Ryan scanned the room as soon as he was inside. She was telling the truth; it was a library. Bookshelves were built into all the walls, with what else than books everywhere. If this mare lived here, then she was probably something of a bookworm.

Twilight followed him inside, shutting the door quietly as she entered. She didn’t want to scare Harkness; after all, he was still new here and probably still less than trusting of everypony. His injury didn’t exactly indicate an accident, though that couldn’t be ruled out. She mostly just wanted him to be comfortable.

“My room is upstairs. I’ll get a pen and some paper, and I’ll meet you there.” Ryan nodded and made his way upstairs. He looked out a window; it was probably around eleven thirty or noon now. He sighed.

“The night is darkest just before the dawn.” Only he had a feeling that the dawn wasn’t coming.

He walked up the stairs and found himself in a big open room. There was another small set of stairs leading to what looked like a bed and nightstand. Close to that, there was a little pet basket, from which Ryan could hear snoring. He had no idea that pets snored.

Twilight came up, levitating a pen, some paper, a chair, and a small desk. When Ryan turned and saw this, he only stared. Twilight fidgeted. “What?” she asked. “Is there something on me?” Ryan shook himself out of his stupor.

“No, you’re good.” Confused, but still excited, Twilight set everything down and then ran up her stairs. Up there, she must have awoken her pet.

“What!?” a young male voice shouted. Ryan did a double take; he hadn’t expected Twilight to make her little brother sleep in a pet basket. What kind of world was this? “It’s alive? And here!?” the voice shouted. Before Twilight could respond, the most peculiar sight to hit Ryan’s eyes yet came rushing down the stairs. It was a short purple lizard with green frills on its head. Ryan and the lizard stared at each other. After a moment, Ryan decided that it would be in his best interest to end the silence.

“Sup?” he said. The lizard visibly calmed.

“Yo.” he replied. Twilight came back down with a cushion floating above her.

“I see you’ve met Harkness, Spike.” Spike, eh? Maybe he was a pet.

“Yup.” he said. He walked over to Ryan, who cocked an eyebrow at him. “We’re already bros.” Spike struck a pose next to Ryan. Ryan stayed silent.

Giggling, either from excitement or finding her lizard hilarious, Twilight walked on over. “Spike, why don’t take notes for me?” She pulled the chair over and used what Ryan assumed to be magic to set him in it. Smiling wide, Spike took up the pen and got ready to start taking notes on his desk. Twilight pulled the cushion over and pushed it to Ryan.

“You can have it.” Ryan said, putting his hand up. Twilight looked at him funny. “I prefer the wooden floor.” He wasn’t used to the feelings of cushions any more. It made him uncomfortable. Twilight took a moment, then shrugged, and put the cushion under herself.

“Suit yourself.” she said. She looked to Spike, who was already taking notes. “Are you ready?” she asked, looking back to Ryan. Ryan nodded.

“As ready as I can be.” Here he went.

Twilight looked contemplative as she decided what questions she was going to be asking. Looking at Ryan, she decided to start with easier questions. “What do YOU know about US, if I may ask?” she began. Ryan thought for a moment. It wasn’t much, but it was a little.

“Well, I know that you have two rulers, sun-mare and moon-mare, who I assume to be Luna.” Twilight’s eyes widened a bit and she cocked an eyebrow. Ryan continued. “I also know that before they came around, there were three tribes, pegasi, unicorns, and ponies. Some dude named Starswirl the Bearded did lots of stuff with magic, your land is Equestria, there’s some weird guy named Discord, and then what you’ve told me as of yet. Nothing else, really.” Twilight looked dumbfounded. How did this guy know so much?

“How do you know all of this?” she asked in disbelief. Spike had stopped his notes to look in awe. Thinking fast, Ryan thought to the only source of knowledge he had encountered as of yet.

“The library in some old, rundown castle in the forest.” For a moment, Twilight looked like everything was clear. Then it looked like she had seen a pony with seven legs.

“I thought that library was cleaned out!” she announced loudly. Ryan stuck a finger in his right ear.

“Apparently not, and please don’t yell don’t loud.” Twilight blushed a bit, covering her mouth.

“Sorry.” she said apologetically.

Now, it was on to the serious questions, the tougher ones for Ryan to answer. “What species are you?” Twilight asked.

“Human.” came Ryan’s reply, monotone and unwelcoming.

“Where are you from?” Ryan didn’t have to think about simple questions like these.

“The United States of America.” From there, Twilight asked questions about Ryan’s homeland, which he answered truthfully. For the most part. They spent easily an hour and a half on the subject.

“So, wait, you have a document that prevents the government from taking the rights of its own people? And it works?” Ryan nodded. The US Constitution in a nutshell, right there. “Wow. That’s gotta be some serious magic.” Ryan laughed. “What?” Twilight asked. Oh, this was gonna blow her bubble.

“We don’t have magic.”

Her bubble didn’t just blow; it had a nuclear meltdown. Her face rapidly changed from fear, to relief, to confusion, to all out terror, then to contemplativeness, then back to fear. It cycled like this at least four times in ten seconds. “What?” she finally replied.

