Thursday, September 16, 2021

Three days later:

Twilight had not been home since she first crossed into the other world. This place was interesting and new, and she knew it was important to build good relations with the humans, but she was really starting to miss the familiar sights and sounds of Equestria. Though it had been mere days, her memories of standing in the library casting powerful new magic seemed like an eternity ago. By one measure, her home was just blocks away, an hour's walk across this city. By another, it was impossibly distant, farther than the stars.

The tall human with the long golden mane, the one she had met and talked to outside the portal, had brought Twilight to her own home. They were communicating fairly well already, at least on simple subjects. The human's name was Chryasor, but Twilight did not know if that meant anything in the human language. Pony names always had some meaning to them, but there was no reason this had to be true in other worlds as well. From what Twilight understood so far, Chryasor's job was to listen to some humans talk and then tell other humans what they had said. She wasn't quite sure why such a position existed. Twilight had tried explaining her mission as well; she thought the “student” part had been understood but “the magic of friendship” was a rather complicated idea to get across.

Currently Chryasor was fiddling with some device that she said could let her talk to her sister even though she was not present. These humans had devices for everything. It was probably to make up for their total lack of magic. Twilight had managed a few simple spells soon after crossing, but they had seemed inordinately difficult, and as soon as she left the immediate area of the portal she was unable to do even the most basic magic. As a unicorn, this was very disturbing to her, but at least it was not totally unfamiliar –after all, she had been unable to use magic for a while when Discord returned.

“Hakɤwelk! Sliyx køy reliyriy.” Twilight looked up as Chryasor exclaimed in frustration. Upon seeing Twilight looking at her, the human tried to explain in a way Twilight could understand. “My sister does not... reliyresk. She is not... not with the nefrawtɤrk.” She sighed. “I can not say it.” Chryasor held up the device and pointed to it. “This is a nefrawtɤrk. I have one, my sister has one. I speak to her but she does not speak to me.”

“Is your nefrawtɤrk working?” Twilight didn't know how the devices were meant to talk to each other, but humans probably did.

“Working? What is this word?”

“Doing what it should do. Um... uwmrelx þɤwvor sliyj yasiy uwmresk.” Twilight felt very proud of herself for being able to say this. It was almost a full sentence.

“Ah... nuwfselx. I think it is... working. But hers is not.”

“Isn't there an easier way? In Equestria we always just go visit each other when we want to talk. She can't live too far away if she works at the place where I entered this world.”

“I'm sorry, what?” Twilight had said too much, too fast.

“Can you go to her? Ey slijx goyjinesk? Without nefrawtɤrk, talk as we are?”

Chryasor stopped what she was doing, and a look of realization slowly crept across her face. Twilight knew she must have been right. Hopefully the human would let her come along; Twilight wanted to get out and see more of this strange new world.

۞ ۞ ۞

Chryasor sighed in frustration as her phone failed to make a call yet again. An almost brand-new iPhone 9 and it couldn't even get its most basic function right. And it wasn't even the normal error code either: not the usual "your call could not be completed as dialed", but rather a "the number you are trying to reach is out of range". And that was very odd. Practically the whole world was blanketed in 6G networks now, and Chryasor didn't know of any dead spots in the Geneva area. Had her sister hopped on a plane to Antarctica or something? It must just be an error in the phone system somewhere.

All she wanted to do was talk to Zai again; was that really so much to ask? After seeing her at CERN the other day, Chryasor had realized just how long it had been since they last were together. There was so much to catch up on –over a year's worth of news, not to mention all that had taken place since the unicorn's sudden appearance. Being out on assignment helping politicians speak to people of other countries was pretty nice since she got to travel all over the world, but Chryasor did miss being at home after a while.

