“… after all… maybe… be fine…”

John sighed, trying to tune out the conversation that the mares were having in the booth. He tried to go back to his thoughts, ones which stayed in relatively the same topic during the trip.

Himself.

“Was it the right decision?” he thought for the 7th time. After getting to his seat, mountains of thoughts began flooding his mind, for the first time since he had arrived, he had fully come to grasp the current situation: he was in a place with no sort of human interaction, where talking equines ruled the world, and he had caused his (relatively new) surrogate sister to be mad to boot.

The realization caused him to groan audibly, ever since he’d arrived in Equestria, he had been involved in incident after incident, the one with Pinkie not being the only one, still, this wasn’t the cause of his anger.

He was angry for a different reason, one that not even he knew of.

“Hey, John. You alright?” barely glancing to the side, he noticed Applejack intently looking at him with a frown in her face.

“Oh, AJ, er, I mean, Applej-”

“AJ is fine, John, what’s the matter? You seen more worried than a dog without a bone,” John raised his brow at the analogy, but otherwise shook it off.

“Thanks. And I’m okay, AJ, it’s just that I’ve been thinking about things. Haven’t had time to do that, you know?” he responded, giving a tired laugh.

“Ah, guess it HAS been sort of chaotic for you, huh?” she noted, chuckling.

“What’s so funny about that?” John asked bemused at her reaction.

“Well, let’s just say that this is nothing in comparison to what we get involved in, trust me,“ she returned to her seat and put a hoof around Rainbow’s neck. “Once you hang with us, you’ll see that things can certainly get worse.”

“Oh yeah! Like the time we defeated Nightmare Moon! Trying to trick us, that old hag!” Rainbow said, getting out Applejack’s gentle hold and into the air.

“Not to interrupt, dear, but isn’t this ‘old hag’ Princess Luna?” Rarity cut in, giving Rainbow a disapproving stare.

“Oh… Yeah…” Rainbow returned to her seat, looking flustered at her own outburst. “My bad, um, please don’t tell the Princess…”

“…I can’t wait,” John sarcastically sighed, while the conversation began once more with the mares, he turned his head to the window and noticed something looming in the distance; Canterlot, where the tower where he had first awoken after arriving there was visible. ‘Has it only really been seven days?” John wondered as he absorbed the sights, stopping after realizing it. ‘What am I complaining about?’ he began, trying his best to find a reason. ‘Besides the few accidents, I’ve been relatively okay…”

“Um… John?” his thoughts interrupted once more, he turned his head in time to notice the face of Fluttershy dangerously close to his own.

“Whoa!”

“Eep!” Fluttershy jumped slightly into the air, her wings clamping shut before landing on her back, her limbs stiff in the air..

“Oh my God!” John kneeled on the floor, unable to realize what had happened.

“It’s alright, John, you just startled her,” Applejack informed, smiling a bit to the pony on the floor.

“D-does this happen often?” he asked, not entirely convinced.

“More than you’d think,” she laughed.

“Well, excuse me for worrying, either way, I need to get her some water,” he kneeled to the floor and attempted to pick her up, finding it surprisingly easy to do. “We’ll be right back.”

“Be careful with her! She is very sensitive,” recognizing Rarity’s voice, and only nodding in response, he opened the door to the hall with one hand and left. After a quick asking around, getting a few odd looks, considering that he was a human carrying a passed out pony, he found himself in the break room. He was graciously surprised when finding a coffee maker in the room, after preparing some much needed coffee for himself, he grabbed another cup, and poured some water from the faucet for Fluttershy.

“How do I even give it to- oh, well, never mind,” he returned to the sight of the now conscious yellow mare.

“O-oh, is that for me?” looking down at the cup, he handed it to her, the yellow pony eagerly taking it with her hooves and drinking from it. “Thank you,” she set the cup down and turned her attention to John. “So, um… I was wondering…” she began, looking dejected at whatever was on her mind.

“Yes? What’s the matter?”

“I-I just wanted to know what was wrong,” she said in a barely audible voice.

"Wait a minute, did you do that fainting thing on purpose to get me outside?” John half-joked, to which Fluttershy only responded by hiding behind her mane.

“Oh, um, well, it worked, for all that matters,” he sat down next to her and put his hands together, rubbing his knuckles as he delved into his thoughts once more. "I'm sorry! It's just that you didn't seem too comfortable talking with everypony else around! You can tell me, I’m all ears, to any creature that needs it,” she said, smiling warmly.

