They all stared at Twilight. She'd just casually killed some sort of creature, and was barely even reacting to it! An explanation was most definitely in order.
"Twilight, what was that, and why did you react like that? Also, why are we like this?" Celestia asked.
She was wearing a voluminous white dress, and her usual tiara and necklace. She had golden high heels, though they were deceptively sturdy, and she had a very good sense of balance. Still, a sudden shift from quadrupedal to bipedal, as well as a sudden shift in form and height would throw anyone's sense of balance off.
Luna was wearing a slightly tighter black dress, and had retained her necklace and tiara as well. Her heels were silver, like her jewelry. She and her sister looked rather like girls headed to a ball.
Twilight was dressed in a light blue shirt, a dark blue skirt, and a pair of knee-high white boots. She seemed used to moving on only two limbs.
Applejack was wearing a cowgirl outfit. Her hat was untouched.
Rarity had a white shirt and a pair of black pants. Her boots were also white, but didn't come as high as Twilight's, only reaching about halfway up to her knees.
Pinkie was wearing what looked like a pink schoolgirl outfit and blue boots.
Fluttershy was wearing a yellow dress with a light green skirt. Her boots were also green, though a slightly darker shade than her skirt.
Rainbow Dash was in shorts and a jacket over a t-shirt. Her boots were red with a white stripe at almost the top edge.
Shining Armor was in a blue suit with shoulder guards, and combat boots.
Cadance was in a lovely dress that was a light pink with blue highlights. She wore pink heels, but had no jewelry, unlike the two sisters.
Spike was a boy of ten or so, and had a purple shirt and green pants.
Twilight's parents were dressed in conservative clothes.
"Well, apparently when one travels to another dimension, their species switches to the dominant race. In this case, humans. Human beings wear clothes, for modesty, and because they lack body hair in comparison to most mammals.
If you aren't careful to anchor your destination, you could end up anywhere, anywhen, and any age. I learned that last one by experience, going through the beginning of puberty again was not fun.
Anyway, that was a Hollow, a soul that lost its heart, becoming a creature of instinct. Hollows vary widely in shape and size, but have two distinguishing characteristics. A hole that goes straight through some part of their torso, representing the lost heart, and the white mask, which shields the exposed instinct from the world.
Hollows are usually mindless at first, and seek out souls in order to either consume them, or convert them into Hollows as well." Twilight explained. That elicited a strangled gasp from several of those present. Another Hollow showed up, and Twilight dealt with it in a similar manner as the first.
"We should really start moving before they decide to attack in force. I don't know why they're attacking since we ponies don't have spiritual pressure unless we end up with a zanpakutou, as our magic is mostly internalized unless we're actually casting a spell, but I'd rather we not risk one of them getting lucky and getting past me." she advised. They followed her as she led them towards a slightly shabby part of town. It wasn't seedy, but it certainly wasn't polished either. It had a 'people actually live here' feel to it.
"What's spiritual pressure?" Spike asked as they walked.
"You know magic is made of particles of energy known as spiritons, right?" Twilight asked. They all nodded in response. "Well, spiritual pressure is the amount of spiritons you are releasing unconsciously, like body heat. It's also quite dangerous, since it can overwhelm another person's own power, and directly affect the soul, which is the producer of spiritons.
The effects can vary from a feeling of a heavy weight pressing down on you, difficulty breathing, difficulty standing, the feeling of having an ocean or mountain directly above you, or having your soul crushed out of existence outright. That heaviness you all felt earlier was the Hollow's. You were probably all affected a slightly different amount due to differing strengths." Twilight explained, they turned a corner.
"Then how come we aren't feeling anything from you?" Rainbow asked.
"Well," Twilight looked distinctly sheepish, she even rubbed the back of her head. "that's because you can't comprehend even my first release's power. Though if I dropped down to my sealed state then you'd feel something." she explained, chuckling sheepishly.
"That sounds awesome!" Rainbow exclaimed.
Twilight sighed. "I don't know why people seem so fixated on gaining more power. It's not all it's cracked up to be." she sounded slightly bitter.
"What's so bad about it?" Rainbow asked. In answer, Twilight picked up a stick from the ground, it turned to ash and disintegrated in her hand.
"I can only interact normally with Ichigo and Monster, who've got roughly the same amount of power I do, unless I'm in my sealed state. Otherwise that happens to any organic matter I come into contact with. I have to be careful not to break anyone or anything. Honestly, if I'm not in my sealed state the world feels like it's made of tissue paper.
