Duplicity

Chapters

Chapter One: Visions
Chapter Two: New World
Chapter Three: Magic and Music
Chapter Four: Lights
Chapter Five: Talking Ponies
Chapter Six: Phone Call
Chapter Eight: Boredom and Dreams
Chapter Nine: Is this thing on?
Chapter Ten: I'm Sorry
Chapter Seven: Explanation

Chapter One: Visions

There it was again; I thought that maybe moving to a small town like Ponyville would have stopped it, but no, it didn’t. It just seemed like it was getting worse. Thankfully though, it didn't seem to go on for more than thirty seconds.

“Again?” Bon Bon said. “Can’t you at least let me know if it’s happening so I’m not talking to thin air in the middle of town again? It makes me look like a crazy mare, Lyra.”

“Sorry, there is no way for me to know. It just sort of happens.”

“Still the same?”

“Yep, still a small town almost like Ponyville yet so different.”

“Well as I was saying before you had your little ‘episode,’ Carro–”

“Wait, you look like a crazy mare? What do you think I look like when I just stop moving?”

“Okay, you’re right, but I still look crazy too, talking to myself.”

“Let’s just drop it.”

We didn’t talk to each other the rest of the walk. I couldn’t really have cared less if anypony believed me or not. I know what I see. The only reason I even agreed to see this psychologistwas to make Bon Bon shut up about it. I know she doesn’t think I’m crazy but why else would you even suggest for someone to see a psychologist?

~~~~~~

The main lobby of the doctor’s office was plain enough, off-white-colored walls, dark-blue waiting benches, and a secretary. She was a unicorn with a light-brown coat, cream-colored mane, light-blue eyes, and an inkwell and quill for a cutie mark.

“Hello there. How may I help you today?” the secretary said the moment we walked into the room.

“Hi, um, we have an appointment today with Dr. Psych.”

“Your name please.”

“Lyra Heartstrings.”

“Ah yes, you’re early, let me see if he is ready now. You can have a seat over there.”

“Okay, thanks.”

Bon Bon and I took a seat on the bench by the counter.

“Can’t you sit normally for once?” Bon Bon asked. I was sitting like I normally do, hind legs off the edge of the seat, back leaning on the wall behind us. “Do you want them to think you’re crazy?” Bon Bon's words slipped out, muffled as she drug her hooves down her face.

“First of all, I like to sit this way. Second of all, why would I need to go to a psychologist if I wasn’t crazy? Third of all, it was your idea.”

“Whatever. When they think you’re crazy, don’t go blaming me; that’s all you.”

“I’ll remember that when you visit me in my padded cell.”

“Who said I’d visit?”

“I… You… I hate you sometimes.”

“I love you too.”

“Shhh you, the secretary is coming back.”

“Dr. Psych will see you now. Down the hall, second door on the right,” the secretary said, taking her seat again at the front desk.

We entered his office, which was anything but plain. Two of the walls were lined with bookshelves, almost overflowing with books, and the third was reserved for a huge collection of photographs and certificates. This doctor obviously liked to travel, the photos that hung from the wall showcased his trips to quite a few different places, from Fillydelphia to Stalliongrad and everywhere in-between. One photo in particular caught my eye, a beautiful shot of the entire skyline of Canterlot.

“Let me guess… multiple personality disorder? Hmmm… no… wait, you think that you’re a mint-green unicorn,” he said while pointing at Bon Bon, “and you think you’re a space pony from Mars?” That time he was pointing at me.

“This has nothing to do with me,” Bon Bon retorted, tilting her head towards me. “This is all about her!”

“Drat, I was almost certain you thought you were a mint-green unicorn. Well am I right about you? Are you a space pony from Mars?”

“I wish, that might explain everything,” I replied.

“Well now, why don’t you take a seat and tell me why I’ll soon need some alien repellent.”

“Tell me Doctor, ar–”

“Please just call me Psych,” he said cutting me off.

“Okay. Tell me, Psych, aren’t you supposed to be serious? Also, if you asked Bon Bon if she thought she was me, why didn’t you ask me if I thought I was her?”

“Well, I can see someone here doesn’t have a sense of humor, am I right?”

Bon Bon giggled.

“Well, Lyra, to answer your questions, there is a time to be serious and a time for fun. From the moment you both walked in, I could see that neither of you are crazy and that you’re very nervous. That told me to try and loosen you up. For instance, both your friend and I are already sitting and we have been for a good two minutes now; you on the other hand are still standing.” He was right; I had been standing the entire time. I guess I was more nervous than I thought. “As for your second question, I just thought it would be funnier. Now please, take a seat.”

I took a seat on the couch that was in front of him. As I did, I heard Bon Bon sigh, and I saw that Psych was looking at me with an eyebrow raised in confusion.

“What?” I asked.

“Well maybe I was wrong; maybe you really are crazy. Do you always sit like that?” Psych still looked confused.

“Yeah, it’s comfortable.”

“Well, there’s a first time for everything.” Now it was my turn to look at him confusedly, as he got up and sat right back down in the same position I was in. After about a minute of sitting with his back against the chair and hind legs hanging off the edge, he got back up and sat down like he had been before. “Yeah, not feeling it.”

“See, Lyra, I told you it was weird. You’re the only one who sits like that,” Bon Bon said.

“Well if she wants to sit that way, then more power to her,” Psych replied “But let’s get back to why you came here in the first place.”

“I didn’t want to come here, but Bon Bon insisted. She was worried that I might get hurt during one of my episodes.”

Psych’s eyes widened and his brow scrunched. “Episodes? Hmm... well please tell me, what happens during these episodes?”

“I don’t really know. They’ve been happening since I was about five. Every once in a while, say maybe twice a month or so, I’ll be doing something, then suddenly I'm looking at a city that’s, almost the same but still... different. The layout of the town will be the same, but the buildings are different and there are these creatures that I can't seem to find any information about. Not a single thing. There isn’t a pony to be seen. It’s like I’m on a different planet, but they only last for a few seconds, at most thirty. Then when it's over, if I was with anypony, they ask why I was just standing there, like it was a daydream.”

“That is quite interesting. Did your parents ever take you to talk to somepony about this?”

“No, they always just told me to stop daydreaming.”

“So, when was the last time one of these episodes happened?”

“Actually about twenty minutes ago, when we were on our way here.”

“What did you see when it happened. Describe every detail.”

“I was walking here with Bon Bon, she was talking about something that happened in her shop yesterday. Then out of nowhere, no warning or anything, I'm just standing in that other town. The buildings are in all the same places, but they're different; a lot of them seem like they're taller than ours. There was one of those creatures walking a dog and then another thing zipped by on the road near me. It was so fast. That’s when I came to and Bon Bon asked me why I can’t let her know if it’s going to happen.”

“Describe the creature walking the dog.”

“It was about six feet tall, walking on only its hind legs with its forelegs holding the leash in a claw. It was wearing clothes and boots. With what little of itself was exposed, I could see it didn’t have fur. The mane was really weird; it didn't go down its neck, it was just on their head. And its face was like a pony's except it was kind of flat and the nose only came out a little bit.”

“And are these creatures always there? Are there a lot of them?”

“Yes, but here in Ponyville there is only ever a few, in Canterlot there were tons!”

“Do they all look the same?”

“Sort of. There aren’t as many color differences as ponies. I’ve only ever seen shades of brown and peach. Their mane, though, I mostly see blacks, browns, and blondes, but I have seen all different colors when I was in Canterlot. Not here in Ponyville though. There was this one I won’t forget in Canterlot. It was a shade of peach, but it had a spiky green and red mane. What was really memorable about this one was the metal it had going in and out of its ears, nose, and lips. There had to be five pieces of metal lodged in it.”

“That… That sounds horrible. Was there an accident? Did it seem to be in pain of any sort?”

“That’s the thing, it seemed fine.”

“Okay then… Tell me about the thing that zipped by on the road. Are there many of them?”

“Same as the creatures, there are less of them here in Ponyville than Canterlot. They move incredibly fast sometimes, and the creatures seem to be the ones controlling it. They are almost like our carts, but most are fully enclosed. Some don’t have tops and others only have two wheels like a bike but faster and louder.”

“You said the creatures of this world control these carts. Have you ever seen them use magic? Also, just how fast do they go?”

“It’s hard to say how fast they go but to guess, I’ve seen some of the bike type ones go around 50 or 60 kilohooves per hour.” Psych’s mouth fell open. It reminded me of the first time I saw one go that fast. Only the Wonderbolts would even come close to catching one. “As for magic, no. I’ve never seen anything to suggest they even know what it is. I’ve also never seen one with wings.”

“Well Lyra this is all a very interesting story bu–”

“It’s not a story! I see this stuff and I don’t know what it is! For Celestia’s sake, it’s bad enough that Bon Bon doesn’t believe me hal–”

“Bon Bon? Lauren, my name is Bonnie.” I took my hooves off my face to look at Bon Bon. To my surprise, I wasn't looking at the pony I remembered or a pony at all for that matter. I was looking at one of those things. Oddly she did look a little like Bon Bon. Two in one day? What is going on? Why can they see me this time? Why does she have Bon Bon’s voice? Why did she call me Lauren?

I looked around the room, and to my shock it looked like I was still in Psych’s office. Two of the walls still had bookshelves and one still had tons of photographs. Whoever this doppelganger of Psych is he also liked to travel. I recognized some of the locations, since I’d seen them before. There was the one of Fillydelphia, one of Baltimare and I even saw one of the Canterlot skyline, but it was different from when I last saw it. I got up from the couch and walked over to the photo and raised a hoof to it.

“Okay, I don’t know what is going on or why either of you two can hear me, but I don’t have long before I’m back in my world. It has been fourteen years since I have had an incident in Canterlot, the las–”

“Lauren if you’re talking about the city in that photo, it’s not called Canterlot. Its name is New York. Are you okay?”

“Anyway, the last time I saw ‘New York’ was fourteen years ago, and there were two huge buildings. What happened to them? Am I in a different word from the one I always see? Also, why do you keep calling me Lauren?”

“Lauren, do you remember where you are right now? Do you know who I am?” The thing that looked a bit like Psych had a look of concern on its face.

“No Psych I do not. One minute I am in–”

“Lauren, my name is Plomin.”

“Okay, no ‘Plomin’ I do not know where I am. One second I am in the office of a psychologist named Psych in Ponyville Equestria. The next I’m here, which looks the same except neither of you are ponies and the photos on the wall are different.” I threw my hooves in the air in frustration.

“Lauren, take a deep breath and listen to me. You are here in my office in Port Matilda, Pennsylvania. Lauren its okay you’re safe here. We aren’t ponies, we are humans. Look, ten fingers, two arms, two legs. Lauren, calm down, close your eyes, and count backwards from ten.”

Even though this was a so-called human talking to me, I did what it said. “Ten… Nine… Eight… Seven… Six… Five… Four… Three… Two… One…”

“Now, are you feeling any better, Lyra?” Oh sweet Celestia, he just called me Lyra. I opened my eyes and to my relief I was finally back in Equestria.

“I’m back…”

“Lyra, you never went anywhere,” Bon Bon said, confused.

“Bon Bon, I think she had another one of her episodes,” Psych said.

“But she had one less than an hour ago! She’s never had more than one in a day, and she has never acted like a different pony before! You hea–”

“Bon Bon, please stop,” Psych said. “Lyra, if you feel up to it, please tell me what happened in the last two minutes.”

Two minutes? Was it really that long? “Okay. Well, I was yelling because you weren’t believing me, and when I said Bon Bon’s name, I was cut off by one of those creatures telling me her name was Bonnie” Bon Bon looked like she was going to be sick. “Bon Bon are you okay?

“When you were screaming, I cut you off because you called me Bonnie.”

“Lyra, what happened next?”

“Well both of the duplicates of you guys were calling me ‘Lauren.’ When I went to look at the photo on the wall, I noticed something different about their Canterlot from the last time I saw it. The last time I saw their Canterlot, which they called New York, was about fourteen years ago. When I had that last episode, there were two huge buildings in the middle of the city in the photo he had on the wall there wasn’t. I asked what happened to them but he never answered me.”

“Why was that?” Psych asked.

“I don’t know. he tried calming me down and told me that I was in a place called Port Matilda, Pennsylvania.”

“Lyra I’m going to tell you what we saw happen. After you called Bon Bon ‘Bonnie,’ you got up and started looking at the photos again. You stared at the picture of Canterlot for about twenty seconds then said ‘You know I’ve always liked the way your New York looked compared to ours. The skyline is still the same as I remember it too.’ I asked you why you would make a statement like that to which you responded ‘About twelve years ago our city was attacked and two of the buildings, the trade centers, were destroyed’.”

"What are the trade centers? Like markets?" Bon Bon questioned.

"Not a clue," I responded, equally as puzzled. “But that explains one thing, I guess.”

“Lyra, you kept insisting that your name was Lauren and that ponies shouldn’t be able to talk. I told you that you’re one yourself, and you replied with ‘No. I’m still human.’ I asked you to count backwards from ten to try and calm down, and at the end you stated you were back.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Was he really suggesting that I swapped places with some human from another world?

“You know how crazy that sounds, right? Somehow I go from having visions of another world to swapping with somepony from there, who just happens to have the same visions of ours.”

“I know, and I would be the first to admit that anypony who told me this would be crazy but witnessing it first hoof…” He was lost in thought for a good minute before continuing, “I'm going to refer you to somepony in town who has some special equipment to measure brain waves and activity. She might be able to help you with this.” He went to his desk and started jotting down a note.
“Here take this to Twilight Sparkle maybe she can see what is going on here.”

I levitated the note into my saddlebag and thanked him.

