“Are you known among your people for your investigative skills?” Princess Celestia asked me.

“No, not especially,” I admitted. “Why-?”

“Were you trained in the matter? Or are you especially observant, even by pony standards?” she further inquired.

I shook my head, but remained quiet this time.

“I have ponies who are trained in such things. Ponies who have their cutie marks in investigation, even,” Celestia said. “I will have it looked into. Perhaps it is enough you set such an investigation into motion. And if it is not enough? If we have need of your strengths, we will call upon you without hesitation. I promise.”

“Very well Princess. I will trust this to you and your agents for now,” I said, saluting. “Do you have another need for us? Or should we return to Ponyville to resume our normal duties.”

“I do have another matter for you to look into. The ponies at the new settlement of Appleloosa have been encountering difficulties with their neighbors. Take your team down there by train, and assess the situation. I would suggest leaving your weapons behind. There have been reports of violence, but nothing on the scale of what the yaks brought to us,” she explained. “Go, and resolve the situation. Write back to me daily, and I will keep you apprised of the situation here.”

“Do we know what the situation is with the yaks?” I inquired.

“Their forces continued north, to their own lands,” Celestia said. “We have not been able to catch sight of the escaped Prince Rutherford. And several moderately powerful artifacts and a fair amount of currency have turned up missing since his escape.”

“You think he surrendered as a way to get in here to rob the place?” I asked.

“I don’t want to jump to conclusions,” Celestia couched. “But that is certainly one interpretation.”

I shifted uncomfortably, frowning. Then, after a bit of thought, I shook my head. “I’ll leave this to you, your Majesty. The girls and I will go take care of the situation you mentioned. We won’t let you down.”

Celestia frowned at me in return.

“Twilight will be with us,” I offered, replacing her frown with a sigh.

“Remind me again, why are we changing trains in Ponyville?” Rarity inquired. “I mean, the train we were just on goes all the way to Appleloosa. And this is adding nearly a day to our journey. Not that I really mind the chance to see my little sister, and sleep in my own bed tonight, but it does seem a bit… inefficient.”

“I told you,” Applejack said. “I need to stop to get Bloomberg, to bring along as a gift for my cousins in the new settlement. And Cloud, I’d be mighty appreciative if you could lend a helping hoof, err, hand in the matter.”

“Sure, AJ, but… who or what is Bloomberg?” I asked as I followed her toward Sweet Apple Acres.

“He’s an apple tree, one of my favorites, truth be told. But from what my cousin Braeburn’s written, they could use his help more than we can,” Applejack said.

“What… kind of help does an apple tree give?” I questioned.

“Apples, of course,” the farmpony said, looking at me like I was an idiot. “And shade, I suppose. And homes fer birds and certain critters.”

I put my head in my hand and sighed a moment. “Alright. So Appleloosa needs apples and shade more than we do. I guess I can see that. Sweet Apple Acres does have an awful lot of apple trees.”

“Enough that we can spare one for ponies in need, anyhow,” Applejack confirmed. “Come on. Grab a shovel and I’ll show you what to do.”

“It isn’t fair,” Rarity whined as we pulled away from the station in the early evening.

“What isn’t?” I inquired, having little enough to do that I was willing to at least hear her out.

“After that Applejack made us switch trains, and ride at night, she went and bought up the private car before I could, just so she could tuck in her tree in its own little bed! So now I’m stuck here with all of you, no offense. How am I supposed to get my beauty sleep in conditions like this?!” The unicorn threw up her hooves and shook them dramatically. “It’s a tree! It belongs in the cargo car!”

“He has a name,” Applejack said angrily, closing the door behind her as she finished entering the shared car. “It’s Bloomberg. And he happens to be my absolute favorite apple tree.”

“It’s a tree dear. Don’t ponify it. It’s degrading to the rest of us,” Rarity objected.

I coughed a bit to interrupt. “What makes Bloomberg your favorite?”

“Bloomberg was the first tree I planted myself when I was a little filly. I planted his little apple seed when mom was pregnant with Apple Bloom. He was named after her, you see?” Applejack explained. “He always reminds me of better times… when mom and dad…” she couldn’t finish.

