HUMAN World

Chapters

Reinforcements of the Goddess
Kill the Sound
"Are you smarter than a bunch of ponies?"
En Route to Shenanigans
Danger at 30,000 ft
The Miracle of Flight 413
Penultimate Chaos
The Culprit Revealed
The Goddess Descends
Ponies and Chaos in Las Vegas

Reinforcements of the Goddess

Fluttershy wasn’t used to having visitors late at night, what with living in a cottage outside of Ponyville and remaining a tad reclusive aside from outings with her friends. It was as such that, when she heard a series of frantic knocks on her front door while tucking in her little critters for the night, she immediately predicted it was her friends coming to her with important news.

“Hello girls,” she said to Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity who all wore concerned expressions. She then looked down at the baby dragon clutching a comic book to his chest. “And hello to you too, Spike.”

“Hi, Fluttershy,” Applejack said, sounding as concerned as her face indicated. “Listen, something’s happened ta Twilight, an’ we need yer help ta help her with it.”

Fluttershy took a moment to peer around the group, confirming the lavender librarian wasn’t among them. “What happened to her?” she asked. “She’s not hurt, is she?”

Rarity gestured inside the cottage. “Perhaps we should sit down and talk this over?” she inquired. She reached out and placed a placating hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “It may unearth some rather . . . unpleasant, memories regarding a certain incident at Everfree Castle.”

Fluttershy stared blankly for a moment. Then her eyes widened and she knocked Rarity’s hoof away before slamming the door shut in their faces. The sound of multiple locks clicking into place emanated from the other side followed by a soft thud against the door itself.

“I don’t care what you say or do!” she screamed, completely negligent of her critter friends trying to fall asleep. “The Pony of Shadows will never, I repeat never, make me his bride!” A soft whimpering sounded from the other side, followed by her soft voice saying, “I don’t crave apples; I’m not a vampony anymore.”

The group gave each other bewildered looks before Rainbow Dash faced the door and spoke up. “What’re you talking about, Flutters!? The Pony of Shadows is just a myth, and of course you aren’t a vampony anymore! Twilight’s spell made sure of that.”

“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie chimed in. “In fact,” she sat on Fluttershy’s doorstep and enacted the motions for a Pinkie Promise, “I Pinkie Promise this has absolutely nothing to do with shadow ponies, vamponies, or anything else that goes bump in the night!”

A few moments of silence followed, after which the sound of locks being undone emanated from the other side of the door. It opened a tad and Fluttershy peeked through the crack just big enough for half of her face.

“She did the motions?” she asked the group. They all nodded slowly, except for Pinkie herself who nodded exuberantly. “Okay, then,” she opened the door all the way, “come on in.”

The group entered and settled down in her living room. Fluttershy shut the door and joined them. “So, what’s happened to Twilight?” she asked them, taking a seat on the couch.

“Like I said earlier,” Rarity said with a tinge of uncertainty, “it may unearth some unpleasant memories.” She gestured to the kitchen. “Perhaps we should brew up some tea?”

“It’s okay, Rarity,” Fluttershy said, holding a hoof up. “Nothing aside from you-know-what will leave me crying in the corner.” A confident smile graced her lips.

The group shared glances, silently debating whether to trust the butterscotch pegasus. Eventually, they all nodded satisfactorily and Spike spoke up.

“Here’s the thing.” He held up the Enchanted Comic so Fluttershy could see. “Twilight and I were-”

“HOW DARE THEY HURT A HARMLESS LITTLE FIREFLY!”

Spike was cut off when Fluttershy suddenly lunged toward him, hooves outstretched and teeth grit as she made to swipe the Enchanted Comic from him. The baby dragon flinched in response and instinctually used the comic as a shield.

“Fluttershy, cease this ingrace!” Rarity yelled, and used her magic to halt Fluttershy’s advance. The pegasus was left dangling in the air just a few meters from Spike, who was now trembling with fear with the comic still covering his face.

“Arrrgh!” she growled, and began flailing her body all around in an attempt to break free. “Let me go! That comic’s gonna be nothing more than a pile of scraps when I’m done with it!”

“NO!” Spike screamed from behind the comic. “If you do that, then . . . Twilight . . .” He got to his feet and scurried farther away from Fluttershy, who was seething with unbridled rage by this point.

“Y’all can’t do that, Fluttershy,” Applejack affirmed, getting up and trotting over to her pegasus friend. “Who knows what’ll happen ta Twilight if’n ya tear that comic apart?”

At the mention of Twilight’s name Fluttershy ceased her struggles and stared confusedly at the apple farmer. “What about Twilight?” she asked her.

“Twilight’s gotten herself sucked into that there comic,” Applejack explained, pointing to it as Spike peeked over the cover. “If we tear it up ‘fore we get Twilight outta there, well . . . it can’t be good fer her, that’s a guarantee.”

“Quite right, darling,” Rarity agreed, and turned to Fluttershy still suspended in her magic. “I warned you that this could unearth unpleasant memories, but can I trust that you’ll control your temper knowing our dear friend is stuck in the world of that glorified picture book?”

Fluttershy drew in a shuddering breath before looking apologetically toward Spike. “Oh Spike, I’m so, so, SO incredibly sorry I threatened to rip that thing apart.” She let out a few quiet sobs. “Can you forgive me?”

But Spike wasn’t listening to her. He was busy staring at the Enchanted Comic’s inside pages, like he expected his pseudo-mother/friend to appear within the panels, look up at him and ensure the baby dragon that she’s alright and that she’ll be back home in no time. His young mind desperately wanted reassurance that she was okay within the comic’s world, and a part of him felt responsible for her being trapped in there to begin with.

I shouldn’t have asked her to read me this stupid thing, he thought, a tear rolling down his cheek and dropping to the floor.

Spike was jolted from his self-blame by a hoof on his shoulder. He turned to look up at the, unusually comforting, face of Rainbow Dash.

“Don’t worry, Spike,” she stated, “we’ll get her back safe and sound; you’ll see.”

“Indeed we shall,” Rarity affirmed, letting Fluttershy go and trotting over to join them. “It would be unbecoming of me to refuse a friend’s plea for help.”

“You bet!” Pinkie chirped, bouncing over to them. “Next to breaking a promise, refusing to help a friend in need is the surest way to lose their friendship.” Her eyes squinted and she growled, “Forrreeevvverrr.”

“Riiiiight,” Rarity hesitantly agreed, and turned to the remaining two mares. “Anyway, what say you Fluttershy? Can we count on you to help us as well?”

Everyone looked expectantly at the butterscotch pegasus, who shrank under their collective gaze.

“I-I-I-,” she stuttered, hesitant to answer at first, before eventually shouting out, “I can’t do it!”

“What!?” Rainbow Dash shouted back, while all the others looked disappointed. “We need you! Remember what happened last time? How you clobbered Mane-iac’s machine and finished the story so we could return home?”

“I’m sorry, girls,” she said resolutely, “but I can’t do it if it means seeing any more innocent animals being harmed.” She furrowed her brows. “Besides, there’s no guarantee we’d even get super pony powers with this new comic.”

“Still, though,” Rarity began, but a firm shake of Fluttershy’s head defeated her resolve. The alabaster unicorn sighed and turned to Applejack. “And you, dear Applejack?”

The farm mare adorned a coy expression. “Actually, Ah had somethin’ else in mind.” She looked to Spike with a determined smile. “Spike, can y’all show me where that ‘House of Enchanted Comics’ is up in Canterlot?”

Spike quirked a brow. “Why?” he asked.

“Why else?” she asked back, stomping her front hooves; lightly so as to not disturb Fluttershy’s critter friends. “So Ah can give them no-good jokesters a piece of my mind fer messin’ with you an’ Twilight.” She scuffed a hind hoof across the wooden floor, as if ready to charge. “No way anypony’ll get away with somethin’ like this if’n Ah’ve got somethin’ ta say about it.”

“Count me in, Applejack.”

Everyone turned as one to Fluttershy, who had reigned in her previous sorrow and now had her head dipped so her bangs hid her face. Had her friends been able to see it, however, they likely would have cowered in fear on the spot. The look in Fluttershy’s eyes was so dark, vengeful and twisted that her friends would likely believe she wasn’t even Fluttershy, rather a monster from Tartarus in disguise as the former Element of Kindness.

“Um, well . . . okay then,” Applejack hesitantly replied, looking back to the group. “So, here’s how Ah see things goin’ down: Spike, Fluttershy and myself will head on up ta Canterlot and tear into whoever owns the House, all the while Dash, Rarity, and Pinkie go into the comic and help Twilight get out. That sound good to y’all?”

After a few moments of silent contemplation between the three ponies and dragon, they all nodded in agreement. Spike laid the comic out on the floor in front of them and joined AJ and Fluttershy.

“Well,” Rarity said, turning to Dash and Pinkie, “shall we then?”

“Uh-huh,” Rainbow replied with a nod. “Let’s do this!”

“Oooh,” Pinkie squealed, “I’m so excited I’m nervous.” Her eyes lit up. “I’m . . . I’m . . .”

Everyone else just stared blankly at the pink party pony as she trailed off. Eventually she just shrugged and said, “I’ve got nothing.”

There were five simultaneous blinks of confusion before Rarity said, “Oookay then,” and all three looked down at the spell written on the open page.

“‘To return from the world of your imagination’,” Rarity read.

“‘Start, travel, experience’,” Rainbow continued.

“‘And finally impart memories of these three upon your creation’,” Pinkie finished.

Fluttershy, Applejack, and Spike all watched as the other three chanted the spell, after which the bright white flash shined and the comic began sucking the three mares into its world. One by one they entered, not showing the slightest bit of resistance unlike last time. Once they’d all disappeared into the comic, Applejack turned to the others.

“Alright, y’all!” she cheered. “Let’s give them varmints a piece of our minds!”

“Yeah,” Spike said, pounding his fists together in a rather crude display of menace. “Let’s tear into them!”

“I’ve got just the thing for that,” Fluttershy said in a soft, dark tone. “Wait right here, I’ll be back.” She turned around and headed for the stairs up to her room.

Applejack and Spike exchanged confused glances before the farm mare called after her.

“Whatcha got in mind, Fluttershy!?”

The butterscotch pegasus stopped. She turned to face them with a maniacal look that sent shivers down both of their spines, one they’d never before pictured adorning the former Bearer of Kindness’ face.

“You’ll see,” she half-whispered to them, and resumed her trip upstairs.

Twilight was busy examining the Enchanted Comic’s world, specifically the brick wall of one of the buildings along the alley, when her ears twitched in response to a soft thud emanating from behind her.

Mental note, sound functions here the same as it does in the real world, she thought, and turned around to see what made the noise.

She beamed upon seeing it was her friends, or at least some of them. She briefly wondered why Applejack, Fluttershy, and Spike weren’t among the new arrivals before shaking it off and rushing forward. She bent down to Rarity’s unconscious form and gently nudged her.

“Rarity, wake up,” she said. “It’s me; Twilight.”

The alabaster unicorn groaned in her sleep. “Urrrgh . . .” She opened her eyes a tad to see Twilight’s own staring down at her. “T-Twilight?”

The lavender alicorn didn’t reply, however, instead trotting over to Rainbow’s unconscious body and gently nudging her as well. “Come on Rainbow, now’s not the time for a nap.”

The cyan pegasus groaned as well and shakily began rising to her hooves. “Ugh, my head,” she whined, holding a hoof to her forehead. “It feels like I took a hundred-question exam on reading positions.”

Twilight ignored her friend’s remark and trotted over to Pinkie Pie, the last of her friends to join her in the comic’s world. “Wake up, Pinkie; we have a lot of work to do.”

The pink party pony let out an exaggerated yawn and stretched her hooves out on the gravelish ground of the alley before rising to her hooves and opening her eyes. “Oh, hiya Twilight,” she said, tired, but chipper all the same. “We’ve come to help you get out of this comic’s world.”

“And I’m very thankful for that, Pinkie,” she said, in a sincere tone but with no smile. “But where are the others?” She turned to Rainbow and Rarity. “Where’s Spike, AJ, and Fluttershy?”

“Applejack decided to go to Canterlot and give the owners of The House of Enchanted Comics a stern talking to, or something to that effect,” Rarity replied as she rose to her hooves and stretched all her legs and back. “Fluttershy and little Spikey-Wikey volunteered to join her.”

“Well that’s . . . nice of them?” Twilight hesitated, shifting her eyes confusedly back and forth before shaking her head and adopting an expression of stern forthrightness. “Well, in any case, you’re all here now and we’ve got to work together to get out of here.”

“Quite right, darling,” Rarity confirmed. She took a moment to observe their surroundings and shuddered at the uncouth appearance of the alley. “Please tell me this entire world doesn’t look as dreadful as this alley.”

“Don’t worry, it isn’t,” Twilight confirmed, smiling. “I did a quick reconnaissance of the area outside this alley and, sweet Celestia, this world is huge!” She held a hoof up to her head in exasperation. “I swear, just this one city easily dwarfs Maretropolis from that Power Ponies comic, and I didn’t even get to see what else lies beyond.”

“Well, to be fair we didn’t get to see all of Maretropolis,” Rainbow pointed out. “‘Cause, you know, we were so concerned with getting out to really bother exploring.” She took a moment to stretch her wings before a thought crossed her mind regarding them. “You know, now that I think about it, how come we haven’t been transformed in any way by the comic’s magic Like, say, being turned into humans ourselves?”

“That’s a good question, Rainbow,” Twilight said. “But it’s one we’ll have to save for after we get out of here. Right now, we have to focus on actually doing just that.”

“Aw, c’mon,” Rainbow whined. “Why don’t we explore a little while we’re here? Maybe mess around with the locals since, you know, we created them and everything.”

“Yeah, let’s have some fun!” Pinkie cheered. “We could throw them all a hello-we’re-your-creators-and-we-demand-you-worship-us-like-the-goddesses-we-are party!” She ended her statement with a wide grin and a squee.

Twilight was about to reply when Rainbow cut her off. “I wanna see their reactions when I perform a Sonic Rainboom,” she declared, puffing her chest out. “They’d be like, ‘Rainbow Dash is the best! Rainbow Dash is awesome!’ and stuff.” Her eyes sparkled like diamonds.

“I hate to burst your bubbles, girls,” Twilight replied, drawing both of their attention, “but we can’t show ourselves to any humans here.”

“What!?” Rainbow said, her eyebrows furrowed slightly. “Why not?”

“Don’t you remember how we’re portrayed in my HUMAN trilogy?” Twilight asked. “We exist to humans the same way they exist to us, as fictional characters, meaning if we show ourselves to any it’ll cause mass chaos.”

“Right you are, darling,” Rarity agreed, stepping forward. “Which begs the question of how we’re going to make it out of here while remaining perfectly stealthy?”

“I’ve got a spell for that,” Twilight replied, then turned back to Pinkie and Rainbow. “But first we need some assurance that you two won’t do anything that’ll blow our cover.” She furrowed her brows. “Promise us you two will behave while we’re here, okay?”

Rainbow and Pinkie both pouted in response and looked downcast, Pinkie looking sad and Rainbow looking frustrated. Silence reigned around them while Twilight and Rarity waited for an answer from the other two mares. The lack of noise was so prevalent that a pin could drop from either end of the alley and any of their ears would’ve twitched in response.

Eventually, after what seemed like hours of waiting but was really only a few moments, both Rainbow and Pinkie sighed in defeat and made the motions for a Pinkie Promise.

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” they both chanted simultaneously.

Twilight and Rarity both smiled. “Now then,” Twilight said, drawing everyone’s attention, “on the topic of rhymes, we need to figure out what the one that got us here meant.”

“You mean the whole ‘To leave the world of your imagination, yadda yadda yadda’ thing?” Rainbow asked.

“Yes,” Twilight confirmed. “We need to figure out what it meant by ‘start, travel, experience and finally impart memories of these three upon your creation’.”

“Well, it should be fairly obvious what it meant by ‘your creation’, darling,” Rarity replied, drawing Twilight’s attention. “The comic featured your OC, did it not? If it was sent with the specific intention of getting you to read the spell aloud, then clearly we must find Warren Zaccaro.”

Twilight tapped her chin in thought for a moment. “That . . . makes sense, actually,” she replied. Then a smile spread across Twilight’s muzzle as something else crossed her mind. “Yeah, and the ‘impart memories’ must be referring to my memory transference spell.” She clapped her hooves together. “So, if all that’s correct, then all we have to do is find Warren and copy the memories of our time here in this comic’s world to his brain!” She turned to the others. “Alright, let’s get going, girls!” She began walking down one end of the alley.

The others didn’t follow after her however, and Twilight turned back to see them all staring blankly at her.

“Um, why aren’t you moving?” Twilight asked, turning fully around to face them.

“Do you even know where we need to go?” Rainbow asked.

“. . . Well,” Twilight sheepishly replied, scuffing a hoof across the ground. “I kinda . . . don’t.”

The other three mares simultaneously face-hooved.

“Well then,” Rarity deadpanned. “We’ll just have to figure out where to go then, won’t we?”

“Right,” Twilight replied, quick to rein in her sheepishness. She sat down on her haunches and furrowed her brows, clearly deep in thought. The other mares waited for a few minutes as their princess friend contemplated how to find their way to her OC. Eventually, Twilight stood back up and beckoned them closer.

“Okay, I’ve got an idea,” she said as they approached. Once they’d amassed around her, Twilight charged up her horn and pointed it at each of them one by one, to which they were enveloped in a translucent glow the same color as their respective eyes. Once she was done with her friends, Twilight cast the same spell on herself.

Her friends looked at their bodies in confusion. “Um, what did you just do?” Rainbow asked, a tinge of nervousness in her voice.

“It’s an advanced illusionary enchantment,” Twilight replied, smiling. “Basically, as long as it’s active we’ll come across as normal humans to anyone who sees or touches us.” Her smile fell into a hard frown. “However, our cover will be blown if we do anything humans can’t do of their own accord, such as flying or magic.”

“But, we can still do those things as long as no one sees us, right?” Rainbow asked, hopeful.

“I’ll be the judge of when it’s safe to shed our disguises,” Twilight affirmed. She then turned around and began walking down the alley, beckoning the others to follow. “Now then, let’s find out where we need to go, shall we?”

“How are we going to do that?” Rarity asked.

Though they couldn’t see it, Twilight’s muzzle adorned a wry smile. “Well . . .”

“Take it! Take all my money!” the anonymous human male shouted. “Just let me go, please! I have a wife and kids!”

The group of disguised mares had been quickly successful in capturing a human wearing khaki shorts and a blue t-shirt with eyeglasses taking a late night stroll as he passed by the alley they appeared in. The girls had tackled the hapless man to the sidewalk and dragged him into the alley, kicking and screaming. Since using magic would blow their cover, the girls had to wrestle with the man for a good while before finally managing to pin him against the alley wall, with Rarity and Rainbow Dash holding down his limbs while Pinkie covered his eyes with a blindfold that she brought with her for ‘blindfold emergencies’.

Twilight, having taken up the role of interrogator, sighed in exasperation and replied to the human’s pleas.

“We don’t want to hurt you.” She tried to sound as soothing as possible. “We just need some information.”

“Anything! I’ll tell you anything!” he cried, tears streaming down his cheeks.

“Geez, you are such a crybaby!” Rainbow Dash said, rolling her eyes.

“Rainbow!” Rarity scolded. “We have no right to shout insults at him when what we’re doing is downright horrid!”

“Please don’t hurt me!” the human continued to cry. “I promise I- . . . Rainbow?”

Both Rarity and Rainbow Dash froze in shock, while Pinkie mouthed the word ‘busted’ to them and Twilight just face-hooved.

“In fact, your voices sound like-”

“Like I said, we need some information!” Twilight shouted, eliciting a whimper from their captive. She gave a quick, furious glance to both Rarity and Rainbow before returning to the man. “First off, what city is this?”

“I-I-It’s Seattle, ma’am,” he stuttered.

Twilight arched an eyebrow in slight confusion. She immediately recognized the name Seattle as one of the many parodied names of Equestrian cities Pinkie Pie had contributed to the first HUMAN book, but the specifics of where that city was located weren’t touched upon in the books or even the Crystalvision adaptation. At least, it hadn’t been during her tenure as showrunner. There was so much room for expansion of both the book series and the show, Twilight realized, and wondered if Lyra would take it upon herself to do such now that she was the showrunner for HUMAN: The Crystalvision Series.

“C-C-Can I go now, please?” the human pleaded, snapping Twilight from her reverie.

“Oh, um . . . where’s Seattle in relation to Cary, North Carolina?” she asked him.

“Th-That’s on the other side of the country,” he replied, the stuttering having diminished a bit. “Look, if that’s where you need to go then just look at a map or a globe or something!”

“And where can we find a map or a globe or something?” Twilight calmly asked him.

“Just look in the SPL,” he replied, his voice starting to take on some annoyance. “There’s bound to be countless maps of the United States in there.”

Twilight was confused. “What’s the SPL?” she asked.

“It stands for ‘Seattle Public Library’,” the human clarified.

Immediately, Twilight’s eyes lit up while her friends just groaned exasperatedly. “A library?” she said excitedly, and clapped her front hooves together. “Where is it?”

The man gestured with his head to his right, toward the alley’s entrance. “Just keep heading down the street to the left. It’s the abstract-looking building with two trees in front and a diamond-patterned roof; you can’t miss it.”

“That’s perfect!” Twilight cheered, her eyes shining like diamonds themselves. “Thank you, sir!”

“Can I go now?” he asked, hopeful.

“One last thing,” Twilight replied. She then charged up her horn and pointed it straight at the man’s head. She let loose the spell, to which his head slumped over onto his shoulder.

Her friends all stared at her, wide-eyed in shock, while Twilight nonchalantly said, “Basic sleeping spell. He’ll wake up in a few hours and, hopefully, forget everything that just happened.”

“What the hay!?” Rainbow shouted, making the lavender alicorn’s ears fold back. “I thought you said no flying or magic!?”

“That only applies when there’s humans around who can see us,” Twilight replied, rubbing her ringing ears until they settled down. “In this case, Pinkie’s blindfold took care of that problem.”

“Glad I could help!” Pinkie chirped, and proceeded to untie the blindfold from the now unconscious man’s face. “Aww, he looks so cute when he’s asleep.” The man began snoring through his nose quite loudly, and Pinkie giggled when drool began pouring from his mouth.

“Anyway,” Twilight continued, drawing everyone’s attention, “we’ll have to use cover names whenever we’re within earshot of a human.” She glared at Rarity and Rainbow Dash, who both snorted in response. “And they need to sound human-esque. I’ll be . . . Twila, how’s that sound?”

Rainbow Dash deadpanned. “Seriously?” she groaned. “That’s your cover name?”

Twilight pouted. ‘Well, I don’t see you coming up with a better one,” she claimed.

“Watch me,” Rainbow said, smirking. “From now on, just call me . . . Jenny.”

“. . . Okay, that is better,” Twilight conceded, to which Rainbow’s smirk grew even wider. “But ‘Twila’ will still suffice.”

“We shall see,” Rarity affirmed. She briefly tapped her chin in thought before she adopted her ‘IDEAAA!’ expression and continued with, “From now on, whensoever there’s a human within earshot, refer to me as Maria.”

“Alright, that’ll work,” Twilight replied, nodding. She then turned to Pinkie. “And what about you, Pinkie? What’ll your cover name be?”

“Isn’t it obvious, Twilight?” Pinkie asked, wrapping a hoof around the lavender mare’s shoulder and pulling her close. She held her other hoof up in a dramatic fashion like she was ready to make a rousing speech. “There’s only one human name that’s befitting a mare like me, and it’s named after the bestest of all the food groups in the great pyramid.”

