I woke up multiple times during the night hearing. I don’t know what it is I was hearing but it did not sound pleasant. I did manage to get two or three hours of sleep.

I had a few choice words for Silver the next morning. I could not talk to him that day since he stayed in his room the entire time and I wasn’t risking walking in on them. I rolled over to talk to Harmony.

“How much sleep did you get last night?” I yawned and closed my eyes.

“I didn’t sleep at all. I was kept up by whatever they were doing.” Harmony tossed the pillow she had on her face into the air.

“Same. I think we could probably get some sleep now if you wanted to.” I smiled and pulled her close.

“No. I’m not going back to trying to sleep right now. I don’t think we are going to do anything today anyways.” She put one of her hooves around me. She started to fall asleep. “I’m. I’m not going to fall.” She fell asleep. I teleported out of her grasp and onto the floor.

“Sleep tight. I’m going to go for a walk.” I was whispering just in case she was actually still awake.

I ventured downstairs. Onyx and Demo were sitting at the table drinking coffee.

“Onyx don’t you think you should just go to sleep?” Demo was staring longingly into his coffee cup.

“No. After last night I don’t think I’m going to be able to sleep for a while. So I’m just going to drink coffee to stay awake.” Onyx’s eyes were wide open as he rocked on a stool.

“Don’t you two think you could have just gone to the hostel for a bed?” Stone had been sitting not too far off eating an apple.

“Could have but I wasn’t leaving the house to go stay there. I had enough of that harassment after the last time we stayed there.” I couldn’t tell if Onyx was shaking from the coffee or from his own will.

I rolled my eyes and walked out the front door. The city was still not quite in full gear for the day. It was just after eight and most ponies were just walking into work. I hadn’t been to the stores around town so I decided that if I wasn’t going to get any sleep might as well go shopping.

“Morning Midnight.” Spitfire was sitting on a bench not too far away.

“Hey Spitfire. How are you today?” I trotted over to her.

“I’m doing fine. Is there any chance that Silver will be coming out of the house today?” Spitfire looked up to the second floor.

“No I don’t believe he will be. Most of us were up all night listening to whatever it is he was doing.” I closed my eyes.

“That bad huh?” Spitfire leaned forward.

I was partially asleep but snapped out of it. “Yeah. I barely got two hours of sleep.” I shook my head a bit.

“Do you want me to help wake you up?” Spitfire got off the bench.

“Yes please.” Her idea of waking me up was to slap me across the face a few times. “I was better after the first one. The rest of those just hurt.” I rubbed my cheeks.

“Sorry. I’m not use to waking up ponies who aren’t trained for stuff like that.” She looked at my face where she had hit me. “You’ll be fine. Might be a little bit of bruising but other than that nothing.” Spitfire smiled nervously as I looked at her.

“Yeah thanks for that.” She shrugged. “You know the town pretty well. Do you know where I might be able to pick up some new gear?” I yawned.

“Yes I do. The best place for that would be Bits and Bobbles. It’s off over there. I’m not one hundred percent certain where since I don’t go there often.” Spitfire waved a hoof towards the center of town.

“Thanks. I’ll try to get Silver to talk to you whenever he isn’t trapped in his room.” She saluted me and I headed down in the direction she had pointed.

It took me a few minutes but I eventually found Bits and Bobbles. The town itself wasn’t beautiful since most buildings were rebuilt out of sheets of metal.

Bits and Bobbles was a small building with an actually cheery front. The store stood out from the rest of the town due to it’s bright colors. The inside was of an entirely different caliber. The inside was painted a shade of bright pink that was a slight bit displeasing to my eyes.

“Hello. Welcome to Bits and Bobbles. We have everything you might need and some stuff you might not. We also have special orders but talk to me about those in private.” The stallion that had greeted me was loud and filled with joy.

I was surprised that he had survived this long. “Hi. I was told I could buy some new weapons and gear here.” I was still trying to wake up fully.

His voice wasn’t grating but it was very loud. “Oh yes ma'am. You can buy anything here from a bobby pin to this sniper rifle.” He held out a sniper rifle and a bobby pin and shook them at me. “So what can I help you for today?” He slipped the merchandise back under the counter.

“Well I was looking to buy some ammo and weapons.” I was shying away from him just in case.

