A Series of Ponified Events

by Switchlock

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Adventure, Human
Length: 16468

Twilight screwed with the walls between worlds. Who woulda guessed it caused transgender, while turning me into a pony and live out my own fic? It'll make more sense as you start to read. Or not. Just read it.

So, yeah. Thanks to Twilight, I've got a concussion, hooves, and something missing between my legs. Not really something to freak out about, in my opinion. I always was passive about that, and I'm a pretty good optimist too. But how am I supposed to act when I have to start killing, starting with myself? Fate, you cruel bitch.
Well, at least the guys I'll be killing are made of Sombra's shadows, so it's not really killing, right? Right?

Canceled because I'm really starting to hate this story. I just can't write it anymore.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-05-02 18:01:57 UTC

1. The Arrival

We made it to the chamber of the Crystal Heart just in time. A minute later, and the heart would have become completely black.

“Yeah! Take that, Fate!” I shouted to the skies. We had the Crystal Heart back where it belonged. I knew everything would be fine now. We could save the Empire, go back to Ponyville, and get me back to my world where I belonged. Twilight went to put the Crystal Heart back within its chamber, the rest of us following closely behind.

And then shit hit the fan.

There, done. That’s another chapter finished and ready to upload… but… everyone’s gonna hate that cliffhanger… Maybe I oughta at least develop more from that, rather than just leave it. Alright, here goes.

And then shit hit the fan in the worst possible way. King Sombra was right there, just waiting for us.

“Hello, my little ponies. Thank you for bringing the Crystal Heart to me. You’ve sealed your doom, just as expected.” He said in a way that made me think of Saint Dane from the Pendragon Adventures. Then, as if he just noticed me, he added: “Oh yeah. And you too human.”

“What the- I thought we left you and that ninja dude back in the river!” Dash shouted.

“I can turn into shadows. Or have you forgotten?” He said. Oh.

Then it hit me. There was no going home now. We’d all die here before I ever had the chance. And it was going to be my fault.

I shouldn’t have tempted fate.

Alright, I think that’s a better ending to the chapter. Still a cliffhanger, but I managed to do it better. I saved the doc and closed my laptop. I looked at the clock. 10:56 PM. Damn, I stayed up late! Well, my body doesn’t disagree with the time. It’s time to hit the hay and catch some Zs. I got up out of my seat and walked back to my room to my awaiting bed. When I got to my room, I didn’t find my bed. I found a vortex.

“Ah, shit.” I mumbled. My life just became the fic I’ve been writing. I felt the pull of the vortex begin to lift me off the ground. I grabbed the doorway and held on for dear life, knowing it’d just be a waste of energy in the end, but hoping otherwise. I heard voices on the other side of the portal.

“Twilight, what are ya doing?! Close that thing up before something happens!” I distinctly recognized Rainbow Dash’s voice.

“Yes! Please! AND HURRY!!” I shouted through the portal. “My grip is slipping!”

“What the- Who are you?” I heard Twilight ask. I growled in frustration.

“That doesn’t matter, just close the fricken portal!” I shouted. Just then, my grip slipped. “CRAAAAAAA- OW!” my head hit the wall as I flew across my room into the vortex. I blacked out. Oh well. At least I’m getting the rest I needed.

It didn’t feel like long before I felt consciousness take hold of me again. I felt something wet on my head, but I also felt different. I could feel my body sending signals to my brain, and I didn’t feel any of my own body parts. I felt hooves, a tail, a horn on my head, and a very different feeling between my hind legs.

“Aw, crap.” I thought, knowing what was coming next. I lifted my head and looked down at myself. I saw an orange coat, a red, messy tail, and the one thing I dreaded seeing. Yup. I’m a mare now.

And apparently, I’m in Equestria. Twilight walked up to me. “Oh, good, you’re awake. I’m sorry about the portal.” She said.

“Eh,” Wow, my voice is really different. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure it was just an honest mistake, and I can’t hold it against you. I’m gonna be adding it to the list of things I hold against fate though.” I chuckled. What can I say? I’m an optimist, and I use humor to shrug off the bad things. Twilight chuckled nervously.

“Right… Hey, weren’t you a… you know… a guy on the other side of that portal?” she asked. I nodded.

“Yeah, but like I said: It’s nothing anyone could control. It’s no use freaking out over being the wrong gender. Or about being turned into a pony.” I rose my hoof up to look at it, and then let it drop to my side before looking around at the library. “Or about being in a world thought not to exist in the first place with no viable way home at the moment.” Twilight blinked. I guess she wasn’t really expecting that. “Don't get me wrong, it's weird beyond anything you could imagine, but what does matter is that action is taken to correct what’s gone wrong.”

“So, uh… what were you before you fell through my portal? I caught a glimpse of you, but I couldn’t really see much.” She said. I looked at her sides and saw her wings. So, there’s a chance she’s already been to that other world behind the mirror.

“A human.” I stated. “Except in my world, we aren’t pastel colors like all of you.”

“Huh? Wait, you know I’ve been to the human world?” she asked. “Were you one of the people at the school?”

“No, I know you went to a human world, but not mine. In my world, everything you go through that warrants a friendship report ends up on a TV show.” I say without letting my poker face go. She just stares at me. Then Rainbow Dash breaks the silence.

“Wait, you mean we’re the stars of a TV show where you come from? Sweet! How do they make me look?”

Holy crap, how did I not notice the rest of the Mane 6 standing there?! And why isn't Dash threatening to hand my flank to me on a silver plater? Did Twilight Talk to Dash about this before I woke up? “Well, their animations don’t do you any justice. You’re about 20% cooler in person.” I say, smirking at her to hide my shock.

“Is that supposed to be a compliment or a mockery? Because that’s my line you just stole there.” she returned.

“A compliment. I’m kind of a big fan of you, Dash. Seriously, anything that can break the sound barrier has my respect.” I said. Of course I mean anything that can break it on their own without any outside help. Dash seemed satisfied at my answer.

“Well, I guess I am the coolest. Hey, how many fans do I have?” she asked. Now I get to pull off my favorite gag.

“Well I’m not sure, but if I had to guess, I’d say about… over 9000.” I said casually, causing every jaw in the room to drop.

“What!? Over 9000?!” Pinkie pitched in. My poker face broke, and I started laughing at the reactions. Pinkie joined in, probably because she just enjoyed laughing with others.

“What’s so funny?” AJ asked. I calmed down enough to talk again.

“Sorry, sorry, I couldn’t help myself. That’s one of the biggest gags on the internet.” I said. I knew they wouldn’t know what the internet is.

“What’s the internet?” Rainbow asked. Called it.

“Twilight, you didn’t tell them anything about it?” I asked her. She shook her head.

“No, I barely even understand it.” She said. Eh, I don’t mind explaining it.

“Well, it’s a worldwide information base that can be accessed by any computer, and probably about any electronic device in my world. You can kinda look at it as a complete library of everything ever. There are a lot of web sites I’d like to show you if you can make a two way portal back to my world, but then again, there’s so much more you really shouldn’t see. Ever.” I said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna have to get used to my new body.” I said, trying to get up out of the bed. I scoot my way over to the edge, but Twilight offers help.

“If this is new to you, I don’t mind helping you at all. I’ll help in any way I can.” She said. I smiled.

“So I get used to my new body, you teach me magic, and I’ll see what I can do.” I summarized the plan. Twilight seemed to accept it, if her silence was anything to go by, and I felt her magic lift me up out of the bed. She set me down on the floor in what felt to me like a pretty awkward stance, but looking back at myself, I saw I was standing naturally like a pony. I turned back forward and took a breath.

“Alright, let’s get walking.” I said out loud to myself. I put one hoof forward, and was about to move the one directly behind it, but as I took weight off of it, I found myself falling out of balance. I quickly set that hoof back down. Experimentally, I used my other hoof and found I didn’t lose my balance to that. I then switched the newfound pattern around, and found I could take solid steps forwards.

“Hey, it looks like you’ve got it!” Twilight praised. I smiled at her. I just had to get used to walking like this. It already felt half natural after those first few steps, so I didn’t have to worry too much about tripping over my own hooves the whole time. I might just have to correct myself every now and then.

“Alright, now I want to see what I can do with magic.” I said. Twilight nodded and led me into her study.

“Alright, let’s start with something small. Try lifting this quill.” Twilight said, setting a quill down on a desk.

“Alright it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out. Maybe I’ll learn by accident.” I said. Long story short, I learned much sooner than I expected. I figured out it’s more like using my horn as a muscle. It worked.

“Wow, I can’t believe one of my first theories actually worked.” I said. I had plenty of theories as to how unicorns use their magic, so I set to work testing them, and wouldn't you know it, one of the early ones I tested worked!

“I can’t believe you learned this fast.” Twilight said. I had some other ideas I wanted to try out right then and there. Unlike probably a lot of students, I paid pretty close attention to my science classes. I knew how air worked, and what it was made of. Armed with this knowledge, I was pretty sure I could do some amazing stuff.

“I bet you can’t believe what I’m about to do.” I said. I channeled my energy, and focused on the air particles in front of me. It took a few tries, but where I focused, I created a platform of sorts. I jumped onto it, finding the air to be as solid as I compressed it to be. “What do you think?”

“This is unbelievable! How are you doing that? You aren’t using a levitation spell of any sort as far as I can tell.” she asked. And in a very Twilight-ish manner, I explained it to her.

“Well, it’s quite simple really. I just took the air molecules and cooled them enough to compress them into a solid state. Then, I got enough particles to make a solid platform to stand on.” I think she understood perfectly.

