It was after Lunchtime in Canterlot, when Stellar Light Sparkle stepped out of the family's mansion and headed for the Palace Complex. She and Twilight had just had their twenty-fifth birthday luncheon with their parents, Shining Armor and Cadance; and she was feeling a little full, especially after the breakfast party Ponyville had thrown for them that morning. Pinkie Pie had gone all-out that morning, and encouraged heartily by the friends the Sparkle Twins had in Ponyville, it had been one incredible party.

Stellar was feeling even better about this birthday. She and Twilight had finally managed to completely put their differences aside after a long talk well into the night before. Even though the process had started five years ago on the same day, so many things in their lives had kept them from fully reconciling with one another. The trouble had been over the way their lives had been split apart by the fued between their parents and their grandfather over their training, with Twilight becoming Princess Celestia's student, and Stellar moving to Cloudsdale with Canopus Star. While both had been alicorns now from almost the time they turned four, their training had started very differently, since Twilight had been born a unicorn, and Stellar a pegasus. While Stellar had forgiven her parents a few years ago, Twilight had still harbored... uncertainties about their status as sisters and twins, after being separated one from the other for nearly fifteen years. That had finally been resolved for good that night with the pair now closer than ever.

As she walked along, She could see the preparations going on at Canterlot Castle. Celestia was throwing the pair of them a massive birthday celebration ball worthy of a pair of princesses... even if Stellar still didn't like being called a 'princess'. But she endured it for Twilight's sake, who was trying to out-do Celestia in the popularity stakes with her title of 'Princess of Friendship'. Stellar chuckled silently to herself. When they'd tried to find a title for her, asking her what she did best, Stellar had gone to the Arena at the Royal Guard Barracks and taken on all-comers in a sword-fight that had lasted nearly five hours, with even Luna herself falling to the younger alicorn. Once she had Luna on the ground and yielding, Stellar had declared that she was usurping a title from Luna: 'Princess of the Blade', a much older title that Luna hadn't used since her fight with Sombra over a millenium ago. Luna yielded the title to Stellar and Celestia had bestowed it upon Stellar that evening in a very formal ceremony.

Stellar returned her full attention to where she was going as a griffon hand slid out of an alleyway up ahead, and gestured to her to come in there. Stellar frowned, but headed into the alley after deploying her armor around her. She could see no-pony in the alley, but as she walked into it, she found herself sliding out of reality into the Shadows, a realm slightly out-of-phase with Normal Space.

"Congratulations, Stellar Sparkle." Came a masculine voice she knew well. "And congratulations on reconciling with Twilight. It hurt my heart to see you two so divided against one another."

Stellar snorted. "You were just worried that Twilight wouldn't be able to stop me removing your head if you played up again, Discord, like I did with Tirek." Stellar replied. "But thank you for the birthday wishes." Discord sat there in an easy-chair, a comfortable stool beside him. Stellar retracted her armor and jumped up onto it, settling herself. "I take it we're not just here for a friendly chat and maybe a birthday cupcake?" She asked.

Discord sighed. "Sadly, no. I am in need of you, or another one of you." Discord answered. "There are dire deeds afoot, and you are needed in another place where you are not."

Stellar nodded patiently. "I understand. Then we'd best do this now."

Discord smiled. "I am so glad that you understand your place in the Multiverse now, Stellar. You really can make a lot of difference." He told her as he got to his feet. Stellar nodded as Discord started weaving a familiar spell:

Your body cloned, your spirit copied, your destiny duplicated;

Your belongings to both and not forgotten, your soul bifurcated;

You are needed for the task ahead, and no-one else will do;

So, Warrior, go where you are needed and to yourself be true.

Stellar felt herself grow and her power swell deep inside her and, just before it could turn into a massive mana-surge, she felt the newness slowly flow away from her into another place, another reality. Once it had finished, she opened her eyes to find herself standing in the alley again, whole and unchanged... with a little cupcake in her colors sitting on a pedestal before her, a pair of candles on top that were in the shape of the numerals for '25'. Sighing, Stellar resumed her walk to the Palace, enjoying the delicious pastry, wondering what Discord needed her for this time...

=======

In the city of Brisbane, Australia, there was a young police officer who, at that moment, was facing off against a man with a katana. Jessie Maescen knew the sword was a fake, as blunt as a brick, but it could still deliver a nasty blow if it hit her the wrong way. Whatever the guy was on, the tasers she and her partner had used had had little effect on him. But she didn't draw her gun, just the truncheon she carried as back-up.

"Curtis... you got your cuffs ready?" She asked her partner.

"Yeah... shit, Jessie, you've got balls of steel if you're gonna be taking that guy on." He said, as the sword-wielder puffed and twitched his vision between the two.

"Can't be helped. I don't want to shoot this twit. The papers would have a field day." She replied as she sized the bloke up. His pupils were the size of pinheads, his eyes wide, and he was sweating like crazy, grunting like a pig stuck in mud. "Do we have back-up coming?"

"They said five minutes." Curtis replied.

"Yeah, they always say five minutes." Jessie said back, a smile on her face. "I just wish I could take him on on equal terms right now." She added as she watched the man's chest. He was bigger than her, but she would be faster. And unlike him, she was trained in armed and unarmed combat. "If he wants to wait for back-up to arrive, then we're fine. If he doesn't..."

At that moment, the man yelled at the top of his lungs and charged, sword held high over his head for a strike. Jessie almost grinned. The move was a classic mistake from every idiot who watched samurai movies and felt they knew how to wield a sword. As he closed on her, she crouched, truncheon held firm against her outer right arm, and when he swung the sword down, she acted. Deflecting the sword to one side with the truncheon, rather than blocking it, she flipped her body around in a high roundhouse kick to the back of his body. Her steel-capped boot delivered a blow just below the neck, between the shoulder-blades, and he screamed, his back arching as the nerves to his arms went numb. The sword dropped to the ground and bounced away as she followed through and slammed him to the ground.

