Welcome to Ponyville -- Now GO HOME!

     The rest of the day continued uneventfully -- truthfully, humans didn't show up all that frequently, but they had a tendency to arrive in bunches, with relatively lengthy stretches of time before another wave of them would arrive.  Amethyst had dreaded the appearance of another human, as it meant there would be more to come.  They had a brief discussion over dinner on possible strategies.

     "How many more are going to come this time?  The last time we had a stretch of human visitors, it was one right after another -- fourteen times!  I thought we'd be done with them by now," the purple mare complained loudly.

     "I don't know, Ammy.  The Princess is working on this problem as well, but we haven't made any progress.  I'd be tempted to ask Discord, but ... I don't want to deal with him," the lavender mare mused, practically shuddering upon mentioning the dragonequus by name.

     "Hmm, you may be right.  I might have to go have a talk with him myself," the purple mare said pensively.  She seemed to strike a thoughtful pose as she rubbed her chin with her right forehoof.

      "I'd be careful about that, Ammy.  You never know what he might do."  The librarian seemed to cringe at the thought that her housemate would contemplate the idea of talking to the God of Chaos, despite the fact that the purple mare had faced him down before and showed no fear of him.

      "Well, I'll give it some consideration, Twi.  I think if anypony might have an answer, it'd be him, though I doubt he'd have anything constructive to do about it -- and if he's responsible for opening a portal to allow them to visit, well ... I'd hate to be in his hooves or feet or whatever it is he walks around on."

      "Your power is no match for his!  Ammy, why do you say these things?" asked a flabbergasted Twilight.

      "Relax, Twi, I'm just going to lecture him on such foolishness," the purple mare chuckled.  "Jeez, you act like he's some kind of god or something."

      "But he IS, Ammy!  Have you any idea of what he can really do?"

      "I know full well his capabilities, Twi.  I won't threaten him -- that'd be very foolish on my part.  I just want some answers, that's all.  I don't know how much I can trust him, though -- I wonder how EJ and Stephanie would react to seeing him."

     "Oh, Ammy.  You know he's not their real father -- you told me the sperm donor was a royal guardspony."

     "Yeah, but he was their surrogate father -- he took them out of my arms after I gave birth to both of them.  I'm still quite bitter about that, Twi -- and that's another issue I'd like to bring up with him."

      "You told me it was somepony pretending to be him!  What's he going to think, being accused of tricking you into having foals for him?"

      The purple mare hung her head.  "Yeah, I know.  This Discord isn't the same as the one I ran into on my home world.  Even so, the appearance is virtually identical.  I don't know how well connected he is to his counterparts across dimensional barriers or whatnot, but I think, as far as my son and daughter are concerned, his appearance might make them happy."

      Twilight chuckled at the irony.  "I'd be curious to see his reaction to them cheerfully cantering up to him," she mused.

      The purple mare laughed softly at the idea.  "I'm pretty sure he'd be shocked at first, but then maybe he has a soft spot -- I don't know.  They still think he's their father, though.  Then again, he might get upset over it, so I doubt bringing them with me would be all that helpful.  I'll have to sleep on that for the time being."

      "If you're going to talk to Discord, at least be very careful, Ammy," the librarian cautioned.

      "Indeed I will, Twi.  Good-night, I'm going to get some rest," the purple mare stated, yawning a little before trotting upstairs to her room.  Twilight stayed up a bit later, getting caught up on some of her reading, though she silently pondered the problem that was plaguing Equestria.  She re-read a certain book on humans for the sixteenth time, hoping that she might have overlooked a key detail which might unlock the solution to the problem.  A few hours later, she trotted off to bed herself, her dragon assistant already having gone to bed about the same time Amethyst had done so.

      -------------------------------------------

     It was during the middle of the night that another human visitor arrived in Ponyville, but this time the visitor had arrived in Twilight's bed.  Loud screaming coming from the librarian's room awoke Amethyst with a start.  She rose to her hooves quickly and entered the room, turning on the lights, and was shocked by what she saw: a dark-skinned female human who bore a very strong resemblance to a woman the purple mare had once known when she was a human.

     Twilight, the female human, and Spike took turns shouting "AAAAAHH!" at each other, causing Amethyst to shake her head and chuckle at the irony of the situation.

