Sweetie Drops yawned and rolled over; it was her day off and she was in no rush to get up. She was surprised not to find Lyra beside her, Lyra never got up early. She didn't think too much of it though, and soon drifted back to sleep.

She woke up again a little while later, not really sure of how much extra time she'd had in bed. Still no sign of Lyra. Come to think of it, she couldn't remember seeing Lyra last night either. She'd gone out to Sugarcube Corner. Had she come back? Sweetie Drops couldn't quite remember.

The cream coated mare got up and threw a robe over herself before trotting downstairs and helping herself to some carrots for brunch. She picked up a copy of the Foal Free Press from the doormat and started idly flicking through the paper. Even after the Gabby Gums column had been shut down, the student-run paper was still a lot more interesting than the Ponyville Express. She and Lyra got a copy of it delivered every week since Lyra gave lyre and piano lessons to the students at Ponyville school as a part-time job.

Of course! Sweetie face-hoofed. That's where Lyra would be. She was giving piano lessons this morning. Sweetie sighed. It was her day off and she had been hoping for some special alone time with her fillyfriend. A mare has "needs" after all! Why did their schedules never seem to line up?

Sweetie put down the paper. If Lyra was not around, then she'd just have to take care of her needs herself. She moistened a hoof with her mouth and closed her eyes.

There was a knock on the door. Grumbling frustratedly, she got up and started walking towards the front door. A thought struck her that perhaps she'd slept longer than she had earlier reckoned — maybe this was Lyra coming home. The earth pony mare smiled; perhaps she wouldn't have to clop herself after all. But then again, Lyra wouldn't knock.

Sweetie answered the door and was surprised to see two school-aged fillies standing on her doorstep. They were both yellowish orange and were carrying a basket of fruit; peaches mostly, though Sweetie could see some apples and cherries too.

"Hello," said Sweetie, "what can I do for you?"

"Miss Cheerilee asked us to come by with this fruit for Miss Heartstrings," one of the orange fillies answered, "on account of her not feeling well."

"Cheerilee isn't feeling well?" asked Sweetie, confused as to why that would warrant this basket of fruit.

"No, silly," said the other filly, rather impertinently. "Miss Heartstrings isn't feeling well. That's why we brought fruit."

"Thanks," said Sweetie, accepting the basket, "I'll make sure she gets it." She eyed the two fillies with a questioning look. "Shouldn't you two be in school now?"

"It's lunch time," answered the first filly before the two school ponies trotted away.

"OK. Thanks again," Sweetie called after them. Why would Cheerilee think Lyra was ill? She decided to hurry to the school house to find out.

* * *

Lyra collapsed onto a hard surface. She looked behind her to see a wall which shimmered with light for a moment before fading to dark. It was dark all around her. Night.

In the distance she could see some light overhead, like a star or a moon in the darkness, but brighter, and closer to the ground. She trotted over towards it, or attempted to. Her legs, especially her rear ones had grown long and gangly, and they didn't seem to bend in the normal way. It must have been the transformation that Twilight Sparkle had told her about. She continued towards the light more slowly.

As she approached it, she saw that the light was not a celestial body, but an artificial light source, held up by a tall metallic pole. She could see others further away in the distance, forming a long row. Lyra didn't really care about these lamps; they were but a means to an end and she wanted to inspect her new body.

She sat on the ground and stretched the front legs out. They were still the same colour, but they'd become longer and thinner. The change she was most excited about was that her hooves had disappeared, being replaced by hands. Real hands! They were just like in the comics, with four long, fine fingers, and a smaller stubby one at the side. They were perfection itself.

Lyra gazed at them for minutes, turning them over, flexing the fingers, and seeing how they moved. She brought them up close to her face and inspected them in detail. They had little hard bits at the end, like a cat's claws but not nearly as sharp. That was certainly a detail she'd never seen in My Little Human. She loved the delicate little curve between each finger, and the little wrinkles on the parts where the fingers bent, allowing the skin to move more flexibly over them. Yes, she could get used to these.

