HYBRID BATTLESHIP INFINITY210 - I do my best to keep my readers entertained, and i'm glad you enjoyed that little moment.

A/N Hello again everypony and welcome to another installment of A Second Chance! Today is the day that the poll is supposed to close, however since there were only two voters with one vote for each, i've decided to leave the poll open for one more week. If there isn't a clear winner by then, I'll make the decision by coin-toss. Enjoy and don't for get to follow/favorite and leave a review if you like what you've read.

The next morning found me waking up to the sight of the predawn sky as the sun inched its way over the horizon. I sat up in my bed and stretched. I still felt fairly tired, but I was relatively well rested. I got out of bed and made it as best I could, which wasn't much considering it was little more than a large futon mattress on the floor.

Having done that, I walked out of my room to see Twilight and Spike still asleep in their beds. I walked across the room quietly and entered the bathroom to begin my morning routine of showering and brushing my teeth. I also normally shaved before my shower, but I had forgotten to buy a razor; assuming they even existed in this world. I decided to add that to my list of things to ask Twilight later. Before I entered the shower, I checked to make sure the linen closet actually had towels, which it did.

After my shower was done and my teeth were brushed, I cracked the door open to see if Twilight and Spike were awake yet. Seeing as they weren't, and I was only dressed in the towel around my waist, I made a quick but quiet retreat to my room. I had carried my clothes with me, wanting to dry off in a non-steamy location before I put them back on. Fortunately they didn't seem to retain much odor from the previous day's activities.

Once I was dressed and ready for the day, I made my way out of my room to find that Twilight and Spike were finally up. I made my way downstairs to see Twilight reading from what looked like a scroll, with the sounds of breakfast being made coming from the kitchen. "Morning Twi." I said casually.

I seem to have startled her, as she gasped and jumped slightly when I addressed her. "Oh, good morning Blake. How long have you been up?" She greeted with a smile.

I shrugged. "Not really sure, I don't have a watch or anything to keep time with. Long enough to make my bed, brush my teeth and shower though."

Twilight's eyes widened slightly. "You've been up that long? After staying up all night the night before, working hard with Applejack, and then carrying me home after I fell asleep? How can you do all that and not be exhausted?!"

I shrugged again and chuckled. "Practice; I worked construction for nearly a decade. It's a demanding job, so stuff like that isn't too far out of the norm for me. Anyway, I had a few questions I wanted to ask yesterday, but we got a little distracted."

Twilight nodded. "Alright Blake, ask away. I'll answer as best as I can."

I took a moment to decide which question I wanted to ask first. "Okay Twi, something I noticed last night was that the moon was only a sliver of a crescent, but the night before that, it was full; how did that happen?"

"Oh, that's easy!"She exclaimed with a grin. "Princess Luna made the moon full to give everypony out searching for you more light to see by, and since we found you, she changed it back last night."

I wasn't entirely surprised by that answer, in fact, I somewhat expected it. "Ok, next question. I've noticed that hooves seem to harden and soften depending on what's being done with them; is there a reason for that, or am I just imagining things?"

Twilight giggled slightly. "You're definitely not imagining things. It has to do with the magic everypony possesses; it's a subconscious reaction to stimuli that allows for better interaction with our environments. Our coats act the same way, becoming more or less insulating depending on the weather, and even changing their makeup to give them the feel and sensitivity of skin."

"Well that raised more questions than it answered. Though they'll hafta wait till later, I need to get to AJ's farm, I promised to help her this morning."

Twilight perked up at that. "Oh! I forgot to tell you; you don't need to go over there today, she and the others are coming here." I looked at her with confusion, which she returned with a sheepish smile. "Heheh, probably should've mentioned sooner that I sent a letter to Princess Celestia yesterday after you left asking her about the spell she and Princess Luna used to bring you here. She sent a reply saying that she wanted us all to see her in Canterlot today, so everypony will be meeting here, then we'll head to the train station after that."

I cocked an eyebrow at this. "Well that would've been nice to know sooner. Ah well, nothing we can do about it now. So, when do we leave?"

Twilight looked over at the clock briefly. "The others should be here in a few hours, and we'll leave after everypony's here. It's about a two hour trip by train, so you might want to bring something to do."

Before I could reply, Spike came out of the kitchen trying to balance three plates that all seemed as big as he was. I walked over to him and grabbed the plate he had been balancing on his head and setting it in a random spot on the table. "Ok everypony, breakfast is served!" He said proudly.

