Chapter Seven: Magical Misdirection

“Oops…sorry about that,” Rainbow Dash shouted over the head-pounding music, wings flapping lightly. “I can be just the teeniest bit clumsy sometimes.”

Corey turned away from Vinyl Scratch just in time to see Laney’s mane disappear under a purple-soaked tablecloth. The punch table had fallen, and Rainbow Dash was hovering above it, a sheepish smile on her face. “I forgot to look where I was going. My bad.”

The table shuddered, and a corner of the tablecloth rose up, Laney’s head underneath it. Besides the gallon or so of punch that appeared to have drenched the poor mare's mane, she also had flecks of cake and globs of icing attached to her coat. “Ow,” she said, trying to rub her head with a hoof and failing. She had a scowl on her face, but Rainbow Dash, flying off to the apple-bobbing bucket, didn’t seem to notice.

Corey excused himself and trotted over to Laney. With a little effort, he nosed the table off of her back and, lifting a dry part of the tablecloth in his teeth, laid it over the wet spot on the floor. “You okay, Lanes?” he asked. “You don’t look so good.”

The little unicorn huffed, blowing a lock of red hair out of her eyes. “Geez, I can’t stand that pony. I kind of think she’s doing it on purpose.”

Corey rolled his eyes. “Are you kidding, Lanes? They threw a party for us. They’re not that bad.” He scraped a hunk of cake off his friend’s foreleg and popped it into his mouth. “And they make really good food.”

“You sound like Kin and Kon! Food isn’t everything, Corey,” Laney snapped. She brushed another frosting blob from her tail and shakily stood. “And neither is niceness. Something’s wrong here. I just know it.”

Corey took a step back. Laney almost never got angry like this. And when she did, it was always for a good reason...at least, as far as he could remember. It didn’t feel like the Ponyville ponies were out to get him, though. They actually were pretty cool. “Chill out and enjoy the party, Lanes, okay? I’m gonna go over and talk to Vinyl some more. Don’t get in any more trouble.”

“Easy for you to say.” Laney whipped around and stormed off in the direction of the kitchen, probably to get cleaned up. Corey sighed. There’s just no pleasing that girl…um, mare.

As he waded back through the cheerful crowd of ponies, Corey spotted Fluttershy sitting near the front door, her eyes hidden under her long pink mane. He changed directions and sat down next to her, folding his legs underneath his body. “What’s up?”

The timid pony jumped. “Oh! I’m sorry, Corey. You startled me.”

“That’s okay.” Corey raised a foreleg to adjust his beanie and felt his hoof bang against his protruding horn. “You just looked kind of lonely sitting over here.”

“No, not at all! I just don’t go to parties very often, unless my close friends are there. Parties can be very loud and, well, I don’t really like that sort of thing.”

Corey nodded. “Makes sense. You wouldn’t.”

The pegasus was silent for a minute, then peered out at Corey from under her mane. “Um…I’m sorry about what Rainbow Dash did to your friend just there. Did she apologize? I know she can forget sometimes and, well, I don’t think it would be a good idea if anypony got mad at anypony else.”

“It’s cool. Lanes wasn’t too happy, but she’ll get over it.” Corey grinned at Fluttershy, and she smiled shyly back.

As Corey turned back toward the action, he glanced down at the skull-shaped mark on his leg. It was made of colored fur, as if the hair there simply grew in a different color, and looked exactly like the skull on his beanie - though where the latter had once been, his horn poked out. What was the logic there? The unicorn nudged Fluttershy with his hoof. “Uh, Flutters?" he asked, indicating the mark. "What’s this supposed to be?”

Fluttershy looked, curious. “Oh, that’s your cutie mark. It tells you what your special talent is. I’m surprised no one’s told you yet.” She paused, then pointed at the skull with a wingtip. “Um, do you have any idea what that means?”

Corey looked at the mark again and made a note to check out his friends’ cutie marks too. “Well…I don’t really know. But one of my talents is playing the guitar. And I’m also the leader of my band back home - maybe the fact that it's our band's symbol means I'm a good leader?” He shrugged, then tilted his head to get a look at Fluttershy’s cutie mark. “I’m guessing your talent has something to do with animals?”

The yellow pony giggled. “Yes, it is! I told you all about what I do with the critters, didn’t I?" When Corey nodded, Fluttershy flicked her tail self-consciously, a tiny smile still quirking at the edges of her lips. "It's not a very flashy job. It's an important one, though. Equestrian vets mostly work with ponies' pets, but I take care of the animals in their natural habitats."

"I've always liked animals," Corey remarked. "They don't always like me, though."

Fluttershy grinned again, but as her eyes fell on Corey's cutie mark again, a guilty look crossed her face. "I guess I didn’t mention cutie marks earlier, then…I probably should have…they're pretty important...”