She touched the face, trying to figure out what it looked like. The head seemed smaller, and the mane seemed to cover a greater proportion of the top and back of the head, as well as much of the sides. The skin on the rest of the face though was virtually hairless. In fact, apart from the mane, she'd noticed this about the rest of the body that she'd seen so far.

Her muzzle had been reduced to a tiny pointed nose, her mouth was maybe a little smaller, and her teeth definitely so. She felt around in the mane trying to locate her ears, before remembering that human ears were lower down. She found them on the side of the head, smaller than before, and more rounded.

She wished she had a mirror so she could see what this new face looked like. Was it pretty? It was hard to tell.

She then shifted her attention to the legs. They were much like the arms, but a little longer, and ended in little pink feet. These were hard, much like hooves, and she thought they looked rather nice, even if they didn't match the pale green of the rest of the body.

Lyra bent a leg and used the new hands to stroke one of these pink feet. Without warning, it fell off! Oh crap, she thought, I've only had this body a few minutes, and I've already broken it. But strangely, it didn't hurt, and moments later Lyra facehoofed, or maybe facehanded — it was obvious! These pink things weren't the feet; they were some sort of shoe!

She turned her attention to the real foot. It was a little like an oddly-shaped hand, with much smaller fingers, all in a row. The comics didn't really show feet, or at least she'd never paid much attention to them if they did, and she couldn't remember them looking anything like this. She poked a finger between a couple of the foot-fingers, and giggled — the feet seemed ticklish. Perhaps this was why humans wore shoes, to prevent them walking around everywhere laughing. With some difficulty, she slipped the shoe back on.

She looked at the belly and saw that the body was clothed. Ponies usually only dress up for special occasions, but if what the comics showed was true, Lyra knew that humans wore clothes all the time. (Although some fap fiction preferred to portray them without clothes.)

She seemed to be wearing a pale pink dress. It was made out of a light, floaty material that perfectly followed the contours of the slim body underneath. She wanted to see that too, but would need to figure out how to get to it without ripping the clothing. For now, she contented herself with stroking the soft, silky dress. It was lovely.

She noticed that she had a necklace. She'd never been one to wear jewellery back in Equestria, but she thought this one suited her nicely. It was a gold necklace with a charm in the shape of her cutie mark. Lyra wondered if she still even had a cutie mark, but couldn't tell with this silly clothing on. She made a mental note to check out the flank on this body later.

Humans walked on two legs, like dragons — Lyra knew that much. Leaning on the post that held the lamp aloft, she pulled herself up onto the rear legs, and took a couple of tentative steps. She took to it surprisingly easily.

She walked slowly back towards the portal she had arrived by. The sky was beginning to lighten, and Lyra could hear birdsong in the distance. As she explored, she gave everything a feel with the hands. The hands... she should stop thinking of them as somebody else's hands... HER hands.

Grass felt so soft with hands; she thought about having a snack, but wasn't really hungry. Walls felt hard and rough. Puddles felt cold, and the feeling didn't quite go away when you took your hands out of them — not straight away, anyway.

Lyra was startled by a cough from behind her. "Excuse me," came a voice.

Lyra stood up, abandoning the puddle she'd been dipping her hands in and out of for the best part of half an hour. A human had approached her, and she wondered how she had not heard him. So many things passed through her mind. So many questions she wanted to ask. Should she greet him on behalf of pony kind? Or would it be better to stay incognito — pretend to be a human just like him.

Before she had the chance to say anything though, he pushed past her, heading for a large building in front of them. He reached out his hands and pushed open a door, and was inside before Lyra had even introduced herself.

Not very talkative, Lyra thought to herself. She now noticed other humans approaching the same building from other directions. This was clearly some kind of gathering place for humans.

Lyra braced herself and headed for the door.

