Foreigner

Chapters

Arrival
Transition
Hello
Membership
Espionage
Misery
Flashback
Muffins
Falling
Exposition
Author Notes
Confession

Arrival

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land. To do this, the eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn. The younger brought out the moon to begin the night. Thus, the two sisters maintained balance for their kingdom and their subjects: all the different types of ponies.

But as time went on, the younger sister became resentful. The ponies relished and played in the day her elder sister brought forth, but shunned and slept through her beautiful night. One fateful day, the younger unicorn refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. The elder sister tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the young one's heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon. She vowed that she would shroud the land in eternal night.

Reluctantly, the elder sister harnessed the most powerful magic known to ponydom: The Elements of Harmony! Using the magic of The Elements of Harmony, she defeated her younger sister and banished her permanently in the moon. The elder sister took on responsibility for both sun and moon, and harmony has been maintained in Equestria for many generations.

But on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars aided in Nightmare’s escape and she sought to bring about nighttime eternal.

The elder sister, despite her great power, was no longer able to wield the elements. However, she was wise, and was able to bring a group of ponies, each a master of an element, in order to stop Nightmare. Together, the six friends were able to banish Nightmare, not only from Equestria, but from the younger sister, allowing her to raise the moon once again.

But Nightmare was not gone forever. Nightmare can not be destroyed, only driven back. And after a relatively brief wait, it was ready to return.

-Fifty Miles West of Fillydelphia -

Though it may come as a surprise to Canterlotters and Manehattenites, there is more to Equestria than a few major urban centers and some forests on the horizon. One particularly picturesque example was Manenonite country to the west of Fillydelphia. Admittedly, the locals lived simple lives, forgoing modern conveniences like trains and electricity in favor of a more humble existence. However, there was something to be said for the plain elegance of rising at dawn, working to farm wheat, corn, mushrooms, and rocks for hours on end, doing one’s best to maintain the home, and resting immediately afterwards. Few would call this a fun life, including the residents, but thousands would attest to it being one of the most satisfying forms of existence a pony could hope for.

It is on one of these farms where our story begins. A rock farm, to be precise. Here, two earth ponies, a mare and a stallion, had lived for decades, living off the (metaphorical) fruits of the Earth. Rocks weren’t the best choice of food, but were always in demand in the cities, where good building material was always in demand. Plus, the occasional rock would grow into a fine geode, a fine delicacy which various species throughout Equestria would pay small fortunes for. Combined with the nearby river that allowed for easy transportation to the city and a smaller crop of plants for subsistence, the couple managed to live a decent enough life.

Comfortable as that life may have been, it was exhausting, meaning that by the time our story began, not too late into the night, they were already sleeping in their bedroom. There was also a spare bedroom where the couple’s children once lived, but all their children were grown or dead. Currently, the room was occupied by a schoolteacher, who paid a small rent in return for a place to stay and a meal every day. On another night, he may have been awake to notice our story beginning, thanks to his habit of grading his students’ work into the wee hours of the morning. However, this was the summer, meaning that the colts and fillies were too busy helping their parents on their farms to go to school. Therefore, the teacher lived the same schedule as his landlords, working all day to earn his keep and sleeping at night.

This is why nopony was around to see the strangest magical phenomenon to occur in Equestria for months. Admittedly, this was not the most impressive record, but considering the abundance and power of magic in the land, a temporary tear between worlds is merely an interesting event, not an astounding one. The absence of light, from the portal itself or the moonless sky above, did little to make it more impressive.

Of course, holes between dimensions are far from unheard of in Equestria. More than one talented young unicorn occasionally would attempt a spell beyond their abilities, leading to all sorts of other places. These talented young unicorns usually died in the process. It’s surprising how few dimensions have breathable atmospheres. One very lucky mare, the unfortunate bystander in an experiment, managed to return to tell the tale a few years back, but was an unreliable witness due to the trauma that ensued. She unfortunately had to leave university and eventually found work as a mailmare.

Perhaps the dimension that she visited was the one that was temporarily connected to the farm miles west of Fillydelphia. The Foreigner that exited the portal was bizarre enough to belong to an insane universe. It was hard to see, what with it being night on both sides of the portal, but based on its low and wide silhouette, though it was probably not too much larger than a pony, it bore little resemblance to them, griffins, dragons, or even mythological creatures such as humans.

The Foreigner scuttled across the farm, stopping every so often as if to investigate rocks and dead trees around it. The lack of light seemed to have no effect on it, as it moved at a regular pace except when investigating something. Eventually, it headed towards the farmers’ home, barely making any noise on the hard ground beneath it. About 20 feet from the house, the Foreigner stopped, staying still for a few long minutes.

Suddenly, it rushed around the house, being careful to keep its distance. On the other side, it approached a clearing. Unlike the rest of the farm, there were no pebbles or rocks small enough to hold in one’s hoof. Instead, there was just one, large tablet, sticking out of the earth. The Foreigner went straight for the rock and, after a moment’s hesitation, began digging.

The hypothetical audience of the Foreigner would still have trouble making out its shape, but would begin to notice some oddities about it. For instance, every so often, a limb would fly out, tossing away dirt, and then go back towards the ground. For another thing, the air around the Foreigner seemed to shift about, as if bits of the Foreigner were always moving, regardless of the digging.

But the thing that would stand out the most to somepony watching would have to be the smell. It was not particularly noticeable at first, but as the Foreigner stayed in one place for minutes on end, a sour and sweet aroma would fill the air. For a griffin or dragon, this smell would remind them of a dinner that was never eaten. For a pony, this smell would be that of death.

Finally, the Foreigner has dug itself a hole big enough to fit into. For the first time, there was a significant amount of noise, that of wood being torn apart. The farmers in the house could be heard stirring. Suddenly, once again for the first time, there was a flash of blinding light from the hole. There were screams from within the house, as apparently everypony had been awakened. The Foreigner meanwhile, seemed to have disappeared. In its place was a small figure, much more pony-like, that ran off into the distance.

Transition

It was terrible day for the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

It had started well enough. The three fillies, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle, had met at their clubhouse after breakfast to plan the day’s crusading. It was Apple Bloom’s turn to pick the next activity, so the trio became the Cutie Mark Crusader Barn Builders. After all, every farm in Equestria needed a barn. Best of all, this activity was both innocuous sounding enough for Sweetie Belle and potentially exciting enough for Scootaloo.

Barn Building went pretty well at first, and Apple Bloom turned out to be fairly good at designing a small barn, hammering boards together, and giving her friends the guidance necessary to put in their share of quality work. Unfortunately, it turned out that the barn already on Sweet Apple Acres was not the best source of raw materials, and an angry Applejack chased them through a hole in the side of the barn.

Next, it was Sweetie Belle’s turn to pick a Crusade. She proposed that they become the Cutie Mark Crusader Spa Ponies. Scootaloo protested, claiming that a Spa-related Cutie Mark would be a terrible thing to have on one’s flank, but the two eventually struck a deal: the spa would come first, anything Scootaloo wanted would come soon afterwards.

Nopony ever knew exactly what happened at the spa. Somehow, the Crusaders had been split up by the enthusiastic yet naïve sisters who ran the establishment, and wanted to show the three around. Within half an hour, the tubs were overflowing with soapy water, the floors were covered in mud, a few mares were left shrieking, and the Crusaders were covered in cucumbers.

For the record, they blamed Spike.

Despite the intensity of these crusades, it was still only early afternoon when it was Scootaloo’s turn to pick the next crusade.

She chose Monster Tracking.

“Is monster hunting even a real talent?” enquired Apple Bloom.

“It should be. With all the monsters in the Everfree Forest, there ought to be somebody who can keep track of them,” replied Scootaloo.

“But there are no Monster Trackers! The closest thing we have is Twilight when she’s doing research in the forest, and her talent is magic.”

“Then maybe our monster hunters don’t have it for a Cutie Mark. Some ponies don’t have obvious cutie marks for their jobs.”

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo sat down, hooves on their chins, wondering to themselves who around Ponyville could be a monster tracker. Sweetie Belle, who had been staying out of the conversation, stared at the ceiling. After a few minutes, she lit up like a candle.

“I know who tracks down monsters around here!”

“Sweetie, we’ve told you, the doctor is not really a-”

“No, not him.”

Lyra Heartstrings was in what Rarity might have called “The Zone.” Artists like her often had trouble creating new work, but for once, she was inspired. The notes were just coming out of her mind, into her horn, and through the lyre. Note after note flowed through her soul, as she constructed a melody that she could play for years to come. Nothing could stop such majesty! Not a th-

Ding Dong!

And with that, Lyra had left The Zone and ended back in the kitchen, sitting with her rump on a stool while her forelegs supported her lyre on the table. It was good while it lasted.

“Bon Bon!” shouted Lyra. “Somebody’s at the door!”

Lyra’s marefriend came running down the stairs and to the door. Lyra smiled to herself. The two of them had an understanding. Lyra took care of business while Bon Bon was inventing new sweets, and Bon Bon took care of business when she was composing.

Lyra pulled herself together and tried to get back into the zone, but soon became aware that she was being watched. Behind her were Bon Bon and three smiling fillies, trying their very best to contain themselves from shouting something. Sighing to herself, Lyra turned around to face them.

“These are the Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle, remember Lyra?” asked Bon Bon

Scootaloo bumped in. “We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders and we’re on a quest to find out our talents and we thought that you could help us because you track monsters in your free time and we thought you could show us how so could you take us monster tracking please?”

For a moment, Lyra was silent. She pointed her head towards the floor. Bon Bon began to frown, and the Crusaders’ smiles faded somewhat. Then, Lyra began to speak.

“…did you say monster tracking? Young ladies, I don’t know who you’ve talked to about this, but I have no interest in tracking down monsters. That Ursa Major a while back terrified me, and I have no desire to find chimeras or manticores. So I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.”

“Aw shoot,” said Sweetie Belle. “We were hoping you could go human tracking with us and-”

“DID YOU SAY HUMAN TRACKING??? Oh my Celestia, I LOVE HUMAN TRACKING!!!”

“Here we go” sighed Bon Bon.

Lyra opened a nearby drawer, and pulled out a map of the Ponyville area. It was covered with various markings and notes, decipherable only to insiders or the most determined of researchers.

“I have spent five years tracking down human activity in the area. They don’t like to be seen by ponies anymore, but I believe they still check in on us every so often. Now, according to my calculations, most of the humans tend to appear around here, in the library, here, in the Everfree region, and here, east of Sweet Apple Acres. Celestia wants to control our affairs with the humans, so she sent one of her agents to secure the most vulnerable spot in town, the library. HOWEVER, the area east of the Acres is mostly unguarded, meaning I’ve been able to track human activities in that area. And just last week, I believe I discovered a human footprint. But I need help covering the whole area. Do you three think you could help me look for signs of human activity?”

“YES! CUTIE MARK CRUSADER HUMAN TRACKERS ARE READY!”

“Great, then we can start sometime next weekend.”

…

“But Miss Lyra,” whined Apple Bloom, “we want our cutie marks now.”

“I know you do. But I have to prepare for my concert tomorrow, and I want to surprise a certain mare with a romantic night out.”

“And who would that be?” Bon Bon asked jokingly.

“Oh you know. A sweet lady friend of mine. Has trouble remembering her neighbors sometimes. Has a sweet flank.”

“I hope you two have a good time,” Bon Bon warmly replied.

Lyra gave a gentle kiss on the cheek. “Be sure not to tell her what I’m planning.”

“Oh don’t worry. She’ll be absolutely shocked”

The Crusaders watched the sickening display of affection with growing disgust. Lyra remembered her audience, and pulled herself away from her love for a moment.

“Uh right. Anyhow, meet me here 8:00 next Saturday, after you’re done with school for the week.”

Hello

The land to the east of Sweet Apple Acres is an unusual area for the Ponyville region. Unlike the Everfree Forest to the West and further south or the more domesticated rural areas between the town and Canterlot, this area is largely barren of trees. This, combined with the presence of several large hills, makes it a great site for stargazing and for a few Pegasi’s cloud homes, but little else.

On one of these hills was a grayish-blue earth pony filly with a messy gray mane and gray eyes. This is not to say that the mane was naturally messy. In fact, were the filly to walk into the Carousel Boutique, Rarity might have a heart attack then and there. Patches of mud covered the traveling filly, thorns were stuck in her mane, and there appeared to be a stick in her tail. Worse, it appeared that the damage was more than cosmetic. The comfortable layer of baby fat most fillies had on their bellies was absent, and nasty, untreated cuts covered her body. Her fur had streaks of red running through it, complementing the mud’s color. As she pressed on north, she breathed heavily, suggesting that her journey had been a long one.

On top of a hill, she stopped for a moment’s rest, taking a look at the landscape around her. She focused north towards Ponyville, but after seeing a pond nearby, she hesitated. The water sparkled in the sunlight, and promised her a refreshing drink. After a moment’s thought, she headed down the hill.

Five minutes later, the Filly was greedily slurping up water by the pond. This went on for a full minute before she had her fill. Wanting to take full advantage of the situation, she decided that this might be an opportunity to clean her wounds. She dove into the water, careful not to get in too deep, and rubbed at her burning cuts. This only served to open up old wounds, and the Filly hissed in pain. But at least the mud and pus was coming off.

Suddenly, she heard a yelling from the shore. She looked up to see another foal, an orange pegasus. She was shouting something, and before the Filly knew it, two other youths and a full grown aqua unicorn mare with some sort of instrument on her flank appeared. They were babbling something that she couldn’t understand, but it appeared to be about her. The mare motioned to her, asking her to come to them. After a moment’s hesitation, the Filly went.

The Filly’s new company appeared shocked to see her, much to the Filly’s confusion. Were fillies rare around here? No, that was silly; all four of these ponies appeared to be female. And the yellow one was an earth pony, so that probably wasn’t it. Was the local community small enough so that a stranger really stood out? More likely, but what did this mean? What were they talking about? And what did they want from her?

One of the fillies, a white unicorn, gestured at a cut on her side. She couldn’t remember had she got it, but it must have been a few days old based on its appearance. The unicorn probably wanted to ask about where it came from. Unfortunately, the Filly had no idea how to communicate with these strangers.

Finally, the mare shouted something out, and the three fillies became silent. She sharply said some things to them, and then turned to the Filly. She slowly said something, but it was incomprehensible. The Filly tried hissing in response to show her lack of comprehension, but that only made the trio jump back. The mare apparently decided that a change of tactics was in order. She gestured from the Filly to herself, and then into the direction of Ponyville. She then made large chewing sounds, rubbed her belly, and mimed lying down.

So, food and rest then? Sounds reasonable. Truth be told, the Filly was hoping to enter town unnoticed, but this was perfectly acceptable as well.
******

“What’s wrong with her?” asked Apple Bloom.

“I don’t know,” replied Lyra. “Could you three keep quiet? I think she’s scared when we talk a lot.”

Miraculously, the Cutie Mark Crusaders remained silent as the quintet walked north. She and the Crusaders had trotted down here, but considering how the filly was struggling to walk at a steady pace, they had to take things easy.

Come to think of it, even had the filly been in prime condition, Lyra noted, they might have had to move slowly. The filly kept looking down at her hooves, almost tripping over herself, as if she barely knew how to walk, or hadn’t walked for ages. But this couldn’t be true. Fillies were able to walk about a few hours after birth, and the Filly hardly looked like she’d had an uneventful few days.

Speaking of which, she simply looked ghastly! Obviously malnourished, covered in cuts, and… was she favoring her back-left? Either this was a clear case of foal abuse, or her last name wasn’t Heartstrings. That would also explain her difficulty walking and speaking. Abusive guardians often stunted a foal’s growth. She’d have to talk to Cheerilee about this...

As the party approached town, they started passing other ponies. After all, Saturday afternoons were one of the busiest times of the week for shoppers and ponies who wanted to go out and enjoy themselves. Many of them turned to face the filly, often with looks of horror on their faces. Lyra couldn’t blame them; cases of punishment like this were rare outside of some disaster, and to a youth no less!

The Filly kept shifting her eyes back and forth, and had extremely tense muscles, easily visible due to her emaciated nature. She seemed worried by all the attention. Hoping to reassure her, Lyra put one of her forelegs over the Filly’s back. Most ponies would have nuzzled her, but this was a motion Lyra borrowed from a story about humans, and she thought it would be less alarming for the terrified youth. Surprisingly, this caused the Filly to visibly relax. Lyra shrugged.

“Some ponies just respond better to physical comfort I guess.”

Suddenly, the group heard a melodious humming coming closer. Lyra turned to face the Cutie Mark Crusaders behind her.

“My little ponies, this filly, whoever she is, is in no condition for Pinkie Pie. Stay in front of her so she feels protected.”

“Who feels protected from what?” asked a voice from behind.

Lyra sighed.

“Hi Lyra! How are you? I saw you coming down the street and I thought ‘She must be back from human hunting cause she does this some Saturdays’ but then I thought ‘no wait, it’s too early’ but then I saw Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo and I thought they must be Crusading to get human cutie marks and now I see you’re hiding something from me is it you cutie marks? No, it must be a human! Can I see the human? Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease?” Pinkie Pie said this in one breath.

“Gosh Pinky,” said Scootaloo, “We’d love to talk about our cutie marks and humans, bu-”

“Let me see!”

Pinkie Pie easily pushed the three crusaders out of the way with one hoof, and saw the cowering Filly.

For a moment, all was silent. This surprised Lyra; she couldn’t remember the last time she had a quiet moment anywhere near Pinkie Pie. Pinkie's face was as expressive as ever, with eyes the size of dinner plates and a mouth that formed a perfect "O." She seemed to be a bit paler than usual.

Then Pinkie Pie disappeared in a cloud of dust.

“Well, that could have been worse” said Lyra. Now let’s carry on, shall we?

After a few more minutes, they finally reached their destination: Nurse Redheart’s infirmary.
******

The Filly was worried. The ponies in this town seemed suspicious of her, and she had never even met any of them. And The Pink One seemed ready to eat her! Ponies were herbivorous, true, but did She know that?

At least these four didn’t seem so bad. The trio genuinely seemed to try to protect her from the pink one, and the unicorn mare had gone out of her way to comfort her earlier. This was why the Filly was letting them lead her into a mysterious building, despite her fear of the ponies in this town.

The inside of the building was fairly innocuous. The door closed behind them, but appeared to be unlocked, and there were plenty of windows that could provide an escape route if necessary. Furthermore, there was only one new pony in the room: a white mare with a pink mane wearing a hat with a Cross symbol, standing behind a counter. She and the Filly’s Aqua Mare shouted at each other for a moment before teaming up to rush the Filly into another room.

The following hour was a whirlwind of activity and confusion. First, the Filly was brought outside, where the Aqua Mare helped the white one drench her in buckets of water. This was largely unnecessary after her dive in the pond earlier, but the slimy stuff they also applied helped get rid of some of the stains. Next, they brought her back inside, where they laid her on a table and began to treat her wounds. The Aqua Mare stayed by her side and occasionally held her hoof while the white one, apparently a medic, swabbed around the cuts with fluffs of cotton and applied bandages. This stung, and the Filly barked in surprise, but remained still. She’d been through worse.

What she didn’t expect was for the mare to wrap some sort of stick onto her back-right leg, which prevented her from moving it easily. In fact, every time she tried to support herself with it or push something away, the mares would loudly protest. Troublesome. The leg would only slow her down further now.

Meanwhile, the three fillies had disappeared for a while before bringing back yet another mare. This one was a cream-colored earth pony with a blue and pink mane. The Aqua Mare nuzzled her as soon as she came, so the two were probably friends of some sort.

Finally, the medic stepped back to observe her work. The Filly that had once been a filthy, bloody mess was now half-covered in bandages. Her grayish blue fur was no longer tinted with blood and mud, and could be seen clearly for the first time. But the process had been exhausting. The Filly could barely keep her eyes open as she was offered some sort of orange juice. It tasted like mildly sweet, but drinking it only made her feel more tired. Had it been drugged? Probably not, and it wasn’t as if she could flee anyway. As she fell into slumber, the Filly decided to trust these strangers. At very least, they would do no harm.
******

“… and then she fell asleep a minute or two after drinking the carrot juice” finished Lyra.

An array of ponies had congregated in the hallway outside the Filly’s room. Shortly after they got to the infirmary, Lyra had sent the Cutie Mark Crusaders to fetch Bon Bon, Mayor Mare, Fluttershy, and, after some hesitation, Twilight Sparkle. Bon Bon had to know what had happened before she got worried. Mayor Mare was the ultimate voice of authority around here. Fluttershy, though a veterinarian first, was almost as skilled at medicine as Nurse Redheart, and could have been useful for calming down the frightened filly. Twilight Sparkle, despite probably being a government spy, was knowledgeable enough to be useful.

By the time everypony had been gathered, it was getting late, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders had to be escorted home by Cheerilee, who had been passing by. Lyra promised them that they could come back the next day, but the filly needed quiet now, and the grown ups needed to discuss her fate.