“Oh, I get it.” She said. I turned and saw the confused expressions on the rest of the Mane 6.

“In other words, I froze and squished the air to make it solid.” I summarized for them. A series of “Oh” and “Aha!” reached me.

“I didn’t even know a unicorn could do that. Isn’t it draining on you, dearie?” Rarity asked. I shook my head.

“Not really. The total mass isn’t that much at all. It is just air after all.” I replied. I wonder if I could make a spell to automate the air walking thing. I thought. Nah, it’d be better to find out what else I can do.

“Hey, you guys mind showing me around Ponyville? I get to see parts of it from the show, but no one’s ever really got to making an actual tour of the place.” I said.

“I’d love to stick around, but I’ve gotta go get set up now!” Pinkie said before practically breaking the sound barrier getting out of Twilight’s house.

“Party?” I asked.

“Eeyup.” Apple Jack replied. “Hey, let’s get goin’. I’ll show ya ‘round Sweet Apple Acres!”

“Sweet.” I punned. I didn’t receive any stares for that, but hey. I made the pun, and the pun’s what I’m all about. Hey wait, shouldn’t something like that be my cutie mark? I looked, and saw I was a blank flank. Ah, well. I’ll figure something out. Hopefully, I won’t get criticized in public for this.

2. The Tour

Twilight decided to stay at the library and try to find a way to make a two-way portal back to my world. After a rather strange experience in the bathroom, I followed AJ out on her way to the farm, and listened as they pointed out some ponies and their homes, and what they do. I got plenty of ponies giving me double-takes and stares, but none of them gave me outright scrutiny. I learned a few things about Ditzy and a few others that they don’t tell anyone from the show, and ran into Filthy Rich and his daughter Diamond Tiara once. I’m sure she would have made outright fun of me had her father not been right there. I noticed decorations being set up for Nightmare Night. Well, it was around that time in my world, so I guess time is relative between worlds. Guess I better pick a costume sometime soon.

On the way, I spotted Lyra and BonBon, and waved a magic hand at them. I saw Lyra’s eyes go wide as she saw my hand, and then I heard her rant about me having hands. I walked over to her, stopping her rant dead.

“Hey there. Aren’t you Lyra?” I asked. Of course I already knew that.

“Yeah. And you’re the pony with magic hands. Who are you, and were you a human like me?” she asked. Aw, crap. I haven’t thought of a name yet. Wait, she said she was human? Well it seems one of those fan comics on DA were right about her. In all honesty I'm not all that surprised. I guess this is one of the realities in which it is true. I guess this is another one of those examples of being hard to surprise. I'll ask her about the whole human thing later.

“Um… Not… exactly like you. You see, I used to be a guy before I managed to get sucked into a portal between worlds. Oh yeah, and I still have all my memories. I went by the name Dan Strider, but I guess I need a new name now.” I said. BonBon listened in and nearly cracked up laughing at that.

“Wow, you think that story’s gonna fly around here? That’s hardly any more believable than Nightmare Moon coming back!” BonBon said. I smirked.

“And yet that happened, didn’t it?” I pointed out. BonBon stopped laughing.

“I guess you’ve got a point.” She said. “Hey wait, if you’re from another world like you claim, then how come you know about the things that happened in Ponyville over a year ago?!” she asked.

“Well, as a matter of fact, there’s a TV show in my world all about this place and the things Twilight and friends learn. You guys are in it too, from time to time.” I said.

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” BonBon said.

“You’ll be waiting a while. Twilight’s at the library trying to find out how to make a two way portal to my world, and when she does, I’ll show you how the world works.” I said.

“I’ll be glad to stop by.” Lyra said.

“Twi says it’ll take around a week, considering the other things she’s gotta be doing, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she finds out sooner.” I reported. “Maybe we could get to know each other in the meantime.”

“I’d like that!” Lyra agreed. Then I thought for a few minutes about a name. I figured I could use facts about myself to make a name.

“Hey, I just thought of a name: What do you think about Summer Dash?” I asked.

“Sounds fitting.” AJ said. Lyra agreed, though BonBon was still not buying the whole “From another World” story. Everyone else agreed it was good enough. Rainbow must have thought she inspired the name, because she seemed to hold a smile at me as we went on. Honestly, the name only came from two facts:

1) I’m one hell of a fast runner, and

2) My coat reminds me of the summer, and summer happens to be a girl’s name.

Later, we came across the boutique, and Rarity’s sister came out to greet her.

“Hello, Sweetie Belle.” Rarity said when Sweetie Belle poked her head out of the shop.

“Hey Rarity. Is that another customer?” she asked.

“Wait, what? No, you’ve got the wrong idea. I’m just a new friend. I may be a girl now, but there’s a point where I draw the line.” I said. Sweetie Belle gave me a weird look. Then I considered coming to Rarity later for the Nightmare Night costume. “Actually, I might stop by later to talk about a costume for Nightmare Night.” I admitted.

“Oh, okay. My name’s Sweetie Belle, by the way.” She said. I nodded at her.

“I’m Summer Dash.” I introduced myself. “It’s nice to meet you.” Sweetie Belle nodded at me in return and went back into the workshop with Rarity. Rarity explained that she needed to complete a few commissions and upkeep the shop. AJ then pitched in as we continued walking to the farm.

“I’m sure you know already, but this here’s the boutique, where Rarity does her work with fashion and what-not.” AJ said. “Ah personally try to stay away from here, ‘cause she normally likes to get us to try on her dresses without much of a choice in the matter.”

“Yeah, I know about it. Hey, on the subject of costumes, I’ve got the perfect ideas for you and the rest of the Elements.” I said. The thought struck me that the one for Apple Jack wasn’t exactly very good… “Actually, I don’t think the altered you would be a very good idea… Not exactly impressive, at all. I’ll have to think of something better to make the full set awesome.” AJ raised an eyebrow at me.

“Now what’s that supposed to mean?” she asked. I realized I’d said that out loud.

“Oh, uh… Well, there’s this guy in my world who made altered versions of you guys, and… well, yours wasn’t really scary, or anything.” Ah, screw gentle. Blunt is easier. “Alright, this guy basically fused you with a pill addict to make a monster out of you, and made fun of you with the name he gave the character.”

“What?! Why?” she asked in surprise. I could tell I’d caught Rainbow and Fluttershy’s attention on the matter.

“It was a Nightmare Night thing, and I don’t think he saw you as the best pony. Hell, he gave Derpy a better alteration than you. Yours just made people laugh.” I admitted. After a moment of thought, I added, “Well, his whole aim was to make people laugh, but your alteration achieved that goal more than the others.” Stop feeling like she’s going to punch you for this. You didn’t do it, so why beat yourself up over this stuff? I told myself.

“Oh, he did, did he? Well, it sounds a bit like Ah’ve got somepony to impress.” She said as she glared ahead. I think the second comment might have softened the blow, but I could tell she was pretty annoyed with this guy.

“What about me? What’d he make me into?” Rainbow asked.

“A cyborg with a thing for using guns on people and ponies alike. Since that version of you was around Twilight when the possession happened, things kinda got out of hand.” I said. I saw her face pale at that.

“I… shot her?” she asked.

“Yeah, but you missed her vitals by that much, and she lived. They said they were lucky AJ’s alteration had a bottle of pain pills on han- err, hoof when they found her.” I said. Rainbow turned to me.

“Wait, if we were turned into monsters with a habit of killing, why’d we save her?” she asked.

“Well, it’s because Fluttershout had the brilliant idea to come back together as changed as they were to hold onto your destinies, becoming the Elements of Insanity. So, because of certain events, and Derpygun breaking the fourth wall, they put two spirits in Twilight, and she became Brutalight Sparcake.”

“Wow. So she became, like, super powerful or something, right? What’s up with the names, by the way?” she asked.

“Yeah, she did. The names a combination between your names and those of the spirits that possessed you. You got Scombine, Twi got the Christian Brutal Sniper and… another name I’d rather not repeat, Rarity got this guy named Rubberfruit, Pinkie got Painis Cupcake, and the rest of you got names corresponding to whatever changed about you. Like Fluttershout and ApplePills.” I shot a look at AJ to see how she’d react to the names. She continued glaring ahead. You know, she’s not really impressing anybody with her silence. Now if she uprooted and flung a full grown apple tree across Equestria, then she’d get a round of dropped jaws.

“Um… excuse me, but what changed about me?” Fluttershy asked.

“Not much. You just got a voice louder than a sonic boom, and you used it when you got scared.” I said. “It caused heads to explode.”

“Oh…” she seemed to deflate at that.

“Hey, if it helps, you guys can imagine your altered selves using these powers on threats to Equestria, like King Sombra, or the changelings. Besides, none of it is actually real. It’s just a guy’s ideas.” I said. They took thoughtful poses for a second and then smiled. Except AJ. She just seemed to be trying to shrug off the thought of this guy and what he did.

After that lovely conversation, I saw Scootaloo trying to pull off some tricks with her scooter, and I saw she was about to fail badly at one, so I made a ramp for her to land safely on and corrected her scooter’s aim. She skidded to a halt when she landed and she looked around to find out what just saved her. I came up and greeted her.

“Hey there! That was a close call!” I said. Scoots looked at me.

“You helped me out there?” she asked. I nodded.

“Yeah, and it was a good thing I did, too, or you would have ended up with a pancake for a face, or something like what happened to my head here.” I said, pointing at the bandage wrapped around my wound. We both chuckled at that.

“Oh, hey Dash! Who’s your friend? Is she new around here?” Scoots asked when she saw Rainbow Dash.

