Shouldn't Be

by Lumadous

First published 13th of August, 2012

When Sgt Castle wakes up in a stange new land, he has to wonder how he can survive in such a place

When Sgt Castle drops into strange new land, he has to cope with both his nightmarish past that had followed him to this peaceful land, and his uncertain future as he finds himself developing new friendships. All he truly wants is to return home, but is that the best option, or is it not even an option at all?

Ch 1. Harsh Landing

I woke up in a daze, not remembering what had happened as I tried to get the ground to stop rocking underneath me. What was I doing, where was I? Suddenly in a flash of light and sound I remembered it all, I was on a mission in southern Iraq, something about some IED maker, then we were ambushed by someone. We had just barely made it through when I was thrown from the helo. Sitting up suddenly I whipped out my pistol looking for potential threats, instantly regretting the sudden movement. As I clutched my head in pain and slumped back down to the ground I was grateful to have nice soft grass to lay my head on...

Wait... soft grass?

I struggled to open my eyes, and grimaced in pain as it seemed like I was being stabbed in the eyes with rusty nails. Looking around I saw myself surrounded by what seemed to be hundreds of trees with plentiful fruit hanging from the branches. I scooted myself under the closest one to me and noticed an odd shaped hole in the trees overhead.

"I guess this is the bottom of the rabbit hole, ‘cause this certainly ain't no Iraq." I thought bitterly, heck this place looks more like back home in the mountains of Virginia. I used to always sneak onto the orchard next door to my parents' farm and sneak naps in the safety of the apple trees.

"Hello!" I yell into the orchard, shattering the serene quiet that had been prevalent before. "Anyone out there?"

Waiting a few moments and hearing nothing in response I decide that I'm truly alone in this beautiful place, maybe this is heaven. Although that wouldn't explain the pain I was in, so maybe it was hell, being trapped in an endless orchard with no one but myself. I guess I won’t find out until I explore the place, so I sit up and try to will myself upright.

"So, standing up was much easier said than done." I thought to myself, looking down I could see that my right leg had a large gash running from just above my knee and stopping just below my body armor. Obviously my leg would not support my weight, forcing me to use my rifle as a crutch. I started walking in a random direction, hoping desperately that I would find someone or something that would indicate where I was. While I was walking I tried my radio, only to find it hanging in several pieces.

"There goes that idea, guess I should be glad it's not my head though." I said into the empty orchard.

After about an hour of walking I started hearing a weird noise coming from the otherwise silent orchard, almost like someone grunting followed by a hollow thunk, maybe something hitting a tree.

Hoping that it was someone that could help me I angled myself towards the noise, every now and then getting lost as the noise stopped for a moment or two, but right back on track of the noise started up a few yards from where it had been moment before. After what seemed like forever I started getting close to the noise, the hope of finally finding someone else invigorated me to hobble faster. As I came around a rather large tree I came face to face with an odd looking orange horse wearing of all things, an old stetson.

"What in tarnation?" It exclaimed as I backed away quickly, never seeing the bucket full of apples as I toppled backwards over it.

"Today was just like any other day on Sweet Apple acre farm." Applejack thought happily."Ah wouldn't change this for anything, but why is it ah keep finding myself wishing that something would happen, maybe another adventure with the girls is just what ah need."

Positioning the buckets under the heavily laden branches with practiced ease, she sighed to herself. "Of course ah can't just up and leave Big Mac here all alone tendin’ the farm by himself, now why did ah have to be the element of honesty, ah can't even lie to myself." She thought harshly.

"Maybe ah will go to that shindig that Pinkie is planin’ for next week, surely Big Mac can handle the farm on his own for a night." She said out loud to nopony in particular.

Behind her, she heard some rustlin', she really didn't pay attention to it though because it was probably just Big Mac comin to give her a hoof with the buckin'. Applejack paused for a moment, looking at the sun, Big Mac and Apple Bloom should be at the market all day at their stall, and it was more likely to be Princess Luna than Granny Smith. Turning around hoping to find one of her friends comin’ out to keep her company she came face to face with the weirdest critter she’d ever laid her eyes on.

"What in tarnation!" She exclaimed as the creature backed quickly away from her, a look of fear all over its face as it fell backwards over the buckets she had just filled.

She tried to stop, or at least slow, its' fall but to no avail as it bashed its head on a tree root, knockin’ the critter clean out. The critter, whatever it was, was now sprawled across the ground in a very painful position and Applejack could only feel a little guilty, as it was her who scared the darn thing half to death.

With a sigh, she grabbed it at the base of its oddly patterned tan shirt and started dragging it towards the farmhouse, making slow progress as the creature weighed much more than it appeared.

"Here ah was wishin’ for adventure and it comes fallin’ outta the sky." She thought. "But might as well take care of it, and get Twi and Fluttershy up here, one of them ponies was bound to know what it was, might also want to get Big Mac in case its dangerous."

Looking at the path back to the farmhouse, she groaned inwardly at the distance she was going to have to drag this critter.

"Now why can't more of our adventures be at the spa and need nothin’ other than me to relax all day long?" She thought bitterly.

Ch 2. Proper Introductions

Once again I woke up in a daze, luckily this time I was in a soft bed with clean sheets over me. I lay there for a moment of two, just soaking in the rays of sun from a nearby open window where the smell of sweet apple pie drifted up to me.

"Glad that dream is over." I said out loud to myself. "It's good to be back home...."

The rest of my sentence died on my lips as I opened my eyes and saw that the small room I was in didn't resemble home at all, it was much more rustic with its natural wood floors and furniture and the open window didn't even have glass in it. I sat up suddenly, hobbling as fast as I could to the door only to find it securely locked, the door not even wiggling in the frame. In a panic I hobbled over to the window and looked out to see if I could jump, and much to my displeasure I saw that I was on the second floor over a patch of bare ground. Not liking the prospect of falling from anymore great heights today I backed away from the window and looked for some alternative way out of the room. I was in the middle of tying together the sheets when a click from the door caused me to whip around to face my captor.

"Well good to see ya up, stranger, you had us worried there for a moment." Said that orange horse from earlier as it trotted into the room with a tray of food on it's back.

I cautiously kept my distance as it trotted over to the bedside table and set the tray of food on the table while a second horse entered through the door I had foolishly put behind me.

"Well I've never seen anything like this." The newcomer said behind me as I jumped in shock, landing on my bad leg causing me to cry in pain and collapse. Halfway to the ground a yellow streak shot through the open door and caught me and gently lowered me to the ground

"Oh you poor thing, did you hurt yourself? Let me help you." Said a third horse who had butter yellow fur and pink mane and tail.

"Careful now Fluttershy, we don't know what it is, it could be dangerous." Warned the purple one.

"He's just a poor widdle thing thats hurt, that's all." The one I guessed was "Fluttershy" said bashfully.

"Now wait one minute here, how'd ya tell it was a he?" Said the orange one, who was still next to the bed.

Fluttershy just blushed deeply and pointed at my groin, and to my dismay I noticed that this entire time I've been prancing around naked, like an idiot. I yanked the remaining sheet off the bed and wrapped it around my waist quickly, the horses averting their eyes and blushing a little as they realized what Fluttershy was referring to.

"Well that still doesn't tell us what "he" is." The purple one said as a book floated out of the saddlebags it was wearing, the cover of the book said, "Beasties, creatures, and animals, the adventurers guide to zoography" and the pages started turning on their own, the purple one concentrating on the book as it sat down and studied the book with ease that a college student would envy.

"Well until then ah guess we gotta fix this critter up." Said the orange one as it fished out a roll of gauze and a bottle of something from the tray of food and carried them towards me in its mouth. Fearful of of how well horses can fix me up I started backing away from them, towards the doors, only to run into another one’s legs, looking up it was much larger and was apple red with an old fashion yoke on its neck.

"Hey Big Mac, you mind keepin’ him still so we can help him?" The orange one asked

"Nope" He said with a deep voice with a familiar southern accent.

With "Big Mac" ensuring I wouldn't run away, Fluttershy and the orange one proceeded to wrap my leg up after spreading that cream on my wound, and they were surprising gentle despite the fact that they had hooves. As they were tying the knot to keep it on the purple one, looking frustrated, snapped the book shut with a "harumph".

"Looks like we're going to the zoo girls." She said, looking disappointed that she couldn't find the knowledge herself. "Applejack you mind tying him up so he doesn't try to run away?"

"No!" I exclaimed, pushing myself away, only to run into Big Mac... again.

"Twilight, couldn't you just ask him what he is?" Asked Fluttershy.

"I would've if somepony told me he could talk." She said rolling her eyes, looking at me now she asks, "So what are you anyways, Mr?".

Seeing all eyes on me I have no other choice than to talk now. "I'm Sergeant Castle of the United States Army, and I'm a human of course."

All of them look confused when Twilight suddenly exclaimed excitedly, "I'm going to have to ask the Princess about this, I'm sure she will be excited about hearing about a new species appearing!".

"While that's all fine and good hun, I think Sergeant here would rather enjoy his supper." Applejack interjected bluntly.

"And my clothes back." I added, getting weird looks from the horses.

"Okkaaayyyy." Applejack said hesitantly. "Oh! Alright." She hurriedly added after a moment or two of thought, blushing as she apparently remembered my earlier embarrassment.

"I'll have Big Mac bring them up later, they're kinda soakin’ at the moment." With that she trotted out the door, leaving me with a very curious Twilight and Fluttershy under the watchful eye of Big Mac.

"So where are you from Sergeant Castle?" Asked Twilight, who had a scroll and a quill floating in front of her, I didn't see where she had gotten them from and I had no clue how she was making them float.

"Ever heard of a place called Virginia?" She shook her head. "America?" Again another shake. "Earth?"

"Earth? That's what the Earth ponies wanted to call this land when they first moved here. They came here from a far off land and they were trying to escape from an impossibly cold winter, only after they worked together where they able to defeat the winter and warm the surrounding land, that's where we get our Hearth's Warming Eve holiday from." Said Twilight helpfully. "I'll have to remember to ask the princess if there's a connection in the next letter I send."

While Twilight was making numerous, and hasty, notes on her parchment I cleared my throat and asked,"How the hell are you doing that, is that some super advanced tech?".

Twilight paused for a moment, giving me a weird look as if I had just sprouted another limb from my forehead.

"Haven't you seen magic before?"

"Sure, but where I come from its all tricks or sleights of hand, there are somethings that have been described as magic in the past but we have found scientific reasons for the majority of them. Finding answers and always pursuing that next unobtainable has always been what has driven my people." I said as she hurriedly wrote notes, I didn't have the heart to tell her that a large number of breakthroughs we had were originally designed to give one side the advantage in war.

"That's fascinating!" She exclaimed, with almost schoolgirl delight. "I can't wait to hear about what kind of advancements your people have made to overcome such a disadvantage!" She paused after that last sentence with a slight blush, embarrassed by her insult that she didn't even really mean. Of course I really didn't care, she had spoken the truth and it has been mentioned a time or two to not piss off your captors, no matter how friendly they seem.

Big Mac, still standing in the doorway, spoke up, "Don't you have a letter to send Twilight? The princess would probably like hearin’ ‘bout this sooner rather than later."

"Ohmygosh, yourrightIreallyneedtogo." She said hurriedly as she rushed out of the room, the parchment and quill following her almost like lost puppies.

Fluttershy, who had been shyly watching me from across the floor seemed to get very nervous under Big Mac's direct stare, finally leaving the room whispering something about taking care of "Angel" whoever that was.

Big Mac took a step closer to me putting his rather large face directly in mine. "I don't trust you, if you so much as lay a hoof on either one of my sisters or my granny, healin’ will be the last of your worries." He said threateningly.

With that he left the room, slamming the door on his way out, and re-locking the door with a definite click. A weird thing to be saying to your prisoner, but if I was in his position I would most likely make the same threat.

Finally alone, I sat on the bed with a tired sigh, how hard did I hit my head? It took some convincing that having a conversation with talking horses was most definitely something restricted to hallucinations. The rumbling in my stomach prevented me from thinking further along those lines as I dug into the stack of pancakes and oatmeal that they had left. At least the hallucinations seem to know how to cook.

The Next Day

"RPG!" Yelled a soldier I didn't know as I sprinted across the street to an old burned out car, taking cover behind it, hiding from the hail of bullets from down the street.

"Wheres that air support!" I yelled at my radio man there, after he didn't respond I grabbed his shoulder and shook him, only to have his head roll off onto the ground.

The head of my battle buddy looked at me and smiled, "Don't worry sarge, you're here to save us!" laughing as it burst into flames.

Staring at the head in horror I was filled with rage. I turned and returned fire onto the enemies with a bestial shout that seemed to shake me to the core, my enemies, who seemed to multiply as I shot them, continued without even slowing. One of them ran up and jumped over the car, where I intercepted him mid-air and pinned him to the ground, pulling out my tac knife I went to stab him when his gas mask came off and revealed my Sarah.

"I love you." She said as my knife plunged deep into her chest, "I will always love you," her eyes tearing up, "but why did you have to leave, didn't you love me back?".

In shock I jump off her body as her precious blood leaked across the pavement. Stumbling backwards I look at my hands covered with the blood of my love, and looking around I'm surrounded by the bodies of all my soldiers... the ones I failed, the ones that died because I wasn't there to save them. It's all my fault, they're all dead because of me, it's all my fault. That was my test and I had failed, because of me their families, their wives, their Sarahs' would have to live without them. I went to my knees screaming in pain as a thousand bullets ripped through my soul, knowing each and everyone of them was deserved. If I was there, why wasn't I there?! It's all my fault, why them, why not me?

"Its all your fault!" A thousand disembodied voices screamed at me, laughing at me, their haunting face appearing, each one more and more disgustingly disfigured, more bloody, more destroyed, more my fault.

I woke up with a cry of pain, jolting myself out of the bed, accidentally shoving the orange pony off the other side. I just curled up onto the floor where I landed and cried, their laughter at my failure following me into the waking world. It was a long while before I even noticed a delicate hand on my head, petting my head in someone lap, making soft soothing noises, trying to shake me out of this hell.

After what must have been an eternity I finally had control of my body again, I sat back up and looked to see who had lent me a helping hand.

"You okay now Sergeant?" Asked a wide eyed Applejack, who wasn't wearing her hat for the first time I've ever seen.

"No, and it's not something to be fixed," I replied with a shaky voice. "and just call me Cass, everyone does."

"Okay," She said skeptically, looking out the window. "well it’s about time to get up anyways, come on downstairs when you're ready for breakfast, you're gonna have a busy day."

With that she trotted out of the room, throwing one last worried look over her shoulder before leaving, and going downstairs, where the sounds of cooking soon started.

It took a few minutes that seemed like an eternity for me to regain the rest of my composure. Finally after my hands stopped shaking I was able to grab the stack of clean and folded clothing from the floor just on the inside of the room and hastily dress, glad to be clothed again. Finally heading downstairs towards the smells of a delicious breakfast, desperate to get away from those dreams.

Ch 3. INCOMING!!

As I came down the steps the sounds coming out of the kitchen could have came out of any kitchen in America, the sizzle of pancakes on a girdle, a youngster hurriedly getting ready for school, someone humming some tune of a song long forgotten. I stopped at the bottom of the stairs.

