Dale tossed another stick into the campfire, causing more flames to erupt from it. The group had settled down for the night and tents were being set up. Even though the party was made up of adults, they were still dividing it up like kids. There was going to be a girls tent and a boys tent. Dale didn't mind this since he knew that the girls would stay up much later than he would, gossiping about their lives and relationships.
Dale and Matt got their tent set up rather quickly, he was surprised at how easy it was. Dale had never gone camping like this back on Earth, and Matt said he never had experience with setting up a tent. When the men finished setting up their tents, Matt immediately went to work on helping the mares with theirs. Dale watched from a distance as Rarity skillfully began to pitch up her side of the tent. She effortlessly moved poles through the correct holes with her teal blue magic.
"I guess she does have her use out here after all," Dale smirked at his thoughts. The mare's tent was much larger than the men's, as well as coloured a dark purple. No doubt Dale and Matt got the short end of the stick on this one. The two humans were going to share the tent that Dale had bought for himself, so boundaries are going to have to be set.
Dale saw Twilight, who was away from the group, trace a strange white powder around the campsite. Her magic was levitating the powder as well as a book that she was constantly looking at. Twilight mumbled to herself while she read the book. Dale was bored so he decided to see what was up with her. Dale stood up from the log he was sitting on, hands in his pocket, and began to walk over to Twilight.
"Hey, " Dale asked Twilight.
Twilight stopped shaking her white dust and turned around, "Oh, hi. Is everything okay?" She asked, a friendly smile on her face.
"Yeah, I'm good. I just wanted to see what this is all about," Dale gestured to the powder on the grass.
"Oh, this? It's actually supposed to be a magical barrier that'll keep monsters out while we try to sleep. Once I finish this, it'll be like we're totally invisible... as long as you stay in the circle." Twilight levitated the book she was reading up to Dale's face. Dale took the book out of the air and began to scan the pages. He could barely understand any of it, not because of the language the text was written in, but because of the terms that would only make sense if you lived in Equestria.
"So, what you're saying is... It's like bug spray?" Dale guessed.
"Kind of like that, but instead of mosquitos, it's bloodthirsty monsters," Twilight sounded a little too excited. She took the remaining of the powder she had and connected the circle that she started. Twilight's horn began to glow and she closed her eyes. A purple stream slivered gently out of the tip of her horn and touched the white powder. The magic stream coursed through the entire circle, and for a split second, a flash of white enveloped everyone before fading out. Matt and the girls looked up at confusion, then over at Twilight.
"What the hay was that?" Rainbow Dash shouted to Twilight.
"That's just our security system! We're safe now!" Twilight shouted back. Rainbow nodded her head and began to get back to fumbling around with the tent. Dale watched from a distance and found it amusing that someone as boastful as Rainbow Dash couldn't even tie a not.
"Well... She is using hooves and a mouth... But it's no less funny," Dale thought.
"Hey... Dale?" Twilight asked, looking up at the human.
Dale looked down with a confused look on his face, "What's up?"
Twilight's eyes darted around a bit and she bit her lip before asking, "If you're not busy... Do you think you can tell me what your life was like back on Earth? It's just that... Whenever I tried asking Matthew, he didn't really want to talk about it. He looked sad whenever I did ask him what his life was like. I don't want to try again because he doesn't seem to want to and I don't want to bother him either. It's just that you-" Twilight was interrupted by Dale patting her on the head.
"I get it, Twilight. Let's take a seat," Dale pointed his thumb behind him, towards the logs set up around the fire. Dale knew that talking about his old life would only make him emotional, but he needed to vent out the pent up frustration. Twilight sat on the log next to Dale's, "So what do you want to know?"
"Well... What did it look like there? Twilight asked.
"I used to live in a pretty big city. There were plenty of tall buildings, and I mean, really tall. There was a castle in the Everfree forest that was as tall as the apartment building I lived in," Dale replied. He looked into the fire as he spoke.
