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Recon

-Part I-

Dreams

Princess Celestia made her way down the dimly lit hallway at a brisk trot, passing underneath circles of light from the dull lamps hanging overhead. She arrived at a nondescript wooden door at the end of the hallway. The label next to the door had written on yellowing paper ‘War Room’. Wasting no time, the Princess opened the door swiftly through use of her horn, and closed it silently behind her. In the room were two ponies already sitting at a rectangular table. Seated on the left was Princess Luna, a detailed map of Equestria in front of her. Opposite Luna was a decorated Royal Guard pegasus.

“Your Highness.” The pegasus stood and bowed. Celestia nodded to him and took a seat at the head of the table, the pegasus doing the same once Celestia was seated.

“So General, I take it we’re not here for a tea party?” Celestia mused. The General nodded with a brief smile, then turned to Luna. Celestia did the same.

“I have detected more disturbances at its location.” Luna’s tone was serious. “Nothing major but recently their frequency has been increasing.”

“I see––have they discovered their accomplishment yet?” asked Celestia. Luna turned to the General, who cleared his throat.

“We assume they haven’t, but we do not know how long their ignorance will last. We can wait no longer.” He sounded grim. Celestia closed her eyes in thought.

“You are correct, General. No longer can we stand idly by.” She opened her eyes, her expression grim.

“The time has come. We must take action, before it is too late”

* * *

Chris awoke in a cold sweat, his eyes still closed. Cracking one eyelid open, he glanced at his alarm clock. It read ‘6:59’, a minute before his alarm rung. He sighed, then began his attempt to remember the dream he had been having. Images of strange talking creatures flashed in his mind, getting fuzzier as he began to lose concentration. Like trying to catch smoke, the memory of the dream was slipping away. Struggling to keep focus, he tried to retain something from the nearly dissipated dream.

“Too late.”

*BEEP* The clock rung with unusual volume, or so it seemed to in the silence. Its successive tones flushing all memories of the dream away, except for the voice. The words it spoke were vivid in his mind. He opened his eyes, gave his alarm clock a smack, and got out of bed.

After a shower and quick breakfast, Chris departed his apartment with his bike to head to work. As he peddled monotonously down the outer-Manhattan road, he kept pondering the meaning of what the voice had spoken. After having this dream off and on for the past

month, and never being able to retain any real memory of it, he wasn’t about to disregard the first snippet he’d managed to retain. Of course he couldn’t infer much from just two words. However the voice that spoke them was a wealth of information. He had already decided the owner of the voice to be regal, perhaps even a ruler, and from the tone, a harsh one. He sighed, rounding the final street corner to reveal his location of work, ‘Manhattan Stars Music Academy’. He would have to think about this later.

“Morning Franky.” Chris remarked to the receptionist. Her face was buried in a magazine; she replied with a grunt. Chris rolled his eyes, while his work was a decent source of pay, employee relationships were not valued highly, and most of the employees were too stuck up to glance at their own shoes. Even the janitor from Jersey fancied himself a big shot. Chris didn’t care though, he’d given up trying to make any work-acquaintances a month after he’d started. Now he came to work merely to get through the day in one piece, and the employees were the least of his problems. The children whose parents could afford this ‘high quality’ establishment had the biggest egos in the world, and always knew more than him about the instrument he taught them. So actually teaching them something was quite the chore. Chris simply grinned and bared it, for the sake of his paycheck.

* * *

As he watched his last student exit the practice room, violin in hand, Chris breathed a little sigh of relief. The last one was always the most difficult, or at least it seemed so after enduring countless others during the day, but the departure of the final student marked the end of the day, and he could finally head home.

“Bye Franky.” He called as he flew through the door, it shutting before he had a chance to hear her standard reply. He hopped on his bicycle, and began the every-day-identical commute to his apartment. As he rode, his mind turned to his dream he had the previous night, and had been having for many nights in the past month. It’s elusiveness caused him endless anxiety, and lately he had even been hoping to have the dream each night. He looked up into the endless sky, colored orange and red by the already-setting sun. ‘What does this dream mean?’ He thought to himself, watching the scarlet stained clouds roll by, a rainbow trail in their midst––

“What in the world?” There was what appeared to be a single line of rainbow moving amongst the clouds. Chris blinked, and took a hand off his handlebars to rub his eyes. ‘Am I seeing things now too?’ He thought to himself. Unfortunately, his eyes being focused on the mysterious aerial phenomenon, he didn’t see the fallen branch on the sidewalk.

“Ungh!” Chris exclaimed as he was pitched forward over the handlebars. The concrete speedily approaching, he squeezed his eyes closed, and braced for impact. His vision filled with light, and then went dark.

* * *

“We must take action, before it is too late.”

* * *

The sound of the regal voice brought Chris back to consciousness. As he opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was the still red sky of dusk. He was lying on his back, a few people standing over him.

“Is he okay?”

“That looked like a helluva fall.”

“He’s waking up, he’ll be fine”

Hearing the voices, Chris attempted to sit up, immediately feeling lightheaded. A sharp pain was coming from his shoulder, he clutched it, squinting in discomfort.

“Hang on there guy, you’re hurt. Do you want me to call the EMS?” The voice came from a police officer, who was squatting next to him. He shook his head no, still clutching his bruised shoulder tenderly.

“If you say so.” The police officer stood up, and drew his megaphone. “Clear off everyone! He’s gonna be okay.” The crowd quickly dispersed, and the police officer walked off to resume his duties. As he walked away, he called behind him, “You really should wear a helmet.” Chris rolled his eyes, he hadn’t even landed on his head, although it had been a close call. He sighed, cursing himself for getting so easily distracted by his thoughts. Although this time, he had a relatively good reason for his wandering mind to wander, namely the strange rainbow he had seen in the sky.

“No.” Chris muttered to himself, bopping the side of his head with his palm. He could think about such things later, right now he needed all the concentration he had in order to make it home without incident. Wobbling over to his bike, he clambered on, and continued the journey home.

End Pt. I

|-Next-|-Latest-|

Recon

-Part II-

Hallucinations

After what seemed like an eternity, Chris finally walked into his apartment, safe, sound, and slightly woozy from his spill earlier that day. After a few doses of medication, his pain was successfully suppressed, and he was free to contemplate the events of the past day. First he thought back to when he woke up from the crash, he had heard the voice again, and had remembered all of what it said. “We must take action, before it is too late.” The tone of voice was urgent, and sounded even a little frightened, or maybe it was his imagination. Regardless, the words themselves were incredibly foreboding, and Chris wondered why he would be dreaming something so dark.

‘It must have meaning’, he concluded, but with so little he had to work with, not much meaning could be inferred from the sentence. He had only the literal meaning, and a few hypotheses about wars and other far-fetched scenarios. Having reached an investigatory standstill with this mystery, he decided to move on to the strange apparition he had seen in the clouds.

For this one Chris had no clue. He had never heard of such a thing happening before, and all Google searches he attempted came up dry. To take a shot in the dark, it was possible if a rainbow colored object was flying fast enough, it could leave such a ghost trail in its wake, but rainbow colored jets were apparently rare in the army, and after contacting the local military base, he discovered no jets had been cleared for flight in his area for the past week. Inquiring about any bogeys they had sighted recently, he replied he had seen none. The only possibilities left were R.C. aircraft, possible undiscovered weather phenomena, and rainbow colored birds of some sort. How birds or toy planes could fly fast enough to leave a ghost image was still a mystery, as was how unknown weather phenomena like that could be so obvious, and not be reported in the news. In any case, Chris had a strange feeling that these two events weren’t coincidental, but he would have to contemplate such things at a later time. His clock read midnight, and being late to work wouldn’t earn him a raise any time soon.

* * *

One restless night later, Chris awoke in what he thought to be the worst possible position to sleep in with a bruised shoulder. Such thoughts were justified by the mind-numbing pain originating from his shoulder. Though after a hot shower and some massaging, his shoulder began to feel semi-normal, and his mind was functioning enough to continue his day. As Chris prepared himself for the day’s activities, he attempted to remember any dreams he may of experienced during the night. After a few futile tries, he guessed that any memory of even having a dream must of been erased by his painful wake-up. Finishing breakfast with some painkillers, he started for the door, then stopped. Instead he went to the closet, and pulled out a dated helmet which barely fit on his head. After securing the straps, he grabbed his bike, and headed into the outdoors.

Thanks to the Tylenol Chris had taken before departing, he couldn’t feel a bit of pain in his arm, something that could have made steering a bike a more daunting task than usual. Not having to worry about such things gave him the chance to glance at the skies every so often, each time hoping to see the mysterious rainbow trail, and discover it’s source. He was only a mile from work when his efforts rewarded him. Slamming on the breaks, he jumped off his bicycle, straining to get a good look at the rainbow and ignoring his bicycle harshly skidding to a stop. It being too far away to tell any color and shape, Chris could tell two things; that it was going extremely fast, and that it was flapping it’s wings. It was alive. Dancing in revelry, he suddenly remembered he was going to work, and looked around for his bike. As luck would have it, it didn’t do too well when he had jumped off it, and was in need of some repairs. Specifically, the back wheel had dislocated when it had been unceremoniously dismounted. He sighed, slowly bringing his palm into contact with his face, but could not wallow in self-disappointment  for long; he had a mile to go carrying a heavy bike, and needed all the time he could get.

* * *

Chris had arrived at work just with enough time left to store his bike in the employee lounge, and had proceeded to his practice room with haste to find his student waiting for him. The student scowled at him like he was something unpleasant the dog had left on the mat.

“You’re late.” The student stated with an air of displeasure.

“If you’ll look at the clock, Clyde, I’m actually on time, and you are just early.” He had indeed gotten there right at the time the clock had struck 8:00. Clyde made a start at a rebuttal, but Chris quickly silenced it with a note on a guitar, eager to get the lesson over with. In no time at all, three more students had come and gone, and it was time for lunch. He walked into the lounge, hungry for a packet of ramen from his stash, and found an unusual visitor to the lounge at the microwave, heating an insta-lunch.

“James?” At the mention of his name, James looked over his shoulder at Chris, and gave an airy wave.

“Ah Chris, I always wondered if you ate your lunch in the lounge. I have my answer now, I suppose.” James said, then turned back to his microwave dinner, watching the timer with a fascinated look on his face. He attempted to see meaning in everything, even if no meaning was there, and considered himself a philosopher, among other things. Chris rolled his eyes at him behind his back, and walked to the employee cupboards, from which he procured a blue bag of oriental ramen. He soon had a pot of water on the stove, and took a seat at one of the two cheap tables that furnished the room. James was still there, staring at his lunch while it was cooking, which it had been for quite a while.

“Any longer in that microwave and your food will be ashes, James.” Chris called, attempting to joke with his coworker. James turned to Chris with a quizzical look on his face, the joke having flown right over his head.

