Spectrum

Chapters

A Horse in the Dark
The Best Night Ever...
The Party and the Princess
Day's Dark Secret

A Horse in the Dark

The universe is governed by Light. It is divided into seven dimensions, each with unique spectrums and laws of physics. There is a thin veil between the second and third dimensions that has been breached several times through history. We perceive creatures of the second dimension as “drawn”—cartoons, if you will. Portals between our worlds are created by “excited spectrums,” or electrified visible light. This is most often accomplished when rainbows are struck by lightning.

Of course, I didn’t know any of that when I started watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I had no idea that the animated ponies I found myself adoring were real, as were all their fantastic adventures. I certainly wished they were real, but that they truly, actually existed never crossed my mind. And I definitely didn’t think it was possible for a rainbow to be struck by lightning. After all, I knew rainbows were not substantial, but rather a visual phenomenon caused by a prismatic separation of the seven wavelengths of visible light.

I’m no scientist, though. Whenever I saw a rainbow, all I thought of was my second favorite pegasus. I had to learn about the wave properties of light during my second semester of college, the same period I discovered the magic of MLP. I was never a closet brony: I put a picture of Fluttershy on my iPhone lock screen, my Facebook Timeline header showed the ponies defeating Night Mare Moon, and I told everyone I met to watch at least the first two episodes. I was delighted by the show’s originality, morality, hilarity, and lovability of the characters. I learned from Twilight’s letters, related with Rarity’s vanity, danced with Pinkie Pie’s parties, squealed at Fluttershy’s outbursts, basked in Rainbow Dash’s awesomeness, and adored Applejack’s accent. I had always hated Southern speak, but Applejack somehow made it tolerable—even likable.

I was a better man from watching and loving Friendship is Magic. I knew that, and no amount of snickers or guffaws could shake my obsession. I watched the two available seasons in a matter of days, immersing myself in the incredible online community as much as possible. Those wonderful ponies changed my life during my freshman year, but I had no idea how far that change would extend.

It all started when I read “My Little Dashie,” to date my favorite FiM fanfic. It brought tears to my eyes and hope to my heart. Love and friendship was everywhere: we just had to be open to the possibilities and find it.

I Googled the story, looking for written reactions of bronies who shared my emotions. And that’s when I found him. He called himself Doctor Dash, and he was convinced “My Little Dashie” was a true story. That seemed ridiculous to me at the time I read his blog. The story spanned over fifteen years, ending in about 2025. It being 2012, the “true story” hypothesis was just plain ultra-brony silliness.

Before I left his blog, however, I decided to scan over his bio. Turned out he lived on a little farm less than two hours south of my college. As soon as Finals were over—I got B’s in most of my classes, as expected—I decided to pay “Doctor Dash” a visit. After all, I was a new brony, and meeting someone as dedicated as him would probably be fun and beneficial for me.

The house could be aptly described as “in the middle of nowhere.” Doctor Dash had certainly distanced himself from civilization. As I approached the tilted shack in the middle of an enormous field of dirt, I noticed a large, well-maintained garden of various fruits and vegetables growing beside it. Did Doctor Dash grow his own food out here? I started to question my visit.

Fate, it seems, rules through the entire universe. It is an inter-dimensional force that acts on all intelligent creatures, people and ponies alike. As I drove cluelessly down that narrow dirt road, dark clouds rolled into the clear blue sky, hiding the glorious sun. Suddenly, the upper window of the Doctor’s shack flew open and a football-sized diamond attached to a silvery balloon jumped into the open air, rocketing toward the rumbling clouds overhead.

Surprised and interested, I parked my car on the road, still a hundred yards from the house, and stepped into the dirt field. I stared up into the sky, following the flying crystal’s path. A light rain started to darken the earth as I walked farther from my car, absentmindedly staying beneath the balloon. Before long it vanished from sight, rising so close to the looming storm cloud I couldn’t find it.

“Hey!” I heard a distant shout and turned in the direction of the shack. A figure was leaning out the opened upper window, waving his arms frantically. “Hey! Get out of here!”

Now I know that’s what he said. At the time it sounded like a greeting of some sort. I thought the enthusiastic waving was welcoming, and I waved back innocently.

The lightning struck my uplifted hand. It didn’t hurt, which immediately surprised me. I was sort of frozen in place, but I had enough mobility to tilt my head back.

A stream of almost fluid lightning was suspended high in the sky. Apparently it had hit the prism because the bolt split into seven colored streaks of electricity midair. Those seven bolts were wriggling like tent ropes in a windstorm, stemming from the overhead diamond and spreading out over the field chaotically as if staked to the dirt.

The yellow bolt had connected with me, and I watched in confused terror as the other streaks snaked closer. As the spectrum closed in around me, each bolt’s color grew brighter; when they came together into a single stream, I was being painlessly electrocuted by a brilliant rainbow. And then, just as suddenly as it had struck, it exploded in a burst of blinding white, and the world around me disappeared.

* * *

Darkness. The purple scar of the lightning’s flash danced inside my eyes, whipping back and forth across the blackness in front of me. I blinked several times, trying to get rid of the spot.

“What the heck just happened?” I mumbled to myself.

“Aah! It talks!” a high-pitched voice squealed. I heard the unmistakable clop of hooves on wood.

I was somehow sitting on the ground against a wall. Instinctively, I reached down and touched the surface by my shoe. It felt like a smooth, hardwood floor, though I felt some soft crumbs as well. As I realized that, I also took note of the sweet aromas drifting through the dark: frosting, freshly baked goods, and… flowers. Not flour, flowers. Fragrant, petaled flowers.

“Excuse me,” I said to the owner of the squeaky voice, “where am I?”

“What are you?” it asked, followed by more hoof noises.

“Is there a horse in here?” I asked nervously. I didn’t like the idea of being with a horse in the dark. It could squish me.

“I’m not a horse!” the voice said indignantly, followed by an intentional, loud clop. “I’m a pony! Now please tell me, what are you?”

I froze. “A… pony?” Suddenly it all clicked. I knew that voice. “Pinkie Pie!?”

She gasped loudly. “How do you know my name?”

I laughed gleefully and leapt to my feet. “Pinkie Pie! Quick, turn on the light, I want to see you!”

“What do you mean? The light is on!” I heard a weird wobbly sound, as if her lip was quivering. “WHAT IN THE NAME OF CELESTIA IS GOING ON?”

Before I could speak, I heard a door slam open to my right. The force of it knocked me back to the ground, and before she spoke I knew the newcomer’s name.

“What happened, Pinkie?” asked an adorable Southern belle.

“Applejack!” I shouted, smiling uncontrollably. I wished so badly I could see them, and began to fear the lightning had blinded me permanently.

“Whoa nelly! What is that thing?”

“I don’t know! It won’t tell me! One second it wasn’t there, and then my whole body started to wiggle and I knew another doozy was coming, and then everything turned white, and then all these little flashy sparks flew all over the room, and then this big curly rainbow loopty-looped around the floor, and then it WAS there! And it knows our names!!”

“Girls, please!” I said, holding a hand out in their direction. “I’m not scary or dangerous, I promise. My name is David. I’m a human being. I don’t know how I got here, but for some reason I can’t see anything.” I gasped, realizing a possible solution. “One of you go get Twilight. I bet she has a spell to fix my eyes!”

“He knows Twilight, too!?” Pinkie Pie screamed.

“Go on and get her, Pinkie,” Applejack commanded. “I’ll make sure he don’t go nowhere.”

Pinkie’s quick hoofsteps rushed out the door and faded into the distance. The muffled sound of a nervous crowd replaced it; I could only imagine a group of intrigued ponies gathering outside Sugarcube Corner.

“Oh, I can’t believe this is happening,” I breathed to myself, partly with joy and partly with sorrow. Could Doctor Dash have been right? Could I have been transported to Equestria? Was I really lucky enough to have landed in Ponyville? WHY COULDN’T I SEE?

Another pony pushed through the crowd and hurried into the sweet shop. “Pinkie Pie, what happened?” she asked loudly. I gasped delightedly, recognizing the barely-British tambour that belonged to Ponyville’s fabulous fashionista.