Curtis was right there with Jessie, and before the bloke had finished bouncing, they had him down and one cuff around each hand, dragging his arms behind him, they cuffed their cuffs together on the man's arms, double-cuffing him and holding him on the ground. The man screamed bloody murder, but with the pair holding him down with a special hold and his arms still numbed, there wasn't much he could do. They both breathed a sigh of relief as sirens heralded the approach of their back-up, and two other cars pulled up beside their own. Four other officers alighted quickly and assessed the situation.

"Ankle-cuffs!" Curtis yelled out as the bloke they'd subdued was kicking with his legs, trying to push himself and Jessie off of him.

"Gimme your cuffs." She said to the two officers who approached and, as they handed them over, she cuffed his arms together further up from his wrists, making the crazy one even more secured. Then another officer handed Curtis the ankle-cuffs and they held the crazy one down and secured his feet as well. He screamed incoherent insults at them all, as a wagon pulled up.

"Damn this guy's really on something strong." One of the others said.

"Yeah." Jessie agreed. "It's not just Ice, or something simple like that." Then she felt something in the crazy's hip pocket. Pulling out a wallet, she flipped it open to check his driver's licence. "Hey, Curtis, after this is done, you want to go check out his apartment? It's just up there in that block." She told her partner.

"Sure. Once we get him signed in and locked up... and the sheets done, of course." Curtis reminded Jessie of the most tedious part of police work.

"Ugh, don't remind me." She replied as she allowed the six newcomers to lift their capture off the ground and carry him over, still screaming, to the wagon and put him inside.

Curtis chuckled. "Dammit, Jessie. How did you know he wasn't going to change his strike and take your head off?" He asked.

"Same way I knew the sword was a cheap fake." Jessie replied, pointing to the fake katana that lay in the dirt, the hilt nearly slid off from the blade and tang. "He had no real idea of what he was doing. He wasn't making any of the signs that said 'I have trained with this weapon before'. He wasn't even holding it properly." She took out a pair of gloves and slid the blue latex on as she approached the dirty metal blade, gently picking it up and looking it over. "Yep. Not even good steel. He probably picked this up in the nineties, when even smoke shops were selling these cheap sets." She showed Curtis as he brought over a very big, long ziplock evidence bag.

As Jessie slid the sword in, Curtis sighed. "I just hope we never come across someone who really knows what they're doing with one of these, real or not." He admitted.

"I have to agree with you there, Partner." Jessie said, looking at Curtis as he zipped the bag shut. They marked where the sword had fallen, as well as their taser leads, and waited for the investigators to arrive and take over.

= = = = =

Later, at the station, Jessie had filled out her paperwork and was in the changerooms, enjoying a shower. She checked her watch as a sensation of anticipation filled her. It was May Fifth, her twenty-fifth birthday, and she could almost feel something building inside her. As the digital time on her watch changed to read Seven PM, Jessie moaned as she felt a release deep inside her, something wonderful flowing through her and centering on her hips. In a big mirror opposite her stall, she saw something start to appear on the side of her hip... and she smiled.

"You know why I have brought you here..." A voice sounded in Jessie's mind as she leaned against the stall's wall and closed her eyes.

"You need me to handle something that you can't, for various reasons..." She heard a voice that sounded like her own reply.

"Good. I am so glad we are on the same page." The male voice, smarmy and somewhat sarcastic in nature, replied. "One of my other selves has gone too far. He has separated from our group mind and is attempting to usurp power in the most blatant fashion. He is also trying to create chaos on a world filled with a race that seems to be destined to create chaos by themselves, although not on the scale what he has done will create there. I would send you directly, but he would try to counter this, so you'll have to go there just like every other pony that he has sent there. I am sorry for forcing you to become Human, but there is little I can do without very serious repercussions across the Multi-verse. He has set the rules, and we have to work within them."

"So, what advantages can you give me?" She asked.

"He's set the other ponies up so that their original memories will be very repressed until they change back and return to Equestria... if they ever truly recover them." The male voice said. "I can block that effect to a degree. You will start to remember things before you change, to the point where all your memories will return to you, if you can find a way to activate them after you've fully changed back." He explained to her. "Also, all your little toys and suits will be available to you once you've fully changed... but only if your memories are restored. Only one of them will you have full access to before then... and that's of your choosing. Choose wisely, my dear. Ponies will be counting on you for their lives on this new world, once they start changing back. The humans are paranoid and xenophobic at best, primitive and barbaric at their worst. In the more primitive countries, the ponies will be considered as mere animals, or worse. Even the civilised nations will seek to exploit their abilities and imprison them, maybe even experiment on them to understand them. Many will die." And she felt him actually shudder.

"You don't like Death, do you?" She asked.

"There is little point to creating chaos if those who make it for you die in the process. It is far too final a blow to Chaos." He sighed. "My other self no longer cares. All he wants is for things to be as he wants them, regardless of the consequences." He looked at her. "I have always been mindful of the consequences of ALL my actions, even if it never looked like it. Your sister and her friends will subdue him in the end... but there will be many changes to the two realities because of this. Hopefully none of them are permanent or ones that cannot be borne by those changed. Your job is to assist in finding ponies in places no-one else can go and survive, and to help them come home. Some will not return and will stay on Earth. Many will want to return, and once things settle and the way home is found, you will help bring the others there and let them return. Whether or not you stay on Earth, that is up to you... in the end." She saw him draw himself up to his full height. "Prepare yourself. The fun begins... Now."

