About three hours later, Mac found himself confined into a cramped chamber in a rather uncomfortable position. It was so cramped, in fact, that he thought when the others came back to retrieve him: they might have to pry him out with a shoehorn.

“Rocky Rhodes didn’t even get this cramped…” Mac mused as he tried to maneuver his hoof to scratch his chin, and failed. “I’ve got to watch some newer movies…”

After a few more minutes feeling like the innermost layer of a turducken, he finally heard hoofsteps, and saw a vague light from the door down the hall opening.

“… but there might be things he could clear up for us!” He heard Twilight speculating in the distance.

“That might be,” said a gravelly, masculine voice that he really hoped he wasn’t mishearing, “but he needs to be kept under professional watch until you can get him to Canterlot.”

“I’ll have him under control, Shiny!” Twilight said reassuringly. “Just enjoy your Empire, we’ll be fine!”

Mac chuckled to himself, for her now knew who this was: Shining Armor, Twilight’s big brother, and the former captain of the Royal Guard. Now the Prince in charge of a nation of shining ponies. Mac almost slapped himself for all the cheap crystal jokes he wanted to make right now.

“Well, we should probably get him out of there, he might be getting stiff.” He heard Twilight say in concern.

After a few seconds of silence, Mac heard her speak again in a giggle: “Brother, please! Control your mindset!”

“I wouldn’t need to if I trusted the guy, and your unintentional innuendos aren’t helping!” Shining shot back. If Mac wasn’t scrunched into a balled-up pretzel, his hoof would’ve met his face. He decided to settle for screaming at the top of his lungs.

“I know I’m not exactly the most trustworthy character right now, but come on!”

He heard the door opening from the opposite end of him, and saw light on the wall. Or, was it the floor? He really had no idea which way he was facing at this point. He felt a strong hoof reach over and grab his throat, and next thing he knew: he was face-to-scary-as-hell-face with the Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor.

Mac leveled his eyebrows into a dry expression and smiled evilly, flicking his tail slightly:

“I heard you needed a flyswatter a few years back, sorry your order was so late, I just—”

*THWACK!*

Even after a whole afternoon, Mac was still nursing his swollen eye. But finally being able to make that joke was so worth it!

At the moment, Mac found himself standing on the lounge deck of an airship sent from Canterlot, dubbed the Albatross, which was headed towards a large mountain about sixty miles away. Due to the ship normally being used as a luxury cruise vessel, Capt. Warp never truly went full speed ahead.

Twilight Sparkle and the group stood behind him: each one agreeing to take a turn to watch him. They had let Pinkie try about an hour back, but she kept trying to play games with Mac.

“Don’t you guys normally travel by train?” Mac questioned.

Twilight gave him a cold look. “It’s that peculiar omniscience you possess that prevents me from entrusting in your honesty…” she snorted.

Mac decided to have some fun with this:

“Is this going to be like that time with Zecora, is it? Where nopony trusted the oddly smart one?”

Silence.

"I mean, it's not like you're poisoned by blue flowers, or anything..."

No sound, nothing audible. But if looks could speak, her expression would be screaming countless blasphemies at him.

Pinkie Pie, despite the biases her friends showed, thought this stranger was not that much different than the Mac she knew. At least, other than the total ignorance of the way their world works, his almost complete incompetency towards flying, the fact that he didn’t always want a poppy-seed muffin, his utter disrespect for the absence of his Cutie Mark, the fact that even Twilight doesn't know where he came from, and his oddly optimistic attitude while faced with several angry mares.

Other than that, there really wasn't anything suspicious about him!

She could tell that mealtimes were usually very disquieting for Mac: even though whoever was watching him would leave momentarily to get him whatever he ordered from the ship's menu, and he always paid out of his out pocket. That wasn’t the bad part, though. Oh, no: the bad part was that every lunch break happened to be during Rainbow’s watch. And each time she set the plate down, Pinkie could hear her hissing something threatening into the stranger's ear: things like “Stay out of dark alleys.” “Never wander alone.” or, his personal favorite: “Your next nap might last for eternity.”

