1 YEAR LATER

1 year, was that really all it had been, just 12 months, training was a total pain, and then some red demon-centaur thing tried to take over the world, so I’ve already go my first taste of combat as a reserve guard, but now that’s all in the past, let’s do a quick head count, there’s me: the alien reserve guard, now armed with a 1600-style pistol that fires bolts of magic, Autumn Skies: Special operations guard, as well as my dear friend and guide to this world, Scar: my pet Timberwolf, now sporting a custom set of metal armour that is directly bolted to his wooden exoskeleton with cool features such as sabre-teeth and longer claws, and Boris: my pet Falcon and messenger, at this exact moment we were on a sleeper train headed towards Trottingham, where we would stay with Autumns family for the week, before beginning the quest for real, we were about a day into the journey, with 2 more to go (it’s about 700 route miles from Canterlot to Trottingham), and we were still climbing through the mountain range that Canterlot is located on, although Autumn says that we should be clear of the mountains and speeding through relatively flat country by tomorrow morning

On the plus side, as someone who is loco about trains, was the fact that the train was being pulled by a massive streamlined Garrett, another plus side was the view, my god the view, the line practically hugged the mountain side, so on one side of the train you could see for miles, I managed to get a really good photo of the sun setting in the horizon.

We had our own en-suit bedroom, first class premier, the entire coach at the rear of the train, complete with a balcony at the rear, so we practically have our own observation carriage, that’s yet another thing I owe Celestia for, although I was a little apprehensive about sharing a bed with Autumn, I wouldn’t be sleeping in the rucksack, not when the bed in the carriage was like a cloud, so I would just have to man-up and deal with it, no more awkwardness, we’re friends, we trusted each-other, and we aren’t interested in each-other in any way that could be considered romantic, so we didn’t have much to worry about, I’d actually had a talk with Autumn about it, and she didn’t see what the problem was, we were friends, nothing more, so there wasn’t a problem as far as she was concerned.

For most of the journey we would listen to music, I showed her movies for the first time; she actually had tears in her eyes when she saw Black Hawk Down.

I was sat in an armchair facing the rear windows, sipping on Hayleys and listening to music, looking at the stars with all of the lights turned off, the rails highlighted in the moon light as they slithered into the distance, with Boris laid on the floor next to the chair, Autumn was currently in the bar carriage so it was just me, Scar and Boris in our room at the moment, speaking of Boris, he was currently perched on my shoulder, roosting, and when he was asleep, no force on earth could wake him up, he slept like a dragon, so I was mostly left to my thoughts, the music providing the background noise that I needed to zone out, after a couple of hours I decided to call it a night and went to bed, I barely registered Autumn climbing into bed and shuffling up close to me.

I awoke the next morning to the sunlight piercing through the windows, I muttered nonsensical grumblings before hugging the pillow next to me and pulling it closer before closing my eyes and dozing, basking in the warmth from the sun.

“You know, not that I’m complaining, but if you wanted to cuddle, you could’ve just asked” the pillow said, I was confused, both from the fact that I was still half asleep, and because pillows shouldn’t talk, it was then that my mind jolted awake and I opened my eyes to find myself cuddling Autumn, an amused look on her face ‘Screw it, it’s still morning, and the bed is so comfortable’ I thought.

“But you’re so fluffy” I said drowsily, hugging her tighter “you’re like a really warm pillow”

“I’ll take that as a compliment” Autumn said “and you pretty comfortable as well” at this point she wrapped her arms around me, we laid like this for some time, enjoying each-others warmth, after about half an hour I decided to get up, I got dressed into my armour, but left the helmet and gloves off, I looked at the clock; 9:05 am

“I’m off to go have breakfast” I said to autumn, she nodded and I walked through the train towards the dining car, the whole train oozed class, think orient express levels of luxury, I sat down at one of the tables, I ended up getting into a rather interesting conversation with a earth pony stallion with an accent akin to a British WW2 fighter pilot ; who was quite the railway fanatic himself, his face when I told him my country hadn’t used steam locomotives for 46 years was rather amusing.

“What do you use now?” he asked.

