Welcome to Batstralia

by Damaged

Rating: teen
Tags: Human, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Pie Sisters, Drama, Original Character, Bat Pony, Maud Pie, Pinkie Pie
Length: 158996

A mare and her foal. A human family. A buck-load of magic. They are all coming to a sleepy little town.

Welcome one and all to Cowwarr, a sleepy little town in south-eastern Australia. Strange things have started happening, but it's all okay, the new school teacher just arrived and soon the new doctor will be getting here. Just don't mind how folks look around here, something odd happened. Something magical.

This story has a lot of backstory and world-building behind it, as well as a huge plot ahead of it. Sit down, strap in, and relax with a beer (or apple juice for the foals), this will be a long ride.

Art by the wonderful Ghostly Muse.

See This Blog for licensing.

Published 2016-12-28 22:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2018-05-23 21:53:43 UTC

When "yet" Comes

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken Equish, everything else is in English.
Why the swap around? This chapter is from the point of view of a human, not a pony!

"Are we there yet?" Robin said, for—what felt to Mike like—the thousandth time. Their mother, Joyce, gave a sigh and gripped the steering wheel of their car a little tighter.

Leaning over to his little sister, Mike cupped his hand close to her ear. "Okay, you ask again at the next sign, then we swap, right?" When she nodded, Mike Robertson grinned like a fiend. He had only to wait now.

It had been a long drive, four full days from Brisbane, then a final two hours out to the nearest major town. When Joyce had turned down a single-lane road, everyone in the car had seemed surprised. That was nearly an hour ago.

"Are we there—" Robin had the biggest, cheesiest grin on her eight-year-old face. It dropped when her mother spun around and glared at her.

Joyce had clearly had enough. "We're not, Robin Cassie Robertson, and you—"

"Mum, truck." Mike pointed. When his mother spun back around and swerved off to get half the car onto the gravel shoulder, he grinned. "Seriously though, how much longer?" 'Totally not going to take my turn, mum would tie me to the roof of the car the rest of the way if I did.'

The big cow-filled truck sped past in the opposite direction, blowing the glorious smell of manure through the old Ford station wagon.

"Aw mum, that's horrible. You should excuse yourself." Mike was proud of his joke, and despite her obvious annoyance, his mother laughed. "It's no time to laugh, you should say 'I am sorry' or 'please excuse me.' " Mike was struggling to keep a straight face now, the combination of smell and his jokes starting to get to him.

"Michael, you have been watching way too much Python." Joyce turned the wheel so the car followed the road, curving toward a bridge ahead. "Okay, this is the oldest one yet." She slowed the car down and eased onto the narrow, wooden bridge.

"Okay, I can understand this isn't Brisbane, it isn't even Melbourne, but where the heck are we going to be living, mum?" Mike leaned out his window, almost able to see down into the mostly dry waterway under the bridge.

"Look, we're here." Joyce gestured at a sign ahead that read "Cowwarr."

"Are we there yet?" Mike lifted his hand and gave his little sister's a high-five. "Sorry mum, couldn't resist. So what are we going to be living in? A house? Paper bag? An 'ole in the ground?" Mike took a little moment to stop giggling quite so much. "So how do I even pronounce that? Cow war?"

"Cowahh." Putting on a bit of an extra drawl, Joyce got yet more giggles from her kids. "I guess the 'General Store' is as good a place to ask around as any." She flicked the indicator on the old white car and turned in to park out the front of the little shop.

"My legs don't work!" Robin pushed her lower limbs around her hands. "Help mum!" The girl was laughing her head off, and more so when Mike leaned over and started tickling her for all he was worth.

"Out, you two. Stretch your legs while I get directions." Pointing at the shop, Joyce left her children to take care of each other.

"Mike…" Robin's words got her brother's attention. "Is that… what does that even…" She trailed off, hand pointing.

Turning to his sister, Mike followed her hand. His eyes widened and he couldn't help but stare at the little, winged pony as it trotted along into the shop. "Was that a… a little horse, with wings, going into the shop?"

"I think so." Robin turned to her brother, her face the very image of young excitement. "That was a pony!" She started bouncing in place, the car so full of their stuff that it didn't rock at all. "A pony!"

Mike was already out of his door, leaving the confines of the car behind he walked slowly up to the shop and waited on the footpath. Sure enough, the little pony came out first, with his mum right behind her. "Uh, mum?"

"You didn't let your sister out?" Joyce looked to see her daughter climbing over the seats of the car, the child-locked door stopping her from getting out easily. "I spoke to Bob, it was lucky Misty came in, we're going to be sharing a house with her and her mum."

"Misty?" Mike blinked at his mother, then at the little horse that walked around her legs. "Misty?" The word was stuck, Mike couldn't seem to say anything else.

"Uh, g'day!" The little horse lifted a wing and waved. "My name's Misty Rainfall." She looked up at Joyce and then back to Mike. "Come on, I bet I can beat you!"

Mike blinked, then blinked again. He tested his legs and grinned. "Bet I'll win… where are we g—" He was cut off as the little horse took off at a gallop. "Hey! No fair!" Heart pounding in his chest, Mike ran for all he was worth. 'I must be mad. That's what the problem is. I've gone crazy, a tiny talking horse with wings just challenged me to a race and I am now trying to outrun… her?'

"Catch up!" Misty teased, giving her wings a little flap to keep traction as she rounded a corner into one of the town's few side-streets. Mike saw her look both ways before she dived across the road, hooves not even touching the ground. ""

Mike saw another horse, bigger than Misty, look out the window of the modest-sized house. "How… how many of you're in the town?" He jogged the last bit, catching up to Misty just as she reached the front door of the house.

"Just me and mum." Misty beamed at Mike. "Better luck next time!"

An overwhelming urge to pick the little horse up and hug her almost took over Mike, but months of finely-honed teenage sensibilities kept him from it. "Uh, sure."

His little sister, on the other hand, was not a teenager yet. "PONY!" Robin was running as fast as she could right at Misty. She had her arms out and didn't look to be slowing one bit. When Mike moved in and caught her mid-charge she protested loudly. "Let me go! I want to pet the pony!"

"Her name is Misty Rainfall. This is where she lives." Mike stared at his sister until Robin pouted. "Hey Misty, you like hugs?" He turned his head and saw the little horse nodding. "One mega-hug incoming then."

The moment Robin was free she rushed up and then stopped. "You can talk?" The question seemed to short-circuit her brain. "But ponies don't talk…"

"She is a magical pony, aren't you Misty?" Mike was out of view of his sister, and nodded exaggeratedly at Misty.

"Oh… oh yes!" Misty spread her wings, giving them a flap. "I am magic pony!"

"A magic pony who will get on big trouble if she doesn't introduce me." The bigger pony walked out the front door. "Now, who are these nice people, dear?"

Misty blinked, looked from the pony that was obviously her mother, then back to Mike and Robin. "Uh, he… uh…"

"Mike, sorry. I challenged your daughter to a race and I think we both got carried away." Mike couldn't stand seeing Misty down. "And this is my sister, Robin."

"You must be Candela." Joyce walked up behind her children, smiling at Mike's little lie to protect the little pony. "I am Joyce Robertson. Bob said we were going to be sharing this house?"

Candela perked right up and smiled brightly. "Oh yes, the doctor! I am pleased to meet all of you… uh…" she looked around Joyce at the car, "all. Why don't you come on. I just put the kettle in." Candela turned, swishing her tail a little as she reentered the house.

"" When Misty chased in after her mother, Mike realized that some of the words were the same as the odd ones she said before.

"Sure Candela." Joyce looked at her two children with a little worried glance. A bit quieter, she added, "And you two be on your best behavior, Candela and Misty might not look like everyone else, but just because they are a little short and… odd-looking, doesn't mean you shouldn't be—"

"Mum, it's cool. I've never seen talking ponies before, but I think I can handle it." Mike had a tight hold on Robin, his sister fighting with him to charge into the house blindly.

"Michael, be nice. Don't call them names." Joyce gave her son a tight look before heading inside, leaving her children standing, staring at her back.

"Something really strange is happening here, Spud." Mike dropped down into a crouch. "I don't think mum sees them… maybe they are magical?" Using his old nickname for Robin got his sister's attention.

"What do you mean?" Robin looked into her brother's green eyes. "Don't say that, that's scary."

"It's true." Misty trotted up to the two. "Only other foals can see we properly. Mum says she don't know how works." She reared up and put forelegs around both the astonished siblings, pulling them into a hug. "Don't worry, us aren't naughty ponies. Mum teaches!"

"Candela is the teacher here?" Mike could hold back the urge no more, he reached one arm up and around the adorable pony and hugged her and his sister. "So what cool stuff happens in town?"

"Mike! Magical ponies ARE the cool stuff that happens in town." Robin squeezed her brother and Misty. "So… uh…" Slowly slipping from the hug, Robin looked around. "Is there anything to do?" She tried desperately to avoid her big brother's glare. "Oh, oh! Do you have a trampoline?"

Looking to Mike, Misty shook her head. "No trampo… what was that word?"

"I knew it! You're learning English." Mike shook his mop of brown hair as he pumped a fist. "It's trampoline. A big net-thing you bounce on."

"Oh, a !" Misty giggled and pointed at their car. "We don't have one of them and… yeah, it took we days get to Stonecrop, then we came through the magic mine to here, and no one speaks Equish!"

Mike gave a laugh, walking slowly to the car. "Equish? Never heard of Stonecrop. I guess if we're moving in with you, we might as well start bringing stuff in. Spud, front and center!" It was odd for Mike; up until arriving here, he had been in a bit of a downer. ' "A typical teen," the counselor at school said. Pfft, this place is a thousand times more interesting than there, and I've only met two people… ponies, here.'

Misty watched Mike walk around and pull something in the front of the car, only for the back of it to open and lift up. "Oh, that's neat. There is a lot of cool stuff here." She trotted around to the back, only to jump to the side when a box started falling out all on its own.

"Whoa, steady. This stuff has been packed in like sardines for days." Mike grabbed the box before it or Misty could be hurt. "Spud, this is your stuff, of course." He passed the box down to Robin.

"Oh, my toys?" Robin took the box before realizing it wasn't actually her thing. "Hey, this is mum's stuff!" She glared at Mike. "You cheater!" When she saw him grab two boxes as big as the one she had, she shut up quickly and started walking for the house.

"What's it like where you're from, Misty?" Mike turned to follow Robin, hauling the heavier load along. 'Maybe I really am insane, and I am locked up in a cozy little rubber room, talking to imaginary friends… man I've a vivid imagination if that's true.'

"I grew up at Cloudsdale at first. It is amazing. A whole city built into clouds!" Misty spread her wings and flew a tight spiral around Mike. "They have to travel all over Equestria to give out the weather!"

"Equestria? Cloudsdale?" Mike snorted a laugh. "Sorry, go on. You said 'at first'?" 'Nope, my mind isn't this twisted and crazy. I couldn't make all this up. Which means this is real, I am moving in with a family of cute little ponies. Cool.' "Hold on, you said it a little wrong. 'I grew up in Cloudsdale,' is right."

"Right, 'in,' got it." Misty blinked a little, looking to be absorbing the knowledge like an adorable little sponge. "So then mum needed to learn teaching in," Misty giggled, "Canterlot."

"Yup, you got it right then!" Mike heard his sister yelling out for their mother. "Hold on, let me find out where we're putting our stuff. If you want, I would love to learn Equish, if you want to teach me?"

"Really?" Misty started bouncing with excitement. "Then us can both learn each others' words!" She was so excited, she almost tripped Mike, who managed to stop before dropping boxes or stepping on a filly.

" 'Then we can both.' " Mike shook his head at the little pony's excitement. "Okay, those words you said when we were running, what were they?"

"Mike?" Joyce poked her head out of a room down the hallway. "Put all the things in here for now. The house is fully furnished, and Candela has gotten most of the things needed to keep house. All we need are bedclothes and a change of things for tomorrow."

"Right mum." Mike started walking down the hall, looking around for Misty. The sound of flapping behind him had him stop and look back at the hovering filly. "Neat trick. So, words?"

"I called out to mum. I think I said, '' Which means, 'Mum, mum, visitors.' " Misty flew along behind Mike's head. " is mum, got it?"

"?" Mike tried the odd word, it sounded a little hard to say and he was pretty sure he messed it up.

"No, . ." Misty giggled after she said the word as slowly as she could and still pronounce it properly.

Focusing on the word, Mike got his head around the slight inflection. "? Oh hey, I think that's right?"

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

Joyce came into the living room to find her son with Misty sitting on the couch beside him, talking together in a strange language. She stopped and listened for a moment.

Noticing his quiet mother, Mike half-turned on the couch. "Hey mum, what's up?" His brain was fizzing with excitement, practically grinding over all the new words and phrases he had learned in just one afternoon.

"I haven't seen you smile this much for over a year, my little Mikey." Joyce walked up and leaned forward to kiss her son's cheek. "I think this was the right choice, no matter how boring this place might be for your sister."

"Mum!" Mike tried to pull away half-heartedly. "You could have given more warning. I had friends." It was a halfhearted protest, they were friends in the sense that all of them wanted something from each other, the painful bit was always that he knew that and just wanted to be friends anyway.

"You already have a new friend here, and Misty doesn't try selling you things you shouldn't have." Joyce's words were firm. "You knew we were going to move once I finished my internship. So we moved. And here I get to do everything." Her voice softened significantly.

Mike knew this was his mom's dream, he knew how much it meant to her, which was why instead of voicing any more dissent, he reached up for a hug instead, and got it. "I know, I just didn't expect it to be so sudden."

Joyce squeezed Mike a little tighter. "When you're on the brink of being talked into doing something stupid, and Robin is at an age when everything her big brother does is the best thing ever, I didn't want to take a chance. Speaking of, where is she?"

As if on cue, Robin raced down the hall, wearing her pony hat, consisting of a floppy-brimmed hat with a pudgy, pink unicorn on the front. "Mum! Mum! Look!"

While Joyce picked Robin up and took her through to the kitchen, Mike turned his attention back to Misty. "." He started from the start. "?" It was rote learning, for now, but he really wanted to learn more.

"My name is Misty Rainfall, and I am happy I meet you, Mike." Misty giggled a little. "You need to work on ." She shook one of her wings a little.

They worked back and forth, Misty helping Mike with his pronunciation as much as anything, and Mike helping the little filly conjugate. They were so wrapped up in their impromptu learning that when Joyce called for them, for dinner, both jumped.

"Coming, mum!" Mike pushed up with a leg, getting upright easily and giving a stretch. "What do you normally eat?" He waited for Misty to get her legs unfolded and climb off the couch.

"Back home it would be flowers, fresh green vegetables and salads. Gotta eat light if I want to keep flying." Walking for the kitchen, Misty caught Mike watching her. "What do you eat?"

Thoughts of pork-chops, roasts of lamb, steaks, and bacon flitted through Mike's head. "Uh, probably the same." Dinner turned out to be a mix of vegetables, lightly grilled and well seasoned. Mike looked to Candela, then Misty, and realized this was likely to be standard fare. Part of him wanted to complain, to get upset about it.

"What's the matter, Mike?" Joyce looked at her son with a little concern.

"Nothing, mum." Mike took a deep breath and speared another deliciously cooked piece of carrot, before popping it in his mouth. 'Can I just leave that part of me behind?'

Author's Note

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Mary Rowland
Boulder
A.P.O.N.I.
Mephia
Nils
Ian

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Daremo
Vutava
Boulder
Jeffh4

Opened Eyes

Language check. Everything here is in English.

Joyce was already cooking dinner when her children, Candela, and little Misty came home. "In the kitchen!" she called, lifting the vegetables into the oven to bake. When Mike was the first through, Joyce was quick to approach him and pulled him into a hug. "How was school?"

"Aww mum…" Mike made his usual verbal protest, but hugged his mother back. "School was good. I can't believe it, actually…"

"I am actually getting a report from you on how things went?" Joyce was a little shocked at her son, in all his years since prep, he had never once said anything about school that was more than a noncommittal grunt. "This I have to hear. Oh, there's my little muffin." Reaching down with her left arm she pulled Robin into the hug too.

"Mum! Mum! There were so many ponies at school!" Robin practically bounced up and down. "There was Maud, she's really funny, and Pinkamena… their sister is Marble. Oh, oh! And Ball Clay is the same age as me!"

Joyce blinked a little at the information that almost made sense. "Ponies?" She felt a bit confused. "Like horses?" She caught Mike turn to Candela, and a significant look passed between them. "Okay, out with it, what is going on here?"

"Mum, look at Candela." Mike's voice sounded more serious than she had ever heard him. "Really look at her. Now, Candela, flap please."

"Flap?" Joyce felt more confusion, but a moment later she felt a breeze, a strange pulsing pressure of air that was like a big set of wings buffeting her. "What is…" She froze. "C-C-C-Ca—"

"Candela and Misty are pegasi, mum." Mike took her hand, grasping it tight in a way she really needed. "Look at them closely, they are ponies."

"N-N-N—" Joyce's other hand reached out to the woman who had shared her house for a month now. Soft fur was pressed to her fingers, she started to close them a little and feel a snout. "Pony?" The moment she said the word, she felt a pressure drop, like her ears popping. Standing before her, smiling, was the most colorful pony she had ever seen. Lovely yellow fur, with a vivid violet mane and tail, Candela was the strangest sight Joyce had seen in her life. She turned her head a little, and her heart melted. Misty Rainfall wasn't the little tiny girl she had been seeing, she was the cutest little filly, easily supplanting Candela as the strangest thing.

The world seemed to dim a little, Joyce blinked a few times and felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her, guide her to a chair. "M-Mike, what is going on? Why did Candela and Misty turn into… little horses?"

"We have always been ponies, Joyce." Candela's voice was the same, but it was so strange for Joyce to see it coming from a pony's mouth. "Something here is making adults see us differently, I promise we aren't doing this on purpose."

"Five," Joyce took a deep breath in, held it, and let it out. "Four. Three. Two…" She repeated the calming trick at each number and then smiled. "Okay, the world isn't spinning anymore." Joyce lifted her hand away from Candela and rubbed her forehead a little—closing her eyes. "So I have been the idiot in all this?" She didn't hold any accusation, she loved her kids too much for that, and liked Candela. Her brain chose then to poke the image of Candela and Misty, as ponies, into the front of her brain.

"You alright, mum?" Mike crouched down. "We're trying this with you, first. I figured out of everyone in town, you're the least likely to freak out that ponies are people too. Besides, mum, look at them."

Joyce turned and looked at her son. Lifting her hand, she rested it across his temple. The droll look he gave her when she "checked if he was alright" was worth her effort. "Okay, it isn't easy to understand exactly, but what is actually going on? I know there is nothing like you on Earth… that came from Earth."

Candela blushed. "I don't really know. We got here through a mineshaft. One second we were in Equestria, the next, there was electric," the mare looked to focus a little at the word, "lights, and humans."

"I think I will have to talk to some people about this." Joyce's mind raced. 'First option, hallucination. If that's the case, I am not sane enough to diagnose myself.' With the first thought crossed off, she pondered further. 'Second option, it's all real, I should accept what my eyes see and there are nice ponies living with us. Not really terrible, and it explains the vegetarian diet.'

"She's thinking, give her a bit more." Mike got up and checked on the oven, then started filling the kettle with water. "Mum always gets like this when she has a big problem on her hands, don't worry about distracting her, can't be done, but she'll be like this until she's happy with how things need to be, and th—"

"Okay." Joyce was aware that her son had been explaining things, but it didn't matter, she had a plan. "Tomorrow I have my first duty to attend to, for the town. But after that I am going to get to the bottom of this, and it all starts in the mine."

"Oh, uh… I'd meant to ask you, mum." Mike started pouring out cups of tea as he talked. "I knew I should ask you first before I do this, so here it is. Can I visit Maud and her sisters, on their farm, tomorrow?"

Joyce's mouth was opening, halfway to telling her son no, when she thought about it. "That… that would be a good idea, a reason for me to head up to the mines. What time were you going to go?"

Mike's excitement was plain on his face, but he managed to school it back to "normal teenager." Passing out cups of tea, he replied, "I was going to head out there in the morning, what were you going to be busy with all day?"

"A bunch of idiots standing out in the summer heat all day long, watching one or two of them hit a little ball around." Joyce's personal philosophy on sport was quite clear. "I just don't get why they don't play a more active sport all year round!"

"Mum, it's cricket. You know, national pastime, have to beat 'mother-England and her colonies,' and all that." Mike took the last cup of tea for himself. "So you're on duty, and when you're done, come to the mine and ask your questions… I will try not to be too late."

Joyce took the moment to sip her tea, the calming herb soothing stress, letting their little plan lock all its details into place. She looked at Candela and saw a wide smile on the mare's face. The little girl in her, that had played with pony toys, that had gotten into both veterinary and human medicine because all she wanted to do was help everything, returned the smile. "Please tell me you will come and keep me and Robin company at the cricket tomorrow?"

"Cricket being the ball game involving two teams, each trying to score the most 'runs,' by hitting a little ball the other team are desperate to interfere with?" Candela surprised Joyce with the question, but the mare got a nod. "Then I would be delighted, so long as you don't leave me there alone. This seems like the sort of thing stallions would flock to."

Joyce felt an instant rekindling of their friendship. "Huh, you got that right. Men."

"Hey, I happen to be one!" Mike sipped his tea, leaning against the counter. "Hold on, back this up. How did you find out so much about cricket?" He looked at his teacher with more surprise than accusation.

"Misty taught me how to use the computer at the school. I looked it up on Wikipedia. It's great. Like a whole library meant for looking up…" Candela gave a happy little sigh, "everything. And it has pronunciation guides, and I found a proper English pronunciation page!"

Stealing a look at her son, Joyce confirmed that this almost-manic enthusiasm for learning was a surprise to him too. "Well, that's good, Candela. I'd noticed your words were getting better." The tea was almost already gone, Joyce looked into the bottom of her cup mournfully, not spying much more tea. "How much longer do those vegetables have, Mike?"

"Fifteen more minutes, by the oven timer." Mike gulped down his tea and rinsed his cup out. "I'd better go do some homework. My teacher set me up with a pile and I doubt I am ever going to have another day off in my life." He rolled his eyes, grabbed his school-bag, and barely dodged the groans that chased him from the kitchen.

"He is just like a young stallion, so full of himself, wanting to see everything." Candela turned to Joyce. "If you don't mind me asking, what happened to his father?"

"He decided that a doctor can find a lot better prospects in a bed-partner, than a trained vet and student of medicine. I can't believe that such an…" Joyce wasn't sure why, but swearing felt wrong around the pony, then Steve's words came back to her, "arsehole, could be the father of two wonderful children. Of course, not that he spent any time helping raise them. It was all 'his' training, and 'his' career. I don't think he realized how hard it was to do all the same things he did, and care for—" She stopped, Candela's forelegs had wrapped around her neck and Joyce couldn't stop herself from hugging the pony back.

"I am sorry, not all stallions… or men, are like that. Look at Mike, over this week I've watched him fuss and care for a little filly who can barely stand to talk in front of strangers. She was telling jokes in the class, laughing…" Candela gave her human friend a squeeze.

"Is hugging so much a 'pony thing'?" Joyce wasn't complaining, she needed the hug right then. Candela started to pull away quickly but she gave the mare another squeeze. "It's sometimes a human thing too, but I don't think it's often enough. Thank you, I needed that."

Author's Note

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Mary Rowland
Boulder
A.P.O.N.I.
Mephia
Nils
Ian

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Daremo
Vutava
Boulder
Jeffh4

The First

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken English, everything else is in Equish. Mike (and the other kids/foals) are able to keep up a conversation reasonably well now, although they still have to fish for some words, parents are not doing so great.

Mike was up at dawn. The house was mostly quiet, just the sound of his footsteps and the odd noisy floorboard his companion. Wrapping a towel around his lower body he took control of the bathroom before any of the females of the house could attempt it. Locking the door behind him, he gave a happy sigh. "."

Running the bath, waiting for the water to run hot, Mike stuffed the plug in and poured in the bubble bath. The reaction in the water was almost instant, the tub began to fill up with bubbles, they would soon be spilling over the sides. Mike didn't care. Sloshing down into the bath, his mind fell back to when he was smaller, the exact same brand of bubble bath, the exact same smell. He slid down, his body making a hole in the bubbles enough that he could look through the tunnel of them and remember his friend, someone he thought he could trust. "Just some whizz, help you study, mate." The memory of the words made him shudder a little.

One word dug Mike out of that place, where his best friend was trying to sell him speed. "…" It was all too soon. They had packed up and moved, he hadn't even finished his schooling for the year. The door sounded like a little elephant was banging on it as hard as they could. "!"

"!"

Mike heard a muffled sound from his mother and smiled; she knew what this was all about. "!" And he was. The memory was a harsh one, but it wasn't one he wanted to dwell on. Maud and her sisters seemed more real to him than James felt, now, even the name of his former best friend didn't trouble him so much. "."

"!"

'She isn't going to stop. Still, at least I got some relaxation time.' Kicking with his legs, Mike pushed himself backwards, causing the water to splash a little as he made his exit from the bath. Toweling off, he spent the minimum of time on his hair before wrapping the towel back around his waist. The moment his hand touched the lock on the door, he was nearly hit in the face. Dodging back from the swinging door, he rolled his eyes at Robin. "."

"?!" Robin rushed to the shower and spun the taps on, when she got a good blast of hot water she turned to growl at her brother more, but he was already leaving.

Mike selected his clothes carefully, grabbing a jacket despite the heat outside. Stuffing the warmer clothing into his backpack, he checked on the two water bottles. "." Stuffing the little digital camera in his bag, he gave a nod. "."

Opening his bedroom door, Mike spotted the line at the bathroom, and grinned. "I think Robin should be just about done." He carefully walked around Candela and Misty, giving the latter a little rub on the shoulder. "Are you going to the game too?"

"Yup, Robin said it's going to be… what?" Misty looked up at Mike's rolled eyes. "What? Did she lie?"

"She didn't lie because she has never been to a cricket game before. I think she's a little bored here, and just wants something to do. Cricket… is a boring sport."Mike crouched down to a better level with the filly. "There is no telling her that. But she's going to get bored pretty quick, do you think you could help keep her busy?"

"That depends," Misty's eyes narrowed, "how boring are we talking? I mean, if it gets too boring I might fall asleep, then I can't promise anything." Misty closed her eyes when the finger poked her in the nose. "Stop that!"

"Nope, you're too cute." Mike tousled Misty's mane a little more. "There should be something to do there, otherwise I doubt anyone would go." Mike walked further down the hall, toward the kitchen. His mom was already up, making sandwiches.

Joyce tilted her head when she heard her son enter the kitchen. "." She pointed to a plate on the table, two pieces of French Toast on it. "."

Mike already lifted the first half-slice up and was crunching through the toast. "." He grinned at her exasperated look. Gulping down the first mouthful, he stopped. "." The remainder of the piece was soon chasing the first mouthful.

"." Joyce set a plastic container, packed with sandwiches, down on the table beside Mike. "—" She stopped at her son's wide grin. "?"

"?" Mike chewed his second piece of egg-infused sweet toast and grinned at his mom.

"." Joyce hugged Mike from behind. "."

"." Mike lifted a hand to cover his mother's, but when he reminded her of why they moved, she squeezed tighter. "." With a newer perspective, he could see all the reasons why she had pulled him away from his old friends. 'Mums are amazing like that…' An enthusiastic knocking at the front door broke the moment. "." Mike got up and made his way to the front door, as the knocking repeated. "…"

"Princess Mike's going to open the door for us!" Pinkamena's voice was clear and easy to hear through the door.

It was impossible for Mike to keep a wide grin from his face. "Well, if I'm your princess you need to do what I say." He pulled the door open, spotting all four of the Pie sisters together. "I'm almost ready… Hey, isn't it really early there?"

"Yes, really early." Maud looked up as Joyce came up behind Mike, carrying his backpack. "Oh, hello."

Marble ducked around behind Limestone, using the older mare as strategic cover against the unknown human.

". This is my mum." Mike gestured to each of the ponies as he introduced them. "." He gave a smile to the filly hiding behind Limestone.

Clearly having remembered how her son spoke to ponies "on their level," Joyce crouched down so she was almost eye-to-eye with Limestone, the biggest of the sisters. "." She ignored her son's groan. "."

"." Mike put a hand on Joyce's shoulder. "She said, 'You have to take care of me…' She still thinks of me as her foal."

Limestone looked up at Joyce, giving her a more passive look than normal. She just nodded to Mike's mother, eyes locked together.

"What are they doing?" Mike leaned down and gently elbowed Maud.

"Okay, let's go." Limestone looked around at her family, then to Mike. "Stay close, and nothing bad will happen." She stalked off, leaving Marble to crowd in between Mike and Pinkamena.

"Wait, bad? What bad stuff could happen in Equestria?" Mike reached a hand down to touch the filly's shoulder before straightening up to follow Limestone. "Hey, Maud, what does your sister mean?"

"Which one?" Maud's eyes danced with the mirth she was clearly trying to keep under her dry tone, but she couldn't keep it in for long and snorted with laughter. "Limestone is just a bit abrasive, like Calcite. She wouldn't let you come if she didn't like you."

The walk up to the mine took a good ten minutes, although it passed quickly with Mike talking to Maud and Pinkamena about their home. When the mine entrance loomed before them, all talk stopped. "So this is it?" Mike looked into the well-lit mine. "I don't know why but I thought it would be… something impressive."

"Come on, it'll be dawn soon." Limestone marched forward, taking the lead into the tunnel. Following her up, her sisters and Mike walked easily.

"The tunnel tilts down a little…" Mike held his hand out to the wall, touching the raw-cut stone. He glanced down and to the side and saw Maud was doing exactly the same thing. "This is amazing, to think they carved this by hand. How many picks did they blunt doing it?"

"I can feel them below us, deep below us." Maud's words were soft, reverential. "They're digging around some really hard ore… tin, I think."

A tingle ran through each of them as they passed the portal. It was impossible to see it, and when Mike looked behind him, he saw the tunnel reaching back upwards. "Was that…?" He looked at the little chemical light by the side of the tunnel, then looked back again. "That is really freaky."

"You should see it like this!" Pinkamena was standing right at the very intersection of worlds, half in and half out. Each of the filly's eyes was in a different reality, one Equestria, one Earth. "Wooo, I'm getting a headache! This is awesome!"

Mike moved first, reaching down and grabbing Pinkamena around the belly and pulling her across to the Equestrian side. "Hey, don't tempt the universe like that." He looked down at her and shook his head. "Come on Pinkie, you okay?"

Pinkamena shook her head a little. "Yeah, I just feel a little strange now, like… eh."

When Mike turned back, he saw a little smile on Limestone's face, and as soon as he did it evaporated and she marched off again. When they reached the end of the mine tunnel, Mike watched as the sun was just lifting into the sky. "Oh wow, does the sun always move that fast?" It seemed to rush almost an eighth of the way into the sky, then stopped. "Huh?"

"Princess Celestia always raises it like that." Maud was barely focused, she had managed to find a small round rock from somewhere and was stroking it like a pet.

"Hold on. Princess Celestia?" A round of nods met Mike's question. "Raises the sun, each day?" More nods. "Is… is she… Princess?" Mike paused, thought over what he said. "I don't think you really have a word for this. Uh… she's all-powerful?" He got nods, and giggles, now. "I think I'm starting off a lovely day on the road to a headache, too, which would be a shame. What else can I do in Equestria?

"We have rocks." Maud pulled her attention away from the rock. "Boulder and I could show you." She held up the small, round river stone.

"Hey, don't let me stop you. I just had to get you back here safely and…" Limestone closed her eyes and gave a deep sigh. "And take care of the crazy human. Okay, where are we going?"

Maud's eyes practically shone. "Holder—"

"No!" Limestone cut her sister off, then immediately looked like she regretted it. "Just… just keep away from Holder's Boulder." Limestone turned her sour look at Mike.

"Whoa, look, if it's somewhere special I don't have to see it." It was a lost fight. Mike looked from Maud, who apparently really wanted to show him this Holder's Boulder, to Limestone, who was more angry than he had ever seen her. "I won't touch, or go near Holder's Boulder. Cross my heart, hope to die. Stick a needle, in my eye." Mike looked around the four pony faces, one of them was staring at him in awe. "What?"

All the ponies stared at Mike, but Pinkamena seemed most interested.

Mike crouched down and looked at Limestone, looked her right in the eyes. "It's important to you, isn't it?"

Limestone collected her features. "Just… stay away—"

"From Holder's Boulder. Got it. But you have to promise me something." Mike saw confusion, then interest cross Limestone's face. "I want you to promise to tell me why it's so important."

"The only reason I agreed to this is because you're nice to Marble and Pinkamena." Limestone gave Mike a half smile. "Holder's Boulder… is just a big rock." She gave a sigh, letting out a held breath. "A really big rock, that Holder Cobblestone found in a dragon's nest. He built our farm around it, that was…"

"Eight generations back." Marble smiled nervously at her big sister.

"Yeah, a long time ago." Limestone led the way to the small pass that led between the mountains. "Come on, shouldn't take long to get there."

Mike blinked at the interaction. The mystery of it was more important to her than the actual rock. He felt a little bad about having pushed. "Hold on, dragon? There are dragons here?" He looked up. "What have I gotten myself into?"

"Don't worry, Mike, dragons don't hang around here… unless they're angry." Pinkamena tapped her chin as she walked. "They live waaaaaayyyyyy to the east."

"So they don't foalnap princesses?" Mike took the filly's description as a reason not to worry, and decided a joke was in order. "Because I have to say, being a princess means I'm a little worried about that…" All four ponies looked at Mike a moment in surprise, before they all started to giggle. "Finally!" His shout startled them.

"What?" Maud looked at Mike as they walked.

"I got Limestone to laugh!" He grinned at the startled mare. "Sorry, but I wanted to hear your laugh." Mike reached out and was just about to boop her, when she jerked back. "You can't evade me forever."

"Sure I can." Limestone gave Mike a final glare and trotted off down the valley, leaving the rest to follow her.

Chatting with the three fillies, Mike left Limestone to her own devices while they walked. When at last the valley let out to a huge plain, he stopped. "Rocks?"

"Lots of rocks. This is our rock farm." Maud seemed to brighten further. "We grow the nicest ones in that—"

"I thought you were joking. How do you farm rocks? Who buys them? What…" Mike was lost gazing across the dirt fields, strewn with stones.

Maud walked to the nearest field, reached out and picked up a small rock. "This one is going to be used in decorative gardens. But only if it grows a bit bigger." She set the stone back, right where she had lifted it from. "This whole field will."

"So you grow rocks. They actually get bigger…" Mike tried to keep the skepticism out of his tone. "Magical land of ponies, dragons, and princesses. Don't focus on the rocks."

"But the rocks are the best bit." Maud gestured at the field. "Rocks work different here than on Earth." She looked down. "Not this earth, your Earth."

"I got it, still not easy to really think about in detail. So what are we going to do?" Mike looked around, only for a bunch of hooves to grab his hands and drag him forward. "Hey!"

"Come on!" Pinkamena had one of Mike's hands in her hoof, Maud the other, and between them they dragged him toward the farm on the rise overlooking the farm. "You can meet ma and pa!"

Mike found it easy to be dragged along, there was so much excitement in the three ponies to easily make up for Limestone, and even she wasn't as down on him as normal. When they reached the farmhouse, the door opened and two very sombre ponies stepped out. Mike crouched down, finding himself almost down to their eye level.

"Mom, dad, this is Mike." Maud had a calm half-smile on her face as she introduced them. "Mike, this is mom and dad. They—"

"So this is the colt you keep talking about? My name is Igneous Rock Pie, and my wife is Cloudy Quartz." Igneous stared at Mike with the hardness his name implied, while Cloudy Quartz looked over the top of her glasses at him, studying the human.

"Sir, ma'am, it's an honor to meet you." The words came easily, both stallion and mare seemed, to Mike, to be lord and lady of their domain. "And please forgive any mistakes I make talking—"

"Yeah," Pinkamena cut in, "Princess Mike is still learning Equish." All three younger sisters giggled at the words.

"Princess?" Igneous raised an eyebrow, giving Mike a studying look. "Well, it wouldn't be right of me to not give you the friendliest welcome I could, so welcome to the Pie Rock Farm." He gestured to the side.

"We haven't seen a creature like you before, Mike." Cloudy lifted a hoof to carefully adjust her glasses. "Where exactly are you from?"

Maud almost bounced in place. "He lives with—"

"I was asking Mike, dear." Cloudy gave her excited daughter a stern look. "Now, where was it?"

"I live in the world on the other side of the mineshaft, with my mom, Joyce, and my sister, Robin, as well as our teacher, Candela, and her filly, Misty Rainfall." Mike tried to keep things calm and orderly, her friends' parents seemed quite severe, demanding of as much respect as they gave.

"All mares and fillies? I bet that is trying for a colt." Cloudy smiled a bit now, most of the judging look fading from her eyes. "Well, my fillies have had nothing but good things to say of you, all of them." She looked from Limestone to Marble. "Which was a little surprising."

"Have you ever worked on a farm before?" Igneous pointed at the fallow-looking paddocks, that were anything but fallow. When Mike shook his head, he grinned. "Then I can teach you some things, without you knowing the wrong things first."

Maud looked stricken, her eyes flicking from Mike to her father. Mike wanted to give her a hug, but he also wanted to make a good first impression. "I look forward to it, sir. I wonder if I might have somepony to help show me what to do?"

"Well, why don't we all go out." Cloudy Quartz smiled at her daughters. "Make a real day of working."

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

They were left standing on the edge of the field, the tiny little stones—each the size of a pea—sitting in neat rows. The crop was planted. Mike couldn't help the feeling of accomplishment spread through him, he had worked long and hard, but something important had gotten done.

"You're a good worker, Mike." Igneous turned and stood beside Mike. "If you ever need to talk to another stallion, you come out here."

Mike stared at Igneous, as the stallion walked away from him, and couldn't help but smile a little. Of course, his belly grumbling completely ruined the moment.

"The sound of young, growing ponies wanting their lunch." Cloudy clacked her tongue. "Come on girls, and of course you too, Mike. I had a pot of rock soup heating back at the house." She might as well have rung a huge gong, all the energy spent working the field hadn't seemed to deprive the Pie sisters, or Mike, at all; bolting back to the house, an impromptu race was started and run.

Panting by the time he reached the house, Mike had lost, in last place. "It's not fair, you all have twice as many legs as me." Though his words were griping, his smile was genuine. "What sort of rock soup does your mom make?" He followed Pinkamena inside, queuing up to wash for lunch.

"Slate, today." Maud had come in second, just behind Marble. She was washing her hooves beside her little sister. "Might have some sediment seasoning."

"Oh, oh, maybe little pebbles." Pinkamena seemed bright and happy, but leaned in to Mike, having to gesture for him to crouch by her snout. "Not all ponies can eat rocks, though. Will you be able to eat them?"

"Okay, there might be some intercommunication here." Mike looked around the sisters, reaching to rub Pinkamena on the shoulder in thanks. "Is this soup made with rocks, or vegetable soup heated by rocks, that you then remove?"

"Why would you remove the rocks?" Limestone had cleaned up and was on her way to the dining room to help prepare the table, it seemed. "The rocks are the best bit."

Mike looked at Pinkamena, she looked back with a wince of sympathy. He inhaled deeply and thought of the bubble bath. "I'll figure something out." He stepped up and washed his hands in the trough, scrubbing them clean and turning, the last to head into the dining room.

Limestone was pouring the soup into bowls, and making sure each got a large, flat piece of slate. She looked at Mike with a raised eyebrow and a half grin.

"Uh, just the broth, thanks. My teeth aren't really up to a good slate." Mike saw Limestone's smile widen. "I do have to ask, though, if I could have the recipe? Mom would actually yell at me if I didn't at least ask."

"Oh!" Cloudy flushed a little at the request. "Well, I will see what I can do." While she spoke, Limestone ladled out a bowl of broth for Mike, passing it down the table to where some room was left for him.

Taking his seat, Mike looked at the dark-green soup. 'Smells good, but there's only one way to tell how good.' He carefully lowered a spoon into the hot broth, then raised his spoon up. It was an odd taste. There was none of the usual vegetables in the mix, but there was certainly plants. Mike drank the soup, swirling it on his tongue before swallowing. "That is really different."

Cloudy was halfway through working up a good disapproving stare over her glasses, when Mike took another spoonful, then another, and another. She was smiling by the time his spoon dipped for the fifth time.

Mike worked his way through the soup, only stopping once his bowl was just little specks of grit at the bottom. "That was really good!" He was surprised with it, although he would have said it was good anyway, he found he actually meant it. "So what are we doing next?"

Crunching the rock from her soup, Maud waited until she gulped the rock down before answering. "I want to show you Holder's Boulder." She looked evenly across the table at Limestone, the challenge to argue against it laid down.

"Can I take a picture of it?" Mike got up and found his bag, and lifted out his camera. Thumbing the little device on, he froze. "Oh no… don't act up on me…" The screen lit up, but the picture seemed to warp and distort.

"What's that?" Pinkamena trotted over to Mike and looked at the screen of the little camera. "Oh, that's pretty… what does it do?"

"It's my camera. It should show a picture of—" Mike's description was cut short when the screen cut off completely. "Ugh, I wanted to take a photo of—of everything."

"Oh…!" Pinkamena sounded as if she were about to continue with a huge explanation of why Mike's camera wasn't working, why most electronics wouldn't, but the silence following her exclamation dragged on.

"Well, can we go and see it?" Mike suddenly had an excited Maud at his side. "You said it was found in a dragon nest?"

"Yes, although it's clear it isn't an egg. Not only is it much too big, but the layers of sediment built up around the base is a clear sign it's a really old rock." Maud led the way, her face more animated than ever.

'She really opens up when talking about rocks or her sisters.' "Hey, Maud. Do you have comedy… groups, here?" Mike followed her out the front door—at the opposite end of the house from where they had entered—and froze. "Oh wow, that is huge."

Limestone trotted over beside Mike, and gave a smile when he stopped back a good five feet from it. "It's pretty cool…" She stood back beside Mike and looked at the boulder.

"Everything just seems brighter here." Mike crouched down to get a better angle on the world, a more "pony" angle. "You said Princess Celestia raises the sun. How does she do that?"

"She's an alicorn, they have all kinds of magic." Limestone looked to Mike, her eyes focused. "Why, thinking of going to meet her?"

Mike judged the mare's lopsided grin to be a joke he wasn't getting. "Maybe I will, where does she live?" 'It would be pretty cool, I wonder what an alicorn looks like.'

Maud jumped in before her sister. "She lives in a castle, on the side of a huge mountain of granite, although I think there is some sedimentary rocks around the surface. I want to see the castle, and how it anchors into the rock."

"What's the easiest way to get there?" Mike ran his fingers through the dirt idly, finding small pebbles. 'Weeds.' He didn't even realize his brain was categorizing them as a type of plant, he started tossing some to the side, leaving others that seemed right.

"We would have to walk to the station near Ghastly Gorge, then take the train to Canterlot." Maud looked past Mike to her big sister. "Could we go?"

"It takes a day or two to get to Ghastly Gorge, then you will need to spend a day at the minimum, in Canterlot." Limestone gave a sigh and reached up to flick some of her mane to the side. "Then that much getting back here. I guess you could go—" She stared at her little sister, when Maud began to get excited. "But you have school. So maybe when you have your next holidays."

Mike sobered for a moment. "So I'll get to meet a princess?"

"The princess." Limestone gestured up with a forehoof. "She's the ruler of all Equestria, she raises and lowers the sun and moon…"

"And I can just see her? Talk to her? Isn't she… I don't know, busy?" It just seemed wrong, to Mike, that a leader of a whole country would just talk to people. "Okay then, first holidays we get. We should probably start heading back. The whole time thingy is… confusing. Is it going to be early evening at home?"

"Evening." Maud pointed in the direction they would have to go. "Do we have to go now?"

"Yeah, come on." Limestone was the first to get up. "Grab your bag, Mike, I'll take you home." She narrowed her eyes. "And keep away from Holder's Boulder." Her half-smile offset the words.

Mike took another good look at the boulder and turned, bouncing up to a standing position. He looked around the farm, taking in the sight of the fields of growing rocks, the silo beside the farmhouse, even the house itself. "This is really amazing. Is everywhere in Equestria this awesome, Maud?"

"Maybe. I really want to see that mountain, and I would give anything to travel all the way to the dragon lands, just to see a volcano." Maud walked at Mike's side.

Reaching the house, Mike grabbed his backpack and started walking back with all four of the Pie sisters. "So, what are we doing next weekend?" Mike secured the straps over his shoulders.

"We are coming to your house." Maud flashed a look to Limestone as she said it. "It's only fair."

"I'll ask mom for you." Limestone shook her head. "Besides, if he comes over every second weekend to help, I can afford a day off." As soon as they neared the town, they saw Ball Clay bouncing around a cart in the middle of the street.

"What's going on?" Mike strode forward, looking around for an adult to ask. No sooner did he near the cart than a mare came rushing out to him.

"You're Mike, right? Ball has been talking about you. Could you take these through to Candela? Apparently she ordered a lot of books to be forwarded here." When Mike blinked in surprise at the mare, she added. "Oh, we haven't met. I'm Porcelain Clay, Ball's mother."

Mike looked to the Pie sisters, each shrugging to him. "Uh, sure. I guess we can take them through." He looked into the cart and, sure enough, it was filled with books.

"I'll pull it." Maud moved quicker than her big sister, rushing to the cart's harness. She stood up under it, barely lifting the two shafts that hung on each side of her.

About to say something, Mike froze when the filly just started walking, pulling the cart and load without apparent issue. "Okay, that's pretty awesome, Maud." He gave Porcelain a wave. "Bye!"

"Goodbye!" Porcelain Clay waved back to Mike, smiling happily. "Thanks for taking them!"

"That's just Maud, she's really strong." Pinkamena trotted up to Mike side. "Are we really allowed to come to your house next weekend?"

"Sure." Mike's brain didn't register that he probably should ask his mother before agreeing, until after he had. "Uh, I should probably ask my mom first..."

"You should have." Marble took his other side, walking toward the mine beside the cart. "Let us know on Monday."

As they reached the mine, everyone could see the obvious problem, but Limestone was first to voice it. "The cart won't fit, we will have to carry them through. Mike, start loading them up on our backs."

"On your backs?" Mike blinked in confusion. "Uh, you can balance stuff like that?" Despite his questions, Mike peeled back the cover of the cart, revealing eight big boxes of books.

"Two for me." Limestone stepped up beside the cart, feeling first one heavy load, then another, plant down on her back. She adjusted herself under it, keeping both balanced. "Perfect. One each for the fillies." Pinkamena and Marble both gave a groan. "I mean it."

Mike gave Marble's shoulders a little rub, then set a box on her back, then did the same for Pinkamena. "You sure you're okay balancing those?" He held his hands to each side of Pinkamena's box.

Maud jumped up and looked in the cart. "There is four left. Stack three on me." She jumped back down and got into the position. Maud looked up with a frown when she wasn't feeling weight on her back. "Come on."

"Uh… okay." Mike looked to Limestone, and got a nod from her. Heaving up the first box, he set it down on Maud's withers. "You good with that?"

"More. We aren't making two trips." Maud's face showed not a hint of strain.

Mike set the second over her croup, then grabbed up a third. "Tell me if this is too much." He set the third box down atop the first two, keeping his hands near it in case he had to rescue it. "You really are strong, Maud. That is amazing." With a grin, Maud trotted away from Mike, to join her sisters. Lifting the last box of books out, Mike hefted it in his arms.

"Come on." Limestone started into the mine, leading their little literary procession. They were mostly silent until the crossover point. Stepping through, Limestone looked up the tunnel and spotted Mike's mother. "Mike, your mom's here."

Walking along with his friends, Mike watched his mom turn and spot them. With her back to the miner she had been chatting to, she winked to Mike. "—"

"!" Joyce stomped toward Mike. "?"

Mike recoiled in shock. "…" He saw her smile, but with his own face to the miners he had to look shocked and whipped. "."

"?" Joyce gestured to the boxes, obviously full of books.

"." Mike sat his box down and walked up to his mother, wrapping her in a hug. "?"

"." Joyce hugged her son back, giving an extra little squeeze. Letting go, she stared at Maud as the pony passed. "?"

"." Maud seemed to close down, her face going passive, her voice coming back in a monotone. "."

"." Mike hefted up his box again. "Thanks, Limestone. Mom was trying to get an idea, from the miners, how all of this started. I was her cover story."

"Huh, your mom is clever." Limestone started walking, her sisters, Mike, and Joyce all moving along too. "So you aren't actually in trouble?"

"Nope, well, if I've broken the camera I might be, but that totally wasn't my fault." Mike saw, as they exited the mine, that it really was early evening. "?"

Joyce blinked and looked around the ponies. ""

Mike picked up a hint of something from his mom. "." Then it hit him, he was going to have to explain everything about where they had gone—everything.

Author's Note

Marble: Bit of a prankster, hay? You do realize now I'm imagining you in fluffy edged pink oversized clown pants and suspenders now? (or purple PJ's, fluffy pink nightgown - can't find a clown pic, darn)

"Oh... uh... Mmhmm..." Marble trailed off her words, looking like she was ready to run.

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Mary Rowland
Boulder
A.P.O.N.I.
Mephia
Nils
Ian

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Daremo
Vutava
Boulder
Jeffh4

The Other Side

Language check. English all the way, no pony-speak at all! However (you knew it wouldn't be completely clear, right?) there is a lot of Aussie mashing of words, as well as some cricket lingo. I will leave you to google things, they are easy to find. :twilightsmile:

Cricket.

Joyce heaved a sigh. 'The worst part is, the only way I become "unbored," is if someone gets hurt.' She looked over to the focused pony at her side. "You seem to be enjoying yourself, Candela."

"It's like a game of hoofball, but need to have every kind of pony to play." Candela watched the amazing motions of a bowler, sending a spinning ball bouncing down the pitch. A crack of wood on hard-packed leather sounded and the red ball was sent hurtling. "Woo!" Candela jumped up, her forelegs on the fence and her wings fluffing.

Of course, the pegasus mare wasn't the only one cheering. Joyce looked around, watching the crowd that were very much into the game. On the fringes she could see people like her, dragged along, forced to be here, doing their very best to not become completely bored. "Have you seen the girls?"

Candela giggled. "I think you will find them over there." She pointed behind the little sports clubhouse, to the netball court. Misty and a group of human children—including Robin—were playing a game that involved throwing a ball to the pegasus to shove into a goal.

The rules seemed complicated to Joyce, but she figured them out. It was an individual game, where each human had to get the ball to one end of the court and back, then up to Misty to dunk. "Well, they seem busy. Would you like another cup of tea?"

"I would love one." Candela looked up at Joyce. "How long do these games go for?" Her tail was swishing adorably.

Joyce fought the urge to reach out and pet her friend on the head. "They can take a good few hours. Be back in a minute." She wandered away from the "Nurses Station" and toward the food shed. "Hi Maureen." It was well after lunch, but before dinner. "Two more teas, please. And could I grab a newspaper?"

"The wonderful spectacle of sport not doing it for you?" Maureen tucked two teabags into a pair of cups, putting one under the spout of the big urn in the little "shop."

"Not really." Joyce turned and looked at Candela avidly watching the game. "Candela seems to love it. All I really want is the crossword puzzle." She opened up the offered newspaper and started flicking through it for the puzzle pages. "What about you, Maureen?"

"Honestly?" Maureen looked left and right conspiratorially. "I prefer the footy. Strappin' young men, shortest shorts you have ever seen."

Joyce knew the term "cougar," but hadn't seen quite this level of it, or quite so open. "Well, I guess that will be a better time of year, shame we will freeze." She had actually checked how cold it gets in the south of Australia, and wasn't looking forward to it. "Oh, thanks love." Joyce tucked the paper under her arm and grabbed the two cups of tea.

Walking back to the little bench she was sharing with Candela, Joyce watched the mare closely. 'She really is liking the game. Maybe I should suggest she organize the schoolkids into something.' She sat down beside Candela. "Here you go." She passed it over, marveling at how amazingly dexterous she was with her wings. "I just had an interesting thought."

"Oh?" Candela sipped her tea, sighing in obvious delight. "About 'Strapping young stallions'?" She looked right up at Joyce.

"No…" Joyce blushed a moment, her rhythm completely stolen. "Hey, how did you hear that?" She sipped her own tea.

"Something I have noticed," Candela lifted a hoof to tap one ear, holding her tea in one wing, "our ears are quite a bit better than yours, particularly when I turn them. You can't do that."

"Yeah… I guess you would be." Joyce watched the fuzzy ears twitch and turn. She was mesmerized for a few moments, thinking of what it would be like. "It was about school, actually." Both Candela's ears spun at the words, her head soon following. "Well, I thought, why not get the kids, and foals, to try playing cricket?"

"I was thinking the same thing." Candela grinned wide. "I'm sure the foals would be fine with the bats, and fielding. I wonder if a pony could bowl?" She held up her empty wing, examining the feathers carefully. "You know, I think I could give it a try."

"You are going to need equipment." Joyce could already see a glint in the pony's eyes that she had come to expect from Candela—determination. "Which I'm sure you could probably ask around for, I'm sure someone here has gotten a whole cricket set for their kids to play with, and then had it tucked away in their shed." She sipped her tea some more. "So we need a few bats, a few balls, some wickets… if they start getting really good, you will want protective gear."

"That ball is really hard." Candela's gaze was focused on the game, but her ears were aligned to Joyce. "What about something softer, to get them started—" She was interrupted by a solid hit, the ball flying out long, only to be caught. "Woo! Yeah! Howzat?!"

Joyce couldn't believe her eyes, or ears. "Where do you even learn all this?" She waved a hand to indicate the event that had just transpired. "You know more about this game now than I do!"

Candela blinked at the accusation. "It's my special talent. Learning, teaching, they are both sides of the same bit, and I can never get enough of either."

The intensity of Candela's look shocked Joyce a little. "Special talent?" She clung to her cup of tea, waiting for the explanation that was sure to come.

"When we get our cutie marks, it is because we are good at something, something that will be the focus of our lives." Candela gestured to the side of her thigh. "I got mine when helping my teacher with class. I was the only filly who studied, and Miss Sunshine had to leave suddenly. She had me stand up and teach the others."

The brightness in Candela, the reverence of her words, struck a chord with Joyce. "So… it is your destiny to teach and learn?"

"Usually the other way around, but yes." Candela suddenly blushed and looked aside. "And… I might have cheated a little."

"What, with your homework?" Joyce was aghast.

"No!" Candela shook her head vigorously. "I got to using the computer some more. It has a lot of interesting information in it!" The mare's worried look turned to pure excitement.

Joyce, familiar with the internet thanks to her time at school, blinked. "I'm still surprised the school has a 'net connection." Then something stole Joyce's focus—the implications of which boggled her mind in so many directions it wasn't funny. "How do you even…" She looked at Candela's wings, how dexterous her feathers were. "So what do you think of us? Humans have had an… interesting history." 'Please don't have researched war, religion, or… anything bad.'

"Well, I had to get familiar with using the device more." Candela was tapping her chin with a hoof. "Your world seems to be well developed, not a shred of magic, but look at what you have done!"

"So you aren't freaked out by all of… all of everything?" Joyce heaved a sigh of relief. "I really need to learn more of your world, maybe I could visit one day?"

Candela pointed a hoof. "He is a really good spin-bowler, this is his second in a row. One more and he has a hat trick!" She waited, watched the game intently, then sighed when the next batsman managed to score a quick run. "Equestria is… it is an amazing place. There is magic, and everypony has their place." The pegasus looked over and up at Joyce. "But that magic showed me that my place is here, and look, I'm learning more than anypony before me. Visiting Equestria would probably do it as much good as you, I'm sure you could teach ponies things, as much as they could teach you."

Joyce was surprised when a wing curled around her back. "I guess, no matter where you are, people… or ponies, will be people… or ponies. It is settled, when I can finally get some holidays, I will definitely go and visit. Take the kids..."

"Catch it!" Candela was suddenly standing up on her back legs, waving a hoof in the air and screaming. "Woooo! Gotcha!" She waved her hoof some more before looking guiltily to Joyce.

"Don't let me stop you. You know you could watch cricket on the TV, right?" Joyce realized that she hadn't actually introduced Candela to television yet. "Uh, that old screen thing, like the computer has, you can watch it on there."

"Why would I watch it like that?" Candela gestured to the field with a hoof. "All the fun is being part of the game, from here."

It made a strange sense to Joyce. "I… might just get my crossword puzzle out." She gave an apologetic grin to Candela. "You don't mind?"

"It's fine, Joy—" Candela's ears twitched and she focused back on the game. "He's out!"

Thankfully, there weren't any "excitements" for Joyce to deal with, and she was interrupted from the last few words of the crossword by Candela's cheering. "We won?"

"Yes!" Candela bounced around on her hooves. "We won by four wickets, it was great!" She clearly didn't care about her exuberance. "Misty, darling?" She looked to the netball court, and when she didn't see her foal, she lifted her wings and flew quickly into the air. "Misty Rainfall! Robin Robertson!"

Joyce was blinking up. "That would be so handy… Hey Candela, can you see them?" She stood up and looked around, spotting the two girls racing each other back to their parents. "Where were you both?" She took careful note of the muddy hooves and shoes.

"Just playing, mum." Robin clamped her arms around Joyce's waist, latching on like a limpet. "I was with Misty all the time, don't worry!"

Looking at Candela, Joyce saw the same, "they got up to something" expression on the other mother's face. "Did you now, and where was Misty that you were with her?"

"I was with Robin!" Misty bounced in place, nuzzling against Candela. "There was a gully down there, and all the other kids were playing in it." She looked to her mother, then to Joyce when there seemed too much "knowing smile" in her mother's look. The problem was, Joyce was giving her the same thing! "I wouldn't let Robin get hurt…"

Joyce's heart melted all over again. 'She is a little girl, just like Robin. She is adorable, you have to accept that. Don't let her looks control you.' Thankfully for Joyce, Candela was already on top of things.

"Little filly, you should know better than to run off and do things because the other foals did it. Tell me honestly, was there any danger?" Joyce's tone wasn't angry, but it was very serious.

"No, momma. There wasn't any danger. We were still inside the fence." Misty looked up, trying to use her "look" on her mother, and it seemed to work only by dint of her being honest, and not actually having done anything wrong.

"It's okay then, but you two both need a bath when we get home. And both of you know the rules, no going on the road unsupervised." Candela looked to Joyce.

"That's right." Joyce spotted Robert marching up to them. "I can go now?" She tried her hardest not to let any hardness fill her voice, she had promised to do this, after all.

"Yeah, all the boys're celebrating, and will be late inta the night. Are you sure you wouldn't want to stay?" Robert gave his brightest smile. "Although any injuries they take from now aren't your responsibility."

"Ha, I should hope not. I have to go pick my son up from a party he was at. Maybe next time." Joyce's tone hinted there was hope "next time," her mind was quite made up.

"Aww, well, it was good to see you cheering, Candy." Robert's shortening of Candela's name made the mare's eye twitch a little. "You like cricket?"

"I do, in fact." Candela's tone was careful, but inviting. "And I was wondering if I might have some equipment, to make some games up at the school?"

Both Candela and Joyce were almost overwhelmed by Robert's enthusiasm. "That'd be great! Hey, I have some old gear, but I'm sure the cricket club can organize to get ya some proper 'kid-stuff.' "

"That will be perfect." Candela gave Robert her best smile. "Oh, Joyce, didn't you have to find Michael? I do believe he said he was spending the day with the Pies."

Joyce's eyes went wide. "He went where?" It was mock surprise, Joyce was happy to see Candela trying to cover her snout with a hoof to prevent giggles. "When I catch up to my son there will be hell to pay! Robin!" Her daughter ran up to her, taking her free hand. "Let's go find your brother."

Stomping away from Robert's shocked look, Joyce squeezed Robin's hand. She waited a few more meters before leaning down. "Neither of you are in trouble, we just had to put on a little show."

"Duh." Robin was apparently old enough to learn sarcasm. "I heard you planning all this, remember?" She kicked a stone, sending it skittering along the gravel road leading back to the center of town. "Why do you need to go to the mine?"

"Because I think something odd is happening to the miners, and I want to make sure they are alright." The answer was literally the truth, but also a little more. Joyce was soon flanked by Candela. "Could you look after Robin while I go and—"

"You don't need to ask, Joyce." Candela smiled up at Joyce. "You have looked after Misty enough times, while I worked late."

"That was mostly Mike." Joyce had a moment of startling revelation, that Candela was already helping her out more than Mike and Robin's father ever had. "I just don't want you feeling obligated to do it."

"Taking care of fillies and colts is not just my job, it's what I love doing." Candela blushed a touch. "I will admit, some foals can be… awkward, but Robin and Mike are far from that. Your foals are smart and well behaved."

"I want to find out what is going on, and if whatever it is contagious." Joyce walked to their house and fetched her emergency kit. Double-checking the contents, she left again and started making her way up to the mine.

As she walked, full dark descended on the bush, causing Joyce to stop and get her torch from the kit. "I hope he remembers the story as well as Robin did." She felt a brief pang of worry about it, but as she neared the mine she set her features into a more angry-frown.

Marching right up to the entrance, she saw a surprised miner packing up his tools just inside. "Have you seen my son?" Joyce narrowed her eyes. "And what is with the ears?" Sure enough a pair of big, slightly pointed bat ears stuck out of the top of the miner's head. Noticing they had even cut holes in their helmet for them, Joyce almost lost her frown.

"You can see 'em?" As soon as the miner said the words, he blushed. "Err, I mean, they are just fake ones. Nothing to worry about!"

"Come over here, let me take a look at them." Joyce had heard this all before, patients who declared that they were okay, while holding their various organs inside. "I'm a doctor, okay?" she said, adding it to attempt to calm her patient. "When did it start…?" She trailed off meaningfully.

"Dave… Dave O'Brian." Dave let out a sigh. "And now you're gonna to call the men in black, and they'll drag me away…"

"Dave, I don't know where you got that, but all I care about is you being okay. So when did it start again?" Joyce had to fight to avoid laughing at the "men in black" comment. "If this is something that isn't spreading, I will keep quiet on it, okay?"

"Do you promise?"

"Yes. I know this sounds crazy, but I was told I was crazy for accepting this job, I actually like helping people." Joyce waited for the miner to open his mouth before tapping record on her little dicta-phone in her kit.

"Started a few weeks after the mine… opened up… to the ponies." Dave lifted a hand up, pulled his helmet off and ran his fingers through his thick red-brown hair. "It's not so bad, after I cut holes in my helmet." Dave offered the helmet for inspection, using it as a distraction.

Joyce knew the tricks. Pulling a steel ruler from her kit, she gave the miner a raised-eyebrow. "Lean down and let me take a look at them." The eyebrow did the trick and she soon got to examine the velvety ears. "Ears appear animal in nature, not sure on what species, but it's definitely not equine."

"Wait, they aren't pony ears?"

The slight note of worry was hidden by what Joyce could almost say, one-hundred-percent, was disappointment. "No, they are not pony ears. I take it you can see the ponies clearly too? Not little people?"

"Huh? Well, I guess it was odd at first, but yeah. So what about the tail?" Dave's face spoke the story of how much he knew he had just screwed up by saying too much. "W-W-Well… I mean, I just tuck it down a trouser-leg, and try not to—"

"You need to come in for a full exam." Joyce watched the dismay grow on the miner's face. "Is there a problem with that? You have grown big ears and a tail, you need to be checked out." She was intrigued, but knew this needed more than just a little measuring. "Dave, you can trust me, okay? How many others work the mines here?" Joyce was surprised at how reactive Dave's ears were, when she said something that got his attention.

"You think it might be the mine doing it?" Dave blinked his eyes, a slightly oblivious look glassing them over. "Wait, that means if we left the mine it might stop?"

" 'We'?" Joyce closed her eyes. 'One of these days, a patient will come and tell me everything that is wrong with them, they will describe all the symptoms, they will even tell me how they got the way they are. Today, however, is not that day.' "Okay, you know where my house is?" She got a nod, of course they knew, the town was tiny. "Great, you come over Monday, and get your coworkers to come too. I'm not joking here, Dave."

"Yeah, yeah." Dave grabbed up his helmet and showed Joyce just how much control he had of his ears; wiggling the two extended appendages, Dave brought his helmet down and had them pushed through with practiced ease.

From within the mine, young voices—talking in a sing-song manner—grabbed Joyce's attention. "There would be my son, now. If you think you are in trouble, just wait until you see what he is in for."

"I can believe that." Dave climbed to his feet and picked up his tools. "Don't take off too much skin." He grinned and turned, walking off into the night.

Joyce advanced down the mine, leaving her kit bag behind. She spotted her son with the four ponies, but also spotted another of the miners. "Uh, sorry, you don't know me…"

"You're the new doc? M'name's Steve, an' by the way you are starin' at 'em, you wanna ask me about …" Steve rolled his eyes upwards.

"Actually, yes, but first I have a teenager who needs to learn to ask before he walks off. Tuesday?" Joyce saw the eyes of a man who had realized he was caught, they were also the eyes of a man who actually had green "pony" ears.

"Hi mu—" Mike looked to Joyce.

"Don't you dare 'Hi mum' me, young man!" Joyce gave her son a wink and stomped toward him. "Where have you been?"

Author's Note

Limestone: how do you feel about Mike crushing on your sisters?

"!" Limestone glared tightly. "And stay off Holder's Boulder!"

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Mary Rowland
Boulder
A.P.O.N.I.
Mephia
Nils
Ian
Dio-Drogynous

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Daremo
Vutava
Boulder
Jeffh4

Full-Blown Invasion

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken English, everything else is in Equish. Three fillies with four-on-the-floor, and one of them is the focus.

Maud was sitting, looking at the moon far off in the sky. She narrowed her eyes and tried to focus more on it. 'Humans say the moon is a huge rock.' The moon started to shimmy and move, giving Maud only a few more moments of it in the sky before the sun shot up.

"Hi Maud." Pinkamena trotted up on one side of Maud, leaving Marble to take the other. "Are you ready to go?"

Turning to face her little sister, Maud cracked the tiniest of smiles. "I am. I wonder if Mike has lots of rocks to look at?" Pushing forward with her back legs, Maud stood up and started walking. "Did you see that humans think that the moon is a big rock?"

"It said that the world is too, a big round rock." Marble trotted comfortably with her sisters, nopony around that would set off her anxiety. "And that there are other big rocks."

The thought that everything was one big rock actually brought a smile to Maud's face. She trotted along. "Where is Limestone? I thought she was coming too."

"She got really angry about it, so nothing new, and said we had all been to Mike's house before, and it was safe." Pinkamena kept pace with her older, and younger, sisters. "I think she is just being a poopy-head."

Maud turned her head to face Pinkamena in surprised. "Did you just say, 'Poopy-head'?" She waited for Pinkamena to nod. "Yeah, she is a bit, sometimes. Sometimes she is all kinds of cool."

"She is 'Limestone.' " Marble gave a shrug of her shoulders, as if the one word summed up their big sister completely. "Won't it be earlier when we cross over?"

"No, it will be later." Maud caught sight of the mine entrance. "Our time is behind them by nearly two hours. And our seasons are opposite." She led the way into the mine, walking down the slightly tilted shaft. No matter how many times she had walked through the mine, Maud always found something new and of interest. Her eyes traced every crack and fissure, every seam and protuberance; if it wasn't for her sisters, Maud would have stopped to examine each one.

She could tell the moment she had crossed over, simply by the change in the rock-types. Maud reached back, grabbing Pinkamena and pulling her all the way through. "Why do you do that?"

"Lets me see some craaaazy things." Pinkamena, for a few moments, had her mane go a little frizzy. It was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, and she was back to normal a heartbeat later. "You're right Maud, the rocks in here are pretty crazy." She picked up a little round pebble and passed it to Maud for inspection.

Taking the small rock, Maud held it up before her snout while she walked. "Hrmm. Sedimentary, with some odd markings. Who keeps bringing these in here?" 'Don't worry little rock, I'll get you a nice home.' She tucked it into her saddlebag.

"How are those stones doing?" Marble poked Maud's bag, right where she had stowed the rock. "I don't even know where you planted them."

"Not so well." Maud gave a sigh. "But they're getting better. They just don't know how to grow properly." As they marched out into the hot morning sun, all three ponies narrowed their eyes a little.

Maud focused her thoughts back on the little plot of Earth rocks she was growing at home. She had been honest, they weren't doing well, but with some care a few had started to grow. The idea of growing rocks that Equestria had never seen before excited her.

"Here we are!" Pinkamena's voice cut through Maud's distraction. "Can I knock this time?"

"It is Marble's turn." Maud stepped aside and gestured for her youngest sister to approach the door. She saw her sister suddenly look withdrawn and meek. "Remember, this is Mike and Miss Candela's house." Marble perked right back up from the reminder.

Stepping forward, Marble lifted a hoof and clopped on the door once, twice, and even as she had her hoof drawn back for a third, the door opened. "Mike!"

"Hey there Marble." Mike immediately crouched down to give the filly the hug she was diving at him for. "Maud, Pinkamena."

"Hi Mike." Maud kept her voice flat, but she couldn't stop a smile creeping on her lips at seeing her little sister so happy. "Hope we're not too late?"

"What? No, of course it's not." Mike let go of Marble when the filly started to pull back from their hug. "I hope you didn't have to get up too early?"

"Maud was up first. She was so noisy it woke everypony up. And she was outside before Princess Celestia even rose the sun." Pinkamena trotted forward to claim her own hug.

Maud blushed at the reminder, remembering her excitement at spending the day here. "So, what are we doing today?" Maud noticed Mike stood up before she could approach him for a hug, after he had hugged Pinkamena.

"Well, we got to do so much cool outdoors stuff at your place, so I figured we could spend some time inside here." Mike held the door open, like a gentlecolt, for the three sisters. "I have some…" Mike faltered a moment, ", and even some music if you would like to listen to it?"

"What kind of music?" Pinkamena was immediately interested. "A flugelhorn?" She actually bounced around Mike's legs.

"Uh… not quite." Mike pointed down the hallway towards his bedroom. "But we can listen to some stuff down in my room, I don't think anyone else would appreciate it if we made noise this early, today."

"Are you the only pony awake?" Maud looked down the hallway at the closed doors. Following Mike to his room, she saw something that made her eyebrow rise. "Is that some kind of guitar?" She pointed at the instrument that looked far too thin compared to all the guitars she had seen.

"Oh, yeah. That is my bass guitar." Mike's face brightened as he walked over to it and picked it up from its stand. "Would you like to hear me play something? I'll have to keep the amp down low."

"Please please please please!" Pinkamena was still bouncy, an odd counterpoint to her normal attitude. "Play something please…"

"No, please. Not the adorable eyes. I can't fight that!" Mike flicked some switches on a little box, and plugged a cord into his guitar. "Give me a moment to check the tune."

Maud froze when she heard the six clear notes Mike plucked from the guitar. It was deeper than any guitar she had ever heard before; nothing had ever sounded like that. She realized—in her mildly stunned state—that both her sisters were likewise amazed.

"This's a tough one to play, I am going to mess it up in places…" Mike's hand seemed to flick a strum on the guitar, striking a note as his fingers then plucked two more. Finally, his hand came down and slapped the vibrating strings. "Ugh, hold on, let me get this right…"

The three ponies stared in rapt attention as Mike began over, strum-pluck-slapping into a deep rhythm that the little box sang in deep notes. Pinkamena's hooves were the first to start tapping along, then Maud, and finally Marble.

"?" Joyce's voice cut Mike off suddenly, a moment later she opened the door. "—"

Mike blushed. "—"

"It was awesome!" Pinkamena was full-on bouncing now. "Can I play next?"

"," Maud began, setting a hoof on her sister's shoulders to try to hold her bouncing down, "." She turned and smiled up to Joyce in apology for her little sister.

"." Pinkamena lowered her head, ears tucked back, clearly realizing now that she had been rude.

"." Joyce crouched down and used her hand to tilt Pinkamena's chin back up. "."

"!" Pinkamena smiled brightly, her mane going frizzy again for just a moment. Immediately her attention shifted back to Mike and his guitar. Spinning around, she poked a hoof at him accusingly. "?"

Mike smiled at Joyce as she left. "What? This?" His hand moved so naturally as it strummed-plucked-slapped, that the chords wove together, even as the sharp thump sounded. "This took me two years to get this good with." He did a few more of the odd motions. "Most bass guitarists just do this…"

Maud's ears twitched, the sound was deeper than a normal guitar still, but with Mike just strumming, adjusting his fingers on the strings with his off-hand, it sounded just like normal playing. Even that sounded better than any guitar Maud had heard in her life. "That's the type of music rocks would like."

"Rock and roll." Mike strummed a few more times, now playing chords that struck heavy vibrations through the ponies. "Is what it's called, actually."

"You were right." Marble gestured to Maud, then giggled. "Rock music?" She laughed more when Mike nodded to her.

"Can you teach me how to play that?" Pinkamena's eyes were glued to the guitar, it was plain to see that she had found her first, true love. "Pleaaaassssseeeee?"

"Guitar lessons are a little… well… they're not so fun for a group of ponies to do together. So why don't we work out a day, after school, and I can teach you to play then?" Mike seemed to tickle the strings of his guitar, producing a steady stream of deep notes. "We could go and watch a now, if you want?"

"What's a ?" Maud looked up at Mike, knowing the word tasted like an English one, but having never heard it before.

Dropping back to English, Mike tried to explain. "?" He got a round of nods from the fillies. "<Well, the pictures move, and there's sound too. That's why they're called 'movies.' "

Three pony faces stared up at Mike with confusion. "So it's a photo that moves?" Maud tried to wrap her head around it, figuring that it might be the first real magic on Earth.

"No… oh I am being silly, I will show you." Mike unplugged his guitar and set it back on its stand. A careful poke of the box the lead ran to had the lights on it go dim. "Come on, we can watch it in the living room."

Maud followed Mike, her sisters in tow. Reaching the living room again, she froze and stared at the square box in the corner. There were humans on it, talking. They were apparently caught up in talking about how amazing a broom was. "This's movies?"

"Kinda. ?" Mike looked to where Joyce was sitting, eating her breakfast at the kitchen table.

"." Joyce's eyes narrowed a little as she looked to Mike. "."

"?" Mike looked at his mother with hope plain on his face. "."

"?" Maud looked between Joyce and Mike, blinking a few times. "?" She was sensing some kind of joke that she wasn't quite grasping.

Mike looked right at Maud, a big grin on his face. "You'll see." He turned back to Joyce. "?"

"?" Joyce spared a grin and an eye roll to Mike and his friends, before getting back to making her brunch.

"Trust me, it will be awesome." Mike wasted no time in getting a small silver disk out and pushing it into a box under the big flat box. Grabbing something from the shelves beside the stack of boxes, he retreated to the couch. "Just sit down and relax."

"What's that do?" Pinkamena pointed at the device in Mike's hand. "Is it a magic wand?"

Marble poked her sister in the shoulder. "Pinkie, they don't have magic h—" She froze in place when she watched Mike point it at the boxes in the corner, and the top one suddenly lit up. She stared at the words appearing on the screen. "You said you didn't have magic!"

"It's not magic." Mike pointed at the end of his wand. "This flashes lights at the T V, which lets me control it from—. We are going to miss it. Hold on…" He fiddled with the wand again, and suddenly the picture seemed to go backwards, showing things that had just been on it. "Okay. So you know how on Earth, we have a lot of different languages?" He got a round of nods. "Right, so when we have movies, like this, sometimes they have writing at the bottom to explain what's happening."

"That makes sense." Maud looked at the screen. "So why are they written in English?"

"These are the names of the people who made the movie. The subtitles are… you'll have to read them. I can pause each time if you want?" Mike made the movie play again.

"Wait, those names can all be 'wik'?" Pinkamena pointed, a slightly confused look on her face. The confusion turned to a giggle when she kept reading. " 'Also also wik'!"

"That's spelled really badly." Maud gave up reading all the words, focusing on the silly ones at the bottom. It was going fine until she had to say. "Wait, that's too much."

Mike paused it, letting the fillies read the story of someone's sister getting bitten by a moose. All three of the sisters sat in rapt attention, unable to stop reading. Maud gave Mike a nod, and the movie started again. Suddenly, all three turned and looked to Mike, who instinctively froze the picture again.

"Were they really sacked?" Maud fought to keep the laugh out of her voice, she just knew it was a joke, but dearly wanted to turn it around. "Why would they sack them? They were interesting."

"Uh, that's… that's a joke." Mike pointed at the screen and started the movie again.

"But what about the moose?" Her joke wasn't getting through, and Maud decided to see how far she could take it. "Were they sacked too? What else could moose do on Earth?" When she saw the confusion on Mike's face, she couldn't stop a grin from covering hers.

"You," Mike gave emphasis to the word, "are learning entirely too fast. Okay, you got me. Keep watching." His confusion had turned to a ready smile.

Pinkamena was the first to crack into a gale of laughter when all the words turned to talk of llamas, but the three ponies all stopped and stared as actual moving pictures started. Maud stole a quick glance to her little sisters, seeing big smiles on their faces and smiling wider herself.

Maud was about to cut in and say something when things had turned dark. 'Bring out your dead? They all look sick...' Then she had to choke back a giggle when the jokes started again. 'This's really, really silly, but they pretend it's really serious… or most do.'

"Hey! He…" Marble stared at the screen in shock, when a sword got shoved through the helmet of one of the battling knights. She had to duck to see again because Pinkamena had moved fast to try to cover her eyes. "This's all just joking, right Mike?"

"I'm sorry. I should have said at the start. No one gets hurt, all that's just play acting. Monty Python often use serious bits to set up an expected outcome, only to do silly things." Mike pointed at the paused screen of a black-dressed knight standing over his defeated foe.

"Like the 'Bring out your dead' bit? They made it all serious, then made silly jokes?" Maud reached a comforting foreleg out to pull her youngest sister so she was between her and Pinkamena. "Okay, start it back up." Sure enough, as Maud had guessed, things turned silly fast, and even Marble was giggling at the limbless knight.

"So, how are you liking it?" Mike paused the movie again, just after the silliest song Maud had ever heard was played. "You seem to have the idea of the jokes down, any that you aren't quite getting?"

"Probably half of them." Pinkamena giggled. "But this's really silly. Is this what all jokes are like here?"

"All? No. This's just about the funniest thing of all time." Mike started the movie going again. "But they have done other things, we can watch those later if you want."

"No!" The young human voice startled Mike, Maud, Pinkie, and Marble. "!" Robin glared at Mike.

Mike's face turned from confrontational to relaxed. "." Quick as a flash, Mike reached out to grab Robin and pull her, squealing, onto the couch. "?"

"!" Robin squirmed and tried to get free from her brother's grip. "!" Her giggles and outright laughter proved just how expert Mike was at tickling.

"." Joyce sipped a coffee, sitting at the table in the kitchen. She now had a scattering of notes, as well as a folded-open box before her. As soon as Mike relented in his tickle-assault, she folded the box before her closed. "."

The movie played on, and on. Maud put together a lot of the jokes, but knew she missed just as many. "Okay, you were right." She ran her thoughts over the events and structure, then giggled. "It was silly, and fun."

"What are ' 'toons'?" Pinkamena turned at the sound of two legs stampeding into the room.

"!" Robin ran all the way up to the picture box and started pressing buttons on it. Instantly, bright and colorful characters appeared and started capering around as the box seemed to open the way into a whole different world. Picking up a picture from the shelves beside the boxes, Robin set it down in front of the buttons she had just pressed. "!"

"." Mike tossed the wand over to Robin as the girl sat down on the couch. "."

All plans to do other things were put on hold, when Pinkamena and Marble started laughing uncontrollably, along with Robin. Maud focused on the box and relaxed beside her laughing sisters. 'It's really nice to hear them both laugh so much, but I think I prefer those other jokes.'

The day passed pleasantly, watching the 'toons. Mike had a lot to say about the merits of one cartoon over another, and was midway through such a statement when a beeping sound started in the kitchen. "What's that?" Maud turned to look, not sure what to expect.

"That," Mike began with a sigh, "is the alarm that it's getting close to nightfall, in Equestria. Do you want me to walk back with you?"

"Just as far as the mine." Maud lifted a hoof and booped Marble on the snout. "Come on, we have to go home now." When her sister turned to face her, Maud nearly gaped at the sad expression on Marble's face.

"Do we have to? Just ten more minutes…?" Marble's look was having the desired effect, and likely would have had Maud cave in.

"Nah, come on Squirt." Mike jumped up to his feet, reaching across Maud to poke Marble gently in the shoulder. "I'll walk you back to the mine, and next week I will come and visit again."

"You promise?" Marble looked with one eye, her mane covering the other, but that look was enough to melt the coldest heart.

"Yeah, of course I do… Uh… ?" Mike winked to Marble, then pulled a funny face that had her giggle.

"." Joyce poked her head around the corner from the kitchen. "."

"!" Marble surprised everyone present, then covered her snout with both forehooves in shock at having been so outspoken.

"." Joyce beamed at Marble, the words and expression going a long way in relaxing the filly back down.

Maud rocked forward and landed on her hooves. "." Maud turned her expression on Joyce, keeping her features flat. While she spoke, she was riffling her thoughts for a way to build the conversation into a good joke.

"." Mike chimed in after Maud, patting at the couch. "." Joyce was already covering her eyes with a hand, as if she could deflect the bad joke coming. Marble and Pinkamena looked on in worry, staring between their big sister and Mike.

Maud lifted one back leg, twitched it. Then she sent an exaggerated shiver from her tail all the way up to her neck. She turned to look at Marble. "!"

Joyce turned and started to walk back into the kitchen. "—"

"!" Pinkamena couldn't hold a steady look as well as Maud could, and was giggling furiously.

"!" Marble stared at Mike, then leaned forward with a big smile on her face. "!"

"!" Turning, Mike made a run for it. He was out the front door and pounding his legs, but three sets of four hooves galloped along after him. "!"

Maud lost her neutral facade, yelling "Ni," "Ping," and "Nu-wom" along with her sisters, chasing Mike but trying not to catch him. As they reached the mine entrance, all three sisters shied back from the wide, crazy grin Mike wore.

"!" Mike's yell had the desired effect, all three of his adversaries fell to the ground, covering their ears with their hooves. "!" He danced around them, chanting the word over and over again.

"We give up! You can take all our shrubberies!" Maud tried to remember when she had laughed so much, particularly with her sisters, and couldn't remember a time. Her smile was genuine when she stopped and took a deep breath. Waiting for her sisters to calm as well, Maud looked up at Mike. "Thank you for a great day."

"Hey, no problem." Mike leaned down, offering his hand to Marble first, pulling the filly up and to her legs. "Oh yeah, we need to work out when you want those guitar lessons, Pinkie." Mike helped Pinkamena up next.

"Any night would be great!" Pinkamena bounced a little in place. "How long will it take before I can play as good as you?"

Mike turned to find Maud already standing. "Uh, once I can work out how you can play with your hooves, I think… maybe about a year or two?"

Pinkamena's face dropped at the news. "That long? But—"

"It means you get to visit here more often." Marble stuck her tongue out at Pinkamena. "Maybe I should learn the guitar too?"

"Okay." Mike surprised the twins by simply agreeing. "Monday and Wednesday nights for Pinkie, and Tuesday and Thursday for Marble." He turned to Maud. "What about you? Ever wanted to learn to play some rock and roll?"

"Real rocks?" Maud's attention was narrowed down to the topic. "Because that would be pretty cool, if you could teach Boulder how to play." Mike's confused look tickled Maud in a way she had never really felt before. 'I need to try this out on other ponies.' She turned, leading her sisters back to Equestria. "Maybe. We will see you at school on Monday."