“Pinkie Pie ain’t here, Rarity,” Applejack answered. “She went to get Twi—”

“Oh my goodness! What is that thing?”

“We don’t right know yet. Hopefully Twilight has a book or two on uncommonly thick creatures.”

“I’m not thick!” I retorted, and Rarity gasped dramatically.

“It can speak!”

“But it can’t see,” Applejack added. “Not very surprisin’, given its eyes are so teeny.”

I laughed at that one. While their eyes seemed ridiculously large and adorable to me, my own pair must have seemed impossibly small.

“Perhaps we should call on Fluttershy,” Rarity suggested to her friend. “She knows about all sorts of unusual animals.”

“Maybe it’s a… scaleless, wingless dragon,” said Applejack.

“Without a snout or a tail? I don’t think so.”

“I told you, I’m a human being,” I said.

“Did you come from the Everfree Forest?” asked Rarity.

“No, I came from Earth.”

“Earth?” Applejack clarified. “As in… Earth ponies?”

“Sort of. It’s a planet. I don’t know how far it is from here.”

I started laughing again, almost maniacally. I couldn’t even listen to myself! There I was, chatting with an animated pony about the speculative distance between Earth and Equestria. It was only then that I started to doubt myself. Was I dreaming? Had the strange lightning put me in a coma? It seemed more likely than actually transporting into the world of a kid’s TV show. Then again, I had never had a dream where I was blind before…

“We’re here!” shouted Pinkie Pie, galloping through the front door at full speed. “See, Twilight? There it is! Huh, I guess it’s not quite as hideous as I was describing… actually, it’s kind of cute!”

“Oh my gosh! Is that a hairless bear?” came Twilight’s unmistakable voice.

“Perhaps it’s one of those dreadful diamond dogs in disguise!” Rarity whined.

Twilight’s unmistakable voice? Wouldn't that be Tara Strong’s unmistakable voice?

“It couldn’t be, its eyes are too small,” Applejack reminded.

Why did all of these ponies sound like they did in the cartoon? They were all played by voice actors… it wasn’t possible! None of it was possible!

“What’s happening to its face?” Twilight asked.

“I think it’s getting angry!” Pinkie supposed. “Or scared! Or… is it sad?”

It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. My joy was short-lived. These invisible ponies were nothing but figments of my overexcited imagination. I wasn’t too surprised my dreams were pony-centered, seeing that I had been watching Friendship is Magic during every spare moment over the previous few weeks. But now my excitement crumbled into disappointment, and I just wanted to wake up and leave that torturously wonderful scene.

“Girls, look! It’s crying!”

I didn’t mean to start crying, but sometimes you just can’t help it. Being so close to the ultimate dream-come-true just to realize it was only a regular-dream was too devastating to bear. I curled up into a ball against the wall I couldn’t see and sobbed, waiting to wake up and see what damage the lightning had done.

“Help it, Twilight!” Pinkie cried. “Help it see!”

“I… I don’t…” The studious pony sighed. “I’ll try.”

The sound of magic filled the air. I could feel its tingle immediately inside my head. Twilight made a little grunting noise as she concentrated, trying to restore my sight. A flicker of color passed through my vision before she stopped the spell with a tired sigh.

“No, keep going! You were so close!” I encouraged. If I was going to dream about my little ponies, I might as well be able to see them.

“Your eyes are working fine,” she tried to explain. “It’s just… your mind is all wrong.”

“What do you mean?” I asked frantically. “How do you know that?”

“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “Your eyes are trying very hard to see, but there’s something cloudy in there. Something it doesn’t understand.”

I groaned angrily, slamming my fists on the hardwood floor by my hips. “This is unfair! I’m gonna wake up any second without even seeing you!”

“Wake up?” Pinkie asked. “You’re not asleep, silly!”

“Yes I am. I’m asleep and all of you are just parts of my dream. Any moment now I’m going to wake up in a hospital bed and all of you will disappear.”

“Hospital bed?” Twilight asked. “What are you talking about?”

“The last thing I remember is being struck by rainbow-colored lightning,” I explained. “It must have knocked me out.”

“That’s what I saw!” Pinkie exclaimed, accompanied by a strange boing as she jumped up and down. “I saw rainbow lightning all over the room, and then you just appeared there!”

“Sounds like that lightning didn’t put you to sleep,” Applejack spoke up. “It must have brought you here somehow.”

“To Sugarcube Corner? Of all the places in Equestria, why would a magic bolt of lightning land me in Sugarcube Corner?”

The ponies were quiet with shock for a moment. Finally, Twilight asked, “How do you know where you are?”

“Because Pinkie Pie was in here and I can smell the cupcakes.”

“But… how do you know about Equestria? And Pinkie Pie, for that matter?”

“Oh, I know all about this place,” I said, waving my hand dismissively. “It’s pretty popular where I come from.”

“Popular?” Twilight seemed flabbergasted. “What in Equestria are you talking about?”

I sighed and dropped my face into my tucked up knees. “It’s no use trying to explain. I’ll wake up any second now.”

“Would you stop saying that? This is no dream. You’re not going to wake up,” Twilight scolded, stepping closer to me. I suddenly became nervous, trying to scoot away from her.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to try everything I can to clear your mind so you can see we’re all real and explain where you come from and exactly how you know about me and my friends.” She spoke with such authority and command that I stayed perfectly still, afraid of the consequences of refusing.

“Do you promise to explain if I find a spell to repair your sight?”

I nodded quickly, already starting to believe it was real after all. How could something in my dream be that clear and commanding?

“Good,” Twilight continued. “Then please come with us to the library.”

The Best Night Ever...

I kept my hand on the rim of her hat while Applejack led me through Ponyville behind her friends. While passing through the crowd outside Sugarcube Corner, I accidentally bumped into several curious ponies who Applejack tried to shoo away. “Now, y’all get back to yer business, y’hear? Twilight’s gonna fix him up and then we’ll bring him out for a meet’n’greet.”

I wondered if any of the ponies I could feel and hear were ones I would recognize. Despite my comparatively new fandom, I had already milked the internet for fan-named background characters. Was Lyra watching me lethargically from a bench? Was Doctor Whooves aware of my humanity? Did Derpy have any idea what was going on?

If this was all real, I thought to myself, would any of those characters even exist as bronies had imagined them? I was excited to find out how much the musings of our world reflected this one.

Finally, the cacophony of rattled ponies vanished behind the door of the library. “Spike!” Twilight called through the great hollow tree. I heard the patter of scaly footsteps as the baby dragon obediently descended the staircase.

“What is it, Twilight? What happened at—” He cut off, as did his running. “Wha… what is that thing? Why is it all… bulgy?”

Thick? Bulgy? These Equestrians sure had a warped sense of obesity. I was one of the skinniest people I knew.

“We don’t know where he’s from,” Twilight explained quickly. “He’s promised to tell us just as soon as he gets his sight back. I need you to find every book I have on eyes, optics, sight and light… whatever you think will help! Everyone, start looking!”

“Found it!” Pinkie Pie yelped within milliseconds. “Right here: Eyes, Optics, Sight and Light: A Guide to Understanding and Aiding Blindness!”

I laughed, just as I would have if that line had been in an episode. Nobody else found it very funny. Twilight’s horn buzzed with magic; she must have been holding the book open before her eyes, and she started reading immediately.

“ ‘Visible light is divided into seven spectrums,’ ” she read aloud. “ ‘Physical objects absorb and reflect various wavelengths depending on their chemical constitution, giving every material a unique and informative color.’ ”

“Not for nothin’, Twilight, but I learned all that in school. Can’t you jump to the aiding blindness section?”

“Hold on, Applejack. It says here—” (my hypersensitive ears identified the sound of her hoof tapping the page) “—that some creatures observe light beyond the visible spectrum.”

“Perhaps that is poor David’s problem,” Rarity offered.

“But I’ve seen color before,” I reminded. “Red, yellow, green, blue. You know, the rainbow. I’ve always seen in the… uh… visible spectrum, or whatever.”

“Hmm.” Twilight mumbled to herself, magically flipping through pages. “Ah-ha! This certainly looks interesting.”