“That is ridiculous.” He stated, then looked back at his food. Chris quietly sighed, and wondered why he even bothered. He glanced at his water, which had begun to boil, and decided to prepare and eat his lunch in silence.

After finishing the preparation of his delicious and not nutritious lunch, Chris sat down to eat, his thoughts unavoidably of the speedy rainbow bird that he had seen earlier that day. The one thing that bugged him was the fact that it wasn’t on the news, nor had anyone seemed to notice it before his crash the previous day. ‘Of course not everyone lives life with their head in the clouds.’ He reasoned, enjoying his small pun.

*Bing!*

Chris stopped his thoughts, and turned to look at James, who had just removed his charred meal from the microwave, ignoring the smoke it was billowing. Suddenly Chris smiled, not everyone lived life with their head in the clouds, but he knew someone who did.

“James, I have a question.” He looked up from his smoldering meal.

“Ask away.” James replied.

“Was it you who said that you liked to look at the sky in the spare time?” Chris asked, hoping he remembered correctly.

“Ah, yes you would be correct in that. I find myself looking up at the profound blue vastness whenever I have a spare moment; It is one of my primary sources of inspiration, after all.” Chris imagined himself rolling his eyes.

“Interesting, and when you’ve looked up into the ‘blue vastness’ recently, have you noticed anything strange?” James looked at the ceiling for a moment, then back at Chris, shaking his head.

“Nothing out of the ordinary, but then again, what defines ordinary?” He stood up and walked to the window with his food, looking at the sky. Chris did the same, willing the strange bird to fly by at that moment with as much willpower as he could muster. His jaw dropped when the rainbow trail suddenly came into view from behind a large cloud. After blinking his eyes to assure himself it was real, he took a deep breath––

“There, do you see that?” Chris said, pointing with one hand and shaking James’s shoulder with the other.

“What exactly am I looking for?” James said, removing Chris’s hand from his shoulder and peering towards the clouds. Chris looked at him in astonishment when he didn’t see it, and resumed pointing at the rainbow speeding across the sky.

“You don’t see it? There’s a long rainbow trail moving across the sky!” Chris exclaimed, getting slightly overexcited. James turned and looked at him curiously for a while, then started to walk away.

“You can be quite a strange one sometimes Chris; a regular airhead, if I do say so myself.” Chris was left speechless, gaping at him as he sat down and continued eating. He couldn’t tell what he was more astonished about, the fact that he was the only one who saw it, or the fact that he was called an airhead by James. After regaining some of his senses, Chris closed his mouth and returned to his food, which he ate in silence for the remainder of the lunch break.

* * *

After distractedly finishing his work for the day, Chris left work with bike in tow, his mind reeling. He had narrowed the situation down to two possibilities; James was as blind as a bat––strange for one who boasted 20:20 vision––or he was hallucinating rainbows in the sky. He didn’t want to believe it, but could he possibly be going crazy?

‘No, that’s ridiculous, there must be a more logical explanation.’ Chris told himself, ‘I refuse to believe I’m going insane. There must be a reason James couldn’t see the rainbow; perhaps he’s colorblind?’ he argued with himself in such a manner until he reached the bike repair shop near his work. The shop was inconveniently located in the opposite direction of his apartment building, and it would be a long walk to get back. Chris took a break in his internal war for his sanity, and checked his phone’s clock, which read 6 pm. It was getting late, and even for a 21 year old guy, being out at night in New York was not a good idea. So he decided to give the mental debate a break, and focus on getting home before dark.

* * *

Chris had made it a little more than halfway when the sun dipped below the horizon, causing a drastic temperature drop in a very short time. He put his hands in his pockets, and slowed to a walk, huddling up in his thin jacket to conserve heat. The path he was walking bordered a park, and to the left, trees on the edge blocked out the moon with their browning leaves. The only source of light was the occasional street light, causing glowing circles on the path every 10 yards. As he walked, the wind rustled the leaves in the trees around him, creating a very ominous atmosphere. He pressed on, trying not to imagine someone following him from the normal sounds of night. Suddenly, a bush to his immediate left gave a loud rustle. Chris jumped, and backed up against a nearby street light. His immediate assumption was the wind, but its endless gusts had eerily stopped a few seconds prior. Most small animals would be hibernating during this time of the year as well. Chris swallowed, and clenched his fists.

“Who’s there!” He called into the darkness. In response to his question, a shadowy figure rose from behind the bush. It was smaller than him, perhaps only 4 feet tall. Unfortunately, its diminutive size didn’t lessen the trepidations he was fighting to stem.

“Don’t be scared!” It called as it stepped towards the small circle of light. “I’m not going to hurt you!” Its voice was female, and rather scratchy; it had cracked when she inflected words at a raised volume. Upon hearing the voice, almost all feelings of fear had fled him, yet he still kept his distance.

“Who are you?” Chris asked the figure. It stepped into the light. Chris’s eyes widened.

“My name’s Rainbow Dash! Whats yours?’.”

End Pt. II

|-First-|-Next-|

Recon

-Part III-

Revelations

Chris blinked a few times, staring at the blue creature now standing in front of him. Attempting to speak, he opened his mouth; but no words escaped his lips. As he stood there, still poised in a defensive stance, he gulped, and lowered his fists.

“W-what are you?” He managed to stutter through his shock. Assuming a surprised expression, the blue figure cocked its head to one side.

“What a weird question. I’m a pony! A pegasus pony, actually.” At this the pony lowered its head and flared two wings from its back, looking quite proud. Chris stared in astonishmentt.

“Wha-how-I––” Chris stammered, unable to properly form a sentence while his reality crumbled beneath his feet. The blue pony watched curiously as he attempted to regain composure. Finally managing to stem the gibberish he was spouting, he spoke.

“You’re not real.” Chris closed his eyes, looking up towards the sky. “I’ve finally gone crazy, this is fantastic.” He began to laugh, the blue pony still staring and looking slightly annoyed.

“Wait, I’m real! What are you talking about?” The pony was starting to get angry, but Chris continued his slightly demented laughing, oblivious to its rising temper.

“You can’t be real, you’re a talking, flying, sky-blue pony! You can’t exist!” Convinced of his own insanity, he continued chuckling, staring at the blue pony feverishly. Suddenly, the blue pony’s look of anger changed to a smirk.

“So I don’t exist, huh?” Chris nodded through fits of insane giggles,  “Then how do you explain this!” With ridiculous speed and strength, the pegasus sprung forward, whipping Chris around, and hooking him under the arms. Before Chris could comprehend what was happening, he was high in the air, the sidewalk becoming smaller and smaller. He opened his mouth to scream, but found his fear absorbed by amazement and thrill. He was flying.

“I’m flying!” He yelled, staring in awe at the moving lights below him. Looking behind him, he could faintly make out a rainbow ghost trail. Chuckling at his own incredulity, he returned to staring at the sights, awestruck.

“Still think you’re crazy?” the blue pony said, looking smug. Chris just shook his head, not wanting to tear his gaze away from the sights. The pony looked satisfied, and went into a steep dive.

“Wooooaaaaaaaah!” Chris shouted on the way down, not prepared for the sudden change in altitude. They descended quickly towards a building Chris recognized as his apartment building. Unable to feel any suspicion about the pony’s knowledge of his address, he just tried to enjoy the experience for as long as possible. As they sped towards the ground, the blue pony didn’t slow down. Alarmed, Chris tried to shout a warning, but found his voice once again caught in his throat. Impact seemed imminent.

“WOO!” The pegasus yelled, and somehow managed to pull up at the last moment. Unfortunately, the pony’s grip on Chris slipped, and he went careening into a nearby pile of garbage bags. Standing up slowly, and brushing a banana peel off his shirt, he attempted to blink the stars out of his eyes. As his view came into focus, he saw the blue pony hovering off the ground, her eyes wide and her hooves over her mouth.

“Oh my gosh! Are you okay!?” the pony zoomed over to Chris, who was still a little wobbly from the crash. Luckily, all inhibitions he experienced before his ride had fled him, and he found himself capable of coherent speech.

“You know... I used to hate garbage day.” He chortled, giving his head a little shake to clear the last of the stars in his sight. The pony sighed, relieved, then looked up.

“So am I real now?” She asked, raising an eyebrow. Chris frowned, and closed his eyes.

“Yes, but now there’s an even bigger question that needs answering. ‘How’.” The pony was confused.

“How what?” The pony asked.

“For starters, how do you know where I live?” Suddenly the pony began to look guilty.

“Er, we might wanna talk about this inside.” She gestured towards his apartment door. At this Chris nodded, confused, and walked towards his door.

* * *

Once inside, Chris got settled at his kitchen table, and the pony, named Rainbow Dash, got settled into the chair opposite. However before Chris could ask any questions, she launched herself into a practiced speech. She explained about their home of Equestria, and how society there was much like human society, but with more friendship, and magic. She explained that princess Celestia, who’s name Chris found oddly familiar, was their ruler and deity. After finishing her pony history lesson, Rainbow Dash still hadn’t answered Chris’s original question, and seemed to be stalling. He interrupted her explanation of how carrots grow in Equestria, and repeated his earlier question

“So, how did you know where I live?” The pony once again assumed a guilty face.

“Well, I uh––” Chris stared at her intently, and she started to sweat. “––I’ve kinda been following you. Well not only you, a lot of humans actually. You’re the only one who I’ve talked to though.” Chris coughed, and looked at her quizzically.

“Why exactly are you following humans??”

“Well, I don’t know. Not even Twilight knows. Celestia gave the order, and we came here, and––” Chris cut her off.

“How did you come here?” She looked up, frustrated.

“Ugh, I don’t know. I kinda closed my eyes, and then we were here! Then Twilight said we were supposed to find someone who could see us, but ‘discreetly’, which meant all I did every day was fly around and look for humans doing weird things. That was hard though, because all you humans do weird things, but you were definitely the weirdest of them all!” after she finished, Chris’s confusion returned tenfold.

“Wait, so I’m the only one who can see you?” Chris asked.

“Only one so far!” She corrected, “I could tell you could see me when you kept looking at the sky and crashing your bike! And when you tried to get that one guy to see me? HA! He thought you were crazy!” Chris scowled for a second, then closed his eyes to think.

“So, you were looking for people who could see you, but you don’t know why.” She nodded. “Then, why can I see you?” Chris asked.

“Ah, I do know that! Twilight says It’s because you’re special!” She replied proudly. “In fact, I’m supposed to bring you to Twilight once I’ve ‘made contact’. So, if you’re not doing anything tomorrow––” Chris looked at the clock, it was 2 a.m.. At this rate, he wasn’t going to be awake for work tomorrow anyway, and the break from those little devils he called students was long-needed. He still had all his sick days left to use, and tomorrow was definitely going to be a special occasion. He turned to Rainbow Dash, and nodded.

“I’ll go tomorrow.” She nodded, then stood from her chair.