“Yeah. Summer, meet Scootaloo. Scoots, meet Summer Dash. She just got to town this morning and wound up in an accident with Twilight at the library, so we’re making it up to her by taking her around town, and showing her the sights.” Dash explained. Good cover. I’m going to have to remember that for anyone I don’t feel like telling the truth.

“Okay, nice to meet you, Summer!” Scootaloo said, extending her hoof to me. I took it in a shake.

“You too, Scoots.” I said. “I’ll see you later.” We left for more of the tour, AJ and Rainbow explaining things as we went along, sharing our memories of certain events at places we passed by. I didn’t do much of the sharing; not after the conversation from earlier. I figured it was best to just let them think of other things.

“I gotta give you guys props. I don’t think Hasbro coulda made a better tour of Ponyville. If they made a tour, though, it’d be of all of Equestria and it wouldn’t be as detailed as what you guys have just shown me.” I said.

“Well, thank ya’ kindly.” AJ said.

“Hey, it’s what friends are for, right?” Dash said.

“Thanks guys.” I said. We arrived at the Apple farm right about then. Apple Bloom came running up to AJ as we approached the barn.

“Apple Jack!” she cried as she tackled AJ in a hug. D’awwwww! I thought. Just too cute. Oh hey, looks like AJ just brightened up. “Who’s this?” Apple Bloom asked, looking at me after the hug.

“The name’s Summer Dash.” I said, holding a hoof out.

“Well howdy, Summer. I’m Apple Bloom!” she said, meeting my hoof shake.

“Nice to meet you, Apple Bloom. I heard you’re in a group called the Cutie Mark Crusaders?” I said, hoping to open up a conversation.

“Oh yeah! My friends and Ah go ‘round doin’ all sorts o’ things to find out what our special talent is! And when we do, we’ll get our Cutie Marks! That’s our goal!” she said enthusiastically.

“Heh. Sounds a bit like something I need to do.” I said, presenting my blank flank. Apple Bloom gasped. I smiled as she looked me in the eyes. “Endless Possibilities, am I right?” That brought her smile back in full.

“Did you hit your head trying to find your talent?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Oh, that? No, that was just a little accident with an interdimensional portal in Twilight’s library.” I said. “Not like it matters though. I’ve taken hits to the head before, and I ignore it every time. After all, if anything comes from it, it’s that my skull grows stronger every time it heals.”

“Well, Ah figured you were the optimistic type, but this here just takes the cake!” AJ said. I looked at her with a smirk, but then looked around cautiously, half-expecting Pinkie to just pop up out of nowhere asking who’s taking the cake.

“I get it from playing games where I come from.” I say vaguely. “I’ve learned when there’s an optimist around, nobody loses their cool as often when they lose. So, I became the optimist.”

“I get it.” Dash said. I was about to leave but my stomach growled, letting me know I needed to eat. A chorus of stomachs followed mine. Hey, this is a lot like my fic! Getting lunch at the farm after a long tour was written in my fic, and it was kinda cool I was getting to experience it for myself. I was essentially putting myself in my character’s hooves.

“Heh, I guess we all need to eat something.” I said. I began keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary as we moved on, knowing what came next in my fic, but not really expecting it to happen.

“Y’all come along. I’m sure Granny Smith wouldn’t mind makin all o’ us some lunch.” AJ led us to her outdoor family dining area. I imagined it’d be bigger considering the size of the family I saw in the first episode.

“Wouldn’t this place be… I dunno, bigger? I mean, you’ve got huge family reunions every now and then, right?” I asked AJ in private.

“We’ve got the extra tables packed away in the storage shed for when that happens. We don’t need ‘em all the time and they just take up room when we don’t use ‘em.” AJ explained.

“Makes sense.” I said. I heard a door open, and I turned to see Big Macintosh walking out of the house.

“Oh, Apple Jack! You made it just in time for lunch.” He said. “You brought your friends?”

“Yup.  We were givin’ our new friend here a tour of town, and we stopped here.” AJ said, gesturing to me.

“Hi. Name’s Summer Dash.” I waved at him. “I don’t suppose AJ’s told you about the interdimensional portal accident, has she?”

“Nope.”

“Well, I came from the other side of it. It wasn’t anything anyone could control, but things kinda happened while getting sucked through.” I made little figures of what happened with my magic as I explained, showing the human figure hitting the wall and turning into a pony as it went through a little hole. Big Mac raised an eyebrow at my demonstration.

“So you were one of those humans Twilight met when she went to that other world?” he asked.

“No, not them. I’m from another separate universe. The only thing parallel about my world is that there’s a TV show about this world.” I clarified. Big Mac nodded and left to get all the plates ready. I turned to head back to the rest, but found Apple Bloom standing there staring at me like I had three heads.

“Oh, snap. You heard that, didn’t you?” I asked. My ears automatically folded back. At least she doesn’t know about the gender swap thing.

“Is the whole human thing why ya’ don’t have a Cutie Mark?” she asked. I decided to take this rationally, and not be all emotional about telling her. My ears perked back up as I shook off my feelings of this confrontation.

“Eh. Probably. I mean, we humans don’t go around trying to find the one thing we’re best at and stick with it for a job. We usually have to go through tougher ordeals to make it to a job we can actually tolerate.” I said. Apple Bloom took every word in.

“Wow, Ah guess your world has it kinda tough, huh?” she said. I nodded.

“Yeah, nobody really likes the political side of my world, but the internet’s where all the good stuff’s at.” I said, hoping to turn the conversation to a brighter side.

“Really? I wanna see it!” she said.

“Well, we’ll be waiting about a week, hopefully less, for Twilight to make a two way portal to my world. Then, when we get there, I’ll show you around.” I promised. I smirked as I remembered the Pinkie Promise. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” I said with the right gestures.

“Alright! Hey, did you figure out the magic thing yet? You know, seeing as you weren’t always a unicorn.” She asked. I smiled, getting an idea.

“Yeah, I found it to be pretty simple. And I’m a bit advanced, so I can do more with telekinesis than the average magician.” I said. “You wanna see?” I asked. She nodded vigorously. My smirk broadened, and I looked just ahead. In front of us, I created a small path. I used my natural speed, (it came back once I’d gotten used to walking) and ran across the path, creating more of it as I ran. My bandage flew off as I circled around the tops of a few trees and then when I finished, I returned to Apple Bloom with much more fatigue than I get when I normally run. I'm really going to have to work on my stamina. Her jaw had dropped.

“T-that was only Telekinsis?” she asked.

“Telekinesis, and yes.” I corrected. She suddenly smiled really big.

“Wow! That’s awesome!” she shouted. I heard hoofsteps behind me. I turned and saw Rainbow Dash walking up to me, alongside Apple Jack. Surprise number one: they walked up behind me. Surprise number two: Rainbow was actually walking, not flying.

“I agree. I’ve never seen anypony go that fast on hoof before.” Rainbow said.

“That was some quick hoofwork ya’ had goin’ there, Summer.” AJ said.

“Thanks. I’m not exactly the fastest, but my speed is another thing I pride myself in.” I said. Rainbow seemed to be having second thoughts about something. My guess was she was seeing that my speed is where I got the second part of my name from.

“Not the fastest?! Summer, you just might be the fastest runner in Equestria!” Apple Bloom stated in over excitement. I turned to her, giving her a firm stare.

“Hey, I deny that until it’s proven. And I’m in no hurry to get a reputation around here. Besides, I’m pretty sure at least one of AJ’s relatives is faster.” I said. Bloom gave me an innocent look.

“Oh, sorry.” I laid off the stare a little.

“It’s okay, but I just don’t want any unproven accusations thrown my way.” I said.

“Well, lunch is ready, so whenever you two want to join us, it’ll be waitin’ for ya’.” AJ said. They turned around and left for the dining tables. I went with them and Bloom joined us too.

Lunch was kinda fun. I got to explain some of the good points about our world, and some of the bad too, but I generally tried to avoid that. I even got to hear about some of the things the 6 did off camera, and Fluttershy actually talked to me. I didn't much mind the vegetarian lunch, and I found the apples were like... I don't even know how to describe them. Their flavor just went beyond blowing my mind, that's how good they were. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. I hate you too, fate.

3. The Attack

I think evil villains make a habit out of ruining your best moments. Right as I finished my lunch, I saw a wandering Changeling. He was hiding in a tree, and I could see him giving us all evil looks. I kept catching glimpses of him during the conversation, never really knowing what it was, but I finally saw him. He was disguised as Big Mac.

“Ah, shit.” I said out loud. Everyone looked at me. “Changeling!” I pointed right at him. All eyes landed on him as he fell out of the tree on his head.

“Shit! I’ve been seen!” He shouted. “Get them!” I turned as I heard leaves being moved behind me, and saw a changeling disguised as me jumping out of a bush about to land a hoof in my face. Having written about something like this in my fic, I was at least half expecting this, so I was quick to react.

“NOPE!” I said, moving my head out of the way just in time. Then I head-butt him, forcing him to fall over and earning myself a shot of pain to my horn. Right. Gotta watch out for that thing. I got out of my chair, moving in to attack, but I was interrupted as another changeling disguised as Dash flew at me from the cover of a tree. I turned my back to him and got ready to buck him in the face when he came close.

“Batter up!” I shouted. “And it’s a home run!” I said when I hit him in the face. I was getting excited, and I wanted to up the difficulty by enraging them. “Alright, you guys suck. I’ve got some advice for you: Stop trying to hit me and hit me!” I taunted. The first changeling had recovered and hit me on the left side of my face. I turned right with the momentum, bringing my hind leg around in a horizontal axe kick. I doubt anypony suspected I’d be capable of such a move directly after getting hit. I made sure I sent him away from me with that kick so he wouldn’t be able to turn my own tactic against me.