* * *

"And that's about all I know," finished Cheerilee.

Sweetie Drops thanked her and headed out of the school back to the street, just as the bell rang and students began filing back into their class room.

The short conversation had given Sweetie a lot to think about. It seemed that Lyra had never shown up this morning; given that she was always so enthusiastic about teaching music, Cheerilee had simply assumed that she must be unwell. Sweetie Drops was becoming increasingly worried about Lyra's whereabouts — it had been almost 24 hours since anypony had seen her.

Sweetie thought about the last time was that she'd seen Lyra; it had been the previous afternoon, when she'd headed off to Sugarcube Corner, so perhaps that would be the best place to start looking for answers?

Mrs Cake looked up and smiled when she saw Sweetie walk in. Sweetie was Ponyville's resident candy maker and dealer, and although this made her a competitor in a way, she was also one of the Cakes' most important suppliers. "What can I do for you, dear?"

Sweetie had a concerned look on her face. "I was wondering if Lyra popped in yesterday. She said she needed to pick up a cake."

"Oh, yes, she was here," answered Mrs Cake, "why do you ask?"

"Well, I haven't seen her since, and I was wondering if you noticed anything unusual about her? Do you know where she was headed?"

"Oh dear," said Mrs Cake sympathetically, "I'm afraid not. But you should talk to Pinkie Pie; she served her. It's her day off, but I think she's gone to her friend Fluttershy's house."

Sweetie knew where that was. "Thank you, Mrs Cake." She hurried off to find Pinkie Pie.

* * *

Lyra Heartstrings stood in a corridor, watching as pastel coloured humans milled all around her. Humans talking, humans laughing, humans opening tall narrow metal cupboards and retrieving books, humans running, humans kissing (oh my!), one human pinning a slip of paper to a noticeboard. From her limited knowledge of human society, this seemed like a place of education.

Nobody paid much attention to Lyra as she stood there. She was successfully blending in.

She heard a bell ring and the humans instantly stopped what they were doing and started going through some of the many doors that led off the corridor. Lyra looked around for a door to go into, then spotted one with a symbol printed on it — the silhouette of a human wearing a dress. Lyra was wearing a dress, so assumed that this must be the door she was supposed to go through. She opened the door and stepped through.

* * *

Pinkie Pie stomped her hoof. "She's mine!"

Applejack wouldn't call herself stubborn, but she was never one to relent easily. "No, she's mine!"

Both ponies were tugging on Rainbow Dash's legs as Fluttershy watched them fighting. The yellow pegasus seemed as if she wanted to interject, but was being ignored by the other three ponies.

"It's obvious she's meant to be with me!" Pinkie yanked at Rainbow's hoof, stretching her out, in what looked to be a very painful tug of war.

"But I called her first." Applejack pulled back. "I mean, look at her! Those strong legs, that lean rump... I want her! I NEED her!"

Sweetie Drops wasn't sure what the mares were arguing about, and wasn't sure if she wanted to know. But she was afraid to interrupt.

Pinkie Pie saw the look of discomfort on Rainbow Dash's face, as she was being pulled this way and that, and suddenly let go. Applejack fell over, with Rainbow Dash landing on top of her.

"Fine!" Pinkie Pie walked away from the two ponies lying on the ground. "You have her. I hope the two of you are very happy together!" The pink earth pony trotted up to Fluttershy. "It looks like you're on my team then." Pinkie reached into a cavity in a nearby tree stump and drew out a ball.

Hoofball?! They were arguing over hoofball teams?! Sweetie sighed.

"Hey Pinkie!" she called, "before you start playing, could I talk to you?"

"Okie dokie!" said Pinkie cheerfully, her recent argument clearly already forgotten. She bounced over to where Sweetie Drops was standing.

"Mrs Cake told me you served Lyra at the shop yesterday. I don't suppose you noticed anything off about her, did you?"