“What?” I called out, accompanied by four other voices. The cartoony unison surprised me to the point of more delighted laughter.

“It says that there may be more than one visible spectrum.”

The responses were various this time around. “What?” “Huh?” “Wow!” “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“ ‘There have been records found in ancient Equestrian ruins that document interactions with creatures of unusual depth,’ ” she began, catching my full interest. “ ‘The animals, most often rabbits and other small mammals, wandered aimlessly and collided often with obvious obstacles. The magicians who studied these mysterious creatures labeled their blindness as interdimensionary, believing that their subjects originated in distant rings of the universe hosting alternative spectrums.’ ”

“Interdimensionary?” repeated Rarity.

“Distant rings of the universe?” questioned Applejack.

“Small mammals?” Pinkie Pie criticized. “Does the universe have something against large reptiles?”

“Does the book say anything about finding a cure?” I asked. “Did the magicians give the animals their sight back?”

Again, the noise of fluttering pages preceded an answer. “Why, yes it does! It looks like Star Swirl the Bearded himself once restored sight to what he recorded as a ‘particularly rotund robin’. He even wrote down the spell!”

I took a few cautious steps in her direction. “Try it! Try it!”

Twilight whimpered. “It looks terribly difficult. I don’t know if I can perform something this complicated on such short notice.”

“Please just try it!” I exclaimed desperately.

She sighed. “All right,” she submitted sheepishly, and ordered me to sit down and stay still. I obeyed, kneeling restlessly on one of the library’s woven rugs. Suddenly, I felt a round, ivory-like point on my hairline and dropped my jaw as I realized Twilight Sparkle’s horn was pressed against my head. The mystical sound of active magic buzzed through my skull and I started to quiver uncertainly. The noise grew louder and louder until there was another great flash of white light. I yelped at the painful exposure and covered my eyes with my hands.

Twilight backed away, breathing heavily.

“What happened, Twilight?” Applejack asked with concern.

“It was like his eyes were searching for the wrong thing,” she nearly whispered, “like they were trying to capture the wrong kind of light.”

“Did you fix it?” Pinkie Pie asked shrilly.

“I think so,” Twilight said hopefully and turned back to me. “Uncover your eyes. Can you see us now?”

Nervously, I lowered my hands, keeping my eyelids shut tight. They were pink with sunlight; no more grueling blackness. Hesitantly, I popped my right eye open, waiting for the pupil to perfectly adjust.

There they stood: four confused ponies and a dumbstruck purple dragon, staring at me with their giant, sparkling eyes tilted in confounded expressions. My left eye flew open to join its brother in focusing on each one individually: Pinkie Pie, gaping with anticipation; Rarity, irises small with distress; Applejack, holding her hat over her heart; Spike, wringing his tail between his claws; and Twilight, hunched with exhaustion, biting her lip uncertainly.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” I rattled off, jumping back to my feet and grinning wildly.

Pinkie Pie giggled. “You sound like Rainbow Dash!”

“Rainbow Dash!” I squealed, bouncing up and down with all my renewed energy. Everything was too clear for it to be a dream: the inside of the Ponyville Library looked exactly as it did in the show, but every book and shelf and table was tangibly there in front of me. I could barely explain the scene in my own mind, though I was especially excited about my perspective. My view of the room wasn’t limited to the camera’s—I could look around freely and soak in every corner.

“This is unreal!” I shouted, spinning on my heels to see the whole room. “No… it is real!” I didn’t quite understand how it was possible for everything to look animated, but it did. How could I stand inside a drawn tree with a bunch of drawn, pastel ponies? Conversing with them? Receiving magic spells from them?

Who cares? I was in Equestria! I had bridged the gap between our world and every brony’s dreamland! I had never been so happy in my entire life.

“Please, calm down!” Twilight urged, catching me by the thigh with her hoof. She was about three and half feet tall and rose to the center of my torso. I was amazed that we could interact so normally. Scenes from Who Framed Roger Rabbit bounced around my mind as I listened to the purple pony’s plea. “Now you have to explain how you already know so much about us.”

I swallowed hard, unsure if I should tell the truth or make something up. Unintentionally, I glanced at Applejack. Her great green eyes glimmered with genuine interest. As I stared into them, I couldn’t help but remember her Element of Harmony. If I was going to be friends with these ponies, I had to be honest with them.

“I’ll tell you everything I know,” I promised, “but it might take a while. Are you sure you want me to start right now, or would you rather have everybody hear it?”

“Everybuddy?” Pinkie asked, giggling uninhibitedly. “That’s a silly word!”

I chuckled at myself, scolding the weakness of my undeveloped bronyism. “Sorry… I meant everypony.”

***

After some constructive debate, Twilight reluctantly agreed to postpone my explanation until everypony was present. And dear little Pinkie Pie was adamant that it be absolutely everpony. In true Pinkie fashion, she loudly decided to host a town party dedicated to my arrival that very night. I was flattered, if not very surprised, and could hardly say a word as I watched her zoom about the library excitedly, describing her mental vision of the near-future party’s décor. Rarity suddenly became fascinated with my clothes, and on her request I bumbled my way through the definitions of “shirt” and “pants”, unable to take my eyes off her stunning violet mane.

“Somepony ought to inform Princess Celestia,” Twilight pointed out. “She’ll certainly be interested in a sentient being from another dimension.”

Like I’ve said, I really didn’t understand dimensions at the time—neither did Twilight—but I was too absorbed in the first half of her statement to ponder them. “Princess Celestia? The Princess Celestia? Ruler of Equestria? Raiser of the sun?”

“Of course!” Twilight confirmed, smirking. “I’m eager to find out how you know her already.”

“We’ll have to wait until she gets here!” Pinkie’s sing-songy voice drifted from across the room. Twilight groaned.

“Then we’d better invite her immediately. Spike, take a letter!”

As her assistant penned the detailed invitation, I went over the individual parts of my slip-on shoes with Rarity. As he wrote, Spike seemed jealous of the personal attention, shooting me several spiteful glances… but I very well could have been making that up. A large part of my mind was still distracted by the prospect of meeting the glorious alicorn. I could already envision her ever-flowing mane, and pled with my brain’s filters to block any giggle-inducing Trollestia memes while I was in her presence. I wanted to impress the regal pony; since her appearance at the end of the second episode, I had harbored a special affinity for her appearance, wisdom, and playful personality.

The party was to be held in and around Sugarcube Corner, according to Pinkie’s endless string of details. “…and we’ll have Rainbow Dash pull a big cloud above the store and we’ll hang your banner there so everpony in Ponyville will see it and come to the party as soon as they can, and we’ll hang streamers and I’ll bring out all the balloons I blew up last night, and I’ll help Mrs. Cake and Applejack prepare all sorts of super delicious sugary dishes…”

I interrupted her there, leaving Rarity at a table to magically examine my Vans. “Hold on, Pinkie Pie,” I started with a tremendous grin at just addressing the curly ball of energy, “there’s something you should probably know about humans. We can’t eat flowers or grass or hay or… well, anything like that, really.”

Pinkie’s eyes grew even wider—or perhaps her irises narrowed. I couldn’t quite tell, she was still halfway across the main room. Suddenly, with a speedy whoosh, she was right in my face, startling me so badly that I almost fell over backward.

“Well, then, what do humans eat? Gemstones?”

“No, I’ll leave that for Spike,” I said, winking at the nearby dragon. I wanted to stay on his good side, and all that time with Rarity had probably put him off. “We eat meat and bread and fruit and vegetables—”

“Meat?” Rarity asked from behind me, her voice warbling with fear. “As in… the carcasses of animals?”

I froze nervously. “No, no, no!” I immediately denied, turning to face her. “Well… actually, yes, I guess that’s about right. But not every kind of animal, just… just pigs and cows and…”

“Cows!?” cried Applejack. “You eat dead cows?”

Rarity fainted. I started to panic.

“No, Applejack, please! In my world, cows can’t speak like they can here. They aren’t friendly or even intelligent. They’re there to be eaten.” I smacked myself in the forehead, angry at how stupid I was sounding. “And we don’t just rip them apart and eat them. We cook the meat first to make sure it doesn’t have—”

“You cook dead cows?” Applejack nearly screamed.