“Well of course silly, but what kind of weapons and ammo?” The stallion spun around on a stool. As he spun it rose higher and higher.

I had nearly sat down trying to lean away from him. My flank finally hit something but it wasn’t the ground. A pillow had appeared below me. “How did you do that?” I was looking between him and me.

“I didn’t he did.” He pointed off behind me. I looked but nopony was there.

“Nopony is standing there you know that right?” I was seriously starting to consider shooting him.

“You just can’t see him. I know he’s there though. He always is.” His mane changed style for a few seconds before he snapped back to normal. “Anyways I bet you are probably in need of some ammo for an assault rifle. One that’s been chambered to fire bullets with more powder behind them. I’d say a boar rifle.” His smile didn’t waver.

“Yes. How. How did you know that?” I pulled out my rifle.

“He told me so.” He pointed to the wall behind me.

I looked around again to see nopony in the store but us. I was about to draw out my .44 when I found it had already been taken from me. “How did you do that?” I grasped at it with my magic.

“It’s best not to ask questions you don’t want to know the answers to. I have a few boxes of bullets for your guns. They aren’t cheap weapons to fire so you are going to have to pay a lot for these.” He dangled the bullets in front of me. I reached for them but he kept them just out of reach.

“How much for the bullets?” I was hypnotized.

“Fifty caps for these bullets. Anything else you want?” Something in his voice kept pushing me to buy more.

“What kind of weapons do you have in stock?” I drew closer to the counter.

“Well we’ve got small caliber pistols, a few large rifles, a couple of melee weapons, a few weapons you’d need a battle saddle to use.” He started listing off weapons and putting them on the counter.

I had started drooling about halfway through the presentation of weapons. So many cool looking weapons that I probably couldn’t afford.

“So what are you in the market for?” He waved his hooves over the weapons on the counter.

I pointed at one of the pistols that he had shown me. “Ah good choice.” He picked up the weapon. “A .50 caliber pistol. You could make any earth pony jealous if you mouth fired this thing without flinching. It packs a mighty punch and will kill most ponies in a single shot.” He held it out of my reach.

I made a few noises and curled my hooves towards me like a foal would do if they wanted a toy. He drew back the weapon.

“You can have this gun for one hundred caps.” I almost threw the caps at him. “Woah there nelly. You should also note that the bullets for this aren’t cheap. One shot is ten caps.” I drew back my caps for a second before snapping back into my mind.

“So I can only get a few bullets for it if I do buy it. Ok give me five bullets for that the gun and the other bullets for my guns.” I dropped two hundred caps onto the counter.

“Are you sure that’s all you want? I do have a few other weapons that might suit you.” He put the gun into a small pile of stuff for me.

I stopped and thought about how many caps I had. Without drawing into the caps Harmony and I had save for our life down the road I had five hundred caps. One gun on the counter caught my eye. I grabbed a hold of it and floated it out in front of me.

“A shotgun? You don’t seem like the type of pony to get up close and personal with your enemy. But if you do want it that will bring your total up to two hundred seventy five caps.” He looked at me expectantly.

“That little for the gun and bullets?” I was looking the gun over. I had seen a few shotguns and knew that this was a pump action.

“Oh you wanted bullets for it as well? Yeah that makes more sense. A box of twenty five shells will be seventy five more caps. So three hundred fifty caps in total.” He started shoving merchandise back under the counter.

I reached into my saddlebags and hoofed over the rest of the money I needed to pay.

He slid the bags off the counter and hoofed me the bullets. “Thank you.” He simply smiled as I got back to my hooves.

I stepped outside and started heading back home. “That was really weird. I wonder if he’s insane. It would explain a lot of that about somepony who isn’t there actually telling him something.” I shook my head trying to clear myself of the experience.

“Ah I see you met the shopkeep.” One of the guards stepped out from the shadows.

“Yeah I did. What is up with him?” I slid the rest of what he had handed me into my saddlebags.

“Nopony really knows. He says he’s seen a creature from beyond a screen or something. I would steer clear of him unless you absolutely need something from him. I’ve seen many things out in the wastelands and he creeps me out more than anything else I’ve ever seen.” The guard shuddered and backed away from the shop.

“Yeah he seems like he might have that effect on people. Now if you don’t mind I need to get home.”

He stepped aside and I continued my walk home. Spitfire was sitting on a bench not too far from the house.

