The Harbinger

Chapters

A Strange Visitor
Choose Well
Ride Me
The End of a Journey,
And the Beginning of a New One

A Strange Visitor

Two men stepped into the vast and dark warehouse of the Sunrise Research Institution. The sensors of the entrance noticed their presence and initiated the ’lights-up’ routine. It only took a few seconds for the system to enlighten the room. The younger man blinked a few times before his eyes readjusted to the light.

“This, Phoenix, is the warehouse, where our shipments arrive. We just got a new one today, and I hope you’ll be satisfied with the choices for your first research program in the institution,” the older man said, looking at the other one.

Phoenix could hardly hear his guide’s words, as his attention was completely consumed by the huge variety machines and robots he spotted in the storage. His mouth first went wide open, then slowly formed a grin. The older man didn’t mind that he lost Phoenix’s attention, and started walking deeper into the storage. Phoenix noticed this from the corner of his eyes, and started moving as well. As they were walking around, they passed by a lot of robots and boxes, probably containing more robots.

Finally! After ten years of hard learning and working, I finally reached my goal. I’m here, Phoenix though.

They stopped at a huge black machine. It looked like a T-Rex from a history museum, but was made of metal. It also had two—currently turned-off—red lamps as eyes and its hands were substituted by two machine guns. It was three times higher than them. They were both looking up to this monster.

“What do you think, Mr. Johnson, what name should we give it?” Phoenix asked.

Mr. Johnson raised an eyebrow as he glanced back to Phoenix. He then shrugged and asked, “What do you think?”

Phoenix pressed his lips together and narrowed his eyes. “I think the name ‘Predator’ really describes this monster.”

“Well, you can call it whatever you want. However, its original name is Destroyer MK-31, so keep that in mind while you’re communicating with the guys.”

“Of course,” Phoenix replied with a nod.

They continued walking around in the warehouse. Phoenix was giving names to anything he found, while Mr. Johnson was adding Phoenix’s acts to the list of “newcomer’s enthusiasm” in his mind. Finally, they reached a big cage.

The resident of the cage was different from all the other robots in the warehouse. Phoenix’s eyes went wide open at the sight of it. The robot inside the cage had the form of a female equine and was less than one meter at the withers. It had a soft-orange body and a dark-pink mane that covered the upper part of its face and hung down at the two sides of its head to its upper arms. Its eyes were turquoise and it had a flower at its right ear that matched its eye color.

“What is this?” Phoenix demanded.

Mr. Johnson smiled at his co-worker’s reaction and said, “This is the Trojan-1034. According to the specification, it was planned to be used for spying and sabotage purposes.“

Phoenix raised his left eyebrow and made a small forced laugh. “How? Numbing its targets with its cute look until they tell it everything?”

“Sort of,“ Mr. Johnson said. “It abuses the emotional problems of its target, acting as a good friend, which eventually leads to the target telling his secrets. Or at least, that’s what the specification says.”

Phoenix stepped closer, and walked around the cage. He also noticed that the equine had a small white cross, hanging from its neck, and had a tattoo on his haunch. The tattoo contained three trumpets with red flags hanging down from each.

“Identify yourself!” Phoenix ordered.

“Trojan-1034 unit, infiltrator,” the robot answered.

Phoenix was looking at the robot, blinking and thinking.

“What’s the problem, newbie?” Mr. Johnson teased.

“This robot is… strange.”

Mr. Johnson looked at Trojan, then looked back to Phoenix. “I cannot see any problem with it. Sure it looks like a kid’s toy, but except that, I don’t see anything strange.”

“Look in its eyes, it looks so… alive, and also its voice. I’ve never heard such a perfect voice imitation from a robot. It sounds so soft and… melodious.”

Mr. Johnson crossed his arms and pressed his lips together at the left of his mouth. “If you say so. I don’t find anything special in either its eyes or in its voice. And the last word I’d use for that sound that this machine generates is melodious.“

He stepped to Phoenix and put his arm on Phoenix’s shoulder. “Anyways, as you know, tomorrow each researcher can choose his own subject for the next season. I know you had much less time to observe than the others, so here is an access card,” he said and pulled out a small blue card from his pocket. “You can come back later this night if you need more time for the decision, but from 18:00-19:00 there is a cleaning service running, so we need to leave now.“

Phoenix nodded and accepted the card. “Thanks, boss. I’ll definitely come back later, but now I must go home anyways. Sophie must have already arrived at home.”

“Your… daughter?” Mr. Johnson asked.

“Yes. Her classmate’s mother brings her home, because they live next door.“

“And does she have a key?”

“Yes of course. She goes in, closes the door behind her, then watches the TV or plays with her games until I arrive.”

Mr. Johnson smiled, and asked, “And how old is she?”

“She’s six years old.”

Mr. Johnson’s eyes widened. “And you give keys to your six-year-old daughter?”

Phoenix scratched his head. “She’s more mature than her age would tell. I’m taking care of her myself, but she proved herself to be trustworthy several times already.”

“Cleaning routine failed. Please leave the warehouse. Retrying in 5 minutes,” ahigh-pitched female voice said from above.

Phoenix checked his clock. It was 18:01.

“Well… I guess your daughter cannot cook yet, and the cleaning service cannot run until we are present, so we should both leave. I’ll escort you to the exit.”

Phoenix nodded and they walked out of the room. Before they left, Phoenix glanced back once more to the strange equine-robot. For a moment, he could swear that he saw it gulping, but noticed nothing else. He turned his head forward, and left the warehouse with his boss.

“Sophie! I’m home!”

Phoenix put down his case and replaced his shoes with a pair of slippers. He heard a few thuds from upstairs, moving forward. When the thuds reached the other side of the house, where the stairs connected the two levels, two tiny legs appeared at the top of the stairs. They rapidly moved down, revealing the torso of a six-year-old girl. She only made a few steps and crouched down to see who is downstairs.

“Hi dad!” she said. Her long, blond hair was hanging down from her head while she was peeking through the wooden railing of the stairs with her blue eyes.

“Hi Sophie! How was school today?” Phoenix asked while he was walking into the dining room.

Sophie sat down on the stairs. She moved her sight upwards for a few seconds then looked back to Phoenix. “It was OK. Ms. Caroline let us play the whole day.“

Phoenix frowned. “Hm… That’s weird. I know there are only two weeks left of school, but… eh. When I was attending to school, we even had finals on the last week.“

Sophie walked down on the stairs. “Even when you were a first grader?”

Phoenix scratched his head. Yeah, maybe that was in secondary school. “Maybe you’re right. I don’t remember my first year in primary school.“

Sophie’s face suddenly lit up. She started peeking behind Phoenix.

“Oh sorry Sophie, I didn’t bring anything home,” Phoenix said.

“Awww,“ Sophie moaned as her face lost its brightness. “I thought you would bring home some cute robot. Like a bird or a dog or a pony.“

Phoenix laughed a little when Sophie mentioned ‘pony’. “Eh, maybe tomorrow,“ Phoenix said with a mischievous smile. Even though it would be foolish to choose Trojan. I saw much better subjects, he though.

Sophie stared at Phoenix. "Daddy, you look scary when you smile like that.”

“Oh, sorry darling,“ he said as he glanced down at Sophie. He then looked at the kitchen. “What do you think about dinner? Some chicken with rice?”

Sophie grimaced. “Not rice again, we’ve been having rice for like… forever.”

“Okay then, I’ll try to make some fries,”—Sophie lit up again—“but do not expect anything better than last time!”

Sophie waved her right hand. “Anything is better than rice.“

“Deal. I’ll change my clothes and start cooking. You can watch TV until that.”

Sophie glanced at the clock on the wall. “Oh, My Little Pony’s starting in 2 minutes!” she said, and rushed to the sofa in the living room. She found the remote control and switched to Hub, which was broadcasting the advertisement of some sticky toy at that moment.

Phoenix went upstairs and changed his clothes. He was about to put away his office suit, but changed his mind. I’ll go back later anyways, he thought, and laid his suit on his bed. After that, he went downstairs, and started preparing the dinner in the kitchen. While he was making it, he could easily hear what Sophie was watching, because Phoenix left the kitchen door open. After a few minutes, he noticed hearing strange, sharp sounds coming from the living room. He also heard someone laughing, but its sound was rather crazy and it was reverbing. Is she still watching that pony cartoon? he thought as he frowned and looked at the kitchen door. After a few seconds of hesitation, he decided to check it out.

He walked to the living room. He looked at the TV and relieved as he saw a familiar pink pony walking around in a room with a baby pony sitting in a baby bed. The pink one wasn’t too calm, her pupils were shrunk and she pressed her teeth together. Hm… But why is that room so dark? And why are there the reverbing sounds? The next twenty seconds made Phoenix stare at the TV screen. A second baby pony appeared on the ceiling and slowly walked towards the pink one, then looked down. Was that… a Trainspotting reference?!

Sophie giggled. She noticed her father’s entrance and stood up on the sofa to watch his reactions. “Careful dad, your eyes’ll fall out if you keep staring like that.“

Phoenix shook his head and looked at Sophie. “Ah, sorry, this last scene was kinda… interesting.“

“Why? Did you like it?” Sophie asked with a grin.

“Ehm… it was referring to another movie that’s for… older people.”

“Oh! Can I watch it?”

Phoenix cocked an eyebrow. “Aren’t you watching My Little Pony now?”

Sophie looked back at the TV screen, then waved her hand. “This is the third time I watch Baby Cakes. So,“—she turned back to Phoenix—“can I watch that other movie?”

Phoenix shook his head again. “No! Definitely not! Maybe when you’re like… twelve years older.“

“Hmph,” Sophie sulked and fell back to sitting position. She had learned from her dad’s reactions when she could argue with him, and this was not that time.

The dinner was ready in twenty minutes. The fries were not perfect, but a lot better than last time. Or at least that was what Phoenix thought as he was watching his daughter happily eating up all the potato goodies with ketchup before even starting with the chicken. “You know you have to eat the meat slice as well?” Phoenix asked. Sophie answered with a nod while she was cramming the sticks into her mouth one by one. Phoenix glanced at the clock. It was 19:34. Hm… maybe it’s time go back to the research facility. I’m not planning to stay up all night. He turned to her daughter. “Sophie, I’ll go back to my workplace and probably won’t come back until like ten. Make sure you have a bath and wash your teeth before you go to bed. I’ll check it,” he said, pointing a finger at Sophie with a mischievous smile.

Sophie rolled her eyes, then gulped the food she had in her mouth. “Okay dad, just don’t smile like that.“

Phoenix decided to play around a little, before he leaved. He pulled his hand back and put his elbow on the table. He put his face into his palm and acted crying. “I can’t even smile! Oh, how miserable my life is! When will the dark reign of Queen Sophie end?“

Sophie laughed. She stood up on the chair, raised her head and stretched out her arm. “Do not fear my subject, your queen is merciful. Hereby I grant you the right to smile every day you want. But that creepy smile is limited to once per day.” She pointed a finger at Phoenix. “If I see you doing that more than once, your punishment will not be delayed.“

Phoenix stood up. “Thank you my queen. I’m grateful for your mercy,” Phoenix said with a bow.

Sophie giggled. “Do you think I’d be a good actress?”

Phoenix straightened and smiled. “If the role is being a queen or a princess, you’re better than anyone else know in your age.”

Sophie frowned. “Dad, you don’t know anyone else in my age at all.”

Phoenix glanced at the clock again, then nodded. “Point taken, but I must go now.” He walked to Sophie and kissed her on her forehead. “Be a good girl!”

“Don’t worry, I’m not planning to burn down the house,“ Sophie said with mischievous smile.

Phoenix acted being hurt. “Hey! Why’re you smiling like that? I thought it’s forbidden in your kingdom!”

Sophie crossed her arms. “I’m the queen. I do whatever I want.”

Phoenix giggled. “Well my queen, I must return to my duties to bring food to the royal kitchens.“

Sophie smiled. “See you later dad!”

“See you darling!”

When he arrived at the institution, it was dark already. During the drive, he had realized that he had forgotten to switch back his clothes, but had decided not to turn back as probably no one else was at the facility that time. He used his card at the entrance and it automatically opened for him. He walked in and started searching for the depo. He first got lost in the huge complex, and ended up at another entrance at the back of the building. After walking around for a few more minutes—and this time following the map on the wall—he found the door. He opened it with his card, and walked in. The room lightened itself up again.

He continued to go deeper into the depo, glancing around. Should I start examining the Walker, or the Predator, or… ah… Who’re you trying to lie Phoenix? he thought as he rolled his eyes. “TROJAN-1034, REVEAL ME YOUR LOCATION!” Phoenix shouted.

“I’m here,” a soft voice said from the left side.

He walked at the direction of the voice and reached the cage. He stopped for a moment, then did another loop around the cage. The equine was trying to follow him with its eyes, as he walked around the cage, but did not turn its head.

Phoenix finished his loop and stood still before it, with his hands crossed. “Trojan, do not move! Is the order clear?”

“The order is clear, “ Trojan answered.

Phoenix opened the cage and walked in, closing it behind himself. The cage was barely high enough for Phoenix to stand straight up. He walked close to the robot. He didn’t notice it yet, but the ‘robot’ started to perspire. He walked to the side of it and crunched. He touched its barrel. “Warm body?”He pushed it a little. The robot quietly moaned. “And elastic?”He turned to the head of the horse. “Explain, Trojan!”

“I was made fo…for infiltration, my disguise must be perfect,” Trojan said, facing forward. However, its voice wasn’t steady.

Phoenix now put his right hand on the chest of the creature, and his left hand in front of the mouth of it. The equine startled a little at the sudden appearance of Phoenix’s hand so close to its eyes.

“1034, you’re…breathing… and I can even feel your heartbeat, beating very fast,“ Phoenix said.

Trojan now started sweating heavily and shaking a little. Phoenix stood up, and walked back to the front of it again. He stared into its eyes.

“Why do you fear Trojan?” he asked. “You’re an infiltrator unit. If I acknowledge you as an alive thing, then it means your disguise succeeded. You should be happy.” He paused for a moment, then moved close to the equine’s face. “So tell me Trojan, WHY DO YOU FEAR?!” Phoenix shouted.