After seeing that Lyra had finished her account of the day, Nurse Redheart began her diagnosis. “The poor dear has obviously been suffering for a long time. Her hind-right leg was broken some time ago, and obviously didn’t heal very well. She was covered in a variety of cuts, apparently from various sources and times. None of them were life threatening, but very little had been done to treat them, so they were severely infected. I needed to literally scoop a lot of it out before treating her cuts properly. It’s a miracle she doesn’t have some dangerous disease right now. Meanwhile, she’s obviously malnourished. Based on her weight and… leftover feces… it seems that she was living off of grass while trying to heal from all this. She’s in no real danger now, but I estimate that she will need weeks to fully recover from all of this.”

The audience was stunned. Ponyville rarely saw injuries of such a scale, save for some freak accident. It was worth noting that Nurse Redheart specialized in delivering babies; that’s just the kind of place Ponyville was. Even when the occasional pegasus broke a wing or a unicorn suffered from horn rot, they would be treated quickly and efficiently. Seeing a filly, of all things, limping into town on a poorly-healed leg was shocking to say the least.

At this point, Nurse Redheart continued, “The strangest thing about this case is that the filly seems to be completely ignorant of our language. She showed no signs of understanding the instructions I gave her, and had to be communicated with using simple sounds and gestures. If Lyra weren’t here to calm her down, I don’t know what I would have done. Twilight, have you read about anything like this?”

Twilight, who had been staring at the door to the filly’s room, jumped in surprise at being directly addressed before responding. “Well, there are several possibilities, but none of them seem particularly likely. First of all, it’s possible that she comes from somewhere like Prance or Neighpon where they speak a different language. But if that were the case, she would probably reply to us in those languages, or call out in them. It’s also possible that she’s mute, but according to your account, she yelled when you treated her with alcohol. This suggests that she’s in complete control over her tongue. The most likely possibility, if I had to guess, would be that she simply grew up in a place where speech wasn’t used to communicate. Lyra, this would explain how putting your foreleg over her comforted her. The problem is, a place without speech insinuates cruel guardians, who would have made her fear physical contact. Last, it is possible that she grew up on her own, and thus has had few interactions with anypony. But this doesn’t make sense either, since she would have done a better job at surviving in the wilderness if that were the case, and she reacted to the existence of other ponies with caution rather than surprise.”

“If I had to guess her life story, based on all this clashing information. I’d guess that she was raised in a relatively isolated environment, possibly by a mute or deaf pony that needed to communicate without sound, and was told that other ponies existed and were alright, but never interacted with them. After this other pony dies, she leaves home for the first time, struggling to reach civilization, possibly based on incomplete information. She isn’t used to living on her own, so when she gets hurt or hungry, she can’t react properly. Therefore, by the time she reaches civilization, she’s desperate and traumatized. This means that she is willing to accept help, but is terrified by everything she finds. Especially if she’s never been around so many other ponies before.”

Lyra was stunned. This was why she wanted Twilight Sparkle to come. No other pony in the village would have been able to come up with so many answers to the questions, discard the unsatisfactory, and settled on the most likely answer possible in a matter of minutes. Well, except for maybe Pinkie Pie. But she would be much harder to understand, and would probably decide the answer to everything was a party.

Speaking of Pinkie Pie… “has anybody seen Pinkie?” asked Lyra. “Has somebody told her not to throw a party for the filly yet?”

“Um, excuse me, but I… well…”

“Go ahead Fluttershy”

“Well, it’s just that I saw Pinkie Pie when I was in town, and she was running into Sugarcube Corner. Only… normally when she throws a party, she goes out and invites ponies first, but she didn’t invite me… unless she didn’t want me to come… but she probably did, so… um… I’m not sure whether she’s throwing a party.”

The hallway was silent for a few moments. Pinkie Pie had thrown Twilight Sparkle a party hours before a millennial celebration. She had a cannon to prepare parties on the go. She threw a party for Gilda after concluding that she was a bully. For her to not throw a party meant that something was seriously wrong.

Then again, she had just seen a badly injured filly. Perhaps that was enough to get rid of the permanent party in Pinkie’s head for a minute.

Finally, Mayor Mare spoke up. “Anyhow, the question is, what now? Even after she is able to leave the clinic, we don’t have any special facilities like an orphanage here in Ponyville. And I doubt that it would be wise for her to travel to Canterlot, considering how close you said she to panicking earlier. Not to mention how a bumpy ride would likely aggravate injuries.”

Lyra and Bon Bon looked at each other for a moment. The two of them had known each other for years now, and what they had went beyond friendship. They could communicate without words when the need arose, as it did now. And although the two argued constantly, they always agreed on the important stuff.

Bon Bon spoke first. “I think it would be good for the poor filly if she had a home here in Ponyville. She’d be surrounded by familiar faces at very least, and she’s already starting to relax a little. Look how quickly she went to sleep!”

“We could look after her,” Lyra said, picking up where Bon Bon left off. “She already trusts me, and Bon Bon by extension, and the two of us have room in our home for a filly, if only until we find better arrangements.”

“That sounds fine by me,” replied Mayor Mare. “Any objections ladies?” she asked Nurse Redheart, Fluttershy, and Twilight Sparkle.

There were none to be had. Lyra was considered a bit of a weirdo for her obsession with mythical creatures, but was always functionally weird, capable of doing what needed to be done when necessary. Like saving this poor filly, for instance. And as a baker and inventor of candies, Bon Bon was very popular among foals. Plus, since both of them were working, and both from home, they would have enough bits and time to look after the filly.

“I’ll take care of the paperwork,” said Mayor Mare, “but we can’t keep on calling her ‘filly.’ She needs a name, at least until we find out what hers really is.”

Lyra thought for a moment. She recalled a story supposedly from human folklore, about a colt that grew up in the wilderness surrounded by monstrous creatures. But “Gau,” in addition to being a bit nasty-sounding, was not a female name. Still, there was someone else in that story…

“What about Terra?” she asked.

“Not a conventional name, but it has a ring to it,” replied Twilight Sparkle.

“I like it”

“Works for me!”

“…it’s…nice…”

Lyra smiled. She didn’t know much about the strange new filly that had entered her life. But from the looks of it, Terra was going to be one of the greatest things she had ever found while tracking down humans.

Membership

It bothered Terra that she had been living with the Aqua and Cream Mares for a couple of weeks now, but she still could not really understand what they called themselves. Aqua Mare was called something like “La” and Cream Mare was “Buhbuh,” but she simply couldn’t keep track of all the sounds. She could barely keep track of her designation, “Tra” or something like that. Terra got in the habit of assuming that anything starting with a “Tr” sound was likely to be a call for attention of sorts, and so far this seemed to have worked well. And her attempts to respond with their names were, if not successful, at least recognized and appreciated.

Apparently, the damage on her leg was worse than she had realized at time, because everypony insisted that she give it first a few days in the hospital and now another two weeks resting at the duo’s home to heal. For the past dozen or so days, Terra had spent most of her time in a large bed, big enough for the two mares. When she was hungry, Cream Mare would bring some delicious sweet things, or Aqua Mare would bring a less tasty yet still appetizing morsel, sometimes a less fresh version of one of Cream Mare’s treats. When the mares had time available, they attempted to amuse Terra in a variety of ways. Cream Mare would bring small toys, picture books, and stuffed animals, and try to play with her while chatting. Terra merely tolerated the toys, and struggled with the picture books thanks to her poor coordination with either mouth or hoof, but she gratefully spent hours with the stuffed animals. Those had reassuring textures, took a variety of fantastical forms, and, when Cream Mare was not looking, they had interesting tastes. For some reason, Cream Mare thought it was wrong to chew on things other than food, despite carrying things around in her mouth. Odd.

Aqua Mare sometimes followed her friend’s method of interaction, but she brought along her own variety of activities. For one, sometimes she would play her string instrument. It was also called something like “La,” which puzzled Terra to no end. Did ponies intentionally make this complicated, was it a coincidence, or was the instrument named after Aqua Mare? Whatever the instrument was called, Terra soon came to appreciate it. She could not always put all the notes together, but she could recognize organization and beauty when she heard it. Aqua Mare shared victory, despair, mourning, love, anger, and anarchy with that piece of metal with bits of strings.

Aqua Mare’s other major way of entertaining Terra, though amusing, confused her to no end. What were these biped “hms” exactly? Terra was shown countless pictures of these two-legged freaks and their artifacts, but she, quite frankly, didn’t get it. What exactly did humans do? Where were they? Why should she care?

Cream Mare would sometimes work together with Aqua Mare together when spending time with Terra, but for some reason, whenever “hmns” came up, she would let Aqua Mare take charge. If Terra had to guess, Cream Mare had the same questions as she did, but also like Terra, enjoyed her time with Aqua Mare anyway.

One time, the trio of fillies that had discovered Terra alongside Aqua Mare came over. They just started jumping around and babbling even more incomprehensibly than the typical pony. Even they were a bit bigger than Terra, and she had been more injured at the time, so their company, although appreciated as a gesture of friendliness, was frightening. Fortunately, Aqua Mare seemed to recognize this, and rushed to distract the trio with some of Cream Mare’s treats.

All in all, things were not going the way she expected, but they were going well. The two mares had found a place in their home for Terra, the fillies seemed to be on her side, and despite the looks from ponies on the first day, there was no sign of trouble.

Her plans could be adjusted accordingly.
******

“Terra, wake up!”

Terra made a small moaning sound, and then pushed herself around with her forelegs. Lyra noted how she no longer made a habit of avoiding any pressure on her bandaged leg. Honestly, it was a miracle that it only took a couple of weeks to heal.

Terra looked straight into Lyra’s eyes, and then, at her mouth. Terra made a nasty look, but then raised her hooves to her cheeks, pressing upwards.

“Oh, you’re smiling back,” said Lyra. “I know you have trouble smiling yourself, but it’s great that you understand them and want to return them at least.”

While saying this, Lyra continued smiling at patted Terra on the head with her hoof. Unfortunately, Terra hadn’t made much progress with speaking or understanding language. This did not stop Lyra from trying though, by combining language with simple gestures that she did understand.

“Are you ready? Today’s the day you go back to the clinic to get you cast removed. And then we’re meeting Twilight Sparkle and Nurse Redheart to talk about your problems.” Using her magic, Lyra picked up a picture she had drawn using a set of crayons earlier. It portrayed a smiling grayish-blue filly with a cast sitting on the ground next to her. There were also pictures of a white earth pony and a purple unicorn.

Terra grabbed the picture with her hooves, frowning in concentration as she stared at it. After a few moments, she looked back up at Lyra and smiled. For real this time.

Breakfast was always a pleasant affair at the Heartstrings household, as Lyra proudly named it shortly after the two became an item. Bon Bon tolerated the name, despite being the original owner, which was good enough for her. Terra usually ate in the bed they slept in before she came around, but today, they had her sit at the table. She was confused at first by the concept of asking for more morning buns before taking any, but by her third bun, she got the hang of the matter.

One other thing that had once taken Terra some time to understand was Lyra’s choice in beverages. Whereas Terra and Bon Bon drank orange juice with their buns, Lyra drank salt water, a personal favorite. The first time Terra tasted some, taking a glass from an absentminded Lyra during a group lunch in bed, she vomited all the place, and had to be moved to the couch for the rest of the day. It had been hard to convince her to trust their taste in food again.

Lyra and Bon Bon appreciated their breakfasts together. As a professional musician, Lyra often worked late, whereas Bon Bon, who split her time between making sweets at home and working part time at Sugarcube Corner, often had to wake up before the crack of dawn. Although this conveniently meant that Terra always was sharing the house with somepony during her two week stay, it did mean that the duo came to treasure their time together.

“So how are the Cakes and Pinkie Pie doing?” asked Lyra.

“Oh, the Cakes are doing great. Carrot and Cup have reached a point in their professional lives where they are secure enough to spend some time with their foals yet capable of dealing with emergencies as they rise up. Plus, Pinkie Pie is their official sitter, so they are able to go out and have some alone time when necessary. And the foals are doing great! I’m sure Terra here will have fun playing with them when they get older.”

Terra looked up for a second, reacting to the sound of her name, but realizing that she was merely mentioned, went back to her bun and juice.

“You never mentioned Pinkie Pie” said Lyra. She was on her fourth bun, and was drinking some salted water with it.

“Well… she’s been polite.”

“From the way you said it, she hasn’t.”

“Oh, she’s been perfectly nice! It’s just… usually, when we work together, Pinkie will try to get me involved in a song, or pull some prank, or pour flour on me to entertain the foals. But for the past couple of weeks, she’s been talking to me a lot less, and hasn’t tried to invite me to any surprise parties or anything like that. She’s just acted like an ideal worker.”

“The Cakes must be thrilled.”

“They were at first, but I think they realize that something is wrong. They asked me if I knew anything, but of course I didn’t. Any ideas Lyra?”

Lyra started to answer no, but then she thought for a moment. “Pinkie hasn’t thrown a party for Terra, or even barged in to see her. This is a pony who celebrated the babies’ birthdays the day they were born. I can’t think of any reason why Terra would have scared off Pinkie, but maybe you should talk to her about it.”

Once again, Terra looked up, realized she was not a part of the conversation, and then sipped her juice.

“I’ll talk to her about it tomorrow after work,” replied Bon Bon. "Today, we are going to get Terra’s cast off and show her around town. We’re going to go to Town Hall and sign her adoption papers. And then we're going to talk to Cheerilee about Terra’s education.”
******

The walk to Nurse Redheart’s infirmary was reminiscent, Lyra thought. For one thing, ponies that had only heard of Terra, or had only briefly seen her on her trip to and from the clinic, were curious about the young filly. The variety of bandages and the cast on her leg only served to draw more attention. Terra, on her part, was only somewhat calmer than she had been the last time, and for that, Lyra couldn’t blame her. She had spent the past few weeks around only Bon Bon and her, plus a couple of visits from Nurse Redheart to check her progress. Seeing all these new faces, male and female, young and old, must have been a shock in addition to being a reminder of the last time she walked through town. At least she was brought to the Heartstrings residence by carriage.

Fortunately though, the trip to the infirmary passed without incident. There, Terra was greeted by an enthusiastic Nurse Redheart and Twilight Sparkle. While Nurse Redheart went into an examination room, Twilight Sparkle gave her theories about Terra’s origins and dilemmas.

“According to the records I requested from Canterlot, it turns out that there were reports of a runaway filly on the railroad as early as two weeks before you found Terra. However, there are no records of any families missing a filly of her age and color. Of course, based on my previous hypothesis, any guardians are probably dead. Based on her size, I’d say she’s just barely old enough to attend school, making her younger than Apple Bloom and her friends by about a year. Seeing as her injuries and malnourishment were fairly recent, there is little reason to suspect they’ve stunted her growth.”

“But why can’t she talk?” asked Bon Bon. “Even when she tries to pick up new words, it’s as if she doesn’t hear all the sounds or something.”

“That’s because she doesn’t.”

“What?” cried Lyra. “She’s not deaf!”

“I never said she was. Look,” Twilight said, trying to calm the duo down, “I think Terra has a condition similar to color blindness. You know how some ponies can’t see certain colors, or have trouble distinguishing between them? Well, my theory, based on the tests we did during her first days here and Nurse Redheart’s reports, is that Terra has trouble distinguishing between similar and adjacent sounds. She can hear everything just fine, but her brain deemphasizes sounds to the extent that she has troubles separating syllables, or detecting inflections. If anything, it’s like a pony being near sighted or permanently numb. Her sense of hearing simply isn’t as developed.”

“The good news,” Twilight continued, hoping to reassure the pair, “Is that Terra probably has other improved senses to compensate for her lack of hearing finesse. For example, you know how she likes touching you two? If I had to guess, she has a more refined sense of touch than most ponies. Is there anything else she does that suggests she has enhanced senses?”

Bon Bon thought about how Terra kept on chewing on stuffed animals when she thought she wasn’t looking. Lyra thought about how violently Terra reacted to her salt water. The two lovers looked at each other.

“Taste” they said together.

“Well, there you go. She’ll probably grow up to be a fine chef like you someday Bon Bon.”

At this point, the front door of the clinic burst open. In came Mayor Mare, holding a bundle of papers in her mouth, grinning like she had just won her reelection a few months early.

“Ms. Mare!” yelped Twilight Sparkle. “I thought Lyra and Bon Bon were going to meet you later!”

“Well, I decided to have my lunch break early, and realized that you all ought to still be here. Besides, it’s not everyday Ponyville gets a new resident. Remember what happened when you moved in, Twilight Sparkle?”

“I’ll have you know that it was just a visit at the time. I was going to deal with the celebration and go.”

“But you made friends here. And that’s the Ponyville charm in a nutshell. If any town can befriend a stranger in a moment’s notice, it’s Ponyville. After all, what did the first pony you met here do?”

“She threw me a party.”

“And the second pony?”

“She and her family gave me a free lunch”

“And the third?”

“Gave me a bad hair day.”

“Well… two out of three isn’t that bad!”

The door to the examination room slowly opened. Out came a completely bandage-less Terra, followed by a smiling Nurse Redheart.

“I’m glad to say that Terra is perfectly fine.”

“YES! NOW WE CAN HUNT DOWN HUMANS AS A TEAM!” shouted Lyra in a fair impression of the Royal Canterlot Voice.

“I recommend she take it easy for a few da-”

“TOGETHER, WE WILL RECOVER THEIR CIVILIZATION AND DISCOVER THEIR LOST TREASURES!!!”

Terra had a smile on her face, so enthused she was by her recovery and guardian’s joy. Everypony else in the room stared at Lyra stoically.

“Or I could wait until she asks if she wants to come along,” Lyra conceded.

There was a collective sigh of relief. Mayor Mare put her papers down on the counter.

“I’ve filled out most of the nitty gritty stuff. Consider that to be your bribe to reelect me in a couple of months. All you have to do is sign in about a dozen places each”

Lyra held a pen with her magic while she signed the papers, before handing it over to Bon Bon, who did the same thing with her mouth.

“Congratulations you two. You are now the legal guardians of this young filly.”

And there was much rejoicing.
******

Terra realized that life was going to be different when she was considered healed. What she didn’t expect were for the changes to come so soon. After leaving the examination room, she discovered Aqua Mare and Cream Mare talking to Purple Unicorn and Brown Leader.

Aqua Mare’s cheering was encouraging, if a bit loud, but what happened next confused Terra. Her two hostesses took turns marking some papers with what appeared to be a crayon of sorts. Then everypony in the room started cheering.

Lyra and Bon Bon rushed to Terra, putting their forelegs around her. A couple of weeks ago, Terra would have assumed this was an attack. But that did not make sense in this context; the two had never shown any inclination to cause harm.

They were blabbering again. Why were they blabbering now? It sounded different from normal… wait. Was that the taste of salt water? It was coming down their faces… oh they were crying.

Whatever had happened was big enough to make them lose control of themselves in front of a pony that they were used to giving support to. However, the fact that they let their guard down around her suggested that she was welcome in whatever they were going through.

That was it.

She was welcome.

Terra didn’t understand this place. She didn’t know why these two mares lived together in a building with just one bed, or how the hierarchy worked when the leader came down here to do business with the common, or why they would be so accepting of a complete stranger. This place almost definitely had an even worse understanding of her. But they welcomed her into their lives. No one had done that for a long time.

And for the first time since she arrived in Ponyville, Terra cried.

Espionage

“I’m sorry, but I cannot teach her,” said Cheerilee. “I teach foals from childhood through adolescence, but Terra’s lack of speech, social anxieties, and complete unfamiliarity with everyday affairs makes her problems more similar to an infant’s.”

The Heartstrings household was meeting at the Ponyville schoolhouse. Lyra, Bon Bon, and Twilight Sparkle were sitting on chairs in front of Cheerilee’s desk, making them feel like they were going to be reprimanded for eating paste all over again. Terra was examining the classroom, uncharacteristically bold after crying with her guardians.

“Couldn’t she just sit in the back of the room or something?” asked Lyra.

The three other mares looked at Lyra in disbelief.

“It’s tricky enough teaching ten students at a time, each with their own needs. If Terra is as unevenly developed as you say, she would require a lot of attention. Not only would I not be able to give enough, I would have to take time away from helping the students I already have. And how can we expect a foal who can’t understand what we’re saying to understand our rules?”

Terra, meanwhile, had discovered a tube of paste in the back of the classroom. Curious as to what it was, she picked it up with her mouth, accidentally squeezing the surprisingly elastic container. A blob of paste went in her mouth, and she yelled in surprise.

If Lyra and Bon Bon had any hope left for this venture, Terra’s experience with paste would have been embarrassingly timed. As it was, the incident merely served to highlight Cheerilee’s point: Terra was not able to look after herself well enough to go to school.

“Well now what?” Lyra asked Cheerilee, as Bon Bon went to help Terra spit out the paste in the bathroom.

“Well, you have a couple of choices. First, you can send Terra to Canterlot, where they have the facilities to help fillies like her.”