~~~~~~

“Lyra, I really don’t think it’s a good idea to read the note it’s meant for Twilight, not you,” Bon Bon said, but I had already
made up my mind.

“If he didn’t want me to read it, he would have sealed it in an envelope.”

“Or maybe he thought you were better than this.”

“Well, he thought wrong.”

Twilight,

I am sending you another patient that I think might interest you and don’t worry this one isn’t the normal crazy I send to you, she is sane… at least I think… Let’s just say she is sane… Thank you for your help as usual.

- Psych

P.S. Lyra,didn’t anyone tell you it’s wrong to read other pony’s letters?

“P.S. Lyra, didn’t anyone tell you it’s wrong to read other pony’s letters?”

“What did I tell you?” Bon Bon said triumphantly.

“Let’s just get to Twilight’s.”

~~~~~~

Finally arriving at Twilight Sparkle's library, I was incredibly nervous and excited at the same time as I worked up the courage to knock on the door.

“Coming,” a voice replied from inside.

I was expecting a pony to open the door, but as the door opened I saw a baby dragon. “Yeah?” he flatly said.

“Hi, I’m here to see Twilight. Dr. Psych sent me,” I said, trying to be as nice as I can.

“Twilight, you got two more crazies here for you!” he yelled back into the library.

“Hey, I am not crazy!” I yelled back at him.

“Whatever you say, Crazo. Come on in, she’ll be down in a minute.”

Bon Bon and I walked into the library. Twilight promptly came down from the upstairs.

“Hi, I’m sorry for Spike. He doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut,” she said, glaring at the dragon.

“Hey, I calls them as I sees them, and I sees crazy.”

“Spike! What did I tell you about acting rudely in front of guests?”

“Fine, fine, I’m sorry I called you two crazy.”

“Apology accepted,” I said. Giving Twilight Psych's note I continued, “Twilight I have a note here from Doctor Psych.”

“I see. Well, if you will join me downstairs I have all the equipment down there. Also, did you read the note?”

“Maybe…”

Twilight just rolled her eyes.

As we followed her downstairs, I was amazed at all the machines down there. She must have had one for everything. I recognized some of them, like the monitors for a pony’s heart rate or blood pressure, but the rest were completely foreign.

“Okay, Lyra, if you would have a seat over here.” Twilight pointed to a bench by a few machines and I sat down. “Ummm… Could you maybe sit normally?”

Bon Bon facehoofed.

“Oh sorry.” I sat back down in a normal way. It wasn’t as comfortable.

“Okay, now I’m going to hook you up to a few machines; one to monitor your heart rate and blood pressure, one to measure your brainwaves, and another to measure your magical energy levels.” Twilight proceeded to hook a bunch of wires to my body, and then strapped a giant metal hat with a lot of lights to my head. “Now if you could tell me why you are here today.”

“I am here because Dr. Psych told me to come here,” I said, while all the wires started to itch me.

“No, why did he tell you to come here? What is the issue?”

I told her all about the visions and everything that happened in the psychologist’s office. She listened but kept her eyes on the paper coming out of the brainwave and magic machines. At the end, she just looked at me and said, “Wow… that’s a very interesting story…”

“For Celestia’s sake, it’s not a story. Why doesn’t anypony ever believe me?” I tried to take the tin hat off my head, but my magic wouldn’t let me. “Twilight… I think we’re… done here…” I said between attempts to remove the contraption.

“Lyra, stop. The dome is designed to dampen your magic so it can read it. You’re just going to hurt yourself.” I wasn’t listening anymore. I don’t even know why I listened to Bon Bon in the first place and agreed to do all this. All I wanted to do was get this stupid thing off my head.

“Lyra stop,” Bon Bon pleaded.

“No, nopony ever believes me, and I’m tired of it! I want to just forget all about this, so let me go!” I was screaming by that point, still trying to get the device off my head.

“Lyra, I believe you!” Twilight said. “Just calm down. Your readings are normal, and if you calm down, maybe we can figure out
the meaning to the visions you’ve been having.”

“NO!” I shouted and put all my energy into my horn. Suddenly there was a bright flash and then nothingness.

~~~~~~

I awoke several hours later, laying on the bench in the library upstairs. The light still hurt too much for me to open my eyes.

I groaned.

“She’s coming to!” Bon Bon yelled. “Don’t try and get up yet, are you feeling okay?”

“I guess so. What happened?”

“We could ask you the same thing. Suddenly there was a bright flash of light, and when it was gone, you were laying on the ground, unconscious. We carried you up here to rest,” Twilight explained.

Carried me? “Did the flash do something to your magic too, Twilight? Why couldn’t you just levitate me up the stairs?”

“Are you sure you're feeling fine? Because my name is Teresa... not Twilight.”

What did she just say? Teresa? I decided to open my eyes finally. “Oh... it’s you guys again.” I got up. “Okay that’s weird.” I took a look at my forelegs, or at least I thought they were my forelegs. “No hooves?!” I wiggled the strange little appendages around in the air. “Well this is nice. I think I’m going to go faint now.”

Chapter Two: New World

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter Three: Magic and Music

Oh Celestia, what is wrong with them? How could they eat meat? I was lying on the guest bed crying. How do they just knowingly eat meat?

“Lyra, Are you okay?”

The sudden voice made me jump. “Huh? I guess so, Sam.”

“You’re crying though. That doesn’t seem okay to me.”

“I’m guessing that eating meat is a common thing here then.”

“Well duh. Why else would I have made lasagna with meat?”

“I just want to go home!”

“Try some of your magic maybe that can get you back,” he excitedly said.

“I tried it already it doesn't work. There must not be any magic in this world.”

His smile deflated. “Aww, I wanted to see some real magic,” he whined.

“That’s the only reason you came up here, isn’t it?”

“No, well okay maybe, but Teresa and Bonnie are downstairs yelling at each other, and I didn’t want to be yelled at again.”

I rolled my eyes and smiled. “Well whatcha wanna know about magic then?”

“Everything!” he yelled, jumping onto the bed and taking a spot next to me.. “Like, how did you do it? What is it like? What could you do?”

“Okay, slow down. Um, where to start? Okay first of all, you have to be a unicorn to do any kind of magic, and even then, you can’t do all of it.”

“Why not?”

“Because somethings certain ponies can’t do. Like me—I can do the basics like levitating things, and I know a few simple spells like lights, fire, or heat, but I can’t do much more than that. Now, a pony like Twilight for inst–”

“Who’s Twilight? Did her parents name it after the book?”

“Twilight is probably the most gifted unicorn when it comes to magic, and what book are you talking about? I don’t think she is named after a book.”

“It’s this gay book about vampires that sparkle or some crap. Ask Teresa, she loves it.”

“Like I was saying, Twilight’s special talent is magic, so she could do any magic she wanted to as long as he knew the spell. My talent, though, is music, specifically the lyre.”

“Okay, then how do you do the magic?”

“Oh, the simpler things you just sort of think of it or imagine it, and it just happens. Like if I wanted a light, I would just think of a small ball of light in the room, and it would happen. As for the more complicated things, I can only assume it works sort of the same way.”

“So what, do unicorns just go around to everyone’s home at night and make balls of light, or do you people not have electricity?”

“I don’t know what electricity is. Is that what powers the lamps here? I’ve been wondering how they’ve been powered without magic for so long. We use candles even maintaining something simple like a light can only be done for about an hour or two, and there would be no way to keep more than two or three going at a time. You could store some magic in a crystal to keep simpler spells going, but even that would only last for about two hours before needing a recharge.”

“So, a crystal is like a battery?”

“If a battery stores electricity then yes, I guess it is.”

“So, if you don’t have electricity then you don’t have any good music, movies, or video games do you?”

“Good music is a subjective term I would say our music is pretty good music!”

“So, is that why you play a guitar?”

“No, I don’t know what a guitar is. I play a lyre.”

“But Bonnie said she went to get your guitar it’s even sitting right there.” He pointed at a case and box in the corner of the room. “I know that’s not a lyre.”

“No its not. I play a lyre, I’m guessing Lauren plays this guitar thing.” I walked over to the case and opened it. “Huh, this looks almost like a viola, but where is the bow?”

“Bow? It doesn’t use a bow. You pluck the strings with a pick.”

I pulled one of the strings, and it made a very muffled sound. “That isn’t loud at all how would you hear this?”

Sam was looking at me with his eyebrow raised. “Really? You need to plug it into the amp. It’s an electric guitar.”

“Oh, that’s what the speaker is for. The onl–”

“Wait, wait, wait, if you don’t know what electricity is, how do you know what a speaker is?”

“We have them, and like other things, only a unicorn could work with one. The only pony I knew personally who uses one is Vinyl Scratch. She uses them when she DJs. I can’t stand that techno crap, though.”

“Okay, stop. Now I’m really confused. How can you use all these old timey things like candles and lyres, yet at the same time have things that need electricity to run like speakers or have techno music when it is literally an electronic type of music!”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. We just do.”

“Can you play anything other than the lyre?”

“Well yeah, I mastered that when I was like fifteen. I’d be an idiot not to try to learn more instruments.”

“If your special talent is music, try to play the guitar. Here, I’ll plug it in.” He took the guitar out of the case and set it on the table, then pulled out a wire and plugged one end into a hole on the bottom of the guitar and the other end into a matching hole on the amp. He then plugged a different plug that was already attached to the amp into a matching set of holes on the wall. Then he turned some knobs on the amp, and it made a humming noise. “There, now play.”

“But I don’t know how to play a guitar.”

“Put the strap around your neck and hold the guitar like this.” He held his hands in the air like he was holding the instrument. “As for notes, I know you make the notes with the fingers on the top part of the guitar pressing the strings while the other hand plucks the strings at the bottom. You’ll figure it out, or is your special talent not music?”

“Oh, I’ll show you whose special talent isn’t music.” Why am I doing this? He’s just a kid. I don’t have to prove anything to him. I started plucking a few strings. “Wow, this sounds like a real instrument when plugged into the speaker.”

“Too bad you can’t play it.”