“Nice shot,” I commented, “but mine was better.” I heard the other changeling get up, but then he fell back to the ground. I looked and saw Apple Bloom on him, playing jockey.

“Ah got ‘im! Ah got ‘im!” she was saying. I decided to help her out with the struggling changeling, and punched him in the face, effectively knocking him out.

“There we go!” I said. She looked down in shame, probably thinking I was about to chew her out for getting involved. I gave her a smile. “You did good, Bloom. We make a good team.” My praise brought a smile to her face, but it quickly left.

“Behind you!” she shouted. I didn’t forget about him. I heard him charging at me, head on, so I made a barrier of air, like I did with the platforms I ran on. I heard him hit it, and then slide down it like a fly hitting a window. I turned and saw the impact had knocked the poor fool out.

“Oh, him? Naw, he’s got a case of the pancake.” I said, earning a laugh from Bloom. “Let’s go help the others!” I said, turning back to her. We both went to help AJ next. She was struggling against three changelings.

“Hey Bloom. How about we throw you at one of the changelings? You can blind them like you did with the first one.” I suggested.

“Yeah, let’s do that!” Bloom said, readying herself. I picked her up in a telekinetic grip and launched her at the changeling about to hit AJ from behind.

“Gah! What the hay? Get this thing off me!” he shouted when Bloom landed on him. AJ automatically bucked him, after hearing his voice. She turned and saw Apple Bloom hopping off his unconscious body with a smirk. I sprinted at top speed, using a bit of my magic platforms to pick up the extra speed, and ramming into both of the other changelings, knocking them out. I turned to AJ.

“They should have looked both ways before crossing you. You alright AJ?” I asked while making a clever reference to my world.

“Yeah, but what was Apple Bloom thinking when she just jumped on that one? She coulda gotten hurt.” AJ said.

“She wasn’t. It was my plan, and it was a darn good one if it helped you knock that guy out. Now c’mon, we got more bugs to squish.” I said, dismissing the subject of Bloom helping. I almost expected her to argue, but I guess she was being honest with herself right about then, because she didn’t say anything like denying she needed help, or Apple Bloom didn’t belong in a fight, which how I just knew she felt.

“Okay, let’s get them off my farm. But if anything happens to her, I'll buck you into next week. Rest assured, Ah will NOT let this go.” AJ said. I smirked on the outside, but inside, she'd struck a bit of fear into me. I didn't want to find out how an earth pony's hooves felt on my face. I looked around and saw Fluttershy backed into a corner. Rainbow Dash was doing fine on her own, as expected. Big Mac was knocking out Changelings with every punch, but he was being swarmed, obviously seen as the biggest threat.

“Bloom, let’s help out Fluttershy. AJ, Mac looks like he’s got trouble.” I said. I ran off to ‘Shy with Bloom close behind. I picked her up and used the same “Jockey Strike” strategy I used earlier. I avoided the jokes so Fluttershy didn’t see me as crazy when we saved her. Once Bloom had one blinded, I took out the other one with a telekinetic fist. When I caught up, I gave the blinded changeling an elbow, followed by a swift double kick from my hind legs. Bloom let go and whacked him on her way off. I turned to Fluttershy with a gentle look.

“You alright there?” I panted, as my fatigue was building up. She simply nodded. “Alright then. I’ve gotta go help the others. Try to find a safe place to hide.” I said. She nodded again and started heading for the house.

Once I was satisfied Flutters was safe, I turned to find that Rainbow had come help Mac and AJ with their swarm. It was mostly taken care of now. I looked around for others who might need help. There weren’t any, really, so now it was just the one swarm left. Bloom and I leapt into the fray, blinding the fliers, kicking the grounded ones in the face and generally causing chaos in the enemy ranks. I cracked plenty of jokes while I was at it. Finally, it seemed like they’d given up on us. Many of them flew off with their fallen comrades, earning calls of cowardice from those who stayed. Those who stayed promptly got the Jockey Strike treatment or an Apple Family Bruising.

“Aw, so soon?” I said. “But I was on a roll! I almost topped Big Mac’s score.” That earned a raised brow from him. “What? I was keeping score.”

“Whew. That’s the third time this month.” AJ said after the last of them were gone.

“Seriously? They come back that often? How come it never shows on TV then?” I asked, turning my confused gaze to her.

“Eh. Probably because they’ve never returned on a day when we do a Friendship Report.” AJ said.

“Oh, okay. That makes sense. Well, it’s been fun.” I said, dismissing myself. “I’ll see you guys around. I’m going to go to the party. It’ll serve as a nice victory celebration. Shy’s in the house with Granny Smith if you need her.” I said, walking off. Yeah, I pretty much just took this whole thing in stride.

"Ahem." Apple Jack caught my attention. My ears folded back in reaction, as I remembered AJ still had business with me.

"Oh yeah." I probably wasn't going to make it to the party soon.

4. The Party

There’s only one way to describe Pinkie’s party: If you haven’t been to a Pinkie Party, you haven’t lived. One step into Sugarcube Corner, and I knew I was in for the ride of a lifetime. The music was pumping, Vinyl Scratch was at a turntable set, and Pinkie had set up a bunch of party lights. This wasn’t the usual party I saw Pinkie set up in the show; this was just the kind of party I liked. My jaw had dropped when I walked in, and it stayed that way as I made my way through the crowd to explore the party. Yeah, there was everything I ever wanted in parties back home: a dance floor, a bar, an arcade section even if it was just one place and one screen, everypony was enjoying it. This isn’t the party I’d written in my fic. This was a whole ‘nother level of cool. I found Pinkie at the bar, enjoying her work as she and the Cakes served ponies drinks and food.

“Hey there, Summer! Do you like what I did with the place?” Pinkie asked. I was about to ask how she knew knew the name I picked, but decided not to, as it’d be an obvious answer like Lyra told her or something.

“Like it? Pinkie, this is a step up from any party I’ve ever even seen in my own world! This is pure epicosity!” I exclaimed, not really caring who heard me. I guess no one did, because I got no reactions from others.

“Yay! I was hoping you’d like it! I really enjoyed setting it all up! I did some serious research into the human worlds and their parties, and made the next best thing!” Pinkie said. By human worlds, I assume she meant she asked Twilight how the party at the school in the other world worked, and maybe even went to attend a few parties in the other world when the portal reopened.

“Well, you did a hell of a good job. I think even the ponies of this world wouldn’t want you to change out of this way of partying.” I commented as I looked out at the ponies. “I can hardly believe you fitted controllers for this world!”

“Well, it wasn’t that hard when the other me knew all about the stuff, and I even got other Dashie to help with the gaming stuff!” Pinkie said. Then she gasped really loudly. "Ohmygosh, Summer! What happened to your face!?" Oh yeah. I almost forgot AppleJacks gift for that team up stunt Bloom amd I pulled.

“Oh, nothing much. Just the aftermath of teaming up with Apple Bloom to drive off another Changeling swarm.” I replied. Then a thought occured to me. "hey does Celestia know you've been world jumping?

“Well of course, silly! I just asked her if I could go over and study up on their parties and stuff for a while. It’s not like I pulled a Sunset Shimmer and tried to sneak into the mirror!” She said. I considered her very carefully. Either she’s telling the truth, or she’s got an amazing poker face. I let it go, and got on with the party. I made my way over to the Gaming part of the party and saw there was a spot open. I stared at the controllers in the background for a bit, still amazed Pinkie had actually made them so Ponies could use them as efficiently as a human could a normal controller with hands.

“Hey! The guest of honor’s here!” Lyra announced. I saw her at one of the controllers, holding it with magic hands. She gestured for me to join. I gave a huge grin and eagerly joined in. I saw the game in the console was Super Smash Brothers Brawl, which shocked me more than the controllers did. They actually had this game in the Equestria Girls universe?! When the character select screen came up, I saw none of the extra characters were unlocked.

“Are we starting this with new data?” I asked.

“No, this has been played before. Not really much though.” Lyra said.

“Well then, we need to start unlocking characters.” I proclaimed. I selected Link, as he was one of my best characters. Not cheap, but good. Just the way I liked to play. I was playing against Lyra as Samus, BonBon as Kirby, and Button as Pit. They didn’t change their character’s skins, so I changed mine to Dark Link, seeing as Pit, Samus, and Kirby were all good guys in their games.

“So how many of you have played this before?” I asked. All of them replied that it was their first play, except Button who claimed to have played it numerous times before. “Okay, I’ll take it easy on you guys. No completely wiping the floor with you. But that won’t mean I’ll just give away the fight.” I said, gripping my controller. I picked Final Destination as the stage, reasoning it was a stage without hazards, so the newbies would have a chance at winning without a stage death.

“Okay Button, let’s give Lyra and BonBon a chance to figure out the controls before we attack them, alright?” I suggested.

“Alright. Let’s just go you and me first then, and test each other’s skills.” He said. Then he shot a light arrow at me. I just stood there facing him. It hit my shield and I took no damage. “What the-?” Button said in surprise.

“Lesson one about attacking Link. Don’t shoot him from the front if he’s standing still. The shield will take the hit, and the shot will be pointless.” I instructed, seeing as he probably hasn’t fought Link before. I followed up by throwing the Gale Boomerang at him. He jumped over it and allowed the winds to carry him back to me for close range combat. I timed my 3-hit combo just right, damaging him before he could finish whatever plan he had going. I hit him with two more of the same hit chain before rolling behind him and using the spin attack to send him flying away a bit.

