Legendaries of Equestria

Chapters

Chapter 1: A whole new world...
Chapter 2: Odd new town
Chapter 3: Words of Wisdom
Chapter 4: Wait...PonyKlans are a thing?
Chapter 5: Canterlot Escapades

Chapter 1: A whole new world...

I hissed in pain as my eyes snapped open, my hands instantly moving to my head which had hit something hard. The first thing I felt was the bump forming, then I touched my ears which made me stop completely, one hand on the long white ear which I definitely didn’t have when I went to sleep. I slowly looked down to see my body, only to nearly scream when I saw that I wasn’t even human anymore before I tried to open my mouth and speak, only to find I couldn’t talk and quickly started looking around with a good bit of fear, shock, and worry.

I tried standing up before I remembered, “Oh wait! No legs!” so standing was out of the question and I just tried to drag myself along with my odd arms, trying to see if Heather was nearby. I dragged myself through wherever it was I was at for about ten minutes, trying to find any sign of my friend when a familiar voice called out basically on top of me.

“RAWR!”

“AHHHHHHHHH!”I won’t deny that I screamed like a girl when she did that, though I really didn’t notice that after I had jumped in fear I didn’t come back down, “What the hell?!”

I looked down, seeing a fairly large avian creature holding its sides with its wide wings as it laughed its arrow-shaped head off. Its blue eyes were closed and close to tears from the laughter, its tri-tipped tail banging on the ground.

“WHY?! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT YOU TERRIBLE PERSON!” I barked, blushing bright red from embarrassment as I glared down at her, “I know it’s you, Heather!”

“Wh-who else would do thahahat!!” my old friend laughed out. “I could tell it was you from a mile away! I just couldn’t help myself ahahaha!!!”

“Hardy-har-har laugh it up!” I grumbled, looking down only to realize I was floating, “How?!” I asked before realizing it was a terrible idea to do so, quickly falling face first onto the ground next to Heather, when I hit the ground it let out an audible thump and I groaned, the rest of my body touching the ground.

“Have a nice fall?” she asked me with a smirk, holding back another set of laughs.

I just moaned lowly in response, not wanting to me lest I manage to defy physics and hurt myself once more.

“Oh cheer up, Tommy,” Heather said, nudging my cheek. “There aren’t many out there that can say they’re a Latios.”

“...I shouldn’t be able to talk right now, going to guess telepathy?” I muttered, trying to steadfastly ignore the fact I was no longer human, “How did we even end up here?”

“I don’t know, but I get the feeling it’s your fault.” She nudged my nose with her wing. “It’s always your fault.”

“Ok now that’s not true! That time with the orange wasn’t me! I couldn’t have lodged it in the exhaust when I wasn’t even in town at the time! Everything else, yeah I can accept that.” I snorted, pushing myself off my chest.

“Still a weak alibi~,” she sing songed. She giggled as I huffed. “Anyway, we should probably find out where we are. Two legendary pokémon in a forest is usually not a good idea.”

“If we’re actually in a world of pokémon I hope you know we’re screwed,” I commented, trying to figure out how I was floating earlier, “If I can’t figure out my floating thing sometime soon you’re carrying me.”

“Well, I usually do, considering how lazy with school work you are,” she said with a victorious smirk.

“Yet I had higher grades than you.” I shot back, grinning.

“Who got the scholarship?” I hate that smugness of hers. Drives me crazy!

“Shut up, Miss Perfect.” I grumbled in response, climbing onto her back because I wasn’t able to figure out how to float again. I looked down once more and saw something that wasn't there before- the latiosite was on a small chain around my neck and it looked like the Soul Dew was around Heather’s, “New fashion statement with wearing the soul of a deceased Latios?” I snorted.

“Oh you know I look good.” My Lugia friend posed quite uh… quite risquely in front of me, trying to show off the Soul Dew.

A bright blush grew across my face, “Ok ok! You do! I don’t deny it!”

She giggled. “You. Are. Too. Easy.” Heather emphasized each word with a wing to my chest. “Now get hovering dragon-boy, we got movin’ to do.”

“I don’t know how to hover… I mean it’s not like I can learn how in ten minutes can I?” I snorted.

Then Heather got an idea. An awful idea. Heather got a terribly awful idea. “I know how you can learn.”

“I want to know yet I worry for my life.” I warily replied. Quickly, before I could do anything to stop her, Heather grabbed me with her wings and chucked me high into the sky.

“Fly or die, Tommy!”

“WHY DID I EVER INVITE YOU?!” I screamed as I flailed in the air, my wings helping me stay in the air as I slowly fell, and I mean slowly.

“Just for moments like that,” she laughed out. Why did my best friend have to enjoy making me miserable? Wait, the better question is: why the hell do I keep hanging out with her?!

“Youuuu… You… Ugh I can’t even think of a good word to describe what I think of you Heather.” I said as I actually managed to float again, sadly it was next to Heather rather than farther away, “...Don’t you dare do it again!”

“Alright, alright. No need to get all huffy. I would have caught you before you landed. I do actually care about you, remember?” She booped my nose with her wing before flapping into the air a few feet above the ground. “Now come on. Let’s find out where we are. Maybe there’s other pokémon.” She gasped loudly. “Maybe even Pikachu!” She giggled with fangirl glee.

I carefully got a grip on one of her legs, “You’re leading because I don’t know if I can do this right.”

“Fine, just watch where you’re looking. Don’t need you getting blood on my new fur… feathers… whatever Lugia’s have.”

“You know me well enough that I wouldn’t look!” I quickly said, blushing at what she was saying.

“That’s what you said before a certain stack of magazines fell out of your closet.”

“Oi! Those weren’t mine! It was a bloody college dorm and I was stuck with someone else in that room, all my stuff was under my bed!” I barked back at her, somewhat offended she thought they were mine.

“Uh huh. Suuuure, Tommy. Whatever you say. Now it’s only fair to warn you… I have no idea what I’m doing.” She took off speeding through the forest at high speeds, me hanging on for my life.

“WHY ARE YOU FLYING IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING?!” I screamed. Again I’m not ashamed to admit I screamed like a girl, though it seems like it’s becoming a trend here.

“Because it’s fun!” she laughed like a sugar-crazed nut. To and fro we weaved through the trees, most of the branches unfortunately smacking me and not her.

“YOU’RE DOING THIS ON PURPOSE! FLY ABOVE THE TREES!” I yelled, yelping each time I was hit, some cuts forming, mainly bruises though.

“I don’t wanna take the chance of being spotted, dweeb!”

After she called me a dweeb I started grumbling about getting tired of being hit by trees and climbed up her leg, being careful to not touch anything and then hugged myself to her back, “I’d rather not be hit by every tree in this forest.”

Further Heather flew, trying to avoid most of the foliage now. Soon enough, we saw a light up ahead, signaling the end of the forest. Though, Heather dropped to the ground before we got near it.

“Alright, I want to see a normal city and normal humans, but I doubt I’m that lucky. What do you think?” I said with a sigh.

“Let me see.” She poked her head out of the forest and pulled back a moment later, completely befuzzled. “I have no words for what I just saw.”

“Then find some words, what did you see?” I asked with a large amount of curiosity obvious in my voice.

“Remember that movie I made you watch when we were seven? The thing I was obsessed with all through elementary school?”

“Kinda? I don’t exactly remember stuff that far back…” I shrugged, vaguely remembering her obsession.

“Well, Tommy, welcome to the land of ponies,” she said, brushing back the leaves to unobstruct my view.

A horrified sound came from my throat, “No… No! Anywhere but here!”

A painfully bright town filled with multicolored ponies laid before us, some houses looking like candy and some being the brightest colors physically possible. The town seemed to give off a cheerful, happy aura that was slowly influencing both their moods almost like a virus. At least that’s what I think it looks and feels like.

“We’re in happy, rainbow, pony land my dear friend. May your worst nightmares become reality.” At least she was monotone about it… what little help it was.

All I could do was whimper in response to what she said.

“I wanna meet ‘em!”

“I’m going to be pulled along with this won’t I?” I groaned, dropping my head to where it laid on her back.

“Oh come, it can’t be that bad! There are dude ponies. Look! Those one’s are in bar brawl.... why are there ponies in a bar brawl?!”

“They are called stallions and I have no idea why! Why don’t we go break it up?” I suggested with a sigh.

“You expect us, college geeks who became pokemon, to stop a random bar brawl? The heck is wrong with you boy?”

“Well to be fair you look like a dragon right now and the ponies might stop fighting due to that fact, though I may just be suggesting this because you scare me Heather.” I grumbled.

“Since when is that news?” she snorted. “Let’s… let’s just keep moving. Maybe there’s some place on the outskirts we can hide out.”

“I thought you wanted to meet the ponies? Oh well. Maybe later?” I chuckled.

“If they’re gonna act completely like humans, I’m not sure they’re the ponies I wanna meet. I want the ones flowing with friendship, and happiness, and joy. You know? Shit like that.” Heather turned and started to fly parallel to the forest line.

“Well to be honest in my opinion nothing can be worse than humans.” I shrugged, “Our species does bad things.”

“Oh don’t be such misanthrope. You sound like that weird drifter kid a few years back.” She rolled her eyes and soon stopped at a small stream.

“Well we did good things too! Though really, instead of wasting their time making the nuclear bomb after we made the atomic bomb, they should have put the effort into working on other machines and such. Oh well, just my opinion.” I shrugged again.

Heather bent down to take a drink from the stream, sipping up the water. She let out a breath of relief from the the liquid refreshment. “Hey, I just realized something. If that was a town of ponies, what other kinds of creatures are here?”

“Hell if I know, dragons maybe?” I guessed, rolling off of her back to the side and floated slightly off the ground instead of hitting, taking a drink as well, “Ya know, if we were on Earth we would’ve gotten really sick from what we just did.”

“Must be new biology based on our avian abilities,” Heather said scientifically.

“I… Yeah I don’t know why you said it like that.” I muttered, “Besides, I don’t really think either of us really count as birds or something similar.”

“Well, I believe Lugia’s are actually flying types, so I’m a little more avian. You’re a dragon, so you might have a bit, but not much. But now for the big question, what do we do now?”

“Well… We could start by seeing if we can learn any of the attacks our new species would know, or we could go visit the town?” I said, not really sure what else we could do.

“Hmm… I have always wanted to try a certain one.” Lugia took in a deep breath then a ball of golden energy began to build in her open mouth. “Aeroblast!” She fired… right at me!!

“YOU TERRIBLE PERSON!” I screamed as I dived out of the way to avoid the attack. The beam cut through several of the trees, leaving a series of scorched holes deep into the forest.

“That was awesome!” she squeed with glee.

“For you maybe! You almost hit me!” I barked, glaring at Heather.

“Wuss.”

“So I’m a wuss for avoiding something that could have killed me or severely hurt me?” I said as I gestured to the trees.

“You’re a dragon type. Flying type moves don’t affect you.”

“No, Ground type moves don’t affect me. Flying type moves would do the same damage to me as say poison or steel.” I grumbled.

“Well sorry! I’m not that big a Pokénerd as you!”

“Clearly, otherwise you would’ve been more excited about when I gave you the Soul Dew, I mean that thing was an exact replica! Though I think it might be real now…” I shrugged, before looking around, “I wonder…” I said as I concentrated on a nearby rock, willing it to move. I cheered when I saw a faint aura surround it and lift it up before grinning and throwing the small rock at Heather.

“Ow!” she whined when it hit. “Don’t use Telekinesis on me! It’s rude!”

All I did was stick my tongue out at her in response.

“Ooh! You make me so mad!” Her wings glowed slightly before flapping them once at me. A massive burst of wind hit me and I was sent flying into the foliage.

“Yet you deal with me anyways~” I let out a laugh as I pulled myself out of the foliage.

She huffed and pouted. “Let’s just get something done before dark. I don’t wanna sleep outside. I hate camping.”

“Then lets go to the town of colorful ponies, surely nothing can go wrong there?” I said sarcastically, floating around the small clearing we were in.

“Did you really just tempt fate like that?”

“Did you not hear the sarcasm?!” I snorted, “But anyways let’s go back to that town…”

“Fine, but if something goes wrong it’s your fault.”

“I can accept that.” I shrugged, floating towards the town with Heather behind me.

“We are so lost,” Heather groaned. “And it’s all your fault, Tom.”

“How is this my fault?!” I snapped, turning my head to frown at her.

“Because you’re the one in front, stupid!” she fired back. “Heck, if it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t even be in this mess!”

“I thought you knew where we were going! But I refer to my former question for that second statement, how is that my fault?! I just bought two things and you bought that flute thing which I’ve yet to see around here.” I groaned, rubbing my hands- well, claws, down my face.

She looked sheepish for a moment, not bothering to look at me. “I… may have… kind of....” Heather slumped. “I dropped it when we arrived.”

“...That’s actually kinda sad, you were decent at playing the thing. I feel like that will come back to bite you though. Now, how do we find where we are, because I can’t float or levitate, whichever it is, very high yet.” I sighed, looking around at the various trees and plants before looking up at the sky and treetops.

“Why don’t we just ask for directions?” she ever-so-helpfully recommended.

“From who?” I snorted, trying to figure out if she was being sarcastic or not. I wasn’t having much success.

She pointed her wing up. “The pony sleeping on that cloud up there.”

I looked up at where she was pointing to see a rainbow maned pegasus, leaning slightly off a cloud, “...How does that even work? Clouds aren’t so-” I stopped abruptly as a drop of drool landed on my head, “I hate my luck.”

Heather stifled a chuckle. “Hey, I wouldn’t have believed it myself if I hadn’t woken up on one. Now, put that brain to use for once and get her attention.”

I simply gave Heather a deadpan look before slowly picking up a small rock with the only move I could think of, Telekinesis. “Heh, maybe I could launch it like a bullet from a gun?”

“We want to ask for directions, not scare her to death or, worse, piss her off. You even try it and I’ll use that Whirlwind trick to shove you off a cliff.”

I remained silent for a moment before sighing, “You could, I don’t know, fly up and ask her? You’re the one who knows how to somehow fly here.”