"So you lived on your own?"
"Not exactly. I used to have a roommate before... I showed up here," Dale had to stop himself from saying that the world ended. Not because he didn't want Twilight to know, but because he didn't want to remind himself, "He was around my age; I met him at the school I attended," Dale clenched his fists tightly.
"What was he like?" Twilight's full attention was on Dale and his words.
"That dude was a real dick at points. He would party a lot, get drunk, make a mess. We'd get into a lot of arguments,"
"If you two would argue, why would you live with them?" Twilight looked confused.
"To be honest, I didn't really have much of a choice. The friends I had ambitions that would take them away from where I was doing my own thing. So I thought I could try to make a new friend, that didn't work out too well," Dale laughed lightly. Dale briefly wondered what paradise was given to that guy when the black sun showed up. He thought that it would probably be better than being stuck here.
The two continued their back and forth conversation. Twilight would ask Dale a relatively simple question, and Dale would give a simple answer. Dale had troubles explaining to Twilight what exactly a "car" was. He wasn't an engineer after all.
"So these complex machines require a year of practising with another just so you're able to operate it on your own?" Twilight sounded shocked.
"Yeah, it's called a 'learners license' and before you even get that you need to take a written exam and pass with a certain grade. I thankfully was able to get mine when I was 16, so when I got out of high school, I was already able to drive by myself." Dale said. By this point, the tent that the others were working on was fully set up and they began to slowly join Dale and Twilight.
"What're y'all talking about?" Applejack asked, taking a seat. She sat on the other side of the fire so she could face the two.
"Dale was just telling me about Earth. He said that they invented many things to make their lives easier, one was a form of transportation that they call a 'car'" Twilight excitedly told Applejack. Applejack raised her eyebrow; it was funny to Dale how they reacted to things that he found normal.
"So I take it you humans also invented that do-dad you wear all the time," Applejack pointed at Dale's arm brace. Dale raised his arm to his face and looked deep into the arm brace. He never really thought about how amazing this piece of technology was. It certainly saved his life in almost every occasion, and the last thing Dale would want to know is what would happen if he lost it.
"To tell you the truth, this thing is way more advanced than anything we have back home. I have no idea where it came from; When I arrived here it was on my arm already," Dale told Applejack. Applejack stood up from her log and walked up to Dale. She began to examine the arm brace and poked it a couple of times, only to produce no reaction from the device.
"Huh, I see..." Applejack looked dumbfounded at the otherworldy device, "How did ya get here anyway?" Applejack looked up at Dale.
Before Dale could answer, Matt spoke up, "Who knows? Who cares? All I remember is everything going black and waking up in the Everfree forest," Matt took a seat on one of the nearby logs and was joined by the other mares. Pinkie Pie sat on Matt's left, and Fluttershy sat on his right, "The same thing happened to him apparently," Matt easily passed this off as the truth.
Twilight pressed her hoof to her chin, "That's very strange that something as huge as that could happen. Twice no less," Twilight said. She was trying her hardest to think of any theories to how the men arrived in Equestria.
"I'm thankful for whatever was behind that, I like this place a hell of a lot more than Earth," Matt stretched his arms after he spoke.
"What do you mean by that, deary? Don't you miss your home?" Rarity asked Matt with concern in her voice.
"Um... I'd rather not talk about that," Matt didn't look Rarity in the eyes as he spoke. He instead looked into the fire; his voice sounded different than his usual self.
"How about you?" Twilight looked at Dale. He looked at her with his eyebrow raised, "Do you miss Earth?" Twilight's words punched right through Dale. She didn't know how much his answer tore him up on the inside.
"Yeah..." Dale replied. He looked up at the moon in the sky, "More than anything in the world," Twilight's eyes widened as she came to the realization as to why Dale wanted to go to Canterlot as soon as he could. She knew now that Dale missed his home and he wanted to go back to his old life.
