods floor. I looked down and saw a small dog that looked a lot like a Collie. The dog circled me and sniffed me at the same time, trying to figure me out.
“Hey, Applejack, I didn’t know you had a dog!” I exclaimed.
Applejack came back with a blanket and a pillow on her back.
“That’s Winona. Best pet and work dog a pony could ever have.” she said, giving Winona a small nuzzle on the head.
Winona looked up at me and gave a playful bark towards me.
“You want me to give you some attention, huh?” I asked Winona.
Winona then opened her mouth and had her tongue hang out while panting. This indicated me to sit down next to her and started scratching behind her ears. Winona took liking to the affection I gave.
“Yeah, you like getting all this attention, don’t you?” I said in the weird voice that most people do when they talk to pets.
“Winona just loves getting scratched behind the ol’ ears.” Applejack stated.
“I can see that.” I replied.
“At least you’ll have someone to sleep with, tonight.” Applejack said.
“You want to sleep in here tonight? Hope you like snoring.” I whispered to Winona.
Applejack must’ve heard what I said because it got laugh out of her.
“There ya go, Caleb. All set up for you.” Applejack said.
“Okay, thanks. See you in the morning, Applejack.” I said.
“You too. G’night, Caleb.” Applejack said before heading upstairs.
After she headed up stairs, I removed my T-shirt and switched off the lantern that lit the room. Thankfully, the moonlight was a decent substitute to find my way back to the couch. I hopped onto the couch, covered myself up with the blanket, and went into a deep sleep.
About five hours later, I was woken by a sound. Immediately I thought it was Winona walking around in the dark, but the floor board was creaking. Therefore, it was something much heavier than a small Collie.
"Who's there? Is someone there?" I asked.
"It's Applebloom." Applebloom responded, wearily.
I climbed off the couch and headed for the lantern. I switched it back on and the entire room lit up, revealing a fatigued Applebloom.
"What are you doing up? It's one thirty-four in the morning." I said, looking at the clock.
"I got thirsty." she said.
"What would you like?" I asked.
"Milk please." Applebloom requested.
I hooked my fingers around the lantern and headed into the kitchen. After getting the milk from the fridge, I poured some into a cup.
"Here ya go." I said, handing her the cup.
"Thanks." she replied. She began to take a sip from the cup.
I decided to start a conversation with Applebloom until she finished her milk.
"I remember you talking about two ponies named Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo? When did you guys meet?" I asked.
"Uhhhh, about two months ago at a cute-cenera." Applebloom said.
"Really? So it this was pretty recent then." I said.
"Uh huh." she trailed off while taking another sip and staring blankly.
"You were saying?" I reminded.
"Sorry. I'm still pretty tired." Applebloom said.
"Don't worry, I know how you feel." I said while letting out a yawn.
"My bullies were having their cute-cenera and the only reason why they invited me was to just make feel more down for not having a cutie mark." Applebloom explained.
"Bullies, huh? I never really liked bullies myself. But go on." I said
"I tried to fake having a cutie mark, but that was just a big fluke. I only ended up making myself look more like fool when everypony found out." she said.
"Why did you even go? You said they were your bullies, right?" I asked.
"I did say that. But if I didn't go in the first place, everyone would've known I was a blank flank." she said.
"Are Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo 'blank flanks' as well?" I questioned.
"Mmm-hmm. That's the main reason why we became friends in the first place." Applebloom said
"Wow. So maybe going to that cute-cenera was a good thing after all." I said
"I suppose. Right now all three of us are trying different stuff to find our cutie marks." Applebloom said as she finished her milk.
"Sounds pretty good, to me. And to be honest, Applebloom, you shouldn't let bullies get you down when they tease you. All you have to do is ignore them and they'll lose interest. It always worked for me when I was younger." I advised.
"I know that now. But thanks for the reminder." Applebloom said.
"No prob'," I said. "Alright, you should probably head back to bed." I pointed out.
"Okay." Applebloom said as she got off the chair and headed for the stairs.
"Good night, Applebloom." I called from the kitchen.
"Night." she responded.
With that, I picked up the lantern and headed back into the living room. Winona slowly opened her eyes to my presence.
"Hey, girl." I greeted.
I set the lantern on the table and switched it off before lying back down on the couch again and falling back asleep.
My eyes began to open. I looked around the room to see if anyone was awake, but everything was quiet. Even Winona was still asleep. Slowly, I rose off the couch and looked at the clock that read six twenty-one. I then stretched my muscles to get them all adjusted for the day, gazing out the window. The sky was a beautiful light blue with a shine of orange on the horizon. My gaze was then broken by a sound that came from the kitchen. I walked into the kitchen to find Applejack making her own breakfast.
"Hello, Applejack." I said.
"G'mornin, Caleb." she replied "Did you sleep well?" she asked.
"Mmmm, yeah. I actually feel pretty well rested." I replied.
"Good. Hungry for some breakfast?" she offered.
"You don't mind?" I asked.
"Sure. I'll throw two more pancakes on if you'd like." Applejack said.
"Then sure. I'd like some, please." I said.
"Alrighty then." Applejack said.
I then took a seat at the dining room table and waited for my pancakes. While waiting, Ponyville came to my mind.
"Hey, Applejack. You said you had directions to Ponyville?" I asked from the other room.
"Uhhh, yep. I got a map in this drawer here." Applejack replied.
A short while later, Applejack entered the room with two plates of fresh made pancakes. She settled one plate in front to me and the other to my left. Applejack then pulled out a chair, sat next to me, unrolled a map and placed it flat on the table.
"Alright, so we're here," she pointed at a barn that read Sweet Apple Acres. "If you head back to the entrance, take a left, and follow that path for about one mile. It's a straight shot and you should make it to Ponyville."
"Sounds easy as can be." I said as I munched on my pancake.
"Or as I would say, easy as apple pie." Applejack quipped.
"Ahhhhhhhh." I responded to the joke, causing us both to chuckle.
As we continued to feast on our pancakes, Applejack informed me of another pony that lived not far from Sweet Apple Acres.
" And, Caleb, if you take the first right while you're following the path to Ponyville, It'll lead you to a good friend of mine." Applejack said.
"Who would that be?" I asked.
"Her name is Fluttershy." she revealed.
"Okay.... So, if your name is Applejack and you affiliate with Apples.... then is Fluttershy supposed to be a really shy pony?" I asked.
"She does live up to her name. But if you get on her good side, you'll find out she's a real kind-hearted soul." Applejack said.
"I'll keep that in mind." I said.
After both of us were finished with our food, it was time to part ways for now.
"Here, Caleb. Keep that map for yourself. We've got another copy upstairs." Applejack said.
"Thanks. This'll come in handy. I really do owe you and your family for what you guys did for me, especially since you've all never seen a h." I said.
"Aw shucks, Caleb. You really don't have to do that." Applejack said.
"I will find a way to repay you guys somehow." I insisted.
"Oh, okay." Applejack replied
"But anyways, thanks again for your hospitality here and I hope to see you and your family again in the future." I said as I extended my arm for a handshake.
"Likewise, Caleb. Good luck out there." Applejack said as she leaned her hoof into my hand.
I grasped her hoof and shook it. With that, I opened the door and left the farmhouse.
The air was very cool and crisp, considering it was a fall morning, but I knew it would warm up later during the day. As I came to exit of Sweet Apple Acres, I took a left and continued my journey to Ponyville.
Walking for about maybe half a mile, I came across that right turn that led to Applejack's friend named Fluttershy. I thought wether if it was worth the time or not, but I decided I wanted to see what this pony was all about and continued down the alternate route. The abundance of apple trees decreased and the area became more forested again. Sorta caused me to keep my guard up for the Timberwolves once again.
When it seemed like forever, I made it to the end of the alternate route. I inspected the area for any structures, but didn't see anything but vegetation. Remembering I had a map, I pulled it out and looked for my current location. Once I found my location, I realized that I had to take a left and go further down the path. I also noticed that Fluttershy's house is relatively close to Ponyville, so it's win-win situation for me.
Following my directions eventually paid off because I discovered a cottage that looked more like a huge ground erosion that formed into a house. There was also a little land formed bridge that went over a small stream and the front yard had bird houses posted all over the place.
"Perhaps Fluttershy is a bird fanatic or something."
Tucking the map into my jean pocket, I proceeded to walk over the small bridge and onto the winding pathway that led to the front door. I lightly knocked on the door and nobody answered at first. Suddenly, the door began to open slowly. I looked down and saw a pony with a yellow coat and a pink mane. I only caught this glimpse for about two seconds before I heard a high pitched squeal and the door slammed shut. I quickly tried to reassure Fluttershy that I meant no harm.
"Hey, don't be scared. I'm not gonna hurt you." I said in the most chillest voice I could muster.
"Oh. Um.... please come back another time, Mr. Ape." she replied on the other side of the door.
"Well at least she got ape right instead of monkey." I noted to myself.
"Look, I know I may seem scary at first, but I'm really a good.... individual. Trust me." I said
"A-A-Are you sure?" Fluttershy stuttered, softly.
"Of course. You can even ask your friend Applejack and she would agree." I said
That statement was good enough for her to slowly open the door again. When the door fully opened, there stood a pony with a yellow coat, long light pink mane and another one of those flank tattoos that depicted three butterflies. Fluttershy hid half her face behind her long mane and remained silent while looking at the ground. I then crouched down to her height and greeted myself.
"Hi there. My name is Caleb. I take it you're Fluttershy?" I asked.
"Um.... yes my name is Fluttershy." Fluttershy said shyly off into silence.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear what you said there." I said
"I said my name is Fluttershy." she said again as quiet as before.
It suddenly became silent and I didn't say a single word in response. Fluttershy emitted a little squeak of shyness as the awkward silence continued. Luckily, the rabbit of anti-awkwardness came along.
"I see you have a rabbit. I used to have a rabbit too." I said
"You like animals, too?" Fluttershy asked in a more lively tone.
"Sure. I love all kinds of animals. Dogs are one of my favorites actually." I said
"Um, would you like to come in?" Fluttershy asked in a normal tone of voice, but still keeping that softness in her voice with it.
"I thought you'd never ask." I accepted the offer.
"Please come in. Excuse me for being so uninviting." Fluttershy said.
"Don't worry about it. I would be scared too if I were you and saw something like me." I said.
I walked inside the cottage and it looked like a pretty nice place to live in. Reminded me a lot of a cabin interior for some reason.
"Wow. Nice place you got here." I said as I examined the interior.
"Why thank you, sir." Fluttershy replied
"You can call me Caleb." I said with a chuckle.
"Okay. Would you like some tea?" she asked
"Sure. That would be nice." I said
Fluttershy then headed into another room to fetch me and her some tea. I sat in a chair while I waited. While I waited, a small, white rabbit hopped over to me and gave me an unforgiving glare. I reached out to pet the rabbit, but it swiped its foot in response. I quickly retracted my arm away from the rabbit.
"Oh yeah, tough guy?" I teased.
The rabbit stuck its tongue out at me in response and turned it self away from me.
"Fine. Be that way, you little turd." I said.
Shortly after that ordeal, Fluttershy came back into the room with two cups of tea on a metal tray and set them on a small table.
"Fluttershy, is this rabbit supposed to be spoiled or something?" I asked
"Oh what did he do this time?" she asked with slightly raised voice.
"Nothing serious. All he did was swipe my hand when I tried to pet him and stuck his tongue at me." I answered
"Angel! Don't be so rude to our guest!" Fluttershy scolded in a surprisingly dominant tone. "All he wanted to do was pet you." she said as she carefully lifted him up with her forelegs.
"You mind if I pet him?" I asked
"Go right ahead." Fluttershy responded
Angel squinted his or hers eyes as I gently patted the head. Angel only responded by crossing it's arms and giving a stubborn look.
"See? Wasn't that nice?" Fluttershy asked Angel.
Angel responded by just hopping away into another room.
"So sorry about that. He's just a little cranky this early in the morning." Fluttershy informed
"Eh, it's alright." I said.
"So what brings you here, Caleb?" Fluttershy asked, kindly.
"Your friend, Applejack, told me about you and gave me directions to your place. I also thought it would be nice to have another friend here." I explained
"Well if you'd like, I'll be your next friend." Fluttershy offered.
"Sweet! That was easier than " I said, enthusiastically.
"Did you just arrive here in Ponyville?" Fluttershy asked.
"Actually, I haven't even been to Ponyville yet. I took a little detour route to your place and I plan on heading to Ponyville next. Is there anybody like me there?" I asked.
"You mean anypony?" she asked
"No, I mean anybody. Wait.... Is that how you guys refer other ponies as?" I asked, skeptically.
"Why of course. And anybody must be how you refer to your kind." Fluttershy corresponded.
"Shoot. Looks like I'll have to learn new phrases." I remarked.
"Don't worry about that. There's actually not many different phrases, I believe." Fluttershy said.
"That's good. So everybody would change to everypony, right?" I asked.
"Mmm-hmm." she replied.
"And somebody would change to somepony?" I asked again.
"Correct." Fluttershy said with a giggle.
"Alright, I think I got this." I said.
"But no, there's nobody else like you in Ponyville. Just ponies." Fluttershy answered my original question.
"You mean nopony?" I corrected.
"Well look at me. Now I'm the one messing up the terms." Fluttershy said.
"Now you know how I feel." I said.
I then took a swig of the tea and my eyes went wide.
"What's wrong?" Fluttershy asked.
"It's hot!" I exclaimed, spitting the tea back in the cup.
"I'm so sorry about that! I forgot to tell you to blow." Fluttershy said as she blew towards her tea.
I imitated her actions and blew at mine to cool the tea down. I took another sip and it turned it to be pretty good.
"What kind of tea is this?" I asked
"Green tea." she replied.
I looked down into the cup and saw the green liquid in the cup.
"Oh, duh."
"Did you say you once had a rabbit?" Fluttershy asked.
"Ah, yes. His name was Thumper. I named him that because of how rabbits will occasionally thump their feet on the ground." I explained.
"I see. Very cute name!" Fluttershy said.
"Thanks. He lived for about fourteen years and was a good little snowball." I said
"Oh my, how sad." she consoled.
"Yeah.... I wasn't really sad when he died, I just couldn't believe he was gone. But I moved on after a day or two." I said.
"I don't think I could ever recover if Angel were to pass on." Fluttershy admitted.
"Hmm." I hummed.
My eye contact with Fluttershy was broken when I noticed a moving figure in my peripheral vision. I turned my head and found out it was a weasel.
"Is that another pet of yours?" I asked.
"Uh-huh. His name is Freddy." Fluttershy said.
Freddy took one look at both of us, scratched his head, and went on his way into another room. Suddenly, a little hummingbird flew into my view.
"Gah!" I shouted.
The hummingbird darted to left and then the right as it rapidly flapped its wings before quickly flying away. Fluttershy giggled to the scene.
"What's with all the animals in the house, if you don't mind me asking?" I asked.
"Believe it or not, I take care of almost every animal specie that is known to ponykind." Fluttershy replied.
"You're kidding me, right?" I said in disbelief.
"See for yourself." Fluttershy said before whistling with her hoof.
I looked around for any changes and all of these animals emerged out of nowhere. For example, mice came out of the holes at the bottom of the walls, birds flew out of the indoor birdhouses, squirrels climbed down from the ceiling, two hedgehogs entered the living room from another, and even an actual monkey came from downstairs.
"How do you live with all of them?" I asked.
"It pretty interesting actual. When I was just a little filly, I discovered this unexpected talent that allowed me to understand what animals were saying." Fluttershy said.
"Ask that squirrel what he thinks about me." I requested.
"Okay then. Excuse me little squirrel, what is your opinion of Caleb here?" Fluttershy asked the squirrel.
The squirrel must've understood what she said because it started to emit little squeaks in response.
"Oh, he's really not that bad. He's actually very nice." Fluttershy said to the squirrel.
"What did he say?" I asked.
"Well.... he thinks that you're a little bit intimidating." Fluttershy said.
"Wow, you weren't kidding," I said, amazed. "Hmmmm. Okay. Do you have any acorns or nuts?" I asked Fluttershy.
"I see what you're going for. Here." she said, giving me an acorn.
I rose from my chair and walked towards the squirrel that clung to the wall. I presented it to the squirrel and its eyes darted at me and the acorn I rose my eyebrows, indicating the squirrel to take it. The squirrel quickly snatched it from my hand and smiled. Yes, a squirrel made a facial gesture that a human is capable of doing. It then scaled up the wall to store the nut somewhere.
"See? You don't need much charisma to get an animal on your side." Fluttershy said.
"I guess so," I agreed. "Fluttershy, I hope you don't mind, but I think I'll get going now." I said.
"That's alright. You must have a big day ahead of you if you're going to Ponyville." Fluttershy said.
I really wanted to stay a little longer and I probably could've, but I just wanted to get on with my day and finally get to Ponyville before the day ends again.
"You bet. Wanna tag along with me?" I asked.
"I would love to, but I still have to feed all the animals before I can do anything else." Fluttershy said.
"I understand. Applejack was right when she said you were kind hearted." I complimented.
"It's in my element." Fluttershy replied.
"Okay then. I'll see you around if I do." I farewelled.
After that little visit, I continued my walk to Ponyville. The temperature had definitely increased over the time of the visit, so that's a plus. However, there was a minus as well. Along the path, I found more paw prints from the Timberwolves and there must've been a pack because the prints scattered all over the place.
"At least I only encountered one of them." I said to myself.
Now I was getting on edge again because it was still pretty early in the morning and the wolves may still be out. Therefore, I didn't stick around long and continued onwards to Ponyville. For a while, I kept on walking and the forest seemed to clear up more until eventually there was nothing but a few trees and open grass. That's when I spotted several buildings in the distance. I had found Ponyville.
I proceeded quicker over towards the village and discovered a sign that read: "Welcome to Ponyville. A village of harmony." Man, it took two days, but I'm finally here. I came across a purple stone bridge that went over a river and the sunlight glistened in the clear water in small wavy motions.
At this point, the dirt paths have been replaced with grassy roads. When I mean by roads, I mean grass that is finely cut to form the characteristics of what a road would look like. Another thing I noticed is that no one was outside. Everybody else was probably still sleeping since it's still early in the morning. But hey, maybe I'll meet an early bird along the way.
I explored the area a little more and entered an open space that contained a red three story building. I checked around the building to see if anyone was there, but to no prevail. But I did find a banner attached to the railing of the second floor balcony than read: "Ponyville Town Hall."
"Where is everybody?" I asked, rhetorically.
As I searched the area for any ponies, I found all of these flags that were scattered throughout the area and a statue of a mare on the southside of the town square. I began to feel like I was going on a scavenger hunt for ponies rather than meeting them. Just when I felt like giving up, I heard a woosh sound above me. I looked up and saw something that was no damn eagle or hawk. It was a pony! I tried to get a better look, but it was too far up in the sky. I cupped my hands around my mouth and shouted.
"HEY! YOU!"
The pony stopped for a moment and looked around in the sky, trying to figure out where my voice came from. I decided to give it a little hint.
"DOWN HERE!" I shouted again.
The pony looked downwards and immediately caught sight of me. Took a moment, but it eventually started to slowly descend. As it got closer to me, I made out some very distinguishable features to it. It had a cyan coat and was just a tiny bit smaller than Applejack and Fluttershy. I guess that would make sense because of the whole wing to body ratio thing. But the most eye catching feature was its mane and tail; the pony had a rainbow mane and tail complete with red, yellow, orange, green, blue, and violet.
When the pony got to about 20 feet and was able to better look at me, its facial expression was the true definition of confusion. It had wide eyes and one eyebrow raised. The winged pony remained a distance away from me before she spoke.
"Did you just talk?" the winged-pony mare asked in a raspy voice.
"Surprised?" I responded.
"Woah!" she exclaimed.
"The name's Caleb. What's yours, rainbow pony?" I asked.
"Now wait a minute. What are you doing here in Ponyville? You causing trouble? If you are, you're gonna be sorry!" she said in a raised tone.
"What? No! Of course I wouldn't. What makes you think that?" I questioned.
"Maybe it's the fact that I haven't seen anything like you before," she replied. "What are you supposed to be?"
"Oh, so if you see something you've never seen before, you consider it bad? I wonder what you thought when you first saw your reflection." I insulted.
"Don't change the subject! Just answer the question." she demanded.
"Okay, okay, let's just start over and I'll explain myself before this escalates further." I proposed.
"Fine. Go ahead." she said.
"My name is Caleb and I'm a human. I arrived here in this, well, rather mysterious land about a day ago. I came here to look for others, more humans like me, but all I've found is ponies. That's all." I explained.
Rainbow brought her hoof up to her mouth and began to think.
"If you don't believe me, just ask Applejack and Fluttershy. They'll vouch for me." I provided.
"Hmmmm. Seems a bit fishy. Alright, I'll believe your story." she said.
"Okay, good. Now, what's your name?" I asked.
"Names Rainbow Dash. Fastest flier in all of Equestria." Rainbow introduced in a much more calmer tone.
"Nice to meet you, Rainbow Dash." I said back.
"Cool beans." Rainbow said.
"So, you claim to be the fastest flier, huh?" I asked.
"I don't claim, I am the fastest flier." Rainbow boasted.
"Let me see some proof. It would be pretty cool to see what you got." I said.
"Ha! Say no more. Watch this." Rainbow accepted.
Rainbow Dash jerked the right side of her body back as if she was about to run and then.... ZOOM! Within half a second, Rainbow Dash had turned from a full figure to nothing but a tiny dot in the sky.
"Holy shit.... Now that was beyond fast!" I exclaimed out loud.
Rainbow repeated the same action and came to a complete halt right in front of me like a bullet stopped in mid-air.
"I gotta admit, that was pretty impressive and awesome!" I complimented.
"Maybe it's because I'm so awesome myself." Rainbow said, slyly.
I slightly laughed to the self-ego.
"I'm guessing you're into athletics. You have to be since you move as fast as a bullet." I said.
"You got that right! I've been training all my life to be accepted into the Wonderbolts." Rainbow informed.
"Wonderbolts? Is that supposed to be an advanced flying team or something?" I asked.
"Elite flying team to be exact. Only the best of the best can join and I plan on being one of those ponies." Rainbow said.
"Well, I wish you luck on becoming one of them." I said.
"Thanks. Y'know, you may not be as bad as I thought you were." Rainbow confessed.
"You see? All you needed to do was to know me better." I said.
"Sorry. It's a personality trait of mine." Rainbow said.
"It's all good." I said.
Rainbow then took a glance to the sky and looked at me again.
"Hey, it was nice talking to you, but I gotta finish busting clouds for the day before everyone gets up. Otherwise, the Cloudsdale Weather Center will be on my flank." Rainbow said.
"How exactly do you bust clouds?" I asked.
"It's simple. All you have to do is just give the cloud a good buck and it poofs away into thin air." Rainbow said.
"Huh. Never thought you could get rid of clouds like that. Looks like I have much to learn." I said.
"Heh, heh. Maybe you do." Rainbow teased.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. But anyways, I better let you get back to your cloud busting." I said.
"Before you go, you said you met Fluttershy and Applejack, right?" Rainbow asked.
"Yes I did." I replied.
"Well, what if I said that I have three other ponies you can meet." Rainbow suggested.
"I'm up for it." I said.
"Awesome. Alright, if you turn around and turn left a little and go that way continuously, you should see a building that looks like a miniature castle called Carousel Boutique. There you should find one of my friends, Rarity." Rainbow instructed.
"Got it." I said.
"Yeah, you might as well face the drama queen herself now and just get it over with." Rainbow said.
"Ah, she's that kind of pony, huh?" I asked.
"Well, she's not a drama queen all the time, but just consider what I said a warning." Rainbow said.
"I'll keep it in mind." I said.
"So, just to recap, you know where you're going?" Rainbow asked.
"Yep. I know the way." I replied.
"Awesome. Maybe I'll see you later and we can chill together." Rainbow said.
"We'll see about that." I said, happily.
"Cool. See ya later." Rainbow said.
"See ya." I replied as I walked away to Carousel Boutique.
"I wonder what Rainbow would say if I called her Skittles?" I thought to myself.
For a while, I cut in between houses that acted as little shortcuts to Carousel Boutique. The sun was much higher in the sky and I figured somebody would be out and about by now. Sure enough, there was a stallion walking along the side of the street. The stallion didn't notice me at first, but he eventually did and stopped right in his tracks. He looked at me and I looked right back. I looked down at the ground for a quick second and spoke to him.
The stallion let out a startled yell and darted off into the other direction before I had a chance to explain myself. I tried to pursue him, but he was much more faster than me and outran me. Damn little thing is fast. With that failure of a greeting out of the way, I focused on Carousel Boutique once again.
At first I got turned around and had to find my exact path again, but I regained my direction. Some minutes later, I saw the building that Rainbow Dash described. I approached the building and sure enough there was a sign that read Carousel Boutique. The architecture and design of the building looked very high end and fancy. Rarity must be a rich pony. Casually, I walked to the front door and knocked. I waited for a minute and knocked harder this time, and still no answer.
"Either she's sleeping or not home." I said.
I then turned my back and began to walked away. After I took four steps, I heard a muffled sound from behind me. It sounded like some sort of undulating energy with a little twinkle sound effect. As I turned around, the doorknob began to turn and the door opened, revealing a mare with a white coat and a swirly purple mane.
"Oh, please forgive me, I couldn't hear your knocks over the sound of my sewing machine. What can I do for y-y-y-YOUUUUAAAHHHHH." screamed Rarity as she slammed the door like the way Fluttershy did.
I also noticed her accent. It was a British accent I believe.
"British ponies? This outta be good." IHey, i'm not gonna eat you or anything. I just wanted to say hi." I said.
"Ah! Go away beast! Shoo, shoo!" Rarity ordered.
These choice of words sparked an idea. I decided to tug on her heartstrings a little bit.
"Beast?" I replied in a sad voice.
"W-well. No! I didn't mean to say that." Rarity said.
"No, no, I understand. You or nopony will ever like me," I said in a depressed voice while faking some sniffles. "Here I go." I said in a pseudo breaking voice.
I drooped my neck and head forward and slowly walked away. The door opened and Rarity pursued me.
"Wait! Please don't go! I-I didn't mean to be such a brute. Please come back." Rarity pleaded.
I quickly changed my mood and tone to more happy and cheerful.
"Nah, I'm just pulling on your heartstrings." I revealed.
"Oh thank goodness. Forgive my choice of words. I was a little frightened at first." Rarity said.
"Little? You were like, "Ohhh, go away foul beast, ohhhh." I said, mocking her accent.
"Okay, maybe I was being a little dramatic," Rarity admitted. "Where are my manners? Would you like to come in?"
"Sure." I said as I followed her inside Carousel Boutique. "I take it you're Rarity, right?"
"Yes, that would be me." Rarity said with a flip of her mane.
"Charmed. My name is Caleb." I introduced.
"What an interesting name." Rarity said.
As both of us walked inside the Boutique, I took notice of all the pony mannequins and articles of clothing and dresses everywhere. A white cat with a rather puffy coat and a purple bow sprinted between my legs and gave my shoe a slap, followed by an airy hiss. The cat then perched itself on a cat tower and stared at me. Typical cat. Always thinking they're king or queen.
When she went to close the door, I heard an odd sound, like a seeping energy, and it was much more louder, right behind me as a matter of fact. I turned around to inspect and it was Rarity. She had a horn on her head that was causing this light blue aura to surround it and the door knob. This caused me to react with great bewilderment.
"Woah!" I shouted, causing Rarity to flinch.
"What? What is it?" Rarity asked.
"That horn on your head?! Are you a unicorn?" I asked.
"Why yes I am. Have you ever seen one before?" Rarity asked.
"Not at all. I mean, I've heard about them in mythology and fairy tales, but not in person." I said.
"Well this is a first for you than." Rarity said.
"You have no idea! Also, what is that blue stuff that comes out of your horn?" I asked.
"That would be magic. It's a unicorns unique ability. Here, watch." Rarity said before demonstrating her ability.
She turned the blue aura back on her horn and the doorknob. Without the movement of a muscle, she closed the door with her magic.
"Magic is for real... I always thought it was just smoke and mirrors. Maybe just for humans, though." I said.
"Oh, it's really nothing. By the way, would you like a drink?" she asked.
"No, thanks. I've already had something to have today at Applejacks and Fluttershy's place." I said.
"You know them too?" Rarity asked.
"Yep. Very nice ponies." I said.
"I agree with you on that." Rarity said.
"What's with all the dresses all over the place? It's a mess in here." I asked.
“Ah, yes. I have this big order of dresses that need to be finished on a tight schedule.” Rarity said.
“Well, I can assure you they are quite well-designed. The ponies who ordered this should be quite pleased with your work” I said.
"Oh, you're too kind." Rarity said.
"Rarity, you wouldn't happen to know where your two other friends live?" I asked.
"Why do you wish to meet them?" Rarity asked.
"You see, I arrived here in this world and couple days ago and I guess I'm just trying to make friends now. Ponyville seems like a pretty good start." I said.
"I see. Who are you wanting to meet?" Rarity asked.
"First, I met Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and then you. So that narrows it down to the last two." I said.
"That would be Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle. They live here in Ponyville as well." Rarity said.
"Excellent! I have a map here so you can show me where they live." I said as I took out the map and placed it on Rarity's work table.
"Okay, let's see....." Rarity trailed off while clicking her tongue.
"What'cha got?" I asked.
"Pinkie Pie lives here at Sugarcube Corner and Twilight lives at the Ponyville Library." Rarity informed while pointing at the locations on the map.
"Alright, thanks, Rarity. I should probably get going now, you seem to have your hands full with the dresses." I said, unaware of my mistake.
"Hands?" Rarity asked.
"Argh! I meant to say hooves! Why is this new phrasing so hard for me?" I said.
The mistake sent Rarity into a short laughing fit before calming down a short time later.
"Oh, don't worry, you'll get used to it." Rarity said.
I rolled my eyes.
"Not fast enough. But as I was trying to say, good luck with the dresses and everything. It was nice to meet you." I said.
"You too, Caleb. You seem like a very polite and sophisticated individual, if you don't mind my saying." Rarity said.
"Not at all. Thanks." I replied.
"And you can also add me on your list of friends as well." Rarity said.
The sun was much higher in the sky and was much more warmer out than before, but still had a little chill to the air. I came across the same area where I saw the one stallion walking by himself earlier and more ponies were out and about than before. Their coats and manes came in all different colors. As I looked at them from behind a building, I came up with a radical idea. What would happen if I just walked right in the street casually in front of all these ponies? I was curious to see what would happen, so I decided to act it. And so, I stepped out from behind a building and proceeded to walk forward on the street. As I got closer, I heard one pony say:
“Woah, look at that.” a stallion said while pointing his hoof at me. His friend turned his head and looked at me with his mouth dropped.
Soon enough, eyeballs were all on me. I heard little whispers from ponies and some actually ran from me even though I was doing nothing threatening. One mare was so shocked, she dropped her basket of flowers which caused them to fall on the ground. I looked over at her and decided to show a kind side to me.
I walked over to her and her eyes went wide and her irises shrunk leaving her eyes to almost have a creepy milky white look. When I came up to the basket and flowers, I crouched down to pick up a flower and set it in the basket. I repeated the process with the other flowers and settled them in the basket neatly. Her eyes followed every move my arms made and soon enough, the basket was full again.
"I think you dropped your daisies, Miss." I said, kindly.
My ability to speak caused the crowd of ponies to gasp in amazement for I could hear them whisper: “It can talk like us?”
The mare in front of me still had her mouth slightly open and she managed to quiver out a "Thanks."
"No problem." I responded.
I turned around to see the crowd of ponies looking at me. I then said one of the greatest words of wisdom to ponykind.
"Morning, everybody." I said.
I then turned around to walk away.
"WHY THE HELL DID YOU SAY EVERYBODY, YOU IDIOT!?" I screamed at myself internally.
My face began to burn as I blushed from embarrassment. All I wanted to do was get out of there.
I continued to wander throughout more parts of Ponyville and met new ponies along the way. Most reactions were just like the others. Either run away or look at me in shock. Guess I’m gonna have to get used to that. As I got closer, I smelt something good, smelled like…. baked goods.
I turned a corner and saw a building with a sign in the ground that stated: “Sugarcube Corner Bakery.” The building reminded me of a gingerbread house due to the outside of the building looking like a giant version of a gingerbread house. The top half part of the door was open while the bottom was closed, signifying that the bakery was open. I walked up to the door and saw a light blue mare with a mane with red and pink stripes. Her eyes widened when she looked at me.
"Um, hi. Is the bakery open?" I asked.
"Y-yes. Come on in." said the mare.
"Hi, my name is Caleb. Are you Pinkie Pie?" I asked.
"My name is Cup Cake. Pinkie Pie is in the kitchen at the moment." Cup Cake said.
"Oh, my mistake. Can I talk to her, please?" I asked.
"Just a moment." Cup Cake said as she entered the kitchen.
Moments later, she came back with a pony with a pink coat and a poofy dark raspberry mane. Pinkie sure does live up to her name.
“Hi there, my name i--” I was cut off by Pinkie.
Without any warning, Pinkie let out this loud gasp and it made me tense up in surprise. After that, she zipped right past me and out the door. I ran towards the door and looked out to see if she was there, but she was nowhere to be seen.
"Damn, where did she go?" I asked myself. "What was that all about?" I asked Cup Cake.
“That’s just Pinkie being Pinkie. I don’t know that means, but it certainly must mean something important.” Cup Cake said.
“Hmmm. Well, maybe I’ll stop by later and see if she’s back later.” I said.
"Do whatever you please." Cup Cake replied.
"Alright, I guess I'll see you or Pinkie later." I said.
"Bye, dearie." Cup Cake farewelled.
"That was weird how Pinkie just gasped and zipped away in a flash. These ponies are quite mysterious beings I’ll say. Now all I have to do is find this Twilight Sparkle at the library." I said as I walked away from Sugarcube Corner.
I got lost while wandering around the almost identical houses for quite some time. I took the map out of my pocket to inspect and realized that I had passed the library not long ago. So I turned around and went back the way I came from. As I double checked the area, I noticed something different about this tree I passed before. It was a tree, but it had the features a building would have; this would include windows and a door. I further inspected it and saw a sign that clarified that this tree was the library I was searching for.
"What an interesting choice for a library." I said.
Seriously. I didn’t even think it was a building at first. I thought it was just some random tree.
I gave the door two knocks and waited for a response. Shortly after, the doorknob began to turn. I was expecting to see a pony when the door completely opened, but instead got something else. As the door opened half-way, there stood a short, purple, bipedal lizard. Just like the ponies, it spoke perfect English.
"Holy Moly!" the lizard exclaimed.
“Don’t worry, I’m not here to hurt you.” I assured the lizard while hiding my confusion of a talking lizard in a village called Ponyville.
“Y-Y-Y-You can talk too?” the lizard asked.
"Sure can." I said.
"Well how do I know you're telling the truth?" the lizard asked.
"On what? Not hurting you?" I asked.
"Yeah." the lizard responded.
"C'mon, do I look like some scary monster to you?" I asked while spanning my arms outwards.
The lizard took a moment to come up with an answer as it inspected me once more.
"Well.... you don't actually look that threatening." he confessed.
"That's more like it," I said. "Most of the locals had the same reaction you had just now."
"Heh. My bad." the lizard apologized.
"That's all right. But I came here to look for a pony named Twilight Sparkle." I said.
"Twilight? She's in here at the moment." the lizard said.
"Great! You mind if I talk to her?" I asked.
"Uh, sure. Twilight, there's something here for you." the lizard announced.
"I prefer human, or you can call by my name, Caleb." I said.
"Right, sorry. My name's Spike. Spike the Dragon." Spike introduced.
"Spike? That name fits you well." I said.
Spike then turned his head as a female voice came from behind him.
"What do you mean by something's here?" the voice asked.
"See for yourself." Spike said.
The door opened all that way and there stood another unicorn with a lavender coat, a mane that consisted of violet and two rose highlights.
"GAH!" Twilight screamed.
"Hey, don't worry, I'm no threat!" I exclaimed.
"Oh my goodness, you can talk?" Twilight asked.
"Yep. Just like you and Spike." I replied.
Twilight's face of shock was soon washed away and replaced with the expression of excitement.
"Spike! Do you know what this means?" Twilight asked Spike.
"You're gonna go crazy because we just made a big discovery?" Spike asked.
"Couldn't say it better myself!" Twilight said. "Please come in, Caleb."
I took the invitation and headed inside the library. The inside was definitely what it would look like if made the interior of a large tree into a library. There were semi-circle shelves that held multitudes of books.
"Wow. You sure have a lot books." I noted to Twilight.
"I do like to read a lot." Twilight said.
"Maybe a bit too much." Spike whispered to me.
"Would you like anything?" Twilight asked.
"Nah, I'm good." I replied.
"Okay then. You mind sitting in that chair while I go get something?" Twilight asked.
"Sure." I said.
"Great!" Twilight said as she ran upstairs.
“Sorry about Twilight. She’s just so excited about meeting you.” Spike said.
"I can see that. What do you think she's getting?" I asked.
"I have no clue." Spike said.
Twilight came back downstairs with this box like contraption.
"Geez, Twilight. You gonna run some science experiment on him?" Spike asked.
"No, nothing like that. I just want to check his brainwaves since he's capable of performing perfect speech and motor functions." Twilight explained as she sat the device on the wooden table next to me.
"Will this hurt?" I asked, skeptically.
"Trust me, you won't feel anything." Twilight said.
"If you say so." I replied.
Twilight levitated the helmet extension and placed it on my head while strapping it with the chin strap. After she situated it on, she switched on and it began to hum. Now that I thought about it, the machine looked a lot like a heart monitor because of how the lines would fluctuate as it studied my brain.
"Alpha waves and Beta waves." Twilight said.
"Excuse me?" I asked.
"Alpha waves indicate that your mind is basically at a normal state and Beta's are associated with the feeling of being frustrated." Twilight said.
"Really? I don't feel frustration. Unless it's an after effect of everypony in Ponyville running away from me as soon as they take one look at me." I said.
"That would explain why." Twilight said.
Spike was sweeping the wooden floor at the moment and I thought that was pretty funny.
"So Spike, are you supposed to be some lizard or something?" I asked.
"You could say that. But i'm actually a dragon." he revealed.
My mind took a moment to register what he just said to me.
"Did you just say a dragon?" I asked.
"Yep. Why?" Spike asked.
"I-I-I....." I trailed off.
The brainwave monitor was spiking with Alpha waves at the moment and Twilight took notes on the event.
"You okay?" Spike asked.
"Its just.... Wow! First I meet talking ponies and now a talking dragon. Tell me, can you actually breathe fire?" I asked.
"I can't tell, I can show you." Spike said.
Spike looked up, took a deep breath and blew upwards, creating a small green flame. What makes this even more credible is the fact that the flame radiated heat. "That is amazing." I said.
"That should be good enough." Twilight said to herself as she removed the cap from my head and setted it aside.
"Anything else?" I asked.
"Nope. Unless I can think of something else I need you for later, I'll let you know," Twilight replied."What brings you to Ponyville?"
"Mostly because it was the closest civilization." I said.
"How did you get here? The only animal specie that looks identical to you are apes." Twilight said.
“Back from the world I came from, the damn Canadian government or whatever shot some kind.... concentrated energy into the air and it must've created a portal. I don't know how, but it did. Due to me also being an idiot, I got too close to the portal, got sucked in, and ended up here in this world.” I said.
"Never heard of such advanced technology. I hate to say this, but I think might be stuck here in Equestria for the time being." Twilight said.
"Damn." I said, flatly while staring at the wall.
"Something wrong?" Spike asked.
"Yeah.... It's just that I had to leave my family behind when I entered this world. Now I have no idea if I'll see them again." I said.
Twilight than supportively put her left foreleg around the back of my neck and Spike sat next to me.
"That must be hard for you." Twilight said.
"It is. I just have this sucky feeling inside me now. I sure hope everyone else back on Earth is okay," I said. I felt like I wanted to let out a good cry at the moment, but I counter-acted it with the fact that I have newfound companionship here in Equestria. "But I think I'll be able to move on after some time."
"Is there anything we can do to make you feel more welcome here?" Twilight asked, looking me in the eyes.
"First of all, I'd like to show the ponies of Ponyville that I'm really not that bad. Progress has been pretty slow." I replied.
Twilight thought for a moment and a light bulb must've lit up in her head.
"The mayor is one of the most trusted ponies in Ponyville. That got me thinking we could perhaps head over to town hall and see if we get her to say good things about you." Twilight said.
"If we're going to do that, I should at least say something, too." I said.
"You can do that." Twilight said.
Twilight, Spike, and I stepped outside of the library to venture over to town hall, but Twilight came to a halt and whispered something into Spike's ear.
"You sure about that?" Spike asked.
Twilight nodded her head in response. Spike ran back inside the library to do whatever task he was assigned.
"What did you say?" I asked.
"I hope you don't mind, but I told Spike to write a letter to inform the Princess on your arrival in Equestria." Twilight said.
"Princess?" I asked. "You did make sure to tell Spike to make me sound like a kind individual? I don't want the princess coming after me with bad intentions." I urged.
"Spike should know what to and what not to write, he's got this." Twilight assured.
"I hope so." I replied.
About a minute later, Spike regrouped with us.
"Okay, it's sent." Spike announced.
"Thank you, Spike." Twilight said.
"What'cha write to the princess, Spike?" I asked.
"About how much of a threat you are to Equestria." Spike teased.
I stared at him with wide eyes. Spike then began to laugh his tail off.
"You should've seen the look on your face! It was priceless!" Spike laughed.
"Oh, so you've got jokes now, huh?" I asked.
"Oh, Spike." Twilight interjected.
With that out of the way, we began our walk to town hall. Along the way, many other ponies who lived in Ponyville spotted me again. It would go from continuous chattering and then silence once they saw me. I felt so awkward and out of place at the time.
"Now I know how you feel when everyone stares at you." Spike said as we passed a crowd of ponies.
"I know, right? It's so weird." I said.
"Like you said, the ponies here just don't know much about you. At this point, I think they're curious rather than fearing you." Twilight said.
"You could be right." I said.
As we walked through the crowd, I spotted a familiar face from earlier. It was the mare who dropped her daisies.
"Oh hey, it's you!" I exclaimed.
"Hi there." she replied in a calm tone.
"Look, I know you may not trust me, but I'm not what you think I am." I said, sincerely.
"Now that you mention that, I figured that out right away when you showed kindness." the mare replied.
"I wish the other ponies here were as understanding as you." I said.
"I'll make sure to spread the word about you." she said.
"Thanks! The name's Caleb, by the way." I said.
"Junebug. Y'know what, take this daisy. My gratitude for helping me earlier." Junebug said, handing me a daisy with white petals and a yellow center.
"Thank you very much. I'll be sure to keep this." I said.
"Your welcome." she said.
"Would be nice to stay and talk, but I gotta go meet the mayor before I do anything else today." I said.
"The mayor? I bet she'll like you." Junebug said.
"Keeping my fingers crossed." I said.
"Alright, bye-bye now." Junebug said.
After that meeting Junebug, we continued on our original intent.
"Seems like friend making is pretty easy now." Twilight said.
"Good thing too. She seems nice." I said.
After taking many turns around Ponyville, all three of us entered the town or village square and spotted town hall instantly. We walked up the step and stopped at the door.
"Ready?" Spike asked.
"Yep, lets go." I said.
I pushed on the door and we walked inside. The inside had that scent when you enter a courtroom and there were four balconies on each side of the room, much like those old theater VIP booths.
"Hello? Anypony here?" Twilight asked out loud with no response.
"Must be a slow day." I said.
"Where is everybody?" Spike asked.
"I don't know. Maybe we should check upstairs." Twilight suggested.
All three of us headed upstairs and there was a hallway with several rooms. I scanned the doors and found one that read, "Mayor Mare."
"Hey guys, I think she's in here." I informed.
Twilight and Spike walked over towards me and examined the door as well. Twilight then knocked on the door.
"Mayor Mare, it's Twilight and Spike. May we come in?" Twilight asked.
"Yes, Twilight, you may come in." replied a female voice from inside the room.
Twilight opened the door with her horn magic and sitting at the desk was a mare with a light brown coat with a light gray mane. Her face lit up with surprise.
“Hello Twilight and Spike,” she greeted while looking in my direction. “Who’s your friend?” she asked, collectively.
Twilight was about to speak, but I stopped her.
"I got this." I said and Twilight nodded.
“Mayor Mare, my name is Caleb Barlow. I’m new to Ponyville and it is a great pleasure to meet the sole head pony of Ponyville.” I introduced, formerly.
“Well, it’s also a great pleasure to meet you too, Caleb. When did you arrive here?” she asked.
"Not long ago. I'd say about four hours ago." I said.
“Is that so? How has everyone taken to your arrival?" Mayor Mare asked.
"I'm glad you asked that because that is why I'm here." I said.
"Go on." she encouraged.
"Unfortunately, almost everypony here seems to be very reluctant to make my acquaintance because they fear me. Well.... I shouldn't say fear. What I meant to say was confused and unsure about me." I said.
"Is there something you want me to do?" Mayor Mare asked.
"Yes. Mayor Mare, would you organize some sort of speech event or something and get these ponies on my side. It really sucks when I enter a town where everypony is hesitant to even talk to me." I said.
"We can make that happen. How do you want this to work?" Mayor Mare asked.
"What I was thinking of doing is that you would say some good things about me and near the end, i'll make a surprise appearance, and say a few words." I explained.
"Sounds good." Mayor Mare replied.
"So is that a yes?" I asked.
"Of course. I can see the situation you're in and I want Ponyville to be a place where everypony will accept you." Mayor Mare said.
"Thank you so much, Mayor!" I thanked.
"You're welcome." she replied.
"So when can this event take place?" I asked.
"I can probably get the word spread by today. Therefore, we can have an audience for tomorrow, if that's okay with you." Mayor Mare said.
"The sooner the better." I said.
"Very good. So we have a plan?" Mayor Mare asked.
"I think we do." I replied with a nod.
"Excellent. For now, I'll get the word out and you should come up with what you're going to say. The event will take place in front of town hall at three o'clock in the afternoon." Mayor Mare said.
"Sounds good. Thanks again for making this possible." I said.
"Anytime. Hopefully things will go better for you." Mayor Mare said.
"I sure hope so. Be seeing you." I said.
"Okay, bye now." Mayor Mare said.
All three of us walked out of the mayor's office.
"Well that went well." I said.
"I know. You were very professional and punctual with her." Twilight said.
"How was I professional? I didn't even realize I was." I said.
"The way you interacted and worked things out with her was impressive. Maybe speaking is your calling in life." Twilight said.
"Maybe." I said.
As we exited town hall, I heard this deep rumbling sound. I looked at Spike and he had his claw on his stomach.
"Spike, was that you? Sounds like you haven't eaten in days." I said.
“Nah, that’s what it usually sounds like when it’s partially empty.” Spike joked.
"Want to get some lunch? My treat." Twilight offered.
I followed behind Twilight for quite some time and it looked like we were heading for the outskirts of Ponyville.
"So tell me. Where are you taking us?" I asked.
"Oh, just to a well known fast food joint that's real popular in Ponyville. Somewhere simple." Twilight said.
"They got some pretty good stuff there." Spike added.
"Sounds good to me. I'll eat anything if it's good." I said
Walking for awhile, we ended up stopping at a building that had a huge sign on the roof. The signed depicted of a burger and a fast food soda cup. Definitely resembled a typical fast-food restaurant back on Earth.
"Smell that food?" Spike asked.
"Oh yeah. That's the smell of unhealthy deliciousness." I replied.
"Then let's not waste no more time and get in there." Spike said.
As we entered the building, there were other ponies there that were dining as well. Everybody stopped eating and looked at me like they saw a ghost. One pony dropped a burger out of his mouth at the sight of me and there were some ponies that looked like they were Applebloom’s age. They feared me much more than Applebloom, who was quite enthusiastic about me. I felt so bad when I saw the young ponies cling to their parents. Before I knew it, we were at the order counter.
“Hello, welcome to The Hay Burger, how may I help you?” the cashier asked while switching his line of sight to me and then Twilight.
“Hi, I’ll have the Hayburger with a side of horseshoe fries. Spike?” Twilight said.
“Ummm, I’ll take what she’s having. What about you Caleb?” Spike asked.
“I don’t know. I’ll just take what they’re having as well.” I said.
“Okay, your total is nine bits.” the cashier said.
Twilight used her magic to take out four gold coins out of a pouch and gave them to the cashier. I’m guessing these are supposed to be their form of currency in Equestria.
“Thank you. Take a seat anywhere you want and your food will be out soon.” the cashier said.
"Thanks." Twilight replied.
All three of us looked for a decent seat that could fit us and we decided to take a booth by the side of a window. To pass the wait time, I brought up the princess.
"What's the princess like?" I asked Twilight.
"Actually, there's two princesses." Spike informed.
"Oh really? Then what are they both like individually?" I asked again.
"Ah, Princess Celestia. She's kind, caring, mellow, and overall just a great leader for Equestria." Twilight said.
"Celestia? Doesn't the word celestial mean upwards or something?" I asked.
"That's correct. She's the princess who raises the sun everyday." Twilight said.
I then looked at Twilight with a confused expression and leaned my head in a bit closer.
"Um? Raises the sun?" I asked, perplexedly, pointing my finger upwards.
"I know. Pretty hard to believe." Twilight said.
"There's no way. How!? How can a unicorn have the capability to move a gigantic ball of fire that's millions of miles away from Earth?" I asked.
"That's the thing. Princess Celestia and her sister, Princess Luna, are variants of ponies that are allowed to achieve a feat of magic that great." Twilight answered.
"What are they?" I asked.
"They're alicorns. Alicorns are a cross between a unicorn and a pegasus. If a alicorn has great knowledge in advanced magic, they can become the most powerful being in Equestria." Twilight said.
"Unbelieveable....." I said. "So that means Princess Luna has the duty of raising and lowering the moon." I said.
"Precisely." Twilight replied.
Shortly after our astounding conversation, our order had finally arrived.
"Ooooh, there it is." Spike said, hungrily.
"Only the professionals know how to eat this, Spike." I referred to him and myself.
Twilight smiled and rolled her eyes in response.
“Ok, three orders of Hayburgers and Horseshoe Fries?” the waiter questioned.
“Yep, that’s us.” Twilight clarified.
“Alright then, here ya go. Anything else?” the waiter asked.
“No, thanks.” Twilight said.
“Nope.” Spike said.
“I’m good.” I said.
"Very good. I'll leave you guys to your food." the waiter said.
The waiter walked away and I looked down at my food. The Hayburger was indeed a burger with hay. It had hay pressed in between two buns. I looked over at Twilight who was casually eating her burger and Spike was gobbling it down as if he just ate something after years of starvation. I then grabbed the burger and looked at it. I started to sniff out small laughs.
"What's so funny?" Twilight asked.
"It's just so out of norm to eat hay back in my world. Should I eat this?" I asked while laughing.
"Give it a shot. Maybe you'll like it." Twilight suggested.
"Alright, here I go." I said.
I slowly took a bite into my burger. After the bite, I began to chew the hay and hunched forward due to the gag reflex.
"It's not that bad." I mumbled.
I think the lettuce, cheese, and ketchup is what saved it from tasting bland because hay tastes like hay. After chewing on the hay and swallowing, I took a fry, dipped it in ketchup and popped it in my mouth. It tasted just like a normal french fry.
"Mmmm. These are delicious." I said while popping another fry into my mouth.
"You and me got something in common. We like fast food." Spike said.
"You're right about that." I responded.
"Do you have burgers from where you come from?" Twilight asked.
"We sure do." I said.
"I'm supposing your worlds version of burgers didn't have hay on them?" Twilight guessed.
"Yep. A meat patty instead of hay." I said.
"Meat? So you're an omnivore?" Twilight asked, surprised.
"Mmm-hmm." I hummed as I chewed on my hayburger.
"Interesting." Twilight said.
Sometime later, all of our food was cleaned from our plates. The waiter came back and took our plates after we finished. We then left a little tip for him and left.
"That was pretty good. Thanks, Twilight." Spike said.
"Yeah, thanks Twilight." I repeated.
"You're welcome, guys." Twilight responded. "Caleb, if you want, you can work on your little speech at the library if you want." Twilight offered.
"I'd like that. Be sure to keep it down when i'm writing my words of wisdom." I said.
"Don't worry, we will." Twilight said.
Later on, we arrived back at Twilight's library and headed back inside.
"You got any paper I can use?" I asked Twilight.
"Right here." she replied as she handed me a blank piece of paper, a small bottle of ink, and a quill. "Want some help with what to write?" Twilight offered her help.
"No thanks. I feel that this must come from the heart." I said.
"Gotcha." Twilight said.
For the rest of the day, I spent most of it preparing for my speech. It took me about an hour to come up with my little speech and after I finished, it was all about practice. I practiced in front of Twilight and Spike and they seemed to like it. At first, I kinda slipped up because my mind would go blank when I was trying to remember what I was going to say, but you know what they say. Practice makes perfect. And when I said I pretty much practiced all day, I did practice all day. It was eight twenty-four at night when Twilight, Spike and I felt that I finally perfected the speech.
“You’ve come quite a long way today, Caleb.” Twilight remarked.
“Yeah, well, all that work will pay off.” I replied.
“Do you have any place to stay Caleb?” Twilight asked.
“No…. No, I don’t.” I said.
“Well, I’m willing to offer you my home as a place to stay until we can actually get you a home.” Twilight said, generously.
“Are you serious!?” I exclaimed.
“Sure. Spike and I like spending time with you.” Twilight said.
“Thank you so much! I owe you and Spike one.” I said as I hugged her for some reason.
“Too tight!” Twilight said.
“Heh, sorry. I just got overjoyed for a second." I said, embarrassed. "So where am I sleeping?” I asked.
“About that, we have a couch right over there. Is that ok with you?” Twilight asked.
“Sure, that’s ok with me.” I agreed.
“Then its settled. Spike, will you go get Caleb a pillow and blanket?” Twilight asked Spike.
“On it, Twilight.” Spike said.
Spike came back down with my pillow and blanket and settled them on the couch.
“Well, Twilight and Spike, I think it's time for me to go to bed. I’ve got a big day tomorrow.” I said.
“That’s right. A good night's sleep is good for you.” Spike said.
I looked over at Spike who was making breakfast in the kitchen.
“You get used to getting up real early. It’s something Twilight does.” Spike said.
“Fine.” I yawned.
I then slowly raised myself off the couch and stretched my arms. I touched my head and felt my hair, which was standing up and messy.
"Geez, Caleb, you look crazy." Spike poked.
“No kidding. Hey, Twilight, you have a bathroom I could perhaps clean myself up and get ready for the day?” I asked, wearily.
"Yep. Head up stairs and go to the door on the left." Twilight said.
"Thanks." I said.
I headed up the stairs and found the door that Twilight told me about. When I walked in, the bathroom had the conveniences of a normal bathroom. When I ran some shower water, it was ice cold at first, but gradually got warmer. After my shower and got dressed again, I found a comb that was clearly not meant for my hair, but I used it anyway to style it. I didn’t exactly have a toothbrush on me, so I just swished a lot of water in my mouth to clean it out. After getting cleaned up for the day, I went back downstairs to the kitchen and found a plate of three sunny side up eggs and a glass of milk.
“Mmmm, I love eggs.” I said.
“Me too. They're a good source of protein to get the body going.” Twilight said.
We sat down at the table and began to eat our eggs.
“Twilight, you know how many ponies live here in Ponyville?”
“Yep. Two hundred and thirty-seven ponies.”
“Oh, brilliant.” I said, sarcastically
“Don’t worry Caleb, you’ll do fine. Do you remember what you’ll say?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah, I remember. But it's just the fact there will be about…. Uhhh.... four hundred and seventy four eyes on me while I’m up there.” I said.
“Sure, but remember this. They're there because they’re curious about who you are. All they want is some clarification that you are a kind individual.” Twilight reminded.
"Right." I replied.
After we finished our breakfast, we practiced my speech a little more just to be sure I’m ready. Turns out I was well prepared because I didn't even need to use the practice paper. I hung out around Twilight's until one o'clock and decided to take a walk through Ponyville.
“Twilight, I’m gonna go for a walk around Ponyville.” I announced.
“Umm, okay. It’s now one-twelve. Remember that you’ve got to be there around two-thirty.” Twilight reminded me.
“I know. I’ll probably head over to town hall when I’m done. I’ll meet you there.” I said.
“Okay then. See you later.” Twilight said.
“See ya.” I said.
I stepped outside and it was pretty warm outside. The air was cool, but the sun’s heat overpowered the chill. I decided to walk around somewhere that was near town hall. I casually put my hands in pockets and walked on.
Ponies were out and about. However, they didn’t display any signs of fear, they were rather kind and waved at me. I waved back at them in response with a friendly smile. While I was heading to town hall, I came a across two mares. One had a aquamarine coat and the mane was a grayish cyan with white streaks. The other had a cream colored coat with a mane with dark blue and reddish pink. They both had those tattoos and their flanks also. The reason why I’m mentioning these two mares is because when I made eye contact with the aquamarine one, her face immediately lit up with excitement and screamed.
“I TOLD YOU BON-BON! THEY’RE REAL. AN ACTUAL LIVE HUMAN!” the aquamarine pony squealed like a fangirl.
I tensed up my neck muscles in response to the sudden loudness. I myself was quite surprised she knew my species name, but perplexed by her extreme enthusiasm. She then ran up to me
"Oh my gosh, hi! My name is Lyra Heartstrings and I can't believe you actually exist! I knew one of you guys had to be out there somewhere!" Lyra said in an enthusiastically quick pace.
“Well, you seem awfully excited. Um, I'm Caleb Barlow.” I said as I extended my arm towards her.
“And your hands, such an interesting body part.” Lyra said as she held one up with both her hooves.
“Lyra, don’t get so creepy with him.” said the cream-colored mare.
“Quiet, Bon-Bon! This is probably the first human in moons!” Lyra exclaimed.
“Speaking of which, how do you know I’m a human?” I asked with extreme skepticism.
“Well firstly, humans are actually a very old myth, so old that nobody ever gave them any thought. But I on the other hand studied you guys. When I heard there was a human in Ponyville, you wouldn’t understand how excited I was. Oh my gosh, I still can’t believe it. Eeeeeee!” Lyra replied.
“An old myth, huh?” I asked.
“Yep!” Lyra chirped.
“Cool. Who's your friend?” I asked.
“This is Bon-Bon. She’s basically my BFF and we’re also roommates.” Lyra explained.
“Well, it's great to meet you Bon-Bon.” I said as I shook her foreleg.
“Don’t worry, it's all good. You guys coming to the speech today?” I asked.
“You bet we are. I wouldn’t miss this opportunity.” Lyra said.
"I’ll make sure to give you guys a shoutout during the speech.” I said.
"You don’t have to do that.” Lyra said.
"Yeah. Just say what you want, no need to add us in.” Bon-Bon added.
"Oh, okay. So i'll see you guys there?" I asked.
"You bet." Lyra and Bon Bon both said.
"Hoofbump, Lyra?" I asked while clutching my fingers into a fist.
"Sure!" Lyra replied, eagerly.
I then bumped Lyra's hoof with my fist. As they both walked away, Lyra jumped up in joy and let out another fangirl-like scream.
Huh, never really thought the human species was an old myth here in Equestria. So old that they were completely forgotten. I should ask Twilight if there is any books on humans. If there is, I would want to get my hands on one.
As I continued walking, I came across many other ponies. One of those ponies was a very small colt that had a brown mane and a coat that was white and consisted of brown spots.
“Excuse me mister, are you the human everyone talks about?” he said in a rather British accent.
“Yep, that’s me. My name’s Caleb. What’s yours, little buddy?” I asked.
"The name's Pipsqueak." the colt declared.
“Pipsqueak? I like that name. So, what’s on your mind?” I asked.
“Oh, not much. A lot of my friends think your really cool.” Pipsqueak said.
“Be sure to tell them I said thanks.” I said.
“I will. Are you nervous about your speech you’re giving?” Pipsqueak asked.
“Not really. What I did was practice for a long time and I got good at it. Are your friends going to be at the speech?” I asked.
"Nope." he replied, forwardly.
“Well, why not?” I asked.
“Most of their parents don’t want them coming. They’re afraid that you might hurt them.” Pipsqueak said.
“Oh, come on. Do I look like a ferocious beast?” I asked.
"Of course not," Pipsqueak replied.
"How ironic." I mumbled.
“Say, doesn't your speech start at three o’clock, mister?” Pipsqueak asked.
"Yes. Why?" I asked.
“Look at the clock tower behind you.” Pipsqueak uttered.
I turned around and saw a clock tower that read two fifty-two in the afternoon.
“WOAH! I’m gonna be late! Get on my back, I’ll take you there.” I offered.
“Sorry, I can’t. My parents won’t let me.” Pipsqueak replied.
"Darn. Oh well. Make sure you get home safe." I said as I ran towards Ponyville.
The town hall was quite a distance away from my position, so I really had to book it to make it in time. I was basically sprinting at this moment. My breathing and heart rate increased as my body worked to its limits. In about two so minutes until I made it to town hall and there was a huge crowd of ponies. I went around some buildings to hide my presence in order to keep my appearance a surprise. Finally, I made it to the backstage.
“Caleb, you were cutting it close there.” Mayor Mare said.
“Sorry. I was talking with some ponies and lost track of time.” I said as I took deep breaths.
“At least you got here on time.” Twilight said.
“Yeah, good thing too. What’s our time?” I asked Mayor Mare.
"Two fifty-eight." she replied.
"Good." I said.
The two minutes went by like a breeze and now it was three o'clock.
"Welp. It's showtime." I said.
"Okay. Twilight here said that she'd like to say to good things about you. After her, you'll go up and give your speech." Mayor Mare said.
"Got it." I replied.
Mayor Mare than left the backstage and headed out to the stage.
“Good Afternoon, Fillies and Gentlecolts. Ponyville has gone through quite a history throughout its days as a village of harmony. From its creation, to the arrival of the elements of harmony. But two days ago, another chapter of Ponyville and Equestrian history was written. Who we have here today is no tyrannical lord or the spirit of chaos, but a very kind individual that’s just trying to find his way in this world that’s so new to him. Now Twilight will give a little bit of a background.” Mayor Mare announced.
Twilight then walked up to the stage with the mayor.
“Hello residents of Ponyville. Yesterday, a human by the name of Caleb Barlow came to me in search of friends and figuring out where he was. He’s very kind, polite, straightforward and very sociable. This is why he has arranged this speech, to tell you all what he is and to calm your suspicions. So now, we give the reigns to Caleb.” Twilight declared.
It was now my time to shine and to face the music. Both the Mayor and Twilight came back to back stage and they both wished me luck. With that, I walked through the curtain and was met with a huge crowd of multicolored ponies. I looked at them and I could see in their eyes that there was no fear, but a look of curiosity and astonishment. I began to speak.
“Greetings. My name is Caleb. Now, a lot of you are here because you are very confused about who I am and why I am here. So, I’m going to put those suspicions to rest. It was a normal day back at my homeworld. However, I made the terrible decision to get to close to a portal anomaly and was sucked in, leaving my friends and family behind. Now I’m stuck here in Equestria. At first, I was looking for a possible way to get back home, but it seems that isn't remotely possible. I’m probably going to have to start a new life here in Equestria and I ask all of your ponies for your friendship and to please treat me like you would treat other ponies. Think of it, if I was a normal pony with the friendly personality I have, you would all like me. But if i’m a human, it's a different story. What I’m trying to say is that you ponies feared me because you didn’t know what my intentions were, not just because of my appearance. As Twilight said before, I am a kind individual who is just looking for friends for my new life here. So now, I will coexist with you ponies. Also, I heard Mayor Mare mention a tyrannical lord and spirit of chaos. Even though I don’t know who these individuals are, I can deduct the fact that they caused great distraught in Equestria and Ponyville. I pay respect to any ponies who lost stuff in those dark times. So all in all, I am here to stay and I wish to get know you ponies better. Thank you for your time.” I said with great meaning.
After I finished the speech, the crowd stared at me. Slowly, one pony began to clop their hooves in a form a clapping. Then another started clopping their hooves. Then the whole crowd started to cheer and clop their hooves in unison, creating the sound of cheering you’d hear after the end of a good play. I felt a smile come onto my face in joy to finally see the ponies accept me.
“Now I’ll take a few questions before I get off the stage.” I said.
Many hooves quickly raised in the air and I chose a stallion in the middle of the crowd.
“Yes, you, with the light brown coat and brown mane.” I said.
“This is pretty trivial, but what was your home like?” the stallion asked.
“The answer is very interesting because my home was basically a copy of this world. What I mean by that is because my home had the same natural resources. This would include grass, dirt, clouds, a blue sky, trees, and the list goes on. So almost everything in this world is in mine. The architecture is a bit more improved, if I must be bluntly honest.” I answered.
The crowd then chattered at each other amazement. A mare with a blue coat and a mane with dark blue and white streaks asked:
“No offense intended, but why do you have monkey-like characteristics?” she asked.
“Ah, I get that same question a lot. Well it’s because I am directly related to apes. A chimp for example is like an ancient cousin to me in evolutionary terms. So therefore, I have similar characteristics.” I said.
Next, a pegasus mare with a gray coat and blonde man flew in the air and raised her foreleg. What I noticed about her was the fact that one of her eyes would look upwards while the other looked down.
“You, in the air.” I said.
“Hi there, Caleb. Do you like muffins?” the pegasus asked.
The crowd quietly chuckled. I was unsure of how to answer at first, but I came up with an answer.
“W-Well yes, muffins are pretty good. Especially chocolate chip muffins. Very good.” I replied.
After answering that question, I saw Applejack in the crowd and remembered something. I remembered Applebloom asking if I’d stop by again. I had nothing else going on for the day, so hey, why not.
“Well everypony, I think that’s all I have time for today. Thank you for attending. It shows me how friendly you ponies are. Sorry for leaving so unexpectedly, but I made a promise to a certain somepony.” I concluded.
I then walked off the stage and heard the crowd clop their hooves and cheer again.
“Wow, Caleb, you did great out there!” Twilight complemented.
“Thank you. It just came naturally to me for some reason.” I said.
"You have quite a gift for speaking, Caleb.” Mayor Mare said.
“Maybe it is my thing after all.” I said “Look, I made a promise to a certain pony and I nearly forgot it. I have to get going.” I said.
“No problem, Caleb, go on ahead.” Twilight said.
I quickly emerged from behind the curtain and everypony waved at me as I ran past them. I waved back at them in response and continued to Sweet Apple Acres.
I started jogging towards the path that I took to get to Ponyville and backtracked towards Sweet Apples Acres. After a while, I eventually came to the sign that read the farm's name. I walked to the farm and saw Big Mac hauling around some wooden barrels.
“Hey, Big Mac.” I greeted.
“Howdy, Caleb.” he replied.
“Have you seen Applebloom around anywhere?” I asked.
“Eeyup. She was headin' towards her treehouse with her friends.” Big Mac said.
“Where’s that at?” I asked.
“Go back out the entrance and hang a left until you come across a clearing of trees and you’ll see a red treehouse.” Big Mac directed.
"Back there? I just came from that way. I must've missed it. Alright, thanks Mac." I said.
"Eeyup." he said.
After heading back out and taking a left, I walked in a straight path until I saw the clearing that Big Mac told me about. I looked a little more and saw a light red treehouse with a darker red roof, and had a set of stairs that led up to the door. I walked up to them and knocked lightly three times. Slowly, the door opened and Applebloom answered the door.
“Caleb! I knew you would come!” Applebloom exclaimed, happily.
“Surprise surprise, Applebloom. Are your friends in there?” I asked.
“Yeah! I’ll let them know you're here and they can meet you.” Applebloom said.
Applebloom than slightly shut the door and said:
“Guys, Caleb is here!.” Applebloom announced.
“Really?” replied a squeaky, little girl's voice.
“Come on then, let him in.” replied a girl's voice that sounded a bit tomboyish.
The door opened and there stood two young fillies who were about the same age as Applebloom. One with a white coat and mane with purple and pink while the other had an orange coat with a purple mane.
“Woah, he’s actually real!” said the orange one.
“I know! He’s much more taller than I thought!” exclaimed the white one.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” I said to both of them, causing them both to gasp.
“HE CAN TALK!?” they yelled in astonishment.
“You bet I can. What are your guys’ names?" I asked.
“My name is Sweetie Belle.” said the white one.
“And my name is Scootaloo.” said the other.
“What great names you guys have. My name is Caleb.” I said.
“Just Caleb?” Sweetie asked.
“Actually, I have three names and I haven't told anyone else except you guys. My full name is Caleb Lee Barlow.” I revealed.
“Three names? Most ponies have two or one.” said Scootaloo.
"I took notice of that when I arrived in Ponyville. So what do you guys do here?" I asked.
“All three of us figure how we can get our cutie marks because….” Appleboom trailed off while signaling to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.
"WE'RE THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!" all three yelled in unison.
“Is that the name of your club?” I asked.
“Yeah. A club where we find out our special talent.” said Applebloom.
“That’s cool! What’s a cutie mark?” I asked.
“It’s a mark that appears on a pony's flank and signifies what a pony's special talent.” clarified Applebloom.
"Ohhhh, so that's what those are for. I thought those were tattoos at first." I realized.
“Nope, they come naturally. So far, we haven’t really gotten ours yet.” Applebloom said while all three of them sadly looked at their blank flanks.
“Thats nothing to be sad about. Look on the bright side. That means you’ll have more time to figure out who you really are and what your talent will be.” I said.
“Well, you do have a point there.” Scootaloo agreed as Applebloom and Sweetie Belle nodded their heads.
"What do you guts usually do in the clubhouse?" I asked.
“What we usually do is to try out different things in order to hopefully earn our cutie mark.” Applebloom explained.
“What do you like to do? Maybe we can possibly earn a cutie mark in something you do.” Scootaloo suggested.
I thought about what I could possibly teach the three fillies in hopes of earning their cutie marks. I originally wanted to teach them baseball, but I realized we don't have a bat or anything. As I thought more, I came up with something that I used to do, but stopped doing when I was younger. It's a long-shot I understand, but I had to think of something.
“Well, there was something I was somewhat good at. It’s called freerunning.” I said.
“What’s that?” Sweetie asked.
“It's the act of running at a fast pace and overcoming many physical obstacles in your path. The key is to find more obstacles to get past while continuing your running pace.” I explained, thoroughly.
“That sounds like something i’d like to do! Fast paced and extreme.” Scootaloo admitted.
“Awesome! What do you think Applebloom and Sweetie Belle?” I asked.
“I can give it a try.” Applebloom said.
“Umm, I think i’ll pass on this. Is that okay, Caleb?” Sweetie asked.
"Sure. You can observe and if you feel like trying, go right ahead." I said, supportively.
"Okay." Sweetie replied.
“Can you give us an example of this freerunning?” Scootaloo asked.
“Sure. Watch this. I’m not saying you should do what I’m about to do, just watch.” I said as I headed for the door.
With that, I sprinted out the door and jumped off the stairs that lead up to the clubhouse which was probably a ten foot drop. Right when I hit the ground, I did a roll in order to soften the impact of my fall and flipped myself on my feet again. I looked up and all three looked at me.
“Wow. That was a pretty long ways down.” Sweetie said with worry in her voice.
“It was. Like I said, do not attempt anything this dangerous if you’re just beginning. You could hurt yourself if you landed the wrong way.” I warned.
“What do you have in store for us then?” Scootaloo questioned.
“It’s going to be something very easy, but will make you utilize your coordination. Follow me back to the farm." I said.
Me and Cutie Mark Crusaders walked back to Sweet Apple Acres. I plan to set up a simple little obstacle course that should be suitable for them without getting hurt.
“So guys, how athletic are all you three?” I asked.
“Well, I like to ride on my scooter a lot.” Scootaloo stated.
“I work on the farm sometimes, so I get some exercise.” said Applebloom.
“I’m pretty much an average pony. I’m not into sporty stuff.” Sweetie Belle admitted.
“Alright, alright. What i’m planning on doing is setting up an obstacle course that will involve small amounts of running and coordination, but it will be rather simple for you. You guys go run along up by the farmhouse and I’ll call you when i’m done.” I said.
Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo ran back to the farmhouse to do something else for a while. I on the other hand, inspected the area around me for any obstacle I could work with. I saw the fence that acted as a boundary to the dirt path and the apple orchard, and a large log. Next, I walked up to the farm and got four bales of hay and lined them up sideways in a straight line that led to the fence. After setting those up, the course was done. I then walked back up towards the farmhouse and called them back to the course.
“This is it?” Scootaloo asked in skepticism.
“Nope, it's not just the hay, there’s more to it. First, you’ll get a good running pace, leap onto the first bale of hay and jump on the next without falling off. When you reach the last bale, you will jump off and duck under the fence while running. After going under the fence, you will leap over that large log that’s probably a foot taller than you and land on your hooves.” I said. “Okay, who wants to go first?” I asked.
“Me! I’ll go first!” Scootaloo cried out.
“Get up here Scoots! Get yourself in a ready position.” I said.
Scootaloo then hunched herself towards the ground and scraped her hooves, kicking little dirt clouds behind him.
"Readyyy…. GO!” I yelled.
Scootaloo quickly ran and jumped onto the first bale of hay. She swiftly leaped onto the second bale, but kinda lost her balance for a brief moment.
“Remember, Scootaloo, maintain your balance when you land on the hay!” I reminded.
Scootaloo nodded at me in response and jumped on the next bale and repeated until she reached the last. She jumped off the last bale and positioned her body in mid air for a slide under the fence. This impressed me.
“Alright, Scootaloo, you got this!” I encouraged.
Scootaloo then jumped as hard as she could to vault over the log, but only got to the top, not over, which was pretty good for a filly her size. Finally, she leaped off the top, landing on her hooves. She did it.
“How did I do Caleb?” Scootaloo asked while panting slightly.
“You did great Scootaloo! For a beginner, you’re pretty good. You had some trouble with your balance at first, but you corrected it. Also, I loved that slide you did under the fence, very impressive to me.” I said.
“Thanks, Caleb!” she beamed as she trotted to the side with Sweetie Belle.
“Okay, Applebloom, it’s your turn!” I said.
Applebloom walked up and got into a starting position.
“Three, two, one…. GO, GO, GO!” I yelled.
Applebloom quickly ran towards the first obstacle and jumped onto it. What was amazing was that when she leapt for the second bale, she ended up leaping over to the third bale. She must have good lower body strength.
“Nice leap, Applebloom!” Sweetie praised.
Applebloom tried to do a slide, but kinda fumbled while going under. After recollecting herself, she ran over to the log and leapt clean over the log while landing on her hooves.
“How was that Caleb?” Applebloom asked me.
“It was pretty good. I can see you have really good leg strength due to the fact you jumped over a bale of hay onto the third and you hurdled that log with ease. Very good. Both you and Scootaloo were. Want to try Sweetie?”
“Oh no, there’s no way I’m doing that.” Sweetie replied.
“Oh, c’mon Sweetie, don’t be such a soft marshmallow.” Scootaloo teased.
“Scootaloo, don’t say that to her. If she doesn’t want to do it, she doesn’t have to. It's okay Sweetie Belle.” I told her in a calm tone.
“Sorry, Sweetie.” Scootaloo apologized.
“That’s alright.” she responded.
“Who wants to go for another run?” I asked.
“I’ll go again. I want to see if I can get my cutie mark in freerunning!” Scootaloo exclaimed.
“Me too.” Applebloom said.
“Oh yeah, a cutie mark. What am I thinking? I’ll give it a go!” Sweetie Belle surprisingly said.
“Go ahead.” I said.
Sweetie Belle did mess a few times at first, but she got pretty good at it. All three of them looked like natural born freerunners after a while. Looks like I might have some competition. They repeated the course for quite sometime and they finally stopped.
“Okay girls, we have to have our cutie marks by now!” Applebloom blurted out while panting.
All three of them looked at their flanks, hoping to see their very own cutie mark, but their faces soon faded into disappointment as they realized they still didn’t have one.
“Dagnabit! Looks like freerunning wasn’t our thing.” Applebloom said.
“Look on the bright side girls. You can still do many more activities to find your talent in life.” I said.
“Yeah, you're right. Thanks for being a fellow crusader in helping us to find our talent.” Applebloom thanked.
"Yeah! I thought it was pretty fun!" Sweetie Belle said.
"Me too!" Scootaloo seconded.
Over the course of all of this, it must've been quite a long time because I looked towards the skyline and the sun was starting to go down a little bit. I heard Applejack call out to Applebloom that it was time to eat dinner.
“Well guys, we had a pretty good day as crusaders. I think it's time we parted ways.” I told them.
“Yeah, it’s getting late.” said Sweetie Belle
“Do you know the way back to your homes?” I asked Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.
They both nodded in response.
“Alright then, I’ll see you there tomorrow maybe. Be safe while going home.” I said.
All three of them turned in their separate ways and headed off. I stayed to put the bays of hay back in their original location. After that, I headed back to Ponyville for the night.
When I arrived back at Twilight’s home, the sun was already on the horizon and night was near. The sunset casted an orange color and the silhouette of the castle that protruded from the mountain mixed with the sky was a beautiful sight.
Twilight’s library had no lights on for some reason. I assumed she wasn't home at the moment. Opening the door, the lights immediately switched on. I barely had time to react when many voices yelled out, “SURPRISE!” as confetti blew everywhere along with party whistles, or whatever makes those sounds. I jumped in the air as I reacted to these sudden commotion.
After I quickly collected myself, I looked around and a banner that was spread out on the wall stated, “Welcome to Ponyville!” There were lots of balloons and tables with refreshments also laid out.
“Aww, thanks you guys!” I said.
“We didn’t do this. You can thank Pinkie Pie for all of this.” Rainbow stated in the background of many other ponies.
“Oh yeah! Where is she?” I asked.
“Hiya!” said a high pitched voice below me.
I looked down and saw the same pink pony I saw yesterday.
"You're Pinkie Pie?” I asked.
“Yep, that’s me! When I saw you yesterday, I just knew I had to throw a welcome to Ponyville party for you because I've never seen you before in my entire life! Sorry for having the party be so late.” she stated in a very fast pace.
“Thank you very much for doing this. The name’s Caleb by the way.” I said, gratefully.
“Ooooh, nice name.” Pinkie said as I shook her hoof.
When I grasped her hoof, she shook so fast that my entire body shook with each rapid movement. Just from her doing that made me dizzy for a short period of time. After shaking my head to get the dizziness to fade away, I looked around at the crowd of ponies inside.
“Looks like everyone I’ve met in Ponyville are here” I noticed.
“Yep! Earlier today, I asked everypony in Ponyville if they knew you well and these ponies did.” Pinkie said.
I looked at the crowd again and noticed Lyra, Bon-Bon, Junebug, Cup Cake alongside a taller orange stallion, Fluttershy, Rarity, Twilight, Spike and Rainbow Dash.
“Well, everypony, I’d like to thank you all for coming for my welcoming party. It really shows how you guys care for me, but let's not get all sappy here. Now how about we get this party started?” I asked in a loud tone causing the others to cheer in response.
“You betcha! Spike, crank it up!” Pinkie shouted in a sing-song voice.
Spike then placed a needle on the record player and a pretty catchy tune started playing. If you could hear the record player, it would sound more like a stereo. Everyone in the room started to dance to the music and I joined in with them. I started working arms and legs with dance moves that were inspired by Michael Jackson. Lyra caught eye of my moves at this time.
“Alright, Caleb! You got the moves!” Lyra exclaimed.
Now everybody was watching me and chanting my name while I picked up the pace of my movements. I finished off with quick three-sixty spin and yelled “Woo!” in a high pitch. Everyone started to clap or what should say; clop their hooves to my dancing.
“Thank you. Thank you very much.” I replied, taking a bow.
After everyone was done clopping, I noticed that one tall orange pony again. So I decided to go over and talk to him.
“Excuse me sir, who might you be?” I asked.
“This is my husband Carrot Cake.” Cup Cake informed me.
“Ohhh, I see. Nice to meet you, Carrot Cake.” I said.
“You too, Caleb. Cup Cake here you came to the bakery the other day.” Carrot Cake said.
“Yeah, I was looking for Pinkie Pie. Get this; I say hello to her, she just lets out this loud gasp, and ZOOM, she just flings right out the door.” I said.
“That definitely sounds like Pinkie Pie.” he said while laughing.
“Is she always this hyperactive?” I asked
“Its part of her personality. You’ll find to like it.” Carrot said.
“Mmm. Are you guys her parents?” I asked.
“No. We let her bunk with us. So in return, she works with us. She’s one heck of a baker.” Cup Cake said.
“Oh, I see. Nice to meet you Mr. Cake.” I said.
"You too. Enjoy the rest of your welcome party." he said.
I looked over to my right and noticed Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow, and Twilight talking to each other while Pinkie was chatting with Junebug. I walked over to the four mares.
“Hey, what’s up, guys?” I asked.
“Just chattin'.” Rainbow replied.
“Have any of you seen Applejack? She’s not here.” I asked.
“She’s preparing for cider season tomorrow.” Rarity replied, sipping on a cup of punch.
"I never heard about that. You guys going?" I said.
“Heck yeah, we go every year! Sweet Apple Acres makes the best cider, but you gotta get up early to get a cup before they run out.” Rainbow said.
“Is there's line? If so, how long does that line get?” I asked.
“Depends on the amount of ponies. One time it stretched out for about one-fourth of a mile.” Twilight said.
“Wow, that’s a lonnnnng wait.” I said.
“Don't remind me,” Rainbow scoffed. "Say, Caleb, you ever have a foreleg wrestle?"
"I've done arm wrestles before." I said.
"What are arm wrestles like?" Rainbow asked.
"The way it works is that you grasp another's hand and try to exert enough force to push your opponent's arm down onto a flat surface surface." I explained.
"Huh, just like a foreleg wrestle." Rainbow said.
"Why?" I asked.
"I challenge you to a foreleg wrestle! You look pretty jacked yourself and I like a challenge." Rainbow said.
"Alright, I accept." I said.
"I don't know, Caleb. Rainbow is pretty strong." Twilight warned.
"Yeah, you'll get destroyed." Pinkie added, bluntly.
"I got this." I said, confidently.
Me and Rainbow Dash walked over to a wooden table and everypony began to gather around. I grasped Rainbow's hoof tightly and Rainbow gave me smug look. I responded by giving her a smug look back at her.
"Ready?" Rainbow asked.
"Bring it." I replied.
"One, two, three!" she declared.
Immediately, my arm was sent downwards and slammed right on the table. Rainbow had won in just one second.
"Okay, I wasn't ready." I said.
"Excuses, excuses." Rainbow said.
"Let's go again." I said.
"Whatever you say, Muscles." Rainbow said.
Me and Rainbow got ourselves in the ready position once again.
"One, two, and a three!" Rainbow counted.
This time I managed to push Rainbow's foreleg down half-way and I thought I had it won.
"Y'know, I'm only using half effort, right?" Rainbow asked, devilishly.
"Shit." I thought.
Rainbow than used all of her strength and sent my arm the opposite way, landing on the table again.
"Okay, I admit it. You're pretty strong" I said.
"Nopony can beat me!" Rainbow said, triumphantly.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You seem a bit too strong for such a small pony. But still.... good game?" I asked.
"Good game." Rainbow said with sportsmanship.
I was still pretty amazed of how strong Rainbow is. I mean, shit, she's gotta be like three feet tall and she outdid me in strength. After we shook hooves, Spike said something which led to the next event.
"Man, I'd hate to see Caleb go against Pinkie in a cupcake eating contest." Spike said.
"Cupcake eating contest? Great idea, Spike!" Pinkie said.
"Goddamn it, Spike." I thought to myself, but went along with the idea.
"I'm up for it, we've got plenty of cupcakes left." I said.
"Yay!" Pinkie exclaimed.
"Hey, Bon Bon, how many cupcakes do we have left?" I asked.
"Fourteen left." Bon Bon informed.
"Good. Seven for me and seven for Pinkie. Whoever finishes them first wins." I said.
"Sounds easy as can be." Pinkie said.
"That's the spirit." I said.
Pinkie Pie got two plates and placed seven individual cupcakes on each one. She then set the plates on one side of the table and we got on each others sides. I examined the cupcakes and they were covered large amounts of pink frosting, so they were going to be very rich.
"GO!" Pinkie shouted without warning.
I hastily grabbed a cupcake and stuffed it into my mouth and that rich, sweet flavor of the frosting flooded my tastebuds. The crowd gasped as I looked over at Pinkie and she was shoving one individual cupcake into her mouth and swallowing whole with an audible gulp. I knew I was going to lose and started comically shoving cupcakes into my mouth. When I ran out of room in my mouth, I started to pound the cupcakes into my mouth with my fists, causing everypony to laugh. And so, within about half a minute, Pinkie Pie had finished her cupcakes while I still had three left.
"Done!" Pinkie exclaimed.
"Dang it!" I said as I swallowed the mashed up cupcakes.
"Wow! You nearly beat me there!" Pinkie said.
"Barely. Want these two?" I asked.
"Sure! Throw em'." Pinkie said.
I grabbed both cupcakes and chucked them over towards Pinkie, who caught both with her mouth and chewed.
"Nice catch." I said.
"Thanks!" she replied.
Around eleven o'clock is when everypony decided to head home and get some sleep for cider season tomorrow. Now that I think about it, I didn’t really hear Fluttershy make a peep at all tonight. Well, she does live up to her name.
I consider tonight one of the best nights of my life by far and I admit that this party beat my high school homecoming dance by a longshot. I'm not even exaggerating. After the library was cleaned up and everything was packed away, it was time for bed.
"Wanna head over to Sweet Apple Acres for cider season tomorrow?" Twilight asked.
"I don't know. Is cider season a day where you get to have cider?" I asked.
"Three days to be exact, but yep, that's the premise." Twilight said.
"Sure, I'll go." I said.
"We'll have to get up real early if we want a good spot in line." Twilight said.
"Fine. I guess I can handle that." I replied.
"Great! See you in the morning." Twilight said.
"Yeah.... six o'clock in the morning." Spike muttered.
"Okay then. Night." I said as Twilight and Spike headed up stairs.
I was pretty beat, so I had no problem falling asleep. These three days were really a good, fresh new start for my new life here in Equestria. I could learn to like this place.
Today is Cider Season. For three days, the ponies of Ponyville get a taste of Sweet Apple Acres cider until supplies runs out for the day. Twilight and Spike woke me up around five-fifty in the morning and that wasn't the best way to start off the day for me or Spike, but I really wanted to try that cider that everyone seems to like. After we did our morning routine, we headed out to Sweet Apple Acres.
“How does the cider taste?” I asked Twilight.
"It's pretty good. Has a strong, pungent aftertaste to it." Twilight said.
"Good or bad?" I asked once more.
"Good way." Twilight replied.
"Nice. How about you, Spike? Psyched up? You look a little down.” I said.
“Caleb, it’s six o’clock in the morning. I’m still waking up.” Spike said, groggily.
“Right. My bad, Spike.” I said.
“But yeah, I’m pretty excited for it nonetheless.” Spike said, trying to have a much more lively tone.
“Hang in there, Spike.” Twilight said.
“Ehhh.” Spike responded while swiping his claw lazily in Twilight's direction.
When we arrived to the line, there were many tents that were pitched up. Very similar to people pitching tents for Black Friday. The line of tents was fairly long, but I think we were a good distance to get some cider and some ponies were already awake and taking their tents down.
Spike was catching a few zzz’s up against a fence post, which I thought was rather humorous. As we waited longer in the line, more ponies were lining up behind us and the line got even longer.
About ten minutes later, the line was a whole lot longer. My best estimate had to be that to be about three hundred meters long. An hour had to pass by now and while we were in line, I heard Rainbow’s voice in the distance yell, 'WHAT?!'" I also noticed another pegasus alongside her.
“See, Caleb? That’s what happens when you’re late for a spot in line.” Twilight said.
“That's gotta suck. Glad I got you guys to be my alarm clock.” I joked, causing Twilight to giggle while Spike continued to saw logs.
A while later, the sun was high in the sky and I noticed Big Mac and Applejack stacking wooden barrels that contained the cider. Shortly after they finished stacking them up and hooking one onto a nozzle, the line began to move very slowly. The wait was very tedious. Spike and I started a game of Rock Paper Scissors and I Spy to pass the boredom, but we eventually got closer to the front of the line.
The sun was now on the south side of the sky. I shit you not that’s how long the wait was.
"C'mon, you damn line. Not tomorrow, today!" I exclaimed, referring to the long wait.
After waiting to what felt like years, Twilight and Spike got their mugs of cider and finally, it was my turn.
“Hi, Applebloom. You working the nozzle?” I asked.
“Yep. I felt I could do it this year.” she said as Applejack walked up behind her.
“Howdy, Caleb." Applejack said.
"Hey, Applejack." I replied.
"C'mere for a sec." she gestured for me to come closer.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Don’t tell anyone this, but your cider can be free. I figured you don’t have any money with you, so please, have one on the house.” Applejack whispered into my ear.
“Oh, thank you, Applejack.” I said.
“No problem, Caleb.” Applejack said.
“Okay, Applebloom, one mug of cider please.” I requested.
“Comin' right up.” Applebloom said.
Applebloom pushed the nozzle downwards, causing a stream of clear, light brown, foamy cider to pour into the mug that filled up nearly to the top.
“Thank you, Applebloom.” I said.
“You're welcome, Caleb. Hope ya like it.” Applebloom replied.
"I got a good feeling about this cider." I said to Applebloom.
I walked back over to Twilight and Spike who were about halfway finished with their cider.
“Give it a swig, Caleb.” Spike said.
I did as instructed and sipped on some of the cider. The one thing that really stood out was that the taste was very strong, like what Twilight said earlier. My eyes opened wide as the warm cider ran down my throat. I could also taste a hint of alcohol within it as well, not saying I'm no stranger to that.
“Woah! That taste is really strong taste.” I exclaimed.
“Do you like it?” Twilight asked.
“It’s pretty good. The cider’s flavor is strong, but it’s also has a smooth feeling, which is something I like. But yeah, I like it!" I said.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a pink figure approach us and I easily figured out it was Pinkie Pie and she was carrying about four mugs of cider.
“Did you have to pay extra for those?” I asked
“Mm-hmm. I bought about twelve earlier.” Pinkie said.
“Twelve!? You can really hold down your cider.” I said as Pinkie chugged down the mug of cider.
“It’s really nothing.” Pinkie replied.
While all four of us drank our ciders, we noticed Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy getting closer to the front of the line. It had to be about 4 hour wait for them to finally get up to the point where they were. I waved at both of them and they waved back. Rainbow looked pretty ornery when she waved.
Fluttershy got her mug of cider, but what really made me feel bad was that Fluttershy’s was the last mug of the day. Rainbow didn’t get any cider.
“Oh God! That’s such terrible luck.” I said out loud.
“I know. Cider season is a very important event for Rainbow.” Twilight informed me.
“Pinkie, you have anymore mugs of cider?” I asked.
“We drank the rest, silly.” she said.
“Oh yeah, that’s right.” I said, feeling rather dumb, which made Spike snicker.
“Laugh it up, lizard boy.” I said with annoyance.
“I will.” he said while still snickering quietly.
“Sorry, everypony, that’s it for today.” Applejack announced.
All the other ponies in line groaned in frustration to the announcement.
“Surprise, surprise. You ran out again!” Rainbow yelled.
“Yeah! You always run out!” a stallion yelled.
“Um, I really don’t min--” Fluttershy said before she was cut off by Rainbow.
“Why can’t you make enough cider for all of us?! Or at least for me?” Rainbow asked which made all the crowd of ponies chip in by yelling questions similar to Rainbow’s at Applejack.
Applejack slowly started to back up and hopped up onto the apple cider stand.
“Now hold on, everypony. We’ve done our best to improve supply this year.” she said.
“That’s what you said last time!” yelled the same stallion.
“I know, but it's always true. Apple family cider is made with love and integrity and only the highest quality apples in Equestria. Sorry, but that recipe takes time.” Applejack stated which made the crowd only chatter angrily at once again.
I suddenly felt like I needed to back her up and told off the crowd.
“Hey, perfection is something that is very time consuming, but the payoff is always great in the end.” I supported.
“Easy for you to say! You got your cider!” retorted the stallion.
“Ok, sure, I did get cider. But if I were you, I would be grateful for even having a cider season. See what I mean?” I asked the stallion.
“Y-yeah, I guess so.” the stallion stuttered.
“No, you know so.” I completed his statement.
Some ponies within the crowd started to quietly agree, including the stallion. But not everyone else took my point of view, only some. The ones who didn’t agree with me walked away from the stand in frustration.
“Ya’ll be patient, we’ll have plenty more tomorrow.” Applejack declared while nodding her head at me in thanks.
Most of the ponies started to disperse while about forty some stayed and chatted with others. The same stallion who argued with me walked up to me to apologize.
“Hey, I just wanted to say I’m sorry. I should’ve controlled my temper better.” he admitted.
“That’s ok. I understand you’ve been out here all day waiting for that one mug of cider and after all that time, you didn’t get it. That has to be very frustrating.” I said.
“Thanks. You pretty much summed up how I felt. I’m Caramel by the way. And I believe you’re Caleb, the human everyone talks about?” Caramel asked.
“Yep, that’s me.” I said.
Me and Caramel continued to talk until we were cut off by the sound of a horn in the distance. Everypony looked in the direction of the sound and I saw something that looked like a car at first, but that’s impossible, ponies can’t drive.
As the vehicle or whatever got closer, I could audibly make out other sounds that were like little, quiet train horns. The vehicle looked like a train engine car, but it was on wooden wheels, something very similar to a wagon you would see from the 1800's.
“What in Equestria is that?” Applejack asked.
"Looks like a train on wheels." I said.
The train-car slowly came to a halt in hit one of the fence post, causing it to bend out of place. I and the crowd of ponies moved closer to get a better look at the train-car and then two twin ponies hopped out.
They both had matching manes which were the colors of candy canes and a cream colored coats. They also wore blue and white striped shirts with a brown hat. The only characteristic distinguishing them from one another is that one had a mustache and the other didn’t. Both looked around and then non-mustached one pressed some button on the side of the machine and this carnival like tune started playing. Then they started to.... sing.
“Well, look at what we got here brother of mine, it's the same in every town.” the non-mustache stallion sang in a voice that sounded like he was singing a musical. “Ponies with thirsty throats, dry tongues, and not a drop of cider to found. Maybe they’re not aware there’s really need for this teary despair.” he sang to his brother.
“That the key that they need to solve this sad cider shortage you and I will share.” the other sang back in a high note at the end.
His voice being a bit deeper than the other stallion.
“Well you’ve got opportunity in this very community. He’s Flim.” said the mustached pony, pointing towards Flim.
“He’s Flam.” said the other.
“We’re the world famous Flim Flam Brothers! Traveling salesponies nonpareil.” they both said in unison.
“Nonpa-what?” Pinkie asked.
Flim quickly rushed over towards Pinkie and sang:
“Nonpareil, that’s exactly the reason why you see. Nopony else in this whole place will give you such a chance to be where you need to be. And that’s a new world, with tons of cider, fresh squeezed and ready for drinking.” Flim sang.
“More cider than you could drink in all your days of thinking.” Fiam sang as he slid down a funnel.
“I doubt that!” Rainbow retorted while crossing her forelegs.
“So take this opportunity in this very community. He’s Flim.” sang Flam.
“He’s Flam.” sang Flim.
We’re world famous Flim Flam Brothers! Traveling salesponies nonpareil.” they unisonaly sang again.
“I suppose by now you’re wondering about our peculiar mode of transport.” Flim said while pointing at the train.
“I’d say, our mode of locomotion.” Flam clarified.
“And I suppose by now you’re wondering, where is this promised cider?” Flim asked.
“Any horse can make a claim, any pony can do the same.” Flam sung.
“But my brother and I have something most unique and superb, unseen at anytime in this big new world.” Flim said.
“And that’s opportunity.” they said in unison once again with a high note.
“Folks, it’s the one and only, the biggest and the best.” Flim sung.
"The unbelievable!" said Flam.
“Unimpeachable” said Flim.
"Indispensable!" said Flam.
“I can’t believe-able” added Flim.
"Flim-Flam Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000!" they both declared.
"What do ya say, sister?" Flim asked Rarity, causing her to faint onto Twilight.
Suddenly, the crowed began to chip in with the song and started to sing as well. Me, Twilight, and Spike remained silent.
"Oh, we’ve got opportunity in this very community. Please Flim, please Flam, help us out of this jam with Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000!" the crowd sung like a choir.
Young filly, I would ever so honored if you might see fit to let my brother and I borrow some of your delicious, and might I add spellbindingly fragrant apples for our little demonstration here?” Flim asked Applejack.
“Uh, sure, I guess.” Applejack responded, hesitantly.
"Opportunity, in our community!" the crowd sung.
"Ready, Flim?" Flam asked.
"Ready, Flam." Flim responded.
"Let's bing bang zam!" Flim and Flam said as they activated their magical horns and shot two green beams of magic into the machine on top of the locomotive.
This caused some kind of funnel to move towards and sucked the apples clean off the nearest apple tree.
"And show these thirsty ponies a world of delectable cider." Flam exclaimed.
The crowd than started to chant the word “Cider” over and over again. Rainbow had her tongue lolling out and hunching herself back up and down in unison with the chanting. Twilight, Spike, and I just looked at each other in confusion.
“Watch closely, my friends.” Flim said.
“The fun begiiins.” Flam said with a high note.
“Now here’s where the magic happens. Right here in this heaving, roiling, cider-press boiling guts of the very machine, those apples plucked fresh are right now as we speak are being turned into grade-A, top notch, five-star, blow your horseshoes off one of a kind cider!” Flim explained while two giant jugs began to fill up with cider all the way to the top.
“Feel free to take a sneak peek.” Flam said while pointing at a tiny window on the side of the machine that displayed the apples on a conveyer belt being checked as either good apple or bad ones.
Granny Smith than stepped up and said:
“Now wait, you fellers, hold it! You went and oversold it! A guarantee what you have there won’t compare. For the most important ingredient can be added or done expedient. And it’s quality, friends, Apple Acres quality and care!” she stated boldly which also made some ponies in the crowd nod in agreement with her. Flim then moved towards and said:
“Well, Granny, i’m glad you brought that up, my dear, I say i’m glad you brought that up. You see we are very picky when comes to cider if you’ll kindly try a cup.” he said as he handed her a cup of cider. She than sipped on it and her eyes went wide, but she quickly hid her expression.
“Yes, sir, yes, ma’am, this great machine lets just the very best. So what what do you say then, Apples? Care to step into the modern world and put the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 to the test?” Flam sung with a high note at the end causing the crowd of ponies to once again chant the word “Cider.”
"What do you think, folks? Do you see what the Apples can’t? I see it clear as day! I know she does! So does he! C’mon Ponyville, you know what i’m talking about!” Flim said.
“WE’RE SAYING YOU’VE GOT OPPORTUNITY IN THIS VERY COMMUNITY! HE’S FLIM! HE’S FLAM! WE’RE THE WORLD FAMOUS FLIM FLAM BROTHERS! TRAVELING SALESPONIES NONPAREILLLLLLLLLL!” Flim, Flam, and the crowd boomed, causing me to get chills for some reason.
"Yeah!" both Flim and Flam ended.
I at that time was just lost in amazement on how two ponies, who obviously had a catch to this entire situation, could convince an entire crowd to buy their cider over the original Sweet Apples Acres. I hated these two already. I don’t give a crap if they can do some musical number routine with their Dr. Seuss machine. After all that just happened, Applebloom rushed over to Flim and Flam.
“You got a deal!” Applebloom exclaimed, which made me go wide eyed.
“Not so fast!” Granny yelled.
Granny Smith grabbed Apple Bloom and then the Apple family huddled together to discuss something.
“What the heck is Applebloom doing?” I rhetorically asked Twilight.
“I was just about to asked you same thing.” Twilight replied.
Flim and Flam snuck their way into the huddle and started discussing something alongside the Apples for a moment until Applebloom shouted, “Deal!”
I face-palmed.
“Now, hold on. Who gets the seventy-five?” Applejack asked.
“Why us, naturally.” Flim said.
“And we’ll throw in the magic to power the machine for free!” Flam stated.
Applejack walked back over to her family and discussed whatever they planned to do. Judging by the conversation, I’m guessing the Apples might buy the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 and get twenty-five percent of the profits while Flim and Flam get seventy-five percent. But when I thought about it more, if they were to agree, they would lose the farm. If it were fifty-fifty, they might have a chance.
“So, what’ll it be?” Flim and Flam asked Applejack.
“Please say no, please say no, please say no!” I said, mentally.
“No deal!” Big Mac said.
“Hah!” I yelled out loud.
“Very well. If you refuse our generous offer to be partners, then we’ll just have to be competitors.” Flim said smugly to Applejack’s face.
“You wouldn’t dare!” Applejack sternly retorted.
“Oh, no?” Flim said while nodding his head slightly towards Flam.
“Don’t you worry everypony, there will be plenty of cider for all of you.” Flam declared to the crowd.
I was getting pretty pissed off at these two. Everybody here was minding their own business and these two sleaze-bags had to show up and stir things up.
Flim then leaned over towards Applejack and whispered something towards Applejack. Just then, the entire Apple family’s face went from an idle face to absolute shock. Flim and Flam hopped back on their locomotive while I ran over towards Applejack.
“You okay? What did he say?” I asked.
“He said they’d run us out of business!” Applebloom whimpered.
That was my breaking point, I had to talk to these two and see what they were up to. The locomotive began to move, but I stopped them right in their tracks.
“Hold up there, sir!” I yelled.
“Ah, yes, we saw you within the crowd, but never got to make your acquaintance.” Flam said.
“Yeah, yeah. Hey, what’s the big idea with running these ponies out of business?” I asked.
“Why business, of course. That’s how it works. ” Flim answered.
“I know that, but Sweet Apple Acre's is a family-owned business. You can't do this to them. Can’t you guys go pick on a business far greater?” I asked.
“Why you silly ape. The weakest links must go first.” Flim said.
“Hey, there's no call for that, but I don’t have to waste time on you sleaze-bags. Hope you don't park upside a tree while.” I said, angrily as I stormed away from the locomotive that drove away.
“You okay, Caleb?” Twilight asked.
“No. I’m just real fired up from those two.” I said.
“Just take breaths and calm down. That’s what Twilight tells me to do when I--” Spike said before having his mouth covered by Twilight, who was smiling.
"The hell was that for?" I thought to myself.
I did as instructed and soon enough, I was calmed. I walked over towards Applejack.
“Pretty intense.” I remarked.
“Never thought Sweet Apple Acres might have a competitor.” Applejack said.
“What are you guys going to do if they come back?” I asked.
“I have no idea.” Applejack replied, flatly.
“If you guys ever need help, just hook me and the gang. We’re all friends here.” I reminded.
“I know, Caleb. I’ll keep that in mind.” Applejack said.
“Alright, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, AJ.” I said.
“You too, Caleb.” Applejack replied.
For the rest of the day, the mood between me, Twilight, and Spike had changed drastically. We were kind of quiet and didn't really say much to each other. The only sentimental thing that happened today was when Spike showed me some comic books, they were pretty neat. But yeah, the day was very slow after the event at Sweet Apple Acres.
“Wanna head up to Sweet Apple Acres and get more cider?” Twilight asked, waking me.
The clock read five fivty-seven, just like yesterday. I was still a little tired, but I got up anyways. Spike looked like a zombie as usual and bumped into the wall at one point. After I got up, we headed to Sweet Apple Acres once again.
“You think Flim and Flam will be back today?” I asked as I yawned.
“I hope not. I hate to be honest, but Flim and Flam seem determined on what they were doing.” Twilight said.
“Yeah. That’s not a good sign.” Spike added.
“Mmm.” I hummed in agreement.
When we reached the line, it was a little bit longer than it was this early in the morning unlike yesterday. We waited for quite sometime again before the line began to start moving at a slow pace. Also, just like yesterday, Rainbow was late again. I could hear her audibly groan in the distance. So that led me to believe that she got a nice spot at the end of the line.
Later on, all three of us made it to the front of the line and got our ciders. I sipped mine and I just felt down for some reason. Might as well be chugging down misery. Granny Smith was hammering nails into the broken fence post from yesterday.
“Hi, Granny Smith.” Twilight said.
“Howdy-do, Twilight.” Granny replied.
“You worried about Flim and Flam?” Spike asked Granny Smith.
“Nah, they’re just blowing off hot air. Tryin’ to scare us, but we ain’t gonna have it.” Granny stated.
"But if they were to come back?" I asked Granny.
"Well.... I guess we'll just have to hope for the best." Granny replied.
Shortly after, the supply of cider was getting awfully low again and Rainbow was still pretty far behind. Looks like she will be getting cucked once again. Me, Twilight, and Spike walked over towards Applejack who wore a worried expression on her face.
“Still worried about Flim and Flam?” Twilight asked Applejack.
“Granny Smith said they were just blowing off hot air.” Spike said.
“I’m not so sure. They sounded mighty serious when they threatened us to run us out of business.” Applejack said.
Right after Applejack said that, Applebloom yelled, “That’s it! Last cup!” The crowd awed in frustration again and I’m pretty sure I could hear Rainbow yell something vulgar in the distance.
“Come back tomorrow, everypony!” Applebloom said which only fueled the crowds fire even more.
“Ugh, here we go again.” I said.
"Tell me about it." Spike replied.
Shortly after I said that, I heard something familiar. The sound of the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000. Spike looked at me when he heard the locomotive's sounds as well.
“Uhh, too soon?” I shrugged.
The locomotive started to slow down and bumped right into the fence post again, pushing it out of place again. Granny Smith looked up with a scowl.
“What seems to be the problem here?” Flim asked as he hopped off the locomotive.
“Oh, my, oh, my. Out of cider again?” Flam asked.
Flim walked over to the back of the locomotive and opened up the back which held numerous barrels of cider.
“What have we here? Who’d like a cup?” Flim said as the barrel plopped onto the ground, causing the crowd of ponies to rush past me, Twilight, and Spike.
“Don’t worry everypony, we have the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 to make more in an instant.” Flam proclaimed while levitating a cup to Rainbow Dash.
I was about to swipe the cup away, but Applejack gasped and pulled out a rope which she lassoed the barrel with. She pulled hard with her mouth, sending the barrel flying towards Rainbow which hit her and made her drop the cup of cider.
“You can’t sell that cider! That’s made from Apple Family apples!” Applejack yelled.
“Is this some kind of cruel joke?” Rainbow asked after stuffing her mouth with the cider soaked dirt.
“Jesus, Rainbow, get a grip on yourself.” I mumbled.
“Don’t worry everypony, there are plenty of apples in Equestria. We’ll find some other and make more cider than Ponyville could drink!” Flim said which made the crowd gasp.
“We’ll make more cider than you could ever imagine!” Applebloom shouted, which got the crowd on her side. Big Mac quickly lifted her by the tail in order to stop her.
“Now it ain’t about the speed youngin’, it’s about quality.” Granny Smith explained, causing the crowd aw in disappointment.
“Who cares how good the cider is if I never get to drink any?” Rainbow asked.
"Rainbow! The world doesn't revolve around you."
“Dooo’h, look at these poor, dissatisfied ponies.” Flim said.
“Ponyville is sweet apple cider country!” Appleboom shouted.
“Our cider speaks for itself.” Applejack stated
“Let’s put it to the test.” Flim challenged.
“Anywhere, anytime.” Applebloom told Flim with a smirk on her face.
I was waving my hand frantically next to my neck at the Apples, signaling them to shut Applebloom up.
“Now that’s enough now.” Granny Smith said while the crowd was getting more anxious and chatty.
“With our machine, we can make enough cider in one hour to satisfy this entire town.” Flam boasted.
“We’ll do it in forty five minutes!” Applebloom claimed which made the crowd even more excited.
“Easy, Applebloom, easy.” Granny warned.
“What’s the matter Granny Smith? Chicken?” Flim asked.
“What did you just call me?” she asked slowly.
“If you so confident in your cider, then what’s the problem?” Flim egged on.
“TOMORROW MORNING, RIGHT HERE!” Granny shouted the loudest I’ve ever heard her speak.
“Well, I’m afraid we don’t have any.... apples.” Flam said while he spat on an apple.
“You can use our entire field! And it's worth it to teach ya’ll about cider making!” Granny said.
“Very well. We have a bet. Whoever makes the most barrels in one hour, wins the exclusive right to sell cider in Ponyville.” Flim said.
“Oh no, she’s gonna do it.” I said to Twilight and Spike. I looked over at Applejack and she looked terrified.
As predicted, Granny Smith shook hooves with Flim and Flam. She might as well agreed on a death wish. Flim and Flam climbed back onto their locomotive and said:
“Until tomorrow.” they both farewelled while bowing.
They drove off into the distance until the locomotive was out of sight. Twilight came up to Applejack.
“Don’t worry Applejack, I know you’ll win tomorrow.” Twilight supported.
“We better. Because if we don’t, we’re gonna lose our farm.” Applejack said sadly as she walked off with her family.
“Well.... Now what?” I asked Twilight.
“Let’s just head back home. Take it easy like yesterday.” she said flatly.
“Alright then, let’s go.” Spike said.
The crowd began to disperse back to Ponyville. I couldn’t believe this community was being torn apart because of cider. Fucking unbelievable. If it were something important like the holy grail, I would understand, but this is just cider that’s made really well. There’s no need for all of this bickering.
Later that night, I couldn’t fall asleep because I kept thinking about Sweet Apple Acres going out of business. The Apple family were the first ponies to ever offer me friendship and kindness and I couldn't bear the thought of them losing their entire business they've worked on their entire lives to some assholes who probably don't have a lick of sense of what hard work is. I wanted to believe that they would win, but something in my head kept saying, “They won’t win.” I probably fell asleep at around two o'clock at night. Did not sleep very well.
I was awoken by a loud clang in the kitchen and the clock read nine-fourteen in the morning.
“Oh shoot, we’re late.” I said to myself.
Then I remembered that there probably isn’t going to be any cider today because of the competition today. I climbed off the couch and went upstairs to get ready for the day. Twilight was already up making her bed while Spike continued sleeping in his tiny, dog-like bed.
“Good morning, Caleb.” Twilight said.
“Hey, Twi. What time is the competition supposed to start again?” I asked.
“At ten-thirty.” she answered.
I walked over to Spike’s bed and shook it violently while yelling, “STAMPEDE, SPIKE! STAMPEDE!”, which made him jump to life with a startled face.
“Morning, Sleeping Beauty.” I said in my normal voice.
“Oh c’mon, I was sleeping.” Spike whined.
“Nine o’clock Spike, no moseying around.” I said,
“I’ll get you back for that.” Spike said.
“We’ll see.” I said.
We left the tree house around nine-forty five and noticed some ponies heading up to Sweet Apple Acres as well. Rarity was one of them.
“Hey, you guys go on ahead, I’m gonna talk with Rarity.” I said.
“Alright, Caleb.” Twilight replied.
“Rarity!” I yelled and she turned towards me.
“Oh, Caleb. Good to see you!” Rarity said with a smile.
“Likewise. You worried about the Apples?” I asked.
“Why of course. Applejack and her family are very close friends.” Rarity explained.
“Me too. I just hope they can pull this off. It’s really a challenge to create a supply of cider for an entire village in one hour with only four ponies on deck.” I said.
“I know they can pull it off. The Apples have been doing work like this for moons.” Rarity said, firmly.
"You're right." I said.
Rarity and I continued to walk and gawk until we reached Sweet Apple Acres. We both found Twilight and Spike who joined up with Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash.
“Hey, guys.” I greeted.
“Sup, Caleb?” Rainbow asked.
“Not much. Just waiting for this to unfold. I’m rootin’ for Sweet Apple Acres, though.” I said.
“Same.” Rainbow said.
“Me too.” Fluttershy said, quietly as usual.
“Me three.” Spike said.
"Me quadruple!" Pinkie piped. "Wait.... does that count?"
"I think so." I replied.
"Oh, okay." Pinkie said, cheerfully.
In the distance, I heard those dreaded mixes of sounds from the locomotive.
“Look. Here comes dumb and dumber.” I said, causing Rainbow to laugh.
While watching the locomotive pull up in the grass opposite to the side the Apples were on, I saw the mayor walking towards them.
“Even the mayor’s involved with this?” I asked.
“Yeah, I asked her why she was here too. Apparently Flim and Flam talked her into announcing the competition.” Twilight said.
“Huh. She’s not supporting them, right?” I asked.
“Oh, nothing like that. She said that she's just announcing and remains neutral.” Twilight said.
Twilight walked off towards Applejack to tell her something while I stayed back with the crowd. I could see Applejack practicing her bucking with a punching bag with Applebloom clinging onto the back of it. Granny put on her red glasses and Big Mac was trotting in place as if he was about to run a marathon.
“Attention, everypony!” Mayor Mare announced to the crowd.
Twilight looked back at us and said one last thing to Applejack before trotting back to the group.
“Thanks, Twilight!” Applejack responded to whatever Twilight said.
“The teams have one hour to produce as much cider as they can. After which, the barrels will be counted and the winner will be named the sole cider producer for all of Ponyville,” Mayor Mare declared. “Are both teams ready?”
The Apples stare competitively at their rivals until Applejack shouted, “Ready!” Flim and Flam both said ready in unison while sitting on their couch, looking rather relaxed.
“GO!” the mayor shouted.
A brown stallion flipped a giant hourglass in the other end to start the timer.
The Apples quickly dashed off to their position while Granny took her time. Right when the Apples started working on their first barrel, Flim and Flam activated their magic and switched on the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000. The suction funnel stretched out towards the nearest apple tree and sucked all the apples off clean. Applejack on the other hand bucked the tree with her hind legs which made it visibly shake. The apples on the tree slowly began to fall off and land into a bucket that Applebloom held on her head. Applebloom rushed over to Granny Smith and handed the bucket to her so that she could inspect the apples individually. Granny Smith immediately looked at one apples and tossed it into the grinder that was powered by a treadmill that Big Mac ran on. Cider began to pour from a faucet into a barrel and soon enough, it was full. Big Mac quickly capped it with the lid and shoved it away. So now the Apple’s had one barrel of cider down.
I was too busy watching the Apple’s progress that I forgot about Flim and Flam. I directed my attention to them and guess what? They already had five barrels filled up and ready to go.
“Damn!” I exclaimed while nudging Twilight to get her attention.
Twilight and the other four looked towards Flim and Flam’s pile and gasped in shock. The Apple’s also seemed to realize how many Flim and Flam had, which was now six. Applejack looked rather nervous as she could be seen visibly gulping.
The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 continued to suck apples at a fast pace that beated the Apple’s by a mile. More and more barrels were added to Flim and Flam’s pile while the Apple’s were still behind.
Applebloom was lost in a trance at the moment, but was quickly snapped out of it by Applejack. Granny Smith buckets of apples to inspect were beginning to congregate around her and Big Mac was starting to fatigue, but they pressed on.
“Oh, this is dreadful! Every barrel they produce is covered up by Flim and Flam’s” Rarity stated while pointing at the barrels.
“No kidding, they're looking pretty bad at the moment.” I said.
“Maybe we could help out.” Twilight said to all five of us.
"You may be right! Go ask the mayor quick." I said.
Twilight proceeded to walk towards the mayor and asked.
“Um, Ms. Mayor. Are honorary family members allowed to help in the competition?” Twilight asked.
“Well, I’m not sure. Flim? Flam? Would you object to honorary family members helping?” Mayor Mare asked.
“Are you kidding?” Flim asked.
“We don’t care if the whole kingdom of Canterlot helps. It's a lost cause.” Flam said.
“Mmm, I guess it's ok. Applejack, what do you think?” Mayor Mare asked again.
“I think I'd love to have the rest of my.... family helping out.” Applejack responded.
“ALL RIGHT!” Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy shouted.
Suddenly, I felt all the adrenaline pumping throughout my body at that moment. I was ready for anything.
"Alright everypony, line up!" Twilight instructed.
“Okay everypony, we’re not gonna let those smooth talkers take our friends farm.” Twilight said.
“YEAH!” we yelled.
“Fluttershy, help Applejack with the trees.” Twilight said.
“Got it.” Fluttershy said.
“Pinkie Pie, you’re on Apple catching detail.” Twilight said.
“Yes, sir, ma’am-sir.” Pinkie said while saluting.
“Rarity, you got a discerning eye. Help Granny Smith at the quality control station.” Twilight said.
“Of course.” Rarity replied.
“Rainbow Dash, do you think you can help Big Macintosh press?” Twilight asked.
“In my sleep.” Rainbow said.
“Caleb, you look strong. Can you toss the filled barrels to me and I’ll stack them?" Twilight asked me.
“Tossing barrels? I got this.” I replied.
“Alright everypony, let's save Sweet Apple Acres.” Twilight concluded.
“Alright!” we all shouted again.
All of us quickly ran to our positions and began to work hard at our tasks. I got to my station and started lifting the barrels. These barrels were pretty heavy, so I had to use effort in my toss. I grunted as I threw the barrel as hard as I could and Twilight caught it with her levitation magic and started stacking. Than another barrel came and I repeated the same action again. More and more barrels kept coming to me and I was giving everything I got, I’d throw one towards Twilight, another one would be right behind me, than another one, another one, and another one. They just kept on coming.
While I was performing my duty, I looked over at Flim and Flam. They were panicking at this point due to that every three they’d make, we would make five. Flim was saying something to his brother which made both of them shoot their green beams of magic at the machine. The machine started to get louder and the suction funnel hovered over a tree and ripped the giant tree right from its roots.
“Okay! Now it’s on.” I thought to myself.
When I saw that tree get sucked in, it only egged me on to push harder, even though my arms were burning at the moment. Big Mac suddenly lost his footing on the treadmill and fell off which made Rainbow fly off it.
“We don’t have time for quality control if we want to win this thing!” Rainbow yelled as she than flew over to Granny Smith.
“Gah! Get back you! One bad apple spoils the bunch!” Granny scolded.
“Applejack, help me!” Rainbow called out.
“There’s no point in winning if we cheat!” Applejack replied.
“We’ll just have to work harder. C’mon, everypony!” Twilight said.
“Oh, fine. Double time than!” Rainbow said, triumphantly.
My arms at that moment were starting to fatigue, but I knew I had to keep going. I took in large, deep breaths as I lifted and yelled as I threw the barrels to Twilight. Sweat was running down my forehead, face, and neck.
“Your doing good Caleb! Great job!” Twilight supported while I nodded to her in thanks.
We kept pushing harder for about a few more minutes until Mayor Mare said the words of relief.
“Time’s up!” Mayor Mare declared.
Everyone came to a halt with their actions and my poor arms were numb at that moment. But hey, nothing like a good workout. All of our team members dropped to the ground in exhaust while I did the same. I layed on the grass flat on my back, trying to inhale oxygen in order cool down.
“I’m proud of you, Applejack” Twilight said, tiredly.
“Thanks.” Applejack said back.
“Integrity like that will always be rewarded!” Twilight said.
“Ha! we did it guys!” I wheezed.
“We sure did. You were big help everypony, thank y'all” Applejack said.
Unfortunately, I spoke too soon again because the mayor said something that made my heart drop.
“Flim and Flam win!” the mayor announced.
“What!? No!” I said to myself in disbelief.
Everypony picked themselves back up and walked slowly to the middle that separated the teams. Flim and Flam had unfortunately had a stack of barrels that towered over ours.
W--What?” Applebloom asked confusedly to Applejack.
“We…. lost?” Applejacked asked, upsetly.
“D’awww, too bad, Apple’s.” Flim said, mockingly.
“Guess you’ll have to find a new line of work. It doesn’t match your name quite sooo…. perfectly.” Flam said.
“Now should we tear down these tacky, old buildings and put new ones up, brother?” Flim asked Flam.
“I don’t see why not, brother. After all, this isn’t Sweet Apple Acres anymore. How about Flim & Flam Fields?” Flam said while pulling a rope their sign that covered Sweet Apple Acres.
Rainbow quickly flew towards both of them.
“I ought to press you into jerk cider!” Rainbow threatened.
Applejack caught her by the tail and yanked her back to our team.
“No, Rainbow Dash. A deal’s a deal.” Applejack reminded which made Flim and Flam emit this annoying, smug laughter which made my head go hot. I than walked over the mayor
“Are you actually letting them get away with this?!” I asked, sternly.
“I’m sorry, Caleb, but they made a deal and they cannot break it.” Mayor Mare replied, sympathetically.
“Well can’t they ju--” I said before my attention was directed towards a commotion going on by the stand. The ponies were spewing something out of their mouths which was in fact; Flim and Flam’s cider.
“I can’t get this taste of my tongue!” a rose colored mare exclaimed.
“Mines got rocks in it!” Bon Bon said, disgusted.
“I wouldn’t pay a bit for this dreck!” a stallion jerred.
These comments encouraged me to walk up to Flim and Flam and tell them off. I slowly walked over towards the stand and I made eye contact with both of them.
“Well, well, well. Looks like the tables have turned, huh?” Rainbow asked.
“Kind of an idiotic idea to pull up an entire apple tree in order to create your rubbish trash.” I said while holding a cup and dropping it onto the ground. “Now look at you two. You’re both now know for selling crap to Ponyville. Am I right Ponyville?” I asked.
“YEAH!” they all yelled.
“Would you ever pay one bit for this so called cider?” Rainbow asked.
“NO!” they all yelled again.
“So, now you have me and the entire town against you. What will you do now?” I said while leaning closer to them, making them back away slowly.
“It seems we’ve encountered a slight problem here in Ponyville.” Flam said, nervously.
“Nopony wants our product. Next town?” Flim asked Flam.
“Next town. Let’s go Flim.” Flam said.
“Let’s go Flam!” Flim replied, hastifully.
Both Flim and Flam dashed to the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 and drove off into the the distance, never to be seen again.
“Looks like that’s the last you’ll be seeing them.” I said to the crowd.
“Good riddance!” a stallion said.
Applejack, the other four, and Spike walked over towards me and Rainbow.
“They’re gone!” Applejack said in a cheerful tone.
“That means Sweet Apple Acres is still in business.” Twilight informed.
“Plus, we can have high quality Apple Family Cider!” Caramel added.
“And since we had this silly competition, we made enough cider for the whole town.” Applebloom said.
The crowd cheered for the victory that Sweet Apple Acres had just achieved and that they won’t have to drink that piss that Flim and Flam produced. Everyone started to form a line that was much shorter than yesterday and soon enough, the third day of cider season was in effect.
I got my cup of cider and chugged it down halfway which made hiccup. I don’t know if that cider had alcohol in it because I was starting to feel a little fuzzy on the inside.
Pinkie, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Twilight, Spike, and Rainbow had their own ciders too. All of us took our cups and performed a toast. Rainbow finally took a sip of her cider for once these past three days.
“Worth the wait?” I asked Rainbow.
“It’s better than I remembered! Did you guys change your recipe or something.” Rainbow asked Applejack.
“Nope, not at all.” Applejack confirmed.
“Maybe its because you haven't had a good cider in a while.” Pinkie said.
“Yeah, don’t remind me.” Rainbow said.
“Hey, Caleb, mind if I speak to you quick?” Applejack asked.
“Sure, I’ll be back guys.” I said to the other five as I walked away with Applejack.
“What do you need?” I asked.
“I remember when you said 'I owed you one' on Wednesday morning. Consider the favor returned for helping out my family while in need." Applejack said, placing a foreleg on my leg.
“Oh, no problem Applejack.” I said.
“And I was wondering if you would like a job here at Sweet Apple Acres.” Applejack offered.
“A job?” I asked, surprised.
“Sure, it can help you earn some money. We’ll pay ya ten bits and hour” Applejack said.
“Isn’t Sweet Apple Acres more of a family business?” I asked.
“It is. But we could sure use some extra labor with the heavy stuff. Even Big Mac has trouble with that kind of stuff.” Applejack said.
“Really? How much does the stuff weigh?” I asked.
“About eight-hundred pounds and up.” Applejack revealed.
“Woah! Applejack, I’m afraid you’re out of luck. The heaviest weight I’ve ever lifted was two hundred and ninety-two pounds.” I said.
“Ah shoot, that’s a shame. Well, we can always have extra assistance with the regular based tasks. Unless….” Applejack trailed off.
“Unless?” I asked.
“In the Everfree Forest is a kind zebra named Zecora. She has all these potions for almost every ailment you can think of." Applejack said.
“A zebra, huh? Do you know the way?" I asked.
“I would, but I have to help wrap up Apple Cider Season. I’m pretty sure Twilight knows the way though.” Applejack said.
“Do you happen to know a zebra by the name of Zecora?” I asked.
“Yes I do. She lives in the Everfree Forest. Why?” Twilight asked.
“Well, I got a job here at Sweet Apple Acres.” I began to explain.
“Congratulations, Caleb!” Twilight said.
“Thanks. But I need your help because you know the way to Zecora’s because I have no idea where her place is at and I was wondering if she had some.... strength potion, maybe.” I said.
“I know exactly where she lives.” Twilight said.
“Excellent! Should we get going now or do you want to stay for a little while longer?” I asked.
“We can go whenever you’re ready.” Twilight said.
“Alright then, let’s go," I said, looking over to the other five mares. "We’ll see you guys around.”
I followed Twilight while Spike walked alongside her on a dirt path. We took a right and started to go into a forested part of the path. The forest was getting more denser the further we went in. I got a couple scratches on my arms and legs from the branches. Nothing too serious, but still annoying.
“Why do you need to meet her?” Spike asked.
“Zecora?” I asked.
“Yeah.” Spike said.
“Applejack wants me to do some of the heavy lifting on the farm, but the weights far exceeds my limitations. She told me that Zecora has all of these potions that could possibly help. I hope she has some kind of potion that can increase my strength.” I said.
“Now, Caleb, you should be careful when using potions. Too much can lead to effects that may be unwanted.” Twilight warned.
“Like what?” I asked.
“Well, there’s this one potion that made a pony grow an extra head.” Spike said.
“Spike! That’s only an old mare’s tale! What he meant to say was possible illnesses.” Twilight rephrased.
“So, no extra appendages?” I asked.
“Not at all.” Twilight reassured.
"Well that's a relief." I said.
We pushed further into the Everfree, pushing branches, leaves, and twigs out of our way until we came across a giant tree. The tree had a door on the front of it, something closely similar to Twilight’s home.
On the left side was a makeshift window made of sticks and a hole in the wall of the tree. The branches of the giant tree had multicolored bottles hanging from vines that were tied on them. It kind of reminded me of some tribal artifacts you would see in the history books.
“Is this the place?” I asked.
“Mmm-hm, this is it.” Twilight responded.
All three of us walked up the little wooden steps and Twilight knocked on the door. We waited for a sometime until the door started to creak. The door opened and sure enough, there was a zebra.
However, her colors weren’t black and white as a normal zebra would obtain, but more of a light gray with dark gray stripes. This also goes for her mane and tail. Her mane was fashioned like a mohawk, not pointy or anything like that, but a thick mohawk. She also were these little gold rings around her neck and large gold earrings as well. She didn’t show any fear from the sight of me, but more of interest.
“My goodness. What have you brought to ?” Zecora asked in accent that i’m pretty is from an African descent.
“Hi, Zecora. This is Caleb.” Twilight introduced.
“Hello.” I said.
“ You can talk as well as gawk? Very interesting. Please, come in.” Zecora said.
We walked in and the inside was lined up with bottles that i’m guessing were the so called potions. In the middle of the room was a big, black pot with some green concoction brewing inside it.
“What brings you to my home, my dear Caleb?” Zecora asked.
“I hear that you create potions for most ailments?” I asked.
“That is most correct. Is there something certain that your mind wants to find?” Zecora asked.
“Yes. Could you by any chance have a potion that could give me enhanced strength?” I asked.
“Hmmmm.... why of course.” Zecora said while standing on her hind legs to reach the top shelf.
She grabbed a bottle with her mouth that had a dark green liquid inside it.
“This potion will let you posses many feats of strength that are beyond natural lengths, but I have yet to test it on another.” Zecora explained.
“So, you haven't seen the effects on an actual pony?” I questioned.
“Yes, unfortunately.” Zecora said as she popped the bottles cork off. She than poured the liquid into a 16 ounce cup.
“If you wish to take the risks, then the effects cannot be missed.” Zecora heeded.
“Are you sure you want to do this, Caleb?” Twilight asked.
“Mmmmm..... Could this possibly kill me?” I asked Zecora.
“No. Everything here has been brewed to be safe and anew.” Zecora assured.
I took a hard, long thought into my decision and I decided to take it. I really needed to get a job in order to support myself with my new life here in Equestria.
“I’ll take it.” I decided.
Zecora then handed me the cup filled with the green goop.
With that, I quickly swigged it all down my throat. The taste was the worst thing I’ve ever tasted. It tasted like liquified Nyquil pills. I slightly gagged after I was done. Everyone went silent in the room, waiting for the effect to happen, but nothing followed the ingestion.
“Perhaps it is more of a dud. Quite crud.” Zecora remarked.
“Maybe. What happens if a potion is ineffective?” I asked.
“Nothing will occur, nothing will stir.” Zecora said.
“Sooo…. nothing. It’ll just sit in their until it passes through?” I said.
"Yes, that’s what will happen. But if something were to occur, please come back immediately for me to be sure." Zecora requested.
"Okay. I'll be sure to remember that." I said.
"Very good. What about you Twilight? Do you need something that I can assist you with?" Zecora asked.
"No thanks, Zecora. We were just here for that one potion. Thanks for trying to help." Twilight said.
"I see. My bipedal friend, it was at least worth the try." Zecora said.
"It was. Thanks again for trying to help." I said.
"Anytime. Farewell, my friends." Zecora called out.
We waved back in response.
“She seemed nice. I also thought it was pretty interesting how she would rhyme with her choice of words.” I said.
"I always that was cool too. Gives her a very mystical personality." Twilight said.
While we walked back to Twilight's library, my right arm jolted upward for no reason.
"What was that for?" Spike asked.
"I don't know. Probably just an occasional muscle spasm." I said.
"Or it could be that potion." Twilight said.
"Maybe." I replied.
A while later, we finally found the right path to get back to Ponyville. The air was starting to get a little nippy which gave me goosebumps. By the time we got back, it was probably around noon.
“Feeling up for some lunch?” Twilight asked me.
“Nah, my stomach feels really funny. Probably from the potion.” I said.
“I hope you aren't getting sick.” Twilight said.
“I don’t think so. mMy stomach just feels very fuzzy on the inside.” I said.
I sat on the couch and waited for my stomach to settle down. About twenty something minutes later, the feeling stopped and I felt normal again.
Suddenly, my whole body felt really strange, almost as if all my muscles were vibrating. The feeling of numbness started to surround my entire body and then that feeling faded away too. Next.... the worst was yet to come. I felt a slight tinge of pain on my shoulder. I quickly rubbed it to relieve the knot, but it wouldn’t work.
“Caleb, what’s wrong? You keep rubbing your arm.” Twilight said.
“I don’t know! It feels like little pulled muscles!” I exclaimed.
"You okay?" Twilight asked.
"No! I don't feel okay at all!" I exclaimed once again as the pain got worse.
Than my entire arm, neck and chest started to feel like they were on fire on the inside. I cried out in agony as I grabbed my sensitive spots.
"Caleb!?" Twilight asked in extreme concern.
“It feels like something burning me from the inside!” I cried as I started to panic.
My labored breaths quickly turned into high pitched gasps of pain when another section of my body would burn. Every second, the searing hot sensation would run down my entire body until it felt like my body was being engulfed by flames from the inside.
I screamed in excruciating anguish as I squirmed my body around on the floor like a ragdoll with tears running down my face. My eyes were tightly shut and my teeth were gnashed forcefully against each other.
"GOD! THE PAIIIN! OH MY GOD!" I screamed.
"Oh, Caleb! What should I do!?" Twilight asked, frantically.
"C'mon Caleb, talk to us!" Spike exclaimed.
"TWILIGHT! YOU HAVE TO TAKE ME TO THE HOSPITAL OR SOMETHING. PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!" I begged.
Right after that, my entire body seized up. My body tensed upwards as I arched my back and all my fingers wiggled simultaneously. After that, I blacked out and that's all I remembered from that point on. What will happen to me next was astounding.
I woke up with a loud gasp and I inhaled deeply, it felt like I was choked out. As I recollected myself, a voice came from my right side.
“He’s awake!” a female voice exclaimed.
I looked at the pony in who was in a doctor uniform and a mare who wore a white medical hat with a red cross.
“Mister Caleb? Are you feeling all right?” the doctor asked.
“Any numbness or pain?” the nurse asked.
“Um, no, I’m feeling fine. Where am I? Where’s Twilight and Spike?” I asked as I looked around the room.
“You’re in the hospital right now. Your friends are off somewhere at the moment. They left you some get well gifts, too.” the doctor informed me.
I looked to my right and saw all these get well gifts, that sort of stuff.
“What happened to me?" I asked. "All I remember is going through a living hell and then I woke up here.” I said.
“Your body seemed to have gone into a long term stasis and a dramatic change within the period of three weeks. It’s December 3rd today.” the doctor informed.
“Three weeks? Jesus. What have I missed?” I asked.
“Not much, besides the seasons changing. At least from what I know.” the nurse said.
“Oh, okay," I replied. "By the way, what did you mean by my body going through a dramatic change?”
“Look at your hand and see for yourself." the doctor said.
I raised my hand to my face and realized that my hand was probably twice the size it was originally. My eyes went wide at the increased size of my hand.
“What happened?!” I asked, surprised.
“Well, it appears your skeletal system and your muscular system have significantly grown in size since the day you arrived here.” the doctor said.
I looked at my arms and they were more muscular than before. They weren’t anything close to Arnold Schwarzenegger, but just very toned and defined. I went to check out the rest of my body and my face went hot when I realized I was naked.
“AH! Where’s my clothes?!” I exclaimed, embarrassed as I covered myself up.
“Your clothes tore when your body grew too big for them. We would’ve gave you hospital clothes, but they’re only intended for pony use.” the nurse explained.
“Oh. I’m just not used to being naked in front of others. It’s my society’s norm to wear clothes all the time.” I said.
“We apologize. Speaking of clothes, a kind mare named Rarity came in and took measurements on your new body recently and came back the next day with some clothes that would suit you.” the doctor informed.
The doctor walked over to the tables beside me with all the gifts I got and pulled out a larger replica of my original t-shirt and jeans. I also received a very nice winter coat along with a pair of gloves and a winter hat. I also got a note from Rarity as well.
Dear Caleb,
Although this type of clothing isn't exactly my preferred taste in clothing, I made you a replica of your original outfit. Hope this helps out a lot!
Best Wishes!
-Rarity
“Got a few more,” the doctor said as he showed me more pairs of jeans, t-shirts and long sleeved shirts. The doctor set them nicely next to me and turned his attention to the nurse. “Nurse Redheart, would you mind getting our patient here some breakfast. It has been awhile since he's ate something.” the doctor requested.
“Yes, Doctor.” Redheart replied as she walked out of the room.
“Hey, Doc, speaking of names, I never got yours.” I said.
“Oh, my bad. My name is Doctor Trottier, it’s an honor to be caring for you,” he introduced as we shook hands. “Nurse Redheart will be right with you. Holler if you need anything.”
“Thanks, doc.” I said.
After Doctor Trottier left the room, I hopped off the bed and stood up. I stumbled for a second as I adjusted to my new height which was a whole lot higher than before. I felt like a giant. I looked around my body and it was pretty toned including my legs, arms and abdomen. Not much of a change, honestly. After inspecting my body, I took a pair of jeans and slipped them on. The jeans fitted perfectly. Next, I put my t-shirt on and that fitted pretty good too. I lied back on the bed when the nurse walked back into the room with my food.
“We have quite a meal for you today. Eggs, porridge, orange juice, and toast with jam. It’ll help your body get fueled up for the day.” Nurse Redheart said.
“Thanks, Redheart.” I said.
“You’re welcome. Anything else you need?” Redheart asked.
“No. That’ll be all.” I said.
“Okay then. Eat up and we’ll be back for dishes when you finish.” Redheart said.
With that, she walked out of the room and I began to wolf down everything on the plate. Within five minutes tops, I ate everything clean off my plate.
“Much better.” I said to myself.
Trottier and Redheart walked back into the room and Redheart took my dishes out of the room.
“Are you feeling good enough to walk?” Trottier asked.
“Yep. I’m good.” I replied.
“Very good. Now we need to do a little physical exam on you. So please, follow me.” Trottier said.
I hopped off the bed and proceeded to follow Trottier and Redheart. We turned to a little corner which had a height measurer and a weight scale.
“Line yourself up with the height scale, please.” Redheart instructed.
When I aligned my body with the wall and scale, I exceeded past my previous height of 6'1. Nurse Redheart tried to reach my full height with extra measuring tape, but couldn’t. Trottier, who was a unicorn, used his magic to levitate the tape up to the top of my head.
“Looks like…. 7’8". You really grew!” Nurse Redheart exclaimed.
“Wow! my previous height was like six foot-one. That’s incredible!” I said.
“Six foot-one? We’ll take note of that.” Trottier said.
“Now, please, step on the weight scale.” Redheart said.
I stepped onto the weight scale and the number wheel spun until the red needle landed on three-hundred and twenty-nine pounds.
“Now do you know your previous weight by any chance?” Trottier asked.
“Yes I do. It was one-hundred and ninety pounds.” I replied.
“Thank you.” Trottier responded.
The rest of the exam is what you would expect from physical exams that you would usually get. They checked out my breathing, eyes, basic motor functions and etcetera.
After the exam, they told me to stay in bed and that I could be discharged around 1:00 PM if I was feeling like I was adjusted to my body. The hospital also notified Twilight that I was in tip-top shape and ready for discharge.
I sat in the bed while moving my limbs around to adjust to the new feel. When I mean by feel, I mean that it feels very easy to move. I can take longer strides when I walk, I can move my limbs with very quick movements, and I can jump much higher as well. I manage to to touch the ceiling, which was a good fifteen or eighteen feet.
After waiting for a couple hours, I was informed that Twilight and the other five we’re here and I could leave when ready. I grabbed my new clothes and headed downstairs to the main lobby. I entered the lobby and there they were.
“Hey, guys!” I said.
All of them stared at me in shock and amazement at my new appearance.
“What do ya think?” I asked.
“Looks like that potion worked after all! We thought you were dying or sick at first.” Twilight said.
“Nope, just the potion doing its thing.” I said.
“Are you feeling alright?” Fluttershy asked.
“I feel like a million bits.” I replied.
“Oh thank goodness.” Fluttershy said.
“Thanks for the new clothes and all, Rarity.” I said as I slipped on my coat.
“Why you’re quite welcome, darling.” Rarity said.
“So Applejack, I think I might take that job after all.” I mentioned.
“Heh, about that. It’s not fall anymore, it’s winter time.” Applejack said with her foreleg behind her head.
“Ohh, yeah. That sucks.” I said.
“Maybe sometime in the spring you can help out.” Applejack said.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” I said.
The clerk at the desk called me over and asked me sign a few papers before I left. I signed them, and we left the hospital. When we walked out, I was hit with a blast of cold air as little snowflakes blew into my face.
“Gah!” I exclaimed.
“Ha! Cold out ain’t it?” Rainbow asked.
“Cold? Its freezing out here.” I said.
Right after I said that, a snowball hit me right in the chest.
“Hey, who did that?” I asked.
“Me!” responded a familiar high pitched voice.
“Pinkie….” I said, softly.
“Hi there, Bigfoot!” Pinkie chirped.
“So it’s gonna be like that?” I questioned.
“Maybe….” Pinkie said back, slyly.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” I said as I packed the snow into a ball shape and threw it at her and missed.
“Snowball fight!” Pinkie yelled.
Everyone scattered around the front yard of the hospital and started creating their own snowballs. I quickly created two dozens of snowballs and made a pile next to me while I built a little snow wall to protect myself.
“Hey everyone, get Caleb!” Rainbow shouted.
“Oh no you don’t!” I shouted back.
I made more snowballs for the barrage that was yet to come. I peeked over the wall and saw that they were coming towards me. With no delay, I started to throw snowballs at them at a fast pace. They tried to evade them, but ended up getting hit by the bombardment.
“Dodge faster, ponies!” I laughed.
Rainbow was the only one who could easily make quick maneuvers to dodge them. I realized they were flanking me when one snowball hit me from the side. I went to grab another snowball, but found out I had none left.
“What? What is this?” I exclaimed to myself.
“Get him!” Rainbow yelled while they pelted me with snowballs.
I got up onto my feet and began to run away. When I ran, I felt like I was running way faster than I could run before. I looked behind me and saw Rainbow gaining on me while I slowly outran the others. I could tell Rainbow was right on top of me, so I jumped as high as I could and caught her in mid-air.
“Gotcha!” I said.
Me and Rainbow began to wrestle on the ground and I managed to pin her down. She struggled to escape, but to now avail. I looked over at the other five and said,
“Oh yeah, I forgot about you guys.” I said, slowly.
“Okay, Caleb. You win.” Rainbow said.
“I am the champion!” I declared out loud.
After our little snowball fight and a good laugh, we decided to head back to our homes and warm up for a while. Me and Twilight arrived back at the treehouse which was absolutely much warmer than it was outside.
“Hey, Caleb.” Spike greeted.
“Hi, Spike. What's up?” I asked.
“Twilight told me to make some hot chocolate for us when you got back.” Spike said.
“Hot chocolate on a cold day? This day just got a whole lot better! Thanks, Spike.” I said as he handed a nice, hot cup of hot cocoa.
I sipped on the hot cocoa which was not to flat and not to rich. It was a perfect taste.
“Mmmm, very good.” I complimented.
“What happened over these past three weeks?” I asked Twilight.
“A great deal.” Twilight said.
“Rarity got ponynapped by Diamond Dogs while me and her were gem hunting.” Spike said.
“Ponynapped? She was stolen?” I asked.
“Yeah, but we saved her.” Spike said.
“And what the heck are Diamond Dogs? Is that the name of some gang or something?” I asked.
“Diamond Dogs are far from just being a gang name. Diamond Dogs are these creatures that have characteristics of dogs and like to keep fancy items for themselves. Rarity was ponynapped while her and Spike were up somewhere outside Ponyville.” Twilight explained.
“Damn, that’s pretty bad. If I ever come across those things, I'll have to see what they're deal is.” I said.
“I don’t think you’ll ever run into them, they usually live underground most of the time in their territories that are rich with gems.” Twilight said.
“That’s good. Anything else happen while I was out?” I asked.
“Yes. We went down to Appleloosa to help settle a feud between Appleloosa and a buffalo tribe.” Twilight said.
“A native tribe?” I asked.
“Yes. A native tribe of buffalo” Twilight responded
“Don’t tell me, it was a problem that involved land.” I guessed.
“Exactly.” Twilight said.
“How did you know?” Spike asked.
“Every problem with a native tribe always involves land. Did you guys resolve the problem?” I asked.
“We did. Appleloosa gets to keep their apple growing land and would share their products with the tribe which was agreeable with both parties.” Twilight explained.
“Well then, you guys were on quite an adventure through these past three weeks, huh?” I asked.
“It’s something that life throws at us every once in awhile.” Twilight admitted.
“Cool. Maybe I could tag along sometime if I can.” I said.
“If you're in the right place at the right time..... Oh, I can’t believe I almost forgot to mention this.” Twilight said while giving slapping herself in the face.
“What?” I asked.
“The princess responded to the letter Spike sent while you were out in the hospital.” Twilight announced.
“She did? What did she say?” I asked.
“Here’s the letter.” Twilight said as levitated the letter to me.
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
I am excited to hear of our new arrival here in Equestria. When you receive this letter, please lend this to Caleb and the rest below will be directed towards him.
Greetings, Caleb. I’ve heard nothing but good things about you. From what I heard, you have made yourself publicly know in Ponyville and struck up a strong friendship with Twilight; my faithful student. I take admiration in both of these accomplishments, but that’s not why I’m writing. I’m writing this because I’d like to meet you personally at my castle in Canterlot. Please respond when you have the time so that I know if meeting you is possible. And again, welcome to Equestria.
Sincerely,
Princess Celestia
After I finished reading, I just stared off into space while thinking, “Did a princess pony just ask me to meet her personally?”
“Soooo?” Twilight said.
“Wha? Oh, yeah, that’s great….” I stuttered.
“You okay, Caleb?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m just a little overwhelmed at the moment.” I said.
I then asked Twilight for a piece of paper so that I could write a letter back to the princess. She handed me a piece of white, blank paper and a quill. With that, I wrote a response letter
Dear Princess Celestia,
It was very nice to receive a letter from the Princess of Equestria. When I first arrived here in Equestria, I was lost and had no idea what to do, but your student, Twilight Sparkle, helped me see my way through life here as well as her friends. But I digress. It would be great to meet you in Canterlot. I don’t exactly know what your royal schedule is through the day, but set up a date so that I know when I should come. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Caleb Lee Barlow
“Alright, Spike, send it.” I said
Spike blew his magical green flames at the letter, which made it dissolve into pieces of ash.
“Now we just wait.” Spike said.
“Sounds good.” I said.
While I thought for a while about what to do next, I thought about Zecora.
“I think I'm gonna head to Zecora’s and show her the effects of the potion I took. She’ll be surprised.” I said.
“Okay. You remember the way?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah, I remember.” I said.
“Bundle up, then. It’s chilly out there.” Twilight said.
I took the same path that Twilight showed me when we first went to visit Zecora. I had to think for a while to fully remember the route because the forest does get denser the more I go in and the snow covers up some areas that would indicated if I were close or not, but I eventually found the right path. Shortly after, I came across Zecora’s hut again. I knocked on the door and she opened it.
“Ah, I see the potion has been put into motion.” Zecora said while smiling.
“I know, right? Not only did it increase my strength, but it also increased the size of my skeletal structure for some reason.” I said.
“Very puzzling. Please come in.” Zecora said. “Can I get you anything?” she asked.
“No, thanks.” I replied.
With that, she picked up a piece of paper and pencil with her mouth.
“Caleb. Do you feel any different at the moment?” Zecora asked.
“How do I feel? Uhhh, I feel very energized than I did before I took the potion.” I answered.
“Okay,” Zecora said as she wrote my words down on the piece of paper. “Can you move your limbs well?”
“Definitely. Moving my limbs feels so much easier than I originally could.” I said while I quickly waved my hand upward which emitted a fairly loud woosh.
“Very good. What was it like when the affect took into effect?” she asked.
“Ugh. It was the most intense pain I could’ve ever gone through. First, it felt like my body was literally on fire on the inside and then my body basically went into a coma for three weeks which was the time it took for me to grow to this size." I said.
“Oh my. I am truly sorry for having you go through such suffering. I deeply apologize.” Zecora apologized.
“Apology accepted.” I said.
“That’s all I need to know. Strange how this potion takes a great deal of time to work.” Zecora said.
“Do your other potions work faster?” I asked.
“Not only fast, but more of an instant. This potion requires more tinkering.” Zecora said.
“Right. Just find out a way to make it quicker minus the searing pain.” I reminded.
“Indeed. That is needed very much.” Zecora said.
Zecora then showed me some of her potions that were much more fast acting and well looked at. One looked like milk and was used for looking into the past through your own eyes, which was pretty cool.
“Alright, Zecora, I should be going. Nice to talk to you again.” I said.
“Likewise. Before you go, I must mention something.” Zecora said.
“What would that be?” I asked.
“In the young of the night, two days ago, bright anomalies could be seen flashing throughout the woods not far from my home.” Zecora said.
“Bright anomalies? Were they blue?” I asked, curiosity.
“Why yes. How could you have know?” Zecora asked.
“Let’s just say I’ve had encounters with those before. Where did you see these lights at?” I asked her.
“To the north.” she replied, pointing out the front window.
“I’ll check it out.” I said.
“Use caution, Caleb.” Zecora heeded.
“I will.” I replied.
I opened the door and headed back out to the cold outside world. While heading toward the direction of the lights, I remembered that the bright blue was a characteristic of the portal that sucked me into the world. Then it hit me. Maybe another person was sucked into Equestria. And it really begs the question; is the portal still active back on Earth at this time? Seriously, I've been here for over a month and the portal may still be active.
I then ran towards the supposed direction of the lights while looking in all directions for anyone, but couldn’t find anyone.
When the forest became less dense, I noticed something in the distance. It was color that was mixed between cream and snow white. When I got closer, I noticed black wheels at the bottom and quickly pieced it together. It was an automobile.
I went up to it and looked into it to see if anyone was inside, but no one was, unfortunately. I examined the exterior and the body was slightly caked with dried mud on the side. The wheels had no hub caps on them and the tires looked like one’s meant for off-roading because they had the right treads and stated, “All Terrain T/A” on the side of it.
I also took notice of a roof rack that had a set of 5 lights on each side of the rack. On the front were added off-road lights that read, “Maxtel 4x4”, on each light. The back had a spare tire attached to a door, but the license plate however wasn’t American, it was from a foreign country. All in all, it looked to be in rather good condition.
I then went to the driver's door and pulled the door handle and it opened. I tried to fit myself inside the vehicle, but my head hit the roof and my knees were right up against the steering wheel. To fix these problems, I tugged a little bar under the seat and slid the seat all the way back and lowered the seat downwards until it reached its limit. Doing that helped out somewhat. My position would probably be comparable to an average person sitting in an unadjusted car seat.
The transmission was a manual and thankfully I knew how to drive manual, thanks to my father for being someone who grew up in the 70’s and 80’s. The glove box was stuffed with newspapers, so I took out one, but I couldn’t read anything because the text was all in Norwegian. While digging through the mound of newspapers, I found the driver's manual which clarified the name of the car. It read, "1998 Land Rover Defender 110 w/300tdi."
“I scored big time.” I said to myself.
I then climbed out of the Defender, closed the door, and waited for anybody to come back to the vehicle. I waited and waited for a long time and still nobody came.
Curious, I opened the door and checked for the keys, but couldn't find them anywhere. The previous owner back on earth must have it. I once again got out of the car and left it behind to alert Twilight and Spike of the situation. When I arrived back at the library, I asked Twilight and Spike to follow me back to where I found the Land Rover.
“Twilight, want to see something cool?” I asked
“What did you find?” she asked.
“I’ll show you. It’s not far from here.” I said.
After Twilight and Spike put on their winter clothing, we headed back to my previous location.
“What did you find all the way out here?” Spike asked as we walked.
“What if I told you it’s technology from my world.” I said.
“Really? What is it?” Twilight asked with great interest.
“It’s what us humans use to get to point A to point B, or to just move around faster. They’re called automobiles.” I explained.
“Automobiles? So…. it must move on its own, then?” Spike asked.
“Yes, precisely.” I said.
“If it moves on its own, then it must be powered by something, right?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah, about that. There’s a slight problem.” I said.
“What’s the problem?” she asked.
“Firstly, I need the specific key in order to start up the damn thing and I need diesel to refuel it when it runs out. Also, I need oil to keep the engine working properly.” I said.
“That's quite much to keep it running.” Twilight said.
“I know, right?” Spike said.
Twilight then had an expression on her face that showed that she was thinking of something.
“Actually, you might be in luck, Caleb!” Twilight exclaimed.
“You do? What do you have?” I asked, enthusiastically.
“Since I’m a unicorn and know many advanced spells, I have the capability cast a spell on the automobile and give it power if you show me the power source.” Twilight revealed.
“Twilight, it’s not that easy. The car has an ignition switch that needs to activated by switching the lock with a key.” I explained.
“Okay, okay. Umm, if you show me where the switch is, I can figure out a way to have my magic act as the key and switch it on.” Twilight said.
“You can actually do that?” I asked.
“Mmm-hmm.” Twilight nodded.
“That helps. But what about the fuel and oil?” I asked.
"You got me there. I might need my spellbook to answer your question." Twilight said.
I also questioned her how would I turn it off without a key, she didn’t have an answer to this. We thought for quite sometime before I remembered something that I learned in driver’s ed class.
If I could find the fuse box and remove the fuel pump fuse, I can shut off the engine just like that. Yet again, another question lurked out of my mouth. How would I turn it back on without a key? Conveniently, Twilight said she can make the power magic become residual. If the energy is residual, it will reside within the components needed to start the Land Rover and will activate again when I put the fuel pump fuse back in the fuse panel. The fuse will pretty much be the new key. After we walked all they way back for the spell book, we finally made it to the Defender.
“Holy Guacamole! This thing is huge!” Spike exclaimed.
“It reminds me of the carriages we use.” Twilight said.
“I can see that comparison.” I said.
“What’s with all the lights?” Spike asked.
“Those are for driving around at night.” I said.
“Huh. Nie.” Spike replied.
“Alright, let’s get to work.” I said.
I opened the driver door and Twilight hopped onto the seat while inspecting the speedometer, tachometer (etc.) She then fiddled with blinker and wiper handles like a child with a new toy. I flicked the front hood handle upwards and lifted the hood up which revealed the engine and the battery.
“Spike, be a pal and keep a look on this engine right here, okay?” I said while pointing at the engine.
“You got it.” he replied.
“Alright, Caleb, show me where the ignition lock is.” Twilight said.
“It's right in there.” I said while showing her the key switch.
“Okay. Just let me get in the right position.” she said while lining her horn up with the key lock.
"Wait, wait, wait!" I halted.
"What is it?" Twilight asked.
"The fuel and oil, I almost forgot." I said.
"Oh, right." Twilight said.
"Have any idea on how you're going to make that work?" Spike asked.
"Let me look in my spellbook quick." Twilight said as she opened the book.
Twilight then flipped through numerous pages in the spellbook until she stopped on one.
"I got it!" Twilight exclaimed. "If I use a regenerative spell on the fuel and oil, if there's any in there, then I can make the fuel regenerate over time whenever levels gets low." Twilight said.
"Great!" I replied.
"But I will have to have total silence when I do this. It's a very advanced spell and I need to concentrate deeply." Twilight said.
"Sure, no problem." I said.
"Now show me where the fuel goes." Twilight requested.
Me and Twilight walked behind the Defender and the gas cap was on the left backside of the truck.
"Right there." I said.
"Okay. Now I need silence." Twilight said.
"Fire away." I replied as I stepped back.
Twilight's aura began to light up on her horn and she grunted as she gave somewhat of an effort to conjure the spell. She continued to grunt in effort and shortly after, the sparkling purple aura turned into yellow-like magical liquid substance that went down to the gas tank. Twilight let out a sigh of relief as she finished the spell.
"Phew! That took some effort." Twilight said.
"What now?" I asked.
"Now that liquid will mix with the fuel and basically bind together to form this regenerative relationship." Twilight said.
"That's an interesting way to put it." I said.
"How about the oil?" Twilight asked.
"Yep. This time it's in the front where the engine is." I said.
"Lead the way." Twilight said.
I showed Twilight where the oil was and took the oil cap off. Twilight repeated the same actions she did moments ago and now the oil was mixed with the magic.
"Alright.... Done." Twilight said with a pant.
"Good. Now all we need to do is to activate the key switch and we'll be good to go." I said.
“Show me where the ignition lock is.” she said.
“Its right here.” I said while showing her the key switch inside the truck.
Twilight climbed into the Defender and got on the passenger seat, pressing all the way down on the clutch with my hand.
“Okay, just let me get in the right position.” Twilight said while lining her horn up with the key lock.
Twilight aligned her horn and pressed the tip right against where the key would go in. While scrunching her face up, a light yellow magical aura emitted out her horn and seeped into the key lock. She continued seeing it inside it for about ten seconds before stopping.
The engine started turning over for about three seconds before it died on us.
"Try again." I said to Twilight.
Twilight tried turning the engine on again, but it failed once again.
"Shoot. Hope the magic isn't conflicting with the Defender." I said to myself.
I felt deflated for a moment, but I remembered something. I took out the fuel pump fuse earlier.
"Wait a minute!" I exclaimed as I reached into my coat pocket.
I felt around for a small little chip and found it in the back of my pocket.
"Aha!" I said.
Leaning over, I placed the fuse back into its original spot and the engine came to live instantly, confirming that the residual energy works. The engine sounded like a pretty good sounding diesel engine. A little bit loud to be honest, but what can you do about that?
“It works!” Spike yelled over the engine.
“Ha-ha! You did it, Twi!” I said with joy.
“Phew! That took even more effort.” Twilight said again.
I walked over to the engine and examined it. The engine was surrounded by a faint magic aura while the engine did its job. The battery also had some magical energy flowing inside it as well.
"Now what?” Spike asked.
“All I have to do is be sure that the residual energy really works or if it was just luck." I answered.
I headed back for the underside of the steering wheel and pulled the fuse out, killing the engine.
“Now let’s see if that residual energy works.” I said as I plugged the fuse back in which brought the engine right back to life.
“Looks like it works! Alright, Spike, close that hood!” I exclaimed.
Spike climbed onto the front of the Land Rover and jumped upwards to get a grip on the hood. He grabbed on and dangled all the way down. With that, he clamped the hood back on nice and tight.
“We’re good!” Spike said.
“Alright, guys, time to put this to the test.” I said while brushing snow off the windshield and the rearview mirrors.
“How?” Twilight asked.
“Just get in. I’ll show you.” I said.
I hopped into the driver's seat and opened the passenger door for Twilight and Spike. Both of them climbed onto the same seat that fitted both of them.
“Okay guys, ready?” I asked.
“Ready when you are.” Twilight said.
I pressed my foot on the clutch and shifted into reverse while taking off the parking brake. I then applied pressure to the gas, slowly lifting my foot off the clutch and the Defender began to move backwards. I made my way past the trees and obstacles that were in our way until there was a tree that actually hindered our progress.
“Why are we stopping?” Twilight asked.
“There’s a tree in the way.” I said while looking back.
I put the Land Rover in park and walked out toward the tree. The tree was about a foot shorter than me and a little thick. With little effort, I grabbed on the neck, pulled the tree upwards, tearing it straight from the roots.
“Woah. Must be that enhanced strength.” I said to myself.
I lifted the tree and threw it out of the way into the forest. With that out of the way, I hopped back in the car.
“You pulled that tree out like it was nothing!” Twilight said.
“Must be that strength potion.” I boasted.
“A tough guy, huh?” Spike asked.
“Oh yeah.” I said.
“Okay then, see if you can move this thing with your strength.” Spike challenged.
“Spike. This thing weighs like four-thousand something pounds. I may be strong, but I can’t lift that much.” I said.
“You didn’t even try.” Spike said.
“Okay. But if my back gives out, I'm blaming it on you." I said.
I got out of the Defender and placed my hands under the side of the Land Rover. With a quick jolt upwards, I lifted the entire left side off the ground and tilted the Defender to the right. Twilight and Spike yelled in surprise as the truck tilted.
“Holy Shit! That’s awesome!” I said to myself while laughing, shaking my arms.
“Okay, Caleb, you proved me wrong.” Spike said while staring blankly in regret.
“Ha! Who’s barking now?” I said.
After that, I backed the Land Rover out of the forest and onto the path we used.
“One safety rule about riding in this is that you must put those safety belts around you.” I said while pointing at the seat belts.
Twilight used her levitation magic to buckle herself in. The seatbelts position looked a little awkward, but it’ll do. Spike looked like a little kid without a booster seat in the car due to how small he was. After everyone was situated, I continued to back out of the forest and onto the path that leads to Ponyville.
“Ready to go?” I asked.
“Yep.” they both said.
“Let’s see what this thing can do.” I said, softly.
“What was that?” Twilight asked.
Without warning, I put the gear into first, and pressed the gas halfway down. The tires spun a little at first, but they finally got traction and the engine emitted the loud roar of the diesel engine. Twilight and Spike tensed up from the sudden force of inertia from the acceleration and I was just taking it all in. I shifted into the next gear which made the Defender throw itself forward a little bit, causing all of us to thrust forward in unison.
I checked the speedometer and I was going 70 kilometers per hour. Those tires sure do their job well. Aside from the spinning tires in the beginning, they surprisingly really grip onto the snow real good. And damn this thing is hella' fast for an off-roader. I looked over at my two passengers, who were on the brink of yelling
“Can you slow it down a little?!” Twilight exclaimed, hastily.
“Alright, alright.” I said as I let my foot off the accelerator.
I then slowed down to a more steady 40 kmh. Twilight and Spike took in a deep breath to catch their breath.
“It’s a rush, isn’t it?” I asked.
“Woo, yeah. This thing is fast.” Twilight said.
“How ya doin’ back there, Spike?” I asked.
Spike didn’t respond because he was stuck in this frozen position while tightly gripping the handle on the door.
“Spike!” Twilight exclaimed.
“Is it over yet?” Spike asked while sounding a little panicked.
“Yes, Spike, we’re going more slower now.” I confirmed.
Spike only responded by sighing and going limp as he sat back in his seat. After a short drive, we made it back to the library.
“You guys go on in," Twilight said. "You mind if I take a look at the Land Rover, Caleb?” Twilight asked.
“I don't mind.” I replied.
Me and Spike headed inside and Spike stopped in his tracks.
“What’s wrong, Spike?” I asked.
“Umpf! Something's coming up.” he said while covering his mouth.
Spike suddenly opened his mouth and let out a belch that emitted green flames and a scroll fell onto the floor.
“What did you just do?” I asked.
“Ugh.... It... It happens whenever I get a letter from Princess Celestia," Spike explained, wiping his mouth. "Wait, you sent a letter to her earlier, right?”
“I did! It must be the response to my letter.” I said.
“Here.” Spike said as he handed me the scroll.
I quickly opened and read it.
Dear Caleb Barlow,
Thank you for responding to my letter I sent you. The best time for us to meet together is on December 5th at 11:00 AM. You can get here by taking the train that is stationed at the Ponyville Train Station. I’ve arranged the train to leave Ponyville at 8:50 AM, so make sure to be ready for departure. When you arrive in Canterlot, you will be royally escorted from Canterlot Train Station to my castle. The royal guards will then appoint you to me and my sister’s throne room. When we meet, we will discuss whatever you desire with me and my dear sister, Princess Luna. Remember though, me and her might have some questions for you as well. Anyways, I’m looking forward to this day and will be a day in you life and Equestrian history that will be long remembered.
Sincerely Yours,
Princess Celestia
“Spike…. I have two days until I have to go to Canterlot.” I said, flatly.
“Hey, hey, hey. You get a personal meeting with both princesses. Why so down?” Spike asked.
“I’m not down. I need to look good! I can’t walk into a royal castle with casual clothes!” I said.
“You got a point there.” Spike said.
“Rarity! I’ve got to get to Rarity’s place. Maybe she can whip me up a tux or something.” I said.
“She probably will. She just loves making dresses and all of these fancy clothes.” Spike informed.
“Okay, I'm gonna head over to Carousel Boutique then. I’ll see you later, Spike.” I said as I went for the front door.
“See ya, Caleb” Spike said.
"Twilight, I need to use the Land Rover." I said.
“Where are you going?” she asked, flashing the roof lights on and off.
“I’m heading to Rarity’s. I’ll probably be back by dark.” I said.
“For what?” she asked.
"I'm gonna ask her to make me a suit, or at least something that looks high class." I replied.
"Okay. I'll leave your food out for you incase you get back after dinner is done." Twilight said.
"Thanks." I said, entering the vehicle.
With that, I switched the Defender on and headed off to Carousel Boutique.
Along the way to Carousel Boutique, I got many perplexed expressions from the ponies of Ponyville that walked around. I suppose because they’ve never seen technology like this before. But anyways, after driving around for a while looking for the damn place again, I found the boutique. Rarity must’ve noticed the headlights because she happened to look out the window upon arrival. I waved at her through the windshield and she waved back with a smile. I climbed out and noticed the temperature dropped significantly. The wind chill only made it worse and snow blew into my face. It was misery. I speed-walked to the the door and Rarity opened the door for me. I walked in and the inviting warmth of the indoors embraced me.
“Thanks Rarity.” I said.
“Anytime.” Rarity replied.
I took off my coat and hung it on a hook, leaving my boots, hat, and gloves to the side.
“What brings you here?” Rarity asked.
“Believe it or not, I got an invitation to meet with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.” I said.
“Oooh! Lucky you! Canterlot is the most beautiful city in all of Equestria!” Rarity said while in a daydream like voice or trance.
“Sure sounds like it, considering the fact it’s attached to a mountain.” I said.
“Oh yes. One can assume Celestia wanted it to stand out.” Rarity explained.
“I bet. Anyways, I need to ask you a little favor that should be easy for your suiting. You have no idea how much you’ll be helping me out.” I said with emphasis.
“What'll it be, darling?” Rarity asked.
“Could you perhaps make a some sort of tuxedo or something. I just want to look good for the meeting.” I asked.
“Why of course, Caleb. When’s the meeting?” she asked.
“Really? Thank you so much!” I exclaimed.
“Yes, yes.” Rarity said while smiling and hinting me to answer her question.
“Oh, right. The meeting is in two days. December 5th.” I said.
“Ha! I can get it done by tomorrow!” Rarity declared.
“Oh, that’s fantastic!” I said in delight. “You still have those measurements you took on me, right?”
“That I do. You wanted a tux?” Rarity asked again.
“Yeah, that’s pretty mu-.” I said before I was cut off by by Sweetie Belle.
“Caleb!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed as she ran down the stairs.
“Sweetie? Wait…. Are both of you sisters?” I asked.
“Why, yes we are. Sweetie was telling me about this so called freerunning you showed her.” Rarity said.
“Yeah, she and her little friends have this club called the Cutie Mark Crusaders; a club in which they try to figure out ways to earn their cutie marks.” I said.
“She tells me about it all the time. It can also be a little annoying, too.” Rarity said while leaning closer towards me and whispering loud enough for Sweetie to hear.
“Oh yeah? Well, guess what, Caleb? Rarity can be quite a drama queen. She overreacts from just getting dirt on her hooves.” Sweetie said while repeating her sister’s actions.
“Well…. dirt is dirty and filthy, that’s that.” she said while pointing her head upwards and closing her eyes.
“Okay, I can see both of you have that sister rivalry, so I'll just leave you guys to it. And, Rarity, thanks again. You’re very generous.” I said while slipping on my coat.
