The rain fell hard the next day. Pegasi ponies had scheduled the storm, and the citizens of Ponyville were more than ready for the torrent. Twilight sat at her desk, as she always did, skimming through a book about human nature. Spike noticed this, and walked up to her.

   "More about the humans? Are you ever not reading about them?" Spike said, starting to get annoyed at his friend's constant research.

   "Oh, Spike, calm down. What's so bad about it? I'm just...curious is all."

   The dragon looked at the pile of books next to Twilight's desk, then gave her a bewildered look, "There can't be that many books about one species. At least, not any species I've seen."

   "Exactly, Spike. You should have came with me to the camp, you would have learned alot. Human history is very interesting, indeed."

   Spike leaned over to look at the book that Twilight was looking at, The Second World War - A Guide. He noticed a grainy, black-and-white picture of a rather greasy, mean-looking human holding his arm straight out, as if he was giving some form of salute.

   "One thing I have noticed," Twilight continued, "was that humans seemed to have much more battles and conflicts in their time than the Equestrians have had."

   "Well, it just shows how mean they can be." Spike pointed out.

   "Yes, but also...how mean they don't need to be." Twilight added, drifting into her thoughts halfway through saying it.

   Ethan was sitting on his guest bed, staring out at the rainy day through his second floor window. The rain reminded him of home, and of how he likes taking walks on rainy days. Today, however, it would be a trot, and that's what kept him inside.

   Despite his heroic efforts the other day, and his successful flying lessons, he couldn't shake off the fact that he wasn't a human anymore. He loved his new friends, and he was glad Barry was along for the ride, but he missed his human friends. His classmates. His family. He wondered where they were, and if they had even been ponified yet. All of these thoughts were rushing in his head at once, and taking the cue, he decided to take a nap. Slumping over on his bed with a muffled thud, and resting his head on the soft pillow, Ethan fell asleep instantly.

*******

   "BUURRRP!!"

   Ethan shot up from his bed, now hovering above it with his wings, and looked around to see where the loud belch had come from.

   Barry, apparently having arrived during Ethan's slumber, was laughing his flank off, "Good out, Spike!" He shouted, congratulating the dragon, who was now holding a scroll in his previously empty hands.

   "Twilight! It's a letter from Princess Celestia!" Spike said excitedly as the unicorn rose from her desk to where Spike had been standing. Ethan flew down to join them, touching down next to Barry.

   Spike cleared his throat, and read from the scroll.

   My faithful student Twilight,

   It would seem that Equestria is on the brink of an attack from the humans. I plan to come to your library in Ponyville to we can discuss this further, because I'm sure you and your friends must have many questions about the task at hand. No need to reply, I will be there before you know it.

   ~Princess Celestia

   Immediately after finishing the letter, Twilight got into her authoritative mode. She stood up straighter, and she seemed much more serious.

   "Barry, I need you to get everypony else and come back here in 20 minutes. Ethan, stay here, and help Spike and I clean up. This may be a last-minute, informal visit, but that doesn't mean we can greet the Princess in a dirty library."

   Barry stormed out the door, quick as a flash. He may be reckless, Ethan thought, but he's reliable given the circumstances, I guess. Ethan soon began picking up the heavy books, and flying them into appropriate shelves. The bookshelves seemed to have been labeled pretty obviously, so organizing them was easier than it had looked for him.

   "Twilight?" Ethan asked from across the room.

   "Yeah, Ethan? Is something wrong?" Twilight could hear the nervousness in his voice.

   "No, no. I was just wondering something..." Ethan searched for the proper words to say, without trying to sound offending. "From the sound of things, you're the Princess's prized pupil, right?"

   "Well, I wouldn't say that..." Twilight blushed, "But she counts on me to help her research the magic of friendship."

   "Right, right. What I'm trying to say is..." Ethan now noticed that Twilight is paying full attention to him, "Is the Princess nice?"

   Twilight laughed a little, "Oh, yeah. Of course she is. You don't need to worry at all about that. She'll greet you with open hooves."