“Either diesel engines or electric” I said “they look a little bit like carriages, power bogies at each end with the body shell on top, although having said that, there are several projects going on with the aim of build in new members of Locomotive classes that weren’t preserved, they’re all one-off projects, the first one was completed about 6 years ago, there are about 20 or 30 separate groups, each one aiming to build a separate locomotive, most of them are things like tank engines or pacific locomotives”

“Pacific locomotive?” he asked.

“Oh right, different planet” I said, I paused, trying to find the correct term “it’s a 4-6-2 locomotive, 4 front wheels, 6 drive wheels and 2 trailing wheels, it was the most common arraignment for an express steam locomotive in my country, along with 4-6-0 locomotives, they were the ‘standard’ sizes of locomotives that pulled expresses, our north-south main line is only about 400 miles give or take, it’s a small country, about 200 miles at the widest point, so we didn’t really need anything bigger than a 4-6-2, there was a line up in the far north that had big 2-8-2 locomotives, but they were too long for the winding route that they ran on, one thing we didn’t have many of were Garratt’s, our name for the type of locomotive at the front of the train…” at that moment there was a loud bang and the whole train shook violently, I looked out the window just in time to see a large metal beam go flying past the window.

“What in Tartarus was that?” the stallion exclaimed, having seen what I saw.

“Oh shit, it’s chucked a con-rod” I said, the stallion paled slightly at that, the train stopped and I stood up

“I’m going to go get it and bring it back to them” I said, walking to one of the carriages side doors, Autumn ran towards me.

“What are you doing?” she asked, watching me climb down from the carriage.

“going to retrieve the piece that got flung off the locomotive, the reason why we stopped in the middle of nowhere” I said, referring to the grassy fields that surrounded the tracks “you can either help me, or you can go inform a guard so that the know why I’m outside the train” she jumped down off of the carriage, I smiled.

“You’ll need help to carry it back” she said, I nodded and noticed the stallion climb down as well.

“There is no way just the two of you can carry it back, you’ll need my help” he said.

“I won’t complain, what’s your name by the way?” I asked.

“Neighgel Gearsley” he said, I did a double take.

“Do you design locomotives by any chance?” I asked, he nodded.

“Well yes, but how did you know?” he asked.

“My country had a locomotive designer called Nigel Gresley, anyway, shall we?” I asked, they both nodded and we started walking back along the train, I could see the con-rod laying by the side of the track, glinting in the distance after walking for some time we eventually reached it, it was a really big piece of metal, easily about 3 meters long “this is going to be a pain” I muttered, I grabbed hold of the Big-end bearing whilst Gearsley grabbed the other and Autumn grabbed hold of the middle, I looked at the two ponies before counting down.

“On three, we lift, OK?” they nodded “O.K. one, two, three” we strained to lift it up, it must of weighed a good 500kg, it helped that Gearsley was an earth pony, but both Autumn and Gearsley had to stand up un their hind legs, with the con-rod on our shoulders, we started to make our way back to the train, ponies saw us walking down with the con-rod and started cheering us on, we eventually reached the locomotive, the driver and fireman were surprised when they saw Gearsley.

“Mister Gearsley, Sir?” the driver, a pegasus, said.

“Which part failed?” Gearsley asked, the two enginemen stumbled with their words, he rolled his eyes before telling us to lower the con-rod, we walked up to the affected wheel set “looks like the big-end crank-pin failed” he said, he turned to the engine men.

“We’ll need a new crank-pin” the fireman, a unicorn, nodded before going into the support coach.

“It’s a good thing this has internal valve gear” I said.

“Yes, it’s not one of my designs though, these ones are getting rather dated and in need of a rebuild, that was probably why it chucked the con-rod” he said.

“Have you tried the conjugated valve arrangement yet?” I asked.

“The what valve arraignment?” he said

“It’s a type of valve gear that my worlds equivalent of you developed” I explained “it takes the motion of the outside valves and uses a series of rods to covert that motion into the motion required to drive the valve controlling the middle cylinder, reduces maintenance costs and saves space, I’ll show you a technical drawing of it, as well as the locomotives that your parallel designed, when we get back on the train”

“It would be rather refreshing to see what your world has, I’ve found my imagination going a little bit stale as of late” he said, it was at that point that the fireman returned with the required parts, we soon had the con-rod reattached to the locomotive, the driver looked at his watch and started suddenly.