Pinkie tried her best to provide a sharp contrast to this, however, at his first breakfast on the 'Tross: she was always bouncing around like a month-old foal, and singing some obscure tune or other. At first, she could tell the stranger found it to be slightly annoying. But after the first day, he must have thought it would have been a welcome exchange for the disapproving scowls he got from Rarity.

She really didn't like the way her friends were treating this peculiar pony.

It was Myra’s turn to watch on the second day when Mac had gathered enough courage to speak:

“They’re dead, aren’t they?” He asked soberly.

Myra looked at him in shocked confusion. “What?”

“Your Mac’s parents, I mean.”

“What do you care?” Myra asked sternly.

Mac could all but read her suspicions on her forehead. She must have thought this a trick, a con into receiving her trust. He let himself drift into silence, and remained that way for a few minutes until venturing to speak again.

“How did you get these names?” he asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Well: Mac Senseipony, Myra Evershy? These aren’t exactly Equestrian names. So, how did you two get them?”

Myra looked out to the scenery. “They’re nicknames, Stranger. Self-assigned. Our real names are simple: Mac's name is Amethyst Dawn, and I’m Whitelight Evershy. But most people use our nicknames: like Twi, Apps, Oddity, Pinkie, Flutters, and Dashie.”

Mac nodded, and let silence reign for the rest of the day.

On the fourth day, during Rainbow’s watch: the Pegasus was giving Mac the Death Stare. One which, understandably enough, made him very uncomfortable. In fact, he was starting to prefer the constant threats.

“Uh… can I help you?”  He asked, trying to avoid eye contact.

No reply, just the intense glare from her pained eyes.

“Tell you what, I know a neat trick!” Mac said; trying to lighten the mood. He grabbed his glass of ice water, took a gold bit, and threw it into the water: then peeling that same bit off the bottom of the glass.

Now that got a reaction. With eyes blazing: she snagged his collarbone with both hooves, and rammed his head into the table. When he came up, the bridge of his nose was bleeding; and her vice-like hooves had now seized his neck fully.

“Who are you? And what did you do with Mac?” she screamed, not realizing her grip on his throat was preventing him from answering.

When he didn’t reply, that seemed to put the icing on the cake. “Answer me! Or else you’ll take a one-way flight to Tartarus!” she screamed, tightening her grip even more. The sound of his head repeatedly denting the table, however, must have attracted attention.

To this day, he wonders what tipped them off to this new definition of pain.

“Rainbow, stop!” Myra screeched from another table. It was hardly a second before she ran up to seize the wrathful mare, with Twilight and Applejack in hot pursuit. They restrained Rainbow and held her back: granting Mac a desperate gasp for air.

“I’ll kill him!” Rainbow bawled, swiping her forearms towards his neck.

“Hey, he already promised to tell us everything he knows when we get to the citadel.” Myra said softly, shifting her stern glare between Rainbow and Mac.

“And Celestia can tell us if he lies.” Twilight stated plainly.

“Yeah, Martha, calm down!” Mac said, absent-minded.

Everypony froze, and Mac stared blankly at the group for a few seconds: his eyes nearly bugged out of his head. He finally realized how he recognized almost everyone in the group, they were the alternates of his friends back in his own world. Granted, some of them were gender-swapped, and there were even some people he probably had yet to meet, but they were all there.

“What did you call me?” Rainbow Dash asked in indignation.

“I-I-I’ll explain at the palace.” Mac answered quickly. He was again beginning to hope he could figure out just how to explain the whole ‘Interdimensional’ thing to them, when he didn’t fully understand it himself.

“I’ll never understand him!” Rarity huffed indignantly, glaring back at the impostor that was currently being watched by an especially angry Rainbow Dash at a table to their right. “We were right about him all along, darling! He is out of place!”