Twilight stared blankly for a moment before turning to Rarity and Rainbow for clarification as to what name Pinkie was talking about, but they just shrugged and shook their heads. “And, what name is that?” Twilight finally asked her hyperactive friend as she turned back to her.

Pinkie responded by pressing her muzzle right up to Twilight’s and narrowing her eyes. “From now on, whenever there’s a human around,” she said in what almost qualified as a hushed whisper, “refer to me as Candy and nothing else.”

Twilight blinked for a good solid second, as did Rarity and Rainbow behind her, while Pinkie retained her serious expression that almost unnerved her friends. Finally, Twilight smiled nervously and replied with, “Okay then, Candy it is.”

Pinkie immediately let go of the lavender princess, making her stumble a bit, as she lifted both hooves into the air and cheered, “HOOORAAAY!”

“Yeah, sure,” Twilight half-heartedly agreed. She turned toward the alley’s exit. “Anyway, let’s get a move on girls; we have a library to visit.” Her eyes lit up again at this thought as she began trotting toward the street.

“Well, it may not be like Daring Do,” Rainbow said, stepping in line behind her friend, “but an adventure is an adventure, and this mare’s always up for one of those.”

“Indeed you are,” Rarity agreed, taking a moment to stretch her legs before falling in line behind her. “And I suppose a little excitement would be nice for a change; things have been rather boring at my boutique as of late.”

Pinkie said nothing as she stepped in line last, instead deciding to chew on her mane like it was cotton candy.

Hmmm, not bad actually.

Kill the Sound

In around ten minutes’ time, during which they passed by several humans who didn't so much as glance at them meaning the enchantment was working, the group of friends found the Seattle Public Library. It looked exactly as the man had described: two trees stood side-by-side in front of the building while the roof was diamond-patterned. Also just as he had told them, the building’s design was indeed very abstract. To the girls, it resembled a house with its roof smashed to one side and the ground floor having imploded on itself.

After crossing the street via crosswalk, they made way toward the library’s front door and entered, passing through a couple of black gate-like structures bolted to the floor. A fair amount of humans occupied the building, mostly sitting at tables reading books or wandering around probably looking for some. The librarian sat at a desk just next to the entrance, typing away at a computer while mumbling to herself.

Twilight, as could be expected of her, was immediately transfixed by the sight of so many bookshelves containing multiple rows of her favorite inanimate thing in the universe, her favorite animate thing/s being her friends and family, of whom the former three of which waited impatiently for their lavender friend to give them directions.

“Um, Twila?’ Rainbow asked the starry-eyed lavender alicorn. “What do we do now?”

“Huh!?” Twilight snapped back to ‘reality’. “Oh, um . . .” She swept her gaze over the library’s interior. Eventually she spotted an unoccupied reading table near to one side of the building.

“Just go wait over there for me, girls,” she said, pointing toward the table. “Assuming this comic’s world follows the same book system as real life I should be able to find an atlas fairly quickly.”

“Very well, dear,” Rarity replied. “We’ll meet you over there when you’re done.”

Twilight nodded, and began heading toward the shelves while the others made way toward the empty table.

“So,” Rainbow said as they sat around the table, taking a moment to position her wings so they wouldn’t scrape against her chair’s back. “What’re you guys hoping to do while we’re here?”

“What do you mean, Jenny?” Rarity asked, her head tilted in confusion.

“You know,” Rainbow replied while making a rolling motion with her hoof, “anything in this world you want to see or do?”

“Yeah,” Pinkie said with a bright smile, “there’s sure to be lots of cool things for us to do here.”

“I’m sure there is, you two,” Rarity replied. She adopted a look of stern-forthrightness. “However, no matter how tempting it may be to see the sights of this world, we’re not here to dilly-dally. Our goal is to head straight for Warren Zaccaro and nothing more, which means no sightseeing.”

“Come on, Maria, where’s your sense of excitement?” Rainbow asked exasperatedly. “Let’s explore a little and check out all of what this world has to offer. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity here, the least we can do is make the most of it before we leave.”

“Um, excuse me?”

The three girls almost jumped in alarm at the unfamiliar voice right next to them. As one they turned to see a teenage girl wearing a green sweatshirt, blue jeans, and thick red glasses holding a couple of books in her arms. It took all of their willpower to stay rooted to their seats and not panic from having drawn a human’s attention.

That didn’t stop them from shaking like leaves in the wind in their seats, however, and the girl stared at the three of them awkwardly, clearly offput by their nervous behavior. None of them said anything back to her, all waiting for one of the other two to do so instead. Eventually, Rarity decided to be brave and reply to the human.

“Um, can we help you?” she asked, a bead of sweat trickling down her face.

The girl blinked for a good solid second. “I just wanted to know if you really need this table. I’ve got a final exam to study for and really need someplace quiet to do so.” She looked downcast. “My apartment isn’t quite satisfactory in that regard.”

“Oh, why of course!” Rarity said almost too loud. “We’re merely waiting for a friend, so by all means take this table for yourself.” To show she was serious, she got out of her chair and turned it around, gesturing with her hoof for the girl to sit down. Rainbow and Pinkie also got up and pushed their chairs in.

The girl smiled. “Thank you,” she said and took Rarity’s seat, setting her books on the table in front of her.

“Well, good luck with your exam, darling,” Rarity said kindly.

“Thanks,” the girl replied. Then she looked confusedly to Rarity. “Actually, your voice sounds very familiar.” She tilted her head. “Have we met somewhere before?”

All the hairs of not just Rarity’s, but Rainbow and Pinkie’s coats stood straight. “Um, no I don’t believe we have, darling,” Rarity replied with a nervous chuckle.

The girl blinked. “Why do you keep calling me ‘darling’?”

Rarity gulped. “Sorry, force of habit, I’m afraid.” Sweat began running down her face.

The girl stared blankly for a few moments. “Are you sure we haven’t met befo-”

“Hey, didn’t you say you had to study or something?” Rainbow cut her off, irritation clear in her tone.

“Right, sorry,” the girl replied before turning around and opening up one of her books.

Rainbow rolled her eyes and motioned for the others to follow her deeper into the library. All three couldn’t help but feel as if the girl’s eyes were staring into the back of their heads as they left, though none of them turned around to check. Once they’d turned a corner between two columns of bookshelves they all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

“Whoo, that was close,” Pinkie declared, wiping some sweat off her brow.

“Indeed it was,” Rarity agreed. She sat on her haunches and leaned against the shelf behind her. She held a hoof up to her forehead in exasperation. “But it’s for that very reason that we mustn’t dilly dally here. We’re still at risk of being exposed even with the disguises, and the less focused we are on returning home the more likely it is we’ll blow our cover.”

“Yeah, but . . .” Rainbow began to argue, but stopped herself upon seeing the furrowed gaze Rarity was giving her, to which she let out a defeated sigh. “Okay, okay, I understand.”

Rarity turned her gaze to Pinkie. “And you, Candy?”

“I may not like it, but I understand perfectly well, Maria,” she replied with a wistful smile.

“That’s good to hear,” Rarity replied with her own, genuine smile as she stood up and shifted aside a tad. “Now, what say we find our bookworm friend, hmm?”

Neither Rainbow nor Pinkie replied, instead staring blankly down the column of bookshelves. Rarity tilted her head confusedly. “Is something the matter girls?” she asked them.

Rainbow pointed behind her with a hoof. Rarity turned around to see what they were staring at, only to go slack-jawed at what she saw before face-hoofing. Way down the aisle, sitting around a bunch of book stacks as tall as her, was Twilight. Even though the lavender alicorn had her face buried in one of them, the trio could still see the corners of a smile etched upon her face. This, combined with the fact that the book’s title was Lord of the Flies, clearly showed to the three that their friend had gotten distracted in her search for an atlas.

Groaning in exasperation, Rarity gestured for the other two to follow her as she made way toward Twilight. They complied, looking less-than but still fairly peeved at their princess friend’s behavior as they trudged towards her, all while she remained oblivious to their approaching presence.

“Heh heh,” Twilight chuckled as her friends stepped in front of her, “‘Fancy thinkin’ the beast was somethin’ you could hunt n’ kill!’”

Rarity cleared her throat.

“Huh! Wha!?” Twilight started in response, dropping the book to the floor and swiveling her head around before her gaze landed on her three friends. “Oh, uh . . .”

Rarity cocked a brow and briefly looked upon the book. “Care to explain how reading this novel equates to finding an atlas, darling?” she half-sarcastically asked the lavender alicorn.

“W-well,” Twilight stuttered, trying to make up a believable lie before eventually giving a defeated sigh.

“I’m sorry for getting distracted,” she said, then grabbed a booklet from off the stack to her right. “I did find an atlas, though, so all we have to do is study it for the quickest route to Warren’s hometown.”

“That’s good to hear,” Rarity replied, then winced. “Although, the girls and I have discovered a rather alarming problem regarding our disguises.”

Twilight cocked an eyebrow. “And what would that be?” she asked.

“Everyone keeps recognizing our voices,” Rainbow replied with a groan. “First that dude in the alley, and just now we gave up our table to some girl who also thought we sounded familiar.”

"Yeah, that is one of the enchantment's more jarring problems," Twilight stated, hanging her head. "Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do to fix it here and now; sorry."

“Well that's a bummer,” Pinkie sulked, her mane deflating a little. “I was looking forward to making lots of new, if temporary, friends here.”

“Me too,” Rainbow said, sadly.

“I won’t condemn such desires, girls,” Rarity said. “Indeed, I too have an inkling of curiosity to see what this world has to offer, but like I said before we aren't here to dilly-dally.”

“Yeah, sure,” Rainbow and Pinkie simultaneously groaned.

Twilight’s heart melted at the sight of her dejected friends. Hoping to liven their spirits, she decided on a compromise.

“Okay, here’s the plan,” she said, drawing everyone’s undivided attention. “We’re going to head straight for Cary, and depending on how far away it is from Seattle we’ll make some stops along the way to take in whatever sights there are.” She gave them a small smile. “Does that sound fair, girls?”

“That sounds cool,” Rainbow agreed, perking up a bit.

“I second that,” Pinkie added with a smile while her mane re-inflated.

“And I as well,” Rarity finished with her own smile.

“Alright then,” Twilight said, “let’s see where our destination is.” She opened the atlas and began reading the index so as to find a map of the whole United States. Her friends stared at her intently, anxious beyond belief to know how long they could end up staying in the comic’s world.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, Twilight found out on which page the country map was located and flipped to it. Her friends watched as she scanned the page for a few minutes to locate both Seattle and Cary’s placements on the map. When she finally finished, her expression turned wide-eyed for a brief moment before she furrowed her gaze down at the page.

“Is something the matter, darling?” Rarity asked, trepidation clear in her tone.

“Well, it might be for you, Maria,” Twilight replied. She set the atlas down on the floor so they all could see the map of the whole United States drawn upon it and pointed to the state in the top leftmost corner; printed within its borders was ‘Washington’, and ‘Seattle’ in smaller print next to a large black dot in the top leftmost corner of the state itself.

“According to that man from earlier, we’re here,” Twilight told them.

“Okay then,” Rarity said, nodding her head. “And where’s Cary?”

“Well . . .” Twilight hesitated for a moment, then slid her hoof across the map all the way to the far right side before resting it on the middle state bordering the accompanying ocean. Just like before, printed within its borders was ‘North Carolina’, and ‘Raleigh’ in smaller text next to a large black dot near the center of the state itself.

"I remember saying in my portion of the second HUMAN book that Warren's hometown of Cary is located right next to the state's capital, Raleigh," Twilight explained. She then adopted a wry expression. "It looks like we'll have to travel all the way across the country in order to reach him."

“Uggghhh,” Rarity groaned.

“YES!” Rainbow and Pinkie both cheered.

“Shh!” Twilight said, giving them a small glare. “We’re in a library, remember?”

“Eheh, sorry,” Rainbow said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head. Then she smiled so wide the corners of her mouth almost clipped the edge of her face. “But this is so awesome. I mean, think of all the things we created for HUMAN that we can now see in person.” She stared off into space, contentedly fantasizing about such things.

“Um, Jenny,” Pinkie said, snapping the cyan pegasus out of her daydream. “We don’t have to see everything we contributed, right?”

Rainbow turned to her friend with a confused look. “What’re you talking about, Candy?” she asked.

Pinkie leaned forward and whispered something in Dash’s ear, to which the pegasus recoiled in shock at what she said before looking solemn. “Um, sure Candy,” she said. “We can skip out on a few things.”

“Thanks,” Pinkie replied with a small smile, and hugged her friend, which Rainbow returned in earnest.

“And with that settled,” Twilight started, drawing everypony’s attention, “now we need to figure out how we’re going to get from here all the way to the East Coast of America.”

“Just how much distance are we to travel?” Rarity asked her.

Twilight looked down at the map once again and read the legend’s scale comparison. “According to this . . . about two thousand miles.”

Rainbow whistled. “Dang, that’s a lot.”

“Yeah,” Twilight agreed as she continued scrutinizing the map. “Walking’s definitely out of the question.”

“We could always just fly,” Rainbow suggested.

“Pardon me for stating what should be plainly obvious,” Rarity ground out, “but even if we were to chance being seen flying, only half of us have the means to do so.”

Rainbow glowered at her. “Yeah, but who’s to say we couldn’t give you and Candy a lift?”

“Oh,” Rarity tilted her head in mock curiosity. “Are you saying you can carry us across the whole country by yourself, Jenny?”

“Well . . .” Rainbow sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. “. . . Okay, maybe we can’t just fly.”

“Indeed,” the alabaster unicorn replied, deadpanned.

“You know, whoever made the Enchanted Comic isn’t very nice,” Pinkie said, drawing the others’ collective attention. “I mean, making us travel sooo far to reach the goal, and not giving us any neat-o powers or resources to help,” she shook her head with disgust, “how could they be so cruel?”

“I don’t know, Candy,” Twilight said, looking downcast. “But once we get out of here, the first thing we’re gonna do is confront them about what they’ve done.”

“Or what’s left of them after our friends are done tearing them a new flank,” Rainbow mused. Then she tilted her head up in thought. “I wonder how things are going for them right now?”

Applejack, Fluttershy, and Spike ran like mad toward Ponyville Station, intent on catching the last train to Canterlot.

“C’mon y’all!” Applejack called back to the other two, her strong applebucking legs having easily kept her ahead of them. “We ain’t got much time ‘fore the train leaves!”

“We know!” Spike called, straining to shout in spite of his aching lungs.

Fluttershy fared no better. The butterscotch pegasus weakly galloped just behind the baby dragon, panting with exertion every few steps while a torrent of sweat leaked from her body which her wings took to soaking up, making it even harder for her to move.

“Must *gasp* get to *gasp* train!” she wheezed between ragged breaths.

By the time Applejack had reached the platform, Spike and Fluttershy were still a good twenty meters away from it, practically dragging their legs forward as they tried to maintain hold of their carry on bags. At about ten meters away from the platform, Fluttershy’s grip on her bag loosened enough that she dropped it to the ground, to which a small cracking sound emanated from inside.

“Oh my!” she exclaimed, her previous discomfort and exhaustion seemingly evaporated as she scooped it up in her hooves. She quickly zipped it open and peeked inside.

“Oh, thank goodness!” she said, breathing a sigh of relief. “They’re alright.”

Spike, still exhausted, turned around to face her. “What’s *gasp* alright, Fluttershy?” he wheezed himself.

The manic look that Fluttershy gave him sent an even bigger chill down Spike’s spine than the one she gave back at her cottage.

“Oh, just a little present for our victims . . . heh heh.”

“I’m sure they’re doing okay,” Twilight said, standing up. She began reshelving all the books around her as she continued. “For now, let’s just focus on finding a method of transportation that can take us all the way across the country.” She briefed a glance to her friends. “Any ideas?”

The other three mares sat down and began thinking hard on a solution to their problem. They poured over everything they remembered from the HUMAN trilogy, as well as what little they’d seen of its Crystalvision adaptation, trying to think of an idea as to what there could be within the comic’s world that they could use to aid them in their quest.

“Well,” Rainbow finally said after a few minutes, by which time Twilight had finished reshelving about half of the books, “maybe we could hitch a ride with one of those cars outside; just hop on board and ride it all the way to your OC.”

“Small problem with that, Jenny,” Twilight said, finishing off another stack. “Humans are xenophobes by nature, meaning they won’t give rides to anyone they don’t know very well.”

“Humans can also travel en masse using planes, right?” Rarity inquired. “If we could acquire a ride . . .”

Twilight sighed in exasperation. “We’d need money for that, Maria. Not to mention we’d have to get past so much security, assuming this comic stays true to HUMAN in that regard.”

“How about we go by train, then?” Pinkie asked.

“Again, we’d need money for tickets, Candy,” Twilight replied, now having finished shelving the books. She banged her head against the shelf and groaned. “I swear, whoever sent me this comic deliberately set it up so that I’d end up having to expose myself in order to leave.”

“All the more reason to pummel them once we get out of here,” Rainbow affirmed, bumping her hooves together in a threatening manner. “AJ had better save some flank for me to kick.”

“Easy now, Jenny,” Rarity said, putting a placating hoof on her shoulder. “Let’s focus on what’s most important at the moment which, if I’m to understand correctly from Twila’s assertions, is our complete lack of bits.”

“Humans don’t use bits,” Twilight corrected her. “But yes, our first focus should be acquiring some money so we can buy transportation to Cary.”

Everyone nodded in response. “So how do we do that?” Rainbow asked.

“Maybe if we ask reeeaaal nicely someone will loan it to us,” Pinkie suggested, completely sincere.

Rarity resisted the urge to snort out a laugh. “Sorry to burst your bubble, Candy," she told the bubbly mare, "but I sincerely doubt humans would be so generous.”

“Oh, come on,” Pinkie whined. “We won’t know unless we try.”

"Of course we won't." Rarity rolled her eyes. "While we're at it, why don't we just walk right into the nearest bank and ask the patrons for a burlap sack full of money?”

". . ."

“This. Is. Pure. Unadulterated. Foalishness,” Rarity said through gritted teeth.

Ten minutes was all it took for the ponies to find out where the nearest bank was from the locals, all the while Rarity fumed at the ‘utter stupidity’ of what they were doing. Now they stood inside the (aptly named) Bank of America, waiting in a line of humans to do exactly as she’d sarcastically suggested previously.

“It’s worth a try, Maria,” Twilight said a little bit more harshly than intended. “The worst that can happen to us is we look stupid to the banker.”

“Look?” Rarity failed to hold back her laughter this time. “I’m genuinely starting to consider that, perhaps, your brain has turned as soft as cheese, Twila.” She threw her hooves up in exasperation, which had the unfortunate side effect of drawing the attention of everyone behind her. “Why else would you agree to such a stupid plan?”

Twilight furrowed her brows and scowled. “Unless you can come up with a better alternative, I’d hold my tongue if I were you, Maria.”

“I’m positive that anything I could think up would be better than this,” Rarity replied, matching Twilight’s scowl with her own.

Rainbow tilted her head in confusion. “But, didn’t you come up with this plan in the first place?” she asked.

“I WAS BEING SARCASTIC!” Rarity shouted at the top of her lungs.

The room went silent as every single human’s attention was drawn to them. Rarity, realizing her mistake, blushed profusely and shrunk under everyone’s collective gaze while her friends sheepishly chuckled and attempted to reassure the humans closest to them that everything was alright. Eventually, everything returned to normal and all attention was diverted from the girls.

“Sorry about that, girls” the alabaster unicorn apologized. She then turned back to Twilight. “But in all seriousness, I wasn’t being serious when I suggested we just go to the nearest bank and ask for money.”

“I know, Maria,” Twilight replied with a sigh, “but we really don’t have much of a choice from the looks of things.” She gave her a soft smile. “Believe me, this is the last plan I’d ever go for if I knew of a better alternative.”

“I know, darling,” Rarity replied with her own smile before it fell into a frown. “I just wish there was a better alternative.”

“Well, look on the bright side,” Pinkie said cheerily. “Our situation couldn’t possibly get any worse.”

The bank’s front doors opened to reveal four humans wearing ski masks and brandishing pistols as they stepped into the room’s center.

“Everybody get on the ground now!” one of them shouted. “This is a bank robbery!”

It took a moment for the initial shock to wear off, at which point all the humans slowly but surely got on their hands and knees and pressed their faces against the cold, tiled floor. It took an extra moment for Twilight and her friends to realize what was happening, but the amount of time it took for them to get down once they did would’ve put Rainbow Dash to shame had the cyan pegasus herself not been among them.

“I take that back,” Pinkie whispered to the others. “Now things can’t get any worse.”

“We’ve also got a bomb!”

“. . . Horseapples.”

Author's Note

Disclaimer: In no way whatsoever is this chapter meant to represent my opinions of the city of Seattle, Washington. This holds true for all forthcoming chapters and the locations visited in them.

Speaking of which, the ponies will start actually traveling in the next chapter.

Hope you enjoy everything so far and to come! :D

"Are you smarter than a bunch of ponies?"

Nobody moved. Nobody spoke. Nobody did anything which could possibly tick off the robbers, thereby putting their life in danger.

The robbers wore non-descript clothing along with their ski masks, so aside from the knowledge that the lead one was male due to his voice, there wasn’t any way of identifying them.

While his cohorts patrolled the lines of innocent-turned-hostages he held one of the bankers at gunpoint and forced them to show him where the money was kept. The banker complied and led him into a backroom, keeping his hands up and still all the while.

Twilight waited until the nearest robber had passed by she and her friends before peeking from behind her hooves. Seeing that the coast was clear, she whispered to her friends.

“Are you girls okay?” she asked. “Keeping calm?”

“Yes,” Rarity replied, also in a hushed whisper. “Afraid for my life, but technically alright nonetheless.”

“You know, that’s something I don’t get,” Rainbow replied, also keeping her voice low. “Are we in actual danger in here? Can we actually die in this comic book?”

“Don’t be so silly, Jenny,” Pinkie giggled softly. “We took all kinds of beating back in Maretropolis, and we came out of that comic without a scratch.”

“If that’s the case then why are we cowering like a bunch of wimps?” Rainbow argued. “Why don’t we pummel these guys into next week if we aren’t in any real danger?”

Twilight couldn’t help but roll her eyes at that. Sometimes, Rainbow Dash, sometimes . . .

The lavender alicorn waited for the next robber to pass before answering her cyan friend. “Because, Jenny, we need to keep up our disguises of normal, everyday humans. Besides, even if we’re immune to injury, all these humans definitely aren’t, and as such we’ll be putting them in danger if we try to take these guys down.”

Twilight thought she heard a raspberry sound coming from underneath Rainbow’s hooves before she replied back with, “So? It’s not like they’re real, so why should we be concerned for their safety?”

Twilight found herself blanking on a response to the question. Really, Rainbow had a point. The humans of the Enchanted Comic’s world weren’t real, at least not in the traditional sense so there really wasn’t any reason to worry about them on moral grounds.

Why am I worried for their safety? Twilight thought.

The sound of footsteps brought her back to reality, and a peek from behind her hooves revealed sight of the lead robber, a giant bulging burlap sack slung over his shoulder, returning to his cohorts. The banker wasn’t with him, but since no gunshots were heard she assumed he was alright.

“Alright, we’re good to go,” he said to the other three. The other three nodded and the four of them began making way toward the entrance.