Author's Note

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Mary Rowland
Boulder
A.P.O.N.I.
Mephia
Nils
Ian
Dio-Drogynous

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Daremo
Vutava
Boulder
Jeffh4

Bats in the Belfry

Language check. All in English (or 'stralian I should say, there are some things in here you may need to google).

Joyce pulled her car in at the end of the street, keeping her lights off in the predawn gloom. She waited and scanned the building as best she could with her narrowed eyes. Then she saw movement and grinned.

Blinking furiously, Steve lifted a hand up to shield his eyes from the car's headlights. "Bloody hell doc!"

Climbing out of her old station-wagon, Joyce pulled her bag out with her. "You missed your appointment." She smiled, like a shark would when it had a fish cornered. "I did a little asking around, found out when you normally go to work. You and David have been giving me the run-around, and that stops now."

"You play dirty, doc." Steve looked at the bag in Joyce's hand. "Uh, so we aren't going—"

"Back inside, I can do this examination in your home." 'I can't decide whether this is more like dealing with children, or herding cats.' Joyce followed the defeated miner back into his house. She had expected a bachelor's house to be a little cramped, dirty, or just cluttered; the house was spick-and-span. 'Cats, my kids at least do what I tell them once in a while.'

"Want a cuppa?" Already walking to the old wood-burning oven, Steve checked the water content of the kettle on it and topped it up. "How do you take it?"

'Whether I wanted any was apparently a foregone conclusion.' "I'll take white, no sugar. So when did you get the ears?" She took out her notebook and her best friend through college, a small Dictaphone, she hit record and set it on the table.

"You want the whole story, don't you?" Steve put the kettle on top of the stove and pulled out a pair of tin cups. A teabag landed in each cup.

Joyce knew he was just working up to it, and knew when to keep her mouth shut and let her patient talk.

"Started a bit after we first broke through. You gotta understand, it was crazy at first." Getting a jug of milk from the fridge, Steve walked back beside the stove to wait for the kettle to boil. "Burrow and Delves are great, were great from the start. I don't really know how it all happened, they watched us mine, we watched them mine; both sides had something to offer." He turned and looked to Joyce. "Uh, can you turn the recorder off for this bit?"

"I can, please don't talk about your condition at all." Joyce clicked the stop button on the recorder. "Okay, it's off."

"Gems, lots and lots of gems. Delves is—you haven't met him, spends most of his time in Equestria—he's a unicorn. Forget all the myths about 'em, he's a pretty cool guy. Anyway, he cast this spell on the rock in our mine, then told us to dig." Steve nearly jumped when the kettle started whistling behind him. "Stones as big as my fist. We had to hit them with a hammer to have a hope of selling them."

"Why is that?" Joyce itched to have the recorder on, but instead she had to make do with writing for all she was worth.

"Okay, so when you mine, you first of all need mineral rights where you're mining, then there will be surveys and assessments… there shouldn't be gems here, but Delves can make them practically jump out of the stone. He doesn't even want 'em, grabs up every bit of the low-grade ore we get, though." As he talked, Steve poured the tea, making sure not to lose the teabag strings as he poured. "So here we are, with probably a million dollars in really high-quality gems that are huge." Slowly stirring both cups, he poured some milk into them. "If we had gone anywhere to sell them, we would have been arrested so fast our heads would spin. So we crushed them up smaller, sold 'em for a fraction of the price."

"I guess that is pretty clever, making some good money out of it?" Joyce smiled when Steve passed her the mug of tea. "Thanks."

"No worries. And yeah, we're makin' pretty good money out of it. And you wouldn't believe what we're finding on their side." Steve didn't leave Joyce hanging on his words for long. "Gold. It's crazy, they don't even care about it, not worth their time compared to the low grade iron we have here." Steve sipped from his own cup, and to both their shock the beanie covering his head fell off, and a pair of green ears first perked forward, then folded back against Steve's head.

"If we are going to move on, I think I need to turn the recorder on again." Joyce smiled over the rim of her cup, liking that Steve was at least being honest. 'Ugh, no, bad girl. He's a patient, not a love interest.' That another voice, softer, pointed out in Joyce's head that everyone in town was potentially a patient, annoyed her. She waited for Steve to nod before reaching out and hitting record again.

"Took a while to learn more'n the basics, so we could chat properly. We were digging for gold on the Equestrian side and that's when…" Steve stopped and stood up from the table. "Uh, doc, I know it's kinda yer thing as a doc and all, but this is…" He gave a sigh and reluctantly pulled down one side of his pants.

"A tail?" Joyce's eyes latched on to the light-red hair stuffed down one leg of Steve's trousers. "That's—" She froze at the look in the man's eye. "What?"

"That." Steve pointed to the bright tattoo of a pickaxe with a rock in the background. "That's what happened."

"You got a tattoo? I don't get it…" Joyce looked at the tattoo, something about it tickling at her thoughts. She crouched down to look closer, her notepad in her hands.

"I mean, it appeared. I was digging as normal, suddenly I got all tingly and felt that… on both sides." Steve turned around, either not realizing or not caring that he swished his tail past Joyce's nose. "See? Both sides."

Connections linked up in Joyce's head, she realized what looked just like that, that she had seen before. "That's just like Candela and Limestone's—"

"Burrow—he's another one of the miners—called it a cutie mark, said it meant that's what I'm really good at. They aren't wrong." Steve grinned and tried to pull his pants up, only for Joyce's hand to stop him. "Uh, doc?"

"Hold on, I need to sketch this. I want to ask Candela what it might mean." Joyce's hand moved quickly, taking a quick impression of the tattoo. "And I need to look at that tail."

"You know, doc, if you wanted to look at my arse you could have just gotten me dinner instea—" Steve nearly fell over from laughter, when Joyce yanked his hips around forcibly. "I was joking!"

"Steve, you know I'm a doctor." Joyce pulled out a pair of latex gloves from her bag. "Anyone happen to mention what else I am?"

"Whoa! Doc! Uh, no offense, but you don't need to check in there!" Steve had to hop to get away, his pants were now firmly around his ankles.

"This is not a joke." Joyce tugged on Steve's tail as he started acting like a child. "I need to inspect you, and I don't want to infect either of us in the process. I would need a lot more glove for a rectal exam." She realized she had a good grip on him, the tail proving quite a good anchor point. "Now, are you going to behave like an adult?" 'Well, he certainly stole any and all romance from this.'

Steve was solidly hit by the one thing most males dreaded, derision by an eligible female. "Sorry, doc." He stepped closer to Joyce. "Just explain what you're doing, please?"

"Measuring, mostly." Joyce had her tape-measure out and checked the length of the red tail, the fullness of it at various points. "Okay, I need to work out how this is attached. I need to press the flesh around your dock."

"My what?" Steve jumped a little when Joyce lightly touched the apparently sensitive base of his tail. "O-Okay. The tail didn't start until recently. I got the ears first." The miner shut up when Joyce's deft fingers squeezed the new extremity, tracing and measuring it from the last vertebrae of his spine to the tip of the dock.

"Well, it seems fully formed, given the size of it." Joyce was stumped. "Can you move it?" Her answer was immediate, in the form of a wag from left to right. "Okay, enough of that. I have all the measurements I could possibly use. Let's get a look at your ears."

Steve yanked his pants up quickly, leaving his tail hanging free in his rush. "So this is all stopped right? I mean, ears and a tail I can deal with." Sitting in his chair, Steve's ears were the focus of Joyce's attention now.

"You have, without a doubt, horse-like ears." Joyce couldn't help herself, the soft, fuzzy ears just inspired a need to be rubbed, and after measuring one she gave into that need. "Okay, so ears, tail, cutie mark—" Joyce froze, not realizing she had still been rubbing one of Steve's ears until he gave a happy sigh. "Oh god, I'm so sorry!"

Blinking a few times, Steve turned and looked at Joyce as if he had just woken up from a nap. "Uh, sorry, I think I spaced out a bit there. So what's the verdict?" His ears perked up and forward.

"They're, well, pony ears. Just like Candela has. I have no idea how or why you have them, or the tail, or even the cutie mark, but I will find out." Smiling, Joyce was playing it off the cuff, she really had no idea what was happening, or if it would keep happening. "And tell Dave to come and see me. You two are as bad as each other."

"Dave? Ah, it will be his missus you need to convince. Not a bad bird, but she definitely isn't happy about his ears." Steve blushed a fraction and tucked his own back a little. "You don't seem to mind them…"

It was awkward, a little desperate, and if Joyce hadn't just spent the last half hour checking his tail and pony ears she might have let it go somewhere. "Sorry, I'm still getting over a bit of a complicated thing…" She was over him, or so she told herself. "But honestly, the ears and tail don't bother me!"

Steve gave a sigh. "But you don't—"

"I'm working with a patient, Steve." Joyce rolled her eyes at him. "Patient-doctor thing is not as sexy as movies might lead you to believe. Ask me again when I haven't just been feeling the muscle changes around your arse for five minutes, okay?" 'Damn damn damn, am I really saying this? I am, aren't I? Maybe I do need to get laid; he's kinda cute, tail and all…'

"We don't exactly see much of each other." Steve shot a grin to Joyce that was easily interpreted as his desire to change the statement.

Joyce sighed. 'Damn it if I'm not going to set myself up on a date. He looks good, he seems nice… what the hey.' "I'm gonna level with you. Mike? He wasn't in trouble, I wanted to get a look at you and Dave to make sure you're okay. I won't lie, I can't stand seeing anything hurting."

Steve cut in before Joyce could continue. "And what? He's going to be up at the mine again?"

"Yeah, actually. This," Joyce pointed at her measurements, "needs to be done regularly, so any changes can be noted. I was going to come in and bug you both for more tests. But if you agreed to more tests now, my bugging could be about something else."

"Then I will talk to Dave, he's being an idiot about it. And you will hear no complaints from me about the… testing." Steve blushed a little. "Not sure about all the tail squeezing, but the rest? I basically slept through."

"Can you write down stuff like that?" Reaching for her bag, Joyce pulled out another notepad. "Everything. I need everything that might be odd, or just seem strange. To be honest it is a little exciting to see something like this." She smiled again, dropping out of fangirl-doctor mode. "Steve, if anything really strange happens, you come and get me. I'm not joking on this, I promise I won't turn you over to any crazy lab or anything."

"Thanks." Steve looked a little like a fish out of water. "But you gotta promise the same. If you need some money, need some help, or just need somewhere to hide a while…"

Joyce could see that, with his counter offer, Steve was back into "being on equal footing" territory. 'Phooey. Why are guys like this? Ugh, egos are stupid.' "I'll do that. Not like I know a lot of people living around here." She started putting her things away in the bag, pulled the top closed, but didn't seal it.

"I guess you need to get your kids off to school?" When Joyce closed her bag, it had been a clear sign to Steve that their time was up. "So how regular are we going to be doing this?" A hopeful note raised the end of his sentence.

"Maybe we will need to make it weekly? Outside of work hours." Joyce gave her best "this is totally professional and not a come-on" smile. "So how about next Monday morning?" She made her way to the front door.

"Yeah. I don't really need to be up there that early, but if I get up there early, Dave can't say anything about me leaving early." Steve moved nimbly for such a big guy, pulling the door open for Joyce.

"I have a feeling Mike is going to sneak through the mine next Saturday, so I will see you then." Joyce made her way out into the early morning, the sound of birds getting louder and louder as they saw to their golden-hour hunting. One sound, however, caught Joyce off-guard. "The heck is that?"

The screeching sound was repetitive, sounding like a small animal that was very angry about something.

"No clue." Steve turned his ears around, then pointed. "That way."

'Well, they certainly seem useful.' Joyce trotted along beside Steve, keeping pace despite carrying her heavy bag. The screeching was growing louder right up until they found the source. "A Flying fox." She crouched down a meter from it. "Don't get closer." Her caution went unheeded by Steve for a moment, until she grabbed his arm. "I mean it. Some of them can carry a nasty virus."

"Well, I would get a shot then, right?" Steve held back from the bat that had, apparently, found some old barbed wire.

"No. If you get bitten or scratched, I would have to kill the bat and send it away for testing. So keep back." Joyce opened her bag and started rummaging through the stuff. "Can you run back to my car, there should be a bigger first-aid kit in there." No sooner had she said the words than Steve was off at a run; she would have admired his rear, but had a new patient. "So, mister bat, are you going to play nice and calm down?" She wrinkled her nose at a slightly musky scent.

The bat seemed to look up at her, and although he still screeched, it didn't seem to be with anger anymore—just fear.

Steve returned with the big case under his arm. "This what you needed?" He set the big first-aid kit down beside Joyce. "It was the only one I could find."

"This is it. Thanks." Joyce wanted to be nice, but her brain was already in "emergency care" gear, and that meant blocking out things that mattered a lot less than the life in front of her. "I need to get his head under control, and give his wings something to grab that isn't me." She started with her hands, wrapping the thickest bandage she could around her palms and first two fingers.

"What about the rest of your hand?" Steve watched as Joyce wrapped both hands up.

"I need to have some use of them." Quickly and efficiently taking out some sterilized scissors, Joyce began the task of cutting the poor bat's wing membrane where it was caught on the barbed wire.

Steve grunted a little. "Will he be able to fly after you do that?"

"Well, if one of his bones loses blood he definitely won't. This gives him a chance." Joyce pulled out the micro-fiber blanket next, bunching it up before throwing it forwards. "Sorry little guy, but I need you to focus all your attention on this." The screaming little bat started again, and Joyce worked quickly to wrap its wings up in the blanket and get one hand locked behind their neck. "Okay, I have him bundled up, and now I have no clue what to do with him." Joyce was literally at a loss.

"Well, what do you need to do with the little guy? Do you need me to drive you home?" Steve backed away a step as the bat gave an angry shriek around the blanket he was biting into. "Bigger than I thought it would be…"

"Huh, look at that." Joyce lifted the bat up into the crook of one arm, holding his head firmly still. "Little tufts on his ears." A memory of similar ears flashed in Joyce's memory, but no matter what she did the source of the insight didn't become apparent. "Let's get you home, and somewhere safe. Then I can see what is wrong with you." She gave a winning smile to Steve. "If you could, that would be great."

"Jump in, you got the keys?" Steve looked down at the mess of first-aid kit and doctor bag, and began packing them up as best he could.

'Oh damn… I had to wear jeans today…' "Uh, sure. Front left pocket." Joyce had her hands well and truly full of the bat-blanket hybrid that seemed to want to screech and bite at the same time. Tilting her hip, she tried to make what she knew was coming as free from social awkwardness as she could. When his hand slipped down the pocket of her slim jeans, Joyce had to fight the feeling of warmth that came. 'Down! He's just getting my keys.'

Steve sighed in relief when he caught the keys to the car and pulled them out. "Okay, got them. Anything I should know?" He circled around to the driver's side.

"It's an auto. Column-shift. Just get it in gear and hit the gas." Joyce managed to wiggle a finger out of the bundle she was carrying to get a back-door open and climbed into the wagon. Pulling the door closed proved harder, and until Steve reached back and did it for her she was almost going to do something silly with her foot. "Thanks, Steve."

"I couldn't leave you standing there with the little guy." Steve turned the key, starting the poor old Falcon wagon.

The ride was only short, but the only one doing any talking was the bat in Joyce's arms. When Steve held the door open for her, Joyce was so glad to get out of the enclosed space that she didn't even think to berate him for his repeated "gallant" work with doors. "Thanks, but shouldn't you be going to work?"

"Shit." Steve shook his head and took off at a run. "Saturday?" He looked back at Joyce and barked a laugh as she was wrestling the angry bat.

"Should I tell him his tail was still out?" Joyce watched the bouncing rear with its cascade of light red hair trailing down. "Nah, it looks cute." 'There you go again. He's a patient…' Carrying her passenger inside, she found a little procession forming at the door. "I'm bat!" She giggled as she neared the house. "Stand back, hurt little guy here."

"Those are some lungs on him." Mike jumped out of the way and held the door open.

Robin reached her head up, only to have it grabbed by Mike. "Hey, what's that for? Mum! Mike's being—"

"Smart. Hands away, he might bite." Joyce shot Mike a thankful-mum look. "Off to school early?" She walked through to the kitchen.

"It's not too early." Candela looked in on her friend, and watched as Joyce set the bundle of angry bat on the kitchen table. "I just wanted Mike to show me how to do some things on the computer, and then figured we might as well all go in early. Who is this?" Candela stepped up to the table, and peeked over the edge.

"I haven't picked a name for him yet, but he hurt his wing on some barbed wire. Could you get me the apple juice from the fridge, please? Mike!" Joyce turned her head and waited for her son to poke his head in. "Large syringe from the first-aid kit in the car. Bring the whole kit!" The last she had to yell because Mike was already racing out.

"This is right?" Candela set the juice on the table. "There are some bats back in Equestria, but they aren't as loud as this one…" She glanced up at the clock. "I really should be going now. If you need him, I could spare Mike for the day?"

"Oh no, I can take care of this guy once he has something in his belly." The sound of running footsteps in the house went without comment by Joyce. "Oh, thank you, hon. Load the syringe from the juice bottle, and warm it up in your hands."

Mike did as instructed, filling the needleless syringe from the bottle and closed his hands around it. "Why do you have a bat, mum?" He passed the syringe to Joyce.

"I'll tell you on the way to school." Candela extended her wing and started herding Mike out of the room. "Have fun batting." She gave Joyce a wink.

'She's getting really good with language…' "Alright. Alright." Joyce got the syringe end up to the bat's mouth and started pushing the plunger down. The screeching stopped immediately, and the bat released the blanket to focus all his attention on drinking the juice. "Oh thank you. Angry and hungry, not a good combination." She pressed down on the syringe until the whole dose of juice was fed to the fuzzy bat. "More?"

Joyce laughed when the bat gave one short screech at her, and looked at the syringe. "Let's see if I can remember your type, Mr. grey-headed flying fox. Average eyesight during the day, better at night. Great smell, average hearing." She noticed the little tufted ears swivel to her voice. "Let me wrap you up so I can keep you under control while I get the juice, okay?"

Talking to animals always worked, at least when the creature could think clearly. Joyce soon had the bat wrapped tight, only his wing-thumbs and head poking out of the tight swaddling. Loading another dose of apple-juice, she warmed it in her hand while the bat stared up at her passively. "Still want more?" The moment the tip was close, the bat lunged up and started lapping at the tip of the syringe. "That's a yes, I take it?"

"Tufts." Joyce flicked one of the bat's odd ears gently with a finger, while her other hand was feeding him. "I think that will be a good name for a handsome bat. What do you think, Tufts?" She wasn't shocked when the bat gave her a good screech this time. "Settled then."

Pressing down on the plunger, Joyce fed the bat the juice at a good rate. Judging him distracted by the food, she reached to her pocket for her phone. "Just don't scratch me or anything, until I can get this sorted…" She trailed off, scrolling through the numbers on her phone and calling an old friend. The quality of her old phone was terrible, made worse with bad reception. "Tommy? It's Joyce."

"Joyce? It's been a while. What's up?" Tom sounded like he was on the other end of a mile of string, with two plastic cups for earpieces.

"It has. Sorry about the call, but I'm in the middle of woop woop and I have an injured bat." Joyce explained her situation, but quickly added, "Hold on, I was really careful, no scratches or bites. But I'm going to need three treatments of rabies, including the IGG. Actually, make it six, but only IGG for three. And better send some epi as well."

"That stuff isn't cheap, Joyce." Tom sounded only a little concerned. "But I can get you enough for… you and the kids, and spares?"

Joyce nodded, then replied. "Yeah. You know how I am, Tommy, injured animals… injured humans…" She pulled the phone away from her ear at the bark of laughter. "I'm going to need more stuff like this, will put together a bigger order inside a week. How fast can you get the vaccine to me?"

"To 'woop woop'?" Tom laughed again. "If you promise to do a big order—at least five thou—I can get this shipped priority and half price."

"Fourteen, Hocking crescent, Cowwarr, Victoria." Smiling at the sound of laughter from her old friend, Joyce noticed that Tufts had finished his drink and was getting clingy. "I gotta go, Tommy. Get that to me by the end of the week and I promise I can get that order in."

"You got it, Joyce." Tom gave a sigh over the phone. "See ya."

"Let me find you something to grab hold of." Joyce spotted the tea-towel on the stove as the first likely target. Leaving Tufts on the table, she walked over and picked it up. Looping the towel over, she tied the ends into a good knot. "This should keep you calm."

The moment the bundled up towel was within reach, Tufts latched on with his wing-claws and pulled it close.

"Okay, now for the dangerous bit. Let me see those wings." Joyce sat down again and pulled out the bottle of antiseptic and popped the top. "The good news is, Tufts, that I have tested this on my own scratches. The bad news is it hurts like all hell." There were three wounds she focused on, the first being a tear in his left wing, near one of his finger bones. Gently teasing his wing out, she drew it out and sprayed the wound.

If Joyce had pony ears, like Candela or Steve, they would have tucked back. Tufts' little lungs shook as he screeched loudly, but the thing Joyce noticed as odd was he didn't try to scratch her, or pull the wing back. The bat's eyes locked on Joyce's, and she felt an odd connection. "I'm doing this to help, I promise."

Letting Tufts fold up his right wing, Joyce started to tease the left out. She spotted the two wounds on this one and clenched her teeth. "Hold on, please. This is going to hurt again." She was quick, getting two squeezes of the bottle's sprayer off before Tufts started to scream again. This time he yanked his wing back in and shook.

Joyce couldn't stop herself, she wrapped the bat back up in the microfiber blanket and tucked him in against her chest. "I'm sorry… I am so sorry. I had to do that." His screeching trailed off quickly; Joyce knew the sting didn't last long. "Come on, if you promise not to scratch me, you can sleep while I work out what I need to order." Clutching Tufts to her, Joyce quickly assembled a sling-bandage to hold him.

"You gonna to be good?" Watching Tufts' eyes blink a few times then close, Joyce felt content she had him settled. "Okay, you rest there and I'll order some supplies." Getting up and moving proved to not wake the bat, and Joyce felt comfortable that she had him well asleep. "Okay, first thing, more antiseptic spray…" She trailed off, grabbing a notepad and pen to start her list.

Author's Note

Pinkie: what do you see when youre in both worlds at once?

The pink filly sighed and gave a little shrug. "Stuff. It is a bit like I can see each world, and things between them." Pinkamena looked around. "Can I go now?"

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Mary Rowland
Boulder
A.P.O.N.I.
Mephia
Nils
Ian
Dio-Drogynous

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Jeffh4
Vutava
Cross Lament

Playing Around

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken Equish, everything else is in English. Mostly human interaction, and Pinkamena is working on her English skills.

The little bell at the front of the classroom chimed, but none of the children moved; they knew it was more of an advisory. Besides, everyone was having fun. Mike let the girl in front of him hide the book again. "Okay, so it was…" His hand worked, writing the short sentence out in Equish. "."

"I guess that's right." Rosetta looked a little blankly at the Equish Mike had written. "How you pick this up so fast I don't know." She shrugged.

"It's cool Rose, you will get the hang of this." Mike smirked. "Besides, I cheated; Candela was giving me a lesson on writing over the weekend. I really want to get this right because Limestone—that's Pinkamena, Marble, and Maud's big sister—said she would take me to visit Canterlot, and I want to write a letter first, asking if it'll be okay."

"You got it right, Mike." Candela looked down at Mike's work. "But you might want to make sure this line here," she gestured to one with a wing-tip, "is a little longer." Raising her voice, she looked around at her students. "Okay, that will be enough. You can go now, my foals."

Everyone was used to Candela addressing them as her "foals," and it seemed completely normal to them. Mike turned a smile up to his teacher. "Thanks. Think I will be good enough at writing to be able to write the letter fully by… not next weekend, the weekend after?"

"With some more work you can." Candela beamed in pride. "How is your mathematics work going?" She knew what Mike's weakest subject was, just as well as Mike did.

Not wanting to interrupt her teacher, Rose held back replying to Mike until after Candela had spoken. "You are?" Rose looked at Mike with an incredulous look on her face. "Hey, I could help you with that, if you want to help me with my Equish?"

"Hey, that would be awesome." Mike started folding his books closed. "When do you want to do that?"

"What about tonight? We could…" Rosetta trailed off at the look on Mike's face. "Uh… When would be good?"

"Sorry, I already promised to help with teaching some friends to play guitar." Mike blushed a little. "But if you're cool with Friday that would be—"

"Friday would be great!" Rose blinked after cutting Mike off. "I mean, really great. I need some help with this, and you need help with that," she gestured to Mike's mathematics book, "so it'd be silly not to help each other."

"Hey Mike!" Pinkamena bounced up to the pair. "Are you ready for my lessons?" When she realized that Mike and Rose were talking, Pinkamena ducked down beside Mike, half hiding from the girl.

"Yes, Pinkie." Mike reached a hand down to rub the pink filly's shoulder. "Sorry Rose, she's still a little shy around new people."

"I wish mum would just settle down. Can you believe I spent one week in my new school back home before we moved here? I don't even know who this 'Dave' is, but apparently mum remembered him from high-school, and they're trying to get back together." Rose shook her head. "I'm oversharing, sorry—"

"No, it's cool." Mike kept rubbing Pinkamena's shoulder. "You sound like you need to really unload a bit. So Friday it is." He stood up, hefting his bag onto a shoulder. "Catch you around, Rose."

The moment Mike and Pinkamena were out of the schoolhouse, the pink filly started bouncing. "I'm gonna learn guitar! I'm gonna learn guitar!" She stopped. "Oh yeah, Limestone wants to talk to you."

Mike had to squint to look around in the dimming light. "Where is sh… Oh! !" He grinned all the wider at seeing her scowl. "?"

"Stay off Holder's Boulder." Limestone kept her frown up, right until the moment Mike realized she had spoken in English and started laughing. "."

"." Mike crouched down to be nearer to Limestone's level. "?"

"?" Limestone glared into Mike's eyes.

Shivering at the coldness of the look, Mike nodded. "." Holding out one hand, Mike clenched it into a fist.

"." Limestone lifted a hoof and thunked it against Mike's fist hard enough to push him over backwards. "Stay off Holder's Boulder." She turned and walked off, leading Maud and Marble home.

"." Mike stood up and took a step towards his house; Pinkamena moved at his side, her legs gliding in the most adorable trot he had ever seen. "?"

"Can we stick to English? I need to practice." Pinkamena kept to her friend's side. "And play! I really want to play, like you did!"

"I'm not going to lie, Pinkie, it is going to take quite a while to play well. But I'm happy to teach you." It wasn't far to his house, so Mike kept up the conversation. "Does Marble still want to learn too?"

"You betcha. She's just as excited as I am! And—" Pinkamena shifted and pressed her side against Mike's leg as someone walked past on the road. Only after they were gone did she continue. "Sorry. You're right, I'm a little shy still." Squealing, Pinkamena wriggled all four legs as she was lifted into the air.

"Shy huh?" Straining a little under the filly's weight, Mike laughed and carried her along under one arm. "We'll see how shy you are when you see our new house guest."

"," Pinkamena tried to hold back her giggles—unsuccessfully, "!" He finally did, just outside his front door. "Meanie!"

"And yet you keep hanging around me." Mike opened the door and lifted his voice. "Mum, I'm home!"

"We're in the kitchen, Mike." Joyce's voice held a note of surprise when she saw Pinkamena walking at Mike's side. "Oh, having a friend over?"

Spotting the sling hanging from his mum's neck, Mike tilted his head a little. "Yeah, guitar lessons. What is…" He trailed off a little, until he spotted a little red fur. "Oh, the bat."

"Tufts is his name. Looks like he is staying a while, poor thing has a few nasty tears on his wings." Joyce was busying herself making dinner for her extended family. "Pinkamena, would you like something to eat?"

"No thank you Miss Robertson." Pinkamena was staring openly at the little creature bundled up at Joyce's neck. "You said he was a bat? He doesn't look like bats from Equestria."

"He's a flying fox, right mum?" Mike took a step towards his bedroom, but noticed Pinkamena was more interested in the bat. "You want to start on this lesson, Pinkie?" Everyone was surprised by the pink blur that rushed past Mike and shot into his bedroom. Following along in Pinkamena's wake, Mike stepped into his room and closed his door behind him. "That's a yes?"

"Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!" Pinkamena was bouncing in place.

"I have no idea how this is going to work, but I can show you how I was taught to play." Mike walked over to his wardrobe, pulling out his old acoustic guitar.

"Aww, what about the noisy one?" Pinkamena pointed to Mike's bass. "I want to learn to play that one!" She climbed up on his bed to be better able to see it in its stand.

"Pinkie, this one first." Mike sat down on the edge of his bed and held the guitar up for Pinkamena to see. "Okay, so we have a guitar with six strings. The way it makes music is vibrations along the strings. You make those vibrations by strumming," he strummed, "plucking," he plucked a string, "or by tapping." Mike tapped a string so that Pinkamena could hear the difference between the three.

"And that's all? I saw you do a thing with your other hand." Pointing at the neck of the guitar, Pinkamena wiggled her hoof.

"That's going to be the tricky bit. Holding the strings with my fingers," Mike demonstrated, "limits how much they can vibrate. I control the sound each string makes with that." He passed the guitar to Pinkamena, and was thankful it was a smaller one for teaching youngsters.

Sticking her tongue out of her mouth—at an angle of course—Pinkamena sat the guitar in her lap and stretched one foreleg out to curl underneath the neck and press to the strings. "Which ones do I need to hold down? All of them?" She looked at Mike and giggled at his confused look. "What?"

"N-N-Nothing. I really have no idea if you can do this, but first just hold down the second and third from the top, in the first fret… gap… down from her head." Mike described an E minor as best he could. "Got it?"

"Yup!"

"Now strum down once." Mike figured this was the best test; if she couldn't make this chord work then she wouldn't be making any of the more complicated ones. He froze when she strummed, hearing most of a good E minor, but there was something off. "You might be touching the others too."

Pinkamena pulled her hoof away and sighed. "Silly me. I was. Give me a second…" Swapping the side her tongue was hanging from, Pinkamena lifted her hoof back up and pressed just the two strings with her frog, and strummed a perfect E minor. "Ooo, that sounded nicer!"

"That's how it works when you play an actual chord." Mike got up and rifled through a box of his old stuff. Plucking out a thin book, he carried it back over to Pinkamena.

"What's that?" Strumming the E minor a few more times, Pinkamena pointed to the book.

"I had to learn how to play too, you know. Okay, next chord is C, and will be a bit more tricky." Mike took the guitar and showed the three-finger pattern for a C major. "Hold the second-top, third-top, and second-bottom strings," Mike tapped each, "here, here, and here. And when you strum, don't hit the top string." Holding the chord he strummed down, fingers brushing and missing the thickest string.

Pinkamena's eyes were like saucers. She stared at the finger placement and reached for the guitar. "My turn?"

Mike passed the instrument back over and watched as Pinkamena wrapped her hoof around the thing again. There was no way to tell what strings she was pressing down, and he knew if it was a full-sized guitar her hoof wouldn't cover enough of the fret-board. "Everything but the top one."

"Got it." Pinkamena strummed down and drew her hoof back up. "I hit the top string." She tried again and, again, hit the top string of the guitar.

"Try this." Mike held out a guitar pick. "Hold it…" Mike froze for a moment, trying to figure out how a pony could hold anything under their hoof. "Just hold it, and use it to do the strumming." Surprise was no longer possible, Mike watched as Pinkamena held the pick and strummed.

"That's so much easier. Why didn't you give me that to start with?" Pinkamena just strummed happily a few times.

"Slow down!" Mike laughed and reached for the guitar. "Okay, you have those two all sorted out, huh?" He sat the guitar over his knee and started strumming it, slowly, and changing the chord every second strum. "Like this. Can you repeat that?" He had a moment to wonder if he had been as eager to learn guitar as the pink filly was reaching for his guitar.

Mike waited for Pinkamena to try a few strums, before passing her the book. "You know what they sound like now, you will know when you're messing up. Do you want the case for the guitar?" When Pinkamena looked up at him with an incredulous stare, Mike couldn't stop himself from reaching a finger out and booping her on the nose. It was silly, but both of them giggled.

Recovering from the poke with a giggle, Pinkamena watched as Mike got a guitar-shaped case from beside his wardrobe. "You really mean I get to take it with me? But this is your guitar."

"And it still is my guitar. But you need to practice, and that means you need it more than I do." Mike opened the case and held it out. Pinkamena dutifully set the instrument in the case. "But you need to let Marble borrow it for her nights, and she needs to practice too."

Pinkamena nodded and watched how Mike latched the case closed. "I need to practice it every night?" Mike nodded and passed the guitar case over. "And the book?"

"When you can do that strumming without mistakes, there are other parts in the book for you to learn more." Mike opened a little pouch on the front of the case. "And you can put the book and pick in there for safe keeping."

Once she had jumped down to the floor, Pinkamena settled the guitar case on her back. "It is Marble's lesson tomorrow?" Mike nodded to her. "Okay. I better go home."

"Hold on." Mike opened the door. "I need some fresh air, and a walk." The lie was as unconvincing-sounding to him as it likely was to Pinkie. "Your sister made some demands."

Pinkamena giggled and stepped through the door. "Was one 'Stay off Holder's Boulder'?"

Author's Note

Candela: who do you think could help research these strange magical affects?

"." Candela gave a slight shrug. "?"

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Mary Rowland
Boulder
A.P.O.N.I.
Mephia
Nils
Ian
Dio-Drogynous

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Jeffh4
Vutava
Cross Lament

Study

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken Equish, everything else is in English. Just a boy and a girl for most of this, talking about "stuff."

Before Mike knew it Friday was upon him, and furthermore it was Friday evening. "This isn't the city, Mike. This is a little country town and helping someone else with their homework is just that, helping." He rubbed his arm again; the injection mark might have faded overnight, but his left arm was still a little sore. "Damn bats."

"What?" Rosetta approached Mike. "Did you get bitten by a bat?" She looked around, suddenly looking a little worried.

"No. Mum's found a bat and is nursing him back to health." Mike mentally forced the muscle soreness from his mind, along with Tufts the bat. "So, what are we going to work on?" He got up, stuffing his books and notepad into his bag.

"Huh? Oh! Well, you were having trouble with some maths, right?" Rose smiled at Mike's nod. "And I need help with some of my Equish. Do… Do you still want to study together?"

"Of course!" Mike said it so quickly that he held up his hands to ward off the inevitable question. "I mean, I do. I really suck at this stuff, and Candela said I should do the harder maths path if I want any hope of getting a good ENTER score."

"You are going to uni? I was going to just…" Rose blew out a breath in exaggerated annoyance. "You are probably the only person I can actually talk to about this." Taking the seat behind Mike's desk, she turned sideways so she could keep eye contact, but also look away if she needed to. "We move around a lot. Mum had me and didn't get on well with my dad, so she left with me. He went to jail and mum looked for a new boyfriend."

Mike hadn't expected an unburdening session. Taking his seat again, he turned around nearly completely to face Rose. "First bit sounds a bit familiar. Mum and Dad… let's just say dad is a bastard, and leave it there."

"Ha." Rosetta barked a laugh. "So anyway. Mum is… she found Dave again. 'High-school sweethearts' were her exact words."

"Another bastard in a string of them?" The moment Mike said it he saw on Rose's face that he was wrong. "Nice guy?"

"He's awesome. In the mornings—before school—we go up to the mine and he shows me the tools. And the ponies are pretty cool, Burrow and Delves. That… that's one reason I want to learn more Equish, so I can talk with them more." Rose stopped and rolled her eyes. "And that is why I need to talk to Miss Candela about avoiding all those tests and stuff. I want to go work with Dave."

"Why don't you drop out now?" Mike pulled his chair back and to the side, then heaved the desk around so it was pressed against Rose's.

Pulling a maths book from her bag, Rose opened it up and set it where Mike could see. "Dave said if I dropped out now he wouldn't train me at all. He said I had ta do all this crap. What are you having trouble with in particular?"

"Quadratic equations. It all seems so… so maddeningly useless to learn. Candela doesn't even have a firm grasp on it." Mike pointed to the start of his nightmare: Chapter two. "Wait, we should set up a timer so you get your help too."

"That would be great." Rose pulled out her phone and flipped it open. "This thing can do that, I think…" A few button mashes later and she had a timer counting down an hour. "Alright. So let's get into this."

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

The phone's alarm shocked Mike and Rose out of their study-focus, although the latter quickly turned the timer off with a few button presses. "Okay, looks like we leave the maths there." Rosetta reset the timer.

"?" Mike grinned to Rose. "?"

"Okay, I got a question in there about Equish, and something about a disaster…" Rose slumped down in her chair a little. "." She froze at Mike's snort. "What? Oh God, what did I say this time?"

Mike tried to contain his giggles enough to talk. "You said it was a pile of turnips. Right then, we go back to basics." Getting up from his seat, he made his way to the front of the class and opened a cupboard. "Candela keeps all the stuff she used to teach us, I'm sure she won't mind us using it."

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

The alarm was expected when it sounded again, but it was still loud enough to get a jump out of Rose and Mike. Looking down at his homework, Mike blushed a little. "I hope you got as much out of this as I did."

Rose steadied herself. "." The moment Mike's lips curled up she lifted a hand. "Wait, let me try again! ? No, that sounds wrong even to me. ." She thought about it and raised a questioning eyebrow.

"You got it right on the third. First was pumpkin, second was filch." Mike packed his books away again and hefted the desk back into position. "Are you doing anything next Friday?" As soon as he asked Mike realized it could be taken as either wanting to continue the studying or as a date.

"Well… I do have to study with this guy from school who can't add to save himself." Rose had the perfect line, but her delivery was flat. "Ugh, I mean yes. I need to keep learning this so I can catch up on everyone else."

"Cool." Mike felt his tension ease. "Will you be able to find your way home?" He fished the spare key Candela had left him from his pocket.

"Huh? Yeah. Mum will be half smashed by now anyway." Rose practically shoved her books into her bag as hard as she could.

"Are you okay?" Mike followed Rose out of the schoolhouse, turning the lights off and locking the door. "Shit. If you need anyone to talk to, just ask." He hoped he hadn't just blown a growing friendship as Rosetta stormed off into the moonlit night.

The walk home was a slow one, and Mike was plagued with thoughts and memories about his old school, and how different it had been. He was surprised at the glowing light leaping out the front door of his house as he approached it.

"Hi Mike." Misty was sitting in the night air, the light of the house washing over her. "How was your special somepony?"

For a brief moment Mike had to consider how far he could throw a young pegasus. "She isn't my special somepony. What's up inside?" He reached the door and peered past Misty, and glanced inside.

"Tufts found the bowl of grapes in the kitchen and ate so much he can barely move. Robin won't stop talking about her new friend, Kelly." Misty took a deep breath and let it out. She turned to look at Mike when he sat down beside her. "I think I miss having more ponies around my own age. Pinkakmena and Marble are a little shy around me…"

"Well, I'm heading to their farm tomorrow, do you want to come too? The best way for them to open up is to be around you more." Mike reached an arm down around Misty. Being around ponies so much meant their "friendly hugging" had been rubbing off on him.

Misty leaned into Mike. "That would be pretty cool. What do you do over there?"

From inside the house, Joyce's voice suddenly yelled, "No! Stop that!" and was then followed by some screeching—obviously from Tufts.

"For one thing I get away from this place for a day." Mike chuckled. "But we hang out, talk about things. I did a little help with the farm last time. I was going to write a letter to Princess Celestia in Canterlot, and ask her if it'd be alright if I visited."

"I heard you talking about that. It sounds fun!" Misty leaned to the side a little and stretched her wings with a sigh.

Mike paid attention to her. "Wings sore? Stiff?" When Misty just nodded, Mike took matters—or in this case the filly's back—into his own hands. Starting at her lower back, Mike started to run his hands along her fur, rubbing what muscles he could find, gently easing them with his fingers.

"Oooo… ." Misty closed her eyes and seemed to relax into the massage. "."

The moment Mike's fingers found the tight muscles and rubbed them once, Misty nearly fell down. "." He gave a laugh and slowed down a little. ""

With her wings spread and limply hanging, Misty nodded. "." Misty sighed again happily as Mike's fingers worked into the tight muscles.

"?" Mike kept working at the big muscles until the knot in each started to smooth out.

"Mike?" Joyce's voice was a lot closer. "Ah, that was your voice. Can you help me with getting the table ready? I had to give up half the bunch of grapes I got just to buy us some time."

"…" Mike adjusted his language back to English abruptly. "What do you mean?" He used one hand to smooth Misty's fur back down where he had rubbed, and stood up. As he turned and opened the fly-wire door, Mike spotted the problem and started laughing; attached to Joyce's front was Tufts, and he looked to have a mouthful of grapes. "I thought he wasn't meant to become a pet?"

"He isn't. But when the sun goes down, he wakes up fully and wants food. It started when I was sorting my first-aid kit. He found the lollipops." As Joyce spoke, she fed the bat another grape.

"Are you sure he knows that? I mean…" Mike paused for effect, "he looks pretty attached to you." Joyce's groan was music to Mike's ears, it fed him with a need for more puns. "Look at him, Mum, he has you wrapped around his claw…"

"You're the worst child ever." Joyce groaned and held her hand up over Mike's mouth, muffling his next words. "Just come and help, please?"

"Alright, alright. I was just giving Misty a massage, her wings are growing, the usual kid stuff." Mike held the door open for Misty. "Come on inside, you can help me set the table, if you want, so Mum can look after her pet in peace."

Rolling her shoulders and fluffing her wings, Misty nodded. "I sure can!" She trotted past Mike and Joyce, leaving Mike to follow her.

Mike couldn't resist reaching out to rub Tufts' head a little as he passed. At the accusing look on his mother's face, he shrugged. "You were the one who said he isn't allowed to be a pet. Look how cute he is."

"You're the worst, Michael Robertson." Joyce shook her head. "Are you still going to visit the farm tomorrow?"

"Sure are. Misty wanted to come too… if Candela doesn't mind." Mike joined Misty in the kitchen, getting a pang of amusement at how easily she had slipped into "little sister" territory.

Author's Note

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Mary Rowland
Boulder
A.P.O.N.I.
Mephia
Nils
Ian
Dio-Drogynous

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Jeffh4
Vutava
Cross Lament

Boredom

Language check. All in English.

"This is boring." Robin huffed a little. Sitting on the old swing set, alone, she didn't move. "Mike should have taken me with him, not Misty!" A rock found its way onto her boot and was soon skidding across the parking area.

She kicked her heels into the dirt and started to swing back and forth. Robin tilted her head back and stared at the sky. Longing filled her, the same longing she had felt the first time she had seen Misty fly through the air. "Stupid not-having-wings!"

Jumping off the swing, Robin stumbled with her landing and started to look around for her mother. When she spotted Joyce and Candela in the little covered box, Robin smirked. "It's not like mum said I couldn't go this time." She grinned, happy with her reasoning.

Crossing the main road was something that Robin took seriously, she looked both ways, then again, and then a third time before crossing. She was so proud of herself as she reached her home that she completely forgot that the house was locked. "Well that sucked." She looked at the house—that had never seemed so much like a fortress before—and contemplated her options. "Duh, windows!"

Ten minutes later, Robin slumped onto the porch. "I can't believe no one left a window open! This is the worst…" She kicked a rock that was near her shoe. Her brain ticked over a few times before she came up with her best idea yet. Jumping to her feet, Robin set her sights on where she assumed the mine was.

The walk took Robin nearly twenty minutes, but halfway into it she found the road leading up to her target. Skipping along the old track, she stopped when she saw the trees open out into a clearing. A few cars were parked nearby, but they weren't Robin's focus. "I'm going to—"

"What are you doing up here?" Rose stepped out from behind a car, pushing the wheelbarrow (now empty) back towards the mine.

"I was just…" Robin ran the scenarios through her head. None that she could think of would get her to Equestria. "… taking a look at the mine. Cricket is boring." She pointed at the shaft that burrowed right into the mountain.

"Anyone who hates cricket can't be too bad, but I can't let you into the mine, squirt." Rose put the wheelbarrow down. "I was just clearing out some of the junk piles, want to help me look through it?" She pointed to a pile of rock that was as tall as Robin was.

"Uh…" It sounded like work, lots of work—Robin was not fooled. "What are you lookin' for?" She walked a little closer to the pile, wary of being roped into doing work on her day off from school.

"Interestin' stuff. Dave said there might be some rough gems still in there, apparently Delves did his whammy on it." Walking over to the pile, Rosetta started to pick up rocks, examine them, and tossed them into a new pile. "Go halves in anything we find?"

Unwilling to admit she didn't understand a word of what Rose had said, Robin walked over to the pile and sat down to start looking through the rocks. "So what am I looking for?"

"Anything shiny." Rose was plucking her way through the rocks for a few more moments before Robin joined her. "Your brother is—"

"A jerk!" Robin held up a stone, and turned it around a few times before tossing it aside. "He asked Misty to go to Equestria for the day instead of me!" She sat down and started picking rocks from the bottom of the pile, relying on gravity to keep them flowing down to her. Her head snapped up at a snort, and she glared at Rose. "What…?"

"Misty is kinda new around here. Don't you think she deserves to go back to where she comes from for a bit?" Rose lifted up a dark bit of rock. "Hey, check this one." She spat on it and rubbed it against her jeans.

"What is it?" Even Robin could see the shine of red light bouncing from the rock. "Is it a diamond?" She kept rummaging while she talked, wanting to find her own shiny gemstone.

"Diamonds are clear… at least the ones Dave showed me." Rose held the gem up high and let the sun shine through the perfectly cut facets. "Whatever it is, could be expensive. We should ask Dave when we're done."

"Who's this 'Dave'?" Robin began furiously digging through the rocks and dirt.

"Slow down, you need to feel each one." Passing Robin the gemstone she found, Rose let the younger girl feel it. "See how it's still crusty around the edges? You want to feel for that. Dirty, but smooth hard gem under it."

"Like this?" Robin held up her filthy hand and spat in it. Mixing her saliva around good, she saw the first glint of green in the gem. "Hey, this is a green one!"

"Emerald I think." Rose grinned. "So about your jerk brother. What type of music does he like?" Her grin turned sly.

Robin narrowed her eyes and glared right at Rosetta. "You like him!" Her accusation was confirmed by the blush that took up half of Rose's face. "You do! You like Mike!" Her voice took on a sing-song quality. "Rose and Mike, sitting in a tree, K I S S I N G!"

"Shut up!" Rose tossed the emerald back to Robin. "He's just nicer than all the other boys in this town. Most are either too old for me, too young, or have too many legs."

"They all have cooties, you know. That really should be your first concern." Robin gave a self-confirming nod. "He isn't really that bad, for a boy." Her memory flashed up memories of the times Mike had stood up for her, or helped her do something without their mum finding out. She grabbed at some more stones to sort. "So what do you want to know?"

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

Robin stood up and stretched, her belly giving a grumble as she did. "We're almost done!" She looked at the much-reduced pile of rocks. "Do you have anything for lunch?"

"Lunch? It's nearly four o'clock." Rosetta patted the bulging pockets on her jeans and then froze. "Oh cr—"

"There you are young lady!" Candela's voice was heavily laden with annoyance, and it made Robin cringe and slowly turn around. "Your mum has been worried sick about you."

Rosetta stood up. "I was keeping her out of—"

"Rosetta, I am sure Joyce will appreciate that, but I need to get this little filly back to her mother before Joyce pulls all her mane out in worry." It only took Candela's look of disappointment to completely cow any feelings of rebellion.

Robin walked along beside Candela, passing their house and crossing the main street to reach the end of the cricket game. It seemed like there was a storm cloud brewing that had nothing to do with the weather.

"Candela! You found her!" Joyce ran up to Robin and Candela, and Robin braced for the tirade she expected to come. Instead, her mother's arms wrapped around her and plucked her from the ground with ease. "You're okay… Oh thank god, you're alright…" Dirt and all, Robin was pulled into the tightest hug she had ever experienced.

Her mother crying startled Robin out of her shock, and drove home just how worried for her Joyce had been. Robin's own eyes filled with tears that she couldn't stop. "I'm sorry mummy!" She clung to her mother's neck.

Author's Note

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Ian
Javarod
Jeffh4
Mary Rowland
Mephia
Nils
Sirion123

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Jeffh4
Vutava

"Pulling a Luna"

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken Equish, everything else is in English.

Mike pushed open the door to the house. "Mum, we're home!" He felt more than a little worn out, having spent most of the day helping out on the rock farm. There was a palpable aura throughout the house, and Mike looked down to Misty. "This doesn't seem good…"

"Home, dear?" Joyce was plopped on the couch, sipping a can of beer. "How was your day?" She tilted her head up from the television.

"Mum, what happened?" Mike started to sit on the couch, but froze at a glare from his mother.

"You're both filthy. Go and get cleaned up and then come and ask me about my day." Joyce took another pull from the can and gave a sigh.

The sound of flapping wings got Mike's attention away from his mother, and he turned just in time to have Tufts glide past and dive onto his mother's shoulder. "Yeah… I'll be back after a shower." Mike headed down the hall, taking notice that Robin's door was closed. "You first or me, Misty?"

"I'll be quick if you promise to help me brush my fur out after it dries." Misty gave her wings a little rustle, and shook loose some of the dust in them.

Mike pulled the door shut behind the filly, leaving her to the bathroom. Trudging down to his room, he slipped inside and closed the door behind him. Putting his backpack down, he unzipped it. "You need a name." Mike reached into his backpack and lifted out a rock. "If it gets to Monday, and I haven't got you a good name, Maud will never speak to me again." Holding the rock, Mike looked over it, tried to work out what was its best qualities.

"Well, you're hard—of course—but you feel a bit lighter than a rock your size should be. Slight? Feather? Slim?" Mike really didn't care how silly it might look. Everything in Equestria had magic in it, even the rocks. "Fine." He smiled at the word, tasted it in his mouth. "Fine the rock."

The name seemed to fit the rock, and Mike set it up on his dressing table. Pulling off his shirt and shoes, Mike tossed his clothes one by one onto a pile. Each garment shed dust around him until he was only wearing his underwear. "I just don't understand it." He huffed out a breath and closed his eyes. "Friends." The word conjured the Pie sisters, Rose, even Ball, Kelly, and Limestone were there in his head. "Family." His lips pulled up into a smile as his mom and sister appeared, but then Misty and Candela were there too.

Grabbing his bathrobe he slumped down on the floor and leaned against his bed. "They're just friends. Besides, you can't ask a pony out on a date." But with the words said, Mike blushed and hid his head in his arms. "Rose. I just need to get out of this…" Examining his hands, Mike tried to find ways to finish the thought. "I'll focus on school, and then go visit Canterlot on the holidays. Until then, I'm going to do my best to be nice to Rose."

Mike lost his focus and tried to think of things other than his growing awkward situation with girls. Focusing on thinking of his school work, he was startled from his musings by a gentle clopping on the door. "Yeah?"

"!" Misty's voice had some notes of relief in it.

"." Shoving up to his feet, Mike made his way to the door and opened it. Misty was just turning to her own room. "." Mike grinned when the filly bolted into her room.

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

Mike stepped out of the bathroom with his hair still damp, only to be confronted by an adorable pegasus filly with a brush in her mouth. "."

"!" Misty couldn't use her wings in the tight hallway, but her hooves carried her into the living room ahead of Mike.

"You know what?" Mike walked into the living room and marveled at the sight that confronted him. Joyce was reclining in a chair, a beer in one hand, passing cut slices of banana to Tufts (who was hanging by his legs from the shoulder of Joyce's shirt). Misty was sitting on the floor, with her back to the empty couch-chair. "Ponies and bats and bananas. Oh my!"

Joyce rolled her eyes at her son's joke. "Laugh it up, but remember, you made sure I could see everything for who and what it is." She waved a piece of banana at Mike, before passing it to Tufts.

"Life is more interesting, yeah." Mike took his assigned seat, and the brush provided. His fingers worked without thinking, gently teasing out Misty's mane and brushing each little section. "So, why is Robin locked in her room, and why the beer?"

As leaned back as she could get, Joyce took another swig of her beer, and fed Tufts another bit of banana at the same time. "The day was going well. I was chatting with Candy, and Robin was playing as usual." She managed to catch the ground up fruit Tufts was done with in an empty can. "Lunch time rolled around, and I went looking for her."

"Where did she end up?" Mike gave a deep sigh. Misty's mane was smooth as silk, and he wasn't sure it even needed brushing, but he had promised.

"I searched for nearly half an hour, but I couldn't leave the game. Candy is the best ever." Joyce rubbed Tufts' chin with her hand. "She took off, literally. Started flying all over town, reporting in when she wasn't zooming around." Stretching out one of Tufts' wings carefully, Joyce's voice turned thoughtful. "Flying like that would be pretty cool."

Mike waited. He had given up trying to prod his mother along to give the story faster. His hands worked, and slowly Misty's mane was brushed to perfection.

"She was at the mine. One of your friends from school, Rosetta, got her busy getting dirty. Why wouldn't she come and tell someone?" Joyce was interrupted in her stroking of Tufts' chin, by the bat giving a soft squeak.

"Rose?" The name got Mike's full attention. "I'll ask her on Monday." He gently poked at Misty, getting the filly to adjust her position so he could better reach the rest of her mane.

"Whatever. Candy brought my little Robin home." Joyce smiled and closed her eyes. "She's grounded until next term."

"Candela?" Mike blinked in confusion, only barely piecing together his mother's shortening of his teacher's name. "Why would you ground her?"

Joyce just smiled at the joke from her son. "Careful, or I might ground you as… pun—ishment." She didn't even see the cushion that flew towards her, but the wind of it passing her ear made her turn and look at Mike. "If I wasn't a little batty, I might throw that back at you."

"Well, ding ding ding." Mike checked over Misty's mane. "Okay, tail now."

"What's with the dinging?" Joyce watched her son taking care of Misty's long hair.

"It was no charge." When Joyce looked more confused, Mike smiled wider. "Bell… free…" He dodged the pillow thrown at him, giggling with laughter as Tufts gave a loud screech at the rough movement. Working the brush through Misty's blue-white tail, Mike spotted an odd darker hair here and there, but thought nothing of it.

Author's Note

Misty: So do you like Mike as a sort of stand in big brother?

Misty tapped her chin with a hoof. "!"

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Ian
Javarod
Jeffh4
Mary Rowland
Mephia
Nils
Sirion123

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Jeffh4
Vutava

An Outing

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken English (there isn't much at all, one line I think), everything else is in Equish.

Dear Michael Robertson.

It is with great delight that I send this invitation to visit Canterlot Castle, and I eagerly look forward to meeting you. Of particular interest is finding out how you traveled to Equestria, and how you plan to get back.

Yours Expectantly
Princess Celestia of Equestria

Mike was sitting in his living room, reading the document again, and then once more to be sure. Folding the formal letter closed, he looked up with a smile that was from ear to ear. "I can't believe I'm finally going!"

"Are we going now or what?" Limestone wore a more-sour-than-usual frown, and everypony knew she was just annoyed at having to leave the farm for a week.

Pulling out a pair of coconuts, Maud dutifully passed them to Mike. "Here, you have hands." She managed to keep her expression neutral for a good thirty seconds before one corner of her mouth pulled up in a little grin.

The grin was the signal Mike had been waiting for. "Yeah, yeah. How long did you say it was again? A day to walk to Ghastly Gorge?" Mike stood up, hefted his backpack on, and spent a moment getting the straps just right. On the back of his pack, a newer acoustic guitar was strapped. "Candela said it took her and Misty two days."

"That's why we aren't bringing Marble or Pinkie." Limestone had to duck her head as a screeching Tufts winged his way over her head and grabbed hold of one of the straps on Mike's shoulder.

"Hey buddy." Mike's hand lifted right away to rub the bat around the neck. "Hold on, if I get him some grapes he'll leave us alone." He turned and carried his little passenger into the kitchen.

Limestone let loose the ever-suffering sigh of a pony who really wanted to be leaving. "I thought you were giving him man—" She blinked as Maud's hoof pressed to her snout.

"You don't say the 'M' word around him." Maud was back to her monotone voice. "It makes him get worked up." Drawing her hoof back slowly, Maud looked her sister right in the eyes.

"Mango." Limestone smiled widely. When Tufts screeched and launched himself from Mike's front, she started laughing, watching the bat do tight circles of the kitchen.

"Now you've done it." Mike lifted out the bunch of grapes and popped one free. "Hey, Tufts, you hungry or what?" He tossed the first grape into his mouth, and sure enough Tufts zoomed around and landed on him again with an angry little screech. "Thought so, here you go." Plucking another grape free, Mike held it out to the bat.

Limestone Pie stopped her laughter when Maud poked her in the shoulder. "Oh come on, that was pretty funny!"

Feeding Tufts another grape, Mike glared at Limestone. "Okay, it might have been, but keep the M word under wraps, okay?" He reached up and offered his wrist to Tufts, slowly transferring the bat across to that, then to his usual perch in the kitchen. "If I leave you the bunch, will you keep the noise down and not make a mess?" Mike was no longer surprised when the bat replied to such questions with a little kreee sound, and so he broke off a third of the bunch and clipped it to the end of his perch.

"Wait," Limestone tilted her head a little, causing her bangs to swing from covering one side of her face to the other, "how does he know Equestrian for Ma—" Maud was now batting two for three, having gotten her hoof up to stop Limestone from finishing the word.

"Pinkamena." Maud rolled her eyes, and slowly drew her hoof back. "And it isn't like we're the only ponies here who speak Equish."

"Hi." Mike grinned, taking the pass-off joke from Maud. "Why, Mister Ed down the road speaks English and Equish just fine." Realizing his mistake too late, Mike tried to cover for having never shown either Maud or Limestone the Mister Ed show. "Uh…" He pulled out the coconuts.

"Come, Patsy!" Maud's face broke into a big grin. "Let us ride…" She trailed off dramatically.

Limestone stomped out of the house. "You're both idiots."

"To Canterlot!" Mike and Maud both chorused the words together, and following Maud, Mike started clopping the coconuts together to make horse-sounds.

"Oh, we're Knights of the Round Table, we dance whenever we're able." Maud was in fine voice, trotting out of the house to the sound of coconuts striking. "We do routines and chorus sce—"

"No! No, no, no!" Limestone glared at her sister. "No singing. None. This trip's long enough already without you two singing all those silly songs!"

Maud closed her mouth and turned to Mike. "On second thought, let's not go to Canterlot. 'Tis a silly place."

"I'm regretting this already, and we haven't even properly started." Limestone gave an exasperated sigh. "I'll let you sing if you stop with the coconuts."

Mike pretended to think about the deal, his hands working the coconuts as he did. "Very well, we will face the peril without our hoof-clopping noises." He passed the two half-shells back to Maud, who put them in her own pack.

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

"Wonderment" would be the word Mike would use to describe his state. They had spent a full day keeping a brisk pace going, and camped under the stars and an odd-looking moon. The next morning had them tracing the last bit of a huge gorge, finally reaching a low railway platform that seemed somewhat in the middle of nowhere. Blocking his vision of the huge mountain to the north was a vast forest.

"Everfree?" Mike had his pack resting beside him on the low platform, and gazed off into the thick forest. "Let me guess, full of cute elves who skip around and hug trees?" He lifted the guitar that was strapped to the back of his pack off and started to tune it.

"Timber wolves, jackalopes, and worse." Limestone walked up beside Mike and sat down. Looking at Mike hopefully, the desire she showed for some music was unmistakable.

Raising a single eyebrow, Mike started to strum. "I hope you like this one." The tune was slow, but he noticed the normally angry mare smiling as she bobbed her head along to the tune. "And I promise I won't sing."

"Good." Limestone closed her eyes and let the music play on.

Maud found her own seat beside her sister, and leaned against her side. "What is it called?"

"Wild Horses." Mike couldn't stop his grin from widening at the name of it. "By the Rolling Stones." Both mares were gaping at him now, but Mike ignored them and kept playing. "How often does the train come past?"

"No idea." Limestone grinned at Mike's stumbled strumming. "What, you think I know everything? Gorge is as far as I have ever been. This trip is a first for me too." She shrugged a little.

"You didn't tell me that!" Mike abandoned the slow music, speeding up his pace and starting in on something with nearly double the beat. "Has Pinkie or Marble been there?"

Maud's hoof was tapping to the upbeat song. "No."

"Now I feel bad that we didn't bring them." Mike struck a flourish down the neck, fingers sliding along the strings. "But I guess that just means we get to come again. This one is Tainted Love." His fingers kept doing their thing, until a whistle bid him stop. Turning his head, he saw the oddest looking train he had ever seen. It looked almost cartoonishly simple, but nonetheless it was barreling along the tracks towards the station.

Limestone stood up and rolled her eyes. "Well I guess it could've been worse." She glared between Mike and Maud. "You could've been singing as well."

Watching the train slow down as it rolled into the station from her right, Mike slung his guitar back over his pack and hefted the thing onto his back again. "Wait, do we have to pay a fare?"

"Ma and Pa gave me some bits." Limestone smirked. "So be nice or I won't pay for you." She stepped up onto the first step of the train, and was followed by Mike and Maud.

Straightening up inside the train, Mike was a little surprised at how much room there was. "Wow, this is pretty spacious. Why is there so much head-room?" He lifted his arms, only barely touching the roof of the train car.

"Pegasi love flying. The cars are built so tall to accommodate them stretching their wings on long trips."

Mike turned to see the train Conductor standing behind them. An older-looking pony, with brown hair in his mane and tail, and a yellow coat of fur. "Oh, thank you!" Mike smiled and started to take a step when the train gave a shunt to start moving again. "Ahhhh!" But rather than the expected—and likely painful—fall, he found himself literally being held up in mid air in a green glowing aura.

"Whoa now, careful there." The Conductor's horn was glowing brightly with its own green. "At a regular station they take it a bit easier. My name's Stamped Mark. Tickets please?" He set Mike down on one of the low benches.

With his heart thumping fast, Mike almost bounced back off the bench seat. "That was amazing!" He looked from the two Pie sisters and back to Stamped. "But I guess it is a lot less so for you. Sorry, I haven't really met many unicorns." He held out his hand—palm out—for a moment, before turning his hand into a fist.

"A visitor to Equestria? Welcome!" Stamped's eyes slid to Maud and Limestone. "Are you showing him around? Taking him to Canterlot?"

"I wrote a letter and all!" Mike lifted off his pack and started rifling through the front pouch of it. "Here." He held it out, feeling so excited to be on the final leg of the trip.

Stamped floated the letter up so he could see the royal seal and the contents, then returned it to Mike. "Well, a letter from Princess Celestia herself. As royal guests, I can't really charge you for tickets. You have a good day now——?"

"Mike," Mike pointed to the letter addressed to him, "Mike Robertson. And thank you!" He watched the conductor walk down to the end of the car and headed to the next one. "Did you see that? Wow! Magic is amazing. It-It's magic!" He knew full well he was bouncing in place, but didn't care. "And just like that he let us ride for free? This place is amazing!" His vocabulary had shrunk with the rush of happiness.

"Ugh!" Limestone let out her cry of inarticulate rage as calmly as she could. "If this is how you're at just getting on the train, how are you going to be when you meet the Princess?" She stabbed a hoof in Mike's direction.

Limestone's words failed to bring Mike down from his high. He was staring out the window at the fantastic world that passed him by. "If I squee like a little girl you have full permission to thump me." The train went over a bridge, a river passing underneath. Appreciation for trains and other vehicles really set in after having walked a full day, just to get somewhere.

"I'll hold you to that." Limestone smirked.

A crackling voice came over the PA system in the train. "Ponyville station next stop." It sounded like Stamped Mark was in a tiny little room with the worst microphone in existence, but it was clearly him. "Next stop is Ponyville."

"There is an actual city called 'Ponyville'?" Mike turned his head a little to try to catch a glimpse of the town, but it wasn't until they passed the last of the forest that most of Ponyville became visible. "Oh wow…" His voice gave out, on the streets-that-weren't-real-streets were dozens of ponies. Unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies. He watched a few pegasi zoom through the sky, one in particular hammering their way into a low cloud.

"Uh, Mike?" Maud poked Mike's ribs. "Mike? You're drooling on the window…" She poked him again. "If this is how he is now, what will he do in a big city?" She turned and looked at Limestone.

"This is going to be awesome." Limestone rubbed her forehooves together with a sinister grin set on her snout.

Staring out the window, Mike's eyes grew massive as he stared at each detail. His brain just couldn't take in the entirety of the town—it was too fantastic. The train gave a shunt, and started to tear the sight away from him. He was dead silent, watching the town slowly fade from view. When it was gone, he turned back to Maud and Limestone.

"With us again?" Limestone reached up and poked Mike's nose. "Good. I thought it was funny at first, but you seriously lost it there." She gestured to the town they had passed, just as the train clattered its way into a tunnel.

In his distraction, Mike had failed to notice the carriage had gained a few more occupants. "Sorry, but I just can't get over how… how cool this is."

"It's cold?" Maud blinked slowly at Mike. "Did you bring a scarf?"

Mike froze for a moment (movement, not thermally). Opening his mouth, he was about to say something, when Maud giggled and waved her forehooves at him. "You're getting better at that." Rolling his eyes, Mike gave a groan.

"You're teaching my sisters bad habits." Limestone bopped Maud on the shoulder, and then pointed her hoof at Mike. "Corrupting the fillies of Equestria…"

"St-Stop!" Maud was giggling like a loon now, her sides heaving with all her laughter. As she struggled against the laughing fit, Maud looked at Mike who was laughing as well. "Ni!"

Schooling his features as best he could, Mike almost lost it when Maud repeated her exclamation again, but he focused on Limestone. "She got better…" He clamped his mouth closed, and even put up with an eye-roll from the older of the two siblings. Their verbal sparring was put on hold as the conductor came through, checking the tickets of ponies who had boarded at Ponyville, and no sooner did he leave than his voice came over whatever the train had for a PA system.

"Canterlot Station is the next stop. The train will soon arrive and terminate at Canterlot station. All change please."

Mike spun to look out the window again, and his heart skipped a beat. The train crested the last of the switchbacks, and Canterlot was visible. The huge castle was the nearest part of the city, but it sprawled out into the distance. Words failed him completely at how amazing it was, how huge it was, and how very real it was. "Wow…"

"It's just a model…" Maud giggled again, and this time ended up with a finger pressed to her snout, a shushing gesture.

"You have seen where I'm from, you have seen pictures." Mike pulled his hand back and pointed at Canterlot. "Nothing on Earth is like this. Nothing is anywhere near this amazing." He fell back onto the seat, not even realizing that he had been standing.

The train gave a little sigh as it stopped, and the conductor walked down the train to find Mike still staring out the window. "Quite the city, isn't it?" Stamped beamed in pride at the amazement shown by Mike. "I hate to be pushy, but you really need to hop off the train."

Reality plunged back into Mike, and he shook his head a little to clear it of the remaining pink clouds of stunned wonder. "Oh, sorry!" Reaching for his pack, Mike hoisted it up to his back and shouldered it. "Come on Maud, Limest…"

"Your friends are waiting outside for you. I told them I'd get you moving." Stamped followed Mike to the end of the car. "Enjoy your time here!"

Mike felt a hard shove as he stepped off the train, and looked at a grinning Limestone. "What was that for?" He rubbed his hip and started walking down the steps from the platform.

"You told me I totally could." Limestone grinned up at Mike. "And I'll be watching to see if you do that again."

"I'm pretty sure I didn't 'Squee like a schoolgirl.' " Mike reached over and ruffled Limestone's mane as payback.

"You probably shouldn't have done that." Stepping between the two, Maud looked from Mike to Limestone. "You started it, sis. We're here now, so let's agree to have fun." Her eyes practically bored into one, then the other.

"Fine!" Mike and Limestone both said at the same time, then each cracked a giggle.

Mike pulled out his invitation and started leading the way towards the castle. With his eyes darting to every pony they passed, Mike barely even picked up on the conversations, but then a voice raised above the others, and got his attention.

"Come and see as I, Trixie, perform magic feats unlike any seen before!" A showmare, looking barely older than Maud herself, was standing on her back hooves and waving her forelimbs in the air. The young blue unicorn scanned the crowd that wasn't gathering at all, until she spied Mike—pointing at him. "A monstrous beast!"

Blinking, Mike looked around for the monster before he lifted a hand up to point to his chest. "Me?" The question and gesture got a laugh from those around Mike, and the flow of traffic halted to see what would happen.

"It talks!" Trixie Lulamoon's eyes widened. "But watch as the Amazing Trixie tames the savage beast!"

Mike watched as the young mare's horn lit, and suddenly he was trapped in a cage made of magic, or so it seemed.

"You're all safe, I have captured the monster!" Trixie struck a pose, closing her eyes and gesturing to her own chest. Rather than the applause she expected, she got a lot of laughter from the crowd. Glaring at Mike, she watched him wave his hand through the bars of the cage.

"This is pretty cool. Is it like an illusion?" Mike stepped out of the cage, then back inside it. More laughs rang out, and when he turned he saw that ponies were dropping coins into the performer's hat, where it lay on the ground. "Oh, sorry, I'm meant to be captured, right?" He grinned and huddled in the cage, hands miming a grip on the fake bars.

More laughter, and more bits rained into Trixie's hat. She froze as the sound of her hat filling up. "Oh, uh… YES! Trixie the Amazing—"

"I thought you were Amazing Trixie?" Maud walked from one side of the cage, through the illusion, and out the other. "Mike isn't a monster, either; he's my friend."

"Uh, roar?" Mike stepped out of the cage and leaned down to Maud, cupping his hand as if to whisper, but talking loudly. "It's all an act, I'm not really a monster, and the cage isn't real." He quickly ducked back into the cage and pretended he hadn't broken character.

Trixie's mouth worked, but she had no hope of getting control of her own show back. She took a step towards Maud, but her hoof bumped her hat—her full hat. Full of bits. "Y-Yes!" Trixie's voice managed to cut through the crowd's laughter. "I'm not only the Amazing Trixie, but I'm Trixie the Amazing!"

"But—" Maud tried to cut in, but found a blue hoof in her mouth. The crowd started laughing even more.

On a roll, Trixie would not have her speech interfered with. "Fear not, ponies of Canterlot! The Amazing Trixie will—"

"Amazing Trixie the Amazing, you mean?" Maud barely got the hoof dislodged long enough to get another line out, then it returned. By now the crowd were collapsing with laughter, and Trixie's hat was actually covered with bits.

Mike leaned out of the cage, making sure his torso passed through one of the illusory bars. "Uh, which way is the castle? Us monsters need to keep up appearances, and I have been invited to attack today." He waved the official invite slowly enough that the gathered ponies could see the official seal, but fast enough that none could actually read it. The laughter intensified yet further, with the pony Mike asked barely able to point at the castle, that was not even a block away.

Suddenly the cage was gone, and one showmare had slumped to the ground. "I give up," Trixie shook her head as more bits landed beside her, "I just can't do this. Who are you two?"

"Mike." Mike held out his hand in a fist, offering a bump to Trixie that was only weakly returned.

"Maud." Maud offered her hoof to Mike instead, and got a sound thunk against his fist.

A few members of the crowd had thought the show was over, but they turned back to see Mike and Maud introduce each other.

"Pleased to meet you, Maud. Say… You look almost exactly like a friend of mine who grew up on a rock farm. Do you know Maud?" Mike wore the picture of innocence on his face, and found that having a crowd made being silly a lot more fun.

"Can't say as I have heard of a Maud who grew up on a rock farm, but then I don't get out much." Maud turned to the crowd and gave them a wink. "You see, I grew up on a rock farm, and—"

"No!" Limestone stomped into the middle of their little act. "Stop this, stop this right now. Look, you're meant to be the funny-pony," she pointed at Mike, "and you're meant to be playing it straight."

"But—" Mike tried to cut in, but Limestone was firm.

Limestone glared at Mike, giving it her best—which was pretty good all things considered. "You're not even a proper pony!"

"It's a fair cop." Mike shrugged. "Wait a minute, where did you hear that one?" He narrowed his eyes at Limestone. "You haven't even seen Flying Circus!"

"Pinkie." Maud and Limestone said together, then giggled. The crowd realized things had finally finished, and started to break up and move on. All three of the travelers turned towards Trixie at the same time.

"Sorry about that." Mike walked up and tried to help the unicorn to stand. "Trixie, is it?" When she nodded sadly, he sat down on the ground beside her. "Hey, what's wrong? Sorry for breaking up your busking, but you made some bits out of this, right?"

"I have never made so many bits in my life." Trixie scooted her forelegs under herself, pushing her body up into a sitting position. "And for the life of my I can't work out how you managed to do… that thing!" She waved a hoof in the direction where they had been doing their Python-esque comedy gag.

"That?" Mike blinked. "We were just having some fun, and rolled with what you were doing. Sorry if it offended." He felt Maud lean against his side, her head not quite at the same level as his own.

"You bring in a hundred times more bits than me in ten minutes, and you're sorry?" Trixie's eyes were wide. "I just… I'm never going to be a magician!" She started to turn and storm off, but was pulled into a hug.

Mike felt the first sob against his chest as he hugged Trixie. A moment latter she was crying and hugging back, clinging to him like a blue limpet. "Hey… uh… why don't you show us some of your magic tricks then? He looked at the castle, then back to Trixie, and hid the sigh he felt he wanted to give. "What about if you show us while we have lunch?"

"You're paying." Maud was quick to put in, gesturing at the big pile of bits on the ground where a blue hat used to be.

Trixie gave a bark of laughter and pulled back from Mike. "I guess I will…" She looked over her shoulder at the pile of coins and shook her head. "What traveling act are you with? Are they looking for a magician?"

"Uh…" Mike looked to Maud and Limestone for help. "Not quite…"

"Well?" Trixie looked between the two ponies and the human.

"We aren't with any traveling act. He," Limestone used bluntness as her weapon, and wielded it well, "sent a letter to Princess Celestia, and she invited him to visit."

"Princess Celestia?" Trixie puffed out a little and brought a hoof up to her chest. "I'm going to study at her school… I just need some more bits…" Her voice dropped to a soft whine as she finished.

"Not cheap, huh? How many more do you need?" Mike pointed at the pile of bits on the ground. "We aren't going to be in town for more than a few days, but maybe we could help you out a bit with your act?"

"Mike, this was your holiday…" Maud turned to look directly at Mike.

Giving a laugh, Mike waved off the concern. "And I'm still going to have a ton of fun. I'll get to meet a princess, I'll get to help a new friend, and there should still be time to see the city."

"Then I'll be your guide!" Trixie's face exploded into a huge grin. "Naturally I know everything there is to know of Canterlot."

"Perfect! That means we can still do everything we want and help Trixie." Mike stood up to the sound of his belly grumbling. "So…" He blushed with embarrassment.

"Trixie will find us somewhere to eat, first." Limestone glared at Trixie and gave her most angry grin she had. "And Trixie will be paying, too."

"Psst." Mike leaned in to Trixie. "She will also tell you to stay off Holder's Boulder," he almost couldn't finish when Maud started giggling, "when… when she does… just ignore her…" Able to hold his laughter back no longer, Mike stared to giggle.

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

"Mike Robertson." Celestia's visible eye twinkled as she found herself looking up at the human—but only just. "I received your letter with much excitement. Please, be welcome to Canterlot and Equestria both."

For just a moment Mike panicked as to what he should do, and in the end he opted for a bow. "Thank you… Your Highness." He almost forgot the title. "It is a unique experience to be able to visit and explore your country."

"I am greatly pleased to hear that. You seem to have met no few of my ponies already; who are your friends?" Looking just past Mike, Celestia's gaze settled on Maud, Limestone, and Trixie.

"This is Maud and Limestone Pie, I have been going to school with Maud, and Limestone offered to accompany us both here. And the other is Trixie Lulamoon, a wonderful unicorn who is showing us around your wonderful city." Mike was leaning on every nicety he knew, struggling to keep his tone formal and respectful.

"It is very pleasing to me to see such wonderful ponies ready to lend a hoof to help a new friend." Celestia's gaze swept the three ponies, but settled back on Mike. "You mentioned schooling, what are you studying?"

Mike blushed. "A little of everything, but I really like music, and I'm getting help with the things I'm not so good at." For a moment he was waiting for her to talk, but decided he had to ask something for his new friend. "I hear you have your own school here?"

Celestia visibly perked up, seeming to unwind herself from a tense stance. "I do!" Genuine warmth filled her voice, and it was easy for everypony present to tell that Mike had called up one of her favorite topics. "It is a school for unicorns primarily, but I am sure they could benefit from some diversity. Were you thinking of applying?"

"N-Not me." Mike turned and looked at Trixie, and urged her forward. "My friend Trixie was telling me how much she would like to join." When he looked back to Celestia, she was looking past him at Trixie. "She's raising funds to apply…"

"Funds are not normally needed." Princess Celestia narrowed her eye a little. "If a foal passes the entry requirements, they need not pay at all."

"I… I…" Trixie was lost for words, faced with Princess Celestia's focus. "I'm the best illusionist you have ever seen!" Stepping forward, so she stood beside Mike, Trixie looked up at Princess Celestia. "And I deserve a place there!"

Celestia looked intently at Trixie Lulamoon for a full minute, with no one daring to say anything before her. At last the Princess opened her mouth. "Maybe those tests are a little outdated. I am sure there is room for a truly amazing illusionist."

Trixie's eyes were wide as she stared at Princess Celestia. "Th-Th-Thank you!" She bounced from hoof to hoof in excitement. "Trixie will be the best student ever!"

Mike blinked at the odd choice of words. "That gives me a great idea for your shows." Everypony stared at him, and he felt a sense of having gotten a little too carried away. "S-Sorry, Your Hi—" She never got to finish.

"Nonsense. What is this about shows?" Princess Celestia tone suggested she was in a happy mood now, Trixie's enthusiasm and excitement having apparently rubbed off.

"Trixie does magic shows." Mike crouched down beside Trixie. "When we arrived she was doing great and… and we kinda crashed it." Still feeling a little bad about derailing her show, Mike pushed on. "But I just had the best idea for it, a way to make the shows much more grand and mysterious." Caught up in the moment, Trixie and Celestia's complete attention was on Mike. "Introduce yourself as 'Trixie the Magnificent,' and make sure that whenever anyone's attention wavers, you come back twice as amazing."

Princess Celestia smiled wider with excitement. "You're a performer? Then that will do to pay for your school entry, put on a show for the castle."

"Hear that? A royal performance!" Mike reached out and hugged Trixie, getting a squeeze back from her.

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

A near-constant state of wonder had surrounded Mike like a bubble, while he explored Canterlot. Equestria just seemed brighter to him than Earth, and not just color wise. The ponies Mike met were all wonderful, welcoming, and he had to struggle not to spend a full day talking with each and every one.

Stretching and climbing out of the "minotaur sized" bed, Mike found his pack and grabbed out his penultimate change of clean clothes and pulled them on. Stuffing the rest of his stinky clothing back into the pack, he closed it up. "Home today…" There was obvious reluctance in his voice, but Mike knew he couldn't stay here forever. "Yeah… home."

Quickly slinging his bag over his shoulder, Mike grabbed his guitar at last and headed out. Of course Maud and Limestone were already awake, it was after dawn. "Good morning." He approached them, finding the pair talking to Trixie.

"… and if you ever need to just get away from everything, come to our farm, alright?" Limestone lifted a hoof, and got a reluctant clop in return from Trixie. "Just stay—"

"She knows." Maud turned and waved a hoof at Mike. "Hey." Her tone was perfectly even, not a hint of excitement, sadness, or any emotion at all.

Mike raised an eyebrow at Maud's tone. "Are we ready to face the peril?" Studying Maud's face, Mike knew he had a lot more work ahead of him, her features were still and passive.

"No, it's too perilous." Maud kept her mask in place, her voice even. "Are you ready to go?" She kept her eyelids only half open, showing neither interest nor excitement.

"No more Monty Python from either of you." Limestone turned away from the row of hotel apartments and stalked off in the direction of the railway.

"Hi Trixie, ready for your first day?" Mike crouched down and took the ready hug that was already coming his way. The more he hugged just to show friendship, the more natural it felt.

"I don't think I ever will be, but I'm going anyway." Trixie squeezed Mike tightly. "And I'll never forget this, Mike." She was fighting off tears. "Go before the Great and Powerful Trixie makes too much of a scene!"

Mike gave one last little squeeze before letting go. "I'll probably come back sooner rather than later. Equestria is so cool." Standing up, he saw Limestone was out into the street and walking off. "I have said goodbye to too many friends because of how mum moves around, but there is no way I'm saying goodbye here. So… until we meet again." He offered his fist to Trixie, and got a thump from her hoof against it.

Maud waved to Trixie and trotted off at Mike's side. "You're a good pony, Mike Robertson."

Accepting the compliment with the tone it was given, Mike smiled and couldn't help but agree.

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

The trip back to Ghastly Gorge included another stop at Ponyville. Mike was a little less spellbound by all the ponies, but there was still a lot higher ratio of pegasi than Canterlot had contained. The walk back from Ghastly Gorge to the Pie's rock farm took the rest of the day and almost the entirety of the next one too.

Late afternoon threatened the three travelers with the cool evening as they approached the farm. In the field nearby, Pinkamena was sorting rocks. While the filly worked, Mike started his farewells. "I'll go say hi to Pinkie, then I'll head back home. It has been great traveling with you two." He made sure to include Limestone, who he had gotten to know a bit better.

"Whatever. Just stay off Holder's Boulder." Limestone grinned at Mike, and waved as she turned towards the homestead.

"Hey, want me to come around tomorrow?" Maud's mask—that she had been kept tightly in place for the whole trip back—broke as a touch of sorrow and anticipation colored her expression.

"Sure. I'm going to sleep in though, so you might want to make it around midday my time." Mike crouched and offered Maud his fist, and of course got a return from her hoof.

As Maud walked off, Mike turned his attention to Pinkamena, and walked slowly out to the field she was diligently working. "Hey Pinkie." Mike closed in on the filly, giving her a wave.

Pinkamena blinked and looked up to Mike, but instead of looking at him she looked past him. "What's that?" She lifted a hoof.

Mike turned to see what she pointed at, and saw a rainbow burst of light expanding from the north. "Oh wow…" Mike's eyes widened, and he felt renewed, revitalized, and nothing short of amazing. He watched as the colors played out across the sky, and for the first time in his life felt real magic. It wasn't like the magic the conductor had used to catch him, this was inside him, and it was way stronger. Turning his head, Mike couldn't stop a giggle from bubbling up. "Pinkie… your mane and tail are…"

Pinkamena spread a huge smile across her face and nodded. "I know, isn't it great!"

"Your cutie mark!" Mike pointed in shock at the three party balloons on Pinkie's flank. "Pinkie, you just got your cutie mark!"

"This is the best day ever!" Pinkie bounced around on all fours. "Just wait until I tell ma and pa, and Maud and Marble and Limestone and… It's amazing!" She bounced off towards her house without another thought.

Alone again, Mike slowly made his way back home. The lights in the mine were on—as always—but coming out of the tunnel on the Earth side reminded him about the time difference. The moon was up in the sky, and gave him enough light to reach his house safely.

"." With no answer, Mike made his way inside and dumped his bag in the laundry to worry about in the morning, and trudged to his bedroom. No matter how late it apparently was, he just couldn't settle down enough for bed. "Something smooth should do…" He put one of his favorite CD's in his player, plugged in his long-leaded headphones and slumped on his bed.

The CD played all the way through before he marshaled a yawn. Mike lifted the headphones off, and reached over to turn off the player. "Ouch, guess I haven't worn these in a while…" He rubbed at his sore ears while he got ready for bed. Turning the light off, he kicked off his pants and slipped under the covers in the dark.

Author's Note

Robin: if you were a pony, what color would your fur be?

"I want to be pink!" Robin bounced in place. "Wait! No, yellow! With silver wings and a golden horn!"

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

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Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
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And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
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Vutava

An Inning

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken Equish, everything else is in English.