I groaned and covered my face with my hands. “No, it’s not like that. I’m just… I’m trying to be honest with all of you, I don’t want to make friends by lying. I promise, where I come from, it’s very normal and customary and even healthy to eat the right amount of meat.” I perked up, finding Pinkie Pie to my left and looking sincerely into her glimmering eyes. “But I would never eat an animal in Equestria. Never ever ever! I know they’re different here, that they have hearts and minds and friends and family. Please, you have to understand, I…”

“Okee dokee lokee!” Pinkie Pie said cheerily, flashing me a genuine smile. “Don’t worry, David, I totally understand! You probably think it’s awful that we eat flowers!” Her expression dropped comically into one of terror. “Do humans eat cupcakes?”

I shuddered, trying to heave the immediate images from my mind. Not all fan fiction was true, I reminded myself, especially the deranged kind. “Yeah, yeah,” I finally answered, donning a weak smile. “We definitely eat cupcakes. Normal ones, just like you. No meat.”

Pinkie beamed. “Then I’ll make lots and lots of those!” she decided. “We’re going to have the best party ever!” As she bounced away, I thought I heard her mutter to herself, “Hmm… meat cupcakes…” but hoped desperately I was wrong.

To redirect my mind, I turned to Applejack. She was attending to the fallen Rarity lying dramatically on her conjured red fainting couch. Instinctively, I hurried over to help.

“I’m sorry, Applejack,” I said quietly, lifting her little white-coated friend into a sitting position. “I didn’t mean to… I mean, I hope you don’t think…”

“Oh, David, don’t you worry about that,” she said, patting my back with her hoof as I was bent over Rarity. “I’m sure it’ll take a right while before we all understand one another, being from different rings of the universe and all.” She chuckled at herself; I was glad that I wasn’t the only one who found the phrase amusing. “But I can promise you right here and now that I will not judge you for anything you did before coming to Ponyville. I only ask that now you do your best to fit yourself to the way we do things.” Rarity twitched and Applejack rubbed the top of her head fondly. “Can’t say the same for this’n, I’m afraid.”

I sighed happily, grateful for her understanding. “I will do my best, Applejack. I promise. And please let me know if I do anything, uh… unacceptable. By pony standards.”

“Will do, partner,” Applejack said with a hearty laugh, and I felt like I had firmly forged my first Equestrian friendship. While she revived Rarity, I thought forward to the party, to meeting all the ponies, to bowing before Princess Celestia. As my smile reached its widest limits, I knew without a doubt that this was going to be the best night ever.

Or, at least, I thought I knew.

The Party and the Princess

Apparently I had arrived in Ponyville mid-morning, because the party took a full day to set up. As much as I wanted to associate with the ponies and tour the streets of Ponyville, Pinkie Pie insisted I stay inside the library until it started that night. Not wanting to upset my eccentric host, I sat in Twilight Sparkle’s upstairs room and silently watched the decorations unfold down the street from the round window above her bed. She didn’t want anypony to see me before everypony got to see me, and when I tried to remind her that a large crowd had already watched Applejack guide me from the Corner to the library, she shushed me and raced back to make sure Pound Cake didn’t climb into the oven again.

As I watched her gallop down the road, my eyes were redirected by a fluffy cloud in the distance. It was being pushed closer to the corner by two winged ponies; even as they approached, I didn’t recognize either pegasus. I thought I remembered Pinkie saying something about Rainbow Dash doing that job, and I wondered where the most awesome pony in Equestria could be. I was a little downtrodden that I hadn’t met either of the leading pegasus ponies. Fluttershy had always been my favorite, anyway. And Rainbow Dash was so cool! So while my gut twitched with anticipation, I took deep, patient breaths and hoped our introductions were soon to come.

I was the only person in the library for several hours. Everyone else, including Spike, was helping prepare the party. To pass the time, I resorted to reading some of the books in Twilight’s room, though I was much more fascinated with their appearance than the words inside. The books truly looked animated; they had sharp lines of various colors outlining them from every angle. Riveted, I picked up a volume on the floor and turned it over in my hands, thumbing through the pages. It felt like a book; it had weight and volume and even depth to the touch, but my eyes perceived the thing as totally flat. Drawn. I started feeling dizzy after a while and had to lay down on Twilight’s bed, somewhat disturbed that it could support me at all.

I must have fallen asleep—I learned later than interdimensional travel was exhausting, but I had been too excited about my new surroundings to notice—and was shaken awake by none other than Pinkie Pie. Her bright face brought a smile to mine.

“Hi, Pinkie,” I croaked.

“Come on, David! Your party is starting!”

She helped me to my feet and we bolted down the library’s stairs together, hurrying out the front door. Her excitement was radiant and contagious, not that I needed any encouragement. Finally, I was going to meet every pony in Ponyville!

The crowd was truly enormous, blossoming from Sugarcube Corner and spilling into several adjacent streets. A wave of excitement passed through it as Pinkie led me hurriedly through the sea of three-foot ponies. My height, though average on Earth, made me an easy target for the sparkling eyes of my party’s attendees. They seemed more shocked that frightened at my appearance, and I was glad for that. The sun had started to set and my adjusting eyes could barely pick out colors or cutie marks; I didn’t identify any of the waiting ponies.

“Where are we going, Pinkie?” I asked the one in front of me.

“Inside!” she shouted over her shoulder. “We’ll start you off there!”

I wondered what she meant but decided to wait and see. Finally, we made it through the buzzing crowd and reached Ponyville’s confectionary. The inside was lit from above and I immediately spotted Applejack’s hat amidst the packed crowd of talkative ponies inside. They silenced immediately as I stooped through the front door. Pinkie rose onto her hind legs and tossed her free hooves into the air.

“It’s party time!” she yelled, and a mess of confetti and streamers exploded from every square foot of the walls and ceiling. Loud, bassy music blasted from speakers just outside the shop, and the crowd outside roared with approval. They started to dance and laugh amongst themselves; the ponies inside did the same, though most eyes stayed locked on me. To my relief, their faces expressed only interest, no fear or confusion. Maybe Twilight had explained her findings while I was asleep.

Thinking of Twilight, I glanced around the room for the ponies I knew the best. Applejack’s hat jumped out at me again and I waded apologetically through the throng of colorful equines to the back of the store where she stood. As I approached, I noted the whole gang had gathered by the counter, behind which stood Mr. and Mrs. Cake. I waved to them excitedly; the yellow stallion waved back and shouted something to me, drowned out by the party’s noise.

I waited until I was much closer to ask for a repeat. “I said,” Carrot Cake boomed with a smile, “it’s so good to have you here! We welcome every creature from every corner to sugar up at Sugarcube!”

I laughed and thanked him, squeezing past another couple of unfamiliar ponies to reach my freckled friend’s flank.

“Hi, Applejack!” I called out. She turned around and grinned at me.

“David! You found us! I don’t know what Pinkie was thinkin’, tryin’ to cram every pony in town together in this little place. We should’o’ held your party at Sweet Apple Acres!”

“I can’t wait to visit!” I said enthusiastically. “Granny Smith is a legend, Applebloom is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen, and everybody loves Big Macintosh!”

Applejack’s pupils shrunk nervously. “Boy… Twilight’s right to be a mite curious. You sure do know a thing or two more about my family than I expected.”

I winced. “Sorry, Applejack. I promise it’ll all make sense in a minute, whenever Pinkie Pie has me explain.”

As soon as I said it, I doubted my own conviction. How was I going to explain the show? Or even TV, for that matter? I thought back to “My Little Dashie,” remembering the filly’s detrimental reaction to discovering her image on the Hub. Would my new friends respond in the same way? I certainly didn’t want to cause a commotion, but I needed to tell the truth. I had a hard time enjoying myself at the party after that, fearing the moment when Pinkie would say—

“Listen up, everypony!”