The unicorn saw Chryasor's frustration and asked what was going on. That was the more immediate problem –her new assignment here at home. Knowing what to call her was important; apparently all names had meaning in their culture. The unicorn had drawn a picture of the sun with an arrow pointing below the horizon, implying her name was Sunset, or something similar. For the second part of her name she had just pointed to a piece of shimmering, sparkling fabric. Chryasor wasn't sure how to interpret that. Getting the species name correct was also going to be important, since according to Sunset they were not all unicorns. Three different kinds existed, all basically equine but with varying extra characteristics. Going by their size though, “horses” seemed like the wrong word –a better term would be “ponies”.

Chryasor had to explain as well as she could what the problem was, which was difficult not only because of the language, but also because Sunset seemed to not know anything at all about electronics. How it was possible to get to another world without electronic devices she didn't know, but that was a question best left to the physicists. Like her sister. But then Sunset suggested she actually go visit Zai in person instead of worrying about phone problems. She didn't know why that had never occurred to her; after all, they did live in the same city. In fact, this could be a good opportunity to show Sunset around Geneva, to show her what normal human life was like.

They set out on foot for maximum sightseeing along the way. Sunset seemed amazed at even the most mundane facts of city life, like the existence of cars. And streetlights, and bicycles, and the prevalence of signs everywhere. Was her world completely pre-industrial?

There were fewer people out on the streets than Chryasor was used to seeing. Maybe they were scared of having aliens in their city. The world media had gone into a frenzy for about 24 hours, but then the whole situation had started being dismissed as a hoax. Every TV station had only the same one video to show, and without new material most had moved on already. Still, for the people of Geneva it was closer to home so they were being especially cautious.

As the pair walked along, they got a wide variety of strange looks from the people who did pass by. Many were surprised and confused, some fearful, and some purposefully looked away as if to deny the existence of what was in front of them. But up ahead there was one man who was different. A homeless man with an old beat-up violin, playing for coins from the passersby. He looked everyone in the eye and smiled as he played, hoping to provoke feelings of empathy in the normally apathetic citizens. When he looked toward Chryasor and the unicorn, his music faltered for only an instant before being renewed, as lively as ever. He had seen so much in his time that no strange new appearance could faze him now.

Sunset seemed intrigued by this fearless musician. Chryasor could only watch as her companion trotted up next to him... and began to sing. She harmonized perfectly with the existing violin melody, and though Chryasor could not understand all the words, it sounded beautiful.

“Køy fley adþilork irv eywom
Þɤwvor viytriy ziy uwl.
Amgisentuz biviniy selgnork;
Uwl viytrɤwv akzorelx biviniy kalidork.”

How is she doing that? Chryasor wondered. She's making up a song on the fly, words as well as notes, and fitting it in with music she's never heard before. That's really amazing. She stopped walking and listened a while longer.

“Paludesk het nimaskɤrkid
Viytriy þɤwvor ilv toðkley.
Setagey irv pondu kørpaltelx,
Elgjep yasey viytresk nanbrelx.”

She's really good at this... Actually, they're both really good. What's a guy this talented doing living on the streets? Chryasor dug through her purse and pulled out a handful of change. She leaned down and dropped it into the open violin case sitting on the ground next to the man. It was probably the biggest tip he'd ever received, over ten Swiss francs. Chryasor waited until the unicorn reached a break in her song, then called out to her.

“That sounds great, Sunset! But we really should keep walking.” She had a sister to visit, and there was a lot more city to see along the way. Reluctantly, Sunset ended the duet and the odd couple continued on their way. Behind them they heard the homeless man start singing himself, trying to imitate the unicorn's melody. Chryasor smiled; his voice was not nearly as good as Sunset's but it would still bring him considerably more donations than the violin alone. He would live a little bit better now, thanks to this visitor from another world.

A few minutes later, Chryasor and Sunset reached an important landmark in the city: the main train station. Located not far from the United Nations office, it was a regular sight for Chryasor, but Sunset seemed very excited to see it.

“You have repeysitid!” she exclaimed. “Something the same in this world and mine!”