“Are you just going to sit there until Silver comes out?” I trotted up next to her.

“I saw him look out his window earlier. He saw me and closed the curtains. So I decided to sit here for a while before going back to my office. It’s much nicer to come out and do something rather than sit in an office all day.” Spitfire took a deep breath and sighed.

“I could try to convince him to come out of his room.” I trotted over to her right side.

“Don’t bother. I think he just needs another day or so to get readjusted to having Rose around.” I turned to leave but she reached out to me. “Could you stay here for a few minutes? I’m bored out of my mind.” Spitfire pulled her hoof back.

“Yeah I guess so.” I sat down on the bench with her. “Anything you want to talk about?” I leaned back and yawned.

“Not much really.” She stopped for a few seconds. “Do you ever miss the place you came from?” Her voice was a bit shaky.

“Yeah. Sometimes I do miss my home and all the ponies I grew up with, but out here I’ve made a new life for myself. What about you?” I looked to her.

She was silent for a few seconds before speaking again. “I do miss my old life. All of the ponies I used to live with and fight with. They made me who I am but I had to leave them.” She stopped again before changing back to her normal self. “Tell Silver that once he leaves his room he is to report to me immediately.” She got up and flew off.

“Ok.” I stayed on the bench for a minute before heading inside.

I opened the door and nearly tripped over Onyx and Demo. They were laying on the floor asleep. Harmony was walking down the stairs. She seemed a little bit better than she had been this morning. Meanwhile Stone was sitting in one of the chairs just watching everything. I trotted up to him.

“Hey Midnight where have you been?” He looked like he had just woken up from a nap.

“I’ve been out buying a few things. What did I miss while I was out?” I watched Harmony slowly walk down the stairs.

Stone waved a hoof across the house. “You missed these two falling asleep after doing it on the floor. Harmony just woke up a few minutes ago. She seems to be looking for you. I got enough sleep last night that I have just been watching out for everypony while they do whatever they need to do to cope with the sleeplessness. As for Silver and Rose. I don’t know what they are doing. They have been upstairs all day. They became really quiet a few minutes before you showed up.” Stone sat up a bit.

“Do you think it’s safe to go check on them?” I levitated my saddlebags into a chair.

“I would hope so. I don’t think anything they could be doing would be too unsafe. Especially not for you.” He winked at me.

I shook my head.

“Don’t play dumb with me. I saw a few of the things that came out of your room after your birthday.” He smirked at me.

I was blushing because I knew just how bad some of that would look outside of my room. “I think I’ll go check up on them know. Hi Harmony I’ll be back in a minute or so have some coffee.” I levitated a cup onto the table in front of her and trotted up the stairs.

I knocked on the door to Silver’s room. “Are you two doing stuff?” No response. I opened the door a small crack. No noises assaulted my eardrums so I threw the door the rest of the way open. I was fortunate and they weren’t bucking.

“Hello Midnight. How are you this fine afternoon?” Silver looked to be asleep and Rose was awake to greet me.

“I’m doing fine. I just came to check on Silver. Spitfire says she needs to talk to him about a special mission of some sort. When do you think he’ll be awake?” I crept farther into the room.

“I’m actually awake Midnight. I was just pretending to be asleep until I knew what you needed.” Silver lifted his head up.

“So when are you going to leave your room?” I stopped about halfway between the door and bed.

“Tomorrow morning. I suggest you all get some much needed sleep. I’ve heard what everypony has been doing since we kept them up last night.” Silver laid his head back down on Rose.

“Alright but don’t keep us up tonight. If not for me do it for them. Onyx and Demo are passed out on the kitchen floor and Harmony could be passed out in the toilet for all I know.” I was getting a little bit angry at him.

“Well if you want to you could go to sleep right now.” He opened one eye to look at me.

“It’s about noon Silver.” I tapped the ground impatiently.

“Yeah and if it is as bad as you say you are going to need all the sleep you can get.” Silver closed his eye again.

“Fine but no doing anything tonight. If you want to do stuff go rent a room somewhere.” I trotted back out the door shutting it behind me.

“I have a special mission for all of you. We have been getting some strange readings from this location here.” Spitfire pointed to a map. “I need you to go investigate and recover whatever it is that is making these readings.”

“Anything we should be aware of in that area as a threat?” Silver was looking intently at the map.