“Your welcome. After all, generosity is my element.” Rarity said.
“You got that right,” I said, furrowing my brow in confusion. "I’ll see you guys tomorrow or some other day.”
“Bye!” they both said as I walked out the door.
"And be sure to clean off your carriage. It's filthy." Rarity reminded.
Sweetie looked at Rarity and looked back at me with an expression that said, "See what I mean?"
"Don't worry, I took notice. Soon I'll clean it off and all your cleansing needs will be fulfilled." I said to Rarity.
"Oh, thank Celestia." Rarity said.
With that, I headed out the door. It was now nighttime and the moon was shining bright in the sky. Snowflakes could be seen in the light as they floated across the sky. Although it was cold as a freezer, it was a beautiful sight to witness.
That’s something that seems to reoccur in Equestria often because, frankly, Equestria is a very beautiful place. But I digress. When I got to the Land Rover, it was once again coated by a thin layer of fluffy snow. I groaned in frustration because I was only in there for about ten minutes or so.
I arrived back at the treehouse and parked the Land Rover on the right side of the house. The wind died down a little bit over the drive back, but still cold like an ice cube. I quickly ran to the door and headed inside.
“Brrrrr. It’s freezing out there.” I said.
“We can tell from over here. Close the door.” Spike said as he hugged himself for warmth.
I shut the door and took off my winter gear and took notice of Twilight and Spike eating soup.
“What kind of soup you got cooking?” I asked.
“Not soup, vegetable stew.” Twilight confirmed.
“Bowl's are up on the top shelf if you want some.” Spike said.
“Thanks, guys.” I said while sitting down.
Hot steam arose as I poured ladle amounts of soup into a bowl. I took a spoonful in my mouth and immediately spat it out while gasping from the burn to my tongue. Spike began to snicker slightly while covering his mouth.
“Got something you need to say?” I asked him.
“Maybe.” Spike rasped.
“Okay, Spike. Just eat up.” Twilight interjected.
“Yeah. Wittle Spikey needs his veggies, don’t you?” I teased.
“Alright, I guess I deserved that. But you brought that on yourself.” Spike said while taking a sip of the stew.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." I agreed.
We remained silent for a minute or two as we ate before I broke the silence.
“Hey, Twilight, I hear that Celestia has a sister.” I said while chewing the vegetables.
“You never knew that?” Spike asked.
“Maybe I’ve heard about that before and forgot, but I did learn it today in Celestia’s letter. Princess Luna, right?” I asked.
“Yep. That’s her name.” Twilight confirmed.
“What’s she like? I have a pretty decent idea of Celestia’s personality through her letters, but not Luna.” I said.
“Princess Luna is a bit different from Celestia.” Twilight said, vaguely.
“What do you mean by different?” I questioned.
“Sorry. What I meant to say is that Princess Luna is much more kind and less insecure than what she used to be.” Twilight said.
“Could you elaborate on the phrase, 'used to be'?” I asked.
“Well, what would you say if she was once called Nightmare Moon?” Twilight asked.
“Nightmare Moon sounds a bit more dark. Are you hinting that she was previously evil?” I asked in suspicion.
“Let me explain. It was a thousand years ago. Celestia and Luna ruled Equestria in The Castle Of Two Sisters in the Everfree Forest and they both performed their duties of raising the sun and the moon. However, Luna was fed up of having the night being the time of the day where everypony slept, her sister always got more praise. Luna grew much more angrier and bitter until she refused to lower the moon. Celestia tried to explain to Luna that she must do her duty and lower the moon, but Luna once again refused. During that time, all of Luna’s bitterness and hate eventually turned her into a wicked mare that overtook her, who was dubbed, 'Nightmare Moon.' After Luna transformed into Nightmare Moon, she casted eternal night on Equestria. Celestia then had to make a hard choice for both her and the fate of Equestria.” Twilight said, dramatically.
“What happened?” I asked with extreme interest.
“Celestia banished her to the moon. Nightmare Moon was there for a thousand years until she eventually returned two years ago.” Twilight said.
“Oh, so her return was actually quite recent?” I asked in surprise.
“Definitely. But believe it or not, me and the other five stopped her.” Twilight said.
“You’ve got to be pulling on my leg.” I said in denial.
“It’s the truth.” Spike said, backing up Twilight’s claim.
“C’mon. Six average ponies can’t take on somepony as powerful as Nightmare Moon.” I denied once again.
“I can see your standpoint, but there is an important magic that assisted us in her defeat.” Twilight brought up.
“Really? What was it?” I asked.
“I’ll leave that for you to ask to the princess yourself.” Twilight said.
“Me? Why do you have to be so secretive about it?” I asked while starting to get annoyed.
“I’m not secretive. I just think it’s a good topic for you and Celestia to discuss.” she explained.
“Oh, okay. If you say so.” I said.
So from what I could gather, Princess Luna was someone who made a terrible mistake, and I bet she had a lot of remorse in what she did. But I still wonder what Twilight and her friends used to defeat Nightmare Moon. Was it pure luck, or was it some sort of magic?
“So, Princess Luna is all good now?” I asked.
“Mm-hmm." Twilight hummed. "She did have trouble adjusting back to regular life as a princess.”
“I suppose. Being stuck on the moon for a thousand years with no one to talk to.” I added on.
“A good example of this would be this year's Nightmare Night. Luna nearly went back to her old ways.” Twilight said.
“Eternal night?” I asked.
“Nearly, but she changed her mind.” Spike said.
“That’s good.” I said.
After all three of us finished our stews, I yawned, feeling rather drowsy.
“Guys, I'm going to bed.” I announced while yawning again.
“Night. We'll be up a bit longer.” both Twilight and Spike said.
“And make sure Little Spike gets to bed on time. He gets cwanky-wanky without his sweep.” I teased again.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha.” Spike said, sarcastically.
“Nah, I’m just messing with ya.” I said while heading upstairs.
Today I slept in to noon for a change, so I kinda played hooky with Twilight's usual schedule. Spike and Twilight must’ve went out because they were nowhere to found in the library when I woke up, so I decided to get dressed and check on Rarity’s progress. After taking a short drive, I arrived at Rarity's and knocked on the door. It took a while, but the door finally opened. Rarity's mane was all frazzled and her eyes had dark circles, almost as if she was up all night.
"Absolutely." Rarity replied, leaning her right side on the door.
"Okay then. I came over here to check on the suit." I reminded.
"Oh, yes, come on in. I got it done late this morning." Rarity said.
"Good! Thanks, Rarity." I thanked.
"Anytime, darling." Rarity said softly as her eye slowly closed.
"Rarity!" I promptly exclaimed to the dozing mare.
"Wha--?" Rarity said, dazedly. "Oh, sorry. I just need a little bit more sleep." Rarity said.
"Is that it over there." I asked, pointing at the large suit on the table.
"Mmm.... Mmm-hmm." Rarity replied, lazily flailing her right foreleg.
"Excellent." I said.
I picked up the suit and examined it. The suit looked exactly like one of those tuxes that Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones wore in Men In Black.
"Wow, Rarity. You made this overnight?" I asked, surprised.
"Maybe what I said before was an understatement. I actually finished it about seven hours ago." Rarity said.
"Jesus, Rarity, you should get some sleep. It's not good to stay up that long even if you were fueled with determination, but still, I thank you." I said.
"You're probably right." Rarity said.
"Look, you go take a little nap and I'll try this on quick." I said.
"You sure? Need any help with anything?" Rarity asked.
"No, Rarity. I got this." I said.
"Okay." Rarity said as she took off her red eyeglasses.
"Thanks again, Rarity." I thanked her, gracefully.
"You're welcome." she replied as she headed into a room and shut the door.
When I tried the suit on, it felt just a teensy bit tight, but I got used to it. As I checked myself out in the mirror, I turned around and quickly turned around.
"Who you lookin' at?" I asked myself, just like one of those cheesy one-liners.
After that little cringe inducing moment, I removed the suit, folded it, put my winter coat back on and headed back to the Defender.
I took a scenic route through Ponyville this time instead of taking the quickest way back. Most of the buildings were decorated for the season. This would include traditional Christmas lights, wreaths, colorful ribbons, small Christmas tree’s and more. Not many ponies were outside, most likely because it’s winter and all, but I did come across a grey pegasus with a blonde mane.
I was approaching Sugar Cube Corner and all of a sudden this pegasus walks out of the building right in front of me, and I’m probably like forty something feet away from her. I slammed my foot on the brake which only made the Land Rover skid slowly in her direction. I began to pump the brake until I came to a halt just in time. I then applied the parking brake and went to check if the pegasus was okay.
“You all right?” I asked in concern.
She looked up at me and I took notice of her eyes. Her right eyes was pointing upwards while the other was downwards.
“I’m so sorry! I knew I shouldn’t have crossed.” she said with her head down.
“What made you think it was good idea to cross?” I asked.
“It’s my eyes. You looked much farther away than you really were.” the mare said while pointing at her eyes.
“What’s wrong with your eyes?” I asked.
“I’ve been like this ever since I was born. It’s called Strabius.” she answered.
“Strabius, huh? Well, just be sure to double check next time before crossing if something oncoming.” I said while sitting down in the snow next to her.
“Thank you. Others judge me before they even know me.” she said.
“No problem. My name’s Caleb, by the way.” I introduced.
“I’m Derpy Hooves.” Derpy replied.
“Cool name. I like it.” I admitted.
Her name was a little silly, but I thought it was alright.
“So, umm, were you picking up some fresh baked goods?” I asked Derpy.
“Sure am. Sugarcube Corner has the best muffins!” Derpy exclaimed.
“Sounds good.” I said.
“Would you like one?” Derpy asked while taking off a cloth that covered a basket filled with freshly made muffins.
“Sure. I haven't had a muffin in a while.” I said.
“Okay, I have blueberry, strawberry, banana with nuts, zucchini, and chocolate chip.” Derpy listed.
“Oooh, give me the chocolate chip. Those are delicious.” I requested.
“Here you go.” Derpy said, handing me the warm muffin.
Derpy handed me the muffin that was abundant with chocolate chips and I took a bite into the top. I’m pretty sure I moaned a bit louder than I should’ve.
“Pretty good, don’t you think?” Derpy asked.
“Mmm-hmm,” I hummed. “Thanks Derpy.”
“You're welcome.” Derpy said.
“Do you need ride to your home?” I asked.
Derpy looked over at the Defender and examined it.
“Depends. Can your carriage thing fly?” Derpy asked.
“Nope, it’s a land vehicle. And what do you mean by fly? Do you live up in the sky or something?” I asked.
“Yes I do, just like every other pegasus.” Derpy said while fluttering her wings.
“Oh, I see," I said. "How does living up there work? Is it like finding a cloud and just plopping yourself on it and call it home?” I asked.
“Not at all. All pegasi live in Cloudsdale, which is a city made up entirely out of clouds.” Derpy said.
“A city made up of clouds, huh? That’s pretty awesome. How can you even walk on clouds? It’s impossible.” I stated.
“Walking on clouds is just a perk of being a pegasus.” Derpy clarified.
“So only pegasus can walk on clouds then?” I asked.
“That’s right. Unless you have some sort of spell that will give the ability to walk on clouds.” Derpy added.
“I see. Well, I hate to be so sudden, but I have to get going. Gotta try on this new suit.” I said.
“Oh, no problem. Special occasion?” Derpy questioned.
“Does meeting the two princesses of Equestria count as a special occasion?” I asked in a jokingly manner.
“Meeting with the princesses!? That’s beyond special occasion, that’s more like a once in a lifetime opportunity.” Derpy said with a tiny rasp in her voice.
“You got that right.” I said.
“Well, I better get going too. Nice to meet you…. What’s your name again?” she asked.
“Caleb, the name’s Caleb.” I answered.
“Okay, Caleb. I'll you around.” Derpy farewelled.
“You too, Derpy.” I said with a wave as she flew off into the sky.
As she flew away, I thought to myself that Derpy seemed like a very intelligent individual and that I didn’t see why see was considered ditzy. All her problem is that she has a little visual impairment, nothing else. But anyways, I got back into the Defender and continued back to Twilight’s.
When I got back to Twilight’s, I tried on the tux and ask both her and Spike to give their honest opinion. Like I said before, the tux felt just a teensy bit tight, but it was bearable. Twilight’s thought I looked great in it because I also combed my hair sideways. Spike gave the nickname “Mr. Big Shot” and also teased me by saying “All the mare’s will be chasing after me.”
“HA!” I shouted.
“Spike’s just messing with you.” Twilight said, giving me a little nudge on the leg and a small wink.
“I know. He’s a funny little dragon.” I said.
“Yep, that’s me.” he said.
“Twilight, can I ask you something?” I asked.
“Of course. What’s on your mind?” she asked as well.
“Is there like some specific way of greeting the princesses? Should I refer to them as highness, or something like that?” I asked.
“Don’t worry about that. What I would do is just kneel down when you first meet them and you can refer them as Princess Celestia and Luna.” she said.
“Okay then. Sounds easy as can be.” I mumbled.
“You got this, Caleb.” Spike said supportively.
“Thanks, guys.” I said.
“So, what’cha gonna do now?” Spike asked.
“I don’t know, might just lounge around all day since it’s winter.” I admitted.
“Sounds like my kind of day.” Spike agreed.
“Yeah, Spike. You and me think the same.” I said.
And so, I just lounged around like a bump on a log all day pretty much. Nothing else interesting to report.
My deep slumber was disturbed with the ringing of wind up alarm clock that indicated today is the day that I go to Canterlot. I looked over at the clock and it read 7:00 AM, which is probably considered abnormal for a time that I wake up to.
“Twilight….” I said, groggily, only to find out that Twilight was already up and lively. “Geez, Twilight, I don’t know how you can get up so early.” I said while yawning.
“When you’re Princess Celestia’s pupil, it’s best to get up early.” Twilight explained.
“Welp, might as well get up.” I said while slowly raising myself upwards.
“That’s right. Today’s the day you meet with the princesses!” Twilight said, cheerfully.
“Yep. If someone were to ask me if I would ever meet two pony princesses, I would probably say, 'Are you mentally stable'?” I said, which made Twilight laugh.
“I can probably see that from your species point of view.” Twilight said.
“Oh yeah, no doubt about it.” I said
After I finally got up like a sloth, I headed into the bathroom and took a quick shower, brushed my teeth and all that kind of stuff. For the final touches, I combed my hair into that Mr. Big Shot fashion and slipped on the tux.
“How do I look?” I asked while coming down the stairs.
“Like a million bits.” Twilight complemented.
“Heh.... mare destroyer.” Spike snickered.
“Spike!” Twilight hissed while covering his mouth.
“Don’t worry, Twilight. I’m just eating up Spike’s puns.” I said.
“Okay, I’ll stop with the puns, Caleb.” Spike said.
“Thanks, baby dragon.” I said quickly.
“Special Agent Ape.” Spike shot back.
“Oh, so we’re gonna go that far?” I questioned.
“Alright, guys, let’s just drop this and move on. Okay?” Twilight said.
“Okay then. Truce?” Spike said while extending his arm.
“Truce.” I said and we shook on it.
“Good. Now let’s have some breakfast. I made blueberry waffles.” Twilight declared.
Me and Spike looked at each other and sprinted to the tables like children on Christmas morning. Twilight smiled and rolled her eyes in response to the actions.
“C’mon, Twi, it’s blue waffles. Who could hate those?” I asked.
“Blueberry Waffles.” Twilight said with smirk.
“Oh, sorry. I’m still a bit tired.” I said with a chuckle.
While we were chowing down on our waffles, Twilight told me that she actually grew up in Canterlot with her parents and brother who is actually a captain of the royal guards.
“So wait, your brother is a captain of the royal guards?” I asked, surprised.
“That’s right.” Twilight responded.
“The royal guards that protect the princesses?” I asked again.
“That’s him.” Twilight replied.
“Dang! Lucky him.” I exclaimed.
“Yeah, but I haven't seen him in such a long time.” Twilight said with her voice sounding down.
“How long?” I asked.
“Ever since I was six years old.” Twilight replied.
“And how old are you now?” I asked.
Twilight let out a sigh and said that she was seventeen years old, so she’s definitely younger than me. So interesting, but so odd at the same time.
“Damn, that’s pretty rough.” I said while putting my arm around her.
“Yeah, but we still write letters to each other, so it’s not all that bad.” Twilight said.
“Good. You know what, if I see him there, I’ll tell him you said hi.” I offered.
“Thanks, I would like that.” Twilight replied.
“What does he look like?” I asked.
“He has a white coat, blue hair with a light blue streaks, and a unicorn.” Twilight described.
“Hmm. I’ll try to find a unicorn that fits the description.” I said.
After we finished our breakfast, I looked at the clock and it read 8:10 AM. Forty minutes before the train arrives.
“Hey Twilight, can you show me the way to the train station? Because I have no idea where its at.” I asked.
“Of course I can, I wouldn’t leave you hanging like that.” she responded.
“Alright then, let’s go.” I said.
All three of us bundled up for the frigid temperatures outside and headed off to the train station. The day was sunny and the sunlight glimmered in the snow which sort of messed with my eyes for a moment or two. We decided to walk instead of taking the Defender because I didn’t want it out in the open for someone to steal. We came across Lyra and Bon Bon on the way there and I told them I was heading to Canterlot to meet the princesses, much to to their surprise. Sometime later, we made it to the train station even though we got turned around a few times here and there.
“How much time is left?” I asked Twilight.
“I don’t know. We’ll have to head inside to find out.” Twilight responded.
“Thank goodness. It’s cold out here.” Spike said.
We walked up to the loading platform and peered through the window. The clock read 8:41, so nine minutes left until the train arrives. Shortly after, all three of us heard the horn of a train, indicating that it was approaching. I looked to the left and sure enough, here comes this multi-colored train. Quite an interesting design and color scheme a train, too. The locomotive began to slow down before coming to a halt next to the platform with a hiss from the brake.
The color’s on the train reminded me of Pinkie Pie a lot. The engine car was all pink with a few yellow hearts on the grille thingy that sticks out in the front and the train. The passenger cars looked really small since the designers probably didn’t exactly have seven foot tall humans in mind when they designed the size. All in all, the whole train looked like a little girl's toy, not that I have a problem with that.
“Ready to go?” Twilight asked me.
“Yup. I’ll see you guys later.” I said.
“Shoot!” Spike exclaimed.
“What is it?” I asked.
“You forgot the mare repellent.” Spike teased once again.
“Okay, Spike, you’re over-saturating the joke. Think of something fresh.” I retorted.
“Hmmm. Alright, I will.” he said.
A stallion with a human skin tone coat, a brown mane, a blue jacket and matching hat that read “Conductor” stepped out of the first passenger car and yelled, “All Aboarrrrd”.
“Good luck, Caleb.” Twilight said.
“Thanks. Make sure to watch over the Land Rover while I'm gone.” I said before walking towards the conductor.
"It's in good hooves." Twilight responded.
“Ah, you’re Caleb. Am I correct?” the conductor asked.
“Yep, that’s me.” I said.
“Well it’s an honor to meet you, sir.” he said.
“Likewise.” I said.
“So if you will, please head inside the car and take any seat you want.” he instructed.
“Okay.” I said.
I inched my way through the entrance of the car, almost getting stuck. I finally squeezed myself through and saw nobody else sitting inside it.
“Excuse me, Mr. Conductor?” I called.
“Yes?” he replied.
“Where is everypony else?” I asked.
“This car is for you, all to yourself. It’s pretty much VIP or, should I say, VIH.” he quipped.
“Ohhhh, I see what you did there.” I said when I realized the pun.
“Ha-ha, yes.” he said as he stuck his head out the door and waved to the train engine.
The train then emitted the loud horn as it began to slowly move. I turned my head towards the window and waved to Twilight and Spike who waved back. We kept waving until I lost sight of them and now I was off to Canterlot.
I adjusted my posture since my entire body almost took up the entire seat I was sitting in. The conductor then walked towards me.
“Now, would you care for any kind of refreshment for the ride?” he asked.
“You wouldn’t happen to have hot chocolate?” I asked.
“Why, we have it just for the season. Anything else?” he asked.
“No, thanks. That’ll be all.” I concluded.
“Excellent. Your cocoa will be with you in a couple minutes.” he said.
“Great.” I responded.
“And above all, enjoy your ride.” he said, tipping his cap.
“I will. Thanks.” I said with a nod.
With that, the conductor exited the car into the next one. I stared out the window and saw that the train was entering the open plains, which was covered with a blanket of glistening snow. Shortly after, a cute mare in a waitress uniform walked in with what I requested.
“Here you go.” the waitress said as she handed me the cup.
“Thank you, miss.” I said.
“So, you’re like the first human in Equestria?” she asked.
“The one and only.” I said.
“You better watch out for those journalists up in Canterlot, they’ll be all over you.” she warned.
“Don’t worry about me. I’m being escorted by the royal guards once we arrive.” I said, taking a sip of the cocoa.
“Oh, well, that’s good. I’ll come back for the cup later when you finish.” she said.
“Okay.” I said.
The waitress than walked out and I continued drinking my cocoa. There wasn’t much to look at through the window since there was a whole lot of open plains and that kind of stuff. The only thing to look at were tree’s that were stripped of leaves. Sometime later, I was sitting quietly and it got dark in the car. I quickly looked out the window and realized the train was entering a tunnel. I also noticed that we were moving in a circular motion on the tracks, almost as if we were ascending at the same time.
I began to piece everything together and came to the conclusion that the train was inside the mountain that Canterlot is connected to. It all made sense now. That means I was getting closer to my destination. The sunlight lit the interior of the car once again for a brief moment as the train moved to an exposed part of the tunnel, but quickly faded back into the darkness. This happened for about five more times until we exited into an area with fine cut grass. Just then, the conductor entered the car and announced that we are now approaching Canterlot Train Station while the train horn blew in the background.
I took in a deep breath and lifted myself off my seat. I then slowly walked over to the exit with my body hunched over slightly and stood beside the conductor.
“Well... end of the line.” I said.
“Good luck, sir.” the conductor said.
“Thanks.” I said while shaking his hoof.
The conductor opened the door for me and I inched my way through the doorway again. Once I finally got outside, I was met with multitudes of stocky stallion guards wearing gold armor and helmets. Their manes stuck out of the top of their helmets in sick-looking mohawks. To my left and right were royal guards blocking to what I suppose were the media. They clamored for my attention as their camera flashes blinded me, but I just smiled and waved at them in response.
When I directed my eyesight forward, a stallion in purple armour walked up towards me. I inspected him further and noticed he had a cobalt mane with lighter highlights and a white coat.
“Wait, isn’t this what Twilight’s brother looks like?” I thought to myself.
“Caleb Barlow?” the stallion asked, breaking my train of thought.
“That’s me.” I said.
“Very good. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Captain Shining Armour and these are my colts.” Shining said while directing his hoof towards the guards.
“Oh, you’re Shining Armour! Your sister told me about you.” I exclaimed.
“No way. You know, Twilight?” Shining asked.
“Yeah, she says hi.” I said.
“How’s she doin’?” Shining asked.
“She’s doing alright, kinda just living life at the moment.” I said.
“That’s good. I haven’t seen her in such a long time.” he admitted.
“I heard about that, too. She really misses you.” I said.
“I know. I don’t really have much time on my hooves nowadays to visit.” he said.
“I see. You guys should write to each other soon, she’ll like that.” I suggested.
Shining Armour responded by smiling and giving a nod in agreement.
“Well, that’s enough reminiscing, we’re on a tight schedule.” Shining brought up while looking at the clock that read 10:33 AM
“And you are right about that!” I exclaimed.
“Follow me.” he instructed.
I followed Shining to the opposite side of the train station through the rows of royal guards, eventually arriving to a large carriage waiting specifically for me.
“Alright, just step into the carriage and they’ll take you to the castle.” Shining said.
“Showing up in luxury and style? I’m beginning to like this place.” I said.
“Glad to hear that. Have a good rest day, Caleb.” Shining said.
“You too.” I said while entering the carriage.
The carriage then began to move quickly away from the train station and onto the streets of Canterlot. As the carriage progressed, I was quite flabbergasted to find out there was a city here. I thought it was just a castle up here, but no, a city as well.
I stared out the window and inspected the buildings. They had many different designs from an architectural standpoint, but the colors were mostly white with purple or gold roofs and vegetation decor. For example, I saw a building that was an average rectangle shape at the base, but a spherical dome like roof, so it was quite interesting. The whole city was also decorated for the season ranging from christmas trees, wreaths on windows, garland strands on the edge of the roofs and a whole lot more. Canterlot is definitely more high end than Ponyville.
To back this claim up, most of the ponies I caught a glance of were all in this fancy clothing, similar to a style I was wearing. Mares would wear these ravishing dresses while stallions on the other hand would wear nice looking suits or tuxedos. If I were to show up here in casual clothing, I’m pretty sure I would’ve been outcasted here. I also saw a mare and a stallion who had their heads pointing upwards with their eyes closed as they walked. Typical rich snob.
“Yeah, keep your heads up. You might trip on your ego, Richie Rich.” I said to myself.
But anywho, it wasn’t long until we appeared to leave the city and entered a grassy area. I stuck my head out the window and saw a waterfall that poured into a river that created a waterfall off the mountain. To add on, the carriage was approaching a drawbridge that went over the river. The two stallion guards that were pulling the carriage came to a halt when we reached a giant purple double door. I sat there in silence for a moment until a guard came to the door and used his magical abilities to open the door.
“We’re here.” he stated.
“Already? Felt like five minutes.” I said.
“Your carriage pullers had to sprint all the way here.” the guard said.
“Oh, that explains why.” I said, looking over to the mildly exhausted ponies.
I stepped out of the carriage and ran alongside the guard to the doors. The guard knocked two times and the door and it immediately opened. We were now inside the castle. Firstly, the inside was beautiful and there was a red carpet that led into a ball room. The carpet was positioned on a flight of stairs that went both left and right at the top
“This way.” the guard said, pointing to the left
We ran together once again and took many twists and turns along the way. Believe me, the castle interior was like a maze to me. After climbing some flights of stairs, taking one more left and right, we stopped at two light purple doors that was guarded by two royal guards. Both had their spears crossed to block the door.
“This is the throne room. They should be inside waiting for you.” the guard said.
I took a deep breath and adjusted my tux one more time.
“Okay, I’m ready.” I told the guard
“Alright, colts. Let him in.” the guard ordered
Both guards pulled their spears towards them, making a shing sound and turned them vertically. The guards didn’t move their heads, but their eyeballs shifted in my direction, stared at me, and they nodded once to signify that I could go in.
I stepped forward and stopped for a brief moment, taking both of arms and placing one on each door.
“Showtime.” I said.
I slightly pushed on the doors and they opened all by themselves. I then gazed dead ahead and I could make out a tall white and a dark blue figure standing on top of a red throne. I began to walk and the doors closed behind me. To break the silence, I spoke.
“Hi there.” I said with hint of nervousness in my tone.
“Hello there, Caleb. Please come forward.” said a voice that was as soft as an angels.
I proceeded forward, taking in on my surroundings. Just like the ballroom, there was a red carpet that started at the door and ended at the throne while the floor and pillars were made of shiny white marble. What really caught my eye was the blue stained glass window that depicted the sun casting its rays upon planets that were from our solar system, or maybe this one. I was quite puzzled, but I kept it in the back of my mind for later.
As I got closer to them, they both began to descend from their thrones and on to the red carpet. Before I knew it, we were face to face. I could easily distinguish who was who from their appearance.
Celestia had a white coat and a large dazzling mane consisted of turquoise, light blue, and pink that undulated, or flowed slowly in wave-like motions. She wore a golden crown along with a gold neck collar, as well as gold shoes for her hooves. Her eyes were of magenta or pink, pretty sure it was magenta. Another eye catching feature is that she had both a large horn of a unicorn and these huge wings of a pegasus. Tall pony, too. Celestia was probably about seven feet tall from my best estimate, also including her horn.
Luna was the polar opposite of Celestia. She had much more darker colors while Celestia had brighter colors. Luna had a dark blue coat with a sapphire colored mane and a lighter edge that also flowed in a wavy motion. Her crown was pitch black as well as her neck collar that displayed a crescent moon. Just like her sister, she had both a horn and wings, but much smaller. Her eyes were kinda like if you threw turquoise and blue together and makes this greenish-blue. Luna was shorter that Celestia, she probably came up to around six foot-two.
But enough of the descriptions. When I was feet away from them, I got on my knees in respect for their presence. Celestia and Luna let out a soft chuckle.
“Rise. There’s no need for that, but thank you for your common courtesy.” Celestia said.
I got back on my two feet while screaming, “God dammit, Twilight!”, in my head.
“Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Princess Celestia, the one who brings the light of the day.” Celestia introduced.
“And I am Princess Luna, the one who brings the darkness of night to Equestria.” Luna said, her voice being a bit more loud and stern rather than Celestia.
“As you know, my name is Caleb Barlow, the one and only human in Equestria.” I said.
“It’s such a great honor and pleasure to meet you, Caleb.” Celestia said.
“And the same to both of you.” I said.
Celestia extended her foreleg and I shook her hoof while Luna repeated her sisters gesture.
“Now if you’ll follow me, we’ve set up a little place down there where we can talk.” Celestia said, pointing at a circular glass table with three large chairs around it.
“Sounds good.” I said.
“So, Caleb, how art thou?” Luna asked as we walked
My mind quickly figured out what she meant by "art thou."
“I’m doing great, Luna, thanks for asking.” I responded.
“How’s life treating you in Equestria? It seems to be going well.” Celestia asked.
“You know, life is pretty good here. I mean seriously, on the first day I arrived here, I was offered hospitality by few kind Ponyville locals.” I said.
“Is that so?” Celestia asked.
“No kidding. And a couple days later, the entire village of Ponyville accepted me even though they don’t know much about me. At least I think they do.” I said.
“Well that’s wonderful news, Caleb! I‘m glad to hear that our subjects have treated you with kindness and integrity.” Celestia said.
“Aye. Tis an example of Equestria being the land of harmony.” Luna added.
Once we reached our the table, I took seat and realized it was the perfect size for me.
“How’s the chair?” Celestia asked.
“Very comfy and cushiony. Thanks in advance for thinking ahead of my size and all that.” I said while looking at the chair.
“You’re welcome.” she replied.
“Would thou liketh some tea?” Luna asked while heating a teapot with her magic.
“Yes, that would be lovely.” I said.
Luna then poured some warm tea into a cup and levitated it to me.
“Thank you, dear sister.” Celestia said as she received her tea.
I nodded my head at Luna while I was drinking, indicating my thanks.
“Caleb, tell me and my sister how you ended up in Equestria.” Celestia said.
“Yes, how did thee get here?” Luna added.
I placed my cup on the table.
“Okay. First of all, do you both know what portals are?” I asked.
"Yes." Celestia and Luna both replied.
“Good. Back in my world is a nation called Canada. They were creating some sort of.... contraption that could create portals to other worlds. And as you can see, the portal opened a doorway to Equestria.” I explained.
“But how did thee end up in the portal?” Luna asked.
“Being a smart human, I thought it was a good idea to stand out in the open while it hovered above me.” I said, sarcastically.
“Hovered above?” Celestia asked.
“Oh, right," I replied. "The contraption shot portal energy into the sky once it was activated, made all the clouds join together into this swirling motion and manifested a glowing blue center that acted as the portal.” I explained.
“I see.” Celestia said.
“After the portal was activated, it hovered all across the midwest section of America and who knows whether it’s gone or not by now.” I said.
“Excuse me for going off topic, but I’m supposing that America is thy country of origin?” Luna asked.
“You’re correct about that. The United States of America, to be exact.” I clarified.
“Really? Do you happen to have a leader of some sort?” Celestia asked with interest.
“Yep. His name is President Barack Obama.” I said.
“What is he like.” Celestia asked.
“Meh. He's okay, I suppose. I remember four years ago when he was president elect. He was all energetic and advocated that he was going to make change and hope for our country. The word hope was actually one of his most iconic slogans during the election of 2008.” I said.
“Barack Obama sounds like a very committed and hardworking leader.” Luna said.
“Has he succeeded in fulfilling his promise?” Celestia asked.
"Well, I'm not somepony who really likes to follow politics most of time, so I can't really give you an answer on that. Sorry." I said.
"That's quite alright." Princess Celestia said.
"But he does deal with a lot stressful stuff, that I can tell you. Making very important decisions on important situations, including not to plummet America into war, dealing with those who oppose America, and heck, there's even American's who hate him." I said.
"Really?" Luna questioned.
"Yeah, some do. I mean, you can't please everyone and not all leaders are perfect." I asked.
"Well, everypony is entitled to their own opinion, Caleb. Even though I have not met a subject who dislikes Luna and I greatly, I'm sure there are some out there." Celestia said.
"I suppose."
"So, thou said your president needs to sort out conflicts that could plunge towards war?" Luna asked.
“Yep. Have you both ever face an event that could affect the future of Equestria?” I asked.
“Yes. Me and my dear sister have faced problems that depended on the fate of Equestria.” Celestia said.
"Would you mind giving me an example? I'd really like to know." I said.
“Of course. More than a thousand years ago, Disco--” she said before I cut her off.
“Excuse me. Princess. A thousand years ago? You’ve reigned for that long?” I asked, surprised.
Celestia and Luna chuckled to my expression.
“Yes. 1,007 years to be exact while at 1,131 years old.” Celestia stated.
“Really? Wow.” I said in amazement.
“As you can see, both me and my sister art both Alicorns.” Luna said while tapping her horn and fluffing her wings.
“I’m guessing alicorns are immortal?” I asked.
“You’re right.” Celestia said.
“I have to say, you both look really young at the age of 1,131.” I said.
“Hm. Flattered. Thank you for the compliment.” Luna said.
“But anyways, forgive me for digressing from your story, Princess Celestia. Please continue.” I said.
“That’s fine. As I was saying, over a thousand years ago, Discord, the spirit of chaos, ruled over Equestria while creating unhappiness and unrest between ponies, causing many surreal events.” Celestia said.
“Could you elaborate on surreal events?” I asked.
“Take a structure being ripped from its foundation and spun around forty feet in the air for an example.” Celestia said.
“And do not forget about the ground being texturized into a checkerboard fashion.” Luna added.
“Well that’s pretty surreal. How did you guys stop him? Had to be quite an epic fight.” I said.
“Actually, it wasn’t a very eventful fight.” Celestia said.
I raised my eyebrows in interest.
“You see, we used the Elements of Harmony against him. The Elements of Harmony are artifacts that contain the most powerful magic ever known to ponykind if wielded properly.” Celestia explained.
“A power far greater than Discord?” I asked.
“Yes, even far greater than us.” Luna said.
“So, what happened to him?” I asked.
“Due to his ignorance to the elements, we were able to wield all six of them with minimal effort and casted him into a stone imprisonment.” Celestia said.
“Speaking of which, if thou look to thy left, you’ll see a stained glass of Discord in his true form.” Luna said, pointing at a stained glass window.
“You mind if I go get a closer look?” I asked while standing up.
“Go right ahead.” Celestia granted.
I then proceeded towards the towering stained glass window that depicted Discord himself, controlling a earth pony, a pegasus, and a unicorn with puppet strings as if they were under his control. Discord himself was a very oddly designed for a spirit of chaos. How do I say this…. he had a head of a what seems to be the head of a dragon, an antler on the top right, and some sort of jagged green horn on the top left of his head. His arms were from two different animal species; his left being a talon of a eagle and the right being a lion’s claw. The same goes for his legs, left being horse's leg and the right being a lizards with sharp nails. His tail looked like a red dragon's tail as well and his entire body being stretched out like a snakes.
“Quite the being, isn’t he?” Celestia asked.
“Very bizarre.” I replied.
“Caleb?” Celestia asked.
“Yes?” I replied.
“Has Twilight ever told you about the Elements of Harmony?” she asked.
“No, never. Why?” I said.
“I want to show you something.” Celestia said. Luna looked at her sister and nodded.
I then followed them further down the rows of stained glass windows until they stopped at a particular window that confirmed my suspicion. I looked up and saw a depiction of Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash firing these purple streams of magic at an Alicorn that looked just like Luna.
“Hey, that’s them! That’s Twilight and her other friends.” I exclaimed.
“That’s right. What do you think they’re doing?” Celestia asked.
“Well, they’re shooting lasers or magic at this alicorn--” I suddenly stopped when it all hit me.
Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash were the Elements of Harmony.
“But how?” I mumbled.
“Luna.” Celestia said, indicating that it was her sister's turn to talk.
“When I returned from my 1,000 year imprisonment as Nightmare Moon, I threatened to spread eternal night across Equestria.” Luna began.
“That’s you, huh?” I asked.
“Yes. But believe me, I’m far from what I was than now.” Luna assured.
“While Twilight and her friends went on a journey through the Everfree Forest to me and my sister’s previous castle, each one of them demonstrated behaviors of one specific element that will stick with them. Twilight being magic, Applejack being honesty, Pinkie Pie being laughter, Fluttershy being kindness, Rarity being generosity, and Rainbow Dash being loyalty.” Celestia explained.
“That means all six of these mares are intertwined into the elements that lets them use the magic contained inside them?” I asked.
“Yes. All six have the capability to possess the most powerful magic of all. The magic of friendship.” Celestia said.
“Wow.... Sounds like friendship is magic.” I whispered, blown away from this revelation.
“Precisely.” Luna said.
“I mean, I had no idea about this until now. It’s so much to take in at once.” I said.
“We understand. Do you need a minute to process all of this information?” Celestia asked.
“Oh, no, no, I’m fine. But I have another question.” I said.
“What will it be?” Celestia asked.
“Where are the artifacts now? Are they inside Twilight and her friends at this moment?” I asked.
“It’s nothing like that. They’re stored here at the castle.” Luna said.
“Look, you can deny this request, but do you mind if I could take a look at them?” I asked, sheepishly.
“Hmmmm, I suppose. You seem very trustworthy.” Celestia said.
“I agree.” Luna said.
“Okay, you may. Follow us.” Celestia said.
I walked beside Celestia while Luna was on the other side of her. We exited the throne room and hanged a left. The guards who were guarding the door were now following us to our destination.
A minute later, we arrived at a door similar to the throne room, but a different color. Celestia opened it and the red carpet stretched along the entire room's length. I examined the stained glass windows and saw another copy of the Discord stained window and the one with the elements of harmony. While going further to the back of the room, I saw this huge door with a star in the middle. Actually, it looked like a elevator door if you looked at it more.
“Behind this door is where the artifacts are kept.” Celestia said.
“How do you open it? Do you press one of those gems right there?” I asked while pointing at a green gem attached to the doors border.
“Nothing like that. Here’s how it works.” Celestia said.
She leaned her head down and aligned her horn with a little hole in the middle of the star on the door. She activated her magic aura that basically acted as a key for the door. She pulled out and the lines that made the star were outlined with a baby blue glow. Each side of the door formed three circles and one on each side would light up simultaneously with the other until all were lit. All of a sudden, the entire door lit up with a nearly blinding bright blue glow which caused me to shield my eyes.
Finally, the door opened like a elevator and the room was nothing but the glow of baby blue. Upon closer inspection, I noticed a fancy-looking lockbox with gems engraved in it was placed on a stand. Celestia used her magic to levitate it in front of her.
“Inside this box contains artifacts that can create the most powerful magic of all. And for your own safety, I only grant you access to look, no touching.” Celestia said.
“Sure, no problem.” I said.
“Okay then.” Celestia said.
Celestia used her magic on the lock which made it click, unlocking it. The box opened up and there they were, the elements of harmony. One looked like a crown and had a purple star on top while the rest looked like necklaces. Upon closer inspection, I noticed how the star on the crown looked a lot like the mark on Twilight’s flank. The same also goes for the necklaces; one had a red lighting bolt that corresponds with Rainbow’s mark and another had a pink butterfly that goes with Fluttershy’s mark and so on and so forth.
"Amazing. So much power contained in something so small. Interesting how the symbols on the elements correspond with those marks on Twilight and her friends. Forgot what they were called though.” I added.
“Are you referring to a cutie mark?” Celestia asked.
“Right, that’s what they’re called. Aren't they supposed to represent what a pony's special talent is?” I asked.
“That’s correct.” Celestia said.
“So what happens when they get those? Are they stuck with that talent forever and determines on what their future will be?” I asked.
“That is exactly what it means.” Luna said.
“You sure catch on quickly.” Celestia complimented.
“Yeah, that’s me. Excuse my language, but that's gotta suck if somepony gets a cutie mark that they despise and be stuck with it for the rest of their life.” I said.
“Frankly, I agree on your statement. Some ponies can not be as fortunate as others," Celestia closed the case diligently and placed it back on the stand. "If you wish, we’ll head back into the throne room now.”
"Sure." I replied.
Celestia, Luna, and I began to walk across across the lengthy room back to the door. Once we exited the room, a royal guard stepped forward and alerted us of the time
“Excuse me, your highness', I’m afraid the time with our guest is over with.” he announced.
“Oh my, has it been that long already?” Celestia said.
“I know, right? Felt more like twenty minutes to me.” I added.
“Well, this is abrupt.” Luna said.
“If I’m on my way now, all I have to say is thank you for having me here Celestia and Luna. I had a great time learning more about both of you and Equestria's history. I hope I'll cross paths with you both again in my new life here.” I said.
“I wish the same for me and my sister.” Celestia said.
“And we both wish thee the best of luck as thee adapt to Equestria as well.” Luna added on.
“Yes, thank you. In that case, I best be going and let you guys get back to your princess duties.” I said.
“It was a pleasure to meet you, Caleb. If you wish to check out the city, I’ll have a squad of guards follow you for your own protection.” Celestia offered.
“Yeah, that sounds great!” I said.
“Very good. Guards.” Celestia called.
Four stocky guards walked over towards Celestia lined up vertically.
“Yes, your highness?” one guard asked.
“You four are assigned to protect our human friend. Keep your eyes peeled for anything that may seem like a threat or suspicious. You are authorized to use forceful apprehension if absolutely necessary.” Celestia ordered.
“Acknowledged,” the guard responded, turning towards the other guards. “You got that, colts?”
“Yes, sir!” all three responded.
“Farewell, Caleb.” both Celestia and Luna said.
“Thanks. Nice to meet you both.” I said, shaking their hooves.
“Follow us to the exit.” one guard instructed.
While we began to walk away, another important thought came to mind.
"Princess Celestia, wait!" I yelled.
Celestia turned her head in response to my call.
"Yes, Caleb?" Celestia asked.
"I must know something. Something that has been on my mind since I first got here." I said.
"What will it be?" Celestia asked.
"Since you've been around in Equestria for quite some time, I know you'll be able to answer this question." I said with a pause.
Celestia tilted her head to left a little.
"Have humans ever laid dormant here in Equestria?" I asked. "Please give me your best answer."
Celestia's eyes shifted towards the ceiling as she thought for a second.
"If they have, it would be an extraordinarily slim chance. It was a very long time ago before Equestria was even created." Celestia said.
"Please continue." I said.
"If I remember correctly from a story I heard about hundreds of years ago, it involved some sort of creature that could walk on two legs. They were considered threats to pony's and were outcasted from society." Celestia continued.
"What happened to all of them?" I asked.
"From what I remember, they were wiped out from the cold winters that the Windigo's brought to Equestria." Celestia said.
"Windigo's?" I asked.
"Windigo's are spirits that follow pony's that would constantly feud with each other, and the negative effect would be a winter casted upon the specific ponies." Celestia explained.
"So, these things froze to death?" I asked.
"Yes. It was something that they could not adapt to, creating their mass extinction from this world." Celestia said.
"Dang, that's pretty sad." I said.
"Agreed," Celestia replied. "Is there any other questions that I can answer for you?" Celestia asked.
"No, that'll be all. Thank you very much for this answer." I said.
"You're welcome. Now, I must get back to my royal duties." Celestia said.
"I understand. Goodbye, princess." I said with a wave.
I then regrouped with the guards and began to walk again. I went to turn my head again and Celestia was gone.
“Phew, that was nerve wracking at first.” I said.
“Meeting them for the first time?” one guard asked in a deep voice.
“Yeah. I was worried i’d screw up and make everything awkward, but it went better than I expected.” I admitted.
“I can tell they both liked you, Celestia was very forward in giving me the order to protect you.” a grey guard said.
“Yeah, I noticed that too. Probably just being all serious so that you’ll get the message.” I said.
“Most likely.” another guard said.
With that, we exited the castle and I hopped back into the carriage once again.
“Where to?” the carriage puller asked.
“Just take me around the city so that I can sight see, i’ll let you guys know when we can head back to the train station.” I said.
“Alright. Two guards on each side of carriage and remember to keep your eyes peeled for anything suspicious.” the puller reminded the guards.
The guards took me to many other parts of Canterlot including the city square, the restaurant district, and one thing I noticed about the city is that there were stone roads instead of dirt and grass roads that Ponyville has. So this is basically Equestria's way of being modern, I guess.
However, one pony caught my eye while me and the guards were on the outskirts of Canterlot. It was Bon Bon. What was weird is that she walked up the stairs of an underground room. The building itself looked slightly decrepit, but still structurally sound. I ordered the guards to stop and hold their position and climbed out of the carriage. I shut the carriage door, which got Bon-Bon’s attention.
“Hey, Bon-Bon! Haven’t seen you in awhile.” I said.
“Same with you! We need to catch up on things.” Bon Bon replied.
“That sounds good. But what are you doing downstairs in that run-down building?” I asked, pointing at the building.
I can see it in Bon-Bon’s eyes, she was trying to think of something made up. The whole idea of a mare like her coming out of a building far from her home was very fishy.
“Bon-Bon, don’t bother trying to make things up, so just tell me the truth.” I said.
“Ohhhhh! C’mere,” she groaned while directing to move down the stairs. “You have to promise you will never tell a soul about this, including Lyra.”
“Yeah, yeah, of course. What’s the deal?” I asked.
“Just bear with me on this. I work for a secret anti-monster agency.” she revealed.
“I wasn’t born yesterday, Bon Bon.” I said as I quickly got up and opened the door.
To my confusion, the interior of the underground room looked like a huge office with a hallway in the middle.
“What is this place?” I asked.
Bon-Bon let out a sharp sigh.
“Like I said, this is where the secret location of the agency is supposed to be. Here’s my badge.” Bon-Bon said while pulling out her agent ID that had a picture of her and a nickname that stated, “Special Agent Sweetie Drops.”
“Woah, you weren't kidding! Geez, my bad, Bon-Bon.” I apologized.
“I told you, Caleb. I wasn't being a little vague on my answer to you.” Bon Bon admitted.
“Mind if I take a look around?” I asked.
“I suppose you could. You’re already inside the building, y’know.” Bon Bon said.
I turned a corner and saw a mare with a curly blonde mane and a pink coat, writing on a paper at a desk. She looked up and quickly took notice of me and Bon Bon.
“Bon-Bon, how did he get in?” the mare asked.
“Well, for starters, the agency isn’t smart enough to put a bucking lock on the door.” Bon-Bon said.
“Oh my Gosh, we could get into so much trouble!” the mare exclaimed.
“Do not worry. Your secret is safe with me. I promised I wouldn’t blab to anyone about this place.” I said.
“Did he?” the mare asked Bon Bon.
“He did, and I believe what he said.” Bon Bon replied.
“If that’s what you think.” the mare responded.
While I looked around the room, I discovered a piece of paper that had the logo of the agency in the corner of the paper. The logo was a blue shield that had faded black figures at the bottom of the shield and the acronym C.A.M.A in the middle of the shield. The paper read:
Canterlot Anti-Monster Agency Help Wanted
Looking for a brave, physically, and mentally strong individual to patrol the Everfree Forest at night. Age: 15-40 Pay: 25 bits an hour, can vary per creature Go to room 8 for details
I took a long look at the piece of paper and thought to myself.
“Well, Caleb, you have been sort of a freeloader to the ponies of Ponyville in a way. Maybe it’s time that you do something and return the favor.”
Now, I also know the risks of going out in the Everfree at night with the possibility of running into a Timberwolf or two, but I'm pretty sure I could take them now. Also, if I were to patrol the Everfree, the Land Rover could came in handy with navigating the forest and the pay seems pretty good. Well, it depends on if 25 bits is considered minimum wage or not, but I highly doubt it if you’re basically working for an agency. After making my decision, I started towards the hallway.
“Caleb, are you sure you want to do this?” Bon-Bon nervously asked.
“I’m sure, don’t you worry about me.” I said.
“But, Caleb, the Everfree Forest is a very dangerous to venture at night! You shouldn’t do this!” she warned.
“Look, I already have an idea from what i’ve heard about it so far, but I want to do this. Plus, it would be a great way to repay for all that everypony has done for me, wether it being Twilight taking me in, everypony in Ponyville, or everyone accepting me. I’ll be fine.” I assured.
“Okay, fine. But don’t say that I didn’t warn you.” Bon-Bon warned as she walked back outside.
“Got it.” I said.
I walked down the hallway and found room that was numbered eight out of eighteen. I knocked on the door and a deep voice came from the other side of the door.
“Come in.” the voice said
I turned the knob and pushed the door and there was a large stallion with a grey coat and a shaggy brown mane with strands of grey and a beard. He looked at me with a perplexed expression.
“Ain’t you that human everypony's been talking about?” he asked.
“Yep, the one and only.” I said.
"What are you here for?" he asked.
"I'm responding to this help wanted ad." I answered.
The stallions face lit up with interest and sat up in his chair.
“Well then, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Agent Night Hunter; the manager of the Everfree branch and previous patrol stallion.” Night Hunter introduced.
“The names Caleb. Caleb Barlow.” I said.
“Nice to meet ya.” Night Hunter said.
“You too. If I’m correct, you said you were the previous stallion to take this job?” I asked.
“Uh, yes. Being sixty-two years of age can take a toll on you, so I was moved to become the manager of the Everfree branch," he said. "By the way, how did you even find this place?"
"No lock on the door." I replied, covering for Bon Bon.
"That explains. So you want to become my successor?" Night Hunter asked, referring to my interest in the job.
“Sure, that’s a way of looking at it.” I responded.
“Okay then, have a seat.” Night Hunter said while pointing at the chair on the other side of the desk.
After sitting down, Night Hunter pulled out a large document and placed on the desk in front of me.
"First, I want your word that you read the help wanted ad and that you fit all the requirements of being brave, mentally, and physically strong." Night Hunter asked.
"Yes, yes I have." I replied.
"Good." he said.
"What is this?" I asked about the document in front of Night Hunter.
“It’s a contract. What I want you to do now is to take a long good read and sign your name at the bottom.” Night Hunter instructed, turning the paper my direction.
“Don’t I have to do some sort of interview first?” I asked.
“Nope, no need to. You did just agree to what the help wanted sign stated, 'Looking for brave, physically, and mentally strong individual.' Am I right?” he asked.
“Yes I did. I guess you’re right.” I said.
“And heck, you look like someone who wouldn’t crack under pressure. You would be pretty intimidating to most ponies.” he said.
“Ha. You’re not entirely wrong about that,” I quipped. “Also, why do you guys hire ponies at the age of fifteen? Doesn't that seem a bit young?” I asked.
“For us ponies, fifteen is considered the age of adulthood,” Night Hunter answered. "Ponies mature very quick."
“Oh, I see now. It was strange for me because for humans, eighteen is considered being an adult.” I clarified.
“Ah. But like I said, take a long look at this and make your decision.” he said.
I directed my attention to the piece of paper, picked up a feather pen and read the text.
I, __________________, agree and will follow these conditions, requirements, and duties listed below required to become a Canterlot Anti-Monster Agent.
Conditions:
- Sign onto a ten year contract that will be considered null once the period is up. Contract can be considered null if the agent receives a serious injury that prohibits duties or any other duty hindering obstacle. - You will follow orders given by your location manager. - Try your utmost in keeping your employment a secret.
Requirements:
- Take a four month class in order to learn what to do out in the field. - Trained for the use of lethal weapons. - Interact with other agents in your area if necessary. - Have good inspection skills to identify a possible creature in your area. - Be physically strong to protect yourself if weapons are unavailable. - Be mentally strong to ensure you won’t crack in a tense situation.
Duties:
- Patrol your designated location at the hours of 8PM and 3AM. - Patrol on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Days off are for territory inspection for any signs of creatures that may have trespassed your territory. - Be able to plan out strategic tactics and solve complex problems. - Eliminate or rid of any creature in your territory. - Clean up evidence if necessary to protect C.A.M.A’s secrecy. - Fill out a creature elimination form if extermination occurs. Ex: (Date of death, specie, quantity) - Send a weekly report of your territory. (this is mandatory)
“So this four month class is like a training program or something?” I asked.
“Yes. This program is vital to officially become an agent and to also know what to do when you’re out there. Plus, I’ll be the one teaching you everything I know.” Night Hunter informed.
“Sounds good. And where would that be at?” I asked.
“That’ll be at a training facility located next to the E.U.P training facility, so not really far from here. You will also staying there at the bunks for the entire four month duration.” he said.
“I see.” I said.
“Anymore questions?" Night Hunter asked.
“Nope, that’ll be all.” I concluded.
I continued to read the contract’s text a second time to make sure I didn’t misread anything while my first viewing. After I finished reading a second time and taking a long thought into what I was doing, I gave my neatest handwriting and wrote my signature on the blank line.
“So, tell me, what happens now?” I questioned.
“What’ll happen now is that I take this and know that you have full commitment and expect you back at this building on December 7th. Be sure to also pack some of your belongings to take with you such as clothes and that kind of stuff.” Night Hunter said.
“Okay, I’ll be sure to remember that.” I said.
“Alright then, nice to know that we have an alien specie on the agency.” Night Hunter said.
“Alien specie? I’ll give you points with choice of words.” I said.
“Heh, sorry about that.” Night Hunter said, apologetically.
“Don’t worry about it. I get the nickname Ape a lot.” I informed.
“That's gotta stink.” he said.
“I’m used to it, so it doesn’t really bother me." I replied.
“That’s good to know. Nice to see you're interested with the agency. I see nothing but good things in you.” Night Hunter said.
I then shook his hoof and headed to the door.
“December 7th you said, for the four month program?” I asked again.
“Yep, that’s the date. Make sure not forget it by tomorrow.” Night Hunter reminded.
“Ha. Thanks. See you in four days.” I said.
“Yep. You too.” he responded.
I then headed back to the exit of the subterranean agency through the main lobby. The guards were still waiting there while scanning the area. I inched my way back inside the carriage.
“Where to next?” one of the carriage pullers asked.
“I’ve seen enough. I think i’ll head back to the station now.” I said.
When I arrived back at the train station, I had to wait for like forty minutes for the next train to Ponyville since I missed the one I was supposed to leave on because I got held back from visiting the agency. I still couldn’t believe that actually got in a super secret agency that hunts monsters or whatever. Sure, I know this job seems dangerous, but there’s no turning back now. Plus, if this job seems like a good way to pay back the community of Ponyville and all that my new friends have done to me, so now you could see why I took this job. Oh, and let's not forget about that pay of 25 bits an hour. It sounds like a pretty good deal.
Once the train arrived at the trainstation again, a whole bunch of ponies all dressed up in fancy clothing walked. Most of them examined me as they walked by. I went for the train car, but was stopped by a unicorn stallion.
"Hey! You there." he called.
I turned my head in response.
"You're that human chap everypony's been talking about." he said.
"That is me." I said.
"Barlow. Or Caleb? Am I right?" he asked.
"Caleb Barlow. I've got two separate names." I said.
"Ah, now I see. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Fancy Pants." Fancy Pants introduced, well-composedly.
"Nice to meet you." I said.
"And I must say, what an exquisite tuxedo that you're sporting at the moment." Fancy complimented.
'Thanks. You got a nice outfit as well." I replied.
"Where are you heading?" Fancy asked me.
"Back to Ponyville, where I live." I said.
"Yes, yes, Ponyville. I hear it's a nice, little country village." Fancy said.
"Yeah, the locals are pretty nice. They were pretty reluctant to me at first." I said.
"Is that so? Well c'mon, everypony, let's at least give our human here, Caleb, a proper warm welcome to Canterlot." Fancy said as he began to clop his hooves together.
Soon everypony around him were clopping their hooves. I smiled in response to the praise.
"Yes, thank you, thank you. But I must get going before the train leaves without me again." I said.
"Very well. Splendid to meet you, Caleb." Fancy Pants said.
"You too." I said before inching my way onto the train.
Like before, nobody was in the car and I was all by myself. I squeezed my way through the aisle of seat and sat down on the middle seat. I waited for the train to begin moving and the conductor from before walked in from the back car.
"Hey." I said.
"Ah, Caleb. How was your visit?" the conductor asked.
"Went well. We talked a lot about my world and the history of Equestria. That kind of stuff." I answered.
"Interesting. Anything else?" he asked.
I was about to mention the agency, but remembered that I had to keep it a secret.
"Nope. That was pretty much it." I said.
"Sounds like a good time," he said. "Need anything before we head on our way?" he asked me.
"No, thanks." I replied.
"Alrighty-roo." the conductor said and walked into the next car.
A few minutes later, I jumped in my seat as the sudden loudness of the train whistle broke the silence.
"Dammit!" I said out loud.
The train than began to move slowly while progressively picking up speed. Soon enough, the train had left Canterlot and proceeded into the mountains tunnels. When the light began to dim as the train entered one of the tunnels, I saw a glow come from rocky wall of the mountain. It was weird how light was somehow being produced from inside, unless someone's in there doing something. I brushed it off as just my imagination and continued looking out the window. Once the train made it's way back down the mountain, that's when the train entered the fields coated with that blanket of snow.
"Wonder if Twilight will be waiting for me or not?" I asked to no one.
It was pretty lonely in that train car all by myself, so you can probably see why I was talking to myself. After the long boring train ride, my attention was brought back when the train whistle blew again, indicating that Ponyville was close. The conductor came back in the car and announced that we were approaching Ponyville.
I looked out the window to see if anyone was waiting for my arrival and sure enough, there were the the five mares and Spike. But where was Pinkie? All of them waved at me and I waved back. All of sudden, Pinkie face just appears right in front of me from the outside of window as she somehow latched onto the train sideways. I jerked my head back in response.
"Hi Caleb!" Pinkie's said, her voice muffled from the window.
"Hey, Pinkie! How you been doin'? I asked.
"Greatastic!" Pinkie replied from the other side, still clinging to the side.
"Greatastic?" I asked.
"Yeah! If you put great and fantastic together, you get greatastic." Pinkie explained.
"Gotcha." I said.
The train slowed down and came to a complete stop. Pinkie then dropped sideways to the ground with an audible thud on the wooden surface of the platform.
"I'm okay!" Pinkie said.
I rose out of my seat and headed for the exit.
"Well, Caleb, thanks for riding with Friendship Express." the conductor said.
"No, thank you. Couldn't get to Canterlot without Friendship Express in the first place." I said.
"That's right," the conductor replied. "Have a good day, sir."
I turned around to head out the door and I barely had time to react as I accidentally smacked my head on the door hinge with a klunk. My head threw back a little and I placed my hand on my forehead.
"Do'h! Y'alright?" Applejack asked.
"Yeah. I didn't really feel it at all." I said.
"You didn't feel it?" Twilight asked.
"Looked like it hurt." Spike said.
"I felt the impact and it hurts a tiny bit, but not as much as it should have." I explained.
"That's odd. Your nervous system should've sent a signal to yo--" Twilight began before being cut off by Rainbow
"Hey, Twilight, I don't think Caleb came back to hear a lesson on how pain works." Rainbow Dash said.
"Right. My bad." Twilight said.
I laughed in response.
"Oh, Twilight." I said.
"How was your visit with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna? Did it all go good?" Twilight asked with interest.
"It actually went really well! We talked about all kinds of stuff." I said.
"What kind of stuff?" Fluttershy asked.
"For instance, Princess Celestia mentioned the Elements of Harmony." I said with a raised eyebrow.
"Did she?" Twilight responded, her eyes perking.
"She did. Why didn't you tell me at first?" I asked.
"I thought it would be a good topic for you and the princesses to talk about." Twilight said.
"Is the magic Celestia told me about inside you right now?" I asked.
"Technically it is because we are basically living representations of the Elements." Twilight said.
"Nice. Demonstrate." I said.
"About that. We need the elements in order to manipulate the magic of friendship properly." Rarity said.
"Plus, we only use it in a crisis or a situation that can jeopardize the future of Equestria." Twilight said.
"Oh yeah, I suppose because you used those to defeat Nightmare Moon." I said.
"Correct." Twilight replied.
"What about you, guys? Anything happen here while I was gone?" I asked Twilight
"Nope. At least from what I know. What I did was invited them to your arrival back in Ponyville" Twilight replied, directing her hoof towards the other five and Spike.
"Well, thanks for coming guys." I said.
"Speaking of which, this'll be a great photo op." Twilight said, taking a camera out of the pouch on her back.
"Good idea." I said.
"Caleb, since you're the tallest, you go behind everyone. Spike will go in front and everypony else huddle together." Twilight instructed.
Everypony got into their positions and Twilight levitated the camera a good distance away from us. Rainbow Dash flew all the way up to my height to stand out more, which I found funny because she stood out of the most out of all six of the mares due to her color scheme.
"Ready?" Twilight asked us all.
"Yep." we replied.
With that, I smiled and put my thumb up. Twilight then pressed the clicker on the camera, creating a bright flash.
"I'll take on more just in case that doesn't develop correctly." Twilight said.
She winded up the camera and took another picture.
"We're good?" I asked.
"Uh-huh. I'll have to take this in sometime to get it developed." Twilight said.
"Why not just take it in now?" I asked.
"There's more film on the roll that I want to use for scientific purposes." Twilight said.
"Gotcha." I said.
"Girls, thanks for coming by for greeting, Caleb." Twilight said to the other five.
"We parting ways now?" Rainbow asked.
"Yeah. It's getting colder by the minute." Twilight said.
"Oh, I couldn't agree more." Rarity said.
"See ya girls." I said as I walked away with Twilight and Spike.
Later that night, we had some good ol' corn on the cob. I would kill for a steak right about now, but corn's okay.
"So Canterlot....." Twilight began.
"What about it?" I asked.
"What did you think of it?" Twilight asked.
"I thought it looked very high end and architecturally superior." I said.
"So you liked the building's designs?" Spike asked, biting into his corn.
"They were just real interesting to me." I said.
"Me too," Twilight agreed. "In fact, I used to live there."
"You did?" I asked.
"Yep," Twilight said, "I grew up there with my mom, dad and brother."
"Oh, you're brother. Just to let you know, I saw Shining Armour." I said.
"What does he have to say? Any big news?" Twilight asked with interest.
"Nothing new, but he misses you Twilight, he really misses you." I said.
"Yeah...." Twilight trailed off with a smile.
"I told him that you missed him dearly as well. You should write a letter to him sometimes, that's what I told him to do." I said.
"That sounds like a great idea, Twilight." Spike agreed.
"Y'know, I should do that after I'm done eating." Twilight said.
Twilight's smile widended knowing she had reassurance on her brother. It was very touching to see.
"I, uh, also have some information about humans in Equestria." I brought up from Celestia's revelation earlier.
"I should write this down then." Twilight said.
She got up to get a piece of paper and a writing utensil.
"Go on." Twilight said.
"Okay. Humans were apparently here long before Equestria became a nation and were considered outcasts'." I paused so that Twilight could write down my words.
"Mm-hmm." she hummed.
"The humans were eventually wiped off the face of this planet from the winters that Windigo's brought upon Equestria during the time where ponies feuded with each other." I said.
"Interesting." Twilight said as she wrote down.
"That's pretty much all she had to say." I concluded.
"Never thought humans would ever live here long before us ponies." Twilight said.
"Out of all of these books here, you don't have any on humans?" I asked.
"Not one. I don't even know if any exist." Twilight said, biting her corn.
"Well, a mare named Lyra Heartstrings must have books because she studies the old myth on humans." I said.
"If I see her sometime, I'll ask her if I can borrow one." Twilight said.
After we finished eating, Twilight went upstairs to write her letter.
"Caleb, I'm hitting the hay. I'm tired." Spike said.
"Do what you want." I replied.
He then headed upstairs to go to sleep, leaving me by myself downstairs. I looked through the alphabetic rows of books and found a book on Windigo's in the W section.
Not only did they cause winters that wiped the humans when earth, pegasi and unicorns argued with each other, but they also created the holiday called Hearth's Warming.
This is a holiday where all three races joined together to form one big nation that became Equestria. It's commonly celebrated similar to Christmas, but instead of celebrating the birth of Jesus, it's the creation of Equestria. Traditions are also similar since they give gifts on Hearth's Warming Eve as a representation of peace and harmony between all three races. All that this holiday is missing is a Santa Pony, that would be hilarious.
After finishing my reading session, I wondered what I would tell Twilight when I had to go to a training program from recruiting C.A.M.A agents. I knew it would be a bad idea to lie to her because she'll figure out either way. Twilight is also the only pony I would trust to tell this secret that I'm meant to keep to myself.
"Screw it." I said as I headed upstairs.
I reached the top of the stairs and the only light on was Twilight's lamp that illuminated the paper she wrote on while Spike was sleeping in his small bed.
"Twilight" I whispered.
"Hmm?" she asked, turning around.
"When you're done, I need to talk to you downstairs." I said, quietly.
"Okay." she replied, quietly.
I headed back down and waited in a chair for about ten more minutes.
"What is it?" Twilight asked.
"Look.... Twilight," I paused. "I'm about to tell you something that I'm not supposed to share, and I'm telling you because this must remain a secret between you and us. Not even Spike must know." I said.
Twilight stared blankly at me, unable of what to say.
"Do I have your word that this will between me and you?" I asked.
"Of course. Tell me." Twilight said.
"Okay. Twilight. While I was up in Canterlot, I stumbled across an agency that hunts creatures who pose a threat to Equestria." I revealed.
"Caleb.... Did you?" Twilight said, realizing what I was about to tell her.
"Yes, Twilight. I joined the Everfree branch and i'm due back in Canterlot on the 7th for a four month training program." I said.
Twilight sat in silence from what I said.
"Twilight?" I asked.
"Oh, Caleb. If you go out there in the Everfree, you'll get yourself killed!" Twilight exclaimed.
"Twilight, the time for me to go into the Everfree has not come yet. If I were to go into the Everfree with no training experience, such as this moment, I agree that I would be dead. But once I do this training program, I'll bet you my bottom bit that I will survive and fulfill my job. Now, i'm guessing that they're going to give me stuff for protection and I also have the Land Rover to navigate the Everfree at night." I said.
"Okay, fine, fine. But why did you do it?" she asked.
"Frankly, it looks like something I'd like to do and I also wanted to repay Ponyville and my friends, including you, for all that you've done for me." I said.
"Really?" Twilight asked.
"Of course. So we'll keep this topic between us?" I asked.
"I promise." Twilight said.
"Remember, I'm only going up to Canterlot for a training program. A training program, not the real thing." I said.
"I understand." Twilight said.
"Good. Now let's just continue on with life and go to bed, okay?" I asked.
"Okay." Twilight said.
As Twilight and I headed upstairs, we didn't say a word to each other. I can tell that Twilight is worried for me, greatly. I laid on the couch wondering whether this was a good idea or not, but I convinced that it was a good idea. I could hear Twilight let out a loud sigh as she laid in her bed, probably not a good sign.
Another note, later in the middle of the night, I had a bad dream. The dream consisted of me running from Timberwolves, just like on my first day here in Equestria, but this time they caught me and.... you know what happens when a predator catches something lower on the food chain.
"Do you need to bring any stuff with you?" Twilight asked in regards to my trip to Canterlot.
"Yeah, I'm gonna need some clothes and that kind of stuff. Now that I think of it, I'm not sure if I brushed my teeth since November." I said.
"Oh, Celestia, I've never thought of that." Twilight said.
I raised my palm up to my mouth and breathed out, sniffed, and comedically gagged.
"If you head down to the dentist office, they should have free toothbrushes and toothpaste." Twilight said.
"That's a relief." I said.
After breakfast, I put on outdoor winter clothes and headed off to the dentist office. Fortunately, the dentist wasn't relatively far, so I didn't have to walk in the cold for long. I eventually found the place after the short walk.
"Hello." I said as I entered the office.
"Hi there." replied a mare.
"I hear talk that you have free toothbrushes and toothpaste?" I asked the mare.
"Of course. They're right over there," the mare said, pointing at a small chest. "Ran out?"
"Believe it or not, I'm pretty sure I haven't brushed since November. I usually swished water in my mouth every night and morning." I said.
"Oh my. Do you want me to check your teeth quick?" the mare asked.
"Ehhhh." I replied.
"No pay, just a quick check-up." she said.
"Oh alright." I agreed.
"Come on into the back room." the mare said.
I opened the small chest and took a tube of toothpaste and a toothbrush packed into an average toothbrush package. After that, I headed into the back room where the mare inspected the seat, which was way too small for me.
"We're gonna have to improvise." the mare said.
"What you need me to do?" I asked.
"Just crouch down to my height and I'll shine this light into your mouth to check if you have anything hazardous to your oral health." the mare instructed.
"Alright." I said, crouching down to her height.
The mare slapped a face mask on her muzzle and signaled me to open wide. I opened up and she switched a small light on, illuminating the inside of my mouth. She used her magic to levitate the mirror tool and checked every single one of my teeth, gums, and etcetera.
"Your teeth look cavity free," the mare said, much to my relief, "but the biggest crime I can spot is just minor plaque buildup."
"I figured." I said.
"Mmm-hmm," she replied, taking the tool out of my mouth. "I recommend just brushing as soon as you get home and be sure to floss in between your teeth after eating. You probably know it's best to brush twice a day."
"Oh, but of course. Thank you.... Say, I never got your name." I said.
"My name is Minuette." she introduced.
"Your name sure fits your career well." I said.
"I know. It's almost as if it was meant to be." Minuette giggled.
"Cool. My name's Caleb, by the way." I said.
"I remember. Everypony here pretty much knows your name." Minuette replied.
"I suppose you're right about that. Before I go, I gotta ask; does this toothpaste rebuild enamel?" I asked, thinking the toothpaste had magical properties to it.
"If you were to lose enamel, the best the product can do is help remineralize the teeth." Minuette answered.
"Dang. Well, thanks again." I said as I headed for the exit.
"You're welcome. Have a nice day!" Minuette said with a little wave.
I then walked back out into the cold winter day and headed back to Twilight's for the day, or at least that was what I was planning for at first. I was somewhere near Twilight's library when I heard the sound of little girls laughing in the distance, but not far. I followed the laughter and turns out it was on the other block. The source of the laughter came from the Cutie Mark Crusaders pelting each other with snowballs.
"Heyyy!" I exclaimed.
"Caleb!" all three responded.
"Get him!" Scootaloo said.
The CMC began to direct their fire towards me and I was attacked by a barrage of snowballs.
"Ah!" I reacted to the attack.
Even though the snowballs felt like nothing, I played along and fell over into the snow. The three fillies then jumped onto me to playfully pin me down.
"Ah, they've gone completely berserk! Help!" I yelled, playfully.
Finally, they decided to ease off of me and I sat up.
"So what was going on here?" I asked.
"We were just having a little snowball fight." Sweetie Belle said.
"Sounds like fun." I said.
"Yeah, but we're getting pretty tired." Applebloom said.
"Oh c'mon, I just got here." I said.
"Well, maybe we can do something that doesn't involved a lot of energy." Scootaloo suggested.
"Good idea, Scootaloo." Applebloom said.
"I got it! We could build snowponies!" Sweetie Belle said.
"Snowponies? Is that the same as snowmen?" I asked.
"Snowmen?" all three asked.
"Back in my world, snowmen are sculptures made out of snow that resembles a human, just like me." I explained.
"Really?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Really, really." I replied.
"Snowmen are basically the same thing as snowponies, too." Applebloom said.
"That's great! How about you three build your snowponies and I'll build us a snowman. How does that sound?" I asked.
"We're on it, Caleb!" Scootaloo said.
The three fillies dispersed and began to work on their sculptures. I packed the thick snow into a good sized snowball and began to roll it in the fresh snow. The snowball began to grow increasingly larger as I progressed forward and the CMC were busy with the construction of the legs and body of their sculptures. The ball had to be at least three feet tall by then. Once big enough, I stopped pushing and worked on the second ball and so on and so forth.
The CMC had already finished their snowponies by the time I got the head of the snowman started. After getting the head onto the snowman, it was complete. The CMC wow'd in awe at the sight of the mighty snowman bestowed in front of them.
"Something's missing." I said.
"The eyes?" Applebloom asked.
"That and some stick arms." I said.
"We could use rocks for eyes." Sweetie suggested.
"That'll do. We don't really have much of a choice." I said.
"And we can use the twigs on the tree over there for arms." Scootaloo pointed out.
"I'll get those. You guys go get five rocks. Make sure they're dark ones." I said.
I walked up to the branch of the tree and twisted two twigs off easily with my index finger and thumb. I then jabbed both sticks into the side of the snowman, creating the arms. Moments later, the CMC came back with the rocks I requested and placed them in the specific spots. With that, the first snowman in Equestria was finished.
"I like it." Sweetie Belle commented.
"Me too." Applebloom agreed.
"Me three." Scootaloo said.
"I think we all did a good job." I said.
"We sure did." Applebloom said.
"Gotta admit, the snowman's pretty cool looking.... I guess it sorta resembles a human." Scootaloo said.
"I say the same thing about your snowponies. They're very well done." I said.
"Thanks!" all three replied.
"Look, you guys take care. I'm gonna get going for the day." I said.
"You don't want to play with us?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"What? No, of course I do. I'm just a little tired today, not as energetic as you fillies." I said.
"Okay." Applebloom said.
I looked at their expression and could easily tell they were bummed out that I was about to leave them.
"But now that I think about it, maybe I could stay for a snowball fight." I changed my mind.
The three fillies faces lit up with happiness at the statement I just made, only to form into devilish grins.
"Oh-no." I said.
Right after I said that, I was attacked once again.
Later that night, I spent some time packing my belongings into a duffel bag.
"What's the packing for?" Spike asked.
I could see Twilight looking at me in my peripheral vision.
"Spike. You mind getting my cook book from upstairs?" Twilight asked.
"Sure thing, Twilight." Spike said as he dashed upstairs.
"What are you going to tell Spike when he realizes I've been gone for a couple days, let alone four months?" I asked.
"I'll just simply tell him that you went to some school to learn Equestrian history or something like that." Twilight responded.
"I would buy it." I said.
"Let's just hope that's the same for Spike." Twilight said.
"Hey, Twilight, isn't that the cook book right there?" Spike said as he walked back down the stairs.
"Whoops. Guess I didn't see it there." Twilight said.
"Huh. So, Caleb, you were saying?" Spike said.
"Oh, right. I'm heading up to Canterlot for a school of Equestrian history." I lied.
"That sounds pretty boring. Why are you attending that?" he asked.
"Equestrian history just pipes my interest for some reason." I replied.
"Hmm. Whatever you like." he said before walking away into the kitchen.
I gave a thumbs up to Twilight and she winked back in response.
That night, while I was sleeping, I had the same damn dream again about the Timberwolves and it played out the same way it did before. However, this time I knew what was going to happen, but it still wasn't enough to save myself. I woke up with a gasp and it was loud enough to wake Twilight.
"Caleb? Are you okay?" Twilight whispered in the dark.
"Yeah. Just a really bad dream." I replied.
"About what?" Twilight asked, switching on her horn that acted as a light source, slightly illuminating the room with a purple glow.
"I don't want to talk about it." I said.
"Talking will make you feel better." Twilight said.
"Hmm....... Right." I remembered.
Twilight sat next to me in silence, anticipating my answer.
"Timberwolves." I said.
"I see." Twilight caught on.
"I don't know why, but I've had the same damn nightmare last night and it played out the same way." I said.
"It may be from your newly affiliation with C.A.M.A. Stressful situations can cause reoccurring nightmares." Twilight said.
"You're probably right about that." I agreed with Twilight.
"You sure you want to still go through with this?" Twilight asked.
"I have no choice, I signed a contract. But still, this is something I want to do here in Equestria. It's at least something similar to what I choosing for my career path." I said.
"Well.... all I can say to you now is to study hard up there in Canterlot. You'll need it for your job." Twilight urged.
"No kidding." I said.
"Are you okay now, or do you want to talk some more?" Twilight asked.
"I'm all good. Thanks for taking concern." I said.
"No problem, Caleb." Twilight said.
Twilight then climbed back into her bed and switched her aura off, bringing the darkness back to the room. I just hope these dreams will stop soon.
I sighed deeply, knowing that I was about to leave Ponyville for four months to learn the basics of being an agent. I packed my toothbrush, toothpaste, clothing, books to pass boredom, and notebooks into my duffel bag and zipped it up. Twilight was already up, making sure to wake Spike for my departure. I grabbed my winter clothing, put them on and wrapped the duffel bag strap around my shoulder. I waited for a few minutes downstairs before Twilight and Spike came back down to say goodbye. I then walked over to them.
“Guys, I'm gonna miss you both.” I said.
“We will miss you too, Caleb.” Twilight replied.
I crouched down into a group hug embrace. Twilight whispered something into my ear.
“And for the love of Celestia, please promise me you’ll study hard on what you need to study.” Twilight said.
“Why so dramatic?” Spike asked Twilight.
“Let’s just say that I’m gonna need it, Spike,” I chuckled. “And Twilight, I will study hard.”
“Thank you.” Twilight said.
“And, Twilight, please look after the Defender while I’m gone. I’m gonna need it as well.” I said.
“You got it.” Twilight said.
“Yeah, it’s in good claws.” Spike said.
“Is that a pun?” I asked.
“No, I’m serious. I’ll help look after it, too.” Spike replied.
“Oh, well, thank you.” I said.
“No problemo.” Spike said.
“You got everything you need, Caleb?” Twilight asked.
“I’m pretty sure. I best be going now.” I said before hugging them again.
I opened the door and waved goodbye Twilight and Spike and they both emulated my action. With that, I closed the door and began to walk to the train station.
I walked for about five minutes and looked back at Twilight’s library for one more time, longer than I should have. Not many ponies were outside since it was around six o'clock in the evening and that's usually supper time around here.
When I had arrived to the train station, a few ponies were waiting for the train as well and waved at me. I sat on the bench and my entire body nearly took up most of the space that the bench could offer.
After waiting for about ten minutes, the train's horn could be heard wailing in the distance. I rose up from the bench when the train stopped and the door for the passenger car opened. I bent my body a little to fit into the doorway and walked down the aisle of seat. This time there were ponies on board and they all took liking to my presence. The conductor also caught eye of me and gave a hello.
I was pretty silent through the entire train ride and just stared out the window, taking in the scenery, just like everypony else. The only social interaction that occurred was when a waitress mare asked me if I wanted anything for the ride, to which I declined the offer.
About thirty something minutes later, the train arrived once again in Canterlot. I got up and walked out the car and headed for the city outskirts. I got lost for quite some time. I would end up in one spot and move into a more populated area. When I realized I was lost, I backtracked and went back to where I began and remembered that the decrypted agency building was to the northwest. I headed off into that direction and found my destination.
Night Hunter was nowhere to be seen outside, so I ruled out that he's just doing something and decided to give him some time. I stood there outside the building with arms crossed and I heard a door open behind me. Night Hunter then emerged up the stairs while wearing a black leather jacket and a brown cap with a small Equestrian flag stitched on the front.
"Ah, you're here." Night Hunter said.
"There you are. I've been waiting for you." I said.
"You could've walked inside." Night Hunter said.
I stared blankly into space and thought, "Oh, duh."
"Looks like they're right on schedule." Night Hunter said, directing my attention to the oncoming carriage.
Me and Night Hunter entered the carriage that will take us to the C.A.M.A training facility, somewhere near the Canterlot castle and the training facility for E.U.P guards.
"Good to see you again, kid." Night Hunter said.
"You too. I'm looking forward to this." I said.
"Believe me, Caleb, these four months are going to prepare you for what's to come." Night Hunter said.
"Example on how?" I asked.
"Example?" Night Hunter smirked. "Okay, one way of teaching our recruits is by using the phenomenon of dreaming."
"You mean by going into someone's dream while they're asleep?" I asked.
"That's correct. But what really happens is that C.A.M.A sends a modified dream into the brain, like an induced dream. Think of it as putting a movie into a player." Night Hunter explained.
"How the heck do you do that? How can you access someone's mind without them noticing, let alone wake up?" I asked.
"C.A.M.A collaborated with Princess Luna and made a deal with her about a year back. That's what makes this even possible. Average unicorns cannot possess this power." Night Hunter said.
"So, it's like a simulation?" I asked.
"Yes. This will occur for you once you've passed the test that deals with knowledge of documented creatures in Equestria." Night Hunter said.
"What's the date for the test?" I asked.
"In about seven days from now. Creatures will be our top priority before anything else because knowing your enemy and how to deal with them is key to survival." Night Hunter said.
"Gotta admit, that sounds pretty interesting. What other topics will I be learning about?" I asked.
"You're gonna love this," Night Hunter began. "Later on down the road, we'll be doing weapon training."
"Oh no way!" I exclaimed with enthusiasm.
"Oh yes way!" he replied.
"I have a feeling that's going to be my favorite subject during my time here." I admitted.
"I'm glad to hear that. It was mine when I was just a student." Night Hunter said.
Later on, the guards pulling the carts passed the gates to the castle and were heading farther west to the C.A.M.A facility. The more farther the guards went, the more E.U.P checkpoints we had to pass through before proceeding, so this means that the facility must be close. Speaking of facilities, the carriage passed by the E.U.P training facility that was surrounded by tall reinforced fencing. This facility is mostly used for training royal guards that protect and serve Equestria. But off in the distance I noticed a giant wall that was shaped into a box.
"What's with the giant wall?" I asked Night Hunter.
"That, my colt, is the C.A.M.A training facility." Night Hunter answered.
"We're here already?" I asked.
"Indeed we are." Night Hunter said.
"But still, what's with the wall?" I asked.
"Since C.A.M.A is a secret agency, we wanted it to be hidden from the world. And so, C.A.M.A proposed that a wall to built around it while using an invisibility spell for the exposed top. Therefore, from a bird's eye view, the facility will not appear until the spell is deactivated." Night Hunter said.
"Nice." I said.
The entire perimeter of the wall was surrounded by royal guards, waiting for anything suspicious to happen. Both of the carriage pullers came to a halt and knocked on the large wooden door that allowed us to pass through. Night Hunter signalled me to get out of the carriage and both of us exited the carriage. We walked to the door and waited for it to open.
"So, this is C.A.M.A?" I asked.
"The real facility is on the inside. This wall is used for secrecy purposes only." Night Hunter reminded.
"Right, right." I said.
Night Hunter and I waited for a moment before the double doors opened, allowing us to proceed onwards. Once the doors were fully opened, we walked in and it was absolutely shaded in there because of the walls blocking the moonlight. Still, some light crept in through the top opening. The facility itself was rather smaller than I expected. It was cubed, not very wide, and looked more like a small school.
"Are we at C.A.M.A or an elementary school?" I joked.
"Knew you were going to say that!" Night Hunter exclaimed. "I oughta teach the architect what a real training facility looks like."
"I agree." I said.
Night Hunter walked up to the door and used his mouth to manipulate the keys into the lock.
"Oh, you have the keys to this place?" I asked.
"Yeah. I basically own the place, y'know." Night Hunter said as he unlocked the door.
Night Hunter walked in first switched on the ceiling lights. These lights are the ones I'm probably going to see for four months.
"Wow. Actual LED light bulbs." I thought to myself.
"Okay, Caleb, now I'll show you where our quarters will be." Night Hunter said, walking further down the hallway.
Me and him continued further and took a left at the last door in the hallway. The north, east and west side of the room were lined up with a row of five beds while the south side had an open doorway.
"Are there other ponies here who sleep here?" I asked.
"Not at all, it's just us here. These beds were used when C.A.M.A first started out and we never got rid of them." Night Hunter said.
"Oh, okay." I said.
"So, if you will, pick any bed you want and get situated. I'll be out here when you're ready." Night Hunter said.
"For my first lesson?" I asked.
"No. For orientation. First lesson and unit will be at tomorrow at eight o'clock sharp. Once you're ready, head out the room, take a left, and an immediate right. You'll find the classroom door." Night Hunter said.
"I'll see you there." I responded, unzipping my bag.
As I laid out my clothing on the bed, I thought to myself, "Even in a world of multicolored ponies, I still go to an academy. What are the odds?" Speaking of beds, all of them were pretty small for the average pony's size. Guess I'll have sleep in the frickin' fetal position just to fit on it.
After I got everything set up, I headed off to the classroom. The room was wide, but short in length and had rows of tables lined up with chairs to sit on. Well, what should say is that the chairs were meant for ponies to sit on, not seven foot tall humans. And so, I moved the chair out of the way and sat on the carpet. My sitting height was identical to sitting in an everyday chair. With that, Night Hunter began to speak.
"Great, you're here." he said.
"You bet. So, what are we doin'?" I asked.
"Today is considered an orientation day, so I'll be going easy on you and showing you around." Night Hunter said.
"Going easy on me?" I asked.
"Oh yeah. Tomorrow I'll be a bit more stern." Night Hunter said.
I audibly gulped and stared at Night Hunter.
"Hmm, comedic gulp. I like it. And before I forget, i'm required to do this recite greeting to C.A.M.A, so I'll get onto that," Night Hunter began. "Ahem. Welcome to Canterlot Anti-Monster Agency boot camp. Here you'll be taught what you need to know while venturing the Everfree Forest late at night and the basic tasks of being an agent. You will be spending four months here and you will be whole new pon-- human by the time you're finished." Night Hunter recited.
I paid attentively to Night Hunter and looked over at a small sign that read, "Tartarus," with fire surrounding the text. I raised my hand in confusion.
"Hey, Night Hunter." I said.
"Yes, Caleb?" he responded.
"What's with the sign?" I asked, knowing that Tartarus was the Greek mythological version of hell.
"Ah, that's quite a funny story," he said, levitating the sign off the wall. "You see, way back when C.A.M.A first started out, a student came up to me and asked me to take this sign," Night Hunter said as he showed me the sign once again, "It took me a few minutes to figure it out what that stallion meant, but it made sense eventually."
"What was the meaning?" I asked.
"Apparently, it was his way of saying that boot camp was Tartarus. Makes sense because you've got the forced dreams.... and then you have me." Night Hunter said.
"Ha! That's a good one." I said with a laugh.
"Indeed it is," Night Hunter agreed while placing the sign back on the wall. "Now then, I'll give you a quick tour of the place." Night Hunter said.
"Alright, let's go." I said.
Night Hunter then walked back to the bunks room where I left my things.
"I know we've already been here, but that door over there is bathroom. Just so you know." Night Hunter informed.
"I got it." I said.
"Oh, and lights out are at eight o'clock," Night Hunter said, "You okay with that? You aren't some little foal who complains about bedtime, right?"
"Believe me, I'm far from that." I said.
"Good." Night Hunter said.
"Why? Were there actually some ponies who were like that?" I asked.
"Yep." Night Hunter replied, flatly.
"Jesus H. Christ." I said, softly.
Night Hunter led me to another room further down the hallway the classroom is located. The room consisted of couches, a pool, and a ping-pong table and some snacks.
"If you ever get bored, come on down here to the rec room." Night Hunter said.
"Nice! I should play you at a game of pool sometime." I said.
"That's the recreation spirit I was looking for," Night Hunter replied. "But the rec room is not the place to get food, which leads us to the next room." Night Hunter clued.
"Let me guess. The kitchen?" I said.
"So close! The correct word would be cafeteria." Night Hunter said.
Both of us took a right at the corner from the way we came and headed down a flight of stairs. Quite an interesting place for a cafeteria.
"And here we are." Night Hunter said.
"Is there somepony here who prepares our food?" I asked.
"About that. Since nopony worked down here for quite sometime, C.A.M.A resorted to MRE's." Night Hunter said.
"MRE's, huh? How long do they last?" I asked.
"From what I know, it's ten years. Our latest shipment came in eleven months ago, so they should still be good to eat." Night Hunter said.
"Good." I said.
"Whether it's breakfast, lunch, dinner, or you're just hungry, come down here and get yourself an MRE. They're pretty easy to prepare by yourself." Night Hunter said.
"Sounds good. You weren't kidding when you said we were the only ones here." I remarked.
"The guards outside could make an exception, but yeah, we're the only ones here. Since it's seven twenty-five, would you like to have an MRE right now?" he offered
"No, thanks. I ate before I got here." I said.
"No problem." Night Hunter said.
"Anymore rooms you need to show me?" I asked.
"That's all the rooms there was to show." Night Hunter said.
"I suppose. This place is pretty small." I said.
"You're right about that. I also want you to head upstairs with me so that you can sign a little something." he said.
"Sure." I replied as I followed him up the stairs.
Night Hunter pulled a form out of a drawer and laid it flat on the table in front of me. He than levitated a pencil towards me and I grabbed it from the magical grasp, making my hand go a little numb. I read the title for the form and it involved having dreams subjected into my mind whilst asleep.
"What will I be dreaming about?" I asked.
"Once you've passed the test on knowledge of documented creatures in Equestria and how to deal with them, the dreams will involved them. These dreams are meant to be practice simulations, but you'll only get one chance per night." Night Hunter explained.
"What do you mean by one chance per night?" I asked.
"It's supposed to emulate the saying that life doesn't have restart. So, if you were to get caught by the creature, the one and only dream will end for the night." Night Hunter clarified.
"Gotcha...." I said, looking back at the form.
I continued to read the fine print once more and one more time before I signed my name at the bottom, agreeing to be subjected to these dreams.
"It's done." I said as I set the pencil down.
"Thank you." Night Hunter said.
He rolled the paper up and put red ribbon around it before setting it back on his desk.
"What now?" I asked.
"Congrats, Caleb. You've just passed the orientation." Night Hunter declared.
"Really?! What do I win?" I asked in a pseudo-ecstatic voice.
"A good night's sleep for tomorrow morning!" Night Hunter replied in the same tone.
"Yes!" I replied before heading back to bunks with Night Hunter.
"So, how was patrolling the Everfree at night?" I asked Night Hunter as we brushed our teeth.
"Mmmm," he hummed, spitting the toothpaste into the sink. "From experience, it really wasn't that hard. Once you learn the ropes, it'll be a breeze." Night Hunter said.
"Wasn't even scary once?" I asked.
"Well, I remember being a nervous wreck on my first night. But like I said, you get used to it." Night Hunter said.
After we finished brushing, shutting off all the lights in the building, we climbed into our beds. Mine felt like it was about to collapse from my weight, but it didn't.
"Night, Night Hunter." I said.
"Was that your idea of a pun?" Night Hunter asked from the other side of the room.
"D'oh, my bad." I said.
"Ehhhh, forget about it. Night to you too, Caleb." he replied.
The lights in the room flicked on, which woke me from my slumber. I squinted my eyes as they adjusted to the light and Night Hunter was already dressed for the day.
"Time to get up, recruit. Don't expect me to give you a wake up call every morning." Night Hunter said.
"Oh, umm, yeah, yeah." I said as I rubbed my eyes and headed off to the bathroom.
I quickly brushed my teeth, got some clothes on and slipped my shoes on. I then went downstairs and got an MRE from the breakfast section of the kitchen and quickly ate it. After heading back upstairs and grabbing my notebook, I ran to the classroom and Night Hunter was pacing left and right. He halted as I sat down and stared into my soul.
"So, Caleb..... Do you think you have what it takes to enter the Everfree Forest at night?" Night Hunter asked.
"Well.... not right now at the moment." I replied.
"Good answer, kid! If you were to enter that cursed forest at night, you would be at the bottom of the food chain!" Night Hunter said with a stern tone. "Unfortunately, I can not make your ranking increase, but I can give you the essentials that'll give you the extra edge."
"Alright, what do I need to know?" I asked, ecstatically.
"Caleb. Please stop acting all cheerful about this. These are deadly creatures that'll have no hesitation to kill you." Night Hunter exclaimed.
I was at a lost for words for a moment before I replied.
"Yes, sir." I said, changing my tone.
"Thank you. Now, open up that notebook to the first page and you write everything I tell you." Night Hunter said.
I opened up my notebook and got my pencil in a ready position. I gave Night Hunter a nod to begin. Night Hunter began to draw a wolf-like creature on the chalkboard that was made out of sticks.
"Timberwolves," he said with a pause. "Timberwolves are one of the leftover remnants of Nightmare Moon's short reign. These wolf like creatures come up to about one point four meters in height while four meters in length. They're very quick and agile and will sometimes work together in packs, but there can also be lone wolves as well. While in packs, they will usually try to flank their victim from the sides, so keep note of that. Their primary weakness is bright lights. If they're exposed to bright light, they will cower back and watch their target from a distance, so it won't kill them. If one wanted to vanquish a Timberwolf, they would have to use fire; they burn easy. Signs of Timberwolf presence would include paw prints, gnawed bark on trees, howling and an odor that smells similar to rotten eggs or sulfur. If you encounter a Timberwolf or a pack, make yourself as intimidating as possible. Show no fear of them and they'll turn into little pussycats, driving them away from your territory." Night Hunter said.
I continued to write all the information before I finally finished.
"Ready for the next creature?" Night Hunter asked.
"Mmm-hmm." I replied.
Night Hunter erased the illustration off the board and began to draw a snake with a chicken's head.
"Cockatrice," he said, "The Cockatrice is a mix between a snake and a chicken's head. This creature reaches to about five meters in length and thirty centimeters in height. What makes the Cockatrice so dangerous is the fact that if you get into it's line of sight, it'll slowly turn you into stone from the feet and up. If you see one, try to get out of it's sight and get somewhere safe. Whatever you do, never look at it directly in the eyes or you will most likely be instantly turned to stone. A method to defeat the Cockatrice has not been discovered yet, be sure to report the Cockatrice if you encounter it. Signs of Cockatrice activity include distinctive clucking of a chicken, moistness of the ground and prey that has already been stoned." Night Hunter said.
I wrote down the information given once again and nodded at Night Hunter again.
"Cragadile," Night Hunter said, "The Cragadile, hence its name, is a giant reptile that resembled a crocodile, but has rocks on its back for camouflage purposes. This creature comes up to two meters in height and ten meters in length. The Cragadile was first reported in the Batchu territories of the Everfree and resides in a creek that runs in the middle of Batchu. The thing about the Cragadile is that it will most likely stay in that area and will not leave unless disturbed, so it's best to steer clear of that area. If you happen to see it out of its territory, report it." Night Hunter said.
"Okay." I said as I wrote everything down.
"Dragons," Night Hunter said, "Dragons are reptilian monsters that come many sizes and shapes. For example, one might be two meters tall and bipedal while another could be quadrupedal and up to ten meters in height. These beasts have the ability to blow fire and are very resistant to extreme amounts of heat. They usually reside in the volcanic, dry regions south east Everfree, across the Celestial Sea, but small dragons were reported on the outskirts of the Hueyu territory of the Everfree Forest. The method to defeat one of these monsters will be discussed in the weapons unit. If you see one and unarmed, maintain your distance and keep a low profile." Night Hunter said.
"Next." I said after writing down.
"Manticore," Night Hunter said, "The Manticore is a large mix between a lion's body with dragon wings and a scorpion's tail. This creature comes to two meters in height and three meters in length. The Manticore habitat is located right next to the border that separates the Dovere and Batchu territories, so you might encounter it while patrolling the night. Now believe it or not, this creature will most likely not attack you unless you do something to enrage it. I would advise to just ignore it since it usually stays in its habitat. If you were to enrage it, then it would most likely swallow you whole, leaving no remains." Night Hunter said.
"Next." I said again.
"Parasprites. Parasprites are tiny little insects that are considered pests after the parasprite infestation in Ponyville in late August of this year. Their appearance is spherical, come in many colors and have the eyes that many would consider cute. Don't let their size and looks fool you, though. These pests are known to devour anything in it's path. It can be a building, furniture, metal, they'll literally eat anything. Since the infestation, they haven't been reported, but C.A.M.A has reason to believe that they may be hibernating somewhere in the Everfree, so keep a close eye out for them." Night Hunter said.
"Go on." I said.
"And last but not least are the Ursa's. There are two know Ursa's so far, being the Ursa Minor and Ursa Major. These giants appear to resemble a bear, hence the term Ursa. The Ursa Minor comes up to about twelve meters on all fours and estimated thirty if it were to go bipedal. The Ursa Major on the other hand is the big one being fifty-five meters on all fours and a towering estimate of one hundred meters while on hind legs. The last known appearance one of these giants was in June of this year in Ponyville." Night Hunter said.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Apparently, these two young colts woke the Minor while it was sleeping in a cave located near the end of the Hueyu territories. They're lucky that they weren't eaten or at the very most, didn't wake the Ursa Major. But we digress from the topic at hand. The Ursa's can be easily be distinguished not only by size, but by color. The Minor has a blue glow and the Major is believed to have a dark purple glow. Going back to the Ursa's, they should never leave the cave unless they're disturbed." Night Hunter said.
"What should I do if I somehow encounter the Minor or the Major?" I asked.
"You get your flank out of there. Even I wouldn't mess with them and I have no idea if our weaponry will stop them. Heck, even Princess Celestia cannot banish them." Night Hunter replied.
"So run and don't look back?" I said.
"Yes, precisely." Night Hunter said.
"Okay. Any other creatures that I need to know about?" I asked.
"No. And I have complete confidence that you wrote everything I told you." Night Hunter said.
"That I did." I said.
"Good, good." Night Hunter said.
"What now?" I asked.
"Now I want you to make some flashcards." Night Hunter said, handing me little rectangular pieces of paper.
"Flashcards?" I asked.
"Yeah, something wrong with that?" he asked.
"No, not at all." I replied.
"That's more like it. Flashcards are a good method of studying and your time here will be a chock full of studying. Take tidbits from your notes on each creature and write the information on either side you want and write the name of the creature on the other side of the paper." Night Hunter explained.
"So, like, works in packs on one side and write Timberwolf on the back?" I asked.
"Perfect! Just be a little more descriptive." Night Hunter advised.
"Got it." I said.
I then began to work on the flashcards, reminded me a lot of what I would do in high school. I just wonder what my friends back on earth are up to at this moment. Hell, I wonder if that damn portal is still active or not. It would be a surprise if it still is. But anyways, I probably completed the flashcards in about twenty or thirty minutes. There was a lot of flashcards to do, forty to be exact.
"Alright, Night Hunter, I finished these flash cards." I announced.
"Now all you have to do is study for the rest of the hour and week." Night Hunter said.
"Wait, that was it?" I asked.
"You see, what C.A.M.A does is that we will introduce a unit and allow the student to write down notes for a test that will come within five or six days." Night Hunter said.
"Ah, so it's just like college." I said.
"What's college?" Night Hunter asked.
"Equestria doesn't have a college system?' I asked.
"Yeah, the education system in Equestria mainly focuses on cutie marks, magic and that kind of stuff." Night Hunter said.
"Oh. Because the college system is just like C.A.M.A's training program. You wake up, go to class, take notes, study and take a test sometime later on." I said.
"That's interesting." Night Hunter said.
The rest of the hour was just me studying silently and Night Hunter sat a his desk, writing something on numerous sheets of papers. After the hour was over, there wasn't really much that went on for the rest of the day. Sure, me and Night Hunter had a talk every once in awhile, but it wasn't much because today was one of his busy days.
Now that I think about it, the boredom really forced me to study because I didn't really have much to do. With Night Hunter busy, we couldn't talk much or do anything in the rec room. Besides studying, I tore a piece of paper out of the two-hundred page notebook and began to draw pictures of ponies for some reason. But yeah, not much really went on for the rest of the day. I also have a feeling that I may have to space out my entry's now that I'm here.
God, I now truly realize why that one student gave Night Hunter that Tartarus sign. It's boring around here. Like I said before, me and Night Hunter have our talks, but he's a busy stallion most of the time because he's the manager of the C.A.M.A Everfree branch. He says that he discusses certain topics with Luna while he's out and about. My guess is the types of dreams that Luna will pump into my mind once I past this first test.
With Night Hunter gone most of time, it gets really lonely around here and I can't talk to the guards outside because they are required to keep their eyes peeled for anything suspicious nearby. To pass the hours, I study my flashcards, draw and read some of the books from Twilight's library. I'm currently reading the History of Equestria, so that'll probably last me through a month or two.
However, later that night after an MRE supper, Night Hunter found some time to play a game of pool with me.
"You think you can beat me?" Night Hunter asked me.
"I'll give er' a shot." I replied.
"We'll see about that. One game only and then we gotta head for bed or we'll both be bears in the morning." Night Hunter said.
"Yes, mother." I replied.
Night Hunter chuckled at the sassy quip.
Night Hunter used his magic to levitate the triangle rack and settled it on the green surface while I went for the pool cues. I went for the slot at the end of the table to take some pools balls out, but my hand was to big to fit all the way in.
"Hand too big?" Night Hunter asked.
"Yeah, I could use some assistance here." I said.
"No need to worry." Night Hunter said as he walked over towards me.
"Here." I said, tossing him a pool cue.
"Thanks." he replied.
Night Hunter leaned his horn into the slot and levitated every single ball out while still levitating his cue.
"Huh. It's interesting how you can do that with multiple objects." I remarked.
"Levitation?" Night Hunter asked.
"Yeah. How does that even work? Do you just concentrate real hard with your mind or something?" I asked.
"It's real simple, actually. It's probably similar to how you move those little thingies on your hands." Night Hunter said.
"Is that so?" I asked, placing the multi-colored balls into the triangle.
"You see, Unicorns have all of these nerve endings in the horn that connect to the brain. The horn is what makes magic and levitation possible because it's rich of magical energy. When the neurotransmitter signals connect with the energy, it triggers the levitation." Night Hunter said.
"That's pretty interesting." I said.
"Other races such as Earth ponies and Pegasi are also magical." Night Hunter said.
"How's that? I've never seen any pegasus or earth pony use levitation." I said.
"Unicorns and Alicorns are the only race capable of having that ability. Earth ponies are known to be more stronger than most ponies because their muscles absorb magic and pegasi are fast fliers because most of the magic is stored in the wing muscles." Night Hunter said.
That would explain why Applejack is so strong and Rainbow Dash having the ability to fly as fast as a jet.
Night Hunter then moved the triangle in a circular motion as the balls rolled along with it. He aligned the balls in the middle and placed the white ball on the opposite side of the table. With that, he removed the triangle, leaving the pool balls in a perfect triangular shape.
"You want solids or stripes?" Night Hunter asked.
"Stripes." I replied.
"Kay' then. We'll flip a bit to see who goes first. I'm heads and you're tails." Night Hunter said, showing me both sides of the coin.
"I know how it works." I said.
"Just making sure," Night Hunter said, tossing the coin up and landing on the table with heads up. "Ha-ha! Looks like I go first." he said.
"Eh." I said, flinging my hand in his direction.
Night Hunter levitated his cue behind the milky white ball and pulled it back before thrusting the cue. The ball rolled forward and impacted the purple ball with a klank, breaking up the balls and causing them to scatter around the table.
"Nice break." I complimented.
I inspected the striped balls for a possible shot into a hole. After finding a blue striped ball that lined up with the upper-right hole, I lined the cue up and smoothly pushed the cue into the white ball, pocketing the purple ball perfectly.
"Nice." I said.
I looked at the striped balls again and went for the striped orange. With my overconfidence getting the best of me, I pulled the cue back and pushed. The white ball rolled quickly past the ball, missing it.
"Ooh, tough luck." Night Hunter said.
"Had to let you have a turn." I replied.
"Ha!" Night Hunter exclaimed.
Night Hunter began to position the cue at an angle and squinted his right eye. After figuring out where he wanted to shoot, he thrusted the cue towards the ball, causing the ball to roll and bounce off the tables boundary. The ball ricocheted off the wall and impacted the ball, pocketing it into the hole.
"Damn, that was a shot." I complimented.
"That's a key element to pool; Angles." Night Hunter said.
"Sure looks like it." I said.
Night Hunter began to position his cue for another shot and a random thought came to mind. How did Night Hunter survive out there in the Everfree when he was patrolling?
"So, uh, Night Hunter." I said.
"What?" he asked.
"I'm curious, how did you even survive out there on your own in the Everfree late at night?" I asked.
"Remember what I said before? Timberwolves are pretty cowardly creatures when they're up against something much bigger than them." Night Hunter reminded.
"Well, how tall are you?" I asked.
"Five foot-two." Night Hunter replied.
"I was previously five-ten and that one wolf came after me with no hesitation." I said.
"Really? What did you do?" Night Hunter asked, surprised.
"I ran." I replied, flatly.
"Well, duh!" Night Hunter said, knocking on his head with a hoof. "If you run from it, it'll see you as prey and not a threat. You have to stand your ground and look as intimidating as possible when you encounter one or even a pack." Night Hunter said, pushing his cue into the white ball.
"I can see that now," I nodded. "If you make yourself look intimidating, that drives them off?" I asked.
"Yep, but they always come back. They never seem to get the message to stay the tartarus away." Night Hunter said.
"That explains why they're in the Dovere territories at the moment." I said.
"Exactly. So far they've sticked to Dovere, but I'm not sure how long that'll be before they discover Ponyville. We don't want that to happen." Night Hunter said.
"Good point." I said.
"But I know you'll drive those beasts back once you get out there by yourself." Night Hunter encouraged.
"You bet. Speaking of which, did you have to walk at night?" I asked.
"Of course I did. It's not like I had somepony pull me in carriage." he replied.
"Have you ever heard of an automobile?" I asked.
"No, never." Night Hunter said.
"Automobiles are similar to wagons or carriages, but they have these pedals that you can push down for it to accelerate by itself." I explained.
"How do you know about these?" Night Hunter asked, skeptically.
"Because they're from my world." I said.
"Technology from your world?" Night Hunter asked.
"That's right. I think the portal I came through is dumping stuff from my world into this world, so there might be more out there scattered across Equestria. I was lucky enough to find a Land Rover in the Everfree." I said.
"No kidding. How much can it carry for cargo?" Night Hunter asked.
"I don't know, maybe a thousand pounds or something." I replied.
"That'll work great for you!" Night Hunter exclaimed.
"How?" I asked.
"Back then, I had to pull all of my equipment, which was mostly MRE's, water, and yada-yada-yada in a large wagon. But now that there's more advanced technology and tactics that'll be used while patrolling, you will be able to conveniently store it in your land crawler or whatever." Night Hunter said.
"But it really depends of what else I'll be carrying in the Land Rover." I said.
"It'll mostly be MRE's, water, weapons, mannequins, tools, personal medical supplies and that kind of stuff." Night Hunter listed.
"Sounds light enough." I said.
"The hell would I need mannequins for?" I thought to myself, but brushed it off to the side and continued playing our game.
Our game progressed further and Night Hunter was down to the black eight ball while I had three more striped balls. The white and eight ball seemed to be at an impossible angle for me, but not to Night Hunter, he knows the ropes to this game. Night Hunter angled his cue in different directions before making his final decision. With one swift movement, he pocketed the eight ball like a pro. He had won.
"Dang! Well good game anyways." I said.
"Told ya' you couldn't beat me." Night Hunter said smugly.
"I admit it, you're pretty good at pool." I admitted.
"And I also admit that it was great to catch up and talk for a while. It's a pretty big contrast to my job." Night Hunter said.
"You too. It was getting a little boring around here by myself." I said.
"Sorry bout' that, but I'm the manager of the Everfree branch. You got it easy." Night Hunter said.
"Right. But we should probably head off to bed like you said, mother." I joked once again.
"Yeah, yeah." Night Hunter said.
After switching off the lights, we headed off to bed for the night for the next day to come.
Today is that big test, and I'm feeling pretty good about it. Yesterday I studied for a good chunk of the afternoon, got plenty of rest and had a big MRE for breakfast today. I'm hoping that the test will be multiple choice because I prefer that over short answer, but I'm still equally good at them. At the moment, I was heading upstairs to actually take the test and hope to pass it so that I'll be able to move onto the next unit, which I don't know right now. I entered the classroom and Night Hunter was waiting for me at his desk.
"Ah. There you are." Night Hunter said.
"Hey," I replied, "You got that test ready?"
"Oh. Quite anxious, aren't you?" Night Hunter asked.
"Nah, I just want to get it out of the way and move on." I said.
Night Hunter levitated a five page packet and placed it flat on my table. Unfortunately all the questions were short answers, but it's probably for the best since you have to use your memory and knowledge to answer. Plus, multiple choice would probably be a bit too easy in the first place.
I thought at first that the questions on each creature would be in chronological order from my notes, but the question would constantly switch. For example, it would be question involving a Timberwolf and then a question of the Cragadile. Heck, even the meters questions slipped me up for a moment or two. After about ten or fifteen so minutes, I completed the test and handed it to Night Hunter.
"Done." I said.
"That was pretty quick than the average pony." Night Hunter said.
"It's because I studied hard. What now?"
"For now, you can take a seat and wait while I grade the test. If you get a A or B, you can move on to the next unit tomorrow. But if you go any lower, you'll have to redo it." Night Hunter informed.
"I have a good feeling about this test." I said.
"I admire your confidence. Now, please, sit" Night Hunter said.
I walked backed over to the chair and sat back down. Occasionally I would cast a glance Night Hunter and study his body language to at least get a hint of what I got, but he was good at hiding facial gestures while grading. Shortly after, he levitated the paper from his desk over to me. I looked at the front page and there was a big, blue letter A.
"Yes, yes, yes!" I exclaimed, victoriously.
"Good job, Caleb!" Night Hunter congratulated before reminding. "But remember that we have more units to cover."
"I know that. What's the next unit?" I asked.
"I have feeling you're going to like my answer." Night Hunter said.
"Please let it be what I think it is." I said, anticipatedly.
"The next unit will be on weapons and devices." Night Hunter revealed.
"Awesome! So what am I going to be handling?" I asked.
"I'll just let you see for yourself tomorrow." Night Hunter said.
"Oh, come on." I said like a whiny kid.
"No, no," Night Hunter said. "And I'm also holding back the simulated dreams until you pass the weapons and device unit so that you know how to defend yourself during the dream."
"Ah, okay." I replied.
Night Hunter began to walk to the door and said that he was heading out to discuss matters with Princess Luna. As he walked out the room and into the hallway, I glanced at the Tartarus sign and wondered if that one stallion who gave it to him was still patrolling the Everfree. Think about it. If Night Hunter said he was teaching the class and was also the manager of the Everfree branch at the time, then the stallion must have passed the C.A.M.A training program.
"Maybe I'll get a partner." I said to myself.
I rose out of my seat and called for Night Hunter. He was just about to exit the building when I entered the hallway and I caught up with him.
"What's up?" Night Hunter asked.
"That stallion who gave you the Tartarus sign." I said.
"What about him?" Night Hunter asked.
"Is he still patrolling the Everfree to this day?" I asked.
Night Hunter remained silent for a moment before he took off his Equestria cap and looked at me in the eyes.
"Look, Caleb, I'm a stallion who tells the truth and keeps my word, so it's no use to lying to you." Night Hunter said.
I was confused at his emotional shift and followed him back into the classroom. Night Hunter levitated two chairs and placed across from each other. Both of us took a seat and he gave the truth.
"What happened?" I asked.
"He didn't make it out there at night." Night Hunter said.
"He didn't? Damn." I replied.
"He was a good stallion and shared many similarities in your personality. He would study hard and showed he wanted to excel in being a C.A.M.A agent." Night Hunter said.
"So, he obviously passed the program." I said.
"Yes. He did pass the program three years ago and managed to patrol for about a year before the incident." Night Hunter said.
"Wow, that sucks. What got him?" I asked.
"Take a wild guess." Night Hunter said.
"Timberwolves?" I answered.
"Yep. From what I remember from the tracks, it was a pack of four and two came up to him from behind and two from the front. I also found four dismembered legs scattered in different locations, so each wolf must've took one." Night Hunter said.
"God, that's brutal," I replied with disgust. "Did he at least go to a hospital?"
"No use. C.A.M.A and E.U.P were planning on taking him to a hospital, but that couldn't be possible because they only found parts of him that the Timberwolves didn't like." Night Hunter replied.
"Jesus H. Christ." I said, covering my eyes as I threw my head backwards.
"It was a mess." Night Hunter added.
"That must've been hard on you. Knowing that the stallion you taught ended up dying out there after all that teaching....." I said.
"Believe me, it was," Night Hunter replied. "But that's why I'm implementing the simulated dreams so that you can adjust to the behaviors of each creature and know what's to come." Night Hunter said.
"I see. Was there a little funeral or service for him?" I asked.
"There was just a little private memorial for his family to attend." Night Hunter replied.
"That's good." I said.
"Now, uh, I'd like to get on with my day, if you don't mind." Night Hunter said.
"Of course. Sorry if you didn't like talking about this." I apologized.
"No, it's okay. It just takes me back." Night Hunter replied.
Night Hunter went for the door and I remembered what he said about the implementation of the simulated dreams.
"Thanks. Thanks for looking out for me." I said, right before he left the room
"No problem." Night Hunter said.
With that, he walked out of the room and exited the building, leaving me by myself. The rest of the day was pretty quiet since Night Hunter didn't get back until nightfall, so who knows what the hell he was doing. Maybe he wanted to pay a visit to the stallions grave. But yeah.... today was pretty quiet.
I woke up early today and discovered that Night Hunter was not in his bed, but I did find a note on it that clarified he was preparing the weapons, devices, and that today he'll be teaching me outside for the hands-on weapons, so I was rather excited. I did my normal routine for the morning, put on my winter coat, hat, gloves and waited for Night Hunter's return.
Some time had gone by and I was beginning to wonder if Night Hunter was even coming back. Curiously, I grabbed the note again and noticed a little side text that instructed me to turn on the back because there was no more room on the small square sticky note. The backside revealed that he'd be back by nine o'clock and it was eight-twenty one at the time a read it. I didn't really know what to do to pass the time, so I decided to go eat something again.
After heading downstairs to the kitchen and grabbed a breakfast MRE that contained cereal with raspberries, oat biscuits with blackberry jam, a dark chocolate energy bar, orange flavored energy drink powder and a plastic spoon. I opened up the cereal packet and dumped some water into it so that that the cereal will absorb the liquid and turn it into a cereal-oatmeal mix.
"Am I eating because I'm bored?" I asked myself while chewing on the energy bar.
Finishing the MRE, I headed back upstairs and had fifteen minutes left before Night Hunter returned. When the time had past, I heard the door to the entrance open and Night Hunter's silhouette could be made out at the end of the hallway.
"Be sure to bring your notebook!" Night Hunter yelled at the end of the hallway.
"Don't worry, I'll get it." I replied as I went back into the room to grab my notebook and pencil.
I hurried over to Night Hunter and we both left the building.
"What kind of equipment you got in store for me?" I asked.
"You'll see soon enough," Night Hunter replied. "Okay, so today we're going to be heading down eight-hundred meters from Canterlot." Night Hunter said.
"You mean we're heading OFF of Canterlot and back down there?" I asked, pointing downwards.
"That's right. I got some royal pegasus guards to fly us down there so that we won't have to use the train." Night Hunter said.
"Oh, I see." I said.
When we reached the other side of the wall, there stood two royal pegasus guards with a golden carriage attached to them. I also shockingly noticed the back side was open and there were no safety belts, but only a railing to hold onto.
"No safety belts?" I asked.
"Yep. Just hold on tight and don't let go." Night Hunter replied.
"Oh, that's great." I said, nervously, with a gulp.
Both of us stepped onto the carriage and Night Hunter curled his foreleg around the railing while I gripped my hands tightly. I looked down to my right and noticed a large bag that probably contains the weapons and equipment I'll be working with.
"Ready?" one guard asked in a husky voice.
"Yep." me and Night Hunter replied.
With that, the guards began to flap their wings at a fast pace, creating a little woosh sound with each flap. While flapping, the guards began to run forward, reaching a certain distance before the carriage began to lift off the ground until we were high up in the air.
"Woah!" I exclaimed, looking down as vertigo began to set in.
I looked back and Canterlot was becoming smaller the further we went.
"Where the heck are we even going?" I yelled as the cold air blew into my face.
"We're heading to a secluded valley so that there will be no chance of any civilians spotting us using these weapons," Night Hunter yelled back. "We should be there soon."
Shortly after he stated that, the carriage began to gradually descend, giving me that weird feeling as if my stomach was rising upwards.
"You feel that in your gut?" Night Hunter asked.
"Oh yeah, I can feel it real good." I replied.
"We're near our destination." one guard announced.
I observed the surroundings and each side of the valley were multiple large hills and a frozen river that ran through the middle. The carriage descended more until it finally came into contact with the snow covered surface. Me and Night Hunter hopped off the carriage and Night Hunter placed the long bag on his back as if it were a saddle. We walked a good distance away from the carriage before we stopped at a specific area out in the open space.
"Alright, so just like before, you write down what I say and later on when we get back to C.A.M.A. I'll give you a packet that'll have labels of the weapons and the devices so that you can learn what certain parts of the equipment do." Night Hunter said.
"Sounds good." I said while flipping the notebook pages.
"So first we'll start with devices." Night Hunter started.
Night Hunter unzipped the large bag and levitated out a small, black cylinder contraption
"This is called the X-ray Sensor. This device is designed to allow the user to see any creature through any physical obstacles. Once the device is switched on and the sweep button is pressed, the sensor will emit a pulse of wave energy that will sweep a one hundred meter circumference, outlining any creatures both biological and non-biological in the area for a good twenty seconds." Night Hunter said.
"So Timberwolves will be outlined as well?" I asked.
"Yes, yes, they will be outlined. Allow me to demonstrate." Night Hunter said.
Night Hunter than stood on his hind legs, put his right hoof under the device and used his left hoof to press the sweep button. Once pressed, the device let out deep hum sound that made my hearing go deaf for about a millisecond as the visible light blue wave quickly flowed across the ground and past me, heading off into the distance.
"Look at your arms." Night Hunter said.
I looked at my arm and shockingly discovered that my entire skeletal system was visible, created by an orange, undulating outline on my clothing. Night Hunter, however, wasn't affected by this.
"How come it didn't work on you?" I asked, suspiciously.
"If the user places a part of his or hers body underneath the scanner, located at the bottom, it will not pick them up." Night Hunter explained.
"That explains." I said.
"Want to give it a try?" Night Hunter asked.
"Sure." I replied.
I walked over and Night Hunter gave me the device. I placed my hand on the bottom of the sensor and gently pressed the button, emitting the pulse wave. Night Hunter's skull outline began to slowly manifest on his face while the rest on his skeleton appeared on his fur coat and leather jacket.
"Oh my God, that is one of the most creepiest sights I've ever seen." I said.
"I thought the same thing about your skeleton." Night Hunter replied, his mandible bone visibly moving as he spoke.
"But it's so cool at the same." I chuckled.
Night Hunter levitated the sensor out of my hand and placed it diligently back into the bag.
"Now this next device is rather more simple and straightforward," Night Hunter announced, digging in his bag before levitating a black cube device with speaker holes around it. "This is a sound emitter, or in simple terms, a speaker. This speaker plays a recording of a stallion having a full blown conversation. It's used to attract hostile creatures that may be in your area. This would be used for a strategic ambush, for say." Night Hunter said, putting the speaker back into the bag.
"Next is a small personal use flashlight that can be attached to your clothing in case you need to see in the dark. Pretty self explanatory," Night Hunter said, showing me the small light. "This flashlight can also be used to disorient creatures with its strobe mode, as you can see here." Night Hunter added as he switched strobe mode on, causing the light to blink at a rapid pace.
"Wow, that even blinded me and it's daytime right now." I said.
"The brightness is meant to equal to a stage spotlight, so you can see why it's so bright." Night Hunter clarified.
"Maybe a bit too bright." I said.
"Well, when you're out in the Everfree at night, you're going to need all the light you can get." Night Hunter reminded.
"True." I agreed.
Night Hunter put the flashlight back in the small pouch on the side of the bag and unzipped a wider zipper space.
"Now inside contains the weapons that you will be using. So, mark that down for this next section of notes." Night Hunter said.
"Okay." I said.
After he opened the bag, he levitated out this long, futuristic firearm that looked like a freaking railgun.
"This bad colt right here is the Igneous-1006, or you can call it Iggy." Night Hunter said.
I inspected the way it was designed and it looked like it was intended for pony use only.
"How am I supposed to use that? It looks like it's meant for pony use." I said.
"About that. I've discussed with the designers on how a highly evolved ape will be using it, so they're working on a version suitable for your hands." Night Hunter said.
"Did you really refer me as a highly evolved ape?" I asked.
"Nah, that was just a joke. And I'm pretty sure almost everypony in Equestria knows about you by now from the news." he replied.
"Oh, okay, because I was wondering how I was going to use that. It would be pretty uncomfortable to wrap my forearm around the trigger." I said.
"Don't worry, I thought ahead," Night Hunter said in a bragging manner. "But as I was saying, thanks to the collaboration with Celestia, the Igneous-1006 has the capability to turn any small creature into stone." Night Hunter said.
"Woah, woah, Night Hunter, are you telling me this sucker has Alicorn magic as ammunition?" I questioned, perplexedly.
"Precisely. And the ammunition also has a regenerative agent. Therefore, you'll never run out." Night Hunter added.
"Goddamn. That's actually pretty cool." I said.
"Now here's how it works. First, you switch the on button located at the top," Night Hunter said, showing me the on switch and pressing it, causing the magic energy inside it fill up it, "Now you have two choices: thin, lesser power, or thick, maximum power. Thin, lesser power is used for small creatures such as Timberwolves and generates ninety decibels when fired. Thick, maximum power is used for larger threats such as dragons and generates one hundred-forty decibels, so it's pretty loud. Also, to increase the intensity in each mode, just hold down the trigger and for normal intensity, just tap it normally. To reload, all you have to do is cock the the bolt action lever on the left side and the next shot will be primed and ready." Night Hunter explained.
"What's the range of fire?" I asked.
"Four hundred meters." Night Hunter answered.
"You think I could give it a shot?" I asked after writing my note.
"I don't see why not." Night Hunter replied, handing me the Iggy.
Yes, I decided to call it the Iggy from then on.
Now getting my hands in the right position was quite a predicament. For example, I had to insert my left forearm into a circular "grip" near the barrel of the Iggy and the trigger was quite odd. There was a trigger guard on it, but the trigger was molded right on the interior backside, so I slightly cupped my hand around it, not gripping it. After awkwardly positioning my arms, Night Hunter instructed me to get into a stance.
"Got a good feel for it?" Night Hunter asked.
"I think so." I replied.
"Very good. Now how about you take a shot at that hill over there?" Night Hunter suggested.
I checked the right side of the Iggy to see if the thin, lesser power was on and cocked the lever to prime the magical energy. I brought the sights up to my eye level and aimed at the snow-covered hill.
"Got it?" Night Hunter asked.
"Yep, I got it." I reassured.
My arms slightly trembled as I took in deep breaths and made sure my aim was accurate. Finally, I quickly tapped on the trigger and a golden-yellow stream of energy immediately exited through the muzzle of the Iggy with a loud droning sound. My arms slightly jerked backwards while the laser-like energy soared towards the hill with a loud fssst sound, almost like the sound of a firework being launched into the air. Once the energy came into impact with hill, I could see it form into a ball for a second before exploding, turning the white snow into a fairly large patch of solid stone.
"C'mon!" Night Hunter exclaimed, leading me to the patch of stone.
Once we made it the hill, the snow had melted and the grass was turned into small stone filaments as well as the soil.
"This may be a stupid question, but would this affect me?" I asked.
"What, if you were shoot yourself in the foot? Don't do that. You'll be petrified before you even realized you made a mistake." Night Hunter answered.
"Right." I said.
"If you want, you can take another shot or we can continue onwards." Night Hunter said.
"I think I'll take one more shot to get a good feel of it. This time I'm setting it to extra thick and holding down the trigger." I said.
"Oh, getting bold aren't you?" Night Hunter asked.
"You know me." I said.
"If you're gonna do that, then I must warn you to not press the Igneous up to your shoulder or else you'll probably blow out your arm socket. You're gonna have to fire from the hip." Night Hunter urged.
"It's really that powerful?" I asked.
"These settings are meant for the big creatures, so yes." Night Hunter said.
After walking back to our original position, I got back into my stance and aimed from the hip and switched on thick, maximum power.
"Also make sure not to hold for more than thirty seconds or else it'll overcharge." Night Hunter informed.
"Got it." I replied.
Taking in a deep breath, I gripped the trigger tightly, charging up the magic as the Iggy began to hum loudly.
"Woah-ho!" I exclaimed.
I then slowly eased off of the trigger and then.....
BANG!
A much larger stream of yellow energy shot out of the Iggy. I stumbled back few steps from the force and nearly fell over. Hell, it was so loud that the bang echoed throughout the valley. The laser traveled at a faster rate this time before impacting the hill, causing a louder explosion that slightly vibrated the ground. A decent chunk of the hill turned into stone once impacted.
"You guys alright over there?" one guard shouted.
"We're fine! Just had to test out the Iggy." I replied back.
"Nice shooting, Tex." Night Hunter said.
"You think that the stone patch might look a little suspicious if somepony were to come across it?" I asked.
"It might. We'll just have to hope for the best." Night Hunter said.
"Yeah. Hope no one will catch on." I said.
"Exactly." Night Hunter said.
"Okay, so what's next?" I asked.
"Ah, yes," Night Hunter said as he switched off the Iggy and placed back in the bag, "What we have next will be used against Timberwolves or to shoo away other creatures."
"Whatcha' got?" I asked.
"Remember when I said that Timberwolves burn easy?" Night Hunter asked.
"I remember clearly." I replied.
"Well, what we have here is the Timberferno-1002," Night Hunter revealed, levitating a contraption that looked like a flamethrower, but small enough to use two hand easily. "Just like the Igneous, the Timberferno contains magical energy with a regenerative agent, but another agent that's very similar to fire is stored in these two blue tanks." Night Hunter said.
"I see. It's magic, but it acts like fire." I said.
"You're right. And fire is the next biggest weakness to Timberwolves aside from light. As soon as this heated energy comes into contact with the timber wood, it'll be set ablaze like a pile of dry leaves." Night Hunter said.
"Cool." I said.
"To activate the Timberferno, just turn the valve right here to open up the muzzle. And to fire, just simply aim and squeeze the nozzle here, don't jerk it." Night Hunter said, pointing at the nozzle that looked like it belonged on a caulk. "Once fired, the flames can reach a maximum ten meters in length." Night Hunter added.
Night Hunter began to curl his foreleg in a squeezing motion around the nozzle and a dark red magical energy with tiny white sparkles spewed out of the muzzle. What made this even more legitimate is the fact that extreme amounts of heat radiated onto my face, causing me to squint my eyes. The snow also had a slight shade of red casted onto it.
"Another thing I should mention is that the rate of fire can last for ten seconds before it must recharge for that certain amount of time to prevent overheating." Night Hunter added.
"Okay." I said as I wrote that in my notebook.
"And to deactivate the Timberferno, just turn the valve to the left to close the passageways," Night Hunter said finished. "Wanna give it a try?"
"Ummmm, sure." I replied.
Night Hunter then gave me the Timberferno and I adjusted adjusted my grip on the nozzle. Unknowingly, I placed my left hand on one of the blue tanks, which was searing hot. I quickly reacted as I felt my hand sizzle a little.
"Damn, that's hot!" I hissed, shoving my hand into the refreshing snow.
"Horseapples, that was my bad! I should've told you that the tanks get very hot after use. My bad." Night Hunter apologized.
"That's alright. I'm glad I took my hand off while I could." I said.
"You sure you're alright?" Night Hunter asked.
"Don't worry about it, I'm fine. Let's try that again." I said.
This time I made sure not to touch the blue tanks and placed my hands in the right positions. Gently squeezing the nozzle, the red hot magic came out in spurts before becoming more fire like. The magic made a fffffff sound as I slightly waved the Timberferno left and right. I directed my aim at the ground and the cold, powdery snow melted instantly.
"Sure does the job well. Melts snow and burns skin." I said.
Night Hunter chuckled at the comment and levitated the Timberferno from my grasp, turned the valve to the left and placed it bag into the bag.
"And that concludes the weapons and devices presentation. Please don't burn down the forest." Night Hunter concluded.
"Okay then. Are these weapons and devices new or has C.A.M.A recently developed them?" I asked.
"The Igneous-1006 has been around for a while, but the rest are fresh, brand new ideas brought to reality." Night Hunter answered.
"Oh, okay. So, are we heading back to C.A.M.A now?" I asked.
"That we are. Let's go." Night Hunter said.
After making our way back onto the carriage, the two pegasus guards started to run and flapped their wings at the same time before lifting off into the sky.
"So any lights will work on Timberwolves?" I asked.
"Uh-huh. They can't stand sunlight because, as you know, the sun is a giant ball of light." Night Hunter said.
"No kidding. Those Timberwolves will be in for a big surprise." I said.
Later on, we arrived back at C.A.M.A and Night Hunter handed me a packet with the weapon and device diagrams, labels and all that. Aside from the packet, I plan on making flashcards because that method of studying seems to be doing good for me. However, I need to be more descriptive with the weapons and devices units to fully remember what I need to know for the next test that will be two weeks from now. So, for now, I plan on laying low for a while and give myself a break since I have two weeks, plenty of time. I just wonder what those six mares and that little dragon are up to at the moment.
Not much has happened of the day, but things have been going good. I got my flash cards all finished for this unit, me and Night Hunter hang out in the rec room at night, play pool, ping-pong and i've begun doing some calisthenics to keep myself in shape since you don't get much exercise here. In my opinion, they should add a daily exercise unit to this program, but who knows, maybe one of the upcoming units will be exercise.
Aside from all of these upbringings, I'll admit that I still miss Twilight and Spike. Sure, I miss the other five, but i've only bonded with Twilight and Spike the most, so i've kinda got a bit of a strong attachment to them than the other five.
While I read up on the history of Equestria, I came across the whole story on how Equestria became a nation of earth, pegasi and unicorn ponies: Hearth's Warming. Ironically, Hearth's Warming lands on the same day as Christmas as well as the eve. Since I can't give Twilight and Spike a present, I thought it would be nice to write them a letter. It may seem like a long shot for Night Hunter, but if I keep the whole 'going to learn Equestrian history BS story' I told Spike, I could pull it off. After thinking about it, I headed to the classroom where Night Hunter sat at his desk.
"Hey, Hunter." I said.
"How are you, Caleb?" he replied.
"I'm doing great." I said.
"Glad to hear that. So what is it you wanted to say?" he asked.
"I've been thinking about it and I thought it would be nice to send a letter to certain somepony's I know." I said.
"Sssss, I don't know about that, Caleb." Night Hunter disagreed.
"Look, I told the most trustworthy pony and close friend that I was going up to do the C.A.M.A program." I admitted.
"YOU WHAT!?" Night Hunter boomed.
"Wait! Wait! This pony's name was Twilight Sparkle and she is a pupil of Princess Celestia. I know Twilight and she keeps her word on what she says." I claimed.
"I have heard of this Twilight Sparkle and what she did for Equestria.... okay fine, you can write a letter to her. But you were lucky to tell her only." Night Hunter said in a calmer tone.
"Night Hunter, I wouldn't tell anypony else except Twilight. I'm not that dumb." I said.
"Good. Now go, i'm busy at the moment." Night Hunter said.
"You got it." I said as I closed the door.
After heading back the bunks, I opened up to the back page of my notebook, folded it and began to write a letter
Dear Twilight Sparkle and Spike,
Since the holiday, Hearth's Warming is approaching, I thought it would be nice to send you this letter and tell you how i'm doing. Firstly, i've been doing great. Recently, i'm studying about the the whole story about the Crystal Empire and the evil unicorn that caused it to disappear, but I really don't want to bore you with a history lesson. Yes, Spike, i'm talking about you. Aside from studying, I really just wanted to let you guys know that I miss you dearly and that I can't wait to see you guys, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash again in March. And I also wish you guys a very happy Hearth's Warming, or as they say in my world, Merry Christmas. Please respond to this letter as soon as you can. And again, Happy Hearth's Warming, Twilight and Spike.
Sincerely, your dear simian friend, Caleb Barlow.
After finishing the letter, I tore it out of the notebook and folded it. I than walked back down to the classroom and knocked on the door.
"Yes?" Night Hunter replied from the other side.
"You got any envelopes in there I could use?" I asked.
"I do. Come in and I'll give you one." Night Hunter said.
I opened the door and Night Hunter levitated a letter into my hands.
"How am I going to mail this? Should I walk all the way to Canterlot?" I asked.
"No need for that. Just give it to one of the pegasus guards out front and they'll send it to the post office in Canterlot." Night Hunter said.
"Thanks." I said.
"Yep." he replied.
After writing the return address, destination address and all of that on the envelope, I walked out of the building and passed through the wall to the outside. It was now nighttime and some guards were watching the perimeter.
"Are any of you stallions a pegasus?" I asked.
A pegasus guard then flew down from the top of the wall barrier and landed behind me. I turned around quickly to the sudden thud.
"I would be, Sir Barlow." the guard replied.
"I need you to send this letter to postoffice in Canterlot city." I ordered.
"Yes, sir." he replied.
The guard grabbed the letter with his teeth and flew away towards Canterlot. I have to admit, Canterlot is a pretty nice looking city when it's all lit up for the holiday. After that, I headed back inside, poured myself a bowl of potato chips from the rec room, went back to the rec room and read the Equestrian history book. Y'know.... Equestria's history is pretty interesting and a little dark. I shit you not when I mentioned that the Crystal Empire vanished into thin air. That unicorn named Sombra somehow made it vanish somewhere up north where it's always snowy. But anyways, I pretty much read the book until it was time for bed.
Not much really went on in the morning or afternoon since Night Hunter was gone for the day, but Night Hunter said he'd be back by nightfall, which was the time at the moment. I laid silently on my bed while reading up on Hearth's Warming story in the Equestrian history book. Shortly after I finished reading the whole story, I heard music echo in the hallway. Music that sounded rather similar the instrumentals to Silent Night. I peeked my head out of the doorway and looked to my right, noticing Night Hunter fiddling with a record player in the hallway.
"Just thought I'd set the mood for Hearth's Warming Eve." Night Hunter clarified.
"When did you get back? I didn't even hear you come in." I said.
"About fifteen minutes ago. Didn't you see me walk past the doorway to get this old record player from downstairs?" Night Hunter asked.
"No. I must've been really into this book I was reading." I replied.
"Oh." Night Hunter said.
I looked at the left side of Night Hunter's left abdominal area and he had a pouch attached on.
"What's in the pouch?" I asked.
"Since I couldn't get you something for Hearth's Warming, I thought I would head down to the post office to see if your friends responded to your letter." Night Hunter said.
"And?" I asked with anticipation.
Night Hunter responded by levitating a envelope out of the pouch and slightly waved it.
"I knew they'd respond just in time!" I said, cheerfully.
"I also picked up some eggnog from the market in Canterlot." Night Hunter added, taking a quart of eggnog out.
"Aw, sweet! I always wanted to try eggnog but never got the chance." I said.
"Excellent. We can finish this together. I don't think I can take this stuff all at once." Night Hunter said.
"Why? Is it alcoholic?" I asked.
"Yep." Night Hunter replied.
"Eh, a little alcohol never hurt anyone. Come on in here." I directed Night Hunter.
Night Hunter then walked into the bunks and gave me the envelope that contained the letter.
"Open 'er up." Night Hunter said, sitting next to me on the bed.
I gently ripped the top part of the envelope off and I could see a piece of paper inside. With that, I took the paper and out and unfolded it.
Dear Caleb,
It was so reassuring for me and Spike to receive a letter from you and how much you're learning. Just like you, me, Spike and other girls miss you so much as well. Trying to explain your absence to the other five was actually quite challenging. Pinkie wouldn't stop asking questions nonstop until I finally convinced the story to her, but the others weren't as hard. Things around Ponyville have been going great. Everypony's been getting into the holiday's and all of that. Speaking of getting into the holiday season, the whole gang is going up to Canterlot to participate in the Hearth's Warming play, so maybe you could see it. Other than that, not much has really going on. One more thing, please keep working hard on what you do up there in Canterlot so that I won't have to worry about you once you actually go into the Everfree. It would break everypony's heart to see you go so soon, but I know that will never happen. We miss seeing you around!
Sincerely, your dear friend, Twilight Sparkle.
P.S: Spike thought that little comment about him was pretty funny.
After reading the letter, it gave me more encouragement to keep doing what I do even more harder and warmed my heart.
"I think there's one more thing inside there." Night Hunter alerted.
I looked in the envelope and pulled out a photo; the photo of myself, Twilight, Spike, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash at the train station the day I came back from visiting the princesses. As I inspected the photo, I noticed that Spike blinked when the camera flashed, so I'll probably give him shit about that when I get back, from all the nicknames he gave me.
"So these are your friends?" Night Hunter asked, giving a glass of eggnog to me.
"Yep." I replied, sipping on the creamy eggnog. "Mmm, that's pretty good." I said.
"Well, that's another thing we have in common. Say, is that a dragon?" he asked, noticing Spike.
"Mmm-hmm. His name is Spike. He's was raised by ponies, so he's harmless." I said.
"Is he smart?" Night Hunter asked.
"Of course. Why do you ask?" I replied.
"Most of the feral dragons near the volcanic regions are pretty dumbfounded boneheads, so I was wondering if Spike was smart or not." Night Hunter explained.
"Nope, he's pretty smart, but can be a little jokester sometimes." I said.
"You're lucky to have good friends like that. Heck, they seem like a family from the way I see it." Night Hunter remarked.
"Nah, we're just friends. You got any family?" I asked.
"No.... they're long gone." Night Hunter replied.
"Damn. Not even a mom, dad, brother or sister?" I asked.
"Not one. I'm the only one left." he said. "It gets a little lonely around the holidays with no family to spend it with but I have other friends, too. I stopped by to visit them earlier." Night Hunter added, taking a bigger swig of eggnog.
"Oh, that's good. I kind of know how you feel." I said, patting him on the back.
"You do?" Night Hunter asked.
"When I came to this world, I had to leave my family behind as well. I could've prevented that by not going near that portal, but my curiosity got the best of me. Perhaps me and you are not so different even though we are two separate species." I said, taking a large swig of eggnog.
"You actually prove a good point." Night Hunter said.
"Yeah." I replied.
Twenty minutes had passed and I was starting to feel a little fuzzy on the inside.
"Hmmmm. My head feels like it's swimming." I said, my voice sounding a little slurred.
"Me too." Night Hunter replied.
"Hey, Night Hunter, I've a crazy theory about Timberwolves." I said.
"Is it a funny one?" Night Hunter asked with a hiccup at the end of the question.
"Just bear with me on it, okay?" I asked.
"Alright, hit me." Night Hunter replied.
I then gave Night Hunter a slap on the face, emitting a loud smacking sound in the room. Night Hunter fell over on the carpet while laughing and moaning in pain.
"Kid, I didn't mean it literally." Night Hunter slurred drunkenly as he stumbled to regain his balance.
"Oh, my bad, man." I replied.
"So here's my theory: What if Timberwolves are wolves, like animal wolves, in some kind of mechanical suit made out of wood and they only come out at night because they're wolves." I said like an idiot.
"That doesn't even make any sense." Night Hunter replied, walking into the bed and falling over again.
"Worth a shot, man. Worth a shot." I replied.
I then stood up and I was absolutely dizzy and hammered at the moment. I began to chug the rest of the eggnog, which was probably nearly all out, down my throat.
"Whoa-nelly." Night Hunter said as I began to chug.
I finished the rest of the eggnog in seven seconds flat. I dropped the empty quart carton to the ground and stared at Night Hunter with one eye open.
"You are an legend, Caleb." Night Hunter praised as I let out a hiccup.
Suddenly, I began to feel sleepy and fell over onto the mattress. That's all I remember from that point. Sure as hell an interesting way to spend my first Hearth's Warming Eve in Equestria.
Today was the day I took the test for the weapons and devices unit and I passed it. Tomorrow I begin the, "Tactics Unit", which will teach me on how to deal with any creature if one were to enter the territory I'm supposed to monitor, which in fact is the Dovere territory. Night Hunter said I might be granted authorization to enter the Hueyu and the Batchu territories sometime later down the road of my career as a C.A.M.A agent.
Night Hunter and I were hung over for the most of the Hearth Warming morning. My hangover was the worse because I guess Night Hunter has had his share of alcoholic beverages in the past and developed a tolerance, but me, that's whole different story. Most of my morning that day was nausea and head-splitting migraines, it was hell. But like they say, the only cure to a hangover is time. That time mostly involved me and Night Hunter eating food until our hangovers were diminished. After a few hours, we felt a whole lot better than before.
Coming back to my passing of the weapons and devices unit, Night Hunter has given authorization for Princess Luna to implement the simulation dreams into my mind while I'm asleep. It's now eight-fifteen at night and in about five minutes, Princess Luna will fly from the Canterlot Castle to C.A.M.A to brief me on what will happen, so I'm waiting for her arrival with Night Hunter.
"So these dreams are going to involve only the creatures I've learned?" I asked.
"Almost all of the dreams will involve Timberwolves since they're the most common creature reported in the Dovere territories." Night Hunter replied.
"No Cocktrice? No Manticore? No Cragadile?" I asked.
"Yep, just Timberwolves, but that doesn't mean they aren't out there." Night Hunter said.
Right after Night Hunter said that statement, we both heard a muffled thump sound that came from outside.
"What was that?" I asked.
"Sounded like someone crashed into something hard." Night Hunter responded.
"Cursed wall!" Luna exclaimed from the outside.
"Did Luna just ram into the wall?" I asked.
"I suppose. It's not like we have lights outside to signify where we're at. C.A.M.A, as you know, is a secret place." Night Hunter said.
"Ouch." I said.
All of a sudden, Luna teleported into the room with a quick bright white flash. Night Hunter then bowed down at Luna's presence and I did the same. After I got back on my feet, she spoke.
"Caleb Barlow." Luna said in a greeting manner.
"Princess Luna." I replied.
"I'm glad to hear that thou art exceeding at an impressive rate here at the Canterlot Anti-Monster Agency." Luna said.
"Thank you, Princess. How's your sister been doing, if you don't mind me asking." I said.
"She has been very well. She was actually quite surprised at your unexpected decision to join this agency." Luna replied.
"In a good or bad manner?" I asked.
"Good. An impressed manner, to be precise." Luna responded.
"Really? That's good." I said.
"Now the dreams?" Night Hunter hinted.
"Right. Caleb, you will be subjected to these dreams for over the course of December twenty-eighth to the twenty-seventh of February. These dreams are not meant to harm thee, but to teach the behaviors of these creatures from a personal perspective and to utilize what you have learned here. As time goes on, thou will learn more information on how to improve in thy dreams. Once thou falleth into a deep sleep, I will use my powers to enter your subconscious. That is what will commence the dream. Please do not be alarmed by this, thou won't even realize what will be going on. Now if thou were to slip up while in thy dream, it will be suspended and thou will remain in a slumber. Doth thee understand?" Luna said.
"Yes, Princess Luna, I understand." I replied.
"Have thee done everything to do before thou will catch but a wink?" Luna asked.
"Yep. Brushed my teeth and everything." I said.
"Very good. Now all I have to say now is that I wish thee good luck in thy dreams." Luna farewelled.
"Thanks." I said, shaking her hoof.
With that, Luna lit up her dark blue aura on her horn before teleporting out of the building.
"Alright, I'll see you in the morning." I said to Night Hunter.
"Good luck." Night Hunter said as he crawled into his blankets.
The lights to the bedroom then shut off and I closed my eyes.
*Sometime later*
I opened my eyes and I was now on a dirt path that led into the pitch black wooded area. The night was late and the moonlight just barely illuminated the ground in front of me. I looked up at the moon and noticed an outline of an alicorn, similar to the whole "man in the moon" outline some people see back on earth. Once I saw that, I figured it was Luna's way of saying that she was watching over me in the dream, so I waved at the moon.
I felt around my body and found out I was wearing a leather jacket. While feeling my leathery texture on my jacket, I felt a little flashlight attached to my shoulder and pressed the little button on the back of it. Everything in front of me in the darkness of the night suddenly became clear as day as the bright light of the flashlight lit everything up at a wide length. Looking downwards, I found a large backpack, the Iggy, the Timberferno and the other devices. It was fairly similar to how a mediocre action video game begins. After I gathered all of my equipment, I headed off into the woods.
As I walked, I took notice at how eerily silent it was since the only sound I heard was my boots rubbing against the dry dirt with every step I took. It was too quiet. I thought now was a good time to use the X-Ray Sensor. So I reached into one of the pouches on my backpack and grabbed the sensor. After placing my hand underneath the device, I pressed the sweep and the light blue wave swept the ground, trees, bushes, etcetera. The only outlines that came up were from small mammals such as squirrels inside the trees and rabbits that slept in their burrows underneath the ground.
As time went on, I felt like I was walking forever in a continuous straight line before I heard the howl of a wolf in the distance.
"I'm ready for this time." I said, quietly.
I quickly shut off my flashlight and reached for my X-ray Sensor. I pressed the sweep button and the outlines of four large orange figures walking directly towards me. With my quick thinking, I jumped into a bush and waited for them to pass by. As I watched from the thick bush, I grabbed the Timberferno out of my backpack and turned the valve to the right. To keep track of the Timberwolves, I pressed the sweep button every time the twenty second timespan expired. The more closer they got, the more profound their figures appeared.
I readied my Timberferno once the pack was right in front of me. Sweat ran down my neck and my heart beated a thousand miles a minutes as I prepared to attack. My hatred of Timberwolves is what brought me to switch on my light and charge at them, yelling at them in the process. I was just about to squeeze the nozzle when I was woken up by Night Hunter, it was morning.
"Already? I swear I was only asleep for twenty minutes, but I still feel like I slept through nine hours." I said.
"Maybe time goes by real quick when you're dreaming." Night Hunter guessed.
"I guess so." I said with a yawn.
"Get ready for the day and I'll meet you in the classroom." Night Hunter said.
"Okay." I replied.
Never in my life have I ever had a dream that seemed like it was really happening. If Luna hadn't of notified me of the dreams she would pump into my mind, I would've mistaken it for real life. No kidding. But anyways, after I got ready for the day and had a breakfast, I headed up to the classroom. Night Hunter was reading a paper while he raised his right eyebrow.
"Alright, I'm reading this report that Luna just sent me and I'm very glad you're utilizing your devices." Night Hunter said.
"I knew she was watching me." I thought to myself.
"But then she noted that you planned an attack on the pack of Timberwolves." Night Hunter said.
"Is that bad?" I asked.
"Oh no, no, no, not at all. I'm actually quite impressed because that's the kind of stuff you'll be learning today, but I'd rather have you stand your ground if you see an oncoming Timberwolf or pack." Night Hunter replied.
"Oh, well good." I said.
"So, in that case, take a seat and we'll begin our lesson for today." Night Hunter instructed.
"Alright." I said, taking a seat.
"Today's unit will be Tactics and Duties. Write that down as a heading in your notebook." Night Hunter said.
After writing that down, I signaled him to continue.
"Do you happen to remember the mannequins I mentioned before?" Night Hunter asked.
"Yes, I do." I replied.
Night Hunter then walked towards a side closet, opened it and pulled out a mannequin of a stallion with a painted red coat and a realistically fake brown mane.
"This mannequin right here is one of the four you'll be working with." Night Hunter said.
"Interesting. How will this mannequin help me out there?" I asked.
"Good question. Firstly, these mannequins are meant to imitate a living pony and tricking creatures, mostly Timberwolves, into attacking them. These mannequins are also made with reinforced steel so that you can keep using them without being severely damaged. You will place these mannequins anywhere you think a creature may have trespassed in your territory or you can use them in another tactic that will be vital to you at night." Night Hunter said.
"How?" I asked, writing down what Night Hunter just said.
"Back when the Everfree branch first started out, former agents would have to wander on hoof through the numerous paths of the Everfree Forest to eliminate a creature. Think of it as playing a game of life and death hide-and-seek. But since you have the days to inspect your territory during the day and to search for signs of a creature in your territory, you can plan ahead and set a trap. For example, if you were to find toppled trees or bark that has been gnawed on, typical signs of Timberwolf activity, I would bet you my bottom bit that the Timberwolves would return to that area the next night. And so, you can take one of your mannequins, place it in a good spot, find a hiding spot and plan an ambush attack." Night Hunter said.
It seems that I might be doing some kind of guerilla warfare tactic.
"What hiding place would you recommend?" I asked.
"A large bush would be okay, but since your specie are variants of apes and the Everfree is abundant with trees, you could climb up a tree and wait." Night Hunter suggested.
"How sharp are the Timberwolves senses, if you don't mind me asking?" I said.
"Their scent of smell and hearing are very poor since their anatomy is wood, but their sight is as sharp as a new blade. Therefore, once you graduate this program, you will be given a camouflage outfit to make yourself more subtle in appearance." Night Hunter replied.
"Sounds good." I said, writing in my notes.
"I would also recommend that you use the Igneous-1006 when staking out Timberwolves because the Timberferno is mostly used for closer range, but if you were to find a position that can reach ten meters, use that if you want. Since Timberwolves have mediocre hearing, they'll most likely scan the area for a cause of what just stoned their pack member or they will most likely run, but that doesn't mean you should come out of your hiding place yet. Use your X-Ray Sensor to check the area before descending." Night Hunter said.
"Got it." I said.
"If you were to stone a creature in your territory, they won't just fade away into thin air like ashes. That's where this comes into play," Night Hunter said, levitating a large sledgehammer from behind his desk. "This sledgehammer is used to break up the stoned creature into large chunks of stone. The reason why you'll be doing this is to cover up evidence and avoid suspicions from civilians. Once you break the stoned creature into numerous chunks, collect them and dump them at a secluded area far from civilization. If this sledgehammer were to break or happen to be damaged, contact C.A.M.A immediately and we'll send you a new one within time. Got it?" Night Hunter said.
"Yep." I replied.
"Good. Now after you've petrified and destroyed the evidence, you will have to fill out a creature elimination form." Night Hunter said, placing a thin sheet of paper that stated "C.A.M.A Creature Elimination Form" in bold.
The form had all of these questions that were pre-filled out, so this is used for study purposes. This would include the date, specie, quantity, weapon used, stoned or burned, time of elimination and all that kind of stuff.
"I know it may seem like a chore, but this is a standard, mandatory C.A.M.A procedure that's been used since the beginning. "And that concludes what you need to know." Night Hunter finished.
"Really?" I asked.
"Short, am I right? It's really not rocket science to do these duties." Night Hunter said.
"Hey, Night Hunter, remember that Land Rover I told you about like two weeks ago?" I asked.
"Yeah, yeah, the automobile, right?" Night Hunter said.
"Yes. I was wondering.... you think the Timberwolves would follow me if I were to somehow get them to?" I asked.
Night Hunter's facial expression started to form anger, but I stopped him before he could retort.
"Think about it, if I could get them to follow me all the way to the borders of the Hueyu or the Batchu territories. And if I'm correct, you revealed to me that the Timberwolves are only three miles from Ponyville, right?" I asked.
"Yes." he replied with a sigh.
"Night Hunter, I can lead them back an extra five miles. It'll take them a long time to get back to the position they're at right now." I explained.
"Depends. Can your automobile reach up to forty miles an hour?" Night Hunter asked with a much more calm expression.
"Forty? From what I've seen on the speedometer, it can reach one hundred and twenty." I said.
"Then it might be possible, but you shouldn't do that at all. Simple as that." Night Hunter said.
"Kay' then." I replied.
Now the reason why I asked that is because I believe it was my subconscious speaking. Deep down, I'm someone who doesn't like to kill. My dad was a hunter and he managed to convince me to hunt deer with him when I was twelve and when I shot my first deer, I remember saying: "Are you happy now?" I didn't like taking that deer's life. But now that I'm older and mature, I can understand it was only for sport and is very good population control. In C.A.M.A, my duty is to secure the Dovere territory, so it seems that I can put some skills to use.
"I'll see you around, Night Hunter." I said as I headed for the door.
"You too, Caleb." Night Hunter replied.
I could tell that Night Hunter was still a bit iffy on the whole idea of leading the Timberwolves back to the Hueyu or the Batchu territories, but as I was creating my flashcards, I began to agree with his standpoint. What made me agree was the fact that it would be pretty hard to take sharp turns at forty miles an hour on narrow dirt paths and I'm pretty sure Land Rover's aren't meant to be racers, but off road vehicles. Not only that, but it would take time to turn my ass around on the narrow paths because I would mostly likely have to do a Y-turn and speeding away from the wolves wouldn't be easy when they're charging towards you. Night Hunter did say that you have to stand your ground or the wolves would see you as not a threat, but prey. So my mind has been made up and I plan to do my job the C.A.M.A way.
"Night Hunter, I just wanted to say that I agree with your opposite view on leading the Timberwolves back. I thought about the negatives and also the fact that this unnecessary move is against your teachings, teachings that are meant to help me. So yeah, sorry." I said, coming across him.
Night Hunter just smiled.
"I'm glad you came to your senses, Caleb." Night Hunter replied. "Believe it or not, I actually tried that when I was the Everfree patrol pony and nearly lost my life." Night Hunter admitted.
"You did?" I asked.
"I sure did. Just like you, I was young and very naive. I thought I could outrun them for those five miles back, but I miscalculated their speed for thirty miles an hour when it was really forty." Night Hunter said.
"How fast are ponies?" I asked.
"The average is thirty or thirty-five, so yeah, big mistake." Night Hunter replied.
"How did you lead them back with such a speed difference?" I asked.
"Went through the wooded area, not the open pathway. Due to the way their structures are designed, they have trouble maneuvering through the trees and obstacles while it was much more easier for me. When I got way more farther ahead of them, I dove into a bush and they ran right past me, but I call it luck." Night Hunter said.
"Now I see why you seemed so against my proposition earlier." I said.
"Exactly. I did follow the normal C.A.M.A guidelines for the rest of my time out there." Night Hunter concluded.
"Huh, glad to hear you learned from your mistake." I said.
"Me too. But that's enough chit-chat. Let's get a good night's sleep for tomorrow." Night Hunter said.
"For you. I, on the other hand, have to go through dreamland again." I reminded.
"But those are good. They help you adjust to what will be happening once you graduate here. And you get to use your knowledge from today in tonight's dream." Night Hunter reminded as well.
"That you are right." I said, climbing into my bed.
Three weeks have past, but I have done nothing but studying and dreaming of what's to come for me in the future. Days go by like clockwork and hours feel like minutes. The dreams have taken a toll on me and I do not fear Timberwolves that much anymore since I kick their sorry butts most of the time and I have become proficient in my use of my equipment. I was thinking of documenting my improved performances, but I thought it would be best to describe when I'm faced with reality. Since I have not wrote anything of interest in such a long time period, I thought it would be good to do an update entry and what's happened so far. So, let's begin two days after the Tactics and Duties unit.
First, let's mention the fact that it's now the year 2013! Still can't believe it's been three months since I've arrived in Equestria. The first day I was alienated at first, but look at me now; I'm training to become an agent. And like Night Hunter mentioned, most ponies in Equestria probably know about me at this point.
Apparently, Equestria doesn't have New Year's Day, so that kind of sucks. To make the New Year's Eve more enjoyable, me and Night Hunter spent most of the night in the rec room having a pool and ping-pong competition that lasted for hours. It was eleven o'clock at night before we went to bed. Even Night Hunter made fun of the fact that we had a bedtime of eight o'clock.
"Oh-no, Caleb, it's past our bedtime. Princess Celestia's going to be mad." Night Hunter said sarcastically.
What Night Hunter said actually surprised me, but I'm pretty sure he was a little drunk that night, so he probably wasn't thinking straight. However, I decided to play along.
"Oh-no, I shit my pants." I snickered to the comment, so that was a good laugh for us both.
As I laid in my bed that night, I wondered what my family was up to. I wondered if they moved on from me and continued on with life or if they're still searching for me or not after gone missing for three months.
Five days after New Years Day, Night Hunter took me out to that secluded valley to do some target practice with the Iggy and the Timberferno. The snow had also gotten much deeper out there, probably two feet, had to use the Timberferno just to melt a path for me and Night Hunter to walk on. With the target practice and my dreams combined, I've become quite a crack-shot with the Iggy and a real pyromaniac with the Timberferno.
About a week later, Night Hunter informed me about the finale exam that will decide if I graduate or not. He wasn't very descriptive, but he said there would be something big for the part two of the exam. He said he'd inform me about part two, one week before the final exam. I'm guessing part one is going to be on everything I've learned from Night Hunter's teachings, but part two, I do not have the answer at the moment. A theory that I came up with at first was that the two-parter would be a dream about Timberwolves, but that seemed a bit redundant. Perhaps I'll be dreaming about something else then a Timberwolf, but who knows.
My little calisthenics past time exercise routine has also been showing results. I've mostly been doing push-ups both two and one handed, sit-ups, crunches, planks, and all that kind of stuff. Most results have been shown in my pecs, deltoids, triceps and biceps. So, as you can see, a lot of upper body results. I might start doing lower body exercises such as squats so that I have more variety. In order to keep my strength up, I've been consuming more calories than Night Hunter. Unfortunately, there was no meat related MRE's for high amounts of protein, but the MRE's we have right now contain some protein.
Speaking of physical changes, I think I grew about an inch or two about two weeks ago. I figured it out when I clonked my head on the doorframe for the bunks room, so I'm either seven foot-nine or seven foot-ten at the moment. Who knows. Maybe I'm not done growing yet and will reach eight feet in height, but that may be a problem with getting into the Defender.
Another note, I finished reading the whole Equestrian history book. One memorable story I remember reading about is the, "Sonic Rainboom." This event apparently happened on July 24th of last year, and Rainbow Dash was the one responsible for this event. What happened was that Rainbow Dash was flying at incredible speeds at a downwards one-eighty degree angle and right when she was about to impact the ground, she broke the sound barrier. Most ponies described seeing a rainbow wave stretch out for more than half a mile before dissipating. Now from what I know, breaking the sound barrier is a phenomenon that only jets can achieve. So, if Rainbow Dash were to break the sound barrier and create a sonic boom, she would have to be flying at speeds over seven hundred miles per hour. I was absolutely blown away when I read that story. Sure, Rainbow said she was fast, but I didn't think she was that fast. I'll have to talk to her about this.
Now focusing on the present. Today, I took the test for the Tactics and Duties unit and passed with an A+. This unit was pretty easy because it's what I've been doing in my simulated dreams. I don't know what the next unit will be on, but I do know that this will be the last unit and will last for six weeks and four days while the Tactics and Duties unit lasted for three weeks. I counted up the days and the last one landed on the 27th of February. So I guess I'll leave off until tomorrow morning.
There I was, in the Everfree Forest. I had just taken out one Timberwolf with the Iggy and was smashing the statue into tiny pieces with the sledgehammer. Suddenly, I was brought back to the real world from the ringing of a wind up alarm clock. I scanned my surroundings and Night Hunter was just getting up as well.
"Morning, Night Hunter." I mumbled, groggily.
"Morning, Caleb. Ready for the new unit?" Night Hunter asked.
"You 'betcha. Last one, right?" I asked.
"Indeed it is. You're nearly done with your training." he replied.
"What day am I getting out again?" I asked.
"If you pass this unit and the final exam, you'll be free to go on March 8th." Night Hunter replied.
"Huh. I have to admit I'm actually going to miss spending time with you." I said.
"Same with you too." Night Hunter agreed.
"But all the studying, that I'd say sayonara to." I said.
"Ha-ha. I guess doing nothing but studying can be a bit, uh, repetitive. I remember doing all that horseapple when I was doing the training program back in the day." Night Hunter related.
"Pretty sucky, huh?" I said.
"Definitely." Night Hunter said.
"Welp, let's get up and get this over with." I said, raising upwards on my bed.
After I got up headed into the bathroom, I tried to squeeze out some info on my final exam. Like before, Night Hunter was very secretive, but did reveal that the two-parter would be a dream sequence. I than headed downstairs for a quick breakfast and headed back up to the classroom with Night Hunter to begin the next unit.
"Alright! Let's do this!" I said.
"Like the enthusiasm. Okay, so today we'll be learning about the routes of the Everfree Forest. Mark that in your notebook." Night Hunter said.
"Go on." I said once I finished writing.
"Now that we're done with the introduction, let's pull these tables together. Three tables long and three tables wide." Night Hunter instructed.
Night Hunter used his magic to drag the long, brown tables into a perfect row while I lifted them up like baby weights.
"Dang, Caleb! Those table tops are one hundred pounds of pure marble." Night Hunter exclaimed.
"These are? They feel like they weigh nothing." I said as I wriggled the table by curling my wrist.
"Alright then, Able-body. You mind giving the old stallion a hoof and move the rest while I go get something you'll need?" Night Hunter asked.
"Sure. Go ahead." I replied.
Night Hunter proceeded to the side closet to get whatever he needed while I placed the tables in a neat, orderly fashion. Night Hunter came back with a large piece of paper that was rolled up like a scroll.
"Now you'll see why we needed this much space." Night Hunter said, unfolding the large scroll into a flat map.
The map spanned for about fifteen feet wide and eight feet long and depicted a large land mass with trees everywhere, labels and other markings I didn't recognize.
"What is this?" I asked.
"This is a map of the Everfree Forest. The reason why the map is so big is because it's meant to fit the real-time size." Night Hunter said.
"How did you manage to get an accurate size and scale of the Everfree Forest like this?" I asked.
"We had a pegasus fly up to about fifteen-thousand feet and snap an aerial picture of the forest." Night Hunter answered.
"Fifteen-thousand? Isn't the oxygen or air pressure more thin up there?" I asked.
"It is, but it doesn't affect the pegasi race." Night Hunter said.
"I can see why, since they fly all the time." I said.
"Right, right." Night Hunter said.
"So what's the map for?" I asked, nudging my head towards it.
"This is your fourth unit!" Night Hunter revealed.
"Six weeks and four days for a map.... Isn't that a little excessive?" I asked, calmly.
"Well, Caleb, if you would let me continue, the Everfree Forest is ten miles long and eight miles wide and you're not going to have time to look at a map while you're possibly being chased down by Timberwolves to figure out where the tartarus you're going. You see, this unit is meant to train the brain into memorizing the Everfree's path network until it has a clear mental image of it." Night Hunter explained.
"I'm going to be studying this map for that long?" I asked in slightly louder tone.
"Why are you raising your voice?" Night Hunter asked.
"I- I just don't know if I can handle staring at a map for the rest of my time here as a form of studying." I said.
"Well maybe this will change your point of view: You'll be studying this map and the other three units for your final exam. This map depends on whether you'll pass or not." Night Hunter said.
"So until the twenty seventh of February?" I asked.
"Yes. You see, part one of the final exam will be on the twenty seventh while part two will come the week after." Night Hunter said.
"Ohhh, I see now." I said.
"Good. However, I'm gonna help you and give some pointers on this map." Night Hunter said.
"Alright, I'm ready." I said.
"So just as a reminder, the Everfree Forest is approximately ten miles in length and eight miles in width." Night Hunter recapped.
"Got it." I said.
"See this long semi circle line at the bottom of the Everfree?" Night Hunter asked while tracing his hoof on the surface.
I nodded in response.
"This is the border that separates Ponyville from the Dovere territories. And the left one at the top of Dovere separates Dovere from the Hueyu territories while the one on the right is the Batchu territories. Remember that the Hueyu and the Batchu are off limits, but that might change for you later in the future." Night Hunter explained.
"Okay." I said.
"Now do you see these paths that intersect in between the center of the Dovere territories?" Night Hunter asked.
"Yeah." I replied.
"These are shortcuts created by C.A.M.A to get from one side of the forest to the to the other without going through the thick forestry. As you can see, there is only five that run through the Dovere, but none in the Hueyu and Batchu territories. Each path are two miles apart and one mile in length." Night Hunter said.
"What about the paths in the Hueyu and the Batchu territories?" I asked.
"Those I'd like you to study as well. You never know.... You could be granted access in those territories." Night Hunter said.
"Oh, okay." I said.
"And that's pretty much all you need to know." Night Hunter said.
"That's it?" I asked, forgetting about the other units.
"Have you forgotten already? You have other three units to study for the first part of your exam." Night Hunter reminded.
"Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. My mind slipped for a second." I said.
"Ah, don't worry about it. Now all you have to do is organize your notes, flashcards and study for your first part of your exam." Night Hunter said.
Night Hunter rolled the map back up into a cylinder shape and gave it to me to study. After I came back to the bunks, I organized my notes in chronological order and began to study for a little while.
Later on that night, while me and Night Hunter were chillin out in the bunks, we heard the sound of the entrance door opening. Me and Night Hunter looked at each other. I poked my head out of the doorway while Night Hunter poked his head out from under my legs to see out into the hallway. Turns out it was just one the guards.
"What are you doing in here?" Night Hunter asked the guard.
"You guys should see this. Some sort of light show going on out in the distance." the guard responded at the end of the hallway.
Me and Night Hunter raised our eyebrows in suspicion.
"Let's go check it out." I said.
Once we stepped outside of the wall, both me and Night Hunter heard a low humming sound, but it was very faint. Since the C.A.M.A training facility is not far from the edge of where the cliff drops off to the ground, we headed there to get a better look.
We were baffled to discover that the light show was actually light blue flashes that could be barely seen in the southeast. When I saw those light blue flashes, I knew that this was the portal, the portal that brought me to Equestria. I didn't mention it to Night Hunter or the guards because I didn't want them questioning me and that kind of stuff.
"Those flashes are coming from the volcanic regions. Dragon territory." Night Hunter said.
"You think the dragons are up to something?" one guard asked.
"I doubt it. It could be that Twilight Sparkle and her friends doing some experiment or whatever they usually do." another guard replied.
"Maybe." I said.
About ten minutes had gone by and the flashes had finally stopped. My guess was that the portal was dumping stuff from my world into this world, but that's just a guess.
"Hey, guards, we're heading to bed. If those flashes appear again, let us know in the morning." Night Hunter said.
"We will." one guard replied.
