Author's Notes:

Editing is a bit light in this chapter. Feel free to point out typos.

My first weekend off, and I was ready to have some time to myself. Tonight I was going to hang out with Key, but that wasn’t until near dark. Till then, I had every intention of spending the day working on my plane.

I had planned on using today to start working on my engine, but when I sat down to fully unbox it last night, I found Luna had returned it to me in better condition than she found it. Only magic explained how she got it so clean, and I have no idea how she made new gaskets.

The only thing left for me to do was attach the carburetor, bolt on an alternator, put in the plugs, and add a touch of wiring.

Towing a little cart with my engine on it, I set out for the building Luna had told me my plane was kept. If I was lucky, my tool box hadn't fallen out of the plane. If not, I was going to have to go buy some new tools.

It wasn’t that far from The House. I just needed to trek over to the airship docks. The princess kept a warehouse of sorts there for storing things they needed to keep close, but out of the way. It was nice weather for a stroll anyway.

There was one lone, bored looking guard pacing about the building when I got there. “Hey, Shane,” he said to me. The voice sounded familiar, but with his mark covered, I had no idea who he was.

“How’s it going?” I asked, faking it best I could.

“We miss seeing you around. You should stop by more.”

Now I kinda felt bad. “Things are starting to settle down for me. I should be able to start visiting you guys.”

He gave me a toothy grin before turning back towards the building, and motioning for me to follow. “Take it you’re here for your contraption?”

“Yeah, I need to give him a little love. See if he’ll ever fly again.”

Following him to the far end of the building, we stopped in front of a set of rolling doors. “Here we are,” he said, pulling out a set of keys to unlock them.

Pushing the doors open, we let the morning light fall on my plane. The fabric skin was ruined, and the cowling was crushed, but for some reason, I had to smile and laugh. We both did actually, it was like a contagious laughter had hit us both at the same time.

“It’s pretty cool looking in the light,” the guard said, stepping closer to look at my poor plane.

“You should see him when he’s ready to fly.” Dragging the wagon inside, I dropped it off by the nose, and began checking for damage. “The old war birds... They were as close to magic as my world ever got.”

The guard laughed again. “I’ll leave you to it,” he said, walking back to the front of the building. “Yell for me if you need anything.”

“Thanks!” I called back, picking the prop up off the floor and checking it for cracks. Thankfully, it seemed sound, the rope it had tangled in hadn’t done it any harm. The cowling laying on the floor beside it was another story; that was ruined. I thought about trying to hammer it out, but it would never look the same. Sliding it outside, I made a note to see if I could find a smith to make me a new one.

Grabbing a nearby step ladder, I slid it under the nose, and climbed up to take a look. Thumping the gas tank, I confirmed my guess that it had been drained. Running my fingers around the engine mounts, I checked for any damage. To my relief, it appeared that Luna’s ponies had actually removed the engine without warping anything. I paused to see what else they had removed, but it seemed like they hadn't touched anything else. No... my seat back was pulled down.

Jumping down, I went to the cockpit, to see what they had done.

A little relief washed over me when I found my tool box in its spot. The lid unlatched, but quick inventory of my tools didn't find anything missing.

The battery had also been disconnected, but what really got my attention was my backpack tucked into the storage bin. Unlike the other things, it seemed to be untouched.

I hadn’t brought much with me that day, but I had brought my phone. Just as important, I had brought a charger. Hooking the plane’s battery back up, I was happy to see the voltmeter in the green. A few seconds later, and I was looking at the loading screen.

... And no signal.

What did I expect?

Setting the phone aside to charge, I shuffled through my bag to see what else I had. Wasn’t much really. My emergency radio was the next thing I reached for. Spinning the dynamo for a few seconds, I then ran the dial through the frequencies: nothing but static.

Letting the multi-function gizmo fall back into the bag, I flip the seat back up, and collapsed into it.

That was my last hope. With a sigh, I tested the controls. Elevator and ailerons were good. The yaw wouldn't go left.