“We call them 'trains',” Chryasor replied, in the same language. She was getting a lot better at understanding what Sunset said now, missing only the words she had never heard before. Sunset was learning a little English too, but it seemed easier for both of them to just use the pony language.

“Where do the trains go? In Equestria you can go from any train sɤwznom to any other.”

“They go far, all of this country but not to the entire world. We have...” She was unsure how to say 'oceans'. “We have places with water, too big for a train to cross.”

“Oh, morfwit viytromid. Humans live on both sides? We are all connected, one land.”

Shortly after passing the train station, they came to one of the several bridges across the Rhone river. To their right the river wound off into the distance, but on the left it widened out and became Lake Geneva. The enormous fountain in the middle of the lake was clearly visible from the bridge, a tower of water hundreds of feet into the air. On the other side, Chryasor turned and led Sunset along the shoreline, through the old English Garden.

As the pair exited the little park, they were approached by two police officers. Both were unarmed and on foot, the standard across Europe, but Chryasor had grown up in the United States where the police were a paramilitary organization to be feared. I hope they're not coming for us, she thought. Damn it, they're definitely coming for us. Better get my UN badge ready.

“Bonjour,” one of the officers began. Chryasor stopped walking and faced them.

“Sunset, wait,” she said in the pony language, then switching to French, “How can I help you?”

“This is just to inform you that within the city of Geneva, all pets must be on a leash at all times. You can't just let them run free like this.”

“And what is that anyway?” the other officer asked. “I've never seen anything like it before. Are you sure that's even legal at all?”

Chryasor thought quickly about how to respond. Stick as close to the truth as possible, only embellishing details when strictly needed. And above all, sound confident. If they think I have authority, that I know what I'm doing, they won't question me. “This,” she said, looking the second officer in the eyes, “is a unicorn.” She turned back to the first officer. “And she is not a pet. She is a visiting dignitary of a foreign land, and I, as a representative of the United Nations...” She pulled out her identification card and flashed it at the two policemen, carefully keeping her thumb over the “translator” designation. “...I am giving her a tour of this city. Now, if you will please excuse us, we would like to get on with our walk.”

With that, Chryasor quickly turned and began walking away before the policemen had a chance to respond. Please don't follow me, she thought. It's not worth your time or ours. Just let us go. Thankfully, there was no call of “Arrêtez!” from behind her. She and Sunset continued on their way, and a half hour and a few more kilometers later, they arrived at their destination without further incident. It was a fairly standard apartment complex in a decent neighborhood, with flats comfortably livable for one person but no more.

Chryasor stepped up to the door of Zai's apartment and knocked loudly. There was no answer. She pressed the little buzzer button next to the door and spoke aloud, her words carried inside by the built-in loudspeaker system for the apartments.

“Hey Zai, you in there? It's me! And I've brought someone else to visit too.” She got no reply, and the door still did not open. Turning to Sunset, she said, “This is strange; it's after work hours so she ought to be around. Let's go in just to make sure she's all right.”

“Go in? How?”

“I have a key –we both have keys to each other's living places in case of emergency.”

“Just you two? Didn't you say you had a third sister too? What about her?”

“Oh, she lives far away. Across the ocean. Zai and I moved here years ago to follow our jobs, but she stayed behind. We still write to each other; at least I do anyway. I don't think she and Zai really get along.”

Chryasor unlocked the door to her sister's apartment, and she and Sunset stepped inside. No lights were on anywhere, and it was completely silent except for the sound of their steps. They split up and looked through each of the rooms, neither finding anything, and finally met up again in the kitchen. It was there that Chryasor saw something interesting: dirty dishes in the sink that looked several days old. Zai never left things in that state for very long –everything had to be cleaned, dried, and put away in its proper place. That kind of slightly OCD, perfectionist tendency ran in the family, not too strongly in Chryasor but more severe in both her younger and older sisters.