I looked at the plate to see that there were pancakes with syrup, hash-browns, and a small pile of roasted scallions. All the plates seemed to be equally portioned, so we distributed them, and I sat with my legs tucked under me as I had the previous day before we all started eating. Everything tasted basically the same as it had on Earth, although all the flavors seemed to be enhanced; I was unsure if it was Spike's cooking or my new taste-buds, but I wasn't going to complain. Over the course of breakfast, Twilight began teaching me 'proper Equestrian' as she called it; which seemed to be just a few simple changes, such as replacing the 'body' in words like 'everybody' with 'pony', making it 'everypony' instead. She also taught me about the different terms for ponies, such as 'stallion' and 'mare' for adult males and females respectively, and 'foal' as a generic term for child.

I seemed to be catching on to the new lingo fairly quickly, though that may have been due to my being exposed to it for the past few days. Once breakfast was finished, I again helped Spike clean off the table and wash the dishes before returning to the main room. Twilight had her bags floating in front of her. "Hey Blake, if you'd like to take a book or something with you, you can put it in my saddlebag and I'll carry it for you."

I face-palmed when she mentioned what her bags were called. She looked at me quizzically. "What's the matter Blake?"

I sighed. "It's nothing; I didn't know what those bags were called, and I thought saddlebags might be right, but I didn't mention it because I didn't want anybo- pony to get offended."

Twilight's quizzical look turned to a confused one. "Why would anypony be offended?"

I thought for a moment on how to word my answer. "Because where I'm from, horses are beasts of burden; little more than slaves that aren't smart enough to realize that's what they are, we ride them on saddles and saddlebags are what we use to carry our possessions when we're riding them. I know it sounds cruel, but that's just the way it was. Humans are the only sentient life on Earth, and so most view themselves as masters of all forms of 'lesser life'. I didn't know if anything like that had happened in the past here, and I didn't want to bring it up if it had." I couldn't see the look on Twilight's face as I was looking at the floor in shame of what I had just revealed to her.

Twilight walked over to me so she could look into my eye. "You don't have to be ashamed of that Blake… that's the way your world was. I don't agree with it, but I won't blame or shun you for the actions of your race, and neither will anypony else!" She said warmly.

This cheered me up. "Thanks Twi, that means a lot to me."

Our moment was cut short by the front door slamming open. "Twi! Blake! Come quick, Gilda's back and she's causin' a ruckus over her last visit; we need ta stop her before she hurts somepony!" Applejack exclaimed from the open door.

Twilight groaned and rubbed her temple with a hoof. "Alright, let's get this taken care of."

"Who's Gilda?" I asked as we headed out the door. "I assume you've dealt with her before."

Twilight looked over to me and nodded. "We have; she's a pushy, arrogant, and hot-headed griffon that used to be friends with Rainbow Dash. She came for a visit awhile back and threw a tantrum then ran out of town after she ended up accidentally setting off all the pranks Rainbow set up at the party Pinkie threw for her."

"Sounds like a real charmer." I said sarcastically. Our conversation was cut short when we reached town square.

In the middle of the square was Gilda; who was crouched down in a predatory fighting stance. She looked like the griffons typically depicted on Earth, with the hind legs and body of a lion, and eagle-like front talons and head. Her plumage resembled a bald eagle's. She had long head-feathers that had the tips dyed purple, and stuck out in a somewhat stereotypical punk-rocker look, and she seemed to have some sort of purple eye-shadow around her eyes in what looked like a cartoonish fireball pattern. She only seemed to be a few centimeters taller than an average pony

"Where's Rainbow Dash!?" She shouted "I'm gonna get her away from you dweeby ponies before you make her any lamer!"

Twilight walked through the circle of ponies and up to Gilda. "You're not taking Rainbow Dash anywhere!" she said in an authoritative voice. "She made her decision the last time you were here and we- Aah!" Twilight yelped and jumped back as Gilda swiped at her with one of her eagle talons.

"Bring me Rainbow Dash NOW!" She shouted as she made the swipe.

Seeing Twilight in danger caused my fight-or-flight instinct to kick in again, and I made my way through the circle and past Twilight to face Gilda. She gave me a quizzical look that somehow she made seem aggressive as well. "Just what are you supposed to be?" she asked angrily.

I looked down at her with a cocked eyebrow. "My name is Blake, and I'm a human; a race that doesn't take kindly to our friends and loved ones being threatened. If you know what's good for you, you'll leave Ponyville." I heard a muffled clopping that told me that Twilight was backing up away from us. "This town is under my watch now, and I'll be damned if some little chick like you thinks she can just waltz in and cause trouble!"

My little ruse apparently worked, because let out a furious shriek that was half lion-roar, half eagle-screech and launched herself at me. Remembering my first encounter with Rainbow Dash, I was prepared and stepped to the side and grabbed her tail as she flew past, halting her forward motion and causing her to fall to the ground with a shriek of surprise. She shot up from the ground and lunged at me again, and again I side-stepped, this time pushing her side, causing her to go off course and tumble to the ground.