“Gosh, is that t’ time already? Righ’, climb on, you can ‘ead through t’ corridor in t’ side of the bunker when we ge’ underway” he said in an accent similar to a Yorkshire, the urgency clear in his voice, we all quickly climbed into the cab and the driver blasted the whistle before setting the reverser and opening the regulator to full, the train quickly accelerated, its multiple wheel-sets easily coping with the heavy coaches, within a couple of minutes we were back up to speed, I turned to Autumn.

“Have Boris fly towards the locomotive” I said to her, she nodded and walked through to the carriages, Gearsley also headed back through, I stood at the cab window watching the world go by, a few minutes later I saw Boris fly towards me, but didn’t land in my shoulder, instead he just flew alongside the cab, the driver saw this and chuckled.

“That falcon yours?” he asked, jerking his head towards Boris, I nodded, he stood up from the drives seat “right, sit in that seat and keep hold of the regulator, I need to check the motion” and with that he jumped out of the cab and took flight, keeping pace with the train, I sat down and grabbed hold of the regulator making sure it didn’t move from the vibrations, I saw the driver fly down low, watching the motion closely, glancing forward every now and then.

“Open ‘er up as far as she’ll go” he shouted, looking at me and raising a hoof repeatedly, I nodded and pulled back on the regulator as far as it would go, the train slowly started to accelerate, the driver still managed to keep pace, I looked at the speed gauge; 70mph and climbing, Boris landed on my shoulder, I glanced at the fireman, he was also sat in a seat, checking various gauges and dials, absentmindedly wiping the copper pipework with a cloth, I looked in the distance and saw a red light next to a signal box, a few miles ahead, the driver saw this as well.

“Shu’ ‘er off, now!” he shouted, I pushed the regulator forward and the train started coasting, the driver quickly flew into the cab and started telling me to pull this, or turn that, we eventually screeched to a stop outside the signal box, the Signalman walked onto the balcony.

“What happened?” he asked, tapping the watch on his wrist “you’re about 10 minutes late”

“T’ old girl chucked a con-rod abou’ 20 miles back” the driver said, chuckling “luckily this young lad and a couple others retrieved it for us” the signalman tittered.

“That’s been happening more often now a days” the signalman said.

“Well, mister Gearsley ‘imself was one of t’ one helping t’ carry t’ con-rod, so ‘e should order dem rebuilt soon” the driver responded.

“O.K., I’ll alert the next major station to have a replacement locomotive ready, right away, driver” the signalman said before walking back inside and setting the signal to green, the driver gave a blast of the whistle before directing me on operating the controls and jumping back outside and keeping an eye on the motion, he had me hold it at about 20mph for a few minutes before opening it up to full power, as we cruised along I started Singing.

When I finished the fireman looked at me.

“What was that song about?” he asked.

“it’s about my world’s fastest steam locomotive” I said “a London and North-Eastern Railway class A4 4-6-2 locomotive #4468 ‘Mallard’, it was about 76 years ago that she set the world record; 126mph, a record that is unbeaten by a steam locomotive to this day, she’s big, blue and beautiful, and a whistle that sound unlike anything on my world, it sound a lot like the whistle on this loco” I pulled the whistle to demonstrate, the chime whistle blasting through the air as we rolled along the line we eventually came towards our scheduled stop, the driver took over the controls and I thanked them both before walking through to the carriages towards our carriage, it was about lunch time, so the dining car was packed, I rushed back to our room to grab the laptop and Boris flew off of my shoulder and onto the one of the armchairs at the rear of the coach, I then put down some food for Scar before going back towards the dining cars, I found Gearsley, along with Autumn, sitting at a table, Gearsley saw me.

“Ah, Vuur Koning, am I right?” he asked, I nodded before sitting down next to Autumn, a waiter came up to the table and we ordered our drinks and food, Gearsley took a sip of champagne before speaking.

“So, Vuur Koning, before we climbed onto the train you mentioned showing me your worlds locomotives” I nodded before placing my laptop onto the table and bringing up the photo viewer, I then went through different types of locomotives, giving a brief explanation about each type.

“Some of your locomotive are certainly interesting” he said “like the Q1, was it?” I nodded.

“it was an austerity locomotive” I said “built for war and for ease of maintenance, but they weren’t called ‘Ugly Ducklings’, among other things, for nothing, but a word of advice, if you ever design a locomotive like that, at least give it a running board along the side and a proper boiler” he chuckled slightly at that.