“Not going to happen,” Lyra replied. Terra was too equinophobic to let her go alone, and it was impossible for the entire household to leave Ponyville; Both Lyra and Bon Bon would have to get new jobs if they moved away, and as the “Human Sightings Capitol of the World,” Ponyville was the perfect place for Lyra to practice her hobby. Lyra’s natural distrust of Equestrian royalty only made going to Canterlot an even less promising prospect.

“Your second choice is to hire a specialist to work with Terra full time, as an educator and a nanny. The problem with that is, those kinds of professionals are expensive, and I doubt you have the money to afford one. Especially since you’d also have to pay for their room and board, since no such ponies live around here.”

Lyra nodded. With their combined incomes, she and Bon Bon made a respectable amount of bits. However, having an extra mouth to feed was going to cost them a lot. So was having to take time off to watch over Terra. Bon Bon could ask her family for a few bits if necessary, but there was no way they could afford a private tutor.

“You can also home school her yourselves, but that would be a full time job in of itself. I know Bon Bon had to take vacation time in order to watch Terra, and you occasionally have to take trips to other towns for concerts. It would be manageable, but difficult.”

Bummer. Adopting a child was tough. Who knew?

At this point, Terra and Bon Bon came back. Terra had an empty mouth now, but Bon Bon somehow had gotten paste on her muzzle. She gave Lyra a quick glare, saying that Lyra owed her something for not helping out.

“There’s a fourth option, but you won’t like it Lyra.”

“What?”

“We could ask Twilight Sparkle here to tutor Terra during the week. As a graduate from Canterlot’s School for Gifted Unicorns, she’s the only other pony who has the education to teach foals around here. At least, if my memory serves me correctly. Furthermore, as a librarian, she is technically a part of the local education system, meaning that we can team up with the Mayor to pressure her into it."

"You don't need to pressure me," said Twilight. "I'd be glad to help! I'm here in Ponyville to study friendship, and isn't this what friendship is all about? Helping each other?"

Lyra was silent for a moment. Bon Bon understood why. Cheerilee had deliberately avoided mentioning who was paying Twilight Sparkle. Ever since she had come to Ponyville, Lyra had been suspicious of her. Bon Bon doubted that Twilight was a government agent trying to cover up the existence of humans, but even she could understand why else Lyra would be scared by a government agent.

“Thank you Cheerilee,” began Bon Bon, “but I don’t thin-”

“Sure, let’s go ask her,” interrupted Lyra.

“What?” said Cheerilee.

‘WHAT???’ thought Bon Bon.

‘Wait, what am I missing?’ thought Twilight.

“Burp,” said Terra.

Apparently, not all of the paste ended up in the sink.

Lyra explained herself. “Terra needs a teacher, we need to be able to work on a regular basis, and you probably wouldn’t mind, will you Twilight?”

“Well, no, I wouldn’t. Actually, it could be fun. I’d probably just add something extra to my Friendship Reports to Princess Celestia.”

“Let's go out for lunch at say, Sugarcube Corner. We can discuss the particulars there.”

Bon Bon was momentarily stunned. She knew Lyra felt responsible for Terra, but this went beyond what she would normally even consider. Tonight, somepony was going to be told how lucky she was to have them.
******

Terra followed Blue Mare, Cream Mare, and Purple Unicorn as they walked through the streets of Ponyville. For the first time, she was not being singled out as she went through town. This was probably due to her lack of bandages. Between this and how her guardians were being distracted somewhat by Purple Unicorn, she felt free to let down her defenses a bit and start looking around the town.

It was a nice enough town. It wasn’t big, but held at least a few hundred ponies based on what she had seen. The buildings were as colorful as the populace, who were earth ponies as often as not. Stallions were definitely in the minority, although no more so than, say, unicorns were.

One thing that puzzled Terra was the groupings of ponies they passed by. Individual ponies would go about their business, and occasionally a few larger groups would congregate, but a large portion of the groups consisted of two adults and possibly a number of foals or adolescents. Furthermore, the groups of two usually contained at least one stallion, despite their general rarity. For the life of her, Terra could not figure out why these kinds of groups would exist.

Eventually, the party of four reached the most colorful building yet. It honestly looked like it was made out of the sweet things Cream Mare sometimes fed her. Speaking of whom, Cream Mare turned around and started chatting happily. Maybe this was where she went during the day, to make the sweet things? A reasonable theory. If so, it was likely that they would eat here. Excellent. Terra loved sweet things.
******

Lyra opened the door to let her family and Twilight Sparkle in when she heard Pinkie Pie’s inevitable “HI!” The usual bombardment of greetings that normally followed, however, never came. Pinkie Pie just stood behind the counter, eyes locked onto Terra.

“Hello Twilight. Hello Lyra. Hello Bon Bon. I didn’t know you were coming today”

Twilight Sparkle stepped forward, oblivious to Pinkie’s lack of enthusiasm. “Actually Pinkie, they invited me here to lunch to talk about Terra here. I’m going to write to Celestia about becoming a teacher, and if she’s okay with that, I’m going to tutor Terra! We’re going to spend lots of time together, and I’m going to show her around town, and maybe I’ll start tutoring to other colts and fillies!”

“That’s great Twilight. Would like some lunch?” Pinkie asked brusquely.

“Never fear, I’ll pay,” said Bon Bon. “It gives me a chance to take advantage of the employee discount! Let’s see, I think I’ll have a slice of that pumpkin bread and some pumpkin juice, Lyra will have a watercress sandwich and some salt water, Terra will have a croissant and some apple juice, and… Twilight, what would you like?”

“A corn muffin would be nice. Just water please.”

“Coming right up,” said Pinkie Pie, disappearing into the kitchen. For a few minutes, the group sat at a table, discussing Terra’s education. Terra started to go into the kitchen, but was told “No!” by Bon Bon. Either Terra was starting to pick up words, or the tone of voice made her intentions clear, because Terra sat still while the three mares discussed arrangements.

Twilight was just explaining how she could get permission to teach within the week when Mrs. Cake came out, delicately balancing four meals on a tray held atop of her head. Bon Bon started to pay, but Mrs. Cake simply said that she would take the ten bits out of her paycheck. Considering how the meal cost closer to twenty bits, this was quite generous.

“Say, Mrs. Cake,” asked Twilight, “what happened to Pinkie Pie?”

“Oh, she’s taking her lunch break now dear. She should be back in a little while.”

“That’s strange, doesn’t she normally eat lunch here?”

“Uh, yes, but she wanted to go out for some fresh air.”

Lyra couldn’t stand this. “Mrs. Cake, what is Pinkie Pie’s problem with TerOW!”

“Sorry,” said Bon Bon. “My hoof must have slipped onto your face somehow.”

Mrs. Cake sighed. “Dears, I don’t think it’s my place to talk about why Pinkie Pie is… uncomfortable around Terra.”

“Wait, you know why?” asked Bon Bon.

“How could we ask her if she’s just going to run off?” asked Lyra.

“Pinkie Pie acts uncomfortably around Terra?” asked Twilight Sparkle.

The two lovers and the middle aged mare gave Twilight Sparkle a long look.

Mrs. Cake sighed. “I’m sorry, but it’s just not my place to talk about Pinkie’s problems. I know she normally acts cheerfully, but she has had some… troubles in her life. It’s up to her to decide if and when she wants to talk about it.”

Mrs. Cake went back to the kitchen, leaving the mares alone with their thoughts.

Bon Bon frowned. A troubled Pinkie Pie seemed bizarre to her, much like a stupid Twilight Sparkle or a sane Lyra would. But the Cakes had known Pinkie Pie for years, so if Cup Cake said she was troubled, there was no reason to doubt her.

Lyra, more than anything else, felt offended. How dare Pinkie Pie act that way around Terra! Over the past few weeks, the worst thing she could say about Terra, from a completely objective point of view, was that she was too modest for her own good. Pinkie Pie should be trying to share her laughter with Terra like she did with everypony else.

Twilight Sparkle, on her part, felt like an idiot. Now that she thought about it, Pinkie Pie had been acting a bit differently than normal. True, she was usually her partying self, but it felt more forced than usual. Not to mention how Pinkie never stayed on the topic of the latest newcomer to town for long, despite her love of meeting new ponies.

The trio was so caught up in their thoughts that it took a few minutes for one of them to say “Say, where did Terra go?”
******

As she slipped up the stairs Sugarcube Corner, Terra knew that she would get in trouble for doing this. Cream Mare had specifically told her not to wander off in the bakery. But this was the first time she had seen the Pink One in weeks, and she was not one to waste valuable reconnaissance time.

The problem was, Terra didn’t where in this building the Pink One would go. It wasn’t a huge place, but her target had been out of sight for a few minutes now. Considering how this place doubled as both a place of work and apparently a residence, this could take a while.

As it turned out though, Terra soon heard a familiar blubbering sound. It was coming from a room down the hallway. Terra silently trotted over to the doorway, slowly opening it as she peeked in.

It was a bathroom with sky blue walls. There was the Pink One, standing on her back hooves, front legs on the sink, talking to her reflection in the mirror. Her previously poofy mane was now as straight as Terra’s, and the very color of her coat seemed to have become duller.

Unfortunately, Terra could not understand what she was saying, and time was running short. Soon, her guardians would find and reprimand her. Terra didn’t expect the punishment to be unduly harsh, but this kind of opportunity only came around once in a while. She slowly backed away from the door, and began peeking into other rooms.

One room contained a large bed. It was probably for the owners. Another one contained what appeared to be a cage with its top removed. Perhaps that was for some kind of pet? Or maybe the bakers had very young children? Irrelevant. This door leads to… a closet. Time to go up this flight of stairs and… here we are.

Despite its large size, the room on the top floor of Sugarcube Corner only contained a single bed. It was a slightly messy place, with the ground covered by the occasional piece of confetti and a few balloons punctuating the space. In the middle was a table, surrounded by chairs, though based on the scrapes on the floor, it was frequently moved around. On the bed was a small reptile, probably a pet, which stared at Terra with a blank expression on its face. It was harmless.

All in all, this was a successful trip. The Pink One lived at the top of the bakery. If Terra were wise, she would get going while she had the chance. But the mystery of the Pink One kept her looking around, peeking under the tables, browsing a single shelf of books and magazines, and staring back at the reptile for a few moments.

Terra was a cautious individual by nature, but her curiosity sometimes got the better of her, particularly when a single idea or thought danced in her mind. This went beyond curiosity. Terra needed to know who the Pink One was, and why she had mentally given her such a mighty title. Seriously, why did she never think of her as “Pink Mare” or “Energetic Partier?” It had always been “Pink One.”

She needed to know why she would go to such lengths to learn more about her.

Finally, Terra opened a drawer to the night stand by the Pink One’s bed. Inside was a picture of some sort. Pulling it out with her teeth, Terra put the picture onto the bed and stepped back, taking a look at it.

The picture was, based on the slightly frayed edges, old yet well taken care of. It showed a group of earth ponies. In the front was apparently a younger Pink One, the only pony in the picture showing her teeth as she smiled for the camera. Apparently, she leapt onto her back legs just before the photographer took the picture, and likely fell down immediately afterwards.

Behind her were two grown ponies, a mare and a stallion. Another set of two? What was with these groupings? The stallion, who was on the left, wore a tie and a black hat that matched his stony stare. The mare, though she wore glasses instead, had a nearly identical expression. The two seemed irritated by the Pink One’s antics, but nevertheless seemed to accept her, the same way Aqua Mare was merely annoyed when Terra vomited on the bed.

On the Pink One’s flanks was a pair of foals, one per side. They looked slightly younger than the Pink One. On the left was a gray coated filly with a black mane and purple eyes. And on the left… oh no…

It was Terra.

Suddenly, Terra heard a scream. She whipped around, shocked to find an enraged Pink One. Furious didn’t do justice. Her eyes were full of fire, and steam came out of her ears. The Pink One’s hair, previously straight like Terra’s was now as poofy as before, but stood up straight, creating the illusion that she had grown.

Terra stood her ground, getting into a defensive position. The Pink One rushed forward, seemingly intent on a confrontation, only to miss as Terra rolled out of the way at the last moment. Nearly instantly though, the Pink One turned straight around, ignoring all laws of momentum. Terra was still getting onto her feet when she was pinned to the ground by the full grown mare. She struggled to get free, but the Pink One would not concede an inch.

“La! Buhbuh!” Terra yelled, increasingly terrified of the mare keeping her on the ground. The Pink One kept on screaming, piercing Terra’s head. She was scared. So scared. She would be eaten or worse.

She would fail.

No.

Terra closed her eyes.

She.

She focused her attention.

Would.

She had to get out of here.

Not.

She opened her eyes.

Fail!

There was a light
******

After Bon Bon called for Terra for a minute or so, looking around the room, it was clear that the party would need to split up to find her. Lyra and Mrs. Cake went outside to check around town and ask for information, assuming that Terra would likely want to explore, while Bon Bon, who was familiar with Sugarcube corner, searched the extensive basement, which was full of places where a filly could get lost. Twilight Sparkle stayed at the tale in case Terra returned.

However, after a few minutes, Bon Bon returned from the basement, empty hoofed. Lyra also popped in, saying that Terra was nowhere in the immediate proximity of the house, and that Mrs. Cake would start searching a wider area.

Then, they heard Pinkie Pie scream with rage.

The trio jumped in the air, shocked to hear Pinkie Pie, of all ponies, full of rage.

“La! Buhbuh!” they heard a high pitched voice yell.

“Terra!” Lyra and Bon Bon shouted simultaneously, rushing up the stairs, closely followed by Twilight Sparkle.

They reached the top of the stair well, Pinkie Pie’s room, just in time to see a flash of light, akin to a unicorn’s spell. What they saw next shocked and horrified them.

Terra was lying on the ground, hooves in the air, hacking and coughing. A trickle of blood flowed from her mouth. Her hooves supported what appeared to be a light-blue sheet of a glass or ice-like substance, composed of several squares joined together. Atop the pile was a screaming Pinkie Pie, who seemed to be trying to crush the sheet and get a hold of the terrified Terra.

“What did you do to her?!? What are you doing?!? WHY ARE YOU AFTER ME!?!?!?” bellowed Pinkie Pie, repeatedly striking the sheet with her front hooves. The sheet seemed to be absorbing most of the impact, but it was clear that Terra was having trouble supporting it.

Pinkie was then surrounded by an Aqua-colored aura, as Lyra used her magic to literally throw Pinkie off of Terra. Bon Bon rushed to grab Terra from below her shield and drag her towards the stairs, while Twilight Sparkle took over Pinkie-holding abilities from Lyra, who was not used to telekinetically holding anything larger than a lyre.

“Pinkie, what were you doing?” asked Twilight, shocked that her friend would act this way.

“Twilight,” said Pinkie slowly, “let me go,”

“What the buck Pinkie?!?” shouted Lyra. “Why were you trying to hurt my foal?”

“She’s a liar!” screeched Pinkie Pie. “I can’t stand the lies anymore! Get her away from here!”

Twilight opened her mouth, but no sounds came out.

“Fine,” whispered Pinkie Pie. “Fine. Just keep that… thing away from here.”

“Stop talking about her like that!” shouted Lyra.

“And Twilight,” continued Pinkie Pie, as if Lyra had never spoken, “You had better not teach that thing anything or… I won’t be your friend anymore. Now put me down!”

As much out of shock as obedience, Twilight released Pinkie Pie, who plopped onto the floor. Pinkie stood up, brushing herself off, only to be tackled down again by Lyra.

“Lyra!” cried Twilight.

“Don’t you come anywhere near her,” hissed Lyra. “Don’t go anywhere where she might be either. Or I will hurt you.”

“No problem,” replied Pinkie Pie coldly, her hair straightening as she spoke. “As long as it is running around Ponyville, I will never leave Sugarcube Corner again!”

Misery

My Dearest Twilight Sparkle,

I have read your latest letter carefully, and have consulted Luna for help in making a quality response. I hope things have gotten better since you wrote to me.

First of all, I would like to commend you for your quick thinking when you saw Pinkie Pie. Had you not acted properly, I would have no choice but to sentence her to imprison her for foal abuse. However, thanks to your intervention at the time of the incident and your well detailed account of Pinkie Pie’s actions given to the police, she will receive a minimal punishment. Fortunately, Miss Pie has an otherwise exemplary record and she never caused Terra any direct harm, or the punishment would be far less lenient.

Based on what you told me of the strange shield you saw Terra using, I can only assume that she must be a unicorn. Unicorns with microhorns or no visible horns at all are rare, but have appeared in the past and have been capable of doing instinctual magic. This said, it is unlikely that Terra is capable of using magic on the scale of a typical unicorn. She should live her life as an earth pony, albeit one that is unlikely to have the endurance and strength of her kin.

As for what to do next, I think you know the appropriate course of action. Pinkie Pie did something heinous, but she is your friend, and she desperately needs a friend right now.

None of us are fully innocent.

Princess Celestia
******

Pinkie Pie had spent most of the week in her room. Twice a day, after waking up and before going to bed, she would go downstairs to use the bathroom. Occasionally, the Cakes would leave food and water by her door. They offered to come in and talk to her, but she had violently rejected the offers.

Pinkie’s only companion was Gummy, who was a silent companion at best. However, this did not mean that Pinkie Pie lacked conversation that week. On the contrary, she had plenty of long conversations. Unfortunately.
It’s all your fault

“I know”

Pinkie Pie was walking back and forth, from her bed to her closet, over and over.
You hurt a little filly who did nothing wrong

“I… I wasn’t thinking”
How could you?

“I’m sorry!”
She’s back because she hates you.

“I’m sorry!”
You yelled at your best friend.

“I was scared.”
You deserve this

“What?”
You deserve worse than this

“…I know…”
You’re a parasprite. You eat all the Cakes’ food and just lie around up here all day.

“I’ll get back to work soon.”
Does it matter? You’ll just make so many mistakes and eat so many customers’ orders that they’ll just send you upstairs again.

“No! I promise to be better.”
For anypony else, that would be no challenge. You’re the reason she died

“No, it wasn’t me!”
Did you want to kill her again?

“I didn’t kill her!”
So you say. And yet, you saw her body go into the ground

“He did it!”
After you led her there

…
There’s a reason why you’re all alone up here.

“Shut up”
They hate you, as they rightfully should.

“When I was a little filly and the sun was going down…”
You scare them. Remember when Rainbow saw your party?

“The darkness and the shadows, they would always make me frown…”
One day, you’re going to kill them too.

“I’d hide under my pillow from what I thought I saw”
You’ll probably enjoy it too

“But… Granny Pie said tha-”
I know what you think, that the Element of Laughter means you’re pure or something. But I know you. Laughter is not about harmony. It’s not even about joy. Laughter is the pathetic mind’s way of dealing with things beyond its reach. In your case, everything.

…
You know how you throw so many parties, but only had five friends? You don’t throw the parties because you want to have a good time with them. You throw parties because that’s the only way you can interact with ponies. Fluttershy is more social than you, if only because she is capable of recognizing how pathetic she-

“Shut up Pinkie Pie!”

???

“You can be a mean poopyhead to yourself all day long. But you are not going to insult my friends”
Aw, how adorable. Pinkie Pie still thinks she’ll still have friends when this is all over. Who would ever be friends with somepony like you?

“Just because they won’t like me anymore doesn’t mean you can be a grumpy mean-meanie-pants to them! I’ll be their friends even if they won’t be mine!”
How noble. Very well Pinkie Pie, I will not attack your friends. You can do that for me.

“QUIET!!!”

…

Finally it was gone. For now.

Pinkie Pie jumped into her bed, face in her pillows. She thought it was behind her. She thought she could leave it behind when she came to Ponyville. And it had. Until Terra came to town.

Since she came, it came back with a vengeance. Why did she have to look just like Blinkie? Maybe it was inevitable that she would attack somepony eventually. It was taunting her, laughing at her, doing its best to rip her to shreds. It spoke over her friends’ voices when she tried to talk to them, to receive some support.

And now that she was alone, it was taking its time, trapping her in here, preparing for the kill.

Once upon a time, Pinkie Pie had tried to explain it to Granny Pie, before she passed away a few years ago. But she didn’t understand. An invisible, omnipresent voice that fed off of her joy and left nothing but despair? Surely that was just one of Pinkie Pie’s figments of imagination. Maybe Granny Pie was right. But that didn’t mean it was not real. That didn’t mean it was not deadly.

Pinkie Pie knew that one day, she wouldn’t be able to get rid of it. One day, it would have what was left of her.
******

The past few days had been somber for Terra. Aqua Mare and Cream Mare tried to keep her inside for a few days, but after seeing how Terra stared out the windows, they relented and brought her on daily activities, like getting food or talking to Purple Unicorn. She never saw the Pink One. Had she been punished? Probably. In retrospect, Terra felt foolish about being scared of the Pink One. She reacted loudly, but it was justifiable. Terra had invaded her privacy, and was doubtlessly doing great harm by simply existing.