Trojan fell back to its hindquarters.

“HAHA! You failed! I ordered you not to move and you disobeyed me!” Phoenix stated victoriously. “Which means you’re… you’re …” The realization run through his head.

“Yes, I’m a living pony,” she said, and hung her head down.

“Yeah but… no. NO! This is impossible! Imposs…” He gasped. “Am I crazy? Maybe that cartoon I wa… no, no, no, I’m perfectly sane.“ He turned to the pony and pointed out a finger. “You! I don’t know what you are or how did you get in here or how can you talk, but you are an intruder…yes and intruder! I will… call the police. Yes!” He turned, and tried to walk out of the cage with confident steps. He was anything but confident at this moment.

The pony jerked her head up. “No! Please! Please don’t go away! It’s… horrible to be alone here… in the darkness.“

Phoenix stopped, but then continued walking. “You chose to come here as a machine, bear the consequences.”

She stood up, and raised her front right hoof. “Please,” she begged.

Phoenix stopped again, and bent down his head. “Why… why would I help you?”

“Be… because…” she said, hesitating.

Phoenix turned, scowling and crossed his arms. “I’m listening.”

“B…” She stopped. She put down her hoof, took a big breath and released it. “Because the only human in this world who can see through my disguise is called… Phoenix. That’s your name, r…right?” she asked, looking up at Phoenix with wide eyes.

“How do you…”—Phoenix eyes went wide open, then narrowed—“Oh, no, no, no, wait! You heard my name when we were talking in front of you with Mr. Johnson.“

“You… you didn’t say your name when you were talking to him, and neither did he,” she defended herself.

“Hm… A colorful, talking horse trying to convince me that she has a disguise that only I can see through on this whole planet? Make a more believable story than that!” he said. Even though I’m not sure what counts to be believable in a situation when I’m having conversation with a pink and orange colored pony.

“Please Phoenix, you must believe me! There… there must be a way to… oh!” She stopped as a new idea flew across her mind. “Do you have a cillphune?” she tried.

“Cillphune? You mean cellphone?” corrected Phoenix.

“Yes, that’s it! Cellphone. Do you have it with yourself?”

Phoenix dug into his pocket. “Yes, why?”

“You could try taking a picture of me. I hope that only my direct sight allows you to see me as I am,” she answered.

Phoenix rolled his eyes. Ah yeah, how clever, just trying to win some time aren’t you? Grinning in doubt, He took his cellphone anyways. He switched to the camera, moved it between himself and the pony and… his grin withered. The preview on his phone was hardly similar to the pony he was talking to. Its eyes were white, with a blue dot moving around. It didn’t have eyelids or eyelashes. Its mane was one big plastic dark-pink piece and the cross was gone from its neck. It hardly looked alive at all. So that’s why my boss wasn’t sharing my suspicion.

The pony craned her head to the left. “Does it work? Do I look different?”

Phoenix nodded. “Very impressive disguise. If I couldn’t see through it, I would say you are just a pony robot.” He put the phone back in his pocket, and hung down his hands, with fingers crossed. “So… somehow I’m the only one who can see the true… ehm… do you have a name?”

“My name is Melody Harbinger,” she introduced herself with a small bow.

“Hm… nice to meet you? I can hardly imagine a more awkward situation to meet somebody. “ Phoenix shrugged. “I guess I don’t need to introduce myself.”

Melody scratched her head with her hoof. “Don’t you have a second name? I mean…”—she moved her hoof to the right of her face—”It’s not a problem if you don’t have of course, but even in Equestria it’s very rare to have just one name as an adult.“

Phoenix nodded. “Indeed, my full name is Phoenix Freeman.”

Melody smiled. “Nice to meet you, Phoenix Freeman.”

“So…” Phoenix started, “How come that only I can see your real appearance? And how can you have such a disguise anyways?”

As an answer, Melody gave a gentle push to the cross, hanging down from her neck, which as a result began swinging back and forth. She looked up at Phoenix. “It’s my amulet. Princess Celestia gave it to me, before I left. She told me that I’ll take the form of a robot and only the Phoenix will see through my disguise.”

“And… am I supposed to know who this Celestia is?” Phoenix said with a shrug.

“Oh, sorry,“ Melody apologized with a smile. “She’s our ruler. Our other ruler is Princess Luna. We live in a diarchy.”

“So… Miss Harbinger…”

“Call me Melody please,” she said.

“Melody, what are we supposed to do now? I mean… should some miracle happen?” Phoenix asked with wide-open arms.

“I… I don’t know,” Melody admitted. “I only knew that I must find the Phoenix.”

Phoenix facepalmed. What the heck? God, what is this supposed to be? He sighed. “Nice, no direction, no command, no magic thing, nothing. You found me and I should be the one deciding what to do? You are a strange harbinger you know…”

“I know!” she interrupted. “I don’t even understand why I was chosen.” She bent down her head and started scratching the floor with her front hoof.

And she even have self-esteem problems. Great. “Why are you called ‘Harbinger’ anyways? I understand the ‘Melody’ part. You indeed have a really nice and melodious voice.”

Melody closed her eyes and smiled. “Thanks.” She opened her eyes again and started explaining. “Harbinger part comes from my school years. We had a trip to the local music museum. In the museum, there were a section where we could try out various instruments. As we were playing around with them, we found a trumpet. My schoolmates tried blowing it one by one, but they couldn’t squeeze a sound out of it.”

“I guess you were luckier than them,” Phoenix said, predicting the end of the story.

“Yes. When all my schoolmates gave up, stating the trumpet as broken, a new idea came into my mind. I picked up the trumpet, stood on my back hooves and with a deep breath I blew the trumpet with all my power.” Melody giggled. “Suddenly everypony were staring at me as the sound I made was audible in the whole building. This frightened me for a second, but I forget my fear after I checked my hindquarters,“ Melody said, pointing to her haunches. “That was the day I got my cutie mark. One of the younger foals exclaimed ‘Melody, the Harbinger!” and he was followed by the others, cheering for me and calling me Harbinger. That’s how I became Melody Harbinger.“

Somepony, everypony… this sounds so weird, Phoenix though. “So, that tattoo on your legs is called ‘cutie mark’,” commented he.

“Yes,”—Melody confirmed—“that’s what we call it. It represents the special talent each pony has. We get it when we realize our talent.”

So much information for one night. Phoenix yawned. I need some sleep. “Sorry Melody, but I must go home now. It’s—“ he checked his clock “—half past nine anyways, so I hope it’s not a problem if I leave you alone in the dark as you might want to sleep too.”

Melody nodded. “I will manage.”

“Good,” Phoenix said, and left the cage. He then turned, bent down a little and started locking back the cage. He stopped, staring at the lock.

“What is the problem, Phoenix?” Melody asked.

Phoenix straightened up, and looked at Melody frowning. “How… ehm… how could you go out?”

“Go out where?” Melody asked.

“Ehm… you know…” Phoenix hesitated, scratching his head. “To the toilet. I guess being a colorful pony does not make you excluded from the common biological processes.”

“Oh!” She giggled. “That’s another blessing that my amulet has. As you said, we ponies are not excluded from these things. However, while I’m disguised, the amulet satisfies the basic needs of my body. Although I wouldn’t mind a huge blueberry pie. I didn’t taste anything for days.”

“Hm, I don’t have that sorry,” Phoenix said. “Anyways, I really have to leave now.” He locked the cage and started walking to the exit. “Sweet dreams Melody!”

“Bye! Oh, Phoenix?”

He stopped. “Yes?”

“Thank you.”

He moved his sight to the floor. “Do not thank me. I want to help, but I don’t know yet how.” He continued walking and left the room.

“The fact that you’re willing to help me already is more than I wished for,” Melody whispered as the lights were going off. She laid down on the floor and closed her eyes. Thank you, Love, she thought. She fell asleep in a few minutes.

Phoenix arrived at home. All the lamps in the house were switched off. Sophie must be sleeping now, thought he. He took a fast bath and washed his teeth. He also checked if Sophie did everything he asked. Both Sophie’s towel and toothbrush were wet, that assured him again his daughter’s trustworthiness. After leaving the bathroom, he peeked into Sophie’s room. She was sleeping gently, hugging a yellow pony plushie in her arms. He smiled, closed back the door and walked into his room. He put away the suit from the bed, and changed to pajamas. He moved to his bed and glanced at a small, framed photo that was on a table next to the bed. There was a young woman with blond hair and green eyes, smiling to whoever made the photo.

I wonder what you would say Rachel, if you would see what I got myself into, he thought, smiling. He remembered how they had a conversation once about fictions and tales. Phoenix, although admitting that he had loved these things, had decided to deny this part of himself. He had wanted to be a realist, somebody with clear mind and lack of emotions, because “That’s what a researcher needs these days.” Rachel had argued, saying that many great scientist had been melancholic type people, and for them, emotions had been very important. Phoenix hadn’t listened to Rachel, and had made his decision permanent.

He switched the lights off, and laid into his bed. Which one should I choose tomorrow? Predator seems a really great subject for an exciting research, although its size might complicate things a little. Moonwalker is also nice and… ah, he groaned. Why? Why do I want to help her? This whole thing is stupid. A talking colorful horse from another world. And somehow I was chosen to be the only one who can see her in this whole damn world. Why would I give up my great opportunity at my dream job for such a stupid fable? He rolled to his side. Why are you letting me into such a stupid thing, God? You let me have this job, then you want me to throw it away? You took away Rachel, now you want to take away my dream? What do you want from me? Why… No, I will not let you take this away! This is my dream, and I’m going to keep it! That horse must find someone else. He angrily jerked to his other side. At the end of the bed, the picture of Rachel met his eyes. Her smile could easily melt a heart of a man, and so did Phoenix’s on the beaming sight of his former wife. Phoenix looked down, and closed his eyes. I know that’s not what she would want. I know that my will shouldn’t be the one ruling my life. He rolled to his other side. I don’t know what you want God, but I… I trust you. Please, give me wisdom to make the right choice tomorrow.

A few other thoughts went through his mind, but after ten minutes, the thoughts gave up and Phoenix drifted to the calmer seas of dreams.

Author's Note

If you're not good with colors, this is how Melody looks like in Pony Creator 3.

Choose Well

BEEEEEEEEEEEEE…thud.

The clock successfully survived the fall and—for Phoenix’s pleasure—turned off. Phoenix groaned. “I must replace this damn sound with something more calming and… Ah,”he sighed. He dismissed the idea of replacing the alarm clock as it perfectly fulfilled its purpose, and climbed out of bed. He went down to the kitchen and made some tea and a few slices of bread with jam. After that, he went upstairs and woke up Sophie. She sadly left her dream.

“Aaawww,” she groaned. “Why does good dreams always have to end?”

Phoenix smiled at the idea. A never-ending dream of a world full of what you want? I tried simulating that when I was smaller. It worked for a while but without an external source, my dreams started to dry out and I had to live in the real world anyways. Still, telling my dream to others felt like reliving them again. I guess I can use that knowledge to compensate Sophie for waking her up. He sat down next to Sophie. “What were you dreaming about, darling?”

Sophie’s eyes lit up. “Oh… I was riding Fluttershy!”

“And where were you riding him?” Phoenix asked.

Sophie’s smile faded and she frowned. “Dad, Fluttershy is a mare,” she said and showed him her plushie.

Eh… This would work much better if I’d at least watch some episodes of that pony cartoon. I’m not gonna give up though. “Oh sorry. So where were you riding her?”

Sophie glanced up at the ceiling, hugging her Fluttershy plushie. “We were… Ah, yes! We were in Ponyville, and I asked her to fly with me, and she flew up to the skies. Oh dad, that was so amazing!” She beamed as her mind brought back the image of the endless skies of Equestria.

“Weren’t you afraid that you’d fall down?”

She looked up at Phoenix. “Oh no, of course not!” she said firmly, but after looking into Phoenix’s eyes, she bent slowly her head down. “Well… for a moment yes, but I didn’t care. Fluttershy doesn’t fly fast anyways,” she said with a wave of her hand.

“Hm…” Phoenix hummed. He was out of ideas of what he could ask to bring this conversation further, so he decided to move forward with the day. “It was a really nice dream, but it’s time to wake up. School doesn’t wait you know,” he said, and stood up.

“Sure.” Sophie rolled her eyes.

“Breakfast is waiting for you downstairs. You have twenty minutes,” Phoenix said and left the room.

Sophie climbed out of the bed and fetched her clothes from her wardrobe. She chuckled as she remembered a few other parts of her dream.

After the breakfast, Phoenix brought Sophie to school, then drove to the Sunrise Research Institution. He arrived on time, Mr. Johnson was about to start the meeting.

Mr. Johnson pointed at Phoenix with his open hand. “Everyone, welcome our newest and youngest colleague, Phoenix Freeman!”

“Hello everybody!” Phoenix said. The people around replied with either a short “Hi” or a longer way, depending on that one had drunk his or her morning coffee yet or not.

Mr. Johnson clapped his hands together. “I’m not going to steal your precious time longer than needed. You’ll all choose now the subject for your next 3-month research. As the others already know, it’s a habit of ours, that we let the newcomer choose first,” he said, and motioned around with his open hand in the air. “Choose well!”

Phoenix frowned and closed his eyes. He knew what he had to do, but his mind screamed, bringing up all the possible consequences that his choice would result. Yet, he fought his mind off. He gulped, looked up with a firm look and uttered the sentence that finalized his destiny, “I choose Trojan-1034.”

His colleagues looked at each other, some with open arms. “Gosh, I’d have chosen Destroyer, this is really a newbie,” one whispered to another. The other one shrugged and whispered back, “If he wants that toy, then let him have it. It’s better for us.”

Johnson nodded, then looked away from Phoenix. “Mr. Freeman has chosen, so we continue with Jack then Bob then…” he continued, establishing an order, based on the time spent in the institution in descending order. After everyone made their choices, Mr. Johnson dismissed the meeting with good wishes and they all went to their own businesses.

Phoenix approached Melody’s cage. He looked around and saw two of his colleagues nearby. Melody noticed Phoenix and was about to welcome him, when Phoenix moved his left hand’s index finger in front of his mouth while pointing with his other hand to his co-workers. Melody closed back her mouth and nodded. Phoenix walked to the cage and opened it.