Suddenly, the sounds of at least a dozen sirens began ringing through the air, gradually getting louder with each passing second. The robbers stopped in their tracks, and instinctively backed up a few paces as red and blue lights reflected in the front door’s glass panes. Looking outside through her eye's corner, Twilight saw what she recognized as several cop cars stop in front of the building so that they effectively sealed off the road, thereby cutting off the robbers' potential escape. Immediately the officers driving them exited their vehicle and brandished their weapons, keeping them pointed at the bank’s entrance.

“Damn it,” one of the robbers said, a female judging from the voice, “now what?”

The lead robber paced for a bit, looking down while his cohorts watched and waited for orders. Twilight could see the look of panic and fear in his eyes as he let his gaze wander around the room, almost as if the answer to their predicament lay just under his nose . . .

“Hey,” he said upon noticing Twilight was staring at him, “did I say you could move, miss?”

Instinctively, Twilight shook her head and ducked behind her hooves again.

”This is the police!” boomed a masculine voice from outside, clearly using a megaphone. ”Exit the building with your hands on top of your head and no one will get hurt!”

The lead robber resumed pacing, clearly more nervous than before. All the while he paced and his cohorts followed him with their gazes the police’s sirens wailed outside the building non-stop.

“We need to do something, Twila,” Rainbow Dash muttered just loud enough for Twilight to hear.

“For the last time, Jenny,” Twilight replied, a hint of anger in her tone, “if we do anything provocative, we’ll put everyone here in danger.”

“Again, why do you care so much about these humans?” Rainbow seethed.

“Well, excuse me for having a little compassion for my creations,” Twilight seethed back.

“Well, your creations are keeping us from getting out of here.”

Twilight sighed in exasperation. “Look, just give me a moment to think.”

“Better make it fast . . .”

Twilight ignored her friend and chanced another glance from behind her hooves to observe things. She saw the lead robber still pacing around while the others looked around the building nervously, as if searching for some miracle escape route. All the other humans were still laid upon the ground with their heads down to the floor.

. . . Wait a minute.

“Jenny,” Twilight whispered to Rainbow, drawing her attention, “pass this along to Maria and Candy: we’re gonna become hostages.”

Rainbow’s mind blanked in response. “Come again?” she eventually asked, dumbly.

Twilight sighed in exasperation again. “Here’s what we’re gonna do . . .”

The chief tensed as he waited for some sign of activity within the building. Knowing there were at least a couple dozen innocents being held hostage inside was bad enough on its own, but on top of that the robbers’ bomb threat added an extra layer of uncertainty to things. Was the threat genuine, or a ruse to put everyone off guard? And if it was a real threat, what would set the robbers off enough to use it? These questions and more swam through his mind as he lifted the megaphone up to his lips again.

”Again, calmly exit the building with your hands up and no one will get hurt!” he commanded.

All the officers waited for something to happen once again, and this time they only had to wait a few moments before a couple of figures stepped up to the doorway behind the glass. The officers all took aim at the door and stood stock still, anticipating a shootout. The door opened, and the chief groaned internally at what he saw.

“Hold your fire!” he commanded his fellow officers, to which they complied with no hesitation.

The lead robber exited the building with a young girl in tow, hands tied behind her back and held out in front of him like a shield, while he had a burlap sack slung over his shoulder. He held his pistol to the girl’s head whose face was stuck in a furrowed expression, though still clearly fearful to an extent. They were soon followed by three more robbers, each one holding a subdued young girl at gunpoint.

Every officer watched with angry expressions as the four robbers sidestepped in front of the building, all while exposing as little of their bodies as possible from behind the girls, as they made way into the alley next to the bank where their black-painted getaway van was.

“Throw them in the back!” the lead robber commanded to his cohorts.

Nodding in understanding, they followed him around to the van’s back. Opening the doors, the girls were forced in at gunpoint, which they did without any hesitation whatsoever.

“You’re a bunch of brave little ladies,” the lead robber said, smirking. “Foolish all the same, but at least it’s the courageous kind of foolish.”

He then closed the doors, to which a locking sound was heard a moment later.

The four girls breathed a collective sigh of relief. “What do we do now, Twila darling?” Rarity asked, a slight hint of fear in her tone.

The sound of the four robbers entering the van up front accompanied Twilight’s answer. “Now we wait for our chance to strike back.”

The van lurched forward as it sped out of the alley, and the ponies found themselves sliding across the van’s floor when the driver made a sharp turn out onto the street, nicking the edge of the police car barricade. The van quickly accelerated to full speed and rocketed down the street, swerving every few seconds every time a car or pedestrian got in the way.

It didn't take long before the sounds of police sirens began emanating from behind the van’s back door, accompanied by the faint reflection of red and blue lights in the van’s back windows.

“Damn it, man!” the driver shouted, voice clearly that of a male, as he looked in the side view mirror. “Who could’a tipped the cops off?”

“It doesn't matter, dude,” one of the others said, whose voice indicated they were also male. “Let’s just lose ‘em and get home before we’re screwed.”

“Easier said than done,” the female robber said, looking in the other side view mirror. “They aren't letting up, and it’s only a matter of time before they've got copters on us.”

“Relax, guys,” the lead robber admonished as he clutched the bag of money to his chest. “Panicking isn't going to get us away Scot free. Just keep cool and head for the highway.”

“Right, man,” the driver replied, clutching the steering wheel firmly in his hands. “I got this.”

“I got this,” Applejack said to Fluttershy and Spike. “Y’all take a moment ta rest, ya hear?”

The two of them said nothing in response and instead laid on the platform, panting heavily in exhaustion. The farm mare walked up to the ticket counter of Ponyville Station, where the stallion in charge was doing his best not to doze off. He perked up slightly as she approached and plopped the bag of bits she was carrying down in front of him.

“Three for the next train ta Canterlot, please,” she said kindly.

The stallion nodded and procured three tickets as he took the bit bag behind the counter. “Train leaves in five minutes,” he said, slightly drowsy. “You came just in time.”

“Well, we’ve got business to take care of in Canterlot,” Applejack replied as she took the tickets. “Urgent business.”

“I don’t doubt it if you’re going so late,” he replied back with a sleepy frown as Applejack returned to her friends.

“C’mon y’all,” she said to the exhausted pegasus and dragon, giving them their tickets, “let’s get this show rolling!”

“Yay,” Fluttershy weakly cheered, while Spike just gave a thumbs up.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Rarity whined, her cheeks turning visibly green. “Now I’m thankful cars don’t exist in the real world.”

The robbers had made it out onto the nearest highway and were heading south, at least a dozen police cars following them on the ground and one helicopter in the air shining a spotlight down upon them, making the van clear as day to see despite it being nighttime.

“It’s okay, Maria,” Twilight replied in her best soothing tone of voice. “Everything will be okay.”

The alabaster unicorn turned to the princess with a solemn expression. “Are we really going to do this?” she asked.

Twilight sighed. “Yes, but only because there isn't a better way,” she replied before turning to the robbers with a resolute expression. “Alright, here we go.”

Twilight quickly untied the ropes binding them all with her magic. The four then proceeded to sneak up behind the robber quartet who were too focused on the road ahead of them to notice the four mares as they approached.

“Now,” Twilight whispered.

The four robbers had no time to react as the ponies slammed their hooves down on their heads, instantly knocking all of them out and causing them to slump forward. With the steering wheel unattended the van swerved left and right of its own accord, but thankfully that section of highway was otherwise empty for the moment.

Twilight quickly used her magic to stabilize the steering wheel while Rainbow and Pinkie began moving the unconscious bodies of the robbers out of the front seats. Rarity crawled under the seat and pressed her hoof down hard on the accelerator to keep the van moving.

“Okay, we've got control of their car,” Rainbow said as she used her hooves to hoist the female robber up and over the seat, straining a bit from how heavy she was. “Now what do we do?”

Twilight fixed her gaze on the road ahead. “Now we lose the cops,” she replied with a smirk.

“How do we do that?” Pinkie asked as she worked to bring the lead robber over the seat, which was made additionally hard by his unconscious body’s refusal to part with the money sack.

Twilight didn't answer right away and instead surveyed the land parallel to the highway as she continued using her magic to drive. Through the harsh light of the helicopter’s spotlight and the nighttime sky beyond, Twilight noticed the faint outline of trees approaching on the right side.

“Hold on tight to something, everypony!” she shouted.

Before her friends could think to ask why, Twilight swerved the van off the highway and toward the trees. With the transition from even concrete to rocky dirt came a rougher ride, and the rickety movements of the van only further nauseated Rarity.

“Unnngh,” she groaned, feeling on the verge of throwing up, but keeping her hoof against the accelerator all the same.

“Hang in there Rare!” Twilight shouted.

The helicopter stayed on the van even as it crossed the treeline while the cops on the ground pulled over and exited their cars, watching the van as it disappeared completely from view within the trees.

Twilight did her best to safely maneuver the van around all the trees, squinting hard to see them coming through the nighttime air. The trees were a double-edged sword, however, for their presence allowed the van some cover from the helicopter’s spotlight. Slowly but surely, the light faded from view as Twilight drove the van deeper into the forest until, eventually, the helicopter lost sight of them entirely.

“Okay, Rarity,” Twilight said to her friend, “you can let go now.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” the unicorn replied, breathing a sigh of relief as she lifted her hoof off the accelerator, causing the van to come to a gradual stop. “I was afraid my hoof was going to chip if I kept it pressed down any longer.”

Twilight could only roll her eyes in response.

“So,” Rainbow said as she inspected the unconscious forms of the four robbers now laying side by side in the van’s back, “now what?”

Twilight let out a breath she didn't realize she’d been holding in and replied with, “Well, now that we have a mode of transportation we can reach Warren. All we have to do is figure out what to do with them.” She gestured toward the robbers.

“Isn't it obvious?” Rainbow asked with an obvious hint of sarcasm. “We leave them outside and get away before anybody sees us.”

Twilight pursed her lips. “Well . . . I was thinking we should see to their arrest before leaving.”

Rainbow furrowed her gaze. “Why does that matter?” she asked, clearly frustrated. “They’re gonna get what they deserve one way or another, so why should we stick around to see it?”

“I agree with Rainbow,” Rarity said. “We have a mode of transportation now, and sticking around will only increase our chances of being exposed.”

“Yeah, what they said,” Pinkie said in a rarely neutral tone.

Twilight turned away from them and sheepishly scuffed her hoof across the van’s floor. “I’m just worried for their safety is all.” She looked outside the nearest window. “I mean, it’s dark and cold outside, and there could be dangerous creatures lurking around.”

Silence greeted her for a few moments, during which Twilight could feel the deadpanned stares of her friends boring through her as she continued scuffing a hoof across the floor. A loud groan broke the uncomfortable silence, and all the ponies turned to see the female robber coming to.

“Oh no you don’t!” Rainbow shouted. She quickly smashed a front hoof against the woman’s head, instantly knocking her out yet again. Rainbow’s strike also had the unintended effect of making the woman roll across the floor of the van, and in doing so revealed a floor compartment which had previously escaped the ponies’ notice and was hidden underneath the robber’s body.

“Wonder what’s in there?” Pinkie queried.

“Well, let’s see,” Twilight eagerly said, happy to shift the focus of everyone’s attention away from her onto something else. She used her magic to open the compartment and peered inside, only to recoil in surprise at what she saw. “Wow, they weren't kidding.”

Confused, her friends peered into the compartment themselves, and reacted much the same way as Twilight upon seeing the white plastic explosive stashed inside.

“Goodness gracious!” Rarity exclaimed.

“Why didn't they bring that thing into the bank with them?” Rainbow asked.

“That doesn't matter,” Twilight replied. She carefully lifted the explosive out of the compartment with her magic and encased it in a magic barrier. “What does matter is that we dispose of this thing immediately.”

Rainbow and Rarity nodded in agreement. Pinkie, however, appeared to be spaced out. Rolling her eyes, Twilight was about to climb over the seats to exit through the front doors when the bubbly mare suddenly spoke up.

“The octopus is outta my head, girls!”

Confused stares were all she got in response. “I have an idea!” she clarified.

Leaves rustled and twigs snapped under their feet as the line of officers trekked across the forest floor, guns in one hand and flashlights in the other which they swiped across the trees in search of the fugitive’s van. The sight of several bent saplings indicated they were heading in the right direction, and the officers kept their guard up in case a shootout suddenly occurred.

The chief was the only one without a flashlight, and in its place he held his radio to keep in contact with the helicopter above.

He brought it up to his mouth. “Do you still have a visual on the fugitives?” he asked the pilot. “Over.”

”Negative, sir,” the pilot replied. ”Too much tree cover. Over.”

The chief sighed in exasperation, and was about to reply when a loud explosion ripped through the air, startling him into dropping the radio while the other officers fixed their attention in the direction the sound came from.

The pilot's muffled voice came from the speaker-down radio as the chief reached for it. He brought it to his mouth and asked, “Could you repeat that? Over.”

”I just saw an explosion about fifty meters ahead of your current position,” the pilot replied. ”I don’t see anybody down there, though, I can’t imagine it’s anyone other than the fugitives. Over.”

“Copy that, we’ll check it out,” the chief replied back. “Over and out.” He turned to everyone around him. “Alright, move forward and keep your eyes peeled!”

His fellow officers all nodded and the line began hurrying forward toward the explosion. As to what the explosion could’ve been, most of everybody guessed the robbers had set off their bomb, though they were puzzled as to why they’d set it off in the middle of a forest. The thought on the forefront of their minds, however, was whether or not the hostages were safe.

Stepping over a fallen tree, the chief noticed something up ahead and shouted, “Halt!”

Everyone did so, keeping their eyes focused ahead and guns drawn. The chief exchanged the radio for his own flashlight and turned it on, shining it upon what he saw only for everyone, himself included, to stare blankly at what they saw.

Bound to a tree with rope, their ski masks removed, were the unconscious bodies of the robbers, one of them holding a burlap sack in his arms like it was a baby. Looking closer, the officers saw that their faces were doodled on with a black marker, giving them a rather comical appearance. Shining his light downwards a bit, the lead officer noticed a charred patch of ground a little ways in front of the robbers, presumably where their bomb had gone off. And yet, despite being so close to the blast, none of the robbers showed any signs of injury.

All the officers found themselves at a loss for words as to the absurdity of the scene before them, but while none of them could speak verbally their minds were abuzz with the same question

What in God’s name happened here?

Back at the highway, the nighttime air perfectly masked the van from the sight of passing motorists as it emerged from the forest at a farther point up the road from where it entered. Flashing red and blue lights, as well as the helicopter, could be seen in the distance behind it, oblivious to the van’s current location.

Taking great care to avoid being spotted, it slowly crept across the bumpy ground and came to a stop on the road’s shoulder when no other cars were passing. The ponies inside breathed a collective sigh of relief when Twilight put on the brake.

“Glad that’s over,” Rainbow said. She turned to Pinkie. “Great idea by the way, Pinkie.”

“I wholeheartedly concur,” Rarity added. “Using the bomb to lure the cops toward those ruffians was nothing short of brilliance.”

“Aw, thanks girls,” Pinkie replied with a grin, “but it wouldn't have worked if Twilight didn't protect them from getting blasted with that timed barrier spell.”

The three of them turned as one to said alicorn, who sat on her haunches behind the front seat with her back to them.

“Yeah, sure thing,” she said dryly, rustling her wings a little bit in agitation.

“What’s wrong now, Twilight?” Rainbow asked exasperatedly. “We got them arrested, didn't we?”

“We didn't have to defame their faces with marker,” Twilight ground out, finally turning to face them, specifically Pinkie. “Where did you even get that thing anyway, Pinkie?”

“What, this?” Pinkie replied, pulling out a black marker from her mane. “I had it with me when we came into the comic.” She leaned forward and whispered, “For marker emergencies.”

“I don’t care why you have it!” Twilight practically screamed, causing her friends to reflexively step back. “And even so, defaming people’s faces isn't an emergency in any way, shape, or form.”

“Aw, lighten up, Twi,” Rainbow replied condescendingly. “Why does it matter if we’re doing it to the bad guys? They definitely deserve it.”

“It’s the principle that matters!”

Her friends watched her with apprehension as Twilight began panting heavily in agitation after her outburst, a mean look in her eyes and mouth in a scowl. Seeing their friend all worked up over what amounted to nothing was nothing new for Pinkie, Rarity and Rainbow, but there was something different about her behavior this time around. Rather than merely being frustrated, to them it really seemed as if Twilight was genuinely angry at them, and it made them slightly fearful of the alicorn princess.

Eventually, Twilight regained her composure and continued with, “Okay, here’s a new rule: unless I give you explicit permission to do so, there’s to be no interaction with any humans whatsoever. Am I clear?”

Her friends all nodded slowly in response.

“Good.” Twilight lit up her horn and cast a camouflaging enchantment on the van so that people would see it as green instead of black. “Let’s get a move on. Rarity, if you’d please?”

“Actually, Twilight dear,” the fashionista replied with a wry smile, “I’d prefer not to have my hooves chipped. So, how about if somepony else takes on accelerating duties in my stead?”

Twilight shrugged. “Fine by me.” She turned toward Pinkie and Rainbow. “So . . .”

“I’ll do it!” Pinkie exclaimed, and rushed under the seat.

Rarity and Rainbow made themselves comfortable in the back while Twilight re-engaged the steering wheel with her magic and released the brake with a hoof.

“Alright,” she said with a smile, “hit it, Pinkie!”

Pinkie applied pressure to the accelerator, to which the van quickly sped up. Twilight glanced in the side-view mirror and, seeing no incoming cars, steered into the rightmost lane.

“Cary, here we come!” Twilight shouted happily.

“Road trip!” Rainbow and Pinkie exclaimed in unison.

“Goodie,” Rarity groaned sarcastically.

En Route to Shenanigans

Dirt. Rocks. Power lines. A seemingly endless line of pavement stretching before them to the horizon. A road sign every once in a while. Twilight had seen nothing else in what felt like forever, but was likely only about nine hours of comic time, judging by the sun’s position just above the horizon.

Twilight held onto the van’s steering wheel with her magic, doing her best to keep the vehicle on the road with declining strength. She’d spent the entire night driving along the highway nonstop, and the tired expression, complete with bags under her eyes and unkempt hair, provided clear proof of such.

Her friends, however, weren’t any worse for wear. It was decided soon after their journey began to alternate the task of keeping pressure on the accelerator between the three of them in hour-long shifts, thereby allowing them all some much needed rest. Twilight had even been offered a reprieve from her driving, her friends being sure they could properly handle the vehicle, but she’d decided against it, believing she’d need to be awake and alert so she could get them out of trouble in case it showed itself.

It was currently Rainbow’s turn to keep the van moving, and the pegasus was doing a splendid job of remaining focused on it despite her mind’s tendency to wander. Rarity and Pinkie slept soundly in the back, their heads buried in their fore hooves while breathing soft and rhythmically. Twilight spared a glance into the van’s rear view mirror in order to get a reprieve from the repetitive scenery outside, but instantly regretted it as seeing her friends sound asleep made her envious and she groaned inwardly.

So… tired…

Almost subconsciously, Twilight turned the wheel slightly to the right, pulling the van off the road onto the accompanying dry dirt. A slight bump rocked the van as it came off the highway, startling Rainbow and rousing both Pinkie and Rarity from their slumber.

“Twilight?” Rainbow said, curiously, craning her neck back to look at her alicorn friend. “Everything okay up there?”

Twilight’s half-lidded gaze remained focused ahead, despite the van not being on the road anymore, as she replied in a hushed, drowsy voice, “Everything’s fine, Rainbow.” One of her eyelids fluttered slightly, begging to be closed before Twilight forced it wide open, revealing it to be bloodshot. “Just peachy.”

“Oh, okay,” Rainbow replied, and turned back around. “So, any idea where we are?”

Twilight turned her head to look out both windows on either side of her, seeing nothing but endless expanses of dirt and rocks, looking no different than the rest she’d seen already.

“If I had to guess, we’re… we’re…”

A thud sounded, followed immediately by a blaring noise that rang through the van and didn’t stop. Rarity and Pinkie scrambled to their hooves as Rainbow took her hoof off of the accelerator, bringing the van to a gradual stop. All three mares folded their ears back to block the awful noise.

“What is that wretched sound!?” Rarity shouted over the noise.

“What!?” Pinkie shouted back.

“What!?” Rarity shouted in turn.

Meanwhile, Rainbow crawled out and up into the passenger seat next to Twilight. Looking at the alicorn, Rainbow saw that her friend had fallen asleep at the wheel, her face pressed firmly against the center. It took a moment for her to realize what had happened, and as soon as she did Rainbow wrapped her hooves around Twilight’s withers and pulled her off of the steering wheel. Immediately, the sound stopped.

“Goodness gracious!” Rarity exclaimed as she and Pinkie came up and peered over the seats. “Just what was that blaring racket?”

Rainbow sighed, then let out a soft chuckle. “That, Rarity, was this car’s horn.” She gestured first to the steering wheel, then to the still dozing Twilight, who had a little drool running down her mouth. “Little Miss Sleepyhead here activated it when her face hit the steering wheel.” She chuckled again and shook her head. “And she’s out like a light from the looks of it if she can sleep through that noise.”

“Awww, looks like somepony shouldn’t have passed on a nappy-wappy,” Pinkie cooed, sticking her face in front of Twilight’s. The alicorn’s breaths blew Pinkie’s mane back, tickling her nostrils and almost making her sneeze right in Twilight’s face, but she lifted her head back up and suppressed it with a hoof to her muzzle.

“Oh, I do hope the poor dear is alright,” Rarity said, reaching a hoof to Twilight chin in a show of concern, only to jerk it back as the alicorn let out a very sudden, very loud snore. “Ahhh!”

Rainbow rolled her eyes at the scene before reaching over to the ignition key with her mouth and twisted it, to which the van’s engine stopped and left everything silent, minus Twilight’s snores.

“Where are we, anyway?” Pinkie asked as she peered through the windshield.

“That’s what I asked Twilight before she passed out,” Rainbow replied, looking outside herself and grimacing at the dry, desert landscape around them. “But wherever we are, it looks like we’re alone.”

“Indeed it does,” Rarity said with a nod. A brief moment of silence passed between them before Rarity took a moment to stretch, her joints audibly cracking as she hummed with delight. “Ah, that’s nice.” She turned to Rainbow and Pinkie. “What say we take a while to get out and stretch our legs?”

“Gee, Rarity,” Rainbow said with a sly smile, “weren’t you the one that wanted to get out of here asap?”

“Indeed I was, and still do,” Rarity huffed. She used her magic to open the passenger side door and climbed over the seat. “That said, we’ve been cooped up in this dreaded vehicle all night, so a little break to stretch would sit well with me.”

“Twilight needs a break more than any of us,” Pinkie said, gently poking her sleeping friend’s side with a hoof. “We should wake her up.”

“Let’s leave her be for the time being,” Rarity said as she stepped onto the ground outside the door. “She needs rest more than anything right now.”

“Yeah she does,” Rainbow said. She gave one last look at Twilight before climbing across the seat and stepping outside next to Rarity. Pinkie followed a second later, bouncing onto the dirt and sending up a small dust cloud which was quickly picked up and carried away by a sudden wind gust. “So, who wants to see the sights?”

“Ooh ooh! I do! I do!” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing thrice with excitement.

“I’ll stay and keep an eye on things here,” Rarity said. She cracked her neck once before climbing up onto the van’s hood and curling up like a cat, resting her head in her hooves. “You two have fun, and do be careful.”

“Yeah yeah.” Rainbow turned to Pinkie. “C’mon, let’s go see what human deserts are like.”