Joyce heard the front door close—and her son's voice retreating—as she walked down the hall from the bathroom. "And that leaves two." She smiled at the thought, her brain long having made the connection that Misty was at least part hers to look after.

No flapping—and no keeing—greeted Joyce when she entered the kitchen, and she quickly saw why. Hanging inside his open cage, Tufts had his mouth stuffed with grapes. "He spoils you." She reached up to his chin and gave it a little rub with her finger. "He makes me proud."

With another little rub behind the bat's ears, Joyce turned and made her way to the kettle. Preparing two cups of tea and a coco, she waited for the jug of water to come to the boil.

"." Misty climbed up onto a seat at the table. "—" The filly had to duck her head as Tufts keed and flew over her.

"?" Lifting an arm quickly, Joyce rolled her eyes as Tufts latched on with his legs, and started crawling towards her torso.

" means you, you said 'we.' " Misty giggled at catching the adult out with their Equish. "Oh, can we have bananas again?" In the interests of getting what she actually asked for, Misty had chosen to swap to English.

"Thank you, Misty." Joyce now had a bat hanging from the collar of her old jumper. "If there are any bananas left you can have some. You really like fruit, huh?" The kettle started whistling for attention, and Joyce quickly turned it off and started pouring the boiling water into various cups.

Misty looked through the fridge, and plucked out a pair of bananas and a bottle of apple juice. Holding them in her wings, she carried the latter up to the sink and set the former on the table. "Are you going to be home all day today?" Carefully lifting out a glass, Misty poured the juice into it.

"No, because mum has a date!" Robin bounced into the kitchen, earning an assertive kee from Tufts. Freezing in her tracks, Robin looked to her mother in shock. "Did he just tell me off for jumping up and down?"

"He did, and I agree with him. No jumping or you'll wake up…" Joyce smiled as the last resident—who was home—entered the kitchen. "Candela. Good morning." Misty's wing passed her the milk right on cue, and Joyce poured some into the two cups of tea. "Sleep well?"

"Not particularly." Candela stretched a fore and back leg out as she yawned. "All sorts of strange meanings. The Mare in the Moon can reach all the way here, apparently."

" 'Mare in the Moon'?" Joyce passed her friend one of the cups of tea, and carried Robin her coco.

"The Mare in the Moon, mum!" Robin stealthily took one of Misty's bananas, and then pulled off a credible kee, mimicking Tufts quite well.

Misty lifted up one hoof and booped Robin on the nose. "There are more in the fridge."

"Is anyone going to explain the Mare in the Moon to me?" Joyce was ignoring the girls' antics, and put some toast on for herself.

"I was teaching all the foals some old tales, and mixing in Equestrian ones with an Earth one." Candela sipped her tea with every indication of delight. "The Mare in the Moon is an old one, but it speaks of a great monster living on the moon. In Equestria, you can even see a shadow of her head on it."

"That's pretty cool." Joyce got out the butter and some sweet apricot jam.

"And legend has it, upset sleep and bad dreams are all her fault." Candela left Robin and Misty to their breakfast, and fetched them another banana each. "It's all old stories, but it's strange how so many have a kernel of truth in them."

"Not so much here. I guess in a world of magic and unicorns, myths and legends are just as likely as what the newspapers print." Joyce caught the first two slices of toast, and set about buttering them.

A knock at the front door drew everyone's attention, and an inquisitive kee from Tufts. "Come in!" Joyce passed one slice of toast to Candela, and bit into the other herself.

"Just me Mrs. Robertson!" Rose walked uncertainly into the strange house. "G'day." She spared a half-smile for the room full of ponies, humans, and one bat. To Joyce's eyes, however, she was trying to spot someone else. "You still want me to take these two terrors off to the mine? I know a great shaft I can push them both down."

"Will we ever see them again?" Joyce liked the girl's sense of humor, but it felt slightly forced. All the numbers added up to Rosetta having a crush on Mike, and Joyce knew it all too well.

Rose shook her head. "Not if we push a big rock down after them." When both Misty and Robin looked at each other, and then turned and keeed sharply at Rose, the teenager rolled her eyes. "Have they been hanging around Tufts too much? I heard you can catch bat-canthropy from bats…"

" 'Bat-canthropy'?" Robin turned and looked to her mother, the default—and for good reason—authority on all things medical. "Mum! What's bat-canthropy?"

"Sounding like a bat is the first sign." Rose waited until both girl and filly were looking at Joyce before winking. "Next thing is the wings, then you get the crazy ears…"

The silly description made Joyce's stomach turn worryingly. "That's it…" Though she whispered the words, everypony could see something had just transpired. "That's it!"

"Make way!" Robin jumped from her seat and made a path for her mother. "Mum has had an idea and we can't talk to her until she writes it down."

Her daughter's words were only peripheral sound, Joyce rushed to her notebook—the one she kept the information about the two miners. "Something is infecting them into… into ponies. And it must be leaking from…" Her eyes widened.

Robin cheered. "Aaand you can talk to her again."

"Joyce, what's wrong?" Candela's tone was full of worry for her friend. "Is this about Dave and Steve?"

"How could I have been so stupid! Only the miners are changing because they work closest to Equestria! Steve," Joyce was so carried away, she barely noticed the reactions of the others in the kitchen, "even works in Equestria most days. Why didn't I see this before?!"

Rose looked to Robin and Misty. "Uh, so did you still want me to babysit today?" She looked at Robin with a little confusion evident, and it took a moment for Joyce to realize she was even being talked to.

"Oh! Yes please, Rose." Joyce had the book open to a blank page and was writing furiously. She listed off a Geiger counter, radiation badges, among other things. She froze and took a deep breath, counting to ten in her head. "I'm sorry, Rose. That'd be great. Do you need money for lunch?" She forced herself to calm; her kids might be used to her manic revelations, but it wasn't fair to perpetrate them on others.

"If you want me to keep them out of your hair all day…" Rose trailed off meaningfully. The girl blinked in shock when Joyce passed her a fifty dollar bill. "This is too—"

"Please, I need to focus on this. Whatever you don't spend," Joyce paused significantly, "you can keep."

"Well, come on fillies, bring your fruit with you." Rose pocketed the fifty and reached out to the two girls. "Time's a wasting!"

The next time Joyce looked up from her notebook, only Candela was left in the house. A soft kee from her chest reminded her that Tufts had been not only respectfully silent, but behaving himself for once. She blinked, putting her pen down and closing the book for a moment. "Sorry Tufts." She reached her free hand up to rub the bat's ears.

"I take it you had an idea what could be causing the… changes?" Candela put a plate of toast on the table, which left Joyce to wonder how long she had been distracted with writing her ideas.

"Yeah, it has to be something proximity-related to Equestria. Steve got hit the worst because he mostly works in Equestria, and Dave works this side, but in the mine still. It can't just be proximity to ponies, or Robin, Mike, me, and the schoolkids would be changing too." Joyce plopped down at the table and took a piece of toast. "Thanks, Candy."

"It's no problem at all, Joyce. You take care of so much of the cooking that making breakfast is the least I can do." Candela munched on her own toast. "That was a lot of bits… dollars… for foalsitting."

"Rosetta is a good girl," Joyce grinned widely, "I mean filly…" She giggled when Candela stuck her tongue out. "… and I happen to know she's chasing after a certain colt of mine. He had a string of… almost-girlfriends…" She waved the toast in a circle to emphasize that the term was used loosely. Unfortunately for her, Tufts leaned out (using his wings to gain distance), and licked some sugary jam off her toast.

"He's quick at that." Candela popped the last of her toast in her mouth, and showed every sign of bliss as she chewed up what was a deliciously sweet breakfast.

Joyce tore her piece of toast in half, and holding one piece up to Tufts, ate the other in peace. "You saw how she was looking around when she came in? How disappointed she was when Mike wasn't here?"

"They are worse at school." Candela grinned over her cup of tea. "Oh, they always pay close attention, and their study time together is building their grades up much better than if they tackled it alone, but there are glances, and blushes. Humans blush a lot easier than ponies…"

"Because of the fur?" Joyce kept both hands busy with Tufts, not wanting to tackle her work too quickly. She had the important revelations down, she could expand on them and put something together to try later. "I was worried all the issues at the last school might have affected him…" She waved a hand around in emphasis, until Tufts snagged it with a thumb, and pulled it back so it could rub his chin again.

"I haven't heard the full story, and I'm not sure I'd understand it all if I heard it. But Mike is a good colt. He fixated a little on the Pie fillies, which wasn't a bad thing. They are safe, and comfortably friends that he can relax with. Maud, in particular, seems a perfect match for him. If they weren't completely different species, I'd think they had a chance together." Candela watched Tufts getting the snuggles he desired.

"Wait, what?" Joyce was snapped from her little daydream, and focused on Candela. "But that… I don't…" She thought about it, about a pony and a human. "Ugh, society has in no way prepared me for this level of parental problems. I give up. If he's happy, and whatever girl—"

"Or filly." Candela actually giggled when she cut in.

"Or filly, okay. If he and his intended are happy, I'm happy." Joyce heard a soft little grunt from Tufts, and looked down to see him enthusiastically rubbing his cheek against her hand. Just then, the bat decided to spit out the wad of squeezed grape bits he had been working the juices out of. "Really?"

The bat looked right in Joyce's eyes, and nodded.

"He has you wrapped around his thumbs." Candela drank down the last of her tea and climbed off the chair. "Cloth incoming!" With her wing, the pegasus flicked a damp cloth across the kitchen, right into Joyce's waiting hand.

"It's not that bad." Joyce cleaned up the spat of discarded fruit pulp, and then cleaned her hand too. "And it's not like he's a pet. He's a wild animal." She was clinging to the hope that the words were true, but the bat had imprinted on her family pretty quickly.

"Of course he is." Candela displayed her skill with sarcasm as obviously as was possible. "Just a wild bat, who gets upset when nopony is home, and doesn't like to eat unless somepony is holding him. Not a pet at all…"

"There was no need for that." Joyce rolled her eyes a little at Candela's words, then decided to change the topic from the argument that she definitely wasn't losing. "I'll be going to Traralgon with Steve," she thought about hiding her blush, but she was an old enough "girl" not to, "it's a sort-of date."

"A date that isn't a date? Why isn't it?" Candela retrieved the cloth and had to rear up to rinse it out in the sink.

"Well, we're having lunch, and then I'm getting some blood tests done. The former is his idea, the latter is mine." Despite lunch being Steve's idea, Joyce found herself warming up to it more and more. 'And why shouldn't I have a date? It's been how long since I thought of…' Joyce was deliberate in her efforts to forget Mike and Robin's father. The man's efforts to gain custody proved how much he wanted to be in his children's lives; he hadn't fought at all.

"He certainly looks like a nice stallion. I haven't talked with him enough to gauge his faculties. Is this something serious, or are you just after a quick tumble?" Candela finished cleaning up the sink and jumped back down, looking Joyce in the eyes.

"What?!" Joyce blushed hotly at the question. "I mean, I don't… I'm not really…" Trying to tell herself she wasn't a young girl anymore, Joyce was forced to look at the question honestly, and evaluate her feelings.

"If I'm reading you correctly, those slumped shoulders and intense blush are a sign that it's the option you would rather it not be." Candela reached up with her wing and turned the kettle on again.

"I just can't believe I'm… I'm just horny." Expelling a deep breath after the distasteful word, Joyce slumped down a bit, earning a questioning kee from Tufts. The bat's voice was enough to earn him a rub at his ear, and snapped Joyce's mind back from the shock of her realization. "I'm comfortable… like this. How we're living, with our kids."

"But you want a stallion."

Joyce looked hard at Candela, and if the mare had shown even a hint that she was poking fun at Joyce, it would have upset her—Candela was wearing a serious expression. "Yeah…"

"There really is nothing wrong with that." Candela reached across the bench with her wings and began to make a round of tea. "I sometimes think of finding one for a little fun, but one foal is enough for me."

A knock at the door broke the conversation up. Joyce left Candela to make the tea and carried Tufts along for a ride to the front door. "Hello?" She opened the door and spotted Steve. "Oh! Am I running late?"

"No!" Steve lifted his hands up to fend off any offense he might have caused. "I thought I'd come over early so you could do that examination."

Candela poked her head out of the kitchen. "Would you like a cuppa, Steve?"

"That'd be great." Steve's eyes flicked between Joyce and Candela, then settled on the latter. "Although I could head back if you're busy?"

"Not busy at all. Head through to the living room." Rubbing Tufts' ears, Joyce's attention was stolen from Steve by the bat biting her on the finger. "Hey, cut that out Tufts!"

"Are you sure? You seem to be busy…" Even as he trailed off, Steve walked through to the living room, as directed. "In here?"

"Thank you, yes. If you could drop your trousers, I can get a good look at you." Joyce's blush was back, the double entendre surprising her with its implications. Grabbing up her kit-bag from the kitchen, she shook her head at Candela's knowing look. "I didn't mean—"

"I know, but it's costing me to not laugh at it all the same." Candela started making up a third cup of tea. "I'll bring this in when it's ready."

Joyce kept further attempts to salvage her reputation to herself, and carried her kit into the living room. She had a great view of Steve's rear, with his boxers hiding most of the view, and his tail hiding the rest. "Your tail's grown again?"

"I think so. And I have a bit of fuzz on my back." Steve reached back to his shirt and lifted it up.

"Green, and it's so soft!" Joyce ran her fingers over the fuzz. "The good news is, I think I have worked out what's doing this."

"What?!" Steve spun around and tripped on his pants (still around his ankles), falling sideways and landing on the couch with the softest fall he could hope for. "What's doing it, Joy?"

"It's not the ponies, or the kids at school would be getting affected." Joyce started ticking things off on her hand. "But it seems related to them. The only thing that leaves is the magic being used in the mine, or Equestria itself."

"So if I stopped mining I'd turn back?" Steve tried to rescue himself from the soft couch, then gave up and just sat on it to think.

"I don't know if it will undo like that. Without testing it, we can't tell what would happen." Joyce started running ideas through her head to test such things. "And it might take years for it to undo."

"Well, do you know how far it's going to go? Will I end up all the way? Will I get wings or a horn?" Steve reached down to pull up his pants, but didn't bother tucking his tail in. When he saw Joyce's look, he sighed. "So, still want to have lunch?"

"After I measure your tail and ears, and that new patch." Joyce was grateful for the change of topic, small though the shift was. "And I'm sure it's grown, your tail that is." She gestured for Steve to stand up again, and got her measuring tape out.

Once the measuring was complete, with little more conversation involved, Joyce looked down at her notes. "The patches of fur on your thighs are growing, and the new one on your back matches the fur color." She tapped her pen at the measurements. "Tail is longer, and you seem to have more control of it, as well as your ears."

"I'm turning into a pony, aren't I?" Steve's tone had a good helping of resignation to it.

"Maybe. Your existing musculature and skeleton aren't changing, which could mean you just end up with the extra bits." She found her lukewarm cup of tea and sipped at it. "And now with the doctor stuff out of the way, of course I want to have lunch."

"The doctor thing really gets in the way that much?" Steve started tucking his shirt back in, and found his tail out. "It's getting harder to remember to tuck it away, it wants to lift up and away from me."

"Interesting. I didn't feel any strain on it. Maybe you just carry it up a little, like Candela and Misty." Joyce put her "Steve Journal" away in her bag. "Look, Steve, I guess I should be up front about this—"

"What?" Immediately on alert, Steve was reacting before Joyce even finished her confession. "Was it something I said? Is it the tail?"

"No! Steve, let me finish." Joyce took a deep breath, and she waited to see if he would cut in on her again. "What I was trying to say is, I'm not really shopping for a relationship."

"But you still want to go on the date?" Steve was confused in the matter. "I don't get it. Just tell me straight."

"I guess I just wanted someone to cuddle a little, spend some time with, but I'm not looking for a partner." As she talked, Joyce watched the confusion get worse on Steve's face until the end of her explanation.

"What?" Steve looked into Joyce's eyes. "Okay, so you're just looking to be friends?"

"It might just be too soon…" Joyce shook her head. "This is my problem, not yours. If you wanted something more, sooner, I understand."

"No!" Wearing a mask of confusion, Steve shook his head. "I can't pretend to work out all of this, but you just want to have some fun—no strings attached?" Joyce's nod confused him more. "Then I guess I'll pick you up in an hour?"

"That'd be great." Joyce wasn't sure whether to be terrified he would not show up, scared that he would, or just content that he understood where she was coming from.

Author's Note

Tufts: how would you like to have a mango right now?

Ahem, Tufts cannot answer, but I am sure it would be something like this:

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Ian
Javarod
Jeffh4
Mary Rowland
Mephia
Nils
Sirion123

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Jeffh4
Vutava

Special Moment

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken Equish, everything else is in English.

"Where are we going?" Misty Rainfall trotted along after Rosetta Stein. On the other side of the teenager, Robin was bouncing along.

"." The fifty-dollar bill was burning in Rose's pocket, she couldn't believe how much she had gotten for just one day of babysitting. "."

Robin cut in. "You messed up with instead of , and instead of ."

"." Rose shook her head for what she thought was the thousandth time. "?"

"." Misty ruffled her wings. "?"

"!" Robin's exclamation was surprisingly abrupt. "?"

"." The actual money, Rose assumed, wouldn't be much. "." She looked to the pegasus and winked.

"." As blunt as a tree branch, Misty studied Rose's face. "."

"What?" Startled, Rosetta dropped back to English. "What do you mean?"

"?" The moment Misty asked, she got her confirmation in Rose's blush. "."

"!" Robin seemed to feel obliged to support Mike as well. "."

"He's different…" Rose shook her head, and tried to shove her speech back into Equish. "?"

"," Robin shook her head and screwed up her face at the prospect, "."

The revelations were interesting to Rose, and she wanted to poke Robin for more, but didn't want to push her too far. "?"

"."

The first conclusion Rose came to was that Mike had gotten the girl pregnant. It had to be it, and she was in half a panic about it, missing most of the Equish Robin said next. "Uh, I missed that."

"I said, 'Mum said something really loud when she was talking to Mike in the room… with the door closed.' " Robin looked annoyed at having to repeat herself. "Something about pills, I think."

Rose was nine kinds of shocked at the "confirmation" of her hypothesis. Clearly Mike had been with a girl, she was off her pill, or hadn't started, and he got her pregnant. It made a strange amount of sense to her. "Well, nothing like that's going to happen here." Rose was suddenly proud of the fact she was on the Pill, and her cycle was regular as clockwork. "!"

Misty was kind enough to keep pace with the humans until the last hundred meters. She stretched her stride out and hit a gallop then, and left the two behind her like they were standing still. "Yay! I win!" She reached a hoof out and gently poked the side of the ute.

"Beat them fair and square." Dave O'Brian climbed out of his car, surprising Misty. "Here come my budding miners now." He waved to Robin and held out an arm to Rose. "How's my girl doing?"

Blushing as she leaned into the welcome hug, Rose quickly pulled back. "We're here to get our pay!" She glared up at Dave, matching his wide grin with her own.

"Spoken like a real miner." Dave gave Rosetta's shoulder a weak punch. "Alright, don't tell ya mother about this…" He reached into his pocket and pulled out a rubber-band bound pack of yellow notes. Fifty dollar notes. "Three-hundred and fifty. The gems are worth a lot more, and I wish I could pay you ten times this, but if we sold them as large and well cut as we find them there would be police here inside a day."

Rose stared at the wad of yellow notes. "Alright, but if we get more…" Her mind ran numbers. They had worked for two weeks finding the small pile of gems, and it had worked out to three-hundred and fifty dollars. She trembled a moment, something feeling really strange around her legs. In a split moment, Rose saw a future where this was her living. She was buying and selling gemstones she had cut from the ground herself, and she loved every back-breaking hour of it.

"Hey, Rosey? You okay?" Dave waved his hand before Rose's face. "Shit, I don't want to take you back to the doc, but I—"

"I'm fine!" Rose was almost shaking in excitement. She wanted to shout about what she had seen, she wanted to tell everybody she saw that she knew what she was going to be with a certainty that she couldn't begin to understand. Diving against Dave's side, Rose hugged her mentor. "You're the best!"

Unable to fully describe her feeling of "rightness," Rosetta clung to the closest thing to a father figure she had known to date. She felt great, amazing even. She wanted to yell at the top of her lungs and tell the world she, Rosetta Stein, knew what she wanted to do with her life.

"Hey, where is my cut?" Robin's voice cut through the moment like a rusty, blunt knife cuts through fine silk. "Rose! You said I could have half!"

Rose didn't ignore the tug at her arm. The part of her that celebrated how certainly she knew her place in the world was absolutely sure that she should distribute the money properly. "Hey, calm down squirt. I got paid fifty for taking care of you runts today—"

"We're not runts!" Misty cut in and flapped her wings a little in agitation.

"Yes you are. Here." Rose passed fifty dollars to Misty, and split the other three-hundred into two stacks of one-hundred and fifty. "And yours, squirt."

It was pretty obvious Robin didn't care about being called "squirt," not when she had more money than she had clearly had in her life. "Woo! Payday!" Robin bounced in place. As if her mother had just nagged her, she froze and looked up at Rose. "Thank you, Rose."

"You worked hard, same as me." Rose ruffled Robin's hair. "Let's grab the bus into Traralgon, have some lunch there, and buy some stuff." She froze at Misty's look of worry. "What's wrong with that?"

"I don't think I should really go that far from town. What will happen if everypony sees me and freaks out as much as Ms. Joyce did?" Misty ruffled her wings and looked down.

"That's actually a good point." Rose reached out to Misty and ruffled the filly's mane just as she had Robin's hair. "Okay, no trip to the city. Let's go and get something nice for lunch, at least." Turning back to Dave, Rose waved. "See ya tonight!"

"Reckon I will!" Dave waved goodbye to the girls, and grabbed up his safety gear, ready to get back to work.

Author's Note

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Ian
Javarod
Jeffh4
Mary Rowland
Mephia
Nils
Sirion123

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Jeffh4
Vutava

Trapped

Language check. All in English.

"… and she was really happy that she got paid. When I asked her, she gave me half just like we said!" Robin paused talking only to stuff another fork full of vegetables into her mouth. "Can I have a banana for dessert?"

Joyce rolled her eyes to Candela, who snorted as well. "You can if you eat all your vegetables." Her heart still light from the date-that-wasn't-a-date, Joyce barely listened to her daughter, but did absently make note of the facts. "Did Rose say she could take care of you again tomorrow?"

"Yuff umf!" Robin's mouth was stuffed full, and it was obvious "eat all your vegetables" made dinner into a race. She gulped hard, emptying her mouth of the accursed green things. "When's Mike getting back?"

"He only just left, and he has the whole week." Joyce's mind was still on the matter of the people gaining pony attributes. "Tomorrow I need to find Dave O'Brian, his place's where Rose and her mother are living, isn't it?" Her daughter nodded now, rather than slow down the relentless sacrifice of green beans. "I might just drop you off there tomorrow, before Rose leaves." With her plan for further study cemented, Joyce focused on the situation at hand. "Slow down, Ro—"

"All done!" Robin's knife and fork clattered to the plate, and she was practically vibrating in her chair. "Can I please leave the table?"

"Don't look at me, Joy. You set her a task and now she has completed it early." Candela's grin was insufferable.

"Of course you can dear. Make sure to leave one for Tufts' dinner." Joyce tried to ignore how ravenous her daughter had become for fruit, and succeeded most admirably.

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

"Buckle up." Joyce had the internal light on in her car, and was urging Misty and Robin to put on their belts. "I don't care if it's just across town," she wanted to forestall the argument before it could form, "in any car, you wear seat belts." She waited, and watched, until both girls had their belts fastened, albeit in a not quite normal fashion for Misty.

It was good enough for Joyce, and she started the car and, checking for traffic, pulled out into the street. The drive was short, no more than two blocks—in a town of just two blocks. "Here you girls go."

Dave froze at the sight. Dull old lights belonging to a station wagon pulled in behind his work ute. When he spotted Misty and Robin climb out, he visibly slumped his shoulders. Walking up to the car, he hung his head like a dog that knew a kick was coming. "Hi doc." Wearing his work overalls, Dave had a beanie cap on his head, and a flannel shirt.

"Hello Dave. Let me…" Joyce trailed off a little, until Robin and Misty entered the house, to the surprise of a bleary-eyed Rose. "Let me cut past the bullshit. Something strange's happening here. You know it, Steve knows it, and now I know it. I'm not going to take this to someone else until I know it's really a problem, and a patient who has a disease I've never seen before, and who's reluctant to keep regular appointments, makes this a problem."

It was impossible for a guy to grow up and not be told off by women. Dave's head was hung, his ears tucked back, and he gave a deep sigh. "It's getting worse." He didn't need to say it, but she had already all-but said she knew it was. "I think my ears are fully… whatever. And my tail's… it's nice and soft." Dave blushed.

"And the mark on your hips?" Joyce was grabbing at a straw, but she knew she had guessed right at the jump Dave made. "Fur growing? We both know it isn't just body-hair, Dave." She reached across for her bag, and started to climb out of the car.

"Wait, Rose and the girls are inside, and Jenny'll ask questions. It's hard enough keeping her at arm's reach already." Dave walked around the car and, without asking, climbed in the passenger side. "Your place'll be better."

The short ride back to her home didn't need any words to fill it, but it felt more awkward to Joyce without them. "How are Rose and Jenny, her mother?" Dave nodded to her question. "How're they fitting in?"

"Rosey's amazing. The girl'd be in the mine, with a helmet on and up to her elbows in dirt if either of us let her. Closest I let her get to actually working in there's going through the tailings… piles of dirt we dig out." Dave felt relaxed talking about Rose, she was a safe topic. "She and Robin picked through one pile, found a few hundred bucks of gems we'd missed."

"Only a few hundred?" Joyce turned the car into her street.

"Well, we can't exactly sell pre-cut gems of those sizes. We crush them down and get a few friends to sell them here and there. They're gouging us, and skimming off the top, but it's still making us rich enough."

Joyce turned off the car and climbed out. "It's probably for the best you don't let her go in the mine regularly, I think that might be the source of…" She trailed off and just gestured to Dave's ears.

"No shit? Well fuck…" Dave started in the rough direction of the mine, as if it was a monster he hadn't even realized was there. "I kinda figured it might'a been hanging around with the ponies so much."

"The kids spend all day with Candela, and there are no changes in them yet." Joyce opened the door, bag in hand. "Head on in, kitchen's on the right if you want some tea. I'd prefer to do the examination in the living room, though."

"Well, you've got me at your mercy, doc." Dave's attempt to lighten the mood folded as he saw a bright eyed Candela poke her head from the kitchen. "Uh, hi!"

"Hello." Candela looked at Dave, then up to Joyce. "This's your other patient? Have you tried gluing him to something big? I'm sure he'd be harder to lose then."

"I… I just don't like doctors, okay?" Dave rubbed one arm in a nervous twitch. "Really don't like em…" He looked embarrassed at the glance Joyce gave him. "It's nothin' personal or nothin'."

"Iatrophobia. Well that explains a lot. Okay Dave, we're doing this the harder way, but it should make it easier on you." Joyce looked to Candela. "Sorry to bother you, Candy, but could you make a nice hot cuppa for him? Anything to calm down."

"Does this mean I count as a nurse?" Candela winked at Joyce. "I always wanted to be a nurse… well, not really, but they always seem so important. Six hundred see sees of Earl Gray, coming up!" Turning the words into a sing-song, Candela pranced back into the kitchen.

Joyce herded Dave to the living room, and pointed to a couch. "You sit there and get to have this." She pulled out her notebook and pen, and dumped her bag beside him. "Because if you're so scared of doctors, you get to do the measuring."

"Huh? No needles?" Dave's voice almost cracked on the word, and at his age his voice really shouldn't crack.

"Please, you're in top physical shape, I can see that plain as day. I just want you to measure your ears, your tail, and any patches of fur you're growing." Joyce flopped down in one of the big single chairs. "And, if you're good, you can even have a lollipop."

"Do I look like I'm a kid?" Dave looked into the bag and spotted the bag of lollipops that Joyce really did keep for her patients. "So what do I do?"

"Take out the measuring tape, should be on the left near all the loose needles." Joyce's joke had the desired effect, earning a bark of laughter from Dave. "Right, I need the length and circumference of your dock; the dock's the fleshy part of your tail."

"Okay, length…" Leaning to the side, Dave laid out his tail on the couch beside him, and started measuring. "Uh… thirteen… no, twelve and a half centimeters. You want the circumference now?" His hands worked, adjusting the tape measure.

"Thank you." Joyce started filling in the information as quickly as Dave gave it to her. It was automatic, she asked for a measurement and Dave supplied it. She was doing fine until he asked a question back and it snapped her from her records. "Sorry, what was that?"

"I said, 'Do you want me to measure just the fleshy part of my ears, or the little tufts of fur on the ends too?' " Dave pulled his beanie off and showed Joyce his ears. "It's odd, they're different from Steve, Burrow, or Delves' ones." His expressive aural equipment twitched this way and that, turning to the doorway the moment Candela entered with two big cups of tea.

"This's the medication you ordered, doctor?" Candela was grinning widely as she carried the two cups in her wings. Offering one to Dave, she passed the second to Joyce.

"You're a lifesaver." Joyce brought the mug up to her lips and sipped at it, letting the warmth of the hot, dark tea pour into her. "I need to look at your ears, Dave." She waited until her patient had sipped at his tea, although in his case it was more a nervous gulp.

"I'll leave you two." Candela made her way from the room, ruffling her wings a little.

"I dunno if…" Dave closed his eyes and took a deep breath, visibly fighting the inner demon of fear. "Just do it, don't—" He froze as Joyce got up and kneeled down just in front of him.

"Just lean forward and let me look at them." Joyce knew it was supposed to be demeaning, but the slight dip in her shirt that gave a hint of her cleavage did its magic as it always had. Taking a firm hold of Dave's head, she tilted it forwards so his eyes were inches from her chest. "Okay, good enough." She recognized the ear shapes quite easily, since she had been looking at a pair just like them on a daily basis. "Tufts."

Wearing the most shaky smile ever, Dave sat back up straight and curled his ears back. "Tufts? What do you mean?"

"Those aren't pony ears, Dave. Those are bat ears, and not quite those." Joyce couldn't believe the evidence, but it was there. She held up her arm and rolled her eyes. "Mango." The effect of saying the word was instant. Screeching in excitement, Tufts winged into the room and instantly caught his legs on the arm of Joyce's jumper. The bat looked her right in the eyes and gave another kee.

"Strewth doc!" Dave shied back a bit from the sudden arrival. But when his eyes fixed on the still bat's ears, he froze. "Holy shit…"

"Language. But yes, 'holy shit' indeed." Joyce apologized to Tufts with a good chin scratch. "You have a tail, you have the fur markings, but your ears don't match to a pony." Once her duty to Tufts (scratching the bat's chin) was complete, she grabbed up her pencil and started to sketch Dave's ears. "Your coloration's darker…" She stood up and carried the still-protesting Tufts with her. "Stand up, please." She was at the wrong angle to use her cleavage to distract him again, so tried to give Dave some space to breathe.

"Oh… Okay." Dave got to his feet, his overalls were down around his knees, leaving his furry thighs and tail hanging out for all to see. "Wait a sec, don't bats have nasty diseases?"

"Some, yes. But Tufts here has not been spending any time with his kind for over a month now. Don't worry Dave, he's safe." She held Tufts out a little, keeping the bat's attention while she held his body beside the patch of fur on Dave's thigh. The color and tone were a perfect match.

Apparently forgetting all his worries about bats, Dave reached his hand out to touch Tuft's back—the nearest part of the bat to him—then ran his hand over his own fur on his hip. "It feels the same."

Joyce had been holding back from touching Dave's leg so as not to trigger his iatrophobia, and took his word for the similarity. "Candela!" Her tone wasn't demanding, Joyce just made sure her friend heard her.

"What's the matter, Joyce?" Candela was quick to slip back into the living room. She looked at Dave—with his overalls on the floor—then back to Joyce. "Is there a problem?"

"Bat… ponies." Joyce sat back down with Tufts still clinging to her, although the bat adjusted his grip from her arm to her front. Tufts suddenly decided that his wing needed cleaning, and curled like a contortionist to start licking it.

"Bat ponies? Never heard of them." Lifting a hoof, Candela tapped her chin. "We do have bats in Equestria, and you can trust me when I say they love apples, but no pony that looked anything like a bat."

"Great, something completely new." Joyce's tone implied the exact opposite of it being great. "Well Dave, on the plus side you seem to be something new, Steve's ears are definitely pony, and his fur's a fair match for any other pony's."

The words prompted Candela to look from Tufts to Dave, to his hip, and then up to his ears. "It's definitely quite striking. If you turn all the way into a pony, you'll definitely turn heads in Equestria."

"I don't want to turn heads in Equestria." Shaking his head, Dave bent down to grab his overalls and pull them back up. "I just want this all to be over…"

"If it's related to the mine…" Joyce didn't need to finish the words, Dave's head turned so sharply it could have given him whiplash. "I'm telling you what might be doing it. Why not take a week off, see if you stop changing?"

"I can't, doc." Dave pulled the overalls' straps over each shoulder and fastened them. "We're at a bit of a crucial spot…" With his ears tucked back in worry, Dave ran a hand through his hair. He looked down at the floor, heavy thoughts twisting his expression into knots.

Joyce had given bad news before, and as much as she didn't want to use it with Dave, she slid into her doctor voice. "You have a choice then. Stay and let it continue, or go and—"

"Lose half my share of everything. Me and Steve were… we hadn't worked together before, we didn't trust each other." Jostling a little, Dave had to reach down the back of his pants. "Sorry, tail's a little out of alignment…"

"I hate it when that happens. Usually when wearing something completely impossible to adjust." Candela reached her wing up and ran a primary feather past Tufts' snout. The bat sneezed at the shock, and gave her a soft kee. "You're lucky."

"I don't feel lucky." With his tail problem sorted, Dave turned his attention back to Joyce and Candela. "We had a guy draft us up a contract. We have another two years working here, and whoever bails first loses half their share of the mine."

Joyce was dismissive. "A week off wouldn't—"

"The terms were strict. Any more than a day off and it defaults." Dave slumped back onto the couch. "I wouldn't blame Steve, he's a good mate now, and deserves what he works for." Silence in the room thickened as nearly two minutes passed before anyone spoke. "I guess being a pony wouldn't be that bad, and I'd be a rich pony."

"Being a pony's quite good, and if you get wings… even bat wings I guess… you could learn to fly, too." Candela gave a supportive smile.

"Th-Thanks." Dave rocked forward on the couch and got his legs back under himself. "Well doc, I think this's the best doctor visit I've ever had… almost the only one too. I need to get to work." He walked like a man who had been told he was dying to the front door.

"Bye Dave." Joyce looked at her notes, and slipped into a little bit of a daze. "This might be too much for me, Candy."

"Well, firstly it isn't a terrible thing being a pony. I certainly didn't appreciate having it sound like it was the worst fate he could possibly suffer." Giving a huff, Candela gave Tufts a rub under the chin. "Although looking at it, if I were to turn into a human, I think it'd annoy me."

Author's Note

Candela is being remarkably insensitive here.

“I heard that.” Candela rolled her eyes. “Joyce and I are... we're closer than I think either of us really realize. Gentle ribbing, for the sake of a pun, is beneath neither of us.”

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Ian
Javarod
Jeffh4
Mary Rowland
Mephia
Nils
Sirion123

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Jeffh4
Vutava

Circling Around

Language check. All in English.

Robin yawned and pulled the beanie down tighter on her head. "Why's it so cold? I hate winter." She opened up the fridge and stared blankly inside. "Mom! We're running low on bananas." Grabbing two of the fruit from the chill shelf within the refrigerator, Robin bit down on the stems to carry them while she shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket.

"Well, half of us have furry coats." Misty's voice came from the living room, and had the sound of cartoons as a backing. "So you can rug up while we are comfortable."

When she entered the living room, Robin gasped and dropped her bananas into a waiting hand. "Comfortable?" She glared at Misty, the filly was curled up on the couch with a thick blanket thrown over her. "Gimme some of that."

Misty squealed and tried to grab the blanket with her wings before Robin could pull it away. A small struggle started, both girls yanking on the blanket until, at last, both ended the struggle sitting together, the blanket straining around them. "You let the heat out."

"Yeah, well you wouldn't share." Robin shot the accusation back, but now that they were both comfortable and warmed by the other, any actual fighting was avoided. "Want a banana?" Robin's hand snaked out through a gap in the blanket, one of the yellow fruit held in it.

A feathery wing snuck out the other side of the blanket and caught the banana. "Okay, you can stay." Misty and Robin both giggled, and each girl peeled their bananas and started to munch on them. The sound of Wacko, Yacko, and Dot was unbroken except by the soft sounds of chewing.

"Do you think I'll ever get a cutie mark?" Robin stared at the TV, hiding her features from Misty. "I mean, I heard Mum mumbling about Rose's dad and his friend."

"I don't think Dave is Rose's dad." Misty nibbled away at the banana, stretching it out to last her longer. "He seemed more like a friend." She shrugged. "I don't know." Both of them broke into gales of laughter as the Warners saw fit to strike anvils over and over.

"Well, whatever." Just like that, Robin dismissed the argument. "But they both have cutie marks." She found herself wanting one more and more. "When will you get yours?"

"Any day now. Mum says she was my age when she got hers, but being stuck inside makes the range of things to try a little hard." Misty gave a brief glare at the rain falling outside the living room window.

Both girls sat in silence again, occasional giggles at the Warners' antics aside.

"What if I started turning into a pony, like those people?" Robin huddled against Misty. "What if just—"

"But you can't be turning into a pony. Your mum said it only happened by being so close to the mine, or in the mine." Misty reached a foreleg out and hugged the younger girl to her side. "It's not like you were spending a lot of time up…" She trailed off as realization started to set in.

"I need to tell mum." Robin had never felt as adult as she did right then. Despite her resolve, she didn't move from Misty's side. "Is it nice being a pony?"

"It's the best." Misty extended a wing around Robin too now, just a leg-hug wasn't going to cut it apparently. "You stay warm most of the year, and you can run super fast. You might have wings, which is so awesome you have no idea."

"Wings would be cool." Robin felt safe and protected. She leaned her head down on Misty's shoulder. "I still have to tell Mum." Saying and doing were two different things, however. "She's going to get really loud, and angry. I bet she gets angry."

"Want me to come with you? I don't think she will get as angry with both of us there." Misty ignored the cartoons. "Come on, she's in the kitchen working again."

"The blanket!" Robin tried to gather the blanket up, but as Misty climbed off the couch she pulled it with her. "You're as bad as Mike." Climbing off the couch, Robin gave a huff and pushed her bottom lip out at the loss of the warm spot. Misty didn't say a word, just walked up behind Robin and nosed her in the back, guiding the human girl towards the kitchen.

It felt like she was confessing that she had done something wrong, and although Robin couldn't figure a way for it to be her fault, she was sure her mum would blame her. It wasn't far, and felt less so with Misty pushing her. "Mum?"

Joyce was focused on her work. With her eyes glued to the screen of her laptop, her fingers danced over the keys like lightning. She apparently heard her daughter, but her fingers didn't slow. "Mummy needs some quiet time, honey."

"Mum, I wouldn't interrupt you if it wasn't something big…" Robin knew she didn't have her mother's attention; until Joyce turned away from her computer she was in work mode. "Mum! Mum! Mum!" Robin bounced up and down on her feet. "Muuuuuuuum!"

"What?" Joyce's tone would normally be sharp after such a display, but it sounded flat, deflated. "Sorry dear, I'm not giving you the attention you really do deserve. This is important, though."

"Duh, I know that, Mum." Robin felt proud of herself for actually going through this and not just hiding it. "But this might be important too." In her own mind, it was more important for a simple fact, it was happening to her.

"Okay my little bird. What's important?" Folding her notebook closed and even putting her laptop into hibernate, Joyce was clearly extracting herself from the problems she had been working on.

"Weeeeell…" Robin struggled with her thoughts. "You said finding out about why Rose's friend and his friend were turning into ponies was really important, right?" Her mother only nodded. "Well, I can help with that too, now."

"I know you can, darling, you have a whole 'nother week of holidays, and Mike will be back later tonight." Joyce reached out to pick up Robin, lifting her onto her lap. "So, how are you going to help me?"

"Easy, Mum." Robin felt so proud of herself, she was doing this. "I have a tail too now!"

Joyce froze. She stared at her little girl for a minute, just stared.

This was it, Robin knew the yelling would start. She waited a moment, then another, but she was not the most patient girl. "Mom?"

"Robin!" Joyce shot to her feet, lifting Robin up and without asking, yanked the girl's jeans down. "Oh…" Trailing off, Joyce stared at the russet-red, short tail her daughter sported. "This… this is early development."

"Mum?" Her mother not freaking out further surprised Robin. "Y-Y-You're using your doctor voice…"

Joyce shook her head and took several deep breaths. "Not so bad being a pony…" She hugged her little girl tight to her. "Rose took you up to the mine again, didn't she?"

"Yes Mum." Robin picked up that it wasn't the time to try to fib her way out of the situation. "We were going through the tailings of the mine, we found a lot of gems." She felt a slight breeze and reached to pull her pants back up and restore a bit of modesty and warmth.

"You aren't allowed to go to the mine again, you hear me?" Joyce's tone brooked no quarrels or wiggle room.

Robin disliked having to make such a promise; she knew it was an agreement that would be hard to keep, but one she must. "Okay Mum." The excitement drained from the moment, and she wanted to get back to her cartoons. She turned to look at Misty, and the filly she thought of as her big sister shrugged. "Mum? Can I go back to my cartoons now?"

"No. You said you were going to help." Joyce reached to grab her kit bag, pulling her measuring tape from it. "So you help. You get to be the control group."

"Yay?" Robin knew what her mother wanted, and gave a sigh. Climbing up on the seat, she was surprised when Joyce grabbed her up again and carried her out of the kitchen. "Muuuum!"

"Nurse Misty. Could you please bring my notepad from the table?" Joyce sat down on the couch, and sat on the edge so her legs jutted forward. "Growing a tail. How long has this been happening?"

Trapped, bent over her mother's lap as though she were about to be smacked, Robin had never felt so vulnerable before. But her mother's light tone reassured her, and though she squirmed, Robin was resigned to the situation. "About two years."

"Truthful, honey." Joyce's tone conveyed humor, but a level of seriousness. "I need to know the day you noticed it, you aren't in trouble."

"Just before Mike left. I… I sat down on a chair and felt sore. When I got a chance to look, there was a lump there. But it was just a bump!" Robin felt like she had lied to her mother for a week, and her tone rose almost to a wail. She was acutely aware of the position she was in, physically and metaphorically.

"Hey, Robin. Come here my bird." Joyce gave up on the examination and shifted to "mum mode." Lifting her daughter up, even with her tail spilling down the back of her pants, she pulled Robin into a hug. "There, there. Don't worry, I'm not mad at you."

"You sound mad." Robin choked the words out, the hug was pushing her to the edge of tears and she didn't know why. "You sound really mad!"

"I said I wasn't mad at you." Joyce's words snapped her daughter's mood like a pencil. "I'm mad at myself, and I'm mad at the world. A whole week with this and I didn't notice you were having a problem…"

It was Robin's turn to give a needed hug. When her mum cried, she knew something was wrong. "Muuum." She wrapped her arms tight around Joyce's neck, and her tears came and mingled with her mother's. "What do I do? I have a tail…"

Joyce hugged her daughter, and both of them cried long and hard. The tears lasted most of the morning, and neither mother nor daughter seemed inclined to leave the hug. A gurgle in Joyce's stomach was followed soon by a smaller echo in Robin's. The sudden demands of their bodies' cut the tension like a hot knife through butter. Joyce laughed a little, then Robin followed.

"I'm sorry, Mum." Robin felt a week of fear and uncertainty slide away. She marveled at how strong the simple words were.

"I'm sorry too, my little Robin-bird." Joyce was startled by the smell of hot tea. Blinking and turning, she and her daughter both saw cups of the hot liquid being offered by Candela and Misty.

Robin wrapped both hands around the offered cup, acutely aware of both how hot it was and how much of a mess she would be in if she spilled it. Sliding from her mother's lap, she sat on the couch and blew on the tea to cool it.

"What do you say, Robin?" Joyce had used the phrase so many times the reaction in her daughter was automatic.

"Thank you, Misty." Robin sipped at the tea, and without realizing it her tail flicked wildly from side to side in excitement. She could taste a strong, sweet flavor in the brew; honey and tea was just about her favorite drink—after juice.

Joyce reached up and pulled the beanie from her daughter's head, revealing a pair of tufted, dark-furred ears. "Another bat. I'll have to hide the fruit better, I think." She reached up and ruffled her daughter's hair, and rubbed one ear.

Robin relaxed and half closed her eyes. All the panic and tension of the morning fled her at the wonderful feeling of having her ear rubbed. Worry left her, and she leaned into her mother's fingers.

"I'm getting better at this." Joyce's words did nothing to pull the girl from her comatose state, nor did the measurements she took while rubbing her ear. Slowing down the gently stroking, it was obvious that the pace was settling Robin into sleep, rather than easing her awake. "Sleep well, my little bird."

Author's Note

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Where We Left Off

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken Equish, everything else is in English.

Mike shifted in bed. He felt good, and the week of holidays encouraged him to roll over and sleep in. Mike slept in. The morning passed nearly to lunchtime before he came to again. Yawning, he lifted a hand up and rubbed his jawline. Fingers trailed up his face and he began rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

Another yawn was called for, and Mike rolled to his back in the bed and finally opened his eyes. His bedroom was moderately lit—it was an overcast day outside, winter was coming after all—and he looked over at his dusty backpack. "Oh right, washing day."

Pushing his covers off, Mike slung his legs out and climbed out of bed. "Best part about sleeping in…" Not finishing the thought, he grabbed his bathrobe from behind his door and pulled it around himself. Stepping out of his room, he saw Misty in the hall. "Hiya Misty."

"M-Mike?" Misty just stared back at Mike, confusion painted on her face.

"Jus' takin' a shower." Feeling well rested after his holiday, Mike ducked quickly into the bathroom and locked the door behind him. Still blinking away some sleep from his eyes, he walked over to the big tub and turned the taps on. Once he had the water temperature to his liking, Mike plugged the drain and slipped out of his bathrobe.

A hesitant knocking came moments before Mike slipped into the tub. "What?!" It was always the way, no sooner had the water started getting to just the right height than there was an interruption. His voice wasn't angry, just annoyed.

"Mike?" Misty's voice was slightly muffled through the door.

Turning the taps down so the bath wouldn't overflow, Mike approached the door and angled himself so he could peek out without revealing too much. Unlocking the door, he opened it a crack and looked out. To his complete lack of surprise, Misty giggled loudly and galloped off down the hall. "Hey! What are…" Mike gave up and closed the door again.

"This is what I get. This is my punishment for having so much fun." Mike slumped his shoulders in mock resignation. "Stuck in a house full of crazy females. Tufts has more sense than most of them!" One leg, then another, and he was sliding down into the hot water. The oddest thing, as he floated in the hot water, was that his head felt askew. Ignoring it, he began to undo some of the kinks in his limbs.

Mike's muscles started to relax, and in moments he was floating happily in the water. His brain hit something, a fact that floated in the back of his mind that he had missed earlier. The fact became very important as the bathroom door burst open. "Lock the door, Mike." Sarcasm abounded in his self-directed words.

Misty poked her head in, full of giggles, but then Robin looked in as well, and laughed outright. "Ha! Mike has it too!"

"But his aren't dark, they are like mine!" Misty looked up to Robin, twitching her ears.

"Get out now!" Mike almost jerked up from the tub before realizing he was naked. "Go on! GET!" To his horror both Robin and Misty just giggled more. "MUM!" He did it, he stood up in the tub and watched as both filly and human girl turned suddenly to save their vision.

"MUM!" Robin's voice rivaled Mike's. "Mike is being rude!" Beside her, Misty was giggling fit to burst.

"That's it!" Mike climbed out of the tub, and started wetly stomping across the bathroom. "I'm going to…" He stopped, one hand reaching to slam the door closed.

"And he's turning into a pony too!" Robin and Misty, giggling like the young girls they were, made a run for it.

"Turning into a…" Mike closed the door, and locked it this time. Walking to the bathroom mirror, he lifted one hand to wipe away the steam that obscured it. Shock cushioned his mind as he stared at himself. "Huh, that's odd." One shaking hand reached up and touched his pointed, aquamarine-furred ears. "Didn't have these yesterday…"

The door handle rattled, then a firm knocking echoed through the bathroom. "Michael, honey, are you okay in there?" Joyce sounded more worried than shocked. "Sweetie, it's okay, whatever is happening…"

"Mum." Mike's breathing was speeding up, as was his pulse. "I think I'm turning into a pony." He looked at the ears as they tucked back; Mike had grown so adept at reading pony expressions that he immediately felt compassion for the image in the mirror. "What do I do, Mum?"

"You could let me in, honey." Joyce's voice was strained, but it had one thing going for it that got Mike to walk over and open the door: it was completely his mum's voice. When he slid back the bolt and opened the door, Joyce immediately wrapped her arms around her son. "It's alright, Mike, you haven't done anything wrong."

Mike clung to his mother, and the shock slowly drained into a flood of tears. Slowly, coming back to his senses, he traced his memory back to the odd event that happened just before getting home. "The sky was flashing with rainbow colors. Pinkie and I were looking at it and she… she got her cutie mark." His left hand traced down, found his own hip.

"Robin has them too. Dave and Steve are both further progressed. It must be something in the mine, or something leaking over from Equestria and—" Joyce stopped when she felt her son tighten up further. "What's the matter?"

"I have a cutie mark." Mike felt the soft fur of his hip before he saw it, but just knowing it was there was enough. He finally looked down, stepping back from his mother. "A golden… is that a lyre?" The fur that formed the cutie mark almost seemed to glow with extra brightness, but sure enough the harp-like instrument was set on a sparse coating of aquamarine fur.

"Music, of course." Joyce threw her hands up in the air. "Special talent… I know you aren't up with maths and medicine, but couldn't you have taken after your mum?" Joyce walked up behind Mike and hugged him. "Seriously, though. Is music what you want?"

The shift in topic pulled Mike's thoughts away from "looking like a freak" and planted them back in the real world. He knew magic existed, and for ponies a big part of that was destiny and cutie marks. Since Mike was at least part pony now, that meant they were important to him, too. "I… hadn't really thought of it." He stumbled mentally. "What I want to do, that is. I really like music, but is it something I can make a living on?"

"You can if you try." Joyce looked over Mike's shoulder, watching her pony-eared son slowly fade from view as the mirror fogged back up. "If this is your thing, I'll be happy for you. Besides," Joyce reached a hand up and gently rubbed one ear, "I have your sister to reshape into the perfect medical student."

The gentle rub of his ear almost made Mike slump. "Why… Why does that feel so good?" He blushed as soon as he said the words. "Not that it felt good good, just good. Like when somepony cuts my hair."

"Michael," Joyce rubbed her son's ear again, "you just said 'somepony.' " With a chuckle, Joyce rubbed Mike's wet hair into a mess and left. "Clean up the floor when you're done, I'll have some lunch ready for you."

Normalcy flooded in around Mike like a comfortable blanket. The mirror was foggy enough that he couldn't see his ears, and if he didn't touch his hips he wouldn't be reminded that they were furry. Locking the door, Mike climbed back into the tub to relax his nerves and shed the last of the dust his holidays had gifted him with.

Leaning back in the big tub, Mike got a sudden reminder that things were different when his ears dunked underwater. The sensation of water seeping into his ears was a little strange at first, but after a moment they seemed to equalize and he gave a happy sigh.

Minutes passed like water, and Mike just floated. He ignored everything in the world and existed in an almost zen-like state. But the water started to grow cool, and when his belly grumbled angrily he could ignore life no longer. Sitting up, he felt the water start to drain from his ears, but some remained. Without a thought he shook his head.

"Is it in my head, too?" The action of tossing his head around was a common one, he realized, for animals with ears on top of their head. Mike got to work, scrubbing himself down. He worked shampoo into his hair and even spared a little for the fur on his hips. A rinse later and he stood up, climbed from the tub and approached the mirror again.

With the heat of the tub faded, the mirror was no longer steamed up. "I have pony ears and a cutie mark." The fact wasn't that terrible, when he thought about it. Pony ears were cute, after all, he just hadn't thought of seeing them when he looked in the mirror. "They do look cute." He focused on trying to move them, but they seemed to want to poke forwards mostly.

Grabbing a towel from the shelf of them, Mike set to work drying off. Rubbing the thick towel over himself was relieving, feeling how much of his body was still perfectly normal. Dry, he pulled out a comb and worked on his hair. Giggling as his ears instinctively folded as he combed past them, Mike felt in better spirits.

Soon clad in his bathrobe, he used his damp towel to mop up the water splotches on the floor. Mike unlocked the door and pulled it open, only to see Robin and Misty practically bouncing in place. "Hey, Squir…" He trailed off as his brain made sense of the sight. "Nice ears." Reaching a hand up, he tried to brush Robin's tufted ears, but they tucked down at the last moment.

"Same back atcha." Robin giggled and elbowed Misty, who giggled and looked up at Mike.

"You got your cutie mark?" Nervous suddenly, Misty stopped her giggling and looked solemnly at Mike. "Can we see it?"

Careful of his modesty this time, Mike held the robe to his front while he lifted the side. More and more leg exposed until the soft, aquamarine fur was visible. "A lyre." He made sure both of them could see it clearly, and something about showing it off made him feel real joy. Mike wanted to grab his guitar and start playing, but instead he dropped the robe back down.

"That's so awesome!" Misty hopped from hoof to hoof, sudden excitement charging her with energy. "I can't wait until I get mine!"

"Me too!" Robin laughed and turned, ignoring her brother and racing back down the hall for the living room.

"You're a really good pony, Mike." Misty held Mike's gaze for a few moments before laughing and running off too.

Mike inhaled deeply, and couldn't stop himself from humming on his way back to his bedroom. With his robe on, he reached for his guitar the moment the door was closed. The little amp was soon lit and Mike started to play.

The tune coming from his speaker wasn't anything he had heard before, it was a new riff that just poured through him. His fingers moved, pinning the strings into perfect notes as his right hand slapped, strummed, and plucked the tune that had to get out.

Revitalizing energy flooded through him, and Mike realized just what his cutie mark meant to him. He closed his eyes and let his hands move, living the music that poured from his instrument. Panting by the end of the tune he had just created on the spot, the first thing he noticed was Misty staring at him from the doorway, that he was naked on his bed was the second.

"Your mum wanted to know how much longer you would be." Misty stared at Mike, adoration of the music that she had been listening to showing in every line and feature. "That was beautiful, Mike…"

Mike could only stare at his hands in surprise. "I haven't really tried to write music before, but that…" He closed his eyes and let his hands dance on the guitar again. Pure magic was at work, he was sure of it, because he managed to produce another amazing rhythm from the bass guitar. His heart carried him, and all his fear and worry about what was happening to his body poured into the deep tones, and to his surprise the feelings faded. A wide smile creased his lips, and Mike felt renewed.

As the last notes faded, Misty tried to rub her eyes dry and clop her hooves together at the same time. Thankfully having wings and forelegs meant she was ahead of the curve. "This has to be your special talent."

"Michael, I've been waiting." Joyce poked her head around the doorjamb and spotted her son sitting mostly naked on his bed, his guitar being the only thing that kept him modest. "Misty, out."

"Aww, but you need to hear him play!" Misty extended her wings a little in her excitement. "Please play some more!"

"Sorry Misty, Mum's right. Let me get dressed, do whatever my doctor says, and then I'll play some more." Mike had to fight to pull his hands away from the guitar. His fingers itched to strum.

"Michael Robertson!" Joyce grabbed Misty and pulled the filly from the room. Hooking the door closed with her foot, the last thing she head from her son was his laughter.

Selecting his basic clothing option, Mike quickly got dressed. Instinct made him want to cover his ears, but that moment he pulled a spare beanie down over them it felt uncomfortable. "Ugh, this sucks." He dragged the beanie off his head and made his way out to the living room. "Mum? Do you have a darning kit?"

Joyce was sitting on the couch, Tufts hanging from her shoulder. "A darning kit? Do you have some socks with holes in them?" With her medical bag at her side, Joyce was ready for whatever odd things her son could bring her, except such an odd request.

"No, my beanie. I wanted to hide my ears, but they don't feel right with it on." Mike slumped down on the couch, only to have an excited bat fly up to him. "Hey Tufts, how's the fruit?" His reply was an excited keeing as Tufts negotiated a good grip on Mike's jumper.

"You want the beanie to hide your ears, right?" Joyce's voice was slathered with confused humor. "So you're going to cut holes in it to let your ears out?"

Mike froze in his scratching of Tufts' belly. "I'm such an idiot…" Okay, but my head still feels odd… almost like I should grow my hair or something." Resuming Tufts' belly rub, Mike ran his other hand through his hair.

"You're the first to report that." Joyce had a pained expression. "Damn… this is too close to home. The doctor in me is excited to do research, but you're my little boy…"

"Mum, I'm nearly seventeen." Mike rolled his eyes. "Okay, so what's first? Stick out my tongue and cough, or 'swallow this'?" Abandoning his beanie on the couch arm, he used both hands to rub Tufts' belly.

"Let me get my checklist." Joyce pulled out a fresh notepad and her main (and tatty) one. "Okay, no tail? No excess body-fur patches… Ears are a yes, and so is the cutie mark." Her hand worked quickly, making concise notes. "Okay, let's get a measure of those ears."

Mike endured his mother's pokes, prods, and repeated measuring. By the time she was done, Tufts had fallen asleep against Mike's chest. "That bat…" Joyce sat back in her couch chair, hand scribbling notes quickly while she talked. "One day I'll release him back into the wild, and he won't come back."

" 'Come bat,' you mean?" Mike's fingers ended up rubbing under one of Tufts' wings, which earned him a happy little squeaking sound from the bat. "I was scared, Mum. But when I played…"

"When you did the thing associated with your cutie mark you felt good?" Joyce waited for Mike's nod before she ticked a note she had already made. "I would call it insidious if it didn't seem beneficial. Steve and Dave had the same thing. That's the real reason they won't stop mining, I think."

"As far as special talents go, one that makes you rich is pretty good." Mike rubbed his thigh, thinking about the implications. "Maybe I could become a rock star, or teach others to play?"

"Is that what you want to do with your life?" Finishing up her writing, Joyce packed away the notebooks as she spoke. "You're already teaching two ponies to play, is that what feels right?"

"Yes… no… maybe…" Mike flicked his ears without even thinking about it. "I guess I want to be happy, and make others happy too…"

"You're doing a great job on Tufts, and I haven't heard any of the Pie fillies complain. You have Rose, too." Loud giggles from deeper in the house almost interrupted Joyce. "And you have two little sisters that hang on your every word."

Mike sat up a bit straighter. "You noticed that too, huh? We are kinda a small Brady Bunch, but it is working out." He turned his head as his two sisters came into the living room. By the looks of anticipation and excitement on their faces, they were up to something. "What is it now?"

Misty lifted Mike's guitar into view, passing it over the couch to him with her wings while Robin giggled and ran around to plug the little amplifier in.

"You promised." Misty, having divested herself of the guitar, pranced to the middle of the living room floor and lay down facing Mike.

A crackling sound heralded the lead of the guitar plugging into the live amp. "Was it really as awesome as Misty said?"

Mike's fingers moved without any thought. "Probably better." Testing each string, the amplifier let loose low rumbles at his command. One strum was all it took and he felt the power inside him leap free. Mike barely felt his digits move on the fret board, nor the strings as he strummed, plucked, and slapped away.

Without the emotions from earlier to taint his music with negative feelings, Mike could only push happiness into the song. Mike closed his eyes and played, and each sense came alive with memories of Equestria. Trixie's magic had been the most amazing thing he had ever seen, but it didn't compare to the soft breeze of a warm day under a magical sun.

The house wasn't there, neither was the couch, his family, or even Tufts. Mike was running in Equestria, and the magic of it poured through him and into his music. A hand intruded. Gently, someone touched his shoulder and broke the spell. Mike's hands kept playing, but some of the magic was diminished.

"Honey, you have been playing for nearly half an hour." Joyce looked a little dazed. "You should have a break and grab something to eat." Just like when Mike was a boy, Joyce kissed him on the forehead.

His hands found the right chord progression to bring the tune to a halt, and Mike suddenly felt that he had indeed been playing for some time. "Wow…" He stared at his hands for a moment, barely noticing Tufts waking from a dream.

Robin got up from where she sat on the floor and stretched—almost like a cat. "That was amazing… Is that what Equestria is like?"

"It is." Misty climbed to her hooves beside Robin. "It's exactly like that. I don't know how he could make it feel… feel like Equestria so much, when he didn't even sing."

Mike waited for Robin and Misty to head for the kitchen before he set his guitar down and stood up. Something about his head still felt off, but he ignored that as best he could. "Hungry, Tufts?"

The bat looked up at Mike with keen eyes that could see every bit as well as the human's own. He didn't let out one of his shrill cries, rather he just nodded twice.

"I swear, Tufts, you have more of this worked out than we do. Can you understand me, or am I going crazy?" Mike looked at the bat, and was very aware Tufts was looking right back.

"Mike, lunch!" Joyce's voice came from the kitchen.

"Coming." Mike dropped the oddly not one-sided conversation with the bat and walked into the kitchen. All eyes turned to him, and he felt his ears tuck back at the scrutiny. "What's wrong?"

"You." Robin was apologetically honest.

"Robin!" Joyce rolled her eyes at her daughter. "But she is right, Mike. You seem pretty spaced out today. I understand a lot happened, but are you okay?" She was in full "mum" mode, not a hint of "Doctor Mum" to be found.

"A lot to think about. Princess Celestia offered me a place at her school; she said I didn't need to know magic to be able to learn and teach." Mike settled at the table and plucked up a slice of toast from the stack of such on a plate. Spreading butter onto the crispy bread, he remembered the surprise he had felt that the Princess had thought it was him applying.

Joyce blinked at the surprising news. "A thorny question, I guess. If it's Equestria that is doing… well…" She reached and ruffled Robin's head, stroking her daughter's perky ears. "If it does cause humans to turn into ponies, living there full-time would mean you would be a pony… assuming this goes all the way."

It was more information than Mike could deal with at that moment. "I don't know, Mum, more school seems…" He looked at Joyce's excited face and remembered his mother's prodding about further education. "You want me to learn to be a doctor, don't you?"

"No, honey." Joyce got up from the table and circled to her son. Putting an arm around Mike's shoulders, she gave him a hug. "I want you to do what makes you feel happy. Would going to Equestria, maybe turning into a pony," she flicked Mike's ear, "make you happy?"

Tucking his ears back tightly to avoid further flicks, Mike leaned his head sideways against his Mum's side. "I don't know. Maybe? Shouldn't I wait until I graduate here, first?"

"!" Misty's exclamation snapped everyone's attention to her, and the filly practically flew across the kitchen in her excitement. "!"

Candela shot a look at Joyce first, then inspected Mike's head. "." She tucked a wing around her filly and squeezed her in a hug. "." She kissed Misty on the head and followed her own advice.

With Candela getting settled on her own chair, Mike tilted his head back up to study his Mum's face. An intense look of focus was painted on Joyce's features, and Mike wondered for nearly two seconds what the problem was. "Oh! Equish! Misty said—"

"I understood most of it, dear." Joyce almost perfectly mirrored Candela's kiss on Misty's head with her own on Mike's. "I think it would be best for you to finish school, I've a feeling the next year or two are going to be… strange."

"Good-strange or strange-strange?" Mike lifted his toast up and took a bite.

Joyce chuckled. "Yes, exactly." The reply made no sense, of course, to Mike it seemed as right as anything could be. "So, buckle down and finish school, then you can go back and ask… Princess Celestia?"

Candela gasped. "What about the Princess? Did you meet her?" Her eyes were bright, flashing with interest.

Mike gulped down his toast. "I met her. She offered me a place in her school, if I wanted to join." He took another bite of the toast, then broke a corner off and offered the sugary jam on it to Tufts. The bat immediately started licking the sweet conserve up.

"That's amazing." Candela wore excitement on her face, but there were other emotions that colored her tone. "I wonder what they will teach a human?"

Mike participated in the speculation that passed around the table, but for the rest of the day he did his best to keep relaxed and unwind after his trip. What he couldn't shake was the odd sensation that his head felt funny.

Author's Note

Candela: maybe you could start making plans to teach a class for the transformed?

"Transformed?" Candela raised one eyebrow in surprise. "A few humans who spent time in and around the mine, or in Equestria, have grown ears and a tail. It is hardly time to start focusing on 'transformations.' Besides, from what I know of those they are really fast, not slow like this is."

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Airy Words
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Ian
Javarod
Mary Rowland
Mephia
Nils
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Airy Words
Cross Lament
Vutava

The Spread

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken Equish, everything else is in English.

Joyce studied her notes, flicking between pages in the diaries. She started with Mike's. "Second month of outbreak. Subject started showing symptoms." Her own detached wording helped her not remember the person she was reading about was her son. "Pony ears, six centimeters. Mark on both thighs of a lyre. Soft, aquamarine fur around mark and on ears."

The miners hadn't been quite so diligent, even when she proved she wasn't going to call anyone on them. Mike and Robin's books progressed every week, with extra notes when something new was found between measurements. She flicked on a few pages in Mike's book. "Tail developing. Dock length four centimeters, skirt length twelve centimeters of pale cyan with a white stripe." Her hand worked as she read the words aloud, noting the progression difference in Mike. "Fur on hips has spread to waist, crotch, rear and upper thigh. Ears eight centimeters."

"Subject's affinity with music seems to have grown. Can inspire emotions and sensations with just his music." Joyce had no idea what to make of Mike's special talent. It was literal magic, there was nothing she knew of that could explain how he could immediately turn the feelings of someone listening to him so much.

Flicking ahead three more pages to the end of the notes for Mike. "Extensive fur growth over much of torso and legs. Scalp hair has started changing color to match tail skirt, new hair follicles growing hair all the way down to C-six vertebrae. Tail dock eight centimeters, skirt fifty centimeters. Coloring consistent with early estimations. Eye color changing to lighter shades." She turned the page and set the book down. "So that is where we are."

"It's not going to stop, is it, Mum?" Mike's hair stretched down to the small of his back, and he had given up keeping his tail hidden. "What do you need to measure first?" He stood up and stretched, showing off his height.

"The usual, you pick." Joyce waited just a moment before Mike sat down beside her legs and rested his head against her leg. "Ears, okay." Extending her calipers, she had to use one hand to hold the recalcitrant ear still while she read the display. "Eight centimeters, no change there." A little rub of Mike's ear was her apology for having to manhandle it.

"My fur has grown." With the cooler months, Mike had started to wear warmer clothing. Then he began to get warm, aquamarine fur growing all over him. Shirts and light pants were his standard fare. Today he was wearing a long-sleeved Primus shirt over some lightweight jeans. Pulling the shirt up, he revealed the aquamarine fur had worked down his arms, and was almost halfway to his elbows. Below his shoulders, the fur was a constant mat—well brushed and soft.

"I can see that. It is inching up your neck too." Joyce took measurements and carefully wrote each in the book. "Pants too, hon."

"Nothing down there has changed." Mike seemed adamant of his words. "My fur goes all the way to my toes, and you can measure my tail from the back." As if to show that off, he turned around and offered his tail for inspection.

Able to read her son—and remembering their reason for moving to Cowwarr—Joyce knew she had to push. "What's wrong?"

"Have any of the others…" Mike trailed off trying to ask what he feared the answer to. "That is, has Dave or Steve shown any…"

Knowing her son was struggling with an inner demon, Joyce put her book to the side. "Go and fetch the soft brush from the bathroom, and I will make us some tea." Relaxation attack on two fronts; Joyce hoped it would do the trick.

While Mike pulled his shirt on and walked down the hallway, Joyce put the kettle on and prepared two cups. Sugar loaded into both, she waited for the water to boil before adding that, too. A little cold water to make them drinkable and she was done with the age-old ceremony. The cups were large, thick-walled mugs, and she carried them into the living room to find Mike already laying with his back to the chair she had been seated in, leaning back against it.

Joyce passed Mike one of the mugs of tea and settled down, swinging her leg over his neck. Each took a long sip of the hot tea before Joyce took up some of Mikes cyan hair. The brush was slow in its strokes, it didn't need to be fast to do its job.

Minutes passed as Joyce brushed out Mike's hair. There was no point to the brushing except to help him relax. It worked. "I was adjusting myself to get into these jeans and…" He took a deep breath. "My balls are smaller."

"Those are my old jeans, Mike. They should always fit badly on a guy." Joyce tried to be reassuring, but on the inside she was nearing panic. "I don't suppose you measured yourself recently?"

"Mum!" Mike blushed fit to explode in a shower of red, but each stroke of the brush stole his panic. He waited a while before talking again. Minutes skipped by, and he almost got halfway through the tea before he spoke. "That isn't all; I was six and a half inches last I checked."

Joyce didn't alter her pace at all, keeping the brush working through Mike's mane of hair. "And now?" Stroke. Stroke. Stroke.

Mike just sat there and let the brushing ease him into relaxed oblivion. "Six."

Letting the brush work at the soft hair, Joyce let a little time pass herself. "That could just be—"

"I measured each day for the last week. What if it changes me into a pony, and changes me to a girl at the same time? I mean, you didn't see things over there, Mum. About two-thirds of the ponies are women… mares… girls…" He stopped the synonym hunt.

In one way Joyce was excited: her study into the progress of the infection was reaching out to new fields. But then it was her little boy it was happening to. "Keep measuring. You know where I keep your journal, write down your measurements each day. It could be nothing more than a growth spurt that part of you hasn't caught up with yet."

Mike sat in place, letting the brushing and the relaxation do its job. He was just starting to drift off to sleep when a stomping sound came from the front door.

"!" Robin clomped her feet on the floor as she burst through the door, not quite literally. Reaching the living room, she spotted Mike getting his hair brushed and giggled. "—"

"Mike is busy, Robin. Why don't you take over here and I will help Candela?" Joyce lifted her leg around Mike's head, then grabbed her daughter up and set her down where she herself had just been sitting. "Just keep brushing, dear." She ruffled Robin's hair up, not for the first time amazed that the girl's pony ears had gone away. Pride filled Joyce. Robin had done as she promised, which considering how much she seemed to enjoy helping Rose with the mine, was quite a big thing.

"Sure thing." Robin's hands were not quite as adept as Joyce's, but she carefully took a handful of the soft cyan mane and began brushing. "Hard day?"

"Yeah…" Mike might have been relaxed, but that wasn't a topic he was sharing with his little sister. "You could say that."

Joyce left her children and headed outside to find out what Candela needed help with. Rose had parked her mother's car and was helping Candela and Misty unload shopping from the back. Walking to the back of the minivan, she spotted the square P plate in the back window. "How was the drive?"

"Traffic in Traralgon is hell." Rose rolled her eyes. "But I can't stick to country roads all the time. Thanks again for helping me get these." She gestured with a thumb at the plate in the back window of her mother's car.

"No problem. Seemed a fair payment for babysitting. This thing looks a bit different to my Falcon." Grabbing some offered bags, Joyce started walking back towards the house. Beside her, Rose carried some bags in her own hands, while Candela and Misty carried more in their teeth.

"Not that different. Both autos, although the power steering is a godsend." Rose gestured to the two pegasi. "And hardly anyone raises an eyebrow at Miss Candela or Misty."

"There was that one girl!" Misty, despite having a grocery bag hanging from her mouth, managed to speak without apparent problems. "She wouldn't stop calling her parents to get them to, 'see the pony.' "

Joyce was intrigued. "What did you do?" A soft murmuring stopped when she reentered the house with the others, and the knowledge her children were getting along made her smile wider.

"I glared at her parents. It wasn't the girl's fault that she could see through…" Rose put down her bags in the kitchen and reached up to sweep her hoodie back. Two dark pony ears sprung up, but unlike Mike's they had tufts of extra fur at their tips. "…this." She gestured up to her head.

"They apologized and had to drag the poor girl away." Misty set her own load down in the stack being made on the floor. "I felt sorry for her…"

Joyce noticed something strange, and beckoned to Misty and Rose to come closer. "Hold on… Rose, can you crouch down for me?"

"Sure…" Rose crouched down, her jeans fighting the posture but not to their breaking point.

"Candela, have a look at this." Joyce pinched one of Rose's bat-like ears and one of Misty's and held them as close together as the height difference between the two girls would allow.

"Hey, what is it?" Rose couldn't stop her ear from trying to twitch and jump about.

"What's happening mamma?" Misty's voice held an edge of worry that Rose's hadn't.

"They're tufted…" Candela's voice held astonishment. "Misty, have you been up at the mine?" She nuzzled her filly's cheek to reassure her.

"Y-Y-Yes…" Misty finally got her ear free and flicked it several times to make up for the previous, restricted movement. "Robin wasn't allowed to go, but Rose needed help with sorting her tailings. I thought since I was a pony already I would be okay…"

Joyce, however, hadn't released Rose's ear. "You're progressing a lot slower than Mike. You are still working at the mine?" The girl nodded to her. "Hrmm. Well, I want you coming to visit once a week from now on, and try to drag Dave along too."

Rose's ear was withheld a moment longer before its inevitable release. "Yes Doctor Mike's Mum." She stuck her tongue out at Joyce but grinned around it. "I'm around more often than that anyway. What will you need to do?"

"Measure everything." Misty had ducked away from her mother's close attention and was poking her nose through the grocery bags for something. "Poor Mike even had to measure his dock for her!"

"Dock?" Rose looked between Misty and Joyce. "Do I want to know?"

In answer, Misty spun around and flicked her tail up. "That's a dock!"

"<Misty>!" Candela's wing came down on her filly's back end. "!"

Rose looked confused, and turned to Joyce. "I'll… uh… come around tomorrow." Clearly antsy to be away, Rose walked to the living room. "Hey Mike, I'll be around tomorrow and we can—" Her voice cut off when she saw all the soft fur covering Mike's body.

"Isn't he adorable!" Robin hadn't stopped her brushing, and had a very relaxed and calm Mike to deal with. "He's a little distracted right now, you might want to just go." Tact was not Robin's game.

Joyce, intrigued to know what was going on, looked into the room and grinned. Mike was relaxed, his eyes closed, with Robin brushing his hair and slowly rubbing one of his ears.

Author's Note

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Airy Words
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Ian
Javarod
Mary Rowland
Mephia
Nils
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Airy Words
Cross Lament
Vutava

Confession

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken Equish, everything else is in English.

"Michael?"

Candela's hoofsteps grew closer, but Mike felt rather than heard them. His headphones were on and his hand strummed across the strings. Life poured through his fingers, and just expressing his feelings in the music was so freeing he had no words to describe it.

Mike blinked a few times when his yellow-furred school teacher walked into his field of view. His fingers burned to play more, but he had to still them. "Hi, Candela. What's up?" Pulling his modified cans down to his neck, Mike twitched his ears like crazy now that they were free of the confinement of his headphones.

"." Candela's look of concern had Mike jumping to his feet immediately. "."

The words were significant to Mike, it meant that Rose was done with her medical stuff and he was allowed to intrude. "What do I do?" His talent flared, and he found himself already planning. "Wait, I got this…"

Watching Mike grab his guitar and amp—sans headphones now—Candela grinned from ear to ear at seeing him trot quickly down the hall towards the living room.

When he walked in, Mike heard the muffled conversation stop and both Rose and his mother stared at him. "Wait, before you say anything…" He walked across to the free couch chair and plugged his amp in beside it. "Rosetta, this is for you."

Rose opened her mouth to say something, but tucked it closed again when the deep, bass notes started to glide from Mike's guitar. Her eyes widened as the music rushed into her head and formed a link between them.

Focusing on his own fears at first, Mike worked everything he was experiencing into the music. His fingers flew across the strings and frets, despite an odd stiffness in them. As it wound on the music started to turn positive quickly. Everything seemed brighter now, and Mike looked at Rose for more inspiration. A smile creased her lips, and he returned it. He let the music wind on until it was done, which was another ten bars in total.

As his hands slowed, Mike breathed out and let the sound of the guitar fade slowly. "Did you—" He didn't get any further before Rose shot across the living room and landed on the couch beside him. Her arms pulled around his neck and dragged Mike into a hug. Letting his guitar swing to the side, Mike put his arms around Rose and returned her hug. "You liked it?"

"It was amazing." Rose clung to Mike like a barnacle. "I wasn't even sure if I wanted to see you today. I felt like I wanted to go home and eat a pile of chocolate, then stuff my head under a pillow."

"And now?" Slowly rubbing a circle on Rose's back, Mike felt the slight bump of the girl's bra strap. He didn't care that she wasn't dressed up, or that she didn't seem to like dressing up; Rose was a comfortable girl to be around.

"Now is better." Rose pressed her cheek to Mike's shoulder and inhaled deeply.

From Rose's own surprised expression, Mike had to assume she hadn't actually meant to sniff him. Oddly, he felt comfortable in her doing so. "It's okay. You aren't alone in this, remember? That music? I have never played that well in my life. Each time I play I am better than last time, and somehow I can just create songs from nowhere. They fit the moment perfectly, and Candela tells me that is how a special talent works, but it freaks me out.

"I got a book on horses, and if ponies are anything like them then I think we are going to be doing a lot more sniffing in the future." To prove his point, Mike leaned in and gave an exaggerated sniff of Rose's neck, which earned him a giggle.

"So where does sniffing count on the bases?" Rose looked up at Mike, a silly expression on her face that was, at the same time, expressing some interest in the answer. "Is it before or after kissing?"

"Before. Definitely before. It is really hard to accidentally kiss, but not so much smelling someone." Mike raised an eyebrow. "So, this date. What about if we just go to the—"

"Not on your life!" Shoving Mike in the shoulder, Rose laughed. "If you think for a moment you are getting out of this, you have another thing coming! You cheered me up, now you have to deal with the consequences! Your mum said I could shower here if I needed to. I have… I have some fur, and I was using shampoo to wash it."

"Nooo!" Mike threw his hand to his mouth in shock. "Don't do that. You will wash all the oils out of it. Come on, I'll show you what you need to use. On this one thing I am an expert." Jumping upright, Mike reached down to offer Rose a hand up.

"Lead on, McDuff!" Reaching up to take the offer, Rose let Mike haul her upright before following him through to the bathroom.

"Okay, this is totally not a come-on, I am just showing you how to do this." Mike looked at Rose, who wore a confused expression. Shrugging a little, he jerked up his shirt to reveal a sea of light aquamarine fur. Looking at Rose, he was surprised to see a lot of interest in her expression. "This is totally going to be 'in' next season, trust me."

Rose snorted at the joke. "You idiot. So what are you going to show me?"

"This, first of all." Mike walked to the shower and grabbed up a bottle. "This is literally the best stuff ever. Soft on your fur, and it makes it practically glow." He put down the first bottle. "Now, there is conditioner, and oil. And you will need a good brush. How much fur do you have so far?"

"N-Not much. Hips, thighs, and a little around to my tail and belly." Nervousness was evident in Rose's words, and was typified by her stutter. "Not as much as you have."

Mike tensed up, and he couldn't stop himself from wanting to pull back and away from Rose. Her words cut too close to his fears of the truth and undid a lot of the good work Robin had put in the previous day. Without a word he picked the bottle back up and put it back in the shower, and started to turn away.

"Hey!" Rose's tone was surprised. "Hey Mike! What did I say?" She watched him walk from the bedroom and followed. "You can't just walk away without telling me what is going on. What did I say?"

Mike ignored Rose, too trapped in the panic of a teen male with his manhood in jeopardy. She was the last person on earth he could talk to about this problem, and the moment he was in his room he swung his door closed behind him with a thump. "Go away."

Rose opened Mikes door, stepped in, and closed it again behind her. "Not until you tell me what I said wrong." She folded her legs and sat on the floor, blocking the door from being opened again.

Confronted with things he had no answer for, Mike regressed back to the teen he had been before moving to Cowwarr. "Fuck off." The words lacked heat, care, or any real emotion at all. He slumped onto his bed and turned to face away from the door.

"Is this about before you came here?" Rose's tone implied a lot of mixed emotions, but empathy was definitely one of them. "I don't care if you got some girl pregnant and ran…"

The words were enough to cut through Mike's self-destructive mood like an axe. "What? Who told you that?" The absurdity of it ripped him from his fugue, and Mike sat up and turned to face Rose.

"Uh… Well… Robin was saying you had an argument with your mum about pills, and she said it was right after you were hanging with your girlfriend that you left…" Rose trailed off and though she tried to meet Mike's eyes, just couldn't.

Mike couldn't stop it. The laughter bubbled up inside and he fell sideways onto the bed with his ears tucked back tightly, convulsing with laughter. "You—" He tried to get a sentence out, but the moment a word left his lips he lost control again.

"What?! It all fits." Rose managed to look at Mike properly. "Then what happened?"

"I knew my friends were into something bad, nearly everyone was doing something illegal there." Mike climbed down off the bed and sat on the floor—careful of his tail. "I rolled up to meet James and Stace, and some other friends. Jumped off my bike just before the basketball courts we usually hung at.

"I saw James passing something to Stacy, she put it in her pocket and passed him some money." The moment had almost broken Mike back then, and it still cut him up now. Only a bubble bath would have any hope of restoring him back to a semblance of normalcy. "A lot of little facts linked up and I rode in. That my friends always had plenty of cash, that they were always meeting up with guys and could never ditch these 'friends,' and how Stace had been acting a little on-edge.

"I asked James what he was doing, and he told me he was selling drugs. Then he offered to sell me some." Mike's hand clenched. "Stacy called me a wet blanket after our friends pulled us apart. I gave as good as I got, but it hurt a lot more than just the punches. Mum patched me up and got the truth out of me." With a sigh, Mike looked up at Rose. "And that's why we moved."

Rose blinked a few times, taking in the full story. "Well, I was a bit off my mark."

"Wait a second." Lifting a hand, Mike pointed at Rose. "You thought I had done that to a girl, and run out on her, and you still wanted to be with me?" Mike knew for a fact if the situation was reversed, he wouldn't want anything to do with him.

"I wanted to hear your side. You don't seem like the kind of arsehole who would do that, and you are too nice to throw away on a rumor." Rose shrugged at her words. "So the stuff…?"

Closing his eyes, Mike tried to remember all the details, and failed. "Speed. Mum gave me a big lecture about it, but I don't remember much apart from how much it'll mess you up. She kept asking me over and over if I had taken any." He snapped his eyes open when Rose pressed to his side. In an instant he was weighing up whether to move away and run away from all the emotions, but he waited too long and had an arm curl around his back.

"That's not what set you off, though." The moment Rose said the words, she felt Mike shudder a little. "What's going on Mike? If not as your girlfriend, then just tell me as a friend. Someone you can confide in."

Again and again Mike opened his mouth. Each time he was planning to either tell her the truth or to "get lost." At last, he just leaned sideways against Rose. Months spent working on and off at the mine had left Rose more solid than Mike, and he didn't mind one bit. "It's stupid, and I am totally freaking out over nothing… is what Mum would say if I wasn't her 'little boy.' "

Rose reached her free hand up and started rubbing one of Mike's aquamarine ears. "Nothing is nothing, here. At the start of the year I would have freaked out over having a tail, or that my tits were shrinking, now—"

"Your what?" Mike had almost been asleep when Rose dropped the bomb. "Hold on. Back up." He sat up a little straighter, mainly just trying to pull his ears away from Rose's fingers so he could think. "What happened?"

"Well, I started noticing my new bras didn't fit. I told Mum about it, and she just gave me fifty bucks and told me to get something bigger. But it isn't that they are growing… my tits are shrinking. I lost maybe half a cup size, and two centimeters of strap." Rose took in Mike's confused look and rolled her eyes. "Ugh, guys… Okay, so cup size is measured in inches larger than strap size, and strap size is measured just under your breasts."