= = = = =

Jessie started awake, the water flowing over her quite busty chest was still warm. She checked her watch: It read Seven-thirty. Jessie sighed and turned the water off, shaking herself to dampness and reaching for her towel. As she looked at herself in the mirror, she saw the lines on her hip-thighs had completed: Her Cutie-mark had returned. Jessie blinked as she realised she knew the designs' names, and other memories were waiting under the surface of her conscious mind, ready to come forth. She dried herself off, quickly dressed, and headed out of the change-room.

Her bags were waiting for her in her cubicle. She'd handed her gun back into the small armory at the conclusion of her shift, and her badge was locked in her drawer. Tossing her backpack on, she picked up the gym-bag with most of her belongings from the station in it, including her uniforms. Smiling as she moved through the station, her ID on a lanyard around her neck, she waved to a lot of her colleagues and stopped by the Chief's office. "Heya, Sir." She said, after knocking on the door.

The station's commander, an older male with plenty of experience under his still-lean belt, smiled. "Heya Jessie." He replied. "So, you really are taking the holidays you've been putting off for years now?"

Jessie chuckled. "Yeah, Chief. I've got reservations and everything." She replied.

"Good, good. After that nutcase you and Curtis brought in this afternoon, I'm glad to see you taking some time off. God knows you deserve it." He told Jessie.

"Did they find out what he'd taken?" She asked.

The Chief nodded. "It was a wierd concoction of Ice and PCP. I don't know how he got the PCP to put in it, but it's really driven him over the edge." The Chief told her. "They don't know if he'll ever come down from it, or if he'll be sane again afterwards."

Jessie looked sad. "That's just so wrong, on whole levels of wrongness." She commented.

"Yeah, you can say that again." He agreed with her. "Well, leave it to the drug squad, that's what they get paid to do." He advised her. "Now, get under way and out of the city before the traffic gets bad."

Jessie grinned and nodded. "Sure thing, Chief. See you in a month's time." She gave him a quick salute, which he waved off, then Jessie was skipping out the door. Down in the parking garage, her Crewman 4x4 ute was waiting for her, loaded up with her things, and she added the two bags to it before climbing in and driving out. She had to be careful, though, with swinging the ute through the traffic, as the bed was loaded to the sills with things she'd bought before her shift, and it was close to the certified tonnage limit. But Jessie handled the traffic like the expertly-trained police driver she had become over her career's seven years. But she knew, if the memories she'd had and the dreams she'd been experiencing were correct... this was the last day of her police career in Australia. Something very new was around the corner...

=======

Several hours later, Jessie was piloting her ute down a dirt track and approaching a number of small houses built out on a headland near the ocean. With national park gazetted all around the small freehold-title area, there were ten of these old beach-houses here, some in slow states of decay as they had been abandoned, but the pair of them her family owned and four others of the ten were intact and looked in very good condition. As she parked between the two beach-houses she was staying in, Jessie knew there was little chance of meeting anyone else here at this time of year. If it had been six months earlier, then the three other families who had freehold titles of the land here would have been here as well, enjoying the summer. But now, as Autumn came into its closing month and things were becoming a little cooler, most were busy with their lives. And that made it the perfect time to be here, for what would come.

She brought everything in from her ute and loaded up the fridge and pantry. But besides the normal human food were bags and bags of equine-fodder-grade alfalfa and oats, the best she could buy. She also had medical supplies and inoculations for equines, covering diseases from many countries around the world.

Jessie sighed as she checked down her list. Ever since she had begun remembering things a year ago, she had been doing research and finding out what she'd need to survive the time of her transition from human to... well, whomever she'd become. Things like her new name and form were still mostly hidden from her, but she knew enough generally to make informed guesses. After all, she knew generally what she'd look like. Most of the ponies she'd seen in the show were pretty much the same size and similar in details. She'd made guesstimates of size, weight and structure from carefully watching the show in her spare time and she was sure she'd be able to adjust for any real-world discrepancies once she was fully-changed.

After making sure everything was inside and ready for her stay, Jessie changed down to a comfortable pair of old jeans and a hoodie, with nothing else underneath. She knew wearing restrictive clothing would be stupid, considering how different her current and end-form bodies would be. She needed clothing she could remove in a hurry, if radical changes came faster than she expected them to come. If the breeze off the ocean wasn't so cool, she might have been tempted to just put on a bikini, but that might be a choice for the daytime. Heading into the bathroom, Jessie looked at herself in the mirror. She smiled as she saw her eyes had changed. The green in them had changed to a nice shade of mauve-purple, and her red hair was starting to darken a little at the tips. Jessie nodded. Things were changing as she hoped they would. Then, from the kitchen, her phone rang.

"Shit." Racing out of the bathroom, she managed to grab the phone before it switched to her MessageBank. "Heya, Curtis." She'd noted it was her partner's private phone number. "I'm on vacation now, you know."

"Jessie... I need help." He sounded like he was very desperate.

"Why? What's up?" She asked.

"Please don't think I'm wierd, Partner." Curtis answered. "But... something very strange has started happening... and not just to me! My brother and my cousins have all had this happen..."

"You got a big, strange tattoo on your hip-thigh area that came out of nowhere." Jessie guessed. She checked the time. It was after midnight, so the timing was right.

"How the buck did you guess that?!?" Curtis asked.

Jessie almost giggled at what Curtis had said. "Has it happened to all four of you?" She asked.

"Yeah, Jess. How'd you know?"

"Because the same thing happened to me earlier tonight." Jessie answered. "Now, get your cousins, your brother and yourself up here A.S.A.P., partner. If you think the tattoo's crazy, it's just the start. You need to be somewhere away from everyone else for this, and I have a place you can shelter at. Okay?"

"Umm, yeah, I guess." Jessie could almost see him looking over his shoulder at the others. "Okay, We're on our way."

"Bring only personal essentials." Jessie warned. "I have food and everything else already here. If anyone rings or asks, you've been invited to stay with a friend at their beachside apartment for your vacation."

"Okay, Jess. I'll give you a ring when we're close." Curtis told her.