“Okie dokie lokie,” Pinkie replied, and the two set off at a brisk pace across the dry earth, leaving Rarity alone with the van and the snoring princess inside.

The train pounded the rails as it flew down the line through the forest. The nighttime air shrouded the trees outside from view within the coaches, although most passengers inside were sound asleep anyway. The trio of Applejack, Fluttershy and Spike, however, was wide awake and fidgeting in their seats with anticipation. Nevertheless, the alluring embrace of sleep threatened to claim them time and again, becoming stronger as the trip to Canterlot wore on.

“Yeowww!” Applejack shouted in response to a sharp pinch on her withers.

“You were about to fall asleep,” Spike said, retracting his claw from her. “At least, it looked like you were.”

Applejack pouted and rubbed the spot where Spike pinched her. “I wasn’t gonna…” she mumbled half-heartedly.

Fluttershy’s gaze had been half-lidded as she watched her two friends across from her, but she snapped awake the instant Applejack screamed. Not wanting to risk being pinched herself, she gave her face a few good slaps with her wings, rubbing it afterward to alleviate the soreness.

A few minutes of silence passed afterward, during which time the three friends stayed content with staring up at the coach’s ceiling or stretching lazily in their seats. The only sound to them were the muffled click-clacks of the train’s wheels underneath the floor as they beat against the rails.

“Either of ya wanna go check an’ see if the food coach’s open?” Applejack asked, breaking the silence between them.

Spike shrugged. “I doubt it is, but it beats sitting around doing nothing.” He hopped off the seat and grabbed the saddlebag which housed the HUMAN comic. “You wanna come, Fluttershy?” he asked the pegasus.

Fluttershy gave a simple nod and joined them in exiting the compartment before turning down the corridor toward the food coach.

Twilight only managed to get in about ten minutes of sleep before an offending ray of sunlight from the comic world’s sun shined in her face, pulling her from a most pleasant dream involving Starswirl the Bearded cosplaying as a mathematician professor, complete with nerd glasses and pocket protectors. With an annoyed groan, she turned her head away from the sun’s light, instinctually reaching for her bed’s covers.

She grabbed at nothing.

Confused at first, the previous night’s events slowly came back to her sleep-addled brain, and her eyes shrank to pinpricks when the realization that, not only had she been asleep, but also that the passenger side door was open both registered in her mind.

“Oh no oh no oh no oh no,” Twilight chanted, picking herself up and practically flinging herself outside. She swung her head around to try and spot her friends, and was relieved when she quickly found Rarity by the side of the road, poking the concrete with her hoof.

Twilight made a beeline for her friend, skidding to a stop behind Rarity and sending a small wave of dirt over her as a result.

“Gah! What the—” Rarity turned around, and her face brightened upon seeing it was Twilight. “Oh, I see you’re awake. Did you have a pleasant nap, darling?”

“Never mind that,” Twilight said with a shake of her head. “Where are Rainbow and Pinkie?”

“Oh, well, they went to explore this arid desert while you got some much needed rest,” Rarity replied, brushing some dirt off of her backside.

“They WHAT!?” Twilight shouted, making Rarity wince. “Who knows what this comic world has in store for us!? There could be all kinds of hazards around here, not to mention the trouble we’ll be in if any humans see them! If they get back and—”

Twilight was silenced by Rarity’s hoof in her mouth. The unicorn gave the princess a furrowed gaze that let Twilight know she was overreacting. With a muffled sigh, Twilight relaxed her features, to which Rarity retracted her hoof.

“You really should work on managing your paranoia, darling,” she told Twilight, almost in an admonishing tone of voice. “But I digress. From what we could gather, there’s not another sapient being around for miles, so the chance of us being found out here is below average.”

Twilight glanced around at the desert landscape surrounding them, taking note that it was, in fact, very much barren of any possible signs of civilization, save for the road. “True,” she said, looking back to Rarity with a concerned gaze, “but we still have no idea what else might be lurking around here.”

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that!” Pinkie said as she popped up between them, giving both a mini heart attack as they jumped in response. “Dashie and I checked around, and we’re really alone as far as we can tell.”

Rarity and Twilight put a hoof each to their chests to slow their hearts from their respective Pinkie-fueled adrenaline surge. With deep, calming breaths, they each regained their composure and stood up straight, each giving Pinkie a glower which made her shrink back a little.

“What have we told you about popping up out of nowhere while ponies are talking?” Twilight asked with all the sternness of a mother scolding their children for stealing cookies from the jar.

Pinkie grinned sheepishly. “Don’t do it?”

“Indeed,” Rarity affirmed.

“I’m sorry,” Pinkie said, deflating a little.

“Apology accepted,” Twilight said with a small smile. She shifted her gaze around the three of them. “Where’s Rainbow Dash?”

“She decided to fly east over that—” Pinkie pointed to a rock formation about a mile due east of their position, above which the sun shined brightly, “—to scout and stretch her wings.”

“Oh for crying out lo—” Twilight stomped a hoof. “What part of remaining inconspicuous does she not understand?”

“Oh, relax Twilight,” Rarity said, placing a placating hoof on her friend’s withers. “To be perfectly honest, even if Rainbow Dash was to be seen, with her speed she could return here and we’d be gone before anyone could catch us.”

“Yeah, but… but…” Twilight let out a defeated sigh. “Okay, maybe it isn’t that big a deal.”

“Now then—” Rarity turned to Pinkie, “—did Rainbow Dash say when she’d be back?”

“I’m thinking any moment now,” Pinkie said, then turned to face eastward.

Twilight and Rarity followed her gaze toward the rock formation where their friend supposedly flew to. They waited in silence for their friend to return, all while the sun slowly climbed higher into the sky and stretched the shadows of various rocks, dry bushes and other such desert objects between them and the rock formation.

Twilight had to admit, the level of realism to the Enchanted Comic’s world was impressive. She’d come to the conclusion that the Power Ponies comic took place entirely in an enclosed urban environment at nighttime because the spell used to create that comic’s world wasn’t advanced enough to simulate natural environments where small, minute details like as shadows, wind, dirt, and other such natural elements were prevalent. Looking at the landscape around them now, it was clear to Twilight that the House of Enchanted Comics had upped their game.

And yet, there’s still a few things wrong with this world…

A sudden sound of flapping emanated behind them, faint at first, but it grew louder with each passing second. They turned around, and were surprised to see Rainbow Dash closing in on the van from above. Confusion washed over them as they shifted glances from Rainbow Dash to the east cliffs where she was supposed to come from. Rainbow landed on the van’s roof with a small thud before hopping down to the ground in front of them. “Well, that was strange,” she said.

“What was strange?” Rarity asked. “And why did you return from the west instead of the east?”

Rainbow pointed at her. “That’s exactly it,” she answered, then gestured behind them to the rock formation. “I didn’t see any sign of civilization on the other side of that, so I decided to scout a bit further ahead—” She pointed back the way she came, “—and ended up back here.”

“So… you did a loop around?” Pinkie asked, tilting her head.

“I know, what’s up with that?” Rainbow said, throwing her hooves up into the air, before giving her princess friend a questioning stare. “Seriously, what’s up with that, Twilight?”

Rarity and Pinkie gave Twilight questioning looks themselves while she tapped her chin in thought. After giving a few aside glances to the scenery around them, Twilight responded.

“If I had to guess, the spell used to simulate HUMAN’s world for this comic book, while more advanced than the one used for the Power Ponies comic, still has its limits. In this case, it appears that there’s a defined ‘circle of space’ around all of us made to conceal the fact that only so much terrain can be displayed at any one time. If there was only one person in here, they wouldn’t notice, but since we’re a group, any time we try splitting up we’ll just wind up back where we started.”

“So, what you’re saying is that we have no choice but to stick together?” Rainbow asked.

“Pretty much,” Twilight said, then gave the pegasus a stern glare. “Then again, that’s exactly what I’d instructed us all to do in the first place…”

Rainbow sheepishly rubbed her neck. “Yeah… sorry.”

Twilight sighed. “Anyway, we should get going.”

“Are you feeling up to par, Twilight dear?” Rarity asked with concern. “You just spent an entire night driving non stop. Perhaps a little re—”

“It’s fine, Rarity,” Twilight said, cutting her off. She climbed into the van and scooted over into the driver’s seat, bidding her friends to follow. “I’ll be alright, I promise. Now come on, get in.”

Her friends gave each other concerned looks before climbing into the van themselves. Twilight shut the doors with her magic before turning the ignition key, starting up the engine again and causing all the dashboard’s instruments to light up. One particular meter caught her attention, and she gave a low hum in contemplation.

Her friends noticed her pause and moved up to the driver’s seat, looking over at Twilight while she stared at the dashboard.

“Yo, Twilight!” Pinkie called, waving a hoof in front of her friend’s face. “Equestria to Twilight, er—Enchanted Comic book world to Twilight, come in!”

“I can hear you just fine, Pinkie,” Twilight said exasperatedly, pushing her friend’s hoof away and turning around to face them. “It’s just that something’s been bugging me about this vehicle ever since we commandeered it from those robbers.”

“And what might that be, darling?” Rarity asked.

Twilight pointed to the particular gauge on the dashboard. It was a meter with a white stick and the letters ‘F’ and ‘E’ on either end, colored green and red, respectively. The stick was currently pointing at the ‘F’.

“I remember very distinctly writing about how human automobiles run on gas, and how they have a built-in meter displaying the exact amount remaining,” she explained. She turned back to the meter in question, a pensive frown crossing her face. “If the ‘F’ and the ‘E’ stand for ‘Full’ and ‘Empty’, respectively, then this should be the van’s gas meter, but that can’t be right.”

“Why not, Twi?” Rainbow asked, leaning over the seat to better inspect the meter. “It makes sense to me, and I’ll admit that’s saying something.”

“No, it doesn’t!” Twilight said with a little more volume than she’d intended. Upon realizing this, she cleared her throat and continued. “We just spent an entire night driving across the country. The gas meter should be at least somewhere between Full and Empty, but it isn’t; it’s right smack dab over Full.” She threw her hooves up in exasperation. “Why!?”

“I dunno,” Rainbow said with a shrug. “Maybe they just forgot to add that detail in.”

“That’s impossible,” Twilight affirmed. “This comic has done such a great job at re-creating HUMAN’s world right down to minute details such as fully written novels.” She shook her head. “No, they wouldn’t have left out such an obvious detail unless it was intentional.”

“Well, what’s the problem with that?” Rarity asked with a smile. “If anything, this should be to our benefit, since we won’t have to worry about acquiring more gas or another ride altogether.”

“It’s not that, it’s…” Twilight let out a long-winded sigh and slumped in her seat. “I guess there’s two reasons why it’s bugging me.”

“And they are?”

Twilight sighed again. “The first reason is that… Well, I’m a little peeved that the House of Enchanted Comics would change anything about my work. I guess part of me still holds the HUMAN series close to heart and I can’t bear to see any part of it disregarded, not after all the hard work I put into it.”

“Yeah, I can see how that’d make you upset,” Pinkie said, reaching down to pat Twilight on her withers. “But don’t let yourself get all mopey-dopey because of one little detail, Twilight. That’d just be sad, and sad is my arch nemesis.” She looked Twilight square in the eye. “Don’t let it take you over,” she finished in a low whisper.

Twilight blinked for a moment before smiling. “I’ll try, Pinkie. I’ll try.”

“Glad to hear,” she replied, and retracted her hoof. “So, what’s the second reason?”

“Right, well…” Twilight looked outside the driver’s side window as her smile fell into an uneasy frown. “Knowing now that this comic’s world isn’t entirely faithful to HUMAN, there could be things out there that we haven’t got prior knowledge of. If that’s the case, and we come across them, we could find ourselves stuck on what to do, meaning we won’t be able to leave.”

“Oh my, I do say that is a concern, then,” Rarity said with a gasp.

“Puh-leeease,” Rainbow said, taking a fighting stance. “Anything that gets in our way, I’ll just give’em the ol’ one-two and we’ll be on our way in ten seconds flat!” She capped off her proclamation by punching at the air a few times.

“Just make sure you don’t end up blowing your disguise,” Twilight said, rolling her eyes. “Which means no flying. At all.”

“Yeah, yeah, I hear ya,” Rainbow replied. Then a look of remembrance washed over her. “So Twilight, any idea where we are?”

Twilight looked out the window again, taking in every detail she could of the desert landscape surrounding them and trying to match it to what she remembered of the United States from HUMAN.

“I think—” she said after a long pause, “—we’re in the southwestern United States, which means we need to travel east to get to Cary.”

“But this road doesn’t go east,” Rarity noted, pointing through the windshield toward the highway. “If we’re to go east, we need to head toward that rock formation.”

“Only problem there is that rock formation would end up blocking us,” Twilight replied. “That, and on the off chance someone did see us driving across the desert, we’d arouse too much suspicion.”

“Then what are we supposed to do?” Rarity asked with a frustrated tinge.

“One moment, please.”

Her friends watched as Twilight reached over and opened up a compartment built into the dashboard in front of the passenger’s seat, revealing a slew of seemingly random junk inside: papers, writing utensils, napkins, unopened straws and salt packets, even a gauge of some kind that looked like a very fat pocket watch with no chain attached. All of these Twilight began lifting out and organizing in neat little piles behind the passenger seat, all while mumbling to herself how ‘it should be in here’ and ‘they’d better not have changed this’. Eventually, she levitated a booklet out of the compartment and brought it over to the others, her eyes lit with excitement.

“Here we go,” she said, sounding very relieved. “I remember writing that automobile drivers typically keep an atlas stashed in their vehicles. Glad to see that aspect hasn’t changed here.”

“Well alright then,” Rarity replied, looking at the atlas with eagerness plainly etched onto her face. “So where do we go?”

Twilight opened the booklet and flipped to a particular page which showed the whole southwestern United States. “Let’s see… we went down I-90, then I-84… 15…… Okay, I know where we are.

“I remember seeing a sign a few miles back saying we’d passed through a town called Mesquite, which means we’ll wind up in Las Vegas if we keep heading straight along this road. From there, we just turn onto ‘I-40’ which’ll lead us straight across the country to Warren’s hometown.”

“Ooh, can we stop in Vegas first!?” Pinkie asked, bouncing up and down excitedly before pausing to grab Rainbow Dash and pulling her close. Pinkie then held out her other hoof toward the van’s ceiling and made a gesture while saying, “Neon. Neon everywhere.”

“No, no stopping,” Twilight said with conviction. “We’ll be driving through on our way, but we are not stopping just to look at all the lights. We can do that just by looking out of the van’s windows, anyway.”

“Indeed we can,” Rarity said, giving Pinkie a disapproving glare. “Remember, no dilly-dallying.”

Pinkie deflated in response, letting go of Rainbow Dash who stared up in thought while tapping her chin. “I wonder what human casinos are like?” she whispered, then turned to Twilight. “Las Vegas was this world’s designated gambling city, right?”

“Yes it was,” Twilight replied with a nod. “But we’re not stopping for that either.”

“Why not?” Dash asked with a tilt of her head. “If we won some money we could afford a ride across the country, you know?”

“Yes, Rainbow Dash, I know that,” Twilight said, bemused. “What I also know, is that casinos, whether in the real world or in a comic book, are always packed full of people. More people equals more risk of our disguises being blown, so we aren’t stopping to gamble. Am I clear?”

Rainbow Dash sat down in a huff, crossed her fore legs and looked away. “Yeah,” she said grumpily.

“Good.” Twilight climbed back into the driver’s seat and gripped the steering wheel with her magic. “Now then, time to get moving. We’ve got a lot of distance to travel, so we’d better be prepared for the long haul.” She turned to look over the seat. “Whose turn is it to press the accelerator?”

“That would be me, Twilight,” Rarity said. She didn’t wait for Twilight to speak again before crawling under the seat and firmly pressing her hoof on the accelerator, sending the group on their way once again.

Danger at 30,000 ft

“Ooh ooh ooh! Look at this girls!”

“Candy, shush!” Twilight said, eyes darting all around the group, checking for any curious onlookers. Seeing none, she relaxed and continued with a stern glare at her hyperactive friend. “We’re still trying to avoid attracting attention, remember? Especially now, given where we are.”

“Ooh right, my bad,” Pinkie said, stifling a giggle, and returned her attention to the mobile device.

Twilight took another look around the gate’s waiting area, frowning slightly at how many humans there were. As far as she could see, every other seat was occupied by a human, either reading a newspaper or engaged with their own mobile device or some other simple pleasure as they waited to board the plane, while a few busied themselves with some slot machines a little ways away.

The gate was jam packed with travelers, and the only row of unoccupied seats the ponies had found was situated near the center of the waiting area, with a good number of humans surrounding them on all sides. The only comfort any of the ponies had in being so close to potential exposure was the fact that the chatter of noise from everyone was sufficiently loud enough that they could talk amongst each other with little worry of being overheard, provided they kept it low enough.

“Look at what?” Rainbow asked, craning her neck to see the mobile device’s screen.

“I found some more artwork of us!” Pinkie said, turning the device so the others could see the screen. On it was displayed an entire page’s worth of artwork featuring them and the rest of their friends. Some showed them as themselves, others as humans, and others still as weird and — in some cases — creepy hybrids of the two.

Twilight seemed unfazed by the pictures, while Rainbow’s reaction shifted between confusion, impressedness, and disgust at the different pictures. Rarity, having already seen a picture herself, was mostly unfazed by the sight, though, she still felt a little repulsed by the thought of her pristine white coat being replaced by such drab clothes when she was positive she’d look just as ravishing without them as a human as she did as a pony.

“Neat huh?” Pinkie finished, smiling wide.

Rainbow shrugged. “I guess.”

“And I even found some songs!” She fiddled with the stylus for a bit on the screen, eventually bringing up an artist’s depiction of Nightmare Moon, a triangle within a circle set into the center. She then pressed the triangle, and after a second of loading the video played out in its entirety. While the ponies had a bit of trouble hearing it over the din of chatter throughout the terminal, they could still make out the song’s lyrics.

“Well, that was… uh, interesting, I guess?” Twilight said, arching a confused brow.

“I do admire the classical rhythm,” Rarity commented with a smile.

“Meh, it’s alright, if you’re into that kinda thing,” Rainbow said, sounding as casual as her force of will allowed her to after hearing ‘such an awesome piece of music’.

“Yeah, that was nice,” Twilight said, some of her anxiety lifting upon hearing the beautiful music. “Though, it’s kinda odd that there’d be a song dedicated to Nightmare Moon, of all ponies, in there.”

“Oh, that isn’t the only song I found!” Pinkie said, and began fiddling again with the device. She brought up another video screen, this one showing an artist’s rendition of Discord. She pushed play, and this video also played out in its entirety, the ponies again having to strain a little to hear the lyrics.

“Well, that was… also odd.” Twilight rolled her eyes and turned away. “Actually, it doesn’t surprise me whatsoever. Only a song about Discord could be so inconsistent with its instrumentation.”

“Indeed,” Rarity agreed. “Although, it still had a nice rhythm, even if the lyrics were rather, shall we say… bleak?”

“Are there any songs about me in there!?” Rainbow asked, excitedly bouncing in her seat, only to calm down upon noticing Twilight staring pointedly at her, to which she relaxed and leaned closer to Pinkie. “I’ll bet there’s all kinds of songs about how awesome I am.”

“Not from what I’ve seen, and trust me, I’ve searched this entire thing like a bagillion and ten times.” Pinkie gave the device a scrutinizing glare as she began fiddling around with it some more. “I can’t find anymore songs about anyone we know, including us!”

Interesting…

"Attention passengers. Flight 413 from Vegas to Raleigh is now boarding. Repeat. Flight 413 from Vegas to Raleigh is now boarding."

“That’s our flight, girls,” Twilight said. Instead of getting up to go to the gate along with all the other passengers, however, she gestured for them all to lean in close, which they did. “Remember, no conversation whatsoever with anyone on the flight. If we’re served anything, politely decline without saying anything. The absolute last thing we want is to cause a ruckus thirty-thousand feet in the air, and it’s extremely critical we make it to Raleigh now, because we won’t get another chance. Clear?”

The other three nodded their affirmation.

“Good.” She pressed a hoof to her chest and slowly pushed away while exhaling. “Then we should be good to go.” She got up and began walking toward the gate, her friends following close behind.

"Attention passengers! We are now approaching Canterlot Station! Please be ready to depart in an orderly fashion if this is your stop!"

“‘Bout time we arrived,” Applejack muttered from her spot by the cabin’s window. Outside, the sun was just cresting over the horizon, the morning sky almost finished with its transition from inky black to light blue. Bags lined her eyes as she gazed outside, and once or twice she almost fell asleep, but managed to keep herself alert through sheer force of will.

Fluttershy and Spike lay on the seat next to her, both half asleep but alert enough to have heard the announcement. They both stood up together and, after taking a moment to stretch their sore joints, turned to face Applejack.

“What a night,” Spike said, suppressing a yawn.

“Yep.” Applejack cracked her neck a few times and turned back to them. “Jus’ a little bit longer, y’all. We’ll be there soon enough.”

Fluttershy opened her mouth to say something, but stopped when, to Applejack and Spike’s shared horror, her bag shifted slightly on the seat, causing the pegasus to panic and unzip the bag. She buried her head and a hoof inside and began speaking while shifting her hoof around, her muffled voice indecipherable to her friends, but a faint buzzing sound could be heard clearly from inside the bag which sent small chills up their spines.

“Uh, Shy?” Applejack said, no small amount of uneasiness in her tone. “What’re ya talkin’ to?”

After a few additional seconds of speaking into her bag, Fluttershy zipped it back up and turned to face her friends. “Oh, it’s nothing, really.” Her lips lifted into a sinister, almost maniacal smile. “Just a little surprise for our host when we get there,” she finished, darkly.

Applejack gave the bag a curious glance. “What kind of surprise?”

Fluttershy’s grin returned to her usual kindred, genuine smile. “Wait and see,” she replied, her tone cheerful once again.

“I don’t know whether to be scared or excited at what it turns out to be,” Spike commented with a frown.

“Me neither, Spike,” Applejack agreed, adjusting her hat while taking another look at the bag. “Me neither.”

“Can I get you some juice or milk?” the stewardess asked, gesturing to the food cart with her head, as she kept both hands gripped firmly on it.

Twilight merely shook her head, as did Rainbow Dash beside her, which was all the stewardess needed to leave them alone and repeat her question to Rarity and Pinkie in the seats directly opposite from them, whom also shook her heads no.

“Hopefully that’ll be it as far as communication with them is concerned,” Twilight whispered to herself, though Rainbow still picked up on it.

“Yeah,” she agreed with a nod, before sparing a glance out the window next to her, getting a glimpse of the vast green countryside the plane was flying miles above. “You sure you don’t want the window seat? The view’s pretty awesome.”

Twilight shook her head again. “No thanks,” she replied. She then craned her neck to look over the seats in front of her before swiveling her head around to take in sight of the entire cabin. Just like in the airport, almost every single seat was occupied by a human. Though she could only see the tops of their heads, and sometimes not even that, a sense of discomfort remained within her that kept her stomach tied up.

She blamed the utter quietness permeating the cabin. No concrete instructions had been given saying the passengers were required to stay quiet throughout the flight, and yet that’s what everyone had opted to do. In order to keep attention away from themselves, Twilight and her friends had to stay quiet as well, but the temptation to shout or stomp her hooves or do anything to create enough noise to distract her from the fact that she was over thirty thousand feet above the ground was gaining traction in her mind.

I wonder if Pinkie’s losing her mind right now?

Twilight looked across the aisle to see that her pink friend was looking as chipper as ever, staring down at her tablet with a large grin while Rarity was curled up in her seat, eyes closed in an a supposed attempt at sleep. That’s what I need: a good distraction.