“Trojan, follow me,” Phoenix ordered.

“Yes, sir!” Melody answered with a smile.

Phoenix walked to his research room, with Melody behind him. He opened the door with his card and searched the room for cameras. After he found none, he motioned Melody to go in, closed the door behind her, and leaned to it with his eyes closed. Why I’m doing this? How the heck I’m going to create a valuable report based on a living horse? He thought, frowning.He looked up on Melody who was still smiling. He closed his eyes back. She clearly doesn’t understand what a horrible choice I made regarding the future of my career.

Melody was smiling because she both got out of her cage finally, and met with Phoenix again. Yet, seeing that Phoenix was not sharing her joy, her smile withered.

Let’s hope at least we can work on something, Phoenix thought and walked to the instruments of the lab.

Phoenix’s silence made Melody worried. She followed him with her eyes as he walked around in the room, turning on the devices. Her desire to talk and her curiosity joined forces in her heart and after a few minutes, she couldn’t hold against the siege anymore. “What’re these machines for?” she asked when the ram broke the gate of patience.

Phoenix didn’t even bother to look up, but answered, “These are made to measure and analyze the software and hardware structure of a smaller robot. The others I didn’t turn on are the remote controllers and user interfaces for the bigger instruments in the chamber for machines that don’t fit into this room.“

Melody hoped that he might ask back something, or explain those strange words to her, but Phoenix just continued his work, silently. After twenty minutes, the system was ready to be used.

“Stand there!” Phoenix said and pointed to a slightly elevated platform, surrounded by all kinds of connectors and outlets, in the middle of the room. Melody walked onto the platform. Phoenix took out his phone from his pocket and switched to camera. He walked around Melody, watching the preview on the screen of the phone. He finally found what he was looking for, a small black surface on the crest of the disguised Melody that functioned as a programming interface. He grabbed a connector that hung nearest to him, and with the help of his phone, he attached the connector to the interface.

“Ow… this is cold,” Melody noted.

“Your warm body will do its job, don’t worry,” Phoenix said with an emotionless voice. He walked to a computer nearby, sat down, and started working on it.

As time went on, Melody were getting sadder and sadder. After an hour of silence, she sat down. She now couldn’t decide what was worse: that every creature only saw her as a lifeless robot since she left Equestria, or that the only one who knew her truly, wished her to be a lifeless robot. Why… why does this have to be so hard? she thought as small tears began to form in her eyes.

“WHAT HAPPENED?” Phoenix exclaimed in anger, still facing the monitor.

The values on the screen went crazy on the second Melody started crying. Melody, startled by the loud voice of Phoenix, winced. After pressing a few more keys without result, Phoenix’s glare turned from the screen to the curled pony on the analyzer platform. His cold eyes met the teary eyes of Melody. He couldn’t bear it. The sight of the heart-broken mare dissipated his anger and replaced it with remorse. He hung his head with closed eyes.

After a few seconds of silence, he opened his mouth to talk, but only faltering came out. “I’m… sorry. I… I just can’t… couldn’t give it up… my dream. I… wanted this job so much… my entire life… and when I got it… I must throw it away… for you.” He raised his head to look at Melody. Phoenix’s face was no longer cold and emotionless. Tears were flowing down from Phoenix’s eyes, to his neck.

Melody now understood. Understood why he was so cold, why he didn’t even want to talk to her. He had to choose between her and his life-dream, and he couldn’t let the later go. She wanted to say thanks, wanted to comfort him, but she couldn’t. What could she say for such a sacrifice made for her, from someone she barely knew? She just sat there, silently.

After a few minutes, Phoenix cried himself out. He took a deep breath and stood up. He slowly walked to Melody and detached the connector from her crest. The computer beeped a few times and some green lamps on the instruments turned to red. He put the connector back to the rest. “You can leave the platform, if you want,” Phoenix said. He walked back to his chair and sat down.

Melody didn’t get up. She hung down her head. I never thought that with my quest, I’d ruin the life of others. If I’d know, I…

“Why were you sent, Melody?” Phoenix interrupted her thoughts.

Melody looked up with wide eyes. The last thing she expected from Phoenix now was a question about her quest.

“I… I was sent to find the Phoenix,” she said.

Phoenix shook his head. “No, I already know that. What I was asking was why were you sent to find me? What was the reason that made your rulers to send you?”

Melody nodded. “I don’t know every detail. Our ruler, Celestia, likes to have secrets. What she told me is that about three and a half years ago, she was visited by an angel.”

“An angel?” The word made Phoenix jerk up his head.

“Yes,” Melody confirmed. “The angel brought a message from Love. The message was that the hiding was not possible anymore, because the human technology had reached high level enough to see through the spell protecting Equestria. The message also contained that Celestia had to start the reintegration process of Equestria to the human world, and she had to find the Phoenix.”

“Me,” Phoenix interrupted.

Melody nodded. “Celestia asked the angel that how could she find the Phoenix. The angel answered that she needed to find the Harbinger of Equestria. He also gave her this,” she said and gently pushed the cross, hanging from her neck. “The amulet was made to identify and help the Harbinger in her quest to find the Phoenix.”

“Hm. I guess for us the message makes sense, but I wonder if your princess understood the message three and a half years ago,” Phoenix said with a forced smile.

Melody noticed that smile and her heart lightened up a bit. “She understood the first part, but had no idea about the second. She sent the amulet to the research teams to analyze it. At the same time she started phase one of the reintegration process that was the preparation of a human generation by disguised cultural and educational series.”

Phoenix interrupted, “I think it wouldn’t be a wild guess from me to say it is the My Little Pony series that my daughter watches. But before you continue, tell me, why is Equestria hiding and where is it hiding?”

Melody scratched her head. “I don’t know how I could tell you. I never saw any map of yours that had Equestria on it.”

Phoenix frowned. This getting more and more weird. How could I help the reintegration of a nation that doesn’t even exist on the map? Maybe I should just give…NO! Phoenix shook his head.

Melody saw the shake, but didn’t try to ask about it. What could she ask, ‘Everything is all right, Phoenix?’ Nothing is all right now. Therefore, she just silently waited a minute, then continued, “So as I said, Celestia started phase one. The first plan was to create the whole show and directly broadcast the episodes into your system. That idea was dismissed, as it’d have made us easily discoverable. So instead, the show was brought into the dreams of a small group of humans.”

“What? How?” Phoenix asked.

“Our ruler, Princess Luna has the ability to walk into the dreams of others. So what she did was she interrupted those people’s dream, and literally played the episodes for them.”

Phoenix tried to process the information he was hearing. “So, your princess manipulated people to create and broadcast a TV show that you created for preparing humans.”

Melody nodded.

“Then why didn’t Princess Luna walk into every human dream? Oh, wait, never mind. It’d have been a too big coincidence and you’d have been revealed.”

After waiting a few seconds, Melody continued, “It took one and a half year for the research team to finish with the amulet. They determined all its properties that you already know. It also had an extra ability, that helped in the identification of the Harbinger. The research team predicted that if the real Harbinger put it on the first time, a massive amount of energy would be released. Therefore, Celestia started the search. She sent out a team with the amulet to find the Harbinger. One day, they knocked on my door, showing the amulet, and asked me to try it on. I first tried to refuse, as I didn’t know who they were, but then they showed me an authorization with royal seal. So I had to put it on.” Melody smiled. “Those ponies were blinded for a few seconds by the light that emitted from my amulet. I should have been surprised or scared, but instead I felt… peace.”

KNOCK KNOCK

They both startled from the sudden interruption.

“Mr. Freeman, it’s lunch time. The canteen is downstairs,” a muffled voice said.

“Thank you, I’ll be there in five minutes,” Phoenix answered. He stood up and fetched his wallet from his case. He was about to leave the room, but before opening the door he turned to Melody. “Can I bring you something?”

Melody touched her amulet. “I don’t need to eat until I wear this, and the last thing I’d ask you is to smuggle some food for me just to fulfill my desire to taste something.”

Phoenix nodded and left the room. He walked down to the canteen on spiral stairs. After buying some meat-salad and a bottle of coke, he sat down next to his colleges. Three of them were in a long discussion about their research while the others were facing either them or their plates. Phoenix didn’t care. He didn’t want to hear how great subjects the others have chosen and how they enjoy working with them. After ten minutes, he couldn’t bear it anymore. He was about to stand up and eat alone, when…

“Hello, Mr.Freeman,” a voice said from his right.

He looked to his right to see a brown haired man, who was in his thirties. “Hello,” Phoenix answered coldly, and turned back to his plate.

“My name is Joe Goldman,” the man said and offered his right hand.

Phoenix looked up again. The last thing that he wanted now is to meet a new colleague and chit-chat about robotics. However, he still didn’t want to be rude. He shook Joe’s hand. “I’m Phoenix Freeman, nice to meet you,” Phoenix said, fighting with himself while saying the word ‘nice’. He picked up another piece of salad in his fork.

“Nice to meet you! Ehm… not to be harsh or anything, but could you tell me any reason why you’ve chosen that toy as your subject?” Joe said while rubbing the back of his own neck.

That was it. Phoenix’s fist crushed the plastic fork in his hand. “You want to know why? Really?” he asked and glared at Joe. “Because there can be two outcome of my research about that ‘toy’. Outcome one: I get fired in a week. Outcome two: I get into the Fox News and BBC as breaking news, also within a week,” Phoenix said, almost shouting. He also added with a sarcastic voice, “Or you know what? Maybe both.”

The whole table was watching him. When Phoenix realized his situation, he looked around, picked up his food and went upstairs back to his room. Just as Phoenix left the stairs, the people at the table started gossiping about him.

Phoenix stopped at his door. Was that really my motivation? He shook his head. No, of course not. Then why did I have to prove myself? Why I still want to be appreciated by my colleagues? Why I’m so weak? He hung his head. No, enough from self-pity! He raised his head again. I made my decision and I’ll accept the consequences! He opened his door.

Melody was watching the still turned on monitor, trying to figure out what the things on the screen meant. She was startled by the sound of the door.

“Don’t worry, it’s me,” Phoenix reassured her.

Melody looked up at him, and noticed the salad in Phoenix’s hand. “I… I really didn’t need food.”

Phoenix raised an eyebrow, then looked at his hand. “Ah… well… it wasn’t planned. This is my lunch.”

“Wasn’t? What happened?” It was Melody’s time to raise an eyebrow.

Phoenix walked to his chair and put down the plastic plate. “Complicated. I had to leave the canteen before I finished my lunch. I… I don’t know Melody,” he said and looked at her. “How this will end? Will we become some big heroes that people talk about for a month, then forget for the next affair they hear?” He sat down, hanging his head down. “Or will everyone hate us because we started something that resulted terrible things?”

Melody didn’t respond. She walked to Phoenix and grabbed his left hand. Phoenix looked at her. She was looking into his eyes with her own big turquoise ones. “I don’t know what result will be of what we do, Phoenix. But, I know who started it. And I trust him. I trust him that whatever will come will be good, and he’ll finish, what he started. And if he chosen us to be his tools, then he’ll finish it with us.”

Phoenix closed his eyes and…smiled. “Thank you.”

Phoenix stood up and Melody released his hand. “I think the next thing should be to watch some episodes of your ‘cultural and educational series’”. He motioned to the computer. They walked to it, and Phoenix sat down. He glanced at Melody. “What’s the name of the first episode?”

“Friendship is Magic,” Melody answered. “It was easy to remember as it has the same title as the show.”

“Okay, let’s see what we find.” He went on YouTube, and typed in the whole name. He found a 44 minutes long video with ‘part 1 and 2’ in its name. “44 minutes long and two parter?”

Melody smiled. “Kids are lack of patience. Celestia wanted to give only small amount of information per week so that it can build well into their minds.”

Phoenix nodded in agreement. He remembered how hard it was to keep Sophie in one place for more than ten minutes. He then started the video and they watched it together. Phoenix could easily watch through the whole video, although the intro made her stomach twist. “Was this really necessary?” he asked as the “My Little Pony” theme rose up. Melody only chuckled in response.

During the video, Melody explained the basics of the pony society. There are four pony races in Equestria. The earth ponies, who has great physical strength. The pegasi, who can fly and control the weather. The unicorns, who can use magic. Finally the alicorns, who both can fly and use magic, but only have four members in the entire world: Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Princess Twilight Sparkle. They were watching episodes through the rest of the day.

However, the day ended. “What should I do with you, Melody?” Phoenix asked. “You can’t operate this type of light switch with hooves,” he said, pointing to a round dimmer on the wall. “Even if I leave the lights on, someone might come in after I left and turn it off.” He put his right hand on Melody’s shoulder. “I don’t want to leave you alone in the dark.”

“Your care is a pleasure to my heart, but I don’t want to make you smuggle me out,” Melody answered with a soft smile.

Phoenix looked away, thinking. Maybe… maybe I could convince Mr. Johnson to allow me to bring her home. I just need to find a good reason. What about… ah! His eyes lit up. “Environment Change Examination!”

“What?”

Phoenix glanced at Melody. “I’ll tell Mr. Johnson that I want to examine your behavior in different environments, so I can bring you home! Just let’s hope that he haven’t left yet.” With that, Phoenix jumped to his feet and rushed out of the room.

Melody watched him until he closed the door behind himself. Home. Where’s my home? At the farm in Ponyville? If there it is, then I wasn’t at home for more than a year. Or is it Equestria as a whole? It’s been less than two weeks since I left Equestria through the portal, but it feels like years.

The door opened, and Phoenix came in, grinning. “He allowed it! I can bring you home! If… if you want of course.”

Melody smiled. “I’d love to come with you. I can’t wait to meet with your daughter.”

“Then let’s go!” Phoenix said, motioning to the doorway. They went through the corridors of the institution to the exit. They left the building and walked to Phoenix’s car. There, another problem arose. “Ehm… Melody? I have no idea how I could fit you in the car.”

Melody walked to the window and looked into the vehicle. Then she smiled. “Don’t worry, I was taught by the best anthropologist in Equestria. Just open the door please.”