“I do know one thing for sure” he said, before taking a sip of champagne

“What’s that?” I asked

I’ll definitely be building some of your worlds streamlined Pacific’s” he said.

“Maybe experiment with the streamlined casing by fitting it to your rebuild of the Garrett’s” I suggested.

“I’ll give it a try” he said “it looks a lot more effective at reducing drag than the current streamlining on the U5” he noted

“U5?” I asked

“It’s a class of what you call ‘Garrett’s’” he said, for the rest of the meal we made small talk, not just about trains, for Autumns sake, eventually Gearsley retired for the day and me and Autumn went to the bar carriage to have some drinks until we decided to call it a night (we generally only eat one good meal a day), we were sat at the bar when I turned to Autumn.

“Listen, about this morning…” I went to say

“It’s fine” Autumn said, interrupting me.

“Really!?” I asked, a little surprised.

“We’re friends” she said, before draining a glass of whiskey “and I trust you not to do anything ‘funny’” she made quotation marks with her hooves before beckoning to the bar tender for another glass of whiskey, she then raised it towards me

“To friendship” she said, I tapped my glass of cider against her glass.

“And trust, cheers” I said, before we both downed our glasses and beckoned for another of each.

“When we get to Trottingham, me, my brother and my sister are taking you for a night on the town, Trottingham style” she said, prodding me in the shoulder with a hoof.

“Nothing dodgy, I hope” I said, she shook he head.

“Oh no, nothing like that, just a few pubs, a club or two, that sort of thing” she said, we stayed at the bar for several more hours, dinking and making small talk, when we finally decided to call it a night Autumn was have quite a bit of trouble walking straight, luckily our carriage wasn’t too far from the bar so we didn’t have far to walk, I did however have to support her as she walked, we reached the room and Autumn stumbled over to the bed, I walked over to one of the arm chairs and was about to sit down when I heard Autumn speak up.

“Come ‘ere” she said, slurring slightly “I need a cuddle” I looked at her, she was laying on her back, looking at me upside down.

“You’re drunk” I pointed out.

“No ‘m not, you’ve more cider than me” she then burst out laughing, ‘eh, what the hell, I’ll have to go to bed at some point’ I thought, getting undressed and walking over to the bed, I turned the light off and was about to climb into beg when Autumn hugged my around the chest, pulling me onto the bed.

“yer soo warm and cuddly” she said, nuzzling into my chest.

“Autumn…?” I asked, but she didn’t respond, having fallen asleep, I settled down and eventually fell asleep.

I woke up to the sun glaring through the windows, ‘Fuck…off…Celestia’ I thought, my head, and Celestia it seems, was already punishing me for all the cider I drank last night, I tried to get up but found myself pinned down by Autumn, who was still sleeping, ‘just great’ I thought, I sighed before using my magic to turn on a tap and levitate a glass towards the tap before bringing the now full glass towards me, I drank the water before repeating the process several times over, I herd Autumn groan and stir slightly, she opened her eyes only to clamp them shut afterwards.

“My… fucking…head” she said, removing an arm from around me to massage her forehead with a forehoof, I levitated a fresh glass of water towards her and she greedily drank it down before requesting for more, several more time than me, seems she had a much larger hangover than me, I got up to go run a bath for Autumn, she needed to relax and take it easy today.

“there’s a bath waiting for you” I said, she raised a hoof into the air to signify that she heard me, I got dressed into some formal clothes and shoes that Rarity had made me during my training and walked out onto the balcony, it was early, about 6:30 and the train was currently stopped in a passing loop, and would remain to do so until about 8:00, we would be reaching Trottingham by about 3:00 pm, so this was the last day of our journey, I woke Scar and Boris up and lead them outside to do whatever business they needed to do , I sat on the steps of the carriage, we were in an open area, but there was more trees dotted around than usual, a sign that we were getting towards the heavily forested county of Trottinghamshire, that’s one thing I found out about Equestria, the south is generally more mountainous, with the north being the more forested half, I looked along the length of the train to find several ponies with the same idea as me, having let out whatever pets they had, I could spot a couple of dogs, rushing about and playing with each other, I noticed that the ponies were in one group, so I snapped my fingers to get Boris and Scar’s attention before walking down towards the group, they seemed a little apprehensive when they saw Scar, fully decked out in armour, but relaxed when they saw him sit next to me when I sat on one of the steps to the carriage, Boris shot up into the air, having obviously spotted a potential meal.