Cream Mare and Aqua Mare had a new activity they tried to do with her: drawing. Perhaps they were inspired by how Aqua Mare used a picture to tell Terra what their plans were that fateful day, because they spent hours drawing pictures with crayons and sharing them with her. They showed things like the ponies they saw around town, the trio doing their daily activities, and what had happened with Pinkie Pie. They were very insistent on the last part. Terra had seen a gallery of pink stick ponies with angry eyes standing atop a frowning bluish-gray filly.

Aqua Mare seemed to make a point of only drawing using her magic. Terra guessed that she wanted her to do the same. Aqua Mare seemed to think that she was a unicorn, despite the obvious. Creating that shield had been a mistake, but it looked like they completely misunderstood the implications.

In any case, Terra decided that she would start drawing things in response. She couldn’t explain everything, but perhaps she could share some of her feelings. And maybe let a few details loose. There was no harm in a bit of understanding.
******

Lyra sighed as she sat on her rump, studying Terra’s drawings at the kitchen table.

Art therapy had been yet another of Twilight Sparkle’s ideas, apparently inspired by one of the latest scientific thaumological magazines. She and Bon Bon had been skeptical at first, but considering how poorly their attempts to teach Terra Equestrian had been, they decided to give it a try.

Now, after a few days, Terra began drawing her own things in response. Normally Lyra would have rushed to tell Bon Bon the news, but she was working a late shift at Sugarcube Corner, and wouldn’t be home until well after Terra’s bed time.

Despite Lyra’s frequent use of magic when drawing, Terra simply used her mouth to hold onto crayons. Perhaps Twilight Sparkle’s rambling about “microhorns” was just rambling. Once she understood that crayons were inedible, Terra also got into the hang of drawing pretty well for somepony who probably had little experience.

Some of Terra’s pictures were fairly ordinary, possibly done as tests of skill. Lyra’s favorite showed what appeared to be the Heartstrings household standing together and smiling. One picture showed Pinkie Pie standing atop Terra, but with tears coming down her face and a neutral look on Terra’s face. Was Terra repentant? She’d have to do a better job of explaining how what Pinkie Pie did was wrong.

One picture though, took priority over everything else.

Terra had started drawing this picture on a regular piece of paper, but soon ran out of space. Lyra, who was sensing a breakthrough, pulled a huge sheet, originally intended for future use as a sign at some important event, out of the closet. Terra nuzzled Lyra for her efforts, a shockingly affectionate act.

The picture required almost every red, pink, and purple crayon in the house. Terra spent half an hour drawing large shapes and slowly, methodically, coloring them in, until the crayons were reduced to nubs.

The final product portrayed several figures. By far the largest was some strange, pinkish-purple behemoth. Its body didn’t seem that large, but its head alone took up more space than the average sheet of paper could support. The mouth was full of sharp, triangular teeth, its eyes were yellow triangles, and its ears were sharp and pointy. The main body, which was laughably undersized, sported a pair of bat-like wings, along with a tail that, once again, ended with another triangle. Peculiarly, there was some yellow blot between the ears. It seemed out of place, but the rest of the image was so meticulously made.

In front of the creature was a picture of Terra, drawn using a mix of blue and black crayons, crying as she faced the creature.

Beside her was the outline of a pony, apparently black, who was lying on their back. This mysterious pony’s eyes were replaced by a pair of X’s.

Was this the creature that had orphaned Terra?
******

Twilight Sparkle was not scared of Pinkie Pie. She was scared of meeting Pinkie Pie. The last time she had parted with someone on such harsh terms was Spike a few years ago. True, they eventually made up. But that had been with someone who was like a brother. Would Pinkie reject her?

As Twilight Sparkle entered Sugarcube Corner, she berated herself for not visiting Pinkie sooner. All of their other friends had stopped by at least once, though they were all turned back at Pinkie’s doorway. Rainbow Dash had even tried entering via window one evening, albeit unsuccessfully. It turned out that Pinkie had locks on her windows, and was using them for possibly the first time.

From behind the counter, Mr. Cake simply pointed towards the stairs. He knew why she was there.

Climbing the stairs seemed to take ages. Halfway up the flight that led to Pinkie’s room, Twilight heard her breathing heavily. Applejack had told Twilight that Pinkie had been crying when she came to visit. She also had given Twilight a dirty look when she asked when Twilight was going to stop by.

It was just so hard though. How do you confront a friend after… that?

Twilight Sparkle reached the top of the stairs, and looked into Pinkie Pie’s room. The floor was littered with a few days of trash, including a few leftover pieces of food. Pinkie was lying on her bed, face in her pillows. Gummy stood on the nightstand, apparently too distracted by Pinkie’s turmoil to notice the new arrival.

Now for the hard part.

“Pinkie?”

Pinkie Pie’s head shot up and turned around. The two ponies stared at each other for a moment before Pinkie leapt across the room, landing in front of Twilight. Before Twilight could react, Pinkie had her forelegs around her neck. She wasn’t crying anymore, but Pinkie was still breathing heavily as she repeated her mantra.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I‘m sorry…”

Twilight Sparkle, though an introvert, knew what to say.

“It’s alright Pinkie. Shh.”

Pinkie did not let go for a long time. Eventually, she pulled Twilight over to her bed, where she sat down, dragging Twilight down with her.

“Is Terra okay?” Pinkie asked.

“She’s fine.”

“…do you think she hates me?”

“I think you scared her, but now she’s just confused.”

“Do Lyra and Bon Bon hate me?”

“They’re more worried about how Terra is doing than anything else. I don’t think Bon Bon will have too much trouble working with you when you’re better.”

“Oh. Twilight…”

“Yes?”

“Do you hate me?”

“Pinkie, I could never hate you. You’re one of my best friends.”

“But don’t I scare you? I mean, I’m always popping out of places and doing strange things and saying the wrong things and…”

Twilight Sparkle put her front-left hoof on Pinkie’s back.

“Pinkie, I love how you do all of those things. I love how random you are sometimes. All of us do. It’s a part of who you are, and we all love you.”

“So it was lying.”

“What?”

Pinkie Pie lay silently for a moment. She faced Gummy, who had been watching the conversation in his usual passive fashion. Pinkie Pie poked him with her nose, and he affectionately clamped onto it in response. She giggled.

“Twilight, can I tell you a weird story? And could you promise to believe it? Or at least, put up with it for a while?”

“Of course”

“And do you promise not to tell anypony? I’m not ready to share this story.”

“My lips are sealed.”

“Pinkie Promise?”

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my OW!”

“Actually, Applejack found a way out of that. Could you just not tell anypony?”

“I won’t”

Pinkie Pie twisted for a moment before smiling. It was obviously an unfamiliar position after this past week.

“Well, it started a long time ago, a little while after I got my Cutie Mark…”

Flashback

“Are you sure about this Pinkie? Mother and Father told us not to talk to strange stallions.”

“Don’t worry Blinkie! This colt is really nice, and he has a cutie mark just like me! He must throw the best parties ever!”

“I don’t know. I mean, I love your parties. But what if this guy is different?”

“Don’t worry. If anything goes crazy, I won’t ever let anything happen to you.”

“Promise?”

“Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye!”
******

There is a reason why the Pinkie Pie Swear uses such peculiar wording.
******

The colt was quite a bit older than Pinkie and Bellamina, but not quite an adult. His fur was a dull dray, similar to Blinkie’s mane. His mane was an unwashed brown mess, full of curls and debris. Deep bags lied under his dark red eyes. He wore a brown saddlebag containing who knew what. But like Pinkie said, his cutie mark was like hers, three red balloons. There couldn’t be anything wrong with a party pony, right?

The colt smiled. “Hello girls. Are you ready for a party?”

“You betcha!” squealed Pinkie, hopping up and down in delight.

Blinkie smiled. She loved nothing more than seeing her sister excited for a party.

“I’m having the party at my barn, but that’s a little walk from here, so I brought a treat,” said the colt.

From his saddlebag he pulled out two cupcakes, a dark color with pink frosting. Bits of dirt were stuck on them.

“Oh boy, Cupcakes!” shouted Pinkie. She quickly grabbed them from the colt, offering one to her sister.

Blinkie thought the cupcake looked disgusting, but she sympathized with the colt. Pinkie’s early attempts at making treats had often ended poorly, but she was most disappointed when ponies wouldn’t even give them a shot. Perhaps this colt was the same. Gingerly, Blinkie ate the cupcake. It was an odd flavor, sweet but savory, like an apple covered in cheese.

She didn’t like it.

“Now what?” Pinkie Pie asked the colt.

“Now,” said the colt, “you take a nap.”

The colt mirthfully laughed as the two fillies suddenly felt light-headed and drifted into unconsciousness.
******

Pinkie Pie woke up in a dark, smelly place. She was in one of the most compromising positions she had ever been in. Her forelegs were apparently tied by some strange, squishy rope to the ceiling of wherever she was, leaving the rest of her body to hang in the air. Even when she struggled, she could not reach the ground. Her forelegs were exhausted from the unusual position, and her whole body ached.

Pinkie could not see very far in this dark, mysterious place. There was nothing to see. Nothing after nothing came pouring from the darkness into her face, smothering Pinkie in its grasp. She could, however, listen. She heard whimpering noises, but soon realized that those were coming from her own mouth.

There were other sounds too. They were terrible noises. Pinkie hoped she was imagining them. Ponies shouldn’t make those sorts of noises.
******

Pinkie Pie cried out for help for a while, but pretty soon, her throat began to hurt. Then she cried, but as it turned out, crying requires tears, and before long, Pinkie had run out of those. Maybe that was because it was so dry in here. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had something to drink. Was it this morning? Was it even the same day anymore? Pinkie had no idea.

There was a whimpering noise, but it didn’t come from her.

Blinkie?
******

Somewhere in the distance, Bellamina Pie screamed Pinkie Pie was a coward. She looked away the entire time. But she could not drown out her sister’s voice. She heard everything.
******

Four little ponies hanging in a row, three earth and one pegasus. Who were they? Did their families miss them? How long were they hanging there.

It didn’t matter. They would be there forever. Nobody was ever going to come. Except for more victims. The next would probably come as soon as he was done with Pinkie. Maybe sooner.
******

He hungered
******

Her neighbor was a filly? It was hard to tell. She was a little bigger than her. Pinkie thought he saw her twitch, but she couldn’t still be alive. Living ponies had more skin than that.

Later on, Pinkie Pie would tell other ponies that her neighbor still moved her mouth like he was trying to talk to her. But according to the autopsy, she had been dead for too long for that to be possible.
******

How dare Blinkie die first?
******

Pinkie Pie hung there, bound by skillfully tied ropes. She’d had enough. The colt had already stuffed plenty of terrible things down her throat. Pretty soon, he’d get tired of it and she’d join Blinkie.

This couldn’t be happening. Parties were good things.
******

Pinkie began to hear voices in her head. Voices that told her to be ashamed. Voices that called out for help.

"Everypony's waiting for you. Everypony's waiting to throw rocks at you, spit on you, and make your life terrible."

"Who's "everypony"...?"

...

"Blinkie of course."
******

All the sudden, there was light. Princess Celestia herself broke through the wall of the bad place, held the colt using her magic, and summoned a dozen guards to take him away. She walked over to where Blinkie was and used her magic to make her feel better. Then she invited Pinkie and Blinkie to sit on her back while she flew them home. There, they met up with mother and father and Inkie, and the Princess said that they could go on a trip to Canterlot with her. Meanwhile, the colt was sent to the moon for a million jillion years for his crimes, and he said sorry.

Then Pinkie Pie woke up.
******

Now she understood. Her being trapped here, Blinkie dying, the fear… it was a big joke! Not a masterfully told one, but still pretty funny. A classic switcheroo! You think it’s going to be a fun party, but it turns out to be hell! What a twist! So clever! So unexpected!

Actually, the last part was not true. Blinkie seemed nervous. She probably saw the punch line coming. But she followed Pinkie anyway.

What a silly, poor, little filly.

“I’m the worst sister ever.”
******

H̖̱̬̯͇̲̘̗̤̃̉͋ͥ͌̿̋̎͢͞Ả̮͈̜̙ͪ͒͘Hͤͪ̄̆̈́̓̽͜҉̫͙͔͖͕͉̘͇A͊̅̚҉͓͓̳̣̟͍H̱͇̳̝̮̝̮͔̄̂͞Ǎ̤̟͔͌́ͦ͋͗ͬͯH̡̫̰̝̒̋͂͐A̖͙̲̻͖͓͛ͭͬ͛Ḣ̺̩̘̘̮̄ͭ̀͋Ǎ̱̂̐̎̓͟͜H̛̿ͥ̓̈ͨ͂͂͒҉̞̳̤͕͢A̴̰̖̗͔̩̤̦͕̓̈̔͊͞H̶̷̜͈̘͑̅͋͆̆̚͜A̭ͥͦͦͩͤ͘͠H̬͈ͪ̆ͦ͊̈̇A̧̲̥̺̹̙͇̪̩̽͂͑H̝̞̘͓͎͕̬͗ͧ̒ͬA͓̱̻̼̼̬̮ͮ̑̌͊̏͛͠Ḣ̝̬̗̳̪̓͆̓̃̈͑̀A̯̞̪̘͕̍̍̄̚͘͞H̦̠̉͂ͬ͌̌̌͆Ã̵̧̺͐́̔̏͋̎ͮ̑Ḣ͕̩ͦͪ͘Ằ̍̐̋ͮͧ̚҉̥̙Ĥͦ̐ͩͤ̒҉͖͚̞̻̳̀Ä̴̩͔͟͞H̦̤̔͌ͣͪ̓̃ͦA̴̙͎͚̳ͮ͆͌H͇̠͚̰̯̮͖ͮ̀̋̊̆ͬ̀͠A̢̠̩͔̳̠ͨ͛̿ͦ͛H̤͉͉̳ͩͤ̒ͤ̌̽ͭA̻͖͎̖ͣ̅̌H̰̘̓̿̊͂ͥ̈ͩͬÄ̟̯́͑̍̓̐̚̚̚Ĥ̘͙̪͚̱̠ͤ͂ͩ͋ͯ͘Ả̗̮̟̼̹̤̂͐ͨͦͩ̽̒͢͟H̛̛͇̬͓̳̲͖̦͍̒̆́A̸̯̣ͮ̃̿ͦ͌̈́̌̚͠ͅH̤͈̞ͣ̅A̵͎͈̬̤͇̗̜̒ͤ̇͗̄͑̋̕H͕̳̗̺̗̼̄̆̓̏ͬͭ̒̿A̽̃̓͂

Black Comedy
******

There was another light. Stallions in blue uniforms came rushing in. Pinkie didn’t respond. She’d seen this before, and it only hurt the times she bothered believing in it.

A unicorn cut her from the ropes and gently caught her on his back. While leaving the bad place, Pinkie caught sight of her sister.

And then she realized that this couldn’t be another fantasy.

She would not imagine this.
******

They wanted her to talk about it. Why couldn’t they see that she didn’t want to talk? Talking meant remembering. And the last thing Pinkie wanted to do was remember.
******

They buried Blinkie outside the house, so they could always be with her. Why did they do that? Every day, Pinkie Pie could feel Blinkie staring at her. Watching her. Judging her.
******

They brought Pinkie to a place called court. The colt was there. He smiled when he saw her. Pinkie broke into tears. What do you mean they wanted her to point at the colt? She was the one who killed Blinkie!
******

Pinkamena Diane Pie hadn’t slept for a long time. How could she? Whenever she did, she saw Blinkie. Blinkie was very angry.

Inkie was nice enough to let her sleep in the same bed. That was too good for her, but she couldn’t help but accepting the offer. At least Inkie didn’t ask questions. Pinkie hated questions.
******

“Are you sure you’ll be alright?” asked Father.

“I have to go away. I just can’t go on here. Every night I dream about her, and when I wake up, I can feel her looking at me.”

Mother was crying.

“Don’t worry” said Inkie. “I’ll take care of Pinkie until she feels at home with the Cakes. I’ll be back as soon as she’s ready!”

Mother smiled a bit. “Be sure to thank the Cakes for us,” she said.
******

“…so then, I moved in with the Cakes here in Ponyville, and have been living with them ever since.”

Twilight Sparkle’s mouth was hanging open. The two mares were lying on Pinkie’s bed, while Gummy watched from his usual spot. She had never heard of a story like this! Well, except for in horror novels. And in the darkest of history books. Come to think about it, there was an article in the newspaper the other day…

Apparently, this sort of thing did happen. It just wasn’t talked about.

“Twilight?”

“Yes Pinkie?”

“Do you hate me?”

Twilight Sparkle, despite having an extensive vocabulary, was terrible at expressing her feelings with them. That’s why nuzzled Pinkie in response.

“Pinkie, I could never hate you. You were my first friend here in Ponyville, even if I didn’t know it yet. You’re everypony’s friend, even if they haven’t met you. That’s why you’re Pinkie Pie.”

Pinkie latched onto Twilight again, crying tears of relief. She was not a terrible pony. She just had to make up for what she did.

“Pinkie, would you mind if I asked a couple of questions?”

“Sure Twilight”

“Earlier, you mentioned that you heard voices. Whatever happened to them.”

“Well, they mostly went away”

“Only mostly?”

“For a long time, I kept on hearing them, no matter how hard I tried to ignore them. But I was able to make them quiet when I was throwing parties. That’s one of the reasons I throw so many of them. Plus, parties are stupendular and stipendiary and make ponies happy. Except for bad ones in the dark. Which is not to say all parties in the dark are bad. I went to this one with Vinyl Scratch a while back, and when we-”

“Pinkie!”

“Sorry”

“It’s okay. Have you heard these voices lately?”

“…yes.”

“When?”

“…when I saw Terra for the first time. And ever since. But it’s been really bad since I… you know.”

Twilight Sparkle studied Pinkie closely. Somehow, she thought that just talking about this was helping Pinkie. She was still mostly frowning, something all but unheard of for Pinkie, but the occasional glint of something broke through at point.

Pinkie continued “The thing about Terra is, she looks just like Blinkie. The way I remember her. I know it can’t be her or anything, cause she’d have grown up, even if she were alive, but when I look at her… It’s like an insult. Like she’s mocking me for being a terrible sister by always reminding me of the worst thing I’ve ever done. And when I saw her going through my things and looking at my picture, it was like she was trying to become a permanent sort of thingy. Like, she was trying to take Blinkie’s place in my head. So that I don’t remember the good times we had together at my parties or with the rocks on the farm.”

“The first time I saw Terra, she was covered in icky blood and mud and stuff, and her leg looked funny. And it reminded me of Blinkie, and how she died and, and…”

Pinkie started crying again. Twilight telekinetically lifted a box of tissues from across the room and delivered them to Pinkie. Pinkie pulled one from the box and blew her nose, making a loud trumpet-like sound.

“Thanks Twilight. I think I’m going to be better now.”

“It’s what friends do Pinkie. I know you’d do the same for me. And much sooner probably.”

“Don’t worry. It hurt, but maybe we needed some time before we saw each other again. Thanks for coming when you did though. I could have been a miserable saddy-pants forever!”

“But now?”

“I’ll still be a miserable saddy-pants,” Pinkie giggled, “but I know I can get better now.”

The two sat there silently for some time. As it turned out, Gummy did not stand entirely still. Occasionally he blinked.

“Twilight, why are you okay with the voices?”

“What do you mean okay? I hate what they do to you!”

“I mean, usually you won’t believe in things you don’t understand. Like when you didn’t believe in my Pinkie Sense. But you just accepted the voices lickety-split!”

“I don’t need to understand the voices to know that they’re bad! Maybe they’re some sort of spirits that go after hurt fillies. Maybe they’re something the colt did to you. Maybe they’re your own thoughts given a dark form. It doesn’t matter! All I know is that these voices are hurting my friend and I, Twilight Sparkle, will do everything in my power to stop them.”

Twilight looked out the window. It was getting dark.

“Listen, I have to go back home before Spike gets into trouble. I left him in charge of the library. Will you be okay if I don’t come back until tomorrow?”

“I’ll be fine Twilight. If you see any of the others, can you tell them I can see them now?”

“Sure thing Pinkie”

“One more thing. Can you not tell anypony my story? I want to share it when I’m ready.”

“My lips are sealed.”

“Thank you Twilight”

Twilight stood up from the bed and gave Pinkie one last friendly nuzzle. She then headed for the stairs, looking back one last time before going down.

For the first time in days, some of the poof returned to Pinkie Pie’s hair. She faced Gummy, who had opened his mouth in anticipation. Pinkie stuck out her hoof, which was affectionately chewed upon.

“I would totally ship me with that mare” she grinned.
******

Dear Princess Celestia,

Today, I learned that sometimes bad things happen to good ponies, and it can be hard to understand why. In the aftermath, even good ponies can do things they regret. But although what they do may be wrong, they are not beyond forgiving. Ponies do bad things when they’re hurt, so the best way to stop it is to help them.

I’ve also learned that sometimes, it can be hard to face a friend after a big fight. Harsh words are exchanged, and sometimes it seems like a friendship can be ruined forever. But true friends can always make up, even if they hurt each other.