With that, we headed off to bed for the night. If I ever find out if the portal dumped stuff from my world to here, than I think I might go check it out.
Thirty nine days.... I've been studying for thirty nine days. How do you think I feel? Well, I'll just put in simple terms and say that it feels like my brain is going numb, for the first four weeks at least. So, here's what happened. I don't know if it's a real condition or not, but I think I over-studied myself. The dreams I was meant to have, being in the Everfree Forest and all that, were being bypassed by dreams of me just studying. Once Luna sent Night Hunter a notification about the situation, Night Hunter advised that I should quit studying for a week or two and that the simulation dreams come to a halt. Night Hunter also admitted that he has never seen a student be so dedicated to studying and passing the C.A.M.A training program that they would start dreaming about studying. And so, Night Hunter gave me the choice to not study if I feel like I got everything down packed, obviously I took that choice. So, for the rest of the weeks leading up to this day, I've been taking it easy and I'm feeling very good about the first part of this exam.
I know the creatures and their behaviors, I'm advanced proficient in weapon and device use, I know my every duty and tactic and I know the Everfree Forest routes like the back of my hand. I'm ready! I'm ready for anything! And so, now I head to the classroom to take the first part of my exam, no finger crossing needed.
"Heyyyy." Night Hunter greeted as I entered the room.
"Heyyyy, to you too." I replied.
"Have you had enough of staying here?" Night Hunter asked.
"Oh, you bet. But the only thing I'm going to miss is you, since you're the only source of social interaction and being a good friend." I said.
"You too, Caleb. You too. But just think of it. If you pass this exam and the second part a week from now, you'll be a free human." Night Hunter said.
"That's right. Is the first section of the final ready?" I asked.
"It's right here." Night Hunter replied, levitating a thick packet towards me. "Take all the time you want to finish this, there's no rush."
"Alright, thanks, Hunter." I said.
"No problem." Night Hunter said.
I then got up to sharpen my pencil before writing anything. After sitting back down, I cracked my knuckles and got to work. Just like before, most of the questions were short answer, but there were new questions such as diagram that I had to label on the weapons. There was also the whole map of the Everfree Forest that I had to label, measure and answer a few short answer questions about the paths. Not a single question hindered my progress on this exam, so I bet myself a million bucks that I'd pass with a one hundred percent. Within twenty minutes, I had finished an exam that had four months worth of information on it. I then got up, walked over to Night Hunter and dropped the packet on his desk.
"Done." I simply said.
"That was pretty quick. Let's see how you did." Night Hunter said.
"I got a good feeling about this." I said.
Night Hunter took a short glance at the first page.
"And from what I see on the first page, you're most likely right. Now please go to your seat and I'll let you know what you got." Night Hunter said.
I did as told and headed back to my seat, awaiting for Night Hunter's grade. I observed Night Hunter's facial gestures and he seemed rather impressed with what he saw. Within five minutes, he was finished grading and levitated the packet over to my table. My eyeballs rolled down and there was a big, fat letter A with a plus next to it and one hundred percent.
"You've done it!" Night Hunter exclaimed.
"Yes, yes, yes, yes!" I cried in joy, giving the packet a kiss.
"Whoa-ho, you're really happy to pass this, huh?" Night Hunter asked.
"Oh, you have no idea, Night Hunter!" I replied.
"I'm proud of you, Caleb. I really am." Night Hunter said.
"Thanks, Night Hunter." I said.
"I hate to be a total buzzkill, but let's not forget about the part two." Night Hunter reminded.
"Oh, pfft," I scoffed, "I don't care if there's a part two at all. Lay it out on me right now so I can tackle this." I said, ecstatically.
"Okay then. This next part of the final will be a dream sequence and will test everything you've learned." Night Hunter announced.
"In the Everfree? Timberwolves?" I asked.
"No. You will be facing a different creature that is not on the list of creatures you've learned here. This creature was suggested and created by somepony's imagination who wishes to be anonymous." Night Hunter replied.
"Is that so?" I asked with interest, "What is this creature called?"
"Equinieus-cephalic Orbus." Night Hunter answered.
The name itself sent chills around my body for some reason. This made me very anxious for what this creature looks like and what it can do.
"Do you happen to know what this thing looks like or what its capabilities are?" I asked.
"I do. Hand me that piece of paper and I'll draw it." Night Hunter said.
"Here." I said, handing him a piece of scratch paper.
"Now I'd like you to turn around until I say I'm done." Night Hunter instructed.
"Sure." I said, turning around my seat.
After turning around, I heard the sound of the pencil come into contact with the piece of paper as Night Hunter began to draw the Equinieus-cephalic Orbus. I sat in silence as Night Hunter drew for about fifteen minutes.
"Are you doing a very detailed drawing?" I asked.
"Yep. Very detailed." Night Hunter replied with a low chuckle.
"Hm." I hummed.
I sat for about two more minutes before the sound of the pencil lead rubbing on the paper stopped.
"Now, Caleb, I want to warn you that this creature may be disturbing to you." Night Hunter warned.
I scrunched my forehead in confusion to Night Hunter's warning. I then turned around and stared down at the illustration in front of me. I slightly clenched my fingers into a fist and raised it up to my mouth. My feeling of enthusiasm and excitement was now replaced with fear and disgust.
"Oh, what is that supposed to be?!" I said, flatly, as I got up to walk away from the picture.
"Now I know that it's something you weren't expe--" Night Hunter said before I cut him off.
"That's pretty sick, Night Hunter. There's no way that's what the damn thing is!" I exclaimed.
"I swear to Celestia that is what your two parter will be." Night Hunter replied.
"Night Hunter, I have no problem with going against Timberwolves and all of those other creatures, but a fucking pony head with beady, cathartic eyes and spider legs? Come on, man!" I exclaimed.
"I know, Caleb, it's very disturbing, but remember that this will be a dream sequence, not real life." Night Hunter reminded.
"Good lord." I said.
"Why are you so nervous?" Night Hunter asked, supportively.
"When I was three years old.... I remember having a large spider crawl up my arm and biting me. That spider bite sent me to the hospital for about a day or two days and I've always feared spiders since then. When I look at that things teeth, it just give me the heebie-jeebies I suppose" I said before I was interrupted.
"Well, if you fail, Princess Luna will reset the dream and you can try again." Night Hunter said.
"Try again?" I asked.
"You get three chances at part two of the final. And must I remind you again that you have the tools to eradicate the Equinieus, including the Timberferno." Night Hunter said.
"Well.... you have a point." I said, looking at the illustration once again. "I'm pretty sure I got this."
"That's the spirit I'm looking for," Night Hunter encouraged, activating his magic again. "Now, here's a little paper that will tell you all about the Equinieus. Keep the drawing if you really want to."
I then collected the information sheet and the drawing before heading for the door.
"Hey, Night Hunter." I said.
"Yeah?" he replied.
"I'm supposing the little bastard can jump too?" I asked.
"That it can." Night Hunter answered.
"Great. I'll see you around." I said.
"You too, future C.A.M.A agent." Night Hunter said back.
As I got back the bunks, I unfolded the piece of paper that had the drawing on it. Every time I looked at at it, I couldn't help but get chills.
The entire body was just a head of a stallion covered in hairs similar to a jumping spiders, but the eyes were a mix between milky white and pitch black due to the cataracts. Four long legs protruded from each side of the head and were bent like a daddy long legs. The teeth were sharp and jagged and Night Hunter drew a creepy looking smile as it's mouth whilst agape.
As I read over the information sheet, I found out some interestingly disturbing tidbits. Apparently the Equinieus can spin webs, so that's just great. The Equiniues is also attracted to vibrations and sound, so that would include loud noises, movement, and talking. Since the Equinieus has the snout of a pony, it has a highly developed sense of smell and will most likely smell me out once I enter it's home. The reason why it will smell me out is because it's considered blind, hence the eyes being milky white from cataracts. For the rest of day, I just kept a low profile.
Later on that night before bed, I felt something crawl up my back while I brushed my teeth.
"Ahhhh! Ahhhh!" I shouted, jumping like a little girl.
"Woah. Didn't think you'd be that scared." Night Hunter said.
"Yeah, well I've got that damn Equinieus on the mind still." I said.
"Sorry." he apologized.
"Nah, it's alright. Sometimes it's fun to be scared. Now that I think about it, did you have to face the Equinieus for you two-parter of the final exam?" I asked.
"There was no such thing as the two-parter back then." Night Hunter replied.
"Really? Lucky you." I said.
"But, just like you, I had to go through the tartarus of studying," Night Hunter related, "The whole two-parter of the final exam was implemented twelve years ago when the whole C.A.M.A education board thought that students needed to prove and demonstrate their skills and knowledge before going out to their designated locations." Night Hunter explained.
"I guess I could see why they would want that. I think the two-parter would be a good way to see if a student possibly cheated somehow." I guessed.
"You're pretty much spot on with that." Night Hunter said.
We then headed off to bed and I hoped to God that I wouldn't dream about that damn Equinieus just yet. Either way, I'm not looking forward to facing that ugly little shit.
This past week has been quite a big preparation for me. The more I think about it, the Equinieus is actually a pretty fascinating creature even though it is admittedly disturbing and terrifying at the same time. You would only see something like that in a scary movie, but for me, it's going to more than a movie; it's going to be borderline reality. So, I am still a little nervous about today even though Night Hunter keeps reminding me that this is only a dream test and not the real deal. What I plan to do is find this thing in the dream and burn it, because something like that needs to be taken out with fire.
Right now it's noon and I'm sitting on my bed with Night Hunter, waiting for Princess Luna's arrival in order to properly give me the dream. Her and Night Hunter will be watching me through through this screen that Luna will create with her magical powers or something. I have no idea how that's possible, but you know, alicorn magic is a thing. That's how Night Hunter will know if I'm utilizing everything I know, he won't be disappointed. As we sat in silence, we heard Luna's voice from outside.
"Hah-hah! Not this time, wall!" Luna said from outside.
"Sounds like she didn't hit the wall this time." Night Hunter remarked.
"I was wondering if she would hit it or not this time." I added.
Princess Luna then appeared right in front of us in an instant, her wings spanning outwards. As her wings retracted back to her sides, she looked down at me with a smile.
"So, Caleb.... art thou ready to face the Equinieus?" Luna asked.
"I'm a little nervous, but I'll do it if it means to pass C.A.M.A.," I replied. "You wouldn't of happen to know who thought up of the Equinieus?"
"Maybe...." Luna responded in a mischievous manner.
"It was you, wasn't it?" I guessed
"Who else would've? I am the princess of the night and darkness." Luna confirmed.
"I should've know. Wishes to remain anonymous, eh, Night Hunter?" I asked Night Hunter.
"I just didn't want you to think less of her. You seemed pretty freaked when I first showed you that drawing." Night Hunter replied.
"It could've been a lot worse." Luna said.
"How worse?" I asked.
"My previous creation was--" Luna started before I stopped her.
"Nope. I don't really want to know now." I said, raising my hand up.
"Well, in that case, would thee liketh to have a minute or would thee liketh to start right away?" Luna asked.
"Ah.... just give me a minute." I chose.
I then walked out of the room, into the hallway and closed the door. I paced back and forth in the hallway with my arms crossed, thinking about what I would do if the Equinieus got smart on me. It would be pretty freaky if this thing watches its target in the shadows, but I would probably know since this thing is about a foot and a half tall. Plus the sound of it scurrying around would be very audible. After taking in a deep breath, I opened the door.
"Okay, I'm ready." I announced.
"Lay down on thy bed." Luna instructed.
I did as told and Night Hunter came to my side.
"Remember, Caleb, you have three chances to prove yourself. If you mess up, you should learn from your first mistake and succeed on the next try." Night Hunter explained.
"I'll remember." I said.
"Princess Luna." Night Hunter signaled Luna.
Luna then walked over to my side and simply said, "Ready?", and I replied with a nod.
"Now.... close thy eyes." Luna instructed as she moved her right hoof down my face.
My eyes were closed now and there was nothing but darkness. Shortly after, I heard Luna's horn activate with a sparkling sound from the magic energy. I closed my eyes tighter, bracing for the transition.
In an instant, I was transported into the dream world. I couldn't see anything in front of me at first until I turned my flashlight on and immediately I took notice that I was standing in front of a cave entrance while my equipment was placed neatly on small individual boulders. I then grabbed my large backpack, gathered my equipment in their specific storage spaces while keeping the Timberferno equipped and the X-Ray Sensor in my pocket. Once I got everything I needed, I slowly began to walk towards the mouth of the cave. A sign plastered on the rock read, "Keep Out! Equinieus Inside!" I scoffed at the sign, looked up at the moon and said,
"Thanks for the reminder, Luna," I said, turning the valve for the Timberferno and switching on the sensor. "Wish me luck, guys." I said to my spectators, entering the cave.
There was two foot drop off next to the cave entrance, so I casually stepped down slowly until I came into contact with the ground. I began to proceed forward slowly, the sound of the wind becoming dead silent for I could only hear my footsteps impacting the dirt and my heart beating at a slightly faster pace. The atmosphere was very moist, cool, dank and a musky scent filled my nostrils. It reminded me a lot of an old basement.
I figured it would be a good time to check my surroundings with the X-ray Sensor. And so, I pressed the sweep button and the light blue wave traced up the cave walls, picking up nothing in the one hundred meter circumference.
As I continued onwards, deeper into the cave, I discovered numerous thick support beams that ran up the cave walls to the ceiling. This led me to believe that I was in a mineshaft, a typical location for a spider habitat. I looked downwards and gasped when I saw an abnormally large normal-looking black spider with a glowing star on top of its abdomen.
"Oh, you're not so bad. At least you're not like your big brother." I said, softly, to the spider.
The spider looked up at me with it's glowing eyes for a moment and quickly crawled in between two loose stones.
"Hm, that was odd." I said to myself.
I proceeded even more further and it began to get real dry and muskier, a contrast to the dampness I experience earlier. As the cave walls became a bit more narrow, I discovered a patch of webbing connected to a stone and the ground. Quickly, I pressed the sweep button and picked up nothing yet. I carefully stepped over the patch of webbing and continued on onwards, but soon found even more amounts all over the place. There was so much webbing all over the walls, ceiling and ground that I had to use the Timberferno to destroy it in order to get a clear path.
"I'm getting close." I thought to myself, proceeding forward.
More and more webbing kept on coming and burning it felt like a chore then it did before. It was absolutely ridiculous. Once I finally broke through this huge wall of webbing, a large open space was revealed. I shined my flashlight into the opening and there was webbing all over the place, everything was covered in webbing. But this webbing was different. It was much more thicker and had a slimy substance coated on it, most likely to trap prey.
"Oh, my God." I said, covering my mouth with the Timberferno in my other.
I squeezed the nozzle on the Timberferno to burn the webbing, but the substance protected it from disintegrating. I kept on trying over and over again, but it wouldn't work. Eventually, I gave up on trying and thought for a second. As I thought, I heard this disgusting, gurgling sound coming from the web covered room.
"Who's that?" I asked, shining the light into the room.
Right when I shined the light in the room, I saw a small dark shadow dart to left, out of my sight. When that happened, I heard these multiple, little tiny footsteps scurry on the ground in the room. It was the Equinieus.
"The pitter-patter! The pitter-patter!" I screamed to myself, mentally.
I reacted by pulling out the X-Ray Sensor to track it. With haste, I pressed the button and the wave scanned everything, but I didn't see anything. I checked behind me and there was nothing there as well.
"Damn! Where did it go?" I asked, rhetorically.
As I turned around to face the room, a small black ball began to dangle from the other side of the cave-doorway. I don't know why, but I froze up. The ball than sprouted eight long legs and the face appeared, those cataracted eyes peering into my soul. The Equinieus opened it's mouth and copious amounts of saliva dripped from it's mouth, filled with two rows of razor sharp teeth. Once our eyes were locked, it let out an unnerving screech into my face. I tensed up my neck muscles in fear and response to the screech.
"Holy fucking shit!" I hissed through my teeth as I brought the Timerbferno back and smacked it right into the Equinieus' nightmare-fueling face.
This caused the Equinieus to detach from its web strand and went flying back into the room, tumbling on the ground.
"Reeeeeeee!" it screamed as it scurried away from me.
"Where the fuck are you going?" I asked it, but no response.
I pressed the sweep button for the X-Ray Sensor and the Equinieus was scaling up on the far left wall of the room to the tall ceiling. It stopped climbing once it positioned itself on the ceiling, hanging upside down where someone could walk in by the cave-doorway I was standing by. This thing is no dummy and I can see what it was planning. If I were to walk in that room, it would mostly likely jump off the ceiling and onto me.
"Well, what am I going to do now? If I step on that web, I'm stuck and screwed. And it's not like this goop is going to dry soon." I said to myself.
As I sat on a stone and thought, while making sure the Equinieus stayed in its position, an idea came to mind. The Equinieus is attracted to vibrations, right? To test this, I got up and stomped my foot on the ground as hard as I could. The Equinieus' outline slightly moved and I could hear a faint hiss from the room next to me, so it obviously reacted to it. And also, normal spiders know if they have a meal or not if they feel vibrations on their webs. You see, the more I looked at the huge amounts of webbing in that room, the more I figured that it was basically a trap for prey. It all made sense now.
"Alright, I got this!" I exclaimed.
I inspected the ground and found a decent sized stone that I could throw onto the thick amount of webbing. With the stone in my left hand and the Timberferno in my right, primed and ready for blazin, I warned the Equinieus I was coming in. Yes, I know it doesn't understand English.
"Hey, you big horse's ass, I'm coming in now! You better come and stop me!" I yelled into the room.
I then chucked the stone for at least four meters so that the Timberferno could reach its target. Faster than I could say "Oh shit!", the Equinieus leaped down at the speed of a lightning bolt and attacked the stone. The Equinieus nasally growled as it tried to bite into the rock, but couldn't.
"Hey, Spidey," I exclaimed, getting its attention, "You're fired!" I quipped as I jerked the nozzle tightly with my right hand.
The red, glowing, fiery magic spewed out towards the Equinieus and came into contact with it. It let out warbled screeches as I showed no mercy, not letting off the nozzle for a good ten seconds before the Timbeferno stopped from overheating, the metal tip glowing red hot. I could see the silhouette of the Equinieus going in circles and flailing its legs as it burned in the hot, magical energy. The entire room was nearly filled with a red glow from the flames and some of the webbing began to disintegrate. I stared at the sight while slightly baring my teeth and turning the valve for the Timberferno to the left. Finally, after a minute, the Equinieus became silent and motionless.
"I did it. I won!" I said to myself.
Shortly after I said that statement, a white light illuminated into my face and I was brought back to reality. I lied on my bed while Night Hunter and Luna stared silently at me until Night Hunter broke the silence.
"Congratulations, Caleb! You did it! I knew you could do it!" Night Hunter congratulated, happily.
I only responded by hopping out of bed and gave Night Hunter a hug.
"Great job, Caleb! Great job!" Night Hunter praised.
"Shit, man, did you see how much of a beast I was!?" I asked Night Hunter.
"Oh, tartarus yeah! That whole one-liner you pulled off there at the end was perfection!" Night Hunter added.
Luna then walked over to congratulate me as well.
"Congratulations, Caleb. How doest it feel to have passed thy final exam?" Luna asked.
"I feel very great about it! I-I-I just can't believe I did it. Seriously, when I first got here, I had no idea what I was doing, but look at me now. A future C.A.M.A agent!" I replied.
"Very impressive work, Caleb." Luna said.
"Thank you, Princess Luna." I replied, gratefully.
"So, Luna. Tell him what happens now." Night Hunter sniffled.
"Are you crying?" I asked.
"What? No, of course not." he replied while regaining his composure.
"Tomorrow thee will be receiving your official C.A.M.A Everfree uniform and a camouflage outfit as a bonus. And Friday will be thy graduation. My dear sister and I will be there as well." Luna informed.
"Sounds great, Luna." I said.
"Glad to hear, Caleb. Now I must go and inform my sister of thy most wondrous achievement." Luna said.
"Yeah, yeah, sure, go ahead." I said.
With that, Luna teleported out of the room, leaving me and Night Hunter to ourselves.
"Wow...." I said, in a daze.
"I'm proud of you, Caleb. You were very good in that cave, all by yourself." Night Hunter said.
"Yeah. It was touch and go there at first," I admitted, slightly laughing in my words. "How long was I out?"
"Ohhhhh, about an hour. That cave is pretty long, ain't it?" Night Hunter asked.
"It felt pretty long. I was wondering how long it would take me to find the Equinieus." I said.
"And that Equinieus...." Night Hunter said, with a whistle at the end. "I'm sure I could take that thing on myself, but you're very brave for a rookie." Night Hunter complimented.
"Thanks. I'll do whatever it takes, Night Hunter." I said.
"So...." Night Hunter said, clopping both of his front-hooves hooves together.
"So?" I asked.
"The rest of the day is yours. Do whatever you'd like." Night Hunter offered.
"How about a game of pool and ping-pong?" I suggested.
Night Hunter smiled to my suggestion.
"Great idea, Caleb. Great idea." Night Hunter agreed.
And so, me and Night Hunter headed off to the recreation room to play our games. As we played our game of pool, I wondered how I would send Night Hunter a weekly report on my territory.
"Night Hunter, when I send that weekly report to you, do I send it to the Ponyville post office or would I have to drive all the way up to the Canterlot post office?" I asked.
"I'm pretty sure sending it to the Ponyville post office would be okay. From what I know, they shouldn't be tampering with the mail because it's against their guidelines and an offense by Equestrian law." Night Hunter replied.
"Okay. I was just making sure since you want C.A.M.A to remain a secret from the public. Even though I told only one pony." I clarified.
"If I ever find out if you tell somepony else later on in your career, you'll be in big trouble." Night Hunter warned.
"I got it, Night Hunter." I said.
"Good." he replied.
Not much really went on after our games. Me and Night Hunter took it real easy for the rest of the day. Later on that night while I was in bed, I leaned over to grab the photo of the me, Twilight, Spike, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie and Rainbow Dash. I stared at the photo for a moment and felt a grin begin to form on my face.
"I'm coming home, guys.... I'm coming home." I said.
I then put the photograph aside and went off to bed.
I slowly opened my eyes, for my required hours of sleep were fulfilled. I squinted my eyes as they adjusted to slight amount of light in the room. Wearily, I turned my head towards my wind up clock and realized that it was 12:42 in the afternoon. I then raised my body up and sat in my bed, rubbing my face with the palms my hands.
"Mmm, Night Hunter, I think we overslept." I mumbled, groggily.
Night Hunter did not respond to my statement.
"Hey, Night Hunter." I said, a bit more lively.
No response again.
Once I fully woke up, I realized that Night Hunter was not in his bed at all. I then got up to see if there was note for me, but found nothing. I just shrugged it off and headed into the bathroom to take a shower and brush my teeth. After my refreshing shower and putting on a change of clothes, I checked to see if Night Hunter was in the hallway, but to no avail. I then went to check the classroom and rec room and got the same thing. Since I couldn't find him inside the building, I decided to ask a guard outside if he saw Night Hunter leave. I then slipped on a winter jacket and exited the wall interior. When I got outside to seek a guard, I immediately took notice that all the snow had melted and it had to be at least a perfect seventy degrees outside.
"It ain't winter no more, Caleb." a guard said, noticing my winter apparel.
"I can see that," I said, taking off the coat, "Was I asleep for an entire season or what?" I asked.
"Winter Wrap Up happened exactly seven days ago." the guard answered.
"Winter Wrap Up?" I asked, confused.
"It's basically when all the earth, pegasi and unicorns come together to complete the transition from winter to spring." the guard explained.
"Ah. I guess that makes sense," I said, unsure to believe him or not. "But, anyways, have you seen Night Hunter at all today?" I asked the guard.
"Yeah, he left about two hours ago to go get something. He says." the guard replied.
"Alright, thanks." I said.
After heading back into the building, I tossed my coat on my bed. I then clapped my hands together and stretched my arms.
"Okay.. might as well get something to eat." I suggested to myself.
I blindly moved my hand around in the darkness in search for the light switch near the downstairs entrance. Finally, I came into contact with it and the lights illuminated the stairs that led to the kitchen, which still had some lunch MRE's left. Once I made it to the kitchen, I grabbed an MRE that had a veggie burger, mandarin oranges and a salad. Would've preferred something with meat, but oh well, so much for wishful thinking. As I got everything prepared and began to eat, I heard a bang from upstairs. I figured it was Night Hunter, so I just continued eating. Shortly after, I heard hooves clopping upstairs.
"Caleb?" Night Hunter called from upstairs.
"I'm down in the mess hall!" I notified.
Night Hunter then began to walk down the steps.
"Hey Caleb." Night Hunter said.
"What?" I asked, chewing on my oranges.
"I got some gifts for you." he said.
"Really? Did you wrap them up and put a pretty bow on them?" I asked in a sarcastic manner.
"Not exactly." Night Hunter replied as he showed me two large cardboard boxes.
"Eh. Packages will do. So, what do you have for me?" I asked.
"While you were still asleep, I was out getting your uniform, outfit and some other stuff you might need." Night Hunter clarified.
"Oh, nice! They're done already?" I asked.
"You betcha," Night Hunter replied. "Use your plastic fork to open up your packages."
"Right." I said, grabbing the plastic fork.
Gently, I jabbed the fork into the slit where the tape connects each side of the package flap. I began to drag the fork along in a vertical direction as the tape emitted a tearing sound. Once the tear was complete, both sides opened up and revealed my C.A.M.A uniform.
"Hey, it looks just like yours." I remarked.
My C.A.M.A uniform consisted of a black leather jacket with insulative fur on the inside for keeping me warm on the cool nights, a black T top, black cargo pants with multiple zip pockets, a black cap with the Equestrian flag emblem on the front side, black fingerless gloves that looked like they belonged to a tactical SWAT team and a pair of black boots. All in which, they were the perfect size for me.
"There sure is a lot of black going on here." I said while feeling the leathery texture of the jacket.
"Yes," Night Hunter said with a chuckle. "The reason why is because C.A.M.A wants you to blend in with the darkness of the night." he clarified
"Seems like they'll do the job nicely." I agreed with Night Hunter's statement.
"And as you can see we have the camouflage outfit at the bottom." Night Hunter said, directing my attention towards the bottom on the box.
I reached in the box and pulled out the clothing. The entire outfit was covered in green, light brown, brown and black splotches. This would include a camouflage jacket, pants and completed with a cap.
"Remember that this outfit is used when staking out Timberwolves or other creatures. Though TImberwolves have good vision, they shouldn't see you if you stay still while next to some forestry or vegetation," Night Hunter informed. "Also remember that Timberwolves have terrible hearing, but when they howl to each other, communicating, they hear it crystal clear." Night Hunter reminded.
"To call each other?" I asked.
"That, or if they spotted you." Night Hunter answered.
"Oh." I said, flatly.
"Yeah." Night Hunter said.
We sat in silence as both of us checked out the clothing until I saw the other cardboard box.
"What's in the other box?" I asked.
"Stuff that'll come in handy." Night Hunter replied, levitating the box over to me.
I grabbed the fork and repeated the same action I did before with the other box. I took both of my hands and tore the top flaps off like a thin piece of paper on accident.
"Whoops." I said.
Looking in the box, I discovered numerous packaging peanuts. I reached my hand in the pool of styrofoam and felt around for any objects. Within no time, I felt something deep within and pulled out a large digital wrist watch for my size. The watch was set for military time since the time read 13:17. The watch was also silver and had a circular design, obviously.
"Digital, huh?" I asked Night Hunter.
"Believe it or not, digital watches are a rarity to come by in Equestria and are very expensive. Some cost around a thousand bits." Night Hunter said.
"In my world you can walk into a store and buy a good one for twenty five bucks or so." I contrasted.
"Why?" he asked.
"They're just way more common and I'm pretty sure we have more advanced technology than this world." I said.
"Now I see," Night Hunter realized. "Now the purpose of this watch is not only to track your time, but also a reminder when it's time for your duty." Night Hunter said.
"So, it'll beep when it's time?" I asked.
"Yes. The watch has been pre-set to go off at six o'clock in the evening and again at three o'clock in the morning, which are your hours for patrol." Night Hunter said.
"Nice." I simply said.
I slipped the watch on my right wrist and it fitted perfectly. I think I might use this in my entries to tell the time and to space out events.
"Let's see what else we've got in here." I said, reaching into the sea of packaging peanuts.
Instantly, I felt a somewhat big metal box in the far right side of the package. Gripping it, I pulled it out and a few styrofoam peanuts fell onto the floor. What I placed on the table was a first aid kit with a green cross label with the text: "Individual First Aid Kit" at the bottom, or IFAK for short. I used my index fingers to unlatch both latches on each side of the box to reveal its contents. Opening it up, I found a box of band-aids, a large roll of ace bandage, a tourniquet, alcohol, gauze pads and scissors. Curiously, I picked up the bottle of clear liquid and read the label.
"Alcohol. Use on cuts to encourage cell regeneration and prevent infection." I recited.
"You can also combine it to the gauze to cover an open wound if you were to get one." Night Hunter informed.
"Good idea." I said, putting the alcohol back in the kit.
Putting the first aid kit aside on the table, I went into the packaging peanuts once again and felt something that was made out of thick fabric. A small metal part came in contact with my thumb and it was a zipper. I took the bag out at an angle in order to not spill anymore packaging peanuts on the floor. Once fully out of the box, I pulled out a backpack for my equipment.
The right side of the backpack was designed to hold the Iggy while the left side was used for holding the Timberferno, just for convenience whenever I may be in a pickle out there in the Everfree. The large pouch at the top will most likely be used to store the first aid kit, MRE's and water because hunger and thirst must be satisfied to keep my strength up. The smaller pouch can be used for my smaller devices such as the X-Ray sensor and the sound emitter. I grabbed the first aid, unzipped the backpack and slid it inside the biggest pouch.
"I like how everything is huge and designed especially for me." I said.
"Told you I had a word with the designers." Night Hunter reminded.
"And it seems like they they took your word for it. Look." I said as I placed the backpack upright next to Night Hunter.
The backpack alone was probably half the size of Night Hunter, who is five foot two.
"I know, right?" Night Hunter agreed.
I then directed my eyesight on the holding straps for the Iggy and the Timberferno.
"You also spoke to the designers on creating a Iggy and Timberferno for hand use?" I asked.
"Yes, I did." Night Hunter replied.
"Will I be getting those tomorrow? Because if I do, I'm gonna have to hide them from my friends once I arrive back in Ponyville." I said with concern.
"No, no, you'll be getting those two on your first night." Night Hunter answered.
"So, some secret shipment escort is going to come to me?" I asked.
"Yes. Remember that open field located on the left side near the outer rim of the Dovere territories?" Night Hunter asked.
"Yeah. The one field I landed in when I entered this world." I said.
"That's the one. The shipment will arrive at twenty four hundred hours sharp." Night Hunter said.
"Got it." I said.
"Speaking of which, try to find out a way to signal the shipment crew so that they know your position. I would recommend using the strobe effect on your flashlight." Night Hunter suggested.
"Don't worry, Night Hunter. The Land Rover has all of these blinding headlights and roof lights. There's no way the shipment crew can miss that." I said.
"Perfect." Night Hunter smiled.
I dug into the box once again to see if there was anything else, but there was nothing but styrofoam peanuts.
"Looks like that was all." Night Hunter noticed, digging into the box as well.
Night Hunter then levitated both boxes and tossed them into the recycling bin by the other side of the room.
"Now I want to tell you about tomorrow, the graduation." Night Hunter started.
"What do I need to do?" I asked.
"Grab your stuff and head upstairs." Night Hunter instructed, getting off his seat.
I collected my articles of clothing and items before following Night Hunter upstairs. I made a quick stop at the bunks to put my new belongings on the bed. After that, I went to Night Hunter who was waiting by the rec room at the end of the hallway.
"Okay, so what am I doing?" I asked.
"At nine o'clock, you'll be waiting in here until I signal you to come out. Once I give you the signal, come into the classroom and to the podium in the front of the room. There will be an audience anticipating a straightforward speech, doesn't have to be long, but short and sweet." Night Hunter instructed.
"Who's gonna be the audience? It's sure as heck ain't gonna be civilians." I said, confused.
"The princesses and the guards whoever decided to accept my invitation to watch." Night Hunter answered.
"That's not so bad." I said.
"After your speech, there will be a photographer who will take your picture and will quickly laminate it on an ID card for C.A.M.A and yourself." Night Hunter added.
"Sweet!" I exclaimed. "Will I also get my own badge?"
"Of course. What kind of agent wouldn't be complete without their badge?" Night Hunter replied in the form of a question.
"A very poor one?" I answered.
"Damn straight." Night Hunter agreed.
"What happens after the graduation?" I asked.
"Well.... that's when me and you part ways." Night Hunter replied.
"Aw, really?" I said, a little down.
"Yes, unfortunately. You'll be taken back to the Canterlot train station just in time for the next train back to Ponyville." Night Hunter said.
"And my first night out on patrol will be on...." I trailed off.
"Monday of next week. Saturday and Sunday will be inspection days for your designated territory; Dovere." Night Hunter reminded.
"Alright. Thanks for the reminder." I thanked.
"No problem, kid." Night Hunter replied.
9:02 PM
I was just about to doze off into a deep sleep. Everything was quiet until I heard hooves clopping on the floor. It sounded like somepony just walked out of the room because the door creaked open. I rose off the bed with the help of my arms and poked my head out of the doorway. Night Hunter was walking down the hallway towards the exit of the building. He slowly opened the door with his magic and closed it.
Due to curiosity, I followed him out the door and outside. I immediately heard chattering on the other side of the wall. I slowly crept outside of the wall and it was a bit humid outside. As I turned the right corner, I found out the chatter was just Night Hunter talking with some guards.
"Evening, colts." I greeted.
"How's it going, Caleb?" a grey guard asked.
"I'm doing fine. What are you doing out here?" I asked Night Hunter.
"Couldn't fall asleep, so I decided to have a quick smoke." Night Hunter replied, blowing smoke out of his mouth.
"Ah." I said.
"What about you?" the same guard asked.
"He woke me up with the sound of his hooves clopping on the floor." I replied.
"Sorry, Caleb, it's just the way us ponies are made." Night Hunter, putting the cigar in his mouth.
"Yeah, yeah. You comin to the graduation?" I asked the guard.
"I think I might. Congrats by the way. You're not too bad." the guard replied.
"Thanks." I said.
I leaned up against the wall with my right foot pressed on it while my left remained on the ground.
"Caleb..." Night Hunter started.
"Yeah?" I replied.
"Did I ever tell you about the story of the Bugbear?" Night Hunter asked.
"No." I replied, raising my right eyebrow.
"Oh yeah. That happened a month ago." the guard said.
"What the heck happened?" I asked, skeptically.
"Years ago, the Bugbear was captured and imprisoned in Tartarus by a special agent, whose identity I wish to remain a secret." Night Hunter said.
"Okay, and?" I asked.
"Well.... It found a way to break out of Tartarus and we have no idea where its exact position is at. However, it's most likely somewhere out east on another continent." Night Hunter said.
"Huh. So it's pretty far away." I said.
"Hopefully it will stay there, but this thing can fly and I don't know if it will stay on that continent." Night Hunter said, worryingly.
"Let's just hope for the best." the guard interjected.
"And prepare for the worse." I added.
"Right." Night Hunter said.
I then let out a yawn as I began to feel sleepy again.
"I'm going back to sleep, guys. I'll see you both in the morning." I said.
"Night, Caleb." they both said.
"Jinx!" the guard blurted towards Night Hunter.
"Darn it!" Night Hunter exclaimed.
After that, I headed back inside the building and got back in my bed. Shortly after I got in bed, Night Hunter came back into the room and he tried to be all quiet with his hoofsteps, but I wasn't worth it.
"Night Hunter, I can still hear you." I mumbled.
"Sorry." he apologized before crawling into his bed.
Finally, I fell into the deep sleep that I dearly wished for.
Graduation Day/C.A.M.A Day Ninety Two March 8th, 2013
*dingdingdingdingdingdingdingdingdingding*
My eyes shot wide open to the loud ringing of the wind up alarm clock and I slammed my hand forcefully on the top. The alarm clock wobbled sideways before falling off the nightstand next to my bed. A loud crash emitted in the slightly dark room, waking Night Hunter.
"What was that?" he asked, wearily.
"What was what?" I asked.
"That loud noise that just happened." Night Hunter reminded.
"I didn't hear anything. Must've been dreaming." I lied.
"Or I may be losing my marbles." Night Hunter said as he got out of bed.
I looked behind the nightstand and saw that the back part of the clock had broken off, the glass on the front was cracked and the clock hands stopped working.
"What time is it?" Night Hunter asked.
I looked at the clock one more time.
"I'm pretty sure it was seven-thirty." I replied, sheepishly.
"Then we're right on schedule. You have one hour and thirty minutes to get ready for the graduation, pack your things and then you're out of here." Night Hunter said.
"What are you going to do?" I asked.
"Get the podium and chairs all set for now, and also get into contact with that photographer." Night Hunter replied.
"Sounds good." I said.
Slowly, I got off my bed and headed into the bathroom to get ready for the day. While showering, I thought to myself how I will officially become a monster hunting agent. It would probably sound ridiculous to someone back on Earth.
"Yeah, you're gonna like my job. I get to drive around a dark forest at night, hunting wolves that are made out of sticks." I mocked.
But that is how an idiot would explain. My explanation would be a whole lot more clear and concise in order to make it sound somewhat believable.
After my shower, I went for my clothes that were rather casual: Yellow T-shirt and jeans.
"Hey, Night Hunter, you think these are a bit too casual for the graduation?" I asked.
"Yeahhhh, that's not going to cut it. I suggest that you wear your uniform for the graduation." Night Hunter suggested.
"I like your idea." I accepted, tossing the shirt and pants aside.
"But you'll need to take the uniform off before leaving." Night Hunter added.
"Since I'll be entering civilian area?" I guessed.
"Yep. Can't take any chances." Night Hunter replied.
I then headed back into the bathroom and slipped on my uniform for the first time. I had to give the designers credit, the clothing fitted me pretty well and that's pretty impressive for ponies that have never made clothing for humans before, especially ones who are seven foot eight. If you could see the hat I had, it would most likely cover up the average person's head. Once I got everything on, I headed back to Night Hunter.
"What do you think?" I asked, spanning my arms outwards.
"Pretty good, Caleb. You look like a real C.A.M.A agent now." Night Hunter replied with a smile.
"That's what I wanted to hear. You still getting ready?" I asked.
"Yeah." Night Hunter replied.
"I'm heading downstairs for breakfast. I'll meet you there when you're done with getting the chairs and podium set up." I said.
I then walked down the stairs and into the kitchen to get my last breakfast MRE i'll have here. MRE's aren't the most tastiest meals in the world, but they're bearable. Almost similar to a high school hot lunch. Soon after getting my MRE all prepared for eating, Night Hunter came downstairs and got his own MRE. He pulled out the chair next to me and sat down.
"Other than inspecting your territory, what are you gonna do when you get back to Ponyville?" Night Hunter asked.
"Take it easy I guess before my first night out there." I replied.
Night Hunter remained silent as if he was thinking of something.
"Speaking of your first night, remember when I told you that the secret shipment will be arriving on your first night?" Night Hunter asked.
"Sure do." I said.
"It changed to Sunday night instead." Night Hunter informed.
"Why is it changed?" I asked.
"I figured that if the secret shipment were to arrive on your first night, you wouldn't be able to set up those mannequins or plan out any strategy since the Timberwolves lurk the Dovere territories at night." Night Hunter explained.
"Oh, right. Good call, Night Hunter." I said.
"No problem." Night Hunter said.
"What are you going to do once I leave?" I asked.
"Clean up around here and head out back to that decrepit building on the outskirts of Canterlot." Night Hunter replied, his eyes rolling at the end of his sentence.
"Oh, yeah, that dainty shack building or whatever. What exactly is that used for anyways?" I asked.
"Just a little cover up building for a few C.A.M.A branches. Ever since you first discovered our little, 'secret' hideout, C.A.M.A is planning on moving out of there and finding somewhere else to place our little base of operations." Night Hunter said.
"To where?" I questioned.
"Not sure at the moment. Maybe somewhere near the E.U.P training facility," Night Hunter answered, "but I will be sure to let you know sometime later in the future."
"Kay' than." I said.
Me and Night Hunter continued to eat for a while until Night Hunter brought up a certain dragon.
"That dragon friend of yours is named, Spike, right?" Night Hunter asked.
"What about the little dude?" I replied.
"You're sure he's harmless?" Night Hunter asked.
"Believe me, he wouldn't harm a fly. Heck, he was scared of me when I first met him," I chuckled. "Why do you ask?"
"You remember how dragons from the volcanic plains are like?" Night Hunter asked.
"Yep. Big and not the sharpest knives in the kitchen." I said.
"Heh, that's right," Night Hunter chuckled as well. "But still, you be careful if you ever come across one of them."
"No kidding with you there. Getting burned to death would not be fun." I said.
"In fact, if you come across one and looks hostile, just point up in the sky and they might fall for it." Night Hunter said.
"They can't be that dumb." I said in disbelief.
"I didn't say they were that dumb," Night Hunter said with emphasis, "but it's worth a shot as a last resort."
"Thanks for the tip" I said.
After me and Night Hunter finished up our last MRE's, we headed back upstairs.
"What's, uh, what's the time?" Night Hunter asked.
I looked at my new watch and it read 08:35.
"Eight thirty five. Twenty five minutes left until the graduation." I replied.
"All right." Night Hunter said.
"You got all the chairs set up?" I asked.
"That I do. The podium as well," he added. "If I were you, I'd get your stuff packed right now so that you can get out here quicker, if you want to." Night Hunter offered.
"I think I'll get the packing started now. Not that I want to leave you quickly in anyway." I said.
"I understand. You've been through quite a ride here at the training program and a day without studying would be a wish come true." Night Hunter said, bumping his foreleg into my leg.
"You got me there." I admitted.
"That's what I thought." Night Hunter said.
I walked back into the bunks and pulled my duffle bag out from under the bed. I grabbed my books, med-kit, clothing and all of that kind of stuff. I made sure to cover my med-kit and camo outfit up with my clothing, just in case somepony were to get antsy about my belongings, but that probably won't happen. Never hurts to take precautions.
After packing everything and getting my backpack, I quickly made the bed and headed for the exit of the room, shutting the door.
"Done?" Night Hunter asked from the other end of the hallway.
"Uh-huh." I replied.
"Then just step right in here." Night Hunter said, directing his foreleg into the rec room in a polite manner.
I walked in and settled my duffle bag on one of the two couches.
"So, now I just wait until you give me signal to do my little speech?" I asked.
"Yeah, that should be in about... ten minutes." Night Hunter said.
He then peered his head through the doorway to check down the hallway.
"And it looks like some guards are entering the classroom right now for your little speech." Night Hunter noticed.
"How many?" I asked.
"Five. I'll see you in a bit. Think about what you want to say for the past nine minutes." Night Hunter suggested.
"I already got it planned out." I said.
"Good." Night Hunter said, before closing the door.
As I sat in the room, I could hear faint muffled chatting since there was no door across from mine, but a wall. Unzipping the small pocket on the duffle bag, I took out the picture of me and the gang. Everytime I look at that picture, I feel a grin creep onto my face and the warm feeling of happiness fills me.
"See ya soon, guys." I said to the picture before placing it back in the duffle bag pocket.
Shortly after I put the picture away, the intensity of the muffled voices began to somewhat increase from the classroom. Once 09:00 appeared on my digital watch, I could make out Night Hunter's voice talking to the impending crowd in the room. He's probably bragging about all the good he did and how I was a successful student and all that.
I sat there for six more minutes until Night Hunter stopped rambling on. I anticipated for a knock on the door and sure enough, I got two knocks.
"Hey Caleb. You ready?" Night Hunter asked.
"I'm ready." I replied.
Putting the backpack on both of my shoulders and the duffle bag on my left, I opened the door and followed Night Hunter to the classroom. He opened the door with his magic, allowing me to walk into the room. When I walked in, everypony's attention was turned towards me and the sound of hooves clopping in applause filled the room. There had to be about twenty something guards and Princess Celestia and Princess Luna in the front row. They both smiled and waved at me as I came up to the podium. I did the same in response. After adjusting the microphone and clearing my throat, I began to speak.
"Hi there," I began. "First, I just want to say how gratifying it is to have all of you here just for my graduation speech and I truly appreciate it. This goes to the Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, all the royal guards, Night Hunter and even that little photographer pony in the back of the room," I said with a short pause as some ponies turned their heads to the photographer in the back. "When it was my first day here, the seventh of December, I had no idea what to do, but Night Hunter over there taught me the tricks of the trade real well. Now look at me. I'm a soon to be C.A.M.A agent who will be basically risking his life for the safety of others. But what I want to really say is that I promise that I will do my greatest utmost in protecting Ponyville from any creature that dares to advance anywhere near or threaten the village of harmony. And if they do, they'll be sorry for even trying. Princess Celestia, Princess Luna.... you've got my word on that. Thank You." I concluded. "Now is there any questions that would like answering?" I asked.
Nopony raised their hoof, but Princess Celestia stood up and asked me a question.
"Yes, Princess?" I asked.
"Even though we don't know each other very much, I'm very proud to see you reach such a life changing goal in your new life here, but I must ask... Why did you choose such a risky job?" Princess Celestia asked.
"I was hoping somepony would ask me that question, Princess. You see, Ponyville was the one place where I was taken in and offered friendship as well as kindness from ponies. This would include your pupil, Twilight Sparkle, Spike, the other five and every other pony living in Ponyville. Another reason is when Twilight offered me a place to live and everypony gave me stuff without charge, I felt like a freeloader. So I just want to repay the favor and debt by protecting my new home here in Equestria and I hope to do this for the rest of my life here. I just want to help others, much like I wanted to back on my homeworld. I hope this gave you clarification." I said.
"Thank you, Caleb. I can tell that your answer came straight from the heart with honesty and commitment." Celestia said.
"You're welcome, Princess Celestia. Now is there anypony else who has a question?" I asked again.
Nopony else raised their hoof.
"Anyone at all?" I asked one more time.
No response.
"Well then, I thank you all once again for coming and may Equestria continue to thrive in harmony. Thanks." I said before walking off the podium and down the wide aisle.
Everypony in the crowd began to clop their hooves as I walked. I waved and thanked to the praise until I reached the photographer pony at the end of the room. He had a black coat and a grayish-white mane. His cutie mark appeared to be a roll of film of some sort.
"Hi." I greeted to the stallion.
"Hey, how's it going?" he replied in an accent that had a heavy Canadian descent.
"Going pretty great as you can see." I said.
"Sure looks like it. Big agent, huh?" he asked.
"Man, I still can't believe that this is actually happening," I sighed. "You got a name?"
"The name's Roll Developer." the stallion introduced.
"Caleb Barlow." I replied back.
"Never heard a name like that before, but I like it." Roll Developer said.
"Thanks. So how long have you been doing photography for C.A.M.A?" I asked.
"Not for long. About three years to be exact. Not many graduates nowadays from what I hear." Roll Developer said.
"Yeah, not many ponies take a job where their life is at risk." I noted.
"I suppose. But anywho, take a seat on that seat right there and we'll 'getcha 'goin." Roll Developer instructed.
I sat in the chair that was a bit small for me. A little uncomfortable, but I'm only going to be sitting for a minute or two.
"Lower your chin 'der a bit." Roll Developer said.
I did as told and lowered my chin. For my photo, I didn't want to smile because that doesn't seem like a facial expression and serious agent would have one their ID. Instead I wore a straight face with my right eyebrow raised. A facial expression that says, "I don't take shit from no one." With that, Roll Developer clicked the shutter release. A flash of white blinded me for a split second and a photo began to emerge from the front slit of the camera. Roll Developer removed the photo.
"Ooh, I like that tough agent look." Roll Developer complimented.
"That's exactly what I was aiming for." I said.
"And we'll take one more for you." Roll Developer said.
"Where's the other one going to?" I asked, pointing at the photo of my face.
"This one goes to C.A.M.A. The next one goes to in your badge holder, which is what Night Hunter has right there." Roll Developer said.
I directed my attention to Night Hunter who was levitating a big, brown-looking badge holder. It was pretty much like a wallet.
"In that case, take the picture, Rolls." I encouraged.
"Ha. Rolls." Roll Developer said.
With another quick flash, the next picture came out of the camera. Roll Developer took the photo to a table and cut the white borders off with scissors. After he finished cutting, he placed my portrait on a ID card and began to laminate it. (Keep in mind that the card was pretty big and was meant for me due to my size. This is why picture was able to fit on the card easily.) Once he was finished, he handed me the ID card.
"There ya are." Roll Developer said.
"Wow! This looks great! Thanks!" I exclaimed.
"Anytime, Caleb Barlow." Roll Developer said.
I stared at my ID card that stated, "Agent Barlow", in awe until Night Hunter tapped my leg in order to break my trance. He levitated me the badge holder and I quickly grabbed it out of his magical grasp. I then opened the holder and a metal, golden, circular badge was attached to the right flap. The graphic image was the Everfree Forest in the middle of a cross. The acronym, "C.A.M.A", was spelt with bold on the top of the badge while, "Everfree", was on the bottom. I slipped my ID card into its slot holder and closed the wallet back up and slipping it into my pocket.
"Caleb." Celestia said.
I turned my head to her voice.
"Are you planning on leaving Canterlot at this moment?" Celestia asked.
"Kind of was. First I gotta get out of this uniform before heading out into any civilian areas." I said.
"I have to do that too." Night Hunter said.
"Do you need me to do something?" I asked Celestia.
"Nothing of any sort. Me and my dear sister are offering a teleportation to the train station in order to save time." Celestia explained.
"Save time?" I asked, tilting my head slightly.
"The next train to Ponyville departs in nine minutes, does it not?" Luna asked.
I looked at the clock on the wall and it read nine-twenty one.
"Oh, shoot!" Night Hunter exclaimed.
"Oh, crap." I exclaimed.
"I take it that's a yes?" Celestia asked.
"Never teleported in my life, but I'll take anything at the moment." I replied.
"Me too. My magic is not that advanced." Night Hunter related.
"Excellent. Me and Luna will wait until you're done getting back into your casual attire." Celestia said.
"Alright, thanks!" I said.
I quickly ran into the rec room while Night Hunter simply stayed in the same position and removed his clothing since clothing isn't much of a big norm in Equestria.
I closed the door and changed into my yellow t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans. After burying my uniform under my other clothing, I opened the door and came up to Celestia, Luna and Night Hunter.
"Okay, I'm ready." I said.
"See ya, Caleb." one guard said.
All the others guards in the room began doing the same thing.
"You too, guys." I said back.
"Teleportation is safe... right?" Night Hunter asked.
"Sounds like something that I would ask." I thought to myself.
"I can assure you that it is one hundred percent safe, Night Hunter and Caleb." Celestia assured.
"Do we need to do anything specific for teleportation?" I asked.
"There is one thing. You'll see a bright flash, but I suggest that you both close your eyes before being teleported." Celestia suggested.
"Got it." I said.
I raised my wrist and examined the time on my clock.
"Okay, we have three minutes left." I notified.
"Then let us get a move on." Luna said.
Celestia and Luna both activated their horns and a high pitch magical sound began to fill the hallway. Celestia horn was soon engulfed by a yellow aura while Luna's was blue. The sound slightly intensified, signaling me and Night Hunter to close our eyes. I braced for the teleportation and everything went dead silent for a second before the wind from the outside blew into my ears. I immediately opened my eyes and just like that, we were at the Canterlot train station.
"Oh, wow, this is so... weird." I said with amazement, taking in my surroundings.
"I know, right?" Night Hunter agreed as he looked around.
"Did you feel numb for like a few seconds when we first got here?" I asked Night Hunter.
"I did, but it left me as quick as we got here." Night Hunter replied.
"Quiet a first for you, isn't it?" Celestia asked me and Night Hunter.
"Very." I replied.
Right after I replied to Celestia's question, I could hear a faint whistle of a train in the distance. Shortly after, I could see a silhouette of a train in the distance, approaching the train station. Me and Night Hunter looked over in the direction of the oncoming train. Our attention was broken by a fwoosh sound from behind us. We turned our heads and Celestia and Luna were gone and nowhere to be seen, leaving us to our farewell.
"Well, Night Hunter," I began, "looks like it's time for me to go."
Night Hunter replied by extending his right foreleg. I extended my arm and firmly gripped onto his foreleg with my hand.
"Caleb, it has been fun," Night Hunter said. "I wish you luck on your ventures in the Everfree Forest and I'm looking forward to what you have to report to me. Even if you have nothing serious to report, I still have complete confidence that you will report something."
"Thanks, Night Hunter, I'll be sure to do that. My time at C.A.M.A has been very illuminating and a huge impact on my life here. I also thank you for teaching me everything that you know and honestly, I'm gonna miss spending time with you. Because in my book, you're one of the ponies here in Equestria that have shown me true friendship here. And like I said before, I promise that I will protect Ponyville and stomp on whatever the Everfree decides to throw at me. Whether it be Timberwolves, a Cockatrice, a Cragadile or even something new... they've got nothing on me." I said.
"I'm glad. I'm very glad to hear that, Caleb." Night Hunter replied.
The train blew its whistle once again, much louder than before. The train slowed down and came to halt with a hiss as the brakes settled. The passenger car doors opened and few ponies began to emerge out from the car. Every single one of them noticed me and waved or said hi to me. There was one stallion that asked me for a picture, which I gladly obliged to. I guess Night Hunter was right, I am pretty well known now in Equestria.
Once everypony had exited the car, I began to walk towards the entrance, but Night Hunter had one last thing to say.
"Caleb." Night Hunter called.
"Yeah?" I asked, turning my head.
"Welcome to the agency." Night Hunter replied.
I slightly smiled to his welcoming.
"Thanks. Goodbye, old friend." I said.
"Bye, Caleb." Night Hunter replied, tipping his brown cap.
With that, I inched my way into the passenger car and sat at an empty seat. A few other ponies began to enter the car and sat down in their own individual seats. Within a minute, the train whistle wailed once again, indicating that the train was about to depart to Ponyville. Shortly after the whistle blew, the doors closed and the train began to slowly move forward. I looked out the window and Night Hunter waved at me. I than waved back at him. Me and him made eye contact with each other before he came out of view. The train picked up speed and I was now on my way back to Ponyville.
The train now sped away from the Canterlot train station and down the mountain that Canterlot protrudes from. Like always, occasional darkness would fill the passenger car once the train entered in and out of the tunnel systems through the mountain in order to reach ground level. I've been sitting in my seat for a while in silence, looking out the window to check out the scenery of the wide open plains, but as I looked through the tiny circular window on the door that connected to the other, I noticed two familiar ponies in the next car.
I squinted my eyes a little to see if my eyes were correct. Sure enough, Lyra and Bon Bon were sitting together in the next passenger car. I rose off my seat and grabbed my backpack and duffle bag and walked towards the door. I slowly pushed the door to open it and entered the the car. A few ponies turned their heads to me entering, including Lyra, who was sitting in a position that looked rather human-like.
"Hey, what's up guys?" I greeted to Lyra and Bon Bon, sitting at a empty seat to their left.
"Caleb?" Lyra gasped in surprise.
"Something wrong?" I asked.
"What happened to you?" Lyra asked. "You're like.... really tall now and sort of disappeared from Ponyville for three months or so." Lyra noticed.
"Ah, my height," I began. "I took this potion that apparently gave me extremely abnormal growth acceleration or something like that."
"Where'd you find that kind of stuff at?" Bon Bon asked.
"Let's just say I met an enchantress who gave it to me." I replied.
"Ooooh, mystery mare," Lyra said. "How tall are you now?"
"Seven-eight or seven nine, I believe." I replied.
"Wow. That's actually really abnormal for a human." Lyra said.
"How do you know the average?" I asked Lyra.
"She's a huge fanatic on your species, remember?" Bon Bon reminded.
"Basically what she said," Lyra corresponded. "Where have you been for the past three months?" Lyra asked with skepticism.
My eyes quickly glanced toward Bon Bon and she was mouthing the words, "Don't tell her about the agency." I on the other hand slightly raised my eyebrows in response to the mouthed words.
"Believe or not, Lyra, I was studying Equestrian history up in Canterlot." I said.
"Three months of studying Equestrian history?" Lyra asked, confused.
"That's correct." I replied.
"I see why! You're just trying to be like Lyra. She study's humans and you're studying Equestrian's." Bon Bon added to support my cover up.
"Exactly!" I exclaimed. "What made you think of that?"
"It sounded rather similar." she replied.
"Glad to see I've had a good influence on you," Lyra said. "Maybe we should study together sometime."
"Sure, but another time. I've been studying for about three months and it would be nice to give my brain a break for a while." I said.
"Totally understandable." Lyra agreed.
Bon Bon then nudged Lyra in her right side.
"You mind sitting like a pony and not like a human so I can get out of my seat?" Bon Bon asked Lyra.
"Yes, Bon Bon." Lyra replied, rolling her eyes.
After she exited the seat, she nudged her hoof on my shoulder and tilted her head towards the door. Bon Bon pushed the door open and entered the next passenger car behind the one I was in. I let a minute pass before getting up to follow Bon Bon.
"Where are you going?" Lyra asked as I got to the door.
"I forgot something in the other passenger car. I shouldn't be long." I replied.
"Gotcha" Lyra said.
I opened the door for the next car and Bon Bon was nowhere to be seen. My guess is that she went into the next car. And so, I went into the next car and she wasn't there as well. The only next car would be the caboose, but why would she be all the way back there? Walking into the caboose car, I could see Bon Bon standing next to the outside railing of the car. I opened the door and stood next to her. I gripped the metal railing with my hands and the wind blew into my ears, softly. With that, I asked her why we were out here.
"So... What'cha doing out here for?" I asked.
"C.A.M.A" Bon Bon sighed.
"Well, what about it?" I asked.
"I'm out of it." Bon Bon revealed.
"You mean you got fired?" I asked.
"No, no, not at all." Bon Bon said.
"Then what's the problem?" I asked her.
"Did you ever hear about the tale of the Bugbear?" Bon Bon asked.
"Yeah, the Bugbear. Some sort of bear-bug hybrid or something that was captured by this special C.A.M.A agent." I remembered.
"They didn't tell you who the special agent's identity?" Bon Bon asked.
"Nope." I replied.
"Well, here's some news for you," Bon Bon began. "That special agent was me."
I turned my head towards her with both of my eyebrows raised.
"It was you who defeated the Bugbear?" I asked, surprised.
"I sure did. With the help of Princess Celestia, it was sent to Tartarus for eternity." Bon Bon said.
"Eternity? So much for wishful thinking. I'm pretty sure Night Hunter told me that it managed to escape from Tartarus about a month ago." I said.
"I still don't know how it could've broken out. Princess Celestia told me that Hades said he'd have the Bugbear on full lockdown." Bon Bon said.
"Who's Hades?" I asked.
"The leader and ruler of Tartarus." Bon Bon answered.
My mind went into a thinking phase because I'm pretty sure I've heard the name Hades before. I began to think way deep into my mind while repeating the name Hades over and over again in my head. Suddenly, I remembered something I learned back in the eighth grade. I remembered the whole Greek mythology unit we had in reading class and we read all of these books on all the gods, titans, and all of those stories. And like Bon Bon said, Hades is the one god who was sent to and rules Tartarus. It was such a weird feeling for me to find out that Greek mythology might actually be real after all.
"No.... There's no way he's real." I said in disbelief.
"Oh, he's real... He's real, Caleb," Bon Bon said. "What makes you think he's not?"
"Back in my world, there's a subject called Greek mythology and Hades plays a big role in many stories. And like you said, he's the leader of Tartarus. However, us humans pass it off as being mythology, not non-fiction." I said.
"So you humans know about him too?" Bon Bon asked.
"Through the stories." I replied.
"What exactly does he look like?" Bon Bon asked.
"You've never seen him?" I said.
"I haven't, but Princess Celestia probably has." Bon Bon said.
"Ehhhh... There's many depictions of him, but I mostly believe in the one where he looks like a human." I replied.
"Hmm. Interesting." Bon Bon said.
"Yeah, very thought provoking. But, you were saying? About the Bugbear?" I brought back up.
"Yeah, I'm out of C.A.M.A." Bon Bon replied, vaguely.
"What do you mean you're out of C.A.M.A?" I asked.
"I quit, I'm done, and the Ponyville branch has been disbanded." Bon Bon said.
"Oh, crap. Really?" I exclaimed.
"Mm-hm." she hummed.
"Why did you quit?" I questioned.
"I feel like the Bugbear might be holding a grudge against me and most likely will come after me." Bon Bon replied.
"I highly doubt the Bugbear is going to come after you. From what I heard, it's on another continent at the moment. Speaking of which, how come Celestia doesn't just fly or teleport over there to get it herself?" I asked.
"It's the risk of the unknown. Nopony, including C.A.M.A, really knows what could be living on that other continent. Equestria is a continent that is most known and studied since it's where everypony inhabits." Bon Bon explained.
"But still, I think the Bugbear won't go on some crazy mare hunt for you specifically." I assured.
"Thanks, but I still believe what I think." Bon Bon said.
"Well... if you say so. But if it somehow, and I say somehow find you, I'll be sure to help you out with your predicament." I offered.
"You would really face the Bugbear alongside with me?" Bon Bon asked.
"Of course, Bon Bon. You're my friend and I'm not gonna let some bear hybrid beat you." I said.
"Gee. Thanks, Caleb." Bon Bon thanked with a smile.
"No problem." I said.
"Well, we should probably head back inside before Lyra gets too suspicious, because she can get real antsy at times." Bon Bon suggested.
"Good idea. How long have we even been out here?" I asked.
"I don't know. Maybe eight or ten minutes." Bon Bon replied.
Me and Bon Bon then headed back into the train car where Lyra waited for us in that human-like sitting position.
"Isn't that a bit uncomfortable for a pony?" I asked Lyra.
"That's what I keep asking her." Bon Bon interjected.
"Feels fine for me, Bon Bon. You should try it sometime." Lyra said.
"I think I'll pass on that." Bon Bon replied.
"Your loss." Lyra said.
"Perhaps you have a little bit of human in you, Lyra." I said.
Lyra's eyes then lit up as if something important just came to her mind.
"Oh my gosh, you've just reminded me of something I wanted to show you!" Lyra exclaimed with excitement.
"Show me." I said.
"Okay, so I've been working real hard on modifying my levitation spell." Lyra began.
"Modify?" I asked.
"You have to see it to understand. And I have to admit that it's pretty cool. Props to you, Lyra." Bon Bon said.
"Thanks, Bonnie!" Lyra beamed.
Bon Bon slightly blushed to her nickname before turning her head and staring out the window.
"So, what do you got, Lyra?" I asked.
"Now I wouldn't call this revolutionary since it's just a modification, but check this out." Lyra said.
Lyra's horn began to give off a yellow aura that coated it. The magical energy began to morph a odd looking shape into mid air, a few inches away from her horn.
"What's this supposed to be, some sort of shape morphing spell or som--." I said before stopping abruptly.
The magical shape that Lyra was morphing slowly began to take form into a recognizable design, something that is part of myself. After a few more seconds of molding, Lyra's magic energy had formed into a levitating, transparent, yellow hand with tiny white sparkles glimmering off the magical energy.
"Oh, wow!" I said in astonishment.
"Pretty cool, isn't it?" Lyra asked.
"Cool? More like extraordinary! You should present this modification to whoever makes spell books or somepony like that." I suggested.
"Y'know, I have been thinking about that." Lyra said.
"You should definitely do it." I said again.
"We'll see." Lyra said.
I then directed my attention back towards the mystical hand floating in front of me.
"If I were to touch this hand, would it feel like a real hand?" I asked Lyra.
"Most likely not. You would probably get a little numbing sensation from the magic, but it still has the density of a real hand." Lyra replied.
"Is that so?" I asked. "Then I suppose you wouldn't mind giving me a proper handshake." I said.
"That sounds like a good idea!" Lyra agreed.
"Put em' here!" I said, extending my right arm and fingers outwards.
Lyra's magical hand floated over towards my hand and gripped onto mine. The bottom part of my hand began to go slightly numb which eventually began to turn into pins and needles.
"Oh, wow, that feels so weird." I noted as we shook.
"You okay?" Bon Bon asked.
"Don't worry, it's nothing. Just a little bit of tingling." I said.
"Phew, this is such a first for me." Lyra admitted.
"What? The handshaking?" I asked.
"Yeah. Never in my life would I think I'd be able to shake hands like a human with an actual living human." Lyra said.
"And never in my life would I dream of shaking hands with a magical floating hand that is generated by a living unicorn, so I can see why you say that." I said.
"I know, right?" Lyra said.
Me and Lyra relived our grips, freeing my hand that felt like it had fallen asleep and dangled like a ragdolls hand. I took my right arm and quickly shook it, causing my limp hand to fling like crazy.
"How's your hand doing?" Lyra giggled to my actions.
"Still pretty numb at the moment. Hope I don't have any neurological damage." I said.
"No possible way," Lyra assured, "but as you can see, the numbness is a temporary quirk that I need to work on."
"Okay, good, because I don't want to have one hand working while the other is the polar opposite." I said.
"No need to worry." Lyra said with a smile.
I then went further into my seat and sat next to window and checked out the scenery. I could already tell that the trees and all the foliage were starting to take their rightful place in spring once again. Come to think of it, I've never really seen the true beauty of what Equestria can bring. When I first got here in November of 2012, it was during the season of fall and as expected, all the leaves were shades of orange, red, yellow and all of those kinds of colors. And in winter, all the trees were striped down to just being bark and branches, but the snow was a big plus.
If you can't tell by now, I'm a person who just likes to take in the scenery. I used to take lots of long walks down the state trail. Sometimes I'd just go down because I had nothing better to do or whenever my friends were out and about doing other things. I remember one time when me and my buddy Garrett were walking down the trail and we walked under an overpass that was connected to some highway. We climbed up this small hill of black rocks that were under the overpass, but were unaware that we just trespassed on the home and numerous bats. Basically, there were bats hanging upside down about five feet away from our heads and we didn't even know until we heard the high pitched screech of one bat. A few began to fly away and that made us both book it out from under the overpass. We got away unscathed, lucky enough to not get bit. But that's enough reminiscing. I'm going to get homesick if I keep writing about my time back on Earth.
As I sat there in my seat, a different conductor came into the passenger car and announced that the train was reaching its destination; Ponyville Train Station.
"Excited to get back to Ponyville?" Bon Bon asked.
"Oh, you bet. Can't wait to get back to Twilight, Spike and all my friends," I replied. "Seeing and talking to you guys again was real nice and a change."
"Right, from all that studying." Lyra brought back up.
"Don't remind me." I said, rubbing my eyelids.
"Heh, sorry." Lyra apologized.
The train began to slow down a little bit after the train whistle blared from the outside. This signaled me to gather my backpack and duffle bag. The whistle blew once more as the train approached the loading patio of the train station. The brakes squeaked as the train came to a complete stop. The conductor then opened the passenger door and I headed out the door.
"Hey, I'll see you two around." I said.
"You too, Caleb." they both said before walking off the wooden platform.
I turned around and began to search for Twilight and the whole gang. My vision of anything was slightly impaired from the steam coming from under the train that drifted like fog.
"Twilight? Spike? Anypony?" I called out.
"Caleb?" Twilight's voice responded.
"I think he's over there." Fluttershy said.
"I'm over here." I said.
As the steam began to evaporate into thin air, the black silhouettes of the six mares and a dragon began to appear. Once all the steam was gone, there was Twilight and the gang.
"Caleb!" they all exclaimed, cheerfully.
"Heyyyy!" I exclaimed.
I dropped my duffle bag and backpack onto the wooden platform and rushed over towards them. They copied my actions and did the same. Once we met, I crouched down and we all hugged each other in a large group hug.
"Oh, I missed seeing you guys." I said as we hugged.
"We all did too, Caleb." Twilight said.
We all then broke off from the group embrace.
"Heh, so how was that ninety-two day study session on Equestrian history?" Rainbow asked.
"Three words, Rainbow: Boring. As. Tartarus." I replied.
"Couldn't agree with you more. I don't think I could ever do something like that." Rainbow said.
"Three months? If you were to leave on the seventh of December and come back here on the eighth of March, then that means you were gone for seven billion-nine hundred and forty eight thousand and eight hundred seconds, one hundred-thirty two thousand and four hundred and eighty seconds, two thousand-two hundred and eight hours, thirteen weeks and one day!" Pinkie said in a fast pace without taking a single breath and ending with a chipper smile.
I could see Twilight slightly slack jawed to Pinkie's statement that required a lot of mathematical thinking while the others were snickering to Twilight's reaction.
"Gotta admit, Pinkie, that's a pretty impressive mental math calculations." I admitted.
"Oh, I didn't use my thinking, I had it all written down on this piece of paper." Pinkie said, pulling a sheet of paper out of her poofy mane with all the numbers.
"Ah." I said.
"Tell me, darling, did you enjoy your time at Canterlot?" Rarity asked.
I had to think about Canterlot for a second before answering because I kinda forgot what the whole city looked like, due to me being stuck inside the C.A.M.A facility for most of the time.
"I thought it was great. The ponies there were quite nice and welcoming. I was expecting their personalities to be self centered and snobby." I replied.
"Some are." Applejack corrected.
"I agree, but most are more sophisticated and kind." Rarity said.
"What kind of events did ya' learn in your history class?" Applejack asked.
Luckily, I read the entire Equestrian History book as a form of pastime at the C.A.M.A facility, so I easily came up with an answer.
"I learned about this pretty cool story about the sonic rainboom." I said, directing my attention towards Rainbow.
"Oh, so you learned about that, huh?" Rainbow asked.
"Sure did. I'm bet not many pegasi can achieve a speed that fast." I said.
"That's because I'm the only one alive that can!" Rainbow boasted.
"How did you manage to go that fast with wings like that?" I asked Rainbow.
"Well, it mostly had to do with the adrenaline rush and the velocity that I was flying at. At the time, Rarity was being a total showoff towards the crowd--" Rainbow said before being cut off.
"Showoff?!" Rarity exclaimed. "I would rather prefer the word, presenting."
"Fine." Rainbow said.
"Thank you, Dash." Rarity thanked.
"As I was saying, Rarity was being a 'presenter' with these fancy wings that can support flight, but they burned up from the sunlight." Rainbow explained.
"How far up were you guys?" I asked.
"I don't know, but pretty high up in the sky," Rainbow replied. "When I saw the make up overdoer fall and scream like a damsel in distress, I quickly sprung into action." Rainbow said.
"Makeup overdoer?" I asked.
"Ugh, I had way too much makeup on that day, and now that I look back, it made me look absolutely hideous." Rarity shuddered.
"Yeah! The amount of red lipstick on her lips made them look like thick, oversized red peppers." Pinkie chipped in.
"Let's not forget about the mascara as well." Rarity added.
"Oh, Celestia, that was beyond the average amount." Rainbow said.
"Such terrible crimes against fashion." Rarity sighed, planting a hoof on her head.
"Alright, can we stop with the pick on Rarity day and get on with the story?" Spike asked, rather annoyed.
"Okay, okay, we're done." Rainbow said.
Rarity smiled gleefully at Spike in response for standing up for her and Spike looked down shyly at her gaze. I thought that was kinda cute.
"So then, I quickly flew down alongside with the Wonderbolts who were knocked out and were unable to save her. Once I got at a fast enough speed, I pointed my forelegs in a diving position to speed up even more than before. The pressure was so much, that I could feel parts of my face literally move around and a stream of tears was sucked from my eyes. I got even more faster and everything became a white blur, forcing me to close my eyes, but I remained on target. I managed to slightly open my eyes and the impact to the ground seemed imminent. I used up all the energy I could muster and before I knew it, I had created a sonic rainboom and saved my friends in the process. I made an instant acute turn and noticed a rainbow being formed as a trail of where I flew behind me. After heroically saving the day, I rose back into the sky and placed Rarity and the Wonderbolts on solid cloud." Rainbow told in a suspenseful tone.
"Whoa.... That had to be intense, Rainbow." I said, impressed with the tale.
"Believe me, it was." Rainbow said.
"And Fluttershy also managed to cheer for Rainbow." Twilight said.
"I never raised my voice so loud in my life. It just... came out naturally." Fluttershy said.
"Well good for you, Fluttershy." I supported.
"Thank you." Fluttershy said.
"So, now that you're back here in Ponyville, Pinkie thought it be nice to throw a little somethin-somethin for you." Twilight announced.
"And what would that be, Pinki--" I said, turning my head towards Pinkie original position, but nowhere to be seen. "What?" I asked, confused.
"Looks like she left to make a few finishing touches." Rarity said.
I small grin began to grow on my face.
"Oh, I think I have an idea of what the somethin-somethin is." I said, sleekly.
"Well let's go then!" Rainbow declared.
We then left the train station and ventured back to Twilight's.
On the way back to Twilight's library, we came across multiple ponies that have also noticed I've been gone for three months. I just simply answered their questions with the whole studying up in Canterlot spiel. I know lying stinks, especially towards my friends, but I have to keep C.A.M.A a secret and make sure Twilight, the most trustworthy pony I know, is the only civilian pony who knows about it.
Ponyville hasn't really changed over the course of three months, but like I said before, spring is taking its rightful place. The sun was shining high in the sky, green grass is beginning to sprout from the ground, flowers are on the verge of blooming and displaying their vibrant colors, and the trees are finally growing leaves again. Besides from the environmental changes, the aroma of wet soil filled the air, so it must've been raining here earlier. Not important, but I thought it would be a nice little descriptive tidbit.
But anyways, after our walk back to Twilight's, Rainbow Dash insisted that I should go first for some reason.
"Give Caleb some room. Let him go first." Rainbow said to the four mares and Spike.
"Why should I go first?" I asked.
"Just being polite." Rainbow replied.
"Hmmmmm." I said while rubbing my chin.
I then headed to the lowest window next to the door and peeked into it, only to find that the window shade was down.
"Damn, they thought of everything." I whispered to myself.
I walked back over to the door while eyeballing Rainbow, who had her forelegs crossed as she slowly flapped her wings in the air. When my hand went for the doorknob, I could hear Rainbow stifling a laugh.
"What's so funny?" Applejack asked Rainbow.
"No, shhhhh!" Rainbow hushed.
I slowly went for the doorknob once again and Rainbow was starting to crack up again.
"Don't laugh, Rainbow!" I laughed as I took my hand off the doorknob. "If you laugh, then it only makes my hunch of a bad feeling only increase." I said.
"No, no, its nothing, I just thought of something really funny." Rainbow excused.
I then placed my hand back on the doorknob and began to slowly turn it to the left.
"Whatever you say, Rainbow. I'll be ready fo--" I jinxed myself.
"SURPRISE!" Pinkie's high-pitched voice shouted from inside the library.
"HOO!" I exclaimed, startled.
For a split second, I could see Pinkie Pie behind a light blue cannon that was a bit smaller than her. Once that split second past, the cannon let out a squeaking sound as it fired and my vision was blinded my small pieces of confetti and streamers that were fired out of the cannon's muzzle. I flinched and closed my eyes in response. I slowly opened my eyes and Pinkie was on the verge of laughing while Rainbow was dying back there.
"Gotcha!" Pinkie exclaimed.
"You should see yourself!" Rainbow said as she laughed.
I looked down and the frontside of my shirt and pants were coated with confetti, and streamers that draped over my shoulders and on my head. I began to laugh along with Pinkie and Rainbow as well.
"Dang! Got me good there," I said, picking pieces of confetti off my face. "I'm guessing you two are big pranksters?" I asked Pinkie and Rainbow.
"You betcha." Rainbow replied, wiping a tear from her eye
"The prankster duo." Pinkie added.
"I could see Pinkie doing something like this, but not you, Rainbow. I mean geez, you're tearing up from this." I said.
"Oh, I'm a huge prankster, Caleb," Rainbow said. "And it's not tears, it's humor water." Rainbow corrected.
I scoffed to her correction.
"You should've seen the prank she pulled on Gilda." Pinkie brought up.
"And who would that be?" I asked.
"She's just an old friend. We don't really hang out anymore." Rainbow answered.
"Moved away?" I asked her.
"Nah, just some complications between her and my friends." Rainbow replied, directing her hoof towards the five mares and Spike.
"Ah, I see." I understood. "So, are we having a party or something?" I asked Pinkie.
"I can whip one up right now if you'd like!" Pinkie offered.
"No thanks, but thanks for considering it." I replied.
"Okey-dokey-lokey." Pinkie said.
"But maybe we could hang out and catch up on things inside." Twilight suggested.
"Sounds good." I said.
I, being the true polite one, opened the door to let them inside, giving Rainbow a look that says, "I really hate you", but in a friendly way as she flew inside. She replied by giving me a little smirk.
"What about all this leftover confetti and streamers?" I asked Pinkie.
"My bad." Pinkie replied.
Within the blink of an eye, Pinkie literally became a blur as she cleaned up all the small pieces of confetti at speeds that you would most likely see in a cartoon.
"Done." Pinkie chirped.
"Um.... where did all of that go?" I asked Pinkie.
"Where I keep almost everything else." Pinkie said, pointing her hoof at her poofy mane.
"I- I guess that works." I stuttered.
Pinkie grinned at me in response and trotted inside the library.
"How does that even work?!" I thought to myself as I closed the door.
After having my mind get twisted in a knot, I sat my backpack and duffle bag next to the couch and slouched into one of the couch cushions.
"Any of you guys want something to drink?" Twilight asked everypony.
"Nah." we all replied.
"So, tell me guys, what's been going on since I was gone?" I asked.
"To be honest, not much really went on around here in Ponyville." Twilight said.
"Really? Nothing new went on here in the course of three months?" I asked.
"She's pretty much spot on." Spike agreed.
"Uh-huh." the five mares said in unison.
"Well, that's a bit anti-climatic," I said. "Did you guys do anything outside of Ponyville?"
"Oh, we were in the Hearth's Warming Eve play. Remember that in the letter we sent you?" Twilight asked.
"Oh yeah, right," I remembered. "Sorry, I couldn't go, because the teacher had me study hard that night, but he was still kind enough to give me the letter you guys sent me."
"That's alright." Twilight said.
"What were your guy's parts?" I asked the six mares.
"Well, first of all, I was the noble narrator." Spike boasted.
"Nice, nice." I said.
"I played the part of Clover the Clever; the advisor of Princess Platinum." Twilight said.
"And apprentice of Star Swirl the Bearded." I added on.
"That too. You really do know your Equestrian history well." Twilight complimented.
"Three months worth takes its toll on you." I said.
"And I was the elegant Princess Platinum." Rarity said.
"Elegant? She viewed the other races to be less superior and saw unicorns as the true master race. Quite a bitch if you ask me." I contradicted.
"By elegant, I meant her attire." Rarity said.
"Oh.... my bad." I apologized.
"But otherwise, she was quite unfair to the Earth and Pegasi race." Rarity agreed
"Hey, Caleb." Spike said.
"Yes?" I asked.
"What's bitch supposed to mean?" Spike asked.
"It's just a term us humans use to describe an unlikeable female." I answered.
"Oh my." Fluttershy uttered
"Huh. I never knew that." Twilight said, writing my definition in a notebook.
"Got any other words like that?" Rainbow asked.
"We do... but I'd prefer not to tell because they're pretty vulgar and rude." I said.
"Oh, come on!" Rainbow whined. "I could use a few more good insults in my vocabulary."
"No, no, I don't think so. I know you personality, Rainbow Dash." I said.
"Fine." Rainbow said.
"What about you, Pinkie Pie? What was your character in the play?" I asked.
"I got to play as Chancellor Puddinghead; the leader of the earth pony tribe!" Pinkie Pie said.
"I figured that." I said.
"Really? What made you think that?" Pinkie asked.
"In the history book, Puddinghead sort of looks like you. She has a shade of light pink for her coat and almost a similar manestyle to yours, but the colors were red and orange rather than your mane color." I said.
"Y'know, she does kinda look like me. Maybe she's an ancient relative." Pinkie gasped.
"She might be," I shrugged. "Who got the part as Puddinghead's secretary?" I asked.
"That would be me. I got the role as Smart Cookie." Applejack replied.
"Smart Cookie seemed like the polar opposite of Chancellor Puddinghead. Cookie was more... rational and collective. Not trying to say that you're not that, Pinkie." I said.
"No need to worry, Caleb." Pinkie said.
"And I can already guess who got the role of Commander Hurricane and Private Pansy." I said.
"That would be me and Rainbow." Fluttershy spoke up.
"Heh, the best pair of them all." Rainbow said.
"Just like Puddinghead and Pinkie, both of you share similar personalities to your roles." I said to Rainbow and Fluttershy.
"We sure do. That's why we chose to participate in the play." Fluttershy agreed.
"Pretty coincidental how you six are somewhat similar to the six founders of Equestria," I said. "Those six ponies defeated the ancient windigos, and you six basically saved Equestria from eternal night and Nightmare Moon." I compared.
"I know, right?" Twilight agreed. "Thankfully, that's the biggest challenge we've faced so far." Twilight said.
"So, other then your parts, how did the rest of the play go?" I asked.
"It went great. There was a large attendance, nopony messed up any lines, well acted, and was one a performances at the Hearth's Warming pageant." Twilight replied.
"Awesome! Win anything?" I asked.
"No, it was just something we seven participated in." Twilight said.
"Oh, okay." I said.
"What about you? What did you do to spend your Hearth's Warming Eve?" Fluttershy asked.
"Me? I just studied, read the letter from you guys, chugged down a carton of eggnog, and passed out." I said.
"Woah, be careful, Caleb. Too much alcohol can really mess up your liver or poison you." Twilight warned.
"I know, but that was my first alcoholic beverage I've had in a long time." I assured.
"Well, that's good news." Twilight said with a sigh.
"Anything else go on here while I was gone?" I asked.
"Winter Wrap Up was put into effect a week ago." Twilight replied.
"Yeah, a royal guard was telling me about that." I said.
"Why in the world would a royal guard need to defend a school? Don't they only defend the Canterlot castle?" Rarity asked.
"No, I came across one walking the streets while I was taking a break." I lied.
"Oh, of course, what am I thinking? I guess some guards have to defend the city as well." Rarity said.
"That's alright. Now how exactly do ponies make the transition from winter to spring? Back in my world, winter transitions to spring from the earth tilting downwards." I said.
"Alright, so there's three teams: Weather, Animals, and Plants." Twilight began.
"The weather team's duty is to heat things up, cloudbust, and melt all the snow." Rainbow Dash said.
"The animal team's responsibility is to wake every critter, small and large, from their long hibernation." Fluttershy said.
"And the plant team is responsible for clearing snow from the fields and planting seeds for the crops." Applejack said.
"And all of this gets done in one day?" I asked.
"You betcha. Start at the crack of dawn and work until the job's done." Applejack replied.
"You guys sure work fast. Sometimes it takes an extra month or two for it warm up in my world, but that's mostly because I live up in the northern region of America. " I said.
"The southern region's probably warm up faster." Applejack said.
"Oh, hell yeah. Temperatures for a southern winter can stay in the sixties or seventies." I said.
"Lucky them." Rainbow said.
"No kidding. Then you got me who lives up Wisconsin, getting my car stuck a foot of snow." I said.
The sentence I stated brought the Defender into my mind. Completely forgot about it.
"Speaking of cars, is the Defender still outside the library, Twilight?" I asked.
"Nope. They sold it for extra bits." Rainbow Dash kidded.
"Very funny, Rainbow. You ain't foolin' me." I said.
"She's just joking. It's right out back." Twilight said.
"Uhhhh, where's the fuel pump fuse?" I asked.
"The little blue chip?" Spike asked.
"Yes." I said.
"I set it on the wooden round table." Spike said, pointing his index claw at the table.
"Thanks, Spike." I thanked.
I rose off the couch and walked over towards where Spike pointed. Just like he said, the little blue chip was sitting on the front of the roundtable.
"Whatcha' gonna do?" Rainbow asked.
"Start it up." I replied.
"I'll come with you." Rainbow said.
"Kay' then. Anypony else?" I asked.
"We'll wait for you in here." Twilight replied.
"And, darling, I just wanted to let you know I cleaned all that dirt off your Defender." Rarity said.
"Thanks, Rarity! Too much dirt for ya?" I said.
"Oh, it was absolutely filthy! I cannot stand that much dirt!" Rarity shuddered.
"That's Rarity alright." Applejack said.
Me and Rainbow Dash then walked outside to the Defender which was parked out back. I was surprised to see that the Defender now had a frost white body color rather than that brownish-cream color, which was actually dirt and dust debris. I guess the previous owner was an off-roader.
Rainbow began to examine the Defender from the wheels-up.
"Sooo, what is this thing supposed to be again?" Rainbow asked in skepticism.
"It's called an automobile, or a Land Rover Defender. Something that the portal dumped into this world." I replied.
"The same one you came through?" Rainbow asked.
"Yep. And I have a feeling that the portal is still active back in my world and is dumping stuff from my world into this one." I said.
"That's weird." Rainbow said.
"But, dang, this thing looks like pure gold now! Rarity sure did a good job at cleaning it." I admitted, opening the driver door.
I sat in the driver seat and Rainbow peered her head to check out the interior.
"Two hundred KMH?" Rainbow asked.
"Ah, the Defender must not be American. Two-hundred kilometers is about one-hundred and twenty miles per hour." I said.
"Ha! Still not as fast as me." Rainbow bragged.
"Oh, definitely. It would be impossible to steer this at the speed of sound," I said. "Now let's start this thing up."
I took the fuse and inserted into the designated slot on the fuse box. My feeling of anticipation drained immediately when the Defender's engine turned over for about three seconds before dying. I pulled the fuse out and tried again, but to no avail.
"Shit..." I whispered under my breath. "What are you going to do when you go out in the Everfree at night? Simply walk and carry all of that equipment?" I thought to myself.
"So now what?" Rainbow asked, breaking me from my thoughts.
"Okay, okay, Rainbow, I'm going to open up the front hood and I want you to look at the engine. Check to see if a yellow magic aura manifests around it when I try to start it up." I instructed.
"On it." Rainbow replied.
I then flipped the hood switch and Rainbow lifted it up, revealing the engine.
"Ready?" I asked.
"When you are." Rainbow replied.
I inserted the fuse back into the slot and the engine turned over once again, dying just a quick as it turned over.
"Yep! There was definitely an aura, but it's really faint!" Rainbow exclaimed.
"Good. That means the residual magic is still there." I said.
My guess why the Defender wouldn't start is because its been sitting here for about three months without any use, or the magic could've been fading for the same reason.
"I think we might need Twilight's help." I concluded.
"I'll get her." Rainbow said.
Rainbow quickly flew back into Twilight's library for her. Shortly after, Rainbow came back with the rest of the mares and Spike.
"What's the problem?" Twilight asked.
"I think the residual magic is wearing off." I responded.
"Mmm, I figured that might happen, but I wasn't sure," Twilight said. "Don't worry, I'll give it the little kick that it needs."
"Thanks, Twilight." I said.
Twilight began to work her magic on the ignition switch and filling the oil and gas tanks up just to be safe.
"This better work." I said to Applejack.
"Why can't ya just walk?" Applejack asked.
"It's just the convenience. This thing can cover a mile in thirty seconds if I were to get it that fast." I replied.
"That quick?" Applejack asked, flabbergasted.
"That's right." I said.
"I think it's pretty neat-o," Pinkie said. "Its got little eyeballs on the front!"
"They're actually headlights, but I like your imagination, Pinkie." I said.
"Thanks!" she replied, happily.
"Okay, Caleb. It should be ready now." Twilight said.
"Now let's see if this'll work." I said.
Once again I sat in the driver seat and inserted the fuse. The engine began to turn over faster than before and out of some miracle, it started.
"There we go. Nice!" I said.
I let my foot off the clutch and used my right foot to repeatedly rev the engine with the accelerator. Fluttershy jumped to the sudden loud sound and covered her ears.
"Y'alright?" I shouted over the engine.
"It's a bit loud." Fluttershy replied.
"I think it sounds awesome!" Rainbow shouted
"Sorry," I said, shutting off the engine and closing the door. "At least I know that it works now and thanks again, Twilight. Don't know what I'd do without you."
"Actually, I have to go get Sweetie Belle from Sweet Apple Acres." Rarity said.
"I'll come with ya." Applejack said.
"And I have to leave because it's lunchtime for all the animals." Fluttershy said.
"I have to finish a big order of cupcakes." Pinkie said.
"And I have to.... chillax for a while." Rainbow said.
"Oh, no problem, guys. You go do your things and I'll see you another time." I said.
"Thanks, Caleb." they replied.
"But before you go, just wanted to say thanks for seeing me again." I thanked.
"What are friends for?" Rainbow said.
"Right. We'll see you all around." I farewelled.
We then got into another big group hug before parting out ways for the rest of the day.
10:28 PM
For the rest of the day, I pretty much lounged around and enjoyed life. Later on that night, while Spike was fast asleep, I began to unpack my C.A.M.A uniform, camouflage outfit, and first aid kit. Twilight took notice to my unpacking and checked out my new stuff.
"That your uniform?" Twilight asked.
"Uh-huh. Pretty sweet lookin' ain't it?" I asked.
"Yeah, I like all the... black?" Twilight said, sheepishly.
"Night Hunter said C.A.M.A wanted to use as much black as possible so that I could blend in with the darkness of night." I clarified.
"That makes more sense, and a very smart decision. What about the camo outfit?" Twilight asked.
"That's for when I'm staking out any creatures and hiding in foliage. Helps out with the tactic." I said.
"Sounds pretty intense." Twilight said.
"Nah, those Timberwolves don't scare me as much as they used to. Like Night Hunter said, they're just giant pussycats when they see something bigger than them," I teased. "I mean, just take a look at me. Would you go up against a seven foot-eight human?" I asked, standing up in front of Twilight, who looked up at me.
"I gotta admit you are pretty intimidating when it comes to height." Twilight admitted.
"Heh, I know, I'm scary." I said.
"What's Night Hunter like?" Twilight asked.
"Why? Gotta crush or something?" I teased her.
"No!" Twilight exclaimed.
"I'm just messing with you," I assured. "Night Hunter is like the old, wise pony that is full of wisdom and experience since he was the previous patrol pony in the Everfree Forest. He has a temper, but that's only if you disobey him or mess up something really important. Otherwise, he's really likeable and is a good friend, too." I said.
"That's good. Glad to see that you're making new friends in Equestria," Twilight said with approval. "What day is your first night?"
"Monday night. Tomorrow I think I'll lay low and Sunday I'll have to go into the Everfree and check for any tracks or signs of Timberwolves in the vicinity, and that night I have to go out into an open field east of the Everfree Forest to pick up a shipment of the weapons and devices I'll be using." I said.
"You know how to use them?" Twilight asked in concern.
"I got them down pat." I replied.
"Okay. I'm just looking out for you." Twilight replied.
"And I appreciate that. Thank you." I said.
"Anytime," she said. "Well, I'm going to be heading off to bed." Twilight yawned.
"Kay'. See you in the morning." I replied.
And so, I finished unpacking and headed upstairs to catch some Zzz's.
Yesterday was when I had to head into the Everfree Forest during the day to check for any signs of Timberwolf, Cockatrice, Cragadile, Manticore activity in the Everfree and I'm relieved to say that I didn't find anything that be a major threat to Ponyville. However, I did find a few toppled trees near the South border of the Dovere territory. I suppose that's where the Timberwolves are hanging out at this time, fortunately.
When I get the bait mannequins from the supply shipment, I plan on placing one of them about half a mile from the Timberwolves position while the other three will be spaced out in that area. I don't want to place the mannequins too close to Ponyville because that would just draw them closer to civilization. And so, if I come back the next day and find a mannequin chewed, scratched, or knocked over, then I'll know that the Timberwolves are advancing their position.
Twilight has been very supportive of my recruitment in C.A.M.A, but I can see deep in her eyes that she is worried sick for me and wishes I don't go, and that's to be expected from Twilight's personality; a sign that our relationship has grown stronger.
Speaking of Spike, he revealed something quite shocking, in my book. Remember when I said that Spike blushed at Rarity two days ago? Well apparently he has a puppy crush on her or something. Very strange, but I like how Spike is going for what he wants. Who knows, maybe the stars will align whilst a blue moon occurs and they might get together.
But I digress. It was around midnight and I was about to leave Twilight's library to meet the royal guards delivering my supplies. Now let me remind you, the Everfree is a whole new goddamn ball game at night, so I have to be careful because Timberwolves aren't the only threats out there. The safest and quickest route to the open field where I'm meeting the guards is to take the path that leads to Fluttershy's cottage and continue eastbound until I come across the same path where I encountered my first Timberwolf. Well, like Night Hunter said, they're just pussycats when it comes to size. No biggie.
I then grabbed my black leather jacket, attachable flashlight, and boots, putting them on. Discretely, I went for the front door and gently gripped the doorknob, slowly turning it. The door emitted a quiet creak as the door began to open. Once I got outside, I couldn't see anything due to it pitch black because the moon was blocked out by the clouds that the Cloudsdale Weather Center placed in the sky, so I had to feel my way around. I turned my direction towards where the Defender was parked and I stuck my arms outwards to feel for it.
"Okay, where are you at?" I said.
While feeling around, I felt my knee impact against the metal body of the Defender.
"D'ow!" I yelped. "Found ya." I said, rubbing my knee.
After I hopped into the driver seat and started up the vehicle, I slowly pressed on the accelerator to proceed to Everfree, keeping the noise level as minimal as possible so that nopony would be woken by the engine, considering the diesel engine is quite noisy even while idling.
Once I finished navigating the many streets of Ponyville and crossing a small bridge, I was now entering the Everfree Forest threshold. The forest itself just had this whole different feel to it than it does during the day. I then picked up the pace and sped up to forty kilometers an hour.
After driving for a while and staying alert, I saw Fluttershy's cottage in the distance and shut off the brights and roof lights so that no excessive amount of brightness shines through her windows. Once I passed the cottage, I switched the lights back on.
I reached the left turn that leads out the open field where I first came into this world. It was such a funny feeling of being back here, literally. When I entered the area, it felt very static, like tiny surges of static electricity were surging through my body, but I just brushed it off as being the mild pins and needles sensation.
I looked around the grassy terrain and found a nice little spot to park that got a good view of Canterlot in the distance. Therefore, the delivery ponies will have no way of missing me due to having nothing obstructing the lights. Currently, it was twelve-twenty four, so the guards should be arriving shortly.
As I sat quietly in the Defender, I felt like I was being watched, but that could probably be my subconscious playing a mind trick on me. I still stayed alert just in case.
It was six minutes past twelve thirty and the guards had not arrived yet. While I sat in the Defender, I heard a faint whoosh sound come from outside. I quickly reacted and checked the outside to see if anypony was outside, but nothing.
"The hell was that?" I said to myself.
I then got back into the Defender and waited again.
*knock*
"Ahh!" I exclaimed to the sudden sound.
"Boo!" a white pegasus royal guard with gold armor said from outside the passenger window.
"Jesus, how long have you guys been out here?" I asked.
"We just got here. Thought we'd just mess with you." A grey guard replied.
"Ha! Funny guy!" I said in a raised tone.
"C'mon, isn't it funny after being scared?" the white guard asked.
"Yeah, I guess you're right. Good scare," I said. "Now, do you have my equipment I'll be using?" I asked.
"All stocked up back in the storage trailer." the grey guard replied.
"Captain Shining Armour also came down here to help you out with unloading. Said you seemed pretty trustworthy." the white guard informed.
"I've haven't seen him a while. Where's he at?" I asked.
"Right here." Shining Armour said from the passenger window behind me, wearing his usual purple armor.
"Hey! How's it going, Shining?" I asked as I exited the Defender.
"Pretty good. I can see you're really coming up in the world, huh? " Shining inferenced.
"Yeah, I start my first official night out in the Everfree tomorrow." I said.
"That takes guts, Caleb. Going up against all those crazy creatures that lurk the Everfree." Shining said.
"Ever see a Timberwolf before?" I asked.
"In pictures, but never seen one myself." Shining replied.
"I've only seen the glowing green eyes, but not the whole damn thing in person." I said.
"That had to be pretty spooky." Shining said.
"Spooky doesn't even come close to what I experienced that night. I was close to becoming Timberwolf chow that night." I said.
"Look on the bright side, at least you made it out of there." Shining said, optimistcally.
"Yeah, that is a big bright side." I replied.
"But anyways, we got your equipment and supplies you'll be needing for your long nights in the Everfree." Shining brought back up.
"Even the mannequins?" I asked.
"Yes, even the mannequins." Shining chuckled.
"Very good. Now let's get unloading." I said.
Shining walked over to the carriage filled with the supplies while I opened the Defender's back door. After I opened the door, Shining levitated all four of the mannequins into the cargo storage area and set them neatly aligned while I grabbed the iron sledgehammer from the trailer.
"These are your problems now." Shining said.
"Thanks." I said.
I followed Shining Armour back to the trailer and helped him load up my Defender with six month worth of MRE's and water.
"So, anything new going on in your life?" I asked Shining.
"Oh, you bet," he replied. "I've been in a relationship for quite sometime with a certain somepony." Shining said.
"What's her name?" I asked.
"Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, or just Cadance for short." Shining replied.
"Ho-ho, a princess, huh?" I said.
"The princess of love to be exact." Shining added.
"Princess of love? Okay, maybe lucky was a bit of an understatement," I corrected. "When did you first meet her?" I asked.
"The first day she came over to foalsit for Twilight. She was so pretty." Shining sighed as he reminisced on the past.
"Yeah, I know how you feel." I related.
"You had a special somepony too?" Shining asked.
"Sure did, but like most teenage relationships, we broke up. I remember that day we broke up. Jess' parents said she was crying her eyes out and I spent an entire day in my room sulking all by myself. It was by far the saddest day of my life so far." I said.
"Wow... that sounds very rough." Shining said with compassion.
"It was. But we moved on and continued with our lives. You're lucky to have your relationship is still going on for this long." I said.
"Why did you break up? If you don't mind me asking." Shining asked.
"To be honest, I think it's the fact that we were still kids, really. We were both close to being 19 years old and weren't exactly fully mature as I am today. But I think me and Jessica weren't ready for a serious relationship yet. Excluding our age at the time, me and her we're stressing out over how we would stay connected once we were in college because she wanted to go to different university's in different states. So yeah, that's pretty much why we broke up. Too much stressing over." I said.
"I suppose. Being that far away and not being able to interact with each other properly." Shining said.
"We could've used messaging apps and video call stuff." I brought up.
"Why didn't you both just use that?" Shining asked.
"Video chat and texting is just not the same as actually being there with the one you love in-person." I replied.
"Oh, I see what you mean now." Shining understood.
"Yep." I finished.
"Don't worry, Caleb, you might find somepony." Shining said.
"In this world? I think not." I said.
"Never know. Maybe a female human was sucked into the portal as well." Shining said.
"Does Twilight know about your relationship with her own foalsitter?" I asked.
"Not at all. Me and Cadance have kept it secret from her." he replied.
"Well, you should tell her. She'll probably flip when she hears about it." I said.
"Don't worry, I will, but I've just been pretty busy lately." Shining said.
Shining Armour and I continued to load up the last of the MRE's, water bottles, and extra medical supplies in the back on the Land Rover until the only remaining item left was the X-Ray sensor, the little speaker, the Ingenious, and the Timberferno. I took the two smaller devices and placed them in the cup holders up front. I went back to the trailer and picked up the Iggy, which now had a grip that was suitable for my hands.
"Does the E.U.P Royal Guard utilize these at all?" I asked Shining.
"Nope. We use spears most of the time. These pieces of technology are quite rare and take a lot of time to develop." Shining replied.
"Want a demonstration?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.
"Probably not the best idea. Might attract some unwanted attention." Shining referred to the Timberwolves.
"Good idea." I agreed.
I took the Iggy and sat it up front in the passenger seat, doing the same for the Timberferno.
"So, is that everything I need?" I asked Shining.
Shining went back to the trailer to double check.
"Looks like it, but Princess Celestia gave me one more thing before she authorized the delivery." Shining revealed.
"Is that so?" I asked.
"It is so." he replied, levitating a flat golden object.
"A golden ticket? Wonder if it says i'm invited to visit a chocolate factory." I thought to myself.
I took the ticket out of Shining's magical grasp and read it.
You're invited to the Grand Galloping Gala!
Spend your night at a royal ball to celebrate the anniversary of Canterlot's completion. Be sure to wear a proper attire and to arrive with this ticket for admission.
Location: The Canterlot Castle
Date: April 21st Time: 8:00 PM-12:00 AM
"Oh, nice! A party!" I exclaimed with excitement.
"And she also wanted me to give your this." Shining said, levitating me a small scroll wrapped with a red ribbon.
I opened that up and read it as well.
Dear Caleb Barlow,
Not only did I send you this ticket because you're a newcomer to the land of Equestria, but I also thank you for taking the duty of protecting Ponyville and patrolling the Everfree Forest late at night. It is truly a sign of bravery and that you care towards your new friends and those who live there at the moment. Thank You.
Best regards,
Princess Celestia
"Man, my life here keeps getting better and better!" I said.
"Sure looks like it. Most ponies who attend are high-class or very rich." Shining said.
"Brilliant. A party filled with richie-riches." I said with a roll of my eyes.
"I like that nickname. Richie-Riches." Shining recited.
"That's not the only nickname I can come up with, I have a whole lot more." I said.
"Nah, I'm good. Me and the colts have to get back the bunks and get some sleep." Shining said.
"Oh, right," I said, looking at my watch that read 1:02 AM. "In that case, I'd better let you guys get some sleep. I gotta set up these four mannequins quick before I head home."
"Alright, you be careful out there." Shining urged before he climbed back in the trailer and shutting it.
"I will. And thanks again for helping me out." I called back.
With that, the pegasus guards flew off into the sky, becoming as black as the sky.
"Welp.... Might as well get this over with." I said to myself.
I'm now arriving near the south border of the Dovere territories and I have to admit I was a bit nervous. I may now be more mentally tough than before, but I'm pretty sure nopony can't help but to get nervous while out in a dark forest with mythical creatures running around. Once I arrived at my destination, I shut off the engine, but left every single light on.
I then grabbed the Timberferno, twisted the valve, and exited the Land Rover. It was dead silent at night in this forest. So quiet that I could hear the engine of the Land Rover clicking as it cooled down and the sound of my boots scraping against the gravel-dirt path. I then opened the back door of the Defender and grabbed onto one of the pseudo pony mannequins.
Using the high beam roof lights that pierced into the dark forest, I slowly made my way into a small ditch that led into the forest. When I made it the bottom, I bumped into a huge log and stepped over it. Twigs snapped with every step I took and it was hard to tell whether it was me or perhaps a Timberwolf following me. I would occasionally turn my head left and right to check for any glowing green eyes. Luckily, I did not see any.
Once I reached as far as the lights would shine, I placed the mannequin on the ground and used a few stones to keep it upright.
"Perfect." I whispered to myself.
Checking the vicinity once more, I headed back to the Land Rover. My nerves were now more chilled out than before and it seemed like a breeze walking through the forest now. Stepping over the log once again, I made a brief climb up the ditch, placed a pile of stones as a marker of where I placed a mannequin, and got back into the Defender.
"That was easy. Three more to go." I noted to myself.
After reversing towards the direction back to Ponyville, I continued on with my little mission, but something caught my eye as I began to drive away. Out of the corner of my left eye, I saw a dark mass in the rearview mirror dart to the side of the forest where I placed the mannequin. My eyes went wide and I slammed on the brakes, reversing back to my original position that I just came from.
"Oh, no you don't." I mumbled as I quickly pressed the sweep button for the X-Ray sensor.
The pulse wave swept across the forest and no orange figures appeared. The mannequin I placed was about eighty meters from my position, so if a Timberwolf were attacking it, the sensor should've picked it up since the wave covers one hundred meters, but that didn't convince me enough.
I then pointed the low beams, high beams, and the Maxtel 4x4 headlights in the direction of the mannequin while the roof lights covered a three sixty degree circumference. I quickly grabbed the Timberferno, got out of the Defender, and fast-walked towards the mannequin. I was relieved to see that the mannequin was still standing in perfect condition with no signs of attack.
"Phew! Must've been my eyes playing tricks on me. Guess I should've expected that." I said.
And so, I once again got into the Defender and drove off to my next destination. I placed each mannequin in a different location with each stop. For example, I would drive over to the eastside of the forest to place one there while the other would be on the westside in order to have variation. After getting every single one placed, I headed off back to Twilight's library to get some sleep.
Once I got back to the library, I slowly crept upstairs and got into my bed. Twilight slept silently, which was a contrast to Spike, who was sawing logs. I'm surprised Twilight could've fell asleep with that amount of snoring.
"Maybe this job will be a breeze after all." I thought to myself as I laid in my bed.
I was awoken by the sound of a bird chirping a lovely tune from outside the library, prompting me to get out of bed. I raised my right arm up to check the time on my watch, which was nine in the morning. Knowing Twilight and Spike, she probably got up around seven or six in the morning along with Spike. But at least Twilight was nice enough to know that I was out late last night and gave me a couple extra hours of sleep.
After putting my shirt back on, I headed downstairs to make myself some fried eggs for breakfast. When I got halfway down the stairs, Twilight was levitating multitudes of books while Spike dusted the open shelves with a feather duster.
"Hmm. That's one way to start off the day." I thought to myself.
"There you are, sleepyhead. We were wondering when you were going to get up." Twilight said.
"Don't worry about me. Just a little bit tired." I said.
"You should see your hair. You look crazy!" Spike announced.
I raised my hand up to my hair and almost every brown hair strand on my head was standing up on end.
"I'll have to comb that when I'm done showering. What are you guys doing?" I asked.
"A little spring cleaning. It was getting really dusty back in these shelves." Twilight replied
"Want some help?" I asked.
"That would be great!" Twilight replied, gratefully. "But you should eat and get ready for the day first."
"I'll try to be quick." I said.
I then checked the food pantry for the carton that held a dozen eggs, eventually finding them behind the box of Frosted Oat Flakes. One of the eggs had a tiny crack on its shell, so I decided to use that one first. Simply using my index finger and thumb, I grabbed the egg, only to have it shatter into tiny fragments. However, the egg white splattered outwards towards my face, so my face was entirely coated with the slimy liquid. Twilight and Spike must've heard the noise because both of them peeked their heads from around the corner. Spike began to snicker as I turned my face towards their direction.
"Have a little mishap their?" Twilight asked.
"Sorry. Either I'm too strong or you bought grade F eggs." I replied, wiping the substance off my face with paper towel.
"That's okay. Just get that yolk off the floor and everything will be spick and span." Twilight said.
Spike's snickering had subsided, but he was still giving me a funny look. That's what brought that photo back to mind.
"Hey Spike, you remember that photo we took the day I got back from meeting Celestia and Luna?" I asked.
"What about it?" he asked.
I quickly walked up the stairs and searched my duffel bag for the photo. Once I found it, I headed back down and showed Spike's little mistake in the picture.
"Aw, don't you just love it when there's that one person who blinks in a photo?" I asked Spike.
"What?" Spike asked as I handed him the photo.
Spike examined the photo and instantly found his mistake.
"Oh come on! Why did I have to blink?" Spike asked himself, claw-palming himself.
"To bright for you, Spike?" I teased. "And that's for all the nicknames you gave me, Spike, so we're even."
"Alright, we're even." Spike accepted as we shook on a truce.
With our little friendly feud out of the way, I proceeded to make some fried eggs on the stove. With a little bit of salt, any fried egg can become delicious, in my book. After I finished my eggs, I headed upstairs and got into a fairly cool shower to wake myself up some more. Following my shower and doing my morning routine, I put on a light green t-shirt and a pair of shorts.
I then went back down the stairs to see what I could do to help out around the library.
"Okay, so what do you have?" I asked Twilight.
"Since me and Spike got up earlier, most of the cleaning is done, as you can see." Twilight said, directing her hoof around the room which looked rather cleaner than it did before.
"It actually does look more cleaner now. Looks pretty good." I said.
"Thanks," Twilight replied. "But the plants outside could use a tiny bit more of water." Twilight said.
"Alright, that sounds easy as can be. Just the ones out front and back?" I asked.
"Those and the plants hanging out the windows on the red ledges." Twilight added.
"Got it." I said.
"The watering can should be outside all filled up for you." Spike informed me.
I opened the door and stepped outside to the warm weather that spring had to offer. In the distance, I could hear the laughter and sounds of little fillies and colts playing the distance. It's just a really beautiful place Ponyville is. I looked to my left and saw a dark green watering can sitting next to the door. I grabbed it and began to water the foliage that grew right up against the front of the Golden Oak Library. Once that section had been watered, I headed on over the patch of yellow sunflowers and white daisies that grew behind the library, and so on and so forth.
Once every single plant on the property had a decent amount of water, I headed back inside to refill the can and finish the plants located outside the windows. I headed upstairs once I got the windows on the first floor all finished. I began with the large window that was next to Twilight's bed and proceeded to open the window. I looked down and found the red ledge that held the lush, light green plants that hanged like a weeping willow tree. As I watered the plant, I heard a "Hoo."
"Yes, Spike?" I replied, thinking it was Spike playing a little joke on me.
"Hoo." the source replied.
"Okay, Spike, we agreed with no more silly games." I said.
"Hoo-hoo." the voice replied.
I stopped watering and turned around, but nopony was there.
"Umm..." I said, confused.
"Hoo."
This time the sound came from above me and I looked upwards, only to find a large owl perched on the ceiling. It had a light brown body, dark brown wings, and black eyes.
"Oh crap, did an owl get in here?" I asked myself.
I took one more look at the owl before informing Twilight on my discovery.
"Hey Twilight." I called from the foot of the stairs.
"Yes, Caleb?" Twilight replied.
"I don't want to freak you out or anything, but.... there's like a really big bird in your room at the moment." I informed, pointing my thumb behind me towards Twilight's room.
"Big bird?" Twilight questioned herself for a second. "Oh, you mean Owloysius!" she exclaimed with a smile of her face.
"Ah, I see, it's your pet." I realized.
"He, to be exact." Twilight corrected.
"I never knew you had a pet owl." I said.
"He likes to spend time up in ceiling most of time, but he usually comes down every once and awhile." Twilight said.
"At first I was thinking, 'Did an owl break into our home while we were sleeping?'" I said.
"You'll like him, Caleb. Me and Owloysius got off to a rocky start at first, but we're friends now." Spike said.
"While you're up there, give him food. I bet he'll love that and will be a good first impression between you and him." Twilight said.
"I will." I said, heading back into the room where Owloysius was.
I entered the room again and Owloysius was standing next to the windowsill, looking out the window.
"Hoo." Owloysius vocalized, turning his head in a perfect one-eighty degree circular motion towards me.
"Hey there, little dude." I said as I patted his head gently.
Owloysius slightly ruffled his feathers to my touch.
"Want somethin' to eat?" I asked Owloysius.
"Hoo." he replied.
"You," I said, falling for that classic trick. "Can't believe I actually said that." I said to myself.
Owloysius responded by making a facial expression that could be easily be distinguished as amusement. I didn't know owls could make human facial expressions, but in a world of technicolor ponies, I guess anything is possible.
Owloysius then flew away to another part of the room and landed onto a night stand.
"Hoo." he vocalized, using his wings like a hand and pointing downwards at the drawer.
"Is that where the food is?" I asked Owloysius, figuring he understood English.
"Hoo." he replied.
"I'll take that as I yes." I said.
I opened the drawer and found a plastic bag filled with insects.
"Crickets?" I asked Owloysius.
"Hoo-hoo." he replied, nodding his head.
I opened the seal for the bag and dumped five fairly large crickets into the palm of my hand.
"Here you are." I said as I presented the crickets to Owloysius.
Owloysius immediately bent down and snatched a cricket into his beak, slightly poking my palm while at it. He did this for the other four and took a look at me for a second after he finished.
"Hoo." he said before he flew back up to the ceiling and perched himself on another beam.
"Your welcome." I said, raising my right hand upwards.
Owloysius emulated my actions with his right wing in response.
With that, I continued to water the rest of the plants that were in the upstairs section of the library. That took no more than eight minutes before heading back downstairs. Twilight was just putting the books back on the shelves while Spike was checking out one the books.
"Okay, I'm finished." I declared.
"Thanks for the help." Twilight thanked.
"No problem." I said.
"Haaaah, so what now?" Spike sighed.
"We could go on little walk if you want. It's a beautiful day outside." Twilight suggested.
"I'm up for it." Spike said.
"What about you, Caleb?" Twilight asked.
"Sorry, I gotta go for a little drive." I said, putting the emphasis on the word, drive.
Twilight seemed to get the message and winked at me.
"That's okay. We'll probably be walking through the town square and back here." Twilight informed.
"Sounds good. I'll see you guys later." I said.
"See you in a while." Twilight said as she closed the door along with Spike.
"Okay, let's see if the Timberwolves took the bait or not. This oughta be a treat."
I went upstairs to my duffel bag to find the fuel pump fuse and headed outside to the Land Rover. After it started up nicely, I drove into the Everfree Forest to check out the mannequins I placed early in the morning today.
Well, the Everfree Forest is definitely more inviting during the day. The amount of trees makes the paths a bit shady, but sunlight still shines through. A lot of wildlife is also out and about rather than at night. There were lots of birds flying around and a constant amount of rabbits and squirrels would sit by the side of the path, waiting for my vehicle to pass before crossing. If there's any deer in this forest, then I hope they have street smarts as well.
I would frequently check the left side of the path to find the pile of stones that I placed as a marker, so that I know where a mannequin is. Eventually, I found the first one that was closest to Ponyville while the other two are on the east side of the forest while the other one is half a mile south of my position at the moment.
I shut off the engine and exited the Land Rover. The section of the forest near southern border of Dovere is pretty dense, but I could still easily see. As I arrived to the mannequin, I found out that it was in perfect condition; no attacks, nothing. I then took a huge chunk of time to inspect the ground for any tracks. It takes time, but it's worth it for the safety of Ponyville and Zecora. Speaking of Zecora, I think she lives somewhere out here by the southern border of Dovere. Hope the Timberwolves aren't bothering her.
I found no sign of Timberwolves or any other creature in this sector. Therefore, I continued to the two mannequins placed in the east side of Dovere, those two mannequins were also clear of no attack or signs of Timberwolf activity. This brought some relief to me because I knew that the Timberwolves were not roaming in multiple sectors, but is that the same for the last one?
After taking a right, travelling a mile west, and taking another right, I arrived at my first marker. I proceeded down the small ditch and raised my foot to step over the large log, but something wasn't right. I looked down.... and found out that the log was long gone.
"Did somepony move it?" I said before I realized what the log really was. "Oh my god." I groaned as I placed both palms on my face.
Yep. That log was actually a Timberwolf positioned in a way that would imitate a log. Firstly, the Timberwolf was protected by the cover of the ditch and that saved it from getting shined on. Second, I bet you that the roof lights are what saved me from the Timberwolf getting up and following me deep in the forest. And three, that dark mass was a Timberwolf after all because I came across the mannequin.
The mannequin was knocked over and teeth marks were indented near the jugular area of the pony mannequin. Scratch marks were visible near on the the left side of the mannequin. From my best guess, there was only two of them. I could tell from the paw prints because two sets of prints headed to the north, but these prints were more spaced out, almost as if they were running after something.
Curious, I followed the tracks to see where the Timberwolves headed off to. I followed the tracks further and they eventually became more rapid and less spaced out as if they were slowing down. I looked up and found a tree that was knocked over and laid on the ground, the roots exposed.
"Why would they knock over a tree?"
I walked next to the tree and took notice to a large gaping hole on the side of the tree. All around the hole were numerous, deep slash marks and teeth marks that were imprinted onto the tree, indicating an attack. I peeked into the hole and found a surplus of acorns stored inside and a few small splotches of blood inside that stained the wood.
I took both of my arms and wrapped them around the tree, effortlessly moving the fairly thick tree to the side to check if anything was under it, but found nothing. The paw prints had changed course after the attack and headed back in the direction of the dented mannequin. From what I've seen, they must've been defending their territory, but what they don't know is that they are in my territory now. I got a plan up sleeve and they'll be in for a big surprise tonight.
Heading back to the mannequin, I inspected the area for a good place for an ambush attack. There were many bushes to hide and wait, but I think that may be too risky, so I decided to check out the trees in the area. There were also a lot of good trees to hide in, but none had the right characteristics to be perfect. That's what I thought until I found the one: a tree with an abundance of dark green leaves that could keep me hidden, fairly tall, and a bare patch that has no leaves. This patch would give me a good angle to aim at the Timberwolves. It was perfect for a surprise attack.
I went back and forth, climbing up the tree and positioning the mannequin to find the perfect angle to fire at the Timberwolves if they take the bait. Once I finally found the perfect angle, I double checked the area once more and found no other evidence. My plan for tonight was set and I knew what I was going to do. I then got back into the Land Rover and continued back to Ponyville for the rest of the day.
"At least my first night will be interesting." I said to myself as I drove away.
I drove on the west path of the Everfree Forest to get back to Ponyville since it's basically straightforward and leads towards one of Ponyville's entrances. This path also T-intersects with the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres, so I might as well check on how the apples trees are doing in the season so far.
When I approached Sweet Apple Acres, I took a gander at the trees, and so far the leaves are pretty much what have grown for now, but I could be wrong because apple buds are pretty small. As I drove past the rows of apple trees, I noticed a familiar orange pony examining one of the trees. I slowed down, pulled over to the side of the white fence and opened the sliding window.
"Howdy, Caleb." Applejack greeted.
"Hey Applejack," I replied. "Whatcha' doin'?" I asked.
"Just checkin' out on these here apple trees. Seems like it's taking more time than usual for the buds to show up." Applejack said.
"You know why?" I asked.
"I have no idea, but it could just be a short delay I guess." Applejack assumed, looking up at the budless tree.
"Well, I hope that they start sprouting soon. Those apples sure are delicious." I said.
"Oh, why thank you, Caleb," Applejack thanked. "What're you doin' out there in the Everfree?"
"Just taking a drive. Gotta get this puppy some use or else it'll go dead again." I replied.
"Keep at it then. That Land Rover of yours can sure cover a lot of ground pretty quick." Applejack said.
"It sure does," I said. "How's your wonderful family?"
"They're doing mighty fine. Big Mac's been helping me out with the hard work, and Granny Smith's doing a good job at keeping the garden looking nice and dandy." Applejack replied.
"What about Applebloom?" I asked.
"She's helps out with minor tasks, but she's in school right now at the moment." Applejack replied.
"School, huh?" I asked.
"That she is." Applejack said.
A idea then came to mind.
"You think the school would mind if I dropped in to surprise the kids?" I asked.
"I'm not too sure about that. Miss Cheerilee probably wouldn't take kindly to barging in on one of her lessons." Applejack replied.
"Is she like the mean, grouchy teacher?" I asked.
"Oh, no, no, no, she is the exact opposite of that. She's one of the most kindest and caring teachers you could ever possibly meet in all your days." Applejack explained.
"Oh, well that's great news." I said.
I checked at my watch and it was 12:04.
"Y'know, I might be able to catch them at after lunch recess if I drive over there fast enough." I mentioned to Applejack.
"Heck, you may be right about that." Applejack agreed.
"You mind giving me directions? I've never really seen the school for myself." I asked.
"Sure. Just keep heading straight, cross the purple bridge, take the first left, follow the path forwards and take the last right. Eventually, you should come across a red schoolhouse with a red flag tied to a pole." Applejack instructed.
"Red schoolhouse with red flag. Okay, I got it. Thanks a lot, Applejack!" I said as I put the Defender in first gear.
"You betcha. See ya later." Applejack said as she waved at me.
Once I reached the end of the Everfree Forest and crossed the purple stone bridge that leads into Ponyville, I followed Applejack's directions to find the schoolhouse. I continued on the straight path and took the last right. I was pretty much on the outer rim of Ponyville now. There wasn't much to my left, excluding the trees that I passed by, but I kept looking left until I saw a red building in the distance.
"This must be it." I said, looking at my watch that now read 12:15.
As I got closer to the building and white fence that acted as a perimeter for the school, I took notice of the sign with a book on it that read, "Ponyville Schoolhouse." The building's color scheme reminded a whole lot of the barn-house's colors at Sweet Apple Acres. On the roof of the building was a huge grey bell. I'm guessing that acts as the bell that signifies when school starts and gets out. When I sat in the Defender, a whole wave of small fillies and colts flooded out of the school and towards the back, supposing that recess had just started.
I pulled the Land Rover to the side of the road, put on the parking brake, and exited. I walked towards the school and right when I got on school grounds, a mare with a cerise coat, light green eyes, and a mane that consisted of the color rose and a whitish-rose mixed stripes exited the front entrance. She immediately took notice of me and a look of welcoming surprise appeared on her face.
"Caleb Barlow?" Cheerilee asked.
"Hi there!" I replied with a wave. "I'm supposing you're Miss Cheerilee?"
"Yes, that would be me. It's such a surprise to have you here, Caleb." Cheerilee said as we shook for the first time.
"I suppose this is a little bit sudden." I said.
"Oh, nonsense, it's perfectly fine," she assured. "What brings you to the school?"
"I thought it would be nice to drop in and surprise the kids with a visit, if that's okay with you." I said.
"I bet the the children would love that! How sweet of you." Cheerilee accepted.
"So, it's a yes?" I asked with anticipation.
"Of course it is. You have full permission." Cheerilee replied.
"Fantastic!" I said.
"Everypony should be in the back right now. We should probably get a move on because those little fillies and colts need supervision." Cheerilee mentioned.
"Absolutely. Let's move then." I agreed.
Me and Cheerilee began to walk towards the right side of the school where the fillies and colts are playing.
"So, you got anything special planned for the children this week?" I asked.
"Actually I do. On Friday, i'm taking the children on a field trip to the Canterlot statue gardens to teach them about what each statue is and symbolizes." Cheerilee replied.
"Really? I remember seeing this one statue that stood out from the rest." I said.
"Which one would that be?" Cheerilee asked.
"Ahhh, it's on the tip of my tongue," I tried to remember. "Ummm, it was.... Discord! The lord of chaos, right?" I asked.
"Not lord. Spirit of chaos." Cheerilee corrected.
"That's who he is. But anyways, that sounds like a nice, little educational trip." I said.
"Educational, indeed. My three students, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo talk about you alot." Cheerilee brought up.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure them three and this small colt named, Pipsqueak, are the only kids I've met in Ponyville. I've been going back and forth from Ponyville to Canterlot most of the time here and I think the parents were a little uneasy about me at first." I said.
"It was quite a scare back in November of last year, I'll admit. But after everypony listened to your speech, it really showed that you were really a kind individual with good intentions and emotions. With all the crazy stuff that goes on in Equestria, it's hard to tell what's friendly and what's not." Cheerilee explained.
"I can't blame them. I would probably freak out too if I were in their hooves and saw something like me for the first time." I said.
"Well, at least that's all in the past." Cheerilee said.
After our little conversation, we finally reached to where the fillies and colts were playing. Some were chasing after each other, some were by the swings, and some were even sitting innocently on the grass, just taking in the view. It sure was huge contrast to what I witnessed in the Everfree Forest like twenty minutes ago.
"Aww, they're cute." I said.
Cheerilee raised her hoof to her mouth and whistled to get the kids attentions.
"Attention, my little ponies! We have a very special guest who decided to drop by for a visit." Cheerilee announced.
Every single one of them turned towards my direction and noticed me right away.
"Look everypony! It's Caleb the human!" a filly with a light purple coat and opal mane, added to the announcement.
"Caleb!" a trio of three familiar voices exclaimed to my left.
I turned towards the direction of the voices and here comes the CMC running right at me.
"Hey, girls!" I replied back.
The three fillies then latched onto my legs in the form of a hug.
"What in Equestria are you doin' here?" Applebloom asked with excitement.
"I thought I'd pay you and your classmates a visit." I replied.
"Yeah! Think of him as a gentle giant." Sweetie Belle added.
"It's okay. There's nothing to be afraid of." Cheerilee supported.
The fillies and colts began to trot slowly over to me and their faces expressed amazement.
"Try sitting down. They might be a bit skittish on how tall you are." Cheerilee suggested.
"Watch out, girls." I alerted the CMC.
Once they slightly moved out of the way, I slowly sat down on my butt and criss-crossed my legs.
"He's huge." a colt with orange coat and dark blue mane remarked.
Within seconds, I had a crowd of small fillies and colts stared up at me interest, the CMC also joined the crowd.
"Caleb, how about you tell the children why you're here." Cheerilee said.
"Sure thing. Well, like your teacher said, I'm here because I thought I would drop by to visit the school and check on how you guys are doing. I've never really got to meet you guys too, so I thought, 'Why not drop by?'" I said.
The kids continued to look up and pay attention.
"How about one of you tell what you guys learn. I used to learn about criminal justice back in my world, like catching bad guys." I said.
"I can!" a filly wearing a tiara exclaimed, raising her hoof.
"Go right ahead." I said.
"So basically, we learn cutie mark magic and why we get them, but it doesn't really apply to me because I already have one." the filly said in a somewhat snobbish tone.
"Nice! And what is your name?" I asked.
"Diamond Tiara." she replied, slightly flipping her mane.
"Cool name. Goes with your appearance real well." I said.
"Why, thank you so much." Diamond Tiara thanked to her compliment.
"And I'm Silverspoon." another filly next to Diamond Tiara said.
"I like your glasses. Very fancy lookin'. You and Diamond Tiara are friends?" I asked.
"Best friends for better words." Diamond Tiara replied for Silverspoon, using emphasis with her snobbish tone.
Out of the bottom of my eyes, I could see Scootaloo mouthing something while looking rather annoyed, but couldn't make it out. I slightly lowered my lower lip in suspicion. A slightly thinner and taller colt with a orange coat and turquoise mane raised his hoof.
"Question?" I asked.
"What are those worm like thingies." the colt asked in a voice that sounded goofy, slow, low, and a hint of Canadian accent in it.
"Yeah, like.... What are those for?" a more rounded and shorter colt with a higher voice asked.
"These? These worm thingies are called fingers and make up my hand. They help me grab and hold objects." I explained.
A filly in the front row of the crowd was appeared to be fixated on my fingers at the moment. I looked at her and she looked at me.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stare." the filly apologized innocently.
"No, it's alright. Are you interested in them?" I asked.
"Your fingers are really cool looking." the filly replied.
"Here. Touch here and see what happens." I said, presenting the palm of my hand.
"The center?" the filly asked.
"Yep." I said.
The filly face lit up with interest and slowly moved her tiny hoof towards my large hand. When her tiny hoof made contact, I quickly flexed my index finger towards my palm. The filly giggled to my quick actions and made contact again. Suddenly, more children began to walk up and touch my hands. I found it funny how the children were treating my fingers like the most biggest discovery of their lives.
"Wow. Imagine how good you would be at video games." a colt wearing a striped hat with one of those helicopter twirlers at the top, said.
"You play videogames, too?" I asked the colt.
"All the time. I just can't get enough of them," the colt replied. "What's your favorite video game?"
"Favorite game.... hmm. Ah, when I was ten, my favorite game of all time was founded. It was called Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis. A game where you could design and build your own theme park filled with dinosaurs." I explained.
"What's a dinosaur?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"They're like dragons, but come in various shapes, sizes, and can't talk." I said.
"Wow. Your games sound more fun than the games that ponies get." the colt said.
"It does? Huh." I said.
I looked at my watch and it was now 12:24.
"Hey Cheerilee, how much time do you guys have left?" I asked, showing her the watch.
"Exactly six minutes." she replied.
"Six minutes, okay. Quick, CMC, what do you guys do for fun here?" I asked.
"We usually like to play four square over there by the fence." Scootaloo replied.
"Four square, that'll do," I said to myself. "Okay, kids, we're gonna finish off this visit with a game of four square, but it won't be your average four square." I said.
"What'll it be like?" Applebloom asked.
"I'll show you. Follow me." I said to the fillies and colts.
I then rose up and walked towards the white lines that formed the four squares while the children followed behind. In the center was a blue ball.
"Okay, so this version of four square will be testing your reflexes and is called King of the hill four square. I will be standing in the king square and every one of you will be trying to get me out only. It will be fast paced and the next player must enter the toilet square to keep the flow moving. Whoever can get me out will become the king or queen of four square. Got it?" I explained.
The crowd of fillies and colts all nodded and replied in understanding. I then chose three random kids while the rest lined up.
"Cheerilee, you mind shagging the ball for us?" I asked her.
"No problem at all." Cheerilee replied.
"Ready?" I asked, grabbing the blue ball.
"Ready!" everypony replied with enthusiasm.
"Go!" I exclaimed bouncing the ball into the square to my left.
Pipsqueak quickly reacted and swiped the ball back into my square, and I deflected that to the right square, where Aura shot the ball back into mine. I then hit the ball back into her square, but she missed the ball. Cheerilee quickly ran to where the ball was bouncing out of bounds and tossed it back towards me. For a teacher, she's pretty fast, but it could be the fact that ponies are faster than humans.
"Good try!" I called to Aura. "Next one get in here." I reminded.
Aura obediently moved out of her square and the next player entered the first square. I hastily shot the ball in the far left square where Pipsqueak was positioned, but he wasn't paying attention to the ball at the time.
"Gosh darn it!" he exclaimed with his British accent.
Next up was Applebloom and she moved into the square where Pipsqueak moved out. Sweetie Belle then moved into the first square while Scootaloo waited next in line. As I played against the three ponies, the rest in line's eyeballs followed the ball with each movement it made, focusing intensely on the game. Sweetie Belle hit the ball towards me and I hit it into Diamond Tiara's square, who was to my right. She hit the ball, but physics, angles, and directional force betrayed her, causing the ball to not land in the square, but out of bounds.
"Uggggh." she moaned without much sportsmanship, but I didn't mind.
Scootaloo then stepped into the first square. It was now me up against the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Sweetie Belle looked over at Applebloom and nodded, while Scootaloo quickly nodded her head as well.
"That can't be good." I thought to myself.
I began by bouncing the ball into Applebloom square, but she hit it into Sweetie's rather than mine. Sweetie hit the ball into Scootaloo's and she hit it into Applebloom's. They repeated the order numerous times and my eyes followed the ball. When the ball was passed into Applebloom's square again, I automatically looked over at Sweetie Belle, expecting the ball to go there, but the ball landed into my square and rolled under between my legs instead. The crowd of young ponies cheered for the CMC for that had achieved victory at King of the hill foursquare. The three fillies then joined together and bumped one of their hooves together in unison.
"How about that, Caleb?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"You gotta admit that was pretty clever." Scootaloo said.
"Okay, I admit it, that was pretty smart thinking. Good on you! Whose idea was that?" I asked the three fillies.
"It was mine." Applebloom replied.
"Oh, Applebloom. Being the leader of the CMC, I should've guessed it would be you." I said.
The CMC then moved towards the kind square and shouted in unison: "We are the queens of four square!"
Everypony clopped their hooves to the declaration of victory. With that, Cheerilee got my attention.
"Caleb, what's the time?" Cheerilee asked.
"Twelve-thirty one." I replied.
"Okay, little ponies, time to head back inside." Cheerilee announced.
"Awwww." everypony moaned.
"A word of advice, little ponies," I began, "You are very lucky to have this kind mare to be teaching you. Her job is to inform and teach you on what you'll be needing to know in the future ahead. If you don't know what you need to know, how would you be able to do it? Think about that." I said to the children.
The children began to think to visibly from the facial expressions. Once they accepted my advice, they all nodded and chatted in agreement.
"Thank you." Cheerilee mouthed.
I replied to her with a thumbs up.
"You guys keep up your hard work, I bet you a million bits it'll pay off in the future." I added onto my advice.
"Keep that advice in mind, kids. Now don't I have a lesson that I need to teach you?" Cheerilee asked her class.
"Yes, Miss Cheerilee." the fillies and colts replied obediently.
"Very good. Now say goodbye to Caleb, head back inside, and take your seats." Cheerilee instructed.
"Goodbye, Mr. Caleb." they farewelled innocently.
"Bye, kids." I replied.
Once most of the students headed back inside, I held back Scootaloo to ask her why she mocked Diamond Tiara earlier.
"She's yours, Sweetie Belle's, and Applebloom's bully?" I asked Scootaloo in surprise to the revelation.
"Yeah, she keeps calling us blank flanks and it gets really annoying at times." Scootaloo said.
"Ehhh, I'll talk to Cheerilee about this. You better head back inside and take your seat." I said.
"Okay, Caleb. Thanks for helping out." Scootaloo thanked while hugging my leg again.
"Your welcome. See ya, kiddo." I said.
"See ya." Scootaloo replied.
Scootaloo then ran back towards the school and I managed to catch Cheerilee before she headed back inside.
"Excuse me, Cheerilee?" I said from behind her.
"What can I do for you?" she asked.
"Look, Scootaloo just informed me that her and the CMC have a bully." I said.
"Oh, are Diamond Tiara and Silverspoon at it again?" Cheerilee asked.
"I suppose. I remember Applebloom telling me once that she had a bully, but she didn't say who. Now I know who those two are." I said.
"I guess I'll have to have a little chat with them after school, won't I? Perhaps their parents, too." Cheerilee asked.
"That you will." I chuckled along with Cheerilee.
"Well, I want to thank you again for dropping by for a visit, you sure are really good with kids." Cheerilee remarked.
"Yeah, I had a little sister named Eveline, who I would babysit back in my world." I said.
"I bet she misses you very much. Sorry to hear that you had to leave her behind." Cheerliee said with sympathy.
"No, no, that's alright. Sometimes it's nice to think about my family every once and awhile though." I said.
"Family is pretty important as they say." Cheerilee phrased.
"That they are. Okay, I'd better let you get back to teaching. I'll see you around, Miss Cheerilee." I said.
"You too, Caleb. Bye now." Cheerilee said with wave.
I took one more look back at the school and Cheerilee had just closed the door. I then walked back to the Land Rover and hopped back. As I drove away from the school, I saw a few fillies, colts, and the CMC by the side window on the left side of the school waving at me through the windows. I simply replied by waving my hand out the Land Rover's driver window. With that, I headed back to the Golden Oak Library.
"That was a nice little stop." I thought to myself.
At the moment, Spike was asleep while Twilight was still up, and I'm just putting on my camouflage outfit for my little Timberwolf stakeout. After I put my camo hat on, I quietly walked out of the bathroom, grabbed my backpack, attached the flashlight to my shoulder holster, and headed downstairs. Twilight was waiting for me downstairs, reading a book that involved the legend of Timberwolves. Legend my ass.
"All suited up?" Twilight asked.
"Pretty much, Twi. Just gotta get my boots on and I'm all set." I said, slipping on my boots.
I then grabbed the small fuel pump chip on the round table and headed for the front door, Twilight following behind. When me and Twilight walked outside, the sky was a mix between a light blue and orange in the west, while the east was more of a dark violet-blue mix with multitudes of white stars scattered all over the that area of the sky.
"What's all the boxes in the back for?" Twilight asked as she looked through the back door of the Land Rover.
"MRE's. Food rations just incase if I get hungry at night. I should keep one in my backpack now that I think about it." I said.
"That would be a good idea." Twilight agreed.
I opened the back door and unzipped the largest pouch in my backpack, placing a MRE inside it. In the back were also the Ingenious and the Timberferno, so I decided to put those in their designated side-holsters on the backpack.
"Whoa!" Twilight exclaimed.
"What?" I asked.
"What do you have there? Looks like something you would see in one of Spike's futuristic comic books." Twilight said, directing her hoof towards the Igneous.
"This? It's the Igneous-1007. It fires a yellow beam of magical energy that has the capability to turn anything it comes into contact with, into stone." I answered.
"But-- but that kind of magic is only something that Princess Celestia can posses." Twilight said.
"I know. That's because Princess Celestia's donated some of her magic for this weapon's ammunition." I revealed.
"You've got alicorn magic in there?!" Twilight shouted, but I shushed her.
"Shhhh. You'll wake Spike." I whispered.
"Right... sorry," Twilight whispered back. "But I still can't believe that you have alicorn magic inside there." Twilight said in her normal tone.
"Well, that training program did serve a purpose." I said.
"You're right about that. No way would Princess Celestia allow somepony to use a weapon with that great amount of power without training. " Twilight said.
"Yeah, no kidding. This things got a kick to it." I said.
I then looked at my watch and it was 7:50.
"Time to leave?" Twilight noticed.
"I probably should. The time that my shift starts is at eight and ends at three in the morning." I said.
"How do they know when you're out there or not?" Twilight asked.
"Actually, I have no idea. They never told me how C.A.M.A knows whether I'm patrolling or not. Perhaps they got Princess Luna secretly watching over me." I said.
"I doubt it. Princess Celestia once told me that Princess Luna watches other ponies dreams in the dream realm." Twilight said.
"Wait.... she can view other's dreams?" I asked, slightly nervous.
"That she can." Twilight replied.
I then shifted my eyes towards the sky.
"Oh, she better not have seen that one dream. If she did, then she probably has no idea who Jessica is."
"Thinking about something?" Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No, just... checking out the sky." I replied.
"It is quite beautiful, isn't it?" Twilight asked.
"It is," I said, grabbing my backpack. "Well, Twilight, I better get going."
Twilight looked at me and let out a slight sigh.
"All I have to say is that you be careful out there. Be alert and ready for those Timberwolves." Twilight advised.
"Don't worry, I will. I will see you tomorrow morning. You got my word on that." I assured.
"I know you will." Twilight replied.
"See ya tomorrow morning." I said.
"Bye." Twilight replied.
Twilight walked back to the front door of the library while I climbed into the driver's seat of the Land Rover. I took one more look at the library and Twilight smiled and waved at me. I waved back in response. With that, she closed the door. I took the fuel pump out of my pocket and slipped it into the fuse slot, causing the engine to come to life. I then put the Defender into first gear and ventured to the Everfree Forest.
After driving through the streets of Ponyville, I came to the east entrance of the Everfree Forest. I stopped and looked into the entrance. For a metaphorical statement, it seemed as if darkness swallowed the path, even though it was still slightly light out. The way the wind blew the trees branches, towards the forest, almost seemed as if the forest itself was daring me to enter. I sat in silence for a moment before my watch emitted a high-pitched beep. It was now eight o'clock in the evening.
"Caleb's comin' for you, Timberwolves." I quipped.
After switching on the high beams, roof lights, and the 4x4 headlights, I entered the Everfree Forest. As I drove deeper into the forest, I would occasionally press the sweep button on the X-ray sensor to scan the area for possible Timberwolves, but the only outlines that came up were from squirrels sleeping in the trees or rabbits inside their underground burrows. However, I kept the Igneous and the Timberferno close to my side as a precaution.
Of course, since it was my first night, my eyes would play tricks on me sometimes, and these were tricks this time, not a real Timberwolf. As soon as I would see something, I would react lightning fast and press the sweep button and the X-ray sensor, only to have nothing big show up. After I got used to the eye tricks, they began to subside.
It took me about half an hour, but I finally reached the marker of where the mannequin is located. I pulled the Defender to the right side of the path and pressed the sweep button again, picking up nothing. With that, I exited the vehicle, but left the engine running. I opened the back door and grabbed the sledgehammer before heading back to the driver's side to shut off the engine. First, I turned the valve on the Timberferno incase for any close quarters combat that I could possibly come across. I then reached for the fuse box and quickly snatched the fuel pump fuse, killing the engine. I turned around and ran towards the mannequins location. I jumped over the small ditch, but that jump made me high enough for my face to impact with a thick tree branch, snapping it like twig in the process. Weirdly, I didn't really feel much pain at all. I felt the impact clear as day, but the pain wasn't as much as I was expecting.
"Ugh, that was stupid." I groaned as I recollected myself.
After rubbing the bridge of my nose, I continued to the mannequin. Once I arrived, I quickly examined it, but found no signs of another attack. As I looked at the mannequin more, I thought it would be a great opportunity to use the speaker; the little device that is used to attract creatures, including Timberwolves. Setting my backpack on the ground, I unzipped the small pouch for the speaker device and pulled out the small black square.
"Let's see what you say." I said as I switched on the speaker and pressed play.
"I ever tell you about the time my buddy, Stardust, made sushi? Yeah, his mom took him to one of these sushi places for his birthday and it's like ten bits of su-sho in one of these places, and he figured he wouldn't like it, but it turned out he loved it, and so he thinks, "How hard can it be roll up raw fish in seaweed?" And it turns out... it's hard. Now, experience is the best teacher, and Stardust knows if you eat a whole bunch or raw rhubarb leaves, it kills you--." the annoying voice droned on before I shut it off.
"God, now I see why these creatures are attracted to the voice. They probably want to kill whoever's talking." I said.
But I still decided to keep it on to lure the Timberwolves because I really would like to get some action tonight. I then placed the speaker on the mannequins back. Once the trap was set, I walked towards the tree and jumped into it. I removed my backpack and settled it on a branch next to me. I turned the valve to close the Timberferno's flames and equipped the Igneous for the ranged attack. I flipped the switch for the Igneous and the yellow energy immediately filled the transparent barrel, emitting a low humming sound. I then got myself in a comfortable position and pointed the rifle through the clearing of leaves. And so, I began my wait for the Timberwolves.
"Shit, I hope the Timberwolves don't attack the Land Rover." I thought to myself.
It's now twelve o'clock midnight, and the Timberwolves have not taken the bait yet, but the speaker is still rambling on stories about this certain somepony named, Stardust. I've already blown through my MRE and water bottle, so now I'm just sitting around, waiting for the damn things to show. You see, my job right now is all about patience, similar to hunting deer during hunting season. And I would know because I used to hunt deer with my dad when I was younger. But yeah, not much has really been going on around here. I'll have to update my situation later on.
An hour had passed and I was beginning beginning to hear sounds, and these are even louder than the speaker. For example, I could hear multiple twigs snapping from behind the tree from where I'm hiding in. Not only that, but a strong, putrid smell filled my nostrils as well. To see if it's a Timberwolf, I pressed the sweep button and the wave swept across the trees and land. Slowly, two huge, dark orange outlines of wolves began to apparated from behind the tree.
"Holy shit." I whispered.
The figures were crouched and hunched over, just like a cat that was about to pounce. Suddenly, the two figures slowly side stepped away from each other; one going right and the other going left. Then the two figures began to circle the mannequin at a good stalking distance, probably waiting to see if the mannequin will move. As I peeked through the clearing of leaves, I could see a small pair of glowing green eyes in the distance. I slowly tilted my head downwards, using my camo cap to cover me. Pressing the sweep button again, I moved my eyes upward to see where the other wolf was at. I knew where the first one is, in the distance facing me, but the second one was right next to the tree I was in.
As I silently sat in the tree, the Timberwolf below me began to lowly growl. This caused the other to also growl as well. These low growls began to grow more pronounced and way more vicious, as if they were about to attack. My suspicions became true when the wolf below me pounced at the mannequin, the other emulating its partners actions.
"Yo, my buddy Stardust had this wagon drop in a lake off a bridge just like this one here--." the speaker began before the Timberwolves knocked it over, shutting it off.
I pressed the button on the X-ray sensor to see what position the Timberwolves were at. Currently, they were attacking their preferred takedown spot, the jugular area on the mannequin. Both snarled as they bit down, creating wooden chomping sound as their teeth clamped onto the metal surface of the mannequin.
"Now or never!" my subconscious exclaimed.
With one swift move, I turned on the attachable flashlight, creating a light that shined through the darkness, revealing two, large wolf-like creatures made out of various sticks, twigs, or for better words, wood. Giving them no warning, I aimed my sights at closest one and pulled the trigger, shooting a thin burst of magic towards the Timberwolf. A loud, droning, gunshot-like sound echoed across the forest and sky while the stream of energy came into contact with wolf, instantly turning it into a stone statue of itself. The other wolf immediately took notice to its partners demise and locked eyes with me. With no hesitation, I lined up the sights with the second wolf's head, racking a good headshot and petrifying it in the process. Just like that, I had successfully defended my territory. Sure, it seems a bit easy, but believe me when I say it was incredibly nerve wracking at the same time.
Before climbing down the tree, I pressed the sweep button once more to check my surroundings, picking up nothing. I jumped off of the branch and walked over towards the two, stoned canines. I shined my flashlight onto one of the wolves face and examined it. The two eye holes that held the glowing green eyes were now hollow, indicating that whatever was inside it had left and no longer in control. Now these two particular Timberwolves were pretty big, probably five foot at least.
After taking a good look at my two stoned canines, I went for the sledgehammer by the tree. The entire sledgehammer itself looked like a toy sledgehammer because of the size of my hand and me being seven foot-eight. After retrieving it, I walked to the left side of one of the statues and raised the sledgehammer upwards with my right arm.
"Yaahh!" I shouted, bringing the sledgehammer down and striking its back with brute force.
The sledgehammer went right through the statue, crumbling the entire thing into four individual chunks of stone. I broke those chunks into smaller chunks so that I could load them into the back of the Defender. After creating those chunks, checking the perimeter once again, grabbing my backpack, weapons and devices, I headed back to the Land Rover to start the engine again to turn the lights on. After turning the lights on, I loaded the chunks of stone in the back and went back to the mannequin to set it back up.
After that, I hopped into the Defender and drove away to the dumping location I picked out. The location I chose was a small pond in the middle of the same field where I came into this world. The water depth is about fifteen or twenty feet deep, so it should be good enough. Once I arrived at the pond, I unloaded every single piece of stone and created a pile on the ground. Taking one stone, I shot-put hurled it into the middle of the pond, making a splosh sound as it impacted with the water. I repeated the same action with the other stones until I was all out. Once all the evidence was cleared, I hopped back into the Defender, reversed and drove back into the Everfree Forest to begin a patrol.
Things seemed to simmer down after my little encounter I had earlier. I circled around the entire Dovere territories about three and a half times in the span of an hour. After that hour was up, it was now three o'clock in the morning and it was time for me to head back to Ponyville. When I arrived back, I kept the low beams on and the noise at a minimal. Pretty sure most ponies would be pissed if they were woken at three in the morning.
After taking a short drive through Ponyville, I arrived back at the Golden Oak Library and quietly crept inside. At the time, I was extremely tired and exhausted from my first night. At least I'll have something big to report back to Night Hunter, so that's a plus. After heading back upstairs, I quietly sneaked into the bathroom to brush my teeth and take a quick shower since I was pretty sweaty at the time. Once I was finished with that, I got into my bed for a well deserved sleep. Waking up at eleven o'clock seems like a good wake up time in my opinion. Heh, now I know how Luna probably feels since she's up all night looking over ponies dreams. I wonder why she even does that. But anyways, I'll probably document my nightly patrols in the Everfree if something big comes up. Whether it'll be another Timberwolf encounter, Cockatrice, or maybe even something that's not documented in Equestrian history, I'll be sure to document it.
When I woke up today, I was unsure of what I really wanted to do. Twilight and Spike were both gone when I walked downstairs earlier, so who knows what they're doing. But on the bright side, it's Saturday, and that means the weekend is here. That means I don't have to patrol the Dovere territories until next week Monday. However, I do need to mail a mandatory weekly report and a creature elimination form to Night Hunter, whose all the way up in Canterlot. And so, that's what I did.
First, I filled out the creature elimination form. I listed the specie, quantity, which was two, date of death. Y'know, the usual stuff. But when the form asked for a time, I didn't really know the exact time, so I simply wrote 1 AM. Once I had finished filling it out, I placed it in a envelope and sealed it tight, sliding my tongue on the top part, receiving that odd, sweet flavor that some envelopes have. Next, I got a blank piece of paper and got one of Twilight's quill pens and a bottle of ink from upstairs. I then began to write my weekly report letter.
Dear Night Hunter,
It is safe to say that the Dovere territories at the moment are safe and secure. Wednesday and Friday night were very calm and simple. Not a soul was out there that night. Well.. except for the more tamer inhabitants in the forest, but you know what I mean. Monday night, the first night, was the real kicker and the first time I've really seen a full body Timberwolf in real life. I found out it was a Timberwolves with the help of the mannequins. Beside finding a chewed up mannequin, I actually bumped into a Timberwolf, believe it or not.
What I thought was a log was actually a Timberwolf itself all curled up to perfectly imitate a log. So yeah, that was a real close one. What saved me was the roof lights on top of the Land Rover. To eliminate the two confirmed Timberwolves, I used one of the tactics you taught me in the training program; the one where I climb a tree and wait for the Timberwolves to show up while combining the mannequin and speaker device as bait. Using the Igneous-1007 and fast actions, I was able to clock both Timberwolves real easily with minimal effort. I then disposed of the stone remains and dumped in a pond where nopony would probably never even look. If somepony did find them, they would most likely pass them off as being large rocks because I used the sledgehammer in a way that made them more rock like, removing the characteristics of a Timberwolf. But besides that night, Wednesday and Friday was me just driving around the Dovere territories in circles, but it's worth it to keep Ponyville safe. That's all for now, but I hope to send you more letters in the future that will have way more interesting stories. Have a nice day, sir.
Sincerely,
Agent Barlow
After finishing my weekly report, I slipped that into another envelope as well and wrote the mailing info on both envelopes. Now all I have to do is drive over to the post office in order to send the letters.
I drove around Ponyville for awhile, trying to find the place since I had no idea where the post office was at, but I did eventually find it. When I parked the Defender by the side of the post office, I noticed that I was relatively large, so standing up inside may be a challenge. Turns out I was correct when I got to front door. I ducked my head and slightly crouched as I made my way inside the post office. Just one of the struggles of being tall.
Once I made it inside and stood upright again, I noticed a certain mare that I have not seen since winter of last year sorting through some mail at the front desk. It was Derpy.
"Oh, hi there, Caleb." Derpy greeted.
"Hey, Derpy!" I replied gleefully. "You work here at the post office?"
"I sure do!" Derpy replied.
"What are you doing there?" I asked her.
"Just sorting through the mail. I kinda have to be more organized than before." Derpy said.
"Why?" I asked.
"I would occasionally mess up on the mail destinations sometimes." Derpy replied, sheepishly.
"Ah, that's alright. Everypony has to make a mistake sometime in their life." I said.
"Do you have some letters that might need some sending?" Derpy asked, noticing the two envelops in my right hand.
"Uh, yes I do." I said, handing her the two letters.
"All the way up to Canterlot?" Derpy asked.
"Yep. Is that alright?" I asked.
"It is, but it's rare to have letter be sent to Canterlot." Derpy replied.
"Is that so?" I asked.
"Mm-hmm. Most letters that are sent here are mostly for sending letters to other parts of Ponyville, but I can fly up to Canterlot to deliver the letters." Derpy insisted.
"Well, thanks Derpy," I said, gratefully. "But it's pretty important letter, too, so try not to mix up the letter. Alright? And make sure to not knock the door of the house when you deliver it. The owner doesn't like to be bothered, so just slide it under." I said.
"Okay. Thanks for the heads up." Derpy said.
"You're welcome. I gotta get going, but it was nice seeing and talking to you again, Derpy." I said.
"You too, Caleb. Bye." Derpy waved.
"See ya." I said, grabbing a map of Ponyville on the way out.
I then hopped back into the Defender and drove back to the Golden Oak Library. While driving through Ponyville, I looked up into the sky to see if there were any pegasi moving any clouds around, but saw something that stood out from the light blue sky. Way high up, I could see a pink blob just sitting there in there, not moving at all.
"Ehh, it's probably just some experiment the pegasi are doing with the clouds."
Taking one last look at the mysterious cloud, I continued on back to the library without a care in mind about it. Right when I arrived back to the library and exited the Defender, I heard the suspension on the Land Rover begin to squeak and creak, almost as if it was bouncing up and down. I quickly turned my head back towards the Defender and saw that the body frame was slightly bouncing before settling down and became motionless.
"The hell?" I said, confused on what had happened behind me.
I walked to the other side of the Dender to see if anypony was there, but nothing. There was no explanation to why the Defender was shaking by itself. I then headed to the front door to go inside, peeking my head back out one more time once I entered the library.
Once I got inside, I thought of what I was going to do next.
"Lunch." I said.
I then made myself a grilled cheese sandwich with some of the cheese slices in the fridge and bread that was in the pantry. I cringed when I took my first bite because I accidently burned one side of one of the sandwiches I made. Yeah, I guess I left that one side on for too long.
After my disappointing lunch, I went upstairs to my duffle bag and grabbed the book on Equestrian history and opened it. I really didn't know what I wanted to specifically read until I remembered something that Cheerilee mentioned on Monday. What I remembered was our brief chat about Discord.
"He seemed like a real wacky thing." I said.
I looked for Discord in the table of contents and found it right away. When I turned to my designated page, there was supposed to be a depiction of Discord in a small rectangular area in the far right side of the page, but the picture seemed as if it was erased from existence, it was gone.
"Maybe I missed a page," I said, flipping back and forward through the pages, but couldn't find the image anywhere. "Okay, so what the hell? It's not like the picture grew legs and jumped off the book."
I looked through the book again one more time before giving up and closing the book.
"I know there was a picture of Discord in there somewhere." I said, rubbing my chin.
Right after I said that, I heard small raindrops hitting against the window behind me.
"Rain?" I said, turning around to look outside.
But this rain was far beyond any rain I've ever seen. The rain was brown as it ran down the entire window from the outside. Curious, I looked out the window and up in the sky, only to find more of those pink blobs floating in the sky, but more lower than before. I quickly ran down the stairs and stepped outside, the air had a sweet smell to it. Almost like... chocolate.
I opened the palm of my hand to have few of the droplets fall onto my hand. I was unsure whether to lick it or not, but I did. As I thought, the rain tasted just like chocolate milk, but very rich.
"Chocolate milk rain?" I questioned myself with utter perplexment.
While my mind was trying to comprehend on why this was happening, the Defender behind me began to violently shake again. I turned around again and I saw what was happening. Every single door on the Defender opened and closed over and over again at a rapid pace without stopping for a moment before something absolutely unnatural happened.
First, the suspension for the back tires began to extend outwards, with the tires still attached. Then the same thing happened to the front tires. So basically, the wheels extended outwards and are laying flat on the ground at the moment while the Defender's body rested on the grass. I ran over to the tires to see if I somehow put them back into place, but before I could touch the tires, the back tires stood upwards all by themselves. I backed up to the sudden movement. Then the two front tires did the same thing. What happened next is the real kicker that deems this unnatural.
Using the front tires, the Defender lifted itself off the ground while using the back tires as a pair of legs. Like that, the Defender was standing upwards like a human.
"What is this?!" I exclaimed as my brain began to fry.
The front side of the Defender began to curve downwards towards me, not breaking in half in the process. The headlights then blinked at me like a pair of eyeballs as Defender stared down at me. Unsure of what to do, I spoke to it.
"Um... do you.... speak?" I asked, but got no response.
The Defender continued to stare at me before it used the back tires to turn itself away from me. The Defender stared down the street ahead for a moment before it rolled away from me.
"Hey! Get back here!" I yelled at the Defender.
I sprinted after the Defender, causing it to look back at me. The Defender sped up more faster and it quickly outran me, leaving me in the dust.
"Shit!" I said.
Once the dust had dissipated into thin air, the Defender was long gone.
"Ugh, this is not good," I said to myself. "I gotta find Twilight."
And so, I began my search for Twilight Sparkle, who could be anywhere in Ponyville at the moment. The only unnatural occurrences that were going on so far was the chocolate rain, but I did find out what those pink blobs were.
As I was walking through Ponyville, one of the pink blobs floated all the way down from the sky and floated at a reachable height. I jumped up and got a little bit soaked with chocolate rain in the process, but the cloud itself was very sticky. I also noticed the another sweet scent that was emanating off it as well. I tore a small piece of the blob off and licked it, quickly dissolving on my tongue because it was cotton candy.
"Okay, this is trippy." I said.
Right after I said that, a mare's voice called my name from behind.
"Caleb!" the voice called, causing me to turn towards the source.
"Amethyst!" I replied.
Incase you're wondering, I kinda met more ponies in the span of this week, so I know a whole lot more ponies now.
"Is that a cotton candy cloud?" Amethyst asked.
"I know, right? Pretty odd." I said.
"Let me see that." Amethyst requested.
I handed her the cotton candy cloud and she squeezed it, causing a waterfall of chocolate milk to spray out the bottom.
This drained the cloud dry and turned the cloud into a soggy mess as it floated back up.
"Is this normal in Equestria, or is it something not normal?" I asked Amethyst.
"Not normal. I've never seen anything like this in my entire life." Amethyst replied.
"Huh. Yeah, some weird stuff has happened to me like ten minutes ago." I said.
"What happened?" Amethyst asked.
"Y'know that Land Rover I drive around most of the time?" I asked Amethyst.
"The giant white wagon thing?" Amethyst guessed.
"That's one way of naming it, but yes, it is," I replied. "So, I was standing-." I stopped, because Amethyst was pointing behind me.
"Who's that?" Amethyst said, softly.
I turned around and there stood a mare with a pink coat, violet mane with white highlights that flowed like smoke, and wearing one of those helicopter hats that Button Mash wears. Her most eye catching feature on the mare was her eyes. Her eyes swirled within both her pupils and irises. I got a slight feeling that this mare might be trouble, because she looked like a real nutjob from her appearance. Therefore, I instructed Amethyst to get behind me, just incase if something were to happen.
"Hi," I greeted to the mare. "Are you new here to Ponyville?" I asked.
The mare continued to stare at me with those swirly eyes until she uttered a sound.
"D-d-duaghh." she uttered.
"You okay?" I asked her.
"DUAGGH! DAHHHHHH! RAHHH! OUAGGGGHHHH!" she screamed in a goofy way.
"Jesus!" I exclaimed to the screams.
"What's wrong with her?!" Amethyst asked, confused on why the mare was acting this way.
"I-I-I don't know." I stuttered.
"DOYL-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L!" the mare vocalized as she used her right hoof to run up and down her lips.
The mare then levitated off the ground and floated away from me and Amethyst, continuing to make that weird sound.
"Okay.... that was not normal." Amethyst said.
"Geez, she was a real screwball," I agreed with Amethyst. "With that out of the way, where were you headed?" I asked.
"I was just trying to see if anypony knew what was going on, but it seems both of us don't have a clue what's going on." Amethyst replied.
"So it seems. I was looking for Twilight Sparkle." I said.
"Oh, I saw her and Spike heading to Sweet Apple Acres not long ago. They might be there." Amethyst hinted.
"Alright, i'll head over there. I'll see you around." I said.
Me and Amethyst began to run in opposite directions, and I was now on my way to Sweet Apple Acres. Along the way, things were getting more stranger and reality questioning. For example, I was running to Sweet Apple Acres, and here comes this herd of fucking rabbits with legs that had to be a meter tall. Also, when I passed a small garden, every single flower and plant were walking casually like people. At the time, I was drenched with chocolate milk and probably smelled like a chocolate truffle myself.
Eventually, I got on the path that leads to Sweet Apple Acres. While walking on the path, I came across Twilight, Spike, and the other five mares.
"There you are! I've been looking all over for you!" I said with relief. "Any of you know what's going on?" I asked.
"I have to go with Rainbow's response. No way I can explain my apples growing to the size of boulders." Applejack replied.
"Me too." Spike also agreed.
"I still don't see why this is a bad thing! Chocolate milk rain is the best thing that could ever happen!" Pinkie said in her usual happy tone while leaving her mouth agape to catch the chocolate milk droplets.
"And the animals. Oh, the animals..." Fluttershy trailed off.
"Yeah, I got a good look at them." I replied to Fluttershy's statement.
"A lot of odd events have been going on, but at least I remain dry from this chocolate rain." Rarity said, wearing this fancy, purple poncho with an umbrella attached.
I slightly scoffed humorously.
"What about you, Twilight?" I asked.
"Sorry to say, but I have no idea too." Twilight answered.
"Well, that I wasn't expecting." I admitted.
"But I did receive a letter from Princess Celestia, and it's urgent that we get to Canterlot." Twilight said, levitating the said letter to me.
I grabbed the letter and read it.
Dear my faithful student, Twilight Sparkle,
It is at extreme urgence that I require you, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash to meet me in Royal Canterlot Castle immediately. I will explain everything once you all arrive.
Sincerely, your mentor, Princess Celestia
"Whatever's she's requesting you for, it has to deal with all the these abnormalities." I said, handing her back the letter.
"Most likely." Twilight agreed.
"You want me to come with? I could possibly help out of something." I offered.
"I think it would be safe if you stayed inside the library and wait for us to return. I don't want you getting involved with this type of stuff because it may be dangerous." Twilight warned.
"You might be right about that. Alright, i'll let you guys go on your way now. I'll be in the library when you get back." I said.
"We'll remember that." Twilight said.
I stepped to the side and the six mare and Spike ran off back to Ponyville, presumably the train station. I also headed back to Ponyville, but took a shortcut to get back to the library more quicker. Along the way, I saw that one crazy mare floating in the distance, but thankfully she didn't see me.
Once I got back inside the library, I slammed the door shut and locked the door. After closing the door, I lied on the couch and tried to think of a reason why these abnormal phenomenons were happening. While thinking, I looked over to my right and saw the history book lying on the wooden round table. Immediately, Discord came to mind. I sprung off the couch and snatched the book off the table, opening it to the page on the whole story about Discord. When I looked at the empty image space, it became clear as day.
With all the crazy stuff that's been going on, and the history book stating different events that seem remotely similar to the events i've experience, as well the image being removed from the page, it made me wonder. Has Discord returned? I dwelled on the thought for a long time before I convinced myself the truth.
I sat on the couch as the thought about Discord, the spirit of chaos, ran through my mind over and over again. Most of these thoughts involved with what would Discord do if he were to find me, or what would happen to Ponyville if he were to arrive. Discord may seem like a silly, goofy draconequus due to what he has created so far, but I have no idea if he has a dark side to him. I sure hope he doesn't.
While I was sitting on the couch, staring off into space, somepony knocked on the door four times, causing me to jump.
"Caleb, it's Spike. Let me in." Spike said from the other side of the door.
I rose up to get the door.
"Quick, get inside." I said as I opened the door.
I then shut the door and locked it again.
"What are you doing back here?" I asked Spike.
"Twilight decided to send me back here right when her and others arrived at the trainstation." Spike explained.
"Oh, okay. Thought you were being chased or something." I said.
"About that..." Spike said.
"Aw, hell, were you followed?" I asked Spike, with concern.
"I don't think so, but this crazy looking mare with-." Spike said before I finished for him.
"Swirly eyes?" I concluded.
"You saw her too?" Spike asked.
"Sure did. She let out this weird scream at me and Amethyst when I met her," I said. "Did she hurt you?" I asked.
"Nope. But she did follow me for a short distance." Spike replied.
"But she did stop following you, right?" I asked again.
"I guarantee it." Spike assured.
"Good." I said.
"So now what?" Spike asked.
"I don't know about you, but i'm gonna take a shower to get all this chocolate milk washed off." I said.
"Wait. Weren't you wearing a white shirt earlier?" Spike asked as he looked at my shirt.
"Why?" I asked.
"It turned to brown." Spike pointed out.
I looked down at my shirt and it was now a whitish-brown color, since the chocolate milk absorbed into the fabric. I was so caught up with what was happening earlier that I forgot all about my clothing.
"Oh shoot! I gotta get this stuff out before this entire stain sets in!" I exclaimed.
I then dashed up the stairs and removed my shirt. Turning on the faucet for the bathtub, I filled the tub up with a decent amount of water and plunged the shirt into the water. I wringed the shirt underneath the water, causing the water itself to become brown. After letting it soak for about a minute, I removed the shirt and most of the whiteness had returned, but it'll never be the same as before.
"Oh, well, that'll do." I said.
After that, I got into the shower and washed myself off, and you wouldn't believe how much dried up chocolate milk washed off of me. Heck, it even left a brown ring around the tub once the all the water drained. I then put on some fresh clothes and headed back down the stairs, only to find Spike napping on the floor. I walked next to the slumbering drake and slightly shook him to wake him up.
"You okay, Spike?" I asked.
"C'mon, I was napping." Spike whined.
"Napping on the floor during a chocolate milk downpour?" I asked.
"Hey, i'm a dragon. Doesn't really matter where you sleep, and I bet you a million bits that Twilight and the others will find out a way to stop all of this." Spike claimed.
"Whatever you say, Spike." I chuckled.
"But I might as well make something to eat. I'm pretty hungry." Spike said.
"I'll be upstairs if you need me." I informed.
"Alright." Spike replied.
I then grabbed the history book and headed upstairs to read the story on Discord once again. To check on what was happening outside, I looked out the window and saw that crazy eyed mare floating by down below. She instantly caught sight of me and I ducked out of sight behind the wall. My heartbeat began to pulse a bit faster as I pressed myself hard against the wall. I could see the shadow of the mare casting onto the wooden floor as she looked through the window from the other side.
"Is somepony in there?" she asked in a voice that sounded like a mare, but had a hint of craziness in her tone.
A full minute had past before she spoke again.
"Perhaps not." she said again.
The black shadow then moved to the left and disappeared. I sat against the wall for about five more minutes before peeking my head up to see if the mare was truly gone. And thank God she was.
"That was too close." I said to myself.
I slowly raised upwards and went into the next room, where there wasn't any windows. I then laid on the spare bed that was in that room, opened the book, and began to read. And I have to admit, the story is still interesting after each read.
So apparently, long ago, before the birth of Christ, Discord once ruled over Equestria and was doing the same shenanigans that are present on this day. However, two sisters, being Celestia and Luna, used the Elements of Harmony against him to turn him to stone. Now that's just a basic summary of the story. And yes, I know that Celestia and Luna have already mentioned that to me in a previous entry, but I thought i'd just put it in this one anyways for a recap.
While I read the book for a while, I began to get a pretty sleepy. My eyelids would slowly close shut and I would quickly open my eyes for a few times before I just decided to give up and take a nap. With that, I set the book aside and drifted off into a deep cat-nap.
"Caleb. Caleb.Caleb." I heard Spike's echoey voice say in my head while I slept.
But his voice only grew louder, waking me up from my slumber.
"Caleb! Caleb! Caleb! Caleb!" Spike shouted from downstairs.