“This doesn't look right... She hasn't been here in a while.”

“Then where is she? Working at that place where I first came here?”

“Not at this time of day, it's after work hours now. And she would never spend the night there. But maybe some of the people she knows there can help. Come on, let's go back to my place now before it gets even later.”

They left the apartment and Chryasor locked the door again behind them. They began the long walk back, taking a different route than the way they had come. Chryasor knew the city well enough to find her way back home from almost anywhere; there were enough landmarks that she could always tell where she was.

“The sun sets so slowly here,” Sunset remarked as she stared into the bright orange-red sky in front of them. “In Equestria we do it quickly. It takes maybe a minute at most.”

“You... what? How? Why would the sun set so fast?”

“That's just how the Princess does it. It's day, and then it's night. There's no need for anything in between.”

Now Chryasor was even more confused. “You make it sound as if you control it. Or this Princess does. But how? Your world must turn just like any other; it's not going to change speeds. Is it?”

“Oh, right, this world is round. I remember seeing it from outside. But if it's spinning all the time, how do you all not fly off?

“Because it's... You seriously believe your world is flat? I... I don't even know what to say.”

“I know it is, I've been outside it. It's a circle. The sun and moon go around it.”

Chryasor and Sunset had both thoroughly confused each other. Both were so used to how things worked in their respective universes that they could hardly imagine anything different. They walked onward in silence, arriving back at Chryasor's home just as the sun finally disappeared completely from view. Once inside, the unicorn spoke again.

"So, you said before that you listen to some humans talk and tell others what they said. I think I'm starting to understand what that really is. Those two who stopped us when we were out walking earlier, I couldn't understand anything they said. But you could. I guess I just didn't really believe that humans had more than one language –we ponies can always understand each other."

"Yes, we have thousands of languages. Humans are terrible at communicating with each other. Want to see a demonstration of what my job really is?"

"Sure."

"Let's turn on the news. It will be in French, the same thing those two police were speaking. I'm going to translate to English at the same time that it's playing."

Chryasor walked into the next room, motioning for the unicorn to follow. She picked up the TV remote off a table; with the press of a button, the black screen on the wall flickered to life. It showed a pair of news anchors in the middle of a heated discussion –but they were speaking English, and the debate was about national politics, which Sunset probably would not be interested in anyway. She changed the channel to a local station which she knew broadcast in French. She paused to listen to the first sentence from the TV, then jumped in with her own simultaneous English version.

"Thanks everyone for listening; we'll be back with more after the break. Tune in for breaking news about new alien sightings in our very own city of Geneva!"

With that, the news program switched to commercials. Chryasor turned to her small audience and tried to explain what commercials were, without much success. A few minutes later, the news came back on and she resumed her demonstration.

"Welcome back, everyone! We have some very exciting news for you: it seems that the reports of aliens in Geneva this past Monday may not have been a hoax after all. The aliens, or rather alien since we have so far seen just the one, has been sighted again, this time walking the streets. Joining us for an exclusive interview we have Monsieur Durand, who got a close look at it just a few hours ago.”

"Thank you. It's an honor to be part of your show today."

"So first, can you just confirm for us what you saw?"

"Yes. It was a purple unicorn. It was only about a meter tall, maybe a little more. I've never seen anything like it before."

"How did you see it? What led you to go investigate?"

"There was a woman with it; they were just walking along as if unicorns were perfectly normal. My partner and I were on patrol and from far away we thought she was walking a dog without a leash, so we went to talk to her about it. But that was no dog."

"But you're absolutely sure this was an alien?"

"Completely. It's the same as what we all saw the other day. And I could tell it was intelligent –it was talking. A horse, saying actual words! I couldn't understand what it was saying, but that woman could, she talked back!"

"That is truly amazing. Do you have any idea who this woman is?"

"Sorry, no. She flashed some sort of badge at me, I don't remember what exactly but it looked very official. I never got her name."