   "Okay, good. Sorry if that sounded stupid." Ethan said, picking up The Human Anthology and putting it in it's place.

   "No, you're entitled to ask that. You haven't met the Princess yet. You've only been in Equestria a couple days."

   Ethan was a little surprised, to say the least. It had seemed like weeks since he was called down to the ponification room, and given that purple fluid that afternoon. It was amazing how much he had learned, and how much he had done in the past few days. He had probably done more as a pony in a few days than he had done in a few weeks as a human. Somehow, Ethan felt achieved because of that.

   As soon as Twilight had put Broadway Musicals of the 1940s in its place under 'Human Culture', the door knocked.

   Twilight looked at Ethan curiously, and Ethan returned the look. Twilight said, "Barry...wouldn't knock, would he?"

   "No. I wonder who it is?" Ethan paced himself and trotted to the door. The only other noise besides his hoofsteps was the rain rapping against the windows, and that only made the suspense worse for him.

   On the other end of the doorway was a rain-soaked white mare. Her mane was cotton-candy pink, much like Pinkie Pie's, but this mare's coat was a very pale white, much like a ghost's.

   "C-can I come in?" The mare said, in the most innocent, adorable voice Ethan had ever heard. Twilight shoved Ethan out of the way, staring at the mare with a bewildered look on her face.

   "Sure! Of course you can! Come in, have a seat!" Twilight said happily, but almost fake-sounding.

   The mare trotted in slowly. "Th-thank you, miss..." And she sat down quietly at the table in the corner. Ethan was still confused as ever, but soon paid no attention, because the door burst open again seconds later.

   "WE'RE BACK!" Barry shouted over the pouring rain, startling everypony already present, especially the new mare. The excitable unicorn trotted in confidently, with Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack following, all soaked from the rain. Rarity was in a fashionable purple raincoat, and she seemed pleased that she didn't get as wet as the other ponies. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash flew in through the upstairs window.

   The moment that the ponies gathered in the main room of the library, they all began bowing in the general direction of Ethan. Ethan looked behind him, and noticed that the mare from earlier had disappeared, and had been replaced by a magnificently large pony with a multi-colored wavy mane. Her coat was the same color, but her head was adorned with a massive unicorn horn, and two intimidating pegasus wings were on her side. Noticing the crown, Ethan assumed that this was Princess Celestia, and awkwardly bowed with the others.

   "Hello, everypony."

   Twilight approached the Princess, who was nearly twice her height, and spoke. "Princess Celestia, this is Ethan and Barry," she said as she gestured to the two timid ponies looking at her wide-eyed, "They're the humans I wanted to help us."

   "Well, it's very nice to finally meet you two. Welcome to Equestria." Celestia said, greeting Ethan and Barry in a very motherly, amicable way. Now a little less nervous, Barry stammered for a greeting. "H-hi, your majesty."

   "Please, just call me Princess, or Celestia. A friend of Twilight Sparkle's is a friend of mine."

   Twilight giggled at Barry, then turned back to Celestia. "They've already met my friends, and we've agreed to go on with our plan."

   "And that is...?" Applejack chimed in.

   "That's why the Princess is here. We need to discuss what to do."

   "Well, hang on, Twilight. There is something I need to mention before we go any further." Celestia said, a little less imposing and authoritative than expected.

   "What's that, Princess?" Twilight asked.

   "Listen. We can't just go on living thinking all humans are bad."

   "Why not? I don't see the problem with that at all!" Rainbow arrogantly put in, only to be elbowed in the side by Applejack.

   "I understand your sentiments, Rainbow Dash, but it simply isn't true. Humans are normally very kind people, and these two here are the prime examples of it."

   Everypony looked over at Ethan and Barry, who were blushing at all of the positive attention.

   "I supported the construction of the Conversion Bureaus, or 'ponification camps', as they are sometimes called, because I wanted humans to see the world through our eyes, and to help them get out of their dying world. It's clear that the human society simply cannot go on the way it is now, and that's why we encourage the integration."

   "So, who has a problem with it?" Rainbow asked, a little more concerned after hearing the other side of the story.