“Shut up!” After about five minutes of plucking randomly, I started to understand how the notes worked on this instrument. After about five more minutes I was playing a full song.

~~~~~~

“Mommy! Mommy!” I was sobbing while jumping up onto my parents’ bed. “I had a bad dream.”

“Shhh. Shhh. Lyra, it will be okay. Shhh. Shhh.”

“But—But it was scary. And there were these things. And there weren’t any ponies around. And I was…” I started crying again.

“Shhh. Shhh. Everything is okay now, sweetie. Mommy is here. Let’s go back to your room and go back to sleep.” My mother enveloped me in her magic aura along with her violin and levitated me back to bed. She tucked me back into bed and sat on the chair next to me.

“Why can’t I sleep with you and daddy? It’s scary in here.”

“Because you’re a big filly now, and big fillies sleep in their own beds. Now, close your eyes and I’ll play you a song.”

“Okay.” My mother began playing the song she always did when I had trouble going to sleep. There was just something relaxing about it that always calmed me down. By the time she finished the song, I was nearly asleep. She got up, kissed my forehead, and walked out, leaving the door cracked so the hallway light would shine into my room.

I heard my father and mother talking in the hallway. “Nightmares again?”

“Yes, dear, she’s asleep now though. Let’s go back to bed,” my mother replied.

“Was it the same dream again, the one without any ponies in it?”

“That’s what she said.”

“We should really do something about this. It’s the fifth time this month she’s had the same nightmare.”

“It’s just a bad dream. She’ll be fine. I was like this too when I was a filly. I had nightmares almost every night.”

“I hope you’re right.”

~~~~~~

I opened my eyes to see the three others in the house watching me with their jaws hanging open.

“Wow, that was beautiful,” Teresa finally said.

“I thought you didn’t know how to play the guitar,” Sam blurted out.

“I don’t,” I replied.

“I’ve never heard you play anything like that before, Lauren. Th–” Bonnie was cut off by Teresa hitting her with her arm.

“What did we just talk about?” Teresa asked.

“Geez, okay, just don’t elbow me. Lyra, that was amazing. You must have played the guitar before.”

“No, really, I haven't! I figured out it kind of plays like a lute, and I had to play one in school before.”

“What did you play anyway? I haven’t heard it before, and I’ve listened to quite a bit of classical music,” Teresa said.

“When I was a filly, I used to have terrible nightmares. That song was something my mother always played for me whenever I had them.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, I hate nightmares,” Sam said as he jumping back onto the bed.

“Actually, playing it made me remember something from my foalhood. I remember now that my nightmares were a lot like my visions I would have of this world. I wonder how I could forget something like that.”

“Well, nightmares aren’t really something you want to remember. Your mind must have blocked out the memories. If you want, tomorrow I could try some hypnosis to retrieve them, but like I said, your mind blocked them for a reason,” Teresa said.

I raised an eyebrow. “You know hypnosis?”

“Yeah, I don’t work and live in the town’s library for nothing. Also, why do you think Plomin recommended you—er, Lauren I mean, to see me?”

“I assumed it was for more scientific things. That’s why I was recommended to Twilight.”

Sam was laughing so hard he could barely speak. “ Teresa—Science—That’s a good one.” His laughter was short lived, as Teresa threw a book at his face.

Chapter Four: Lights

Dear Journal,

I am writing in this journal, as I have nothing else to do. I don’t know what is going to happen, so I am writing my accounts of my time here. I’m also not sure if anyone, or I should say anypony, will be able to read this, since I'm writing in English… though that might not be such a bad thing. While it seems that both English and this “Equestrian” are spoken the same they aren’t written the same. My name is Lauren, I am from a planet called Earth, I seem to be in the body of a pony named Lyra, and I am currently locked in a holding cell inside Ponyville’s town hall.

Some of the ponies here seem to think I’m something called a changeling. It’s funny how we have myths on Earth that seem to be real here, like unicorns and pegasi. I even found out that there are hydras and a cerberus. The three-headed dog from Greek mythology? The thing that guards the gates of the underworld? A real thing here apparently.

So, about three days ago, I was in town alone. Bon Bon was still sleeping, and I figured that I’d go get some ingredients to make a nice breakfast. Well, I ran into some of Lyra’s friends, and of course, without Bon Bon there, I had no idea who these ponies were. I thought I avoided the situation, but I must have raised enough red flags for them to contact the authorities, because earlier today I was arrested by the sheriff for, and I quote, “The suspicion of being a disguised changeling or in league with them.”

BULL. FUCKING. SHIT.

Twilight has been talking to the sheriff and mayor all day, but they don't believe her that I'm not one of those changelings! She could have tried lying saying she, I don’t know, cast some spell that made me temporarily lose my memories or something. No. She goes and tells the truth, that I’m a being from another world in the body of Lyra… Yeah, because that doesn’t fit the description of a changeling.

So, it looks like a have two options. One, figure out what Lyra did in the first place and reverse it, which I have had no luck
with. Or two, be stuck in this holding cell until they do whatever it is they do to changelings, which does not sound like a pleasant option, since the changelings almost seem to be like terrorists here.

I’m screwed.

Well, I might as well start from the beginning. About ten days ago, my roommate, Bonnie, convinced me to see a psychologist. After seeing him, he suggested I see a hypnotist in town to try recovering repressed memories.

~~~ Ten days earlier ~~~

I knocked on the door to Teresa’s home.

“Do you really believe in hypnosis?” Bonnie asked.

“Ehh, sort of,” I replied.

The door was opened by a kid who must have been no older than twelve.

“Yeah?” The kid snapped.

“Oh, is Teresa here? I was told to see her.”

“Yeah, she’s downstairs waiting for you. Follow me.”

We followed the kid into the house, which also served as the town’s library and Teresa’s office. The front of the house must have been the library, since there were nothing but books. Teresa was already waiting for us in her office. There were a couple of
chairs and a couch. She was reading a book while sitting on the chair closest to the couch.

“Sis, these two are here for you,” Sam said then went back upstairs, leaving us alone.

“Oh hey, you’re lucky I had an opening on such short notice. Lauren, have a seat on the couch. Your friend can either have a seat, or if you wish, she can wait upstairs.”

I sat on the couch and found that it was way too comfortable. “Nah, she’s staying here. She’s the one who wanted me to do all this, so she’s going to have to sit through it and see just how crazy I really am.” I waved my arms around in the air.

“God I hate you,” Bonnie said while facepalming. “I don’t know why a psychologist would recommend you to a hypnotist anway. Hypnosis is so fake.”

“Wow, I haven’t heard that a million times.” Teresa rolled her eyes. “Well, Lauren, why don’t you first tell me exactly what’s going on, Dr. Polmin mentioned something about repressed memories.”

“He seems to think I am repressing some memories from a long time ago. Every so often, I get these visions of another world. It’s like our own, but the main difference is that there aren’t any humans, only horses,” I explained everything about the visions she wanted to know and also what had happened at the psychologist’s office.

“Cool story,” she finally responded after just staring at me for a good minute. “Okay then, how about we get started? I think I might have an idea of what I’m looking for. Before we start though, I do need to warn you, the memories are usually blocked for a reason, and sometimes, bringing them back can be troublesome. Are you okay with that?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Okay then, lie back, close your eyes, and listen to my voice.”

“Fine, but this couch is extremely comfy, so I might fall asleep.”

“I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen. Now, take a deep breath in, hold it, and exhale. Deep breath in. Hold it. Exhale.”

This went on for ten minutes… I think I even heard Bonnie fall asleep.

“Now, Lauren, I want you to think back to the earliest vision you can remember. Really try and remember everything that was going on. What you were doing, what time of day it is, where you were, everything. The sounds, smells, sights. Do you remember?”

“Yes.”

“Good, where are you?”

“I’m in my house.”

“How old are you?”

“Four.”

“What are you doing?”

“I’m in the living room playing with a doll.”

“Is anybody else around?”

“Yeah, my mother. She's reading a magazine on the chair.”

“Try and remember the vision now.”

“I’m playing with my doll then all of a sudden I’m in another house. I’m confused. My mom isn’t there. My doll is replaced by a bunch of blocks—they have symbols on them I don’t recognize. I’m crying ‘Mommy?! Mommy?!’ There’s a voice from the other room that I don’t recognize. ‘Lyra, what’s wrong?’ A horse walks into the room, but it’s not a normal horse. It’s smaller and has a horn on its head. It’s also a teal color. It scares me, and I scream. I opened my eyes again and my mother is holding me. ‘Shh, Shh, Lauren, it’s okay now. Shh, Shh.”

“Okay, Lauren come back to my voice. If I heard you correctly, the horse in your vision spoke and called you Lyra? And was
colored teal?”

“It seems so.”

“Lauren, I want you to relax and tell me about the first memory that comes to mind about the visions.”

“Okay, I think I have one. I woke up, sweaty and panicking from another nightmare. I am seven now. I go into my parents room. ‘Mom! Mom! Mom! I just had another bad dream.’ I am tugging at her bedsheet. ‘Mom! Mom!’ My dad wakes up. ‘Lauren what is it?’ he asks me. ‘Dad I had a bad dream.’ He mumbles something under his breath, and I only catch the word “mother” and “tell me sooner.” I ask him what he said, but he doesn’t answer. ‘Come on, let’s get you back to bed.’

“He brings me back into my room and sings me a lullaby. Once he’s done, he kisses my forehead, and we say goodnight to each other. ‘Goodnight, Dad.’ He leaves and keeps my door cracked so the hallway light shines in a little.

“My mother must have been in the hallway. ‘Why didn’t you tell me anything about this before?’ he asks. ‘I’m sorry, honey, I didn’t know what you would think,’ My mother responds. ‘You know I’d love you no matter what, but I could at least have been prepared for this crap.’ He sighs. ‘I’m sorry, I should have figured she’d be doing the same thing. I mean, it’s been thirty years, and I have only regained very limited contact. Hell, it took me twenty years just to get my abilities back,’ she says.

“I get back out of bed, curious about what they are talking about. ‘What happens now?’ he asks. ‘I don’t know, I’m hoping it just stays at visi– Lauren, honey, what are you doing out of bed?’ she asks me. ‘I heard you talking about me. I wanted to know why,’ I say. ‘It’s nothing honey.’ She puts her hand on my head. I look up and see a faint teal glow coming from her hand. I’m confused. I don’t know why I’m in the hallway. ‘Now, go back to bed, sweetie,’ my mom says. I go back to bed and fall asleep.”

“Lauren, what did she mean by thirty years to regain contact and twenty to get her abilities back? Also tell me why you suddenly forgot why you were in the hallway.”

“I don’t know and I don’t know. I just forgot why I was there.”

“Okay, Lauren, I want you to relax again and let any memories that involve your mother doing odd things come to the surface.”

“Um, there was a time I thought I knocked a vase that my mother loved over, and somehow it didn’t break. There was another time whe–”

“So yeah, I’d hate to break up this little session, but do either of you see the light forming above Lauren right now?” Bonnie sounded concerned.

I opened my eyes to see a light hovering about three inches from my face. “Um, guys? What’s going on?”

“I have no idea. This has never happened before.” Teresa finally stopped writing on her notepad and examined the light from a variety of angles. “Lauren, are you okay? What are you doing?”

“Me? I’m not doing anything. Jesus Christ that’s getting bright.” I slowly moved my head to the right to get from under the light and it followed me. “Well, it’s tracking me. Great.” I moved very fast to the left, falling off the couch and jumping up off the floor. The light zipped right above my head. “This is the last time I listen to one of your ideas, Bonnie. I could be home right now, practicing my guitar for the gig Friday, but no, I just have to go get my head examined. Well wonderful, now I have a floating, alien light above my head. You happy now?”

“You didn’t have to listen to me! I was just worried about you! It’s not good to just space out in the middle of the day.”

“Yeah, that’s why you made the appointment with Dr. Plomin behind my back, isn’t it?”

“Okay, so mayb–”

“Hey, I’d hate to break up the little catfight here, but it’s getting brighter and bigger. Lauren, is it hurting you at all?” Teresa
asked, cutting off Bonnie.

“No, it’s not even hot.” I looked up. Wrong move. “Note to self: don’t look into a light three inches from your face. Anybody have any ideas?”

“I could try hitting it?” Teresa held up a book.

“Fine, just don’t hit me.”

Teresa threw the book… and missed from a foot away. “I can see you were on the softball team in high school.”

“Shutup.” She picked up another book and tried swatting it like a fly. There was a thump the light moved about half an inch and went back to being over my head.

“Let me try. I actually was on the softball team in high school,” Bonnie said, picking up the biggest book she could find.
“Lauren, sit down. I want a better angle on it.”

“Okay.” I sat down and Bonnie got into a batting stance–she swung, and there was a loud crack as the object embedded itself into the opposite wall. Though it wasn’t emitting light anymore, it looked intact. The book on the other hand had been broke in half.
“Does anybody have an explanation for the alien light ball?”

“Should we call someone?” Bonnie asked.

“Who? The police? ‘911. What’s your emergency?’ ‘Um yeah, this alien ball light thing just appeared over my head, and now it’s lodged in the wall.’ ‘Ma’am please don’t prank call 911’ click. Yeah, great idea.”

“Guys…”

“Well, I’m just trying to figure something out.”

“Guys…”

“Well, it’s not helping.”

“Guys…”

“Well, I don’t see you coming up with any ideas.”

“Guys!”

“What?”Bonnie and I yelled.

“It’s–it’s glowing again.”

I looked at the object and found it was indeed glowing again. It was already brighter than when it had been hovering above my head. “So, I’m going to get out of here before something bad happens. I don’t know about you two, but I don’t want to be here when this thing explodes.” As I started to turn around, the object zipped back above my head. “Okay great, if anybody needs me I’ll be outside, acting as the newest street lamp on the block.”

“Lauren, would you quit being such a bit–” Bonnie’s sentence was cut short when the object suddenly flashed and I was knocked out. I could guess what she had been going to say, though.