One thing I didn’t learn today was the value of keeping a secret. Spike already taught me about the importance of secrecy amongst friends. That is why, rather than insulting your intelligence, I am not going to send you this letter until Pinkie is alright with her secret being known to the world. I’ll send you a much briefer note in its place. For now, I’ll hide this in the biographies beginning with “C,” where no one will ever bother looking.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle

P.S. That is how you troll somepony, right?

Muffins

“Terra, it’s time to wake up.”

Lyra looked down at Terra, who was sleeping in her new bed. She and Bon Bon had finally gotten around to getting a new, filly-sized bed just a couple of days earlier, and put it in the small room they were previously using for storage.

Said room was starting to get a bit of personality. A box of soft and squishy toys lay in the corner, and some of Terra’s pictures decorated the light blue walls. Notably absent was the one portraying Terra with a monster and a dead pony. A window let some light in.

Terra grumbled from under the covers, pushing them up to cover her whole body. Lyra smiled to herself, remembering how welcome a bed’s covers can be early in the morning, before pulling down the top with her magic. Terra’s head was visible, her eyes seemingly forced shut by her desire to not start the day.

“Terra, you’re going to have to get out sooner or later. And by ‘sooner or later,’ I mean now. It’s time to get up.”

Terra’s eyes were, if anything, more tightly shut than ever.

Lyra sighed. The nerve of fillies these days.

Lyra softly rubbed Terra’s side, letting her know that she was there and not going to leave anytime soon. Reluctantly, Terra opened her eyes and hopped onto the floor.

Terra went into the bathroom for a few minutes while Lyra waited outside. Lyra listened as a toilet flushed and a faucet poured out water. She was disappointed though when Terra came back out immediately afterwards.

“Still having trouble brushing your teeth, huh?”

Terra gave Lyra a look, as if to say “Let’s take care of business.”

Lyra entered the bathroom with Terra and pulled out two toothbrushes, hers and Terra’s.

“It’s not that hard to brush your teeth,” she said, preparing to give a demonstration. “All you have to do is grab your toothbrush with your magic, put it in your mouth, ahn muv ih awound lahk thith.”

If a picture is truly worth a certain number of words, a portrait of Terra’s face would have been a short essay on the sheer number of ways Lyra was being stupid.

Lyra sighed again. “I don’t know why you were able to do magic back at Pinkie’s place but not anywhere else. Ah well. Here, let me help you with that.”

Terra opened her mouth while Lyra carefully brushed her teeth. For a foal, she stood remarkably still, not even reacting when Lyra slipped for a moment towards the back of Terra’s mouth.

Bon Bon was working that morning and through the afternoon, so the duo had the day to themselves. Lyra was planning on bringing Terra to the park to the east of town, hoping that there would be something to interest her. Perhaps there would be other fillies for her to play with. For breakfast, the two shared a bowl of miniature corn muffins. They were yesterday’s leftovers, and were just starting to go a bit stale, but the two ate heartily.

Terra followed Lyra as she set off towards the park. By now, nopony looked twice at them. The locals here may have a habit of staring at strangers, but once they got used to newcomers, they became just another part of the scenery. A few ponies waved hi to Lyra, though they mostly ignored Terra.

The park was mostly deserted when they arrived. It was Terra’s first time there, so she focused on the surrounding greenery. It was nothing special as far as parks went. There were trees, fields of grass, paths lined with benches, and decorative flowers. As it was a school day, the foals that normally hung around were absent, though one or two youths were following around their parents and guardians. There were also a few older ponies here for the pleasant atmosphere, as well as a couple of well dressed stallions standing by the river, discussing some sort of business proposition.

Terra, strangely enough, seemed fascinated by the path they were walking on. She kept on looking up and down its length, and was positively captured by the bridge leading across the stream. Things like trees and flowers, if anything, seemed to bore her, as if they were simple geography, rather than the living things the park was built around.

This puzzled Lyra. Many things about Terra puzzled her, but this one was particularly pressing at the moment. What was so interesting about dirt pathways? They were just parts of the ground that ponies decided to keep clear. Why wouldn’t Terra be interested in flowers and grass? At very least, she could have tried eating it, much like she tried to do with other new things. Heck, based on Nurse Redheart’s initial report, Terra had lived off of grass for a while.

Was that it? Had Terra spent so much time in the wild that she could no longer appreciate it? Now that Lyra was thinking about the topic, it was hard to deny that grass was not at the top of anypony’s list of favorite foods. And for somepony who was as obsessed with putting things in her mouth as Terra…

zooooooooooooooooooooo…

What was that?

Terra looked at the path behind Lyra. Her mouth dropped, and she jumped off the path into a bush.

…OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…

Lyra was confused. What did Terra see that scared her? And what was that noise coming fro-

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADER TRUANTS COMING THROUGH!!!”

CRASH!!!
******

Terra peeked out of the bushes in horror. Her guardian had been hit by a speeding… thing?

It was the three fillies that had found her with Aqua Mare! Yellow, Orange, and White. They had been zooming along on some contraption and had slammed it into Aqua Mare. Probably because they could not steer it.

After seeing that Aqua Mare was alright, Terra looked at the vehicle. It appeared to be made out of two parts: a two-wheeled front attached to a four-wheeled box. One of them probably powered the front while the other two sat in the back.

After speaking with the trio briefly, Aqua Mare looked around. Assuming that she was wondering where she had gone, Terra popped out of her bush to let her know she was alright. The trio saw this as an invitation to mob her, bouncing up and down while chatting excitably. Aqua Mare tried to shout over the trio, but the fillies wouldn’t hear her. Finally, Aqua Mare shouted something about “Skoo,” instantly silencing the trio.

Terra watched in interest as the fillies were obviously reprimanded by Aqua Mare. Whenever one of them began to speak up, they were quickly silenced. Terra didn’t know whether Aqua Mare was angry they crashed into her or because they mobbed her again, but either way, she felt little remorse for them.

After her lecture was over, Aqua Mare gestured to Terra to follow. Joined by the three fillies, the party left the park, heading back west. Eventually, they ended up at the building where Terra has eaten that icky paste.

Hey, it came in a container and was easily squishable. How was she supposed to know not to eat it?

Inside the building, the purple mare from the other day was talking to a group of fillies and colts, who were sitting at the smaller desks. The purple mare must be a teacher of some sort! And if these three weren’t here when they were supposed to be… oh dear. They were going to suffer the consequences.

While Purple Teacher berated the trio, Terra looked at the other students. Particularly, she noticed that two students, earth pony fillies, were grinning broadly at the trio’s troubles. One of them was gray with a spoon on her behind, while the other was pink with some sort of ornament.

Terra had studied these markings for the past few weeks, and was still confused by them. Most ponies had them, the chief exceptions being the youngest members of the population. They were usually connected to their careers, like in the cases of Aqua Mare and Cream Mare, but there were obvious exceptions. For example, Purple Teacher had a few flowers on her behind. However, teaching had nothing to do with flowers. Were these marks given by elders to designate the youth to certain careers? If so, did Purple Teacher mean that the careers weren’t set in stone? Then why did the markings remain the same? Maybe the mark was what parents hoped their children would do. Did that mean Aqua and Cream Mares would brand her? Would that hurt a lot?

Terra shrugged. She’d suffered worse than mutilation of unnecessary body parts in the past. A tribal ritual was tolerable.

When Aqua Mare led Terra outside, she surprised Terra by staying in the miniature park near the school. There were pieces of furniture and equipment. Were they for the foals’ physical education? Whatever they were, Aqua Mare must have gotten permission to use them, because they spent the rest of the morning playing there.
******

After playing with Terra in the playground for a while, Lyra had learned a few more fun facts about her adopted child.

First, she was terrified by heights. After being nudged up the slide, she was paralyzed on the spot until Lyra went to the bottom to catch her. As for the swings, Terra’s midair panic-attack brought school-foals to the windows, peeking out to see what was happening.

Second, Terra was amazing at hide and seek. Explaining the concept had taken surprisingly little effort. Just a few funny faces and gestures with her hooves did wonders at explaining the basics. Lyra let Terra hunt for her first, hiding in the sandbox, making sure that she was easily visible. Terra found her almost instantly. Next, it was Terra’s turn to hide. Lyra covered her eyes and counted to twenty, looked around, and was shocked not to see so much as a bluish-gray hair lying around. After ten minutes of frantic searching, Terra emerged from the sandbox. She had somehow found a discarded straw, leaped into the sandbox, and mostly buried herself, using the straw to breath, in a space of about half a minute. And the only reason she emerged was because she seemed to have trouble breathing through the straw.

That was the last round of hide and seek they played.

Third, Terra did not like running. Like most Equestrian playgrounds, this one was surrounded by a small dirt track, designed for foals to run and race on. Lyra tried egging Terra into a race, but she refused to go above a comfortable trot. It wasn’t that she was having too much trouble; Terra never had to stop to catch her breath, or exhibited any of the regular signs of exhaustion. It was just as if she didn’t consider running around to be worth the effort.

In fact, the same idea applied to the entire session. Terra went through the proper motions, but there was never any sign that she was having fun. Even when she hid, breathing through a straw could not have been enjoyable. And she had to know in advance that going on the swings would be disturbing, especially after the slide.

It was as if she was training for something.

What could a foal barely of school age be training for?
******

School ended for the day, and a rush of students went running out the door. A few minutes later, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle left the building, each with a note to their families in their bags.

“I told you being Cutie Mark Crusader Truants was a bad idea,” Sweetie Belle told Scootaloo.

“Alright then, you pick the next idea,” said Scootaloo.

“Maybe we could be Cutie Mark Crusader Veterinarians?”

“We did that already with Fluttershy”.

“No, that was Animal Rescue Workers. That’s completely different.”

“Is not”

“Is too”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

“Is not! Right Apple Bloom?”

At this point, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo looked at Apple Bloom. She had not been paying any attention to their argument. Instead, she had been looking into the playground, where Lyra and Terra had been joined by several playing foals.

“Apple Bloom, what’s wrong?”

“You think we’ve been bad friends?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Along with Miss Lyra, we were the ponies that found Terra there. But these past few weeks, what have we done? Nothing except scare her I reckon.”

“We tried being nice to her. We said his whenever we saw her,” said Scootaloo.

“True. But Terra seems kinda like Fluttershy. Maybe we ought to be quieter and more gentle-like. It just seems like she doesn’t have any friends, and I don’t know about you, but I think everypony needs a friend.”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked at each other’s faces. Apple Bloom was not going to let this go. And maybe she was right. However…

“Even if we wanted to be friends with her, do you think Miss Lyra would let us?” asked Sweetie Belle. “She and Bon Bon are always babying Terra, and I don’t think we made a very good impression today.”

“Besides,” said Scootaloo, “She doesn’t seem to really like us. She hid in the bushes when she saw us earlier, remember?”

Apple Bloom frowned. She hated to admit it, but her friends had a point.

The problem was, if they wouldn’t be friends with Terra, who would?
******

As Terra walked to the place Bon Bon worked with Aqua Mare, she thought about the two of them. She adored Cream Mare, but there was something about Aqua Mare that she felt particularly close to. Maybe it was just because she was one of the ponies that found her. No, that couldn’t be right. She couldn’t stand the Terrible Trio.

No, if she had to guess, it would be that Aqua Mare understood her somehow. She probably had no idea about what she was, of course, but somehow, she didn’t seem surprised by somepony being completely alien to the world. Maybe it was because of those biped creatures she rambled on about.

Strange. Aqua Mare’s obsession over some probably fictional alien species prepared her for taking care of a real one.

Should she tell them? She depended upon Aqua and Cream Mare in this world. Would sharing herself drive them away?

Terra stopped for a moment, looking down at two hooves that weren’t hers. What was she thinking? As if any pony would accept her for what she was. If she was lucky, they’d run away and she’d be able to hide somewhere. At worst… she’d have to kill them,

Even in the worst case scenario, Terra refused to die.

She was, after all, on a mission.

“Tra?” asked Aqua Mare.

Terra looked up and saw a smiling unicorn that cared for her.

She still smelled like muffins.

Alright, so maybe she wouldn’t run. It probably depended on how she presented herself. And besides, sooner or later they would try to drag more information out of her. She might as well try to explain some things. Drawing that picture was a good start. Maybe she could sort of work her way up to sharing herself.

Terra smiled back at Aqua Mare, and nuzzled her front legs. The two then proceeded.
******

Pinkie Pie was minding the counter when Lyra walked in with Terra in tow.

Pinkie’s permanent smile faded.

Lyra’s perennial smile soon followed.

Terra quickly looked between the two.

There was a moment of silence.

“I didn’t know you were back to work already.”

“Mr. and Mrs. Cake said it might be better if I were extra busy.”

“Really?”

…

“I wanted to say something” muttered Pinkie.

…

“I… I… I’M REALLY SORRY AND I DIDN’T KNOW WHY I DID WHAT I DID BUT THAT WAS TERRIBLE OF ME AND I KNOW YOU HATE ME NOW AND I DESERVE IT BUT I JUST WANTED YOU TO KNOW THAT I DON’T WANT TO BE A PONY THAT DOES THAT OH CELESTIA I’M SORRY I’M SORRY!!”

By this time, Pinkie was in tears, and had fallen down behind the counter.Lyra stood shocked, while Terra looked on in fascination. After a few moments, Terra took the lead, leaping onto the counter and looking down at Pinkie.
******

Aqua Mare said something, but Terra couldn’t make it out. All she knew was that she had made this pony miserable, and that she could fix it. Sure, the Pink One had attacked her, but not without a good reason. And seeing as she now seemed harmless, it seemed fitting to put an old adage to practice.

Happiness is loving your enemies.

Terra jumped down to the floor next to Pinkie. What was that thing Aqua Mare had done earlier? Oh yes. She rubbed the Pink One’s side with her hoof. Not too long afterwards, the Pink One looked up at her. She seemed shocked at first, but then her features softened, and then, for the first time since they met, the two shared a smile.

Aqua Mare probably wouldn’t forgive the Pink One. But in Terra’s mind, that was irrelevant. She had created strife, it was her duty to end it. And if this pony was happy now, then the two could live in peace.

And to think that she was worried about what Aqua Mare and Cream Mare would think of her! No, as soon as she was able, she would share her secrets. If ponies were capable of smiling at something that wore their beloved, they were capable of accepting what she was.

A foreigner of the truest kind.

Falling

“Terra, it’s time to get up.”

Terra’s eyes slowly opened. To her delight, there stood Aqua Mare, smiling as if the prior day had been ordinary. What a wonderful pony.

“Getting up quickly today I see? Maybe you’ll be able to brush your teeth by yourself this time.”

Terra frowned. Something was off, but she couldn’t put her hoof on it.

“Bon Bon had to go to work early today, but the two of you have the night alone together. I got a gig at a bar in town.”

Bon Bon? Did she mean Buh-Buh, aka Cream Mare?

Wait a minute…

“Terra? Is something wrong?”

Sort of, Aqua Mare. Something was very off.

Terra could understand everything Aqua Mare was saying.

Years of instincts taught Terra that oddities like this were not to be trusted. She leapt up and got into a defensive pose on the bed. Hurriedly, she went through a list of possibilities in her head and tried to determine if Aqua Mare could actually be some sort of bizarre creature in disguise.

“Terra! What are you… oh Celestia look! You got your Cutie Mark!”

Her what? Those two words didn’t make any sense. That reduced the likelihood of a mental invasion. What was she supposed to be looking at then? Well, from Aqua Mare’s gaze, it looked like something was on her rump. But what would be-

On her flank, Terra could see a marking that hadn’t been there when she went to sleep. It was a picture of one of the local flowers. Terra had noticed it while coming to this town. The flower had two stages, one where it was yellow like the sun and another where its petals apparently turned into small seeds attached to bits of white fluff. The flower on her flank was apparently in the white fluffy stage.

“Why is it a dandelion though? I mean, I understand why you would get one after yesterday. It was pretty big. But it had nothing to do with flowers!”

A dandelion, eh? Well, if a flower had to show up on her flank for some mysterious reason, at least it was an edible one. A couple dozen dandelions in a field could keep you relatively full for a while, even if they did taste bitter.

“It’s probably one of those more metaphorical ones, like Cheerilee’s daisies. Pity you can’t understand what I’m talking about.”

Terra looked straight at Aqua Mare and shook her head.

“I’m sorry, I’ll get the paper and crayons in just a-”

“La!”

“Yes?”

Terra pointed at her ears, and then at Aqua Mare. She then nodded.

“Ears, me, yes? You can hear me? You can… you can understand me?”

Terra gave a brief nod.

“OH MY LUNA!” cried Aqua Mare, as she wrapped her forelegs around Terra. Terra stood still, reacting neither positively nor negatively towards the situation. In her experience, things weren’t resolved this easily. Did getting the mark do this? If so, how?
******

Without even having breakfast, Aqua Mare dragged Terra out the front door. She was jabbering on about how great it was Terra could understand her and how she also got her cutie mark and how this was the best day ever and so on and so forth. Terra remained silent, and not just because of her hesitance. Despite being able to understand almost every word to come out of Aqua Mare’s mouth, she wasn’t able to reply in kind.

“Bun. Bun,” she quietly muttered to herself. She knew she was getting the pronunciation wrong. And even getting the “n” noise took some effort.

“Next thing we know, you’ll be speaking in a dozen tongues,” Aqua Mare cheerfully chirped. “Now that you get what we’re all saying, talking should be a snap.”

Terra sighed, looking around the pieces of Ponyville she was practically dragged through. Somehow, she expected learning the language to be a bit more rewarding. Not that it wasn’t nice so far, albeit suspicious. It was just that Ponyville was the same place even when you understood what everypony was saying. It was the usual “hellos” and “how do you dos,” supplemented by snips of conversation. Terra relished these bits of intelligible speech, something she hadn’t experienced in ages, but the ponies were no different now.

Ponies were what they were at face value.

Terra wasn’t sure if this implied that ponies were candid or shallow.

Anyhow, Aqua Mare was taking her to see Bon Bon at Pinkie Pie’s place. Then they would- wait, who was Pinkie Pie? Was that the Pink One?

Before she knew it, Terra was outside the bakery where the Pink One and Bon Bon worked. Lyra went in first, shouting inside.

“Hey Bons! Guess what happened while you were here working?”

“Really Lyra, I have to make up for yesterday,” came a voice from within.

Terra followed Aqua Mare – no, Lyra - inside and saw Bon Bon behind the counter.

“Guess who got their cutie mark last night when we weren’t looking?” Lyra teased.

Bon Bon’s mouth dropped. “You mean-”

“That’s right! Show her Terra!”

“Dear, there’s no way she’s going to-”

Terra spun around so her flank was visible.

“Oh my goodness, you have a dandelion… wait… did she just-”

“That’s right! She also understands us now! And she was practicing forming words on our way over!”

Bon Bon squealed with glee. It hurt Terra’s ears.

“Oh my goodness, oh my goodness. We have to celebrate! But I just took yesterday off and you have a gig tonight. Maybe Pinkie Pie
She saw nothing but could feel it. The knife, slicing up and down her body. She felt something wet dribbling all over her. Then, an excruciating pain, as her rear left leg was slowly

could take over my… Terra, are you alright?”

What… what was that? A memory?

It wasn’t one of hers.

“Did somepony say party?!?” yelled a voice from the kitchen. Pinkie Pie popped out a moment later, beaming as she looked at Terra.
“Are you sure about this Pinkie? Mother and Father told us not to talk to strange stallions.”

“Don’t worry Blinkie! This colt is really nice, and he has a cutie mark just like me! He must throw the best parties ever!”

“I don’t know. I mean, I love your parties. But what if this guy is different?”

“Don’t worry. If anything goes crazy, I won’t ever let anything happen to you.”

“Promise?”

“Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye!”

“Terra, snap out of it!”

Terra’s eyes opened. It had only been a moment. Lyra was standing in front of her, shaking her with a foreleg. Bon Bon was coming from around the counter and Pinkie Pie
He was going to kill both of them!
******

Twilight Sparkle was enjoying a nice cup of tea in her kitchen, served with a bit of lemon by Spike. Yesterday had been an experience to say the least, but at least everything was taken care of now. Good thing she was able to delay her first lesson with Terra.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Twilight shrugged, guessing that maybe it was a patron that didn’t notice it was still half an hour until opening. Deciding there was no harm in letting them early, she started to head downstairs, tea held in the air with magic, only to see Pinkie Pie leap in front of her on the bottom of the flight.

“Gah! Pinkie, how did you”

“Sorry Twilight, but we have a super big emergency! It’s Terra, she’s gone all funny!”

“What? Funny how?”

“She came into Sugarcube Corner a little while back with Lyra, and she got her Cutie Mark, and I came out to give her a party, but her eyes went all woogity and she fell over and Lyra and Bon Bon are rushing her over to the infirmary and Mrs. Cake told me to come over here in case you could help!”

Twilight stood still for a moment, letting Pinkie’s statement soak in. Pinkie hopped on the spot, leaping and landing at a frantic pace as she waited for Twilight to act.

“Was there anything else that seemed odd? What was her cutie mark?”