"Well, thank you for joining us tonight. And a big thank you to everyone for watching. More news after the break."

Another set of commercials came on, and Chryasor stopped her translation to speak as herself again.

"How much of that were you able to understand?" she asked, switching back to the pony language.

"More than I thought I would," Sunset replied. "It was fast but I think I got a lot of it. You've taught me more than I realized.” She paused for a moment. “You've done so much for me since I got here. I'd like to show you some of my world as well. You can meet all my friends –oh, and my teacher too, the Princess. I'm sure she'd love to meet a human.”

Chryasor considered the offer. It was certainly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, a chance to visit another world. But she had duties to take care of on Earth. Or did she? Her work didn't technically require her to be on Earth the whole time; in fact this could help her learn about these ponies even better than if she stayed where she was. And she did really love to travel...

“That sounds great! I'd love to come see your world. The building your portal is in will be closed by now, so we'll have to wait until tomorrow. But then we–” She broke off midsentence and whirled around to face the TV again.

“...reported missing by her coworkers earlier today. Her name is Zairovsa Elviria, and she was last seen Monday morning. If you have information regarding her whereabouts, call this number...”

Even though Chryasor knew her sister had disappeared somewhere, hearing it confirmed like this was rather disturbing. She must have looked visibly shocked, because Sunset noticed and asked what the TV had just said. Chryasor tried to answer in as calm a voice as she could. Sadly, there was nothing she could really do except hope that Zai came back –she couldn't devote any more time to looking for her sister when she had such an important job to do.

۞ ۞ ۞

Friday, September 17, 2021
The next morning:

"Here we are," Twilight said. She could feel the power emanating from the blackness ahead. Soon she would be back in Equestria, where all her friends were, where magic still worked as it should. She could feel the stares of all the humans nearby as they looked away from their work at the visitors. Twilight was a little uncomfortable with all the attention, though more than a few of the humans seemed to be focused more on Chryasor instead.

"So we just step through here and we're in your world?"

"Well..." Twilight had a pained smile on her face. "I'm afraid it's not that easy."

"How so? Isn't this the portal?"

"The problem is, there's a sort of space between worlds. I call it the Void. It's a very strange place."

"So what do we do?"

"We need to stay together. If we get separated in there, what you have to do is just wish to return here. The place responds to thoughts; it will send you back."

"It responds to thoughts? But that's... That's impossible! The universe doesn't care about thoughts."

"That's exactly it –it's outside this universe. Outside every universe. Come on, we don't have to be there long. I'll lead you to the portal into Equestria."

"Okay..." Chryasor sounded very hesitant; Twilight could tell the human was rather nervous about the whole process.

"Enter on three. One... Two... Three!" They both stepped through the portal into the darkness beyond. Twilight looked around her but did not see her companion anywhere. She looked down and realized there was one important detail she had forgotten about until now: she couldn't even see herself while in the Void, so how could she and Chryasor see each other? I hope she remembers what I told her about getting back, Twilight thought. I've got to go back there and find her so we can figure out a way to stay together. Okay Void, I want to go back to Earth, right where I left it.

Twilight exited the portal gracefully, hopping out headfirst and landing on her hooves. Chryasor was already back on Earth, holding her head and trying to recover from a very non-graceful entrance. The surrounding physicists were trying not to laugh.

“Are you okay there?” Twilight hoped the human hadn't hurt herself. At least she had made it out of the Void easily enough.

“I'll be fine in a minute. How did we get separated so fast?”

“Sorry... I forgot one feature of the Void. When inside, you become invisible, even to yourself. Let's try that again, and this time we should be connected. Hold on to my mane and don't let go.”

The pair stepped carefully back through the portal, maintaining contact the whole time. Twilight could feel a gentle pull every time she turned her head, so Chryasor must still be there. I wish we were at the entrance to my portal into Equestria, she thought. In the blink of an eye, the speckled pattern of universes all around shifted, and the great blue-green disk of the pony world was before them. Twilight took a step forward and felt the resistance from the human's hand still on her.