"Nope!" Pinkie shook her head. "She just went on and on about humans, but that's not unusual for Lyra."

"And do you know where she went after that?" asked Sweetie.

"Nope again!" answered Pinkie.

"I might be able to help you with that honey," came Applejack's voice. Sweetie turned around to see the orange mare walking over to her. "She came to see me yesterday, talkin' about them humans. It must've been after she'd been to Sugarcube Corner, on account of her havin' one of their boxes with her at the time."

Sweetie's ears perked up. A clue! "And do you know where she went?"

"No, not really," said Applejack, "she just kinda disappeared. But... oh, it's probably nothing... but she might have gone over to see Twilight."

* * *

Lyra found herself in an empty room — well, empty of humans anyway. The room had rows and rows of benches laid out on the floor, and more of the narrow metal cupboards, mostly with their doors open and empty. One of the light green walls contained a large mirror, while another had a row of hooks. What those were for, Lyra could only guess at. The floor was covered with white tiles and the room felt slightly cold. Perhaps Lyra wasn't meant to be in here after all?

Lyra stepped towards the mirror and for the first time got a good look at her face. She was pretty, or at least she thought so; of course she had no idea what factors humans might take into account when rating another human's attractiveness. Yet she instinctively felt that whatever factors they were, she was looking right at them now.

Lyra heard the door open. Somepony else was coming in. If Lyra wasn't meant to be here, then what would this human say? Lyra quickly hid in a shadowy corner, pulling a metal door in front of her. The colouring of her hair and skin helped camouflage her against the green wall while she peeked out to see what was going on.

It was a human girl who had come into the room. Well, of course she was human — everypony here was human. Or everybody; she should stop thinking in pony terms. Anyway, it was a girl who had come into the room.

Lyra thought the girl looked very pretty. Again, she had no idea what things real humans found attractive, but girls like this featured quite a lot in her imagination when she was reading fap fiction. She had green skin, similar in tone to Lyra's own. Her mane was long and purple — the colour of violets — and was tied in two cute bunches that hung at either side of her face, though some shorter strands hung loose. Her eyes were the same shade of purple as her mane and sparkled, even in the dim light of this dank and cold room. Her eyelashes were elegant and long — not as long as pony eyelashes — but they seemed long for a human. She wore a red skirt, a brown top, and had a pink star charm hanging from a gold chain around her neck.

She seemed to be humming and singing to herself under her breath. "... you're fifteen and somebody tells ..." Lyra couldn't really make out many of the lyrics.

The girl walked to the metal cupboards, thankfully on the other side of the room from where Lyra was hiding. She tugged at the two pink bands holding her mane and put them onto a shelf in one of the cupboards, causing her violet locks to hang down onto her shoulders and chest. She lifted her necklace over her head and placed it on the same shelf, then reached up and swept her mane behind her. Lyra watched, curious to find out what the girl was doing.

The girl placed a foot on one of the wooden benches, and Lyra noticed that she was wearing brown boot-like shoes with laces. Lyra wasn't sure exactly how she'd be able to untie them; the girl wouldn't be able to use telekinesis as she had no horn, yet Lyra marvelled as the girl began to use her fingers to unwind the knots in the laces — she hadn't realised quite how precise and dexterous finger movements could be. Why, with fingers like these, surely humans would be capable of manipulations almost as complex as any unicorn could perform.

After the girl had removed both shoes, placing them at the bottom of the same metal cupboard, Lyra noticed that she seemed to be wearing another layer of clothing underneath the shoes. Some small white... Lyra didn't have a word for them... undershoes? Lyra wasn't wearing any herself. The girl peeled these off and stashed them in the cupboard too, placing them inside her shoes.