“Is he tame?” one of the ponies asked, pointing at Scar.

“Yes and no, he is still technically wild, but he is now linked with my magic, do you see his eyes?” I asked, they nodded, I flared up my magic and his eyes flared up as well.

“Timberwolves magical aura is usually green” I said, dispelling my magic “plus they can’t venture far from the Everfree most of the time, Scar submitted to me after I defended a school against his pack, and by defended I mean I vanquished them back to the Everfree, minus their wooden bodies”

“Wait, that was you?” one of the ponies asked.

“Unless there is another human who appeared near Ponyville last year that I’m unaware of, yes” I said, I saw Boris dive towards a small bird and knock it out of the sky, after a few moments he flew back over and landed on my shoulder, his beak stained with a little bit of blood, I got out a cloth and started wiping his beak, when I was done he started preening his wings, we all sat or stood there, making light conversation about various subjects, Scar eventually started playing with the dogs.

“It’s about time he started loosening up” I said, ever since he’s submitted to me he’s either been lazing around, or constantly on his guard, then again, we have been sleeping in a barracks for the past year”

“Are you a guard?” one of them asked.

“Reserve, I was training for the past year” I said “I’ve just started a journey around the world and I needed combat in case I run into trouble, my friend, translator and guide has family in Trottingham, so that’s our first stop, before we head into Germaney, followed by the Crystal Empire, the United Griffin Kingdoms and Minotauria before heading down south to the Ibex Empire, then across the ocean to the southern continent to visit Zebrica, Camelu and Cervidas before plunging into the jungles of Lost World”

“You have a heck of a journey ahead of you” one of them said.

“Why do you think my companion is a special ops guard, anyway, I’m gonna head back on, I’ll see you if I see you” I said, before walking back up the length of the train, Scar and Boris following behind, I climbed back onto our carriage to find Autumn out of the bath, brushing her mane.

“Feeling Better?” I asked, she nodded, Scar plodded over to his ‘spot’ beside the armchair and laid down, and Boris flew over to the arm chair and perched on top of it, I walked over to the laptop and put on some music, I walked over to the small kitchenette that we had and started boiling some water for a cup of tea, the tribal style music playing softly in the background.

“Want one?” I asked Autumn.

“Sure, you know how I like it” the said, still brushing her mane, I got another cup from one of the cupboards and placed a teabag inside, the water soon boiled and I poured some into each cup, followed by some milk and sugar, I passed one to Autumn and walked over the armchair, I sat down in the armchair and looked out of the window, absentmindedly sipping my tea, travelling through the Griffin Kingdoms was going to be tough, in the past year relations had been breaking down between Equestria and the Griffin Kingdoms, the northern continent was now divided in two, with the changelings siding with the griffins, and the Minotaur’s and crystal Ponies siding with Equestria, and now there was talk of a war, it wasn’t helped by the fact that the King of the Griffin Kingdoms was a warmongering arsehole.

“History is repeating itself” I thought out loud.

“What?” Autumn asked, brushing her tail.

“I’ve just been thinking about the situation with the Griffins” I said” if it turns into war, and knowing what the king of the Griffin Kingdoms is like it probably will do, then your world is repeating what happened on mine about 100 years ago, that’s one of the reasons why I want to get the Griffin Kingdoms over and done with, so that if it does become war, we don’t have to worry about going into an enemy country”

“But we would have to call off our travels anyway, you are a reserve guard, and my experience would mean they would probably call me back into service” she said “I may be discharged, but I can still fight in a war”

“I would rather not get stuck in an enemy country because we left it till last” I said.

“Fair point” she replied “but don’t think on it too much, I hate it when you get all pessimistic about war”

“it’s called realistic outlook on war” I said “besides, if you think I’m bad now, you should’ve seen me when the trouble in the Ukraine was going off, I would go to sleep worried that my country would get nuked overnight”

“You’ve already told me about 1000 times” she said, walking over and resting a hoof on my shoulder “you need to stop worrying, and relax, this is supposed to be a once in lifetime experience, that’s one of the reasons me and my siblings are taking you out for a night on the town”

“You told them about my worries?” I asked

“No, just that you need to relax” she said, before sitting in the armchair next to me, her cup of tea in her hooves, we both just sat there in silence until it was time to go for breakfast.