I jumped out of bed, knocking over a nightstand, and quickly stepped down the stairs.
"What? What is it?" I asked in a fast pace.
"Her!" Spike uttered, pointing at the front window.
I turned my head to the window and there was that mare, floating outside the window.
"He's here! "He's here!" the mare announced from outside the window.
I then grabbed Spike and took him up the stairs into the spare room and closed the door.
"What are we gonna do?" Spike asked, frantically.
"Okay, Spike, I want you to hide in here. I'm going to go out there and confront her myself." I replied, boldly.
"Are you crazier than that mare?" Spike asked.
Right after he said that, the door downstairs opened and slammed shut, signifying that the mare was inside.
"Oh-no, she's in the library!" Spike exclaimed, biting his claws.
"Shhhh," I hushed as I covered his mouth with my hand. "I'll be right back. I promise." I promised, opening the door and closing it.
I then jumped down the stairs and landed with a loud thud. I was expecting to see the mare standing down there, looking for me and Spike, but she was nowhere to be seen. I then slowly walked around the entire library section.
"Where are you?" I whispered, looking all over the place.
"I'm everywhere...." a charismatic, slightly nasally, soft, and wavy voice echoed throughout the room.
I remained silent as I looked all over the walls until I saw two large yellow eyes with red pupils looking down upon me on the ceiling. Before I knew it, everything in the room started to peel off like wallpaper and joined to form a tall figure in the middle of the room. This revealed the actual library, because whatever this manifestation was, it was acting like a chameleon. I kept on looking around as the figure grew even more taller than before. Then... it stopped and began to change colors. Once the colors left, the figure finally revealed it's final form. It was Discord, the spirit of chaos himself, standing right in front of me.
"You see, daddy?" the mare's voice said from behind. "I told you there was a talking monkey inside the library!" the mare said, floating next to Discord.
"And you were not lying. What a faaantastic find you've found, sweetheart." Discord said, using his lion claw to rub the bottom of the mare's chin.
The mare giggled to his touch.
"Speaking of which, have a cookie as a reward." Discord said, creating a cookie about the size of car with his own will.
The cookie landed on the floor with a loud thud.
"Thanks, daddy!" the mare thanked.
"Anytime. Now run along, Screwball, and have some fun out there." Discord said.
Screwball then left the library with the cookie, leaving me and Discord to ourselves.
I was in complete shock at the moment. Discord himself was a towering mass of chaos. He had to be no more than probably about twelve feet in height. After we stared down each other, Discord finally broke the silence.
"Oh, pfffft, where are my manners?" Discord said with roll of his eyes.
He then created a podium with a microphone and introduced himself.
"I am Discord, the spirit of chaos!" Discord announced, triumphantly. "And I must admit that i've never seen anything like you before. I've missed so much over all these years in my stone imprisonment." Discord noted.
I didn't respond at all. Discord, however, looked at me in a confused expression
"Is this ringing any bells? Spirit of chaos?" he asked as he rung a cow's bell.
This broke me from my trance of bewilderment, turning into hostility.
"Get out of here!" I demanded.
Discord reared back slightly to my demand.
"A simple hello would be fine." Discord said.
"Fine. Hello. Now get out!" I replied.
"Oh, come on... why so snappy?" Discord asked.
"I've read the stories on what you did to Equestria in the past!" I replied.
"Those fairy tales? Oh please, that's just Equestrian propaganda meant to fool ponies into thinking i'm the bad guy." Discord lied.
"Go ahead, try it! You aren't fooling me. Explain all that is happening out there." I conterjected.
"Why i'm just trying to bring Equestria back to the good old days, of course. Isn't that just a perfect display of chaos out there?" Discord asked, directing outside.
"No! It's terrible." I replied.
"Mmmm, perhaps you're right. Maybe if I add more chaos, it'll look more better. Some flying pigs, floating structures, tiled grass, the whole shabang. Thank you for the feedback, my simian friend." Discord said, slyly.
Discord then walked around the room and took notice of a picture frame that had a picture of Twilight.
"Are you friends with that Twilight Sparkle and her pony pals?" Discord asked, holding the picture.
"I swear if you harmed them, you'll be one sorry spirit of chaos!" I threatened.
"You are?!" Discord gasped. "Oh, this is absolutely priceless," Discord said, beginning to go into a laughing fit. "Ahahahahaha! Oh, please," Discord said, flatly. "I highly doubt something like you would share the magic of friendship with ponies." Discord said, sarcastically.
"Yeah, well guess again, Discord." I retorted.
"That is so very sad. Such wasted potential for a partner in chaos." Discord said.
"I would never partner with you, Discord! Never!" I said.
"No need to remind me, I can see why," Discord replied. "Now that you asked if I hurt them..." Discord said with a pause.
"What did you do?" I asked with both my fists clenched tightly.
"Let's just say that they're out of their elements at the moment." Discord answered.
"Be more specific." I demanded.
"Oh, it's not hitting you like a doornail?" Discord sighed, annoyingly. "I got rid of their elements and now they're the opposite of what they're supposed to represent." Discord finally answered.
"I warned you!" I said as I brought my fist towards his gut, impacting it.
However, my fist was absorbed by his body like some sort of spongy material.
"That tickles." Discord said as he levitated my entire body up to his level.
He then examined me for a moment before setting me back on the floor.
"Well, it has been a time and a half, but I got lots of chaos to wreak across Ponyville." Discord said.
"Oh, if I had my Igneous-1007, you'd be stoned right about now." I thought to myself.
"But before I go, I need to make you look proper in the new chaos capital of the world." Discord said with the snap of his eagle talons.
My vision went white for a moment. When my vision came back, I was now shrunk down to a smaller height, my arms were covered with black hairs, as well as my entire body.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!" I shouted.
"I turned you into a chimpanzee, of course, but maybe that's good enough." Discord said with another snap of his talons.
My vision went white again and now I was a bit more taller, but still retained the black hairs.
"Silverback gorilla? Nah, that won't cut it." Discord said.
He then paused to think for a moment while I ran around on all fours, trying to find a mirror to see my reflection.
"No, wait, I got it!" he began. "How about.... the mighty sasquatch? Oh, goody, wouldn't that be a treat?" Discord asked, excitedly.
"No!" I exclaimed with extreme disagreement.
But it was too late. With the snap of his talons a third time, I was turned into the mythical sasquatch. My entire body was covered with shaggy, dark brown hair and my face was now more gorilla like, also retaining my bipedalism.
"Ahhhh! Ahhhh! Ahhhh!" I screamed as I examined myself in horror.
"I found the mighty sasquatch, I found the mighty sasquatch, I found the mighty sasquatch!" Discord repeated in a sing-song voice while prancing around in a circle.
"Turn me back to human form, right now!" I demanded, loudly.
"Why should I do that? You wouldn't fit in the chaos capital of the world, and you want to fit in the chaos capital of the world, right?" Discord asked with puppy eyes.
"No! I don't want to be a part of the chaos capital of the world, and I don't want to be a sasquatch for the rest of my life!" I replied, angrily.
"I've tried, but I failed," Discord sighed. "Well, then, pretend I was never here. I let myself out." Discord said as he walked towards the door.
"DISCORD!" I boomed, running after him.
Discord stopped for a second before he could open the door.
"Wait! Stop for a second." Discord said, holding a stop sign infront of me.
He then turned around to look at me.
"You wouldn't of happen to come from a world that has more of your species?" Discord said, leaning his head towards me, raising one of his eyebrows while the other remained down.
"N-no..." I stuttered my answer.
"I think you did." Discord replied, staring at something behind me.
I turned my head and saw a lie detector machine that read "Liar-Liar, pants on fire."
"Let me access your memories to see what this world looks like." Discord said as he reached for me.
"Get away!" I shouted, trying to run away.
Discord grabbed my abdominal area and created a small television set that played static at first. He then put a small antenna cap on my head and the video of a foggy, grey, New York City began to appear on the screen. On the screen, I could see people, families, and children walking along the sidewalks. The thought of Discord entering my homeworld and wreaking chaos was absolutely unbearable. I closed my eyes tightly to try and think of other thoughts, but to no prevail.
"No..." I said, softly.
Discord eyed the screen closely for a moment before making the antenna and television disappear into thin air.
"Bah! Your world looks grey and depressing as it is. There's no need for chaos there." Discord said with rejection.
He then settled me back on the floor.
"Well, in that case, here's a brief brochure for the chaos capital of the world," Discord said, handing me a brochure with a picture of him giving two thumbs up with a chaos wreaked Ponyville in the background. "Toodaloooo." Discord farewelled in a sing-song voice and a wave before heading to the door.
When he got to the door, Discord simply just walked right through it, causing the door to shatter into wooden bits.
With Discord out of my way, I examined myself again. Thankfully, I was returned to my height of seven foot-eight and retained my clothing, but the only downside was the amount of hair that shedded and my gorilla-like face.
"Please have something figured out, Twilight." I said.
WIth that, I headed back upstairs to check up on Spike and to give the all clear.
I slowly walked up the stairs and to the door where Spike was hiding behind.
"Hey Spike, you still in there?" I asked with knock on the door.
"What's going on out there? I heard you yelling downstairs." Spike replied.
"Nothing now, but please... don't laugh when I open this door." I said.
"Why should I laugh?" Spike asked.
"You'll see." I said.
I then grabbed the doorknob and began to turn it. Once the door was open all the way, Spike got a look at the new me. His expression was rather freaked out then what I was expecting from him.
"What happened to you?! You're all hairy and your face, what happened to your face!?" Spike exclaimed.
"Discord happened." I sighed.
"What's a discord?" Spike asked.
"Not a what, a who. Discord is the spirit of chaos." I answered.
"The spirit of chaos? Oh... that's not good." Spike said.
"Yeah, no shit with you on that. You should've seen him, he has multiple body parts of various animals, tall, and a voice that sounds pretty nasally." I said.
"If that's who Discord is, then who was that mare supposed to be?" Spike asked.
"Ah, his daughter named Screwball, but I don't know how she's Discord's daughter since she's a pony. Unless Discord is into some freaky stuff," I said, "but yeah, he did this to me before he left." I said as Spike examined me again.
"What should we do now?" Spike asked.
"Look, I think the best we can do now is to stay indoors until Twilight and the others return." I said, reminding me of what Discord told me earlier.
"That sounds like a good idea. You watch, Twilight and them will find a way to stop him." Spike assured.
"Now that you say that again, what makes you think so?" I asked.
"Well, they did find out a way to defeat Nightmare Moon, so they have to figure out a way to defeat Discord." Twilight replied.
"Hopefully. I got my fingers crossed." I said, looking down at my slightly wrinkled hands.
"Let's also hope Twilight finds out a way to bring back the old you." Spike added.
"Oh definitely." I said.
Me and Spike then headed back downstairs. On the way down, we noticed the sunlight that illuminated the interior began to dim before everything went pitch black, almost as if it was late at night.
"The heck?" I said as it got darker in the room.
"Does this mean that Discord is here?" Spike asked, nervously, as he bumped up against my left leg.
"Not in here, but he did say that he'd make Ponyville the chaos capital of the world." I realized.
Me and Spike then looked at each other in the eyes. Within seconds, me and him bolted to the nearest window to see what was going on outside. What we saw was mind boggling. Not only because night suddenly arrived during the afternoon, but Discord had already begun what he said he'd do. Our mouths dropped as buildings floated hundreds of feet in the air and rotated in three-sixty motions, the grass was now replaced with blue and purple tiles, the once flat terrain was now raised upwards, creating steep hills, and to top it off, a chocolate rain downpour poured down.
"Discord wasn't lying." Spike said.
"Yep. Just another reason not to go outside." I said.
I stood and thought for a moment of what to do next.
"Y'know, maybe we could stop Discord." I said.
"How in the world are we going to defeat a spirit of chaos?" Spike asked.
"I have this history book that tells the whole story of Discord's past. I know there was a way that Discord could be defeated, but I need to check again." I said.
"You go get that and i'll sweep up all of this hair." Spike yawned, pointing at the small pile of my shedding brown hair.
"Sorry about that." I said.
I then headed back upstairs into the spare room to find the history book. However, it wasn't on the bed where I left it. I know it was there because I placed it to my left side when I dozed off earlier.
"Oh, no, no, no." I said under my breath.
I began to desperately search the entire area of the bed and underneath, but it was nowhere to be found. I searched for about five or eight minutes before I gave up and sat on the bed.
"C'mon, Caleb, think! Think!" I said to myself, trying to remember how Discord could be defeated.
I never thought as deep as I could before. If I could find out, then me and Spike may have chance to strike back at Discord. As I pressed my fingers against the temple of my head, I finally remembered that Discord was defeated with the elements of harmony, but there was a catch. The elements are all the way up in Canterlot and Discord said that that Twilight and the other five were out of their elements.
"Crap." I simply said.
But I thought I might as well inform Spike on what was used to defeat Discord anyways. Another note, the sun had risen again within the timespan. Thought i'd mention one of the norms in the "chaos capital of the world." I headed back downstairs once again, and found that Spike had swept up my brown hairs, but was fast asleep next to a bucket of water while sleeping with a mop. Yep, somehow he fell asleep again.
"Jesus H. Christ." I mumbled as I looked at the slumbering dragon.
I walked over towards him to wake him up, but I was stopped when I heard Twilight talking from outside. I looked out the window and could see Twilight, but not the others because of the angle of the window. Twilight herself looked normal, but once I angled myself to another position, I saw the others. Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie still had their original colors, but were covered with a coat of grey, indicating that their elements were now gone. Judging by their expressions, i'm supposed that their personalities have also changed as well. If Applejack is honesty, then she's probably now a liar. If Rarity's is generosity, then she's greed. If Pinkie Pie is laughter, then she's grumpiness. And Fluttershy being kindness, she's probably going to be rude. And also, Rainbow Dash was nowhere to be seen, so she probably just left them, being disloyal.
Applejack then trotted up inside the library, whose colors were now completely grey. I took in a deep breath and spoke to her.
"Hey Applejack." I said, sheepishly.
"Who're you supposed to be? I ain't ever met you before in my life." Applejack replied.
I guess that response makes some sense since i'm a sasquatch at the moment.
"It's me, Caleb. Caleb the human." I clarified.
"Never heard of that name before." Applejack obviously lied.
"Yes you have." I said.
"Nuh-uh." Applejack replied.
"Yuh-huh." I said back.
"Nope." Applejack lied.
"Yep." I replied.
Fluttershy then flew into the room with a nasty expression on her face.
"Don't bother with him, Applejack. The primitives don't understand basic communication well." Fluttershy insulted.
Never in my life in Equestria would I ever think of hearing Fluttershy talking like that in that kind of tone and way.
"Whatever you say, Fluttershy. You're just out of your element." I said.
"Why don't you just shut your mouth, or better yet, stuff it with a banana while you're at it, you ape." Fluttershy retorted.
"Damn.... got me good there." I thought to myself.
Next up to walk in the library was Pinkie Pie. Now she looked really pissed off. She looked at me and looked at everypony else in the room.
"I hate you! I hate all of you!" Pinkie shouted to everypony.
"Mmmm, this is going to be an interesting experience." I said, softly.
After I said that, I saw Fluttershy go the bucket of water next to Spike in my peripheral vision. Before I could warn or wake Spike, she dumped the cold water onto Spike, who was still sleeping. He woke with a loud gasp and a yelp before he shook the water off him like a dog.
"What did you do that for?" Spike asked Fluttershy.
"Because you looked so peaceful!" Fluttershy replied in that irritating voice.
"Leave him alone." I ordered to Fluttershy.
"Make me." she replied.
Right after Fluttershy said that, I loud crash erupted from behind me. An entire boulder somehow crashed right through the wall where the door used to be, creating a large, gaping hole in the wall.
"Careful, Twilight! You'll ruin his beautiful finish." Rarity said, caressing the boulder as if it were the most radiant thing in the world.
"Oh, for the love of..." Twilight began before she caught sight of me.
"H-hey, Twilight." I said with a wave.
"Oh no, Caleb. Did Discord do this to you?" Twilight asked.
"Sure did. He seems like a colorful individual." I said.
"Are you alright?" Twilight asked, concernedly.
"I don't mean to be snappy, but... i'm a sasquatch for crying out loud!" I exclaimed.
I then shut my mouth so that I couldn't get anything else for Fluttershy to work with.
"Well, I can see that, Caleb, but he didn't hurt you or anything?" Twilight asked.
"No, just turned me into bigfoot." I replied.
Spike then ran over to Twilight.
"Twilight, what's going on? Why does everypony look so.. grey?" Spike asked, directing his claws towards the four mares.
"Don't ask," Twilight replied. "I need you and Caleb to help me find something." Twilight said as she began to walk into the library with Spike on her back.
I noticed Fluttershy going for the bucket again that still had some water in it.
"Hey, Twilight. What's soaking wet and clueless?" Fluttershy asked in her sassy tone.
"Fluttershy, i've just about had enough--." Twilight began before she was stopped from the water being dumped on her head, causing her now wet mane to drape on her face.
"Your face!" Fluttershy said as she brought the bucket upwards, over Twilight's head.
"Twilight!" I exclaimed as I ran over towards Twilight to stop Fluttershy's corrupted actions.
Right when the bucket was about impact her head, I snatched the bucket out of Fluttershy's hoof grip.
"Gimmie that!" I snapped at Fluttershy.
I then tossed the bucket out the hole in the wall.
"What's happened to everypony?" Spike asked again.
"Beats me. I guess you bring out the worst in you, Spike." Applejack replied.
"Discord corrupted them, Spike. Pretty much reversed their natural elements that they're supposed to represent." I answered for Twilight.
"Oh, I see now." Spike understood.
"Thanks, Caleb," Twilight thanked. "Now we've got to find the reference guide to the elements of harmony before somepony does something she'll regret!" Twilight said, angrily, staring at the four corrupted mares who were resting on the boulder.
"The elements of harmony?" Spike asked, confused. "Oh! I know exactly where that book is!" Spike exclaimed.
Spike then climbed up a wooden ladder and retrieved a dark brown book from the top shelf.
"Found it!" he announced to everypony.
Fluttershy zoomed over towards Spike and threw a scroll at his face, causing Spike to drop the elements of harmony refrence book into Fluttershy's hooves. Twilight walked over towards Fluttershy with a scowl on her face.
"Fluttershy! You better give me that book!" Twilight growled.
"Keep away!" Fluttershy shouted.
Fluttershy tossed the book over my head and amazingly landed on the tip of Applejack's nose.
"Applejack, give me that book!" Twilight demanded.
"I don't have any book." Applejack lied, tossing the book to Pinkie.
Pinkie bounced the book back towards Fluttershy and Fluttershy tossed it back to Applejack, repeating the pattern again. Once I learned the three's tossing pattern, I readied myself to intercept knock Fluttershy out of the way. Twilight ran back and forth to the pony had back, becoming increasingly more frustrated by the second.
When Pinkie was about to toss the book to Fluttershy, I jumped at Fluttershy, but Spike had the same idea I had.
"Nice tackle, Spike." I complimented as me and Twilight ran after the book that slid across the floor.
Before Twilight could take the book, Rarity ran in between my legs and stole it with her levitation.
"Mine!" Rarity exclaimed as she stole the book.
"Hey! Do you even know what you just stole?" Twilight asked Rarity.
"No, but if you want it, I want it." Rarity replied.
Twilight then tripped and landed smack on her face, letting a muffled scream in frustration.
"Give me that book!" Twilight yelled.
I then began to chase Rarity as well, but I came at her from her right side, closing in on her. Before Rarity could react, I used my large hand to grab Rarity by the abdominal area, easily lifting her off the ground with one hand. I tried to use my left hand to grab the levitating book, but Rarity had already threw it towards Fluttershy. Twilight was busy looking at me and Rarity to even notice the bulking boulder in front of her, and she ran right into it head on. I winced at the impact and dropped Rarity to see if she was okay.
"Are you alright?" I asked Twilight.
"I'm fine. But where is she? Where's Fluttershy?" Twilight asked Applejack and Pinkie Pie.
"Beats me." Applejack lied, crossing her right foreleg with her left.
"Lies!" Twilight shouted as she jumped onto Pinkie and Applejack and began to fight.
"Oh shit!" I exclaimed.
As they fought, a huge amount of dust began to kick up into the air, kinda like a fight you would see in a cartoon. I circled the cloud of dust to see if I could find Twilight, but couldn't. All I really heard was hooves impacting and grunting from all the tussling. A few seconds later, Twilight emerged out of the dust cloud and landed on the ground with the book wrapped with her forelegs. I then quickly rushed over to Twilight to guard her while Spike did the same with a scroll as a weapon. I thought that was funny.
"Get back! All of you! This is my book, and i'm gonna read it!" Twilight yelled to the mares who slowly crawled to us.
"Git!" I exclaimed, stomping my big foot loudly on the floor, causing the four mares to slightly back off and retreat to the boulder.
"Looks like you got this covered." Spike noticed.
"Go help Twilight," I instructed to Spike. "I'll keep guard."
Twilight then let out a loud gasp, as if she had just made a groundbreaking discovery.
"What is it?" I asked.
"The elements. They were here all along" Twilight said, happily.
"This is great! Now you guys can defeat Discord and put everything back to normal." Spike said.
"W-wait, the elements of harmony?" I asked, turning my head.
"See? They're right here." Spike said.
"But those were all the way up in Canterlot. Why are they in the element reference book?" I asked.
"I know you have a lot of questions, Caleb, but i'll explain it all later. We've got a spirit of chaos to defeat." Twilight said.
"Right, sorry." I said.
"You see, girls? We did it! We found the elements of harmony. Together!" Twilight announced to the four mares who didn't give two shits about the elements. "You don't even care, do you?" Twilight asked the mares.
"No." the four replied simultaneously.
Twilight let out a small sigh in response.
"I never thought it would happen.. my friends... have turned into complete jerks!" Twilight said softly at first, but with a raised tone at the end of her statement.
Twilight then opened the book open again and levitated every single necklace elements out of it. Twilight repeated the word, necklace, when she placed each element on the designated mare.
"And... big crown thingy." Twilight said as she placed the crown element on her head.
"So, what now?" I asked.
"Now we go and defeat Discord." Twilight said as she trotted to the exit
"But, Twilight, aren't you missing somepony?" Spike referred to Rainbow Dash.
"Nope. We got the liar, the grump, the hoarder, and the brute. That just about covers it." Twilight listed.
"Well, what about Rainbow Dash?" Spike asked.
Twilight thought for a second before coming up with a improvision.
"Congratulations, Spike, you're the new Rainbow Dash. Now let's go!" Twilight said quickly, placing the necklace around Spike's neck.
"Me?! B-b-but what if she finds out i'm impersonating her? Ugh, that won't end well." Spike said with a blank stare.
"Too bad. You're Rainbow Dash. Now let's go defeat Discord so that we don't have to talk to each other again." Twilight said, causing the four mares to light with excitement and dashed after Twilight.
"Don't worry, Spike. She probably won't even care." I assured Spike.
"I sure hope you're right about that." Spike said, nervously.
I turned my head to the sound of the huge boulder grinding on the floor because Rarity was using her effort to push it.
"Does that boulder really mean the world to you?" I asked the corrupted Rarity.
"His name is Tom, and he is not a boulder! He's the most elegant diamond i've ever seen, and he's mine, not yours!" Rarity snapped.
"Okay, okay, geez." I said as I raised both of my hands.
Twilight noticed my response and came up behind Rarity.
"Move!" Twilight ordered Rarity as she levitated the bolder."Look out! Here comes, Tom!" Twilight warned everypony outside.
Twilight then used all her magical strength to throw the boulder out the highest window, causing it to crash through window and loud outside with crackening thud.
"We're gonna have to fix this when this is all over, right?" I asked Twilight.
"Right now, I don't care. I just want to get this done and over with." Twilight replied with frustration.
Out of the left corner of my eye, I saw a familiar tall figure pop right into existence outside the library. Discord had returned.
"Well, well, well I see you found the elements of harmony. How terrifying." Discord said.
I at the moment was slightly cowering behind a wall because I was afraid of what Discord would do to me, even though I hate his guts. But Twilight, Spike and Rarity exited outside, leaving me inside.
"Discord! I figured out your lame riddle. You're in for it now!" Twilight threatened.
"I certainly am. You've clearly outdueled me, and now it's time to meet my fate," Discord said, putting on a pair of sunglasses. "I'm prepared to be defeated now, ladies. Fire when ready." Discord said as he created a red target on his abdominal area.
"Formation! Now!" Twilight ordered.
"Uhh." all four of the corrupted mares uttered, but still went into formation.
"Rainbow Dash! Get over here!" Twilight shouted to Spike.
Spike then revealed his hiding place and dashed to his spot in the formation.
"All right, let's get this over with." Twilight said.
I then peeked my head through the hole in the wall to see what was going on outside. Twilight activated her crown element and an audible, wavy, magical sound began to fill the air. Their manes also began to flow in rhythm with the sound as well. Like something straight out of a fantasy, Twilight and the four mares levitated into thin air and I could see a white glow emanated from Twilight's eyes.
"Oh my god, they're gonna do it." I said to myself with anticipation.
Twilight's crown let out a burst of white energy towards the other elements, causing each of them to light up brightly. So bright that it made me cover my eyes. Now I can see why Discord put on some sunglasses. The noise level from all the magic then became more high pitched and loud, as if something epic was about to happen.
"Do it! Do it!" I said as my head involuntarily nodded.
When it seemed like the elements were about to do their job, the noise level decreased until the glow was gone, causing the mares to drop onto the ground.
"What?! No!" I exclaimed, softly.
"What's going on?" Twilight asked as she rose up.
"Mines working. Must be something wrong with yours." Applejack replied.
"I hate the elements of harmony!" Pinkie exclaimed.
"Hmph. Piece of garbage." Fluttershy scoffed, tossing her element onto the ground.
"Mine!" Rarity shrieked as she dove for Fluttershy's element, quickly snatching it.
"Uh, sorry, Twilight. Guess I should get back upstairs and clean up the library," Spike handed back Rainbow's element. "Good luck with all this-- woah!" Spike shouted as he was tripped by Fluttershy.
"Oops. Sorry, Rainbow Crash!" Fluttershy mocked.
"Bravo, ponies. Bravo," Discord said, clapping his paw and talon. "Harmony in Equestria is officially dead. Discord rules, Celestia drools. Ha-haha-haha-haha." Discord laughed as he skated away on water.
I then emerged out the library and stood next to Twilight.
"It's your fault the elements didn't work!" Pinkie said.
"Me?!" I exclaimed.
"What did he do?" Twilight asked Pinkie.
"Not just him, any of you! All of you! I'm out of here!" Pinkie shouted as she bounced away.
"I'd better get going to. I got better friends waiting for me at the farm!" Applejack said.
"Yeah. I'm sick on you, losers." Fluttershy rudely remarked, flying away and leaving me and Twilight to ourselves.
"Fine! Leave! See if I care! I don't need you guys either! With friends like you, who needs.... enemies." Twilight said, her voice beginning to get lower.
Twilight sadly dropped her head downwards with both her eyes closed, crushed by the fact that her best friends have left her.
"Twilight?" I asked, softly.
The colors of Twilights tail began to change into a depressing grey, as well as her coat and mane. Once the transformation was complete, a small tear seeped out of Twilight's left eyelid and dropped onto the ground, forming the shape of a broken heart.
"Twilight?" I asked again.
Twilight remained to keep her eyes closed, but could only utter one response to me.
"I.... I just want to be alone, Caleb. I need some alone time." Twilight said in a depressive tone.
The now corrupted element on magic then walked away from me, off to the chaos capital of the world.
"B-but Twilight...." I stuttered, at a lost of words.
Deep down inside, I felt as if all hope was lost and began to go into a slight depressive state as well. I wasn't turning grey or anything, but a strong wave of sadness swept over me. I did as Twilight wanted, and gave her some alone time. I on the other hand, put my wrinkled sasquatch hands into my pockets and slowly walked back inside the damaged library. Once I got inside, I sat on the couch and placed both my elbows on my knees while resting my chin on the palm of my hands. After I got into that position, I stared at the ground as if I was staring off into space, no expression or thoughts at all.
I remained in my idle state of staring off into space for quite some time. So long that I don't really know how long I was sitting there. But once I lied down on my right side while crossing my arms, my mental thoughts began to come back to me. I still couldn't believe that the elements of harmony were pretty much dead. I didn't want to believe it, but the state of the situation me and my friends were in made it seem nothing but true. The more I dwelled on my corrupted friends and Ponyville becoming the chaos capital of the world, it only made me slightly dispise Discord, even though I extremely disliked him at the time. When I thought of Discord, that led to thoughts. Thoughts that involved Discord perishing. As I was thinking, I remembered something that I had stored underneath the driver seat in the Land Rover.
"You know, I still have the Igneous-1007 in the Defender. If I could find the Land Rover, I could try to climb inside and retrieve the Igneous. Once I have it, I can use it against Discord!" I thought to myself.
Sounds like a pretty good plan, right? I mean, the Igneous basically has alicorn magic inside of it, so it has to work. But unfortunately, I remembered that it was the elements that could only defeat Discord, not a simple firearm. This flaw then sent me back into a depressive state once again, causing me to lie back down.
About ten minutes have passed and I remained silent, but the silence was broken from Spike, who sounded like he was groaning in pain upstairs. Discord immediately came to my mind because I thought Discord was tormenting Spike upstairs. I quickly sprung into action and dashed to the stairs.
"Spike! Hold on, i'm coming!" I called.
After I leaped up the steps, I entered Twilight's bedroom, only to find a small amount a scrolls next to a slightly bloated Spike, who was wriggling on the ground in discomfort.
"Caleb..." Spike moaned as he reached out to me.
"C'mon, buddy. Is Discord doing this?" I asked, sitting next to him.
"No-oh! Only Princess Celestia can do this." Spike said as he clutched his belly.
"Why would she do this? Oh God, I hope the princess isn't corrupted as well." I said.
"She's sending all of these scrolls back through me. It's how Twilight sends letters to Princess Celestia." Spike groaned.
"Do you feel sick?" I asked.
"Mrmph! Very!" Spike said as he gulped and covered his mouth. "Another one's coming up!" Spike alerted.
I slightly backed away from Spike as he puffed out his cheeks, almost looking like he was about to vomit. Spike let out a belch, blowing a long green flame and smoke out of his mouth. Within the smoke, another scroll dropped into the pile of scrolls. I then reached for the scroll that dropped into the pile, removed the red ribbon, and rolled it open. With that, I read what was written on the paper.
Dearest Princess Celestia,
Today I learned that it's hard to accept when somepony you like wants to spend time with somepony who's not so nice. Though it's impossible to control who your friends hang out with, it is possible to control your own behavior. Just continue to be a good friend. In the end, the difference between a false friend and one who's true will surely come to light.
Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle
"Wow. That was a pretty decent lesson," I said to myself. "So, is like Twilight sending lessons that she learned to the princess?" I asked Spike.
"Mm-hm." Spike hummed as he nodded.
Spike then belched once again and another scroll landed in the pile.
"Ohhhh." Spike moaned, still holding onto his belly with a miserable expression on his face.
"You need anything?" I asked.
"No. My stomach feels as inflated as it is." Spike replied.
I then set the first letter aside and opened up another scroll.
Dear Princess Celestia,
My friends and I all learned an important lesson this week: Never judge a book by its cover. Someone may look unusual, or funny, or scary. But you have to look past that and learn who they are inside. Real friends don't care what your "cover" is; it's the contents of a pony that count. And a good friend, like a good book, is something that will last forever.
Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle
"Hmm. That was a good one." I remarked, setting the letter aside.
Spike quietly moaned to my remark. After that, he belched out another scroll, catching it as it fell. I then opened the scroll.
Dear Princess Celestia,
When you first sent me to Ponyville, I didn't know anything about friendship. I met somepony tonight who was having the same problem - your sister, Princess Luna! She taught me that one of the best things you can do with friendship is to give it to others, and help them find it themselves! And I'm happy to report that all of Ponyville has learned that even though somepony seems a little intimidating, even scary, when you offer them your friendship, you'll discover a whole new pony underneath. And even if my Star Swirl the Bearded costume didn't go over, this still turned out to be the best Nightmare Night ever!
Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle
"This must've happened five days before I arrived in Equestria," I said, considering I arrived in Equestria on the 5th of November and Nightmare Night falls on the 31st.
After I setted that letter aside in my pile of read letters, I began to read another, and another, and another. I gotta admit, these lessons are pretty thought provoking and interesting at the same time. It's so interesting to see what Twilight and her friends learned before I arrived in Equestria, and now that i'm reading these, i've now learned a few new valuable life lessons that I didn't really think or know about. And also, while I read these, I felt my small state of depression somehow fade away after each read until eventually I didn't really feel sad anymore. But I did still felt bad for Spike, who was still burping up scrolls. I had to of read about twenty two of these letters and they were still piling up.
"Poor Spike." I thought to myself.
I then sat next to Spike and tried to comfort him until all of the scroll-vomiting was over with, but it wasn't. As I sat next to him, sunlight quickly faded into darkness and the moon rose into the sky. About a minute later, a grey and depressed Twilight walked up the stairs and into the room where me and Spike were in.
"Twilight! There's all these let-." I said before Twilight stopped me.
"Pack your things, Spike and Caleb. We're leaving," Twilight interjected "Don't ask where we're going because.. I don't know yet. Just not here." Twilight said as she packed a few books in a green briefcase and threw her element into a trash can.
"B-but, Twilight," I began, taking her element out of the trash can, "Princess Celestia has been sending all the lessons you learned back through Spike. He's been burping them up for half an hour." I said, showing her the open letters and a few more scrolls on the ground.
Spike then burped another scroll, adding it to the small pile.
"Somepony make it sto-o-op!" Spike pleaded.
"But why would she send them back?" Twilight asked, levitating three scrolls in front of her.
"I don't know." I replied.
Twilight opened up one the scrolls and began to read. After she finished reading that, she moved on to the next. But the third letter, one involving her friends, was the one that made her change. I noticed a small tinge of lavender purple begin to form at the bottom of her hind legs. The more she read and understood what the lesson was teaching her, the more of her lavender coat began to become vibrant like before until eventually, she was back to her original colors. After she finished reading the third lesson, I could see her face light up with happiness.
"Guys. Guys, it's all so clear!" Twilight said as she levitated Spike around in circle in joy.
"What's so clear?" I asked, eagerly.
"Discord's trying to distract us from what's important. He knows how powerful our friendships are, and he's trying to keep us from seeing it," Twilight explained, pressing Spike up against her. "Do remember what I said the first day we arrived in Ponyville?" Twilight asked Spike. " I told you the future of Equestria doesn't depend on making friends, but the opposite is true!" Twilight answered for Spike, directing her attention towards me. "The friendships i've made since i've been here are what saved Equestria from Nightmare Moon, and now I need to save them from Discord!" Twilight said.
"You're right! So what we need to do now is to find our friends and show them the true meaning of friendship. And if i'm thinking correctly, that should bring their true element back into them." I said.
"Exactly!" Twilight agreed. "I've got to fight for my friendships. For them. For me. For Equestria!" Twilight said, triumphantly.
Spike then moaned while lying on his small bed.
"Oh, uhh... why don't you just stay here and rest. I'll take care of the whole fighting for friendship thing myself." Twilight said before she zipped downstairs.
I looked at the stairs and looked at Spike over and over again. I then grabbed a small blanket and covered Spike with it.
"You stay here, Spike. I'm gonna go help her out." I said, heading downstairs as well.
"Don't worry, i'm not going anywhere." Spike muttered as I left the room.
I hastefully made my way down the steps and Twilight was just about to exit the library.
"Twilight, wait!" I called.
"What is it?" Twilight asked.
"I'm coming with you." I replied.
"Are you sure you want to?" Twilight asked.
Of course. Just like you, I want to get my best friends back as well." I said.
"And get rid of Discord too?" Twilight added with a smile.
"That too, but I don't possess an element. I might watch the show." I said.
"Then let's go and save our friends and Equestria!" Twilight declared.
"I'm right behind ya. Lead the way." I said.
With that, Twilight and I exited the library and began our quest for the return of harmony.
As me and Twilight walked through Ponyville, things were worse than I thought they were. There wasn’t anything real bad or sinister going on, but a whole lot of goofy phenomenons that were caused by Discord. For instance, a few apple pies flew right next to me and some of the filling got on my hair, kind of a chore to get out. Also, three buffalos, wearing fucking ballerina outfits, danced past me and Twilight while we ventured through the chaos filled Ponyville. Once me a Twilight got onto the path that leads to Sweet Apple Acres, that section appeared to be untouched by Discord’s magic at first, but I was proven wrong when the trees formed two hollow holes as eyes and tried to grab me and her. I managed to tear one of the thick branches off of the living tree and used that as a weapon to protect me and Twilight. Eventually, we made it to Sweet Apple Acres and Discord really hit that place hard with chaotic magic.
“Looks like Discord really left his mark here.” I said.
“No doubt about that.” Twilight replied.
“So, are you sure you want me to hold down Applejack when we find her? I don’t exactly know my strength real well, and I don’t want to hurt her or anything.” I said.
“Yes, but just don’t apply too much pressure and she should be fine. I’ll try to get her on the ground first, then you hold her down.” Twilight instructed.
“Sounds like a plan. Let’s go.” I said, entering the chaos infested orchard.
The first thing I noticed when we entered Sweet Apple Acres was this weird sound that seemed to be all around us. The sound also sounded like it was reversed and warbled.
“You hear that?” I asked Twilight.
“I think it signify’s that Discord’s been here. Didn’t you hear it in Ponyville?” Twilight replied.
“Y’know, I do remember hearing it now that I think about it,” I said. “Maybe it’s louder here because Sweet Apple Acres isn’t as big as Ponyville.” I guessed.
“Speaking of big.” Twilight pointed at an apple tree.
I looked in the direction and saw a whole bunch of apple trees that bended down by the enormous size of the apples. These apples had to be the same size of the large boulder that Rarity was fixating over earlier.
“Whoa. That’s one big mother.” I said.
“Ahh!” Twilight exclaimed behind me.
When I turned around, three flying pigs hovered above and circled Twilight, letting out snorts that sounded reversed, just like the odd sound that filled the air.
“Get out of here!” I shooed at the pigs, causing them to fly away into the sky.
“You alright?” I asked Twilight.
“I’m fine. Let’s get a move on before we run into anymore surprises.” Twilight said.
“Right.” I said.
Both of us then headed for the white fence entrance and we both caught sight of Big Mac digging a hole in the corn fields, or what I should say, the popcorn fields. His colors aswell were turned to a faded grey, so he must’ve been corrupted by Discord. Big Mac looked at both of us, his tongue lolling out like a dog, and we immediately turned our heads forward.
“Please don’t come over here.” I repeated in my head.
Luckily, I heard Big Mac continue to dig into the soil again.
After me and Twilight went under the small arch entrance, we saw Applejack leaning up against the barnhouse while Granny Smith tap danced at an unreal rapid pace to the right.
“There’s Applejack.” I alerted Twilight.
“Remember, i’ll deal with her first, then you come in.” Twilight reminded.
“I gotcha.” I said.
Twilight stepped forward in front of me, confronting Applejack.
“Applejack! I’ve come to fight for our friendship!” Twilight said, getting Applejack’s attention.
After Twilight announced that, Big Mac suddenly popped out of the ground like a prairie dog and gave Twilight a long lick on the face before heading back down. Have to admit that he made me jump a little bit.
“Oh, now you want to fight? Where were you when I was battling Discord?” Applejack asked, throwing some air punches with her forelegs.
While Applejack had her back turned, Twilight sprang into action and tackled Applejack from behind, nearly pinning her to the ground.
“Caleb, help!” Twilight exclaimed as Applejack slowly lifted herself up.
I then ran over to the two mares and pushed Applejack down, causing her to collapse onto her back.
“I got her.” I said.
“Get your hands off of me, stranger!” Applejack demanded.
“Snap out of it! This isn’t you! You’re not a liar!” Twilight said, lighting up her horn that gave off a purple glow.
Her aura expanded over Applejack’s face until Applejack’s expression changed from anger to a form of awe; her mouth slightly agape and wide eyes.
“You can ease off her now.” Twilight said.
I removed my hand from Applejack and she continued to stay frozen for about ten or so seconds before Applejack squinted her eyes, her orange coat and blonde mane returning to her normal colors. Applejack then got up dizzily, shaking her head as well.
“Wha-- what happened?” Applejack asked, confusedly before she looked at me and Twilight. “Twilight! Caleb! I saw a vision of us feudin and fightin. I couldn’t face the truth, so I started tellin lies,” Applejack said. “Can you forgive me?” Applejack asked, slightly hiding behind her hat.
I was about to accept her apology, but Twilight answered for both of us.
Me and Applejack gave each other a nod before running after Twilight.
“Who’re we getting next?” Applejack asked.
“Well, since we’re close to Fluttershy’s, we might as well head over there.” Twilight replied.
“Good. The sooner we get her out that rude mode, the better.” I said.
“Ugh, I couldn’t stand her the most.” Twilight said.
The three of us then came to a cross path that cuts horizontally through the Everfree Forest.
“This path should lead us straight to Fluttershy’s.” Applejack said.
“You mean we’re gonna have to sprint that whole mile?” I asked.
“Of course. Most ponies can cover a mile in two minutes, so it’ll be quick.” Twilight said.
I did some quick mental math and calculated that speed to cover a mile to thirty miles per hour.
“Twilight, the fastest i’ve ever gone was eighteen. How am I supposed to keep up?” I asked.
“That potion you took has had an affect on your strength, right?” Applejack asked.
“Yeah. It has.” I replied.
“So, give yourself a sprint alongside with us to see if the potion had any affect on your speed, or has riding around in that Land Rover of yours made you soft?” Applejack challenged.
“Alright, i’ll give it a try.” I said, unsure of myself.
Twilight and Applejack then sprinted down the path. I quickly reacted and sprinted after them and it seemed as if I wasn’t going to catch up with them, but I wasn’t ready to give up yet. I began to take slightly longer strides while repeating them with explosive running movements. And then, I actually began to catch up with them until eventually, I actually passed them. Leaving them in the dust!
“H-h-holy shit!” I exclaimed as I sprinted, which felt like a million miles per hour even though it had be roughly twenty-nine or thirty.
“What’d I tell you, Caleb? Told ya, you could do it.” Applejack said.
I looked ahead of the path and we had a long way to go, but the funny thing is that I didn’t even feel tired at all. My tongue slightly stuck out to the left side of my mouth as I sprinted.
“Y’know... if i’m sprinting faster than a pony, then that makes me faster than Usain Bolt!” I thought to myself.
Before I knew it, I was at the end of cross path while Twilight and Applejack were catching up with me. Most would be expecting me to panting and wheezing like crazy after that mile long sprint, but it felt like a went for a jog instead of sprinting. Phew, what a rush.
Finally, AJ and Twilight caught up with me.
“Man, what took you two so long?” I asked both mares.
“Had to let you win.” Twilight replied.
“Yeah, okay, Twilight.” I scoffed.
We then walked down the path to the right in order to get to Fluttershy’s cottage.
“Looks like we’re here.” Applejack said, taking out some rope from underneath her hat.
“You got rope?” I asked.
“Came prepared just for the occasion.” Applejack said with wink at the end of her response.
“Nice.” I said. “So, how are we going to get Fluttershy?” I asked.
“Applejack can probably get a good lasso around her legs. Right, Applejack?” Twilight replied.
“Shouldn’t be much of a problem.” Applejack said.
“Then let’s go. If Fluttershy gets loose, can you help Applejack out while I reminisce Fluttershy’s memories?” Twilight asked.
“I got your back.” I said to Applejack.
The three if us then crossed the small bridge that leads to Fluttershy’s front door. I would occasionally check our surroundings just incase if anymore of Discord’s surreal creations confronted us. When we got to the door, Twilight pushed on the door and Fluttershy was sitting in a chair, looking rather cross.
“What are you losers doing here?” Fluttershy asked with a scowl on her face.
“We’re here to bring back your true element; kindness.” Twilight replied to her.
“To tartarus with my element! I don’t need that stupid thing!” Fluttershy shot back, flying up to the ceiling.
“Step aside.” Applejack said, lassoing the rope with her mouth.
With no hesitation, Applejack tossed the rope towards Fluttershy’s legs and managed to get the lasso around every single one of them. Applejack yanked the rope back, tightly constricting the rope and bringing all four of Fluttershy’s legs together. There was no chance of escape. Fluttershy landed on her back and tried to fly away, but her position wouldn’t allow her to.
“I got her.” Applejack notified.
Fluttershy angrily grunted as she tried to free herself from the rope while Twilight walked over to Fluttershy, and leaned her head down, her horn touching Fluttershy’s forehead as it began to light up. Fluttershy closed her eyes tightly as her past memories came back to her, in order to restore her element. A few seconds had past and Fluttershy’s yellow coat and pink mane quickly reappeared on her, signifying the element of kindness was back.
Fluttershy shook her head as she recollected herself. She then let out a gasp.
“Oh no!” Fluttershy exclaimed. “ Twilight, Applejack, Caleb! I just had the worst dream.” Fluttershy said in her normal, soft-spoken tone, but with distress in it.
“Sorry to say, but that was no dream.” Applejack revealed.
Fluttershy looked at all three of us with an expression that had guilt building up.
“I’m so sorry!” she apologized. “I don’t know why I said those things! It just.. came over me and I couldn’t help but being mean.” Fluttershy explained to us.
“It’s not your fault, Fluttershy. It’s Discord who made you that way.” Twilight said.
“Discord? Then that means he cheated at the game.” Fluttershy said.
“Game?” I asked.
Twilight turned towards me.
“Originally, we thought that the elements were hidden in a hedge maze in the Canterlot Gardens, but Discord ridded of our special abilities as a rule to his so called game. Discord, using deceivement and trickery, managed to somehow reverse our friend’s elements to the opposite.” Twilight explained.
“Oh, well, that explains a lot.” I said.
“Can you forgive me?” Fluttershy asked with sincerity in her tone.
“Of course we can,” Twilight replied. “But now we must go and find the rest of our friends and bring back our friendships.” Twilight said.
Fluttershy then raised herself back on her hooves. With Fluttershy back on our side, we continued onwards to the next element.
“Alright, who’s next?” I asked as we ran through Ponyville.
“Rarity’s boutique is not far from here, so we should head over there next.” Twilight replied.
“Odds are she’s still clinging onto that so called gem of hers.” Applejack said.
“That sounds about right.” Fluttershy agreed.
“Yeah, well she’ll have to kiss her Tom goodbye because we’re comin’ for her.” I said.
About a few minutes later, we arrived at Carousel Boutique and the building itself didn’t look like it was affected by Discord’s magic. We then approached the front door.
“How are we going to deal with her?” Applejack asked.
“We’ll have to-” Twilight began before I kicked the door, causing it to fling wide open with a loud crash.
As expected, Rarity was caressing the boulder, but she shot a nasty look at me when I kicked the door in.
“Knock-knock.” I said.
“Ah, what are you doing, rufian? Get out! This is my Tom, and you’re getting nothing!” Rarity said, hugging Tom.
Twilight, Applejack, and Fluttershy walked in from behind me, causing Rarity to become more defensive over the stone.
“I’m warning you! Go! Shoo!” Rarity exclaimed.
Twilight and Applejack approached her. Applejack then brought her rope out, and before Rarity could react, Applejack got her nabbed in a successful hogtie.
“No! My gem!” she shrieked.
“You’re not greedy, Rarity.” Twilight said as she lit up her horn.
“What do you think you’re doing? Get away from my gem! Get awa-” Rarity demanded before there was a great big flash, instantly giving Rarity her memories and true element back.
Rarity moaned and rubbed her head with her hoof. After regaining her composure, she looked at the boulder and raised an eyebrow. Rarity walked behind the boulder and proceeded to push it out the door with effort. After she got it outside, she gave one last shove, causing the boulder to roll away down a small slope.
“We will never speak of this again.” Rarity said.
Applejack quietly laughed to her statement.
“You’re going to give her grief about this, aren’t you?” I whispered to Applejack.
“Heh. Maybe.” Applejack chuckled.
“Okay, we got the element of generosity back!” Twilight said, cheerfully.
“That leaves Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie left.” Fluttershy reminded.
“Pinkie is most likely at Sugarcube Corner, but where would Rainbow Dash be?” I asked.
“I would imagine she would be at her house.” Rarity answered.
“Makes sense if her element has been swapped around,” Twilight said. “We should head over to Pinkie first, then to Rainbow’s last.” Twilight suggested.
All of us nodded in agreement and headed off to Sugarcube Corner. Now it was time to bring back the element of laughter.
While me and the gang ran through Ponyville, we ran into a major chaos magic hotspot. It was plainly obvious when the grass felt like more like walking on a waterbed rather than hard, solid ground. Another thing I noticed was the geometry of the buildings. They seemed... two dimensional. Curious, I walked over towards a building and gently touched it. This simple touch caused the building, which was a cardboard cutout standee, to collapse onto the ground, flat as a pancake. This triggered a domino effect from the vibrations because the rest of the surrounding cardboard buildings came down as well with a loud crash.
“Do’h... shhhhit.” I said.
“No time to play around. We gotta get the elements back before Discord catches on to our plan.” Twilight reminded me, bringing me back to the task at hand.
“Sorry about that.” I said, slightly embarrassed for getting sidetracked so easily.
However, when we arrived at Sugarcube Corner, things seemed normal again. Sort of. When we walked into the bakery to find Pinkie Pie, Carrot Cake and Cupcake looked normal as can be, but we're walking on the ceiling and walls.
“Hello there.” Cupcake greeted in a welcoming manner.
“Hi...” Twilight trailed off.
“Anything we can get you, guys?” Carrot Cake asked.
“Um, we’re looking for Pinkie Pie. Do you happen to know if she’s here?” Twilight asked.
“Oh, why she’s upstairs.” Cupcake answered.
“But be warned, she’s a bit crabby at the moment.” Carrot Cake informed.
“Anything else?” Cupcake asked.
“No thanks. That’ll be all.” Twilight replied.
“Alrighty then.” Cupcake said, walking back into the kitchen while on the ceiling.
As the four mares walked upstairs, I stayed down and stared at Carrot Cake, who was still on the ceiling. He slightly smiled at me.
“You do realize you’re standing on the ceiling, right?” I asked.
“I sure do. Quite a new, interesting appearance you’re sporting.” Carrot Cake said, reminding me I was still a sasquatch.
“Ah, yes. I figured you would notice,” I said. “I gotta catch up with the girls. See you around.” I finished.
Twilight and the others were waiting for me halfway up the stairs.
“Catching up on things?” Twilight asked.
“Hardly. Carrot’s just standing on the ceiling like if it’s an everyday thing.” I said.
“He’s probably been corrupted by Discord’s magic, but in a different way.” Twilight hypothesized.
“Perhaps.” I said.
Anyways, after checking most of the rooms for Pinkie, there was one more that was unchecked.
“This has to be it.” I said, clutching the doorknob.
“Wanna do the honors?” Twilight asked.
“Don’t see why not.” I said, turning the doorknob and opening the door.
Right when I walked into the room, Pinkie let out a primal scream, which was oddly comical for her high-pitched vocal tone. Pinkie latched herself onto my back, wrapping her forelegs and hindlegs around my thorax.
“I didn’t want you come in here!” Pinkie shouted.
“Whoa, whoa! Heh-hey!” I exclaimed as Pinkie began to whack her hooves against me, which almost felt like nothing.
I reached back with one hand and plucked her off my back easily, holding her in front of Twilight.
“We got a feisty mare who needs a little laughter in her life, Twilight.” I said.
“Say no more.” Twilight said, activating her horn.
"Laughter is one of the most annoying sounds in the world!" Pinkie said, angrily.
With another great white flash that filled the hallway, Pinkie’s vibrant colors began to manifest onto her. As I set Pinkie on the floor, she blinked rapidly for a few seconds before a grin began to form on her face. Stifled laughs then became laughs of hysteria, as if she had just heard the most hilarious joke in the world. She was laughing so hard that she couldn’t even get up.
"Looks like her element is back.” Applejack said.
“What’s so funny?” I asked Pinkie.
“It-it-it-it’s just that I turned grey!” Pinkie said through her laughs.
All of us looked at each other in confusion.
“That was the big punchline?” Rarity asked.
“Isn’t it hilarious?” Pinkie laughed.
All of us then began to pull off the most pseudo laugh, just to play along with Pinkie’s hysteria. A minute had past and Pinkie was still laughing her flank off.
“Ah, let’s see if there’s a cart we can use outside to carry her. Sure seems that she isn’t gonna stop anytime soon.” Applejack suggested.
“Good idea.” I said, scooping Pinkie Pie up with my arms.
We headed back downstairs to find a cart outside. I could feel Pinkie tremble as she laughed in my arms.
“I guess grey isn’t exactly your color, huh?” I asked Pinkie
“I know, right? What would you guys call me then? Grey Pie?” Pinkie joked.
“I have no idea, Pinkie.” I said, stifling a laugh as well.
I don’t know why, but Pinkie’s laughter was starting to make me laugh as well. I don’t whether it was from the continuity, or the way it adorably sounded. I guess they don't call her the element of laughter for nothing.
“Found one!” Applejack announced, pulling a small cart that could fit one pony.
“This’ll do nicely.” I said, setting Pinkie in the cart.
"Element of laughter: Check." Twilight said.
"Now all we have left is Rainbow Dash." Fluttershy said.
"Any of you guys know where her home is?" I asked.
"I know the way." Fluttershy spoke up.
"Then let's get back the element of loyalty!" Twilight declared.
With that, we headed off to Rainbow's place.
Pinkie Pie continued to laugh from the fact that she was previously grey, but the intensity was simmering down. Eventually, she finally laughed off the thought and was able to walk correctly. Once Pinkie was walking again, Applejack abandoned the cart by the side of dirt path.
After a while, everypony noticed a cloud in the distance that was in the form of a house. It was obviously Rainbow's house because there was a huge rainbow that protruded from roof. The whole cloud-building itself looked like a mix between a mansion and condominium.
"Fluttershy. Would you mind flying up to the windows to check if Rainbow's inside?" Twilight asked.
"On it." Fluttershy replied.
Fluttershy then flew up towards the building and peered her head through every window. Me and the others waited for an answer down below.
"She's not here." Fluttershy said, shrugging.
Everypony looked at each other in worriment.
"Without Rainbow Dash, we can't use the elements." Twilight restated.
"She could be anywhere by now! We're never gonna find her." Applejack said.
"Yeah we will, because she's right there." Pinkie pointed out.
When I looked up, I saw Rainbow Dash resting on a small cloud, her rainbow mane and cyan coat completely grey.
"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight called out.
"Hey guys." Rainbow replied, chillfully.
"We've been looking everywhere for you!" Twilight said.
"That's nice." Rainbow replied.
"Discord's still on the loose. We need your help to defeat him with your element. Loyalty." Twilight explained to her.
"Loyalty-shmoyalty," Rainbow jeered, looking at us. "Have you seen Ponyville? It's a disaster! I'm staying up here in Cloudsdale where everything is awesome." Rainbow said, lying back on her cloud.
"How in Equestria can she think that tiny patch of cloud is Cloudsdale?" Rarity asked.
"The same way he got you to believe that cheap rock was a bonafide diamond." Applejack replied, giving smirk at the end.
"I thought we agreed to never speak of it again." Rarity said with annoyance.
"Knew Applejack would bring that back up." I thought to myself. "Now what?" I asked Twilight.
"Time for plan B!" Twilight said.
"What's plan B?" I asked.
"Okay, so here's what we're going to do," Twilight began, huddling us together. "All of us are going to head back to Ponyville and find the hot air balloon station. Applejack, your position will be at the top on the balloon with your rope. Fluttershy will be following us and will be a keypoint in this plan because she'll have to hold Rainbow down. And me, Rarity, Pinkie, and Caleb will be riding the balloon. Once Applejack lowers me down to Rainbow, who will be held down by Fluttershy, i'll then cast the memory spell on Rainbow Dash." Twilight explained to us.
"Sounds simple enough." Applejack said.
"I'm not a fan of heights, but i'll do anything to get Rainbow back." I said.
"It won't take so long if everything goes accordingly to plan." Twilight said.
After that, everypony turned around and ran back to Ponyville to find the hot air balloon station. We also made sure to find routes that were chaos free, which was a little tricky due to the fact we were in the chaos capital of the world. Eventually, we came across a small wooden platform with a giant purple hot air balloon next to it. Twilight levitated Applejack to the top of the balloon and Pinkie, Rarity, and Twilight piled into the passenger basket. I on the other hand carefully stepped my way into the basket. I was forced to stand up because of how huge I was, compared to the mares below me.
"You sure this thing can support all of this weight?" I asked.
"This can hold eight-hundred pounds, so we'll be fine." Twilight assured.
"Okay, good." I said.
Twilight then untied the three ropes that kept the balloon stationary and settled them in the basket. Slowly, the balloon began to lift off the ground, picking up speed in the process. Before I knew it, we were high in the sky. This made me look down and a small amount of vertigo began to set in for me.
"You alright, Caleb? You're looking a little queasy there." Pinkie noticed.
"No, i'm just a little dizzy, that's all." I replied to Pinkie, holding onto the ropes attached to the balloon.
The balloon then moved towards Rainbow's position. Not really sure how it moved due to there being none of those burner things that send that hot air into the balloon, or unless Twilight was moving it with her magic or something.
"How're you doing up there?" I shouted to Applejack.
"I'm doin alright." she replied.
"Hey, make sure to keep a look out for Rainbow Dash incase she moved or tries something on us." I said.
"I'll keep my eyes peeled." Applejack said.
A few minutes had past before we arrived at Rainbow's location, but her and the cloud were nowhere to be seen.
"Where'd she go?" Fluttershy asked.
"I don't know, but she has to be near. Do you see anything, Applejack?" Twilight asked.
There was a silence for a moment while Applejack searched the sky.
"The cloud must've risen a bit. She's right above us." Applejack replied.
The balloon moved backwards a bit before rising upwards to Rainbow Dash. Once we got to Rainbow's level, she was peacefully taking a nap on her favorite cloud, quietly snoring as well. The balloon gained a bit more altitude before stopping above Rainbow. Fluttershy flew upwards to await Twilight's instructions.
"Remember, Fluttershy. You grab Rainbow Dash and hold her down. Applejack will lower me down with this rope so I can cast the memory spell on her." Twilight reminded.
"Got it!" Fluttershy said, giving a quick salute before quickly flying downwards towards Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy halted next to her and brought her forelegs up, like she was about to manhandle Rainbow, but instead, she gave Rainbow a slight tap on the back.
"Oh-no." Twilight said.
Rainbow awoke and looked at Fluttershy.
"Um, I was just wondering if I could hold you down against your will for a little bit?" Fluttershy asked politely.
"Uggggh." Twilight groaned, smacking her hoof against her forehead.
I also couldn't help but place both my hands over my face, trying to unbelieve that Fluttershy most likely messed up the plan. But anyways, Rainbow quickly rose up and got right into Fluttershy's face.
"Nice try! Ponyville's your problem, not mine." Rainbow said before wrapping her legs around the patch of cloud and zooming away on it.
Twilight quickly took one of the three strands of rope and lowered it down to Fluttershy.
"C'mon, Fluttershy! We gotta catch her!" Twilight said.
Fluttershy bit down onto the rope and began to fly after Rainbow, sending me back a little from the sudden inertia. Although Fluttershy was doing her best to catch up, it's pretty hard to keep up with the fastest flier in Equestria while pulling all of this extra weight from behind. Thankfully, due to Rainbow being cocky, she changed her course and began to tauntingly fly around us, just to mess with us.
"Quick! Somepony tie this rope to the basket!" Twilight instructed, using her foreleg to pick up the rope. "Applejack!" Twilight called, throwing the rope up to Applejack.
I looked up and could see the rope firmly wrap around Rainbow's body.
"Hey, Applejack got her!" I exclaimed.
I looked down out the rope and it felt like something dropped inside my chest when I saw the rope still laying on the ground and not secured to anything. To make things more dangerous, Pinkie and Rarity were standing right in the middle of the rope.
"H-hey! The rope!" I shouted.
But it was too late. The rope then firmly wrapped around Rarity's and Pinkie's hind legs, almost pulling them out of the basket. But me, I quickly reacted and grabbed onto the rope before they could fall out. The amount of force being exerted from Rainbow nearly sent me out the basket as well, but I maintained myself by holding onto the basket with one hand.
"Pinkie! You were supposed to secure the rope!" Rarity yelled.
"Oops." Pinkie said, sheepishly.
I gripped the rope tightly and tugged as hard as I could, pulling Rainbow off the cloud.
"Quick! Tie it on!" Twilight exclaimed.
Wasting no time, my hands jittered with the rope as I tried to tie it on, unprepared for the amount of force that Rainbow was about to exert next. Unready, I was flung out of the balloon, tightly holding onto the rope. Wind rushed past me and my only means to survive was to hold onto the rope and not let go.
"Caleb!" Twilight, Rarity and Pinkie shouted.
"Fuck! Fuck! Oh shit, help me out here!" I screamed in fear as Rainbow somehow managed to maintain her flight with three hundred and twenty six pounds of human dangling below her.
"Hold on, Caleb! You're slowing her down!" Applejack replied.
I began to panic as I looked below, me being at least a thousand feet in the air. I also noticed that Fluttershy was not even close to catching up with Rainbow.
"Hey Fluttershy, you mind flying a bit faster for christ sakes?!" I shouted at her with a mix of anger and fear.
"I can't!" Fluttershy said as she began to slightly cry.
"If you can't catch her, Discord wins!" Twilight reminded Fluttershy.
Fluttershy's expression changed from sadness to a new one that i've never seen on her before; the expression of anger.
"That.. big.. dumb... meanie! Fluttershy yelled at the top of her lungs at the end.
I had my eyes closed most of the time, but I managed to look back and Fluttershy was definitely catching up now, bringing me some relief. I continued to close my eyes and gritted my teeth, which felt like forever before Rainbow suddenly stopped, causing the rope to swing forward and back. I looked up and saw that another rope was tied onto Rainbow and that the balloon was beginning its descent to solid ground.
"We're almost there, Caleb." Twilight said from above.
"Good." I replied, my voice slightly trembling.
It felt like forever, but we made back onto solid ground once again. When my feet made contact, I collapsed and lied down on the grass to catch my breath and recollect myself. Twilight then walked next to me and looked down.
"Are you okay, Caleb?" Twilight asked with compassion.
"Don't worry about me. You go and bring back Rainbow. After that, you guys can defeat Discord." I replied.
Twilight smiled at me before heading over towards Rainbow Dash, who was struggling to break free from her restraints by bucking her hind legs in the air.
"Let me go! I don't need you guys! Leave me alone!" Rainbow grunted.
I raised my head to see what was going on now, only to see Rainbow's multicolored mane and tail return, as well as her cyan blue coat.
"Wha-- what happened?" Rainbow asked in a daze before realizing the situation. "How's Ponyville? Where are the elements? Did we stop Discord?" Rainbow asked, tackling Applejack to the ground.
The others ran over to Rainbow and gave her a group hug while welcoming her back at the same time. I looked up and smiled to the little scene in front of me until I noticed the same three buffalo in ballerina outfits tiptoeing right past me.
"Maybe it's a little early for a group hug." Twilight said as she noticed the three tiptoeing bisons.
"That I can agree with." I replied to her statement before lying flat on my back again.
The girls walked over towards me, still lying on the ground, and recollecting myself after dangling hundreds of feet in the air without any harnesses, but the will to not let go of the rope. Rainbow Dash hovered above me while looking down.
"Let me give you a hoof." Rainbow said, extending her right foreleg.
I grabbed her hoof and she pulled me up with her flight, standing me up on my feet.
"Sorry about dragging you out of the balloon. You sounded pretty freaked." Rainbow apologized.
"Believe me, freaked is an understatement." I replied.
"Yeahhh. And sorry for making you guys chase after me." Rainbow said, rubbing the back of her neck.
"Even though you were under Discord's influence, i'm pretty sure we can forgive you." I said.
Twilight and the others nodded their heads in agreement.
"Sweet." Rainbow replied.
"So, Twilight. With the elements back, does that mean you six can defeat Discord?" I asked.
"That, we can." Twilight replied.
"When we find him, I want him to turn me back into human form first." I said.
"Oh, don't worry about that. Once we imprison Discord with the elements, everything will go back to normal, including you." Twilight said.
"Well, that makes turning everything back to normal more simpler." I said. "Is there perhaps anything I can do to help out?" I asked.
"For defeating Discord, you can't really do anything to help out." Twilight said.
"Figured." I said.
"But that doesn't mean you can't sit back and watch the show." Rainbow brought up.
"Hey, you're about that, Rainbow." I said. "I've never actually seen the elements in full action."
"Then this'll be another first for you." Twilight said. "Make sure that you're a good distance away once the elements are activated." Twilight cautioned.
"Don't worry, I don't plan on standing next to powerful, ancient artifacts that can defeat a spirit of chaos." I said with sarcasm.
"Is that sarcasm I hear?" Twilight asked.
"I sure heard it." Pinkie chipped in.
"Some of it was. But the elements are powerful ancient artifacts, right?" I asked.
"Yeah, I guess they are." Twilight admitted.
"But i'm just slowing you guys down. You six have a spirit of chaos to defeat." I said.
"You bet we do! Now let's get out there and defeat Discord!" Twilight declared.
Me and the six then ran back to Ponyville, where Discord is presumed to still be residing in. After arriving back in Ponyville, things were still chaotic. Tiled ground, a few floating buildings, and unnatural terraformation. However, things seemed a bit calm on the outskirts of Ponyville. It wasn't as chaotic as I or the six mares were expecting.
"It's quiet... too quiet" I said.
Twilight thought for a moment before she came up with an explanation.
"I think I might know why." Twilight said.
"What is it?" Fluttershy asked.
"Did you ever notice how things seem more unusual whenever Discord is around?" Twilight asked me.
"I suppose." I said.
"Well, I think that the more chaos there is in an area, it signifies Discord's presence." Twilight theorized.
"But Sweet Apple Acres was a major hotspot and we didn't see Discord." I said.
"Unless he was watching us." Twilight said.
I thought for a second.
"Y'know, maybe you're right. Surprised he didn't come out to just stop us both if he was." I said.
"His arrogance got the best of him most likely." Twilight said.
"True." I said.
Applejack then spoke up.
"So if we listen and search mighty carefully for any signs of chaotic magic, then we should eventually find Discord himself." Applejack said.
"Good idea, Applejack." Twilight agreed. "We'll stick together until we find Discord." Twilight said.
"For starters, where should we check first?" Rarity asked.
"The best place to check first is the town square." Twilight replied.
Everypony then dashed towards town square in hopes to find and defeat Discord. The chaos levels remained fairly tame, but it got a bit more intense once we advanced further into the village. When we got to town square, Discord was nowhere to be found, but the town hall was floating in the air while doing a clockwise rotation.
"Looks like he's not here." I said.
"Where else could he be?" Fluttershy asked.
Twilight rubbed her hoof on her chin as she thought, but Rainbow came up with something.
"Um... I could offer a solution." Rainbow said.
"What is it, Rainbow Dash?" Twilight asked.
"Well, I was just thinking that I could just fly up a couple hundred feet and see if I can find Discord from up there." Rainbow suggested.
"That's actually a good idea. Why didn't I think of that?" Twilight said.
Rainbow then zoomed up into the sky and stopped. I could see her holding her right hoof over her eyes, trying to spot Discord. It didn't take long for Rainbow to come flying back down to report back to us.
"Did you see something, or find Discord?" Twilight asked.
"Found him! The big doaf is just sitting on this huge chair in the middle of the street with chaos all around him." Rainbow answered.
"What direction?" Twilight asked.
"Northwest. You'll know it when you see it." Rainbow replied.
"Thanks Rainbow Dash." Twilight thanked. "Now let's get a move on!" she exclaimed.
And so, we followed Rainbow's directions and headed northwest. A few minutes had past and that odd, reversed sound that filled the air became audible.
"Y'hear that?" Applejack asked.
"It's a sign. Discord must be near." Twilight said.
"When we find him, he'll be sorry he ever dared to mess with us and Ponyville." Rainbow said, pounding her hooves together.
We used the unusual sound as a guide to find Discord. As we followed it, it got a bit more louder and we caught sight of Discord's previous chaotic creations. Some would include the rabbits with five foot long legs and chickens that could fly like birds. Not really sure how Discord perceives flying chickens as chaotic, but Discord is Discord. If I were Discord, i'd have dogs and cats live together. Now that's what I call mass hysteria. But anyways, when we caught sight of these, everypony hid behind a building while Twilight peeked her head around the corner. She quickly retracted her head back to us.
"I see him, he's way down there in the middle of the street." Twilight informed.
"So, you guys are going to do your thing with the elements?" I asked.
"You bet we are." Twilight replied.
"Aw, sweet! Okay, i'm gonna sneak behind these rows of houses and see if I can get a good view of Discord being defeated." I said.
"Caleb, you're bout excited as a woodchuck at a wood convention." Applejack chuckled.
"Hey, i've never seen these things in action. From what I hear, these things can do some pretty epic stuff." I said, beginning to walk away.
"Just make sure Discord doesn't see you." Twilight warned.
"He won't." I replied.
After I parted ways with the mares, I stealthily snuck behind the buildings, working my way up to Discord's position. I poked my head around the corner of a building, into an alley, and saw Discord, who was sitting in a tall chair that had antlers protruding at the top, and was situated on a narrow, steep, tiled hill. I broke my stare and hid behind the building when he let out a hearty laugh, making me believe that he saw me.
"Crap!" I exclaimed.
Not knowing what to do next, I looked behind me and found an open window. I took a few steps back, jumped through, nearly fitting through the window frame, and landed with a roll. I landed in the kitchen area, so I decided to head upstairs to find a hiding place. I quickly ran upstairs and right when I turned the corner, next to a window, I saw Discord still sitting in his chair, hadn't moved or noticed me at all.
"Oh... got scared for nothing." I said to myself.
I cautiously poked my head out the window to see if Twilight and the girls were coming, and I could see their colorful figures approaching. I then turned my attention to Discord, who was filling a small glass cup with chocolate milk rain.
"Chaos is a wonderful, wonderful thing." Discord said to himself.
"Not as wonderful as friendship!" Twilight countered Discord's words, getting his attention.
The six mares stood boldly in front of the spirit of chaos himself.
"Ohh, this again?" Discord asked.
Discord took his glass of chocolate rain and guzzled the glass down, tossing the solid chocolate milk behind him, causing it to explode like a grenade on impact. Yeah.... sounds pretty crazy, right?
"That's right! You couldn't break apart our friendship for long!" Applejack said.
"Oh, Applejack, don't lie to me." Discord said, raising his lion finger upwards and tugging Applejack towards his face with his magic. "I'm the one who made you a liar."
Discord then brought his talon-hand upwards and it emanated a yellow glow, his facial expression looking rather twisted and evil. He used his levitation magic on the others, except Twilight, and brought them up to his level as well.
"Will you ever learn?" Discord asked the five mares.
I was about to jump out the window to help them out, even though it was a bad idea, but Twilight intervened by teleporting herself up to the mares and created this cool looking magic bubble that protected them from Discord's magic. She levitated her and the others back down to the ground, causing the bubble to pop on impact and removed a small circular section of the tiled ground, and returning it back to grass.
"I'll tell you what we learned, Discord. We've learned that friendship isn't always easy, but there's no doubt it's worth fighting for!" Twilight said, the six stepping closer to Discord.
Discord teleported himself down to the mares to jeer at them.
"Nnnngg, gag!" he jeered. "Fine, go ahead, try using your little elements, frenemies. Just make it quick. I'm missing some excellent chaos here." Discord said, teleporting himself back up to his throne.
"Alright, ladies, let's show him what friendship can do!" Twilight said, the sound of magical energy beginning to raise.
"Wait-wait-wait!" Pinkie interrupted.
I turned my head towards her, and she was getting one last drink of the chocolate milk rain. Not exactly the best time, but it's Pinkie Pie, so it's excusable. After that, she bounced into formation, commencing the elements magic.
All six of the mares closed their eyes as Twilight's horn lit up with a purple aura, creating a visible, light purple energy that surrounded all six of them.
"Oh, he's screwed now." I said, mentally.
Discord then yawned, so full of himself that the elements still won't work. But right after he yawned, Rarity's diamond element created and gave off purple outlines at a rapid pace. This would also follow with Applejack's, Fluttershy's, Rainbow's, and so on and so forth. The outlines quickly shot right past Discord's face, causing him to open his eyes that were shut from arrogance.
"Huh. What's this?" he asked in a calm, but confused tone.
The outlines continued to fire at him even more faster. As I watched elements do their job, it seemed that Discord was becoming more aware that this might actually work, and that he would be defeated.
"No." he said in realization.
I directed my attention back the six, and by this time their eyes have lost all color and became milky white that casted a glow. Then it happened; all six of them floated in the air and joined close together as the final blow was about to be struck. The amount of magical energy was intense, for I could feel it surging past me and into the room, creating a fuzzy feeling in the room. And then suddenly, a huge, towering rainbow laser shot up into the sky and curved downwards to Discord, who was still sitting in his throne. Discord's eyes went wide as he looked above, the rainbow laser rushing towards him. It only took less of a second for it to travel at its target before it engulfed him.
"NOOOOOOOOOO!" I heard him yell.
I could faintly see Discord through the thick rainbow laser. He was struggling to free himself, but then his legs began to turn to stone. Discord could only grit his teeth and look at himself turning into stone. Before his face was encased with stone, he turned his head towards the mares with his mouth agape, but his eyes shifted towards my direction when the stone reached the half section of his head. Once his face was turned to stone, it looked as if he was stuck in a frozen scream, his eyes still peering at me.
I looked up into the sky and the rainbow splitted into two, creating a transparent dome that covered Ponyville entirely. The dome then gave off an extreme amount of brightness, causing me to shield my eyes. It only took a few seconds, but the sound of magic began to fade to a glimmering-like sound before everything went quiet. I removed my hand from my eyes and immediately noticed that the thick amount of brown hair on my hand was replaced with my previous whitish-tan skin. I then felt my face and it felt just like my previous human face.
"Yeah, i'm back!" I exclaimed to myself.
As I continued to check out the rest of me to make sure I was fully human again, I heard a loud crash outside. I looked out the window and noticed the huge contrast to what the outside looked liked previously. The tiled ground was replaced with lush, green grass, the purple sky was now turned to blue with white, puffy clouds. Overall, everything was back to normal. I then leaped out the window and headed over to Twilight and the others.
"Hey, you're a human again!" Pinkie noticed.
"Yeah, couldn't of happened without you six. Thanks." I said.
"You're welcome." Twilight replied. "So what did you think about that little show?" she asked.
"Oh, that was amazing! The way that rainbow shot up into the sky and came back down towards Discord was so surreal. I mean shit, I didn't think those little artifacts could do that." I said.
"What did you think they would do?" Twilight asked.
"I thought they would just shoot off a tiny laser, but man was I wrong." I said.
"A tiny laser!?" Rainbow asked.
"Well, like I said before, i've never seen the elements in action." I said.
I then looked at the stone imprisoned Discord lying on the ground.
"Is he.... dead?" I asked.
"No, he's still alive. All we really did was imprison him in stone and created a harmonic pulse that returned everything back to normal." Twilight replied.
"Now what do we do with him?" I asked, raising Discord upwards.
"What we should do next is to immediately send a letter to the princess on Discord's defeat." Twilight said.
"Good idea. You guys go do that." I said.
"Where are you going?" Twilight asked.
"I have to find the Land Rover. It was corrupted by Discord's magic, and kind of ran away from me." I said.
"Kind of ran away?" Twilight asked.
"It's pretty hard to explain." I said.
"Right." Twilight said.
"I'll see you guys later. And thanks again for turning me back to normal." I farewelled.
"And basically saving Equestria from eternal chaos?" Pinkie added.
"Yes, and that too." I said.
With that, Twilight levitated the statue of Discord and the gang ran back to the library to send a letter to Celestia. I ran off to a northern section of Ponyville since that's where the Land Rover was heading. I had to have walked around for an hour before I found the Land Rover parked next to the train station. Nothing looked broken, but the inside was trashed. Boxes of MRE's and bottled water were scattered all over the place I took the fuel pump chip out of my pocket and slipped inside the fuse. Thankfully, it started up.
As I drove through Ponyville, a lot of ponies looked out their windows, unsure whether to leave their homes or not. I gave them heads up that Discord was defeated, and that convinced them to come outside. But when I arrived back at the library, I was surprised to see a squad of royal guards loading Discord onto a golden carriage. The library itself was repaired from the harmonic pulse that swept across Ponyville. I parked the Land Rover next to the library and walked over to the guards.
"Where are you guys going with him?" I asked a guard.
"We're taking Discord back to the Canterlot Gardens, where he was originally placed." a guard replied.
"Gonna have more precautions for his statue?" I asked.
"E.U.P is way ahead of you on that. When E.U.P learned that Discord escaped, they've been coming up with protective techniques in case he escapes again." the guard explained.
"That's good." I said.
The door to the library opened behind me and out walked none other than Princess Celestia.
"Princess." I said, taking a quick bow.
"Hello Caleb. I've heard that you and Discord have made an acquaintance." Celestia said.
"Says who? Twilight?" I asked.
Celestia nodded her head.
"So you must know what Discord did to me." I said.
"Yes, i've heard about that aswell." she said with a smile.
"But I guess it could've been a whole lot worse." I said.
"Perhaps, but before I go, I want to thank you for your assistance in restoring the elements." Celestia said.
"Yeah, no problem. These six are some the bestest friends i've had in this world, so it would make sense to help them out." I said.
"Indeed. And I also want to inform you that there will be a ceremony tomorrow at the Canterlot Castle in honor of the six's victory against Discord." Celestia said.
"A ceremony, huh? Well, i'll make sure to drop by for awhile." I said.
"Excellent." Celestia beamed. "Is Discord secured and ready for transportation back to Canterlot?" Celestia asked one of the guards.
"Yes, your highness." a guard replied.
"Very good." Celestia said.
Princess Celestia then climbed into her carriage. Once the pegasi guards attached themselves to the carriages to pull them, they began to their flight back to Canterlot with Discord.
Firstly, I want to clarify what has happened over the time gap between today and the day Discord was defeated. Thought i'd do this for the common courtesy.
The day after Discord was defeated, me, Spike, and the six attended that honorary ceremony at the Canterlot Castle. So basically, me and Spike were set off to the side like a couple of side characters because Twilight and the others were the ones who defeated Discord, but we both got honorary attention and respect either way. Speaking of attention, the defeat of Discord also got the media's attention. They were all taking pictures, asking all these questions, and all of that kind of stuff, but I digress from the topic.
When the girls walked into the throne room that was crowded with attendees, the Royal Canterlot Band played one of the greatest fanfares i've ever heard in my life. Once the girls walked up to Celestia, almost everypony up there started giving each other friendly facial gestures. It reminded me of a scene I saw in a movie once, but I couldn't remember which one it was. But anyways, Celestia said a few words to remind everypony of the six's victory. After that, she revealed a new stained glass window on the left wall of the throne room that depicted of the girls defeating Discord with their elements. That would make sense because there's another stained glass window that shows the six defeating Nightmare Moon with the elements as well. Right after the window was revealed, everypony in the crowd began to cheer and clop their hooves for the six, while confetti and streamers rained down from the ceiling. When the ceremony was finished, there was this little Q & A session for the six, also involving me and Spike. The media was asking all these questions that mostly involved with what had happened and what we experienced or saw. I'll bet a million bits that Discord's return and defeat is going down in Equestrian history. Other then that, everypony dispersed and headed back to their homes after the session.
Another note, we also stopped by Discord's statue, which has whole lot more security than before. Looks like that will be the last time anypony will see him again.
Over the next few days, there was a lot of ponies that stopped by the library just to thank Twilight for basically saving Equestria, so the others are probably getting the same visits. So that's pretty much the big highlight of the week.
Now I actually have an update on the Everfree Forest, and I have to say that i'm a bit perplexed at what I found. On Wednesday, I was driving the Defender on the east side of the Dovere territories to check up on the mannequins located in that section. When I arrived, I found tiny teeth marks indented on both sides of the abdominal area, very tiny. Therefore, it didn't chomp down with full force, but if it did, the indentations would be more deep, or a wooden would've been knocked out.
That night, I perched myself in the nearest, had all my equipment primed and ready, and waited for the wolves to arrive, but the Timberwolves didn't come back. This is very strange because Timberwolves are territorial and will come back to specific locations because they feel that they need to defend the area if necessary. So, I waited for seven hours, or pretty much my entire shift, for nothing. See that's the thing about my job, patience plays a big role in it.
The next day, I went to check the mannequins once again, and found the two located near the border of the Dovere territories knocked over and gnawed on. Now I have two areas that need to have Timberwolves eliminated. Since I can't be in two places at once, I decided to stake out the area with the most amount of activity. This time it was the upper-west side of Dovere.
On Friday, I arrived at a different tree an hour earlier because I was being a bit more cautious. You see, maybe the Timberwolves are watching me, so they might not be as dumb as I thought they were. The thought of the Timberwolves getting smart on me honestly gives me slight anxiety. If they are, i'll find a way to stop them, I guarantee it.
But anyways, I sat up in a tree and not a single Timberwolf in sight, but I did hear some howls in the distance that broke the silence of the forest and sent chills down my spine. These howls sounded far, but not far enough for my comfort. I would just go out and buy some meat for bait to lure the Timberwolves out, but buying and consuming meat in Equestria is not a norm here, so that sucks. All in all, that's all I have to say for now. I'll see what I can do on Monday night.
It was a normal, calm evening at the Golden Oak Library. Dinner had just gotten over with, Twilight was washing some dishes, Spike was upstairs doing something, and I was checking out more books that lined the bookshelves. As I walked around the circular room, I looked over at the small wooden ladder that laid up against the wall and led up to a little open space by the window. Standing on my toes, I peered into the space and found Twilight's letters that were sent back through Spike, neatly organized by the dates they were sent. I then randomly chose one out of the thirty and read it.
"Reading one of my letters again?" Twilight asked, getting my attention.
"Mmm-hmm." I replied.
"Which one is it?" she asked.
"Uhh, it's the one where you learned that it's okay to use your talents in certain situations." I replied as I went to sit on the couch.
"Ah, that one." Twilight said, sitting next to me. "Wanna hear how I learned the lesson?" she asked.
"Sure, i'm all ears." I replied to the offer.
"Firstly, have you ever heard of a certain somepony named Trixie?" Twilight asked.
"Trixie? I don't believe I have." I replied.
"I figured, but just making sure." Twilight said.
"Why? Was Trixie a wise pony who gave you wisdom and taught you this lesson?" I asked.
"Oh, no, no, no, no." Twilight quickly replied.
"Oh. Complete opposite?" I asked.
"No, she didn't do any of that. I had to figure out the lesson myself." Twilight said.
"Gotcha. So, how about that story?" I brought back up.
"What story?" Spike asked, coming down the stairs.
"Remember when Trixie came to Ponyville last summer?" Twilight asked.
"Oh yeah. She was a big showoff." Spike said.
Spike then sat next to Twilight's side.
"It was last summer, and a unicorn mare named Trixie arrives to Ponyville. She claimed that she was greatest, and anything that anypony could do, she could do better." Twilight began.
"Did you confront her?" I asked.
"That's the thing. Since my friends seemed to dislike Trixie's boasting over her magic, I just assumed that I shouldn't get involved and not use my magic spells as well." Twilight explained.
"But then you had to use them in a certain situation." I said.
"A major situation." Spike added.
"But it was a minor. Remember, Spike?" Twilight reminded.
"Oh, right." he said, facepalming himself.
"By minor, do you mean the Ursa Minor? The baby?" I guessed.
"You aren't mistaken." Twilight confirmed.
"Well, I guess that's a good motive to use your magic powers." I said.
"Exactly. When Trixie couldn't back up what she boasted, having the capability to vanquish the Ursa Minor, I was basically a last hope. So I used my powers to manipulate the environment to lull the Minor to sleep." Twilight said.
I slightly moved my head towards her.
"Manipulated the environment?" I asked, slightly confused.
Twilight nodded her head in response.
"How exactly did youuu.... do that?" I asked.
"It's quite simple, for me at least. All I did was close my eyes and concentrated my magic on one specific plant. The Typha." Twilight said.
I slightly cocked my head to the right since I had no idea what a Typha was and looked like.
"The cattail plant." Twilight clarified.
"Ohhhh, okay." I understood.
"Using a music generating spell, I was able to generate a calm and relaxing tune that made the Minor drowsy." Twilight said.
"Didn't you also tear down the water tower, somehow filled it up with milk, and fed it to the Minor like a foal?" Spike asked.
"I sure did. All part of the plan." Twilight said.
"As illogical that last part sounds, that's pretty cool. After that, you must've had your lesson breakthrough." I said.
"I sure did. There are times when it okay to be proud of your talents, and there are times when it's appropriate to show them off." Twilight recited.
"Indeed." I agreed. "So why do you even send all of these letters to Princess Celestia anyways?" I asked.
"Wait, I never told you about the letters?" Twilight asked, surprised.
"You might've, but I don't remember." I said.
"Oh, if I didn't, i'm sorry about that." Twilight said. "Shortly after me and the girls vanquished Nightmare Moon, Princess Celestia gave me a task. The task to study the magic of friendship and report back my findings through letters." Twilight explained.
"And you still stick to all of lessons you've learned to this day?" I asked, pointing at the huge pile of letters.
"Of Course. Why else would I learn these lessons for?" Twilight asked.
"Got me there." I admitted.
All three of us looked over the letter for a moment before Twilight brought a suggestion up.
"Have you ever learned any friendship or life lessons back in your world?" Twilight asked.
"I'm not sure." I said.
"Aw, come on. You had to of learned at least one lesson if you lived there for nineteen years." Spike said, raising one of his eyebrows.
"Nah, i'm just playing with you, Spike." I kidded.
"Oh, okay." Twilight sighed. "I actually thought you never learned a life lesson too." Twilight said.
"That would be pretty sad." I agreed.
"So what did you learn?" Twilight asked.
"Well, firstly, i'd like to say that I wasn't always the kind person you have right here." I said.
"Really?" Twilight and Spike both said with surprise.
"Really, really." I said. "In my middle school years, I was a bit of a bully myself. Part of this little bully clique to be exact." I elaborated.
"A bully gang?" Spike asked.
"Yes." I replied.
Twilight scooted a little bit closer to me.
"Tell me, did you happen to have a motive to become a bully?" Twilight asked.
"No. I was a victim of circumstance. I joined this clique voluntarily, and I did it to escape the torment. Why?" I said.
"Most bullies usually have motive to be who they are, but I can see what you're saying. Continue." Twilight said.
"I remember that I was actually bullied by this certain clique. Mostly because of how small I was for a sixth grader. I was only four-eleven while the others were like five-two or five-four." I said.
"Quite ironic for you today." Twilight said.
"Hey, you're right about that." I chuckled before continuing. "So anyways, this bullying went on for a while before I actually made a radical decision. The decision to compromise with the clique. So, I actually managed to join it, but they still never got over the fact of how short I was at the time. Thankfully, I decided to join the clique near the end of the school year." I said.
"That means you and the clique didn't interact much." Twilight said.
"Yep. Over the summer, I had a growth spurt and I grew to five-seven, so I guess I was a late bloomer for my age at the time. However, when the next school year came around, that's when I did some things that i'm still not proud of to this day." I said.
"What did you do? If you don't mind me asking." Spike asked.
"One of the big things I remember doing was this game that me and the clique came up with. It was called Overwatch. Basically, me and the others would refer each other as overwatch soldiers, soldiers based on a popular game at the time while our target would be referred to as the peasant rebel. We would take the rebel to a corner by the side of the school and box them in. We would throw dry, dusty dirt, and verbally insult them as a disgusting peasant." I explained.
"Sounds like a lot of mental torment to me." Twilight said.
"Yeah.... and the worst part is that I sort of enjoyed doing it because it made me feel so powerful and dominant." I said, hanging my head down in shame. "Thankfully, the game didn't last for long because someone stood up for the kid we targeted and alerted a guidance counselor about this game." I said.
"And I imagine that the counselor had quite a talk with you and the clique." Twilight said.
"Oh, no kidding. But like any professional counselor, she was calm and collective about the situation. She sat down with me and I basically told my story, the same one I told you minutes ago. And so, she had me and the clique apologize to the kid and vowed to stop this mean spirited game. I also still remember what she said before we exited the room." I said.
"What?" Spike asked.
"Now understand when I say this, boys. Treat others the way you would want to be treated. Think of how your parents treat you. Care, respect, and loving." I recited. "That's my story." I concluded.
"Wow. Such a powerful and important lesson to be taught at such a young age. I can definitely see that you still live by this moral to this day, Caleb." Twilight said.
"Exactly." I said.
"Yeah. I can't imagine seeing you the way you were back in middle school to this day." Spike agreed.
"And it goes to show that if you have morals, you can grow to be the best person you can be." I said.
"I completely agree with you." Twilight said.
Twilight then had an expression on her face. Almost as if she was thinking of something.
"Y'know... I think Princess Celestia would love to hear about what you learned from the past." Twilight suggested.
"You think so?" I asked.
"Of course. Princess Celestia just loves hearing what i've learned in my studies on the magic of friendship, so why wouldn't she think the same for you?" Twilight asked.
I thought for a moment whether I should or not, but I ultimately came to my decision.
"Okay, I will. Uhhh, Spike, fetch me a piece of paper and a quill with ink from upstairs." I requested.
"On it!" Spike exclaimed, dashing up the stairs.
"I knew you would make the right decision." Twilight said, nudging my leg.
"Hey, might as well." I said.
Spike then came running down the stairs with what I wanted.
"Here you go." Spike said, handing me the paper and quill.
"Thank you." I said
I went to the round, wooden table in the middle of the library room and got on my knees to write. With that, I began my letter.
Dear Princess Celestia,
About twenty minutes ago, I expressed a story from my homeworld that shares a very valuable lesson in both friendship and the rest of everypony's lives. And so, i'm writing this letter to share it with you, even though you most likely know it. You see, back in my world, I was part of a bully gang. We would mostly pick on others that we referred to as inferior or not like us, and our last time as bullies is when we created a game that was so mean that another had to stand up for our victim. We were sent to a guidance counselor, who helped us to redeem ourselves. Not only did she help us with redeeming ourselves, but she taught us a lesson that I still remember and stand by to this day: treat others the way you would want to be treated. I couldn't understand this before because I was blinded by the feeling of power and dominance over others, but as soon as I heard those words, I understood it clearly and coherently. Now that I informed you with what I learned, I want to also inform you that I may be writing more letters like this to you. I feel with all that Twilight has learned within the span of one year, I should do the same because I feel that I have a whole lifetime here to learn. That's all I have to tell for now.
Your human friend, Caleb Barlow
After I finished my letter, I took a red ribbon and rolled the paper up like a scroll.
"Alright, Spike. Send it." I said.
I tossed the paper up and Spike blew a green flame at it, causing it to disintegrate, sending it to Princess Celestia.
9:07 PM
Me, Twilight, and Spike were just getting ready to head off to bed until I noticed Spike covering his mouth.
"Mmph! Letter response!" Spike gagged
Spike then let out a short, deep belch, causing the letter to drop out of a cloud of smoke. I picked it up and quickly unraveled the red ribbon.
"What does it say?" Twilight asked.
"Here, read it with me." I said, sitting next to her while Spike climbed onto my shoulder.
Dearest Caleb Barlow,
I am very proud of you for taking the initiative to share your story and lesson with me. I was honestly quite surprised to learn that you were once a bully, but I can see why you went down that path. Being picked on numerous times is never a good feeling. But overall, I loved hearing how you discovered an indeedly important life lesson. It is just as enjoyable when I read Twilight's letters. Therefore, if you'd ever want to, send me another letter if you felt like you learned something, or if you perhaps have any questions that I could answer.
Sincerely, Princess Celestia
"See? Told you Princess Celestia would like the letter." Twilight said.
"Now you and Twilight can do the same thing. Send letters on friendship, or life lessons." Spike said.
"Hey, that's right, we can. Except i'm not assigned to." I said.
"Either way, Princess Celestia is always open hooves for letters like yours and mine." Twilight said.
"Sure seems like it. I'm gonna put this letter in my duffle bag. Y'know, to collect them like all of those letters that were sent back." I said.
"Sounds good." Twilight said with grin. "Be sure to shut off the lights when you come upstairs." Twilight said.
"Yep." I said, going for the duffle bag I left under a wooden table.
After placing Celestia's letter in a side pouch, I headed upstairs for bed.
I sat up on my usual stakeout tree located near the lower southeast side of the Dovere territories, waiting for any Timberwolves to fall into my mannequin trap. As I waited, I had to continue listening to that speaker that spewed out tale after tale. Like always, the tale was based around a mysterious pony named Stardust and his anonymous friend doing or getting involved with all these crazy predicaments. Still, they're interesting, but can get just a teensy bit annoying once you listen to them for about two or so hours.
The only sign that could remotely be a sign of a Timberwolf were the numerous snaps of twigs in the distance, but I would've known it was Timberwolf because Timberwolves give off a putrid odor whenever they're near.
But anyways, my attention on my job was broken when my watch emitted ten high-pitched beeps that signified it was three in the morning. I took out the X-ray sensor and gave a quick sweep before climbing down the tree to leave the mannequin. I thought about how strange the Timberwolves were acting lately as I walked back to the Defender. The wolves would leave evidence that they were in the area, but they won't show up. My best guess is that they're messing with me.
Once I got inside the Defender, I switched on the defrosters to get rid of the condensation that formed on the windshield. After letting that run for a minute, I shifted into first gear and began my six mile drive back to Ponyville. I like to keep the speed at thirty or forty kilometers an hour because it's a dark forest and I never know when a deer might jump out of the foliage.
As I drove onwards, I got a small hunch; a hunch that I was being watched. Sure, I get that feeling a lot when i'm driving in the pitch black forest that can be only be illuminated by the artificial lights on the Defender or the natural moonlight, but this feeling felt way more pronounced. To emphasize, if you ever get that weird feeling in your head when you feel like you're being watched even though it's your mind playing tricks with you, but times ten. That's what i'm feeling.
"God, this job is really messing up my psyche. Doesn't make it any better when there's glowing green eyes in the rearview mirror." I said as I looked at the mirror, slow on my reaction since I was pretty tired.
Once I realized what I just said and saw, my entire state of weariness switched into a defense mode, pumping my body with adrenaline and giving me a surge of energy. I pressed my foot hard on the brake, causing the Defender to skid a short distance on the gravel path. With haste, I snatched the Igneous and flung the door open to step outside. Giving the X-ray sensor a quick pulse. But it turns out whatever I saw was long gone now.
"You're just tired." I said to myself.
Holstering the Igneous in the side pouch on the left side of my backpack, I began to turn back to the Defender, only to turn back around to look at the small glimpse that I saw. There infront of me were big pawprints that went across the path horizontally. And there were numerous amounts of them.
"Oh great, looks like a pack has been following me. Well, might as well lead them back into the forest." I said.
After getting into the Defender, I drove further into the Dovere territories in order to keep the Timberwolves as far away from civilization as possible. Occasionally, I would see them dart across the path behind me, making sure to keep out of the high beam rooflights. It's almost as if they're trying to make their presence known to me, or they just have terrible stealth skills. Either way, it's not good.
After driving about four miles deep into the Dovere territories, I shut off the engine, but obviously kept the lights on. I was hoping the quietness and the lights would make the Timberwolves lose interest in me, but so much for wishful thinking. Thinking that I had them off my back, I switched on the engine once again and made a y-turn towards Ponyville.
I drove about one hundred yards until I smelled something, something that made me gradually slow down the vehicle until it came to a halt. As I looked onwards at the pitch black wall that the lights didn't illuminate, I could see four pairs of those distinctive, bright neon green eyes peering at me through the darkness. Slowly, I turned off the engine again and went for the X-ray pulse to see how many of them I was dealing with. The press of the button revealed four orange outlines that resembled a giant canine animal. Seriously, these figures had to be about six feet tall. The Timberwolves were much shorter in the simulated dreams back at the C.A.M.A training facility.
"Hmm. Shouldn't be much of a problem." I said.
Setting the X-ray sensor in a cup holder, I grabbed my backpack with the Igneous and Timberferno holstered on the sides. Not making any sudden movements, I calmly opened the car door and left it ajar. The silence of the forest allowed me to hear the Timberwolves more clearly. They were emitting low growls at the mere sight of me. Even though those things are made out of wood and twigs, they sure as heck sound like actual wolves.
As I stared down the wolves, I was deciding what I should do first. Should I just shoot them on spot, or should I give them a chance to leave me alone and let me pass? Even though my job calls me to shoot them on spot, I decided to give them a chance to book it out of here.
First, I grabbed the Timberferno and twisted the valve on the end of it. Holding it upwards with my right hand, I began to walk towards the Timberwolves, still staying in the piercing bright light. The Timberwolves then became extremely agitated as I approached them, beginning to snarl viciously and make intimidating chomping sounds with their wooden jaws. It was the complete polar opposite to what I was expecting from them. From what I remembered, Timberwolves should cower in fear to something much more larger than them. In reaction to this, I brought my head back and raised my left eyebrow.
I then aimed the Timberferno forty-five degrees in the air towards the Timberwolves direction and squeezed on the nozzle, spewing the sparkling red hot flame outwards. The wolves reacted by lowering themselves low to the ground, almost as if they were about to pounce, and stopped snarling. Their eyes stared up at the flame and back at me, forming an expression of worriment in their eyes. The wolves then looked at each other and back at me once again. I took their fear as an opportunity and began to make myself seem more intimidating.
With the Timberferno still throwing the flames, I began move even closer to the wolves, but still making sure to stay in the light. The wolves quickly moved backwards as I approached them.
"GO! GET OUT OF HERE!." I boomed, echoing through the forest.
The sudden loud tone in my voice made them slightly jump and shake in startlement. Not only that, but they really moved back into the forest after I yelled at them.
"That's more like it." I thought to myself.
However, as the Timberferno reached the overheat limit, the flame that spewed out of the muzzle suddenly stopped.
"Uh oh." I said, shaking the flamethrower.
As I shook the Timberferno in hopes to reactivate the thing, I also noticed the wolves not looking as worried as they were before. One, the Timberferno was out. And two, I was right near the edge of where the light from the headlights ended, making me more vulnerable.
Without much warning, one of the pack mates lunged right towards, but my reaction was quick. I dodged the attack by thrusting backwards into the light more as the Timberwolf's head landed right smack inside the light.
"ARRGH!" I yelled as I forcefully brought my foot down on the snout, creating a large fracture on the thick wooden snout and impaling a few wooden teeth into the dirt.
The Timberwolf wasted no time to scurry away from the light and regrouped with its pack. After regrouping, the pack boldly approached me once again and began to viciously bark at me. I then let out a sigh.
"Okay, if you're not going to move..." I said, unholstering the Igneous.
I then turned the valve for the Timberferno shut and pressed the button on the side of the Igneous to activate the lethal magic inside it. With the press of the button, the Igneous hummed lowly. After cocking the lever on the left side, I brought the sights up to my right eye, lining up the blue dot with one of the pack mates abdomen. Squeezing the trigger gently, the beam of yellow energy shot towards the Timberwolf, instantly stoning it in place. As the others looked at their fallen pack mate, I quickly cocked the lever and aimed at another. Just like the first one, that one fell to the same fate, leaving only two left. Both looked at their stoned packmates for a few seconds before they stared back at me. I then furrowed my eyebrows, glaring right at them and bringing the sights up to my eye once again. Both seemed to get the message as they began to back away from me, but giving me a furious expression and growling at me again. As they slowly walked away from me into the darkness, I brought my weapon down and switched it off, holstering it once again. To make sure I was completely alone, I went back for the X-ray pulse and swept the area. Thankfully, no other wolves or mythical creatures were around in the vicinity.
Once I knew the coast was clear, I left the light and retrieved the stoned Timberwolves and brought them into the light where I could use the sledgehammer to break them into small or medium sized chunks of stone. As I was breaking the statues into chunks, I smelled a strong scent of sulfur, the same scent that Timberwolves breath gives off. Should've known there would be more or the other two would be watching me. I guess that would make sense if I just killed two of them.
While I loaded the stone chunks in the back of the Defender, I noticed something in the corner of my left eye. I could faintly see a pair of those neon green eyes once again. I froze for a second, still holding a chunk of stone. Then, I setted the chunk in the back of the Defender, equipped the Igneous, and pressed the button to switch it on. The eyes shifted to the right a little bit, almost as if the wolf was expecting me to shoot at it, but I didn't. Instead, I placed the Igneous inside the back with the stones and pretended I was doing something else. Once the wolf thought I was doing something else, it returned to its original position. When the wolf returned to its position, my trap was sprung. Faster than the Timberwolf could react, I swiftly aimed at the Timberwolf and shot it, stoning it like the others. And so, after sweeping the area with X-ray pulse, I went for the other wolf to break it into chunks as well.
Finally, after loading the stones into the back of the vehicle, I drove to the pond to chuck the stones into the water. As I drove, I would occasionally check to see if anything was following me with the X-ray sensor and would only get nothing. I also had to drive relatively slow because the heavy stone chunks, being close around two or three hundred pounds, would bounce upwards if I were going too fast. If they bounced too high, they could shatter or break a window.
Once I arrived at the pond, I opened up the back door and placed the chunks by the shore of the pond. The total of chunks was seventeen, so it was a lot of heavy lifting to do. After counting up the chunks, I began to chuck them far out to the center of the pond, the deepest section of the pond. Things were going pretty swimmingly for a while, but I recognized a familiar smell once again, the putrid scent of sulfur, and it was strong. I was curious why a Timberwolf would follow me out to a field that had a wide range of open space and nearly no places to hide itself, so I decided to sweep the area again with X-ray sensor. Sure enough, there was a lone Timberwolf peeking its head over a small hill about forty meters to my left. Since the wolf was in this position, I couldn't get a clear shot at it and decided to temporarily brush it off for awhile.
"Yeah, what are you gonna do?" I asked, softly.
With that, I went back to throwing the stone remains into the pond. As I threw the remains, I could hear the Timberwolf circling me and snarling at me with a low tone, but I didn't care because as long as I was in the light I would be a-okay. However, that carefree thought would only come back to bite me in the butt.
I was just about to finish up disposing of the remains when something preposterous happened. With no explanation, every single light on the Land Rover started to shut off one by one. I quickly turned my head around to see the darkness of night begin to take its place. I gasped loudly as it felt like my heart dropped and dashed over to the Defender to switch the lights back on. Just like me, I could hear the Timberwolf making a dash too, but not to the light switches, but after me. I knew right away that I was not gonna get all the lights back on in time, so I went for my high beam flashlight that was attached to the front of my leather jacket. Once the blinding flashlight was on, I turned towards the oncoming Timberwolf. By the time I turned towards the Timberwolf, it was already airborne as it pounced at me.
"WOAH!" I exclaimed, dodging the pounce.
The missed pounced caused the wolf to smack its face right into the left fender of the Defender, leaving a dent. The Timberwolf yelped as the light shined on it and tried to run away, but I managed to grab it by the right hind leg while switching the Defender's lights back on. The Timberwolf than doubled its efforts to escape as it kicked up dirt and grass into my face, but didn't move a foot further. Now all I had to do was to stone it with the Igneous, which was situated on the passenger seat. I then reached my left arm towards the Igneous, but couldn't reach. While I tried to reach the weapon, I noticed that the Timberwolf was now using its free leg to hit it up against my hand, which felt like a mallet smashing my hand. I used my free hand to swat the leg away, but the Timberwolf persisted. Not only that, but my hands were becoming slick from the amount of sweat being excreted, making it easier for the Timberwolf to slip away.
I gave a forceful yank on the wooden paw, and just like that, it snapped off, freeing the Timberwolf from my grasp. The Timberwolf wasted no time to get away from the bright light, not caring that it just lost a paw. I looked at the paw and looked back at the wolf, which was now sprinting away from me back into the deep section of the Dovere territories. I looked down at the paw again, which crumbled into tiny twigs and pieces of wood that fell onto the grass. With a deep breath, I let out a sigh of relief.
"Man, never again am I letting my guard down like that again. But how did the lights turn off when nopony's around?" I asked myself, rubbing my chin.
I grabbed the X-ray sensor once again and pressed the sweep button to check the area for a pony or something that could've switched the lights off. After looking around the field and finding nothing, I shrugged it off and got back inside to Defender to drive back to the library.
As I was driving back to Ponyville, I checked the time on my watch and it was 4:49 in the morning.
"Great. Now i'll have to sleep until noon to get a full eight hours of sleep." I thought to myself.
I then rubbed my eyes to stay awake for a little while longer, just until I get back to the library. While my eyes were closed, I heard a faint *click* sound that repeated. I opened my eyes and saw the green light flashing on the dashboard and a orange light blinking in front of the vehicle.
"Wait... what?" I asked.
I looked down at the turn signal handle and found the culprit. Never would I have guessed that it was a small squirrel dangling on the turn signal handle.
"You've got to be kidding me." I said.
The squirrel then gave a sheepish smile at me and a quick wave. Even though this squirrel nearly got me attacked by a Timberwolf, i'm pretty sure it didn't know what it was doing. So, I decided to let it off scot free. I then rolled down the driver window and pointed my thumb out the window, signalling the squirrel to get out. The squirrel nodded and hopped out the window. After all that, I continued on to the library to get a well deserved sleep.
Today I didn't really have to do anything real important to check up on. By important, i'm pertaining towards the Timberwolf activity. Ever since that first real confrontation on Monday morning, the amount of Timberwolf activity seemed to go relatively scarce, but that doesn't mean they're all gone. I mean, I still got that stumpy Timberwolf still out there. So, just to be sure, I decided to check up on the mannequins.
When I opened the front door, a somewhat strong gust of wind blew into my face and the neatly stack of papers on the wooden table behind me flew all over the place.
"Geez, I didn't think the winds would reach out this far into Ponyville." I said.
Since one of Twilight's personality traits is high organization and not having big messes, I decided to stack up the papers once again. At the time, she was doing some sort of mandatory experiment for Cloudsdale.
The most info I could get out of it was in this short 1950ish styled informational cartoon that me and Spike played for all the pegasi who were participating in it. Apparently, if a certain large amount of pegasi fly at high speeds in a perfect circular motion, a tornado can generate. Now you're probably wondering how a tornado, which is made up of cloud, can form out of nowhere without the right weather conditions. Honestly, I have no idea how that works. Never really bothered to ask Twilight at first, but now i'm pretty curious how that works. Once the supposed tornado is formed over a water source, the tornado sucks the water up and shoots it up into the sky towards Cloudsdale. Cloudsdale needs this water in order to produce clouds for the sky. So, every cloud that floats above Ponyville is basically artificial.
But anyways, after I stacked the papers in a different area where the wind can't reach and combed my thick brown hair again, I walked outside and got into the Defender. I noticed a yellow figure in the corner of my left eye as I started up the Defender, and sure enough, it was Fluttershy with her animal friends following close behind. I was puzzled why she wasn't reporting for tornado duty, so I went to honk the horn, but hey, there is no horn for the Defender. I then slid the window open.
"Hey Flutters!" I yelled out the window.
Fluttershy slightly jumped to my yell and looked over towards my direction.
"Hi, Caleb." she replied as she flew over towards me.
"Did I scare you? You kinda jumped there." I said.
"Oh, it's alright. It was just a little startle to me. Is there something you want?" Fluttershy replied.
"Yeah, how come you're not at tornado duty?" I asked.
"Actually, I was just on my there right now." Fluttershy said.
"Oh, then you and your animal friends can hop in and i'll drive you all over there. It'll be a lot quicker and save you the energy of flying." I offered.
"Okay. Thank you very much." Fluttershy thanked.
Fluttershy landed on the ground and used her wings to open the door for the passenger seat. Once she sat in the seat, I started up the engine and headed towards the open fields northwest to Ponyville. I felt Fluttershy's hoof tap on my right arm and I turned my head to her. She was saying something to me, but I couldn't hear her soft-spoken voice over the loud engine.
"What? It's hard to hear you!" I said, over the engine.
"Is this any better?" she asked with a more pronounced and raised tone.
"Better." I replied.
"Did you and Spike ever fix the film tape for the informational video?" Fluttershy asked.
"No, we never did. But Rainbow Dash took it back up to Cloudsdale to get it repaired." I replied.
"That's good." Fluttershy said.
"So, how come you aren't at tornado duty? I'm pretty sure they started not long ago, or are about to start." I said.
"Well, I was planning on not going, but I decided to at least drop by and give Rainbow Dash some moral support." Fluttershy replied.
"Aw, you're not going to participate in the tornado?" I asked.
Fluttershy slightly looked down with an expression of uncertainty.
"I don't know. It's just that everypony has a much higher wingpower than me. I mean, 2.3 wing power is not much compared to 12.6 wingpower. My wing power probably wouldn't be much help at all." Fluttershy said, apathetically.
Of course, I couldn't let Fluttershy just sit by like that, so I decided to give her some moral support as well, in hopes to get her to join in the tornado.
"C'mon, Fluttershy, don't be so hard on yourself," I kindly said. "My parents once told when I was little that every little thing counts, and I know for sure that your wing power can do some amount of good. Amount doesn't matter because either way, it'll add on to the required amount of wing power. Plus, Twilight told me the other night that there should be enough pegasi in order to get the water up to Cloudsdale. So, why not just join in and help out?" I said.
"I don't know, Caleb. I'll have to think about it." Fluttershy said.
Fluttershy then turned her head towards the window and stared out as she thought about her decision. With that, we continued onwards towards the twister site.
A short time later, we must've been getting close because the wind was starting to pick up, becoming more stronger, and a few small branches hit up against the side of the Defender.
"We have to be close." I mumbled.
"You should take a left up ahead. The wind is blowing outwards." Fluttershy said, showing me the leaves rustling in the trees.
"Hmm, that's odd. Usually a tornado sucks inwards, but okay." I said.
I then took a left near an opening and entered a fairly wide open space.
"There it is." Fluttershy alerted me.
I looked to right and there was a towering dark blue, cylinder-like tornado spinning at incredible speeds and blowing debris away from it.
"Oh my god, that thing is huge!" I exclaimed, "And you're sure the tornado has very poor suction power on the outer edge of the tornado, only inside?" I asked.
"I am one hundred percent positive." Fluttershy assured.
"Alright then, let's go." I said as I pressed on the gas pedal.
As we advanced much more closer to the tornado, I could feel the force of the wind push up against the body of the Defender, causing it to slightly wobble to the right a little. To prevent the possibility of the vehicle tipping over on the side, I drove head-on towards the twister. Even though the winds are still going under and over, it's a much better angle.
Fluttershy exited the vehicle once I pulled up next to a giant anemometer that Twilight and Spike were overseeing. There was also this pegasus who was wearing goggles and some blue body suit. I didn't know who that was, but I know i've seen her before on a poster.
"Okay, you guys, stay in here. It's far too windy outside." I said to Fluttershy's animal friends, which they all quickly nodded in agreement.
As I stepped out, the winds hit me like a freight train, causing me to stumble backwards and fall over. Besides the winds, there was a nice mist that also blew into my face because of the body of water that the tornado was hovering over. I then pulled myself up by gripping onto the door handle and began to slowly advance myself over to Twilight alongside with Fluttershy.
"Fluttershy?! Caleb?! What are you both doing here?!" Twilight yelled through the howling wind.
"I drove Fluttershy down here! Said she wanted to give Rainbow Dash some moral support!" I explained
"It's the least I can do!" Fluttershy added as she grabbed onto the anemometer.
"She could sure use some moral support, considering that eight pegasi are sick with the feather flu!" Twilight informed.
"Oh-no! That's terrible news!" Fluttershy said.
"Will they still have enough--" I said before a patch of mud splattered on my face, "to reach the required amount of wing power?!" I asked, wiping the mud off my face.
"At this rate, things are not looking too good! The needle is just on the margin to eight hundred wing power!" Twilight said as she showed me the needle that was just above seven hundred and ninety-five wing power.
"They're so close!" I said.
I then glared at the pegasus in the blue and yellow body suit.
"What are you standing around for?! Why aren't you up there helping?!" I asked the pegasus.
"I wish I could, but I was designated to be an observer, and i'm not a resident of Ponyville!" the pegasus replied.
"She's telling the truth!" Twilight backed up the pegasus.
"Okay, okay. Sorry." I nodded in understandment.
I looked back at the tornado, and it seemed to become more and more unstable.
"The tornado is looking a little wibbly-wobbly!" Spike alerted.
"They're losing form!" Twilight said.
The tornado violently wobbled to the left and right before it bent at an unnatural angle and broke apart, dropping a column of water and flinging about seventy pegasi out of the vortex and onto the ground. Of course, one of those pegasi was Rainbow Dash. I jumped backwards as she plummeted to the ground like a bullet.
"Aaaa- oof!" Rainbow hit the ground and ricocheted head-first into a tree.
"Are you okay?" Twilight asked Rainbow Dash.
"I-- I'm fine." Rainbow replied, her voice muffled since her head was lodged in the tree.
"You were so close to the eight hundred minimum." Twilight said, "I'm sorry Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash then pulled herself out of the tree, revealing a few scrapes on her head, but shook it off.
"No! We've got to try again!" Rainbow insisted as she flew back up.
"But you've pushed your crew to your limit already!" Twilight grabbed Rainbow with her magic and yanked her down, "If you break apart again, somepony could get hurt! You should quit, it's not safe!"
I couldn't help but to agree as well.
"Yeah, I don't think you should do this again, Rainbow Dash. Everypony looks pretty winded and you've got a few scrapes on your forehead." I said.
Rainbow felt her forehead and a tiny splotch of blood stained her hoof.
"No! One more time! I've got to know we gave it our all! If i'm going down, i'm going down flying!" Rainbow boldly stated.
Me, Twilight, Spike and Fluttershy looked at each other in worry.
"C'mon, ponies, let's make this happen!" Rainbow declared.
Every pegasi in the crowd picked themselves off the ground and cheered to Rainbow's words of encouragement.
"YEAHHH!" a severely muscular pegasus yelled from behind me, making me jump like a girl.
Alright, Spike, blow the horn." Twilight instructed.
Spike did as told and blew deeply into the wooden horn, causing it blare loudly. This signalled the pegasi to once again form another tornado. The wind began to howl and pick also, causing the windmill on the anemometer to gradually spin faster.
"How are we looking?" I asked as I stared up at the towering vortex.
"So far we're at one hundred wing power. Two hundred wing power. Now it's five hundred wing power!" Twilight exclaimed.
"This is so nerve-racking!" Fluttershy said as she brought both of her hooves up to her mouth.
"Okay, we're at seven hundred. Now seven hundred and fifty!" Twilight said.
"Gah! This is when they fell apart!" Spike reminded.
"Yeah, but the tornado is still looking pretty structurally sound!" I said.
I crouched down and could see a column of water begin to rise into the funnel of the tornado.
"Hey, they're doing it! Are we at eight hundred?!" I asked.
"No! The wing power is at seven hundred and ninety-five!" Twilight replied.
"Oh, come on!" I said.
Me and Twilight began to look at Fluttershy and look back at each other since we seemed to both have the same idea.
"Fluttershy, they need your help up there!" Twilight said.
"This is your chance to help out!" I said.
"Why?! I won't even make a difference!" Fluttershy said.
"You can make a difference!" Twilight said.
"But my measly 2.3 wing power won't make a difference!" Fluttershy said.
"Won't make a difference?!" I asked, crouching down to Fluttershy's height, "Look at how far that water has risen! I bet if you get in there and help out with your wing power, the water will be able to push through the top!" I encouraged before the wind was too much and blew me backwards, landing on my back.
"You can do it, Fluttershy! Do it for Equestria! Do it for Rainbow Dash! Do it for yourself!" Twilight said.
Fluttershy's eyes darted all over the place as she thought of what she should do. To help out with that decision, Twilight levitated a pair of circular goggles to Fluttershy. Fluttershy eyed the goggles for a moment before she gulped. With that, she took the goggles, strapped them on her face and walked up to the tornado. I could visibly see her gulp again before she sheepishly moved her foreleg at the tornado before she was sucked into the twister within the blink of an eye.
"Okay, she's in!" I said.
"Now we just wait until her wing power is added onto the total amount!" Twilight said.
I grabbed on the top on the anemometer and pulled myself over towards Twilight and Spike to view the total amount of wing power. I would look back at the tornado and the reading over and over again and still got no new reading.
"C'mon, Fluttershy." I mumbled.
"Caleb! Look!" Twilight exclaimed.
I looked at the reading and it had risen to seven hundred and ninety-eight wing power.
"Just two more wing power to go!" I said.
When the wing power landed on seven ninety-five, the needle on the anemometer seemed to stop, almost as if that was the limit once again. But when it seemed like the tornado was going to be an utter failure again, the anemometer began to beep, signifying that the wing power had finally reached the required eight hundred.
"Ah-ha-ha-ha! She did it!" I exclaimed.
The tornado then began to emit a high-pitched sound as the pond below it began to slowly drain, and without warning, the water shot out the top of the funnel and into the sky, all the ways to Cloudsdale. As I stared up at the water, I couldn't help but smile, know that Fluttershy broke out of her shell and did what was right.
"They did it! She did it! They all did it!" Twilight exclaimed while her and Spike jumped around in joy.
I looked over at the pegasus mare in the bodysuit and she was just amazed at what just happened, causing me to chuckle to her expression. The stream of water that shot up to Cloudsdale lasted about ten or so seconds before the entire pond was drained. Once drained, the pegasi broke formation and the tornado dissipated into thin air, revealing all of the pegasi responsible for the swirling vortex. Once every pegasus landed back on solid ground they began to cheer and stomp their hooves on the ground; their form a clapping I guess.
"Now all of that water is going to be used for clouds?" I asked.
"That's correct. The first cloud should be out pretty soon." Twilight said.
Rainbow Dash then landed on the ground with a thud. Twilight ran over with a gauze pad and placed it on her scrapes.
"Thanks, Twilight." Rainbow thanked.
"Ahem." I pointed up at Fluttershy.
Rainbow Dash looked up and saw that Fluttershy was oblivious to the fact that the tornado was over with, still flying in circles with her eyes tightly closed. Rainbow grinned and flew up into the sky to grab a patch of cloud. She used this cloud to catch and halt Fluttershy from her continuous circular flight.
"Whoa, girl, take it easy!" Rainbow exclaimed.
"Wha- What? Did we do it?" Fluttershy asked as she recollected herself.
"Yeah, we did it! You did it!" Rainbow hugged Fluttershy and gave each other a high-five with their wings.
"Well, that went pretty well." I said to Twilight, "What do we do now?
"Everypony is heading back to Ponyville for now." Twilight replied, "Would you mind getting the tornado horn?"
"No problem." I said.
When I went to get the horn, everypony started cheering once again. Curious to why, I looked over and saw that everypony was praising Fluttershy for her brave and courageous act.
"Fluttershy, Fluttershy, Fluttershy can really fly!" they chanted as they tossed her up and down.
The crowd then began to leave on a path that led back to Ponyville. While I grabbed the horn, I heard a tapping sound come from behind me, only to find the Fluttershy's animal friends still inside the Defender.
"Oh shit." I said, opening the passenger door, "Sorry about that, little guys."
The animals leaped out and ran after Fluttershy. I then opened up the back door and barely managed to fit the tornado horn in the back. Once everything was situated, I started up the engine and drove off the catch up with the crowd.
While driving past the crowd on the side of the path, I was looking for that one pegasus in the body suit. When I found her alongside Rainbow Dash, I slowed the vehicle down to their walking speed.
"Excuse me, ma'am." I said from the window.
"Me?" the orange haired pegasus asked?
"Yeah. Hey, what's up with the bodysuit?" I asked.
Rainbow Dash's head snapped towards my direction and her mouth dropped in disbelief. She then flew in front of the vehicle.
"Woah, woah, woah, hold up there, Caleb!" Rainbow Dash halted.
"What? Was there something I said?" I asked, confused on why she was acting sort of defensive.
Rainbow then flew over to my window.
"Caleb. How long have you been living in Equestria?" Rainbow asked.
"I've been here since November of last year, so that would be six months." I answered.
Rainbow's eyes went wide open.
"Six months and you never heard of the Wonderbolts?! Have you been living under a rock your whole time here?" she asked, frantically.
"Actually, i've been living in a tree. And now that I think about it, I think you did mention the Wonderbolts on the first day we met. Guess I just forgot about them." I said.
"How could you forg--." Rainbow began before she was cut off.
"Go easy on him, Rainbow Dash. Not everypony needs to be a big fan of the Wonderbolts." the pegasus said as she approached the window.
Rainbow backed away slightly.
"You're right. Sorry about that, Caleb, my wonderbolt fanism got the best of me." Rainbow apologized with a sheepish smile.
"No worries, Dash." I accepted, "So, who are you, miss?" I asked the pegasus.
"The name's Spitfire; Captain and Drill Instructor of the Wonderbolts. Put 'em here" Spitfire introduced, extending her right foreleg to me and removing her goggles.
"Caleb Lee Barlow. Such an honor and surprise to meet a Wonderbolt for the first time." I said while shaking her hoof, "So, do you have to come down and observe, or do you have some time off?"
"Eh, the Cloudsdale Weather Center always wants me to come down and observe in order to make sure everything goes alright." Spitfire replied.
"Like when the first time everypony crashed out of the tornado?" I asked.
"Oh, no, believe me when I say that there has been way worse in the past." Spitfire said, "Speaking of which, how's your head, Rainbow Dash?"
"It's alright. A little bit sore, but I think the wound has clotted up by now." Rainbow replied, removing her gauze pad.
"So, how's life in Ponyville?" Spitfire asked.
"Pretty good, actually. Beautiful place, got some friends, and a lot of wacky stuff going on to keep me busy. Why? Do you live up in Cloudsdale?" I asked.
"Yep. You ever been there?" Spitfire asked.
"No." I replied.
Rainbow Dash raised her eyebrows to my answer.
"Y'know," Rainbow began, "I remember when I first met you and I said that we should hang out sometime."
"Oh, that's right, you did." I remembered, "Wanna hang out later?" I offered.
"Actually, why don't we hang out tomorrow? Me and you could go up to Cloudsdale and hang out with each other for a few hours or so! I could show you around and that kind of stuff!" Rainbow said, anticipating an answer
"Sure! That sounds great!" I accepted, happily, "But wait, how am I going to be able to walk on the clouds? Only pegasus ponies can do that."
"Not unless if you can get Twilight Sparkle to cast the spell that allows non-pegasi to walk on the clouds." Spitfire brought up, "Remember when Twilight and the others came up to Cloudsdale for the Best Young Flyer competition?"
"Riiiight. Look, just ask Twilight about the spell tonight, i'm pretty sure she still has it." Rainbow said.
"Okay, I will. So, i'll see you tomorrow at what time, Rainbow?" I asked.
"We'll head up to Cloudsdale at noon. I like to sleep in late on Saturdays." Rainbow said.
"Yeah, try saying that to Twilight." I joked.
"I know what you mean." Rainbow chuckled.
"Alright, see ya tomorrow." I said, clenching a fist towards her.
Rainbow complied and brought her hoof up, bumping it into mine.
"And nice to finally have a chance to meet you, Captain Spitfire." I said, starting up the Defender's engine.
"Same with you, Caleb Barlow. Hey, maybe i'll see you around town tomorrow." she replied.
"We'll see." I said.
I looked ahead and noticed that the crowd of ponies were now about a quarter of a mile ahead. I put the vehicle into first gear and floored the gas pedal, leaving Rainbow Dash and Spitfire in the dust.
"Oh, so it's gonna be like that?!" I heard Rainbow Dash faintly yell in a challenging and playful manner.
Within one second, Rainbow Dash and Spitfire caught up with me, and I was cruising along at ninety kilometers an hour.
"Whoa!" I exclaimed to how quick they were.
"Pffft, you think that's fast?" Rainbow Dash scoffed.
"Watch this." Spitfire said.
Both mares nodded at each other and Spitfire put her goggles back on.
I'm not sure how quick it was, most likely two seconds, but it took that long for them reach the crowd of ponies up ahead, and I still had about quarter of a mile to go before I reached them.
"Yep." I said to myself, "The pegasi are gonna freak when they see my strolling through town tomorrow."
"So, uhh, are you sure this isn't dangerous or somewhat harmful? Because the last time my body experienced high amounts of magic, the reaction wasn't very pleasant." I said to Twilight.
"This is a documented spell, so it's perfectly safe for anypony. Remember when Zecora warned you that the effects of the potion you took were unknown and could have possible risks?" Twilight reminded as she flipped through the pages in her spellbook.
"Oh yeah, I guess she did," I said. "And just to be sure, the book says nothing about a time limit on how long the spell lasts?" I asked.
"No time limit. The caster, being me, is the only one who can undo the cloud-walk spell." Twilight assured.
"Okay, good, just checking." I said, me being a teensy bit nerve wracked.
"Now, you said that Rainbow Dash was going to be here in awhile?" Twilight asked.
"She said we would leave at noon and it's eleven-forty right now. So, she should be here pretty soon." I replied.
Shortly after I made that statement, there were two knocks at the front door.
"That must be her." I assumed.
When I opened the door, I was expecting Rainbow Dash, but it none other than Spike, carrying a couple of brown grocery bags from his errand.
"Oh, it's you." I said.
"Were you were expecting Rainbow Dash?" Spike asked.
"Yep. Did you see her at all on the way back?" I asked.
"Not at all. But I saw Pinkie Pie coming out of the store with a bunch of confetti for her party cannon." Spike replied as he walked into the library.
"That sounds like Pinkie Pie, alright." I chuckled, closing the door.
As I turned my back to the door, it didn't take long for two more knocks from the other side to grab my attention.
"Okay then." I murmured.
Turns out that it was Rainbow Dash this time.
"Oh, it's actually you this time." I said, somewhat surprised.
"Why do you say that?" Rainbow asked.
"Well for starters, you arrived about ten seconds after Spike got back from the store." I replied.
"Huh. How coincidental," Rainbow said. "But anyways, did Twi cast the cloud-walk spell on you yet?"
"Not yet. She was just about to, actually." I said.
"Good timing." Spike said from the kitchen.
"Here, come on in." I said, holding the door open for Rainbow.
"Thanks, bud." Rainbow said.
Once inside, me and Rainbow walked over to Twilight to see if she found the page yet.
"Find it yet?" Rainbow asked Twilight.
"Hold on, give me a sec." Twilight said as she continued to flip the pages.
I then sat on the couch across the room while Rainbow Dash continued to fly besides me to wait for Twilight.
"You grew up in Cloudsdale, right?" I asked Rainbow Dash.
"You bet. Almost every pegasus lives there. Not a single Earth or Unicorn pony." Rainbow Dash replied.
"Yeah, well there's gonna be a human up there today." I said.
"I know, right? You watch, everypony's gonna freak out when they see you up there." Rainbow Dash said, her raspy voice slightly choked by laughs.
"Freak out in a good manner or bad manner?" I asked.
"Good manner. It would be pretty cool to see you walking around up there because nopony would expect it." Rainbow Dash said.
"Yeah, I suppose you're right." I said, getting up to head back over towards Twilight.
"Here it is." Twilight said, showing me the page.
"Cumulus-Pedalism: Allows non-pegasi to walk on cumulus clouds. Best used for Cloudsdale travel," I recited the text. "So where do you want me to stand?"
"Stand right there in the center." Twilight instructed.
"Okay." I said, taking a short deep breath as I stood in the center of the room.
Twilight set the book on the floor and quickly skimmed through the instructions on how to conjure the spell.
"Great. Let's get started," Twilight said with her usual enthusiasm for magic in her tone. "Uncross your arms and put them to your sides so that the magic can encase you properly."
I audibly gulped and reluctantly uncrossed my arms.
"Do it." I said.
Twilight did as told and she slightly grunted as her horn began to emit that distinctive magical aura sound from the magic within her. Once she gave a bit more effort, a misty, transparent form of lavender colored magic slowly exited the tip of her horn and floated towards my feet. The magic worked its way up my entire body while quickly wrapping around my body at the same time before my reaching my head. The magical mist sat still for a moment before my body seemed to absorb it inside of me. I didn't feel anything, but it was odd.
"Phew," Twilight quietly sighed once the spell was complete. "How do you feel?"
"Pretty normal, as always." I replied.
"Good." Twilight said.
"Was it hard for you to cast that spell? It looked like it took some effort." I said.
"Believe it or not, that was easy for me. There are some in here that I can barely finish." Twilight said.
"Like that wing spell you casted on Rarity?" Spike asked.
"Uh-huh. Just like that one." Twilight replied.
"So, now we're all good to head up to Cloudsdale?" Rainbow asked.
"Yes. Caleb now has the capability to walk freely through Cloudsdale" Twilight replied as she slid the book back on the bookshelf
"Or pretty much any big, puffy cloud in the sky." Spike added.
Twilight nodded in agreement.
"Aww yeah!" Rainbow exclaimed.
"Ready to go?" I asked.
"I'm ready if you're ready." Rainbow replied.
"Alright then, let's go," I said, opening the front door. "See you later, Twilight and Spike. And thanks again for the spell, Twilight." I called out before closing the door.
"Anytime." Twilight called back.
Once we were outside, I looked over towards Cloudsdale, which was about two miles away from Ponyville and eight hundred meters in the sky.
"So, how are we gonna get up there? I mean, it's not a problem for you, but for me." I said.
"Easy. We'll take the hot-air balloon up there." Rainbow replied.
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that balloon." I said.
"Follow me. I'll show you the way." Rainbow said as she quickly flew away from me.
"Wait!" I called out as I ran after her.
Rainbow stopped and looked back at me before landing next to me.
"Could you atleast fly alongside me?" I asked.
"Sure. Sorry about that. I'm just so used to going fast all the time." Rainbow apologized.
"Don't sweat it. Let's just get to that hot-air balloon and get up to Cloudsdale." I said.
After walking for a short distance, we made to the same hot-air balloon station me, Twilight and the gang used to catch Rainbow Dash the day Discord wreaked chaos throughout Ponyville.
"Ah, yes. This hot-air balloon," I said, looking up at the tall, purple balloon. "Do you know how to steer this thing?" I asked Rainbow.
"Yeah, it's a magic balloon." Rainbow replied.
"A magical hot-air balloon?" I asked Rainbow.
"Yep."
"How does it work? Last time I was on here, Twilight manipulated it to move with her magic."
"It may sound strange for you, but all you have to do is think of where you want to go while in the basket, and the balloon will travel there all by itself." Rainbow answered.
"Really? Wow." I said.
"Hop in, and you'll see." Rainbow said, jumping into the basket.
"Okay. Just let me untie this rope from the post first."
After untying the rope, I jumped in and sat down in the cramped basket.
"Now, just think deep down about Cloudsdale." Rainbow instructed.
I closed my eyes and thought up of mental image of Cloudsdale; a huge cloud city with multiple rainbow-like waterfalls that pour off the mass and dissipate into the air. A few seconds had past before I felt the balloon lift off the ground. When I opened my eyes, we were high in the sky.
"H-hey, it worked!" I exclaimed.
"Told ya'." Rainbow said, slouching on her back while putting her forelegs behind her head, crossing her hind legs and closing her eyes. "Now, we just chillax until we get there."
"Chillax. Right." I said.
I then positioned myself the same way Rainbow did, but had to have a small portion of my legs hanging off the side because of how tall I am.
As we chillaxed for a little bit, a thought came to mind.
"Hey Rainbow Dash." I said.
"What's up?" she replied.
"I'm supposing your parents still live in Cloudsdale?"
Rainbow Dash raised both of her eyebrows for a split second.
"Yeaaaah," she droned. "Why?"
"I was thinking that we could drop by for a while. I mean, it would be cool to meet the parents of the fastest flier in Equestria."
"Well.... I don't know." Rainbow hesitated
"Don't know? They're your parents, Rainbow Dash."
"I know that. But I'm just gonna warn you that they can be a little bit overactive and embarrassing, especially around me. So, I just don't want you to be weirded out or anything like that." Rainbow replied.
"Oh, they can't be that bad. It'll be fun." I optimistically said.
Rainbow only responded by slightly biting her lower lip.
About fifteen minutes later or so, Rainbow Dash gave me a nudge on the shoulder, causing me to open my eyes.
"Hey, we're almost there." Rainbow alerted.
When I rose up, Cloudsdale was instantly in my view. And man, is it way more bigger than it looks from afar.
"Geez, this place is huge!" I exclaimed.
"I know, right?" Rainbow said.
As I inspected the cloud-city, I could slightly see buildings in the distance, but couldn't get a good look at them.
"Where are we landing?" I asked.
Rainbow looked ahead and pointed at a part of Cloudsdale that was open cloud. Perfect for landing on.
"That looks good." Rainbow said.
After she said that, the hot-air balloon began to move to the left a little while slowly descending at the same time towards the open space of Cloudsdale. Finally, the balloon made contact with the Cloudsdale with a quiet *poof* sound.
"Alright, let's get moving." Rainbow said, jumping out of the basket.
I slowly moved my right leg over the edge of the basket while the other stayed inside, but didn't make contact with the cloud.
"Umm." I hummed with skepticism.
"Go ahead, Caleb. Twilight said you'll be okay." Rainbow reminded.
"Alright then."
I then extended my right leg down even more with my toes pointing straight-down. My insecurity vanished when my foot made contact with the cloud. I then put my left foot on the cloud and hopped off, my weight causing the cloud to slightly depress.
"Oh, wow." I said, amazed that I was standing on an actual cloud.
"Pretty sweet, huh?" Rainbow asked.
"You have no idea." I said, crouching down to feel the cloud with my hand.
The cloud was one of the softest feeling I've ever felt before. I pressed down and the cloud seemed to mold for a split second before returning to its original shape.
"Man, this is so soft and cushiony." I admitted, fluffing the cloud and sending small vapors into the air.
"I've had my share with clouds. They're perfect for napping on." Rainbow said as she felt the cloud as well.
After fondling with the cloud for a minute, I looked onwards towards the city.
"How the heck do we even get around in this place?" I asked.
"Don't worry, man. I'll show you the way around." Rainbow said.
"Well, in that case, let's have a look around Cloudsdale." I said.
I followed Rainbow Dash through a small cloud tunnel with pillars at the entrance, which looked familiar to an architectural design that I couldn't remember, but have seen before. As we exited out the other end, we seemed to have entered the city section of Cloudsdale. There were numerous buildings, shops, and a few pegasi flying throughout the cloud streets and sky. As I studied the architectures even more, I finally realized that it looked just like the architecture from ancient Greece or Roman architecture. Pretty sure it was one of the two.
"So, what section of Cloudsdale is this? Not many pegasi around." I asked.
"This is the town section. The town is where everypony goes to do stuff, like, shopping, eating out, working at small town businesses, that kind of stuff." Rainbow replied. "Might not be as busy because it's the weekend, or visiting other parts of Equestria such as Las Pegasus.
"Las Pegasus, huh," I asked. "What other sections of Cloudsdale are there?"
"A whole lot more! There's the suburb section, The Cloudseum, Cloudsdale Weather Center, which we sent water to yesterday," Rainbow listed. "You want to check those places out?"
"Yeah, I want to check out the suburb section. Pretty sure your parents live there." I said.
Rainbow Dash jerked her head towards me.
"You were serious when you said you wanted to visit them?" she asked.
I gave Rainbow Dash a blank stare.
"Yes, I was serious," I replied. "And I'm pretty sure you know that way."
"Okay, we'll go." Rainbow gave in. "But don't blame me if they embarrass you."
"Oh my god, Rainbow Dash." I muttered.
With that, me and Rainbow Dash headed to the suburb section, just a bit southwest of the town.
Along the way, we came across more pegasi ponies, and they were just as astonished as I and Rainbow Dash predicted. They were asking questions on how I got up here and if they were liking Cloudsdale so far. After the crowd of pegasi cleared up and we continued towards the residential section, I heard something odd. It sounded like a jet engine in the distance.
"Do you pegasi have jets up here?" I asked.
"What's a jet?" Rainbow asked.
"Well, I swore I just heard a jet engine in the distan-" I said before I cut myself off from hearing it again. "There it is again!"
"That sound?" Rainbow asked.
"Yeah!"
"That's just the sound of pegasus flying at high speeds somewhere out in the distance. I would know because I fly fast." Rainbow replied.
I looked in the sky in all directions and saw two blue dots coming up from behind me, the flyby sound getting fainter as they got closer. Rainbow Dash let out a surprised gasp as she seemed to know who was coming.
"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" she quickly said like some sort of fangirl.
"What?" I asked.
"It's the Wonderbolts!" Rainbow declared out loud.
I looked a bit closer
"Oh, it is! Two of them!" I exclaimed.
"Quick! Do l look awesome?!" she asked.
"Uh, you look fine, Rainbow Dash." I replied.
"Good. Gotta look awesome for the Wonderbolts." Rainbow explained.
I chuckled to her slight overreaction.
The two dots turned into figures of pegasi and slowed down as they approached us before landing right in front.
"See, Soarin? Told ya' Caleb Barlow was gonna be in Cloudsdale today." Spitfire said.
"Nice to meet you, Caleb. As you know, the name's Soarin; Spitfire's Second In Command." Soarin said as he extended his foreleg towards me.
"And nice to meet another member of the Wonderbolts," I replied, shaking his hoof. "What'd you want to meet me for?"
"Well, mostly because it's break time back at HQ, but I also thought you seemed pretty cool." he replied.
"Is that so?" I asked, glancing at Rainbow, who looked a little impatient since I was getting all the Wonderbolt attention.
I thought and remembered that Rainbow was a real big fan of the Wonderbolts, so I decided make her day a whole lot better.
"Well, believe me, this mare right here is cooler than me." I said.
Spitfire and Soarin looked over at Rainbow Dash.
"Oh yeah," Soarin said as he trotted towards Rainbow Dash. "You're Rainbow Dash, right? The pegasi mare who saved us at the Young Fliers Competition, created a Sonic Rainboom, and lead the annual tornado duty?"
"Yes, sir! That would be me, sir!" Rainbow replied like a soldier would respond to a drill sergeant.
Soarin laughed to Rainbow's tone.
"Calm down, Cadet. This isn't the Wonderbolts Academy." Soarin joked.
Rainbow Dash let out a loud gasp.
"Caleb, did you hear that?! He called me a cadet!" Rainbow exclaimed in joy before doing flying somersaults in the air.
Me, Soarin, and Spitfire all smiled at her actions.
"She's a big fan." I informed.
"She sure seems it." Soarin said.
We continued to watch her for a little while and it seemed she wasn't stopping anytime soon.
"Say, i'm going to be heading over towards the residential area," I said, pointing towards the houses in the distance. "Be sure to tell her that I'm over there once you're done talking to her."
"You got it," Soarin said. "Hope you enjoy your stay in Cloudsdale."
I then began to walk over towards the residential area while Rainbow continued to dance in the air and repeating how she was called a cadet. It didn't take long for me to make to the residential area, and the houses were pretty small, to be honest. Some were so short that I could probably tower over them, but most were at least ten feet tall. I'm probably think this because of how tall the houses are in Ponyville.
As I walked through the streets of the subdivision, I really appreciated how interesting the houses looked. Instead of clouds, these structures were actually made of raw material, including bricks. Another cool feature was the fences. Instead of the average wooden fence that us humans have, the pegasi use these bendable rainbow fences that come in bands that you can wrap around to form a perimeter around their yards. Plus, they also use clouds with darker shades that act as bushes or plant decor. You see, it's just the tiny things that make Cloudsdale the way it is.
While continuing through the streets, I did come across this fairly tall stallion with a swirly pink mane, but he booked it when he saw me. I guess not everypony in Equestria is fond of me just yet. At the time, I was pretty much wandering aimlessly through the residential area, waiting for Rainbow to fly over and find me. However, my attention was brought to this stocky stallion with a grayish blue coat along with a rainbow mane and tail that slightly resembled Rainbow Dash's mane style; slightly messy. It was pretty much a dead giveaway to who I just found.
"I think I just found Rainbow Dash's father." I said to myself.
As I approached him from the left, he slightly cocked his head to the right, confused on how I was in Cloudsdale.
"Hey, you!" he called out with a slightly deep voice.
"Hi," I replied back, "how's it going?" I asked once I walked up to him.
"Either I'm dreaming, or am I seeing the first human in Equestria up here in Cloudsdale?"
"Ah, I've been getting the same question today," I said. "The name's Caleb Barlow, but you probably already knew that."
"Bow Hothoof, at your service." he introduced, extending his foreleg.
"Oh, I thought your name would have Rainbow in it, or a synonym to Dash." I said as I shook his hoof.
"Wait. Do you know my daughter?" Bow Hothoof asked.
"Oh, heck yeah. She's one of my best friends here in Equestria, and she brought me up here today to show me what Cloudsdale is like."
Bow Hothoof immediately checked the sky after I made that statement.
"Where? Where is she?" he asked, his tone becoming more excited.
"She's somewhere way back there talking to a couple of the Wonderbolts. She shouldn't be long." I replied.
"Oh, well, I was just about to head back inside. You can come inside if you'd like." Bow offered.
"Sure. Lead the way." I said.
I followed Bow Hothoof to the front door and ducked through the doorway just to get inside the house.
"Honey! Caleb Barlow, the first human in Equestria, is here!" Bow announced.
"Oh, dear, you know only pegasus can walk on Cloudsdale without falling through." Bow's wife said from another room.
Oh yeah? Well, see for yourself." Bow replied as we approached the kitchen area
I walked into the kitchen and saw a pegasus mare who had a coat color similar to Rainbow Dash's, and she had a mane that was not rainbow, but a light shade or dark orange with orange streaks.
"Oh my goodness, he really is here."
"Hi there, Mrs.... Hothoof?" I guessed.
"Oh, no. My name is Windy Whistles." she corrected, kindly.
"Sorry, my bad. As you probably know, I'm Caleb Barlow."
"Of course. Everypony around here knows you even though you live on the ground," Windy said. "Since you're our guest, would you like anything to drink or something? We've got all kinds of foods here." she offered.
"Uh, a glass of water would be fine. Thanks." I replied.
"Alright."
I then took a seat at the table that had a nice round seat that could probably fit six ponies on it. Shortly after, Windy Whistles gave me my glass of water and sat across from me along with Bow.
"So Caleb, tell us what brings you here?" Windy asked.
"Well, mostly because I wanted to meet the parents of the fastest flier in Equestria, and I'm frankly not disappointed." I replied.
"You know our little Dashie too?" Windy asked.
"He sure does! Him and her are best friends!" Bow confirmed.
"Well, anypony who's a friend of our Dash is a friend of ours too!" Windy beamed, happily.
"That's great! Y'know, you guys are so nice. I was expecting you both to be serious and intimidating for some reason." I admitted.
"Nope. Me and Windy are kind pegasi who just adore their daughter greatly." Bow said as he pulled Windy closer to him.
"That's sweet." I said.
As I sipped on my water, I could see Rainbow Dash out of the corner of my eye.
"Check it out. Look who's coming." I alerted.
Both parents hastefully looked out the window and absolutely went cheerful when they saw their daughter.
"Aww, she got rid of the ponytail. I thought she said was going to keep it." Windy said.
"When did she have a ponytail?" I asked, creating a mental image of Rainbow Dash with a ponytail.
"The day she moved out; saddest day ever." Windy replied.
"But still looks as cute as always." Bow said.
"She sure does, Bow." Windy agreed.
"Oh, shoot! We gotta get our shirts!" Bow exclaimed.
"You're right!" Windy gasped.
"Caleb, would you mind getting the door and lead our little filly into the kitchen once she's here?" Bow asked.
"No prob." I replied.
Bow and Windy wasted no time and dashed out of the kitchen to get their clothing. While they got their stuff, I headed over towards the door and opened it up to Rainbow Dash standing there.
"Hey, Caleb," Rainbow said, sounding a bit nervous. "How were they?"
"Aw, your parents are cool, Rainbow Dash." I said.
"No, you don't understand. They are very attached to me, and can be a little over the top at times." Rainbow said.
"Look, just drop by for a little while and we'll leave. Okay?" I said, starting to get a little bit frustrated at Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash walked in the house and looked around the living room.
"Wow, it has been quite sometime since I've been in here. I remember napping on this one chair all the time when I was a little filly." Rainbow said as she touched the chair
"All the memories coming back?" I asked.
"Yep."
"Follow me to the kitchen." I instructed.
As me and Rainbow Dash entered the kitchen, there was Bow and Windy, wearing short-sleeved shirts with Rainbow Dash's cutie mark printed on and caps.
"Welcome back home, Rainbow Dash!" Bow and Windy welcomed in unison.
Bow and Windy ran over towards Rainbow and locked her in a hugging embrace.
"Mom, Dad. You dressed up for me." Rainbow wheezed as both of them squeezed her tightly.
"Oh, it's been so long since we've seen you, Dash." Windy said with happiness.
"It's only been two and a half years, Mom." Rainbow said.
"Still. Feels like it has been forever." Windy said.
Bow Hothoof ruffled his daughter's hair once they finished their hug, making it more messy.
"I see you somewhat kept your mane style the same. Just like your father." Bow said.
"Yeah, but I like to keep it more aerodynamic, if you know what I mean." Rainbow Dash said, fixing her mane and putting it back to its original style.
"Oh, of course! The fastest flier in Equestria has standards." Bow replied.
"Caleb, would you mind taking a picture of us and our little Dashie?" Windy asked, handing me a camera.
"Why, I most certainly can." I said.
"Moooom! Did you have to say my nickname in front of Caleb?" Rainbow asked like a stereotypically embarrassed girl.
"Oh, come on. It's a cute nickname." Bow said.
Rainbow glanced over towards me, causing me to shrug.
"Alright everypony, say Dashie." I instructed.
"Dashie!" Bow and Windy said, but I'm pretty sure Rainbow didn't say anything.
After clicking the shutter switch, a small photo exited through the front on the camera. I inspected Rainbow's expression, which looked like a mix between happy and uncomfortable.
"Beautiful memorabilia." I said, handing Windy the photo.
"Ooh! We should put this with the rest of the Rainbow Dash memorabilia." Windy suggested.
"Great idea, dear!" Bow agreed.
Rainbow smiled, but her eyes were the widest I've ever seen before.
"To Rainbow Dash's room!" Bow shouted.
"This outta be good." I thought to myself. "You 'comin?" I asked Rainbow.
"Sure, I don't see why not." Rainbow said, sarcastically.
"It's just your room."
"I have a hunch that they did something cringeworthy to it from the day I moved out."
"We'll just have to see for ourselves."
With that, we headed down the hallway to Rainbow Dash's room where Bow and Windy waited for us. Just like the shirts Bow and Windy wore, Rainbow's bedroom door had her cutie mark plastered on it.
"Here it is. The bedroom of the most perfect pegasus in the world!" Bow said.
He then opened the door to reveal Rainbow Dash's childhood bedroom. The ceiling was grey clouds with this cool looking rainbow light hanging from the clouds, a basketball hoop attached to the wall, shelves lined with books and a few trophies, posters on the walls, a small bed for a filly, and more. Reminded me of my room when I was five.
"Wow." Rainbow said in awe.
"Is it just as you remembered it?" I asked.
"It looks untouched." Rainbow said as she picked up a basketball and shot it into the hoop.
"Just like what she used to do when she was a filly." Windy whispered to me.
"They just grow up so fast." Bow croaked, shedding a small tear.
I gave a slight pat on Bow's back in support.
"But that's not the best part." Bow said, composing himself and heading towards a curtain on the right side of the room.
Rainbow looked over towards her dad.
"What's that?" Rainbow asked.
"Me and your mom worked on this for two weeks. All dedicated to you." Bow replied.
"To me?"
"Mm-hm. You are our shining rainbow, and we wanted to do something special for you because you mean so much to us." Windy said.
"So special that we wouldn't trade you for all the gold in the universe." Bow added.
Bow then opened the door and I swear it sounded like angels singing when the door opened. The inside of the room sure showed the dedication put into it. There were photos of Rainbow Dash of all ages all over the place, pretty much every single trophy she won in her childhood, and all of these memorabilias that involved Rainbow Dash and her family. Very organized that it looked like a Rainbow Dash museum.
Rainbow Dash was blown away by seeing a whole room dedicated towards her only. She actually had a legitimate smile on her face.
"You did all of this just for me?!" Rainbow flabbergastedly asked.
"Yep. Even added the voice FX for whenever you walk in." Bow said, opening the door over and over again to prove his claim.
"Wow... I mean, I didn't realize how much you cared for me that much." Rainbow said, closely examining all of this stuff from her past.
"What would make you say that?" Windy asked.
"Well, to be honest, I used to think the way you cared for me was sort of embarrassing. I know that sounds dumb, but it was just the way I thought." Rainbow replied as she walked towards them both.
I could tell that she felt bad for the way she thought before in her eyes
"Oh, Rainbow Dash," Windy began, lifting Rainbow's head up a little so that she would look at her in the eyes, "I know that we can be a little OTP sometimes, but it's just our way of showing that we care for you." Windy explained.
"And as long as we live, we plan to keep it like that, Rainbow Dash." Bow said.
Rainbow smiled at both of her parents before she hugged her parents, which they gladly hugged back.
"I love you, Mom and Dad."
"We love you too, Dashie."
I on the other hand stood at the doorway and a smile involuntarily grew on my face. It was such a heartwarming moment for me. As I watched them, I thought about my parents as well and how they would treat me when I was little boy. There were just so many family fun memories coming back to me all at once that the bottom of my eyelids became hot from the small amount of tears building up behind them.
I then left the room for a little fresh air outside to recollect myself. When I exited the house, I sat on the small steps and rubbed the tears out with my fingers and letting out a quick and quiet sigh.
"I miss you so much." I said, looking up into the sky.
As I went to step off of the solid step and onto the cloud, the unthinkable happened; gravity took its place again. My left leg fell straight through the cloud while the right landed sideways on the step, sending me straight down towards the hard ground while doing slow cartwheels before my central mass positioned me to fall backwards while my limbs flailed in the wind. It took me a second before I screamed my lungs out as I plummeted to the ground. That was just four seconds of the trip down. From how high Cloudsdale was up, it would take me only me fifteen seconds to make contact with the ground. I stopped screaming when my psyche told me that there was no hope for me now and to accept what was to come. I then grit my teeth together and closed my eyes tightly as I braced for the impact, hoping I wouldn't feel anything. However, in a stunning turn of events, I felt myself slow down.
"Wha-?" I uttered.
"We've got you!" three voices shouted below.
I knew instantly that it was Rainbow Dash and her family who had just come to my rescue.
"Ple-- please don't drop me." I stuttered in fear.
"We won't!" Bow assured.
As I closed my eyes again and took deep breaths, I felt them make contact with the ground and set me on the grass.
"Are you okay?!" Rainbow asked, frantically.
"I-- I'm fine. I just gotta catch my-- my breath." I said, softly.
After coughing a few times, I rose up and shook my body.
"What happened? How could the spell fail on you?! Twilight said that the spell would last until she undid it!" Rainbow exclaimed.
"I know." I said.
"Well, how could it fail?" Bow asked
"I know it's not Twilight's fault at all, that I can say. But I think it might be something involving me." I replied.
"Like what?" Windy asked.
"Look, you guys should head back up to Cloudsdale for now while I get this all cleared up." I said.
"Are you sure? You don't want us to come with?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Yes, I'm sure. The two mile walk back will give me time to think," I said. "And thanks again for showing me your home, Rainbow Dash. Aside from falling, I really enjoyed spending time with you today and your family." I said.
"Thanks, Caleb. I did too. We should hang again sometime. Somewhere not in Cloudsdale next time." Rainbow said.
"Sure. See you later." I said.
"Stay safe now, okay." Bow said.
"Yep." I said before heading off back to Ponyville.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! This is all my fault! Ugh, what did I do wrong?" Twilight ridiculed herself as she flipped through the spellbook.
"No, no, it's alright." I said.
"Alright?! Alright?! You nearly died, and you're saying it's alright?!" Twilight exclaimed.
"I think it's something about the magic from the potion inside of me." I said.
Twilight only looked at me with her hyperventilation expression.
"I can't be sure, but I think that the magic in the potion I took from Zecora is fighting off the spell." I theorized.
"How?" Twilight asked.
"Well, when I was out for those past weeks, I think the magic was infusing with my DNA and cells, what makes me up. This would explain the accelerated growth to seven foot-nine." I said.
"Hmmm. I think you might be onto something," Twilight agreed. "Are you trying to say that the potion fights off other invasive spells that are casted upon you? Basically a type of immune system?" Twilight guessed.
"Yes, precisely." I said.
"It's a longshot theory, but it's the best we got." Twilight said.
"Then we better inform this to Zecora. Hopefully, she'll be able to fix this in her potion." I said.
As I drove through the deep section of the Dovere territories in the Everfree Forest, trying to navigate without getting stuck, I noticed Twilight staring out the window, looking a little distraught.
"This isn't your fault, Twilight. You had no idea this would even happen." I tried to comfort.
"I know that, but I just can't get over the fact that you almost... well, you know." Twilight said.
"Well, try not to worry about that because I'm right here and still alive," I said "For now, let's just stay focused on whether we can fix my problem or not. And if we can't, no biggie at all. I mean, it's not like I need to have spells casted upon me everyday to stay alive."
"You're right," Twilight nodded. "Who knows. Maybe something good will come out of our visit to Zecora's"
I only shrugged in response.
The deeper I would go into the forest, the more dense and narrow the path would become. So narrow that it would be impossible to turn around.
"Alright, we're gonna have to walk from here," I said.
"I suppose so." Twilight said, checking out the surrounding area. "Otherwise, you'll have to become the world's most skilled backwards driver."
"Yeah, no kidding there." I said.
Once we hopped out of the Defender, we continued on-foot to Zecora's hut.
Along the way, I realized how much this part of the Everfree felt like a jungle because the last time I was in these parts was during the fall, where most of the leaves fall off the trees. The whole atmosphere was moist and a tad bit humid. There was the sound of insects chirping in the background and there were gnats all over the place.
"Rrgh! Pests!" I grumbled towards the gnats while swiping at them.
Twilight took hint of my complaint and created a purple bubble shield with her magic that repelled the insects and protected both of us. I then placed my hand on the shield, and it was as solid as a rock.
"A bubble shield? Niiice." I said
"Magic does have its helpful moments at times." Twilight said.
With Twilight's shield covering us, we continued onwards to Zecora's.
"Can you use magic to wish anything you want? Like a genie?" I asked.
Twilight gave a blank stare before answering.
"Actually... no. I never heard of any magic spells that extraordinarily advanced."
"Oh."
"The only pony who could possibly cast that spell would be Star Swirl The Bearded, but there never was documentation of him casting a spell like that." Twilight said.
"Oh yeah, I heard about him in the history book for Equestria. He created over two hundred magic spells, right?" I asked
"Two hundred and fifty to be exact." Twilight corrected.
"And he's, like, your idol?" I asked.
"Mmm-hmm. He is one of the reasons why I strife in my studies in magic and the magic of friendship." Twilight said.
I grinned and nodded to her statement.
"Hey Twilight." I began.
"Yes?"
"I'm just wondering, but am I also part in your studies of the magic of friendship? Or is it just circulated around you, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash? Since you six are the elements of harmony."
"Of course you're part of my studies the magic of friendship. Everypony can be part of the magic of friendship. The magic of friendship is what makes us all whole, just like you and every single friend you've made in Equestria. And so far, I believe the magic of friendship will never fail between you and us, even if we somehow go through tough times in the future." Twilight said.
"Good. I'm glad to hear that, Twilight." I said before both me and Twilight turned our heads to a knocking sound that came from the outside our shield, which turned out to be Rainbow Dash.
"Hey Rainbow Dash." I greeted.
"How did you find us?" Twilight asked.
"Well, I came by your place to see how Caleb was doing, and Spike told me that you two were going to Zecora's hut. He said you two are hoping that Zecora can fix Caleb's immunity problem." Rainbow explained.
"Spell immunity." Twilight clarified.
"Wait, your theory was correct?" Rainbow asked me.
"So far were not considering it to be the answer to my problem, but it's the best we've got for now." I said.
"Oh, I gotcha," Rainbow said, inspecting our shield. "What's with the shield?"
"Are the gnats gone?" I asked.
"Uhh, no gnats here." Rainbow replied.
Twilight then deactivated her shield, allowing Rainbow Dash to group up with us.
"You 'comin?" I asked.
"Yep. As you know, loyalty is my element, and I ain't leaving a friend's side in a time of need." Rainbow said.
"Alright then, let's go." I said.
About eight minutes had to of gone by before all three of us smelled something. If my nose is correct, it smelled like herbal scents, clear indication that we were close to Zecora's place.
"We must be close." I said.
"Zecora's hut should be down this path right here." Twilight said.
Soon enough, we found Zecora's relatively distinctive tree-hut, still having all of those colored potion bottles hanging from the branches. We then walked up to the front door and knocked three times.
"Hey Zecora, it's Caleb, Twilight Sparkle, and Rainbow Dash." I called out.
Zecora opened the door, giving me a welcoming expression.
"Hi, Zecora," I greeted, taking in the herbal scent that had a little spice in it. "How are you?" I asked.
"I am doing quite fine, my fellow human. For I was just mixing a stew with a dash of cumin." Zecora replied in her usual rhyming couplets.
"Ah." I said.
"What is your intention to be here, if I may mention?" Zecora asked.
Twilight then stepped forward to explain what is going on.
"We need your help, Zecora. Caleb seems to be experiencing a new effect from the strength potion he took." Twilight said.
"Is this effect bad? Judging by your expression, you look very unglad." Zecora noticed.
"Yeah. Really bad! He nearly died from it!" Rainbow said.
"Die, you say? Oh my!" Zecora said, very shocked about this bold statement.
"What Rainbow is trying to say," Twilight butted in, blocking Rainbow, "is that we think that the potion is creating its own immunity to foreign spells, rendering them unusable for him."
"I am quite perplexed, but I think I might be able to save a quest for an answer." Zecora said.
"You do?" I asked.
Yes. I have an idea on how to fix what I've mixed in your potion." Zecora replied.
Zecora walked over to a shelf with a lined up row of potions. She then grabbed a familiar looking potion, but a lighter green color. Me, Twilight and Rainbow all looked at each other from curiosity.
"Hey, that's the same potion I took back when I first got here." I said.
"That is most correct, but I have made some adjustments that might connect with you." Zecora said as she shook the liquid.
"Like what?" I asked.
"Minus the searing pain, out of my kindness." Zecora referenced.
"Well man, that's good news." I said
"Indeed. But it cannot fit the need for a bearable taste." Zecora said.
"Eh, that's okay. At least my insides won't feel like they're on fire, so that's a plus." I said.
"But wait, did you modify the potion or something?" Rainbow asked.
"Not yet. But I have the fix in that net." Zecora replied, walking over towards a medium hammock on the wall that held several flowers, herbs, and all kinds of ingredients necessary for her potion creating needs.
She shuffled through the multicolored flowers and pulled out a flower that had grey petals and darker shade of gray in the middle, almost as if the color had been saturated out of existence.
"Oooh, what kind of plant is that?" Twilight asked with interest.
"A Behgon. A flower that possesses an ability that the others can't." Zecora replied. "A plant that can remove any effect that one wishes, but must be told the words to avoid any misses." Zecora explained.
"What do you mean by 'misses'?" I asked.
"The user has to tell the plant what must be expelled in a certain way. If one quells for too long, it will miss the point and will become all but useless," Zecora explained. "So please, it must be silent so that I can be at ease."
Me, Twilight, and Rainbow all nodded and kept our mouths shut.
Zecora then set the flower ever so gently on the wooden table and slowly placed her forelegs on the table while standing on her hind legs. Her eyes closed and she drooped her head over the flower for a few seconds before she began to quietly talk at a rapid pace. She was talking so fast that it would seem as if she was speaking a thousand words a minute. I tried to listen to what she was saying to the plant. I could easily make out her strong African accent, but the words were just so indistinguishable for me. Who knows what she was saying to it. I mean, all she had to do was tell the plant what she wanted to be removed, but maybe there's a deeper meaning behind this little ritual she's doing. Me and two mares watched Zecora with anticipation for about a minute or so before her speaking slowed down.
"And that is why I need this to be removed. To allow my human friend to move on with the magic inside of him." Zecora finished.
Zecora then got back on all fours and walked over towards a counter to grab a wooden bowl. Once the bowl was settled on the table, she picked up the flower and placed it inside the bowl. She then looked down into it, waiting for something.
"Is it-" I began.
"Shh! No words!" Zecora shushed in a quiet yet firm tone.
Me and the girls looked at each other once again from how intrigued we were at the moment. A few seconds had past, and we noticed something changing; something we weren't expecting. The flower then began to dry up as if it were in a desert for a week.
"What?" I asked myself in my head.
The flower then disintegrated into millions of pieces, looking like a pile of fresh ash. Zecora then took the bowl and began to gyrate it elegantly like a work of art for three times before tilting it the bowl at the top of the potion bottle, pouring the flower into the green mixture inside. The potion instantly reacted and tiny white strands in the light green liquid began to disappear, giving the color a more green texture rather than whitish-green.
"It is done. Now come and see." Zecora instructed us three.
We walked over towards Zecora and looked at the potion in front of us.
"Did that get rid of the immunity inside this potion?" I asked.
"Yes, Caleb. Drink and tell me what you think." Zecora said.
I grabbed the bottle, examined the liquid again, and looked at the girls.
"Bottoms up." I said before bringing my head back and chugging down the potion to avoid the extremely bitter taste.
I then brought the bottle down on the table with a *clank*.
"Any better?" Twilight asked.
"Has the bitter taste, but not that bad, actually," I replied. "Now what?" I asked Zecora.
"Give it time. Five minutes shouldn't be much of a crime." Zecora said, flipping a five minutes hourglass on the opposite side of the sand filled side.
"So, what will happen to me now? Will I get even taller and stronger?" I asked.
"No. But I will say that the immunity will be gone by today." Zecora said.
"Excellent!" I exclaimed.
"Thank you so much, Zecora!" Twilight thanked.
"Yeah, thanks! Who knows what we would've done if we didn't have a potion expert like you." Rainbow said.
"You are quite welcome." Zecora replied for the thanks.
As we waited for the minutes passed, I asked Zecora why she did the ritual the way she did, hoping she wouldn't be annoyed with the question.
"So, what were you saying to the plant?" I asked.
"Hmm?" Zecora hummed.
"When you were talking to the Behgon. What were you saying, if you don't mind me asking?" I asked.
"I was connecting with it, telling it why I met with it," Zecora said. "The Behgon needs a reason to remove a certain ingredient. For example, it will not take a reason that involves with treason."
"Oh, I see what you mean." I understood.
"So, if somepony were to eat the Behgon, would that mean they would fade from existence?" Twilight asked.
"Precisely, Twilight Sparkle." Zecora replied.
"Wow. I never would've thought a plant could do something so deadly." Rainbow said.
"Equestria sure is full of mysterious things." I said.
"Uh-huh." everypony agreed.
"Oh, I believe the five minutes is up." Zecora noticed the hourglass. "Time to test if the potion will come to your aleve."
"I know how we could test it." Rainbow Dash spoke up.
"How?" I asked.
"Twilight casted the cloud-walk spell on you earlier, right?" Rainbow asked.
"Oh, I see what you're going with. Do you remember how to do the spell, Twilight?" I asked.
"Yep. Good idea, Rainbow Dash." Twilight praised.
"I'll head up into the sky and grab a patch of cloud for you to stand on." Rainbow said before flying out the door.
With that, I went outside where there was plenty of open space for Twilight to cast the spell on me again. Once the misty magic was absorbed into me once again, Rainbow Dash came back down from the sky with a two foot wide patch of white, puffy cumulus. Zecora then walked outside to observe if her efforts fixed my problem. Rainbow settled the patch of cloud steadily, floating off the ground a little bit. I then stepped forward and stood next to the cloud while everypony stared in anticipation.
"This is it." I said.
"Moment of truth." Rainbow added.
I then jumped upwards and fell feet first, only to have myself fall straight through the cloud, poofing it out into multiple vapors before dissipating into the air. Everypony gasped loudly to the failure.
"Damn!" I exclaimed. "Well... I guess my theory was correct."
"Aw man!" Rainbow said.
"I'm sorry, Caleb. I did the best I could." Zecora apologized.
"Hey, it's no problem. At least you tried, and that's the important thing." I said.
"Perhaps the magic from the original potion has been in your body for so long that it has become irreversible." Twilight added on to our proven theory.
"I agree." Zecora said.
I then let out a small sigh.
"Welp, I'd like to thank you again, Zecora. Thanks for being who you are and helping out a friend in need." I said.
"My pleasure, but it is a bit of a displeasure for me, that I couldn't fix your immunity." Zecora said.
"Don't worry about it. I'll get by fine with the immunity." I said.
"Before you go back to Ponyville, I have a snack for all three of you." Zecora offered.
"I like snacks." I said.
"Me too." Twilight said.
"Count me in on that." Rainbow said.
Zecora headed back into her hut and came back out with three bowls of her stew she was cooking earlier.
"Please. Take some of herbal vegetable stew with the kick of cumin. It is good for both pony and human." Zecora said.
"Nice." Rainbow said.
As I sipped on the stew with my spoon, I was quite pleased. The broth and the cumin are a perfect mix for each other, like peas and carrots, and the vegetables actually tasted pretty fresh for sitting in a boiling pot of broth.
"Mmm, that's really, really good." I admitted through my slurps.
"Mmm-hmm." Twilight and Rainbow agreed.
After we finished our stew and handed back our bowls, we said our farewells to Zecora and left back for Ponyville. Even though I couldn't get this immunity ridded of, I'm still happy Zecora was glad to help out. We'll just have to see how thing will go for now.