“We have technology.” Ryan explained. “It’s like our version of magic, only not innate. We can do it, whereas apparently you can’t do it to our extent.” Twilight looked unhappy.

“I resent that comment!" she shouted. "We have steam powered trains!” Ryan laughed again, this time drawing a confused look from Twilight.

“We’ve sent machines flying through the air at over eight thousand miles an hour. On gas.” Twilight’s jaw fell to the floor. Off to the side, Ryan could hear Spike trying to stammer out a response.

“Oh.” was all she said. “I guess that you’re right.” Ryan laid down on the floor to stretch his back.

“Thanks, NASA, for giving me something to impress these ponies with.” He sat back up, ready for another volley of questions. “More questions?” he asked. Twilight was still in a stupor. Ryan inched closer and waved a hand in front of her face, getting no response. He turned to Spike, who looked perfectly fine.

“Is she gonna be alright?” he asked. Spike wordlessly got up and walked over to Twilight. Once there, he used his claw to poke her flank.

“AH!” she shouted at the sudden pointy contact. “Spike!” she whined, getting him to chuckle.

“Sorry, but you weren’t asking him any questions!” He ran back to the desk and picked up his pen. Twilight sheepishly smiled at Ryan.

“Sorry, I guess it just distracted me. I just don’t see how it’s possible!”

Ryan went back to his spot. “Well, we can go over that another time. Societal questions?”

She had lots of questions about that, like law and order, court systems, social scenes and fads, and lots of other stuff. She even shared some of her society’s social structure. The Princesses held courts during their respective times of the day to hear out cases not settled by lower courts. “

Night court, then, for Luna.” Ryan figured. “That would be the time to visit.” He was still considering whether or not he should, but now he knew he could. Twilight’s questions eventually went to books and knowledge storage. “We have libraries, if that’s what you’re wondering.” Ryan said. Twilight shook her head.

“I know, but with all that knowledge, especially with that technology of yours, you must need a lot of space to store it.” Ryan thought about how to answer this for a moment. This would require an explanation of some technology, and a lot of it, he would be unable to provide.

Ryan decided that he would just explain this as best he could, then call it a day. The sky was getting ready to turn orange, he could tell. “Well, we have this piece of technology called a computer. We have millions of these things back home. On each one, a person can store knowledge as coded data, which can be accessed and viewed again later. Every computer has a storage limit, and every piece of data has its own, umm...” Ryan thought. Bytes would make no sense to her. “I’ll call it Data Mass. It’s isn’t real, but it takes up memory storage.” Twilight looked confused, but still followed. “This mass isn’t real; it can’t be touched. But, when in a micro chip, SD card, disk, or some other means of storage, it floats in that item as a memory, like in our brains.”

The analogy was perfect; Twilight shouted “Aha!” when she got it.

“Now, like I said, there’s millions of computers. Now, different computers hold different amounts of ‘Data Mass’, but most can hold thousands of pages of text.” Twilight gasped.

“That’s like, half of my library!” Ryan nodded.

“Now, let me explain the Internet. The Internet is not a thing; it’s the connection between all these computers, meaning that if one is on the Internet, people using other computers can view what’s on it. Now, when you have all these computers connected...” He didn’t need to finish; the look on Twilight’s face said everything.

“All collected knowledge could be viewed by anyone with a computer.” Ryan nodded; there was a much darker and much more illegal truth to that than she would ever understand.

“And THAT is how we store all of our knowledge. Or at least most of it.”

After finishing his severely lacking explanation, Ryan stood up and stretched. “Well, I’m glad I could answer your questions, but I think that your mind will have trouble handling any more.” He cracked his knuckles. “So I guess I’ll just head on out.” Ryan moved for the way downstairs.

“Alright. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Twilight replied. Ryan put his hand up as he left.

Spike had taken so many notes that his writ was hurting. “That was crazy.” he commented. Twilight nodded. “I mean, no wonder his species was able to advance so quickly, if they store knowledge so well.” Twilight looked to the staircase. She couldn’t ear any footsteps; he must have hurried out.

“I guess so.” She pondered exactly what implications this could have. Just how intelligent was this species, or more specifically, Ryan? “I’ll have to learn more about their history and technology tomorrow.” she thought. “This is too fascinating.” She went up her personal stairs and to her bed, where she laid down.

Spike got into his little basket not ten feet away when he had a startling realization. “Twilight, he’s got no place to stay!” he announced. Twilight shot up, a frantic frown on her face.

“Oh, my! You’re right!” She rushed out of bed and galloped downstairs to her front door. Upon inspecting the area outside in the dusk, she saw no sign of her friend Harkness. “Ponyfeathers.” she cursed. She closed her front door and went back to Spike upstairs. “We’ll just have to figure something out tomorrow. I don’t think we’ll find him, not in this darkness.” Spike sighed, then went to bed, Twilight guiltily following suit.

*********************************************************************************

Discord had been viewing the lives of various nobles for a while now. None of them were particularly interesting, but he needed something to do. Even though many called him evil, he wasn’t about to be spying on Ryan for every little moment of his life. He knew that the boy deserved at least a modicum of privacy.