“Well I have to go now then. Man, let me tell you, this was a lot easier than Twilight said it would be!” Chris raised an eyebrow. “Oh, she said something like ‘the humans could be ba-belig-uh––”

“Belligerent?” Chris finished for her.

“Yeah that’s it! Anyway I gotta go, see ya’!” She gave a wave of the hoof, then walked to the door, deftly opening it with her mouth. As the door shut behind her, Chris slumped in his chair. He began to massage his temples.

“What am I getting myself in to.”

End Pt. III

|-First-|-Next-|

Recon

-Part IV-

Greetings

Chris’s apartment seemed aberrant in the later hours of night. No human or other creature was awake to cause a commotion, or perform some other act to interrupt his train of thought. In fact, it would have been the best thinking environment possible, were his body not worn out from walking halfway across Manhattan. Though he took what he could get, and attempted to make sense of the extremely abnormal events that had befallen him the past few days. As far as Chris could tell, he had just met a talking pegasus who in the past had caused him embarrassment among coworkers and physical injury via bike crash; who had then scared him half to death by creeping in the shadows at night in New York, then somehow proceeded to fly him a mile in the air over New York with a body half his size, and who finally crashed him into a few trash bags, explained she came from another world, and invited him over for tea. Yet, for some odd reason, despite all mishaps caused by the pony, his gut told him that the pegasus’s claims and intents were sincere. It was an alien feeling, that he could only describe as trust, a feeling not often felt in the big city. After his deliberation, Chris decided to go against logic, (because logically, normal logic didn’t quite apply in the current situation) and honor his agreement to meet with the pony the following day. There was a problem, however.

“Where am I supposed to meet her?” Chris wondered to nobody, and it was true. The pony had failed to specify a time, date, or place. Chris shook his head, he was in no mental state to try and dissect their conversation again for clues to their meeting place. Perhaps for once, it would all work out if he just left it to fate.

Chris put his head back and let out a large yawn, emptying his mind of all thoughts besides the want for sleep. ‘It will all work out,’ He subconsciously told himself as he prepared for his late bedtime. He repeated the line as he lay in bed, his eyelids growing heavier.

‘It will all work out.’

Chris awoke to the sound of his alarm clock blaring, and his neighbor on the upper level banging on the floor. He looked at his alarm, which read 9:30am. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he chuckled to himself.

“Two and a half hours of this god-forsaken noise, I’d be pissed too if I hadn’t been asleep.” Chris finished his sentence with a bop on the alarm clocks top, which silenced it for the time being. The stomping from upstairs subsequently stopped, and a very loud sigh of relief could be heard through the thin floor above. Jumping from his bed, Chris busied himself with his normal morning routine. Suddenly he stopped his activities, his eyes wide with alarm. He had forgotten to call in sick, which was company policy. The punishment for unexcused absence being releasing. In other words, getting fired.

“Fired!” He scrambled for his telephone, and found it’s message received light blinking. He tentatively picked it up, like it was a live bomb, and pressed the play button on the receiver.

‘Hey, Chris, I got your message from last night, and I hope ya feel better! You’re lucky one of the other music teachers could fill for ya, or else I’da had to fire ya!. Ha! Nah, but you rest up! Need you working fit tomorrow, those kids aren’t gonna’ teach em’ selves!’ Chris blinked. He didn’t remember calling in sick last night. He had been too busy with the pony, and afterwards almost too tired to think!

“Who could of––”

“Oh that was Twilight's work! She’s really good with all your human machines!” Chris jumped two feet in the air, and then turned around quickly. Hovering in the air was Rainbow Dash, with a large grin on her face. Still shaking from the shock, he took a deep breath, and attempted to quell his trepidations. After failing, he decided to speak anyway.

“How d-did you g-get in h-h-here?” He stuttered through clenched teeth. The rainbow pony laughed, and gestured towards his door, which was open. He had forgotten to lock it, it seemed. Closing his eyes, he took another deep breath, and continued.

“So I suppose you’re here to guide me to the meeting spot?” The pony nodded, and he nodded in return.

“Alright, let me grab my coat.” He said, sufficiently calmed down from his shock. He walked to his closet, and after retrieving his cold-weather-wear, turned to the pony, who in turn flew out the door with surprising speed. As he followed her through his threshold, he was temporarily blinded by the bright late-morning sun he was unused to. It seemed after going through his static routine so much, his eyes couldn't handle the blast of light that he was unaccustomed to.

“Well are ya coming?” The pony shouted. Chris squinted up into the sky, his eyes shaded by his raised hand, and saw Dash hovering a few yards above him, ready to fly.

“It’d be easier if you flew away from the direction of the sun, you know. I enjoy my sight, and would prefer to keep it!” He called to her, receiving a disgruntled look in return. She dropped down to eye level, and rolled her eyes at him.

“Better?” She asked sarcastically. Chris nodded, prompting her to start her direction. They walked/flew away from his apartment, turning onto the road in the opposite direction from his work. He had not been this way often, and was unfamiliar with the scenery, so he took the chance to acquaint himself with the local surroundings, which turned out to be quite the sight.

As it would be, the further you went from downtown New York, the prettier it got. Though Chris was not one for sightseeing, even he took pleasure in the change of scenery he so rarely received. The fact that the new setting was pleasing to the eye turned out to be a simple and pleasant coincidence. As he continued to follow Dash, he noticed that still no one seemed to notice the sky blue pegasus flying just over the heads of passerby.

“I guess she wasn’t kidding when she said invisible,” he chortled to himself, attracting some stray glances from a couple fellow pedestrians. Oblivious to this, he continued to enjoy the sights, blind to where he was being led. After nearly an hour of walking, Chris noticed his legs were staring to feel sore. And his stomach informed him he had skipped breakfast. He walked until he reached an gap in passing walkers, then looked up to where Dash was gliding.

“How long now?”

“Its just up ahead!” She turned her head towards a dense wood the bordered the street they were traveling on. A gap in the trees revealed an overgrown path just past the next block. Chris nodded, and continued his pace, him and Rainbow Dash soon reaching the opening into the forest.

“Well come on!” She urged, and flew into the trees. Throwing caution to the wind, Chris followed her through the tunnel of flora, having to jog to keep sight of her rainbow tail amongst the branches. After many twists and turns, Chris ran into a clearing to find Dash sitting on a rock, staring at the same spot on the forest floor. Chris eyed her curiously, then looked at the same spot on the ground.

“Did you drop a contact?” He joked, his attempted humor flying over the pony’s head.

“Um, no? We’re waiting for Twilight!” Dash responded, then continued looking at the same spot. Chris gave Her a short apprehensive stare, then shrugged.

“So then Twilight is going to grow out of the ground?” He laughed, and looked skyward, massaging his forehead. “Why wouldn’t I be surprised if she did.” The end of his sentence was drowned out by a loud crackling noise, ‘like electricity’ Chris subconsciously observed. He looked down from the sky to see a purple pony looking up at him. Glancing at the ponies back, he saw no wings, but looking at the ponies head revealed this one’s defining feature. A unicorn horn, and it was smoking like a gun.

“Aw, you missed it!” Booed Rainbow Dash, from her perch on the rock, pouting.

“Missed what?” Questioned Chris to the ponies, neither of whom answered, but instead looked at each other and laughed. Chris, who was beginning to feel stupid and annoyed, broke the spell quickly with a loud *AHEM*. The purple pony stopped giggling and looked back at him.

“Ah yes, where are my manners. I’m Twilight Sparkle, nice to meet you.” Chris gave her an annoyed glare in return to her greeting. The unicorn stared back with a plastic smile, but was starting to look uncomfortable, Unable to hold his short grudge any longer, Chris sighed, and reluctantly put out his hand.

“Nice to meet you too,” He drawled, the pleasantry dropping from his lips like a rock. Twilight offered her hoof, and he shook it briefly.

“Yes, well, I suppose you’re wondering why Dash dragged you out here.” Twilight had read Chris’s mind.

“Hey! It was Twi’s idea!” Dash cried in protest. Twilight rolled her eyes, ignoring her.

“Yes, well, as you may have heard, Dash has been monitoring your recent actions, and has confirmed you are what we have been searching for.”

“And what exactly have you been searching for?” Inquired Chris.

“We call them the Inherant. They are the humans who possess unknown qualities that somehow allow them to completely negate our magic, and sense us. You are one of them.”

“But what does that mean! How does that make me different from everyone else?” Chris exclaimed through frustration. Oblivious to his turmoil, twilight closed her eyes and smiled.

“I don’t know!” She stated proudly. Chris smacked his forehead, and collapsed into a seated position, suddenly exhausted.

“Are you okay?” Twilight exclaimed, rushing to his side, ignoring Dash’s roars of laughter from her rocky perch.

“Yeah, just realised how tired I am after the hike out here.” He wrinkled his brow, and looked up at Twilight, “which raises a good question. Why did I have to come out here? You are invisible, right?” She smiled.

“We are, but you won’t be during your transformation!” Chris gave her a stare full of disbelief.

“You’ve got to be joking.” He said, and started laughing. “In fact, that is a really good joke, miss Sparkle. Ha ha.” The smile remained on her face. Chris grew pale.

“Wait, hold on! Why do I need to be transformed all of the sudden, what exactly am I going to be turned in to?” He began to sweat.

“A pony, of course! I mean, we can’t take a human to Equestria! The ponies there have never seen one! And to have one walking around––”

“Wait, I’m going to Equestria? Why? And can’t you just make me invisible like you did to yourself?” Twilight shook her head, Chris grew paler.

“Also, you’re the first Inherent we’ve found, your significance to the matter at hand is astronomical in size! You are needed in Equestria for research!” Chris’s skin tone was approaching that of Snow White’s very quickly.

“R-r-reasearch?” Chris swallowed the word and turned white as a ghost.

“Oh well, nothing painful, I promise!” Twilight smiled unconvincingly. Rainbow Dash, who had been watching the scene unfold with amusement, decided to stop Chris’s suffering, and intervene. She launched from her rock, and before Chris could blink, Dash had him pinned to the ground.

“Listen Chris, why are you here, right now, talking to us! Ask yourself!” Chris was too shocked to speak, and could only gape while attempting to form coherent speech. In his voices absence, he did think about why he came to meet with the ponies. He had done things he never would of done before he had met Dash; skipped work, followed someone he just met into a forest. He searched inside for the reason, and found only two things. The inexplicable feeling of security he felt around the ponies, and the fact that he––

“I hate my life!” Chris exclaimed, to the surprise of Dash, who seemed to be fighting back more laughter. “That’s it! I couldn’t stand doing the same thing, every day! He sprung onto his feet, again surprising Dash, and throwing her into the air. He turned to the disoriented Dash for conformation. She stared back dizzily.

“Uh, yeah! Good! I guess––” She shook her head to clear the stars from her vision, while Chris stared into the air with new-found vigor. The two ponies stared at him, while he seemed content staring at the clouds, contemplating his epiphany. Eventually, Twilight leaned over to speak to Dash.

