Sabrina in Equestria

As the alien sun gradually sank in the sky, Sabrina had realized that it was afternoon where they had landed. The sun was to their left, meaning they were walking north, and the dense forest they had flown over before they crashed was to their right. They were keeping their distance, though, because the dark, dense foliage gave Sabrina the heebie-jeebies.

"Doesn't that hurt?" Sabrina jumped when she heard the voice. She looked over at Harvey as he walked beside her.

"Sorry Harvey, I was miles away," she said. "What'd you say?"

"Your finger," he said. "Doesn't it hurt?" She nodded.

"A bit. But witches deal with pain a lot better than mortals. I mean, yeah, it hurts, but I'm not gonna go crazy or start crying or anything. If I broke a leg or something, though, that'd be a different story."

"Oh," said Harvey, sounding not quite satisfied with the explanation. "Are you gonna be able to do magic once it's fixed?"

"Yeah, but I won't be able to get us back to Earth or anything. I'd be able to zap water out of the air, but we'd have to find our own food. Everything I conjure has to come from somewhere. You know, conservation of mass and all that."

"Oh. I guess I thought magic could break rules like that."

"Sometimes it can look like it, but no. Aunt Zelda gets all technical when she explains it, but basically, magic is just another force like gravity(3). Except instead of making planets orbit, it can turn an orange into an apple. At least when I can focus." She chuckled.

"Or it can turn a cat into a waffle," said Salem with an accusatory glance toward Sabrina. Soon after their departure from the crash site, Salem had convinced Harvey to pick him up, and now he was riding around in Harvey's duffel bag with only his head poking out the front.

"Aren't you ever going to let that go?" she asked.

"Only when you let go of the Sunspot Incident." Sabrina immediately fixed him with a glare.

"You took advantage of me and you know it."

"I don't exactly recall doing much of the planning."

"Why, you little—"

"Guys?" Harvey interrupted. "What's that?" Sabrina and Salem looked where he was pointing in the northeastern sky. Something was flying toward them from the direction of the castle in the distance. The sun glinted off of the object, obscuring it somewhat, but Sabrina recognized it as some kind of metal vehicle.

"It's the aliens!" she exclaimed. "We should get their attention!" Sabrina was about to start waving, but Harvey stopped her by stretching his arm in front of her.

"I don't think we need to," he said. Sure enough, the vehicle soon got close enough for them to barely make out the large creatures sitting in it, and they were looking directly at them.

It was indeed made of metal, either brass or something gold-plated. The four white creatures pulling it looked almost like pegasi, but they were much too small and rounded to be the ones she was familiar with. Sitting in the carriage itself were two similar creatures, but with horns like unicorns.

The one sitting on the right was about the same size as the ones pulling the carriage, with a vibrant lavender coat and a navy-blue mane with a hot pink streak running through it. The other creature was a different story altogether.

It was much taller in stature than the other five creatures, looking about the same size as a horse from Earth. It had a brilliant white coat and long, slender horn, and its face was framed by a beautiful multi-hued mane which seemed to flow serenely despite the speed of the open-air vehicle.

The carriage turned and spiraled into a gentle landing some distance away from them, and Sabrina got a closer look at the creatures. Despite only having just encountered them, Sabrina could easily distinguish their sex. The four pulling the carriage were definitely male, likely some sort of guards judging by their gold-colored armor and helmets.

The two creatures sitting in the carriage seemed to be female, and now that she had a closer view, she saw that they also had wings which were folded at their sides. She also took notice of the sun marking on the white one's flank and the pink starburst on the flank of the lavender one. Surprisingly, the white one's prismatic mane still seemed to be flowing in the same manner as before in spite of the nearly complete lack of any breeze or wind.

Their horns both briefly glowed with an ethereal light, the lavender one's horn magenta and the white one's horn gold, and corresponding spheres of colored light encased each of them as they exited the carriage and stepped onto the grass. The white one's horn flared again, and a similar gold dome covered the four guards.

That's magic, thought Sabrina, the realization casting the creatures in an entirely new light for her. If they know magic, then they'll probably be able to fix my finger with no problem.

The two creatures walked slowly forward, their shields moving with them, and they stopped a few paces away from the trio. After a moment, the lavender one made a series of sounds that sounded like an otherworldly mixture of gibberish and horse noises. Though she had no idea what was being said, Sabrina recognized the upturned tone at the end that was indicative of a question.

I bet she's asking if I can understand her, Sabrina thought. She pointed to her ear with her left hand and shook her head to show that she could not understand. The alien's horn glowed with a magenta light and Sabrina's vision was obscured by a brief flash of purple. Then the creature spoke again, but this time Sabrina knew what she was saying.