The music stopped and her enormous audience turned towards the booming voice. It had come from outside. I followed the indoor crowd on their migration to join those in the streets looking up at the roof of Sugarcube Corner. Doing the same, I spotted Pinkie Pie in the upper cupcake’s balcony beaming down at us with Twilight at her side. Her horn was glowing with magic, as was Pinkie’s throat, and I assumed they were amplifying her voice to reach all of Ponyville.

Behind the pair, above even the rooftop, was the cloud I had seen positioned earlier that day. From it hung a gigantic banner that read “Party Time, Every Buddy!” Despite my nervousness, I couldn’t stifle an amused smile.

“We have a very special guest with us today,” Pinkie continued, squinting to scan the darkness. Just then, Luna’s magnificent moon began to break from the horizon. It was much larger than the moon I grew up admiring, and its glow bathed the land in a soft, helpful light.

“There he is!” shouted Pinkie, pointing at me with one of her front hooves. “Bring him up, Twilight!”

The rosy aura of Twilight’s powers surrounded my whole body. I tensed up at the unfamiliar tingle dancing over my skin and clothes, panicking even more as it lifted me off the ground. Glancing below at thousands of smiling ponies, I hoped desperately they would be understanding. What if they didn’t like what I said? What if there was a riot? Were they going to tar and feather me and chase me into the Everfree Forest? How in the world was I supposed to survive an attack from a manticore or an ursa minor? Maybe Zecora would find pity on me…

My thoughts raced around my cloudy head like a Rainbow Dash routine—where was that colorful pony?—as Twilight set me down between her and Pinkie Pie on the roof of the Corner, eager for my address.

“This is David,” Pinkie Pie continued. “He’s a human, from another dimension!”

The crowd’s oohs and ahs were humorously in sync.

“And somehow,” Twilight Sparkle added, amplifying her own voice as well, “he already knows all about Ponyville and Equestria and everypony in it!”

“Not everypony…” I mumbled anxiously. Twilight’s tone was almost angry.

“So we’ve brought you all together—”

“To party!” Pinkie interrupted.

“No!” Twilight shouted before the crowd got any ideas. “To hear David’s promised explanation.” She turned to me with an intimidating smirk. “So go on, human. How do you know so much about our world?”

I swallowed hard, frozen with fear. I didn’t want to be tarred and feathered!

Suddenly, the cloud above our heads exploded into hundreds of cottony tufts. Pinkie’s custom banner ripped in half and Rainbow Dash herself posed spectacularly in midair. Most of the ponies below cheered enthusiastically at her stunts.

“Sorry, gang,” she yelled without Twilight’s magic. Her scratchy voice was loud enough to reach every listening ear. “I had already hit the sack for the night. Didn’t even see the party until a couple minutes ago. Pinkie Pie, what’s the big occa—”

She turned around, flapping her wings lethargically, and looked down at the three of us standing on the balcony. Her jaw snapped shut and her pupils shrunk as she narrowed in on me. And almost immediately, I understood her shock.

She recognized me. She knew what I was. “My Little Dashie” was a true story, and its narrator’s final speculations were right: Princess Celestia had allowed Rainbow to keep her memories of her fifteen years on Earth, but erased everyone else’s.

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight scolded. “Please take your place with the others. This creature arrived in Ponyville today, and he was just about to explain how his world already knows about ours.”

I saw a lump travel down Rainbow Dash’s throat as she fluttered uncertainly to the ground, her front legs quivering. I couldn’t imagine what she was feeling; I only knew that I felt absolutely terrible for indirectly giving rise to those suppressed memories of her human dad.

“Uh…” I started, unable to take my eyes off Rainbow Dash pawing miserably at the ground. “Well… see, there’s this…”

I cleared my throat. Apparently Twilight was using her magic to increase my volume, too, because the ponies were startled by the grunt’s volume. I apologized quickly and opened my mouth to just start spilling details when Pinkie’s tremendous gasp caught me off guard.

“Where’s Fluttershy?” she asked. I scanned the crowd eagerly, hoping to see my favorite pony, but the lovely yellow mare was nowhere to be seen.

“Pinkie Pie! Just let him talk, will you?” Twilight yelled agitatedly.

“No!” Pinkie defiantly denied. “We decided that everypony should be here for David’s explanation, and unless you don’t think Fluttershy is a pony, she needs to be here.”

Twilight’s teeth ground together furiously. “Okay! Somebody go get Fluttershy!” She whipped a hoof in Rainbow Dash’s direction. “Rainbow, drag her over here, now!”

“Gladly,” Rainbow said, crouching for just a moment before taking off through the streets of Ponyville. She disappeared from sight before I could determine which direction Fluttershy’s cottage was. A gentle murmur spread through the ponies below. Many of them shot me speculative glances. I hoped Twilight’s hostility wasn’t rubbing off on too many of them.

“Twilight,” I whispered at the pony. She glared at me with fiery eyes. “I don’t know why you’re so mad at me, but will you please give me a chance to explain myself before you turn all these ponies against me? I’m sorry that it’s so confusing, but I’m not here to hurt anyone. I just want to… you know… be friends.”

It wasn’t exactly what I had wanted to say, but it seemed to strike the right chord with the violet unicorn. She looked stunned for a moment, more at herself than at me, and bowed her head with a heavy sigh. “You’re right, David,” she admitted admirably. “I get so worked up when I don’t understand something. I should have learned from that time travelling incident.”

I laughed heartily. “That was hilarious! You looked really cool with a spiked up mane and an eye-patch, though.”

She lifted her head and furrowed her brow just as I caught my mistake. “Sorry,” I whispered. “I promise, it’ll all make sense as soon as—”

“Fluttershy’s here!” Pinkie yelled, bouncing on the balcony. The pair of pegasi hurried above the rooftops and quickly took their places at the front of the crowd. I was stunned for a moment, overjoyed at the kindest of ponies below. Fluttershy had been my favorite pony since the very first episode. I wasn’t a particularly shy person, but her humility and caution was just so adorable to me. Twilight snapped me out of my trance with a sharp poke in the thigh with her horn.

“Yaoh! Oh, yeah, I guess we’re all ready then.” I gave a half-hearted chuckle and drew in a deep breath, suspending it in my lungs as I formed my first sentence mentally. Then, in a torrent of somewhat pre-organized thoughts, I wove my honest, pony-tailored explanation.

“I come from a world that’s a lot like this one, but we humans are the only creatures that can think or speak like you. There are no monsters or dragons, the weather controls itself, and magic doesn’t exist.”

Maybe it was the dramatic wording, or the just the concept itself, but that last detail sent the crowd into a flurry of amazement. “No magic!?” I heard from several mouths below.

“Instead of magic,” I continued loudly, regaining their attention, “we use science and machines to make work easier.” I noticed Twilight brighten from the corner of my eye. “One of these machines is called a television. It’s a flat screen of glass, like a window in a box, that shows moving pictures. People like me use special cameras to capture whole stories, like plays, and put them inside the box for millions of other people to watch in their houses.”

Worriedly, I looked over my audience, hoping to see some encouraging nods. To my relief, most of the ponies seemed to following; some of them were whispering among themselves, trying to expound their understanding to their slower friends. The only pony with a truly unique reaction was Rainbow Dash—but she already knew about TV. She was staring dejectedly at the sky. I tried to ignore her sorrow and continue my speech.

“We call these moving picture stories television shows. One of these shows is called My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It’s about… you. All of you. Mostly Twilight Sparkle and what she learns about friendship from her five best friends. There are tons of people who love this show and watch every new story. I’m one of those fans, and that’s how I know so much about you. But that’s all I know. I didn’t know any of you were real; I thought you were just a cartoon on my television.”

“But wait a minute,” Pinkie Pie asked with a hoof to her chin. “How did a show about us get inside your sciency box without us even knowing about it?”

Concerned agreements rose from below.

“I don’t know, Pinkie,” I admitted earnestly. “I wish I knew. I’m just as confused about the whole thing. But as long as I’m here in Ponyville, I want you all to be my friends. And I learned from your show that being honest—” I shot a glance at Applejack, who gave me an appreciative smile. “—is the only way to make real friendships.”