Phoenix opened the door. Melody turned and walked backwards into the car, then stood on her hind legs with some effort, turned left, and pushed herself back. She sat down with a small thud. Phoenix was staring at Melody, who was now sitting in a position of a bipedal creature. “Isn’t that… uncomfortable?”

Melody shook her head. “It was at the beginning, but my teacher, Lyra Heartstrings, helped me master it. Now I feel perfectly fine.”

Eh… why I’m still surprised at anything? Phoenix sat into the car and drove home.

“Sophie, I’m at home and I brought a guest!” Phoenix cried.

Sophie stood up on the sofa in the living room. Her eyes and her mouth went wide. “A PONY!” she exclaimed. She ran to them, but stopped at a step before Melody. “Can I touch it?”

Phoenix nodded. “Of course, darling.”

Sophie touched Melody’s leg. “It’s so cold,” she said.

“Well she looks like a robot, doesn’t she?”

Sophie looked up at Phoenix. “She?”

Oh dang, Sophie is so observant. “Yes, hehe… she looks like a female robot after all.”

Sophie looked back at Melody. “What’s your name, pony?”

“Melody Harbinger, nice to meet you Sophie!”

Phoenix first glared at Melody, but then shrugged. Like if it’d matter what name she uses at home. Still, we need to keep a low profile and a six-year-old girl who goes to school is the best way to get Melody’s cover blown and we don’t want that. Or do we?

“Ow!”

“Oh sorry, I didn’t know your eyes hurt.”

Melody put her hoof to her eye. “It’s okay.”

“Sophie, why don’t you go to the living room with Melody while I make some nice dinner?”

“Okay dad,” Sophie said. She grabbed Melody’s leg and pulled her to the direction of the living room. Melody smiled and let her guide to lead them to the living room.

Phoenix was watching them. I can’t do this alone. I need someone to help me. Someone who is a master at these pony things. And I just happen to know the right person. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and called someone, he knew well.

“Carl Thummer, how can I help you?” the voice said from the phone.

“Hey Carl! It’s Phoenix.”

“Hey Phoenix, what’s up, man?”

“I’d like to ask for your help in a… pony problem.”

“Pony? Where are you Phoenix, in a quiz game?”

“No, no, no. I’m at home. Could you come over?”

“Uhm… I still need to do a few things. Maybe an hour later?”

“It’s fine, as long as your come.”

“Okay then, see you at about 18:30!”

“See you, bye.”

“Bye.”

Phoenix hung up the phone, and walked into the kitchen. After five minutes, Giggles and chuckles arose in the living room while Phoenix was making the dinner. Phoenix left the kitchen and peeked into the living room. Melody was tickling Sophie on the ground. Phoenix leaned to the doorframe, watching the happy girls having fun.

“Hihihi… please stop… haha… please!”

“Oh really? Why would I?” Melody asked without stopping.

“Be…hihi…because dad is… hihi… dad is at the door.”

Melody stopped and looked up to the door. “Oh, hi Phoenix!”

Sophie was panting on the floor. “Is…is the dinner ready?”

“Oh… no I just heard you laughing and wanted to check what’s going on,” Phoenix answered.

“And what’s for dinner?” Sophie asked.

“Beef stew. Oh Melody, I guess you are a vegetarian. What can I make for you?”

Melody didn’t answer. She looked dumbfounded and glanced at Sophie.

“Do robots eat?” Sophie asked, blinking.

Phoenix gave himself a mental facepalm. “Ehm… Maybe? Maybe Melody can simulate eating, so she can join us at dinner. Wouldn’t you like it?”

“Yes, yes of course! Can you eat Melody?”

Melody smiled. “Yes I can. Any vegetable will be fine.”

Phew, that was close. “Okay then I’ll boil a portion of vegetables for you,” Phoenix said and left the room.

“What should we play next?” Sophie asked.

“Oh, do you know that game, the Hop and Drop? It goes like this…”

Although Melody could sit on a human chair, certain designs made it uncomfortable for her to bend forward and eat from a table. So she just stood instead, having big bites from the carrots, broccolis and all the other kinds of vegetables. She ate like she haven’t eaten for weeks, which was true, but not in the common meaning. She smiled as the different flavors were released from the pieces in her mouth.

Sophie was watching Melody. “Wow dad, she loves eating!”

“This tastes so good,” Melody stated, munching on a carrot.

The doorbell rang.

Oh, Carl. I completely forgot about him. Phoenix stood up and started walking to the door.

Melody looked up at Phoenix. “Should I?” Phoenix glanced back and shook his head.

Sophie was looking at Melody. “What should you? Oh, are robots illegal to keep at home?”

“I don’t think so,” Melody answered. “However, it must be a very rare thing to have a pony robot at home. Maybe not everyone should know that your dad has one.”

Phoenix opened the door. A thin and brown-haired man stood on the doormat. He was as tall as Phoenix and a little older than him. “Hi Carl, come in.”

“Heya Phoenix! Sorry for the delay.”

“CARL!” Sophie exclaimed from the lunch table. Carl stepped in, just to be almost pushed out by Sophie’s jump.

“Ah! Hi Sophie! How’s my favorite princess?” Carl asked and lifted up the girl hugging his legs.

“You won’t believe it. Dad brought home a pony! A real, robot pony!”

“Wow! Can I see it?”

“Yes! She’s at the kitchen table,” Sophie said, pointing to the dining room. Carl walked into the room. When Carl spotted Melody, his eyes went wide.

“Oh my gosh! Where did you get that, Phoenix?”

“She’s my research subject,” Phoenix answered.

Carl put down Sophie. He walked to Melody. Melody was staring at him, not sure how to react. Carl spoke first. “Can you… talk?”

“Yes I can. I’m Tro… I mean Melody Harbinger. Nice to meet you, ehm…”

“I’m Carl Thummer, nice to meet you.” He glanced back to Phoenix. “Jeez Phoenix, this thing is really advanced. I never thought technology develops so fast.” He was turning his head back to Melody, but stopped when he caught the sight of the plate in front of Melody. The meal was almost eaten. “Since when can robots eat?”

“Oh, dad said she is simulating the eating.”

Carl frowned. “Ah… sure.”

Okay, it’s time. “Carl, Melody, could you please follow me to the office? Sophie, please stay at the table and finish your meal. We have some adult talk to do.”

Sophie shrugged. “Whatever,” she said and sat back to the table.

The three walked into the office room. Phoenix closed the door behind them, then turned to his friend. “Carl, how much can I trust you?”

Carl looked straight into the eyes of Phoenix. “Phoenix, even if you stole this thing. I’m at your side. You know it.”

Phoenix nodded. “Thank you.” He turned to the pony. “Melody, can you undo your disguise?”

Melody looked at Phoenix. “Are you sure this is a good idea? The only one who should see me truly, is you.”

“We can trust him. And I’m sure he’ll help us.”

Melody sighed. “So, be it.” She put his hoof between his amulet and her neck, and put it off herself.

Carl saw as the robot in front of him did something at its neck, then moved its hoof aside. A shining, white circle appeared at the bottom of Melody and moved up to her top. Her metal body became a coat, her mane and tail became real hair, her eyes turned to turquoise with a black pupil, and a turquoise flower appeared at her ear. He also saw that the pony was holding a white cross in her hoof. Carl just stood there, not able to say a word for minutes. Melody nervously glanced at Phoenix. Phoenix nodded with closed eyes and held up his hand.

Carl stepped forward to Melody. Melody gulped. Carl stepped another and raised his open hand towards Melody. Should I run away? Melody thought, but she took her stand. Carl touched her mane and caressed it.

“You… Are you real?” Carl stammered.

“I am,” Melody answered.

Carl crouched down. “You… you’re like them. You look like Pinkie Pie, and Twilight, and Applejack.” Carl turned to Phoenix, tears forming in his eyes. “Tell me Phoenix, am I dreaming?”

Phoenix shook his head. “No, you are not. Melody is from Equestria.”

Carl looked back to Melody. “But… how?”

Phoenix sighed. “From what I understood, the cartoon that you watch with my daughter is not a cartoon. The ponies you see on the screen are real actresses.”

Melody’s eyes went wide open. “Do you watch our show?”

“Yes. I do,” Carl answered.

“I… I thought Princess Celestia made it for little girls, like Sophie.”

“No Melody, there are millions of adults, who watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,” Carl said.

Phoenix watched them. He was not sure if the pony or the human was more surprised. “They call themselves bronies, Melody. Painters, drawers, voice actors and actresses, programmers, writers and other artists. They’re all connected and inspired by the show your nation makes.”

“I… I didn’t expect this. This is wonderful!” Melody exclaimed. “Maybe, if you know us… maybe you could help?”

“Ah yes. Carl, that’s the reason why I called you. We need your help. Melody was sent here to find me. It seems as, well…” he scratched his head. “I know it might sound strange but… I think…”

“Love’s chosen him to be the ambassador of the humans,” Melody finished.

“Yeah… Love. I think God calls himself as Love in Equestria. Not that surprising.” He stopped scratching his head. “Anyways, the problem is that I have absolutely no idea what to do. Equestria wants to come back from hiding and wants to reintegrate to our world. And since you’re an expert in pony things, I thought you could help.”

Carl sniffed. “Are the others also real? Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy? Are they really alive in a real Equestria?”

“Of course,” Melody said with a smile. “They’re the Spirits of Harmony after all. It’d be really bad for Equestria if they wouldn’t exist.”

Someone gasped outside the room. They all looked there. Phoenix frowned. He walked to the door and said to it, without opening, “It is very rude to eavesdrop, Sophie.”

“Robots can’t eat, can they?” a thin voice said from outside.

Phoenix opened the door. Sophie was standing in front of him. Sophie spied into the room and spotted Melody, undisguised. Her eyes went wide open. Phoenix crunched down and looked into the eyes of his daughter. “Sophie, what you see now is a very big secret. You can’t tell anybody that Melody is a real pony.”

“Not even to Susan?” she asked. Susan was her best friend.

“Nobody. If you do, bad people’ll come here, and take Melody away. You don’t want that, do you?”

Sophie shook his head.

“Good.” Phoenix stoop up. “Since you now know what’s going on, you can stay in the office room. But keep every word here as a secret.”

“I’m sorry dad,” she hung her head down. “I heard a woman speaking from the room, but I didn’t see anyone else go in with you.”

“Well, that was me,” Melody said.

“Wow, your voice so beautiful,” Sophie said.

Melody smiled. “Thank you, princess,” she teased her and bowed.

“Hey, I’m a queen! That goes to Carl also! Why… why’re you crying?”

“Me oh… well, let’s say my dream has come true,” Carl answered.

“Anyways, Sophie, we were discussing that how could we help Melody to bring Equestria back to our world.”

“Maybe we could ask the bronies. Would they help, Carl?” Melody asked.

Carl nodded. “Definitely. We could… Maybe… Yes!” His face lit up. “We could make a video, where we ask for their help. After that we could send it to Equestria Daily.”

“Won’t they think it’s fake?” Phoenix asked.

“Eh… I didn’t think on that.”

Phoenix scratched his head. “A video isn’t a bad idea just… Oh yes, we’ll make it uncut!”

Melody cocked an eyebrow. “What?”

“We’ll start the recording and record everything, even our mistakes. Then we won’t do any edit, but upload it directly as is. This way, whoever analyses our video will see that it’s real. We just need a camera.”

“Isn’t your camera enough?” Sophie asked.

“Nah, it’s a crappy webcam. We need a proper one,” Phoenix answered.

“I’ll buy one tomorrow. I wanted to buy a camera anyways,” Carl said.

“Great! It’s settled then. Tomorrow night, let’s say 20:00, Carl will come with the camera and we’ll make a video. We still need some proper speech. I truly suck at making speeches though.”

“I’ll do that part,” Melody offered.

“Good, is it okay Carl? Can you come at 20:00?” Phoenix asked.

“Sure thing.”

“Then everything is really settled now. So,” Phoenix clapped his hand, “we have a brony, a six-year-old girl, and a living colorful pony from Equestria in one house. Forget about tomorrow, let’s have some fun!”

The rest of the night went on with playing, sweet consuming and talking. Carl and Sophie also learned the way how Melody had been sent. They also learned that Melody had to spend more than a year in Canterlot, getting ready for her trip. They finished the night with watching a few episodes of the show they all loved. Eventually, they all got tired. Carl said his goodbyes and left. Melody offered to sleep on the sofa in the living room. After everyone took a bath, Melody and Sophie together, they all went to their rooms, laid on their beds and fell asleep.

Ride Me

“Sing stronger!” the teacher mare shouted.

Melody was trying to sing strong, but her melodious voice didn’t let her.

“What a waste of time! Your voice is useless! It’d have been good a thousand years ago, but not now. We need rock singers! Go play some instrument instead. But don’t even try trumpets! Nopony needs more trumpets. We need guitars!” With that, the teacher motioned Melody out of the classroom.

If you want strong voice, then I don’t want to sing ever again, Melody thought. I’ll go play trumpets. Ah… who listens to orchestras nowadays with trumpets. Maybe… eh. Princess Celestia has enough trumpeter. The young filly sat down outside the school. The only sure job as a trumpeter was being part of Celestia’s royal group, but the competition was so big for those positions, that unless one had somepony inside, there was no chance for getting the job. I’ll be a farmer, just like my father. Who wants career and big things anyways? With that, she suddenly appeared at her farm in Ponyville.

“Home!” she cried. She ran towards her house, but stopped. Is this really my home? She sat down. After all the things I went through, and found out the true meaning of my cutie mark? I don’t feel as a farm pony anymore. I feel… lust for adventure, care for my nation, care for… Phoenix. She shook her head. No, I’m not here, this is not my life anymore. I’m sleeping on the coach in Phoenix’s house and tomorrow, the whole world will learn that even somepony like me can change the world, if Love is with her.

“Good morning, Melody!”

Melody opened her eyes. Sophie was grinning in front of her. “Morning, Sophie. Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah! Did you have a good dream? I didn’t dream today. Did you? What ponies dream about?”

Melody sat up, and told her dream to Sophie.

“Aww… That stupid teacher! Everybody loves your voice!”

Melody giggled. “Who knows, Sophie. Maybe Love used those years to prepare me for my journey. Maybe I’d have never met with him, if had become a famous singer in Canterlot.”