After a quick search to make sure no one else was staring in her direction, Twilight leaned forward and plucked the safety pamphlet in the seat pocket in front of her with her teeth. She unfolded it, and began studiously poring over its safety procedures, committing each and every one to memory should a corresponding emergency arise.

Meanwhile, across the aisle from her, past the dozing Rarity, Pinkie Pie was fully enraptured with the mobile device, pushing all the various touch-based buttons to see what kinds of goodies they’d lead her to.

Ooh, that’s a lot of dolls and stuff that looks like us. That’d be so awesome if ponies made stuff like this back home that me and the girls could put on our shelves. We’d have our own little mini selves to play and have fun with! Oh wait, Fluttershy would probably be too scared about having a doll that looks exactly like her around. Come to think of it, those things would be kinda creepy, especially at night, and really spooky if they’re sitting straight across from bed with their eyes open and looking right at you… Meh, what else is there? Ooh, ‘Pinkie Pie R34’, that sounds co–

Pinkie’s thoughts were interrupted when she felt something lightly knock against her head, which was accompanied by a flurry of surprised shouts and screams that sounded throughout the cabin.

Next to her, Rarity woke up with a start, shouting panicked ramblings before her eyes settled on the breathing apparatus dangling from the ceiling in front of her, identical to the one in front of Pinkie, as well as all the rest hanging from the ceiling in front of every passenger.

In her surprise, Twilight dropped the safety pamphlet to the cabin floor, while Rainbow turned away from the window and craned her neck to look out over the cabin, panic and concern both clear in her eyes.

Eventually, the attention of everyone focused forward when the flight attendant’s voice came over the intercom.

”Attention passengers! Please remain calm and seated! Put your oxygen masks on completely over your mouth and nose!"

All throughout the cabin passengers followed the flight attendant’s instructions. They worked to strap their provided masks over their faces before breathing in the provided oxygen. Soon the only sounds which could be heard were a hundred odd person’s deep breathing, and the distant sound of the plane’s engines outside.

Rainbow reached for her mask as well, only to have her hoof gently pushed aside by Twilight. “Not yet,” she said.

“Why?”

Looking across the aisle, Twilight saw Rarity and Pinkie were just about to strap their respective masks on. She softly whispered their names, quickly drawing their attention. “Don’t put your masks on just yet,” she instructed.

“Why not?” Rarity mouthed back.

Twilight didn’t answer straight away. She first cast a brief glance both ways down the aisle, checking for flight attendants. Seeing no one coming down the aisle, she turned to look at all of her friends and began explaining.

“The only reason for oxygen masks is a lack of atmospheric pressurization. Because we’re so high up, we’d normally be starved for air were it not for this plane’s compressed supply of it. If we’re getting oxygen masks, that means the atmosphere in the cabin here should be incredibly thin. But it isn’t; we’ve been breathing just fine ever since we took off. The last thing we want is to waste our limited supply of oxygen if there is a leak somewhere. Until we start finding it difficult to breathe, we need to hold off on using our masks. Otherwise, we’ll risk being overcome by hypoxia if things don’t get better before our oxygen supply runs out.”

Rarity and Pinkie shared a glance with each other, uncertainty clear in their features. Seeing this, Rainbow leaned closer to them, forcing Twilight to lean back a little in her seat. “You heard the egghead,” she whispered, to which Twilight rolled her eyes. “Don’t put them on until she says so.”

Rarity and Pinkie stayed silent as they nodded before taking off their masks, letting them dangle from the ceiling by their heads. All around them, the chorus of steady breaths from every human in the cabin continued, their limited oxygen being wasted.

“You think we should tell everyone else?” Rainbow said to Twilight. She peeked over the back of her seat, to which her face fell into a concerned frown. “I know I don’t need to tell you that hypoxia is serious biz.”

Twilight seemed to sink into her seat a little, her face a mask of hesitation as she silently debated whether to do as Rainbow suggested. If they told everyone what the situation really was, they’d attract unwanted attention to themselves and risk exposing themselves. But the potential consequences for saying nothing tore her up inside, and the part of her that cared for her creations screamed at her to keep them safe.

“Hey, Twila?” Rainbow asked, nudging the alicorn. “What do we do?”

Twilight looked across the aisle to Rarity and Pinkie, who’s apparently overheard their exchange, as they were staring at her with anticipatory expressions. She then looked down the aisle both ways, to all the humans breathing their masks, before returning to sitting upright in her seat. For what seemed like the longest time, her mind went somewhere else as the debate over what to do raged on within. Both sides had both equal merit and risk, and as the debate continued, the more clear it was to Twilight that, no matter what she did, she’d end up regretting her decision after the fact.

“I… no, we’re…” She shook her head, then took a deep breath, closing her eyes as a solemn expression fell over her face.

Rainbow stared at her for a moment, confused, before realization gradually dawned on her and she softly patted Twilight’s withers. “Don’t sweat it, Twi. No matter what happens, I won’t hold anything against you, and I know Maria and Candy feel the same way.”

Twilight sighed, and looked up at her with a small smile. “Thanks, Jenny.”

“Don’t mention it,” she replied with a casual wave of her hoof. A slight frown crossed her lips as she peeked her head over the seat again. “You think we’ll be alright, though?”

“We’ll get to the goal no matter what happens, forcing our way there if push comes to shove.” She sighed again. “So much for stealth if that happens.”

The Miracle of Flight 413

A pin could’ve been heard dropping throughout the cabin. The only audible noise was the distant rumble of the plane’s engines outside. Whereas not a minute before, the cabin was filled with panicked mutters and breathing through the oxygen masks, now only a deafening silence permeated the cabin.

The four ponies peered over their seats, craning their heads to check all throughout the cabin. All the other passengers were slumped forward in their seats, their oxygen masks still strapped to their faces, passed out from oxygen deprivation. The ponies themselves, even, could feel the effects of the lack of oxygen taking a toll on them. Panting, they got out of their seats and converged in the aisle. All the while they talked, they gasped between their words for whatever little air remained in the depressurized cabin.

“Something’s wrong,” Twilight said, looking down the aisle toward the cockpit. “The pilot should’ve done something to bring back oxygen, or, at the very least, said something about the situation.”

“What do you think could’ve happened?” Rarity asked, leaning against the nearest seat to support herself in her tired, air-deprived state. “The pilot certainly sounded confident all would be well before we took off.”

“Whatever happened,” Rainbow said, struggling to stand upright, “we need to do something, and fast.”

“Mmmmmphh,” Pinkie said through her closed mouth, while her friends cursed their inability to hold their breath as long as the party mare.

“Right,” Twilight said with a nod. She turned down the aisle toward the cockpit. “We need to fix this problem if we want any chance of landing safely.”

Her friends all nodded in agreement.

“Alright, everyone, follow me,” Twilight said as she began walking down the aisle. She used her magic to grab ahold of a free oxygen mask over a vacant seat. “Be conservative with what little air is left up for grabs.” Again, everyone nodded.

The group began making their way down the aisle. One by one, with every free oxygen mask they passed, they each took a huge gulp of air, relishing in the much-needed relief and holding their breath until they reached the next mask.

They continued all the way down the aisle. Upon reaching the cockpit door, Twilight gave it a good hard few knocks. “Hello!” she called.

Silence.

“Mister captain, sir! Answer me!”

More silence.

Twilight looked back to her friends, and the sight of their urgent expressions told her she was wasting time. Lighting her horn, she cast a teleportation spell on all of them, bringing the group into the cockpit just behind the seats. After shaking the resulting dizziness away, the group looked forward to see what was wrong.

The co-pilot was strapped in his seat, head slumped forward akin to the passengers, and just as unconscious from the looks of it. The pilot was splayed on the floor between the ponies, similarly unconscious, stomach down with one hand reaching forward toward the door, as if he’d attempted to escape before passing out.

“Oh dear,” Rarity said while holding a hoof to her chest. “What might have happened in here?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight said. She took a moment to survey the cockpit, trying to figure out based on a glance what all the dials and instruments might do. One thing she recognized very quickly, however, was the comm device wrapped around the co-pilot’s head.

Using her magic, she levitated the comm device off and over to her. Muffled voices could be heard from the speakers, which became clear once she placed it on her head.

”Flight 413, why are you still in your holding pattern?”

Twilight quirked an eyebrow. Holding pattern?

”Flight 413, do you hear me?”

“Is something wrong, Twilight?” Rarity asked, stepping towards the alicorn.

“What are the people on the ground saying?” Pinkie followed up.

”Flight 413, what is–”

“I hear you loud and clear,” Twilight interrupted. Her friends watched, rapt with attention, struggling to hold their breath as their only method of retrieving more air was preoccupied with attempting communication with the humans. “Is this… Air Traffic Control?”

A few moments of silence followed, the only sound to be heard from the mic being faint white noise. When at last the voice came back, it wasn’t with the neutral professionalism of someone well-versed at the task of directing pilots from the ground, but rather, the casualness of someone realizing such a manner was unnecessary in speaking with passengers, but still knew to keep a calm and level tone.

”Flight 413, who am I speaking to?”

Twilight gave her friends a reassuring smile, to which they returned with their own relieved ones, before giving her reply.

“My name is Twila; I’m a passenger on board.” Her breaths became desperate as the lack of air began taking its toll on her, as it did her friends. “Me and my friends managed to break into the cockpit. The pilot and co-pilot are out cold, as are all the other passengers. How do we get the oxygen back on?”

A short silence followed. Twilight took the opportunity to unlock and open the cockpit door with her magic. Her friends wasted no time in rushing out, all too eager to retrieve some more oxygen. A part of Twilight wanted to follow after them, as the lack of air was starting to make her head feel woozy, but the part that knew she needed to stay and listen was stronger.

Her friends came back into the cockpit just as a response came from the headset. It was a new voice, but carried the same sense of measured calm as the previous one.

”Do you see a panel near the right side of the control column, just above the co-pilot’s seat. It’ll have three settings: automatic, alternative, and manual. Can you confirm which setting it’s set to?”

Twilight looked all along the control column, quickly spotting a panel with a switch matching the given description. The dial was set to ‘Man’.

“I see it, and it looks like it’s set to Manual.” More deep breaths. “Do I need to change the setting or something? Tell me quickly, because I’m running out of breathable air fast.”

”Set the switch to Auto for now,” came the reply. Twilight wasted no time in using her magic to flip the dial to the instructed setting. ”There’s also four emergency oxygen canisters in the galley. You and your friends should use those until the plane pressurizes.”

“Thank you.” Twilight turned to her friends. “Search the galley for some air canisters,” she instructed.

“On it!” Rainbow said, and zipped through the cockpit door.

”Listen, Miss, this might sound scary at first, but we’re going to need you and your friends’ help in getting that plane down safely.” A heavy, exasperated sigh sounded through the speaker. ”Can you do this, Miss?”

Twilight took a few moments to steel her resolve before replying. She barely knew how to fly with her own wings. Taking control of a several ton metal machine and making it land safely to the ground was something nopony could be expected to do. Heck, nopony could ever expect to even be asked such a question. But getting back on the ground was the only way of getting out of the comic’s world, which left her no choice but to accept the challenge.

“I will,” Twilight said, doing her best to sound more confident than she was. “Tell me what to do and I’ll follow your instructions.”

”Thank you, Miss.” There was silence for a few moments before the first voice spoke again. ”Okay, there’s a checklist for arrival procedure. We’ll list off what you need to do and, if you follow it to a T, you should be able to safely land that plane. Did you get that?”

Twilight paused. Then she smiled. “Loud and clear, Mister.” And she rubbed her hooves together in delight. Checklist!

“Finally, we’re here,” Applejack said, stepping off the train onto the platform.

“So… tired…” Spike followed after her, stretching his arms while yawning.

“That was a pleasant ride,” Fluttershy said sweetly, bringing up the rear, her bag balanced on her back.

Spike raised an eyebrow. “Define ‘pleasant’.”

“Where to now, Spike?” Applejack asked. Looking around, the platform was, understandably, barren of ponies. The only source of life aside from the three friends was the distant chirping of crickets, as well as the train’s huffing and puffing funnel. Beyond the platform, Canterlot, in all its centuries-old, cobblestone and pointed spire glory, could be seen. That such a place would harbor a comic book store was ironic, the more Applejack thought about it.

“I think…” Spike trailed off, tapping his chin and scrunching his face in thought. “I’m pretty sure the House of Enchanted Comics was across from the stadium.”

“Good a place as any to look, Ah s’pose.” Applejack turned and began heading out of the station, Spike and Fluttershy following right behind.

The more Twilight listened to Air Traffic Control’s instructions for landing the plane, the more her fear of flying evaporated and was replaced with her natural intellectual curiosity and studious glee. The controllers would explain to her what all the levers and buttons on the dashboard did, and she’d jot down notes in her mental notepad while preparing the plane for descent as per their instructions.

Flying the plane had gone from being a scary chore to a great learning experience. True, this was a fictional aircraft, but she was fascinated by all the complexities and procedures and talent one needed to pilot it, far more than real life airships. While it was almost certainly out of the realm of possibility, if HUMAN-like aircraft became a reality, whether through breakthroughs in arcane science or an alien invasion, she decided piloting would be a cool side interest to get into.

”...And you should be lined up with the runway now, Miss,” the Air Traffic Controller said, finishing off his last set of instructions. ”Can you confirm this via visual?”

Twilight looked out the window in front of her. Sure enough, two columns of lights dotted the landscape a little ways ahead, directly ahead of the plane.

“Affirmative, sir,” she replied through the mouthpiece of her oxygen canister.

”Begin your descent now, then.”

“Will do, sir.”

Twilight began using her magic on the appropriate instruments just as Rainbow Dash entered the cockpit, wearing her matching oxygen canister.

“Is everything going okay?” She asked, coming up behind her friend. “Rarity and Pinkie are getting anxious.”

Twilight turned to her, smiling. “We’ll be in Raleigh soon enough,” she said, sweetly.

Rainbow nodded. “Anything we can do to help?”

Twilight was about to say she was fine, but a sudden thought occurred to her. “Actually, bring the others in. We need to talk.”

Rainbow nodded, and left to fetch their friends.

”Is everything alright, Miss Twila?”

“Everything’s fine,” Twilight confirmed.

She continued programming the plane’s descent even as her friends entered the cockpit, wearing their own oxygen canisters, despite the cabin pressurization having returned to normal. They watched Twilight work at the controls, waiting for her to speak to them. The speed and ease at which she was using the plane’s controls impressed them greatly. As big an egghead as Twilight was, to be able to so quickly and efficiently control a machine as enormous and complex as a HUMAN plane was almost surreal.

She truly was the HUMAN world’s goddess.

“Okay, I’m good to go,” Twilight said into the headset. A muffled reply could be heard in response before she took off the device and turned to face her friends with a wistful smile. “How’re you girls holding up?”

Rainbow shrugged. “Pretty good.”

“I’ve been better,” Rarity followed with a small huff

“Is this holding up enough?” Pinkie asked as she held the mobile device up in the air.

Everypony rolled their eyes. “Sure, Pinkie,” Twilight said.

“Will we land safely, Twilight dear?” Rarity asked, a small frown creasing her face. “Everything’s under control?”

Twilight nodded. “I’ve got a good grip on how this–” she gestured to the controls, “–all works, and I should be able to get us all down safely.” She clapped her hooves together as her eyes took on a sparkling gleam. “I had no idea flying a plane involved so many checklists!”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “You had something you wanted to tell us, egghead?”

Twilight coughed into her hoof. “Right, sorry.” She gave her friends each a pointed look. “Once we land, there’s going to be a bunch of rescue workers and authorities coming inside. I’ll teleport us outside once we’re safe, where we’ll use the cover of darkness to get out of here and find a ride to continue onwards.”

Her friends all nodded. “Buckle yourselves in, girls.” Twilight turned back around and levitated the headset back over her head.

The three others turned and each took a seat in the cockpit, strapping themselves in. “Okay, don’t freak out, Rarity,” she muttered while clicking her strap in. “Twilight is the smartest mare you know. She’ll get us down fine and dandy...”

“Feeling nervous, Rares?” Rainbow asked from her spot in the co-pilot’s seat, turning around and giving Rarity a smirk.

Rarity huffed, but soon found herself looking downcast while biting her lip.

Rainbow harked out a laugh. “We’ve got the eggiest egghead at the controls of this hunk of flying metal, and you’re nervous we won’t land safely?" Another laugh. “Seriously, Rares?”

Rarity let out a shaky laugh. “Yes, I suppose you’re right, darling.” She took a deep, relaxing breath and settled into her seat. “There’s nothing to worry about.”

“Hey girls, check this out!” Pinkie said.

She reached over from her seat by a wall of instruments behind the co-pilot’s seat, brandishing the mobile device for Rarity and Rainbow to see. The screen showed a picture of Twilight with an insane-looking grin with a bunch of lovestruck-looking ponies, the three of them included, staring at her from the background.

Before her friends could object, Pinkie hit the Play button, letting the video play out in its entirety. By the time it ended, what little semblance of calm Rarity had gained dissipated, letting her previous paranoia take root once again, a fact made clear by her shaking hooves and sweat pouring from her brow.

Rainbow noticed this, and gently pushed the mobile device away. “That’s enough, Pinkie. Let’s not scare the crap outta her, okay?”

“Okie-Dokie-Lokie!” Pinkie chirped. Her prehensile mane snatched up the mobile device and stored it within its hairy confines. She turned to look out the side window, and smiled. “Hey, it looks like we’re about to land!”

Only a few moments later, the plane touched down and began speeding down the runway. Ahead was a cluster of flashing lights from various rescue vehicles, just a little down the runway off to the side. Twilight set the autobrake to the instructed setting and began pressing down on the brake pedals. The plane began to slow down, gradually decreasing in speed until eventually coming to a stop just shy of the closest taxiway.

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, and turned to each of her friends. “Are you girls okay?” she asked, levitating the headset off again.

“Totally,” Rainbow answered with a nod.

“Super-dee-duper okay!” Pinkie chirped.

“I’ve been better,” Rarity groaned. “Might we get out of here now, Twilight dear?”

Twilight giggled. “Just gimme a second. Gotta go over some stuff with ATC.” She turned back to the controls and levitated the headset back over her head.

“Man, that was intense!” Rainbow said as she flew up in an excited burst. “I never would’ve guessed flying without wings could be just as exciting as flying with them.”

“Because you never tried out my gyrocopter, silly!” Pinkie said.

“Would you two please keep it down?” Rarity moaned. She clutched her head and slumped in her seat. “The last thing I need right now is noise.”

“What’s the matter, Rares?” Rainbow asked as she swooped down to her friend, giving her a mocking grin. “Flying too much for you?”

“Well that’s strange,” Pinkie cut in, “because I’m pretty sure it was Rarity that got those ginormous butterfly wings and almost showed you up at the Best Young Flier’s compet–”

Rainbow’s hoof silenced Pinkie, and she furrowed her gaze at the pink mare while a blush formed in her cheeks. “Wh-what are you talking about?”

“Oh, she’s quite right, Rainbow darling,” Rarity said with a smirk. “But no, it’s not the flying in particular that has me overwhelmed. This entire adventure has been quite exhausting, and now I’m feeling the brunt of it.” She sighed, and straightened up in her seat. “At least it’s almost over and we can leave this silly comic world like last time.”

Rainbow removed her hoof from Pinkie and crossed her arms, looking downcast. “Yeah, sure…”

“Okay girls,” Twilight spoke up, then turned to them with her horn lit. “Let’s get outta here!”

And in a flash of white light, they were all gone.

Author's Note

Sorry for making you wait so long between updates. I should be able to devote more time to writing for this story now that my workload has shrunk considerably since last year.

I also apologize to any pilots who may be reading this, for all the inaccuracies I'm sure this chapter boasts.

Penultimate Chaos

“Finally, we’re here!” Applejack said.

Along Canterlot’s main street, nestled between a couple of concession shops, was a small brick building with a giant comic book sign held above the front door. Taped to the windows were a bunch of posters depicting various comic book characters along with sales signs and ‘Coming Soon’ announcements, while new releases and other comic book merchandise were on display in the windows.

Spike let out a huge yawn, smacking his lips. “Store’s not gonna open for a little while,” he said while slumping against the building, setting the comic down beside him. “Let’s wait here until the owner comes.”

Fluttershy and Applejack nodded, and sat down on either side of him. Fluttershy set her bag beside her, careful to set it standing upright.

“Ah reckon the others are gonna come back sometime soon,” Applejack said, glancing down at the comic. “Didn’t take us too long ta get out the last time.”

Spike looked upwards in remembrance. “We only spent about twenty minutes of real time inside the Power Ponies comic, but it felt more like an hour or two.” He picked up the comic, frowning a little as he turned to the page with the enchantment, staring at the panels of Warren at his computer. “The enchantment does make it sound like there’s a lot more to this comic than it appears; they must be going through a lot to be taking this long to come back.”

“Oh, I sure hope they’re alright,” Fluttershy cut in, gazing worriedly at the comic. “A lot of the stuff we put in HUMAN is very scary and dangerous. If I had known this would happen…”

“Ah, don’tcha worry ‘bout nothin’, Flutters,” Applejack said, giving her a dismissive wave. “It’s jus’ a comic. Ain’t no real harm’s gonna come their way.”

“The Power Ponies comic did a really good job convincing me the danger was real,” Spike remarked, and looked up at the store. “The owner of this place really knows his stuff.”

“He’s gonna know a lot more when Ah’m through with him,” Applejack snarled, stomping a hoof against the pavement.

Fluttershy smiled and gently patted the top of her bag.

“We’re coming on the home stretch, girls!” Twilight called from the driver’s seat.

Despite her enthusiasm, anyone could see the studious alicorn was very clearly exhausted and sleep-deprived. Dark circles hung beneath her eyes, her mane was frazzled, and there was a slight slur to her words. She’d once again taken up the position of driver on the group’s journey across the HUMAN comic’s world, but after fifteen minutes of driving from the airport, her friends’ concern and temptation to offer to take her place was steadily growing. After all the group had been through, and all the stress if surely must’ve put on Twilight, they figured a rest would do her good.

“Please don’t overexert yourself, darling,” Rarity replied from behind the driver’s seat. She turned around to face Pinkie in the far back. “Is everything peachy back here?” she asked.

Pinkie glanced down to the unconscious married couple laying on the floor of the van, wrapped in each other’s arms with soft, contented smiles on their faces.

Pinkie tapped her chin. “Hmm…” Then her face brightened, and she reached into her mane, pulling out her black marker.

But before she could uncap it, Rarity’s hoof smacked it from her grasp, sending it clattering into a corner of the van. “Pinkie Pie!” she snapped. “That is positively inappropriate, especially after we hijacked their van.”

Pinkie’s face drooped. “Sorry,” she muttered, before brightening up. She then pulled the mobile device out of her mane and began fiddling around with it.

Rarity was about to lay down to get some rest when Twilight screamed “Hit the brakes!”, followed by the van jerking to a stop, sending her and Pinkie tumbling across the floor, and making Rarity’s head impact against the back of the driver’s seat. The resulting pain, coupled with Twilight’s ear-splitting shout, was enough that Rarity felt herself tempted to swear up a storm. Only just barely did she supress the urge, instead letting out a long groan as she struggled to get back to her hooves.

“Ohmygosh, is everypony alright!?” Twilight asked, panickedly.

“I’ll live,” Rarity droned.

“Doin’ fine,” Rainbow said from her place under the driver’s seat.