Now, however, was his time to pry. He had designated two times of the day, one a little before noon, the other at night, to watch Ryan. He hadn’t looked earlier because Celestia sent a unicorn to check on him. She must have known about his fake imprisonment.

Using his magic, Discord turned a patch of air near Ryan into a pair of invisible eyes for himself. He had to look around for a moment before he located Ryan. The boy was wandering the town of Ponyville.

“Well, now, this is new.” He hadn’t been expecting Ryan to let himself come back to an society. Maybe because this one was different, he had no connections to it? Or maybe he just had no other options to survive off of. Either way, here he was.

“Where are you going?” Discord asked silently, moving his pair of eyes in the sky closer to Ryan. The boy wasn’t talking to himself like he had before, back in Cambodia. He just walked away in silence, no longer the boy he once was.

Ryan was glancing around, checking his six every so often. He had no desire to be followed, obviously. He wore his gross and worn clothes, with his weapons readily available at his side. Discord was surprised to see that he still had them. If the ponies of Ponyville knew what they were, Ryan would have been run out of town by now.

“I wonder what’s happened?” Discord wished that he could tell what he been happening, but Celestia and her little pests had kept him from that.

At the edge of town, Ryan found himself in a little meadow, with a single tree nearby. Next to the tree was a ditch, about five and a half feet deep and four feet wide. After spotting it, Ryan walked over and jumped down into it.

“What are you doing?” Discord wondered. Ran just laid down and stayed there in the ditch. He was going to sleep. “Ah.” Discord said, understanding. Ryan was trying to stay away from civilization, but also, he was now used to this. Sleeping anywhere else would be uncomfortable.

Seeing that this was not going to go anywhere, Discord figured that this would be a good time to do something. Ryan’s eyes were closed and he was deep in thought. To make him more comfortable, Discord softened the patch of dirt under him to be more like the water saturated grounds of Southeast Asia at the time in which he was there. Ryan’s mind didn’t notice, but his body seemed to. His muscles relaxed just a little bit, and he seemed like he would sleep less restlessly. Having done his job, Discord cancelled his spell and returned to himself.

He felt truly terrible for and about Ryan and his condition. Discord had so many chances to keep him from this fate, but he had allowed it to happen. He had considered bringing Ryan back to his home, but he knew that recovery would be impossible there. The only way that he was going to get better was if he did so far away from everything that he knew, so Discord provided that. He should have taken care of Narendra when he had the chance, but he didn’t. That was his greatest moral failure, something that Discord didn’t like to admit he had any of. Still, he had an opportunity here to make things right, so he was going to take it.

Ryan’s world and his world were going to remember that boy.

*********************************************************************************

Ryan shot up, yelling. He swung his head around, looking for anyone, everyone, who may be there. When he saw that there was no one there, he sighed and fell back.

The night sky was still in the sky, albeit not much. Ryan could tell that it was approaching six in the morning, with where the sun was. He forced himself to stand up and look around outside of the ditch. No one was there. He got out of the ditch and dusted himself off. No need to tell them all that he was sleeping in a World War One era trench. Thinking slowly, it dawned on Ryan that history may be a section of questioning from Twilight at some point.

“I’ll just tell her.” he decided. “Not like I had anything to do with the wars.” No, he had his own demons to hide. He didn’t care about the crimes of ages past. He was sure that this world had its own of that.

Ryan’s stomach growled loudly as he exited the vicinity of the tree. He hadn’t eaten since that apple and cupcake the previous day. And worse, whatever was in tht cupcake messed Ryan up in the gut. “Too much sugar after too much time without any.” he lamented. This day was already sucking. He pressed on, though, and got all the way to the town before he had to stop. By then, the sun had risen and it was at least quarter past. No ponies were out, but if Ryan was too loud, they would awaken. He had to hide himself as much as possible while he threw up. “Ugh.” He shuddered when he was done. Barfing is hardly fun, especially when you’re running on fumes.

He spent a few minutes recovering from his bout when he heard the door to his right open up. The pony must have heard him vomit and came out to check. “Hello?” It was a mare. “Is anypony there?” Ryan was moaning from the pain in his gut. “Are you alright?” She hadn’t quite seen him yet. He came out from the other side of the wall and looked over at her.

“Depends on how you define ‘okay’.” The mare looked like she would scream at seeing him, but she held her tongue well.

After a moment of silence, she breathed out slowly and said, “Are you ill?” Ryan shook his head.

“No.” Clenching his gut, he made his way past the mare. “Good day, ma’am.” He walked away, leaving a concerned pony behind. He didn’t need her sympathy.

He spotted a big, round building on his way back to the library that stood out quite a bit. Carousel Boutique, the big sign read. He wasn’t familiar with it, nor did he have any desire to be. He kept on walking. Also on the way, he saw Sugarcube Corner. In response, he took a longer route, trying to avoid sugary things like they were chemical weapons. For him, they might as well have been. Eventually, he made it to the library, where he spotted a bench. He just went over and sat on it, waiting for Twilight to awaken.