"Your breasts." A little of Mike's humor cut through his confusion. "But I think I follow. So your chest shrank a little, and your breasts shrank as well?"

"Yeah. I spoke to Joyce… your mum… and she explained that I should really be growing, and I should, but this just makes me freak out. I mean, Candela doesn't have breasts. Am I going to lose it all?" It was Rose's turn to get a hug, and though Mike was not built quite as big as her, he definitely knew how to hug.

"I'm an idiot." Mike felt comfort not only in the hug, but also the knowledge that he wasn't the only one having strange changes. "Mum wants me to keep a closer log book of it, but I am pretty sure my penis and balls are shrinking." The words were just as scary out loud as they were in his head. Mike felt a tighter hug from Rose.

"Aren't ponies hung like horses?" Rose clearly didn't want to let go of Mike. They had both shared some intensely personal things, and each seemed to need a hug just as much as they were inclined to give one.

"When I visited Canterlot I wasn't exactly peeking under everypony's belly to see how big they were." Mike sighed. "What if I turn into a female pony?"

Rose snorted, leading to Mike staring at her in surprise. "What? You will be the first person in history to experience things from both sides. Literally the first." When her argument hadn't convinced him, Rose continued. "And so what? Are you saying girls—or mares—are worse than guys—stallions?"

"What? No!" Mike shook his head. "I guess it's part of the macho BS that society tells us we should be. Or something. Aren't you freaked out about it? Changing like this?"

"Yeah. I'm scared shitless too, but freakin' out and slamming doors in your friend's face aren't going to help." Rose squeezed Mike a little more.

Mike rolled his eyes. "I dunno. It worked this time." Rose's fist connected with his shoulder, but not too hard. "What?! It did!"

"When you can crack bad jokes like that I know you are feeling better. I still need that shower, so be a gentle… pony… and show me how to use all those bottles." Despite her declaring herself in need of help, Rose stood up first and reached down to help Mike stand up.

Rubbing at his eyes, unsure when he had even cried, Mike was surprised at just how strong Rose was. She hauled him upright with just one hand, and had Mike propelled towards the door. "Okay, okay. But I am so not washing your back for you." He managed to dodge the playful punch this time.

Following Mike back to the bathroom, Rose got a quick rundown on a mix of human and horse grooming that Mike had found worked. He then left her to try out his teachings in peace.

Mike walked back to the living room and, entering, found Robin cradling his bass guitar on her lap, plucking at the strings inexpertly. "Hey Spud. If you wanted to learn how to play, I could always teach you."

"Eww!" Robin quickly—but carefully—shifted the heavy bass guitar from her lap. "If I am going to learn to play, I want to play lead! Or sing!" Despite her proclamation, she grabbed the guitar back to mime striking an epic chord, and by the way she almost launched out of the chair hadn't remembered that the guitar was still plugged in.

"Really though. Do you want to learn? I think Mum would get you a guitar if you wanted." Mike reached for his guitar and took it from a flustered Robin.

"Well, as long as I don't have to learn bass." Sticking her tongue out, Robin made sure her brother knew what she thought of the instrument. "Now?"

"I need to get you a practice guitar first. Pinkie and Marble have my acoustic at their place, and besides, I have a date." Mike grinned wide, sticking his tongue out at Robin while winding up the cords for his amp and guitar.

"That is disgusting." Countering Mike's tongue with her own, she even blew a raspberry. "I don't know what she sees in you."

"Me either, to be honest." Reaching out, Mike ruffled Robin's hair before he picked up the amp to take back to his room. "We'll get you a guitar first, then see about some lessons."

"Your music is amazing, Mike." Robin looked up at her brother, an honest smile on her face. "But you still stink and have cooties." Rocking back on her seat, Robin laughed at her brother's inability to gain revenge.

"When my arms aren't full you are going to get it, Spud." His threat was empty, and Mike left the room with a smile on his face.

Walking back to his room, Mike put his guitar back in its stand, and set his amp beside it. Slumping down on his bed, he pulled his headphones on—adjusting them carefully for his pony ears—and turned something heavy on.

Dark music always raised Mike's spirits, in apparent perfect opposition to their intended effects. When Rose poked his shoulder, he jerked upright and blinked in surprise. "You done already?"

"Yeah. I think I got the hang of the stuff. Come on, let's head to my place and I'll get something nicer on. Then we can drive to Traralgon from there." Rose, again, reached out to help Mike up, although this time he launched upright on his own.

It was easier to let Rose take charge for the moment. Mike followed her from his room and outside. Putting his shoes on the road behind her, he took a deep breath. "Sorry about flying off the handle back there. I'm just… it's a sensitive topic."

"Yeah. But just remember, silly pony, you aren't going through it alone. We are all getting freaky." Rose slung an arm around Mike, and had the delight of getting his around her too.

Walking in silence, Mike appreciated having Rose pull him out of his bad mood, even if it was her that plunged him into it. It wasn't actually her fault, after all. They made it as far as halfway down the street Rose lived in before the girl let out an exclamation of disgust. "What's wrong?"

"The car's gone! Mum must have taken it to do something." Drawing her arm back from Mike, Rose jogged to reach Dave's house and saw the minivan was gone, but Dave's ute was pulled up onto the lawn. "Let me check if we can borrow Dave's ute."

"Alright. I'll wait out here." Stretching a little, Mike walked around on the front lawn. Each step felt a little strange, like his shoes weren't quite fitting. Walking to the veranda of Dave's house, he sat down and was about to pull his shoe off when Rose came back out. "What's the verdict?"

"Dave's asleep, and I don't want to take his ute without asking. Mum went somewhere without leaving a note or message. We are up shit creek in a barbwire canoe." Rosetta rolled her eyes and sat down beside Mike.

Mike reached out a comforting arm. "What about Mum's Falcon? We could ask her if we could go in that."

Jerking upright again, Rose pointed back the way they had come. "We are going on this date if it's the last thing I do!"

"Yes ma'am!" Mike stood up and started jogging after Rose, trying to catch up to her pace. "You are really focused on this."

"Silly. Of course I am focused on this. You are probably the second most interesting thing in this pokey little town." Sticking her tongue out to show she was unrepentant about calling Mike "second best," Rose waited a moment before replying. "Dave and the mine are number one, sorry Mike."

Author's Note

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Airy Words
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Ian
Javarod
Mary Rowland
Nils
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Airy Words
Cross Lament
Vutava

Four Spanners in the Works

Language check. All in English.

Mike woke up slowly. The date with Rose the previous evening had started rocky, but gone quite well after that. He contemplated the ceiling of his bedroom for long enough to realize it was a school-day.

Warm beds were evil, and wonderful. Mike stayed under the covers, going over the events of the previous day in his head. Things had seemed bleak until Rose had admitted she was changing too. He pondered the thought of a girlfriend who was a pony. Not having breasts would suck. His last girlfriend had let him play with her so long as adults weren't around, and no matter what he had done it had never gotten old.

His memory tripped, and rather than Stacy, he imagined Rosetta's breasts in his hands. A smile pulled at his lips, and though he knew they were shrinking, Rose still had an impressive set for a girl her age. Reaching down, he started to wrap his hand around himself when the dream shattered.

"What the fuck?!" Mike yanked his hand up from his groin and stared at it. To his horror his hand—hands when he quickly jerked the other up—were deformed. His thumb and pinkie had shrunk a little. His middle, index, and ring fingers, in contrast, were sort of stuck together. Staring at it, he could see the fingernails of the three joined fingers had melded into one big, flat shape.

Only one word came to mind when he looked at his hands: hoof. "MUM!" His yell likely woke the whole town, but Mike didn't care. His thoughts quickly shifted gear and he was yanking up his leg with those misshapen hands, finding his foot to be similarly twisted of form.

The door banged open, and Joyce rushed in. "Mike? What are you yelling ab—" She stopped with the question when the answer became obvious. "Oh boy…"

Mike opened his mouth to complain, but was wrapped in his mother's arms and hugged tightly. There was almost nothing better for calming down than a hug from his mum, and this one was no exception.

"Bubble bath in twenty minutes. Stay in bed, Michael, no school for you today." Joyce kissed Mike on the forehead, which turned out to be an odd thing for both of them. "Mike, you wait there. I'll get a mirror."

Reaching up, Mike felt the bump on his forehead with his pseudo-hand. His heart racing, all thoughts of his hooves, of possibly turning into a mare, faded. "I'm turning into a unicorn?" Elation grew, and Mike almost bounced in his bed. "Mum! I'm turning into a unicorn!"

"A unicorn?" Misty poked her head in Mike's room, obviously having just woken up. She blinked a few times to make sense of the human laying in bed before a wide grin covered her face. "A unicorn? You are going to be able to do magic!"

Tilting his head forward, Mike let Misty reach a wing up and feel the bump again. "It is going to be so awesome! When I visited Canterlot, there was all kinds of awesome magic, and…" His excitement trailed off as something even more amazing came back to him. "She offered me a place at her school…"

"What?" Misty, still examining Mike's budding horn, gave it a bit of a poke.

"Princess Celestia. She said if I wanted to, I could go to her school. That… that would mean I get to be a unicorn and learn magic in the best school in Equestria!" Climbing from the bed, Mike was ready to start running in his pajamas, but stumbled the moment he tried to walk on the floor. The changes to his feet were just enough to put him off balance, and so Mike began to fall.

Jumping under the toppling human, Misty saved Mike from introducing his face to the floor. "Mike! What happened to your feet? And look at your hands too! And your fur!"

The last bit stole the shock of tripping and Mike stared at his hands. Soft aquamarine fur covered them, a fact he hadn't noticed in his earlier panic. Reaching his melded fingers up, he felt at his neck; the fur was all the way up to Mike's jaw now. "Huh…"

"Can… Can you get off me now?" Misty was still holding Mike's mass up, and despite his changes so far, he wasn't getting too much smaller.

The reality of his limbs being just strange enough that he couldn't stand easily hit him, and Mike actually shook a little. "I… I don't think I can. Mum!" It stung a lot to not be able to put his weight on his legs. All his life Mike had been fit, healthy, and it had only been the prospect of magic that cushioned him from the shock of realizing he was, for the moment, crippled.

"Honey-dove." Joyce bustled into the room and reached down to Mike. Hauling him up with a strength that surprised both of them, she lifted Mike to his bed. "Just scoot down in there again. I will get some crutches… or something."

"Mum?" Mike stared up at his mother, but she seemed otherwise focused.

"Robin! Get your fluffy tail into the bathroom, now!" Walking to the doorway, Joyce gestured down the hall.

A little more agitated, Mike's eyes were locked on his mother. "Mum!"

"But Mum!" Robin's sleepy voice came from the hallway. "Mike is meant to go first so I can sleep in!"

"I don't care. Mike is having the day off school, so you need to get ready." The insistent voice of her son finally got her attention, and Joyce started to turn around. "What's wrong, Mike?"

However, just as Mike opened his mouth to point out that his mother had grown a pair of dark-furred ears atop her head, his little sister blurted it out. "Mum! You have bat pony ears!" Robin started bouncing up and down in excitement.

"So do you." Leveling a wing primary at Robin, Misty cracked a grin.

"Yeah." Mike looked at his crazy, mixed up family, but his attention was now solidly on Misty. "But so do you, Misty."

Mike, Misty, Joyce, and Robin all stared at each other silently. None made a sound until Candela poked her head in the door beside Robin. "What is going on in here?"

"Mum, Robin, and Misty are all turning into bat ponies too." Mike was blunt, possibly to a fault, but he was still in too much shock to consider feelings. "And I have these… and this…" He gestured to his hands and forehead, respectively.

Candela was caught. She looked between Mike and Misty, and opted to find a spot between them. She focused her attention on Misty first. "I didn't expect this in you." Turning to Mike, she smiled. "But this is definitely showing something, but I am not entirely sure what."

"Okay." Joyce was too caught up in the problem to be worried about her children, lest one of them cry out again. "So this bat pony thing is entirely new?" Candela nodded to her. "But Mike and Steve are becoming normal, Equestrian ponies?" More nods. "The only thing different about them is they got their cutie marks in Equestria."

"So Equestrian cutie mark means Equestrian pony." In a way, Mike was thankful for the discussion; he didn't have to think on his problems. "So then Candela won't change, but Misty will." He pointed to the ponies in question. "Right, Mum?"

"And you don't want to go to medical school?" Joyce reached out to tousle Mike's hair, and then caught an ear for a brief rub. "But yes. Okay, so if we are changing even this far away, that means either the effect is cumulative, or it is getting stronger."

"If it were cumulative, then Robin wouldn't have changed back." Candela had a wing spread around Misty's withers, and had the filly pulled tight against her side. She leaned in and pressed her snout to Misty's ear, but didn't try to hide her voice. "You could go back to Equestria, and then—"

"They are my family, Mum." Misty jerked her head up and nuzzled under her mother's chin. "If they have to be bat ponies, it wouldn't be fair for me to just up and decide. All for one, friendship, and all that."

Joyce tapped her chin a moment, then turned to her daughter. "Robin, do you have a—"

"No Mum, no cutie mark yet." Rolling her eyes, Robin stepped into the room and hugged her mother. "I promised I would write everything in the journal."

"So we understand how this is happening?" Looking at his strange fingers, Mike flexed them while talking. "Or at least what will happen to some people, and why it doesn't happen another way?" Lifting his head up, Mike got nods from his family. He couldn't stop his smile from growing bigger and bigger as he realized they were all one big family.

"That we do." Joyce tapped Robin on the shoulder. "Bathroom, now."

"I'm going to be a bat pony!" Running from the room, her arms spread as far as she could, Robin raced for the bathroom.

Mike tilted his head while he looked up at his mother. "Mum, can you lean down here for a second?"

"Huh?" Off balance, Joyce complied with her son's request, leaning towards him. Expecting him to whisper something, she angled one of her big ears forward and towards him.

Reaching up, even with his slightly stiff, combined fingers, Mike took hold of his mother's ear and started to rub it slowly. "Payback…" He just grinned at her relaxed, dopey look. "Sweet, sweet payback."

Joyce blinked a few times, clearly pulling her mind out of the happy fog that a good ear-rubbing precipitated. The room was almost empty, and with Mike walking out in his bathrobe she was alone.

Herding all his family out of his bedroom had given Mike the chance to practice standing on the odd not-heels he had now. He wobbled, stumbled, but though he wasn't completely steady, he could at least walk. "If you're not done in the bathroom…"

"I am!" Robin pushed her way out of the bathroom door. "But Misty's still in there. Candela too!"

"Ugh…" Mike made his way down to the kitchen with only a few wobbles. "Guess I will start making breakfast." Tossing his mane, he squinted around the room to assess what he could make. "Pancakes would take too long, toast would be a good idea…" A quick check of the fridge and he grinned. "Bats live on sugar, so cinnamon toast it is!"

Looking down at his misshapen fingers, Mike knew this was going to be a challenge. A loaf of bread was set on the bench, and he fired up the oven. Whistling a tune, he pulled a hunk of butter from the fridge and started softening it with a quick trip to the microwave.

"You sound a bit better." Joyce slumped into a chair. "Whatcha making?" One of her arms reached up feebly, gesturing at the kettle. "I regret sitting down…"

"Cinnamon toast. Full of the energy a growing bat needs to grow up big and strong!" Though he might have been having the oddest morning of his life, Mike still had plenty of sass. "Tea or coffee?"

Groaning at the joke, Joyce waved the hand at the kettle some more. "Coffee. Hot as hell, black as death, sweet as love…"

"Yes, Zombie Lord!" Mike snapped a terrible salute (made worse by his hands' condition) and fumbled to get water into the kettle. A sharp, staccato knocking on the front door stole Mike's attention. As he turned to answer it, he almost tripped over his legs.

Joyce lifted a hand to brace on the chair while used her other one to restrain Mike. "I'll get it. You keep making breakfast."

"Thanks, Mum." Getting back to his task, Mike plucked the softened butter from the microwave and started mixing sugar and cinnamon into it. He was just about to start whistling again when a pink snout pushed under one arm and knocked him off balance.

A strong, soft set of forelegs wrapped around Mike's waist and stopped his fall. Though Maud was only half his size, she caught him easily. "Are you alright?" Her soft tone was barely colored by emotion, but the feeling it did have was worry. "What happened to your hands?"

"Well, a great wizard saw that I had a pony tail and mane, and decided I should have hooves, too." Fishing for a smile from Maud, Mike got the slightest of nods from her. His joking attitude fled as he focused on his friend. "It's just getting worse. I can't balance so well, and somepony decided to knock me over."

Pinkie, at the exact moment Maud and Mike looked at her, was extending her tongue to scoop up the butter, sugar, and nutmeg mix. Pulling back moments before she made contact, she narrowed her eyes at Mike. "It sounds like you need a 'So you are becoming a pony and can't walk right so need cheering up' party!"

The raw enthusiasm in Pinkie's eyes was impossible to fight against. "Yeah ok—" He blinked as only a cloud of pink dust, vaguely in the shape of a pony, was actually where the mare had been. "How did she do that? And just where did she go?"

"You just agreed to letting her throw a party for you." Maud looked levelly at Mike, still holding him. "Happiness and celebration is her special talent, and it is what her cutie mark is all about."

Mike was acutely aware of being in Maud's grip, and though he didn't think she thought of him as a potential boyfriend, he had a girlfriend. "Oh… I should get back to making breakfast." There was a moment when Maud seemed prepared to hold him longer, but reaching up, she put him back on his feet.

"What are you making? It smells good." Maud leaned her head up and to the edge of the bench—not unlike her sister—and looked at the butter Mike was preparing.

"My own special cinnamon toast recipe!" Mike struggled with the last ingredient. Fighting with the small bottle of vanilla, he started to lose his temper with it.

"Here." Maud reached out with a hoof and took the little bottle. With her teeth applied to the lid, she twisted her head and loosened it. "It will get easier when your hooves are done. And when your horn grows you will have your own magic to do it."

Reminded of what was in store for him, Mike shattered his annoyance at the little bottle with his dreams. "Magic…" His tone was wistful, like you imagined people talking in dreams. With shaking hands, he measured two teaspoons of vanilla into the mix and passed the bottle back to Maud. "Can you put the lid back on?"

While Maud took care of the bottle and lid, Mike started pulling out slices of bread. Buttering each liberally, he found his odd fingers growing more familiar—if not actually being easier to use. "Now into the grill…"

"Here." Maud passed the little bottle to Mike again, now with the lid fastened.

With the first nine slices of bread under the oven grill, Mike began buttering nine more. "Mum said I can have the week off school."

"Day." Joyce's voice cut in quickly.

"Worth a try." Mike reached and flicked the kettle off as it started whistling. "Candela will bring me some homework back, I am sure." Just as he finished, a loud screech sounded, announcing that Tufts had been woken too.

Still without her coffee, Joyce stumbled into the kitchen and over to the bat's cage. "They were too loud for you too, huh?" She flipped back the covering on his cage and opened the front of it. The bat immediately reached out with his wings, and latched on to Joyce. Transferring his legs over, Tufts took up his spot hanging from Joyce's shoulder. "Some fruit?" Her question got another loud kee from the bat.

"What's for breakfast?" Stomping into the kitchen with her school shoes on, Robin dropped into the chair her mother had vacated moments before.

"You all have pony ears now?" Maud's eyes missed little about the family, flicking quickly from the top of one head to another.

Mike didn't answer his sister, not until he slid a plate with two slices of cinnamon toast in front of her. "Yeah, although Mum, Spud, and Flaps—"

"Flaps?" Misty Rainfall walked into the kitchen. "Is that all I am n…" She trailed off as another plate was passed to her.

"Yes. You have flappies, so you are Flaps." Mike ruffled Misty's mane a little with his hand. "As I was saying, all of them are getting bat-like ears, but I have normal pony ones." Next target was his mum, she got a plate with three on it. The last plate was offered to Maud.

Picking up a slice of the toast, Maud nibbled at a corner before flaring her eyes wide for a moment. "Mmm." More toast followed the nibble.

Mike was contented for a moment, with most of his family and a friend munching away on his cooking. Of course, such calm moments were not to last. Letting out a loud keeing roar, Tufts launched himself across the room at Mike.

"Hey, you want something?" Mike held up his arm for Tufts to land on. "Come on, I think there was some bananas left. I guess all this," he swept one arm over his sister's head, gently brushing Robin's tufted ears, "should have been obvious, what with the amount of fruit everyone was suddenly eating." The fridge was close, and Mike was already hunting for the treat.

Tufts' next screech was cut off mid "eee" by a peeled banana. Lunging his head forward, he chomped off the end of it and started chewing.

"More." Mike didn't inflect the word like a question, instead just holding the banana closer to Tufts, letting the bat take another bite. Setting the banana on the bench, Mike went back to work and put the next batch of toast in the oven.

Wandering into the kitchen, Candela smiled around the table. "I take it Tufts has been fed, given his screech and sudden silence?" Tufts himself turned to face Candela, as if he fully understood her words. His cheeks bulging, the bat adjusted his stance on Mike's arm.

"Naturally." Checking on the next batch of toast, Mike found it not quite ready. "Almost done. Would you like a cuppa?" Mike reached out to the kettle, only discovering not quite enough water for another cup. Taking it to the sink, he stumbled a little but didn't fall this time.

"Just my thermos, please. Thank you, Mike." Candela inspected some of the toast on Joyce's plate. "What is this? It smells amazing!"

"This is cinnamon toast." Taking his chances, Mike lifted out the second batch of toast from the oven, and was happy to see the sugar on top had caramelized and mixed up beautifully. Taking two slices for himself, he popped three on Candela's plate, and put the remaining four on a plate in the middle of the breakfast table.

"How are your fingers?" Holding up the toast, Candela looked the little triangle of toast up and down before taking a bite. "Mmm! This is really good, Mike." Closing her eyes, Candela enjoyed the simple breakfast. "Still need a bubble bath?"

"Yeah." Mike stretched and had to grab at the bench for support. "Some moments everything seems normal, and then I try to take a step, or pick something up."

"A nice long soak should help." Joyce was out of toast, but after having three slices she wasn't reaching for any of the extra pieces. "Once you are out, we are going to go back over everything. Absolutely everything."

"I guessed that." Mike walked over to fetch Candela's thermos and brought it back to the kettle to fill.

Candela nodded her thanks when Mike returned her thermos full of boiling water. "Thank you, dear. Come on girls, let's go to school."

Leaning out of the way, Mike waved to Maud, Misty, Robin, and Candela. "Guess it is just us again, Mum." At that moment, of course, Tufts made sure that both of them knew he was there too. The bat ejected his "spat" of chewed up banana from the corner of his mouth and let loose a loud kee.

"I got it." Moving fast, Joyce unrolled some paper towel they kept on hand for just such occasions.

"Thanks. As for you, you need to learn better aim. I could have held you over the sink to get rid of that." Mike shook one massed finger at the bat, admonishing him for his actions. Reaching for where he had put the banana, Mike found it gone. "Damn it Robin!"

"What's the matter?" Joyce stood up, the pulpy ball of banana making its way to the bin.

Giving the bat a rub on the cheeks, Mike shook his head. "I had been feeding Tufts a banana, and he got about a third of it."

"I know he had a banana, sweetie." Rolling her eyes, Joyce gestured to the floor where she had picked up the mess.

"Mum…" Mike groaned. "Anyway, I left the banana on the counter, and I only know of one bat-eared, mostly human girl in this family that would take it."

" 'This family'?" Joyce sat back down and smiled at Mike. "Don't worry. I think of them like that too. Misty has grown so much since she first got here, and I can hear Candela's sharp inflections creeping into both of your voices."

"Really?" A little surprised, Mike had to ponder the thought of getting an Equestrian accent from his teacher. Then another thought hit him. "Wait, so if Misty is my little sister, what is Candela?"

Joyce laughed at her son's confusion. "I didn't say it fit perfectly." She reached for her coffee and had the last mouthful from her cup. "Are you ready for an exam, or do you want to relax some more?"

"Exam first, then bath. Once I am in that tub, I am not coming out until lunchtime." Mike balanced on his changed feet as best he could, and made his way slowly into the living room. One hand kept rubbing at Tufts, but try as Mike might he couldn't work out if it was to make the bat feel better or him.

Finding a seat on the couch, Mike focused his attention on Tufts while Joyce got her things. "I don't get it, Tufts. Why me? What are the odds of moving to this little town, into this house, and winding up having… this?" Mike's question, however, didn't even seem to warrant a sound from the bat—although it could have just been Tufts was content with the attention.

"This is going to be an invasive check, if you are okay with that honey." Joyce set her doctor bag on the floor before her own chair, and grabbed the notebook from under her arm. "And after it you get to help me. I need a log book too, now, and I can't measure those things,"—she rolled her eyes upwards—"without help."

"You tried, didn't you?" Mike grinned at the thought and reached one arm out to place Tufts on the perch that had been set up beside the couch. "Sorry buddy, but you have to wait there while I get this over with." A sudden, silly thought struck him. "Hey, Mum, does this family thing make Tufts my dad?" When Tufts gave a loud kee, it only stirred Mike into laughter.

"This is where I make some stereotypical joke. Not going to." Joyce opened the book and flipped to the next fresh page she could find. "Okay, start from the top. Ears."

Mike clenched his eyes closed, puffed out his cheeks, and promptly wiggled his ears. "Yup, still there. Next!" When he looked at his mother, he didn't find quite the laughter he had hoped would be there. "Oh come on, you can't expect me not to crack any jokes at all?"

Joyce smiled at that. "There really is no keeping you down, is there Michael?"

"Hey Tufts,"—Mike turned to look at the bat, cupping his distorted hand ineffectually—"do you think Mum is being too stuffy?" Right on time, Tufts gave a loud kee of support. "Thought so."

"I give up." Joyce had lost any hope she had of keeping a straight face. "But I need to measure your ears still."

Mike submitted to his mother's measuring, getting his ears and mane of hair measured. But when Joyce examined his chin—where the aquamarine fur was up to—she gasped.

"What's wrong?" On edge at hearing his mother's shock, Mike's mood changed to worry.

"It is growing." Joyce pointed at his neck, then reached for her bag. Pulling out a magnifying glass, Joyce took another close look. "I can watch this grow…" And she did, until Mike finally had had enough and pulled back.

"Mum, I know I am growing fur. I am going to end up being a cute little aquamarine pony." Mike was worked up by the situation, and the worst bit was there was no one to blame for it. "I might even be turning into a mare for all we know. Can you just do the exam and let me go relax?"

Joyce backed off a little and put her magnifying glass back in her bag. "Right. Sorry Michael." The tone in the room had shifted, and it was obvious to see how it had effected Joyce. "Disrobe and stand up. If you need to hold on to something, use the mantelpiece.

"I…" Mike had to gulp down on his pride. "I'm sorry, Mum. I just… I am a little stressed by all this, and the fur seems to be the least of my problems." He let out a deep sigh and shucked out of the dressing gown. Balancing on his twisted feet, Mike stood before the fireplace and held on to it with both hands.

Mike was surprised by the hug he didn't see coming. "Mum…" He let go of the mantel with one hand and curled that arm around his mother. Something was off, at first, but he realized what it was and as quickly discarded it; Mike had physically shrunk a little.

"You are my boy. My little boy. And no matter what you say, I will never stop loving you, Michael Robertson." Joyce had her arms wrapped around Mike, and had one of his soft, fuzzy arms around her. "Uh… that's different…"

"Doctor Mum, back on duty. What's different?" The hug had put a smile back on Mike's face, and despite hearing about something different, knew it wouldn't change the end result.

"Your nipples, Michael." Joyce felt at Mike's chest, searching his pectorals for the nubs in question. "You haven't noticed them?"

"Not… not really. What does this mean?" Confusion more than panic, filled Mike, and he reached his free hand up to check. Sure enough, the familiar bumps that had adorned his chest since birth were missing. What pulled him back from his examination was his mother checking down his body.

"Ponies don't have nipples there, but a stallion doesn't have them anywhere." Joyce felt down Mike's body. "I am going to need to get a little personal, Michael."

Mike finally jerked back. "Mum!" It hadn't been what he had thought, though, and Mike reached down to touch the sensitive part of himself that his mother had.

"Teats." Joyce's voice was as neutral as she had ever used with either of her children.

"But stallions have those too, right?" Mike ran his fingers between the soft protrusions.

Looking her son in the eyes, Joyce shook her head. "Michael, only female ponies have them." She caught Mike when he stumbled, wrapping her arms around her son as tight as she could. "Shh. You are going to be alright."

"I…" Mike's tears stole whatever words he might have tried to use. Sobbing, he clung to his mother. "I'm going to turn into a mare, aren't I?" In the infinite field of possibility, everything had collapsed down into one possible result. Mike felt like a dam had burst inside him. "I'm scared."

Author's Note

Pinkamena Diane Pie: Haven't heard from you since you got your cutie-mark. Haven't you and Marble been seeing Mike lately? If not, there's something pretty big you girls are in for...

"Oh no, we see him every day at school, and then for guitar practice! Also, you can call me Pinkie now, Pinkie Pie!" Pinkie grinned as wide as can be. "Wait... can you hear that? That is the sound of me planning a party!"

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

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Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Airy Words
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Ian
Javarod
Mary Rowland
Nils
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Airy Words
Cross Lament
Vutava

A Loving Mother

Language check. All in English.

"There, there. You have every right to be scared, Michael." Joyce was nearly fully supporting Mike's weight, and if it weren't for her training with unresponsive humans and upset animals, she would have dropped him. "Come on, we can give the rest of the exam a break. It is bath time."

"But what am I going to do?" Mike's voice shook, but he managed to get his changing feet under him to support a bit of his weight. "I… I am a guy! This shouldn't happen!"

"It shouldn't. You are right with that." Manhandling her son out of the room and down the hall, Joyce didn't let go of him for a second. "But this isn't going to be the end of you, Michael. You are stronger than this, I know it.

"I raised you to be caring, and loving." Lifting Mike to the edge of the bath took just about all of Joyce's strength, but she got it done. She had to get it done, no one else would. "Talk to me, Michael. What is the worst thing about turning into a mare?"

"M-M-My…" Mike bit down on the word. "I'll be a girl, Mum. Is it going to make me want girl things? Will I suddenly need to wear dresses, am I going to start chasing guys around?!"

"Now you are being a bit silly." Hefting Mike's legs, Joyce slid her son into the big tub. "For one thing, how many mares have you seen wear dresses?"

"I-In Canterlot some did…" Mike's tone had changed a little, no longer with a burning edge of panic.

Joyce turned the taps on, checking the water to make sure it was not too hot. "Do you want to wear pretty dresses?"

"No!"

Mike's vehemence made Joyce smile. "Then don't. Don't let it change you and it won't." She reached for the prize, the one thing that would help her "little boy" calm more than reassuring words: bubble bath. "You are the only person who can say what you want, what you are, Michael. Only you."

Mike held up one hand, one deformed hand, and flexed it a few times. "I think I need to think about this."

"You want the shoulder straps?" Joyce ran a hand over Mike's fuzzy shoulder, and went to the cupboard to get them. The straps were simple, and hooked over the back of the bath and around a bather's shoulders.

Not struggling in the least, Mike let his mother fasten the straps to his shoulders, and hook them to the bath. Slumping down, the water covered him all the way to his neck. "Thanks Mum."

"You are a good boy, Michael Robertson. You will always make me proud." Tears stained Joyce's eyes, and she knew in an instant that she needed to get out of the bathroom. Turning the taps off, she beat a hasty retreat. "Just call out if you need help."

"I will, Mum. I will."

Joyce barely got the door closed before her own sob came. Then another. She raced for the living room, so her son wouldn't hear her crying for him. Dropping into a chair, she covered her eyes with her hands and clamped her teeth down on the cry she wanted to let out. "It's not fair…"

"It's not."

"He shouldn't have to go through this. Any of this!" Joyce's mind barely even registered the other voice. "He was doing so well! No drugs, no fast girls…"

"I have no idea what those are, but he shouldn't." The voice trailed off a little. "Can I have some more banana?"

Now fully cognizant of someone talking to her, Joyce jerked her tear-stained eyes up and looked around the room. "H-Hello? Who's there?" She got to her feet and walked to the front door. "Is anybody there?"

"Not that I can tell. But there is somebatty in here who could really use more banana. Didn't you see Robin take mine?"

Joyce spun around and stalked back into the living room. "This is really not the time for this. I am not in the mood for games, so whoever you are—"

"Just me." Tufts looked up at Joyce, his voice a little scratchy, and he carried his Es a little further than a human would, but it was definitely the bat's mouth moving when the voice came. "So… how about that banana? I saw there were more in the fridge…"

Her eyes narrowing down to pin-pricks, Joyce started hyperventilating. She stood in place, wavered, and felt the whole world start to tilt sideways. Tumbling down onto the couch. The rush of bat wings approaching did nothing to knock her out of her dazed state. She heard words, and saw Tufts pulling himself up into her vision, but none of it made sense.

Finally, the world snapped, and Joyce felt her mind rush back into her body. She wasn't sure how much time had passed, but there was a bat asleep on her chest. "Oh, boy. That was the strangest thing ever. I need to lay off the coffee in the morning. For a second there I thought you were talking."

Leaning his head into the ear-rubbing he was suddenly getting, Tufts closed his eyes in batty bliss. "You think that was bad? I still don't have any banana!"

Joyce had been through a lot in her life. She had studied both human and animal medicine, and while she had learned a lot from such study, none of it applied to a bat who suddenly very talkative. But raising two children had taught her a certain amount of self-reliance, and it had imparted the ability on her to become ultra-pragmatic. "Well, there is only one way to fix that, Tufts."

Tufts let out an excited kee when Joyce stood up. "Does it involve getting a banana from the fridge?"

"When happiness is just a banana away, who am I to deny it?" Joyce was still laboring under a little shock, and emotional whiplash, but she was a doctor, a veterinarian, and a single mother. Reaching the kitchen, she opened the door to the refrigerator and pulled out two bananas.

Blinking, Tufts flapped his wings. "Two bananas? You really are the best mate a bat could have!"

Joyce made it into a chair and was seated before her brain decided to process the information. "Wait, 'Mate'?"

Unfortunately, Joyce had already peeled one of the bananas, and Tufts lunged at it like a lion. With his mouth full of banana, crushing it up happily, Tufts just looked at Joyce with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Don't think I am going to forget to ask you. No more banana until you tell me what that was about." Joyce's heart was fighting with her head. The cute bat was chewing for all he was worth, and looked to be in the chiropteran version of complete bliss.

"Mum, no matter how much you talk to him, he won't talk back." Mike hobbled—mane and tail wrapped in towels, and wearing his dressing gown—into the kitchen. Sitting down, he took a deep breath and sighed. "I couldn't relax enough. Every time I moved I could feel the changes."

Joyce was stunned. She looked at her son, then down at Tufts, then to her son again. "You heard him, right? Please tell me I haven't started hallucinating…?" Nothing she could think of should cause such auditory hallucinations, at least nothing she had exposed herself to. "He was really talking! He asked me for a banana!"

Mike looked at his mother with serious worry in his eyes. "Tufts?" She nodded to him. "He asked you for a banana?" Another nod. "Well, there is only one way to settle it." Mike got up and grabbed some paper towel, and brought it over to the pair. "Spit out the banana, big guy, and start talking."

To Mike's (but not Joyce) surprise, Tufts discarded the spat of banana into the paper and looked up at Mike. "What did you want me to say?"

"I told you." Joyce peeled the second banana and took a bite. While she chewed, Mike seemed to be frozen. The taste of the fruit seemed amazing, and she couldn't help but twitch her tufted ears in delight at it the delicious banana.

"I asked for that, didn't I?" Mike shook his head and hobbled back to his chair. "I set up the perfect joke, I baited the hook, and of course you do actually talk. I should have known, I guess."

"You did, but I don't think it is unreasonable. I actually fell over when he first spoke." Joyce reached a hand out to rub Mike's shoulder in consolation. "His voice is deeper than what I thought it…" As she trailed off, Joyce remembered what her earlier question had been. She returned her full attention to Tufts. "Hey, back on topic. What was this about 'Mate'?"

"Maybe not yet." Tufts lifted a wing to his mouth and started licking at the thumb-claw. "But I am openly declaring my intentions to woo you."

A full minute of silence passed. Joyce stared at the bat in complete shock, unable to work out what to say. If he had been a human, she would have had plenty of replies (most of which would have had to do with picking a night for a date), but Tufts was not a human, he was a bat.

"Mum, I need one of those voice recorder things." Mike's face looked strained. "Be-Because I want to remember this moment for the rest of my life!" Unable to hold back his mirth a moment longer, Mike cracked up into an intense giggle-fit.

Joyce lifted her hand up and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Tufts… I might be a bit big—"

"More of you to love." Tufts' tone implied that size was no problem for him.

"Let me finish." Joyce tried not to glare, and while her eyes held a measure of worry that she would upset Tufts, she also didn't want to lead him on. "I looked after you when you were sick, I took care of you and… this is why you won't leave, isn't it?"

"Of course. Why would I part from such a stunning creature, particularly when she is turning into a bat. You will see, this is going to be perfect!" Tufts reached one wing out and tried to grab the banana with it.

Mike got his giggles barely under control, and managed to form a reply before Joyce. "Mum's turning into a bat pony, Tufts."

"But she will be a bat?" Just as he asked, Tufts managed to hook his wing around the fruit and pulled it closer. Taking a small bite, he began to crush it up in his mouth.

"Well…" Mike looked at Joyce, and found himself unable to challenge such logic. "Sure, I guess…"

"Perfect!" Tufts bit off a little more banana—enough to silence any further speech—and held the remains of the fruit up to Joyce.

Steadying herself, Joyce closed her eyes. "Alright. Ground rules. No more dropping spats just anywhere. When you are done, either the sink or the bin are appropriate. You know how to get outside, so pooping and peeing is done out there, and you clean up before you come back inside."

Tufts chewed as fast as he could, then with all the reluctance of a teenager, spread his wings and flew to the perch beside the bin, and spat. "If I must restrict my freedom to chase such beauty, then so be it."

Joyce turned her glare on Mike. "Michael Robertson, did you teach him to say this?"

"You have got to be kidding, Mum, I only just found out he can talk!" Mike held two imperfect hands up to ward off his mother's accusation.

"The language of love is universal." Tufts repeated his quick flap-and-grab trick, grasping firmly to Joyce's jumper again.

"Does that mean I get to call Tufts, 'Dad'?" Mike had to duck the moment he asked, as his mother took a playful swing at him. "Oh, so just 'Mr. Tufts' will do?" In high spirits, Mike dodged the second swing and got to his feet. "I am going to go think on things, and play some music."

"Something sexy?" Tufts didn't have eyebrows to waggle, but if he did—and by the tone of his voice—he would be waggling them. "So I can serenade my love…"

Author's Note

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Airy Words
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Ian
Javarod
Mary Rowland
Nils
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Airy Words
Cross Lament
Vutava

Good Friends

Language check. All in Equish.

Pinkie Pie had been a little worried all day for her friend, but she tried to put on a brave face despite it. It was a test. An exam. She was facing the first true challenge to her cutie mark and she, Pinkamena Pie—or Pinkie Pie as she started to prefer since getting her cutie mark—would not be found wanting.

"So he just woke up with crazy hands and feet, and has a horn and everything?" She bounced along beside Robin. In the back of her mind she planned a party. It wasn't her first, but it would be her best so far.

Robin nodded, her cute little bat pony ears tucking to the sides. "Pretty much. And we all had ears, and—"

Cutting in, Misty Rainfall swooped down and landed beside her friends. "And I didn't even notice mine were tufted! I am going to be a bat too!"

"Bats forever!" Robin held out her hand, fingers splayed for a high-five.

Misty returned the gesture to Robin with one of her wings. "Best bat sisters!"

"Wait, you're sisters now?" Pinkie looked between Robin and Misty. "That's great news! I need to plan a second party now!"

Robin tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Couldn't you combine the parties? Make it one huge party, and invite everyone? Then no one would be left out!"

Pinkie felt an odd tingle in her sides. Her smile pulled wider, and she let out a yell of pure exuberance. "Yes! Best. Party. Ever!" She turned to face Robin. "You are the best friends ever." She reached impossibly wide and pulled Robin and Misty into a hug.

Taking Pinkie Pie for the extrovert she had become since getting her cutie mark, Robin squeezed back. "Did you want any help getting it all set up?"

"Hey yeah, we could help!" Misty's mood, too, was catapulted upwards by Pinkie.

"Welllll… I might have had some of this planned out already. You know, in case there was a party emergency?" Pinkie looked around suspiciously. "And there was. So I need help getting everything moved and ready for tonight."

"Wait, tonight?" Misty looked up to the hills west of them. "It's getting dark already! How are we going to move enough stuff for a party?"

"Well…" Pinkie's who body seemed to tingle in delight, and anticipation at expressing her cutie mark, and special talent.

Author's Note

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Airy Words
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Ian
Javarod
Mary Rowland
Nils
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Airy Words
Cross Lament
Vutava

A Perfect Family

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken Equish, everything else is in English.

Candela opened the front door of the house, then turned her head and winked at Pinkie Pie. "I'll keep him from answering the door until you arrive." A little bit of sunshine was needed, and Candela was happy that Pinkie Pie was there to deliver it.

Opening the unlocked front door took but a moment. "I'm home!" Stepping into the house, Candela nudged the door closed behind her. In the kitchen, she found Mike and Joyce making dinner together, and smiled to see the two smiling and talking. "Misty and Robin are going to be a little late. They got caught up helping Pinkie with some homework."

"That's fine." Joyce turned to deliver her smile to Candela. "Dinner will keep. How was your day?"

"Oh, the life of a teacher is never dull. Marble got her cutie mark over the weekend, so we had a little bit of time off in the morning to talk about it. When she opens up, that filly is just as excited about rocks as her bigger sister." Candela thought back to the morning and couldn't help smiling; helping foals prepare and deal with such big moments was one of the reasons Candela became a teacher.

"Do you have any homework for me?" Mike stepped back from the stove and, with shaking legs, made his way over to the table. His eyes kept flicking to the side, and it was enough to make Candela look too.

Tufts hung from his perch and watched the proceedings of the kitchen. Tilting his head a little, he looked at Candela, and opened his mouth. "Welcome home. Do you have any bananas?"

"Now Tufts, you know I don't do the shopping after school. How many times have you given me those eyes, before, and…" Candela trailed off. "You can talk?"

"He just started today. Mum says it is probably more magic or something." Mike reached out to the refrigerator and fetched a banana from it. "But you want to know the best bit?"

"Don't you dare, Michael!" By the tone Joyce used, it was clear the threat was empty, even if she used his full name.

"He is persueing an interest in Mum." Mike managed to school his features. "And of course Mum accepted his advances." Fake tears flowed down Mike's cheek. "I… I'm going to have a dad again!" A wooden spoon thunked into the side of Mike's head, and he started laughing so hard he almost dropped the banana.

"Careful!" Tufts' voice cut over the laughter. "What does a bat have to do to get some fruit around here?"

"Help me make jokes." Mike held the banana up for Tufts, and watched as the delighted bat bit a huge hunk off the end. He turned his attention back to Candela. "You aren't really that shocked but this?"

"I was more surprised that none of your animals could talk. Hearing that Tufts can makes things feel a little more normal." Candela took a moment to pick through the saddle bag she was wearing, and plucked out a sheaf of papers. "Just a little maths homework, due Wednesday."

"Thanks, Candela." Mike slid the papers closer with his awkward hand.

Candela noticed a pink face in the window of the kitchen—outside—wink at her. She smiled a little wider when the there was a knock at the door. "I wonder who that could be?"

"I'll get it." Mike jumped to his feet, and took Tufts with him to answer the door. Hobbling a little, he reached out and barely got the door open a crack before it flew open and knocked him backwards.

"Invaders!" Tufts screeched, flapping his wings and flying back to the kitchen.

"!" Pinkie Pie landed atop the shocked Mike, and sent party streamers into the air. "!"

Pulling her head back from the hallway, where she was watching her son being assaulted with streamers and cheer, Joyce shook her head. "Was this your idea?" She pointed to the hallway and the shenanigans going on.

Candela had half-spread her wing to let Tufts find a new roost. "Oh no, this is all Pinkie's doing. I was just an accomplice." She leaned her head down and nuzzled Tufts' side. "How is it all going, Joyce? How are you holding together?"

Tufts gulped down his mouthful of completely smooshed up banana. "She was crying. I wasn't going to say anything, but she looked so sad." He reached a wing out, trying to snag the banana that Mike had left on the table.

Joyce turned and looked at the bat, a surprised look on her face. She opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it again and returned to getting food prepared.

Watching Tufts devour the rest of the banana, Candela couldn't help but admire the bat. "Would you like some more banana?" She had his instant attention, and even though his mouth was so full he couldn't say a word, she knew his answer.

Author's Note

Celestia: is that school invite still applicable if the applicant got transformed into the average unicorn?

"School invite? Oh, for the human?" Princess Celestia's eyes remained carefully neutral. "Transformed you say? Go on..."

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Airy Words
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Ian
Javarod
Mary Rowland
Nils
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Airy Words
Cross Lament
Vutava

Date

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken Equish, everything else is in English.

Over the course of a week, Mike watched his hands grow more and more hoof-like. His little finger atrophied away faster than his thumb, but both of the unmerged digits on each hand were getting smaller. His wrist grew stiffer, harder to bend side to side or forward, although backwards motion remained free.

His feet had been usable for most of the week, but over the last two days his heels had started to pull upwards, forcing him to balance on the massed "toe" that was the amalgamation of most of his toes.

Mike measured himself twice a day, and was following a trend that he was already emotionally drained about; his penis was shrinking. At just two and a half inches, he was now less than half as long as he had been fully human.

Staring into the mirror, Mike sighed. "I shouldn't go." His eyes fell on the slight puffiness of his face, and the protruding horn—that seemed to grow as his maleness shrank. "But I promised Rose." The words galvanized his decision, and Mike heaved himself up on the crutches, and wrapped his whole hand-hoof around the handles.

Opening his bedroom door, he started the rocking gait that crutches imposed, and used the reduced weight on his feet to balance on his toes. When he reached the kitchen, he caught sight of Rose. "Wow." His neat jeans (even if they were still his mother's old ones) and shirt were completely outclassed by Rose's dress. She wore it strapless, and it clung to her chest in all the right ways. His eyes followed the fabric down to her ankles.

"I'll take that as a compliment." Rose's own gaze followed Mike's form, and if she found his hands and feet odd, it didn't show. "Looking good yourself." She walked right up to Mike, and offered her cheek.

Taking the kiss, chaste as it was, Mike inhaled a little and caught Rose's scent. Smell had started to become much more intense for him, and finding Rose wearing something provocative but not too strong had plastered a grin on his face. "Shall we go?" He started to rock forward on his crutches.

"Slowly, Mike." Rose put her hand to Mike's chest to slow him down. "Let's not rush tonight. I want to have fun." She returned his earlier kiss on Mike's fuzzy cheek. "Let's sneak out before—"

"Oh! Let me get a picture of you!" Joyce slipped out of the living room, her camera in hand. "My little boy going out on a date!"

Mike tried to cover his face with one arm, but since he was relying on his arms to brace the crutches he had to keep hold of them or fall over. "Mum! It's just a date…"

" 'Just a date'?" Rose put her hands on her hips. "Mike, come on. You can explain the concept of 'just a date' to me in the car." Turning, Rose's stern expression slipped into a wide smile.

"Yes dear." Mike's voice was almost a laugh, he couldn't keep his tone even. Swinging his crutches, he followed Rose into the evening. "Where are we going?"

"Somewhere nice." Opening her door, Rose jumped into the driver seat of her mother's car. "Are you okay getting,"—watching Mike swing himself into the car, Rose realized he was fine—"in. Alright. Strap in and hold on!"

Mike was in the process of doing just what Rose asked, but his stiff finger couldn't hold the seat-belt properly, and it started to infuriate him. "R-R-Rose…" Asking for help with such a simple thing stung Mike's pride. "I need help with this." He waited a moment, handing the belt to Rose when she held out her hand, and in a moment the buckle clicked into the receiver. "Thanks."

"You have nothing to be embarrassed about, Mike. You can't help this." Rose gestured to Mike, clearly indicating the changes that his body was undergoing. "We just have to work with what we have."

"Or soon won't have." Rocked back in his seat as Rose put the car into gear, Mike did hold on. The trip—taking the better part of half an hour—was mostly made in silence. Mike was acutely aware of the pop music playing on the car's stereo, and used the mindless nature of it to block out the journey until they stopped in the parking lot of a fancy restaurant.

"Here we are. Do you need more help?" The tone in Rose's voice held nothing in the way of pity or accusation. "I am going to be going through all of this soon, and Miss Candela said that if this really is a sign of being a bat pony, I might be growing wings too."

"Wait, really? You could fly?" Mike's self-pity fell by the wayside in the face of something interesting. "I mean, that would be awesome, right? I am really looking forward to having magic. I saw unicorns in Canterlot using it, and even felt it on the train there."

Rose climbed out of the car, and locked it once Mike had swung out and boarded his crutches. "How did you feel it?" She moved to Mike's side, and to Mike's surprise she put her arm around his shoulders.

"I was tripping over and he caught me, Stamped Mark that is, the train's conductor. It was… It was like being in a slightly stiff bean-bag chair. He spread his magic out and cupped it under me, and it conformed to me, but also held me up." Mike inwardly cursed having to use the crutches, with Rose so close he could have put his arm around her shoulders too. "It was pretty awesome, and I am going to be able to do that too!"

Rose seemed to ponder the words a moment. "So you could lift a huge pile of rock as easily as—" She stopped talking. She had realized they had kept talking as they walked in the door of the restaurant, and the maitre d' was looking at them. "Uh, hi. I have a reservation. It's under R Stein."

"Of course." The maitre d' seemed to know the name without looking up any book. "Right this way, please."

Mike leaned a little more against Rose, and lowered his tone. "?" He had to stop talking and start working his crutches to keep up with Rose and the head waiter.

"." Rose caught on to Mike's train of thought, and made sure to reply in Equish. When they reached what was apparently their table, Rose turned to the maitre d' and smiled. "Sorry, we were having sorta private conversation."

"Understandable, madam." The maitre d' moved to the side of the table, then quickly saw his error at having offered Mike the chance to help Rose with her seat. "Please, allow me." Moving fluidly, he helped both Rose and Mike into their seats before resuming his position at the table's side.

"Thanks." Mike hated being helped into his seat, but admitted to himself that it had made getting seated easier. He also appreciated the seats having room for a tail to hang free, especially since he had given up trying to contain his.

"What may we get you? Drinks to start?" The maitre d' gestured to the menus already neatly on each side of the table, between a veritable armory of knives, forks, spoons and what looked like a tiny harpoon.

Mike was so close to asking for wine, but then his conscience thumped him. "Uh, just a water for me." The moment he said it, he saw a smile on Rose's face grow. Of course she couldn't drink, she had to drive.

"Same for me, please." Rose picked up the menu and started looking, even as the waiter glided away. "."

"?" Mike picked up his menu and started looking at the names of food. "?" He pointed at one of the many dishes. A different waiter had just arrived, and Mike turned his attention to the young woman. "Uh, excuse me?"

Placing two champagne glasses on the table, the waitress started pouring sparkling, clear water into one. "Yes, sir?"

Mike cocked his smile. "I really don't want to look bad in front of my girlfriend."

Cutting in, Rose spoke mostly under her breath. "?"

"I have no idea what any of this stuff is." Mike pointed one grossly swollen digit at the list of foods. "So if you could explain it to me, that would be great." He saw realization on the waitress' face, he was throwing his own reputation under the bus for Rose's.

Smiling wide at the show of chivalry, the waitress started reading off and explaining dishes. "Of course, sir,"—her gaze landed on the foie gras—"our foie gras is only the finest liver of duck, grown specially to be extremely succulent." She kept going, reading off everything Mike pointed to.

"Okay, well…" Mike looked at Rose. "I am vegetarian…"

"Me too." Staring into Mike's playful eyes, Rose seemed ready to go along with his diet.

"So what would you recommend to someone with an uncultured palate?" Simply closing the menu, Mike turned his attention on the waitress.

The waitress smiled at the compliment to her taste. "Sir, is the dietary requirement a taste issue, or otherwise?"

"Diet," Mike said.

"Taste," Rose said, at the same time. "Uh, let's just go with both being diet."

"Without a doubt, the finest we have with that requirement, is our chef's aubergine caviar." The waitress had to hold up a finger as she explained, to forestall interruptions until the end. "Trust me. I promise there is no actual caviar in it."

"Oh… right, that would be good to start." Mike looked to Rose, and got a nod. "For both of us."

Rose held her tongue until the waitress had departed. "?" She looked down at the array of cutlery, and tried not to look concerned about their use—with little success.

"." Mike picked up a tiny, two-pronged fork. "?" He gestured to his ears.

Reaching out, Rose grabbed Mike's hand back from pointing at his aqua ears. "."

"." Mike slumped back in his chair, not realizing the waitress was coming back up behind him. The moment she was visible in his peripheral vision, Mike snapped his mouth closed.

"That was quick." Rose looked at the plate laid before her. On the dish was a small bowl of some whitish-gray, dip-like stuff, and arranged around it was various crackers. Dotted between each of the crackers was a little dab of yellow.

"I really have to ask. I have heard all kinds of languages spoken here, and can speak a few passably, but I have never heard anyone speak like you were. Where are you from?" The waitress gave as non-offensive a smile as she could, trying to warm her guests up to answering.

"I'm just a brat from Brisbane." Eyes dancing in delight, Mike gestured to Rose.

Rose smiled and used the same defense as Mike. "Pack-rat from all over, but Melbourne originally."

Mike jumped back in before the waitress could get a word in. "But our school teacher taught it to us. She is from the old country." When he spotted Rose about to crack up laughing, Mike gave her a serious stare.

The waitress blinked a few times in confusion. "Oh… Of course." It took her a moment to shake off the worry that she had been seriously deflected from something simple, but her training kicked in. "Now, would you like to order your entree?"

"Some soup?" Rose gently tapped one of the spoons arrayed before her, one that was clearly a soup spoon.

"We have both a hot and cold soup." The waitress didn't have to look at a menu, she clearly had it memorized. She raised an eyebrow at Mike's unspoken (yet) interest.

"Cold soup?" Mike couldn't keep from asking. "I thought soup was meant to be hot?"

"Our special soup today is gazpacho. Made with cucumber, capsicum, tomato…" Trailing off, the Waitress could see she had a winner already. "Two of?" Rose nodded, leaving the waitress a chance to leave with the order.

From the moment Mike tried the first bit of the caviar, he was hooked on "fancy food."

Their evening progressed, and both Mike and Rose kept the topic to small talk, until desert. With the final course of the night being the most decadent, Mike caught Rose looking at him with an odd expression. "?"

Rose shook her head, as if denying something. "." She didn't even realize that she tilted her head to the side a fraction. "."

Freezing for a moment, Mike chased the fear from his mind as quickly as it came. "."

"." Rose glanced down. "." Embarrassment colored Rose's cheeks at revealing some highly personal things, but it was plain to see that at the same time it was a relief.

"." Giggling a little at his own strange anatomy, Mike deliberately crossed his eyes.

Giggling too, Rose stuck her tongue out. "?"

"." Mike spooned up some rich vanilla bean ice cream from the edge of his plate, mixed it with some of the hot fruit in the middle and brought it up to his mouth.

"." Emulating Mike's action, Rose scooped up some rich dessert and regretted it not a bit.

Mike nearly sputtered the food. "!" Despite the outrage, Rose's words now had him thinking about himself.

"?" Rose smirked, and fetched another spoon full of dessert.

"." Mike gestured to Rose. "—"

"Mike!" The moment Rose exclaimed, she clamped a hand over her mouth. Thankfully, the restaurant was mostly empty, but she still blushed scarlet at making a scene. "."

"…" Mike struggled, still, to finish the statement. "."

"." Quickly, Rose stuffed a heaped spoon of dessert into her mouth, and occupied herself chewing.

Mike leaned back in his chair, scooping up a little of the fruit and nibbling on it. Half closing his eyes, he made sure to tilt his head down, then up, putting on a show of checking Rose out. "."

Frozen by the two, simple words, Rose stared back at Mike. She looked into his eyes, and finally blew out a deep breath. "Thanks, I needed that."

"It's true." Mike slid fluidly back to English, following Rose's lead. "Almost makes me want to ask you to do something really stupid."

"How stupid are we talking? You know I love doing stupid things." Cutting off from saying more, Rose smiled up at the waitress.

"Would you like some more drinks? Or can I help you with anything else?" It had been the first time the waitress had returned to the table to hear Mike and Rose speaking English.

"Brandy." Rose turned to look at the waitress. "Two glasses, please."

Mike blinked at the request. "But driving home…?"

"It would be such a shame. We would have to get a taxi, and it would cost as much as a room in a hotel to get home tonight, and then come back again for the car tomorrow." Giving a nod to the waitress, Rose smirked at Mike. "Told you, I love doing stupid things. You were thinking about—"

"." Mike spoke the word in Equish. Thankfully for all concerned, it sounded nothing like the English word.

"Yup, that's pretty stupid." Rose smiled as the waitress approached the table with two large glasses containing a tiny amount of drink.

"You didn't say what kind, so I got a Calvados. That is okay?" Seeing and hearing no objections, the waitress departed.

Reaching out for the glass, Rose kept her eyes locked on Mike the whole time. She carefully claimed the drink, and lifted it to her mouth. Coughing at the scent of the potent drink, Rose finally broke eye contact with Mike and tossed the rich apple brandy down her throat.

"I try not to be stupid, but you are a bad influence on me, Rosetta Stein." Mike, unused to strong drinks, claimed his brandy, and gulped it down with alacrity. Struggling against a cough, he felt his throat and mouth grow warm, and was thankful that fur didn't show off a blush. "Now we can both be stupid."

Scooping up the last of her dessert, Rose chased the brandy down with the cool ice cream, and looked at Mike. "And don't you dare ask about the cost. I promised not to, when you paid."

"But you did!" Mike was a few spoonfuls from finishing the final course off, and being a guy was quick to empty the plate. The rich cream mixed with the brandy taste in his mouth and gave Mike the distinct impression that this kind of thing was probably worth whatever Rose didn't want him to find out it cost.

As if she had been lurking, waiting for Mike and Rose to finish their meals and talk of the bill, the waitress appeared with a leather-bound folder, and placed it on the table beside Rose. "I hope you enjoyed your meals."

"We did, thank you." Rose picked up the folder, opened it, and smiled. Reaching into the handbag she had—because of her dress—been forced to bring with her, she pulled out a man's wallet. Flicking through, she pulled out a card and sat it on the folder, then froze.

"Something wrong?" Mike picked up or Rose's worry.

"?" Sliding back into Equish, Rose tilted her eyes towards the waitress.

"Well shucks." Grinning wide, Mike turned to look up at the waitress. "Just hypothetical, like, how much would be a typical tip for a wonderful and discrete waitress, and a great meal?"

"Five percent is normally for something nice, up to ten percent shows you really liked the meal. But, I must point out that we are paid to serve everyone to this quality. No tip is required." The waitress sounded like she believed every word of her spiel.

Rose sighed and scribbled something on the pad with a provided pen. "Okay. That should be enough." The waitress only nodded noncommittally, and carried the folder off.

"?" The question was eating at Mike, but Rose shook her head at him. "."

The waitress was back shortly with a little electronic card machine. Passing it to Rose, the waitress smiled. "If you don't mind me saying, you two are so cute together."

"Uh, thanks." Mike wasn't entirely sure how to take such a compliment, so let it slide awkwardly down the side of the conversation. "I don't suppose you know of a hotel nearby that would have a room free for the night?"

The waitress beamed in delight. "I'll ask Fillip. Would you like him to arrange transport?"

"S-Sure." Rose claimed her card back when the machine chimed that it was done draining her account. She looked at Mike with a silly grin. "I guess we get to be really stupid in style?"

The waitress claimed the machine and retreated. And it took a good few minutes before she returned to find Mike and Rose giggling softly together. "A taxi is waiting." She gave a little bow.

Struggling up onto his crutches, Mike followed the waitress as she led the way to the front of the restaurant. Sure enough, a taxi was waiting patiently. He shot a look to Rose, who shrugged to him. Claiming the nearest side, back seat, Mike waited for Rose to circle around and sit beside him.

"Y-You know where to go?" Rose helped Mike with the seat-belt before taking care of her own.

"Sure. And your ride is paid for. Pretty top place this." The taxi driver jerked his thumb towards the restaurant as he pulled out of the parking lot.

Mike and Rose sat in silence as their chariot bore them to a fancy-looking hotel. Climbing out, Mike felt more nerves rising, although the shot of strong brandy did a good job of taking the edge off them. "."

"…" Rose let the words hang.

"." Mike led the way from where Rose waved to the night admission and got a key.

"?" Despite her tone of self-defeat, Rose was still walking beside Mike.

They reached the room that had been booked by the maitre d', and Rose used the key-card to open the door. Fumbling at the lights, she barely got the door closed before leaning against Mike to kiss him.

Mike, barely balanced on his crutches, started to fall back. "Hey!" But strong arms caught him, pulled him back upright and against Rose. He could see the double bed over Rose's shoulder, and dropped the crutches. "Carry me, Smithers!"

Rose lose control of a serious case of giggles, but bracing her arms around Mike, she lifted him up and onto one shoulder. "You asked for it." She ignored the weakly kicking legs, and dumped Mike onto the bed. "Now, where was I?"

Soft lips touched Mike's, and he could see Rose's face scrunch up a little at kissing furry lips. "If this is too weird I—" He was silenced, and Rose climbed up and braced a leg each side of him as she kneeled over Mike. His lips were free, and he was just about to comment on how sexy Rose looked, when he spotted something in her eyes.

"I…" Rose stumbled on her words. Something had stalled in the "stupid" idea, and things crashed around her. "I don't—" Mike pulled at her, but rather than pulling her atop him, he brought Rose down to his side.

"It's okay." Mike smiled, and a part of him was relieved. "We aren't so stupid after all, I guess." The words earned him a hug, and fully clothed, they snuggled together until neither could keep their eyes open anymore.

Author's Note

Discord: What the hay, dude?!

"What? I'm not scheduled to be in this fic for... Oh look at the time! Another writer—lovely chap named Penalt—has me booked solid for a week!" Discord snapped his claws, and was wearing a bridle and corset. "Toodle-pip!"

Oh, and just to point out, legal drinking age in Australia is 18.

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Airy Words
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Ian
Javarod
Mary Rowland
Nils
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Airy Words
Cross Lament
Vutava

Hitting the Fan

Language check. All in English.

Joyce read over the notes Mike had been leaving, and her heavy heart lightened a little. "They never did get up to anything. I wouldn't have begrudged it if they had, and yet they were responsible." She was seated at the kitchen table, a plate of fruit sat beside her.

"Mike should have some pups. It would do him good." Ever willing to have an opinion on any topic, Tufts hung from a perch that had been set up for him at the table. "Of course, I think another pup or two would do you go—" A grape shoved into his mouth left Tufts no option but to start chewing on it.

"Three cause enough trouble for me already." Joyce grabbed another grape and popped it into her own mouth. The first bite and her slight frown was reversed. She chewed on the grape, sucking the juice from inside. "I told you already, we can't… you aren't big enough to do anything like that. And besides, I don't…"

Tufts worked on his own grape for a few more moments before he leaned to the little bucket beside his perch and deposited his spat. "Life is about change. Who is to say what will happen? Maybe I will grow hooves and become your batty stallion."

Joyce just rolled her eyes and held another grape out to Tufts, which he took delicately from her fingers. She looked at her hand, fuzzy with black fur, and gave a sigh. "You aren't wrong about changes, although unless you are hiding some hooves somewhere,"—Joyce reached over to Tufts and ran her fingers up his spine—"then I don't think you are turning into a pony."

Leaning into the attention, Tufts tilted his head and angled it just right to encourage the rubbing to extend to his head. He didn't offer up any further words, focusing his attention on chewing the grape in his mouth and savoring Joyce's efforts.

"I guess it was lucky I wasn't a surgeon." Looking at her fingers (of the hand not rubbing Tufts), Joyce flexed them, and noticed a slight stiffness. Just as she was reaching for her cup of tea, someone knocked at the front door. "Coming!"

Standing up, Joyce gave Tufts one last stroke. "Be quiet in front of them. The last thing I need is someone going to the funny farm because they think they are hearing things."

Depositing his spent grape in the little bucket, Tufts twisted to look at Joyce. "Maybe they should just stop listening."

Joyce rolled her eyes. "Tufts—" Her remonstration was cut short by more knocking. "Coming!" Walking down the hallway to the front door, Joyce suddenly remembered the diary was still open in the kitchen. Ignoring her misgiving, she opened the door.

Maureen stood huddled on the step. She was wearing a big raincoat (strange mainly because it neither was raining, nor had rained for a week) with the hood pulled up, although the rest of her clothing looked normal. "Joyce! Can I come in?" Voice full of worry, Maureen was all but hopping from foot to foot.

Watching as Maureen's gaze rolled up to her own head, Joyce saw the woman's eyes widen further still. "You can see them?" A silent nod was her answer. "Then come in. I'll put the kettle on." Turning, Joyce left Maureen to decide if she was going to come inside or run in panic.

Moving swiftly, Maureen slipped inside and almost slammed the door behind herself. "W-What is going on?" When she followed Joyce through to the kitchen, she saw the doctor cleaning up a pile of what looked like logbooks. "What is all of this? I'm not the only one?"

"You're not." Joyce started filling the kettle back up with water. "You probably have a ton of questions." As the water nearly reached the top mark on the kettle, Joyce turned the tap off and set it back on its cradle. Turning the device on, she turned to see Tufts looking right at her.

Joyce narrowed her eyes and mouthed, "Don't you dare," at the bat. Stepping up to where Tufts was perched, Joyce grabbed the plate of fruit and set it beside his perch.

Tufts, of course, happily reached out and plucked up two grapes—spearing one with each of his wing claws—and started munching on them happily.

"Kelly wasn't lying, you really do have a pet bat." Maureen looked just as stunned by the fact as she had at seeing Joyce's features. "What is happening?" She lifted a trembling hand up and pushed back the hood of her coat and revealed the two tufted bat pony ears, both of which were folded back.

"You are turning into a bat pony." Joyce pushed some more grapes to within Tufts' reach and returned to the bench. "I hadn't realized it was affecting anybody else yet."

Maureen blinked. "A bat… pony?" At Joyce's nod she continued. "And what is causing it? A virus? Is this something the government has done?!"

"The mine. Near as I can tell, there is something,"—Joyce didn't want to say magic for fear of losing any trust Maureen had left—"coming from there, and the closer you are to it more often, the more you change. Maybe we need to have a town meeting?"

"That…" Maureen trailed off, watching Tufts stuff another grape in his mouth. For a moment her face softened. "She's quite cute."

"He." Tufts managed to get the word out of the corner of his mouth, so it was, Joyce was thankful, muffled.

Maureen nearly jumped out of her chair. "W-What?"

"I said, 'He.' " Joyce gave Tufts another glare. "Sorry, how do you take your tea?"

"White, no sugar." Maureen watched Tufts closely for a minute, and nearly jumped again when he winked. Turning back to Joyce, she saw a big mug of tea being offered. "Oh, thanks."

"I don't think what the mine is… what it is doing is going to spread beyond the town, but things might get a little more odd here." Taking a sip from her own cup, Joyce thought on the changes, and how easily she had accepted them. "It might be time to call in some outside help."

"B-But if the government finds out they might take the mine and make us all move." Maureen sipped from her cup more, and her ears slowly perked up. "So if it just takes being near the mine, can't we all just move a little bit away?"

"There is more to it than just that. Steve and Dave are already quite…" Joyce remembered how stubborn both miners were. Steve's last visit had his fingers and toes starting to meld together, and he asked if it would stop him working. "Do you have a—a pattern on your hip?"

"I don't have any tattoos!" Blushing at the very idea of it, Maureen looked about ready to storm out of the kitchen.

"Well, it will be simple. Move away and you should change back."

Joyce looked around at the small sea of faces. They had a hall, but on such short notice it hadn't been free, so all the adults of the town were gathered in the church. Most of the pews were pulled to the back of the room, but the thirty or so people looked to be huddling together a little.

She had said the same words to Maureen earlier in the day, and she said them again to the crowd. "Move away and you should change back." Among the crowd were a smattering of bat pony ears, and by the way some of the residents sat Joyce could tell they had tails. "Simple as that. I will be contacting the authorities tomorrow."

"Well, I for one don't overly care." Paul Harrison, the owner of the town's auto-repair shop, stood up. "Daveo and Steveo are the best customers I have ever had. Most of my investment is in my shop, so if I leave I lose all that." Atop his head, two bat pony ears showed the sum total of his change. "Besides, I was half deaf in my left ear, now it works great!"

With a joke made, it was like the tension in the room drained out through a hole in the floor. Murmurings ran around the group, but they were accompanied by chuckles.

"I am not going to put up with this. I will be taking my daughter and leaving!" Jenny Stein, Rose's mother, jumped to her feet. There was no visible sign of ears on her head, although she was wearing oversize sunglasses and a scarf around the lower half of her face. "And I will be reporting this… this madness!"

"Guess Dave is out of money?" Whoever asked the question couldn't be ascertained, but it got some chuckles out of nearly everyone. Just when it looked like Jenny would blow a fuse, the voice came again. "Or she can't shag him enough to get at it."

"What're you implying?" Glaring around at the crowd, Jenny pulled off her sunglasses to reveal slit, bat pony like eyes. "You are all going crazy, and I don't want any part of it!" Stomping for the door, no one stopped her before she was out and gone.

Robert turned back from watching Jenny Stein's little tantrum, facing Joyce. "So what is the short and the tall of it, Doc?"

"If you stay, you might keep changing. If you get a pattern appear on your hip, it seems like you will definitely keep changing. If you leave, you might come better." Joyce felt defeated. Nothing she could think of, short of leaving Cowwarr and never coming back, would stop the changes.

"Well the way I figure it, Doc, you have two little ones here, you have as much at stake as any of us. What are you doing?" Robert's eyes spoke of someone who was world-savvy, who was thinking as best he could in the situation. Although his hand did reach around to his back, as if to scratch himself.

"I'm staying so long as they are—they are okay." Closing her eyes, Joyce collected herself. Despite Mike's few bad spells, she had never seen him so happy, and Robin was thrilled at the prospect of getting wings and being a pony. "They are okay with this, even if it doesn't stop."

"What do you mean, 'Doesn't stop'?" Paul's voice was recognizable as the unknown heckler from earlier. "What are we going to end up as?"

"That's my cue, right?" Candela was hiding in an alcove to the side. When she saw Joyce's nod, she walked out and climbed up on the dais with Joyce. "As best we can tell, you will end up something like me."

"Except battier." Joyce's words were loud over the suddenly silent crowd. With each resident starting to change, and seeing their own changes, they could see Candela for what she was. "Candela is a pegasus pony, and what I believe is happening is that everyone here will be turning into bat-themed ponies."

"But I thought you said we would be bats? How did Candela turn into a pegasus?" Maureen looked from Candela to Joyce in confusion.

"Candela was always a pegasus. The mine is—is a portal to another world. That is where the change is coming from." Standing beside Candela, Joyce felt a soft wing reach out and curl around her lower back. Returning the gesture, she put her hand on Candela's opposite shoulder gave a little rub. "But she isn't at fault, she came through after Steve started changing, after all."

Robert stroked his chin in thought. "So why didn't she look like a pony before?"

"It's magic." Giving a little more of a tug on Joyce, Candela betrayed a little fear. "On my world, Equestria, there is magic. It is leaking out."

"Out to here?" Robert pointed down. "So that is what is changing us, magic?"

Joyce nodded. "As far as I can tell. I can't exactly measure it. Maybe if I call in the authorities they can do something about it? I bet they could seal up the mine an—"

"Whoa!" Robert smiled broadly. "Don't be so hasty. This town has survived gold rushes, floods that put the whole town underwater, and worse. I am sure that whatever this is will be sure to bring a lot of visitors to the town." If it had been a cartoon, there would be dollar symbols in Robert's eyes. "Maybe we need to do some advertising?"

"Advert…" Joyce shook her head in exasperation. "The more people that come here, and the more that find out about this, the sooner the government are going to send people to deal with it. I am already planning on sending all my notes to the HHS."

Robert, his dream of tourists starting to shake, crinkled his features in a frown. "What's the HHS?"

"Health and Human Services." Giving a sigh, Joyce lifted a hand up pushed some of her hair aside. "I would have reported it earlier, but every time I contacted them, they asked me for the name of the disease."

Candela laughed. "I heard one of those calls. They told you to stop calling them."

Joyce remembered that particular call, being on hold for over an hour, and then being told to stop calling had been disheartening. "So, I am going to send off my notes. There isn't much more than that I can do to alert them. As for what is going on…"

"No advertising?" Robert looked crestfallen.

Joyce rolled her eyes, but could see Robert understood the gesture.

Author's Note

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Airy Words
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Ian
Javarod
Mary Rowland
Nils
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Airy Words
Cross Lament
Vutava

Where's the Kaboom?

Language check. All in English. Bonus warning: There is some swearing in this one. Sorry, but these are Aussies in a stressful situation.

Steve O'Shae clenched his hands as best he could. He didn't begrudge the changes that were overtaking him, particularly since he had noticed he was getting quite a bit stronger, but shrinking and messing up his hands he could certainly do without.

The tunnel he was in was mostly dark. His safety light illuminated what he was working on in the deep hole. "Dave! You safe back there?!" His yell carried down the tunnels, echoing back to him, but followed by a reply.

"Yeah! I'm all good. Go live when you are ready."

Dave's reply galvanized Steve. He turned his head one last time to the dark tunnel, and the little yellow cable that headed down it. Attaching the remote unit to the blasting cord, he flicked the unit from safe to live. "Okay, coming now. We are hot."

Grumbling about his feet, Steve started walking back along the tunnel towards Dave and the main shaft. He had no worries about the charge going off early—he had the only key to the blasting controller on the surface—but that didn't make him respect the explosives he had laid any less.

"We're good?" As soon as they were within earshot, Dave made sure to tilt his head forward a little. With his own safety light cast on the floor, he ensured that Steve wasn't blinded.

"Yeah. Wired up, everything is live. Let's head up top." With the key to the blasting controller in his hand, Steve followed Dave along the tunnel. "Meant to ask, how're things going with Rose and Jen?"

"Don't ask, mate. Jen is worse than ever. She keeps telling me to pack it in and piss off with her and Rosey." Dave O'Brian shrugged his shoulders. "She thinks I would just leave all this, after everythin' I done here. Heck, even Rosey has been helpin' out."

"She wants you to go? What'd you say?" When they reached the main tunnel, Steve turned towards the lift to the surface.

"I lost me temper. Told her to go fuck herself." Dave couldn't keep from laughing at his own joke. "Not that she knows how to keep it in her pants."

"What about Rose? Doesn't seem to fair on her now."

Reaching the lift first, Dave opened the cage door and stepped into it. "It's up to her. I told her—I told her she can stay and work for a living. Bloody hell, she has found thousands of dollars of stones in the tailin's."

"Figured. She's eighteen now, right?" Steve stepped into the cage beside Dave and pulled the gate closed. Hitting a switch on the cage, the two of them started to lift up into a vertical tunnel. There was more light above, and slowly the winch lifted them both up into it.

"Yeah. Eighteen and finishin' school. If Jen drags her off they will likely push her back and make her repeat the year." Waiting for his turn to disembark, Dave reached up and snapped an extra cable to the top of the cage—stopping it from being able to go back down.

"Do you know what she is going to choose? Can't be easy to tell your mum to stuff it." Steve walked along the well lit tunnel, and they were both in the main link between Earth and Equestria.

Dave followed Steve towards the Earth end of the tunnel. "I think she's had enough of Jen's shit too. Kinda sucks for her, but all I can do is give her a place to stay, ya know? Give her a choice."

"Hey man, you don't have to convince me." Steve squinted as the midday sun greeted them. It wasn't a common sight in mid spring, in the sleepy little town, but it seemed to be a lovely day, by Steve's reckoning, to blow a huge hole through some rock. "Okay, head down to the other side and make sure no one comes in. I'll give you half an hour, and if you don't get back to me I am blowing this."

Steve watched Dave walk back into the tunnel, and walked around the edge of the tunnel to a spot where he could keep watch, and be safe from any blast exiting the mine. Checking his watch, he started the timer on it running.

"Hi Steve." Rose, wearing overalls and a pair of safety gloves, walked up to Steve. "About to do the blast?"

"Yeah. Dave's heading through to make sure it's safe, and no ponies have walked in. Shouldn't you be in school?" Steve kept the key in his hand, not wanting it anywhere near the controller until the half hour were up.

"Candela gave us the day off, something about not being able to keep our attention when such excitement is happening." Rose just shrugged. "How is the mine going? Still getting the—the gems?"

"It's going really well." Steve checked his watch. He and Dave both knew that it took about ten minutes to get from one side of the tunnel to the other. "Dave told me about your mum. You got plans?" All the excitement seemed to pour out of Rose, and Steve regretted bringing the topic up.

"She…" Rose began, then stopped with a sigh. "She was only here to use Dave." When waiting for Steve to continue started to get awkward, Rose sighed again and continued. "She is trying to talk him into going, too. But then at the same time she is telling me that we should just leave. Dave said I can stay if I want, but—"

"But she's your mum." Steve checked his watch, it had barely been ten minutes. "If you need somewhere that has nothing to do with either Dave or your mum, I have a spare room." It was just about the biggest concession Steve could make, but he was a sucker for a female in distress, and couldn't stop from offering.

"I think I have made up my mind, I just need to tell Mum and Dave." Rose leaned over to see the counter on Steve's watch when he checked it again. "How much longer?"

"About twenty minutes. Explosives aren't to be rushed or messed with. Half an hour gives Dave plenty of time to find a problem and get back here before the detonation. It's not like I can use a radio to chat with him." Steve was quiet for a while, and watched the timer tick down to just ten minutes remaining. "What's your decision?"

"Just like that?" Rose laughed.

Steve shrugged. "Yeah, just like that. If you need me to be nearby when you tell either of them, just say so. Sometimes you just need to get away from people."

"Thanks, but I have a good friend who is happy to listen to most of my crazy shit." Pulling a gem out of her pocket, Rose started to work it over with her gloved fingers.

"Mike's a nice guy." Of course Steve knew about the pair of teens. "But I am not sure if a boyfriend is the right one to run to."

"That's just it, I don't know if he even is my boyfriend!" Rose jammed the gem back in her pocket. "Every time it seems like we might get closer, it just…"

Steve's eyebrows rose. "He's just a friend? I could'a sworn I heard about you two going to Traralgon and spending the night—"

"We didn't do anything. That—that was the first time it really happened. We seem to be close, but it just doesn't feel right." Rose sighed again, and looked at Steve's watch. "Five minutes."

"I can see that. Dave will be at the other end, making sure no ponies get in. If I don't see hide nor hair of him, we can pop this thing." Steve couldn't help but feel a little excited, it wasn't every day he got to set off an explosion big enough that they had to warn the town.

Rose's excitement was plain on her face. "Can I do it?"

"No." Steve held his hand up toward off argument. "Not because I am a bastard, but because if anything goes wrong, it has to be me who pressed the button. You don't want to know how many laws it would break to let you do it."

"Two minutes." Rose pointed to Steve's watch.

Steve smiled at the enthusiasm, and held up the little key. Reaching for the control, Steve put the key in the little red, plastic padlock on the control and turned it. He tapped the menu button until it got to "test," and set the unit to doing a self test. "That takes a minute, which is how much time we have."

Climbing to his feet, Steve cursed briefly at the wobble to his misshapen limbs. "Gotta warn the area." He explained as he did things, watching the controller tick through its tests, one of them telling him it detected a receiver. Walking to his ute, he pulled out a bullhorn and turned it on. "Explosion warning! Live wire!"

Rose was almost trembling at the excitement. She watched as Steve's thumb came down on the little gray button on the controller.

No sound came at first, but then the ground shook. Rose opened her mouth to cheer, and then the main blast rolled up the tunnels and washed away any hope she had of being heard.

Steve grinned; in his estimation, there was nothing as bad as a dud. The rush of excitement took him too, but as the seconds rolled on, he could tell something was wrong. "What—" He didn't get another word out when something happened.

A thrum in the air, as if a god struck a chord on a double bass the size of the world, seemed to vibrate through Steve. He snapped his eyes shut, unable to withstand the twisting, strange feeling that pushed him to the edge of what was almost agony, but not.

"What the fuck?!"

Rose's voice caused Steve to snap his eyes open, and he looked over at the bat pony standing beside him—where Rose should have been. His eyes widened, and as the strange not-pain faded, Steve tried to reach out to her. "Are you—"

Frozen in place, Steve could see a pony leg and hoof where his arm should have been. Turning in place, he spotted the ute behind him. The vehicle looked much larger than it should have been.

Turning, Steve looked at the mine entrance, but where he looked was strangely indistinct. What he saw, as the dust was clearing, was Dave. But Dave wasn't Dave. Dave looked a lot like Rose—like the pony he had been slowly turning into. "Dave! What the fuck happened?"

Looking up at Steve in confusion, Dave shook his head in panic. "I don't know! I was on the other side and then the blast, and now I got no fuckin' clue!" Dave looked down and shook his head, but when he tried to take a step, he fell over.

"Dave!" Rose moved like the wind, bounding over to Dave. "Are you alright?"

"I turned into a pony!" Dave looked up at Rose, and shook his head. "So I couldn't be fuckin' better. How the hell did you run like that?"

Talk of walking made Steve look down at his legs. Soft green fur, just like had been growing on him, covered his body. A flick of his head was all he needed to work out his red mane and tail had persisted. Looking back up, he caught an odd sense of something as Rose helped Dave to stand up. "Hold on, you both look the same."

Getting to his hooves, Dave looked up at Steve. "What do you mean? Of course we look the bloody same!"

"No, I mean…" Steve fumbled for words. "Candy's little one, she is smaller than Candy, and their faces both look different to yours. Rounded instead of square."

"Yours looks rounded," Rose said, her voice wavering a little. She dipped her head down and looked under her body. "Fuck!"

Steve took a moment to realize what Rose had been looking for, and when he realized Rose's voice was a little deeper he dipped his own head down. Steve swore as loudly as she could.

Author's Note

Rose: now many diamonds, do you think?

"Look, I can answer your bloody questions in a bit. Things are a little busy here now!" Rose seemed unrepentant.

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Airy Words
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Ian
Javarod
Mary Rowland
Nils
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Airy Words
Cross Lament
Vutava

Playing a New Song

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken English, everything else is in Equish.

Mike was sitting outside, under a tree in her backyard. A pack of batteries filled her little practice amplifier, and she had her big bass guitar across her lap. She watched Pinkie Pie—who was sitting across from her—working her hooves on the strings of the guitar, and tried to mimic the action.

Pinkie pulled her hooves up and stuck them over her ears in reaction to Mike's horrible chord. "What are you doing? You have to press down with your frog." When Mike stared at her, she held up her hoof again. "This part. Push it down as far as you can, like you were going to pick something up with it."

It wasn't the first time she had been given the instructions. "Hold on, that is only two fingers… finger-like things. How do you press all the strings?" She struggled with her hoof, bringing it under the guitar's neck and pressing down. Another strum, another horrible sound.

"Your hoof touched the low B string." Pinkie reached out and teased at Mike's hoof until it wasn't on the offending lowest string of the bass. "It was kinda hard to work it out first, too, but you have to feel for the vibrations."