“Maybe so, but you got us lost.”

“Could you just do it? I’ll find a way to pay you back later on if it works; even though I’ll likely regret this decision.” I asked, looking directly at Heather.

She gave me a very small glare before sighing. “I swear I have to do everything for you. It’s like you’re still a kid.” She started flapping her wings, slowly gaining altitude up to the cloud.

“I got stuck in a body completely different from my own! How does that not qualify for not knowing what to do?!” I shouted up at her… Which may have been a terribly stupid idea because I was speaking mentally.

“Because you’re you,” she shot back, just before reaching the cloud. “Okay… now how to do this? Um, I suppose the direct approach works. Miss?” I saw her gently prod the sleeping pony. “Miss, could you help us out for a moment?”

One of the pony’s wings twitched slightly and she pulled her hoof in to scratch her chest.

Heather looked a little annoyed at being ignored. “Miss?” she prodded a little harder. “I’m sorry for waking you, but we really need help.”

She weakly swatted at where she was being prodded with her hoof, saying something that sounded a lot like, “Five more minutes.”

“...Heavy sleeper? Or in this case ‘napper’?” I snorted, watching with a small amount of amusement.

“Stupid feathers,” Heather said to herself, but I could clearly hear her frustration. “Miss! Wake up!”

“Wah?” The pony grumbled sleepily as she slowly looked around before her eyes locked onto Heather, making her quickly wake up as she jumped back, “What the hay?!”

“Finally!” Heather sighed/groaned. “You’re are a hard pony to wake up, ya know that? Look, I’m sorry for doing that, but my friend and I need help.”

“How do I know you’re not lying and just trying to take me somewhere to eat me? Huh? How?” The pony narrowed her eyes at Heather, seeing the sharp teeth as she spoke.

“One, because I don’t eat things that talk. Two, I’m too tired to worry about food right now because we’ve been walking-slash-flying for hours. And finally, I’mma be honest with you here, honey, you do not look appetizing. Too colorful; be like having Skittles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Bleych!”

“I still don’t believe you! What are these ‘Skittles’ you mentioned anyways?” The pony said, jumping from the main subject to what she was being compared to.

“I hereby vow that I will refer to that pony as Skittles in any future conversations.” I said in response to Heather, not realizing that Skittles could hear me as well.

“Huh? Who’s that?!” Skittles’ eyes narrowed as she looked around.

Heather looked down at me with a deadpan. “Smooth, laddie. Smooth. Now you freaked her out even more. We’re supposed to be trying to keep her calm so she can get us out of this forest. As I said earlier, we are NOT sleeping on the ground. I need a bed!”

Skittles looked over the edge, down at where I was waiting to wave up at her, before she looked back at Heather, “While I still don’t trust you, I guess I can understand that need… Just one thing what is that thing down there, ‘miss’ dragon?”

“Actually, I’m a giant bird. He’s the dragon,” she corrected, pointing at me.

“Yup, hi.” I said, rolling my eyes at the turn in the conversation as I waved my claw...thing.

“...I don’t see it, he looks nothing like a dragon. I would know, I kicked one out of its cave after it started to cover the skies in smoke!” Skittles declared, somehow sitting on her hindlegs as she flexed her… Arms I guess.

“Hoo, we got a badass over here, Tommy-boy! Girl, you rock! And yeah, he’s a pretty lame dragon. Can’t even fly, how lame can you get?”

“I can hear everything through your ears right now Heather! I do not approve of you calling me lame!” I barked, before snorting at Heather’s first comment.

“Since when do I care about your approval, oh mister mighty-dragon-of-throwing-pebbles?” She looked at Skittles. “See what I have to put up with? Pitiful, ain’t it?”

“I refuse to cook the next meal you ask for because of this!” I replied, frowning with my arms… I guess they’d be arms, crossed.

“Is that a threat or a promise?” Skittles quipped, getting into the act.

“Ha! I love this girl already!”

“I hate you both!” I groaned.

“Huh? Girl?” Skittles blinked, looking at Heather with a raised brow before shaking her head slightly, “Oh yeah, I forgot, I’m Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in all of Equestria!”

“Fastest flier? You got proof?” Heather dared. “Guinness got it marked down and everything?”

“Gonna ignore the egghead words you’re using. And hay yeah I’ve got proof! I’m the first pegasus to do the Rainboom in centuries!”

“...that sounds more like you made a clap of thunder,” Heather pointed out. “I mean, ‘rain’ ‘boom’? I can’t be the only one to have noticed this.”

“I- Huh. You know it does sound like that. Oh well, name isn’t gonna be changed any time soon. But the Rainboom is kinda my signature move, with it being a massive rainbow explosion and all.” Rainbow looked a bit contemplative at first before having the most smug smirk to be seen for miles around.

“Sounds more like breaking the sound barrier to me.” I snorted.

“Or the color barrier at least,” Heather said as she tried to process things. “Either way, it sounds cool, but back to the topic that started all this ‘fun’... I STILL NEED A FRIGGIN’ BED!!” Her scream nearly caused Rainbow to jump off the cloud.

“Jeez! Calm down! I’ll get you a bed or something!” Rainbow said, as she nervously looked at Heather.

Heather huffed for a moment before coming back to her ‘proper’ senses… or at least as proper as she can be. “Sorry, I just don’t do camping. It’s absolutely horrible!”

“I completely get you my mare- Err, bird?” Rainbow shrugged slightly and looked at the position of the sun before turning the complete opposite direction that Heather and I had been going.

“What about me? I can’t exactly fly.” I said, giving Heather a pleading look.

“Fine, you can ride with me, ya whiner,” Heather said with a goodnatured smirk. “And this time on my back instead of my leg.”

“Thank you.” I said dryly, “I appreciate the fact I will not have as much of a chance of falling on your back instead of your leg.”

“Just hop on,” she said as she landed down in front of me from the cloud.

I just nodded and quickly got onto her back, saying nothing.

“Well then, off to Ponyville! The town that witnesses disasters every other week!” Rainbow declared before starting to fly off, giving a slight gesture at us to hurry up.

“To infinity and beyond,” Heather said under her breath with a laugh as we flew after the prismatic blur.

Chapter 2: Odd new town

(Twilight’s POV)

I let out what was my fifteenth groan of the evening as I walked to my home. Today was supposed to be a nice relaxing day in the park with a good book. And it was… for about thirty minutes. Just out of nowhere, a bunch of stupid stallions started arguing outside the local pub. It wasn’t even anything worth argueing about! I mean, honestly, who picks a fight over who was supposed to leave a tip for the waitress?! Not even drunks are supposed to be that stupid!

The fighting had gone on for HOURS! Even when I moved to other benches in the park I could still hear their incessant blathering! I barely even got through the first three chapters, and it’s the new Daring Do book too! They interrupted me reading my favorite book series (no matter what Rainbow says, I’m the number one fan around here) and it’s just made me bitter.

Mental note to myself, Twilight Sparkle: Never let Noteworthy, Caramel, or Clockwork into the library for one month. ONE WHOLE MONTH! Nopony ruins my reading day and gets away with it!

I finally arrived home to my library home with a sixteenth groan. Home, sweet home. Maybe now I can finally get some reading done. I reached for the door handle--

“Hey egghead! I need your help with somethin’!”

Welp… there goes that plan. Thank you, Rainbow Dash, for ruining my already ruined night. This better be good or that mare is gonna get it, I swear by Celest…. what in Equestria are those things with RD?

(Several minutes earlier, Latios’ POV)

“...How in the world did I get us so off course?” I muttered, watching the land slowly change beneath us.

“You really want me to answer that?” Heather quipped with a knowing grin.

“Yes, because I value your opinion oh-so much.” I rolled my eyes at what she said.

Rainbow just shook her head at what she heard us talking about.

“How much further, Rainbow?” she called out. “This bozo is really heavy.”

“I doubt I weigh that much!” I hissed, not wanting to consider if I could actually be considered fat as a Pokemon already.

“Eh, it’s maybe two, three minutes away? You can see it from here.” Rainbow shrugged, pointing at where a town was becoming visible to us.

“Ooh, rustic. I’ve always wanted to be a part of a small town.”

“Is that why you always wanted a house in a small town instead of in the city?” I raised a brow, or at least something that felt similar to an eyebrow.

“Well… yeah,” she said hesitantly. “The movies always showed the small town as being friendlier and nicer than the big city. I mean, New York is nice and all, but… it’s just not homey.”

“That’s only true on certain occasions. A lot of those places have rude people.” I shrugged, understanding why she wanted a place like that to live.

“Uh… Just a warning… Ponyville doesn’t exactly react the best way to things that aren’t ponies. Give it a few days though and you’d be fine, that is if you’re staying that long.” Rainbow called back to us as she began to descend towards a… Why in the world is there a giant tree with a balcony?

Heather gasped as a smile spread across her face. “Oh my gosh, an actual tree house! They literally made a house out of a tree, how cool is that?! And... “ I think that’s the first time I have ever heard a Lugia squee. “There’s a tiny unicorn standing in front of it! Unicorn!!”

“She’s not exactly a unicorn.” Rainbow smirked as she landed in front of the purple pony and the tree.

“...I feel like horrible things will happen to me near this tree.” I shivered, not enjoying the foreboding feeling I seemed to get as Heather landed next to Rainbow, letting me slide off her back and start my weird… floating thing again.

The unicorn… wait, does she have wings? Am I imagining that or is there literally a unicorn with wings standing in front of me? Another thing on the list to ask later. The winged unicorn stood there gaping at us, seemingly trying to understand what she was looking at.

“Yo, egghead! Whazzup?” Rainbow smirked, ignoring the winged unicorn’s expression.

“R-rainbow…” she said slowly. “W-what in the wide world of Equestria am I looking at behind you?”

“Friends?” Rainbow shrugged before she started grinning, “Oh yeah! Do you have the new Daring Do book yet?!”

“...I’m confused at what’s happening, Heather.” I muttered, still not seeming to realize that I don’t know how to only speak to one person at a time, mentally.

“It talks!” the unicorn screeched, flapping itself into one of the lower branches.

Heather looked at me with a small glare. “Stop doing that, ya idgit.”

“We’re not some wild-animals with no concept of intelligence ya’ know. And no, it’s how I speak. I can’t use my mouth for talking anymore and I don’t know sign-language so don’t complain.” I grumbled, an expression of annoyance on my face.

“Reeeal smooth Twi, real smooth.” Rainbow snickered, watching her friend act like a bird.

“What is that thing?!” ‘Twi’ said with a shiver. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.” She went still suddenly, her eyes slowly beginning to widen. “I’ve never seen anything like it before….” The pony giggled just a little too creepily before looking at the two of us. “Oh where are my manners? Why don’t you all come in? We have much to discuss.” She dropped down and opened the door to the ‘house’, gesturing for us to enter.

“...I’m just gonna, you know, stick around so you don’t get dissected or something.” Rainbow snorted as she walked in.

“Heatherrrr! The foreboding feeling is coming back, full force!” I whined, slowly floating through the door.

“I like this pony,” Heather said with a grin. “I like her a lot.”

I just whined as I tried and failed to pull her in with Telekinesis.

“I’m commin’, I’m commin’.” She stepped in after me, somehow using her tail to close the door after the unicorn. “Ooh! I knew I liked tails.”

“Fascinating,” ‘Twi’ said as she made a piece of paper and quill appear out of thin air and began writing. “A prehensile tail, not something you’d find in most avian species but not uncommon with draconic individuals.”

“Apparently Heather, the larger scarier one, isn’t actually a dragon and is a bird of some sort.” Rainbow snorted in disbelief, “While the weird thing is apparently supposed to be a dragon.”

“I ama dragon thankyouverymuch.” I grumbled, shaking my weird claw… fist… thing at Rainbow; for the sake of convenience I think I’ll just call it claws.

“Very interesting,” the newly dubbed ‘science mare’ said in awe. She got right up into my face and started examining every inch of me. “A dragon like this has never been recorded before. Not only does it hover to move, but it’s claws are miniscule and capable of retraction. And these wings on it’s back do not seem to used for flight, but more for aerodynamics. If what I’m seeing is right, you’re built for speed. Possibly even unrecorded speeds if pushed hard enough.”

“Heather did you buy a Pokedex and lose that thing as well? Because I swear it sounds like she’s reading the files from it.” I blinked, pulling my head back.

“Really now?” Rainbow said, giving me a look which I really, really didn’t like.

“Ooh, looks like we got a rivalry brewing,” Heather snickered. “Don’t worry, Dash, this lump o’ lard can barely even float, let alone fly faster than you.”

“Heather… I was justshoved into this body against my will earlier today, same with you. Even if you somehow seem to understand how yours works.” I hissed, though I still didn’t deny what she said.

“Oh lighten up, Tommy,” she sighed. “You’re probably not using it right because you keep thinking it’s not yours. I’m just letting instinct take over and walla! I can flap and move. Even a monkey can figure it out, so you should be just fine.”

“...Sometimes I hate you.”

“That’s right, ain’t nopony faster than me!” Rainbow started boasting, again.

“So, what exactly are you two, strangers?” the other pony finally asked.

“Technically, we’re a type of monster,” Heather said oh-so-helpfully.

“Monster?!” the two ponies said in tandem.

“Wrong word choice yet correct at the same time.” I groaned at how Heather was explaining, even though I probably would’ve made it sound worse.

“We’re pocket monsters, or pokémon for short. I’m a creature known as a Lugia, while my friend here is a Latios. Or at least, that’s what we are now.”

“What does that mean?” the mare asked.

“It’s… Complicated I would guess.” I sighed at her question, “By the way, what’s your name?”

“Oh! I’m so sorry, got caught up in scientific discovery.” She giggled a little before clearing her throat. “I am Princess Twilight Sparkle and this is my place of residence and business, the Golden Oak Library.”

“You’re a pony princess?!” Heather gasped before squeeing for the second time that day. “Little fangirl dreams coming true!”

“Hah! I knew this type of thing would happen with you, Twi!” Rainbow smirked and hit Twilight’s shoulder with her wing.