"Looks like we're stuck here, Buddy," I said patting Baron's throttle. Maybe something might come up eventually, but I had already been here too long to have a life to go back to. I'd probably been declared dead already—everything I owned sold or thrown away; if not already, then very soon.

Closing my eyes, I let my mind clear for a bit, before standing back up. "It's more interesting here anyway, isn't it?"

Picking my phone up, I looked it over. It was my only connection to my old life now. Opening my music I set it to shuffle, letting it play whatever it would, then reopened the compartment behind the seat.

Now with a proper soundtrack, I returned to taking stock of what else had come with me to this world: change of cloths, bag of horse treats, pocket-tool, bottle of water, protein bar, saddle blanket, some rope, and a knife.

Taking the knife in hand, I gave Baron an apologetic look. “Sorry big guy, but I have to strip you down to the frame.”

It hurt like hell cutting that fabric off. I’d spent days getting it on, but it was shredded now, and I needed to check the tube steel underneath for hidden damage.

An hour later, and I was looking at the bare frame of a three-fourths scale Fokker. It’d been a long time since I’d seen him like that, but I wasn’t going to complain. The worst damage had been to the rudder, but I could fix that.

Some of the strut cables needed replacing too, but everything else had been cosmetic. Little metal work on the tail, new skin, bit of wire, mount the engine, a new cowl, some fuel, and we’d be in the air again.

The engine...

I’d conned Plowshare into helping me load the thing, but now I had to move it around myself. What I wouldn’t give for an engine lift.

“Hello?” a mare called from outside. “I’m looking for Shane.”

“In here,” I said, moving the cart over to the table.

“Oh wow,” the mare said behind me.

A little voice in the back of my head told me I needed to turn around, and see who exactly had wandered into the building....

Yep, it was a princess.

“Princess Sparkle,” I said taking a knee.

“No, no. Don’t do that, and just call me Twilight.”

“As you like,” I said standing up, trying to keep a grin off my face. After reading a lengthy book about Twilight, I was kind of excited to actually meet her. “Is there anything I can help you with?”

“Well yes.” She gave me an awkward smile, then looked to my plane. “I just wanted to meet you, and ask a few questions.”

I was a bit confused, but sure, if the princess wanted to meet the alien, I’d play host. “You want to go somewhere to talk?” I asked, looking behind her for Spike, but she was alone. Which was a shame; I wanted to meet a dragon.

"Here's fine," she said, turning her attention from the plane to me. "I don't want to interrupt you." Then her eyes brightened as she noticed the engine. “Is that the detonation drive Luna told me about?”

Looking down at the engine, I blinked a moment, finally figuring out she meant combustion engine. “Yes, it is.”

“Can I see?” she asked, taking a few steps forward.

“Sure.” I shrugged and motioned for her to come closer. “I was just trying to figure out how I was going to get it back on my plane.”

Twilight peered at the big lump of metal with a frown. “Looks heavy.”

“Yeah, bit more than I can lift. I think I can use the wagon to-” I jumped back as the engine floated from the cart.

“Sorry,” Twilight said as the engine floated past my head. As much as I’ve seen ponies float things about, it still amazed me to see her move the block of metal like it was a feather. "Where do you need it?" She asked.

“That works too. Let me go get my tool box.” reaching through Barron’s ribs, I pulled the tool box out, the hurried over to the ladder. “Thanks for the help.”

“No problem,” Twilight said, her head nodding in time with the current song playing from my phone. “What language is this in?” she asked as I returned with the ratchet set.

“It’s from my world. That’s what my language sounds like without the translation spell.” She seemed to like Zeppelin, so I had to give her points for good taste, but I wasn’t about to try and translate The Immigrant Song. Getting up on the ladder, I motioned for her to move the engine into place.

My mind clicked into it’s trance as I sat bolts in their proper place and began to tighten them. Twilight’s magic flickered a few times, jostling the engine. She mumbled something about interference, but I think the engine just weighed more than she thought.