“Our scouts have seen nothing in that area. Should be a safe trip. I would suggest leaving a few ponies behind. We have a few things that are being delivered to your house and we need to be able to get in without destroying the door.” Spitfire turned away.

“Understood.”

“Dismissed.” Silver saluted and we left the office.

“Anypony want to volunteer to stay here?” Rose and Stone raised their hooves.

“Don’t worry Silver I don’t have eyes for your mare.” Stone stepped cautiously away from Rose.

“I wasn’t worried I was just thinking about tactical advantage.” His eyes shifted between Stone and Rose.

“You do like to do that. How about I take your mind off of it.” Rose had a really seductive voice and it took all my might to resist ogling her.

“Another time Rose. For now we have a mission to go on. So You two will stay here just incase something happens.” They nodded. “Well then we should leave here quickly if we want to reach the area before dark.” Silver kissed Rose and we were off.

I shiver went down my spine. “Anypony get the feeling we’re being watched?” I looked around.

“I have a feeling something might be watching us but it would have already tried to kill us if it could. So we should just ignore it for now.” Silver kept trotting casting glances off into the distance.

“If you say so Silver. I don’t like it one little bit.” I shuddered again.

We continued walking for another two hours before we reached the sight that Spitfire had labeled for us. Silver pulled out a small device designed to pick up whatever had been off with this area.

“So what exactly are we looking for here?” I checked my pipbuck to make sure we were in the right area.

“Well if I’m correct we are searching for an entrance to a stable. At least that’s what it looks like. It could be potentially anything since nopony has scouted this place very well.” Silver levitated the device around.

“So we could find alien technology here?” Harmony had convinced herself that aliens might be watching us and have technology that we could use.

“More than likely, no, but I suppose anything is possible.” Silver paid little attention to anything but the device in front of him.

“See Midnight I told you there could be aliens watching us.” Harmony stuck her tongue out at me.

“Whatever. Let’s just keeping looking for whatever this thing is.” I walked for a few more steps before putting one of my hooves down on a chunk of metal. “What the buck is that?”

“That would be one of the things we are looking for. If it were active you would have been blown to a bloody pulp.” Silver levitated my hoof off of it.

“So I repeat what is it?” It was floating right in front of me.

“That is a deactivated mine. Common weapons to use as traps in the military. They can do quite a few different things. Incendiary, freezing, magical explosions, or just an explosion. Most ponies here in the wasteland would love to get ahold of them. Watch your step.”

I slowly back pedaled running my flank into Harmony. “My my are you sure we should do that here in the middle of a minefield?” I didn’t blush but did turn my head away from her. She giggled before wrapping a hoof around me.

Silver was pushing ahead pulling mines out of the ground and making sure they were deactivated before putting them into his saddlebags. We continued on this way before the device Spitfire had given him started flipping its shit.

“So I take it we’re close to whatever we were sent here to find?” The machine was beeping very rapidly.

Silver pointed to a metallic console sitting in the open. “That is what we came for. It is much more advanced technology than anything you have here. That comes from Spitfire’s world. We need to retrieve it so she can study it and see what it is doing here.” We cleared the rest of the mines out and got within a few feet of the box.

“Stop right there.” A stallions voice boomed over the entire field.

I looked around before I spotted a grey blur flying at the console. I was trying to reach for it with my magic but it escaped me. We galloped after the mysterious figure. We gave chase for a few minutes before the figure seemed to vanish through a solid steel door.

“Ok so does anypony want to explain what just happened?” I was panting a little bit. Running had never been my strong suit.

“I have an Idea as to what just happened but I need to investigate further to be certain.” Silver approached the door. He knocked a few times before speaking again. “General I know it’s you.” He paused. “I just want to talk to you. Please come out here and talk to me.” He waited for a response.

The stallion's voice sounded through the door. “I can’t do that Silver. I need to get this package back to base.”

“You can do that later for now I need you to talk to my friends. We just need to know why this technology was brought here.” Silver stepped away from the door.

A mare stepped through the door. I was stunned. All stable doors were solid steel and three feet thick and I had just seen a mare step through it.

“You might want to close your mouth.” The mare had a deep voice. “So who told you about this?”