“Heh. Well, what can I say?” he began, looking embarrassed. “I actually don’t know,” Fluttershy tilted her head confused.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I know that something is bothering me, but I can’t really assert as to what has me worried, if that makes any sense…”

“Oh! Well, just know that we are all here, you are welcome to at least talk to me if something is wrong, please, and don’t feel uncomfortable doing so, I- I mean, WE, er, I mean, I, just want to help, but the others might be willing to help you too.”

“Thank you… And no, I don’t feel uncomfortable talking to y-…" He stopped as he absorbed his own words. "Un-comfort-” Fluttershy finished her water and began trotting away, not before turning one more time and giving John a smile before heading back, leaving him on his own.

“I‘m not uncomfortable…” he said in a low voice, watching her trot away, “It’s the opposite actually,” he got to his feet and stared outside, noticing the city looming closer.

‘I… I actually feel good when I‘m with them, almost as if I bel-…' he shook his head, getting the thoughts out of his head. “All that matters right now is that I gotta apologize to Twilight,” pushing his doubts aside, and determined on finishing his self-appointed task, he returned to the booth, where he hoped no more questions would be asked the rest of the way.

The sun was directly above Canterlot as the train finally arrived at the station, the group made its way outside, finding a rather unexpected surprise.

“Twilight!” Applejack called, it was Twilight alright, but outside her cutie mark and the noticeably highlighted purple streak in her mane, she was unrecognizable; her coat was off in places, pieces of it just sticking out like numerous sore thumbs, even her usual magenta colored eyes were an extremely bloodshot red, his scrutinizing was cut short by Applejack approaching her and quickly giving her a friendly pat in the back. “Did you pass?” John only stared, confused by the question, he was then promptly pushed out of the way by a cannon, seemingly out of nowhere.

“Are we going to celebrate your (obvious) awesomeness with Princess Celestia!?” asked Pinkie, firing the cannon, which released various streamers to the air.

“Um, not quite, Pinkie Pie,” Twilight chimed in, all the streamers somehow getting back in the cannon automatically.

“You gotta teach me how to do that,” John whispered to Pinkie, who only gave him a… Hoof up?

“AHEM!” Twilight interrupted the pair, getting back their attention. “Anyway, we are ALL going to the Crystal Empire…” she said unenthusiastic-ally, everypony and human looking confused at the mere mention of it.

“Well, that’s cool and all, but I have one question,” John began.

“Oh, oh! Do you have to go to the bathroom?” guessed Pinkie.

“Um, no. Actually, I was go—”

“It’s okay Johnny! We all gotta go when we go—”

“Pinkie!” he called loudly, causing the pink pony to stop and fall on her plot, giving him a comically sheepish smile, after waiting for any further interruptions to come, he continued. “Okay… Ahem. WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE!?” the partial shock of his scream ignored, the ponies all turned to Twilight, giving her a curious look.

“Yes, Twilight. You’ve been acting strange all day, and you even left John behind, who I’d like to remind you, wasn’t even home when we got there, which is strange, seeing how you care for him,” Rarity explained, summarizing the events rather swiftly.

“All of us are curious ‘bout that, Twi, and I'm not one to get into somepony else's business, but it's rather worrisome,” affirmed Applejack, squinting at Twilight suspiciously, getting a groan out of the mare.

“Applejack, as much as I would like to explain—which I don’t—we have more pressing matters to attend to,” she whisked past the group and towards John, whom with she held a glare with for a second before moving again. “We need to prepare. We have a long trip ahead of us, so meet me here again in an hour after you guys are done,” she finished, quickly trotting away towards the castle once more with Spike in tow, leaving them on their own again.

“So…” began Applejack, breaking the uncomfortable silence left in Twilight’s wake. “What happened between you two?” John sighed and looked towards the group, locking eyes with Pinkie who only nodded, taking this as an incentive, he let it out.

“Well, I sort of insulted Pinkie by basically saying her, and her party were stupid, Twilight was stoically furious for this, and she kicked me out of the house for the night. Now,” he began, then followed by laying down on the floor. “Please, I beg you to avoid hitting my tender parts as you murder me.”

“I make no promises,” growled Rarity, but was stopped by a pink hoof.