He pulled out his M1911 and took a good look at it. He wished that he knew how to do maintenance on it, but alas, he was unfamiliar with the intricacies of firearms management. Instead, he opted to remove the mag, unchamber the round, add the round back to the mag, then put the mag back in without chambering. He spent some time just pulling back the hammer and pulling the trigger. click. He thought about how he might explain these devices of his, especially if he had to explain the history. click. He could avoid going into detail about weapons. click. Or he could just lie and say that swords and crap like that were used. click. But then, how would he explain his knife? click. There was no easy way out of this. Maybe he should just wing it again? His life couldn’t get much worse.

He sat there for an hour contemplating, waiting for Twilight to awaken and come get him. She had given him no idea of where to go, nor had he told her where he was going. Now, he had a place to sleep, so he was good there. He would probably just keep stealing food or mooch off of Twilight and her friends. it was simple. He had to survive, so he stole to live. Not that he cared about the morality of it; he was Hell-bound for certain already. It was just a matter of convenience and survival.

He could hear the door to the library opening. “Alright, Spike. Let’s go find him.” Ryan stood up from his seat. He couldn’t see them form around the library and they couldn’t see him.

“I’m here.” he announced, sitting back down, facing the area where Twilight would be coming from. He heard a startled yelp from that general direction, and soon after, Twilight and Spike came around the corner.

“Oh. You’re here.” Ryan put his hands out to his sides.

“It would seem so.” Twilight rolled her eyes and walked over.

“Where did you stay last night? I’m sorry I hadn’t thought about that, I was just so distracted.” She looked at the ground.

“No worries. I found a place.” Twilight’s ears perked up.

“Oh. Where is it?” Ryan cocked an eyebrow. The last thing he wanted was an unwanted visitor, especially one who would try to make him stay in town.

“You tryin’ to make a move on me, inviting me into your home so soon? And then trying to get into mine right after?” Ryan said. In an effort to make it was weird for Twilight as possible, Ryan gave her a coy smile. Her face turned red; mission accomplished.

“No!” she shouted. Just then, Spike got it and burst into hysterics. He fell down onto his back, he was laughing so hard. “Spi~ike!” she whined, clearly flustered about Ryan’s words.

She turned back to Ryan, scowling at him. “Ha-ha. Not what I meant.” She turned around. “Now come on. I have more questions.” Mission accomplished: investigation into residency eliminated.

Twilight left Spike laughing on the ground, so Ryan picked him up and brought him inside. If he stayed outside like that, he would disturb the still sleeping neighbors. Once inside, he set Spike down on the ground. “Dude, that was too great.” Spike wiped away a tear. “I wish I could do that so fast.” Ryan shrugged; Twilight had gone upstairs, so they had time to chat.

“Comes with lots of practice.” Spike put his fist out for a bump. Not wanting to come off as rude, Ryan bumped it. Though there was little there, Spike could hardly tell.

“You gotta teach me, bro.” So they were bros now. Maybe trolling his sister was what made that to be.

“Maybe later. Right now, I have to answer her questions.” He looked to the stairs. “And I think you may have to leave for this. These questions might get kinda heavy.”

Spike looked up, confused, as Twilight returned from upstairs. Not wanting to take any risks, Spike went over to the stairs. “I think I’ll sit this one out, Twilight.” he said, rushing up the stairs. Before Twilight could ask, he was up there and away from her and Ryan. She looked to Ryan.

“I told him that there would maybe be things that he shouldn’t hear.” Twilight blinked. Alright, then, she could take her own notes. She moved forward and sat herself down at a table, probably where she checked out books.

“Come.” she said. Ryan would have done something with that, but the connotation was likely not the same here. He complied and sat on the other side of the table. “I’ll keep my questions simpler today, I think.” Her excitement resumed, as if the exchange before never happened.

“What are you going to ask me?” Ryan asked, wondering just how bad it could get.

“Human history.” Damn. That was tough. Not so much because of unpleasantness, but because Ryan wasn’t a historian. He knew a lot, sure, but he couldn’t go into detail on almost anything. School courses are hardly ever specific, you have to study that kind of stuff in college.

Twilight started with an impossible one; the beginning of civilization. Ryan gave her the roughly twenty facts and details that he knew about the Fertile Crescent, which Twilight found fascinating. One region’s perfection for agriculture sparked the beginning of an incredible series of societies and civilizations. After that, Ryan moved onto the early empires, like the ancient Chinese, Egyptians, and Romans. After giving what little info he had about them, he moved onto other empires of the old world, like the Mongols, the Mughals, and the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayans. He couldn’t remember exactly which came when, something Twilight wasn’t too happy about.

“You don’t know your own species’ history?” she deadpanned. Ryan frowned.

“You’re asking me for thousands of years of history for over a dozen different empires. That’s well over twenty thousand collective years of history. Do you happen to know twenty thousand years of history on any level of detail?” Twilight looked at him, then sighed in defeat.

“Alright.” she conceded.

“Please continue with what you do know.” she requested. Ryan thought about where to start. He would stay off of the topic of religion; that was just way too complex for even him to understand at times. Instead, he kept on going with the empires. He went into the Ottoman Empire, the British, French, and Spanish Empires, and ultimately to the beginning of the United States. “So you’re country was a colony that rebelled against its owner?” Twilight asked, looking a tad concerned. Ryan nodded.