Although today was Sunday and I had nothing else better to do, I decided to take a drive to the Everfree Forest and do a inspection since tomorrow night is when I have to head back to the old nightly grind. And to be frank, there hasn't been a smidge of evidence of Timberwolf activity in the Dovere territories. My guess is that they're somewhere hiding deep in the Hueyu and the Batchu territories, but those territories aren't my problem. I'm just glad they aren't a problem right now, but I think I may have discovered another inhabitant who may not be too fond of others invading his territory.
I drove along the southern border line of the Dovere territories, making occasional stops to venture in the Dovere section of the forest to make thorough investigations of the area. Every stop was just the same: I started near the entrance of the Everfree and worked my way up to the border. The way it worked out is that I would probably cover about half a mile of area before heading back and driving over to my next stop.
Before exiting the vehicle for my 17th stop, I lazily slouched on the driver's seat of the Defender and looked at my wristwatch, which read 14:44.
"Gee, I could've stayed home today. No toppled trees, mannequins are fine, no markings." I thought to myself.
Once I situated the straps of my backpack on my shoulders, I headed off into the dense forest in hopes to find something. Yep. This job gets a little dull once I really don't have anything to fight off on my night shifts, but I still know that what I'm doing is for the good and safety for Ponyville.
For a while, I was walking around in the forest and observing my surroundings for the slightest detail or clue that something supernormal or mythical that could've trekked through the area until I found a downed branch in the grass. At first I was just going to brush it off as an everyday branch that snapped off from the wind or something like that. But then I looked at the ground again and noticed a copious amount of green leaves that were shaken off. From their appearance, it looks like they were either ripped into tiny pieces or simply had little tears in them.
"No way a tree squirrel would've done this. Even if it were three times its size."
I set the branch down on the ground a looked up into the tree, finding nothing biological up there, but found a little squirrel hole that was carved on the side of the tree. Curious to see if anything was in it, I peeked my head into the hole, but found nothing inside, but there were a few stone pebbles and acorns inside. I scratched my head in curiosity to why a squirrel would be interested in stone pebbles, which only made me feel a little bit suspicious for some reason. This feeling grew even more when I looked at the bottom rim of the hole and saw two small claw marks that cut through the wood. The claws were far, far too small to be a Timberwolves, but they seemed to be angular and very pointed.
I looked down at the small pebble again, but realized that there was another one that was barely hidden from being obstructed by two acorns next to each other. As I picked up the stone filament to examined it, I saw something that was quite odd. The stone turned out to be a tiny hand from a squirrel, but it was calcified into grayish-white stone.
"Is that a... hand?"
I mean, it had to be a hand of a squirrel. It had the five digits of fingers and claws. Not only that, but the fur that was probably once nice and fluffy was now but jagged edges that stood up on end. This discovery alone made me realize that there is something new around here, but I needed more evidence to know what is truly around here. And so, I put the hand in my pocket and continued onwards, unholstering the Igneous from the right side of my backpack.
I alertly walked along for about a few more minutes before I exited the dense forest and entered a somewhat small clear opening with nothing but tall light green grass. It was strange because the outer rim of this clearing was surrounded by the forest's trees, but it was just this part that was nothing but grass. This made feel very uneasy because this grass was about four feet tall. Even though I could see over the grass, due to my height, I still didn't know what could be in here. I needed to keep in mind that whatever is out here could possibly not be a nocturnal creature. Timberwolves are the only known creature that can only be out at night.
I then pulled out the X-Ray Sensor and pressed the sweep button to check for anything hiding in the grass, and what I got was absolutely chilling. Once the pulse wave swept across the clearing of tall grass, multiple orange x-ray figures of animals were lying across the clearing, motionless. Some were full bodied while some weren't. I stared at the scene for a moment before the x-rays faded, causing me press the pulse button again. I walked up to one of the x-rays that was shattered into tiny fragments and scooped a pile of it into my hand.
"Oh, what the hell." I said to myself as I looked at the fragments.
However, ten feet away from me was a full bodied x-ray figure and I walked over to inspect it. What I found was a rabbit that was stonified with a terrified expression frozen on its face.
"Well, at least they're just turned to stone." I whispered.
I checked out the stonified rabbit for about a minute or so before I unzipped my backpack and stored it inside. Using the X-Ray sensor again, I walked around the clearing and did my best to find more stonified animals that were still in one piece. I found about thirteen more before I only found bits and pieces of the others, and there were lots scattered all over the place.
What I planned on doing next was taking these fourteen animals over to Fluttershy's cottage. I would've taken these animals home with me so that Twilight could reverse the stonification, but she has no spell on to do that. What I'm hoping is that the spell will wear off and Fluttershy will be able to take care of them. I'm pretty sure Fluttershy would gladly oblige to this certain request.
And so, once I had my statues all packed in my backpack pouches, I walked back to the Defender. While I was navigating my way through the forest, I swear that I got this feeling of being watched. I may have been a little bit paranoid at the time, but, argh, it was just that feeling when you think someone's walking up from behind you, but no one's there.
After running to the Defender and starting it up, I took one last in the direction of the clearing. I wish I could say that I wasn't staring at something, but I had a feeling I was. I then thrusted the gearstick into first gear and floored it out of there.
I pulled over and parked the Defender by the side of the path, hid the Igneous, Timberferno, and all my C.A.M.A related stuff under the seats and secret compartments I found, and grabbed my backpack filled with the animals. When I exited the vehicle, I immediately took notice to Fluttershy talking with some of her bird friends while some of her land animal friends huddled around her.
"Hey." I called out.
"Hi there, Caleb." Fluttershy greeted with a wave.
"What's everyone all huddled up for?" I asked.
"Well, I've been helping my bird friends practice their tweets more because they want to have a more lively tone in the morning. And as you can see, we seemed to have attracted an audience," Fluttershy replied. "Oh, and it also seems that you've gotten Harry's attention." Fluttershy said as she looked over me.
I then turned around, expecting another little animal friend like a rabbit or something, but instead I saw an animal who was much bigger.
"Whoa-ho!" I exclaimed in startlement from seeing a bear walking right up towards me.
"There's no need to worry, Caleb. He may look big and scary on the outside, but inside, he's really a loveable lug." Fluttershy assured.
"O-oh yeah?" I asked, still pretty nervous.
Harry stared at me in the eyes and stood on his two hind legs once he got right up to me, towering about two feet higher than me. The more a looked at him, the more I began to believe Fluttershy. Sure, he was a big guy, but he had an expression that made him look more friendly in a way, but still keeping that intimidating bear face. I was at a lost of words and didn't really know how to introduce myself to a bear, but Harry had his own way introducing himself.
"Um... hi there, Harry. Wait, does he even understand what I'm sayi-"
Without warning, Harry brought his furry arms outwards and just wrapped them around me tightly, lifting me off the ground in the process, and emitted a welcoming grunt.
"Mmpf! Nice to meet you too, Harry." I compressively wheezed.
Harry then gently set me back on the ground and waved at me with a growl.
"He's a bit of a hugger." Fluttershy said.
"He sure does put literacy in the term bear hug." I said as I patted Harry on the shoulder, causing Fluttershy to softly laugh.
"Anyways, what brings you here? Did you want to listen to the birds melodies?" Fluttershy asked.
One bird tweeted a short tune to me for a demonstration.
"No, thanks," I replied. "But can we talk inside your cottage for a few minutes?" I replied.
"Sure," Fluttershy obliged. "I'll be right back." she said to her animal friends.
Once we were both inside and the door was closed, I set my backpack on the floor and unzipped it.
"So why did you want to talk in private for?" Fluttershy asked as she sat next to me on her couch.
"Okay, so I was in the Everfree Forest today, and I found these animals that appear to have been turned to stone, Fluttershy." I replied.
"Turned to stone?" she asked with confusion.
I then reached into the backpack and revealed one of the rabbits that was turned to stone.
"Oh, no!" Fluttershy gasped. "W-where did you find these?" she asked as she held the statute close to her.
"Uh, about seven and a half miles south of here," I said, removing more of the statues and sat them vertically on the floor. "I, uh... I was hoping you could watch over these fourteen animals and monitor them. Just incase if the stonification wears off."
"Oh, absolutely. I'll set up food bowls next to each individual animal. If they unstonify, then they'll have something to eat after all the time of being turned to stone." Fluttershy said.
"Great idea, Fluttershy. I think it should be best if your animal friends don't see any of these." I said.
"I agree. It would probably be too scary for them if they saw these poor things." Fluttershy agreed.
Right after she said that, me and her both noticed Angel walk into the room, his mouth agape.
"Angel! Don't look!" Fluttershy exclaimed.
Angel then went on his hind legs, brought his paw over his forehead and fainted onto the floor. Fluttershy rushed over towards him to his aid.
"Just find a spot to hide the statues, if you'd please." I said as I grabbed my backpack.
"I got it." Fluttershy said as she splashed a little bit of water onto Angel's face, waking him.
I then walked to the door, but Fluttershy seemed to have the same idea of what was doing this.
"Caleb, wait!" Fluttershy called out.
"Yes?" I asked as I turned towards her.
"I think I might know what could've done something like this." Fluttershy said.
"Really? What do you think it is?" I asked, even though I already knew what did this.
"Well, about two years ago or so, I encountered a creature called the Cockatrice."
"Just as I suspected," I said as I nodded my head. "Head of a chicken, body of a serpent, and has wings?" I asked.
"That's it!" Fluttershy exclaimed. "How did you know?"
"I know my mythical creatures, but thanks for the answer anyways. I'll try to figure something out and maybe I can resolve this problem." I said.
"I could help. I can use my stare to intimidate him away." Fluttershy said.
"A stare?" I asked.
"Yes. It works on almost anypony, even the Cockatrice. My stare has the ability to intimidate others. It may sound crazy, but it's true." she replied.
I thought for a moment in silence.
"I appreciate the offer to help, Fluttershy, but this is something that needs to go away. Forever." I said.
"Oh, um, are you sure you want to go down that route? Maybe we can reason with it or something." Fluttershy said timidly.
"I don't think that'll work out with a Cockatrice. Judging by what I saw in that clearing, the Cockatrice is something that is not only a threat to Ponyville, but for the animals that live in the area. It must be stopped, Fluttershy." I said.
Fluttershy looked back at the statues before she nodded her head with agreement.
"Maybe you're right. I'll make sure to stay here and watch over them." Fluttershy said.
"Good. Thanks for being the kind mare you are." I said.
"You're welcome, Caleb." she replied.
Fluttershy then collected the statues and flew into another room to hide them while I walked out of her cottage. When I walked out, Harry gave me a small daisy, which I guess is a sign of friendship.
"Oh, thanks, Harry," I said as I inspected the flower. "Y'know, you remind me a lot of Fluttershy. Guess it's because you spend time with her."
Harry nodded his head and lowly grunted.
"All right, well, you guys keep right on it with your melodies." I said to the birds, which they responded by singing another tune towards me.
After that little visit, I got into the Defender and drove back to the library.
"Hello-hello." I said as walked into the library.
"Wow, you've been gone for a long time. Didn't you leave here around eight in the morning?" Spike replied as he read one of his comic books on the couch.
"Yeah, I was just taking a drive, remember?" I said.
"Where? Half way across Equestria?" Spike asked.
"Well, I did stop at Fluttershy's for a while, but I took a hike through the forest, too." I replied.
"That explains." Spike said.
"Where's Twilight?" I asked.
"She's upstairs, writing a letter to Princess Celestia for the week."
"Ah. I think I'll go write one to my old history teacher." I said.
"All right." Spike said as he continued to read.
When I got upstairs to get a piece of paper and a quill pen, Twilight appeared to be proof-reading her letter at her desk.
"Hey Twilight." I said.
"Hi, Caleb. I'm just finishing up my friendship lesson letter for Princess Celestia."
"What did you learn?"
"That I should stop worrying about the smallest things and let the future handle itself."
"Sounds pretty good. Now I know a decent friendship lesson."
"Were you wanting to write a letter too?" she noticed as I waited for her to get off her stool.
"Yep. Gotta send my weekly report to Night Hunter." I said softly, making sure that Spike couldn't hear.
"No problem. Desk is all yours." Twilight said as she moved away from the desk.
Twilight then walked downstairs to have Spike send the letter to Celestia. I on the other hand, moved the stool out of the way and got on both of my knees. I then got a piece of blank paper, dipped the quill into ink, and began to write.
Dear Night Hunter,
Though most of the past week's letters may have been pretty boring, I just want to say right off the bat that this week's will be a bit more interesting. Night Hunter, I have found evidence of the Cockatrice about eight miles south of Ponyville, next to the Dovere border. Its territory appears to be an abnormally clear opening, and I say abnormally because all around this clearing is the dense forest. I just find it odd that this one section is clear of any vegetation except grass and perfectly spherical. Therefore, I plan on engaging the Cockatrice tomorrow night and will set up a trap today. First, I'll cut down as much grass I can to make it as short as possible, place a mannequin in the center, and will be able to nab the Cockatrice with the Ingenous from a good sniping distance. But I'll have to be careful while setting this up because this thing can still come out during the day, so that's a small downside. However, I could probably fix this problem with my camo outfit so that I'll be less obvious. If things don't go as I plan and goes down south on the night I confront the Cockatrice, I will be sure to have an escape plan because as you know, this thing has powers that are very dangerous, so don't worry about me. Other than this discovery, I have found nothing else suspicious in the Dovere territories. Heck, not even Timberwolf activity. But anyways, this is my report of the week, and I'll explain what happens in the next letter.
Sincerely,
Agent Barlow
"That looks pretty good." I said as I skimmed over my letter.
After proof-reading my letter as well, I folded my paper and put it into an envelope. Once the address and everything was written on the envelope, I drove off to the post office to mail my letter.
When I pulled up to my destination, Celestia was just about finished lowering the sun while Luna was almost done raising the moon. An orange glow casted over the trees behind me while the dark, starry sky began to form in front of me. I took in the sight for a while before I turned off the engine and exited the vehicle. I then went to the backdoor and opened it up to grab my backpack, equipment, weapons, etc.
After brushing off my camouflage outfit, I entered the dense forest that was close to being pitch black, but the beams of light from the moon shined through the leaves attached on the branches of the trees. Tonight was a relatively quiet night, really silent in the forest. This is good because I was able to hear whether something was around me or not, but I didn't really hear anything else besides occasional snaps of twigs when I stepped on them. I used the X-ray Pulse to check the perimeter and make sure I wasn't being followed, but the only figures that came up were a few deer grazing in the forest.
Once I pushed through the thick foliage, I finally entered the circular clearing that was riddled with stonified animals. The thought of that made me slightly nervous because the Cockatrice could be in there at the moment, so I used the X-ray Pulse again. Even though the petrified animals were the only skeletal figures that showed up, I still decided to just stick to the rim of the circular clearing and work my way around it until I reach my sniping tree. Yeah, I'm really cautious in these kind of situations, but the walkaround isn't that long. Not only that, but the whole vibe in the area was slightly depressing for me. Y'know, all these animals were just living their lives and then they unknowingly entered this section of the forest, only to meet the Cockatrice. I hope the fourteen animals I found will unstonify soon because they sure weren't yesterday.
But anyways, when I got over to where I needed to be, I turned the mannequin towards the direction I was going to be positioned. The reason why I made this change was because if the Cockatrice tries to look at the mannequin in the eyes, it'll also might be looking at me in its peripheral vision, then the Cockatrice will have a more likely chance to spot my position and I don't want that happening at all.
I then went twenty feet back into the forest behind the mannequin and climbed up into my vantage point tree. I situated my legs on the two thick branches that slightly spread out to make a small v-shape while I sat on a part of the tree that acted like a chair. To be honest, this was the most comfortable tree I have ever sat on. With the flick of a switch, the Igneous turned on and began to fill with the magical yellow energy, vibrating in my hands at the same time. I raised the long range scope up to my right eye and adjusted the zoom a little bit so that I could get a clear and accurate shot at the thoracic area since a hit from that section of the body usually seems to stonify any creature the quickest. With my X-Ray Pulse at my side, I was now ready for the night. All I have to do now is wait for the Cockatrice to arrive back to its territory and take the bait.
12:54 PM
Something's was moving around, and it was not far. I was hearing all of these weird sounds in the distance. They sounded like some sort of faint, bone-chilling screech, but I couldn't be sure if it was the Cockatrice or not. Could've been any animal. Each screech gave me chills and every single hair on my body stood up on end. But shortly after, the screeching came to a stop and everything went quiet again.
I then took this as a good time to check if anything was approaching. I pressed the pulse button and scanned the area front, left, right, and back. When I looked back, there was a very small orange figure about 90 meters from my position, and slowly approaching towards my position.
"Okay, okay." I whispered, turning off the Igneous because the weapon gives off a low hum, and the figure might hear the audible hum if it gets too close.
The figure slowly walked the ninety meters for about a minute before it was no more than twenty feet away from my tree. This allowed me to get a better look at the skeletal figure with the X-ray Pulse. What I saw was the skull and legs of a chicken, and the skeleton of a serpent with wings, which were folded at its sides. The Cockatrice remained silent as it proceeded forward, carrying another stonified victim in its mouth. I bit my lip and held my breath as the Cockatrice walked underneath the tree and stopped right when it passed by, dropping the stonified animal onto the ground with a thud. From the direction it was staring, it was looking right at the mannequin standing out in the clearing. The Cockatrice began to quietly cluck, which honestly sounded somewhat comical, but still very terrifying by its surrealy dark tone. All of a sudden, with one flap of both its wings, it flew right towards the mannequin and just forcefully tackled it right onto the ground.
"BA-KERRR!" the Cockatrice loudly cawed at the mannequin as its glowing red eyes peered into the mannequins eyes.
Quickly, I switched the Igneous back on and wasted no time to line up the scope with my right eye and pulled the trigger. The beam of magic energy hit the Cockatrice in the thoracic area, sending it flying back and tumbling on the ground for a few meters before it went stiff as a board.
"Bullseye."
I then slowly descended down my tree and picked up the freshly stonified animal that the Cockatrice was carrying, which turned out to be a raccoon. It was still full bodied, so I could probably take this raccoon over to Fluttershy's place tomorrow. After I put the raccoon into my backpack and holstering the Igneous, I walked over towards the Cockatrice to retrieve and take it back to the Land Rover because I forgot my smashing sledgehammer in the back.
When I walked up to it, I turned on my attachable flashlight and noticed how thin the stone layer on the Cockatrice was. I picked it up and inspected it, it's beak filled with jagged, sharp teeth and a fork-like tongue. There was no pupils or iris' at all, just a plain color red.
"God, this thing is creepy."
As I rotated it, a small chip of stone broke off the left side and landed on the ground, revealing it's bluish-green scales. The Cockatrice then began to breathe again, and this caused more pieces of stone to shed off. I felt the creature begin the shake inside the stone layer, which only freed itself even more.
"Aw crap, it's breaking free!" I exclaimed to myself as I dropped the Cockatrice from fear, onto the ground.
The Cockatrice then broke free from its stone imprisonment and let out a threatening caw towards me and looked right into my eyes. I immediately covered my eyes with my left hand while my right hand quivered as I tried to grab the Igneous. Before I could aim my sights, I heard a loud flap of its wings and the Cockatrice had disappeared into the sky.
"Oh, no, no, no, no!" I repeated as I turned on the Igneous and began to aim all over the place with haste.
Like I said, the forest was so quiet that you could hear the smallest sounds; and all I heard was the sound of heart beating at a fast pace and the sound of wings flapping in the sky, but I couldn't see it because it was so dark. One second it would be to my right, and then it would be at my left, back, and front. It just wouldn't stop moving. This repetitive pattern eventually tricked me; when I thought it was going to move in front of me, it went for my back instead.
The Cockatrice then rammed me in the back like a bullet and sent me fumbling forward, nearly losing balance. It's talons gripped my shoulders and began to wrap its tail around my neck. I tensed my neck up as I let out grunty breaths for air from being strangled by the strong tail and I began to yank at the tail. However, with quick thinking and strength, I reached behind my head and managed to get a gripped on the Cockatrices neck aswell and snatched the Cockatrice off my shoulders, holding it out in front of me with my eyes closed. I then grabbed the Igneous with my right hand, brought it upwards, and began to repeatedly hit the Cockatrice with blunt force, like an aluminum bat. At the third strike, the Cockatrice let out a screechy caw and sunk its teeth into my wrist, sending the sensation of sharp pinches through my wrist.
"GAH!" I yelled out from the instantaneous stinging pain, dropping the Cockatrice onto the ground.
The Cockatrice attempted to fly away, but couldn't because it seemed I had broken its right wing, but it ran away instead. Before I could shoot it again, it had already retreated into the forest to recover. I had the same idea aswell and ran off back towards the Land Rover to get my first-aid kit. As I gripped my wrist from the pain, I could feel a slightly warm liquid on my skin that was leaking out of me.
Once I ran through the forest, I jumped into the Defender, turned it on, and just floored it out of there. As I sped away, I turned on the interior roof light to inspect my injury; a steady, slow flow of dark red blood coated my wrist and ran down my right hand.
"Fucking stupid bullshit! How could I of known it could unstonify itself?!" I growled to myself, striking the Land Rover logo on the steering wheel with my fist.
Once I got about a mile away from the area I was just at, I pulled over to the side of the path and reached for the first aid kit. First, I grabbed the bottle of alcohol and a medium sized gauze pad. I poured a small amount of alcohol onto the pad and wrapped it around the wound. It stung like a son of a bee sting, but it helps. Some may think that alcohol is bad for a wound like this, but since this land is well known for being magical, this alcohol is magical as well. Within a few hours, my wounds would be healed from the encouraged cell regeneration. I let that sit on for a while before I removed it and tightly wrapped some ace bandage around my right wrist to halt the bleeding and protect the open wounds from debris during the accelerated healing process.
As I finished, I put the Defender into first gear again and proceed to drive again.
"Uhh, what am I going to do now? I gotta think of how I'm going to catch this thing for good." I thought to myself.
As that thought dwelled in my head, I decided to just call it a night and head back to Twilight's for some sleep and deal with this situation tomorrow.
"Well, are you alright?" Twilight asked with concern as we walked through Ponyville.
"Right now I am. It was a whole lot worse last night." I said, unwrapping a section on my bandage.
Twilight hissed through her teeth at the sight of the four teeth marks that punctured about one millimeter down into my skin, two on each side of my wrist. May not sound like much, but that's pretty deep for a bite.
"And are you sure you don't want to get your injury looked at by a doctor? We could both head over to the hospital right now." Twilight said.
"Nah, I'm pretty sure it's okay," I said, wrapping my wound up again. "Besides, I put some of that magical cell regenerative alcohol on it, and it seems to be doing its job well."
"Hmm. I have heard rumors of rubbing alcohol like that, but you can never find any. Looks like those rumors have been proven," Twilight said. "What will you do now?"
"Earlier today while I was lying in bed, I was busy brainstorming all of these ideas on how I could defeat the Cock- chicken, and I remembered this one story I heard of before." I said.
"What's that?" Twilight asked.
"In greek mythology, there is an evil woman named Medusa, who possesses the power to turn anyone who looks into her eyes into stone."
"Oh, so she basically has the same powers as the chicken." Twilight said, putting emphasis on the word chicken to cover up what we were discussing about since there was a crowd of ponies near us.
"Right. And so, I was thinking, if the chicken could possess those powers aswell, could it be possible for it to stonify itself in a mirror?" I asked.
Twilight thought for a seconds before nodding her head in agreement.
"That's actually not a bad idea at all, Caleb."
"But now all I need is a mirror so that I can--"
Before I could finish, I stopped because I heard a distinctive *zing* sound come from behind me. It almost sounded like something was speeding right past us. Me and Twilight both poked our heads down the alleyway between two houses to find the source of the cartoonish sound, but found nothing but the green grass.
"Did you hear that?" I asked.
"I did." Twilight said.
"Eh, could've been anything. Now let's head down to the store and buy ourselves a mirror." I said.
I pulled out a bag of bits, which made the coins inside jingle.
"But I got a few extra mirror back at the library, Caleb. You can use those." Twilight offered.
"What kind of mirror? Small, square, round?" I listed.
"It's a 24 inch by 24 inch square mirror. Is that good enough?" Twilight said.
"I could probably prop the mirror up with a large stone, but yeah, that should do the trick real good." I said.
"Good. That'll save you a few extra bits, right?" Twilight said.
"That's right." I said.
"Oh, and another thing, stonify isn't the word you should use to describe something being turned to stone. It's petrify." Twilight said.
"Really? I did not know that." I said, a little dumbfounded.
"And if you were to say stonification, then it would be changed to petrification." Twilight informed.
"I get the idea." I said.
Twilight gave me a friendly grin before we walked back to the Golden Oak Library to retrieve the mirror. When we got back to the library, Twilight led me upstairs into the spare room and gave me the hand-held mirror that stood up against the nightstand.
"This'll do nicely," I said as I checked out the mirror. "You want this back in good condition or no?"
"That doesn't really matter to me. It used to be my spare mirror incase my other one broke, but I'm too precautious with glass for that to ever happen." Twilight said.
"That sounds a lot like you, Twilight." I said.
"Now what will you do?" Twilight asked.
"Well.... I'm not sure. I know how I'm going to defeat it, but now I need to find out how I'm going to lure the chicken over to the mirror, or at least somewhere near it. The chicken most likely has gotten smart enough to know that the mannequins are fake." I replied.
"You're probably right about the mannequins." Twilight agreed.
"Too bad meat is rare in Equestria because that would be perfect bait for the Cockatrice, and I sure am not going to use live animals as bait." I said.
Me and Twilight sat down on the bed and thought for a moment before Twilight came up with an idea.
"You did say that there were still some petrified animals still out there, right?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah, there's still some, but they've been broken into pieces," I said. "But wait!"
"What is it?" Twilight asked.
"Last night, before I got attacked, I found a full-bodied petrified raccoon and it's still in backpack. So what I'm thinking now is that I could probably put that one out in the field for bait. I mean, it's not alive, right?" I said.
"But wouldn't be a little bit suspicious for the chicken? If it decides to stalk the raccoon a while before attacking, then it would have to figure out sooner or later that it's just one of its victims and move on." Twilight brought up.
"Yeah, I was just thinking about that, too." I said.
Me and Twilight both shrugged.
*knock kn-kn-knock knock... knock-knock*
"I'll get it!" Spike shouted from downstairs.
As soon as I heard the front door open downstairs, the high-pitched sound of party whistlers filled the library alongside with Spike's yelp.
"Happy birthd-! Oh wait, you're not Caleb." Pinkie's voice said from downstairs.
"Oh, my god!" I said as a smile formed on my face and facepalmed myself.
"Is today your actual birthday?" Twilight asked excitedly.
"Yep, it is. April 16th." I replied.
"That's great! Happy Birthday, Caleb!" Twilight congratulated, hugging my right leg.
"Thanks, Twilight." I replied.
"So, how old are you today? Didn't you say you were twenty-six before?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah, I'm twenty-seven years old today." I replied.
"Wow. If I knew it was your birthday earlier, me and Spike would've gotten you a present." Twilight said.
"Don't worry about it, Twi. As you said before, having friends is the best gift anypony could have." I said.
Twilight smiled and gave me a playful nudge on the leg.
"Hey, I did say that, didn't I?" Twilight said.
"You did say that. But anyways, let's go see what Pinkie has for me." I said.
When I turned to the doorway, I was met with a close up of Pinkie's face as she jumped in front of the doorway to surprise the heck out of me.
"Happy birthday, Caleb!" Pinkie squealed.
"Heyyyy!" I said and crouched down to give her a big hug. "How did you know it was birth-"
"Hold that thought for a sec." Pinkie said.
She then strapped a white, cone-shaped party hat with a purple swirl onto my head.
"Now what was that?" Pinkie asked.
"How did you know it was my birthday? I never told you the date." I said.
"My Pinkie sense." she replied.
"Your Pinkie sense?" I asked.
"You see, sometimes my entire body will get a certain twitchy-twitch whenever somepony has a birthday on the day it happens. Kinda feels like those little pins a needles you get when you're numb. Once that happened, I knew right away that somepony in the area had a birthday today and that certain somepony turned out to be you because the closer I got to you, the more the twitch got even stronger than before." Pinkie explained in a fast pace.
"Are you serious?" I asked Pinkie.
"Would I lie to the birthday human?" she replied.
"No, I guess not." I said.
"That's the birthday spirit I'm looking for. Now come on down here. I've got cake and a present for you!" Pinkie said as she curled her right hoof, indicating us to come downstairs.
The downstairs area was now decorated with colorful streamers and balloons while a little bit of confetti covered the wooden floor. Near the ceiling was a banner that read "Happy Birthday Caleb!"
"Wow, you got this all set up pretty quick, Pinkie." Twilight said.
"Tell me about it," Spike said as he emerged from a pile of confetti, spitting a few out of his mouth. "And happy birthday, Caleb."
"Whoopsie-daisy. Sorry about that, Spike." Pinkie apologized.
"That's fine." he replied.
I then tilted my head to the left a little bit and noticed the cake sitting on the round table.
"Oooh, is that cake I see?" I asked with a hungry fervor.
"That it is. C'mon over and I'll show you it." Pinkie said.
I then followed her over to the cake, and to be honest, it looked like a cake that came a frickin' gourmet chef, but that's just me. The words "Happy Birthday, Caleb" was spelled in blue icing while a well designed face of me giving a toothy smile and winking my right eye was plastered on the main vanilla frosting.
"A three layer chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. Just the way you like it." Pinkie said.
"Wow, this looks great, Pinkie," I complimented. "Uh, what's in the gift box?"
"Open it and find out," Pinkie allowed. "I did a little last minute shopping for it."
"Okay then. Thanks." I said.
I then took the lid off of the colorfully designed gift box and inside was a mirror that was similar to Twilight's, but had an upright support stand on the back.
"A mirror?" I asked, confused at first.
"Yep. You did say you needed a mirror, am I right?" Pinkie questioned.
"Ah, so that was you who zipped away after I mentioned a mirror." I said.
"Hey, sometimes eavesdropping is necessary for getting gift ideas." Pinkie said.
"Well, thank you anyways, Pinkie Pie. I think I'll be able to get some use out of this." I thanked.
"You're welcome, Caleb. Now let's dig into some cake!" Pinkie said.
"I'm down for that." Spike chipped in.
With that, I took the cutting knife and took a decently large piece of cake. Once everypony had a piece, we all sat down at the table and ate. Twilight was chewing politely, Spike had a expression bliss as he ate, and Pinkie just gobbled it down in like five bites and used her tongue lick the icing off her face.
"So Caleb, how could you of forgotten your own birthday, you silly human?" Pinkie asked.
"Oh, maybe because I'm in a world filled with multicolored ponies that can talk, and that kinda fogged my memory." I said.
"Or it could've been your cock incident." Pinkie said.
I raised both of my eyebrows for a second.
"Cock incident?" I questioned.
"Y'know, the chicken incident. You and Twilight were talking about it earlier." Pinkie clarified.
"Cock is another term for a male chicken." Twilight added.
"Oh! Yeah, the little thing pecked my right wrist really hard yesterday." I covered up for the Cockatrice.
"Can I see?" Pinkie asked, referring to my wound.
"Sure."
I then removed the ace bandage and showed her my flesh wound, but it was getting much better than before.
"Ouchies. Well, I hope it gets better real soon." Pinkie said.
"Thanks." I said.
We then went back to eating our slice of cakes and I continued to brainstorm ideas on how I could lure the Cockatrice to where I want it. As I chewed on my cake, I came up with a new idea that might just work, but I'll need a few more gifts.
"Hey Pinkie." I said.
"What's up, Caleb?" she replied.
"Would you mind getting the birthday human a few more gifts he forgot to list off?" I asked her.
"Sure! Anything for your day. What'll it be?" Pinkie asked as she pulled a piece of paper and pencil out of her hair.
"I'm going to need four large rolls of see-through tape, a sturdy stick, and a small amount of extremely thin rope." I listed off.
"I'll get right to it!" Pinkie exclaimed before she zipped out of the door, but came back a second later. "You want them wrapped or not wrapped?"
"Not wrapped." I replied.
"Got it!" Pinkie said before flying out the door again.
"What do you need that stuff for?" Spike asked.
"Just for a little craft project I have in mind." I replied.
While I was parked on the side of the path, not far from the field that is riddled with petrified animals, I reached over into the passenger seat and grabbed the sturdy stick that Pinkie bought for me and began to tie the thin rope around the front end of it to create a little makeshift fishing pole. Once the rope was tightly secured of not untieing itself, I tied the other end of the rope around the petrified raccoon and made sure that was tied tight as well. Reaching into the side pocket of my backpack, I pulled out a bunch of green grass clippings that I tore up from the field and began to vertically tape them onto the stick in order to make it blend in with the grass, and for what I have planned for tonight.
I would've done the same with my camo outfit and hat, but the patterns are mostly dark green mixed with brown, so I should blend in real well with the tall grass.
With my primitive contraption completed, I grabbed the mirror and stored it in my backpack and stepped out of the vehicle with the Igneous in my right hand and the sledgehammer in my left hand. Just like the last time I was out here, the sun was just going down over the horizon while the moon was almost high in the sky. As I directed my attention to the dark forest, I hoped this time that things would go better, in my head. I then approached the edge of the forest and gave a quick sweep with the X-ray Pulse and no orange figures appeared. With the coast clear, I proceeded into the forest once again.
I quietly walked through the pre-determined path that I created yesterday to minimize the sound of my footsteps, which was made by removing as many twigs and leaves that I could find on the path I made.
"So far, so good." I thought to myself when I was about halfway to the open field.
After a few more minutes of walking, I finally reached rim of the open field and pressed the sweep button once more to scan the area for the Cockatrice. The only skeletal figures to apparate were the ones of those who had fallen victim to the Cockatrice's petrifying stare. Even though I did not see the Cockatrice's figure at all, I still felt insecure about safety. And so, I decided go prone and began to army crawl my way over to where I needed to be.
Each movement I made was as slow and diligent as I could possibly move, just to minimize the sound of the tall grass rustling. However, out of pure convenience, the wind began to pick up and blew the grass towards my right, causing the grass clippings to rustle in unison. With that, I had less limited movement and proceeded onwards with a faster pace.
Along the way, I would run into some of the petrified victims, all crumbled into stone chunks. Even though they were separate pieces, I could still see the expression of terror and fear in their eyes, or pretty much the last expression they would ever make. The thought made me pause for a second and made my mind go blank for a second while I stared at the ground without blinking. I then shook my head to bring myself back to reality and continued to crawl my way over to the circular section of the field that is the most shortest.
Once I arrived to the circular patch of short grass, my began to commence plan into action. I then removed my backpack off me and settled it on the ground to my right. I pulled the mirror out and placed that to my left, then the makeshift fishing pole-like contraption with the petrified raccoon hanging like a fishing lure. I then extended my right arm to push the raccoon and about four feet of the stick out into the circular patch and lowered the raccoon onto the ground. With that, I began to slightly move the raccoon to simulate the illusion of walking.
As I continued this for a few minutes, I started to doubt myself of this actually fooling the Cockatrice.
"This isn't gonna work." I thought to myself, causing me to hesitantly recede the stick back into the tall grass. "No, no, Caleb. You're just overthinking things." I assured myself.
Then, I went back to moving the raccoon again.
7:43 PM
At the time, the wind began to die down, making it more quiet and easier to detect sounds. There was an owl hooting in the forest, a few birds squawking in the distance and multiple crickets chirping in the field. Aside from those, I also heard the sound of the grass rustling loudly from behind me, and it takes a lot of effort to make fresh and flowy grass to rustle loudly. I used the X-ray Pulse to sweep the area and I could see a faint orange figure in the corner of my right eye approaching, but not directly towards me. I then turned the raccoons back to the figure and moved it into the center of the clearing.
When I took a quick look behind me, I realized that the figure was not walking, but it was running. I found this odd at first because I thought 'what would the Cockatrice run from exactly?' But as the figure got closer, it was a lot smaller than the Cockatrice and had long ears. It was a rabbit.
"Oh." I whispered under my breath.
The rabbit's right ear twitched to the sound of my voice and turned its head towards my direction.
"No, no! You have to get out of here!" I exclaimed under my breath as the rabbit approached me.
The rabbit began to frantically screech, but was smart enough to keep it on a low tone. Aside from the screeching, I knew something was wrong when I saw the expression of terror on its face.
"Quiet down!" I said, covering its mouth with my index finger.
Once the rabbit finally calmed down, I asked it what the problem was, supposing it could understand English because of my past encounter with a squirrel. The rabbit responded by pecking its nose at the ground and flapping its forelegs up and down like a bird. The actions instantly clicked with me.
"Was it a big lizard-chicken?" I whispered.
The rabbit replied by nodding its head quickly. I then decided on what I should do next, and I knew right away that I obviously couldn't leave the little guy out in the open.
"Okay. Get in here." I said as I unzipped a pouch in my backpack.
The rabbit wasted no time and squeezed itself into the pouch to hide.
With the rabbit safely hidden, I sweeped the area again with X-ray Pulse. I tried my best to not move my head so much, but I still needed to check from behind me. When I looked back, a pair of red eyes was no more than twenty or thirty feet behind me. I slowly turned my head back to my original position and froze. I could hear the creature approaching on my right side and it was absolutely nerve-wracking. I saw the rabbit poke its head out of the backpack and I mouthed curse words at the rabbit to get back inside right away, which it did. After a short moment, the Cockatrice was right next to me, unaware of me because of my camouflage outfit. I could hear my heart beating rapidly in my head, and I'm surprised the Cockatrice couldn't hear that, too.
The Cockatrice stopped right in its tracks and stared right at the raccoon in the center. It started to growl, which sounded like a mix between between the cluck of a chicken and the growl of a vicious predator. Since the pole was still in the grasp of my right hand, I began to move the pole ever so slowly to mimic the raccoons movement. The Cockatrice then bolted to the right and began to move to other side of the clearing.
As I continued to move the petrified raccoon for a while, I soon realized that the Cockatrice wanted to stalk its supposed prey from behind. I used this as an opportunity to begin my surprise attack. Reaching out a little bit more, I moved the raccoon into the center of the clearing and turned its back to me, then adjusted it by turning the raccoon clockwise a little bit. And just as planned, the Cockatrice was almost next to me once again and stalked the raccoon in the tall grass.
After a few seconds, the Cockatrice began to sneak out of the grass and towards the raccoon, almost looking like as if the Cockatrice was walking in slow motion.
"This is it." I mentally told myself, dropping the pole and grabbing the mirror.
When I looked back, the Cockatrice was now right behind the petrified raccoon and slid its sharp talons across the rock-hard surface in a devious manner. The Cockatrice immediately took notice to the surface of the raccoon and paused for a second as it tried to figure out what was going on, but it was too late.
With no warning, I stood upwards and charged right at the creature. Before it could look at me in the eyes, I landed right on top of the Cockatrice and trapped it right in between my inner thighs. The Cockatrice squirmed and shook vigorously to free itself from my clamping thighs, but it was no use. It was trapped. The Cockatrice let out a threatening caw and turned its head at me, but I turned it right back by grabbing it by the neck with my right hand and turned its head back forward. I used my left hand to move raccoon out of the way and replaced it with the mirror. The Cockatrice stared for a millisecond before it let out a loud and screechy caw to the sight out of its own petrifying stare and closed it eyes tightly while shaking its head in distress.
"Oh, no you don't!" I grunted.
Using the index and middle finger on my left hand, I placed them on both of the Cockatrice's eyelids and began to forcefully pry them open. I furrowed my eyebrows and bit my lips hard as the eyes began open slowly, only making the Cockatrice screech and cluck in terror even more; the terror that was similar to the Cockatrice's victims. Once the process had begun, I could feel the Cockatrice's body petrifying below me, and so could the Cockatrice. However, the Cockatrice was still trying to fight it, but it just couldn't get free. The amount of clucking went silent as its neck turned to stone, but its beak was still opening, so it literally couldn't make a sound. After a few more seconds, it was over for the Cockatrice and it stopped moving. I then leaped off the Cockatrice, and with one swift move, I brought the sledgehammer down onto the Cockatrice and shattered it into chunks. I repeated the blows three more times and the Cockatrice was now nothing but pieces, nearly smashed to dust.
I panted quietly and dropped the sledgehammer onto the ground with a thud. With the fight won, I sat on the grass and straightened out my brown hair. While I did this, the rabbit from earlier must've squeezed itself out of my backpack because it was sitting right next to me. Not only that, but the raccoon unpetrified and ran off into the forest, so there's another saved animal.
"You're welcome." I called out to the raccoon.
I then picked up the rabbit, placed it on my lap and gently petted its soft fur for a little bit. While I was petting the cute little critter, a strong odor of metal or iron began to fill the air and knew what it was right away because it wasn't here before.
"Here, I'll take you back to the forest." I said to the rabbit.
I left my equipment back at the site, but used the Igneous for defense and the X-ray Pulse to navigate through the tall grass 'till I got back to the other side of the forest.
"There you go. Be safe, little guy." I said as I placed rabbit near the side of the path.
With that, the rabbit hopped away into the forest without any care. I then let out a faint chuckle and climbed into the Defender, driving off to Fluttershy's.
8:16 PM
As I arrived to Fluttershy's cottage, all the lights were off, but I could see one room lit through the window. I then hurried to the door and knocked three times. A minute later, Fluttershy came to the door to greet me.
"Come in." Fluttershy said.
I did as told and walked into her cottage.
"How are the petrified animals doing?" I asked.
"You'll never believe it, but it's safe to say that they are all back to normal!" Fluttershy said with glee.
"Awesome! What are they doing right now?" I asked.
"Getting in a nice helping of food," Fluttershy replied. "Would you like to see?"
"Sure." I said.
Fluttershy then led me into the lit up room and sure enough, the animals had unpetrified and were chowing down on some well-deserved food.
"Wow. It looks like they're doing pretty well for themselves. But really, thanks for taking them in, Fluttershy." I said.
"You're welcome, Caleb," Fluttershy replied. "So, um. Did you get the Cockatrice?" Fluttershy said.
I replied by nodding.
"Well, I guess that's good, I guess." Fluttershy said, skeptically.
"I know it sounds cold. But I did what I had to do in order to free the animals." I said.
"It's okay. If you think about it, you could consider yourself a hero." Fluttershy supported.
"I suppose," I said with a shrug and a nod. "When did you realize that the animals unpetrified?"
"Oh, funny thing, actually. I was just about to go to bed and all the animals were settled in for the night at the time. But when I got into my bedroom, there they all were, adorably looking at me in the doorway." Fluttershy said.
"Aww, that had to be cute." I said.
"It sure was." Fluttershy said.
"Well, I should get going since you and the animals need some sleep. Plus, I have to get some too." I said.
"Okay. Thanks for stopping by and checking up on the animals." Fluttershy said.
"No problem. See you around." I said as I opened the front door.
"Bye, Caleb." Fluttershy said before heading back into the room.
With that, I got back into the Defender and drove back to the field to clean up the mess.
"Caleb, Spike and I are going to Carousel Boutique to get ready for the Grand Galloping Gala." Twilight called from downstairs.
"Are you 'comin with us?" Spike asked.
"Yeah, I'll be right down." I replied.
"Of course he's coming with us, Spike. He did say he was going to the Gala with us." Twilight said to Spike from downstairs.
"I was just trying to be remindful." Spike replied.
I, on the other hand, grabbed my good tuxedo that Rarity made for me and headed downstairs to meet up with Twilight and Spike outside.
"I got everything I need." I said.
"Okay, let's go." Twilight said.
We then began our walk to Carousel Boutique, and I noticed Twilight staring at one the pages in her spellbook.
"Refresh my memory, Twilight. What do you need the spellbook for again?" I asked
"I'm working on this somewhat advanced spell. A spell that can manipulate objects and living things into anything you want." Twilight explained.
"That's the one. Well, make sure to not use me or Spike as test subjects for the spell." I said.
"I don't think a test subject will be necessary for this spell as long as I get it down-pat, which I'm perfectly capable of." Twilight said.
"She plans on turning an apple into a carriage and mice into horse-mice hybrids." Spike said.
I gave Twilight a surprised look at the mouse part.
"It may sound odd, but you'll see how it goes." Twilight said.
"No, I'm just somewhat interested in that whole mouse part. Not weirded out if that's what you thought." I said.
"Oh, okay. But those will be our means for transportation for the evening." Twilight said before directing her attention back to the spellbook
"I'm looking forward to it." I said.
"And I'm going to be the chauffeur for the evening as well." Spike said.
"You know how to drive horse and carriage?" I said.
"Sure do. From what I know, it should be pretty easy." Spike said.
"I could never drive horse and carriage. Are you dressing up nice for the Gala?" I asked.
"Everypony has to dress up all spick and span for the Gala. I'm wearing a black suit jacket, a white shirt and nice red bow tie to complete the outfit. And I see that you got your tuxedo, Caleb." Spike said.
"Yep," I began, unfolding the tux in order to present it to Spike. "Rarity made it for me when I told her I was going up to Canterlot to meet Celestia and Luna." I said.
"Still looks pretty good. And she made this? Even though she has never made clothing for a human before?" Spike asked.
"She sure did. I mean, I don't really know how she did it so perfectly, but she is one heck of a designer." I said.
Yeah... One heck of a mare if you ask me." Spike said in dreamingly tone along with a love-trance expression on his face.
I simply chuckled and rolled my eyes. Spike then shook his head to break his trance and looked over Twilight to check out the page.
"How's the spell going?" Spike asked Twilight.
"Fine, fine," Twilight replied in a hasty manner. "Why don't you and Caleb talk about what you're going to do tonight." she suggested.
"Alright." Spike said, walking besides me again. "What are you gonna do at the Gala?" Spike asked.
"Easy. I plan on hangin' out with you guys. I used to do that with my human friends back in my world." I said.
"Don't count on Twilight hanging out with us. She said that she'll be chatting with Princess Celestia most of the time." Spike said.
"Yeah, she mentioned that last night." I said.
"Not all night, Spike. But, I'll make sure to have time for you guys." Twilight replied before putting her face back into the spellbook.
"What about AJ, Rare's, Skittles, Flutters, and Pink's?" I asked.
"Who knows," Spike replied. "But anyways, I was hoping that I could show everyone all the highlight locations when Twilight and I were still living in Canterlot."
"Hm. That would be cool." I said.
"So you'll come?" Spike asked with eagerness.
"Sure. However, I think I'll stay at the Gala for sometime and check it out, since it's my first one, and then we'll head off for little bit." I said.
"Alright, I guess." Spike replied, shrugging.
We then continued our walk for a little while longer until we arrived at the boutique. Upon arrival, Rarity exited her boutique to greet us.
"Twilight, Spike, Caleb. So good to see all three of you on time." Rarity said, kindly.
"Hey! Don't forget about me!" Pinkie shouted from afar, bouncing up and down towards us with a miniature trampoline.
"Make that four," Rarity added. "And hello there, Pinkie Pie." she greeted.
"Hi, Rarity." Pinkie replied.
"What's with the trampoline?" I asked.
"This? I was so excited for the Gala that I forgot brought this with to bounce off my excitement." Pinkie said.
"Yeah, but why do you eve-" I said before Rarity snagged my tux out of my hands.
I looked down and Rarity eyed at my tux, which was all wrinkled up since I forgot to iron it.
"Must I give you a lesson on how to iron, darling?" Rarity asked with one eyebrow raised and smug smile.
"Don't worry, I was planning on doing that, Rarity." I replied.
"Good. You can come inside and iron it out for yourself then," Rarity said. "The rest of you are also welcome to come inside, too."
Twilight didn't reply because of her concentration and Pinkie replied with a simple, "No, thanks."
"I guess I'll stay out here with Twilight and Pinkie Pie." Spike said as he sat up against a tree.
"Very well. Now come along, Caleb." Rarity said.
I followed Rarity into the boutique and she set up an ironing table and gave me an iron. Once she laid the damp suit out on the table, I began to iron the wrinkles away, making the suit nice and flat.
"What's your little sister up to?" I asked.
"She's at Sweet Apple Acres at the moment. Her, Applebloom and Scootaloo are having a sleepover there." Rarity replied.
"Big Mac and Granny Smith are watching them? Man, I hope they can handle the rambunctious trio." I said.
"Yes, I do agree that the girls can get a little out of hand at times." Rarity said.
"But believe me, Sweetie Belle and them are good kids." I said.
"Indeed they are. Speaking of which, Sweetie Belle told me not long ago that her and the girls have been trying to walk like you just to get their cutie marks." Rarity said.
"Wow, for real?" I asked, amused by the statement.
"That is what she said. But from the way us ponies are built, it simply isn't allowed to happen." Rarity said.
"I suppose." I said.
I then finished ironing my tux, now looking more flat than before.
"There." I said, presenting the tux to Rarity.
"Looks just like new." Rarity said. "Now you can leave it here if you'd like. I'm going to head back out and see if anymore of our friends have arrived yet."
"Okay." I said, placing tux neatly on another table and following Rarity outside.
"Pinkie Pie! Stop that right now. It's time to prepare for the Gala, and I refuse to let you put on your new dress when you're all sweaty." Rarity said to Pinkie Pie.
Pinkie Pie then ceased her jumping on the trampoline and hopped off next to Spike.
"What's Twilight doing?" Pinkie asked Spike.
"She's got an awesome spell she's been working on for the Gala." Spike replied.
"Yeah. A spell that can-" I said before stopping.
"Don't reveal it yet, Caleb! Let it be a surprise." Spike said.
"Gotcha." I said.
"A surprise? I love surprises!" Pinkie exclaimed.
Rarity, on the other hand, sighed impatiently and tapped her right forehoof.
"Where are the others? It's getting late." Rarity said.
"Well, that's probably them right there." I replied, pointing dead ahead at the other three mares.
"Hold your horses, girl. We're here." Applejack replied to Rarity's question.
With everypony finally there, we congregated around Twilight, who was just finishing up her spell.
"Perfect. I'm ready." Twilight announced, closing her book.
"For what?" Rainbow asked.
Twilight didn't respond to her, keeping the spell more mysterious for the others, which caused Rainbow to scratch her head.
"Alright, Spike." Twilight signalled.
Spike then pulled out a perfectly red apple and placed it on the ground.
"An Apple! Are we having pie?" Pinkie asked.
"Not exactly." I said to Pinkie.
"Turnover? Crisp? Cider?" Pinkie listed.
"Shh! Watch!" Spike hushed.
Twilight closed her eyes and her horn's magical aura began to manifest. I took my attention to the apple, which was now glowing purple and began to grow erratically. It almost looked as if something was trying to break out of it, but that wasn't the case. Instead, the apple grew to an enormous size and there was a faint, white flash. Once the brown smoke cleared, the apple had transformed into a large carriage in an instant. It had gold wheels, a flag, a door, window and fancy designs on the side. Everyone besides Twilight clamored in awe and amazement to the magical feat.
"Holy frick," I said, impressed by the transformation. "That looks great, Twilight."
"Thanks, guys. But that's just the start," Twilight said, turning to Fluttershy. "Fluttershy, did you bring your friends?"
"Yes." Fluttershy replied, prompting four mice to poke out of her long, pink hair and ran down it. "Will they be safe?"
"You have my word." Twilight replied.
As the four mice lined up, I leaned over to Rainbow and said, "This outta be good."
"Yeah. I can't wait to see what these mice turn out as." Rainbow said with anticipation.
Again, Twilight's horn lit up again, and the mice began to glow purple and grow into an odd shape. Once the puff of smoke cleared, there stood the mouse-horse hybrids that Spike spoke of.
"Ta-da!" Twilight said.
Instead of the sounds of amazement, the gang sounded more uncertain of this transformation. I don't know, maybe it was because of teeth, eyes, ears, or just the way they looked. Otherwise, they looked very... unnatural. Its as if Discord came back and used his magic on these mice. Twilight looked at me and I gave her a thumbs up.
"Neat, huh? And don't worry. They'll be mice again at midnight." Twilight said, much to the gang's relief.
"Opalescence, no!" Fluttershy exclaimed all of a sudden.
Out of nowhere, this pampered-looking cat, most likely Rarity's, jumped out of a bush and latched her claws onto the flank of one of the horse-mouse hybrids, spooking them and causing them to run off into the distance.
"Wait! Come back!" Twilight called to the horses, but it was too late. "Those horses were supposed to pull our carriage. How will we get to the Gala now?"
"Whatever shall we do?" Rarity asked, rhetorically.
Everypony looked at each other and shrugged in response, but it seems that Rarity had a back-up plan. She then trotted over towards a crowd of stallions and left us for a short time to talk to them. About a minute later, here comes Caramel and some other stallion pulling the carriage.
"Oh. Yeah. Right." Twilight said.
"So, do you want us to come back later?" the other stallion asked.
"Yes, that would be lovely. Come back around seven o'clock, please." Rarity replied.
"You got it, Rarity." Caramel said.
Caramel and the stallion then removed the girth straps and walked off together.
"Now that we have a means of transportation again, let's get ready for the Gala." Rarity said.
"You got all of our dresses ready?" Applejack asked.
"Of course I do." Rarity replied.
Once we entered the boutique, the mares then walked into a changing room, but Rarity stopped me and Spike.
"Would you two be dears and stay out here for a little bit?" Rarity asked.
Spike and I looked at each other confusedly, but we agreed. With that, Rarity shut the door and left us in the room.
"What do you think she wants us to stay outside for?" Spike asked.
"No clue." I said.
15 Minutes Later
"Hey, can me and Spike come in yet?" I asked Rarity from the other room.
"Not yet, Caleb." she replied.
"Why not? Caleb's watch says it has been like fifteen minutes." Spike said.
"We're getting dressed. Wait a little while longer." Rarity said.
"Getting dressed? Rarity, me and Spike are not even the opposite gender of your species, so I think it's okay. Also, I've never seen you six in clothing before." I said.
"Well, Applejack wears a hat, so that kind of counts." Spike said.
"Shush!" I exclaimed.
However, Rarity opened the door for us anyways once Applejack backed us up.
"Sorry, boys. Some of us have their own standards." Rarity said.
"Yes, but there are others who need to get ready for the Gala, too." I said as I walked into the room.
Rarity didn't respond for a moment.
"Perhaps you are right. Forgive me for my perceptive standard." Rarity apologized.
"Thank you." I replied.
"Man, I still can't believe we're going to be in Canterlot tonight. Our hometown, Twilight. And the best part is that we get to hangout with each other all night long!" Spike said, excitedly.
"Oh. Right. Okay." Spike said, bummed out by our responses.
"Don't worry, Spike. We'll all get to spend some time together." Twilight said, which lightened up Spike's chipper mood again.
"Great! I already can't wait!" Spike said.
With anticipation for the Gala built-up again, I grabbed my neatly folded suit and proceeded over to Rarity.
"Say, do you have bathroom that I could take a shower in?" I asked.
"Of course I do, darling." Rarity said, leading me to a bathroom in the side of the room.
"Did everypony else get their showers in? If not, then I'll make it quick." I asked Rarity.
"We've all had our share. Take your time." she replied before thinking to herself. "Spike, do you need a shower, too?"
"Nah. Dragons don't really produce sweat often." Spike replied.
"Then I guess it's okay, Caleb." Rarity said.
"Alright, thanks." I said.
"You're welcome." Rarity replied.
Once I was able to get some warm water running and able to rinse my hair, I wasn't able to find any shampoo that wouldn't really, well, give off a somewhat masculine scent, for say. Back on earth, I would usually use some that AXE stuff for my hair, but I bet there has a be a shampoo product in this world that is similar to the AXE. Otherwise, my hair would probably smell like a dainty flower if I used one of the products that were available to me at the moment.
"Well, all I really need to do is look good for the Gala." I said.
And so, I just washed off my body of any oils or odors that may have been lurking on it. When I turned off the shower and stepped out for a towel, I was humored by the fact that the towels are way too small for me since they're meant for pony use. When I dried myself off, I then daisy-chained four towels together in order to fully wrap around my hips, grabbed my tux and walked out of the bathroom, causing some steam to seep out of the bathroom door. When I walked over to a mirror, I noticed Rainbow Dash's sight following me as I walked. I stared at her blankly with a mix of confusion.
"What?" I asked.
"Nice improv with the towels." Rainbow replied as she stylized her mane.
"Oh, the towels. I had to think of something," I replied. "I, uh, like how your mane is looking so far."
"Thanks, Caleb. I'm going for something that looks nice for those Canterlot ponies, but still sticking to my taste for the Wonderbolts. What about you?" Rainbow said.
"I'm thinkin' about combing the hair on the side of my head downwards, but towards the back of my head, and the center section of my hair will be combed to the right." I replied.
"You do have some thick hair. I think it'll look really cool once you get it done." Rainbow said.
"Hey, same with you. Pretty cool to see something different with your mane." I said.
With our little chat over with, I put on a pair of boxers so that I wouldn't have to stand there naked the whole time.
"Hey Rarity, do you have any hair-gel I can use?" I asked.
"Sorry, but I don't believe I have any at the moment," Rarity replied, seeming unsure of what to say next. "Are you in dire need?"
"No, it's really no threat at all. It would help styling my hair a bit more, but my hair's still wet from my shower, so I should be able to style it before it dries." I said.
"Very well, then." Rarity said, going back to work on her mane.
"Let's see if this still fits well on a seven foot-ten human." I said to myself as I inspected the clothing once again.
I brought my right leg up and was astounded to find out that my leg fit perfectly all the way through the leg hole. I repeated with my left leg and secured the tux pants with a belt.
"Nice." I said, examining my mesomorphic body with one of the large mirrors in the room.
"Noticed how the clothes still fit you?" Twilight asked me.
"I did notice. But that doesn't make any sense because I was like seven foot-eight when I first got them and they were fairly tight on me. Why are you asking?" I said.
"Well, about a week after you left for your Equestria History School in Canterlot, I used an advanced spell that has the ability increase clothing size." Twilight said.
"There's a spell for that?" I asked.
"Yep, there is. It's rarely utilized, but it exists." Twilight replied.
"How does it work?" I asked
"It expands the size of the fibers used for the clothing itself, but it took some time to finish. Manipulating clothing like that is very tricky." Twilight said.
"Huh. That's interesting. But thanks anyways, Twilight." I said with gratefulness.
"You're welcome, Caleb," she replied, levitating a comb onto the palm of my hand. "You might need this for your hair."
"Thanks." I said, walking back to the mirror to continue getting ready for the Gala.
6:49 PM
"How do they look, Caleb?" Spike asked me, sitting on the outside driver seat of the carriage.
"Oh, they look great, Spike. Their dresses just match their personalities so well and just-- man you have to see for yourself to fully understand what I mean." I said.
"I'll wait till we arrive at the Gala to see for myself." Spike said.
"Why?" I asked.
"I like to build my own anticipation and surprises." Spike replied.
"Wow. That's a pretty odd standard for you, Spike." I said, puzzled by that statement.
"Hey, I'm a dragon who has standards that can change from time to time." Spike said.
"I see," I said. "You guys got tickets to the Gala or no?" I asked Caramel and Lucky Clover.
"No. No ticket for us. We're just pulling a favor for our friend Rarity." Lucky Clover replied.
"Dang. That sucks." I said.
"It's not all that bad. Lucky Clover and I are planning on heading off somewhere in the city to eat and come back later." Caramel said.
"That's good. Just be sure to come back for us around twelve." I said.
"Don't worry. We got you guys." Caramel said.
A few minutes later, the six well-dressed mares exited the boutique and loudly chatted to each other on what they were going to do at the Grand Galloping Gala.
"Looking good, girls." I complimented.
The mares did not respond and continued to walk towards the carriage. It was as if I just talked to an invisible wall.
"Eh, they're busy talking." I said to myself.
The mares then piled into the carriage and took their seats. I peered my head into the door and saw the six showing each other their tickets to each other.
"Do you have your ticket ready, Caleb?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah, hold on a sec," I said, reaching into my pocket for the ticket but only felt the fabric of the clothing instead. "Be right back." I said before quickly exiting the carriage and moved to Spike.
"Spike, I hate to say this, but I forgot my Gala ticket back the library." I said.
"Oh, great. Should I break the news and tell our carriage pullers to head to the library instead?" Spike asked.
There was a brief pause as I thought.
"No. You guys go on ahead and I'll run back to the library to get the ticket. When I find it, I'll just drive the Land Rover up to Canterlot and meet you guys there." I said.
"Are you sure?" Spike asked.
"I'm sure. I mean, Canterlot is only five miles away, so if Caramel and Lucky Clover really trot to Canterlot fast enough, you should arrive there in thirty minutes or so. Who knows, I may pass you guys." I said.
"Now that I think about it, why couldn't we just take the Land Rover instead?" Spike asked.
"Because Rarity said it was dirty and it smelled like cigarettes. It's not my fault that the previous owner was a smoker." I replied.
"Oh well. Well, I guess I'll see you later then, Caleb." Spike said.
"You too, bud." I said before turning my back.
"Okay, let's go." Spike signalled Caramel and Lucky Clover, prompting them to trot off into the distance, towards Canterlot.
After I rummaged through my room, I found my Gala ticket under my mattress. I kept it under there just incase Owloysius got curious and took it. But anyways, with the whole heading back to the library, finding the ticket, and finding the blue fuse for the fuel pump on the Defender, it took about twenty minutes just for that, so Spike and the girls had to almost be at the Gala.
As I sat in the Defender and started it up, a thought came to my mind that could've made this scavenger hunt a whole lot quicker.
"Why didn't I just ask Twilight to teleport us back to the library?" I thought to myself, facepalming afterwards.
With the click of gear shifter, I began my drive to the Grand Galloping Gala.
I kept the Defender at a steady pace of 12 kilometers an hour as I drove up the mountain on one of the paths that were used as a way to reach Canterlot back in the old days of Equestria before the rail system. Anymore faster than that, and I would probably drive off the side mountain.
"At least they put some safety fences up." I said when I noticed the wooden fences bordering near the side of the drop off.
At the time, Spike and the others had to of reached Canterlot by now because I did not pass them up at all. I guess Spike took my advice after all, but I don't know how Caramel and Lucky Clover may of taken it. Probably not fond of it, but did it anyways.
Although my drive up the mountain was very tedious and a little tense, I finally made up to the top where the landscape was located, which had a path that led the way to the city. A colorfully dazzling display of fireworks exploded in the night sky, the cold and warm colors illuminating the interior of the vehicle, Canterlot, and the surrounding area.
"Hope I'm not too late or something." I said, worried if this meant the Gala was beginning without me, but still mesmerized by the display of fireworks.
I continued driving along the smooth stone pathway for a little bit longer until I approached the gateway to the first section of Canterlot, passing a few ponies who were also heading to the Grand Galloping Gala along the way. Before I could cross over the purple bridge that will allow me to enter Canterlot, two royal guards stepped forward and both stuck one of their forelegs out towards me, signalling me to stop the vehicle. Once halted, one guard walked over to the drivers window, which I slid open.
"How's it goin', Caleb?" the guard asked.
"Fine, fine. I'm just heading to the the Gala." I replied.
"Alright, good. Now, you're gonna need you to park your, uh, automotive carriage out here before proceeding forward, please." the guard instructed.
"Oh... Okay," I complied, reversing onto the grass, shutting off the engine and exiting the vehicle. "What's wrong with driving in Canterlot?"
"Safety purposes. For tonight, at least" he replied.
"Mm." I hummed.
"Therefore, we also need to search your carriage." the guard said.
"You got a warrant?" I asked.
"Yes, sir. Fair game here." the guard replied, showing me a document.
"Okay, but hold on a sec." I said, reaching into the glovebox to take out my C.A.M.A badge and signalled the guard to come towards me.
"Yes?" he asked, staring up at me with a straight face.
"Just so you know, I got a few major league toys under the seats. Heads up so that you won't get the wrong idea." I explained, showing him the badge.
"Oh, so you're with C.A.M.A?" he asked as he examined the badge.
"Yep." I said
"Okay, got it. I appreciate the heads up, sir." the guard said.
And so, after the guards did their little inspection on the Land Rover, they let me move along.
Navigating through the first section of Canterlot is a breeze because it's pretty much a straight shot up to the second section, which is the actual city, and I had some trouble navigating through the streets, to be honest.
I really like how the capital of Equestria isn't so complex . You got the entrance way section of the city, the actual city, and then you have the royal castle behind all that, which is what you can really see from five miles away. Also, there's this giant cul-de-sac behind the castle, but I have no idea what that massive amount of space would be used for. A party, maybe? I don't know. They should've used it for the Gala. Wait, why am I ranting about the capital of Equestria?
As I approached the castle, there was a long line of well-dressed ponies leading up the stairs to the entrance of the castle. It was fairly long, so I stood there for a while, waiting for my turn. However, the wait went by pretty quick from all the side conversations that I engaged in with other ponies waiting in line. I swear, almost every rich pony I talked to had this accent on them, but not all did.
"Ticket. Ticket, please." a fancy-looking stallion requested once I made it to the front of the line.
"Here." I said, handing him the golden gala ticket.
The guard examined the ticket for a moment before giving it back to me.
"Alright, you can go. Have a nice evening, sir." the stallion said.
"Thanks." I said, proceeding into the castle.
The sound of ponies chattering filled the entrance room. Like the last time I was here, the red carpet that covered the tiled floor led up the stairs in front of me, to the left corridor, and to the right corridor. My attention was brought to the stairs when I noticed another line of ponies, except they seemed to be lined up for meeting Princess Celestia and Twilight, who both stood at the top of the stairs.
"Might as well start with them." I said, lining up in a line once again.
I could easily tell that a lot of ponies in Canterlot have never seen me in person because their eyes scanned upwards and downwards along me while some pointed in my direction. I was quite surprised about this, considering the fact that I've been in Equestria for almost six months and my presence has been confirmed in the newspapers. But hey, I guess rich ponies have no time for newspapers.
Princess Celestia casted a quick glance and grinned at me before her attention was directed towards the next pony in line and Twilight gave me a small wave with her hoof while I patiently waited. After a few more minutes, I stepped towards Princess Celestia and Twilight.
"Hi, Princess Celestia. How are ya?" I said.
"I'm doing quite all right, Caleb," Celestia replied in her usual gentle tone. "I am happy to see you were able to make it to the Gala."
"Well, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity. And thanks again for the ticket." I said.
"You're welcome." Celestia said.
"Twilight, are you going to hang out around here for awhile?" I asked.
"That's what I was planning, but I'll try to meet up later." Twilight replied.
"Okay. I'm gonna walk around a little bit, check things out, and maybe meet up with the others." I said.
"Sounds good." Twilight said.
"Princess, is the ballroom down the left hallway or the right?" I asked.
"The right hallway, Caleb." she replied.
"My right when I walked inside, or your right?" I asked.
"Um, my right." Princess Celestia said.
"Kay. Thanks." I said before heading back down the stairs and towards the ballroom.
Upon entering the room, I immediately realized how great the room looked, considering that I've never even been in the ballroom. However, I was confused at first when nopony seemed to dancing, but I guess I should've expected that since this a gala.
"At least they have some nice, fancy music playing in the background." I said when I noticed the four musician ponies on stage.
But I didn't just go into the ballroom just to listen to music, I came in there because I knew right off the bat that Pinkie Pie would head here because she's a party pony. And just like I predicted, I had no trouble finding her from her distinct pink coat and colorful attire. But for some reason, she was sitting at a table all by herself, slightly slumping forward a little bit with sad eyes.
"Pinkie." I called out, causing her eyeballs to slowly trail up towards me.
"Hey, Caleb." she flatly replied.
I'm pretty sure that's the first time I had ever heard Pinkie sound depressed. Her girly, high-pitched tone was somewhat still there, but it just sounded very deflated.
"Man, you're not sounding too good. What's up?" I asked, planting myself across from her.
"It's just that I thought the Grand Galloping Gala was going to be really, really fun time, but nopony even wants to dance and party. All they really want to do is talk." Pinkie explained.
"Well, a gala is considered a social event, so that could be why." I said.
"No kidding," she replied, resting her head on the table and barely looking up at me. "What's up with you?"
"Not much so far. I just got here, like, thirteen minutes ago." I said.
Pinkie didn't respond at all.
"But anyways, do you remember where Applejack said she put up her food stand?" I asked, changing the subject.
"Somewhere outside." she replied, vaguely.
"Outside where?" I asked.
"Near the gardens, I think." she clarified.
"Oh, cool. Want to tag along with me?" I asked, hoping to get her spirits up.
"No, thanks. I have a bad case of the frowns." she replied.
"Okay. Want anything from there?" I offred.
Pinkie only shook her head, not uttering a word or sound at all.
"Damn, it's really that bad." I thought to myself while I walked to the exit of the ballroom
When I walked outside, Applejack's food stand was actually right near the entrance to the VIP extension of the ballroom, so that made the search real easy. When I approached the food stand from the side, Applejack was leaning over and looking the opposite direction. I snapped my fingers in order to get her attention and that really sprung her to life.
"Howdy there, Caleb!" she greeted, lively. "Come by to try out somethin'?"
"Oh, there's no way I can pass up your apple treats, Applejack. They're the best I've ever had in Equestria." I said.
"That's mighty kind of you, Caleb. What'll it be?" she asked.
"Uhh, get me an apple fritter and a caramel apple, please." I said.
"You got it. Three bits, please." Applejack said.
"Tell me, how much have you earned from the stand so far? You must be rich by now." I said, handing her the three coins.
"Actually, it's the complete opposite. It's terrible! So far, you're my second customer within a twenty minute span." Applejack exclaimed.
"Good one, Applejack. But really, how much have you made?" I foolishly said.
"No, I was being serious." she said, showing me her only four measily bits.
"Oh, wow. That's, uh, that's pretty bad." I said.
"Yer tellin' me. Seriously, what in the hay is wrong with these ponies? Don't they know somethin' good when they see it?" Applejack said with frustration.
"Well, maybe I could get another customer for you." I said before I approached some random rich-looking stallion.
"Hi." I simply greeted.
"Ah, the so-called 'first human in Equestria.' How do you do?" he asked, his accent filled the pure definition of somepony who knows what the high-end is.
"I'm doing fine. Say, y'know that food stand over that has some really good stuff. You should get something from there." I suggested.
The stallion moved his head to the left a little to examine the stand while Applejack smiled and nodded her head at him.
"I think I'll pass on that one. It's not the kind of sustenance I prefer." the stallion simply replied before walking away.
I then stared back at Applejack and shrugged with my hands.
"At least ya tried. Here's the food you wanted." Applejack said, giving me my succulent treats.
"Mmm," I moaned as I bit into the apple fritter and gave her a thumbs up. "Alright, thanks, Applejack."
"See ya around, Caleb." Applejack said before going back to her idle state, waiting for more customers.
I then began to walk towards the VIP section, but remembered, "D'oh, can't go that way." So I decided to just turn around and wander back into the ballroom again, but I was stopped by somepony shouting behind me in the distance.
"Did somepony just yell?" I asked Applejack.
"Sounded like Fluttershy. She's in the garden, but I don't know why she would be hollerin' for." Applejack replied.
"That was Fluttershy?" I asked myself, proceeding to the garden entrance.
I waltzed around the fairly spaced garden for a little bit before I found Fluttershy, and I was quite shocked on what I saw. Fluttershy was shouting in some sort of rage in the air and kicking up grass and dirt with her hooves.
"Holy frick," I whispered to myself before approaching her from behind. "Hey Fluttershy, what are you doing?"
Fluttershy slowly came to a pause, turning around with a somewhat intimidating smile with shrunken irises and pupils.
"I'll find a way. I'll find a way to get them." Fluttershy said in her calm tone, but it just didn't go well with her expression.
"Y'know, I think I'm gonna come back later." I quickly said before I ran back out of the garden.
Upon exiting, Applejack was trying to get another stallion to buy here products, but it was to no avail, causing Applejack to frown and go behind her stand once again.
"What was up with Fluttershy?" she asked.
"I think it might be because the animals she was talking about earlier are hiding from her or something. Just a guess." I replied.
"I guess that would make a lick of sense." Applejack said.
I walked into the ballroom again and headed for the door to the hallway, but I stopped when I noticed something I didn't at first when I walked in; it was Pinkie singing.
"Woah, I didn't know Pinkie sings." I said as I stood by the door, listening with great interest.
"You tilt your head in. You tilt your head out. You tilt your head in, then you shake it all about. You do the the Pony Pokey even though your date's a lout. You're better off without." Pinkie sang, causing me to humorously scoff.
"At least she's trying to liven things up." I said.
However, without warning, the door behind me swung open and nailed me right in back back, and it hurt like hell because that door was not made of wood at all. Thankfully, it didn't hit me in the spine or shoulder blades, but more in the lat area.
"Darling," Rarity exclaimed from behind, "are you okay?!"
"Y- yeah. Don't worry about me." I said, rubbing my sore spot.
"See? The human says he's fine." Rarity's date said.
Rarity slightly furrowed her brow at him before attending to me again.
"I'm so sorry! I had no idea anypony would be right behind this door!" Rarity apologized.
"And that was my fault, Rarity. For standing behind the door so close," I reminded. "But dang, you have some pretty forceful door-opening skills."
"Ugh, I'm just so stressed out and frustrated with him." Rarity said, quietly.
"Not the kind of Prince you envisioned?" I asked.
"Not one bit at all." Rarity said, rolling her eyes.
"Well, just wait it out. It's only 8:57." I said.
"And it hasn't even been an hour yet." Rarity mumbled.
"Yep." I said with a sigh.
"In that case, I guess I should get back to him before he cries the blues like the foal he is." Rarity said, causing me to chuckle.
"Alright, but try to stay calm." I said.
As I walked down the royal hallway, I began to think the current events for the night. All six of my friends are busy doing something and I've got no one to hang out with. Everypony else here is rich, so I'm kinda screwed if I try to affiliate with that social hierarchy. I'm also surprised that nopony wants to chat it up with the first human in Equestria, but with all the crazy mythical creatures that live in Equestria, I wouldn't be surprised.
"This sucks," I said to myself. "I wonder what Spike's up to."
So basically, I just decided to ditch the Gala and hang out with Spike, like I said I would. I took an exit that wasn't through the main entrance because I didn't want to offend Princess Celestia in any sort of way if she were to. I then walked off the royal premises and headed off into the city of Canterlot and went off to search for the doughnut shop that Spike kept talking about before we left earlier. He's gotta be there. If he isn't, then I'm really at a loss of what to do.
A Nightly Stroll Through Canterlot April 21st, 2013
The streets of Canterlot were relatively clear and dead, mostly due to the fact that many of the residents are attending the Gala, but there were a few ponies that were out and about. Some even said that they were just out for a nightly walk. While walking, I could hear the fancy music faintly playing in the background as I walked the quiet, lonely streets, my leather shoes emmiting slight footsteps on the concrete.
"I wonder if things have gotten better for the girls." I said to my thought to be lonesome self.
"I beg your pardon? Were you talking to me?" Fancy Pants asked, who walking not far behind me besides a tall, slender, white mare with a greyish-pink mane and white streaks.
"Oh, hey!" I said, a little bit startled by the sudden voice. "No, I was talking to myself, Mr., uhhh..."
"Fancy Pants." he finished.
"Fancy Pants. My bad." I said.
"Are you okay? I'm noticing that you seem a bit on edge." Fancy Pants noticed.
"Actually, you kind of startled me because a random voice coming from behind can make someone a little jumpy." I said.
"Oh, well, I do apologize for the scare." he apologized.
I then walked alongside Fancy Pants as well in order to speak to him more formally.
"Well, it looks like the gangs all here." Fancy quipped once I joined them.
"Yes, yes," I chuckled. "Are you two taking a break from the Gala?" I asked.
"Pretty much well said right there, Caleb. We're just having our occasional leisure night walks together. We decided to not attend this year." Fancy Pants replied.
"Really? If you want, I can head off so that you two can walk together in peace." I said.
"No, no, stay. It's nice to have a human companion by our side." the mare said, invitenly.
"Indeed it is, my dear," Fancy Pants agreed. "What about you, Caleb? What are you doing out here in the streets of Canterlot by yourself?"
"I'm actually looking for some doughnut shop. I was thinking about heading over there." I replied.
"A doughnut shop?" Fancy Pants asked.
"Ran by a stallion named Joe or something. Do you happen to know him by any chance?" I said.
"Of course I do. I can't say that I've been there recently, but I do know that his shop is somewhere in the second level of the city." he replied.
"Okay, thanks." I said before abruptly changing my direction towards the lower level of Canterlot.
"Hm." I heard Fancy Pants hum as I walked away.
I proceeded down a set of stairs in order to get down to the lower level and the part of Canterlot was absolutely dead. Nopony was outside, it was just me. But I did eventually find a doughnut shop, a doughnut sign being the really obvious giveaway.
"If this is the wrong place, I'm gonna be surprised." I said before entering the shop.
Upon entering, I immediately picked up the smell of fresh baked doughnuts and the aroma of frosting. I smelled glazed doughnuts the most for some reason.
"Woah! You're the human named Caleb Barlow! Man, I read all about you in the newspapers!" a stallion wearing a white baker outfit complete with a hat said in surprise.
"That's who I am. The one and only," I said, backing up the claim. "You're Joe, right?"
"Yeah, I'm Joe. You want somethin'? I got all kinds of doughnuts here." Joe offered, showing me the assortment of types of doughnuts and flavors.
"Uh, sure," I said as I walked over to the counter and took out my bit pouch. "I'll have a sugar coated jelly doughnut."
Joe then gave me the doughnut I requested. I then took a bite of the doughnut.
"Huf ou' see-" I said with my mouth full of doughnut and jelly filling before I realized the words weren't going to come out real clear.
"Huh?" Joe said.
"I was trying to say, 'have you seen Spike come in here?' Small, purple dragon." I said.
"Spike? No, I haven't seen him at all." Joe said, the front door swinging open after he said that.
We both turned our heads to the door and it was Spike, sporting a rather grumpy expression.
"Speaking of which, here he is now." Joe said.
Spike's scaley feet slapped against the tiled floors as he walked over the counter of planted himself on a seat next to me.
"Give me a glazed doughnut and a cup of cocoa." Spike said, grumpily.
The room then went silent for a brief moment while Joe went to get what Spike ordered.
"Hi, Spike." I said.
"Hi, Caleb." Spike replied, not making eye contact.
"Is someone a little grumpy tonight?" I asked.
"Hey, I actually have a reason to be grumpy!" Spike exclaimed.
"Yeah, I guess so." I agreed with him.
"Seriously. They just left me right at the entrance with nopony to at least talk to." Spike said.
"Well, it seems a few of them are having a crappy time, anyways." I said.
"Crappy?" Spike asked.
"It's basically a way of saying terrible." I explained.
"Gotcha'. And such as?" Spike said.
"Uh, Applejack can't get any sales, Fluttershy can't get any interaction out of the animals, and Rarity's date seems like a jerkhead." I said.
"For real?" Spike asked.
"Yeah, for real." I replied.
"Lucky me." Spike said.
That comment got me to scoff a little.
"What about Twilight?" Spike asked.
"Oh, it seems like she's getting her wanted time with Princess Celestia." I replied.
"That's good." Spike said, sipping on his cocoa.
Spike suddenly contorted his face and loudly spat his beverage back into his cup, some spraying onto the mug handle.
"Is it hot, Spike?" Joe asked.
"Jus' a lil' bih." Spike mouthed with his tongue stuck out
I then tried to think of what to say to Spike next to keep our conversation going. I could tell that Spike was still a little bit tense, so I had to watch what I said. But, I did think of something that got him out of his grump mode.
"So, do wanna take a walk through Canterlot and show me that one place where you and Twilight used to live? You kept on talking about it earlier." I said.
Spike's blank expression immediately changed into enthusiasm in the blink of an eye.
"Mmm," he hummed, gulping his cocoa. "We can totally do that! And I thought you would never ask."
"I do my best to not forget. Hey, I'll be waiting for you outside and then we can get going." I said.
Spike only nodded since he shoved the entire doughnut in his mouth. Must've really been in a hurry.
"Alright, let's get a move on." Spike said, rather chipper.
"And you know where you're going, tour guide? Because this city is relatively big." I asked.
"Like I said before, I used to live here, so I know these streets like the back of my right claw." Spike said.
"What's wrong with your left claw?" I asked.
"Well, I'm a righty." Spike replied.
"Gotcha." I said.
"But just follow me and we'll get there." Spike said.
"Alright, lead the way." I said.
I continued to follow Spike through the many twists and turns of Canterlot. Heck, we even passed through a few alleyways, which is what he called 'shortcuts,' but some of those alleys are a little claustrophobic, to be honest. Yeah, they're a little narrow, but that could just be me.
"So, is there a particular reason why you're wanting to show me where you and Twilight previously lived at? I mean, I know I brought it up a couple minutes ago, but you kept on talking about it a week ago, too." I asked.
"I miss that place." Spike replied.
"You miss it?" I asked.
"Well... kinda. Me and Twilight lived there for about five years and that tower is where most of my memories are from. And Canterlot, too." Spike replied.
"And you two have lived in the Golden Oak Library for eleven months, right?" I asked.
"Yeah, we moved there in June when Princess Celestia sent us to live there in Ponyville." Spike said.
"Which one is better? The tower or Golden Oak?" I asked.
"Golden Oak all the way. But still, the tower is still cool and a place I'll always remember." Spike replied.
"Do you think we could go inside?" I asked.
"Eh, probably not. It's most likely locked up because nopony is living there." Spike replied.
"Right." I agreed.
Shortly after, we walked across a bridge that went over a river that leads to the drop-off of the mountain and into a lake down below and that led us to the back of the royal castle.
"And here it is! The tower where Twilight and I used to live at." Spike said.
The tower itself was taller than I expected, but the designs on it made it clear that the tower was an extension of the royal castle. It had an entrance, stairs on the outerwall with gold railings that spiraled to the top, and, a design trope I noticed for buildings involving royalty in Canterlot, had one of the egg-like dome thingys for the roof. I don't really know what to call them, but they seem to resemble those things on the roof of a capital somewhere in Russia.
"Dang. Seems awfully big for just a unicorn and a small dragon." I said.
"It was the best place Princess Celestia could give Twilight," Spike said. "But I agree with you that the place is pretty big. Doesn't make it bad, though."
"No kidding. And if only one pony lived in there, then they might as well being compensating for something." I said, stifling my slight laugh.
"What's so funny?" Spike asked, noticing my laugh.
"Aw, you don't get the joke?" I asked.
"Oh, it was joke? Uh, ha-ha, good kneeslapper, Caleb." Spike mocked, slapping his knee.
"But you don't get it?" I asked.
"No, honestly, I don't get it." Spike admitted.
"C'mon, think into the context." I hinted.
He thought for a moment with his index claw and thumb around his chin.
"I got nothing." Spike said after doing his deep thinking.
"Forget it. You might get it later on down life." I said.
"No, no, tell me. I actually wanna know." Spike said, seeming both confused and amused.
"Believe me, it's much better when you figure it out on your own." I said.
"Fiiine, I'll think about it later." Spike said.
"But anywho, what's inside the tower?" I asked.
"Twilight essentials. Enough books to satisfy a bookworm, that kind of stuff." Spike replied.
"Oh, so it's a version one of the Golden Oak Library?" I assumed.
"Pretty much, but I still think it's pretty awesome." Spike said.
"Hmm. Well, thanks for showing me this fine landmark, tour guide." I joked.
"Aw, it's nothin'. Hey, do you want head back down to Joe's and get another doughnut?" Spike said.
"Sure." I said.
As we began our walk through the streets of Canterlot once again, I could faintly hear Spike mumbling, "compensating for something," over and over again to himself, but he just couldn't figure it out. He'll figure it out someday, but I'll never tell.
"Thanks so much for making us dinner tonight, Caleb. It was a really nice thing to do." Twilight thanked, kindly.
"Yeah! This spaghetti is great!" Spike said, followed by him licking spaghetti sauce off his lips with his forked tongue.
"Well, y'know, I can boil noodles real good, Spike." I said, tossing the spaghetti box in the trash.
With that out of the way, I sat at the table with Twilight and Spike and began to chow down on my elegant cuisine that I had prepared. But, it wasn't really bad at all once I took a second bite.
"Didn't you say that humans eat meatballs with spaghetti?" Spike brought up.
"Yep." I replied.
"And what exactly are those made of?" Twilight asked.
"Pretty much anything that can provide meat." I said.
"Such as?" Twilight asked.
"Beef, primarily." I replied.
"Blegh! There's no way I'd eat spaghetti if I ever saw a meatball on my plate." Twilight said, grinning.
"Don't worry, Twilight, I make sure to abide to your kinds customs." I said.
"Actually, I wouldn't mind at all." Spike interjected.
Twilight slowly turned her head towards Spike.
"Really?" she asked.
"Oh, come on, I was just kidding." Spike said.
"That's what I thought, Spike." Twilight said, playfully bumping his shoulder with her hoof.
I was just about done tieing my black boot on my left foot when I noticed Twilight approaching me in my peripheral vision, her horn creating a dark-pink colored aura that illuminated dimly.
"Come down to say goodbye?" I assumed.
"As always. But seriously, just take care of yourself out there, okay, Caleb?" Twilight said, gently placing her hoof on my knee.
"I know, I know, you say it every night. Look, I'll see you tomorrow morning," I said, standing upwards. "Or, what I should say is at noon."
"I don't blame you, though. You do have some very late working hours." Twilight said.
"I got off lucky, actually. Nighthunter told me that it used to be 8 PM to 6 AM." I said.
"It was that long?" she asked.
"Yep," I replied, looking at my watch. "Alright, I should get going now. See ya."
"Bye, Caleb."
I drove on my regular route to the Everfree Forest throughout Ponyville as usual, thinking it was just going to be short and sweet. I had the window to my left slid open and a nice breeze blew into my ear and across my face, but I heard something else mixed with the wind. It sounded like a voice from outside. I slightly jolted my head to the left a little bit, but didn't see anything out the window. And so, I began to think nothing of it until I heard it again, but more faint.
"Okay, is there someone behind me?" I asked myself.
I slowly applied the brakes and came to a stop by the side of the road, peeking my head out the window a little bit.
"Hello?" I said out the window, immediately followed up with a pair of eyes right up in my face and nearly triggering my nightly instincts.
"Oh, thank goodness, you stopped. Giving me quite a workout, huh?" a familiar aquamarine mare asked.
"Lyra? Man, you nearly got a fist to the face." I said, adjusting myself in my seat.
"Geez, did I really scare you that much?" Lyra asked.
"Well, it was more of like an involuntary reaction, but kinda." I replied.
"Sorry about that, Caleb." she apologized.
"No prob, Lyra. So, what are you doing out here all by yourself, if you don't mind me asking?" I asked.
"Oh, I was actually just about to head over to the Golden Oak Library, but all the lights were out and so I thought, 'Okay, they're all asleep, so I'll come back tomorrow morning,' but then I saw your land crawler thing drive by when I was walking back to my place and I decided to chase you down to get your attention. Otherwise, that's how I ended up here." Lyra explained.
"Alright, then I guess that explains that. But why were you heading to the library?" I asked.
"I wanted to show you this. I think it's something important for both you and me." Lyra said, going for a pouch that was strapped around her body.
She handed me and piece of faded piece paper that had the scent of age on it.
"This thing looks old. How old is it?" I asked.
"Believe it or not, it is confirmed that this is older than the beginning of Equestria." Lyra replied.
"What?!" I exclaimed.
When I looked at the title, I was honestly didn't know what to make of it. It read, "the fourth winter," in poor handwriting, or hoofwriting, but still readable.
"Where did you get this?" I asked, shutting off the Land Rover's engine.
"At an auction in Manehatten about a few weeks after you arrived in Equestria. Of course, you were in the hospital at the time, so I never really got the chance to show you it and so on and so forth, but I just found it again, like, not long ago." Lyra said.
"Oh," I said. "Here, come around the car and sit in the passenger seat and we can read it together."
"Alright. But I do want you to know that it's kind of a dark read." Lyra warned.
"What's it about?" I asked.
"Just read and you'll see." Lyra replied.
the fourth winter
this is the fourth winter already and they just won't stop coming no matter what we do. every few months or so we move to a new place to grow our crops for those darn pegasus and unicorn ponies but we still get the worst out of all of them. its just not fair. we have nothing pretty much so everypony packed up to move on to a new place and hope this blizzard doesn't follow. me and my brother were carrying what we could carry so we don't have much right now even our clothing was terrible but it's better than going out in our own fur coats during the blizzard. our tribe also saw one of those two legged things out there and without any form of clothing on. we were curious why it wasn't wearing any clothing but it wasn't in numbers. if we see one we usually spot about four or five together but this one was alone. we watched it for a few minutes it was just standing there all by itself in the distance of the blizzard. a tough thing i admit if it could withstand such cold. and believe it or not it even dropped down to take rest in the snow. can you believe that? but anywho we have just settled in our new home. every earth pony is hoping for the best and for a good harvest this time.
"Huh. Celestia was correct." I said.
"Princess Celestia knows about this, too?" Lyra asked.
"She mentioned that she heard a story about the creatures, but I think I'm the first she has ever seen in her life," I said, setting the excerpt in the center console. "Why did you show me this letter?"
"Well, I remembered you told me once that wanted some more answers on pre-Equestria humans, so I thought I would bring this to you. And I know this isn't exactly a warm-spirited letter, so I wasn't trying to make you mad or disturb you, if that what you were thinking at first." Lyra said.
"No, not at all. To be honest, it's kinda... cool. I think of it as a lost piece of history that tells the story of possible humans beyond this time. And I don't know whether these are humans like me, maybe they're just predecessors, something very similar to humans, or perhaps some other biped creature, but that's what I like to think of it as." I said.
"I agree. I mean, the word human in Equestria was formed by the combination of both words huge and man because the creatures were considered, well, huge and they used the phrase, 'man,' to describe one another." Lyra informed.
"Really? I did not know that." I said.
"That's what old, rare, ancient records say, but there's really no confirmation whether these creatures were actually your specific kind." Lyra said.
"So, you could've been obsessing over an ancient specie that probably wasn't even my own?" I asked.
"Possibly... but they were bipedal." Lyra replied.
"Wow... Uh, here, take it." I said, giving Lyra the excerpt.
"No, you take it. Maybe you can take back to your world if you somehow find a way and show it to your species." Lyra suggested.
"Really? Gee, thanks," I said, taking the excerpt, folding it by fours and stored it in my pocket. "But I highly doubt I'll ever find a way back to my homeworld."
"You might be right about that, but at least you have us ponies!" Lyra chirped.
"I sure do, Lyra. I sure do," I said as I leaned over to wrap my right arm around her in friendly manner, getting another smile out of her. "Need a ride back to your place?"
"Yesss, that would be great. Thanks, Caleb." Lyra said, gratefully.
With that, I started up the Land Rover and drove to Lyra's place.
"So if I may ask, why were you driving around at night?" Lyra asked.
My mind went blank for a split second.
"Oh, uh, um... just taking a leisure night drive. Ah yeah, really boring around the Golden Oak Library at night, so I like to take little drives around Ponyville." I lied.
"Me too! Well, except I usually walk and it's during the daytime with Bon Bon." Lyra said.
"What about jogging, or trotting, for your case?" I asked.
"Of course. I took part in the Running Of The Leaves last year." Lyra replied.
"Cool. Then I suppose you wouldn't mind me asking if you wanna take jog in the Everfree tomorrow?" I asked.
"Sure! We can totally do that!" Lyra said with enthusiasm.
"Alright, then we have a plan. Y'know, you're the first pony I've ever heard that seemed excited for jogging." I said.
"If I have an opportunity to spend time with a human, then I'll sure take it. And also since you're such a great friend." Lyra explained.
After I had dropped off Lyra, I took the excerpt out of my pocket and looked at it once again, deciding to read it a second time.
"I guess I'm really the first actual human in Equestria." I said to myself.
Today was a exceptionally beautiful sunny day outside in the month of May, and what better way to spend it by going out on a picnic with your friends, which was Twilight's idea. Me, her and the girls set up a spot somewhere near the same area where I entered the world of Equestria. There was no reason at all, just a coincidence. But anywho, we all sat out there taking in the sun and enjoying our food. I myself was having a peanut butter and zap apple jam sandwich that Rainbow Dash was kind enough to offer for everyone.
"Heh, Applebloom was tellin me all about her recent attempt in getting her own cutie mark." Applejack noted.
"You mean the whole idea of getting a cutie mark in running?" I referred.
"That's the one. She got the idea from a so-called 'mint colored mare'." Applejack said.
"Yeah, me and Lyra Heartstrings were jogging past the CMC treehouse and the three spotted us and asked us why we were running, or jogging, for better word, and Lyra told them that we were jogging for fun." I explained.
"Yes, and apparently the girls thought running long distances would earn a easy cutie mark." Rarity said.
"And how did that work out?" I asked with a smirk.
"It didn't earn them a cutie mark, but sure did tucker them out for a nap." Applejack replied.
"Figures." I said.
"Wait, you were with Lyra Heartstrings?" Twilight asked.
"Yep. Both of us are good friends." I replied.
"I haven't seen her in a while. We used be good friends, too, but we lost touch after I left Canterlot." Twilight said.
"Aw, that sucks. Well, on the bright side, she lives near the north end of Ponyville." I said.
"Really? Then I guess I have some fences to amend sometime." Twilight said.
As I munched down on my sandwich, I instantly recognized a purple figure sprinting up to my right.
"Here comes Spike." I said, causing everypony to turn their heads towards him.
Spike came to a halt once he stepped on the picnic blanket and wheezed out a few words through his deep breaths for air, following with loud belch that spewed out a green flame, smoke, and above all, a letter.
"Who's it from?" I asked as Twilight rolled it open with her levitation.
"It looks like it's from... Princess Celestia!" Twilight replied.
"What does it say?" I asked.
"I was just getting to that," Twilight said. "Dear Twilight, I am sure you are as excited as I am about the upcoming wedding in Canterlot," Twilight began before pausing and looking at everypony. "Wedding?" she asked. "I will be presiding over the ceremony, but would very much like you and your friends to help out with the preparations for this wondrous occasion. Fluttershy, I would like you songbird choir to provide the music."
"Oh my goodness! What an honor!" Fluttershy said.
"Pinkie Pie, I can think no one more qualified than you to host the reception." Twilight continued.
"Hip, hip, hooray!" Pinkie cried in joy.
"Applejack, you will be in charge of catering for the reception." Twilight said.
"Well, color me pleased as punch!" Applejack said, another one her country sayings.
"Rainbow Dash," Twilight began, followed by an audible yawn from Rainbow Dash. "I would very much appreciate it if you would perform a sonic rainboom as the bride and groom complete their 'I do's'."
That got Rainbow's attention.
"Yes!" Rainbow exclaimed with enthusiasm.
"Oh, so now she's all excited." I whispered sarcastically to Pinkie Pie.
"Hey!" Rainbow said.
"Hay? Hay's can be for breakfast, lunch and dinner." Pinkie quipped, nudging my side and winking at me.
Rainbow crossed her forelegs and rolled her eyes in response.
"Jokes exist, Rainbow Dash." I said.
Rainbow's annoyed expression then shifted into a small smile.
"I guess that was a good one. Well, from a human's perspective, at least." Rainbow said.
"Yeah, wordplay can be pretty funny at times." I said.
A soft thud to my left brought my attention to the ground, only to find Rarity lying down in a daze.
"What's her problem?" Rainbow asked Twilight.
"She's a little overwhelmed at the moment. Princess Celestia chose her for designing the wedding dresses." Twilight informed.
"And I've already got the perfect design idea! Ooh, I can't wait to see what they think of them!" Rarity said, giddily.
"So what else does the letter say?" I asked.
"Let's see..." Twilight said with a pause. "And as for you, Twilight, you will be playing the most important role of them all: Making sure everything goes as planned. See you all very soon. Yours, Princess Celestia." Twilight finished, looking over the letter one more time. "But I don't understand. Who's getting married?"
"Oh, wait. I was probably supposed to give you this one first." Spike said, giving her another letter.
Slightly annoyed, she levitated the next letter towards, prompting me and the others to huddle around Twilight.
"Princess Celestia cordially invites you to the wedding of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and... My brother?!" Twilight gasped.
"Oh yeaaahhh." I said, drawn out from recollecting my conversation between Shining Armor.
"Wait. Are you saying that knew about this?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah. Shining Armor told me about it, but I guess I kinda forgot about it over the past couple months. But still, congrats on your brothers engagement." I replied, pulling a positive attitude.
"And he told you before me? Before his own sister?" Twilight asked again, sounding agitated about the fact.
"Apparently..." I replied in a quiet tone.
"Either way, it's great news, Twilight! Congratulations!" Applejack chipped in.
"Yeah, great news. That I just got from a wedding invitation! Not from my brother, but from a piece of paper! And hey, why not give the hint to the human who probably only spoke to him once or twice to him in his lifetime. Seriously, thanks a lot Shining Armor. I mean, really, he couldn't tell me personally." Twilight ranted.
Twilight stopped her rant for a few seconds before she levitated Pinkie's sandwich, which of course had olives as mock eyeballs.
"Hey, Twilight, just thought you should know I'm making a really big life decision that changes everything. Oh, never mind, you'll hear about it when you get the invitation," Twilight ventriloquised with a deep and goofy voice. "Princess Mi Amore Cadenza? Who in the hoof is that?!" She asked, followed by a snort.
Everypony, including myself, went silent and thought about what to say to her next.
"Um, Twilight. Are you okay?" Fluttershy asked.
I'm sorry, it's just that Shining Armor and I have been so close. He's my B.B.B.F.F!" Twilight said, followed by a silence once again.
"We don't get the acronym." I said.
"Big Brother Best Friend Forever?" Twilight clarified.
"Ohhhhh!" Everypony realized.
"Before I came here and learned the importance of friendship, Shining Armor was the only pony I really accepted as a friend." Twilight explained as she walked away from the group as she began to get sentimental.
Stopping in her tracks, two little birds flew overhead. One of the two landed gently on Twilight's hoof, nuzzling it against her face before letting it fly alongside its companion again. With that, she began to sing; a song about the relationship between her and Shining Armor.
Now, this is the interesting thing about the Equines. From what I learned, Equestrians have a keen instinct on singing. Most of these acts of singing involve situations that can be happy, sad, etcetera, but not many involving intense situations. So basically, what I'm trying to say, it's part of their culture. It doesn't have to be a constant thing, but its happened before in my time here in Equestria. Flim and Flam's musical number for an example, but I'm not sure if it was intentional or not. And, I have to admit that Twilight is a great singer. Caught me by surprise, to be honest. I would document what she sang, but I thought an explanation would be better. If anymore songs come along, I'll get em' down.
But anyways, once everypony chipped in with Twilight's song, Twilight finished with a long note before drooping her head down, shedding a single tear as stood by herself.
"As one of your P.F.F's..." Applejack said, followed by another damn silence. "Pony Friends Forever."
"Ohhhh." Everypony went again.
"I wanna tell you that I think your brother sounds like a really good guy." Applejack said.
"He is pretty special. I mean, they don't just make anypony captain of the Royal Guard." Twilight said.
Rarity's face went blank for a second before she walked over to Twilight.
"Here she goes." Rainbow noticed, as well.
"So let me get this straight. We're helping out with the wedding of not only a princess, but a captain of the Royal Guard?" Rarity asked.
"I guess we are." Twilight replied.
"Ooh, ooh, oooh!" Rarity exclaimed in excitement before fainting onto the ground once again.
"Aaaaand she's down." I said.
The girls, besides Twilight, began to chat with each other.
"Hey, Caleb." Spike said.
"Yeah?" I said.
"Did you hear anything in that letter involving me or you?" Spike asked.
"Now that you say that, I don't think we were in both of them at all," I realized. "Twilight, were Spike and I invited at all?"
"I didn't see your names listed on. Maybe I missed something," Twilight said, flipping over the second letter. "Oh, here they are. Spike, as being Shining Armor's little brother, he has chosen you for one of his best stallions."
"Alright! Best stallion!" Spike said with enthusiasm.
"And Caleb. Shining Armor has promptly invited you personally to attend this wonderful occasion. As stated, he believes that a friend of Twilight Sparkle is a friend to him," Twilight finished. "Wow. You sure did get on Shining Armor's good side."
"Well, he seems like a pretty chill stallion." I said.
"Hm. Chill. Maybe a little forgetful, too." Twilight grumbled.
"When exactly is the wedding?" Fluttershy asked.
"Tomorrow." Twilight replied.
"What?! Talk about short notice." Pinkie said.
"I know. So everypony head back to your homes and get what you need nesecary for your role in the wedding. We'll meet up at the train station at 10:00 for the next train to Canterlot." Twilight said.
And so, all seven of us banded out in different directions. But still, like what Pinkie said, talk about short notice. What was Shining Armor thinking?
Well, turns out that everypony didn't really need to go back to their homes because five minutes after we left, Princess Celestia sent a message through Spike saying that everything would provided in Canterlot for those assigned a task. However, Spike and I still needed our good suits, so we got those packed up quickly. Once everything was a settled, we were able to get on the train and departed for the trip to Canterlot.
"Man, why is everything being sent on such a short notice? Aren't ponies in Canterlot supposed to be, well, organized?" Rainbow said as she had hovered herself throughout the cabin.
"Most of time, from my experience." Rarity replied.
"Either that, or somethings bothering them that's making them so inept." I said.
"Who knows. I hope they get better at it soon." Fluttershy said.
At the end of the cabin, the conductor walked in and tipped his hat up as a greeting.
"Ahem. Please no flying in the cabin, Miss." the conductor reminded to Rainbow Dash.
"Heh. Sorry." Rainbow apologized, slowly floating back onto her seat.
"Ah, Caleb Barlow. How are you today?" the conductor asked.
"Doing quite fine, Mr. Conductor." I replied.
"Please, call me by name, which is Stage Coach, as a matter of fact."
"You mind if I just call you Coach?" I asked.
"I don't seem to have a problem with that." Coach said.
"Well, alright then, Coach." I said, getting a quick chuckle out of him.
"And I presume you and your friends are traveling to Canterlot for the royal wedding?" Coach asked.
"You betcha', Stage Coach." Applejack answered for me.
"And I get preform the great and mighty sonic rainboom. But, I'll be sure to give it an extra kick this time." Rainbow bragged.
"Well, how exciting. I'm sure you six will remember this event for the rest of your lives." Coach said.
"And Twilight, too." Pinkie added.
Both Coach and Twilight turned their heads to each other. Twilight gave a quick grin before staring right back out the window.
"She seems to be a little lonely." Coach said.
I stared at Twilight for moment as she sat in her seat, an unoccupied spot to her back.
"Be right back, guys." I said as I rose up from my seat and plopping next to Twilight.
"Hi." Twilight said in a monotone. "Why'd you move from your seat?"
"You seemed like you needed somepony to talk to." I said.
"No, it's nothing like that. I just can't stop thinking about Shining Armor. I'm happy about how he's getting married and all, but then we probably won't be able to see each other at all, especially if he plans to start of family with his new wife." Twilight said.
I nodded my head and paused for a second.
"Well.... I don't think that means that Shining Armor is going to disappear off the face of the planet. And also, family is important, so there's a good chance he'll make time for you, your mom, and your dad." I said.
"Yeah. But he didn't have time to tell me he was getting married." Twilight said.
I then let out a short sigh, staring out the window to my left. In the distance was Canterlot, but there was still that magenta colored sphere encasing the capital, and its been like this for a week, so far. I'm not sure what it's for, but it definitely means something.
As we approached the railroad entrance for Canterlot, the girls and I noticed the gigantic magenta colored dome-ball that seemed to act like a shell for the entire city. I'm not kidding, this thing towered hundreds of feet up and perfectly shielded the whole city, so it's a big dome.
"Are we going to hit that?" Fluttershy asked everypony.
"No need to worry, Miss. It is a temporary standard procedure and we will be entering through the shield." Stage Coach said.
The train began to gradually slow down as we closed in on the dome and penetrated through the shield. The outer of the shied then manifested into the train car. Even though Stage Coach said we were passing through, my first instinct was get out of my seat because I was so certain everypony was going to be squished. However, it passed through everyone, including myself, and it gave me quick jolt and shiver.
"We're here! We're here, we're really here!" Pinkie loudly announced as the train came to a halt at the Canterlot train station.
"We know that, Pinkie. And I'm pretty sure everypony else heard you before the last time we came to Canterlot. Oh, and there was also that other time, too." Rainbow inquired.
"Which other time?" Pinkie asked.
"Y'know... The other times we came up here." Rainbow said, sounding unsure of herself.
"You lost count, didn't you?" I said.
"Look, I didn't really think to make a Pinkie Announcement count, I just remember a few of the other times." Rainbow said.
"And why exactly do you do this, Pinkie?" I asked.
"Well, there's a saying I like to go by; If you do something once, you're bound to do it again." Pinkie said.
"Is that so? So if somepony takes candy from a foal, they'll do it again?" Spike asked.
"Depends on what kind of pony somepony is, but that's a big yep." Pinkie said.
"Hm. Interesting." I said, looking out the window and noticing a huge presence of royal guards on the platform and upper level of the train station. "That's a lot of guards."
"I was just thinking the same thing, too!" Rainbow said.
"I'm pretty sure it's just for safety precautions. Royal weddings are a big thing." Rarity said.
"Perhaps." I said.
As we exited the train car, I could see the guards eyeing us for a quick second before their heads darted in a different direction. It was weird. It was almost like they were uneasy, on-edge, or looking for something.
"Okay, so since this wedding is on such a short notice, we should get to our designated locations as quickly as possible when we get to the castle. Does everypony know what they're doing and which room to report to?" Twilight said.
"I know what I'm doing." Rainbow Dash said with a cocky grin.
"I know my spot." Applejack said.
"Me too." Fluttershy said.
"And so do I." Rarity said.
There was then a abrupt silence as everypony waited for an answer from Pinkie, but there was no response at all.
"She left already. She hopped away right before we began talking." Spike replied.
"Then I guess that answers that question. And I'm going to go have a word with that brother of mine." Twilight said.
Applejack laughed to that statement. "Well, you go and do that, Twilight. Just don't go too hard on him and make sure to congratulate him, you hear?" she said.
"We'll see." Twilight remarked before trotting away from the group.
"What do y'all say that we meet up later this evening at the café?" Applejack asked.
Everypony then nodded their heads and chattered in agreement with the idea. Shortly after making our plans for later on this night, the girls dispersed to their locations, leaving Spike and I at the train station platform. Both of us turned our heads and looked at each other at the same time.
"Actually, I have no idea where I'm going." Spike admitted.
"Yeah you do. We both got reserved rooms in the castle." I reminded.
"Right, I forgot that. Y'know, that's real nice of Princess Celestia to lend everypony a spare room in the castle." Spike said.
"It is. And speaking of princesses, I really want to meet that third princess. Shining Armor's soon-to-be wife." I said.
"Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, you mean?" Spike corrected.
"Yeah. The princess with the complex name. But wait, I think she had another name, too." I said.
"How exactly do you know that?" Spike said.
"Like I said before, Shining Armor and I had a conversation about his wedding and it's all coming back to me in little tidbits." I said.
"What's her name then?" Spike asked.
"Ahhhh, I think it was Candice, or something like that." I said.
"Princess Cadance, to be exact, sir. Pink coat, fairly tall, an extremely pretty alicorn princess." A royal guard.
"Yep. Sounds dreamy." I said.
"Hey! Quit your talkin' and get back to watching the perimeter!" the guards commander ordered in a stern, demanding voice. At least I think that's a commander, or it could be another guard who's in a pissy mood.
"Yes, sir." the guard replied, putting on a straight face.
Spike and I then exited the train station, looking back at the guards a few times before we were met by even more guards at the exit and a few patrolling the streets in the first section of Canterlot.
"Man, that stallion seemed pretty serious." Spike said.
"I know, but the guards kinda have a big responsibility on their hooves right now, so I guess they have an excuse to be on edge." I said.
"There's that, too. But still, they can't even talk to somepony for ten seconds?" Spike said.
"Yeah, I didn't think there was any need for that. But I'm not one of those guards, so who am I to say that?" I said.
Spike only shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. Let's just get to the castle and check out our room." Spike said.
When Spike and I arrived at our room, it honestly went beyond our expectations. We're just guests and we got a room with the marble-tiled floor, fancy curtains, drapes, windows, and we even got a balcony that looks out upon the entire city. I guess you can say we're really living in class now.
Along the way to the castle, we tried to get some answers from the guards on what the spherical dome was for, but they only told us that they were "busy" and were on the look-out for anything suspicious. If we couldn't get answers form the guards, then the city-folk should know what the high security is for, right? No. The ponies we talked to were alerted about the high security from the E.U.P Royal Guard, but were not given a reason. With all the security in the city, it's no surprise that the entrance to the Royal Castle itself is guarded by a battalion of royal guards. And obviously, Spike and I were stopped for inspection before gaining access to inside the castle.
So after Spike and I folded our suits neatly in one of the spare room drawers, Spike decided to run off in the castle to find Twilight. I myself decided to continue on my investigation to figure what all the high security and the gigantic spherical dome encasing Canterlot is for.
I tried my best to casually walk throughout the yard of the Royal Castle, but all the eyeballs of the guards staring down upon me made me feel a little nervous for some reason, prompting me to pick up my pace a little bit. Every other one of the guards were positioned up on higher levels of the castle, which is actually a pretty smart considering that it gives them a good field of view when looking out for anything suspicious. And believe it or not, I spotted Princess Celestia herself atop the highest tower on the castle with a telescope that had to be high powered for good magnification. I would've said hi to her, but I figured that she's a bit busy, as well.
I continued walking to one side of the castle, but couldn't find anypony to talk to, so I decided to just walk to the other side and couldn't find anypony there, too.
"Screw it, I'll just ask the guards at the front entrance." I thought to myself.
"Halt!" A guard yelled towards me, pointing his lethal spear at me.
"Hey, hey! I just wondering what the gigantic sphere is for." I retorted back to the guard.
"What is your business on these grou-" the guard said before he paused from somepony who got my back in the situation.
"Woah, woah, woah, hold on there! Put your weapon down, Third Class." Shining Armor demanded as he stood upon a two-sided stair balcony above the entrance.
"Sorry, Captain. Is he safe for entrance?" Third Class called back.
"He is a friend of my sister. Let him pass." Shining Armor replied.
"Yes, Captain." Third Class said, allowing me to pass.
I furrowed my brow at Third Class before proceeding further.
"Come on up here, Caleb!" Shining Armor invited.
I then proceed up the stairs. "Hey! Congratulations on the marriage, Shining Armor!" I said.
"Thanks a lot! Glad to see you were able to make it." Shining Armor said.
"No problem at all. I actually didn't recognize you in all that gear at first." I said.
"Well, if you're looking for me, just look for the stallion in purple armor." Shining said.
"I'll be sure to. So, tell me, what exactly is up with the sphere thing around Canterlot. I've been trying to get an answer all day, but I've haven't been able to get one." I asked.
"Nopony told you what it's for?" Shining asked, seeming surprised.
"Well, apparently there has been a threat made against Canterlot." Shining Armor said.
"What?! From who?" I asked, absolutely shocked.
"Look, we have no idea at all who sent the threat, so Princess Celestia has had me amped up security for every section of Canterlot for any possible suspects." Shining Armor explained.
"So wait, the pony who sent the threat could be in the city at this moment?" I asked.
"There is a very big chance that they are. Also, that's why I've conjured up this protection sphere to protect Canterlot from a mass invasion." Shining Armor said.
"A mass invasion? What the hell did the threat say? Was there like a threat letter or something that was sent to Canterlot?" I asked.
"That's what it was. It was placed specifically right down there in a box," Shining Armor said, pointing down at the ground below us. "It said, 'Canterlot will be ours', so that means there are other accomplices involved here."
"Yeah, that sounds pretty bad." I said.
Just then, a squad of pegasi royal guards landed on the balcony next to Shining Armor and I.
"Captain, we have just returned from our patrol in the restaurant district." one of the guards said.
"Have you found anything suspicious in the area?" Shining Armor asked.
"No, Captain. We have nothing to report." the guard replied.
"Okay. A squad from sector one should be arriving back for report momentarily. I want your squad to move down there now and patrol there for another hour and report back to me ASAP. Got it?" Shining Armor ordered the guards.
"Yes, Captain. Let's move out." the squad leader said as they flew off to the first section of Canterlot.
"Sorry about that. Duty calls." Shining Armor said.
"That's all right." I said.
Shining Armor then quickly looked up at the spherical energy shield and squinted his eyes.
"Looks like the shield could use a little more reinforcement." Shining Armor remarked.
Shining Armor closed his eyes and his horn began shine brightly with a mix of white and rose. I slightly squinted my eyes and looked away, getting a sliver of view as a magical beam shot upwards at the shield. The shield absorbed Shining Armor's magic and became a bit more thicker than before.
"Ooh! Ow, ow, ow! Auggh, that one was not nice!" Shining exclaimed in pain as he tilted his head down and placed his right hoof on his helmet.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"It's just a migraine. With all this spell casting and the stress of the threat against Canterlot, they just seem to be getting worse. Still, it's all worth it for making sure that me and bride's special day goes just perfect." Shining Armor said, removing his helmet and rubbing his head.
"Hm. That's a sweetly optimistic way of looking at it, Shining Armor." I said.
Shining Armor barely smiled through his grunts of pain. "Okay, I think I'm better now."
When Shining Armor opened his eyes, my eyes went wide.
"Oh, God." I said.
"Hm?" Shining Armor hummed.
"Do you have a lazy eye or something? Because your left eye is completely off center." I said.
I unnervenly stared at Shining Armor as his left eye began to creepily roll down to the bottom left of his eyelids.
"Oh. It's just a side-effect of a spell I've been taking to ease some of the pain. Nothing to worry about at all." Shining Armor said.
"Okay, but be careful with that spell. Your eyeball could probably get stuck." I said.
As Shining Armor said before, the next squad arrived from the first sector of Canterlot and awaited Shining Armor's further instructions.
"I'll be fine. Look, I'd like to continue this little chat, but I really should get back aiding the guards." Shining Armor said.
"I think that's a good idea. Oh, and before I go, have seen Cadance anywhere? I've been really meaning to meet her since she's the bride and everything." I said.
"You just missed her like half-an-hour ago. But, Cadance said she was going to check on the others progress. Check inside and you might be able to catch to her," Shining Armor informed. "She's heard so much about you, too, so you two should get along real well."
"Awesome. I'll be sure to check. See you around, you lucky dog you." I said.
"Alright, see you around, bud." Shining Armor chuckled.
It was now getting later in the afternoon. Four o'clock, to be exact. I already checked up on Applejack in the bakery building and the food seems to be going along real well. I can't really lie when I say that I was at a dilemma on whether I should take or leave some of those delicious apple fritters that were left out in the open for anyone to take. But in the end, I decided not to because, come on, that would probably be pretty rude, especially for a royal wedding. Can't get obese just yet.
Anyways, after that, I went back inside the castle and wandered throughout the vast hallways. It was relatively quiet. So, it was no surprise when I began to hear the sound of hooves clopping against the marble floor.
"Alright, try to look good in casual clothing." I thought to myself while flattening out my black t-shirt and khaki shorts.
Of course, I assumed that it was going to Princess Cadance around the corner, but I was wrong. It was Twilight instead.
"Hey, Twilight." I said.
"Shhhh! C'mere for a second." Twilight whispered discretely.
I reared my head back a little bit and looked behind me. I didn't see anybody at all.
"Why are you whispering?" I said.
"Just come here, Caleb." Twilight repeated, sounding a little bit more agitated.
I complied with Twilight and walked over to her.
"Did that pink nightmare walk by?" Twilight asked.
"Alright. Tell me what's happening now." I said, assuming some incoming drama, but that didn't seem like Twilight.
"Did she, or did she not?" Twilight asked.
"Wait, who? Pinkie Pie?" I asked.
"Not her. Princess Mi Amore Cadenza." Twilight clarified.
"No, she did not. Why are you asking?" I said.
"Because she was just walking down this hallway and turned the corner." Twilight said.
"So? She's an alicorn. She probably teleported out of the building." I said.
"I'll give you that, but something is extremely off about her. She's not the foalsitter I once knew." Twilight said.
"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.
"She's absolutely rude and disrespectful! Get this, Applejack offers her a bag of freshly made treats. And you know what she does? She just opens up a flippin' trashcan and throws them away! Does that not sound like somepony who's rude, or not?" Twilight said, waiting for an answer.
"I mean, that does sound rude... but maybe she didn't want them. Or maybe they were burnt." I said.
"Well, I don't know. If she is being rude, its gotta be from stress. Shining Armor told me that he himself is stressed out with with the wedding and protecting Canterlot, so it wouldn't really be a surprise if the bride is stressed out, too. Actually, I think the bride would be more stressed out. You ever hear or seen a bridezilla?" I said.
"Bridezilla?" Twilight asked.
"It's a human term. Basically a bride who goes crazy over everything." I explained.
"But that's not the same behavior as Cadance! She's just being mean for the sole intent to do so." Twilight said.
"You're overreacting, Twilight. You can overreact in certain situations, y'know that?" I said.
"I'm telling the truth. I can prove it to you!" Twilight persisted, followed by a period of silence.
"Okay, fine. If you believe she's so mean, then let's find her. I'll meet her for the first time and I'll examine her behavior. If she seems mean, then I'll believe you." I said.
"I like the sound of that," Twilight said, seeming more happy with my choice. Her eyes then fixated out the window before letting out a short gasp. "There she is! Right out the window!"
I then looked out the window and there she was. She had pink coat, an attractive colored mane that was beautifully styled, wore a tiara of her own on top her head, a gold necklace with a heart in the middle. From what it seems, she was probably the shortest out of the princesses. She was around the same height as Shining Armor and had a slim body mixed in with a little curve.
"Wow. She is gorgeous. And that's coming from a human." I admitted.
"I know, she's soooo pretty. Just get out there before she gets away and I'll keep watch. You'll see who she's truly like." Twilight said before she teleported out of the castle.
I slightly shook my head and sucked in my lips before fast-pacing to the nearest exit of the castle.
"There's always gotta be something wrong or going on." I mumbled to myself.
Again, I straightened out my clothing before approaching the princess. As I exited the castle and took a left, Cadance was a little bit further away now. I didn't want come up to her from behind incase of startling her. I don't know, I was a bit nervous.
"Excuse me, Princess Cadance?" I called out.
In an instant, she snapped her head in my direction as if she knew I was about to speak.
"She reacts quick." I remarked to myself.
She looked at me in a way I wasn't expecting her to. I was expecting an expression of surprise and delight, but she had a raised eyebrow and looked both annoyed and confused. She then turned herself and began to walk towards me, keeping an eye on me.
"She's mad! She's mad! She's mad!" I mentally repeated.
She continued to look at me in a way that began to make me feel a little uncomfortable, but as she got closer, she seemed less tense.
"Aren't you going to bow before me?" Cadance asked.
"Oh, yes. So sorry, your highness." I sincerely apologized, bowing before her.
As I rose up, she maintained her distance between me and her, still examining me.
"What exactly are you supposed to be? And for your information, I wish to be refered as Princess Mi Amore Cadenza." she asked, somewhat rudely.
"Don't you recognize me? I'm Caleb Barlow, the first human in Equestria. Your fiancee mentioned that you read all about me." I said, crossing my arms and beginning to believe Twilight a little bit.
Princess Cadance's eyes lit up to that statement.
"Ohhhh, how silly of me! I'm sorry, my mind must've slipped up from all the stress I've been going through lately." Princess Cadance said, laughing at herself now with a positive behavior.
"No, no, it's alright! At first, I thought Shining Armor was saying that just not make me so nerved up." I said, laughing as well.
"Shining Armor? That sounds nothing like him at all. He's always truthful to me." Cadance said.
"Well, that's good for a relationship. Especially in taking the next step into marriage." I said.
"Yes. Indeed it is." Cadance agreed.
"But yeah, I just wanted congratulate you on your wedding. I can't wait to attend it tomorrow." I said.
"Oh, why thank you very much." Cadance said, smiling.
"So, have you caught up with your Twilight much? The mare who you used to foalsit when you were young?" I asked.
"Um... yes. We kinda talked for a while and caught up on things in our lives over the years. It was a nice reunion." Cadance replied.
"Good, good." I said, nodding my head.
"Are you friends with her?" Cadance asked.
"Oh, definitely. She was the pony who really showed me around Ponyville on my second day in this world. That also counts with the five other mares who are helping out with the wedding. A dragon also included." I said.
"Yes, I met them. Close friends?" Cadance said.
"Yeah. To be honest, they're kinda like a new family. That may sound really weird, I know, but I... I care for them. Probably because they're the only ponies I've been with the most and bonded with." I said.
"Really?" Cadance asked, intriged in a way. "And how long have you been friends with them?"
"Six months." I replied.
"I see," Cadance said before pausing. "Here, I want to give you something."
"Okay. What do you have?" I asked.
"I'm not sure if anypony told you, but the princess of love always gives a peace offering to new ponies they meet. I've actually given out quite a bunch today." Cadance said.
"No, I did not know that." I said.
"Really? Because I actually have something for you." Cadance said.
"Alright then. What do you have?" I asked.
"Well, I'll just let you know right now that it comes in the form of magic." Cadance said.
"Magic, huh? Alright, I gotta see this." I said, interested in what I was about to receive.
"Very good..." Cadance said with a grin.
Cadance's horn began to undulate a green aura and a whitish-green beam began to slowly shoot out of the tip.
"This isn't dangerous, right?" I asked.
"Caleb, it's a peace offering. I wouldn't do anything to harm you in anyway." Cadance replied.
Trusting in her word, I allowed her to continue and the beam then made contact with my forehead. I could feel the magic entering inside my head and I was instantly overcomed with the feeling of absolute bliss and happiness from a high amount of dopamine released.
"Feels good, doesn't it?" she asked.
"Oh, yeah. That's nice. That's real nice..." I said, biting my bottom lip.
The feeling of bliss lasted for a good fifteen seconds before it abruptly left. However, after my short dopamine high, I felt dazed and weary. Almost as if I just woke up with a lack of sleep. And for some reason, I couldn't take my eyes off Cadance. I had the ability of free movement and choice, but I felt the need to just stare at her for some reason, and I didn't think anything of it being a bad thing, it just felt... normal.
"Well, it was great on meeting you for the first time, but I should get a move on and check up on my husband, if you know what I mean." Cadance said.
"Yeah. Uh-huh." I said, my mouth halfway open.
"I'll be expecting you at the wedding tomorrow." she said, turning herself and walking away.
Like before, I didn't move my head, but my eyes followed her as she walked away. Once she went inside the castle, my trance had went away, snapping me back into reality. I closed my eyes and slightly rolled my head, shivering as I opened up my eyes again. And the cool thing was that I felt so lively and awake after that. My body felt great, like an athlete.
"Thanks, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza." I said to myself.
Twilight then teleported behind me with a flash of light. "You see? What did I say about her?" she asked.
"Okay, she may have seemed a little bit blunt at first, but she was nice to me once she remembered who I was." I said.
"That's not right. Do you not find it suspicious at the very least that she had no idea who you were despite the fact that my brother even told you that she actually knew who you were?" Twilight asked.
"That was actually kinda odd," I admitted. "But, that doesn't really prove that she's mean. Her mind could've slipped and forgot."
"Yeah, she completely forgot about the seven foot bipedal human." Twilight said, sarcastically, followed by a sigh. "But what was the magic junk she gave you?"
"It was a peace offering. I guess it's supposed to make you feel really good because that's what I felt like. Did she give you one?" I said.
"No." Twilight replied.
"Oh. She said she already gave out a bunch today, so I was just wondering if you got one yet." I said.
Twilight rubbed the bottom of her muzzle with her hoof. "Hmm. Then I think I'll see what this spell is, exactly."
"You gonna get one?" I asked.
"Nah. I'm think I'll continue to keep an eye on her." Twilight said.
"If you insist. But I'm telling you, she's not mean." I said.
Twilight didn't respond to my belief and decided to just trot after Princess Cadance.
"You can be stubborn unicorn sometimes, Twilight. Still, got Princess Cadance off my check list." I mumbled once she entered the castle.
Today is the day of the big royal wedding. Everypony is now waking up and preparing for the rehearsal, which begins at 8 AM. Me and the girls just finished up our breakfast that was kindly served to us in the royal dining room. Yeah. The room where the royal princesses dine in. All the girls spoke at the table except for Twilight, she was silent. And frankly, so was I. Even I didn't make a peep, too. I must've did something weird last night, but I also saw something weird. I'm not sure if it was part of a bad dream, but it was kinda spooky.
But after breakfast, I just wanted to go for a walk around Canterlot to get my blood flowing, mostly because it helps me wake up a bit more. And so, I just left the castle grounds and walked into the city. I didn't really have a specific route, so I was cutting through back alley's until I reached to what seems to be the residential area.
As I walked down the streets, thinking of what the hell happened last night, I heard a familiar deep and husky voice call out my name. It took me a second, but I recognized who it was. It was Night Hunter.
"Hey! Long time, no see, huh?" I said.
"Really? Its only been like two months since the graduation, Caleb." Night Hunter said.
"Has it been? Man, it feels like its been longer than that." I said.
"Well, either way, it's good you see you around in Canterlot, kid." Night Hunter said.
"Yeah, you too, old stallion." I said.
"Watch it there, Barlow. So, what brings you back to this fine city?" Night Hunter asked.
"I was invited to the royal wedding. Or, what I should say, was invited by the captain of royal guards." I said.
"No way. You were invited by Captain Shining Armor?" Night Hunter said, stunned.
"I'm not kidding with you." I said.
"Well good for you, Caleb. Honestly, that's kind of a once in a life time thing." Night Hunter said.
"I'm sure of it. What about you?" I asked.
"Me? I'll probably do what everypony in the city is going to do; crowd over by the castle just to get a glimpse and wave to the newly weds." Night Hunter replied.
"Sounds like absolute fun. I'm glad I got the family connection and human privileges." I said.
"Yeah, I'm a little jealous." Night Hunter said.
We both kinda chuckled to that.
"Mm-hmm. But, um, yeah, I've been kinda having weird stuff happen to me lately..." I said, walking up to Night Hunter's front door where he stood.
"With what? In the Everfree?" Night Hunter whispered.
"No, no, with the whole wedding. Wasn't really specific there." I corrected.
"How so?"
"I met the bride yesterday; Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, and, uh, she gave me this magical peace offering that made me feel really good." I said.
"She's giving out for free already?" Night Hunter joked, prompting me to just look at him in disbelief. "Ehh, bad taste. Sorry."
"Yeah, you'd probably get sent to the dungeon if she heard that. But, um, ever since she gave me the peace offering, I felt strange. I mean, the feeling and everything is just gone today all of a sudden, most likely from my spell immunity, but last night was weird." I said.
Night Hunter looked confused and looked at the ground as he seemed to be thinking of something.
"If you said you got that spell immunity and the feeling went away, do you think she put a spell on you? That's what I think." Night Hunter said.
I myself then thought about that.
"I actually didn't think about that.... but there was most likely no threat or harm intended. Peace offering, remember?" I said.
"You sure? If so, you should let Celestia know about it with the whole threat against Canterlot situation going around." I said.
"No, that would be a terrible idea. Too late, anyways. With all the stress the bride and groom are going through and since today the big day, this wouldn't be the time to inform. If I were to even accuse something like that regarding Cadenza, then she'll probably be mad or crying about the whole thing, which will give me a bad rep with her, Shining Armor, and Celestia. I really don't need to get involved with the stuff that Twilight Sparkle is trying to do.
"What's she trying to do?" Night Hunter asked.
"She's trying to prove that Princess Mi Amore Cadenza is bad or something." I said.
"Why?" Night Hunter asked.
"I guess there's something about her that she doesn't like." I said.
"Oh. Then, what happened to you last night that was so weird to you, again?" Night Hunter brought back up.
"Oh, yeah. I don't know whether I was in a state of consciousness between unconsciousness, but I remember opening my eyes to an opened door right in front of me and I was staring into a dark room that was barely lit up from the spherical aura surrounding Canterlot. I was confused to why I was standing there, of course, but as I looked to the left of the room, I saw this dark mass by the bed and a pair of these slightly glowing green-tinted eyes staring at me in a way that was both terrifying and excruciating to look at. Seriously, you would be able to see the blueish-green iris's and the slit pupils all shrunken down, leaving the milky green color around them and everything. It was pretty scary, Night Hunter." I said.
"What the tartarus. That's not right. Eyes aren't supposed to glow." Night Hunter said.
"No shit." I said.
"Alright, there's obviously somepony in that castle that doesn't belong there. I demand that we march over there and tell Princess Celestia about this. Come on." Night Hunter said, stepping off the front porch
"Don't bother. After I saw those eyes, I booked it down the hallway and called for the guards. And they came, of course." I said, causing Night Hunter to stop and turn towards me again.
"Did they find whatever had the green eyes?" Night Hunter asked.
"No, they didn't. But the thing is that the room I was looking into was Princess Mi Amore Cadenza's. When the guards shined one of their helmet lights into the room, the black mass next to the bed was gone and the only pony in the room was Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. And obviously, she questioned why we were 'waking her at this hour', so I kinda took the blame for it and told her that I thought I saw something go into her room, apologized, and got escorted back to my room." I explained.
"So that explains why I saw a bunch of guards mobilizing through the city last night. Probably sweeping the area just in case." Night Hunter mentioned.
"Yep. Otherwise, I must've been partially dreaming, which probably gave me that hallucination of something that wasn't even there. Weird, though. I don't usually sleepwalk." I said.
"Well, that's a relief. Leave it to sleepwalking to cause all of that commotion last night." Night Hunter said.
"I know, right? Other than that, all those odd feelings from yesterday and last night are all gone." I said.
"Girls, would you happen to know if Twilight Sparkle will be arriving soon, or not?" Princess Celestia asked.
The girls shook their heads in response, even I had no idea where she was.
"Sorry, Princess. The only time we saw her was at breakfast earlier. After that, she sort of disappeared." Applejack said.
"Of course. Leave it to her to not make it on time for rehearsal." Cadance understandably grumbled.
"Look, dear, I'm pretty sure she'll be hear before we even start." Shining assured.
"And if she isn't?" Cadance retorted.
"Well... If it were to somehow come to that, then at least we have my little bro to give the ring. Right, Spike?" Shining said, turning everybody's attention towards Spike, who was messing around with the Shining Armor and Princess Cadance figurines that were intended to be on top of the wedding cake.
"Oh yeah. You can definitely trust me!" Spike said with confidence.
Cadance then subtly rolled her eyes. At least I noticed it.
Shining Armor then placed a hoof under Cadance's muzzle and directed her gaze into his eyes. "Trust me. Everything is going to go according to plan."
It took a second, but Cadance smiled to the statement, prompting Shining Armor to as well and brought Cadance close to him for a hug.
"Awwwww!" Spike and the girls went.
"That's so sweet." I said to Celestia, grinning to the scene while herself nodded in agreement.
"I know. But what if it doesn't?" Cadance asked.
"It will. I promise." Shining said.
"Good. Sorry if I'm making such a scene in front you guys." Cadance said.
"Do not be sorry, Cadance. We all know how long you and Shining Armor have been waiting for this very special day and how much it means the world." Celestia said.
"I mean, I've never been married before and I have a sense on how important it must be to the certain somepony." Fluttershy said.
"Sure. But after that, there's the reception, the honeymoon, the baby in the baby carriage, not getting enough sleep, arguments from time to time--" Pinkie listed.
"Woah, Pinkie. How exactly do you know these specific events in a marriage?" I asked.
"I know somepony who's been through it. But, you know what I mean." Pinkie said.
Pinkie winked and clicked her tongue at Rarity. Rainbow Dash gave me a confused look in response.
"So random." Rainbow mouthed.
We waited in silence for a few seconds before my watch starting beeping from it being eight o'clock. Twilight was late. Either way, Princess Celestia then instructed Shining Armor to follow her up to alter to begin the wedding rehearsal. Shortly after, the girls were up to enter the room and line up the stairs where Princess Cadance will be standing up by because they were promoted to the news bridesmaids for some last second decision made by Cadance while Spike sat by Shining Armor's side. I waited outside of the room with Princess Cadance until it was her time to go up, and I felt uncomfortable around her for some reason.
"She'll show up for the wedding." I said to Cadance, breaking the awkward silence.
"We'll see about that." Cadance replied.
"And Princess, I just really want to apologize again for the whole ordeal that happened last night. I'm pretty sure I was just sleepwalking or something." I said.
"That's fine. I was actually quite surprised. Nothing like that has ever happened to me before." Cadance said.
"Yeah, I bet. And you know what was weird about last night, too?" I asked.
"What exactly?" Cadance asked.
"I saw this big, dark mass next to your bed and a pair of creepy eyes staring back at me. I know it sounds unbelievable, but it had to be my mind playing tricks on me." I said.
"Hmm. Really?" she asked, not sounding a bit interested.
"Yep. If not, this castle is probably haunted or something. Y'know, like, ghosts." I said.
"I highly doubt that," Cadance said, turning herself to face the door. "Also, why exactly are you here? Do you have a major role in the wedding ceremony?"
"No. I was invited to the wedding, but I thought I would tag along with my friends for the rehearsal. I'll just be waiting out here." I said.
"Okay." Cadance said.
I then walked over to one of the pillars in the hallway and leaned up against it once the door opened for Cadance. Once they closed, I thought about Cadance for a little bit.
Y'know, Cadance seems very polar opposite to what I was expecting her to be. God, I just expected her to be this friendly and cheerful alicorn mare, not saying that's what I'm expecting from the princess of love, but she's kind of a buzzkill. She's got a personality and behavior that makes me not want to be around her, but I make sure to not show it to her. I hope this is because of the wedding and stress, so things could be looking up after the wedding.
My train of thought was broken when I heard the clopping of hooves at the end of the hallway. Sure enough, here comes an oncoming Twilight Sparkle and she was heading for the door, judging by her bitter expression. Quickly, I walked onto the center of the red carpet to block Twilight's path.
"C'mon, Twilight, now's not the time for something like this." I heeded.
"Out of the way, Caleb." Twilight said, levitating me out of the way and plopping me onto the marble floor. Before I could even get up, Twilight barged right into the room.
"Oh great." I mumbled.
"I'm here! I'm not going to stand next to her and neither should you!" Twilight shouted throughout the room to her brother.
"Oh-ho, no!" I hissed, crossing my arms and looking up at the ceiling.
I could tell Shining Armor was embarrassed by this and was trying to reassure Cadance. I don't know what he was saying, but he was. Princess Celestia just stared at Twilight while the girls and Spike were slack-jawed. I stood by the doorway and watched the scene unfold, not sure if I wanted to intervene or not.
"You have to listen to me!" Twilight shouted again.
"Oh, goodness! Are you okay?" Fluttershy asked.
"I'm fine." Twilight replied.
"Ya sure about that?" Applejack asked right into Twilight's face, only to get her own face stuffed by her hat by Twilight.
"I got something to say!" Twilight said, proceeding closer to the alter. "She's evil!" Twilight accused Cadance, pointing her out.
That accusation caused everyone in the room to gasp and chatter in confusion. I was surprised by this since I was just thinking about Princess Cadance's personality. My surprise soon faded into confusion, as well, placing my right hand my head. I just didn't know to believe Twilight or not. However, Twilight instantly teleported behind Cadance and began to square up to her.
"She's been horrible to my friends, she's obviously done something to her bridesmaids, and if that wasn't enough, I saw her put a spell on my brother that made his eyes go all..." Twilight said, rolling her eyes to show what apparently happened to Shining Armor.
At this point, Twilight had Cadance backed up against the wall, cornered for better words. Everypony in the room had all their eyes on Cadance as we waited for a response from her. Cadance only looked all over the place and made guilty expressions, causing my brow to rise. But instead, it turned to tears and Cadance began to cry.
"Why are you doing this to me?" Cadance cried.
"Because you're evil!" Twilight replied.
Cadance then ran away to the exit and nearly knocked me over while crying her eyes out. At that moment, a small wave of sympathy came over me as I listened to her cry down the hallway.
"Evil! And if I don't stop you, you're going to ruin my brothers life!" Twilight shouted to Cadance as she ran away.
"Twilight..." I uttered, at a lost of words.
"I did the right thing." Twilight said before smacking right into her brother as she turned away.
Shining Armor stared down at Twilight with anger and Twilight looked back up at him with a sheepish smile.
"You want to know why my eyes went all?" Shining asked, imitating Twilight's eye roll and flinching from a migraine. "Because ever since I had started working on my protection spell, I've been getting terrible migraines. Cadance hasn't been casting spells on me, she's been using her magic to heal me! And she decided to replace her bridesmaids because she found out the only reason they wanted to be in the wedding was so that they could meet Canterlot royalty! And if she hasn't been on her best behavior with your friends, it's because with me being so busy, she's had to make all the decisions about the wedding!" Shining explained, taking a short breath.
"I was just trying to--" Twilight began before being cut off.
"She's been completely stressed out because it's really been important to her that our big day be perfect. Something that obviously wasn't important to you!" Shining said right into Twilight's face, getting another migraine. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and comfort my bride. And you can forget about being my best mare! In fact, if I were you, I wouldn't show up for the wedding at all." Shining finished, walking out the room and mumbling angrily.
I could tell that Twilight had a change in opinion now and felt bad for what she said. She sat on the ground, defeated by what her brother just explained to her. She should've seen it a mile away.
"I kind of told you so, Twilight." I said with my arms still crossed.
Twilight didn't respond at all.
"Come on, y'all. Let's go check on the princess." Applejack suggested.
The girls then trotted past Twilight and Applejack gave a nudge on my leg as I continued to stare at Twilight.
"Let's go, Caleb."
Twilight looked at me and the girls in a way that showed that she didn't want us to leave. Princess Celestia and the two royal guards were the only ones left in the room and Twilight tried to apologize, but to no avail.
"You have a lot to think about." Celestia said.
Twilight looked devastated after what Princess Celestia just said to her. Aside from the others, Spike and I looked back at her the most, but we eventually turned our backs to Twilight and followed the rest. With that, the doors slammed shut, leaving Twilight all by herself to think about her actions.
"Dang it, Twilight." I mumbled.
"Do not worry. She will learn, now that she has time to think about what she said." Celestia said.
"I know, Princess Celestia. I just didn't think Twilight would take this evil thing this far." I said.
"It was a childish delusion on her part, but we can now only hope that she'll learn from the mistake." Celestia said.
Everypony continued to walk to the end of the hallway while my thoughts dwelled on Twilight. I may be big and tough, but I am a bit of a softy when it comes to people I care about. So, I managed to grab Spike while the others continued.
"We have to go back to her." I said.
"Look... I feel bad, too, but... maybe Princess Celestia's right." Spike said, sounding a little upset.
"I also agree, Spike. Look, I'm just going to check on her for a minute or so. Don't tell anypony, okay?" I said.
"Alright. I see you later, I guess. Maybe you can try and explain to her what she's done." Spike said.
"I'm pretty sure she already knows, but I'll do my best." I said.
"Okay. See ya later." Spike said.
"Later." I replied.
I then walked back down to the alter room and slowly crept up to the door. I put my ear up to the door to listen if Twilight was crying or not, but I didn't hear anything at all. And so, I slowly pushed the door open, but Twilight wasn't present in the room at all. It took me a second to register what was going on, but I became uneasy when I saw Cadance in the room, but not Twilight. Cadance wore a sinister smile across her face, my eyes locking with her evil gaze.
"Where's Twilight?" I asked Cadance, taking a slow step backwards.
Before I could make the slight decision to call for help, Cadance's horn manifested a green aura and the doors closed shut and the feeling of a heavy weight pressed down on me, too much for me to even stand upwards. I landed on my back and I was unable to get up and speak. Completely vulnerable, Cadance slowly walked up to me, her golden hoof shoes echoing throughout the room with every step until she was above me and looking down.
"You again. I should've know you would be a problem when you broke free from my spell," Cadance said in a threatening tone, followed by a low laugh. "And so, I think it would be a good time to get you out of the picture, as well."
Cadance's horn once again lit up with a dark green aura, intensely humming with magic. When Cadance stepped away from me, the feeling of heat radiated against my skin and a ring of green fire spawned from the floor and surrounded me. The feeling of the heavy weight returned and I began to sink into the red carpet and into the floor, where everything went dark. The last sight I remembered was Cadance walking away and out of the room.
I senses were beginning to return to me. I was somewhere cold and quiet. When I opened up my eyes, it was still dark, pitch black. I couldn't even see my own hands in front of me. From what I felt, I was laying of rock. Slowly, I rose onto my knees and placed my hands on the ground to feel around for any possible hazards. While crawling in a single direction, my head bumped up against glass or something that felt like glass.
"Where am I?" I asked myself before having common sense and began calling for help.
When I shouted for help, my voice resonated off the walls of the room. Where ever I was, I was securely confined. As I continued to call out for help, I heard something that sent a chill up my spine; the sound of someone mumbling on the other end of the room. It was a feminine voice.
"Huh? Who that?!" I exclaimed, uneasiness building up inside me.
Silence filled the room for a minute until I heard rocks shuffle on the other side of the room. I was now up against the wall.
"Stay away from me." I said to the voice.
"No!" Princess Cadance's voice screamed from behind, the sudden loud voice prompting me to run to the other side, but only met with her evil cackle on the other side, which sent me running to a random section of the room.
But without warning, a sharp, poking pain prodded me in my right side and I quickly retracted away. I had just stabbed myself, but it wasn't enough force to penetrate the skin since I didn't feel any blood underneath my shirt.
"Ugh, so close." Cadance's voice said from above.
"You let me out of here right now!" I shouted, but still hesitant.
"That's not going to happen. You see, you and Twilight already know too much about me. Quite funny, if you think about it. You even witnessed my true form last night and you just brushed it off as a dream. How painstakingly foolish of you." Cadance said, followed by another evil laugh. "But now, this cave will become your tomb once the effects of malnourishment take place! Twilight got lucky, but you are not so fortunate. Nopony will ever find you in here."
At this point, I was scared. I was afraid that Cadance was right about my situation. A situation that felt hopeless and the kind that makes you want cry, but you're distressed to even do so.
"Enjoy your four day stay, human." Cadance said before the voices stopped and everything was quiet again.
Even though I was fearful for my well-being, I knew that I needed to figure a way out.
"No. There's gotta be a way out. It's a room for crying out loud." I assured to myself.
When I looked down to my feet, I saw a glowing blue star and tiny blue eyes staring up at me. From what I remember, these are simply called Star Spiders, fairly big, and are harmless. The spider looked up at me and began to scurry away to one of the ends of the room. It then scaled up something that was rounded, paused to look at me one more time, and disappeared.
"What?"
When I went to exact spot where the spider disappeared, I felt a giant boulder and boulders stacked on top of each other. It took me a minute or so to figure out that this was a blockage of boulders. Maybe even a blockage to a possible exit.
"Could it be?"
Judging by the size of these boulders, they had to be hundreds of pounds, maybe up to a thousand. But I didn't care. With that potion that Zecora whipped up, I was willing to give it a shot on moving them. And so, I placed both hands on one of the boulders wedged in the middle of the blockage and tugged as hard. And miraculously, I felt it move a little as the boulder began to grind against the others. To give more support, I raised my right leg up, placed it on the blockage and pushed to help with the pulling power.
"C'mon! C'mon!" I grunted.
I then began to get angry at the rocks and started grunting loudly throughout the room until the one boulder came loose, causing me to fall on my back and flinging the boulder backwards. The tall blockage of boulder came rolling down and I moved out of the way just in time from being crushed. Once the boulders settled, I slowly rose back on my feet and peered into the opening and the shine of light pierced through the smallest opening of the exit. I was so grateful at that moment.
"Ahahahaha!" I laughed with joy.
At that moment, I started grabbing boulders, raising them overhead and chucking them at the thin boulder blockage until it collapsed, filling the room with light. And with light, I was able to see that the room was filled with pointed crystal's, which could've easily impaled me if I didn't have the quick reactions that I had. I then emerged out of my cave imprisoment and looked around. The crystals on the walls of the large, open cave gave off light in some sort of way, but I'll take any light source.
"Look's like I gotta find my way out of this cave."
I finally left the secluded room and proceeded down the tunnel that was nearly chock-full of white, shining crystals, the amount decreasing as I walked even further down.
Near the end of the tunnel, there was a winding right turn into another room, but this was a huge grotto. The ceiling had to of went up at least one hundred feet or so and was pitch black because no crystals were up there. To my right was a destroyed rock formatted path attached to the side wall, leading to the other side and that is where I needed to be. The only other way over to the other side was to cross a bridge, a bridge that was also rock formatted and spans across an abyss. If I were to slip, it would've been a long way down.
It took me a moment to build up some courage, but I crossed. Crossing this bridge wasn't easy because it would become more narrow the farther I went out and being over seven feet tall can make depth perception more freaky, but everything went more smoothly when I thought of the idea to span both my arms outwards to help balance me out.
Once I crossed the harrowing abyss, I was faced with a wall, but the side wall path was still available to climb up and walk on. I had no idea where I was going or where this mysterious path would take me, but I was taking my chances. So, I leaped upwards and pulled myself up onto the path and continued on its intended path, but it was short-lived when I was faced with another nearly pitch black cave, where the path seems to of broken off.
"Why am I standing so close to the edge?" I asked myself, stepping away from the edge.
I said I was taking chances, but I didn't want to take too many. I thought for moment on how I can ensure my safety on entering the room because I had no idea if there was a drop-off or not. Thankfully, I remembered that there was an abundance of glowing crystals back in that tunnel back in that tunnel. And so, I backtracked myself to the tunnel, kicked about ten crystals until they broke off and used those as makeshift flares to light my way. Once again, I walked up to the entrance of the new cave and dropped one of the crystals off the ledge. To my relieve, the crystal landed in shallow water and with a faint cling.
"Good."
I then jumped down into the water with a splash and collected the crystal. I took one of the crystals and held it out while I took another and tossed it in front of me and a few others around the room. The seventh crystal I tossed revealed a structure. I was surprised to see a structure so deep in this cave. It was rather simplistic; four metal support beams on each side, a wooden, flat roof with a couple of boxes and a chair on top and a set of wooden stairs that were decrepit from water damage and aged wood. As I inspected the ground, I noticed a track that led off into a dark tunnel and followed that. Along the way, I came across a mine cart that sat on the track, all rusted up and everything. This lead me to believe that I was in some sort of mine, or what was left of it.
Finally, after a while, I arrived at the other side of the cave. But guess what? I entered another huge open room... Frustrated, I let out a sigh and inspected the open area. I then heard a loud crash from above and saw two colored figures floating way up above me. Out of all things, I realized instantly that it was Twilight, from the purple coat, and, for some reason, Princess Cadance was with her.
"Hey!" I shouted.
From the distance, Twilight and Cadance immediately noticed my voice and Cadance changed her direction of flight down towards me. I backed up a little bit and Cadance landed with a smooth landing while Twilight hopped off her.
"So, what's the big idea here? You two friends now or something? What's going on?" I demanded.
"Look, this may seem weird, but... this is the real Princess Cadance." Twilight said.
"That's impossible. There is only one Cadance and she sent me and you down here. Have you put a spell on Twilight, huh?!" I asked Cadance, clenching and unclenching my fists.
There was a silence before Cadance walked up to me.
"I know this is just so confusing to you, but that Cadance up there is not me at all, it's an imitation." Cadance said.
"What? H-how exactly is that an imitation of you? And how do I know you're not making this up?" I asked.
"That imitation up there is a Changeling; a creature that can take the form of someone you love. And look at me, I've been trapped down here for days." Cadance said.
I looked at Cadance and just then realized how messy her mane was and how many scuff marks and tiny scabs covered her body, mostly her legs.
"Okay.... then how come I've never heard about these Changelings?" I asked.
"They've haven't show themselves in years, but you've gotta believe me. Look, I wish I could explain everything to you and meet you properly, but we really don't have much time! We must to get out of here and get to the wedding alter before we are too late!" Cadance said with haste.
It then hit me on how dire the situation was for both Shining Armor and Cadance. Who knows what would happen if Shining Armor were to marry that thing. Plus, it was 12:01, just one minute past the starting time of the wedding, so I was out for a while.
"Okay. Okay! I believe you... Princess Cadance." I said, accepting what I just heard and smiling at her.
Cadance managed to beam, but I could still see the worry in her eyes.
"Now we must escape before it's too late. Here, both of you grab on and I'll fly us back to the top." Cadance said.
"Won't I be too much weight?" I asked.
"Being an alicorn has its perks. Don't worry, you'll be light as a feather." Cadance assured.
"Alright then." I said, grabbing onto her hind leg, causing her to look back at me.
"That works." Cadance said.
Cadance then flapped her wings forcefully and began to lift off the ground. Soon enough, we made it to the top. Well, I had my eyes closed, so it was fast. Once back on the surface, we were met with a blockage of gigantic boulders.
"No, no! It's blocked!" Cadance said frantically as she tried push the boulders out of the way.
I myself tried to push them as well, but these had to be thousands of pounds. Sucks that I still have limits.
"They're too heavy." I grunted.
"Oh, we're never going to save him." Cadance said, sounding hopeless.
"We will. We just have to find... There!" Twilight exclaimed.
Cadance and I both turned our heads to where Twilight pointed out and near the ceiling was a sliver of daylight shining into the cave. Without wasting time, Twilight teleported us to the exit. However, we were met by three mares with a pair of green glowing eyes. I noticed right off the bat that two of three were Lyra and Minuette.
"You're not going anywhere." all three said in unison
The three mares slowly approached us like zombies, causing me, Twilight, and Cadance to back up slowly to a drop-off. Cadance then levitated a bouquet of flowers that were propped up against a rock and waved it in front of the three trance induced mares, but this somehow got their attention and they completely ignored us. Cadance tossed the bouquet into the corner and the mares all shouted, "I want it!" All three of us looked at each other and shrugged before continuing onwards and climbing out, ending up in the side yard by the castle.
"Can you teleport into the castle now?" I asked.
"That I can." Twilight said with a smirk.
Us three were then teleported to the doors to the alter room that was secured by royal guards.
"Princess Mi Amore Cadenza?" the guards asked in surprise.
"Stay here. I want to prove them wrong." Twilight said.
"Go on, Twilight." I said.
Twilight then barged into the room and shouted a loud, "Stop!" The room filled with gasps before going silent.
"Ugh! Why does she have to be so possessive of her brother?" the doppelganger Cadance asked in frustration before changing her tone to a pseudo distress in order to gain sympathy. "Why does she have to ruin my special day?"
"Because it's not your special day! It's mine!" Cadance shot back, revealing herself to the whole room.
The room once again filled with more confused chattering and gasps.
"What? How did you get past my bridesmaids?" the pseudo Cadance asked.
"A pair of bridesmaids can never resist a bouquet of flowers, Chrysalis." Cadance replied.
"Hmpf. Clever. But you're still too late." Chrysalis said.
"I- I still don't understand. How can there be two of 'em?" Applejack asked.
"She's a changeling. She takes the form of somepony you love and gains power by feeding off your love for them." Cadance explained to the room of wedding guests.
With Chrysalis' cover blown, she glared with hatred at Cadance and her eyes and horn lit up with emerald, creating a ring of magical fire energy around the pseudo princess. The flames roared loudly and shot up to the ceiling and the brightness was just blinding. It only took a few seconds, but the front side of the column of fire began to fade. I'm sure I felt my stomach drop when I realized that what stood in the ring was what I saw last night; a tall, black figure with those buggy eyes staring at everyone in the room, followed by a short, sinister laugh. The changeling itself resembled an equine mixed with a bug-like appearance, around the same height as Celestia, holes littered on her legs, stringy cerulean colored hair that draped down to her front legs, a set of greenish-blue carapace armor around her abdomen, and to top it off, a tiny crown at the top of her head.
"Right you are, Princess. And as queen of the changeling, it is up to me to find food for my subject. Equestria has more love than any place I've encountered. My fellow changeling will be able to devour so much of it! That we will be able to gain more power than we ever dreamed of!" Chrysalis proclaimed as she walked right up to Cadance, now in a more evil and multi-tonal voice.
"You'll never get the chance! Shining Armor's protection spell will keep them from reaching us!" Cadance said, only gaining a chuckle out of Chrysalis.
"Oh, I doubt that. Isn't that right, dear?" Chrysalis asked a now mind-controlled Shining Armor, nodding in response.
Cadance began to run towards her fiancee, but was blocked off by Chrysalis.
"Ah-ah-ah. Don't want to go back to the caves, now do we?" Chrysalis asked, flaring her horn with her magic. "Ever since I took your place, I've been feeding off Shining Armor's love for you. Every moment he grows weaker and so does his spell. Even now, my subjects are chipping away at it.
Almost everybody looked out the window and there were hundreds of these tiny, black dots way up on the other side of the shield and ramming against it. The queen then let out another one of her evil laughs and carresed the bottom of Shining Armor's muzzle.
"He may not be my husband, but he under my total control now. And I'm sorry to say, unable to perform his duties as captain of the Royal Guard!" Chrysalis said to Cadance.
"Not my Shining Armor!" Cadance pleaded.
"Soon, my changeling army will break through. First, we take Canterlot. And then, all of Equestria!" Chrysalis boomed throughout the room, but little did she remember that an alicorn princess lingered behind her.
"No. You won't," Celestia said, prompting both her and Chrysalis to stand-off in between Shining Armor as if they were about to duel. "You may have made it impossible for Shining Armor to perform his spell, but now that you've foolishly revealed yourself, I can protect my subjects from you!"
And like that, Celestia flew herself above Chrysalis and instantaneously shot a magical, golden laser from her horn at the queen changeling while Chrysalis did the same. Both of the lasers collided with each other and absorbed each other, but Celestia had the high ground. Celestia's laser was pushing towards Chrysalis, causing the queen to flinch in fear, but that's when the unexpected happened. I don't know if Celestia went soft on Chrysalis or what, but Chrysalis' emerald laser gained momentum and impacted Celestia, creating a loud explosion and shockwave throughout the room.
"Oh crap!" I said within the horrified gasps of ponies in the room as Celestia slid across the marble floor and laid on her side in defeat.
"Princess Celestia!" Twilight cried out, running to her aid.
Heck, even the other five girls got off the alter to check up on the princess along with a bunch of other guests. I would've went to check, too, but I wanted to keep as far away from Chrysalis as possible.
"Ha! Shining Armor's love for you has made me more powerful than I thought. Consuming it has made me even more powerful than Celestia!" Chrysalis boasted to Cadance in triumph.
Within a few second later, the girls threw off their wedding dresses and booked it to the door.
"Where are you going?" I asked Twilight.
"We gotta get the Elements of Harmony in order to defeat Chrysalis. Come on!" Twilight said.
"No, go on! I'll be all right!" I insisted.
"But..." Twilight paused, staring at me and at Spike, who was still at the alter.
"You don't have much time, Twilight!" I reminded her.
"Those bugs will be breaking through at any moment, Twi." Rainbow Dash said.
"Fine. But promise me that you'll take no unnecessary risks." Twilight said.
"I'll do my best. Now go!" I said.
With that, Twilight and the girls sprinted down the hallway and turned the corner. My attention was brought back to the front when Chrysalis began to do her evil laugh again.
"You can run, but you can't hide! Now that I think about it, I believe I could go for a small snack at the moment." Chrysalis said, grinning and bearing her teeth.
All the guests screamed and ran for the exit, nearly trampling me over. Chrysalis then randomly picked an earth pony couple and levitated them up to her.
"How about you two? I'm supposing you both love each other dearly?" Chrysalis asked.
"Let us go!" the husband shouted to the queen.
"Mmmm, nope! Just be quiet while drain both of your love, please." Chrysalis said.
Queen Chrysalis' iris and slit pupil creepily shrunk and she opened up her mouth, her forked tongue lolling to the side. A purple mist of love then seeped out of the chest of the stallion and into Chrysalis' mouth as she consumed his love for his wife. The stallion groaned in distress and squinted his eyes.
"Stop! You're hurting him!" the mare cried to Chrysalis
Chrysalis ignored the mares pleas and began to consume the mares love alongside the stallion. Anger built up inside me and I worked up the courage to walk towards Queen Chrysalis, but Cadance stopped me.
"You need to find a safe place, Caleb. Even if you were to face the queen, you would be no match to such a powerful being." Cadance said.
"But what about Spike and Shining Armor?" I asked.
"I'm going to stay with them. I'm not leaving them behind. Just go and stay safe, Caleb." Cadance said.
Chrysalis' eyes then locked onto me and she paused for a brief moment.
"Are you wanting to be a meal or something, Caleb Barlow?" Chrysalis asked me.
"Run!" Cadance shouted.
I took the advice and sprinted to the door and down the hall, trying not to look back. When I did, I was relived to see that Chrysalis was not following, but I felt bad for leaving since Spike is so defenseless. I hoped to God he was okay.
When I reached exit, the spherical shield that protected Canterlot from any all out attack had shattered. The entire capital was now vulnerable and hundreds of changelings descended upon the city and a large swarm was heading for the castle and any guests out in the open, including me. As I looked up, a swarm of ten spotted me and shot down towards me like and missiles and landed right in front of me, leaving a dent in the grass. Like the other changelings, these were shorter and had glowing blue eyes. The changeling let out a threatening hiss, bearing its sharp fangs and wriggling its forked tongue
"I thought the queen said there were only ponies in this city." one changeling said in a nasally voice.
"Who cares? There must be so much love inside a creature of this size." the lead changeling said.
The lead changeling then leaped towards me with another loud hiss, but before he could even tackle me, I had brought my leg up and back before giving the changeling a kick in the face, sending it back into the other nine changelings and knocked them over like bowling pins.
"Woah..." I said, amazed at myself.
As they all laid on the grass and slowly rose back up, I took the state of the situation and ran away from the area until I got into the city, hoping to find a building to hide inside. Changelings and ponies were littered throughout the streets. Ponies were running from changelings while the changelings chased the ponies. There was a few times where I just to stop and help out ponies that were pinned down by changelings or that were already getting fed off of. But... there was one situation that I'll probably never forget about.
Before I could head towards a building that I thought would a good place to hold out, I heard this scream that stood out from the rest of the crowd. It was a unicorn family that was cornered in a shady alley by four changelings. I couldn't just leave the parents and the little colt like that, so I just jumped into action went into the alley to help out. I came up from behind one of the changelings and it flew upwards a little bit, so I jumped up and firckin' dropped-kicked it into the wall. It groaned for a second before lying still, knocked-out, of course. The three other changelings hissed in response and one of the three charged at me and tried to bite my arm, but I was quick enough to grab its head and slammed my knee into its forehead, knocking it out as well. With two left, another quickly flew towards me, but I side-stepped and directed its flight to the ground, causing it to skid across the pavement. The last one didn't put up much of a fight and simply flew away from the area.
"Thank you, Caleb Barlow!" the mare thanked.
"Yeah! That was wicked cool! You went into them and just- pow-pow-pow!" the little colt said with excitement, getting a smile out of me from how adorable it sounded.
"No problem, guys. Now, you should get out of here before-"
"Hey, behind you!" the stallion alerted.
I quickly turned around and the last changeling was flying at a rapid speed, gritting its teeth in rage. I don't know what happened, but I instinctually clenched my fist and punched it as hard as it could as it closed into me at a high speed, clonking it in the side of the muzzle. But that's when I heard a sickening, deep crack and the changeling landed in a real shady spot in the alley. I gritted my teeth and my eyes went wide from the sound alone, ignoring the pain in my right hand.
"Go. Get your colt out of here." I said in a daze.
The mare and the stallion then directed their son out of the alley and ran off, thanking me again. I stared at the shady spot and it was a little tough to make out the changeling from its black skin, the blue eyes only showing where it lied. I wasn't sure, but I was scared that I did more than just knocking it out.
"Is it dead?" I asked myself, inching towards the changeling.
But after I asked myself that question, the sound of buzzing came from above and their about thirty changelings all staring down at me, but not in anger or hostility, but curiosity, and they were sniffing, too.
"Pheromones." I thought to myself.
Staring upwards, I noticed a larger figure approaching from above and landed twenty feet away from me. It was Queen Chrysalis. She sniffed and stared over me, looking in the shady area where the changeling had landed. She had a look of concern at first, but changed to anger when she looked at me.
"Get out of my way, human." she growled, tossing me behind her with her telekinesis.
I landed on the pavement and watched Chrysalis walk up to the changeling before stopping and staring at it. There was a few seconds of buzzing before she looked at me with anger once again.
"Do you think I find this acceptable?" Chrysalis asked, staring at me in the eyes with a fire.
"F-- find what acceptable?" I stuttered
"You know what I mean! Do you think I find the slaughter of my subjects to be considered even close as acceptable to me?!" Chrysalis boomed, levitating the deceased changeling in front of me to see what I had done.
The changeling's tongue lolled out of its mouth, the neck was visibly broken, and light green blood dribbled out of its right nostril and onto the pavement. I was shocked at that moment. I had no idea my strength was that powerful. After showing the body, Queen Chrysalis ever so gently set the body to her left and glared at me.
"I'm so sorry." I genuinely apologized. "I didn't mean to do that to him."
"Then why did you do it, Caleb Barlow? How did you not mean to kill Larynx?" Chrysalis demanded.
"I said I was sorry! But your subjects were terrorizing a family and I did what I had to do!" I shouted back.
"Oh, I so have plans for now, Caleb Barlow. You're going to wish you hadn't of done that." Chrysalis said, approaching me and lighting up her horn.
I didn't know what to do at that moment of fight or flight. And so, I chose to try and punch Queen Chrysalis in the face as well, but she instantly caught my fist with her magic.
"No! I will have none of this!" Chrysalis yelled, tackling me to the ground and sinking her fangs near my collar bone.
I gritted my teeth and grunted in pain as she bit down hard, injecting some liquid inside of me that slightly tingled. She then let go and spat some of my own blood out of her mouth.
"I never really did like the taste of bitterness." Chrysalis remarked.
I looked at my wound and it began to close up, leaving a little blood stain on my shirt.
"Go on. Run away." Chrysalis prompted.
I then rose up to my feet and ran away, but that's when my legs gave out and I landed smack on the pavement again, unable to move at all. Chrysalis' shadow casted in front of me as she stood above me and slightly chuckled.
"Temporary paralysis," she said into my ear, my hearing beginning to fade and everything going dark. "Take him back to my new lair."
At the moment of my consciousness beginning to come back, I was still unable to move and open my eyes. The only senses I really had from that point was my hearing and scent. The sound of quiet buzzing filled my ears while an unpleasant smell went into my nose. But after a short while longer, I was finally able to every so slowly open my eyelids to see where I was. My head was still stuck in a drooping position, but I was able to move my neck a little bit. As I wearily looked, a hard, green, gluey substance encased over my abdomen, wrists and ankles against a pillar inside the alter room about ten feet up. I was pretty much still immobile aside from the paralysis.
Many more minutes passed before I was able to lift my head up more, but when I did, I was met by a changeling in armor that was face-to-face with me. Still dizzy from waking up, my vision was a bit blurred and I slightly rolled my neck. But that's when I found out that the feeling in my face was back when the changeling slapped its hoof against my left cheek.
"Wake up, human." the changeling snarled in high-pitched nasally voice.
Another changeling buzzed up in front of me. "Why did you bring the human here?"
"Because the queen demanded it," the armored changeling replied before looking at me again. "You've been a bad human, and now our queen is not happy with you." the changeling said.
"Oh, no. I just loaded my pants." I said, mockingly.
"Maybe not yet, but you will. Now, tell me, how much love is inside you?" the changeling asked.
"Errr, I don't know. I don't regularly check." I replied.
I knew I had lots of love inside me. The love for my new friends in Equestria and the love for my old friends and family back on Earth were all stored inside me.
"That's not a good enough answer. I want the truth. Speak!" the changeling snapped.
"Okay, okay, I'll tell the truth. Your queen likes it up the flank. What exactly do you want me to tell you, huh?" I replied.
A few changelings in the corner of the room began snickering to what I said, which was not good at all, for my sake.
"Who laughed at that?" Chrysalis questioned out loud as she finished wrapping Celestia in a cocoon, scanning the room.
"Daw crap." I thought to myself.
She then stared at the guilty pair of changelings in the corner of the room and flew over towards them, landing a few feet away.
"Do you find that insult funny?" Chrysalis asked the three changelings.
"We're sorry, my queen." one apologized.
"Good. Don't ever laugh at a comment that is meant to slander my name ever again." Chrysalis said, swiftly turning her head away and flying upwards.
"Ye-- yes, my queen." the changeling said, looking down in shame.
I looked at Chrysalis nervously as she hovered in front of me, giving me the evil eye. Without warning, she delivered a painful slap to my left cheek, followed by another straight onto my nose, causing a profuse nose bleed. "Owww, auughh!" I shouted from the pain.
Chrysalis then crawled up the pillar and placed her head next mine as I drooped my head downwards.
"Such a humorous insult you came up with," the queen hissed into my ear. "Do you think you're so funny and smart?"
"No! I'm cocooned to a pillar with no means to defend myself while some bug beats me, so no, I'm not smart and funny." I said in submission.
"That's what I wanted to hear." Chrysalis said, now grinning wickedly.
"Just leave him alone, Chrysalis!" Cadance shouted.
Chrysalis then leaped off the pillar and landed right in front of Cadance, getting all up in her face. "I would advise that you keep your big mouth shut before I personally shut it myself."
Spike, who had his feet glued to the floor, looked at Cadance and audibly gulped. Shining Armor stood beside them like a zombie, his eyes still green from the mind control. Things were not looking good at the moment. And also at that moment, I began to think about my actions. Not just on what happened to Larynx, but my insult to Chrysalis.
"Just stop being such an asshole. She's kept you alive for this long even after you basically killed a family member." I thought to myself before sighing. "Look. Queen Chrysalis." I said.
Chrysalis slowly turned her head while slowly opening up her eyes to cast a glare towards me. Spike frantically gave me hand signals that screamed "Stop what you're doing!"
"What do you want?" Chrysalis asked.
"I...." I began before staring at her, afraid I would receive further punishment just from speaking to her.
She then buzzed up and hovered in front of me. "Spit it out."
"I know this isn't to gain anything out of me, but I really want to let you know how sorry I am for Larynx." I said.
"Aaaaannnnd?" Chrysalis droned on with her multi-tonal voice going up.