“I never met your parents… what happened to them?” I inquired as delicately as I could manage.

“They… passed away. And that’s all I care to say about that,” she said, looking out the window at the passing scenery with an angry look.

I placed a hand on her shoulder, supportively, and watched the scenery pass by, not pressing her for more. Rarity, thankfully had the dignity to let her complaints drop for the time being.

Spike eventually broke the silence with a rapidfire series of explosive pops, as his fiery breath converted a bag full of small, hard corn kernels into a bowl of fluffy white morsels. “Who wants popcorn?” he asked. A variety of other flame-heated snacks were soon to follow.

“This is delicious,” I complimented after biting into the s’more he provided me. “I’m glad you could come along. What about your friends though?”

“They’re all in school, so they couldn’t really spare the time for the trip,” Spike said. “And we didn’t have enough warning to see if we could make it an official field trip for class. I’m free to come though, since I’m homeschooled, and my teacher is coming along.”

“I think it’s actually quite an important part of a young dragons’ education to travel and see more of the world,” Twilight said. “Even more so than for ponies, given the migratory habits of dragonkind.”

“Wait, we’re migratory?” Spike asked.

“I’m detecting a slight hole in your education,” I teased.

“I actually know very little about dragons,” Spike said, embarrassed. “Aside from what I can learn from the mirror.”

“I’m afraid that’s true of me as well, aside from the mirror part,” Twilight said. “Equestria doesn’t have much in the way of contact with dragon kind. And the eggs we have have been passed down from class to class for many years.”

“What do classes have to do with eggs?” I asked, confused.

“Oh, it’s part of the first year testing at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. She provided each of us with a dragon egg to hatch with our magic. I didn’t realize it until I had succeeded, but I was the first to actually succeed in it… ever, actually,” Twilight said. “I didn’t find out until much later that it was supposed to be a test about how we handled failure… heheh. Oops! But I got a great little brother out of it, so I’m happy it worked out in the end.” She snagged Spike and dragged him into a firm hug.

“I’m not sure ‘brother’ is the right word,” I commented, but didn’t press too hard.

“Either way, I’m quite happy to have actually hatched,” Spike said. “But I don’t have any other dragons around to ask about dragon stuff, and just kind of have to figure it out on my own.”

“I’m afraid I can’t be much help there either,” I admitted. “You’re so unlike the dragons of my world, it’d be pointless to compare.”

“I didn’t know your world had dragons,” Twilight said.

“They didn’t talk. They were more like your hydras, but with fewer heads and powerful wings. And of course fire breath,” I said. “They were essentially just very dangerous monsters… so pretty much the opposite of Spike here.”

“Hey, I can be dangerous,” Spike said.

“You and me both,” I said with a grin, offering him a fist bump. It took a moment for him to accept it, perhaps unsure of the gesture. “We’ll both be as dangerous as it takes to protect everypony, right?”

“Right!”

As night fell, Spike yawned loudly, even as Rarity pulled a pillow over her head. The other ponies were still quite alert, talking loudly among themselves, especially Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.

“Maybe it’s time we all got a little shut-eye,” Twilight suggested. “We’ve got a big day tomorrow.”

I nodded my agreement, as Applejack and I each moved to settle into our bunks, while a chorus of “aww”s rang out from several other ponies. But soon enough, everypony was in her place, and Spike had begun to snore loudly. The sound of which was making Rarity even more frustrated, judging by her look, and her tossing and turning.

“Psst! Pinkie Pie, you asleep yet?” Rainbow Dash whispered, far too loudly to go unheard by anyone in the car.

“No, are you asleep yet?” the pink mare asked back.

“If I was sleeping, how could I have asked you if you were asleep?” my ex-marefriend asked.

“Oh yeah!” Pinkie said with a poorly stifled giggle.

“When we get to Appleloosa, you think we’ll have to carry the tree all the way from the train to the orchard?” Rainbow asked.

“What tree? You mean Bloomberg?” Pinkie whispered back.

“... No, Cloud.” Rainbow answered sarcastically.

“Cloud’s not a tree, silly!” Pinkie whispered back.

“What’s going on?” Twilight asked them, at full volume, causing Spike to open his eyes and start looking around in confusion with a fresh yawn.