“Don’t ya think that was a little harsh, if not... effective,” She whispered.

“Nah, he seems fine!” She said back loudly, Twilight frantically gesturing for her to lower her voice. Chris was undisturbed by her comment, too lost in thought to even register the sound. “It’s okay, he didn’t even hear.” She whispered back.

“Where did you even get the idea to do that?” Twilight queried.

“A movie!” Dash proudly replied, causing Twilight to face-hoof.

“Hey ponies.” Chris shouted. Both ponies turned to see him staring them down, a fire burning in his eyes.

“Um... yes?” Twilight responded while Dash remained silent.

“I’ll do it.” He said, straight faced, and confident.

“Do what?”

“The transforming and stuff, I’ll do it!”

“Oh good. In that case, hold on, I’ll need to call someone.” Chris frowned, confused yet again.

“Wait, why do you need to call someone, don’t you just snap your fingers and––well I guess not that––” He furrowed his brow and massaged the bridge of his nose in annoyance. “Ugh, don’t you just make it happen?”

“Oh no, that type of magic is way out of my ability. I’m calling the princess!” She remarked nonchalantly while turning away from him, her horn glowing.

“Wait, the princess of your entire world?” He exclaimed in disbelief.

“Just Equestria, and yes.” She punctuated her sentence with a flash from her horn that make spots in Chris’s eyes.

“Uh, okay? How exactly is she going to get––” Before he could finish his sentence, a small orange orb appeared in thin air above the scorch mark left by Twilight. Chris instinctively backed up, while Twilight held her ground, staring at the orb happily. Rainbow Dash had become completely detached from the situation, and was watching an ant crawl across a leaf.

“Is that––” Chris was again cut short by a rapid expansion of the orb, a shadowy figure taking shape inside. Chris opened his mouth to speak again, but was drowned out by the orb explosively dissipating, scattering leaves and replacing the existing scorch mark with an even bigger one. Chris stared at the large white pony who now stood atop the scorch mark, she had wings and a horn! Then when she spoke, the most powerful feeling of deja vu Chris had ever felt overcame him.

“I-I know you.” He stuttered out, but none of the ponies heard him. Celestia looked at him, then looked to Twilight.

“This the one?” Twilight nodded in response to Celestia’s question. Celestia nodded back, and turned to Chris, her horn glowing.

“Wait––” With a sentence-ending flash, Celestia’s horn shot a beam of energy into Chris’s chest, cutting him off thrice. His entire body levitated into the air, and his feeling of deja vu was replaced by an incredible burning sensation in his bones, in his muscle; in his entire body. He felt his limb’s warp, and his hair lengthen; but it was too much, and darkness crept from the corners of Chris’s vision. He strained to remain conscious, but lost the battle. The last thing he saw was the three ponies looking at him, Celestia was saying something, but he couldn’t hear her. The darkness met in the center of his vision, and he passed out.

“The time has come. We must take action, before it is too late”

End Pt. IV

|-First-|-Next-|

Recon

-Part V-

Arrival

Chris was standing in a dim hallway. It was lit from overhead lamps that made small circles of light on the floor. He looked down, but had no body. He looked up, down the seemingly infinite hallway, and started to move down it unintentionally. He wasn’t walking, but simply hovering down, his view staying perfectly still. He began to gain speed, the circles of light moving faster and faster, blending into one solid line. He took one turn, then another, going on for a seemingly infinite distance. He turned into a hallway that dead-ended into a door. He quickly moved towards it, getting closer and closer at higher and higher speeds. Right before impact his view stopped abruptly and calmly. He was facing a door at the end of the hallway, the yellowed paper to the right said ‘War Room’. The door opened by itself, but the occupants took no notice. Inside the room sat Princess Celestia, a dark violet and black alicorn with a crown similar to Celestia’s, and a pegasus pony in decorated armor. On the table sat a map of Equestria, a large red circle marked an area outside of a village called ‘PonyVille’. The expressions on the ponies faces were somber, serious, and somewhat worried. They sat in silence for a time, until the pegasus spoke.

“The tremors are increasing in frequency. We knew this would happen, and yet it is still unsettling. The disturbance is getting more and more stable, if we do not act fast, it will be too late!” His tone was urgent, and he punctuated his sentence with his hoof slamming onto the table. The violet Princess flinched, and Celestia looked stern.

“General, you forget our plan. All possible action has been taken, and it will play out as foretold.” She seemed completely convinced, but the general did not share her philosophy.

“But you’re wrong! There’s always the option of preemptive strike!” He heatedly replied, a fanatical furnace burning in his eyes brought on from months of anxiety. “Furthermore, you intend on letting the future of every single Equestrian depend on some 1000 year old prophecy? How do you know it’s true?” He finished, breathing heavily. Celestia closed her eyes.

“Because my sister said it was true.” She replied saintly. The general snorted. Celestia opened her eyes, giving him a cold stare. “Is there a problem, general?”

“We all know what happened no more than a year ago. This could all be a trap laid by Nightm––” He stopped talking, frozen by Celestia’s icy glare. The temperature in the room seemed to drop, and Celestia seemed to grow to twice her size. When she spoke, it was in a harsh, commanding tone; much different from her normal warm voice.

“Do not overstep your bounds, general. My sister is no longer influenced by that evil presence. For you to say such is almost treason. No more discussion is needed. We will continue as planned.” She stood from her chair, the others did the same. Suddenly the view shifted moved backwards out of the room, going faster and faster in the reverse. Chris could hear voices.

“He’s stirring, everyone quiet.”

“He’s been stirrin’ for the last hour! He’s done made such a racket in his sleep the moon could’a heard him!

“He must have been having such a scary, nasty dream. Oh how horrible.”

“Shush! He’s opening his eyes.”

Chris woke up to find two pony faces hanging above his, smiling broadly. His entire body ached, and felt very different. There was a bright light shining between the two ponies faces, and he raised his hand to shield his eyes from it. What he saw shielding the light was not a hand.

“My fingers!” Chris screamed, startling the two ponies. He struggled to sit up, but couldn’t. after flailing around, and causing the two ponies to stumble backwards in surprise, he managed to roll off the bed he was on, and land on his hind hooves. Attempting to stand failed, and he fell backwards and hit the back of his head on the edge of the bed. He slumped against the side of the bed, knocked unconscious.

“Chris.” Chris stirred in his peaceful slumber at the sound of his name.

“Chris, are you okay?” He heard his name again, ‘Okay? Why wouldn’t he be okay?’ A sudden sharp pain in the back of his head brought him to consciousness. He groggily cracked his eyes, seeing the same two faces, this time attached to bodies. A third pony could be seen in the background, timidly watching from behind her hooves.

“Where are my fingers,” he mumbled weakly, trailing off as he nearly passed out.

“Whoa there Nelly, talking probably ain’t a good idea right now. You hit yer head pretty hard.” Chris slowly nodded, then shook his head harshly.

“No, no. I’m okay.” He attempted to push them away, but didn’t have the strength. Another sharp pang behind his head brought him closer to coherent thought, and he instinctively moved his hoof back to clutch the throbbing area. Not only was that hard without fingers, but it seemed someone had bandaged him up while he was unconscious.

“Wait––how long was I out?” He asked the two ponies, they looked at each other, then back to him, forcing smiles.”

“Well, after you hit your head, maybe an hour.” Twilight replied sweetly. He frowned at her, and she sighed. “Okay, before that, three days.” His eyes shot open, and he jumped to his hind feet.

“Three days!? I––WOAH!” He started to wobble, but the two ponies jumped onto their four hooves and caught him. They lowered him into a prone position, and he took the chance to examine his body. He couldn’t turn his head without immense pain, so he tossed his head to see his hair. It was a silvery white, with some cyan streaks. He looked at his hooves, which were a light gray.

“I-it worked. This is crazy.” He mumbled as he lay feebly on the ground. The two ponies seemed to be at a loss for words, but the third pony, who until now had been cowering in a corner, had gotten up and was flying toward Chris.

“Now now, you’re going to be just fine. You’re just not used to being a pony is all, so the first thing we need to go is stand up. I promise you it’s really easy. Come on now.” As if compelled by the pony’s alluring gaze, Chris shakily stood, his head throbbing as he exerted himself. “That’s it, there you go. See? Now you’re getting the hang of it.” The two ponies watched the yellow one apprehensively, but her coaxing seemed to do the trick; Chris was standing tall and firm–until a particularly strong throb of his head caused him to lose focus and collapse. He moaned from his spot on the ground, and Twilight sighed.

“Well since we’re not going anywhere, might as well start introductions.” The second pony, whose coat was bright orange moved into his view.

“This is Applejack.”

“Howdy sugar-cube.” Applejack moved out of the way, and Twilight pushed the third pony into his view.

“This is Fluttershy.”

“Meep!” She flew out of the way and hid behind Applejack

“And of course you already know me.” Chris nodded, then attempted to look around. He seemed to be in the inside of a tree; a tree with bookshelves carved into the walls.

“Where are we exactly?” He asked.

“This is where I live, its Ponyville’s library.” Twilight motioned around the room with her hoof. “You may be wondering, it is, in fact, carved into a tree. Quite a wonder, isn’t it.” She returned her gaze to Chris. “Anyway, we are going to have to do something about this injury of yours.” She put her hoof to her chin, thinking.

“Don’t you have a healing spell or something?” Chris asked Twilight. Her eyes lit up.

“Why didn’t I think of that! SPIKE! Get me a copy of Magical Remedies!” She called into the depths of the library.

“Coming!” Came the reply, the voice sounding like little boy’s. After a few moments of waiting, a rapid clicking sound of claws on wood could be heard moving in their direction. A door flew open outside of Chris’s vision, and Twilight’s horn began to glow.

“Ah, thank you Spike.” She stated to the unknown persons behind Chris, magicking a book over his head. She put the open book between them, furiously flipping though the pages until suddenly stopping on one.

“Here we are, now hold still.” She instructed Chris.

“I don’t think that’ll be too much of a challenge.” Chris rolled his eyes. Applejack gave a chuckle, and Twilight missed the humor entirely.

“Good, now this says that the spell is very advanced, so hope for the best!” She immediately began the spell, and Chris’s objections were drowned in purple light and searing pain. Despite the discomfort, he still found mental capacity to be annoyed by all this ‘do first ask later’ attitude. He’d have to have a talk with these ponies after he could move his jaw again.

“UGH!” Twilight shouted and grunted under the difficulty of the spell, concentrating with all her might on one last burst of energy. The surge hit Chris in the skull, sending him sliding backwards across the ground. Twilight panted and swayed, Chris’s eyes reeled with his vision. Once his view had stabilized, He reached a hoof up to feel his head. No pain could be felt, ‘Huh, it worked. Fancy that.’