~~~~~~

When I awoke, my head felt like it was on fire. I opened my eyes and couldn’t see anything.

“Jesus christ, I’m blind! Guys? Hello? What happened?”

“Lyra, calm down. The blindness is temporary. And stop yelling–you’re blind, not deaf.” That voice sounded like Teresa’s, but why would she call me Lyra.

“Did you just call me Lyra? Really? After everything with that damn light and your stupid hypnosis, you’re going to call me something from a confusing repressed memory?”

“Lyra, what are you talking about? We didn’t do anything with hypnosis. You and Bon Bon came to me to check som–”

“Stop. Just Stop. What is going on? Lyra? Bon Bon? Oh my god, my head feels like it’s on fire.” I lifted my hand to my head, but when it made contact it didn’t feel quite right. “Holy shit, I don’t have fingers anymore!! Oh god, the ball exploded, didn’t it? Oh god! Oh god!” I would have kept going if it weren’t for a smack to the face.

“Now, calm down. Lyra, I don’t know what happened, but it will be okay. You are safe in my house. Let me see if I can fix that blindness any faster.”

I felt a tingle in my eyes and slowly started to see again.

“Now, is that better?”

I opened my eyes again. The first thing I saw was a smiling purple unicorn.

I screamed.

I looked down and saw not arms, legs, or skin but fur and hooves!

I continued to scream.

To my right, a small purple-and-green reptile was looking at me.

“Twilight, is she going to be okay?” he asked.

I kept screaming until I passed out for the second time that day.

Chapter Five: Talking Ponies

So, let’s recap. My roommate made me go to a shrink for visions that haven’t bothered me–or anybody else for that matter–in my entire life. She made me go see a hypnotist. A friggin' light comes from absolutely nowhere, and suddenly, I get teleported to some crazy alternate dimension where everything is bright and multi-colored, and there are talking, flying, magic freaking horses. Yeah, I've lost it.

Now, where do I continue? Well, I figured I’d leave out the six times I woke up, saw the purple unicorn, and passed out again. You know what they say, “seventh time's the charm,” right?

~~~~~~

“How long do you think she’s going to keep doing this for?”

“I don’t know. It’s been two hours now, and all she has been doing is waking up, looking at us, and passing out.”

Oh thank God, that sounded like Bonnie. I groggily got up, realizing again that I didn’t have any fingers. “Oh good, you’re here, Bonnie.. What’s going on?” Opening my eyes, I saw that the one I thought was Bonnie was just another horse. “ Okay, you're a horse too. Well, this was fun once again, but I think I'm gonna go back to sleep until this stops happening.”

“No, wait! For the love of Celestia, stop!” the purple horse screamed at me.

A strange force kept me upright. “Well now, this is… odd. Fine, I’m awake. Now, could Dream-Horse-Bonnie tell me what’s going on and Dream-Horse-Teresa maybe stop with whatever the hell she’s doing right now?”

“Lyra, are you sure you’re okay?”

“Wow. Great, my dream doesn’t even know my own name. Well to answer your question, no, no I am not okay. Not at all. One
second I’m at a hypnotist with some light floating over my head, the next I’m on some bad acid trip or something, and not only am I talking to colored horses, I am one.”

“Pony,” Horse-Teresa said.

“Pony. Ah, it all makes sense now. Wait no, it still isn’t any better. Fine, pony it is then. But thank you for that lesson on dream species Dream-Pony-Teresa.”

“Twilight.”

“What?” I asked.

“Twilight. My name is Twilight, not ‘Dream-Pony-Teresa,’ And you are not in a dream, you are in my home. You and Bon Bon came to my house for some brain scans.”

“What? No, Bonnie and I were with a hypnotist, Teresa, in her house, having a perfectly normal, hypnotic evening.” I looked over at the beige-colored pony. “Bonnie, tell her.”

“L-Lyra, if this is another prank, you’re scaring me. Please stop.”

“Okay, listen. This isn’t some prank. I really do not know what is going on here. One second I am a human, I am in a hypnotic session, and then some ball of light thing appears over my head. Then, the light ball goes all supernova and suddenly bam, I'm waking up here as a pony. Now, I can only assume this is all some dream using my visions as fuel or something.”

“Wait, did you say you have visions and that you’re human?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah. Why?”

“Bon Bon, that kind of sounds like what you told me happened at Psych’s office.”

“Wait, wait, wait. Are you saying that actually happened? I thought I just fell asleep in his office, and that was just a dream. This is a dream, isn’t it? I’m not actually a pony right now, am I?”

Twilight rubbed her head. “I don’t get paid enough for this crap,” she mumbled under her breath.

“You don’t get paid for any of this,” the purple-and-green lizard replied.

“What in God’s name doesn’t talk here? First, talking ponies. Now, talking lizards.”

The lizard puffed out his chest. “Excuse me, but I’m a dragon, not a lizard.”

“You don't look like much of a dragon, ya know.”

The dragon’s chest deflated and his smile disappeared.

“He’s only fifteen,” Twilight replied.

“Not what I would picture a kid dragon to be. Wait, why do I even care? Okay, if this is real, then do whatever you did, but this time like in reverse, I guess, and send me back. This has been a nice chat and all, but I’m starting to miss my body… and fingers… and feet.”

Twilight sat next to me and put her hoof on my shoulder “Lyra, I don’t know what happened. You are the one who did this.”

“Me? I-I didn’t do anything! And stop calling me Lyra. That isn’t my name! It’s Lauren! I didn’t want to do any of this shit!!”

“Lyr–Lauren. Please calm down.” Twilight looked frightened, and the dragon was backing away slowly.

“Calm down? You want me, of all people, to calm down? I. Am. A. Freaking. Pony! I’ll calm down right after I’m a person again!” I slammed my right foreleg down on the bench I was sitting on. The bench split right where I hit it, splintering in every direction as I went crashing to the floor. When I lifted my head up, I saw that Bon Bon was in the corner, sobbing. “Sorry” was all I could mumble.

“Lauren, why don’t we go upstairs to the guest room and you can rest for the night?” Twilight said softly.

“Okay.” I sat in the pile of splintered wood for a second more before getting up. I moved one leg, then a second, and I instantly fell down with a hard thud. “Twilight, one issue. How do I walk?”

“Oh for Celestia’s sake.” Twilight’s horn glowed, and I was enveloped in a purple light that floated me up the stairs and into a bedroom. Twilight also decided to let me go a good three feet–wait, hooves maybe? Three hooves? Or maybe they have meters? Either way, she dropped me a short distance onto the bed.

“Hey!”

“That’s for breaking my library bench, which you’re going to pay for. So, how do I know you aren’t lying about all this and just playing some elaborate prank?”

“Look, I don’t know what I have to do or say to you that would prove I’m not some pony.”

“Well, I can think of one way to prove it to me.” Twilight started walking towards me with a very evil grin on her face. When she was within reach, she lifted her foreleg up and just mumbles, “Sorry.”

“For wh–!” I buckled over in pain, winded and grasping at my head. Holy Jesus, Mother Mary, and Joseph! Whatever she did was more painful than being slammed in the stomach. By the time the pain subsided, Bon Bon and the little dragon were standing in the doorway.

“Twi, what happened?” the dragon asked.

Twilight calmly replied, “Oh nothing. Just a jab to the horn. Also, she is telling the truth.”

“What in Celestia’s name prompted you to jab her in the horn?” Bon Bon was in Twilight’s face. “You have to know how much that hurts a unicorn! Look at her!”

“Yes, I do.” Twilight snapped back. “And I’m sure you know that any unicorn would never just let somepony hit their horn. She didn’t even move. I don’t even think she realized she had one until now. So if she was actually Lyra, she would have moved out of the way.”

“I don’t care! We could have maybe figured it out without doing that to her!”

“Stop. Both of you. Stop. Look, if you both now believe that I am not Lyra, then I can forgive Twilight, but God damn, never do that again. So, any ideas on getting me back to my body?”

“Nope, this is all still you,” Twilight replied.

“Nothing. You have like a billion books in this place, and you have no ideas? I mean look at this, even the walls of this bedroom are lined with books. There’s nothing in any of them?” The only walls that didn’t have books were the hallways.

“I have read every book here. I don’t remember reading anything about somepony’s body switching with something from another world,” Twilight deadpanned. “There are a couple fiction books like that, though nothing real.”

“Well, this is just great. I’m going to be stuck as a mint-green pony for the rest of my life. Great, just great. The next thing I know, you’ll be telling me that I don’t have a guitar. Not that I’d know how to play one with hooves.”

Twilight and Bon Bon both had a puzzled look on their faces. “What’s a guitar?” they both said in unison.

“Kill me now, please. Make it fast.”

Chapter Six: Phone Call

Something–or someone–was poking me in the side. “Ow. Ow. Ow!. Stop it!”

“Teresa says it’s time to wake up. Breakfast will be ready soon,” a male voice said while its owner poked my leg.

“Sam, for the love of Celestia, stop poking me!!” I yelled while turning around and grabbing his hand.

“Who’s Celestia?”

“Our ruler. Now, if I let your hand go, will you stop poking me? I am awake now.”

“Sure, but you better come down for breakfast. We’re having pancakes!”

The moment I let go of his hand, he yelled, “Poke!” and poked me one more time before running away.

“You little brat!” I jumped out of the bed only to land face-first on the ground, tangled in bed sheets. “I’m not up enough for this.”

After what seemed like an eternity of wrestling with the sheets, I freed myself. Carefully I walked down the stairs. Entering the kitchen, I saw the other three already eating. “Coffee.”

“Over on the counter,” Teresa said, pointing to the half-full pot of coffee. “There are still plenty of pancakes left too.”

“Thanks,” I said, lifting up the pot of coffee and pouring it into a mug. Moving over to the stove, I grabbed five pancakes, put them on a plate, and brought the plate and mug to the table.

“Well, you sure are getting the hang of hands quickly,” Bonnie said.

“Eh, they make up for not having magic,” I replied, looking at these weird little "hands.” “Although, I wouldn’t have had to walk to each thing.” I took a sip of the coffee.

“One, black coffee, really? Two, I was thinking about the hypnosis session I did with Lauren. During a memory of her childhood, she mentioned that her mother had a teal glow coming from her hand. Would that mean anything to you?” Teresa asked.

“One, it’s the only real way to drink it. Two, when a unicorn is using magic, there is a glow around their horn and around anything they are interacting with. The glow is generally the color of their coat or mane, like mine would be mint-green in color. Hmm, teal… My mom’s coat was te–” I trailed off. “Of course! It makes sense now.”

Sam raised an eyebrow. “I’m not following.”

“My mom could only ever do levitation. She couldn’t even do some of the simpler things taught to kids. My dad always said it was something genetic, something that made her horn weak, but what if she swapped places with this world’s version of my mom too?”

“Is body-swapping something common?” Teresa asked.

“Never heard of it happening before.”

“You know how unlikely this sounds, right?”

“I don’t care. I need to find out. Maybe she knows a way back.” I got up and started to leave the room. Turning back I asked, “Bonnie, do you know where Lauren’s parents live?”

“Yes, but they live across the country. Why not just call them?”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“You have your phone on you, don’t you?”

“Is that square glass-and-plastic thing I found in my pocket?”

“You really don’t know what a phone is? Here, give it to me. I’ll call them.”

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the device. “I just thought it was some really crappy mirror.” I handed it over to Bonnie, and she held down a button on the top of the phone for a few seconds before the front of it lit up. “Why is there a picture of a bitten apple?”

“Oh boy, this is going to be great,” Sam said while laughing. Teresa smacked him in the back of the head. “Ow, what was that for?” Teresa just rolled her eyes.

The screen changed again to a picture of Lauren and Bonnie. “How are a bunch of changing pictures going to help me talk to Lauren’s mom?”

“Just watch.” Bonnie slid her finger across the front of the device, and it changed again. This time, there were a lot of little
boxes marked with words. She tapped one, changing the front of the device once again.

“This is so magic! Like, how could you do this without magic? I knew you had it here!”

“It's technology. It's actually working off a bunch of circuit boards and sensors that al…” Teresa started explainining before seeing I wasn’t understanding. “You know what, let’s just call it human magic.”

Bonnie slid her finger up the device, making a list follow her finger. She stopped at one and tapped it. “Lauren, I’m going to put it on speaker, so we can all hear.” She looked up at Sam and glared at him. “You, don’t say a single word. Got it?” He gulped. “Good, also, Teresa, it might help for you to not say anything either. Her parents like me, and if there is something going on here, they might not be as inclined to say something with others listening.” Teresa just nodded. “Now, Lyra, let me start.” She tapped a green symbol and the front changed again. Tapping another symbol made noise come out of the device. “It’s ringing.” There was a small noise.

A voice came from the device. “Hello?”

“Oh hello, Mr. Hammonds. Is Mrs. Hammonds there? Lauren wants to ask her a question,” Bonnie said.

“Yes, she is,” the voice responded. In a more muffled volume, it said, “Honey, phone for you. It’s Lauren.” Returning to a normal volume, he continued ,“Why didn’t Lauren call herself?”

“Oh, she’s right here. Her hands are just a little preoccupied with making breakfast. I have it on speaker.” Bonnie tapped me in the stomach with her elbow.

“Hey, Dad,” I said, still not understanding how I was talking to somebody who wasn’t in the room.

“Hi, Sweetie! What’ch ya making for breakfast?” he asked.

Bonnie pointed to the pancakes on the table.

“Just pancakes.”

“That’s cool. Well, here’s your mother.” There was a shuffling noise, and a new voice came out of the device.

“Hey there, sweetheart. Is everything alright? It’s only seven here, and you never call this early.”

“Mom, I need to ask you something.”

“What is it, Lauren?”

“Mom… does the name Alma Maredie Heartstrings mean anythi–”

A click cut me off.

Chapter Eight: Boredom and Dreams

Well, it’s been about a day now, and I’m still in this jail cell. Twilight tried writing to their leader, Princess Celestia, but she hasn’t heard back yet. I don’t think that is a good sign. I wonder what the punishment for being a changeling is. On second thought, I don’t think I want to know.

Anyway, back to where I left off. The next day, that dragon, Spike, made breakfast for everyone, and after a discussion on what to do next, we agreed that the best possibility of me getting back home would be for me to learn enough magic to redo what Lyra did. Twilight said it should be easy, since this body already knows how to do the magic–I just need to get my mind to do it.

Haha, she really doesn’t know me and my interesting relationship with learning. You know the saying “Ds get Degrees.” It wasn’t that bad, but I never got higher than a B-, and those were in music classes. She also said that I need to rest for the next day or so and try to calm my mind. We also agreed that whenever I was out, Bon Bon should be with me.

After that, we went back to Bon Bon and Lyra’s apartment. They live on the second floor of a candy shop. Bon Bon owns the shop, and my god, the entire walls are just lined with different candies. It looked like something out of Willy Wonka. In that shop, I think I’ve seen every possible candy that could ever be created. Apparently, this other shop in town, Sugarcube Corner, has been trying for two years to buy this shop out, but Bon Bon says she won’t sell it though.

She also let me in on a little secret. The candies on the top shelves, aren’t even there. It’s an illusion her father made for her. It makes the empty jars look full, and tricks ponies into thinking she has more stock than she does. All of her jars have magic locks on them too, so nopony can even open them. She only unlocks the full jars on the bottom shelves. I asked how she unlocks the jars without being a unicorn. Lyra always did it for her. Thankfully, Lyra left a spell crystal with the unlocking and locking spells in it for when she is out for a concert.

Other than that, the rest of the day was uneventful. Bon Bon opened her shop. I stayed upstairs. Stared at the wall for a while. Stared at the ceiling for a while. Stared at the other wall. Bon Bon closed the shop briefly at lunch. It must be this body, but that daisy sandwich tasted really good. Stared at the first wall again. I think you get the idea. I miss television. I tried to read a book from, but I found out that Equestrian writing differs quite a bit from English.

Unlike the bottom, the top floor of this building was quite bland. Grayish-blue, grayish-blue, and more grayish-blue. All of the walls are grayish-blue. I thought one of the walls there might be bluish-gray, but after staring at it for a good hour and a half, I concluded it was, in fact, grayish-blue. I found it odd that instead of chairs, four dull green couches were positioned around a coffee table.

The stairs led into the living room on. A kitchen was connected to the living room. I found it funny how small everything was, but it made sense, since these ponies were three and a half–maybe four feet tops—tall. There were also four stove tops and ovens, which I assumed were for making candy. After the kitchen was the bedroom, and it still had the same grayish-blue paint. Other than that, it looked like a normal bedroom with the exception of the much shorter bed.