He recovered in midair, and I set up to use Link’s bow on him when he landed. I know it doesn’t do much damage, but the idea is to increase your opponent’s damage until you can shoot them off the screen. Once the bow was fully charged, I let it fly at just the right time to hit Button. He jumped out of the way of the arrow before he could get hit, and used his own arrow to hit me. I couldn’t react in time to the quick draw and got hit. He moved in, catching me with the spinning blades trick, trapping me as he kept mashing the button. He pounded a good deal of damage on me before I dropped out of the trap. I rolled away and pulled out a bomb. I threw the bomb just to damage him more to cut off his spinning blades, which worked, and then went in for two powerful slashes.

Right around then, Lyra figured out how to use the missiles and started shooting homing missiles at us. We both easily avoided them, but they were only slight annoyances. I saw a golden hammer spawn at a low point of the stage and ran for it. BonBon picked it up and I got hit with it.

“Oh, shiz!” I said when I got a hammer to the face. I almost said “oh shit” but I remembered Button was only a kid. I quickly did an aerial recovery, avoiding BonBon as she charged us. Button took two hits from it before it finally wore off. While avoiding BonBon, I grabbed a Heart Piece to lower my damage.

When the hammer wore off, I threw a pitfall trap at her, trapping her in the ground. I then gave her a few 3-hit combos before I backed off and went after Button again. She jumped out of the ground and went back to her safe place at the top of the stage to practice more. Just then, the smash ball appeared.

“Aw, heck yeah!” I cheered as I went after it. I would not let this go to waste. I started hacking away at it, and used more powerful smash moves on it when it came close enough to the ground for that. I knocked Button away anytime he came close. I broke the ball. The stage went dark, and Link was surrounded in that rainbow aura I always feel pride at getting in this game.

I went right after Button, even as he started chanting “Oh crap” over and over. I lined it up… and I caught Button in the Triforce Slash.

“HAH! I Gotcha!” I cheered, throwing my hooves in the air in celebration. It sent Button off the screen, taking a life and giving me a point. When I landed back on the platform, I used the taunt, sheathing Link’s sword.

“And that is why you don’t mess with the Hero of Time.” I announced, even as Button respawned.

“That was awesome! I wanna do that!” Lyra said. BonBon also agreed she wanted a piece of that action. So I proposed a turn-taking system for breaking the smash ball. In the end, I emerged victorious over Button with only three lives taken from me. Button proved to be a worthy adversary, and Lyra too, after she got into the game. BonBon didn’t really pose much of a threat, but I didn’t utterly destroy her.  Mostly, I just danced around her attacks, delivering swift blows every few misses. I gave praise for how quickly she turned my own evasive strategy against me. She made it more aggressive. To my surprise, after that first win, a challenger appeared. It was Falco.

“Oh! First unlock!” I said, expressing my surprise.

“What? I thought they were just there to fight you?” Lyra said.

“They are, but you make them playable when you beat them.” I explain, starting the match. I’m on the Great Fox stage. First thing I do is lure Falco in close. I raise my shields to defend against his laser blasts, and then I jump up to the higher platforms to get to him. I get close by luck and strike him a few times in midair. When I land, I give him a few of my 3-hit combos to get his damage going. I roll behind him just as he strikes, as expected, and then deliver a spin attack. Button recognizes my strategy.

“Hey, didn’t you do that to beat me?” he asked.

“Yeah. The point of my strategy is to avoid damage, while slowly giving your enemy the damage you need to deal them, and when they can strike back, send them off and get the ball rolling again.” I said as I sent a Gale Boomerang after Falco. He didn’t dodge, and ended up getting hit by it. By now, if he was a much simpler NPC, I could toss him off the stage. I needed to damage him more for that.

So my next move was to get in close and grapple with him. I went to grapple him, but before I could get too close, Falco did that dash thing of his multiple times. I managed to evade the third one, and get a powerful slash in on him. Then I grappled him, hit him a few times afterwards, and then threw him behind me for maximum damage. Now I could start going for Meteor Smashes. While Falco was still down, I went for Link’s Ending Blow skill, bringing the blade down on him from above. A direct hit. He was sent flying off the screen, and victory was mine. I used the Sword Sheath Taunt, just because the moment called for it.

“Piece a cake.” I said, mimicking Falco’s taunt line. The notification came up, telling us we’d unlocked Falco as a playable character.

“Dude, that has to be the best play I've ever seen.” I heard Dash behind me. I turned and smiled at her.

“Dash! You made it!” I shouted. Then I replied to her comment, “I am a pretty hardcore gamer. You can expect to see great gaming from any game I play.” I report.

“I’d like to see that for myself. Hey Bon, you mind switching out?” Dash asked. BonBon accepted, and she and Lyra both left their controllers. I guess Lyra didn’t want to play against a bunch of pros. I looked back again and noticed our game had attracted a lot of attention. Many ponies were there watching our game. I looked at the time and saw I’d spent a lot of time on that match. If I wanted to enjoy the whole party I knew I needed to get off the games and spend time doing other things.

“Actually not now, Dash. I want to enjoy the party to its fullest.” I said. She nodded in understanding and set to work playing against Button. I decided to keep an eye on them to watch for any unexpected Unlocks. I spent the rest of the party doing things, ranging from dancing to talking with other ponies to playing Brawl when new characters popped up. I even talked to Vinyl about music. I discovered she had a memory viewing spell she used to take requests, and I lent her my memory of the WoodenToaster’s song Nightmare Night. She said she’ll see what she could do to get it ready for Nightmare Night, but I'd need the bits to pay for the request when the time came. I promised myself to figure out how to do illusions to help with the concert.

The party was over too soon. Right after I spoke to Vinyl, I noticed a lot of ponies had left and no one was playing games. I saw the time, and realized why. It was practically midnight now. My body didn’t disagree with the time. I knew then it was time to hit the hay and catch some Zs, hopefully without another vortex incident. But then I came upon a problem: I didn't have a place to stay. I went to talk to Pinkie about it.

“Hey Pinkie. I’m ready to go to bed now, but I don’t really have a place to stay. You know any good, free housing?” I asked.

“Oh sure. Twilight keeps a guest room open for anypony who needs a place to stay, and there’s a good bed in there too. I’ve never slept there myself, but I've been in there enough times to know other ponies love it.” She said. Luckily, it wasn’t an infinite rant like other times she’s gone off like that.

“Thanks Pinkie. I’ll see for myself. See you tomorrow.” I said, leaving for Twilight’s house. I decided to just walk there since I didn't wamt to be magically fatigued again, like at the farm. The trip to Twilight's was pretty uneventful.

When i got to Twilight's, I knocked and waited until Spike opened the door.

“Oh hey there.” He greeted me.

“Who is it, Spike?” I heard Twilight call out.

“It’s our guest from that other world.” Spike called back. Twilight came to the door.

“Oh, what can I do for you?” she asked.

“Well, I don’t have a place to stay, so I was wondering if I could spend my nights here.” I said.

“Sure!” she said. She led me to the guest room where I’d woken up that morning. “So how was your first day in Ponyville?” she asked as we walked.

“It was pretty enjoyable. I got to meet a lot of ponies, I started going by the name Summer Dash, I helped drive off a small swarm of Changelings at the Apple farm, with good help from Apple Bloom, and then I found out Pinkie’s been world jumping to make better parties. I really enjoyed the one she threw for me, especially the time I spent playing games that Pinkie brought over from the other world you went to.” I reported. “What was interesting was that they were some of the exact same games as I played in my world.”

“Wait, Pinkie’s gone to the other world? When did she do that?” Twilight asked. I shrugged.

“I don’t know, but she had Celestia’s consent and she met herself.” I said. “I can only imagine their reactions.”

“Well, that probably would have been a sight to see. I should probably go and give them a visit the next time the portal opens.” Twilight said.

“Yeah. I wonder if their Twilight has gone to that school yet.” I said. It’d be a very interesting event to see the two Twilights meet each other. We entered the guest quarters, and Twilight left me to get to bed. I happily did so. As I drifted off to sleep, I wondered what tomorrow would bring. Today was great, but tomorrow? I don't think it'll be as great.

5. The Princess

I woke up the next morning to the very welcoming smell of blueberry pancakes. Usually I’m just passive about getting out of bed; not really caring if I stay asleep or get up and about. It’s mostly because I can hardly remember my dreams when I wake up. When I wake up to the smell of my favorite breakfast, I’m eager to get up.

I sit up in bed, ready to find out what angel had decided to come into my house and fix me breakfast, but as I go to get out of bed, I fall over onto my face.

“That never happened before… Aw, shit, it wasn’t a dream... Oh yay! It wasn’t a dream!” All of a sudden, I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand… hoof…whatever, I got to enjoy an amazing party. On the other appendage, I can’t go back to my own world or be a human or male for the rest of the week. I’m not sure what part of the scale to place kicking changeling butt. Probably the positive side, since Bloom and I enjoyed teaming up for that encounter.

I picked myself up onto my hooves, trying to get standing right again. It’s only a few seconds before I’m reoriented to my new body again. Once I’m ready, I make the bed, leaving it as it was when I’d found it. Once everything was taken care of, I left to find out who was making breakfast.

“Good morning, Summer!” Twilight called as I left the guest room. She was looking over a book and apparently heard my door open. A look at the book's title told me I was the new topic of study. It was about humans.

“Morning, Twilight. Hey, you ever wake up with a bad case of falling on your face? I think this might be my first.” I said. As usual, I was using humor to cover my misgivings about a situation.

“Oh, are you okay?” Twilight asked, looking up from her book.

“If you’re asking if I got another concussion, no, I didn’t.  My pride was a bit wounded, but a bit of humor, and I’ll be fine.” I said.