“Don’t you hurt him, you bully!” Pinkie began, causing Rarity to back off.

“I was not going to hurt him…“ she said looking mockingly hurt. “Maybe give him a kick or two! But not much, I mean, both Applejack and Rainbow by themselves would do enough damage,” Pinkie looked to the side to see both ponies taking threatening stances.

“He apologized and I forgave him!” Pinkie explained quickly, wanting to avoid any more stress. “We made super-nightly-duper-fantastic-sleepover-of-forgiveness at my house! So it’s okay,” she finished, getting a quizzical look from Rainbow.

“Um, why was he at your house?” the rainbow pony, practically growled.

“I didn’t have a place to sleep, and she kindly offered to let me stay at her home,” John explained, already back on his feet, warily eyeing Rainbow. “Why?” he followed up.

“Because, er, I still don’t trust him that much!” to John’s dismay, all of the ponies outside Fluttershy and Pinkie nodded in agreement.

“Honestly? She’s right, John. As much as Twi trusted you, I was sort of wary of you,” John cringed at the sound of her untrusting voice. “But…” at this, he turned his gaze to the farm pony. “If Pinkie also says it’s okay, Ah think I just might have enough incentive to do the trusting now,” she grinned, extending her hoof to him.

“You just want to annoy me, don’t you?” John groaned annoyed before reaching for her hoof and shaking it.

“Just some payback for getting Twilight angry, it could have gone much worse, you know?”

“So I’ve heard,” John exclaimed weakly, remembering Twilight’s words the day before.

“So, are we going to stand here? Or are we getting ready?” Rainbow Dash interrupted, bringing the group back to the business at hoof.

“A lady is always ready for any situation, so I can easily say that I am,” Rarity said, looking smug.

“Rarity, packing more than you can take ISN’T prepared, Ah told you already,” Applejack said annoyed.

“Well girls, I will be back, I’m going to go get ready now, okay?” John informed them, and awaiting no response, he walked away. “Okay,” he sighed as soon as he was out of earshot, glad to have avoided the bickering that was sure to start.

After getting away from the ponies, he grinned in relief as he arrived at the shopping district right outside the station, having been there before, he looked around, hoping to recognize some of the stores. He walked around, eyeing the different knickknacks placed around on the open, in the hopes of potential buyers. He kept walking for a few minutes longer, avoiding the gaze of the rich ponies who threw him looks of confusion, some even disgust, but outside of that, none bothered with him, which he was thankful for..

“Hey, you.”

At least until now.

“Huh?” he turned to the sound of the voice, seeing a small donkey on a stand, he grinned at the sight, and approached it, his curiosity getting the best of him.

“Well, you are certainly a strange one,” the female Donkey began after examining him.

“That’s a good first impression,” John groaned in response.

“I’m old, respect your elders,” she began looking annoyed. “But you seem like a nice kid, so how about I offer my services to you?”

“Uh huh… What sort of services would those be?” John asked her, raising a brow suspiciously.

“Why, fortune telling, of course! Or if you’d rather, hoof reading, so I can see your future!” John’s ears quickly picked up the last part.

“Really now? Well, how much would that cost?”

“I’ll do it for free.”

“Well, I can’t argue with that, I don‘t think I‘ll lose anything,” he extended his hand allowing the old fortune teller to look at his palm.

“Oh ho… Um, yes… This is very interesting!” she began, looking amazed.

“W-what?”

“You will find a beautiful mare, and you will marry her, you both will have three healthy fillies!” John fell back on his behind at this.

“T-t-that can’t be true! What part of my hand says that!?” John asked with urgency, some ponies passing by laughing as they went by him.

“I don’t know,” this simply reply confused John more than anything.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T KNOW!?” he asked loudly grabbing the table set between the two of them with force, creaking under his weight.

“Well, because I don’t read ‘hands’ as you call them,” she replied casually, scratching her sides, looking amused.

“You!… Dammit, I can’t be angry, I fell right into that one,” John admitted, looking disappointed.

“Now, now, I CAN read your future, you know? And I’ll do it for real this time, and for free too, just for the amusement you brought to this old donkey,” she replied, barely holding a smile.

“Uh huh, not going to fall for that one again,” he turned to leave, but a cold touch stopped him in his tracks.

“I insist.” came the voice of the teller, the cold feeling suddenly going away.