~~~~~

“What are you doing? And why are you upside down?” I heard neither the door opening nor did Bon Bon coming up the stairs. How could a horse be so quiet?

“I’mh Srying tho thoth mif kung tho mif eif ash th gafat soulth helth.”

“Put your tongue back in your mouth and try that again.”

“I’m trying to touch my tongue to my eye, and the gravity should help.” I righted myself.

“Why are you doing that?” Bon Bon asked while facepalming. Hoofpalming? Do hooves have palms?

“When I’m bored, one of the things I always try is to touch my tongue to my nose. Turns out that’s a little too easy now.” I demonstrated several times. “So, I wondered what would be harder to do? Oh I know, try and touch my eye! So, here I am.”

“Couldn’t you have–I don’t know–read a book or played the lyre?”

“Tried that, can’t read your writing, and I have no idea how to play that instrument. Even if I did, hooves, remember?” With each answer, I mentally held up a finger to her.

“Right, well anyway, I came up here to tell you that I’m done for the day, but I’ll be back in a half hour-ish, so you don't go wondering where I am. I need to go tell one of Lyra’s bandmates that she came down with a bad cold, then I’m going to get some food for us.”

“What if I’m here too long? Won’t her bandmates start to worry if I always have a cold?”

“Then you better start learning the lyre.” And with that, Bon Bon waved and left again, leaving me to my grayish-blue prison.

I flipped back over. “Yourth gothing dowth eif!”

~~~~

I must have fallen asleep while trying to assault my eye, as I was pushed to the floor and woken up by an annoyed mare. There was also a good amount of drool down my face. “You have a week to either swap back or learn the lyre.” Bon Bon threw a towel on my face, which I used to wipe off the drool.

There was a bag on the table with a recognizable logo. Even if I couldn’t read the writing, I could still recognize it as the glorious logo of Burger King! Finally, real food! “Sweet, Burger King. I love their hamburgers. Wait, you actually eat hamburgers here?”

Bon Bon looked at me with a raised eyebrow while pulling out the sandwiches. “What? No, they’re hayburgers. We aren’t
gryphons. You’d have to go to one of the gryphon or minotaur cities to get some kind of meat. Maybe a few places in pony cities that get frequented by them have meat, but not Ponyville. Do you normally eat meat?”

“Yeah,” I said while prodding the hayburger in front of me with my hoof.

“To each their own, I guess.” Bon Bon must have noticed me poking the burger. “It’s not going to bite. If you’re wondering, it’s a mix of hay, tofu, and seasonings. It might not be as good as a homemade meal, but after working for ten hours straight, I’m not cooking, and I don’t think you’d be able to.”

“Sorry,” I said sheepishly.

“Don’t be. If anypony should be, it’s Lyra,” she said while taking a bite from the burger. The rest of the meal went in silence.

~~~~

Once again, trying to sleep wasn't going very well. I guess I was exhausted from everything the night before, but my mind was racing with everything that had happened the past two days. And being in a different body didn’t help. I tossed and turned so much that at some point in the night, Bon Bon went to sleep on one of the couches. When I finally fell asleep, my dream wasn’t much better.

“How in the hell did I get here?” I asked myself. Looking at the surroundings, it seemed I’d woken up in a forest. “Okay, I’m human again. That’s a start at least.” Getting up and taking a better look around, all I can see is forest. I must be deep inside the forest, and even worse, the sun is setting. “Okay, think. How did I get here? The sun is setting, so I need to find a town quickly. Which way? Which way? Think, dammit!” Screaming in the forest might not have been the best decision. A bush rustled about thirty feet to my right, and I heard a growl.

“Left it is.” I slowly back up when I see teeth coming out of the bush. “Running it is then.” I’d never realized just how fast I could run until I was running for my life. Looking back may not have been my best choice, since I saw just how close the creature was. What started as a good thirty-foot lead was down to no more than ten. “Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!” I spot a tree about twenty feet straight ahead in the path. “Oh god, please let this work.”

When I was close enough to the tree, I pushed off it to turn right and keep most of my speed. A second later, I heard a thump.

“Success.” From where I stood, the only thing I could see was that it had aquamarine fur and golden eyes. “What in the hell? Well, I’m not waiting to find out what that thing is.” Unfortunately, it didn’t want to give up the chase. With a howl, it got back up, and the chase was back on.

Thankfully, it wasn’t able to keep up as well this time. I couldn’t tell whether it was injured or just being cautions, but I was just glad to be keeping my distance. “Shit, I’m running out of daylight. Can’t this thing give up already?” I tried my tree trick twice more, but the creature had enough time to react and missed the trees both times. “Think, I need something new. Ho–fuck!” I should have been paying attention. I missed the dip in the ground and stumbled forward.

When my vision stopped, spinning I was greeted by a snout of razor sharp teeth and hot breath on my face. I slowly backed up until I felt tree bark against my back. “L-Lyra?” I asked hesitantly.

The creature just growled back. I should have known that it wasn’t her. Other than the color of fur and eyes, it shared no other
features with Lyra. It was definitely a wolf of some sort.

The creature leapt at me, claws out and ready for the meal it had chased for the better part of an hour.

I braced myself for the feeling of claws and teeth ripping me to shreds. Nothing. Was it that fast I felt nothing?

I slowly opened my eyes. The beast was frozen in midair only a few inches away. “What. In. The. Fuck?”

I poked its nose, and it turned to mist which was the same color as its fur, and flowed to the ground. The forest followed suit, turning to mist too.

“I've done my share of drugs and all, but this is insane. Somebody needs to explain this shit to me, right now.”

“Shh, my child. All is well.” A voice came from the darkness surrounding me.

“Who’s there? What’s going on? Show yourself.” How were they even hiding? It was definitely getting dark, but it was nowhere near pitch black.