“Hey, can I get a big dose of that prescription?” Spike asked, walking out of another room with plates full of blueberry pancakes. “I’ve been bored out of my mind since the last piece of action I’ve seen.”

“Sorry Spike, I don’t have a joke for you. Maybe I’ll find some way to-”I caused Spike to “accidentally” lose his balance and throw a pancake in my face. Just one though. I kept the force of the trip from throwing any more than that, keeping the rest on the plate. I just started nomming on the delicious treat. Mission accomplished. I got a pancake and Spike was laughing. I heard Twilight laughing too.

“This is really good! *nom*” I said. The laughing got louder. “Pancakes to the face are much better than the floor.” I commented when I finished the pancake. I was lucky there wasn’t any syrup on that pancake. I looked at them to see they were rolling on the floor. In other words, ROFLcopter!  Glad that I gave just what Spike ordered, I continued to eat my plate of pancakes. After calming down enough, Twilight put her book down and ate her plate while Spike had a sapphire for breakfast.

“So how’s the portal research going, Twilight?” I asked.

“Not so well. I tried searching through Star Swirl the Bearded’s journals, but it tells me more about other worlds rather than how to make a portal to them.” She said. I decided not to call her out on the book I saw her reading earlier. I didn't want to ruin what was probably a happy moment for her right then.

“Sounds like a big hassle to me. You need something like Earth’s Internet. Something that can bring up the right information with just a few keywords. That way, anything you need to know, you can just look up a solution in ten seconds flat. Hey, maybe my world could share some of the tech we’ve got and Equestria can start loading the archives into it!” I suggested.

“That’s not a bad idea. Although the concept of an entire library in a single device is rather… wild to me.” Twilight said.

“I don’t have a problem with it. Get something like that to replace books, and that’s one less chore for me to do every day.” Spike said between munches.

“Hey Twi, what did you do to make that first portal?” I asked, having an idea.

“Well, I just kinda poked a hole in the fabric of space and then sealed it up. Nothing special. It was like teleporting, except I didn’t go anywhere... It was more like I was pulling from the other side! Summer, you’re a genius!” She said. That… wasn’t what I was thinking at all. “The answer wasn’t in the books, it was in personal experience!”

“Okay… I had a different idea, but that works too.” I said, slightly taken aback by her sudden outburst. I think she got overexcited because she didn’t finish her pancakes. She just ran off to her study. I really enjoyed pancakes, so I reached my magic hands out towards hers. When I grabbed them, I jerked my hands back to my plate and pulled an innocent act. I even whistled to add some humor to the effect. Spike chuckled at my antics. After that, I hurried up and finished off the pancakes.

I then went to Twilight’s study to see what she was doing. I found her focusing really hard, and her horn was glowing. There were gale force winds encircling her as she was pulling off the spell. I stayed silent and stood awed by the spectacle. She was pointing towards a bare wall. I saw she was just about ready to pull it off and make the portal. I was on the edge of my seat in excitement, knowing this was my chance to go home.

“Twilight! You’ve got a message from Princess Celestia!” Spike shouted, coming in from the other room. The spell fizzed out, completely canceling itself. It was like blowing her concentration blew the spell like when a machine gets turned off.

“Well that was anti-climactic.” I commented. “Spike, you ruined the portal.” I told him. Twilight seemed more focused on the fact that she got a letter from the princess.

“Let me see it.” She demanded. Spike let go of the scroll when a purple glow surrounded it. Twilight lifted it up and unrolled it, beginning to read it.

“Dear Twilight Sparkle,

As you know, my dear friend Cadence has taken to rule over the Crystal Empire with Shining Armor. They’ve been sending me consistent reports on their status, and they’ve been fine for a while now. However, I’ve just received something else from them and it does not bode well. All that was said in their latest report was this:

He’s back.

I can only assume what has happened, but I need you and the Elements to investigate and take action if needed. This is your new mission. I’ll be coming with you and leaving my sister Luna in charge. We both have family there and I want to personally make sure they are safe.

Princess Celestia”

“Yeesh. Heavy stuff.” I commented. “You don’t think it’s that King Sombrero guy, do you?”

“Summer, this isn’t something to joke about.” Twilight said sternly.

“Oh right. Your brother’s involved in this. Sorry.” I apologized. “Hey, I don’t mind coming to help. I mean, if it’s alright with you.”

“Yeah, you said you fought off a swarm of Changelings, so self-defense won’t be a problem with you.” She said, putting the letter down on a table. She started walking out of the library. “Spike, send a letter to the others, tell them to meet me and Summer at the train station as soon as possible. We’re going back to the Crystal Empire.”

“Right away!” Spike saluted like a soldier. I started following Twilight as he set to work writing the letters. Twilight effortlessly packed away everything she was bringing with her into saddlebags that she strapped to her back, all while still walking. Wow, she’s pissed. I guess anger can do that to you.

We traveled in complete silence on our way to the train station. She didn’t say a thing, and for the most part, ponies stayed out of our way. They must see Twilight means business. Along the way, Rarity joined us.

“So what’s the emergency?” She asked when we met up. I was surprised she got to us first. I thought she would prepare a dress or several dozen. Nonetheless, I replied.

“Apparently, the Crystal Empire’s in trouble again. Celestia sent a letter explaining what she knew which wasn’t much, and the details of our mission.” I briefed her. “Just so you know, I was writing a story back in my world before I got pulled into that portal, and things have been happening along the lines of what I wrote. Mostly.”

“So in other words, you’ve been living out the story you’ve been writing?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah. If things in the Crystal Empire happen as I wrote, then we can expect trouble with King Sombra actually getting his hooves on the Heart. My story self didn’t have all the abilities I’ve discovered though, so things may turn out different.”

“And if things don’t happen as you wrote?” Rarity asked.

“I’m sure we can figure something out. I’m pretty good with improvising.” I said.

“Well then, let’s just hope things don’t go too horribly wrong.” Twilight said.

“No, we can do more than hope, Twilight. We can take action to make sure it ends well.” I returned. “For us anyway. I can’t say the same of Sombra.” I added with a smirk. We made it to the train station, where Rainbow Dash was already waiting, and the others were arriving at the same time. I quickly briefed them all on our mission, followed by a summary of what I told Twilight and Rarity about living out my story. Around a few minutes later, Princess Celestia arrived. Everyone bowed to her.

“Now, how many times do I have to tell you, you don’t have to do that?” Celestia said.

“This is my first.” I commented.

“Oh hello. Who are you? Are you a friend of Twilight’s?” Celestia asked.

“Yeah, call me Summer Dash. The friendship came more from an interdimensional accident than anything.” I admitted. Celestia raised an eyebrow at me.

“Oh? What happened?” she asked.

“Well, it’s kind of a long story. One that involves a lot of explanation.” I said.

“If you’re coming with us to the Crystal Empire, I have plenty of time to listen.” Celestia said with a smile. I smiled back.

“Yeah, I’ll be coming along. After all, I want to see how much I can mess up this King Sombrero guy’s face.” I joked, earning a laugh from the Six. With that we boarded the train. Twilight and I sat in a seat across from Celestia.

“So what’s all this about an interdimensional accident?” Celestia asked.

“Well, I was experimenting with Teleporting magic yesterday, and I was trying to see what would happen if I used it without going anywhere.” Twilight started. “My aim was to try and make an active portal, but my mistake came from not focusing on any particular place. I ended up making a portal to another dimension and pulling him from the other side.”

“Him? But…” Celestia seemed confused. She looked at me in her confusion.

“Going through the portal physically changed me. Not only did I become a pony, but apparently fate decided to throw a gender swap into the deal as well. Not that I mind all that much, of course. And I’m not going to blame Twilight. It’s not like she knew this was going to happen to me. She actually helped me out when I first started to get used to this body.”

“I’m glad she could be of assistance.” Celestia said, giving Twilight a warm smile.

“Now, I want to tell you about my world.” I said, dropping my smile. “You’ve heard enough of the world Twilight went to to understand how human worlds work, right?” I asked.

“Yes, Twilight and I have even gone to the other world together once after she got her crown back. Needless to say, it was… quite an unusual experience.” Celestia giggled.

“Yeah I can only imagine. But there’s a couple differences between my world, and that one. First, humans aren’t every color that ever existed. We’re only between tan white, and brown black. Second, my world has a television series based on all the things the Elements go through that warrants a friendship report. There was also a big movie about Twilight’s adventures in that other world.” I explained.

“So you know everything they’ve been through?” Celestia asked.

“Not everything. Each episode of the show takes place only on the day a friendship report is released. So we miss everything in between.” I clarified.

“I see.” Celestia said.

“There’s something else. Back in my world, I’ve been writing a Fanfiction about, basically, me getting pulled into Equestria. So far I’ve been living out what I wrote.” I said.

“Could it be a coincidence?” Celestia asked.

“I don’t think so. And if what I’ve written is anything to go by, we’ve got an angry king and a possessed ninja to deal with.” I said. “Unfortunately, I haven’t written the part where we win or lose, so I have no idea how we’re supposed to free the ninja and beat Sombra.”

“Well we just have to hope the situation isn’t hopeless.” Celestia said.

“Well, I have nothing more to say about this. Anyone want to hear music from my world?” I asked. I was getting tired of all this serious talk.

“Oh yes please. I was just thinking we needed a break from this serious business.”

“Agreed. I mean after all, I want us all in high spirits when we get there.” I said. I made a screen with my magic displaying all the songs I remember, however vaguely. I figured out how to do this while I was walking silently with Twilight by the way, so this wasn’t something I spontaneously learned. I didn’t waste the time I had. I could tell my holographic MP3 player caught Celestia’s interest by the look she was giving it as I scrolled through the songs.