"Fine. I'll come and guide you to my place when you're in town." Jessie told Curtis. "Bring your computers, too, if you want to."

"Will do. See you." Curtis then signed off.

Jessie sighed and relaxed back against the doorway from the Dining Room into the kitchen. She always knew she'd have people around her when she changed, HE had hinted that this was something she wouldn't go through alone... She just hadn't expected it to be her partner. She grinned at the way Fate was playing 'silly-buggers' with their lives... then she remembered who was behind this, and her face turned to a hard scowl. "I'm going to shove his curly horn so far up him that it'll stick out his nose from inside..."

She went and opened up the other house she owned here, ready for the boys... depending on how many of them still remained boys after they'd changed.

=======

Curtis took one more look at the tattoo on his thigh before he pulled his pants up. At least it was kind-of masculine: A dark-grey cloud with a golden lightning bolt coming out of it. He chuckled as it reminded him of how trouble seemed to strike him repeatedly, whenever he and Jessie were out on patrol together. That sword-wielding druggo was just the last in a long line of arrests and busts they'd made together, since they'd gotten out of the Academy. It seems they were a real pair of trouble magnets.

Not that that had made their arrest records any less impressive. But the most impressive thing was that they'd managed to stay relatively unscathed during all the action they'd seen. Most of that was down to Jessie, he had to admit. While he'd been an amateur boxer in High School, he couldn't hold a candle to Jessie for martial arts. She'd proven that to him once, when she'd tied him up in knots during the Academy in a section contest. Even as she admitted he out-scored her on the shooting range almost consistently, she could hog-tie him and anyone else she'd faced on the mats faster than anyone else he'd ever seen. AND she somehow had learned to use blades of all sizes. As she'd said, if she'd faced down that nutcase with another sword, she could have had him dead with one pass... which meant it was a good thing that she couldn't carry one on duty.

"Okay. Jessie says she'll help, but we have to go to her place." He told the trio waiting in the lounge room.

"Aww!" Curtis' cousins Sarah and Sharrah looked disappointed. "But we only just got here yesterday!" Sharrah complained.

"Then it's a good thing you won't have to pack much, right Bro?" Curtis' brother, Rusty, replied to them.

Curtis smiled. Rusty and him were polar opposites in looks, but so close in temperament that they got along really well. Curtis was clean-shaven; Rusty had hair like a wire-haired terrier all over his face and head. Curtis was tall and lean, while Rusty was short and somewhat squat, but was all muscle. Curtis liked his unusual name, Rusty hated his real name, which was Dennis, with a vengeance. But all-in-all, they really got on well. "Yeah. Bring your systems and stuff, and your bed-gear and clothes. Jessie says she has plenty of food for us all." He said as he left a note on the fridge's whiteboard for their parents

The two women grumbled, but went and retrieved their suitcases and bags, and Curtis led them out to his old, trusty Landcruiser Troop-Carrier. After piling in everything he'd thought they'd need, the sisters got in the back and Curtis slid into the front driver's seat, Rusty beside him. They backed out and headed out of the city as the night's traffic settled down before them. They had a four-hour drive ahead of them...

=======

Jessie had finished making arrangements for her guests, and took time out to look at herself again in the mirror. Her hair was still changing color, with the dark-blue already half-way to her scalp. Two streaks of other colors were also becoming more distinct. "Damn... if I didn't know what was happening, I could imagine how much this would freak out anyone not expecting it." She closed her eyes and could almost see another face looking back at her: A face with huge eyes and a cute little muzzle covered in lavender-purple fur, and a purple horn in the middle of her forehead. She opened her eyes to see her human face again, then smiled. At least she now knew what she was going to look like, even if most of her real history was still locked away from her. She checked the time, then went and checked the Internet. The signal down the new fibre-optics was really fast tonight... then again, it was after midnight.

She checked the Australian on-line forums for MLP:FiM, and there had been a wash of new activity there, about others changing. She'd managed to work out that things seemed to have started on May First this year, five days ago, and possibly all over the world. But her keen senses also told her that things were being repressed. There'd been no news broadcasts, no reports in most of the media, and now whole sections of the on-line forums seemed to have been deleted. Most of the older posts about Cutie-marks and other such things were gone. "Hmm... someone's clamping down on things. That's not good." She said to herself. "Typical government reaction, though. If something's happening they can't explain, then they shut it down or try to debunk it." Jessie sighed. "If only I'd been in the first wave of Changes, I would be in a much better position to help..." She closed her eyes, and her relaxing triggered more memories that were hers... and weren't of her.

= = = = =

Stellar creeped slowly through the wreckage of Canterlot. Discord had done an enormous amount of 'deconstruction' to the capital of Equestria. She was wearing her white-and-gold armor, which she hoped would keep Discord from feeling her until she was close enough to start her plan.

Then, as she peered out from inside a partly-wrecked bakery, there he was. Canterlot Castle was gone, she saw. Where the Audience-Hall court had once been, Discord was sitting on a throne just his size, and she sized him up. He'd changed from the figure she'd seen before: He was bigger and looked meaner, with more of the dragon in his facial features now. She so much wanted to wipe the smarmy look from his face... but she'd have to play this smart... and with a little chaos of her own thrown in.

Discord was relaxing, grinning to himself. It was so nice to have all those annoying ponies out of the way... Then he heard:

"DISCORD! HEY, DISCORD! WHY THE LONG FACE?"

The chuckling was so familiar that Discord sat up and said "No..." He looked about to see a face and mane he'd hoped to never see again. There was Rainbow Dash, looking as if he'd never zapped her into the Human World. "How...?" He asked, stunned into incredulity.

Rainbow just grinned. "You know I'm like a bad bit, I always show up again." She boasted.

Discord growled. "Then I shall have to rectify that." He said, sliding off his throne and heading for the rainbow-maned-and-tailed mare.