“This is it,” she said. “The doorway is that pentagon in the middle.” There was no response. It seemed the Void's enforced alone-ness extended to hearing as well as sight. Twilight would just have to pull forward and hope Chryasor got the message.

Moments later, they passed through the other end of the portal, and Chryasor got her first look at Equestria: a dim basement laboratory, filled with arcane drawings and dense magic-theory research. It looked just the same as Twilight had left it. Let's go find my friends –I hope they haven't been too worried about me while I was away. Wait, how long have I been away? Is time the same across worlds? Twilight had so many questions to research, but first she had friends to see and a tour to lead.

“What is this place?” Chryasor asked. “Is this where you work?”

“Where I do research, yes. When I don't want to be interrupted. But my studies can take place all over Equestria. There are lessons to be learned everywhere. Come on, let's go outside and introduce you to my friends.”

Twilight led the way up the stairs to the main floor of the library. The pony-sized door at the top was a struggle for Chryasor to get through, having not been designed for humans, especially not tall ones. At least the ceilings were high enough that she could stand normally. Twilight pulled open the front door with a basic telekinesis spell. It feels good to be able to do magic again, she thought. It's almost like a part of me was missing in the other world. She looked over at her guest to find her staring in amazement.

They left the library, only to be faced with a shimmering, translucent barrier forming a dome over the entire tree. Where'd that come from? There shouldn't be a force field here... Well, we need to get past it, so let's take this thing down. She reached out with a tendril of magic and touched the barrier, trying to sense what it was made of, and who had placed it. Every unicorn had their own unique magical signature, a combination of various senses which is infused into every one of their spells. Twilight was told hers included the smell of lilac and a constellation of twinkling stars. This force field carried the feeling of warm sunlight on one's face and a pale sky-blue color, with an undercurrent of crackling lightning. Twilight recognized it immediately: the warmth and calm on top of rarely used but formidable power could only be Princess Celestia.

“Why would the Princess seal off my library?” Twilight wondered aloud to herself.

“I'm sorry, did you say something? And what is this wall? Some sort of force field? I went over and touched it and it shocked me.”

“Actually yes, that's exactly what it is. I'm trying to figure out how to lower it.”

“Well, I'm afraid I can't help. This all seems like magic to me.”

“Of course it's magic! All Equestria runs on magic. Not just the unicorns like me; everypony uses magic. It helps pegasi to fly since otherwise their wings aren't big enough to lift them. Magic also gives earth ponies their increased strength.”

“Oh. Well then... it's your world so I guess I'll just trust you on how it works.”

Twilight turned back to the force field and began analyzing how it was constructed. It was not a particularly strong one, not like her brother Shining Armor's force fields. In fact, she could sense a flaw running right down the middle of the spell. It was not like Celestia to do sloppy work, so it must have been intentional, a deliberate back door left as an easy way through for anypony who thought to look for it. She pushed a wisp of magic into the weak spot, expanding it and thinning the barrier. Just a little more... and she was done. A hole appeared in the veil, and Twilight watched as cracks shot outwards and the entire dome shattered, falling shards of magic disappearing into the air before striking the ground.

“There we go! Time to show you around, and maybe find out why the Princess had my home closed off.”

Twilight led the way out into Ponyville, with Chryasor following closely behind. It was a nice day and many ponies were outside; they drew a lot of attention, but nopony was brave enough to approach. Mostly they just continued on their way, trusting that Twilight Sparkle knew what she was doing. It didn't take long before a certain pink pony came bouncing down the street toward them.

"Twilight! You're back! And you've brought another one of those supposedly super dangerous but really kind of boring things with you!"

"Good to see you again, Pinkie! Where's everypony else?" Twilight trotted over and gave her friend a big hug. "Wait... another? You've seen a human before?"