   "That's who we're up against. They call themselves the Human Liberation Front, and believe solely in the survival of the human race. They formed when we started the ponification campaign, as a way to prevent the humans from moving to Equestria."

   Twilight suddenly turned to Ethan. "Ethan, did you know anything about this? Surely the humans had been talking about it before you left."

   Ethan remembered reading about this in the paper he had clipped out mentioning the camps. "...the Human Liberation Front refuses to give up hope in the human race, even though the American human population as dropped 30% since the opening of the ponification camps two years ago..."

   "I read about it a little in the weeks before I went to the camp. They threatened to bomb the Conversion Bureau in Wisconsin once, but I'm sure it was just an empty threat. I know you ponies probably don't get the news we do, but it was a serious crisis for the pony supporters in the area."

   "Oh, yeah! I remember that!" Barry said, apparently proud he recalled the event, "That was a serious fiasco. I was vacationing near there during spring break, and the townspeople were going mad with protests on the streets."

   "Er, Princess," Applejack said, changing the subject, "So when ya said last year that all the humans were bein' bad, was that just a load of hooey?"

   "Well, yes, Applejack." Celestia replied, "The boss of the HLF had told me that, and I quote, 'the ponies have the entire human race to deal with'." She used hoof-quotes to emphasize the comment, "I mistook this as humans being 100% anti-pony, and announced this to you ponyfolk. I had learned since then that , and I apologize for any confusion."

   "Oh, it's fine, Princess." Fluttershy added, "We know how nice humans are. There are a lot of wonderful new ponies moving in, and they are so kind to us..."

   "I'm going to have to agree with Fluttershy on this one." Rarity said, "I have a few new helpers working for me at the boutique now, and I simply could not go on without them."

   Rainbow Dash surrendered her former views, "It's just...it's hard to imagine such nice ponies can come from where humans come from."

   "Well, Rainbow, I don't think you should be one to talk. Walk a mile in a human's shoes, and you'll see why some are so cynical and mean all the time." Ethan said, being oddly protective. Even Rainbow was surprised from Ethan's sudden defensive manner.

   "I guess you're right, Ethan." Rainbow said.

   "So, what do we do to stop this, Human-uh, whatever thingy?" Pinkie Pie asked Princess Celestia.

   "I was just getting to that. Ponies are very pacifist, as you all know, so we will not be fighting back. We will begin with defending our territory. I want to strengthen the magical barrier around Equestria that has kept it from humans for so long. The magic has been worn from decades of being there, and it's time we update the system. I want you ponies to look for the book that holds the spells we need to strengthen the shield."

   "I guess it's not in the library..." Twilight joked.

   "No, it's not. You will need to go to The Ruins of the Ancient Pony Sisters, and search there. The spells should be in a book of forbidden magic hidden deep in the ruins themselves. I will give you a couple of days to prepare, but only a couple of days. The HLF's attack could happen at any time."

   "Got it." Twilight replied bluntly. And with that, the Princess teleported away in a flash of blinding magic.

   Pinkie Pie shook with excitement, before beginning to jump around the room, "YAY! ADVENTURE!"

   "Listen up, everypony! Only pack what you absolutely need. This will be a much harder trek than we are used to, and we need to pack lightly to survive. Spend these next couple of days resting up, you'll need plenty of energy."

   The other ponies began to leave, including Barry. Twilight then tapped Barry on his back.

   "Barry? Where have you been staying the past couple of days?"

   "Oh, I've been staying at Fluttershy's. Why?"

   "I will need you to come over tomorrow. I need to teach you some advanced magic, and fast. Lessons begin as soon as you get up tomorrow."

   "Alright, alright." Barry said, pretending to sound nonchalant about the ordeal, but was actually very ecstatic.

   Ethan had flown up to his bed, which was still as messy as he left it. The sky was pitch black now, but the rain pattered on the window incessantly. Liking the white noise while he slept, Ethan waited for everypony to leave, then drifted softly into a deep slumber. Next Chapter: Not Sure If Want Estimated time remaining: 27 Minutes