She got up again, and charged without leaping and made to bite me. I stuck my leg out and tripped up her forelegs, causing her to shoot forward as I grabbed her by the midsection and flipped her over so she landed hard on her back. She growled as she stood, more slowly this time. "You're gonna pay for that, ape!" she spat.

Gilda shot up into the air and dove at me with her talons outstretched. I ducked under her at the last second and grabbed her wrists, pulling back and down, causing her forward momentum to shift downward and slamming her into the ground hard. She let out a loud grunt and made her way back to her feet, much of her initial fight seeming to have left her. She shot me a venomous look before lunging at me yet again; this time however, she opened her wings at the last moment and shot upward. I was distracted enough by the change in tactics that I almost didn't notice her hind legs shooting out to rake me in time to dodge.

She turned in mid-air and made another diving pass for me, screeching and once again extending her talons. I dodged past them and managed to grab her beak, giving it a sharp downwards pull, causing Gilda's body to follow. She gave out a startled half-shriek half-yelp as she was suddenly forced into a shallow nose-dive, plowing into the ground face-first.

Gilda stood again woozily before spreading her wings. "This isn't over DWEEBS!" She yelled as she took flight and left Ponyville, wobbling slightly in the air.

Twilight walked up to my side."Did it really need to come to violence?" She asked, sounding somewhat sad.

I sighed. "Unfortunately, I believe it did. Griffons are portrayed as being highly aggressive predators on Earth, and creatures like that only respond with any finality to shows of strength. We might have been able to talk her into leaving, but she would've likely come back again. Hopefully now that she knows there's a creature superior to her in fighting ability here, her more base instincts will tell her to steer clear of Ponyville."

Twilight nodded. "You're right… Unfortunately, I doubt she could have been reasoned with." She looked up at me with a smile. "Luckily, you managed to scare her off without seriously hurting her… or getting hurt yourself."

I was about to respond when we heard a voice from above us. "Aww man! I always miss all the action!" A certain rainbow-maned Pegasus exclaimed as she landed in front of us. "I heard Gilda was in town, and she was lookin' for me; but before I could get here to tell her off, I see her flyin' off with her tail between her legs." She looked up at me. "Looks like you were the one to send her packin too."

Just then, Rarity walked up. "Oh Darling, your shirt is ruined!" She exclaimed dramatically. "This simply will not due for a visit to Canterlot! Fortunately, I believe I have a solution if you would be so kind as to return to my boutique with me." She began trotting down the road towards her shop as I looked down to see that Gilda had gotten too close for comfort with some of her swipes.

My shirt had several tears and small cuts in it, though fortunately, I didn't this time. After short trip to Rarity's, I was set to go to Canterlot with a new navy blue button up and a new pair of jeans. The trip took somewhat longer than we had hoped as Rarity needed to get measurements for my lower body and make the jeans on the spot. Fortunately, this didn't put us behind schedule, and we managed to make it to the train station as the train was pulling in.

In the commotion with Gilda, I had forgotten to bring something to do on the trip. Fortunately, Twilight offered to teach me more about Equestrian speech and customs to pass the time. The trip went fairly quickly, and before long we were in the Equestrian capitol, Canterlot.

I couldn't help but marvel at all the structures around the city; they all looked to have been made by artisans. Each building was unique and had graceful curves and tasteful embellishments incorporated into their design. The ponies who resided here, however, were… snobby… many had their noses pointed straight up into the air with their eyes closed as they walked; and those that didn't would openly stare at us with a look that seemed to be a mix of disgust and curiosity. I seemed to draw much of their attention, however; as I was something nopony had seen before, an oddity.

We made our way up the steps of the palace, to see two Pegasus guards identical to the one that had delivered the princesses gifts. As we approached the gate, they each extended a wing to block our path. "Halt! State your business with the palace!" the one on the right demanded.

Twilight Stepped forward. "My name is Twilight Sparkle, and the princesses are expecting us."

The guards lowered their wings and turned to open the doors. "Very well Miss Sparkle, we were told to expect you and your friends. You may enter."

The interior of the palace blew all the other buildings away; it was highly decorated and artfully crafted, without being gaudy or pretentious. Twilight led the way, and we were soon at a set of huge double-doors with another set of Pegasus guards to either side. They stared stoically ahead as we passed through the doors that Twilight had opened with her magic. The doors led to what I assumed to be the throne room, since it had a pair of thrones at the other end. The princesses of the sun and moon were seated in these thrones, which were atop a small Dias, as we approached them. We all bowed down once we reached the foot of the small set of stairs leading up to the throne.