“Hey, no problem. It isn't like you're used to showing around strangers from alternate worlds,” Corey said.

Without any warning, a sharp pain pushed through his horn, along with a rush of cold wind. “Ow,” he muttered, blinking back tears. “Didn’t know I could feel anything with that.”

“Did something happen? Did I do something?” Fluttershy had risen to her hooves and was looking at Corey, concern and fear filling her eyes. “Do you need help?”

The orange unicorn squinted and looked around. Some of the other unicorns were shaking their heads repeatedly, but most had just gone back to partying. They’re probably used to that kind of thing happening, Corey thought. Downside of being an alien. “I’m all right,” he gasped. “Do you see Laney anywhere?”

Fluttershy craned her neck to search for the green pony. “No…wait! I think that’s her, in the kitchen,” the Pegasus said. “Come on.”

They weaved through the crowd of ponies, trying not to step on any tails, and slipped through the kitchen door. Laney had slumped to the floor, holding her head in her hooves and sobbing softly. “Lanes? Are you okay?”

"Is there anything I can do?" Fluttershy asked anxiously.

“Ow…my head…” Laney squeezed her eyes shut and let a single tear leak out. “What's going on, Core…”

Fluttershy took a deep breath, let it out, and promptly panicked. “Oh! Um, I…I think…" she gasped, eyes wide, "I think we should go talk to Twilight! She’ll know what to do. Um, let me take you to the library…I just have to tell Pinkie where we’re going...You two st-stay here…” She nervously opened and closed her wings a few times before dashing out of the kitchen.

Corey grabbed Laney’s hoof and pulled her up off the floor. “Come on, Lanes. We’re gonna be okay…I think.”

There was no one in the library.

Fluttershy had run to tell Pinkie Pie, but only Pinkie had come out of the bakery. When Corey asked what she was doing, the party pony would only tell him that Fluttershy had explained everything and that everypony else was coming, too. Not that that was a bad thing - in fact, the party was a little more subdued without Pinkie Pie, and Corey could have sworn that the decibel level went down a couple of notches. A few minutes later, Fluttershy brought the rest of Twilight’s friends out, along with Laney, Kin, and Kon, and the group had run all the way back to the Golden Oak. But when Applejack had knocked on the door, no one had answered.

“I told her it was okay if she left to look for a spell to help Spike,” Fluttershy squeaked in apology, her eyes cast down at the wooden floor. “I didn’t know she’d just disappear like that.”

“Do you think...it had s-something to do with the magical f-flare?” Rarity asked thickly. She was still finding it hard to relax after learning about Spike's disappearance; her forehead was furrowed in concern, and tear tracks matted the fur on her cheeks. “I f-felt another tingle in my horn at the party, but I thought it might just...be Vinyl moving the records.”

“You’re lucky you only felt a tingle,” Corey muttered. His horn was still throbbing a bit, as if the cold air was barely being kept off of him by a thin jacket. “Lanes and I were practically knocked out on the floor.”

“Probably comes with bein’ new to Equestria and stuff like that,” Applejack said, shuffling through the pile of books that littered the floor. “That’s why newborn foals have weird freaky power surges, ain’t it?”

“I b-believe so.” Rarity self-consciously twirled a few strands of her mane around her hoof. “I think I could follow...Twilight’s magical trail to wherever it is she went, if I can get a s-sample of it. Such a spell can’t be much h-harder than my signature gem-finding enchantments.” She picked up a well-worn book and held it near her horn, eyes closed in concentration.

Rainbow Dash flapped up into the air. “So let me get this straight,” the pegasus said, warily pointing a foreleg at Corey. “This morning, Grojband shows up in Fluttershy’s backyard. Then Spike disappears, and Twilight gets all messed up. Now Twilight’s missing." She threw up her hooves, and her eyes narrowed as she glared at Corey. "Does anypony else get the feeling that it might be their fault?”

“Um…well…now that you mention it…but…” Fluttershy whispered.

Laney growled a little bit from her seat in the corner of the room.

Pinkie smiled brightly, looking up from the coloring book she'd apparently found. “I don’t think they did it! Corey and Laney and Kin and Kon are the nicest ponies ever! It doesn’t matter that they came from a world with no magic and stood on two legs instead of four and wore clothes all the time and stole Corey’s sister’s diary to get lyrics for their band’s songs!”

Corey stared. “How did you know all that?”

“Know all what?” Pinkie asked, expertly balancing a crayon on her nose.

“Never mind.”

Rarity chose this moment to open her eyes. “I’ve got it! It’ll be tricky...but I should be able to p-pick up Twilight’s aura.”

“Thank goodness," Applejack said. The farmpony let out a huge sigh of relief, pulled her Stetson down more securely on her head, and galloped to the library's front door. "Come on, y'all. We’d better get going before she gets too far away.”

“Can I…stay here?”