“Oooh, kitty videos!” Pinkie cheered as she touched the device’s screen, completely unfazed by what just happened.

“Oh, I’m so, soooo sorry!” Twilight continued. “I didn’t realize the light had turned red and the car in front of us was coming so close and I-I…” She stopped, then did her breathing exercise to calm herself down. Looking at each of her friends, she offered them each an apologetic smile. “Sorry if I scared you, but you’re alright now. Right?”

Rarity finally summoned the strength to rise to her hooves, the pain in her head settling down, as she returned Twilight stare with her own, furrowed gaze. “Darling, perhaps it’s time you took a break from driving?” she suggested, though her tone came across as more commanding.

Twilight frowned, and turned back to the steering wheel. “I can’t put that burden on you, Rarity,” she replied, flatly. She gripped the steering wheel with her magic. “You know that.”

“I’m not asking to relinquish driving duty,” Rarity clarified, “only that you pull us aside for a quick rest.”

Twilight turned back around, her eyes widened. “Wait, really?”

“Yes…” Rarity arched a brow. “Why does that surprise you, dear? You need a rest.”

“You’ve been nagging about wanting to get home ever since we came to help Twilight,” Rainbow said from under the driver’s seat, sounding just as surprised as Twilight. “Now you’re just okay with stopping for a bit?”

Even Pinkie stopped to stare at the unicorn. “Why’s that, Rarity?” was all she asked.

Rarity huffed. “Excuse me if I care more for my friend’s well-being than my desire to get out of this wretched comic book.” She tossed her mane back in a show of distaste. “Frankly, I’m rather insulted you would think otherwise.”

Everyone just stared blankly.

“... Uh, right,” Twilight finally said. The light soon turned green, to which Twilight instructed Rainbow to hit the accelerator once they were clear to move. “Where should we stop to rest?” she asked once they were moving.

Rarity and Pinkie looked out either side of the van’s windows. Buildings of all shapes and sizes flew past, all with signs with names appropriately HUMAN-esque. Trying to make sense of them all, however, was quite difficult, as the context behind the names were unknown; none of them immediately struck the ponies as a place to rest and relax. Except for one.

“Ooh, let’s go there!” Pinkie said, pointing out the window toward the nearest shopping plaza. “‘Mellow Mushroom: Pizza Bakers’; that sounds like a great place for both food and R&R.”

“Indeed, it seems to be a good choice,” Rarity said, looking to where she was pointing. “Although, there seems to be an awful lot of people there already, going by the number of cars parked outside.”

“It’s as good a place as any I suppose,” Twilight said, before making the turn onto the plaza.

A minute later they had the van parked right outside the building and were gathered on the pavement, looking up at the entrance, above which hung a black and white sign with, fittingly enough, an anthropomorphic mushroom with a mellow-looking facial expression and twirling a pizza.

Pinkie took a whiff of the air, and smiled while licking her lips. “I smell some goood pizza,” she said, before her nose wrinkled up in disgust. “Also a lot of shameless plugging, for some reason.”

“I do have to wonder whether eating food in an enchanted comic effects you upon returning home,” Rarity mused, then turned to Twilight. “Would you happen to know the answer, Twilight?”

Twilight shook her head. “I haven’t had the time, nor the interest to learn a lot about how enchanted comics work.” She stifled a yawn and smacked her lips. “Well, maybe I’ll learn something when we get inside. You still got money, Pinkie?”

“Yeper-pepperoni!” Pinkie chirped.

“Alright, let’s get inside, then,” Twilight said, before crossing the plaza, followed by her friends.

If there was one thing Geo Frey hated more than his mom nagging him to get married and have some foals, it was campers. The sight of three of them outside his store as he made the trek across Canterlot to open up shop only stripped away even more of his already lacking faith in ponies. Why couldn’t he be like Omni 1 from Power Ponies # 62 and turn himself into a giant space serpent as he so wished? A life of space adventures would be infinitely preferable to life as a pony.

Because transmogrification spells were restricted for government use only; a fact he strongly detested. Sadly, he could do nothing but accept it and move on with his boring life as a comic book store shopkeeper.

The three campers turned their attention to him as he approached the store. He paid them no mind at first, choosing to focus on selecting the right key from his ring, but paused when one of them spoke.

“That’s him! That’s the owner!”

Geo turned to the campers, surprised to see the icy daggers they were all shooting at him, but remained calm nonetheless. “Yes, I own this establishment,” he replied. “And I do not appreciate campers loitering outside my store. If you haven’t heard the news, the latest issue of The Masked Mare won’t be finished until next week.”

He used his telekinesis to lift the key ring up to the door, quickly selecting the right key, only to feel his hoof jerked to the side, along with his entire body, bringing him face to face with a very irate-looking orange earth pony mare wearing a stetson.

“Now jus’ hold on right there, mister,” she snarled. “Y’all ain’t goin’ anywhere ‘til we have a little chat ‘bout what happened to our friends.”

Geo just sighed while pushing her hoof away. “Lady, I have a business to run. If you want to buy some comics, fine, but leave me alone otherwise.”

The little dragon rushed over and held up his comic so he could see it. “Why did you send this to Princess Twilight?” he asked, seething with anger.

Geo would’ve ignored the question and continued with his business, but the front cover seemed familiar to him. Leaning down, he looked it over for a few moments, before rising and making an ‘ah’ shape with his mouth.

“Right, I remember this,” he said, smiling a little. “This was commissioned a few weeks ago to be sent to Her Highness Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

“Wait, this was commissioned?” the dragon asked.

Geo nodded. “It was.” He looked the comic over again, admiring his own hoofwork and magic with a satisfied gleam in his eyes, before frowning a little. “Although, I was a little surprised at how few bits they offered up for the commission, considering who they were. Normally I’d create a world with a lot more substance to it, along with transformations, but not without the right amount of coin.” He shrugged. “Oh well, that’s business,” he finished, before returning to his business of getting ready to open up shop.

“Who commissioned it?” the yellow pegasus asked.

“I’m not at liberty to divulge names,” he replied, turning the key and opening the door, “but I do believe the commissioner is someone who you and your friends are well acquainted with.” He made to step inside, only to feel a hoof wrap around his leg. Turning around, he saw the yellow pegasus looking up at him with a dark gleam in her eyes.

“Tell us who commissioned it,” she said.

The sinister tone with which she spoke managed to unnerve Geo a little, but he still managed to keep calm and shake off her hoof. “And what if I don’t?” he asked, annoyed.

The pegasus said nothing in response. Instead, she unzipped her bag and reached inside, pulling out a black and yellow can with a white lid. Geo’s ears perked up when a very faint sound began emanating from the can.

Buzzing.

He gulped.

“That… is weird,” Rainbow said simply. Two of her three friends nodded their agreement, while Pinkie busied herself fiddling with the mobile device, paying her no attention.

The Mellow Mushroom was jam packed with patrons. To and fro, waiters and waitresses guided them to their tables, while the chatter of those currently settled in and enjoying themselves and their food filled the restaurant air, forcing the ponies to speak up to hear each other. They had to keep their chairs tucked close to the table, lest someone accidently bump into one of them and shatter Twilight’s illusion enchantment.

The current subject of the ponies’ attention, however, hung all around the restaurant’s walls and ceiling. Paintings of an exquisite caliber adorned every viable space along the inside of the restaurant, their richness and attention to detail that of a master artist, the subjects of each painting varied from the abstract to self-portraits.

And each one looked like the victim of a mad comedian, as each and every painting was defaced by cartoonish additions: popping eyeballs, overly large mustaches, the works.

“Indeed,” Rarity mused with a nod. “This is quite an… interesting choice of atmosph– oh, who am I kidding? This is simply dreadful!”

“Keep it down, Maria,” Twilight said in a sharp whisper, nervously darting her eyes back and forth, on the lookout for eavesdroppers.

“My sincerest apologies, Twila darling.” Her face scrunched up in disgust. “But still, just look at it.”

Twilight nodded. “Yes, it is pretty unsettling,” she agreed, and tapped her chin with a hoof. “I wonder…”

“Can I start you girls off with something to drink?”

The four friends turned to see a young man wearing waiter attire looking expectantly down at them, holding a pen and notepad in his hands.

“Ah, yes,” Rarity spoke up. “Some lemonade will suffice.”

“I’ll have the same,” Twilight said.

“Me too,” Rainbow followed.

“Me three!” Pinkie chirped.

The waiter jotted down their unified order and smiled. “I’ll be back with them shortly,” he said, and set off.

“So, anyway,” Rainbow spoke up, drawing everyone else’s attention. She put her hooves behind her head, leaning back in her chair. “After we get outta here, I was thinking of getting a copy of this comic for myself. It’s no Daring Do, but this is a pretty cool world to mess around and adventure in.”

“Of course you would take interest in something like this, Jenny darling,” Rarity replied, playfully rolling her eyes, before frowning and flipping her mane in a haughty manner. “I, however, am quite looking forward to being rid of a comic as uncouth and uncultured as this.”

“You did have a hoo– er, hand in crafting HUMAN, Maria,” Twilight pointed out.

“Indeed I did,” Rarity replied. “However, nothing I contributed could possibly have inspired all the repulsive ruffians and life threatening situations we’ve encountered.”

“Our lives haven’t really been in danger,” Twilight said.

“Really?” Pinkie asked, looking up from the mobile device, confused. “Then why don’t we just jump off a cliff or something so the shock will get us out of here?”

“Oh, come now, Candy,” Rarity said, waving a hoof dismissively, “as if that would ever work. If it would, why would we need to travel all the way across the country to Warren.” She turned to Twilight. “Isn’t that right?”

“...”

“Twila?”

“...” Twilight sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. “Well…”

“Darling,” Rarity said, a rising irritation to her words, “please choose your next words very, very carefully.”

“Okay, I’ll put it like this,” Twilight began, holding her hooves up in a semi-placating manner, “I don’t know exactly what might happen if we tried to kill ourselves in here, but based on what little I know of secluded dimensional magic, offing ourselves could break the enchantment enough to propel us out of the comic.”

“Then why did you make us go through almost twenty-four hours of mayhem if you knew that much?” Rarity asked, resisting the urge to shout her query.

“Because… Because…” Twilight trailed off as her cheeks flushed red. “Eheheh…”

The tension that coated the air between the ponies for the next few minutes was practically palpable, as Rarity glared icy daggers at Twilight while the lavender mare tried to formulate a coherent response through her nerve-wracked conscience. Deciding to not get involved, Rainbow and Pinkie busied themselves watching more videos of themselves on ‘Youtube’.

Eventually, their waiter returned, carrying four glasses of lemonade on a serving plate. “There you are, ladies,” he said, passing each mare a glass.

Finally, Rarity turned her attention away from Twilight, much to the latter’s relief, and to the waiter. “Thank you, good sir,” she said, before taking a sip.

“Are you girls ready to order?” he asked, taking out his notepad and pen.

“Just a twelve inch, plain cheese pizza to be shared between the four of us,” Twilight spoke up, her mouth lifting into a smile.

The waiter jotted down the given order with a nod, before leaving.

“Now then,” Rarity spoke up, pushing her lemonade away from her and refocusing her attention on Twilight. “Perhaps you’ll grace us with an explanation of why you didn’t inform us of the possible easy escape from this comic?”

“I thought it was too morbid, I’m sorry!” Twilight said, raising her voice a few octaves. Realizing her mistake, she lowered her voice back down as she continued. “That, and as much as I don’t appreciate being tricked, whoever made this comic must’ve put in a lot of work, even if they left out a lot of stuff from the books.” She sighed, setting her hooves on the table and resting her head in between them. “Sorry for letting my attachment to HUMAN affect you girls.”

“Hey, I’m not complaining,” Rainbow said, leaning back in her chair again, wearing her trademark cocky grin. “This ride’s been a total blast.”

“Totally,” Pinkie agreed, not looking up from the mobile device. “Oooh, ‘Cupcakes’ sounds fun to read.”

Rarity cast a brief stink eye toward Rainbow and Pinkie, before sighing and turning back to Twilight, her eyes softer than before. “I forgive you, Twila,” she said.

Twilight smiled. “Thanks, Maria.”

Silence reigned supreme for several minutes between the ponies afterward. Twilight and Rarity busied themselves gazing at all the paintings hanging on the walls, and commenting on whether their artistic merit has been lost as a result of the ‘additions’. Rainbow contented herself with humming under her breath while continuing to lean back in her chair. And none of them ever once noticed the growing horror on Pinkie’s face while she stared at the mobile device.

“Looks like our food’s coming,” Twilight said as she noticed their waiter coming towards them, carrying a large serving plate.

“Cool,” Rainbow said. “Hey, Candy, our food’s here.”

Pinkie said nothing.

Rainbow frowned. “Candy?” She turned to her friend, and only then did she notice her friend’s wide-eyed, fearful gaze. “Um, is everything alright?”

More silence. Pinkie’s eyes remained fixated on the mobile device, while her mouth hung open in a state of shock.

“Uh… Pinkie–”

Suddenly, Pinkie poised her hoof above the mobile device. “YOU MUST DIE!” she shrieked, before slamming her hoof against the mobile device, instantly shattering it into a thousand tiny pieces of metal and plastic.

One piece — a particularly large section of the glass screen — sailed through the air and struck Rainbow in the forehead. With a hurt yelp, Rainbow fell backwards in her chair onto the ground, feeling the chair strike something along the way, accompanied by a pained grunt. She didn’t even have time to open her eyes before she felt something land on her face. Something soft, greasy, and steaming hot.

Reflexively, Rainbow shot up into the air, shouting ‘Ah! Get it off! Get it off!’ while zipping through the air in a panicked rush. Quickly, she got a grip on the pizza stuck to her face, pulling it off and chucking it to the floor. Bits of sauce and grease clung to her muzzle, which itself was now a bright shade of pink as a result of the pizza’s searing hot surface.

“Oh, man,” she rasped, hanging limply in the air while her wings continued to flap. “That sucked.”

It took her a moment before she noticed her friends staring up at her, jaws slightly agape. She saw some restaurant patrons in her eye’s corner doing much the same. Swiveling her head around, she saw that pretty much every single person in the restaurant had equally shocked expressions plastered on their faces.

Confused at first, Rainbow suddenly recalled what Twilight had said about her illusion enchantment, about how it would be shattered if she did anything out of character for a human.

And hovering in midair, with wings that humans did not have, was very much out of character for them.

“Is that really Rainbow Dash!?” someone from the crowd of restaurant patrons shouted.

Said pegasus hovered down to her friends, turning to Twilight with panic-stricken eyes. “Twilight…?”

Her friend’s horn glowed. “On it.”

The four friends disappeared in a bright flash, reappearing outside in the parking lot, just a couple of meters from the van.

The back door was open. The sleeping couple inside were gone.

The ponies’ ears were suddenly assaulted by blaring sirens from their left, forcing them to fold back out of reflex. Turning left, they saw a series of flashing red and blue lights coming towards them from the road.

“Get inside! Quickly!” Twilight shouted over the sirens.

Her friends all clambered inside in an eye’s blink, and Twilight teleported herself again into the driver’s seat. She then summoned the van’s keys from her special pocket space, quickly inserting them into the designated slot and turning, revving up the engine. Pinkie crawled under the driver’s seat and pressed a hoof down on the accelerator.

“Somepony close the back door!” Twilight shouted.

“On it!” she heard Rainbow reply.

The instant she saw that the back door was closed through the rearview mirror, Twilight released the emergency brake and put the van in Drive. The van sailed across the medium, tearing through the outdoor plants and onto the street, narrowly avoiding collision with several more cars as she righted the van and began following the road, all while a legion of cop cars followed right behind.

I guess this was bound to happen sooner or later...

The Culprit Revealed

A small, green car turned left into the first cul-de-sac of a small suburban neighborhood. Its headlights shone brightly as it drove past every house, straight into the driveway of the house at the far end. Upon parking in its designated spot, and once the engine had been turned off, the driver’s door opened and a young, brown-haired man wearing a gray and blue uniform and black jeans stepped out.

The man walked across the driveway and up to the front door of the house, whereupon he used the house key on his ring to open the door and step inside.

“The boy is home!” a masculine voice jokingly called from the living room. “How was work!?”

“Uneventful,” the man replied, flatly.

Anything else his dad might’ve said was lost to his ears as the man ascended the stairs immediately to his left. He then turned right down the upstairs hallway, entering the door at the very end.

With a deep, exhausted breath born from a hard day’s work, he went about preparing for bed. His work clothes were swapped for pajamas, and he completed brushing his teeth and taking his evening sleeping medication in a couple minutes. Re-entering his room, he briefly considered turning on his computer and doing some writing, but decided against it, as he needed a good night’s sleep to prepare for his morning shift.

With a yawn, he got into bed and pulled the covers over him, settling his head against the pillow with a casing depicting a wide variety of colorful, pastel ponies, among other creatures. Eventually, he drifted off to sleep, in spite of the distant sound of police sirens.

“They’re still on us, Twilight!” Rainbow shouted from the back of the van.

“I know, Rainbow!” Twilight replied, glancing away from the rear-view mirror.

The van bobbed and weaved between cars like a snake between rocks, rocketing down the street at dangerous speeds and making it very difficult for the unbuckled ponies within to keep their footing. Rarity made do by clinging to the passenger’s seat, while Rainbow wedged herself in a back corner, occasionally glancing through the back window, always to see a blinding cacophony of flashing red and blue lights atop white police cruisers.

At one point, the van bumped against the road’s dividing median, causing it to lurch and make Rarity momentarily lose her grip on the seat. Taking a moment to reorient herself, she turned to Twilight. “Do we even know where we’re going?” she asked.

Twilight nodded, keeping her expression calm and collected despite the current situation. “If this comic’s world is based on the on-screen portrayal, then our turnoff should be coming up in a minute.”

“But how’re we gonna lose the cops!?” Rainbow called from her spot in the back.

“I don’t know!” Twilight replied. “But I’ll think of something!”

“Well think faster! ‘Cause they’re gaining on us!”

Another glance in the rear-view mirror confirmed that, indeed, the police cruisers were catching up with the van. The closest one was driving up alongside the van’s right side, gradually closing in. Confused at first, it quickly dawned on Twilight what exactly the cruiser’s strategy was.

“Pinkie, hit the brake!” she said.

Pinkie said nothing for a moment, before, “How can you give up so easily, Twilight!?”

“Wha– No! Just do it, and quickly hit the accelerator again when I say so.”

A second later, the van’s speed cut down in an instant, to which the police cruiser shot past and in front.

“Now!” Twilight cried.

The van’s speed instantly picked back up again. Twilight turned the steering wheel sharply to the right, straight into the side of the police cruiser. A loud metallic slam accompanied the collision, and the two vehicles remained attached as they barreled down the road.

“Press harder, Pinkie!” Twilight said, even as she exerted more force of magic on the steering wheel to make it turn sharper.

The front end of the van began pushing against the police cruiser, scraping alongside as it pushed the other vehicle out of the way, eventually making it swing around in front of the van. Free to move once again, the van shot past it down the road, now with more space between it and the line of police cruisers.

“Whoa, that was awesome, Twilight!” Rainbow shouted.

“Indeed, darling,” Rarity agreed, “that was quite the impressive display of strategic thinking on your part.”

“Don’t congratulate me just yet,” Twilight said, her expression set to one of concentration.

Soon after, she spotted the turnoff. The police cruisers had started catching up to them again by the time she made the turn, and with the street they were on being devoid of any other cars, it left them all the more room to catch up with the van.

“We’re almost there, girls!” she shouted over the growing sound of police cruiser sirens.

“Heads up, Twi!” Rainbow shouted. “They’re going for another sideswipe!”

“Pinkie, more speed! Quickly”

The van sped ahead as it rounded a bend, leaving the cruisers trailing far behind. Ahead, Twilight could see the turnoff leading to Warren’s home neighborhood. Looking in the rearview mirror again, she grimaced upon seeing the cruisers were picking up speed themselves. They needed a new tactic.

Twilight waited until the van had just reached the turnoff before yelling, “Brakes!” The van screeched to a halt in the middle of the street, the back end lifting in the air a little from the momentum before plopping back onto the pavement.

Rarity looked over to her. “Twilight, what are you–?”

“Everypony hang on!”

In a flash of light, all four friends disappeared from the van, re-appearing a second later outside on the road leading into the neighborhood. The ponies’ initial dizziness only lasted a second before their ears perked up upon hearing the cruisers approaching behind them. Turning, they saw three of them circle the van, but they could see the officers within shouting and pointing in their direction.

“Run!” Twilight shouted.

Her friends needed no further instruction. While Rainbow Dash flew above their heads, the other three took off at a quick gallop down the street, with Twilight in the lead.

They’d only made it to the next intersection when they heard screeching tires behind them. A brief glance back showed one of the cruisers was speeding down the street right behind them.

“Out of the way, girls!” Twilight commanded as she charged up her horn.

Her friends dashed to the side, clearing a path for her charged magic beam. It struck the cruiser’s front right tire, piercing it with a loud pop and sending rubber shreds everywhere while the cruiser skidded to a stop against the curb.

The ponies continued running, not even bothering to check if the officer was still pursuing them on foot as they turned another corner. A big, relieved smile spread across Twilight’s face upon seeing Warren’s house at the far end of the upcoming cul-de-sac.

“Twi-liiiight!”

Looking back again, the others saw a very red-in-the-face Rarity sluggishly lumbering behind, looking to be on the verge of collapsing.

“I gotcha, Rarity!” Twilight replied. She lit her horn, and enveloped the alabaster unicorn in her telekinesis, bringing her over to the group.

“Thank you very much, Twilight darling,” Rarity wheezed.

The four made their way down the cul-de-sac, eventually descending down Warren’s driveway under the cover of darkness, the only source of illumination for the cul-de-sac aside from the moon and stars being a single street light. Looking back revealed no police cruisers or men following them, but the sirens could still be heard not far away.

“Well, we’ve finally made it,” Twilight noted, setting Rarity down onto the pavement while staring up at Warren’s house. It looked exactly as she remembered it from the HUMAN Crystalvision adaptation. “Now all that’s left is to get in, find Warren, and we’re outta here.”

The four stepped up to the front porch, whereupon Twilight tried using her magic on the front door.

“It’s locked,” she said.

“No problem,” Rainbow said with a confident grin. She flew up and made to back away, ready to charge the door, only to be stopped by Rarity’s telekinesis.

“Let’s try a less barbaric method, why don’t we?” Rarity suggested, her tone dry.

“Not enough time!” Pinkie said.

The other three ponies turned to the pink mare, and their eyes bugged out by what they saw. Pinkie was holding, apparently with little to no effort, a large black bench that had previously been resting on the porch over her shoulder.

“Fire in the hole!” she shouted, and heaved the bench at the nearest window.

The bench smashed through the window with a resounding crash, tearing the center divider apart and ripping the inside curtains in half. Inside, a pair of startled shouts could be heard in response.

“C’mon girls!” Pinkie said as she hopped through the window.

The other three could only stare blankly for a moment.

“... Uh, right,” Twilight said finally, and followed Pinkie inside, soon followed by Rarity and Rainbow Dash.

They came into what looked to be the dining room, indicated by both the large wooden table set into the center of the room and the cabinet filled with glassware along the far wall.

“What was that!?” came an enraged shout, followed by hurried footsteps approaching.

“The stairs!” Twilight shouted.

The ponies rushed across the foyer and up the stairs, disappearing just as Warren’s dad came around the corner. Upon reaching the top they found themselves in a hallway; the left led around a corner, while the right led to a cluster of doors.

“Which way, Twilight?” Rainbow asked.