“Oh what’s this one? Endless Possibility?” Celestia asked, pointing at the song as it passed by.

“Oh, I really like that song. It’s from one of my all-time favorite video games. Pretty relevant to our situation, in my opinion.” I said as I pressed it. It started up, and when it came to the part, I started to sing along with it. The rest of the six gathered around to listen as well.

“This is my escape,

I’m running through this world

and I’m not lookin’ back.

And I know I can go,

Where no one’s ever gone,

and I’m not lookin’ back

But how will I know when I get there?

And how will I know when to leave?

We’ve all gotta start from somewhere,

And it’s right there for me!

The possibilities are never-ending!

I see it! I see it!

And now it’s all within my reach!

Endless Possibility!

I see it! I see it now!

It’s always been inside of me!

And now I feel so free!

Endless Possibility!”

I enjoyed singing the whole song. I think a side effect to being a pony is that singing is very highly enjoyable. Much more so than when I was human. I went through more songs like Live and Learn, City Escape, Angel with a Shotgun, and Reach for the Stars. I also included video for that last one, after I figured out how. They liked the song so much, no one cared to ask who the supersonic blue hedgehog was.

We all enjoyed the rest of the day, just talking, cracking jokes, and generally having fun. Of course with me being a hardcore gamer, I tried to figure out how to use my magic to make a way to play games. I didn’t, but I used what I did know to play a video of Sonic fighting each of the final bosses I’ve seen. Twilight was a lot of help with that, and finding out how to automate the air walking trick I've been using, so it doesn't constantly drain my magic.

Over all, the day was good, and I learned new tricks.

6. Rage

I woke up the next day to absolute chaos. The first thing I registered was pain. Whatever happened had tossed me against a wall like a ragdoll. I must have hit my spine, because I couldn’t move anything without pain shooting through me. I was aware I was bleeding from my back as well. I got up in a hurry despite the pain as my adrenaline started to overpower the pain. I heard explosions rocking the whole train. I used my new air walking spell to keep from losing my balance to the rocking train and left my room to check on the others. I found Rarity taking cover under her bed. I saw she had a cut just above her horn, probably from hitting something. Her mane was such a huge mess too, and it had a brush stuck in it, which I disregarded for now.

“Rarity!” I called. She looked out from her cover and saw me. Oh god, she was shaken badly. I saw the fear in her eyes. The look she was giving me made me feel guilty for not mentioning this whole ordeal being part of my story. It also made me remember I was too focused on learning new tricks to remember to mention that. She wasn’t fit to do anything in this condition, so I took action. I took her in a telekinetic grip and brought her with me. She was too shaken to do anything about it. Next I checked on Rainbow Dash. She wasn’t even in her room. I checked the room across from hers and found her comforting Fluttershy, who had a death grip on the leg of her bed. Luckily the two didn’t seem to be hurt in any way, other than a few bruises.

“Dash! We need to get everyone off this train or we’re going to go down with it!” I shouted over the explosions. They both looked at me in shock, like me telling them finally “woke them up” to the situation. Fluttershy let go of the bed.

“Get me off of this deathtrap!” Fluttershy shouted at abnormally high volume for her while clinging to Dash for dear life. Rainbow almost dropped out of the air, but she adjusted just in time to avoid that.

“Let’s get the others.” I said, making for the next room. Just as I make it to the next room, Celestia and Twilight each leave Apple Jack and Pinkie’s rooms with the respective ponies. Pinkie was shaken too. Her mane had no trace of its usual poofiness, and she looked around in confusion and fear. Apple Jack was better off, trying not to show signs of fear and looking to help everyone. I saw Celestia had the Elements of Harmony with her. All of them were injured though, with the exception of Celestia who I noticed had a few new scars that weren’t there last night. I suspect she put some healing magic to use. AJ didn’t look injured in the least, but then again, she’s an Earth Pony. She can take more than the rest of us could. Pinkie was fine too, other than probably being mentally shaken by this. Twilight didn’t look like she’d gotten any serious injuries, but she was definitely sore from something, judging by the way she walked.

“Celestia! We’ve gotta get off this train! I’ll make a platform and move us away from the train so we don’t hit the ground at high speed.” I said. I opened the doors of the train and made the platform as promised. Celestia nodded and started herding everyone onto my platform. I join them on the new platform and dismiss the one I’ve been using, while setting Rarity down on the new one. I move us all away from the train with the platform and slow us down so we can safely get back on the ground. I keep my guard up as I do, knowing somepony had to have started those explosions. I looked back at the train and saw something that would shake anyone else to the core.

The train was being covered in shadows. And those shadows were crushing each car of the train like a soda can full of vinegar and baking soda. One of those cars erupted with blood, showing there’d been somepony in there.

“No, not the civilians…” Celestia said in shock. I grit my teeth in blood-boiling rage as I spotted the one behind this death and destruction.

“King Sombra.” I growled. He was looking right at me with an evil smile from the roof of the engine car. He was enjoying this. There needs to be a new curse word for how I felt right about then. Seriously, my mind was just running a mile long string of curse words to throw at him, when there could just be one curse word to cover it all. Have I mentioned my fuse runs a bit short on the death and destruction of innocents? No? Well now you know.

“Daniel Strider. How nice of you to join us.” He returned. His smile only grew as I flipped him the bird as many times as my magic could duplicate the action in the space around me. I assume that meant he understood my gesture. As my rage grew, I heard a faint comment from Fluttershy about my mane smoking.

“Celestia, can you sustain this platform?” I asked her. I wanted to get a few hits in before I let Sombra go. Obviously, Twilight saw what I had planned.

“Summer, are you crazy?! You can’t just walk up to him and hit him!” she shouted.

“Summer, no! I don’t want to lose a friend to that monster!” Pinkie shouted at me. I looked at her and saw a waterfall of tears. My rage for Sombra got in the way of feeling bad about upsetting her and I just looked back at the demon king.

“I won’t just die. I can’t just let him get away with this either.” I said. “I’m tougher than that. And if that demon king gets away with taking all these lives, I won’t be able to live with myself until he dies.”

“Summer, I see there’s nothing I can do to dissuade you. However, if you wish to fight him, you must keep your emotions in check. I can see you’re becoming far too enraged by his actions.” Celestia said. I looked at her and saw she was no better off. She was angry too, but she was keeping her cool as best she could. I realized I was just letting loose, and I tried to calm down some.

“Thanks, Celestia. I’ll keep that in mind.” I said as I turned to face Sombra again. However, a hoof on my shoulder forces me to turn back. Dash was there, giving me a firm look.

“Hey, if you think I’m gonna leave a friend to face that guy alone, you must’ve hit your head a bit too hard. I’ve never left a friend hangin’ and I’ll get a ticket to Tartarus if I start now.” She said. I gave her a smile as my rage gave way to pride.

“Of course. Strength in numbers, am I right?” I replied. I turned back and looked at the others one last time, about to tell them to stay safe.

“I’ll come too.” Twilight said, stepping forth. I guess Dash’s act of loyalty inspired her. Celestia seemed surprised. I know I was.

“Me too.” Apple Jack said, taking a spot next to Twilight. Rarity seemed to be calming down now. Her eyes weren’t darting every which way now, and she was taking deep calming breaths.

“You can count me in.” Fluttershy said while glaring at Sombra and the bloody mess he caused. “You’re right, Summer. He doesn’t deserve to live after taking that many lives and enjoying it.” Yeesh. Fluttershy can be scary even without a monster in her. She does seem to be going with the golden rule though: Treat others the way you want to be treated. I don’t know if Sombra’s killed before, but he definitely was now.

“I’m going too.” Pinkie said. Her mane had poofed back up at least somewhat. “I can’t let you guys have all the fun, now can I?”

“I-I’ll come as well. That… monster ruined my perfectly well done mane, after I’d done it so well for the day, and I’m not about to let that slide.” Rarity said. Wait, what? She was up this early to work on her mane? Is that what she was freaking out about earlier too? When she joined the others, I smiled at them, although I still gave Rarity a confused look. I decided to drop the subject and focus on the more demonic problem.

“You’re not coming, Princess?” I asked Celestia. She shook her head.

“No. I will merely watch from a distance. After all, I am no longer under protection of the Elements of Harmony, so there’s no telling what might happen if I’m harmed by his magic.” She reasoned.

“I see what you mean. Wouldn’t want to accidentally get possessed in the middle of fighting him.” I agreed.

“Wait, Summer! You’re not protected by the elements either!” Pinkie pointed out. “Aren’t you in danger too?”

“Yeah, but there’s another thing to keep in mind. How can he possess me, or whatever, if he’s too slow?” I replied.

“Oh right! You’re a super-fast pony too!” Pinkie exclaimed. I nodded, seeing my point had made it across.

“Alright, I’ll use my air walking spell on you guys and we’ll all be set to go. Just focus on speed and you’ll keep up with me.” I said. I pointed my horn at them and used the spell I made yesterday afternoon to automate the platform tracks. As soon as everyone was ready, I turned to Sombra with a look that told him he was screwed now. He just laughed at me.

“Good luck to all of you.” Celestia said.

“Thanks.” I replied. “Alright, let’s kick some flank and take some names!” I shouted, dashing off on my path. I heard the others right behind me, and I saw Dash out of the corner of my eye, keeping pace with me on her wings.

“Fools! You dare defy a King? I’ll teach you to fear me!” Sombra roared at us. He started spreading his shadow across the ground. Black crystals shot out of the ground right in front of us. I used my platform ability to make walls on either side of me and quickly push me out of the way of the crystal in front of me. The rest followed my example. I “quickstepped” away from even more crystals, and so did the others.