“Lyra said something about Terra understanding her and the cutie mark was a dandelion! A white one. Now can you PLEASE hurry over?”

Rather than answering directly, Twilight pushed Pinkie aside, dropping her tea cup as she went over to her shelves, muttering under her breathe.

“Sounds like a cutie mark related incident. There are situations where ponies react poorly to getting their marks, particularly if they do it very early. So we’ll need the Cutie Mark Primer. Dandelions… I could know more about them. Pinkie, go grab a book about flowers. Maybe there’s some symbolism we’re not getting. It also sounds like she reacted particularly to some sort of stimuli, especially if she only got into trouble at Sugarcube Corner. So I’ll need a book about that. Better bring along the medical encyclopedia. Spike, where are you?”

“Here Twilight,” replied the young reptile. “And before you ask, here’s the book on Cutie Pox.”

“C’mon Twilight, we need to go now!” shouted Pinkie.

“Right, these should be enough to start with. C’mon!” Twilight said, putting as many books as possible into a saddlebag by the door. She ran out, hoisting the bag over her as she went.

“Spike, look for more books and bring them over! We’re closed again today!”

“Right,” Spike replied, closing the door behind him as he went back inside. He never saw Pinkie leave the library, but was not at all surprised not to find her in the room.

Pinkie went wherever she wanted however she wanted.
******

Lyra and Bon Bon were sitting in the waiting room. They had rushed Terra over here, gotten scolded about moving a lying patient, and had been kicked out of the examination room. Now the two of them were staring at the clock, down at their hooves, and through the doorway that eventually led to the room where Terra was at the moment.

After looking around to see if there were anypony else around, Bon Bon leaned over to Lyra and whispered.

“Do you think it’s safe for her to be by herself? What if they find something… different about her?”

“I don’t think it’s likely,” replied Lyra. “We lived with her for weeks and never found anything out, even all those times she fell asleep. And she was not doing well when she got here. I’d be more worried why our daughter fell unconscious for no apparent reason.”

The front door of the infirmary opened, as Twilight and Pinkie rushed through, pile of books in tow.

“Is she alright?” asked Pinkie.

“We don’t know,” replied Bon Bon. “We just got Terra here as soon as we could and were driven out here. She’s inside now.”

“Right, I’ll help out,” said Twilight, starting to head towards the back.

“Hold on a moment!” Lyra said, standing up. “We’re her legal parents, and we’re not allowed in. You’re the town librarian. What gives you the right to go back there?”

“I’ve spent most of my life growing up in a university,” Twilight coolly replied. “Several of my classes were medical or biological in nature. I’m also trained in various medical procedures, and am the local expert in various fields. I figure I’ll at least see if I’m needed.” And with that, Twilight pushed open the door, walked through with books in tow, and kicked it shut behind her.

The waiting room was silent. Pinkie nervously bobbed in place, Lyra glared at the door, and Bon Bon nervously studied Pinkie.

“I’m sorry,” Pinkie started, “but Mrs. Cake told me I should get Twilight, cause she’s super smart and helped out when Terra got here.”

“We understand Pinkie,” said Bon Bon.

The clock on the wall ticked by the seconds and minutes. Eventually, Pinkie sat down some distance away from the other two mares. Lyra got up on her hind legs and paced biped style, Bon Bon’s eyes following her back and forth. Pinkie nervously watched for a bit before trying to distract herself with one of the magazines lying about.

“Hey Bon Bon, could you help me find the differences in these pictures?”

“Not now Pinkie”

“Sorry”

Eventually, the door opened, and a tired looking Nurse Redheart came out. Lyra and Bon Bon rushed over towards her while Pinkie remained behind.

“The good news is, Terra is in a stable condition, and appears to be in no immediate danger,” started Nurse Redheart. “The bad news is, she’s unconscious, and we still don’t know how to wake her up. Lyra, Bon Bon, follow me. Pinkie, could you remain out here?”

“Okie dokie loki!”

Nurse Redheart led the couple to the room where Terra was lying. Inside was Twilight Sparkle, who was frantically turning the pages of a book, apparently looking for some critical piece of information. Terra herself seemed to be sleeping, albeit a sleep without any dreams.

“Physically,” started Nurse Redheart, “she seems perfectly fine. Her heart rate and blood pressure are normal, there are no signs of internal injuries, and her reflexes work, though perhaps they could be a bit quicker. Which is why I’m having Twilight research Cutie Mark related ailments.”

“Cutie Mark what?” asked Bon Bon.

“Let me explain,” Twilight said, closing the book as she looked up. “Cutie Marks are something with few parallels among non-ponies. If anything, they are similar to the metamorphosis of insect life. Essentially, they are both an indicator and a reinforcement of a pony’s personality traits. When a pony receives a mark, their body chemistry changes in order to help them do what that mark represents. For example Bon Bon, your Cutie Mark is of candy. Your body probably processes sugars more quickly and your palette is more developed as a result. Likewise Lyra, your mark would help you, oh I don’t know, hold the lyre and focus on the strings.”

“In that case,” asked Lyra, “what would Terra’s mark do to make her like this?”

“In particular, I’m not sure. However, it might simply be a bad reaction to the changing chemicals in her body. Especially if she’s not a purebred pony.”

“WHAT?!?” Bon Bon wailed.

“Do you think she’s a changeling or something Twilight?” snapped Lyra.

Twilight Sparkle backed off a bit, worried that she may have hit a nerve. “No! One of you would notice something like that, and changelings don’t get cutie marks, so it wouldn’t make any sense for her to have a cutie mark related sickness. I just meant she could have a donkey for an aunt or something. Although…”

Twilight looked at Terra, lying peacefully on the bed. “Changelings do feed on love, and Terra has received nothing but love since she got here. In fact, getting injured could hypothetically be a part of her plan to get care. And if she were careful-”

“Shut it Twilight,” Lyra growled.

“She would not feed on any more love than you two could provide. In fact, by taking a whole new identity, a changeling would be able to avoid suspicions, like not being able to play a part well. Admittedly, I thought that changelings could only copy ponies, rather than create new bodies from scratch but… oh no...”

“Are you done rambling and ready to treat Terra now?” Bon Bon asked irritably.

Twilight sadly looked over at Terra.

“Ladies,” she said hesitantly, “I’m sorry, but we’re going to need to investigate to see if Terra could be a changeling.”

You could hear a pin drop.

Nurse Redheart broke the silence first. “Um, Miss Sparkle? Don’t changelings need to be conscious in order to keep their shape?”

“Usually yes,” Twilight stated, confidence seemingly waxing. “However, changelings have been known to keep their forms even while asleep at points. Hence how it took so long for ponies to notice something was wrong with Princess Cadence. And if the changelings were to send some of their own to Ponyville, it would be the most talented among them.”

“Stop talking about her like that!” barked Lyra.

“I’m sorry Lyra, but we have to check. Don’t worry! If she’s really a pony, she won’t be harmed. I’ll just create a spell that removes magical disguises and use it as soon as possible. But until then, Terra has to remain here. Pinkie! Can you get over here?”

A few seconds later, the pink party pony popped up from behind the doorway.

“Yes?”

“Can you contact the police and ask for them to send a constable or two to guard a possible changeling? If they ask, tell them Princess Celestia’s student demanded it.”

“A possible changeling? You mean Bon Bon? But she can’t be a changeling! Even though her voice changes quite a bit from day to day. I’m sure it’s just an embarrassing condition.”

“Just go Pinkie. I’ll make sure they stay here until help arrives.”

“Okie dokie loki!”

As Pinkie bounced off, Twilight grabbed one of her books with her telekinesis. “I’m sorry you two, but it’s a necessary precaution. How about this: I’ll have a disguise-removal spell ready by tomorrow morning. That way, we could put this all behind us.”

“That would be… delightful,” Bon Bon said cautiously, as Lyra gritted her teeth in frustration. “Dear, I think maybe we should leave Nurse Redheart to take care of Terra?”

Lyra glared at Twilight and turned away, walking out the door.
******

“Bon Bon, we can’t let them figure out Terra!”

“I’m not sure what we can do. Maybe Twilight’s spell won’t work?”

“She’s Celestia’s pupil. She beat an Ursa in a fight. She collaborated in saving Equestria as we know it on multiple occasions. If she says she can prepare a spell by tomorrow, she can prepare a spell by tomorrow.”

“In that case, they’ll figure her out for sure.”

“Are we sure she’s not though?”

“What do you mean?”

“Not some weird sort of changeling I mean. Sure, she looks different from all those changelings that attacked Canterlot, but she could be some sort of mutant. And it would explain how she can change like.”

“…Lyra Heartstrings. I thought you of all ponies would know better.”

“Huh?”

“It doesn’t matter if Terra is a changeling or not. She revealed herself to us. She put everything on the line because she cares about us. She’s our daughter.”

“…you’re right. You’re right, you’re always right. It… it’s just been a weird couple of weeks and I don’t know how to be a parent yet.”

“Well Lyra, maybe you should start with the obvious course of action,”

“Breaking her out of Ponyville?”

“Obviously”

Exposition

Darkness. There was darkness everywhere.

“Hello there”

Where am I? This can’t be an ordinary place.

“That’s a complicated question.”

I think I’m back in my ordinary body. Last thing I remember was going to Cream Mare’s working place…

“And now you’ve changed the subject. Anywa-”

What kind of place is this? It’s all dark, and I can’t feel anything.

“You can’t hear me, can you?”

And now I have the funny feeling that I’m not alone.

“Just a moment, let me fix this… and there we are!”

Terra blinked, and where there had once been a sea of blackness, there was now wide area. She was on a beach, with tannish yellow sand. In front of her was a calm ocean, with no land in sight, the water moderately blue. Behind her was a ledge, atop of which grew bluish green grass. And to her side…

“Hello,” said a most peculiar creature. It was tall, towering over Terra even in her natural form. It was definitely taller than any pony she had seen. But not necessarily that much bigger. Although it was mostly covered by fabrics, the creature seemed to only stand so tall because it stood on its back two legs, leaving the forelegs to hang by its sides. The creature’s build vaguely reminded Terra of the apes she’d occasionally seen around home, swinging through the vines and branches. This thing seemed different though. Not only was it covered in fabrics, but unlike Lyra, it truly stood upright, as if that were a natural position for it. And from what was visible, the only healthy amount of hair was its mane, which was a striking shade of yellow. In fact, this creature looked just like a…

“Tazmily,” screeched Terra.

“Human actually, but close enough. It’s nice to meet you Terra. The name’s Lucas.”
******

Lyra and Bon Bon were in the bushes fifty feet away from the infirmary. The two mares were, for once, clothed, in tight black jumpsuits. The stealthy effect was only somewhat hurt by their brown saddlebags, which appeared to be stuffed to the brim.

“Admit it Bon Bon,” whispered Lyra, “you never thought we’d wear these outside of the bedroom. Especially after adopting her.”

“The humor of the situation is not lost,” Bon Bon dryly replied. “Now quiet”

The two mares peeked out of the bushes. The front door appeared unguarded, but they could be wrong. Lyra took the lead, quietly crawling over to the doorway, standing up against the wall on her hind legs, and gently laying a hoof on the door before lightly pushing it.

The door cracked open. Light creeped out of the inside of the building.

Bon Bon facehoofed. How could they forget that this place was always open?

Lyra shot Bon Bon an inquisitive look, quietly asking what they should do next. Bon Bon motioned for her to return to the bushes, and Lyra complied, closing the door and performing her sneaking act in reverse along the way.

“Dear,” Bon Bon said, “wearing these jumpsuits was a stupid idea. We’re going to take them off right here in the bushes, and then we’ll enter the infirmary like civilized ponies.”

“Do we have to abandon the jumpsuits? I like the jumpsuits.”

“Lyra...”

“Fine”
******

“I suppose you must have a lot of questions,” said Lucas.

How am I supposed to ask you them?

“You could just do what you just did.”

What? How did you understand what I was saying? I was speaking my native language!

“One of my friends is a telepath. She taught me a few tricks.”

Such as how to understand languages?

“Not exactly. More like how to speak directly from mind to mind. Like where we are now.”

So where are we exactly? I mean, besides a beach.

“It’s complicated, but here’s a simple version; we’re in your head, but what you’re seeing is a place from my childhood memories. I thought it would be a good place to talk.”

About what?

“A lot of things, and very important things at that. But first, I need to know something.”

What?

“Do you know about what happened a thousand years ago? You mentioned the Tazmily, but do you know who we actually were.”

I only know what my elders told me during history lessons.
Long ago, there was a huge place with a lot of beings called the Tazmily. They were as intelligent as us villagers, but very different. This place was called “Earth.” More of these beings lived on Earth than trees existed in the forest. These beings were foolish however, and in a display of power, ended up destroying their home.

The last of the Tazmily fled, and ended up on a chain of islands in the last remnant of Earth. These islands were guarded by a great creature, a Dragon, which slept beneath the islands. To keep it asleep, seven locks were made across the island, holding the dragon in its slumber. When unlocked, the dragon would reflect the desires of the one who unlocked it, and remake the world in their image.

The Tazmily feared that they could destroy their new home, much like how they destroyed their old one. So using their powerful magic, they cast a spell to remove all memory of the old world, hoping to start anew.

However, an evil King came to the island, bringing an army of soldiers. Using his dark arts, he took control of the island, ruled over its people, and warped the animals into strange, terrible monsters. Worse, he took control of one of the inhabitants, who had the gift to open the locks. His plan was to unlock the dragon and use it to destroy the islands, leaving only him and the dragon left.

A group of heroes, led by a courageous youth, raced against the King and his puppet to unlock the dragon first, hoping to make a world of good and plenty. Soon, the youth and the puppet each unlocked the dragon in three places each, and met in front of the final lock. The youth and the puppet fought hard, but midway through the battle, it was revealed that they were sisters. Ashamed of what she was doing, the controlled youth broke free and killed herself.

Grieving over what had become of her sister, the youth opened the final lock. However, her heart was a mix. She wanted a new beautiful world, but in her grief, she also wanted to die. The dragon responded accordingly, and made a world that contained both good and evil.

The beings of the island live somewhere beyond the forest, where they now live peaceful lives. The King was defeated for once and for all, and is eternally imprisoned. The creatures that were warped by the King spread around the World, multiplying. We villagers are the descendants of some of these creatures.

That’s the story anyway. What do you think?

“Mostly, I’m amazed that it’s stayed so close to what actually happened as it did. Are you sure your people had no writing?”

Absolutely. They would have taught me it.

“Anyhow, there are a few things I need to add to your story. First, Earth was a real place, and still is. But something terrible happened that wrecked it for a while. Humans fought a war against each other, and in the process destroyed the sun. Don’t ask me why. I think one group wanted to use it as a weapon, but their plans didn’t work as expected. Billions died without the light and heat of the sun, but there was another intelligent species on Earth that saved the surviving humans.”

Who?

“Ponies. The ponies of antiquity included some of the most powerful magic users the world has ever seen. Together, using one of the most complex spells ever created, combined with the power of human technology, they created a new sun. But this sun was much smaller and weaker than the first. So a steward was needed.”

But the sun looks bright and fine!

“Only because it’s so close to this planet. It actually is only a bit bigger and further away from here than the moon is. Anyway, to watch over the course of the new sun and gravitationally unstable moon, the two most powerful ponies on Earth were put in charge of reinforcing their orbits on a daily basis. Their names were Celestia and Luna. They were already heroes from their previous battles against beings such as Discord, so this was just their latest service to the world. And they’re still continuing that duty to this day. And that’s the first thing you need to know.”

There’s more? How exactly do you know all this?

“I’ll be sure to cover that soon. What you need to know now is about your world. As you may have already guessed, the place the Tazmily, as you call them, fled to was not just a separate island; it was a whole new world. The people there really did use something like magic to remove all their old memories. And, I’m sorry to say, what happened next was also correct.”

The King

“Yes. The King. He was a human once, but by the time he came, he was something far greater and inferior to what any human could dream of. He viewed the world as a thing to play with, and created many new kinds of creatures just for fun. Including your people.”

But the youth and the heroes! They stopped the King, right?

“Not exactly. During their final battle, he went into an Absolutely Safe Capsule to protect himself from harm. You see, he couldn’t die anymore, but he had run out of energy to fight with. The thing was, the Capsule protected him from the world, but it also protected the world from him. It made us Absolutely Safe. Or so we thought…”

What happened?

“…we woke up and found a new world. And it was a beautiful one. It was like my childhood again. Except it wasn’t. Because they were still dead. But we and the people the King brought with him were left, and we started to build a new world. One based on a balance. We could not abuse the world like we did on Earth, but we could not ignore the part of us humans that desires to grow and build. So we set up a new system. One based on the mistakes of our previous two homes. We were allowed to grow, but always had to obey limits. We interacted with wildlife, but as much on their terms as possible. We named the new world Unova, which literally meant ‘one world.’ And for years, what was left of humanity grew and flourished.”

“But something bad happened back on Earth. You may have heard the story. The princess of the moon, Luna, was possessed by an evil entity called Nightmare Moon.”

That actually happened? It sounded like a child’s story!

“Well, it became a children’s story over the years. But it didn’t start out that way. You see, Nightmare Moon wasn’t as universally unpopular as you might be led to believe. There were two large factions on Earth that sided with her.”

Why would anypony side with something like that?

“Different reasons for the different groups. First of all, you had the remaining humans on Earth. They generally saw Nightmare Moon as a way to take back control of the world from ponies in general and the alicorns in particular. The average human was no fan of Nightmare Moon, but a lot of the leadership saw her as a way to rid the world of alicorn influence.”

But what would hold the sun up without the alicorns?

“Probably sacrificial magic. In theory, you could probably keep the sun moving if you had a large supply of disposable sentients. Few things contain as much magic per pound as blood of ponies or humans.”

Your species sucks.

“So I’ve heard. But I think we’ve done enough good to balance things out. But we’re on the clock here, so moving on; there was another faction that supported Nightmare Moon. And unlike the humans, their support was widespread even amongst the masses.”

Let me guess; Unicorns?

“Wrong. Unicorns, along with Pegasi and Earth Ponies, were staunch supporters of Celestia. No, I’m talking about Sea Ponies.”

…what?

“Sea Ponies.”

…I’ve never heard of them.

“Sea Ponies were always different from their terrestrial cousins. For one, they were always more isolated. Even the pegasi can be visited by other ponies with access to a Cloud Walking Spell, and mixed race breeding guaranteed that the different groups of ponies would interact for their offsprings’ sake. But Sea Ponies lived at the Ocean Floor. As often as not, their cities were cold and covered in darkness. And if a sea pony happened to give birth to an earth pony half a mile underwater… accidents happened.”

“Like earth ponies, sea ponies drew their magic from the world around them. But they did not draw their strength from the ground or water.”

“They drew it from the abyss itself.”

“So imagine what the magical geniuses of the era thought when presented with Nightmare Moon. Even the less magically inclined sea ponies rarely saw the sun. Besides, the moon has a greater sway on the ocean. Their loyalties were clear.”

“The sea ponies could not directly help Nightmare Moon in her battle against Celestia. Sea ponies can breathe air as well as water, but are of little use on land. They did, however, have a plan. They could use their magic to summon a champion to fight alongside Nightmare Moon.”

“The Sea Ponies and humans collaborated in order to summon champions to fight alongside Nightmare Moon. I don’t know the exact details, but each of the two groups summoned one creature. The sea ponies’ ‘champion,’ the “Deep One” ended up destroying the city it was summoned in, and spent the next few years slaughtering almost all of the sea ponies in the oceans until Celestia was able to stop it. Only a few sea ponies survived, and they’ve been in hiding ever since.”

And the humans?

“Summoned the King.”

…oh no…

“Back in Unova, we knew something was going wrong back on Earth when the King showed up. We were no alicorns, but our abilities allowed us to detect that he was somewhere out there. So those of us who stopped him the first time set out to see what we could do.”

“As it turned out, not much. Humans in Equestria were considered by most ponies enemies of Life itself for allying with Nightmare Moon. While Celestia fought Nightmare Moon, ponies took it upon themselves to wipe out what was left of our race in the world. When we got here, we were fighting for our lives against those who we wished to protect.”

And what did the King do?

“Nothing. He just treated the entire thing like a joke. I never saw him while here in Equestria, but from what I heard, he essentially giggled while the humans were destroyed.”

“By the time Celestia defeated Nightmare Moon, most of the sea ponies and humans were dead. Celestia didn’t know what to do with the King, so she sent him to the sun for safe keeping. Meanwhile, my friends and I were hiding out with some of the last humans. We agreed that there was no place left for humans on Earth, so my companions escorted the survivors to Unova to become part of the local population.”

“As for me… I decided that somebody needed to keep an eye on the King. Humanity would get along fine without me. So before everybody left, we used one last powerful piece of magic. Essentially, spend centuries sleeping in a cave while my mind wandered Equestria. I could choose to wake up when I felt it was necessary. Like now.”

What’s happening now?

“You tell me.”

…something is going terribly wrong. All the way in my homeland, I could feel the dark things oozing out. The power that keeps bad things from happening here is weakening.