“How do you feel?” Applejack asked, Fluttershy peering out from behind her. In response, Chris slowly stood up (on four hooves this time) and smiled.

“I feel pretty good! Whoa!” He slipped, just barely managing to stay standing. Upon his recovery, he grinned sheepishly. Applejack was laughing, and even Fluttershy gave a shy giggle.

After Twilight removed his bandages, Chris found that adjusting to his new body was not as daunting a task as he had originally perceived. He had managed to take a successful step after only a couple tries, and had oriented to his new center of gravity surprisingly fast. Applejack and Fluttershy had left, and now only Twilight remained, taking notes on his efforts.

“Good, good! You’re adapting well; more quickly than my calculations said you would. I guess I shouldn't have calculated for an average human, eh?” Twilight chuckled, and Chris returned a brief smile before returning to his concentration. He took one last step, and sat down. He gave a brief sigh, and wiped sweat from his brow.

“I’m actually surprised how weak I am. I guess my unconscious stay is to blame for that.” He threw his head back, and stared at the ceiling. “But hey, at this rate I’ll be running by tomorrow!” Twilight nodded in return, staring at her notes.

“Yes, running.” She muttered while her quill scribbled onto the clipboard. “And flying the next day.” She added afterward, almost absentmindedly and with a chuckle. Chris laughed along with her.

“Yeah, flying. Man I sure wish.” Twilight frowned, and looked up from her notes.

“I wasn’t joking though–– Can you not feel your wings?” She looked at him quizzically. His eyes widened drastically, and he whipped his head around to stare at his back.

“I-wha-how? I didn’t even-oh my gosh this is-” At his sudden realization, his mind exploded with possibilities. He had assumed he was an earth pony. It seems even though he hadn’t been able to see his back, he hadn’t been able to feel the wings either, and just assumed his back was bare. He experimentally extended them, and brought them back in. They obeyed his command without delay, and swiftly and deftly carried it out. Twilight watched with amusement, and began hypothesizing why he hadn’t been able to feel them.

“So you feel them now?” She queried. He nodded, and gave his wings a strong flap. He shot a few feet into the air, and returned quickly to the ground with a loud *THUD*. Unfazed by his crash, he quickly got back up, and tried again––and again––and again. With no more successful results than the first time.

“Maybe we should run first.” Twilight suggested while flinching at his failed attempts. He got up from his umpteenth crash, and nodded.

“Well where exactly may I run?” Chris asked her.

“Perhaps to grab some lunch?” She responded, and Chris nodded with an obligatory loud rumble of his stomach. Looking down guiltily, he grinned.

“Lead the way!”

End Pt. V

|-First-|-Next-|

**Authors note

Next chapter is promised to be at least 20% more eventful. AT LEAST. And you readers may hold me to that!

Recon

-Part VI-

Celebrations

Chris didn’t understand how Twilight made it look so easy. The way she deftly put one hoof in front of the other, without even looking. She quickly trotted along the street, while he clumsily followed, attracting humored glances from other ponies. Twilight would look back every so often to check on his progress, and would tap her hoof impatiently while she waited for him to catch up.

“Is walking really so hard?” She asked him while waiting for the thousandth time. He steadily plodded towards her, trying not to fall. She sighed and hung her head, “At this rate, we’ll never get to the cafe in time for lunch.”

“It was your idea to take me on a stroll without practice first!” Chris protested while staring at his hooves, “Besides, if it’s so easy, try walking on your hind legs to the cafe!” He lost his balance and fell with a loud *THUD*. Twilight rolled her eyes.

“Here, let me help you.” Her horn glowed, and like a puppet, Chris’s new body rose onto its feet, and began to walk around in circles. “You see how to do it?” Chris looked unsure at his seemingly flailing limbs, but tried to remember the movement as best he could.

“Um, yeah. I think I can copy this.” Without warning, she released her magical grasp, leaving Chris to strain just to stay standing. After he successfully kept upright, he raised his front hoof.

“Okay, here we go!” Squeezing his eyes shut, he took a step. Not soon after, his hooves took another, and another––as if they had a mind of their own. Twilight watched with great interest as he successfully walked around in circles, mimicking her puppetry.

“See? This is how you’re supposed to walk. Not that, er, bow-legged dance you were doing.” She giggled, and received a dirty look from Chris, who seemed to be doing well walking on the same path. “Anyway, can you stop walking in circles? You’re making me dizzy.” Chris again stared at his hooves, still seemingly moving on their own.

“I don’t know if I can.” He gulped, as his legs continued to take step after step. “I kinda like doing this at the moment, it’s familiar.” He chuckled nervously, and kept up his cycle. Twilight facehoofed, and magicked Chris into the air. He hung there sheepishly, his legs still moving in the same way. Twilight burst into laughter, falling onto the ground and dropping Chris. The fall caused Chris to yelp when he hit the ground, and afterward he stood up quickly and angrily, glaring at Twilight.

“What the hell was that for!” He vented, his nostrils flared. Twilight simply stared with amusement at the spot he was standing.

“You seem to be balancing very well suddenly.” Realization struck, and Chris bowed his head to look at his feet, who seemed to do what was natural when he wasn’t thinking about it. He took a experimental step while trying to think of something else, and his body seemed to do the rest.

“That's so weird!” He exclaimed, walking in more circles. Twilight’s brow furrowed.

“Pseudo-muscle-memory from an adult body with no childhood, interesting...” She trailed off, muttering to herself. Chris stopped to stare at her.

“Huh?” he called, she looked up from her trance.

“Oh uh, nothing! We should get going or we’ll be late for lunch!” She called back. Chris shrugged and approached her, then the two turned to continue walking, managing a bit more brisk of a pace this time. As they trotted, Chris turned to her.

“Wait, what do you mean by late? Are we supposed to be on time for something?” She looked away with a wry smile.

“You’ll see!” She giggled, and raced ahead. Chris stopped in surprise, then galloped after her, yelling “Wait up!”

* * *

“We will continue as planned.”

* * *

“SURPRISE!” Was the roar that greeted Chris from inside Sugarcube Corner, leaving him slightly dazed and confused as he was carried away on a sea of hooves. They deposited him at the head of the room next to a gigantic cake with many candles. Still confused, he smiled weakly and started to wave when suddenly his gaze was full of nothing but pink fur! He tried to focus on it, but it was incredibly close, and hopping up and down. He backed up and discovered it had a face, one with an unimaginably wide grin, and a party hat on top.

“He-hello?”

“HI! Nice to meet you! My name’s Pinkie Pie, and this is your welcome to Ponyville party!” The bouncing continued as she took a breath. “You see, I know every pony in Ponyville, so whenever a new pony comes to town I throw them a huge party to get to know them! And you see, this is your party! But you already know that because I told you so! Oh, wait; I don’t even know your name!” She paused, waiting for Chris’s name. He opened his mouth, but was instantly dragged away by Twilight sparkle before he could say a peep. She turned him around to face her, and gestured for him to come closer.

“Whew that was close,” she whispered. “Okay, I forgot to tell you before you got here, but we can’t use your real name. I mean, what kind of name is Chris for a pony, right?” Chris nodded slowly, then started to protest in realization of the insult, but Twilight shushed him. “We can discuss this later, right now you need a name. So, what kind of name would fit you and your cutie mark?” She began to think, occasionally mumbling a name under her breath, then shaking her head. Chris began to think, but hit an instant obvious roadblock.

“What’s a cutie mark?” Not wanting to be disturbed, Twilight pointed to his flank, then resumed brainstorming. Looking back, Chris discovered there was a grey snowflake tattooed on his rear. He began to stare at it, and darkness suddenly flooded from the corners of his vision, filling every nook until only the snowflake remained. It began to glow brighter, and Chris could feel his head burning, filling with nothing but his cutie mark. It grew stronger and stronger until he could no longer bear it!

“Chris!” The burning vanished, and instantly his sight was normal, the cutie mark as grey as ever. He turned to her. “Help me brainstorm here!” He nodded, and before he could begin to formulate names, one popped into his head, burning like his entire brain had moments before.

“Icy Snowfall.” He said, and Twilight looked at him, and then his cutie mark.

“That’s–that’s actually perfect! Really suits you.” Without warning, Chris’s, now Icy’s vision was suddenly filled with the same pink from before. He took a step back, and braced for the verbal onslaught to follow.

“HEY! Why are you guys being so suuuper secretive in the corner! It’s a party! Come have some fun! OOH! Mr. New Pony! Come blow out your candles!” Pinkie grabbed Icy’s tail, and dragged him to his cake. When he arrived, everypony in the building quickly quieted down and turned to stare at him. A white unicorn near the edge of the crowd used her horn’s magic to make a bright spotlight appear on Icy, temporarily blinding him. As he squinted, he saw Twilight in the back mouthing, ‘Remember your name!’ Inside, Icy rolled his eyes, as if he could forget after it was burned into his skull. He stared into the crowd, seeing ponies with many shapes and sizes, and one carefree looking one that had a very lazy eye.

“Okay Mr. Guest-of-Honor! Time to blow out your candles! Don’t forget to tell everypony your name!” Pinkie shouted from beside him. She turned to a pony by the turntables. “Hit it!” She flipped a dial and a drum roll started. All eyes were on Icy, who turned to face his cake––covered with so many candles it should’ve been a fire hazard. He took a deep breath, and closed his eyes, but had a brilliant idea. Hoping the same muscle memory that applied to his legs would work with his wings, he slowly unfurled them, the crowd gasped. He turned his head to look at the crowd. “Hi, my name is Icy Snowfall.” With that he jumped into the air, and with all of his might blew, at the same time flapping his powerful wings. Instead of a simple gust, out came furious flurries of snowflakes and ice crystals. In an instant, the cake was frosted by a layer of snow and ice as well as frosting. The crowd stared open-mouthed, Twilight’s jaw nearly touching the floor. But seemingly oblivious to the weather phenomenon that had just took place, Pinkie bounced in front of him, and took a big bite of the double-frosted cake.

“Wow! This is good cake!” She announced through a mouthful of snow and cake. The crowd quickly adopted her ignorance, and started to enjoy the cake like she was. Icy even overheard a few mentioning how it was a great party trick. He kept staring at the cake, it’s white surface now having many slices taken out, revealing a chocolate center.

“Chris!” An urgent whisper from under the counter caused Icy to turn his head. A purple hoof appeared from behind the cash register and gestured him to come behind. He started to unfurl his wings to fly over, but thought better of it. He walked around to find Twilight sitting on the ground.

“How did you do that!” She demanded, Icy shrugged, and proceeded to sit on the floor with her. She shook her head, massaging her temples with her hooves. “This is not good, people will know you’re different. We’ve––” A loud POP interrupted her, they both looked up to see a brown unicorn staring down at them from under a bunch of balloons

“Oops, uh, hey Icy Snowfall, that was a cool trick!” *POP* “Oops, well uh, the name’s Pokey Pierce!” *POP* “Oops, so yeah, you should come over some time and show me how you did that!” Pokey retreated back into the crowd, a series of burst balloons drifting in his wake. Twilight wiped sweat from her brow, and let out a huge sigh.