"Gotta catch me first." And Dash was gone, like she'd never been there.

Discord blinked in surprise. Not even Dash could be that fast...

"Did y'all think that was fast?" Another voice asked from beside him. "I kinda thought that was fast."

Discord blinked again. "She is most annoying." Discord said, hoping to lull the pony in question into a false sense of security.

"Ah hear ya, Discord. That she is." Applejack's voice wafted up into his ears.

Discord turned suddenly, but the blonde, orange-coated pony was nowhere to be seen. The only thing there was a hat sitting on a spire of shattered marble. Discord gently picked up the hat and looked it over, but nothing about it showed that Applejack had ever been there... save for a long strand of blonde hair that was caught in the inside brim.

"Why did you do it, Discord?" A soft voice then asked.

Discord winced as he sat the hat back down on the spire again. He knew that voice, and even his hardened heart felt bad about what he'd done... for three seconds. He turned to see Fluttershy lying on top of a slab of marble, looking at him. And he could see she'd been crying. "Fluttershy..." He said, his voice small and somewhat sad.

"I had hoped we could have been friends." Fluttershy said to him. "You could be so much fun, when you weren't being silly..." She sniffled. "But then you turned into a meanie..."

"BIG MEANIE!" Two voices came from two stallions in red-and-white pinstriped jackets and straw hats.

Then they ducked down behind some chunks of marble, popping up again and singing "BIG MEANIE!" Before diving down again.

They popped up a third time behind Discord and sung one more time "BIG MEANIE!"

Then Fluttershy sang:

Discord, you are a big meanie

Discord, you're really mean

Discord, you are a big meanie

The biggest one I've ever seen...

Discord was baffled by this. He looked around again, but Fluttershy and the Flim-Flam Brothers were gone. "What the BUCK is going on?" He asked, looking all around him.

Then there was a giggle from above him, and he felt somepony on his head. "Silly! We're punishing you! What you did wasn't nice at all!"

Discord face-palmed. "Pinkie." He said.

"Yeppers!" She replied with a grin. "My turn!" And out of nowhere, an enormous pie slammed Discord in the face.

Pinkie giggled as Discord fumed for a second... then licked the pie from his face. "Banana cream, my favorite." He said, a little smile on his face as his tail came up and almost whacked Pinkie from his head.

But Pinkie slid down into one of his ears, and Discord was even more surprised when he heard "Hey! There's a door here." And the sound of a creaky door opening came out of his ear.

"Whaaat!?" Discord asked as he heard hoofsteps inside his head.

"Wow! There's a lot of space in here!" Pinkie's voice came out from inside him. "You could rent it out for some real bits! What's in here?" Discord heard another door open. "Hey! Its got its own bath and everything." He heard the sound of a toilet flushing. "It needs a bit of a clean, though. Do you mind if I wash your brain out?" Pinkie asked, as her face appeared in one of his yellowed eyes.

"What the...? Yes, I do mind, actually. My mind is in perfect condition." Discord answered.

"Still dusty." Pinkie replied, as she wiped the yellow out of the insides of his eyes with a cloth she'd pulled out of her mane. "That's better."

Discord blinked his eyes. This was beyond even him.

Then Pinkie headed back inside Discord's head. "Wow! There's cable and everything in here. Where does this door go? Ohh! It goes down!" She said, and Discord heard hoofsteps on metal stairs heading down through his neck and into his chest. "Woozies! There's a basement and everything in here! You really should think of renting this out, Dizzy."

"My name is NOT 'Dizzy'!" Discord replied. "Now, would you kindly remove yourself from my interior, Pinkie?"

"Sure thing! Keep your tail on!" Pinkie giggled, as he almost felt her bouncing back up the 'stairs'. Then there was a scrape, a screeching sound, Pinkie let out a squeal of panic, there was the sound of metal slamming against metal, breaking glass, shattering crockery and many other sound effects. Then, as the sounds died away, Pinkie's voice was heard to say "Owwie..."

"I am almost afraid to ask..." Discord said to himself... then he noticed there was no sound from the Pink One, and no sign of her being around, either. Discord growled to himself. "There's only one pony who could do this... but I have already gotten rid of her..."

"What? Surely you don't mean Trixie?" Another familiar voice sounded out from the ruins.

Discord scoffed. "Of course not! And don't call me Shirley." Discord scolded. "Her illusions are good, but illusions are all they are. To conjure up the souls and spirits of ponies like that into their images... that requires true magical talent as well as skill and immense power." He replied. He turned about to see who he thought was Twilight Sparkle sitting behind him, on his throne. "And I am right, once again." Discord added.

"Maybe." 'Twilight' said back. "The main question still stands, Discord. Why? We offered you your freedom. You could create chaos... albeit in limited forms, but you wouldn't have been frozen in stone any longer. We even offered you our friendship. But all you did was..." She sighed. "Or did you even bother to have a reason any longer?"

Discord crossed his arms over his chest. "Freedom..." He said in a scoffing tone. "You have no idea what the word truly means, Twilight Sparkle. You have such power, more than Celestia or Luna, and yet you play the dutiful student..."

"Daughter." 'Twilight' slipped in.

"...To Celestia..." Discord frowned. "Daughter?" He asked.

'Twilight' nodded. "I was Celestia's surrogate daughter, I found out recently. I went from being a student to holding a place in her heart almost as dear to her as Luna is." 'Twilight' smiled happily. "Do you know what that feels like, Discord? To be loved by somepony so much that they love you as if you were born to them?" she asked.

Discord frowned. "I don't really care." He replied.

"Are you so sure of that?" 'Twilight' asked.

Discord snorted with derision. "I need no-one and nothing, Twilight Sparkle. All I need is the feeling of chaos around me, and others reacting to it. If you'd get that broomstick out of your plot and climb out of Celestia's shadow, you'd realise that you are as capable as I am of making things work the way YOU want them to... and you wouldn't need Celestia to lean on."