Mike looked at her green hoof, and flexed her frog as much as she could. "No wonder you sounded so terrible at the start." Her hard hoof made a great substitute for a pick, but so far she hadn't worked out a way to slap her bass. Strumming, the chord came out clean, and lacking the horrible buzzing that it had a moment earlier.

"Okily dokily. Now put your hoof back on the string and feel for the vibration." Poking at Mike's hoof again, she pressed it down and nodded to strum again.

The vibration was tiny, and Mike didn't feel it at first. She strummed again, ignoring the buzzing through the speaker. Closing her eyes, she strummed a third time, and was able to feel the string against her hoof. Everything felt strange with hooves, with most of her nerves being in the frog, but there was apparently some in the hoof itself. Tilting her hoof, she strummed again and felt a rush of excitement.

Real magic poured through her, and her hoof danced over the strings while she strummed and plucked. Tilting her head up, Mike looked Pinkie right in the eyes and played her a song. The song had never been heard before, and nor had it been even a tingle in Mike's head, but it was suddenly alive, and Mike was playing.

Caught up in the music too, Pinkie Pie laughed loudly, and began playing a rhythm to support Mike's bass. Though neither of them had practiced together to perform, the sound of their guitars fit perfectly together.

When the right moment came, Mike brought her cannon down against the bass' strings, rolling her limb back off. She wanted to stop and work out how she has done it, but the music carried on. Again and again she slapped the bass in a way that sounded perfect.

The song wouldn't last forever, though, and Mike found herself winding it down. As her strumming slowed, she couldn't keep the smile off her snout. But when she stilled the strings, the bass rumble continued.

Pinkie tilted her head to the side in consternation. "How're you doing—" She froze. That is, all of her froze except for her tail. Pinkie Pie's tail curled around in an unusually tight spiral, and started bouncing as if it were a spring. "What's going on?"

'An explosive blast,' Mike reflected, 'sounded nothing like in the movies.' She didn't so much hear the shock wave, as feel it. Rushing pressure in a wave rushed past, and for a second Mike thought it might be over and done.

On the heels of the blast, something very different happened. Mike felt like she was turned inside out, then right side back in. A sensation like drowning, then dry, repeated over and over. She gasped as the feeling settled on dry, and left her be. "W-What was that?!"

Pinkie could only wave a hoof, pointing at what had been an empty house beside Mike's. "Why is Ball and Ball's mum's house right there?" She lifted her voice, and waved. "Hi Ball!"

Ball Clay, when Mike turned to follow Pinkie's directions, had been playing some kind of game in his backyard. When he saw Mike and Pinkie, he galloped over to them.

"Hi Pinkie. Hi Mike. I thought you lived on Earth?" Ball pointed to Mike's house, showing surprise that it was right beside his own.

"I—I do!" Mike stood up on her "back legs," and looked around. There seemed to be some kind of balloon-like layer hovering in the air between her house and the Clays'. Walking over to it, she lifted one hoof up and reached to it.

There was no resistance, and Mike's hoof sank through the layer as easily as Ball had. As pony as she was, she stepped forward, and felt her back scream in an instant of agony. A buzzing started in Mike's head, and shake it as she might she couldn't stop it.

The buzzing grew louder by the second, and started to develop into a dull pressure. A rush of release, and Mike felt a pleasant rush of sensation. Pure, golden light bathed the world with its warm light, and Mike couldn't help but laugh in excitement.

"MIKE!" Pinkie cupped her hooves before her snout. "YOU'RE DOING MAGIC!" She bounced from side to side, standing on two legs, and cheered wildly for her friend.

"I know!" Mike was in awe of the power. It felt just like music, and the moment she made the comparison, it became music. A roaring symphony suddenly played, and Mike was playing every instrument at the same time with her magic. Screaming in joy, Mike danced around as her magic kept roaring from her horn.

Pinkie trotted over to Mike, and she shivered as she walked past the same spot Mike had poked earlier. "Tingly!"

Seeing Pinkie Pie, Mike was confused at first as she was looking at her friend at the same eye level. "This is amazing, Pinkie Pie!" She lifted one foreleg from the ground and gestured to the floating instruments.

"Mmmmaybe you should stop now. You don't want to do too much all at once." Pinkie, however, found herself floating into the air and was suddenly bedecked in a dozen instruments. A huge drum played as she kicked, a harmonica sat to one side of her mouth, and a saxophone on the other. Without hesitation, Pinkie threw herself at the instruments, and was suddenly just playing them all.

Mike was having a great time, but she knew she had to stop the magic. Scrunching her face up, she realized suddenly that she had no idea how to stop magic. "P-P-Pinkie?"

Relentlessly playing the instruments, or perhaps being played by them, Pinkie Pie managed a glance at Mike as she marched around, a one-pony-band.

Mike felt something push at her back legs, and the insistent shove made her stumble forward, back into her own yard. The golden glow of Mike's magic dimmed, and she felt suddenly drained. In another few seconds the light winked out completely, and Mike slumped to the ground in shock.

Dizziness flooded Mike, and she blinked up as Pinkie appeared in front of her. "Pinkamena?" She felt a rush of strange sensations, feelings she hadn't ever had before. Her back ached, her legs all tingled, and something deep inside felt really odd. A rumbling in her belly seemed to grow, and before Mike could do more than turn her head, she lost her lunch and breakfast on the grass.

Pinkie had just a moment of seeing Mike throw up, before she galloped to the house. "!" She reached the back door, reared up, and tap danced on the wood. "!"

"I'm okay, really!" Though Mike protested, she wasn't trying to get up. The world seemed to be moving just a little strangely, so Mike decided to give it a good hug. " 'S really okay…"

Mike wasn't aware when her mum had left the house and approached, but Joyce was suddenly there, leaning over her. ". I'm okay!"

"She changed all the way?" Joyce's voice held enough shock for everyone present.

"." Pinkie Pie waved a hoof in the direction of the Equestrian house. "!"

"Pinkie was awesome. fine." Though she protested, Mike knew something really odd had happened, and not just to her. "There's some kind , like a veil."

"." Joyce, her hands still hands, reached under Mike and started to lift her daughter.

Blinking in surprise at being hefted into the air so easily, Mike felt her pants slip down hips that no longer were built to hold them in place. "My !" She waved all four legs under her, watching her clothing get further away.

"Is Mike going to be okay?" Pinkie Pie spoke as if she hadn't noticed she had slipped back into Equish.

Without realizing it, Joyce slipped into Equish too. "I am sure it is just having such a sudden change. I wonder at what point internal organs start to change?" When Pinkie Pie rushed forward and opened the back door for her, Joyce smiled. "Thank you, Pinkie."

"What's ?" Mike tried to struggle, but her mother had a good grip around her midsection. "All that happened was I used some !" She reached for that golden light, and nothing came except for a few fizzing sparks. "…"

"?" Joyce set Mike down on the couch, and quickly departed. Mike barely got a hoof under herself when her mother returned with a bucket. "."

"…" Rolling to her side, Mike looked up and waved her aquamarine hooves like she was trying to ride a bike. "I'm not drunk, Mum."

"." Joyce brushed Mike's cheek, and trailed her hand up to rub her daughter's ear. She watched as the joyful bliss of an ear-rub almost put Mike to sleep.

A loud knocking at the front door stirred Joyce from her focus, and drew Mike's attention too.

"Who knocks like that?" Lifting her head, Mike decided Equish was the easier of the two languages she knew. "Go and answer it, Mum, before Pinkie Pie does."

"What's wrong with me answering it?" Pinkie glared at Mike, but missed her chance to actually answer the door, when Joyce stood up.

"." Joyce headed out of the living room and made her way to the door.

"How do you feel?" Making her way slowly across the floor towards Mike, Pinkie Pie was gazing down at the floor, while her mane and tail obviously drooped.

"I feel okay." Mike wiggled her hooves at Pinkie until her friend got close enough to pull into a hug on the couch. "And I don't think this was your doing, so you are off the hook this time." The simple act of hugging had come to mean so much to Mike. Friendship was found in a hug, as was the unloading of a whole welter of emotions.

Finally, Pinkie started to squeeze back, and Mike could see her mane—at point-blank range—sproing back up. Mike heard her mum urging someone to come inside, and she looked over to the door, only for Joyce to swing it shut.

"." Joyce's voice could be heard explaining Mike's situation.

"Who are they?" Pinkie Pie drew back from the hug, and followed Mike's gaze at the closed door. Perking her ears forward like Mike, she picked up vague bits of a really technical conversation in English.

Mike slid off the couch and walked towards the door. Pony ears, she had discovered much earlier in her transformation, were amazing for locking onto the origin of a sound, but weren't much better than human ears for actually listening to it. She reached the door and leaned her head against it, not realizing it hadn't fully closed.

The door clicked as Mike's pressure pushed it closed. Mike started to step back, and as she did the door opened inwards. "!" She backed up further.

"." A woman crouched down to get on a closer eye-level with Mike. She was wearing a pair of sturdy looking slacks, a white shirt, and had a silver pendant hanging at her throat.

Mike stared for a few moments before she realized that she was probably being seen as a young child. "Uh, hi!" As soon as she said it, Mike realized she had spoken Equish. "<S-Sorry. Hi! My name's M—"

Pinkie Pie jumped up beside Mike. Her gaze flicked past her friend's flank, and she cut in over Mike. "!"

"Pinkie, what are you doing?" Leaning over, Mike pressed her snout closer to Pinkie, and lifted a hoof to cover her words, as if Dr. Clark would have a hope of speaking Equish.

Leaning in for a similar pose as Mike, Pinkie Pie gestured at the doctor. "You're a mare, silly. Anyone who sees you in this world, who doesn't expect you to be male, is probably going to be stuck viewing you as a girl, thanks to the defensive field magic projects ahead of itself."

Mike blinked at the explanation. "So… Lyre-a? Lyra?"

"That sounds much better!" Pinkie Pie clopped her hooves together.

"?" The woman blinked in surprise at the sing-song nature of Equish.

"." Mike thrust out a hoof to shake.

"?" Elizabeth Clark shook Mike's hoof, not even registering that it wasn't a hand.

"!" Grabbing hold of the still-extended hand, Pinkie shook it for all she was worth. "?" Pinkie's eyes got huge, and her smile was as wide as could be.

"?" Straightening and stepping back, Dr. Clark stared at Pinkie Pie in shock.

Mike could feel an odd tingling on the air, and for just a moment her brain made the leap of insight that it was the veil about to lift. "!"

The tension in the air seemed to ease, and Mike gave a sigh of relief. She froze suddenly, realizing that she had actually felt magic, reacted to it, and felt it adjust to her changes. "This is so cool!"

"What's that?" Pinkie Pie was easily distracted, and turned her full attention back to Mike.

"I could feel when the barrier was flexing. The field that keeps her from seeing us. It was so cool, it felt tight, stretched, and then I reassured her and it relaxed again. Pinkie, I really can feel magic!" Mike bounced on her hooves, excitement stirring Pinkie to do the same.

Mike didn't notice when Elizabeth left. The sheer excitement of learning more about magic overwhelmed even the tiredness that her change had caused. But as she slowed with her bouncing excitement, a weary weight seemed to settle over her. "I think I need to lay down again, Pinkie. Maybe even have a nap."

"A nap? But it's still early!" Pinkie Pie looked around for something to keep Mike's interest, but nothing was readily to hoof. "Party pooper."

"Hey, I just turned into a pony. Cut me some slack!" Mike reached out to Pinkie and pulled her friend into a hug. "You could practice more music?"

Hugging back, Pinkie Pie let out a happy sigh. "Oh, your guitar! I'll get that and then go do some practice." She booped Mike on the nose and reached a hoof up to the door.

"Wait. We should probably avoid letting them see us." Carefully opening the door, Mike peeked out left and right. "Okay, it's clear." Sneaking out the door, weariness was kept back only by the silliness of her actions. With clip-clopping hooves, she walked three steps before her brain realized what she was doing, and she looked down.

The moment Mike thought about what her legs were doing, she fell forward and sprawled on the floor. "What the…" The fall hurt her pride more than anything. Working her legs, she focused on her limbs as she stood up. "Left front…"

"Wait." Pinkie Pie reached out and grabbed Mike's raised hoof. "This isn't how you walk. Look up, work out where you want to be."

"That's silly. How am I meant to walk without seeing what I am doing?" Turning to look at Pinkie, Mike reached up to boop her back, then fell down without any forelegs supporting her. She grumbled when Pinkie laughed at her. "What?"

"You're a silly pony, Lyra." Pinkie Pie booped Mike on the nose again, and helped get her back on her hooves. "Now come on, follow me!"

Back on her hooves, Mike lifted her head and tried to do what Pinkie said. She felt for what her hoof was doing, and got another boop on the nose from Pinkie Pie. "Hey! Stop distracting me."

"Distracting you is the only way I am going to get you to walk." Pinkie Pie reared up, putting her forehooves on her hips. "Now march!" She led the way, heading for Mike's bedroom.

Yawning, Mike took a step without thinking. Then she took another, and more. Watching his friend walk on two legs gave her an idea, but before she could try to walk on her back legs the last thinking part of her brain kicked off a neuron. Mike sighed and let Pinkie Pie lead the way.

Mike seemed to blink, and was in front of her bed. "I need to sleep, Pinkie." All she managed to do, however, was slump her head down on the bed. A shove from behind woke Mike enough that she moved with Pinkie's help, not against it.

"Into bed, Lyra. Something tells me you will have a big day ahead of you." It was, of course, Pinkie's whole body that was jittering around. Carefully, Pinkie Pie tucked Mike into bed.

Author's Note

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Airy Words
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Ian
Javarod
Nils
Shaushka
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Airy Words
Cross Lament
Vutava

Dream Time

Language check. Anything wrapped in [ ] in this chapter is spoken ?????, everything else is in Equish.

Misty had been walking through Stonecrop with Marble beside her. They had both known about the blasting (as did every student, indeed everyone in each town on both sides of the portal) and were waiting for it to be done and over so they could cross over to Earth.

Marble Pie stopped. She looked down at the ground as a rumble started to come from the direction of the mine, and tilted her head to one side. "It's unhappy."

The world sneezed. It was the only way Misty could describe what she felt. The world sneezed, and blew Stonecrop out with a rush of pressure. Her eyes widened for just a moment, then she closed them. Spreading her wings, Misty felt as the last of her feathers fled her increasingly bat-like wings. A pressure, pulsing, grew in each of her flanks, and Misty Rainfall knew with amazingly clarity, that she was getting her cutie mark.

"[HELLO]."

The word sounded, to Misty, both completely strange and very familiar at the same time. She opened her eyes, and while she was still in Stonecrop, she could see strange bands of energy in the air. Magic she had seen, but this was something different. "[Hello]?" She was startled at speaking back in the same language, but got the impression of hissing laughter. "[Who are you]?"

A sensation of light, water, and both mixed rushed through Misty's head. She couldn't follow it as a whole, but with focus she could pull back from the rush enough to see that the light/water was both huge, and long. "[A snake? You won't hurt me]."

"[YOU ARE SURE OF THAT]?"

The voice was heavy with import, not that Misty could really work out all of it, and she doubted anypony could. "[I think I am. If you wanted to hurt me, you would have. Do you need help]?" A sense of more hissing laughter came from every direction. Misty turned in place and saw the huge light/water coils all around her.

"[YOU WERE NOT OF THE PEOPLE. THOSE I CARED FOR AND MADE FOR]."

"[I don't think I am. I am from Equestria]." Completely unafraid of the voice, Misty flapped her large, leathery wings and took to the sky. Circling above Stonecrop, she could see exactly what had happened to the town. It was now two towns smooshed together in concentric rings. The first ring seemed to be a melding of both towns, but the next ring was Cowwarr, then Stonecrop, and so on until it reached her new friend.

Focusing on the coils, Misty flew in a circle. She had to flap a lot more than with feathery wings, but at the same time she felt she had more control of where she wanted the air to go. Circling, she followed the snake around and around for what felt like days. Her wings never tired, and she never needed sleep. "[Where's your head]?"

"[I DON'T NEED IT RIGHT NOW. YOU FLY WELL]."

The compliment had Misty blushing, and showing off. Looping and twirling, she pushed her changed body to the extreme. Just as she thought she might be in trouble, she froze in the air and could suddenly stand on nothingness. "[This isn't real]." Her revelation that she wasn't in the real world startled her. There was no insight involved, it wasn't a guess. Misty just knew it.

"[IT ISN'T THE ACTUAL WORLD, BUT IT IS VERY REAL. IF YOU DO SOMETHING HERE, IT HAPPENS THERE. THE OTHER IS ALSO TRUE]."

Misty blinked at the information, and then looked at where she wanted to be: the mine. She didn't have to flap her wings, or use some kind of spell (like a unicorn). One moment Misty was floating in the sky, the next she was standing beside the exit of the mine.

In whatever place she was in, Misty could feel a huge pressure come again and again. It was like there was a sea on the other side of the mine—even if the hole she was looking at looked like each end—and it was sloshing something out.

"[Magic]." Misty didn't turn her head, trusting that the great snake would be free to talk. "[The blast did something to the portal, and now Equestrian magic is sloshing into Earth a lot faster]."

"[YOU SHOULD TELL THE OTHERS. SOME OF THEM NEED TO KNOW. REMEMBER, DREAM THUNDER, YOU ARE ALWAYS SAFE IN MY COILS]."

"Dream Thunder?" Dream shook her head and looked up to see Marble looking down at her. "Marble! You aren't going to believe this! There was a giant snake, and it is doing something with the magic, and there is magic everywhere." All the information was pouring out at once. "And my name is now Dream Thunder!"

"You were asleep for a while. I tried to wake you up, but you looked so comfortable." Using an incredible amount of strength, Marble reached down and pulled Dream to her hooves. "I like your wings." Marble smiled and reached to Dream's side.

"My wings!" Dream dashed forward a few steps to be away from Marble, and then shoved downwards with her hooves. It was instinctual. She knew she couldn't take off from a standing start, but with a run and a jump she was in the air for her first downwards beat. "I have to tell mum!"

Author's Note

Dear Princess Celestia,

Today I learned that explosives are apparently magic. Since Friendship is magic, and explosions are also magic, does that mean friendship is explosions!?

"I am not sure that logic is sound. Friendship, however, is never a bad thing to strive for." Princess Celestia smiled warmly.

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Airy Words
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Ian
Javarod
Nils
Shaushka
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Airy Words
Cross Lament
Vutava

Recounts

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken Equish, everything in [ ] is spoken ????, and everything else is in English.

Joyce heard Mike and Pinkie "sneak" down to his bedroom, and she was more thankful than ever to Pinkie Pie. Turning her mind back from her daughter, she realized the group of doctors were looking at her. "You will have to excuse me, I have had a rather trying day. What do you need me to do?"

"Clinical notes. We need to know what therapies you have attempted." Doctor Ward, the apparent leader of the group, let out a slight huff of annoyance. "The sooner we find the source of this hallucination the better."

Staring at Dr. Ward, Joyce couldn't believe what she was hearing. "M-Mass hallucination? You think this is mass hallucination?" She gestured up at her ears for effect. When none of the doctors actually looked up, she groaned. "You already have all my notes."

"You haven't tried a single treatment?" The latecomer of the group (and only female) Doctor Elizabeth Clark flipped through her notes—a folder of copies of Joyce's journals.

"This was useless. Lady and gentlemen, let's get to work." Ward turned and marched from Joyce's kitchen, leading an exodus of his colleagues. "If we need your help, Doctor Robertson, we will let you know."

Joyce waited until she heard the front door closed before she took a deep breath. "Fucking wankers!" She stomped to the kettle and with angry motions, filled it up with water and turned it on. "I can't believe those—those tools thinks this is an hallucination!" She held up her partially changed hands and tried to ball them into fists.

When the front door opened again, her anger flared. "If you fucking bastards think that you can come back and—" She stomped to the hallway and her tirade died in her throat. "H-Hello? Can I help you?"

"!" Dream Thunder bounced in place, her wings squirming at her side. "."

Joyce wasn't as quick at switching languages as her children, and mentally made the shift to thinking in Equish. "…" She trailed off when she saw Dream's flank had become adorned with a circular snake pattern, and a dark cloud filling the middle of the ouroborus'. The snake was visually striking mostly because despite Dream's stormy colors, the serpent was festooned in bright dots of color; red, yellow, even orange made up the snake's patterns. "?"

Dream spun around in three circles trying to get a good look at her flank, before she stopped and just stared for a minute. "!" Despite not having the room to stretch her wings, Dream Thunder tried to extend them and flap excitedly.

"." Marble, looked a little sheepish as she peeked in the door behind Dream. "?"

"." Dream Thunder managed to get her wings under control and tucked them at her sides. "!" She waggled the two thumbs on her wings, cackling like mad.

It finally occurred to Joyce that Dream's wings no longer had any feathers on them. "What happened?" In her shock, she had dropped back to English. "The same thing happened to Mike. One minute she was almost a pony, and next she turned full pony."

Before Dream could reply, the back door of the house clanged, and Robin's voice rang out clearly. "Mum! Something crazy has happened!" When she rounded the corner and saw Dream Thunder, her fuzzy jaw dropped open. "When did that happen?!"

"When the tunnel to Equestria exploded!" Dream danced in place and stretched one wing out to the side to show Robin. At that moment, however, Candela walked in behind Robin. "Mum! Look!" Dream bounced up to her mother and turned to one side. "I got my cutie mark!"

Joyce watched Candela's face fill with joy. "Whoa, slow down. You said you had to tell us something important?" She was learning that ponies were harder to herd than cats.

"Yes!" Dream cleared her throat. "The mine—"

"Wait. The kettle is just boiling. Wait in the living room and think about what you saw, and put it into order for us." Pointing her partly-changed hand at the living room, Joyce gave Candela an ever-suffering look.

"Go on, girls." Candela shooed Robin, Dream, and Marble into the living room. Once they were moving, she shared an inquisitive look with Joyce. "When the explosion went off, it did something really odd."

"Tea, first. I have my own story to explain." Joyce started lining up cups, dunking teabags in each. When Candela came up beside her, they got the tea brewed even faster. "Mike's in her bedroom. Whatever this is turned her fully. She had some trouble with magic."

"I thought she might, when she finally changed all the way. It's called a surge, and it shouldn't be dangerous." Pulling a tray from a cupboard, Candela began loading cups onto it.

"Probably more just some shock, and…" Joyce trailed off, as Mike and Pinkie walked down the hall and both poked their heads into the kitchen. "How are you feeling?"

"This is normal?" Mike's full attention was on Candela. "I mean, the magic stuff. Is it right that I just can't control it?"

"Keep in mind that it normally happens to foals when they first get their magic, but yes." Candela lifted the tray up with one wing and started making her way to the living room. "Family meeting in the living room, get your hooves in there." Stretching her free wing out, Candela ruffled the back of Mike's head.

Joyce grabbed as many cups as she could carry safely—hooking two for each hand—and followed Candela. She turned her attention, briefly, to Pinkie Pie. "Thank you, dear. Mike needs a good friend right now."

"Lyra, you mean." Pinkie smiled as if she had just made the best joke ever. "When the doctor lady looked at us, she expected to see two girls, so we made up a name for Mike."

"Good thinking, but it makes me a wonder. Is it common for ponies to change their name at adulthood?" Joyce made her way into the living room, and spotted Mike settled in between Dream Thunder and Marble Pie. "Are we all here?"

"I am!" Pinkie Pie waved her hoof in the air excitedly.

Dream opened her mouth, and almost managed to get the first word of her story out when knocking on the front door interrupted her. "Oh come on!"

The banging continued, even as Joyce made her way out and opened the front door to find Dave, Steve, and Rose. At least, she assumed it was them. Steve was the easiest to pick out, what with being an earth pony with a green coat and light red mane and tail. Rose and Dave looked very similar, both bat ponies like Dream Thunder, but unlike Dream they seemed more stocky.

Just before any of the three could say anything, Joyce threw the door wide open. "Come on in. It's story time in the living room." She pointed.

Steve was first to trot past Joyce. "W-What's goin' on, Doc?"

"We all need to find out. Park your butt in there and we will hear the story together. Congratulations, I think you just volunteered to start it off." Joyce watched Rose follow right after Dave, and Steve brought up the rear. "Dream Thunder—Misty—has the important bits, but we should start at the start."

Following Dave, Joyce closed the door this time, and found a spot to sit by it. She couldn't help but giggle at the excited look on Dream's face. "Why don't we start with the mine. That seems to be what caused this, right?" When most heads around the room nodded, Joyce looked to Dave and Steve.

Steve sighed. "I've done hundreds of blasts like that—a lot of them bigger—it shouldn't have done much more than crack the rock we had dug into. It all went normal, I had Dave on the pony side to keep anyone from entering the mine, while I watched our side. Rosetta was with me, and despite her wanting to press the button, I did.

"It was crazy. The explosion went just as it should, but the ground rumbled much longer than anything that size should cause. Next thing I know Dave is with us, and we are all ponies!" Steve gestured to Dave and Rose—who sat beside each other—with a hoof.

Joyce raised one almost-hoof in the air to get everyone's attention. "Wait a moment. I just want to check—"

"Yes." Rose cut in, and shifted a little. "It turned me into a stallion, as we thought."

"And it turned me into…" Steve trailed off, her voice sticking in her throat. She didn't see Mike until the teen was right beside her, and when Mike settled beside her, she continued. "It turned me into a mare."

"It seems random, like neither our bodies nor our gender matter." Joyce tapped her chin with her hand. "Just remember, being a little different to what you have known is not the end of the world."

"It's more than that." Looking around the group, Candela pointed to Steve with a wing. "She isn't just a mare, she is a young mare. Same with Dave; he is a young stallion." The revelation seemed to stun everyone else in the room. "And unless I miss my guess, Joyce, you are looking younger too."

Everyone looked at Joyce, but without a mirror she couldn't confirm the prognosis. She turned to look at Mike, and could see realization, and confirmation, in her eyes. "Huh." It was odd for her to think about, and the first thing she wondered was if she was forgetting anything.

"How long do ponies live for?" Mike looked to Candela, asking the question she thought her mother would want to know. She did herself, now that she realized it.

"From what I understand, a little longer than humans do. Most ponies live long enough to get everything they want to do, done." Candela spread her wing out and over Dream Thunder, and she couldn't resist leaning down to nuzzle her daughter—pride written large on her face.

"I just realized I know next to nothing about Equestrian ponies." Joyce stared ahead, looking between Mike and Steve. "C-Candela, could you get me some medical textbooks from there?" Her gaze turned to Candela, and while she saw amusement—and a nod—it was Dream who lifted a wing. "What is it, dear?"

"Can I tell my part now?" Dream was almost bouncing in place, eyes bright.

"I think others have more parts to tell, but you might as well go first." Clearing her throat, Joyce gestured to Dream with a hand.

Dream took a deep breath. "So me and Marble were—"

Candela cut in on her daughter. " 'Marble and I.' I don't care how excited you are, Dream, you will use correct grammar."

Eyes showing the groan she didn't want to make out loud, Dream Thunder cleared her throat. "Marble and I…" She looked around, making sure no one was going to interrupt. Content, Dream continued. "We were just walking along when the explosion happened." She looked between Steve, Dave, and Rose.

Marble lifted her hoof into the air, half hidden, but to her shock Dream pointed to her. "Um…" She trailed off, the little confidence she had fleeing when she remembered that there was people she didn't normally associate with present. "She fell asleep. I couldn't wake her…"

Dream giggled. "Maybe. But I dreamed about flying around over Cowwarr, and there was someone else there. They didn't tell me their name, but I saw the huge coils of a snake wrapped all the way around town. Err, towns now."

"Towns?" Joyce was about as confused as she could be. "What do you mean?"

"Do you have some paper?" Dream was quickly passed paper and a marker. Grabbing the marker in her mouth, and pinning the paper down with her hooves, she started to draw. "This's the mine, both ends." She drew the mine, and three ponies right beside it. "This is where the magic is coming from. It's like—like ripples in water."

Dream Thunder drew large, concentric circles around the mine, radiating outwards. "So in the first one the wave is dipped low: no magic."

"Like standing waves." Mike gestured at the paper Dream was scrawling on. When she got nods from all the adults, she continued with a question. "So where does it stop? Standing waves don't stay like that unless something is causing them to flow back on themselves."

"The snake!" Dream waved at her cutie mark. "The snake's huge, and it's doing what it can to stop the magic from pouring out."

"I know where I've seen that before." Mike shot to her hooves and took a step. Unfortunately, said step was not as steady as she hoped, and Mike tumbled to the floor. "Okay, maybe I won't be getting the book. But it is totally the Rainbow Serpent."

"He was really nice; explained what this meant,"—Dream pointed a thumb at the map she had drawn—"and told me to tell you all about it." She kept adding more detail to the map, showing her home, and indicating it was a low-magic region. "All the Equestria bits are in the high-magic areas, and all the Earth bits in the low."

"If the Rainbow Serpent is real, does that mean other gods are?" Mike looked right at her mother.

"We're turning into magical ponies, Tufts just started talking one day, and a whole other world of magic opened up. Who knows?" Joyce's eyes, however, betrayed the excitement she felt. Despite years spent studying medicine, in institutions that were as far removed from magic as was possible, there was something literally fantastic about magic.

"We are getting sidetracked." Candela reached a wing forward and touched the primary feathers' tips on Dream's back. "Are you done, dear?"

"He told me one more thing. I think I was dreaming, but he told me the world was real, but different. How did he put it…?" Fumbling with her thoughts, Dream suddenly smiled. "[If you do something here, it happens there. The other is also true]."

Joyce blinked in surprise, and looked to Candela. Her friend looked shocked, but she had to ask her about the language regardless. "Is that another Equestrian language? I didn't understand a lick of it." The way Candela shook her head in response told Joyce all she needed to know. "Mist—Dream, can you repeat that in English or Equish?"

Dream blinked in confusion, then shrugged her wings. "It means if something happens in that dream, it happens for real, and I think it works the other way. That's it. He was really nice, though. I think he is trying to protect the rest of Australia."

Candela beamed at her daughter. "Three languages now? You are my clever filly." She spread her wing over Dream's back when she returned to Candela's side. "Who is next?"

"Might as well be me." Joyce raised her hand as if she were back in school. "Wait, no. My bit is after Mike—"

"Lyra!" Cutting in, Pinkie Pie giggled after correcting Joyce.

"Really?" Joyce looked right at Mike.

"Maybe? Kinda? I guess it doesn't really make sense to be a unicorn mare named 'Mike,' but you named me Mike…" Looking up at her mother with obvious distress, Mike seemed stricken.

"Lyra is a bit short. Most ponies have longer names, or two shorter ones." Candela looked from Mike to Joyce.

"Please, mum?"

The tone in Mike's voice was just short of begging, and Joyce couldn't handle it. "Come here, Michael." She waited for her daughter, once her son, to walk over and sit before her. "Lyra is a fine name, and I think it matches what you are. But you need a second name that encompasses what you do."

Mike looked up at Joyce, and didn't say a word. The look on her face—in her eyes—was rapturous.

"Since you got your cutie mark, every song you have played called to me. You don't play music, Michael, you play emotion." Joyce closed her eyes to remember each and every piece she had heard her son, now her daughter, play. "That blasted guitar of yours, I can't get the image of you playing it out of my head, or the sound it made out of my heart."

Joyce paused a moment, feeling over the name she had thought of. "I named you Michael because it was a fine name, and bespoke a strong man."

Mike lifted one hoof and set it on Joyce's changing hands. "Mum…"

"Heartstrings. Lyra Heartstrings." As Joyce opened her eyes, pure golden light started to flood Lyra's horn. "Whoa! I said, 'No magic in the house'!" Her protest—in regards to magic—was heeded, but Joyce was wrapped in a tight hug from her eldest daughter.

With her mother's arms around her, Lyra squeezed tight. "H-Hey, I stopped it!" She rolled her eyes upwards, trying to look at her own horn.

"Our house is low magic, remember?" Joyce barely held back a chuckle at Lyra's expression. She paid attention to every feature on her daughter's face, and despite the complete change of species—and reality—Lyra still had some features of Mike about her. "You have your story to tell."

Lyra looked around and slipped back to sit beside Pinkie Pie. Putting a foreleg around Pinkie's back, Lyra closed her eyes to think back. "It's a day off school, so we were trying to waste it as best we could. Sitting in the back yard, I was struggling to play my guitar. I had just gotten it right when the explosion happened."

" Right'?" Joyce raised an eyebrow.

"Well, basic chords; my hoof kept getting in the way of my frog." Holding up a hoof, Lyra wiggled the soft flesh under it to indicate what she meant. "As I was saying, 'badda boom.' "

"Big badda?" Her mouth curving up, Robin's eyes danced as she looked to her big sister.

"Big badda boom." Lyra nodded her head in confirmation, and got a few chuckles from the others. "So suddenly Ball Clay's house is just—just there. It was so freaky, like the old, empty place just shifted over to make room. So anyway,"—Lyra turned to wink at Candela—"Pinkie and I went over to see what happened."

Giggles erupted around the room, and Lyra had to wait for them to die down before she could continue. "There is a barrier there. It felt like the skin of a huge bubble."

Pinkie Pie nodded. "I could see it too, but it wasn't easy."

"I could see it too, when I was dreaming. When I woke up, all the rings were invisible." Dream Thunder's words caused absolute silence to reign. "Can anyone else see them?" Heads shook around the room.

Candela squeezed Dream's shoulders with her outstretched wing. "It could have to do with Mi—with Lyra's magic. Unicorns are tied to magic like a pegasus is to the sky."

"Cool." Lyra Heartstrings grinned at the thought of magic being so accessible. "So anyway, the moment I walked through the barrier my horn glowed. There was suddenly magic everywhere. It poured through me, and roared out my horn. I couldn't stop it.

"Pinkie saved me. She dragged me back to the other side, and like a thunderclap my magic stopped. Also, like a thunderclap, it hurt!" Lyra turned to her mother and nodded.

"Which is where my story started. Pinkie Pie carried Lyra inside, and I sent them through to here. There was a knock at the door, and it turned out to be a team of emergency doctors." Joyce watched as Dave and Steve both suddenly got a jumpy edge about them. "Apparently they finally read my reports,"—she held her hands up to placate the room—"none of your personal information was in it, like I promised.

"So they turned up, and started talking about everything being a hallucination. Apparently I am affected too, and they didn't want my help with any of it." Joyce was about to repeat some of her swear words when she remembered all the children that were present.

"Which is when I came in." Candela looked around at the foals in her class—nearly all of them actual foals now. "As most of you knew, despite giving everyone the day off school, I couldn't just sit by and not do anything. I went for a walk with Robin just before the blast happened."

"Everything from Stonecrop's there!" Cutting in, Robin was clearly overexcited to finally get to tell some of her own story. "But Candela said we shouldn't wait around for something, and should come and check at home."

"And that puts us all here." Joyce looked around the room, and realized that she was the most human out of everyone present. Taking a deep breath, she looked at her hands. For a moment she almost said the wrong thing. She was a doctor twice over, she was somehow the head of the craziest little family to exist, and everyone was looking up to her. She had almost asked what to do next.

"Okay. Robin, help your sister get—" Freezing, Joyce felt a strange sensation pass over her. The rush of feeling seemed to coalesce on her hips. Everyone stared at her, and though it was going to compromise her modesty, Joyce looked down and tugged on her jeans. The fabric slid down her hip and left only her boxer shorts behind for modesty. Gulping, she pulled the hem of the shorts up and revealed the pattern now embossed into the fur on her thigh.

A large, bright red cross with a pair of bat wings spread across the length of it, now adorned Joyce's body. She looked at it, and couldn't keep a smile off her face.

"Healing, and batty things." Lyra managed to not fall on her face as she walked across to her mother. "I know this suits you."

"Yeah, mum." Balanced on her pony-like legs, Robin stood beside Lyra and looked up at Joyce. "It's just telling you what you already knew."

"Yeah, but this is mine." Joy bubbled out of Joyce like steam from a boiling pot. She reached out her arms and pulled Robin and Lyra into a tight hug, but looked over their shoulders at Candela and Dream. "You all make me so happy I could cry." She took a few moments to do just that. A scratching at the living room door plunged the room into silence. Everybody turned and looked, each imagining their own horror.

"Let me in! My darling needs me!" Tufts' voice was clearly heard from the other side of the door, and nervous laughter shot around the room. When Joyce got up and opened the door, Tufts was laying on the floor, unable to find any purchase on the door itself. "Well? Pick me up so I can hug you."

Reaching down, Joyce gave Tufts a good part of her sleeve to latch on to, and lifted the bat up from the ground. "You could have just asked. We were talking about—"

"About all the magic that flooded around. I heard." Tufts climbed along Joyce's arm until he could grip to her shoulder. Carefully, the bat extended one wing out to hug the arm he was previously clinging to. "I flied to the edge of it, and it just stops. I flew outside and then back in."

Everyone went silent immediately, letting Tufts have his say. But when he didn't continue, Joyce tickled his chin. "Was there anything strange at the edge?"

"Answers cost bananas." Tufts angled himself so he could look up at Joyce's eyes.

"If I give you a banana, you won't talk at all." Joyce booped Tufts on the nose with a careful tap. "But I promise I will get you banana when you are done talking."

Tufts eyed Joyce for a few minutes, then shrugged. "Not much else to tell you. I flew out, everything was normal, and I flew back into bizarro-town." He took nearly five seconds before he opened his mouth again. "Can I have a banana now?"

Joyce rolled her eyes. "Okay. But just this once." She walked out of the room, and felt the elation of getting her cutie mark hanging around her still. "Did you see my cutie mark?"

"My beloved finally got her cutie mark?" Tufts launched himself into the air, giving repeated screeches of joy before landing back on Joyce's jumper. "Does it have me on it?" Rolling her eyes, Joyce shook her head. "Would you like me to be?"

Having never seen such an expressive face on a bat before, Joyce was astounded to see Tufts' eyebrows waggling in a great imitation of a suggestive gesture. "Well, it does have bat wings, but I think those are mine." Fetching a banana from the fridge, Joyce headed back into the living room only to see three ponies exiting it.

"I think we're going to head up to the mine again, Joyce." Steve gestured to the front door with a hoof. "Not like the magic up there'll change us anymore."

"Be careful, all of you." Joyce noticed, as Steve, Dave, and Rosetta left, that Dave and Rose kept sharing glances. She realized why the relationship between the former girl and her former son hadn't gone too well: Rose liked guys. Lyra just wasn't doing it for Rose anymore, it wasn't like Rose's preference would change just because she did.

Author's Note

Joyce: were you prepared for this?

"Was I prepared for a rift to open between worlds, for magic to pour out and transform my whole family into ponies, for—for any of this?" Joyce gestured at the crude map that Dream Thunder had drawn. "Or do you mean to actually find out what I knew, that my life is all about healing?" A giddy smile spread over Joyce's face, making her look younger than ever.

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Airy Words
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Ian
Javarod
Nils
Shaushka
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Airy Words
Cross Lament
Vutava

Flappies

Language check. All in English.

Robin waited for the adults to leave to do adult stuff, and turned to Dream. "You got your cutie mark!" Despite her legs and arms ending in actual hooves, Robin managed to bounce up and down in excitement. "What was the big snake like? Was he nice?"

"I think you will find out tonight." Dream Thunder seemed easy to excite again, and soon started pronking in place with Robin. "You'll see! I think whenever anypony dreams now, they will be in that place. It is so cool!"

"What do you think mine will be?" Slowing her bouncing, Robin looked to her clothed flank. "Maybe a rocket ship? Or a race car? Oh, it could be like Mike's—"

Dream cut in. "Lyra."

"Yeah, like hers. Something awesome I could do…" Under her shirt, Robin's wings twitched in excitement; while she hadn't gotten the full hang of her wings, she was trying to play with them when she could.

"Well, what haven't you done before? We could do that!" Pointing one of her elongated wing-thumbs towards the door, and started walking for it. "Come on, what haven't you done, that you always wanted to do?"

Robin followed Dream out of the living room, and then out the back door of the house, trying to focus on what she liked doing that she hadn't done. "I don't get it?"

"What do you mean? What have you always wished you could do, that we could do now?" Dream Thunder led the way to the middle of the yard, and stretched her leathery wings. With an experimental flap, she laughed happily.

"Of course! Flying!" Robin raced to find her own spot in the back yard, and hiked her top up. More pony than human, there was not an inch of the young girl not covered in fur now, and when she leaned down to put all four "legs" on the ground, it wasn't uncomfortable at all. Of course, she had only been doing minor exercises with her wings, and when she stretched them out, they didn't stretch far at all.

Dream gently touched one of Robin's wings with her own. Grasping the hand, she teased it further out. "Come on, you need to stretch them further. There you go. Feel these bits? These are just like your fingers. Remember the pamphlet your mum made."

"But my hands should be here!" Robin held up a leg-arm and waved it at Dream Thunder. "Not up there!" She tilted her head and gestured to the wing she had held before Dream. When she tilted her head, however, her raised hoof proved to be a weak point in her stance.

Robin couldn't get her fourth limb down to the ground quickly enough to stop her fall, but as she started to lean forwards, one wing snapped out to full extension, and the other jerked from Dream's grip. Instinctively, both new limbs stroked forwards, her new hands cupping the air with her tight wings, and pushing her back onto her hooves.

Both girls stood quiet for a moment, then Robin squealed loudly in excitement. "I flew!"

Dream blinked in surprise. "What? That was pretty good, but you didn't—"

"My hooves left the ground for a moment!" Robin flapped her wings in excitement, kicking up some wind with each flap.

"Okay! You flew. But do you want to learn how to <fly>?" Dream Thunder curled her snout into an enticing grin. When Robin nodded to her, eyes wide, Dream continued. "Okay. Face me."

Jumping to action, Robin shuffled around on her too-awkward-for-bipedal-or-quadrupedal legs until she was facing Dream. Without prompting, she spread her wings again. "!"

"Alright. Most of the lift comes from these parts." Dream flicked her wings in a way to move the large expanse of sail that attached to her wing-arms and stretched all the way down her back. "It's what you lean on for stability, and then you use your outer wings to boost that."

"Uh, okay." Robin remembered the pamphlets her mother had made, and given out to everyone, but hers was tucked into her underwear drawer. "So?"

Dream let out an exasperated sigh. "You want to fly, right?"

"Yes!" Robin bounced in place a few times.

"Then you need to learn how to fly. It isn't easy, and your mum's pamphlet was useful." Dream Thunder lifted her wings up, and she saw Robin do the same. "Now, just flick them a little. Demonstrating with a slight wiggle of her wings, Dream waited for Robin to do the same.

Tucking her tongue out one corner of her short snout, Robin felt for the muscles she had used moments ago. Her first attempt to just wiggle ended up with a flap. Her second almost had it. Finally, she got the hang of using those muscles, and started wiggling her wings like Dream. "I did it!"

"Okay, next thing is a flap. Just one. But I want you to use those extra bits to curl your wings a little more, like this." Demonstrating a much more air-cupping position with her wings, Dream Thunder lifted them and flapped.

Robin's eyes widened in surprise as Dream lifted nearly a meter into the air. "Whoa! I gotta try that!" Spreading her wings, curling the fingers just how Dream had showed her, she jumped and flapped hard. Then flapped again.

"Stop!" Dream pumped her own wings hard, launching up to reach Robin. "Stop flapping!"

"But I'm flying! This is great!" Robin flapped her wings one more time before she remembered what she was really here to do. Leaning sideways, she looked at her flank; and promptly forgot to flap her wings.

Starting to fall, Robin's eyes widened, and she barely got her mouth open to start screaming when a strong pair of forelegs wrapped around her belly. "DREAM HELP!" Her scream was, of course, after Dream had grabbed her. She turned to look at her savior and saw grim determination on Dream's face.

Straining her wings, Dream set her teeth and held on tight to Robin. Using her big wings as brakes, she just held them out and let both of them drop safely back to the ground. "Robin."

Robin was clinging to Dream, holding on as tight as she could. "What?!"

"Hey, it's alright. You're safe." Dream booped her sister on the nose. "Come on, let's try that again."

The statement—and the boop—shocked Robin out of her panic. "Again? But I almost fell."

"Then learn not to. Just keep your wings out, silly." When Robin released her death-grip, Dream stood up and offered Robin a hoof up.

"So this is like a bike?" Robin took the hoof with her own, climbing up to her feet again. "Keep getting back on. It's just a lot longer to fall…"

"I'm not going to let you fall, Robin." Stepping back, Dream spread her wings again. "Okay, one flap this time." She waited until Robin stood mirroring her. "And flap."

Again and again they returned to the same position after flapping. Sometimes Robin was able to make it under her own power, and other times Dream Thunder would pluck her out of the air.

"Hovering is hard." Robin, despite her protest, was hovering. She had learned to never fold her wings up, never panic, and though she still sometimes did both, each time reduced the odds of her messing up.

"It's the hardest thing, actually. Even pegasi have it easier. Their wings flap a lot freer than ours. Watch how Mum does it." Dream was hovering before Robin, not making as much vertical movement as her sister, but also not hovering perfectly in place. "Plus, the higher up you are, the safer it is."

"What?!" Robin stared at Dream in shock. "But how does that work?"

"You have longer to fall, so more chance to stop and get your flapping happening again." Gesturing downwards with a hoof, Dream started slowing her flapping just a little. "Okay, let's head back down."

No sooner did Robin's hooves touch the ground than she heard hooves clopping together. She spun her head to see Lyra applauding. "I can fly, Mike!" She spread her wings and flapped them, careful not to actually catch air with them.

"I saw that, Squirt." Standing up from where she had sat to clop, Lyra walked towards her little sisters. "Practically gone completely batty, haven't you?"

"She needs a few more bits changed, but I don't think it will be much longer; less time still if she goes to the high-magic areas." Dream reached out with a foreleg and hugged Lyra. "Did you get a nap?"

"With Pinkie Pie here?" Lyra reached a foreleg up to catch Robin, and pulled her into the hug. "We saw you a few times, my window was open."

"I flew higher than the house!" Squeezing her sisters, Robin reflected on life's fortunes for about two seconds, then ignored the contemplation and squeezed Lyra and Dream more. "I'm going to get my cutie mark in flying, you'll see!"

"You might!" Lyra rubbed Robin's mane with a hoof. "You can do anything you put your mind to, Squirt." She kept working on Robin's mane vigorously, until Robin ducked out of the hug.

Sticking her tongue out, Robin spread her wings and flapped them, sending a rush of cold air over Lyra. "You're such a meanie sometimes!" Though the noogie annoyed her, Robin appreciated what Lyra said.

Letting go of Dream, Lyra walked up to Robin and booped her on the nose with a hoof. The shock left Robin staring in surprise. "Sometimes. But I have to be. Once you can fly properly I am never going to get to do that to you again." She reached out with a foreleg, as if to hug Robin.

"Nooo!" Robin jumped back and flapped her wings. She got up as high as the roof of the house before she dropped to her rough hover. "You were going to do it again!" Lyra was grinning up at her, intent plain on her face. Robin released some of the air her wings were cupping and dropped down to land on Lyra's back.

"Hey! Get off, Squirt!" Lyra bucked, but Robin locked her arm-legs tightly around Lyra's neck. "Dive-bombing is against the rules!" Her tone was only mock accusatory.

Gripping to Lyra as tight as she could, Robin giggled. "There aren't any rules! I win!"

"No rules?" Dropping, Lyra rolled over and grabbed Robin, now squealing, in her forelegs. "Then tickle-torture is legal again!" Her hooves proved just as good at tickling an almost-transformed bat pony as her hands had been with a human.

"N-N-No! Staaaaaaaaaahp!" Robin tried to retaliate, but she was laughing too much to be able to effectively fight against Lyra. Just about ready to cry out in defeat when Dream piled on.

"Us bats have to stick together!" Dream Thunder started tickling Lyra, getting a few laughs from her big sister. When Robin managed to stop laughing enough to join in, however, to get Lyra to let go.

Rolling around on her back, Lyra was laughing harder than she had in her life. She tried to fend off her sisters at first, but quickly gave in. "I surrender!"

"No more messing up my mane!" Robin didn't let up on her tickling.

"Or mine!" Dream was laughing almost as hard as Lyra.

"Alright!" Lyra was assaulted by tickling frogs for a few more seconds before Dream and Robin backed off. "That wasn't fair!"

"You agreed there weren't any rules." Robin had her wings slightly out, huffing and puffing in excitement. She lifted a hoof up to Dream, who replied with a solid clop. "So no more messing with our manes."

"Which means no more brushing." Lyra sat up, shook her head, and grinned at both her sisters.

"But I like brushing…" Dream turned to Robin and pulled the girl into a huddle. "I like brushing."

"Me too." Robin lifted a hoof up and tapped her chin.

"I got this." Dream Thunder turned back and looked at Lyra. "Brushings, will be exempted from the, 'No more messing up manes,' rule." She looked to Robin, and got a nod back. "Is it a deal?"

"As long as you help me with something." Lyra looked around and pointed at the barrier between their backyard and the Clay's. "I need a map. You need to do the whole town, and include the rings."

Dream narrowed her eyes. "What else do we get out of this?" The question shocked her a little at the sheer humanness of it. "Actually, we'll do it for that. This world is starting to get to me, I think."

"Hey, don't be like that. I'm your big sis'. Just ask, and if I can do it with magic, I can do it for you." Walking up to Dream Thunder, Lyra stretched her forelegs out and pulled Dream into a hug.

"Didn't you just start doing magic today?" Though she was a little perplexed by Lyra's offer, Dream didn't hold back from hugging in return. Robin picked then to pile in as well.

Lyra squeezed both her little sisters, and gave Robin a little peck on the top of her head as well. "Yeah. Well, I am going to be going to Princess Celestia's school. So this is an open offer. But all I have managed so far is some instruments and a monster headache."

"Deal!" Robin and Dream both said at the same time.

Author's Note

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Javarod
Nils
Shaushka
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Airy Words
Cross Lament
Vutava

Yummy Yummy

Language check. All in English.

Lyra smiled at her two sisters as they walked off. Even Robin's almost-finished body moved well on all fours now. A sound drew Lyra's attention behind her. The back door opened and closed, and she heard two unsteady feet making their way out of the house. "I gave them something to do for the rest of the day. Robin's really taking to flying."

"At least I named one of you properly." Joyce reached Lyra's side and put an arm around her daughter. "What did you get them doing?"

"They're going to school to get some graph paper, and they're going to make a map of the town." Leaning into her mother's hug, Lyra let out a happy sigh. "If my magic is going to be this much of a problem, maybe I should go to the Princess' school sooner rather than later."

Joyce squeezed Lyra tighter still. "You could come too, mum. Bring Robin." When her mother made a scoffing sound, Lyra lifted a hoof and pointed it at Joyce. "Look at yourself, mum. You barely look older than twenty. You know I don't like to swear much, but fuck Dad. Why don't you come too and make the kind of clean break you gave Robin and me?"

Joyce snorted. "Right. And leave this place with no competent doctor for nearly a hundred kays?"

"What about all those doctors that just showed up?" As soon as Lyra said it, she knew what the answer would be. Knowing the joke that was coming didn't make it any worse a set up.

"I said competent doctors." Joyce's smile said that she knew what Lyra had done. "That's probably selling them short. This is a little more than what a doctor can deal with." She held out her free forehoof.

Lyra shrugged. "Mums, on the other hand, seem to have a handle on things."

"Trying to. What's your plan for the rest of the day?" The sun was hanging heavy in the sky, reminding Joyce and Lyra that all the madness had started at a little after lunchtime.

"I was actually thinking on that before. Everyone is going to want an explanation, just like what Dave and Steve gave us. You think if we went around town and told everyone—and everypony—to bring some salad and fruit, we could get it all done at once?" Lyra looked across at that strange barrier between magic and non-magic.

"Good plan." Joyce turned back to the house and opened the back door. "Not everyone will have something. You should start making things up now."

"Wait. Why me?" Following her mother, regardless, Lyra headed back inside.

"Two reasons, Mi—Lyra, dear." The small stutter on her daughter's name showed that Joyce was still working at the change. "It was your idea, but also you can't exactly walk across all those magic areas right now."

A reminder of the earlier headache made Lyra shudder. "Curses. Hoist by my own petard! Hey, Tufts, want to help me make—"

Joyce cut in over her daughter. "Don't say it!"

Lyra's revenge was complete. "...fruit salad?"

A loud screech from the kitchen was the perfect answer, but of course Tufts followed up. "That would be the best idea ever! And don't forget, you have to test the food as you make it." Gripping to his perch in the kitchen, Tufts peeked around the doorway to look at Lyra and Joyce. "And you are so lucky you have the best fruit-tasting palate in the world right here."

"You're going to suffer for this, you know?" Joyce groaned and started walking for the front door.

Lyra barked a laugh. "Yeah, yeah." She turned to Tufts. "How'd you learn so much about food and cooking?" She lifted a hoof and rubbed under Tuft's chin.

"Curled up on the couch watching cooking shows with my beloved." Tuft's words slurred a little, and he closed his eyes to surrender fully to the excellent bat-rub.

"She's a lucky mare to have a bat so devoted to her." Lyra cocked her head and looked at her mother as Joyce left the house. "So, what do we have in the fridge, Tufts? I need fruit salads, and something more leafy for our pony guests."

The fruit salads had been easier said than done. For a start, Lyra had to chop up the fruit with just her hooves—which made her immensely thankful to Pinkie Pie for helping her learn how to use those hooves. The second problem was Tufts. When the bat finally managed to say that something tasted good, it was after eating about half the fruit that was meant to go into it.

Conversely, making up some fresh garden salads had been easy as pie, and the few Caesar salads she made were prepared unmolested by bat claws. Lyra had nearly six big bowls of salad made when Dream and Robin returned. "Great! You two are just in time to help. Wash your hooves and wings, and get back in here."

"Wait! We did the map!" Robin put her heart and soul into the whine she gave. Like Dream Thunder, Robin wore not a stitch of clothing.

Dream wrapped a leathery wing around Robin's withers and pulled her off to the bathroom. "We'll be back to help!"

Setting the things to make up two more fruit salads aside, Lyra started in on another bowl, this one was a potato salad. She was so engrossed in cutting the potatoes up, that Lyra didn't notice her two helpers were assembled.

Tufts let out a little kee of excitement when Dream and Robin started preparing their own salads. "As the official taste-tester, I must warn you that those grapes are only fit for bats." He pointed at the huge pile of grapes on the table.

Lyra turned to spot her sisters. "Good thing we have a lot of bats coming then. Just make up some salads, we are expecting the whole town—both of them—to turn up."

While Dream Thunder fumbled with her salad, Robin proved much more adept with her wings. Fruit practically flew past the knife she wielded, and the salad was almost done before poor Tufts had a single piece.

Dream just stared at Robin, blinking owlishly. "Sweet Celestia…"

"What's wrong?" Lyra turned around to watch her youngest sister actually juggling fruit. "Slow down, Squirt." But even as Lyra spoke, her little sister finished the fruit salad.

Robin stared at what she had done in absolute shock. "W-W-What just… What did I do?"

"Prove that you are better at this than me." Dream pushed her own bowl of fruit in front of Robin. "And since you are so good at it, you win a prize!"

"Is it grapes?" Tufts crawled across the table, and stretching out a long wing, speared a small bunch of grapes, pulling them back to enter The Cavern of Fruit Destruction (his mouth).

"Assuming you don't eat them all." Dream rubbed Tufts on the head with one claw-tip. Turning most of her attention back to Robin, Dream smiled. "Come on. Make with the chop-chop!"

Robin's left wing grabbed up a knife, while her right one started the crazy juggling that always seemed to get a piece of fruit under the knife blade at just the right time.

"Whoa…" Lyra Heartstrings stared at her little sister, as Robin made short work of the salad. Then something happened that almost floored Lyra. She stepped to the side, and looked further down Robin's body.

Dream Thunder caught sight of Lyra's gaze, and traced her eyes back along Robin's body to her hip. She almost exploded with excitement, bouncing in place and keeing just like Tufts, but much louder.

"What's wrong?" Robin put the knife down and turned to Dream. "Are you okay?" She looked at both Lyra and Dream, and she slowly seemed to realize they were staring behind her. Turning, Robin's eyes traced down her side and locked onto the pattern on her flank. She stared a moment, seemingly unable to talk.

Lyra's ears folded back as the second bat-squeal threatened not only her senses, but every piece of glass in a mile radius. "You got your cutie mark!"

"Congratulations!" Dream reached out with her wings and hugged Robin, and both of them started keeing excitedly. Not to be outdone, Tufts joined his two daughters.

With her ears folded as tight as they would go, Lyra rolled her eyes and waited for the three bats to finish their fun. Gathering up the two fruit salads Robin had made, Lyra carried them over to the bench one at a time.

"I got my cutie mark by making fruit salad?" Robin—done with her excited keeing—studied the symbol on her flank. The gray fur had a little wooden bowl piled high with chunks of fruit, while more pieces soared above it. "I wanted my cutie mark in flying! Or doing magic!"

"I can't speak for the magic,"—Lyra lifted her hoof up and tapped at her own horn—"but nothing has happened to your wings, so you can still fly." Still using her hooves only, she tried to stretch cling-film over the bowls, but it was proving more difficult than she had hoped.

"Yeah. This just means you make a really good fruit salad." Dream poked Robin's flank. "Not that you have to only do that. But you have to admit, making awesome fruit salad is going to make you really popular with other bat ponies." She lifted a hoof.

Robin lifted her own hoof and connected it to Dream's with a solid clopping sound. "I guess. I just wanted something really amazing."

Reaching out with a wing, Tufts snagged some paper towel off the roll on the table, and deposited the last of his grapes into it with a sad, little kee. He crawled across the table to be as close to Robin as he could, and looked up at her. "You can do something really amazing, though! You make me the happiest father in all of Australia!"

Lyra giggled when Tufts leapt the gap, wrapping his own wings around Robin's neck, and holding on with his claws. "Why don't I doubt that?" She tried one last time with the cling wrap, and before she could get it pressed down neatly on the bowl, she felt a stretching in her forehead.

Robin and Dream stared in surprise as the cling-wrap roll jumped into the air, held aloft in golden magic. The roll detached from the box and started zooming around Lyra.

"No! Stop it! I don't want to—" Lyra's voice cut off as some of the cling film wrapped tightly around her head. She reached a hoof up and dragged a hole in the front for her mouth, but of course the animated roll of plastic caught up that leg and bound it tightly to her neck. "Help!"

"Wait." Dream held a wing out to stop Robin from advancing. "Let the roll spool out first. If we go anywhere near her, we'll end up sandwiched together."

"I got this." Robin stepped up to bat for Lyra, and approached the zooming roll. As the roll of cling-wrap diverted towards her, Robin lashed out with a wing and sliced the plastic off.

Lyra's eyes widened, and her magic suddenly cut off. Falling down, she flopped on her side. "Okay. Next trick: get me out of this!" All she could do was squirm on the floor uselessly.

Author's Note

To Doctor Ward: how's that coming along?

"We cannot comment on an ongoing case, but I will say,"—Doctor Ward looked more than a little worried—"we have the situation completely under control."

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Javarod
Nils
Shaushka
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Vutava

Rescue

Language check. Anything wrapped in [ ] in this chapter is dream-speak, anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken Equish, and everything else is in English.

"Okay everybody," Joyce said, her voice cutting above the general chatter in her backyard. She realized the problem the moment she looked around at the mix of ponies and human/bat ponies: there was two different groups, and not all of them spoke the same language. "This is going to be a problem, we don't all speak English or Equish. Uh… ."

"J-Joyce, I think I can help, but I need everybody to go to sleep." Dream seemed to be acting a little odd, looking a little spaced out.

"Asleep? Dream, are you alright?" Hands moving automatically, Joyce checked Dream's nose and pulse.

"Kinda. Well, yeah. Maybe…" Shaking her head a little, Dream suddenly seemed more focused. "But I need everyone to go to sleep, and if they will let me, I can help." She smiled up at Joyce.

"The Rainbow Serpent is going to help?" It wasn't a huge jump of reasoning for Joyce. If what Dream had said about the being was right, they had most of their power in dreams. "I guess we can't do much else but ask them."

Joyce cleared her throat again, and everyone present actually fell silent. "I need you all to trust Dream,"—she put her hand on Dream's shoulder—"and she will help this go a lot easier. She can help, but only if we are all asleep." The mental jump to another language wasn't instant, but Joyce had been practicing. "."

Everyone in the crowd looked around at each other. There was a lot of shrugging (a wonderfully universal gesture), but few grumbled about the request—it was hard to grumble at an adorable filly who looked so nervous.

"Will it hurt?" Paul Harrison rubbed his head.

"No, you will just sleep. But you will all be able to talk together, like a big shared dream." Smiling, Dream Thunder ruffled her wings a little. "."

More murmurs ran around those assembled. Most of the ponies took Dream's offer at face value, and arranged themselves to sleep on the grass, which left a lot of the not-quite-humans following suit once they realized that they were likely to miss out.

Joyce raised an eyebrow at Dream. "You really can do this?" She began to sit down on the rough grass, then lay to her side. Oddly, the normally less than comfortable position felt like the softest bed, and a yawn came to her unbidden.

"I don't think it is me who will be doing it. Snaky said I would be a [focus] of their dreams." By the time Dream Thunder finished talking, no one around her was awake anymore.

Blinking her eyes, Joyce sat up and stretched her wings. She looked down at herself, not seeing the half-transformed creature, but another bat pony like Dream. She didn't just feel better like this, she felt right. Dream appeared beside her, and Joyce reached a wing out to hug the filly against her. "[You did it]!"

Shaking her head, Dream Thunder was pulled into the wing-hug and laughed. "[Well, it was mostly Snaky doing it]."

"[MY NAME ISN'T SNAKY]."

Everyone who had been slowly waking into the dream jerked up at the voice. It wasn't loud, it just had weight behind it. The only problem was, the voice of the Rainbow Serpent didn't come from a specific location: it was just everywhere.

"[Okay. So we worked out how to get you all able to talk. So talk]." Dream gestured at all the ponies—and everyone was a pony—with her free wing.

"[Okay everyone, listen up]." As Joyce spoke, pointed ears all around twitched and turned towards her. "[Thanks to Dream and her big friend, this will be a lot easier to manage. So, things got a little strange today, and I think there is someone important who needs to explain to us what is going on]."

A tingling ran through Joyce, and she had the sudden issue of trying to work out how to address a supposed god. "[Rainbow Serpent. Dream Thunder said you were stopping the magic from pouring out more. Could you explain that a little further]?"

"[IT'S SLOSHING]." The Rainbow Serpent's voice was no less intense. "[I TRIED TO STOPPER IT AT THE MINE, BUT THERE WAS TOO MUCH]."

A little in awe of the voice, Joyce had to shake herself to be able to think more clearly. The Rainbow Serpent had tried to stop the magic, but couldn't. "[Are you alright]?"

Joyce held back a gasp as her dream-self was pulled away from her backyard. A rush of sensations and movement flooded Joyce's senses, but before she could feel sick it all stopped. Power roared around her, like the air itself was thick with static electricity or a summer thunderstorm. She started looking up, and up, and up. "[Uh, hi]!" It was the stupidest thing Joyce could think of to say, but it was the only thing she could think of to say.

"[A MEDICINE… WOMAN]?" The voice paused, waiting for Joyce to nod her pony head. "[THE MAGIC REMADE MORE THAN MEN. ONE NEEDS YOUR HELP]."

The moment she felt the words, Joyce's instinct to help overrode self-preservation and awe in one go. "[Where are they? Do you need me to go there in the—the waking world]?" Joyce felt a sense of a purr, like a giant feline, then movement again. This time she could track where she was: two hills deep into the ranges, near a small water-hole.

Looking around, Joyce finally noticed two nostrils sitting up out of the water. There was a little fur on them, and she was sure it wasn't anything she had seen before. "[What is it]?"

"[BUNYIP]." The word reverberated around the dream-plane. From the water, the beast walked as if it were on the end of a leash being pulled against its will. "[THE MAGIC BRINGS CHANGE. NOT ALL CHANGES ARE SO GENTLE. THEY NEED YOUR HELP]."

Joyce approached the creature as soon as enough of it was out of the water to see its limp. A strange shimmer seemed to pour over the bunyip, and for a moment Joyce could see a terrified kangaroo, then the image solidified back as the monster. It stood, when it was out of the water, taller at its shoulders than Joyce's head. Large teeth filled a mouth that hung half open. The body of the creature resembled another beast that hadn't been seen in decades: a Tasmanian tiger—thylacine.

"[If you don't eat me, I can help you]." Joyce approached the bunyip, and reached one wing out to it. The huge head reached down and sniffed her outstretched limb.

"[FIND HER. SHE NEEDS YOUR HELP, AND WON'T HURT YOU]."

With only a moment to catch her breath and remember the place, Joyce woke up and gasped. All around her people and ponies were sleeping. She had a brief thought as to waking them, but shook her head. "I need to help that—that bunyip."

Rushing inside her house, Joyce ignored the stacks of salad bowels, and found her medical case. "I'm going crazy. Joyce, what are you doing? You are going to run into the bush at the behest of the Rainbow Serpent to save a bunyip with a sore leg. Those damn psych doctors might have been right…" As she spoke, however, she made her way back outside and past all the sleeping residents.

The going wasn't easy, not with her three-quarter-formed hooves. Joyce grunted a little with each step, and the grunts turned to mini growls once she met the first foothill.

Of course, it wasn't too easy. Joyce had to duck through a barbwire fence, dodge around a whole mess of bull-ant nests, and as she got over the first hill found herself plunged into a high-magic area. Away from town, the magic seemed wilder than the calm bands of Equestria taken from Stonecrop.

A tingling in her feet drew Joyce's attention down for a moment, and she could see her almost-hoof slowly pull together and firm up. "Oh shit, what the—" Leaning forward, the medical case under her arm, Joyce started running on her newly formed hooves.

She ran and ran, but kept her target ahead of her until, finally, she was racing down the side of the second hill and saw the water-hole. The bush was quiet around Joyce, and the disquieting feeling of her body changing seemed to stop. "I know you're in the water. I'm the one from the dream, the one who can help."

Joyce's eyes were locked on the surface of the pool. The bunyip in her dream had been big enough to take her head off with one bite, but the Rainbow Serpent had promised her she would be safe. "I just want—"

She didn't get another word out. The slightest hint of movement in the scrub behind her alerted Joyce, and as she turned a pair of strong jaws started to come down around her midsection. The bunyip was huge, hungry, and she was prey-sized.

Thunder cracked, and from a clear sky, lightning came down like the thunderbolt it was. Joyce's heart skipped a beat, and to her shock the bunyip let go of her and dove backwards.

"Okay, that's it! If you want help from me that's all well and good, but you do not eat me!" Stomping forwards, adrenaline fueling her rage, Joyce poked one forehoof at the bunyip's huge snout and dented its nose a little. "Bad bunyip!"

As she smacked the huge predator on the nose, Joyce saw it shuffle backwards, and saw the damaged leg. Panic that had been overwritten with rage was now flooded by concern. She grabbed her medical case back up and moved around the startled bunyip.

The big creature seemed frozen in shock, and didn't even react when Joyce came to its side and began feeling its sore leg. As she probed, the bunyip's head turned and loomed behind her, jaws agape.

"This is broken. No wonder you are so sore and can't move properly." The bones under Joyce's wings moved, and she knew the bunyip was turning, moving. "Stop right there!" Her voice, like that of any doctor or vet, stopped her patient in their tracks. "Get over on your side, I'm going to need some things and you need to be off that."

The bunyip resisted Joyce's efforts to push it over at first, but then it stiffened, and flopped over obligingly. Tilting its head up to watch, it had no idea what the little needle in Joyce's wing-grip was until the sting of it bit through flesh.

"There." Joyce squeezed down on the tiny Syrette of morphine, giving the full dose to the bunyip. The drug would act fast, and she watched as the formerly angry beast suddenly turned fussy. "Feeling better?" Surprising herself, Joyce reached a hoof up to the bunyip's inquisitive snout and rubbed it. "This is going to feel really bad, but I have to get this straight."

Standing back up, Joyce stretched her legs and stood up. Looking around, she spotted what she was after. "Stay there, okay?" She looked at the bunyip's face, noting the teeth showing, but there was no malice in the look it gave her. "The big guy said you were a girl, huh? I wonder if you want a name?"

Walking to her target, Joyce collected two straight, heavy branches and turned around. The bunyip kept staring back at her, and in the look she saw confusion, hunger, a touch of panic, but above all was trust. "One hit of morphine and you are suddenly my best friend? With a nasty break I can understand that."

Bracing the tibia wasn't as hard as she would have guessed, and her patient lay peacefully for her to do it. As she worked, Joyce felt bones popping in her own back. "Just wait a little more. Let me get her all bandaged before whatever is going to happen, happens." It was strange working with her wings and forelegs, but for the first time in her life Joyce had enough limbs to actually get a job done.

With a strong bandage wrapping the lower leg of the bunyip from knee to ankle, Joyce used a tube of superglue on the end of the bandage to secure it. Holding the end until it hardened took long enough that the popping in her spine stopped, but Joyce was slightly hunched forward.

Letting go of the bunyip's bandage, Joyce tried to stand up and, of course, failed. She barely balanced on two legs for a few seconds before crashing forward, and almost landed on the bunyip. "Oh fuck it, why now?"

Her shirt hung loosely around her barrel, and her pants were no longer holding her hips, instead hanging around her back hooves. Noticing movement from her patient, Joyce jerked her head up to glare at them. "Don't you dare move yet."

Sliding out of her clothes took a few minutes, but soon enough Joyce was not only fully a bat pony, but was also naked. Well, fur stood for something, or so Joyce convinced herself. Bundling her clothes up and on the medical case and lifted it under one wing. Curling her long wing-fingers around the case, she held it, snug, to her side.

"Okay. You are going to be running around on that leg, diving into the water, basically everything that you shouldn't do." Joyce looked up at the tooth-filled maw of the bunyip. "This's crazy already. What's one more crazy thing? Come on." Turning her back on the bunyip took a lot of bravery, but Joyce had to make her way out of the bush.

She managed ten steps before she heard a branch break behind her. Joyce tilted her head and looked back with one eye. "Well? Come on. You're keeping your weight off that leg, which is good." Marching on all-fours took a lot of Joyce's focus, but every few steps she heard breaking branches behind her.

Leading the bunyip over the first hill, Joyce was halfway out when movement beside her caught her attention. That huge, gaping mouth was practically level with her own head. "The biggest animal I have ever dealt with is a cow, you have one of them beat by about half again in size. Big softie, though." Reaching out one wing, she hooked her thumb-claw behind the bunyip's ear and began to scratch them.

Unlike Joyce's children (and other ponies she had managed to test) rubbing the bunyip's ear didn't cause them to go zombie-like, but the big creature did relax and walk close at Joyce's side. Walking—avoiding any other gait—Joyce had to appreciate the stability four legs gave her on the rough ground. She crested the second hill, the last of the ranges, and looked down at the town.

Cowwarr was mostly quiet. She could see all the residents in her own backyard curled up and asleep. "I guess I won't be in this meeting after all. Let's get you down there and settled. I have some meat in the freezer; I'll thaw that out for you. Something tells me you aren't going to be a herbivore."

As they neared the house, Joyce felt the bunyip pull its head away from her. She looked up and saw the creature sniffing at the air. "Just a bunch more ponies, and a few humans—part-humans." Joyce froze, watching the bunyip's demeanor change from relaxed to completely focused. She tried to trace its line of sight and saw her own daughter: Lyra.

Joyce moved as quickly as she realized who the bunyip was focused on. Her hooves stumbled, but she broke into a gallop, pumped her wings, and shot forward. The speed of a mother rushing to protect her child, even in an unfamiliar body, trumped that of a large predator.

Spinning around, at the edge of her backyard, Joyce wheeled and faced the bunyip. "No!" Her voice was firm, and Joyce spread her wings (dropping the medical case and her clothes).

Slowed by its sore limb, the bunyip bunched up its one good back leg and prepared to jump over Joyce. It's eyes were locked on the mint-colored creature that stood out so vividly among the rest. The smack to its nose startled the bunyip, and it froze in shock at the surprise the impact caused it.

Joyce had a perfect view of that huge, slobbering mouth as the bunyip looked down at her. Her heart raced, and she felt like she had to run from the huge predator. "No! Bad bunyip! The Rainbow Serpent said you would not hurt anyone, and I am holding you to it! Back off from my family!"

The bunyip stared down at the pony that had made its leg hurt less. Confusion reigned, but it saw the pony had her hoof raised again.

Panting hard, Joyce watched as the bunyip shied back a step, then another. She saw confusion and fear on the bunyip's face. "I'll get you food, but you can't hurt my friends and family." She stepped up closer, this time offering her wing to the bunyip. The huge head leaned down, and a tongue entirely too big to be real licked along her wing membrane. "If this is an apology, I accept. No harm done." Joyce stepped forward and reached her other wing up and to the side of the bunyip's head, her thumb rubbing at one of its ears. The beast dropped to its belly before her.

With everyone still asleep, Joyce folded her legs and curled up beside the bunyip's head. She kept a thumb at its ear constantly to keep it distracted. "Yours was a little more sudden than mine, I guess, but we are both a little different."

The lines of the bunyip, now Joyce could really examine it without it immediately threatening her, really matched up with a typical marsupial look. Bunched and powerful back-legs that were tipped with a good set of claws, a tail that looked to be heavily muscled. "If I had to guess, I would say you were more like a Tasmanian tiger now than the kangaroo you started as. From herbivore to carnivore." She kept her voice low, calming.

She lay, relaxed, helping the bunyip have some peace. A screech pierced the air, and Joyce lifted her head just in time to see Tufts flapping towards her as fast as he could fly. "What's—"

"My darling!" Tufts let out another war-kee. "I'll protect you!" His attempt to dive-bomb the monster he found slobbering all over Joyce was halted by a patch of darkness that wrapped around him.

With Tufts trapped in her wing, Joyce juggled the bat and attempted to keep the bunyip calm. "I have it all under control, Tufts." Despite her reassurance, Tufts seemed determined to save her. "Tufts, if you don't calm down I am not buying mangoes for a month!" Her threat was doubly hollow now, her mouth actually started to water at the mention of fruit.

The struggling stopped. "No mangoes?"

Joyce had picked well, she had Tufts' full attention. "None. And I don't think we will need grapes anymore ei—"

"I'm sorry!" The most pitiful little sob came from Joyce's wing. "Just don't—just don't take it out on my kids. I'm all they've got!"

"Wait, what?" Lost, Joyce opened her wing to see Tufts smiling wide out at her. He was holding onto her much larger wing, and using his own wings to push himself up to look at Joyce.

"Their mother is—she's a heartless beast!" Rocking his head from side to side, Tufts winked at Joyce. "Threatening to take away a bat's mangoes; there is no worse punishment."

Joyce lifted her wing up and, for lack of another convenient manipulative limb, nuzzled against Tufts' side. "Silly bat."

"What happened? I saw the monster charging at everyone through the window, and lost sight of you as I tried to get outside." Tufts turned his head and let out an angry kee at the back door of the house. "By the time I worked out how to get free, you were laying here, and it was trying to eat your wing!"

"Like this?" Joyce held her free wing up to the bunyip again, and it licked at the soft membrane. "She's scared and hungry. She thought Lyra was food, I said no."

"Wait a second." Tufts, hanging upside down, looked all over Joyce, even using his thumb to hook her wing up so he could study her closer. "You're a bat pony now! Fully, I mean." It was a moment for celebration so far as Tufts was aware. He leaned back on the grip his legs held, and flapped his wings for all he was worth.

The huge, long tongue of the bunyip's snaked out and licked Tufts, surprising the bat.

"Hey! Now it's trying to eat me!" He quickly tucked his wings back in and climbed around Joyce's wing until he was snug against her side. "Eat her first! She is bigger and has more succulent wings!"

Joyce knew Tufts was fishing for outrage, but didn't want to give the bat the satisfaction. Instead, she changed tack. "You think my wings are succulent?" She held her wing up and feigned admiring it.

"Oh, uh…" Tufts looked at the huge bat wing stretched out. "My darling, your wings are curved to perfection, and they block out the sun most well. Perfect for a,"—Tufts yawned—"a bat nap."

Author's Note

Nightmare Moon: How would you feel about the possibility of meeting a town full of ponies that are bats? Or bats that are ponies. ... Bat-ponies, basically, is what I'm saying here.

"BATS? I CARE NOT FOR BATS! THE ONLY THING I DESIRE IS MY DEAR SISTER'S PONIES. THE DAY DRAWS NEAR, CELESTIA. ARE YOU READY FOR MY RETRIBUTION?"

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Javarod
Nils
Shaushka
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Vutava

A New Angle

Language check. All in English.

Lyra yawned and rolled to her belly. Arching her spine, she looked around at the rest of the townsfolk—all of whom were waking up as well. She looked to her side, and spotted Robin and Candela, and on the other side was Dream.

"Well that was restful, considering the topic." Lyra reached out a hoof to gently tap on Dream's shoulder. When Dream roused and turned to Lyra, she smiled at her little sister. "That was really cool."

"Thanks!" Bouncing to her hooves, Dream gave her wings a few flaps. "Mr. Snaky is awesome, isn't he?" Her smile spoke of the joke she was playing: the Rainbow Serpent had given up correcting Dream halfway through the meeting. "Wait, what happened to Joyce?"

Reminded of her mother, Lyra sat up and looked around. What she saw shocked her. The back border of their garden, that cut the thin bush-land of the first hills off, had a most peculiar creature sitting at it. Beside the creature was Joyce, but Lyra couldn't see a hint of her mother's human aspect in them.

Pushing to her hooves, Lyra took a few wobbly steps, then aimed herself towards her mother. "First Tufts… Now who have you brought home?" As Lyra neared, she noticed a very focused look from the creature.

Lyra trusted her mother. She trusted Joyce to keep control of what looked like a particularly big carnivore. As she neared, she watched as one of Joyce's wings reached up and started rubbing the creature's ear.

"She followed me home. Can I keep her?" Joyce rolled her eyes, using them to gesture towards the bunyip. "I don't suppose the Rainbow Serpent said anything more about her? What her name is? Maybe how we are meant to care for something big enough to eat the whole town?"

"If they did, it was to Dream. They were very chummy together. The rest of us talked about the day, about what was happening." Lyra shrugged. "It was all fairly boring. You know all the details from the mine, people just wanted to hear that, and I had to tell my story about using magic like five times."

Lyra tapped at her chin in thought. "Oh, one thing I didn't realize. I remember you saying how Paul Harrison seemed a little too happy to hang around?" She waited for Joyce to nod. "He and Porcelain Clay have been seeing each other."

"Wait, what?" Joyce blinked up at her daughter in shock. "I spoke to Porcelain a week ago, she doesn't understand a word of English. And I know Paul doesn't know Equish."

"How do you think I figured it out? They nattered on for ages. Almost like it was the first time they had actually spoken." Laying down, Lyra held out a hoof, slowly, to the bunyip. "It can't be a herbivore with those teeth."

Joyce waited until the bunyip sniffed Lyra's hoof, and licked it, before fessing up. "When it first got here, and you were all asleep, I had to stop it from attacking you."

"It was going to eat everyone?" Lyra froze, her hoof still getting a tongue-bath. Now she was starting to wonder if it was just getting a taste of her.

"I am pretty sure it was focused on you. When you have a moment, could you find that meat we have in the freezer and start it defrosting?" Joyce spoke, of course, of the last meat she had bought before realizing that the house had transitioned to vegetarianism without her noticing. "We're going to need to go shopping tomorrow. And by 'we' I mean 'you.' I don't want to leave her alone right now."

"You wanted to eat me? That's silly; you wouldn't be able to get pets." Rubbing the bunyip's jaw, Lyra tilted her head and examined the creature. "What happened to them?" She knew her mother too well; there was no doubt in Lyra's mind that the animal had been sick, or that her mother was committed to helping it.

"The Rainbow Serpent told me about it. As soon as I fell asleep, it showed me where they were." Pausing only to adjust the wing Tufts huddled under, Joyce pressed her snout under the wing, poking gently at Tufts' shoulder. "I thought everyone was going to be in the dream, but apparently Tufts wasn't."

Lyra caught her mother's implication. "Okay, you want to know everything, don't you?" When Joyce nodded, Lyra sighed. "Okay, well you know how we did it in the living room? That is what we did. Everyone sat around in a circle and told their story.

You know Dave and Steve's, and Rose too. You know mine." Lyra rolled her eyes expressively. "Mist—Dream Thunder's was just as impressive the second time around. I can't believe that gods existed."

Joyce cut in on her daughter, but not before Lyra finished her sentence. "I don't think they did." Ignoring the fidgeting of Tufts for a moment, she looked in the direction of the mine. "What if the big rush of magic looked for a pattern, like it did when it made us into ponies?"

"What do you mean?" Lyra, having bent her mind to the ministrations of magic a few times now, was intrigued.

"Okay. So magic starts rushing out of Equestria, and it is swirling around us." Waiting for her daughter to nod, Joyce continued. "Humans just aren't magical—not like Equestria is—so it tries to find a shape to change us into, and picks up on ponies. From what you said, ponies are the most common race over there."

Lyra gave a snort. "Well, yeah. I didn't see anyone but ponies, but then that might have just been because I was at the pony capital, Mum."

"No need to be like that. I am sure there was at least one non-pony there." The droll expression Joyce shot Lyra lasted a few seconds, and both of them couldn't fight the laughter that came from it.

Recovering first, Lyra lifted her hoof back into place against the bunyip's neck, rubbing slowly. "So you are saying we are ponies because they are ponies. We covered that already, and it doesn't explain almost everyone turning into bat ponies."

"There is a colony of bats here. Well, there has to be for Tufts to be here." Lifting her wing, Joyce revealed Tufts.

"We could start a new colony, my darling." Tufts locked his little eyes on Joyce, and winked at her.

Joyce rolled her eyes, but lifted her wing up and forward to give Tufts another nuzzle.

"Weakening, Mum?" Lyra shifted a little, adjusting her legs underneath her for some more comfort. "When do I start calling Tufts, 'Dad'?"

Tufts stretched his wings out and gave them a few flaps. "This is why I moved in: a beautiful bat as my wife, clever pups…" Settling his wings again, Tufts looked up at Joyce. "Not to mention their mother being fiercely clever, and a defender of bats."

"Careful Mum, he seems serious. Although of all the guys you have dated, Tufts is definitely the leader of the pack." It was impossible for Lyra to hold back.

"Serious? In this family?" Joyce poked Lyra with a wingtip. "I don't think you even know the meaning of the word. Anyway, back to what we were talking about. So suddenly there is this rush of magic, and it looks for a pattern. You know how old the myths about the Rainbow Serpent are?"

Lyra tapped her chin with a spare hoof. "Old?"

"Really old. Tens of thousands of years. For all that a lot of people have believed in other deities, a lot of people have believed in the Rainbow Serpent longer." Joyce rolled a little, leaning against the bunyip (who seemed to be perfectly relaxed at the contact, and the continued petting from Lyra). "What if the Rainbow Serpent is just magic that found a big pattern?"

Tufts cut in before Lyra could answer. "Not that they would admit it." When the attention of Joyce and Lyra fell on him, he tucked his snout under one wing. "They wouldn't. The god of creation and all that wouldn't even whisper that they are just a few scraps of magic holding wings."

"Huh." Lyra looked from Tufts to her mother. Joyce shrugged at her with both wings. "I guess the same would hold true for any others that happen to show up. They aren't quite the real thing, but from what we have seen so far, the Rainbow Serpent seems to have all its old tricks.

"Hold on. If magic is pouring out of the mine in a wave, and it washes out and flows back to create the standing waves, where is the excess going?" Lyra wasn't sure why, but she looked to Tufts.

Tufts apparently took the look as an invitation to answer. "Big snake, big hunger. You haven't seen any other gods?"