“What a relief! They all think it was just some parlour trick.” Icy nodded, Twilight waved a hoof in his face. “Go enjoy the party I guess, I have a lot of research to do on whatever it was you did. After the party, look around for Rainbow Dash, she’s supposed to teach you how to fly.” Chris nodded again, and returned to the throng of people to stare at the cake some more. Soon though the cake had disappeared into the satisfied stomachs of the party-goers, and Icy was forced to actually socialize with the ponies. Pinkie was too happy to assist him, and introduced him to Rarity, the white unicorn from earlier, and Rainbow Dash, whom he had met before, unbeknownst to the other ponies. As the introductions continued, Icy was more and more surprised at the super-friendly attitudes that every pony shared. Each one had a friendly smile and a warm hoof-shake. Suddenly, Pinkie dragged him to a big curtain.

“This is a gift from all of us to you! Welcome to Ponyville, Icy!” She broadcasted to him and the room, then pulled a rope with her mouth. The curtain fell away, and sitting on a table, with a over-sized bow placed daintily on top, was a pair of goggles. A note sat next to it, with many names and welcomes scrawled on it. Icy took a step forward, and for an unknown reason, felt tears welling up in his eyes. He turned around, tears flowing freely, a large warmth welling up inside him.

“Thank you all, just... thank you!” He cried to the ponies, and was answered by cheering of one sentence in unison.

“Welcome to Ponyville, Icy Snowfall!”

***

“So how’d you like the party, sugarcube?” Applejack asked Icy as the last pony walked out the door. Only 6 remained, and they seemed to all know each other very well.

“It was the best party I’d every been to!” Icy exclaimed to the heavens, still in good cheer from nights festivities. In truth, it had been the only party he’d been to since his only good friend’s twelfth birthday party. He had moved away the year after, and was the last friend he could remember having. Well, until today, that is.

“Really? That was the beeeest party you’ve ever been to? WOW! I can’t wait for you to see the winter wrap-up party! Compared to that, this party was a total drag!” Pinkie jumped in and ranted, Icy gave confused smile in return.

“W-winter wrap-up?” He asked. Pinkie jumped into the air, *GAAAAAAAAAASP!* “You don’t know what WINTER WRAP-UP IS?” She took a breath to start explaining, but was pushed away by Twilight.

“Well, Icy should probably get home and get some rest. He’s got a busy day tomorrow learning how to fly!” Twilight said, then pushed Icy out of the door. “Whew, that was close. I would have never gotten you out there if Pinkie Pie had got going.” She giggled, and Icy chuckled along. They both started walking in the direction of the library.

“So Rainbow Dash is going to be teaching me?” Icy offhandedly asked Twilight.

“Yep! For the first half of the day.” She replied. Icy nodded, then furrowed his brow.

“Wait, I thought you said I had a busy day, what’s happening for the second half?” He asked suspiciously. Twilight turned to look at him with a secretive grin.

“You’ll see.”

End Pt. VI

|-First-|-Next-|

**Authors note

Hey, sorry for the long wait. Turns out summer isn’t just a happy go lucky time for me to do nothing but write. Go figure. I’m done with all my family reunions and visits for the summer though, so do expect more chapters more frequently in the near future! And this time I mean it! Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my ey-OWWW! FROSTING BURNS!

**Authors P.P.S.

Thanks to Flutterbro from #brony IRC channel for helping me edit and proofread all my fics! Couldn’t do it without you!

Recon

-Part VII-

Lessons

The night after his welcome party was by far the best night of sleep Icy Snowfall had ever gotten. He had no troubling visions, no eerie premonitions. He slept right through the night, dreamless all the way to the end. The most peaceful rest he could remember, even since he was a child. Although waking up the following morning was not quite so tranquil.

“HEY! Sleepy Snowfall! You awake yet?” A childish voice rang out like a shrill violin in Icy’s head, cutting through the sweet silence of his slumber. He cracked open an eye, making out a purplish blob obscuring all of his vision. He squinted his eyes shut as hard as he could, hoping for more sleep, but none came.

“I am now, all thanks to you... who are you, anyway?” Icy grumbled from his comfy bed on the sofa.

“Woah, hey! No need for the attitude, I’m just doing what Twi’ told me; which is to wake you up and feed you breakfast. And I’m Spike, Twilight’s assistant.” At the sound of the word ‘breakfast’ Icy opened both his eyes, and tried to blink the sleep out of them.

“Breakfast sounds great, I’m Chr-I mean Icy Snowfall.” Icy quickly corrected, suddenly feeling nervous at his brief slip.

“Oh I know who you are, both ‘whos’, if you know what I mean.” Spike mentioned offhandly as he walked away. “Breakfast is this way, when you’re ready.” He called behind him. Icy managed to get his first good look at Spike as he walked away, and was very surprised to see what looked to be a purple lizard: he had expected a pony. Tucking this surprise away for when he was face-to-face with the talking lizard, he attempted to gracefully leave his sofa-bed, managing to roll off face first. Luckily his legs still remembered how to stand––and more importantly walk––so he meandered in the direction of the good smells, finding a small kitchen through an open door. Spike the talking lizard was standing on a stool at a stove, where there was a small pot bubbling with some oatmeal. Hearing Icy come in, he turned away from the pot.

“That was faster than I expected, I thought you weren’t a morning pony.” He turned back to the pot, turning off the stove.

“I’m not.” Icy said, sitting at the kitchen’s table, “I’m just used to getting up, I had a job I had to go to back in my world.” Spike picked up the pot of oatmeal, and set it on the table. After retrieving two bowls from a cupboard, he sat down, passing one to Icy.

“A job, eh? What did you do?” Spike asked, ladling them both some oatmeal.

“I was a music instructor. I taught string instruments.” He said, staring at the bowl of oatmeal, and his fingerless hooves. Spike looked up from his oatmeal, which he was eating with a spoon, and eyed Icy curiously.

“Aren’t you gonna eat?” He asked.

“H-how?” Icy responded, feeling foolish. Spike suddenly laughed, and then put down his spoon.

“That’s right, your used to having these.” He gave Icy a double thumbs-up. Icy nodded, feeling annoyed. “Just dig in! No shame to it!” Spike instructed, chuckling. Icy looked down, closed his eyes, and plunged into the bowl. It was surprisingly easy to eat out of, being wide and shallow, and the oatmeal was delicious. He looked up from the bowl, his face messy. “This is really good!” He proclaimed, while Spike watched him with interest. Icy proceeded to finish the bowl, and licked his face clean, touching it up with a wet rag Spike handed him afterwards. After Spike had finished his too, he took both bowls and the pot to the sink, then went back to the table to sit.

“What are you?” Icy finally asked as Spike took a seat. Spike eyed Icy quizzically, “Did Twi’ not tell you about me?” Spike asked, seeming a bit offended.

“Um, no-sorry.” Icy replied timidly, not wanting to start something. Spike shrugged, “She probably forgot. Anyway, I’m a dragon!” He said proudly, standing on his chair. Icy stared in disbelief.

“Like, a big fire-breathing, people-eating dragon?” Spike nodded with glee. “You’re a little small don’t you think?” Icy observed. Spike rolled his eyes, and slumped in his chair.

“Well, I’m still just a baby dragon.” He said, saying the word ‘baby’ like it was something rotten in the back of the refrigerator. Icy snorted a bout of laughter into his hoof, earning a nasty look from Spike.

“Sorry, sorry! In my defense, you seem more like a young-adult dragon in maturity!” Icy said, holding his hooves out in front of himself.

“You really mean it?” Spike exclaimed, his eyes lighting up and his mouth widening into a large grin. Icy nodded, and Spike gave a victory whoop. “Now I just need you to tell Twilight that! She still treats me like I was hatched yesterday, you know! Its so annoying!” Icy spaced out, nodding absentmindedly as Spike ranted about different things that he liked or thought were unfair. Thinking about his day, he wondered when he was supposed to meet Rainbow Dash for flying lessons. He hadn’t shown it outwardly, but he was really eager to fly, so much so that flying had been all he was thinking about the previous night while attempting to sleep. He snapped back into reality, hearing Spike going on about how he once had to clean the entire library again after some-or-other pony had messed it up right after he finished.

“Spike?” Icy interjected.

“It took so long, I was sooo tired by the end, I––”

“Spike.” Icy repeated, Spike stopped talking and looked to Icy. “When exactly do I have to go meet Rainbow Dash this morning?” Spike thought for a second, and then turned to a wall clock behind him.

“Whoa!” He exclaimed, and jumped out of his chair. Icy looked confused, and stood from his. “You gotta go, you were supposed to be in front of Sugarcube corner 10 minutes ago!” Spike grabbed Icy’s hoof, and guided him out into the Libraries main tree. “You remember where to go, right?” He asked. Icy nodded slowly, visualizing where it was in his head.

“I think I’ll manage.” He confirmed. Spike gave a quick nod in return, then held up a claw, signaling Icy to wait. He ran up the stairs, out of view. Shortly after, some noise of cabinets being opened could be heard, then the sound of Spike running back down the stairs. When he came into view, he was holding the pair of goggles that the town had given him.

“You might need these, I really dunno, but if Dash is teaching you, you might run before you walk, if you know what I mean. He gave Icy the goggles and pushed him towards the door.

“Good luck bro, you might need it.” With that, the door shut behind Icy. He was on the busy Ponyville street––around noon, from what Icy could tell from the sun. He expected all the ponies to be staring, but no one gave him a second glace. ‘Kind of like New York,’ Icy thought, and had a silent chuckle to himself. Remembering he was on a tight schedule, he promptly started off in the direction he had walked last night.

‘It could hardly be called walking for the first half of the trip though.’ He reminisced while walking, silently musing at how much of a challenge it had first appeared to be. He continued his walking and random pondering until he had successfully navigated his way to the sweetshop. He had expected to get there to find Rainbow Dash waiting for him, and he having to explain why he was late. Instead, she was nowhere to be found. Confused, Icy looked around, and walked around the building. Still not seeing her, he scanned the sky for any trace of a rainbow tail. Nothing but a calming, cloudless blue could be seen. He could have felt angry for waiting on her, but realizing such a thing would be quite hypocritical, he instead sat down on the steps in front of Sugarcube Corner, and stared into the sky, feeling relieved that the awkward moment of being late was avoided.

“HEY! You’re that pony who I threw a party for yesterday! What are you doing here at Sugarcube Corner?” A familiar and fast voice sounded from behind him. He turned around to see nothing but pink, and a small bit of deja vu washed over him.

“Yeah, you’re Pinkie Pie, right?” Icy asked, leaning back from the giant pink face obscuring his vision. She nodded vigorously, and bounced around to his front.