To Discord's surprise, 'Twilight' chuckled. "I understand better than you might think." She said. "But was it worth it?" She asked Discord. "What good is your chaos... if there's nopony to appreciate it?"

Discord snorted again. "I made my decision." He said. "And besides, I couldn't change things if I wanted to. That's the price of the spell I used. It is irreversible until it runs its course." Then he glared at 'Twilight'. "That's why I will ask you once, Twilight Sparkle: How did you break my spell and return here?"

'Twilight' smiled and shook her head. "I can't tell you what I don't know." She answered.

Discord frowned. "Very well. Then I shall send you back there..." He said to 'Twilight'. "Let's see if you can return again..."

"For five score, divided by four..." Discord began...

...And Stellar just smiled a wicked smile...

= = = = =

Jessie jerked awake as her phone went off next to her. She picked it up and said "Talk to me."

"We're just turning off the freeway now." Curtis' voice sounded in her ear.

"Okay. I'll be waiting in the Square down the road from my place. It's pretty much just outside the south section of the main beach area." Jessie told him.

"Will do. See you in twenty." Curtis said, before signing off.

Jessie grinned and got up. Grabbing her handbag and keys, she headed out to her ute and drove out, heading for the heart of Noosa.

=======

Curtis looked at the others. Rusty was still awake, but the twins had fallen asleep in the back. Curtis noticed Rusty had been very quiet for a long time, which wasn't like him. "Something on your mind, Bro?" He asked softly.

Rusty sighed. "I just wonder where all this is headed." He replied. "Your partner Jessie sounded like she knows a lot more than we do about this."

"Yeah... that's been bugging me a little, too." Curtis admitted. "But driving put it out of my head. You know what I'm like when driving at night."

"Yeah. All concentration." Rusty agreed, chuckling. "I just hope that whatever we change into, we can live with it."

"Not like we have a choice." Curtis replied.

"There's always a choice." Rusty said back. "The big thing is having the courage to grasp what you choose and run with it, without reservation or regret."

Curtis chuckled. "That's not the first time you've said that." He replied.

"Nope." Rusty agreed. "I told you that the day you signed up for the Academy, remember? You were so fracking nervous about taking the plunge. I told you that, and then you strode up there and laid your name down on that recruitment form... and you never looked back."

Curtis smiled as he remembered that day. It had been the biggest change in his life, for sure, but it had felt so right once he'd signed up. Even now, he'd never felt so sure about anything in his life... and it was about to be taken away from him by forces he could barely comprehend. But Curtis shoved his uncertainty down inside him. He couldn't think about that at this moment. There'd be time enough for being uncertain later, once he had as many of the 'facts' as any of them knew.

Rusty chuckled. "I know that look." He said to his brother. "You've just shoved everything deep down and decided just to attend to the task at hand."

Curtis chuckled as well. "Can't do much else at the moment, mate." He replied. "Can't make heads or tails about anything without the facts... and we have hardly any of those at the moment."

"Too true." Rusty sighed. "I guess we'll find things out when we're safe and relaxed."

Curtis nodded. "And at least we have a place where that will be a reality, thanks to Jessie."

"Yeah... which begs again the question; How much does she know and how?" Rusty asked.

"I guess we'll know when we get there." Curtis replied, as he checked his Sat-nav and turned off at the next corner.

=======

Jessie arrived at the Square near the Park entrance and waited. By this time, her hair-slash-mane had fully changed color, she'd noticed, and her human ears were gone, she could see in the vanity mirror of her ute. Pony ears in purple took their place. She swivelled them to practise their range of movement, and grinned as she saw them do as she directed them to do. Then Jessie remembered the dream... and her old name came to her mind, as well as a number of memories about her Family back in Equestria. She sighed happily as she assimilated them all, and waited for Curtis to arrive.

The streets of the community were almost empty this early in the morning, so when a big four-wheel-drive turned down the hill esplanade towards the square, Jessie rightly guessed it was Curtis. She blinked her lights twice, then once more, and the other vehicle did the same. Jessie started up her ute and pulled out in front of Curtis' Landcruiser, and she led him out to the park entrance and beyond it.

In the back, Sharrah snorted. "We there yet?" She asked in a sleepy voice.

"Almost." Curtis replied, as he drove after Jessie's ute. Sharrah gave Sarah a shake, and she yawned widely.

Curtis followed Jessie along until she showed him where to park, then she went around the house and parked on the other side. As the four newcomers tumbled out of their big four-by-four, Jessie stepped out and walked over to Curtis. "Hey, Partner. Good to see you made it."

"At this time of morning, it wasn't hard." Curtis said. In the light of the Moon, Jessie could see Curtis' hair was changing from it's dirty blonde to two shades of aquamarine, one lighter than the other. His smooth locks were also straightening up and heading for a mohawk-style look.

Jessie grinned at that. She had a fair idea of who she was looking at. "Okay. Girls in here, you guys can have the bungalow beside us." She told them as she led Sharrah and Sarah into her family's bigger house.

"Hey, not bad." Rusty said as he headed inside the smaller beach-house. "Bet this place has a great view."

"Yeah, it does, right over a very special beach." Curtis grinned at Rusty.

"Oh? What's so special about it?" Rusty asked.

"You'll see in the morning." Curtis told him. "By the way, is your hair turning black?" He asked his brother.

"Probably." Rusty replied. "Yours is going aquamarine."

"Don't remind me." Curtis said back as he put his first load of bags down.

=======

Jessie helped Sarah and Sharrah bring their things in and put them in two of the other rooms. "Hey, is that hair natural?" Sarah asked Jessie.

"Nope. Started changing just last night." Jessie replied. "Looks like your hair's changing as well."