Twilight laughed slightly, rubbing her shoulder as she turned her head and muttered, “Ow.” She sighed and turned to us. “I’d like to know your names as well. Certainly you don’t call each other Lugia and Latios, right?”

“Well, I’m Tom, and she’s Heather.” I shrugged slightly at the question, “It would be a bit silly to call each other by the name of our species wouldn’t it?

“Didn’t stop the show and other merchandise,” Heather whispered to me, nudging my shoulder with a smile.

“Nothing stops those.” I grinned back at her before letting out a small laugh.

“...A show? Do you mean a play? Cause’ those things are for wimps. Except the Hearth’s Warming Celebration, cause’ that is totally awesome since I’m in it.” Rainbow smirked.

“Um, guessing that isn’t here, so… uhh… what about movies? Ya got movies here?”

“Yeah, we’ve got movies. They’re always pointlessly expensive though, you’d think they’d find a cheaper way to play them…” Rainbow grumbled.

Heather suppressed a smirk… what? I know when she’s trying to keep back her smiles. She does it everytime she’s trying to pull a fast one on me. “It’s like a movie, but shorter and easier accessed. But it ain’t cheap either, I can guarantee ya that much.”

“Fascinating,” Twilight awed. “Hmm, that almost sounds like that strange device I discovered in the human world a little while ago. What was it called? Tee and vee? No, that doesn’t sound quite right…”

“...Wait, you’ve been to the human world?” I asked, looking directly at her, “Also it’s called the TV.”

“You know about humans?!” Twilight nearly shrieked before gasping. “That’s what you meant, isn’t it?! You two, you’re humans! Humans that came to our world!” Okay, how many girly squees am I gonna have to hear today? It’s getting hard on my ear drums. “This is so exciting! I can finally study humans with my very own equipment and magic! This is gonna be awesome~!”

“Uh, Twi, I don’t think they want to be hurt.” Rainbow raised a brow.

“...There’s next to nothing interesting about humans, we all generally look the same, don’t have any special abilities like magic as you just said. On Earth, Magic is just a fabrication of the human imagination, or a trick of smoke and mirrors so to speak.” I said, carefully watching Twilight’s expression so I could figure out if I needed to run or not.

Heather instead turned to me with a raised eyebrow. “Dude… what was that? Since when were you a misanthrope?”

“Since never, I mean the human mind is pretty interesting considering everything we’ve been able to do as a species, and most of us dolook the same unless you took a moment to compare each person’s features. This also isn’t my view on life or the human species. That’s something completely different which I will likely never say due to the amount of headaches it gives me.” I merely rolled my eyes at Heather’s statement.

“That’s… that’s just bleak, dude. Really, really bleak.” She turned to Twilight. “Don’t mind him. Like any species, humanity has it’s goods and bads and is great in its own way.”

“Um… oookay then. Well….” Twilight blinked a little, trying to peek past us. “Rainbow? Is-Is there somepony at the window?”

Rainbow turned and look at the window before an expression of severe irritation crossed her face, “Oh no, not this time. I’m tired of those three!” she said, sprinting out the door to try and stop the madness in its tracks but sadly didn’t get far as the pony screamed.

“MONSTERRRRRS!” The pony with a daisy on her flank cried out, running through town in a frantic dash.

“Uh…” I blinked, trying to figure out just what was happening.

“Well, that happened,” Twilight and Heather said at the same time.

Chapter 3: Words of Wisdom

“...Please tell me we won’t see pitchforks and torches?” I asked as I floated outside of the treehouse, staring at where the odd pony ran towards, which just so happened to look like a town square.

Twilight groaned and sighed at the same time, running a hoof down her face. “With her, I wouldn’t put it past the town to get the pitchforks… again. I really need to talk to those three about seeing a therapist for their panic attacks. It can not be healthy.”

“Well they get their exercise I guess…” I groaned.

“Why is it every time anything new shows up in town they freak out? It was only reasonable with a few things, not much else.” Rainbow frowned, expecting to see the first pitchforks fairly soon.

“I don’t know, but we’ll deal with that portion at a later date.” Twilight turned to Rainbow. “Rainbow, I need you to intercept Daisy and try to get the town calmed down. If you see the Mayor, let her know that everything is under control.”

“Got it Twi!” Rainbow said, launching towards town at nearly full speed.

Heather whistled lightly, nudging me. “That’s your goal right there, dude.”

“No, my goal is actually being able to get higher and move faster. I won’t be there for a while I would guess.” I sighed before going back into the library.

Heather turned to Twilight. “So, what do we do now, princess?”

“Please don’t call me that. I don’t like others thinking I’m better because of a title; leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”

“Sorry.”

Twilight waved off her concerns. “It’s alright, you didn’t know.” The two followed me into the library, the pony princess continuing to speak. “For now, let’s just try to get a good cover story. Can’t exactly go around saying we have two aliens that have been turned into other aliens. We’re gonna have to go with what you are currently as these… monster forms. So how about you two tell me a little bit about yourselves so we can get things prepared for the inevitable town meeting.”

“Where to start…” I muttered, not exactly sure why I couldn’t think of something important to say, oh wait, because I normally can’t.

A loud yell could be heard from the town square, “Put the pitchforks down!”

“Sounds like Dashie is doing her job,” Heather smirked. “Got a good pair of lungs on her.”

“Just ignore the town for bit,” Twilight scolded lightly. “Just give me a few things. Likes, dislikes, maybe personal tastes; just something that we can use to keep the town folk from coming after you like a manticore.”

“I like living if that counts for anything?” Twilight deadpanned at me. “Well, aside from that, books are nice.” I said, smiling slightly at the fact we just so happened to be in a library as well.

“Okay, good. That’s something helpful as it shows you at least have some intelligence,” Twilight said off...hoofedly(?) as she took some notes.

Heather snickered a little. “You just got insulted by a pony princess. How does that make you feel?”

“Like I stayed up too late one day and you gave me coffee with too much sugar. Also known as, Horrible.” I groaned. Her continued snickering only worsened my weakened pride.

Twilight at least had the nerve to look ashamed. “Sorry about that, I didn’t mean it as an insult. Anyway, there has to be a little something more you can give me. I don’t need a life story, just a few tidbits.”

“Well, I’m used to having to do work even if I prefer to be lazy, I’m not normally easy to anger, though I am easy to annoy. I have a healthy fear of Heather.” I muttered the last part, fearing what she may do if she heard.

She scribbled quickly, making sure to catch everything I said. “Okay, I think that should be enough on Latios. Now, how about you, Lugia?”

“I’m what you might call a ‘free spirit’,” Heather answered with a smile. “I do what I want, when I want, how I want to, and ain’t nobody gonna tell me otherwise.”

“You and Skittles will get along just fine.” I snorted, looking out the window when I heard another yell.

“OW! I SAID DROP IT NOT THROW IT ON THE PILE!”

“...Ok, ignoring that, back to the questions?”

“Err, right. Okay, so we have the laid back one and the active one. Does that about sum it up?” Twilight asked, looking between the two of us.

“Yeah that’s about right.” I nodded, “That might be why we get along so well.”

“Uh huh!” Heather confirmed with a smile. “That’s us!” She wrapped her wing around my head and put me in a headlock. “Two friends, destined to annoy the crap out of each other for all eternity!”

I flailed as I tried to escape her odd wing-arm-thing, I didn’t really have much success.

I stared as a piece of paper slowly floated down from what looked like a small rift in the air, before the crack closed again, “What the…” I muttered as I stopped its movement with Telekinesis and brought it over to me. As it came closer to me I noticed what looked like asian characters- or writing as it could be said- on it. When I moved it to my weird claw thing I almost dropped it from what I saw on it.

“I am the Xiaolin Dragon of Light. If you fight for peace, than I am an amigo of yours. Evil better beware though, cause as long as I'm around I refuse to let the world fall to darkness.”

“What in the world is this?” I practically shouted, looking up at Heather and Twilight, both of whom shrugged. They were just as confused as I was.

“As dumb as this sounds, I dokinda want to see if this summons someone or something…” I grinned slightly, despite my potentially horrible idea.

“Xiaolin Dragon of Light, I cal- OW! Heather, that hurt!”

“And what the heck do you think you’re doing?!” she yelled at me, smacking me once more with her wing.

“But he has Light in his name! Doesn’t that stereotypically make this person good?” I huffed.

“Not if you watched Yu-Gi-Oh GX,” she muttered.

“You know I didn’t like that sh-” I was interrupted as a tear in the air suddenly appeared and a man dressed in red robes dropped out, landing on his back with a groan.

“Para folla bien, am I going to do that everytime that happens?” He got up, rubbing his head as a green serpent curled around his shoulders.

“Yeesh. Those multiversal travels are quite a doozy.” The serpent spoke, shaking its own head.

“One, I am amazed that actually worked, and two, that serpent reminds me of an old show I liked.” I said as I began to stare at the two.

And Heather squeed… again. Wow, three in one day… should I be worried? “IT’S DOJO! The best dragon ever!!” Said dragon quickly leapt into the man’s robes at the sounds of squeeing.

“Not another one! Not more hugging, please!” He shook. The man just glanced down at him with a raised eyebrow before glancing at Heather and I.

“Uh… I don’t think you need to worry about little fillies squeezing you this time hombre.”

“Oh yeah! It was Xiaolin Showdown, wasn’t it?” I snapped, somehow retaining the ability to do so with my odd claws.

“So much better than the continuation.” Heather shuddered. “Xiaolin Chronicles was all levels of wrong.”

The man got up, stretching his back a bit as Dojo continued to hide beneath his robes. “Well you already know more about all this xiaolin stuff than I do.”

“I guess so… Though I need to ask, is your name actually Xiaolin Dragon of Light? And if it is I pity you.” I asked as I floated over, though I suppose saying levitating would be more accurate.

“Nah, it’s just a title. Name’s Allan. And as you already know, this is Dojo.” He reached into his robes before pulling out the dragon, who quickly clung to his arm. “Was Nyx really that bad?”

Suddenly Dojo was in Allan’s face, grabbing him by the collar. “You don’t know. You didn’t see the things I saw.”

“Uh… Well I’m Tom, and my friend the Lugia, is Heather.” I said as I gave Dojo an odd look.

“So....” Twilight said, gaining everyone else’s attention, “is anypony going to explain why a human just appeared in my library with an angry mob of ponies barreling in on us?”

“You are all new to this stuff, aren’t ya? Guess I’m getting my quota of helping out new guys filled then.” Allan glanced out the window. “Though I should probably explain things after the ponies aren’t about to set the place on fire.”

“At least Skittles managed to get rid of most of their pitchforks...“ I muttered, “And to answer that, new to what? Being removed from Earth?”

“Hit the nail on the head hombre. It’s a bit more common than you might think.” Allan turned to Twilight. “So you got a plan to calm them all down?”

Twilight sighed slightly. “I do, but it’s most certainly not my best. All I have is attempting to make the town see these two are just like anypony else. They just look a lot weirder.”

“Hey!” Heather whined.

“It’s true and you know it.”

“...I don’t quite know how to feel about that. I also regret not taking spanish in highschool.” I muttered, well as much as I could with the whole speaking with weird psychic powers.

“Eh, screw foreign languages anyway,” Heather shrugged, causing Allan and Twilight’s eyes to twitch.

“You really have an attitude, don’t you?” the pony princess stated.

“Duh.”

“I’d have to agree with Twilight, lo extraño.” Allan shook his head. “Now, why is there an angry mob? Sure, the ponies when I first showed up were kind of spooked, but you guys seemed to do something wrong.”

“I dunno… Apparently this happens frequently, the pony who started this, I think, was called Daisy.” I said, looking out the window.

“The flower girl?” Dojo perked up. “Surprised she didn’t just faint on the spot.”

I let out a short laugh when I saw an extremely disgruntled rainbow maned pegasus walk out of the upstairs area of the Treebrary, “Sorry Twi, had to use your balcony.”

“Did you have fun with the pitchforks?”

“You have condemned yourself to pranks.” Rainbow snorted before turning to stare at Allan and Dojo.

Allan waved the arm Dojo was wrapped around. “Hola Rainbow. Como estas?”

“...Very, very bruised and annoyed with Ponyville for some reason having a riot slash monster sighting kit.” Rainbow groaned as she lightly rubbed her leg.

“Huh. You know more spanish than the Rainbow I know.” Allan put a hand to his chin as he glanced around. “That, Twilight’s wings, and the mob outside just makes me believe this ain’t nowhere close to how I did things.”

“I had weird classmates in flight school.”

“Ok, so aside from that, what’s your idea on handling the riot-thing?” I asked, looking to Twilight.

“The first idea is to simply talk them and see if we can calm this down quietly.”

“And if that doesn’t work?” Heather asked.

“Then, as my uncle used to say, we’re boned.”

“All I wanted was somewhere to sleep…” I groaned before glancing to the side to see Allan had taken a seat on the far wall and was looking at the scroll that had been on his back.

“What’re you looking at? Is it something from Xiaolin Showdown?” I asked as I floated over, trying to think of other ways to calm down the town.

“It’s a scroll that holds all my Wu. I’m trying to see if there’s something I can use to help. Unfortunately, there is no “calm down a mob” Wu.”

“Well that’s cool, though it’s a shame there isn’t something nearly that convenient for this situation. Oh well, I vote Twilight out to talk to the mob.” I sighed as I floated over to the singular window in the downstairs area.

“I abstain.” Rainbow shrugged, “I do not want to risk having the weird pony who likes jam throwing it at her. It’s hard to get that stuff out of feathers.”

“It’s the only option we have right now, though,” Twilight groaned. “As if this day wasn’t already bad enough, now I have to deal with an angry mob. It’s times like this ponies actually respected the title.”

“Ah yes, it already slipped my mind, you’re a pretty purple pony princess. Well, go do your thing and prevent our death, or general excommunication of this town for no reasonable reason.” I said, letting out a small smirk.

“I can still have you deported, ya know,” she glared lightly.

“Don’t mess with the purple library pony. That’s something I learned real quick, hombre.” Allan spoke, his head still stuck in the scroll.