“And yoooou’re Icy! Icy Snowfall, to be exact!” She continued bouncing, smiling wider than Icy had thought possible for a pony.

“It’s, uh, good to see you. Hey, by the way, thanks for that party. It was a blast! I had the time of my life. So what are you doing back here? Not planning another party so soon, are you?” Icy said, trying to make some conversation while waiting for Rainbow Dash.

“Oh that was no problem! I loove throwing parties, and funny you should mention it, I’m actually planning my 3rd annual semi-mid-fall party! It wouldn’t be semi-mid-fall without it!” Icy nodded slowly, wondering if she was serious. “And I work here silly! I help make the sweets! I especially like making cupcakes, you see, I was just finishing my green-apple cinnamon cupcakes when I saw you out here looking all lonely! So I thought, ‘That pony looks sooo lonely, i should go talk to him while the cupcakes cool!’ And then, on my way out here, I was like, ‘that pony could use a cupcake!’ So then--” *GASP* “Do you want a cupcake!?” Startled by pinkies sudden loud gasp, Icy shakily nodded. Pinkie smiled widely, then shot back inside the shop to fetch a cupcake. Icy just sat there, a little shocked, and tried to process what had just happened.

“Hey! Chri-- uh, Icy!” Came a voice from the sky. Looking up, A rapidly approaching rainbow blur could was quickly spotted by Icy, who stood up to greet the incoming Rainbow Dash. He watched, waiting for her to slow down, but she gave no inclination to do so. Thinking she was going to crash, Icy dived to the side and cowered, waiting for a crash; but none came. looking up, he saw Dash hovering in midair, with goggles on and a satisfied look on her face.

“Scared ya, huh?” She joked. Icy rolled his eyes, playing along.

“As if, I tripped!” Icy claimed.

“Yeah right! Hey, I didn’t keep you waiting too long, did I?” Icy shook his head. “I went ahead and cleared the sky above Ponyville early, and kinda lost track of time. So, you ready to go?” Icy almost nodded, but remembered that Pinkie was getting him a cupcake. What was taking her so long?

“Actually, er--” Pinkie burst through the door, cutting Icy off.

“I got your cupcake! Oh hi Dashie!” Pinkie pie happily announced, somehow managing to balance a cupcake on her hoof while bouncing.

“Heya Pinkie Pie! Who’s the cupcake for?” Dash said, landing and walking over to her. Icy walked over closer to the two as well, ready for his cupcake.

“This new pony here!” She informed Dash, and held the treat out to Icy. He slowly and tenderly grabbed it in his mouth, and transferred it to his hoof. Dash broke out in laughter, watching Icy try so hard to hold the pastry. He gave her a dirty look, and took a big bite of the cupcake. It was delicious.

“Whats so funny?” Pinkie asked Dash, who was still snickering at Icy’s amateurish cupcake-handling skills. Dash waved a hoof towards Icy, “This guy can’t even hold a cupcake yet. He’s like a little foal.” She broke out into more giggles, and Pinkie let out a big “Ooooooooh!”.

“Wait, you know?” Icy questioned Pinkie, who gave an energetic nod.

“Yep, you’re a hoo-men, right? I think that’s what Twilight said. I didn’t really get it, but it means your not from around here!” She explained.

“Yeah, that's sorta right.” Dash said, nodding to Pinkie Pie.

“Mmmhmmph!” Icy mumbled through a last mouthful of cupcake. He swallowed, and took a breath. “That cupcake was amazing!” He proclaimed to the two ponies. Pinkie beamed, then quickly looked back towards the kitchen in Sugarcube corner.

“Oops! I gotta go check on some more cupcakes! See ya!” She told them, and dashed back into the shop.

“Bye!” Icy and Dash said in unison, then turned to each other.

“So, you ready to fly?” Dash asked Icy, her eyes narrowing and her grin widening into a look of determination unparallelled. Icy had been anticipating this moment, he wanted to fly so bad he almost couldn’t contain his excitement. He pulled the goggles from around his neck onto his face.

“Oh yeah. I’m ready.”

“Then lets go!” Dash shot into the air. Icy used all of his excitement to jump as high as he could into the air, he extended his wings as far as they could go! He could almost taste it, the feeling of flying. It was right there--and in an instant, so was the ground. *THUD*. His second face-plant of the day, and it was barely even lunchtime. As he dragged himself off the ground, Dash came and landed beside him, laughing so hard she couldn’t breath.

“Don’t forget to flap, dude!”

* * *

After a bucketful of crashes, and a barrelful of laugh-attacks from Rainbow Dash, Icy had gotten it down. He could hover off the ground, without crashing! As he flapped in place, he rubbed his sore head, it was lumpier than usual due to excess impacts. Dash was sitting at the ground, eating a cupcake that Pinkie had brought her.

“You okay?” She called to him. He slowly rotated to face her.

“Yeah, I guess!” He called back. In truth, he was somewhere between being alright and not alright. He had thought that after he had gotten walking down, flying would be a piece of cake. He had guessed wrong.

“Wanna try to move?” She asked, finishing her cupcake with one last bite. Icy looked around uneasily.

“No, I’m good right here!” He called back jokingly, trying to remain upright. Dash rolled her eyes, and took off, flying up above Icy and hovering upside down.

“See if you can go this high!” She encouraged him, Icy stared at her seemingly impossible move, that she did so effortlessly. He flapped harder, and started to rise, but missed a beat on his left wing, and nearly wiped out. He recovered, and remained hovering in the same spot.

“C’mon! You nearly had it!” She yelled down to him. Icy was feeling quite discouraged, and tried to remember how he had suddenly figured out walking before.

‘I had just, started walking, without thinking about it.’ He concluded.

“Hey, if you’re too scared to fly, we can try another time. I’m getting kinda bored anyway!” Dash suddenly called down to him. ‘I’m not scared,’ Icy thought, ‘I’m just not experienced!’

“I’m not scared!” He claimed, Dash flipped right-side up, and folded her front hooves.

“Looks that way to me!” She chided, glancing down at him from the corner of her eye”

“I’m not scared, I’m just thinking about it too much!” Icy cried up to her. Dash scoffed, then bent over to look at him.

“Then don’t think.”

And suddenly Icy’s mind was blank: he had willed it to do so, and had only one thought in mind, go forward. Which he did, as easily as he had when he finally got the hang of walking. He circled up to Dash, and hovered beside her.

“That was strangely easy.” He remarked, as she stared apprehensively. He guestured towards the ground, and descended as Dash followed. When they reached the ground, Dash gave Icy a nudge in the shoulder with her hoof.

“You sure you weren’t pretending to not know how to fly? You got the hang of it pretty fast there.” Icy shrugged, if he remembered what Twilight had said yesterday, he had the muscle memory, he just had to let the muscles remember, and not the brain.

“Well, this is kinda like how I got walking down. I took my mind off it, and my body just... went.” He could scarcely describe how it happened, but he was definitely glad it had, and about time too. He had made a complete fool of himself.

“Uh, cool, I guess.” Dash stared at him blankly. Suddenly the door to Sugarcube Corner opened up and Pinkie bounced out and over to the two pegasi.

“WOW! You flew so smoothly! It was like, before you were all BANG, CRASH but suddenly you were all like WOOSH, SWOOSHHH! And you were flying good! You know what? This calls for a party!” As quickly as she came, she rushed back into the shop to plan yet another party. Icy turned to Rainbow Dash, a confused look on his face. Dash laughed and shrugged, then jumped into the air.

“So, if you can suddenly fly so well, why don’t we have a race?” She challenged, Icy nodded, and took off to join her. Once they were in the air, Dash took a starting position. Icy copied her.

“First one to the library wins!” Dash shot off like a bullet, surprising Icy, who hesitated for a split-second, then took off after her.

* * *

As soon as Icy Snowfall saw Twilight’s library, he fell towards the ground like a rock, barely managing to slow his fall with his wings. The moment his hooves touched the ground, he collapsed, breathing heavily. Another pony landed behind him, but he was too exhausted to turn to see who it was, but he had a pretty good idea as to the pony’s identity.

“Oh c’mon, you’re already tired?” The raspy voice sounded, teasing him with a light kick to the flank. Icy rolled over, and if the voice wasn’t enough, the bright rainbow colors he saw through unfocused eyes confirmed the mystery pony as Rainbow Dash: the pony who, for the last three hours, had made him fly as fast as he could all over Ponyville in a series of races, which he had all lost. Still catching his breath, he waved his hooves frantically, trying to signal ‘NO MORE’. He got a laugh in response.

“Oh alright, we’ll take a breather.” She said, and walked over to the door to the library, knocking on it with a hoof. Icy had regained enough composure to stand, and attempted to take a few steps, but tripped, falling at the feet of a purple pony who had just walked up.

“What are you two doing?” Twilight asked, Icy looked up to find himself face to face with the purple unicorn, who was raising an eyebrow. Rainbow Dash ceased pounding on the door, and turned to see who it was.

“Oh hey Twilight, we were trying to get Spike to open the door. Icy is beat, he needed a break.” Dash replied, trotting over to Twilight. Icy had struggled to his feet, and was barely managing to stay standing.

“Oh, um, okay. Well Spike isn’t even there, I’ve sent him on an errand, and he’ll be gone for the rest of the day. Actually Rainbow Dash, this is perfect timing. I was just returning to get ready to take him off your hands, so you can just leave him with me!” Twilight told Dash, who looked a bit downfallen. She quickly perked up again, and took to the skies.

“Alright then, see ya later Twi’ and Icy!” She called, then zoomed away with ridiculous speed, obviously unfazed by the hours of nonstop flying. Twilight turned to Icy, who’s eyes were beginning to rival Derpy’s.

“Do you want some water?” Twilight asked, watching him uneasily. He nodded slowly, faltering in his balance but staying upright. Twilight nodded back, her horn glowing. Icy hardly even realized his hooves had left the ground.

* * *

The room was dim, lit from an eerie pale-turquoise light from a long rectangular fish tank embedded in the wall. The room contained a single desk; modern, and sleek. The figure behind the desk was obscured by shadow, and it was obvious that the effect was purposeful. A bright white rectangle opened on the far wall, from which entered another man. He walked up to the desk and bowed.

“Sir, I have the progress report.” He said, his voice deep and monotone.

“Go on.”

“The process is accelerating exponentially. Estimated completion time has shortened dramatically with the addition of the artifact.” He stated.

“As is planned. Leave now.” The figure commanded, and the man complied without hesitation. He exited, and the rectangle shrunk and disappeared. The figure leaned back in his chair, and clapped his hands once. The lights went out.