The girl wriggled her foot-fingers, and reached her pale green arms up as high as she could, stretching. Lyra noticed she shape of her body. Slim, like Lyra's own, with a chest that stuck out just a little, and long arms and legs. Lyra wondered what this girl looked like underneath those clothes. She was starting to become attracted to this human girl. She began to wonder what the girl's lips tasted like. Twilight Sparkle had told her that most human girls were only interested in human boys, but she hadn't said that there were no fillyfoolers at all in this world. Lyra hoped that there were, and that this girl might be one of them.

The girl started unfastening some buttons on her brown top with practised ease and Lyra was captivated by her dexterity. In Equestria, even unicorns rarely bothered with buttons; simple loop and hook fastenings were far easier to manipulate.

Lyra bit her bottom lip, anticipating her first view underneath this girl's clothing, but she was soon disappointed. Underneath the brown top was another layer of clothing — white this time, like the undershoes. The girl hung the brown top on a hook on the inside of the cupboard door.

The girl's hands returned to her chest, unfastening more buttons. Perhaps Lyra's excitement had been premature before, but now she was surely going to see some naked human! The girl removed the white shirt she was wearing and hung it up in the cupboard.

Lyra held back a groan in the interest of stealthiness — the girl had yet another layer of clothing on! How many layers did these humans need? It wasn't freezing cold here! This time however, at least it wasn't a total let down. The final layer of clothing, or the layer that Lyra hoped was the final one, only covered two small fleshy parts of her chest. Most of the rest of her upper body was now bare. Even the remaining layer of clothing didn't obscure very much. They were made of a lacy white material that afforded at least an impression of the soft green skin below.

Lyra hadn't noticed these two mounds on girls' chests before, and it was now she realised why girls' chests stuck out. It wasn't that the whole chest was sticking out, but these two symmetrically arranged lumps pushed out the clothing like a tent. Lyra's hands reached for her own fleshy mounds, and she had to suppress a sigh. They felt warm and were very sensitive. In a good way.

The girl's shoulders were sharp and pronounced, and Lyra loved the shape of them. Her stomach was flat, and right in the middle was a little navel; without a covering of fur, the navel was quite visible. Lyra thought it looked very cute.

Lyra had been so distracted she hadn't noticed the girl had taken off her white belt and hung it in the cupboard along with her other clothes. With a wriggling motion, she pushed the red skirt over her hips and it slid down to the floor, then stepped out of it and placed it in the cupboard as well.

Lyra admired the girl's long green legs, probably much like her own, which went all the way up to... another wretched item of underclothes! They were some small white pants, lacy like the other remaining item of clothing, with the lace revealing glimpses of green and purple below them. Lyra could understand the green, but purple? The girl had more hair down there?

Lyra involuntarily squeezed at the lumps of flesh still under her hands. That felt good. She was beginning to feel warm between her legs.

* * *

Sweetie Drops knocked on the door of Princess Twilight's castle. She'd been avoiding the princess as much as possible for the last few weeks, ever since hearing a rumour that Twilight Sparkle had a big crush on her. Not that they saw each other very often anyway, but because of this avoidance, Sweetie had allowed a couple of library books to become very overdue.

Obviously Twilight Sparkle was a very beautiful mare, so Sweetie was flattered to have caught her attention, and Sweetie's relationship with Lyra was kind of open, so Lyra wouldn't have objected to her seeking a bit of physical attention from the purple alicorn. But Sweetie couldn't really see how that relationship would work — Twilight was a alicorn princess, and Sweetie was just an ordinary earth pony. They had nothing in common.

A small, purple dragon answered the door, whom Sweetie knew to be called Spike. He showed her in to see Twilight Sparkle.

Sweetie Drops bowed as soon as she saw the princess. "Your majesty, it's about Lyra, I haven't seen her since yesterday, and I have no idea where she's gone! Have you seen her? Did she come here?"

Twilight always felt uncomfortable when ponies bowed and curtsied in front of her. "Please, sit down." Twilight gestured towards a chair. She thought back to the previous day's events. "Yes, she did. We shared some of her cupcakes."