“Yeah. There were all kinds of reasons for it, from civil rights to government representation, and even down to economics. That last one was probably the more significant of the three.” Twilight nodded, scribbling on her little notepad. “And thus began a new era of the world.”

Twilight would have loved to continue, but Ryan’s stomach growled like a lion. He looked down at it, then back up at Twilight. “Are you hungry?” she asked. Ryan shrugged.

“Well, I haven’t eaten since yesterday, and that cupcake messed me up pretty bad.” Twilight gasped.

“What!?” she shouted. “I thought you said you had yourself taken care of.” She looked at him, worry spread out over her face.

“I said I had a place to sleep. I never said I had access to food.” Twilight looked appalled by Ryan’s casual stating of his hunger.

“Well, I guess that we’ll just break for lunch for now.” she said. Ryan stood up, stomach still angry at him for its emptiness. Twilight got up and grabbed a bag, slinging it over her shoulder. “Spike, I’m taking Harkness out for lunch!”

Spike replied with a big, “OK!”, and the two left the library.

Ryan had no idea what to expect of these ponies for their food. He knew that horses back home eat grass and hay, among other things, but what about here? Was he going to be forced to eat grass? “So what kind of food do you have here?” Ryan asked. He scratched his arm through his sleeve, not wanting to reveal his arm.

“Well, we have grass, hay, straw, assorted veggies, fruits, and lots of other stuff.” Ryan thought about the veggies. He had never been a big fruit guy, but he would eat whatever was put in front of him at this point.

“Alright then.” he responded.

Twilight brought him to a nice looking restaurant, one with big bay windows in the front and tables outside. The ponies at the outside tables stopped eating for a moment to look at Ryan, the new town anomaly, but quickly went back to eating. Whether it was fear or disinterest, Ryan didn’t care. As long as they were looking at someone else.

“This is one of my favorites.” Twilight commented, pointing to the restaurant. “They have awesome steamed vegetables and sandwiches.” That was an option; a good old fashioned PB and J.

“Let’s head on in then.” Ryan said, voracious for some food. When they entered the restaurant, though, they got a big surprise.

The waiter didn’t even wait for them to walk more than a few steps inside before he tried to send them away. “No animals in the restaurant.” he said. Twilight looked unhappy; Ryan was looking close to mad. Who’s the jackass who thought he could stop Ryan from eating.

“I don’t know about here,” he said. “But back home, YOU would be called a racist bigot right about now.” The waiter flinched, not just at the words, but at Ryan’s speech. He had no idea that this thing could talk.

“Sorry, sorry. I just didn’t know that...” The waiter couldn’t find the right words, obviously.

“As long as I get some food, I don’t even care.” The waiter looked relieved.

“Well, I know we have a couple of tables open. If you’ll follow me.” He picked up a couple of menus and led Twilight and Ryan to a table. He placed the menus on the table and bowed, letting the customers have time to decide on their food.

Ryan picked up his menu and started going through it. Steamed hay, veggie burgers, fruit cups, salads, tacos, assorted breads...

The whole time he was reading over the menu, he noticed that Twilight was staring at him. She wasn’t even glancing at her menu or trying to hide it.

“Where I’m from, staring is considered a lot of things.” Ryan said suddenly, startling Twilight. “It can be aggression, intrigue, suspicion, simple rudeness... desire for passion...” He looked up from his menu on that last one, happy to see that, once again, he managed to fluster her. She looked around frantically.

“No, no! Stop saying that!” she said. “I’m just curious about your eating habits.” Ryan stared back at her for a moment, sizing up the situation. In a quick movement, he pulled back his lips and showed Twilight his teeth.

“There.” he said. Twilight took the moment to move closer and inspect. There were crushing teeth in the back, but canines in the front. She moved back to her seat quickly.

“You eat meat.” she said, shuddering a bit. Ryan nodded.

“Yeah. Mostly beef, chicken, turkey, pork, and fish, but fish isn’t meat for some reason.” Twilight looked away. “It doesn’t have to scare you; I have no intention of eating anything other than the kinds of things on this menu and the occasional small animal.” Twilight cringed. The truth can be unpleasant sometimes.

Soon, the waiter returned and took their orders. Salad and tea for Twilight, a simple peanut butter sandwich and water for Ryan. He would give anything for some of that Macallen right about now.

As they ate, Twilight got back to asking history questions. There was a lot that she was asking that Ryan simply couldn’t answer, like the histories of all of the colonies of the previously mentioned empires and of the empires themselves. Eventually, it just got down to US history.

“So when would you say that you’re country really entered the global stage?” she asked. Ryan chewed on his food a moment.

“Here we go.” he thought, partly with dread and partly with anticipation. He swallowed. “I’d say it happened when my country went into World War One.” Twilight stopped. Even around them, any pony who heard that phrase stopped all together. Everyone was looking at Ryan, who was just eating. Thankfully, he couldn’t see them.

“W-World War ONE?” Twilight asked. Ryan nodded. “I-I don’t quite understand...”