The train pulled into Trottingham Central station and me, Autumn, Boris and Scar disembarked from the carriage, I saw two ponies waving to Autumn, one was a large white pegasus stallion with a light blue mane and tail, and a snow flake for a cutie mark, the other, a pegasus mare with a yellow coat, a light blue mane and tail and a cutie mark with a full moon partially obscured by clouds, I assumed they were Autumn’s brother and sister, we walked over to them, Autumn walking in a full canter, obviously excited to see them, she cantered up to them and they all hugged each other.

“It’s so good to see you again” she said, she then pulled away from them “Winter, Summer, I would like you to meet my friend, Vuur Koning, he was the one I mentioned in the letter”.

“Bloody Tar’arus” Winter Chill said “you weren’ jokin’ when you said ‘e wasn’t from around ‘ere”

“‘Hello” I said “it’s great to finally meet you” I couldn’t help chuckling at their reaction to my accent, both of their jaws dropped “let me guess, you didn’t expect me to have a coastal accent?” they both shook their heads slowly.

“Don’t worry about it” I said “anyway, shall we get moving, we can talk on the way” they both recovered from there shock and we all started walking towards the stations exit, as we were walking through the streets of Trottingham Midsummer Night turned to look at me.

“So, Vuur Koning, how did you get that accent?” she asked.

“Where I come from, everyone speaks in a Trottinghamshire accent, with variations depending on the county or city, the accent I’m speaking in is called a northern accent and is spoken in the north east of the country, we even have similar place names, for instance we have a city called Nottingham” both Midsummer Night and Winter Chill oh’d in understanding, Winter Chill was the next to speak

“How exactly does a...you” he shook a hoof around in my direction “get a pet Timberwolf and falcon?”

“when I first arrived in Equestria I ended up defending a school from a pack of Timberwolves, I ended up sending most of them back to the Everfree forest, minus their bodies, he sensed it was stupid to try and fight me, so he submitted to me, now he’s marked by my magical aura” I said, flaring up my magic.

“But why a Timberwolf?” Midsummer Night asked

“We have a saying back on my world” I said “a dog is a man’s best friend, and he has more than lived up to the saying” Winter Chill seemed to get offended

“Oh, is my sister not good enough for you?” he said, I got really nervous.

“I-I didn’t mean it like that, I mean no offence…” I tried to apologise but Winter Chill started laughing.

“Mate, I’m jus’ messin with ya” he said, before bursting out laughing, Autumn face hooved

“One day, Winter, you’ll be the death of me” she said, shaking her head slightly.

“Love you too, sis” he said, throwing an arm around her and pulling her close before letting go “anyway, you were saying”

“Well, as for Boris” I said, stroking the falcon on the neck “I needed a messenger, one that’s fast, and hard to hit whilst in flight, I also use him to pick up girls at night clubs” I added, and Autumn started laughing, Winter Chill and Midsummer Night just looked confused.

“Am I missing something” Midsummer Night asked.

“He’ll show you both later” Autumn said, we were now walking through an area with restaurants, Winter Chill directed us towards a small restaurant off to one side of the street, we all sat on an outside table.

“So, Vuur Koning…” Winter said.

“Call me V.K.” I interrupted.

“OK, V.K., what exactly do you do”

“Before I came to Equestria or after?” I said “because I did totally different things back then”

“Why not both?” Midsummer suggested.

“Very well then, back on my world…” I said, before being interupted

“WORLD‽” they both exclaimed, briefly earning the attention of ponies sitting at other tables

“Yes, I’m an alien…” I was interrupted again.

“how did you get here” Winter asked, I kept silent for a few moments.

“Vuur?” Autumn asked.

“Am I going to get interrupted again?” I said, propping up my head with one hand and tapping on the table with the other.

“Sorry” Winter and Midsummer both said, looking a little sheepish.

“Thank you, now if you must know, it was a magic portal made by the Gods, whether it was my world’s gods, or your world’s, I don’t know, anyway, back on my world, I was training to be a photographer and a cook, ask Autumn if you don’t believe me” I said.