Twilight smiled a little proudly. “Right. Well, let’s get this over with.” She trotted out the door, being immediately surrounded by over half of the town. “...hoo boy, this is gonna be harder than I thought, I just know it.”

A large cacophony erupted from the crowd seconds later, pretty much all of them demanding for us to be kicked out of the town.

She took a deep breath before, “SILENCE!”

To the credit of the town, most of them stopped yelling almost immediately, a few muttered in annoyance, however.

Twilight coughed lightly, rubbing her throat. “Oh wow that hurts,” she muttered in a hoarse tone. “No wonder they got rid of that in normal speech. You’d lose your voice before you got to middle age.” She cleared her throat before addressing the crowd. “Alright everypony, I can assure you that there is nothing to be worried about.”

“But Daisy said there was a monster!” One random yellow pony called out.

“They only look like monsters,” she clarified. “The two new arrivals are actually fairly nice and rather social. And if it helps any better, they’re about as nerdy as I am.”

“AAAAAAAAAAAACHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” Suddenly a bunch of smog shot out the windows of the Treebrary as a loud sneeze went off.

“Maldición Dojo! I told you, you should have stayed home if you felt like you had a cold coming on!”

I started coughing violently, stumbling around and somehow managing to get out of the Treebrary before collapsing on the ground, gasping for air, “Urghhhh…”

“Sword of the Storms!” A gust of wind went through the library, blowing out all the smog… and unfortunately a bunch of what was inside out the door. With a couple pieces of furniture thrown out on the front lawn, Allan peeked out the door, a golden sword now in his hand. “Uh… I’m not making this better, am I?”

“Put the sword away before I take it away from you!” Twilight practically screamed at the human.

“So much worse!”

As Allan shrunk slightly at Twilight and the sword turned into golden light, a pony yelled out from the crowd. “There’s another monster!”

Twilight turned back to the crowd. “IF ANY OF YOU FREAK OUT, I WILL PLACE YOU IN PRISON!”

The crowd shut up immediately, though from the back, we heard, “Told you Bon Bon, humans are real.”

“Not now, Lyra,” another voice replied with a sigh.

I coughed as I started floating again and looked at the ponies before waving, “Hi.”

“Hiya,” Heather waved, hiding from inside the library. “We’re the monsters… we don’t wanna eat anyone.”

Twilight deadpanned. “Really? ….really?”

“It was all I could think of!”

“...Heather, why in the world did you think it was a good idea to say that? Even if it was the only thing you could think of at the time, you probably would’ve been better off not saying it.” I just groaned, expecting things to get worse because of that statement.

Allan sighed as he scratched the back of his head. “Guess no one’s thinking straight today.”

Twilight sighed, putting a hoof to the bridge of her muzzle. “Can… can somepony please just get Mayor Mare so we can straighten this all out? Please?!”

“I’m… I’m just gonna stay in here…” Heather retreated back into the library, hoping to keep anything else from blowing up in our faces.

“Ya… I don’t think I can exactly make this situation better so…” Allan slipped back as well, putting a hand over Dojo’s nose just as he was about to sneeze again.

I looked at the ponies who were staring at us before quickly going back inside, myself. “I guess we can return to the earlier subject?”

“Earlier? Was there something else to talk about other than the mob?” Allan scratched his head, his other hand still grasping Dojo’s muzzle.

“Something about me and Heather being new to… I don’t even know the name of this place, probably something ridiculous and ‘punny’ instead of making sense.” I sighed and simply managed to sit down without falling once more.

“Oh right. That. How do I start this?” Allan walked over to a window before sticking the dragon’s nose out it, another sneeze full of smog going off. “Better?” Dojo nodded. “Alright, now. Are either of you familiar with the multiverse theory?”

“...Kinda? I don’t really know much about it though.” I muttered as I tried to remember certain aspects of the theory.

“It’s the theory that states that any action creates an alternative reality in which the opposite action occured. This results in the creation of infinite parallel worlds that can range from small to incredibly vast differences from our own,” Heather recited as if she was reading from a textbook… which she was surprisingly not.

“Uh… what she said.” Allan cleared his throat before continuing. “Basically, you two got sent to this world, which is a universe where ponies can talk, use magic, and a whole lot of other crazy stuff that flies in the face of physics, from your world, which I assumed was a normal human one. On top of that, you got turned into Lugia and…” Allan glanced at me, obviously confused.

“A Latios… You know, the brother of Latias, also a member of the Eon Duo, Guardian of the Soul Dew?” I said with a slightly confused expression as well.

“Never heard of that one. Anyway, I imagine you got sent here by some culo at a convention selling basura?”

“Well, we definitely bought some things, but it was a week after that, also today, that we ended up in this weird place.” I said with a nod.

“Huh. That’s a new one. Well to put it mildly, you aren’t the first to get sent to another world, becoming some other thing or gaining some power. There’s a lot of us, and we’re called Displaced.” Allan crossed his arms. “Though I’ll be honest, a lot of ones you’ll meet out there aren’t exactly… put together right in the head.”

“...So what you’re saying is that there are a bunch of super-powered humans out there, who are insane? That is a very bad thing.”

“Ya, well what are you gonna do?” Allan glanced outside at the mob. “I just try to keep as many of them away from my world as possible.”

“That’s quite a smart thing to do actually… But there’s also just as large of a chance of good people I suppose. Opinions do tend to be slightly biased after all.” I sighed before looking over to Heather, “You have anything to say?”

“Well, you said that paper thing had a message right?” I nodded. “Well, maybe we’ll just keep the ones whose message sounds good. If not, we chuck it in the river or something.”

“Even then, you need to be careful.” Allan nodded. “I got tricked pretty badly by one Displaced in my world and ended up spending two years in stone. I can let you guys know of a few of the ones I know are alright, but past that I wouldn’t take the chance.”

“I’ll have to take your advice on this… Also I feel like what’s happening out there will end up getting even more annoying as time goes by…” I muttered, still occasionally glancing out the window.

“Alright. Can either of you take notes with your… hands?” Allan glanced at the two of us with a raised eyebrow.

Heather flapped her wings. “I don’t think I can hold anything with these. They’re basically flippers.”

I just looked at my weird claws and shrugged, “Might as well try.” I pulled a sheet of paper off of a nearby table as well a… “...Why is there a quill? Are there no pens? If so this will be so annoying.”

“Right… Dojo, mind giving them a hand?” The dragon slid down Allan’s side before running up to the table, climbing on top and grabbing the quill and paper. “Alright, first there’s Kat Shifter. She’s blonde, red eyes, kind of a tomboy, alters gravity, can’t miss her. She and her brother Ben, a guy who looks just like Ben 10 from the cartoon, are both nice.”

“After that they told me of two good ones. One is named Gilgamesh and the other Auric, though I’ve never met them myself so I’ve just got their word to go on there. I’d trust what they say though. You keeping up Dojo?”

Dojo scratched the side of his head with the quill. “How in Dashi’s name do you spell Gill-ga-mesh?”

“Just sound it out. Anyway, they mentioned a few bad ones too. The Triad of Madness, Makuta Teridax-”

“Wait, that guy from Bionicle? That’s just weird…” I blinked in surprise.

Allan shrugged. “I dunno. I was given names, not descriptions. Anyway, after that the only other I can recommend to avoid is Chase Young. He’s the reason I spent awhile in stone.” He put a hand to his chin and thought for a few moments. “Other than those, I guess just be careful. A lot of Displaced could be trying to help you just so you owe them in return. If you ever find a fishy sounding totem, throw it in the lake or something.”

“Alright, got it.” I nodded once at his advice before stopping for a moment. “Wait, can we make our own totem or whatever it was?”

“Do we even want to?” Heather said, not looking quite as sure. “I think I would feel better if we left this nonsense alone. Look how much trouble just bringing in another one of them, that’s even a good guy, can cause. Heck, look at how much trouble we cause!”

“Ya…” Allan scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “I am sorry for dropping in at such a bad time. I can’t really control where I go though once someone activates my totem.”

“While that is a good point, I think there might somehow be a way to control whether we go or not, or at least have some influence over it if we do make one.” I frowned slightly before rolling my eyes, “It’s fine Allan, it was mostly my fault anyways.”

Allan smiled as he relaxed a bit at my comment. “Well how you make a totem… I have no idea.” I gave him a deadpan stare, waiting for him to say he was joking or something before he noticed. “I’m serious. I made mine just by charging a piece of paper full of chi and handing it to Kat. The last Displaced I helped somehow did something with a feather blade of his and tossed it into the void. For all I know, every totem is made differently.”

“...That would make sense. Though your totem had a phrase on it, what did you do for that?” I asked as I eyed the Soul Dew that Heather had around her neck.

“Like I said, I just filled the thing full of chi.” His hands glowed with a white light for a moment as he demonstrated. “It was a piece of the scroll I carry around but I honestly had no clue what would come out. Heck, it wasn’t even supposed to spread. It was just meant to be something for Kat and Ben to call me if they needed me.”

“Ok, that’s pretty cool. The most I’ve figured out so far related to any of my powers is my levitating and Telekinesis. So maybe I can do something with that?” I frowned slightly again as I tried to think of ways I might ‘learn’ new attacks.

Allan shrugged. “I dunno. Never even heard of your kind of pokemon. On top of that, don’t you think you should talk this over with Heather before you throw what is essentially an open invitation to the multiverse out there?”

“I intend to. I don’t want her to hurt me again.” I shivered as I remembered a few times before I ended up in this crazy place, things I won’t go into detail about. Dojo made a few more flourishes on the paper before wrapping up the long piece of paper and leaving it on the table. Meanwhile, Allan glanced out the window again.

“Well… I’d try to help with this situation, but Ben was the diplomat, not me. I’m better with kicking bad guy butt.” He looked at me. “You wanna send me home?”

“It was nice to meet you Allan, and sure. Question, how do I do that?” I grumbled the last part.

“Just say ‘my contract is complete’ or something like that. It’s what the Twilight in the last world did to send us back.” Dojo jumped up onto his shoulder, wrapping his tail around his shoulder a few times in preparation of a likely bumpy ride.

“Allan, Xiaolin Dragon of Light, your contract is complete.” I said, waving goodbye with a faint smile. Allan stood there with his hands behind his back, him and Dojo glancing around as if waiting for something.

“Well he was nice. So uh Heather, about that totem?” I said as I turned back to her and tapped the Soul Dew.

“It’s a bad idea, Tomas,” Heather glared, even actually using my full name. She rarely calls me ‘Tomas’, it’s usually a variation like ‘Tom’, ‘Tommy’, etc.

“It could also be a good idea, you had to admit you’re at least a little bit curious, aren’t you?” I said, smiling slightly at her, despite the odd feeling of impending doom, “I could pay you back later if this turns out to be too bad of an idea.”

“Curiosity killed the cat,” she argued back. “With something as dangerous as this, it would be smarter to avoid it altogether. We stand no chance against stuff like this so we shouldn’t mess with it.”

“Not everyone’s going to be evil. We’re also not cats, we’re… Well Pokémon I guess. Anyways, they’ll still find their way here if they’re evil, and even if we don’t make one from the looks of it we’re still going to have to interact with the… I was gonna say ‘World out there’ but in this case I think it’s Multiverse or something.” I sighed.

“Ahem,” came from the doorway, prompting us to look and see Twilight staring back at us. “I hate to bother such a riveting conversation, but in case you hadn’t noticed, there’s still an angry mob outside that is after you.”

“Uh… I may or may not have had that slip my mind already…” I let out a nervous chuckle at the look she was giving me.

Rainbow could just be heard snoring from the sofa, so she wasn’t going to be any help in this.

“Sorry Twilight,” Heather sighed. “We got caught up in a lot of weird stuff.”

“Well that stuff can wait. The Mayor finally showed up and is willing to hear you two out. So be on your best behavior.”

“Yes ma’am…” I groaned, only on account of the fact it sounded like we were being judged for a crime or some odd thing that happened- well aside from us showing up here at least.

“Then come on, we need to get this squared away now before it gets any worse.” She turned around and walked right back out.

“We should probably follow her,” Heather said. “But we are not done talking about this token thing.”

“Of course. I’m determined to make it happen, and you’re determined to make it not happen.” I shrugged slightly as I turned again and followed Twilight out.

“Stubborn little…,” the Lugia sighed. “He never learns, such a child.” Heather shook her head, following out after a small moment.

“Well… Let’s hope this turns out well.” I nodded to Heather before looking out the door after Twilight, ready to go out into the sight of the oddly angry ponies.

Chapter 4: Wait...PonyKlans are a thing?

I took a look around at the crowd and then the white… maned? I think that’s the word for it, pony standing in front of the crowd.

She coughed lightly to silence the crowd’s murmurs as she looked to me and Heather, “Would I be correct to presume you two are the creatures that my town is so riled up about?”

“That would be us,” Heather nodded. “Though, I blame the doofus here more.”

“So you blame me for a pony seeing us through a window, screaming, and proceeding to somehow gather an entire town in a short amount of time?” I snorted.

“Err… Well, let’s just skip to the point, shall we? Do either of you odd creatures intend to harm any members of my town?”

Heather looked at me. “I dunno, you wanna hurt the ponies?”

“Why would I want to hurt multicolored ponies? I mean really, what’s the point of that?” I simply raised a… Well what felt like an eyebrow at Heather.

“I suppose that answers those questions.” She gave the ponies behind her a slight glare, making quite a few of them let out nervous laughter.

“I don’t believe I’ve introduced myself either, I am Mayor Mare, what are your names?”

“I’m Tom, she’s Heather.” I said, looking at the crowd once more which seemed to have thinned out slightly. Did they just get bored of being a mob and leave or something?

“I’m the cool one that knows what she’s doing, he’s the dork that tags along because he doesn’t know how to do things on his own.”

“Hey! Now that’s not fair!” I grumbled, not really finding a place to argue, nor would I have even tried, Heather is like a brick wall when it comes to certain subjects.