Joyce looked between her daughter and her "betrothed" a few times. She settled down to the bunyip's side a little more. "It might be time to get his food. Just grab as much meat as you can from the freezer."

As Lyra stood up, Tufts pumped his wings and swung up as hard as he could. Practically throwing himself into the air, Tufts didn't have far to go to land in Lyra's mane. Small claws clamped on and held to the hair. "I'll keep you safe from the bunyip!" He gave a kee of firm resolve.

"Unless the bunyip offers you a banana, right?" Lyra winked at her mother and walked to wards the house. Of Robin and Dream, Lyra saw not a single tuft, but she found Rose sitting at the kitchen table. "Oh. Hi, Rose."

"Hi Mik—" Rose froze at her gaff. "Sorry, I just—It's just too much, sometimes." She held her hooves around a big coffee cup, the steaming contents providing much warmth.

"It's no stress, Rose. Still freaks me out a bit. Not all that long ago I was a normal human, now I am a different gender and a mythological creature." Lyra reared up at the bench and turned the kettle on again.

"And there you ruin a winning streak." Tufts reached a wing around Lyra's face, blinding his "daughter."

"Hey!" Lyra tried to free her face of bat wing, and just managed to clonk herself in the jaw with a hoof.

"Alas! She was so terribly smart, until she shoved her hoof so far down her throat she could sit down and tap dance." Tufts lowered his voice and pulled back the wing. In doing so, he pulled his head up to Lyra's ear. "He has been through the same thing."

Lyra froze. "Ah shit." She divested herself of marauding bat limbs (relegating Tufts to the back of her mane again), and turned to Rose at the table. "I'm an idiot after all. Sorry, Rose. I didn't think."

Managing to look at Lyra for nearly thirty seconds without breaking her expression, Rosetta finally snorted and shook his. "This really is all kinds of messed up. You're still the clueless guy, Lyra, and I am the overthinking girl." She watched as Lyra opened the freezer and lifted out two roast haunches. "What're you doing?"

"Feedin' Mum's new pet." Lyra stuck her tongue out one side of her mouth and focused with her horn. One of the frozen lumps of meat jumped out of the freezer, borne forth on golden magic, and almost clonked Lyra on the nose.

Lyra spun around to look at Rose, only to see him huddled behind the table, peeking up over it fearfully. "Oh come on! I have total control!" No sooner had Lyra made the plea, than the other joint of meat leapt from the freezer and conked her firmly in the side of the head. Wobbling on her hooves, trying to ignore the laughter from Rose, Lyra felt a touch on her horn.

The magic stopped flowing, and Lyra felt like a wash of cool water poured through her. She gasped and shook her head. "Okay, uh, wow. Right." Words came out, but even Lyra could tell they weren't making much sense. "Can—Can you help me with this, please?"

Lifting his head out from behind the table, Rose could clearly hear the desperate note in Lyra's voice. "I don't know why you went with unicorn. I mean, sure you get magic, but look at the downsides." He sauntered up and plucked up the meat under one wing, and spread the other over Lyra's back. "You're missing out on wings!"

"Whatever." Something just felt a little off to Lyra. She liked Rose, but there was something about his presence that was different, and it wasn't the wingspan. "Eventually, when I get this horn worked out, I will be better off than wings."

"There is the other problem." Rose's statement drew Lyra's full attention. He waited for her to open her mouth before cutting in. "Well, only virgins can ride you."

"You have got to be kidding." Lyra groaned and tossed her head to the side. "Virgins and unicorns? Come on! That is the worst thing ever!"

"Why do you think I can be so close?" Squeezing Lyra's side with his wing, Rose strutted for the back door. "Face it, you are going to be stuck with inexperienced stallions for the rest of your life."

A lance of sensation rushed through Lyra. She stared into nothingness, letting Rose pull her along. She could feel what the problem was now, but there was no way she could voice it. Regaining her wits took a moment, but she managed to shrug off the strange realization she had had. "What? So I am meant to have some kind of magical hymen sense?"

"I don't know. I'm not the unicorn with magic pointy bits." When Rose poked his head out the back door, he froze.

"Meet Mum's new pet." Lyra gestured at the bunyip with a hoof. "Normally this is where I say she's harmless and wouldn't hurt a fly. But you know those two hunks of meat? Those are for her."

Rose was forced forwards, his wing wrapped over Lyra's back now tugging him along with her. He drew closer and closer to the big monster, and when they were just a few meters apart, the bunyip jumped to its feet and closed the distance.

"Let it have the meat, Rose!" Joyce's voice seemed to cut through to Rose.

Dropping the two haunches, Rose backed up a few steps. His eyes widened in fear as the bunyip snapped up one of the frozen roasts and bit it cleanly in half. "H-H-Holy shit…"

Lyra stood her ground. She made sure the focus of the bunyip was on the meat-popsicles it was working on. "That hitting the spot?"

Joyce stared at her daughter as Lyra reached a hoof up to rub the shoulder of the bunyip while it ate. "You didn't defrost it at all?"

"I didn't think she would mind. Looks like she has the teeth for harder stuff, anyway." Lyra kept stroking the bunyip's shoulder, unsure why she was being so stupidly brave.

Tufts, still hanging off Lyra's mane, looked up at the bunyip, and gave a soft kee. The sound drew Lyra's ears to face him. "Smart and brave. You need to work on your magic more. Where's that banana you promised?"

The question seemed to cut through the strangeness of the moment, and Lyra's hoof dropped to the ground. "Oh come on, Pops, you can't want more banana?" She turned from the bunyip and headed back to the house. "Hey, Rose, want to watch some Goodies while I get Tufts a banana?"

Rose, his mouth watering at every mention of the fruit, only nodded and followed Lyra back into the house. "This is all pretty crazy. What happened to the world being normal?"

Lyra caught an appraising look from Rose, and she could tell there was no real attraction in it. She looked at Rose in reply, really looked. Rose's body was more solid than Lyra's, and he stood a little taller too. His snout had a squared off muzzle, instead of the soft curves that Lyra and the rest of her family had. There was really only one good word to describe Rose: stallion.

With a small sigh, Lyra headed into the kitchen. "I don't think anything is going to be normal ever again. Everything seems to strange, and you have no idea how much stranger it is in Equestria." Despite talking the place down, Lyra's spirits lifted.

Opening the door to the refrigerator revealed how different things had become. Despite having made up several fruit salads—that people were enjoying outside—the icebox was still heavily packed with fruit.

"That bunch is mine!" Tufts didn't just point with his wing, he reached out and hooked it on a banana that was just close enough.

"Tufts, let go of the banana now, or I am not getting you anything." Glaring at Tufts, Lyra waited for him to let go. "Well?"

Jerking a little with his wing, trying to free his prize from the bunch, Tufts gave a reluctant kee. "You promise?"

"When have I ever lied to you." Lyra waited for him to let go, and leaned in with her mouth to jerk two bananas off the bunch.

"You do it all the time! Two days ago you told me Robin keeps mangoes in her bedroom. I searched and searched, and I couldn't find any!" Tufts tangled the banana Lyra passed him with his wings and pulled it close. "But you don't lie about the important things, do you?"

Lifting the remaining banana out of her mouth with one hoof, Lyra turned to look at Tufts. "Mangoes aren't important?" Her voice rose a notch towards the end, surprise evident.

"You know what I mean!" Tufts flapped a free wing while biting at the top of the banana.

Lyra grabbed the second banana and the salad she had made for herself earlier, and headed into the living room. Putting the thing down on the couch, Lyra curled up at the opposite end to Rose.

Sighing in satisfaction as she picked at her salad, Lyra was thankful Rose turned on the television, and used his clever wings to press play on the VCR remote.

Author's Note

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A Kind of Magic

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken English, everything wrapped in [ ] is spoken in dream-speak, and everything else is in Equish.

The night after the big flood of magic, the Rainbow Serpent, and Joyce's new "friend" showing up was exciting to Dream. She fairly buzzed in anticipation of sleeping. What she had gotten each night was lessons.

School during the day, and school at night. It hadn't been surprising that she felt more tired earlier in the day. Morning was full of yawns. Afternoon was a struggle to pay attention, and evening was full of "bat naps." But Dream wasn't alone.

When she looked around the classroom, she noticed that every single one of the bat pony converts was going through the same thing. At last, after a week of dealing with more and more growing tiredness, she cornered her mother and Joyce together.

"Mom, this is all wrong." It was a Thursday night, and the last of the week's homework was done, but she needed to confront particularly her mother about this problem.

"What is, dear?" Candela had been planning out the last few months of the school year, and had papers scattered over half the table, leaving the rest to Joyce.

"I'm tired all day, you can't have missed that." Dream watched her mother, and saw recognition in Candela's eyes. "And it's not just me. All the bat ponies are getting tired during the day." She looked over at Joyce. "Bats are nocturnal, maybe we are too?"

Pulled from her work, Joyce couldn't stop a yawn that proved Dream's point. "That does make a certain amount of sense. What about changing the timetable?" She looked over to Candela.

"I really am loath to change things this late in the school year." Heaving a deep sigh, Candela shook her head. "Okay, a compromise. Dream, dear, you and Robin will have late evening classes for the next week, here. If this works out, I will have to see how things can be adjusted to better suit all my students."

"You're the best, Mum." Wrapping a wing around her mother's back, Dream Thunder wrapped both forelegs around Candela and squeezed.

At that moment, from the backyard, a deep thrum of bass notes started, and three sets of ears in the kitchen turned to focus on the window. Lyra was sitting out the back, playing her music. A soothing tune, and more so when a dancing acoustic guitar wove a rhythm around the deep bass.

"It really does keep Chompy calmer. The old saying is true." Joyce tapped one hoof in time with the catchy tune, and hers wasn't the only hoof tapping.

Dream closed her eyes, still hugging her mum, and let out a tiny sigh of contentment.

For nearly ten minutes every creature that heard Lyra's song just stopped what they were doing to listen; it wasn't just a catchy tune, it spoke to the core of a being.

As the music faded, Dream felt more alert and a lot less tired. She also felt more than a little silly-happy, a wide smile creasing her face without her realizing it. "Wow. She's good."

Joyce's own smile looked to be equal parts the direct work of the music and pride in her daughter. "She is. I wonder if that will be her thing, in Equestria." It was the first time anyone had brought up Lyra's plans for a week, and all three of them looked around at each other.

"She will have the chance to do quite literally whatever she pleases. Princess Celestia's school is known for turning out unicorns who are the pinnacle of whatever field they choose to study." The pride of any teacher for their students shone through Candela's words.

"I'm thinking of going with her." Joyce's words were soft, almost lost at the end of Candela's. "Hang the contract. Robert can't expect to uphold that during this. And if he does, well, I lose some pay." Lifting her head, her words gained more force behind them. "But there is a problem."

"Robin." Candela reached a hoof over and put it on Joyce's. "I could look after her, we're pretty much one big family now."

"How did that even happen?" Trying to get into the conversation again, Dream was genuinely curious. "And isn't there supposed to be a ceremony?"

Joyce and Candela both looked at each other and blushed at the same time.

"We're not—" Joyce began, but cut off her words.

"What Joyce is trying to say, dear, is that we aren't quite that kind of family." Candela lifted a wing-tip to tickle her daughter's tufted ear. "Stressful events can galvanize the most distant of acquaintances into a tight friendship. Packed in together, and looking after all of you half the day, I couldn't help but spread my wings just a little further."

Dream couldn't help herself. "Well, there is a family resemblance now, too." Disengaging from her mother, she moved around the table to stand beside Joyce. "See?"

"And you're getting our side's sense of humor." Stretching one of her wings out, Joyce crossed it with the incoming one from Dream Thunder, so they were each hugging the other. "See? Practically twins!"

"Sisters at the very least." Candela raised an eyebrow, reminding Joyce that she had lost of a lot of apparent age in the process of becoming a bat pony. "Are you sure about this, Joyce? Moving, that is."

Joyce nodded, and opened her mouth to reply when a loud knocking came from the front door. Drawing her wing around Dream a little tighter at first, she quickly freed the limb and got to her hooves. "I'll get it."

The knocking came again, more urgent a staccato this time. Dream poked her head around the doorway into the hall to snoop on the visitor.

Opening the door with one wing, Joyce used the other to hide a smile. "—"

"!" The young man at the door had been in the house before, when his team had scoffed at Joyce Robertson's diagnosis. "!"

"." Dream could see panic plain as day on the man's face—panic, and a pair of tufted ears. "?"

"Dream Thunder! You will apologize this instant." Her tone sharp, Candela hauled her daughter back into the kitchen. "Now you put the kettle on, the poor man will be out of his mind with panic. Not everypony is going to take this as well as Joyce, Lyra, and Robin."

"Yes Mum." Dream felt a little bad, but the man had been a little rude. "He called me a horse." She used her clever wings to quickly lift the kettle to the sink, fill it, and put it back on its cradle to boil.

"Nothing excuses bad manners." Candela started packing up her work, judging the opportunity to do such at an end. "Joyce, dear. We are just putting the kettle on!"

"." Joyce gestured to Candela and Dream in turn, introducing man named Roy to her little family. "."

"." Roy shook as he spoke, not from cold, but clearly from shock.

"!" Joyce waved a wing at Doctor Pendleton. "?"

The question had a focusing effect on Roy, and he narrowed his focus down to just Joyce. "."

"?" Joyce used soft, calming words, and when she heard the kettle start to boil, one tufted ear flicked towards it. "?"

"—" Roy cut short his reply when he saw Joyce's look. "." His answer was more readily accepted when Joyce nodded to Dream. "!"

Dream was about to speak up about swearing at the table, but a glance at her mother showed her that Candela was holding back her own rebuke. She sobered a moment, and finished preparing the tea as requested.

Walking back to the table, Dream set the big coffee mug full of tea before Roy. "." She didn't wait for praise, figuring if the man was willing to swear before strangers, he was likely not going to thank her.

"." Roy looked surprised at having remembered to thank Dream for the drink. It had been a normal thing to do. He wasted no time reaching out and lifting the mug up and sipping from it. "." He gestured to his head.

Back to the bench, Dream reared back up and started making more cups up. She knew just how her mother, and her "other mother," liked their tea. As she made up three more cups, she noticed the light outside was completely gone, and realized that would mean everyone would come inside.

Turning for the hallway, she head the back door swing open. "I'll tell Lyra and Robin to keep their distance."

"?" Roy turned to look at the retreating bat pony.

Joyce turned her attention to Dream for a moment. "Thanks, dear." She then focused back on Roy. "<She is going to make sure no one bothers us>."

Dream got to the back door just as Lyra and Pinkie Pie were coming in. "There's a new person turning into a pony. They're super jumpy about it, and I figured it would be best not to surround them with more ponies."

"Good idea." Lyra turned to head down to her bedroom. "I'll just put my gear away and we can work out something to do instead of watching more TV."

"We could take a better look at the edge of town again." Pinkie Pie bounced up and down, her frizzy mane floofing out wildly.

"It's really strange. I get the feeling that something really odd is happening there. I know the Rainbow Serpent is technically there, but I can't feel him while I'm awake." Flexing her wings, Dream Thunder remembered back to flying to and through the barrier.

Lyra didn't take long to put her things away. She came walking back down the hall. "Any ideas on what we could do?"

Pinkie Pie grinned widely. "We're going to go poke at the borders of reality!" She let it sink in for just a moment. "Wanna come too?"

Dream looked at Lyra, and they both shared a grin at Pinkie Pie's phrasing.

"Would I ever!" Lyra followed Pinkie and Dream out the door and closed it behind her, tentatively with her magic.

"You're getting better with that." Dream had watched Lyra close the door with her golden magic. "How are your classes going?"

"In magic?" Lyra moved up to flank Dream with Pinkie Pie. "I have been working through that foal book Candela got me, but trying to get all my assessment tasks done so I can graduate. I know Princess Celestia would probably let me go to her school anyway, but I want to finish this."

Pinkie giggled. "I'm dropping out of school at the end of the year." The bombshell dropped, Pinkie Pie looked at her friends. "What?"

Lyra was first to chime in. "Pinkie Pie, you're just a filly still. You need to learn about—"

"I need to learn about making parties, and helping everypony be happy. I was thinking of visiting a few towns in Equestria and finding one that needs an awesome pink pony." Pinkie Pie nodded, as if her mind were made up and it was the most logical thing ever.

Dream used the tip of one wing to cover Lyra's snout. "Stop, Lyra, this is pretty normal for ponies. Pinkie just wants to find a place to fit in, where she can do exactly what her cutie mark is telling her."

Lyra shrugged Dream's wing off her snout. "But this is school. If she doesn't finish school, then she—" Lyra stopped herself from going further.

"Pfft. Silly billy. Of course I won't end up as smart as you, or Maud, but that's alright." Pinkie reached into her mane and plucked out three cupcakes. She passed one to each of her companions and then ate the last whole. "In case you didn't notice, I'm not exactly doing that great at class anyway."

Taking the offered cupcake, Dream Thunder bit into it happily. "Dis's reary goo!" She gulped down her mouthful. "Thanks, Pinkie." The smile that lit up Pinkie Pie's face was so pure and perfect that it was instantly contagious. Dream felt happier, and when she glanced at Lyra she saw her sister was smiling too.

Dream tilted her head back to Lyra. "If Pinkie needs to leave to follow her cutie mark, she really needs to. Cutie marks are important."

"Yup!" Pinkie was bouncing even more energetically. "I just know there is a town out there that needs me. That there are ponies that aren't getting enough parties. It would be really silly to think two ponies could get lucky enough that their cutie marks keep them here."

"Two ponies?" Lyra sounded lost in the conversation, although the cupcake was helping make up for it.

"Yeah. Mine." Dream looked to the side and back, eyeing her cutie mark and sighing. "It's awesome, but I wish more of you could stay with me." Excitement at the future—and being part of it—warred with Dream's knowledge that most of her friends would have to go to their own lives.

"I guess. I don't know why, but I just want to go to Canterlot. It seems right." Lyra looked down at the ground for a moment. "Is that the same for me? Is my—my cutie mark making me leave?"

Dream wrapped a wing around Lyra from one side, while Pinkie Pie practically threw herself in from the other. "Lyra, nothing would make you do anything you don't want to."

Squeezing Lyra for all she was worth, Pinkie ended up falling on top of Lyra and Dream. "Your cutie mark is part of who you are, not the other way around. You're going to Equestria because you want to be there."

Lyra, pinned between Pinkie Pie and Dream Thunder, squirmed a little before letting out a defeated groan. "If I hug you both, will you get off me?"

"Will you smile?" Pinkie was relentless. Giggling, but relentless.

Dream laughed at Pinkie's demand. "A big smile!"

"There should be a law about friends making you smile." Lyra nonetheless was smiling. "Pinkie Pie, I'm smiling now. Can you get off."

"Okie dokie lokie!" Jumping back up, Pinkie Pie pulled Lyra and Dream to their hooves. "Oh look, there's the edge!"

Sure enough, Dream looked up and saw the edge of the towns, where the Rainbow Serpent was stopping any magic from escaping. It was different from the ground. Taking a few steps forward, she got as close as she could without touching it. "Whoa."

"What is it?" Lyra walked up beside Dream Thunder, and reached out with a hoof. The hoof kept going, of course, and was unimpeded by the border. "Huh. So we can just walk through it?"

Dream nodded. "I guess. People have probably been going in and out fa—"

"CANNONBALL!" Pinkie Pie launched herself past the barrier, leaping for all she was worth.

"Where'd she go?" Terror rose in Dream. She looked at the barrier, and tried to focus past it, but could only see the same grass trailing away.

Lyra turned her head, looking much more calm. "What do you mean? Pinkie is just over there." She pointed at the border.

"I can't see her. Something really strange is going—" Dream stopped talking the moment she realized Pinkie Pie was back through the barrier. "Pinkie!"

"That's really freaky! I could only see Lyra. Where'd you go, Dream?" Pinkie Pie looked between her friends.

Lyra formed a golden hand in the air, held up like a stop gesture. "Hang on. Pinkie, when you went out, what did you see?"

Pinkie giggled. "Equestria of course. This is really close to the rock farm."

"Dream, what do you see when you go through?" Lyra pointed the golden hand at the barrier.

"Uh, when I flew through it I just saw the world stretching out." Dream was a little confused at the questioning, until her brain caught up with Lyra. "This world. Earth!"

"Right!" Lyra bounced a few times. "You see Earth because you are a bat pony. Pinkie Pie sees Equestria because she is from Equestria. So I…" Lyra took a deep breath and stepped forward.

"Equestria." The word rolled off Dream's tongue. She looked, but couldn't see Lyra at all. When her sister walked back through the border, Dream caught Lyra up in a big, batty hug. "This is really strange. So the town—towns—are still here, but people from different places can only leave to their own place?"

"Seems that way, unless someone can do something…" Pinkie Pie waggled her eyebrows at Lyra. "… magical."

"No." Lyra shook her head, refusing the challenge. "The book said I shouldn't try any spells, and I shouldn't try to do anything to anypony—anyone. Remember what happened to that banana I grabbed yesterday?"

"Pinkie, relax. Lyra is still learning her magic, that is part of the reason for going to Canterlot." Dream pressed herself between Pinkie and Lyra, compelled to defend her sister.

Dream Thunder froze, and it felt like a rush of cool scales played over the tip of her nose. She breathed in, smelled snake, and curved her mouth into a smile. "[Whoa. Okay, it isn't Lyra who needs to do this]."

"What did she say?" Pinkie Pie was staring at Dream like she had just spoken in another language.

"[I said, I think I might be able to do something here. Whoa this is really strange]." Dream walked closer to the border, lifted a hoof and touched it. Sparks of energy sprayed where her hoof touched, and she let out an excited kee. "[That's it! I can just twist it so you go a different way]!"

"Dream!" Lyra walked around beside Dream, making sure she got in her sister's peripheral vision. "Dream! We can't understand you!"

Lifting a hoof, Dream looked Lyra right in the eyes and grinned. "[Boop]." She poked Lyra on the nose with the hoof, and twisted reality.

Standing perfectly still, Lyra stared down her snout at the hoof that was still pressed there. She giggled at the silliness. "Enough, Dream. If you can understand me, try to talk in Equish, English, or even Spanish."

Dream blinked, some of the crazy magic that had filled her fading. "You know Spanish?" She drew her hoof back from Lyra's nose.

"Duh." Lyra cleared her throat, and affected a high-pitched, faux-Spanish accent. "The llama is a quadruped which lives in big rivers like the Amazon!"

Looking at her dorky big sister, Dream Thunder groaned. "We really can't take you anywhere, can we?" She booped Lyra on the nose again. "I think Mr. Snakey helped me out. Try going through again."

"For real?" Lyra looked from Dream to Pinkie Pie, the latter giggling and shrugging, while the former just nodded. "Okay. Well, here goes nothing."

Dream watched Lyra step through the border, and could plainly see her standing on the other side of it. "There! Per—"

"Where'd she go?!" Pinkie Pie looked through the border, and when she obviously couldn't stand to not see Lyra anymore, she jumped through only to reappear again as she jumped back. "She's gone!" At that moment, however, Lyra stepped back through. "Oh wait. There she is."

"Whatever you did, worked, Dream! When I left, I was back in Australia." Lyra began to bounce on her hooves in excitement, and soon Dream and Pinkie Pie joined her, laughing and cheering.

It took a few minutes for all of them to calm back down, but Lyra finally managed to steady herself. "Okay, now try setting me back to Equestria." She offered her snout, a big smile on her face.

"You know, as far as magic goes, this might not be the most flashy stuff." Dream lifted her hoof and twirled it in the air. "But the delivery is literally the best!" She pressed the hoof forward, scrunching up Lyra's snout a little in the process.

Pinkie Pie gasped in shock. "You didn't say the magic word!"

With her hoof still pressed to Lyra's nose, Dream Thunder snorted. "Oh right. Ahem… BOOP!"

Lyra fell backwards with a bad case of the giggles. Thankfully, as a pony, falling backwards just meant she sat down. She stared at Dream, laughing too hard to be able to say a word. For her part, Dream just stood there, hoof raised, still braced where she had booped Lyra.

Schooling her features, Lyra managed to get her silliness under control. She took a deep breath, and started letting it out.

"Boop!" Dream reached out and booped Lyra on the nose again, and this time her big sister collapsed and started to roll around laughing. "That just leaves one pony left…" Dream turned around and looked at Pinkie.

Knowing the way such gags worked was important. Pinkie sat down and looked right at Dream. Lifting one hoof, she tapped the side of her nose. "This is my snoot, and it is for boops." She delivered the words as seriously as she could.

Dream, like the fruit-predator she was, pounced on Pinkie Pie. "Boooooop!"

Author's Note

To Rose: hold onto your rock, the storm isn't over yet!

Rose blinked and looked up. "That isn't even a question!"

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Javarod
Nils
Shaushka
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Vutava

Visitor

Language check. All in English.

It was awkward, but awkward situations weren't the worst life had to offer. Rose was sitting on the couch, watching afternoon cartoons with Lyra and Robin. He sneaked a look at Lyra, and couldn't handle the quiet (excluding the television) that was settling in.

"Lyra,"—Rose turned to look at his friend, who had been a boyfriend—"what's going on with 'us'?" While looking at Lyra's grim expression, he saw Robin throw both wings up in the air.

"Nope!" Robin shoved back with her wings and practically sprung from the couch. "Cartoons aren't worth listening to you two talk about relationships and stuff. I'm out!"

Watching Robin leave, Lyra and Rose turned to look at each other, then broke out laughing.

As the laughter trailed off, Rose realized they were going to drop back to awkward silence again if he didn't say anything. "So. Us?"

"It's not working, is it?" Lyra sat on the couch, her back slumped into the cushions and her back legs thrust forward and down. "And I think we both know why."

Each gave a little sigh, but it was Rose who took up the torch of keeping the conversation going. "We changed." He shrugged. "But not in a bad way. You—" Words failed Rose for a moment. "This sounds like the most sexist thing ever, and it's stupid, but you're a mare."

Lyra came in before Rose could say anything else self-deprecating. "You're not sexist, and it's not stupid. Well, unless we both are." Her reminder of their night almost-together got a short chuckle from Rose. "But the thing is, I like girls. I find girls—mares—attractive. I can tell you are pretty hunky, but you're a stallion."

The truth laid bare hurt a little, but saying the words (and hearing them said by someone else) eased something in Rose. He relaxed a little more and even rolled to his back on the couch. "It's stupid. I like you—I really liked you—but whenever I look at you now I can't help but feel—"

"Turned off." Lyra cut in on Rose. "Guys never did it for me. Straight as an arrow." She watched the television and saw Roadrunner once again outsmart Wile E. Coyote (super genius). "Then I became a mare, and my stupid brain transferred 'girls are hot' into 'mares are hot' for me, without asking my opinion."

"I know, right? I look in the mirror, and I see a cute stallion. I actually think, 'Damn, he's hot.' And then I realize that yes, it's me, and that kinda messes me up more than being a stallion. Dealing with the extra bits? Heck, they self-clean! Dealing with being male is more than that." Rose, lying on his back, realized he was basically showing off his belly, but with the way things just slid away, it also wasn't showing much of anything.

Lyra snorted. "Self-clean? Self bloody clean? Before I worked out how to move things with my horn, I needed to shower after every time I used the toilet. I had to learn everything you got to forget." Her tone was light, but her emphatic gesturing with her forelegs drew some giggles from Rose. "Self-cleaning my arse."

Tilting his head back, and looking at Lyra upside down, Rose snorted. "We both have to deal with that one, and your magic is better at it than my wings are." Reaching out with a hoof, he poked Lyra on the shoulder. "So, you've had a girlfriend before. Is this meant to hurt or anything?"

Lyra blocked the incoming hoof's second poke with her magic. "I'm too confused. It might? I don't think we could really make this work."

"I still want to be your friend, though. It's only been a year, but so much has changed." Rose stopped trying to poke Lyra. He took a deep breath. "There is something else I need, and I think your help would be best with it."

Intrigue caused one of Lyra's eyebrows to rise. "What's that?"

"Rose isn't a guy's name. I need something ponyish and male." Rolling back to his side, Rose watched as Bugs Bunny munched on a carrot. "Like, what would be good?"

"You could probably keep Rose as your name, but go for something more pony-like. Your special talent has to do with mining, so Rose Quartz?" Lifting her head and looking at the closed door of the living room, Lyra's ears twitched. "I think we might have a visitor. Two legs."

"Probably that doctor again." No sooner did Rose reply, than someone knocked on the front door. "I'll get—"

Swinging to her hooves, Lyra landed on all fours easily. "Nah, lay there and think of mining gags."

"Jokes? Why would I use a joke for a name?"

Lyra lifted a hoof as she walked, and raised her voice. "Life's a piece of shit, when you look at it. Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true!" Using her magic to open the door, she winked to Rose.

Relaxing on the couch, watching Warner Brother's cartoons, Rose thought of his name, and what it would mean to him. The sound of Lyra's hoofsteps going to the kitchen, then back to the front door surprised Rose; Lyra had left the visitor at the door.

Rose barely had time to sit up when the door opened and a purely human woman walked into the living room. She had red hair pulled back over her shoulders, an open face with freckles on each cheek. Blue eyes studied Rose, but looked a little higher than his actual head. The woman wore a smart pants-suit, and held out a hand.

"You must be Rosetta?" If having a wing-thumb tuck into her hand and shake confused the woman, she didn't show it. "My name's Cassandra Lieberman, but you can call me Cass if you like."

"Uh." Rose shifted his eyes to look at the doorway, but it was closed. "Hi Cass. Can I ask why my friend just let you in and you slammed the door in her face?" Rose picked up the remote and turned off the television.

"I'll be upfront. I'm a social worker, and was sent here after your mother, Jenny Stein, filed a complaint that her daughter was being held by,"— Cassandra looked down at her pad and raised an eyebrow—"sex traffickers." She closed her notepad and looked back up at Rose. "I haven't had the displeasure of dealing with that kind of people before, but your friend and her mother don't seem like the sort."

"Pfft." Rose rolled his eyes. "Can I be honest with you?" Time had hardened the situation to some extent in Rose's heart. "She has been hauling me around since she broke up with Dad. We would never last too long anywhere, you probably have my records." When Cassandra nodded to him, Rose continued. "I've found a nice place to settle down, friends I like, and just when I am about to finish off year twelve, she wants to pull up stakes and move on again."

"I can see where that would be inconvenient." Cassandra took her notepad back out and made some marks on it. "You're staying here, then?" Rose nodded to the woman. "And you're eighteen now. I don't see any evidence of the accusations."

Rose watched Cassandra make more marks on her notepad. "So what now? She talked to the police, right? Aren't they going to come and check up on me?"

Cassandra put on a half-smile. "You're an adult, Rosetta—"

"Just Rose, please." Rose hoped even that would change soon; it was foolish being called by a girl's name still.

"Rose, you're eighteen, and I can see nothing wrong with you or the living conditions here. The doctor who contacted the police verified nothing untoward is happening. I'll be honest, I don't even know why I was sent." Cassandra closed her notebook again.

"Mum sometimes makes up things. Usually to get her way. She probably told the police I was underage." Having to tell such a truth to a stranger hurt Rose more than he cared to admit. He tried to keep it all inside, but some of his pain had to have shown.

"Is something wrong, Rose?" Cassandra leaned forward.

Rose shook her head and barked a sharp laugh. "No, nothing wrong. I just have to come to grips with how much of a bitch my mum had been. She used guys like they were just a wallet with legs, and as I got older she didn't bother to shield me from that."

"It can be hard to realize that kind of thing." Reaching into her jacket, Cassandra pulled out a business card. "Here. In case you ever need someone to talk to. I'm not your friends, and I'm certainly not your mother, but I can be a pretty good listener when you need someone to talk to."

Reaching a hoof out, Rose took the card and set it on the table beside her. "You get much of this?" Rose gestured to himself.

"A little. Mostly parents doing a lot of bad things for the wrong reasons." Cassandra seemed done with the interview, and switched topics. "So, graduating soon? How are your grades?"

"Candela is the best teacher in the world. She wouldn't let me fail. And Lyra keeps grilling me on Equ—" Rose broke off. "Err, languages. Candela has us all doing a foreign language for the experience and credit."

Cassandra raised an eyebrow at the first actual almost-lie she had heard. Benign as the topic was, though, she moved on. "And after school? Going to uni?"

"Nah. My grades aren't up for that, and I'm not that smart. But I do know what I want to do. I want to work in mining and assaying." As Rose mentioned the topics of her cutie mark, Cassandra's eyebrows both went up together. "It's just what I want to do, you know? There's two guys in town who work a mine, and—"

Interrupting, Cassandra probed the issue at heart. "They let you into a mine? Aren't those dangerous?"

"They don't let me into the mine. So far all they have had me do is check over gear, sort through tailings—" At Cassandra's confused look, Rose clarified. "Tailings are the junk they pull out of the mine. Sometimes there can be good stuff in it. And anyway, I need to do some courses at TAFE before I can be more than a laborer to them. Dave said he would take me on as an apprentice."

Cassandra's worry seemed to evaporate visibly. She relaxed in her seat again. "Well, that sounds less like someone doing a dangerous and foolhardy thing, and more like a young woman with a plan for her life. It might not seem like much, but knowing your situation is this stable will make my report rock-solid. Thank you, Rose."

Rose's ears twitched, and the sound of hooves galloping down the hall suddenly had his attention. "What the—"

"Rose! I saw a strange car and I thought it was the police coming to take you away!" Robin, panting and puffing, stood in the doorway. "Oh, hi!" She waved a wing at Cassandra.

"This is Robin, Joyce's other daughter." Rose rolled his eyes at Cassandra. "She probably should have asked her mum before jumping the gun. I didn't need rescuing, Robin." Climbing up from the couch, Rose walked over and slung a wing around Robin's neck, pulled her close, and gave her mane a good roughing with a spare hoof.

"Hey!" Robin struggled and pulled free. "I was just trying to warn you."

"Well, Robin, no warning is needed. Rose is ahead of the game, so far as being a strong, independent young woman." Cassandra smiled at the closeness the two "girls" showed. "Now, I'll just have to speak to Doctor Robertson. Feel free to go back to your cartoons."

"They aren't over yet, are they?" Robin launched herself at the television remote with an excited kee, grabbing it up with her wing and turning the set back on.

Lyra poked her head in, saw Cassandra was moving for the door, and made way. "I can get her out if you need more time?"

"And have her miss Animaniacs?" Cassandra's sharp eyes flicked to the television and back. "I wouldn't do that to anyone. Excuse me."

Rose flopped back on the couch and loosed a sigh as Cassandra left the room. "Well, that's over with." He looked at Lyra. "What did your mum say?"

"Not a lot. She was fairly confident that the shrink wouldn't see through the pony-blocking thing." Lyra settled on the couch, and stole a glance at Robin. Returning to look at Rose, she winked. "Now, we were talking about kisses?"

"Oh come on!" Robin groaned out loud. "Is that all you two…" Trailing off, the moment Robin realized she was the butt of a joke was quite apparent—mostly by the flying couch cushions.

Author's Note

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Javarod
Nils
Shaushka
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Vutava

Dream Post

Language check. Anything wrapped in [ ] in this chapter is spoken dream-speak, everything else is in Equish.

"Hiya Dream. Whatcha building?" Pinkie Pie's eyes glittered at the sight of Dream Thunder working with a pile of wood and bolts, all while wearing the cutest expression of consternation.

"My bed has been feeling really uncomfortable lately." Measuring one of the lengths of timber, Dream Thunder stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth in thought for a few moments. "I just can't work out how to build this!"

Pinkie walked around and stood beside Dream to look at the wood. "Oh! You are trying to build a stand so you can hang upside down like a bat?" At Dream Thunder's incredulous look, Pinkie Pie just giggled. "You can't just throw stuff together and have it work, silly. There needs to be a plan for these things.

"Here!" Pinkie Pie plucked a pad of paper from her mane, and passed it to Dream, then did the same for a pencil. "Just draw what you want it to look like."

Flopping down on her belly, Dream Thunder set the pad before her and started to sketch. "I need it tall enough to let me hang, and sturdy enough that I don't knock it over while on it." She drew an upright piece of wood, and then another coming out perpendicular at the top. She added a cute little picture of a bat pony hanging from it by their tail.

"You hang by your tail?" Pinkie Pie looked back at her own rump and twitched her tail. "That might just work."

"It does. I tried the first time by hooking my legs over the clothesline,"—Dream pointed at the rotary clothesline in the middle of the yard—"but that didn't work so well." She rubbed her nose at the memory of waking up and falling off the clothesline. "Here, watch what I do."

Stretching her wings, jumping, and flapping just once, Dream Thunder was high enough to reach the clothesline and wrap her tail around one of the sturdy bars. The world inverted as Dream hung from her tail. "See?"

Pinkie stared up at Dream, and in the mid-afternoon sun she watched the bat pony curl her wings around her body, yawn, and close her eyes.

Dream yawned and stretched her wings and legs out. She hadn't realized she was so tired, and even just a little nap had felt amazing. She tilted her head back at the sound of singing just in time to see Pinkie Pie finish off the bat-stand.

Her song winding down just as she finished tightening the last bolt, Pinkie Pie stepped back from the stand. "There. That should be perfect for Dream."

Focusing to relax her tail, Dream dropped to the ground with an audible PLOP. "You made that?" She walked over to Pinkie Pie, staring at the stand. It looked as much as Dream's drawing as a hat rack resembled a single stick. There was support at the base, braced with angled pieces of wood, and even the beam at the top of it had an angle piece to brace it. "This is amazing!"

Pinkie Pie's eyes sparkled as she heard the heaping praise from Dream Thunder. She bounced around to behind the stand. "You really like it?"

"When did you learn to make things like this? It's amazing, Pinkie!" Dream barely managed to pull her attention away from the stand long enough to dive at Pinkie Pie and hug her tightly.

Happy enough for hugs, Pinkie Pie squeezed Dream back. "Born and raised on a farm, remember? When things need to be built, a pony has to build them herself. I built my first rock-coop when I was six!"

Dream blinked and drew back a little to look directly at Pinkie's face. She tried to determine if her friend was making a joke, but there was no indication of it. "Like a chicken coop, but for rocks?"

"Yup!" Pinkie giggled. "And it was the best ever: not a single rock got out!"

"None got out?" Dream, having had experience with Monty Python and The Goodies, managed to keep her giggle back for nearly two seconds. "Pinkie!" She fell sideways, losing the hug but laughing loudly—accompanied by Pinkie Pie.

Rolling around on their backs laughing for a while, Pinkie and Dream slowly relaxed and found themselves staring up at a darkening sky. Dream was the first to speak. "You're going soon, right?"

Pinkie Pie nodded. "Yup! I just know a town out there needs somepony to make them all smile. I might try Canterlot first. There's a loooooooot of ponies in Canterlot."

"Yeah. And a lot of them need a laugh, I think." Dream looked across at the stand Pinkie Pie had made. "I should test it out before I try actually sleeping on it."

Rolling back to her hooves, Dream looked up at the bar that, if Lyra were still Mike, would come up to his shoulders. "Here goes." She jumped, turned mid-air, and her tail hit the bar at the top. Wrapping tight around the bar, Dream's tail seemed to stiffen a little and held her in place.

Pinkie Pie got up and walked to stand beside the stand. "See? There is a little room for you to grow, too." She pointed a hoof at the gap between Dream Thunder's nose and the ground. "Plus the top has a few extra holes so you can put the bar up higher."

"This is really awesome, Pinkie. I'm going to test it out tomorrow." Rocking to test the stability, Dream found the platform unmoving. "You'll take care of Lyra, right?"

Nodding sharply, Pinkie Pie wore her most serious face. "I'll stay with her until she gets settled. I don't think my place is in Canterlot, though."

"But you're going there first anyway?" Dream twitched her tail and turned her body just right that when her tail-hair unwound from the bar, she landed just right on her hooves. "To keep Mike company."

"Lyra Heartstrings." Pinkie Pie lifted her hoof up to boop Dream on the snout. "And yes. Lyra helped Marble come out of her shell a lot, and we got our cutie marks together. I get a shiver every time I think of us being too far apart. I don't know exactly where, but I am sure we will end up living nearby."

"I sometimes feel like I want to go with her, but this is my home now—where I belong. I can feel it." Looking up and down at the new "bat bed," Dream reared up and used her forelegs to grab it. "Can you give me a hoof getting it inside?"

"Of course I can!" Pinkie Pie giggled and grabbed the other side. Lifting together, Dream and Pinkie got the stand in the back door of the house and all the way to Dream's bedroom before a screech got their attention at the doorway.

"You got me my own perch for your room? This is awesome!" Tufts launched himself into the room, needing just one flap of his wings before his legs caught on the perch and he slipped down into a hanging position.

"Tufts! It's not for you. This is my perch." Despite her protests, Dream reached a wing up and scratched Tufts behind one ear. "You should have seen it outside. With the sun out, the moment I flip upside down I practically fall asleep!"

With his eyes closed, displaying every indication of batty bliss, Tufts gave a soft kee of happiness. "Of course you did. You're a bat, and my daughter." Tufts puffed his chest out and, despite the excellent ear-scratching going on, looked around. "But where is the fruit? What if you need a midday snack?"

Dream didn't think long on the problem. "I'd get up and go to the fridge for a banana." She paused a moment and sighed. "Tufts, would you like a banana?"

Spreading his wings, Tufts kept hold of the perch as he flapped his big wings and keed loudly. The moment Dream held her wing-claw up, he transferred his grip to that and swung down. "You have the best ideas!"

Pinkie Pie, having watched the interaction with a big smile on her face, started giggling. "He has you wrapped around his hoof. Err, wing—claw—thing." She added another titter for good measure. "I should probably go home now, it's getting dark and all."

"Thanks again, Pinkie." Dream stood back from the door to let Pinkie Pie out first, and then followed her with Tufts still hanging from her wing. "I'll let you know how the stand works tomorrow afternoon at school."

"Sure thing!" Pinkie Pie made her way down the hall ahead of Dream Thunder. She waved into the kitchen. "Bye everypony!"

"Going home, Pinkie?" Lyra, working at the stove, looked back over her shoulder. "I'll see you at school tomorrow."

To a chorus of farewells, Pinkie Pie left the house.

"Mum! Mum! Pinkie made me a stand to hang from. It's really cool, and adjustable, and everything!" As she spoke, Dream opened the refrigerator and pulled out a banana.

"Did she, dear? How does it work?" Candela was grading practice tests, the last her students would get before their final tests for the year. "And you better not eat that banana yourself."

Dream sighed. "It's for Tufts."

"It's for me! All mine!" Tufts flapped a wing, trying to reach out and grab the peeled banana before Dream could get it to him. Unfortunately for Dream Thunder, Tufts managed it.

"Tufts!" The big smear on Dream's fur made her groan. "That's it. You get to hang in here while I go clean up." She carried the unrepentant bat over and hung him from his kitchen perch—with his banana of course—and headed back out to clean up.

When she reached the bathroom, Dream Thunder looked around for a moment. The range of soaps and washes was similar, but not the same. Lyra's—then Mike's—shampoo and deodorant were missing, and it was so obvious the nice guy she had met only a year ago was now someone different.

She took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "Everything changes. It's like yesterday is just a dream, [but the opposite is true, too]." She looked at her face in the mirror. Her fur was no longer the lighter tones of a storm. Dream was tinted in dark colors, with a red, ruff of a mane.

Washing up was simple with her bat wings. Dinner was relaxing, and most of the evening she spent studying. With her days turned around in a nocturnal pattern, she was more comfortable, but she missed having Lyra and her mother asleep for most of the time she was awake.

Two AM swung around before Dream knew it, and she walked quietly to her bedroom. The moment she saw her new stand, she got an edge of excitement. It was better than anything she could have designed herself, and she thought she would have to do something for Pinkie Pie to make up for it.

Doing her little jump once she was under it, she spun and her tail connected with the wooden bar. Inverting was almost like a switch in Dream's head. One moment she was a little tired, and the next she pulled a wing around her head to sleep. She didn't even hear Tufts wing his way into the room and roost beside her.

Dream Thunder opened her eyes in the dream, and froze.

"[She is my daughter, and I don't care what a useless scale-brain like you has to say about that]!" Tufts was hanging from a conveniently large tree, and was arguing with the Rainbow Serpent.

"[I GAVE HER DREAM MAGIC. YOU JUST GAVE HER FORM]." The voice practically shook the dream-realm with its intensity. "[TJINIMIN, WE AREN'T THOSE BEINGS. YOU DIDN'T STEAL MY MAIDENS. I DON'T HOLD THAT GRUDGE]."

Lifting her wings up to cover her ears, Dream Thunder huddled down to the ground as the booming voice, for the first time, held more than friendliness—the Rainbow Serpent was upset.

"[Yeah, you would say that. Fact is, RS, you were the second god here, which makes me in charge]." Flapping his wings, Tufts arched his back so that he could look up at the huge snake from his inverted position. "[So do what I say]."

The huge coils in the distance shifted and moved. Magic sloshed in the middle, messing up the neat gaps between sections of one town and another for a few moments. "[THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS. WE BOTH NEED TO TAKE CARE OF THEM]."

"[That's what I mean! You can't just sit back and stick your tail in the levy while hoping no more comes through. It's going to flood out again. It's just a matter of t]—" Tufts froze and turned his head down to look at Dream. "[And now you have scared my daughter]."

With Tufts' words aimed in her direction, Dream eased her wings back and looked up. Tufts was looking down at her, but something seemed very strange about him. "Who—[Who are you]?"

"[YOU DIDN'T EVEN TELL HER YOUR NAME? TJINIMIN, HOW COULD YOU LIE]?" The sharpness was gone from the Rainbow Serpent's tone, but it did sound disappointed.

"[They didn't ask my name]." Tufts took a big breath and reached up to tap the branch beside him with one wing-claw.

Dream felt invited, and seeing no other option, spread her wings and flew up to land on the branch beside Tufts. "[What are you talking about? What's your name? I don't understand]."

Tufts shot the Rainbow Serpent a nasty look, then spread one of his wings out and around Dream. Despite his formerly diminutive size, he seemed to grow and become big enough that he matched her and then some. "[My name is Tjinimin. I was just having a gentle conversation with Yingarna over there. She seems to think she can leave your protection up to me while she does a terrible job at holding back the magic]."

"[YOU ARE BEING UNREASONABLE. I DID WHAT I COULD, GIVEN THE SITUATION]."

"[I don't understand. What do you mean she—she's a she]?" Dream got a nod from Tufts. "[Okay. So why is she doing a terrible job]?"

"[So many questions]." With a sigh, Tufts squeezed Dream a little in a tight hug. "[This is your last for tonight. You need to dream, Dream. The reason Yingarna is doing a bad job is because she is like a Goodie, trying to stick her biggest finger into a hole in a dam. What happened to The Goodies when they tried that]?"

"[Water went everywh]—" The wing pulled tighter around Dream, and she felt her mind settle further into her own, true dreams.

Author's Note

Mr. Snaky: think you'll be able to compress the barrier back into a smallish gateway again?

"[IT'S MISS. AND THE ANSWER IS 'IT'S COMPLICATED]."

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
CrimsonPhoenix
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Javarod
Nils
Shaushka
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Vutava

Graduation

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken English, everything else is in Equish.

"Doc Bonesaw?" Lyra pantomimed holding someone down with one hoof, while the other operated an imaginary saw.

Joyce groaned and rolled her eyes. "That's worse than the last one. I don't understand why I need a new name?" Reaching for her cup of tea with one wing—the first of the morning—Joyce sipped at it with every indication of bliss.

"But you're a pony now! All ponies get a new name when they become adults." Sidling up to her mother, Lyra gently elbowed Joyce in the ribs. "And you are barely an adult."

Leveling a stare at Lyra, Joyce couldn't stop a little bit of a smile breaking through her stern face. "You're grounded."

"Wait, what?" Lyra blinked in surprise. "But we graduate today. You can't ground me!"

Joyce lifted one hoof up and poked her daughter's nose repeatedly. "I. Don't. Need. To. You're a unicorn: you're already grounded." Joyce delighted in the look of shock on Lyra's face. For emphasis, Joyce gave one of her wings a weak flap.

Lyra groaned and shook her head. "Nurse Fuzzybottom?"

"I'm not a nurse, and you know it. This isn't going to work. I am far too used to my name." Joyce lifted her cup up, but heard a bat screech come from the bedrooms of the house. "I think your sister just woke up."

Tufts, still screeching, zoomed down the hallway and into the kitchen just moments before Dream Thunder. Landing on his perch, Tufts gave Dream a steady stare and then turned to Joyce. "My darling. I missed you so."

"Hey, Tufts, I'm trying to come up with a good pony name for Mum." To further her cause with Tufts, Lyra opened the refrigerator and lifted out a bunch of grapes.

"Mango Mango." Though Tufts spoke, his attention was locked on the bundle of grapes hovering in Lyra's magic. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at Tufts.

"Do you want a mango, or is that your idea of a name for Mum?" Lyra plucked one of the grapes free and passed it to Tufts.

Tufts reached for the grape and stuffed it in his mouth. Speaking around the grape wasn't easy, but Tufts managed it. "My sweet darling's name, of course. Her beauty outshines even that of a mango. So of course Mango Mango means she is twice as wonderful."

"That's kinda sweet, really." Joyce reached out her wing and tickled Tufts under the chin. "But I am not going to be called Mango Mango."

"Why not?" Lyra tossed the next grape to Tufts, and the bat caught it out of the air with practiced ease. "Is it the double-name thing? I mean we could go with Mango Banana. Still marks you are better than a mango, but not quite as far-reaching."

"No fruit names." Joyce was firm with her reply, and didn't want to give into Lyra's game. "Are you ready for the ceremony?"

"I don't get why it's such a big deal!" Lyra grabbed a grape off for herself, then tossed another to Tufts. "It's just a certificate to say I passed."

"It's not just a certificate." Nibbling on some toast next, Joyce had already loaded the poor darkened bread down with rich and sugar-filled jam. "It's a certificate from Candela, a teacher from Equestria. Surely my clever boy—girl—saw the significance in that?"

Standing still and looking stunned, Lyra groaned deep in her throat. "Of course. Candela is an Equestria-trained teacher, which means the certificate from her is actually worth a damn in Equestria."

"Michael, language." Joyce froze after saying Lyra's old name. The phrase had been a highly common one before they moved, and she hadn't gotten used to Lyra's name enough to make the swap. "Lyra. Sorry dear."

Lyra reached her foreleg up and over her mother's shoulders, and pulled Joyce into a hug. "It's okay, Mum, I have a feeling everything will be just fine now."

Joyce wrapped a wing around her daughter's shoulders and squeezed back. "I think I will come with you."

At that moment, Robin dragged her hooves into the kitchen, and looked at Lyra and Joyce in confusion: both were silent and looking meaningfully at each other. "What's for breakfast?"

"I'm going to go to Equestria." Joyce turned to look at Robin, and saw her youngest daughter freeze. "You should probably stay here until you are finished schooling. I have spoken to Candela about it already."

Lyra lifted her leg—stretched as it was across Joyce's back—and caught Robin into their hug too. Robin reached a wing across and all three hugged together. "We aren't even going to be far. You could send us a letter, or even come visit us in Canterlot."

Fighting off her urge to cry, Joyce buried her snout into Robin's mane and inhaled deeply. "I don't even know if I'll be able to get training there. If I can't, I'll be back here before you can blink."

"I-I-I'll miss you!" Robin clung as tightly as she could, but when she got a hug from the other side she turned her head to see Dream Thunder hugging her.

Dream squeezed against Robin. "We'll visit them every school holiday until you graduate."

Robin spun to look at Joyce for confirmation, and when her mother nodded she practically exploded with hugs and tears. "I'll come visit whenever I can!"

"You're settled here, with friends and school, and I don't want to tear you away from all this twice in one year." Joyce couldn't stop her own tears from falling. She hugged her daughters until the tears paused—she knew they would never be gone forever.

Sensing an end to the heaviest of the emotional outpouring, Lyra cleared her throat. "We should get cleaned up and get ready to go. The ceremony starts in an hour."

Despite her daughter's reminder of events, Joyce kept just hugging Lyra and Robin, and not sparing Dream either. "I promised myself I wouldn't get overly emotional." She snorted. "So much for that."

"Yeah. Good going on being an awesome mum, Mum." Lyra gave one more squeeze before letting go. "Let me just go wash my face and hooves, and I'll be ready to go." Disengaging herself from all the wings carefully, and headed back down the hall towards the bathroom.

Robin watched her big sister leave, and realized something shocking. "Did Lyra just beat us all to using the bathroom to freshen up?"

"She learned feminine ways quickly." Joyce picked up her daughter's meaning. "There's nothing else for it: she must be stopped before she grows too powerful!" Joyce wasn't clear who let out the first batty screech, but all three of them turned and started to stalk Lyra.

Leaving the house on their way to the schoolhouse, Joyce, Lyra, Robin, Dream, and Tufts stopped at the first band-change. What should have been a crisp delineation between Equestria and Australia seemed oddly blurred. There was snow gathering on the ground in Equestria, and even the Australian sun was having trouble dealing with it. Likewise, magic seemed to pour out much more into the Australian section, but only Lyra noticed that.

"This is really strange." Lyra walked up and put her hoof closer to the Equestrian section. "I can't feel where the magic actually stops. It's like the magic is out of phase with the pattern, or something. I hadn't noticed it until now, but I don't think the magic is stopping at the border anymore."

Lyra spotted a significant look between Dream Thunder and Tufts. It didn't seem to mean anything at first, but when she saw Tufts nod back to Dream, it made Lyra want to ask them about it.

"We can't stop for that now; we were meant to be at the school five minutes ago." Joyce pointed ahead with one wing. "We've all been in magic areas before." And with that, she strode ahead.

Robin followed after her mother, which left Lyra standing, looking at Dream and Tufts (the bat was riding on Dream Thunder's wing). "Whatever you two are up to, did it cause this?" Lyra pointed at the crossover.

"No!" Tufts and Dream both said at the same time, then looked at each other almost in surprise.

Tossing her head in the air, Lyra turned and started walking after Joyce and Robin. "If this comes back to bite us in the arse, and either of you two caused the tiniest part of it—" Lyra intended to leave her threat hanging, but realized she couldn't do that. She froze, but didn't look back. "… I'll tickle your wings for days. Now come on."

"Lyra is scary." Tufts' whisper wasn't very quiet, and it put a smile on both Dream and Lyra's faces. "We should catch up, too. There is a really nice orange tree near the school."

Bat wings could be silent, when the bat was being careful, but Lyra could easily hear Dream's wings beat several times. The young mare she had come to think of as a little sister zoomed past Lyra with Tufts clinging tightly to the fur around Dream Thunder's neck.

Laughing with excitement, Lyra shifted her walk into a gallop to catch up with the pair. As she ran, she watched Tufts let go of Dream and spread his own wings.

Lyra sighed, and not for the first time envied everyone she knew growing wings. She caught up with Joyce and Robin just as they got to school, and saw Pinkie, Maud, Marble, and Limestone Pie, along with Ball Clay, and amended her envy to being thankful she had magic. "Hi every—pony." Her mouth curved into a big smile at using the traditionally Equestrian greeting.

"Lyra!" Pinkie Pie rushed at Lyra, giving no chance to dodge a huge hug.

Spun around in place by the force of Pinkie's slightly off-center hug-tackle, Lyra giggled happily and squeezed her friend back. "Sorry we're late. It was all my fault." Of course it wasn't, not completely, but she was happy to take the blame. "We're not too late, are we?"

"No. Miss Candela hasn't even gotten to the younger foals yet." Her tone emotionless and steady, Maud had improved at her deadpan persona greatly. She then ruined it by smiling, but Lyra could tell she was intentionally breaking from it.

There wasn't even a foal in each grade, so instead of working by grades, Candela just started with the youngest foal. "?"

Squealing with excitement, Kelly—Robert and Maureen's daughter—ran up to Candela with a huge smile on her fuzzy face. She hadn't finished changing completely, and she stumbled a few times while she ran, but caught herself each time.

As the girl reached Candela, she slowed down and looked at her teacher with a more somber expression. "?"

Holding out a rolled up graduation certificate, Candela beamed up at Kelly. "!"

Lyra could see that Candela was possibly more excited about the moment than little Kelly was. Their teacher was positively beaming with happiness, and threatened to break out into tears, or so it seemed.

Candela gave Kelly a hug amid cheering from everyone present, and then let the girl retreat from the stage. "Ball Clay?"

Bouncing his way up to where Candela stood, Ball Clay had retained his earth pony shape despite frequent time spent in Australia. He stopped before Candela and looked up at her. "Yes, Miss Candela?"

Repeating the gesture with a new certificate, Candela offered Ball his graduation papers. "For graduating from grade two. Congratulations, Ball Clay!"

Ball just bounced in place excitedly, forgetting to even take his certificate with all the cheering. Porcelain Clay rushed up and thanked Candela, taking her colt's papers and leading him back into the surrounding crowd.

"?" Candela wore a wide smile for Robin, and there was much cheering for her as she ran up to her teacher. ","—Candela seemed able to turn to face Kelly and give her a nod—"."

Lyra was surprised, she knew her sister had been working hard, but hadn't realized she had skipped ahead a class. "Way to go, Spud!"

Robin took her papers and turned to prance back to Joyce.

"Dream Thunder." When Candela said the name of her own filly, her face (somehow) lit up even further. Her wings ruffled a little, and Candela's tail swished a little behind her. The moment Dream was in front of her, Candela continued. "For graduating from year eight."

Taking the little scroll of paper from her mother under one wing, Dream couldn't hold back her emotions and jumped up to hug Candela.

"Congratulations, Dream Thunder." Candela said the words softer than for everypony else, but with their more focused pony ears, everyone was able to hear exactly what she said, and cheered.

When Dream was done with her presentation, she trotted back over to stand beside Lyra and the Pies. "Hey. Congrats, Dream." Lyra lifted a foreleg and pulled Dream into a hug.

"Pinkie and Marble Pie." Candela's voice was clear, but she wore a smile for the two young ponies who walked from the crowd. Pinkie was bouncing along, catching everyone's attention, and Marble seemed to use her sister as a shield, slinking along beside Pinkie. "For graduating from year ten. Congratulations, Pinkie Pie and Marble Pie."

A big cheer went up for both fillies, but when Candela fluffed out her wings, all the students in the crowd went silent (as they had learned meant that Candela wanted quiet), quickly followed by the adults.

"My last three are something special. Maud Pie, Lyra Heartstrings, and Rose Stein, please come up here." Candela didn't hold out any diplomas, she just stood with a big grin on her face.

Lyra looked askance at Maud, and spotted Rose standing over with Dave. "Do you have it?"

"Of course." Maud's passive face twitched for a moment, the ghost of a smile playing out before being gone again. "Do I have to do the silly-pony part?"

"I can't be the silly one all the time. Come on." Lyra pranced out, her hooves lifting high, but just as she reached Candela, she slipped up beside her teacher instead. Holding up one hoof, Lyra leaned to Candela, and in a faux whisper (that everyone could hear clearly) asked, "I hear this teacher is really terrible. But good thing we got through the year, right?"

Candela was dumbfounded, but when Rose came up on her other side, she started to get the idea that her eldest students had organized something.

"Look out, here she comes." Rose only had one line in the gag, but she managed to give it a credible spin.

Maud stood up proudly before Lyra, Candela, and Rose, and held out a scroll to Candela. "For graduating from year twelve—" A stricken look came over Maud's face. "Wait, this isn't in the script."

Lyra, using her magic, reached over to Rose and grabbed a big fold of papers from under Rose's wing. Flipping through the paper, Lyra stopped and exclaimed loudly. "You're right! It's meant to be Candela who is over there. Maud, you're the one graduating!"

When Maud turned to look at the crowd staring with mild confusion, she lit her face up into the biggest smile she could, and shrugged nonsensically. Laughter broke out in the crowd, and the cover of giggling gave Maud the chance to join Rose and Lyra, while all three pushed Candela out in front of them.

Candela closed her eyes for a moment, but a smile gave away her mood. "Having three such amazing ponies for students has made this an exceptional year. I won't pretend it was easy, or that any compensation was offered, because that would belittle the amazing effort all three of you displayed.

"Maud Pie. You might have had an Equestrian teacher, but the entire syllabus was new to you. You picked up your skills and passed a year eleven equivalency test and pushed through year twelve with the determination and solid performance any earth pony would be proud of." Candela passed Maud a scroll. "Congratulations on passing year twelve."

A cheer rose up from the crowd.

"Rose. You had a rough year, but I think everyone will agree that you held together with admirable determination and completed your twelfth year of education. You adapted to having a pony teacher, pony friends, and even becoming a pony yourself, you learned a new language, and passed every test I could throw at you. Congratulations on passing year twelve." Candela passed Rose a scroll.

"I'm next, right?" Lyra lifted her head and looked on each side of Maud and Rose, then lifted one of Rose's wings and peeked under it. "Right?" Her antics drew more laughs from those assembled.

Candela blew out a sigh, trying not to laugh herself. "Lyra, despite the best interests of sanity, I am proud to say you will be graduating. When I first met you, I was more than a little worried my little filly would learn bad habits from such a rowdy human—I should have paid more attention to that worry. You have been through several things that could be called an upheaval, each, and despite that managed to rise and become a fine—if a little strange—pony." Candela held out a rolled up paper to Lyra. "Congratulations on passing year twelve."

Lyra didn't hesitate. Her time spent in Equestria, and now spent with Equestrians living on Earth, resulted in her having become quite huggy. In Lyra's estimation, now was a perfect hug moment. She stepped forward and wrapped both forelegs around Candela's neck. "Thanks for being the best teacher ever."

Maud and Rose moved forward and joined the hug, and each offered their own little thanks for the most interesting year of their lives so far.

Author's Note

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
CrimsonPhoenix
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Javarod
Nils
Shaushka
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Vutava

Nothing Bad Happened

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken English, everything else is in Equish.

Joyce shook her head at the antics of her daughter. She had a wing around Robin, and the other around Dream, and not for the first time did she realize how ironic it was that Dream Thunder looked more like Joyce than Candela.

"I think Bob and Maureen said they were having a get-together at the pub after the ceremony. What do you two think?" Rubbing Robin and Dream's ears with her thumb-claws, Joyce managed to break her gaze from Lyra accepting her graduation paper to look between the girls flanking Joyce.

"Will everyone be there?" Robin's eyes were big as she looked around those gathered. There was more than just the usual town residents, the full Pie family having attended, as well as Dave O'Brian and Paul Harrison (the latter now sporting a pair of bat wings and being in the last stages of his change, he was keeping quite close to Porcelain Clay).

Robert picked then, of course, to lift his voice. "!" With his announcement made, the very ponyish general store owner put one bat wing around his wife, the other his daughter, and made his way off towards the pub.

Murmurs rose, and more family groups split off to head in the same direction. When Lyra rejoined with her family, Candela with her, Joyce repeated her plan and it was agreed.

The walk to the pub was slow and sedate, and it revealed that not everyone was as familiar with new hooves as they would have liked. With two winged adults and three children, Joyce and Candela managed to keep close contact with each of their foals.

"How's Bitey going, Mum?" Lyra looked to Joyce, using their nickname for the bunyip Joyce had rescued at the behest of the Rainbow Serpent.

"Well, she doesn't think of ponies as food, which is good. She is hunting up in the hills, and I am pretty sure she's the reason some of Frank O'Brians cows have gone missing. You'll keep that to yourself, of course." Joyce had made her mind up about following her daughter to Equestria with one goal as her target: she wanted to learn Equestrian medicine.

Robin squirmed under her mother's wing, twisting free so she could look up at Joyce rather than have to crane her head. "What are you going to do with her when you leave?"

"I have a filly who is going to be staying here. And I was thinking of asking someone to help me talk to Bitey in a dream and tell her to take care of my foal, and let my foal take care of her." Smiling between Robin and Dream, Joyce got big grins from both girls. "So I think she will be fine."

It wasn't a long walk to the pub, and once there Candela and Joyce slipped into the bistro entrance with their foals. The pub itself had been in a low-magic area before, but with the recent changes, there was enough magic that Joyce saw Lyra having to focus herself on fending off a magic build up.

"You okay, hon?" Joyce found a seat at a table and urged Lyra to take the one beside her.

"Yeah. This magic mix-up is playing merry hell on me. The books Candela got for me said I would just get used to handling this after a while, but until then it takes effort not to spark, or worse." Lyra gestured up at her horn and, for a moment, obviously relaxed her grip on her magic.

"I know, dear." Joyce shielded herself from the shower of sparks that shot from her daughter's horn. "Where'd Robin go?" She looked around, suddenly realizing she was a daughter short.

"Dream took her out the back with the other foals." Candela settled at the table beside Joyce and Lyra. "You might have warned me you were going to be putting on a show." She aimed the comment at Lyra.

Lyra grinned like the Cheshire cat. "If we warned you it wouldn't have been as funny. Maud and I wanted to make it a memorable end."

Joyce slipped from her seat. "Getting some drinks." She slipped away without taking orders, knowing already what Lyra and Candela would want, not that she planned to get what they wanted.

Walking up to the bar, Joyce had to rear up to get her forehooves on the wood and her head high enough to see over the bar. "Five glasses, a jug of squash and a bottle of champagne."

Paying, Joyce made her way back to the table, with the barmaid following with a wine bucket, jug, and glasses. When she reached the table, she found Lyra and Candela listening to Robin recount a story of something magical they had found behind the pub.

Thanking the barmaid, Joyce turned and carefully opened the champagne bottle with a loud pop. "We have a little celebration. One of my little girls is all grown up, and the other is moving to Equestria!" She poured three glasses of wine and looked to Robin and Dream. "You can try a little if you like."

Being offered her first taste of alcohol was a big thing to Robin, and she nodded to her mother solemnly.

Candela gave her daughter a pointed look, and then smiled. "It's a special occasion. You can try some if you like, Dream."

Dream Thunder actually gave a squeak of excitement and nodded to Joyce. "Yes please!"

Joyce poured barely a shot of wine in the bottom of the two remaining glasses, then tipped the bottle back upright and set it in its ice bucket. "I guess I might as well go first." She used her wing to pick up one of the glasses (the full ones), and smiled as her family each picked up one of their own with various methods. "To long, fruitful lives, and to friends and family to share them with."

Five glasses clinked together, and each of them took a sip.

"Ooo! It's grape juice!" Dream quickly tipped her glass up and gulped down the remainder of her drink, prompting her mother to groan. "What?"

"It's alcoholic. Like dark cider." Candela reached out with a wing and used her feathers to lift the jug of squash up. "You should stick to this, dear." She poured her daughter out a glass of the lemon-flavored drink.

The interchange brought a smile to Joyce's snout, and she realized that she could taste the wine with a lot more intensity than when she had drunk when she was human. "Wine could easily become a bat pony's favorite drink. Maybe grape juice would be a good idea, too?"

"To living, loving, and always being able to laugh." Lyra Heartstrings smiled over her floating wine glass. All of them clinked their glasses together and sipped again.

"Family and youth. Nothing is more important, and no matter how far you travel you will always have both." Candela ruffled her wings a little and smiled around. She lifted her glass up and clinked it with the others, and followed their sip.

"Fun and excitement!" Dream Thunder froze, and looked between Joyce and Candela with confusion. "Was that wrong?"

Lyra giggled. "It's a great toast, but a lot of people take 'have an exciting life' as a curse. Those people are boring." She offered her glass to Dream's, and together they clinked them.

Robin joined the toast to fun and excitement, although she was sipping the wine in every approximation of what she had seen the adults do. She was about to put in her own toast when a strange shimmer of strange light ran through the room.

Everyone stopped talking, and the entire pub went quiet. Lyra was the first to speak. "That was magic. A lot of magic." She was the first to action too, and jumped to her hooves and ran for the door.

"Michael, what's going on?" Joyce barely had a chance to put her glass down and rush after her daughter, and only realized moments later that she had goofed on Lyra's name. When she looked out the door past Lyra, she couldn't tell what had happened.

"Magic. Magic is everywhere." Stepping outside, Lyra turned around. "Dream? Dream!"

"I'm here. Want me to check on the circles?" Dream Thunder pushed out the door past Joyce, and started to stretch her wings once outdoors.

"No. I could see those if they were there. You need to talk to the Rainbow Serpent." Snapping her attention away from the rush of magic, Lyra looked at Dream. "Try to work out what happened."

Joyce picked up Dream's trepidation first. "Dream, what's wrong?" She reached out a wing and put it over Dream's back, pulling her "adopted" daughter into a hug.

Candela left the building next, and took up the other side of her daughter.

"Th-The Rainbow Serpent said she could hold it all. She…" Dream Thunder gave Lyra a significant glance. "I need to find out what happened."

Author's Note

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
CrimsonPhoenix
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Javarod
Nils
Shaushka
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Vutava

The Answers

Language check. Anything wrapped in [ ] in this chapter is spoken dream-speak, everything else is in Equish.

Dream Thunder flapped her wings as hard as she could. As a pegasus, she would have made more speed with each stroke, but bats flew somewhat differently. The speed of each stroke mattered more than the frequency, but in such a panic she wasn't thinking clearly enough.

Despite what Lyra had told her, she gained some altitude and looked down at the town. The bands where each town slotted together were still there, but from what she could see magic was everywhere now. "This isn't right!"

Tucking her wings in a little, Dream let the air slide out of them so she could dive at the ground. Catching her descent at the last moment, she landed in the back yard of her house.

Walking off her quick flight, Dream Thunder advanced on the house and slipped quickly in the back door. Her trip through the house was quick, and in no time she was swinging her bedroom door open. "There you are." Tufts was hanging from one end of Dream's bed-perch, the bat already well asleep.

Walking up to her perch, Dream performed a practiced jump and whipped her tail around it as she inverted. She swung once then drifted to a relaxed, hanging position. Sleep came quickly.

"[… told you this would happen! But would you listen to me? No! Now look at the mess you've made]!" Tjinimin was right beside Dream Thunder in the dream world, hanging from the mysterious tree that seemed to always be present now. "[You got magic everywhere]!"

Dream looked from Tjinimin outward, and realized that the Rainbow Serpent seemed a lot more distant now. "[What's going on]?" She had the distinct shock of having the attention of what seemed like two beings as powerful as Princess Celestia focus down onto her.

Tjinimin stretched a wing protectively around Dream, nuzzled at her neck, and then glared out at the Rainbow Serpent. "[Now look what you did: she is terrified]!"

Finding herself leaning against Tjinimin's pony-sized body for comfort, Dream Thunder tilted her head to look out at the Rainbow Serpent again, then back to Tjinimin. "[Are you going to tell me what happened]?"

Nodding, Tjinimin gestured out, toward the Rainbow Serpent. "[The oversize silly-string couldn't hold back the magic, like I predicted, and it's everywhere now]."

"[I TRIED TO HOLD IT BACK. IT WAS THE BEST I COULD DO]." The deep tone of the Rainbow Serpent was no less for coming from a long way away. "[THERE IS MORE WORK TO DO NOW. EVERYBODY MUST BE INFORMED. I WILL HOLD THIS AT THE COAST]"

"[What do you mean, informed? I can only tell so many people]." Reaching one wing up, Dream Thunder scratched at one of Tjinimin's ears, her thoughts thinking of him more as Tufts than the god he resembled.

"[YOU DON'T NEED TO TELL EVERYONE, BUT YOU CAN HELP US MAKE EVERYONE KNOW]."

The Rainbow Serpent's intensity, combined with its message, had Dream huddling back against Tjinimin again. The tree, the bat, both felt like home and comfort to her. "[W-W-What do you need to do]?"

"[Ol' lipless thinks we need to begin a new age. I like the idea, but I don't think I will be around here much longer]." Tjinimin wore a happy smile that he only shared with Dream Thunder. "[The Dreaming was the start of everything, but The Knowing will soon come. Everyone will have their future revealed, and we will take the blinders off all in Australia. Dream Thunder, we need you to be the pattern for us]."

Dream Thunder closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "[Will it hurt]?"

"[I don't know. But we only need to do this once]." There was more Tufts than Tjinimin in the voice that spoke to Dream.

"[I'll do it]." Dream Thunder was almost completely wrapped in one of Tjinimin's huge bat wings. "[I need to tell everyone what happened, but not everyone, I mean Mum, Joyce, Lyra, and Robin]."

Tjinimin focused both eyes on Dream, and kissed her on the forehead. "[Everyone in Australia will experience The Knowing. You can tell them when we are done]."

"[WE WILL START NOW. WE HAVE TO PUT IN ALL THE KNOWLEDGE THAT PEOPLE WILL NEED INTO YOU. WE WILL THEN COPY THAT, AND GIFT IT TO THE PEOPLE]." The Rainbow Serpent sounded slightly hesitant, quite the feat for a being that spoke so loud.

"[There's more ribbon-butt isn't telling you. Some of The Knowing will be compulsions: people will want to create a more fitting name for themselves, they will want to help each other. My part of the knowledge will be easy for you to take in]." When Tjinimin revealed a large mango in his wing, Dream snorted in derision. "[You think this silly]?"

"[Yes]." Taking the offered mango, Dream Thunder used her clever wing-thumbs to peel the skin off one side. She took a bite.

It was a slow wave at first, things she already knew, but styled in a different way. Flying. Eating fruit and using wings in general. Walking on all-fours.

"[Well, it is silly. But it beats the alternatives]." Tjinimin used one wing to rub at Dream's tufted ears.

More bites, more knowledge. Dream Thunder got instinctive knowledge for how dream magic worked. How dreams could be used to affect the real world. She even got knowledge about the tree she was hanging from.

"[Shh. Don't tell slither-face that one, and I don't think it is needed in The Knowing]." With a deft brush of Dream Thunder's head, Tjinimin nudged the knowledge of the ancient, mystical mango tree away from The Knowing within Dream.

Mostly done with the mango, Dream Thunder grinned at Tjinimin. She nibbled and ate her way through more knowledge, but they were small things she wasn't even sure of. Magic harmed modern things. Magic was coming, and it would seep out into the world like a wave.

The mango was soon just pip and peel, and Dream dropped them both to the ground under the tree. While she licked her wings, thumbs, and mouth clean, she could sense a jitter in the knowledge within her: it wanted to be free.

"[TJINIMIN MIGHT BE OLDER, BUT HE HAS BEEN NEGLECTING STUDY OF THIS NEW MAGIC. I HAVE NOT]."

Dream Thunder's eyes went wide, and she felt a slithering sensation of something coiling around her. Tighter and tighter the unseen snake's body coiled, until it squeezed the last, little bit and pulled itself past her flesh.

Tjinimin spread the one wing he had free, cradling Dream to his side with the other. "[You could have just swallowed her like you used to. It wouldn't have hurt as much as this]!"

"[IT NEEDED TO BE DONE]."

"[It did, Tufts]." Her own voice sounded almost like an echo of the Rainbow Serpent. Dream Thunder could barely hold all the knowledge now. "[They won't be ready for all this. Nopony would]."

"[Pull some away. You will still keep it, but someone must. Hold tight to what you think should not be part of The Knowing]." Tjinimin's voice still held hints of Tufts', but it was softer than Tufts' screeching tones ever could be. "[Are you ready]?"

There was so much knowledge that Dream almost exploded from the pressure of it. She shook her head.

Knowledge of dreams was good. Knowledge of the monsters that would abound once magic was done—also good. Dream struggled to keep The Knowing together as she teased at the first undesirable thing: knowledge of how to use dreams to change reality on a large scale. Pulling that thread out, Dream felt it coil and wrap tightly within her own mind—like a snake.

There were other, smaller things. Dream teased out knowledge of how to change ones alignment from Earth to Equestria, too, and slumped into Tjinimin's grip. "[It's done]." It took all of Dream Thunder's focus to hold the mass of knowledge as it was, separate from her own knowledge.

"[This should be the easier part]." Tjinimin turned and wrapped both wings around Dream, and pulled her into tighter hug.

Tjinimin's warmth all around her comforted Dream, but there was more seeping into her. Magic. Power. It didn't happen fast, but she felt her dream-self swelling with energy. She lifted her head and looked at Tjinimin's face, and saw a warm smile.

The flow of magic grew greater and greater, and soon Dream thought she would break the mango tree in half with her weight, but it held her. Her ears twitched first. She inhaled, taking in a little more power before the flow tapered off.

"[This is a dream. You have all the power here—all my power]." Tjinimin slowly opened his wings. "[Give them your gifts, Dream Thunder, foal of Tjinimin and Candela]!"

Dream spread her wings, and imagined all the power wrapped around The Dreaming inside her. She willed it out, pushed it.

And burped loudly.

Tjinimin blinked as the echo of the most loud burp in existence radiated out through their dream, then he started to laugh. Screechy cackles filled the shared dream as the magic itself carried The Knowing away.

Joining in the laughter, Dream Thunder reached for a mango on the tree, and then another. She passed the first to Tjinimin, and bit into the second for herself. The laughter of bats echoed behind The Knowing, but in the little, shared dream, only the sound of chewing was heard.

"[BATS]..."

Author's Note

Celestia: are you going to visit that soon?

"Visit where? That little town where nothing bad is coming from except a really nice biped who was more friendly than half the griffon nation?" Princess Celestia, sitting on her throne, raised just one eyebrow.

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post! They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
CrimsonPhoenix
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Javarod
Nils
Shaushka
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Vutava

A Look Back - 1

Language check. All in English.

"You're one of the kids from the local school, right?"

The voice caused Rose to lift his head. He had been taking a break after the little ceremony at the school for their graduation in the playground/park, when the interruption came. Lifting his head from where he lay on the merry-go-round, Rose saw Paul Harrison. "Uh. Yeah."

Paul stumbled a little on his partly transformed legs, but managed to find a seat on a big frog mounted on a stiff spring. "Well, I guess the whole town knows about me and Porcelain by now."

Rose just nodded, a smile playing on his lips. "I was at the meeting, remember? You were cute together."

"She is that." Paul misinterpreted Rose's words, but it didn't seem to faze either of them. "What I want to do is treat her to a special night out. Make her a meal, get someone to look after Ball, and treat her like a queen for just a night. But I need to be able to understand a little more Equish than I do right now." He rubbed the back of his neck with one almost-hoof.

For a while (when she was younger) Rose had dreamed of finding a handsome guy and being swept off her feet. It had been the dreams of a teenage girl who still believed in the Disney ideal. He might not have those dreams anymore, but that little girl was still there, and he pictured a candle-lit dinner for two. Rose gave a sigh and smiled. "What ya need?"

The look on Paul's almost-pony face was stark relief. "Well, I need some basic stuff. Here's your drink. Would you like some more. I love you. That kind of stuff."

"And a babysitter?" Rose spotted a look of surprise on Paul's face. "I got you covered there, too."

"Thanks. Rose, isn't it?" When Rose nodded to his question, Paul smiled. "I talked to the doc a week back, she seemed to think I might be changing everything. What's it like?"

The sudden shift in topic stole Rose's thoughts for a few seconds while he caught up. "It was tough on me. I liked guys, still do, and my boyfriend became a mare. She had the same problem. Then there was all the mess with actually changing the bits. But you get used to it, I guess."

"Porcelain knows about it, the change, but it's still kinda freakin' me out. Will I stop likin' cars and working on engines?" Trying to distract himself from the conversation, Paul rocked a little on the play equipment.

Rose shook his head. "Nah. You'll still be you. I still love working at the mine, messing around with friends, all that stuff. Still like guys, too. You just get a bit more than the basic change to a bat pony." He let that sink in for a moment, then continued. "Now, about payment for the babysitting…"

"Smart kid. How much do you normally charge?" Paul reached for his wallet.

"I don't want money. I want you to tell me how you two even met, let alone kept yourselves secret from this tiny town nearly a year." Stretching out one wing, Rose flapped it slowly to turn the merry-go-round slowly.

Paul blinked in surprise. "Really?"

"Yeah. I have a guy I kinda-maybe-sorta like, and want an idea of how to do things properly." The slow turning of the ride kept Rose's melancholy smile mostly hidden—until the ride turned around enough for Paul to see it. "So spill, and I'll take care of everything."

I couldn't help myself. If curiosity killed the cat, then, meow. Ever since hearing the rumors about "little people" around town, and then helping Dave out fixing a water pump at the mine—where I had first caught sight of them—I had been intrigued.

Nearly every family in the area traced at least half their ancestors back to Ireland, but not a lot of them followed any of the old ways. Nothing crazy like ritual sacrifice or any of that, but I always cooked two meals at dinner time, and I always carefully buried one (minus the special offering-plate of course) by the big mound of dirt in my backyard.

So when I saw one of the brownies with my own eyes, I had to go and see for myself. I waited for a day I knew Dave and Steve would both be away from the mine (they had told me in the pub that they had to sell more of their stuff), and grabbed what I needed.

I packed myself lunch, and twice that—to be sure that if I ran across one of the fey that was hungry, I could leave it casually behind (I wasn't stupid enough to put them in my favor). Dinner, for those of the mound in my backyard, was already safely buried, so I headed off.

It felt like an adventure, like what my ancestors would have done. Visiting a fairy mound, having my faith affirmed, it was pretty heady stuff.

The tunnel was well-lit. I walked through casually, but I kept my eyes open. There was a point, though, when I knew I had entered the fairy mound. From one step to the next, the world changed. I could feel life bubbling around me, and more than that, all the electric lights had been replaced with oil lamps.

I thought the tunnel would keep going down, to the heart of the mound, but instead I was walking back up. When I saw light at the end of the tunnel, I actually broke into a jog. Needless to say, stepping out into hot, midday sunlight was not what I expected.

The sunlight was most of the reason I was confused. It was afternoon when I started into the tunnel, on one of the colder days of winter. I looked around, trying to get my bearings in an odd-looking place.

Around me looked like a dry plain. Turning, I saw hills leading up from the tunnel. I gazed upward, seeing a tall peak above.

A soft, feminine voice spoke, and seemed to come from low behind me.

I spun around, expecting to see one of the little folk. So when I saw a little horse, I was confused. I glanced around, looking for who was playing a prank on me, when she spoke again. This time I got to see the little mare's mouth move, and my ears told me the sound came directly from her.

"Uh. Hi!" Why is it, at the pinnacle moment of your life, you say the dumbest stuff? And to a pooka no less. Her words hadn't made sense to me, but they had sounded inviting enough.

She replied again in a pleasing, sing-song tone, but I couldn't understand a word of it.

I smiled at her, and she delivered back a huge smile as well. "Uh, my name's Paul. Paul." As I repeated my name, I pointed to my chest. She blinked up at me with her big eyes, and shrugged.

Then she lifted a hoof up, murmured some words in her strange language, and poked her own chest. "… ."

Either she was the stupidest pooka ever, or she wasn't one at all. I crouched down and held my hand out. To my surprise, she put her left forehoof in it, and we shook a greeting. "?" I saw the spark of recognition a person's name should elicit.

She started babbling, all at once, and pointing behind her emphatically.

When she turned, I stepped after her. This was why I had come, after all. I couldn't balk at the adventure just because I didn't understand a lick of their language. trotted along, and glanced back to me every now and again. She seemed to realize I couldn't understand her, and instead of long, complicated bursts, she only gave me shorter, encouraging sounds.

I realized she was probably luring me to be cooked in a pot, buried up to my neck, or something, but there literally wasn't anything else I could do. "Wish I could understand you. What's so urgent that—" I shut up, realizing she had led me to a little town.

Walking along the main street, I realized I was completely surrounded by various pooka. Most of them spotted me first, but when they saw , bright smiles would burst forth. I even waved to those who dared to wave at the giant monkey.

led me to her home, or what I assumed was her home. It was a low building (obviously, from its size and design, made to suit her kind), and more than a third of it was devoted to pottery. There was little, pedal-operated wheels, mounds of clay under sheets of tarpaulin, and what I was sure was a kiln.