Both the girls looked embarrassed. "Well, yeah." Sharrah said.

"So... Curtis said you might know what's happening to us?" Sarah asked.

"And that it's happening to you, too?" Sharrah also asked.

Jessie nodded. "Yep." She dropped her jeans down to show off her cutie-mark: A large tower-shield with two crossed swords and a large six-pointed star with wings. There were three other smaller elements, consisting of a sun-disk and crescent-moon on the swords' cross-guards, and a little jewel-faceted heart on the top of the shield.

"Wow! That's really... complex." Sharrah commented. "I've just got this." She showed them what looked like a five-pointed star with a comet's tail.

"And mine's just these three insects." Sarah showed Jessie her cutie-mark.

Jessie felt that she should know their marks, but nothing came to mind yet. "Yep. You're changing like me."

"Is that why my hair's gone this wierd light-green?" Sarah asked Jessie.

"It's called 'Sky-green', Sarah." Jessie told her.

"Mine's just..." Sharrah began, then just lost what she was going to say.

"Looks like a bluish-white to me." Jessie opinionated.

"Yeah! That's it." Sharrah agreed.

Then Sarah peered at Jessie. "What IS that in your hair?" She asked.

"Oh, these?" Jessie moved her hair around to show her pony ears. "These are my new ears. You'll get them, too."

"They... they look like horse's ears." Sharrah commented.

"Bingo." Jessie replied, grinning. "We are, in fact, becoming ponies... but not ponies from Earth."

"Alien ponies?" Sarah asked.

Then you could almost see a light go on in Sharrah's brain. "Oh fuck." She said softly. "We're becoming Equestrian ponies, aren't we?"

"Huh?" Sarah asked.

"You know, Sis! From 'My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic!" Sharrah reminded her sister.

Sarah snorted. "Yeah, as if." She scoffed.

"Actually, Sharrah's right, Sarah." Jessie confirmed. "That's exactly what we're becoming."

"But... but that's crazy!" Sarah exclaimed.

"So is changing species, but we're doing it." Jessie countered. "But that's not the worst part."

"If it's not... then what is?" Sharrah asked.

"Tell me... what do these words mean to you?" Jessie asked, then said "Five score, divided by four..."

Both Twins' jaws dropped as their brains siezed up...

=======

Curtis looked about at the interior of the bungalow. It was really homey and snug, he felt, more than the bigger house their parents owned. Rusty had already taken over a room and was sleeping in his underwear on the bed. Curtis just closed the door and shook his head as he went into the other bedroom.

He looked at himself in the big mirror the bedroom contained. His hair was even more changed now, with the color slowly creeping down towards his scalp, in reverse, which was practically impossible. His hair was also standing up now in the middle, and was falling out gradually at the sides, the bald sections slowly creeping up his head. He slowly got undressed to his underwear and looked at the tattoo on his hip-thigh. It still looked like a grey cloud with a golden lightning bolt coming out of it... and he couldn't shake the feeling that he'd seen something like it before.

Then something caught his eye, and he peered closer to the mirror at his face. His dark-brown eyes were gone, the color now was a sunburst-gold. He shook his head, then looked again. Nope, they were the same color. "What the hell is going on...?" He asked himself. He ran his hands up either side of his hair, and it stayed upright. "Dammit... it IS a mohawk... or..." Curtis growled. "SO not going there." He said to himself. He slid on a pair of shorts and a shirt, then went outside.

The night was still, without a cloud in the sky. It was mild weather, too, the nights not so cold as yet, with the Summer weather still hanging around through Autumn. He saw a single light was on in the other house, so he walked over and knocked quietly. "Come in." Said a soft voice from inside. Curtis walked in to find Jessie sitting at a computer, pictures on the screen.

"Hey, Jessie." He said softly. "The girls in bed?" He asked.

Jessie smiled back at Curtis. "Yeah. I zoned them out something bad, and they just went to bed after that.

Curtis chuckled. "How'd you do that?" He asked.

"I told them what we were becoming." Jessie answered.

Curtis frowned. "So... you know?" He asked.

"Not specifics, yet." Jessie told him. "For example, I think I know who you'll become, but the girls are a mystery to me still. I'm doing some research now, to see if I can match their cutie-marks with their appearances." She explained.

Curtis nodded. "Okay... so what are we becoming?" He asked.

Jessie turned around to face Curtis. "Have you ever paid attention to a TV show called 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic'?" She asked.

"Um... not really." Curtis replied. "I have seen the odd episode, but never really paid that much attention to it. I do remember it was a great deal better written than a lot of the other cartoons made at the same time."

Jessie nodded. "That's because the episode plots were mostly taken from real life. The lives of ponies from another reality, where a good deal of what we see on the show is real." She told Curtis.

Curtis was stunned at this. "I... presume you're speaking from experience." He guessed.

Jessie nodded. "Curtis... we're all from that reality. Not all humans, but you, me, your brother, and everyone else getting a cutie-mark and changing." She told him. "The only differences between myself and the rest of the ponies is that I have memories of those times, and that I'm an alicorn."

Curtis pulled over a chair and sat down. "Okay... assuming this is true, why don't I have these memories?" He asked.

"You'll find you will, eventually... at least one sequence: What happened to you before you were sent here." Jessie revealed to Curtis.

Curtis nodded. "Okay..." He said. Then he noticed Jessie grinning at him. "What?" He asked.

"Your ears are coming in." She replied.

Curtis' eyes widened, then he reached for his head... and felt the small equine ears emerging from his head, his human ears having almost shrunk to nothing. He opened his mouth to say something... and nothing came out.

Jessie moved to Curtis, wheeling her chair to him, and put a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, Curtis. I know you're freaking out inside at the moment. Believe me, if I didn't know what was happening and why, then I'd be freaking out even more than you at the moment." She said softly to him, then gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Curtis' jaw snapped shut and he blinked with surprise. "Uhh... thanks." He then said.