“Hmm. I really don’t understand why these ponies can’t understand not every unknown or new creature to enter the town isn’t evil. Oh well. Welcome to Ponyville, and enjoy your stay.” Mayor said as she turned back towards the town, “I have paperwork to finish.”

“...I feel like that should have been much harder or much more annoying.” I blinked, watching the Mayor walk off before looking back at a rather frazzled Twilight and Heather.

“The mayor is a hard worker,” Twilight sighed. “She’s already got enough on her plate with my ascension a while back… not to mention the amount of terror that happens in this town on a weekly basis.”

“I want to know and don’t want to know at the same time. I’m going to go with not wanting to know to possibly preserve my sanity just a bit more.” I groaned, waving away the ponies who were still standing around.

“I get the feeling sanity is going to do more harm than good here,” Heather commented.

“You have no idea how right you are.”

“Let’s just… Go about finding a place where we can stay and possibly continue our argument from before whatever that was.” I groaned once more.

“Well, for the time being you could stay in the library, I suppose. I have enough room in the basement for you both to fit comfortably. I can’t think of any other place that would be able to fit either of you.”

Heather leaned over and whispered into my ear, “She just wants you close so she can dissect you in the night.”

I… Well I managed to keep from screaming but I did glare at Heather like I was trying to bore holes through her.

“Is everything alright?” Twilight looked between the two of us, confused as to what was going on.

“I hate Heather very much sometimes.” I hissed.

“Well that’s not very nice to say!” A pink pony exclaimed to my immediate right.

“OH SWEET BABY JESUS WHERE IN THE WORLD DID YOU COME FROM?!”

“My mommy and daddy of course!” the pony giggled. “Just kidding, I’ve been here the whole time!”

“I… But what? How?” I spluttered, staring at the pink pony in extreme confusion.

“It’s Pinkie Pie, don’t question it,” Twilight monotoned, as if it were something that needed to be learned quickly.

“Don’t question it… Just don’t question it…”I muttered as I gave Twilight a nod.

“I feel like questioning it,” Heather said with an evil smirk. “With powers like hers, who knows how much greater I could become?! Mwuahahaha!”

Pinkie giggled. “I like her.”

“I’m not going to remain sane at this rate…” I muttered, staring at the pink pony that came from seemingly nowhere.

“You can try… may Celestia help you in your trials,” Twilight gave a slight bow.

“Dead dragon walkin’!” Heather exclaimed.

“Urgh. You people clearly dislike me…” I groaned before looking at Twilight, “Celestia?”

“She’s the princess of our country, Equestria, and has been for over one thousand years.”

“...Wow that’s one old pony.” I blinked, registering the age in my head.

“Don’t be rude!” Twilight shrieked at me.

“I’m just saying, that’s one old pony. The oldest human to have ever lived to my knowledge was somewhere over 120 years.” I muttered.

“It’s not polite to mock a woman’s age, Tom. I could have sworn I beat that into you sometime ago.”

“I’m not mocking anything! That’s just plain impressive!” I huffed, crossing my arms.

Twilight sighed, shaking her head. “This day… this is definitely not my best day.”

“You haven’t been this stressed since you tried to understand my Pinkie Sense and evolved into a Rapidash!” Pinkie stated.

“A what?” Twilight asked, looking at Pinkie weirdly.

“...What is this pony but a spawn of chaotic madness?” I muttered, giving Pinkie an odd look.

“I like her,” Heather smiled.

“Of course you would Heather.” I sighed. “So, back to the earlier subject, I wish to continue trying to tell you why I think we should have a token.”

She instantly glared at me. “We are not making any tokens and that. Is. Final.”

“We will and we should!” I said, scowling back at her.

“No, Thomas. We have no reason to do it and it will only cause problems. This is not some new technology that you can play with to see how it works. This could potentially cause a lot of harm and I won’t let you do that to these ponies.”

“If I understood what Allan was saying, a Token would only take us from here, it’s the tokens of other ‘Displaced’ that would bring them here.” I said, crossing my arms once more.

“And who’s to say it can’t also work in reverse? Or that they could use them to track us to this world?” Heather crossed her wings. “You don’t seem to care about this world and more on fulfilling your sick fantasies.”

“The hell do you mean by sick fantasies?!” I growled.

“Oh please, alternate worlds? You’re completely enthralled by the idea, aren't’ you?”

“So what if I’m curious? That doesn’t mean I don’t have other reasons.” I snorted, scowling some more at Heather. “I just… Ugh, this is getting us nowhere faster than we’re going anywhere.” I said as I rubbed my head.

“I’m not moving an inch on this, buster,” she glared. “Not. One. Inch.”

“What would it even take for you to consider it Heather?”

“Nothing, absolutely nothing, and that’s the way it’s gonna stay.”

“Heather… Fine, what if it’s just me?” I sighed. Her glare bore right into my very soul. “...Won’t do that either, ok. This won’t go anywhere anymore, lets just stop…” I shivered slightly in fear of my friend.

“Good decision,” she smirked victoriously. “Because I’m tired and I want to go to bed.” She even went as far to point out that the sun had already set and the moon had risen.

I turned to Twilight, “Seems like we’ll be taking up your offer of the basement tonight.”

Twilight smiled widely. “Great! I’ll get everything set up so you two just make yourselves at home.” She trotted to the basement door and disappeared into the depths below.

“I wanna say she has evil scientist stuff down there.” I snorted.

“Be nice,” Heather said sternly. “You’re already on thin ice, don’t make it worse for yourself.”

“What if she does though?” I muttered, looking away from Heather with a huff. “She did have that manic look in her eyes like she wanted to learn more no matter what…”

“She was nice enough to let us into her home and allow us to stay until further notice. That’s all I need to know and all I care about.”

“Fair enough… Hm. Seems that Skittles sleeps like a rock.” I said, gesturing to the snoring pegasus on the couch.

“Reminds me of you,” she snarked.

Before I could retort, Twilight came back upstairs. “Alright, everything is all set for you both down stairs. I’m going to turn in myself for the night, so you both have a good night.” She trotted up the fair stairs, presumably to her own bedroom.

“Thank you Princess.” I said with a nod before scowling at Heather.

Heather ignored my look and made her way to the stairs. “Are you coming or what? I’m tired and going to bed.”

“Yeah yeah…” I sighed, following after her into the… actually rather large basement. A few cots were laid out on opposite sides of the room, Heather going straight to one and collapsing there. She was completely asleep less than a moment later.

“That’s a skill right there…” I chuckled and laid down on one on the other side of the room, slowly drifting off to sleep.

---As time passes---

Over the first week we were in this odd place which we came to learn was named Equestria, which was a pun in and of itself since the majority of the species in it seem to be equine. Heather and I managed to get a house right outside of town that could actually fit the two of us, though it was good that Heather wasn’t the same size as the Lugia from the movie.

We also learned something odd, namely that we seemed to able to ‘level up’ in a way. Each time we did that, well, each time Heather did it she said it was like she was getting a little bit stronger and faster each time. I’ve only managed to do it once, as well as discover I could use all of the attacks Latios could that didn’t require a level. Though I have to admit, I was very confused when I found a TM on a table in the house, not that I could use it anyways. This all happened over the span of one week, including a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party that had treats that probably gave me diabetes. I’m never again eating one of Pinkie’s cupcakes.

---The next week---

“So, what are our plans for today again?” I sighed, looking back over at Heather from where I was being lazy on our rather large sofa.

“I was gonna go beat up another timber wolf. Figured your lazy butt was gonna merge with the sofa,” Heather said with a smirk.

“Well it is a comfortable sofa, but no, I think Twilight wanted us for something.” I sighed, getting off the couch and floating over to Heather.

Heather laughed as if she knew something. “Oh yes, she said she had something… planned, for today.” She snickered a little more as we exited the house.

“You sound like you know something, I don’t like it.” I grumbled, purposefully waving at Daisy, the pony who caused a mob the first day we were here, causing her to wince.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about~,” she sing-songed.

“You’re clearly lying, you’re never this happy, why are you so happy about this?” I asked, giving Heather a pointed glare which probably did nothing. “Have you two plotted something against me? I know she doesn’t like me as much as she does, you.”

“Oh stop being so paranoid,” she waved off. “Everything’s gonna be juuuuust fine.”

“...Oh god why?” I shivered at the tone she used to say that, but maybe she was right and I was just overly paranoid? Nah.

I stared forward at the library as we got closer, trying to remember just what it was Twilight had wanted us for. Heather stepped forward and knocked when we got there. “Hey Twi, you in there?”

“Door’s open!” we heard from inside. “It’s a freakin’ public library after all.” I think I heard her say, “Why does everypony always knock?” after that, but much softer.

“...I forgot it was a library due to the fact pretty much nobody goes in here aside from you and your friends.” I snorted as I pushed the door open.

“So, what was it you wanted to talk to us about again?” I sighed as I held the door open for Heather to enter before closing it.

“Oh good, it’s you two!” Twilight beamed, moving around the library at amazing speeds. She was collecting books, utensils, and papers up the wazoo! “We don’t have much time! I have to get you both ready for tonight!”

“What’s tonight? It’s not some fancy dinner is it?!” I started to panic on account of literally having no experience with that type of thing.

“No, no, no!” I relaxed a little. “You’re meeting the ruling princesses tonight!”

“Oh thats g- WAIT WHAT?! THAT’S TONIGHT?! HOW DID I FORGET THAT?!” Out went the panic and in came the complete freakout. Heather fainting did not help the situation either… though the smiling was a mixed message.

“Heather?! No, don’t you dare make me figure out what to do alone! You’re better at this stuff than I am!” I started shaking her in an attempt to wake her up.

“More pony princesses~,” she groggily said. Okay, now the smile makes a bit more sense… stupid fangirling.

“Oh for- Heather a bit more maturity please! It’s supposed to be my job to be the immature one!” I groaned before turning to Twilight, “Please tell me there aren’t any more aside from you three?”

“Well, there’s my sister-in-law, Cadance, but she’s in the Crystal Empire to the north,” Twilight recited as she continued to look through her books. I caught the title of one of them: Royal Etiquette for Dummies.

“So, we have Celestia, princess of the sun, Luna, princess of the night, you, princess of magic or friendship or something. What is Cadence? Princess of love?” I groaned, not realizing how right I was.

“Urgh… Twilight, do you have a bucket and some ice water?” I sighed as I thought about the implications of what they’d be doing later that day.

“Hmm?” she looked up to finally see Heather passed out. “Oh, simple enough. Spike?! Could you please get a bucket of ice water?”

“Sure thing Twi’!” Spike called back, quickly leaving their shared room in the library’s second story and going into the kitchen where at first the sound of metal hitting something came from, then the sound of something solid hitting the inside of the bucket which was clearly ice, and then the sound of the faucet before he came back out and held the bucket out to Twilight, “Here it is.”

“...Scales, tail, claws, fangs… Well, now I kinda want to act like Heather. Twilight, how is it we didn’t know you had a dragon living with you?” I asked as I stared at Spike.

“Uh… Twi… The thing is staring at me…” Spike said as he turned to Twilight with a confused expression.

“Oh right!” she face-hoofed. That had to hurt. “Spike’s been in Canterlot helping Princess Celestia for the past week so you haven’t met. Spike, this is Thomas and the one passed out is Heather. Thomas, this is my number one assistant, Spike.”

“Really now? Huh. Well hello Spike. Nice to meet you. Also that looked quite painful Twilight.” I said as I held out my claw to shake his hand.

Spike hesitantly reached out and shook my claw back, “Uh, nice to meet you?”

“Now then, about that water…” I said as I picked up the bucket and proceeded to dump all of it on Heather’s head.

“Hey! Watch the books!” Twilight scolded.

“Sorry!” I winced, making sure that there weren’t any books near the water on the ground to prevent any water damage, “So, Heather, you want to actually remain coherent and help?”

A spray of water hit me in the face, though I was thankful she hadn’t learned Hydro Pump. “I’m good. I’m gooood. So… what are we doing again?”

“Meeting the Princesses.”

And the smile is back. “Princesses!! I don’t care if they’re for little girls, we’re actually meeting pony princesses in a mountainside castle!!”

“I seriously wonder how that thing doesn’t fall… Anyways, not the point. Twilight, when do we need to leave for this? Are we taking the train or are we flying?” I asked, giving Heather a slightly worried look.

“We would normally take the train, but… uh, well… Heather’s not allowed onboard.”

“What?!” Heather shrieked, breaking from her stupor. “Why not?!”

“The train conductor thinks you’ll break any car you’re in.”

“Oh that is such bull!”

“Rules are rules, I’m afraid,” Twilight said with an apologetic smile.

“Hehehe… Well I suppose flying is a good idea. I’ve managed to at least get moving up and down correct, now I just have to be able to move a bit faster.” I grinned before patting Heather’s shoulder, “Well, you do have your moments of violence, though not enough to break one of the cars.” She responded by punching me in the face.

“OW! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!” I grabbed my face where she punched me with a frown.

“It made me feel better,” she huffed with a pout. “I wanted to ride the train.”

Twilight looked at us with a turned head. “You have an interesting friendship. I’ll have to make some more observations on this.”

“It’s a painful friendship of the variety forged in highschool and college.” I grumbled.

“With a tad bullying spree in junior high,” Heather reminisced with a smile.

“Eurgh… Don’t remind me of those years, it was horrible…” I shivered at the memories that were coming back to me before shaking my head and looking at Twilight, “Anyways, when do we leave?”

“In about five minutes.”

“...You’re joking, right?” I stared directly at Twilight as a faint expression of horror became obvious on my face.

“Um, more like four minutes and twenty-nine seconds,” Twilight corrected herself.

“Well, we’re boned,” Heather surmised.

“...Quite.” I groaned rather loudly and floated over to the nearest wall and proceeded to hit my head on it.

“I think I broke him,” Twilight said, silently taking notes.

“Why. Was. There. Such. A. Short. Amount. Of. Time. For. The. Warning?!” I punctuated each word with a hit before stopping with a groan.

“Heather said it would be enough time for you two to get ready,” she pointed out.

“Physically? Yes. Mentally? I don’t know how to talk to royalty!” I threw my arms back as I said this, scowling at Heather.