"This is the life I wanted with Sarah, somewhere nice and quiet, away from the horrors of the world, nestled between neighbors who were like family, somewhere we could raise our own." I thought sadly, knowing full well that I probably would never see her again.

With a sigh I cleared those negative thoughts out of my head and stepped into the kitchen. Big Mac, sitting in a chair with a stack of pancakes just looked at me, obviously not happy about me walking free through his house. Next to him was a much smaller yellow pony with red hair and a pink bow almost bigger than she was. She didn't notice me at first but when she did her eyes got huge, bigger than I would've ever guessed possible

"Umm, sis, is this the ‘pony’ you helped the other day?" She asked with a sweet voice.

"Yes he sure is sugarcuge." Said Applejack, who was the culprit behind the delicious smells.

"Umm, not to insult ya sis, but you do know that ain't a pony right?"

"Eeyup." Came Big Mac's response as he went back to work on the stack of pancakes in front of him.

"I bet ya you’re hungry." Said Applejack as she carried over two plates stacked high with pancakes, setting one in front of the little pony and the other in front of the empty seat next to Big Mac.

"Now just sit down an' eat." She ordered, an order I'll gladly accept too.

The meal they had given me last night had been delicious, but as i discovered to my immense joy that the pancake where much better fresh with a touch of maple syrup, if everything here tasted so good maybe being stuck here wouldn't be quite so bad.

I had just finished my pancakes when the little one jumped up and looked at her flank, and with a disappointed sigh she sat back down. Applejack, noticing my confusion spoke up from behind her own stack of pancakes.

"Apple Bloom's just tryin to get her cutie mark, though ah've never seen one for eatin’ pancakes."

"The I'd be the first!" She exclaimed proudly.

"Then ah'd hurry so you don’ get one fer bein’ late fer school."

There was a flurry of movement as Apple Bloom hastily grabbed her saddlebags and pulled a struggling Big Mac through the door, mentioning something about not wanting to keep Mrs. Cheerilee away from her shmoopy-doopy sweetie-weety pony pie.

Looking out the window at the two as they walked towards what I assumed was the school I drifted off, thinking of how I used to walk my little sisters to school then go work at the mill, only taking a break long enough to pick them up from school later in the night.

I was shook from my thoughts as I felt something poking me in the face, startled I jumped and almost fell out of the chair I was in. Looking to see who had brought me back to the "real" world I saw a worried looking Applejack.

"Are you sure you’re okay?"

"Yeah, sure, just give me somethin’ to do all day and I'll do just fine."

"Well since you’re offerin’," She said as I put the dishes into the sink, "I could use some help with the buckin' today."

"Woah! You want me to do what?!"

"Apple buckin', what did ya think ah said?" She said giving me a funny look.

"Yeah, if I told ya your brother would probably kill me."

"Oh darn him, I hate it when he is so protective, ever since we lost ma and pa he has never been quite the same."

Seeing tears in her eyes I quickly tried to change the subject to something less painful. Unfortunately being lost in a new world that you know absolutely nothing about, and guessing that telling them that you killed people for a living is probably not the greatest of ways to start a conversation, I had nothing. After a few moments of silence she shook her head and kicked open the door.

"Come on now, them apples ain't gonna pick themselves ya know."

We had been working for few hours when Big Mac came back, and Applejack took him behind the barn for some "discussin". Soon afterwards he left pulling what looked like a market cart heavily laden with everything apple, from ol' natural to fritters, and it was painfully obvious that he hated the idea of leaving his sister with someone potentially dangerous.

It had soon became apparent that I couldn't knock the apples from the trees so I was content on just hauling the full barrels back up to the barn. It was hard work but the day was beautiful, a slight breeze to cool me and plenty of shade from the trees. The skies were are a startlingly blue without a cloud in sight.

"Well ah'll be, ah've never worked quite so fast before, heck we almost done and it ain't even noon!" She said proudly.

"Well you've never quite had help like these babies." I said as I struck a funny muscle flexing pose, earning me a fit of laughter from the farm pony.

"Ah don't know what Big Mac was worried ‘bout." She said between fits of laughter. "Your as harmless as a kitten!"

"Am I to take that as a compliment?" I asked, bemused.

"Sure ya should, and since we're almost done how ‘bout ah take ya into town and show ya around, seein’ how this place is probably gonna be your home for awhile."

"Is that the best of ideas? I really don’t think that your townspeople will take kindly to having a large weird creature wandering through town."

"Don't cha worry ‘bout it sugercube, at first a few will probably slam their doors and shutters like they did with Zecora when she first moved here, but if need be ah'll kick them doors down myself!"

"Please don't, I really don't want you dipping into my wages to pay for doors you kicked down."

"Now which pony said ah was gonna pay ya?" She said with a big smile on her face as she trotted towards the path to town. "You still gotta earn that breakfast ya ate!"

Applejack was only partially right, we walked into town without any pony really noticing me until we had gotten onto one of the busier streets when suddenly one pony pointed and yelled, "A MONSTER IS RIGHT BEHIND YOU APPLEJACK, RUN!". Most of the ponies on the street, instantly stopping whatever they were doing, stared right at me wide eyed.

"Ummmmm, hi." I said sheepishly, giving a small half-hearted wave.

Yeah, apparently not one of my smarter moves as every pony scattered with screams of terror. One even tried to grab Applejack to "save" her only to be scared off by something even scarier than little ol' me, a furious looking Applejack.

"STOP RIGHT THERE YA'LL!!" She yelled loud enough that my ears were ringing afterwards.

Once again every pony in sight skidded to an instant halt, all eyes now focused on Applejack.

"Ya'll should be ashamed of yourselves, Cass here is friendly as a bunny. Just cause he looks weird don't mean you can hide from him! Heck, ya'll should be welcomin’ him to town!" She yelled, slightly quieter, slightly.

After that little outburst the crowd looked around with blushes on their faces, meekly continuing with what they were doing before I had appeared. A few of the braver ones came up to me and shook my hand, welcoming me to "Ponyville", most quickly disappeared as if I was going to hurt them.

The good new about every pony avoiding me is that we made good time through the crowd towards what Applejack had described as the best place to eat after a long day at work, despite the fact that she had already admitted to being done for the day in record time.

We arrived at what could only be described as a yummy looking building, with wonderful smells coming from within. Applejack seeing me hesitate pushed me towards the door. I opened the door entering the small but cozy shop with a small tinkle from the bell above the door announcing my arrival.

KA-BOOM!!!

They're here, how did they get here, this is too peaceful of a place for war to come, its all my fault if I didn't come it never would've come here...

"SMACK"

My eyes came back into focus on Applejack's face, and I saw her lips moving but didn't hear a thing. She shook me a little, yelling at me now, the worry on her face becoming more evident as I struggled to try to understand her. I looked around and saw that I was behind a flipped table, the items that had been on the table spread across the room that I could see. There were streamers hanging from the ceiling and balloons floating lazily through the air, oblivious to the drama in the room.

"Huh?" I mumbled out of my dry mouth, it barely wanting to do what I wanted it to.

"Ah said it's just a surprise party!" Yelled Applejack right next to my ear.

"Ow" I said as I raised my hand to my ear, only to nearly stab myself in the eye with a knife clutched in a death grip, when did that get there?

"Did he not like my surprise?" Came a sweet, but sad sounding voice from above me.

Looking up I saw a pink pony with wild curls for hair which currently held about a dozen or so cupcakes that had most likely been on the table that had been flipped, leaning over the edge of the table I was behind. Behind her I saw a few other pairs of eyes cautiously peering over the edge.

"Ah'm sure you just scared him a bit too much Pinkie Pie, he is new to our town and ain’t used to your surprises." Said Applejack gently nudging me with her hoof.

"Uhhh, yeah, ummmmm, you just scared me Pinkie." I mumbled out, mouth still not wanting to function.

"Does that mean we can still party?" She asked excitedly, I wondered if she had ever considered switching to decaf.

"Yeah," Came Applejack quick reply. "just no more explosions, you might just kill Cass with the next one."

"Okie dokie lokie!" Came her bubbly response as she turned to presumably restart the party that I had so expertly destroyed, taking the other pairs of eyes with her.

"You okay?" Applejack asked for the second time today, the worry written all over her face.

"I don't know." I replied shakily, "Could you help me?" motioning towards my hand with the knife with my free hand, apparently that hand had forgotten how to let go.

After a bit of struggling to open the hand we finally pried the knife, which happened to be just a cake knife, from my hand. I stood up with a bit of support from Applejack and turned around to behold a scene of utter chaos. There were cupcakes everywhere, a few were even sticking to the "Welcome" banner, everything was soaking with a purple liquid, probably from the empty punch bowl sitting upside down on the cash register. Every pony in the room watched me warily as if I was about to break. The only people who seemed to be happy were two baby ponies, who sat next to a rather large cake, and were busy hoof painting with the frosting and eating the cake.

"SURPRISE." Pinkie whispered bouncing where she was, her excitement evident even though I ruined her party.

"I...Ummmmm......" I felt a gentle nudge from Applejack, reassuring me. "Sorry ‘bout ruinin’ everything." I said with a silly half-grin.

"Oh its ok." Said Pinkie, who was still bouncing. "I was just so excited to throw you a party after seeing you in the market earlier that I didn't even stop to see if you liked surprises."

"Ummm...Thanks." Talking to a bouncing pony was harder than it seemed, but her innocence was infectious. "I'm actually good with surprises, just not explosions or similar noises."

"Good to know, maybe next time we won't start the food fight so early!" She said, still bouncing.

"Ummm, if you don't mind me askin’ what is this all for anyways?" Her bouncing was really starting to get on my nerves now, how could she do that so fast without getting at least a little winded? "No offense or anything but I don't even know ya."

"Well duh." Came her exasperated reply, "That's what the party is for you silly goosie, so I can met you and become your friend!"

I guess Ponyville is next to either the biggest coffee plantation in the world or the largest insane asylum, ‘cause thats the craziest reason I've ever heard for throwing such an impromptu party. Although I guess I really shouldn't complain. Another gentle nudge from behind reminded me that the "real" world still existed.

"Well, where do we start this party?" I said, Pinkie finally stopped bouncing to give me the biggest, friendliest smile I've ever seen, but why does it scare me SO much..

Ch 4. The party to remember

The party, now in full swing, was quite fun, despite the games being more like I was accustomed to seeing at a child's party, but somehow Pinke made them fun and challenging. The DJ had been playing some harsh dubstep for hours, but when Applejack noticed me twitching at some of the particularity harsh beats she went and talked to the white unicorn standing behind the DJ station, convincing her to switch to a slower tempo and less 'explosive' sounding music.

She trotted back over to the couch that I was sitting on and plopped down next to me.

"So what do ya—" I quickly shushed her, motioning towards the two sleeping baby ponies in my arms who, somehow, were able to sleep through all the music and noise of a lively party, but started stirring when anyone tried talking to me directly.

"Aww" Came her response as they snuggled closer to me, apparently I was their newest favorite pillow, hell, when Mrs. Cake tried to take them to their crib earlier they instantly woke up and started crying until I held them again.

"So what do ya think of the party," she said, as she scootched uncomfortably closer to me so she could whisper into my ear.

Blushing slightly, I whispered back, "I'm still amazed that she pulled it off this quickly."

"She's had a lot of practice, its kinda her thing."

"Umm, you feelin’ okay Appleja—" Applejack shushed me with her hoof pointing at the twins, who had stirred.—

"Call me AJ *hiccup*, have I mentioned you look good with kids?" Apparently that punch had been spiked at some point.

"How much have you had to drink AJ?"

"Enough to do this!" she said with a grin as she pecked me on the cheek. "Hehehe, you taste funny."

"You're never allowed to drink alcohol, ever, again."

"Oh you know you liked it," Applejack teased.

"Yeah and so did everyone else in the room," I said, nodding my head towards the crowd who had stopped and were watching us intently, waiting for more "action".

Applejack, noticing this, blushed deeply and attempted to hide her face behind her stetson. Her embarrassment only gaining a few more 'aww's from the group.

From behind the couch Pinkie Pie slowly rose so her eyes were showing and broke out into an age-old song,

"Cass and AJ sittin’ in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G, first comes twins, then comes marriage, then comes......" Pinkie stopped when her friend stood up shakily with tears in her eyes and ran out of the shop, into the cool evening air.

Standing up I quickly, but gently, set the twins down on the couch and ran out the door after Applejack. Where the hell did that come from? Have I been so engrossed with Sarah that I couldn't notice other females being attracted to me? Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. At least she was easy to follow, just follow the dust cloud and the surprised looking ponies. I rounded a corner near a giant tree that looked like it was actually a house and ran face first into a wall of red, knocking me flat on my ass.

"What did you do?" asked Big Mac accusingly, stepping onto my chest.

"Honestly, nothing, she kissed me at ugh—" The rest of my sentence was cut off as he nearly crushed my ribs.

"SHE DID WHAT!" Getting face to face with me.

"*gasp*..Can'...*gasp*...breath" I barely wheezed.

"Brother, stop it you’re hurting him!" Thank god Apple Bloom came right then, I was about to pass out.

Giving me a glare that left no room for question, he ordered me "Stay right here." and then took off after his sister.

I didn't have much time to breath because Apple Bloom was soon bouncing on my chest, driving all air from it.

"Did she really kiss you? What was it like? What did she say? What did you say? Are you going to marry her? Huh huh huh"

Reacting quickly before I could add broken ribs to my current injuries I caught the young mare mid jump, surprising her enough that she "eeeped" rather cutely, if she hadn't been trying to kill me a moment before. Pausing for a moment to catch my breath, I saw quite a few odd looks coming from ponies near me. I sat Apple Bloom next to me and set up, scooting back so I could lean against a lamp pole.

"Yes, she really kissed me, but she was drunk so she wasn't thinking straight, she said I tasted funny, I told her she was never allowed to drink again, and I already have a fiancee back in my world, so I don't know. Besides, we aren't really the same species so I don't think it could work out.

"But Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth ponies marry each other all the time."

"Well, that’s ummm, different, I mean heck, ya'll look similar, just some have wings or horns, me, I don't even walk on the same number of legs that you do."

"But weirder things have happened," she started looking desperate.

"But what about my fiancé, I've been here for what 3 days, what would she think if I cheated on her so fast, before I even know if I can get home or not?"

Her pout on her face let me know she wasn't going to let the subject drop easily when I was suddenly sent flying down the street into a wall with a solid thud. Seeing stars I saw a light blue pony with rainbow hair? Shaking my head to make sure I was seeing right the other, very pissed off looking pony got right in my face.

"What did you do to Applejack?" She demanded in a dangerous voice.

"Nothing," said Pinkie Pie from behind the blue mare, startling her enough that she headbutted me in the nose. I swear I heard something crack as blood flowed freely down my face.

"What did you say Pinkie?" she said turning around, still pinning me to the wall.

"I said he did nothing, she kissed him and I went and embarrassed her like a mean ol' bully." Pinkie sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

"Well I ugh," looking down at me she grimaced at my blood soaked front and my not-too-happy face.

"Sorry," she said with a weak smile.