“Who I am is not of importance. You are in a dream,” the voice replied. “And I am not hiding. I have yet to take form.” A tall woman appeared in front of me. Her deep-blue hair flowed behind her as if in some wind I couldn’t feel. It sparkled as if there were a million tiny stars in it. Her eyes were a beautiful aqua-green, and she wore a dark-blue dress with a crescent moon embroidered in the center. On her feet she wore elegant glass slippers, which also seemed to shine with tiny stars.

“Great, you can read my mind. Are you my subconscious?”

“I already said that who I am is not of importance.” She began to walk around me. “I felt your presence last night, but you had no dreams for me to make contact. What I would like to know is why you are in our realm?”

“I–I don’t know what you mean. Isn’t this my dream? Doesn’t that mean you’re in my realm?”

“You misunderstand. How are you in Equestria? You are not of this world. Yet at the same time, you are.”

“Wonderful. Not only do I swap bodies with some talking pony, but I get chased in a dream by some wolf thing, and now my subconscious is fucking with me.” I sighed. “Why don’t you tell me how I’m in Equestria, because I have no fucking clue.”

“Trust me, child, if I knew, I would not be appearing to you this night. You say you swapped bodies with somepony from this realm?” I nodded. “I do not sense the presence of anypony else within yours.”

“Holy shit. Do I really need to explain–to myself–what happened?”

“Since you seem to be stuck on the idea that I am your own subconscious, I will indulge you and tell you who I am. I, my child, am Princess Luna. Goddess of the night and all things under it, including dreams.”

I facepalmed. “Nope, fucking done. Hello and goodbye.” I started walking away, although I couldn’t know where I was headed, but anywhere else would be better. “I’m out. Door. Door appear. Create Door. Abraca-door-bra.”

“What are you doing?”

“Trying to make a door so I can leave this place. If it is a dream, then I should be able to do that.” I looked back at the supposed Princess. “If you really are a goddess of the night and dreams, you should know that.”

She sighed. “You are not able to do so right now. I currently have control of this dream.” She waved her arm, and a door grew from the ground. “If you tell me who you are and why you are here, I will allow you to leave this dream and go back into the realm of sleep.”

I walked up to the door and tried turning the handle. “Of course it’s locked. Fine, I’m Lauren Hammons, I’m from Earth, and a talking horse named Lyra did something that made us swap bodies. Now will you let me leave, so I can get some kind of sleep? Twilight is going to try to teach me some magic tomorrow, so I can try and get back home.”

“Twilight knows about this too?”

“Is my subconscious really this dumb? Of course she knows.”

“Well, this is interesting indeed. I am going to have to consult my sister on this matter.”

“You do that, figment of my imagination,” I replied while opening the door and walking through.

Chapter Nine: Is this thing on?

“Yo, Twilight! The weirdo is back!” Spike yelled. There was no reply. “She’s downstairs in the basement just head down.”

Bon Bon and I made our way to the basement. We found Twilight tinkering with the machine she had hooked Lyra up to. “You need some help there?” I asked.

“Hum?” Twilight looked up from the machine. “Oh, is it noon already?”

“Actually its twelve thirty,” Bon Bon replied, and then pointing my way continued. “This one didn’t want to wake up.”

“Hey now, I told you already, I had a weird dream. You’re the one who doesn’t believe me.”

“Why would Princess Luna come to your dream?”

“She was spouting some nonsense about me not being from this world but from it at the same time.”

“Spike!” Twilight yelled over us. “Spike!”

Bon Bon and I got off the stairs and took a seat on some of the chairs Twilight had in the basement. It was only a matter of a few second before Spike came down.

“Yeah?”

“Spike, write a letter to Celestia and ask her if Luna spoke with anypony in Ponyville last night.”

“Sure,” he replied and headed back up the stairs.

“So you’re just going to ask her? What if she thinks I’m some kind of spy and locks me up in a dungeon somewhere, and I’m never seen again?”

“Are you a spy?” Twilight deadpanned.

“Noooooooooo.”

“Well in that case you've got nothing to worry about then, huh?”

“What are you trying to do anyway?” I walked around the machine to get a better look at what Twilight was doing.

“I’m trying to figure out how this machine did whatever it did. This panel is the only panel I haven’t checked under yet but its stuck shut. I can’t even get it off with my magic.”

“Here let me try,” I said and pushed Twilight away. I grabbed two corners of the panel as best I could with hooves and pulled. I instantly flew backwards. “Okay, that doesn’t work so well without fingers. How do you guys deal with hooves?”

Both Twilight and Bon Bon shrugged at the same time. “Magic?” they responded sarcastically.

“Thanks. Big help guys.”

“Anyway why don’t we get started with why you actually came here. I can deal with this later. Bon Bon you’re welcome to join in but the meditation is all you’re going to be able to do.”

Bon Bon waved a hoof. “Nah, its fine, I’ll just watch.”

Two hours of meditation, being told I’m meditating wrong, and being physically bent into positions I didn’t know I could be bent into, I was still no closer to doing any magic.

“Twilight,” I said. “I don’t think this is working.”

“Okay fine, let’s just try some basic magic then.” Twilight levitated a screwdriver from the table and put in on the floor between us. “So, magic is just an energy you can control. Everypony can do it, just in different ways. Pegasi can make themselves lighter to fly. Earth ponies can become abnormally strong and resilient. Unicorns can bend the energy to their will. Your horn acts as a conduit for the magic. To lift the screwdriver just focus on your horn, and think about lifting the screwdriver.”

“Okay, sure.” I tried to focus on my horn but couldn’t. “Twilight, how do I focus on my horn?”
Twilight facehoofed. “It’s going to be a long day.”

Another hour of going through the intricacies of how to focus on a body part I’ve never had before and I was still no closer.

“How about I just think of my horn as a mouse, magic as a mouse cursor and the world as a computer screen?” I suggested.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Um. Sure? I guess?”

“I didn’t understand any of that,” Bon Bon said.

“Just. Whatever,” I said. I started trying what I said but wasn’t really getting anywhere.

“Twilight,” Spike yelled from the top of the stairs. “You got a letter from Celesti-AHHHHHH.”

Spike tripped and fell of the stairs, right on top of me. Apparently physical pain and trying to do magic don’t mix. Somehow I made the screwdriver fly, at what had to be about a hundred miles per hour, into the stupid machine in the middle of the room.

“Is everypony okay?” Twilight asked.

“I think my back is broke,” I moaned.

“Well look on the bright side,” Bon Bon said. “You did some magic and got that panel open for Twilight.”

I noticed a familiar white orb roll into my hoof. “Twilight what is this?”

“I don’t know but there are more in that panel of the machine.”

“Well, the last time I saw one of these it was floating over my head then blew up. Then I woke up here.”

Twilight picked up one of the orbs to take a closer look at it. “There’s some writing on it. On, Off, Volume, Push to talk.”

“That sounds like a walkie-talkie.” Twilight clearly had no idea what I was talking about. “It’s a device we have on earth it lets you talk into it and somebody with another one can hear what you say from a long distance.” I picked up the one by my hoof and looked at it. “It’s completely smooth, how do you work it?”

“It looks like it can only be used with magic. Hmm.” Twilight used some magic to flip open a part of the orb. She pulled out what looked like a ruby. “The power crystal is dead. Spike, go get me a power crystal.”

“Got it,” he responded and rushed up the stairs.

“You think it still works?” Bon Bon asked.

“We’ll know in a minute,” Twilight responded.

“It doesn’t have much of a charge but it’s the only spare we have in the house,” Spike said coming back down with a crystal.

“It will do,” Twilight said and took the crystal, placing it into the orb. “What do I do now?”

“Do whatever you have to do to press the on, then turn the volume up all the way.”

Twilight put the orb down on the table and used her magic on it. The orb lit up. There appeared to be a screen on it too. Twilight read off what it was displaying. “Project Infinity COM Device Delta-32. Scanning.” Twilight looked at me. “It just keeps saying scanning.”

“Another one probably needs to be on in order for it to work.”

“Spike go get another power crystal.”

“We’re out,” he said.

Twilight went over to a desk in the corner of the room and started rummaging through the drawers.

“Um, Twilight,” Bon Bon said. “It says connections found now.”

Twilight rushed back over to the orb. “What do I do now?”

“I guess tap the words,” I replied.

Twilight used her magic on the words. “Devices: Zulu-92. That’s all it says.”

“Tap that then I guess.”

“Connection made.” Twilight looked at me.

“Hold the talk and say something then let it go.”

Twilight used her magic again “Hello?”

“Nothing. Where do you think the other one is?” I asked.

“I don’t know. None of the other orbs look to be function-”

“This is agent Zulu Echo Hotel Niner Two. Please identify yourself.”

“Mom!?”

“Please identify.”

“Press the button! Twilight!” Twilight magicked the button for me. “Mom? Can you hear me?”