Silver had saluted this mare. “Spitfire sent me to figure out what it was doing in this world. Usually things don’t travel between the worlds. So why is this here?” Silver held up one of the devices Spitfire had give him.

“We have been testing to see if we could bring equipment through to this side. We figured out we just needed to dumb down the technology a bit. Things that exist here and there can be brought between the worlds.” She looked over the rest of our group.

I whispered to Harmony. “Do you find this a little weird. I mean a mare with a stallions voice just walked through a solid steel door and Silver doesn’t seem to be affected by this.” I stayed close to Harmony.

“General if you would please remove your mask. These ponies deserve to know who you are so they can start calling you by your real name.” Silver waved a hoof in our general direction.

The mare took off her mask. I was astonished as to who was standing before me.

“Derpy. Is that really you?” I rubbed my eyes just to make sure I was seeing things correctly.

“Yes it is Midnight. It’s good to see you again. How have you been since we last met?” Derpy’s voice started to shift back to the one I remembered.

“I’ve been good. So wait you’re a general?” I nearly jumped towards Derpy.

“Yes she is Midnight. I would like to formally introduce you to General Derps.” Silver froze up for a second. “General Derpy. Most ponies call her General Derps.” Silver lowered his head.

“Chin up soldier. You have not offended me. I know what everypony calls me. I’ve been called worse before so I don’t mind anymore.” Derpy put a hoof under Silver’s chin.

“Thank you general.” Silver smiled as Derpy removed her hoof.

“At ease soldier.” Derpy returned to her normal stance.

“So how did you walk through a solid steel door?” Harmony was the one to ask.

“Well I do not have a place in that world or this world so I can travel freely between the two as I wish. We are called the displaced and I believe you can see why. We are kind of like gatekeepers between worlds. We can lead ponies in and out of their home world and into another world. That is what happened with Silver. He was born in this world and trained in the other.” Derpy stepped past Silver and towards us.

“Ok that sort of answers my question but how come Silver didn’t move through the door when he knocked on it?” I was still astounded seeing Derpy walk through a solid steel door.

“Well this is a gateway between the worlds. Those who are not displaced cannot move through it by themselves. If they have a displaced to help them they can move through the door and into a pocket world.” Derpy stopped a few feet in front of us.

“Pocket World?” I cocked my head to the right.

“A small rift in time and space that has been set up so that we may travel between the worlds easier. I could show you if you’d like to see it.” Derpy held out a hoof.

“I don’t know. Is it safe for us to travel inside?” I was reluctant to take her hoof.

“One at a time. If I were to try and escort more than one pony at a time I’m not sure I would be able to keep them safe on the journey to the pocket world.” Derpy waved her hoof a bit.

“I would like to go but I don’t want to leave my friends behind and vulnerable.” I looked around.

“Easy fix. Silver use your magic and put up a shield over this area.” Derpy kept her eyes pinned on me.

“Yes ma’am.” He saluted and put up a shield.

“Now Midnight grab my hoof and I will take you to the pocket world.” She pushed it towards me a bit more.

I grabbed her hoof and she dragged me through the door. The best way to explain what I saw next was just to say it was a bunch of bright colors that generally resembled objects that I knew. We were in this state for a few seconds before the ground rematerialized underneath my hooves.

“I hope that wasn’t to rough on you. Most ponies experience a little disorientation and nausea after doing that the first few times.” Derpy was standing next to me.

I stumbled around a bit before getting back on my hooves and staying there. “I’m ok. A little bit nauseas and that’s it.” I looked around. “Wow this place looks a lot like my stable.” My vision was still a bit blurry.

“It was designed to look like a stable. We don’t know who exactly created these pocket worlds but we do know that they are scattered across the galaxy.” Derpy let go of my hoof.

“So does anypony else have the ability to do this?” My vision was slowly starting to unblur.

“Yes. There are a few of us that you might know. Other species can travel between the worlds like I can. I have met a few very interesting creatures in my travels.” Derpy set her mask down on a table.

“There are other species that can do this. Are any of them dangerous?” My vision finally returned to full focus.

“We usually choose the kindest and gentlest of our species to represent us when we meet.” Derpy set a few other things down with her mask.

“You meet with these creature regularly?” I sat down.

“For us it is about every two years. Other species only come to the meetings every ten or more years. And there are some that haven’t been seen in millennia. I think the next meeting is in a few days. So some of the delegates will be arriving shortly.” Derpy trotted over to me with a pillow.