Twilight listened, with a mistrustful face aimed at the… whatever it was. It’d been four days since they left, and she was still trying to figure out exactly how this all was possible, or how it was even conceivable that there was somepony—neigh, something in the entire universe that could resemble the ‘Black Stallion’ so well.

‘I mean, a black-colored coat is so rare… in fact: it’s only once even been heard of before Mac! How is this disguise achievable?’ She strained, rubbing her aching head. ‘There were no signs of dark magic, cloning, or sorcery. How did he even-?! Hold on... wait a minute…’

She shot up a victorious smile: “Technology!” she beamed, loud enough to cause all seated at their table to jump.

“What’s a ‘heck-re-toll-logy’?” Applejack asked, shocked out of her thoughtful trance by the shout.

Rarity cocked her head slightly at the confused farmer. “She said ‘Technology’, Applejack!” she said quietly.

“Oh, sorry. Ah must’ve been thinking again.” The farm pony shrugged.

“If you don’t mind my asking… what exactly have you been zoning out about these past few days?” Rarity asked. “You’ve been increasingly distant lately.”

“None of your-”

“Anyway,” Twilight interjected: “I think he might have used some form of technology to get into that disguise!”

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.” Applejack protested, “You’re still speculating on this? He said he’d tell us everything he knows at-”

*THUD!*

She was cut off by a loud noise: like someone accidentally flew into the hull of the Albatross.

“What was that?” Myra asked, breaking her thoughtful silence and looking over the side.

“Sounds like its five-o-clock somewhere!” Applejack said contemptuously.

*THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!*

“That must have been quite the party.” Rarity huffed. “And to think, they didn’t invite me.”

*THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!*

“Rainbow, stop it!” Myra screamed suddenly. She had looked over in time to see the peeved cyan Pegasus slamming the impostor's face into their table: his head leaving a new crack, or dent, each time it hit.

The others joined her in racing over to the brutal scene, helping her to restrain the enraged pony.

‘It’s going to be one of those weeks.’ Twilight mused, struggling to maintain her grip on the writhing Pegasus. ‘Just gonna be one of those weeks.’

Once they had successfully calmed Rainbow Dash, Twilight stayed behind to talk with her while the others went to take the stranger to the ship's infirmary.

"What the hell, Dash?!" She fumed, whirling around until she was muzzle-to-muzzle with her old friend. "We're trying to get information out of him, not give him blunt force trauma!"

"Well, I'm trying to accomplish both of those at once," Rainbow retorted, "so sue me."

"I know you, Dash. You never act like that without a reason. What did he do?"

"Well, let's see: he replaced our friend, lied to our faces, complains when we treat him like we should... shall I go on?"

"Yes," Twilight stated firmly.

"Why?"

Twilight furrowed her brow. "Because we're all as scared for Mac as you are, Dash. We're all on the same track, and none of us trust that... thing in anything."

"In fact: the thought of snapping his miserable neck and sucking the memory out of him has crossed my mind more than once!" The Alicorn boomed darkly: flaring her wings out, and cornering her startled friend. "But he's our only link to Mac, he might know what happened to him. And even if he doesn't, he knows more than we could hope to gather without him!"

Once she saw Rainbow cowering from her, though, she folded her wings: and lowered her head in shame. "As you can see, this is taking a toll on all of us, but we need to behave. It's our only chance to get our friend back."

With that, she turned away, feeling her eyes well up with tears held back.

"It was that trick he did..."

Twilight stopped, and looked back at Rainbow.

"What?"

"His trick. It was one of the last tricks that Mac showed me before he disappeared." Rainbow said, walking up to Twilight, and wrapping a wing around her. "Seeing that... that impostor doing a trick he had just developed... and he did it so well… I was just... I just lost it..."

Twilight nodded in understanding, before stretching her jaw in a wide yawn. She looked up as Rainbow chuckled, only to see a warm smile on her face.

"Cone on, Egghead," Rainbow said softly, "let's get some sleep." Next Chapter: Chapter Six: Encounter at the Citadel. Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 17 Minutes