“He is a pretty good cook” she admitted.

“And photographer” I reminded her “I’ll show you some of my best photographs when we’ve finished here, and I’ll cook you both breakfast tomorrow, as for what I do now, I’m an explorer and reserve guard”

“Why a reserve guard?” Winter asked.

“So that I know how to hold my own in a fight, me and Autumn are travelling the world after we’ve stayed here for the week, next stop, Germaney”

“Why Germaney?” Midsummer asked.

“Weil die Deutschen geil sind (because the Germans are awesome)” I said, recalling what Autumn had taught me over the past year.

“Keimähnen, nicht Deutschen (Germanes, not Germans)” Autumn corrected me “dies ist Reiterstand, nicht Erde” (this is Equestria, not Earth)

“Sie sind die gleiche Sache (they’re the same thing)” I replied.

“Nein, Sind sie nicht (no, they’re not)” Autumn said, Winter and Midsummer watched our argument like a verbal tennis math.

“Ach hör doch auf (Shut it)” I said, crossing my arms, Autumn just smirked.

“Why have an argument in Germane?” Winter asked.

“Because it helps me practice” I said “you should have seen the first time I had a proper argument with her in Germane”

“You could hardly speak any Germane at the time” Autumn said, facehoofing.

“It still counts” I said.

“You ended up quoting Rammstein songs” she said.

“What’s Rammstein?” Midsummer asked.

“Don’t ask” both me and Autumn said at the same time, a waiter came to the table and we ordered our drinks and food, the waiter then walked away to notify the chef.

“So, you drink cider” Winter said, noting my drink order.

“Yeah, you?” I asked.

“Every now and again” he said “like tonight” Autumn took note of this.

“Ha ha, no, you are not challenging Vuur to a drinking contest” she said.

“Oh come on” I said “you said I had to relax and stop worrying, if I chose to do it by participating in a drinking contest, so what”

We all walked down the nightclub district of Trottingham, we had already had a few at a pub and we were now looking for a club to go into, Winter eventually pointed one out that he frequently visited, we all walked inside and I saw a giant colour changing flashing checker style floor in the centre of the club with ponies dancing on its surface, dubstep pounded out of the speakers at ridiculous levels and I could see a white unicorn mare with a two-tone electric-blue mane and tail with purple sunglasses at the DJ booth, we all walked over to the bar and ordered a round of drinks, I noticed that there was a subtle sound proofing spell in the bar area, it didn’t block out the music completely, just reduced it to the level of background music, I noticed that some of the music playing was songs that I had supplied to a club in Canterlot, it seems that they had gotten quite popular since then, I sipped my cider, tapping my fingers on the counter in time to the beat, once everyone had the drinks that they ordered we walked over to a set of sofas around a coffee table and sat down, making light conversation, Winter was confused by one of the songs.

“This is weird” he said.

“Human Music” I said, both Winter and Midsummer were surprised.

“You mean…” Midsummer went to say, but I cut her off.

“Yes” I said “I did supply this music to the night club industry whilst I was in Canterlot, how does it feel to know that you’re listening to alien music?”

“Actually, it’s not that different from our music when you think about it” he said, it was at that moment that a song I really knew well came on.

“Oh shit, excuse me please, this is my dance tune” I said, getting up and running over to the dance floor, once I was in a clear enough area I started to dance, earning the attention of quite a lot of ponies

.

When the song finished I bowed and the DJ turned the volume on the music down and spoke over the P.A. system.

“Holy Celestia, I think he needs a round of applause, don’t you?” she asked, in a thick Trottingham accent, a majority of the ponies in the club started cheering and stomping there hooves on the ground in applause.

“Hey, dancer, come up here a sec” she said, I walked across the dance floor and up the steps to the DJ booth “so, how about you tell everyone your name” I felt a little put on the spot, but regardless I spoke into the microphone.

“It’s Vuur Koning” I said, she looked surprised.

“As in the Vuur Koning that has been hanging around Canterlot for the past year?” she asked, over exaggerating her surprise.

“Unless I have a clone that I wasn’t aware of” I said, shrugging.

“I bucking knew it” she said “fillies and colts, if you don’t know who this guy is, he has been causing quite the stir in Canterlot this past year, not only has he supplied a bunch of songs from his home-land, to the clubbing industry…” the whole crowd cheered “he’s also did something, something so crazy, stupid and awesome all at the same time, that has automatically put him in my good books, and you want to know why?”

