It's been 3 years since Celestia and the other ponies came to take Dashie back to Equestria. I haven't touched her room in all the years she's been gone, as if preserving it will somehow help me remember. But I know that even when I'm old, and my memory begins to fail me, I can never forget that little filly that changed me back into the man I once was. I've begun to retreat back into that old shell of mine, but now it's not so tough, and it houses a soft core. Losing Dash, losing someone else that I loved changed me again, much in the same way as before. It had been a once in a lifetime - no... once in a generation chance.

So it came as a massive shock to him when he received a knock on my front door, and opened it to find Twilight Sparkle standing on his doorstep. Not just Twilight, mind you, the entire Mane Six. Of course, this included his little Dashie, and though she wouldn't know why, it brought him massive joy to see her again. Which is why it surprised him when she clearly had arrived here on purpose. She had no recognition in her eyes, but by the look of her, this is where she wanted to be. He realized he was just standing there, and waved them inside. He also realized that it was suddenly raining, and after they had all settled down, Rainbow looked rather antsy. Understandably he supposed, considering she probably wanted to go and bust the rain clouds. As Rarity took a seat on the carpet, Jack realized she was drenched, having been standing in the back of the group, out of the cover of the awning. She looked dismally upset, so he ran to grab a towel from the kitchen so she could dry herself off. When he came back she looked surprised. When he offered her the towel, she became even more so. When I asked why, she said, "I didn't expect such kindness from the person that we-" Twilight jabbed Rarity's hind leg using hers, silencing her. Rarity took a moment, and tried again. "from a person we've never met." Jack realized that Rainbow must have no idea she or her friends had been there before, and it could get awkward if she found out her friends had used a memory spell on her. Rarity took the towel and, using her magic, used it to dry herself. She levitated it back over to the counter, and it plopped back down unceremoniously, with a small squelch. Fluttershy was looking out the window at two birds fighting over space on a covered branch, and he could tell it pained her to not do anything about it. Twilight had clearly told them that they couldn't manipulate this world more than they needed to. When everyone seemed to have settled down enough, Twilight began to speak. "Sir, due to err- unforeseen circumstances in Equestria, we've been required to leave it. We've come to your dwelling because…" her eyes strayed to Rainbow Dash. "…you're the, err- closest person to… where we crossed over." She was clearly holding something back, whether for Rainbow Dash or for him. Not to mention they probably had a choice on where to cross over. Or to just not associate with humans. "Listen, I'll just get to the point... ahh... I can't just call you sir all the time. What's your name?"

(It's around here I realized we never actually learned the main character's name. I'll be using Jack for now in order to keep my sanity.)

"Jack," he said.

"Okay, Jack. We need to stay here until I can come up with a - ahh, solution to, err- our issue." Now she was definitely hiding something. She never was good at lying, even by omission.

"Just you? What is everyone else doing here?"

"Oh, I um… haven't really thought about that. But yes, just me. I'm there only one with the expertise for this level of magic." Don't suppose you'll be saying what level, I thought. "But we're all smart ponies, err, beings here. I'm sure you'll figure something out. Do you have somewhere We can stay here?" He realized that the only free room was Rainbow Dash's old one. "Give me a few minutes, and I'll have somewhere for all of you, at least until I can figure something else out. It'll be a bit cramped. Wait here." Jack went up to the room, but when he walked in, he was moved to somewhere, somewhen else entirely. Jack thought of the years he spent with Rainbow, raising her. He shook his head. It was all he could do to not just stand there for hours, reliving every moment. But in that moment, Jack realized he couldn't, just couldn't touch that room. So instead he closed the door, and locked it. He went into his room, and rearranged it to house 6 ponies. Looks like I'll be sleeping on the couch. Again. He didn't let myself be drawn into my thoughts a second time.

He planned to grab some sleeping bags and such from the closet downstairs before bedtime. He was sure the carpet would probably be enough for them, but it wouldn't feel right. He went back down to lead them to their new room, and found the ponies crowded around Rainbow Dash in the armchair. Dash was shaking violently, and her eyes were blankly staring into the distance. Twilight's horn was glowing, and Fluttershy was hovering over the back of the armchair, massaging Rainbow Dash's shoulders. He asked what was going on, and Rarity turned to answer me.