"And.. and I'm also sorry for the insult to your name. Look, I don't mean to do what I do. I was acting on self-defense out there. I realize that the changelings are your family, and I never intended to take that away from you." I said.
"Oh, how sweet of you to say that. I would let you down, but I promised a meal for my subjects. And I'd prefer that you'd be immobile." Chrysalis said with sinister grin.
A large group of changelings began to congregate at the base of the pillar and were hungrily flicking their tongues.
"Now, they're going to feed off your love until there is nothing but emptiness left inside! Well, either that or you'll slip into unconsciousness." Chrysalis said, filling me with fear.
"C'mon, Chrysalis, have mercy!" I begged.
Chrysalis didn't respond and signaled the changelings to begin their feast. All of them began to slowly climb their way up the pillar, hissing and drooling at the same time.
"You won't get away with this! Twilight and her friends will put a stop to you once they get the elements!" Cadance said.
Jus then, Twilight and the others burst through the door, but it appeared that they didn't get the elements at all, they were captured by a battalion of changelings.
"Oh really?" Chrysalis said, cocking her head before allowing the changelings to leave the room and feed.
The group of changelings had reached me by then and one began to feed on me. The unpleasant feeling of manifested love seeping out of my chest felt terrible. It wasn't painful, but a very, very uncomfortable feeling. However, the changeling paused the feeding and I coughed violently.
"How does he taste?" one of the changelings asked.
"He's delicious! I've never tasted love this good before." the changeling replied.
That was enough for the remaining nine changelings to begin feeding on me, as well. This is when being fed on started to hurt. I grunted as my heart started pounding against my chest. Not literal, but it was pumping. My vision was darkened once the changelings piled over me as they all fed like I was their last meal.
"Just hold on, Caleb!" I heard Twilight yell, but very muffled. Not from not being dog-piled, but because I was starting to feel light-headed.
Black spots started popping up in my vision and I just felt like I wanted to pass out, which is what I must've did because that's all I remember from that point. And that was the last thing I remember from the Canterlot Invasion, and the very last time I saw Queen Chrysalis and the Changelings, the very last time.
"Uh, great. Where am I waking up now?" I said when I woke up again, but keeping my eyes closed as I rubbed them and ruffled my hair.
Fortunately, I was relieved to see that I was lying in my upstairs bedroom in the Golden Oak Library with the shades wide open. Twilight most likely left those open for me whenever I woke up. I then got out of bed and went downstairs to see if Twilight and Spike were still here, and sure enough, they were.
"You're up!" Twilight said, gleefully.
"Welcome back to the world, Caleb!" Spike said.
"Thanks guys. How long was I out?" I asked.
"You were unconscious for about seven days." Twilight replied.
"You guys don't sound worried that I was out for seven days." I said.
"Believe me, Caleb, we were so worried about you at first, but we knew that you would wake up soon." Twilight said.
"Oh, okay. But seven days?" I asked.
"Yeah. You looked pretty bad when we brought you down from that pillar." Spike said.
"Well, what happened to me in order for me to pass out for that many days? Was it from that changeling feeding? Because that's the last thing I remember." I asked, pulling out a chair from the kitchen and sitting down.
"That's exactly what caused it. Apparently, the changelings drained every ounce of love that was inside you." Twilight began.
"But I got it back. I mean... I feel pretty good right now, so I have it now. Right?" I said.
"Yes." Twilight replied.
"Oh, good. And what about those changelings?" I said.
"They're all gone now. While Queen Chrysalis was distracted, I was able to free Cadance and she managed to break my brother from his mind-control trance spell." Twilight said.
"Man, it had to be one big fight in order to get rid of all the changelings without the Elements of Harmony." I said.
"Actually, there wasn't really much of a fight. They were defeated by the power of love." Twilight said.
"The power of love?" I asked.
"I know it may sound a bit cliché, but that's what happened. When Princess Cadance's horn made contact with Shining Armor's, which is a sign of love for unicorns incase you didn't know, it gave both of them enough strength to conjure up a repellent spell that basically threw all of the changelings out of Canterlot, including their queen." Twilight said.
"It's pretty ironic if you think about it, too." Spike said.
"Yeah, that's right, since they need love in order to feed. But still, look's like the day is saved once again. Nightmare Moon, Discord, Changelings, what's next?" I said.
"Oh, it's all part in being connected to the Elements of Harmony. But as I was saying, once the changelings were banished, everypony in Canterlot who lost their love to the changelings was restored. But for some reason, yours wasn't, Caleb." Twilight explained.
I jerked my head back a little bit. "Why not?"
"We don't exactly know why, but my best guess is because you yourself are not a pony..." Twilight said.
I took a few seconds on how I should respond to what she said.
"Could you explain this? I get that I'm not a pony, but I'm actually a little curious on how my love wasn't restored." I said.
"Sure. You see, every pony in Equestria is born with their own type of magic and it applies to all races. Earth ponies are know to be strong, Pegasus ponies can fly at incredible speeds, and Unicorn ponies are given the gift of a horn that allow a variety of magical feats, but you probably already knew this." Twilight said.
"I know about the races and everything. Continue." I said.
"Right. So there's all that kind of magic, but love is also a magic that resides and stores up inside ponies. You, on the other hand, were born from a specie that is absent of magic. And so, when the changelings drained your love, that was that and it was all gone. However, the love that was drained from ponies was instantly given back to them since it was a part of them." Twilight explained.
"Oh, okay, I get it. So, the love inside me was not magical, but more of an emotional figment in my mind." I said.
"Maybe that explains why that one changeling said that you were 'delicious.'" Spike brought up.
"Probably. Maybe emotional love tastes better than magical-emotional love. Then, how did I regain my love?" I said.
"Well, I don't know how you'll feel about this, but Princess Cadance regained your love for you. While you were out and she found out that your love was completely drained, she casted a spell on you that not only brought your love back, but it's now magical love. So now, you have love that is just like us ponies!" Twilight said.
"No way..." I said, unable to figure on what I think of to this big change.
"It's true. You have the love of a pony now." Spike supported.
"How did she do that? Was it like a... Oh wait, she's an alicorn and the princess of love." I said, dumbfounded.
"Kinda forgot about that fact for a second there, didn't ya'?" Twilight said.
"Yep," I replied. "But still, I'm grateful for what Cadance did to me. Who knows, I'd probably hate both of you if I didn't get my love back." I said.
"And you wouldn't be able to feel love for your other friends, too. That wouldn't be a good thing at all." Spike said.
"And, if your love were to ever be stolen again, it can be regained, as well." Twilight added.
"Sounds pretty good. And there's no side effects?" I asked.
"None at all. There's nothing to worry about." Twilight assured.
"Nice. Sooo, what have I missed over the seven days?" I asked.
"The wedding?" Twilight reminded.
"Oh, right. I missed the wedding. And that sucks because I really wanted to get down and party after the ceremony." I said.
"I know. I'm sorry about that." Twilight said.
"Was it fun, at least?" I asked.
"You bet it was! There was a dance party for the bride, groom, and guests. And might I add that the food was delicious." Spike said.
"And I also sang a little song that I came up with when it was the bride and groom's dance. It was called 'Love Is In Bloom'." Twilight said.
"That's was sweet of you. Y'know, I never ever thought you were such a good singer. You should become a singer, Twilight." I said.
"Singing is one of my many talents, but it can never beat my passion on studying magic and the magic of friendship." Twilight said.
"You got that right, Twilight." Spike said.
My stomach then growled from not having anything to eat over seven days. God, I'm so glad that my digestive tract is still doing good.
"Hungry?" Twilight asked.
"Yes, please, Twilight, it's been seven days." I replied.
"What would you like? I can get it for you." Spike asked.
"Ummm.... you have any more of the Celestial Ray's?." I said.
"Yeah, we got a new box in the pantry." Spike replied, heading for the kitchen.
"Thanks, Spike." I called out.
Incase you're wondering, Celestial Ray's consist of blue colored corn flakes with bright yellow sun shaped marshmallows with the rays and everything. The cereal box is always cool to look at, to be honest. It's a nicely illustrated drawing of Celestia smiling with the sun shining behind her and levitating a bowl of the cereal.
"Twilight, you put the cereal box too high up! You know I'm short." Spike complained from the kitchen.
"Excuse me for a moment." Twilight said.
As I sat alone in the library, I randomly remembered about Larynx, the changeling that was killed in the invasion. Like I said before, I didn't mean to intentionally kill him. At the time, I was debating with that action and what it makes me, but it was interrupted when Twilight and Spike returned with my cereal.
"Caleb." Spike said, getting my attention and handing me a bowl of Celestial Ray's.
"Oh, thanks." I said.
"Were you okay there, Caleb?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah, I'm okay. Why?" I said while chowing down on my cereal.
"You were kinda doing a thousand yard stare at the floor." Twilight said.
"I spaced out.... I, uh, do it most of the time when I'm still waking up." I said.
"Oh, of course. Spike does the same thing too, now that I think about it." Twilight said.
"I do?" Spike asked.
"Mm-hmm. But judging on how you replied, you probably don't even notice it." Twilight said.
"The more I know." Spike said.
"So, what do we have planned today? Fight off another invasion?" I joked.
"Actually, I was planning on all three of us to go out and do something once you woke up." Twilight said.
"Yeah, that'll be great!" I agreed.
"Good. We'll let you eat first before we discuss on what to do for the day. And, you shouldn't jinx Equestria like that." Twilight joked, as well.
"Nah, we'll be all right. I mean, with the Elements of Harmony, you can pretty much banish or imprison any evil-doer." I said.
"That is correct, but that is if I, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie, and Rainbow Dash are able to get to them first in order to wield them." Twilight said.
"Right," I agreed. "Oh, and I have to take a drive into the Everfree later on, too."
"Another one of your Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday drives into the Everfree?" Spike asked.
It was a nice, sunny day in Canterlot. I walked down one of streets in the fine dining area, but something wasn't right. Usually, this area is bustling with ponies both average and rich, it was rare for this to happen. I casually looked through one of the windows of the nearest restaurant and there was actually a few ponies inside, but not as many as I was expecting. I also wasn't expecting the ponies to not look at me at all, since I stand out pretty good. It was almost as if I wasn't standing outside by the window at all.
I then turned away from the window and realized something odd. On the other side of the street was a shady alley, not sketchy looking, but very dimmed.
"I didn't see that there before. Must've missed it." I thought in my head.
I stared down the the dark alley for a few seconds, it reminded me of what happened to Larynx. Slowly, I walked to the entrance and looked into it, squinting my eyes. When I squinted my eyes, I could see something with much more darker shade on the ground, causing me to quickly scan my surroundings.
"That can't be Larynx... This isn't even the right alley." I said to myself.
Wasting no time, I walked at a fast pace down the alley until I reached the end where the object lied. I crouched down a little to get a better look, hoping it was a full trash bag, but it wasn't, it was Larynx, now with skeletal remains protruding out of his decomposed flesh.
"Oh, my god, they didn't even clean him out of here!" I exclaimed, followed by a coughing fit. I thought I was all by myself in the alley, but... apparently I wasn't.
"You killed him." a female voice said from behind me.
"Oh, shit." I mumbled to myself in both fear and shock.
Behind me stood an entire crowd of ponies that stretched all the way down to the end of the alley, mostly including everybody I've met in this world. Every single one of their eyes stared up at me while glaring at the same time. I was still in a state of shock from all of this before I could even utter a single word.
"No, please, you have to understand--" I frantically tried to explain before I stopped and flinched to all the yelling directed towards me, involving only two words.
"Killer! Murderer! Killer! Killer! Murderer! Murderer! Killer! Murderer! Killer! Killer!" all the ponies screamed at me.
I couldn't speak at all. I could only take the slanders and feel the awful feeling of shame and guilt. They had me backing up to the wall before I came to a halt in front of Larynx.
"You murderer!" Twilight shouted from behind with the other five girls and Spike, all looking distraught and betrayed.
"No! I'm sorry!" I replied, almost on the verge of tears and my voice beginning to break.
But just then, everybody's yelling came to a stop and they all froze in place, leaving nothing but absolute dead silence. I sniffled a little bit before I noticed something in the sky. The silhouette of an alicorn descended from the sky and closed in on the alley. Within an instant, the crowd of ponies, Larynx, and my friends vanished from existence, leaving me all by myself in the alley. With that, Princess Luna landed softly in front of me.
"A warm hello to you, Caleb Barlow, even though this is a relatively grim and dark nightmare you appear to be having." Luna greeted.
"A nightmare?" I quivered.
"Yes. Have you forgotten? It is my duty to watch over the dreams of everypony in Equestria, even yours." Princess Luna replied.
"Oh... Uh, yes." I replied.
"Now come. Let me take you away from here and go someplace that's more like home." Princess Luna said before she offered her hoof for me to grasp.
Once I grasped her hoof, there was a big flash and both of us were transported to the Golden Oak Library, but still in the dreamscape. The entire library was pitch black at first, but Princess Luna illuminated a good section of the interior with the blue glow of her horns aura.
"Are we alone here?" I asked.
"Yes. Your dream is now under my complete control for the time being. Thus, we are the only ones here." Luna replied.
"Oh." I said, sitting down on a chair.
"I must say that your dream is rather unique in all my time in the dreamscape. Judging on what I've just witnessed, your thoughts dwell on death, fear, and the act of murder. Why is that?" Luna asked in a calm manner.
"I..." I began, followed by a sigh. "I just don't know if I can tell you."
"Please, you must. Be aware that I am here to not only take you away from your nightmare, but to also provide guidance for you. I can easily tell something is bothering you, so please, tell me." Luna assured.
"Okay. So, you know about the whole changeling invasion in Canterlot about a week ago?" I asked.
"Aye, I remember the invasion." Luna replied.
"Well, you see, I was running around the streets of Canterlot at the time the invasion started and I was pretty much trying to help out anypony that I could, and I noticed this family pinned down in the alley. I managed to save them and knock out most of the changelings, but one came back for more and I, well, killed him. But it was an accident, completely unintentional. All I wanted to do was to rough him up a bit." I explained.
"I see. And this does not make your murderer by all means, Caleb Barlow. But I feel that this is not entirely what's bothering you and fueling your nightmare. Isn't it?" Luna said.
"Yeah. You're pretty much right. I also feel guilty for what I did even though it was unintentional. Those smaller changelings were basically the queen's family and her expressions and actions based on what I did really showed. But aside of that, I'm really afraid that Twilight and my friends will find out about Larynx and think less of me, or fear me for what I did." I explained.
"I can understand what you're going through, Caleb Barlow. Even I to this day still feel the agonizing guilt of all the suffering I brought to Equestria as Nightmare Moon those long, long years ago." Luna said.
"How did you get past the way ponies labeled you once you were broken from being Nightmare Moon?" I asked.
"It took time to regain the trust of the citizen's of Equestria, but the more I showed that I wasn't as bad as I was labeled, things got a lot better. However, my situation was completely different from your current situation." Luna said.
"Right. So, what should I do? Should I tell somepony? Like, Twilight?" I said while looking at Princess Luna into the eyes.
"That is entirely up to you. If you want to tell somepony about this, then it's best to tell Twilight Sparkle." Luna said.
"You sure?" I asked.
"I'm sure of it. Although the topic and act of murder is extremely rare in Equestria, she'll be able to listen in on your story. Twilight is a very understanding mare and supportive to others in dire situations. And Caleb, do not let your fears get the best of you. Nopony will think worse of thee." Luna said.
"Thanks." I said. "I actually feel more assured and comfortable, thanks to you." I said.
"It is no trouble at all, Caleb Barlow. Do you have any other possible questions on your mind that I could answer for you?" Luna asked.
"No, I'm good for now. You've got a lot dreams to look after for the rest of the night, so I should let carry on." I said.
"I would, but the night is near its end. I will have to lower the moon shortly to make way for my sister's sunrise." Luna said.
"Oh, then I guess I'll just get out of bed once you leave." I said.
"Very well, then. I will see you another time." Luna said before turning away and heading for the door.
"And hey, good job getting better at your speaking." I complimented.
"I beg your pardon?" Luna asked.
"Y'know, your use of the words 'thou' and all those old words seemed to of gone down a little since the last time I spoke to you." I explained.
"Oh, yes. I thought it would probably be best to get with the modern times and ditch the archaic words of the past." Luna said.
"Well, keep up with it, Princess Luna." I said.
"I will. Farewell for now, Caleb Barlow." Luna said as she opened the door.
"Bye." I said.
Princess Luna then exited the library and I opened up my eyes to reality right as she closed the door. It was now five-forty in the morning, so I decided to go with my word to Princess Luna and get up early, even earlier than Twilight. I kinda wondered how she'll react to that.
I sat with Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash at the Canterlot train station platform waiting for Twilight and Spike to return from this so-called test that Twilight had to do. Apparently, Princess Celestia sent Twilight a letter early this morning and it stated that it was urgent that she'd get up to Canterlot as soon as possible to be given an assigned test. And with Twilight Sparkle being Twilight Sparkle, she freaked out and made a big deal about the whole thing. She was scrambling through her books and papers just because she had no idea what her test was going to be on. It was a mess.
"I sure hope that Twilight passes her test. She didn't really have any time to prepare for it at all." Fluttershy said.
"Oh, don't worry about her, Fluttershy. Twilight pretty much knows everything. She'll be able to pass." Pinkie said.
"Now, we don't exactly know that. It could something new for her, y'know." Applejack said.
"Like something super secret and something that nopony has ever heard of?" Pinkie asked.
"Possibly, but who knows. We'll just have to wait and see what Twilight has to say when she gets back." Applejack said.
"I don't know. It's taking her a little bit more longer than I expected from her." Rainbow Dash said.
We all looked at each other for a moment. Everyone was curious and unsure wether Twilight was going to come back with great news or not. It took about another ten minutes or so, but Twilight and Spike arrived at the train station to meet up with us. Her head drooped downwards in a depressive manner, so that didn't really seem like a good sign at first.
"She doesn't look too happy." I noticed.
"Shoot. She kinda does. Well, let's all just give her a warm welcome even if we get some bad news," Applejack said before she joined our friend huddle to greet Twilight. "Twilight! Uh, did you pass?"
"Are we going to celebrate your awesomeness with Princess Celestia?" Pinkie asked while setting off her party cannon that she just had to bring along with while leaping upwards.
"Not quite. We're going to the Crystal Empire!" Twilight replied.
The empire's name immediately came to mind for me while the girls all looked confused.
"Crystal what?" Rainbow asked.
"The Crystal Empire," Twilight repeated. "Princess Celestia just filled me in on the details to my actual test, and I've been tasked to assist my brother and Princess Cadance in protecting the Crystal Empire with the help of you guys." Twilight replied.
"Wow. That's a huge responsibility and task for you." Fluttershy said.
"And where exactly is the Crystal Empire at? I've never heard about it in all my life." Rarity said.
"I was expecting one of you to say that because there's not many records of the empire itself. However, Caleb did get a smidgen of information on the Crystal Empire in a history book he read a few months ago." Twilight said.
"That's right. But it only mentioned about how some dark unicorn named King Sombra put a spell on the empire that caused itself to vanish into thin air for over a thousand years. And it happened somewhere way up north in the arctic." I informed.
"Over a thousand years? Then how in Equestria did it come back?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Nopony knows. But it seems that it reappeared in the early hours last night and suspiciously on the tenth day following Shining Armor and Princess Cadance's wedding." Twilight said.
"Maybe the days follow up to a thousand. One for one-hundred, five for five-hundred, and ten for one-thousand." Pinkie theorized, which actually sounded like a legit explanation.
"You could be onto something there, Pinkie." Twilight said.
"So how far away is it?" I asked.
"Pretty far away since it's in the arctic. From my best guess, about sixty something miles. That's why Princess Celestia booked a train for us to the Frozen North train station." Twilight replied.
"They have a railway up that far?" I asked.
"Well, it's not like the ponies who go up there are gonna walk that far." Twilight said.
"I suppose." I said.
"So, are we all in this together?" Twilight asked everyone.
"Hey, we're all friends here. Let's get up there and defend an ancient empire!" Rainbow said.
"But wait! I must go and pack the proper gear for the cold and brutal arctic conditions." Rarity exclaimed.
"And where exactly is this gear at?" Applejack asked.
"Back at Carousel Boutique." Rarity replied.
"Rarity, we don't have time for that. The Crystal Empire needs our help and I don't think delaying for a couple of fancy scarves aren't gonna help out much." Applejack said.
"But I'll make sure to be quick about." Rarity said.
From the looks of it, I assumed that this was going to turn into an argument that would take even more time, so I just came up with a quick solution that could work for everyone.
"Why don't I just pick up you guys and Shining Armor in the Land Rover when we get to the arctic? Its got a good heater, so you won't be cold along the drive in the arctic at all." I interrupted.
"You would drive all the way up there just for us?" Twilight asked.
"Sure. Driving a car up in the snow is a lot better than walking outside. Plus, it'll put the tires to good use, get to the empire a little bit faster, and will end this whole scarf argument." I said, prompting Applejack to smirk at Rarity.
"So, are you going to follow the train tracks all the way there?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah, I have a map in the Defender that pretty much shows every path, road, and railway track in Equestria, but you'll probably get to the station before me." I said.
"Alright then. We'll see you at the station, Caleb." Twilight said.
"And watch out for the yeti's." Rainbow warned, but just kidding around, of course.
"Are you serious? There's yeti's up there?" I asked.
"She's just kidding around, Caleb. There's really nothing much up there but snow." Twilight assured.
"Figured." I said.
Once the girls boarded onto the train, I headed for the Land Rover that was parked by the side of the station and started the engine up. I then drove all the way down the mountain and paused for a second to look at the map when I reached the bottom.
From where I was at the moment, the path I was on heads back to Ponyville, but there was a fork in the road that wasn't far ahead and I could've took that in order to reach another path that intersects with the railway that leads to the arctic. But since I was in a Land Rover Defender, I decided to put it to good use and drove alone the open plains in order to reach the other path in order to save time. There were a few trees and other various plants to dodge along the plains, but otherwise, I could go pretty fast without the fear of going over a huge bump, but it was a bit of a bumpy ride considering the fact that natural terrain isn't as smooth as a paved road. Otherwise, once I finally got to the railway, it was pretty much like driving along an interstate, except there's stuff I needed to dodge so that I wouldn't get in a wreck.
The more I drove alongside the tracks, the more it began to feel like I was driving in the country. There wasn't a lot of interesting stuff to look at besides trees, grass, plants, grass, farms, an occasional village, and more grass. Did I mention grass? Another thing is that the amount of farms and villages started to become scarce once I went further up north. Not only that, but the weather was beginning to look a little different. The sky slowly turned from a blue, sunny day to a dreary grey. I knew I was getting close to the arctic once I noticed a few snow flurries coming down. The small snow shower gradually turned into more of a winter storm, which forced me to turn on the windshield wipers. The snow blew across and swirled in the air from the changing wind patterns of the snow storm. Although it took me over an hour, I had made it to the arctic north.
I switched the heater on once the interior began to get very cold and I put on my fleece-insulated jacket I had in the back. The snow underneath the tires quietly crunched, which rose my curiosity on how deep this snow was. I stepped outside the Defender and checked the snow's height. Surprisingly, it appeared to be only seven inches deep and it was the packed type of snow, none of that fluffy, powdered stuff.
A strong gust of wind blew into my face, which caused me to shiver. The wind chill was absolutely unbearable and miserable, so I wasted no time to get back inside the Defender and continued to follow the train tracks.
Further up ahead was another fork in the road situation, but it involved the train tracks instead. I found this weird because there should only be one train station in the arctic, not two. However, I just didn't think much about shortly after and decided to try my luck and kept going straight since the map didn't really show me where the train station or the Crystal Empire was located.
And for about thirty seconds of following, the track came to a dead end. "Ah, I took the wrong track," I said before taking the map out of the glovebox and making a confusing discovery. On the map, it appeared that the track I was parked next to wasn't even there at all. But when I peeked at the sideview mirror, the track was still there. "Oh well. Might as well turn back."
But before I could even turn around, a dark mass charged at full speed into the passenger door. I gasped as the vehicle was pushed across the snow by this mysterious black mass until it put on some upward force and tipped the Land Rover on its side. The driver sideview mirror was crushed, but the windows were miraculously still intact.
"What the hell was that supposed to be?!" I questioned myself while squirming just to get out of the drivers seat.
I struggled to maneuver myself out of the vehicle while instinctively reaching for the Igneous that I had hidden under the drivers seat and switched it on once I managed to climb out. I quickly scanned the area before jumping down. The Ingneous' sights lined up with my right eye as I aimed for whatever that thing was, but it was no where to be seen, at least until the ground started to shake. The sensation of rumbling beneath my feet, mostly on my heel, prompted me to turn around to meet the black mass. I seized up for at least a second when I saw the entity. It towered up to at least one-hundred feet and it billowed like black smoke, but had a mixture of a solid and liquid texture to it and it was coming in fast. When I aimed at the black mass through the scope, a stallions face began to manifest, complete with green eyes with red iris', a purple haze seeping out of each eye, and a horn that looked so sharp and edged that it could probably cut through anything like butter. I knew what, or who, this was right off the bat.
"King Sombra! How'd he get out?"
King Sombra gave a threatening, low chuckle that oozed with malice, and I took a shot at him, hoping for the best. He managed to dodge, but the petrifying magic managed to clip a piece of his shadow form and it was enough to commence the petrification.
"What? This is impossible!" the dark unicorn said as his shadow form began to petrify to stone. He gritted his teeth and growled as the petrifying magic worked its way up him, but King Sombra knew how to stop the process. With a flare of dark magic exiting his horn before that itself could be petrified, the magic from the Igneous came to a halt for a second before it began to ever so slowly move back down King Sombra's shadow figure. Once that started, I knew I had to get out of there.
"You can run all you want, but I will catch you once I'm free." King Sombra said, his entire face still petrified.
I sprinted back to the Defender and crouched down where the roof laid on the ground. I under griped with one hand while the other put upward force on the roof and I began to push up with my arms and legs. "C'mon, c'mon!" I grunted, continuing to lift the nearly four-thousand pound vehicle off its side. By that time, King Sombra's menacing eyes had already been freed, which motivated me to just put both hands underneath the side and push upward as hard as I could. All four wheels then landed on the ground, but nearly tipping on its other side in the process. With that, I just jumped in the Defender and drove off in the direction where the other train track led off to. I took one last glance at King Sombra in the other sideview mirror and he looked really pissed off that I was actually getting away, his eyes going completely green as he continued to growl with such anger. I'm betting that he wasn't expecting on me to get away, and even so, I was terrified at that moment.
As I continued to blindly speed throughout the snowy plains of the arctic, I just kept on assuring to myself that everyone was waiting at the train station. If not, I'd be pretty screwed. Further on down the way, I noticed the tracks leading off to the north-east, which led to the train station and my to relief that everybody was waiting for me. The vehicle jumped the track to the other side and I slammed the brakes until the Defender skidded to a halt next to the loading platform.
"Oh, he made it." Rarity remarked while shivering.
Instead of replying to the comment, I proceeded to open every door on the vehicle with haste.
"Are you okay, Caleb?" Twilight asked.
"What's wrong?" Shining Armor asked with concern.
"I just had a run in with King Sombra back there, Shining Armor," I replied, pointing out in the direction of where King Sombra was. "I managed to slow him down, but I want everypony in the car right now so we can get out of here as quick as possible."
Shining Armor's mouth slightly hanged open as he looked over into the distance.
"B-B- But how did you slow him down?" Spike asked.
"That's not important. Everypony get in, now!" Shining Armor ordered.
Everone then climbed into the Defender. "Hey Shining, sit up in front. I need you to guide me to the Crystal Empire."
"Sure thing." Shining Armor said.
Following that, the sound of a spine-chilling howl echoed throughout the snowy, arctic air. That must've spooked the train engineer because the next thing I know, The Friendship Express began to speed away from the station.
"It's him! Go! Go!" Shining Armor hurried.
"Where!?" I asked.
"To the right! It's pretty much a straight shot from then on." Shining Armor replied.
Putting the first gear in place, I cut the steering-wheel to the right and floored the accelerator. The snow and the power from the spinning tires were not being cooperative with each other once my speed bypassed seventy kilometers an hour. The vehicle would occasionally fish-tail at first, but controlling it got tense once I reached up to one-hundred and fourteen kilometers an hour until I leveled out the speed. I had to have both hands on a one o'clock position on the steering just to keep the Defender under control.
"How far do we have to go?" I asked Shining Armor.
"Just one and a half mile. And once we approach the protection shield, start to slow down so that we don't all end up in a crash." Shining Armor said.
"This thing can't go through?" I asked.
"The shield is meant to protect the Empire from foreign objects and prevent King Sombra from entering. Clothing is able to passover, though." Shining Armor explained.
"Oh, good. How are we looking back there Rainbow Dash?" I asked.
"Uhh..." Rainbow said as she looked out the back window. "Gah! I can see him!"
"He's coming!" Fluttershy quivered.
King Sombra's massive, hulking shadowy figure could faintly be seen in the other sideview mirror and he was closing in. He had to of been at least half a mile behind us.
"He looks pretty far away." Spike said in an attempt to calm ourselves.
"Yeah, well not far enough." I said.
Putting more pressure of the accelerator, the vehicle sped up to one-hundred and twenty kilometers an hour until the conditions of the arctic put the speed at a stalemate, but it still wasn't enough to outrun King Sombra. He began to get closer, but still a distance away.
"Look! I can see the shield up ahead!" Twilight exclaimed.
A light-blue domed shield could be seen shining through the blinding blizzard, which was a relieve to everyone.
"Nice work, Caleb. Slow down the Land Rover a little bit, but not too much." Shining Armor said.
"Yeah, yeah, I got it." I said, putting a little pressure on the brake and leaving off in order to get more traction until I stopped the vehicle and parked it about twenty feet away from the shield. "Out of the car! Everyone out!" I said as I exited the vehicle.
Shining Armor, Twilight, and Rarity used their horns magic manipulation to open the doors and everyone scrambled out of the vehicle. Both I and Shining Armor looked back at King Sombra.
"You will not get away so easily, little ponies!" King Sombra said, diving into the snow and reappearing right in front of our eyes. Being that close to King Sombra allowed me to feel the amount of dark magic that resided in him. Besides being frightened, I suddenly felt the feeling of hatred, but it faded once I backed away and ran to the dome shield.
"Come on, Shining Armor!" Twilight shouted. I could've just jumped through the shield, but I didn't want to leave Shining Armor behind
When Shining Armor started to run towards Twilight and I, King Sombra swiped the Land Rover out of his way and shot down directly behind Shining Armor, sending the snow that coated the ground upwards like an explosion. The force of the impact caused Shining Armor to stumble and fall on his face while it sent Twilight and I through the shield and to the other side where the others waited for us.
Everypony looked at the shield in anticipation and concern as we waited for Shining Armor to cross through the protection shield. I was considering to walk back into arctic to help Shining Armor, but there was no need to once he finally crossed over into the Crystal Empire. He lied on the grass for a moment before picking himself back up onto his hooves. Shining Armor's entire horn was now covered in these black crystals that seemed to of sprouted out and his left hind-leg was bruised around the midsection, almost as if he was tightly gripped there.
"Shining Armor, your horn!" Twilight exclaimed to the sight of his horn.
Shining Armor cringed as he felt his horn and tried his best conjure some magic out, but the crystals prevented the simple task.
"Maybe we can pluck them off somehow?" I suggested.
"You can try." Shining Armor said.
I used my fingers and pushed one of the crystals sideways, breaking off the pointed end of the crystal.
"Slowly, but surely," I remarked, showing the crystal to Shining Armor, but it became far-fetched once the crystal repaired itself with dark magic. "Nevermind." I said, clenching the crystal in my fist and quickly tossing it out into the arctic.
Twilight and I exchanged worried expressions before we joined with the other girls, who were mesmerized by the sight in front of them. And frankly, so was I.
Aside from the entrance made of giant, purple-red crystals, off in the distance was the empire. From this far, we could easily see a huge crystal tower that stood hundreds of feet and a city that spanned outwards. The buildings were also made of crystals that gave them a blocky architectural design.
"Wow. They were being literal when they named this place the Crystal Empire." Spike said.
"I know, right? Now that's what I call sparing no expense." Pinkie said.
"It's breathtaking. But judging by our situation, I don't think we can waste too much of our time on sight-seeing." Twilight said.
"Twilight's right." I said.
"I have to agree on that, too. Princess Cadance has been able to keep this protection shield up for quite some time, but it's very draining for her to keep it up, even for an Alicorn." Shining Armor said.
"For how much longer? Was she okay before you left?" Twilight asked.
"I don't know how much longer, but she looked like she getting weak before I left. If she fails to spread love and light throughout the empire, then the entire empire will be completely exposed to King Sombra." Shining Armor replied.
"Yeah. I don't know about you guys, but I think that's a good motivation to start moving." I said.
Shining Armor gave a single nod. "Follow me."
We followed behind Shining Armor across the stretch of path that led to the Crystal Empire for quite a good distance. When we got into the city square, we walked along a road that was a straight shot to the crystal castle. I'm not entirely sure, but the road was either made of smoothed, purple crystal, or some sort of marble material. Otherwise, it was one of the most unique roads I've ever seen.
"Man, this place looks great." I commented to Rainbow Dash.
"It's cool and all, but I prefer Cloudsdale a whole lot more. And where the heck is everypony at? This place is like a sparkly ghost-town." Rainbow replied.
I shrugged my shoulders. "Maybe they didn't come back with the Crystal Empire at all." I guessed.
"No, they're here." Shining Armor corrected.
"Then where are they?" I asked.
"Hiding out inside their homes. Either they feel insecure about going outside, or still asleep from their one-thousand year stasis " Shining Armor said.
"But they will wake up, right?" Twilight asked.
"I believe so." Shining replied.
I kept on eye out for any citizen's until my attention was brought to the Crystal Castle once we got underneath it.
"Wow. Check this thing out." I said as I ran my hand down the crystal structure.
"I know! It's just gorgeous! There's just no words to describe its perfection!" Rarity said, giddily.
"Focus, you two. We're to help Twilight, not admire the scenery." Applejack said.
"Eh, I don't see what the big deal is. Just looks like another old castle to me." Rainbow said.
"A- p- guh-! Another old...! Have you lost your mind? Just look at the margi--." Rarity began. "Oh, very funny."
Personally, I saw that coming a mile away, but Rarity sure didn't at first. Both Rainbow and Applejack laughed just from getting a rise out of Rarity.
Shining Armor then allowed us inside through one of the entrances to the Crystal Castle, leading everyone up a set of stairs that would take us into a main hall on the upper level. With that, we made it to the throne room of the castle. Princess Cadance sat upon the throne in a weary manner.
"Ugh, she doesn't look too good." I noticed.
Cadance's head hung in a downwards position while the light-blue aura of her horn would manifest in full color and slowly fade over and over again.
"Cadance!" Twilight exclaimed.
Princess Cadance immediately lit up with joy and rose up off the throne to meet Twilight and proceed with their little 'sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake' thing. Apparently, it's something that Cadance used to do with Twilight all the time whenever she was babysitting her. Either way, I think it's cute that they're both still doing it after all these years.
"We have to get to together one of these days when the fate of Equestria isn't hanging in the balance." Cadance mentioned to Twilight.
"Are you okay?" Twilight asked.
Cadance winced as her spell failed for about a millisecond, but was able to bring the protection shield back up.
"I'm feeling okay... but I can keep going." Cadance replied.
"Maybe for now, but you can't go on forever, dear. And if your spell were to fail, then you know what'll happen after that." Shining Armor said.
"And that's why we're here. To prevent that from happening." Twilight said.
"You 'betcha. Why we're all here." Applejack said.
"Yeah. So, what exactly can we do to help?" I asked.
"Well, with Cadance putting all her strength into keeping her spell going, and me trying to keep an eye on signs of trouble in the arctic, we haven't been able to gather much information from the Crystal Ponies." Shining Armor replied.
"Crystal Ponies?! There are Crystal Ponies?!" Rarity squealed like an over-excited child before realizing herself. Embarrassed, to say the least. "Um, ahem. Please continue."
"But we have to believe one of them knows how we can protect the empire without the use of Cadance's magic." Shining continued.
"A research paper!" Twilight blurted out.
"Huh?" Shining puzzled.
"That must be part of my test; to gather information from the Crystal Ponies and deliver it to you! This is going to be great! I love research papers!" Twilight said.
"Yeah, who doesn't?" Rainbow said, sarcastically.
"Oh-oh-oh! Lemme guess! Is it Spike? No-no, Fluttershy! Rarity? What about Caleb? No, wait, he's always writing in his journal." Pinkie said, pulling every one of us together into a huddle.
Twilight smiled before turning back to her brother. "Don't worry, big brother. I am really good at this sort of thing."
"I'm glad to hear that, Twilight. But try not to take too long. I have no idea how much longer Cadance will last under the circumstances." Shining said.
"We won't let you down. C'mon everyone, there's no time to lose." Twilight said.
Everyone backtracked through the castle until we reached the exit. We then formed a quick, little group huddle to discuss what the plan was. Twilight decided that everyone should split up to gather as much information as possible and meet back underneath the castle to share and hope to piece everything together. I was assigned to cover the north to north-east area of the empire. A big section, I admit, but I'm up for saving an empire.
No one came to the door on the first few houses I stopped by, but on the fifth house, there was a response.
"Who is it?" The voice that came from the other side of the door was monotone and lacked emotion, a very depressive tone.
"It's, um, your friendly everyday human surveyor." I replied.
The door opened up to a stallion crystal pony, except he didn't live up to the name. Instead, his coat and mane were faded colors, which corresponded with his vocal tone and expression. We exchanged looks at each other before he spoke up.
"I didn't know we had a human surveyor." the stallion said.
"Yes. So, how are you today?" I asked.
"I just woke up not long ago...." the stallion paused as he looked up at the sky. "The sky's blue. Why is that?"
"Well, you see, you recently just woke up from a one-thousand year stasis. I don't know what the sky looked like before, but it's blue now." I replied.
"One-thousand years?" he perked. "I've been gone for that long? But, how is that possible?"
"Do you remember King Sombra?" I asked.
"I... I try not to," he replied while averting his eyes. "Wait, he's not here, right?!"
"No, no, he's not here." I replied in order to calm the stallion. "But that's kind of why I'm here, to collect information that I think only you can know."
"I'll do my best." the stallion said.
I then got my notepad and pencil out. "Okay. Do you happen to know any way to protect the empire from evil, such as King Sombra?" I asked.
"Oh, umm. I- I can't seem to remember. I feel like I should know the answer, but I can't put my hoof on it." the stallion replied.
"Take your time." I said.
"No, you don't understand. I can't think of an answer at all. All I can vividly remember before waking up is King Sombra's reign and the two alicorns that tried to save everypony." he said.
"Oh. You can't remember anything besides King Sombra?" I asked.
The stallion nodded his head. "Believe me, I would really love to give you the answer you were hoping for, but I just can't."
"Well that sucks." I said.
"Sorry." he said.
"Don't stress about it. Thank you for your time, anyways." I said.
"Sure thing." the stallion said before closing the door.
"No luck there." I said to myself.
The rest of the Crystal Ponies I stopped by to question were no same to the first. It was either that they didn't know the answer to my question, or were being chickens and ran once they took a good look at me. I gave up once I had covered half of the northern area of the empire, and when I came across Applejack because she was having the same results, too. But other than that, I thought these ponies have amnesia from being gone for one-thousand years at first, but I think it's because of King Sombra. I mean, all they remember is his reign and nothing before that, so it pretty much connects. Made me wonder what else he could do. Nothing good, obviously.
"So, were you able to find out any information from the Crystal Ponies at all?" Fluttershy asked as we both walked back towards the crystal castle.
"What do you think?" I replied, nonchalantly.
"Nothing at all, too?" she said.
"Yep. Every single one of them mentioned that they couldn't remember anything about the empire before King Sombra. He's most likely the one behind the Crystal Ponies amnesia." I said.
"I agree. I just hope that the others were able to find at least one Crystal Pony that knew something. I can't imagine that Princess Cadance is doing okay at the moment." Fluttershy said.
"Me too. We should probably move a little faster, now that you mention Cadance." I said.
Both of us made haste and continued onwards until we met up with everyone else underneath the castle.
"Were you two able to find out anything useful?" Twilight asked.
"No." both Fluttershy and I replied, shaking our heads.
"I thought so. Not even Rarity or Rainbow Dash could find out anything." Twilight said.
"The only bit of information I could get out of em' was this library that's not far." Applejack shared.
"A library? Well, why didn't you say so?!" Twilight said with excitement.
"Uh... I thought I just did." Applejack said.
"Oh, right. Sorry, I'm getting carried away. So, where is this library at? I bet you a million bits we'll find something useful there." Twilight asked with a toothy smile.
"I'll show ya'll the way." Applejack said.
"And make it quick. Twilight looks like she's gonna pass out from excitement," I joked around. "Wait, where's Pinkie Pie at?"
"Over there." Rainbow replied.
Pinkie Pie wore one of those beige colored secret agent outfits complete with a fedora and a fake mustache.
"You sure you don't happen to know anything on defending the Crystal Empire from evil?" Pinkie asked in a surprisingly deep voice.
"I told you already. I can't remember anything besides King Sombra's reign. What agency are you representing anyways, Agent McMuffin?" the crystal pony asked.
"Of the... Royal Bureau of Crystal Defense." Pinkie made up.
"Sounds a little fake to me." the crystal pony said.
"Pinkie, you can cut the interrogation, we're going to the library." Rainbow said.
"It appears my colleagues need my assistance at the local library. Good day, ma'am." Pinkie said before rushing away from the crystal pony and ditching the clothing behind a wall.
"Good to go!" Pinkie chirped.
Applejack led the way to the west part of the empire to the library, where it stood on one of the main streets that led to the Crystal Castle. Leading up the stairs to the entrance stood a pair of griffon statues on each side on blocky pedestals. Once we entered, I noticed at how huge the interior of the library was. Three floors of towering bookshelves stocked with thousands of books were all the eye could see. Aside from that, it had a nice smell to it, if you know what I mean.
"Hello?" I called out. My voice echoed throughout the room, but there was no response.
But on the other hand, Twilight was in book heaven.
"I just... I don't even know what to say... There are no words." Twilight said, absolutely mesmerized by what she was seeing.
"Ahem. May I help you?" a librarian asked as she approached us.
"Yes. We're looking for a book." Twilight replied.
"We have plenty of those." the librarian replied.
"You do. You really do." Twilight sighed in awe.
"We're looking for a history book. Somethin' that might tell us how the Empire might've protected itself from danger back in the day." Applejack clarified.
"Yes. Of course. History, history.... Ah, yes." the librarian began.
We stared at the librarian in anticipation for an answer, but she paused and started to look confused.
"Which is where, exactly?" Twilight prompted.
"I... I can't seem to remember. I'm not sure I actually work here." the librarian said.
"Ugh." Rainbow groaned, stretching her face downwards with her hoof.
"We'll just take a look around. I'm sure we can find it on our own." Twilight said.
"Let me know if you find anything." the librarian said before walking away.
"Sooo, where exactly are going to start at?" I asked.
There was brief silence as everybody looked onwards at the massive library.
"Just go all out and find a book that can at least provide with information on how the Crystal Empire protected itself. A history book would be great, though." Twilight said.
"Sounds simple enough. Well, despite all of these shelves and how high up they go." Rarity said.
"Let's just worry about the lower shelves first." I said.
"Nah, it's cool. Fluttershy and I can check out the higher shelves in a flash." Rainbow said.
"Thank you. Okay, let's get to it." Twilight said.
We all dispersed to the lowest level of the library to begin our search for any useful information. I pulled out a few random books from one of the shelves and placed them neatly on the shelf again when they weren't any use for us. Twilight, on the other hand, overzealously levitated rows of books off one of the shelves, quickly examined them and set them in a pile on the floor. Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, was a bit more destructive and just tossed the books onto the ground, and one almost landed ontop of me.
"Hey, you're dropping all the books, Rainbow!" I called from below.
"I know that. Here, catch this one." Rainbow said, dropping a book into my hands.
"Hmm. 'How To Crystalize Matter.' Sounds scientific and magical." I thought when reading the front cover.
"What's that you got there?" Twilight asked as she continued to inspect her books.
"Just some how-to magic book." I replied.
"Ooh, I might save that for later," she said. "How's everypony doing so far?"
"Nothing to report." Rainbow said.
"Me too." Fluttershy said.
"I ain't got nothin'." Applejack said.
"Nor do I." Rarity said.
Pinkie Pie then popped her head out from a pile of books that piled up about five feet.
"If I had a bit for every book that wasn't the correct one, then I would be one rich pony." Pinkie said.
"Alright then. I was just doing a quick check up, y'know. So, just yell out if you find something." Twilight said in a fast pace.
"We know Twilight." I said.
"Okay. Good." Twilight said before resuming her search, but speeding up whilst biting her lip.
The search for any kind of book that would give us answers dragged on for about ten more minutes. Twilight was becoming more increasingly wary as time went on, most likely because she's stressing over Princess Cadance and that dark unicorn waiting right outside the shield.
"Uh, anyone else startin' to think this is a lost cause?" Applejack asked.
"I don't know," I said, darting my head at Twilight. "But I still want to keep looking for a book."
"Yeah, I guess so, too. But we've been searchin' in the H's for twenty minutes or so." Applejack said.
"Wait, this is it!" Twilight exclaimed with joy.
"Really?" Spike asked.
"Yes! 'History of the Crystal Empire.' I just hope it has the answers we need." Twilight said.
"Well, open it up and see what it says." Rainbow prompted.
"Not yet, Rainbow Dash. I need to report this back to my brother. Spike, come with me." Twilight said.
"What about us?" Fluttershy asked.
"I want the rest of you to wait in the royal meeting quarters right across from the throne room." Twilight instructed.
Everybody then made a mad dash up the stairs and bursted out through the doors of the library and into the Crystal Castle, as well. While Twilight went to present her finding with Shining Armor, the rest of us waited next to a round table. About five or so minutes later, Twilight entered the room along with Spike carrying the book along with him. And out of the blue, Twilight began to sing. To sing about the situation at hand.
"Princess Cadance needs our help. Her magic will not last forever. I think we can do it, but we need to work together. We have to get this right. Yes, we have to make them see. We can save the Crystal Ponies with their hist--." Twilight began before pausing to look at me.
I stood there across from the table with a shit-eating grin on my face and slightly sniggering at Twilight.
"What's so funny?" Twilight asked.
"Nothing serious. It's just that you guys break out into random musical numbers at times. I know it's part of Equestrian culture, but I just find it humorous. No offense." I explained.
"Oh, I see what you mean. I'm also guessing that random singing isn't part of your culture?" Twilight said.
"Um, sure. Yeah. Not in your guys manner." I replied.
Everyone laughed to that.
"We get it. If it kinda weirds you out, we'll save it for another time. I mean, I'm not much of singer myself, if that makes you feel any better." Spike said.
"Cool." I said with a nod.
"What does the book have to say?" Applejack said, bringing the situation back at hand.
"First of all, the book clearly states that Crystal Ponies renew the love and unity within the empire every year with the celebration of The Crystal Fair. This renewal is what protects the empire from any kind of danger or harm," Twilight explained, turning the page to the next. "These next few pages explain on what the Crystal Ponies preferred over a thousand years ago while the Crystal Fair was going on. Apparently, the Crystal Ponies liked attending jousting events. For pride, they flew the Crystal Empire flag during the fair. Also, a delectable treat that was loved among all were Crystal Berries. These can be found on the outskirts of the empire. Speaking of the outskirts, you can also find the famous mini ewes out there. Those were used for the petting zoo. And there was also a popular instrument known as the Flugelhorn. It was easy to play and everypony loved the sound of it."
"I like that sound of that already." Pinkie Pie remarked.
"And lastly, the Crystal Ponies loved and honored the lyrics of their anthem. That also adds up to the unification within the empire," Twilight finished. "It may seem like a lot, but if we all work together to pitch in and restore the Crystal Fair, I know we can save the Crystal Ponies and stop King Sombra."
"And we will." I said.
"King Sombra's got nothing on us," Rainbow Dash said. "Oh, and where was that jousting stuff at? I wouldn't mind hosting that along with Fluttershy."
"Wait. Me?" Fluttershy mumbled.
"Sure, Rainbow Dash. You can get combat armor and spears with safety tips in the armory." Twilight replied.
"Awesome. I'll head over there now. Fluttershy, you can go and find those ewes for now." Rainbow said.
"Good idea, Rainbow Dash." Twilight said.
"Oh, of course. I'll get right on it." Fluttershy said willingly with her ears perking upwards.
"Applejack, Pinkie Pie, can you two go out in the fields and collect as many Crystal Berries as you can?" Twilight asked.
"Excellent. Spike, Caleb, and I will go out and set up the stands and fair tents. And for a reminder, we are kind of on an unpredictable clock due to Princess Cadance's state. Just try to be quick and precise and we'll meet up to pitch up everything." Twilight said.
With that, we all went to attend to our duties.
Spike, Twilight and I managed to locate where the tents were located and all the posts that we had to pound into the ground in order to keep them up. Well, we didn't really need any hammers for the posts because I just plunged them right into the ground, so that made things easier. The progress began to pick up more once everyone else returned from what they needed to do, which was almost an hour.
Rainbow and Fluttershy were a big help with hanging up banners and fair decorations that would require a ladder. Everyone else and I went to find the food vendors inside one of the Crystal Fair storage sheds that weren't far from the castle. We set those up along the sides of the streets and stocked them with the food item that was designated for that stand. However, the food stand was the least of our concern. We had to raise the empire's flag, stock up on crystal berries and flugelhorns, flocked the ewes into the petting zoo, readied all the armor and the jousting sticks, set up some games, everything. We just had to get everything right because if the Crystal Ponies didn't get out of their amnesic state and restore the love the unity of the empire, we're screwed.
But after all the hard work, the fair was finished and everyone met up in front of the castle. Twilight looked in awe and impressed to what our teamwork had created and accomplished.
"It looks amazing! I don't know how I could've done this without your help," Twilight praised. "One last check to make sure everything is in place, and the festivities can begin!"
"What's is this thing?" Applejack inquired about the crackled stone artifact in the shape of a heart.
"The last page of the book mentioned a Crystal Heart as the fairs centerpiece, so I used my magic to cut one out of this crystal block." Twilight said as she showed us the page.
"Nice work, Twi. Think we're ready to get this fair up and runnin'." Applejack said.
"That I agree with, Applejack. Let me just report back to Shining Armor real quick and I'll announce the commencement of the fair." Twilight said.
"What should we do?" I asked.
"Stay down here and help out the guests once they arrive. I'm betting there will be a big turnout. Oh, and I'll need to take Pinkie Pie with me for her flugelhorn... skills." Twilight said.
"I'd be honored to blow my flugelhorn, Twilight." Pinkie said.
I shuddered.
While Twilight and Pinkie were inside the castle, the rest of us split up to different sections of the fair, but still remained close to each other as we waited for Twilight's announcement. And, we all knew it was about to begin when we heard that dreaded flugelhorn bellow pierce through the air. Twilight then walked onto the castle's balcony with Shining Armor and Cadance.
"Hear ye, hear--." Twilight started before being interrupted by Pinkie Pie blowing the flugelhorn at the wrong time.
"Come on, Pinkie." I shouted from below.
Pinkie poked her head over the railing of the balcony. "Sorry about that."
"Hear ye, hear ye! Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor do cordially invite you to attend the Crystal Fair!" Twilight declared.
Those words worked like magic. The Crystal Ponies emerged from their houses and some walking the streets turned their attention to the fair. Quiet chattering began for a moment before something extraordinary happened. Their expression lit up with happiness and excitement, causing their gray-shaded coats and manes to turn into bright and vibrant colors just like that.
"Alright, they're getting their colors back!" I thought in relieve.
Applejack went over to welcome a crowd of Crystal Ponies that approached the fair, about twenty of them. I stood out like a sore thumb as I stood in the middle of the street, so it was no surprise someone would notice me. A small crowd of ponies examined me from a distance before cautiously walking up towards me.
"I saw you out in the streets earlier talking to those six mares earlier. I don't mean to be rude, but what are you?" a mare said, hesitantly. The crowd sort of leaned in to listen to my response.
"I'm a human. My actual name is Caleb Lee Barlow, but you can just call me by my first name. This is actually my first time in the Crystal Empire and attending the Crystal Fair. I even helped set it up, too." I said.
"Oh, well that was really nice of you, Caleb! I'm Autumn Gem. The mare right behind me is my friend Fleur De Verre. And I believe that one mare back there is named... Elbow Grease, is it?" Autumn said.
"Mm-hmm. I know my name my sound a little icky, but I'm not affiliated with grease, F.Y.I." Elbow Grease said.
"No, you're okay, and it's nice to meet you all. Say, can I interest you guys in a pouch of crystal berries? Free of charge since, y'know, of your one-thousand year stasis and everything." I said.
"Sure! I love crystal berries!" Autumn said, followed by the crowd agreeing with her.
After I gave everyone a pouch of berries, I stuck around by the stand while monitoring the Crystal Ponies. It's interesting how a bite of food or just the experience of their past culture can raise them out of their low-spirts and into their high-spirits in an instant. Still, I haven't seen any of them in their final form yet.
Things were going awesome for about fifteen minutes, but the tables were beginning to turn when Rainbow Dash came flying right after me.
"Caleb, I have to tell you something really, really important." Rainbow said. She sounded rather concerned, so I listened to what she had to say.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Remember the crystal heart that Twilight carved out of block? Turns out it's a real artifact." Rainbow said.
"Oh, it is? Does anyone know where it's at?" I asked.
"That's the thing, Caleb. Nopony has no idea where it's at and the crystal ponies are already starting to get nosey about. If they find out that crumbling block is the crystal heart, then there goes our hopes of unification." Rainbow explained with a worried expression.
"Well that's an unfortunate turn of events." I said, gritting my teeth. "How the heck are we going to keep that a secret?"
"Right now, we're working with what we got. Applejack has the block hidden underneath a purple tarp." Rainbow replied.
"At least it's hidden." I said.
Out of nowhere, the sky quickly began to lose it blue, peaceful atmosphere and was replaced by the dark grey clouds of the arctic north. The Crystal Empire was instantly shaded and snowflakes started to blow in. But asides from that, a howl echoed from the distance. Rainbow and I knew what was happening right away.
"Oh, shit!" I exclaimed.
"What's going on with the sky?" a crystal pony quivered.
I had no idea what to say. I remained silent.
"It's just an irregular weather pattern! A lot of stuff has changed over one-thousand years!" Rainbow said.
"But what was that sound supposed to be?" the crystal pony asked.
"Must've been the wind. I've heard the wind make a sound like that many times before." Rainbow replied.
The crystal pony looked unsure before trotting away from the area.
"Phew. That was a close one." Rainbow said.
"Yeah, but we still have the giant pillar of shadow that wants to enslave everypony right outside the empire!" I exclaimed.
But out of dumb luck, Rainbow and I noticed the shield protecting the empire regenerating. Turns out Cadance had enough strength to bring up another shield. Shit, I give her credit for conjuring that shield. Rainbow then flew upwards to check if King Sombra got in, and to my relieve, he was too late. Thank God.
"Okay..." I said, letting out a sigh.
"I'm gonna let Twilight in on the crystal heart situation." Rainbow said.
"That would be a good idea." I said.
"But before I go, can you round up some Crystal Ponies for the jousting match that starts in thirty minutes?" Rainbow said.
"What, are they going to participate?" I asked.
"Pfft, no. For the audience, you dope." Rainbow replied.
"Oh, duh. Alright, I'll try to get some ponies to attend." I said.
"Thanks, bud." Rainbow said before speeding off towards the castle.
I never really convinced anyone to attend an event before, so I decided to just channel this random motivational speaker I've heard about who goes around Equestria. I then came up to a group of Crystal Ponies and worked my magic on them.
"Excuse me, but have you fine ponies been craving some action and thrills of a jousting tornament?" I asked in a quick, husky and deep voice.
"Now that you mention it, I haven't been to a jousting match in quite some time. Sure, I could go for some jousting! Is it being held at the grandstands?" a stallion said.
"You bet it is! And I like the way you think! Match starts in thirty minutes, so get your seats now before you're too late!" I said.
The group of ponies smiled and trotted off into the direction of where the grandstands were located. I didn't even know there were grandstands, so I got lucky there. I continued with the whole act, gathering a good amount of attendees for twenty-five minutes until I just stopped and went off to help out with something else.
When I walking back to the castle to check up on the crystal block, the sky flashed between normal and this shade of light-brown for about a milisecond, repeating for about three times.
"C'mon, Cadance, don't stop just yet." I mumbled to myself.
I could also hear these weird sounds throughout the air. It must've been King Sombra on the other side because these sounds seemed to be growls mixed in with a faint, sinister chuckle. But once the sky began to frequently shift between blue and brown, I could clearly make out King Sombra's vocal tone even though he was far away. That made me a little nervous, so I decided to just run to the castle instead.
Upon arrival, there was a huge mob of crystal ponies surrounding Applejack. They were all chattering about the Crystal Heart. I knew I had to help out in some way, so I just stepped over and weaved my way through the crowd in order to get to Applejack.
"Why the hell are they all deciding to ask about the Crystal Heart now?" I asked in a hushed volume.
"Because I think they might be catchin' on to the fact that I've been suspiciously guarding the crystal heart." Applejack replied, also hushed.
"Great." I said, examining the area for anything to direct the ponies attention to something different.
"Oh, Jester, we could use some entertainment over here!" Applejack called out to Pinkie Pie, who was wearing a jester outfit.
Pinkie Pie blew the flugelhorn instrument in order to get the attention of some of the ponies in the crowd. She then demonstrated her juggling skills with four flugelhorns.
"That should keep some of them busy." I said.
"Hopefully. We just gotta get this crowd dispersed." Applejack said.
Both Applejack and I noticed Rarity maneuvering through the crowd of ponies until she met up with us. Judging by her look, she was stressed out.
"What's up, Rarity? Things going just as crappy as us?" I asked.
"I am running out of weaving material for the traditional crafts booth! I just made a hat out of three pieces of hay and a drinking straw!" Rarity replied.
"And how did that work out?" I asked.
"I made it work. But still!" Rarity said.
"Forget about the craft booth. Looks like the majority of the attendance are wanting to see the crystal heart. Just help out me and Caleb with the crowd." Applejack said.
"Very well. I hope we can convince these ponies to shoo." Rarity complied.
"It's gonna be fine. These ponies are gonna power up the Crystal Heart when the time comes, and we won't be needin' Cadance's magic anyway." Applejack said.
"I sure hope that time comes soon! I don't think I can even keep this party going on forever." Pinkie Pie said as she continued juggling, now running along a rainbow beach ball on her hind legs.
Pinkie Pie suddenly began to lose her balance and slipped, sending her back first onto the ground and sending the ball upwards. I quickly noticed the ball heading straight for the crystal block and caught it just before it could make impact.
"Careful." I said as I tossed the ball back to Pinkie.
"Yeah. All part of the act, everypony." Pinkie said.
Again, the sky flashed a shade of brown in a more rapid pace and King Sombra's malicious intent laugh could be heard throughout the empire as clear as day. I noticed everyone in the crowd gasp or slightly cowered in distress, some even ran away from the area.
"Crystal Heart..." King Sombra lowly uttered.
"T- t- that's him! He's back!" one crystal pony stuttered in fear.
"I thought you said that he wasn't here!"
The stallion I talked to earlier at his home looked right at me.
"But I didn't say anything about him being in the empire." I tried to explain.
At this time, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie had ran to the door to the castle and signaled me to follow them inside.
"Uh... Excuse me." I hesitated before running to the door and up the stairs to the castles balcony.
On the balcony, Cadance lied in her husbands forelegs. She was weak, almost drained of magic and couldn't muster enough strength to get up. As I looked out over the empire, every single structure was either corrupted by dark magic or just beginning to, as well as the castle. Way out in the distance, I could make out King Sombra as he surrounded the shield with his shadow form.
"Just don't ya'll worry your pretty, little Crystal heads. He can't get through that shield." Applejack assured, but it was a poor choice of words.
"I don't think they believe you..." Rarity mumbled.
"I don't know if I believe me..." Applejack agreed.
A few seconds after she said that statement, the shield that was protecting the empire weakened and just faded away. Cadance's horn aura was gone and she was drained of her magic. The empire was now completely exposed and everyone below was panicking.
"God, you spoke too soon!" I said.
"No, no, no! Please, not again!" I heard a mare plead.
All the Crystal Ponies ran around the streets, some went into their homes to hide, and some just didn't know what to do. But, they all stopped and looked up once King Sombra stretched out in his shadow form over the empire and looked down upon the Crystal Ponies.
"My crystal slaves...." King Sombra greeted to the Crystal Ponies, still using that intimidating tone. The Crystal Ponies looked up at him in horror, some even dropped down and covered their eyes out of fear. "Yes... Look upon your king, my slaves, and despair."
"Hey! Up here!" Spike shouted from atop the castle.
"Was that Spike?" Rarity noticed.
"What are you doing up there?!" I shouted back.
"I got it! I got the crystal heart!" Spike said.
King Sombra then stared at Spike and growled at him. "That is mine!"
The dark unicorn shot himself underground and moved towards the castle at a fast pace to cover the distance between him and Spike. His movement could be seen by a column of shadow that moved along with him and dark magic crystals sprouting from the grass. Once in a good range, he emerged upwards and was headed straight for Spike in the form of a gigantic black crystal. Spike must've got spooked because he slipped, dropped the crystal heart and was now hurdling to the ground. I felt my stomach drop.
"Spikey-wikey!" Rarity squealed.
I tried to see if I was able to catch him in some way, but he was too far out of reach. The closer that King Sombra got, the more his shadow form disappeared. He now retained his physical form, an evil unicorn, and rode the crystal all the way up. I shot my head at Cadance and her wings.
"Help him!" I blurted. "Please get up, Cadance!"
Cadance managed to open her eyes slowly, but shot wide open when she saw Spike and the real crystal heart plummeting to the ground. She unfurled her wings audibly to get Shining Armor's attention. He knew what she was intending. And so, Shining Armor lifted Cadance off the ground with his hooves and stood up straight onto his hind legs. He brought her backwards and just threw her right at Spike with her wings spanned outwards at an incredible speed. It looked as if it was going to be a three-way tie. There was Sombra coming in on the left, Spike on the right, and Princess Cadance oncoming in the middle. But by just a few feet, Candance was not only able to snatch Spike, who was close to being impaled by the black crystal, but also the Crystal Heart.
"Yes! Nice throw, Shining, that was one in a million!" I said with joy.
Everypony on the balcony cheered and praised Shining Armor, which he took without question. In the sky, Cadance swooped downwards to the ground and landed underneath the castle.
"Behold! The Crystal Princess!" a crystal pony pointed out.
"The Crystal Heart has returned. Use the light and love within you to ensure that King Sombra does not." Princess Cadance declared.
And just like magic, The Crystal Ponies instantly transformed into a sparkly, transparent state, their true form. Every single one of them got down to a bowing position and the streets below illuminated a baby-blue glow and King Sombra took notice to this.
"What? No. No! Stop! Stop this at once!" King Sombra demanded.
But it was no use. There was great, big flash of light as if an energy bomb just went off down below. Waves of unified love flowed outwards as far as the eye could see. It passed through everybody on the balcony, turning us into our own crystal forms. Even myself! I was taken back at first, but man, it was so surreal.
"Hey, we're all shiny!" I said.
"Oooh, sparkly!" Pinkie said.
But obviously, the unified love of the empire wasn't going let King Sombra stay any longer. When the magical shockwave absorbed into King Sombra, everything got bright, but I could see the silhouette of him realizing what was happening to himself. It was over for him. He just let out the loudest scream of defeat I've ever heard and just blew into a million pieces. No gore at all, just little fragments of his body and armor.
With the unification wave reached outwards, the castle started to vibrate. It wasn't too violent, but also not too gentle. This is because all of that concentrated magic was being absorbed by the castle itself and sent to the spire where it all shot up into the sky and dispersed in nine different directions for miles. It looked strikingly similar to the Aurora Borealis, but the colors swapped with blue, a shade of dark pink, yellow, and a bit more wavy. This also destroyed any dark magic corruption that influence the structures, sky, and the surrounding area. But most importantly, love and unification now filled the empire once more. The Crystal Empire was now restored.
As the girls and I rejoiced for defeating King Sombra and restoring the love and unity of the Crystal Empire, Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor walked over to the railing of the balcony and looked down at the Crystal Ponies. At that moment, the entire population of Crystal Ponies let out a thunderous applause and cheers that probably could be heard throughout the stars. In response, they both waved in acknowledgment and courtesy. But as I looked closer, I realized the Crystal Ponies were not only cheering because of their new leaders, but also at Spike. He looked behind him, unsure of why they were.
"Why are they cheering for me?" Spike asked.
"Because they love you, Spike! You helped carry the one thing that could power the love and unity throughout the empire down the castle!" Princess Cadance clarified.
"You're a hero, Spike." I said.
Spike looked back at the Crystal Ponies and waved at them, creating another roar of cheering from below.
"Ha! I- I guess I am!" Spike exclaimed with excitement.
"Good on ya', Spike. Not many get to be known as a hero." Applejack congratulated.
"They oughta come up with a dub nickname for you. Like, 'Spike the Great.'" Rainbow suggested.
"Yeah, I would like a name like that!" Spike said.
"Oh, I am so happy for you, Spikey. You never cease to surprise me." Rarity said as she tightly hugged Spike.
"Thanks, Rarity." Spike smiled with a faint blush.
Once the cheering down below had subsided, Princess Cadance gave a short speech to lift the spirits of her subject even more.
"Citizens of the Crystal Empire. As your newfound Princess, I hereby decree that this day marks the beginning of a new era for the Crystal Empire; an era of renewed peace, happiness, love, and unity between each and every individual who lives within. In better words, never again will a force as evil as King Sombra will ever interfere with our way of life again! Welcome back, everypony, and may this day continue with harmony!" Cadance declared, causing a louder volume and intensity of cheers.
My crystal-like state was the first to vanish, returning me back to my normal, fleshy self. Then the girls and Spike were the next to lose their crystal state, followed by Princess Cadance and Shining Armor.
"Oh drat!" Rarity expressed in annoyance.
"Sorry, Rarity. The crystal gradience and hairstyles only lasts on the Crystal Ponies." Cadance said.
"I can see, hence that we're not one of them. Oh well." Rarity said, bummed out.
"Shining Armor! Princess Cadance!" Twilight said from behind us.
"Twilight!" both Shining Armor and Cadance replied, giving her a big hug.
"Well, we managed to unify the empire once again and stopped King Sombra." Twilight said.
"Where did you and Spike find the Crystal Heart at?" I asked.
"It was at the very top of the castle. When I went to retrieve the Crystal Heart, it turned out that it was rigged in a trap created by King Sombra." Twilight said.
"What happened?" Shining asked.
"I was trapped and surrounded by dark crystals, but Spike wasn't. And that's why Spike was all the way up there with the hear and everything played out the way it did." Twilight said.
"Wow. I never would've guessed the Crystal Heart would be up there. Thank you, Twilight." Shining Armor said.
"Don't thank me, thank Spike. He was the one who brought the Crystal Heart down the castle." Twilight said.
"That's right, you did," Shining said as he turned to Spike.
"What can I say?" Spike said.
"Nothing at all. Thanks for your help, little bro." Shining said.
"Yes. Thank you so much for what you did. You sure are brave for one little dragon and it will not be forgotten, that I can assure you." Cadance added.
"No problem. Just doing what I can." Spike said.
"Alright. So, I guess your time here is done." Shining mentioned to Twilight.
"Pretty much. I was only sent here to help you two unify the Crystal Empire." Twilight said.
"In that case, Shining Armor and I would be more than happy to walk you guys back to the train station." Cadance offered.
"What do you say, guys? Ready to go?" Twilight asked.
We all nodded in agreement.
When we exited the castle, all of the Crystal Ponies were socializing with each other as if they had never been gone for one-thousand years, or that today was the next day of yesterday to them. Of course, they all noticed Princess Cadance and Shining Armor once we walked into the streets. A crowd of their loyal subjects ran up to them and bowed before the two.
"Hello there!" Cadance greeted, cheerfully.
"Your highness, we are so happy to actually have rulers once again that show such kindness and respect to us." Elbow Grease said.
"We swear to honor and obey you for as long as we live!" a stallion said.
"Thank you for you respect and praise. We are looking forward to meeting you all personally, but you must excuse us. The ones who used their efforts to restore love and unity need to depart back to Canterlot." Cadance said.
"Oh, yes. Of course, your highness," the stallion abided.
The Crystal Ponies stepped to side both left and right, creating a walkway for us. We continued onwards past the entrance to the empire and entered the frozen north, where the snowstorm had subsided. For fifteen minutes, we trekked across the arctic until we reached the train station.
"So, I'm supposing you two will be ruling over the empire from her on out?" I asked.
"Yeah. With Princess Celestia and Princess Luna ruling over the majority of Equestria, it would make sense that Cadance and I were chosen and appointed to rule over the empire." Shining Armor replied.
"But what about you position and duties as captain of the Royal Guard?" Rarity asked.
"Ha. Well, I'll still be the captain, but I'll sort of switch back and forth as both captain and the co-ruler of the empire. Hope that clears up the question." Shining said.
"I wish you the best of luck on that, big brother." Twilight said.
"Thanks, Twily." he replied.
Rarity then let out a sigh loud enough to get everyone's attention.
"Is somepony missing their sparkly coat and mane?" Cadance joked.
"I do so wish it was permanent. Do you see how my mane just absolutely sparkled?" Rarity said.
"But... good things are better when they're a rarity." Applejack worded cheekily.
"Aww." Rarity said, followed by a short laugh.
"So, is there anything you could possibly need before we go?" Twilight asked.
"Everything's gonna be okay from her on out. And also, you've gotta stop saving my rump like this. First Queen Chrysalis and now the Crystal Empire? It's getting a little embarrassing." Shining Armor kidded around.
"But remember, it wasn't me who saved you this time. It was Spike." Twilight replied, sounding disappointed in herself.
"It's just a test. Maybe Princess Celestia will let you retake it." Shining said.
"Unless she can find another nation that somehow needs help, I don't think she'll give me another test." Twilight replied.
Twilight drooped her head and didn't make eye contact at anyone as she walked into the train car. Everyone looked at her in worriment. Even I was concerned that she may not pass this so called test, and I myself am rather optimistic.
"Tell Twily I wish her the best. Y'know, for extra luck." Shining Armor requested to us.
"Sure thing." I said.
When I turned myself around to get into the train car, I noticed the Land Rover's tire treads in the snow, trailing off back towards the Crystal Empire.
"Oh, no, I forgot the Defender!" I realized.
"Do you want us to wait here while you go back to get it?" Applejack asked.
"No, go on without me. I'll meet you guys back down south." I said.
"But didn't King Sombra destroy it before you came through the protective shield?" Fluttershy asked.
"He didn't destroy it, he just swiped it out of his way. There may be a giant dent in it and some broken windows, but it's still drivable." I said.
"Alright, so you'll drive yourself back?" Applejack asked.
"Yep." I replied.
"Then we'll see ya back in Ponyville. We'll most likely be leaving Canterlot by the time you get there." Applejack said with a wave.
"Okay. See ya." I farewelled before following Cadance and Shining Armor.
Shining Armor illuminated his horn before teleporting us three back to the point where we entered the Crystal Empire. Sure enough, to our right in the distance, was the Land Rover that lied the drivers side again.
"There it is." I pointed out before being teleported over to the Land Rover.
"Here, I'll get it back on it's tires." Shining Armor said.
The entire body of the Defender was encased with Shining Armor's rose colored aura, slowly lifting off the ground. The vehicle creaked and the excess snow from the snow storm was shook off, dropping off like slush. Once he turned it left at ninety degrees, he gently placed it on the ground. Surprisingly, the Defender suffered no major damage at all. Must've been more of a shove instead of a swipe.
"Thanks a lot, Shining Armor." I thanked.
"No problem, Caleb." Shining replied.
I took out the fuse chip and started up the Defender, turning over a few times because of the cold.
"And dear, didn't you want to tell Caleb something before he left?" Shining reminded Cadance.
"I was just getting to that, actually." Cadance said.
"Let me know what?" I asked.
"You should check your mail in about two or so weeks. I'm thinking about contacting your C.A.M.A manager for an expedition assignment that I have in mind. We would do it ourselves, but my husband and I need a good amount of time to build up the empire and make it better for the modern day; a stronger defense organization and making sure to establish connections with other cities, such as Canterlot." Cadance explained.
"Um, sure, I'd be up for it!" I said, willingly.
"That's fantastic! Shining Armor and I will be sure to arrange it at the best given opportunity and you should receive a letter in the mail." Cadance said.
"And be sure to keep it to yourself." Shining heeded.
"I'll find a way to." I said.
"Great. So, I'll see you in about two weeks." Cadance said.
There was three knocks at the front door. I immediately shot up and headed for the door while Twilight laughed directly at me.
"I have never seen somepony so eager for the arrival of a letter before, Caleb." Twilight said.
"Well, it's a real important one." I said.
On the other side of the door was Derpy Hooves, wearing her Ponyville mailmare uniform. I then closed the door behind me to block out Twilight and Spike.
"Any letters for me today, Derpy?" I asked.
"Yes, actually. The envelope gave me pretty specific instructions to give it to you only and to nopony else." Derpy mentioned before giving me my mail.
"At least you followed them. Didn't you say that you can actually get fired if you tampered with the mail?" I asked.
"I would definetly get fired. That is a major no-no within our guidelines." Derpy replied.
"Oh, is that it? Anything else?" I asked.
"Well, there's also the investigation involving the ponies in suits." Derpy added.
"I suppose. But thanks for the letter again, Derpy." I thanked.
"No problem. Have a nice day!" Derpy said before carrying on with her deliveries.
Before opening the envelope, I quickly peered through the front door window to make sure Twilight and Spike were not checking out what I got. With the coast clear, I tore the envelope up and read the letter:
Dear Agent Caleb Lee Barlow,
I have recently been notified by Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor of the Crystal Empire that we both have been chosen for a secret assignment. However, I need you to meet me personally in Canterlot in order to get the details. I understand if that seems tedious, but this is some rather confidential information that needs to be discussed privately. I'd advise that you leave for Canterlot as soon as you get this letter. Meet me behind the former C.A.M.A HQ. Could've chosen a better location, but it's secluded and about to be torn down. Might as well put some use to it before it's gone.
Sincerely, Agent Night Hunter
"Hm." I hummed, folding the letter and putting it in my pocket. Twilight and Spike looked at my when I walked back inside empty handed.
"No letter?" Spike asked.
"No, I got the letter. I just gotta head up to Canterlot." I replied before I glanced over to Twilight.
Twilight noticed my glance and followed me up the stairs. I retrieved the fuel pump chip and turned around to head back down, but Twilight stopped me.
"What's going on? Is it the agency?" Twilight asked.
"How did you know?" I asked.
"You had that look on your face when you walked by and up the stairs." Twilight replied.
I remained silent for a moment before replying to her question. "Look, I know you're concerned about me and my job in C.A.M.A., but I really have to stop letting you in on so much information that should be kept quiet. And frankly, it's also none of your business, Twilight." I said.
"Oh, well, of course... I'm sorry that I'm so nosey about you job, but I can stop. And you're right, too. What goes on at C.A.M.A is you business and shouldn't be mine." Twilight said with a small smile.
"Thanks, Twilight. It's just that I've recently begun to fully understand the importance of keeping quiet. I mean, I really should've the day I signed up for the job, but the only reason I was so open to you is because, well, I trust you." I said, smiling back at her.
"I know you do. And I should've know better to not convince you that I would keep your secrets to myself, despite the orders you were given." Twilight admitted.
"Okay, good. So from this point on, no more information regarding C.A.M.A." I said.
"Absolutely. I'll do my best to not worry about you so much. So otherwise, I'm guessing I'll see you later on today?" Twilight said.
"Yeah. I shouldn't be gone all day long. I'll probably be back in a few hours or so." I said.
"What should I tell Spike incase he asks where you went off to in such a hurry?" Twilight asked.
"Just tell him that I'm heading up to Canterlot to have lunch with my old teacher from the history class." I said.
"Sounds believable enough." Twilight said.
"Good. If it sounds believable to you, then he should buy it. You're not easy to fool, you know." I said.
"Well, I can't say that you're wrong about that." Twilight said.
"I know. Okay, I'll see you later then and hopefully come back with good news." I said.
"But remember not to give away the super secret informational bits." Twilight said.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Don't miss me too much," I said before heading back downstairs and to the front door. "See ya, Spike."
"Where are you go-"
I quickly closed the door before Spike could finish and wasted no time to drive off in the Land Rover and meet up with Night Hunter.
A lot of buildings on the outskirts of Canterlot have been torn down since the last time I was here. Most of those structures were either too decrepit or out of date for Canterlot's current architectural design. The C.A.M.A building is the one of last still standing, and that's where I arrived at. As I exited the Land Rover, Night Hunter was leaning up against the side of the building and signaled me to follow him towards the back. The back of the building had a ground patio with two chairs made with wood that seemed to be dead.
"Hey, kid." Night Hunter greeted as he sat on the chair, causing it to quietly creak.
"Hey, Night Hunte--" *CRACK*
As soon as I sat down on the dwarf-sized chair, it split into two and tiny splinters scattered the floor.
"That went well." Night Hunter said with snide.
"Hey, it's the chairs fault for being weak." I said.
"And a bit of your's since that chair was mostly for ponies." Night Hunter said.
"Pfft, whatever. Either way, it was way past its use." I said.
"Yeah, I guess. Stupid inanimate object," Night Hunter said as he levitated the debris to the side. "How are Spike and those six females of yours doing?"
"We're still getting along like friends. Twilight still stresses over my job too much." I said.
"Oh yeah? Say, I heard that you helped restore the Crystal Empire with those girls. I gotta give a lot credit to you for going up against the unicorn king in the arctic by yourself." Night Hunter said.
"So you heard about my bragging?" I asked.
"Yep. Is it exciting to tag along on those important adventures with them?" Night Hunter asked.
"Sort of. All you really gotta worry about is the bad guy and the fate of Equestria, but it usually involves a lot of teamwork and the magic of friendship. I kind of just tag along and help save the day." I said.
"Pretty cool stuff. You truly are cut out for C.A.M.A." Night Hunter said.
"Speaking of C.A.M.A., there was an assignment we got from the rulers of the Crystal Empire that you wanted to discuss with me? " I said, bringing the topic to hand.
"Yeah." Night Hunter said, his voice getting serious and leaning inwards at me. "So, I just wanna start off with a recap of what you might've heard from Shining Armor and Princess Cadance. Did they mention that this particular assignment was an expedition?"
"Shining Armor mentioned the assignment being an expedition the day I left the Crystal Empire, so yes, he gave me a two weeks notice. But what type of expedition is it?" I replied.
"It's something that is right up our alley. Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor want us to go out into and sweep the arctic north for any possible creatures that could be lurking near the empire." Night Hunter said.
"Monster hunting..." I mumbled. "Wait, do they want us to sweep the entire arctic?"
"Of course not. That would take an incredibly long time. For the expedition, they want both of us to patrol the arctic that is within the ten miles radius of the empire. Either way, there will be a lot of ground to cover, and that's where your Land Rover will come in handy." Night Hunter explained.
"That's what it was made for. I'm also assuming that we're able to use our weapons up there?" I asked.
"Defiantly. But both the Prince and Princess requested that to use them only if a creature appears to be hostile." Night Hunter replied.
"Okay." I understood.
"Oh, and I hope you like camping because we're sleeping out in the arctic." Night Hunter said.
"Really? We can't sleep somewhere in the Crystal Empire? Somewhere it's at least a bit warmer." I complained.
Night Hunter chuckled. "Don't worry, our tent will be the insulated type. Plus, we'll have plenty of food to eat, too." Night Hunter said.
"Does it have ample space?" I asked.
"Caleb, I always think ahead of situations like that, especially when I heard that you were chosen to be in the expedition." Night Hunter said.
"That's good news," I said in relief. "What do we do when we get there?"
"We have to report to Princess Cadance and Shining Armor. They want to get this done and over with as soon as possible." Night Hunter said.
"So they want us to work hastily?" I asked.
"No. They want us to work and sweep the area the best we can for the safety of the empire, but they just want to get the weight off their backs." Night Hunter said.
"Gotcha." I said.
"Y'know, it actually makes me wonder something." Night Hunter began.
"Wonder what?" I asked.
"The empire protects itself with the love and unity of the crystal ponies, right?" Night Hunter asked.
"Yeah, that's how it works." I replied.
"Wouldn't that protection also apply with hostile creatures, or am I just missing something? I was just thinking because I don't fully understand the empire, but you might since you were just there two weeks ago." Night Hunter said.
"No, the protection only applies to evil. An evil that is similar to King Sombra due to him being consumed by dark magic. The protection wouldn't apply to something physical or some creature. They would be able to just walk in uninvited and do what they please." I said.
"Oh. I see. And that King Sombra got blow into a bunch of pieces, right?" Night Hunter said.
"Yeah, he's long gone." I said.
"Dang. Maybe we'll find a foreleg, or something out in the middle of nowhere in the arctic." Night Hunter said.
"I highly doubt it, but that would be rather creepy and disturbing." I said.
"Blegh." Night Hunter shivered.
"Anyways... what's the plan for tomorrow morning?" I asked.
"I'll come to you tomorrow morning, but it'll be early. How fast can you get to the Crystal Empire in your Land Rover?" Night Hunter asked.
"For the first time up there, it took me about an hour and thirty minutes, but only if I step on it." I replied.
"That sounds just great. Meet me at the Ponyville train station at six o'clock so that we can load everything in the back of the Land Rover and get to the meeting with Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor on time." Night Hunter said.
"There will be a meeting, too?" I asked.
"I forgot to mention the details because of our side conversations, but yes. Both will give us a rundown on where we should go and what we should exactly do. They just had me do the short briefing with you, but they will be giving us the full course on what we will be doing tomorrow." Night Hunter clarified.
"I figured they would do something like that. I felt this meeting between us was a bit quick." I said.
"Hey, I'm just doing the heads-up, Caleb." Night Hunter said, getting off the chair.
"I know. Okay, I'll see you tomorrow morning, Night Hunter. Might want to leave before anypony actually comes along."
Night Hunter and I walked up to the entrance to the Crystal Castle, where two crystal guards stood at. Both were sparkly, like every other crystal pony, but their armor was a bit more decorative than the royal guards up in Canterlot. They eyed us as we stood in front of them. Night Hunter and I concededly showed them our badges.
"Oh! We'll take you right up to Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor." one guard said.
"Thank you." Night Hunter said.
The guards led us throughout the castle until we stopped at meeting room's door.
"Just head on right in." the guard said.
When we walked into the room, Shining Armor and Princess Cadance were looking out the window that allowed a view to the arctic, but turned once they noticed us walking in. Night Hunter and I did a short bow in respect before walking up to the table to discuss with the two rulers.
"Good morning." Night Hunter greeted.
"Hello, Agent Night Hunter. I'm sure that you and Caleb have everything you need for the expedition?" Shining Armor asked.
"Yes. We loaded everything in Caleb's vehicle and ready. All we need is your guy instructions and we will be good to go, your highness." Night Hunter replied.
"Very good. I'll let you take over now, Cadance." Shining Armor said.
"Thank you, dear. Can I have you two come over here?" Cadance said.
She then laid out a map of the arctic that surrounded the Crystal Empire. Night Hunter and I scooted over to her and checked out the map with her.
"This is where we want for both of you to patrol." Cadance said as she traced her hoof around the ten mile radius circle. "To start off, we want you both to start where the radius ends; near the rocky mountains further up north."
"If something were to be living in the arctic, it's a good chance it'll be up there where it is more secluded." Shining Armor added.
"And if we find something?" I asked.
"Get a picture of the creature so that we at least know what we're dealing with, and then study it, if you can. See how it behaves. Once you've covered all of you ground, report your findings back to us." Cadance said.
"Sounds like that might take a certain amount days if you want to be through in the expedition." I remarked.
"Yep." Night Hunter said.
"But I'm fully sure you two can't handle, right?" Shining Armor teased.
"It's why we're here." I said with a shrug.
"I figured. Well, I think that's all we really have to say to you. Anything else to add, dear?" Shining said.
"Yes. You both already know this, but I just want to repeat that you should use your weapons only in the case if anything has the intent to attack. I don't really believe it's right to petrify a creature just from the way it looks." Cadance said.
"We understand what you mean, princess." Night Hunter said.
"Thank you very much, you two," Cadance beamed. "You are now dismissed to your duties."
Night Hunter and I didn't say much as we walked all the way through the castle. At the time, both of us had no idea if there was anything even in the arctic.
"Do you really think there's any monsters in the arctic?" I asked.
"Caleb, I have no idea. We might see some penguins and polar bears, though," Night Hunter joked, causing me to give a stifled laugh. "But honestly, I don't think anything would be able to survive for such long periods of time in daily sub-zero temperatures. We most likely won't see much. But I will admit that I have been wrong about stuff before."
"If we don't find anything, at least we got the chance to explore a piece of the arctic. Am I right?" I said.
"Sure, we can look at it in that perspective. Y'know, I haven't gone camping for quite some time, but I would've never guessed that I'd be planning to camp in the arctic." Night Hunter said.
"But you still want to do it, right?" I asked.
"Defiantly." Night Hunter replied.
Today, the arctic north was playing a bit more brutal than the last time. It was nearly a blinding snowstorm and I could barely see out the windshield of the Land Rover. The ride up to the rocky mountains was very, very slow and tedious. It took us almost an hour to travel ten miles just because of the extreme lack of visibility. And believe me, the windshield wipers were going as fast as they could.
"How the heck are we going to find anything in this crap?" I asked Night Hunter as I drove horizontally to the mountains.
"We aren't going to have a good chance on finding anything out in the open. See if you can find an opening, or something." Night Hunter said.
"Like, a crevice between two mountains?" I suggested.
"Anything that'll get us even closer to the mountain range." Night Hunter said.
We continued onwards for about half of a mile before Night Hunter started shifting his head a little bit.
"What do you see?" I asked.
"Look to your left. I think I see an opening to the mountains." Night Hunter said.
Sure enough, the mountain we were currently driving past came to an end and an opening could be faintly seen within the blizzard.
"Stop the car. Let's check this out on foot." Night Hunter instructed.
"Nice." I grumbled.
We both added hats and gloves to our arctic attires before exiting the heated vehicle. The strength of the wind was so strong that it blew my hat right off the top of my head.
"My hat!" I exclaimed, chasing after it.
"Make sure not to lose your head." Night Hunter said, raising his jackets hood over his head.
"I'll try not to." I replied, also putting up my hood once my hat was back on.
Night Hunter levitated and holstered his own Igneous in a side pouch that wrapped around his body as he adjusted his winter jacket.
"Huh. So that's how you guys use firearms." I noticed.
"Yeah. I've only seen unicorns use ranged weapons because levitation manipulation does the work. It's nearly impossible to use these for a non-unicorn unless they have an attachment to their body." Night Hunter said.
"I see what you mean. The Igenous isn't much of a problem with hands." I said.
"Lucky you. Now let's get moving." Night Hunter said.
The snow quietly crunched underneath us as we trekked through the deep snow. There wasn't much to look at, but Night Hunter and I noticed that the ground was getting slippery. I removed my glove and felt the ground, turning out to be ice.
"Look like were standing on a body of water that got froze over." Night Hunter said.
"Good thing for us because we know it's nice and thick." I said.
"The arctic conditions do that." Night Hunter said, digging in the snow.
At that moment, the snow storm began to gradually let up. My visibility started to get better, and that's when Night Hunter and I discovered that we entered a valley, a u-shaped valley, to be exact. The rocky mountains were all around us, so we were essentially in a bowl. At the best estimate, it was a mile long, so we had some ground to cover.
Our search for any creatures wasn't exciting at all. We walked alongside the rocky mountains for a little bit. There was a lot of rocks piled at the bottom of the mountains. This was most likely from the mountains crumbling and breaking off over the years. I'm not entirely sure if mountains do that, but that's my best guess. Over time, the snowstorm cleared up as we continued, giving us full visibility of the valley. That gave Night Hunter the idea to climb one of the small mountains in order to get a better view of the valley, but not the whole way up because that would obviously take forever.
"See anything?" I asked as Night Hunter looked through his pair of binoculars.
He remained quiet as he looked all around the valley like a prairie dog on high alert.
"No."
With nothing to see, we headed back down the mountain to resume our on-foot search.
12:27 PM
"Caleb! Come over here!" Night Hunter yelled from afar.
I then ran to Night Hunter, who seemed to be inspecting the snow for some reason. I soon found out what he was looking at when I felt my right foot drop off into the deep snow. When I stopped to look down, my foot was in small hole that was nearly filled with the fresh snow from the snow storm. But as I looked closer, I noticed an outline of a footprint that dwarfed my own foot, and my foot is relatively big. It had to ten times my foot size. I was both astonished and a little disturbed because the footprint itself looked just like a humans, but it appeared to be more wide and bumpy.
"Looks like I was wrong on any creatures not living in the arctic." Night Hunter said, grinning.
"Sure seems like it," I said while taking a picture of the footprint. "What do you think it is?"
"Something with human characteristics by the looks of this track." Night Hunter said.
"You don't think its, like... a giant human?" I wondered.
"Oh, no. Probably not. If these were to be giant humans, wouldn't they be smart enough to leave the arctic and find place somewhere warmer?" Night Hunter said.
"Oh, right, I suppose. We don't exactly have a lot of body hair, but we do have big brains." I said.
Night Hunter then examined the tracks a little bit more before they suddenly came to end twenty feet away from the first. This was most likely because the snow storm covered up most of the tracks with fresh snow, so that sucked for us.
"How big do you think they are?" I asked.
"I don't know. But they do have long walk strides." Night Hunter replied.
"Should we follow the direction the footprints head off to?" I asked.
"Might as well. Just be sure to stick close and not wander off too far." Night Hunter said.
We headed off in a north-west direction, which is where the tracks lead before disappearing in the snow. Both of us knew that we didn't have a lot of distance between us and the top of the valley, so it made us wonder why this creature would walk to the end of the valley. Our question was answered once we reached the end of the valley as well, only to be met with a towering mountain. At the very bottom of the mountain was a wide opening to a cave. Although it was light outside, I could see that it was pitch black way inside the cave. Night Hunter and I stood in our tracks and stared into the omninous cave.
"Let's take a look." Night Hunter said, walking with his Igneous unholstered.
"Alright." I said, also unholstering my weapon.
When we passed through the cave's mouth, we both slid down a slanted pile and rocks and gravel since the entrance dropped down about fifteen feet. This pile seemed to act like primitive set of stairs because it allowed accessibility to the inside and outside of the cave. Night Hunter and I then switched on our attachable flashlights and proceeded further in the cave.
The cave was just as cold as it was outside, and giant patches of snow coated near the entrance before the ground was nothing but rocks. I got intense chills when the wind from outside would blow in and emit an eerie howl throughout the cave that would drone on for about seven seconds at a time. The rocks below us shuffled and crumbled beneath our feet with each step we took, causing our footing to become off balance. It got really dark once the light of the outside faded as we proceeded further.
"This is fun, right?" I whispered.
"Meh. Do you have the X-ray Sensor with you?" Night Hunter asked.
"No. I left inside the Defender." I replied.
"Dang it. Oh well." Night Hunter said, sounding a little frustrated.
"Sorry."
We continued to slowly proceed throughout the cave, which was completely silent and free of any outside noise contamination. And it seemed odd when Night Hunter and I both heard a high-pitched noise somewhere further down in the dark cave. We both stopped and listened if it would happen again, but it didn't
"Did you hear that?" I asked, my breath fogging in the beam of the flashlight.
"I did. Sounded like somepony doing a short whistle." Night Hunter said, shining his flashlight all around down ahead of us.
"I don't know. I think it sounded like a snore. Y'know, when someone snores and they do a short whistle afterwards." I described, giving a quiet example.
"Whatever it was, it didn't sound very far away, so let's really move with caution now." Night Hunter said.
"Got it." I said.
It then begun to smell funny the further we went. There was a large, open tunnel that led to the right and the scent grew stronger. It smelled like wet dog, for a good description. More sounds began emitting from some other part of the cave, but they sounded even closer. For example, some were gurgles mixed with grunts. It was clear that there was something alive in the cave.
When the tunnel came to an end, we entered an open room that went down a ways. But further down was a orange glow that illuminated on the cave walls, and on four barely distinguishable, bulky figures. One was sitting up, hunched over, while the other three seemed to be lying down. We quickly turned off our flashlights to the sight and ducked down to become less obvious to these creatures.
"Oh, what the hell are those supposed to be?" I questioned.
"I can't tell. We need to get closer," Night Hunter replied. "You stick to the left wall and I'll stick to the right."
"Okay." I complied, moving into my position.
We both crept alongside the cave walls while still crouching. But of course, my foot had to slide down on the sloped rocks and caused them to tumble. This created a good amount of noise.
"Shush!" Night Hunter hissed.
"I can't help it. I'm much heavier than you!" I hissed back.
The amount of noise being made was just enough for the creature to hear. It didn't growl or roar, but made a curious hum instead. The one that was awake stood up on its two stubby legs and ran towards us with short, awkward strides. Each footstep emitted an audible thump and the ground vibrated.
"Uh oh!" I exclaimed, aiming the Igneous at the creature.
"Hold on! It's not a threat." Night Hunter said, calmly.
"How the hell do you know that?" I asked, looking at Night Hunter beyond belief.
"Just look." Night Hunter replied.
The tall creature slowed down, creating softer thuds, and lumbered towards us at a walking pace. It shifted its body to the left and right as it tried to get a better look at us.
Right when it was about twenty feet away from the both of us, Night Hunter switched on his flashlight to get a better look at it, as well. When the light shined on the beast, it instantly let out a squeal of displeasure and shielded itself with its gigantic hand while rapidly shaking its head. Night Hunter wasted no time to turn off the flashlight and that made everything better for the creature. Once it calmed down, it stood in front of Night Hunter and I, but still kept its distance. We could only see the silhouette of it because of the fire's lighting. But at the time, we could tell that it was big. It deeply sighed and smacked its lips or tongue before turning around and walking back to the others. It turned around and looked at us again when it realized that we weren't following it. And so, it quickly scooped up and tossed a pile of rocks in the direction of the fire.
"Should we really go with it?" I asked Night Hunter.
"Well, it hasn't eaten us yet and it's inviting us in a friendly way. Let's just go see what's what." Night Hunter said.
"Alright. Only because you think it's safe." I replied.
We kept our weapons still unholstered as we followed the creature. The cave felt more warmer the closer we got the fire, but still felt a little bit chilled at the same time. When we got the fire set up, Night Hunter and I were shocked to the creatures appearance. Firstly, it had to be ten feet in height. The body was covered in frizzy, grayish-white hair with some exposed skin from hair loss, and the facial features somewhat resembled an elderly man with a big nose. The upper torso took up most of its body while the legs were shorter and had broad arms that hung all the way to its knee. The creatures back and neck was encased with solid rock with tree branches protruding out, so the head looked as if it was coming out of the chest. And to top it off, it had a stubby tail in the back, too.
Two of three that remained at the campfire during the confrontation looked similar, but one had a missing finger on its left hand. The last one was different. This one was a little bit shorter than the others, but had long, brown hair all over it's body, excluding the face, hand, and feet. This one had the facial features that looked more monster, but with a long nose that pointed out two feet in length. This was the only one that decided to go back to sleep.
Night Hunter and I stood at the fire and let the heat warm us up, but still keeping a close eye on the creatures. The one sleeping began to snore loudly while the other quietly breathed, occasionally scratching themselves wherever they had an itch. Everything was quiet for a little bit before one creature decided to stand up and walk into a darkened section of the cave. It came back with a cluster of small boulders in its hand and offered some to Night Hunter and I.
"No, I can't." I replied, shaking my head.
So, it decided to offer the boulders to its cave-mates and they gladly accepted them. They each popped their individual boulder in their mouths and crunched on them with their teeth. After chewing, they gulped the fragments right down into their stomachs.
"Geez. These things must be really hungry." I said.
The same creature then got up again and ran down to the tunnel where we entered from with a makeshift bowl, leaving us me to wonder where it was going. A few more minutes had passed before it came back with fresh snow within the bowl. It then held the bowl over the fire and the snow began to melt into drinking water.
"That's ingenuitive." Night Hunter commented.
The creature then sipped out of the bowl and offered us some again, to which we politely declined. The creatures passed the bowl on to each other before it was empty and discarded it. The first of the creatures we met then randomly leaned down over Night Hunter and sniffed him, sucking his hat off his head and landing right back on. It then let out a loud belch, which released a foul stench of its own breath. I covered my face with my arm and squeezed my eyelids shut tight.
"Huugh! Gah! It's almost as bad as a Bufogren's breath, but shows a hint of mercy!" Night Hunter gagged.
And like that, the creatures went back to their neutral behavior, just sitting down and doing nothing. Night Hunter and I then looked at each other once the stench had faded.
"Now what?" I asked.
"Let's just leave. I don't think they'll mind." Night Hunter replied.
"Hopefully they don't. Okay, we are gonna head out." I said to the creature.
The creature just gave me a blank stare before giving a toothy smile that just seemed all too human, so I smiled back at it. With our visit in the cave finished, we headed back to the cave mouth and back in the unforgiving arctic. I stood still as I tried to piece together on what we just encountered.
"That was weird." I said.
"I know." Night Hunter agreed.
"You think they just sit in that cave all the time? Because if so, that's a sad life." I said.
"I don't think so. From what I saw, they probably only come out at night. Didn't you notice how most of them were asleep when we first saw them?" Night Hunter said.
"Oh, right, you probably got a point there," I said as I shuffled through my equipment until my hand landed on the camera. "Aw, I forgot to take a picture of them for documentation."
"No fret, Caleb. I'm not going back in their to flash those things with the camera. We'll just draw a picture of them." Night Hunter said.
"A picture? You're doing the drawing because I'm not the best drawer." I said.
"I don't care. Remember my drawing of the Equinius?" Night Hunter brought up.
"Yeah, I remember that monstrosity," I said. "Say, we should give those creatures a name, unless if they're already known."
"I don't believe those creatures have been documented before. They remind me a lot of the mud trolls that live way down south because of their height and posture. Come to think of it, they may be a specie of troll!" Night Hunter said.
"Cool! We've got trolls in the arctic! We should dub them as Snow Trolls." I said.
"Ehhh, we'll use that as a placeholder name for now. I bet we can come up something better." Night Hunter said.
This night was the night that Night Hunter and I actually camped out in the arctic. Yesterday, I was able to convince him for us to stay at an inn for the night, but it was part of a deal. We both deducted the amount of time it would most likely take for us to cover the arctic at our current rate, and it came down to two more days, tonight being the last. And so, we made a deal that we would spend one night at the inn and one night in the arctic so that we can fill in Night Hunter's camp-out quota.
At first I thought that I was going to hate camping out in the arctic, but it really grew on me in the early hours. Once we managed to pitch up the tent while battling the strong winds, we crawled in the tent and took off our arctic gear, only really needing our thermal clothing on. To aid in the insulation, Night Hunter brought a small heater for the tent. After the tent was heated at a pleasurable and cozy temperature, he threw it back in the Defender and let the insulation do the work for the rest of the night.
At the moment, Night Hunter and I were finishing up our report on the Snow Trolls. I was writing down all the information regarding the trolls behavior, how many there were, diet, and etcetera. Night Hunter, as said before, was in charge of drawing out the appearance of both the rock variant and the fur variant of the Snow Trolls. He had a little sketchpad and used his horn's levitation to illustrate with a pencil. For writing with telekinesis, the trolls looked really spot-on.
"Aaaand it's done. Finished before you." I said.
"Quality takes time, Caleb." Night Hunter teased.
I looked at my paper and at Night Hunter's illustration a few times.
"I'm just messin' with you. How does the report look?" Night Hunter said.
"Enough paragraphs to describe the creatures and everything required for documentation." I replied, showing him my writing.
"Good job. Oh, but you misspelled my name as 'Nighthunter' in the first one section." Night Hunter said, showing me my spelling mistake.
"Dammit." I jeered.
"Hm. Might as well check the rest of paper for my misspelled name." Night Hunter said.
"Yeah, I think I'll have to do that." I said, displeased in myself.
"And would you mind taking the papers and putting them in the glovebox of the Defender once you're done?" Night Hunter asked. "I don't want these getting all crinkled up the tent."
"Sure." I replied.
I then corrected one more misspelling of Night Hunter's name before I skimmed it over a few times. With that, I grabbed the documents, illustrations and quickly ran outside to store them in the glovebox. I was in such a hurry to get out and back in the tent that I forgot to put on snow boots, and that wasn't a good feeling at all.
"Forgetting something, Caleb?" Night Hunter asked as he waved my snow boots right in my face.
"Kind of! Now my feet know what a snow cone feels like." I said.
Night Hunter unzipped my clothing bag and levitated a fresh pair of thermal cotton socks into my hands.
"Thanks." I said.
"Yep. Do you want an MRE? I'm gonna have one and then it's lights out for me." Night Hunter offered.
"Nah, I'll pass." I said.
I then unzipped my orange sleeping bag and slipped into it, resting my head on the pillow and putting my hands behind my head. Night Hunter turned all but one light off so that he could eat, so I closed my eyes to sleep.
"Hey, Caleb," Night Hunter said, prompting me to open my eyes. "You ever gone camping before?"
"Sure. Back on Earth I did," I replied. "Didn't you say you used to camp a lot when you were a little colt?"
"Yeah. My mother, father, and I would take our wagon to the campgrounds by the Everfree Forest and spend the night there. We did that every summer, now that I think about it." Night Hunter said.
"Whatcha' guys do? Normal camp stuff?" I asked.
"We would make s'mores, feed the rabbits that lived near our campsite, and tell stories around the campfire. My father would always tell 'The Mare in the Moon' story because that one was my favorite." Night Hunter said.
"But we all know who that mare is now, right?" I said.
"Heh. We only knew her based on her alias at the time. That's what made the story spooky." Night Hunter said.
"And the Everfree Forest had campgrounds when you were a kid?" I asked.
"A lot of that forest has changed over the past fifty years. There was mostly natural wildlife in the Dovere territories at the time, but times have changed, y'know." Night Hunter said.
"I know what you mean." I said.
"What about you? Where did you go to camp at back in your world?" Night Hunter asked.
"Oh. Ahh, we would usually have a camper up at a campground in Prairie du Chien. Our camper was more of a miniature house than a tent." I replied.
"A house? Where's the fun in camping if you don't spend it in the wilderness?" Night Hunter asked.
"Well I guess my family decided that we didn't want to camp in that style. Before that camper, we had one that was more like a tent." I said.
"What was that one for?" Night Hunter asked.
"It was for the same use as the other. We used the old one for a trip to the Jellystone Park one time." I replied.
"That's an odd name for a park." Night Hunter said.
"It kind of is. I liked the place, but that bear mascot named Yogi scared me as a kid." I said.
"I would be scared too if it was a big bear." Night Hunter said.
"It's not a real bear, though. Its only someone in a cartoon bear suit." I clarified.
"Oh. So you were afraid of some cartoon bear?" Night Hunter asked.
"Hey, you'd be surprised at what little kids can get scared of." I said.
"Really? I've never seen any foals get scared of stuff like that in all my life." Night Hunter said.
"Well, it happens." I said.
"Yeah, okay." Night Hunter scoffed.
Night Hunter then started to eat his early morning meal. "You can go back to sleep if you want. I'm just gonna quickly eat this."
I awoke to the sensation of Night Hunter nudging my shoulder with his hoof. When I looked up at him, he seemed to be a little concerned about something just by the look on his face.
"What?" I asked before checking my watch.
"I think there's somepony watching us out here." Night Hunter said.
"You saw a pony outside?" I asked.
"It sure looked like one. I was just taking a quick smoke outside when I woke up about a few minutes ago, and that's when I saw a pony running away from our campsite in the distance." Night Hunter explained.
"Okay then. So, could get any physical features at all?" I asked.
"I would've been able to if that pony weren't so far away. But whoever it was, they were tall." Night Hunter replied.
"Uh, that's just great. Did you at least know where the pony ran off to?" I said.
"That I did. Come on out and I'll show you." Night Hunter replied.
I slipped out of my sleeping bag and put on my arctic attire before heading out into the cold. The sun was just beginning to peak over the distant horizon, giving the sky an orange color mixed in with the dark clouds of the dissipating snowstorm. Everything outside seemed very still for once since the blistering winds of the storm died down and the snow flurries became absent. But, to the east of us, it was more dark off that way, but I could still see the Crystal Empire a mile away.
"So... where did the pony head off to?" I asked.
"He went that way, just north of our position." Night Hunter pointed out.
"Why the heck would a pony want to run off that far into the arctic? Wait, did he see you?" I asked
"No, not at all. To be frank, it was almost as if he came out of nowhere." Night Hunter said, puzzled by his own response.
"Out of nowhere? Like, out of thin air?" I asked.
"I have no idea." he replied.
"Oooooh. It's a ghoooost." I kidded around.
"Ha. Ghosts. I don't believe in ghost." Night Hunter said.
"Me neither. But with all the stuff I've seen in Equestria, it could be possible." I said.
"I've never met one, so I never will," Night Hunter said before brining the original topic back to hand. "Okay, so I think we go after that pony. Get the Land Rover started up."
"Alright. Take this fuse chip, stick it in the fuel pump slot underneath the steering, and get the heater going while I brush all the snow off." I said.
"Okay." Night Hunter complied.
After Night Hunter and I did what we had to do, both of us hopped in the Defender and drove off. Night Hunter helped point me in the right direction on where to go while keeping the vehicle at a steady pace of sixty-five kilometers an hour. The direction we were going made me wonder on why a pony would be running northward into the arctic. Further north is where the mountains are and it gets colder up there, so it didn't make any sense to Night Hunter and I.
"Whoever this pony is, they sure are really fast." Night Hunter remarked.
"We should've caught up with him by now. I mean, there's not really a lot of hiding spots in the open arctic." I said.
"That worries me. I hope that pony wasn't spying on us the whole time." Night Hunter noted.
"Right. Are those papers still in the glovebox?" I said.
"They're there. I checked them already." Night Hunter replied.
"Then the pony should have no idea what we're doing out here if he were to of spotted us." I said.
"Hopefully." Night Hunter said.
Things seemed to be going normal for a while longer, but all of a sudden, the brightness of day began to slowly transition into a starry night with a full moon to the south. It was by far one of the surreal moments I've ever experienced.
"Wait a minute. What the fuck?" I questioned.
Night Hunter and I exchanged utterly confused expressions as I stopped the vehicle and stepped out. Both of us walked around for a short distance as we examined out surroundings. The temperature had dropped significantly and the moonlight glistened on the fluffy snow. We didn't say anything because we were too baffled to talk about what was happening. The weird thing is that the sun didn't set at all. Instead, the sky had just slowly transitioned from day to night as if it were a normal occurrence.
"Has this... ever happened before in your lifetime?" I asked Night Hunter.
"Never. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna would never pull a stunt like this before." Night Hunter said.
"Maybe it's a first for them?" I said.
"I highly doubt it, Caleb. It's not that holiday you humans have on April 1st." Night Hunter said.
"Should we keep going then?" I asked.
Night Hunter did not respond to my question because he was looking at something behind me.
"Who is that?" Night Hunter said.
I turned around and noticed a pair of dead trees in the distance.
"Look's like those dead trees we passed yesterday." I replied.
"Look closer. Don't you see the ponies over there?" Night Hunter said.
As I looked a little bit more, I could start to make out the shape of five ponies all standing on pedestals. The only odd thing about them is that they didn't move a muscle.
"I see now. Let's just grab the Igneous and head over there." Night Hunter said.
We quickly grabbed our weapons out of the back of the Defender and walked a short distance to the trees. Upon our arrival, it turns out that the ponies were actually pony-made statues.
"These were not here yesterday." Night Hunter said.
"You're right. They weren't." I said.
Four of the five statues appeared to be royal guards, but I couldn't tell if they were depicted as Crystal or E.U.P affiliated. I squinted my eyes as I examined the last one in the middle of the four, and the most largest. As I got a better look, I easily figured it out who this pony was. It was Star Swirl the Bearded, the most powerful unicorn ever know in Equestrian history.
"Hey, its Starswirl." Night Hunter noticed.
"I know, right?" I said.
Night Hunter's fascination with the statues slowly grew into suspicion. He then put a hoof under his chin
"But why are these even out here?" Night Hunter asked.
"I don't know. I'm not sure who would take the time to drag these out here." I replied.
"Well, I think it's connected to the sudden change in the time of day." Night Hunter said.
"Really? How?" I asked.
"Just think about it, Caleb! We passed this area three times yesterday and now these statues appear out of nowhere." Night Hunter explained.
"Oh, I see. And I sure don't see any hoofprints in the snow anywhere," I added. "It's almost as if we somehow... stepped, like, into a different universe."
"Does it really?" Night Hunter scoffed.
"Kind of. I'm not saying that we did, but it just feels like it for me." I said.
"Huh. I can't say I feel that way, but... Eh, I don't know." Night Hunter said.
"I don't either. Whatever's going on, it's weird." I said.
Night Hunter and I continued to walk around the area for a little bit longer, still searching for that pony Night Hunter spotted but to no avail. But aside from our search, the nighttime was rather calm and peaceful than yesterday and the day before. The wind was calm and gentle, small cumulus clouds floated by in the sky, and a few snow flurries fell to add on to the ground accumulation. But, after a while, both of us heard sounds in the distance, and it had vocal tone. It sounded like someone letting out a short, terrified yell.
"Over here!" I alerted as I followed the sound of the yell.
"Hold on." Night Hunter responded.
Once we regrouped, we began to move towards the direction of the voice. That one yell was the only one that we heard, so we were hoping that the source had not of left already. After a few more minutes passed, Night Hunter and I stopped in our tracks once we realized whoever made that yell was long gone.
"Where did he go?" I grumbled while quietly panting.
"I don't know, Caleb. But I would like to find this stallion before he gets away." Night Hunter replied.
Just then, the stallion let out a loud grunt that came from the left, and it was a lot closer than the first. I quickly ran towards that direction with Night Hunter close behind. However, I was so focused on finding that stallion that I wasn't fully looking at where I was going, and that's when I felt gravity pull me down. I ran right off the edge of a small hill and slid down the slope for about twenty feet or so onto a frozen body of water. My legs were buried under the snow from sliding down on my butt, soI was okay.
"You alright, Caleb?" Night Hunter asked.
"I'm fine. I landed on my flank, though. Damn." I replied.
"Oh. At least you're fine," Night Hunter said as he slowly walked down the hill. "It's not best to run down a hill."
"Ha. I'll be sure to remember that next time I walk down one, old stallion," I said as I picked myself up off the ground. "Now let's find that pony."
"Hello?" Night Hunter called out.
"Who's out here with us?" I called out, as well.
There was no response to our calls that echoed throughout the air. At the time, we stood near the shoreline of the lake and in front of us, as you'd expect, was an open range of frozen water, so there was no place left for the stallion to hide. In the moment of brief silence, Night Hunter all of a sudden turned around and stared up at the hill behind us.
"What do you see?" I asked.
Night Hunter then seemed to just snap out of a daze and looked up at me.
"What?" he replied.
"I said, what did you see?" I repeated.
"I-I don't know. I just had this gut-feeling that there was somepony watching us from up there." Night Hunter replied.
I myself looked up at the hill one more time. "Well, there's nopony there...."
Just then, a sudden wave of two emotions swept over me; fear and sadness. My chest felt tense and my eyes started to become hot while quietly sniffling.
"What's wrong?" Night Hunter asked.
"I just feel like I'm about to cry for some reason." I replied, wiping a small tear from my the corner of my eye.
"Why? Do you have dry eyes?" he asked.
"No, not at all. I just feel like it. I think we should get out of here right now." I said.
"No!" Night Hunter gasped with fear in his tone as he looked back up the hill a second time.
"What?!" I exclaimed.
Without warning, a tall stallion with a grey coat and a black mane manifested out of nowhere and sprinted away onto the lake, causing Night Hunter and I to stumble. From first glance, he looked like he was on the verge of freezing. He movements were weak, but he was definitely pushing himself to the limits on mobility.
"Hey! Hold on a second!" I exclaimed to the stallion.
A raspy growl then came from the top of the hill. Once we saw what the source was, Night Hunter and I quickly unholstered our weapons on sight. A simple black mist with solid, emerald green eyes dashed after the stallion and passed through Night Hunter and I as if we were nonexistent.
"It's going for that stallion!" Night Hunter shouted.
Night Hunter took a shot at the mist with his Igneous, followed by me, but had no effect on the mist. It then stretched upwards an extra ten feet and came down like a hammer onto the stallion and pounded him onto the ice.
"Just leave us alone!" the stallion cried as the mist stared him down.
"Oh, you will not stop me so easily like this, foolish pony. You are the one who brought me into this world, and now we will both become one. The empire will feel my wrath once I finally finish you."
That dark voice instantly clicked with me. The mist's voice was the exact same I heard from King Sombra those two weeks ago. The now identified stallion then pitifully weeped as he remained pinned to the ice, still struggling to get free. We did our best to help, but every shot we took did nothing to the mist, so that is what prompted us to stop.
"We have to go, Caleb... We need to warn Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor!" Night Hunter exclaimed.
The shadow mist slowly began to overcome the stallion and covered him until he was nothing but blackness. I hesitated because I wanted to help, but Night Hunter had a point. We turned around and started to trek up the hill, but that's when things started going south.
"Woah!" Night Hunter exclaimed.
Night Hunter slipped and slid all the way back down to the bottom of the hill.
"Hold on! I'll carry you up!" I said as I went back down for Night Hunter.
But at the same time, King Sombra started to rise up to his feet, but his back was turned to us. His head slowly turned to his left side and casted an evil glare with those devilish eyes. He quickly turned all the way around and just charged at us at a terrifyingly fast pace.
"Holy shit!" I blurted once I reached to Night Hunter and ran back up the hill with him.
I shot my head back at Sombra and he was almost right on my heels, so I just wrapped my arms around Night Hunter and leaped as hard as I could to the left in order to mess up the dark unicorns pace. When we tumbled all the way back down the hill, we aimed our weapons, but a miracle had happened; the time of day was once again set back to early morning, just as it was earlier.
"He's gone." I said.
Night Hunter and I took heavy breathes as we looked all over the place for the dark unicorn, but it seemed as if he just vanished into thin air. Once we calmed down and holstered our weapons, we looked at each other.
"What was that supposed to be?" I asked.
"Nothing good at all. Is that stallion still over there?" Night Hunter asked.
"No. No, he's gone," I replied as I looked over to the area. "But... I do see something over there in the snow."
"What is it?" Night Hunter asked.
"I can't tell what it is from here.... Do you want to take the risk and go see what it is, Night Hunter?" I asked.
"Get your Igneous out. Let's go check it out." Night Hunter said.
We approached the mysterious object with extreme caution. At first, I noticed that it was pointed and had the shade of red, but I soon realized what it was.
"Is that a horn?" Night Hunter asked as we looked down.
"It is. And I know who's it is. It's King Sombra's. That was the stallion we just saw." I said.
Night Hunter's eyes went wide.
"You're kidding me, right?" he asked.
"I'm not. Like I said, when King Sombra was defeated, he blew into a bunch of fragments. I guess we just found out where his horn landed." I explained.
"Wow. I mean, dang. I had no idea who that was at first, but I sure do now." Night Hunter said, starting to carefully reach out for the horn.
"Woah, woah, woah. What the heck are you doing?" I exclaimed.
"Its gotta get out of here one way or another." Night Hunter replied.
"Well let me do it. I'm the one wearing gloves, so I might be more suitable for this task." I said.
"Fine. Go ahead." Night Hunter said.
I bent downwards and gently gripped the horn with my fingers. Upon contact, I froze and looked onwards as something out of my ordinary happened. A sensation of rage began to fill my head. I dropped the horn back into the snow and stood upwards, turning to Night Hunter as I tightened both of my fists.
"Caleb? What are you doing?" Night Hunter asked. He obviously started to become uneasy, but he remained still and continued to look at me.
I stared and didn't say a word as a fire burned in my head. I'm not going to lie, but I just wanted to kick Night Hunter right in the face as hard as I could. This burst of rage was just so sudden, but at the same time I knew that my contact with the horn was causing it.
"Caleb.... Caleb!" Night Hunter said with a raised tone.
I then suddenly regained my self-control and snapped out of my rage-induced trance.
"Yeah... Phew. Sorry, Night Hunter. Holy crap." I said, walking away from the horn and dropping onto the snow to sit down.
Night Hunter slowly walked up to me and sat by my side. It was a bold move, I'll admit, considering my behavior.
"You okay?" he asked.
"I'm fine. That was just so sudden." I replied.
"Caleb, I saw that in your eyes. The green." Night Hunter said.
"My eyes were green?" I asked, looking at him with concern.
"They were green, but a darker shade. It was quick flash of it, actually." Night Hunter said.
"Is it gone now?" I asked.
"Yeah, it's gone. Didn't you mention before that King Sombra was under the influence of dark magic?" Night Hunter said as he looked over at King Sombra's horn
"He was." I replied.
"Then I have no doubts that horn still has remnants of dark magic in it." Night Hunter said.
"No, really... Maybe a whole lot of dark magic if it could alter my behavior and change the environment." I said, sarcastically.
"I'm just saying. So, do you feel normal again?" Night Hunter asked.
"Yeah. More better than before." I replied.
"Then come on. I think it's best if we get out of here and head back to empire to warn Princess Cadance." Night Hunter proposed.
"Sure... Let's go." I sighed.
We then wasted no time to leave the area behind and walked back to the Defender, passing the pair of dead trees again. Instead of going back to our camp, I just bypassed it and drove all the way back to the Crystal Empire, and I made sure to be fast about it. That place is a top priority.
So yeah, it has been over two months since I last wrote anything down. As I stated in the title of this entry, I have been recovering over my experience in the arctic north with Night Hunter. Things have not been going good for me over this long timespan, but I have recently gotten better. But you're probably wondering what the heck has been going on with me over the past two months that would make me stop writing.
First, let's go back to the beginning in June. What I remember when Night Hunter and I got back inside the Crystal Empire was how strange I felt. I had a very nauseous feeling, but there was also something else going on with me at the same time that I still can't put my finger on at first.
When both of us ran inside of the castle and asked for Princess Cadance and Shining Armor, I kept on thinking "Get out! Get out!" for some completely random reason. Although I was thinking that one phrase consciously, it felt more like a voice deep inside my subconscious trying to gnaw at me. Once Night Hunter and I met up with Princess Cadance and Shining Armor, these weird feelings seemed to just fade, and I felt just like my normal self again. I instantly realized how extremely odd and abrupt this was, but I was just glad the sensations went away and brushed it off, forgetting about it the best I could.
But on the other hand, Princess Cadance and Shining Armor immediately took great concern to our report and acted without hesitation. After we gave the location of Sombra's horn, Shining Armor took the courtesy to take a fairly large squad of his royal guards and set off into the arctic while Princess Cadance stayed back to ensure that the love and unity of the empire doesn't become compromised in any way. It would make sense, too, since Cadance is the Princess of Love. I mean, it's not like the Crystal Heart can run away from danger, so it had to be protected from any possible bad scenario.
We stayed at the castle for a couple hours before Shining Armor returned with his squad. To make things short, they pretty much destroyed the last remnants of King Sombra. Disintegrated, as a matter of fact, so I give big props to them. Speaking of props, the two rulers showed up their utmost gratitude for our services afterwards. Some may think that getting paid would be expected from a job of such as high magnitude, but knowing that I gained honor feels a lot better than receiving a bunch of coins. And so, we basically left the Crystal Empire as hero's.
Over the next following seven days, everything was going normal for me. My behavior and personality had not changed, but on June 10th I had three odd dreams that lasted until the 21st of July. Well, maybe not odd, but more like disturbing, for a better word. Another weird detail is that these dreams of some sort were played in, like, sequences of events. Believe me, I was scared out of my mind when the first one happened, but then I learned to be.... interested with them. Here, I'll just do a summary of each and see what you think.
In the first nightmare, I was basically wandering in the frozen arctic all by myself in the dead of night. I had no destination or goal in mind, but I just felt the need to keep walking aimlessly, and this went on for quite some time. But as time went on, I would keep seeing a black mist following me in the distance. Every time I would turn my head to look at it, the mist would vanish in thin air, almost as if the mist didn't want me to fully see it. However, I did know what it was because it's the same mist Night Hunter and I saw while in the arctic. Strange that it didn't try to attack me, but I wasn't complaining.
The second dream was a bit more distressing. I started off inside the Crystal Castle, but something was wrong. The long, narrow hallway I stood in was only illuminated by green fire with a purple outline. As I began to walk forward, the hallway was invaded with terrifying noises. It was mix of warbled voices saying incoherent sentences and abrupt jump-scare sounds that would make me jolt. No matter how much I expected the sound, it always scared me, making me extremely uneasy. I then stopped and refused to proceed further, but a voice of King Sombra came from above and beckoned me to keep moving. I so didn't want to, but I did with a lot of hesitation. That was all I remembered before abruptly waking up.
And for the last dream, that one had to be the most intense. I started out in Crystal Castle's hallway, just like the second, but there was a lot commotion going on outside. I followed the noises through out the hallways until I ended up outside on the balcony. The sky was currently in the dead of night, but it wasn't enough to blend in the two equine figures that darted across, hundreds of feet up and towards the arctic. There was a moment of brief silence before a nearly deafening cracking of ice filled the air, followed by a slam that sent vibrations up the castle. Immediately after, the entire empire, that as far as my eye could see, just stretched out for miles and retracted at the speed of light until the empire seemed to just zip up and vanish, followed by an explosion.
Again, everything was ever so quiet. As I opened my eyes, I appeared to be in, well, nothing. By nothing, I mean literally standing in nothing but utter blackness. But when I looked to my left, there was twelve drained Crystal Pony free-floating with their eyes closed, almost as if they were in a deep sleep. That's when I soon realized that there were possibly hundreds of Crystal Pony's floating in this empty space. The clopping of hoofs walking on a hard surface then brought my attention behind me. To my surprise, none other than King Sombra steadily made his way to me, but he wasn't corrupted with dark magic of any sorts, he was that same stallion that Night Hunter and I saw in the arctic. Once both of us were face to face, he took in a breath as if he was about to say something, but stopped and his eyes moved upwards. He was looking at something from behind me, but I couldn't turn my head to investigate his distraction. Without an explanation, I started move back from the unicorn without the use of my legs. He then looked at me again, but said nothing at all, only giving me a submissive facial expression. So, after all that, I slowly opened my eyes to reality. I looked over to Twilight and Spike, both asleep in their beds. Contented, I rested my head back on my pillow and went back to sleep.
As I lie on my bed right now, I'm still trying to piece together what all of this was about. What I don't understand is why Sombra, or whatever was causing these dreams, would show me dreams involving the last days of the empire over that took place over a thousand years ago. Is it just to tell me an already told story that needs to be elaborated for some reason, or was there something more to it? And also, why didn't Princess Luna drag me out until the last and final dream I had involving the Crystal Empire, and where did the source of my residual dreams go? The answer I do not have at the moment, but I'll think about it.
Despite all of these weird occurrences, Twilight, Spike, and the girls seem to be doing just fine. Out of all this past time, there has only been three big news flashes. First, Rainbow Dash got her own pet tortoise named Tank. I thought it was hilarious how Rainbow gave Tank a little propeller to help him fly. And it actually works, too. Nearly rammed into me while he was getting used to the flight controls. Damn flying tortoises.
Second, I'm happy to say that the Carrot Cake and Cup Cake are now the parents of two healthy foals. One is a boy named Pound Cake and the other is a girl named Pumpkin Cake. I remember hearing about Cup Cake being due for a couple months ago, but I was probably doing something more important, such as C.A.M.A work, that I just forgot about it, so this was a surprise to me when I received the news. The day the foals were born, I learned something about newborns. For some reason, ponies are not born with the white part of their eyes. Instead, it's just the color of their iris. I guess it's just the way they are. Odd, but very cute at the same time.
And lastly, this one involves Spike. Two days ago, there was this huge migration of dragons that flew over the open plains. Sadly, I wasn't there to witness it with the girls, but I managed to catch a glimpse of the flock in the distance, continuing to where ever they were heading. And so, out of Spike's own curiosity, he left Ponyville to follow the migration and to, surprisingly, find out what dragons are truly like. I wasn't present on the day Spike left because I was too busy at Barnyard Bargains, buying some food that I wanted to get. At the time I got back to the library, Twilight had left Ponyville, as well, along with Rainbow Dash and Rarity to track Spike. The only source of information for me was a lone note that was left on the table.
I seriously hope they're all right because I have no clue where the dragons migrated to. The only other location I can think of is the volcanic regions on the other side of the Celestial Sea. I really want to go after them, but I know that Twilight is smart and will know what to do in a tense situation... Usually. Either way, she'll think of something.
In the middle of the late afternoon while feeding Owlysius, I heard the front door to the library creak open. Owlysius noticed, too, and turned his head to look out the window.
"Who's that?" I asked Owlysius, taking a look out the window myself. I managed to catch a glimpse of Rainbow Dash and Rarity walking inside before the door closed.
"Are you in here, Caleb?" Twilight called from downstairs.
"I'm up here," I replied, heading down the stairs. "Man, where and how far did you guys go? I've been here all by myself for about four days."
"Following Spike all the way to where the dragons migrated," Twilight sighed. "Of course, they had to migrate all the way across Equestria."
"And it was the long way, might I add." Rarity said.
"The long way? Did the dragons end up at where all that lava is at?" I asked Twilight.
"They did. But instead of going across the sea, the migration pattern went all the way up to the arctic and took a big loop-de-loop back south until they reached the volcanic region." Twilight explained.
"Why though? That's an odd choice for a migration." I said.
"I don't really have an explanation. Dragons aren't studied that much." Twilight replied.
"But aside from that, check out this awesome egg I got." Spike took over, presenting me a relatively large egg with yellow and orange color patterns.
"Dang. I like the colors on it. Where'd you get it? Better yet, what's inside the egg?" I said.
"It's the egg of a Phoenix." Spike replied
"Phoenix, Phoenix... I think I've heard of those before. So, if I'm correct, the parents just let you take their egg?" I asked
"Spike actually managed to snag this one without the parents noticing, but it was more of an act of courtesy." Twilight said.
"Courtesy for what? He could've put it back in the nest." I said.
"There's more to it, Caleb. We also got chased down by a group of jerky dragons." Rainbow brought up.
"Yeah. Garble and his goons. They tried to pressure me into smashing it, but I told them off." Spike said.
"They did?" I asked.
Spike nodded his head.
"That's messed up. At least you managed to stand up for yourself." I said.
"Thanks, Caleb. Looks like we have a new pet to look after, Twilight." Spike said, gently caressing the shell.
"Owlysius will surly be surprised." Twilight remarked.
"No doubt about that." Spike said.
"Well, sounds like you guys had a crazy adventure again." I said.
Twilight giggled. "It's never really a dull moment around here in Equestria."
The sound of Owlysius' wings flapping brought everyone's attention to the stairs, where he flew down from.
"Owlysius!" Twilight exclaimed.
"Hoo." Owlysius landed on Twilight back and nuzzled her mane.
"Aww. You sure did miss me, didn't you?" Twilight asked.
"Hoo."
After Twilight and her pet had their happy reunion, Twilight mentioned one little thing that brought to my attention. It was a big one. I mean, this hit me real hard because it's close to home. Literally.
"I also wanted to mention another thing, Caleb." Twilight began.
"What's that?" I asked.
"Well, while all three of us were venturing through the volcanic region behind Spike, we found one of those automobiles, except it was stripped of the metal body and everything." Twilight said.
"Yeah. And it was more smaller and weirdly curved." Rainbow added.
"I also collected a golden plus lying next to it. Does this mean anything to you?" Rarity asked, levitating the object to my hand.
"It's the logo for the manufacturer," I replied, placing it on the table and remaining silent for a few seconds. "Did you, like, see anything else that looked out of the ordinary?"
"Not really.... Well, there was also a couple of buildings further out in the distance." Twilight hesitated.
"Were they structurally sound?" I asked.
"They did look a little damaged." Twilight replied.
"Huh. Either way, it sounds like the portal is still active and dropping stuff from Earth into this world." I said, turning towards the bookshelf and shuffling through.
"We really wanted to check them out, but we had to keep a close eye on Spike." Rainbow said.
"I know what you mean. Say, Twilight, where's the map of Equestria at?" I asked.
"It's the next shelf below you." Twilight replied.
I grabbed the rolled up map off the correct shelf. "Oh. Man, who moved that?"
I then opened it and placed it flat on the table, prompting everyone in the room to gather around. I traced my finger eastward until it landed on the volcanic region.
"By your best estimation, where was all the Earth stuff at?" I asked.
"It was all in that section of open space. It's not far from where the dragons are staying. I'm guessing that you want to head over there?" Twilight said.
"I do. I know there's a risk, but I just need to check if there's anyone stranded out there. If I could survive being sucked into a vortex, then I bet anyone else can. Guys, I could not actually be the only human in Equestria after all." I said.
"I fully understand what you mean, Caleb. If that's what you want to do, then you go and do it. I'll give you a pointer on how to get to the volcanic region quicker." Twilight said.
"Thank you, Twilight." I said.
"Ah, now I feel all guilty that we didn't check for anyone." Rainbow said.
"Don't sweat it," I chuckled. "So, what were you saying about getting there quicker, Twi?"
"Instead of taking the loop-de-loop near the arctic, you can drive up to Manehattan and take the ferry across the sea. It would be near impossible for your Land Rover to traverse the uneven mountain and terrain with all that ice." Twilight said.
"Where does the ferry go to? A village all the way across on the other island?" I asked.
"It's a small village near the Guto River. The only place inhabited by ponies on the island as a matter of fact." Twilight replied.
"Okay, good. And then should I follow the path all the way past Griffonstone?" I asked.
"It'll take you right to where you need to go." Twilight said.
"Oh, and one more thing. Is there a lot of lava in the open space?" I asked.
"Not at all. The magma is all isolated near the volcano further south, so you'll be fine." Twilight assured.
"Wonderful."
After our little meeting, I grabbed my bag of bits and stored them in my pocket and hopped in the Defender. I pretty much had all of the necessities I needed for my trip in the back; food, water, and etcetera. Its not a lifetime journey, but it's useful. I'll also be sure give to whoever I find stranded out there. If I find anyone. Twilight and the others then walked up to the driver door as I adjusted the center mirror.
"Well, I hope you find what you're looking for, Caleb." Twilight said.
"I kinda do, too. Hey, if I do find someone out there, will you guys help me explain what the heck is going on, or even just where they are at?" I said.
"Of course we will. Right guys?" Twilight said.
"Absolutely." Rarity said.
"I'll make sure to go more easy on them. You know what I mean, Caleb." Rainbow smirked.
"Yeah, I remember my second day in Equestria. I know how you are, Rainbow Dash," I said, starting up the vehicles engine. "In that case, I'll see you guys either tomorrow or the day after tomorrow."
"Take care of yourself out there." Twilight farewelled, giving a warm smile afterwards.
I simply gave a single nod before driving away from the library.
"And if you see Garble and his dimwitted assistants, be sure to sock them into next week!" Rainbow faintly shouted over the engine.
"Rainbow Dash! Please!" Rarity faintly scolded.
"Scratch that! Make it into next month!"
I had been driving across Equestria for quite sometime since I left Ponyville. I was predicting myself to take an hour at most to arrive in Manehattan, but the route is proving to be a little bit difficult. At first, I tried taking a shortcut through a forest because I felt wary about driving on the train tracks, but there was no chance because of how dense it was.
The main reason is not only because of an oncoming train, but the tracks go straight through a mountain, so it's a dark tunnel. If the train's coming, then I gotta back my butt out as quick as I can without crashing. But when I thought about the rail system more, the track I was so worried about was actually a one-way. And so, I just quickly blazed through the tunnel and back out into the light of day.
With a total time of around an hour and twenty minutes, I was starting to approach the main bridge that connects Manehattan with the mainland. I noticed right away that the bridge was relatively similar to the Brooklyn Bridge back on Earth, but the real kicker is that the support cables are attached to these giant horseshoes that tower over the bridge. Frankly, design-wise, that's pretty awesome.
I gawked at for a little bit before quickly driving over the bridge, cutting from the train tracks and getting onto the streets of Manehattan. From that point on, the driving was slow paced. All the taxi carriages had no idea what the hell I was in, so I decided to just coincide with them and kept up with their pace, which was between 25 or 35 kilometers an hour.
Eventually, I actually got lost in the city, and this is easily exponentially smaller compared to Manhattan in New York. But with my luck, I spotted a vendor along the sidewalk in the distance. There was a lot of taxis parked along the side, so I just had to flick on my blinker and parked behind them all. As I began my walk, I stared up at the impressive skyscrapers that stood at least at a couple hundred feet and had similar architecture to Manhattan's, except some had some unique equine related pieces added on. I mean, this is Equestria, so their a lot or pony stuff to go around. Speaking of Manhattan, it's just a bustling. I definitely stuck out like a sore thumb as I walked along with the crowd of ponies, but they gave me my room. A lot of ponies stopped to look at me, seeming to be fascinated to see The Human in a big city. A few ponies actually asked me to be in picture with them, which I gladly accepted. But really, I just wanted to get to the volcanic regions as quickly as possible, so I wasted no more time to reach the vendor.
"How are ya?" the vendor greeted in a New York-esque accent.
"Doing great. It's my first time in Manehattan, actually." I replied.
"Realeh? Well, yous come to teh right place. I gotcha a map tat'll direct ya to wherevah yah need tuh go," the vendor said, giving me an entire map of Manehattan.
"Thanks, bud." I thanked.
"Where are yous goin' anywaeh?" the vendor asked.
"I'm looking for the ferry port." I replied, unraveling the map.
"Oh. Teh ferreh's right around teh next block. Yah can't miss et." the vendor informed.
I examined the map and located the "You are here" spot. Sure enough, I was not far from the ferry port, so I kinda felt dumb at that moment.
"Oops. I think I drove past that a while ago. I remember going past the sea, but I didn't see the port." I admitted, rubbing my eyelids. Seriously, I didn't see i
"Ha! Ah, tat's just funny right der! Hey, I wish yous teh bes' of luck, Caleb." the vendor said.
"Yes. Please forgive my obliviousness," I laughed. "See you around."
I continued my drive around the next block before I spotted the ferry port. I drove the Defender up the loading ramp with a few other carriages and parked it. I then walked up onto the top deck alongside 7 other ponies who were also waiting for the ferry to start it's venture across the Celestial Sea. There was a twenty minute, but it went by quick.
7:48 PM
The ferry reached the opposite port near the end of the Guto River after its twenty-six minute venture. A short walk from the port was the settlement Twilight spoke of. Not many ponies were outside since it was getting dark out and the sun was beginning to set in the west.
Once everyone exited off the loading ramp, I drove off and got onto a path that leads across the Guto River and into a tiny wooded area. Along the path were four ponies heading in the direction of the settlement while a single pony wearing a brown, hooded cloak and carrying a saddlebag headed in the direction I was going. That looked a little sketchy to me, so I drove past quickly.
A very short ways down the path was tavern, or a bar of some sort. I couldn't spot a sign for the building, but I could be going blind and didn't see it. I slowed down and examined the building.
"I wonder if they have any cider. May not be as good as Sweet Apple Acres, but I could go for some." I thought to myself.
I diverted my course and turned right, parking in front of the tavern. Before I went inside, I switched the interior light on and unraveled the map of Equestria.
"Okay, so I'm here... So I just continue forward and I need to turn once I get all the way down there..." I said to myself as I looked over on my route.
My attention to the map was broken for a moment when I noticed the cloaked pony walking into the front entrance of the tavern. I went back to the map for a minute before I exited the vehicle and walked inside the tavern as well. My eyes looked around the cloaked pony, who was inspecting a scenic picture on the wall. I, on the other hand, stood at the bar area.
"Good evening, Caleb." the bartender said.
"Hi. I bet it's safe to say that you have apple cider. Am I right?" I asked, smugly.
"We have it right in this barrel keg. How much you want?" the bartender asked.
"Just a pint will do." I replied.
"Okay then. That'll be four bits." the bartender requested.
I then received my drink and took a big swig of it. Like I said before, I think no other can beat Sweet Apple Acres, but it was still good. Must've had some alcohol in it because the cider felt warm as it went down my throat, so I didn't drink too much. The cloaked pony walked up to the bar, standing a few feet away from me.
"Whatcha' want?" the bartender asked.
The mysterious pony used her right foreleg to unveil the hood around her head before responding.
"Hot water will do fine." she replied with a low voice.
I slightly turned my head and looked down upon her. Right off the bat, I noticed her rose colored mane was pulled up into a thick mohawk fashion. Her coat was dark orchid and she had opal eyes, and she seemed to be a bit taller than the average mare, at least from my perspective. We both looked forward before I broke the ice with her.
"Are you from around here?" I asked the mare.
"No. I'm just passing through here." the mare replied, still looking forward.
"Hey, so am I. I'm Caleb, by the way." I introduced.
"Mm." the mare hummed.
"What's your name?" I asked.
"My name?" the mare asked, turning her face towards me. "Cherry Pie. My name's Cherry Pie."
My response was delayed when I got a better look at her face. She had an old yet visible scar present on her right set of eyelids, but I also saw that her horn was broken in half, giving it a jagged, edged appearance.
"Nice to meet you. So, what happened to your horn?" I jumped to.
Cherry Pie's face formed a scowl.
"Nothing. Either way, it's really none of your business to ask me about." Cherry snapped.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Let's just forget I said that." I apologized. That seemed to bring Cherry back to her normal mood.
"Good." Cherry said, taking a sip of her water.
"Sooo... where are you heading off to?" I hesitated.
"Anywhere. I'm actually looking for something." Cherry replied.
"So am I. Well, actually somebody." I said.
"Are you?" Cherry asked, skeptically.
"Yes. I came from another world through a universal portal. And, I'm heading for the volcanic regions because I believe the portal is still creating worm holes and dropping stuff from my world into this world." I explained.
"Where does the 'somebody' part come in?" Cherry asked.
"My main reason for this trip is to find any other humans, which is the name of my species, that may be isolated out there." I replied.
"You're going through all this trouble just because of a ray of hope that another one of your kind is out there?" Cherry asked.
"Yes, of course." I said.
"Okay..." Cherry replied, seeming a bit confused for some reason. "What kind of stuff do you think is being dumped?"
"Probably all kinds of stuff. Automobile's is one of them, which is one of the advanced technologies that Equestria doesn't have. That's what I have parked outside." I said.
"Advanced technology? Is there a lot?" Cherry asked.
"Maybe. The chance is probably high, though. Why?" I said.
"I would like to tag along with you. I think this technology might help me find what I'm looking for." Cherry said.
"That's fine. I'd like to have a companion with me." I said.
"Thank you. But don't consider me a true friend of yours. Let's consider this a mutual partnership; I find something and you find something." I said.
"Whatever you want. We can get going now, if you'd like." I offered.
It took a good amount of time, but Cherry Pie and I were getting close to the volcanic regions. There was a visibly subtle orange glow in the distance. Throughout the entire drive to reach this point, Cherry Pie and I barely spoke a word to each other. It was almost as if both us were trying to understand one another. What I was trying to grasp is what she's looking for. Cherry keeps personal stuff to herself and doesn't like to give it away that much, her horn being a prime example. Otherwise, she's pretty chill and collective.
Once our destination was in reach, I parked the Land Rover on top of a hill about a mile away and took in the scene. The silouhette of the four rocky mountains that were presented from the magma's glow contrasted with blackish-purple night sky.
"We're here." I said.
"I could tell from the glow even before we got here," Cherry said. "What's the plan now?"
"I'll show you," I reached for the map and opened it. "I want to get to this giant, open area out west. This is where I was informed that all of this stuff was getting dumped at."
"I see. It looks like you can cut across to the right to get there faster." Cherry pointed out.
"I was thinking about doing that. Hopefully all of the dragons are sleeping. I should've came out here much later at night." I said.
"I hope so, too. I've seen a few dragons throughout my travels, but never a dragon of... such giant proportions." Cherry said with a pause.
"Well, they should leave us alone if we stick to where we're going. Don't you think?" I said.
"Yeah. I can't fully guarantee on it, but yeah." Cherry replied.
I continued on by turning right and traversing through the forest Cherry mentioned for about five minutes before I managed to find a clearing to the open space. I drove along the terrain at a relatively fast speed just to cover more ground quicker. Cherry and I remained silent as we both scanned the wasteland for anything out of the ordinary. The only sounds were the tires rolling and thumping against the dry, gravely, and uneven ground. It wasn't long until both of us spotted a few things lying around. There was a blue, wrecked sedan that was flipped over, a miles worth of utility poles that were firmly planted in the ground, and a broken mining headframe.
"Nothing but junk." I said, inspecting the inside of the demolished vehicle.
"If all this random stuff is here, then there has to be more nearby. Something different." Cherry said.
"Right. Let's just keep looking around." I said.
We kept looking a bit longer, but mostly found tiny, miscellaneous items like soda cans, broken glass and car parts. That is until Cherry found something big.
"Caleb. Do you see that way over there, or is just my eyes playing tricks on me?" Cherry asked.
I squinted my eyes to get a better look in the darkness of night. There was an outline of a towering bridge that was given away by the horizon. Just from the glimpse alone, it was evident that the portal shook it up and caused it to collapse.
"I can see it, too." I said.
"Do you think there might be other humans over there?" Cherry asked.
"Most likely..." I replied, still staring at the bridge.
"So, do you want to check it out at all, or no?" Cherry asked.
"Might as well. I gotta be sure someone's alive, at least." I said.
We made a short drive over towards the bridge and got a better look at it . The bridge was a long one, not as big as the Brooklyn Bridge, but a bridge that definitely connected one mass of land to another. The road on each side had collapsed into nothing but concrete rubble. However, much of the metal supports and a few cables remained intact with the two tall pillars on each side. Cherry and I then split up for a short distance and amount of time, me looking for any people and her looking for whatever the hell she's looking for.
When I got further down one of the roads, I shined my flashlight on a lone, badly damaged vehicle sitting on all four tires. After getting out of the Defender and getting closer, the windows were all shattered and inside the vehicle was a man who had to be in his late thirties or early forties. His posture was limp in the way he lied in his seat.
"Hey. You okay?" I whispered to the man while standing at the window.
When I went to touch the middle of his neck, he was very cold, stiff, and I felt no pulse. I should've known at first from his pale complexion. I averted my eyes for a moment before looking at the lifeless man once again, debating wether I should just leave him here. I certainly didn't have any shovels to dig a hole and I wasn't planning on putting a dead body in the Land Rover, so I just left him there. Hopefully the dragons won't touch him.
Cherry and I met up about twenty minutes later where the Land Rover was left to discuss our findings.
"Well, I found somebody, but they didn't survive the collapse," I said, depressed. "What about you?"
"Nothing good at all. I found some humans, but I'm afraid they were crushed under all the rubble. Sorry to say." Cherry replied, not seeming phased but still sympathetic.
"Goddamnit..." I sighed. The bridge above us began to loudly creak from one of the metal support beams under stress. "We'd better get moving before this whole thing collapses on us."
"I agree." Cherry said.
10:43 PM
The barren wasteland of the volcanic regions proved to be rather empty. We must've passed the buildings that Twilight mentioned because we couldn't find them anywhere. A two mile worth of what appeared to be an interstate lied across the land, incredibly still intact as if it were stripped off like a band-aid and set back down gently. Can't really say that I didn't go over 100 on it, mostly just to lighten the mood between Cherry and I from our similar dark encounters before going back to our normal pace.
"Again, thanks for coming along with me on my search." I said.
"What exactly for?" Cherry asked.
"Well, its always nice to have a, well, business partner to come along on big trips or searches, if you know what I mean." I said.
"Sure. I usually prefer to go at things by myself, but I guess you're okay." Cherry complimented.
"So are you, even though you're kind of quiet. Kinda sucks that we aren't having much luck on our searches." I said.
"It does." Cherry agreed.
"What are you looking for advanced technology anyways? Are you some kind of scientist or something?" I said.
"Hm. Funny, but no. I'm just trying to find a way to restore my horn. Nearly my whole life, that's what I've been looking for." Cherry said.
"You're serious?" I asked, surprised.
"I am. Ever since I was a filly and left everyone behind." Cherry said.
"For how long?" I asked.
"14 years. I've been doing my best to keep track of the years, so I'm actually 24." Cherry replied.
"All by yourself?" I asked.
"Yes." Cherry said.
"Isn't there any restoration spells that can fix your horn?" I asked.
"I've already thought about that, and there is." Cherry said.
"What's the problem then?" I asked.
"I need the original pieces of my horn for the spell to work. When I couldn't find them, I just started digging up the ground for them, but they were gone. Other than that, I've been searching for a new way ever since. But then I ran into you and when you mentioned advanced technology, I just had to come along." Cherry said.
The feeling of anxiety filled my chest when she fully explained to why she wanted to come with me. Sure, I know I said we had advanced technology, but I highly doubt the portal would've dropped anything tenable for a unicorn's horn restoration. I really didn't want to tell her truth since we were just getting started to like one another, but I made my choice.
"Yeah.... But the thing is that humans on Earth have no knowledge of the magic of Equestria on any level. Magic doesn't exist in our world." I admitted.
"But you have advanced technology that can help me.... Right?" Cherry asked, her tone beginning to change into something more that made me feel uneasy.
"Well, no, not really," I said, slowing the Land Rover to a stop. "Our technology isn't exactly as miraculous as you're hoping it to be. Either way, we'd be extremely lucky to find a prosthetic out here, but your horn won't look like what it used to be." I said.
You should've seen the look on Cherry's face. She just looked devastated to hear the news. This soon turned into a short fit of frustration as she began slamming her hooves against the door and her horn began to slowly spew crackling, light-blue energy like a fountain that illuminated the interior of the Defender.
"So I just wasted all of my time on a false statement?!" Cherry shouted.
"I'm sorry! If you just told me what you're specifically looking for, you wouldn't of had to of come all the way out here with me." I rebutted.
"I know! Argh, what was I thinking? Just let me out of here, there's no need to drive me back!" Cherry growled.
"No, please, Cherry. 14 years obsessing over something that happened so long--" I said, cut off.
"Don't you even think about calling it an obsession! It is a goal and hope. Ever since I've lost my horn, ponies, including my only friends, have been thinking less of me, and now it seems that you are now starting to follow along with them! Just let me out of your vehicle right now before you decide to abandon me!" Cherry demanded, her eyes beginning to water.
"I'm not abandoning you! And Cherry, it's not a healthy way to live. Are you going to keep this up for the rest of your life?" I asked.
"I said to LET ME OUT!!!" Cherry shouted at the top of her lungs.
Cherry slammed her eyes tight shut and gritted her teeth as the magical energy surged out of her horn as a bolt of electricity, giving me a painful shock on my left arm that drew out with a concerning numbness.
"OW!" I yelped, opening and stumbling out of the Defender while my left arm violently shook involuntarily. I was now afraid of her.
When I turned around, Cherry had already jumped out and dashed away from the area, leaving a trail of dust. I made no attempt to chase after her, but I all I really did was stared out in the direction she was running, allowing to collect myself and leaving me all alone. That was the last I ever saw or heard of Cherry Pie.
There was nothing out there. This whole search for any humans who were still alive was turning into a complete bust. All I found throughout the time that Cherry left me was a water tower from a city named Kirksville and the buildings that Twilight mentioned, vacant, and fully intact, despite losing their foundation. Luckily, I didn't find anymore dead people throughout my search. At this point, I was giving up and calling off this whole search. It just begun to feel pointless to me after all those hours out there finding nothing. And so, I sat in the Defender, parked out in the middle of nowhere in the dead of night.
"Six hours of sleep isn't so bad." I said to myself.
I then switched off the engine and reclined the seat back as far as I could to create a makeshift bed before resting my head. With that, I crossed my arms and shut my eyes for the rest of the night....
3:22 AM
There was a short yet sudden movement that shifted my sleeping position a little. I opened up my eyes and rose up a little to check my outside surroundings. Of course, it was still dark out. But thanks to the moonlight, I noticed the dust of the dry land blowing across the ground.
"Looks like a storm's coming in. That's a miracle for this place."
I stepped out the Defender to check out the sky. I cluelessly stared up into the sky, but there was nothing. Well, there wasn't at first. As the twenty-five to thirty mile an hour winds continued to gust across the land, a dark mass that was north-east from where I was began to manifest in the sky; at least a mile away. I couldn't see it very well, but this dark mass blocked out a tiny portion of the starry night and grew to the size of a fairly large cumulus cloud.
"What the heck is that supposed to be?"
I continued to stand in one spot and monitored the cloud. The wind ever so slowly began to die down until it was absent. That's when everything got so quiet. This prompted me to turn around as I got the feeling of déjà vu. It was suddenly like if I was in some sort of dream. But it all made sense once the flashes started.
My surroundings were immediately dimly lit up with a light-blue flash that came from the direction I was previously facing. The source of the flashes was coming from within the cloud. It was at that moment when I realized that this was no cloud, but actually the other end of the portal that connected with far-side back on Earth. The other end is much, much bigger.
"Oh my God," I said as I stared at the portal in shock. "Nine months and you're still going strong?"
The flashes continued for a good five more minutes whilst the wind started gaining strength again. Believe it or not, I really wanted to get closer to it, but I knew that would be a dumb idea either way. And so, I just hopped back into the Defender and watched the show from my safe distance.
The flashes got more erratic with each passing minute before it finished with a lingering glow. The cloud started to swirl in a hurricane-like fashion as the energy within created a vortex at the base. This I was expecting, from my past experience, but there was something new to it. Something I wasn't expecting at all.
As the vortex slowly rotated clockwise, the energy looked like it was wanting to dip towards the ground. In the center emerged a chunk of the portal energy, forming into the shape of a worm and hung like one. I was speechless. This thing then circled around and stretched outwards before it abruptly stopped. I shifted my head to the left to see what the, well, thing was doing, but it was just hanging there, not moving at all.
"Is it looking at me or something?" I asked myself.
I started up the Defender and kept the lights off as I cut the wheel and moved to the right. The energy worm was defiantly looking at me as well as it followed my movements, but remained stationary. But, it wasn't long before the cloud that housed the portal decided to move, too. It didn't come directly towards me, more of a horizontal manner, which was fine by all means.
Once I had drove half a mile away from the anomaly, I noticed that it had stopped in its tracks. The worm made a quick poke at the ground and the portal, or worm, started to emit an otherworldly droning sound, rather than the hum I heard last year. And finally, that's when a mass of a green energy flowed downwards and made contact with the ground. Through my binoculars, I could see the formation of a building or house starting to be formed. I couldn't take my eyes off the sight as I witnessed a building phasing in and out of existence as it must've been crossing between the dimensions into this world. It's truly impossible for me to fully describe alone with my limited human vocabulary. I bet all the scientists were crapping themselves.
However, after the building finished oscillating, the portal anti-climatically disappeared within the blink of an eye and left the planet, darkening the land once again. I was still processing this supernatural event and debating what I should do next. Oddly enough, I noticed that the portal had placed the building dead ahead in front of me, even when I was a good distance away from it. Still, I just don't know. Whatever the hell that things was, it definitely showed signs of intelligence.
"Screw it. I'll go over and holler for anyone. If no one replies, I'm out of here."
I made haste with my drive to the newly placed building that only took a minute to reach. The Defender's high-beam headlights shined onto a two-story residential house with a garage, one that would typically be found in the suburbs. The left side of the roof was all cracked and disfigured, but the rest of the structure remained intact, surprisingly. I then walked up to the front door and gave the door three gentle pounds with my fist.
"Hey, anybody in there? You okay?" I called out, peering through the tiny window.
All I got in response was silence. I knocked a few more times and waited by the door for a couple minutes, but my attention was broken by sounds coming from overhead, the sound of flapping wings, and they sounded, well, relatively big.
"So, what is something like you doing all the way out here?" a teenage-esque voice asked from above.
I turned to the sound of the voice and shined my flashlight up. On the roof was a red-scaled dragon with a yellow belly and wings, a skinny looking purple dragon, and an albino, each standing on both legs.
"H-hey, tall guy, that's bright-- Wha- Woah!" the skinny one gasped, slipping on the shingles and landing on the ground with a thud.
"You talk at all, or are you a mute?" the red dragon asked.
"I can talk," I replied before looking at the skinny purple dragon. "Is your friend okay?"
"He's fine. Me and him have done crazier stuff than that." the red dragon replied.
"Huh-huh, yeah! Just a scratch. It ain't nothin' at all." the skinny one laughed off. Based on the way his voice sounded, I could tell this one wasn't the sharpest tack.
The red and the albino then jumped off the roof and used wings to control their landing. All three were at least a foot shorter than me, so I wasn't too intimidated by them.
"Where are you from? Definitely not from around here by the looks of it." the red dragon said.
"Yeah. Far, far away from this place." I replied.
"Alright, alright. Being all mysterious, I see." the red dragon said.
As I stared at the trio of dragons, I suddenly remembered two things I heard yesterday.
"We got chased down by a group of jerky dragons." "Garble and his goons."
"Hey, red." I said.
"What?" the dragon replied.
"Isn't your name Garble?" I asked.
"Hey, how did you figure out my name? I haven't seen any of your kind around here." Garble demanded.
"A friend told me. He was a dragon, actually." I explained.
"A dragon who's friends with a different specie? What a freak. Well, at least you're not a pony." Garble said.
"Ch'yeah. A pony." the purple one repeated.
"What's wrong with the ponies?" I asked Garble.
"I can't stand them at all. They're all about that friendship, kindness, flowers and sparkly rainbows. Oooooh! Ugh, it just makes me sick to even think about them." Garble said with disgust.
"Or maybe your just mad that you got juked by some a couple days ago." the albino dragon teased.
"Shut up." Garble said, annoyed.
I really wanted to go off onto Garble when he confirmed himself, but I knew that wouldn't such a good idea. So far, Garble and his goons didn't show any hostility towards me, but he is a jerk.
"Well, it sounds like you've had it rough. I'm Caleb, by the way." I introduced.
"Interesting. Like I said before, the name's Garble, that's Sobek, and this lovely drakaina's name is Fizzle." Garbled said, smuging at Fizzle.
"Dude, stop calling me a drakaina! I can't help that my scales have feminine colors!" Fizzle retorted, getting all embarrassed.
"Hey, I'm just getting you back at your little comment about me and those ponies." Garble said.
"Whatever, Garble." Fizzle mumbled.
"Okay, well, thanks for the stopping by." I said, walking past the dragons and up to the front door.
"Oh, were not going anywhere. You trying to get in, too?" Garble said.
"Yeah. The door's locked and no ones home. And, it looks like there's a bunch of furniture and stuff inside, so I'm just gonna take what I can." I said.
"No way, we had the same idea." Garble said.
"Good. Here, grab that rock. The one that looks like Sobek's head." I instructed Garble.
"Hey!" Sobek exclaimed.
"He got you good, Sobek." Garble said, examining the rock.
"Now throw it at the window. That'll give us an opening." I said.
Garble then chucked the rock at the window, causing it shatter into broken, edged shards. The teenage dragons chuckled to the small amount of destruction.
"Feels good, doesn't it?" I said.
"Dang straight." Garbled agreed.
"Alright, let's get inside. Watch out for the glass, that'll cut you right up." I said.
We then crawled through the window and entered into a dining room.
"Weird looking ground." Garble said, raising his right foot off of the vinyl-wood floor.
"Yeah, don't slip on it." I said.
"What's in here to take?" Fizzle asked me.
"All kinds of stuff: Food, technology, furniture, money. I'm just primarily looking for food and some other useful things. I'll be in the kitchen." I replied.
"Cool. Y'know, you're not too bad, but not as good as a dragon." Garble complimented, I guess.
"Oh, why thank you." I replied.
"Hey, let's go check out those seats, guys." Garble said to his friends, heading to the living room.
With Garble and others occupied, unlocked the front door and left it wide open for easier in and out access before heading into the kitchen. I opened the pantry to a variety of snacks, cereal, and canned goods. I immediately went for the Oreo's before anything else, such as bread, chips, tomato soup, frosted wheat cereal, and etcetera. With the power out, the food within the refrigerator and freezer would soon go bad. The food was still relatively cold due to house just being dropped into this world. I busted the door down to the garage with a kick and found a red cooler on a high shelf. I then opened up the ice maker and scooped as many ice cubes as I could into the said cooler before filling it up with frozen food, meat primarily. I even found some fresh ground beef, so I can make some nice burgers out of that.
"Should probably keep this meat away from Twilight."
As I loaded up what I could from the kitchen to the Defender, I found an old cellphone lying on the counter.
"Man, this is an old Tracfone. Still, it's something cool to show Twilight and Spike." I said, putting the phone in my pocket.
I then walked over to the stairs that led up to the second level, only to be met with a comedic scene of Garble and his friends trying to manuever a sofa through the front door.
"Garble, it's not going to fit that way. Try turning it the opposite direction." Fizzle suggested.
"Argh, this is impossible! Let's just throw it out the window." Garble said.
Sobek and Fizzle then lifted the sofa up and just threw it out of the dining room window. That broke all three windows.
"Its out!" Sobek shouted.
"I can see that, Sobek." Garble replied.
When I got upstairs, the second floor was a lot smaller than I imagined. The only rooms up there was a bathroom, a storage room, and the master bedroom. I got some toilet paper, shampoo, shaving necessities, and body wash out of the bathroom and brought that to the Defender before going into the master bedroom.
In the master bedroom is what anyone would expect: a bed, nightstand, wardrobe, closet, all that kind of stuff. I slid open the closet door to a bunch of clothing and a laundry basket. However, on an upper shelf was a beige colored bag with zippers. I brought the bag down and opened it up, revealing a Sony Handycam that seemed to be from the 90's due to its design and video quality. Inside the other side pockets were four extra tapes, a charger, and a spare battery.
After I wrapped the bag around my shoulder, I flinched to the sudden sound of metal rapidly jangling, prompting me to shine my flashlight onto the source. Behind me, up against the wall, was a kennel that housed a light-brown Labrador Retriever. It stood upwards and gave out a short, alertive bark.
"Oh no." I said.
The lab continued to stare at me with it's light-reflective eyes that appeared to be green, continuing on with its soft barks. It didn't seem to be scared, but more surprised. I know I would be if there was a stranger in my house.
As the lab began to quiet down a little bit, I kept thinking about whether Twilight would be willing to accept another pet in her home. I mean, you got me, Twilight, Spike, Owlysius, and that new Phoenix chick all going to be living in the library. However, I did know that I couldn't leave the dog behind, locked in its crate to starve. And so, I grabbed the kennel and hauled it down the stairs. I then gently placed it outside the dining room window and moved the crate into the back of the Defender.
"Stay here for a little bit, pooch." I said, examining the Labrador's grey hairs that were scattered on its face.
Back inside the house, I managed to find a half-empty thirty-two pound bag of Dog Chow, a box of Milkbones, the dogs food and water dishes, a dog brush, a dog bed, and its leash. While I loaded all of that in the back as well, I could hear Garble and the others knocking over stuff in the garage. It was a few bangs at first, but then the rusty Cobalt's car alarm started loudly blaring over and over again. Through the honks, Garble was calling for me in the garage, so I quickly went to the garage door and manually raised it up.
"What did you do?" I asked, my voice raised.
"We just broke the window to get inside and it went off." Fizzle replied, covering his ears much like Garble and Sobek.
"This thing needs to turn off now!" Garble exclaimed. "The Dragon Lord doesn't really like loud noises around here this late at night!"
"Wait, there's actually authority around here?" I asked.
"Kinda! Now how do you--"
"WHO IS MAKING ALL OF THAT NOISE?!" an intimidating and dominant voice bellowed in the distance, causing the building to slightly vibrate.
"Jesus! How big is he?" I asked, unlocking the drivers door.
"He's ginormous, dude! Hundreds of feet tall!" Sobek replied.
"Aw, to Tartarus with this house. We're getting out of here!" Garble said, flying out of the garage and away from the house.
"Hey, don't you leave me here like this!" I shouted after Garble.
Sobek wasted no time to fly out, too, but Fizzle hesitated and looked back at me for a moment.
"Sorry, Caleb." Fizzle apologized before following forth.
I then started tugging onto the steering wheel and bludgeoning it with my clenched fist. I put down so much force that literally smashed it into a mangled mess, probably breaking the steering column, but it didn't stop the alarm at all. Before sprinting to the Defender to make my escape, I grabbed a black box that lied on the Cobalt's floor. Once stowed away, I did a sharp one-eight in the opposite direction of the house and floored it with all the lights off and focusing on what was in my path.
I was thankfully out of harms way once the house that sat thousands of feet away from my position was engulfed by a huge beam of fire that shot down at it like a cannon. The entire open space was illuminated with an orange glow before going dark again, leaving the house now but a pile of burning wood and glowing embers. We got lucky to get out in time.
It has taken a lot of time backtracking from the volcanic regions, but I finally made it back to Ponyville in the early afternoon. I could've returned earlier in the morning, but the Labrador had fallen asleep around four in the morning, so I took that opportunity to get some sleep, too. Otherwise, I bet I would fall asleep at the wheel from a broken sleep schedule. At least I'll be wide awake tonight for my Everfree Forest patrol.
The dog sat up in its crate, idly staring out the window as we drove through the streets of Ponyville until we reached the Golden Oak Library. It looked at me as I got out of the Defender and headed for the back door to let it out.
"Try not to freak out once we get inside," I said, hooking the retractable leash onto the dog's collar. "Come on out, dog."
The Labrador refused the exit the crate. It continued to sit inside the crate, still staring at me and checking its new surroundings.
"Come on, pooch." I calmly coaxed, but to no avail.
"Maybe it will come out if I give it a treat."
I then reached into the box of Milkbones and presented a treat to the Labrador, but still maintaining my distance. This managed to get the dog to stand up, but continued to gaze at the bone. And so, I broke the bone in half and held it in front of the lab's nose, encouraging it to eat the treat off my palm.
"Pretty good? Come out and you can have the rest." I signaled with my left hand.
It took a little bit more time, but the Labrador gave in and hopped out of the crate and came to me.
"Good dog-- Or... Bridgette. Good Bridgette." I said, noticing the name tag dangling off the collar while rubbing her side.
Once done eating, Bridgette just had to get my scent and began sniffing my legs before moving on to the grass. The more she sniffed, I noticed how she appeared to be following a certain path. Of course, this lead right to the front door of the library.
"Alright. Let's head inside and meet your new friends." I said.
Opening the door, Spike was one of the very new things that Bridgette saw. She then went a series of barks that made Spike jump upwards.
"Woah!" Spike exclaimed. "Where'd you get the dog from?"
"Found him in the volcanic regions." I replied.
"Oh, I see you brought a little friend back." Twilight said, trotting down the stairs and joining Spike.
"I hope its friendly. Dog nearly scared me to death." Spike said.
Bridgette's face immediately went straight and she lied prone on the floor to the two alien creatures presented in front of her.
"Awww. She's being submissive," Twilight said as she began to scratch Bridgette with her hoof. Bridgette then started going on a sniffing frenzy up and down Twilight's neck, tickling her. "I can't say I've ever seen this kind of breed before."
"You never heard of a Labrador Retriever?" I asked.
"Never had. I don't think that breed even exists here in Equestria." Twilight replied, slightly nudging Bridgette off her.
"Cool. So she's the first Labrador in Equestria." I said.
"Right. Looks like you two have something in common already; you being the first human in Equestria and all." Twilight noted.
"You're right about that, Twilight," I said, turning to an unsure Spike. "I don't think she's scared of you now."
"She sure didn't sound like a scared dog." Spike said.
"Here. Stand over there and call her over. See what happens." I directed.
"Alright," Spike replied, walking to the far side of the room. "Uh... c'mere. C'mere, girl." he called.
Bridgette obviously knows that "girl" is referring to her because she turned and walked over towards Spike, also sniffing him as well before steadily licking his scales.
"Okay. Well, this is nice. Good dog." Spike praised, giving Bridgette a pat.
See? Bridgette's not so bad." I said.
"Probably because she's not exactly a puppy." Twilight said.
"Oh definitely. Puppies can be more rambunxious. Oh, and her other tag said that she was ten, so that's seventy years old in human years." I informed.
"We have the same method of telling a dog's age, too." Twilight said.
"Ah." I said.
"So, did you find anymore humans out there, or was it just Bridgette?" Spike asked.
"Yeah, how did that go?" Twilight added.
"Not so good. I met this crazy mare along the way, but she ran off on me. On the other hand, I managed to find more structures from my world and some stuff I decided to take back with me." I said, putting emphasis on the last few words.
"What do you mean by stuff? Like technology that humans use?" Twilight asked, intriguingly.
"I only found some of the old stuff. Not very modern, but it's human technology. The rest is just food, hygiene stuff, and Bridgette's necessities. I'll have to show you later once I get Bridgette settled in. Would you mind if I house her with us." I said.
"Well, she does seem to be tame and well-behaved. I don't see any reason why not." Twilight said, gleefully.
"All right! Looks like you got a new home, Bridgette." I said.
Bridgette looked up at me with her tongue hanging out and her tail wagged. Don't know if that was coincidence or if she understood what we said, but it was cute.
"But remember that she is your main responsibility. I'll be glad to help take care of her when you're gone, but I am not routinely clean her excrement out of the yard, FYI." Twilight said.
"Yeah. That doesn't seem like your thing, Twilight. You, on the other hand, look like you were born to clean dog waste out of our yard." Spike teased me.
"Gee, thanks," I groaned. "So, now that Bridgette is new member of the household, I was thinking we could all take a walk around Ponyville before the evening." I suggested.