“Correct. Celestia’s power is waning, and fast. She wasn’t capable of fighting off Nightmare Moon, Discord, or even a Changling Queen. Something is eroding her strength. And seeing as her strength comes from the sun...”

So you think the King is hurting Celestia?

“I’m certain. I wouldn’t be wasting the last few minutes of my life warning you about this if I were unsure.”

What?

“Oh, don’t act surprised. I’ve been napping for centuries. I’m using the last of my strength to hold this conversation with you.”

…

“I’m glad. I’ll finally be able to see Mom and Pop and Claus again.”

…I’m sorry.

“Don’t be. You came here to do good deeds. I’m just here to help you. Please, you need to stop the King! I don’t know what his plans are, or even if he has any, but if he’s trying to weaken one of the few things holding this world together, it can’t be good.”

I’ll do everything I can, but there’s one problem. For some reason, I was having someone else’s memories. It knocked me out, and I don’t know how to recover.

“You’ve been living in somepony else’s body for weeks. You were bound to get closer to them, even if they were dead.”

So these are my borrowed body’s memories?

“Probably. I’m no expert on this thing, but it seems to me like you’ve been pretending to be something for so long, you can’t simply pretend anymore. You have to either dump your body behind, or accept that it’s going to be a part of you.”

I guess I have to choose to accept it then.

“That was quick. Why so certain?”

…there are ponies I care about. This is the only way I’ll be able to live with them.

“Listen, my time’s running out, so I just need to clarify a few things. You understand what you need to do?”

Stop the King.

“And do you have any idea how to do it?”

No.

“Me neither. Last thing before I go, will you be alright?”

I think so. I have ponies that seem to care about me. I can accept becoming something that is part-pony. I can hurt those that need to be defeated and defend those that need to be protected.

“Alright then. Good luck. Claus… I’m coming home.”
******

Twilight Sparkle yawned as she walked through Ponyville. It had been a late night for her. Still, it had been worth it. The spell she had developed would be able to peel away even magical disguises like banana peels.

Twilight stopped for a moment as she considered the simile that had just run through her head. Banana peels? She was more tired than she thought.

When she reached the infirmary, Twilight was surprised not to see any guards around. Before she could wonder where they were though, Nurse Redheart came rushing out the door.

“Sorry, but something happened last night. Lyra and Bon Bon tried to sneak into Terra’s room and break her out! They were carrying saddlebags of supplies and drugged cupcakes. The guards brought them and Terra over to the Police Station.”

Twilight Sparkle’s mouth dropped. If they tried to break Terra out, that meant that they must have been in on a conspiracy of some sorts with her. Who knew how far it was spread? And worst of all, Pinkie Pie’s little sister had been dragged into this.

Whatever was going on was personal.

Twilight Sparkle sprinted to the Police Station. There, she was relieved to see the cell was well guarded. Inside of it were an awake Lyra and Bon Bon and a still unconscious Terra.

“Twilight!” shrieked Bon Bon. “There must have been some kind of mistake! We were just going to visit Terra during the night when-”

“HOW DARE YOU!?!?!” bellowed Twilight. “You know what Terra is, don’t you? What did you think was going to happen when you hurt one of my friends? For all I know, all three of you could be changelings! I saw one that looked just like you at the wedding Lyra! How could I have been so stupid. You two have obviously been spying on us for ages, and now you got some reinforcements to mess with Pinkie’s head. You changelings are the ugliest, most despicable-”

“Not changeling,” a quiet voice abruptly said.

Twilight suddenly stopped as she turned towards Terra. Sometime during her rant, Terra had regained consciousness. The guards turned towards the filly behind metal bars.

“Not changeling,” Terra repeated.

“Then tell me,” grimaced Twilight, “what are you?”

Terra stared down at her hooves for a moment before facing Twilight. For some reason, she was grinning.

“Tss. Pony. Blinkie. Terra. Ally.”

Twilight was outraged. This… whatever knew Blinkie’s name. And it had the gall to call itself an ally. But the first thing it had said.

“What is a Tss?” Twilight asked.

Terra’s grin grew.

“This.”

Before Twilight could react, Terra stomped the ground beneath her. The ground began to shake, knocking everypony in the room except for Terra off their feet. Meanwhile, Terra turned to face the wall behind her, made some hissing sounds, and blasted it open with what appeared to be a solid pillar of blue light.

“La! Buh Buh!” she cried, running out of the freshly made hole in the wall. And a moment later, the two mares followed.

Author Notes

Some of you are probably excited to see this story update. Well, take a look at the name of the chapter. “Author Notes.” I think what that means is pretty clear.

When I started working on Foreigner, it was late 2011. Season 2 had just begun. Names like Chrysalis and Sombra were nonsense words. Alicorn Twilight was still an overused cliché that would never actually appear in the show. We had seen about 30 episodes, compared to the current 65 or so.

In short, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was a different thing back then.

Why does this matter? Because Foreigner was simply unable to keep up with the times. For the first few months of the story, I had to keep on changing plans in order to stay true to the show’s canon. However, over time, the universe that I created was unable to both remain anywhere near canon, be believable, and still tell the story I wanted to tell.

Here’s one example: Twilight suspecting Terra of being a changeling. When the story began back in 2011, I knew that Twilight would eventually be at odds with Terra, Lyra, and Bon Bon. However, the presence of changelings in canon meant that Twilight would naturally be on the lookout for shapeshifters, a concept that I had thought I introduced to the Pony universe for the first time. I had a choice. I could either ignore canon, ignore who Twilight Sparkle was, or cut off a chunk of the time I was going to use to develop Terra’s relationships. I chose the last option, but it was the least of evils.

This sort of thing happened over and over again. The events of season 3 just made it even worse. So, in the end, I was left with a story that was being compromised by my inability to foresee the show’s direction.

Therefore, after much consideration, I am going to put Foreigner on hold.

Do not worry. I meant what I said about this story eventually being told. I’m just going to wait until things are properly aligned. Preferably, I’d restart work on Foreigner when the last season of Friendship is Magic comes to a close. Then, I could take advantage of the universe’s material instead of fighting against it, revel in ponies instead of putting up with them.

This will, of course, require me to basically reboot the story. I don’t mind. This first version of Foreigner was a great prototype to learn how to write longer tales. I will use this practice to make the second version even better.

Well, this was a bit of a downer. So, how about some behind the scenes footage?

First, here’s a draft I had for the next chapter. Seeing as this version of events will never happen, I suppose there’s no harm in sharing it with you guys.

Incomplete Chapter

Lyra, Bon Bon, and Terra had only gotten a short distance away from their cell when Twilight Sparkle teleported in front of them, forcing the trio to halt.

‘She can do that?’ thought Terra.

Twilight looked like a mess. Her mane was disheveled, she breathed heavily, and her coat covered in dirt. Her eyes were crossed, and her teeth clenched to create a frightening grimace.

“You three… will stay… here!” she panted.

Meanwhile, Terra could hear a clattering in the distance. The guards from inside the police station were coming outside. And the locals of Ponyville were starting to notice something was amiss. Awakened by the ruckus, they were peering out their windows and doorways.

“Plan?” asked Terra silently.

Lyra gave her a dirty look. “You were the one who blew the wall down!”

Bon Bon quickly interrupted her. “Yes Terra, but we need to get back to our house to do it. And I don’t think we’ll be able to get around Twilight here.”

Terra peered into the distance. The house she had been staying in was a distance away, but not terribly far. They could run over there in a couple of minutes. And they probably had enough of a head start on the guards. Now if only there weren’t that purple unicorn in the way…

“Go,” said Terra.

“What?”

Terra glared at Twilight, trying to put words together. Talking was hard.

“I come. Later. Go.”

And with that, Terra opened her mouth, shooting another beam of light at Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight dodged the beam, which hit the ground behind where’d she been and left a dirty crater. She used her telekinesis to grab onto Terra, lifting her into the air, face towards the sky. Lyra leapt up to grab onto Terra, but she and Bon Bon were also grasped by Twilight’s magic.

This was bad. She could teleport and use powerful telekinesis. And who knew what else?

Of course, the same could be said for Terra.

Terra began to open her mouth again, but it was forced shut by a surge Twilight’s telekinesis. But like Terra expected, this distracted Twilight from her hooves. She thrust them down towards the ground, summoning fire. The force of the flames hitting dirty grassy surface created a cloud of smoke, blinding Twilight. She closed her eyes as she began to hack and wheeze, and the telltale purple glow around the trio of ponies dissipated.

Terra faced Lyra and Bon Bon again, this time with a furious look on her face.

“Go!”

This time, the two mares listened, running off into the distance.

Deciding that Twilight would remain a threat until taken out, Terra turned her attention back towards her. She had been lucky so far. For some reason, her abilities were choosing to fully cooperate with her despite her current form. But as an Earth Pony filly, her physical abilities were compromised.

She had to shift back.
******

Twilight Sparkle cried out in discomfort while she rubbed at her eyes with her front right hoof. Terra obviously wasn’t a changeling, but she was definitely no ordinary Earth Pony. Even she couldn’t shake the ground and summon fire without using her horn, which Terra obviously lacked.

Twilight heard somepony galloping past her. She began to react, but paused when she heard a cracking sound back where Terra had been. As the smoke and dust cleared, her jaw dropped as she saw one of the most bizarre creatures of her life.

It has a mass of tentacles, writhing in a mass like a can of worms, with four legs stretching like vines at 90 degree intervals. Each leg ended with what appeared to be claws as sharp as blades. A liquid dripped under the mass of tentacles, and what appeared to be a gaping mouth was barely visible.

Twilight was bamboozled. THAT was no changeling. Was it Terra? And if it was, what was she?

In a split second, the thing came rushing at her. It pranced on its vine-like limbs like a daddy longlegs, moving at a surprising clip. Twilight barely had a moment to teleport away before it reached her location, whipping one of its legs into the ground.

Meanwhile, the guards had arrived, and the six of them began trying to form a circle around the strange creature. None of them dared to approach it first.

The creature, despite its lack of eyes, seemed to be staring at the six guards. At once. It was very disconcerting for them. It suddenly rushed towards one of them, whipping it with one of its long legs. It hit him in the head, knocking him onto the ground and seemingly into unconsciousness. The rest of the guards tried to rush in from behind, but with its opposite leg, the creature summoned more fire, keeping them back. The creature then rushed over the fallen guard, apparently trying to escape. It was stopped, however, when it ran into what appeared to be a wall of purple light. The purple light formed a dome around the guards and the creature, and in the center of the dome was Twilight Sparkle.

“I’ll hold it in place!” she yelled out. “All you have to do is take it down!”

The creature seemed to understand what she said, because it immediately began charging towards Twilight. The guards, however, stood in its way, and were preparing to bring it down.

The guards had initially included two earth ponies, two pegasi, and two unicorns. One of the unicorns was down for the count, but the five still standing were an intimidating group, with the unicorn taking the point and the two pegasi hovering along the flanks with the earth ponies. The creature seemed hesitant to attack them head on, and slowed to a stop some yards away from the force. It began to summon more fire, but one of the pegasi pulled a nearby cloud and began stomping on it, creating a miniature storm. The fire was weakened by the wall of heavy rain, and the creature began to walk back. The five guards slowly followed her, advancing with the cloud in tow in case they needed to summon more rain.

However, as the guards advanced, they began to smell the most noxious odor. One of the earth ponies gagged as they smelled rotting flesh. It had to be coming from the monster!

The monster took advantage of this momentary distraction by rushing forward at the group. Less than ten feet before reaching them, it leaped into the air, flying into a very surprised pegasus and knocking it onto the ground. Not stopping for a moment, and before the guards could turn around, the creature continued rushing towards Twilight Sparkle, who now had nopony to shield her.

Twilight, who had been watching the encounter, realized that she had to move. As she began to turn and gallop, the shield dissipated, apparently impossible to maintain during movement.
******

Terra silently cursed as the purple unicorn teleported away again. Still, this was an opportunity. She quickly dodged into an alleyway, climbing over mounds of rubbish and fences with ease, headed towards where the house was.

Things were beginning to look up. True, the unicorn was a powerful mage, but she seemed tired and ill-suited to combat. And the guards, though they outnumbered her, seemed to be incapable of following her if she climbed over obstacles. It seemed nothing could stop Terra from reaching the house in one piece.

And that’s when Terra was electrocuted by a lightning bolt.
******

It had been a strange morning for Rainbow Dash. She had been taking her ordinary early-day nap on one of her favorite clouds when she heard an explosion inside of town. Roused from her slumber and mildly concerned for her friends, Rainbow lazily flew over to the scene of the event, still lying on the cloud.

As she got closer, she became more concerned as scenes of wreckage appeared. There was a gaping hole on the side of the police station, and a guard pony was being loaded onto an ambulance cart.

Now actively worried for her town and her friends, Rainbow flew up to get a better look. She soon spotted Twilight Sparkle panting a few blocks away. Rainbow almost rushed over towards her, but in the corner of her eye, saw another few guard ponies futilely trying to catch some… tentacle… thing. Must have been from the Everfree Forest. Two of them were pegasi, but for some reason, they weren’t willing to fly ahead of their comrades.

If Rainbow Dash had been a more cautious and thoughtful pony, she would have asked Twilight what was going on, or would have consulted the guards for advice on what to do next.

Being Rainbow Dash though, she flew over to a cloud directly over the hideous creature and kicked it, summoning a mighty lightning bolt.
******

Terra lied on the ground, legs spread along the ground. She was in so much pain. Some random pony she had seen around town had dropped a lightning bolt on her. Freaking lightning!

Terra smelled something, similar to roast pork. After a moment, she realized it was her own burnt flesh. She smelled delicious.

As she slowly climbed back onto her feet, Terra was hit by a blue blur zooming right out of the sky. She was knocked into a nearby wall, leaving cracks in the wood as she fell to the ground again.

This was bad. Terra was running out of energy, her senses were beginning to fail her as some of her nervous system had literally been burned off, and to top it off, this blue pegasus that Terra had only occasionally seen in passing was going to kill her.

The best course of action would be to hide. That’s what Terra did the last time she was in a situation like this. The problem was, there was nowhere to hide. All of the ponies would turn her in without a moment’s thought. Except for those two.

Terra felt hooves clattering on the ground. Ponies were beginning to approach her. They seemed to think she was unconscious. If she could only make it the remaining few blocks…

Well, she had enough energy for one more blast of fire.
******

Rainbow Dash hovered over her fallen opponent. Whatever that thing was, it seemed to be out for the count. She didn’t blame it. Unlike pegasi, lots of ground critters reacted pretty poorly to lightning. And she supposed that last hit probably hurt a bit. Speaking of which, wasn’t that Roseluck’s house? Oh Celestia, she was going to make a fuss…

“Rainbow Dash!” cried a familiar, egghead voice.

Rainbow turned around to see Twilight Sparkle and the team of guards galloping down the street. For some reason, they seemed panicked.

“Get away from it!” Twilight called out.

“S’alright Twi. That thing is down. ‘sides, if it gets up, I’ll just knock it down again.”

“No, you don’t understand! That thing can-”

Twilight’s voice was drowned out by the sound of rushing flames. Rainbow felt a searing heat behind her, and then all over. She screamed as she was swallowed by flame, and blindly flew into the air, desperately charging into a cloud.
******

One way or another, this was going to end soon. The pegasus had flown off somewhere after she was hit by her fire. The guards were there, but were keeping their distance after the latest attack. And that purple unicorn, “Twit,” appeared exhausted and strangely concerned.

Of course. She probably knew the pegasus. Knows. Knows the pegasus.

Was she a murderer?

No time to worry now. Ignoring the pain involved, Terra climbed to her feet, hissing at the general area. A few civilians, peeking at the scene from their windows in horror, ducked out of sight. The guards braced themselves, but didn’t advance or retreat. The Purple Unicorn ran off, in the general direction the blue pegasus had gone in.

Her legs felt like they could collapse under her at any moment, and her senses were losing their range and clarity, but soon, Terra was almost at her front doorway. She turned around and faced the guards, who had been following her at a distance the entire time.

Terra considered shooting more fire at them, but she didn’t know if she had the strength to create any more. For that matter, she doubted whether she

So yeah. That’s what my writing looks like when it’s not ready to be shared with the general public.

Anyhow, here are some things I’m going to change for the next version of Foreigner.
1. It will NOT be a crossover. Mother 3 will still be a major influence, but the way this story has evolved, a crossover is unnecessary.
2. Terra will have a lot more time to develop relationships with other characters.
3. Pinkie Pie will play a somewhat less prominent role, though she will likely be the most important of the Mane 6 with the possible exception of Twilight.
4. The relationship between Twilight and Pinkie will be further explored. The dynamic between these two different characters fascinates me, and I want to explore it.
5. Various details will be changed. For example, Terra will not visit “Nurse Redheart’s clinic.” She will go to the hospital we have since seen clearly.

Terra is an entirely original character, and is a member of a species I made up for the purpose of the story. The species has no proper name. However, it may interest you to know that they naturally communicate using their smaller tentacles via physical contact. Terra’s real name is thus non-phonetic, but can roughly be translated as “Savory Sweet.” This is meant to reflect on the savory taste of flesh, which represents Terra’s darker abilities involving the possession of the dead, and sweetness, which suggests that her true nature is ultimately positive.

I’d like to say more, but I don’t want to spoil the next version of Foreigner. Feel free to ask questions in the comments, and I’ll answer them if possible.

Thanks for your understanding.

Salnax

P.S. I am still open for requests. Ask me to do a random one-shot, and I'll happily write it into existence!

Confession

It was evening. Cream Mare had brought home a salad, and the trio was sitting around the table. The two mares were chatting about something or another. Probably about the day’s events. Meanwhile, Terra ate her lettuce, silently wondering how best to share the truth.

First things first; it would probably be a bad idea to tell them everything at once. No need to freak them out. The best idea would probably to introduce something important tonight, see how they react, decide what they can deal with next, and so on and so forth. Depending on how they reacted, she could end up telling them everything tonight or just give them a hint.

The only problem was, how could she tell Aqua and Cream Mares anything?
******

After dinner, it was Lyra’s turn to do the dishes and Bon Bon’s turn to help prepare Terra for bed. Before she could be guided to the bathroom though, Terra said “La! Buh Buh! Tawk.”

It took Bon Bon half a second to put what Terra said together.

“Lyra! Terra wants to talk to us!”

Lyra came rushing to the bottom of the stairs in the dining room, where Terra waited patiently. Once she was there, Bon Bon hushed her, turning to Terra expectantly.

Lyra and Bon Bon had already discussed what would happen if Terra wanted to talk. Even though Lyra was probably Terra’s favorite guardian, even Lyra admitted that she could take up both sides of a conversation by herself. Bon Bon, on the other hand, was a much better listener. Maybe it was because her voice occasionally cracked when she was younger, making it harder to speak in a certain range. Whatever it was, Bon Bon’s ability to listen was one of the things that Lyra loved about her.

Awkwardly, Terra gestured at herself.

“What about you?” asked bon Bon.

Terra stood still for a moment, thinking. She then hopped up a stair, looked down at the floor, and hopped back down.

Bon Bon wished that she had played more charades when she was younger.

“You hopped from one spot to another?” she asked.

Terra stared at her blankly.

At least with charades, one of the ponies knows what’s going on.

Terra shook her head back and forth, presumably gesturing “no.” At least she’d picked up on some body language. She then headed over to the coat closet one room over, closed the door on herself, and opened it back up, peering at Lyra and Bon Bon expectantly.

Bon Bon thought. Terra was in a closet, and opened it to find her and Lyra. Maybe she was… no, probably not. Bon Bon didn’t understand how she felt about Lyra until much later in her life. Besides, how was Terra supposed to pick up that euphemism?

Maybe the door was the important part? All that meant was that there were two places, and Terra went from one of them to another. But what kind of places had big, dramatic doors? The only examples Bon Bon could think of were castles.

Bon Bon shared this thought with Lyra, who quietly nodded. Could Terra have been living in a castle somewhere for much of her life? It couldn’t be Canterlot, they’d notice a missing filly. And Terra had come from the south and east, so that ruled out the one in the Everfree Forest. At this point, Bon Bon’s mental list of castles was quite short, and none of the ones in her mind were nearby enough for a filly to travel from.

Meanwhile, Terra seemed to understand that she wasn’t getting through. She jumped onto the couch in the living room, pulled a pillow over her face, and popped out, knocking the pillow on the floor.

So now she had come out of hiding? Well, this would explain the reddish purple creature that she had drawn a while back. And it tied in with the door, coming out of a hiding spot.

Time to take a risk.

“Why?” she asked.

Terra looked up at the ceiling, as if trying to remember where she put some small item.

“She must be trying to figure out what ‘why’ means,” Lyra whispered.

Terra eventually seemed to reach a conclusion. She waved her front right hoof into the air, moving it in a wide circle.

Was she talking about the sun and the moon?

Bon Bon went to a window and opened it. She pointed out towards the moon.

Terra hurriedly shook her head no. She once again gestured, this time with ever wider circles, until she was pointing at just about everything in the room.