     "Brenda?  How did you get here?" the purple mare asked.  All three of them stopped shouting and stood in stunned silence.

     "How do you know who I am?  What are you?  Where am I?" asked the dark-skinned woman.

     "Amethyst -- you KNOW this human?" asked Twilight.

     "Why'd she show up here in Twilight's room?" asked Spike.

     "One at a time, Twi, Spike, Brenda.  If you must know, Brenda, I was once married to you in a past life," the dark purple mare grinned.  "Twi, she was my wife -- a looong time ago.  Spike, your guess is as good as mine.  Humans have a very annoying tendency to show up in random areas when they're sent or travel here.  Brenda, you have landed in Equestria, more specifically, Ponyville.  The fact that you landed in Twilight's room is extremely disconcerting."

     "I don't know you!  How the Hell do you claim to be married to me?" asked a flabbergasted Brenda.

     "My story is long and convoluted, Brenda, and I don't really have time to tell you all the details.  Is your husband's name Michael Walker?" the purple mare asked.

    "I never married him!  We've been living together for more than 20 years!  Don't tell me you used to be him!"

    "Yeah, it's true.  That was quite a long time ago -- about nine years or so, if I'm not mistaken."

     "But ... you're ... female?  How did you ..."

     "Princess Celestia did this for me about four years ago.  I've been living with Twilight here for those four years."

     "But that doesn't make nine years," mused Brenda.

     "The first four or five years I spent living in a copy of Twilight's body and had a couple of foals," the purple mare responded.

     "You mean you had ... babies?!" Brenda asked incredulously.

     "Ammy, are you going to send her back home?" asked Spike.  "She's making me a little nervous."

     "Spike, I need to talk to her a bit longer.  I haven't seen her in about nine years, so I hope you might understand my reluctance to return her so soon."  Twilight was taking notes while this exchange between the purple mare and the woman was taking place.

     "Don't mind me, I'm just taking notes," grinned Twilight.

     "So what are you?  You didn't answer me!"

     "I'm a pony -- more specifically, a unicorn.  So is Twilight over here," the purple mare stated, pointing her right forehoof at the librarian.  "Spike is a dragon, though he's still in the very early stages of his life.  Hey, Spike, how long is it going to take before you reach full maturity as a dragon?"

     "Princess Celestia said it might be a hundred years or so," the little drake replied.  "I'll keep on growing as long as I live and that may be as many as forty centuries!"

     "I didn't think dragons lived that long," Brenda mused.

     "How long do you think we live?" he asked, showing a little surprise.

     "I dunno -- a thousand years, perhaps?' she replied, though her words underscored her uncertainty.

     "But even a thousand years is a long time," Twilight noted.  "We ponies don't live that long -- only Alicorns do, and there are only three of them that I know of -- Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadance."

     "I'm still curious to know how you got here, Brenda," the purple mare stated flatly.

     "I'd like to know how it happened, too!  Last night, I laid down to sleep, then I found myself here!  I wanna go back home!"

     "Ammy, I'm curious to know more about her," the librarian mused.

     "I can fill you in on some of those details, Twi.  I will grant her wish and send her back home."

     "It's nice to know you're good for something," Brenda stated somewhat sarcastically.

     "On second thought, maybe we can let her stay so you can get some information from her," Amethyst responded, her words taking on an icy tone.

     "Look, please just send me back home -- okay?  I don't wanna spend any more time here than I have to!"

     "Ammy, wait!  Let me talk to her for awhile!"

     "Twi, there's nothing you need to know from her -- she needs to go back home, and that's where I'm sending her now."  The purple mare lit her horn and enveloped the dark-skinned woman in a pale blue aura and teleported her back to her home world.  "Look, Twi, I'm sorry.  There's too much baggage between me and her, and I'm not in the mood to have her hanging around here.  Besides, I've been charged with returning them and frankly, she spent too much time here for my taste.  Add to that, I need to get some more sleep -- and so do you!" the purple mare grinned, then turned tail and returned to her bed.

     "Ammy, I'm going to ask you a lot of questions about her!  We're going to spend tomorrow talking about her!" the librarian called through her closed door.  Spike had already curled back up in his basket and fallen asleep.