"Can you two just watch Apple Bloom while I go find her?" I said flatly, how was I getting sucked up into all this soap opera bull?

"Yeah, we got her," they said in unison.

Standing up, I looked in the direction that she had ran off and started jogging after her, completely ignoring the looks of shock as ponies saw my blood everywhere. After a few blocks the road emptied out onto a path that lead into the forest and, seeing nowhere else she could have ran, I didn't even hesitate as I ran in.

I had only gotten about a hundred yards into the forest when I heard a shriek of terror ahead of me. Determined to help my friend I sprinted into the clearing ahead and ran into a statue that looked alot like Big Mac. Ahead of me was a weird chicken/snake hybrid thing and Applejack who was backing away from the creature as quickly as she could. I watched as my friend slowly turned into stone right before my eyes.

Something in my head just clicked, everything started happening slower, distorted around the edges. I was very familiar with this state, whenever my life had been in direct danger it always seemed to happen and I was able to save myself.

Planting my hand on statue Big Mac's back I leapt over him, gaining the attention of that creature. It slowly started turning towards me, but it looked like it moved so sluggishly I easily ran forward and grabbed it by it's neck, squeezing hard and forcing its face into the ground so it couldn’t spit poison at me too.

I looked up at Applejack to see her almost completely stone, only the area around her eyes were still her. She looked at me with hope and pain as, one final tear falling to the ground, she finally turned completely into stone.

I looked down at the little chicken thing in my hands, my vision growing more blurry and taking a red tint.....

Ch 5. Visit

My alarm clock was beeping somewhere off to my right, and in my drowsy haze I instinctively reach out and start swinging my arm around hoping to find the stupid thing when it connected with something soft. Opening my eyes to see which one of my soldiers I just smacked in the face I saw Fluttershy, who was wide eyed with surprise. Guess that being in this world wasn't a crazy dream.

"Sorry," I muttered, letting go of the lock of her hair I had grabbed. "What happened? Last thing I remember was finding...." Sitting straight up I started looking for Applejack.

"Is she okay?!" I yelled, grabbing Fluttershy's shoulders, "Is Applejack okay?"

"Meep" Came Fluttershy's response as I shook her.

Seeing that I had scared Fluttershy into speechlessness, I swung my feet out of the bed, ripping all of the carefully placed needles and sensors out of my arms and off of my chest, causing all of the monitors next to the bed to start screaming in warning. I stood shakily and pushed my way out of the room past the doctors and nurses trying to subdue me. Entering the hallway I saw a nurses’ counter piled high with stacks of paperwork. Making my way to the desk I vaulted over it and started looking through the piles for a roster of some type. Under one of the piles I found a clipboard, grabbing it and giving it a sharp yank sent the pile that was on top of it toppling all over the nurses who were still trying to subdue me. The clipboard had a hoof written note clipped up on top.

"Must thank Zecora for providing the cure for the cockatrices victims in room 203."

Hoping that's who I'm looking for I use the rollie chair that was behind the desk as a battering ram to get through the ever-growing crowd of nurses and doctors trying to stop me, I could see their mouths moving and yelling at me but their voices never made it to my ears. Abandoning the chair after getting through the crowd I took off at a dead sprint down the hallway, quickly out distancing the confused crowd. Looking to my right and left, I saw the small signs with room numbers whizzing past me, too fast for me to really read them. Stopping and looking for a moment I saw the door I was looking for just a bit further down the hallway, just as the fastest of the doctors caught up to me and tried to keep me still with his magic.

Needless to say, he found out that he really can't restrain me if he's flying over the heads of the other doctors.

Knowing it was only a matter of time before they caught me I sprinted to the door and crashed into it shoulder first, shattering the door frame. Landing on my face I looked up to see Applejack’s head sitting on the floor, still stone.

"No, not Applejack!"

"What in tarnation are you talkin’ about, ah'm over here." Came Applejack’s voice from behind a curtain.

I jumped up and whipped it open, revealing the orange mare laying on her back under the blankets, her stetson sitting on the nearby nightstand. She still had stone dust in her mane but you couldn't tell otherwise that she had been a statue the night before.

"How you feelin?"

"Much better now that she's cured of that nasty curse the cockatrice’s eyes can cast, which would've been easier to do if we could've found the dang thing," said Twilight as she entered the room. The doctors and nurses crowded the hallway outside of the room but for some reason stayed there, giving me very nasty looks.

"Ah could've told him myself," said Applejack who looked like she wanted to be anywhere but in the room.

"I know you could've," said Twilight gently, "but I need to talk to Cass, alone."

"Umm sure, gimme a moment. Hey, Applejack, ‘bout last ni—"

"Now," she said assertively.

Twilight not giving me more time to talk, picked me up with her magic and carried me out of the room and into a neighboring room that was empty.

"She won't remember last night," said Twilight as she dropped me onto a bed.

"Why, is there something wrong?"

"Well other than being turned to stone last week, no."

"Well that's good I guess but still...Wait, last week? It happened last night!"

"No, you've been unconscious for 8 days. When we first brought you in you had fallen unconscious due to blood loss, and the doctors here gave you blood transfusion. Unfortunately there were a few complications, turns out human blood and pony blood are too different to be compatible. The shock to your system and the blood loss together almost killed you, fortunately for you I know a few spells that they didn't and we were able to save your life, barely. As for Applejack and Big Mac, since we couldn't find the cockatrice that turned them to stone we were only able to make a partial cure, Applejack only just burst through the shell today, and it seems like the last thing she remembered was you flipping a table when Pinkie Pie surprised you."

"And Big Mac?"

"He hasn't burst his shell yet, he’s in the bed on the opposite side of Applejack."

"So she won't remember that kiss?"

"Oh that did happen? I thought that it was some crazy rumor. But no she probably won't remember it."

"Good."

"That bad?"

"No, my reaction was."

"Well I didn't bring you in here to clear the gossip clouds up, I have a few more serious questions for you Mr. Cass," said Twilight quietly. Whatever she wanted to know wasn't something pleasant. "What happened there? When Rainbow Dash and I showed up you were in a clearing, unconscious, and everything around you was covered with blood. The cockatrice was nowhere to be found but we found no evidence of something else in the area. The only alternative that we saw was that you did something to it.”

She paused, giving me a hard stare. "I wish I could tell you, but I truthfully don't know. The last thing I remember was running into the clearing, watching as Applejack turned into stone, after that, nothing. But I know what did it. Before I tell you though I should tell you what I did back home, before I came here."

"What does that have t—" I shushed her by putting my finger up.

"I didn't interrupt so please do the same." Patting the bed next to me, I told her, "Might want to sit down though, it's going to be a bit of a discussion."

She climbed up next to me and waited patiently as I collected my thoughts.

"On my old world I was a member of the United States Army, one of the larger nations on our world. My job was to kill people, and I was, or rather am, very good at it. I was good enough to be quickly promoted to the rank of sergeant and be given my own squad to command. We had been at war with several countries in an area called the Middle East for many years. However they were just a prelude to a much larger war when another country, who was very militaristic, invaded the area also. Where we were trying to work with the local populace to try and win ‘hearts and minds’ they just swept through and tried to kill everyone. Needless to say the locals reacted out of fear and started trying to kill everyone else also. The United Nations, which is a government that tries to govern the other governments, asked the US to stay and try to be a police force in the area. That was 6 years ago. Now its called the New Wild West, or the NWW, because it is the largest area of lawlessness in existence. I have been there for about 3 years straight, they've tried to promote me a few times but every time I've turned them down because I wanted to stay in the fight." I paused to let her absorb this information.

"Why did you go in the first place?" she asked quietly.

"Revenge, clean and simple. I lost my brother, my sister, my niece and nephew, my mother, everyone I held dear in my life." I started to tear up, not even caring that she was seeing me cry, "I lost them all in one day, the locals from the NWW are also sometimes called terrorists, because they do great acts of evil and destruction, using fear as a weapon. After the North Koreans invaded the Terrorists retaliated against the US for whatever reason and loaded a convoy of 18 wheelers with powerful chemical weapons and drove them into the capital of my nation, a place known as Washington DC. Just outside of the city limits they detonated the bombs and spread its deadly poison through the city. I was in an exhibit at the museum there, it was one for the first manned mars landing, and it involved us entering a sealed container to see what it was like to live the way the astronauts did on their way to the moon. It had a large glass window so we could see out and our families could see in and take pictures of us in there. I had entered with my father and had left everyone else outside because they weren't really interested in stuff like that, but me and my dad where, I still remember when he brought home my first telescope... Anyways, we were in there and they had just sealed the doors when the bombs went off, knocking the power out and locking us in, luckily for us though the air system for the room had a backup generator. But the rest of my family was still outside as the poison hit. You remember how I said that the Terrorists liked using fear as a weapon? Well this was a prime example, the toxins they had chosen to use killed very slowly and painfully. Me and my Dad had to watch, unable to help, as our entire family slowly died before us. I still remember the cries of my niece and nephew, they weren't even a year old yet." I stopped the memories becoming too painful.

"That's horrible," said Twilight gently, tears in her eyes as well.

"We spent three whole days in that coffin, with nothing to do but stare at our dead families. My dad simply lost all drive, he was never the same, and no one has even heard him speak since then. The day they got us out, I went and found a recruiter, I was burning with anger, four weeks later I was at a place called Fort Knox. They had to reopen old training bases because how many were signing up, and I was just another face in the crowd at the beginning. But I had drive, I had the killing instinct as the Drill Sergeants had called it, I quickly rose through the ranks and by the time I first deployed I was a Corporal. On my first mission we were ambushed, all the leadership was killed in the opening volley, leaving me the highest ranking soldier there, in command of 9 other soldiers who had also survived, out of 70 some soldiers. We held our position for six days. When our weapons stopped working, we grabbed one of our dead buddies weapons, when we ran out of ammo, we stripped some more off another buddy. It took six days for another battalion to fight their way to us, and when they found us they found only three living soldiers, including myself. But we had successfully killed over a thousand enemies, delaying them, and in the long run, probably saving even more thousands of American lives. For that mission I received many awards and medals, I truthfully don't know or care about any of them, I had gotten what I wanted for six days, I had gotten my revenge." I paused to let her absorb that information, she was staring at me with a mixture of sorrow and terror, I truthfully don't blame her.

"You said you knew what happened, why you can't remember?" she asked, probably trying to hear something other than the horror that had been my life.

"Yeah, the human brain can only handle so much death. After a while the brain, in defense, just turns off letting to body react, it happened for the first time in that museum, but that hardly was the last time. Anytime there was danger I just blanked out and become a ruthless killing machine with no mercy, completely unstoppable, completely out of control, completely a hundred percent monster. I'm guessing last night, seeing one of my few friends here die, just made me snap. There probably isn't even anything left of the cockatrice for you to find."

"Is this why ya have nightmares and react the way ya do?" Asked Applejack from the doorway. Crap, how much did she hear, how can she even stand looking at such a thing as myself?

"Yeah, because while my conscious brain doesn't know what I do, my subconscious does. They have something similar back on my world called PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but what I have is not what I consider that, there are people who've seen worse than me and don't have PTSD, so how can I?"

"Ah don't care what its called, you come to me if ya need me, no matter the time or place."

"Thanks," came my mumbled response.

"Any change with Big Mac?", asked Twilight.

"No, but I came over to ask if my friends minded comin’ and sittin’ with me, to, umm... Greet him when he wakes up." she said hesitantly.

"Sure, I'll be right there." I said as I stood up, walking after her into the hallway, where the doctors and nurses were still waiting for me, murder gleaming in their eyes. Stopping just at the doorway, I turned to Twilight, "Please tell no one else what I just told you, not even Princess Celestia, somethings need to be said in person."

"Stick a cupcake in my eye," she said solemnly as I followed Applejack through the crowd.

I was snoring peacefully, thoroughly enjoying a sleep without nightmares, when I was poked awake. Blinking hazily and looking down I saw it wasn't Applejack, she was still asleep and had at some point fallen onto my lap and was drooling profusely. Looking up I saw Big Mac's still statue form, mouth slightly open in shock. Thinking I was going insane I closed my eyes again and leaned back against the wall when I was poked again, harder this time though. I opened my eyes again and looked around harder, looking for the disruptor of my sleep, noticing this time a pair of eyes that seemed to hover in front of the window.

"We need to talk Sergeant," came a gentle voice, "Care to take a walk with me?"

Gently moving Applejack’s head off my lap and setting it gently on a nearby pillow, I followed what I now saw was a rather large mare who was a dark blue, her hair looked a lot like the night sky and her flank had a blotch of black and the moon on it.

"Hello Princess Luna," I said flatly as we left the room.

"I presume Twilight has told you of me?"

"No." I pointed to a picture as we passed, it had Princess Luna surrounded by a group of young fillies in costumes, the caption said "Thanks for a great Hollows eve, Princess Luna."

"Ah," she said as she led me outside, along a cobblestone path that led through the gardens near the hospital.

"So how may I help you this beautiful night, Princess?"

"Just this," she said as her horn glowed and she touched it to my forehead, sending waves of electricity through my body.

I felt my feet leave the ground and all I could see was the glow of her horn, and just as suddenly as it started it stopped, letting me fall to the ground, panting as if I had just ran an eight mile run.

"What.... did you..... do?" I asked between gasps.

"I'm sorry but I had to make sure my friends were safe, and that you were not going to harm them. Not knowing what type of character you are, I took the cautious path and read your mind." She actually looked a little shaken, maybe she hadn't liked what she had seen.

"You did what?" my voice hiding a barely contained rage.

"I apologize, but you know that I know that if you were in my position you would do the same exact thing. You cannot lie to me anymore Cass, I know everything about you."

"Then excuse me for not being happy, you have me at a bit of a disadvantage!"

"The link can work both ways if you wish," she said, quieter.

"And why would I want to invade your mind, your last inner sanctum, the only fortress that should never be penetrated!" I was yelling now.

"This is why," she responded simply as her horn glowed again and, before I could react and move out of the way, she touched it to my forehead once more.

Once again, waves of electricity ran through my body, but this time it was different, instead of just seeing her horn glow I saw her, the real her, the one she kept hidden for fear of ridicule. I saw before her imprisonment, when she and her sister where the best of friends, when she depended so much on her. I saw her on her prison moon where she spent a thousand lonely years, crying because she was so lonely, feeling a betrayal deeper than I could've ever imagined. She was just as lost in this world as I was, the only difference was she had someone helping her, several someones actually.

I fell back to the ground, knees giving out underneath me, leaving me in a crumple on the ground. Looking up I saw she had fared no better, she was laying on her side, panting just as heavily as I was before.

"Why did you do that?"

"To show you that you aren't alone in this world, don't let yourself push away your new friends here, let them help you. I will tell you right now that you cannot go back to your world, the magic required would be so great it would destroy this world, but I can show you what is happening on your world. Not right now though, I've used far too much magic, flying home is not a task I am looking forward to at the moment." Somehow, knowing that she was telling the truth calmed me down alot.

"Thank you, Princess."

"Luna, I don't like it when my friends can’t relax near me."

"Okay Luna, you can just call me Cass."

With a smile on her face, she took off and flew away, leaving me alone in the garden.

And dammit, I don't know how to get back to the hospital.