"Of course we have, silly! She came around the same time you disappeared. Spike found her looking through your papers in the library. We were all so worried about you. Princess Celestia came and everything!" Pinkie had a troubled look on her face. "The Princess said these thingies were dangerous. She didn't want us to let the first one go because she said it would just come back with more."

"Who is this human you have here?" Chryasor asked, even though she was sure she knew the answer. "Does she have black hair –I mean, a black mane –and blue eyes, and a watch on her right arm? I mean, on her front right leg? And she doesn't talk much unless she's really excited or mad?"

"Wow, that's right on! Are you psychic?" Pinkie looked incredulously at the new human.

"Am I... What? That word... Your language is still new to me."

"New to talking? You don't look like you were born yesterday to me. But if you were, that's okay too. Come on, you big foal, let's go see your sister.”

“Okay... but how did you know she's my sister?”

Pinkie had already started bouncing away, so Twilight answered for her. “You really don't want to ask that. With Pinkie, we've learned to just accept whatever she does whether it makes any sense or not. Sometimes I think she really can see the future or something. I've given up trying to explain it.”

Twilight and Chryasor followed the party pony all the way to Sugarcube Corner. Inside, the two Cakes were busy baking some sort of sweet treat, and off in a corner there was a rather annoyed-looking human who Pinkie was trying to get to smile. The human looked to the door as Twilight and Chryasor walked in, and immediately stood up and walked quickly over to them. Twilight recognized her as the one who had first talked to her after she arrived in the human world.

“Hey Chry, I see you made it here too. Did you come looking for me? Don't tell me you're stuck in this place like I am.” Twilight found she could understand a surprising amount of that particular human language, even if she had a hard time actually speaking in it. She listened to the sisters' conversation as well as she could.

“Good to see you too. Don't worry though, I was invited to come for a visit. I assume you came on your own –no one back home knows where you've gone.”

“How long has it been back home? I hope time is at least close to the same. But I suppose if you're here then I haven't missed a hundred years or something on Earth. It's only been a few days here.”

“Just a few days there too, though that was still long enough to get you reported as missing. I'm just glad you're okay. Why haven't you been back?”

“Because they won't let me. I don't even know why because I can't understand anything they say. But they've been treating me well anyway –I don't think they really know how to take prisoners. Half the time they act scared of me, but the rest they just seem curious. The only really unpleasant part is the food; I'm getting pretty tired of salad and cupcakes now.”

“That's very strange. Let me see if I can find out why they want you here.” Chryasor called to Pinkie Pie, who was enjoying a cupcake of her own –something she never got sick of. “Excuse me! Your name is Pinkie, right? I'd like to ask you a few questions.”

“Mmhmfmglf!” Pinkie gobbled down the last of her cupcake. “Okie dokie, question away!”

“Why is my sister being kept in Equestria? You said the Princess ordered it?”

“Yep! We don't know why. Nopony's ever seen one of you before, besides the Princess. But she thinks you could be a threat to Equestria, and she's always been right before. You don't seem that bad to me though, just a little... serious. Are you going to suck all the fun out of Equestria? That really would be bad.”

This talk of Princess Celestia worried Twilight –she had found the humans and their world to be pleasant, if a little unfamiliar. But Pinkie was right, the Princess had always been correct about threats in the past. Twilight wasn't sure what to think. She wanted to believe everything would work out, that ponies and humans could be friends, that she could explore their world and they could explore hers in peace and harmony. But she also trusted in her teacher.

“Chryasor, stay here with Pinkie and... Zai, was it? I need to talk to Princess Celestia about all this.” And with that, she hurried off back to her library. She had a letter to write.

Author's Note

In case anyone was wondering, the song Twilight sings is the first couple verses of Strange New World, from the first Equestria Girls movie. The translation isn't perfect, but it's fairly close given the limitations of this other language. I actually did better than I expected getting those few lines to rhyme.