Jessie grinned. "You don't know how long I've been waiting to do that for." She said.

"Really?" Curtis asked, looking more stunned.

Jessie nodded her head. "I've had a huge crush on you, ever since we were partnered, Partner." Jessie admitted. "But regs being what they are, I wasn't allowed to tell you, of course.'

"Yeah... that sort-of thing's not on, right?" Curtis agreed.

"Not in the Service, no." Jessie smiled. "But we're not going back now, are we?"

Curtis grinned and chuckled. "I guess not. Not as... ponies?"

Jessie nodded. "Ponies." She replied. "From the land of Equestria."

Curtis nodded, still a little confused. "Tell me about it." He said, but seriously.

"We'll watch some of the episodes in the morning, once everyone's awake." Jessie answered.

"Fair enough." Curtis said. "So, how come you still have memories, more than the rest of us?" She asked.

"Because I knew what was coming, and prepared for the spell that sent us here." Jessie explained further. "Now, I don't have all my memories yet. Most of them, like the spells and magic I knew, are still hidden from me. But when I confronted the bogan that did this to us, he thought I was my twin sister, and used the wrong spell on me."

"Wrong spell?"

Jessie nodded. "Each version of the spell Discord, the bogan, used on us alicorns was individualised for us... to an extent." Jessie explained. "So when Discord used the spell he'd used on my sister to send me here, it didn't quite work as it was supposed to. A protective spell on my mind managed to keep a good deal of my personal memories from being completely suppressed, and certain personal items I usually carry with me everywhere will be available once I fully change and get my memories back. Once I fully become myself and get my spells and gear back, I'll be able to start my mission here."

"Which is?" Curtis asked, as his ears flicked, having fully-grown-out by now.

"To find ponies in really bad situations and free them." Jessie said. "As an alicorn and a member of the Royal Guard, it's my duty and responsibility to protect ponies from any and all threats. So that's what I'll be doing here: Finding ponies in dire trouble and getting them to safety."

Curtis chuckled. "No wonder you became a cop here." He said.

"And it's no surprise you became one as well... Thunderlane..."

Curtis heard the name and his mind froze...

=======

Thunderlane looked about as the Wonderbolts were diving on Discord, trying to distract him so the Royal Guard could bring him down... the commanders Gallant Heart and Flash Sentry were doing their best to direct operations on the fly, but without Captain Shining Armor, their actions were just that little bit less coordinated, and Discord was taking full advantage of that. Thunderlane gestured to some of the other Wonderbolt recruits, and waved them over.

CloudChaser had somehow managed to find her sister Flitter, and the twins came over with twenty other Wonderbolt recruits they'd collected together. "Thunderlane! What are we gonna do?" Flitter asked.

Thunderlane looked about, then had an idea. "Get as many other pegasi as you can here! We're going to form a thunderhead and give that bastard Discord a real shock!"

The recruits grinned and saluted, even Flitter. "Aye Sir!" They replied and headed off. Eventually nearly two hundred weather-trained pegasi had joined them, and they started gathering clouds from every direction, piling them up in a big formation. Thunderlane could see that the Wonderbolts' numbers were being depleted, as were the Guards, but there were no bodies to be seen. Then he saw Discord grab Commander Sentry and grin menacingly at him, chanting something, and Flash Sentry just vanished in a flash of white light.

"Mother of Celestia above!" Thunderlane said, not believing what he was seeing. He shook his head and turned to the others as they formed a huge dark cloud-mass right over Discord. "Okay! We're gonna push this right down over him and compress it!" He told them all. "That should get a really large bolt to hit him right where it hurts."

"Yeah!" they all shouted, and took up positions. As Discord made Spitfire and Soarin vanish, the cloud dropped over him before he could grab anypony else, and they compressed the cloud right down around him. It darkened to black and there was a huge flash within. There was, indeed, a scream from Discord, and he shot up out of the cloud, his tail on fire. But before the pegasi could cheer, he managed to grab CloudChaser and Flitter and vanish back into the dispersing cloud. There was a brilliant flash and Discord emerged from the cloud alone, smiling maliciously. His hand shot out and grabbed Thunderlane, dragging him down towards himself.

"I have to admit, that was a very gutsy move, Thunderlane." Discord said, his voice sounding impressed. "But it won't save you or the other pegasi."

"Leave my brother alone!" A very young voice said, as a small pegasi colt shot out of the ruins and bit down on Discord's thumb, making him howl.

Discord almost dropped Thunderlane, but his tail grabbed the little colt and brought him up to Discord's face. "My, we are a feisty one, aren't we?" Discord asked.

"Rumble!" Thunderlane said, worried sick now that his little brother was here, on the battlefield, instead of safe wherever the ship that had left with the foals had been heading...

"Aww... now, I am not that heartless that I would separate siblings, so..." He put them both in one hand, and started to chant "For five score, divided by four..."

=======

Author's Note

Hello, everypony!
As you might have guessed from the title, this is my attempt at a Five Score, Divided by Four (5S/4) story. It's still a work in progress, so bear with me.
And yes, I know there's stories out there for Thunderlane, Rumble, Flitter and CloudChaser, but I have been told that the characters can be used in different stories, and I liked the foursome interacting with Stellar, so I'm using them.
So sit back and enjoy the ride, and let's see what I can piece together...
NOTE: while this is a sidestory, and I'm not really trying to say it's canon for the story outline, I'm hoping I can merge it into parts of the main story and maybe some others (if i get permission) with Stellar eventually linking up with Twilight and the Mane Six. After all, being Twilight's twin, of course Stellar wants to see her...
Please leave comments. If you don't, I can't see if I'm doing things properly or not...

PS! ten points if you can figure out what tune goes with the words Fluttershy is singing...