“Fine, I guess,” John reluctantly agreed, turning his attention back to the stand, he looked at the table where now bones were strewn everywhere.

“So you are going to read my fortune with... bones? Isn’t that a bit looked down upon? Being herbivores and whatnot?” John asked curiously.

“Are you going to let me do my job? Or not?”

“I might as well,” he turned his attention to the table, where the donkey put the bones in a container, she began shaking it around, the rattling of the bones a calm rhythmic sound in John’s ears.

“And yet, why does that sound give me a chill?” he shook slightly as the teller threw the bones on the table, one of them falling off.

“Huh… You missed one.”

“No, I didn’t,” she reached under it and looked at it, seemingly surprised. “Interesting…”

“What?” John asked nervously.

“According to the bones, you will meet somepony important… No, wait. It says you already met that somepony… This doesn’t make any sense, well, it says other things, but this is the strangest one.”

“Right, well, you know, I think that—” John began before a familiar voice called out to him.

“John!”

“Huh?” he turned around only to find Fluttershy glaring at him.

“Why didn’t you tell us you were going?” she begin at an attempt in being accusing, holding her front limbs on her ‘hips’ while menacingly floating over him, or as menacingly as an overly adorable yellow Pegasus could be.

“Um… I can explain?”

“No time mister, we have to go, Twilight is back and she was looking for you,” she grabbed his arm and pulled on him, dragging him away, not before turning and mouthing a quick apology, leaving the donkey fortune teller to herself.

“Hmm, John... Strange times ahead for that one, it seems.”

“I don’t understand, why do you say that?”

Celestia asked her sister, the pair having a talk in the throne room by themselves.

“I’ve grown to be able to find the smallest details in ponies, sister, her mane was shriveled, and she seemed like she hadn’t slept; I’m surprised you didn’t notice,” Luna said mockingly.

“Well, excuse me for having an off day, in any case, she will be fine,” Celestia retorted in return.

The pair of semi-Goddesses conversed, talking about Twilight Sparkle, who had been there just hours before in order to learn about a certain test that the Princess of the Sun had given her, Luna had not wanted to let her go attempt it after seeing her in her condition, but upon Celestia's request, she allowed her to do so.

“Well, your powers of foresight are usually… Actually, those are always right, so I will trust you,” Luna had managed to look directly at the Princess of the Sun, who right at that instant, had trembled the smallest bit, unfortunately for Celestia, Luna had actually paid attention.

“Sister, is there something you are not telling u- Er, me?” she began, slowly approaching Celestia.

“No,” the answer had been quick, and gave no room for argument which Luna found suspicious.

“Sister, I will not let you get off easy, what is wrong?” Celestia turned to her sister with a look of defeat planted on her features, any attempt to hide her worry out of the window.

“Lulu, I apologize for this, but I seem to have lost my powers of foresight. As such, I do not know what will happen at the Crystal Empire.”

It was instantaneous, Luna quickly flew to the door, ready to leave without looking back, but the door closed before she could head out, a yellowish glow stopping it.

“Celestia, let us go,” she began, fuming with very apparent anger.

“I shall, but listen to me before you do!” Luna trembled slightly, and her anger instantly subsided as if it hadn’t been there.

“Very well, but hurry, I must make haste,” she said, tapping her hoof in annoyance.

“You cannot intervene with what Twilight Sparkle must do, I may not know what will come of it, but this is something she must deal with on her own terms,” Luna was instantly flabbergasted, readying a quick response.

“You CANNOT be se— ugh, what am I saying? Of course you are, I know you, perhaps too well.”

“Thank you. I know that this may not seem fair to you, but I hope you understand,” Celestia finished, giving Luna a sad smile.

“Very well, I will not directly intervene then, she will not know that I was there,” the doors opened instantly, and Luna trotted slowly outside, then stopped and turned towards Celestia once again. “That being said, I expect you to tell me what has happened upon my return.”

“It shall be so, dear sister.”

With a curt nod, Luna took into the air, magically opening a window in her path and flying to the air, where she quickly disappeared into the distance.

“So basically, this is a test, that is ACTUALLY a mission that may mean something for the security of the country…? Against an enemy that may or may have not returned.”

“Er, yes, John, that is exactly what Ah‘ just finished explaining to you,” Applejack replied, looking slightly drained.