My granny had been a potter. She made the plate I always served the mound from. So without even thinking about why, and with memories of sitting on Gran's lap clouding my eyes, I walked up to one of the wheels.

I didn't hear , even if she said anything. My hand reached down to the covered, damp pile of perfect clay to the side of the wheel. A plate. The clay I picked up told me its desired form as my hand sank into it.

Putting the clay on the wheel, I had to hunch into an awkward position to both peddle and shape, but in moments I turned out a plate. It was round, it sloped inward, and for some reason it gave me more joy to make than the last engine I had built for my car.

I barely noticed 's hooves reaching out with string pulled tight. She cut the base of the plate off, and with an excited chatter, lifted the completed piece free of the wheel. She carried it over to the kiln, and when she opened the door on the front I felt the heat of the furnace inside despite being a few meters away.

When she turned, I saw raw excitement in her eyes. She raced the short distance back to me, reached down for more clay, and dumped it on the wheel with (I realized) expert practice.

I was fascinated by her hooves. I peddled the wheel at a constant speed, and her hooves pressed, pinched, and shaped the clay into a perfect duplicate of the plate I had made. I don't just mean a bit like it, I mean perfect recreation.

cut her plate free of the wheel, and just as the string finished cutting it off, a clunk came from the peddle I was working. "Oh crap." While the mare lifted her plate from the wheel, I bent down to take a look at what had broken.

Before I knew what was happening, had come back (after apparently putting the plate in the kiln), and bent down beside me. She muttered something, and plucked up a small wooden pin from the ground—there was a small pile of them.

The pin that secured the pedal to an arm that reached up to run the wheel was missing, and I soon realized why: worked the little wooden pin in. "That's awfully temporary. I could get you a split-pin that would fix that, you know?"

She looked at me with confusion on her face. I let out a sigh. Of course, language barrier. Well, the only thing for it was to show her I could do it. I stood up and brushed off my pants. "I'll run back to my shop and get—" I had been gesturing with one hand, back the way I had come from, but she grabbed my other. For such a little pooka, she had a lot of strength.

She was tugging me toward the back door of her house, and there was nothing else for it but to drop to my hands and knees. Crawling after , I wasn't prepared for the nicely decorated home I entered. I couldn't even hope of standing, but settling back on my rump was more than okay. "This is amazing."

The place was, despite my estimation that it was nicely decorated, a bit of a mess. There was toys scattered about, and a small pile of cracked plates sitting on the kitchen table. I realized, however, that the plates hadn't even been glazed. Curtains hung from every window, and everywhere I looked, I saw little knick-knacks made from fired clay.

I watched the pooka make a sandwich with her hooves. She looked up at me and made a questioning sound. I shook my head. "No thanks. I've got my own." I reached to the battered old backpack and pulled out a trusty Tupperware container and pulled out my own sandwich.

We ate together in relative calm, until the front door of her house banged opened and closed again. Panic gripped me. I didn't know if was being attacked, or if it was some ghost. I started to shift, when I spotted a foal bounce their way into the kitchen.

The foal froze, looked between me and , and his (he just had a feeling of boyishness, or is that coltishness?) eyes widened like saucers. "H-Hi."

I looked to , then back to the colt. "Hi. Uh, you speak English?"

let loose with a rush of her own words, but none of them were understandable. I looked at the confused expression on the colt's face as he took it all in.

The colt said something back to , and then the two of them had a furious little back and forth for a few minutes. I waited until finally he said something that I assumed was, "Alright! I'll do it," and turned back to me. "Mum says thank you for teaching her an interesting new plate design."

"Can you tell her: it's one my grandmother showed me how to make. I'm glad she likes it." I waited for him to pass the information on, before something struck me as odd. "Sorry, but what's your name? And how did you learn English?"

"School." The colt shrugged his shoulders just like a human would. Then he puffed his chest out a bit and lifted his nose into the air—trying to pose. "I'm Ball Clay!"

His hoof shot out, and I reached to shake it, but instead he just caught my knuckles with a tap. "G'day Ball."

"What's a 'pooka'?" Rose had waited, patiently, for Paul to finish his tale. He hadn't finished the story, but he had stopped talking for a while.

"They're not pooka, I know that now. Just another kinda people." Paul wore a lopsided grin. "Spent some time chatting with Ball, he's a good kid, and he filled me in. Oh, and a pooka is like what you'd call a werewolf, but instead of human they're fey, and instead of wolves they are whatever they please. Gran said they were pretty amiable, so I guess that is why I was so relaxed."

Rose narrowed his eyes and then slowly raised an eyebrow. "You're leaving a lot out."

Of course, I went back the following day. Dave and Steve were at the mine, but neither raised so much as an eyebrow at my approach. I was a lot more concerned than they were. "Just heading through," I said. "Need anything from the other side?"

My question got more attention than I did, and I cursed myself for asking it.

"I think we're good, right Steve-o?" Dave's look of humorous curiosity was something I had felt myself, when I planned the second run.

Steve, who was carrying a huge roll of air-hose (something I could recognize no matter where I saw it), shook his head. "Nah. But seein' you headin' over there, Paul, with a tool chest: it makes a bloke wonder."

"Just doing some handyman work. They were using wooden pins to secure a hand-crank, and the thing was breakin' every other time you worked it. Figured I could spare a split-pin to do the job proper." It was the honest-to-goodness truth, and that is probably what made both the miners shrug. "I'll catchya later."

"Yeah. Catchya Paul." Dave gave his workmate an elbow, and as I walked away I could hear them muttering something.

This time, when passing from the real world to the strange one on the other side of the tunnel, I stopped at the midpoint and examined it. The crossover was exactly like an invisible mirror. The world I stood in was reflected in how the rest of the tunnel looked, but stepping through revealed the change.

Leaving my investigation of the veil behind, I made my way further through the tunnel, and soon came out in bright sunlight on the other side. It was stark, shocking. In the real world it was winter, but here it was summer.

Porcelain wasn't waiting for me. I still didn't know why she had been at the tunnel the previous day. Lifting a hand to shade my eyes, I started walking toward the little town.

The same ponies from the previous day waved, and called out to me. I made sure to wave back, but there wasn't much I could do for a verbal greeting. I froze as my eyes fell on Porcelain Clay. She was in her work area, turning a plate from clay, and as I watched the wooden pin in her treadle broke, ruining a half-formed plate.

"Porcelain. I've got just the thing!" My call got her attention, despite her not understanding a word I said. Her face lit up, and the frown I saw initially—likely the result of the wheel breaking—turned into a huge smile.

I made my way closer, and listened to the way Porcelain's voice rose and fell as she spoke. She knew I couldn't understand her, but I could tell she was venting her frustration with her equipment.

I held up a placating hand, and walked past Porcelain to her potter's wheel. Crouching, I pulled out some pliers and pulled out what was left of the wooden pin. Grabbing the plastic packet of steel split-pins from my pocket, I assembled the treadle properly, and put the pin through. Curling the legs around locked the little pin home.

"That's how it should be fixed, ma'am." I started to turn, only to have a pony crash into me.

I had no idea what was happening at first, until her forelegs squeezed me a little, and she murmured something. Awkwardly, I put an arm around her and hugged back, but after a minute I realized the hug was something a little more.

"Are you alright, Porcelain?" I pulled back a little, and saw she was crying. "What's wrong?"

My tone must have conveyed my question quite well. Porcelain gestured behind her, and I saw the ground had a half-dozen of the broken, wooden pins—they hadn't been there the previous day. Her art, or livelihood, had been suffering for the lack of a few bits of metal.

"It's fine now. Look, I have enough to fix your other wheels." I revealed more of the pins to her—that had cost me less than five dollars—and earned a little giggle from her. Rubbing her shoulder, I pointed the hand holding the pins toward the other wheels. "Come on. I'll show you how to put these in."

"You fell in love because of a split pin?" Rose couldn't help but scoff a little at the story.

"What?" Paul shook his head and waved off the question as silly. "Nah. But it was a good start. I started taking weekends off to visit, and together we would make things from clay. I even brought her the offering plate I use, the one Gran helped me make."

Sounding shocked, Rose waved a hoof at Paul. "And you still can't even talk to her?"

"Some things don't need translating." Winking, Paul puckered his lips and made a kissing sound. "Now, when we had that first town meeting, about people getting pony bits, I had to keep my cool. Didn't want to let on to everybody that I was perfectly fine with getting a few fuzzy bits, but I also didn't want to sound like yer mum."

"Hey, don't look at me like that." Stretching his wing out, Rose gave a lazy flap, sending the merry-go-round moving. "I've had to come to terms with the fact my mum's a bit of a bitch." There was a difference between thinking it, and saying it, or so Rose realized. "So how far have you gone?"

"Ain't you a bit young for that kinda question?" Paul gave Rose the best raised eyebrow he could.

Rose scoffed. "I'm eighteen. This is crazy, everyone is looking younger. I mean, look at you, how old are you?"

"Twenty-seven."

"Well, you don't look much over twenty right now. And, by the time you're finished turning all the way, you'll be a cute, teenage mare." Rose had intended to rebuff Paul with the description, but all the words did was earn a laugh from Paul.

"You think it worries me? It didn't worry Porcelain, and she is the pony who has to put up with me most." Just as he finished speaking, Paul froze.

Rose and Paul both were equally unable to move or talk: they were both suddenly fast asleep.

The dream hit Rose like a rush of wings. Bat wings. There was a vague familiarity with the thoughts and notions.

He needed to get a more bat pony appropriate name.

He needed to be friendly.

The world, at least Australia, was changing.

The people of Australia would change, too.

All the ideas that poured into Rose's head were from a single point of view. He could feel a connection with the bat pony who was living through the same problems he was. She felt young, but full of so much promise and potential that it almost overwhelmed Rose.

Among the information, Rose kept catching flashes of his own friends: Mike, Robin, Joyce, even Rose himself (or herself at the time). Then things changed, the flashes showed each of them growing into the ponies they were now.

There was a pony missing from the flashed memories, and Rose knew exactly who it was.

Startling awake, Rose let loose a few curses before he realized the intense headache was fading. Ears tucked back, he kept his forelegs and wings over his head to protect him from the world that seemed far too real.

"What the fuckin' hell was that?" Paul's voice cut through Rose's headache, the soft tone of it belying the harsh words.

Slowly opening one eye, Rose looked at where Paul's voice had come from (or rather, the lighter-than-Paul's-voice). A bat pony mare lay on her side, the playground equipment having summarily ejected her the moment Paul wasn't paying attention. "I think it was a wave. And I know who to ask about it." Rose tried to stand up, but even with four legs planted firmly down, the world still seemed hard to walk on.

It took Rose far too long to realize that it was because every time he moved, the roundabout turned a little more.

Stumbling free of the ride, Rose was just in time to see Paul rising on unsteady legs—pony legs. "Where are we going?" Paul shook her head in confusion.

"We're going to talk with Dream Thunder. She knows what's going on. I just know it." Getting his bearings more surely, Rose pointed a hoof toward Joyce and Candela's home's direction. "And I bet she's that way."

"You… bat… she's that way?" With a silly grin on her face, Paul stretched out her new wings and gave them a few, weak flaps. "Not sure why, but this doesn't feel as crazy and bad as I thought it would. I just changed species and sex, and I feel… grape."

"Why are you making bad puns?" Rose started walking, and had mixed feelings about Paul coming, now.

"Puns?" Paul laughed. "Don't know, but they just feel—right to say." She tucked her wings back in. "Race you, pear!" With no more warning, Paul spread her wings and took to the sky, flying like she were an expert.

Author's Note

Candela: though you are exceptionally gifted in granting knowledge, is there a lesson you wish you could spare your students from having to learn?

"Wish? That I could spare them anything that would cause them pain. But that is not for anypony to do. Even Princess Celestia couldn't hold a foal from all the harsh lessons of life." Ruffling her wings with a little agitation, Candela pulled a smile onto her lips. "However, I can prepare them for such lessons, so they only have to learn them once."

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post! They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
CrimsonPhoenix
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Javarod
Lazyreader19
Nils
Shaushka
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Vutava

A Look Back - 2

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken Thestralian, everything else is in English.

Roy eyed the stallion. Looking almost identical, age wise, Roy had been surprised to find out that they had both been through the same thing, backwards. "I still don't know how this could even happen." When the stallion raised an eyebrow critically, Roy sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I do know. Everyone knows; that's why it's called The Knowing. But I'm a doctor, this,"—Roy pointed at herself with a hoof—"isn't possible!"

"Right. Nothing like this is remotely possible without magic." Rose gave the best and most reassuring smile he could. "That said, people are turning into ponies, and soon the whole country will. Those ponies are still going to need medical help."

"I'm not that kind of doctor." Roy had explained this to a lot of people, and it never ceased to grate each new time it happened. "I study blood, and things that infect it. I don't help sick people; I find out what is messing them up so others can help them."

"So if you're not a doctor, why call yourself one?" Settling his notebook down, Rose limbered up his right wing and gripped an oversize pen with his wing-claw.

The question got Roy's hackles up. "Do you want this story or not?"

Rose held up a wing (not the one holding his pen) in a placating gesture. "Sorry. Yeah I do. I just think it would be a good idea to get all these stories written down."

"So where should I start?" Still a little annoyed at Rose's slights, Roy lay down and got comfortable. She might be a bit upset still, but she wholeheartedly agreed with what Rose was doing.

"Start where you think you need to." Despite Roy not having actually started, Rose was already writing on the first page.

"Liz, can I ask you something?" I was nervous as all hell. Shifting in my seat reminded me why I should feel nervous.

She turned and looked at me with a critical eye. "Is this work related? Because I swear, Roy, when you volunteered to help me with this study, I expected you to not make it actually take longer than I could have alone."

I had to push on. Despite Liz's complaints, I know she actually enjoyed talking while she worked; she was just a little annoyed she hadn't cracked the case yet. The up and coming toxicologist, the star player of the team who had caught the cause of the last two cases quickly, was coming up empty-handed. "Well, suppose for a second that they're not tripping on some kind of hallucinogen. What if this is something physical?"

"Like mass-hypnosis?" Despite her earlier protest, Liz lifted her head from her work and looked at me. Her red hair framed her freckled face perfectly, with only the chic, modern glasses she wore to break up her beauty. She realized I was staring, and smiled. "I told you, work time is for work. If you want to get frisky, we both need to be on break."

"Can't blame a guy for admiring something beautiful." I just grinned at her eye-roll. "But I'm serious here. What say, hypothetically speaking, such an incident happened and it was all true?" Shifting on my seat again, I felt the tail—my tail—move.

"And we couldn't find anything?" Liz lifted her hands from her keyboard and tapped her chin in thought. "Then I would have Dr. Chase ramp up his part of the investigation. Look, Roy, you need to at least give me hypotheticals that don't result in 'Everybody is nuts.'"

Taking a deep breath, I knew I had to go a step further, or Liz would just blow this off as nothing. "Standard protocol is that the team truck in its own water and food. That they maintain minimal contact with the subjects. What happens if a member of the team starts having the same symptoms, had no contact, and was living on MREs and bottled water?"

"Then whatever they have must be airborne, communicated by another team member, or some kind of radiation sickness. These delusions don't just appear in healthy humans." Liz looked at me, and I saw the exact moment when her mind ticked over, and she started looking at me as if I were a possible subject.

"I guess you're right." I said it, calm and even, but on the inside I had reached blind panic. "I gotta stretch my legs. All this data entry has been so thrilling, but I might have to just go for a walk." I jumped to my feet, felt my tail tuck down tightly, and made for the door.

"Roy?" Liz's voice stopped me in my tracks; she sounded confused and more than a little worried. "Are you sure you're okay? This must be really getting to you."

I couldn't look back at Liz, she would see the fear in my eyes. "All play and no work makes Roy something-something."

She let out a little laugh. "Go crazy?"

"I hope not." I jumped down the stairs at the back of the semi-trailer, and made my way toward the target area: Cowwarr.

"And then I met up with Dr. Robertson. She—she put it in perspective." Roy looked at Rose's puzzled expression. "What?"

"I wasn't there for that." Rose shook his wing and wiggled his thumb a little. "So give it all to me."

"She didn't judge me. I got into such a manic state of mind, but when she sat me down and just told me everything, I listened and just…" Roy fished for a word to continue.

Rose brought his wing back down and returned to writing. "Joyce's special talent is taking care of those who need it. There's no wonder that when your problem was being in a panic, she eased it."

Roy nodded. "Probably helped her daughter slipped me tea instead of coffee. I got the first mouthful down before I even realized, and by then she was gone. If you ever want to see the difference between my kind of doctor, and someone who makes people better, look to Dr. Robertson.

"So I was trapped, completely caught at work. Liz had her voice recorder on all the time, and despite us normally sharing a bed, she wouldn't go near me after that." Roy got a silly grin on her face. "Don't let anyone ever tell you make-up sex isn't the best. Strange, though."

Rose's ears twitched, and his tufts flicked just a little. "Being a girl, you mean?"

"Well… yeah." Thinking back to the previous night, Roy's face curled into a silly grin. "She—he—was a little distracted after the change, but The Knowing helped. The others weren't so calm, mostly because almost all of them had turned into mares—and if you have never seen the look on a chauvinist's face when he becomes a woman, you are missing out."

"So. You're back together with Dr. Clark?" Rose's paused his writing: this was more gossip than fact.

"Epically." It didn't take much for Roy to think back to the previous evening. "She always used to complain that I was only after her because she was hot as all get-out, had a smokin' mind, and could read me like a book. I proved to him that none of it mattered, that I loved him."

"I didn't do so well with my own version of that situation. She still likes girls, I can't think of being with one." Rose wore a stunned expression for a few moments. He let out a sigh. "Sorry for unburdening, I just—"

"Nah, it's cool. I've told you all kinds of stuff about Liz I wouldn't tell anyone else. You're just easy to talk to, I guess." Roy paused a moment to gather her thoughts, and to try to steer the conversation away from personal matters. "Okay, so was that all you needed?"

Rose tapped his chin with his oversize pen, and gave a soft, indistinct chitter. "Actually, since you said how it was interesting, what happened when The Knowing blew through?"

I had pony ears, a tail, and even fur covering patches of my body. Looking in the mirror revealed the true strangeness of it, but when you thought life had gotten freaky enough, it proved you wrong.

"Are you seeing it again?" Liz's voice came from her own bunk. We shared the truck-trailer with the blood-work equipment on it—since our specialties both relied on it—and had built a pair of bunks at one end. It was about as cozy as any medium caravan, but we had no privacy from each other.

I had finally given in. Under the stipulation that she is the only one to see the notes, I had let Liz test me. "Yeah. Tail, ears… All still there."

Turning my head, I looked at Elizabeth. She had the most adorable, tufted pony ears sticking up from her head, although she hadn't grown a tail yet. But she was still blind to it all.

"Do you ever not see them?" Her tone held more worry than scientific curiosity.

I shook my head to her. "They're there. They're part of me."

"And you said you see them on others? What about the locals?" Liz kept herself inches away from referring to the people of Cowwarr as subjects. When I nodded to her, Liz blew out a sigh. "Well, you said you wanted to try some kinky stuff. Would a straight jacket do?"

I barked a laugh at her tone. She was using playfulness to cover her worry.

Sitting down on my bunk, I was careful to pull my tail to the side. "Oh, of course. One for each of us. I get one because I see ponies everywhere."

Liz jerked upright. "What? Why do I get one?"

"Because despite me going loonie-bin crazy, you still love me." I reached out my hand and booped her on the nose. I noticed the odd coloration in my fingers, and the slight stiffness in them. Of course Dr. Robertson had given me the talk about the progression of the changes, but I didn't think they would happen quite so quickly.

I stared as my hand reshaped, squeezing together and melding into a hoof. Glancing past my hoof at Liz, I saw the fur of her ears migrate down, and a big mane of hair fluff out her normal red into a rich gray-speckled russet.

"Liz? I think something stranth ith hafafaf…" My mouth was shifting, changing quickly. Teeth reshaped, my tongue seemed to lengthen before my entire face did. Then I felt it. The Knowing.

We stared at each other. We had a first-hand (hoof now, I guess) view of what a human turning into a pony looked like. We seemed to shrink rapidly, giving up years of our life. It was all planned, or so I Knew. There were bits and pieces of a young bat pony experiencing the world, and it was mixed with very broad Knowledge. I Knew that not only us, but everyone else in Australia would soon be a bat pony. I Knew that magic was now free. And, I Knew that our little part of the world had just gotten very strange, a lot more dangerous, and utterly fantastic.

Lifting my head up from watching Liz change, I suppressed a grin—badly. "."

"!" Liz's forehooves flew up to her mouth and traced the line of her snout. "Can I still talk English? Oh, cool."

"!" I jumped to my feet, but my feet weren't just feet anymore, and my hips didn't support bipedal movement in exactly the same way a human did. Picking myself up from the floor, I realized that I knew how to stand, move, and walk just fine, and did so. "."

I wanted to leave and see what was going on, but at that moment I heard a shocked gasp from Liz. I turned around to look at her, and noticed a lot more of "her" than should have been there. Laying on his back, Liz was staring down at his new equipment.

"…" I should have felt shocked at the sight, or the sudden realization that I was lacking that equipment, but something about it just felt right. "?"

Liz's head shot up from her inspection, and I saw the most lecherous grin grow across her face. "."

I took a step toward her, then another, and then I realized what was going on. We had both been turned into bat-like ponies, had our sexes swapped, a ton of information crammed directly into our heads, and to top it all off, we were about to have sex (that is definitely where my thoughts had been headed, and I knew Liz enough to know it was his too) with no regard for where and what we were.

"." I shook my head, symbolically getting rid of the bad thoughts. But my thoughts became muddled again when Liz's lips touched mine. He was firm, insistent, and looked into my eyes with huger behind his.

Jerking away from his touch took every ounce of my willpower. "Liz, stop!" I think the only reason my words got through to him was because I had managed to shout in English.

If Liz hadn't pulled away right then, I probably wouldn't have been able to resist a second time. We stared at each other for nearly a minute—our lungs heaving.

"S-Sorry, Roy. I think I'm a little pent-up." He looked at me, smiled, and rolled his big eyes.

I nodded, trying to figure out what it was about Elizabeth (I had to try to feel more detached, and using her full name—even just in my head—helped) that turned me on now. I had been mostly human minutes ago, and had felt desire for human company. Now I couldn't think of anything better than curling up with Liz and— I mentally slapped myself.

"You and me both. Liz I—Don't get me wrong, once we have all this worked out and squared away, I would be totally into us again." I gestured to him, then back to myself. "But for now we need to be professional, even though you're super hot."

Liz closed his eyes for a moment, and I saw his mouth moving. If there was ever a tell that would let me just know it was Liz, that was it. "It didn't just make us okay with being bat ponies, it made bat ponies fundamentally what we are. I'm trying to think of someone hot, and when I try to think of Brad Pitt, I see a pony. This is really strange."

"Until you stop thinking about it."

"Really? Now I am thinking about it, I can't stop." Liz's face screwed up, and he suddenly barked with laughter. "It works on everything. Whenever I picture someone as being cute, I think of ponies."

That shocked me further. I tried to do the same. I thought of the curve of a woman's chest, of her eyes and mouth, and her tail. Okay, I was freaked out when I kept imagining bits of ponies instead of humans, but then when I thought of how sexy a tail would be, I gasped.

"See!" Liz pointed a hoof at me and laughed.

We both laughed at the effect for a few minutes, and in that time the sexual tension seemed to fade away. Of course, the laughter would start again when either of us mentioned a part of the body, and we both would inevitably think of the pony version.

At last, we stood up, and without another word headed for the back of the trailer. Each piece of equipment was sectioned off by opaque plastic walls, and the way past each section was through a small corridor to one side of them. The back of the truck had its two big doors closed, but the smaller door (human sized) was open.

Outside, I moved far enough from the trailer to let Liz down too, and looked around.

"They're in operations." Liz pointed with a wing at one of the other trailers. It was obvious in that all the shouting was coming from it.

"Do you think it reversed everyone's sex?" I hadn't realized how easy I was moving on four legs, back inside the trailer, but as we made our way over to the noisy trailer I started to marvel even more at how effective The Knowing had been.

A particularly loud screech caused my ears to tuck back.

"I think it's fairly obvious that at least a few others have. I'm surprisingly okay with it, and I'm pretty sure you are, too Ray. Can you imagine what'd happen if James became a mare? He barely tolerated me on the team, and not because of my skills." Liz's tone betrayed his anger at that, but then it evaporated. "Not anymore!"

"?" I started climbing up into the trailer, and poked my head past the plastic curtain.

Half a dozen pairs of eyes focused on me. Four mares. Two stallions. As I got all the way in, I had to make room for Liz behind me. "So…"

"We have to have been drugged!" one mare screeched.

I clamped my ears down tight as the volume rose. The argument regained its momentum, and I suddenly wanted nothing to do with it. Then a single voice cut through the mayhem like a knife through butter.

"Pipe down in here!" Elizabeth stomped forward, wading into the shouting match with impressive support behind his voice. "You first!" He pointed a hoof at the loudest bat pony in the room, a mare. "Who are you, and what happened?"

It was a marvel. Liz had always been vehement—she had had to be to make it where she was with Dr. Ward as the team's head—but now he was positively commanding. If I weren't in a trailer with six very angry bat ponies, I would have told him how that made me feel.

The bat pony Liz had gestured at lifted their chin in a gesture that told me exactly who they were. "I am Dr. James Ward, the leader of Response Team Four." The way she said it spoke volumes for how much the mare was trying to convince herself that it was true. "I was putting the final touches on my review of this mental breakdown, when—"

Another bat pony, a stallion, cut in. "When we all turned into bat ponies!"

Liz turned his stare on the interrupter, and glared them down. "Dr. Ward was speaking. I don't care how wrong anybodies' hypothesis are, they get their moment to speak. That was the rule of the head of this team." He turned his look back to Dr. Ward, and it was amazing to see the amount of backbone the defense had put in James Ward. "Dr. Ward, I believe this might be a bit more than purely psychological. Do you have any defenses against… new developments?"

"I don't foresee any setbacks to the hypothesis. The only thing that has changed is that now we—the research team—are part of those affected." Dr. Ward drew herself up and looked around the others, daring anyone to cut in on her.

I had to give her credit, being a chauvinist and turned into a female had to have done something to her head, but The Knowing seemed to have helped there, too. "Dr. Chase hasn't been exposed to the residents of the town, but he seems to be affected, too." I hadn't realized it was me speaking until I clamped my mouth closed on the last word.

Dr. Ward looked as smug as a forty-year-old-man in a mare's body could. "Clearly, the agent responsible for this hallucination is either airborne, or we brought it back with us from the town."

Now even I wanted to shout at Dr. Ward, but Elizabeth cut through all our potential screeching with just a cleared throat.

"Dr. Chase,"—Liz turned to face the stallion who had most vehemently cut in on Dr. Ward earlier—"is there any known chemical that could fit that vector? Something airborne, or able to be transmitted from one subject to another without loss of effect?"

Clearly wanting to say a lot more, but holding his mouth for the moment, Dr. Chase shook his head.

"Then we can put that hypothesis aside, and consider it discounted for all known probabilities. What else do we have?" It was "Elizabeth" again that looked around the room again, and he saw my wing raised. "Dr. Pendleton?" He was back to "Liz" again.

"There is a weight of evidence here that cannot be overlooked. Whether it is just us hallucinating that we are ponies, or not, we need to contact headquarters. This, be it psychological or physical, is spreading." I gave nods to Dr. Ward where appropriate, and got a nod back from her each time. Despite her inability to see the truth, she was a professional, and had been dealing with these sorts of problems while I had been applying to med school.

All the ponies mumbled a form of "good idea" around the group, and as one they looked to Liz, who looked back at Dr. Ward.

"You're the leading physician, doctor, it's up to you to see this through." Liz gave his brightest smile to Dr. Ward, and the head of our team smiled back just as brightly.

Puffing her chest out, Dr. Ward nodded to Liz as if the shift in leadership was nothing more than being passed a coffee. "Thank you, Dr. Clark. I'll make the necessary calls." And with that she made her way to the front of the trailer, and her own office (which doubled as the communications center).

With his eyes closed, Dr. Chase let out a held breath. "I'm sorry, everyone, that was unprofessional of me. I don't know what came over me."

"I do. You turned into a bat pony, your sex got all mixed up, and you got a pile of knowledge crammed into your head that seems to belong to a young mare," I said.

"Orange you glad I came?" Liz's question got a giggle from everyone present. "You had to admit, I was grape!" The giggles turned into laughs, and someone screeched just like a bat, but unlike before, this was a happy sound.

We were laughing until Dr. Ward walked back out. I'd had a little experience with emotions on bat pony faces, but the mare who seemed to be the source of The Knowing would have called it shell-shock. She lifted her head and looked around our group, her eyes instantly sobering everyone with their almost-panic.

"What's happened, Dr. Ward?" Liz asked.

"It's spreading. While I was establishing a secure link to Melbourne, I put in similar requests for contact to every major hospital." Dr. Ward was almost shaking now.

I rushed over and put a wing around her shoulders, then guided her down to the one couch in the trailer. She fairly huddled under my wing, and I felt real worry start to rise.

"LaTrobe Hospital in Traralgon is dark. Their satellite up-link isn't responding. Melbourne responded, but there weren't any terminals responding." Dr. Ward had never been this scared in any of the years I had known him, and I knew—apart from being turned into a pony—what the culprit was: this was potentially a doomsday scenario.

"If this is some form of radiation we haven't encountered before, it could be harming unshielded equipment. Our transmitter is hardened, as is the one in Melbourne I would wager, but a regional hospital wouldn't have need for that." The second stallion of the group that had been here already (third now that Liz was here), had the vocal surety on the subject that only Dr. Firth could possess, our radiation expert and oncologist.

"Try north: Sydney. Further west: Adelaide." I kept my voice low, and I had to smile when Dr. Ward's ear perked around at the sound of my voice. Jumping up, she raced back to her office.

A bare moment passed before we could hear Dr. Ward's voice from her office, her door having apparently been left open in her rush. "There has been an outbreak. Vector unknown. Full effect unknown. Subjects—subjects mutate rapidly. Some form of radiation is damaging unshielded equipment." A tense pause lengthened, then Dr. Ward cursed bitterly. "Of course I'm telling the damn truth. You think just anyone can access this connection? My name is Doctor James Ward. My registration number is MED1001133512. I am too busy to explain further."

We heard her repeat the same information several more times, and with each I felt more relaxed: it hadn't spread much further, or so I hoped. Waiting in silence broken only by Dr. Ward's reports, we were a little surprised when the doctor left her office.

"That's the best I can do." Dr. Ward looked drained; it was the only way I could describe it.

Dr. Chase moved to Dr. Ward's side, and he spread a wing over her back. "No one could have been expected to handle this,"—Dr. Chase gestured around the room—"any better."

"Here here," rumbled around the room from various throats.

Dr. Ward seemed a little surprised by the hug—in a good way. A rush of emotions flickered over her face, ranging from surprise, excitement, shock, embarrassment, and settling back to surprise.

I was pulled from my examination of a new dynamic among the team by a similar wing pulling its way over my own back. Turning my head, I found I had to look up a little to see Liz's eyes.

"Well, look what I caught?" Liz had a knowing smile on his lips, and I couldn't help but respond to it with my own. "I don't think there's anything else we have to do."

Nodding, I turned toward the door with him. "I can think of something." I pulled forward, out from under Liz's wing. Jumping down the stairs to the ground outside, I turned around when he followed. "An apology would be good."

Liz heaved a deep sigh, but he nodded. "You're right, and I'm sorry I didn't listen to you earlier. But you have to admit, this was pretty crazy. And James still didn't face the facts after he turned into a bat pony. I should have believed you."

It felt good to have him admit that—vindication is a powerful thing. "Almost there." I had the pleasure of seeing Liz's face register surprise. "You have to promise, in future, to believe everything I tell you."

"That is not going to happen." Liz stepped toward me, and I didn't back away. "What about if I promise to always listen?"

"That's a good start. What else?" I let him move closer, until our lips were almost touching.

Liz cocked one eyebrow, and gave me a look that told me I was pushing it. He told me as much. "You're pushing it, but what about daily smooching?"

His breath on my nose was infuriatingly good. I breathed in his scent and tried to look like I was pondering the offer. "Let me test the merchandise first."

"I pressed forward the scant distance and our—" Roy looked at Rose, and lifted one eyebrow. "How old are you?"

"Eighteen." Rose's wing was still working. "Surely you noticed how we all look like young ponies now, right?"

Roy sighed. "Hard not to, but that makes it even harder to figure out ages. Besides, you don't need to know any more than that. The rest is pretty personal, if you catch my drift."

Rose flipped the page in her book, and scrawled three words: "My turn next."

Author's Note

Tufts: is nap time over already?

Tufts just works his mouth, nomming away on grapes. After a few minutes he spat the squeezed pulp out. "Nap time is never long enough."

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post! They will pick one question per chapter.

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Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
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A Look Back - 3

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken Thestralian, everything else is in English.

"Where to even start? Maybe when I first met Mike? When he changed into Lyra?" Rose Quartz lay under a willow tree, on the edge of the Thompson River. "And when do I end? When I decided to finally call myself Rose Quartz? This stuff is so much easier when all I have to do is write down what others say."

Rose could sense the huge bunyip near the shore—it wasn't hiding from him. "?" When the big beast didn't move, Rose just sighed. "." His wing, holding a pen in oversize padding, began to move.

It took a while before he adjusted his position a little, shifting legs, tail, and neck. Rose looked down at the page and sighed. "Now I know why they tell me their stories. It's good to just get it out."

"Dinner's ready!" I called, and smiled at the sound of four hooves approaching through the house.

Mum was gone, but I didn't let her take my happiness with her. Each night I would head back here after school. Dave's house. I smiled when he poked his head around the corner of the kitchen door-frame.

I turned to face him, each wing holding a bowl of mixed fruit: the diet Ms. Robertson said would suit a bat. Setting one down on the table first, I realized Dave's eyes weren't following the food at all—he was looking at me.

"Looks great." Dave finally walked into the room. It took me a while to get used to us all being young-adult bat ponies. He climbed up on his seat, not saying anything further before lifting the first few bite-sized pieces of fruit to his mouth.

I sat down opposite Dave, set my own bowl down, and started moving the fruit into my mouth. Unlike a bat, bat ponies could and did swallow fruit, but like bats we tended to shovel it in. Half my bowl was gone before I realized it. "You know my graduation's tomorrow, right?"

Dave, having taken his time eating, wasn't even a quarter of the way through his bowl yet. "Yeah. Figured you would want someone there with ya." He tossed another bite-sized piece of apple in his mouth and started chewing. "Still want to work for us?"

Living at Ms. Robertson and Candela's house, with Tufts in residence, I had gotten used to bat screeches of joy. I just never expected one to come from my own mouth. "Do I? You've dangled that carrot before me for most of the year. Of course I want to work with you!"

"You're gonna need some tickets. I don't expect ya to have ya explosives or anythin' like that, but mine safety, first aid, that kind of thing." Dave studied my face as he ate, it was almost unnerving.

"Alright. But I'm gonna do work up there anyway. In the places I don't need a safety ticket to work in." I stewed on the thought that he might be having second thoughts, and be using the certifications as a way to stop me.

I looked up from my introspective eating, and realized he was looking at me again. This time he had a little grin on his face. A stray thought floated through my head, and almost made it to my mouth: Damn he looks cute.

Everything froze. I'd been working with Dave since before I even started turning batty. The sight of him, human or bat, was familiar. But, now I was seeing him in a new light. I gulped, not knowing what to say.

I realized he was gulping down his fruit as fast as me, and felt a moment of relief. Once he was done, I could clean up and go back to Lyra's place to sleep. No sooner did Dave fish the last piece into his mouth than he pushed his bowl forward.

Jumping from the seat, I reached up to grab the bowl—which required me to rear up a little to reach it. At the same time Dave climbed off his seat—bumping the table a little.

I tumbled forward when my footing on the edge of the table became treacherous. Spreading my wings, I screeched in panic and then found myself falling against Dave.

Movies were terrible. They insisted that when a guy and a girl in a romantic comedy stumbled together, they invariably ended up kissing. They were terrible, but apparently accurate.

Dave's lips were soft, belying the hard-working bat pony he was now. I trembled for a moment, thought for sure he would pull back. But he didn't. Nearly a minute of slow, cautious kissing later, and I finally managed to get my wits about me and break apart from him.

We both sat there, looking at each other. It certainly didn't count as a kiss, because neither of us had started it, I thought. But if that was true, why didn't either of us stop earlier? I tried to speak, to say something, but my eyes kept tracing Dave's lips, and I imagined my own there again.

"That was an accident." Dave didn't break eye contact with me. His lips moved perfectly, enunciating the words exactly. I had no idea why I kept watching his lips, remembering their taste, but I did. "Rose, was that—"

I'd moved without realizing it, leaning closer and pressing my lips to his mouth again. This was a kiss. I felt his warm lips pressing to mine, and then one of his wings reached out touched against my jaw. My eyes fluttered shut to enjoy the moment and—

Looking down at the page, Rose blushed. It wasn't that his first kiss with Dave made him blush (anymore), but that he was writing a little more than he needed to for an historically accurate document.

Looking away from the book, he saw only a scant few bubbles in the water, and knew that Chompy was there. He also wasn't stupid enough to jump in with him there: Chompy was a friendly animal, but he was still a wild animal. "I'm glad one of us is relaxed."

The following morning had been like any other. I woke up, brushed my teeth, had a shower, had breakfast, and wore a silly little smile about it the whole time. It hadn't been taboo, I still thought of myself as much a mare as a stallion, but it had been a real kiss with someone I really care about.

We hadn't talked much, there hadn't been much time with how long we spent playing tonsil hockey, but we had made a promise that we would talk today, after the graduation ceremony.

I left the house before the others, and almost right away I noticed something odd going on: all the bands where Cowwarr and Stonecrop overlapped, had blurred. I walked to school, and found Dave arriving just as I got there.

Our eyes met, and I saw a smile spread all over his face. My heart pounded, and I trotted over to meet him. "Hi."

"Hi yourself." Dave leaned forward a little, expectantly.

I felt self-conscious, kissing in public, but when I pressed my lips to Dave's, my worries evaporated into thin air. I had to fight my own desire to keep kissing him, to draw back and turn myself to his side. Lifting my wing, I pulled it around Dave's back.

The comfortable companionship we had shared working at the mine and ignoring my mum (something we had both become good at toward the end of her stay) made me appreciate how comfortably I could just stand with Dave.

Adjusting the wing that wasn't draped over Dave's back, I made sure I had my prop well hidden. Lyra's little joke she had wanted to play was a little more complicated than just a prank, but I could appreciate her sense of humor.

"Not gonna to say anything?" Dave's voice broke my reverie.

I nodded slowly. "Just thinking what to say. So, us?"

"Does 'us' feel good to you?" he asked, and I nodded back. "Then I guess us works."

"I didn't know you were gay." Good going, Rose, blunt as a hammer. "Well, I mean—"

Dave stopped me from shoving my foot further down my throat with a kiss. Just a little peck on the lips, but it was enough to shut me up. "I don't exactly want to advertise, Cowwarr is—was—a tiny town. Rumor spreads fast, and having your mum move in worked out better than I would have thought. Is it a problem?"

"I like guys. I've always liked guys. That—that's why Lyra and me didn't work out. She really embraced being a mare, and it fit her. I just couldn't see my boyfriend in her anymore." My mouth was just rambling on its own, but for the first time ever it actually seemed to be on my side. "I'm a stallion, and I like stallions." I shrugged.

Then something occurred to me. "Did you like me before—"

"No offense, Rose, but you were a girl. You filled out jeans like a girl, and had more happening up top than I liked. Now…" Dave brought his wing around and rubbed his chin. "I liked you, but it couldn't have gone this way."

"And what way's that?" I asked.

His answer was another kiss, just a brief one, but it was a great answer.

"Lyra will be here soon, you might want to get ready." Candela's voice startled me more than Dave, and while I jerked back from the kiss, he was prepared to let me keep going. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

My brain hit the "emergency babble" button, and I was just opening my mouth to start unleashing confused chatter, when Dave's lips touched my cheek. I was struck mute.

"Thanks, Candela. Rose'll be ready." Dave's tone was relaxed, easy, and I was surprised by how much that actually calmed me, too. "There they are now."

I snapped my head around, and spotted Lyra and her family (not that that was hard, what with her being the only aquamarine unicorn in the country). "Oh." I started to walk, but Dave wasn't coming with me. I turned to look at him, but Maud had approached us. "Hi, Maud."

Maud's eyes were always impassive, but over the year she had developed her normally mild expression into something truly amazing. She could wear the most stone-neutral, completely emotionless look, and she could carry it off with the driest wit I had ever experienced. Sometimes even Lyra had trouble keeping up with her. "Hello. Are you ready to graduate?"

I noticed the slightest flicker in Maud's eyes. She had indicated Dave without a single recognizable gesture (at least recognizable to anyone who didn't spend most of five days a week with her. I smiled a little sheepishly, and nodded.

The change in Maud's expression was phenomenal. Her mouth pulled into a smile, and her eyes widened. "Congratulations." Her voice hadn't changed that much, but I could hear the somber brand of excitement that belonged only to Maud Pie.

Dave shifted under my wing. "Okay, I missed half of that, and what I did catch I am still confused about."

"When are you getting married?" Maud's deadpan expression was back, and it was the highest quality I had heard from her in a while.

"What?!" Jerking back, Dave looked between Maud and me for a second before groaning. "I fell for that, didn't I?"

"Yes." Maud had the same look, but now she let a hint of a smile through again. She turned her gaze back to me. "Do you have the book?" When I nodded, she gestured over to where Candela was gathering people and ponies together.

Rose wrote in a quick summary of their little gag, and the laughs they had garnered. She read over her words a few times, and a wry smile pulled at her lips. "Close enough. I don't think anyone could fully capture the antics of those two."

She just looked at the page for a few minutes, reading the description over and over. "I can't believe she has been gone for a month."

Heaving a sigh, Rose Quartz' pen started to move once more, avoiding the actual discussion he'd had with Dave—smiling all the time his pen moved—and instead moved to after the talk, and their personal time to think. It was Dave's house, so Rose decided to go for a walk.

Which is how I wound up on the merry-go-round at the park, talking to Paul Harrison. My notepad had been meant for me to write my feelings in, but instead it became the first of many.

After Paul's story, the finale of her transformation, and the mad race to find Dream, we met up with Lyra, Joyce, Candela, and Robin. I only needed one glance at them to know their target. "Dream?"

"!" Lyra was actually shouting, seemingly as if her ears were not working. "!"

I looked to Joyce, who shrugged back at me. The oddest thing about what Lyra had said, was that she had said it in a different language, and I could understand it perfectly.

"?" Candela was like a battering ram. She plowed past everyone and into the house. "!"

We piled in after Candela, with Joyce in the lead, and got as far as the kitchen when we heard the screech of excitement from the bedroom area.

The rumble of hooves revealed Dream Thunder in the hallway. "?"

"!" Lyra's voice was still raised in a shout. "!"

"." Joyce was trying to get Lyra's attention, and then had to lift her voice a little more and repeat herself.

"!" Lyra yelled, and only drew a giggle from everyone. "!"

Dream waved a wing-claw before Lyra's face to get her attention. "."

Lyra tilted her head in Dream's direction. "!"

I didn't know if Lyra was making a joke, or if it was serious, but I couldn't stop giggling at her antics. Deciding that Joyce and Candela could handle any problems in the hallway, I tapped Robin's shoulder with my wing. "Come on, let's make everyone a cuppa."

"? Huh, I don't even know why I was speaking in—in whatever that other language is." Robin followed me into the kitchen proper, and we began the task of getting drinks for everyone.

Paul Harrison stuck her head around the corner. "Did you need me for anything else?"

In all the excitement I had forgotten she was with me. "Yeah, Paul. I'll still do the babysitting for you, but you might not need the lessons in Equish now." She looked at me confused. "."

Blinking at me in confusion at first, Paul opened her mouth and closed it a few times. At last, she cleared her throat. "." She stood there for nearly five seconds, looking really excited. "!"

Paul's head disappeared from the doorway, and I heard pounding hooves lead to a flapping sound. "." Only after speaking did I realize I was still using that new language.

"." Robin sounded a little grumpy, but she was working on making cups of tea with one wing, while the other juggled a large knife that she employed to dice up fruit.

Despite seeing Robin employ her skill with all things fruit related many times before, she still amazed me with her juggling. I moved up and circled around her, and started working on cups. "."

"." Robin sidled away from the cups and, with one wing chopping, grabbed more fruit from the fridge with her free one.

Which was when Tufts winged in and landed on the outstretched wing. "." He was already climbing along Robin's wing, reaching out with his own wings for one of the bananas she had dangling from her thumb-claw.

"." In a smooth gesture, Robin tossed the bananas over her withers and caught them with her other wing.

"!" Tufts had been starting to climb over Robin, when she dangled a bunch of grapes before him. A moment later speaking seemed impossible for Tufts, there was just too many grapes for him to get words around.

Rose sighed. "This isn't as easy as I thought. Everyone else made this look like you just told your story and bam." He kept staring at the page until a sound behind him caused him to jump to his hooves and turn.

Chompy was right behind Rose. The big beast leaned down, its breath playing over Rose's sensitive nose, before it opened its gaping maw.

Eyes widening in surprise, Rose tried to get ready to run away, when Chompy's big tongue licked from the tip of his nose to the tops of his ears. Getting used to the big omnivore's ways was a learning experience for Rose.

"Come on, you big softy. You almost had me worried there." Rose reached a wing up to rub Chompy's throat, which caused the bunyip to crane his neck and let out a happy sigh.

Author's Note

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
CrimsonPhoenix
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Javarod
Lazyreader19
Nils
Shaushka
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Vutava

A Look Back - 4

Language check. Anything wrapped in [ ] in this chapter is spoken dream speak, everything else is in English.

"Compendium of Change." Rose looked at the title of his book, and smiled. "Now to fill it. Let's see. I have Lyra, Joyce, Robin, Dream, Dave, Steve, Paul, Roy, and my own stories, and—" As he spoke, he read off the titles on each of the notebooks. A tenth one sat on the table.

Reaching a wing-claw out to the notebook, he saw it had a name proudly written in his own handwriting on the cover. "Tufts?" As he flipped the cover open, Rose tried to recall writing the book, or even talking with the bat enough to write it. Sure enough: it was written in his handwriting. The first words stood out, separate from the rest.

Tufts says by the time I notice this, it will be okay to remember it, but I'm not allowed to publish his name.

Memories flooded back. Rose remembered agreeing to Tufts' silly sounding—at the time—restriction. His heart sped up at the screech from the bat when he had been casual about agreeing to it. That screech seemed to be the source of the receding block on his memories.

"You have to ask me for my story, it's how it works." Rose was repeating what the bat had told him at the time. Of course he had asked Tufts for his story, it would be interesting, even if he couldn't release Tufts' name with it.

More of those memories came back, and Rose's eyes widened. "Tjinimin. Holy shit Tufts is Tjinimin! He's a god!" For a moment he stared at the page, realizing he had the literal account of the birth of a god. The first god, if his tale had it right.

Rose started to read back, making sure he remembered everything about the tale.

There wasn't "nothing" at first, the world was already here. It already had people on it, and they were already pretty awesome. But some of them had done something that made me be.

I was alive. Me: Tjinimin!

The world was mine. None of the other gods were around, so I got to explore in all my batty glory. My huge, sweeping wings cupped the air, and sent me swooping from tree to tree. Every tree I came to was laden with fruit, or so it seemed—the world itself was welcoming me.

A tugging at the fabric of magic, what had made me, caught my attention. It wanted a pattern. It wanted a form to remake humans into.

My first instinct was bats. Bats are so awesome, after all, but it didn't fit the magic properly. While I pondered what to do, magic started to work on its own. Terror gripped me for the first time since I had awoken.

The pattern was dark, twisted. I could smell rot and death around it—it wasn't a very batty pattern at all.

"This is all wrong," I screeched. "I will not have anyone become a namorodo." So I asked the magic what patterns it liked, and it returned back all the patterns people believed in, and one more. "Ponies? What's a pony?"

I didn't care, the pattern was good enough for me, and was honestly starting to grow on me. I took it, but put my own spin on it. Wings. Big, batty, wings. Cute little fluffs of hair at the tops of their ears (to indicate the best spots for rubbing, of course). A screech that could scare off a yara-ma-yha-who. Fangs to pierce the skin of the thickest mango hide. Of course, they should be colored mostly like me—I never said I wasn't vain.

So I built the pattern around the pony shape magic had given me, and I designed my own people. "Ol' light-show can keep her parrot girls. I'll take a bat any day!"

When I pushed the pattern out, magic liked it. Together, we pushed it so hard that it became part of magic itself. There would be bats everywhere! I screeched loudly in excitement.

Days and weeks passed by, and I got bored.

There were plenty of fruit trees around (and if there weren't any, I would make one), but there weren't any other bats around. Of humans, of course, there were plenty. I watched the first slowly changing to be one of my awesome bat ponies, but the second one looked like a normal pony. I kept a close eye on them, which is why I didn't see the pain that leapt up and attacked me.

I might be a god, but I was still in this body, and this body can feel pain.

Screaming in pain, I tried to pull free of the metal that had attacked me. It bit into my wing, it clawed at my side, and when I pulled away, it held on tight.

Humans were nearby, but in my fear and shock I didn't notice them until one spoke to me. "So, mister bat, are you going to play nice and calm down?"

Parrot girls be damned, the human who was beside me was a thousand times more desirable. I don't think she noticed my nod, and I couldn't stop screeching in pain, but I held as still as I could.

I waited, she seemed to be offering me comfort, but I felt in my heart that I could trust her.

She talked to another human, who brought her a box of things. Things that I knew would have to hurt me to get me free. And she did. She had to cut my wing to free it of the fangs of steel, but she did it carefully, and murmuring soft things to me.

Wrapped up in a blanket that crinkled around me, I felt her body—warm and soft—through the layers.

She took me home in her arms, she wrapped me in warmth when I needed it, she cradled and comforted me when it felt like my heart would rip from my body in fear, and she showed me her children. But when she gave me my first taste of apple juice, I realized how much I had fallen in love.

"Tufts," she had said. "I think that will be a good name for a handsome bat. What do you think, Tufts?"

It wasn't Tjinimin, but I couldn't think far enough to correct her. Snug as I was in her care, I gave as assenting a screech as I could manage under the circumstances.

Inspecting my wings, she checked the wounds the fangs of metal had left. "Hold on, please. This is going to hurt again," she said. It dawned on me that she was a medicine woman, and a moment before I could give an excited screech, pain seared my wing membranes.

She really was a medicine woman. No creature that walked, crawled, or flew could cause so much pain, and do it in a way that you knew was needful. So I screamed as loud and hard as I could, but I refrained from scratching her.

I was wrapped back up in the soft, crinkling blanket, and she pulled me to her chest. It was a rather nice chest, and given the choice between a ditzy, cute parrot girl, and my new savior, I would have picked the medicine woman every time. "I'm sorry… I am so sorry. I had to do that."

Not letting go of me, the medicine woman built a little sling for me, wrapped it around her neck, and suspended me inside. Turning, I pressed one ear to her clothing, and heard the soft thudding of her heart. My own heartbeat adjusted to match hers, and I couldn't stop a yawn breaking free.

Of course, I told Dream Thunder. She is my mightiest foal. She takes after me, and even dreams the Dreamtime. It's why I told ol' twisty-noodle to call her Dream Thunder. But the point is, she knows who I am.

But then, when I was on my way to her graduation, I felt the same thing the others did, but I knew what was causing it. I had to sneak away from everyone, giving them a screech to make them forget about me for a little while, and headed home.

Home. It's odd, but even when all of Australia felt like my home, it didn't feel as home as where my Joyce lived.

I slipped in Dream Thunder's window, and grabbed her perch with practiced ease. Wrapping my wings tightly around myself, I slid into the Dreamtime.

Magic was sloshing. There was holes in the dyke, and it was leaking past and over the giant hula-hoop constantly. She was fighting it, but she wouldn't hold forwever.

"[It's time. I told you this wouldn't work, and now look at you]!" I shouted, hanging from my tree.

"[YOU COULD NOT HAVE DONE ANY BETTER. WHAT WAS YOUR PLAN FOR ALL THIS]?"

I edged along the tree, found a mango hanging from a branch, and cuddled up to it. "[It certainly wasn't to make a tidal-wave of magic that will cause mass panic and even more damage]." I was chewing on a mango as I spoke—the best part about dreams was you could do more than one thing at once, and it didn't have to make sense. "[Probably let it slowly flow out. Let people get used to it. Let it change them slowly. Months would go by as a little more changed here and there]."

She went silent, struggling to keep the magic back as best she could.

I waited some time, enjoying my mango. "[I give it about an hour of real-time]."

Snakes can sigh, or so I learned. When one the size of infinity does it, it is really loud. "[WHAT DO YOU PROPOSE]?'

"So now you're asking me for help]?" I turned to look at the great snake. "[Well, for one, we need a bat pony. Then we are going to ask them nicely to help us]."

"[WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THAT]!"

"[And three, we are going to give them all the knowledge we have of what that],"—I gestured at the slopping waves of magic—"[is going to do to the world. Do you have any idea what it is going to do to the animals? I managed to get magic to protect the humans, but look at that beast that you had my Joyce save]."

"[WHO WILL WE ASK]?'

"[You know who. But first you have to let it all go, and then we have to argue]." I finished chewing on the last bits of the mango, and cast the seed down to the ground.

"[WHAT DO YOU MEAN]?"

I groaned at the huge hose, reached out a wing and gently poked one of its coils. A trembling wave sprang up in the snake's body, and suddenly her coils sprang apart.

We managed to get back into a full argument by the time Dream Thunder joined the Dreamtime. She looked so small and worried that I put my wing around her. Here, she was a bat pony still, perfect as I created her.

She caught us mid-argument, but I managed to reassure her enough that we could explain what we needed to do. She had to shape the ideas, the information, so that it would fit in not-gods. It wasn't going to be easy, she wasn't a god herself, but if anyone could do it, Dream Thunder could.

Well, of course I cheated; I was a god, cheating is what we did best. "Was." Still am, of course, but a lot less of one. I gave Dream Thunder enough oomph, and enough magic, that all that knowledge wouldn't break her. Like a bat, she clung to the tree beside me and let the storm rage around her, but not break her.

And as you know, she did it. She built The Knowing for us—for you—and sent it ahead of the wave of magic.

"[I'm done after this. You take care of Australia]." I huddled beside Dream. "[I think I'll go with my Joyce, see a different world]."

"[BUT I NEED YOU. WHAT WILL I DO WITH]—"

"[You don't need me. Go to the shores, circle those. It will take a lot longer for the magic to grow high all the way around Australia. By then, the rest of the world will know what the magic does, and be ready for it]." I kissed Dream Thunder on the cheek. "[I'll leave my daughter to help you, she has most of my power, and more wisdom than either of us]."

"[TJINIMIN]—"

"[No. Just 'Tufts' now]." I pulled Dream Thunder out of the Dreamtime, leaving the huge noodle to deal with the magic on its own. I had a family to take care of.

Rose couldn't believe what she read/remembered. It was unthinkable. Tufts had given up most of his power to Dream? And what happened to the Rainbow Serpent? She had so many questions in her head, and with Joyce, Lyra, and Tufts gone to Equestria, no one to ask but Dream Thunder.

Author's Note

Tufts: Well if you cut down on the snack time then nap time can be longer.

[angry, disagreeing bat noises]

I hope you have all enjoyed this "look back" at some of the other characters. I think it has given some more world-knowledge, and a little more backstory for a few who otherwise would be background ponies (or bats).

What now? On with the show! There is a bat pony, a unicorn, and a former god walking into Equestria, and they need a send-off!

That previous paragraph sounds like the lead-in to a terrible joke.

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post! They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
CrimsonPhoenix
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Javarod
Lazyreader19
Nils
Shaushka
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Vutava

Goodbyes

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken Thestralian, everything else is in English.

"What?!" Despite two days of dealing with the rush of Thestralian magic, Lyra was still not able to keep her voice to a normal range. It wasn't that people sounded quiet, which they didn't, but it seemed to her that she needed to shout to get over the background magic noise.

Joyce just looked at her daughter with a flat expression. "You heard me. Let's go and get ready. There's no sense hanging around here with you like that." With a sigh, she reached over and finished off her cup of tea.

Leaving for Equestria had seemed like a distant thing to Lyra—something she would be doing later rather than sooner. "Now?!" And, as far as Lyra was concerned, she couldn't get over this problem of yelling soon enough.

"What about tomorrow? Give us time for our last goodbyes." Joyce walked her cup to the sink and rinsed it out. "Are you sure you still want—"

Lyra had moved quickly, rushing up to Joyce and wrapping her in a hug that cut her mother off. "I still want to, but it always seemed like something for the future, you know?!"

Joyce's ears were tucked down tightly against her daughter's voice, but it did reinforce the need to move sooner, rather than later. "We need to tell Robin first. But wait, don't reply, sweetie."

Groaning, Lyra nodded her head. She went to open her mouth, and snapped it closed again. Of course, she had other friends to talk to: Rose Quartz, Dream Thunder, and Candela, but she also suddenly realized there were others in and near the town she wanted to at least give a hug goodbye to. She nodded to Joyce again, feeling the weight of the journey ahead as if she hadn't already visited Canterlot.

Together, they walked through the house to Robin's bedroom, but found her and Dream in Dream's room. Unsurprisingly, both were hanging from their tails from the perch that now replaced Dream Thunder's bed.

Robin turned her head the moment Joyce tapped on the door. "!"

"." Dream Thunder, likewise, turned from the third and hidden bat on the perch.

Spreading his wings, Tufts flapped twice to carry him to Joyce, where he caught on and hugged her neck with his expansive wings. "I was just giving our foals some lessons in dreaming." When a huge wing-claw approached his ruff, Tufts leaned into the attention from Joyce.

"Dreaming, huh? Well, we have some news." Joyce gestured to Lyra standing behind her. "We'll be leaving tomorrow."

Shock registered on both girls' faces, but it was Robin who reacted first. Jumping down from her perch, she rushed toward her mother and practically jumped into a hug with both forelegs and both wings.

Lyra squeezed up beside her mother, and put one foreleg around Joyce and Robin, but her eyes were on Dream. She lifted her other leg up, holding it out to Dream Thunder. "You're our other sister, Dream!" Lyra hadn't thought before shouting, and to her disgruntlement, everyone started giggling at her. "Oh, stop it! I can't help this!" Of course, now she was playing it for laughs.

Dream Thunder flipped off her perch and walked up to her adopted family. "Have you tried whispering?"

Reaching out with her extended leg, Lyra pulled Dream into the hug. "Of course I tried whispering! What do you think I'm doing now?!" She had everyone giggling now, which in her mind was better than tears.

Joyce squeezed her foals, including Dream in the grouping. "On the plus side, if Lyra doesn't stop with the yelling, you'll be able to hear her from Canterlot."

"Ha! Ha!" Lyra affected a droll look for maybe a second, before breaking into loud giggles herself.

Tufts squirmed at Joyce's side, adjusting how he hung from her and turned his gaze on Dream. Then he nodded.

Lyra observed the interaction, and she turned her head and raised a dark eyebrow at Dream.

"Well… we might be able to fix that. Tufts told me—" Dream froze for a second, then her eyes slid from side to side. "Well, what I mean is, Tufts is teaching me how to use dream magic. I don't know how he worked it out, but he's really clever with it. We should be able to talk, with some practice."

It was Joyce's turn to raise a skeptical look at Dream Thunder, and then she turned her head to eyeball Tufts. "Whatever this is, you and me are going to have a talk." She turned back to Dream. "I guess we had better learn that, then. How long will it take?"

"I need to get a drink!" Lyra extracted herself from the group, gave Tufts a significant look, and started walking back up the hall. She wasn't surprised to have Tufts wing his way down the hall and land on her neck.

Diverting from the kitchen, Lyra opened the back door and worked herself into an effortless trot. "What's this about teaching?!"

"I am teaching Dream what I can before we leave. I would never hurt Joyce or you girls." Tufts seemed quick to reply.

"This isn't the first time Dream looked to you for permission to talk! Wh—" Lyra was cut off by a loud screech from Tufts. She stopped her trot and glared at him.

"If you ask me a question, I will answer it, truthfully." Fidgeting, Tufts angled himself and arched his back, looking toward Lyra's one eye that was locked on him. "Ask smaller questions."

"No!" Lyra was calm, her yelling by this stage only because of the strange (to her) magic in the area. "What's going on?!" She had noticed an odd seriousness about Tufts that she had never encountered before.

Tufts ruffled his wings around himself, hanging by just one leg as he reached the other down to scratch an itchy ear. "That's the most direct and broad question you could have asked. Very well. It started——"

Lyra sat still. She was still absorbing the story Tufts had told her. "Tjinimin!"

"Keep it down!" Tufts gave an annoyed screech to punctuate his words.

"But you're not all that now?!" Much as she disliked both having to yell and ask more questions, Lyra needed to know everything.

Licking one of his wings, Tufts poked his snout out over the top of the limb. "Not all that. Don't need it where we're going. I kept a little. It wouldn't have worked right in Equestria, anyway."

Pushing her hooves under her, Lyra stood up from where she had lain. Shaking herself, she shed a small pile of twigs and sticks from her belly-fur. "You're gonna tell Mum eventually, right?!"

"When the time is right, she'll ask me. That's how it always worked. You were not meant to ask me now. I blame you being a unicorn." Finishing his grooming, Tufts gave a little screech to show what he thought of that.

Lyra just broke into a laugh. Loud, and not caring about it, she laughed for a good five minutes. Every time she started to recover, she barely managed to bark the word, "Unicorn," out, and would start again. Finally, she managed to calm down to just giggles. "Tufts, Equestria is full of unicorns!"

"What?" Tufts flapped his wings a few times in agitation. "This is terrible! We can't go!"

"You're smiling! Besides, you already said you would!" Turning around, Lyra aimed herself back toward the house, and started walking.

"That was before I knew it was full of annoying unicorns who ask so many questions!" Settling his wings at his side, Tufts waited for Lyra to almost reach the house before continuing. "You won't tell her?"

Knowing exactly who her was, Lyra stopped and let out a sigh. "I won't tell Mum on one condition!" When Tufts nodded to her, Lyra continued. "You promise me you will tell her within a year!"

"Promises are worse than questions." Tufts folded, and refolded his wings about himself. "Two years. If she doesn't ask me within two years, I'll just tell her."

Lyra shook her head. "Or if you get up to any hanky-panky! We studied Aboriginal culture; I know about you and parrot girls!"

"That was a different—!" Tufts cut himself off. "Okay. I promise to tell Joyce everything if we engage in hanky and/or panky, or if two years passes." He held Lyra's gaze for a few seconds. "It's getting so a god can't have his secrets anymore."

"Don't use the G word. You're just a crazy bat, Tufts!" Lyra used her magic to carefully lift Tufts from her mane and hold him up so they could look into both of each other's eyes. "Were you going to tell her?!"

Tufts smiled wide, and stuck out his tongue. "Yes."

"You know, if Princess Celestia asks me about you, I'm going to tell the truth, right?! That goes for anyone!" Swinging her magic perch back around to her side, Lyra let Tufts latch back onto her mane.

Tufts screeched. "You wouldn't! That's not your secret to tell!"

"Yup! I'll tell them all about how you're a bat with some crazy magic that no one really understands!" Lyra walked for the back door of the house, reaching out with her magic to open it. "That's the truth, after all!"

Tufts let out a tiny sigh. "You are my daughter." The grin on his face was almost ear to ear.

"Well, I'll give you that! You could call nearly everyone in Cowwarr your foal now, what with the wings and tufts!" As she stepped inside, Lyra had to adjust her thoughts to back away from Tufts' secret. She didn't like keeping something like this from her Mum, but she couldn't see that it would actually hurt her.

Lyra did resolve to keep an eye on her "dad" for any Tjinimin-related behavior, but she trusted him enough to tell the truth when she asked. She walked inside to find Joyce and Candela hugging in the living room.

"Go in." Dream Thunder reached out a wing to Tufts, and he practically leaped away from Lyra. She looked significantly between Lyra and Tufts.

"I told her. She asks way too many questions." Tufts stuck his tongue out at Lyra, before snuggling against Dream Thunder's shoulder.

Glaring at Tufts, Lyra Heartstrings made her way into the living room, where Candela quickly caught her with a wing and pulled her into a hug. "We're only going to Canterlot! You can send mail that far!"

"But I am used to having you around all the time, Lyra. So much has happened this year. We've been through so much that it's impossible to not get closer." Candela hugged Lyra tightly, and let out a little sigh. "It might be true I have only birthed one foal, but I feel like I'm the mother of three."

Lyra tried to aim her mouth away from Candela's ears. "Take good care of Robin! I'm glad she still has a big sister here to take care of her!"

"I can hear that, you know!" Robin's voice came from the kitchen.

Dream Thunder poked her head in the doorway, a wide grin spreading on her face. "Does that mean I can boss Robin around now?"

Nodding her head, Lyra replied, "Of course!"

Again, Robin's voice came from the kitchen. "I can still hear you!"

"We should invite our friends around for a goodbye." Joyce tapped her chin with one wing-thumb, a characteristically human gesture. She walked through to the kitchen. "Robin, can you start making up some salads and things for dinner?"

"Sure thing, Mum!" Robin's reply was quick.

"It's actually happening! We're actually going to live in Equestria!" Still trying to get used to the immediacy of the fact, Lyra disengaged from Candela (after another little squeeze), and sat down on the couch.

Joyce poked her head back in the living room. "You can wait here, Lyra. I'll have a quick fly around. Anyone you particularly want here?"

"Rose! Dave too, I guess!" Lyra didn't try to hide the grin on her face at including them as a pair. It had been hard to think of them together for all of twenty seconds. Rose was Lyra's friend first, and seeing the smile on his face when he was with Dave was better than any awkward times they had when together. "If you see them, let Pinkie, Maud, Marble, or Limestone know I'll drop in at their farm tomorrow morning—early!"

"Got it. I'll be back lickety-split!" Joyce turned back, let the door close behind her and jumped into the air. A flap of her wings pushed her higher, and she was away.

With a sigh, Lyra was glad that at least her non-spoken exclamations weren't in a shout. She opened her mouth, then closed it. She got halfway through reaching for the remote when she remembered what had happened to the poor television, the place where it had sat was still empty—electronics didn't work all that well in magic areas, and when it did nothing but show distorted, snowy pictures it had been relegated to storage.

Lyra opened her mouth to say something, again. Once more, Lyra closed it. Filling silence with sound was how she operated normally. If she weren't talking, Lyra was usually playing her guitar, eating, or sleeping. Which gave her an idea.

She pushed up from the couch, and walked through the house to her bedroom. Packing was in order, but Lyra wanted some music to accompany her task. Her bass was out of the question: after what had happened to the television, all their radios, phones, etc, Lyra was not going to turn on either her amp or her guitar's preamp. They were the only technology that actually mattered to her, and if she damaged them by turning them on, she would never forgive herself.

The guitar she had given Pinkie and Marble to practice with was the same one she had learned on, but she had another. With her magic, Lyra slipped her bass into its carry case, and lifted out the only guitar she owned that she had never played. It was a Fender, of course, and had been a gift from her music teacher. The old guitar had scuff marks, and she knew the strings would be out of key.

Sitting up on the bed, letting her back legs hang, Lyra plucked at each string one at a time. She used her magic to turn the pegs until everything sounded just right. One strum. Two. Lyra began to play, but focused on packing.

The room was lit with gold magic. Mementos, private items, and even a few garments made their way into Lyra's backpack. The beanie with pony-sized ear holes cut in it. A few of her favorite shirts, and a hoodie she loved to wear despite the heat of wearing it over fur.

She looked down at her acoustic guitar and sighed. "I need to hear it!" Wincing at her voice, Lyra dulled her horn down and reached for her bass. The thing weighed much more than the acoustic guitar, and even just hefting it in her forelegs made her feel more complete. Without turning its power on, she strummed once, then plucked a series of notes rising from the depth of her hearing to a gut-wobbling hum. Of course, that is how it should sound.

Just using her hooves, Lyra managed to get her guitar lead plugged into both amp and bass, then switched on her bass' preamp. No sparks, no fountain of fire, and not even a pop.

The little practice amplifier she had could run on mains or batteries. Lots of batteries. Hitting the toggle, again there was no explosion. For just a second, Lyra dared to hope she could play her bass. She repeated the series of plucks, and on the fifth she heard an off-note.

Reaching up to the pegs, she plucked the string again, and this time it sounded clear. Furrowing her brows, Lyra Heartstrings plucked up and down the scale with her ears perked forward to listen for a bad note. None came.

The moment Lyra tried to play, she heard another off-key sound. Without thinking, she reached to the pegs with her magic and plucked again. The warbling sound that came from her amp shocked her. Lyra quickly damped her magic, and strummed again.

"Huh! It's noise!" Tucking her ears back in annoyance at her inability to moderate her voice, Lyra strummed a few more times. She began to strum and pluck, building up a fair tune before adding a slap in here or there. The deep notes of the guitar sounded weaker than normal from the little amplifier, but it was better than nothing.

She played. Lyra's voice might be out of commission, but her hooves knew the guitar, and her heart knew the tune. She played for all she was worth, and somehow the tiny, battery-powered amplifier sounded as good as the best Marshall stack. The magic she wove into songs, it seemed, would not interfere with her ability to play.

As the last note faded, Lyra Heartstrings jerked her head up from the guitar.

"You know I'm going to have to come visit you, right? No one on earth plays that as well as you do." Rose cocked a smile at Lyra, giving her his best lopsided grin. "Can I come in?"

Opening her mouth to reply, Lyra snapped it shut again. She nodded and shuffled to the side on the bed.

Rose made his way in, and closed the door behind him. "Voice still…?" When Lyra nodded, Rose continued. "I can't believe you're going tomorrow." His voice held no accusation.

Lyra could hear a note of regret there. She hoped against hope that it wasn't love, but rather friendship. Trying to focus her throat down, she drew a tiny amount of air and shouted, "I'm going to miss you!"

Laughing at Lyra's grimace, Rose reached a wing out and hugged her. "You're a good friend, Michael Robertson, I don't doubt Lyra Heartstrings will be just as great a person—pony." He laughed a little more at his own screw up. "You're going to find someone, you know. Someone who you are going to see, and talk to, and things will just work."

Freezing in her mental tracks, Lyra listened to Rose with a heavy heart, though she tried not to betray it.

"Mark my words. You are too nice a—a pony. There is a pony our there, I can promise it." Rose looked surprised at what he had said, blinking rapidly for a moment. "I can't believe I said all that soppy crap. What the fuck has happened to me?"

"Quiet little girl has grown up!" Rolling with the joke now, Lyra didn't try to modulate her voice. "So. What's he like?!"

Rose blushed, or he looked like he was blushing under the dark fur of his face. "Dave's really nice. We're trying to come up with a new name for him—and by we I mean me—but he is resisting. I told him he needs a pony name, since everyone will have one."

"Pony!" Lyra sighed at Rose's confused look. "Everypony!"

Looking at Lyra with a deadpan expression, Rose managed to blink a few times. "You're kidding? I thought that was just something Dream and Candela say."

Lyra giggled and reached a hoof up and booped Rose Quartz on the nose.

"That's so—so silly. Silly and cute." Rose shook his head from the boop. "Well. This changes everything. There are so many more word-puns I can use! Somepony?" He laughed when Lyra nodded excitedly. "What about nopony?"

When Lyra nodded again, she watched Rose fall backwards on the bed laughing.

"I can't believe how silly that is, but it works!" Rose flopped to his side and let out a long sigh. In just a moment his mood went from laughing to morose. "I'm going to miss you, Mike. Dave is great, but even he can't make me laugh like you do."

Replying to that was impossible for Lyra, even if she had her normal voice. She looked away from Rose, and tried to build the courage she needed. When Rose sat up on the bed, Lyra struck.

Rose was half worried for his friend, but when Lyra's lips pressed to his cheek he looked like he was going to explode. It wasn't a passionate kiss, nor even an inflamed one. One moment Lyra's warm lips were there, the next they were gone again.

"I'm really going to miss you. You were my first—" Rose froze and tilted his head. "Well, I know we didn't do anything, but it was my first real date, and you were a lot of fun, and… and…" He just kept trailing away, unable to finish the sentence. Finally, Rose reached out for Lyra and wrapped both wings and both forelegs around her. "I will come visit."

The hug was much like the kiss for Lyra, just something for friends. She squeezed Rose for all she could. The soft, tight wings that wrapped around her felt good, but again there was nothing more than friendship in their embrace. Lyra didn't hold back the tear that rolled down her face.

"You're going to miss me too, I hope?" Rose unfolded his wings, pulled them back to his sides and looked at Lyra.

"Yeah!" Rolling her eyes, Lyra had forgot about her voice. She nodded to reinforce her answer, then held out her hooves really wide.

Rose chuckled. "I knew this was coming. School was all that kept you here, wasn't it?"

Lyra shook her head and pointed at her bedroom door, then at Rose.

"Friends and family will only get a pony so far. You're looking for—" Cutting off mid-sentence, Rose groaned. "Now I'm using 'pony'!"

Poking Rose with her hooves, Lyra let fly, not trying to modulate her voice. "Pony! Pony! Pony!"

"Settle down, you nut." Rose reached over and ruffled Lyra's mane with one wing, while the other pulled something from the little bags he had rigged to sling under each thin membrane, where it met his body. "I got you something. I've been working on it for a while—since you called me Rose Quartz."

Lyra looked at the little gemstone Rose passed to her. It was worthless, so far as gems went. It was exactly what would remind Lyra of Rose, however.

"It's rose quartz, from Rose Quartz."

Turning the gem over, Lyra Heartstrings let out a little sigh. "The only things I can make are laughs and music!" With a huff, Lyra set the stone down beside her, and reached for the guitar.

Rose seemed about to say something, but when Lyra's hooves found the guitar, just the first note was enough to stop him in his tracks. Lyra's songs had become somewhat of a legend around the town, but Rose had experienced them enough to know when to shut up and listen.

Hooves moving automatically, strumming, plucking, and slapping the six big strings of the bass, Lyra put how much Rose's friendship meant to her into the song, since her voice didn't seem up to the task.

Time stopped around Lyra. Nothing mattered except for her feelings for Rose and the song. She didn't dare open her mouth, she knew it would break the spell that her music wove. So she just played.

The warmth of Mike's feelings poured through the music. Then came the shock of the transformation they had both shared, but in opposite directions. Lyra's song seemed to fray a little, as their relationship had, but under the failing rhythm was something stronger. Friendship poured through each chord, each note, until the air trembled with it.

When the song stopped, suddenly, Lyra Heartstrings realized that chapter of her life was closing. Rose, she realized, had every intention of wanting to come visit her but Lyra just knew it wouldn't happen.

Rose almost recoiled when Lyra, tears suddenly pouring from her eyes, fell against his side. He spread his wings and wrapped her in them. "It's not 'goodbye'."

Lyra shook her head and hugged against Rose. "It will be!" Her shout, against Rose's barrel, startled even her. She pulled back and forced herself to smile through the pain that seemed to bite deeper than it should. "Thank you, Rose!"

"I'll go distract every—pony. Everypony. It does roll off the tongue." Rose booped Lyra's nose. "Let me head out first. Then you can dry your eyes in the bathroom while I regale them with, well, bullshit."

The tears still stung Lyra's eyes, and felt like they were streaming down her cheeks—which they were. She tried with all her might to smile for Rose, as he left, but her heart wasn't in it. Alone in her room again, Lyra reached out with her hooves to turn off her amplifier and guitar, then climbed off the bed completely.

Heading to the bathroom, Lyra jumped up to look at herself in the mirror. Michael was completely gone, physically; there was nothing of the young man left except what was in Lyra's head, and maybe what friends she knew. But, even Michael's friends had spent nearly as much time knowing Lyra as they had Mike.

"When did I stop being Mike?!" Lyra winced at the volume, but held the thought in her mind while she used her magic to wash and dry her face. Mike had thought coming to Cowwarr would be a breaking point, even his mum had, but he hadn't dreamed just how big a break it would be. Opening her mouth to speak, Lyra stopped herself just in time to not scream another of her intimate thoughts out. Is there any Mike left? she thought.

Staring in the mirror, searching for the traces of Mike that might still be there, Lyra was not aware how much time was passing until Robin shoved the door of the bathroom open. "What's up, Spud?!"

"Mum says you need to come out for the party." Robin had to back up to turn, her quadrupedal stance keeping her from simply spinning around in the doorway. "So come onnnnn!"

"I'm coming!" The normalcy of the interaction actually made Lyra smile. Her reaction had been exactly how Mike would have handled it, even if her voice was both too loud and too high to have been her former self's.

Jumping down from the sink, Lyra felt significantly better. She made her way to the living room and froze at the doorway.

"Here she is. Come on in, Lyra." Joyce beckoned Lyra into the room.

Dave and Steve had made it, with Rose of course, but so had Maud Pie, and it was the latter Lyra was most surprised by. "Hi everypony!" She caught Rose's rolled eyes and smiled wider. "What are you all doing standing around?! This is meant to be a surprise going-away party for,"—she stopped mid-yell and looked around feigning confusion.

Rose Quartz heaved a melodramatic sigh. "We're not getting out of this until we finish the joke, are we?" Her question was met by a cheesy grin on Lyra's face. "Alright. We're here for Lyra Heartstrings and Joyce Robertson."

"That's them!" Lyra walked into the room and used her magic to lift one of the armchairs away from the wall, then slipped in behind it. "Shhh! I think I hear them coming!"

Maud, moving as swiftly and quietly as possible, slipped from the room dragging Joyce with her. Not five seconds later they returned, Maud's expression animated and capped off with a folded toilet-roll-tube held to her forehead in some manner. "Oh boy, Mum, I can't wait to go to Equestria!"

Still hiding behind the couch, Lyra poked her head out to the side and tried to get Rose's attention. "Psst! Are they here?!" The shouted question got everyone's attention but Joyce and Maud's.

Unable to keep his giggles at bay, Rose nodded to Lyra. "Yes. You twit."

Everyone was outright laughing or giggling now, which was Maud's cue. "I wonder why we chose this obviously empty room to walk into? It's almost as if there was somepony behind the couch, ready to jump out and yell—"

"Surprise!" Lyra yelled, jumping out from behind the couch. When she saw Maud's face, though, she realized her previously flat expression was hiding her emotions. Maud was trying her hardest to look the part of a surprised unicorn, but Lyra could tell there was sadness just under the thin veneer.

Tripping as she tried to step over the couch, Lyra rolled into a heap and flopped at Maud's hooves. Tilting her head up and back she just grinned like a fool, and then she saw what she would happily take a tumble for: Muad's smile.

"You're a very silly pony, Lyra Heartstrings." Maud reached up and plucked the tapered cardboard roll from her head, and reached to Lyra with it.

Gasping, Lyra got up to her knees and bowed her head before Maud, as if accepting a crown.

Joyce cleared her throat. "I now pronounce you: Queen Lyra Heartstrings!"

Maud leaned across and pretended to shield her voice from everyone but Joyce with one hoof. "We don't do queens. Make her a princess."

"I now pronounce you: Princess Queen Lyra Heartstrings!" Joyce wore the biggest, silliest grin ever on her face. Everyone was laughing outright now, even Lyra.

Robin poked her head into the room, and looked at the scene before her. "Food's ready!"

Author's Note

Joyce: think you'll be popular from this?

Joyce just shrugged a little at the ambiguous, short question. "From what? All this magic? I think you might be confused, I was just a young doctor trying to raise her children and stop a town from going mad. I think I managed both, but I hardly think it's anything to be popular for."

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post! They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
CrimsonPhoenix
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Javarod
Lazyreader19
Nils
Shaushka
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Vutava

Farewells

Language check. All in English.

There wasn't enough room around the table for everyone to sit, and even the living room didn't have room for so many bats to use their wings to eat. Joyce herded everyone into the backyard, and ensured everyone had a drink to go with their meal.

Everyone sat around, eating and chatting, but Joyce was flanked by both her daughters. She had quickly realized that Robin wasn't going to give her enough room to use her left wing to eat with, so was relying on her right side, and simply used her left to hug Robin to her side.

"You're really going to learn medicine?" Joyce couldn't keep herself away from the topic. It was safer talking about the far future rather than what would happen the next day.

Robin nodded, chewing away on some cut mango. She gulped it down as soon as she could. "Yup! I'm going to learn how to make everypony feel better. Just like you, Mum."

Something tightened in Joyce's belly; she knew too well how long it took to study medicine. It would be more years than she could probably bear before Robin would be finished with that schooling. "That's great!" She didn't feel great about it at all.

A sudden desire to throw the trip away and stay with her little girl surged in Joyce. She had to turn her head away from Robin to hide her expression.

"What's wrong, Mum?!" Lyra saw the agony on her mother's face, and winced at it.

"Mum!" Robin poked Joyce with one thumb-claw, the tip not breaking her mother's tough hide, but definitely getting her attention. "Mum! I want to study medicine in Equestria."

Confusion flooded around Joyce's pain. She tried to put the words together, and only barely got to her daughter only finishing high-school before she surrendered her bowl of fruit and hugged Robin for all she was worth. "Why didn't you start with that?" The words were strained by the emotional flip-flop that had happened.

"I thought you'd realize that. I want to be like you, Mum. I want to help everypony, but all the schools here will know about his humans." Robin squeezed her mother back just as hard; her own eyes growing wet.

Joyce pressed her snout against Robin's, and held her close. "I'm going to miss you so much, my little Robin bird." She was startled when Robin's wing stretched up and booped her on the nose with the leading edge. Looking at the offending limb, her snout scrunched up a little in surprise, Joyce looked at her daughter with some curiosity.

"I'm not a robin anymore, Mum. Robins have feathers. Robin's a sidekick" Robin giggled a little, and curled her left wing around in front of her, half covering her face. "I'm Batmare!"

Lyra, listening in on the exchange, cracked up laughing. "That's my lil sister!"

Covering her face with her own wing, Joyce shook her head. "Candela, I'm sorry for leaving this one with you. I think she might already be tainted."

Candela chuckled. "I'll forgive you, but only if you take the other away. She's having an entirely odd effect on my other students; to say nothing of my daughter." She winked at Lyra, earning a laugh from her.

"I guess it'll have to do." Joyce leaned against Robin and kissed her daughter on the cheek. "Now, where was I?"

"You're going to miss me. Then you called me a bird, but I'm a bat." Tilting her head up, Robin pressed her cheek against Joyce's neck. "I know why you're going, and I know it's the right thing, but I'll miss you, Mum."

"I'll miss you too, my little—" Joyce managed to stop herself before calling Robin her "little bird." Rather than get upset, she started grinning like a loon, and even laughing.

Robin was confused by her mother's antics. "Mum?"

"Do you know what they call a young bat?" Holding back some more giggles badly—that is to say not at all—Joyce's eyes danced with merriment.

"I'm going to regret this, aren't I?" Shaking her head, Robin let out a sigh. "Okay, Mum, what are young bats called?"

Joyce just grinned, having been handed the perfect set up for her punchline. "I'll tell you later my adorable little puppy."

"Wait, really?!" Shouting as always, Lyra looked around at all the bat ponies. "So with everypony being young-looking you're all pups?! That's the cutest thing ever!"

"Huh." Robin tilted her head to the side. "So I don't say, 'Look at those kids playing over there,' but, 'Look at those puppies playing over there'?" She looked to her mother first, then Candela for approval, and got it from both with encouraging nods. "But what if somepony thinks I'm talking about actual puppies?"

Lyra cut in before her mother could answer. "Sky puppies!"