What's worse, being in my sealed state is immensely unpleasant because it requires forcing my power into a container too small for it. So I have to choose between never touching anyone, or being in constant borderline pain. I'd still choose the latter if being affected by my spiritual pressure wouldn't leave most people unable to stand." she ranted, before mastering herself.
"Sorry, it's not your fault, it's Aizen's for backing Ichigo, Monster, and myself into a corner where we needed this kind of power, and ours for getting it." she said, before turning to a shop to one side. Everyone besides Twilight was unable to read the signs, so they could only tell it was a shop because it had some wares displayed in the window.
"Ah, here's Urahara's shop. The others are waiting inside." Twilight said, heading in before the others could respond to the speech that Twilight had given a few moments before. They followed her into the shop, and found several people seated at a table.
A man with a green and white striped hat, a shirt of the former color that was open, revealing his chest, black pants, and sandals, a boy with black hair, glasses, a white outfit, and a pair of black shoes, a girl with orange hair that reached her waist, brown eyes, a kind face, a shorter girl with black hair and a black robe as well as a sheathed sword, a boy who was quite tall and had brown hair, a sleeveless shirt, and jeans. Finally, there were two boys one with orange hair and a t-shirt and jeans while the other had black hair and was wearing an outfit similar to the man’s outfit though the color scheme was swapped. There was a heaviness to their presence as well, if anything it was stronger than the Hollow's.
Introductions occurred all around. They learned that the man with the hat was Urahara, the crazy scientist Twilight had mentioned. The boy with glasses was called Uryuu, the girl with orange hair was called Orihime, the shorter girl was called Rukia, the tall boy was called Chad, despite his real name being Sado, the boy with orange hair was Ichigo, and the boy with black hair was Monster which was a shock for everyone.
"So, where's Renji?" Twilight asked.
"He had paperwork he couldn't get out of, but he'll be here soon." Rukia answered.
"So, I take it you're all Twilight's friends from this dimension?" Luna half asked.
"Yep! Though I didn't meet some of them right away." Twilight answered.
"Should we take this to the training area?" Ichigo asked.
"Hm, not just yet." Twilight said. "Could you all wait a minute so I can get back in my body?" Twilight asked. She preempted the question the Equestrian natives were about to ask. "This is actually my soul, my physical body was here because I'm a lot stronger in soul form, and it brings me down to the level where normal people can feel my spiritual pressure if I'm inside it. I'll be sure to switch my Zanpakutoou to its sealed state when I do." She headed further into the shop.
"I find it disturbing that she has to worry about that in the first place." Twilight's mother, Twilight Velvet said.
"You get used to it." Ichigo responded.
"You shouldn't have had to get used to it. Neither of you." Rukia said solemnly.
"Look, we've been over this. Twilight, Monster, and I were the only ones strong enough to even fight Aizen with the Captains, Captain-Commander, Visored, and Espada on our side out of commission, and we still barely beat him because of that damn Hogyoku pushing him into some new, stronger form every five minutes. Neither of us regrets gaining the kind of power it took to take him down. As for the consequences, we can live with them." Ichigo said. “Come on Rukia admit it,” Monster said as he leaned back against the wall his hands behind his head, “you’re just jealous that you don’t have this kind of power.”
"Maybe, but we regret not being able to help, and forcing you two into that situation." Kisuke said.
"What's done is done. We can't sit around going over what we wish we could've done forever," Twilight said, having returned to hear the tail end of the conversation. The heaviness to her presence was a bit stronger than Ichigo's but less than Monster’s. She was wearing a schoolgirl uniform.
"So, now that we've successfully made things awkward, shall we change the subject to telling them what happened while I was here?" Twilight asked.
"This discussion's not over, but for now, we might as well." Uryuu said, adjusting his glasses. Everyone heard a noise coming from Monster and looked at him. They saw that he had fallen asleep. What they didn’t know was that Monster was talking with the people in his head. “Well guys this is it we’re screwed.” Monster said to the other beings. “Well it’s not like we don’t deserve it.” one of the beings said. “Shut up Calm,” said another being, “if they try anything I’ll kill ‘em!” “You’ll do no such thing Anger,” said a third being grinning maniacaly, “I want to have some fun with them before we kill them!” “Shut up Crazy!” Anger shouted at Crazy. Monster sighed before grabbing both of their heads and slammed them together saying, “No one is killing any one you got that guys! If you two can’t get along I may have to allow him back into this mindscape!” Both Crazy and Anger both shuddered as they remembered the last time that person had been there.