Ryan set his food down. “Well, those empires from before? They controlled most of the world at that time. And when they decided to duke it out, that meant that pretty much every corner of the world was involved in some way. Whether it was in fighting or providing for it, most people in the world were involved in some way shape or form.”

Twilight looked terrified, yet her curiosity seemed to override it. “What can you tell me about it?” she asked. Ryan took a sip of his water and looked her dead in the eye.

“Are you sure you want to hear about this?” he asked. There was a reason that the real stuff like this wasn’t taught until later. Twilight nodded. Ryan sighed. “Alright. I guess I’ll start at the beginning.” He started with the spread of Nationalism and how that increased international tensions. Twilight didn’t seem to react much to the secret alliances made by various countries and how that decided who would fight against who. Mostly, Ryan was talking about the belligerents, not the fighting itself. When he finished his explanation, Twilight knew that there was more.

“And what about the fighting?” she asked. Before he went on, Ryan had his own question.

“Why so interested in that?” he asked. Twilight looked around; she just noticed that this conversation was not private.

“We have war here too, you know. I just want to compare.” Ryan shrugged.

“Alright. Here’s the stats; over sixteen million men died, over twenty million were horribly wounded. The war was primarily fought in trenches, and the deadliest weapons were machine guns and gas bombs.” Twilight took a moment to comprehend what she was hearing. She had no idea what a gun was, but gas?

“What do you mean, ‘machine guns and gas bombs’?” Ryan looked around; now, he could see that they were being watched.

“Machine guns, or MGs, send little metal things called bullets really fast through the air, slicing or smashing through what they hit. As for the gas, it was chlorine.” Twilight swallowed hard, and behind him, Ryan could hear several ponies gasp. “It was made with the intent of being ‘a weapon that no one would use because of its power’, but clearly, that man was misguided.”

Twilight looked like her face might turn green. “I think I’m done eating.” she said. Instantly, Ryan grabbed her plate. He had eaten his food already.

“Alright. I’ll eat it.” She looked at him sadly and concerned as he ate.

“This doesn’t bother you?” she asked. Ryan swallowed a bit of the salad.

“Several things. One; it was almost a hundred years ago. I had nothing to do with it. Two; I grew up in this world, remember? This world of knowledge sharing? I know about lots of bad stuff. Three; If I let it get to me, then I would have probably lost my mind long ago.” He had lost his mind due to other things, not simple historical facts. “So I’m sorry if I sound like I don’t care, because I really don’t.” He finished the salad and stood up. “Well, I guess we should pay.” Ryan absentmindedly went for his wallet, which he remembered that he didn’t have. How did he forget that? It had been way too long. “Uhh...” He looked to Twilight.

“Oh! Right, sorry.” She left a bunch of gold coins on the table, and they left the restaurant.

As they walked back to the library, Twilight kept looking back at Ryan. She wasn’t sure how to feel about him now; he had all this knowledge of such terrible things, but he didn’t care? “I guess that he was right, though.” she thought. “If he were to let it get to him, he would be ruined.” Thinking that, she actually had to admire him for his strength. Twilight wasn’t even a human, yet she was having trouble accepting the information he had provided.

“Darling!” a posh voice called out. Ryan turned to his right to see the white unicorn, Rarity, approaching. Twilight hadn’t noticed, so Ryan nudged her to alert her. “Oh, it’s good to see you again!” Okay, so she was talking to Ryan. “How are you?” she asked. Ryan put his hands in his pockets.

“I’m doing well enough.” he replied. Rarity went over to Twilight, who was still a bit out of it.

“Are you alright, dear?” she asked. Twilight shook herself out of it.

“Yes, I’m fine. Just thinking about history.”

Rarity could tell that it wasn’t pony history. “Well, what of it?” Ryan quickly interjected.

“Unpleasant history.” Rarity took the hint.

“Ah, well, there’s a time and place for that.” she said. “But I’m sure that there are some interesting things about your history, Harkness. May I come and join you?”

Ryan wanted to say no, but like with Twilight before, there was something going on here. He felt like he should give her this. He had tried fighting it before, but to no avail. He sighed. “Alright, but I’m not liable if you get messed up by what you hear.” Rarity waved her hoof.

“Nonsense.” she said. “I assure you I can handle it.” She had no idea what to expect. Having gotten a new listener, they all went back to the library to continue with history.

At the library, Ryan was the first to approach the door. That was a mistake. “Rarity!” Spike came out yelling. When he opened the door flew open, the edge caught Ryan in the face, sending him sprawling onto the ground. Spike looked on with a pained expression. “Whoops.” he said. Ryan sat up; it looked like the mares were about to chastise the poor little guy.

“I’m good.” he said, standing up and dusting himself off. “Let’s head in.” He led the way, the ponies and lizard behind him simply looking on.

“Tough guy.” Spike commented, impressed. They all went in after Ryan.

Ryan found a nice place on the floor where he could sit and motioned for the others to sit around him. When they were all before him, Ryan cleared his throat. “I’d rather not rehash the information about World War One, so I’ll move onto World War Two.” Rarity and Spike blinked.