She did her typical evil smirk before shrugging. “We’ll figure it out when we get there.”

“So… you’re going to wing it?” Twilight asked.

“...We have opened a whole new section of puns for you to use haven’t we?” I sighed and put one of my claws on to my head before using Heal Pulse to prevent a rather painful bruise.

“We’d better get moving before the chariot arrives. Come on, Spike, we have to make sure the guards don’t try to stab our friends when they arrive.”

“That’s a good idea, but don’t you think the princess warned the guards that there might be some odd looking creatures here?” Spike replied, gesturing to Heather and I, mainly me for some reason.

“And every time they’ve been warned, they still attack. Nopony seems to understand our definition of weird. So, I’m not taking any chances.”

“Does anyone understand your definition of normal for that matter?” I snorted, rolling my eyes at the absurdity of the situation once more.

“I forget, what was the name of the guard that freaked out when he saw me in the castle when I was younger?” Spike let out a laugh at the memory, grinning broadly.

“Itchy Trigger,” Twilight groaned, remembering quite differently from Spike.

I gave Heather a look, “Just a question, but how would someone get into a job designed to protect people, well ponies in this context, with the name Itchy Trigger?”

“Maybe they don’t know what a trigger is?” Heather shrugged. “They don’t seem to be packin’ heat from what I can tell.”

I floated over and tapped Twilight’s horn, “They have ‘magic’ do they really need firearms?”

“Hey! Watch the horn!”

“That doesn’t translate to ‘trigger’,” Heather pointed out. “You might as well get used to the place not adhering to our sense of normal. Things aren’t meant to make sense here.”

“I’ll never get used to this change…” I sighed and looked over to Twilight, “We might as well go now.”

“Then let’s go!” she beamed, walking out the front door.

“Yep… Just so you know if a guard tries to stab me I’m grabbing whatever it is he’s trying to hit me with.” I huffed as I followed closely behind, I snorted when Spike jumped onto Twilight’s back as well.

“Let’s try to not cause an international incident just yet,” Heather told me. “I’d like to save that until we meet the princesses.”

“What are you going to cause one by giving her a big ol’ hug?” I grinned, prodding one of her rather large wing-hands. I honestly can’t think of a better thing to call them.

“......maybe.”

“Well I’ll have no complaints if you do because I’d be laughing.” I continued grinning at Heather.

“Hey Twi, what’s up?” Rainbow Dash the pony without a good sense of timing said.

“Not now, Dashie. We’re waiting for our ride to get here… well, mine, Spike, and Thomas’ ride. Heather has to fly her way there.”

“Aw!”

“You’re too big! Thomas’ big body will barely be able to fit.”

“...They didn’t design the ‘ride’ to accommodate large individuals did they?” I snorted, wondering just what we were supposed to go in.

“Huh. Well you have fun with that. I think I saw them getting close to town a bit ago.” Rainbow said before shooting off, somehow leaving a dust impression in the air.

“I’m so gonna race her one day and win,” Heather muttered.

“Ugh, where is that blasted carriage?” Twilight angrily mumbled, tapping her hoof impatiently.

Literally seconds later a rather gaudy gold colored- or I think it’s gold colored, with this place it might be real gold- chariot behind them, as well as two pegasi guards with grey hair, both of whom snapped to attention and warily watched Heather and I almost immediately.

“About time you finally got here,” Twilight moaned. “We’re already running one minute and twenty-three seconds late. What do you two have to say for yourselves?”

“...There was turbulence, princess?” One guard weakly suggested, knowing full and well that their newest princess had a penchant for making sure ponies were on time and everything was organized.

“Uh huh, whatever. Let’s just going before I have to adjust my schedule anymore.” She and Spike clambered into the chariot, both guards looking extremely relieved.

I approached after her and stared at the chariot, “How is- Nope not going to ask. Just not gonna do it.” I muttered as I somehow pulled myself onto it as well.

“Princess… What is that creature doing here?” Grey guard number two asked with a wary glance at me.

“Number one,” she droned out not even looking at them. “Attack him and you’ll both be courtmartialed before you can say ‘oops’. Number two, his species and identity is classified. Same goes to the other one as well. We don’t have time for idle chit chat, and I don’t have time for your whining, get flying!”

Both guard’s eyes shrunk instantly as they managed to simultaneously take off at a rather fast speed, “Yes princess!”

“...You really like your job don’t you?”

“I actually don’t care whether or not I’m a princess. I’m a scholar and a scientist first and foremost. I will admit the job has it’s perks, but it comes with many unnecessary things. Telling off the guards, though, is more due to their usual incompetence. Shining and I have been trying to tell Celestia for years that the guards’ training has been lacking, but she still keeps it as is. I will always respect my teacher, but sometimes she really needs to think proactively.”

“Shining… Hm. I’m gonna guess he’s your brother. I mean Shining and Sparkle are rather similar names.” I frowned slightly before looking to see how closely Heather was following us.

She was flying just behind us, big wings flapping ever so often to keep herself aloft. She was even humming a lovely tune as she flew.

“Oh right, yes. Shining Armor is my big brother, and captain the Royal Guard.”

“Impressive.” I grinned, “Is he as competent as you are in most things?”

“He tries to be, but I blame poor planning for most of the guard failures.”

“It’s the effort that counts I suppose.” I then remembered I was standing- no wait, floating, on something that really shouldn’t be working, “I uh, I wonder about the safety of these things with the back being open and the fact it looks like it’s made with gold. Any particular reason behind that?”

“It’s just the style,” Twilight shrugged. “They’re enchanted to keep anything from falling out, or anypony for that matter.”

“Huh… Wouldn’t it be cheaper to use steel instead of gold though?” I frowned as I tapped one of the pieces of metal.

“What’s steel?” Twilight asked, suddenly going bright eyed. “Is that some form of metal where you’re from? What’s it made of? What are its properties?”

“...You don’t know what steel is?! Please tell me you at least know what iron is…”

“Of course. How else would we have made our trains and the tracks that they ride upon?”

“I now regret not taking that course on metallurgy in college… Agh… Well, steel is a highly refined version of iron that is lacking most impurities and also has a large amount of carbon in it.” I sighed, seriously wish I did actually know more about it.

“A refined iron? Amazing, your world is certainly ahead of us in technology. It amazes me how you have no magic yet still manage to live your meager lives! So fascinating.”

“...War makes technology increase and get better like you wouldn’t believe. We had two world wars and hundreds of others I don’t care to remember the names of. We ended one world war by splitting an atom, literally turning some humans to ash shadows on a concrete wall. Thankfully, refining iron really doesn’t require war, just a good blacksmith and hot enough fire.” I shrugged.

Twilight had her mouth closed, just staring at me before slowly turning around and watching the air ahead of us. She just said nothing, sitting there and staring off.

“Me and Heather… We aren’t from the same place as the humans you know I would bet. Humans are a generally violent species, though recently we’ve been doing better about everything. In a world like this, all it takes is one brilliant mind and a revolution in technologies could occur.” I said, placing my claw on her shoulder.

“Don’t touch me,” Twilight snapped. I quickly pulled back as she sighed. “Just… just don’t. Not now.”

“Alright… Though I should point out, these wars were never a thing that was liked, nobody wanted them.” I sighed before just stopping my talk of my species, or at least, my former species.

For the next hour or so neither of us really said anything, though I swear at one point I heard Heather humming a sailor song which was kinda ironic due to her being a, well, Lugia now. It was either her or the guards, though I think they might’ve still been too intimidated by Twilight to do anything until we saw the castle.

“Princess, there’s the castle. We’ll be there momentarily.” Grey guard number one said. I really need to ask for their names don’t I?

“Thank you,” Twilight finally said. “Has Celestia been informed of our arrival?”

“Yes your highness. She was informed before we even left.” The guard nodded as they began to descend towards the castle grounds.

“Good, just take us down and make sure my other flying friend doesn’t cause a riot. I am not in the mood to deal with any panic.”

“Yes ma’am.” Both guards said at the same time as they went in at a slow controlled pace, landing on an enclosed field with rather lush green grass shortly thereafter.

Aside from the rather nice looking grass around us there were some flowers and bushes practically touching the inside of the walls all the way around, quite a beautiful display if I may say so. “Quite a well kept field.”

One of the guards nodded in response, “That is what happens when you have competent gardeners, sir.” I wasn’t quite so sure which one it was anymore since they had switched positions a few times since we had landed, which to be honest wasn’t much time at all.

“So, uh, wha- Oh you’re already on it.” I snorted as the guards began to walk towards the nearest building and around to the side with a rather large door that I somehow managed to miss.

“That’s a pretty big door for such little ponies,” Heather commented, looking over the carved woodwork. “Not complaining as I’ll actually fit through this, but it’s just kinda odd.”

“We’ve had some rather… large ambassadors or visitors to the castle in the past, namely the occasional dragon and rather large minotaur. Well, occasionally a noble who needs a door large enough to fit their ego as well,” Guard number one-point-two said before being smacked in the back of the head by the other.

“Keep the jokes to lunch break.”

“...I really want to ask how minotaurs came to exist in this world if they were born anything like how Greek mythology described them, well him.” I muttered with a singular glance to Heather and Twilight before looking forward once more to marvel at the decorative pieces on the walls and the rather nice rug that seemed to continue on without a stop.

Twilight turned to the two of us as we continued in. “Now, both of you be on your best behavior. Don’t do anything rash, or anything too stupid. And be nice, courteous even. You don’t want to anger the princesses.”

“Yes Ma’am…”

“I’ll do what I can,” Heather shrugged.

“I’ll try to avoid being, well, myself.” I let out a small snort before redirecting my attention back to the guards who had brought us past the large ornate doors which I would’ve assumed to be the throne room to a room maybe fifty feet away? I really couldn’t tell.

“Alright, here’s your destination.” Guard two-point-two said as he pushed the door open, revealing what looked to be a rather ‘full’ room with the amount of pillows and furniture in there as well as two ponies, though I want to say horses they’re not exactly the same. The first one, which I could only assume to be Princess Celestia, was rather large to the point where she could nearly be mistaken for a horse as it is. She’s a rather bright white with some weird flowy mane thing going on as well as a sun shaped ‘cutie mark’ on her… I think the word was flank? Yeah, flank. The other which one, Princess Luna I would assume as well, was quite a bit smaller than Celestia and is dark blue with a crescent moon ‘cutie mark’. There was also a bit of black around it like someone had spilled some ink onto her. The last noticeable thing at first glance was the mane that looked remarkably like the night sky.

Twilight smiled brightly, bowing her head slightly. “Princess, it’s good to see you again. Both of you.”

“Hello Twilight, it’s nice to see you again as well. Please come in, bring your guests in as well,” Princess Celestia said with a warm smile. A bit ironic considering she seems to be day themed.

Princess Luna merely gave a nod to use while flashing a smile at Twilight. I guess she might want to see what kind of people we are first?

Twilight nodded, motioning to us. “Come on in you two. Don’t worry, they won’t hurt you.”

“I should hope they wouldn’t that would be a terrible first impression on anyone…” I let out a small laugh as I followed Twilight into the room, trying and failing to bow to both princesses.

Heather flapped in behind me and saw the princesses. She gasped loudly and pointed at Luna. “I like dat one!”

I let out a low sigh at what Heather said, “Really? Then again she does have a rather nice mane. Anyways back to the point, I’m Thomas Sartre, or Tom for short, and my friend here is Heather Clark, and she just goes by Heather.”

I let out a small laugh at the small blush Luna had gained in relation to what Heather and I said.

Twilight slowly pulled her hoof down her face, probably figuring we would say something like that. “Don’t mind Heather. She, uh… she just says whatever come to her mind. I’m just glad she has a filter.”

“She didn’t have one for a longtime.” I shook my head.

“I see. Nice to meet you Tom, Heather.” Princess Celestia gave a small nod to the both of us.

Princess Luna had a small smile on her face, “Thank’ee for liking us, Heather.”

Heather giggled. “You talk funny.”

Luna’s smile dropped and her head dropped with a sigh, “Thank’ee once more, but we art trying to stop speaking like this.”

“I like it, you should keep doing it. It’s like you’re a constant Shakespearean actor something’!” She made a weird pose with her wing outstretched and… oh please no. “To beeee! …..Or not…… to beeeee! THAT IS THE QUESTION!” This is why she was kicked out of the drama club… twice.

Luna let out a small gasp, “Thou like Shaesponian drama as well?!”

Celestia blinked and looked between Luna and Heather with an amused expression, “Seems you’ve made a friend already, Lulu.”

“Heather… There is a reason you weren’t allowed in anymore drama clubs in our town…” I muttered, rubbing the closest equivalent to my temples.

“They were just jealous!” Heather fired back. “I’m a great actress!”

“Just… Don’t take it too far, alright?” I shook my head before looking to Princess Celestia. “Is there a particular reason you’ve asked for us to come here or a subject you’d like to discuss?”

“I had originally intended to try and see your intentions here in Equestria, though you seem to be friendly, friendlier than most dragons would be at least.” Celestia said as she gave me and Heather a slightly scrutinizing look.

“Well I know I have good intentions, though I think Heather might have slightly… chaotic but good natured intentions.” I simply shook my head at the two who were grinning like madmen.

“Not a good idea to mention chaos,” Twilight groaned.

“What do you mean by th-” I started to say before I was interrupted by a voice I was both happy to hear, and never wanted to actually hear in my entire life.

“Did someone say… Chaos?” A voice that sounded suspiciously like John De Lancie rang out from oddly everywhere in the room.

“De Lancie senpai?!” Heather fanfreaked.

“I don’t know who this ‘De Lancie’ is but he sounds handsome~” A odd serpentine creature slithered into the room from a window that was not there before, one that I would not hesitate a second to call a chimera.

“...Why is there a chimera that sounds like John De Lancie?” I blinked, staring at him.

“Q! Must hug!” Heather launched at the being, glomping him and petting him. “My very own being of chaos! I will hug him, and squeeze him, and call him senpai!”