“When I’m finished with you, you’re gonna wish you could die!” I shouted in rage. In response to that, Sombra snarled and created a crystal wall between us. I knew we needed more speed to bust through the wall, so I made the platforms dramatically increase in speed. I also helped Dash by using my air particle technique to redirect the wind to push Dash.  Pretty soon we were all busting through the sound barrier. The extra speed generated a sort of barrier around us, and we broke through the black crystal wall Sombra had made. After the wall was broken, I let go of the extra speed, and started to feel the building fatigue through my rage and adrenaline. I still kept pushing forwards though, regardless of fatigue. I’ve managed to stay up at most three nights in a row before, with only a one hour nap. I’m pretty sure I can outlast my growing fatigue.

Sombra growled at the failure of his wall, and I grabbed a few of the sharp and jagged crystals that fell from the broken wall. I held them like spears at my sides, two on each. I quickstepped past more of the crystals until I had a clear shot at him. Once I was ready, I shot one of the crystals at him, but it was like he absorbed the thing.

“Crap, that didn’t do anything!” I said. While I was distracted, a crystal shot up in front of me and I hit it, full force. It knocked me out of the air as it shattered and I ended up tumbling on the ground at high speed.

“Summer!” the Six shouted. Likely, none of them were watching where they were going after that, because I heard them hit crystals too. Eventually, I felt myself slow to a stop. I also felt extreme pain from the many crystal shards caught in my skin, digging deep wounds where they stuck out of me. Added to what I’ve been feeling since I woke up alongside the fatigue I built up on that run, I couldn’t take it anymore. I groaned one last time before the last of my strength left me and I blacked out. I wouldn’t be surprised if I was knocked out for several days after this.

The last thing I heard was Sombra’s horrid laughing. My last thought: I’ve failed.

7. Fear

I woke up to something I didn't expect. A lack of pain. It was a pleasant surprise, and it managed to delay my anger at losing to Sombra. I could vaguely hear hushed voices as I woke up. I allowed my eyes to open, and I saw I was in a tent. The voices were coming from outside, so I got up to check it out. I peeked out of the tent and saw Celestia with Twilight, facing away from me at a fire. Everything felt normal. There was nothing out of the ordinary here. Yet I felt something was wrong. Perverse. Twisted…

“Celestia? Twilight?” I called as I approached, but the second I did, the hushed voices stopped. Neither turned to look at me. Everything was still except the fire, but even that was silent. Something was definitely wrong here. The fire should be radiating warmth. The two alicorns should have turned at the sound of my voice. There should be sound. But there was nothing. The silence grasped my heart in the grip of fear. I slowed my approach, recognizing the twisted feeling only grew as I went, yet I was unable to turn back.

“You should have told us about the Train Incident, Summer.” Celestia’s voice said, a cold anger evident in the way she spoke.

“Now innocents are dead because of you.” Twilight’s equally cold voice spoke. I was dumbstruck. I could never have expected to hear such hate and loathing in either of their voices, unless someone blew up Twilight’s library in Ponyville. But what was worse was that I’d already been thinking the very same thing.

They turned towards me so fast I could have sworn they were the Weeping Angels from the Don't Blink episode of Dr. Who. Their faces weren't what I remembered them to be, but that was probably because they held so much hate, and were crying blood.

"You knew he was going to attack. You knew and yet you did nothing to prevent it." Celestia accused.

"I should bring you in to the Rainbow Factory for your failure." Rainbow Dash made a sudden appearance, joining Celestia and Twilight.EXE, bearing the same hate and bloody tears. I could only look on in shock and fear at the three. And then Pinkamena joined the growing group of Creepypastas.

"What? Why make her into Rainbows? I'd much prefer Cupcakes!" She argued angrily, before turning towards me. "Besides. You have to answer for the Pinkie Promise you broke!" If one was scared by everything else, one would be struck with absolute terror at that last bit. And I was terrified. I was surrounded now. There was no way I could escape.

I turned around at the sound of heavy breathing, only to have to catch the bile rising in my throat at the sight. It was Rarity and Fluttershy, converted into Amnesia Grunts. And it was Hyper-realistic, which only served to raise my terror another couple of levels. I was beginning to hyperventilate when I saw something that raised the bar for the media of horror I'd seen already.

You've seen people encounter twisted and evil versions of themselves before. You've seen the creepypastas of many others before. But there's one thing that sets this apart from everything you've seen.

You've never lived it out. I was staring right into the face of the pony I'd become. And it was HORRIFYING. She held the same bloody eyes the others had. She had a grin to rival the Cheshire cat, full of blood-soaked, sharp teeth. Her face was twisted into indescribable horror with tendrils of Darkness waving about, threatening to eclipse the sky. Worst of all, it was the personification of my dark side, which meant it was far more powerful than I could ever hope to be. She said one thing without ever moving her lips.

"Welcome to your worst nightmare. You'll find this nightmare in more than just your dreams. I hope you enjoyed the pain you've caused." A malevolent purple aura faded in behind my Nightmare, followed by green eyes with red irises.

"Summer Dash." I glared back, my previous rage returning to replace my fear. I knew what this was now. This was all just an illusion meant to scare me. And it worked too, right up until the one behind it showed himself.

"Sombra." I seethed. "Get the FUCK outta my HEAD!" I shouted, dispelling the horrors that surrounded me. I saw Sombra's eyes widen before it was all gone, replaced by the blackness of a dreamless sleep.

Finding that I could, I pushed my way out of my sleep-state. Raising my head, I was quickly greeted with the sight of my room in the train, totally untouched.

“What the…” I wondered just what was going on. Didn’t Sombra just destroy the train? Unless… that was just an illusion. But didn’t Sombra’s mind games usually induce fear or something? Why’d the first one cause rage? What did he hope to accomplish? …And why did it feel so real?

"Hey! Summer! It's time to get up, sleepyhead!" I heard AJ call from outside my door. "The sun’s up an’ out so hurry up!” I looked gratefully at the door, happy to have been shaken out of my confused line of thought, but the negative feelings and worry remained.

"C'mon! Stop moping about that totally fake dream! You know it didn't happen!" Pinkie called out. I didn't even question how Pinkie of all ponies knew I had a really bad dream. It was probably Pinkie Sense, as it most often was. But I did reflect on her words. She was right. There was no point in just moping around, trying to puzzle over Sombra's objectives, as it wouldn't get me anywhere. That didn't change the fact that I was still pretty shaken over the second dream. I gave a light, forced smile and trotted over to my door, opening it to find the two Earth Pony mares in conversation. Whatever AJ was saying was cut off by my appearance. Pinkie jumped at me, wrapping me in a hug. I was surprised, but I ended up returning the embrace.

"Thanks Pinkie. I needed that." I said after breaking the hug. I looked at AJ and saw her just looking confused, but also concerned.

"Did somethin' happen last night, sugarcube?" AJ asked. My smile fell and I deliberately looked away. Something about the way she asked me told me she’d dealt with something too.

"Trust me, AJ. You don't want to know." I shivered. "Nopony should have to see those nightmares..." Pinkie pat me on the back comfortingly.

"There, there. It's all fine. Auntie Pinkie's got your back. There's nothing to worry about." Pinkie said in a caring tone. However, that was where she was wrong. That nightmare had actually scared me, and normally I'm only startled by jump-scares. But I couldn’t subject them to the creeps and horrors of my world. No way. I suspect Sombra only used a spell to show me my greatest fear back there. There’s no way he can subject anyone else to that kind of horror, right?

I should really stop thinking these dark thoughts. I’m supposed to be an optimist! It’s not going to matter what Sombra does to us, we’re still going to take him down!

With my determination returned, I trotted into the main car to find everypony else already awake and chatting, though while nopony was looking at Celestia, she seemed to hold a grim face. I only caught it out of the corner of my eye. At one point, I saw AJ and Pinkie talking with Celestia, none of them smiling. After the short word, Celestia and the two earth ponies approached me. I tried to keep a happy façade, but it’s kind of hard to when the princess isn’t smiling. I don’t know why that was a cause of my unease, but it was.

“Summer,” Celestia greeted when she came within casual conversation distance. She paused uncertainly. “Did… you happen to dream of a train wreck?”

The second she said those words, everypony stopped talking. The air was suddenly tense. Or maybe it always was and I was just now noticing it. Either way, those words brought a stop to anything casual and carefree aboard the train car. Just like that, my confidence vanished.

I swallowed the lump that’d formed in my throat and replied, “Yeah. D-did you happen to dream about nightmarish twists of everypony here yelling at you for failure?”

“Black eyes crying blood?” Twilight added.

“Horrible, unimaginable freaks?” Rainbow threw in.

“The Rainbow Factory?” Fluttershy squeaked.

“… King Sombra?” Pinkie added. I let the silence speak for me. Not one of us hadn’t seen it.

“That was no dream then. We were all caught in the same illusion.” I declared my conclusion.

“Next stop: Crystal Empire, dead ahead!” A voice announced from the speakers. We gathered at the windows and looked out of them. Sure enough, the empire was there, on the horizon. It was surrounded on all sides by dark crystals, no doubt Sombra’s creations. And by all sides, I mean in the air, too. I glared ahead at the city, and the clear signs pointing out that Sombra had in fact returned. That train wreck may have been just an illusion, but like hell I was just going to calm down and let it go. I pulled back in and addressed the group of mares.

“Ladies, prepare to face your nightmares come to life. We've got a Tyrant to crush.”

Canceled

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