"That sounds like a good idea, Caleb. That will be a great way for her to get used to her new surroundings and the ponies who live here." Twilight agreed.
"You comin'?" I asked Spike.
"You betcha', Caleb." Spike said.
"Alright, then let's go. C'mon Bridgette. We're going for a walk."
Bridgette ran to the door and hopped up onto the door, looking back at us. For an old dog, I have to say that she sure does have the personality of a puppy.
Yesterday, I was messing around with the video camera and tested it out by doing a little tour video of the Golden Oak Library. It turns out that unicorn's are capable to conjure up a spell that is relatively similar to the way a video camera works, except it's more of playback of reality. For example, if an event happened a few minutes beforehand, the unicorn that witnessed the event can use the playback spell to create a levitating screen comprised of magical energy and the rest is explanatory. The Tracfone managed to stump Twilight at some extent because she never heard of a method or spell to talk to people from a long distance. The only Equestrian method similar to cellphones are journals or textbooks that have been modified with a instant message spell. Other than that, I moved everything I collected from the house into the library, and Twilight helped me organize everything. Not sure if she was doing out of courtesy or out of impulse, but there's nothing wrong with a little help.
So, later on during yesterday, a little thought came to my mind. It was completely out of the blue, but I remembered that Lyra had me stop the Defender so that she could draw it; back in December of 2012. She requested this because she on this human documentation fix at the time. Lyra is absolutely fascinated and obsessed with our species, but you probably already knew that. With all this new technology, I felt confident that Lyra would be interested and checking them out and documenting them as well. That's what led me to her house.
After knocking on the door and waiting, Bon Bon was the one to open the door. Her eyes shifted downwards and noticed the camera bag that rested against my side.
"Hey there, Caleb! What's in your bag?" Bon-Bon asked.
"I found some things that Lyra might want to look at. It's stuff from Earth." I said.
"Okay.... So you brought stuff from this planet, or am I missing something here?" Bon Bon asked again, confused.
"My Earth, Bon Bon. Stuff that was invented and used by humans." I clarified.
"Really?" Bon Bon stepped to the side, allowing me inside. "Where did you get it?"
"Way far east out in the dragon territories. The portal is still going strong back on Earth and it decided to make a little drop-off at, like, three in the morning on Monday." I said.
"It's still active, huh?" Bon Bon aspirated. "Well, I hope it eventually goes away, for the sake of your world."
"I do, too," I said before unzipping the beige bag. "I got a portable camera and a mobile phone. Here, check them out."
Bon Bon balanced the items with her hoof as she examined them.
"I'm probably not gonna use the phone at all, but I can get over a thousand minutes worth of video footage on the camera." I said.
"These are pretty cool. Lyra is definitely going to love these." Bon Bon said.
"Where is she? Lyra Heartstrings!" I called out.
The sound of shuffling came from upstairs, followed by hoofsteps.
"She heard you." Bon Bon noticed.
Lyra poked her head around the corner at the top of the stairwell and looked down at me.
"I thought I heard the voice of Caleb Barlow," She trotted down the stairs and fluffed her messy mane, gleeful of my presence. "What's up with you?"
"I brought over some human stuff that I thought you might like." I said.
It took a second, but Lyra's eyes lit up with excitement and surprise as she marveled over the camera and phone.
"Are... are those what I think they are?" Lyra stammered.
"Mm-hmm. Human technology." I said.
"Oh my goodness! Bon Bon, these are perfect for my submission to the Equestrian Society of Anthropologists!" Lyra cheered.
"And I applaud you, Lyra. Now that Caleb is here, you get the rest of the information you need." Bon Bon said, walking into another room.
"That's what I was planning. Thanks, Bonnie!" Lyra chirped.
"Its Bon Bon, Lyra." Bon Bon said from the other room.
"What kind of information do you need from me?" I asked Lyra.
"I need your help on the aspects of human culture. I never really got around to ask you because I've been busy with everything else. What do you say?" Lyra said.
"Sure. I'll do my best to answer each question." I replied.
"Thanks! You're the best!" Lyra said with a squeak. "C'mon, I'll take you up to my study area."
I then followed Lyra upstairs and into a small room that made me feel cramped. Papers that illustrated the male human body, such as skeletal, internal organs, and etcetera were pinned on the wall, above the small work desk. I was quite impressed with the relatively professional and scientific illustrations.
"Wow, you're a way better drawer than I am." I complimented.
"Those are the final illustrations. The drafts are in the trash can over there." Lyra pointed out the overflowing trash can with crumpled paper.
"Yeah, I can see that," I said. I then eyed onto the more explicit illustration of the male human body. "How the heck do you know what a human penis looks like?"
"Funny story, actually. While you were in that unconscious state in the hospital, I happened to drop in to check on your well being when the hospital staff had to remove your clothing due to your abnormal growth. The image kinda stuck with me." Lyra explained, seeming embarrassed.
"Right, or else my blood flow would start to become restricted until the cloth gave away." I said.
"You mind if I borrow the camera and phone so that I can draw these?" Lyra asked, levitating the items.
"I don't mind. Just drop them off at the library when you're done," I said. "So, how did you find out what the human body is like on the inside? All of the organs, muscles, skeleton, the lymph things, they all look accurate."
"I actually went off diagrams of chimpanzee's first, and then I went off your body to estimate the size, design and shape of yours." Lyra replied.
"That's a smart idea. And there's chimps in Equestria?" I asked.
"Not a whole lot," Lyra said. "They're the main reasons I got into anthropology. I've always found them interesting in the way they look and are built, but you being in Equestria bring those things to a whole new level." Lyra said, levitating a clipboard and a pencil, but manipulating her magic into the shape of a hand.
"Oh, it's the hand again." I noticed.
"I think it actually helps me write and draw a bit better, believe it or not." Lyra said, twirling the pencil.
"Better than hooves." I said.
"I agree. Now, there's no other chair, so maybe you can lean up on the wall without breaking it?" Lyra poked fun at while sitting in her chair
"I think I'll just sit on the floor," I sat down. "At least I'll be at your level, short one." I shot back, causing her to smile.
"Okay, let's get started. Off the bat, I'm going to assume that humans live in societies similar to ours, but more advanced." Lyra said.
"Very similar in most societies. But America, the country I came from, is the one I'll be focusing on for you questions." I said.
"Why only your country?" Lyra asked.
"Because there's hundreds of countries in my world. Each one has different, uh, cultural norms, beliefs, and ways of life. I don't fully know everything, but I will use a few for comparison of America." I said.
"Norms and beliefs? We'll save those for later... Okay, so how does American society work?" Lyra asked.
"Umm, we are one of the most developed society's in the world. A lot of us American's expect others to do their part for society and work in order to support our economy. There's also a very old saying called 'The American Dream.' If I remember correctly, it's like getting a job, a house, and settling down to raise a family. So, life in America is rather simplistic and carefree most of the time." I said.
"What was your role in American society?" Lyra asked.
"Me? I was still a student in high school and worked at a retail store, so I didn't have a real place in society yet." I replied.
"At this old of an age? Why are you required to go to school if your already do something?" Lyra asked.
"No, the retail job is just for money. Education is vital to be a full contributing member of society. We don't get cutie marks that spell out our destiny." I said.
"Really? How long do you need to learn? You were 19 years old when you came to Equestria." Lyra said.
"It depends on how far one wants to go, but each human starts off in elementary school, then up to middle school, and then finish off in high school for a diploma. The diploma is the ticket into college, which can take as long as one wants. If someone wants go for two or four years, they can. But the longer they go, the more higher degrees they earn in terms of education, which can lead to employment in bigger careers." I said.
"That doesn't sound very fun on your part." Lyra said.
"Yeah, but I had to do it. I was going to shoot for a two-year degree in college and get into police academy, but then I ended up in Equestria." I said.
"They've got police officers in Manehattan, y'know." Lyra said.
"I saw them, but I don't really think they have much reason to protect because I've never heard of any crimes being committed here. Royal guards have it tough, though." I said.
"Okay, now let's go back what you said about norms, beliefs, and ways of life. Can you give some examples?" Lyra said.
"Sure. In America, it is a free country, so any citizen can do whatever they want in their lives. If you want to be a police officer, you can. If you want to protest in what you believe is right, you can. You can do anything you want as long as it doesn't violate the given laws and all that kind of stuff. But like I said before, other countries are different and some can be rather complicated. North Korea is one of the bad societies because the leader is an insane dictator and controlling, the citizens are brainwashed to believe he is all good and barely know about the outside world. There's no freedom there." I said.
"That sounds like a horrible place.... I never would've thought a human could get that bad." Lyra said.
"Oh, I know. Humans can be really terrible if they really want to, but that's mostly a tiny majority." I said.
"How many?" Lyra asked.
"Look, I don't know the exact amount, but it's very tiny out of the seven billion humans on Earth." I said.
"That's good to hear. That's incredible how there's so many, might I add," Lyra said. "Besides that contrast, are other countries all about freedom?"
"They aim for it, but some countries can be restrictive than others." I said.
"What about beliefs?" Lyra asked.
"The two big contenders would be overall beliefs in a society and religion." I said.
"For a societal belief, I'll use a different country as an example. In a country in The Middle East, I remember hearing about a village that would believe that if someone was a descendant from a familiar name within the village, they would be worthy of respect and recognition. If not, they would be outcasted. In America, everyone is accepted in society." I said.
"What about the religion?" Lyra asked.
"That is the belief in religious figures or the afterlife. It's not really required to be in American society, but its something for an individual to believe in. The biggest one in America would be Christianity, which is the belief in an all powerful being named God and his son Jesus; If you're good when you die, you go to a happy place for eternity. But if you die, you go to a bad place for all eternity." I said.
"Do you believe in that religion?" Lyra asked.
"No. I don't believe in it. I think its just some trick to keep people in line and for those who want to belief in something after we die. Just people following a blind person. However, I admire all the fundraising and charity stuff they do for good causes, though, so its got worth." I said.
"Never really thought about an afterlife, but what do I know. We all just live life to the fullest and in harmony here in Equestria." Lyra said.
"Indeed we do." I said.
Lyra continued to write until she finished up and put her things on the table. She then levitated the camera and phone over to her. "Thank you sharing what you knew. I think the society will take much interest in this information!" Lyra said.
"You're welcome, Lyra. Here, give me the camera for a minute." I said.
Once I had the camera, I powered it on and pressed the little, red record button, displaying a small, low resolution screen of the room and the date. I then pointed the camera at Lyra without explanation for a short amount of time.
"What? Is that on?" Lyra asked.
"See the red light?" I asked, pointing at the front.
"Oh! Hi there!" Lyra greeted in a friendly manner. "Can other humans see me through there?"
No, this is just a recording camera. All the footage is stored in here." I explained.
"Gotcha." Lyra said.
"So, this Lyra Heartstrings study area for her anthropology studies." I narrated, recording the various anatomical drawings.
"It took me weeks to get these right." Lyra noted to the camera.
"Yeah, so, now that I showed you the human crazed pony, I'll hand this over to her and I'll see you next time and check out the Everfree Forest." I said, turning off the camera and giving it to Lyra.
"How come you talk to the camera as if its to an audience?" Lyra asked.
"Do I? It must be a subconscious habit or something. Either way, it'll make great material if I ever find a way back to Earth." I said.
"If you were to somehow able to leave Equestria, you'd still come and visit, right?" Lyra asked.
"If I had some way to come back and forth between the worlds, I definitely will. Don't worry, I'll be sticking around in Ponyville for a long time." I said.
"No, I was just wondering. I'd hate to see you go." Lyra said, dearly.
"So, are you all good for now?" I asked one more time.
"I am one-hundred percent okay. I'll be sure to submit this information as soon as possible so that the diagrams can be integrated into the medical facilities. Y'know, incase if you get broken bone and need medical help." Lyra said.
"Thanks, Lyra. No really, thank you. I didn't think about that at first. If I ever get seriously hurt and live, I'll be obliged to consider you my lifesaver." I said.
"No problem. I'll talk to you again soon, okay?" Lyra said.
The House in the Everfree Forest August 14th, 2013
Due to the amount of inactivity in the Dovere territories, which is the closest territory to Ponyville, Night Hunter has added on the Heuyu and the Batchu territories to my nightly patrol. Now, I am patrolling the entire Everfree Forest in one night, but my pay has been bumped up, too. Its a big game changer because it actually takes me more time to patrol, rather than the single Dovere territory. I also had to make a few changes, such as spreading the pony mannequins out throughout the territories.
Fortunately, no Timberwolves and other creatures have shown themselves in a while. It's weird how nothing mythical or supernatural has shown itself in months, especially the Timberwolves. I doubt I wiped them all out of the Everfree Forest. The idea of believing I did would be considered wishful thinking. However, tonight, the Batchu territories didn't offer me anything living to concern about, but instead a structure.
It was a humid summer night as I drove along a dirt path in the Batchu territories. The further I went in, the more bumpier and uneven the terrain would get, prompting me slow my pace a little bit. I had the high-beams and roof lights on at the time, and that was pretty much the major lead to my discovery.
To my left, further inside the dense forest, was a subtle yet noticeable flash of white light. It disappeared as soon as I turned my head towards the direction, so I slowed down a bit until I came to a complete stop. I squinted my eyes as I looked onwards into the forest, but it didn't show. With curiosity getting the best of me, I put the Defender in reverse and backed up, and the light flashed once again.
Now that I was paying more attention, I found out what the source was. When I looked more closer, the roof lights were able to faintly illuminate something completely out of my expectation; a house. Turns out the flash was really the light reflecting off one of the windows. It was very puzzling and eerie to find a house all the way out here in the forest, far from civilization. The only two explanations I had at that moment was that the house was built here years ago or the portal dropped it off.
"Hmm."
I then shut off the Defender, holstered the Igneous around my back, and stepped outside. My flashlight shined through the dark forest and casted shadows of the branches and leaves. Twigs and branches snapped as I stepped and shoved them out of my way until I walked right up to the house. The house was a one floor suburban home in the shape of an L. It had simplistic colors, white siding along with grey roof shingles, but a great deal of mold was forming along where the foundation would be. It just looked bland.
The lack of the foundation is what gave the house its origin, since the portal just tear structures right off the ground. I then walked out to the front windows, which were missing some shards of glass.
"Hey, somebody in there?" I said in a raised voice.
There was no response to my call, so I decided to investigate further. The screen door and front door to get inside was unlocked, so I simply walked inside without a problem. The first little thing that I noticed was that he ceiling was exactly eight feet high because my head was so close to making contact with it, ignoring the fact I had to lower myself just to get through the door. The room I stood in must've been the living room while the adjacent room was the kitchen. I say the word must've because the interior was nearly void of any furniture, decor, or even appliances. The only pieces of furniture that remained was an old recliner in the middle and a couch in the far back of the living room. Aside from that, it was just a white wall and stained carpet.
The current state of the house made the floorboards creak with every step I took as I walked across the living room and into the kitchen. The back door was entirely removed, allowing more humidity in and aiding the nasty mold growths on the linoleum floor and in the corners of the kitchen. I opened up the pantry door, but only to a pair of cobwebs. It was as if everything in this house was ransacked and stripped away.
With nothing of interest in the kitchen, I moved down the hallway that was behind the living room. My next stop was the bathroom. Like before, everything was gone, including the toilet. The bath tub was absolutely disgusting. There was just so much mold and mildew on the wall that it created a foul stench. I think I saw some mushrooms growing on the floor, but I really wasted no time to move on to the next rooms. The next door led to room with blue paint on the walls and containing a single mattress while the other room across had white walls and empty. They looked to be the size of bedrooms at most.
At this point of my investigation, I just wanted leave and move on with my patrol, but I had one last hallway and room to check. There was a door to the garage and the basement, but the garage was empty and the basement was, as you know, not on the premises. With those doors out of the way, I went up the last one and turned it. It wouldn't budge. I then forcefully jerked the knob to turn, but that just broke it off.
"That wasn't supposed to happen."
Of course, I know how to improvise. I then put my back against the wall and quickly brought legs up before exerting all the force into a drop-kick. This sent the top-half of the wooden door flying into the room and revealed a pair of heavy-duty metal chains strung across the other side. Surprised, I shined my flashlight into the room and that's when I saw a symbol on the north wall. It was drawn in black, bolded, and had a simplistic yet interesting design. For a description, there were two small horizontal arrows intersecting between a longer vertical arrow near the top with a sideways eight at the bottom of the said arrow. With another forceful push, I detached the chains from the doors frame and barged in.
The room was now more illuminated. As I looked around, I furrowed my brow to the realization that the same symbol was coordinately drawn on each side of the room so that they would face one another. In the middle of the room was a bed with a white mattress, but something dark was stained onto it. I walked over to the bed and discovered a circle with an upside-down star that was created with something that had a brownish color, permanently stained on as it was dry to the touch.
"Well, this is inviting."
Deep in the back of my mind, I know I had seen this star before, but I know that it was back on Earth. What was it? I'm not religious, but it reminds me a lot of rituals that I used to see in tv shows, just because of the symbolic placement alone. Could someone have been practicing religion in this room and never erased it or something? If so, why would they chain the room up.
"Somebody's got a lot of time on their hands. Well, might as well get back."
Slowly turning around to the door, my eyes caught a tiny glimpse of something that contrasted the bright, neutral colored wall. At the bottom of the wall, in the corner, was a tiny illustration that was colored in dark red. Kneeling down to get a better look, it appeared to be a humanoid. It was bipedal, but the shape of it didn't look human at all. My right hand brushed across the carpet and that's when I felt a grainy sensation. At first, I legitimately thought it was sand, but the filaments were clear, like a crystal. I then did a quick taste with my index finger.
"Salt?"
I then brushed the line of salt off the carpet until it was scattered. This whole discovery made me feel confused and unsettled, but it only got worse when I stood up.
When I did stand up, the unsettling vibe I previously felt turned into something on the lines of horrifying. The inside of my ears began to pulse, which sounded like a soft rumble. The fact that happened right when I stood up made me feel uneasy, but it slowly faded away until the room was dead silent. As I stood motionless, the feeling of someone standing behind me or watching me grew. Biting my lower lip, I turned around to what I saw before. And then, my flashlight flickered before dying.
"Oh, come on. Not now." I said, fiddling with the flashlight.
The room was now pitch black. Through the sound of my flashlight shaking, there was a abrupt knock on the other side of the room. I froze as I stared into the darkness. It was so quiet, but there was slight shuffling, just like someone trying to stealthily advance towards me. That was scary.
"Oh shit, there's someone in here with me!"
Out of fear of the unknown source, I unholstered the Igneous and switched on, giving off a small radius of light from the golden, magical energy inside.
"Who is that?!" I said as I aimed the weapon and backed out of the room.
I continued aiming as I backed down the hallway. Suddenly, a drawn out, high-pitched beep came right above my head that made me scream from being startled. I jumped back and into the living room, still aiming down the dark hallway as my eyes darted in all directions. Three beeps came from right, which was in the kitchen. It turned out to be the phone charger for a land-line, but that's impossible for it to work if there's no electricity running through the house.
I was pretty terrified at this point because there was someone in the house that I couldn't see, yet I could hear. I didn't want to take my sight off the kitchen, and the minimal amount of lighting wasn't a big help. When I felt a pair of lanky fingers pinch my left arm, I lost it. I just turned, ran out of the house and didn't look back.
Shortly after I sped away from the location, I noticed a burning sensation on my left forearm. Running down my forearm were three, bright pink burn marks in the shape of claw slashes. I don't know what happened or who was in that house, but I'm steering clear from this part of the forest during my future patrols. That's all I have to say about that.
A Discussion with Night Hunter February 17th, 2014
Night Hunter sent me a letter a couple days ago in regards to C.A.M.A. He didn't specify, but he wants me to come up to Canterlot and discuss a little issue, as he put it. The use of words and phrasing he used makes me worry that he found out I had been skipping out on patrols, but I'll have a full explanation if that's the case. Things haven't been going too well for me back in Ponyville.
After clearing through the security checkpoints, I pulled up and parked the Land Rover across from the newly renovated C.A.M.A center. No longer is the old house on the outskirts of Canterlot the home to the center, but now a more hidden location underneath the ground that is more secluded and isolated from the city. Once I made my way through the seemingly abandoned entrance hall, I walked down an adjacent, narrow hallway and up to a wall that would appear to be a dead end, but really wasn't.
"Caleb Lee Barlow. G.D: Three-eight-two-thousand three." I said to the wall.
There was the sound of a few gears shifting on the other side of the wall before the wall pushed forward and slid to the right, allowing me access down a flight of stairs and into the true entrance to the C.A.M.A center. The new center is similar to the older one, but has a few more advanced tweaks and upgrades, such as the extreme rarity in Equestria that is known as electricity.
"Hello, Caleb Barlow." Velvet Rose greeted.
"Hey, Velvet. I'm here for an appointment with Night Hunter." I said.
"Yes, I received a notification in regards to it. Night Hunter should be waiting for you in his office." Velvet said.
"Alright." I said.
I wandered through the office complex for a short before finding Night Hunter's room. I then lightly knocked three times on the door as a heads up.
"Its Caleb."
"Come on in." Night Hunter acknowledged.
"Hey." I said, taking a seat across from Night Hunter.
"Caleb," Night Hunter replied gregariously. "How are you doing today?"
"I'm doing okay; a whole lot better in quite sometime, actually." I replied.
"Excellent to hear. Hey, so I wanted you to come up here to discuss your attendance record in patrols. I've been tracking your absences that started on... the night of August 19th and persisted onwards throughout the week. You started going back to your patrols for the next week, but then you started randomly selecting the days for your patrol. I mean, I'm glad that you recently went back to your normal schedule, but take a look at this document of your absences for a moment and hand it back when you're done." Night Hunter scolded.
I took a good look through the list of my absences. I swear that I felt my stomach drop when I realized I had racked up seventeen missed patrols over the past four months. Leaving the Everfree Forest unattended and un-investigated can possibly lead to drastic future consequences for both me and Ponyville. I knew this all along, but I just couldn't bring myself to go out and continue my patrols.
"I see." I said, ashamed of myself.
"Not only did you neglect your patrols, but you also lied to me and turned in false reports." Night Hunter also mentioned.
Taking a couple seconds to think about it, I sighed to the truth. "Yes, I did."
"So, then what the heck happened with you for that amount of time? Did you stop caring about your position or was there something else going on?" Night Hunter questioned.
"Night Hunter, I was very depressed from August to January." I admitted.
"You had depression?" Night Hunter asked.
"Very bad depression. I just woke up one day and felt horrible." I said.
"It was that bad for you?" Night Hunter asked.
"You would have to experience it in order to fully understand how I was feeling and thinking. Some days, Twilight would have to encourage me to get out of bed just because of how late I was sleeping, which would lead me to have the sense I didn't have enough time to get everything done in a single day. Pretty soon, I just started becoming very apathetic over a lot of things, including my patrols, as you know." I said, pausing and looking up at Night Hunter.
"Well, I'm sorry to hear about your depressive state. You are feeling better though, right?" Night Hunter said.
"Oh, definitely. But those past months were not fun at all. The only times I would somewhat feel the slightest tinge of happiness would be around my friends or Bridgette, but it wouldn't las all day. I guess it would be hard for you to fully understand unless you had it, too," I slightly chuckled. "Either way, I'm deeply sorry for skipping out and lying to you for so long. I promise to you that I will not let it happen again." I apologized.
"Well, good, I'm glad to hear that," Night Hunter said, looking over me and at the door. "Look, since you're honest and a good person.... I guess I can let these slide and give you another chance. Don't get too excited because if you get another series of absences, you will be discharged and will have to give up your badge."
"Oh, thank you so much! I will not let this chance go to waste. So, we're all good now?" I said.
"Yes, yes, we are, Caleb." Night Hunter
Night Hunter's positive expression slowly formed and neutral stare and his ears slightly drooped down.
"I also had a big struggle with depression many years ago after Blazer got killed by the Timberwolf pack." Night Hunter revealed.
"Oh, right. Blazer.... How bad was it?" I asked.
"Along the lines of your severity. It hurt me when I found out that horrible news because I was his instructor, the one that taught everything he knew about C.A.M.A." Night Hunter said.
"A lot like me?" I asked.
"Yeah. Much like you, I became apathetic to the point that I almost didn't want to do anything with my day. But I managed to push through because, y'know, manager is an important position in C.A.M.A until I just came to terms with his death. I just kept thinking, I know you're sad he died, but you just have to move on with life and can't blame yourself for something you have no control over. So, I just eventually went out and got some counseling until I felt better. Did you get counseling?" Night Hunter said.
"In a way. On most nights, Twilight would like to sit down with me and just talk to me about stuff that went on through our days and gave me advice on how to build up my positivity, in regards to my depression." I explained.
"Dang. That mare really is a good friend to you. You're lucky to have her as one." Night Hunter said.
"I'm sure grateful for everything she does for me. You never did tell me that were depressed when you first mentioned Blazer." I said.
"Well, I didn't feel like I had to bring it up at the time, but your little story brought it out of me." Night Hunter said.
"I was glad to hear it. It was sad, but at least I know that you understood how I was feeling." I said.
"Hmpf. Just another thing we have in common." Night Hunter said.
"Yep. Experiencing the pain of depression. The weird thing is that my depression started a few days after I went inside the house with all the symbols." I brought up.
"You mean that rinky-dink house in the Batchu territory?" Night Hunter asked.
"The only one." I said.
"If that's the case, just stay away from the house. I might notify a deconstruction crew to take it down. That is if I get the time to." Night Hunter said.
"You do whatever you want with it. I always drive past it during my patrol and that shiny window is becoming an eyesore." I said.
"We'll see. I'll make sure they take down that oh-so villanous window for you." Night Hunter joked.
"Yeah, okay, Night Hunter," I said, heading for the door. "Until next time?"
"You bet. See you around, Caleb." Night Hunter farewelled.
Ever since I got back into patrolling the Everfree on my scheduled nights, I've been taking Bridgette out for car rides on my downtime-slash-search days to help increase our bond, which is a lot stronger than her first day in Ponyville. And yes, she loves sticking her head out the window and having the wind blow in her face.
But aside from that, I recently used my power of determination and concluded that Bridgette must've been a hunting dog back on Earth. So, I'm also using her heightened sense of smell to my advantage. With her nose, I've found a plethora of interesting and miscellaneous items. For example, Bridgette came across a pile of rocks in the middle of the forest about two weeks ago. She stopped with her right paw lifted and pronated while she sniffed out the bag of bits buried underneath with a valuable take; only forty-six bits contained. With my job, I'm pretty much rolling in the bits, so I decided to just give it to Twilight. Besides finding treasures, Bridgette put her sniffing to some good use today. Kinda wish she didn't.
Around mid-afternoon, Bridgette and I were riding around near the south side of the Dovere territories. Bridgette squinted her eyes and her floppy ears flapped as she stuck her head out the window, occasionally sitting down in the passenger seat before returning to her previous activity. The forest was beginning to restore its flourishing and lively green colors, but not fully there yet. Well, that is until the annual rainstorm that Cloudsdale is planning on for tomorrow night. That'll surely help the forest, but its gonna suck for me because I have to patrol that night.
Continuing northward down the path, I turned my head to the left when I noticed something off outside the passenger side. When I looked, there was a wide opening as numerous trees had been knocked over, which I knew wasn't there a few days ago. I then shut off the Defender's engine and showed Bridgette her leash.
"Don't run off again. No run. Stay by me." I said before opening the door.
Bridgette jumped out and immediately started sniffing the path, getting my attention. Underneath my feet were paw prints that were slightly bigger than my own feet.
"Oh, shoot! Timberwolves." I said, fairly surprised.
It has been a while since I encountered a Timberwolf, but the real game changer now is that the Timberwolves are a mile away from Ponyville. That may sound far away, but it's not good. I legitimately have no idea why there so close all of a sudden because they didn't even get this close within all my previous absent days and all.
My attention was once again brought over to Bridgette, who was still sniffing the paw indentations. I clicked my tongue to get her attention and she look up at me.
"Bridgette, go sniff. Find." I commanded, pointing towards the opening.
Bridgette trotted ahead and into the forest, maintaining distance between herself and I while she put her nose to work. We both hopped over the fallen trees in our path for short ways until we both noticed the prominent claw marks etched onto the bark of trees. Bridgette's tail wagged as she vigorously sniffed the claw marks and the air while I squinted in disgust. There was a faint scent of rotten eggs in the air, definitely a sign of Timberwolves passing through.
"Ugh, great. This is gonna be worse than bringing Discord back." I thought to myself.
After getting an idea of where the Timberwolves ended up, Bridgette and I went back to the Defender and drove further north into Dovere to retrieve the pony mannequins. Shortly after, I went back to the ravaged area and placed them around the perimeter I came up with, based on my estimations on where the Timberwolves might turn up tomorrow night. I seriously hope they stick around there long enough and not decide to head further down south. I'll just have to see how it goes.
Oh yeah, one more thing to clarify. Twilight and the girls used the Elements of Harmony to bring Discord out of his petrified state, like, five days ago. The only real reason is because Princess Celestia believed that Discord could be reformed and be able to use his chaotic magic for good. When I first heard of the news, I thought it couldn't be done, but Fluttershy managed to get some sense into him and he's pretty much good guy now, not a bad guy.... I still don't trust him, though. He is the Spirit of Chaos and I just know he'll go back to his chaotic ways, not implying Discord hasn't given that up personality-wise. He still uses his magic, but in a casual manner. That's what I've seen, at least.
Twilight and I stood at the top the library, on the balcony that overlooked Ponyville. From there, we watched the pegasi workers in Cloudsdale finish building the dark, wide, and towering cumulonimbus cloud that contrasted with the warm and vibrant colors of the sun that began to set for the humid evening. The storm cloud occasionally flashed from inside due to the lighting, followed by the low rumble of thunder. Spike then opened the door from behind and joined us with our cloud gazing.
"Weather's changing, huh?" Spike asked.
"It sure is, Spike. This year's storm looks like it's going to be bigger than last years." Twilight said.
"Oh yeah, the one when Rarity and Applejack spent the night. That was fun." Spike commented.
"It wasn't all that bad. We learned an important lesson in friendship out of it." Twilight said.
"Embrace each other's differences and you'll find a way to become friends with another." Spike recited with ease.
"Good memory, Spike! Did you get that, Caleb?" Twilight said.
"I remember that one," I said, still watching the cloud. "But man, I still can't believe that storm came out of the cloud factory."
"Bridgette's already not liking it. You guys hear all that whining going on downstairs?" Spike asked.
"Yeah. Poor little puppy," I replied in a teasing manner. "Is she calm now?"
"I managed to calm her down, hopefully for a little bit. She's in the crate now," Spike replied, looking at the door. "Maybe I should check on her again."
"I'm sure she's fine, but go ahead." I said. Spike went back inside the library to check on the pooch, leaving Twilight and I to ourselves.
"Excited about driving out in the storm tonight?" Twilight asked.
"Sort of," I scoffed. "I'll have to be in it to determine that, really."
"Well, they're pretty strong storms. There's usually a big downpour accompanying it." Twilight warned.
The wind just then started picking up and thunder rumbled across the sky again, but more louder than before. The storm front was now moving towards Ponyville and it was getting darker outside.
"Yep. It's some serious weather." I said.
"Come on. Let's head indoors." Twilight said.
8:09 PM
Night has fallen. The forceful rain slammed against the Defender, water splashed and sloshed as the tires rolled over puddles forming on the path, and the windshield wipers whirred and squeaked as they allowed me more visibility. Every single light on the Defender was switched on; brights and the Maxtel LED's mounted on each side of the Defender's roof. The forest environment fully illuminated as lighting flashed or streaked across the sky.
I was currently driving towards my previous destination from the other day, the location of the Timberwolves tree decimation antics. My mindset was on alert, as my eyes scanned on what was up ahead, mostly concerning the forest and the little waypoint flag that I set up yesterday. I noticed that I would subconsciously sigh, mostly due to the slight anxiety I was feeling. The interior began to fog up and felt warm, giving an uncomfortable feel. To counter this, I slid the window open, letting in some rain and the cooler air.
"Ooh. That's nice."
A short amount of driving time passed until I realized that it was taking a longer than usual to reach where I needed to be. I was going about forty kilometers an hour, so I should've reached it in about two minutes compared to the already passed three minutes. This became evident when I passed one too many cross paths that intersect through the Everfree Forest, which means I missed the waypoint flag.
Before I could press down on the brake pedal to turn the Defender around, something out of the ordinary caught my attention. Accelerating forward a few more feet, the mysterious sight turned out to be a pile of white objects lying across the path. Unsure of what this foreign objects were, I applied the parking brake and stepped out of the Defender, equipped with the Igneous.
The rain dripped off my hat, stuck onto and ran down both my black waterproof raincoat and pants. Upon closer inspection of the objects, the discovery was shocking. What lied on the watery path were the four pony mannequins, but destroyed in a way that made them nearly unrecognizable due to the extreme mutilation. These mannequins were torn apart.
My mouth hung half agape, backing away from the remains and looking all around the forest. Lighting streaked across the sky again, illuminating my surroundings and the pack of Timberwolves emerging from the forest directly in front of me. Just from the sight of them alone made my chest tense on the inside and my eyes went wide. There was seven in this pack.
"They set a trap." my mind kept repeating.
The back of my legs bumped against the front of the Defender as I continued backing up, breaking me from my shock. I then aimed the Igenous at one of the seven and shot at it, petrifying it instantly. But with a terrifying turn of events, two dashed into the lights and snarled right up to my level. One of the two snatched the weapon with it's teeth and took it away.
"Ngh- Hey!" I shouted.
The other pack mate jumped up and chomped it's jaws. I remained standing as I held the Timberwolf back by grasping it at the neck with both my hands. The ferocious beast tried to latch onto my neck and clawed at my jacket, tearing it to shreds and revealing some of my bare skin. At this point, the exhilarating sensation of the adrenaline rush kicked in and I was in flight mode. With all of my enhanced strength combined with adrenaline, I lifted the Timberwolf overhead by the neck and just chucked it back into the darkness.
Wasting no time, I sprinted into the Defender and just floored the Defender into reverse, causing the tires spinning just to get traction. I thought this would be the end of the confrontation, but this was only the beginning. The six Timberwolves kept up with the vehicle and followed at a running pace. This wasn't a defense of territory, the pack had a true sole intent to kill me. With so much going on at once, my brain scrambled on what to do next. Fear, confusion and primal instincts conflicted with each other. I felt the need to run away and leave for the night, but I couldn't give up so easily. I had will, and I knew that I had to finish what I'm supposed to do.
The pack now started to spread out, two directly in front of the vehicle, two moving left, and two moving right in an attempt to flank me. However, I did pass the cross section path again, one that would lead to the east-side of Dovere.
"Okay, I'll go this way."
Quicky braking and shifting into first gear, I floored onto the cross path, speeding up to ninety kilometers an hour. The Defender's body bounced and shook as I sped along the uneven path. My pace was outrunning the Timberwolves, but one was hot on my tail on the right side of the forest, and it was fast as hell. My vision was limited, but I could see the pair of glowing pouncing towards the Defender and landed directly in front on my path. There was no time brake, not implying I would, and I rammed into the Timberwolf, sending it into smithereens and sticks.
"Rrrrgh, that sounded expensive." I growled as the vehicle violently vibrated upon impact.
Taking another look back, the five other Timberwolves started lagging behind, but were definitely still following. I sighed in slight relieve and proceeded onwards.
"Okay, okay... If I keep going and head further south, that would be a good thing because it's farther from Ponyville. Yeah, and then I'll get out and ambush them with the Timberferno. Easy. Burnt to a crisp.... Aaand you're talking to yourself again."
I didn't slow down very much when my right turn came up and the backend of the Defender fishtailed before I hastily corrected it and followed the straight path that led towards the Heuyu territories. But then, out of the blue, I spotted a fallen tree also lying across the path, acting as a blockade.
"Woah shit!" I exclaimed. I slammed down on the brakes and the tires screeched to a halt.
There was no way around besides turning the other way. I once more started to panic and I scrambled the back seat for the Timberferno whilst packing the X-ray sensor in my equipment pocket.
"Come on, come on! Where the fuck are you?" I mumbled, glancing up at the back window.
Through the brush of the forest were five pair of oncoming green eyes due to how I stopped prematurely. The Timberwolves would've been right on top of me the amount of time it took to actually find the Timberferno, so I just did the next logical solution for my own survival.
Turning on my mounted flashlight, I swung open the driver door and just sprinted into the opposite side of the forest. I heavily panted and ran as fast as I could, shoving branches, bushes and other forms of flora out of my way. The muddy water splashed onto my clothing and skin with each sprinting stride. The amount of shadows being casted from the flashlight added to the paranoia and fear of the chase, distracting me from what I was stepping over. That's when the tip of my toes tripped over a stone, sending myself flying forwards and landing in a puddle of muddy water. The flashlight instantly short-circuited, killing it and leaving me in a dark forest. With not much of a choice, I remained prone on the ground, shuddering as I kept my mouth above water. The sounds of the oncoming Timberwolves were pure horror, their vicious growls mixed with the thumps of the ground when running could make anyone book it. But out of luck, they ran right past me and further into the forest.
I remained absolutely still for a minute or two before I hesitantly looked upwards. Another flash of lighting lit the forest, revealing a relatively tall oak tree with a plentiful amount of leaves; the perfect place to hide. I took the opportunity and leaped up to grab onto one of the branches and hoisted myself up into the tree and well out of harms way.
My heavy breathing slowly went back to its normal pace in no time. As I rested, I started planning on what I should do next. All that I knew at first is that I needed to get back to that Land Rover and grab the Timbeferno. However... it proved difficult when I soon found out that the Timberwolves weren't giving up so easily. I could hear them sniffing below the tree, but they couldn't fully pick up my scent up the tree. Either way, they were still out there.
With most of my jacket torn apart, my hat gone, and my pants with tiny rips around the ankle area, I was cold. I crossed my arms in a hug to warm my body up. It wasn't enough to give me hypothermia, but it was a little chilly. I didn't want to climb down from that tree, I just wanted to recollect myself. Just a little bit. Felt like the first day all over again.
6:42 AM
It was a slow lull, but I finally awoke. I must've dozed off around two o'clock in the morning because that's the last time I checked my watch. Dawn was just starting to make it's peak and the rainstorm had finally subsided, but it still thundered and lightninged on occasion. The windy air was now humid again and carried the scent of wet soil.
Fortunately, the X-ray sensor remained functional after falling into the mud puddle. I pressed the sweep button and a quick pulse scanned the area, revealing no orange figures resembling Timberwolves.
"Looks safe."
I cautiously made my way down from the oak tree and landed on the ground with a soft thud, walking in a crouching position. I frequently kept sweeping dimly lit forest, the only light source coming from the heat lightning. With the coast clear, I picked up my pace for remaining fifty yards or so to the Defender, which transitioned into running. In no time, I made it back to the Defender that was still idling.
I quickly opened the back door and grabbed the Timberferno, releasing the tiny valve on top of the magical flame-based weapon. My contentment of making it back safe soon faded as I heard the eerie howl of a Timberwolf coming behind me. Spinning around, I was met with two Timberwolves charging straight towards me, their mouths seeping with their four, green odor. I responded by squeezing the caulk, allowing the red-hot magic to spew out like a hose and landing on the two aggressive beasts. As I squinted to the heat, both let out a painful yelp as they collapsed onto the path, fell apart, and quickly turned into a pile of cinder, ash, and embers. Then, without warning, another attacking Timberwolf came from the front of the vehicle and managed to get of bite on the Timberferno, but I kept holding on. The wolf thrashed it's head like a dog would with a toy, probably would've dislocated something on my right arms if I hadn't squeezed the caulk. Like the last two, the red, glowing energy sprayed into the mouth of the wolf and tiny bit onto my arm.
"Ouch!" I hissed, dropping the flame-thrower and using puddle water to sooth my burn while the head of the Timberwolf disintegrated.
Retrieving the weapon again, I finished off limp body once and for all. Now there was two left, and my confidence was boosting up, believe it or not. I hopped on top of the Defender and couldn't spot the remaining Timberwolves, but I could hear them scattering through the forest. Concentrating, my head followed the sound of twigs snapping inside the left side of the forest until it abruptly stopped.
The leaves calmly rustled in the wind and the sun steadily rose over the horizon. A calm moment, but short-lived. When the twigs snapped on the right side of the forest, I turned to the leaping source and burned it mid-air, turning into a puff of ash. However, the last pack mate made its move and got me from behind, knocking me off the vehicle and landing on my side with the Timberferno still clutched. Rolling onto my back, the Timberwolf pinned me down and repeatedly tried to tear my face off. The only real obstacle between me and the wolf was my right leg that suspended it off the ground, but I had the upper hand. Before I could burn the Timberwolf, the wolf actually started levitating upwards. Surprised, I stood up and watched the full bodied Timberwolf explode into bits and twigs without any explanation at first.
"Need a little help there, Agent?" Discord said, wearing a pink sunhat with a yellow flower and a basket hanging on his lion arm.
"Oh, hey! Uh, yeah, thanks...." I said, stuck between a turmoil of like and dislike but still relieved. The draconequus casually walked up to me and brushed dried mud off my shoulder.
"It appears those pesky Timberwolves did quite a number on, Caleb. I thought you were an expert." Discord said.
"Yeah. I should've gotten here earlier before they could set up their trap. Wait, were you watching me fight for my life the entire time and now decided to help?" I assumed.
"Oh, of course not. That would be a little cruel and sadistic, y'know. I just happened to be in area when those two Woodies got the jump on you." Discord explained, using a vacuum to clean up the ashes, clogging up with mud.
"Oh. Well, thanks again. Where were you heading?" I asked.
"Over to Fluttershy's cottage for our weekly meet-ups. She is an early bird." Discord said.
"I suppose, with all her animals and everything," I said, examining Discord. "Where'd you get the women's sunhat from?"
"Oops. I was hoping that it would make a good visual joke, but it's kinda embarrassing now that I think about it." Discord said as he tossed the hat behind him, exploding similarly to a grenade.
"Damn." I said.
Discord then looked up and squinted his eyes for some odd reason at first.
"What?" I asked. He continued staring and put on a pair of wacky, swirly glasses before making them disappear into thin air.
"I believe I see something standing way over there by the tree's." Discord said, extending his index talon towards the trees that stood twenty feet away.
"Like what? I don't see anything." I said.
"Oh, it's just a tall shadow staring at us. Probably because I haven't slept in five days due to chaos withdrawal." Discord said, nonchalantly.
"Five days? That's a plausible explanation." I said.
"So it seems. But on the other hand, I must run along now. Be sure to put on new clothes before things start getting into the parental guidance range." Discord said, floating onwards.
"Sure thing, Discord," I called out, looking down at my ruined clothing.
"Man, I've never felt this famous before." Rainbow jokingly boasted as the girls, Spike, Bridgette, and I walked the streets of Ponyville en-route to Sugarcube Corner to treat ourselves to some baked goods for breakfast.
"Haven't you always been this famous?" I said, tugging on Bridgette's leash to keep her from being distracted by the crowd.
"Not on this level, Caleb." Rainbow replied, striking some mid-air poses.
But really, the attention was predominately towards Twilight, who is now, in fact, the fourth alicorn princess in Equestria. I couldn't believe it myself when I first laid eyes on Twilight newly gained wings and learned that she has earned the title on being the Princess of Friendship. I honestly thought I was dreaming for a few minutes, but it definitely suits her well for her passion on learning the values of friendship whilst essentially being the embodiment of an ancient artifact. But like I said, everypony is taking Twilight's position with great interest.
After walking further ahead and stopping a few times to talk to some of the neighbors, we came up to the bakery that gave off that familiar, sweet scent.
"Woo-wee! Look at that nose go." Applejack referred to Bridgette's nose going a thousand miles an hour.
"Yeah, she can pick up any kind of scent. I told you about the bag of bits, right?" I said.
"Sure did. Winona's decently fair at sniffing all kinds of treasures out, but she's more of a herding dog than a hunting dog." Applejack replied.
"Perhaps you and Bridgette can assist me in my gem hunting, don't you think?" Rarity said.
"Do gems have a scent to them?" I asked.
"Everything has a scent, though they are most very subtle." Twilight said.
"Buuuut, what you're smelling right now isn't subtle at all." Pinkie said, her tongue lolling out and a strand of drool dripping out while in a dreamy trance in regards to the freshly baked goods.
"So it seems." Twilight agreed.
Leaving Bridgette tied out by the Sugarcube Corner sign, we followed behind Pinkie as she floated up the bakery's front steps, still in her trance induced state. Once inside, Pinkie's gravity came back on, or something, and stood across from the front desk.
"Hiya, Mr. Cake!" Pinkie cheerfully greeted.
"Hello again, Pinkie Pie. Oh, and I see you've brought our new princess in today." Carrot Cake said, taking a short bow.
"Thank you, Mr. Cake." Twilight acknowledged with a smile.
"Are you liking your new position as the Princess of Friendship?" Cup Cake asked Twilight as she walked into the room.
"Indeed I am. However, I will admit that I haven't really done much yet besides gaining in public relations and attending my summit in the Crystal Empire, which is just tomorrow." Twilight replied.
"Oh, how exciting!" Cup Cake said.
"This is only just the beginning so far. But, the only real gripe I have is getting used to my new wings." Twilight said, her left wing instantaneously popping straight outwards that emitted a flapping sound.
Rainbow Dash sniggered. "We really need to get that under control."
"Yeah. Definitely..." Twilight mumbled as she readjusted her wing and ruffled the lavender feathers.
After the conversation, we all sat down at a nearby table and chowed down on some delicious treats. I myself had a couple slices of strawberry swirl cheesecake, which is the best kind of cake, no debate needed. Out of everypony, I was seated by a window that was to my right as I sat on a peculiar small chair. While eating, my attention was initially directed towards Bridgette due to her sudden barking fit.
"What's she barking at?" Spike asked me, chewing on a donut.
Bridgette stood by the sign with her leash unhooked, staring directly at me as she continued to bark with vigor in her tone.
"At me, by the looks of it. And her leash is loose," I said, getting up from the chair and walking outside to Bridgette to coax her. "C'mere, baby girl."
However, Bridgette continuously barked at the window, staring upwards as if she was focusing on something.
"Do you need some help?" Fluttershy offered.
"I'll get her. Bridgette, come. Come here, Bridgey" I commanded while getting closer to her.
When I was just about to hook the leash onto her purple collar, Bridgette turned the opposite direction and sprinted to the other side of the street. She remained staring up, but her head was lowered, her ears flat behind her head, and her tail tucked in between her hind legs.
"Bridgette, no, no, no, no!" I called out, chasing after the speedy dog.
As if this was a game, she quickly sprinted to the end of the street. I may be fast, but Bridgette was faster in terms of agility. I've honestly never seen ten year old dog book it that quick.
"Bridgette, come here. I ain't playin'!" I shouted, getting a little frustrated.
Fluttershy then came to my side to offer her assistance. "Try not to get too mad at Bridgette. Dog's are know to sense negative emotions." Fluttershy informed.
"I've heard about that. See if you can get her over here." I said.
Fluttershy nodded, proceeding forwards for a short distance. "Bridgette, be a good girl and come to Caleb. If you come, we'll be sure to give you a treat."
And just like that, Bridgette started trotting towards us, but in a diagonal form while still staring upwards. She was so close, but Bridgette suddenly made an immediate one-eighty and just ran away as fast as she could down the street and turned left.
"Argh. Looks like I'm gonna have to go after her." I said, beginning the chase.
"Leave that to me, Caleb. This pooch is coming to you wether she likes it or not." Rainbow said as she triumphantly flew upwards to get an aerial view for Bridgette.
It only took a moment, but Rainbow locked onto Bridgette and began to slowly descend to retrieve the dog.
"Would've sent you up there, but, y'know." I teased Twilight as she approached me.
"Oh yeah, sure, sure. I'm taking this as a new punchline?" Twilight vexed.
"Depends on how long it goes on for." I said, smugly smiling and receiving a raised eyebrow from Twilight.
Just then, all of us could hear the faint, ambiguous cry of Rainbow Dash in the distance. We all looked at each other for a few seconds before running off in the direction where Rainbow could be heard. We ended up near the north entrance of the town square, where we discovered Rainbow Dash writhing on her side.
"What happened?" Twilight asked.
"Are you okay? Where did Bridgette go?" I asked, panting.
"She went off that way. Probably in the Everfree by now." Rainbow said, followed by a groan.
"Crap." I grumbled.
Upon closer inspection, Rainbow Dash's back and wing muscles were visibly contracting at a ferocious pace.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch!" Rainbow Dash repeated as she tried to reach for her back.
"Lie still. This'll help soothe the cramps." Fluttershy said, rubbing her hooves along Rainbow's back while Twilight applied a cooling agent with her magic.
A few minutes passed as I wandered around the square before regrouping with the gang.
"I couldn't find Bridgette. Did you just cramp up all of a sudden, or what?" I said.
"I guess so. I was right on top of her, and I would've got her, but my whole back just cramped up and I couldn't fly anymore." Rainbow explained, moving her wings again.
"Crash and burned." Pinkie said.
"Exactly." Rainbow said.
"Can you fly now?" Twilight asked.
"I don't mean to sound like a wussy, but I think I'll stay on the ground for a little bit. They're still cramping, but not as bad as when they started." Rainbow replied.
"Bridgette's a slippery dog. Thanks for the help anyways." I said.
"What shall we do now?" Rarity asked.
"We gotta find Bridgette. Odds are that Rainbow is correct because the Everfree Forest is literally right across from that stone bridge." I said, pointing at the bridge that acts as one of the south entrances for both Ponyville and the forest.
"Perhaps we should split up. Fluttershy and I will act as air coverage while the rest of you head up the path that leads to Sweet Apple Acres. You said Bridgette never goes into the forest alone, right?" Twilight said.
"Oh yeah, she knows that she can't go in without me. She's like a child who can't talk." I replied.
"Good. Then this should be easy." Twilight said.
"You sure you're up for flying?" Applejack asked Twilight.
"It didn't exactly go so well the last time." Spike added.
"Of course. I mean, as long as I don't go extraordinarily fast." Twilight replied.
"If you insist." Spike said.
We've been walking for so long. Despite Twilight and Fluttershy's aerial efforts over the Everfree Forest, they were unable to locate my dog. The forest's foliage was starting to become more denser or thick, so we had to of been in the Batchu territories by now, which is eight miles south of Ponyville, but we didn't care. We all had the will to find Bridgette and bring her safely home. And eventually, we did find Bridgette.
"Hey, I think I see Bridgette, ya'll! Straight ahead" Applejack alerted, perking us all up.
I squinted my eyes and there stood a dark-brown Labrador Retriever, facing the opposite direction. Before I could run up to her, she made a left turn and trotted into the harshly dense and dark forest.
"Bridgette, no! No! No!" I hollered, now sprinting after her and stopping at the edge of the entrance.
"Did she go in?" Twilight asked, worryingly.
"She did. Ugh, that foolish dog." I replied.
"Well maybe she went inside that random, creepy building." Pinkie pointed out.
Out of some fucking coincidence, we all ended up near the house with the symbols from last August, illuminated by the sunlight. Strange that it was still up because Night Hunter said he would have a demolition crew destroy it, but what do I know?
"Oh. That could be a possibility. What do you think, Caleb?" Twilight asked me.
"Man, I really don't want to go inside that house, but we gotta check." I said.
With that, we headed for the house. Although I stressed it earlier, the forest wasn't completely pitch black, but more dimly lit due to the pockets of sunlight beams that would shine through the leaves.
"Weird how the tree's near the house have died off." Twilight noted the bare tree's.
"I find it rather spooky." Fluttershy said.
"So do I. This place looks absolutely horrid! I dread for what it looks like from the inside." Rarity said.
The front door was wide open just for us, so we just simply stepped into the dark living room. Twilight used her horn light the room was a whitish-purple glow.
"Wow. This.... is hideous." Rarity said.
"Could be worse." Pinkie said, optimistically.
It appeared that nature had started claim the house as its own. The exterior was covered with vines and leaves and various debris scattered the living room and kitchen. Water damage was prominent and water flooded the kitchen because of the holes in the roof that offer some sunlight to come in. Overall, it was more decrepit and rundown. The kicker is when Rarity shrieked to the sight of rats and moles scurry across the living room carpet.
"Well that's just nice. They've burrowed into the carpet." Spike noticed.
"Be sure not to step in. They like to nibble." Applejack whispered, causing Rarity to shiver.
"Bridgette!" I called out, but to no avail. "Hmm. Alright let's split up. Twilight and I will head down to the room where all the symbols are, Rarity and Fluttershy will check the kitchen, Pinkie and Applejack will cover the adjacent hallway right over there, and Rainbow, you just guard the door incase Bridgette runs out."
We all agreed with out assigned locations and continued the search for Bridgette.
"So, is this the room you were talking about?" Twilight asked as we walked into the bedroom with all the weird symbols.
"This is the one," I replied, checking the bedroom's bathroom, but found nothing but an empty toilet and shower. "Do you happen to know what these symbols mean by any chance?"
"Uh, I can't really say I do. I've never seen these in all my life," Twilight said, perplexed by the symbols. "Did you check if Bridgette was in the closet?"
"No," I replied, looking at the slightly open sliding closet door.
What I discovered when I slid the closet open truly surprised me. Upon opening, I remained quiet and motionless when I saw sets of small numbers scattered across the white wall of the closet. The most eerie part about this sight is that they appeared to be scratched or etched in because I could see tiny wooden slivers poking out of the numbers.
"Twilight, there's freaking numbers sketched into the wall in here." I said.
Twilight trotted over to the closet and shined her horn's light to get a better look.
"That is weird. Who would put these in here and what do they mean?" I asked.
"Previous owner, maybe." I guessed.
As Twilight and I continued to check out the set of numbers, we both heard Pinkie Pie gagging and coughing from entering the mildew infested bathroom on the other side of the house, so that got me an idea.
"Pinkie Pie, we need your assistance in here." I called out.
Pinkie Pie zipped down the hallway and to the closet in no time.
"What can I help you with, Caleb Barlow?" Pinkie chirped.
"I need you to give me a notepad and a pen. Got any of that in your hair?" I asked.
"Let me check," Pinkie replied, shuffling the inside of her hair. "I defiantly have a notepad, but only a pencil because pen ink gets in my hair. Hope you don't mind."
"I don't really care. Thanks, Pinkie." I said as I began to write down the sets of numbers into the notepad.
"So, what's the deal with these numbers? What do they mean?" Pinkie asked.
"I'm not sure, but I bet Twilight and I will have an answer on that matter later on." I replied, still writing.
About five or so minutes passed before I had all the numbers written down, taking up three pages of the notepad.
"That's all of them. We'll have to look at these later, but first we need to find Bridgette." Twilight said.
"Yep. Has anypony found Bridgette at all?" I called out from the bedroom, only to receive replies of no luck. I let out a sigh of anxiety. "Ugh, I can't believe I lost her.
"Don't feel so hard on yourself, Caleb. We'll find her soon enough." Twilight assured.
As Twilight and I exited the master bedroom, the sound of scraping against a wooden surface randomly came from our right. Turning the corner, the source was coming from behind the basement door.
"You need help getting the door open?" I asked, assuming one of the mare's shut the door on themselves.
Either way, I opened the door and there stood Bridgette, waiting for us at the top step of the broken staircase. Looking terrified, Bridgette hid behind my legs with her back arched up and Twilight let out a gasp. The white walls were spattered with brownish stains that appeared to run down like liquid.
"Blood?!" I exclaimed, checking Bridgette for any injuries.
The single word got the attention of everypony inside the house and we all crowded around the entrance of what was left of the basement that smelled of metal.
"Oh, what the heck!" Rainbow stifled in disgust.
"Good heavens! What has happened here?" Rarity exclaimed.
"I don't know, but I think we'd best be leaving soon." Applejack added with wide eyes.
"Yeah, I think so, too. We found Bridgette, so let's just get out of here!" Spike said as I held Bridgette in my arms.
"Oh, thank goodness! Poor little baby looks scared to death." Fluttershy remarked as she rubbed Bridgette's head while I quietly calmed Bridgette.
"Alright, let's just go. Twilight, you can teleport us back to Ponyville, right?" I asked.
"Y-yeah, just a moment." Twilight stuttered.
Twilight's horn glowed a bright white for a split second before we all instantly ended up back in the town square of Ponyville, now far from the grim house and back with Bridgette.
6:33 PM
Before I head out for my Everfree Forest patrol, I made sure to take the time with Twilight to dechipher what the number meant. Oh, and Bridgette is actually doing much better now, almost as if nothing ever happened earlier, but what I really want to share is our findings. It isn't much, but it's something.
So first of all, the pair of numbers usually came in sets of six or seven. For example, one of the sets was 5191870 and another was 861945. So, Twilight made the conclusion that these pairs of numbers were actually just dates, minus the forwards slashes that would indicate the month, day, and year. So really, 5191970 would be corrected to 5/19/1970. At that point, it all made sense, so Twilight and I grabbed a sheet of paper and restored the dates to hopefully get some answers. Once the dates were completed, we both dug into the history books of Equestria to find the said dates, but none of the dates correlated with the historic texts. So in the end, we have the numbers, but no answers so far and are stumped. If I had a way to look them up, that would probably help us greatly. Anyways, I'll put them down in chronological order:
January 3rd, 1 March 7th, 1662 March 8th, 1662 March 9th, 1662 October 31st, 1869 May 19th, 1870 December 18th, 1878 April 20th, 1889 August 27th, 1906 May 15th, 1926 May 18th, 1927 November 12th, 1934 October 16th, 1936 March 17th, 1942 August 6th, 1945 November 24th, 1946 September 15th, 1959 February 29th, 1960 May 21st, 1960 July 18th, 1984 August 20th, 1994 April 19th, 1995 April 20th, 1999 September 11th, 2001 April 16th, 2007 December 14th, 2012 April 15th, 2013
That is how far the dates went. I'm still very confused about the first date, though, with the year gap and everything.
The whistle on the Friendship Express bellowed as the locomotive approached the Crystal Empire train station. Tomorrow was Twilight's very first princess summit and everypony was excited as can be, although Twilight admitted she was a bit nervous. I too was excited and happy for her, but I was also very distracted at the same time.
"Attention everypony, we are now pulling up to the Crystal Empire! Can you all believe it everypony? It seemed a lot quicker than our last visit." Pinkie announced to only the girls, Spike, and I myself, followed by a short-lived silence.
"Woo-hoo." Fluttershy quietly cheered.
"Ahem. Thank you very much, Pinkie Pie. The rest can be left to me." the conductor said from behind Pinkie.
"No problem. Just thought I'd make your job a teensy bit easier, Mr. Conductor." Pinkie said, returning to the group.
Once stationed, everypony started exiting the passenger car, but I remained seated, staring out the window, but still aware it was time to get off.
"You awake there, Caleb?" Applejack nudged.
"Yeah, yeah, I was just about to get up. I'll be right out." I replied.
I then wrapped my camera bags strap around my right shoulder and proceeded out of the car where Twilight and the others waited for me before trekking a quarter-mile to reach the Crystal Empire.
"Is it just me, or the Crystal Empire looking more shinier than the last time?" I asked Spike, staring up at the glimmering crystal castle.
"Considering the fact that the love and unity in the empire is stronger than ever, I'd say yes to that," Spike replied. "Hey, you get some footage of the empire with your camera."
I unpacked the out-of-date video camera and flicked the on switch before pressing the red record button. As the lighting adjusted from removing the lens cap, I began monologuing and panning up, down, left and right.
"Okay, so here is the majestic Crystal Empire that I've mentioned in the other video..... There's the castle where we will be staying. Oh, and here is the new Princess of Friendship arriving for her princess summit." I said, pointing the camera towards Twilight.
"Technically, it's tomorrow, but that is why we're all here. Do you have enough footage for the summit?" Twilight said.
"I got, like, 513 minutes left. I'll be sure to get the good parts." I replied.
"And ya'll cannot believe how over the moon Twilight is for her summit." Applejack said, directed at the camera.
"Oh, I am excited. But, to be honest, I'm a little nervous, too." Twilight said.
"You're 'nervicited'! It's like you want to jump up and down and yell "YAY ME!" But you also want to curl up in a teeny-tiny ball and hide at the same time," Pinkie explained, contorting herself back to a normal stance. "We've all been there."
"I've been there almost every day." Fluttershy said.
"You've got no reason to fret, Twilight. Everything's gonna be--" Applejack incompletely stated.
"TWILIGHT!" Rarity shouted in surprise, prompting myself to shut off the camera and startling Twilight. "Oh, sorry, darling, but I just realized you weren't wearing your crown. You didn't forget it back in Ponyville, did you?!"
"It's in my bag. Just feel a little self conscious wearing it as often. I haven't been accustomed to these yet." Twilight said in regards to her new wings. Yeah, Twilight didn't get too far using her wings yesterday.
"But you're a princess now, Twilight. Embrace it! I'm telling you, if I had a crown like that, I would never take it off. Why, I'd sleep on the thing." Rarity said.
"Really? Because that doesn't sound comfortable at all." Pinkie said.
"I would not hesitate." Rarity confidently poised.
Upon entering the crystal castle, I equipped the video camera once more to capture some footage of the unique interior. It felt nice to actually take admiration of the Crystal Empire now that there was no dark magic wielding unicorn posing a great threat against it. It sure did make time fly because we soon entered the throne room, blasted by royal fanfare in respect for Twilight's presence. It surprised Twilight so much that she didn't pay attention to where she was going and bumped right into an orange coated royal guard.
"Her highness, Princess Twilight Sparkle!" the royal guard declared.
"Twilight!" Princess Cadance said with excitement. "I haven't seen you since the coronation!"
"I'm so glad to see that all of you could make it." Princess Celestia said as she approached us beside her sister.
"Well, we are her friends. It's what we do." I said.
"Indeed. Although we have so much to discuss in regards to Twilight's summit, it will have to wait until morning. You all look very tired from your journey. Now, off to bed, all of you." Celestia instructed.
"My guards will show you to your sleeping quarters." Cadance informed before we all exited the throne room and back out into the hallways.
I followed one of the transparent, crystal guards to a tall pair of double doors that turned out to be the entrance to my luxurious bedroom for one seven foot-ten human.
"As you can see, everything is accompanied to your stature." the guard said, showing off the bed, mirror and everything else.
"Not bad. Not bad at all." I remarked.
"I bet you don't get to sleep in a room like this so often." the guard said.
"Oh, psst, heck yeah." I scoffed.
"Well, if you need anything later on, we'll have guards patrolling the halls all night long." the guard said before closing the door.
"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks." I said, setting my suitcase on the smooth, checker tiled floor.
Grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl, I proceeded over to the window and gazed out at the view. Since the rooms were at least a hundred feet up high, I definitely got a nice, clear view of the fading sunset in the distance and the night sky taking it's place. Interestingly, I noticed the full moon was accompanied by three prominent stars that lied right above it; one on the left, right, and top.
"O' sleepless night." I said to myself, finishing the apple and discarding the core.
With not much left to do for the day, I unpacked my oral hygiene essentials, used them, threw off my shirt and pants, leaving only my boxer shorts, and just hopped into bed for the night without a care in the world.
I was dreaming at first. All I remembering seeing was the Element of Magic floating in a black void, or even outer space, perhaps. And then, without warning, Rainbow Dash barges right into my room, awakening me from my slumber.
"Eugh-- What?" I mumbled, looking at my watch. "Rainbow, it's six in the morning. What's going on?"
"Wake up, you dozy human!" Rainbow heeded, shaking me. "Some mare broke into the castle and stole Twilight's crown!"
"Oh, crap!" I exclaimed, throwing my covers off my body and putting a shirt. "Where is everypony else at?"
"They're all down in the artifact room. Come on!" Rainbow hurried.
I then followed Rainbow Dash all the down to the artifact room. Just before I could enter, there was great white flash, causing me to flinch.
"Who was that?" Fluttershy rhetorically asked.
Princess Celestia, Luna, and Cadance teleported right outside the artifact room, followed by a squad of royal guards led by Shining Armor.
"Where is the intruder?" Shining Armor asked.
"She jumped right into that mirror with my crown. We have to get it back!" Twilight replied, pointing at the horseshoe shaped mirror with a small set of stairs.
Princess Celestia did not respond, only staring at the mystical mirror in shock. After regaining her composure, Celestia looked at her sister.
"You do know what this means, my dear sister." Luna uttered.
"I do. Twilight, get ready for the day, retrieve your bag and meet me in the throne room. The same goes for the rest of you," Celestia instructed us. "Shining Armor, keep your guards posted at this door."
"Yes, your highness." Shining said.
I ran back into my room and put on a fresh pair of clothes, brushed my teeth and splashed some cold water on my face. I would've taken a shower, but I was too anxious to even care. Plus, I smelled fine. After that, I met with everypony else in the throne room where princesses awaited us.
"You're all here. Good." Luna said.
"Princess Celestia, why did you look so worried when you looked at the mirror?" Twilight asked.
"Because I know only one mare who would ever have the need to come through that mirror." Celestia replied.
"Who?" Twilight asked once more.
"Sunset Shimmer. A former student of mine. She began her studies with me not long before Twilight. But when she did not get what she wanted as quickly as she liked, she turned cruel and dishonest. I tried my best to help her, but she eventually decided to abandon her studies and pursue her own path. One that has sadly led to her stealing your crown." Celestia explained, much to my surprise.
"She replaced Twilight's crown with this one." Spike said, presenting the phony crown to Celestia.
"A replica. I suppose Sunset Shimmer thought you wouldn't notice right away that this was not yours. And by the time you did, it would be too late to go after your crown and Element of Harmony." Celestia said.
"But I still don't understand. Where did she go. Where did she take my crown?" Twilight questioned.
"You'll soon know more about this place than even I do." Celestia replied as she walked down towards us, followed by Luna and Cadance.
"Let us return to the artifact room at once." Luna directed.
After being admitted access to the artifact room, we all huddled in and closed the door. There stood the mirror. One would mistake it for not being magical because it looked just like any ordinary mirror. But the true nature of the mirror truly astounded my imagination.
"This is no ordinary mirror. It is a gateway to another world. A gateway that opens every thirty months." Luna explained.
"Sparkly!" Pinkie said, pressing her hoof against it before having it quickly removed by Luna. The pressure caused the mirror to shine and rippled like a liquid.
"It has always been kept in the throne room of Canterlot Castle. But when Princess Cadance took over the Crystal Empire, we sent it here for her to watch over." Luna continued. Celestia then sighed in a disappointed manner.
"I had always hoped that Sunset Shimmer would someday use it to return, to come back to Equestria seeking my guidance. Obviously, this is not what has happened." Celestia said.
"What can we do about it now that my crown is in another world?" Twilight asked, confused.
"You must use the mirror to go into this other world and retrieve your crown. Without it, the other Elements of Harmony have no power and Equestria is left without one of its most important means of defense." Cadance replied to Twilight's question.
Twilight stared deeply at the mirror now, almost as if it was beckoning her to come closer. Although I was amazed by what this mirror truly is, I was also deeply concerned about what lied in this world.
"Your crown does not belong in the place Sunset Shimmer now calls home. And in her possession, your Element of Harmony will no doubt be used to bring harm to the inhabitants of this other realm. They will not have the power to defend themselves." Luna said, lighting up Twilight's face.
"Do you understand the importance of your task?" Celestia asked Twilight.
"Of course." Twilight replied without hesitation.
"Good. Then you must go at once." Celestia finished.
Taking a sigh, Twilight was just about to reach the first step of the mirror before she was blocked by Rainbow Dash.
"Woah, woah, woah! If she's going, we're coming with her!" Rainbow said, now joined with the rest of girls.
"I'm coming too!" I said, stepping up with the rest.
"We always do need our trustworthy human." Rainbow said.
"Oooh, I'm so 'nervicited'!" Pinkie exclaimed.
"You do realize that not a real word, right?" Applejack asked.
Twilight smiled at us all, flattered and in thanks by our courage, but our volunteer time would be short-lived.
"I'm afraid I can't let you go." Celestia halted, causing Twilight to gasp in shock.
"Why not?! Let me and my friends go with her!" Rainbow retorted.
"You must understand," Celestia heavy-heartedly began. "Sending all of you could upset the balance of this alternate world, creating havoc that would make it impossible for Twilight to get the crown back from Sunset Shimmer. This is something Princess Twilight must do alone." Celestia said.
"Time is of the essence. On the third day, when the moon reaches its peak in the night sky, the gateway will close. And once it does, it will be another thirty moons before you will be able to use it to return." Luna warned Twilight as we all moved out of the mirrors way.
"You got this, Twilight." I encouraged.
"You'll be back before you know it." Rainbow also encouraged, followed by the other girls clamoring in support of Twilight.
Finally, Twilight stepped right up to the mirror and gently pressed her hoof onto the surface, causing her to flinch back and look back at Princess Celestia for assurance. Celestia replied by giving one last nod of said assurance, giving Twilight the go. And so, Twilight walked right into the mirror and disappeared from the present world.
My attention at the mirror was instantly broken when the girls shouted out Spike's name. Before I knew it, Spike was sprinting after Twilight. I then sprang into action.
"SPIKE, NO!" I shouted, sprinting after him as well, but tripping over the stair in the process and tumbling right into the portal.
My heart dropped and it was too late. The portal was mix of multicolors that rushed in a cylinder, swirling motion. The best I could describe the feeling is saying that it felt like I was traveling through light-speed. Through my travel, I managed to pry my eyes open to the sight of my body swirling around like a streamer on a stick and the speed towards the bright light beginning to pick up, creating a sensation of G-Force that terrified me.
My lied facedown on a concrete sidewalk and the air felt cooler. As I opened my eyes, feeling drained, I rolled over on my back as my eyesight went in all directions from the amount of spinning I endured while traveling through the mirror's portal.
"Spike... Oh, you little turd. You weren't supposed in the mirror..... Weren't supposed to go in." I dazedly uttered, hoping that the world I was now in wasn't disrupted from both my and Spike's presence.
Once my vision straightened out and managed to recollect myself, I soon noticed that this new world was another Earth. The sky was blue, white clouds drifted in the sky and the atmosphere was breathable. I quickly stood up onto my feet and faced a wide, two-story building that I swore was a palace at first, but something about it felt so familiar.
"Yeah, this is a high school," I mumbled before my mind clicked with what I just said. "Wait."
Turning around to my right, I watched and stared at a red sedan drive along a paved road and passed by at a slow pace.
"Holy shit, am I back on Earth?!"
I ran over to the side of the road and looked in both directions. A subdivision could be seen across the street and the entrance to a town could be seen half a mile to my left. It sure did seem like my homeworld by the looks of it, so I was quite ecstatic.
"Spike! Twilight! Where are you?" I called out.
"I'm over here!" Spike replied, emerging from behind a statue that stood in front of the school.
The sight of Spike truly messed with my head at first, but it was definitely him. Spike, once a baby dragon, had now transformed into a small sized dog. His entire color scheme of purple and green were the same as it would be in his dragon form, most of his fur coat purple while his ears and underbelly was a lighter shade of green, and a tuft of hair on his head that was a darker shade of green. Other than that, his eye proportions remained the same.
"Woah!" I exclaimed, taking a second to process the new appearance. "Spike, you're a dog!"
"I know, right? Nothing happened to you, but you're clothes were swapped, though." Spike said, quickly scratching his ear with his hind leg.
I now wore a fresh, new attire upon entrance to this new world. Instead of wearing my previous outfit, which was a dark purple t-shirt, a pair of black jeans and red sneakers, was now replaced with an unbuttoned brown shirt with rolled up sleeves that exposed a green t-shirt, acting as a second layer, blue jeans, and a pair of mens jet black converse shoes.
"Wow... So nothing on my body in changed?" I reassured.
"It seems like it. I just wonder what's taking Twilight so long to come through." Spike said.
About thirty seconds passed before the statue pedestal subtly started to emit a hum that grew in pitch. At the peak of the humming, the front side rippled like water before spitting Twilight out onto the sidewalk. What Twilight had now become had Spike and I turning our heads back and forth between us and Twilight.
"Oh my God, she turned into a human! Wha- What the frick?!" I wheezed, placing my hand on my forehead due to how confused, exhilarated and humored I was at the same time.
"Twilight. Can you hear us?" Spike asked as I walked away for a short distance, grinning like a moron.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm just feeling a little dizzy." Twilight replied, dazedly.
As I turned back towards Twilight, I awaited with anticipation on how Twilight would react to her new body. She then raised herself up and sat on her knees, extending her arms outward for the first time.
"Oh no." I mumbled.
It only took a second before Twilight let out a loudest shriek of terror I've ever heard expelled from her larynx. Of course, I started laughing my ass off instead of calming her down at first, but I eventually did.
"Alright, alright, calm down for second." I said as I crouched down towards her.
"I'm trying my best to, but look at me! I'm like you now!" Twilight exclaimed, flailing her arms and fingers like a rag doll.
"Okay, well, let's just take this slow for now. How do you feel?" I said.
"I feel fine on the wellness standpoint." Twilight replied, examining her clothing and her corresponding lighter toned skin. It was very fortunate that the portal also gave Twilight her own attire.
"Sooo, are you cool now?" I asked.
"I- I think so," Twilight said, followed by a sigh. "And to think that learning to fly with new wings was going to be a challenge."
"Don't worry, I'll help you out with the basics of walking and everything. Consider me a professional." I said.
"Lucky her. I had to figure this all out on my own." Spike said in regards to his canid body.
"Thank you, Caleb." Twilight grinned.
"Yeah, sure. So first, you have to get up on both your legs. Use your arms to help push yourself upwards." I said, giving Twilight a physical example.
"Okay. I got this. You got this, Twilight." Twilight mumbled to herself as she awkwardly got onto her hands and knees before planting her feet flat on the pavement and pushing upwards. She managed to stand upright, but gradually started falling forwards. However, I caught her before she could preform a face plant.
"That's not how humans move around, Twilight." I teased, pulling her back upright by her shoulders.
"Sorry," Twilight said, embarrassed. "I guess I involuntarily felt the need to go all quadruped again."
"Of course, of course." I understood.
"Ugh, this is going to take a bit of time."
With a few more minutes of my help and Twilight getting used to her human body, she was now walking like a somewhat normal human. But, she is a smart individual, so she's learning quick. And so, once ready, we began our walk up to the school's entrance.
"What is this place?" Spike asked.
"It's a high school." I replied.
"How did you know that?" Twilight asked, staring downwards as she walked to keep her footing correct.
"I just got that wave of the high school signals; stomach ache and sweaty palms," I replied. "And I'm going off a long shot, this world we're in might be mine."
"Your world?!" Twilight gasped.
"It seems just like it. I mean, I saw a bunch of vehicles drive by in the road over there just before you came through the portal!" I explained.
"Did you see any other humans?" Twilight asked.
"Just you. But the weird thing is that you kinda resemble your pony form. You got the light-purple skin, your eyes look the same size, and your clothing matches your persona." I said.
"That's interesting. I wonder why you look the same and Spike's a dog." Twilight said.
"I wish I knew, too." Spike commented.
"Yeah. I don't know... But if this is in fact my home world, then I need to call my family and let them know I'm okay." I said.
"Oh! If that's the case, then you should definitely go ahead. Spike and I can handle locating the crown if the time comes." Twilight said.
"We'll have to see. For now, let's just get inside the school and find this Sunset Shimmer," I said, walking up a set of stairs to the front door. "And take your time with the stairs, Twilight. Use that hand railing if you have to."
"Spare me on that statement." Twilight said, confidently smirking as she easily walked up the stairs. "Piece of cake."
"You've taught her well, Caleb." Spike remarked.
Upon entering, we entered into the school's main lobby, which was void of any students or faculty. Of course, there was the familiar scent of walking inside a school for the first time. It was quite nostalgic.
"Canterlot High School..." I slowly read off a banner that was strung across the wall.
"As in the Canterlot back in Equestria?" Spike asked.
"I kinda hope not." I replied.
Twilight then walked over to a large window in the corner of the room that stored various amounts of prizes and awards.
"What do you think about this, guys? Other artifacts she's stolen from Equestria?" Twilight asked, followed by a gasp.
"I don't think so. Those are just trophies on display that the school has won during events," I replied, now besides a bewildered Twilight. "What?"
"Dear sweet Celestia. Look at me. Even my wings and horn is gone!" Twilight muddled while inspecting her own reflection.
"Us humans don't exactly need magic and wings." I said.
"It's just so weird yet so fascinating at the same time..." Twilight droned.
"It'll grow on you. Hey, I'm gonna go check the other showcase window over there. I remembered that I've been wrong before about some things." I said.
"Okay." Twilight said.
Inside the second glass window was the same as the first; trophies, ribbons and even photos of the winning team. The photos made me deeply worried because of how the players looked. They were human, of course, but their appearence wasn't fitting the description of an actual human. Their skin colors were technicolored, they had the big eyes, everything.
"Oh, no," I mumbled, upset by the possibility that I was not even in the correct dimension. I say possibly because I wasn't entirely sure on the matter, but I would find out the truth soon enough.
Just then, the hour bell rang throughout the empty lobby and Twilight jolted to the sudden sound.
"Here comes the horde." I alerted Twilight.
It was a very brief moment of silence, but the lobby soon flooded with at least forty or fifty students as they came and went to their next class. I received a lot of stares and mutters as I watched everyone walk past. I could probably tower over the entire student body in this school. Despite my height, I managed to lose sight of Twilight and Spike through the flood of students. As I began to make my way through, I ran into a short student who wore thick bordered glasses and suspenders. He appeared to be the personification of the school nerd.
"Whoa, sorry, man." I said, nearly ramming into him.
"Oh, no worries at all, my exceptionally tall friend. I can't say I've ever seen your face around here in school." the student replied.
"First day, actually. I'm Caleb Barlow." I introduced.
"And I am Micro Chips. Pleased to make your aquantince." Micro replied, followed by a pause.
"So... you haven't possibly seen a crown anywhere, have you? My friend was making it for a, uh, project and she lost it. It had a redish-purple star at the top." I asked.
"A replica of the Fall Formal crown?" Micro replied.
"Uh, yeah. It's a shiny one." I said.
"Hmm. I can't really confirm that I've seen your friends crown at all." Micro said.
"So you haven't seen it?" I asked.
"Not at all." Micro replied.
"Dang. It should've been right outside by that statue, but it's gone now." I complained.
"Quite the illusionary object of eternity, don't you think?" Micro asked.
"I guess." I scoffed.
"Well, the best answer I could give you is to check the lost and found area. If not that, someone most likely stole it for their own profit." Micro suggested.
"Alright. Thanks for the help, man." I said, looking down the opposite hallway where Twilight was being helped up blue haired guy.
I hastily made my way through the crowd without trampling anyone over and made it over towards Twilight, Spike and the other guy.
"Twilight! I thought I lost you for a second." I called out.
"So did I." Twilight said.
"Who's your friend?" the guy asked.
"Oh. Um, this is my friend Caleb. We, um, transferred together, if you know what I mean." Twilight stuttered.
"A new guy, huh? Say, I'm really digging that eagle design on the back of your shirt. The name's Flash Sentry, by the way."
"Hey, thanks. And this is Twilight Sparkle and her dog named Spike, but you've already met them." I introduced.
"I have. She kinda bumped into me trying to get out of the lobby." Flash said.
"Sorry about that," Twilight blushed. "We're, um, looking for a crown we lost. It's got a little star thingy on top." Twilight half-assedly explained.
"A crown? Anything else that would make it stand out?" Flash asked.
"Um... nope." Twilight said, kinda shying away for some reason.
"Here, if one of you two give me your number, I'll text you if I find it." Flash said as he pulled out his smart phone.
"Sorry, dude. We don't actually own one of those. If you happen to find it, just try to find one of us." I said.
"Sounds good, bro. See you around. Oh, and you too, Twilight." Flash said before departing into the lobby.
"Bye." Twilight quietly replied, returning to her normal mood.
"I like that dude. He reminds me of one of my friends." I said.
"Yeah, he's cool." Twilight said with her forearms crossed.
"Alright, so I got an idea on where the crown could be at." I said, bringing the task back to hand.
"Where at?" Twilight asked.
"The lost and found area. You're best bet at finding the lost and found is by the offices." I replied.
"Aren't you coming?" Twilight asked.
"You want me to? I mean, I was kinda thinking about trying to figure out wether this is the correct human world or not. The thought just came to mind, so.... But I can still come with you if you'd like." I said.
"I got this, Caleb. You do what you need to do to clear your concious. After all, it is my responsibility to retrieve the Element of Magic." Twilight said.
"Okay. Thank you, Twilight. I'll definitely come back for you later once I get the time." I said, parting in the opposite direction
Sorrowful Truth April 4th, 2014/ September 27th, 2013
Now that it was quarter after eight, everyone in the school was gone for the day. I've been hiding out in the men's bathroom for quite sometime, so I decided to head back to Twilight and Spike, who were inside the school's locked library. Wiping my eyes with the back of my right hand, I pushed the bathroom door open and walked down the dimly lit corridor of the school's east wing, into the main lobby, and up the stairs that led to the second floor. And right near the top of the stairs was the library's entrance.
I then peered through the glass door as I tried to locate either Twilight or Spike. The east-side of the library was well-lit because of how the light shaft created by the moon diagonally shined through the roof's glass dome, but the rest of the library was just pitch black. Thankfully, I made sure Twilight left the door unlocked, so I headed inside for the night.
"It's just me." I said.
"Welcome back, Caleb." Twilight's voice replied somewhere up on the library's second level.
Once at the top of the stairs, I could hear Twilight and Spike chatting about the human counterparts in this world. Apparently this world is basically Equestria, but it's replace by a modern human society. Twilight met Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie's human doppelgangers earlier, but I still have yet to meet them. I really don't care wether I do or do not.
I turned the opposite direction of Twilight and Spike just to recollect myself for a moment, but the night sky caught my attention. Frankly, I was captivated. Much like the Equine dimension, the sky was a mix of purple, blue, and a hint of blackness. I let out a silent sigh as I mesmerized at the young moon and the trio of distinctive, twinkling stars that accompanied said moon. But, I started getting a familiar sentimental feeling as I brought my attention at the vast amount the less prominent stars. It just reminded me about how far away I must be from home and everything, so there were tears building up inside. I try to get over it, but it truly is hard. And so, I lowered my head, raised my inner portion of my brow and let a small amount of tears run down both my cheeks, soaking into the carpet. I then heard footsteps from behind but didn't turn around to see who it was.
"Hello, Twilight." I said.
"Are you going to be okay? I know this is hard on you." Twilight said.
"Ahhh, I don't know," I sighed. "Would you mind sitting with me for a little bit and talk with me?"
"It is what friends are for. I would know, of course ." Twilight said as she pulled a chair out from a study table.
"You sure would, Princess," I chuckled, wiping my eyelids again.
"So, how are your feelings in regards to this world? I can't imagine them being too good after learning the truth." Twilight said.
"I don't like this world. If I had to compare it to something, it would be a punch in the gut." I replied.
"Why so?" Twilight asked.
"Because it's so similar to my world, but it actually isn't. It's just a parallel universe of Equestria. My family and friends don't exist and the United States and the other counties are nothing. Twilight, if I ever got questioned about my identity by some authoritative figure, I would have nothing to say because there are no records of me here." I said.
"I see what you mean. You technically wouldn't exist at all, so that could be problematic depending on the situation." Twilight said.
"Yeah. But you, well, you're counterpart exists in the world somewhere, so you're probably okay." I said.
"I never really thought about that until now." Twilight realized.
"Maybe you'll see her tomorrow." I said.
"Possibly. However, I'm not sure wether to consider that exciting or mildly terrifying. Probably both." Twilight said.
"I'd say." I said.
"Anyways, you were saying that this world is like a punch in the gut?" Twilight brought back up.
"Yeah. I wish I could just get over the fact I'll never get back...." I said, followed by a period of silence.
"Do you ever wish you could take it all back? Not getting near the portal and staying inside your home that night." Twilight asked.
"I try my best not to. Although I technically made a risky decision and lost a lot, I somehow managed to receive something that deserves to be cherished... And that is, well, true friendship." I said as Twilight warmly smiled.
She then delicately placed her hand on my right hand that rested on the study table. Might sound a bit weird, but it was nice to feel such a caring touch by a human once again.
"Here's my best advice I can give you," Twilight began as her hand retreated. "Do your best to let go of the past. Learn to forget the fears that cause such anxiety and misery. If you never do, those feelings will always haunt you." Twilight said.
"But how? Maybe, like, thinking more about the future and what more good can be brought to me in my time in Equestria?" I asked.
"That's perfect! Think more positive feelings and develop aspirations for the future. That's what I learned from my parents when Shining Armor had to go away." Twilight said.
"Huh. Okay. I mean, nothing really bad is happening in my life right now, so that's a start." I optimistically shrugged.
"Absolutely. And if you ever want to talk more abo--" Twilight said before looking downwards at Spike, who was pawing her leg.
"I hope I'm not interrupting something super important, but there's someone at the library door." Spike said.
"Is there?" Twilight asked.
Twilight and I then peeked through the opening of the metal railing and checked out the front door. It was so dark on that side of the room that we couldn't even see the entrance.
"How can you even see the door?" I whispered to Spike.
"Must be my dog vision." Spike replied.
"Is the person still there?" Twilight asked.
"Oh," Spike said, confused. "Well, uh, I guess they must've left. Whoever that was, they were just as tall as Caleb."
"That's a little weird. And you're sure someone was there?" Twilight asked.
"Yup." Spike replied.
"And they didn't see you, right?" I asked.
"I don't think so. I didn't see any eyes, so they must've been looking in a different direction." Spike replied.
"Maybe the school has someone who walks the hallways or something." I guessed.
"In that case, maybe we should get back to our hiding place for the night." Twilight advised.
As we slowly shuffled our way to the back of the upper floor, I took one quick look at the library's entrance and stared. Like before, I didn't see anything but I got this gut feeling that I shouldn't be looking back, so I didn't stick around. And so, we made it to our makeshift book beds and hit the hay for the next day in this new world.
I know this is a bit of a timeskip, but I was serious when I stated that I didn't like the human dimension. Everyone is really cool there, yes, but I couldn't stay there any longer and went back to Equestria the following morning. Of course, Twilight understood my decision and managed to retrieve her crown.
To make a long story short, she teamed up with the human counterparts of Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash, was elected princess of the Fall Formal and earned her crown back, Sunset Shimmer basically turned into a demon when she got her hands on the elements magic and was ultimately defeated by the magic of friendship. Now after all that, Twilight finally had her princess summit and we all relaxed for the time being.
However, Equestria's repose would be very short-lived. A new threat has fallen upon Equestria, and it's no unicorn turned human that seeks complete world domination. Twilight let me in on the fact that the land of Equestria is now under the threat of power-driven centaur by the alias of Lord Tirek. This centaur was apparently imprisoned in the lowest depths of Tartarus due to his previous crimes against Equestria, but he somehow found out how to escape and is back. Now, the only reason he is a true threat is because his powers are just starting to regain, but slowly. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have already confirmed that Tirek is preying upon the ponies magic through a vision they both had in their sleep, but nopony has a damn clue on where he even is at.
Due to the lack of knowledge of Tirek's location and how poweful he has gotten so far, Princess Celestia assigned Discord in tracking down and capturing Tirek. I myself and the girls were very skeptical about this decision, but Twilight and I have learned to accept it. Discord may be an annoying fool sometimes, but he is one of the most powerful beings in Equestria, more than Tirek, and has the ability to detect magical imbalances, such as Tirek's draining. If Discord complete's his daring mission, then I will truly know that he has turned over a new leaf....
The sun and moon erratically twitched and orbited the Earth in all directions as the sky changed from day to night until the sun slowly situated in the north. Flabbergasted, I walked into Twilight's bedroom where she gazed out the window.
"Looks like Celestia and Luna were having a bit trouble deciding who raises and who lowers," I remarked. "What did they have to say to you anyways?"
"Oh, y'know. Just letting me on what will happen once Discord doesn't-- er, I mean, does turn in Tirek." Twilight replied as her entire body subtly trembled.
"Oh, okay," I could easily tell she was covering something up, but I stupidly didn't assume the worse. "I was expecting Discord to have gotten him already, but chaos is said to be unpredictable." I said.
"Ain't that the truth." Spike mumbled, lying on his bed.
Bridgette let out a prominent sigh while she stood by the bedroom entrance and stared at me with those puppy eyes. She was growing impatient on waiting for me before we headed out to scout the Everfree Forest.
"Don't worry, Bridgette, we're going, we're going," I assured to the pouty Labrador.
"Going where?" Twilight asked, concerned.
"To the Everfree. We're going for a ride." I replied.
Twilight conflictily looked at me to the response, almost as if she was thinking while her brain fired a million miles a minute. Biting her lower lip nervously, she only had this say.
"Promise me you won't take a single unnecessary risk if you somehow come across Tirek." Twilight heeded.
I didn't say anything back, but I kinda just looked at Twilight before slowly heading out to the Defender. "God, I sure hope Discord found him by now."
The drive through the streets of Ponyville was very strange. Bridgette calmly lied in the passenger seat, which is a bit rare. Bridgette usually likes to sit up and watch the ponies as we drive by, but nopony was outside. It was like going through a ghost town. As I came to think about it, Discord has been gone for two days without any report back. It shouldn't take this long for a creature of his nature to discover a magical imbalance. But above it all, I remained alert for Tirek. I had no idea what he looked like, but I'll probably know him when I see him.
Sometime later, Bridgette and I gently cruised along the Everfree Forest's stretch at about seventy kilometers an hour. Bridgette was now sitting up in her seat because she knew that it was her job to help me spot things that were out of the ordinary. And that, well, that's what she did today. Suddenly, Bridgette straightened her gaze to the tree-line up ahead to our right.
"What do you see?" I asked, taking my eyes off the path.
Out of the corner of my left eye, I caught a glimpse of a small figure walk out to the center of the path and stop. I slammed on the brakes and the tires grinded against the gravel as the vehicle came to slow but complete stop. Before us was a screaming deer who was faced up against the grill of the Defender, but unharmed.
"Hello, Caleb!" Discord greeted, still in his deer form.
"What the heck are you doing?" I asked, stepping out the Defender.
"I had to make you stop somehow," Discord replied, returning to his draconequus form. "Just thought I'd do something a little more daring."
"Well, try creating a red stop sign next time. That would be a lot more suitable," I suggested, leaning against the Defender. "So, you working hard on finding Tirek?" I asked.
"Actually, I found him yesterday." Discord cheerfully revealed.
"Really?! You got him?" I asked.
"Well, yes, but technically no..." Discord replied, his tone getting guttural at the end.
"What do you mean? Where is he at?" I asked while looking around uneasily.
"Ask him yourself." Discord said, backing away for a short distance.
From behind the vehicle came a thumping sound that made the ground rumble. I then turned around to the sight of a towering, red centaur walking towards me. Instinctively, I went to get my Igneous in hopes to petrify Tirek, but Discord levitated the Defender out of my reach, causing Bridgette to leap out.
I was at a lost for words at that moment. There I stood with Discord preventing my actions that could possibly stop Tirek, Bridgette barking, and the threat to Equestria coming right towards me. I stared at Discord with disbelief and shock, and he stared right back.
"I had faith in you, Discord. You betrayed us all, you son of a bitch." I managed to spit out, but he didn't respond.
Before I knew it, Lord Tirek was standing right behind me. His shadow casted over Bridgette and I even though he was about fifteen feet tall at the moment. I turned to face him and stared up at him. His skin was red, his entire build was brawny, and sported metal shackels on both of his wrists. He had the face of a bull and had a white beard that resembled a goats. It took me a moment to realize that his bottom half was of a horse, but I was truly terrified to get a full look at him. He then grabbed me with an iron grip and lifted me up to his level.
"Hmm. A fine bounty of magic indeed. Quite more than the average Earth pony." Tirek said to Discord.
Tirek opened his mouth wide open and started to drain the magic from my body. My own mouth involuntarily opened and my eyes rolled back as I felt my magic physically leave through my throat. It was a discomforting period of time, but it came to a stop once all of my magic had been depleted, leaving me feel weak.
"ARRRGH!" Tirek yelled out in a state of pain.
Like a piece of trash, Tirek tossed me onto the hard gravel path and I grunted in pain upon impact. With my vision fading in and out as I felt Bridgette lick my cheek, I made sure to look over to Discord. All he did was advert his look.
Turning my blurry attention to Tirek again, he had turned around and shot a beam of powerful energy from between his two horns that decimated a portion of the path. The back of his left hind leg had four big lacerations that appeared to be claw marks, each bleeding out dark red blood. Whatever had attacked him from behind had to be nothing but dust now.
"Why did you not make the effort to stop what just attacked me?" Tirek questioned Discord.
"I didn't see anything, honest. If I were to of seen a presumed attacker, I would've turned them into nothing but a pair of harmless safety scissors." Discord explained.
"Is that so? Well, I might as well just consider a Wraith followed me out of Tartarus just to give me a little scratch." Tirek said, his wound healing at a rapid pace.
"You're guess is as good as mine." Discord said.
"Nevertheless, excellent find, Discord. Now, we must deal with the five embodiment's and Princess Twilight Sparkle. Once the alicorn magic is mine, victory shall be achieved." Tirek said.
"Of course, of course. Now that you mention it, they're in Ponyville as a matter of speaking! Excluding Twilight, unfortunately." Discord said.
"Princess Twilight will be dealt with soon enough. I will await your signal once the five have been detained." Tirek said, teleporting to an unknown location.
I weakly pushed myself up and rested on my elbows while Bridgette began lapping her tongue on my scrapes from the fall.
"I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay," I said, pushing Bridgette's mouth away and looking back at Discord. But by that time, Discord had already teleported to Ponyville. "Shit."
My body felt absolutely drained at that moment. I didn't even want to get up, I just wanted to lay there and do nothing. But above all of it, I knew that that the girls and Equestria were in deep trouble. Discord had also dropped the Defender back onto the ground before he departed and my new Igneous was still inside. I had no idea wether the Igneous would have any effect on Tirek on the level of power he has, but I was willing to try something.
My body slightly trembled as I pulled myself up, using the vehicle as support. My magic-given strength was completely gone and reverted back to the average human strength, but I still maintained my tall stature and stocky build. Once Bridgette and I had gotten into the vehicle, I began driving back towards Ponyville at a steady speed. I was far too drowsy to be going extraordinarily fast.
By the time I passed Sweet Apple Acres, the sky had quickly changed from a blue, sunny day to a sinister grayish-red. My energy levels and alertness had slightly improved since getting drained so I picked up the speed a bit more.
"We never should've trusted The Spirit of Chaos and stayed away," I reminisced to myself in frustration. Bridgette just stared at me as if she thought I was talking to her. "But not you. You's a good girl."
When I reached the town square of Ponyville, there was a giant steel barred cage that housed none other than Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash. Quickly, I pulled up aside it and hopped out to check on the girls.
"You guys okay?" I asked.
"We're okay! Discord locked us in here and Tirek stole all of our magic." Pinkie Pie replied.
"I figured. He betrayed me, too, and all my strength is gone. I honestly thought he would stop Tirek." I said.
"Yeah. Their partnership didn't seem to work out, huh, Discord?" Rainbow Dash hotly remarked to a now powerless Discord who limply lied beside the cage in shame.
A flare of rage surged through my head at the sight of him and the thought of what he had done. I wanted to take a hit at him, but I knew it wouldn't accomplish anything and wasn't necessary. And so, it left as soon as it came.
"Whatever. He knows what he's done. Now, Spike, where did Twilight go?" I said.
"I'm not sure. She was heading to The Castle of Two Sister's, but she could be anywhere by now." Spike nervously replied.
"Damn. Well, there's no doubt that Tirek is hunting her down at this moment. But.... I-- I'm going to find her. I can still help her." I said. Everypony in the cage stared at me in shock to my bold statement under the current circumstances.
"I don't know, Caleb. Tirek is way too powerful at this point. You can't fight him, no way!" Rainbow Dash said.
"I have to strongly agree. I don't mean to put things so bluntly, but he will kill you if he gets the chance, darling." Rarity said.
"Possibly. But... but I've got a trick up my sleeve. Try not to--"
Just then, a nearly deafening explosion boomed across the entirety of Ponyville, sending out a shockwave. The blast was visible over the houses, followed by billowing smoke and burning paper that fluttered back down to the ground.
"I gotta go. Bridgette, stay here. Stay." I said before speeding off towards the site of the explosion.
Anxiety built up as I assumed the worst case scenario. I knew for a fact that the explosion site was near The Golden Oak Library based on the location. Sure enough, my fear turned out to be true.
Exiting the Defender one more time with the Igneous now equipped, I hopelessly stared at the now destroyed Golden Oak Library that was blown in half. The entire left side of the library was no more and small portion of the right remained, but utterly burnt and charred. The smell of burning wood filled the air, paper continued to rain down fire and the books burned into nothing but a pile of embers; a scene of pure destruction. But however, the grieving had to wait.
Further away now, another gargantuan explosion erupted in the form of mushroom cloud. I dashed in between houses and alleyways until I reached the outskirts of Ponyville and into the vast meadow that lied southeast, the same meadow where I coincidently entered this world.
Dead center in the valley was a gaping column of the Earth that had been destroyed by whatever great power was exerted, leaving nothing but dirt. On the far end was Tirek, who was smuggly glaring at Twilight who stood on the side closest to me. Although Tirek was now up to the stature of a three-story building and had consumed more powerful, it had appeared Twilight held her ground.
"Now I understand what you're fellow princesses have done." Tirek slyly remarked.
Getting into a stance, the ground violently shook as Twilight shot off into sky like a bullet and quickly headed straight down towards Tirek in attack formation. The centaur charged all of his powerful magic and expelled it in a beam of energy at Twilight, but Twilight was fast to react and shielded herself was a protective orb whilst high off the ground. With Tirek, distracted, I started sprinting in order to better position myself and to get a good shot at Tirek, and that required to get closer to the battle between Centaur and Alicorn.
As soon as I started moving, Twilight teleported back to ground level, catching Tirek off guard, and fired another power laser right at his face. Tirek yelled out in a fit of anger and pain as he shoved the laser out of his face, revealing some burnt skin and his singed beard. Tirek followed up the attack by levitating Twilight up to his level and just threw her right into a summit of nearby mountain. He then got an immensely fast running start and leaped towards the mountain where Twilight impacted horizontally, yelling once again with his head pointed and rammed all the way through the mountain.
"Oh, no, no, no, no!" I said, moving towards the other side of the mountain.
With Twilight latching onto Tirek's head, she countered the headbutt by quickly pushing herself off to face him and knee'd him in the jaw at a sudden burst of high-speed, followed by a punch in the face that was so forceful that it sent Tirek backwards and caused him to land on his back. To finish, Twilight generated a giant ball of energy through her horn and sent it raining down on Tirek, encasing him under thick layer of the Earth's crust. But it wasn't enough. Tirek easily cut a circle around where he was trapped, lifted the chunk of Earth overhead with Twilight still on, and tossed it a good distance, crumbling to pieces upon impact as the ground shook. Twilight now flew directly at Tirek, which angered him more immensely than before. He slammed both of his clenched fists onto the ground and summoned pillars of rock to penetrate the crust in attempt to block her, but Twilight blasted each rock away with ease. With one last charge, Tirek and threw everything they had at each other in the form of thick, powerful beams of lethal magic that radiated off with pure energy. When both beams made contact, a chain reaction than occurred that caused both to form into one big ball that instantly expanded and blew up. The energy of the explosion sent me flying back despite being at least two-tenth of a mile away, but perhaps that was a bit too close.
After the flash of light had subsided, I picked myself back up and looked onwards at the destruction of the blast. The best way I can simply describe it is that it looked like a tiny nuclear bomb had gone off. The ground of the blast had flattened into a small crater, leaving the circumference as a steep hill. Fortunately, Twilight survived the blast.
"Jesus, these two are real terrors." I thought, standing near the crater's edge.
Unfortunately, Tirek survived as well and shoved a pile of boulders that crushed him off his back, standing tall once again. Twilight drifted down and into the crater where they both stood on opposite sides, glaring. This seemed to be my perfect opportunity, so I went prone and switched the firing mode to thick beam, max power. At first, Twilight was moderately bruised up on her legs and underbelly and her mane was unkempt while Tirek's body was more covered with cuts and bruises, but the wounds had healed in record time.
"It seems we are at an impasse. How about a trade?" Tirek suggested, teleporting the girls, Spike, and Discord over to the crater in hovering bubbles that imprisoned them. "Their release for all the Alicorn magic in Equestria."
Through the Igneous' scope, I could see that Twilight had a expression that showed turmoil. I had no idea she was carrying all Alicorn magic, I legit thought she was this powerful on her own.
"Take the shot...... No, wait, what are thinking? If Twilight isn't powerful enough to stop Tirek, what's a petrifying beam going to do? Sombra easily shook it off, so what's the point?"
But really, I didn't want to screw anything up by possibly getting myself killed by Tirek or something terrible happening to Twilight as a retaliation to my shot. Biting my lower lip, I set the Igneous on the warm dirt and rose to my knees, watching the scene unfold. I barely hear how Twilight replied due to her smaller size, but Tirek's actions said it all. Tirek then released all the five mares and Spike, but not Discord. There was a brief pause.
"After the way he has betrayed you, you still call him a friend?" Tirek questioned Twilight.
Twilight must've stayed true to her title because Tirek released Discord from his bubble, plopping to the ground. After the deed was done, Tirek turned to Twilight and immediately started draining all of the Alicorn magic out through Twilight's horn. Even from a far distance, I could hear Twilight's screams of pain as the process continued.
"Fuck! Ugh!" I reacted, swiping at the Igneous. It only took ten seconds for all of the Alicorn magic to fall into Tirek's possession, and the effect on him was terrifying.
"Ugh! UGGHH! AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGHHHH!!! YES! YES!" Tirek roared as his entire body grew from thirty or so feet to the size of a skyscraper. His body radiated with a yellow-orange glow and pure energy as he stormed off to cause more destruction to the land of Equestria.
I then slid down the slope and ran towards Twilight and the others. Twilight was very weak, but she managed to stand back up on her four hooves.
"Are you alright, Twilight?" I asked, Spike and I supporting her as she stood.
"I am. Thank you." Twilight wearily replied.
"Oh, Twilight. What were you thinking?" Spike asked.
"Tirek tricked me into believing he could offer me something more valuable than friendship, but there is nothing worth more. I see that now." Discord whole-heartedly admitted with his head sunk, full of regret and remorse. I could tell.
"But did you fully intend to take over Equestria alongside him?" Twilight asked.
"Partially, I have to admit, but it was a foolish mistake I never should have made," Discord replied, ashamed. "He also lied when he said this medallion was sign of gratitude and loyalty."
"Well, I have to appreciate your humbleness." Twilight said.
"I'm sorry. But when I say that is a sign of true friendship and loyalty, I am telling the truth to all of you." Discord said, removing the medallion from his scruff and placing it around Twilight's neck. As soon as the medallion was placed, a subtle rainbow flash emitted from it, lighting up Twilight's eyes.
"Hey, the medallion did the flash!" I exclaimed.
"You think it might be the last key we need?" Applejack asked Twilight.
"It is. We have to get to the chest." Twilight said.
"Here, follow me. We'll take the Land Rover to the castle." I said.
The drive took no more than eight or so minutes and we headed down the stairs to the bottom of a ravine and into a cave where the Tree of Harmony resided. From what I was told about two months ago, Twilight and the girls sacrificed their Elements and gave them to this majestic, crystalized tree that has been standing for thousands of years inactive up until two months ago. The six have each collected an item that represented their Element and transformed them into keys for this mysterious chest that bloomed right in front of the tree once it started becoming active again. Twilight was the only left without a key, but it seemed now was the moment that she did.
The girls around the mystifying chest, which already had the keys of Honesty, Kindness, Generosity, Laughter, and Loyalty already inserted. Bridgette, Discord, Spike and I stood back a short distance as we watched the gold medallion morph into the final key, automatically inserting itself into the keyhole.
"Together! We have to do this together." Twilight instructed.
The six then turned their individual key at the same time. Instantly, the chest glowed brightly and began to magically hum. A mini rainbow spurted out the chest and absorbed into the Tree of Harmony, activating the Elements of Harmony that resided on it. The Elements shined and flashed various colors before sending down columns of light or energy onto their designated mares. All this light being illuminated was too much and I had to shield my eyes, as well as Discord and Spike. Hell, even Bridgette was squinting her eyes. When I managed to lower the palm of my hand, I saw a giant ball of magic with six silhouette's of the girls inside.
As the ball hovered out of the ravine, the towering Tirek was standing right at the top and watched in astonishment as the ball rose above his stature. Enraged, he shot a gargantuan laser at the girls, but the ball was too powerful to be broken.
"How is this possible?" Tirek questioned in utter confusion. "You have no magic!"
"You're wrong, Tirek! I may have my given you my Alicorn magic, but I carry within me the most powerful magic of all!" Twilight ever so elegantly replied.
"Hit him with the magic of friendship!" Discord shouted.
One by one, six beams shot directly at Tirek before forming into a light-colored rainbow. He growled as he struggled to stand up and fight back, but the power of friendship was immeasurable to his destructive power. Defeated, he let out a scream as his power and stature diminished until there was silence. With one last thing to do, the ball rose high into the sky and expanded outwards like a sonic rainboom. Some of the energy created by this expansion seeped into the ravine and absorbed into Discord and I, returning our magic that Tirek stole.
"Oh. Oh! My magic is back!" I exclaimed, tossing a random boulder that had to weigh hundreds of pounds.
"As is mine, too! Look!" Discord exclaimed.
"Right... How about you use it for good from now on, okay?" I reminded.
"I will. You got my word on it." Discord said, handing me a piece of paper that simply spelled out, word.
"Good. And Discord, bud. You're an idiot sometimes. But let's be fair, you're the spirit of chaos." I said.
"Well, I guess that makes me a little excusable. But I know I can do better." Discord said.
"And I know you can, too. You'll be fine." I said, patting his eagle arm.
"Why thank you, Caleb Barlow. And I also apologize for turning you into Bigfoot that one time." Discord said.
Oh, don't worry about it. It wasn't that bad." I said.
During our conversation, the chest formed another rainbow, much like a normal rainbow, and sent the chest out of the ravine and to an ambiguous location.
"Where do you think that chest is going?" Spike asked.
"I have an idea on where." Princess Celestia said alongside Luna and Cadance.
Celestia than teleported all of us out of the ravine and back to Ponyville where the six mares stood in front of a castle. The said castle had a lot of similarities to the Tree of Harmony. In fact, it did look like the crystalized tree, but more in the form of castle. It stood at least six stories high, had golden stair that led up to the golden front doors, windows, a front balcony, a unique architectural design, a flag with Twilight's cutie mark design, and a star that beamed with light to complete it all. It was quite a magnificent, exquisite castle. But the question was who it belonged to.
"Sweet Celestia! Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Rarity asked in awe.
"But... whose is it?" Twilight wondered.
"I believe it is your's, Princess Twilight." Celestia answered.
"My castle?" Twilight asked once again.
"It is. When you unlocked the chest, not only did you utilize the powers all six of you possess, but also a new home for it as well." Celestia said. "Shall we head inside?"
Celestia used her magic to slowly open the front door, revealing the beuaty of the interior. There was all of this crazy, fancy decor, a burgundy carpet that stretched all across the castle as a walkway, a true example of class and royalty. There was just so much detail with the interior that I can't list it all. I mean, it's, like, got crystal walls and regular walls that are a purplish-blue, working lights, candles, and even little benches you can sit on.
"You've been wondering what you are meant to do as a princess. Do you know now?" Celestia asked as we all walked the main entrance and to another door on the other side.
"As princess, I believe I have the power to spread the magic of friendship across Equestria. That is the role I am meant to have in our world! The role I choose to have! But I didn't defeat Tirek on my own – it took all of us to unlock the chest!" Twilight replied, the girls then getting into a group hug.
"Then it is unlikely you are meant to take on this task alone." Celestia said, now opening the doors to the next room.
The girls then gasped in awe at the sight. Well, I kinda did as well. This next room housed six throne-like seats, each one having a cutie mark representing who out of the six sits where. Spike's was a smaller one adjacent to Twilights, which I thought was funny. No seat for me, though, but oh well.
"You are now Twilight Sparkle, the princess of friendship. But what is the princess of friendship without her friends?" Celestia said, prompting the girls and Spike to huddle up again. All seven then turned their attention towards Discord and I. Discord shyly hid himself behind a wall while I stood by the door.
"Oh, no, please. I'm just the human tourist." I humbly said.
"Come here, you two. You both did your part in helping." Twilight said, levitating Discord and I to the group. Bridgette trotted over to us and plopped onto the floor, sighing.
Now all together, we shared a hug of embrace and victory in saving Equestria, but Discord had one more thing to say.
"Wait a minute, where's my throne?" Discord asked in a whining manner.
"I don't think you're there quite yet." Fluttershy said.
Things have been going good in regards to the new castle. It's hard to believe how a little chest can create something truly special and astounding, but the Tree of Harmony seems to work in mysterious ways. Shortly after the castle was erected, a lot of the townsfolk flocked over to check it out and we all had a little get together; all in celebration of Tirek's defeat and this next step in Equestria's harmony. I surely do hope Tirek was the last great threat against Equestria. Well, maybe I'm speaking too soon because Twilight is currently back in the human dimension with the doppelgangers and helping face off against these creatures called Siren's. I've never heard of them, but it's documented that Star Swirl the Beard, the powerful unicorn wizard, banished them to the dimension. That world must be Equestria's dumping ground, I guess.
The castle, which I should mention is now being titled as 'The Castle of Friendship', is pretty much a bit of tourist destination for the time being. During the day, I've come across and met ponies from all across Equestria. As far as Vanhoover to Appleloosa. So yeah, Ponyville is actually a real popular village to visit for the time being. I don't know how long the hype will last, but it's decent.
Now going back to Twilight, she has been receiving a lot of new books and supplies from Canterlot because, well, everything was gone when Tirek destroyed The Golden Oak Library, and that's another thing, too. Twilight, Spike, and I were hurt when we went to visit the remains of the library. When we arrived, all we saw was a charred stump of the library. Like I said, everything we owned was gone: the books, Bridgette's kennel and toys, the furniture, everything. I only lived there for over two years. It may not seem too long of a time, but I made a lot of memories with this place. One, of course, was the first place I met Twilight for the first time. I also liked how the interior had a cozy feel to it, especially on the summers nights with the light breeze blowing through the window.
However, the castle seems to replace everything with an upgraded touch, but it could never bring back Owloysius. Yes, Owloysius was unfortunately killed in the explosion. Twilight cried a lot for a few hours when we figured out the worse case scenario. We didn't find any remains, so it was at least a quick death. He sure was a good owl and would usually greet me when I went upstairs with one of his hoo's. Twilight sadly blames herself for his death because she didn't think to grab him as Tirek's laser hurled towards the library. But can you really blame her? She was in a fight or flight situation and she did what she had to do in order to live and protect Equestria. I kept on telling her the same phrase whenever she blamed herself. She's reluctant, but I can tell she's learning to accept it and move on.
Anyways, we a had a small funeral for him two days ago. The girls came on down and we filled a small box with objects that represented either Owloysius or perhaps something with deeper meaning and buried it next to an oak tree in the meadow. I contributed with a beautiful flower I picked from the meadow. The reason I picked it is because I thought it was good symbolization of life being a precious commodity and that you must live life to the fullest. I learned that one from my mom. She learned that one when she went to church as a child, but I didn't believe in the whole afterlife spiel. I love the saying, though.
Another thing I wanted to mention was the state of all the destruction Tirek and the battle caused. Currently, it is being cleaned up and moving towards on being polished. Tirek destroyed a small portion of the Everfree Forest and killed a lot of wildlife near the northern border of Dovere in the process. New grass and trees are being planted in that area right now, so it's going to bare for sometime. As for the meadow where the battle took place, well, that's going quite well, actually. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna lent a helping hoof in restoring the landscape to a proper level. So all that really needs to be done is planting.
But like I was saying, Twilight, Spike and I are just settling in. I know I've said this plenty of times before, but Twilight is such a dear friend. She allowed me to live in the castle. I mean, I did my utmost to help out around the library, so I believe a castle will be nice change. Plus, the castle definitely requires more occupants than just Twilight and Spike. The bedroom I chose out the many is on the second floor, facing the front of the castle. I always wanted a room with a view. But anyways, I told Twilight that I owed her big time, but she politely declined it. I'm still gonna find some way because I consider this castle the ultimate representation of Twilight and Spike's friendship.
At the moment, Twilight is still busy in the human dimension with Spike. Right now, I'm just chilling on my new bed with Bridgette by my side. She's lying on her back with her paws up in the air while asleep, so she must be liking her new bed, too. The room is decently large and the decor is fantastic, especially with the sunset gleaming through the windows and against the walls. Therefore, I think this is a good time to close up for the night.
"Caleb, are you busy in there?" Twilight asked on the other side of my bedroom door.
"Uh, no. Whatcha' need?" I replied, Twilight now opening the door alongside Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash. "Are we going on an adventure or something?"
"In a way. But its more of a mission that involves us six. Come downstairs and I'll explain everything." Twilight said.
"Alright..." I said, following Twilight's lead.
When we started heading downstairs and into the throne room, where the seven seats for each element was located, I immediately assumed that Twilight was going to give me a huge explanation through book text, but this was different. Instead was a newly formed, circular table that displayed a holographic map of Equestria, spanning from the Crystal Empire to the unknown lands of the south. When the girls surrounded the table, examine the map as well, each of their cutie marks manifested and hovered above a tiny village further up north.
"Woah! That's unreal! Where'd did it come from?" I asked, phasing my hand through the hologram.
"It came right up from the floor when all six of us sat in our seats." I asked Twilight.
"Kinda like the chest when we turned the keys, actually." Applejack added.
"That's right. So, through my deduction, I believe this map is calling us to this village for some particular reason, hence our cuties marks." Twilight said.
"Oh, so you have no idea what it really means?" I asked.
"Not entirely in context, but with everything the Tree of Harmony has done for all of us and Equestria, this is something we shouldn't theorize over." Twilight said.
"It couldn't possibly be some sort of trick." Fluttershy said.
"Oh, I'm sure about it. So what do you need me for?" I asked.
"Since the Friendship Express isn't due back at the station for another hour and we want to check out the situation as soon as possible, I was wondering if you'll be willing to drive us up north." Twilight said.
"Sure. Does the rail system go all the way up there?" I asked.
"Partially. The village is so isolated that even the train doesn't stop there." Twilight said.
"I do so wonder whoever lives in such desolate part of Equestria." Rarity said, inspecting the desert environment where the village was located.
"Somepony who definitely likes it dry and warm." Rainbow Dash said.
"So, I'm guessing fish people are out of the question?" Pinkie said.
"That's what it seems. So you'll drive us, Caleb?" Twilight said.
"That's fine with me. Let me just fill Bridgette's food and water bowl for her dinner and we can get going." I said.
"Thank you so much. We knew we could count on you." Twilight said.
"It's the least I can do. Head out to the Land Rover, I'll be with you guys in a moment." I said, heading off to the kitchen and calling Bridgette.
By the time we left, we had to be on the road for about thirty-five minutes. I cruised along the Northern Plains at 80 kilometers an hour with the windows down. Pinkie had her head out the window, her mane flapping in the wind while the others chilled in their seats and watching out the window.
I noticed Rainbow Dash leaning over and getting a peek at the speedometer. When I looked at her, she just smiled and scoffed, planting a hoof on her face. Rolling my eyes, I pressed the accelerator and putting the 300tdi engine to work. There wasn't really much to look at because this part of Equestria I was driving through was untouched and completely natural plains, but there was a few tall mountains to gaze at along the way.
"Check it out, girls. Its Neighagra Falls!" Twilight exclaimed to the oncoming series of waterfalls, a subtle mist surrounding it.
"Such a majestic, natural landmark." Rarity said in awe.
"It sure is. You ever been there?" I asked.
"Only a few times during the summer when I was just a little filly. There was always long lines to get out onto the lake, but it was all worth it." Rarity replied.
"Sounds similar to way it goes on Earth. You had to wear ponchos?" I asked.
"Absolutely. Nopony wanted to get their coats and manes wet." Rarity replied.
"Figured." I said.
"Hey Caleb, you know what would be good right now?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"What?" I asked.
"You should put that Van Halen guys CD in the radio player. His music was pretty awesome." Rainbow said, shuffling through a previous owners box filled with various CD albums that I recovered from the Dragon Territory.
"Oooh! Let me check those out." Pinkie said, snatching the box and inspecting the contents. "This one looks good! Let's listen to Running with Scissors by Weird Al Yankovic."
"Sounds like a rather unsafe title." Twilight said.
"Oh, I remember that guy! I listened to some of his songs when I was twelve.
"What's he like? Does he live up to his name or waaay down?" Pinkie asked.
"He's a funny human, I'll tell you that." I said.
"Sounds like my kind of guy. Thank you very much, Mr. Weird Al." Pinkie Pie said, tossing the album to me.
"Well, I guess I can go for some humor every now and then." Rainbow Dash said, kicking her hind hooves up on the dashboard.
Once we passed by Neighagra Falls and listened to Alfred's parodic music, the railroad led up into a tunnel that went through a mountain and out onto a wooden bridge, following into another mountain. This eventually led us into a more drier environment; the ground was more dusty, mostly dead grass, and desert rock formations were scattered across the land. Our time in the Land Rover came to an end when an obstructive abyss proved impossible to cross. Fortunately, there was a narrow wooden-plank and rope bridge that allowed us straight across, so we all went of foot from then on out.
"How much further to the village?" I asked Twilight as we trekked up a rocky mountain path.
"We should be able to see it once we get up there. This cliff right here should give us a good vantage point." Twilight said.
"Nice. I hope it's not as cold as it is up here once we get down there." I said, putting a sweatshirt on.
"At least your leg hair is keeping you warm." Pinkie said.
"Not a whole lot." I said.
After reaching the edge of the sloped cliff that stood at an elevation of a few hundred feet, the village could easily be seen down below. The village was simply two rows of houses and a single house at the north end.
"That's it! That's the place on the map!" Twilight said.
"Right. Let's get down there and find the spa." Rarity said, proceeding down the path that led to the village.
"Wait," Twilight said, stopping in her tracks. "We don't know why the map sent us here. We shouldn't just walk right in. It could be dangerous."
"Yes!" Rainbow Dash said with a burst of enthusiasm.
"Stay back, everypony. I'm on it." Pinkie said, now rolling down the cliff and up against a rock down below.
When Pinkie gave the all clear, Twilight teleported her and the rest of us down to her postion. Pinkie continued to stay low and hid under various rocks and a boulder. She got crushed, but her magic kept her unharmed. Finally, we reached another good vantage point that gave us a straight ahead view into the village. There was a decent amount of ponies standing around and talking to each other, but the one thing I instantly noticed was that their coats and mane were drained of vibrant color.
"This is where the map sent us? It looks like the most boring place in Equestria." Rainbow Dash said.
"It's just an ordinary village full of ordinary pony folk." Applejack said, much to our relief.
"It's pretty bland looking, but it is a desert village." I said.
"And any architectural flourishes would be a drastic improvement.
"I think it's lovely." Fluttershy said, kind as always.
"I don't like it. I don't like it one bit. I know smiles. And those smiles? They're just not right." Pinkie said, brining my attention to their wide, toothy smiles that everypony seemed to be doing. Just a little unsettling.
"Forget the smiles. Look at the cutie marks." Twilight noticed.
Every single pony in that village didn't have a different or unique cutie mark on their flank. Surprisingly, each pony had equal signs for their cutie marks.
"Okay, that's weird." Rainbow Dash said.
"It is. An entire village with the same cutie mark? How can that be?" Twilight asked.
"Who knows. It sure didn't happen naturally." I said.
"My best guess is that it has to be some sort of spell casted upon the village." Twilight said.
"I bet there's some sort of horrific monster behind it." Rainbow Dash said.
"Why do you say that?" Twilight asked.
"Because fighting a horrific monster would be super-awesome!" Rainbow Dash replied.
"I reckon we just ought to head into town and talk to some locals, find out what's goin' on." Applejack suggested.
"Great idea, AJ." Rainbow Dash said.
"Well if that's the plan, I should probably stay here and keep watch. I have a feeling the villagers have no idea who I am." I said.
"I suppose that's logical. Not having a complete village panic would be nice in regards to finding out information." Twilight agreed.
"But if you need help, I'll come down there." I said.
"I doubt we'll encounter any hostility, Caleb." Twilight said.
"Believe me, Twilight, those smiles are bad news." Pinkie said, walking down the hill by herself.
We all shrugged to Pinkie's warning. And so, Twilight and the girls then headed down the rock hill and into the village, leaving me up there and to myself, hiding behind a rock and occasionally peeking to the side.
Looks like she was wrong. Everything has gone awry for Twilight and the girls. First off, when the girls made it into the village, all the citizens and their leader got together and had this parade-like musical number to introduce themselves. Right off the bat, it was weird because the number sounded very reminiscent to propaganda and everypony who lived in the village knew it by heart. Shortly after that, the girls went down into some nasty basement underneath one of the houses and came back outside with three random villagers, one was a stallion and the other two were mares. The trio led them to the leaders home, I guess, and then Twilight and the others started following the leader up a mountain that sat a good distance from the village for some reason, but it definitely wasn't a good idea. Before I knew it, Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash had their cutie marks robbed right off their flanks and were forced into a building against their will.
When that happened, I started freaking out. I kept thinking, "Shit, shit, I actually have to go save them", or "How am I going to do this". I mean, I couldn't just waltz into the village during the day, so I had to go in at night when everypony is asleep. I made sure to study the building where the girls were being held captive. Like I said, all the houses are the same, but this one has barred windows. I wasn't sure if I was powerful enough to pull the bars out, let alone pry them, but I could definitely break the front door in. Not sure what the plan was once I freed them, but we usually think of something.
When the time felt right and everypony was inside their homes for the night, I attempted to stealthily move down the hill; slipping and sliding down that caused a small avalanche of rocks. I crouched and ran over to the closest bar window and looked inside. All the girls were sound asleep, so it was time to wake them up.
"Hey, guys, it's Caleb. Pssst." I whispered. All of their ears twitched to the sound of my voice and woke up.
"Oh, Caleb." Twilight said, surprised.
"Our knight has arrived." Rainbow Dash said.
"I couldn't just leave you here. Now, I'm gonna head over to the front door and ram into it, that'll break it down for sure." I said.
"Good luck. That door is locked tighter than-- uh- well- tighter than a mor.... Ah, nevermind." Applejack stuttered.
"Try pushing the door as hard as you can to lessen the noise. Make sure to push directly where the knob is." Twilight directed.
"Okay. What's the plan after once I get it open?" I asked.
"We still have our problem in this village, but we know what it is. Everypony in this village has had their cutie marks removed by the village founder, Starlight Glimmer. With no cutie marks and being brainwashed, nopony is able to express what makes them unique. But, but, we do know where they're being stored." Twilight explained.
"Where? That cave or the basement?" I asked.
"The cave. For now, we must retrieve the cutie marks. We'll confront Starlight and the villagers tomorrow." Twilight said.
"Sounds good. Stand back, now." I said, moving to the the front door.
As soon as I gripped that doorknob, I was immediately teleported inside the house on the opposite end of the village, staring out the glass window. I didn't have time to react as I was frozen in place, encased by a magical turquoise aura. The user then turned me in her direction. This was the village founder, Starlight Glimmer.
"Welcome to the Equality Village! I know this isn't a very proper and respectful introduction, but I can't let you and your friends escape. If the other princesses were to find out about this, they would destroy the bonds that make this village whole." Starlight Glimmer said rather cheerfully, levitating a pair of heavy duty chains.
"By what? Stealing their cutie marks and forcing this upon them? Borderline communism?" I questioned, the chains now securing my arms, knees, and ankles
"Don't be so blunt about it. Total equality may seem like cultural shock, I know, but it does wonders for individuals. I am nothing but pragmatic, so I'll give you a chance to embrace it yourself with your pony friends. Doesn't that sound wonderful?" Starlight offered, myself now bound in chains and lying on the wood floor.
"I doubt it." I replied.
"We'll see, over time. Believe me." Starlight finished, teleporting me back inside the captive house. The girls stared at me, dumbfounded and shocked.
"That went well." I said, wriggling my body in the cramped square room.
"Are you okay?" Twilight asked, concerned by my state.
"I'm fine. Just a little tied up." I replied.
The girls tried to removed the chains by force, but it was no use. The chains were very tight and locked, so it would take some powerful chain cutters or a saw to remove them. Or a key, of course.
"Seems like Starlight knew I was coming." I said.
"Ohhh, uh, yeah. My words kinda slipped out in the heat of the moment that you'd kick that mare's butt." Rainbow sheepishly admitted.
"D'oh geez, Rainbow." I groaned in disbelief, flipping onto my stomach.
"Great. Looks like we'll have to stick to our original plan." Twilight said.
"And what is that supposed to be?" I asked.
"Have Fluttershy pretend that she has accepted their philosophy and find a way to get our cutie marks back." Twilight replied.
"Really? Stepping it up, huh, Fluttershy?" I said, finally sitting upwards and against the wall.
"I guess I'll do it. My positivity towards the village earlier will help make it believable." Fluttershy said.
"Yeah, you've got this Fluttershy. You've been through worse before." Rainbow Dash said.
"Like going up against that Cockatrice, remember?" Applejack said.
"Oh, yes indeed. How bad could being accepted into a village of equalist be." Fluttershy said.
"That's the spirit, Fluttershy. You'll be okay." I said, resting my head against the wall and closing my eyes.
Hours later...
I woke up for no apparent reason, just that occasional wake-up in the early hours of the morning. It was still nighttime and the moon shined brightly against the open desert behind the building as I looked out the window. When I went to wriggle my body to adjust myself in the chains, I realized that I was no longer bound. Now free, I turned to wake up the girls in order to commence Plan B, but they were gone without a trace. The door was still locked and all the windows remained barred. It was just me, all by myself.
"Wha?"
It was too quiet, too. Earlier on, there was calm breeze and a few crickets chirping, but now it was just dead silent. The only real sounds I heard was the floorboards creaking along with my footsteps as I walked from window to window. I stood there for about five minutes or so, trying to decipher where Twilight and the others could have gone off to and how my chains seem to have disappeared. I sure hoped they were okay.
However, after ramming into the unusually tight locked door, I heard footsteps coming from right outside the house. Not hoofsteps, but footsteps. The were very pronounced as they shuffled through the grass and dirt and would pause for a minute or so before resuming. They eerily circled the house until they just came to a complete, random stop and everything went quiet again.
"Hey, who's out there? I'm locked in here." I called out to the source, but got no response.
Again, I started going from window to window. First the front window, the one on the right side, and then the back window. Out in the desert wasteland behind the house was something that contrasted the moonlight: a tall, dark figure. I rubbed my eyes to see what I was looking at was even real, but it seemed it was. The figure just stood there a short distance away, looking at either me or in just in my direction. It was definitely bipedal and appeared to be wearing a cloak due to the curved and slightly baggy shape of the silhouette.
"How about you go bother that Starlight Glimmer?" I said to the figure, but it didn't respond or move.
This figure and I continued to stare down each other for at least ten minutes. I wanted to look away, but I just felt the need to keep my eye on it and see if it would do anything, and it did. The figure didn't walk but slowly drifted to its left until it went behind one of the houses. Switching over to the front window to catch sight of it, the figure ethereally moved to front door of Starlight's house, extended its right arm to open the door and went inside.
"Caleb?" Twilight's voice suddenly came from behind.
And within an instant, I was transported back to reality; lied up against the wall and bounded in chains. I was perplexed to find out that Twilight was asleep, as well as the others. They were back, just snoring away.
"That was a freaky-ass dream." I mumbled, lying down on the floor with my eyes open. I really didn't fall asleep until sometime later, hoping I would dream about getting out of this house.
The Friendship Castle Manifestation June 14th, 2014
I slowly walked out of the kitchen with a double grip cooking pot filled with spaghetti noodles and headed for the dining table where the girls and Spike waited in their chairs. Setting the hot pot in the middle of the table and on a heat absorbing cloth, I removed the lid and steam billowed up before dissipating.
"Looks pretty al dente, huh?" I said.
"I'll say. You always were good at cooking spaghetti." Twilight complimented.
"Yeah, my Foods 101 class in summer school really paid off. Messed up on muffins, though." I said, placing servings of spaghetti covered in sauce on individual plates.
"Look on the bright side, they couldn't had been as bad as those muffins I had to eat in the village." Pinkie said.
"Those were horrible. I only put too much flour in and tasted kinda bland." I said.
"Beginners mistake." Pinkie said, dismissively swiping her hoof in the air.
Alright, one for you, one for you, you, you, you, you, you, me.... and one for the dog." I said, giving everyone a helping of spaghetti and placing Bridgette's food bowl filled with Blue Buffalo.
When I sat down in my seat, Twilight levitated her glass of water and made a toast.
"To our first and successfully resolved friendship problem." Twilight said.
"Cheers." everyone replied.
We all began feasting on the spaghetti. Pinkie sucked her spaghetti down as if it were rope until it was all gone, so she finished before any of us. Bridgette trotted over to Pinkie's side and licked up any sauce that got onto the floor and lied down.
"Good girl." I praised to Bridgette.
"Mmm, I must say this is most scrumptious, darling. Quite the cook." Rarity said.
"Thank you, Rarity. So, Twilight, what was Starlight's deal with running an entire village dedicated being equal?" I asked.
"She didn't say. Like what you saw, she was very angry about exposing her to the villagers and returning their cutie marks. There had to be some motive behind all of that." Twilight replied.
"And then she got away by going inside that labyrinth of a cave." Applejack said.
"I hope she doesn't get lost or hurt in there. She seemed to be suffering from headaches. Remember how she clutched and rubbed her head yesterday and the day before." Fluttershy brought up.
"I noticed that, too. We can only wish the best for her until she comes around and realizes her mistakes." Twilight said.
"That's right. I still hate it that she had to tie me up like that. My limbs kept falling asleep if I held still for too long." I said.
"Well, at least you didn't get hurt." Spike said.
"Right." I said, continuing to consume my spaghetti.
After the rest of us finished up our spaghetti and all the dishes were cleaned up, the girls headed home for the night. Twilight, Spike, and I were planning to unpack a few more things that were delivered to the castle over the past two days before going to bed for the night, but our plan was hindered.
While Twilight and Spike were busy in the kitchen, I paced around the dining room before situating myself by the front window and staring out at Ponyville. As I walked out of the dining room, the map room, and into the main hallway that goes either left or right, I turned my head to the right and walked down the long hallway that seemed to go on forever. With no particular reason, I went into a random spare room and sat on a chair, alone in the dark. Placing my hands on each knee and drooping my head down, I felt extremely fatigued and black spots started appearing in my vision. I took deep breaths as I felt like I was going to pass out, but the feeling went away before I even could. But, that sudden feeling of being tired was replaced with a tense feeling that pressed down on me. I didn't think of leaving the room at all, I only closed my eyes and allowed it to continue.
"There you are. We were looking for you." Twilight said by the doorway. I turned to a confused Twilight and Spike.
"Oh, you were? I didn't hear you." I said.
"We were calling out your name for like ten minutes." Twilight said.
"What are you doing all by yourself in the dark?" Spike asked.
"Man, I, uh, I don't really know. I kinda just wandered in here and sat down. I actually feel a little dizzy." I admitted.
"Do you need help?" Twilight asked, both now walking into the room.
"No, no. I can walk on my own." I said, getting up from the chair and going to the door. As I turned to look back at Twilight and Spike, they remained by the spot where I sat.
"Do you feel that?" Spike asked.
"A little bit. It's fading away now." Twilight replied.
"What? Feel what?" I asked, confused.
"Come over here for a second. Don't you get a heavy feeling when you stand in this spot?" Twilight asked, her left foreleg extended out. Sure enough, the atmosphere felt pressurized and even a little bit cold.
"Oh, wow.... This is what I was feeling when I all by myself in the room. I thought it was just me." I said, stunned.
"It was? That's a little weird." Twilight said.
The odd feeling soon went away and the vibe felt a lot better. We all moved out into the hallway and slowly shut the door.
"I wonder what could've caused that." Spike wondered.
"Hard to say. I doubt the castle would have something to do with it. Maybe we'll find an answer in one of the books that came in earlier." Twilight said.
"Those books always seem to have a solution for any problem we come across." I said.
As we walked the opposite direction down the hallway, the lights in the castle shut off and everything was nearly pitch black. The only sources of light that remained were the dimly lit scented candles and the moonlight shining through the windows.
"That's nice." Spike complained.
"Looks like the power needs a little magical kick," Twilight illuminated her horn, offering a fair amount of light. "You guys head over to the Cutie Map, I'll be right with you two."
"Alright."
Spike and I waited patiently next to the glowing map of Equestria for the power to come back on, but it was taking a bit of time for Twilight to get the power back on. Eventually, fifteen minutes had past and this started worrying both of us.
"It doesn't take this long to get the power back on, right?" I asked Spike.
"No. Twilight should be able to simply flick the sparkly breaker with a power spell." Spike replied.
We continued to wait in silence until a faint voice came from outside the doorway, up on the second floor. When the voice was heard a second time, still a bit faint, it was Twilight.
"Guys!"
"Yeah?" I called back, raising my voice.
"Come up here."
Spike and I wasted now time and walked up the stairs to another narrow hallway that goes either left or right. It's further on the left side and shorter on the right.
"Head to the breaker room, I'm gonna go to my room to get my flashlight." I said.
"Okay." Spike complied.
I jogged over to my bedroom and retrieved my attachable flashlight from my closet. The battery was getting low, so I shuffled around for new batteries. While fiddling with the flashlight, a noise from outside the room broke my train of attention.
Pssst.
"What?" I replied, assuming it was Spike right outside.
All I got for a response was silence, so I fast-walked out of the room with my flashlight to find that nopony was there. I could faintly see Spike at the other end of the hallway. Plus, Bridgette wasn't upstairs, she was still downstairs in the dining room.
"Did you just talk?" I shouted to Spike.
"No." Spike replied, sending slight chills down my spine. I then started jogging to the breaker room.
Psssst.
I shot around once again and shined the flashlight at the end of the hallway and then my bedroom door, but still no one was there. I then shined it in my bedroom and still no one there too.
"What the fuck?" I whispered to myself.
After a moment of backing down the hall, I made my way to Spike. Twilight was trying to power the breaker and activate the thing, but her spell wasn't working. It would remain on the breaker for a second and would gradually fade way.
"I can't get it to work." Twilight said, stomping her hoof.
"So now we just have to try again later or have somepony from Canterlot come over tomorrow morning to fix the problem?" I asked.
"That's what it seems. At least we can use the map for a light source." Twilight said.
"And Caleb's handy, little flashlight." Spike added.
I gave Twilight a quick, playful flash of light, causing her to shield her eyes. But just then, the sound of an unknown object hitting the floor broke the silence and echoed from the other end of the hallway. Followed by the crash was a series of footsteps that went down the stairs, and that was just right outside the room we were in.
"Somepony's in the castle!" Spike exclaimed, biting his claws.
Twilight and I darted out of the room and discovered a broken picture frame of myself, posing next to a tree. Odd why it was chosen because that picture frame was all the way downstairs.
"Damn! That was a good picture." I exclaimed.
"Who is in here? Show yourself now!" Twilight demanded, looking over the railing.
"Wait, maybe it's Starlight Glimmer?" Spike presumed with his voice down.
"You think?" Twilight asked.
"It could be. She is a unicorn and knows a lot of advanced magic spells, right? So maybe that's how she's moving from one place to another so quick and the reason the power spell isn't working." I explained.
"Maybe you're right. Either her or a ghost." Twilight joked.
"A g-g-g-ghost?!" Spike stammered in fear.
"I was only joking, Spike. Ghosts don't even exist, you know that. But yes, we must act now, Caleb." Twilight said, warming up her horn for a possible attack, but we would soon learn the truth.
In unison, all three of us turned our heads to the sight of someone darting into a room that was across from mine, the door slamming shut. Spike jumped due to how loud the slam was. Without making a sound, we ran over to the end of the hallway and up to the door.
"Stay back," Twilight heeded to Spike and I. "Starlight, I know you're upset and angry about what had to be done, but this isn't the way to settle things. Let me help you. Let me show you that friendship is a far more greater in life than total equality. You can still experience it and change your ways, you just haven't realized it yet." Twilight whole-heartedly offered.
There was no response but dead silence.
"Please let us come in, okay? I can help you." Twilight said, ever so slowly turning the knob and opening the door all the way.
As soon as the door opened to the inky black room, a creepy, dark laugh emitted from the corner of the room. It didn't even sound like a pony or even human. Twilight legitimately got scared and backed away from the door, I myself pulling her away with Spike.
"Woah, woah!" I bursted out in shock.
We expeditiously retreated down the stairs and recollected ourselves to what we just heard.
"Okay, that was not Starlight Glimmer.... that was something else." Twilight panted as she nervously stared up at the railing.
"I- I know! And that laugh was scary as hell!" I agreed, trying to calm myself.
"If it wasn't Starlight, w-- who else could it be inside the castle?!" Spike stammered.
"I'm not sure. It wasn't a voice changing spell because only Starswirl could possess such an advanced spell. Unless..." Twilight trailed off.
"Unless what?" Spike said.
"It could possibly be a Wraith: A spirit that can be conjured with a combination of evil spells or misuse in the arts of dark magic." Twilight said.
"But aren't those imprisoned in the lowest depths of Tartarus?" I asked.
"Yes, but it could be possible that--"
"Wait, wait, wait, I fricken' remember now! Tirek got clawed by something that one day and mentioned a Wraith. Maybe a Wraith managed to slip out when he escaped from Tartarus!" I said.
"He did? If that's so, then a Wraith could be our problem here." Twilight said, gritting her teeth.
"Surely you have an solution for this, right?" Spike said, gripping Twilight's leg.
"I actually do. Follow me." Twilight said.
"This spell can destroy the Wraith," Twilight said, opening a secondary spell book. "Before it was even know, the solution to rid of Wraith's were to send them to Tartarus, but Starswirl finished off the last remaining roamer with this spell. The Ultrasound Spell sends out excessive amounts of vibrations that are considered lethal to a Wraith. If done correctly, the Wraith simply disappear out of existence."
"Its that easy?" I asked.
"That's what Starswirl says, and his spells haven't failed me yet. We better do this quick before the Wraith decides to do anything more sinister." Twilight replied.
"I think that would be a good idea." Spike shivered.
Cautiously, we made our way out of the room and out into the main hall, pausing at the bottom of the stairs.
"Here's what we're going to do," Twilight softly whispered. "We're going to stay close together. Caleb, Spike and I are going into the room where the Wraith laughed at us and I want you to go back into your bedroom and check in there. I can't stress it enough that you scream if you see something, feel something, or you start getting attacked because it isn't going to like this."
"Okay." I simply replied.
With that, Twilight's horn illuminated and gradually started vibrating, emitting a low hum that tickled my eardrums, and we moved up the stairs.
"Come out. Let us see you." Twilight ordered.
As Twilight and Spike prepared to enter the unsettling bedroom, I went into mine and quickly walked around, trying to find any ice-cold pockets of air or a heavy sensation. With nothing, I sat down at the end of my bed in an effort to lure it, but nothing was happening. Once Twilight and Spike got further inside the bedroom, the sound reverb quieted just a little bit and allowed my hearing to regain. Just then, a very hostile hiss came from the back of my room, jolting me up.
"I heard a hiss. I just heard a hiss, in the corner of the room!" I alerted, moving out of my bedroom. Twilight teleported by the doorway with Spike and we proceeded back into the room. "I kept hearing hissing in the corner over there, like something's mad...."
"You're not going to stay here," Twilight apprised to the Wraith, closing the door and creating a containing shield around the room. After she said that, the heavy feeling returned and I got hit hard by it. I nearly fell face first onto the floor, but I made sure to land on my bed mattress. "Are you going to pass out?"
"No... I'm just really fuckin' dizzy." I managed to reply, nearly out of it.
"Is it this?" Twilight asked, intensifying the vibrations by a smidgen.
"It's the Wraith, keep going." I replied.
"Okay. I'm gonna go through different frequencies and finish it off." Twilight persisted, drastically raising the intensity of the ultra sound as high as she could. While I lied on the bed with palms on my chest, I raised my head up get a look at what was going on.
"Yeah, this is doing something." I said, barely able to hear my own voice.
"It's the resonance in such a small space." Twilight said.
"Phew, yeah." Spike said, sitting on the bed as well.
Twilight continued pushing the limits of the ultra sound spell until it reached its peak, the whole room filled with this ear numbing hum that was probably horrible for the Wraith. It must've had enough because right when I looked over to my bedroom door and saw it with my own eyes. It was around my height, pitch black, and had sickly pointed claws. I couldn't get a complete picture because it disappeared as soon as I got a glimpse of it. I then pushed myself off the bed in a fit of panic and landed on the floor with a thud.
"Holy fuck! Holy fuck!" I shouted, trying to stand back up.
"What?!" Twilight exclaimed, her concentration on the spell fading.
"Oh my God, did you see that?! It's was right there by the door, go blast it over there. It showed up right there, holy shit!" I rambled, trying to see if it moved anywhere.
Twilight did as I told her and she just raised the roof with that ultra sound. Spike and I had to cover our ears to how intense the vibrations were. She persisted with her attack for at least twenty petrifying seconds until she completely deactivated the spell and power to the castle was miraculously restored.
Slowly removing the palm of my hands from both of my ears, I was relieved to not only find out the ultra sound had stopped and the power was back on, but the feeling of weight pressing down was eradicated. We all remained silent and looked at each other, thinking what just happened was too good to be true, but it was.
"Is the Wraith gone?" Spike asked, unplugging his ears.
"I... I think so. You guys okay?" Twilight said.
"Much better now. Man, that was crazy. I swear, I saw it standing over by the door, I'm not lying." I said as my heart rate returned to a normal pace.
"I don't doubt it, Caleb. At least it's over now." Twilight said, sitting on my bed.
"So, what do we do now? We just exterminated a Wraith." I wondered.
"I think it's best that we send a letter to notify Princess Celestia of tonight's events. I believe we got rid of it, but I want some royal guards to come down here. I just want to be sure." Twilight said.
"Good idea. I'm guessing our unpacking is postponed?" I assumed.
"Yeah. For now. Thank you for being brave, you two. Well, to a certain degree." Twilight teased, trying to put on a smile.
I drove along a lonely path in the dead of night, patrolling the Everfree Forest. Since the activity of any occult creatures have died down in all three territories, I felt more relaxed. Speaking of that, things have been... sort of been doing well ever since Twilight banished the Wraith. At least that's what I thought. Everything was going so fine up until a few days ago.
You see, strange things have been happening lately, directed towards me, actually. I don't know why Twilight and Spike can't hear it, but I can occasionally hear that same voice back from June 14th. It has the same vocal tone; deep, low, and rather sinister. However, I can't understand what the words even are. The voices are very brief and cuts out, almost as if the voice is trying to exist as sound but can't. I haven't really let Twilight know about this because I don't want to worry her, plus this is remarkably mild activity. Nothing too serious. I know that I'm not suffering any mental illnesses or going insane, so everything I'm hearing is one-hundred percent legit.... I kinda wish I was wrong. After this one, fateful night, everything in my life started going to Hell.
Near the middle of the Batchu territories was something deep in the forest that caught my eye. Slowing down the vehicle, I pulled over to the side of the dirt path as I stared onwards into the foliage. There was a suspiciously ominous glow that flickered a short distance away. I then applied the parking brake and shut off the Defender, equipping the Igneous and my other hunting gear.
Now inside the dense forest with my flashlight on, I pushed various amounts of branches and stepped over shrubs that got in my way. It was extraordinarily quiet in this part of the Everfree Forest. The sound of sticks snapping and foliage rustling echoed throughout the forest. As I started approaching the intriguing foreign glow, I did a quick pulse with the X-ray sensor, only to find no orange figures upon sweep. To my confusion, this glow turned out to be an itty bitty flame that seemed to be just sitting there. The fire somehow wasn't burning any of the grass, but I didn't leave it there just for it to grow into a violent blaze.
With the fire now stomped out, I started to sweep the area for any pranksters who could be doing this as some idea as a joke, but I found nopony. As soon as I canned the search, a fleeting scream reverberated in the forest, causing me to uneasily flinch.
"Woah, what was that?"
The scream was to my left, so it was southward. I sprinted in that direction as fast as I could to catch up to the origin, sweeping with the X-ray sensor as I continued onwards. The scream didn't sound very far away, so I stopped running after going about two-hundred meters or so. I quietly breathed as I listened closely for any sounds that were out the ordinary, sweeping the area once again. Something then started moving away from where I was facing, the foliage swishing from side to side.
"Hey! Stop right there!" I ordered, sprinting towards the bush.
I swiftly swooped down in an effort to grab the presumed suspect, but nopony was behind the said bush. Whatever made that bush move was now going further in the forest because there was a white flash behind me, further down in the direction I was going.
"What the hell is that?"
I couldn't comprehend on how fast this individual was moving so fast, but I started piecing it together. It was unsettling, but I narrowed the possibility down.
"Is it you? I can hear you over there." I said to the invisible entity.
Calmly putting the Igneous to my right side, I walked to whole way over to where the flash came from and paused. Another brief flash went off but more to the left. I then walked over to that area until stopping once again. When I looked up from the ground, I was now standing a mere distance from the dilapidated house that housed the many symbols and numbers.
"Oh, man."
I gulped as I moved round the side of the the house and up to the front door. Clenching my hands into fists and squeezing my eyes shut for a moment, I now realized that Twilight's Wraith explanation was false and the spell had failed. Whatever this is, it led me back here intentionally. And so, I stepped into the building and just stared without much thought. Everything inside appeared to be unchanged from the last time; creepy and unsanitary as shit.
Everything was very quiet and still. I walked across the living room carpet and sat on the old couch that say against the wall in the back, the cushions depressing all the way down. I pulled out the X-ray sensor and pressed the button that sweeped throughout the whole house and no figures showed. In a logical case, that means no one is inside the house but me.
"Hm."
I sat on that couch for a decent amount of time. Nearly the whole time I heard The Figure walking around down the hallway and in the room with all the symbols, which was only about thirty feet from where I was at. Eventually, I could hear it walking towards me, down the hallway, and stopping on top of a squeaky floorboard. Now that it was standing at least fifteen or so feet away, I stood back up and switched the Igneous on, humming.
"You keep talking to me when I'm around my friends. Why don't you talk to me now?" I asked the unseeable entity.
With no response, I did my best to walked towards it while trying not to act uneasy. That was hard. I myself then stepped onto the lose floorboard, looking at the symbol etched bedroom. I took a peek inside and the symbols were still in their original positions, followed by going to the basement door. Opening it, I felt a horrible feeling of dread as I examined the bloodstained walls. The copious amount had to a of dribbled down near the ceiling and collected on the wooden stairs. Something terrible definitely happened in this house.
"What happened in this basement? Better yet, what happened in the bedroom?" I asked, but still no response.
My ire started to grow on The Figure's resistance. I bet a million bucks it knows the answer to these questions I'm asking, but it doesn't want to give out the information so easily. I now decided to walk into the center of the living room and ask it another question.
"Look, I don't know what you are. I don't know if you're some sort of alien, ghost, or something else beyond understanding. I don't even know what the symbols in that bedroom mean. Maybe everything that I thought was religious mumbo jumbo is true, but what are you? What type of creature are you?" I asked it.
Like before, I expected to not receive any response, but right when I was about to give up and leave the house for good, The Figure replied in a low, sinister voice.
"Look at the stars, and come back here."
I didn't even look in the direction of The Figure's response, I just kept my head down. Obediently, I turned to the front door and walked out into a clearing near the house. When I looked up into the starry night, I didn't even know what I was looking for, but part of my "answer" made itself shown. Three white lights silently hovered across the sky and right above me; two on the bottom and one of the top, creating a pyramid shape. My eyes were locked on them like a fly on horseapples, but when I blinked for just a millisecond, the lights had vanished into thin air.
"Where'd you go?"
As instructed, I disorientedly went back inside the living room and was met with a shocking sight. An orange beam of light with no source shined on a guy who was slightly older than me wearing a red shirt and blue jeans, sitting in a recliner that wasn't situated there minutes ago.
"Hello?" I said, holstering the Igneous.
The man looked up at me without a word. With the limited amount of light, only a few spots on his face was shown with light while the rest was shaded. His hair was slightly unkempt.
"Come here." the man said, signaling me with his left hand. I then willingly got closer to the seated man and crouched down to his level, a cold pocket of air blowing on my face.
"What is it?" I asked.
"I--I--I don't really know what to say. It has been quite sometime since I... well, talked to someone decent."
"Look, I was told to come back in here to find out what this figure is. Do you know what it is?" I asked.
The man situated himself in the chair and top-half portion of his head shined in the omninous light. I could see that his eyes were becoming glassy, welling up with tears.
"It wasn't in my power, honest! It was their fault and they took me away from my home and everything... There's some people in this world that do horrible things!" the man said, keeping his calm composure.
"That's true, but what is this creature. Did they bring it in?" I asked.
"They did, but... but..." the man said, trying to spew the last words of his statement out.
"But what?"
"I can't tell you what it is. It won't let me directly tell you." the man said.
"Why not?" I asked, my eyes quickly scanning the room.
"I can't tell you anything anymore, man. But, I have to give you this." the man said, reaching over the right arm of the recliner to retrieve something off the floor. I slightly backed away from the man as I had no idea what he was getting.
"I... I have to give you this."
The man seemed to be reluctant as he slowly presented me a small cubed box with red etchings in the palm of his hand. He then waited for me to take it out his hand, which is what I did. Relaxing my fingers, the box now sat in my palm, looking like a little toy to me.
"Now, when you leave this place, you go and run away from this place as far as you can. Leave your friends behind and get away from them as far as you can. I'm not sure what they can do." the man said, guilt now in his tone.
"What do you mean by that?" I asked, standing up and getting assertive, but it was short-lived.
The man now reached and grabbed a wooden shotgun from the right side of the chair again. I backed away in horror up to the front door. Raising his head upwards, he placed the butt of the gun on the carpet and pressed the barrel up against his chin.
*CHKK-CHKK*
"I had no choice, Caleb......"
Those were the mans last words before he pulled the trigger. The shotgun let out a deafening bang as a mix of the muzzle flash and a red mist sprayed. I shielded my eyes and lost my footing, falling onto the ground outside in complete shock.
"Oh! Oh!" I repeated, quickly pushing myself back up and jumped inside.
The recliner and the man that was just there a second ago was now gone. There was no trace of the blood or even the smell of gunpowder. Fearing for what I did tonight, confronting this entity, was about to doom myself and my friends, I dropped the cube that was now ridded of the red etching and smashed it to pieces.
At that point, I sprinted away from the building and didn't look back until I reached the Defender, driving home for the night and abandoning my patrol. Like I said, I never should gotten close to that fucking thing and stayed away.
When I had returned to the Friendship Castle the night I personally encountered The Figure, I immediately started writing a letter to Night Hunter in regards on wanting to set up an appointment with him, but I kept the reason ambiguous. I haven't told anypony yet, but I wanted to let Night Hunter know about the events that unfolded that night first. He's pretty much my boss and advisor for the Everfree branch and knows every single creature in Equestria both old and new, so I thought he might provide me some insight. For Twilight, well, I just feel... very uncertain when I contemplate to let her in on this situation. I do feel bad afterwards.
I parked the Defender adjacent to C.A.M.A headquarters, turning the engine off first before following it up with the electronic components that silenced the Queen soundtrack. As the engine clicked, I remained seated in the vehicle and thought what I was going to say to Night Hunter, how I would word it.
"Just give him the whole gist." I thought.
I then exited the vehicle and proceeded down into the underground command center and up to the dead-end wall to give the password.
"Caleb Lee Barlow. G.D: Three-eight-two-thousand three."
As expected, the wall's gears activated and slid open, allowing me to the other side and into the main lobby of the HQ where Velvet Rose sat at the reception desk.
"Well, look who's back." Velvet Rose greeted.
"Heyyy. I take it Night Hunter is in his office?" I asked.
"He is. Just go on right in." Velvet replied.
"Alright. Say, did you hear that a lot of the branches are being dissolved since the beginning of this year?" I asked Velvet.
"Yeah, like, the ones in Baltimare and Whinnyapolis were just gone overnight a few months ago. Actually, I heard the White Tail Woods branch is about to be dissolved, too." Velvet said.
"White Tail? That I did not know at all. A lot of the mytho creatures sure are becoming more scarce over the years. Even the Timberwolves haven't shown themselves in a long time in the Everfree." I said.
"I suppose that's plausible when you kick their butts every time you get into a scrap with them." Velvet brought up.
"Oh, so you've heard the stories?" I asked, cocking my eyebrow.
"Night Hunter tells everypony. He acts like a proud dad, or something." Velvet said.
"Proud? Really?" I said.
"At least that's what I think." Velvet said, bringing a smile to my face.
"Oh, okay. Well, I better get to it with the appointment before he thinks I'm not coming." I said.
"You go do that." Velvet said.
I now moved down the hallway and up to the Everfree Branch door. I gave a few taps on the door before entering the room where Night Hunter patiently waited for me in his chair.
"Hello again, Caleb." Night Hunter greeted.
"Hello, Night Hunter." I replied, shutting the door.
"Now, I got your letter on a request for an appointment, but you didn't specify what it was for. Were you wanting to keep something under the radar, kid?" Night Hunter said.
"I guess you could say that," I said, taking a seat. "I'm in a bit of trouble, Night Hunter. It pertains to my job as a C.A.M.A agent." I said.
"Job or not, I'm here for you. What's the problem?" Night Hunter asked.
"Do you remember that house I told you about? The one you said you were going to have demolished." I said.
"I remember you going on about how there were markings inside and that it was from your world, but I don't believe I ever mentioned anything about it being demolished." Night Hunter said, confused by the last statement.
"But you did. You said you'd contact somepony in Canterlot to have it destroyed." I said.
"Did I? When did we speak about this?" Night Hunter asked.
"Back in February. It was when you requested that I come for a conference when I missed all those days." I reminded.
"Now that I remember. If I did say that, I honestly don't remember mentioning it," Night Hunter said, levitating a piece of blank paper and a pencil. "Perhaps its best if I write it down so that I remember."
"Good idea. But that house's current state is not what I came here for." I said.
"Alright. What is it you wanted to tell me?" Night Hunter asked.
"Well, something was already living in the house. The best I can describe it is that it's a supernatural creature; a ghost or a powerful spirit, perhaps." I said.
Night Hunter furrowed his brow in surprise and shifted his attention under his desk. He then pulled out various documents and forms that are used in identifying creatures. Sharpening his pencil, he looked back up at me.
"C.A.M.A definitely doesn't have any creatures on present records that classify your claim," Night Hunter said. "Did you happen to get a visual on it by any chance? Is it invisible or does it have a physical body?"
"I'm pretty sure its both. Sometimes it will show itself. It's around my height, probably 8 foot, pitch black, humanoid, and has these nasty looking claws. I can only get glimpses of it when it decides to show itself." I replied.
"Really? Wow. So, what else has it done?" Night Hunter asked.
"All kinds of scary stuff. It terrorized Twilight, Spike, and I inside the castle, talks to me through telepathy, and its gotten worse recently." I said.
"Like what?" Night Hunter asked.
"A lot of messed up stuff. It's pretty bad." I said.
"Can you tell me? I need to get as much information as I can." Night Hunter said
"Yeah, yeah, I can tell you..... Its, like, projecting a lot of hallucinations and bad dreams on to me. It all started when I touched this artifact that was given to me on the fourth." I said.
"Who gave you the artifact?" Night Hunter asked.
"I... I'm not entirely sure. I think it was ghost, a ghost of an older man who used to live in said house before something bad happened there. He also said something about The Figure being let into the world by a group of people back on Earth, so it not originally from Earth." I said.
"Wait, wait, wait, hold on a second. There's ghosts getting into the mix now?" Night Hunter asked, perplexed and astounded.
"That's what it seems. Even I'm still trying to comprehend everything that's happening," I said, rubbing my forehead. "But like I said, I shouldn't have touched that artifact. Night Hunter, I've had nightmares of humans being flayed alive and other atrocities. Oh, and saw a bakery sign with my own eyes that read, 'Kill them all'. And I know this is all real because nopony else can see it and I can. There's probably so much more to this being than what I already know."
Night Hunter remained silent and nodded with a blank expression as he took all this information in while trying to write it down.
"You believe me, right?" I asked.
"Of course. I have never seen you in this much stress before. I know subtle fear when I see it." Night Hunter said.
"Okay," I sighed, ruffling my hair. "But, this thing, it has got a grasp on me, Night Hunter. Do you know any possible way to stop it?" I asked, my heart beating faster.
"I'm not gonna lie, Caleb, I have no idea on how I can give you an answer to your problem with this creature. It's obviously very powerful and intelligent if it can project telepathy and manipulate your mind to create hallucinations. Even the princesses possess these certain powers." Night Hunter said.
"So I'm screwed?" I hotly assumed.
"No," Night Hunter sternly retorted, hopping off his chair and walking up to me. "Caleb, you are like a brother to me, much like Blazer before he passed. We have been through quite a bit over the past two years, both on and off duty, and I will not sit by and let this creature take control over you. I will help you get rid of it, but I can't do it myself." Night Hunter said, patting my right shoulder.
"You will?"
"I will."
"Thank you, Night Hunter," I nodded in relief. "Thank you very much. What is your plan then? Would we need the princesses help?" I asked.
"We will. Here's what I'm going to do: I will composite all of this information that you just gave me, but I just need a day or two in order to get the princesses and the E.U.P involved with this issue. Believe me, everything will go according to my plan, you just have to trust me on this, okay?" Night Hunter said.
"I trust you one-hundred percent, Night Hunter. What should I tell Twilight?" I said.
"She doesn't know about The Figure?" Night Hunter asked.
"Not since the night when we thought it was gone for good." I replied.
"When you get back to the Friendship Castle, you let her in on the situation right away; the creature. If she's not there, you do whatever it takes to find her, alright?" Night Hunter said.
"Yes, sir. I will be sure to do that." I replied.
"Very good. And Caleb, do your best to resist the creatures influence. I can't imagine it being a easy task, but do your best. Don't let it get the best of you." Night Hunter said.
"I'll try to do my best, Night Hunter. I always do." I said.
Exiting the office, I ran up the stairs and jumped into the Defender, speeding off from the C.A.M.A HQ and out of the city, only to return to Ponyville with bad news. Very, very bad news.
My drive back to Ponyville was rather exhilarating. With Night Hunter now getting the most help I could possibly imagine, I felt confidently positive in taking on this mystical monstrosity. I didn't know how we would all be able to secure or neutralize it, but I knew we would think of something. As I pulled up to Twilight's castle, I quickly shut off the engine and barged right inside the castle.
"Twilight, are you in here?" I called out, checking the nearby rooms.
"I'm in here... You should come in here." I noticed there was a brief silence before Twilight uttered a reply, her voice coming from the throne room.
I then ran over to throne room and walked in on Twilight and Spike, both reading a letter. The expressions on their faces was pure shock and Twilight covered her mouth with one of her hooves. Spike was the first to look at me before quickly looking up at Twilight, almost as if he was wanting a hint of reassurance. Twilight then took her attention off the piece of paper and placed it on the Cuite Map.
"Why are you guys looking at me like that?" I asked, unsure of what they were reacting to.
"Caleb, I would like you to prepare yourself for what I'm about to tell you," Twilight empathetically began while both her and a downhearted Spike got closer. I truly wasn't expecting what Twilight had to say. "Your friend Night Hunter had a heart attack not long ago. They've already transported him to the hospital in Canterlot."
My mind went blank as I processed this sudden, terrible news. I couldn't even think of a clear and cohesive response.
"What?" I muttered in disbelief. "But I was just talking to him forty minutes ago. He-- he was fine. Did he die?"
"No, but he's not doing very well. He's unconscious, but still alive. It's hard to say if they'll be able to save him, but I can't really assume the worse this quick." Twilight said.
My way of thinking continued go blank as I sat down on a chair with a thousand-yard stare, not even realizing that Twilight was consoling me at first. Once my mentality came back, doubts and fears started racing through my neurons, creating a feeling of anxiety. Was it a coincidence that Night Hunter gets incapacitated when I asked for his help, or no? I sure hoped that it was the latter.
"Does the hospital allow visitors?" I asked in a daze.
"Probably not for a while since he's being worked on and examined, but you will eventually be able to visit. Two hours at the least." Twilight replied.
"Okay. I just have to see if he's okay... Oh, man." I said, pushing my hair back before receding back to its original position.
"Are you going to be fine for now?" Twilight asked.
"I think so. All that matters is that Night Hunter's still alive and under medical care." I said, followed by a sigh.
"Well, I hope he'll pull through, Caleb. Situations like these suck." Spike said.
"It does. Would you two mind if you'd come with when I go to see Night Hunter. I mean, I don't think it'll happen, but if he passes on, I don't want to be alone." I solemnly requested.
"Of course. But you're never really alone, Caleb. Everypony cares for one another." Twilight replied.
"Sure. Just doesn't feel like that lately." I said.
"Why?" Twilight asked.
"I... I don't know. I guess its just a temporary mindset thing, y'know." I said.
"I see. If you ever need help and want to talk about a specific situation, just let me know." Twilight said.
Although I nodded to the alicorn's offer, I cursed in the back of my head, knowing that Night Hunter's plan is evidently postponed. If Night Hunter goes, I don't know what I'll do.
2:53 PM
Twilight, Spike, and I were the only occupants in the waiting room, aside from the receptionist. I just got back from talking with one of the doctors and took a seat next to my friends.
"What did the doctor have to say?" Spike asked.
"At this point, they have Night Hunter hooked up to an oxygen machine and is well awake. They just have to finish up in there and then we'll be able to go in to visit." I replied.
"That is such great news! Did they happen to mention the cause of his heart attack?" Twilight asked.
"They did. The doctor I just talked to said his heart was physically fine, but blood was somehow blocked from circulating through. He was lucky to not have a stroke as well and to have his heart attack just a block away from the hospital." I said.
"Wow. That is lucky." Spike emphasized.
"There were also a few good samaritans who brought him to hospital when he collapsed, so I thank whoever they are." I added.
"I would, too. Who wouldn't?" Twilight said.
"Good question." Spike said.
I waited with the two for a few more anticipating minutes until the doctors came out from the hallway and into the waiting room. I recognized one of the doctors as Dr. Trottier, the physician who looked after me over those weeks as my body transformed to my current stature. I guess he transferred to Canterlot's hospital over the past year.
"Is it all good to go in?" I asked.
"You're fine. Just be aware that he's a little out of it." Dr. Trottier said.
With the all good, the three of us walked to the room where Night Hunter was staying in. He lied on a hospital bed, the oxygen mask covering his muzzle while a heart monitor beeped to the rhythm of his normal paced heartbeat. I could see him grinning to the sight of us visiting him.
"Hey, Caleb. I was wondering if you would come when I woke up," Night Hunter quietly said, looking over my side. "Salutations, Princess Twilight Sparkle and Spike."
"Hello, Mr. Night Hunter. I hope you're recovering well." Twilight said.
"I'll assure you that I'm feeling a lot better than when I collapsed on the streets." Night Hunter wittily replied.
"I can imagine. I've never seen Caleb so worried when he found out what happened to you." Twilight said.
"Seriously couldn't believe it, Night Hunter. You were all fine and healthy when we talked, like, three hours ago." I said.
"I guess it's just one of those moments; things that you can't entirely predict." Night Hunter said.
"You feel like you're gonna pull through?" I asked.
"Hey, like I said, I'm feeling much better." Night Hunter said.
"Right." I said.
"But thanks for coming to see me. You too, Princess Twilight and Spike." Night Hunter gratefully thanked.
"Our pleasure." Twilight said.
"Um, Princess, Spike... Would you mind giving Caleb and I some time alone? I need to talk to him about something personal, please." Night Hunter requested.
"Sure. C'mon, Spike." Twilight said.
"Your wish is our command, sir." Spike replied, following Twilight out the hospital bedroom and shutting the door.
"What is it? Is it pertaining to our plan?" I asked.
"You thought correctly." Night Hunter confirmed.
"So, is it going to be postponed until you fully recover, or should I take action while you recover?" I asked.
"Neither. The plan is-- is not going to work the way we want it to go," Night Hunter said, followed by a sigh. "I'm afraid I won't be able to help you."
"What happened to you, Night Hunter?" I asked, a deep, heavy feeling arising in my chest.
"The Figure got me, Caleb. It clearly has plans of its own because our plan interfered with them, but it let me live for a little while longer." Night Hunter said. "Caleb, there's so much I want to say, but I just want to thank for what you've done; for Ponyville, C.A.M.A, and myself. I would go so far to call you my own son."
"No, Night Hunter, please don't say goodbye like this. Y-y- we can still--"
"No, Caleb, you don't fully understand how powerful this being is. The best thing you can do for now is to stay with your friends and never let them go. The kind of friends you have are far too valuable to lose."
"But what should I do?! Am I stuck with this creature forever?" I asked, my eyes welling up with tears.
"Evidently. But do not give up on hope. Never do. And Caleb, thank you for being my...... Ugh, being...."
Night Hunter's lip quivered as his heart-rate on the monitor started slowing down and scattering in pace. He pathetically brought his forelegs up to the center of chest, trying to helplessly protect his heart as he was completely vulnerable. He obviously saw something that I couldn't see and the room started getting a pressing sensation.
"No, stop! HELP! I need help in here!"
Night Hunter let out a cry of pain as The Figure began harming his delicate heart, his facial expression defining the term agony that made me feel deep pity. Judging by the pace of his heartbeat, The Figure had to be squeezing it so tightly that blood flow was being restricted and backed up. Twilight kept Spike outside of the room as she barged in and ran to his side while I desperately cried for the doctors assistance in the hallway, my anguished voice echoing throughout the building.