End Pt. VII

|-First-|-Next-|

**Authors note: Changed the table of contents, this way is much easier ^-^

Recon

-Part VIII-

Trepidations

Icy Snowfall had been in Ponyville for little more than four days, had been conscious for nearly one day, and had been knocked unconscious three times, crashed more times than he could remember, and nearly been possessed by a snowflake on his butt. So as he sat at the table in Twilight’s library, his aching head in his aching hooves, he concluded that these ponies would drive him to insanity, if death didn’t come first. As he shifted in his chair, and his body gave another massive throb, he decided that the latter would be more likely. The nonstop flying he had performed in the last few hours had immediately taken their toll on his unconditioned body, which in turn caused every possible muscle to ache uncontrollably. Icy wished for a Tylenol. As he sat, the empty glass on the table in front of him suddenly began to glow with a purple light, and levitated away, to be replaced by a new one full of ice water.

“I cannot believe Rainbow Dash caused such physical strain during a first session. I told her to go easy on you.” Twilight complained from a stool to Icy’s right. Icy lifted his head, and nodded a silent agreement. “Well are you feeling better yet? We need to get going soon, lest we be late for the meeting.”

“I wish you would just tell me whats going on.” Icy groaned. Twilight shrugged.

“I feel it’s better left to a surprise.” She explained. Icy gave no reply, having returned his head to its face-down position. “So are you ready?”

“Its not like I have much choice in the matter.” Icy finally said.

“What?”

“I don’t really have a choice but to do what you say, having come this far.” He raised his head, staring dully at Twilight. She hesitated, and gave a slight nod in agreement. “I’ve taken your word this entire time, and although you have given me ample amounts of proof, I still feel completely ignorant.” He flinched slightly as his body gave another throb. Twilight sighed and walked over to him.

“I understand you may be losing faith, but just hold out for a bit longer, okay?” She encouraged. He turned and stared long into her eyes, searching for any sign of deceit. Eventually he looked away, and sunk off his chair, shakily standing.

“Okay, I’ll go.” She smiled and started to say something, but Icy held up a hoof. “But I want to know everything. Wherever we’re going; this meeting or whatever, I had better get some answers.” She nodded.

“Okay, are you ready?” She asked.

“Yeah, I just said I was...” Icy said, but Twilight seemed to not be listening. She had closed her eyes, and her horn was glowing. “Wait, what are you doi-” In a bright flash of purple light, warmth and rigidity overcame Icy as he screamed through a tunnel of burning light. He tried to scream, but didn’t hear anything when he tried. At once, his hooves slammed into the ground, and his knees buckled.

“I asked if you were ready.” A voice said from above his head. Looking up into a pair of purple eyes, Icy blinked.

“Are we there?” He mumbled, and tried to look around, spying many groups of legs, presumably with pony bodies attached to them.

“Yep! So are you gonna take a nap there or what?” A different voice said, giving a nasally bout of laughter to compliment her own joke.

“Wait, Dash too?” Icy queried, recognizing the laugh. He pushed himself to his feet quickly, and shook his head clear of fuzziness. He gazed around once upright, seeing Twilight and Rainbow Dash and many other ponies he didn’t know, some in lab-coats.

“Yep! Did’ja miss me?” She joked, flaring her wings and hopping into a hover.

“Dash get down! You know the rules!” Twilight scolded, not before a few gusts of wind had scattered nearby papers, much to the discontent of their caretakers.

“Yeah yeah,” Dash said indignantly, resuming her grounded state. “I don’t see why you don’t let me fly around the rafters though! This place is huge!” She trailed off in her protests, and Icy looked around. It was huge! All around, ponies scurried in lab-coats and jumpsuits, even one that wore what looked to be some sort of space suit. There were many machines lining the walls with dazzling multicolor lights, presenting all of the occupants with a technicolor light show, although none seemed complacent enough to stop and notice. Instead they entranced themselves with the many rolls of paper spitting out from the machines, on each a variety of symbols that Chris couldn’t read, but Icy could. With all the commotion going on, one thing in particular caught Icy’s eye: What seemed to be a roped off area with nothing inside. He stared deeply at the one spot, and didn’t realize he had started walking towards it. It had grown in his vision already, and the distance did not affect it’s size. Darkness started to creep in from outside his view, and a new darkness began to appear inside the roped off area. dark tendrils slowly emerged, poking and prodding only to quickly retract, as if stung by some unseen force. Suddenly they ceased, and all pointed towards Icy. They beckoned, and he complied. Nearing the rope. He started to go under it-but something stayed his hoof. An feeling of urgent caution filled him, and he took a step back. The tendrils flared and turned red, then receded back into their dark hole. His vision abruptly distorted, and zoomed out. All at once, he was back where he stood prior, his leg lifted in the air.

“Yes?” Said a pony he didn’t know, who had apparently ceased in what she had been saying, thinking Icy had something to add.

“I, um, nevermind.” He spluttered, nervously peeking back over his shoulder towards the roped off area. It was empty once again, yet the uneasiness lingered like a bad omen.

“Is something the matter?” Twilight leaned in and asked, her brow wrinkled with concern. Icy scuffed the floor nervously with a hoof. All the ponies there were staring at him like a frog on a dissecting dish, and he figured their intentions couldn’t be much different. They leaned to each other, muttering different things: ‘Is he the inherent?’, ‘he did used to be human, right?’, ‘What was he looking at just then?”

“It’s okay to tell us.” Twilight encouraged. “We just want to help.” They all seemed to lean in even closer, one even whipped out a pencil and notepad.

“I-well, looked at that roped off area...” He paused, alarmed at the magnitude of cacophony simple pencil scratches could emit.

“Go on...” A bespectacled pony requested.

“Then... I started to move towards it, but not physically... I sort of had an out of body experience.” Again another chorus of notes. As Icy relayed the info, he felt better, but started to feel naked with all the undivided attention. When he had finished, the coats wasted no time rushing off to different areas with their new data.

“Wow, I feel like Santa Claus.” Icy joked, receiving blank stares from Twilight and Rainbow Dash.

“Who’s that?” Dash asked, while Twilight tried to remember anything she read that mentioned the name.

“Nevermind. So what is this place anyway?” Icy asked.

“Oh, sorry about that, I didn’t exactly expect them to give you a Pinkie Pie welcome, but it just goes to show how determined they can be.”  Twilight mused. “In any case, welcome to The Facility. Allow me to give you the grand tour!”

* * *

“So this entire place is underground?”

“All 500,000 square feet of it!”

“Held up by magic...”

“Created by magic. Held up by engineering.”

“And the only way you can get in is through teleportation?”

“Yes, most of the ponies in here actually live on site. Only Rainbow Dash and a few other ponies come and go, and I have to escort them all. Except the princess.”

“Wow.” Icy was in a daze, overwhelmed by the suffocating wealth of information being thrown at him. Contemplating some of the numbers made his head spin, and the sheer vastness of the space helped none. Twilight was still talking, but he heard none. He just hoped his searing leg muscles were telling him the tour was almost over.

“And over there we have––”

“Um, Twilight.” She paused and looked over. “Can we take a break?” He tried to look exceptionally tired, which wasn’t difficult given his current state.

“Oh, sure! Sorry, was I wearing you out?” She asked, apologetic and concerned.

“Well, this tour has been very, er, meaty.” She nodded. “But if we could cut to the chase, if there is one, I’d be thankful.” He grinned sheepishly, and she shrugged.

“Okay then. It’s just a short walk this way.” She walked off back toward the hallway they had exited. One which, raw in Icy’s memory, was not a short walk in the slightest.

Icy plodded, panting after Twilight––nearly running into her when she stopped. “Here we are.” She said for what Icy hoped would be the last time. Looking up, he spotted a large metal door, striped with black and yellow diagonal lines. ‘Rather cliché.’ Icy observed silently. Her horn glowed periodically, and the large doors slid open, accompanied by an equally cliché klaxon which resounded down the endless hallway. Unfazed by the sound, Twilight turned and gestured for Icy to follow. He did, into a room which put into proportion every concept of “huge” he may have had before. The doors blared closed behind him, and instantly the room grew unnaturally cold. He felt a familiar burning sensation on his flank.

“Chris!” A voice clapped, prematurely ending his trance. He blinked the darkened edges out of his vision, and searched for Twilight. “Try and endure the power in this room, it’s more intense then the rest of the Facility.” Icy nodded, yet turned back to look at her, confused.

“Why’d you use my real name?” He asked, she put a hoof to her lips.

“Later. For now, come over here.” She trotted over to a control booth, tapping a button to cause yet another door to slide open with whoosh. He entered the dark room, which lit almost instantly. The room itself was filled with shelved books and logs, as well as a brushed metal control panel with many knobs, meters, buttons, and a very large lever. Twilight closed the door behind them, which sealed with an ominous hiss. Without hesitation, she trotted to the control panel.

“Okay, what you are about to see is the reason you’re here. The snowflake that caused the avalanche, persay.” Lighting her horn, the control panel whirred with the spinning of knobs, and flashed with the pressing of buttons. Upon completion, she manually pulled the large lever, suddenly bathing the room in scarlet light. The cavernous empty space was bathed in the light as well. Icy blinked.

* * *

A figure stood by a wall length fish tank, glowing an eerie aquamarine and casting exaggerated shadows with the few objects in the room. In his hand a plastic bag with two brightly colored fish, swimming around each other in a eloquent pattern. Silently they were watched, and watched, and silently watched. Across the room, a seamless wall stood. Without warning, a white glowing line appeared and widened into a glowing threshold. Through the shining aperture entered a tall woman in a white lab coat. She wore light, rectangular glasses and her hair was in a bun, yet this did little to distract from her unmistakable beauty. Her steps we like breaking glass in the absolute silence of the room. The figure did not look up, but opened a hatch in the tank, gently setting the fish inside.

“Yes?”

“As you wished, I am here to report recent disturbances on our sensors. It’s spiked twice in the last hour. Since four days ago, there has been none.” The figure stared deeply at the fish, as if trying to derive some great truth from their dance. The woman checked a few notes she had been carrying under her arm, and continued, “Overall activity has also been increasing.”

“Good.” A flash of something white showed briefly from a dark plastic cave, instantly the nearby fish ceased in their rhythm and hung suspended in mid-water.

“Our operations are also going smoothly, we have found two more this week.” The figure nodded. From the cave flashed another glimpse of pearly white. The fish darted away from the dark crevice, which emitted a final flash as an eel quickly left his hiding place and snatched the two fish from the water.

“That is all I have to report.” The woman said, turning sharply on her heel and walking briskly out of the room. The white doorway disappeared soundlessly. The wall length fish tank glowed a deep crimson.

End Pt. VII

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**Authors note: More will be coming, as much as I can. It’s been a while since I've seemed to have any good storyline ideas. Perhaps season two has renewed my spring of inspiration, for my urge to write has never been stronger :D

**Also, unbeknownst to me, you cannot edit the edit the destination url of bit.ly links. While I feel this is incredibly unintuitive use of an otherwise great service, I have no control over it. So I am removing the latest button. Just hit next repeatedly to get to the most current chapter, and I apologize in advance for your carpal tunnel  :<

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