"And she's still here?" asked Sweetie, not really believing that that would be the case, but hopeful that her fillyfriend was still alright.

Twilight shook her head. "No, of course not, she only stayed for half an hour or so. We were talking about humans."

Sweetie sighed. Finding Lyra here would have been too easy. "The humans again? It seems she's been discussing them with everypony."

"Well, she came to the right place," said Twilight Sparkle with uncharacteristic pride, "I am Ponyville's resident expert. I mean, I've been there twice."

Sweetie was confused. "Been where?"

"Why the human world, of course."

"It's real? It's a real place?!" Sweetie was surprised, and although at any normal time she'd want to find out more about it, now she just wanted to find Lyra. "You don't suppose... no... you don't think she could have gone there, do you? How far is it? How many days trot?"

"It's not really... It's not really a place you can trot to." Twilight Sparkle wasn't sure how to explain it. "Maybe it's best if I show you upstairs."

* * *

The girl with the violet mane turned away from Lyra and bent down, reaching into a bag that Lyra hadn't noticed before to bring out a towel. Most of the girl's thighs were now exposed and Lyra couldn't see a cutie mark anywhere. Perhaps humans don't have them? She couldn't help admiring the shape of the girl's rear while she was bent over. Were all humans this gorgeous?

The girl wrapped the towel around her body and brought one of her arms into her towel cocoon. Moments later the lacy white pants fell to the floor. She stepped out of them, bent down, picked them up, and put them into her cupboard. Then off came the other white garment, and that went into the cupboard as well. She wrapped the towel more tightly around her and somehow fastened it near her chest like a short dress, disappointing Lyra.

The purple-maned girl walked over to a row of doorways, and pulled open one of the doors before disappearing inside. Lyra crept in the direction of the doorway, keeping her back to the wall and concealing herself in shadow. In a few moments she reached a place where she could see the girl through the doorway. She could not believe her eyes.

* * *

Twilight Sparkle and Sweetie Drops climbed the last few steps of the castle's east tower. Sweetie paused a moment to admire the view from a window. You could see beyond Canterlot from here, all the way to the Foal Mountains, and further south, parts of the Everfree Forest. Sweetie involuntarily shivered — that place was unnatural. A gasp from behind her took her attention away from the window.

"It's on!" exclaimed Twilight.

Sweetie looked around the room. "What's on where?".

"The portal. It's a portal to the human world. There's a magic mirror, and an enchanted mangle, and a book, and some other things, and they're all held together with some wires and ropes and stuff, and... Oh... Pinkie Pie explains this much better. The point is that I always leave it switched off, but somepony's switched it on."

The two ponies looked at each other. "Lyra!" they said in unison.

Sweetie looked at the contraption. "Well, we'll just have to follow her and bring her back." She approached the strange machine. "Now, how do you work this thing?"

"Hold your horses there, Sweetie Drops," cautioned Twilight, "let me take a look at this first." The princess then consulted a bunch of dials on the side of the machine. "That's… going to be a problem."

"What's the matter with it?" asked Sweetie.

"Nothing's the matter with it. It's just that my last journey to the human world wasn't very long ago, and Lyra only used it last night, and the machine can only perform a limited number of journeys. I mean, the mirror on its own could be used to transport thousands and thousands of ponies, but the mirror on its own only works for a brief period every thirty moons. The rest of the machine serves to spread its power out, so that the portal can transport less but without having to wait for some obscure astronomical alignments to happen."

Sweetie Drops looked confused.

Twilight could see the need to explain things further. "The upshot of it is that it can only handle three more ponies before it will need a long recharging period."

"Well, that's fine then. Three. Lyra, you, and I."

Twilight shook her head dismissively. "It doesn't quite work like that. If you and I went through it, it'd count as two journeys. We'd find Lyra, but the machine would only have enough power to perform one more journey. Only one of us would be able to come back to Equestria."