“Lauren?”

~~~~~4 Hours Earlier~~~~~

“Hello? Lyra? Teresa?” I heard Bonnie call out from the front door.

“We’re in the kitchen,” Teresa yelled out.

The door to the kitchen opened and in came Bonnie and Lauren’s parents. “She doesn’t look like a pony,” mister Hammonds said. Missus Hammonds smacked him in the back of the head. “Ow. I was just joking.”

“You ass,” missus Hammonds said. “And you must be Teresa,” she continued. “Lovely house you have here.”

“Thanks, I guess,” Teresa responded rubbing the back of her neck.

“Do you have a quiet area so Lyra and I can try some magic?”

Sam jumped off the chair he was sitting on. “Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, Can I try too? Pleassssseeeee?”

“Is he always like this?” missus Hammonds asked. Teresa just nodded. “Can you sit still and not say anything for an hour?”

“Maybe.”

“No. He can’t,” Teresa said.

Missus Hammonds sighed. “Fine.”

“Yes!”

We all followed Teresa down to her office.

“Wow it looks like a warzone down here,” mister Hammonds said when we noticed the hole in the wall and books everywhere.

“Yeah you can thank this little bugger that came out of nowhere when Lauren was here.” Teresa walked over to the bookshelf. After picking up a few book she grabbed a small orb to show them.

“Where did you get that?” missus Hammons asked.

“I don’t know. This thing just appeared when Lauren was here in hypnosis then proceeded to destroy half my office. Damn thing even broke one of my books in half.”

“Frank, suitcase, bottom right pouch, small chest, get it,” missus Hammons said.

Half a minute later Lauren’s father came back down holding a small chest and handed it to his wife. Lauren’s mother put her right hand on the top of the chest and her hand started to glow. There was a popping noise and the lid of the chest slid open.

“Soooo cool!” Sam said.

Lauren’s mother took out an identical looking orb from the chest. “These are EBI communication devices. They work off magic.” Her right hand glowed again and a door on the orb popped open. She pulled out a magic power crystal. “Unfortunately mine got drained almost immediately after the portal closed. From the looks of it, the one you’ve got there is damaged.”

Bonnie raised her hand. “Sorry that was me. It was just floating over Lauren’s head so I kind of batted it into the wall.”

“Well, between the two I might have enough extra parts to hotwire one to work. Frank, go to the closest Radio Shack and get me a soldering iron, solder, one of those big batteries flashlights use, and some twelve gauge wire.”

“I guess I’m driving then,” Bonnie reluctantly said.

“Thanks, Bonnie,” missus Hammons said.

After Bonnie and Lauren’s father left, we went onto me trying to be able to do magic again. “Okay, you’re going to have to relearn your meditation. If there was actually a normal level of magic in this world it wouldn’t be an issue, but there isn’t. Instead of focusing on your body you have to try and focus on the small amounts of magical energy in the air.”

“We have to meditate?” Sam asked. “I’m out.” Sam got up and left the room.

“I told you he couldn’t sit still. Well, I guess I’ll go make lunch or something,” Teresa said and left.

“Just you and me then,” I said.

“Might as well start meditating then.”

After about a half hour I still wasn’t doing any magic. “Don’t worry about it,” missus Hammons said. “It took me a long while before I could even notice the magic here.”

“Hey we’re back,” Bonnie interrupted the meditation session.

“They were out of twelve gauge wire so I just picked up like 6 headphones. I hope that works,” mister Hammons said.

“That will work,” missus Hammons replied. “Lyra why don’t you go get some lunch while I work on this.”

“Okay,” I said and walked upstairs to the kitchen.

“Hey, how’s the whole magic thing going?” Teresa asked.

“Not very well,” I replied, sitting down, I picked up an apple and started eating it. “She’s going to try and get that thing working now.”

“Cool, cool. I guess we’ll just wait then?”

“Yeah, I hope it doesn’t take too long. What do you guys do for fun around here?”

“Well, we could watch a movie.”

“I don’t know what that is but okay.”

Teresa, Bonnie and I went upstairs. Every wall of Teresa’s room had posters on it; each one seemed to be about the same thing. Twilight. “I guess that’s the Twilight book Sam was talking about?”

“Oh please tell me you aren’t going to make us watch that,” Bonnie moaned.

“Nah, I’ll let Lyra pick.”

“I don’t know anything about these movie things.”

“All my movies are on that shelf.” Teresa pointed at one of the bookcase in her room. “Just pick one that you think looks good.”

“Okay.” I walked over to the book case. I couldn’t read any of them so I just picked one at random. “How about this one?” I handed it to Teresa.

“Inception. That’s a good one.” Teresa opened the case, took out some disc thing and put it into a device. She pressed some things on the device and on another thing above it. The large thing on the wall lit up with moving pictures. “How is this not magic again?”

“So wait. None of that was real?”

“Nope, all actors,” Teresa responded.

“But it looked real.”

“That’s the point. Come on let’s see what’s going on with that communication device.” We went downstairs and found Lauren’s parents sitting in the kitchen. The device didn’t look so nice anymore. Missus Hammons had the two power crystals connected to a large thing which I assume was the flashlight battery. The other ends of the crystals were connected into the one orb. The other orb had connections coming out of it going into the first one. To top it off the first orb had cords wrapped all around it.

I could see the first orb had writing on it. “Hey that’s something I recognize finally.”

“You can read that?” Teresa asked.

“Yeah. Right now it just says Project Infinity COM Device Zulu-92 with the word, scanning, flashing.”

“Yeah it’s been like that for the past ten minutes. Unless somebody in Equestria has another one I don’t think we’re going to get anything,” missus Hammons said.

“So we wait?” I asked, and that’s what we did. After about ten minutes Teresa got bored so we went back up to Teresa’s room. She wanted to check something called Facebook.

How can they have all these things that lets everyone talk to each other instantly like they are in the same room and not think its magic?

“Guys! Come quick! They got somebody on that thing!” Sam screamed from down the stairs.

We rushed back down into the kitchen. “-tel Niner Two. Please identify yourself.”

“Who did she get?” I asked.

“We don’t know, there was just a hello from it,” mister Hammons said.

“Please identify,” missus Hammons said into the device again.

“Mom? Can you hear me?”

“Lauren?”

Chapter Ten: I'm Sorry

Author's Note

Sorry for the mess, this chapter is highly un-edited. I thought it best to post it even in its current form then wait any longer. For more info please see today's (10/17/2015) blog post.

Chapter Ten: I'm Sorry

“So, Twilight, Am I getting out of here anytime soon?” I asked through the bars of the holding cell.

Twilight had a frown. “Sorry Lauren, They aren’t going to let you go. Don’t worry though I’ve wrote to the princess explaining everything. Hopefully she will step in and help.”

I slid down the wall behind me. “Great, just great, I’m going to die in here. They’re going to kill me aren’t they?”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “What! Nopony is going to kill you. They’re just going to magically banish you about five thousand miles away to the Sahayra desert.”

“How, is that any better?”

“Well if you’re lucky you might be able to make it to a city in Haygypt.”

I facehoofed. “Okay, let's ignore the fact that I don’t know the language and can only write one nobody on this planet can read, then sure, yea, Egypt or Haygypt, whatever.” I got up off the floor and went back to the cell bars. “Twilight, how likely is the princess going help me get out?”

“She should. I am her personal protégé.”

I sighed. “Okay, so letter, we’ll find out in what? A week?”

“A week,” Twilight laughed. “Nah, we’ll know in more lik-”

“Twilight! Twilight!” Spike came running into the cell block. “Twilight, letter from the princess!”

Twilight grabbed the letter from Spike’s claw with her magic. “Dear Twilight,” she started reading. “Haven’t you learned yet that I just cannot get involved with every little issue that comes up in Ponyville. I have the utmost confidence that you and the others in town will handle this issue fine yourselves. Princess Celestia.”

“I better start learning my Haygyptian.”

“Spike take another letter,” Twilight said.

Spike pulled out some paper and a quill from some unknown pocket. “Dear Princess Celestia, I urge you to please read my last letter in full detail. I need your help to not get an innocent pony banished for something I caused. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.” Spike rolled up the letter, breathed some fire onto it and the letter went up in a puff of green smoke.

“How is burning the letter going to help?”

“Spike's fire breath can magically send letter to the princess,” Twilight explained.

“Oh.”

Spike burped and a letter came out in the same green smoke. “Dear Twilight,” He started reading. “I really don’t have time for this right now. I’m in the middle of moderating a major dispute with the Cake Bakers Union of Canterlot. Celestia.”

“I’m in jail and she’s worried about cake.” I sat back down on the floor. “I’m doomed.”

“Spike take another letter.” Once spike pulled out more paper, Twilight continued. “Dear Princess Celestia, I don’t think you unde-” Twilight was interrupted by Spike burping up another letter. Twilight grabbed this letter with her magic and began reading. “Dear Twilight Sparkle, My sister doesn’t seem to want to listen about this one. I already know what is happening there in your town. I asked Celestia to help you but she is too worried about her weekly cake order or something. Hold off any trial until tomorrow. I will be there this evening. Sincerely Princess Luna.”

“Oh, I like this one,” I said jumping up off the floor. “Why isn’t this one the leader?”

“She became Nightmare Moon and tried to plunge the world into eternal night. Then she was banished to the moon for a thousand years until Twilight and her friends used the Elements of Harmony on her, turning her back into Princess Luna,” Spike said nonchalantly.

I blinked for a few second. “Well, nobody is perfect.”

“She tried to become a tyrannical dictator,” Twilight exclaimed.

“And right now she’s going to help me so I’ll take eternal night dictator over no help sunny leader.”

Twilight shook her and started walking away. “Whatever, I have a trial to postpone.”

“Wait, how did she live on the moon for a thousand years,” I yelled but Twilight ignored me. Spike shrugged, and then ran off after Twilight.

“Well, I guess I could write some more,” I said to myself. I moved myself over to the small cot in the cell, opened up the journal, levitated a quill and began writing again.

So where was I? Ah!

We just made contact with my mother on Earth through some weird magic walkie-talkie. I explained everything that happened and Lyra confirmed she was in my body on Earth. Well that’s not quite right, she’s in her own body, so am I, we just now look different. Inter-dimensional travel is weird. And as it turns out unless I learn to do what Lyra did and reverse it, we’re stuck. Oh, but I found out my mother is actually a dimensional traveling super spy, so there’s that.

Turns out we only had about fifteen minutes before our power crystal died. Thankfully these orbs actually have some kind of power indicator on the small screen so we were able to let my mother know we’d contact them tomorrow when Twilight got some fresh ones.

Oh, and to make matters worse, Twilight took a look at that machine. Turns out I damaged more than a panel. I also somehow managed to damage so of the internal components, the internal components for a machine older than me, the internal components for a machine that should be in some warehouse somewhere. I hope you can see the problem here. Yeah I’m boned.

There we are. I’m in another universe or something and my only way to get home is now dead because a dragon had to trip and fall on my back. This is what I get for giving into peer pressure. You’ve heard it here first kids, peer pressure. Not even once. Now I’m just annoyed. I’m going to try to get some sleep before my trip to the Sahayra desert…

~~~~

“Lauren wake up.”

I rolled over. “Five more minutes,” growled.

“Wake up now damn it, you have a gig to get to in a couple of hours.”

“I’ll get right on that from this jail cell.”

“Up! I don’t have time for this. I got to get to work.”

I was woken when I was pulled off the bed with my sheets. “Ow! What did you do that for?!”

“Good, you’re up, I can go to work now,” Bonnie said.

I blinked a few times and looked around the room. I was home. I looked down at myself. “Arms! Legs! Oh thank god!”

Bonnie raised an eyebrow. “Yes Lauren. They’re called limbs.”

I jumped up from the floor and hugged Bonnie tightly. “You don’t know how glad I am to see actual hands with fingers!”

Bonnie pushed me off of her. “You okay there?”

“Better than okay. I’m human again,” I exclaimed.

“When were you not human?”

“For the last week, don’t you remember I swapped bodies with some talking pony named Lyra.”

Bonnie sighed. “For fucks sake Lauren, are you high again?” Bonnie started moving things around in my room. “Where is it? I told you I don’t want any pot in this apartment.”

I stopped Bonnie. “Bonnie, I’m not high.” I stared at her for a moment. “What’s… What’s in your eyes,” I asked. Her eyes had a specks in them almost like stars on a night sky.

Bonnie blinked a few times. “Is it still there?” Her eyes looked normal now.

“No, it’s gone,” I said and took a seat on my bed.

“Good. I’m going to go to work then. You better get ready for your gig,” Bonnie said while leaving the room.

I sat on my bed just staring at my reflection in mirror across the room. Before I realized, almost two hours had passed. “Shit!” I snapped out of my trance, grabbed my guitar and ran out to meet my band mates.

I finally met up with my band mates at the club we were playing at tonight. “Late as usual, I see.”

“Bite me, Vanessa,” I responded. “Still using that shitty electric blue hair dye, I see.”

“Okay you two. Enough,” the last band member moved between us to stop the fight about to happen.

“Good evening, Octavia. Is your voice going to be okay tonight? I’m sure there was a lot of screaming between you too last night.”

Octavia blushed. “You said nobody wouldn’t know,” Octavia said while smacking Vanessa.

“Ha! I knew it,” I exclaimed.

“Way to go, blabbermouth,” Vanessa said.

“I… but… you… no….” Octavia stumbled out before being cut off by one of the club employees.

“Two minutes till you guys are on,” the employee said ducking her head back out of the doorway.

We grabbed our instruments and headed to the stage. The club had most of the lights out except for a few special effect lights creating a starscape on the ceiling. “Woah,” Vanessa mumbled as she sat down behind her drum set.

“Yeah, way cooler than anything we’ve played at before,” I said. Looking out at the audience I thought I saw a familiar woman. “Hey guys, where are we playing at again,” I asked.

Octavia put her hand over the mic. “The Lunar Lowdown,” she said to me.

“Excuse me for a minute,” I said rushing off stage. Moving through the audience I went for the lady. About half way through the group of people the lady turned around and rushed out the front door. “Hey! Wait up,” I yelled chasing her through the door.

As I exited the club I entered a void of nothingness. “I knew it,” I said. “Why don’t you just show yourself? I already know I’m in a dream.”

Walking out of the darkness in front of me appeared Princess Luna again. “So what now?”

“Nothing my child,” Luna said in a hushed tone. “I merely wanted to keep an eye over you as you slept tonight until my arrival. You seem to be very keen to my presence in your dreams.”

“Well, you make it easy. You know, with all the stars and whatnot.”