"Can you understand me now?" asked the alien in a light, decidedly feminine voice. Sabrina nodded.

"Can you help us?" she asked with a bit more panic in her tone than she expected. "Our vehicle crashed on the edge of the forest and we're stranded here." The lavender alien nodded.

"Of course," she replied. "Is there anything specific that you need help with?" Sabrina nodded again and raised her right hand to show them her broken finger.

"Can I get a doctor?" The alien's eyes widened in shock. The white one did the same, though her expression was much less pronounced.

"Oh, my goodness!" gasped the lavender alien. "That needs to be fixed immediately! I can teleport you to the local hospital at once." She turned to the taller white figure. "Princess, can you take care of the other one?" The white one nodded serenely, a stark contrast to the determination and panic of her companion.

The purple one dropped her magical shield. Her horn then glowed brightly, and both she and Sabrina disappeared with a flash of magenta light and a crack of displaced air, leaving behind the witch's suitcase, and leaving Harvey and Salem with the remaining alien.

"Come," she said simply, her voice as soothing and serene as her appearance. She turned and walked towards the carriage, dropping the shields around herself and the guards, and Harvey had little choice but to follow. He sighed and walked after her with Salem in tow, pulling Sabrina's suitcase behind him.

When the light surrounding her dissipated, Sabrina was in a room that looked very much like a hospital room, though all the machines and furniture items were adjusted for the size of the creatures and were a bit too small for her. The lavender alien pointed to the paper-covered bench/bed that Sabrina recognized from every doctor's office.

"Sit here. I'll summon a doctor." Her horn flared magenta again and she disappeared in a flash of light. Sabrina walked over and sat on the bench, not even needing to jump up onto it due to its smaller size. In fact, when she sat down, she found that it was the perfect height for her to sit comfortably.

A minute or two later, the lavender alien appeared again, this time accompanied by a light orange male in a white doctor's coat with an EEG marking, only a horn poking out from his brown mane rather than the wings or horn-wings combo shown by the others. The doctor's eyes widened when he saw her, but nothing else in his body language betrayed his thoughts.

"Good evening," he said. "My name is Dr. Horse. Princess Twilight has informed me of your alien nature, and I have agreed to complete secrecy in order to treat you. You are currently in an isolated hospital room reserved for criminals, though I assure you it is only to prevent ponies from seeing you and becoming frightened. Now what seems to be the problem?"

"Um..." Sabrina stumbled a bit. Everything had happened so fast that her brain had to take a second to catch up, but the "ponies" (which she guessed must be their species name) were quite polite and waited patiently for her to reply. "Uh... m-my finger, I guess." She presented the digit to the doctor and he drew in a sharp breath through clenched teeth.

"Oh, goodness," he said quietly. His horn glowed cyan and a corresponding glow surrounded a dull metal plate as it floated over to her. "I'll need you to place both your hands palm down on top of this and hold them very still. Do you think you could do that for me?" She nodded and he set the plate down on her lap, with Sabrina then resting her hands on it as she had been told. She winced in pain as her right pointer finger touched the plate, but she managed to find a position that did not aggravate the pain.

The pony doctor's horn glowed again and a cyan beam of magic scanned across the metal plate. The doctor retrieved another different-looking plate from another part of the room and scanned it with the beam as well, apparently depositing an image on it. Sabrina marveled at the plate as she realized that the image on it seemed to be an x-ray of her hands. In addition to the bones, however, there were also a large number of glowing lines covering her hands. Most of them were flowing and smooth, but they formed a knot of sorts around the crack in her finger. The doctor gazed at it for almost a minute before turning back to Sabrina.

"After briefly studying the anatomy of your opposite hand, I believe I have sufficient knowledge to fix your finger. Just to warn you, this will almost certainly hurt. I will attempt to realign both your bones and meridians so that they may heal properly. I will also administer a mild healing spell, so you will feel a bit drowsy for several hours. Rest is encouraged, but not required, considering this seems to be a relatively minor injury. Are you ready?"

The doctor walked up close to her, and eventually she nodded, mentally bracing herself for the pain. His horn glowed again and an identically colored glow surrounded Sabrina's injured finger, accompanied by a slight tingle that she recognized as the touch of magic. The doctor counted down from three, and when he reached zero a searing pain shot through Sabrina's hand as he set the bones back in place. But then the pain subsided as the effects of the healing spell took hold.

"Try not to flex it for at least six hours, and if that causes anything more than a dull ache, extend that time to twelve hours. You should also avoid using magic for at least a full day just to be safe. Other than that, you're good as new." Sabrina tensed.