"Hold on, Night Hunter. I know it hurts very bad, but just hold on a few more seconds!" Twilight said, wrapping her right foreleg hoof around his left.
"I- Its killing me! I- GUH!"
The doctors sprinted down towards the room where Night Hunter lied in pain as he was inconspicuously murdered without anyone besides me even knowing it.
"He's dying! He's dying!" I cried out to doctors as they all rushed in.
"Princess Twilight, we must ask you to leave the room." one of the doctors urged.
"Okay!" Twilight complied, rushing out of the room and shutting the door.
As I looked over, Twilight immediately went to hug Spike, who was crying to the distressing scene that could still be heard on the other side of the door. As for me, I dropped to my knees with wide eyes and ran my fingers down my face as I heard the mournful sound of a flatline pierce my ears and Night Hunter's labored groans faded, followed by a feeling of extreme guilt and sorrow.
"Oh, Caleb..." Twilight sympathetically said.
With all these negative emotions being dispersed at the same time, Twilight and Spike embraced me for the tragic loss of one of my best friends, but I remained petrified through most of it all for a logical reason. The Figure spoke to me right after Night Hunter died, putting a scar on my conscious.
"If you tell a single soul in regards to my presence, I will slaughter them all without hesitation."
I lied in my size-relative bed, lying on my side with my arms crossed and knees bent with the covers off. The summer night was not accompanied by a soothing breeze that would seep into my room, but warm and slightly humid. My skins tingled as tiny sweat droplets seeped from my pores in an effort to cool myself off. I couldn't really sleep well, not only because of the evening conditions, but mostly from dwelling on my behavior over the past few weeks, which occurred soon after Night Hunter died. Everything is fine between Twilight and I at that point, but the memories made me cringe at myself. This night was the last time I acted out on these somewhat involuntary outbursts.
As I turned onto my back and lied spread out, my right arm draping over the side of the bed with my hand on the floor, I heard a scratching noise at my bedroom door; just four quick and gentle scratches. I rolled my eyes with annoyance before proceeding to close my eyes and sleep off the light taps. However, the request kept persisting and this prompted me to throw my legs over the side of the bed and stand up.
When I walked over to the door, the scratches came to a halt and I opened the door. Standing on the other was Bridgette, looking up at me innocently with her tail steadily wagging from side to side.
"No, Bridgette. I told you, not tonight. It's too hot. Go to sleep." I said, closing the door on the chocolate labrador.
Lying down on my bed once again, Bridgette began knocking on the door again, followed by a quiet whimper in hopes of cuddles, but I remained stubborn. My head felt hot as she continued, surging with the last bit of this unnecessary anger that seems to just manifest itself. I'm fully aware it happens to me, but haven't fully took consideration to it after this night. Shortly after, I had enough and stormed over to the door and swung it open to a patient Bridgette, just wanting to come in and sleep with me.
"Goooo!" I angrily demanded "Go lay down and go to sleep!"
Bridgette turned her head in the direction I was pointing and looked back me. She then proceeded to beg and sat down on the floor. To counter this, I swooped down and gave her shove on the side, sending her sliding on her paws. She looked confused to my action and walked back over to me, looking up once more.
"Listen to me! Go!" I hissed with more fiery anger.
I quickly crouched down, vigorously grabbed her by the collar, and delivered a quick, forceful punch. My knuckles impacted on her muzzle and close to her nose, causing her to uncomfortably sniff. I gave her another shove and let her free. Her ears were flat and her head was lowered as she trotted away from me and lied down at the end of the hallway, giving one more look before I closed the door.
"Dumbass dog." I grumbled, climbing back in bed.
While I lied prone, wrapping my arms around a pillow, the mysterious, influential anger started to subside. When it was all but gone, I was left with shameful remorse, causing me to sit on my bed. I reflected to myself on my actions, all just for getting Bridgette to leave me alone. It wasn't necessary at all and out of order, like my behavior over the past weeks.
Changing my mind, I walked over to the door and paused there for a substantial amount of time. I knew Bridgette wasn't going to hate me and would be easily forgive me, but I felt bad for what I did and felt the need to not show my face to her. However, I did open the door and peeked over to Bridgette, who raised her head up.
"Wanna sleep with me? Come here. Come here, Bridgey." I playfully beckoned.
Bridgette instantly stood up, did her little coyote trot into the bedroom, and leaped up onto my bed. She circled to find that perfect spot before plopping on her side, followed by a content sigh. After closing the door one more time, I walked over the bed and her tail wagged, bringing a warm feeling to my heart. She raised her right foreleg as a signal for wanting a tummy rub, so I followed through as part of my apology.
"Sorry, baby girl..... Sorry."
I rubbed her tummy for about a minute or so before she decided to lie on it. I then switched over to her ears and she let out a satisfied moan and closed her eyes.
"Yeah, you're a good girl." I said, tenderly rubbing the area where I struck her and planting kisses on the top of her head.
After enough pets, I went into my back position and closed my eyes to fall asleep. The last thing I remember before drifting off into a deep slumber was the feeling of Brigette's furry head nuzzling my abdomen before resting on it as her own pillow. I'd say that she was happy to know she was still loved by her owner. It's amazing how quick dogs are able to forgive.
I don't think I'll be able to sugarcoat this, not with the way my personality has been spiraling at complete random. As I mentioned, I've been having these borderline uncontrollable bursts of anger that usually happen whenever I feel the slightest bit of annoyance.
Twilight has been rather adamant on keeping calm about it and was pretty concerned about my mood swings. Her and I didn't even understand why I was acting this way. At first, she was assuming that I was upset that Night Hunter died, but confusion followed. In the beginning, there was one time where she actually got angry enough that she asked me to leave the castle until I thought over my, well, as I said before, behavior, but that was on July 13th.
Aside from that one example with Bridgette, the rest of my outbursts haven't resulted in physical violence, just hostile in nature. There's usually a cause that triggers it or it can happen whenever I feel like it. For instance, I was walking through Ponyville on July 27th, and out the blue, I let out a snarl directed towards Time Turner as mean thoughts flooded in my head. Thankfully, it wasn't loud enough for the stallion's ears to pick up on and I quickly corrected myself, walking in a different direction. I was thinking, "Man, did I really just snarl at him? Hope nopony saw that." But like I said, the amount of outbursts has significantly gone down. I went nearly two days without a single outburst, so that is very good on my part. Tonight was the only day where I had one.
Although Twilight was unable to find out a plausible cause for my behavior, the only idea that came up was touching a rare plant called Fury Flora, I never considered it being The Figure's doing. My nightmares and hallucinations have ceased and I haven't felt its presence in quite some time. Perhaps it has moved on from me, or somepony else. I hate to think it, but better them than me. Either way, I'm literally restricted from speaking a word about The Figure or else ponies will die. I don't know wether if it was intended to scare me in order to prevent me from getting help, but I know for a fact that The Figure was responsible for Night Hunter's death and I can't take that risky assumption, especially when considering the rest of my friends and Bridgette. I can't afford to lose them like that.
It was such a beautiful summer Sunday afternoon. I've been slowly but surely crawling out of my shell ever since Night Hunter passed on, hours from my patrols being cut, and the paranoia of when I was going to have another unexpected outburst of rage, but this day felt like more of an anew to me. Spike, Discord, and Big MacIntosh had gone out earlier to catch up on their homemade fantasy-roleplaying game, the kind that has wizards and the medieval stuff. They went into the Everfree to have a more "authentic" feeling to it. Not sure how hanging out in a creepy forest sets the mood.
But like I was saying, it would truly be foolish for me to pass up a day that seemed all but perfect; sunny and warm with gentle breeze. And so, Twilight and I decided to hook Bridgette's leash onto her collar and took her for walk. Bridgette panted as Twilight and I walked along near the edge of Ponyville, the suns heat fairly beating down hard. We all paused for a brief moment as I removed a water bottle from my backpack and gave Bridgette a swig of water before moving on. A lot of the townsfolk were out and about, children were at play, usually doing an activity that involves water. However, Twilight and I spotted three outlying fillies approaching us in the distance.
"Hey, it's Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo." I noticed.
"Oh, it is. They look a little bored, don't you think?" Twilight said.
"Yeah, kinda." I replied.
Their sulking expressions brightened once the fillies noticed us as well. Bridgette stared at them and her tail began wagging. Bridgette tried to pull in order to get closer, but I easily held her back. Of course, Bridgette had to then go prone due to her submission towards any pony she hasn't met or seen in a while, causing Twilight and I to stop in our tracks.
"Awwww." all three of the CMC adored, walking up to Bridgette to pet her.
"Hello, girls." Twilight affably acknowledged to the girls.
"Hi, Twilight." Applebloom replied.
"Bridgette is so adorable, Caleb!" Sweetie Belle said, petting Bridgette's head.
"I do get that a lot." I said.
"How old is she? She has a bunch of grey hairs on her chin." Scootaloo asked.
"Eleven. She may be old on the outside, but believe me, she hasn't lost the personality of a puppy." I said.
"So she's really energetic?" Applebloom asked.
"Mostly during the day, but her walks usually get all that energy out." I replied.
"Hmmm. And how well-trained is she?" Scootaloo asked.
"Bridgette's must've been trained real well. She's a good dog and obediently listens most of the time." I said.
"What about tricks?" Scootaloo added. This question actually got me thinking.
"Well, uh, I haven't seen Bridgette do a trick before, now that I think about it. Have you, Twilight?" I said.
"Not that I know of." Twilight replied.
"Is that so?" Scootaloo said before quickly swooping Applebloom and Sweetie Belle into a group huddle, whispering incoherently.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" I asked Twilight, grinning.
"I believe I have a hunch." Twilight replied.
"Alright," Applebloom began after the brief huddle. "Since everypony seems unsure on wether this little pooch can preform tricks, we have decided to become......
"Oh, no."
"CUTIE MARK CRUSADER DOG TRAINERS! Yay."
"I mean, if that's okay with you." Sweetie Belle said, timidly.
"Just for a day, at least." Scootaloo said.
"Oh yeah, sure, sure. Of course. Man, you three were much louder than the last time." I said.
"Its been three years, so we've had time to practice." Applebloom said as all three of them hoofbumped.
"Obviously. Oh, and before I forget, Caleb brought a bag of treats in his backpack," Twilight mentioned, taking out a plastic bag filled with flavored bones. " These should help."
"Awesome! Now all we have to find an ideal area for training." Scootaloo said.
"What about the meadow? Its not far and free of major distractions." Twilight proposed.
"Good idea, Twilight. This should be easy." Sweetie Belle said.
We then moved out of the village and into the neighboring meadow that also adjacent to the Everfree Forest. Nothing but grass, trees and other species of flora laid in abundance. Bridgette had her head raised and sniffed the air, probably due to the patch of daisies that gave off a rather pleasant scent. Once situated, I unhooked Bridgette's leash and she was free to move around.
"Let's see what you got." I said.
Applebloom, Sweeite Belle, and Scootaloo then stood side-by-side to one another and gave Bridgette a stern look.
"Bridgette, sit." they commanded.
Bridgette stared at the three fillies for a few seconds, followed up by her walking up to them and slowly sitting down.
"That was a good start." Sweetie Belle said.
"Alright, little poochie, we're gonna turn you from an average dog into a spectacularly, amazing show-dog that nopony has ever seen." Applebloom said.
Bridgette just sat there, staring blankly. However, when Sweetie Belle levitated a dog bone out of the treat bag, Bridgette's eye's locked on and her long tongue lapped her muzzle.
"Firstly, we'll begin with the simple Treat On The Nose Trick. Sweetie Belle, would you mind puttin' the treat on our trainee's nose?" Applebloom said, causing Sweetie Belle to look away.
"Absolutel--"
With a flick of her jaw, Bridgette swiped the dog bone out of Sweetie Belle's levitating grasp and proceeded to messily gobble it down. This got a laugh out of Twilight and I while the girls just stared at Bridgette in surprise.
"Maybe I should try that again." Sweetie Belle said, regaining another treat out of the bag.
"And hold it a little bit---"
Again, without any warning, Bridgette snatched the treat away from Sweetie Belle and ate it right up within a matter of seconds and went back into her sitting position.
"Sweetie Belle." Scootaloo whined.
"I'm sorry. Here, I'll raise it higher." Sweetie Belle said.
Now, Sweetie Belle had the treat held up at around six feet and Bridgette remained seated.
"That's better. When I hold her muzzle, start lowering the bone onto the flattest part. Got it," Applebloom said, placing a hoof.
"I suppose so." Sweetie replied.
"Alright, hold it... Hold it....." Applebloom calmly coaxed as the treat lowered.
Sweetie Belle had placed the treat right on Bridgette's snout, causing Bridgette to go cross-eyed just to get a glimpse at it. Bridgette then started to steadily crane her neck, trying to lose the center of gravity, but Sweetie retracted the treat a few feet away.
"No, Bridgette. See, this is how you teach her to hold still when the treat is on her--" Applebloom tried to finish explaining.
"No!" Sweetie exclaimed, her voice cracking.
Just like that, Bridgette pounced upwards and another treat was now heading down into the dog's stomach. Scootaloo facehoofed herself and the other two fillies looked at Brigette dejectedly.
"Maybe you guys should try something else. She's being a little naughty on this trick." I suggested.
"Ah well. We can either teach her to play dead, stand on two legs, spin around in circles of command... or maybe even roll over." Applebloom said.
Those sound a little complicated." Sweetie Belle said.
"Let's try to make her shake hooves. That's a good trick." Scootaloo recommened.
"Oooh! Winona knows that one, right Applebloom?" Sweetie asked.
"As if it were an everyday activity. This should definitely be a piece of cake for Bridgette." Applebloom replied.
"That is if she doesn't eat the cake so early." Scootaloo teased whilst smirking.
"Oh, alright then. You give dog training a try, Scootaloo." Applebloom insisted, backing away from Bridgette.
"Thank you, Applebloom. I'm not one to back down." Scootaloo accepted.
She then went up to Bridgette and Sweetie Belle had the treat raised high.
"Alright, shake. C'mon, shake." Scootaloo said, raising Bridgette's paw up at the same time the phrase was being said.
But for some unknown reason at first, Bridgette lowered her paw and her ears perked up, straigtening her gaze at Scootaloo. Then, she went down into a bow position, and boy did I know what that meant. She repeatedly adjusted herself by patting the ground in her play position, growling at Scootaloo.
"What does that mean, Caleb?" Scootaloo nervously asked.
"She must've thought you were initiating play with her. Here, I'll hold her back for now." I said, hooking Bridgette's collar with the leash.
"No, no, let her go. I want to see what she's got." Scootaloo daringly said.
"But what about the training?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Forget about the training. Who needs that when we have a dog that's ready to have some fun." Scootaloo said.
"You sure?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Definitely." Scootaloo said, firmly.
"Better get a head start then." Twilight said.
Scootaloo then dashed off into the meadow until she was short distance away, stopping in her tracks.
"C'mon, Bridgette. Come here!" Scootaloo called, causing Bridgette to whine and her tail to wag like crazy.
"Go on! Go get her!" I egged on, unleashing the energetic Labrador free.
Bridgette immediately took off towards Scootaloo and the filly followed suit by spriting away as well. Both Scootaloo and Bridgette's speed were equal, but Bridgette was definitely more agile in terms of turning, kicking up the grass and flowers in the process.
"Oh, to heck with it, she's right. That does look pretty fun!" Applebloom said, sprinting towards the duo.
"Wait for me!" Sweetie pursued.
For that point, Twilight and I sat underneath a lone tree and in the soothing shade as playtime had commenced for the fillies and Bridgette.
"How sweet." Twilight nudged while smiling.
"Yeah. It sure is." I said.
It truly was. The sight of children and a dog at innocent play made me remember that there's moments in life that are wholesome and cherishable. I could faintly hear the laughter of the girls as they were having the time of their lives in the distance as they switched from chasing Bridgette to themselves being chased as well. Whenever the fillies would be still to catch their breaths, Bridgette would attack them with a series of kisses and rub her head up against them as a form of wrestle.
Eventually, after about twenty minutes, Bridgette started getting a little tuckered out and strayed away from the girls, lying down in her own little shady spot as well while rapidly panting. The girls also followed her to spot and lied down with her. Twilight and I walked over to the weary group and offered them water, which they gladly accepted.
"Are you girls going to be okay for now?" Twilight asked.
"I think so. We're just gonna lay with her for a little bit." Applebloom replied.
"Alright. Caleb and I will be over by that tree if you need us." Twilight informed.
"Okay." Applebloom simply replied.
Before I walked back, I gave Bridgette a little rub on her exposed underside and scratched her ear while she lied on her back.
"Y'know, I think today was one of the greatest days of my life, in my book." I said.
"Oh yeah? Let's just hope for more like these and wish that no crazy monster or power-hungry bad guys decides to threaten Equestria." Twilight said.
"Try not to jinx us," I joked. "But here's hoping."
"Revalum, a secluded 17th century village. Anything could have been sent there, but my master chose me to eclipse the portal into the olden Earth. A wise choice on his part. Foolish that your kind would allow us to influence your precious lives, but that is what happens when a species becomes too self-aware, let alone misguided. When I arrived, I made sure the worshippers were ironically dealt with first before the residents. They all died and no one else knew until years past. And now that you touched and received a slight piece of me, you will experience what carried out that night, just lacking in rational control."
I sat up into a sitting position on my bed as I randomly woke up. My whole body felt extremely warm to the point that I was sweating, but the air was cool inside the castle. Plus, I was only wearing a yellow t-shirt and black relaxed fitted shorts. Inside my head, I could faintly hear to what sounded like a brief warp, but a shake of my head got rid of it, brushing it off as myself just being tired.
"Ugh, man." I yawned as I swung my legs over the mattress and onto the marble floor, wiping a few sweat droplets off my forehead.
As I went over to the bedroom window that overlooked Ponyville, the sun wasn't exactly verging over the horizon, but I could tell that Princess Celestia was working on it; a perfect representation of what dawn looks like. While I took in the scene and reminisced, my mind seemed to be involuntarily hijacked and began thinking about Twilight. Horrified, I fantasized about pinning her down on her bed as she slept, cupping my hands around her neck as I choked her out until she ceased to struggle.
When my mentality seemed to return to a normal state, I couldn't believe myself. Everything that happened those past weeks was happening again right out of the blue, but it was a whole lot darker. I turned my attention to Bridgette, who lied on the bed and stared at me. Even she looked as if she knew something was wrong, too. To protect her, I quickly ran out of the bedroom and closed the door behind me, heading into the bathroom.
I turned the sink handle, cupping the stream and splashed a good amount of refreshing, cold water on my face. But, when I removed the towel from my face, it almost seemed as if my face was beginning to be modified. I backed away from the mirror as I apprehensively touched my eyelids, now shaded in a way that gave the yellowing sclera in my eye a rather sinister look.
I tried to yell out in a fit of fear, but my throat started to tighten up and it was hard to breathe for a moment until something happened with my vocal chords. I didn't feel any pain, but my voice was far from remotely sounding human. No longer was I able to utter a single word coherently, I could only make ferocious, guttural, and airy roars. Tears ran down my cheeks and I clutched my head as a huge wave of just evil and horrible thoughts flooded through my head against my own will, followed by a flare of rage. Growling, I now punched the mirror as hard I could and shattered it to pieces. I didn't even feel the pain of the impact.
I knew at this point that something bad was going to happen to me and that I had to get out of there as fast I could, so that's what I did. When I managed to somewhat regain my normal state of thinking again, I bursted out of the bathroom and nearly trampled over a concerned Twilight.
"Caleb, what are you doing? Your hands are bleeding!" Twilight gasped.
"Hhhh-- HHhhhHh--- H-- elp!" I managed to plea through my constricted voice box.
Twilight was saying something in reply to my cry for help, but I was already booking it down the stairs and barging out through the front entrance, missing a few stairs and tumbling onto the grass. Left with grass stains, I started running south on the outer bands of Ponyville as I ran away into the Everfree Forest, pushing away obstacles and foliage that got in my way.
All I did was just put my mind to getting as far away from Ponyville as I could while my mentality was being constantly switched from normal to violent. In my normal state, my thought process was very conflicted, flowing with aspirations of covering ground from everypony I knew dear and terror of what I was even becoming. The violent switch was horrible as I felt what seemed to be the inside of my skull being compressed and my brain being swamped with malicious deeds and an unquenchable rage that made me furiously growl and scream at the top of my lungs.
Eventually, I had covered an unknown amount of distance between I and Ponyville, pausing in my tracks and collapsing on the ground. The malicious was beginning to overpower my humanity and I tried to fight it, squeezing my eyes tight and slamming fists into the Earth, but it was no use. After those grueling minutes, I was no longer considered to be Caleb Lee Barlow and under a parasitic control, still self-aware of the actions I now desired.
Taking deep, husky breaths that blew onto a nearby bush, I pushed myself up onto my feet and slowly took in my forest surrounding without turning my head. My eyesight had increased in the dark, pulsed, and the field of view became slightly narrow. Adrenaline flowed through my body and I felt angry, similar to the feeling if one were to be mildly frustrated, but not explosively mad. I then relaxed my fists, turning to open palms, and realized I had fortunately gotten myself lost in the Everfree Forest.
I stood in place, continuing with my low and paced pants while contracting my fingers repeatedly as I debated which direction Ponyville was. With a exasperate grunt, I arbitrarily walked in a straight line, clenching my fists again while keeping my arms from swinging with my steps, jolting my shoulders upwards every now and then. All I wanted to do was find and hurt somepony real badly, kill them if I could.
While stomping through the forest, the sky was now casted with an orange glow from the sun beginning to peek halfway over the horizon. When I thought about it, the area I was presently at seemed familiar. Eventually, on the other side of one of the paths, that's when I came across an apple tree, and then another apple tree, and soon it was rows of apple trees. Following the white fence a short distance, I spotted the barn house where Applejack and her family lived. I had found Sweet Apple Acres.
I wasted no time in proceeding towards the barn, walking up the front entrance through the apple orchard, past the chicken coop, and up to the building. I stepped over a small animal pen by the side of the barn and leaped up fifteen feet in the air, grabbing onto an outside windowsill on the roof and perched myself up. I placed both hands on the window and glared into the room, my pair of completely yellow, dimly glowing eyes with eerie black pupils reflecting right back at me.
"What in tarnation?!" I heard Applejack exclaimed in horror, now awake in her bed.
I then slammed my entire body onto the window and shattered it to pieces, allowing me access to her bedroom. I pounced on top of her and held her down with force. Applejack thrashed her legs and desperately tried to breath oxygen in her body as I cupped my hands around her delicate neck and pressed both my thumbs down on her larynx, but she was unable to escape. I growled at her as I pushed down even harder to the point that the pillow and bed were indented. Before she was on the verge of losing conciousness, Big MacIntosh came into the room and acted quick. Right when I looked at him, he just drop kicked me right off of Applejack and sending myself across the room and into a wall, leaving a big hole.
"This way, Applejack!" Big MacIntosh exclaimed as she supported his sister, who violently coughed while catching her breath.
I was already on my feet when the exited the room and smashed through the closed door, knocking it off the hinges. The bedroom door across from Applejack's slammed shut and they blocked the door with a heavy piece of furniture, but I had no intentions on stopping to kill them. I forcefully twisted the doorknob and pushed, easily moving the wardrobe and the door, but was met with an unexpected force that sandwiched half my body.
"Keep pushing!" Big Mac ordered.
"What in the name of all things are you doing, Caleb?!" Applejack yelled.
My left arm wrapped around the wooden door and my leg was wedged between the door and the doorway. Bringing my right arm back and pushing, the door, furniture, and occupants were shoved out of the way and fell on the floor. I then proceeded over to Big Mac and was just about to stomp his head in before I noticed the weakest link in the room; Applebloom. Swiftly, I got her by the mane and dragged her down the stairs, kicking Winona out of the way.
"Applebloom! Get her!" Applejack cried.
"Caleb, its me! Ah-- ah- OW! Its Applebloom!" Applebloom begged me to stop.
Once downstairs, I switched from grasping her hair to her neck. I intensely gazed at the petrified filly in the eyes as she started asphyxiating, scowling and baring my teeth as I squeezed her like a tube of toothpaste. But Big Mac and Applejack, their sibling instincts kicked in and they nailed me right in the legs, causing me to fall over and loose my grip on Applebloom. Applejack acted quick to get Applebloom out of the living room because Big Mac and I were now standing face-to-face. I looked down at him as I towered over his stature. The stallion was freaking out and confused on why I was doing these actions. Anypony would.
"Come and get me. You don't have it." Big Mac egged.
I tried to grab him, but he ran out the front door and into the front yard. I pursued after him and was actually starting to gradually catch up with his equine sprinting pace. However, he turned and hid inside an old, fairly large shed behind the barn. As soon as I swung the doors open, Big Mac must've jumped down from the second floor because the door shut behind me and was locked. I roared with irritation and banged on the door, barely able to break through until I got a running start and rammed. The wooden bar that acted as the lock snapped in half and the doors opened.
I tore up the Apple family's house as I searched for them. I knocked over and flipped furniture, checked the closets, rooms, the cellar, but they were long gone. I then guzzled cups of water and took deep breaths as my broiling rage simmered down, now back to pure anger. I may had lost the Apple's, but I knew I was now on the right path to Ponyville, and that's where I was heading.
The half a mile walk to Ponyville would've been surreal if I had the slightest bit of humane left in me, but it wasn't. The faces of my friends kept going through my mind and how much I wanted to end their lives. I didn't have any specific picks or preferred method on how to do it, anyone and anyway would do. I also looked down at my claws and the tears in my clothing, brushed the mane or coat hairs off, and then licked my own dried blood off until my hands were a little clean. It wouldn't be long until I would need to use them again.
Walking down a small vantage point, I saw the bridge that goes over the river and into Ponyville. I continued across the purple stone bridge and walked onto a random street. Nopony was out on this street, mostly because it was still early morning and everypony was still waking up. I exerted small and steady pants as I inspected the buildings, spotting none other than Bon-Bon. At first, it was a casual encounter for her, but then she saw my appearance, my eyes. I was now sprinting at the window where she stood behind and smashed right through, grabbing her by the tail and flinging her against the wall. She yelped upon impact and I pounced on top of her before she could move, flipping her over so that I could beat her face.
"What did you do now, Bon-Bon?" Lyra asked right before she walked in to the shocking scene.
At the moment both I and Lyra locked our eyes on each other, it almost felt as if the malicious left my body for a few seconds. I subtly relaxed my brow and glared at her with hostility. Lyra, one of my best friends in all of Equestria, the one who looked up to me as inspiration for her passionate study, now looking at me as the monster I was.
"Lyra, run! Get out of here!" Bon-Bon heeded.
Lyra hesitated, but when I rose up to my feet and walked towards her, she ran up the staircase. There were a few rooms on the upstairs, but Lyra chose to go out the second floor window and slid off the roof and into the street was just at.
"Get up, Bon-Bon!" Lyra exclaimed.
Bon-Bon gave out a sharp scream.
"Ow! Ah, I can't. My leg is broken! Just go and get help, Lyra! RUN!" Bon-Bon replied, groaning in pain.
Lyra tried to stay back and to help her roommate, but Bon-Bon made her point and Lyra galloped away. Now with a fire burning in my head, I slid off the roof as well and sprinted after Lyra with fully lethal intentions. Her and I were about fifty meters or so apart, but with all the exhilarating adrenaline that was constantly being pumped through my blood, magically enhanced muscles, and brain mixed in with infuriating malice, it was an unstoppable combination. Growling and taking hoarse breaths that was probably creating friction on my larynx, I was gaining on Lyra until I was hot on her heels, sending her into a state of mortifying panic.
"Stop chasing me, Caleb! You're scaring me!" Lyra cried, tears starting to well in her eyes.
Along with a ferocious roar, I bounded into the air with my entire body stretched out. My shadow cascaded over the frightened mare and I hurled towards her at rapid speed, tackling her to the ground. She gasped and kicked her rock hard hooves against my head, but it only made me angrier. My hands scrambled along her body as I gripped her skin and pushed her back on the ground. With both hands on her back, holding her against the ground, I opened my mouth and bit down hard on her left side with as much force my jaw muscles could muster. Lyra let out piercing scream as my teeth sunk into her flesh, the taste of metal overwhelming my tastebuds as blood began to draw, and proceeded to shake her like a chew toy. Leaving go with blood flowing out of my mouth, I flipped her over onto her back and saw the face of broken mare who was being attacked by her friend.
"What did I do?! I'm your friend!" Lyra blubbered.
Without remorse, I began to savagely bludgeon her muzzle and face with my fists in repetition for twelve times before wrapping my hands around her neck and slamming her head against the ground, gritting and spewing saliva from between my teeth. Lyra had stopped moving at that point and her entire face was broken, blood profusely flowing out the nostrils and beginning to severely bruise.
"DIE!!!" I screamed. It didn't come out as the word, but more of an incoherent yet intimidating roar.
To finish the heinous act, I just grabbed her entire body with one hands and threw it overhand against a nearby tree, her lifeless body flopping onto the ground like a ragdoll. My hands and mouth were caked with red blood as tiny blood spatters stained my clothing. After everything that just happened, I didn't even feel the pity and anguish of killing my friend. I just felt... the same as before; fury and thoughts that dwelled on any possible atrocity.
I then stood up on my feet and proceeded onwards with evil endeavors. I happened to be real close to the Friendship Castle and spotted the Land Rover, giving me another idea on how to deal with any ponies I come across. Of course, when I looked back at Lyra before leaving the scene, there was a crowd of concerned ponies surrounding Lyra's body who witnessed my murder, checking if she was okay. I now walked up to the Defender that was parked a short distance from the Friendship Castle and inserted the fuel pump fuse, igniting the engine to life. Forcefully shifting into first gear, I floored the accelerator, causing the engine to roar as loud as my own, followed by the second gear. Grass, soil, and dust kicked up from the amount of torque the powerful machine exerted on the soft ground, creating deep tire tracks.
Along the route to the crowd of ponies that attained to Lyra, I saw Amethyst exit her home and I cut the wheel to the right, ramming her on the steps and sending her flying back inside her house. With some damage now done to the front of the vehicle, I then shifted in reverse and the tires spun as they regained traction before continuing to the ponies I planned to exterminate. I took a shortcut around the town so that I would be able to catch them by surprise. Once I caught sight of the herd of townsfolk, I went foot to the floor and didn't leave go. The vehicle sped up to a speed of 90 kilometers an hour and they would surely had been dead if I hit them.
I had to be at least fifty feet from impacting them before the Defender skidded to a sudden halt. The engine died because the sudden force caused me to let off the clutch too early, messing up the shift into third gear. My eye drifted to the remaining side mirror and I saw Twilight holding the vehicle back with her magic, causing me to lowly snarl. She then lifted the vehicle up a short ways up in the air and kept her distance as she flew over to the side of the vehicle I was sitting. Twilight looked distraught as she took in my new, menacing appearance as her ears flattened.
"Caleb.... I know this isn't you. You would never do something like this, I know you. But..... I have to turn you in until--"
I quickly opened the driver side door and jumped out at Twilight trough the air, gripping onto her head. Twilight grunted as my weight sent both of us careening towards the ground until she did the next best thing she could do at the moment.
I don't know why she didn't just capture me at this point, but she instead teleported myself to a secluded area of Equestria that I was not familiar with. The ground was orange red, a desert, and the air was not too hot and not too cold. I was in a state of turmoil as whatever was controlling me was trying to find out what to do next, but I decided to just walk off in another straight line, hoping to find another settlement of ponies to terrorize. I was truly gone for the time being. Why did I even bother to leave the castle?
There I was, sitting criss-crossed atop a tiny rock island above my homeworld; planet Earth. One would assume that I would be shocked to be still alive in outer-space or even ecstatic to see my home once again, but that wasn't the case. In fact, I didn't mentally feel anything. I didn't feel happy nor did I feel sad, but just at a state of tranquility. It was quite the contrast to my current mentality. Before I awoke from my bizarrely foretelling dream, I grasped the edge of the island, poked my head over and looked down at the terrestrial land masses. It appeared I was above Europe, but vague to say which country I was specifically over because of an obstruction. The portal that sent me to Equestria had blanketed a small portion just north of the continent, appearing similar to a hurricane but with a distinctive, light blue center.
Although my eyes were closed, I saw a white flash and heard a jingly sound before opening my eyes. The yellow glow of my eyes slightly lit the grass that I was sleeping on. My instinctual anger kicked in and I stood up, staring down one of the streets of Ponyville. It was in the middle of the night and all the lights inside the houses were off. I would presume it was pitch black, but my strangely enhanced eyesight helped me see a lot more clearer in the dark. With my neck lowered, I barely turned my head as I inspected the area for any ponies, only using my eyes as they drifted from left to right. If I could see my expression at that moment, it would probably be the definition of the term 'evil eyes.' With no sight of anypony, I started to walk down the street and see where it would take me.
From the amount of time I wandered aimlessly in the Badlands, which was most of the day, my hunger and thirst never seemed to drastically increase. I don't know wether it was the adrenaline or on-going rage, but I've been able to keep going without the feeling of being depleted of energy. Going that long in a dry desert without gaining an inkling of thirst is rather inhuman, now that I think about it.
Ponyville was dead. Out of anger and bloodlust, I broke into a few homes just to see if I could find and simply kill somepony, but the one's I intruded were unoccupied. Eventually, it soon became evident to me that nopony was even here and the mood was really set in. The grass shuffled as I walked over it and occasional lonely gusts of wind would blow throughout the village. Sometimes when I stopped to stand still and listen for ponies, I could hear the wooden structures creaking or even the insects chirping away. The vacancy made me wonder if Twilight had also left Ponyville. I then leaped and climbed up onto the roof of one of the houses and looked over at Twilight's castle.
As if she was expecting me, Twilight stood in the middle of the path that led up to the front doors. Like a hawk eyeing its prey, I watched her turn around to walk inside the Friendship Castle, but she stopped and looked directly at me before closing the door. She knew I was looking at her from a distance, so she looked right back, but I'm not sure of what her intention was.
I jumped off the 20 foot height and landed on my feet without injury. I now started cutting in between the houses in order to get on that long stretch. While my mind did broil with rage against my closest friend, I felt no hurry in hunting her down, so I just walked until I abruptly stopped once I was halfway to the castle. I noticed the slightest thing out of place. There were hundreds of hoofprints scattered on the dirt path. There actually used to be that many hoofprints from all the tourists, but very few ponies walk up to the castle so frequent. Again, I scanned the area without turning my head before proceeding further up the castle.
When I placed my right foot on the first step, I caught a glance of the Defender dangling off the right side of the front porch. As soon as I saw the vehicle, it plummeted to the ground and a thick pressure wrapped around right ankle. This pressure turned out to be a rope ensnaring my leg. Before I could reach down to tear off the rope, the weight of Defender on the other side hoisted my entire body up by at least ten feet. It was so quick that my body didn't even hit the ground. Now vulnerable, my body dangling by my right leg, groups of royal guards emerged from the castle, the darkness, and from around the castle.
"We got him, we got him!" one of the guards called out.
Furious, I let out growls mixed in with screams as I relentlessly tried to reach out and grab the guards. I turned my attention to the rope again and began to cut it with my razor sharp claws, and it was working.
"Grab him arms! Don't let him get loose!" the commanding guard ordered.
Tweleve pegasi guards, six on each arms, started prying my arms outwards to cease my attempt to free myself, but my arms overpowered their efforts and flung them off for a short distance. I managed to get a grip on of the guards left back leg and my fingers wrapped around the appendage hard. I had to be exerting hundreds of pounds in grip strength because that guard was in serious pain, but his savior would turn out to be none other than an Alicorn.
Princess Celestia got full control over my body, unhooking my fingers and restraining my arms with her golden magical aura. Alongside Celestia flew her sister, Princess Luna, and Twilight. All three were right in front of my face as I dangled upside down. Letting out a guttural sigh, my facial muscles relaxed and I gave them a bug-eyed stare.
"My goodness. What has become of him?" Luna asked Twilight, in a state of disbelief.
Twilight was unable to respond. She looked horrified to see one of her best friends in such a terrifyingly negative state. Her gaze was straight, wide and her lips were slightly parted.
"Sorry," Twilight said as the question registered. "I still just can't believe it."
"As can I. Did you have an answer for my sister?" Celestia said.
"The only thing I know for sure is that Caleb is under some type of involuntary control. Nobody spontaneously sprouts claws and develops glowing eyes, let alone act out on such violence tendencies." Twilight replied.
"That I agree with. Does he still understand what we're saying?" Celestia said.
Although I couldn't speak any words, I let out a raspy snarl that caused the princesses to flinch.
"Most likely." Twilight replied.
Princess Celestia then hovered a bit closer to me. I tried to reach out my arms in order to gouge her eyeballs, but she held me firm. I'm surprised she got so close to my face because she was getting a close inspection. Celestia seemed to be puzzled as her eyes ran up and down my body before moving away.
"What is it, Celestia?" Luna asked.
"I think I have a possible solution to Caleb's current state, but I need to a little bit of time to make sure wether it would work properly or not. For the time being, we must keep Caleb secured." Celestia replied.
The brave and noble knights, Scanner and Spear Point, exited from the dark bowels of the Canterlot Castle. We had to keep Caleb supervised in case he was able to pry the steel bars of his cell open, but his power has its limits. Still, it didn't mean he would give up on attempting to find a way out of his imprisonment.
"Has he fallen asleep?" my dear sister asked Scanner.
"We believe so. He is constantly moving around, but his breathing is more paced." Scanner replied.
"Good. I figured Caleb's body would eventually go into dormancy despite his aggressive nature." I said.
"How long do you think he'll last?" Spear Point questioned me.
"Hard to say. It could be sooner, or it could be later on." I replied to the question.
"I sure hope it's later on. I don't really like the way he stares at us through the cell bars. That dark cave doesn't help either." Scanner mentioned.
"Well, you're time down there is finished for now. You are now dismissed." my sister excused the knights.
Although the two stallions had gone back up inside the castle where it was content, my sister and I remained at the mouth of the dungeon and gazed into the darkness. With her aura, Celestia closed the door as it slowly creaked and echoed throughout the hollow cobblestone room we stood in.
"Do you happen to know if Caleb ate the food we gave him?" my sister asked me.
"I heard that he did. He ate it as if it were a decent meal and wasn't sloppy with it." I replied.
"Interesting." my sister said.
"What do you mean?" I curiously inquired.
"Its just that even though Caleb's true mentality is gone and has done so much damage. Yet through it all, there are moments where he seems rather neutral," my sister said. "Almost as if he's trying to come back, but is being held back by something."
"That would put good credibility on our control theory, don't you think?" I said.
"Indeed it does. No longer does it feel as far-fetched now. I feel the time may be right." my sister agreed.
"But do you still want me to enter his dreamscape?" I asked.
"Yes, yes. We should still proceed with that incase there are any clues to what's going on in his head," my sister persisted. "It would be easier to explain what happened to him if he doesn't remember committing these acts.... Poor Caleb."
"I feel the events will take a toll on his psyche either way," I sighed. "Nevertheless, I will get on with it right away."
The dawning mood between Celestia and I in that confined room was growing poignant. We both split ways once we got back to the ground floor, my sister rejoining with Twilight and the others while I headed out to the balcony where I prefer to enter the dream realm. Once situated, I shut my eyes and quickly concentrated my energy towards the realm before phasing inside.
As always, thousands of dream bubbles that showcased an individual ponies subconscious images surrounded myself, but spaced out enough to offer ample room for navigating the realm. There were sure plenty of ponies dreaming that night. But, a short distance from where I was positioned was a black orb that contorted in many angles before forming into a perfect sphere. The window into the dream faintly showed to what appeared to be a dirt path. With deductive reasoning, I assumed it to be Caleb's dream bubble.
I was brought back by the odd entity. I've never seen something so mutually bizarre. It reminded me too much of The Tantabus. However, I absolutely knew that this was Caleb's dreamscape. It fitted his dark nature. It just had to be. Without any hesitation, I took a leap into the dream bubble and landed on the loose dirt.
I stood in the middle of the path and surveyed the location. The villages structures integrity were decaying and short stone walls acted as fencing for the residential homes. Dusk was upon the village. The clouds were exceedingly darkened, appearing as a mixed shade of peacock and ocean blue whilst the sunset gave the sky as well as the environment an orange hue. A mesmerizing sight indeed, but that wasn't my purpose.
I proceeded down the path in the abandoned settlement. The wind coming in from the adjacent lake blew in between and over the buildings, emitting rather eerie, low howls in the process. Wandering along the street as well were a flock of ravens, cawing and averting to my presence as I continued. Eventually, I reached the end. The only other remains of the village was a fallen makeshift wooden sign with the word "Revalum" inscribed, the material easily snapping in pieces, evident to its old age.
"What a cryptic name for a village."
I turned my attention to a dark tunnel that was a short distance walk. I didn't know of its location at first, I just instinctively looked and happened to spot it by chance. It was oddly built of concrete and slightly curved near the end. Something was obviously out of place, but I had to proceed.
At the mouth, I illuminated the tip of my horn to get a better look at the interior before moving forward. The further I went, the atmosphere changed. The wind from outside sounded more of an unsettling drone and a single fuel lantern at the end flickered rapidly. Near the end of the tunnel were a set of stairs that led under the ground. Somewhere down there, it sounded like something was living; a rather spectral growl came from below. I was not terrified, but I surely felt tense.
I took step after step down the stairs until I reached the very bottom. Without much of a warning, a ghostly flash image of a mercifuless Caleb appeared directly in my face, vanishing as soon as it came. I jumped once the sound of warble screams, cries of agony, and blaring images manifested through the dark, narrow walkway to my left. The horrible sounds echoed in the tunnel and rattled my ears, but I've seen worse under the influence of Nightmare Moon. I carefully moved forward in the walkway and turned to the right, entering a room lit by small flames that circled the room. Human and animal skeletons lied scattered across the room, pools and strands of dried blood spattered on the stone walls and floor, and specifically placed mysterious symbols drawn on the floor.
"Madness."
Through everything I just took in, I had not noticed the tall human-esque figure standing at the far end of the room. It most likely was the lighting, but it was the darkest black I had ever seen. What happened next was truly unexpected. The eyelids slowly began to open, revealing a pair of red, glowing eyes that fixated on myself. Entity's in dreams don't usually interact with myself, but with the individual having the dream. It was almost as if I were staring at evil head-on.
"Who are you?"
"Bravely done, Princess Luna, but you're not supposed to be here. As a matter of fact, you're not. Now, get back where you belong and remember what you saw up above. Until... we meet.... again."
As soon as the dark figure uttered those last words, my connection with the dreamscape and the realm was interrupted and sent me back to Equestria involuntarily. Now staring at the moon once more, I now realized Caleb is under the influence of something that possess great intelligence. Evil and intellect is never a good combination.
Never in my life would I see myself stuck in this situation. The guards had bounded me in chains and shackles before loading me up inside a caged wagon. I struggled and thrashed in attempt to free myself from the restraining metal, but it was locked on tight enough to barely allow any movement of my limbs. All I could really do in my position was to glare or roar just to express my random outburst of rage.
My aggressive behavior was still surely active, but something was different, and I recognized it. Aside from my hostile emotions, I gradually became aware of the other conflicting emotions around me. I could see it in their facial expressions; the guards, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and even Twilight and the girls. It has to be difficult for my friends, taking in the fact that the events transpired in such a short timespan were caused by me. But alas, I lied on my side and continued to glare at Twilight before she turned to Princess Celestia. My malicious gaze then shifted over to Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash. All five were obviously horrified just from my stare that cut through the interior darkness of my imprisonment, but there was also a concerned sentiment in their expressions.
Shortly after, everyone started dispersing until it was only a few guards left. The remaining four pegasus guards harnessed themselves up to the cage and got a running start before flapping their wings, lifting the cage upwards. I managed to get up onto my knees and growled in response to the gain in altitude. The wind blew through the steel bars and against my heated body. I peered through the bars and looked directly down upon Canterlot until the guards passed over the cliffside.
The aerial trip followed with a flyover the five mile stretch of open plains, Ponyville, and over the Dovere territories. After entering the Batchu territory, the pegasus guards started gradually descending. I noticed an iconic landmark; the old, abandoned castle that once belonged to both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, now landing inside the neighboring ancient gorge. It was at that moment when an unseemly wave of fear swept over me, causing some of my anger to dissipate and I squirmed into the far corner of the cage. I had no idea what caused this at first because that significant reaction wasn't in my control.
The large garrison of royal guards from earlier had now stationed all throughout down in the ravine. As my eyes locked on the guards just outside of my cage who were reversing into a cave, my attention was swiftly stolen by the current keeper of the Elements of Harmony; the Tree of Harmony. Horrified and furious, I violently jerked my body to the sight of the prominent tree and bared my teeth. I now felt the need to destroy the tree, but I was obviously unable to carry out the task. Through a series of roars, I cursed at the six mares who stood in front of the Tree of Harmony. Twilight then hovered up to the front center of the giant tree, followed by levitating Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity up to the individual branch that held their specific element while Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash simply flew to their spot.
"Are you girls ready?" Princess Celestia asked.
"Ready and willing. Release him." Twilight replied, followed by a sigh.
"Then there's no time to waste." Princess Luna said.
The guards that pulled my cage now unharnessed themselves and walked alongside Princess Celestia and Princess Luna up to the drop door. The locks to the door rattled for a brief moment before the door opened and landed with a heavy, metallic thud that reverberated in the cave. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna gave me no chance to move as they both levitated me out of the cage and up to Twilights higher level.
At that point, I had stopped caring about the ponies in the room and leered at the Tree of Harmony. Under all those evil, negative feeling, I felt anxiety just from looking at the majestic tree that sparkled and casted off light. Even though Twilight and I were halfway up the height of the tree, which was around twenty feet, there was still a whole lot more of the towering tree. I could feel its energy pulse out in short waves. Quite intimidating from a certain point of view. Enough time had passed, and it was time for the girls to begin the process of expelling whatever is inside my body. Just when Twilight was about to begin the process to expel the evil, an unknown force appeared to gently push the girls against their will, onto the ground below.
"Is this a secret part of the plan?" Pinkie Pie asked Twilight.
"I'm not doing this!" Twilight replied.
The princesses magic aura's that encased my entire body disappeared, yet I remained floating in the air. I couldn't see because my back was turned, but it was safe to assume that everyone inside the Harmony Cave was in a state of shock. I even heard the shing of a few guards readying their weapons.
"Stand down. This is something else." Celestia heeded.
"Like what?" Twilight asked.
Still levitating near the center of the tree, I literally started to feel a conflict between my original, human mentality and whatever was influencing my aggressive mentality. I wanted to just spill my heart out and apologize for everything I did, but I was unable to at the same time. As I struggled to free myself from this ethereal grip, my whole body was suddenly paralyzed. My limbs, head, and eyes. Pretty much every muscle in my body was unable to move. There was also a sensation of some type of liquid moving through my body and into my stomach that gave me the worst stomach ache I've ever felt in my life. I was so terrified by the pain that I didn't even realize the evil that influenced my brain was eradicated, hence to why I was able to express this primal emotion.
In the end, I was then flipped around so that I was facing away from the tree and was slowly drifted back to the ground, resting next to the tree's roots. My energy levels were drained and still unable to move.
The foreign liquid that collected and caused pain in my abdomen now churned and I could feel it rising up my esophagus. It burned like Hell. Before I knew it, a black liquid with a semi-thick viscosity started seeping from between my lips, beginning to back up as I continued to vomit. Tears flowed out of my eye ducts to the sickening experience.
"Open his mouth or he'll choke!"
"Here, help him, help him, help him!"
"Medic!"
As my consciousness gradually began to fade and everything started getting very blurry, I made out the image of my friends, the princesses, and even the guards surrounding me. After all the liquid was exiled from my system, the medic's began working on me and loaded me onto a long stretcher. Through this whole process, I noticed that my ability to feel was regaining. My entire body was aching due to the stress put on it that I could not feel while high on adrenaline.
The last feeling of touch I felt was an ice-cold foreleg of a pony, wrapping around my right arm before quickly leaving go. On my left arm, however, was a contrast. I'm not sure what it was, but there was something hot and possessed a sharp edge. Without causing any form of physical harm, the sharp point dragged across the bottom of my forearm in unison to the pace that the medics ran. I had passed out before we were even out of the ravine, so the events shortly afterwards is up to the imagination.
I awoke in my bedroom and stared up at the ceiling, lying still. The room was dim because of the window curtains blocking out the sunlight during the late morning. There was an uncomfortable pressure on my chest, not from pain, but from a sensation of anxiety. It didn't take me long to recollect the memories of my malicious behavior and doings.
"Oh, no....."
Slowly, I began to rise up and swung my legs over and onto the cool floor. My legs were relatively tender from being used so frequently at a rapid pace, but I managed to stand on my feet. Slightly limping as a dull pain pulsated with each step, I peered from in between the concealing curtains. I stared out at a bright summer day in Ponyville. A butterfly rested on the windowsill before flying away.
When I closed the curtain to cover the peaceful outdoors, I sighed and rubbed my eyelids before heading to my bedroom door and opening it, quietly creaking, and went to the bathroom. I observed myself in the mirror; my hair was clean and in a state of term known as bedhead while my arms and hands were riddled with scars, which was from the gashes caused by the broken glass of the windows I smashed. My white skin was no longer caked with blood and a fresh set of clothing replaced my tattered clothing from days ago. It was safe to say I was back to my normal self, but when I went to examine my hands, I noticed something underneath a few of my fingernails. I pinched my thumb and index finger, pulling out a few strands of aquamarine fur. I gradually felt sick to my stomach and quickly discarded of the fur. I just had to find Twilight at this point.
I fast-walked down the stairs and instinctively entered the Map Room. Twilight was skimming through series of books, piles building up behind her throne. Bridgette perked up and was so happy to see me, her tail wagging as she stared up at me while panting, but I ultimately showed no acknowledgement towards her.
"Oh my goodness, Caleb!" Twilight said, pleasantly surprised, followed by a brief silence.
"Twilight..... Did, I, uh... just... Did I really do all of it?" I said. I was at a loss for words and the feeling in the room took a drastic, tense shift.
Twilight was hesitant on her response. I knew that her response would hurt me, and she knew it too, but she did her best to offer some assurance.
"You did, Caleb. I can't lie to you about that." Twilight replied, her ears drooping down a little.
The response hit me like a freight train. Insecurities and the feeling of regret flooded my mind and I was stuck in a thousand-yard stare. I felt like I was going to sob my eyes out, but I couldn't bring myself to do it because of the amount of shock I was in.
"Why am I not locked up in the dungeon?" I asked Twilight, a tear running down my right cheek and sitting down on a random throne.
"Because these were not your choices and were entirely influenced. It was a determined conclusion between me, Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna." Twilight replied.
"How was it not my choice? I personally made the the decision to come back." I said.
"That's what you think," Twilight said as she moved to my side. "Princess Luna noted of a sentient being inside your head that was influencing your thoughts and functions, so it was truly not your personal choice. We're trying our best to figure out what this creature is, but we haven't found anything plausible."
With all these thoughts and worries that came and went, I suddenly remembered what I wanted to say to Twilight, but she was only the first.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. I know how much--"
"No, no, I need to say this! Even though I didn't mean to do it, I've caused so much pain, terror, and confusion among you ponies. I mean, like, what the hell am I going to do?!" I said, brushing all my hair back with my palms.
"We've done our best to convince the ponies of Equestria that this situation is under rather unnatural circumstances, but I'm afraid no everypony will believe our story." Twilight said.
"'Unnatural circumstances?'" Is that what you referred this as?" I asked.
"Well, no. We did go out and say that your body was being possessed by some type of creature of great power and has been contained." Twilight said.
"Wait, wait. What about Applejack? O-- or her family, Amethyst, Lyra, and Bon-Bon? What happened to them? Oh, please tell me that Lyra is goddamn okay!" I said, clutching Twilight, but not too hard.
"The Apple's are okay. They were shaken up at first, but they see what happened to you now and understand. The only real damage is on their property." Twilight said.
"And? The others?" I continued.
"Well, from what I heard, the vehicle impact on Amethyst sent her back a few feet back into her home, but nothing too serious. Bon-Bon, well, she has a broken foreleg and is recovering. But, for Lyra Heartstrings, I'm sorry to say that her injuries were too grave."
I let out a gasp and immediately became light-headed from the mentally anguishing news. With my vision becoming faded, I lost my balance and nearly fell out of my chair, but Twilight kept me straight upright. Bridgette jumped up and licked my face to help out.
"It's okay. Just stay with me, Caleb." Twilight said.
"Lyra's dead?" I asked in a daze.
"Yes. Yes, she is. Y'know, Lyra was an old friend of mine back in my early days in Canterlot." Twilight said, sniffling.
Although I already knew this for a fact, the statement and the sound of Twilight beginning to cry made feel so horrible. I squeezed my eyes shut whilst I hugged Twilight once the memories of Lyra begging for her life replayed like a broken tape recorder.
"I'm so sorry! She was such a good pony." I sniffled as well.
"She sure was. But remember this: I don't blame you. I blame whatever was controlling you." Twilight said.
"What am I going to do?" I croaked.
"What do you think you should do?" Twilight flipped the question.
As the clouding sadness started to decrease as I thought, my answer popped in my head almost on impulse. I felt it was an honorable deed and I needed to get it off my conscious.
"I guess... I think it would be best for me to personally apologize to everypony I directly attacked, at least the one's I affected the most." I replied.
"Sounds like a fine idea. Just remember that your friends will always have your back, okay? You will get through this with our help." Twilight said.
"Sure." I nodded, wiping my eyes.
"Do you want me to come along with you, or are you fine by yourself?" Twilight asked.
"I'll do it myself. This is something I must do alone." I replied.
After our emotional conversation, I went into the kitchen and poured myself a bowl of cereal and sat in the dining room, accompanied by Bridgette who sat next to my chair. I gave a few pets on the head before she decided to walk in a cirlce and lied on the floor. As the cereal crunched in my mouth in the silent room, I began dwelling on negative thoughts that made me feel insecure about myself. I wondered if anypony would even want to see my face or how they might react. This mixed in with knowing what I did made me feel dizzy and sad, so I just lost my appetite and couldn't eat anymore.
"I'm going out, Twilight." I said by the front door of the castle and Twilight teleported to where I was.
"Do your best out there. I'll be here if you need me." Twilight said, leaning in for a hug.
"Okay." I said before walking outside and closing the door to the.
I walked down the stairs of the front entrance and paused when I my shoes touched the dirt. I stared at a dead-ahead Ponyville and slowly looked at the slightly damaged Land Rover. Usually, I would hop in just to travel the distance from Ponyville to Sweet Apple Acres, but I turned my back to Defender and walked away on the outer-bands of Ponyville, isolating myself in the beginning of my journey.
When I made it to the southern band of Ponyville, I continued on the path that leads a straight shot to Sweet Apple Acres. I was too ashamed of myself to even walk through the streets and the unbearable guilt was one of the worst feelings I've ever felt. Sometimes, if I went on-foot to Sweet Apple Acres, I would cut through the forest and get on the path once I was past the brush, but I'm honestly terrified to even step foot in the eerie forest, even during the day time. The forest itself is not bad during the day, but night is scary.
I've seen too many strange things. My fear is not because of the many mythological creatures that inhabit the Everfree, but only of whatever was inside that house in the Batchu. For example, when I was in the dense, dark forest one time, perched up in a tree to catch my prey, I kept feeling as if I was being watched and footsteps in the form of twigs snapping could be heard in the distance. It could just be regular wildlife for all I know, but this occurs too frequently. I've been considering on quitting C.A.M.A, but I keep remembering that I have signed a contract with the agency, so I'm stuck with this job for the time being.
Now, enough with the digressing. I followed the straight path and came across the abundance of apple trees until I reached the front entrance of Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack and Big Mac had not taken notice to my presence yet, so I nervously hesitated and remained still, looking at them. I just wanted to turn away from the farm and let my insecurity get the better of me, but I knew that wasn't the right thing to do. And so, taking in a deep breath, I walked through the threshold and towards the two ponies. Big Mac was the first to catch sight of me and nudged his sister, getting her attention onto me.
"Oh. Hey there, Caleb." Applejack said rather nonchalantly, dropping what she was doing and walking up to me.
"Hey. I, uh, just wanted to..." I paused. "Look, I'm really, just, so sorry for what I did to you and the farm. You know that wasn't really me, wanting to do those things, right?" I said.
"Of course, of course. We understand you fully and gladly accept your apology," Applejack said, Big Mac nodding as well. "I-I-I mean, the princesses were going on about how you were under some type of mind control."
"How did that happen in the first place?" Big Mac asked.
"I think Princess Luna mentioned it being a dangerous creature that caused it." Applejack said.
"That's right. We're still working on figuring out what type of creature it is." I said.
"So wait, ya'll know its some type of creature, but have ya actually seen it?" Applejack asked, confused.
That question was what I was fearing about and my heart rate rose. I still remembered what The Figure said right after Night Hunter died in the hospital. I turned away from Applejack and Big Mac, nervously cracking my knuckles before facing them again.
"I can't answer that question." I quietly mumbled.
"Why not?" Applejack asked, noticing my fear.
"No, no, I'm not saying anything. I can't do it." I said, now turning the opposite direction and walking to the exit. Applejack pursued and diligently blocked myself from leaving the farm.
"Now hold on just a minute. What the deal with you not telling us?" Applejack asked.
I quickly looked in all directions and in between the rows of apple trees, searching for any shapes that seemed out of place or any distant shadows. I couldn't spot anything strange, so I decided it would be safe to tell them what I've experienced.
"Okay, fine. Let's just head up to the house." I said, quietly.
After our short walk back up to the farm, I took a seat on the pigsty fence. I felt as if I was about to spill a bunch of confidential information to government officials, and if I were to mess up, I would be killed. A strange example, I know, but there was a lot of nerve-wracking pressure for me at this moment. However, in reality, it was just a friend wanting to understand more on what is going with myself. And so, I began whispering.
"Please don't tell anypony else this information, okay? Just leave the talking to me." I said.
"Sure. I promise." Applejack said.
"Okay then. I have seen the creature before. I call it The Figure. Twilight saw it once, but she thinks it's the Wraith that she vanquished."
"I remember hearing about that." Big Mac whispered.
"Yeah, well, The Figure never left." I said.
"What exactly does it look like?" Applejack asked.
"You won't see it. But, if you somehow were to, it rarely appears as a tall, pitch black humanoid. I'm not sure if it's purely black because I've only seen it in the distance as a silhouette or in the dark. I actually heard it walking right in front of me one time, but I couldn't even see it."
"It has the power to go invisible?" Applejack said, surprised.
"Sounds a bit like a ghost to me." Big Mac said.
"No, I think it's something more than a ghost. Not only can it go invisible, but it made me see and hear things that weren't present at the time. I literally saw a vision of a guy blowing his head off weeks ago. It just has a whole bunch of dark powers." I said.
"Holy moly. That is definitely not good, not one bit." Applejack said.
"Yeah. Guess I was wrong. I ain't ever heard of a ghost being that violent." Big Mac said.
"But anyways, I remember that the same guy handed me this cubed artifact with a red glow and I held on to it. That might be the reason why I became so angry and violent because the glow disappeared when I dropped and destroyed it." I said.
"That could be the reason. I still don't understand why it wants to go after you." Applejack said.
"And that's the thing; I think The Figure has grown an attachment to me. Remember that creepy house in the Batchu territory?" I said.
"Oh yeah. Now that you mentioned it, I completely forgot about it." Applejack remembered.
"Sorry to hear that you remember. I'm pretty sure I was the first in Equestria to step foot in that house, so that's probably the reason it's so attached to me." I said.
"I still wonder what went down in that house back on Earth. That place is sketchier than an officer in a doughnut factory." Applejack said.
There was brief pause between our conversation. I was disturbed just from talking about The Figure and I could tell Applejack and Big Mac were, too.
"So, how's your neck, Applejack?" I asked.
"It's fine. I was only a little winded." she replied.
"Mmm. Again, I'm sorry about doing that. Where's Applebloom at?" I asked.
"She's just upstairs in her room." Applejack replied.
"Would you mind if you bring her down here and tell her I'm here to apologize to her?" I requested.
"Sure thing. Just hang tight and I'll be right back." Applejack said, heading inside the house.
"Is Granny Smith inside, too?" I asked Big Mac.
"Nah. She's with her old friends up in Las Pegasus right now. She'll be back in a couple days, actually." Big Mac replied.
"Ah. Guess I'll come back in a few days to apologize to her." I said.
"Don't worry about that, we'll explain everything to her." Big Mac said.
"Really? Alright, well, thanks, Big Mac." I said.
"Eeyup."
Applebloom came out of the front door alongside with her sister. I cringed to the sight of a fading bruise that wrapped around the front of her neck, which deeply affected myself in terms of guilt. Applebloom raised her brow and her eyes widened, hesitating to proceed forward.
"Hey, Caleb." Applebloom said, uneasily.
I couldn't say anything in response at first. The visual evidence of the child abuse I involuntarily committed made my mind feel numb and I was stuck in a trance-like state again.
"Oh my God..." I said, placing a hand on my head, shocked. "Applebloom, I'm just so sorry for what I did to you. Does it hurt?"
"Not really. It's just a bruise." Applebloom replied.
"Good. I mean that you're not in any pain. Uh.... would you like to sit with me for a minute, Applebloom?" I asked
"Sure, I guess." Applebloom complied.
Applebloom and I then sat up against the fence next to each other.
"We'll leave you to it for a little." Applejack said, now walking a short distance away with her brother.
In the beginning of our time alone, Applebloom managed to make eye contact with me and we both made a closed smile to each other.
"You do know if I was under full control of my actions, I wouldn't of hurt you, right?" I asked her.
"I know. I sort of felt betrayed when that happened. Scared, too." Applebloom said.
"And I would also think the same if I were in that situation." I said.
"I heard that Lyra Heartstrings died. I'm sorry you were forced to do that." Applebloom said.
"I feel horrible for what I did to her. I wish I could take back the day I made contact with...." I said, followed by a sigh. "After that, my whole life here started going to Hell after that."
"But at least you have have us, your other friends, and Bridgette. Princess Twilight says that friends can make anypony's life better." Applebloom said.
"I suppose you're right about that." I said with an exhaling laugh.
Just as Applebloom and I continued talking, Winona could be heard howling from inside the house, raising and lowering in pitch.
"What's she howlin' about? Come here, Winona!" Applejack called.
There was brief silence until Winona started emitting piercing yelps. The reason for her cries were ambigious, but she pounced over the double doors by the side of the house and bolted across the corn field until she ended up into the apple orchard.
"C'mon, let's go get her Big Mac. We'll be right back, you two." Applejack said.
Applejack and Big Mac now dashed after their dog inside the apple orchard, their voices fading as they called out for the dog.
"That was strange. Winona's never ran off that far before." Applebloom said.
"Huh. Man, I gotta take a pee really bad." I said.
"Like I needed to hear that." Applebloom chuckled.
"Oh well. I'll be right back." I said, heading inside the house.
After I finished going to the bathroom and walked into the living room, I looked at the window and saw Applebloom feeding a few of the pigs some food scraps, a rather normal scene on the farm.
"Cute." I said to myself.
However, my attention out the window was broke when I heard the floor on the other side of the room creak, followed by footsteps that went into the kitchen, not hoofsteps.
"Hello?" I said.
A subtle putrid odor filled the room, almost smelling like rotten eggs, or even perhaps rotting flesh. I shifted my body to the right to get a view inside the kitchen, but I didn't see anyone in there. I took one last look out at Applebloom and at the orchard, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.
I now then proceeded into the kitchen and stood still for a few seconds. It was all quiet, so I pulled out a chair and sat down at the dining table, remaining silent. The clock in the living room ticked and tocked along with the ambient sounds of a house settling. The whole vibe in the room was getting weird and I had to get up and walk around the kitchen before resting by the sink. I turned around in order to face the entire kitchen and the living room, going into a daydream-like trance and staring off into space while listening for any weird sounds.
"Please don't kill my baby."
The disembodied voice came from the far left corner of the kitchen, which was fifteen feet from where I was standing. The voice was female and had an ebonic drawl to it. Like I've heard before, the voice was in full vocal tone as if someone was talking in a normal tone, but sounded far away, almost as if the voice is trying to exist in the spectrum of sound, but unable to be fully make it through. With all that I've gone through with The Figure and the voice's disturbing context, this rather innocent female voice startled my expectations and I began to feel dizzy.
"No, I'm not doing this here. Leave me alone." I said to The Figure, walking back outside.
"Where ya going?" Applebloom asked.
"I-I gotta go, Applebloom. Tell Applejack and Big Mac I said it was nice talking to them again." I said to the filly without looking back at her, heading for the exit.
There was a feeling of dread as I walked alone on the path back to Ponyville. I could tell I was being watched through the forest brush because I could hear The Figure following close behind as the foliage rustled. At one point, I swear that it felt like someone was running up on me from behind, but no one was even there when I zipped around. After that, I just jogged the entire quarter mile back to Ponyville, the pain in my legs subsiding once a tiny dose of adrenaline kicked in. At the bridge that crossed over the river and into Ponyville, I stopped to catch my breath and looked back. The only thing I saw was the entrance to the Everfree Forest. I've never been happier to back to Ponyville, despite it being a destination for my darkest deed.
I didn't want to wander to my next stop alone, so I built up the nerve and continued onwards into the village. In the square, where the mayor's building is located, there was about eleven ponies passing through or just talking with one another. When they saw me, every single one of them dispersed from the square and cleared out, leaving me alone. I sadly tilted my head down and let out a quiet sigh. My feelings were hurt, but I still understood why they were so apprehensive. That's why it was so unexpected to find out that my consoler would be the mayor herself.
"Caleb Barlow." Mayor Mare called up on the round balcony of town hall.
"Oh, Mayor Mare! I, uh... I have so many ways to express how horrible I feel for what I did in your village." I apologized.
"There's no need for apologies, Caleb. I believe what Princess Twilight had to say during the meeting here." Mayor Mare said.
"Really? Well, I thank you for understanding. Coming to terms with what I did is hard on me." I said.
"I can imagine. I have to admit I would be skeptical if it weren't for the multiple eyewitness reports." Mayor Mare said.
"Those are some of the most crucial bits of evidence," I said, staring back at the distant Everfree Forest. "Look, I gotta go and express my condolences to Bon-Bon."
"I'm so sorry, Caleb. I wish you the best of look in your future. Remember that there are still ponies here that believe your story!" Mayor Mare said as I departed from town hall and wandered onto a random street.
The streets of Ponyville were mostly empty or became void of anypony once I walked down it. The ponies that were brave enough to watch me walk by murmured to each other or simply stared. I even heard one pony say that I should've been "locked up for what I did." Nopony really had the guts to directly confront me. Either way, the uncomfortableness and guilt was gnawing on me, sending me into a cold sweat. It was too much and I had to sit down until the anxiety subsided and mustered the will to keep going. I've never dealt with these emotions before at such a high magnitude.
A short while later on the affecting walk, I just so happened to come across Bob-Bon's home. My eyes scanned the building and the windows had been repaired, but I got severe chills when I made out the tree in distance, the tree where Lyra's lifeless corpse impacted against and her blood soaked into the wood fibers. Distressed by the scene and the knowledge that I gruesomely killed one of my closest friends, I had to turn away and dropped down onto my hands and knees as a sudden wave of nausea came over me. The glands in my mouth salivated before bits of cereal, milk, and stomach acid erupted out of my orifice and into the grass. Once I spat out any remaining saliva to get the taste of stomach acid out, I slowly got back up onto my two feet. Nopony came out to see if I was okay, but who am I to criticize?
Facing the structure again, I now just went for it and knocked on the door, blood coursing through my veins as I waited for the door to open. My body tensed once the doorknob turned, followed by the door opening. I now looked down at a depressed Bon-Bon. Her eyes were red accompanied with dark circles under her eyelids and a few strands of her curled mane stood upright. She looked so sad and tired. Besides her physical state, there was a cast that encased her right foreleg. My heart ached for her.
"What do you want?" she asked without any emotion.
"I.... I wanted...... I came to see how you were holding up." I replied, barely able to maintain eye contact with her.
"Not too good, as you can see." Bon-Bon grumbled under her breath.
"Can I come for a minute?" I sheepishly asked.
"I guess so. Come on in." Bon-Bon permitted.
As I bent down in order to not hit the top of the door frame, Bon-Bon hobbled on into the living room, using her front left foreleg and both her hind legs to walk as her damaged foreleg hovered a few inches above the floor. She then hopped up onto a chair, elevating her broken leg on the side.
"What do you want to say?"
"Just that I'm so sorry for what happened. I have absolutely no idea what else to say to you in order to express how terrible I feel for you."
Bon-Bon didn't say anything. All she did was nod as her half-lidded eyes stared down at the floor. The room filled with silence for a moment.
"I suppose there's not much else you can say. From what I understand, you were fully aware of what you were doing, but your actions were under control of a creature that was inside you?"
"Yeah. We still don't know what specie it could possibly be. Do you believe me?"
"You always were good to me, Caleb. You and I share the same aspirations in career choice."
"Right... To protect others."
"But, I suppose I have to believe. It's not in your character to terrorize a village and murder innocent ponies. There really wasn't much you could do to stop yourself. Therefore, I can't be fully angry at you."
"That's nice to hear. How much are they charging for the hospital expenses?"
"5,000 for the one day stay and 2,750 for treating a compound fracture on my metacarpal."
"I figured it would be that expensive. Here, I'll come by again later on and give you a bag of bits, enough that should cover the costs."
"Oh, no, I have enough. I'm a big saver, but Lyra on the other hoof, well, not exactly."
"And I'm a big saver, too. I know it ain't gonna bring Lyra back, but consider it as an extension of my apology. Please."
"Okay. Okay then. Thank you, Caleb. C.A.M.A sure does pay a lot, huh?"
"Mm-hm. I had so much money at one point that I helped Twilight pay for the Golden Oak Library before it was destroyed and everything."
Suddenly, Bon-Bon's facial expression began to change, turning from rather uplifted due to our conversation into a blank stare, almost as if her brain completely shut off.
"Bon-Bon?"
This unusual stare and behavior now morphed into an event that seriously fucked up my already sensitive psyche. Her eyelids slammed tightly shut and looked as if she was in an unbearable state of agony. This was followed with her letting out bloodcurdling screams that repeated one after another, piercing my eardrums. I tensed up and my eyes went wide as a giant wave of anxiety swept over me. The screams sounded identical to Lyra's as I was beating her to death; shrill, pitiful, and filled with anguish. I covered my ears with my hands, but the screams went right through. My state of mind was beginning to deteriorate and I started to cry from the strong emotional stress. I wanted to run out and away from the house, but I felt stuck. In only a timespan of thirty seconds, I couldn't take it anymore.
"STOP IT!" I bellowed into her face, but this only made Bon-Bon's screams intensify and terrifyingly switched to Lyra's vocal tone.
Hearing those painful screams in the real world one more time left me speechless and filled with the highest amount of guilt I could ever feel. Letting out a short yell of anguish, I lowered my head and placed one hand of each side of my head. My body trembled in terror, whimpering as tears streaked down my cheeks. However, in a contrast to what was just transpiring, the screams ceased and the room became quiet once again.
"Caleb, look at me! What's wrong?" Bon-Bon asked, now standing in front of me with concern on her face.
"You were screaming like Lyra, that's what's wrong! Why would you do that?!" I said, sniffling mucus from my sinuses.
"Oh, I did no such thing! Look, I appreciate for wanting to pay off the hospital charges, I do, but I want you to leave now. Just, just get out and drop off the money tomorrow." Bon-Bon said, her tone lowering as the statement went on.
Confused and in a state of emotional turmoil, I did as she told and walked back out onto the street. I was beginning to question myself wether the world I was currently in was even real or not. I looked in all directions, but I was not seeking anything. Grunting, I flailed my hands in frustration and began to wander aimlessly throughout Ponyville.
It didn't take long before I noticed a black mass following close behind me in my peripheral vision, blurred due to the visual restriction. The mass stuck out from the vibrant colors of my surroundings and it followed my exact walking pace until I came to halt and stood in the middle of the street.
"Fuck you. Fuck you, you fucking bitch." I hissed through my teeth as a spiteful, fiery rage towards The Figure grew inside me. The response I got to my profanity insult was a guttural growl and that just set me off. "Son of a-- FUCK YOU!" I swung around and threw a punch through the air, the mass disappearing. "I'LL TEAR YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF!!! BITCH!WHERE ARE YOU?!"
In an effort to find The Figure, I kept on going from alleyway, to house, to alley, and so on and so forth. The Figure was no where to be seen and this rage turned into fear of the unknown. The Figure must've felt the emotional shift because when I started retreating from the area, I heard Lyra's voice chillingly call my name at the other end of the street, which caused me to quickly turn around. That's when I saw The Figure manifest itself, coming out of an alleyway. Like always, it was at a distance, but it a lot more visible since it was daytime. It was pitch black and the humanoid body ghostly undulated and morphed as it walked towards me. My jaw hung open halfway as I gasped, petrified by its surreal appearance. When I realized The Figure wasn't stopping, I turned my ass around and sprinted in the opposite direction. Adrenaline was now surging through my body and my heart thumped at a rapid pace. Without thinking, I cleared various obstacles that were in my path, turned sharp corners, and just kept on running and running and running until I reached Twilight's castle. I never did look back once.
"Caleb! What's going on? Why were you running?" Twilight said as I slammed the castle doors shut.
My body shook and was hunched over, taking in deep breaths, rapidly blinking my eyes, and my teeth were clenched together; a true visual definition of fear.
"Calm down... Just come over here and sit down." Twilight quietly said, trying to lead me to a safe spot.
"No, no, no, no, I won't. I saw it." I said.
"Saw what, Caleb?" Twilight asked.
"Twilight, I just saw the shadow of the The Figure.... I-I-I got scared and Bon-Bon was...."
Twilight instantly knew what I meant by the word "shadow" and the term "The Figure." I could see it in her eyes as she looked at me. She then peered out the window before running to my side again.
"Let's just head into Map Room for now, okay? Can you tell me what happened in there?" Twilight asked.
"Um... Uh, yeah. Let's go........"
"What happened to Caleb? Is he okay?" Spike asked from the second floor, looking down upon Twilight and myself.
"No, Spike. He saw something he didn't want to see." Twilight replied to the curious dragon.
I descriptively told Twilight and Spike everything that I saw. Obviously, they were horrified when they heard what I had to say, especially the hallucination of Bon-Bon screaming that I believe was projected by The Figure in order to emotionally and mentally scar myself for its own benefit. The whole time I talked, I had to have Twilight and Spike sit close to me and caressed Bridgette just to get through with explaining all the unsettling details. Afterwards, Twilight reminded me that we would all get through this together, which offered a bit of reassurance to me. Spike was scared, knowing that there was a malicious creature on the loose. He even made it clear that he wanted to sleep in Twilight's room tonight, not his.
Speaking of that, Twilight said that she wants us four to remain at castle for the night and see what happens. This is to determine wether what said was truly caused by The Figure or possibly being all psychological effects from the mind control I was under. I remained adamant that what I saw and heard was The Figure's doing, but she insisted that we do it. In the end, I reluctantly agreed, but Bridgette was sleeping with me for the night. What follows is what drove us four out of the castle for days.
3:51 AM
The summer night breeze blew through the cracked open window on the right side of my bed, the moonlight shining and casting a beam of dim light across my pitch black bedroom. I awoke for no particular reason, just one of those moments where you wake up in the middle of the night. Bridgette woke up once I started moving, looking at me while with those puppy eyes as I adjusted myself due to an uncomfortable sensation. My thighs were raw and they were sore to the touch. This wasn't any sort of onset muscle soreness because it was the surface of my skin that was tender.
"Owww."
I reached over to the nightstand and grabbed my attachable flashlight, switching it on and shined a bright beam of artificial light. Removing the blanket and shining the flashlight into my pajama pants, I was startled to find out my inner thighs were a shade of pinkish-red, hence why they hurt. This rash began in the middle of both thighs and led all the way up to my genitalia. The disturbing sight was covered by the dark of night again when the flashlight began to erratically flicker before being drained of power. I instantly knew that The Figure was in the room, its a sign that it likes to give. The stench of rotting flesh and the feeling of a dark presence filled the room. The Figure was somewhere in the room, but I didn't exactly know where at. I hate to even assume it, but I think I was molested in my sleep.
My body became hot and tingled as sweat seeped from my pores, uneasiness beginning to set in. I mumbled under my breath and rubbed Bridgette's side as I sat still in bed, scanning the darkness without moving my head. My sight shifted to far left side of the room when the sound of footsteps moved into the corner. Bridgette swiftly reacted to the footsteps and shot her head towards the corner of the room, not taking her eyes off that area. She was looking at something in the dark that I couldn't see.
We both continued to stare at the corner for what felt like minutes, but was only about twenty seconds before I decided take my eyes off it and quickly checked my six. When I looked back, I saw something that frightened me and sent a major chill down my spine. A pair of glowing red eyes appeared to be staring right back at Bridgette and myself. They were football shaped, much like a human, but a little bit larger and lacked any pupils. Feeling as if this creature was about to pounce, I uncovered myself and backed against the wall, remaining on the bed.
"Get away from me. Get away."
This excruciating stare-down continued on for more than a minute. I was terrified to even blink. If I were to open my eyes to this malevolent being right up in my face, I would've probably had a heart attack. Even when I just had to blink once my eyes got too dry, The Figure remained in its fixed position, but that didn't last much longer. Slowly, the eye's drifted towards my direction and Bridgette quietly squealed to the movement.
"Back the fuck up!" I fearfully demanded, grabbing a glass cup off the nightstand.
Launching like a spring loaded catapult, I sent the glass cup hurling towards The Figure, shattering upon impact. The Figure stopped dead in its tracks to my assault and the eyes gradually faded. Now attacking in the form of black mass, it crossed through the beam of moonlight by the window and towards me, sending me into a full blown panic attack. Bridgette and I both screamed and I got off the bed, blindly throwing these punches in the air, knocking over and breaking several objects within my bedroom. In the fray, I felt The Figure's hand engulf my entire left shoulder and held me still for a split second before letting go.
Eventually, I was at my bedroom door and the first thing that came to mind was to flip the light switch on, so I did. When lights fully illuminated the room, there nothing but destroyed objects all over the place and The Figure was nowhere to be seen. Bridgette was shaking and she piddled on the mattress due to how terrified she was. She definitely saw more than I did.
"It's okay, it's okay!" I assured to Brigette, trying to calm her down.
As I was consoling my dog, a burning sensation started to intensify on my back and I grunted in pain.
"Come here, Bridgette. Run." I said, heading for the door.
With my right hand placed on the center of my back, Bridgette and I ran to the bathroom and flipped the light on in there, removing my shirt. When I turned to inspect my back, there were three thin, long claw marks or scratches that started near my trapezius' and went all the way down to my lower back, curving to my right the lower they went. They were profoundly red and were close to drawing blood. Horrified, I shouted this one question that reverberated throughout the castle, my voice cracking:
"Did you just scratch me?!?!"
.........................................
"I did."
I tensed up to the evil voice that responded, coming from right outside the hallway and caused me to sprint out of the bathroom as Bridgette followed close behind.
"Twilight! Twilight!" I yelled, opening her bedroom doors to Twilight and Spike who were just about to exit the room, causing us all to jump.
"What's happening?" Spike asked.
"It's The Figure! It attacked me in my room! Look at my back." I said, revealing the vicious claw marks.
"What the heck? It actually did that?" Twilight said, astonishingly horrified.
"Yeah, and it actually talked to me, too! I asked it if it was the one who scratched me and it said that it did scratch me." I said at a rapid pace.
"See? I told you that I heard talking out in the hallway earlier, Twilight!" Spike exclaimed.
"Is it still in your bedroom?" Twilight asked.
"I sure fucking hope so! It was-- Look, there it is! Do you see it?!"
By my bedroom door, we all saw those shrewd eyes staring back us. Spike hid behind Twilight and gripped her leg, shaking in fear. Twilight's horn then illuminated and she let out grunts of effort as she struggled with a task that should be done with ease.
"What are you doing?" I exclaimed.
"Trying to get ahold of it, but the receiving connection keeps failing!" Twilight replied.
The faint aura that surrounded the human-esque figure appeared to be sucked inwards, the magical energy possibly being absorbed for The Figure's own advantage for power.
"Guys.... start slowly backing down the stairs and we're going to head outside." Twilight said as she started reversing.
I gripped Bridgette's collar and coaxed her to follow us as she kept staring at the mysteriously terrifying creature. At the first step of the stairs, The Figure instantaneously gained a tremendous burst of speed and charged towards in the form of a black mass, sending us all into a extreme situation of flight.
"Holy shit! Oh my God! Holy F--" I screamed, attempting to lift Bridgette off the ground and into my arms but was unable as an unseen force lifted me up by both my legs and sent me over railing. I landed with a painful thud onto the first floor and I was then quickly dragged by my feet. "STOOOOOOP!!! STOOOOP! Oh, Fuck! Help, help, help, help!"
I desperately tried to grab onto the door frame to the Map Room, but I was going to fast to even get a grip. My eyes were closed in a fit of terror, but I heard the double doors to the room slam shut, as well as a second door, my legs flopping onto the floor as The Figure leaved go. Dazedly panting, I slowly opened my eyes to only realize I was in a pitch black room.
"Caleb! Caleb!" Twilight cried out in an unknown part of the castle.
The inability to see anything and knowing The Figure was in the room with me left me petrified. Through Twilight's pauses, there was absolute dead silence, making it easy to hear my delicate heart beating the fastest I've ever felt, my entire body pulsing as I remained still.
"Caleb, where are you?" Twilight called once again.
Shaking, I was barely able to get up without falling over. The pressure in the room was heavy and there was an ambient frequency in the room that rattled against my ears. My mind raced with fears of what would happen to me next and the blinding environment was not making the situation mentally comforting.
"Caleb!"
"I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S IN THIS ROOM WITH ME, ALRIGHT, BUT GET ME THE FUCK OUT OF HERE NOW!" I shouted back, panicking for my life.
"Caleb, tell me where you're at!"
The agonizing silence carried on again in the dark room and it tormented myself greatly. I worked up the nerve to blindly navigate the room with my hands out, touching up against a textured wall that was familiar.
"Twilight, I'm in the kitchen!"
I got no response to my answer, creating a feeling of horrible dread.
"No. Stop." Lyra's sad voice came directly from behind me.
A fist then bludgeoned against the back of my head and I just collapsed back onto the floor. I was now broken again, both mentally and emotionally. I reverted to an infantile state, curling up into a fetal position, protecting my injured head with my arms, and tearfully whimpering to myself, begging to the The Figure to not kill me. My body shook in rhythm to my pleas and hiccuped sobs, mucus running out of my nostrils. I'm not sure how long I remained in that overwhelming state. The kitchen door then bursted open and Twilight came to my rescue, levitating me out of the kitchen without any trouble and a safe distance out in front of castle where Spike and Bridgette both waited.
"It's okay. We're safe now." Twilight softly, tenderly removing my protective limbs from my face.
"He doesn't look so good." Spike said with concern.
"That's because he's in shock. Caleb, we sent a distress letter to Princess Luna and she's on the way with Princess Celestia and a squad of royal guards. We're going to evacuate Ponyville and heading to Canterlot until we think of something on how to contain this evil creature." Twilight explained.
I couldn't say anything at first. But when Bridgette licked up my salty tears that drenched my face, I sort of snapped out of it and came back to the world. I only had this to say.
"T-t-they won't s-stop it. It'll follow me wherever I go."
Twilight bit her lip and looked back at her domain one last time before we would have to temporarily leave it behind. She then slowly closed the castle's front door with her magic.
"Just hang tight. We're not leaving each other until help arrives."
With that, Twilight, Spike, Bridgette, and myself huddled up with each other on the ground, giving all of us a sense of security as we waited for the higher-ups in Canterlot to arrive on the scene.
I sat on the bed within one of the Canterlot Royal Castle's guest bedrooms, Bridgette staying by my side as she lied down. It was late in morning. All I did today at the time was get up, brush my teeth, and I've just been sitting on the bed for an hour and a half. I denied breakfast, my appetite completely nonexistent.
I can tell that Bridgette senses the sea of negative emotions my paranoid mind is drifting through. Wether it being sadness, fear, or anger, just to name a few, she's doing her best to make me feel happy. At first, I noticed her nuzzling me, then giving random kisses, and now she lays next to me. Twilight then walked in my room and cracked a warm smile to the display of a relationship between human and dog.
"She's a good doggy." I said, rubbing my hand across Bridgette's head.
"I can definitely see that. I just came in to let you know that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are offering to brief you on our situation." Twilight said.
"Oh, okay. Hold on a sec." I said.
When I got off my bed and walked over to the door, Bridgette followed close behind and slipped from in-between my legs. I gently grabbed her by the collar to slow her down.
"Hey, hey. Don't start running off in the castle," I said, Bridgette staring up at me as her tail wagged. "Good Bridgette. Let's go."
After planting a kiss on her head and receiving a lick on the cheek, we now walked along the many hallway of the lower level and up to the second floor.
"Did the E.U.P find anything?" I asked.
"They did find the house in Batchu territory." Twilight said.
"Good God, I hope they're okay." I said.
Upon entering the meeting room, there was a long rhombus table that sat in the center and Celestia and Luna both gazed out a window, turning their attention towards me.
"You staying?" I asked.
"I've already been briefed. I'll be right out here waiting for you." Twilight said.
"Alright."
As Twilight closed the door, I pulled out a chair and sat down across from Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, Bridgette lying underneath the table. We all intensely stared at each other in the eyes. Its safe to say we had a mutual threat on our hands.
"What did they find at the castle?" I asked both alicorns.
"Nothing, to say the least. The Castle of Friendship was virtually untouched and all quiet. This hostile creature was nowhere to be seen within the vicinity of Ponyville or the Everfree Forest." Celestia said.
"Yes. But the garrison had reported sightings of strange things for the duration of the night." Luna added.
"What kind of things?"
"Would you like to list off the reports?" Celestia asked her sister.
"Yes, indeed. Firstly, the ground forces have reported sightings of what they dub as 'Dogmen'." Luna said.
"They saw Dogmen?! What the-- what the hell even is a Dogman?" I asked, disturbed by the name alone.
"They describe it as what appears to be a dog-like creature with a face of your species. There was a pack of four entering Ponyville through the town square. A pegasus guard by the name of Air Watcher managed to get close enough and provided an illustration." Luna said, levitating a drawing that gave me chills.
This Dogman was stocky, bare, composed of human skin, and could either walk on two legs or all fours. Once bipedal, Air Watcher sketched how the arms were short, stubby, barely resembling a hand, and the hind knees were inverted, much like a canine. The head was definitely human and resembled a bald male but severely misshapen with peering eyes. In terms of appearance, the Dogman truly looks like a horrifying mutation or experiment gone wrong.
"The squad who discovered these abominations were attacked, but it would appear that the Dogmen like to cling near the Everfree Forest at night. That's why the garrison had to wait until daytime in order to investigate." Luna said.
"Their weapons had no effect." Celestia added.
"No effect. Well that's not good," I sighed. "What about the house? Did they find anything of major significance?" I said.
"No, unfortunately. They discovered the cryptic symbols and numbers scribed on the walls, as well as the remnants of aged bodily fluids. Some witnessed unexplained flashing lights within the corners of the home, disembodied voices that ranged from both male to female, and abnormal ice-cold pockets of air that would come and go." Luna replied.
"And nopony was even attacked?" I asked.
"No. And before we move on, the guards stationed at the Castle of Friendship spotted dark silliouhettes of humans walking in the meadow as the sun was going down yesterday. What even puzzles us further is that when they went to investigate, no one was even there." Luna said, herself even sounding confused.
"What the hell... Why is all this weird stuff happening all of a sudden?"
I felt as if I was drifting away from reality and entered a confused trance. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna both noticed my behavioral shift.
"Are you okay?" Celestia asked.
"I don't know. I'm astonished that nothing else attacked the guards, despite the Dogmen. Those I've never seen before." I replied.
"Why so?" Celestia asked, calmly.
"When I heard the house was discovered, I was sure that somepony had to of gotten attacked." I said.
"But why are you astonished?" Celestia repeated her question.
"That house is where The Figure lives. That building is where I first encountered it." I said.
"Twilight informed us on The Figure's doings...... Tell me, when exactly did you have your first encounter?" Celestia asked.
"August of last year. It grabbed my arm and gave me three welts." I replied.
"A year?" Celestia said.
"By the looks of it, Twilight really started knowing about The Figure just days ago." Luna said.
"Why did you keep The Figure a secret for so long?" Celestia asked.
"You're putting me in a very difficult position... but I've already messed up in a way," I said, the two Alicorns maintaining their composure. "The Figure told me it would kill all my friends if I told anypony about its existence."
"What for?" Celestia asked, now deeply concerned.
All I could do to respond was to stare up at the two Alicorns, kept my hands cupped on the table, and gave an unsure shrug.
"Is there even a chance of getting rid of it?" I asked.
"It's possible with the use of the Elements of Harmony." Celestia replied.
"Our real problems are knowing where The Figure is and how to lure it into a trap. The Figure would appear to be an intelligent being that is highly adept in the use of supernatural abilities. Zecora has been our best lead on what exactly The Figure is, aside from our books. She believes it could be a negative spirit from a Netherworld, but it came in from the far-side; the universe of your origin." Luna said.
"It's going to be a difficult task to vanquish The Figure, considering the fact the girls will need to remain still in order to properly wield the Elements against this creature." Celestia added.
"Wait. Why are we even discussing this in the open?! The Figure could be listening in on us!" I frantically whispered.
"I made sure to plan ahead. You probably haven't noticed, but I made sure to encase the room with a protective shield before you sat down. Nopony else is able to pass through and hear us."
My eyesight moved to the tip of Princess Celestia's horn and a tiny amount of magical energy was manifesting at the tip. The feeling in the room felt normal, so that was also a good sign.
"Oh. I just-- I still feel a little uneasy about this. So, what should we do? Should I, like, use myself as bait? Make myself vulnerable to The Figure and you guys catch it off by surprise?" I suggested.
"That's not happening. We do not want you to be put into that position. For now, we will remain at the castle until further notice. You're not alone in this, Caleb." Celestia said.
"Yeah. I sure hope so. Is that all you had to say for now?" I said in monotone.
"Um, yes. That will be all." Celestia said, lowering the protective shield. She probably wished she had some good news for me.
I then headed for the door that was opposite to where Twilight was waiting, Bridgette following behind on cue. With all these confusing revelations added onto my psyche, I just felt the need to get out of the castle and recollect myself. Once outside, I sat down on a set of stairs near the back entrance of the castle and let out a deep sigh. I covered my eyes with my palms and gently pressed down, rubbing my eyelids. As my eyes were closed, I heard hoofsteps approaching me from behind. I turned and my vision was slightly blurred as my eyes adjusted to the brightness of day, but I was able to make out the sight of mutilated, translucent people "Look out!" standing right behind and surrounding me. I quickly backed away in shock and tumbled down the stairs until I reached the bottom.
"Hey, hey, its just us, Caleb." Twilight said along with Spike and the girls.
"No, its not you guys. I just saw a bunch of people, humans, right behind me and staring down at me! They were all bloody and messed up! Didn't you see them?" I asked in disbelief and startled.
"No. We were coming over to see how you were doing. I thought we just startled you. Did any of you see them?" Twilight said, looking back at everyone else.
As expected, they all shook their heads and seemed unsettled to my claim.
"Are you seeing those hallucinations again?" Fluttershy asked.
"I don't know, but something's happening to me, Fluttershy." I rambled, straying away into the gardens and leaned up against one of the many stone statues.
"Are you okay now?" Twilight asked.
"I don't know anymore." I replied.
"Look, let's just head back inside for now. Where's Bridgette at?" Twilight said.
"Where's Bridgette? She should be right next to me...."
I looked in between the gap of my right arm and the other arm, realizing that Bridgette was no longer by my side. I immediately felt anxiety and called out to Bridgette. She didn't respond. Instead, over inside the vast hedge maze that was next to us, it sounded like a pair of animals were fighting with each, viciously. This went on for a few second before a shivering yelp echoed from a good distance away, as if an animal just tore the flesh of another. I automatically assumed the worse.
"BRIDGETTE! BRIDGETTE, NO!" I hollered.
"Caleb, wait!" Twilight exclaimed as I ran into the hedge maze's entrance.
These canine yelps eventually turned into bloodcurdling screams that caused an extraordinary amount of adrenaline to surged through my body. I've never heard a dog scream in such a way before. With my mind now abandoning the logic of following the maze's path, I now started to ram right into the hedge, creating gaping holes through the walls as I followed the sound of Bridgette's cries. She eventually stopped, but I kept going without hesitation.
The last hedge I destroyed would only reveal what I feared. In a state of mental agony and shock, I remained petrified as I stared at Bridgette, my breathing shortened and segmented. Bridgette was mutilated yet still alive. Blood leaked from the many claw slashes, puncture wounds on her body, and soaked into her brown coat while both her once floppy ears were nothing but red stumps. The broken dog noticed me and weakly got up onto her three legs, attempting to hobble towards me due to her front-right paw being dismembered. She whimpered in pain and instantly collapsed, now laying on her side.
"Caleb, what happe--" Twilight said before she became speechless.
Twilight, Spike, and the girls were now joined by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. All of them were idle, also in a state of shock. They were now witnessing the scene of a human who was losing one of his bestest friend. I now walked over to Bridgette and sat down. Her breaths were labored and heavy. As I petted her side, I noticed to slightest movement of her tail wiggling from side to side. Her eyelids were slowly becoming more and more heavy as the second went by. Twilight and Spike now walked over to Bridgette and I, silently sitting down.
"No. Don't go!" Spike begged, tears streaming down his face as Twilight comforted him.
"It's alright," I said, softly, without raising my head. "It's alright, Bridgette.
When I did raise my head, I saw how emotional everypony was getting. Applejack removed her hat and sadly averted her sight, Pinkie's mane was half-deflated, Rarity silently cried as she wiped tears off her face, Fluttershy fled the heart-wrenching scene, Rainbow Dash covered her face with her hoof and turned away, her whole body shaking as she quietly sobbed, and Celestia and Luna lowered their heads in respect and grievance.
Bridgette's time was running out. When I had my head gently rested on her warm body, Bridgette's respiratory rate was gradually slowing down. She was trying her best to stay alive, but the irreparable rapid amount of blood loss was taking its toll. My head rose up and down as her lungs expanded and contracted, pacing about eight seconds in between each successful inhale and exhale. Eventually, the last time gap reached twenty seconds before the feeling of her lungs and heart ceased to function forever. Bridgette was dead.
I slowly raised myself up and closed Bridgette's eyelids, resting up against the hedge. The painful, somber moment was mostly silent, the sounds of gardens nature and the wind carrying on being the only outliers. My eyes were hot and the floodgates were opening, but I couldn't sob for Bridgette's death. I was too confused and shocked about why this had to happen to her; sweet, innocent Bridgette. As I dwelled on these thoughts, I looked over to Twilight and she saw the anguish in my eyes. The most she could for me at this moment was to console me, and that she did by hugging me tightly. Even herself was crying.
I wanted to be alone on my walk. I walked all the down that mountain and the five miles back to Ponyville. Everypony was reluctant to my decision, but they agreed as long as I had aerial supervision. Of course, Twilight volunteered for that position.
I held Bridgette's dead body for the whole time. I wrapped her up in a blanket that she liked to sleep on and the little amount of blood left in her system kept the cloth relatively free of stains. Although I was in great pain, I still couldn't bawl my eyes out. I felt as if The Figure was looming over me like a shadow and it probably was. I wasn't going to give into my emotions yet, at least. I just kept looking straight ahead, didn't look around, but most importantly, don't look down.
When I arrived to Ponyville, the whole place was locked down and populated with royal guards, armed to the teeth with melee weapons and sporting yellow body armor. With all that gear, they looked more like knights to me. I steered clear of them and stuck to the outer-band of the village until my trek led me into the meadow adjacent to Ponyville. I walked until I reached the hill that was close to the location where I was dropped into Equestria, so about a mile or so from Ponyville.
I always liked that hill. Its simply just a mass of elevated land that's only accompanied by blue bells and a single oak tree. If I'm going to bury one of my bestest friend, I might as well bury her someplace to remember her by. Some may say it will be harder to forget about the absolute loss, but I didn't think it would affect me in that kind of way. To begin, I dropped to my knees and placed Bridgette on the grass.
"Help me, Twilight." I shuddered under my breath. The energy of Twilight teleporting by my side gave me brief chills.
"Here," Twilight said, softly, levitating a shovel into my hand. "Anything else?"
"Could you go find me some small rocks? Just enough to create a small pile." I replied.
"Sure. I'll be back soon."
As I looked up to watch Twilight fly away and over the Everfree Forest, I noticed a few pegasus guards keeping an eye on me. And so, I rose up onto my feet and thrusted the shovel's blade into the ground, cutting a rectangular outline that would allow Bridgette to fit. After that, I finally began digging her grave. In the beginning, it was a quick repetition of scooping and tossing the loose soil, but it quickly turned into a horrible, sorrowful experience. My physical enhancements made digging a grave a rather quick and simple task. The further I would dig, the more emotional I got. So many memories of our bond started flooding my mind, wether it be her quirks, helping me out with my C.A.M.A job, the walks, cuddles, and even the happiness she brought to me, Twilight, and Spike. Now completely teary-eyed, I had to turn away from the grave and covered my mouth with the back of my hand. Twilight soon returned with what I needed. She immediately went to my side to comfort me.
"Can you finish it?" Twilight asked.
"I can. It just-- It's tough, Twilight. I'm just so sad." I said, stifled.
"You're not the only one suffering, Caleb," Twilight said, a tear running down her cheek. "The loss of Bridgette is irreparable, but this grave will always be a memory of her and in her honor."
"I know... I know."
And so, I managed to finish the grave for Bridgette. I did my best for her. After I buried her with the dug up soil, Twilight and I created a pile of rocks on top as a makeshift headstone before picking some bluebells near the bottom of the hill. Twilight tied the stems together with a piece of string and made a bunch. I planted them upright and secured them, so that the wind wouldn't blow them away. Twilight and I both stood back and looked at Bridgette's grave for a short moment.
"It looks good, Caleb." Twilight said.
I could not continue to stay at the grave site. It was too much for me.
"Just take me back to Canterlot."
Twilight confirmed to my request and she immediately teleported us both back inside the royal castle's meeting room, again encased with a protective bubble. I stared at the royal sisters with slight confusion. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna sat in the same seats as they did earlier, looking rather deadpan until they saw me. I shuddered out an exhale as I walked over and sat down across from them while Twilight remained by the entrance. Everyone in the room had to of felt what I was feeling to some degree.
"I'm very sorry for what happened to Bridgette. It was by far one of the painful experiences I've ever witnessed." Celestia said.
"But I can never amount to how hurt you must be. You've lost so much in such a short timespan. You have our guarantee that this creature will be destroyed." Luna said.
"Yes.... But we also know that The Figure has followed you to Canterlot and that it's not safe here. I do not know the extent of The Figure's powers, but we're going to relocate you. It's far, but familiar to you." Celestia said.
I stiffly nodded to what Celestia said, beginning to quiver. The feeling of loss and guilt of Night Hunter and Lyra's deaths started coming back. Who else would die? In the end, it would be my fault no matter what. The Figure wasn't giving me a line of bullshit. Now overwhelmed with emotion, warm tears ran down my face and I shot up from my seat.
"I need to go to my room." I said, crying with a broken voice.
I could see Twilight trying to reach out to me in consolation as I rushed to the exit through my blurry vision, but a golden aura gently held her back. I kept my head down the entire way back to my room and slammed the door shut, cracking the door frame. Slowly turning my head, in the corner of the room lied Bridgette's little bed, toys, and food dishes. With that, I collapsed on the bed and sorrowfully expressed my grief.
The past three days have been rough for me. On the day Bridgette was killed, Princess Celestia had me relocated to the Crystal Empire and the girls met up with me hours later. Princess Cadance and Shining Armor welcomed me with open hooves and gave me their solemn condolences to what was happening. They were first informed on the attack in Ponyville, The Figure, and everything the day prior to the 12th and I told them about Bridgette shortly after I arrived.
I hadn't felt The Figure's presence since my arrival in the Crystal Empire. I'm not sure wether it actually can't find me, the Crystal Heart is not allowing it to enter the empire, or maybe just keeping its distance from me. I'm pretty sure it's the first guess because I'm currently 120 plus miles northeast of Canterlot.
However, The Figure still manages to hurt me without being here. My mental state is damaged or corrupted. Every time I fall asleep, I keep having dreadful nightmares, five in total. The first two was myself being chased by an unseen force and the rest is just me witnessing people being killed as if they were livestock in a slaughterhouse. On the last nightmare, I did call out to Princess Luna, for her to help stop that traumatizing nightmare, but she never came.
Most of the sleep I'm getting is just through tiny micro-sleeps throughout the day and night because I'm scared to fall into a deep sleep. I'm I also hear voices, but these are very rare though. I've only heard them twice in the span of three days and they both had a female vocal tone. I know it wasn't directly caused by The Figure itself because I didn't feel that odd, heavy pressure or vibe. Who fucking knows. Can't believe I'm losing my mind and highly insecure in an empire where harmony thrives.
I wearily moaned as I looked at myself in the mirror. My hair was messy from lying around while unshaved facial hair continued to grow. Underneath my eyes were dark circles, faintly puffy, too. I still managed to keep my body clean and free of odor, but not as often as I used to. I have been wearing the same pair of sweat pants and t-shirt for two days.
As I walked out of the bathroom, I looked around the room without much motive before going to the window. I looked out for about a moment and the view nearly overlooked the entire east side of the empire. I then turned around and remained still. The lack of sleep I've been getting has been causing me to do things I wouldn't usually do.
"What was I going to do?" I asked myself, blankly staring at the floor.
Unable to recall my original though, I suddenly felt like getting out of the room and take a walk inside the towering castle. As soon as I stepped out of my room, it felt as if the entire castle was abandoned even though it truly wasn't. I looked both ways down the crystal hallways and aimlessly proceeded to the left. I walked for a while until the linear path eventually led me to a lone, spiral staircase that led to the next floor. I continued up the twisting staircase and was abruptly halted by Princess Cadance, nearly running into her at the top. I let out a startled scream.
"Oh, Cadance. It's just you." I said, relieved.
"My goodness.... Caleb, did you sleep at all last night?" Cadance asked with a concerned look on her face.
"I've been trying. It's, uh, it's very hard to now that I'm starting to lose it and getting nightmares all the time. I mean, that's what I think, but, um..." I said, followed by silence.
"Oh... Where are you going?" Cadance asked.
"Anywhere, I guess. I'll probably just stay on this floor and walk around for a little bit. Is that fine?" I replied.
"Of course! Definitely. I'll let Twilight know how you're doing." Cadance replied.
"Cool." I said.
I continued walking down a few more crystal corridors until I ended up being led into a large, open room with a balcony at the far end. The crystals in the room were predominately consisted of cold colors, consisting of blue, purple, and some neutral white here and there. Rays of sunlight beamed through the four glass windows on the ceiling, the light refracting on the crystals and creating a glistening effect. I had to shield my eyes as I passed underneath the sunlight.
Pushing through the curtains, I walked onto the balcony and up to the gold railing. The railing itself was so short that it was up to shin area, considering it was meant for ponies. I leaned my head forward and looked down upon the Crystal Ponies walking through the streets. It had to a be a one-hundred foot drop at most.
"What a drop." I whispered to myself.
"What drop?"
At first, I thought this low and guttural voice was coming from right in front of my face, but nothing was there but a drop. It wasn't above or behind me, so it had be coming from inside my head; a form of telepathy.
"Where are you? Get away from me!"
"I could ask you the same question, Caleb. I can't exactly find you. Where are you?"
"I'm not telling you shit! How are you able to do this?!"
It didn't respond to my question. The silence became very uneasy and I started looking in all directions before staring at the curtain threshold. I felt like prey being cornered by its predator. That's when an intense wave of fear swept over me. I profusely began to sweat and tremble. Tears ran down my face as I prepared to receive a form of imminent punishment from The Figure and quickly covered my head with my arms as I crouched low to the floor.
"Even from afar, I'm still able to terrify you. There is no need to worry about my presence."
The statement went over my head. I must've been having a panic attack because I was whimpering phrases to myself, but I can't remember what I was saying. The Figure remained quiet until I finally managed to calm down and I removed my arms from my head.
"About the drop, what do you mean? Perhaps a high fall? How much are you willing to sacrifice for your friends?"
"What?"
"Kill yourself, Caleb Barlow. Aren't you tired of all this torment? I am fulfilling the warning I gave you. I killed your mentor, your friend, and now your dog is dead. If you truly believe the idiotic claim that friendship is magic, then why not give your equine friends the ultimate gift in friendship and save their souls? If you die, I will leave them be and move on."
I couldn't believe the dilemma I was hearing, but it was real. Hesitantly, I turned back to the railing and actually looked down again. I wondered wether it would be quick and painless, or would I somehow survive and writhe in agony upon impact. I truly didn't want to, believe me, but I guess I was deciding. I don't know wether if you understand how it feels being in a constant state of paranoia, deprived of sleep, loosing friends that you loved so abruptly and viciously all thrown together, but its absolute Hell.
I gritted my teeth as I continued to contemplate, but then I thought about Twilight and just everypony else. My death would probably hurt them more than it would hurt me. Would The Figure actually leave them and the ponies of Equestria alone or not? It's too hard to decipher with a powerful being I don't understand. I think I made the right choice.
"I won't let you manipulate me."
"Do you think I kid? More ponies will die if you continue to live."
My brain was frying at this point. I couldn't think up of a response to that. For such a dark voice, it sounded sincere.
"I assume your selfish choice has been made. Looks like more innocent lives will be lost."
"No, wai- wai- wait! STOP! Don't do it!"
The Figure didn't respond once again and I felt this telepathic, buzzing sensation fade from my head. I silently collapsed onto my knees in guilt, now knowing that more ponies are going to die because of the choice I made. I then got up and walked back inside the castle, mumbling profanities to myself.
"Did he seem like himself when he talked?" Twilight said, coming from the nearby corridor.
"Not at all, Twilight. He just looks so drained. I-- I really think the stress is too much for him." Cadance replied.
"Poor guy. I just don't know why this monster is intentionally trying to make his life as miserable as possible." Applejack said.
"Neither do I." Twilight said.
"Making his life miserable is low enough, but killing his dog is where I draw the line. I would kick that things sorry ass if I could!" Rainbow said.
"That I agree with. I could hardly bear that moment." Rarity said.
"It was so sad. At least she passed on with Caleb by her side." Pinkie said in lower tone
"Losing a pet is just like losing your own child. I guess the most we can do is to remind him that we've have his back and on his side. Right, Twilight?" Fluttershy said.
I smiled to that.
"That's right. He needs us the most." Twilight said.
I looked over to the girls as they turned the corner.
"Hey, Caleb.... Have you been crying?" Twilight asked, noticing my eyes.
"Mm-hmm." I replied while nodding.
"What's wrong?" Twilight asked.
"I don't know if you want to hear it. It's about The Figure." I said.
"How we feel doesn't matter. Is it here?" Twilight asked.
"No, it's somewhere else. It spoke to me through telepathy and has no idea where we're at. It, um, well.... it tried to convince me kill myself. I honestly was thinking about it, but I didn't do it." I said, the entire room silent.
"Why didn't you do it? I mean, we're all so glad that you didn't take your own life, but why didn't you do it?" Twilight asked.
"Well, it's you guys. All of my friends is what keeps me going, I guess," I replied with smiling before it faded. "But there's another thing. When I denied to commit suicide, The Figure said it would kill more ponies. I don't know where and how, but it will. This thing, whatever it is, does not like to lie when it comes to killing." I said.
Twilight and I had our eyes locked on each other. She stiffly nodded in understanding and looked over to Princess Cadance.
"This could turn into terrorism, Cadance. I need to let Princess Celestia and Princess Luna know." Twilight said.
"I'll give them the news. You just stay with Caleb for the time being." Princess Cadance said.
"Thank you." Twilight said before turning back to me.
I had walked over to one of couches that lied next to the curtains and sat down. I felt very dazed just from talking about all of this. Twilight and the girls then regrouped by me.
"Other than what I've just heard, are you okay for now?" Twilight said.
"You don't exactly look so good." Applejack said.
"I'm very tired and just want to sleep, but I can't. I'm having reoccurring nightmares that keep me awake. Guys.... my mental state is damaged. Whenever I hear or think about The Figure or any other bad stuff I've experienced, like when I talked to it just minutes ago, I somehow lose control of my emotions and I just breakdown due to the fear." I said.
"So is it mostly a condition that's triggered?" Rarity asked.
"Yes. I really need help, though." I replied.
"Would you like to talk with me about it. Like a one-on-one therapy? I'd be willing to do that if you want." Twilight asked.
"I would love to, Twilight, but I just want to sleep real badly first. I don't think I'll be able to do it without rest." I said.
"Cadance mentioned that to us. She said she would talk to Princess Luna on her helping maintain your dreams while asleep." Twilight said.
"She did? Hmm. Looks like I'll have to thank her when she gets back."
"Yeah. I'm not meant to stay up this long," I replied, barely even awake at the moment as I waddled to my room. "I'm still a little afraid."
"Don't be. You remember what Princess Cadance said." Spike said as he tagged along with us.
"She is the princess of the night and definitely knows how to soothe the unconscious mind." Twilight reminded.
"I know. She sure is a lot more...... powerful than I realized." I said.
I continued walking down the hallway until I arrived at my bedroom and opened the door.
"Alright, well, goodnight and, uh, good luck to me." I mumbled before closing the door.
Before I even went to bed, I closed the bathroom and closet doors out of impulse. They just had to be shut for me. I then threw over my blanket and gently lied down on the small, luxury mattress and curled into a fetal position before covering myself.
As my body heat began to warm the blanket, my eyes started to get more heavy and started to every so slowly close. Before they could completely close, I suddenly felt startled and they shot open. I lazily raised my head to look around the room, but soon dropped back onto the pillow. My head slowly sunk back into the comforting pillow and my eyelids started closing again. I kept repeating to myself that everything was going to be okay over and over again. Until I knew it, I had finally fallen asleep after all this time awake.
There was a brief state of turmoil in my worn out mind. I was in a dark environment and saw flash images of mutilated people. I closed and covered my eyes with my hands, hoping Princess Luna would be able to help me. I reluctantly took a peek from between my fingers and saw that I was now silently drifting in a black, cloudy void while blue flashes occasionally illuminated the area. Confused by the surreal scene, I proceeded to restrict my vision until I heard and felt something I didn't think I was going to feel in my dreams that night.
I felt warmth and a gentle breeze against my skin. I opened my eyes and was blinded by sunlight until my eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness. I stood in an open landscape that only consisted of luscious green grass and numerous rolling hills. The sky was clear blue, consisting only with cirrus clouds that floated high up. It was all so weird to be having a dream that seemed so... peaceful. I remained still for a while until a sudden gust of wind blew from behind me, causing some of my thick hair to drape near my eyes.
I then purely followed my instincts and proceeded forward. I made a short trek up the leveled hill and stopped at the vantage point. These hills stretched out as far as far as my eyes could see. I circled around to see if there was perhaps something off in this indistinguishable landscape and there was. I squinted my eyes and spotted a tree on top one of the hundreds of hills. It had be at least a mile walk and was the only tree that could be seen, so I had to check it out.
There wasn't much to look at on my walk, despite the grass and hills. I took me a while to realize I was barefoot. No wonder my feet felt strange when I was walking. About half way is when I came across a lone river. The water was clear enough to reflect the sky as if it were a mirror. I crouched down and stuck my arm in the water before it hit the bottom at about three feet. I then rolled up my pant legs up to my knees and stepped into the cool water, sending vibrant ripples throughout as the water sloshed. The squishy mud at the bottom created a soothing sensation on my bare feet, but it sucked in my feet and I had to take higher steps just to move properly.
When I arrived to the hill and climbed all the way to the top, I instantly realized that this tree was the same oak tree that's in the valley just east of the Everfree Forest. Just at the bottom, planted in the ground, was a single blue bell flower. I frowned and lowered my brow to the sight of it and began to feel sentimental. I turned and sat down cross-legged while my lower back was pressed up against the tree. I lowered my upper body and rested my head on my right hand, beginning to reflect on everything that has happened to not only me, but my friends.
I hadn't felt peace like this in a while, so I was taking it all in, closing my eyes and going into some kind of meditative state. Another gust of wind blew in and the leaves rustled, prompting me to lift up my head. Flowers had grown within the past few minutes. A lone blue bell sat next to me and two red roses and eight white roses were planted a short distance away. I looked closer to this discovery and noticed about twenty white roses congregating at the bottom of the hill.
"Hmm."
I now looked up into the sky and a winged silhouette descended down. This turned out to be none other than Princess Luna and was a pleasant surprise to me.
"Hey." I said.
"Hello, Caleb. I trust that you're enjoying your dream?" Princess Luna said, landing atop the hill.
"I absolutely love it, Luna. I can't thank you enough for this. Have you seen all the bad shit in my previous dreams?" I said.
"I don't recall ever seeing them, but I do apologize for not being there when you needed me the most." Princess Luna said.
"Well, thanks for helping me out tonight." I said with a smile.
"Of course. I will be sure to check on you from now on. I can tell your mind has a dark spot on it. I had to rid of it before I could place you here." Luna said.
"What was it?" I asked.
"Your brain was wired in a way that creates nightmares when it slips into unconsciousness. It shouldn't be as prone to this activity anymore. Again, I am sorry for everything you've seen." Luna said.
"It's okay. Hey, what are the flowers for?" I said.
"I do not know. Perhaps it's your subconscious creating these rather pretty flora." Princess Luna said.
"You didn't create them?" I asked.
"No, I didn't. I simply created this entire dream world of peace and placed you here in a state of lucid dreaming. They appeared to fade into the world before I entered. Why do you ask?" Luna said.
"That blue bell is the same flower I used on Bridgette's grave, but I'm not sure what the white roses are for. I have a hunch for the red roses, though, but I don't really want to believe it." I said.
Princess Luna examined the roses for a moment before getting the idea.
"Oh, I see now. With all the recent deaths, I can see, but these eight white roses don't fit in with the two red ones. It's very strange... I'll be sure to keep this noted." Luna agreed.
"I know. So, since I'm lucid dreaming, does that mean I can think up of anything and it will appear? Isn't that how it works?" I asked.
"That is correct." Luna replied.
The first thing that came to my mind was food and I thought up of a chocolate doughnut. It definetly appeared on prompt, but it showed up from behind the tree.
"Wow." I said, biting into the ringed dessert.
"How is it?" Luna asked.
"Good. Tastes just like chocolate. Y'know, now that I think about it, I could have a hot girl accompany me up here. It is only a dream after all." I said.
"Oh, well, how incredibly lustful of you," Luna said, rather amused. "I can depart if you wish to act on your natural desires."
"Nah, I think I'll save it for another time. I'm just feeling very peaceful right now and I just want to experience it for as long as I can." I replied.
"I would too if I was in your position. Either way, I must return to the dreamscape and check if anypony may need help. I hope tomorrow morning is better for you." Luna said.
"So do I. I'll see you around, princess." I said.
When Princess Luna left my dream, I lied down on the grass and curled up next to the lone blue bell and closed my eyes, now going off into a deep and well-deserved rest.
I woke up feeling so refreshed this morning, especially after I took a shower. I got into a fresh change of clothes and ate a rather big breakfast. Everyone was saying how great I looked today, but I'm not sure if they know that I'm still a bit hurt on the inside. I mean, it's tough to have all of these traumatizing memories and moments scarred on my conscious. And so, I gladly accepted Twilight's offer to talk to me in order to help heal my mentality.
Twilight and I walked with each other up to the same room where The Figure telepathically communicated with me. Nobody really seems to go up there a whole lot. We both sat on one of the red velvet couches and stuck to our own sides. I pressed up against one of the arm rests with my knees up while Twilight situated into a sitting position that resembled a dog's way of sitting. She let out a sigh before beginning.
"So, how are you feeling at this moment?" Twilight asked.
"Okay. A lot better than the previous days." I replied.
"How did you really feel on the 'previous days?' I know you were under a lot of stress and having nightmares. We're you in a constant state of fear?"
"Mmmm......," I hummed, taking a long pause and reflecting. "I was terrified of The Figure. I wasn't really sure wether it was here or not."
"Fear of the unknown, right?"
"Yeah, yeah. To be honest, I was really angry at it and myself."
"Why at yourself?"
"Because of the choice I made. That house in the Everfree Forest got the best of my, uh, curiosity and I let it loose in this world. If you think about it, The Figure wouldn't have killed anypony if I just left the house alone."
"No, no. I don't think of it that way."
"You don't?"
"Is it truly your fault that it is in this world now? Did you personally summon it?"
"Oh, no, it was already there when I arrived. I remember that it was inside a bedroom, the door was all chained up."
"Did you know it was in there?"
"No..."
"Then it wasn't your fault. Who really is at fault would be the person who unleashed the dimensional portal back on your planet. Whatever the portal takes is dropped off here or perhaps somewhere else. Who knows how much destruction has been done based on what you mentioned while you were venturing in the dragon territory."
"I don't know. I never really though about it like that, honestly. You're not just saying that to make me feel better?"
"Well, technically I am, but I'm only telling you the truth. You had no knowledge of The Figure and what it could do..... The deaths it has caused is irreversible, but that's what it wanted to do."
I didn't make an effort to respond as I was taking in all of these words and kinda comparing it to what I thought.
"Let's talk about the nightmares you've been having..."
"Oh God, they were way too realistic and vivid. Never have I witnessed so much terror, pain, and suffering all at once..... There were people being tortured and I couldn't do anything to help. They were skinned, cut up, dismembered.... I was present, but I was stuck in place and couldn't move. It was as if I were situated in some sort of, like, I don't know. Like, uh, some kind of sick movie."
"That's so atrocious," Twilight cringed. "These became more frequent after Bridgette died, right?"
"They did. She was like my own child than a friend, y'know. When you take care of a companion like her for almost a year and grow such an emotional bond or attachment with each other, it hurt real badly to see her bleeding out without a possibility of being saved. I honestly felt more devastated compared to Lyra and Night Hunter. Sometimes I just wish I could take time and reverse it, just to get a second chance to save them all."
"That's one of the things about life. You have no idea what will be thrown your way. Sometimes there's fortunate events and sometimes there's unfortunate events around the corner."
I nodded.
"From what it sounds like, you have a case of post-traumatic stress. At least we know what triggers it."
"I sort of figured, from all the shit I've seen and gone through."
"I have no doubts. But you must remember that you're safe here. I have no idea what that monster is doing at this moment, but it is far away from you. We will find a way to vanquish it."
"The Elements of Harmony is my best guess."
"I can say that we're considering it. If the Tree of Harmony was able to expel that malicious essence from your body, I bet it can strike down The Figure. The only downside for taking it on is how elusive and intelligent it is. Dealing with Queen Chrysalis and Tirek was bad enough and they nearly won, but The Figure is completely different. All it does is kill and terrorize without warning."
"Don't forget about those three siren's."
Twilight and I quietly chuckled and went quiet for a little bit. I had to admit that I was feeling a bit better about myself. Talking is such a simplistic activity, but it does wonders if it's being used as a way to help someone. The connections, the understanding, it just helped me a lot.
"Caleb. Do you mind if I ask you something about the other day?"
"Uh, sure."
"Can you shed some light on why you contemplated to take your own life? I'm just curious."
"Oh. Well, I guess there's two parts to it. The Figure was bargaining your lives for my own life, but that was probably a huge lie. And then there was the psychological side. I honestly had a single moment thought of relieving myself from The Figure's torment. I was sad, tired, scared at the time, and it was taking its toll on me. But then I thought about you, Spike, the girls, and everypony who's been decent to me. I couldn't bear to hurt you guys like that."
Twilight shed a single tear as she still maintained her attentive composure.
"I know that I can never compare to what you've experienced. We all have dark times in our lives, but suicide is never the answer. I'm so happy that you managed to pull through and made your choice. We're all friends here and we'll find out how to make everything right."
"Thank you. Do you really think things could get so bad that it could lead to terrorism? I don't see any political motives, just pure bloodlust."
"It's a possibility. All things considered, it seems to be focusing on you and nopony else for some reason."
"Hopefully it doesn't come to that. I honestly wish there was more I could do to help, but I can't fight something this powerful and dangerous wi--"
"Twilight!"
"Is that Cadance?" I asked
"It sounds like it. I'm up here!" Twilight called back.
Princess Cadance immediately teleported into the room and trotted over to us with great purpose.
"Hear me out, Twilight, but did you have a dream last night that involved Princess Celestia descending the spire of the Crystal Castle?" Cadance asked, anticipated.
"I- I did. Caleb and everypony else was in it, too." Twilight lowly replied, confused.
Princess Cadance gasped in surprise, quickly glancing over to me.
"You two better come along with me. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna both require your attendance. Definitely Caleb."
We made haste to the meeting room where Princess Celestia and Princess Luna awaited us. Upon entering, it turns out the girls were also called down as well.
"Hey, what's going on?" I asked.
Everypony was staring at me for some unknown reason at first. When I went to look at Twilight, we both immediately directed our gaze at the girls and then they looked at Celestia.
"What?" I asked once again.
Princess Celestia was the one to step forward and she seemed apprehensive at first. She actually stuttered as she tried to figure out where to even begin. I know I would.
"I had a dream last night. It was definitely no ordinary dream. I heard your mentor's voice, Night Hunter, and he told me to fly up to the highest point of the Crystal Castle the following day. What I would find up there would begin to make everything right not only for you, but for everypony who resides in Equestria." Celestia said.
"I myself found it hard to believe. Not once did I come across or even detect my sister's dreamscape, but I did witness similar events unfold in both Twilight and Rarity's dream." Luna said.
"Wait, what? Hold on, you heard Night Hunter's voice? And what do you mean by everything be made right?" I asked.
"I didn't remember hearing his voice. All I remember is Princess Celestia coming down from above." Fluttershy said.
"As did I. It appears that Celestia's dream has a more profound meaning than ours." Rarity said.
"You're not mistaken. Caleb, this piece of weaponry I'm about to retrieve will give you the capability to destroy the creature that has been perpetrating you." Celestia said, pausing as she waited for my response.
I honestly didn't know what to rationally say. All of this rather stirring information was being thrown at me so quick. But what I did know is that Princess Celestia has never lied to me and everypony else in the room has had a similar dream last night. It all just seemed too good to be true.
There was a bright, white flash as Princess Celestia teleported us all out to the front of the Crystal Castle. I raised my head up and stared up the tall castle, appearing to glow as the sunlight gleamed into the castle's material. From what I've been told, the top of the spire reaches up to five-hundred feet, so it was barely visible from where I was standing.
"I wonder what kind of weapon is up there." Spike pondered.
"So do I." I said, still looking upward.
Princess Celestia then started her ascent to the top of the spire. Her feathered wings emitted a diligent flap until she was high enough to not be heard anymore. After about ten seconds, she made it all the way up and came to halt.
"That must be it." Cadance noticed.
"Is it? Looks smaller than I was imagining." Twilight said.
"It has to be. There's nothing else up there." Cadance replied.
I could just barely see a tiny, dark object being levitated into Celestia's magical grasp. She then circled around the spire as if she was missing something, but eventually came to a halt and descended from the tower. Everypony backed away from me as Princess Celestia landed right in front of me, now giving me the rather anti-climatic object. It was only the hilt of a sword. It had a black leather grip, a rounded pommel at the end, and a silver cross guard that had rounded points on each end.
"This was all I could find." Princess Celestia said, placing the large hilt into the palm of my hand.
When my hand lightly gripped the hilt, I felt a sudden, fuzzy rush of energy go to directly to my head and instantly got dizzy. I breathed deeply as my vision filled with black spots and faded in and out. Princess Celestia managed to catch me as my entire body buckled for a moment.
"Are you okay?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah. I think I was about to faint," I replied, relieving my grip on the hilt as my vision slowly regained. "I need something to drink."
"I'll get it." Pinkie said, dashing back inside the castle.
"Can you stand?" Applejack asked.
I then pushed myself back up on my feet and bent down to grab the hilt. I examined the simplistic design before looking over Princess Celestia's head. I noticed a stallion staring at us from afar; he had a grey coat with a brown mane and beard. I've seen that pony before.
"Night Hunter?" I said under my breath, astounded by his return.
He pointed behind himself, indicating to follow him out of the Crystal Empire and began to walk away in that direction before vanishing. Everypony wordlessly watched me as I ran and followed Night Hunter's directions.
"Here's your Shirley Temple, Caleb. Wait, where's he going? Caleb, your Shirley Temple!" Pinkie shouted in the distance.
When I exited the empire and walked out onto the flatgrass plains that surrounds it, Night Hunter was sitting a short distance away with his back turned. I quietly walked up to his right side and sat down next to him. My entire left arm got chills as an ice-cold pocket of air emitted from him and brushed up against my bare skin.
"Night Hunter...... I can't believe you're back." I said, trying to comprehend this surreal moment.
"I'm not back, kid. Not physically." he replied in his aged and gruff tone.
"So, you're still dead? A ghost?" I asked.
"You said it. Ghost, spirit, specter, the soul within the shell, whatever you want to refer me as." Night Hunter slyly replied.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that." I said.
"Ah, I'm just teasin' you, Caleb! I may be dead, but I still have that old sense of humor. I don't scare you, right?" Night Hunter said, getting more uplifted
"Oh," I said, followed by a short laugh. "Well, it's a little difficult and unsettling to, y'know, speak to your recently deceased friend. You seem like yourself."
"I wish I could say the same for others. I was lucky enough to be saved." Night Hunter said.
"Who do you mean by others?" I asked.
"Other's who have left their physical body." Night Hunter replied.
"Other ghosts.... Oh, Night Hunter. I-- I have to know this." I began.
"Is Lyra Heartstrings and Bridgette okay? Little Bridgette is fine, it didn't touch her afterwards. But for Lyra, what I can say is that she is detained." Night Hunter finished.
My eye's drifted to the ground. I felt so bad for her and pondered on what the context of "detained" means for a creature like The Figure.
"You couldn't help yourself, Caleb. It had a good grip on you." Night Hunter comforted.
"What the hell even is detaining her soul?" I asked.
"I was told that it was a demon, but it's no ordinary demon. All of the malice and bad deeds that mankind has committed over the millennia's has somehow formed into a living being, and this ain't the only one in existence. It just so happened that the portal in your world brought it to this world." Night Hunter replied, sending a chill up my spine.
"A demon..." I reiterated.
"Nothing good at all. When I left my body in the hospital, I had never seen something so evil. A wicked grin on its face, claw fingers, long, needled teeth. Between you and me, Nightmare Moon would've had the living daylights scared out of her," Night Hunter said, his eyes drifting down to the hilt that I continued to hold. "But with that weapon, I'll bet my bottom bit that you'll be able to defeat it."
"Just a sword hilt?" I retorted.
"It will be a sword. It's the only method to harm and take it down." Night Hunter replied.
"Do I have to do this? I know that I said that I wanted to help, but I'm no swordsman or some kind of samurai. Are my friends able to help?" I said.
"Of course, of course. But they'll most likely be killed in the process. Malice is smart and can harm anything it desires to. Look, consider this piece of advice I have, not saying you've never had: Don't view this sword as simply a weapon but do your utmost to connect with it on a personal level. It will help you. The hilt is the only reason you can see and talk to me at this moment." Night Hunter advised.
"I just don't know if I can do it. Where do I even start?" I said.
"Well first, you need to forge a blade for it, but Malice can't figure out about the sword just yet. Sodium acts as a barrier to it, so maybe you can trap it inside that nasty shack in the Everfree Forest. Once you know its secure, go to the cave underneath Princess Celestia and Princess Luna's old castle. You'll find the blade there. The sooner this is done, the better for everyone, everypony else, and all of Equestria." Night Hunter replied.
"I.... I'll do my best." I said, still anxious of what is to come.
"You always have, Caleb," Night Hunter rose up to his feet, propmting me to get up as well. "Now remember, this hilt is granting you a great amount of power that no human should ever possess, so try not to let it get to you. What your friends can't see and hear is what you can see and hear. To be frank, this is the last time you're gonna see me for now." Night Hunter said.
"The last time?! But you just got back..." I said, saddened by this news.
"I'm sorry. I just have to go." Night Hunter said.
"Will I ever see you again?" I solemnly asked.
"We'll see." Night Hunter said, appearing to be unsure of his own answer.
I nodded.
"Before you go, I have to ask one more question." I said.
"Shoot your shot." Night Hunter said.
"Is all of this for real? The Trinity, The Power of Darkness?" I asked.
"Do you really want a this question to be answered just like that? That's entirely up for you to believe or not believe. You remember that, Caleb." Night Hunter said.
Right after he answered, his figure gradually started to fade, becoming more and more transparent.
"Okay.... I will. Goodbye, Night Hunter. Um, I just, t- thank you for everything you've taught and guided me through." I sniffled.
"Goodbye, old friend."
I thought I was now standing out the plains all alone. Although the hilt I held had a rather vapid design, there was definitely something more to it on another level that I can never fully understand. When I turned around to head back into Crystal Empire, everypony was standing off to side.
"Did you see him at all?" I asked them.
"No. We didn't." Twilight replied, "Pinkie Pie brought you your drink."
"Oh, thanks, Pinkie." I said, beginning to sip the mixed drink.
"Sure." Pinkie replied.
"What did he have to say? Did he mention anything about the hilt?" Celestia asked.
"Yes. I think I have a plan to at least trap Malice, but I need time to think it over." I said.
"Malice? Is that supposed to be its name?" Pinkie asked.
"No, but that's what I'm calling it now." I replied, looking down at the hilt again.
The four princesses looked at each other for about a moment and looked back at me.
"We're all with you every step of the way in this. Is there anything we can do to help you with?" Princess Celestia asked.
"I don't know. I might have to do this on my own." I said.
Today was the day I executed the first phase of the plan on defeating Malice. I had told everypony what Night Hunter and I discussed before he left and immediately started coming up with said plan. Considering the fact that we now have a way to defeat it, Malice will most likely try to kill us if it finds out. Since salt is apparently a natural barrier for a demon, manifestation of evil, or whatever, I basically said, "Hey, let's gather all the table salt in the castle and use it to trap Malice inside the house in the Everfree Forest." I tried to bring up the idea of getting Discord to provide a little assistance, but nopony has seen him in weeks, even Fluttershy. If Malice can harm anything it wants, Discord can be harmed as well, despite being the Spirit of Chaos.
The kitchen inside the Crystal Castle had a decent supply of salt to start of with, but it still wasn't going to be enough. Twilight mentioned how there were bags of salt in the kitchen of her castle back in Ponyville, so Princess Celestia literally sent a letter to the guards and knights stationed in Ponyville to basically raid the pantry of the Friendship Castle and load all the salt up in the back of the Defender. The bags were medium sized, any human can easily fit one in their hand, but I'm sure it would at least be enough. If not, I figured I would stop at Barnyard Bargains and take some salt for myself, leave the bits on the counter afterwards, of course.
It was agreed that I would go back to Ponyville solo. The royal guards and knights stationed there just received word to pack up and pull out so that there's more aid in Canterlot, considering everypony is evacuated from there. Eight knights were murdered last night; seven stallions and one mare. They found their bodies earlier this morning and I heard that it wasn't pretty. Of all places, the corpses were found inside The Castle of Two Sisters, which is Princess Celestia and Princess Luna's old castle that's been abandoned for over a thousand years. I'm sort of debating wether I should check the place out once Malice is secured and I find a blade for the hilt.
The last time the knights were seen is when they were keeping watch near the edge of the town square, which is close to those bridges that lead to the Everfree Forest. It looks like the white flowers in my dream have come full circle. I can't procrastinate any longer.
"You did leave the fuel pump fuse inside the Defender, right?" I asked Twilight alongside with the girls.
"I did, but it probably fell somewhere on the floor when we used it as part of the snare." Twilight replied.
"Gotcha'." I said, inhaling deeply before exhaling.
"Feeling tense?" Spike asked.
"A little bit." I replied.
"We would all go with you if we could, but...." Rainbow said.
"If Night Hunter says that going head-on with Malice by yourself is the best move, then I guess we can't really argue about that." Pinkie said.
"What can we argue about? Having you guys down there would be a death sentence," I said as I placed the mysterious hilt on a table. "But I don't think it wants to kill me. The only reason it's killing ponies because it wants to continue tormenting me until I die. Hopefully."
"There ain't nothing we could've done to control their deaths. Just very unfortunate circumstances." Applejack said.
"Not now, but I will. Once I get this blade, its gonna be sorry." I said with a hint of ire at the end.
"Be sure to not have your emotions get in the way and stay focused. Don't let it trick you." Fluttershy urged.
"I know. I'm just saying." I replied.
The doors to the room opened to Princess Celestia and Princess Cadance on the other side. Celestia whispered a quick word to Cadance before she entered the room and parted ways with her.
"Your train is ready for departure. Are you ready to go?" Celestia asked.
"Yeah, yeah, I think so." I replied, trying to show some enthusiasm for some reason.
Princess Celestia raised her brow to my unusually excitable response.
"Really, I am. When I finish trapping Malice, I'll send a letter for the all clear. Getting the blade and killing the Dogmen will be next on my list before I deal with that demon." I reminded.
"Very well then. Shining Armor and a squad of Crystal Guards have volunteered to help hunt down the pack of Dogmen. They will join us after Malice is secured." Celestia said.
"But I thought the Dogmen were invincible to conventional attacks." I said.
"To a certain degree. It has been revealed that pointed weapons, such as spears and arrows, can penetrate through their skin. It is believe they are hiding in the Everfree Forest but only lurk during the night." Celestia explained.
"Looks like their hide wasn't thick enough after all." Spike said.
"Yes, but," Celestia began before teleporting us out to the train-station. "there really is no time to waste."
"Not bad of a train." Rainbow remarked.
"Damn straight." I said.
To be frank, the train primarily used by the Crystal Empire is an absolute beast. It's bigger, has a more sleek and modern design, and has this sick plow made of crystal in the front. The passenger car door slid open to the crystal pony conductor.
"All aboard." he said, gently, allowing me access inside.
"This is it," I said, turning back to everypony. "Just, uh... just wait for my letter and you'll be good to go."
Princess Celestia replied with a confident nod and a warm smile. The rest of the girls and Spike grinned in support, but something was off about Twilight. She was smiling, but I could see that apprehensive look in her eye. After realizing her feelings, I turned and went inside the train car. The horn blared as soon as I sat in the seat and the train slowly made its departure. I didn't bother to look out the window, I just slightly reclined myself and closed my eyes.
Twilight may be a powerful Alicorn, but that doesn't mean she can't get scared and worried. She has been the fourth Alicorn Princess of Equestria, a leadership figure, for about four months now and she's already dealing with conflicts where ponies are being murdered, which is a very rare scenario to occur in Equestria. I assume that it has to be an emotionally draining experience for her. I've gone through Hell and lost three friends over the course of five weeks, but I will not let anyone else suffer anymore.
Like I say, if I were to die, Malice would probably not fulfill its promise, torment the girls as it did to me, and continue to kill more ponies. Still can't believe eight died last night. Its kinda weird thinking about it. Those poor, brave knights were brutally murdered and I was asleep at the time.
I opened my eyes when I got a weird hunch that the Crystal Express was approaching the Ponyville train station. The train horn blew two drawn out blares as it turned out it was. The entire ride lasted over two hours, so it was a nice calm before the storm. The train gradually slowed down until coming to a halt at the platform. As I walked out of the passenger car with three large bags of salt over my right shoulder, steam hissed and billowed from underneath the locomotive before the horn blared once more as it made a quick departure, leaving me to myself in Ponyville. I watched the train until it disappeared over the horizon.
"Alright. Let's do this." I said to myself as I spotted Twilight's castle peaking over the commoner's homes.
The weather today was a complete contrast to the grim events that have unfolded here. Rather than being gloomy, grey, and wet, the sun was shining bright, the air was nice and dry, but everything was completely still and the abandonment lingered in the village. And so, I ran throughout an eerily deserted Ponyville until I arrived to the castle. The Defender was parked out in front and ready to go. I quickly opened the back door and tossed all three bags of table salt without much care, piling on top of the smaller bags.
"Yeah, that should be enough sodium."
Now in the driver seat, I picked up the fuel pump fuse that was placed on the dash. Upon insertion, I was pleasantly relived to hear the engine start up after a few turnovers, despite the crumple zone being dented from impacting those set of stairs.
"Sorry, Amethyst."
With that, I shifted into the first gear and drove off. Oddly, the Defender emitted a subtle yet audible groaning sound as the gears shifted up and down while driving through Ponyville. The revs are fine, though. I sure hope nothing is damaged underneath the Defender's body.
I looked up ahead when I entered the town square and spotted those stone bridge's that cross over into the Everfree Forest. I stopped on the other side and examined the numerous amount of hoofprints in the dirt, trying to spot any tracks that seemed to alienate from the equine tracks but found nothing. Continuing down a shady road that was protected by the heat of the sun, I turned on the east path of the Everfree Forest that would take me all the way up to where the house is located.
Even during the day, the Everfree Forest has a creepy aura to it. A lot of weird stuff lives and has happened in this forest over the years. I think I kept my eyes off the path and on the brush more than I should have. When I sadly looked over towards the empty passenger seat, I slid the driver's side window open to let in some fresh air as I pressed hard on the accelerator. Hundreds of trees and Sweet Apple Acre's flew by as the vehicle reached up to one-sixty kilometers an hour, leaving a massive dust trail behind and kicking up tiny rocks as the tires rolled.
The eight mile ride only lasted five minutes. As I got closer to my stop, I gradually slowed down until coming to a skidding stop. I looked out the passenger window as could faintly make out the ominous structure sitting inside the forest. Wasting no time, I shut off the engine and quickly hopped out to retrieve the bags of salt, stacking the largest before the smallest. With a total of six bags resting on my forearms, I now made my way to the house.
I felt odd when I proceeded through the threshold. There wasn't a dark presence in the house, but there was that feeling that something bad happened inside. Setting the bags of salt in the middle of the living room, I grabbed one of three largest and tore the entire top off with a single tug, beginning to sparingly pour by the entrance's doorframe.
I continued to gingerly pour salt onto the floor, making sure the long line was close to the drywall to create this supernatural barrier. When both the living room and kitchen were completed, opened another large bag of salt and moved on the two hallways. The first hallway was finished with ease, blocking off access to the moldy bathroom and the second adjacent spare bedroom, even putting a line of salt across the windowsills.
Then came the second hallway; the one that allows access to the symbol room and leads to the basement. A wave of apprehension swept over for a moment as I stared into the dim, unsettling room, but I mustered enough courage to continue. I made haste to finish the hallway and restricted basement access before grabbing the last largest bag and deciding to make the symbol room my next top priority. A large chunk of the stained drywall in the basement was missing, which seemed relativly odd.
As I cautiously entered the sinister bedroom, I could sense something that made my head feel a bit fuzzy. I thought then came to mind: The so-called Dogmen had to of came through some kind of portal, excluding the one back on Earth. If Malice and The Dogmen are from where I think they came from, the blood stained mattress with the star symbol must be some type of portal. This only became more evident when I approached the bed and this unseen, mystical energy intensified, seeming to apply a bit of pressure on my face as it expanded outward. So really, I couldn't see the portal, but I could sure feel it.
"Ugh, I can't stay in here." I mumbled to myself.
I then poured lines of salt on each two windowsills and created a barrier for the room. To finish, I just started grabbing handfuls of salt and began tossing them around the room like a bunch of chicken feed until the entire bag was empty. The entire house was nearly secured and ready to go at this point. All I had to do now was set up the trap and use myself as the bait.
Now left with thirteen smaller bags, I took two for the entirety of the empty, compact spare bedroom I was going to use. Like before, I outlined the room with a fine line of continuous salt and using what little was left for the single window in the room. I didn't need much from the second bag since I was filling it in my two pant pockets. For the remaining salt, I just discarded it out the backdoor. With that, the preparations were finished.
I closed the front door and left it unlocked, proceeding into the spare bedroom. The chipping blue paint on the walls made this room set apart from the rest of the house since the primary color for the interior is a neutral white. Perhaps this was once a children's bedroom before the building was used for evil deeds. I left the bedroom door open and sat on the faded and used mattress that lied in the corner of the room. There wasn't much cushioning to it and felt uncomfortably lumpy. Really, the only thing for me to do at that point was to wait. If Malice couldn't hear that horn, then it sure must be deaf.
I remained seated with my eyes closed for almost an hour. Keeping my eyes closed sort of helped me tap into my sense of hearing much better. There would be the sounds of lively nature in the forest, the house's frame creaking, flies buzzing around the bedroom, everything. For a moment, it felt as if I wasn't even listening for a demon to come attack me. However, all that waiting was starting to pay off.
There was a few snaps coming from behind the house, something was walking in the forest. I clearly heard them pass right by the window, which was very close to where I was sitting. The footstep continued along the side of the house until I couldn't hear them anymore, but that unnerving frequency was still faintly present. The hinges to the front door gave out a drawn-out squeak as it opened and followed with a period of silence, prompting me to stand up on the mattress.
It quietly moved in the living room and down the opposite hallway, stopping once again for a moment. It was so hard to decipher wether it was trying to freak me out or actually thinking of something. I quietly gasped when a sudden, abrupt thump now came from the kitchen. This was instantly followed by incredibly heavy footsteps that boomed and shook the floor as it sprinted, causing me to tense up as I got into a ready stance and grabbed salt from my pockets, but it stopped right in the hallway outside the bedroom. I couldn't get a visual on it due to the doorframe and wall obstructing my view. It was so fricken close.
"Okay, fine." I said, mentally.
With my hands inside my pockets, I once again and hesitantly shut my eyelids. I didn't hear anything, but a strong odor of sulfur entered the room and I felt the mattress depress all the way down to my left. In the darkness of my vision, I saw an instant flash image of myself being stabbed in the back and that sprung me into action. I managed to reach the door's threshold before having my entire shoulder grappled, the demon's claws digging into my skin.
"Arrgh!!!" I yelled in pain.
With my right hand, I threw a handful of salt behind me and it leaved go. I took this fortunate opportunity and slammed the bedroom door shut, but Malice tried to open it back up. My muscles strained as I gripped the doorknob tightly and heaved backwards, the door slowly opening to Malice's side. A thick, scaly forearm then broke through the door and its long claws carved into the wood as it reached for the two hands. However, with a swift motion, I reached into my right pocket and I started to throw salt at the bottom of the door, causing its arm to retreat back inside the room. It was now trapped for good.
Shaken, I retreated to the living room and took some time to calm down. Four puncture wounds were lined on the left side of my chest and blood slowly ran down my torso. I removed my shirt and managed to tie it up as an improvised tourniquet just to create some pressure and stop the bleeding, slow it down to the very least. Peeking around the wall, I was met with a pair of red eyes glaring right back at me through the hole, giving me a sense of chills. That was enough for me.
I pressed my left hand on my chest as I ran back to the Defender and jumped in, examining my wound. Blood was still seeping out, but it definitely was coagulating on the surface, so that was good. When I looked straight out the windshield, Lyra Heartstrings was sitting and staring at me in the passenger seat, herself just visible in my peripheral vision. I didn't know what to do or even say, but I was terrified.... scarred with such guilt. I now slowly went to reach for the door handle and turned away from her, but she forcefully grabbed and held my left arm down with her cold hooves. With a wordless gasp, I looked at her. She looked like her normal self, but she was void of any emotion. My mouth was slightly open and my eyes widened. My body shook and I rapidly looked up and down as I tried to pull away from her, but to no avail.
"Look into my eyes, Caleb. They're clearly dead," Lyra said, her voice severely hushed and strained. "I'm not trapped here, too, but they've suffered longer than me. Destroy the worshippers who killed them, inside the old castle. Do it before it becomes another Castle of Hell. I don't blame you for what you did to me."
Lyra turned her deadpan gaze out the windshield, causing me to do so as well. Standing in front of the vehicle were dozen's of people; humans, that were covered with bloody injuries, some barely recognizable. I even spotted the guy in the red shirt from that one night. However, closely next to him was a young mother who held a little baby in her arms. I squinted and realized the infant had a single stab wound on his or hers chest.
"Goddamnit," I cursed in anger, adverting my sight. "L- Lyra, I...."
When I went to look back, Lyra and everybody who stood in front of the Defender were gone, vanished. I was all alone once again and it was honestly heartbreaking to me. Learning the unfortunate fate of these innocent people and having my friend who forgave me and was close to me for the slightest moment in, well, the afterlife, I guess, leave so abruptly truly hurt. I had to silently sob for a minute before composing myself again. This sadness with now replaced a strong feeling of determination, far greater than before. Whatever it takes, I knew I wanted to take this demon down for good. And so, I turned the Defender on, turned around, and sped off towards Ponyville to commence the next phase of the plan. Looks like I have another deed on my list before I deal with Malice.
After I had sent my letter to Princess Celestia to give the all clear, I immediately went to the bathroom sink to clean my wounds. Accompanied by a stinging sensation, blood washed off my skin and down the drain before I dried off with a towel. With a new clean shirt now on, I walked back outside and sat on the stairs of the castle, awaiting for the arrival of my friends. It took no more than twenty minutes before Celestia had teleported everypony to Ponyville, popping up at the far end of the street. With a grunt of effort, I pushed myself up as they all hurried to the castle.
"You made it." I said, relieved and clutching the left side of my chest.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, Caleb. We had to do a few things once we knew Malice was confined to the house." Princess Celestia said, noticing my labored sigh.
"You okay, sugarcube?" Applejack asked.
"Did Malice hurt you?" Twilight asked, now concerned.
"They're starting to hurt real bad now." I replied.
"How bad are they?" Shining Armor asked, dawning his purple armor.
I lifted my shirt up to reveal the four red puncture wounds. A few ponies gasped or even hissed to sight.
"Oh man, those are pretty deep!" Rainbow said, taken back by the injuries.
"They are absolutely ghastly! Those will need require stitches, you know!" Rarity heeded.
"For a person my size, I think they're pretty small." I said, trying to make a joke out of the wounds.
"Doesn't matter what the size is. Arykal, Caleb needs some medical attention over here." Shining Armor ordered a crystal pony stallion wearing light armor and carrying medical supplies.
Arykal emerged from the squad of sixteen crystal guards and quickly made his way to me.
"Here, get lower so I can see them." Arykal said.
I put all my weight on my right side as I plopped onto the ground. Arykal got close to my chest and examined the wounds for a moment before levitating a bag from one of his pouches, reading the word "Sutures." He then removed a hook-like needle, sutures, and a medical scissor.
"How bad will these hurt?" I asked, shivering.
"The needle will be like a big pinch, but the sutures going through your skin will feel a little funny as the wound closes up." Arykal replied, bluntly.
"That's a lot of big pinches." I said.
"Yeah, but I'm sure Princess Celestia can offer numbing if you'd like it." Arykal said.
"Of course I can. We all know you wouldn't like those unpleasant sensations, right, Caleb?" Celestia teased, bringing some amusement to the situation.
"You're not mistaken." I replied.
Princess Celestia's yellow aura manifested around her horn before turning into a vapor that circulated near the tip. The vapor then drifted towards my wounds and split into four individual trails, each entering into my puncture wounds.
"Misty!" Pinkie said.
"What kind of spell is this?" I asked Celestia.
"A numbing spell combined with cell regeneration. It's not an instantaneous miracle, but your wounds should be fully healed within a matter of hours." Celestia explained.
"That quick? I'll say that's a lot faster than the liquid variant." I said, my wounds now partially numb.
I lied down on the ground to provide better access for Arykal to work on my wounds, nonchalantly looking around as I waited for him to finish his work.
"How was your fight with Malice? Was it freaky-deaky?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"There wasn't much of a fight. I just trapped it in there and got out of the house...." I replied.
"Good thing that's all the damage Malice did to you. It could've been a whole lot worse." Fluttershy said.
"I know, right. I, uh, I also saw Lyra. Lyra Heartstrings." I said, getting the girls attention.
"You did? As a spirit?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah... I know it sounds weird and so out of the ordinary, but I did. Ever since I touched that hilt, I have this knack of seeing ghosts all of a sudden." I said.
"Did she look well?" Twilight asked.
"She, um, she looked like herself and almost as if she were still alive, but she was very cold and her facial expression was, like, the definition of misery. And then, when I looked out the front of the Defender, I saw a whole bunch of these bloody people just standing there, staring at me." I said.
"People? Are you referring to more humans like you?" Princess Celestia asked.
I nodded.
"Lyra also mentioned they were trapped here and that I should kill these 'worshippers' inside you and your sisters old castle." I notified Princess Celestia.
"Worshippers of what exactly?" Princess Celestia asked.
"I'm not entirely sure. However, there are cultist groups and evil religions back in my world that actually like to conjure demons. They're usually referred as Devil Worshippers or Satanists. I didn't believe it myself, but looks like its all true after all." I replied.
"That would explain the insignias inside the bedroom. Most religious or ideological groups like to possess a symbol of some sort." Twilight said.
"Right. But anyways, all of those men, women, and children must be human sacrifices to aide the conjuring of Malice. All that blood in the basement must be theirs." I said.
A somber mood now loomed over us all. Even Princess Celestia had her eyes closed in a state of slight dismay. By this time, Arykal had finished stitching me up and put his tools into a disposal bag.
"You think the worshippers are also ghosts?" Shining asked.
"I have no doubts. My guess is that they're puppets to Malice now." I said, rising to my feet.
"Dang it all. Well, the most the squad and I can do to help you is to devise a strategic plan for tonight and help hunt down the Dogmen. Those creatures are easily visible to our eyes for some reason. I mean, I don't know how we'll be able to fight an enemy we can't even see or harm." Shining Armor said.
"We really hate to leave you hangin' like that." Rainbow Dash said.
"The worshippers or Malice?" I asked.
"Well, both, of course. But with Malice...." Twilight replied.
"Don't feel bad. It's too dangerous to go up against a manifestation of pure evil either way. Sure, it's dangerous for me too, but once this sword is completed, I'll have the upper hand. This fight is really between it and me." I said.
"Speaking of which, we should carry on with the task of forging the blade. Shall we continue onwards to the Tree of Harmony?" Celestia said, levitating the sword hilt into both my hands. I turned to Twilight and the girls for their personal assurance, all giving a nod of approval.
"We shall." I replied with a smirk.
Now commencing with the next and final step to completing the sword, Princess Celestia teleported all of us except Shining Armor and the crystal guards to the rope suspended bridge that crosses over the chasm and to the other side where the castle lies. We followed Princess Celestia down the stone steps until we reached the bottom and entered into the cave, coming up to the Tree of Harmony. The tree emitted an undulating light as it sparkled in the darkness and each housed Element of Harmony flared their individual colors.
"The hilt's blade has to be in here somewhere." I said.
"Split up. Check everywhere until we find it." Twilight instructed.
"Too bad the blade just couldn't be sittin' right smack-dab in front of the tree." Applejack said.
"Always a mystery." I sarcastically mumbled.
After I had said that, the hilt I stored in between my pants waistband started to vibrate with no explanation. I jolted and removed the hilt from my side as it continued to silently shake at a rapid pace.
"Guys, look at this!" I exclaimed, gripping the hilt tight.
Everypony quickly huddled around me as my arm shook.
"Why is it vibrating like that? Is there something jittery inside?" Pinkie asked.
"I don't think so." I replied, adjusting the hilt's position.
The hilt's vibrations intensified as the opposite end now pointed directly towards the Tree of Harmony. We all caught on real quick to what was happening.
"Approach the tree." Celestia directed to me.
I cautiously proceeded up to the Tree of Harmony, only making it half way. Not only was the hilt literally trembling in my hand at this point, but it was now pulling with a great amount force and I couldn't hold on anymore. The hilt slipped out of my grasp and zoomed right dead center into the Tree of Harmony, impacting with a thump as it lodged itself in.
"Whoa! That hilt is alive or something!" Rainbow exclaimed.
Six white beams of flowing energy then extended out of each element present on the tree and reached out to their embodiments. Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight all lifted off the ground and were brought right up to the tree, spread out in a circular formation. The cave was then filled with the sound of magic whirring around as the tree now shined brighter than before.
"I think it wants up to reach out! Quick!" Twilight shouted.
Each mare reached out to who was closest to one another with both their forelegs, creating a unison bond between all six. Their eyes changed from a normal state to a mystical, white glow as the energy within the tree intensified and expelled in random, short burst. Princess Celestia shielded both me and her as small amounts of debris dropped from the ceiling of the cave, the ground rumbling beneath us. And suddenly, everything became silent. There was great, big white flash that was nearly blinding and it was all over like that. Twilight and the girls were then placed back in the positions, but they collapsed on the ground. Celestia and I wasted no time to help them back on their hooves.
"Are you all okay?" Celestia asked.
"I'm good." Rainbow replied.
"As am I." Rarity called out.
"Were you guys dizzy?" I asked.
"For the most part. W- W- Waaaaah!" Pinkie replied, stumbling around before falling over again, but caught by Princess Celestia.
"Almost like you were about to pass out?" I added.
"Yes. Just like with what happened to you in The Empire." Twilight linked together.
"Does that mean we'll be able to see ghosts, too?" Applejack asked, somewhat disturbed by the idea.
"We'll just have to wait and see," Twilight said as she brushed dirt off her coat. "Is the hilt still in the tree?"
"Yep. Let's check it out." I said.
The hilt's grip was still protruding out of the tree and ceased to vibrate anymore. I firmly grasped my right hand around the grip, beginning to pull back. With ease, the hilt slid out with a rectangular chuck of the tree now attached. The tree's crystal material transformed into iron and morphed its shape into a blade that started off wide at the hilt but progressively thinned out near the stabbing tip. It had a striking resemblance to The Excalibur.
"Wow... Would you look at that." I said in awe.
Both sides of the of the blade were extremely sharp, the slightest touch could probably cut the skin, and the Tree of Harmony's casting lights shined on the metal blade. And the one feature that surprised us all was the subtle etchings on the blade. If I was able to get the lighting correct, there were these thin etchings of the Elements of Harmony. Magic, Kindness, and Honesty on one side while Laughter, Generosity, and Loyalty on the other. However, as soon as we spotted the drawings, they mystically disappeared, erased from the blade. Through everything that just happened, our attention on the sword was broken when a brown leather sheath dropped from above.
"Hey, look, a birdie." Pinkie noticed.
"A white dove." Fluttershy clarified.
Sure enough, there was a white dove perched on the branch that housed Rainbow Dash's element; the highest point of the tree. The peaceful avian cocked its head and looked directly at us before leaping off the tree, flapping its wings as it flew out of the cave and the chasm.
"Where did this come from?" Twilight said, levitating up the sheath.
"I do not know exactly, but it looks like it's a perfect fit for your new sword, Caleb." Celestia said.
I tied the large sheath around myself and the blade slid right into the sheath until the hilt touched.
"Fits perfect." I said as the sword dangled off my hip and unsheathing it with a classic shing sound.
"My goodness, the sword is absolutely huge. Be careful when swinging it around." Rarity said.
"She isn't wrong. The blade alone has to be at least five feet long." Twilight said.
"Big sword for a big guy, am I right?" I said.
"I guess so." Twilight giggled.
"So, now what? You have the sword and are going up against those dog guys later tonight." Rainbow reminded.
"Well, if I may make a suggestion, I believe Caleb should take the time to connect with the sword. I have a strong feeling that Night Hunter was correct when he mentioned how this sword is more than just a weapon." Celestia said.
"You're right about that. I think that sounds like a great idea." I agreed.
I took in a deep inhale followed by a long, drawn out exhale in content as I walked across the Everfree Forest with my sword. While everypony was currently off doing their own thing for now; the girls heading back and Princess Celestia joining her sister to aid in Canterlot, I was now alone and took the time I had to sort of connect with the sword. I feel as if I already had on a small psychedelic level because I feel more lively and alert whenever its close to me. I don't really know how to fully explain it, but I've been getting a lot déjà vu moments, like I can predict small things before they happen. Its all so weird.
The sword encased inside the sheath lightly swayed as I walked along the forest path, prompting me to tighten the sheath's belt. Nothing too eventful occurred during my walk, besides a couple of deer or rabbits passing through. I even came across Fluttershy's cottage when I reached the opposite side of the forest and got closer to Ponyville. None of Fluttershy's animal companions were present there, which was another weird thing. The birdhouses were removed, the nests were empty, and the place just looked barebones. I would at least see that one brown bear named Harry out and about, but not today.
The meadow where I dropped into Equestria is where I chose to connect with the sword. The meadow really was my go-to place for this because it offers solitude for the sword and I, plus it has a peaceful nature to it. I emerged from the small brush of the forest before stepping out in the land filled with luscious grass and an abundance of yellow dandelions. There was so much space that I didn't really know where I wanted to go. I could've went up to the hill with the oak tree, but I felt it would probably just make me sad because Bridgette is buried up there. Instead, I just walked out in the middle of the meadow until I randomly made the decision to stop.
I scanned the area; a few maples tree's and a few large boulders could be seen in the distance. I undid the belt of my sheath and placed it on the grass before sitting down, my legs crossed. I then removed the sword from the sheath and examined it once again. Diligently, I ran my index finger and thumb against the smooth sides of the blade. The metal was cold to the touch and the razor sharp edge was inches from the webbing of both fingers. I brought the sword overhead and swiftly swung in a curved motion at the ground, slicing a portion of the long grass into two.
"Not bad." I said, admiring the melee weapon.
I placed the sword directly in front of me as I sat. My curiosity rose when I wondered what else this sword could possibly offer besides being a tool to destroy Malice. I assumed it's the reason I'm able to see ghosts, so what else does it have in store? I didn't know what to expect. And so, I quietly stared at the sword, waiting for something to happen, but nothing out of the ordinary occurred. I tried resting the sword on both my legs and closing my eyes, but didn't get much change out of that.
"Come on, I know you can get into my head." I patiently said to the sword.
Eventually, after a short time, I stood back up and walked over towards the group of maple tree's. I firmly grabbed onto the hilt's grip, my right hand on the bottom and my left above.
"Hope this the correct way to hold it."
I've never wielded a sword in all my life, so I was a little insecure about how I swung or held it at first. Taking a practice swing, I raised the sword overhead and made another quick, curved, downwards swing, followed up with a horizontal slash. A rather satisfying and audible swoosh could be heard as the blade cut through the air with each swing. I definetly felt the stiffness as I swung, mostly because I remained in place as I swung the sword. And so, I added a little forward momentum with my feet, allowing me greater control.
"That's better."
I continued practicing my swings for a while longer. I mostly stuck with what is probably considered basic, such as uppercuts, more horizontal, diagonal, and vertical slashes, stabbing motions, and even this little swing with a dainty three-sixty spin for kicks and laughs. It was pretty fun and exhilarating to use a weapon of this caliber for the first time; very satisfying. But still, no supernatural elements of the sword transpired.
When I stopped to rest, I turned my attention to the maple tree's I saw earlier and began to approach them. With a twirl of the sword, I made a quick slash at the center of the trunk with my right arm. With a startled gasp, I jumped back as the tree's bark cracked and the whole thing slowly began to fall in my direction, nearly crushing me. Essentially, I had sliced the entire tree in half, and the trunks on these things are pretty thick.
"No way...." I said, looking at the sword in surprise.
I now headed over towards the twin boulders that well exceeded my tall stature and raised the sword over my head before executing a downwards strike, creating a huge gash on the incredibly solid stone as if it were a glob of butter.
"That's impossible." I said, impressed by the sword's significant durability.
Adding on a few more forceful hacks and slashes to the boulders, they were eventually turned into smaller slabs of rock and crumbled to pieces. Despite the blade striking against such hard materials, the integrity remained completely unscathed.
"What else can you do? What about... this?"
It only took me less than a second to turn in the direction of the other tree that stood and horizontally threw the sword. The blade instantly lined up in the direction it was going and impaled tree trunk. There was no way that was entirely me because I do not have such pin-point accuracy like that. With a gentle tug, the sword came out without much resistance and with a shing.
These examples of the sword's awesome power left me in wonder, but through it all I suddenly got the feeling someone was behind me. I quickly turned around once again, but nopony was there. Not yet, at least. But when I tilted my head up a little bit, I saw a peagsus approaching from up above and it turned out to be Rainbow Dash.
"Rainbow! I thought you guys had gone to Canterlot by now." I said.
"We made a stop in Ponyville because Twilight wanted to talk with her brother." Rainbow replied, matching her altitude with my height.
"Oh, I gotcha. Is she, uh, is she doing okay? I've sort of been doing my own thing lately, so I don't really know." I asked.
"No," Rainbow sighed, shaking her head. "She's trying to hide it, but she's freaked out, Caleb! The most I've ever seen her freaked out now that I think about it."
"Ugh, the poor mare.... I honestly just want to get this all done and over with. Y'know, even though my species are considered the smartest on my planet, we sure do a lot of stupid stuff." I said.
"Actually, that's kinda why I came all the way out here." Rainbow said, rubbing the back of her head.
"Whaddya mean?" I asked.
"I want to come with you when you take on those worshippers. Malice, too." Rainbow confidently requested.
"Rainbow Dash," I exasperated, throwing my head back, "we already agreed that I was the only one dealing with these entities since I have the sword."
"Oh, come on, Caleb. It doesn't mean we can't help you fight, too! You don't even know how many worshippers you're going up against." Rainbow persisted.
"No." I replied, now beginning to walk away from her.
"Hey, I wasn't finished talking to you!" Rainbow called out.
"Too bad, its dangerous. I don't want anymore ponies dying on my watch." I retorted, continuing to walk away.
"Hey, hey, hey..." Rainbow compassionatly began, now blocking my path. "Nopony else is gonna die. Look, it hasn't even been an hour and we're already seeing the spirits of those people."
"You guys have? Are they full-bodied? Like, they're actually in front of you?" I asked, now stopped in my tracks.
"Heck yeah. Twilight saw three of them walking all alone in the forest. It was kinda creepy." Rainbow said.
"Well, just stay away from them." I advised.
"Wait, just wait a second." Rainbow halted before I could walk away again.
I gave a quick nasal sigh. "Yes?"
"Twilight cares about you and she wants to help you; we all do. Twilight's not saying it directly, but she's wording her statements in certain ways to let it slip out. Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and I think she's trying to fight her emotions while knowing you want to go one-on-one with those crazy ghosts and Malice at the same time." Rainbow said.
I nodded to this revelation.
"I can't say that I don't understand what you mean. Still, I just don't know. Night Hunter said there's a good chance of you guys getting hurt or killed." I said.
"I think you mean there was a good chance. Hey, I do manage to pay attention every once in a while, and I remember you saying that Night Hunter said it would be too dangerous for us to come down her and help you trap Malice." Rainbow said.
Rainbow Dash anticipated for my response when she finished, but I didn't say anything as I continued to determine.
"Anyways, I thought I would just let you know. It's entirely up to you, man." Rainbow unsurely shrugged.
"Go back and tell her to bring everypony here." I replied, hesitant.
"Even her brother, too?" Rainbow asked, her face lighting up.
"Yes." I replied.
"Be back in a flash." Rainbow said before she zipped off back to Ponyville.
As I waited for Twilight and the others to arrive, I took a seat on the remaining chunks of the boulders. I had my left hand rested on the swords hilt and a dull numbing sensation grew, disappearing when I retreated my hand. When I removed the sword to inspect it, the etchings of the Elements of Harmony had returned on the blade, now more prominent and glowing their respected colors before fading away. If that wasn't a sign, then I don't know what could be.
"Alright." I said.
After a few minutes of wait time, everypony teleported to my location. Twilight and I both immediately locked eyes onto each others.
"Is it true that you want to help me? I have to know now." I asked.
"Yes, it's all true," Twilight admitted as I saw the burden lift off her. "All of the anxiety and the thought of you nearly doing everything by yourself was eating me alive. But now that us six have to capability to see what everypony else can't see, we can team up and end this madness together with you."
"And everypony is cool with this? I have a feeling this will be super intense, dangerous, and violent. We can't have anyone crack under pressure. You guys good?" I asked, directed towards the five mares.
"I'm in!" Rainbow said, quick to reply.
"Me too." Applejack said.
"Me three. Let's go get those monsters!" Pinkie said, now showing a spick of fire in her tone.
"As am I. Hopefully no bodily fluids get on my coat..." Rarity said, disgusting herself.
"Yeah, well, be prepared, Miss Rarity." Applejack teased.
"What about you, Fluttershy?" I called out.
"I..... I'm not too sure. It sounds very harrowing," Fluttershy uttered, pausing as she thought to herself, followed with a period of silence. "You know what? Yes. I'm coming with you guys. What happened to everyone is despicable and they must be avenged."
Everypony nodded in approval to Fluttershy's noble decision.
"Brave of you, Fluttershy." I said.
"Hm. Well, Twiley, I guess I can't deny you for wanting to help your friend and keep harmony thriving in Equestria. Just be careful, okay, guys? Malice is a lot more cunning and dangerous than Tirek." Shining Armor said.
"I think we've been keeping that in mind, Shining. Thanks for looking out, though." Twilight said as she rolled her eyes and nudged his side.
"They'll start running when they see this giant blade." I said, quickly unsheathing the sword, twirling it, and giving it a swing.
"Not too shabby, Caleb. You ever handle a sword before?" Shining said, impressed.
"Never, until now. Honestly, it's all just coming to me." I replied.
"That's interesting. Perhaps you're gifted or something. Hey, if you're up for it, I'd be more than willing to give you a few pointers on both attack and defense when we head back to Ponyville, then we'll go over the plan for tonight." Shining offered.
"Sure! I'm up for it," I gladly accepted, looking at the girls and smiled.
"Whatcha' thinking about, Caleb?" Twilight asked.
"Nothing too new. Looks like we're all in this now, saving ." I replied
"As friends. If we stick together and watch each others back, I have a good feeling we'll be just fine." Twilight said.
