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Following Pipp flying just ahead of him, leading the way, Hitch began to gain ground on Sunny and the others, pushing past that uncomfortable ache that made him limp, which had somehow become his reality. Why Me? From the air, Pipp noticed all the signs of the direction the others were heading, and after only a day's ride she spotted them in the distance.

"Hurry, they're that way!" Pipp cried.

Hitch took off, galloping down the plane, until finally, he could see them himself. Oof! That ache hurt. He never wanted to face that kind of pain again.

"Halt! Stop right there!" He cried. Sunny, Izzy, and Zipp turned around to see him coming, and standing still, they let him catch up.

When Hitch finally came up alongside them, Izzy's eye's lit up. "Hitch! It's great you're here, are you coming with us?"

But Hitch just looked at Sunny seriously.

"Sunny, the game's up, now give me the key."

But Sunny just looked at him, "Hitch, you don't understand, we are this close to bringing dragons back into the world, don't you want that?"

Hitch paused, flinching as he remembered how painful it was last time he'd tried to get Sunny to return the key, "I know it all sounds nice and everything, but we can't have this, that key belongs in a museum."

But Sunny just looked in the direction they were heading, "Listen Hitch, the gateway is only another day or two north. Just give us another few days, and then you can return the key to the museum all you want."

Hitch looked at the other two with her, they all had expectant looks on their faces. Izzy looked so pathetic, he didn't know what to say. Pipp alighted beside the others and looked at him.

"Bringing back the dragons doesn't sound all that bad," Pipp said, "It would make a great live-stream."

Hitch flinched remembering how painful live-streams could be. He was really beginning to hate his life.

But then, Izzy looked at him so hard, begging him with everything she had. This was special to her, this as important to her, this was important to all of them, how could he say no.

"Okay, but then we return the key after this is all done, okay?" Hitch said, "And to make sure you do what you're supposed to, I'm coming with you."

And with that, Izzy lost it, hopping around with joy, every which way. "Yes! Yes! YES! Hitch is COMING!" She cried as she leapt around Hitch, her mane flopping all over the place, it was getting in her eyes. She was so excited, she lost track of where she was, rocking to her own beat.

Finally, she flung her head up...

And then it came to a stop, her horn hitting some sort of resistance above her.

The other girls were gasping...

But Hitch just gave a suspicious jagged gasp.

And then Izzy took a look up at her horn. Somehow it had found its way just past his tail,

and through the opening in his legs.

Izzy quickly pulled her horn away in horror, and Hitch finally let out an agonized groan, folding in on himself...

And collapsing to his knees on the ground, trying to grip himself with his no-efficient hoofs.

All the girls stood there watching, looking at eachother, and then at Hitch as he groaned on the ground, holding himself in sheer pain, not knowing what to make of it. None of them would ever act like that.

And then Izzy started to feel herself getting herself back together. "Did I just hit a boy in the..."

Izzy knew what happened to boys when they got hurt a certain way, but she had never thought...

" Did I just hit a boy in the...!" And at that, Izzy lost it. In all her life, she had always thought herself too modest to ever do that to a boy, but now that she actually had, all those suppressed feelings about how hilarious it was at boy's weakness she had ever felt came pouring out, and she collapsed to the ground screaming and laughing like never before. How was it that boys could be so weak and sensitive that they could be knocked down to such a fetal position with just one hit? How was it that boys could be so FUNNY! Boys. Boys.

"Boys!" She giggled as she rolled on her back hysterically.

Izzy also knew girls had their own share of funniness, but it wasn't the same kind of funniness where they could be knocked down with one hit, and what happened to Hitch contrasted that perfectly.

"Girls." Izzy giggled to herself, and the other girls looked awkwardly among themselves knowing what she was talking about. Sunny didn't really wanting this "funny" fact of themselves brought to light, and she wasn't sure what the others were thinking. Pipp seemed proud of herself, but Zipp's expression was unreadable. They all looked so normal, she couldn't process that every single one of them had some weird facts about them as well. But then again she knew all sorts of weird stuff about herself that only came from being herself, was it possible that every single pony, no matter how normal looking, really had to live with their own weird facts about themselves? She'd never wrap her mind around it.

Hitch meanwhile didn't want certain weird facts of himself brought to light either, but these past few days, this pain seemed to be the only thing there was to think about anymore. And all the girls, blessed to know they'd never turn out like him, standing over him. He wished he was never born. Too much PAIN! This was his only life, this pain that kept shattering his reality again and again! HE COULDN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE! But as much as he couldn't take it, the pain wouldn't stop. Somehow he feared this wouldn't be the last time either. IT HURT TOO MUCH TO THINK OF GOING THROUGH THIS AGAIN! (Just wait, there's a chapter 4.)

Finally, Izzy began to regain herself, recovering way before Hitch, as girls tend to do in these types of situations. "I just like boys and girls," Izzy explained calmly as she regained her hooves.

"Well, that's most everybody," Zipp said.

As Izzy stood up, Hitch was still down, he was going to be down awhile.

"Well, we should probably set up camp tonight," Sunny said. "We're not getting much further today."

Boys, great companions, but sometimes they slow you down at the worst of times.

And then Izzy burst out laughing again.