“I must say while I quite enjoy this attention, I don’t rightly know what’s actually occurring.” The chimera blinked, looking to the rest of us in the room.

“Hello Discord.” Celestia said with a slight deadpan in her voice.

“How art thou Dissy?” Luna asked with an obvious smirk plastered across her face.

“Hello Tia, hello Lulu. You know how much I hate that nickname don’t you?” The being which I now know is named Discord simply grinned, “Oh hello Purple Smart, how are you doing? Enjoying your treebrary?”

“For the last time, I’m lavender! Not purple!” Twilight glared at the chimera.

“There’s a difference?” Heather blinked, but I saw that troll gleam in her eyes.

“Of course there’s a difference!” Is it just me, or are the tips of Twilight’s mane beginning to smoke?

“Twilight, calm down. Don’t let them rile you up.” Celestia shook her head at the much younger alicorn.

“I quite like being hugged by a Lugia, they’re rather good at hugging.” Discord let out a snicker.

“Do I even want to know why you know what Pokemon are, or why I’m getting a headache just trying to talk to you?” I grumbled.

“Of course not, that would ruin the fun, no?” He slid out of Heather’s grip and laid down between the two princesses.

“Aw, my chimera,” Heather whined. She sighed before straightening up a bit. “Alright, so… are we gonna be banished or what?” Tactful, thy name is not always Heather.

“Why in the world would you be banished?” Celestia blinked, “Have you done something horribly forbidden without my knowledge?”

“Heather. Do you need lessons on restraining your tongue again?” I muttered a small apology to Princess Celestia.

“What? It’s a fair question. There’s, like, only ponies as far as the eye can see. They don’t exactly have a lot of special diversity.”

“How did you know ponies aren’t the only species on Terra?” Twilight asked. I was a little curious myself.

“I stole some of your books,” Heather shrugged.

“YOU WHAT?!”

“Ah… That… Well, ponies are rather xenophobic believe it or not…” Princess Celestia let out a small laugh, “Also, no, you will not be banished for taking Twilight’s books. It might encourage her to go outside a bit more as it is.”

“Heeeey~!” Twilight whined.

“Ohhh~ So she admits her little ponies don’t like the rest of the world~” Discord grinned, for some reason wearing a police outfit, fake moustache and all. “That could be a major racial crime ya’ know. A few years in the slammer for that.”

“I’m sorry Twilight, but it’s true.” Celestia chuckled before levelling a glare at Discord.

“Ignoring why Discord knows plenty of terms from back hom-”

“THAT’S RACIST!” Discord suddenly screamed like a little child. Everyone stopped and stared at him for several long seconds while he drank chocolate milk through a straw. “What?” he asked when he noticed everyone staring at him. “You know it’s true~.”

“Yes Dissy. We art quite aware of thine statement’s accuracy.” Princess Luna deadpanned.

Celestia had… Well… There was apparently a pony version of a facepalm, and it looked painful.

“Well that’s a thing,” Heather finally said.

“...I think the original point of this conversation has been lost forever. Thank you crazy chimera that causes chaos for that.” I deadpanned, purposefully adding alliteration.

“You’re quite welcome~” Discord snickered.

Princess Celestia glanced to a clock and sighed as she stood up, “Well, as much as I would like to continue this conversation, it is time for me to set the sun and Luna to raise the moon. Discord, if you would please show them their room they’ll be staying in tonight?”

“Aye aye cap’n!” Discord gave a flimsy salute as he pulled Heather, Twilight, and I out the door and down a hall.

“Goodbye Heather, Twilight.” Princess Luna waved after us with a smile.

“Fare Thee Well oh Mistress of thy Night!” Heather waved back.

“I just want to give up trying to understand things at this point.” I let out a long exasperated sigh.

“And we’re here!” Discord declared as he stopped in front of a seemingly random door before pulling it open, throwing the three of us in, and shutting it. He was gone when I yanked the door open again.

“Stupid annoying little…” I heard Twilight grumble to herself as she untangled her body out of Heather’s feathers. “How Fluttershy puts up with him is beyond me.”

“I like him!”

“You would!”

“Please don’t fight?” I heavily suggested as I looked around the room. It was quite nice, though I was heavily unimpressed about one thing, “Why are there two queen sized beds and then a TWIN sized bed in here?”

“You’re sleeping on the twin,” Heather stated simply. I was about to ask why, but I couldn’t help but deadpan when I saw the reason. Heather and Twilight had already taken the bigger beds, smiling smugly at me.

“I… Fine.” I mumbled small yet innocent obscenities as I went and laid down on the bed, contemplating all that had happened that day, submitting to sleep mere minutes later.

“Today… Today we have made a great discovery that may help us in our goals to dethrone the alicorns.”

“Are you sure? The last time you made a ‘great discovery’ was a set of old stones that turned out to be an enchanted waffle maker!”

“Be quiet! This is different! It is quite powerful and may give us the key to permanently remove those damned tyrants from their power, and maybe even remove their lives.”

“Maybe it will truly be so? This won’t be like those rings Ahuizotl thought would work will it?”

“No… It will definitely work… Trust me on this…”

Chapter 5: Canterlot Escapades

(Heather’s POV)

I woke up sometime during the night, but I figured it had to be almost morning from how low the moon was. Pretty odd you could actually tell the time based on the moon here. Physics is screwed up here, I swear. I wondered why I awoke when I deadpanned at the answer. Mr. Sleeptalker wouldn’t shut up in his dreams again. Wait… what did he just say?

“Heather… stay outta the kitchen… I’m trying to make something to surprise you…” The rest was drowned out by quiet snoring.

...Why was I blushing? I shook whatever early morning pervertedness was sneaking into my head and got out of bed. I never was able to get back to sleep after being woken up. Most of the time it was worth it, but right now was not one of them. There really wasn’t a whole lot to do in the room, besides read. Not a whole lot of light to do so, though. Moonlight makes for terrible reading.

Hmm… what to do, what to do? I tapped my chin a few times before the most obvious answer came. “Raid the kitchen!” I whispered to myself as I shot my wing into the air. This is a castle so kitchen had to be huge. Onward, self! To waffles and other breakfast essentials! I was out the room and into the night just like that.

(Tom’s POV)

I awoke to the sound of loud laughter, stomping, and someone with a french accent. I already know my day is going to be weird.

“Stay away from my muffins! They’re not for you!”

I blinked slowly and sat up, highly confused as to what I was hearing, “...Why is Heather saying things like that?”

“Ugh, what now?” Twilight moaned, her wings flipping off the covers onto the floor. “Stupid wings,” she said with no enthusiasm.

“At least your wings look nice.” I grumbled, flicking my weird looking wings as I got out of bed, went to the bathroom that was thankfully attached to the room, and came back out, looking to the open door.

“Oh don’t tell me one of you lunatics is loose in the castle,” Twilight groaned, running both hooves down her muzzle.

“I’m no lunatic. Heather is a lunatic. You’ve got to get these things right.” I let out a snort and floated down the hall towards where Heather’s voice was coming from.

“Keep your meat away from my buns, you weirdo!” Heather shouted.

“...Should I be blushing or should I be laughing? I don’t know anymore.” I muttered as I slowly got closer. “What’s your opinion on this, Twilight?” I asked as I glanced behind me.

“I’m going back to bed, that’s my opinion,” she said, teleporting the blanket back onto her and lying down on her pillow. “Go deal with your wacky marefriend, I’m too tired to put up with it right now,” she yawned before snuggling up.

“She’s not my girlfriend.” I huffed, a small blush forming on my face before stopping in front of the door I kept hearing her from.

“Stay away from my milkshakes!”

“I don’t want them! I’ll get my own if I want!”

“Mine are better no matter what!”

“Ok I’m too curious for my own good…” I said mostly to myself as I opened the door to where this madness was originating. What I saw was a mix of unbelievability and amazing comedy. Have you ever seen a three foot tall unicorn chasing a seven foot tall bird-monster-thing? Because it’s a sight to see, I can tell you! Heather was racing all around the kitchen, trying her hardest to make a mighty big breakfast, while the pony, whom I assumed was the kitchen’s head chef, was chasing her with a broom, a rolling pin, and a tennis racket (why that’s in a kitchen I had no idea) in her magic. Unfortunate for Heather, yet hilariously for me, it seemed the pony was winning.

“Stop hitting me!”

“Not until you get out of my kitchen you rat with wings!”

“I am not a rat!”

“Like I give a darn!”

“I’m sorry to uh, interfere in this rather comedic situation, but could you tell me what in the world is going on here?” I asked as I rubbed my head, my confusion and amusement showing clearly.

“I’m trying to eat, she’s trying to eat me!”

“I am not! I want your big butt out of my kitchen!”

“Look who’s talking fat flank!”

“That’s it! You’re going on the griffon ambassador’s menu!”

“Eep! I just want breakfast for hell's sake!!”

“I’d rather you not try and put my friend on the menu. There’d be some issues with that. Aside from that little tidbit, what I can gather from this is that Heather was trying to cook, wasn’t she?” I sighed and went further into the room, putting a claw on the chef’s shoulder.

The unicorn glared at me for a moment, a spatula now in her magic. “Take your claw off me before you’re on the menu.”

I promptly removed my claw from her shoulder. Chefs are people, or ponies, to fear when angered. “Uhm… Could you tell me why you have a problem with Heather trying to cook in here?”

“Celestia herself isn’t allowed to cook in MY kitchen!”

“Did somepony say my name?” A rather amused princess walked into the kitchen less than a second after the chef said that.

“...That was fast.” I blinked and looked at Princess Celestia rather curiously.

“Trying to cook; evil chef; HUNGRY!” Heather wailed, still running around with the magicked utensils following her.

“Well you don’t interfere in the chef’s kitchen. Especially this chef. Isn’t that right Golden Radish?” Princess Celestia has a mischievous grin on her face as she said this.

“Who said you could be in here?” Radish glared at Celestia. “Don’t you think I’ve forgotten the last time you snuck into my kitchen. We’re still finding burnt marks and frosting!”

The princess’ reaction rather surprised me considering she spluttered slightly and puffed out a cheek.

“You’re not going to let Heather keep the food she made, are you Miss Radish?” I smiled slightly and shook my head, floating over and rubbing Heather’s back.

Radish took one look at the prepared food. She glared hard at both us. “You may take your food, but if I see either of you flying beasts in my kitchen again, you’ll be meeting the business end of my knife!” She slammed a giant butcher knife into a cutting board next to her.

“Yes ma’am! Heather, let’s get out of here now. I would rather not anger her more than we already have.” I said, shivering slightly as I backed towards the door, grabbing the plate of food with a progressively strengthening Telekinesis, which honestly didn’t act as much like the move did in the games, it seemed more unicorns and their ‘magic’ which I still hesitate to accept.

“Oh, by the way Radish, I’ll have my usual for breakfast.” Princess Celestia said as she turned to leave the same way she came in, which happened to be the same direction as us.

“You’ll eat whatever I feel like making and like it!” We heard the chef shout out as we left.

“Of course, of course.” The princess chuckled and left the kitchen to the chef from hell.

“So Heather, what do you have to say for yourself?”

“Me?! What did I do?! I was just hungry! Not my fault miss sunbutt has a crazy pony running the kitchen!” Heather defended.

“I’m right here you know.” Princess Celestia said with an amused tone. “And the reason I have Golden running the kitchen is because she’s one of the best at what she does, and she can deal with certain ambassadors.”

“We come from a constitutional republic, monarchies are ridiculed. No offense.”

“Well technically it’s a diarchy, but it can’t even be considered that with the other two alicorns we have… I would’ve ‘retired’ from this job years ago if my little ponies were able to take care of themselves with another type of government.” The princess sighed before smiling again, “And no offense taken. With that mouth of yours you’d probably get along with the Griffon ambassador rather well.”

“Alright, so, let me get this figured out right now. I’ve heard of about three different intelligent species on this planet so far, ponies, griffons, and diamond dogs. Oh and dragons, almost forgot about them. How many others are there?” I asked, curiously looking to the princess who had a thoughtful expression on her face.

“Well, there are a few we have yet to meet because nobody has fully explored this world yet. Aside from the ones you listed there are donkeys, zebras, minotaurs, changelings, and thestrals are the only others off the top of my head. Though thestrals could mainly be considered a subspecies of the pegasus.” Princess Celestia rubbed her chin with her intricately carved golden… shoe thing. I don’t really want to call it a horseshoe because it’s not nailed on or anything.

“That is… Rather impressive actually.” I glanced over at Heather only to see her eating from the plate I was carrying.

“Mm, waffles. Cartoon Network may ruin one of my favorite shows, but they can never ruin one of my favorite foods.” She looked at both of us staring with smiles. “Shut up! I’m hungry! Dragon-dork here kept me up with his sleep talking. And he’s not even supposed to learn that technique.”

“Wait… I was talking in my sleep again? I thought that was cured years ago!”

“Obviously not. You were dreaming of cooking and it got me hungry.”

“I didn’t say anything odd did I?”

Heather paused for a moment, a bit of pink on her cheeks. “N-no. Not that I remember. Let’s just move on, this isn’t a comfortable eating position. I feel like a freakin’ seagull.”

“Would you care to come to the mess hall here? It has seats, so compared to standing it’s better.” Princess Celestia stated with an obvious hint of amusement.

“Yeah, I like her idea.” I nodded in response to the princess, completely missing Heather’s small blush.

“Sounds nice,” the Lugia nodded.

“It’s just this way.” The princess had a smile on her face as she entered the door, greeting a few of the guards that seemed to be loitering around after their breakfast, earning a bow in response or a similar action.

“I don’t quite know if I’ve asked this yet, but why do the guards all look alike?” I asked as I looked at the guards in confusion.

“Oh, their helmets are enchanted to change their appearance so they can remain ambiguous when it comes to certain situations.” Princess Celestia said as she took a seat at table slightly larger than the other tables.

“Stealthy, I like it,” Heather nodded, setting down her plate to eat better. “Mmm, yummy.”