Phoenix peeked into the living room. “The breakfast is ready girls.” They looked up at Phoenix, but didn’t move. “Now come on you both! You don’t want to be late now, do you?”

They had a fast breakfast of cereal. Melody was more than happy to taste another food, although not wearing her amulet resulted some biological complications. However, thanks to the teachings of Lyra Heartstrings, she managed to use a human toilet without help. Before they left the house, Melody put on her amulet. Sophie was watching with open eyes as Melody transformed back.

“I’m ready,” Melody said.

Sophie chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” Melody asked.

“Your voice. It’s funny how robot like it is now,” Sophie answered.

“Really, I just realized that I never heard your disguised voice,” Phoenix said. “Maybe we could record it after we arrived to the institution.”

“If you want to,” Melody said.

They left the house. Phoenix successfully delivered Sophie to the school without anyone noticing the robot-Melody in the car. After that, he drove to the institution. The day went on with Phoenix learning more and more about the pony culture, and watching more episodes of the series. When they started season two, Phoenix began to notice the more and more external references to other movies. Melody explained that Princess Twilight had come up with the idea. She had asked the anthropologist team to search for movies that had been important part of the current human culture. Then, they had used this knowledge to connect the human and pony culture by referencing them in the show.

Phoenix didn’t even try to eat together with his colleagues. He took the food, and immediately went back to his room. He also took some snacks for Melody, that she devoured happily. Melody spent a few hours during the day to prepare her speech, while Phoenix was watching the show.

During the afternoon, as Phoenix was watching Melody practicing, a question came into his mind. “Melody. Can I ask you something?”

Melody looked up from her paper. “Well, I don’t mind a short break. What bothers you, Phoenix?”

“Your flower. It’s in your mane for… how long?”

“Almost two weeks.”

“Yes, so… Why haven’t it withered yet? Does your amulet also affect that?”

Melody raised her hoof, and carefully touched the flower next to her ear. “It’s a promise flower.”

Phoenix raised an eyebrow. “I haven’t heard anything like that before. Does it only grow in Equestria?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“So, how come that it still has all its petals?”

Melody smiled. “Most flowers might wither and die in a few days without water, but not the promise flower. It can survive for weeks. Giving it to somepony means that you promise, you’ll see each other again, before the first petal falls.”

“Oh, so you have a boyfriend? Or stallion, or whatever you call it there.”

Melody shook her head. “No, Fluttershy gave it to me. She said that Love wanted her to give me a promise flower. Oh Phoenix, you can’t believe how much that meant for me, when I spent days and nights in a box, without seeing the sunlight.” She sniffed. “I felt so alone. Alone with my worries, alone in the darkness. But,”—she wiped the tears of her eyes, and put her hoof on the turquoise flower—“whenever I touched the promise flower, and felt all its petals, I remembered. I remembered that I was not alone, and I’d be home soon.”

Phoenix bent his head down. He sighed. “Sometimes Melody, I wonder. Why does God allow us to suffer? Why… Why did he let Rachel die.”

“Your wife?”

Phoenix nodded. “After she died, I couldn’t even bring myself to pray for a year. I was angry with him, for letting her die. I knew that in God’s eyes no one is innocent, because his standards are much higher and…” Phoenix sighed. “But I still keep asking, ‘Why’?”

Melody walked to Phoenix, and sat down in front of him. “There is something I learnt Phoenix, after my father died. For us, it hurts to lose someone, we love so much. But this way, we also remember, that Love’s final goal is heaven for all of us. He gives us years to decide, dozens of them. One day, our time runs out. If we decided to accept his grace, we will be with him for eternity, and the joy will wash away all the tears. Focus on this, Phoenix! Focus on heaven! You’ll see Rachel again, and from that time, nothing will separate you.”

Phoenix smiled. “I will.”

Melody stood up. “Good. Now let’s continue the work Love given us. Let’s make this short life valuable.” She walked back to her paper and continued practicing her speech.

After the work-hours ended, they went home. A few minutes before eight, Melody was trotting around inside the house undisguised, glancing at the clock.

Phoenix noticed this. “Are you nervous, Melody?”

“Me? Nervous? I’m about to present my nation to millions of humans and about to blow my cover. So nervous? Yes. A little. No. A lot.”

“Chill, Melody. You’ll be great.”

“But what if I say something wrong? You said it’d be uncut. What if they misunderstand something? What if they’ll see Equestria as an enemy? What if they’ll hate me? What if…”

Sophie ran next to Melody and hugged her front leg. “Hate you? Who could hate you? They’ll love you Melody! Everyone will!”

Melody looked down at the little girl, who was clinging on her leg. She felt as her eyes were becoming wet.

The doorbell rang. Carl arrived, with a camera in his hand. It wasn’t a professional one, but for this purpose, it was enough. They decided that Phoenix and Carl should be also part of the video, Carl being the representative of bronies, Phoenix being… the Phoenix. Melody insisted that Phoenix had to be part of the video, and after some hesitation, Phoenix accepted it. Sophie was in the role of handling the camera.

Melody walked in front of the camera, wearing her amulet, and the two men stepped to her sides.

“Everybody ready?” Sophie asked.

“Ready, darling.”

“Ready.”

Melody took a deep breath. “Ready.”

“Recording in 3…2…1…now!”

Carl started. “Hello fellow bronies and pegasisters! My name is Carl. This is Phoenix, and this Melody.”

“Hi,” Phoenix said.

“We are making this mineo, I mean video,”—He shook his head—“because we need your help. You can see next to me Melody, who for you looks nothing else, but a robot, that somehow shares the traits of our favorite ponies. Well the truth is that she is not what you can see.”

Nobody spoke for a few seconds. Phoenix looked at Melody. “Melody, it’s your turn.”

Melody shook her head with shut eyes. “Oh, sorry, I lost myself.” She put off her amulet, and the camera recorded her transformation. She stepped forward and spoke with her changed voice. “Hello, bronies and pegasisters. My name is Melody Harbinger. What you can see now, might surprise you, or make your mind to protest, but it’s the truth. I’m the harbinger of Equestria, the land that you might thought to be only an imaginary world from a cartoon.” She stopped for a second. “But it is not. After three thousand years, Princess Celestia was ordered to stop hiding. We made that cartoon, that you know as My Little Pony, to start the reintegration of our nation. But now, we’re stuck. We need help. We need help because we can’t do it alone. We need humans, who are willing to support us.” She gulped. “Will you help us? Will you help our nation, to reintegrate and be part of your world again? The hope in my heart is that together… together we can build a better future, a future good for both ponies and humans.” She hung down her head. “I’m still afraid to reveal my location. I fear that somebody would rather hurt me than help me. But I hope.” She raised her head. “I hope that there are people in this world, who’re willing to help me, like this two men,”—she smiled at them—“and this cute little girl.”

Sophie stepped in front of the camera and waved. “Hi!” She then quickly ran back to her position behind it.

“This is what I… What we wanted to say. Thank you for watching the video,” Melody said.

Sophie looked at Phoenix. He nodded. The recording ended. Melody sighed and fell on her haunches. “Water, please.”

Sophie ran out of the office and fetched a glass of water that Melody dried up in a second. She looked up at Carl. “What do you think? Was I good enough?”

Carl smiled. “Melody, you were brilliant.”

Phoenix walked to his computer in the room. “I made a YouTube account and a Gmail address for you Melody. This way, we can submit our video to Equestria Daily.” He turned it on, and sat down. “Sophie, could you bring here the camera, please?”

“Sure, dad.” She picked up the camera and gave it to Phoenix.

After the operation system booted up, he connected the camera to the computer. The drivers were downloaded for the new device and Phoenix started the upload of the video. “It might take some time, maybe half an hour.” He stood up. “Let’s play something until that, shall we?”

After the video uploaded, Carl sat down to the computer, and made the submission to Equestria Daily, on behalf of Melody.

“Now, how much time do we have to wait for their response?” Melody asked.

Carl scratched his head. “Maybe a few minutes, maybe a few hours. It depends on how many submissions are there currently in the queue and how willing the admins are to read them. I’ll install an RSS listener on the computer. Ehm… can I?” He looked at Phoenix.

“Sure, go ahead.”

They spent the next hour playing. However, the only one who could actually enjoy the games was Sophie. The rest were glancing at the open office door every minute.

“Are you sure Carl, that this thing works?” Melody asked, while holding her cards.

Carl nodded. “I’m using that for weeks now. It notifies me within a minute.”

PING!

They all jumped on their feet and rushed into the office room. Except Sophie. “Ah, come on! I was about to win.” She looked at her cards and with a ‘Hmph’, she dropped them and followed the others.

“BREAKING NEWS by Sethisto”—Phoenix read—“A pony, a REAL PONY submitted a video an hour ago. I’m not going to say more, JUST. WATCH. IT.”

“Wow, Seth sounds really excited,” Carl noted. “Anything in the comments?”

Phoenix scrolled down. “KyoKusagani1999: ‘SO GILDA IS REAL? Time to start packing then. I'm moving to Equestria as soon as I get a visa. Oh... and of course we help Melody.’”

Melody chuckled. “Someone’s favorite actress is really Gilda? As I heard, she hardly accepted the role as she thought it might not be a good thing to introduce herself to humans as a jerk. Rainbow Dash was the only one who could convince her.”

They continued reading. Some said this was a fake video. Others were expressing their surprise and their wish to meet their favorite characters. The majority was reassuring Melody, that they’ll help, with everything they got.

Melody fought hard with her tears. “They… they really want to help me.”

“As I said Melody, we are more than willing to help,” Carl said.

They kept reading the comments and messages, flowing from YouTube and Equestria Daily. At ten o’clock, Phoenix stated that Sophie had to go to bed. Carl reassured Melody once more, and left.

Finally, things are going forward, Phoenix thought in his bed. We’ll need to send a request to the United Nations. I hope we’ll find someone who knows how to do such a things. He smiled. Of course we will. Nothing bad can happen from now!

What he didn’t know, that there WAS a security camera in his research room. A hidden one in the corner. At that moment, Mr. Johnson was watching the recording from the previous days.

“Tell me, Mr. Freeman. WHAT IS THIS?”

Phoenix could hardly raise his head to look at the screen. The screen showed him and robot-Melody, sitting in front of his computer, watching My Little Pony.

Phoenix and Mr. Johnson were sitting in Johnson’s office. Mr. Johnson took a deep breath. “I trusted you, Mr. Freeman. Among the hundreds of candidates, you were the best. I could see in your eyes, that you’d bring the Sunrise Research Institution to prosperity. And what’re you doing instead? ENTERTAINING YOURSELF WITH THE DISGUISE MODULE OF YOUR SUBJECT!” He banged his fist on the table.

Phoenix tried to look up. “Mr. Johnson, I can ex…”

“Shut up!” Mr. Johnson interrupted. He stood up and turned away from Phoenix. “There’re people who believe in second chances, Mr. Freeman.” He stopped for a few seconds. “I’m not one of them. Pack up your stuff, leave your card at the reception.”

“But…”

Mr. Johnson turned. “I’m not going to repeat myself.” He pointed a finger at Phoenix. “YOU ARE F…”

KNOCK, KNOCK!

“WHAT IS IT?”

A female voice said from outside, “Mr. Johnson, we have a problem. There are journalists and reporters at the front door. Dozens of them. They are demanding to see Phoenix and Melody Harbinger.”

Mr. Johnson glared at Phoenix. “Melody Harbinger? You even gave a full name for that toy and broke your non-disclosure agreement? And I thought my disgust cannot be greater.”

Phoenix couldn’t look up.

“Julia, fetch the pony robot from Mr. Freeman’s room and bring it to the entrance! We will be there.”

“Yes, Mr. Johnson.”

The boss turned to his former employee. “Come, Mr. Freeman. I guess we both want to know what you’ll be accused of at the court.”

“Show us Melody!”

“We know Phoenix works here!”

“Don’t try to hide them!”

At that second, Phoenix, Mr. Johnson and robot-Melody stepped out of the door. The journalists rushed to them, barely letting them breathe.

“Are you really a pony?”

“Was it only a trick?”

“How do you really look like?”

“Show us your true look!”

Melody was drowning in the river of questions.

“Show us yourself!”

"Show it!"

Phoenix stepped forward and pushed the closest reporter. “Hey! Let her breathe, you jerks!” He said.

Melody frowned and clenched her eyes, then with a fast move, she removed her amulet.

“Melody, NO!” shouted Phoenix.

But the damage was done. Melody transformed in front of journalists, reporters and cameramen. They stepped back when they saw the glowing circle. For a few seconds, everyone just stared at Melody.

“This is the story of the CENTURY!” exclaimed a reporter.

That made everybody wake up from the shock. If the previous questions felt like a river, they now felt like a flood.

Suddenly Mr. Johnson grabbed Melody and Phoenix, and pulled them inside. He shut the door, and locked it.

“Hey you can’t just take them away!”

“They didn’t answer anything!”

Two security guards were standing next to the door. “You!” He pointed to the guards “Bring these two into my office.”

The guards stepped to Melody and Phoenix. The four then followed Mr. Johnson.

Phoenix whispered to Melody, “Why did you do that? Now the whole world will know it.”

“I’m… I’m sorry, I was so afraid. I thought if I put off my amulet, they’ll stop.”

Phoenix sighed. “Why would they?” He whispered into Melody’s ears, “But now the biggest problem is that my boss knows it.”

They walked in the office, and a guard closed the door.

“Maybe I was wrong, Phoenix.” Mr. Johnson spoke. “Maybe I should give you a second chance. This subject of yours turned to be… interesting. However, I can’t let you continue your research on it.”

“What?” Melody asked.

“From now on, Trojan is my subject,” Mr. Johnson stated. “You’ll choose your new one tomorrow.” He turned to the guards. “Take this horse to my research room, and attach it to the examination board.”

Melody’s eyes went wide “No! You can’t take me away!” The guards grabbed her tail and pulled her out of the room. “I must stay with Phoenix!”

Phoenix could look up. I lost. I got back my job, my dream. But I don’t care anymore.

“Phoenix, don’t stand here. Go home. You continue tomorrow.”

“PHOENIX!” Melody shrieked.