"Please rise, we have much to discuss." Princess Celestia stated calmly.

We did as the princess asked to find that they were both now standing. "Twilight, I believe you wished to know more about the spell that brought Blake here, did you not?" The solar princess inquired. Twilight nodded. "Very well; but first, with his permission, I believe it would be best for you all to know more about how Blake came to be here."

I took a step forward. "You have my permission, princess; I already told Twilight about it, it's only fair that the others know too…" She nodded and turned around.

"Very well, follow Luna and I please." Celestia stated as she began walking towards the back of the throne room. She walked up to the wall and her horn glowed, forming a rectangular outline on the wall.

The outlined section sunk in a few inches then swung inwards, revealing a narrow hallway. The princesses led us down the hallway, which quickly opened into a large dome-shaped chamber. The walls of the chamber were bare except for outcroppings of sapphire colored crystals that were arranged in a complex, spiraling pattern leading up the wall. The princesses turned to face us. "Welcome to the Antechamber. This room is constructed to amplify scrying and certain other magics; it is the room we used to amplify our own magic enough to bring Blake here, and it is here that you will see how Blake came to us."

Both princesses horns began to glow, and I could see that we were all being surrounded by their combined auras. I felt a large pressure wave coming from them as they began casting their spell. There was a blinding flash of white light, and when I could see again, I could tell we were in a familiar place; the movie theater parking lot. Except something was different this time, I looked to my left to see that even the princesses were with us before I heard laughter and talking. I looked in the direction it was coming from to see myself and my wife walking through the lot. Suddenly a man darted out from behind a parked car we had passed and came up behind us. I closed my eyes and let the scene play out to it's conclusion, not wanting to relive that moment again. I managed to block most of it out; however, I could not block the last thought echoing through my mind.

There was another flash of light and when I opened them again, I saw my six friends were sobbing; even the princesses had tears in their eyes, though they did a better job of restraining them.

"H-how awful…" Rarity finally managed to choke out.

Princess Luna then walked up to me. "There is more to the story I fear; using this room, we managed to scry your loved ones that you might know how they fared. It would seem that when the Veil of Magic healed itself, it altered your world… the history of Earth was rewritten… without you included." Luna somberly stated.

I took a deep breath at this news. Part of my heart ached at the news, but mostly I was glad that I had gotten my wish; they couldn't mourn me if I never existed in the first place. "It's alright Luna; it is what I wanted after all, they can't mourn me if I don't exist..."

With that, we made our way back to the throne room, a somber procession of friends who had no words for what they had seen. Once we were back in the throne room, the door sealed itself behind us. The princesses once again turned to me. "There is another matter which we must speak of Blake. Twilight sent me a letter stating that earlier today you routed a rouge griffon and stopped her from harming Ponyville's inhabitants. We would like to thank you for your latest selfless act; if there's anything you desire, name it, and if it's within reason, we shall grant it."

I stood for a moment in thought. "I can't think of anything I really need, however, my grandfather taught me swordplay when I was younger. I would like a practice sword so I can continue his teachings and keep a small part of my world alive here."

Both princesses glanced at each other briefly and smiled at me. "That is an honorable request; and one that is easily granted. We shall escort you to the royal armory before you leave, and you may choose whichever blade you desire." Luna said.

The next few hours or so were spent with the princesses explaining to Twilight and the others how the spell that brought me here worked, as well as answering the questions they had about what happened. They all seemed to be cheering up by this point. When the others finally ran out of questions, the princesses horns began to glow. I looked over to a window to see that the sun was beginning to set beyond the horizon.

When their horns stopped glowing, the princesses beckoned us to follow them. They led us through a veritable labyrinth of hallways and into a large room that was filled with weapon and armor racks. "Here is the armory; you may choose any blade that is to your liking." Luna said from my side.

I wandered into the room and began inspecting the various swords in the room. Many were either too large or too small for my tastes, with some being the right size but with terrible balance. Finally, after what felt like hours, I was ready to give up; it was then that I noticed a hilt sticking up from between two blades I had inspected earlier, though I didn't remember seeing it. I walked over to the blade and lifted it from the rack before removing it from it's sheath. The blade was plain and unadorned; I held it in a relaxed grip, finding the length to be perfect. I then gave the new blade a few practice swings, finding it to be nearly perfectly balanced; it was as if this blade had been made for me…

"Is that the blade you desire?" I heard Celestia ask from behind me.

I turned around as I gingerly ran my thumb along the blade to test its edge, finding it to be razor-sharp. "Yes princess, this one will do quite nicely." I said with a small smile, still admiring the simple, yet functional blade.

She smiled back. "Then it's yours; treat it well."

With that, the princesses led us to our next destination, wherever that might have been.