“Glad you like it. It’s however only for the Day guard because the Night guard already looks alike… Thestrals generally don’t have that much of a difference in how they look.” Princess Celestia let out an amused chuckle. “I don’t quite understand how my sister can tell them apart so easily.”

“Why don’t you ask her?” I replied as I tried and failed to sit down properly due to, well, floating. Don’t quite know how I managed to turn that off for sleeping. To think I had such a hard time with learning how to do it in the first place!

“It just seemed quite… Rude of me to ask that I suppose.” Princess Celestia sighed as a plate of what looked like waffles with chocolate chips in it was brought to her, “Thank you, Radish.”

“Just don’t make a mess this time. Don’t need the cleaning staff griping about cleaning chocolate off the walls again.” With that, the chef made her leave.

“...Guess I won’t be getting any breakfast from her.” I groaned as I snagged something from Heather’s plate.

“Give her time, she’ll come around.” Princess Celestia chuckled.

“Next time ask,” Heather growled at me. Her growling far more terrifying in this form, especially with those teeth!

“...Don’t hurt me please?” I shrank down and got closer to the ground in response to her anger.

“Just ask next time. I risked my life to make this grub.” She huffed, going back to eating.

“Yes Ma’am.”

“So… The real reason I wanted you two to come and meet me here was some odd findings that have been reported since you two have appeared on our world.” Princess Celestia said, moving her partially finished breakfast to the side. “You wouldn’t know anything about this, would you?”

“I certainly don’t… Heather, what about you?” I asked as I turned in confusion to my friend.

“Odd findings? Like what?” Heather asked, her mouth completely full of food.

“Well, there have been a few bushes with unknown berries growing on them and some saplings that are apparently nearly impossible to get rid of without a unicorn.” Princess Celestia said as she speared part of her pancake with her fork.

“Well that’s oddly familiar in a way…” I muttered, rubbing my chin or what would equate to a chin.

“Berries? What do they look like?”

“There are a few blue ones that look like strawberries, some larger blue berries that look faintly like blueberries, and a single report of black berries with something that looks like a white hook on it.” Princess Celestia said, reading off from a scroll she seemed to have pulled from nowhere.

Heather looked at me with slightly wider eyes than normal. “Please tell me those sound familiar to you too.”

“Way too familiar. Rawst berries, Oran berries, and Enigma berries.” I frowned at the realization of this.

“So you know what they are?” Princess Celestia raised a brow at our little conversation.

My friend nodded. “Yes, they come from the same world as these forms of ours. They are referred to simply as ‘berries’. Each one has differing effects on Pokémon, all curative in nature.”

“Do you think they might have any effects on ponies or other species?” The princess slid the scroll to the side and looked around the room for a moment before looking back at us.

Heather shook her head. “They can have a terrible taste for some, ranging from extremely spicy to extremely bitter, but they are meant to be healers. If anything, you might have a chance to develop new medicines from this fruits.”

“I see… DISCORD!” Princess Celestia was calm for a moment before her rather loud outburst which made me rub my ears due to the proximity.

The mismatched creature popped into existence near us, oddly enough leaving the smell of root beer. “You called for me, Tia?”

“Would you happen to have anything to do with these berries that have been appearing?” She threw the scroll to Discord who looked it over with an amused smile which slowly faded to just a curious expression.

“No. There would’ve been some random not-so-positive effect to them if I had anything to do with them. I am however curious as to where they’re coming from and how it’s getting here…” The draconequus stroked his weird chin beard.

“It seems like they’re familiar to you…?”

“Please Discord Lancie, if you know anything, do share.” This actor-worship is creepy stuff. Wait, are her eyes literally stars right now?! How is that possible?!

“Heh. You amuse me. Well it’s a TV show in a particular place that I’m not at liberty to discuss right now.” Discord just kept a grin on his face the whole time he talked.

“You should tell us before Heather crushes you with a hug.” I snorted lowly and watched Heather carefully

“Not quite yet. It’s too early for you two to know that.” Discord said as he turned and headed towards the kitchen.

Celestia just dragged a hoof down her muzzle.

“I accept the word of the great and powerful Lancie!”

“Stop bowing!”

“All hail and praise his name!”

Princess Celestia’s head just dropped to the table where she groaned, “Discord, stop procuring followers!”

“Never~” The draconequus chuckled before walking into the kitchen. I wonder how long it would be before he regrets it.

“Heather I swear! Stop bowing to him!”

“My soul is yours forever, senpai!”

“I don’t take so- OH SWEET CHAOS WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PONY?!” Discord’s scream came from the kitchen just seconds before he shot out and hid behind Princess Celestia, “Tia! Since when did you have a demon as a chef?!”

“And stay out you mismatched demon spawn!” We heard Radish scream.

“Oh, that’s no demon. That’s just the castle’s head chef.” The princess shook her head before looking to Heather, “If you could please stop offering Discord your soul and bowing to him? The guards are getting uneasy. Plus we still have more to discuss.”

“I will never enter that kitchen again…” Discord shivered and stayed hiding behind Princess Celestia.

“Poor de Lancie senpai. Do you need to be held?” She had her wings open wide.

I just smacked Heather upside the head, “You are getting creepy!”

“Maybe later… I think for now I’m going to go question a few of my opinions about chefs…” Discord shuddered and snapped, disappearing with a flash and leaving that weird root beer smell once more.

Heather shook her head a few times. “Okay, I think I’m good.”

“Good. Guards… Please put down your spears and just finish eating?” The princess sighed as the guards gave a noise of acknowledgement before setting their spears back against the tables they were eating and conversing at.

“What is the other thing you wanted to talk to us about…?” I asked as I glanced around the room and then back at Heather with a sigh.

“I wanted to ask if you’d like to explore Canterlot? I could give you both a small sum of bits if you’d like to. Though I can’t guarantee that all the ponies you’ll run into will be nice, or just courteous for that matter.” Princess Celestia levitated up two decently sized brown bags that seemed to have the local currency in it and sat them on the table.

“Thanks for the offer, Tia, but I think it would be best for both of us to start heading back for Ponyville,” Heather said, surprisingly graceful.

“Oh but I insist!” The princess smiled and pushed the two bags a bit closer to us, whereupon I could see the bags really didn’t have all that much in them except maybe enough to get one or two nice trinkets.

“Well, Tom can I suppose. I really don’t like shopping or sightseeing. It bores the complete crap out of me, you have no idea.”

“Could you at least do it to torment the nobles? They really need something to freak them out and possibly make them run away in horror that something aside from a pony is in Canterlot. They need the exercise.” Princess Celestia smirked as she revealed what seemed to be a part of some kind of plan.

“Can’t I do that from here? I’ve learned something that could cause quite the uproar.” Oh please tell me she doesn’t mean she’ll use that here.

“Is it something that would cause damage in any way?”

“Maybe, depends if I hit anything.”

“I’d prefer not to take the risk.” The princess deadpanned, “Stirring the nobles’ petty fears is one thing, causing damage to anything is another.”

“Come on Heather, there’s no way it can be as bad it was back home!” I nudged her with a small yet hopeful grin.

“I hate shopping!” Heather whinned. “Come on! I have… relative control of it.”

“You have now lost my faith. We’re going on a walk… Or whatever it can be called through the city.” I gave her an annoyed stare at what she said.

She groaned, hanging her head. “I’m gonna be so bored. You’re gonna be my pack mule for making me do this, Tom.”

“When am I not?”

“Well, since that’s settled, enjoy the rest of your day.” Princess Celestia stood up and brought her plate and Heather’s to the kitchen with her magic before leaving the mess hall with the pouches in front of us.

“You owe me for this,” Heather glared at me.

“You’re going to make me pay everything back at once one day aren’t you?” I muttered as I picked up both pouches and started to leave the mess hall.

“Every. Single. Cent.”

“I worry about what you’ll cash it all in for.” I shook my head to clear the horrible thoughts that came to mind.

“Oh, I’ll think of something. You guaran-dang-tee that!” Heather proclaimed.

“Let’s just go ‘scare the nobles’ and find a souvenir of some kind.” I sighed and rubbed the back of my head as we made our way to the castle’s main gates.

“I wonder if they have snow globes,” Heather mused as we started walking into the city proper. “I’ve always wanted to collect something and snow globes have always seemed pretty cool.”

“What, don’t want some weird magic thing that makes no sense instead? You just want a simple snowglobe?” I just chuckled, though it was more-so me who wanted the weird magic stuff.

As the two of us left the castle I nodded to some of the guards along the way, despite the weird looks we got. There weren’t really any negative reactions yet, so I was curious to find out if the pony’s capital city was less speciest or racist than Ponyville.

“And now to wander like tourists because I have no idea where we’ll be going.”

“Eh, it’s good to see the sights every once in awhile. It can be quite relaxing.”

“True, I agree with you on that.”

There was a a few minutes of silence as we moved towards and entered the market area of Canterlot before either of us said anything.

“It kinda reminds me of medieval marketplaces, just much cleaner and has much more white and gold.” I said as I looked around at ten or so stalls and a few shops with open doors.

“Eh, I’m seeing more blue and black,” Heather said with a smirk.

“Of all the things you could ever start, you pick that. Why would you do this Heather, why?” I dragged my claws down my face with an annoyed groan as Heather laughed up a storm.

“I couldn’t resist! It was such a stupid argument back in the day. But enough internet memes, there has to be something to do here. It’s pretty to see and all, but I want to actually do something.”

“Well we came here to buy stuff and scare nobles, so let’s buy something, who knows ma-” I was cut off by, surprise surprise, a pompous looking pony pointing their hoof at us and screaming something about how we were going to eat him before he fainted. Most of the other ponies looked at him, shook their heads, and went back to what they were doing.

“Well that’s a thing,” Heather said in a bored voice.

“...Is it a common thing is my question, the others really just don’t care.” I raised a brow and looked around at the ponies.

“Could be the old ‘no embarrassments in public’ thing a few high schoolmates told me about in primary school.” Heather shrugged. “One out of hundred is still fine by me.”

“I guess that might be the case.” I gave the unconscious stallion one more glance and went up to the nearest stall, “Hi.”

“Hi. Here to buy or just stare?” The mare behind the stall replied, though I wasn’t really able to tell if she was being rude or if that was just how she sounded.

“For the moment? Stare. We’ve never been to Canterlot before, so we’re just getting accustomed to everything,” Heather explained, looking over the mare’s rather impressive collection of jewelry.

“Oh, so you’re tourists then?” The mare’s eyes gained a faint gleam to them.

“...Kinda?” I responded, looking at some of the gems in the jewelry.

“I think ‘guests’ is the better term. We’re staying at the castle for a few days. Ooh, this is cute,” she said, picking up a blue sapphire necklace.

“...You’re staying at the castle? With Princess Celestia?” The mare’s voice changed AGAIN.

“Why does your voice keep changing with almost everything we say?” I asked, looking away from the jewelry and at the mare.

“What are you talking about?” The mare replied in the same voice she originally greeted me in. Ponies really don’t seem to like me as much as they do Heather…

“Oh nevermind.”

Heather chuckled as she tried on the necklace. “Well? How does it look?”

“It’s nice, Heather.” I said after looking at her and the necklace.

She gave me a pouting look. “Come on, tell me what you really think! Don’t just do the one turn look, it’s rude!”

“What? It is nice!” I gave Heather an annoyed look at the pouting glance.

The mare coughed a bit, “You two together or something?”

Heather’s cheeks turned red, I assumed from anger no doubt. “We are not together! Just friends!”

“Mhm… So, are you interested in buying that necklace?” The mare said, quickly changing subjects.

Heather looked herself over in the tiny mirror. “Yeah, I think I am. Do you have a real version of it somewhere instead of this plastic knock off?”

“...What do you mean by ‘plastic knock off’? That’s a silver chain and sapphire.” The mare frowned at what Heather said.

“I’ve felt real silver. This is not real silver. It’s just plastic and metal that’s been painted to look like it. And the gem?” She taps the actual jewel itself. “Pure plastic tourist trap crap. You got the real thing or not, because if not, we’re walkin’.”

The mare took the necklace with a frown, “I don’t know where you got the idea that it’s not silver and a sapphire. It quite clearly is.”

“Heather, are you sure it’s fake? I mean you don’t exactly feel things the way you used to.” I just gestured to her wings.

“Just because I have wings doesn’t mean my keen eye for detail ain’t gone! I know tourist junk when I see and feel it!”

The mare gave Heather a blank stare, “Leave my stall. Now.”

Heather made ‘hmph’ noise, throwing the necklace back at the stall clerk. “Fine. Didn’t want it anyway,” she said before stomping away.

The mare turned to me, “You too.”

“What did I do?!”

“Brought her here. Now leave.”

“Rude…” I left the stall, quickly following after Heather, but not before giving the mare a glare.

“You wanted that necklace didn’t you?”

Heather hung her head, pouting. “Of course I did. It was pretty and it made me pretty.”

I just patted her back and thought of the most comforting thing I could say, “Don’t worry, you’re pretty without it.”

“I still want it,” she said with a bigger pout.

“We’ll find you something nicer.”

“But I wanted that one,” she whined like a child.

“Then why’d you do the whole, ‘Oh it’s a fake’ thing?” I sighed and shook my head.

“Because I was hoping she had a real one! I don’t wanna be wearing a cheap piece of plastic when she’s gonna charge me the price of the real one for it!”

“Heather… It was real. You know they do weird things with magic here, it could have been, I don’t know, enchanted to be lighter and be more durable.” I poked her wing as I said this.

“Don’t you doubt my powers of deduction, mister! It was a tourist trap and you know it!”

“Uh… Whatever you say Heather…”

Heather crossed her wings, looking away from me. “Let’s just go somewhere else now. I need some cheering up.”

“I saw a donut shop on our way here?” I just threw out the first suggestion that came to mind.

“Donuts!” she cheered, her mood instantly improving as she chanted the word over and over again.

“Wow. Okay, so uh, to the donut shop it is.” I started to fly back in the direction that I saw the place.

“After that we can go back to the castle, since I mean, we will have bought something and we terrified at least one noble.” I turned around and gave Heather a grin, “So job done.”

“Onward! To donuts!”