Twilight’s reply was interrupted by a very loud and very angry “Get down here!” from the first floor. Looking down, they saw a large, balding man turn around the banister onto the stairs, only for his eyes to bug out at the sight of the ponies.

Twilight bolted to the right. “It’s the door at the far end, girls!”

The four charged down the hall, quickly finding themselves in front of Warren’s room. Twilight used her telekinesis on the doorknob, opening it and ushering her friends inside before closing it behind herself.

After taking a moment to catch her breath, Twilight joined her friends in surveying the room. A black desk holding Warren’s computer sat against the wall directly in front of them, while the far wall held two open closet doors containing various clothes and other items. But it was the bed directly to the ponies’ right that caught their attention. More specifically, the sleeping form under the dark blue sheets, its brown-haired head resting atop a pillow whose casing sported a picture of them and many of their friends and a few acquaintances.

The ponies walked up alongside the bed, staring with interest at Warren.

“So, we’re finally here?” Rainbow said.

“Mhmm,” Rarity replied with a nod.

At that moment, Warren shifted a little on the bed, ending up facing the ceiling.

“Aw, he looks so cute when he’s asleep,” Pinkie cooed.

Her mane then reached into itself and pulled out the black marker, only to have it be swatted away by Rarity.

“No, Pinkie!” she admonished.

Pinkie pouted. “Killjoy,” she muttered.

“That’s enough, girls,” Twilight said.

She lit up her horn and moved closer to Warren’s head, only to hesitate for a moment, before planting a kiss on his forehead.

“Sweet dreams, Warren,” she said with a smile, before unleashing her memory transfer spell onto him.

Immediately, there was a bright flash of white light, and Twilight felt herself being sucked up into the air along with her friends, before she suddenly found a cobblestone walkway rushing to meet her.

She impacted the cobblestone with a hard thud, her discomfort quickly multiplied when she felt her friends pile on top of her one after another, letting out a pained grunt each time.

“That was just as bad as the first time,” she heard Rarity groan.

“Owww,” Rainbow droned.

“Hey, you guys are back, finally!”

The four friends took a couple of seconds to get off of each other. Reorienting herself, Twilight took stock of their surroundings. Immediately, she recognized the surrounding buildings as belonging to Canterlot’s commercial district. The last vestiges of Luna’s night shone overhead, while the light of Celestia’s day was overtaking the sky. Apparently, they’d spent the entire night inside the comic.

Looking around, she found Applejack, Fluttershy, and Spike all looking at them with huge grins on their faces. More interesting, however, and perhaps equally as confusing, was the pudgy yellow unicorn being chased around in circles by what looked like a small yellow and black tornado. And was that… buzzing?

Twilight’s confusion was thrown off by a sudden hug from Spike, Smiling, she returned the hug, pressing him against her chest. “Good to be back,” she said.

“Y’all sure were gone a long time, Twilight,” Applejack said as she came over to the group. “We’ve been up all night waitin’ fer ya ta come back outta the comic.”

“Darling, we just spent upwards of an entire day traveling across a country while being bombarded by the most insidious obstacles,” Rarity groaned.

Rainbow Dash shot up into the air. “And it was totally awesome!” she said. “We thwarted a bunch of bank robbers, saved a plane from crashing and burning, and we got chased by a bunch’a cops like in one of those crime-fighting crystalvision shows.”

“Aaaaand, I saved us some pizza,” Pinkie said, then proceeded to produce a slice of Mellow Mushroom pizza from nowhere, before chomping it all in one bite, to nopony’s chagrin.

“So, anypony gonna explain who that is and why he’s being chased by a… whatever that is?” Twilight asked, gesturing to the yellow unicorn, who was currently waving his key ring at the assaulting tornado in a futile attempt at protection.

“He’s the owner of the House of Enchanted Comics,” Spike explained. “Apparently, the comic was commissioned by somepony to be sent to you, but he won’t tell who it was.”

“And that thing that’s pestering him?”

Fluttershy stepped forward with a smile. “Beenado-In-A-Can.” She reached into her bag and fished out the yellow and black can, presenting it to everyone. “Discord gave it to me for my last birthday, but I never thought about using it until now.”

Twilight quirked an eyebrow. “Beenado? In a can?”

“Sounds exactly like Discord’s idea of a birthday present,” Rainbow commented dryly.

“Fluttershy, darling?” Rarity said, stepping over to the yellow pegasus. “Don’t you think this is a little uncouth?”

“He wouldn’t tell us who commissioned the comic,” Applejack said, shrugging. “Seems like a good enough method ta get it outta ‘im.”

“Oh, there’s no need for that,” Twilight said, stepping away from the group down the street. “I have a pretty good idea of who commissioned it for me already.”

“Really?” came everyone’s collective response.

“Mhmm,” Twilight replied with a nod. “Now come on, let’s go meet them.”

Twilight began making her way down the street, to which the rest of her friends were quick to follow. Fluttershy called the twisting swarm of bees back into its canned housing, allowing Geo Frey to recover from his panic. Soon, however, he found his view obstructed by a pair of very pissed off blue eyes and a whole lot of pink.

“What’s your name?” Pinkie asked.

“... Geo Frey.”

To his surprise, her mane reached into itself and produced a notepad and pen. Clicking it, she scribbled something down before placing them back into her mane. “You–” she poked his chest with her hoof, “–are uninvited to my next party.”

With that, she turned and began plonking along behind her friends, her previous irritation completely forgotten as her lips lifted into a large, well-meaning smile.

Geo Frey blinked, then frowned. “Worst. Morning. Ever.”

The seven friends made their way throughout Canterlot, everyone following behind Twilight as she led them to the culprit who’d commissioned the enchanted comic. All the while, everyone speculated on who the culprit would be, as well as what verbal thrashings they would give to them.

But everyone’s thoughts turned to confusion when Twilight led them into the Canterlot Palace gardens. They made their way past its various ornaments and statues, until eventually stopping right next to the castle wall, just beneath a balcony.

“Alright everyone,” Twilight said, turning around to them with her horn lit. “Brace yourselves.”

Before anyone could even question what she meant, the group was enveloped in the bright white flash of teleportation. Upon coming out of it, and after shaking off the resulting dizziness, they took stock of their surroundings, only to start in surprise upon seeing where they were.

The crescent moon ceiling and wall patterns were a dead giveaway, but if that wasn’t enough, then the wide-eyed face of Princess Luna staring at them from the similarly-patterned bed was doubly so. Luna had on a pair of reading glasses, and a small, novella-sized book floating in her blue aura before her face.

The group of friends could only stare in slack-jawed silence, the only one unfazed being Twilight, who stepped forward toward the bed with a smug expression.

“Good morning, Princess Luna,” she greeted.

Luna blinked. “... To what do I owe the, ahem, pleasure of this impromptu visit, Princess Twilight?” she asked, furrowing her gaze a little.

Twilight retained her smug expression as she lit her horn, levitating the comic out of Spike’s hands and in front for Luna to see. “This,” she answered.

Luna’s eyes shot wide open. Her entire expression went from irritated to horrified in a split second, as her telekinesis cut off and her book fell onto the bed.

“Wait wait wait,” Applejack repeated. “Y’all mean ta tell me that Princess Luna is behind all this!?”

“Why would she do such a thing to Twilight?” Rarity asked, slightly horrified.

“She didn’t do it alone,” Twilight said. She turned to look all around the room, as if searching for something. “But maybe her accomplice is here and would care to elaborate?”

“Oh, indeed I would, Princess!”

There was a flash of yellow light above everyone’s heads, forcing them to briefly cover their eyes. When they looked back, they saw a very misshapen serpentine figure staring down at them with a smug grin to match Twilight’s.

“Discord!” came the collective shout of Twilight’s friends.

“That’s my name,” he replied while buffing his lion’s paw against his chest. “Do forget it.”

“Have you been following us this whole time, Discord!?” Spike asked.

“Was that not obvious?” he asked, his tone as sly as ever. He then snapped his fingers, to which the comic disappeared from Twilight’s telekinesis and into his hands. “Now then, feel free to explain everything to the more ignorant of those present while I enjoy your adventures for myself.” With that, he opened the comic and began reading.

Everyone took a moment to stare annoyed at him before focusing their attention back onto Princess Luna, who sighed and got out of bed, smiling wryly at the group. “I suppose some explanations are in order?”

Everyone nodded.

“Fair enough. But before that…” She tilted her head curiously. “How did you come to suspect me, Princess Twilight?”

“Initially, I didn’t,” Twilight replied. She began pacing back and forth, as she was want to do whenever explaining things to somepony. “But there were a lot of things in the comic that I recognized as Discord’s influence. However,” she stopped and turned to stare straight at Luna, “he’s barred access to the royal treasury, meaning he would’ve needed the approval of either you or Celestia to acquire the funds needed for an enchanted comic commission. Celestia would never approve of the idea, I know she wouldn’t, so that leaves you as the only other possible suspect.”

Luna smiled and shook her head. “Quite the detective, aren’t you, Princess Twilight?”

“I guess I am, in some ways,” Twilight replied, her expression turning a little sheepish.

“And now I suppose I should tell you why I helped Discord, shouldn’t I?”

Twilight nodded. “I’m very curious as to your motive.”

Luna’s entire demeanor seemed to change to that of nervousness. She bit her lip, and ran a hoof through her mane before straightening herself. “Well, I suppose the best way I can say this is that I was hopeful you would return to work on the show after seeing how amazing the human world really is.”

Twilight shared a confused look with her friends. “Why would you want me to return?” she asked.

Luna pursed her lips for a moment, before sighing. “The show hasn’t been the same since Miss Heartstrings took over. It’s been, well…” she rolled her hoof in the air a few times, “... less good.”

Twilight quirked a brow. “Less… good?”

“Luna’s not the only one who holds this opinion,” Discord said from where he was floating. After turning a page of the comic, he snapped his talon, to which a pie chart appeared before everyone. One portion, colored blue, was at 55% and said ‘Disappointed’ while the remaining 45%, colored red, said ‘Satisfied’. “Ever since Lyra took over as showrunner, most of HUMAN’s viewing audience has expressed disappointment over the show’s apparent drop in quality.” He then took the pie chart in his talon and chewed out a large portion of the blue area. Humming with delight as he chewed, he threw the rest of the pie chart out the balcony window, where it exploded into a shower of sprinkles that rained down on the ground below. “I wouldn’t know, not having watched the show. But Princess Luna here is quite the avid fan.”

The seven friends looked shocked in response. “Really!?” they all said.

A hint of red adorned Luna’s cheeks as she nodded. “It is true,” she replied. “I’ve been a fan ever since I first read the original HUMAN book trilogy, actually. There’s something about a species so destructive, yet simultaneously compassionate that gets my artistic muse fired up.” She smiled. “I was the one who sent you that painting of Warren when you were putting the show together, in fact.”

Twilight’s shocked expression grew. “That was you!?”

Luna nodded. “Did you like it? I put a lot of effort just into visualizing that particular scene. Actually painting it took me an entire night, but from what I’ve heard, it really helped to inspire you.”

Twilight was very much floored by Luna’s confession. Indeed, without that painting, she never would’ve gotten HUMAN’s Crystalvision adaptation on the air. To know that Luna was the one who made and sent it to her…

“But why did you have that comic commissioned, Discord?” Fluttershy spoke up, drawing everyone’s attention back to the draconequus.

Shrugging, Discord looked up from the comic to them. “Because I’ve been bored, and in need of a change of pace regarding my spread of glorious chaos. The world of HUMAN has boundless potential in that regard, and even more so when you place the very creators among its denizens. Although…” With a sigh, he let the comic fall to the friends’ hooves, open to a page midway through. Looking down, the ponies who’d entered the comic were shocked to see the panels contained snippets from their time in the comic, dialogue, actions and all, “... it appears you ladies were a little too stealthy for that.”

“At least until the end,” Rarity noted dryly, earning a sharp glare from Rainbow.

“Well, I’m flattered you love HUMAN so much, Princess Luna,” Twilight said, stepping up to the bedside, “really, I am. But you know I can’t return to the show, now that I’m a princess. I need to focus on the responsibilities that come with being one. Heck, I couldn’t even juggle the both for the brief time I was a princess and working on the show.”

Luna hung her head sadly. “Yes, I knew this. But I dared to hold onto a single thread of hope, anyway.”

Twilight smiled, and used a hoof to lift Luna’s chin so they were eye-to-eye. “I’ll have a talk with Lyra and see about squeezing in as much time as I can to supervise writing the scripts. It’s the least I can do to repay you for giving me that painting.”

Luna smiled, and wrapped her fore legs around Twilight in a gentle hug, which she gladly returned. “Thank you, Twilight Sparkle,” she replied.

Everyone stared at the warm scene with huge smiles, only to shift their gaze to Rarity when the unicorn let out a huge yawn.

“Oh my,” she said, a little blush adorning her cheeks, “we have been up all night, haven’t we?”

The other ponies nodded their agreement, a few of them letting out yawns themselves.

“Might I return you all to Ponyville, then?” Luna asked.

“That’d be great,” Applejack said, yawning again. “Thanks Princess.”

“Before you go, however I have something to show Twilight and Pinkie,” Discord spoke up.

Twilight and Pinkie shared a confused look as they stepped over to Discord as he floated back down to the floor. Snapping his talon, Discord conjured a sheet of notebook paper in front of them. While Twilight and Pinkie pored over the contents, Luna’s eyes bulged in terror at the scene.

“No, don’t read that!” she shrieked, and bolted out of the bed toward them.

“Oh my…” Twilight said, her cheeks turning a deep shade of red.

“Wait, so Luna romantically pairs Warren and Sarah together?” Pinkie asked, eyebrow arched. “Like, huh?”

“Oh, not just those two,” Discord said with a large smirk. He snapped his talon again just as Luna snatched the paper away with her magic, summoning a barrage of notebook papers to rain down upon them. “Our dear Princess Luna here is quite the avid shipper, as the saying is among HUMAN fans.”

“Foul cretin!” she screeched. “We shall tear thee apart limb by limb for revealing Our secret obsession!”

“Catch me if you can, Princess!” Discord taunted, before disappearing in a flash of yellow teleportation magic.

“We will wreck thee!” Luna cried, before spreading her wings and dashing out the balcony window.

The seven friends stared blankly out the window after her, the absurdity of the situation not fully processing in their minds at first. Finally, after a few moments, the silence was broken by Twilight clearing her throat.

“Let’s go talk to Princess Celestia about getting a teleport home, then,” she said.

The others nodded their agreement, and made for the door. Along the way, Twilight stopped to pick up the enchanted comic, poring over its cover again. With a smile, she used her magic to teleport it to her pocket-space before following after her friends.

I wouldn’t mind visiting the world again every once in awhile.

Author's Note

And that's the end.

Sorry to anyone who's coming off of this dissatisfied of the story's quality/length. Truth be told, I suffered a lot of burnout all throughout the writing of this fic. It's why it took me over two years to write a simple ten chapter story. Again, I apologize.

With this, the HUMAN trilogy has come to a close, and boy, it's been a long time coming. I am soooo happy to finally be done with it. But keep on the lookout for more uses of humans as fictional creatures in my other stories; it's an idea I won't so easily leave behind, not at all.

Thanks for reading, everyone! ; )

The Goddess Descends

Contemplation was something any studious pony like Twilight Sparkle would be accustomed to doing, and indeed, the alicorn librarian was very privy to settling herself down and pondering what to do when presented with a conundrum of any kind. Being such a rationally-driven mare, she had gained plenty of experience throughout her young life and was quite adept to problem-solving as a result. Her talent at this had been instrumental in overcoming some of the biggest challenges she and her friends had ever faced, but in spite of it, she now found herself at a total loss for an answer to the problem which was presented to her earlier that day.

The lavender mare sat on her bed, nightcap set upon her head for bedtime and eyes fixated on the Enchanted Comic which had been sent to her through the mail. Emblazoned upon the cover was the title, HUMAN World, in a stylized golden font that would’ve shined brightly in the sun had it not currently been nighttime. What was odd was that underneath the title there were no credits to the author/illustrator/spellweaver. Not only that, information such as serial number, copyright, and the like were excluded as well, leaving it devoid of anything else other than the cover art. The cover art itself depicted a city of tall skyscrapers under the nighttime sky, with crowds of humans traversing the streets below.

At one point Twilight was so lost in thought that she failed to hear Spike entering from the bathroom, head tilted up as he gurgled some water before swallowing and letting out a deep, contented sigh. He then made to walk to his basket before noticing Twilight’s concentrated gaze on the comic.

Still at it, huh? Spike thought, and approached the bed.

“Hey, Twilight?” he said, but failed to draw her attention. “Twilight!?”

Still nothing.

Spike let out another, this time exasperated, sigh and walked over to the nearby desk upon which sat some inkwells and quills, perfectly aligned along the edges. With a roll of his eyes, Spike reached a claw out to one of the inkwells, gently pushing it out of line with the others.

“You need something, Spike?”

The baby dragon turned to see Twilight standing right next to him. The inkwell was once again aligned with the others.

When did she trade her panic for Pinkieness? Spike asked himself, looking between the inkwell and the mare.

“Spike?”

“Huh- . . . oh, sorry,” he replied, giving his head a slight shake for clarity. “What’d you say?”

Twilight groaned while dipping her head. “I asked if you need anything?”

“Uh, right,” Spike stammered, blushing slightly. “Well, I was wondering why you were staring so intently at that Enchanted Comic.” He pointed to the bed where said comic still laid untouched. “I thought we agreed to just leave it alone until DELOS gets back to us regarding its authenticity?”

Twilight sighed. “We did, Spike, but I can’t stop thinking about it.” She began making way back toward the bed.

“What’s there to think about?” Spike asked as his eyes followed her. “It’s just an Enchanted Comic adaptation of your HUMAN trilogy, right? It makes good sense that someone would make one.”

“Yeah, it does,” Twilight replied as she hopped back onto the bed. “But I’m not bugged about whether it makes sense or not.”

Spike raised a scaly brow. “Then, what’s eating at you?”

Twilight didn’t answer right away, instead using her magic to levitate the confounding comic up and opening it to the first page. What struck her as odd (more so than the lack of information on the cover page) was the fact that said first page made up half of the book’s content; only two actual paneled pages were stapled between the front and back covers. There wasn’t even a blank page dedicated to the spell used to enter the comic, which had made Twilight question at first whether it was really enchanted, but a simple scanning spell confirmed that it was indeed.

Finally, Twilight replied to Spike with, “I’m just confused as to why it’s so different from that Power Ponies issue.” She turned the comic around and gave each side a judgmental gaze before returning it to its original position in front of her. “If this is official and meant for the mass market, then why is it so lacking in content? Not to mention that what little content it does boast is extremely mundane.”

As if to reiterate her point, she turned the comic around so Spike could see the panels contained within. The ‘story’ seemed to concern Twilight’s OC, Warren Zaccaro, sitting at a computer and typing away, and little else. The only real change between panels was the gradual close-up of Warren’s face while he spoke his monologues.

“Yeah, it does seem pretty boring,” Spike agreed. He briefly wondered if the comic was meant for people with digits before dismissing the notion, knowing even he’d find reading about typing to be boring. “But maybe it’s just an early alpha copy?”

“I doubt it,” Twilight replied with a wry expression as she turned the comic back around and began scanning her eyes over the back cover for anything of interest she might’ve missed. “If it was, at the very least there’d be some production info listed somewhere.” She turned back to Spike with a frown. “The lack of any makes me doubt its authenticity.”

Spike went to his basket and climbed in, ready for a good night’s sleep. But he knew this would be impossible as long as Twilight was distressed, so he looked back to her and said, “Why should it matter anyway? I mean, didn’t you swear off any more HUMAN-related stuff?”

"I swore off heading the Crystalvision adaptation to focus on my new royal duties," Twilight clarified. "This is different, though, because unlike the show which ate up so much of my time, going into this comic would just be a quick outing I could do once and be done with it afterwards."

"I guess that's true," Spike replied, scratching his head. "But still, does it really matter?"

Twilight pursed her lips and turned away. “I guess . . . maybe I . . .”

“Twilight?”

A long silence permeated the air between them for several seconds before Twilight finally sighed in defeat and fell onto her bed, legs sprawled out haphazardly. “It matters because I'd be lying if I said the idea of experiencing firsthoof the world our friends and I created wasn't exciting; I’m sure whoever created the Power Ponies felt the same way about those characters being adapted for Enchanted Comics.”

“I’ll bet,” Spike replied with a small yawn.

Twilight turned to look at the comic, still suspended in her magic next to the bed. “If it wasn’t for the fact that it’s embedded with an enchantment, I’d say this comic’s nothing more than a giant tease.”

Spike raised his head to see his pseudo-sister still lying on the bed, almost sure he could see a hint of disappointment upon her face. “Well,” he said, “there’s nothing we can do until DELOS sends their reply. Until then, let’s get some sleep.”

Twilight returned his gaze with a soft smile. “Okay, Spike; would you like to hear a bedtime story?”

“Sure,” he replied, snuggling under the covers. “In fact, could you tell me a horror story?”

Twilight blinked in surprise. “Um, . . . okay,” she began scanning a nearby shelf for such a book. “Do you have any in particular you want me to read?”

“Yep,” Spike confirmed, adorning a cheeky smile. “It’s the story of the excruciatingly boring comic that could put anyone within earshot to sleep when read aloud.”

Twilight paused in her scanning, again blinking in surprise as she turned to Spike. Only after seeing the coy expression on his face did she realize what he was getting at, to which she giggled.

“Okay, Spike,” she said, “I’ll read the comic to you.”

“Yes, please,” Spike replied, and finished settling himself in bed, laying his head against the pillow and closing his eyes.

Twilight used her magic to turn out the lights before raising the comic in front of her face. She began to read.

“‘Warren sat at his computer, typing away the first chapter to his latest work while listening to a particular video game song on extended repeat.’ The picture shows him not even wearing the headphones, instead they’re just laying next to him on the desk.”

“Mhmm,” Spike replied with a slight nod as Twilight continued.

“‘Yet another story that won’t get a TVTropes page, but oh well, I can’t expect everyone to care about it anyway’. The picture shows him with a solemn expression.”

He’s got that right, Spike thought, managing to doze off a tad.

“‘Warren spent the next few minutes typing away before leaving to check his fridge for a quick snack. Upon returning he changed the song to a different one from the same series.’ The next few panels show him leaving his computer, walking down the stairs, looking in the fridge, and finally using the mouse back at his computer.”

Still not caring.

Twilight turned the page. “‘Alright, now all that’s left is to figure out a good rhyme. Hmm, let’s see . . .’ The next few panels show him laying on his bed, deep in thought.”

I can relate to that, at least.

“‘By the time Warren returned to the computer with a good rhyme in mind, he was eager to finish off the first chapter and upload it.’ The picture shows him looking tired while typing.”

Wow, something else we have in common.

“The next panel has an over-the-shoulder view of his computer screen with the following message on it:

'Are you asleep now?' Heh heh.

“‘To return from the world of your imagination . . .’”

Why does that seem so famil- wait a minute!

“‘. . . start, travel, experience . . .’”

“Twilight! Don’t-”

“‘. . . and finally impart memories of these three upon your creation.’”

“That’s the spell!”

Before Twilight could offer a response a bright flash of white light emanated from the Enchanted Comic, knocking the lavender librarian back in surprise and making her lose concentration on her telekinesis, as well as knocking her nightcap onto the floor. Immediately, the comic fell to the bed, open to the spell’s page to which a strong force began sucking Twilight toward it.

“Urrrrgh,” she groaned while trying to resist the spell’s pull. She found it too strong, however, and it wasn’t long before her hind hooves were sucked into the comic’s pages.