Phoenix clenched his eyes. God, forgive me for what I’m going to do now. She straightened up and glared at his boss. “No.”

“What did you say?”

Phoenix rushed out of the room. He heard Melody from the left, and followed her voice. He spotted them in a corridor. Melody gasped.

“BUCK!” Phoenix shouted.

Melody’s eyes went wide, but then glanced behind herself, bucked and hit the guard on his leg. He fell over with a shout. The other guard jerked his head at his fallen partner, only to get a right hook on the head from the running Phoenix.

“Follow me!” They both ran towards the exit that Phoenix found a few days ago.

The first guard tried to stand up, but couldn’t. He spoke into his device, “Need reinforcement! Mr. Freeman and his subject attacked us. They’re running to exit three. Stop them!”

Melody was trying to gallop on three hooves. “I can’t run with my amulet in my hoof!”

“Give it to me!” Phoenix put the amulet into his pocket. They reached the exit.

“There they are!” shouted a guard behind them.

“Ah, come on!” yelled Phoenix, as he tried to open the locked door.

“Step away!” With that, Melody rushed to the door, turned and bucked. The door flung open.

They ran outside. Well, Phoenix sprinted, Melody hardly galloped.

“Phoenix, you’re too slow!”

“I’m a scientist, not an athlete!”

They turned left at the corner of the institution.

“Why did we do that, Phoenix?” Melody asked. “Why did we attack the guards?”

“Melody… *hoof*… in this world you are… *poof*… just a horse,… *hoof*... a property. If Johnson wants to,… *poof*… he can dissect you alive.”

Melody stopped.

“What? WHAT ARE YOU… *hoof*… DOING?”

“Ride me!”

Phoenix stopped. “What?”

“As you said, I’m a horse.”

“But… *poof*… you’re too small!”

“There they are! Catch them!” someone shouted from the corner.

“I’m an earth pony! I could even carry you if you’d be a giant rock! Now shut up and ride me before you get both of us caught!”

Phoenix ran to Melody and hopped on the pony’s back. However, his legs reached the ground.

“Pull up your legs, and hold my mane at the sides of my head!”

Phoenix did as told. Melody raised her front legs and broke into a full gallop. The guard behind tried to jump on them, but fell on the ground. “Damn it!”

After ten minutes of sprinting, Melody slowed down. “I think they gave up,” she said and stopped.

Phoenix got off Melody.

“Sorry, Phoenix,” Melody said. “But I had to be assertive. We’d got caught if you keep hesitating.”

“It’s okay,” Phoenix replied. “We have bigger problems now. When the guards return, Johnson’ll call the police. I attacked a guard and stole you from the institution. I’m a criminal.” He put his forehead into his palm.

“What you did shows that human laws are wrong,” Melody stated.

“Yeah, tell that to the police officer.”

Melody took a deep breath. “If human laws are against us, then we must go somewhere else. Somewhere else, where we can find protection.” She grinned. “And I just happen to know that place.”

“To Equestria?”

“To Equestria!” cried she. “I’m going home!”

“Hold on a second. Where is Equestria?”

Melody looked at Phoenix. “Do you have a map?”

Phoenix held up his hands. “Where would I keep a… Oh wait, my phone.” He pulled out his phone from his pocket and switched to map. “Okay, where should we start searching?”

“The portal is in this country. So if you show me the map of the country I can show you where it is.”

Phoenix raised an eyebrow. “Portal?”

Melody nodded. “I needed a method to both come here and go back. Princess Twilight Sparkle said that the best way is to open a portal, and guard it from both sides.”

Phoenix shrugged. “If you say so.” He switched to the country map, and showed it to Melody.

Melody looked at the map, and tried to show the location, but her hoof was bigger than the screen. “Eh… do you have something thin maybe? Like a pen?”

Phoenix searched his pockets. He pulled out his keys and detached the longest one from the ring. Melody put the key in her mouth and pointed to a location on the map. “There.”

“Melody, that’s more than one hundred kilometers away.”

“Oh.” Melody scratched her head. “And I guess we cannot leave Sophie alone.”

“Definitely not. We need a car. Mine is at the institution and we shouldn’t go back there.”

“Does Carl have a car?” Melody asked.

“Ah yes! Good idea, Melody.” Phoenix said and called Carl.

“Hi, Carl!”

“Hey, Phoenix! Did you see the comments? They are…”

“Carl, we have an emergency,” Phoenix interrupted. “I need you to come to my house with your car. Pack clothes for yourself, we’re going on a long trip. Somehow the news found out my location. Even worse, my boss now knows who Melody really is and wanted to take her away. So we knocked the guards out and made a run for it.”

“WHAT? Are you crazy? What were you thinking, man?”

“What’d you do Carl? Would let him take Melody away? That man is so greedy he would even dissect her alive, just to get famous!”

“I… I… I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”

“Thank you.” Phoenix hung up the phone. He turned to Melody. “We must go home. With your speed, we can be there in twenty minutes. That way we’ll have ten minutes to pack. Let’s hope the police won’t start chasing us based on Johnson’s report.”

“So, let me clarify what you said,” The police officer spoke in the phone. “You’re the chief of the Sunrise Research Institution.”

“Yes,” Mr. Johnson said.

“Your employee stole your pony horse from the institution.”

“Yes.”

“The pony horse is a little more than one meter tall, orange and dark-pink colored, and has a turquoise flower in its mane.”

“Yes.”

“And your employee stole it, by riding away on it.”

“Yes.”

“Can I advise you something?”

“Y… Yes?”

“If you get high next time, put away your phone somewhere you can’t reach it.” With that, the officer hung up.

Mr. Johnson smashed his phone on the table. “USELESS BUNCH OF IDIOTS!”

Phoenix rode Melody, guiding her to his home.

When they arrived, Phoenix jumped down from Melody and rushed in. "Sophie!”

“Wow, hi dad!” Sophie said, sitting in front of him, pulling her shoes off. “You came home early.” She looked behind him. “Why is Melody a normal pony?”

“Sophie, pack up your clothes and whatever you need. We’re leaving this city for some weeks, or more,” Phoenix said.

Sophie stared at Phoenix, blinking.

“Please, Sophie. Just do what I said. We’re going to Equestria.”

Sophie gasped. “EQUESTRIA? YAY! YAY! YAY!” She ran upstairs.

Melody giggled. “What did you expect from a six-year-old girl, when she hears that she’s going to her dream world.”

Phoenix was blinking. “I didn’t… think on that.”

“Anyways, as you said, you only need clothes. I’m sure that Princess Celestia’s hospitality will satisfy everything else. Maybe Rarity’d even make you clothes, but it’d take some time.”

“No thanks. I don’t want to wear purple and pink clothes, thank you very much.” He walked to the stairs. “I’ll also pack some clothes. Tell us when Carl arrives!”

Melody nodded. I hope their life in Equestria will compensate them for all the things they have to go through for me.

Someone slammed a car door outside. Melody trotted to the windows to see that Carl arrived. Melody opened the front door, before Carl could use the doorbell.

“Hi, Carl!”

“Whoa, Melody! You here, opening doors, undisguised?

“I saw you from the window. But still… would it matter now?”

“Of course! Non-bronies still shouldn’t know about you!”

Melody forced a laugh. “Well, then I guess it was a bad idea to undo my disguise in front of thirty reporters.”

“You did… WHAT?”

Phoenix was walking down on the stairs, with a suitcase full of clothes. “Good to see you Carl. I can’t tell you how thankful I am for your help.” He reached Melody.

“Did Melody really blow her cover in front of a bunch of reporters?”

Phoenix nodded. “Yes, but most importantly, in front of my boss. Melody,”—He turned to her—“could you check Sophie? She’s packing for too long.”

“Of course.” She walked upstairs.

“Everybody makes mistakes, Carl.” Phoenix said, looking at the stairs. “We must concentrate on how to fix them. The most urgent problem is that both Melody and I are threatened with imprisonment. Melody came up with a solution that I am pretty sure you’ll love.”

“What solution? Oh! Noooooooo. We… really?”—Phoenix nodded—“No, no I can’t believe it!”

“Yes Carl, we’re going to Equestria. I’ll give you the coordinates for the GPS after everybody is ready.” They walked out of the house, Phoenix carrying his suitcase.

Melody walked into Sophie’s room. Sophie was sitting on her bed, staring at the Fluttershy plushie in her hands.

“Sophie, what’s the problem? Why aren’t you packing?” Melody asked.

“Is she… is she really kind? Or she just… acted?”

Melody smiled. She walked next to Sophie and hugged her neck. “Sophie, Fluttershy is the kindest mare I've ever known. I’m pretty sure that she’ll love to meet with you.”

Sophie was still looking at the plushie. She caressed its mane. “But she’s so shy. What if she will be afraid of me?”

Melody looked down at the plushie. “You know that there’s only one way to find out. Now come, let’s pack up before your dad gets angry.”

Sophie put the plushie on her bed and stood up. They packed some clothes into her school bag and some other bags they found. Before they left the room, Sophie glanced back to her plushie on the bed. You’re just a plushie. I’ll meet the real Fluttershy. I don’t need you anymore. She turned forward, and with a firm look, walked out of the room.

Phoenix met them on the stairs. "Girls, come on! The cops can arrive any second.” They walked out of the house, Phoenix carrying Sophie’s biggest bag. They put everything in the luggage rack. Melody made Sophie and Carl blinking as she sat down on the car seat. Finally, they all sat into the car, and Carl drove away. Phoenix gave the coordinates to Carl.

Carl typed in the coordinates to the GPS, while driving. “What? The coordinates must be wrong, Phoenix. They point to a big building, 100 kilometers from here.”

Phoenix shook his head. “We’ll only do the first part of the journey by car.”

Carl glanced at Phoenix.

“The next part will be done by magic.”

Carl’s eyes went wide, but had to look back on the road.

“We’ll use a portal,” Melody added.

Phoenix kept glancing behind them, expecting a police car, but never saw any. The police sent an officer to Phoenix’s home, one hour after they left. When the officer saw, that nobody is at home, shrugged and drove away.

After an almost two hours long driving, Carl stopped. “This is it.”

They got out of the car. What they saw was a vast, old factory that nobody used anymore. It spread its gloomy shadows on them.

However, Melody beamed. “Yes! I remember. Follow me!” Melody broke into a gallop.

“Melody! Wait for us!” Phoenix cried. Melody stopped and looked back. “We can’t run that fast, and we need to bring the luggage.”

Melody giggled. “Sorry, I’m just so happy that I finally return to home, to Equestria.”

Sophie ran next to Melody. “I’m so excited! Is it really as colorful as on the cartoon?”

“You’ll see, Sophie. You’ll see.” Melody smiled.

Phoenix and Carl reached them, Carl carrying Sophie’s bags. They walked deep into the building, while Melody was guiding them. Sometimes they heard noises and snores. A few homeless people had decided to use the factory as a shelter. Melody spotted one of them.

“Why’s he sleeping here?” Melody whispered.

“Not everybody’s lucky enough to have his own house, Melody,” Phoenix answered.

Melody’s smile curved down. “Don’t you have proper shelters?”

“We have, but they’re always overcrowded. And sometimes, dangerous too.”

“Dangerous?”

Phoenix nodded. “One might think that poverty softens one’s heart, but sometimes it goes the other way. Some of them shamelessly steal from others, especially in the shelters. These people have no rights. If they’re robbed, they can go nowhere.”

“Don’t you have a day or a night court?” Melody asked.

Carl answered, “We have courts, but they’re nothing like Princess Celestia’s or Luna’s. Human courts either don’t care, or you have to wait at least months for your case to start.”

Melody frowned. “This must be changed.”

They kept on walking. After a few more minutes, Melody cried, “We’re almost there!”

“HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!” yelled someone.

They looked around, but saw nobody. “Hello?” Melody asked.

“WHO ARE YOU?”

“Melody, the harbinger of Equestria. I have the Phoenix with myself.”

Two unicorn royal guards became visible in front of them.

“Ah, I guess you’re the guards who were sent to protect the portal,” Melody said.

One of the guards nodded. “Yes, Miss Harbinger. But why do you have three humans with yourself?”

“They had to come. Princess Celestia will understand.”

The guards looked at each other. One shrugged. “We were told to expect only one human. You’re granted to go through the portal, but unless Celestia declares other way, only the Phoenix can leave Equestria after that.”

Phoenix looked at Carl. “Carl, I’m sorry. I didn’t know this.”

Carl hold up his hand, smiling. “Phoenix, I’m a brony. I’d love to live the rest of my life in Equestria.”

Phoenix smiled. He nodded to Melody.

“Please guards, lead us to the portal,” Melody asked.

“With pleasure.”

They turned left at the end of the room and stepped through a doorway into another room. This room was radiating with ambient blue color. At the end of the room, a blue circle was glowing on the wall, close to the ground.

“We must stay at this side, to protect the portal from intruders. Good luck, Miss Harbinger,” the guard said.

“Thank you, sir,” Melody said. The guards’ horns glowed, and they slowly vanished.

Melody, Sophie, Carl and Phoenix walked to the portal.

“Should we jump?” Carl asked.

“Nah, this is not Sliders,“ Phoenix answered.

“Just step through it,” Melody said.

“On three?” Sophie asked.

“On three,” Phoenix answered. “One.” They stepped closer. “Two.” They took a big breath. “Three!” They stepped through it.

The blue shine blinded them for a few seconds. The first thing that came to their vision was a tall white alicorn, with rainbow-colored mane and spread wings. They all gasped.

“Love never lies,” the alicorn claimed, smiling.

The top petal on Melody’s flower weakened. It swung a few times from the breeze coming from the portal, then left the pistil, and slowly descended on the floor.

Author's Note

Just imagine what will Melody say, when she hears about horse sausage.

Also, this music fits Melody so well that I've chosen it as her theme song: Mirror's Edge: Still Alive

The End of a Journey,

When Carl regained his vision and realized who he is standing in front of, he bent his knees and was about to bow down.

“Please, no need for such a formalities,” the alicorn said.

Carl nodded and straightened up. They were in one of the research rooms of the Canterlot Castle.