Ch 6. Lost

I can't believe that I let myself get lost, I couldn't even see the hospital from where I was. Wishing now that I had the presence of mind to at least grab my boots before coming on this walk with Princess Luna, I began climbing on top of a nearby bench to get my bearings. Thankfully I could see buildings a little bit further away.

"Guess that's the only lead I'm gonna get." I said to no one in particular as I jumped down off the bench.

Walking into the town I saw that while the majority of the ponies were still asleep there was a surprising large number of them that rushed to get to whatever tasks they had to do this early in the morning. Most of the ponies though gave me a wide berth once they saw me, not surprising, not everyday you see a 6'3" human walking through the streets in the early morning, wearing nothing but a pair of tattered DACU pants, and a tan undershirt. Heck even in my old world I would've been avoided like the plague, and here most of the ponies have never seen a creature like me.

Up ahead on the road I saw a taller pink building that had lights on in one of the rooms, apparently someone was still burning the midnight oil. The building itself looked like whoever lived in it liked being in a spotlight. With a sigh I walk up to the purple door and knocked, figuring that I would either scare the resident halfway to death or they would point me in the direction of the hospital.

"One moment," came a sophisticated voice from within. There was a sound of a pony trotting up to the door just before it swung open, revealing a white unicorn who, upon seeing me gasped and collapsed.

"Ah crap," I ran in to help the pony up and carried her into the next room, which happened to be a dark kitchen. I somehow managed to stub my toe on a chair painfully before laying the pony on the table and was blindly searching for a light switch when the lights suddenly turned on, leaving me momentarily blinded.

"What did you do to my sister?!" A younger voice yelled at me as I was tackled from behind.

"Nothing, I swear!" I yelled as tiny hoofs pelted the back of my head as I ran around the room attempting to dislodge the smaller pony who was riding my shoulders without hurting her, much.

"Nothing?! You come to our house and knock her out and then carry her into the kitchen where you can do your evil things to her you, you, big ol' meanie!" she yelled right into my left ear.

"I just knocked on the door and she passed out!" I yelled back

"You big meanie, you’re lying!" she screamed into the same ear

"I'm telling the truth, I swear....."

"STOP RIGHT THERE" I skidded to a stop and felt one or two more half-hearted strikes against my head, both of us staring at the very, very angry looking white unicorn.. "Sweetie Bell is that anyway to treat a guest?”

"But Rarity, he was going to sacrifice you to Nightmare Moon!" said Sweetie Belle, who was still riding me... god the Soviet Russia jokes I could make right now.

"No he wasn't, can't you tell that he is dying to get out of those awful clothes? My eyes burn just looking at him, AND, its Princess Luna now, Nightmare Moon is no more." Rarity said as she hopped off the table, levitating the small pony off my back, where she aimed one last kick to the back of my head.

"Now go back to bed, you've got school in a couple of hours."

"But!" Sweetie Belle complained.

"No buts, now march your butt to bed right now, young miss!" Rarity ordered.

"Aww" said Sweetie Belle as she went up the stairs, head hanging low.

"Thanks," I said rubbing the back of my head, looking at the damage I had done to the kitchen.

"Come with me, Mr....." said Rarity as she left the room.

"Sgt Castle, but call me Cass," I said following her into a messy room with cloth spread across almost every flat surface of the room.

"Okay Mr. Cass, lets get you out of those clothes," she said as several tape measures floated toward me.

"Umm, Miss Rarity I really don't have time for this, I really need to get back to the hospital, and when Princess Luna visited —"

"Princess Luna is here?" She asked, looking around for her.

"She was here, she left awhile ago, but when I went on that walk with her I unfortunately got lost, and since I'm new here, I don't know my way back. I saw your lights on and I hoped you could give me directions," I explained to her quickly before she could interrupt me again.

"But I simply cannot let you walk around in such an atrocious outfit!" she said, the tape measures floating closer.

"Fine, if it would make you happy I can let you take a few measurements, and I'll pay for the new clothes when I can. But I am not removing my pants."

Giving me a funny look she started taking my measurements, asking me a few questions now and then, and occasionally ordering me to demonstrate my range of motion for a particular joint so she could make sure my new clothes would fit right.

"Well that should do for now," she said after what seemed to be an eternity, "And don't worry about paying, I simply cannot let you walk around in those."

"I do have another favor to ask then, if you don't mind."

"What is it my dear."

Pointing to the large hole in my pants that was stained with blood, "How are you at fixing holes?"

"Oh I can do more than fix holes," she said with a grin as her horn glowed and she got it close to the pant leg. Not only did the hole seem to just disappear, the frayed sides simply reattaching themselves to the opposite side, but all the dirt and blood simply lifted off and floated in a cloud into a nearby trash can. When she was done not only did my DACU pants look brand new but the tan undershirt was also clean.

"Wow, you're going to have to teach me that trick."

"Another time, but the sun is coming up and you should get back to the hospital before the doctors come looking for you."

"It's Applejack I'm worried about," I muttered under my breath.

"Wait, are you that Cass? The heart breaker? I thought it had been somepony that caught her fancy," she said in a harsh tone. "You better have a good reason for hurting her the way you did."

"Umm, yeah, but I didn't mean to hurt he,." I said quickly as a nearby potted plant came flying at my head.

"Thats what they all say! Your reasons better be the best reasons in Equestria if you want to keep that head attached!" She yelled that last sentence as another potted plant came sailing across the room.

"Yeah, I'm already engaged to someone on my world, and I don't think it would work out, me being a human and all!" I was still dodging potted plants, geez how many of them did she have?

"Harumph, I guess one of those is a good enough reason," she said as the other potted plants floating behind her went back to their places on the shelves.

"Sis what’s going on?" Came Sweetie Belle's voice from the top of the stairs.

"Nothing dear, now go back to sleep," said Rarity sweetly. "Now you Mr. Cass, you'd better hurry back to that hospital and be there before she wakes up," she added with much more hostility

"Sure, but you still haven't told me how to get there," I said, still hiding behind the stage she had in the middle of the room, expecting more plants to barrage me.

"Leave my house through the front door and take a right, then take your third left and continue on that road, it should lead you directly there," she said as she opened her door for me.

"Thank you Miss Rarity, I promise I'll get there ASAP." I said as I started jogging down the road.

"Oh and Mr. Cass," she called sweetly after me, I stopped and turned, only seeing the potted plant after it was too late to move out of its way.

As I was picking myself up off the road, brushing the dirt off my face, she called after me, "Don't ever do that to my friend again!" and then slammed her door, leaving me in the early morning alone.

Guess I don't have time to be wasting, looking at the rapidly rising sun, and took off at a fast pace towards the hospital.

Arriving at the hospital just as the sun peaked over the horizon I ran through the large double door entrance, barely slowing down as I sprinted past the sleepy looking nurse who sat at the front desk. I skid to a stop outside the door where Applejack had kept watch over her brother through the night and quietly opened the door to tiptoe into the room, attempting to not wake her. As I entered the room I was relieved to see that nothing had changed in my absence other than Applejack, who had rolled out from underneath the blanket we had been sharing before. She was now lying on her back, her 4 hooves sticking into the air, slightly curled. I grabbed the blanket and gently covered her up, trying hard not to laugh as she snored cutely. I sat back down where I was before and decided to get a couple winks of sleep before the day really started. I had barely closed my eyes when Applejack, still fast asleep, scooted closer to me, putting her head back into my lap. With a smile on my face I drifted off to a welcome sleep.

Ch 7. Mail Call

I woke up to a gentle shaking, slowly rocking me back and forth. I slowly opened my eyes and saw Fluttershy trying to wake me up.

"Mornin' Fluttershy, what's up?" I mumbled groggily. Looking around the room I saw Applejack was sitting on her bed eating a sandwich, and Big Mac was still a statue, although cracks had started to form at his joints.

"Just to see if you wanted lunch?" she said quietly, hiding behind her mane.

"Lunch? Sure that sounds wonderful!" I said as I stood and stretched out my aching joints. "Oh and Fluttershy, I'm sorry about scaring you yesterday, I just overreacted a bit."

"Its fine, it was even a little cute to see you worry about her so much," she said with a grin.

With a sigh I sat in the chair next to Applejack and opened the tray cover, revealing a dandelion and cucumber sandwich, with steamed broccoli as a side. The hunger in my stomach made an argument against eating flowers a moot point. The sandwich itself was bitter because of the dandelions but it was exactly what I needed after last nights adventures.

"So the nurse said Princess Luna visited last night," said Applejack, who was chewing in her broccoli.

"Yeah, she wanted to make sure I was safe to be around," I said awkwardly.

"What in tarnation? Does no pony believe me when ah say your as harmless as a kitten?" she asked, getting angry.

"They just want to be sure, I would also want to be if I was in their position," I said trying in vain to calm her.

"You know what I mean, ah'm the element of honesty for Pete's sake," she was almost yelling now.

"Yeah, I know, last night Princess Luna also took the time to explain a lot of things to me, I think she was trying to help me settle into this world better." Hoping that by staying calm she'll follow suit.

"Hope I'm not interrupting," said Twilight as she entered the room.

"Nope, ya ain't interruptin’ a thang," said Applejack with a harumph.

"Well good," Twilight said, completely oblivious to the anger that seemed to be coming off Applejack in waves. "I just have a letter for you Mr. Cass."

"It's just Cass, my father is Mr. Cass."

"Okay, though I do wonder why Princess Luna is sending you letters through Spike rather than the normal mail system, I don't think I've even gotten a letter from Princess Luna!" she said, sounding disappointed.

"Okay, can I get my mail?" I asked.

"Oh yeah, sorry." Applejack rolled her eyes as Twilight turned her back, a smile creeping onto her face.

"Thanks," I said as it floated out of her saddlebags and over onto my tray of half-eaten lunch.

Gently opening the scrolls seal I see a very elaborate writing that only took up a small portion of the page.

"Dear Cass

I enjoyed our walk together last night and I apologize once again for leaving so abruptly, and I do hope you made it back to your room at the hospital okay. I am sending you this letter to invite you to the Royal Canterlot Castle. I had mentioned that while I could not send you home I could let you see into your world, and I intend to keep my promise, any time you want to be able to see home just present yourself to the royal guards at the gate, they will be expecting you. Oh, and bring as many friends as you please.

Sincerely, Luna"

Carefully rolling the scroll back up, I look up to see all three ponies in the room watching me expectantly.

"The Princess has invite us to the castle, whenever we please, she says she can show me my home." I said, I had forgotten that she said she could not send me home, the sorrow of never being among my own was killing me slowly inside.

"Well I have nothing planned for this weekend," said Twilight cheerfully, nudging Fluttershy who just nodded.

"Well if it’s important to you it's important to me," said Applejack, laying a hoof on my arm.

With a weak smile, I said, "Looks like we’re going to see the Princess then, can you send a letter back to the Princess, Twilight?"

"Sure," she said, floating a blank scroll and an old fashioned feather quill towards me.

"Hmmm," looking at the quill I remember something. I went over to where my DACU jacket was hanging on a hook on the wall and took one of my pens out of the pen pocket on the left arm. Returning to the scroll, I scratched out a short message

"Thanks for the invite, will be there this weekend, and thank you once again.

Cass"

Handing the letter to Twilight, she pointed at my pen and said, "You said you had no magic."

"Not magic, just a normal pen. Much easier carrying this around than a quill and ink. Want to borrow one so you can study it, see if you can recreate something similar here?"

"Would I ever!" she said as she nearly yanked my arm out of socket with her magic as she grabbed the pen, giggling like a schoolgirl.

"Umm, Applejack," interrupted Fluttershy from across the room.

"Yes Fluttershy?" she answered gently.

In response she merely pointed over behind the curtains, where, as if in response, there was a sharp crack and the sound of stone falling to the floor. Applejack leapt up, and using my lap as a springboard, launched herself across the room over to her brother. I walked over and peaked around the curtain, trying not to interrupt what was most likely going to be a touching family reunion. Applejack, forelegs wrapped around his neck was crying softly as stone continued to slide off of her brother. He looked slightly dazed and confused, but otherwise okay.

"Big Mac!" she sobbed into his mane "you're finally awake."

"Eeyup, but what happened?"

"Cass saved us, that what happened!" she said, completely ignoring the look of shock and hate her brother was sending me over her shoulder.

"Mind explainin’ that?"

Ch 8. Just Another Day

After Applejack explained to a very skeptical Big Mac how I had saved them from a cockatrice, he was still giving me looks of distrust, but mixed with... something else, I was not quite so sure, but if I had to guess it would have to be respect?

Soon afterwards the doctors came in, very delighted that we had recovered so quickly and, despite wanting to "study" me further, released Applejack and me. Applejack, not wanting to leave her brother in the hospital, refused to leave until he insisted that she go, threatening to dye her purple if she didn't go attend to the fields.

A few hours later we arrived back at Sweet Apple Acre farms, a slight breeze blowing through the air, carrying the sweet smell of ripe apples to us as we walked down the lonely path towards the farm house. Applejack's mood had made an almost instant change when she made it back to the farm, she became more relaxed than I've seen her since that party, almost seeming to bounce down the path.

At least until, that is, a little yellow and red streak took her out in a flying tackle that was almost too fast for me to see.

"I missed you sooo much big sis!" Cried Apple Bloom who was hugging Applejack in a pile on the side of the path "I was so worried I would never see you again!"

"Mah..ribs." Applejack wheezed out

"Umm, I think you're crushin’ the life outta your sister." I cautioned

"Eeepp, whoops, sorry sis." She said as she released her sister, trying to hide that she had to wipe tears from her eyes.

"Ah promise to spend the day just with you." Applejack said with a big smile.

"But what about them apples? Nopony has bucked the trees in days!" Apple Bloom asked.

"I got it, don't worry ‘bout it" I said, helping them disentangle themselves from each other.

"But thats a whole lotta apples for just one pony, umm, person." Said Applejack.

"Are you sayin' my mouth is makin' promises I can't keep?" I asked teasingly.

"But you're still only one person, and one human plus hundreds o' apple trees just doesn't add up to..." She responded.

"Don't muddle the issue with your fancy ass mathematics. Don't worry ‘bout it, if I need help I'll just go get Rainbow Dash or someone to come down and help me out. Ain't like I'm gonna half kill myself when I know I got friends to help me out." Applejack was just staring at me as if I had just turned into a pony.

"What?" I ask, checking myself to make sure something like that really hadn't happened.

"Umm, nothin’, just déjà vu." She responded.

"Uh huh, sure, anyways, go enjoy your day with your sister." I said, pushing her towards her little sister, who looked almost back to tears, tears of joy this time.

"Go go" I added, with little shooing motions with my hands.

"Ah'll get you for this!" Applejack yelled over her shoulder as her little sister dragged her towards town.

With a smile still on my face I turned back to the fields in front of me, and only then did I realize that there were a lot of hills in the background covered with red-spotted trees.