There was silence for a long time. I turned my head to Twilight. She looked just as confused as earlier, although far less hostile. She had no instructions for me, so I leaned over the balcony and yelled to my listeners, “So, that’s the reason I know so much. I’m sure it’s still doesn’t make much sense. Does anypony have a question?”

Before they could respond, a voice from afar shook the balcony on which we stood. “TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” it bellowed. All eyes swiveled toward the mountain where Canterlot hung precariously. Approaching the gathering at speeds to rival Rainbow Dash was the most gallant, magnificent equine I had ever seen: Princess Celestia, enchanted mane flowing at her side, great white wings carrying her regal frame through the crisp night sky. The ponies around and below me bowed at her presence. I dropped to my knees as well, trying to slow my heartbeat.

The princess landed on the street with enough force to leave a small crater in the dirt. She snorted like an agitated horse and stomped toward the Corner.

“Twilight Sparkle!” she called again. I recognized the fury in her voice now. “Bring that creature down here at once!”

I had never seen or heard the princess get angry before. The only comparable moment I could conjure was when she scolded Twilight for accusing evil Cadance, but even then her tone had been gentle. According to the expressions of surprise and terror on her subjects’ faces, I was not the only one surprised at Celestia’s rage.

Frantically, Twilight wrapped me in her magic and tossed me over the banister. I landed roughly before the princess’s feet. By the shuffle of hooves behind me, I guessed the crowd was watching from a good thirty feet away.

I was still on my knees and beginning to shiver as I timidly lifted my gaze to meet Celestia’s. Her visible right eye seethed with fury and her lips were pursed to the point of bruising one another. Startlingly, Twilight galloped up to my side and knelt before the princess, touching her horn against the ground by her gold-encased hooves.

“Princess… Celestia,” she said between gasps. She must have run through Sugarcube Corner at top speeds to be this tired.

“My student,” Celestia nearly growled between gritted teeth. “What is the meaning of this?”

Twilight rose from her bow with tilted eyebrows. “Of what, Princess?”

“What is he doing here!?” she shrieked, pounding her hoof violently.

Twilight’s knees began to shake with fear; the gleam of her eyes quivered with emotion. “I… I don’t know, Princess. He appeared this morning in Sugarcube Corner—”

“He just appeared? Out of thin air? You did nothing to summon him?”

“No, Princess!” Twilight cried, taking a sincere step toward her revered teacher. “I had nothing to do with it! Pinkie was the only witness.”

With a sharp twist of her neck, the princess narrowed her eye at Pinkie Pie, standing frozen on the balcony. Celestia seemed to think better questioning the random pony and turned instead to me.

“Human,” she addressed me sickened sneer. “How did you enter my domain?”

“Princess, please understand, I’m not trying to hurt anyone—”

“How did you do it?” she yelled in my face, crouching to eye level. Even in her terrifying anger, her breath smelled of sweet vanilla. “How did you breach the second dimension?”

“It was an accident!” I choked past the lump of fear in my throat. “This man I didn’t know sent something into the sky, some kind of diamond. A bolt of lightning passed through it and hit me and I ended up here!”

The anger in her eye melted into worry for a moment, but returned before long.

“Your kind is not allowed in Equestria,” she hissed, rising to her full intimidating height. “You must return to your own dimension immediately.”

I didn’t know how to react. I didn’t want to leave Ponyville already! Then again, I certainly didn’t want to face Celestia’s wrath. But how would I even return?

“Says who?” Rainbow Dash’s scratchy voice interrupted my conflicting thoughts. She strode boldly to my side opposite of Twilight and glared at the princess with equal frustration.

“Excuse me?” the princess breathed menacingly.

“Who says his kind doesn’t belong here? Who says he can’t stay if he wants to? Can’t you see how happy he is to be here? What’s so wrong with that?”

“Rainbow Dash,” Celestia warned, “you of all ponies should understand. He cannot stay.”

“I of all ponies understand that he should stay! If he’s happier here than he was there, why not?”

“Because it cannot be!”

“I see him right here next to me, and the world’s not crumbling around us, is it?”

As their voices rose with their tempers, I marveled at Rainbow Dash’s advocacy. I would have thought that she would side with the princess. After all, she was ripped from a foreign dimension despite her happiness there. Why wouldn’t she want the same for someone else?

I thought back to her experience with the wild buffalo of Appleoosa. She had been quick to understand their predicament despite her initial opposition. Was this a similar case? She was the only pony who knew what I was feeling, and she was selflessly defending me from suffering her fate. We shared a strange bond, I realized at that moment: she and I were the only creatures whose hearts belonged to a dimension other than our own. We were a team in that sense, and she was loyally defending my cause.

I took strength from her courage and rose to my feet. Celestia was about six feet tall at her eyes; her lengthy horn added great prestige to her already glorious form. I was only five foot ten, but tried to be as brave as Rainbow as I stared into her eye.

“I am not a threat, Princess,” I said. “You have no reason to fear me and I have no reason to leave. I plan to stay in Equestria for as long as I like, perhaps until the day I die. And you have no reason or power to stop me.”

Even as I said it, I knew it wasn’t true. Knowing that “My Little Dashie” was true, she clearly had the ability to transport herself and six ponies between the dimensions.

Or did she? Her expressive eye betrayed her emotions, and I was certain I saw panic dance along the gleam.

“Well, then,” she said slowly as her wings began to spread, “I suppose I’ll have to take a different approach.”

With a flap of her wings, Celestia reared up onto her hind legs, aiming the front hooves as if to strike me. Most of the vast audience behind me screamed. I closed my eyes and braced for the fatal impact. Instead, something slammed into me from the right. I was lifted off my feet and flailed helpless in the air for a moment. A pair of cyan hooves slipped under my arms and my stomach flipped as we rocketed into the sky.

“Rainbow Dash!” I squeaked through shallow breaths. “What are you doing?”

“Getting us out of here!” she answered over the whipping wind just before diving toward the Everfree Forest.

Day's Dark Secret

Rainbow Dash flew far from Ponyville into the darkest regions of the forest before crashing through the upper branches, scratching my face and arms on our descent. Her powerful wings slowed us enough to safely land at the trunk of a twisted tree. I don’t know why I was so surprised to see Pinkie Pie already there squeezed between two protruding roots.

“How did you…?”

“I thought you said you knew us, David,” Rainbow joked, leaning against the trunk to catch her breath. “I may be the fastest pony in Equestria, but Pinkie Pie makes the least sense.”

The frizzy pony beamed and pulled herself from the wood with a loud pop. “Are you okay, David?” she asked, donning a genuinely concerned look. “I’ve never seen the princess get so angry before. I hope she didn’t hurt you!”

“Not physically,” I said, patting Pinkie’s mane affectionately. “I was so excited to meet her, though. I can’t believe she acted like that.”

Pinkie gasped. “Maybe she’s actually the Queen of the Changelings!”

“Or maybe all those Trollestia memes are right on the money. Eh, David?” Rainbow Dash winked and plopped onto the ground to rest.

I sat on a stump across from the pegasus, unable to take my eyes off her as she pulled twigs and leaves from her feathers with her teeth.

“So it is true,” I said. “You really did live on Earth for fifteen years.”

Rainbow spit out the debris in her mouth and looked at me with shock. “You know about that, too?”

“It’s a pretty popular story with us bronies,” I said with a smirk. “I didn’t think any of it was real, though.”

“How did it get on the internet?” she asked, exasperated.

I shrugged. “I have no idea. It doesn’t make sense. The story would have to be from the future.” With a heavy sigh, I picked a cartoon pebble from the ground and rolled in between my fingers fascinatedly. “None of this makes any sense.”

“And that’s why I like it!” Pinkie exclaimed, standing right next to me. “Don’t worry, David. I’m on your side, thick or thin!” She poked me on the word thick and herself on the word thin, laughing shrilly at her own pun. Rainbow and I laughed, too, more at Pinkie’s reaction than her joke.

“I need to thank you, Pinkie Pie,” I said. She turned to me with an adorably surprised expression and asked, “For what?”

“For lots of things,” I started. “For the party, most recently. But also for being so happy all the time. And for all the great songs you’ve written. They really helped me out during some pretty… dark times… in my life.”