“Dear sons of Adam and daughter of Eve,”—started the alicorn—”it is a pleasure to welcome you in the kingdom of ponies, the magical land of Equestria. I’m Princess Celestia, the co-ruler of this country.” She looked at Melody. “Could I ask you Melody, to introduce your companions?”

Melody nodded. “This is Phoenix Freeman, or the Phoenix, the one who could see through the disguise of my amulet. This is Sophie Freeman, her daughter. And this is Carl Thummer, the friend of Phoenix and the representative of the bronies, or adult fans of phase one.”

Princess Celestia stood quiet for a few seconds. “How many members does your group of bronies have, if I may ask, Carl Thummer?”

“Millions, princess. We don’t know exactly how many are we, but we know that we’ll help with anything we can.”

“Then phase one went better, than any of us would have expected,“ Celestia said with a small smile. “But now, I guess you all had a long and tiring journey. We have already prepared a room for all of you and the dinner will be served within an hour. We’ll discuss the future tomorrow morning. Sharp Sword!”

A royal guard answered, “Yes, my princess?”

“Please, lead our guests to their room.”

The guard led the team to their room. The room contained several beds, wardrobes and a lot of other furnitures. However, Phoenix quickly noticed that it was lack of outlets.

Carl laid on the bed next to him. “Can you believe it? We’re in Equestria. We just talked to Princess Celestia. We’re royal guests in the Canterlot Palace. It’s just so awesome.”

Melody smiled. Yes, this’ll definitely compensate them. And I don’t mind some royal treatment either. She laid on another bed.

Phoenix laughed. “I guess they won’t serve beef or pork or any kind of meet. Ponies are vegetarian after all.”

“Man, I don’t care even if I have to eat apples and carrots for the rest of my life,” Carl said, stretching on the bed.

Melody rolled her eyes. “Apples and carrots? Dear Carl and Phoenix, after you tasted the Equestrian food, I’m sure you won’t even want to try eating meat ever again.”

“Says a horse,” Phoenix teased. Melody stuck out his tongue at him.

Sophie walked to another bed next to Melody and started opening her own packs. Since they had stepped through the portal, she hadn’t said a word.

Melody looked at her. “Hey Sophie. Why’re you so quiet? Did Princess Celestia scary you?”

Sophie glanced up at Melody and shook her head.

“Then what’s going on? You were so happy in the factory.”

Sophie kept packing out. “I thought I’ll meet Fluttershy.”

Melody smiled with closed eyes and shook her head slowly. “Oh girl, don’t be so disappointed. Fluttershy lives in another town. I’m sure you’ll meet her soon, maybe tomorrow.”

Sophie sighed. She was biting her lips while she was packing out.

“You’re still afraid that she’ll be too shy, aren’t you?”

Sophie responded with a nod.

Melody sighed. “Sophie, Fluttershy’s not that shy anymore. She used to be, but that was years ago, when she met with Twilight Sparkle. You watched Putting Your Hoof Down, right?”

Sophie nodded again.

Melody moved from laying to sitting on the edge of her bed. “Then why do you still worry? Oh, come here you little girl.” She stretched out her hooves.

Sophie looked at Melody. The little girl forced a smile on her face, sniffed and finally accepted the pony’s embrace.

Phoenix was watching the scene from one of the chairs. I never knew she liked that yellow pony that much. Sure, she wanted a Fluttershy plushie for her sixth birthday, but… I hope Fluttershy’ll be nice to her. Although, she must be a famous star in this world, being the Spirit of Kindness and stuff. He kept watching the hugging pair and sighed. If you could see this Rachel, I wonder what you would say.

KNOCK KNOCK

Phoenix looked at the door. “Come in!”

The door shimmered in yellow and a unicorn walked in, pushing a dinner cart into the room.

“Your dinner, uh!” the unicorn said, but ended abruptly when he got the sight of the three humans. He stopped and stared at them.

Melody smiled at the waiter, still hugging Sophie. “Is there a problem, mister?”

The unicorn didn’t move or answer.

Carl facepalmed. Oh man, you weren’t even told that you will serve the food for humans, don’t you? Celestia…

Melody released Sophie, and walked to the waiter. “Hello?” She said, waving a hoof in front of his face. Melody frowned. She stepped to his side and yelled into his ears. “LONG SPOON, WAKE UP!”

Long Spoon winced. He fell on the ground and pressed his hooves to his ears. “Aaah! Why so loud?”

Melody stopped frowning. “Sorry, but I think you got a shock. You didn’t take the Preparation for Humans course? It was obligatory for everypony.”

The unicorn moved his hooves back to the ground and stood up. “I’m sorry miss, I was sick during those weeks.”

“And there weren’t a course for those who missed the first?” Melody asked.

Long Spoon scratched his neck. “I was sick during that course too.”

Melody facehoofed. “Great. Seems as Princess Twilight this time forgot to recheck everything. I’ll tell her tomorrow.”

Long Spoon turned his view to the humans of the room. He bowed. “Forgive me my impoliteness.”

“It’s okay,” Phoenix said. He added with a smirk, “As long as the food meets the expectations.”

“Oh please, mister,” Long Spoon said. “If the royal kitchens can’t satisfy your desires, then nothing can in Equestria!”

That’s what I fear. Phoenix stood up and walked to the dining table in the room. The table was surrounded by six chairs. These chairs looked similar to human chairs, but their design was fine tuned to pony characteristics. He sat down on one of them and found it acceptable to sit on.

The others sat down as well. Long Spoon served the dishes, and as they expected, the dishes didn’t contain any meat. Yet, they found them surprisingly tasty and satisfying.

The rest of the night almost went uneventful. Almost. A guard near nine o’clock informed the group that the Spirits of Harmony will be attending to the morning meeting, which made Sophie’s emotions turn into a wild storm again. Melody succeeded to calm her once more, much to Phoenix’s surprise. She’s doing this as good as Rachel, he thought. The residence also included two bathrooms, that—with some help from Melody—everybody succeeded to use. At 22:00, Phoenix announced that Sophie must go to sleep, and he turned off the lights. One by one they all drifted to sleep.

The next day, the breakfast was served by Long Spoon as last time. During the breakfast, a guard opened the door and announced that their meeting was in twenty minutes in the throne room. They finished the breakfast, and after some minor adjustments on the clothings, they all left their room and followed the guard.

The throne room. Long and vast room, with stained glass windows, showing the acts of the heros of Equestria. Princess Celestia was sitting on her elevated throne, with a night-blue alicorn next to her. A red carpet came from the throne, that went to the doors. However, what catched Sophie’s sight was six ponies, turned to Celestia in front of her. A lavender alicorn, a white unicorn, a pink fluffy earth pony, a rainbow colored pegasus, an orange earth pony and a… yellow pegasus, with pink mane. She gulped.

Melody noticed Sophie’s anxiety and whispered into her ears, “It’s gonna be alright.”

They started walking towards the throne. Celestia was talking to the Spirits of Harmony, then after finishing a sentence, she stopped and raised her sight to the new guests of the room. This made the six ponies in front of them to turn. Melody and her friends stopped a few meters away from the Spirits. They faced each other for a few seconds, examining the other group. Except Sophie, as she was hugging Melody’s front leg, with her face on her neck.

To everyone’s surprise, the one who broke the silence was the yellow-pink pegasus. “Sophie?”

Sophie’s eyes went wide open. She slowly turned her face to the pegasus. They stared at each other, and the others were staring at them.

Fluttershy looked around. “Oh, I’m sorry, she just looks like a little human girl who rode me in one of my dreams.”

Phoenix frowned. “Well, this is interesting as my daughter’s name is indeed, Sophie, and she told me a few days ago that she dreamed riding you.”

Princess Celestia glanced at Princess Luna next to her, who suddenly found the ceiling to be fascinating.

“Is… is it bad? I’m sorry. I thought it’s a dream.” Sophie faltered and turned her face back to Melody’s coat.

Fluttershy smiled and walked next to Sophie. Sophie heard her steps. She slowly looked at Fluttershy again, who was now facing her from a distance of a child’s step with a reassuring smile. Sophie’s mouth twisted and tear was forming in her eyes. She released Melody and stared at Fluttershy. Fluttershy sat down on her hindquarters, and spread her front hooves wide. Sophie clenched her eyes and—with a second of hesitation—she jumped on Fluttershy and hugged her. The warm embrace of the pegasus broke the last dam of doubt, letting the rivers of relief and joy flow down from the eyes of the little girl.

“I’d love to fly with you again, Sophie,” she whispered into her ears.

Melody could hardly keep her own tears. I told you she’s the kindest mare I’ve ever known.

Celestia leaned to Luna, who was now watching the scene with a smile. “Well done, sis,” she whispered.

The Spirit of Laughter didn’t try. She summoned a napkin from nowhere and rivers sprang from her eyes. She suddenly stopped crying. “Hey do you know what this calls for? A…”

Suddenly a lavender hoof blocked her mouth. “Pinkie, not know. We have more important things to do.” She moved away her hoof.

“Awww… But I thought if I use my aura, then everypony will be so super-duper happy that you’ll all want to party,” Pinkie said. The lavender unicorn glanced at the cutie mark of the pink one. It was shimmering.

The orange-yellow earth pony chuckled. “Thank Love that you got the aura of anti-fear and not the aura of party. Ah even fear to imag’n how Equestria’d look like.”

“But you’re silly, you can’t fear while my aura is on!” Pinkie replied.

“That’s not what I meant, sugarcube,” The earth pony answered with a frown.

The rainbow maned pegasus facehoofed. “Seriously, Applejack. You still try to argue with Pinkie Pie? That’s almost like telling Rarity that ponies don’t need to wear clothes!” She looked at the white unicorn, who glared at the rainbow maned pegasus.

Now the lavender alicorn facehoofed. “Here we go again.”

The unicorn spoke, “How close-minded some ponies are. Yes, Rainbow Dash, we do not need to wear clothes as much as a human, but what about beauty? What about tradition? Imagine the Winter Wrap Up without wearing your vests!”

Good to see that they’re indeed the ponies we know and love, Carl thought.

The lavender alicorn sighed. “Now that you girls all wonderfully introduced yourself, give me the pleasure to do it for myself.” She turned to Phoenix. “My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship. It is an honor to meet with the Phoenix.”

“Just ‘Phoenix’ is enough, princess.”

The princess chuckled. “In that case, you can call me Twilight. My name is too long anyways since the coronation,” Twilight said with a wave of her hoof.

Sophie released Fluttershy, and Celestia decided that it’s the time to go back to the topic of their meeting. “Although my opinion is that the introductions were unnecessary as the humans know all of you from phase one, I’ll finish it with introducing my sister and co-ruler, Princess Luna, the princess of the Night. The only one who you might not know yet, my little ponies, is Carl, the representative of bronies.” She pointed at Carl. “It turned out, that phase one was more successful, that we imagined. According to his statement, millions of adult humans are willing to help us in the reintegration.”

Twilight Sparkle lit up. “Wow, this is good news. No, excelent news!”

“Well, we also have bad news we haven’t told you yet,” Melody spoke. They all turned to her. She looked down. “In a bad moment, I foolishly revealed myself in front of several journalists and reporters. The whole human world knows now that we exists.”

Princess Celestia frowned with closed eyes. “That is indeed bad news. We lost our advantage of deciding when to reveal ourselves.”

“I’m… sorry, princess,” Melody apologised.

Celestia took a deep breath. “What happened, happened my little pony. The most important is that you brought Phoenix here. Phoenix,”—she turned to him—”what should be our next step?”

Phoenix was thinking for few seconds. “We humans have an organisation called the United Nations. It is established to protect the world from wars, and unite the nations of Earth to build a better future. We need to somehow convince the countries of Earth to accept Equestria as a sovereign country, and join the United Nations.”

Celestia nodded. “We’ll send emissaries to all the human nations.”

“Just like that?” Twilight asked. “Sorry, princess, but I’m not sure if the leaders of mankind’ll be kind to our emissaries. What if they attack them? You must give them proper combat training. Or at least, teach them some defence spells.”

“Indeed my faithful student. That is why it’ll be your responsibility to prepare them for their journey.” Celestia smiled.

“We can also help them from the inside,” Carl spoke. “I’ll ask the bronies to start petitions and street protests if a nation refuses or hesitates. I just need a computer with internet connection.”

“That can be done,” Twilight said. “We’ll establish a small base at the other side of the portal. You can work from there.”

Luna was about to protest but Celestia intercepted her. “Although Carl and Sophie were not allowed to leave Equestria, the right for them is now granted. However, they must be accompanied with a royal guard, for their safety.”

“Thank you, princess,” Phoenix said. “I wouldn’t let my daughter now to walk around in the human world without protection anyways. I’m sure there are some who’ll try to stop us, and use whatever they can to do so.” He glanced at her daughter. “Oh, Sophie, are you tired?”

Sophie’s legs were shaking. The reunion with Fluttershy and the long standing session exhausted the little girl’s body.

“Oh, let me take care of that,” Rarity said. She walked to Sophie and raised one of her front hooves. Both her hoof and her cutie mark shimmered, and in a few seconds a human chair appeared next to Sophie, perfectly tailored for her. “Now you can sit down, darling. Don’t be silent if you need something, we’re always happy to help,“ she said with a smile.

Sophie smiled back and sat down with a content sigh. “Okay. I was just too afraid to do so.”

The answer made Rarity to look at Pinkie Pie’s hindquarters. The pink pony’s cutie mark was still shimmering.

“What?” Pinkie Pie asked. “I don’t know how can she fear. Maybe my aura only works on Equestrians,” she said with a shrug.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Okay, cool, now everypony knows what to do. Except us. why’re we even here anyways?”

“Don’t worry girls. I know exactly what you’ll do,” Twilight said with a smirk.

Applejack cocked an eyebrow. “And, what’s that, Twiligh’?”

“You’ll be part of the delegates!” she cried. “Isn’t that wonderful?”

Rainbow Dash jumped into the air and spread her hooves. “WHAT? Are you kidding? No way I’m gonna do egghead chit-chatting with humans! And imagine what would Pinkie Pie do!”

“Oh please, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity said. “Everypony knows that we’re the best candidates for being the ambassadors of Equestria. We’re worldwide known celebrities, darling.”

“Yeah, sure.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.