Sweetie Drops' face fell. "I suppose I could... stay... with Lyra... in that world? It wouldn't be forever, right?"

"It would be a long time. Many moons," warned Twilight, "but there is another option. You could stay here, and I could fetch Lyra. One pony there, two ponies back; three journeys."

"You'd really do that for me? And Lyra? For us?" Sweetie was touched. Perhaps Twilight really did have a thing for her, and was trying to impress her. But then again, if that were the case, why would she help Sweetie get her fillyfriend back?

"Of course." The princess nodded. "And it would be easier for me; I know what their world is like and I have friends on the other side who could help — who would be happy to help!"

"Thank you! Oh, thank you!" cried Sweetie Drops, "if there's anything I can do to help you, please tell me!"

"I'll need to talk to Spike first. Give him a few instructions on what to do around the castle while I'm gone. He won't be happy about not coming with me, but the machine just doesn't have the power, and I need him to look after things here. Give me half an hour and I should be ready to go."

* * *

The girl with the purple mane was standing fully naked in the tiny room behind the doorway. The door was still open, and her towel now hung from a hook on the back of it. She didn't seem to be making any move to close the door. Instead, the girl seemed to be concentrating on a pair of dials built into the side wall.

Lyra could not take her eyes off the two lumps on the girl's chest; they were not large — around about the size of a very small apple each. (Did they have apples in this world? Lyra hoped so.) But it was their shape that she loved the most. Sort of tear-drop shaped — curved at the bottom, with a contour that swept up towards the girl's shoulders. The closer lump had a darker patch that seemed slightly pointed. The other one was hard to see because of the angle the girls was standing at, but was probably similar.

It took incredible willpower, but Lyra forced her eyes away from the girl's chest and allowed herself to take in the rest of her body. The smooth, flat stomach she'd already seen, but now she could see the girl's hips, flank, and thighs, devoid of all their clothing. She noticed a tuft of purple hair at the front, perhaps where the girl's foalhole... or rather... babyhole would be. (Lyra kept trying to remember to think in human terms. Or rather, she assumed humans would use these terms.) So it seemed that humans did have more hair than just their manes!

There, right there on the girl's flank... Lyra finally saw her cutie mark. A black star, similar except in colouring, to the star that the girl had been wearing around her neck; it must have been covered up by the girl's pants when she'd been wearing them.

Water began to fall onto the girl and Lyra finally realised the truth about this tiny room that the girl was standing in: it was a shower cubicle. Lyra had a shower back home. She wondered why the girl didn't close the door to prevent water from splashing everywhere, before realising the obvious answer — water would splash the towel if the door were closed. Somepony hadn't thought that design through. Or somebody, rather.

The girl with the star cutie mark bent over to pick up a bottle from the floor, giving Lyra a glimpse of the puckered hole between her legs. A bent-over human bum didn't actually look that different from a pony's rear end. Assuming everything worked the same, Lyra thought she would have a pretty good understanding of how to make use of that part of her new body.

The girl squeezed something out of the bottle onto her hand, which she then rubbed into her mane; causing it to become white with bubbles. Once she rinsed her mane off under the shower, it clung to her back and chest; the soapy bubbles sliding down the girl's chest and over her flat stomach. They paused for a moment clinging to the patch of hair between her thighs before picking up speed again and racing down her slim legs to the floor.

Lyra licked her lips watching. This girl looked stunning — she'd always found the humans in her comics adorable, and strangely sexy, but they were a hundred times better in the flesh. The warmth between her legs was becoming uncomfortable.

The girl in the shower turned her back to Lyra in order to fiddle with the metallic dials again, shutting the water off. The girl collected her towel, momentarily giving Lyra a full frontal view of her delightful body, before walking out of the shower and back to her metal cupboard, leaving a trail of water drops behind her.