“Hang on, Twilight!” Spike called, jumping out of his basket and rushing toward the bed. “I’ll help you!”

“Wait, Spike!” Twilight called. Both of her hind legs had been sucked into the comic, and she was pushing her fore legs down against the bed to keep her upper body out of it. “Don’t come any closer or you’ll be sucked in too!”

“But what about you!?” he cried, worry plainly evident in his voice for his lifelong companion.

“I’ll be fine, Spike,” Twilight grunted. “Just go get our friends and tell them what’s happened and that I could use some help in here.”

“Are you sure you’ll be alright?” Spike asked, still plainly worried. “I mean, we don’t know what’ll happen when you wake up in there.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Twilight affirmed as her flanks dropped below the pageline. “We did this once, and we can do it again even with a different scenario.”

“. . . Okay, Twilight,” Spike agreed with a nod, instinctually taking a few steps away from the bed.

Twilight allowed a small smile to grace her lips as she lifted her hooves into the air. In an eye’s blink she was gone, as was the white light of the spell. Spike waited a few moments to make sure the spell was over before hurriedly hopping up onto the bed, snatching the comic, and rushing downstairs to the front door.

I hope the others aren’t asleep already, because they won’t be getting any after they hear about this.

After waking up inside the Enchanted Comic’s world, and realizing (to her slight confusion) that she hadn’t been transformed in the slightest by the spell’s parameters, Twilight took a moment to get her bearings. She found herself in what appeared to be a back alley, with garbage cans and various other junk strewn about on either side down along both ends.

I’d better study the layout of this world, she thought, and took to the sky.

Once she’d cleared the rooftops Twilight gazed out over the landscape, and went slack-jawed in awe at the scenery it sported. A concrete jungle of tall skyscrapers stretched to and across the horizon. Cemented roads populated by countless cars littered the ground below, some moving and others parked off to the roadside. A nighttime sky devoid of stars reigned above, blocked out by the light pollution which resulted from countless lights shining from seemingly each and every window all the buildings possessed.

Twilight eventually broke out of her stupor and turned around in the air only to find a peculiar sight. An irregularly-shaped skyscraper, more in the shape of a syringe with a saucer-like structure just underneath the ‘needle’, stood among the regular ones, as if purposely built to defile the norm. Beyond the odd structure, Twilight saw an ocean only just barely visible with all the active lights throughout the colossal city.

Just how big is this world? she questioned herself.

After taking a few more minutes to survey the landscape, Twilight lowered herself to the ground and began waiting for her friends to show up while simultaneously keeping an eye out for humans.

I wonder how the girls will take to this place?

Ponies and Chaos in Las Vegas

“Is it just me, or is this place more boring than we made it out to be in the book?” Rainbow Dash asked, staring out the passenger side window.

Unlike the vibrant, neon-obsessed city the ponies remembered writing about, the city they were driving through seemed dull and lifeless. The buildings were like drab towers rising up with no splendor, the streets below crowded not with energetic youngsters looking for fun but instead average pedestrians like one could find in any large city. Had it not been for the sign a few miles back saying ‘Welcome to Las Vegas’, the ponies might have believed they were in another city altogether.

“I’m not sure, Rainbow,” Twilight said, keeping her eyes on the road ahead. “But it doesn’t matter, because we’re not here to sightsee.”

“It might be because neon lights don’t stand out in the daytime,” Pinkie said from under the driver’s seat.

“Yeah, that’s probably it.” Twilight shot a brief glance down at the pink mare pressing her hoof against the accelerator. “Thanks, Pinkie.”

“Oh don’t thank me,” she replied, turning her head to smile up at Twilight. “I only know it because this thing told me so.” She indicated to a black, rectangular device laying on the car floor next to her, a screen embedded into its top which was turned on to an image of white laden with lots of black text. Laying next to it was a long, thin pen-shaped object.

“What is that thing?” Rainbow asked, taking notice of the device from the other seat.

“What’s happening up here now?” Rarity poked her head over the seats, following Rainbow’s gaze to the enigmatic object. “How long have you had that… whatever it is, and where did you find it?”

“I got it from one of those robbers while I was doodling on their faces,” Pinkie explained. Using her free front hoof, she pushed the object a little bit closer to them and indicated for them to take it.

Rarity grabbed both the object and the stylus with her telekinesis and levitated them over the seat so she and Rainbow Dash could view them together. Looking closer, they saw the image on screen looked to be styled after a textbook page, only some of it was colored blue with little numbers next to them.

At the top was the word ‘Neon’ in large font, while off to the side was a symbol shaped like an unfinished globe puzzle with accompanying text underneath it.

“‘Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia’,” Rarity read out loud.

“What the heck is a ‘wiki’?” Rainbow asked.

Pinkie shrugged. “Beats me, but that thing is super de duper awesomer to the max!” she said, letting go of the accelerator in her excitement.

“Pinkie!” Twilight shouted in alarm.

“Whoops, sorry,” she replied, quickly pressing her hoof back down on the pedal. “Anyway, I’ve been checking out all kinds of places inside that thing. You wouldn’t believe all the things it’s got inside. Books, articles, pictures, even mini cinema! It’s so awesome!”

Rainbow shrugged. “Still doesn’t beat me in that category,” she stated, matter-of-fact like.

“Don’t be so sure, Dashie,” Pinkie said, and giggled. “Try typing in your own name.”

Rainbow stared at her for a moment before giving the device a scrutinizing gaze. She then snatched the stylus out of the air with her mouth and pressed it up against the screen. After methodically typing her name in the search bar and pressing ‘enter’, the screen whited out for a second, only to fill back up with a new passage with Rainbow’s name at the top. “Whoa,” she said.

Rarity looked down at the passage, her face turning confused. “What is this supposed to be?” she asked, her eyes falling on her own name and the accompanying paragraph underneath it. “Some sort of biography?”

“I d’unno,” Pinkie said, shrugging, “but I’ve been finding all sorts of stuff like that from typing in all our names.” A smile stretched across her face, almost eclipsing her cheeks. “You wouldn’t believe all the stuff I’ve found about us: pictures, short films, stories… they’ve even made plushies of us, girls! Plushies!”

“Well, who wouldn’t want a plushie of yours truly?” Rainbow asked, patting her chest and casually inspecting her hoof with her cockiest grin.

Rarity rolled her eyes. “I wonder.”

Pinkie looked up to Twilight. “So, whaddya think, Twilight?” she asked. “Pretty neat, huh?”

“All I know is that we mentioned nothing about that device in HUMAN,” Twilight replied, neutrally, keeping her eyes ahead. “But that doesn’t matter. Whoever sent me this Enchanted Comic has a lot of explaining to do, and the sooner we get out of here, the sooner we can get our answers.”

Suddenly, a loud bang sounded from outside, followed by the van bumping and lurching around as it moved, throwing the ponies off balance.

“What was that!?” Rarity screamed, gripping the seat for dear life.

“I don’t know!” Twilight shouted. “Pinkie, take your hoof off the accelerator!”

Pinkie did as instructed, and the van started slowing down. The ponies all relaxed, their adrenaline rushes slowing down along with the van as Twilight brought it off the road, coming to a stop along a curb in a suburban district. Setting the van in ‘park’ and pulling out the ignition key, she turned to each of her friends. “Everypony okay?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” Rainbow confirmed.

“And I as well, darling,” Rarity followed.

“Hey, who turned out the lights!?” Pinkie said through her mane, which had fallen over her face as she laid against the backrest of a seat. A quick parting of it from Rarity’s telekinesis cured her not-blindness, and she happily sprang to all fours. “Peachy keen here!” she sing-songed.

“What happened?” Rainbow asked, gazing out the window, her features turning dark. “Are we under attack?’

Twilight shook her head. “If that was the case, we’d be getting barraged right now.” She undid the lock on the driver’s side door and opened it, stepping down onto the curb. A single glance at the van’s front left tire confirmed her suspicions. “Yep, we’ve got a flat tire.”

“Well, that’s just wonderful,” Rarity moaned. She threw her forehooves over the passenger seat, her lips pouting. “And I don’t suppose there’s a spare anywhere we can use?”

“Nope,” Pinkie said, bouncing up to her, happy as ever. “But look what I’ve got that’s even better!” Using the prehensile quality of her mane, she retrieved from its deep confines a single, silver-colored coin, a stylized emblem of a man’s head on the front. “Our problems are solved!”

“Pinkie, where did you get that?” Twilight asked, her tone that of neither fear nor anger, rather, genuine curiosity. “And what do you mean all our problems are solved?”

“Yeah, Pinks,” Rainbow spoke up, raising a skeptical eyebrow as she examined the coin. “How’s that supposed to help us?”

“I got it from the lead robber,” Pinkie explained. “And it’ll help us becauuuuse—” she pointed out the rear window, back toward the casino strips they’d passed by, “—we can use it to get rich quick here.”

“You’re suggesting we gamble?” Rarity asked, a little apprehension in her tone.

“Mhmm.” Pinkie nodded. “We can earn enough money to get the van fixed, or even better, buy plane tickets!”

“Only one problem with that, Pinkie,” Twilight said, frowning. “Human airports employ maximum security levels. We’d need identification if we want to get anywhere, which we don’t have.”

“Well, can’t you just make something up, then?” Rainbow asked. “I mean, you’ve got a spell for this sorta thing, right?”

Everypony turned their attention to Twilight while she tapped her chin. “I think…” She trailed off, her eyes gaining a distant look that let her friends know she was deep in thought. She spent the next minute or so pacing back and forth across the pavement aside the van, eventually turning back to her friends with a confident smile. “Okay, here’s what we’re gonna do…”

The Equestrian countryside rolled on by. And by. And by…

With a sigh, Applejack pulled away from the window and turned to her companions. Fluttershy was curled up in the opposite seat, looking to be fast asleep, while Spike was staring down at the Enchanted Comic with a studious gaze.

Curious, Applejack hopped off her seat and crossed over to him. Careful not to disturb Fluttershy, she sidled up next to the drake and asked, “Whatcha doin’?”

Spike briefed a glance to her in his eye’s corner before shrugging and setting the book on his other side. “I thought maybe there’d be some hidden clues as to who sent Twilight the comic inside.” He placed his hands under his chin and lay down on the seat. “But I guess it won’t matter once we get to Canterlot.”

Applejack nodded. “Don’t worry, Sugarcube; we’ll find out who’s responsible an’ give’em a good what-fer!”

Spike smiled. “Yeah we will.”

“Since we’re talkin’, Ah’ve been meanin’ ta ask ya something.”

“Sure, what?”

Applejack’s face took on a dark tint, unnerving Spike a little. “You met the owner of the House of Enchanted Comics, right?” she asked. “Was it anypony we know?”

“No, just some really fat unicorn with a blue shirt and a ponytail mane.” Spike lifted his gaze up, deep in remembrance. “Kept saying everything was the worst whatever, almost on instinct.”

“Didja get his name?”

“No, he didn’t wear a nametag or anything, and I was so excited about getting that Power Ponies comic I didn’t think to ask him much of anything.”

“Well, whoever they are, Ah hope they know who bought that comic, as well as where the no-good varmint lives.” She lightly pounded her front hooves together, a fierce gaze settling in her eyes while her mouth fell into a hard frown. “An’ if’n he sent it himself…”

Spike nodded, letting his eyes drift closed as he finished for her. “He’ll be in for a rude awakening, yeah…” His final words went unspoken as he drifted off to sleep, leaving Applejack alone.

She spared the comic a single glance before looking out the window at the passing countryside, thinking to herself what their friends might be up to in the comic’s world.

“Yo, dude, look at all this green!”

“Sick, man! How much did you make?”

“Enough to buy me that yacht for me and Sally!”

“She is one lucky babe. Hey, maybe we can—URK!”

“You okay Jim—OOF!”

One after the other, the two men fell to the floor with loud thuds, unconscious. All the money the first was holding fell around him. Had it not been bundled, it would’ve scattered, likely to be lost to the wind.

From the shadows of the alley they were passing through, Rainbow Dash and Twilight emerged, a grim look plastered across the latter’s muzzle.

“I hope they’ll be alright,” she said.

Rainbow shrugged. “As long as they’re still breathing.” She walked over and began poking her nose through the first guy’s pants pockets. “Let’s hurry before they wake up.”

With a solemn nod, Twilight stepped up to the second guy and got to searching. A few seconds of pilfering from both heralded two wallets. Twilight took both in her magic and laid them on the ground next to each other.

Rainbow watched, fascinated, as her friend then lit up her horn, enveloping the wallets in a lavender glow. Both then shined with a bright white light, forcing her to partially cover her eyes, accompanied by a short series of popping sounds; four in total.

When the light cleared, and Rainbow could see properly, there were no longer just two wallets. An additional four had appeared, all glowing a shimmering lavender aura which soon faded, leaving them looking perfectly inconspicuous.

Panting from exertion, Twilight lifted one up in her magic and opened it. With a small smile, she passed it to Rainbow, who took it in her hooves and opened it herself. Inside was a picture of herself, plastered against a card that displayed a bunch of numbers and words she couldn’t make heads or tails of, but it still brought a grin to her face.

“Am I good-looking, or am I good-looking and awesome?” she asked, teasingly.

Twilight rolled her eyes, retaining her smile, and picked up the remaining constructed wallets while returning the originals to their unconscious owners’ pockets. “C’mon, let’s get back to Rarity and Pinkie.”

With a nod, Rainbow began following her out of the alley, never taking her eyes off of the picture displayed in her newly constructed wallet.

“I must say, I would’ve expected such a place to be more popular,” Rarity said, surveying the scene before her and Pinkie.

The casino floorspace, plentiful as it was, played host to only a scattered few groups of humans dressed in attire ranging from fancy suits to laughably cliché tourist wear, although a few did wear more casual-looking clothes. They crowded around tables and slot machines, keeping focused on their games and little else. The machines themselves, in stark contrast to the buildings outside, were brightly lit with colorful neon bulbs, lighting up the casino’s otherwise shaded interior.

“Well, that just means we’ll have an easier time of doing this,” Pinkie chirped. She began trotting toward an unoccupied row of slot machines, Rarity following behind while occasionally glancing around her, keeping an eye out for potential trouble. After the incident at the bank, she couldn’t feel safe being in any place where money was plentiful.

The two mares made their way down the row of slot machines, eventually coming to a stop in front of one near the middle. They were all alone on either side, and far enough away from either entrance that they could feasibly enact their part of Twilight’s plan without being discovered.

Stepping up to the machine, Rarity used her magic to lift Pinkie’s coin up and into the designated slot. Immediately, the machine began making a whirring noise as the three columns of varied pictures in front rolled with amazing speed, making them all a collective blur of mixed colors.

“Remember to go for Bar,” Pinkie said.

Rarity nodded. “Right.”

While Pinkie began glancing between both entrances intermittently, keeping an eye out for trouble, Rarity furrowed her brow in concentration as she studied the spinning columns, keeping her hoof just above the first button. Her keen eyes slowly picked out each individual section on the first column as they whizzed by, and slowly, but surely, she picked out the Bar symbol, and waited.

...One and a half seconds.

...NOW!

She smashed her hoof against the button, making the first column come to an immediate stop on the Bar symbol, while the remaining two columns kept spinning.

“One down,” Rarity whispered under her breath.

“Omigosh!”

Pinkie’s sudden exclamation caused Rarity to jump. She spun on her hooves to face her friend. “What is it, Candy?” she asked. She glanced between both entrances, but saw nothing, or anyone, heading toward them. “I don’t see any trouble.”

Pinkie held up the mobile device for her to see, a wide grin plastered across her face. The screen showed a picture of six humans, weirdly colored and dressed as far as they went. Only after a couple of moments did Rarity realize the picture was of them and their friends as humans. The sight of her wearing a white, loose-fitting dress in place of her pristine white fur coat made Rarity visibly cringe before she narrowed her eyes at Pinkie.

“Now is not the time for messing around with that little contraption, Candy,” she said, letting her harshness come through in full. “You’re supposed to be keeping watch for trouble.”

“Oh yeah, right.” Pinkie stowed the device back into her mane and took a guard stance, facing toward one of the entrances.

Rolling her eyes, Rarity returned her attention to the machine, and the second spinning column. Squinting her eyes in concentration, she picked out its own Bar symbol.

Alright… now!

She hit the second button, to which the column stopped right on the Bar symbol.

“Wonderful!” Rarity clapped her hooves together excitedly. “Just one more to go and we’ll be set to go home!”

“Um, Maria?” Pinkie asked, tapping her shoulder.

“Not now, Candy,” she replied, pushing her friend’s hoof away before settling her gaze on the final spinning column. “I’ve almost got this.”

“But Maria…”

The unicorn didn’t hear her, having tuned out Pinkie to focus her attention entirely on the last remaining column.

Just one more… N—

“Excuse me, Miss?” came a masculine voice from her right.

Rarity froze. Her pupils shrank to pinpricks. That voice, despite being perfectly normal every which way, sent an icy chill down her spine. Her body tensed, and all focus she had on the spinning column was replaced with immeasurable dread at what was happening.

Slowly, straining to force her neck muscles to respond to her brain’s stimuli in spite of the fear coursing through her very soul, she turned her head toward the voice. Her worst fear was confirmed.

Standing there, eyes wide with both confusion and fear, was a security guard. His burly figure towered before her, intimidating enough on its own, but the addition of his cold, steel blue eyes boring into her sent another chill down Rarity’s spine. Out of her peripheral vision, she saw Pinkie looking much the same as she felt right then. She chewed her bottom lip, nervously casting her eyes between her and the guard. Had it not been for the whirring noise it made while active, the slot machine’s very existence would’ve been lost to the two terrified mares.

At last, the guard spoke again, sounding utterly calm despite his apparent discomfort. “Ma’am, I’m gonna have to ask that you come with me.”

Rarity felt the sweat begin to accumulate on her forehead. “Why, whatever do you mean?” she asked with a nervous chuckle. “Nothing to see here but a couple of young ladies playing with their hard-earned money.”

“Yeah, nothing bad happening here, right?” Pinkie said, sounding no more confident than Rarity.

The guard’s expression didn’t change, but his voice took on a sterner tone as he replied. “Don’t make this any more trouble than it has to be, Miss.” He took a step forward, to which both mares reflexively took one back. “Both of you need to come with me right now.”

The sweat was pouring down by this point. Rarity felt her heartbeat quicken and her body seize up as the guard took another step forward, reaching for her.

“Excuse me, is there a problem here?”

The familiar voice was a godsend to Rarity’s nerves. All at once, she felt her body relax and the oppressive anxiety churning in her mind dissipate, as if time had stopped and allowed her to meditate for hours on end in just a second.

Everyone turned toward the voice, and the two mares smiled wide at the sight of Twilight standing there, only to frown a little upon noticing Rainbow Dash wasn’t with her. Her face held a pensive expression, but a sense of cheekiness made itself present in the ever-so-slightly upturned corners of her mouth.

The guard’s expression was now lost to Rarity and Pinkie, but his rigid posture combined with his crossed arms made it clear he wasn’t swayed by their friend’s arrival.

“Are these two with you, miss?” he asked, pointing to Rarity and Pinkie.

Twilight nodded. “Yes, and I’d like to know what the trouble here is, please?” she asked, politely.

“I just need them to come with me for a little bit to answer a few questions.” His eyebrows turned up in thought. “Actually, I’m gonna need you to come too.”

Twilight tilted her head in response, her features turning especially confused for a brief moment before a mischievous smile crossed her lips. “This is some pleasant weather we’re having, huh!?”

Momentary looks of confusion washed over everyone’s face, before a sudden ringing sound from above prompted them to look up, to which their faces were quite literally washed over. Shouts of alarm and panic began rising throughout the building as the sprinkler system showered the casino floor with its load, drenching everything within range.

Included among that which was in range was the guard. He threw his arms over his head and tried to get out from under the above sprinkler head, only to trip over Twilight’s outstretched hoof and fall to the floor with a hard thud, knocking him out cold.

Twilight stared with remorse at him for a bit before turning to her friends with a small smile. “You okay girls?” she asked.

Rarity took a moment to breathe deeply, calming the last of her frayed nerves before replying. “Yes, darling, I’m alright now that you’re here.”

“Me too!” Pinkie chirped. Then she looked around with a small frown. “But where’s Dash— I mean Jenny?”

“Looking for me?” said a voice as Pinkie felt a hoof clamp onto her withers. She turned around to see Rainbow’s smirking face staring back. “Didn’t think I’d leave you all hanging, did you?”

“Jenny!” Pinkie capped off her exclamation by wrapping her hooves around her friend and squeezing like there was no tomorrow. “Thank goodness you’re okay!”

“Good to see you too, Candy,” Rainbow struggled to say through her friend’s crushing hug.

“Where were you just now?” Rarity asked Rainbow as Pinkie let her go. “And why is the ceiling showering everything?”

Rainbow shifted her mouth around until a small, white stick with a beige end stuck out. She spat it out onto the floor, where it bounced once before rolling under the still-active slot machine. “Stole some dude’s cigarette and used it to start the sprinkler system,” she said while casually inspecting her hoof. “No biggie.”

“Are you crazy!?” Rarity shouted, throwing her hooves up and standing on her hind legs. “We’ve already attracted enough attention unto ourselves, now we’re practically begging to get arrested!”

“Relax, Maria,” Twilight said, putting a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “We did what we had to do, and if it comes back to haunt us, we can take on whatever this comic’s world throws at us.”

Rarity sighed. “I suppose you’re right,” she said, and looked between Twilight and Rainbow. “So, did you get our IDs?”

“Mhmm.” Twilight levitated two cards from her side, passing one each to Rarity and Pinkie, who accepted them with a nod and an enthusiastic squeal of excitement, respectively. “What about your end? Did you get the money?”

“Almost, darling,” Rarity said before turning back to the slot machine, still active despite being as wet as everything else beneath the sprinklers. “Just a little more… There!”

The lever was pulled, and the slot machine’s last remaining column stopped on the final Bar symbol. The machine then lit up in a flurry of lights and buzzers while a whirring noise sounded from inside, followed by the clinks and clanks of metal coins piling into the designated tray.

“Awesome!” Rainbow shouted. She leapt into the air on her wings in excitement, only to be instantly pulled back down by Twilight’s hoof. She glared at the pegasus, who sheepishly chuckled while tucking in her wings. “So, yeah, we’re good to go?”

“It would appear so,” Rarity hummed as she began levitating large clumps of coins from the tray and into Pinkie’s mane, who giggled with every load. Eventually she finished loading all the coins into Pinkie’s mane, save for one, which she held in her telekinesis, poised to insert into the machine. “That said, as long as we have the benefit of all this mayhem—” she gestured with a hoof beyond the row of slot machines, where the sounds of people shouting could still be heard over the continued spraying of the overhead sprinklers, “—another round couldn’t hurt. Better to be safe then sorry, after all.”

The three other mares nodded in unison. “Sure thing,” Rainbow said. “We’ll watch your back for trouble.”

“Hopefully we’ll be out of here before everything calms down,” Twilight mused, facing one way down the slot machines, while Pinkie and Rainbow faced the other way. She glanced upward with a slight frown. “Those sprinklers can’t last forever.”

“Oh I don’t know,” Pinkie said with a giggle. “They’ve lasted pretty long so far.”

The other three turned to stare at her blankly, before remembering who exactly they were looking at and turning back, rolling their eyes at Pinkie’s antics. “Sure darling,” Rarity said while inserting the coin into the machine, activating it in another frenzy of lights and buzzers. “Whatever you say…”