“Did you say WORLD war?” Rarity asked, looking uneasy. Ryan nodded.

“The first was almost a hundred years ago. The second ended a little over seventy years ago.” Spike was twiddling his fingers, clearly not very comfortable. “Anyone who doesn’t want to hear this doesn’t have to.” Surprisingly, none of the three before him moved. He shrugged. “Alright."

He began. "The stats are as such; over sixty million people killed, more than half being civilians. This was from a rather unpleasant even which I will absolutely not be talking about in the presence of ANYONE who hasn’t been exposed to true evil. Luckily, though, that evil was defeated, and such atrocities were not committed on the same scale ever again. They happen, sure, but not like THAT one.” The two ponies and lizard were watching him intently. “But after saying that, I have a question.” Ryan stated.

“What do you think of humanity, after hearing that?” This would be interesting.

Rarity was the first to speak, being the only one seemingly capable. “I find that to be absolutely abominable. Humanity sounds barbaric, no offense intended. How could such things happen?” Ryan put his hands on his knees as he sat cross-legged.

“Well, times were terrible for people. The world economy was essentially dead, so people were looking for a way out. One man and a few of his satanic little friends came forward offering a solution. At the point that the world was at, few of his country’s people opposed him, following this man because he was charismatic and offered them a way out. The rest of the world wasn’t able to stop him because they were in such bad shape economically that they didn’t have the ability or money to intervene. Most people aren’t bad, let me make that very clear. It’s the few who are truly evil and seek to control the world around them that are responsible. Humans on the whole are good; it’s this small number of truly terrible people who at first SEEM good who ruin it for everyone.” Ryan crossed his arms and scanned the expressions of his audience.

“I guess that makes sense.” Twilight said. “It reminds me of the leader of the Southern Griffon Colonies when they went to war with Equestria.” Ryan nodded.

“My point right there. Most of them aren’t bad, they just follow a bad man without realizing it.”

Having renewed humanity’s reputation after tearing it to shreds, Ryan felt like he was growing hot. He removed his beret and scarf and set them down next to him. “What is that?” Rarity asked, intrigued. Ryan looked at the items he just set down.

“That’s a scarf, and that’s a green beret.” Rarity shook her head.

“I know that. What’s the insignia?” She pointed at the beret. Ryan picked it up and looked at it; it was a blue, almost arrowhead-shaped backdrop with a yellow sword and lightning bolts. Above it was one word; “Airborne”. Narendra hadn’t been lying.

“This is the signature piece of clothing worn by my country’s Army Special Forces.” Rarity looked even more interested.

“Interesting. Does it have any special qualities?” Ryan shook his head.

Twilight, now recovered from her new stupor, looked at Ryan’s torso with interest equivalent to that of Rarity’s with the beret. “Why do you wear that?” she asked. Ryan looked down.

“My tac-” he stopped. No need to require more explanations. “My survival vest?” he asked. Twilight looked enlightened, but kept on questioning him.

“Yes. I guess you use it to survive?” Ryan nodded. Twilight, Rarity, and Spike were all looking at Ryan like they were trying to discern a puzzle. At first, he was confused. Then he got it.

“My weapons.” he thought dreadfully.

As if on cue, Spike pointed to the M1911 and asked, “What’s that?” Ryan had to think fast. If he told them that he was carrying two very large handguns, they would probably freak out.

“I found it in the jungle some time ago.” Partial truth. “It looked cool (useful), so I kept it.” Spike pointed to the Automag, but before he could ask, Ryan repeated the answer for the 1911.

“And I see you have a hammer.” Twilight said. It was like they were taking turns. Maybe they were. “But what’s that on your back?” She pointed to the KaBar. This one was gonna be tough. Ryan slowly drew the knife and held it out for his audience to see. Twilight and Rarity swallowed, whereas Spike looked on in awe.

“Whoa.” he said.

Ryan put the knife back, saying, “I keep it for survival purposes. Cutting ropes, lines, vines, you know.” Complete lie. And he knew where this would go. “Any more questions?” he asked. Twilight looked uneasy, but held her hoof up. \

“Why did you need all of that?” she asked. Se new about his injury. Him needing all of this survival gear probably looked pretty sketchy.

“I lived in the jungle for a time.” he explained. Partial truth. “With no home or shelter most of the time, I had to make due. So I got my hands on some gear, and I set out to live.” He had really set out to kill and die, but they had no need to know that. He had to be careful now; if he said one thing wrong, they might figure him out and demand the truth, to which he would lie again, likely unsuccessfully. He was walking on thin ice, where in some places, there were little holes that he would have to be fished out of.

But he had little to worry about, it turned out. They seemed like they were done questioning him. Ryan would not have to go into the conflicts of the second half of the twentieth century and later, but at the same time, that meant not talking about the best aspects of humanity. But he knew that he had to take his victories where he could.

“Well, now that we know more about you, should we maybe discuss your life here?” Rarity asked politely. Ryan paused. He hadn’t even considered living here permanently, now that he was stuck where he was. He didn’t want to go home, but he couldn’t stay here. He considered his options.