"Dashie has started having a seizure of sorts. Twilight says it's sort of a mental one rather than physical." She paused and looked back at Rainbow, who was beginning to become still again. "Twilight can probably explain more," she said, turning back to me for a moment. Rainbow was now completely still, breathing so lightly it seemed like she wasn't. Suddenly, in one shuddering breath, she slumped over forward, and would have fallen on Twilight if she hadn't put up a barrier to catch her. Jack saw they probably had it under control, so he figured he'd fetch something for them to eat. He could ask about Dash while they ate. They'd need food by now. In the kitchen, all he found that the ponies might eat were the apples he had on the counter, and a bag of granola. He figured that would do well enough, and split the granola on to six plates. Jack washed and placed an apple on each, and balanced them precariously on my arms to take them into the living room. When he arrived, everypony had settled down, and eyed the food hungrily. Twilight and Rarity both took theirs by magic, and Fluttershy flew up to take hers, as did Rainbow, so it seemed like she was fine again. That left two plates, one in each hand. Jack put them down in front of Applejack and Pinkie Pie. Pinkie devoured everything in seconds, and everypony else began to thoughtfully munch on the granola. Twilight stopped eating for a moment, and said, "Jack, thanks for this. I appreciate what you've done after we kind of just barged in here. I-" A bit of apple hit her in the muzzle, and everyone turned to Applejack, who had just spit the offending bit out.

"Sorry Twi," she apologized. "There's just something off about this here apple." She held up the perfectly normal seeming apple. He hoped that he hadn't managed to give anypony a rotten apple. He had just bought them yesterday. The supermarket would be receiving a heavily worded letter in such a case. To see, he asked for the apple.

"May I?" he said as he picked it up.

"If you want go right ahead, but I'll still blame ya'll if it gets spit on somepony," she replied. Jack took a bite out of the apple, and it seemed fine. Nothing looked off, and he began to think about what it could have been. Twilight hesitantly took a bite of her apple, and looked like she nearly lost her oats. Rarity went to bite hers, but he intervened before anyone actually got sick.

"Stop! No one else eat these apples!" Jack said. I don't think they know the definition of insanity. "Twilight, do you think you could devise a way to detect what's causing your aversion to these apples? Her throat bulged as she swallowed the apple she had bitten off. She made the face of pure disgust, and when her stomach apparently finally settled, she nodded.

"I'll just try a basic poison detection spell first." She pointed her horn at her apple, and after only a second or two of magic casting, she recoiled from the offending fruit. "This is laced with dozens of poisons!" She said. Everypony was surprised, especially Pinkie Pie, who said,

"I didn't notice anything odd about mine!"

"Pinkie," Rainbow Dash began, "no offense, but you'll eat just about anything."

"It's true!" Pinkie said grinning, completely unfazed.

No matter how brightly colored and friendly ponies look, having six staring at you in suspicion is incredibly intimidating. Well, really only five, since Pinkie wasn't quite suspicious looking, kind of just a neutral face. Even so, she was still smiling, even if it was just the corners of her mouth. It was then he realized something, in Equestria the apples came straight from the trees, but we process and grow them with so many chemicals and such that it must be super obvious to the ponies.

"It's not poison!" He said, "here we use certain, uh, substances," He had to figure out how to make it understandable. Very few ponies practiced proper science, if the show was anything to go by. "- to preserve them to get from the farms to the stores where people buy them. Clearly you're more used to all-natural apples. I can promise there's nothing that's harmful, at least not directly."

"Discord wasn't directly harmful, look what he nearly did!" Rainbow Dash, not entirely untruly said. "No offense to him, I know he's changed," she added with a glance, after remembering Fluttershy was there.

"Trust me, I'd eat any of these apples," Jack said. Hoping there's not actually something wrong, I thought.

"Okay, we'll believe you," Twilight said, hoping everypony would. "But there's something I've read about, where if you don't eat fruit, you can get very sick. It's commonly called scurvy. If we can't eat apples here, what if we get it?" Even if scurvy wasn't the most accurate word, she had a point. They would definitely become ill without any fruit.

"I have an idea," he said. "There's a farmer's market in town over every weekend. Here, they're considered famous for having less or no preserving, or otherwise used substances. I'll get some apples there every week."

Everypony seemed content enough with the solution, especially Applejack. Her eyes twinkled, and he figured out pretty quickly why. He also remembered that he had completely forgotten to ask about Dash's seizure.