It was true. One of the reasons I latched onto Friendship is Magic when I did was due to its goodness. In an otherwise dismal world, it was a source of laughter and happiness. It was a ray of light, a beacon of hope during an otherwise very difficult time for me.

“Whenever I felt scared or uncertain about what would happen,” I told the pink pony, “I would sing your very first song. Or, the first one on the show, anyway.”

“Pinkie, you gotta stand up tall, learn to face your fears!” she sang, beaming with pride.

“Yes!” I confirmed with a delighted laugh. “That’s the one!”

“Sing it with me, David!” she encouraged, placing her hooves on my lap and leaning up toward my eyes. “Please, oh please, oh please sing it with me!”

“Can we do this later?” Rainbow asked, just as music began to drift through the wood. I glanced around for a source of the noise; it seemed to be coming from everywhere at once.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“When I was a little filly and the sun was going dooooown!” Pinkie sang to the music, twirling around on her hind legs. “Your turn!”

“The darkness and the shadows, they would always make me frooooown,” I sang timidly, still trying to identify the source.

“You got it!” Pinkie encouraged before bursting into the next line. “I’d hide under my pillow from what I thought I saw, but Grammy Pie said that wasn’t the way to deal with fears at all!”

Struck with the spirit of the moment, Rainbow Dash offered her own line in the song with a smile and an eye roll: “Then what is?”

“She said…”

I took over, rising to my feet. “Pinkie, you gotta stand up tall, learn to face your fears!”

“You’ll see that they can’t hurt you…” Pinkie sang, and together we crooned the next line: “Just LAUGH and make them disappear!”

The music continued as we toppled over with laughter, rolling on the leafy ground. Even Rainbow Dash cackled with glee, pointing a ridiculing hoof at our silliness. Once again I was electrified with the wonderful reality of it all: I was singing with Pinkie Pie herself! Happy tears leaked from my eyes as we finished the song loudly, bouncing around the forest like sugar-crazed children. I had never felt such indescribable joy.

The music faded away and the three of us sat against the massive tree trunk, recovering from our gut-wrenching laughter.

“Thank you, too, Rainbow Dash,” I said gratefully, “for saving me from Celestia.”

“No problem, David,” she said, tease-punching me in the shoulder with her hoof. “I always look out for a friend, even brand new ones.”

“Now what do we do?” Pinkie asked in a much livelier tone than I thought appropriate.

I wrung my hands together anxiously. “I don’t know, Pinkie. We have to find a way to convince Princess Celestia to let me stay, I guess.”

Rainbow guffawed. “Like that’s gonna happen! I say we get Spike to grow huge again and have him throw Celestia into Tartarus.”

I realized only then that I was with the two least capable ponies when it came to problem-solving. If we were going to come up with a plausibly helpful plan, it was up to me.

“Seems like what we have to do first,” I noted, hoisting myself up from the trunk and pacing the area thoughtfully, “is find out why Celestia is so keen to get me out of here.”

“Isn’t that obvious? She hates anypony to be happy.”

“I don’t think that’s true, Rainbow Dash. You might have a slightly biased opinion there.”

Rainbow snorted indignantly, but didn’t disagree.

“Then let’s spy on her!” Pinkie suggested enthusiastically.

“How?” Rainbow retorted. “She’s Princess Celestia, Pinkie Pie. She’s the most powerful pony in Equestria! She sent her sister to the moon!”

“I don’t think Celestia is as powerful as she’d have us believe,” I offered quietly. My companions’ pupils shrunk as they waited for me to continue. “In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think Celestia isn’t that powerful at all. Have you ever seen her do anything Twilight can’t do? Or even some of the things Twilight can do? Whenever there’s a problem, she sends your group to fix it.”

“Because we’re connected to the Elements of Harmony,” Pinkie acknowledged wisely. I felt my own eyes grow wide with realization.

“Of course! It’s the Elements that have the power, not Princess Celestia. Without them, she’s just another alicorn. That’s why she brought all of you along to get to Earth. That’s why she can’t send me back without your consent, Rainbow. The Elements feed her power. No… the Elements were her power.”

“But I wasn’t there when she traveled to the third dimension,” Rainbow reminded.

I bit my lip in thought for a moment and snapped my fingers when it clicked. “You weren’t connected to Loyalty anymore,” I realized. “When the accident happened, it reversed your age, remember? You must have lost your connection to that Element. Princess Celestia was using it until Twilight gave you all your memory and experience back. Without all six on her side, Celestia’s powers are as basic as Rarity’s.”

“But she raises the Sun, David!” Another good point from Rainbow Dash. “That must take an awesome amount of power.”

I grunted and kicked at the ground with my shoe. “I don’t know, girls. It just seems to me like she’s hiding something.”

“Then let’s go spy on her, for goodness’ sake!” Pinkie said again. “I’m sure she’s with Twilight in the library right now! You and Rainbow Dash should sneak up and listen to their conversation. She’s sure to give something away, right?”

I looked to Rainbow Dash for her opinion. The winged pony shrugged. “Sounds like a good plan to me.”

I grinned. “Me, too. Come on, Rainbow Dash. But make sure you’re quiet.”

***

Rainbow Dash wasn’t very quiet. From the flight back to Ponyville alone, we both decided it would be impossible for her and me to successfully and undetectably reach the library. Instead, with me hanging limply from her powerful forehooves, we whisked through the night sky and stopped at Fluttershy’s cabin, hoping she had already come home.

I knocked quietly at the front door, prepared to jet at the first sign of a trap. Celestia may have already anticipated our visits to the mane six.

A soft voice whispered through the wood. “Who is it?”

“Rainbow Dash!” the pony at my side breathed loudly. “Let us in, Fluttershy! Quick!”

“U-us?”

“I’m with David! Hurry up, the princess could be anywhere!”

The yellow pony let out a little squeak. “Go away, Rainbow! I… I don’t want to get in trouble.”

“Come on, Fluttershy! We’ve been friends forever! Just do me this one favor! Pleeease!”

There was silence for a long time. Finally, the door cracked open and Rainbow dashed into the cottage. I followed quietly, especially nervous to finally meet my favorite pony under these circumstances.

She was standing behind the door, quaking with fear. Her pink hair covered most of her face; one eye focused on me for a split second and then shut tightly. I closed the door as silently as possible and knelt by the terrified pony.

“It’s all right, Fluttershy,” I whispered, reaching out my hand to gently touch her shoulder. Especially compared to Rainbow’s coarser fur, her yellow coat was short and soft, just as I had always imagined. “I don’t want there to be any trouble, either. I’m just trying to find a way to make sure everypony gets along.”

She cracked her unhidden eye open and gazed at me with a wary, shiny squint.

“I don’t want to leave Equestria,” I said in a calm, even voice. “I want to stay and learn from all these wonderful ponies, especially you. I’ve already learned a lot from you.”

Fluttershy perked up just enough for her hair to fall away from her face. “You have?”

“Yes, Fluttershy,” I said with a relieved smile. I had feared that after the princess’s decrees she would never talk to me. “I learned to be kinder to everyone around me. I learned to be brave and stand up for myself, and my friends. You taught me that it’s okay to be scared, and that as long as you face your fears with your friends, you can overcome the most terrifying and difficult obstacles.”

A flattered smile crept over the yellow pony’s mouth.

“Remember when you stood up to that dragon?” I asked. “Or when you helped Rainbow Dash get water to Cloudsdale? You weren’t the fastest pony, but you did your best, and it was more than enough. To me, you’re the bravest pony of them all. You’ve always been my favorite.” Suddenly, I remembered the iPhone in my pocket. I pulled it out and clicked the lock button, lighting up my Fluttershy background. “See? I carry you around everywhere.”

Her eyes grew wide at the picture. She pointed and asked, “Is that the window? The window in a box?”

I stifled a laugh. “Sort of. Televisions are a lot bigger. But this is the same idea. You can put any picture you want back there, and I chose one of you. Because you inspire me.”

She grinned proudly. “Wow, David. I… I don’t know what to…” She bowed her head in embarrassment. “Thank you, I mean.”

I ran my hand through her silky pink mane. “Thank you, Fluttershy.”