"So, uh... How did all of you meet?" Dale quickly said, wanting to change the subject. This was information that Dale wanted to know; how did these 6 seemingly random ponies not only become this close of friends but also how were they pretty capable at fighting off threats. That and the fact that Dale just really wanted to kill time.
Rainbow Dash flew over and landed next to Dale, "How much time do you got?" She asked sarcastically.
"It depends. How long is the magical barrier going to last for?" Dale asked with a hint of sarcasm.
"That's sarcasm, Twilight!" Matt shouted before Twilight was about to seriously answer.
"I knew that!" Twilight shouted back, pouting and crossing her hooves; Everyone else laughed.
"So you mean to tell me that you're not only the pupil of one of the princesses themselves, but you're also one of those 'Elements of Harmony' things!?" Dale stood up from his log in shock. Dale had just finished hearing the story about how Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy defeated the corrupted version of the princess of the night. He was informed that Twilight was actually sent to Ponyville to learn about friendship, which is how she met her friends that were currently in the party.
"Yep!" Twilight said with a smile.
"If these Elements of Harmony are strong enough to defeat that Nightmare Moon mare, then why didn't you use them when we fought those timberwolves?" Dale was very annoyed; he almost died when he and Matt fought the alpha dog.
"Y-Yeah! You could've made our lives a lot easier!" Matt chimed in, pretending he didn't already know the answer.
"We only use them on super de duper emergencies, not teeny tiny emergencies, and especially on super ultra de duper emergencies!" Pinkie Pie shouted, making the hoof movements for each "emergency."
"They can also only be used to keep peace and order, so they can't destroy anything. Which is why Princess Luna is back to her old self and Discord is imprisoned." Twilight stated.
"Discord?" Dale questioned; This was the first time he heard that name. Rainbow Dash began to fly around the campfire, doing little twirls and tricks every once in a while.
"It's a long story. All you need to know is that he was a bad dude and we kicked his butt!" Rainbow Dash said as she began to fly in the pose of relaxing on her back.
"He also made yummy chocolate milk rain!" Pinkie Pie added. This only served to confused Dale more.
"Uhh... Okay then?" Dale shrugged. He let out a yawn and stretched. The group didn't realize how long they have been sitting at the campfire for, and all of them were feeling very tired. Each of them said there goodnights and retired to their tents.
"You seem like you had a good time," Matt teased Dale as he began to get inside his sleeping bag.
"Just passing the time," Dale replied while zipping the tent close.
"Sure, whatever you say, dude!" Matt laughed a little. Dale got inside his own sleeping bag and scooted a little over to his left to give Matt more room. The two sat in silence for a couple of minutes before Matt spoke up, "So, what do you think will happen when we get to Canterlot?"
Dale sighed, "Honestly, I have no idea. Best case scenario is that those princesses can zap me back to my old life, but that's impossible at this point."
Matt rolled over on his side to face Dale, "So why are you bothering to go this far? I'm going because I want to check out Canterlot for myself and spend time with the girls. If it's impossible for you to go home, then why did you want to go so bad?" Dale turned to face Matt. It was hard for the two of them to see each other in the dark, but they could still see facial features.
"If they really are the highest power of Equestria, then maybe I can still at least know what that black star was back on Earth. At this point, I really just want closure."
"Do you know what you're going to do after that though?" Matt asked.
"I have no idea, Matt," Dale rolled onto his back and just stared at the tent ceiling, "But I can't give up!"
"I know you'll figure it out when the time comes," Matt replied, "You could always stick with us too, that's always an option."
"I don't know, they like you a lot more. I might be better off alone," Dale said.
"You have plenty of time to think about it, so if you change your mind you can just let me know,"
Dale had a lot to think about for when this journey would come to an end. Would he really want to stay by himself, or would be sticking around with Matt be the better option? Dale couldn't decide right away, so he thought it would be best for fate to make the choice for him when the time came...