"Looks like I am gonna need that help"

That evening we were as tired as could be. Finding Rainbow Dash was surprising easy, I just had to find the one cloud that was snoring. After quickly explaining why I needed her and the others help I soon had the 5 other ponies out in the orchard helping me pick the apples. It was funny to see each pony's style of picking apples, they were as varied as the ponies themselves. Rainbow Dash zoomed through the trees at break neck pace, the wind of her passing whipping apple from the branches to land in a heap in the barrels, Twilight expertly picked every apple off a tree with a single spell, and then proceed to catalog each apple. Rarity carefully picked each apple one by one before gently placing them in the barrel, and Fluttershy had brought a lot of her woodland friends to help her pick the apples. Now Pinkie, I don't know how she did it but she seemed to bounce on the sides of the trees, completely ignoring gravity. All the while I grabbed the barrels and dragged them towards the house as quickly as I could, but even going full pace I still couldn't keep pace with the 5 ponies working together to fill the barrels.

Getting a sudden idea while at the farmhouse, I rushed back to where the ponies were working.

"Rainbow Dash!" I yelled as the rainbow streak rushed past me.

She skidded to a sudden stop, looking confused. "Yeah?"

"Feel up to a race?" I asked mischievously.

"Heck yeah, but who's going to race me?" She asked looking at the other ponies, who were watching us expectantly.

"Well, me of course!" I said, feeling a little hurt that she didn't even consider me an opponent.

"What?! No way that your two legs can keep up with my four, plus my wings!" she said proudly.

"Is that fear of losing I hear?" I said, barely keeping my laughter contained.

"What? No, you're so on now!" She said, taking a runners stance in front of one group of barrels.

"Twilight, you mind?" I asked as I took my own stance in front of another group.

"I would be delighted." She said, stepping between us.

"Get ready, get set, GO!" She yelled as she threw up a green apple.

Rainbow Dash took off gaining an early lead, knowing that there would be plenty of time to catch up I paced myself, pulling on the rope I looped on the barrels strongly but evenly, keeping right on her tail. By the time we had a dozen barrels moved back she had started slowing down, visibly winded, while I continued at the same pace, controlling my breathing and focusing on that next step. I had barely noticed when I passed her on the twentieth or so barrel, nor when I started on the thirtieth barrel three ahead of her. All too soon the giant group of barrels disappeared despite the other ponies doing their best to keep the groups large.

Coming back from my last lap I saw that I had no more barrels in my group.

"No more apples." Said Twilight apologetically.

Looking over at Rainbow Dash's group I saw she had 7 more barrels, and looking over to the pony, she was currently pulling away from us. Knowing she would be devastated from losing by so much I held my finger up to my mouth and moved four of her barrels over to where my group was, and started pulling "my" next one.

As I passed Rainbow Dash, who was coming the opposite way, I yelled "Come on Dashie, almost there!"

She looked up and, after seeing how few she had left and how close she was, put on an extra spurt of speed. Seeing that I picked up my pace also. We had just dropped off both of our second to last barrels when she took off at a blinding speed towards her last one, leaving me coughing up dust. I sprinted back as fast as I could and grabbed my barrel, but she was already a third of the way back, luckily for me, where she has speed, I have strength. I slowly caught back up to her, putting all my strength into the last 50 yards, keeping neck and neck with the pony right next to me, neither of us backing down as we came sprinting across the finish line, instantly collapsing in a heap on the ground, panting for breath.

"I....Won!" She gasped out.

"No.... I.....Did!" I wheezed out.

"An ah say ah won!" Said Applejack leaning over the two of us, a big grin on her face.

"No way!" Complained Rainbow Dash loudly, before being shushed by Applejack, pointing to her back, where a sleeping Apple Bloom was draped across her back.

"Aww" Came from behind as the rest of the ponies walked up behind me and saw the young filly snoring.

"Ah got y'all somethin’ to drink, they're in the house." Said Applejack, letting Apple Bloom be levitated off her back by both Twilight and Rarity.

As the rest of the ponies walked in front of us towards the house, Applejack nudged me with her flank, winking at me.

"Ah saw what ya did there, you sly dog." She said with a grin.

"Hmmm, what, I did nothing of the sort."

"Well thanks, Rainbow Dash would not have taken this lose well." she said, quieter. "But ah've never seen anypony even keep up with her, much less surpass her."

"Well in a straight out race she would have me, I'm no good for speed, but strength-wise, I think I can take anybody."

"We'll have to settle that then." She said with a grin. "You any good at rasslin?"

"I couldn't wrestle ya, you’re a girl, I can't hit girls!" I said, surprised at her directness.

"Even in self defense?" She said teasingly.

"Yeah, unless ya were about to kill me or someone else." I said as I tripped over a tree root hidden by the quickly deepening evening.

"Well that's borin’..." There was an awkward pause.

"So, umm, how much do you remember of that party?" I asked tentatively.

"Not much, just you over-reactin’ and not much after that. Why, did something happen?" She asked warily.

"Well yeah, I don't like hiding things from you." Pause, sigh, "During the party you got really drunk, like really drunk." I paused to look over at her, seeing her blush slightly. "Well when you were drunk, well..." sigh, "You kissed me and said you loved me."

"Ah what?" She said, looking shocked.

"Yeah, and after that you got so embarrassed by Pinkie that you ran out, and unfortunately took the road into the woods by accident."

"So, uhmmm." She stopped biting her lower lip, looking incredibly embarrassed. "Was it that bad?"

"No, quite nice, but it was my reaction that was bad." I said sorrowfully.

"Why, what did you do?" She asked, trying to piece it together.

"Well you remember Sarah?" A nod. "Well I'm conflicted, I still love her but I know for a fact, Princess Luna told me, that I will never be able to get home." A tear rolled down my cheek.

"Well does she know that you're still alive?" Applejack asked, stopping, letting the other ponies get even further ahead, before they eventually disappeared into the house.

"No, there is no way she could."

"Well what would she want?" She asked, getting even quieter.

"She would want me to be happy." I said, my knees sagging, leaving me sitting on an old stump.

"Well, what would make you happy?" She asked, her looking at me questioningly, the moon rising behind me, casting her face in shadows.

"I don't know." I sobbed. "Never have I had to make a choice like this, I don't know what's right and I don't know what’s wrong. It's like I'm drowning and don't know which way is up."

I was surprised when her lips brushed mine, slowly drawing me into a warm embrace that chased the shadows from my heart. All too soon she stopped, looking at my shocked face in fear.

"Ah'm sorry!" She sobbed as she turned away.

I grabbed her quickly, sweeping her up and kissing her back, for the first time since I've arrived here, I felt truly happy,as if a giant weight had been lifted off my heart. We stopped, both of us breathing as hard as if we had just ran a marathon. Both of us blushing as if we had something to be ashamed of, but the moon was our only witness....

"Wow."

Ch 9. Attracted to Crashes

We entered the room together, the other ponies sitting around her dining room table talking cordially to each other, trying very hard to not stare at the two latecomers. We sat at the table next to each other, Applejack still blushing, and tried not to bring unwarranted attention to ourselves.

Unfortunately, Rainbow Dash didn't have a subtle bone in her body.

"What took you two sooo long, what did ya do, stop and make out!" She asked jokingly.

Seeing the look of horror on their friends faces, they all gasped.

"So are you two, ummm, together now?" Asked Twilight warily.

With a deep blush on her face, Applejack mumbled something into her mug.

"Umm, dear, we didn't hear you." Said Rarity, who was leaning in to hear better.

Another mumble from Applejack, she was desperately trying to hide herself in her mug at this point.

"So Cass," Said Twilight as she looked at me. "are you two dating now?"

"Well, ummm..."

"YES!!" Yelled Applejack, who looked ready to die from embarrassment. "If that's okay with you." She added quickly.

"Course!" I said, wrapping my arm around her, pulling her in close.

"YAY!" Yelled Pinkie Pie as she popped up behind us, nearly giving me a heart attack. "I've never had a party for a couple getting together!" She said excitedly as she bounced around the room.

Twilight, seeing the overwhelmed look on our faces, used her magic to catch Pinkie Pie mid jump, who didn't seem to notice and continued listing items she needed for the party.

"Well girls, its getting late, we should be getting home" She said cheerfully as she levitated a still talking Pinkie through the open door.

"Should we leave these two love-birds all alone?" Teased Rainbow Dash, nudging me in the ribs with a wink.

"Rainbow! That's incredibly uncouth of you to say! And even then it none of your business!" Said Rarity, who had a big smile on her face, you could tell she was thinking the same thing but had more class than to say it out loud.

That just left Fluttershy, who quietly sneaked through the door with her friends, she paused just outside the doorway and said, "Congratulations!" before she swung the door shut, leaving me and Applejack alone in the kitchen.

"No" Said Applejack, punching me lightly in the ribs.

"What?"

"You ain't gettin into my bed that easily!" She said, her blush deepening.

"That wasn't my goal at all, and you should know that." I said, slightly hurt that all my new friends thought I would move onto the later stages of our relationship so quickly.

"I know." She said as she leaned into me, finally relaxing.

Putting my arm around her we sat there for a long time, just enjoying each others company before she finally slipped into sleep. Being as gentle as I could I picked her up and carried her up to her room, tucking her into bed. Before I left the room I planted a kiss on her forehead and left towards my room. Passing by Apple Bloom’s room I couldn’t help but smile as the small pony within talked in her sleep, something about finally getting her cutie mark.

Entering my room I sat on the bed, slipped my boots and DACU top off before finally going to sleep myself.

"HOW DARE YOU!" Screamed Sarah's face, inches from mine.

I immediately flinched backwards, slipping on the blood all over the floor, landing in a pile of burnt corpses, their shriveled hands grabbing me, pulling me down into the pile. I jumped up and ran from them, bursting through a door into a blindingly bright street. Soldiers flanking me on either side. Sgt Canner, ran up to me and shook me.

"Get a Grip on yourself, focus on the mission" He whispered to me, trying to prevent the other soldiers from hearing.

I merely nodded and he went back to his position. We walked down the street into a town, tall building on either side not providing any shadows. Up ahead, a [url= suddenly rolled out of an alley and started shooting towards us, mowing the soldiers down in a pink haze. I ran to a nearby doorway and reached for my grenades as the Sgt from before ran towards me, nearly reaching the safety of my cover before he was blown in half, covering me head to toe with blood. In a rage I threw the grenades towards the BTR, but the grenades had little effect on the heavily armored vehicle. Behind me the doorway opened and a dozen hands pulled me in. Looking up I saw that it was a classroom and the hands belonged to the students there.

The door opposite exploded inwards, troops piling in, firing into the group of children, penning me under their bodies. After the massacre Sarah, dressed as one of the soldiers walked up to me.

"Why?" She asked as she poured gas on me as I struggled.

"Why? Why did you betray me with that whore? Why did you leave me?" She asked again, crying now as she opened a zippo, tossing it at my face.

"WHY!" She yelled over the roar of the flames as they enveloped me.

The stench of burning flesh, the pain of being burned, the hot followed by the cold as my body died.

"NOOO!!" I screamed with the last of my energy.

I woke with a start, nearly pushing the orange mare who was holding me out of my bed. I was shivering despite the fact that it was warm in the room. The stench of burnt flesh still filled my nose as tears streamed out of my clenched eyes.

"Its okay." Applejack whispered gently in my ear as she stroked my head.

"You gonna be okay?" Asked Apple Bloom from the doorway, still looking half-asleep.

"Yeah, just a bad dream." Said Applejack. "Now go back to sleep."

Apple Bloom stood for a moment longer before getting a look of inspiration and running off, coming back with a small stuffed animal in the shape of a pony, it was obvious that the toy had been well loved, the once brightly colored fur faded and worn. Apple Bloom trotted up to me and dropped the toy in my lap.

"This is Mr. Apple." She said sadly. "He always helped me when I was little, maybe he can help you."

I was touched, a young pony giving up what was obviously one of her favorite toys to a near total stranger. Fighting back tears I finally responded. "Thanks, I'll take good care of him."

"You'd better!" She said quickly as she walked out of the room.

"I remember him." said Applejack, looking at the stuffed animal dwarfed in my hands. "Ah gave him to Apple Bloom years ago when she was having some bad nightmares. He used to be mine, one of the last things my parents gave me."

Seeing she needed comforting I pulled her close, reversing our earlier positions. I held her close as she held me close, the small toy between us as we drifted off into a comfortable sleep.

I woke in a happy daze, a warm body cuddling next to mine. I just laid there for a long while, just enjoying the company. Applejack, who was still hugging Mr. Apple, was snoring in her familiar way that just made not smiling impossible. There was a tapping at the door outside, but whoever it was could wait, nothing on this world could be important enough to wake Applejack. The tapping on the door continued for a while before stopping, thinking whoever it was had gone away I lay idly stroking her mane, enjoying the silky smoothness coupled with the slight smell of apple and cinnamon that she almost always seemed to have.

CRASH

I jumped out of bed, grabbing the bedside lamp and throwing it full force at the intruder who came crashing through the window, hitting the blue pegasus square in the face, knocking it into the wall, shattering the lamp. That's about the point that I recognized it as Rainbow Dash, who had a dazed look on her face and was bleeding slightly from her nose and various other scratches.

"Oh shit!" I yelled as I ran to her.

"Help!" Came Applejack’s muffled cry from underneath the mattress I had also apparently flipped.

Rushing back to the bed I hastily unburied Applejack and returned to Rainbow Dash who was still dazed.

"What in tarnation happened?" She said, seeing the bleeding pegasus.

"I over-reacted, again." I said meekly.

"I'd say!" Said Rainbow Dash, slurring her words slightly.

"What were you doing outside my window anyways?" I said as I picked up the surprising light pony.

"Ummmm, I was just checking to see if your house was burglar proof!" Said the bleeding pony with a smile.

"Of all the underhanded sneaky things you've done!" Exclaimed Applejack, "You were peakin’!"

"And I saw you two sleeping together." She responded, earning vivid blushes from both of us.

"Nothing happened!" I said hastily. "Heck ask Apple Bloom."

"Wait, I don't care that you two are going at it but don't you think Apple Bloo...Woah!" The rest of her sentence was cut short by me suddenly going from carrying her gently over my shoulder to carrying her upside-down in front of me.

"Go ahead and continue, just remember, I'm the only one between you and Applejack, and by extension, Big Mac." I said with a sadistic smile.

"Alright alright, I was joking anyways." Said the blue pony who had crossed her arms...forelegs, in front of herself.

Flipping Rainbow Dash back upright I sat her in one of the kitchen chairs, and grabbed a towel to start cleaning up her face to see what damage I had done. I was about half-way done when Apple Bloom came down the stairs, stopping and staring in shock at the mayhem before her.

"Ah don't wanna know." She said as she grabbed some food and trotted out the door.

"Hold on!" Yelled Applejack as she ran out the door to catch up with her so she could walk her to school, leaving me to deal with Rainbow Dash.

"So you got any good excuses for yourself now?” I asked.

"I'm sorry but I was just curious, I wanted to see if you two could be trusted alone, that and I had a bet with Rarity." She answered meekly under my stern stare.

"Uh huh, ever heard the phrase ‘curiosity killed the cat’?"

"Yeah." She said looking away, hoof on the back of her head. "And how did you do that?"

"Do what?" I asked as I felt up her nose, feeling for anything broken.

"React so quickly, I hadn't even hit the floor before you nailed me with that lamp."

"Practice, and lots of it." I said quietly, pausing for a moment.