“WHY?” the crowd shouted.

“He punched that flankhole, the one who dared to insult this fine city; Prince Blueblood, in the face” she said, now everyone cheered

“So Vuur Koning, are you here by yourself, or with a group?” she asked, I heard Autumn, Winter and Midsummer cheer.

“Erm, with them” I said.

“Well, you know what” she said “I’m in a good mood, so for the rest of the night, all of your group’s drinks are on the house, you hear that bartender?” the bartender in question raised his hoof to show that he heard her

”Everypony, on more time, Vuur Koning!” the crowd cheered really loudly this time, before I had a chance to walk back to the table the DJ stopped me, this time she spoke to me off of the P.A. system.

“Hey, kid, when I’ve finished this set, come find me, I need to speak with you” she said.

“Fair enough, when do you finish?” I asked

“About an hour or so” she said, I nodded before walking back to the table

“Good gods, Autumn” Winter said “you never told me he punched Prince Blueblood in the face”

“Is that good or bad up here?” I asked, taking a sip of cider

“It’s a good thing” he said “he called Trottingham a city of commoners, so he is hated throughout the city, I don’t see why Celestia keeps him around”

“In all honesty, she hates him, she only keeps him around because she would rather keep an eye on him than let him have his way” I said.

“That’s… actually quite clever” Midsummer said, before drinking a mouthful of cola, as she was the designated minder for the night, she wasn’t drinking any alcohol, after some time the DJ finished off the set before hoofing over the booth to another DJ, I downed my cider and stood up.

“Where are you off to?” Autumn asked.

“The DJ wanted to talk to me when she finished her set” I replied, she stood up as well “I’m coming with you”

“fair enough” I said, before walking towards the room the DJ went into, a bouncer went to stop us from going inside but the DJ let us through, the room was full of gold records in picture frames, we all sat down on some chairs.

“Alright” I said “what did you want to talk to me about?”

“I want in on your little adventure” she said.

“What?” I asked.

“You heard me, I want in” she repeated

“How did you know…?” I went to say

“About your little ‘quest’?” she asked rhetorically “when you’re a DJ and song producer, you have to stay in the loop with certain things, plus news travels fast, especially when it originates from Canterlot, as I said, you’ve been causing quite a stir in the capital”

“OK, give me a good reason why we should let you come with us” I said, gesturing to me and Autumn.

“When your a DJ for 10 years straight, you need a break” she said, removing her purple lensed glasses to reveal a pair of vibrant cerise eyes “I need to disappear for a while, you present the perfect opportunity”

“*sigh* alright” I said.

“Look, I’m coming with you, whether you… what?” she asked.

“I said alright, you can come with us, but we’re setting a few rules” I said

“I’m listening” she said.

“One, if we end up in a fight, what me and Autumn say, goes, both me and Autumn have combat training, but ultimately she outranks me” I said “I’m a Royal Equestrian reserves private, she is a Royal Guard Special Operations Sergeant, so if I say to do something, do it, if she says to do something, do it like your life depends on it”

“Fair enough” she said, shrugging.

“Two; I’m an omnivore” I said “and my pet timberwolf and falcon are carnivores, we are going to be hunting animals for food, either get used to it, or get lost”

“I’m used to hanging out with griffins, I’ll deal with it” she said.

“Three; everyone looks out for each-other” I said “that means if one of us get into a fight, we all have to help, however, if you go purposely looking for a fight, you are on your own”

“Four; all of our money is pooled together and divided equally amongst us, regardless of how much we individually earn, and a percentage of the total is set aside for emergency situations”

“Five; any form of racism, discrimination or prejudice will not be tolerated, those are the rules” I said “follow them and you should do fine, now, what’s your name?”

“Vinyl Scratch” she said.

“Well, Vinyl Scratch, in a week, we leave for Germaney, if you aren’t at the start of the road that leads to Germaney by lunchtime, we leave without you” I said, Vinyl nodded.

“I’ll see you in a week” she said

I'm sorry if it's not up to... Scratch... ok, my jokes are terrible

also, if you understand the whole 'falcon at a nightclub' joke, then you get a cookie

anyway, please tell me what you thought