“Rainbow Dash thinks Cloud is a tree!” Pinkie explained.

“I do not think she’s a tree! I was just-” Rainbow Dash whispered back, the only one still keeping her volume down, not that it was helping at this point.

“Did you say she was a tree?” Twilight inquired.

“No. Well… yes. But not exactly-” Rainbow defended.

“Ya know she’s not a tree, right?” Twilight pressed.

“Yes, I am,” I said back, as seriously and straight faced as I could manage. Every pony on the car turned to stare at me and I met their gazes for several long seconds before breaking into laughter.

“Oh, for Pete’s sake!” Spike huffed, before opening the door out of the car, letting himself out and slamming it behind him.

“Well, that was kind of huffy,” Twilight said.
“Huffy, the magic dragon!” Fluttershy said.

“Would you all be quiet now?!” Rarity snapped.

“Enough. Get some sleep while we can,” I ordered.

“I’ve never taken orders from a tree before,” Pinkie said as she blew out her candle. “Oh, wait, I guess I have!” She giggled madly for a bit while the rest of the candles were blown out before peace finally descended on the train.

Only to be shattered, just after dawn by a sound like rolling thunder. “A buffalo stampede!” Twilight announced, and soon there were ponies gathered at the windows to watch. I was bunked on the wrong side and didn’t care to join the press of bodies, so I merely yawned and started dressing while they gathered to watch.

“I just love their accessories,” Rarity commented.

“They’re getting awfully close to the train,” Twilight said, sounding a bit concerned. I took that as my cue to grab my sword, and secure it to my back. I didn’t want to assume anything, but…

“Oh, looky! Now they’re doing tricks!” Pinkie said, clopping her hooves. “Now do a backflip!... or just jump?” As she spoke I heard a heavy thump from somewhere around the roof of one of the cars toward the front of the train.

“Are we being boarded?” I asked.

“Looks like it,” Twilight confirmed.

“Loyalty, go check it out. Everypony else, suit up, just in case,” I said, before opening the back door.

“Where are you going?” Fluttershy asked.

“Up,” I said, closing the door before climbed the ladder to the top of the train.

Walking on the roof of a train is not exactly the safest thing to do. But we had completely open terrain here, and I could see that there were no tunnels to worry about from here to the distantly visible town of Appleloosa. There didn’t appear to be anything else along the tracks to worry about anytime soon, either. The only thing I could see above the roof of the train was the slender creature making her way along the train from the far end rather swiftly. I could see she bore a resemblance to the herd of buffalo stampeding alongside the train, but I didn’t feel comfortable declaring her a member of the same species. Perhaps she was a child? She also moved with a speed and obvious confidence that rivaled Rainbow Dash and I, demanding respect in that regard.

Regardless I started quickly making my way to intercept, even as a rainbow streak shot past me to get to her first. It was impossible to hear over the rushing wind, but it looked like they were having a one-sided conversation, the pegasus trying to interrogate her while the mini-buffalo ignored her and rushed toward me.

Dash tried to get in her way, but the buffalo did an impressive flip over her to continue on her way, clearing the gap between cars in the process. Distracted by watching her, Rainbow failed to see an approaching sign and crashed headlong into it, taking her out of the scene as the train rapidly left it behind.

I was a bit better prepared, jumping up and catching her ankle as she tried to jump over me... but the tapered leg didn’t give much purchase, my hand slipped off, and the net result was merely that she landed in a roll on the roof of the car, rather than a run. She quickly rolled back up onto her hooves and resumed running,

I turned and ran after her, but she was close to Rainbow in speed, and I didn’t dare call on my Mako to sprint on a train roof. She got far enough ahead to drop between the last two cars. At that point, I had a good idea what she was up to, but it was too late. I called on my mako to dash along the roof of the car we had slept in, and leapt toward the private car’s roof, even as she hopped back up onto it. But it was detached, now, and separated from the train too quickly. I fell short, landing hard, only for the car to roll over me.

A whistle rang out, even as the car was coming to a stop, and the stampede changed directions, surging back away from the train and straight towards the private car. I had begun to stand, but quickly dropped back onto the ground, as the stampeding buffalo caught the car and rushed it back past me. I was lucky I was thin enough to slip beneath it, but not so lucky when it came to the buffalo stampeding directly upon the tracks. One of the protective gems shattered from the onslaught before they were past and it was done.