"Can you teach me how to do that? Maybe I could use it in a trick!" She said excitedly.

"Sure, but it would involve me tossing a lot of lamps at your face and I really don't have the money to be buyin’ all the lamps in Ponyville."

"Aw shucks." She said, seemingly deflating.

"Anyways, seems to me like I didn't break your nose or anything, your just bleeding everywhere. I got the majority of it up but you might want to wash your face to get the rest of it."

"Thanks." She said as she trotted over to the sink, splashing water on her face.

"So what were you two doing sleeping together anyways?" She asked playfully.

"Not what you wha..Whump!" I was cut off as I was tackled from behind.

"Why were you and my sister sleepin’ together now?!" Demanded a deep southern voice coming from the large red horse who was standing on my back.

Ch 10. Unexpected sources

“Now hold on now.” I protested from underneath his hoofs, “We didn’t do a damned thing!”

“Why should I believe you?” he asked, leaning down near my ear.

“Because your sister does!” Yelled Rainbow Dash who was hovering above the kitchen table. “And besides, do you not trust your sister to find her own love?!”

“Yes, No, I don’t know!” he yelled, starting to tear up, but also unfortunately putting more weight on his front hoofs.

“Air!” I gasped from underneath him, being ignored by the two arguing ponies.

“I think you’re more afraid of seeing your sister leave than you care about her!” Yelled Rainbow Dash, growing even redder.

“No!” he yelled, “My family is everything to me!”

“Then why do you hate Cass so much!”

“I don’t know!” he yelled, his tears falling on the back of my head.

“Air!” I gasped again, clawing at the floor as I felt something in my chest pop.

“Then why are you pushing him away, why are you making it harder for your sister to find her first love, why do you not accept what even Apple Bloom has seen? You're the only one here preventing your sister from becoming happy! You should be happy, here you are getting a new member of the family and you're shunning him, I’ve never seen you like this, you have always been so kind. This. Is. Not. YOU!” Rainbow Dash yelled, gradually getting louder with each word until by the end the rafters were shaking and Big Mac had started backing away.

“But, I, ugh” He stammered, lost for words.

“Why can’t you just accept him?” She yelled again, getting right in his face.

Seeing my opportunity, I reached up and grabbed one of her rear hoofs, pulling her downwards sharply. Rainbow Dash finally looking down and seeing the pained look on my now purple face shoved Big Mac off my back.

I gasped up air as the weight was remove from my back, the air never smelled quite so good.

“You okay?” asked Rainbow Dash as she helped me into a chair.

“Yeah, hey you’re bleeding again.” I said pointing at her nose.

“Aww horse apples!” she said as she went to the sink looking for a towel.

Turning to Big Mac, “You do not have to worry about me hurting your sister, I’ll never do that again, ever” I wheezed out, I think he had cracked a few of my ribs.

“You’ve already proven that wrong!” he retorted.

“Okay, I’ll give you that, I handled that way wrong.”

“Then what are you tryin with mah sis?”

“I’m just enjoying her comforts,” Seeing the look on his face, I added. “Not. Like. That! When I’ve had my flashbacks she has always been there to help me through them, without her I would probably be in some corner completely incoherent, oblivious to your world. So what I’m trying to say is I owe my life to Applejack!” I was yelling at this point.

“The question is, what are you trying to get from your sister? What do you have to gain from keeping her sheltered? Why do youfight so hard to keep her locked up?” I asked him, poking him in the chest with my finger.

He sobbed quietly, something I didn’t expect from him. “I can’t lose anyone else, I’ve lost my parents, I’ve lost my friends, if I lost her I don’t know what I would do.”

Seeing that I was finally getting through to him, I added quietly, “The thing about Applejack is that I could never separate her from her family, meaning no matter how hard I tried I would never be able to separate her from you.”

“But wha..”

“Oh hush you.” I said, shoving his shoulder playfully, “When has she ever abandoned you? Never? Yeah i thought so, so why would she start now?”

“I don’t know” he sobbed, head hanging low in shame.

“Come on, let’s get Rainbow Dash home, or to the hospital” Rainbow Dash made a face that clearly read “Yuk” about the hospital.

“I’m fine,” she said as she wobbled on her feet a little, having to catch the counter to keep her balance.

“We’re walking you back.” We said almost in unison.

“But!” she protested weakly

“No buts” I said sternly as I picked her up.

Big Mac opened the door for me and we stepped out into the blinding sunlight of the peaceful orchard.

Standing about 3 stories below Rainbow Dash’s flying castle we saw how futile it was to try to get her home now. The light blue mare was in no shape to be flying anymore today, and no way in hell was I going to attempt to throw her up there.

“Soooo, ummm, do ladders fall through clouds?” I asked hopefully.

“Eeyup”

“Well crap.”

“I got this.” Said Rainbow Dash as she attempted to take off, only to be held down by my boot on her tail.

“We could drop her off at Twilight’s place” suggested Big Mac.

“Yeah, Isn’t it that tree lookin place?” I asked, looking down a nearby street, spotting it.

“Eeyup”

“Alright.” I said as I grabbed with weak pony and carried her down the street towards Twilight’s tree house.

“I can fly!” she protested.

“Sure. I’ll let you fly to your house if you can get out of my arms” I stopped for a moment as she struggled futilely against my iron grip.

“Done yet?” I asked after a few minutes.

“No!” she panted, her struggles growing weaker.

“Okay” I said as I continued walking, ignoring all the looks from ponies that we passed.

“Gonna be interesting to explain this on market day.” Comment Big Mac dryly.

“Eeyup” Was my response as we reached Twilight’s door.

Reaching up I knocked loudly on the door. Hearing a muffled crash within I walked cautiously towards the ground floor window, peeking in I saw a little purple dragon un-burying himself from a pile of books at the base of a ladder. A few moment later the front door swung open revealing the rather annoyed looking dragon.

“Yeah, how can I help you?” He asked, sounding rather annoyed.

“Is Twilight here?” I asked.

He paused for a moment, looking at Rainbow Dash’s rump over my shoulder, who was still slightly struggling.

“Umm, yeah, let me get her.” he said as he entered the house, leaving the door open for us to enter.

The interior had a nice high roof and had bookshelves lining the walls. At a desk in a corner sat an owl who was currently sleeping amidst what looked like an explosive study session. Books were spread out all around the room and scrolls were waiting to be rolled. Empty ink wells rolled around the floor in numbers too numerous to even begin counting.

“What happened here?” I asked Spike as he went up the stairs towards the rear of the house.

“You know that pen you gave her the other day?” He asked pausing at the top of the stairs.

“Umm, yeah, is she testing it out or something?”

“No” she said as she appeared behind Spike. “I’ve been trying to remake it, but some of the things that it is made of don’t exist here, so I’ve had to find replacement that exist here for it.”

Trotting down the stairs a line of pens followed her, floating through the air, each glowing slightly purple. She levitated them towards me with a hopeful smile.

“Umm, before I test these new pens, can you help Rainbow Dash first” Pointing at the still struggling blue mare.

“Oh!” She said, pens dropping to the floor as she noticed her friend, “What happened?”

“She was peekin through the window at me and Applejack when she leaned too far and crashed through.”

“She hurt herself that much from falling through a window?” She asked as she used magic to take her friend off my shoulder and put her down in a comfy looking chair.

“Umm, that and I hit her in the face with a lamp...”

“Why?” She asked, looking shocked.

“Yeah, I seem to have a tendency of reacting the wrong way when all of you ponies keep on surprisin the piss out of me.”

“I’ll keep that in mind next time I come to visit” She said dryly.

“Hey, I try not to but you crazy ponies seem to try to do it!” I said quickly.

“They’re just actin normal.” Said Big Mac

“Okay, but let’s get back to the matter on hand. Twilight, can you help Rainbow Dash?” I said gesturing towards Rainbow Dash.

“Oh!” Said Twilight again, turning back to her friend, her horn glowing briefly before she touched it to her friends forehead.

Almost instantly Rainbow Dash looked more alert and the color rushed back to her fur. Don’t really know how that works out, but whatever she did Rainbow Dash was almost instantly back to her old self.

“Just a bit of blood loss and a slight concussion” she said smiling as she turned back to me, “Good thing I studied all those medical spells when I was younger, though to play it safe you probably shouldn’t go to sleep for the next 24 hours.”

The look of horror on Rainbow Dash’s face made it very hard not to laugh.

“Hey, since it’s my fault I’ll stay up with ya and keep ya company.” I said hoping to break her shock.

“You’d better, or I’ll make it rain on you for weeks!” she threatened, shaking her hoof at me.

“What was she peeking in on anyways?” Interjected Twilight.

“Oh Cass and Applejack were sleeping together! It was kinda cute how they cuddled together!” Rainbow Dash squealed, flying overhead, just out of my reach.

“Oh, I didn’t know you and Applejack had moved quite so quickly in your relationship! Congratulations.” She said giving me an embarrassed look.

“God freakin dammit! NOT. LIKE. THAT! Geez, nothing happened at all, I just had another nightmare and she came in to comfort me. I also woke up Apple Bloom and she gave me her stuffed animal, hoping that he’ll help me too.”

“She gave you Mr. Apples?” Asked Big Mac in surprise.

“Umm, yeah, I think that what he’s named. Why?” I asked

“Ah thought Applejack would give her hat away before Apple Bloom gave away Mr. Apples.” He said slowly.

“He means that much to her?”

“Eeyup, looks like you won’t have to worry about getting her approval.” He said dryly.

“Here” said Twilight as she re-entered the room, I hadn’t even seen her leave. “This book might be able to help you out”

The title of the book, written out in fancy pink letter, was “How to Please Your Marefriend”

“You found that awfully fast” Said Rainbow Dash, who had read the title from over my shoulder.

Twilight, instantly blushing, stammered, “Well, umm, theres an adult section, yeah, and it’s really, really small so I didn’t have to look hard for it.” She finished it off with a cheesy grin.

“Were you even listening to me before you ran off and found this?” I asked, handing it back to her.

“You said something?” She asked innocently.

“Ugh!” I said as I slammed my face into my hand. “Let me repeat myself then, there is nothing like that happening between me and Applejack. Why do you ponies automatically jump right to that conclusion?”

Oh," she said, almost sounding disappointed, "Well I guess I'll put this back,” she said as she took the book from my hands and walked back upstairs with it.

“Umm, Twi, isn’t it only your room upstairs?” asked Rainbow Dash who finally landed on the floor again.

She halted so suddenly that she almost face planted on the stairs, stammering as she said, “Well, umm, it’s umm,” looking at the book desperately, “Oh it’s damaged, I need to repair it!” she said before she zipped upstairs faster than I’ve seen her run in the past.

“Uh huh” said Rainbow Dash, unconvinced, “How much you wanna bet we opened up a whole new path for her to ‘Study’.”

“I don’t think we opened anything up, I didn’t see where she got that book from.” I commented back.

“What are ya’ll goin on about, and what book was that?” asked a clueless looking Big Mac from behind us.

“Oh, just something you and Cheerilee would enjoy using together!” Joked Rainbow Dash.

We both laughed as he blushed deeply, still looking confused.

Ch 11. Guns and Pitchforks

While we were waiting for Twilight to regain her composure and come back downstairs I collected up the pens she had dropped, easily identifying mine. The rest, while good reproductions, were crudely made, most of them not even being made of a thick metal like mine is. Sorting through them I tried clicking them, most of them not even doing that. Finally, finding a piece of blank parchment I tried to write with them. All but one failed in someway or another, hell one of them somehow managed to burst into flames.

Rainbow Dash, who had taken it upon herself to attempt to explain to Big Mac what the joke was, had ignored my experimentations with the pens, probably finding it too boring.

“So what do you think?” Asked Twilight as she came down the stairs, still blushing.

“That one exploded, you owe me an eyebrow now.” I said pointing at the guilty pen. “And that’s the only one that works.” I said pointing at the shiny wooden pen sitting separate from all the others.

“Oh.” She said, looking disappointed.

“You should see the rest of my gear, a lot of it is much more advanced than just a simple pen. Heck, I don’t think you would even know what half of it would even do.”

“And you would be right.” she said, “Princess Luna asked me to look at everything you brought back and I couldn’t tell head from tails on most of it.”

“Wait, is that where my gear went, I’ve been wondering where it all went!” I said, looking around hoping to catch a glimpse of the familiar digital tans and organic browns that made up the DACU camo.

“Yeah, I got it all down stairs, follow me.” She said leading me to a door I hadn’t seen before.

At the bottom of the stairs a rather large room sat filled with various kinds of important looking machinery. In the middle of the room under a spotlight sat all of my gear, carefully laid out, with little tags, that reminded me of the toes tags they would use in a morgue.

“It’s good to see most of it survived the transition into this world.” I said as I picked up my trusty rifle, ensuring that it was clear.

“Yeah, thats one of the things I couldn’t quite figure out.” She said sheepishly as I used a trained hand to quickly disassemble it.

“I figured that, this is called a M-4, it’s a type of rifle, specifically a carbine. It’s a tool of death where I’m from.” I said quietly, grabbing a magazine from my assault vest I loaded it and asked, “Is there anything in this room you wouldn’t mind getting destroyed?”

She thought for a moment before levitating a couple of sacks of potatoes out from underneath the stairs.

“That’ll do, just set them in the corner.” I said as I took aim through the red dot sight. Stopping just before I fired, I grabbed my helmet and handed it to her.

“Put this on, and try to have the earmuffs on your ears as tightly as you can.” She merely nodded and pressed them into the side of her head.

Aiming again, I slowly exhaled, pausing at the natural low of my breath, squeezing the trigger.

“BLAM BLAM BLAM!”

The sack of potatoes exploded in a mist as I released a burst, the rounds hitting low from where I was aiming, but that was to be expected.

“What was that!?” Yelled Rainbow Dash as she zipped down the stairs, closely followed by Big Mac and Spike.

“Just demonstrating to Twilight that some of these, tools, should not be copied by your peaceful people who have no need for such dangerous things.” I said as I unloaded the rifle and ensured it was clear.

“So what do you want me to do with your...carbine?” She asked fearfully, looking at the destroyed potatoes.

“Do you have a sturdy safe?” I asked, when she nodded, I continued, “I want you to lock these up in one,” I said handing my rifle back to her and gesturing towards my pistol, "and lock these up in a separate safe that has a different key or combination." Handing her the magazines for both.

Looking back at the table I notice my pocket knife sitting on top on my hat. Instantly I grab it and open it with practiced ease, seeing it was no worse for wear.

“Is that a tool or weapon?” Asked Twilight warily.

“Neither, my dad gave me that knife just before I left for basic, that was also the only time I’ve heard him talk since Washington. All he told me was to make sure I came home safe.” I barely noticed the tear rolling down my face, thinking about how he would take my ‘death’.

Twilight, seeing me starting to slip into depression, pointed at a random object at the table and asked, “And what is this?”

Looking down I see her pointing at my radio. “That’s a radio, it allows communications between two or more distant points.”

“Oh like a megaphone, just smaller.” She said with a smile.

“Not quite, in this top part there is a speaker that generates the sound that the other radio hears. So in-between the two you would not be able to tell people where talking unless if you heard the noise from one of the radios itself.”