“I could stay here, start over.” he shook his head. “But that won’t work.” He had no need to explain to himself why that was. “I could just leave.” He kept that one on the table. “Or I could wait, maybe get some money. I could get myself some kind of home in the forest, where none of these ponies will bother me.” That one. That was the most viable option. Not returning home, and not staying here. It was perfect. “I was planning on saving up some money, then continuing my travels. Maybe settle somewhere quiet.” He sat back, picturing it. He could be left to his own devices, no longer having to deal with emotions, losing friends, or any kind of trouble that wouldn’t just kill him.

Spike walked over and nudged Ryan. “You know, Ponyville is usually pretty quiet.” he commented. “As long as you don’t...” he looked to Twilight. “'have too much fun', I’m sure you’ll love it here.” Twilight instantly went red and charged Spike, grabbing him and putting him in her lap back in her spot. Rarity initially didn’t understand, but at Twilight’s reaction, she started to laugh.

“Well, I’m not sure I understand the situation, but I do believe that Harkness would be a welcome addition to the town.” Twilight was flustered again, and began to explain to Rarity the whole thing. At the end; it was short; she looked to Ryan. “Ah, I see we have a yanker of legs here.” she said, smiling. Ryan cocked an eyebrow. “Well, I’m sure that your place will be quite magnificent in the community.” Ryan narrowed his eyes. It was time to see if his skills were still up to par.

“I can assure you, I will erect myself to the highest possible stature.” he replied. Rarity and Twilight both flushed red. “Of course, getting there will probably be hard, but with enough strength, I can probably push through any barrier that tries to get in the way.” Both girls turned completely red, drawing a smirk from Ryan. Spike was slowly beginning to get it.

“Oh, so you mean-”

Twilight put a hoof in his mouth. “Okay Spike, time to head on upstairs and start sorting my private collection!” she said. Spike groaned and complied.

Ryan called out after him, “Just be careful of this ‘private collection’, kiddo!” Twilight turned to Ryan, mortified. Ryan just sat there, looking on victoriously.

“Wow, Harkness. Wow.” Rarity looked scandalized.

He shrugged. “You should have seen me in my school days.” he said.

Any embarrassment was replaced with a look of curiosity in both mares. They looked at each other, then at Ryan, then back at each other. “How old are you, exactly?” they asked in unison. Ryan sat back up.

“I’m seventeen.” Both girls looked a little surprised.

“Oh.” Rarity said. “We didn’t know you were that young.” Ryan looked at them.

“How old are the adults of your nation?” he asked, curious.

“Sixteen.” Rarity replied. Inside himself, Ryan celebrated. At least he was an adult by age and not just experience any more.

“And you two?” he asked.

Rarity sat up tall. “I am Twenty-one.” she said.

Twilight looked to her friend, then back to Ryan. “Nineteen.”

Ryan wouldn't have expected this. “I guess that they probably live as long as any human could.”

Twilight looked a bit relieved. “Well, since you’re an adult, you can be on your own.” she said. “If Spike were an adult dragon, he would be able to leave. I hope he doesn’t when the time comes, but if he does, I won’t be able to stop him.” Ryan stopped his mind for a few moments. He would have spit out his drink if he had one.

“A dragon? You have freaking dragons here?” he said. Both girls looked at him like he had three heads. “Well, that’s different.”

“Well, getting back on topic, what should we do? I assume you have a place to stay, since you returned to us today the same as yesterday.” Ryan sniffed himself; the jungles of Vietnam were not kind to his scent. “So what about money? You can’t possibly have any work.” Ryan shrugged.

“I’m sure I can get by.” Rarity huffed at him.

“I hope you don’t imply stealing. That simply won’t do. You will have a respectable job, and you will make honest money.” Ryan put his hands up.

“Alright. Fine. But where will I work?” he asked.

Twilight was quick to respond. “I could let you work here.” she said. “I would love to learn more about you and your culture.” Ryan looked at her, then around at the rest of the library.

“Seems reasonable.” he replied. Twilight wasn’t done, though.

“But I can only pay you for about two days of work. Sorry.” Ryan shrugged.

“I lived off of less.” Rarity hear this and made a sound like she was offended.

“Well, I simply won’t let you live on the edge of poverty! No pony should. You may work at my boutique the rest of the time.” Ryan thought over his new jobs. They seemed alright, but if he was going to do something, he wanted to do some physical labor. To live in the forest, he would have to be fit.

“That’s great, but are there any jobs that are a bit more... physical? I would do better as a laborer.” The mares thought and spoke for a moment, leaving Ryan to himself. When they returned, they both looked happy.

“We can probably get Applejack to hire you at her family farm. They could always use a hand.” Farm work sounded like the kind of thing Ryan wanted; less talking and more movement.

“Alright. If we can speak to her to arrange something, we can get you into a new lifestyle by tomorrow!” Twilight said. Ryan nodded, neutral about his current situation. He would get money, then leave. That was all.

“Let’s head to the farm and work something out with Applejack, then.” Rarity ordered. Ryan stood up and, followed by Twilight, the three made something resembling a convoy guarding a precious diplomat and headed on over to Sweet Apple Acres.