Fluttershy cowered near a bookcase, but Kon patted her softly on the back. “She can’t have gone anywhere that bad," the grey Earth pony reassured her. "It’s not like she woke up a bunch of zombies with a magic amp!”

Laney, Corey, and Kin snickered. Pinkie Pie grinned at Kon. “I like you!”

“Come on, Fluttershy. We ain't got much time.” Applejack opened the library door, then galloped out. Rainbow Dash followed her on quickly flapping wings, shooting a suspicious glance at Laney and Corey as she left.

Once everyone else had departed, Corey reached down a foreleg and pulled Fluttershy to her feet. “You want to help Twilight, don’t you, Flutters?” he grunted as she stood on shaky hooves. “We can’t do this without you.”

The pale yellow pegasus trembled. “I-I think you could do it w-without…”

Laney’s head appeared around the door. “We’re waiting on you!”

“Flutters, Twilight’s in danger. We seriously have to go.”

“I…I…okay…”

And with that, the shy pony took a deep breath, flapped her wings softly, and disappeared through the door.

Corey immediately felt the difference when he started to run. His new body was more streamlined and powerful, and even sprinting was hardly an effort. Kin was right – running a human marathon would be no sweat as a pony.

Rarity was at the front of the pack, with Applejack close behind. The white unicorn’s mane whipped glamorously in the wind and her horn glowed with an intense blue light.

“We gettin’ any closer, Rarity?” Corey heard Applejack yell.

“Not…yet,” Rarity replied, concentrating on her magic.

The group ran through the streets, which were beginning to fill with ponies again as the party drew to a close. As they passed, Pinkie Pie and Kon shouted greetings to everyone, bouncing as they did.

“Hi, Vinyl! Your music at the party was great!”

“Ooh, your flowers are really pretty!”

“Keeping an eye on those crazy fillies, Big Mac?”

Corey was so focused on the feeling of the wind in his mane that he didn’t notice the ground shift from cobblestone to dirt. Before he knew it, the nine ponies were standing, panting lightly, outside of a thick line of trees. Fluttershy’s house was a short distance away, but Ponyville was nowhere to be seen.

Rarity didn’t stop running. Her horn was still leading her forward, into the forest’s thick undergrowth. “Well? Don’t just stand there!” she screeched, kicking crumbs of dusty dirt into the air. “Help me!”

Rainbow Dash was the first to act. She grabbed the unicorn’s tail with her teeth, pulling backward as hard as she could. Even with her strength, Rarity’s horn continued to yank the duo into the trees.

Applejack leaped forward, but too late – Rarity and Rainbow had disappeared into the forest.

“C’mon! After them!” The Earth pony reared, then charged after her friends. The others followed, and Corey pushed Fluttershy, who had fallen face-first into the dirt and was attempting to take root.

The forest definitely had a creepy-and-weird vibe. The trees grew crookedly, there was a thin mist distorting the edges of the path, and even though it was early evening, it seemed as dark as midnight. Corey felt a soft body brush his left side – Laney, her eyes shining in the blackness. He dropped Fluttershy’s tail and stood upright. “Um…”

Laney took a step away. “Oh, sorry, Core. I wasn’t thinking.”

Another furry mass bumped into Corey’s other side. “What’s going on?”

Thump. “What are we talking about?”

Kin and Kon had slammed into Corey too, not wanting to be left out of the fun.

WHAM.

“I love dog piles!” Pinkie Pie giggled.

Corey squirmed his way out from underneath his hyperactive friends, then dusted himself off. “Uh, it’s no biggie, Lanes. I wasn’t really thinking either.”

“Hush up!” Applejack hissed, a leaf-covered branch between her teeth. “There’s Rainbow and Rarity!”

The two were still being dragged across the forest floor, albeit much more slowly. Their coats were stained with clouds of dirt, and Rainbow had her hoof plastered over Rarity’s mouth, probably to keep her from screaming out loud. Suddenly, they slid to a stop between a clump of bushes.

Applejack cautiously stepped toward the bush, poking her head inside. Faint whispering noises came from inside, and then the farmpony popped her head back out. “She managed to stop the flow of magic, and just in time, too. Cone ‘n look at who’s out there.”

The ponies crowded into the bush, making as little noise as possible. When Corey peeked through the leaves, he saw the most majestic pony he’d seen today. She was tall, with white fur and a flowing, multi-colored mane. A golden crown was perched on top of her head; she had a horn, but she also had wings. Twilight Sparkle stood before her, hooves planted firmly into the ground, a black vortex swirling behind her.

“It’s Princess Celestia,” Applejack whispered.

“She looks grumpy!” Pinkie Pie said.

“Oh…m-my…” Fluttershy gulped.

Author's Note

Sorry it's been so long! I'll try to get more out as soon as I can, but I can't promise anything because of school, rehearsal, and other unfortunate circumstances.

• Twi