“You can let go now,” I said, torquing the last bolt home.

Sliding down the ladder, I went to get the carburetor, but found Twilight staring at my phone.

“That’s a really small phonograph.”

She leaned forward to look at it closer, but I picked it up. “This is all I have left of my homeworld. The only human voices I’ll ever hear again are in here.”

Twilight blinked. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

“No, it’s okay,” I said interrupting her. Unplugging it from the charger, I sat on the floor with the phone in hand. “I’d actually like to share a few things with you.” I had to laugh at myself. “I’m sorry. I’m being familiar. It just feels like I know you and Spike.”

Twilight sat down next to me, looking intently at the phone as I fiddled with it. “What do you mean?” she asked

“I umm...”

“Oh... You read that book. Didn’t you?” Twilight said, pressing a hoof to her face.

“Sorry?”

Twilight groaned. "I still can't believe she wrote that."

"You know Butterfly Touch?" I asked.

"That's not her real name, but yes, she's a very good friend of mine."

I was going to show her pictures of my world, but taking a gamble that Butterfly had written Twilight true to character, I decided that the calculator function would be a better start.

Which went over immensely well. I got her to use the soft part of her hoof to use the touch screen, and soon enough she was figuring out the logarithm functions. From there I showed her some pictures, but just a few of the farm. I knew we’d descend into endless questions if I showed her too many.

“If you go back. You can open up my music, there,” I said, coaching her how to use the phone.

“How much is in this thing?” she asked scrolling down the list of songs. Backing out of the music, she spotted the book icon, and taped it. “You have books in here too?” She had cast the babelfish spell on herself at some point, so she didn’t need me to translate anything.

“Just a few, maybe a dozen or so. There’s some audio files, where people are reading books, and I have some history lectures too.” Audiobooks, and podcasts really, but I didn’t have a better way of explaining it.

“That’s amazing.”

Taking back over, I opened up the podcasts, and debated on deleting the history lecture. I didn’t know if I really wanted Twilight hearing about some of humanity’s darkest hours. “There’s only one problem,” I said, deciding to leave the files alone.

“What’s that?”

Leaving Twilight with the phone for a moment, I went to get the wind-up radio and my charger cable. “If the slightest thing happens to it, I’ll lose everything. My backup is in the other world.”

Twilight looked at the phone in her hooves. “Oh...”

“That’s why I want to make a deal with you,” I said sitting the radio and cable in front of her. "If you can duplicate every picture, book, and audio file stored on this phone for me, then I'll gladly give it to you."

“Really!?”

“It’s useless to me here as a phone. I just want my personal stuff, and maybe you can find a use for the phone itself.”

“I’d be honored to help. I don’t know how long it will take, but I’ll do my best.”

“I trust you,” I said. Sitting back down, I showed her how to use the radio’s dynamo to charge the phone, then I walked her through a few more of the phone’s functions. Most importantly, I showed her how not to delete things.

We hung out for a little longer after that. I showed her the plane, told her about how I had built The Barron over the course of two summers. She gave me great advice on where I could get fabric for a new skin, and where I could even get a good used sewing machine.

It was a fun few hours, very cathartic to talk about home, and share some memories. I really felt like I had made a new friend, too.

“Well, I need to get back to Ponyville,” Twilight said after a while.

“No problem, I have plenty of work here to keep me busy.”

Picking up the phone and charger, she tucked them into her saddle bag. “I’m sure I’ll have lots of questions. Is it alright if I write you?”

“Sure,” I said, getting the wrench I needed to reattach the carburetor. “Write or visit me anytime you like.” The words left my mouth before I really thought about it. “To talk,” I added. “Not to... you know. Not to say—”

Twilight laughed, interrupting my foot-in-mouth. “I’m good in that department, but I’ll visit for tea and conversation.”

“Looking forward to it,” I said, waving her goodbye as she wandered back out into the street.