“And that doesn’t sound extremely moronic to you because…”

“We trust the Princess, she knows what she is doing, she always does,” countered Twilight who sat in the corner looking out the window at nothing but mountains upon mountains in the surrounding areas.

After a quick retrieval of John, the group had reconvened at the station, where Twilight waited impatiently, John had been thankful that her appearance had been taken care of, and he was thankful now that she was at least easier on the eyes.

“Fair enough. I’m guessing this is a good time as any,” he thought and walked towards Twilight. “And we need to talk.”

“That will have to wait, I need to go talk to the conductor right now,” and without another word, Twilight left the room, John sighed in frustration as he watched her close the door.

“Dammit, why won’t she listen? I’m trying to apologize after all.”

“Well, she IS the element of Magic,” Fluttershy said, causing John to turn towards her.

“Yeah… I remember she told me about her and you girls, how you were some sort of power an-”

“We are,” cut in Rarity getting on her hooves. “We each hold a different element in us, for example, I AM Generosity,” she proudly said while posing.

“Funny, I would have never fathomed a guess,” John thought sarcastically.

“And since she brought it up, Ah’m Honesty, Pinkie Pie is Laughter, Fluttershy is Kindness, and Rainbow is Loyalty… When it really matters, at least.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” growled Rainbow in response.

“Um, I still don’t get what that has to do with anything,” John exclaimed, looking back at Fluttershy.

“Well, from what I heard, Magic is what holds everything together, and according to Princess Celestia ‘Friendship is Magic’.”

“Uh huh, where are you going with this?” John asked, but she only trembled as she was being put on the spot.

“W-well, in a way, Friendship could be said to be her element… So maybe she dislikes the fact that you insulted one of her friends, which probably hurt more since it was done by somepony who was special to her,” John blinked a few times taking what she said in, her confusing explanation made some sort of sense; he had betrayed Twilight’s trust by not accepting her friend.

“Wow, I think I understand what you mean. Thank you, Fluttershy."

“Oh, you don’t have to thank me, it was my pleasure,” she said, blushing at his gratitude.

”But I still think she should give me a chance to apologize,” he groaned.

“Oh, oh! Look guys! Snow! It’s Winter all over again!” Pinkie called out, pushing her face against the train's window.

“Whoa!“ John ran to the window, noticing the slowly increasing amount of snow outside. “I had never seen snow falling where I lived,“ the other ponies joined in, noticing the snowflakes fall, both Pinkie and John admiring it with wonder in their eyes, until something else caught John’s attention as the train kept moving; a towering monolith in the distance.

“It’s that… A tower?”

The rest of the ponies all huddled up over him, pushing him against the glass as they all took notice.

“Oh my… Could this be…”

“The Crystal Empire? That it is,” ponies and human turned around to see Twilight entering the room. “Get ready girls, we don’t know what’s out there.”

“Wait, the train doesn‘t reach the city?” John complained, to which Twilight replied without much of a glance.

“It would, but the magic corps are out of energy to make the track long enough to reach the city.”

“Wait, you mean this track wasn’t here before?” John said surprised.

“Of course not, nopony has known about this place for ages, we had to let the corps insert the tracks as we went, but they will soon run out of magic and we'll have to go on hoof.”

“So, anyone of you know the way there?” John asked, nervously glancing towards the other ponies.

“It’s alright, both Princess Cadence and my brother will be there,” John froze in place at the mention of ‘brother’, echoing in his mind, she only had one that she would call that, and she had never called him or Spike as such.

Memories of a family dinner gone awry returned to him as the train slowed down and came to a stop in the middle of nowhere.

Author's Notes:

Hope you enjoy this! I had to do this in a hurry, but if you find any mistakes, be sure to tell me about them and I'll fix them afterwards!

As always, I hope you enjoyed!

Notes 13 – 4/14/18

This is the chapter where I finally stopped putting periods at the end of every bit of dialogue. Halle-fugging-lujah. I've been trying to fix certain aspects as I go through it, and that definitely helped speed it up.

As for the chapter itself, it actually feels like a HUGE jump in quality when compared to previous ones. I can feel the improvement, and even see how my current style slowly developing. There is also bits regarding a larger overarching plot, but I won't lie; I don't remember all of it. This reading REALLY helps.

Of course, obvious bits of OoC pop up, but what else is new. Still, I enjoyed this one a bit more. Color me surprised at myself.