“Yes, I must take some form in the dream. Now you must go back to sleep.” Luna waved her hand and I passed out.

~~~

“Lauren, wake up.”

“Five more minutes,” I growled before being pelted in the head by a small rock. “Ow! What was that for?”

“Lauren, your trial is in ten minutes.”

I got out of the cot and was greeted by a now familiar purple pony and a new, taller, night blue pony. “I’m going to go on a limb here and say you’re Princess Luna.”

“Very observant of you,” Luna continued. “We’re going to try and make this trial go as quickly as we can. You are going to just stand there. Do not say anything. Do not do anything. Let us do all the speaking. Most of all do not panic.” Luna paused for a moment while she opened the cell and led me out. “It is an open forum trial out in the courtyard. If this goes well we will be done in a matter of minutes.” We paused again before exiting the building into the courtyard. “Ready? Deep breath; here we go.”

Luna opened the door and led me out to the central platform. Once I stepped outside the crowd around the platform starting yelling. “Burn the changeling!” “Give us back our friend!” “Change back!” “The only good changeling is a dead changeling!” “Exile is too good!” I felt a lump in the pit of my stomach.

Once at the center of the platform Luna directed me to stand to the right of the stage, she then stood behind the podium. “That will be enough of that!” Luna’s voice bellowed out as if coming through a megaphone. The crowd instantly fell silent. “Now that’s better. I Luna, Princess of Equestria will proceed over this hearing. Would the accusers please take their place on the platform.”

The two ponies I ran into a few days before had taken their place. “Would the accused please face the accusers.” I turned to face the grey and white ponies across the platform. “Good, now, I am officially pardoning the accused.”

Half of the crowd cocked their heads; the other half started yelling again. “Quite,” Luna stepped out from the back of the podium, walking between myself and the other ponies on the platform.

“It is true, the pony to my left is in fact not Lyra Heartstrings; but she is also not a changeling. This pony you see here is Lauren Hammonds; she comes from another world. There was an accident in Twilight’s lab with Lyra which caused Lyra and Lauren here to switch places.” Luna waved me to walk over to her. I stood next to her and smiled sheepishly. “Lauren is an innocent victim in this mess and is to be treated like any other pony until Twilight figures out a way to swap them back.”

~~~

“So wait, that worked,” I asked into the makeshift multiworld walkie-talkie.

“Yeah,” Lauren’s voice came out of the device. “They just mumbled a bit and all left. Your friends apologized to me then left also. Luna spent the rest of the day trying to help Twilight figure this out but since I broke the machine it looks like we’re a little s.o.l. until they can fix it.”

“Bummer.” I leaned back in the chair. “So what do we do until then?”

“Well, you act normal. I don’t think Earth is going to be as accepting of the whole ‘I’m from another world’ thing. Otherwise, I don’t know.”

“Twilight, How long do you think it’s going to take to fix that thing?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight responded. “I’ve never seen anything like this before, Luna said everything else from the old project it was involved in has already been scrapped.”

“Okay. I guess just let me know. Bye,”

~~~

“The end,” an elderly woman said to the three children sitting in front of her rocking chair.

“Oh that story wasn’t any cool,” the first child said.

The second child jumped up off the floor. “Yeah! Where’s the dragon fighting?! Or the bugs that eat everything?!”

“Or the chaos man?!” The third child interrupted.

“Okay, time for bed you three,” a voice said from the other room.

“But mom!” all three cried in unison.

“No buts,” their mother said coming into the room. “Now go,” she said in a harsh tone.

After the three children went upstairs the mother turned to her own mother. “You know mom, I know you love these ‘stories’ but I don’t like you telling them all the time you’re from some other world.”

“Oh there’s no harm in it,” the old lady waved her hand at her daughter. “Nobody ever believes me anyway.”

The woman sighed, “Goodnight mom.” Then went upstairs herself.

The old lady rocked back and forth for a few more minutes before retiring to her room too. Once in the room she slowly walked to her closet and pulled out a small box buried under years of unused items.

She placed the box on the bed and ran her hand across the seamless sides. When her hand reached the middle of the top she stopped moving it. Resting her hand, she concentrated and both her hand and box were enveloped in a golden glow. “It’s been too long,” she said as the front of the box popped off slightly allowing the top to open.

Inside the box was a familiar white orb faintly blinking on and off. “That’s strange,” the elderly woman said as she took the orb out of the box and placed it on the bed next to her. She tapped the orb, “Hello?” she asked into the orb. “Weird, it usually only glowed when they would call me.”

“Hello, Lyra, is that you?” A voice came out of the orb.

The elderly woman jump back a second before replying. “Yes… is this Luna?”

“Oh it’s so good to hear your voice again. How have you been?”

“I’ve been fine. Why are you calling? I thought we all agreed years ago that we’d stop calling.”

“Yes, we did. I thought it would be appropriate to try and contact you. I’ve actually been trying every night for three years now.”

“Why,” Lyra asked shifting nervously on the bed.

“Lyra,” Luna’s tone softened. “Lyra, I just wanted to let you know that Lauren passed.”

“Oh,” Lyra said, her eyes tearing up.

“Don’t worry; it was peaceful, in her sleep. I just wanted to let you know.”

“Okay. Give my regards to her family.”

“I will, Lyra, I will. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” Lyra tapped the device off, put it back into its box and placed it back in the closet under the other forgotten items. Once she got herself into bed she waved her hand turning off the lights with her magic. Before drifting to sleep Lyra said the same two words she as repeated every night for the past sixty years.

“I’m sorry.”

Chapter Seven: Explanation

“What happened?” I asked.

“She hung up,” Bonnie responded. There was a new noise coming from the device, and Bonnie tapped another symbol to make it stop.

Teresa stood up, clapping her hands. “Well then, it seems we have ourselves our very own conspiracy. I’ll get the map and pins.”

Sam pulled her back down into her seat. “Slow down there, Nancy Drew. All this tells us is that she knows the name, and it’s enough of a trigger to make her panic. Why not call them back But talk to your dad this time?”

“He has a point. They are husband and wife, so she would have probably told him about this sort of thing,” Bonnie said. “Okay, take two.”

The phone started singing “All I want is a place to call my own. To mend–”

“What is it doing?”

“It’s Lauren's parents.” Bonnie tapped another symbol on the device.

“Hello?” said a familiar male voice.

“Hi dad,” I replied. “Wha–”

“Lauren, how do you know that name?”

“I wanted to speak to mom about this. Wait, why do you know that name?”

“I know more about your mother than you’d think.”

“Can I speak with her?”

“She’d rather not right now. Listen to me, you’re going to forget that name and stay away from whoever told you it. It’s not somebody your mother wants to think about.”

“Excuse me, but I will not forget my own mother’s name!” I yelled at the device.

There was a long pause, then a heavy sigh. “You’re not Lauren, are you?” Teresa was waving her hands at me.

Ignoring Teresa’s warning, I replied honestly. “No, I’m not. My name is Lyra Heartstrings, and Alma Maredie Heartstrings is my mother. I wanted to talk to Lauren’s mother to see if she knew how I could get back home.”

Muffled noises came from the device. “Who are you?” A female voice responded this time.

“Like I said a second ago, I’m Lyra Heartstrings, and Alma Maredie Heartstrings is my mother.”

“Impossible. Where are you from?”

I sighed. “Equestria. Born in Canterlot, moved to Ponyville about five years ago.”

“You’re lying. This is some sort of practical joke. Y-You started to remember things and now want to play a joke on me. Ha ha. There, joke;s over.”

“This isn’t a joke. What do I have to do to prove it?”

“There’s nothing to prove this isn’t all a joke.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say!” I sighed. “I just want to get back home.”

“Fine describe your mother then.”

“She is a teal unicorn with a long, curly fuschia mane and tail, although her tail is shorter. Her cutie mark is a purple outline of a violin with a yellow spiral around it. Sh–”

“S-Stop.” I could hear her crying. “T-That was me.”

“Was you?” I asked.

There was a long pause. “Yes, I’m not from here either. I was originally from Equestria also. I always wondered if the EBI would still be looking for me.”

“Don’t you mean the FBI?” Sam cut in.

“Who was that?”

Teresa slapped Sam in the back of the head. “Great going idiot, now she knows we were listening.”

“They’re just friends, Mrs. Hammonds,” Bonnie replied. Looking up at the two in question she continued, “And they can keep their mouths shut, can’t they?”

“Yes,” they replied in unison.

“Anyway,” Misses Hammonds continued, “the EBI is the Equestrian Bureau of Investigation. As it turns out, there are multiple universes. In Equestria, some ponies can apparently see into these other worlds. The EBI was always on the lookout for these individuals. They always wanted to learn new technologies from these worlds. Most are too different from ours to get anything useful, but occasionally they find one close enough that there is useful information. When that happens, they send an agent in. Well, I was one of these agents. I’m guessing you know this already though.”

“N-No,” I stammered out.

“Wait, the EBI didn’t send you to finally bring me back?”

“No, this is news to me.”

“Well, kid, I hate to tell you this, but you’re stuck here. Better get used to that body and quickly,” she said curtly.

“Why would the EBI leave you here?” Sam asked.

“They didn’t. At least, I hope they tried something. See, there was this device they created to open portals. I don’t really know if that is even the right word for it. Whatever it was, the pony with the visions would have this dish strapped to their head, and they would be told to focus their magic.”

“Fuck. This dish, would it have had lights on it?”

“No, but that was fifty-some years ago. It could have changed. I thought you said the EBI didn’t send you?”

“They didn’t,” I continued to explain what had happened over the last day and a half.

“It sounds like this Twilight found and repurposed one of those dishes, but without the other half of the device.”

“Not to interrupt this incredibly thrilling tale of everything I've already heard, but I want to know what the dish actually does.” He flinched as Teresa slapped him again. “Geez.”

“Right. Anyway, the dish only worked with unicorns, and they were asked to focus their magic into the dish. The dish was placed on the head of the unicorn and focused the pure magic into a big machine it was connected to. The facility was built at a place where certain ley lines intersected. Everybody assumed the ley lines helped boost the magic to a new level and allowed, or at least helped, the unicorn to open a portal to another world. Then, the agent would step through the portal and sometimes–like in the case of this world–our bodies would change while we passed through.”

“So, what if it opens near people?” Sam again cut in.

“Well, when that happened, we used stun crystals. We would throw it through, wait two seconds, and then walk through and go about our job.”

“How do you explain the pony version of you that is still in Equestria?” I asked.

“From my experience, when these portals would open near inhabitants in the world we were traveling to, we would often come out on the other side looking like them. We could never explain it, though we thought it had something to do with how the visions worked. When this portal opened, we saw the person on this side cooking. She must have seen the portal reflection in the window, but she still turned around and walked through it.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Honestly, I don't know. I went through the moment she came through our end. Most commonly, people just said they were curious, but sometimes, others said they were drawn to the portal. Either way, when our mission was over, their memory of the portal and any time spent in Equestria was wiped, and they were sent back through the portal.”

“Okay, two questions. One, if I’m understanding this correctly, I’m still Lyra, not Lauren. Two, why didn’t you go back?”

“First, your body is still Lyra’s. You just look like Lauren. Second, I tried. It turns out this world has almost no magic in it. The device I would have used to signal home doesn’t have any power. Without my signal, they would have assumed that I was captured by this world’s government, injured or even dead. They won’t risk a second agent going into the same world.”

“So, I’m stuck here. Great. And I can’t even do magic.”

“Not entirely. If Lauren can somehow learn magic and recreate the event, then she could reopen the portal. My girl is smart, and I have faith she’ll get it. Not to mention, she has unicorn DNA in her. Technically, both you and her are half-pony half-human. The worlds just had a way of making you look normal. And I didn’t say there was no magic in this world, just almost none. It took me thirty years, but I relearned how to do the simpler things. Oh, and the memory wipe spell, of course.”

“Why do you need to know a brain-wiping spell?” Teresa asked hesitantly.

“It can come in incredibly useful. For example, I used it on a cop the other day when he caught me speeding.”

"You what?" Lauren's father exclaimed in the background.

“That’s completely unethical,” Bonnie said.

“Eh, I can only hold enough magic to wipe the last five minutes or so. Anyway, if you guys don’t mind, I’m going to get back to cooking breakfast. Lauren's father and I will catch one of the next flights. Bonnie, I’ll call you when we land. You don’t mind picking us up, right?”

“I guess not,” Bonnie replied.

“Great. Bonnie, I'll catch up with you then. Lyra, I’ll try and reteach you some magic. Maybe you can help get my Lauren back. As for the other two in the room, I hope you can keep quiet about all this.”

“Yes,” Teresa and Sam replied in unison.

“Good.”