“They meet here. All of them meet here in this place.” I grabbed the pillow and sat down on it.

“Not all of them. Usually just the ones who aren’t too far away from our own planet.” A fizzling sound started and abruptly stopped. “Sounds like a few of them have arrived.” The sound of hooves on steel resounded through the stable.

“So who has arrived?” I was afraid of the answer.

“Hard to say who has arrived. I’d put my money on.” A pair of dice rolled into the room. “Thought so. How you doing Dice.?” Derpy turned her head to look at the new arrival.

The stallion peeked his head around the corner. “I’m doing as fine as I can. How about you?” The stallion stepped out from behind the corner.

“Just blowing the mind of a mare who didn’t know anything about this.” She waved her hoof around the room.

“Cool.” He pointed at me. “You can keep those die. I’ve got quite a few pairs like them.”

“Thank you.” I levitated the dice to myself and tried depositing them in my saddlebags. To my surprise they fell to the floor. “What?” I looked back to see I had nothing on.

“Most of the time we don’t bring the stuff that ponies have with them here. Especially if we have a meeting coming up. Wouldn’t want to spark an interdimensional conflict because somepony was freaked out by one of us.” Derpy was speaking to Dice without making any noise.

I grabbed the dice and held them in my magic. “So his name was Dice?”

“Diamond Dice is his name. I still don’t know much about him other than he throws those dice at people he likes.” I looked at the dice again. “I would keep them if I was you. It’s good luck to meet somepony like us. We are few in numbers and we can help out if you really need us to.” Derpy held out a hoof.

I kept ahold of the dice and sat down. “This is confusing.” I grabbed her hoof.

“Don’t worry most ponies say the same thing when we tell them about this. Some don’t believe us and deny that we are anything special. I would find it pretty hard to see something like this and not believe it. So what do you think?” Derpy pulled me to my hooves.

“I’m a little bit stunned to say the least. I don’t know if this is just some weird drug trip or what but it’s awesome.” I was really considering being drugged out beyond belief.

“Ask Silver about this. He’s seen this so many times I think I finally broke him into believe in this whole place. Now do you wish to return to your friends?” I nodded my head. “Alright. Dice hold down the fort I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“Alright. I’ll greet whoever comes in next. Don’t take to long though. You are the life of the party after all.” The stallion didn’t make another appearance.

Derpy grabbed ahold of me and dragged me back out into the world I knew. My friends had sat down on the ground and were waiting for me.

“Welcome back Midnight. What did you think of the pocket world?” Silver dropped the shield.

“I’m not sure what to think.” I saw that the dice had been brought back with me. “But I think I should probably believe that it is true.” I smiled.

“So what are the dice about?” Silver was the only one to question the dice I had gotten.

“A pony gave them to me while I was in the pocket world.” I took a closer look at them. “They seem to be made of actual diamonds.” I slipped the dice into my saddlebags.

“Wow somepony gave you a diamond huh? They beat me to the punch.” Harmony watched me keenly.

“What do you mean Harmony?” I looked to her making my vision a bit blurry again.

She backed off a little bit. “Nothing. Nothing at all.”

“I’ll accept that for now but later you are going to tell me everything.” I took on a seductive tone. “No matter what I have to do to get it out of you.” I gave a little wink.

“Knock it off you two. I swear if you were even a slight bit more like this than you are I would probably puke.” Onyx gagged a little.

“Get used to it. We aren’t going to change for you.” Harmony poked him in the side for emphasis.

“Whatever. Just tone it down a little would you. I could stand it if it wasn’t so blatant.” He grabbed my hoof and pulled me to my own.

I sighed and smacked him. “Shut up.”

“Rude.” Onyx rubbed his cheek.

“You’ve had that coming since the stable and you know it.” I waited a few seconds for my vision to unblur.

He stayed quiet. I nodded and smiled. “So what are we going to tell Spitfire.”

“I’ll tell her that the general came by to do some testing. That simple.” Silver waved to Derpy as she walked into the pocket world.

“Alright. Sounds good to me.” I looked back to my friends.

Unknown POV

“So are you going to tell them about this?”

“Maybe one day they will know. Some seem to know about me already. Best to not mess with the world more than need be.”

“Sounds good to me.”