“Oh that would make it easier to talk to all my friends if they had one, just talk into the radio and they would all hear!” She said excitedly.

“Yeah but how much do you know about electricity and circuits?” I asked.

“Do you mean lightning bolts? You know, when rain clouds store up energy and release it suddenly?” Asked Rainbow Dash who was hovering behind me.

“Yes, exactly, just with much less power and more... control.” Surprised to see that the seemingly dim mare was actually knowledgeable about weather.

“Umm, as far as I know we don’t really harness the power of lightning for anything other helping with the production of rainbows.” Rainbow Dash added.

“And you're right.” Said Twilight, who also seemed surprised at her friends knowledge.

There was a crash upstairs, startling me.

“I got this.” Said Spike as he climbed the stairs, only to be nearly run over by Applejack running down the stairs.

“What in tarnation is goin’ on?” She half yelled at me.

“Umm, what?” I asked, clueless on what I had done now.

“The town is in an uproar looking for you because you bewitched mah brother and beat the tar out of Rainbow Dash and fillynapped her in plain daylight! The bewitched part ah’m half believin’ ‘cause they said you two were getting along with each other!”

“Oh, thats nothing.” I said with a smile, “We just had some ‘gentle’ nudging from a certain hostage, who by the way, is feeling much better now that Twilight used her magic on her. So, do I need to go turn myself into the lynch mob before or after they break out the pitchforks and torches.” I said with a chuckle.

“This ain’t no laughin’ matter!” She yelled loudly, gesturing towards the stairs, “They’re considerin’ kickin’ you outta town, fer GOOD!”

Sombering up, I add, “Well once they see that Rainbow Dash and Big Mac are okay surely they’ll see that they are overreactin’ and decide not to hang me?”

“You didn’t see how they reacted to Zecora did ya?” asked Rainbow Dash dryly.

“Maybe we should move that visit to Princess Luna up, stay out of town until they start actin’ sensibly again. Rainbow Dash, you mind finding the other ponies who want to come with us and bring them here please, the faster the better.” With a grin the blue pegasus snapped a sharp salute at me before streaking off in a rainbow blur.

“Can you, ugh, shoot what’s that word I’m lookin’ for....?” I said motioning at Twilight.

“Teleport?” She said helpfully.

“Yeah, can you do mass teleportations?” I asked.

“Ummm, yeah, let me get the scrolls for that.” She said as she also trotted upstairs.

Turning to the Apple siblings, “Can you two go make sure we have everything we need for the trip, all the luggage and extras, possibly some food and money?”

“Eeyup” said Big Mac.

They stood there for a moment or two, waiting on something, until Applejack nudged him in the ribs and gestured towards the stairs. Big Mac blushed as he left us alone in Twilight’s basement.

“You need me for something?” I asked.

“Ah don’ wanna know what you did to suddenly get along with him, but it’s good that ya did.” She said as she leaned up and kissed me on the cheek.

With that she left me standing, basking in the happy warmth that had flooded my heart.

Ch 12. The New Apple

A few hours after I had issued my orders the rest of the ponies were gathered downstairs in Twilight’s basement, crowded around the various pieces of luggage they had packed planning on an extended stay. Rarity, of course, had the largest of the piles.

“Now did you forget the kitchen sink?” I asked playfully.

“Now why should I bring such a useless thing?” She asked incredulously, “I just packed the essentials, and since you still insist on wearing such dreadful clothes, I also packed for you!” She said as a small suitcase from the top of the stack floated over to me, barely making a dent in the mountain of stuff.

“Hey these may be ugly, but they’re functional!” I protested, ignoring the other ponies laugh as I struck a muscle man pose.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were a doctor!” She said sweetly.

“I’m not a doctor, what made you think that?” I asked, confused.

“Well your outfit is inducing vomiting in ponies who have even the slightest fashion sense!” She said dryly.

“Oh haha,” I retorted as the others giggled. “You ready yet Twilight?”

She looked up briefly from the stack of scrolls she was sorting through, “Yeah, I would’ve been faster if somepony had not decided to crash in.” she said glaring at Rainbow Dash.

“I said I was sorry, how was I to know you were right behind the door as I flew through it!” She huffed.

“It’s called knockin’ sugarcube.” Said Applejack sarcastically.

“But that’s no fun!” Said Pinkie Pie as she popped out from between my legs, scaring me right out of the chair I was in.

Fluttershy helped me back into the chair and, while she had stopped treating me like an injured baby animal long ago, she still acted weird around me.

Spike walked down the stairs holding a scroll with a fancy red and white ribbon tied around it.

“Celestia has responded.” He said to me as he tossed the scroll to me.

Popping the wax seal quickly, but carefully, I unrolled the heavy paper of the scroll, reading the fancy hoofwriting as fast as I could.

Dear, Sergeant Castle

I would be delighted to have you and your friends visit the castle earlier than expected, although my sister forgot to mention that you were visiting.

The guards have already been alerted to your imminent arrival, and your quarters are ready for you.

Anyways, I’m glad that I will get the opportunity to finally meet you.

Sincerely,

Princess Celestia

P.S. We need to talk about your... current situation.

“Well Celestia knows we’re comin’ and is ready for us whenever we get there.” I said, re-reading the final line over again to ensure I read it right.

“You alright hun?” asked Applejack, “You look like ya have seen a ghost.”

“Umm, yeah. How’s the crowd out there?” I asked Spike.

“There are still crazy ponies out there looking for you.” He said as he went back up to the ground floor to continue cleaning the mess Twilight had remade.

“Ah-Hah!” She exclaimed as she tugged one from the bottom of the stack, sending the rest tumbling. After looking at it for a moment longer, she put it back on the now destroyed stack, “Whoops, wrong one.” she said sheepishly.

All the other ponies exhaled in unison, I guess they had all held their breath.

“So is Big Mac going to be okay all alone at the farm?” I asked Applejack.

"Yeah, he shouldn't have much to do, seeing as cider season ain't for a couple more months or so. He should be okay on his own for a while. Besides, Apple Bloom will be there to help him. She may be small, but she is one heck of a worker!" She said proudly.

There was knocking at the front door, followed shortly by the door being broken down with a resounding crash.

Jumping over the table, I rolled underneath it hoping the tablecloth on it would be enough to hide me from the mob, I really didn’t want to hurt anypony. Hoping desperately that they wouldn’t even look into the basement for us.

“Hurry!” I said, motioning with my hand to Twilight.

Applejack took up a position at the bottom of the stairs, only to be tackled by a yellow and red streak.

“An’ you thought you could get away without sayin’ bye!” Said Apple Bloom as she stood on her older sister’s stomach.

“Well ah didn’t wanna worry ya, and shouldn’t ya’ll still be in school?” She asked as she rubbed the back of her head.

“Naw, school got released early for ‘safety’, don’t they know he’s harmless?” She said as Applejack pushed her gently off her stomach

“Was that Miss Cheerilee or the parents?” Asked Rainbow Dash, warily looking up the stairs as more hoof steps were heard from somepony coming down them.

“The parents!” Squeaked Sweetie Belle as she appeared at the bottom of the stairs, carrying a dazed looking Spike across her back..

Twilight, seeing Spike hurt, dropped the scroll she had been looking at and rushed to him, levitating him off of Sweetie Belle’s back and setting him down in a seated position on the table.

“Umm, sorry Miss Twilight.” Said Scootaloo from behind Sweetie Belle. “I kinda maybe ran over your front door, and Spike. I was trying to catch up to them cause’ they left without me!”

Twilight, of course, wasn’t paying any attention to her, she was concentrating while her horn glowed purple, Fluttershy right next to her examining him with more physical means.

“So why did you come here?” Asked Rarity as she hugged Sweetie Belle

“To see Cass off of course.” Answered Apple Bloom as if visiting the current most wanted ‘criminal’ in town was just an everyday thing.

Coming out from underneath my table, I smiled as Apple Bloom rushed to hug my leg.

“Come back soon!” She squealed, hugging harder than I thought possible. “Oh, an’ you forgot someone!”

She reached into her saddlebags and pulled out Mr. Apple. I smiled as I took him from her grasp, putting him in my cargo pocket on my left leg so his head peaked out.

“Now he can see what adventures I go on too!” I said, ruffling the younger fillies hair as she giggled. “And Rainbow Dash, you make that yuck face behind me one more time, I’ll make you give Mr. Apple a ride through town on his own cart.”

Judging by the giggling that was caused by that I had guessed right as to what she had been doing. Twilight, who had obviously completed her check up on Spike, was hugging the life out of the poor dragon.

“Umm, Twi...” Said Fluttershy in barely more than a whisper. “Twi...” A little louder, “TWILIGHT!” She finally yelled as Spike started changing colors due to lack of air.

“Oh!” She exclaimed sheepishly, “Whoops.”.

Setting Spike down, he looked embarrassed about being treated like that in front of Rarity. But that was quickly overcome with joy as she picked him up.

“Oh my Spikey Wikey got a booboo, you going to be okay?” She said with a babying voice as she kissed his forehead.

“I am now!” He sighed dreamily, looking like he had just melted in her hoofs.

“Is this it?” Asked Pinkie Pie from behind a giant stack of scrolls, her hoof, holding a scroll, was the only thing visible.

“How did you do that?” Asked Twilight after examining it for a moment.

“It was under T for Teleportation, of course!” She exclaimed happily. “Where else would it be you silly filly!”

Twilight just planted her face into her hoof, I’m guessing that this isn’t the first time something like this has happened.

“Can we come?” Asked Apple Bloom. “Maybe we can earn our cutie marks there!”

“I’m sure the Princesses wouldn’t mind. Twilight, how many people can you transport?” I asked as I turned to her.

“The whole town if I need to.” She said proudly. “This is a really powerful spell.”

“Not powerful dangerous right? I don’t wanna end up in Canterlot minus a leg or two.” I asked skeptically.

“Oh, don’t worry, there hasn't been a reported teleportation accident in years.” Twilight said confidently.

“So it’s up to your parents whether or not you're allowed to come.” I said to the three young fillies in front of me.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle went up to their respective sisters, talking to them in private. Scootaloo just stood there looking awkward, shuffling a little of her tiny hooves.

“Aren’t you going to ask your parents, Scootaloo?” I ask gently, taking a knee so I was closer to her level.

She mumbled something, looking ashamed.

“I didn’t hear ya, my ears have been near too many explosions to be of much use.”

“The orphanage doesn’t care.” She muttered again, I could just barely make out the words.

There was a gasp of surprise from the ponies around the room.

“You're an orphan?” Asked Fluttershy.

“Yeah, I don’t like ponies knowing that.” She said as she started crying, her friends rushing back to her side.

“Hey, you know what I see when I look at you?” I asked gently, taking her hoof in my hand, she shook her head, tears coming faster now.

“I see one lucky filly with some of the craziest aunts and some of the best sisters!” I said motioning to the ponies around the room.

“And not all of us didn’t know!” Said Pinkie Pie calmly, despite the fact she was bouncing, again. “Did you think you could hide from the Hide and Seek champion whenever I came over to bring the Paarrrtay to the orphanage?”

“And we also knew.” Said Sweetie Belle, “We’ve known since forever, we just didn’t want to bring it up and rub your face in it.”

Scootaloo, tears now flowing freely down her face, hugged her friends as the older ponies and I found normal things suddenly very interesting to study.

Thinking for a moment, I was struck by inspiration. I turned to Applejack who was studying an old wooden stool.

“Hey you mind having an extra mouth to feed at the farm?” I whispered to her

“Ah, no, most of the time we got extra helpins’.” She said, looking confused.

Turning to Twilight, “What laws are there on adoptions here in Equestria?” Still trying to keep my voice down.

With a very confused look on her face, she recited from memory, “If a group of parents so want to adopt a child of the state they must have proof of a job and residence that have the capacity of taking care of a child.”

“Paperwork?” I whispered, motioning with my hands to keep quiet.

“None” Giving me another confused look, “Just a simple spell that almost any unicorn with the approval of the Princesses can cast. Why are you asking me all of this?”

Ignoring her, I turned to Applejack as realization dawned on her face, “Do you mind if I use another of your rooms in the house?”

“There ain’t anymore.” She whispered back sadly, the three young fillies still oblivious to the clandestine meeting happening right in front of them.

“Well I’ll move into the barn!” I whispered back, “An’ can I be a full on employee there?”

“Sure hun, you’re already like family so you don’t even need to ask!”

Turning back to Twilight, “Can you cast that spell, now?”

“Umm, yeah, why are we whispering? And why are you asking these weird questions?” She was actually starting to look angry about not knowing what was going on.

Turning now to the group of fillies who were comforting their orange friend.

“Hey Scoots, how would you like to live with the Apple family.” I ask loudly enough to be heard over her sobs.

“It would be great, but why are y-you asking?” She sobbed.

“Would you mind if I adopted you?” I asked, taking her hoof in my hand again.

The young filly froze, just like an old windows computer, the expression draining from her face. Her friends on either side of her were slack jawed as they realized what I had just said.

“Do you really mean it?” She asked fearfully after a couple of minutes.

“I would never joke about something like that.” I said gently.

She stood there for a couple more moments, the basement utterly silent as the other ponies stared at me in shock, all of their jaws, except Applejack’s, were hanging so low they nearly touched the floor.

What happened next shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did nonetheless. Scootaloo tackled me with such great force that it catapulted us across the floor in a mess of fur and body parts.

“OMIGOSHOMIGISHOMIGOSHOMIGISHOMIGOSHOMIGISHOMIGOSHOMIGISHOMIGOSHOMIGISH!!!” Squealed Scootaloo, sounding a lot like her role model.

“Can I take that as a yes?” I said as she choked me with a strong hug around the neck.

“Heck yeah!” She practically yelled in my ear.

“Hey Twilight, mind castin’ that spell now?” I asked her, struggling to breath.

“Umm, no, I can’t.” She said, looking close to tears.

The silence that descended on the room was deadly, all ponies glaring at Twilight.

“I.. I’m sorry, but there has to be two parents!” She stuttered.

“Then sign me up!” Said Applejack, stepping forward.

Apple Bloom launched herself at her sister, performing a near perfect flying hug.

Scootaloo, who was crying even more now, also ran to Applejack.

“THANK YOU!!” She yelled as she hugged Applejack around the neck, choking her now.

I hesitated, realizing what was implied by us adopting a kid together, but decided to mention it to Applejack later. No way in hell was I even going to think about ruining this event. I nodded to Twilight, who stepped towards me with her horn glowing, touching it briefly to my forehead. She then walked to Applejack, a bit of green swirling around in the purple of her magic, and touched her still glowing horn to Applejacks forehead, a bit of orange coming out of her forehead. She turned to Scootaloo and touched it to her forehead also, her orange coming out and joining our colors.

Twilight then raised her head, all three of the colors mixing, staying separate but becoming one entity, before a flash of light blinded me. I felt something briefly strike my forehead, more like if I had walked through a cobweb than like something actually touching me. When my sight returned I saw that Scootaloo and Applejack also looked blinded, but everyone else, while teary eyed, looked fine.

“So what exactly did that spell do?” I asked Twilight, rubbing my eyes.

“I took a part of each of your souls and mixed them, then gave all of you a part of each other, not enough to affect you in anyway, but enough to say that wherever any of you go you will be carrying a piece of each other.” She said, her smile almost bigger than her face.