"Wait a minute, how did you know I can use magic?" she asked the doctor. He blushed a bit at the intense look the witch gave him and glanced at the floor.

"I-I-I assumed, because of the-the meridians, that your species are magic users. Was I wrong?" She relaxed when he gave his explanation.

"Not exactly. It's just, I live with people who aren't allowed to know about magic, so I get a bit tense whenever it's brought up."

"That's horrible!" said the lavender pony, "Princess Twilight" if Sabrina remembered correctly, speaking for the first time since she had brought Sabrina to the hospital. "Why would anypony be forbidden from knowing about magic?"

"It's a little complicated," said Sabrina. "So... what happened to Harvey?" When the ponies gave her blank looks, she elaborated. "My husband?"

"Oh, the male!" said Twilight. "I sent him with Princess Celestia to my castle. They should be waiting there for us when we're finished."

"You mean that white castle on the mountain is yours? Wow, how do you get it to stay up?" Twilight blushed slightly.

"Actually, that's Celestia's castle which she shares with her sister Luna. As for how it stays up, I'm honestly not sure. The architects who originally built it are long dead, and nopony else knows except Celestia and Luna. You'd have to ask them, but I doubt they'd tell you; it's kind of an unofficial state secret. So are you ready to leave?" Sabrina nodded.

Twilight first teleported Dr. Horse out of the room, presumably back to whatever he had been doing beforehand, and then the glow of her magic encompassed herself and Sabrina and they disappeared, only to rematerialize somewhere else.

Sabrina looked around to see that they were in a large meeting hall, possibly where the princess kept council. The walls, floor, and ceiling of the room were made of some sort of crystalline substance, and it seemed that the rest of the building was made of it too. A large, open doorway led to a giant hallway apparently made of the same colored crystal. But by far the most notable feature of the room was her husband standing by the table next to the white princess.

"Harvey!" shouted Sabrina, running over to him. They joined in a brief embrace before Sabrina leaned away. "Have they introduced themselves?"

"We were actually waiting until we had you together to formally introduce ourselves," said the white princess in a voice like a gentle river. "I am Princess Celestia, Sister Ruler of Equestria, Steward of the Day, Guardian of the Planet Equus and All Her Inhabitants." The princess honored them with a graceful bow that seemed much longer than they deserved, before glancing to her left.

A pony Sabrina had not seen before and only just now noticed stood to Princess Celestia's left. She sported wings and a horn like the other two, as well as a midnight blue coat and striking teal eyes that seemed to pop against her dark fur. Her mane flowed in an intangible breeze much like Celestia's, but instead of stripes of color it was black with dark blue borders and filled with a myriad of stars, as if an actual chunk of the night sky was visible through it. But no night sky seen from the ground could ever hope to match the brilliance of her starry mane. Her flank was adorned with a black, smoke- or cloud-like patch as well as a mark of a crescent moon.

This was clearly Celestia's sister, Princess Luna. Though she stood quite a bit shorter than her sister, she had a powerful presence in the room due to the way she held herself. Where Celestia gave the impression of a loving mother, Luna came off as a strict but kind teacher. She gave off an air of regality, but she would drop it in a second if it better allowed a student to learn.

"I am Princess Luna," she bellowed in a deep voice touched by some unidentifiable accent, "Sister Ruler of Equestria, Steward of the Night, Painter of the Sky, Guardian of the Dreamlands." She bowed to them as well, though she was much more formal about it and bowed for noticeably less time than her sister.

Next was another unfamiliar winged unicorn, a female with a coat of rosy pink and a purple, pink, and cream mane, her flank adorned with the mark of a blue gemstone heart. This one was much closer to Twilight in appearance, lacking the stature and flowing mane that Celestia and Luna exhibited.

"I am Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, Ruler of the Crystal Empire, Steward of Love, Guardian of the Crystal Heart." She bowed as well.

Finally, their attention was drawn to Twilight, who now stood to Princess Luna's left. She took in a deep breath, then let it out slowly. She closed her eyes, then recited her title as if from a book.

"I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, Steward of Friendship, Head to the Council of Friendship, Bearer of the Element of Magic. On behalf of ponies and other species everywhere, we welcome you to our planet with open arms and the offer of friendship to all who seek it." Twilight bowed, and the other three bowed together as well. Then they all lifted their heads in sync as they completed the bow. Twilight let out a sigh of relief and opened her eyes, gazing at Sabrina and Harvey eagerly. Eventually, Salem broke the silence.

"Well, no pressure."