“Are you okay?” Rainbow Dash inquired.

“Do you need some water? Or fertilizer?” Pinkie Pie added.

“No fertilizer!” I said, before rolling onto my back with a groan. “Where are they others?”

“Still on the train. Except for Spike, he was on the private car still,” Rainbow Dash said. “I saw him in the window as they ran off with it.”

“Crap,” I said.

“I thought you said no fer-” Pinkie Pie began before I silenced her with a look. I immediately regretted it, seeing the deflated look she gave in return.

“Alright. I’m sure they’ll try to reconnect with us after they reach town. Pinkie, can you leave a trail of confetti so they know we’ve been here? Even if they manage to get the car off the tracks, the stampede’s path is pretty easy to follow. Let’s go. And remember, the goal here is a peaceful resolution,” I said.

“And yet you brought your sword,” Rainbow Dash pointed out.

“And yet they ran me over with a train, twice, and trampled me,” I countered, still in a foul mood over it. “I’ll give them a chance, since I don’t believe I was targeted. But I’m not going in unarmed.”

We followed the train tracks until we saw the buffalo had diverted off of them, dragging the train car with them. So we followed the path farther, around behind a mesa. As we rounded the corner, though, a pair of buffalo moved to confront us, rearing up to tower over me while holding spears.

“Relax guys, they’re okay. These three are with me,” a voice spoke from behind them.

“You’re sure,” one of the buffalo said.

“Yeah, they’re cool,” Spike reiterated as he walked out.

“I’m glad to see you’re okay, Spike,” I said.

“Yeah, they didn’t mean to capture me, and they were really sorry about it. It turns out, buffalo really respect dragons!” Spike said.

“Does that mean they know much about your kind? Maybe they can give you a tutor or something,” I suggested.

“Wouldn’t that be rather convenient?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“I’ll have to ask them. Even just some legends would be nice,” Spike said. “But one they I know they have: someone new for Pinkie Pie to ship you with,” he teased.

“Ugh, I said I wasn’t dating any more ponies,” I said.

“Buffalo aren’t ponies!” I heard from four voices at once.

I blinked, tried to figure out exactly how to point out that the differences weren’t enough to make up for the similarities, or that they didn’t exactly make them more appealing. But in the end, I shrugged it off. I doubted any buffalo wanted to date me anyways, and if they did? I’d give them the same chance I’d given Prince Blueblood.

“Anyways, it’s not a buffalo I was thinking of,” Spike said.

“Oh? Now you’ve got me intrigued,” Pinkie Pie said. “Is it a zebra? How about a giraffe? A griffon? Oh! A dragon?”

“You’ll see soon enough. Come on, I’ll introduce you all,” Spike said, and waved the way forward.

“I have a bad feeling about all of this,” Rainbow Dash said.

“We might as well get on with it. We’re not going to solve the problem without meeting the buffalo, and a friendly introduction will go a long way,” I said.

We made our way the rest of the way to a clearing where a bunch of buffalo were gathered around a fire. My eyes were able to pick out the boards the train car was made from, burning brightly in the flames, while the remained was piled off in a corner. The tree, Bloomberg, was leaned against the cavern wall, intact it appeared. How long it would stay alive, I couldn’t say.

Three figures caught my eyes before the fire, engaged in conversation. One was a male buffalo, dark of fur, powerful of build, with a dramatic white and blue headdress. He seemed important, perhaps their leader. Next to him was the small buffalo that had leapt over me on the train. She was clearly close to him; his daughter? It seemed likely. But the third was the biggest surprise.

He had red hair, sharply contrasting everyone else present, though the feathers and other adornments in his hair made him seem like he was connected to them. He was more heavily clothed than I was accustomed to seeing around here, in a blue outfit that reminded me of a Shinra uniform. In fact, taking into account the light machine gun on his back, and the helmet lying near him with the distinctive triple lens, it was hard to conclude he was anything other than Shinra.

Especially because he was human.

The first human I had seen since I came here, and my first impulse was to cut him in half.