“Sister!” Cried Apple Bloom as she hugged Scootaloo.

“Sister!” She cried back as she hugged back.

I didn’t have the heart to tell them that Apple Bloom was actually an aunt more than a sister, but I'm sure they’re smart enough to figure it out on their own here soon enough, if they cared enough to even make the distinction.

“So should I start calling you wife?” I joke at Applejack, who suddenly blushed.

“I..Umm...I’m sorry I didn’...umm” She stuttered out.

“Hmmm, turns out you can get cuter,” I said leaning in towards her.

“OH, for Celestia's sake get a freakin room you two, I’m about to puke over here!” Exclaimed Rainbow Dash.

Remembering that we weren't alone in the room I stood up straight suddenly, now blushing myself.

“So, umm, Dad?” Said Scootaloo as she tugged on my pants leg, giving me puppy dog eyes that I’m sure she was going to get me with in the future, “Can I come to Canterlot?”

“Hmm,” Pausing, putting my finger on my lip as if I had to think hard about it. “Did you do your homework?”

“Yes!” She replied instantly.

“Do your chores?”

“Yes”

“Brush your teeth?”

She hesitated, looking crestfallen, “No.”

“Hmmm, then ask your mother.”

A brief pause. “Mom?” Giving Applejack the puppy dog eyes now.

“Ah don’ see why not, it ain’t fittin for only two of the Cutie Mark Crusaders to go.” She said after a moment or two of ‘deep thought’.

“Well, I guess I’ll just have to buy you a toothbrush in Canterlot cause you're comin with us then!” I said picking her up and tossing her lightly in the air, fully intending to catch her, but she stayed about 3 inches above my hands, her wings beating fast.

“I’M GOING TO CANTERLOT WITH MY PARENTS!” She screamed.

“I’M ALSO FLYING!” She screamed again, hoof-pumping the air, and momentarily forgetting to flap, falling right into my outstretched hands, giggling.

“We are going to Have. Such. A. Huge. PAARRRTTTYYY!” Yelled Pinkie Pie in excitement, “I’ve never had an adoption and a first time flyer party at the same time!”

The front door upstairs crashed open again, multiple hoofsteps could be heard spreading out across the room.

“He has to be in here!” Yelled somemare I didn’t know.

“Umm, Twilight?” I asked, hoping that they wouldn’t notice the door.

“Working on it.” She replied, her horn glowing brightly, a breeze now swirling around her.

“You, check her basement!” Came a different voice from upstairs.

“Twi?” Squeaked Fluttershy, panicking.

“On it!” She yelled as I was blinded again, just before the world cut to black.

Ch 13. I Need A Drink

We landed in a heap, as if some giant had picked us all up, shook us and our luggage around, and then dropped us on the floor. Rarity, who had been standing the closest to her pile of luggage, was buried the worst. I could hear her muttering something about how uncouth it all was.

And of course the two guard ponies who we had just appeared in front of were in total shock.

“What in Celi...HALT!” Yelled one of them, a spear leveling itself at my face.

“GUARD!” Came a powerful voice from behind our pony pile.

“Princess Luna!” said both guards as the bowed to the Princess who was out of my sight.

“Might I ask how you appeared in my royal bedchambers?” Asked Princess Luna as we struggled to unbury ourselves and each other.

“I’m sorry Princess Luna, I was rushed and I kinda just aimed for Canterlot, and nowhere specific here.” Said Twilight from underneath Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.

“And how did you get past your brother's spell?” Princess Luna asked.

“I am the one who taught him the spell.” Replied Twilight, “And I also thought I felt Celestia’s magic influencing where we were going to land, but I don’t think that’s the case.”

“Oh, Celestia helped. That explains it entirely.” Said Princess Luna laughing.

It took us several minutes to disentangle ourselves from each other and our luggage, the whole task made much simpler when Twilight simply levitated all of Rarity’s bags up into a stack again.

Once I was free from the pile of tangled pony limbs, I made sure Applejack and Scootaloo were okay before turning to the Princess.

“Sorry ‘bout the intrusion, the townspeople in Ponyville are a bit over-zealous at times.” I said casually, I heard the guards armor clink as they stiffened.

Luna, also noticing, leaned to her right to look around me, “Do you not have something to be doing? Such as helping our guests get their luggage to their rooms?” She said coldly to the guard who had pointed his weapon at me.

“But Princess!” He started to protest only to be silenced by a glare from the Princess.

“I’m perfectly safe with Cass, he is about as harmful as a butterfly on a windy day.” Luna said, leaving no room for argument.

The guards quickly took the luggage out of the room, leaving our little group standing in what appeared to be a lavish bedroom. The room itself suited the princess perfectly, the dark blue of the paint on the wall matching both the drapes and tapestries which had Luna’s cutie mark on them. The room was in perfect order, everything neat and orderly, except for the bed which looked like she had just been sleeping in it when we had appeared and scared her out of her slumber.

That and the fact that she was only wearing three socks.

“Did we interrupt anything?” I asked.

“Whatever do you mean?” She asked in her Royal Canterlot voice, pushing me several inches back.

I just pointed at her socks and the bed, rubbing the ringing noise out of my ears.

She looked at her hooves, and with a blush, and with a little hop, she whipped the socks off her feet and flung them out of the nearby window, where a distant crash resounded.

“Wow Luna, you hit that gardener right in the face with those socks!” said Pinkie Pie who was looking out the window.

“So, umm, should we let you get back to your...nap?” I asked hesitantly.

“No!” She said in her Royal voice, before continuing in a normal voice, “I m-mean n-no, no I'll take you to my sister.” Luna stammered

“Is there something different about you?” She asked, looking at me critically.

“Umm, no?” I responded, leaning back from the Princess as she got real close to my face.

“Why does it look like your soul is mixed with two others?” She said, her eyes glowing faintly.

“Oh, that. I adopted Scootaloo with Applejack. You can see that?” I asked, surprised.

“Of course.” She said, “Anyone with magic can see that.”

“Then what about our mental...thing?” I asked.

“Thats different.” Came her voice directly into my head, she smiled and winked at me.

“Mental thing?” Asked Applejack.

“Nothing.” Both me and Luna said in unison.

“So, ummm, Dad?” Asked Scootaloo, tugging on my plants leg.

“Yeah, Scootaloo?”

“Can we meet Princess Luna?” She asked, puppy dog eyes in full effect.

“Are thou not afraid of meeting me?” Luna asked, surprised.

“Maybe!” Squeaked Sweetie Belle as she disappeared behind Rarity’s forelegs.

“Don’t be afraid child, I am harmless, let us partake in the fun, Huzzah!”

Apple Bloom, who had until a couple seconds ago been hiding behind Applejack's leg peaked out at Luna's offer. “Well what do you do for fun here?”

Sporting a playful grin, she simply answered, "Prank Celestia!"

The look on the three young fillies faces was nothing compared to the look on Rainbow Dash’s face, she looked like she had just found a role model almost the equal of the Wonderbolts.

“How about you girls go help the Princess with her latest prank.” I said mischievously.

With a grin the three young fillies ran off with Luna, Rainbow Dash following close behind, leaving me, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Twilight all laughing knowing that this was not going to end well for a certain sister.

“Wait, how are we supposed to find Celestia now?”

After what felt like forever exploring deeper into the castle looking for the Princess, and not seeing anypony, we decided it was a futile effort to just be wandering around in what appeared to be giant circles. We found ourselves a nice little room full of comfortable armchairs, and while Twilight tried to contact Celestia with her magic, we sat around and relaxed.

“You would think that such a big place would have more ponies working here.” Whispered Fluttershy.

“Yeah you would think so, we ain’t seen anyone since Luna scared her guards off.” Said Applejack lying across my lap, half asleep.

“Have you had any luck dear?” Asked Rarity, who had pulled a hairbrush from somewhere and was brushing the knots out of her tail.

“Yes, she said guards are on their way.” Twilight replied distractedly after a moment, her horn glowing brightly.

“Now, ah got some complaints ‘bout how you’re raisin’ mah kid.” Said Applejack, poking my nose with her hoof.

“What?” I said innocently.

“Do you think it’s a good idea to let them go and prank the Princess?”

“They got Princess Luna with them, she won’t let anything happen to them.” I said confidently.

There was a knock at the door before it swung open, revealing a white unicorn wearing a fancy jacket and had a ring on his horn.

He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Twilight.

“Big Brother!” She said running over to him and giving him a hug. “I didn’t know Celestia was sending you!”

“And I didn’t know you were friends with the human!” He said hugging her back.

Staying seated due to Applejack looking too damn cute to move off my lap. I held out my hand and greet him with a smile.

“Names Sergeant Castle, but call me Cass.”

Taking my hand in his hoof, “My name is Shining Armor, I’m the Captain of the Guard here.”

“Wow, Princess Celestia considers me important enough to send the captain of the guard to come get me and be my tour guide, I’m honored.”

“You won’t hear me complaining, gets me away from all the paperwork, and if I take a detour I can swing by and surprise my wife for a short bit before returning to work.” He said, lost in his own thoughts for a moment.

Chuckling a bit, “I guess the military is the same everywhere, paperwork, paperwork, and more paperwork.”

Laughing along with me he continued, “Come, we shouldn’t keep the Princess waiting, and you guys are actually a lot closer than you think.”

Standing up, and helping Applejack get to her hooves, I ask. “Did you happen to see Princess Luna, Rainbow Dash, and a group of fillies running around today?”

“Yes, I’ve received reports from my guards telling me to expect another prank on Celestia sometime today.”

“Does things like this happen a lot?” asked Applejack.

“Yeah, those two have started a prank war, and the guards are ill-prepared.”

“Casualties of fun huh?”

“Yeah, last week all of Celestia’s personal guards showed up to guard duty purple.”

Laughing as he lead us across the hallway and down a cleverly hidden stairwell he continued, “And the week before that all of Luna’s guards showed up to duty with itchy powder in their armor.”

“So do all the pranks happen on the guards?” Asked Rarity, who was bringing up the rear.

“Thank the Princesses no, yesterday Princess Luna came down for breakfast completely pink, apparently her shampoo had gotten mixed up with a dye, and Luna, not being a morning pony in the first place, did not notice until she had gone back up to her room.” He was laughing hard as he opened the door at the bottom of the stair, revealing a rather angry looking guard who looked like he had gone through a fluffer, his fur sticking straight out in all angles making him appear much larger than he normally would have been. None of us could hold back our laughter at such a ridiculous sight.

“Take a day off Guardspony Grain, if that is you in there?” A nod from the fluff monster, “I can’t have you walking around, I would never get anything done because I wouldn’t be able to stop laughing.” Shining Armor said after bringing his laughter quickly under control, presenting a formidable poker face.

“Yes sir!” He said, snapping a smart salute before quickly departing.

“One of the ‘victims’.” I guessed.

“Yeah, and that’s a new one, I’m guessing today is going to be a long day.”

“What makes you say that?”

At that point I saw Princess Celestia, standing outside of her throne room, sopping wet, apologizing to a group of nobles who were also wet. As I walked over to group she gave me a warm smile before continuing.

“Welcome Sgt Castle, I would invite you into my throne room, but it seems to have developed a weather pattern in there.” Behind the nearby closed doors a large puddle was spreading, and I could hear the faint noise of a heavy downpour.

“So, does something like this happen often?” I ask.

“Only when Luna helps it. Come, walk with me Sergeant. Alone.”

The Princess leads me down the hallway to another sitting room, much like the one we had found earlier. Taking a seat on a comfortable looking couch she invited me to sit in the chair opposite of her.

“So what did you want to discuss?” I asked, fearful that it’ll be a repeat of last time I had met one of the princess, alone.

“I want to discuss how you are, coping with this new world.” She said coldly, giving me a hard stare, “The only reason I haven’t already gone into your mind to see how you think is because my sister vouches for you.”

Standing up suddenly, knocking the chair I was in over, “If you even get that horn near me we will have issues lady!”

“Do not worry, I have no intentions of going into your mind, it is not an enjoyable practice for either party involved.”

“Then what the hell do you want me in here for? I said, backing away from her, reaching into the small of my back.

“To merely discuss your options.” She said, nonchalantly.

“Options? Why am I not liking the way you are sayin that?”

Ignoring my last comment, she continued, “The first option you have is to accept that you are stuck here and make lasting relationships, of which you seem to have made a few already. The second option you have is to go home.”

“Wait! Princess Luna said I would not be able to get home! She said there was no magic to get me home!”

“And there is none, that she knows of, magic has grown in the thousand years she was on the moon.”

“So you can send me home?”

“No, the magic involved would turn our world inside out.”

“Oh, that might just be a small issue.”

“I would say so, I quite enjoy my world like it is now.

So is there an option three?” I ask, crossing my arms in front of me.

“Yes, you can not accept the facts and become a recluse, locking this world out.”

“Why on earth would I do that?”

“Because the realization that you will never have a family here. I don’t know what your relationship with Applejack is but I will tell you now it will not work. There will come a time that she will want foals of her own, and you cannot provide. There will be times that you will want something she cannot provide. I’m warning you now while you still have time to end it before one of you gets hurt.”

You could have heard a pen drop a thousand miles away the silence was so total, I was barely breathing, the rage building in my chest.

“Just so you know, there are some things in life that are deeper than a physical attraction. Just because she’s a different species doesn’t mean I cannot love her. I will admit that sex will be, weird, if it ever happens. As for kids of our own, there is always adoption. It scares me that you cannot accept that we make each other happy, if it wasn’t for her I wouldn’t be standing here.I owe her my life, she saved me from a downward spiral I didn’t even realize that I was in. Is it bad that your sister, who has been trapped on the moon for a thousand years, because of you, knows love better than you?!”

I was practically shaking at the end, she just looked at me in shock, she definitely was not expecting me to be yelling at her. And neither did her guards as they swarmed the room.

“OUT!” She commanded, the guard ponies skidding to a stop before running right back out of the room.

“Compassion must be new to you,” I said quietly, “You couldn't even show your sister mercy and release her from her private Hell.” I’m not sure if the images flashing through my mind were mine or Luna’s, but the sorrow of being trapped for far too long alone I knew was both mine and hers.

“You are so out of touch with your people that you are getting reports on Friendship for God’s sake. You’re more than a thousand years old and have no friends, have no close loved ones. Hell the only one who ever loved you, you banished to the moon for a thousand years. But yet, you still have the audacity to be trying to tell me how to have my relationships.”

I stalked out of the room, leaving the princess wide-eyed with shock. The guards on the outside of the room attempted to stop me, still clueless about the shouting that had just happened. They had no chance in Hell of slowing me down as I walked through them, parting the group like the Red Sea. My friends were on the backside of the group, concerned looks on their faces.

“Shining Armor, can you lead me to my room?” I asked, ignoring the questioning looks.

“What was going on in there?” He asked.

“Later, right now you probably want me far away so I don’t do something stupid.” I could feel my friends concerned stares burrowing into my back as I walked away. But for the moment, I couldn’t give a flying Batman fuck.

If half of what Celestia had hinted at was true, then I was really going to need to find someone who brewed a nice strong drink somewhere around here.