Lyra slunk back along the wall, returning to her previous hiding place. As she crept along, she felt a few drops of her own liquid beginning to moisten the inside of her thighs. She peered out of the darkness at the girl who was now rubbing her long mane with the towel, and giving Lyra an excellent view of her pale green body. If Lyra was going to try fapping any time, then now seemed like a pretty good time.

She took her left hand, having already noted that she seemed to have better control over that one than then other, and slipped it under her short pink dress. Lyra felt a layer of cloth covering where her foalhole must be. The fabric felt very damp and she tried pushing it to the side to get access, but that didn't quite work. She lifted her leg to make it easier.

Crash!

A metal can fell over, accidentally knocked over by Lyra's leg. Screwed up pieces of paper, old packaging, and what looked like tiny fragments of cloud spilled over the floor.

Instantly the girl with the purple hair looked round and noticed that she had an audience. She pulled the towel to her chest, covering most of her body, and peered into the darkness.

"Lyra?!" she asked accusingly, "is that you?!"

Lyra had been discovered. Without even pausing to consider why this girl might know her name, Lyra panicked and ran back towards the hallway.

"Get lost!" she heard over her shoulder.

Lyra was beginning to feel distinctly lost in this world.

* * *

Twilight Sparkle was making the final preparations. "No following me this time, Spike."

The baby dragon was disappointed. "Awww..."

"I've already told you: I need you to look after the castle while I'm gone. Besides, you have a very important responsibility; the power on this thing is running low," Twilight looked at the dials on the machine and made some quick mental calculations, "So I need you to switch it off straight after I've stepped through."

Spike crossed his arms. "We've been through this three times already, Twilight."

"I'll let you know by writing a letter in Sunset Shimmer's notebook when we're ready to return. If you don't hear from me within 48 hours, then something might have gone wrong with that method of communication. So switch the portal on anyway. I should be ready to return by then, hopefully with Lyra."

Spike nodded his head.

"Goodbye, Spike."

"Good luck, Twilight."

Twilight stepped through the mirror.

* * *

Lyra wandered through lonely corridors. Perhaps this world was not the place she had dreamt it to be; these humans seemed so unfriendly and hostile towards her.

The sound of a bell rang out, and a door opened right beside Lyra, startling her. She jumped back against the opposite wall as humans spilled out of the open door, chatting and laughing to each other. Tall humans, short humans, thin humans, more thin humans. Brightly colored humans with every mane style and clothing combination Lyra could think possible.

She slunk along the wall, and suddenly another door opened right beside her. A few humans walked out calmly, chatting to one another. Lyra was curious about what was going on in all these other rooms. Once she thought the nearest room seemed empty, Lyra peeked around the door, but walked straight into another human coming out of the room.

Lyra saw a blur of blue and pink hair as she fell over. She instinctively caught herself using her hands, avoiding falling flat on her back, and instead landing on her flank. It hurt like hell, but she somehow knew that it hadn't caused her any injury.

"Lyra, what the hell are you doing?" came a familiar voice. It couldn't be, could it? "You were right behind me. How did you get in front of me?"

Lyra swept the mint green bangs from in front of her eyes to look up at the human girl towering over her. It was incredible: she had the exact same blue and pink curls as Sweetie Drops, and as Lyra climbed onto one knee, she noticed it was the same voice too, even the same skin tone. Had Sweetie followed her into this world?

The human Sweetie looked behind her, and Lyra's eyes followed. There, standing behind Sweetie was another human Lyra. Dressed differently. Her mane slightly shorter perhaps. But other than that, exactly identical.

The three girls' jaws dropped. Lyra hadn't been prepared for this.

Author's Note

Still no Lyra on Lyra action? Sorry. I thought I'd at least give you something though.

So can anybody guess the identity of the girl from the shower scene? No, I haven't just made her up. Bonus points if you knew who the two fillies at Sweetie Drops' door were.

Many thanks to Enigmatic Otaku, who I let pre-read this, and who unexpectedly sent me pages and pages of improvements.