“Don’t worry, Rainbow. You’ll be teamed up with me and Applejack, so you won’t have to do any ‘egghead chit-chat’,” Twilight said.

“Whohoo! That means I’ll be with Fluttershy and Rarity!” Pinkie Pie bounced. She jumped to Fluttershy and hugged her. “Don’t worry Fluttershy, auntie Pinkie’ll take care of you.”

“I’m one year older than… *sigh*… Nevermind,” Fluttershy said.

“We’ll go to the most important countries, while the other teams’ll go to the rest,” Twilight said.

“Uhm, Twilight,” Carl said. “I’m not sure, that you thought about the language barrier. You all speak American English pretty well, but…”

“American English?” Twilight interrupted with a frown. “But I’m speaking Equestrian!”

“Indeed you do, my faithful student,” Princess Celestia said. “The nations of Equestria will not suffer the curse of Babel. We have recently developed a new spell that can temporarily undo the curse on a pony. While the humans have many different languages, and cannot understand each other, our ponies will be able to speak in their native language and everyone will understand them, and they will be able to understand anyone.”

Twilight looked at Celestia with a raised eyebrow. “And when did you cast that spell?”

Celestia smiled at the young princess. “Yesterday, while you were sleeping, I went into your room and casted it on you all. I wanted it to be a surprise." Her smile curved down a little. "I hope you like it.”

Twilight nodded with a smile. “As long as you show me how to cast the spell afterward.”

Carl scratched his head. “Well, that solves the language barrier problem.”

Phoenix nodded. “At the meantime, you should also start reading the Charter of the United Nations, as the process starts with an application in what your nation states to accept the obligations under the charter. Then, we’ll have to go through the Security Council, a smaller group of nations, and get 9 out of 15 votes. The most important members are China, France, Russia, UK and the USA, as these countries can veto our application. Finally, we will need a two-thirds majority vote from the member states in the General Assembly. If we succeed in all these, Equestria becomes an accepted country.”

“What about the Griffon Kingdom?” Rainbow Dash asked. “I mean, it’s okay that Equestria becomes an accepted country and stuff, but what about the others?”

“Let that be my problem, Loyalty,” Princess Luna spoke. “The submission to the United Nations will be in the name of United Equestria. We already have a pact with Saddle Arabica and the Zebra Tribes, that in the case of external threat, our nations shall unite. And not being an accepted country in the human world is threat from what we’ve seen in their history.” She stood up. “I’ll personally go to the Griffon Kingdom and to the Dragon Tribes, to negotiate the conditions of unity.”

Princess Celestia stood up. “I’ll also ask you Phoenix to help Princess Twilight Sparkle in the organization and coordination of the delegates.” Phoenix nodded. She turned to Melody. “Melody Harbinger, you have gone through many tribulations and difficulties, but you completed your mission. Equestria will be always grateful for your services. The royal treasury will provide you for the rest of your life and you are free to go home.”

Melody was surprised by the offer. I can go home? And Princess Celestia’ll take care of me? Wow, this means I don’t have to work on the farm anymore. She smiled. I can whatever I want! However, her smile faded fast. But what do I want? She looked up at Phoenix. Something says in my heart that my mission is not over. We have still things to do with Phoenix. She turned to Princess Celestia. “Princess, although I’m very grateful for your offer, but if you allow me,”—she stepped to Phoenix—“I would like to continue my service on the side of Phoenix until Equestria is fully integrated.”

Celestia smiled. “You can go wherever you want, my little pony. The time you spent with Phoenix have indeed made you his perfect companion.” She looked around. “Your tasks are given. I’ll take care of Equestria, until you are absent. May the blessing of Love be upon all of us.”

With that, the meeting was dismissed. Melody, her friends and the Spirits of Harmony went out for a little walk in the castle gardens, chit-chatting about whatever came up in their mind. At a junction, Sophie and Fluttershy stopped.

“Dad, can we go that way with Fluttershy?” She pointed to a direction. “We want to walk there.”

Applejack’s cutie mark shimmered. She frowned. ‘Walk’, sure...

“Okay Sophie, just make sure to get back to lunch,” Phoenix answered.

“Don’t worry Phoenix, I’ll take care of her,” Fluttershy said with a wink to Sophie.

Applejack rolled her eyes. The pair happily ran to the other direction, while the others continued their way towards the center of the park.

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE

They all startled from the sudden loud voice and looked up at the direction where it was coming from. Fluttershy was flying high on the sky, with Sophie riding her. Fluttershy was chuckling while Sophie was screaming from happiness.

“Oh, Sophie!” Phoenix yelled. “What are you…”

Rainbow Dash suddenly flew in front of him and held up a hoof. “Enough, Phoenix.” She looked up at them. “This is my job.”

She flew up to the happy pair, who noticed the approaching Rainbow Dash. Dash flew next to them, told them something with a smile, then her cutie mark and her hooves shimmered and she flew back to the ground. “Done.”

Phoenix frowned, then looked up at the pair, who didn’t seem to change their mind of flying up at dangerous heights. “What did you do exactly?”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “What? You don’t know my awesome ability?”

Phoenix shook his head.

Rainbow Dash facehoofed. “Look, your daughter is at my protection now. If she gets into danger, I’ll teleport next to her and bring her into safety.”

Carl frowned. “I don’t remember these abilities from the show.”

Twilight nodded. “We got these after the meeting with Love. We decided not to use them during phase one.” She then started pointing to each of them one by one. “Applejack can see through any lies or disguises, Pinkie Pie can activate an aura that gives temporary fear immunity, Rainbow Dash can protect up to ten living creatures as a guardian angel, Fluttershy can heal, Rarity can conjure anything her friends need and I can cast the Elements of Harmony without the jewels.”

“Hm… that’s… interesting,” Carl said. “Still strange that Pinkie’s aura didn’t work on Sophie.”

Pinkie chirped in, “Maybe, it’s because Love said that ‘nopony shall fear in your presence’, and Sophie is not a pony. But don’t worry about your daughter, Phoenix. Dashie’s ability works on anybody. Once it even worked on a tortoise!”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I knew it was a good idea to put a guardian ward on Tank.”

They continued their walk in the castle garden. Eventually, they got hungry and headed to the dining room, where Fluttershy and Sophie were waiting for them. After the lunch, the day went on with Twilight organizing the delegations to each country. They also decided that phase four would be executed just before the delegations depart. Phase four meant that Celestia broadcasts a speech to all TV channels, while the dimension altering spell around Equestria is replaced with a protection field.

Days passed after days as Twilight was preparing the delegations, while Phoenix and Lyra Heartstrings were helping with advices about each country. Luna also arrived meanwhile and brought good news. Both the Griffon Kingdom and the Dragon Tribes were willing to unite, although with conditions. The Griffon Kingdom presented a pact to Luna in which they required independence within United Equestria. The Dragon Tribes demanded 10 kilograms of gemstones each year, which was almost nothing compared to the mining capabilities of Equestria. Luna accepted the conditions of both nations, as they meant little to no disadvantage to Equestria.

At one day, a delegation arrived from the United Caves of Diamond Dogs, which was surprising as no such a thing existed before. It turned out that the diamond dogs were eavesdropping Celestia and were not willing to only depend on their digging ability as a defence mechanism against the humans. Groups contacted groups and essentially they formed a semi-anarchic nation. Princess Celestia demanded that the diamond dogs must refrain from attacking or harassing the members of the other sentient nations and as a return they can be part of the United Equestria. Although they accepted the condition, Celestia shared her skepticism to Phoenix, as the diamond dogs had never been organized enough to enforce laws across all their groups.

When Twilight finished the preparations, Luna used a spell, prepared by the research teams, to disturb the communication systems of Earth and broadcast Celestia live. Men and women, old and young stared at their screens as a white alicorn with ethereal rainbow mane appeared, revealed the existence of United Equestria, and offered peace to the nations of Earth. At the same time people on ships and planes witnessed as a new continent appeared in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and a yellow protection dome formed on it. Celestia continued her speech by showing an updated world map and claimed the protection shield of the land to be impenetrable. She also ensured that the ships that were at the conflicting regions were teleported to safety. She finished her speech by revealing their plans to join to the United Nations and the delegates that would be sent to each nation and asked for the cooperation of the human nations. With the speech done, Luna closed the communication channel and Celestia asked Twilight to send the delegates to their ways.

Most of the countries were surprisingly welcoming to the Equestrians. However, others were not. Princess Twilight Sparkle and her two friends were almost kidnapped by one of the ‘welcoming’ parties. Or at least there was a try to kidnap them that failed miserably when Twilight teleported the three ponies out of the city.

When the delegations to the countries of the Security Council returned, Melody, Phoenix and Celestia’s two best royal guards went to New York, to personally submit the application to the United Nations. The Council came together in a week, and accepted Equestria with 11 votes out of 15. The General Assembly was not that easy. They needed 129 votes out of 193, but succeeded with 131 votes. And with this, United Equestria became the 194. accepted member of the United Nations.

After the General Assembly’s meeting, Celestia dispelled the protection spell, and opened the gates of Equestria to humans, although more than a one-week-stay required a permit from the Humans In Equestria Institution, led by Lyra Heartstrings. United Equestria’s embassies established in most of the human countries, and portals were opened between the territory of the embassies and Canterlot. The first visitors were of course the fans of Friendship is Magic: little kids, bronies and pegasisters. Poor Fluttershy turned out to be so popular, that she needed four personal guards to be able to breathe from all the fans, although she welcomed all of them kindly. Rarity and Rainbow Dash was thinking the opposite. They enjoyed the fame and even repeated their famous expressions to result ovations from the group around them. Pinkie Pie made a ‘Welcome all humans in Equestria’ party that was the biggest party ever made in Equestria. Applejack didn’t like the too much attention, and after a few hours escaped to her guest room. The background characters were also found by their fanclub. The most famous background pony, Derpy got even more fame than Applejack, although some fans were disappointed by the fact that her husband was not a timelord.

However, not just humans visited Equestria, but ponies with adventurous spirit went out into the human world. Princess Twilight Sparkle established a course for these ponies about the basics of human culture, and a test. The ponies who passed the test got a permit to leave Equestria, but it depended on the host country if it allowed common Equestrian citizens to step on their land or not. The most welcoming country turned out to be the USA because of the massive sizes of the brony communities. One of the states even started changing the public signs to represent both humans and ponies.

Although, it was part of phase two to teach everypony that the weather will be working on its own after Celestia dispels their dimension altering spell, when they experienced it in practice, it resulted discontent, especially from the older generations. After living more than seventy years, knowing that your princess raises the sun every day, it was too much to take in that the ‘sun’ Celestia was raising was only part of their pocket dimension and Celestia didn’t have power over the real celestial object. After some months, the tensions lowered, and the pegasi got used to only being able to modify the weather, instead of having full control over it, which still greatly helped in mitigating disasters to both humans and ponies.

The technology of the humans and the magic of the ponies unlocked endless possibilities. Multi-racial research teams started working across the world for a better future for both ponies and humans.

However, the heart of the humans remained unchanged and so did the ponies’. Human securities were not prepared to teleporting burglars using telekinesis, which resulted Equestrians to be banned or very filtered from certain countries and areas. Other countries demanded Celestia to control their citizens in using their abilities, which led to the establishment of the Human-Equine Co-Living Institution, led by Melody and Phoenix. The institution’s first task was to give protection to humans from basic tricks of the Equestrian burglars, but preferably filter them out at the borders, before they could even leave Equestria. The main goal of the institution was to help ponies and humans, leave together in peace, the two leaders being the living example.

Humans were not better either. There were several cases handled by the day and the night court with humans given a guilty verdict for things like robbery, molestation and once even for murder. It was very rare, but sometimes tourist ponies were attacked on human lands. The human and the pony courts were working together in both cases, in order to give the rightful judgement.

Melody and Phoenix were travelling around the world, helping the nations in the reintegration and protecting peace. However, during their work, they also gained people who hated them for what they had done, and what they were doing.

One day, Phoenix and Melody sat into their car, and Phoenix tried to turn on the car’s engine.

Author's Note

I planned to write a story between the The Element of Love and The Harbinger called Together, in what the Mane 6 discovers those abilities given by Love and they have to use them together to defeat Darkness once more. I just didn’t have time to write it yet, and probably won’t do it as Season 4 will probably ruin my complete story arc anyways.

And the Beginning of a New One

It became all white. Phoenix couldn’t see anything for a few seconds.

“Wha…. What happened?” Melody asked next to him, also fighting for her vision.

Then they saw him. A man, clothed in white garment down to the foot. He wore a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white and his eyes were like fire.

He spoke. His sound was majestic, but warm and full of love. “Phoenix Freeman and Melody Harbinger, my faithful servants and children. You finished your mission I gave you and your reward is waiting for you in my kingdom.”

Melody was the first to reply. “L...Love? Is that you?” She hesitated. “I always thought you look like a pony.”

Love answered, “I’m not bond to one form Melody, although normally I look like a human. If you wonder how I looked like when I spoke with the Spirits of Harmony, I'll happily show you.” He then in a flash transformed into a male alicorn. Although he didn’t wear any clothes in this form, he was still all white and shiny, and his eyes were burning like fire.

This time, Phoenix spoke, “Jesus, why are we here? Did we die?”

The alicorn nodded and transformed back into human-god form. “When you tried starting your car at your last morning, the explosives, planted into your car, went off, and you both died in the explosion.”

Melody gasped. “Is Sophie okay?”

Jesus nodded. “She is. Although, it’ll take her some time to accept that you left her.”

“Will she accept you as her savior?" Phoenix asked. "Please Jesus, I have to know!”

Jesus smiled. “With Fluttershy and Carl on her side? She’ll reborn during the next year!”

Phoenix sighed in relief. Then his eyes went wide. Wait, if we’re in heaven, then...

“She is right behind you,” Jesus said.

Phoenix turned, just to be caught in the embrace of the blond haired girl he missed so much. He gasped, his mouth twisted and broke into tears as he hugged Rachel back.

Melody closed her eyes and smiled. I told you, Phoenix. I told you what I learnt from him.

And he never lies.

THE END

Author's Note

Special thanks to Kawazoe Natsumi for giving design advices on Melody’s appearance and Chris for helping in proofreading of the first two chapters.