“Everything?” asked Bon Bon?

“Excuse me for a moment,” said Lyra, rushing upstairs.

Terra and Bon Bon stared at the staircase for a moment, wondering where Lyra had gone off to. A moment later, she came tripping back down the stairs, landing on her face.

“I meant to do that” she whimpered.

Bon Bon rushed over to Lyra, while Terra sat there looking faintly amused. In Lyra’s mouth were a piece of paper and a crayon.

Bon Bon facehoofed. Why didn’t they start with this?

Terra grabbed the crayon and started drawing. The picture she created was surprisingly typical. It showed a couple of trees and what may have been a pond, based on those waves. Of course, it could just have easily been a picture of lollipops and some hot chocolate.

Lyra rushed to get more crayons. This time, she presumably did not forget how to use her legs and came down the stairs with minimal injury. Terra accepted these crayons and drew more scenes, including one that seemed to be of a town.

Finally, minutes of furious drawing with her mouth later, Terra spread her pictures around herself. She leapt back onto the couch, grabbed a pillow, and flopped it on top of her face. Then, she threw the pillow away and stepped onto the pictures.

“So, you were in a place, then you came out and saw the world,” mused Bon Bon. There was something odd about this… hang on. That picture with the monster made it seem like it drove her away from her home. This “dialogue” suggested that Terra wanted to explore. That suggested that Terra had been okay with the monster, but had only left out of curiosity? That couldn’t be right.

Terra pouted, pushing away the pictures. She climbed on top of the dining room table via chair. Had this not been a serious moment, Bon Bon would have reprimanded Terra for doing this.

Terra once again pointed at herself. She then stomped the table and waved at the area around her.

“I’m sorry Terra. I don’t understand.”

Terra hissed. Once again, she gestured around her. This time, she stood on her back hooves, waving both front legs around, stomping on the table.

“Terra, please…”

Terra collapsed onto the table, descending into a tantrum. She screamed, eyes closed, towards the ceiling. Her legs kicked the air in front of her, as if trying to shake off some seaweed. Mucus cam out of her nose, and her face was clenched as if in pain.

Lyra and Bon Bon climbed onto the table. It creaked under the combined weight of three ponies. Lyra held the struggling Terra in her forelegs while Bon Bon gently rubbed her mane.

“We’re sorry Terra. Sh… We’re going to make things better. It will be alright”

Terra kept on wailing and kicking for a couple of minutes. Eventually, she became quiet, and kicked less frequently. She began sniffing. Finally, Terra was still and quiet.

“Poor little filly,” said Lyra. “It’s been a long day.”

“I wish we could help her more.”

“We’re doing the best we can.”

Lyra lifted Terra onto her back with her magic. The two mares carried her upstairs, going straight to Terra’s bedroom. They laid her on the bed, covered her with her blanket, kissed her on the forehead, and left, turning off the lights and closing the door behind them.
******

Terra woke up to the sun’s first rays of light peeking in her window. She was in her bed. That’s odd; she didn’t remember climbing into it last night. What had hap-

Oh.

Terra was very embarrassed.

Alright, so the talk had not gone as planned. Now what? Should she try again today? It was too soon to decide. Aqua and Cream Mares probably had plans for her. Oh yes, she was supposed to visit that Purple Mare. “Twit” or something.

It was still pretty early in the day. The sun was barely over the horizon. So what to do until breakfast…

Terra looked around her room. She had to admit, she had become quite fond of it. There was a chest of nice tasting toys over there, a bed not too far from a window, a closet to hide in when she was feeling vulnerable, and a shelf full of those books they sometimes read to her.

Mentally, Terra shrugged. Why not try to read one of them? At very least, it would give her practice deciphering the local language. Terra pulled out a book at random with her teeth. It was full of written language, with only a few pictures here and there. Terra threw it aside, and it landed crooked, bending some of the pages inside. She pulled another book out. This one was about colors. Blue and Red mixed together seemed to be Purple. However, when Blue mixed with Yellow, it became Green. Riveting. Terra tossed this one onto the pile also, inadvertently tearing a page. The next book showed groups of objects next to symbols, page after page. Was this supposed to teach her counting? Into the pile with it!
******

On the other side of town, Twilight Sparkle was whimpering in her sleep.
******

Finally, a book that wouldn’t be a waste of time! This one had two ponies on the cover. One of them was white, with a pink mane, while the other was a deep blue, darker than the starry skies. What struck Terra as odd was that, unlike all of the ponies she’d seen so far, they had both horns and a pair of wings. Perhaps they were members of an extinct subspecies?

The story seemed to be a creation myth. Apparently, these two ponies were either responsible for the sun and moon or were anthropomorphic personifications. They watched over the regular ponies until the dark blue one became upset for some reason, and had a radical makeover. Using the power of magical gems though, the Sun Pony shot a rainbow at the moon pony, sending her to the moon. To this day, the Sun Pony watched over the regular ponies.

This was the stupidest creation myth Terra had ever heard.

Time for another book. Based on the cover, this one seemed to be about the mythical “hms” Aqua Mare loved to go on about. Opening the cover, Terra discovered that the book was primarily composed of illustrations, but had decent sized blurbs of text below. Apparently, this was a book that sought to inform without speaking down to her. Terra appreciated this.

Based on the pictures, Terra was even able to piece together a bit of a story. Apparently, sometime and someplace else, there was an entire civilization of “hms.” If Terra was deciphering the text correctly, the proper term was “humans.” They lived in cities and towns like ponies, grew crops on farms, and lived lives a lot like ponies. Other than their bizarre appearance, even by Terra’s standards, the only fundamental difference between humans and ponies was that humans wore clothing more often than not. Sure, humans seemed incapable of flight or magic, but at the end of the day, they were fundamentally similar to ponies.

For a moment, Terra felt very envious of a mythological creature.

As she progressed through the book, Terra noticed that there were no ponies. Either the author wanted to focus exclusively on imaginary creatures, or humans and ponies never coexisted.

Terra speculated about how humans could have become popular in ponies’ stories. In retrospect, it was obvious. Invent a creature that looks distinct, but is fundamentally similar to ponies. For all of their imagination, ponies seemed to believe that every creature had four limbs and a head attached to a main body. Even with a full third of their population having wings, it never occurred to them that a species could have six legs. These humans would then be the subject of folklore and morality tales, letting parents teach their foals the difference between Right and Wrong. Aqua Mare probably never got the memo that these things weren’t supposed to be real.

Finally, Terra began to reach the end of the book. It appeared that the humans had all sorts of faults. They fought, polluted, extracted resources, and so on. The usual stuff that destroyed species in these stories. Only a couple of pages left.

The last page showed a ship sailing across the ocean, headed into the sunrise. Or maybe it was the sunset. That really didn’t matter. What really horrified Terra was the ship itself.

It was entirely white. Not just the sails, but the main body appeared to be made of a white, metal like substance.

The White Ship.

Was it just a coincidence? Or could this be it? Could the “humans” be real?

Were they the Tazmily?
******

Lyra slipped out of bed. Bon Bon was going to work late that night, and needed to sleep in advance. She quietly walked into Terra’s room to wake her up, only to discover the young filly practically swimming in books. They formed a mass that nearly swallowed her, as she flipped through pages at a regular pace, apparently browsing the pictures. Terra seemed too busy studying to notice anything around her, including Lyra.

Lyra smiled. Terra couldn’t even read and she was already a budding scholar! And if she was busy doing this, it meant that she probably wasn’t dwelling on last night.

“Good Morning!” said Lyra.

Terra leapt a few inches into the air before realizing that it was only her. Before Lyra could carry on, Terra grabbed a couple of books in her teeth, climbed over the lowest part of the pile, and clambered over to Lyra.

Lyra accepted the two books with her telekinesis, holding them in the air as she studied them. The Legend of Nightmare Moon and The Story of Humanity? What did these books have in common?

Terra snatched The Legend of Nightmare Moon and quickly flipped it open to a picture of Luna. She pointed at the picture, looking at Lyra expectantly.

“That’s Luna,” said Lyra. “Luna. She raises the moon,” she explained, pointing at the moon in the background.

Terra seemed to be struggling to say something. She tried pointing at the picture of Luna, and then pointed at Lyra and herself.

Lyra didn’t get what Terra was trying to say, so she pulled a Children’s Atlas out of the pile of books. Flipping open to a page showing the Canterlot region, she pointed at the Capitol.

“Luna is there” she slowly said.

Regardless of whether this was what she asked, Terra seemed satisfied with this explanation. She then grabbed The Story of Humanity, and looked at Lyra expectantly.

“I don’t know,” Lyra answered. She thought that humans wandered the Ponyville area, but even she had to admit that humans, though once common, had gone somewhere else.

Lyra grabbed a piece of paper and crayon sitting nearby and drew a circle. In the middle, she wrote a big question mark. She and Bon Bon had tried to use this symbol to show uncertainty in the past. Perhaps it would work now?

Much to Lyra’s surprise, Terra grabbed the crayon in her mouth and crossed out the question mark. She then opened up The Story of Humanity to the final page, with the legendary White Ship. Lyra already knew about the White Ship, of course, but doubted the story’s credibility. How could an entire species fit on a single ship? But for the first time, Terra seemed to be passionate about humans. She grabbed the paper, flipped it over, and began to draw a new picture.

Sensing a breakthrough, Lyra rushed to grab more crayons. With them, Terra drew a scene of a shoreline. Her version of the White Ship resembled a canoe, but what struck Lyra were the simply drawn human figures walking away from the ship on the land.

Terra reached for another piece of paper, drawing the same coastline, but with different figures. The ship and humans were gone, replaced by ponies, including a blue and gray one that was probably Terra. She placed the picture directly on top of the original, further demonstrating their similarity.

Terra looked straight up at Lyra. She pointed from herself to the picture.

The meaning was clear.

Terra believed she came from where the humans went.

Lyra didn’t know what to make of this. On one hoof, this was potentially a huge discovery in the history of Anthropology. On the other hand, why would Terra believe this?

“Tazmily,” said Terra.

“Taz-what?”

“Tazmily” repeated Terra, pulling out the original picture. She pointed at the book. “Hms.” She pointed at the White Ship, and then at the picture. “Tazmily.”

“Tazmily?” asked Lyra.

“Tazmily,” Terra confirmed.

From the sounds of it, humans went on a White Ship, ended up somewhere else, and became the “Tazmily.” Maybe that was another word for pony? If so, that would suggest that the humans had somehow changed into ponies.

Most Equestrians would immediately discard this notion. However, Lyra was no ordinary Equestrian, as many would attest.

Lyra pointed at Terra and asked “Tazmily?”

Terra raised an eyebrow, but shook her head. “Tss” she replied.

“Huh?”

“Tazmily,” said Terra, pointing to the picture. “Tss,” she said, pointing at herself. And, reluctantly, she pointed at Lyra and said “Pony.”

It was time to wake up Bon Bon.
******

Bon Bon pointed at Terra.

“Tss?”

Terra nodded.

She pointed at herself.

“Pony?”

Terra nodded again.

The implication was clear. But maybe Terra just misunderstood the word. Perhaps she thought “pony” only applied to mares and stallions? Or maybe… Bon Bon didn’t know. But if Terra really understood what she was saying…

“What in Celestia’s name is a ‘Tss’?” asked Lyra.

Terra didn’t necessarily understand the words, but it was obvious she understood the basic meaning. She stood up and walked over to the windows, closing the curtains. Meanwhile, Bon Bon closed the door to the room. It was obvious that whatever Terra was going to show, she did not want it to leave this place.

Terra lied on the ground in the middle of the floor and covered her eyes with her forelegs.

“You don’t have to worry,” said Lyra, laying her hoof on Terra’s back.

Terra looked up, stared at Lyra for a moment, and shook her head. She pointed at the two mares and covered her eyes again.

“You want us to cover our eyes?” asked Bon Bon.

Terra pointed at Bon Bon’s face, and then pointed at herself. She then made a facial expression that was reminiscent of the time she drank Lyra’s salt water.

“Terra,” said Lyra, “you don’t have to worry. Nothing you tell us today is going to change how we feel about you.” She walked over to Bon Bon, and the two mares stood side by side, smiling at their adopted daughter.

Terra stared at the duo in disbelief, and gave the rare genuine smile. She gestured for them to sit down, which they did obediently. Terra then closed here eyes and began to breath slowly.
******

Terra didn’t know how to feel. On one hand, everything was about to change. Of course she was terrified by what could happen next. But at the same time, she was feeling something else. The same feeling you got when you had carried a load for miles, and it was time to finally put it down. It was not a feeling of being relaxed; that would come later, if at all.

It was a feeling of finality. Like she was finally able to make a stop on her journey. And although the journey would undoubtedly continue, this was, one way or another, a moment that she would look back to for years to come.
******

A loud SNAP came from Terra’s body. Bon Bon whimpered and Lyra screamed as Terra’s head fell limp. But this scream turned into a silent, horrified expression as the head continued to move. It was seemingly dragged down Terra’s neck by an invisible force, leaving only a sort of stump behind.

Meanwhile, Terra’s hooves seemingly exploded, as sharp blades burst out of them. The blades were arranged so that each one was sticking out 90 degrees from the next blade over, meaning that there were four blades per hoof. They clawed at the ground, thumping at the carpet as they elongated to about a hoof’s length each.

Terra’s head continued climbing down her torso, until it reached her the area around her gut. The gut slowly began to suck the head in, mane and all, until only her nuzzle was left exposed.

But the changes kept on coming. Terra’s legs grew longer, pushing her body up, until her own weight pushed her back down. Meanwhile, the fur around her body began crawling back into her body, leaving a nude exaggeration of a pony behind.

And the worst was yet to come.

Suddenly, what appeared to be greenish-brown worms burst out of Terra’s body, in dozens of locations. These worms began slithering around her, climbing in and out of the holes they made, until her entire body was covered by them. Some of the worms, no, tentacles waved in the air, as if blindly searching for something.

Only a few changes were left. The mouth still hanging from Terra’s tummy stretched into a circle lined with pointy teeth. Her entire body twisted as it gained radial symmetry, pushing the legs into their proper spots. The skin on her legs became thicker and cracked, and soon resembled nothing less than brownish-gray tree bark.

Finally, where Terra had been standing, was now a hideous creature, of a variety never before seen by a pony.

Lyra and Bon Bon stood frozen to the floor, staring at where their Terra had been. The creature was its legs, wiggling it tentacles about. A noxious odor began to fill the room, as if something nearby had recently died.

“T-Terra?” asked Bon Bon.

The creature stood in place, entirely still for an instant. Despite its apparent lack of eyes, it seemed to stare at the cream-colored mare before it.

Lyra, meanwhile, was deep in contemplation. She stared at the floor, almost afraid to witness what Terra had become. But then, she looked up, staring Terra in the ey- tentacles.

“Tss?” she asked.

“Tss” replied Terra.

And to think that they were due at Twilight Sparkle’s in a little while.

DING DONG!

The trio jumped simultaneously. The following landing of a dozen legs at once shook the room.

“Oh horseapples!” cursed Bon Bon, rushing downstairs to answer the door. “Lyra, try and help her change back!”

“Oh-okay” Lyra replied, with no idea what to do next.
******

It was shaping up to be quite the morning, Twilight Sparkle thought to herself.

“I just have to keep cool and collected, and explain things as well as I can,” she muttered.

The door in front of her opened up, revealing a surprisingly distressed Bon Bon.

“Oh, hi,” whispered Bon Bon, as if worried to see Twilight for some reason.

“Hi,” replied Twilight, wondering how Lyra and Bon Bon were going to take this. “I’m sorry to do this, but I need to cancel my appointment with Terra today.”

“Really?” asked Bon Bon. “I was thinking that this might not be the best day for us either. I mean, not that this is a bad day, but it isn’t a good one, so it’s a good thing you came over telling us this you know, even if it’s a bit inconvenient, not that you’re inconvenient, of course not, that would be rude of me to say, and-”

“Hang on,” said Twilight, noticing something in the air. She inhaled deeply.

“Bleh! What’s that smell?”

“What smell?”

“You know, that one that’s like something died in here”

“Oh, well, there’s no smell at all. I mean, there is a smell, but nothing at all to be concerned about, it’s only-”

“Twight” said a voice in the background.

Bon Bon turned around to see little pony Terra, back to “normal,” with Lyra by her side.

“Oh, hi Terra and Lyra! I was just telling Bon Bon here that I wouldn’t be able to make our appointment today. Is that okay with you?”

Lyra and Bon Bon gave each other a long look.

“That sounds alright,” said Lyra. “We have family business to attend to anyway.”

“Alright then,” said Twilight “Good by-… what is that smell anyway?”

“Terra,” answered Lyra.

“What?” asked Twilight.

“WHAT?” thought Bon Bon.

“She made a bit of a mess in the little filly’s room. I think it was something she ate last night. You know what bad lettuce can do to the digestion.”

“Oh, that makes sense. Well see you three later!”

As Twilight ran off from the Heartstrings residence, she couldn’t help but think that the three of them were hiding something. She mentally shrugged it off. It couldn’t be anything compared to the secret she was keeping at the moment.
******

Phew.

“How did you do it?” Bon Bon asked Lyra.

“I didn’t do anything really. Terra just... changed back. Only this time, it was quicker, and there was a bit of a flash.”

“A flash?”

“Of light I mean.”

The two mares looked at one another and then at the strange filly they adopted.

“Terra,” asked Lyra, “Mommy and I have to talk about things. Do you promise not to make too much of a mess while we’re in our room?”

Terra gave Lyra a blank expression.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

Lyra pulled Bon Bon upstairs and into their room. The duo lied down on their bed, staring at the ceiling.

“So why am I ‘Mommy’?”

“Well, I obviously wear the pants in the family.”

“You’re not even employed half the time”

“You knew what you were getting into becoming lovers with an artist.”

Silence

“It’s funny,” said Lyra.

“Hmm?”

“I always thought I was going to be the freakiest member of any family I became a part of. What with… you know…”

“You still are the freakiest member of the family dear. Terra’s alternate form as a terrestrial tentacle monster doesn’t change that.”

“So we’re both cool with it?”

“Celestia yes.”

The two lied on their backs for a few more moments.

“If anything,” said Bon Bon, “I’m happy now.”

“What?”

“Oh sure, this is going to create problems. But it already has. Now we’re just better equipped to deal with them.”

“What gets me is she has no eyes or ears when she’s like that,” commented Lyra. ”How weird must it be to see and hear things for the first time in a world where everypony else is an old pro?”

“I suppose that’s one of the reasons she can’t talk well.”

The two mares turned to face each other. Much to their mutual surprise, their loved one was smiling.
******

Terra sat on the living room floor, looking down at the carpet. She was not thinking about what Aqua and Cream Mares were talking about. She was not wondering what they told Purple Unicorn earlier. And most of all, her mind was not focused on the likely end of this peaceful stage of her existence.

Nope, she was not thinking about any of that.

At all.

Suddenly, she heard a door open from upstairs. It was them. Well, it was time to see how badly they would react.

The two mares trotted down the stairs, rushed over to Terra, and embraced her from either side.

And with that, Terra stopped worrying about what would happen next.
******

The household spent the remainder of the day at home. The trio played games, cooked sweets, and tried dancing. Terra turned out to be terrible at all three, but she didn’t mind.

It was one of the best days of Terra’s life. She had risked everything in revealing herself to these two mares, but it had gone better than she dared to hope. They seemed a bit frightened at first, but as soon as somepony came along, they rushed to her side immediately. And now they were spending a full day with her, just to let her know she was welcome.

Going to sleep that night was easy for Terra. It had been another exhausting day by any stretch of the imagination, and she was ready for a peaceful sleep.

As she slowly closed her eyes, Terra never even noticed the mark that appeared on her flank.

Note: At this point in the story, Terra’s Linguistic development is similar to a 1 ½ year old. She understands her name, can distinguish between different tones of voice, recognizes speech easily, and has a vocabulary of about a dozen words. However, she is still very limited. Her vocabulary is almost entirely composed of nouns, she lacks the appropriate words for most of the objects in her environment, is incapable of forming sentences, and is incapable of following direct commands.

Furthermore, much of her behavior is also reminiscent of small children. Most notable is how she loved to put things in her mouth, though that has been deemphasized as she’s learned about normal behavior. Her eating paste a few chapters ago was a fun gag, but shows how culturally ignorant Terra is, even after weeks in Ponyville. Unlike a Human in Equestria story, where the stage of life is the same and only the shape of the players differ, Terra has to metaphorically adapt to a brand new medium.

However, Terra is simultaneously very intelligent, especially for what appears to be a foal of her age. She’s already proven herself capable of abstract thought, empathy, problem solving, rational decisions, and so on. If anything, she’s at least on par with a teenager.

So imagine if you’re a teenager with the communication abilities of a young toddler. You have the intelligence and imagination to write a novel, but lack the ability to even tell anybody what its title is.

Yeah, I’d throw a temper tantrum too.

Oh, and it looks like Terra is opening up!