It was a better first meeting than anything I could have imagined. But Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to think so.

“Okay, now that we’re all through the mushy stuff,” she complained, “about that favor we need you to do.”

“A… favor?” Fluttershy’s nervousness returned quickly. I shuffled closer to her on my knees, trying to stay serious and calm.

“We think Celestia is hiding something,” I paraphrased. “Something about her powers. We need to spy on her for a while, just to see if she reveals anything helpful.”

“And I can’t sit around and listen to ponies talk forever. I get antsy and loud,” Rainbow Dash confessed with a careless shrug.

Fluttershy swallowed. “You want me? To spy on the princess?”

“With me,” I added. “We’ll be together. I know you can do it, Fluttershy. You’re perfect for the job. You can be brave for your friends, and you’re naturally quiet. She’ll never know we were there.”

“I don’t think I can do that.”

“Come on, Fluttershy! You have to! Or else she’s gonna find a way to kick David out of Equestria forever!”

I didn’t know if that was Rainbow Dash’s genuine belief or if it was a ploy to encourage Fluttershy’s participation. Either way, we eventually coaxed the pegasus to help out. In the still of night, Rainbow Dash carried both of us high into the sky to the furthest clouds.

“Where did everypony go after I grabbed David?” Rainbow Dash asked Fluttershy as we climbed.

“Princess Celestia chased you for a while,” Fluttershy relayed. “Not for long, though. She came back and yelled at Twilight. The rest of the ponies ran home, like me. I don’t know where the princess went.”

“Pinkie’s betting on the library,” Rainbow said. “I agree. Unless she took Twilight back to Canterlot with her.”

“Only one way to find out,” I said. “Fluttershy, Rainbow’s gonna drop us here. You’ll need to glide down with me and land as quietly as possible in the library’s branches. Are you ready?”

“No,” Fluttershy squeaked.

“Then you better hurry up!” Rainbow yelled, and dropped us both into the open air.

It was, up to that point, the scariest moment of my life. I had never free-fallen before; I went indoor skydiving with my dad once, but that didn’t count. Dropping like a rock toward a dark, unforgiving ground whisked away every drop of breath from my lungs. They refused to allow passage to the sweet Equestria air until Fluttershy swooped in from behind and tucked her arms beneath mine.

She wasn’t as strong as Rainbow Dash and I winced at the sounds of her strain, but she kept her wings open and out, carrying us noiselessly toward the great tree at Ponyville’s center. Just as I expected, her natural grace ensured a quiet landing amidst its branches. I flashed her a congratulatory grin before we scaled ape-like through the treetop, searching for a worthy window.

Before long, we found ourselves hugging the trunk outside Twilight’s room, peeking through the very window I used to watch the party grow. To our relief, both the malicious princess and her faithful student were directly in our sight. Pressing our ears against the wood just outside the pane of glass, we listened to their muffled conversation.

“But Princess,” Twilight was saying, “I don’t understand. Why let him escape? Why not use your magic to send him back to his world?”

Fluttershy and I exchanged disbelieving glances. Either this was too good to be true, or we had arrived just in time.

“Oh, Twilight Sparkle,” the princess sighed, turning away from her student and hanging her head sorrowfully. “If you are to help me expel him, I suppose you ought to know.”

Twilight tilted her head. “Know what, Princess?”

Celestia sighed. I thought I saw a single tear trip from her muzzle.

“The realm from which he came is not only his world,” she continued forcefully, as if every word was a wall to break down. “It is also mine.”

Twilight took several surprised steps backward. Fluttershy and I leaned away from the window; she had to use her wings to steady herself.

“Princess?” Twilight wheezed in disbelief.

“I was not born in your world, Twilight Sparkle,” the princes began, “but in his. I was created, you could say; designed by a human scientist. He was called a geneticist, I remember. But I was not the result of a dedicated experiment. I was a gift for his stupid, spoiled daughter. I won’t even pretend I remember her name. She was a rotten child, and all the ponies could sense it. She owned many of us, but I was different. I always knew I was different.

“I don’t think the scientist meant to make me so intelligent. I was designed, as far as I understand it, to be a show pony. His daughter demanded that he make her something to win every competition, and he produced me. How I hated those events; that awful little girl dragged me around in circles like some kind of new toy while humans gawked and pointed and judged me. I won several of them, somehow. But as soon as an event disqualified me—something about abnormal additions, I think—that wretched little girl thought me useless.

“Her father disagreed. I seemed to be his crowning jewel. When his daughter lost interest in those petty competitions, he took me to other sorts of shows. Thousands of humans paid money to pass by me, locked inside a cage. Word spread quickly and we traveled over much of the world. Some called me a miracle, others an unnatural freak. I was always frightened by them. Always scared… always alone.

“Then one night, when the crowds had been gone for a long time, I discovered a spectacular talent. With much concentration, I could make sparks fly out from the tip of my horn. You can’t imagine my excitement, Twilight Sparkle. In that world, there is no magic. I thought my horn was only an ‘abnormal addition.’ That it had some sort of power ignited my interest.

“With much nightly practice, those sparks became a steady streak of electricity. I didn’t know how it was possible; it certainly was not an intentional gift. But my horn could produce energy, and the more I used it, the more powerful it became. Only weeks after I discovered my talent, I used it one night to break free from my cage. By that time, the energy my horn produced was enough to blow away an entire wall of the steel prison. I was free.

“It was raining that night. I galloped through the mud of an unknown land, desperate to get as far from the scientist and his freak show as I could. I ran all through the night. When the morning came and the rain stopped, I beheld the glorious sun paint a rainbow over my head. Overjoyed, I reared up on my hind legs and released a burst of energy into the sky.

“It hit the rainbow, and with a great flash of light, the world around me disappeared. I wandered for what seemed like days in the darkness. I wondered if I had died. But, eventually, I was discovered by a group of creatures who spoke with the kindest of voices. I had never heard such harmless tones from humans, though I recognized the language. One of the voices was much lower than the others, and the kindest of them all. ‘I know this creature,’ I heard it say, and then something pressed against my forehead. And all at once, I could see.

“Before me stood a pony I would come to know as Star Swirl the Bearded. He had already encountered creatures from my dimension and learned to correct their vision, as you did with the human boy. With his magic, Star Swirl taught me to learn, to speak, and to understand as his kind did. I was much larger than the ponies in this world, but I no longer felt so alone. There were even other ponies with wings, and others with horns… but only one other with both.

“Star Swirl introduced me to Luna when she was a young filly. She was the first and only alicorn in all of Equestria. Star Swirl believed our presences were a sign. Luna’s father was never known; her mother died giving birth to her. Despite our different appearances, we were both thrilled to discover another pony like us. We became the best of friends—as close as sisters.

“Luna grew into a powerful young mare with incredible magic, unlike anything Star Swirl had ever seen. I longed for powers as great and praiseworthy as hers, but my energy blasts were the limit of my so-called magic. Despite our physical similarities, I never forgot that Luna and I were of different worlds.

“Then came Discord. Equestria had only recently been founded, but any trace of national order fell apart at the chaotic draconequus. Star Swirl believed that Discord, like me, was from another dimension, one beyond the third. He had grown very old and could do nothing to stop Discord’s reign. Before he died, he told Luna and me of an ancient legend: the Elements of Harmony, the most powerful relics in all of ponydom. He believed that Fate had chosen us to locate the Elements and use them to defeat Discord.

“Oh, Twilight. The story of our quest is a grand and treasured one, but it would take far too long to relay it tonight. Suffice it to be said that we did find the Elements, and together we did defeat Discord. And something marvelous happened when we did; along with granting both of us immortality, the Elements transformed me into a being of the second dimension. When Luna and I harnessed the elements, my body changed into the form it bears today.

“The ponies of Equestria were so grateful, they appointed us as the nation’s rulers. She took upon herself the duties of the Night, and I of the Day. You know the rest of the story very well, I believe. She grew jealous and tried to suppress the Sun, but I had grown strong in the Element’s magic. Luna learned her lesson: everything has its place. Nature must remain in balance. And now, the human plaguing our magnificent country must soon learn the same.”