Joyce giggled along with it. "Sky puppies works quite well, or just pups." She let out a less sorrowful sigh and squeezed Robin again. "I'm going to miss you, Robin pup."

"Not half as much as I'm gonna miss both of you. Who's going to teach me all the worst jokes?" Robin leaned against her mother.

Getting up, Lyra walked around and curled up on the other side of Robin. "I'll save them up for you, Spud!"

A screech from some nearby trees announced the return of another bat; this one was much smaller than the pony kind. Tufts glided toward the group and shed altitude so that he approached Joyce more or less directly. At the last moment he aimed to Joyce's right and caught hold of her outstretched wing. "What's going on?"

Joyce tried to jerk Tufts back in time, but the bat artfully speared a piece of banana from her own salad bowl and started chewing away on it. "We decided that tomorrow's the day we leave for Canterlot. Are you still coming?"

Tufts looked pointedly in Dream Thunder's direction, then back to Joyce. "Of course I am, my darling. I would follow you—and mangoes—between worlds in a heartbeat."

Tufts, Joyce had noticed lately, had become a master of shifting food around in his mouth to talk and chew at the same time. "Flatterer. We just organized a little get-together to say goodbye to our friends."

The little gathering continued on after dinner, but eventually it was time for parting. Joyce watched Lyra and Rose saying their final goodbyes, but her eyes slid to Dave. She wandered over to the miner, trying to read his expression and failing. "Penny for your thoughts?"

Dave coughed a little, then reached up to half cover his mouth lest it happen again. "S-Sorry, love, just thinkin' really. It's been a crazy year, all told."

"You can say that again." Joyce ummed and ahhed about her next question, but in the end decided she needed to ask it. "How serious is it?" She nodded her head toward Rose.

"Me and Rosie? Apart from Steve, he's the only person who's ever just 'got' me. We can just talk, and neither gets pissed off about the other. He's got a great ass, too." Dave froze after his last words, then slowly turned to look at Joyce, only to catch her grinning.

Joyce couldn't keep the smile off her face. In all her time in town Dave had never been this relaxed around her before. "It's mutual?"

Dave nodded. "Yeah. At least he hasn't kicked my arse about anythin' yet."

"It's love?" Joyce knew it was the more direct question, but also the one with more possible answers and evasions.

A long sigh escaped Dave. "I don't want to use that word until I know it is, but…" He looked down at the ground. "Every time I do something I wonder if Rosie would want to do it too, and when I come up with some idea it's him I go to with it first."

"Sounds complicated." Joyce turned and looked at Rose. He was chatting with Candela and Lyra (which was obvious by the occasional shout) but every few seconds Rose Quartz's eyes strayed over and landed on Dave.

"Not as complicated as you'd think. And not as complicated as some of the other shit going on." When Dave lifted his head back up, his eyes locked with Rose's. The grin that spread across his face was a clear indication of where his heart lay.

"At least the research guys took me seriously this time. They can't say I didn't warn them." Mildly defensive about her part in everything, Joyce was almost oblivious to the little interplay of expressions, winks, and nods that passed between Dave and Rose. Almost. "If you want to leave—"

"Might take ya up on that." Dave fought not to break into a trot. When Rose excused himself from his own conversation and the pair met in the middle of the backyard, everyone froze to watch Rose and Dave kiss.

Lyra was the first to react, and without thinking it through shouted, "Damn! That's cute!"

The kiss marked the beginning of the end for the evening. Dave and Rose were the first to leave (accompanied by much eye-waggling from Lyra). Steve was next, and approached Joyce.

"Guess it's goodbye and good luck." Steve looked Joyce in the eyes. Since her change, Steve had been closer to Lyra than Joyce. "Did we have a chance, Joyce?"

"Life got in the way. A lot." Feeling more than a little uncomfortable, for reasons she couldn't fully justify, Joyce gave a sigh. "You're a great person, Steve, but—"

"But your kids and your job come first. You're doing a great job with both, you know." Without meaning to, Steve's eyes flicked to Lyra. "She helped me deal with a lot of stuff. Dream's little trick did too, but it's Lyra that kept me sane."

"What? Lyra?" Joyce was startled by the revelation. "You and Lyra were—"

"What?! God no! She helped me come to terms with—with this." Gesturing to herself, Steve smiled. "Life's not exactly how I thought it would go, but being a mare isn't the end of all things. For one, I'm better at my job now. I swear the stone whispers to me and tells me what's near it."

"How about a goodbye kiss for luck?" Wearing as warm a smile as she could manage, Joyce started to turn to present her cheek when Steve's lips found hers. There was no passion in the kiss, just a slight hint of the more-than-friendship they had shared together. But like their initial relationship it couldn't last.

"Goodbye, Joyce." Steve turned slowly, waved a hoof toward Lyra, and plodded off.

An overwhelming feeling of completeness filled Joyce. If she were taking Robin with her she would easily have left for Equestria at that moment. "Robin?"

Robin trotted over to her mother, and barely got within a wing-length of her before she was pulled into a hug. Leaning against her mother, and not all that much smaller, Robin let out a soft sigh.

"You want to help me clean up?" Still hugging, Joyce inhaled the scent of her daughter and nuzzled into the ruff of red fur around her neck. Crying would have been easy for her to do, which was why she held back her tears.

Robin had to pull back a little—but not away—from her mother to nod. "Sure. Just a few bowls, though. Tufts was going to give Dream and me a lesson on magic."

Raising one eyebrow, Joyce reached a wing out to ruffle Robin's mane. "I don't know what that bat's game is, but if he keeps you busy while I try to sleep I'll be happy."

"Why are you sleeping at night?" Before the town was almost completely turned into bat ponies, the question might have been odd. Robin used a wing to reach out and gather up a bowl.

"Because I want to look my best when I get to Canterlot. If I can slip back into a nocturnal pattern there, all well and good, but I can't expect anyone to make allowances for me." Joyce gathered her own share of bowls.

How Lyra had been meeting with Steve now made complete sense to Joyce: they were both daytime ponies. Leaving Lyra, Maud, and Dream to the darkened evening, Joyce took Robin inside to wash up the plates and kitchen.

Working mostly in silence, Joyce and Robin soon moved to the living room together.

"You need to do everything Candela tells you. She'll be taking care of you now." Joyce had the delight of seeing her daughter roll her eyes. "I mean it."

"Mum. She was our teacher all year, if we weren't already doing what she says we would have failed. Besides, she's smart." Curling up on the couch despite a lack of sleepiness, Robin cuddled under Joyce's wing.

Not for the first time did Joyce ponder on how mature her daughter sounded. She tried to compare her little filly with the human child who had rode in the car to Cowwarr at the start of the year, and was astounded. "I'm so proud of you, Skypup."

Robin let out a little sigh that had a distinctive, soft screech to it. "I'm going to learn everything I can from Candela and Dream, and then I'm gonna come and learn everything I can in Equestria. You'll see. I'll be there in no time."

"I know you will be." Joyce leaned her head down for just a second—just a bare moment. She had been deep in a nocturnal habit, but having spent most of the day awake she was defeated the moment her eyes closed.

Author's Note

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
CrimsonPhoenix
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Javarod
Lazyreader19
Nils
Shaushka
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Vutava

Epilogue: Batstralia

Epilogue: Thestralia

It was a hard day for Robin and Dream. With Joyce and Lyra leaving, both felt a little empty, but what really hit each was that Tufts was gone. Throughout the morning they talked together of what they would do now that they had to learn on their own, and eventually reached a consensus: explore.

The two fillies climbed up on their sleeping perch just before eleven in the morning, and folded their wings around their bodies. It didn't take either more than three breaths before sleep came.

Dream Thunder spread her wings and stretched. "Robin, are you there?" She looked around the old mango tree, and eventually spotted her sister nibbling from a piece of fruit higher up. The tree, seemingly older than anything else in the world (or so it seemed to Dream) twitched in delight at having its fruit eaten.

Climbing up the tree was not a hard task—there were oddly shaped branches sticking out all over the place, but all were perfectly placed for a bat pony to climb from. Reaching Robin's side, Dream gave a little screech at her sister.

The dream world wasn't easy to get used to, and while Robin had practiced and practiced, when there was a good mango to be eaten it was hard to focus on other things. Chewing away, she gulped down the last shred of mango and dropped the heavy seed (all that remained of the poor fruit) to the ground. "Screech to you too. Oh! We had a plan."

"Mango breaks are important, but we do have a plan, and I think we need to reach out to someone." Dream stretched one wing out and pointed into the distance. "It just feels right."

"Are we going to them, or are they coming to us?" Robin's eyes already twitched, looking at another ripe mango just within her reach.

"Both. We have to go there and find her, but I think we can bring her here after that. Want to help?" Dream grabbed her own mango and started biting at it, stripping away some skin so she could attack the delicious flesh within.

With a little screech, Robin nodded in agreement. "Sure. I might need another mango first. For energy, of course." She grabbed her own mango and, for some time, both bat ponies hung in place eating.

The dim light overhead seemed to change. The shadow of the mango tree lengthened in one direction and then stopped. Both fillies finished off their mango and dropped the seeds to the ground below. Sharing mangoes was always a good way to make the hot day pass. Night was falling upon the land, and though both fillies would be waking up soon, time was easy to stretch and squeeze in a dream.

"We need to fly north. I think she's asleep now." Dream Thunder pointed off with a wing. "Race you there?" When Robin let out and excited screech, Dream replied with her own. As Dream swung out and spread her wings, she gestured at the seeds below and gathered them up, making them small enough for a bat pony to carry while flying.

The flight seemed to take days, maybe even a week, but both fillies kept flapping until Dream Thunder called out and pointed. Below them was a lone bat pony fighting at shadows around her. "First to break ten shadows wins a mango!"

Robin screeched at her sister and dove at her side. One mare on her own, fighting at the monsters of her dreams, could do nothing but stave off the attacks, but the mare had two of the battiest bats that ever batted.

Thumb-claws and hooves were useless against the shadows, but the two fillies quickly showed the mare that a bat's wing, through the shadow's center of mass, could dissipate them.

To Robin's delight the stranger didn't just relax and, together, all three bat ponies finished off the dark shapes with countering slashes of their wings such that the creatures couldn't duck, dodge, or weave quickly enough to escape.

"What were those things?" The strange bat pony asked.

"Shadows. Not nice ones. Are you okay?" Dream Thunder looked at the mare with shock. Standing proud on the stranger's forehead was a horn. A sense of panic that was an entirely pony reaction mixed with awe. "P-P-Princess?"

"It was 'prince,' but then things changed. I guess princess will do. Ugh, where are my manners." Straightening herself a little, the alicorn bat pony held out a wing and curled it before herself. "My name is Princess James, although Screech has been sounding better… Oh! Thanks for helping!"

"Screech is a really batty name." Bouncing in place, Robin was still full of excitement at beating up the nasty shadows. "Are you really a princess?"

"Last time I looked. Uh…" Screech looked at Dream, then waved a wing before her face. "Is your friend okay?"

"You're a bat princess! You're the pony I had to help!" Rearing up, Dream Thunder let loose a loud screech and flapped her wings in excitement. "I found you! All on my own! This is awesome!"

"I thought this was all a dream. Where are we?" Screech looked around the strange place. There were shadows (but not the monstrous kind) of buildings and structures around where she had gone to sleep, but everything seemed indistinct—except for Dream and Robin.

"This is the Dreaming! It's like a shared dream, but is also attached to the real world. It's—" Dream Thunder froze and bowed her head. "Your Highness, I'm sorry for not doing this sooner. My name's Dream Thunder, and this is Robin Robertson." The fight, and realizing she had found who she had been meant to, had caused Dream to get overexcited. That she had been talking to a real honest-to-Celestia alicorn princess without introducing herself first left her mortified.

"Oh no! I have to put up with bowing while awake, there's no way you are doing it while I am sleeping, too. Besides, you saved my life." Looking a little embarrassed, Screech let out a sigh. "I'm not used to any of it, truth be told. I'm so far down the tree of those likely to be on the throne that no one thought to even teach me all this stupid etiquette."

Robin was a lot less conscious of being in the presence of royalty (be it Equestrian style or earth style). "So how'd you become a prince—err, princess?"

Screech closed her eyes to think back to the event. "Family picnic—and by that I mean a really boring day spent with boring people—but then my third-cousin started yelling about her baby, Prince Alistair, being missing. I'm not saying she wasn't keeping an eye on him, but she wasn't. Next thing I know all the servants at the castle were going crazy looking so I joined in too.

"He was playing in a stream that winds through the grounds, and had fallen in. I didn't even know CPR, but I'd seen it on TV, right? Turns out I remembered pretty good." Screech let out a pitiful sigh. "Poor little guy, but he made it, and Gran was so thankful she gave me a letter."

"A letter?" Robin tilted her head to the side in confusion.

"You know what they say about letters with windows in them being bad? Well, letters hand-written by the Queen of England can be worse. Next thing I know everyone's calling me Prince James, and I have to be on TV and…" With a sound akin to her namesake, Screech shook her head. "I came here for a holiday to get away from all the madness. It's going great, except for the bits whenever anyone opened their mouth, and then my security detail—bunch of big guys who don't listen to a word I say—start yelling that we have to get to the airport."

"The Knowing." Dream Thunder couldn't hold back a little grin.

"Right, The Knowing. So everyone else starts groaning and grabbing at various bits of themselves but I feel a huge rush and bam. I woke up like this." Gesturing to herself with a wing, Screech let out a sigh. "Now it's worse. Everypony looks to me for help. It's like just having a horn means—"

Dream cut in on Screech's complaint. "It means your a princess—you're meant to be in control."

"That's what everypony says. They act like I should just know what to do, but I don't. I need them to listen and help me do what I know needs to be done!" Ruffling her wings in agitation, Screech began to pace. "And it didn't help that I kept getting more and more tired. Those things—the shadows—they were doing something to me."

"Tjinimin said they would drain a bat. I think they were feeding off you." Robin stared back at where the shadows had been, but then snapped her head around to look at Dream. "Wait! That's what this was all about! You came here to help Screech defeat the shadows and get everypony to listen to her!"

Staring at Robin, Dream blinked a few times and then looked at Screech. "That… Is that right?"

"I need someone to help me!" Screech didn't realize how desperate she sounded until the words left her mouth. Then it sank in: she really did need help. "I just want to help everypony."

"Well, between Tjinimin and Yingarna teaching her, Dream Thunder knows everything there is to know about Australia." Robin reached her wing up to hug Dream. "Right?"

Screech couldn't stop her instincts from making her tilt her head to the side a little. "You mentioned that name before. Who's Tjimin and Yinarna?"

"Tjinimin is the bat god. He gave us these,"—Dream Thunder spread her wings and wiggled her tufted ears—"and Yingarna is the Rainbow Snake. She is the reason magic isn't going even crazier. They helped me make The Knowing, and—"

"Wait! Hold on! You made The Knowing? All that… and the… Is there really a sea-green unicorn who guards us all?" Screech wracked her brains searching for more questions, but The Knowing had been all about answers. Answers packed into her head so tight it was impossible to get them all together at once.

Robin let out a little sigh. "Lyra? She had to leave. She might come back to visit."

"Okay. Dream, Robin, how quickly can you two get to Canberra? I need that help and I need it as soon as you can give it." Looking between the two girls, Screech's heart dropped as they both looked guilty. "You're not coming, are you?"

"I can't leave Cowwarr," Dream said, then at the confused look on Screech's face, continued. "Little town, where all the magic ripped through from—from another world. Part of that world slipped through as well, but Tjinimin said it was stable now."

"I could go." Robin's heart was thudding like a drum. "Princess Screech needs one of us. I can go and help."

Dream Thunder shook her head. "Robin, you can't! You're only—"

"Wait. How old are you both? I know everypony looks like a teen now, but you two look a little younger." Screech looked between the two girls, then fixed her eyes on Robin. "And you look younger still."

"I'm old enough to have my cutie mark." Turning side-on, Dream Thunder lifted a wing to make her cutie mark more visible.

Robin nodded and turned to the side. "Me too!"

"If you need somepony, Robin can help. If nothing else, she knows enough Dreaming magic to keep you safe at night." Blinking rapidly, Dream pulled the three mango seeds out that she had been carrying somewhere. "Oh, and I need to plant these. They should grow quickly if somepony is here to take care of them." She gave Robin a significant look.

"Look, okay. But you have to talk to your parents first." Screech shook her head and took a deep breath. "I wouldn't normally do this, but I need somepony to help me or the whole country is going to go crazy."

"Robin's mum has gone to study medicine in Equestria, but my mum is looking after her. I'll wake up and talk to her." Reaching a wing around Robin, Dream Thunder squeezed her little sister. "Make sure the princess is safe, and you're safe. The mango trees come a distant third. Okay?"

Robin nodded to Dream. "I'll take care of her. You talk to Candela for me, okay?"

Dream nodded to her little sister and then locked eyes with Screech. "And you take care of her, too. Treat her like your sister. Protect her and she'll protect you." When Screech nodded, Dream took a deep breath. "Wake up, sleepy heads."

Screech woke and was again Princess Screech. She looked around the state room she had slept in every night since she had turned into a baticorn. Everything seemed perfectly normal except for the other bat pony laying on the side of the huge bed.

Jerking awake, Robin looked around with a worried expression until she spotted Screech. "Why are you sleeping on a bed? This is really uncomfortable." She twisted around and flopped off the side of the huge bed, landing on her hooves.

"That dream was real." Screech stared at the slightly smaller bat pony. "Robin?"

"That's me!" Robin spread her wings out and gave a few test flaps. "Don't worry. If something bad comes for us, Dream will help."

Firm knocking came from the door, and Screech rushed around the bed and over to it. "I'm alright! Don't panic! I have a new—a new guard." Every morning since The Knowing Screech had felt worse and worse. Her thoughts would be muddled and confused deeper into each day. Now, with the shadows gone, she felt alive again. It was humbling for her to realize that Robin had been instrumental in that.

Opening the door, Screech poked her head out. "Guys?" The word was a bit unclear now given three of the four bodyguards were now three-quarter transformed female bat ponies. There was only two of her guards standing at the door. "Come in and say hi to Robin."

The guards, despite their half-formed legs, moved swiftly to rush into the room lest Robin actually be a threat. When they saw Robin, however, both relaxed noticeably. "Your Highness, why do you have a child in your room?"

"Because she saved my life once already. Remember The Dreaming?" Both guards stiffened at Screech's reminder. "She can fight off the monsters. There was a pack of them attacking me in my dreams. She and her sister saved me."

"It wasn't the food?" Roy, the only guard who hadn't become female so far, raised one eyebrow.

"There were shadows living in the Dreaming. Whenever Princess Screech went to sleep, they would attack her. But me and Dream showed her how to fight them!" Robin puffed her chest out with pride. "And we're trying to make all the Dreaming around here safer with mango trees."

Thanks to The Knowing, both guards had an idea there were monsters beyond their ability to handle. But both were forced to look at Robin with at least a measure of respect. They were (had been, at least) very practical men, and now they were becoming very practical bat ponies.

"I'm glad to have a specialist on board. If there's anything we can do to help, ma'am, let us know." Roy gestured to Peter, his fellow bodyguard.

Peter nodded, not as vocal as his workmate, but supporting the sentiment.

"That can be handled later." Screech felt a new rush of excitement. When she had transformed initially, there had been a certainty that she had a job to do and that she could do it. With Robin at her side she had regained that inherent knowledge. "I have a country to save."

"Wait!" Robin stood resolutely, and her exclamation caused both bodyguards to go on the alert. She gulped at that, but turned all her attention on Screech. "You just got up. You need to do your mane and tail at least. If you're going to be a princess for everypony, you need to look like one."

The suggestion cut through the predominantly male mindsets of both guards and Screech. The princess herself looked a little crestfallen that she had forgotten to maintain even basic stateliness. "See, guys, this is why we need a mare around."

Leaving Robin to the task of preparing Princess Screech for the day, Roy and Peter, as one, slipped back into the hallway and closed the door behind them.

"And I'll get somepony to make you a proper perch. That bed is horrible for a bat pony to sleep on. It's too soft, and you can't hang." Robin poked her tongue out at the huge bed.

"Alright, alright. But I have no idea what a perch for a pony would be like. Come on, I should probably have a bath, too." Screech trudged toward the suite's bathroom.

"I wasn't going to mention the smell. That's another reason bats shouldn't sleep on beds!" Robin pinched her nose as she followed Screech, only half in jest.

Author's Note

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Adjusting to a New Job

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken English, everything else is in Equish.

"Are we there yet?" Misty Rainfall was bouncing along beside her mother, somehow still overflowing with energy despite all the walking she had done. "It has been ages since we left the train. Why is this place so far away?" The stormy-blue filly kicked a stone along and swished her well-kept blue-white mane to the side.

Candela laughed at her daughter’s impatience. "Not everywhere has a train going past it twice a day, sweetie." She leaned a wing down and brushed the filly's mane back while adding, "And it shouldn't be much further." The mare paused afterwards as a thought occurred to her, halting in her tracks. Candela tilted her head up into the breeze fluttering her violet mane, shook her light-yellow frame, and let her folded wings hang a little before glancing down at the filly with a small smirk.

Both mare and filly narrowed their eyes at each other and, spreading their wings wide both exclaimed, "Race you!" at the same time. Laughter and feathers filled the air as mother and filly flapped hard. The early-afternoon air was warm and each found themselves racing through it with abandon. Rounding a corner in the road their eyes fixated on their target.

"Told you it wasn't far!" Candela flapped her wings but didn't put all her effort into it, after all it wasn't about winning when your foal was your opponent. Her load was light; the supplies in her saddle bags were dwindling after the trip which meant she was almost unencumbered for the first time since they left.

Misty Rainfall beat her little wings hard and was managing to keep up with her mother. "I am so going to beat you!" Luckily the filly’s wings were fresh and rested from the two days walk to get to their new home, so she eventually pulled out ahead.

Both pegasi glided the last few lengths into the main street of the tiny town. "You won!" Candela proclaimed as she picked up her filly, pulling Misty to her neck and snuggling her as a reward. "Now let's find out where we are going to be living."

After squeezing her mom back tightly, Misty dropped back to the ground and began prancing proudly. "They better have built the best schoolhouse ever for my mom!"

“I am sure they will.” Candela leaned down to kiss Misty on the head. “Oh, looks like our welcoming committee. Best behavior now.” The pair walked up to an approaching pony.

The approaching pony spoke first. "Well, howdy there. My name's Porcelain Clay. Welcome to Stonecrop!" Porcelain took off her hat to reveal a blonde mane, and smiled widely. The mare stood tall for an earth pony, almost like she had some of the “leggy” unicorn breed in her heritage. She looked like she had just been working with her namesake, her white forehooves sporting mud-like stains. Looking the two newcomers up and down, her eyes lingered on the Candela’s cutie mark of a stack of paper pages. "I don't suppose you are the new teacher we asked for?"

Candela's face lit up and she nodded. "Bingo, got it in one. This is a lovely little town you have here," she said while gazing around at the nearly dozen houses. Each building looked to serve not only as a home for the ponies within, but also as a place of business. There was no room in such a small community for ponies not willing to work. The architecture was a little strange compared to what Candela was familiar with—unlike buildings further to the north, these homes never saw an inch of snow—each and every one reflected the uniqueness of its owner. She refocused her attention on Porcelain, hoping to clear up something that had been bothering her. "How many fillies and colts am I signing on for? The position was strangely vague, listing between five and fifty charges."

Porcelain let out a bark of laughter before sighing, "Oh Celestia, not that many…" She adopted a conflicted expression before motioning to a building behind her. "Well, why don't you come to my house and we can have some tea while we discuss the arrangements?" Her eyes turned to Misty and gave her a wink. "My little colt is just about the same age as you, I wager."

"I am eight!" Misty fairly bounced around her mother, before suddenly becoming a little shy.

"Where are my manners!" Candela froze in place. "Candela," she gave a little bow to Porcelain before glancing at Misty hiding behind her. "And this adorable little hay-bale is Misty Rainfall."

Misty poked her head around her mother's hooves and gave a little wave to Porcelain.

"It's great to finally have you here. The older foals were trying to keep the little ones up with their numbers and writing, but there is no substitute for a good teacher." Porcelain led the way to her shop that appeared to double as her home and workshop. "Don't mind the mess, I am sure you know how it is with your own foal and work."

Candela wouldn't have said anything, but she could certainly think it. ’I wouldn't keep my home this untidy, even if it had a timber-wolf living in it.’ The thought was a little below her so she shook it away. "Oh don't fuss about that. Having little ones around means your priorities shift a little." ’Is that why she really wants a teacher here, to foalsit during the day?’ With the slightly negative thoughts in her head, Candela had to step over some building blocks and not one, but two little wooden trains. ’At least there isn’t any clay…’

"Come through and take a seat, I bet it has been a tiring journey. Things were so much livelier here when I was a filly, no train to Las Pegasus back then, this old road was really bustling. Although some new work in the mines is seeing more regular traffic along here again." Porcelain began preparing some tea on the hot stove. "How do you take your tea?"

"Hot and straight, just on its own will be fine." Candela had noticed the milk and sugar being prepared and nearly sighed at the desecration of her beloved beverage. "You didn't actually say how many I would be teaching?" She spotted a drawing pinned to the refridgerator and her heart suddenly could forgive the mess; it showed a little colt and her mommy—both playing with mud.

"That is why I am making tea. This is all a little complicated." Porcelain carried the tray over with the two cups of tea and a fruit juice for Misty. "You see, we actually have a sister town.” She paused and fidgeted uncomfortably for a moment before adding, “If I mess this up, blame it on the others. We had a vote on who to explain this and… I guess I won." She certainly didn’t sound like she had won.

"Sister town? Where is it?" Candela took her cup and had a sip; immediately her muscles relaxed a little and she gave a happy sigh. ’Whatever the state of her home, whatever strange things she puts in her own tea; all is forgiven for this cup of brown joy.’ Candela sipped more of the smooth tea, not quite able to determine where in Equestria it was from. ’Maybe it is from further away? Odd that a simple potter would be able to afford such things, especially if she would ruin the flavor with milk and sugar.’

"Well, it is just on the other side of the mountains, you see." Porcelain tried to hide her snout behind her cup in an obvious attempt to cover what had to be a lie. "The schoolhouse is actually over there. I spoke with the—"

"Please, don't insult my intelligence. The only thing on the other side of that mountain—according to the map—is a rock farm that has been there for generations." Candela sipped more of the tea and felt her nerves calm. "The truth, please."

Misty looked up at her mom, then across to the nice earth pony who gave her juice.

Porcelain slumped a little, clearly looking defeated. "It is probably easier to show you than explain." She gave a sigh and downed the remainder of her tea in a gulp. "Wish I had some cider, heading over there always gives me the heebie-jeebies."

"Please, language!" Candela pinned Porcelain with a derisive look. "I almost regret making this trip. Should I go back to the school department in Canterlot and tell them just how you treat new teachers? Lying, saying horrible words…" She put down her own cup—no amount of tea would calm her now—and leaned down to Misty. "Come along darling, we are leaving this horrible place."

"Wait, please! I… Just come and see the schoolhouse, I promise you it is just on the other side of the tunnel in the hill. Please, we need a teacher… I am so sorry." Porcelain prostrated herself on the floor with her eyes squeezed shut, awaiting Candela passing sentence on her.

Candela gave a sigh before relenting at the sight of the groveling mare. "For the foals, I will come and see if this schoolhouse is tenable. Though why you wouldn't build it in town I have no idea." She really wanted to say more, but decorum and a good upbringing kept it back. "Lead on."

"Just follow me, you will see." Porcelain trotted out of her house, leaving the tea set where it lay. Her head was bowed, as if Candela was a judge to be deciding her fate. Leading the way across town, Porcelain kept turning to make sure Candela and Misty were following. They passed a few other ponies, each waving to both local and visitors alike. At last they entered a simple mine yard and approached what appeared to be more mine shaft than tunnel; heavy wooden supports braced the sides and roof and it had tracks laid down the middle for mine carts to traverse.

"This," Candela gestured with a hoof, "is a mine, not a tunnel. Is this safe?" By her tone the mare clearly had ideas about the safety of the excavation. She stepped a little closer and inspected the timbers holding it all up.

"It is safe, there hasn't been a single problem with Delves Deep leading the mining." As Porcelain was talking, a soft rumbling was coming from the mine and, with the two mares and the filly waiting, a mine cart was soon pushed out.

But it was the contents of the cart that suddenly had Candela's attention. "That… that looks like iron…" She blinked, recognizing the rocks from her geological studies. "That isn't meant to be here, this is listed on maps as an old tin mine!"

"Well, that there is where you would be wrong and right." The dust-stained miner grinned as he pulled the brake on. "Mighty fine eye ya got fer the rocks though. Ah'm Burrow Down." The dirty stallion held out a hoof to Candela and got a surprisingly solid clop in return. "Y'see, we went down nice and deep and found all sorts'a interestin' things."

“Candela, and my daughter Misty Rainfall.” Candela gave a nod to the miner before looking to Porcelain. "I don’t suppose one of those interesting things was a schoolhouse?” Candela was not a mare to be distracted from her task, no matter how intriguing it was to see the odd ore being taken from the mine. "Please lead on."

Porcelain gave another nod to the miner and headed down into the tunnel, Candela and Misty following. Little crystal lamps were spaced out regularly in the big section of the tunnel. "Just down here a little further." Porcelain seemed to be vibrating in anticipation. "Just wait until you see it, the building is amazing!"

Misty was dancing along after her mother, little hooves balancing on one of the ubiquitous rails that seemed to follow the mine.

All three ponies shivered, one after another, at exactly the same place in the tunnel. A startling moment of vertigo had Candela realizing that although they had been following a slightly descending shaft, the one they were now in was angled upwards. ’I didn’t even feel it straighten out, or angle up. What just happened?’

The light was brighter and Candela found herself examining one of the little lamps. It wasn't a crystal lamp at all now; it was a small beam of glowing white, with some kind of cable chaining it to another one just ahead, then another, and another. "What… what is this?" She reached out a hoof toward one of the beams and found it behind some kind of glass. A glance behind her sent her jaw dropping at the sight of the cable chaining together all the visible lamps they had already passed, none of which were the crystal lamps she had been observing since entering the tunnel.

"Never mind those, please follow me and… be courteous." Porcelain walked off along the tunnel, her hooves making soft clopping sounds on the stone floor.

"Mom, we should keep up." Misty tapped Candela's shoulder and pointed after the departing mare. "Momma?"

"I have never seen anything like this… but you are right, my little darling." Candela trotted after Porcelain, checking from time to time that her filly was following along beside her. She followed, that is, until the most strange creature she had ever seen stepped from a side tunnel, pushing a mine cart on a set of tracks that merge with the main ones—loaded with gems.

"G'day." The heavily clothed creature lifted their helmet a little, revealing a pair of tufted ears atop their head that were strange simply because the ears didn’t seem to fit in with the rest of their body. "You frost." The strange creature that had a rough smattering—or so it seemed—of Equish, gestured before themself.

"Oh, thank you!" Candela felt much relieved: a monster simply wasn't a monster if they had manners. She trotted on past the cart and left the strange biped behind. "Misty?"

"What was that, momma?" Misty was cantering after her longer-gaited mother, with her head turned to look back at the creature. "It looked a little like a diamond dog. Its ears were cute!"

"Dear, a mare does not refer to another species' features until she knows exactly how they like to be talked about." Candela saw every moment of every day as a lesson, even such a strange moment of such an odd day, as was the case today. “Also, ‘it’ is a terrible word to use for anypony, ‘they’ is acceptable until we can pick the fillies from the colts.”

“Yes momma.” Misty took the words in, her face a picture of contemplation.

A bright light ahead proved—as the Candela and Misty approached—to be the sun. Stepping from the tunnel, Candela looked up and froze. "It… that isn't where the sun was on the other side… ow!" She looked away from the strangely hostile sun and blinked rapidly as her eyes flooded with tears. "What is going on Porcelain? What is the meaning of all this?"

Porcelain was standing beside another of those bipeds, this one bearing their teeth in a bright smile; or so they clearly hoped it to be. The creature had seemed to appear from nowhere, but Candela was sure they had likely wandered over to the ponies while she was recovering from looking at the sun.

The upright creature held out a hand at first, then clearly realized it was way too high up to be returned. "G'day… uh…"

It was almost impossible not to stare at the strange creature. Swathed in clothes, they stood nearly three times the height of a pony—like the one she had passed in the mine—but unlike that one this biped lacked the pony-like ears. Small eyes peeked out from a large head that was topped with a neatly trimmed dark brown mane. What was the oddest thing to Candela however, was that they seemed to lack a fur coat on most of their body—if the exposed parts of them were to be believed.

"Please forgive Robert Gaylor, his Equish is almost as terrible as my Engrish." Porcelain smiled. "But nonetheless, they are the mayor of the town on this side of the mine, and they have a little schoolhouse and a whole group of little foals that need to be taught."

Candela's eyes were wide as saucers, she looked out over the wild-looking terrain. There was not a single spot in Equestria that looked half as… solid, as this did. Even the trees looked like an earth pony couldn't buck them down. "This is… this is a lot to take in…" Candela shook her head and looked down to her equally surprised filly. ’Misty don't you dare freak out at this or I don't know what I will do.’

"This place looks awesome." Misty's little head turned this way and that, staring at everything for as long as it would take the average hummingbird to beat its wings a dozen times.

The adorably foal-like reaction steadied Candela. "It does look unique. Show me the schoolhouse first, then where I will be staying." ’Normal things, I need to see normal things and everything will be fine.’

Porcelain blinked and thought for a moment. She tapped the big biped on the leg with a hoof to get their attention. "School… oh, ." She pointed to Candela.

Robert Gaylor looked at the ponies. "." He waited for the pony (thigh-high at their withers) to nod to him before he turned and led the way. "."

The biped was chatting away in its own language and—or so far as Candela could tell—nopony was understanding a word of it. "What are they?" She trotted to catch up with Porcelain. "They look a little like diamond dogs, but they very much aren't."

"They prefer to be called hoomans." Porcelain gained a superior air as she explained what Candela clearly was clueless about. "They speak a whole other language. Delves and Burrow know a little more than I do," she grinned widely as she turned her head, "I am sure you will pick it up quickly; being a teacher and all."

’Ohhh somepony left a horse-apple in her hay.’ Candela blinked and grimaced at the thought, before shaking it from her head. ’This is getting too much, I am a fine mare to accuse somepony of using bad language when I thought that!’ "Well… no time like the present." She trotted forward a little until she was beside the hooman. "Hello? You said the school house was this way?"

"." Robert blinked down at the pony. "."

"?" Candela got excited. "School… !" This is just like back in college! " house?" She held up both forelegs, tracing a house in the air.

". hooose?" Robert couldn't keep from smiling. "."

"." Candela was practically prancing by then. "Their language is a little odd, they tend to mangle our words more than I mangle theirs… I think." She trotted in front of Robert before tapping her hoof down meaningfully. "Ground?"

"," Robert stopped and reached down, getting on a much closer level with the little pegasus, "."

"." Misty tapped the ground with her hoof. "Mom, they speak a little funny, but I think I am getting some of it!"

"You are dear, you really are." Candela started humming a little song as she trotted along with her filly, following the hooman to the .

"This isn't Equestria, is it momma?" Misty finally asked after a minute of looking around herself, eyes huge and taking in every aspect of the world. "Look at the funny trees." She trotted closer to one they were passing and was about to break a leaf off with her mouth when the smell caught in her nose. "Ewww."

"Sweetie, don't eat anything here until we test it, okay?" Candela reached her wing out invitingly to Misty, the filly trotting back and snuggling up under it. "I am sure the nice hooman can find us somewhere to spend our bits for food."

No sooner had Candela said the word than the hooman turned around again. "Food? ." They smiled to the two ponies. "Food… frost?"

"First," Candela immediately corrected. "First." She smiled but shook her head. " first."

The hooman clearly understood because they resumed travel in the same direction. "… First?" They looked back to the mare again. "."

Candela nodded happily, her mind soaking up the cadence and flow of the language she heard, there was a very distinct twinge to it. 'I wonder how long this will take to pick up? Oh… oh drat, I am going to have to be quick about it, I bet the deal is I teach their foals too.'

The trees they had been walking through seemed to part and both ponies' jaws dropped. "Mamma, where are we?" Misty moved as close to Candela as she could. "This place is strange."

"Darling, they don't mean us any harm, they want me to teach here." Candela nonetheless picked Misty up and set the filly on her back. Their guide had led them to one of the flatter, blockier-looking buildings.

"." Robert lifted one of his hands and waved to another, similarly clothed hooman. "."

Candela missed most of the words, but she paused and looked at the other hooman. Lifting one hoof, she tested her new hypothesis, "!"

"?" The new hooman wandered closer to the little procession and gave a special wave to Misty. "."

"." Robert's words tumbled from his mouth, not that Candela managed to get more than the flow of the language.

Leaving her guide to talk to their friend, Candela stepped up onto the little porch of the building and, pushing at the door, made her way inside. "Everything is built for taller ponies, probably the hoomans. All the foals here are going to have trouble reaching things." She walked further in, hearing her hooves clop on what sounded like wood, but felt smooth and rubbery. A sliding door—with a hoof suitably applied to one end of it—revealed a classroom.

Words would not fully describe the feeling of a classroom. It was a place where young minds were fed knowledge, where they were encouraged to hunt it like timberwolves, where a teacher could direct those minds and guide them to the things they would need to know for the rest of their lives. Candela inhaled deeply. 'My classroom.' She looked up at the desk and trotted over. Halfway to the front the weight of Misty left her back, the mare letting her foal explore just as she was.

'This is a teacher's desk but almost double the scale I am used to.' She flapped her wings to get up onto the chair easily. Looking over the desk she realized there would need to be changes. "That would be an alphabet," Candela began to look around the room, "not that I understand it… yet." Her smile grew wider and wider.

"Momma! The desks are huuuuggeeee!" Misty had apparently gotten up onto the smallest desk in the front row, but unlike her mother her head couldn't see over the desk itself.

"." Robert had slipped into the room while Candela's attention was focused on her filly. Reaching carefully under the chair the pegasus was seated on, he adjusted something.

"Oh my!" Candela jumped off the chair, helped by the way it seemed to shoot upwards. Looking back she saw that the cushion was only barely lower than the desk itself. "Thank you!" She looked up at the human, realizing that sitting on the desk as she was, they were at eye level.

"Thank you?" Robert lifted a hand up and tapped his chin. "." He paused a moment significantly. "Thank you. ."

"." Candela felt almost giddy at the prospect of learning a language nopony knew. " very much." It felt just right that she now could greet and thank in the hooman's language.

"?" Robert mimed putting things in his mouth. "?"

Candela narrowed her eyes as she tried to work out what the hooman was saying to her, but when he mimed eating she knew right away and nodded. " would be lovely, ." She dropped down from the chair, using her wings to steady her fall. "Misty, where are you off to my little storm cloud?"

"Mama, I found a book!" Misty trotted from the back corner of the otherwise bookless schoolhouse, carrying a sky-blue book in her snout. "Look, it is about a dog that is really big, but then he is really small and he could fit in and all the hoomans played with him too."

"," Robert held a finger out to the name on the cover, and then pointing to the red dog. "."

"Clifford? Mama his name is Clifford!" Misty was bouncing around, ruffling her wings excitedly.

"We can get somehooman to read it for you later, it will help both of us with word sounds." Candela reached a wing out to hug her clever little filly. "But first we need some dinner and to find out where we are staying." She looked up at the hooman. "?"

The perfectly spoken English word had Robert looking surprised. "." Heading out of the schoolhouse he began leading the way toward the only two-story building in the whole town. Noise with rhythm—that Candela could only assume was music in this strange place—got louder and louder as they neared the building. When Robert opened the door, the music and the sound of that odd language washed over her and her filly.

"." Candela couldn't believe how gracious Robert was, holding the door open for her. 'This makes me feel like a princess!' She trotted into the building and quickly gathered Misty up on her back. "Misty-darling, please keep close."

"" Robert looked down at the new school teacher. "."

"."

Candela's ears were working overtime, trying in desperation to track where each speaker was and what they were saying. It was a fool's errand to attempt it, but it was ingrained into a pony to do so. She found herself following Robert into a place that was at once quieter, noisier, and hotter than the rest of the building. "Oh, the kitchen. I wonder what they… eat…" Candela looked around at all the food.

Robert noticed where Candela's vision lingered the most. "."

"."

This time Candela's ears found the source of those words. A tall hooman with their mane all pinned up in a bun was working at the far end of the kitchen, over a hot stove. She gave a little wave to them and was led back out by Robert.

Once at a table, Candela and Misty were left alone again. "Mama, what was that red stuff in the kitchen?" Misty was looking around, her eyes wide as she examined everything. Then she saw them. "Momma, is that a hooman foal?" She pointed a hoof at the red maned hooman who, as well, had stopped and was staring at Misty and her mom.

"?" The little hooman had raced over and was staring up at Misty with absolute amazement in their eyes.

Misty looked back to her mother, who was smiling. "Uh… ? I don't speak—" She got no further, a hand reached up for her hoof and was dragging her away.

"!" The little hooman seemed quite excited and was tugging on Misty's hoof insistently.

Candela got up, ready to intercede but another of the hoomans walked over and crouched down before the hooman foal. "." She ruffled her daughter's hair and looked up at Candela. "."

Unable to understand any of the words, Candela could however see that this hooman was a mare just like herself and their foal was just wanting to play. "Play nicely, dear." Candela climbed back up on her seat as her filly was being—literally—dragged off to play with somehooman's foal. "Come back soon for your dinner, okay?"

"Yes momma!" Misty was off her seat and running beside the other foal.

'Giggling just how a foal should be. Maybe this will be good for my little darling?' Candela reached to her mostly empty pack, pulled out the book Misty had liberated from the school, and set it on the table. "It really is a very large dog." She flipped the pages with a wing-tip, idly admiring the art work to make the book so very attractive and useful as a learning tool.

"." The hooman mare took the seat opposite Candela, to the pegasus' surprise. "."

Candela watched the thin finger on the end of the hooman's hand point at the big canine. "Clifford." Repeating the word back seemed to help. 'Thank Celestia that I can at least make the same sounds as their language, that would have been a bad way to start teaching.' "Dog? Uh… woof woof!"

"!" The hooman pointed to herself now. "." She gestured to Candela with what the pegasus had worked out was a questioning look.

"." Flicking her tail excitedly, Candela was quite excited. She pointed to herself with a hoof, "."

Working through the book, Candela learned that the hooman language was, structurally, much like Equish. Figuring it was time to try some of her new learning out, she looked to Maureen. "?"

Maureen froze in shock. She had been showing the book to the strange little person, but that she had picked up so many of the words had shocked her even past the slight mistakes in it. "."

'A few words still missing, and I can bet I messed some words up, but she understood me.' Candela was about to engage in more English when a piled-high plate of salad came out. Her mouth was watering at the sight of it.

"." Mavis herself set the plate down before the pony. "?" Candela lost any hope of following the conversation, she thought the hooman had said a little of "Maureen" but couldn't be sure.

"." Maureen's attention was focused on Candela and the pony realized that there was a hungry look in the hooman's eyes that spoke to her own. Dismissed, the cook turned and headed back to her kitchen. Maureen took a deep breath. "?"

Candela caught enough of the words to piece things together, her clever mind grabbing more of the words, adding tags and patterns to them like a jigsaw puzzle player filing away "good pieces." "." Candela reached a hoof up and tapped her ear.

"Mamma mamma! We found a bug!" Misty would not be ignored, her hooves rocketing her into the room with Kelly a moment behind her. "LOOK BUG!"

Maureen looked across at her new friend, then down at the filly's offering of a little bug. "."

Candela gave a nod and dutifully looked at her filly's hoof, the bug didn't look happy about the race to find her. "." Candela reached a hoof down to ruffle Misty's mane. "Can you put it back where you found it, Misty?"

"Okay!" Five legs carried the two back out again, but as Misty rounded the doorway into the next room she slipped on the carpet and plonked her fourth hoof down. Misty and Kelly both looked down at what was surely the bug's grave. "No more bug…"

Kelly nodded to her new best friend's assessment.

"." Robert wandered up to the two mothers and leaned down to kiss Maureen on the cheek. "Err, house…" He was clearly fishing for words he simply didn't know.

"." Candela grinned extra wide at being able to reply. 'Who am I fooling, I am butchering their language, I need to get on top of this.' She climbed off her chair and fished around in her saddlebag for some coins. When she had a few bits out, she saw both Robert and Maureen waving her money away.

"." Robert shook his head and tried a smile instead.

'I have no clue what he is saying, but I think he means the food is paid for.' Candela smiled back. "Misty, dear, come on now it is time to go home now."

Misty looked trapped between her desires and her mother's words. "!" She waved a hoof and bounced over to her mother. "Where is 'home'?" Having spotted a chair close enough, Misty pronked up onto it and then onto her mother's back, settling down and giving a happy sigh.

"That is what I need to find out. ?" Candela looked up at Robert just in time to see his surprised look. He quickly nodded and she followed along as he made his way from the building. They were a block from the oversized public building where they had eaten when Candela noticed something. ."

"." Robert held out his arms as he crouched down, scooping the girl up into them and rising back up. "."

Kelly laughed loudly as she was hefted up onto her father's shoulders. "!"

Candela tuned out of the conversation, focusing on her filly instead. "A long day for both of us, Misty Rainfall." She took comfort in finding these hoomans had foals themselves, and that they cared for them every bit as much as ponies did for theirs. 'Even carrying their foal the same as me… I am sure once I can speak their language a little better things will be just fine.'

"." Robert gestured at a monstrously huge—compared to Candela—house. "." He waved to Candela and walked off.

Author's Note

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
Canary in the coal mine
Daremo
Mary Rowland
Boulder
A.P.O.N.I.
Mephia
Nils

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Daremo
Vutava
Boulder

Learning Anew

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken English, everything else is in Equish. Yup, back to four-legged denizens.

"This place is really cool."

Her twin-sister's voice encouraged Marble to look around a little more. "Mmhmm…" She looked around, spotting nopony else. "The trees look strange."

"Where's Maud? Maud!" At Limestone's shout, Pinkamena and Marble both stopped and looked back at the cave. All three knew exactly where their sister would be. Sure enough, slowly walking out, holding a small chipped piece of rock in one hoof, Maud Pie looked completely distracted. "Maud, you're going to make us late."

"These rocks are really old." Maud barely looked at her sisters. "Really old."

Pinkamina rushed back to the middle-sister of the family. "Come on, Maud. You can bring your rock with you." She stared at Marble until her twin moved to bracket Maud.

"I heard there are strange creatures here." Marble looked at the rock her sister carried. "Look at the layers in it." She tried to help her sisters keep Maud moving, but the rock really was interesting. "How old do you think it is?"

"Can't be as old as Holder's Boulder." Limestone took a moment to look at the rock too. "Ha, see this," she gestured at a repeating pattern of sediment, "can't be too old, no other old rocks I have seen have that much sediment like that."

"Uh, Limestone?" Pinkamena's voice seemed to have an odd twinge to it, excitement and shock blurred. "Hey, uh. I think we're here." The three sisters who were focused on the rock looked up. "What is that thing? Is it a minotaur?"

Marble moved and took up a brave position behind all three of her sisters. 'They're big and dressed funny. I wonder what they're… one is coming!' She wanted to run and hide, in the end it was Limestone who saved her.

"Hey, back off, give us some room." Limestone's eyes were only at the height of the creature's waist, but being smaller than something had never reduced her attitude before.

"Sorry!" The strange creature's voice sounded deeper than a mare's, so it was easy to assume it was a stallion of whatever his species was. "Hi, my name's Mike, pleased to meet you."

"I found a rock. Do you know how old it is?" Maud stepped forward, a complete lack of worry or distrust on her face.

Mike blinked a few times and looked between the sisters. "I don't speak Equish so great. Uh, you want the rock's birthday?"

It was almost impossible not to grin, and Marble wasn't the exception among the siblings. "She wants to know how many birthdays." When she realized she had spoken she went to hide behind Limestone again, but stopped. The creature crouched down, getting closer to her level.

Rubbing his hair, Mike held out a hand for the stone. "I don't know where everypony found it." He waited for Maud to pass it to him, before he looked it over. "We could ask Miss Candela, she is the teacher here." He pointed behind himself.

Maud took the returned rock and looked at the building Mike had pointed to. "This is the school?"

"Why is it mid-morning?" Pinkamena was looking around, clearly a little confused at something. "When we left home it was early morning, but when we came out of the tunnel here, it is closer to midday."

"Miss Candela said there's something strange with that, so we starting school late." Mike stood back up straight again, towering over the ponies, and turned. "Coming?"

Limestone stared at Mike, one of her harder stares. "I only brought my sisters to school, I," the emphasis on the word was heavy, "am too old for this, and have to work on the farm." Mikes seemed to recoil a little from the tone. "If I hear any of them get in trouble, I'm going to blame you." With her speech delivered, Limestone turned and stalked away.

"What… is that about?" Mike watched as Limestone Pie walked away from the school.

"She is reaaaaally protective of us. She is our big sister." Pinkamena shared a smile with Mike. "I'm surprised though, she must really like you."

"Pinkie," Marble poked her sister in the shoulder, "you shouldn't say that." She sighed and looked up at Mike; up and up and up. "But she is right. H-H-Hi, I-I'm Marble Pie." Her nervousness was a little worse, having to talk to Mike, but not as bad as if there was a crowd around her. And right on cue, a crowd did form. A pegasus filly about the same age as Marble, as well as another creature like Mike—but shorter—arrived. "Eep."

"." Mike looked between the new arrivals. "Robin, Misty, this is Marble Pie, and…"

"I'm Pinkamena Pie. And this is… where's Maud?" Pinkamena looked around herself comically. "Oh, there she is, talking to the nice pegasus."

"That's my mom!" Misty bounced a few times. "Don't be scared of the hoomans." She gestured to Mike. "He is really nice!"

"Misty, hey, back out a little and let them have some space." Mike crouched down and put his arm out, holding the boisterous filly from dashing up to Marble.

Both Pinkamena and Marble stared at Mike, the former giggling, the latter blinking in surprise. Marble was too slow to react, and Pinkamena got her words out first. "She doesn't like having too many ponies around her."

"I figured." Mike looked at Misty, seeing a sad pout forming on her face. "Aww c'mon, squirt, I wasn't being mean, Marble just doesn't like too many ponies getting close too quote. I had a friend in my last school like that."

"Quick." Marble surprised herself by saying it. It was obvious, after listening to Mike for a bit, that he was still learning. "You said 'quote' but meant 'quick'?" She couldn't stop a smile from pulling at the corner of her mouth when she saw the consternation on Mike's face. "But it was okay, y-you were understandable… j-j-just a few words wrong."

A clanging sound echoed across the little town, and everyone turned to see Miss Candela ringing a bell. Wandering closer, Marble could see the class was nearly a dozen students. There was her and her two sisters. Mike, Misty, and Robin. There was at least one more of the hoomans as tall as Mike, as well as another smaller one, and two more foals from the town near their farm.

"Everypony please come inside." Candela gestured to the door with a wing. "."

"Is that your language?" Marble kept close to Mike and Pinkamena, using the two as a shield against the rest of her class. Inside, she saw Maud had already taken a seat and had her rock on her desk, examining it carefully.

Mike seemed to instinctively pick a desk at the back, already walking past the first two rows to find a seat. As he turned to take his seat, he spotted Marble practically right on his heels. "Hey, are you doing okay?" He crouched down.

"Y-Yeah, there's just so many here…" Marble peeked around him, spotting all the other ponies and hoomans. "W-W-Wait, where are you going?"

"Relax, Marble." Pinkamena caught her sister's eyes and held her attention for a few moments, long enough that Mike was back before she realized he was gone anywhere.

"Marble, you can sit at the same desk as your sister, and I would sit in front of you, okay?" Mike crouched down and was immediately caught in two hugging ponies' grip.

"Class, ." Candela's voice was firm. "Please take your seats. ." Despite the firm voice, everyone present saw a smiling, happy face. "Things are going to be awkward at first, some of you understand both languages we will be using, but most of you only speak Equish, or Human." Candela repeated the speech in the other language.

They were split off into groups, with at least one English speaker, and one Equish speaker each. Little cards were passed around. Mike, of course, was grouped up with Pinkamena and Marble. Looking at the cards, and with her new friend and her twin with her, Marble could relax. She picked up the cards that read "Equish."

"Ah, okay, these are basic greetings." Mike held one card up. "?" He couldn't help snorting, and putting on a heavier drawl to say the words.

Pinkamena and Marble, both, had to hold Equish cards up to their faces to hide their giggles. "Me next." Marble cleared her throat. "I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, my name is Princess Silly Pants." She waved her hoof in a tight circle.

"We should posting do this properly. I think I'm meant to repeat that back, and you try with do the English ones." Mike's words had Marble snorting even more, tears starting to roll down her cheeks. "Okay, what did we mess up?"

"Well, I think you meant 'probably,' instead of 'posting,' " Pinkamena saved her sister from trying to answer, "and 'to' instead of 'with.' Lastly, 'I' instead of 'we.' " She started giggling too.

"Okay. I'm pleased to mark your acquaintance, my name is Princess Mike." Mike had only seconds before there were two little ponies rolling around on the floor. "What did I say?"

Pinkamena looked up, schooled her features into a normal look. It gave Marble a chance to stop laughing too. Leaning in closer to Mike, Pinkamena lifted a hoof and booped him on the nose. "Princess."

"I hear giggles, which is good, but what is going on here?" Candela was beside their little group, looking between the two almost "rolling in the aisle" ponies, and Mike. "I did try to make the cards a little fun, but what did you say to them?"

Mike looked at the two fillies, then up to his teacher. The two sisters were frozen, staring at him with anticipation. "I'm pleased to mark… make?" He got a nod from Candela. "I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, I'm Princess Mike."

"I see." Candela closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and smiled. "You told them you were a princess. ."

"Did I get the rest right?" Mike was trying not to lose his own fight with some giggles, and soon lost.

"You did." Candela looked at the three. "Please keep going, you gave me the idea for this, after all." Mike blinked in surprise, and both the sisters stopped their giggles to listen. "Your little games with Misty are what I built this on. You're speaking quite well after only a few weeks." She smiled brightly and moved on to the next group.

Mike seemed to spend more time helping Pinkamena and Marble than repeating their cards himself, mainly because each time he did both fillies collapsed into gales of laughter. They were so focused on doing them that all three jumped when Candela announced their lunch break.

Maud rejoined her two sisters, raising an eyebrow at Mike still being with them. "Sorry about earlier. I got a little overexcited at that rock. Miss Candela explained, things work really different here."

Marble pulled out her lunch, which was a thin piece of slate. Lifting it up, she licked her lips before biting down into it, her eyes half closing at the taste of her favorite food. As she went for her second bite, she spotted Mike staring at her. A blush stole onto her face.

"Is that… rock?" Mike sounded amazed, stunned, and a little shocked. "How can we eat that?" Holding out his sandwich, he offered it to Marble.

Marble held her slate out and sniffed at one edge of the sandwich. 'That smells really nice, I'll only have a little.' She took a dainty little bite and started chewing happily. At the same time, she spotted Mike trying to eat a bit of her slate, and failing horribly. "You need to really bite into it."

"I'm trying, but it really is rock!" Mike drew back from the offered food, lifting his sandwich back up to bite.

"Slate." Maud stuck out her tongue at Mike. She didn't have slate, she didn't like slate. Maud Pie preferred crunchy pebbles. "And while it is a type of rock, you really should be more specific."

The four sat in silence for a while, each eating their own food, until Pinkamena giggled and looked to Marble. "Princess Mike."

"Are they okay?" Maud looked at her two sisters, the fillies rolling around laughing.

"Give them some time." Mike grinned at the cute laughter.

The rest of the school day rushed past Marble in a blur. They got a new set of cards each, these ones with more complex phrases, and somehow Mike still managed to get her giggling again and again. Not that Pinkamena didn't make her laugh too. All too soon Candela was collecting the cards.

"That was a good day, students." Candela had planned her lesson well, all the students knew the words and she saw each pink face spread into an excited grin as they recognized what she said. "Same time tomorrow, class dismissed."

"Wait, we're coming back again tomorrow? Back home, mom only gave lessons every week." Marble packed up her cards into a neat stack, and followed Mike, Pinkamena, and Maud outside. Her heart sped up and she rushed forward, directly at Limestone. Words weren't needed between her and her big sister, she hugged the solid mare tightly.

"Hey, you." Limestone squinted at Mike. "You didn't make Marble cry, did you?"

"Limestone! He was nice all day! He made me and Pinkie laugh so much we did cry!" Marble felt honor-bound to defend Mike to her big sister. "You leave Princess Mike alone!" She saw her sister's constant frown pull a little at the edges.

"Well, he can't be all bad if he made you laugh. But you shouldn't spend all day in school laughing. You're here to learn." Limestone ruffled Marble's mane a little. She gave one more glare at Mike before turning to escort her sisters home.

Author's Note

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Mary Rowland
Boulder
A.P.O.N.I.
Mephia
Nils
Ian

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Daremo
Vutava
Boulder
Jeffh4

Bibliomancy

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken Equish, everything else is in English. Just Mike and Candela, and Candela wants to work on her English, while helping Mike with his Equish.

Candela checked the books, reading the start of each to ensure they were the right ones. Checking the latest, a magic primer for unicorn foals, she began scanning the lines in the book.

"What's that one?" Mike had turned from his own homework, looking at the book Candela was holding in her wings.

"This is a book for young unicorns. Little routines to help them master their magic." She began skimming through the first chapter, humming a soft tune. "Why? Feeling a little magical, Mike?"

"No, I mean… I guess learning to read Equish is next, for some of us?" Mike lifted his pen back to his page, and started writing. "And you never know, I might be magical…"

"Mike, I was born with wings." Candela closed the book, flexing one of the wings holding it as an example. "I spent a year as a little filly, telling all my friends how I was going to do something amazing and become a princess." She took a deep breath and let it out. "Truth was, I wanted magic. The unicorn fillies and colts were so much better with handling books, with writing."

Mike froze, looking at Candela with a serious expression on his face. "Did… did you—"

"Did I get magic? Of course not. I am a pegasus. What I can do is push clouds around. I can literally kick a raincloud out of my way. I don't have magic, but that doesn't stop me being special." Candela curled one side of her snout into a bigger smile.

"I guess. I just… every time I looked at Canterlot I just felt something pulling at me, wanting me to go that direction." Mike's hand had been working while he talked, scribbling a castle in the margin. "Is that crazy?"

"Nope." Candela picked up another book from the pile beside her, and started flicking through it. "This world is a lot different to Equestria. If you had said you looked at a building, here, and felt a pull… I might ask if you had a particularly strong magnet." She waited for Mike to stop chuckling. "But Equestria is all about destiny, fate, and more importantly, bonds of friendship."

"Friendship?" Mike looked down at the picture his hand worked at, refining and adding details.

"Is magic, or so some say." Candela felt a slight tingle herself, not as strong as when she had first gotten her cutie mark, but it was something important. "You should probably visit Canterlot, then. Find out what is there that makes your heart thud like that."

"How did you know it was—" Mike froze at the knowing smile on Candela's lips. "I am just so confused."

"You're a young stallion, it is natural to feel that. Did you have somepony in mind to… pursue?" Candela got through enough of the reading primer to recognize it as being one of a dozen she had ordered. When she reached to pass it to Mike, she saw the blush on his cheeks; an eyebrow rose on the mare's face.

"I don't know." Mike clearly lost his resolve. "It… I should just focus on my stu—"

"Here, you can have a head start on the class." Candela resolved to find out who it was Mike clearly was interested in. She passed him the primer. "You know if you want to understand everything in Canterlot, you are going to need to be able to read."

"Yeah, and I already have a date set to…" Mike trailed off. "I really should ask mum first." He blushed, but opened the book.

"You probably should. Now, let me help you get started." Candela pointed at the words of the book, and started reading. "." She smiled when she saw Mike's lips moving, repeating the words to himself silently. "."

"Really low-level stuff, huh?" Mike grinned, but seemed intently focused on the book. Pressing his finger down, he read back. "." He paused a moment. "?"

"." Candela gestured to Mike's page. "Think you are up to writing each one ten times?" She liked to practice her English as much as she could, even if helping Mike and Robin with their Equish was important.

"Guess I don't have anything else to do, and it'll mean I can help others with theirs." Mike turned a little, his hand starting at the task.

"You are a good young stallion, Mike." Candela went back to sorting her books, leaving the teen to his "homework."

Author's Note

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Mary Rowland
Boulder
A.P.O.N.I.
Mephia
Nils
Ian
Dio-Drogynous

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Daremo
Vutava
Boulder
Jeffh4

Banana Bonanza

Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken Equish, everything else is in English.

"It's not fair! Why does Mike and Misty get to go?" Robin uncrossed and recrossed her arms, frowning for all she was worth.

"Because Mike is almost an adult now, and needs a little time with his friends." Joyce sipped her morning coffee, putting together her plans for the day. "Why don't you do the same? I am sure Kelly a—"

"Kelly is busy with her cousins." Climbing up on a chair at the table, Robin reached for the cup of juice that was sitting on the table. "And Ball is back in Equestria."

"You could help take care of Tufts." Joyce picked up a piece of toast and bit the corner off of it. A moment after she said his name, Tufts gave a little screech of curiosity. "How that bat learned his name so fast is beyond me. Even dogs don't take to a name so quickly."

"He just likes it here." Robin reached over, having to climb a leg up on the table to reach Joyce's toast and pulled a half-slice back across. She gave her mother a victory grin at having stolen some breakfast.

"You can come to the cricket with me, or I think Candela might be staying at home." Joyce got up and walked to the big cage in the kitchen, and lifted the cloth draped over it to peek inside. "You should be asleep."

Tufts looked out of his cage at Joyce, and gave a little cry at her. Using his legs and wing-claws, he made his way to the bright spot in his big cage, and gave another small screech.

"He's hungry. I just give him a banana when he yells like that." Robin munched on her toast more.

"Wait. How many bananas have you fed him?" Joyce dropped the corner of cloth and marched to the refrigerator. "Robin, there was a dozen bananas in here at the start of the week!" She looked at the two lonely pieces of fruit left. "You fed him all of them?"

"No." The word dragged out longer than the truth ever should, leaving Robin trying to hide behind her toast. "I ate half…"

Joyce was still a little upset that Robin had fed half their bananas to Tufts, but couldn't really fault her daughter for eating them as well. "Okay… just check if he has food already next time, okay? I'm sure he will work out that if he screeches, he gets a banana." Predictably, Tufts screeched. "Like that."

Robin giggled. "He looked really hungry." It was obvious she was off the hook, but lines in the sand weren't pushed by being timid. "Can I keep having the bananas?"

"Of course you can, dear." Joyce returned to the table to finish off her last piece of toast. "So did you want to come to the game?" She took a bite from the cooled toast, savoring the black topping.

"It's here this week?" Robin got up from the table and walked across to the bench.

Seeing what her daughter was about, Joyce walked over and lifted her up. "Yup, home game." When Robin put two slices of bread in the toaster, Joyce gasped. "Two? You greedy guts!" She nibbled Robin's ear to emphasize her point.

"I'll take one of those." Candela walked into the kitchen, her head spinning at the sound of a screech from the cage Tufts was in. "Oh hold on…" She walked to the fridge and fetched a banana, then froze. "What?"

Joyce and Robin were both giggling. "See mum!" Robin pointed a finger at Candela as the mare stared, startled, back. "It wasn't all me!"

"He has you all well trained, it seems." When the toaster popped, she grabbed the lightly browned toast and pulled it out. "What would you like on yours, Candela?"

"Fruit spread!" Candela was quick to cut in. "I can't stand that other stuff. It is beyond disgusting." She put the penultimate banana back in the fridge and glared at Tufts' cage for a moment.

"You really should give Vegemite a try, it is an acquired taste, and if you don't keep eating it you will never acquire it." Joyce buttered the toast and speared a light covering of Vegemite on one, and (cleaning the knife off) apricot jam on the other.

Candela snorted. "If I wanted to acquire a taste for something that is almost literally worse tasting than dirt, I would just eat dirt." She poked her tongue out as Robin started in on half the Vegemite-covered toast.

Setting Robin down on the girl's own feet, Joyce made her way over to where her first-aid kit was. "Are you spending the day here, Candela, or are you coming to the cricket with me?" The kit had been checked again and again, but Joyce didn't like taking chances where they could be avoided. As a last thought, she slipped in the invoices she had gotten for the medical supplies.

"You know I wouldn't miss a game if I could help it." Candela held a slice of toast carefully on one feather, curling it around to munch on it. "Who are we playing today?"

"Toongabbie, the town just down the road." Joyce found her lollipop supply intact after the last pilfering had happened. "From what I heard it shouldn't be a tough game for us, and… and…" She looked up at Candela in horror.

"What's wrong?" Candela's wings ruffled, ready to extend, she stared at her friend.

"I… I'm actually getting into this. I'm starting to—to enjoy cricket…" Joyce ducked the cushion that flew her way. "It's terrible, Candy! I… I need professional help!" A second chair-cushion from the kitchen chairs was hefted at her. This one hit its mark, but Joyce was too busy laughing to care.

"You are the worst!" Candela reached for another cushion, but found her nearest stack of ammunition—the chairs Joyce and Robin had been sitting on—were already spent. "By Celestia, I need more things to throw!"

"Would this help?" Joyce passed one cushion back to Candela, and promptly got bopped on the head with it. "I deserved that, fair and square." She picked up the two cushions and put them back on the chairs.

"Glad we see eye-to-eye." Candela stepped to the bench, fetching her last slice of toast. "So the answer is yes, I would love to come watch the game." She smiled wide at Joyce.

"Robin?" Joyce poked her head out of the kitchen and spotted her daughter watching television. "Looks like we're all going to the game. Get some shoes on and do your hair." The noncommittal grunt from Robin was not enough to satisfy Joyce. "Right now, Robin Robertson."

"But mum! Cartoons are on!" Robin was well ensconced on the couch, but squealed when her mother plucked her up. "Mum! Just one more?"

"No, I have to be there before they start." Joyce carried her daughter through to the bathroom. "And you look like the daughter of a bunyip!"

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

Joyce settled in the little medical box, and set her first-aid kit on the ground beside her. "If you see Robert around anywhere, don't let him get away." She pulled the invoices out of her kit and tucked them in her pocket. "Now, where were we?"

"." Candela looked to Joyce. "."

Opening her mouth, Joyce focused on how the words sounded. "—" Her head spun as she spotted Robert. "Robert! I have some things for you!" She jumped to her feet and ran over to him, brandishing the invoices.

"Ah, g'day Joyce. Enjoying the day?" Robert stopped in his tracks as Joyce seemed to rush at him. "What's the rush?"

"Just getting you the invoices for some medical equipment I had to order. There might be another when I get a chance to set up an actual office." Passing over the invoices, Joyce smiled as sweetly as she could.

"R-Rabies shots?" Spluttering, Robert shook the invoices. "Why would anyone here need rabies shots? And what is this stuff?" He pointed to the more expensive immune drugs needed for dealing with bat-borne viruses.

"Well, I happened to find an injured flying fox." As Joyce explained, she saw shock replace outrage. "I don't think I need to tell you that they can carry a type of rabies. The success of treating it, once you are bitten, is only guaranteed if you get those shots within hours of getting bitten."

"Oh… okay." Robert blinked at the second, larger invoice. "Well this is all standard stuff. I can get it all paid for…"

"Thank you, Robert." Joyce gave her best smile. "And the office space?" If she could, Joyce would have batted her eyelashes.

"Don't push it. Don't you have a spare room in your house?" Robert folded the invoices and put them away.

Joyce crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at Robert. "Between my kids, Candela, and Misty… no, we don't."

"Leave it with me." Turning quickly, Robert made his escape. "Thanks for showing up!"

Author's Note

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Ian
Javarod
Jeffh4
Mary Rowland
Mephia
Nils
Sirion123

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Jeffh4
Vutava

Privacy

Language check. All in English.

Rosetta knocked on Joyce and Candela's front door. Dressed in some loose clothing—an old pair of tracksuit pants, a big shirt and jumper—she waited patiently for someone to open the door. The morning wasn't too cold; the seasons were turning, winter was giving way to spring.

Mike opened the door and smiled to see Rose standing there. "Hi Rose, come on in. Mum has been expecting you." Backing away from the open door, he gave Rose plenty of room to step inside. "Mum! It's Rose!"

Stepping through the door, Rose couldn't help but have a flash of memory, seeing all the soft fur that covered Mike's body when his shirt had been off the previous day. "Thanks." She hoped she didn't blush too much, but when she thought of rubbing her hand through the fur it finally snapped her back to the present. Mike was wearing his usual attire: a long sleeved shirt, skinny jeans, and the silly beanie with ear holes cut in it.

Rose looked again, and noticed something she had been missing about the jeans Mike wore; they weren't skinny jeans at all, they were girls jeans. She almost locked up completely, her brain fizzing and sputtering at the information. Now she had identified them she could see the shape the tight, unforgiving fabric was pulling Mike's legs into.

"Are you alright?" Mike's words caused Rose's head to snap up. "Earth to Rose… What's up?"

"Sorry." Being caught staring at a guy's arse wasn't too bad, except that it was the guy who caught her. "Uh, where is your mum?" She followed Mike into the house, closing the door behind herself.

"I'm in the kitchen, Rose." Joyce's voice came from the kitchen, of course. "Just finishing up with breakfast. Have you eaten?"

Reaching the kitchen, Rose looked in to find the whole "family" having breakfast. "I haven't…" At the mere thought of food, however, Rose's stomach expressed its hunger. She walked into the kitchen and tried to loiter by the doorway, but the smell of freshly cooked porridge had her looking wistfully at the bowls of food on the table.

"I know that look. Park your butt." Joyce climbed out of her own seat, patting it as invitation to Rose. "No one goes hungry in my house." Dealing with her own bowl, Joyce got a fresh one from the cupboard and started ladling porridge into it.

"Thanks Mrs. Robertson." Rose was already reaching for the pitcher of honey when the bowl was set before her. The hot, rolled oats smelled great, but Rosetta's tastes had drifted more towards sweet things lately. Dolloping honey on her porridge, Rose mixed it through with a spoon.

"Not a problem." Joyce collected a few more finished bowls and plates from the table and carried them to the sink. "Dave didn't make it?"

The taste of the sweet oats struck a chord in Rose's head and she gave a happy sigh. Gulping down the first mouthful, she shook her head. "Nope. It was funny, the moment I mentioned your name he seemed to have something else to do." Another spoonful of the porridge found its way to her mouth and Rose luxuriated in the warm, delicious food.

"Sounds about right." Joyce started working on cleaning the dishes, leaving the table of diners to their own conversations.

"What are you doing later?" Mike's words pulled Rose from her food induced trance.

"Uh, nothing I guess." Rose had spent most of the previous day at the mine, working. "Did you want to go see a movie or something?"

"Sure. What's on?" Mike, settled back in his own seat, was eating his porridge liberally dosed with sugar.

Rose had no clue, but before she could state that Robin jumped in on their conversation. "Oh boy, a movie! Can I come too?"

Mike and Rose looked at each other, and though it hadn't been said their outing was technically a date. Rose opened her mouth, though she wasn't sure what she was going to say to Mike's enthusiastic little sister.

"Robin, I need you for chores today." Joyce saved the day as far as Rose and Mike were concerned. "Remember, you need to clean up your room, and sort out your laundry."

"Aww… but Mum…?" Robin turned all her attention to Joyce, leaving Mike and Rose to grin at each other behind her back. "I want to go to the movies with Mike and Rose!"

"Why don't we go next week." Candela seemed poised to solve the dilemma. "We can let Michael and Rosetta have their date in peace."

The words hit Robin like a thunderbolt. She turned her attention back to Mike and Rose, eyes widening as she saw something in the pair that she had missed moments ago.

"Shhh." Joyce clamped a hand over her daughter's mouth, holding her squirming child and keeping her from blurting out something that would have Mike and Rose blushing more. "You are done at the table, why don't you make a start on your bedroom?"

Robin slumped back in her seat, crossing her arms over her chest. "But Mum! I wanna—"

"No 'buts.' I am going to see a patient, Mike has to feed Tufts—" As if on cue, the bat in question gave a questioning kee. Joyce spared a smile to Tufts. "And your bedroom is not getting any cleaner while you sit here."

"But next weekend?" Robin slid from her seat and started for the door. She waited for her mother's reply at the doorway.

"If you get your room cleaned up today then I think we could manage that." Joyce smiled as her youngest bounced off to her bedroom, squealing in excitement. Stirred up, Tufts spread his wings and gave a few quick flaps to launch himself at Joyce. Deft in her reaction, Joyce held out an arm for Tufts to catch with his legs. "Woke you up, did we?"

Mike was done with his breakfast too now, but apparently was waiting around to talk. "Well, I guess it is settled now. So is this a date?"

"Maybe. I guess so." Rose scooped up more of the porridge, now somewhat impatient to finish eating. "I'll have to ask Mum to borrow the car, but I am sure that won't be a problem." Only, she realized, it just might be.

"Cool. You get done with the measuring, and we can both go and ask together." Leaning back in his chair, Mike reached an arm out and around Rose's back.

The arm move was an old one, but Rose certainly didn't mind it. Shifting her shoulders, she made sure she could feel Mike's arm there, and that he would know she felt it. "What exactly is going to be measured? Misty said something about a dock, and then showed me her…"

"A dock is the flesh and bone part of your tail, and the skirt is the hair part. Apart from that, Mum needs to see how much fur you have, needs to write down details of your cutie mark, ears, mane." Mike stopped talking and went beet red.

"That's it?" Knowing that there was something really embarrassing missing, but not wanting to push it too hard and possibly ruin the day, Rose leaned a little closer to Mike. His arm moved, hand gripping her shoulder and giving her a bit of a squeeze. "It's not it, but just relax. I am sure things will be different for a girl."

Rose wasn't sure what she said, exactly, that caused Mike to stiffen, but she had no more room to travel to lean into the hug without climbing onto his lap. Remembering the sight of him the previous day, she reached up and gently rubbed one of his ears.

"I…" Being put at ease by the ear rub, Mike gave a sigh. "I'll tell you later… maybe. This is getting pretty strange."

"Are you done with that?" Joyce's question cut through Mike and Rose's awkward conversation. "I could take that and we could get started on your checkup?"

It was both a terrifying and perfect break in the awkward moment, but Rose decided that as terrifying as it might be, she would go with it anyway. A life ring was a life ring. "Sure can. That was delicious, Mrs. Robertson." She passed her bowl up despite her mouth watering for a second helping.

"Just head through to the living room when you are ready. I made a sign for the door now." Taking the bowl and spoon, Joyce set about quickly washing them. "Maybe I should bribe all my patients with food?"

"It would work for me." Mike wore a goofy grin and pushed himself up from the table. "I'll go get changed then. Don't keep her too long, Mum."

Rose saw the sign on the door, just a simple laminated piece of paper. Peeking behind it, she saw that the other side said "The Doctor is In." She chuckled at it and stepped into the comfortable room. "What have you gotten yourself into, Rosetta…?"

A few minutes passed before Joyce came in. Flipping the sign around on the door handle, she closed the door behind her and took a seat. "If any more of you start changing I will have to make pamphlets or something. I have some catchy titles already: 'So, You Have a Tail' and 'You Are Turning Into a Pony.' "

The silliness cracked any apprehension Rose had managed to cobble together. "What about, 'Sitting Down: A Guide For People With a Tail'?" It was just about impossible not to grin.

"Hold a moment…" Joyce pulled out a notebook and began scribbling furiously. "...with a tail… Okay, got that. Now, where did you want to start?"

The question had Rose confused. "Shouldn't I ask that?"

"I could take all the measurements in the world, but you know your own body better than anyone. What has been different lately?" Joyce's pen was poised over her book.

"Huh… okay." Rose took a deep breath and prepared to bear herself, at least only figuratively at first. "Well, apart from a tail and ears, my back has been really itchy. Cutie mark is a check, and fur around it is growing."

"Since you mention them first, why don't we start with your tail and then ears?" Joyce's pen was working a million miles an hour to keep up, but she finally got to the end of the burst of information. Apparently noticing Rose's interest in the writing, Joyce flipped the book around. "Just writing down what you said, setting up little headings for each point you mentioned. I am not doing any experiments, so I don't need to keep you in the dark about any of this."

The openness was refreshing, and got Rose to relax further. She looked at the notes, and sure enough they literally just were what she had said. "O-Okay. Tail. Woke up one day and it had started to form. I freaked right out and panicked. Mum… I haven't told her anything… You won't tell her will you?"

Joyce suddenly had a serious look on her face. "I am performing no medical procedures. This is pure research. I am not required by law to obtain anyone but your own permission for this." The ultra-serious look faded a little. "That said, do you want me to tell her?"

"No!" Rose couldn't stop the word blurting out. "It's complicated. She can't see any of this." She reached up and brushed her own ears. "She is living in her own little world, mooching off Dave without paying for anything. She does it everywhere…"

Serious-Joyce was back. "By law, if I suspect you are not being cared for I must—"

"It's not that. And honestly, Dave is too nice to kick her… us… out. I like Dave, probably more than Mum does. But when she decides to skip town again…" Rose's voice dipped low, she didn't say "if" but "when" because she knew it was a matter of time before Dave was too boring to her mother. She knew they weren't sleeping together, so there wasn't even the usual bond of sex that would keep her around a guy. "She is only here for Dave's money."

"That is a very adult observation, Rosetta." The tone Joyce employed still had seriousness in it, but softness as well. "Have you spoken to Dave about any of this? I think he deserves the truth."

"Not exactly the easiest topic to bring up. 'Oh, by the way. Did you know my mum is totally bludging off you until she can find a guy hotter and with more money?' Yeah…" Slumping back in her chair, Rose sat in silence for a while. Joyce didn't reply, giving her a moment to just think. "He does deserve to know… Can you help me with that?"

"I can talk to him. I can't promise he will enjoy hearing it, or that he will talk to me again, but I can help." Joyce's tone was warm, full of the support that Rose hadn't even realized she needed to hear.

A deep sigh of relief tore from Rose's chest. She slumped down in her seat and felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. "Thanks."

"Okay, so let's measure you up." Joyce passed her calipers and tape measure across to Rose, who looked at them confused. "It is up to you if you want me to help, I am more than happy if you do the measuring."

"You've been dealing with Dave too long." Rose rolled her eyes. "If I so much as mention you, he seems to withdraw a little. He is getting better at it, though." Standing up, she passed the measuring devices back to Joyce. "That is a real thing, right? Fear of doctors, that is."

"It's a thing." Joyce took the tools and selected the tape first. "Okay, mane first. And don't for a second try to tell me that isn't a mane now." Rolling out the tape, she held one end to Rose's head and stretched it down past the girl's buttocks. "How hasn't your mum noticed this?"

"I think it works like the ears and other stuff. She looks at me and sees only the short curls I have always had." Rose reached a hand over her shoulder to pull some of her long, reddish-brown hair forward. "I love it long, but Mum had short and curly, and…" A tightness in her chest was all could feel for her lack of a father figure.

Joyce wrote down the measurements as she took them. "Do you have any fur?"

Rose's head turned to make sure the door was closed. "Yeah. My hips are covered in it. It's so soft…" She couldn't help a little smile. "I have been making a point of shampooing it properly."

"Don't use regular shampoo, and especially not body wash." Joyce stepped back a little. "I will get you some things, just make sure your mother doesn't see them. Or better yet, if you come here early enough before school you could just wash here."

Biting the bullet, Rose hooked her thumbs into her pants and started to pull them down. A little embarrassment colored her cheeks with a blush, particularly since she knew Mike was up and around, and could open the door to the living room at any moment.

"Diamonds and money?" Joyce chuckled at the symbol. "Well, it matches what you enjoy doing at the mine, so why not I guess." Using the tape, she measured the coverage and thickness of the fur.

Rose blushed at the sensation of Joyce's fingers touching her hip. It wasn't sexual at all, but the skin and even fur of her cutie mark felt a lot more sensitive than the rest of her. "I… I uh…" Rose blushed further. "There is one thing…"

Joyce moved around behind Rose and took a gentle grip on her tail. "What is it? The more you tell me the sooner we can understand all of this."

"Mum is fairly… busty." Rose clamped her teeth together at the feel of someone "medically" handling another sensitive part of herself. "This is awkward."

"I won't tell anyone your name, and even the data won't be shared if I can help it." Joyce's hands were quick, experienced at measuring pony tails on humans.

Rose felt the touch stop after just a little more and gave a sigh. "My breasts shrank a cup." Silence met her words. Quickly, Rose sought to fill the quiet. "Mum is a big C, I was a largish B bordering on a small C. Now I fit a normal B easily. And I dropped an inch from my band. Ponies don't have breasts, and I figured if this was turning me into a pony it would do things like that but I like my breasts and I like how guys look at the—" Joyce's arms wrapped around Rose and she suddenly couldn't stop crying.

"It's all happening so fast!" Rose struggled to get the words out between sobs. "I just want to be normal, work with Dave and… and…" Her tears came too thick, too fast, and Rose gave up on speaking and just clung to Joyce.

"Mike is in his room playing guitar. Can I get you anything?" Candela's voice came through the door, startling Rose and Joyce.

"Yes please, Candy. Tea with extra sugar, thanks." Joyce brushed Rose's hair back from her eyes, then turned to face the door. "Do you want something to calm you?"

"Calm me? I don't want any drugs." The very thought of taking something repelled Rose. Memories of one of her mother's sugar daddies and his addiction to "oxy" was more than enough to make her reject anything similar.

"Not drugs. I am a doctor, Rose. If you need help with anything, just tell me." Joyce gave Rose another squeeze before letting go. "Now, we just have those ears left to measure." After a moment she also added, "You can get dressed now."

"Oh, right!" Quickly pulling up her pants, Rose blushed a bit less now that she had worked out some of her emotions. "So you don't need any blood or anything?" Sitting back down, Rose leaned forward for Joyce to measure her ears.

The moment the doctor's fingers were on one of her ears, Rose realized why Robin had been rubbing Mike's. Her world narrowed down, and all the worries that had been circling in her head seemed to relax. None of her problems were gone, but Rose just couldn't bring herself to worry about them.

Author's Note

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Subscribestar, Patreon, or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Airy Words
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Ian
Javarod
Mary Rowland
Mephia
Nils
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Airy Words
Cross Lament
Vutava

Learning to Walk on Your Own

Language check. All in English.

Rose focused on moving. Moving was way different with four legs. Like bipedal motion, you could see two legs, and they moved as you would hope, but the back legs were a whole other kettle of fish. Back legs couldn't be seen easily while walking, and though you would hope that they just followed along, such wasn't the case.

All four legs needed to move in a synchronized pattern. When done right, a pony moved in various grades between a very slow walk, to running faster than a human, but the best way for any pony to move was a trot. First, Rose had tried to trot by moving his forelegs, and driving his back legs to match. This was completely wrong.

His back legs were the driving force, pushing him forwards with each two-beat step. Rose's forelegs matched his back legs, but in a cross-wise fashion: left-back right-front, then vice versa. Once set in a rhythm it was easier to do than walking, and covered more distance.

For a human-turned-bat-pony, trotting worked great so long as they thought of their wings as their arms, and ignored the fact that instead of two legs there were four, until their brains had settled into their equine form. It was the last bit Rose kept having trouble with; he would get a good trot going, and get nearly ten paces before his mind would try to track the motion.

Fortunately, coming to a dead stop on four legs was a lot easier than on two. Stumbling—as his brain tried to make corrections for limbs it had no right trying to correct—Rose braced all four legs out, froze, and let out a high-pitched kee. "I can't get this!"

"You're doing great. Just don't think about it so much." Dave stopped to wait for Rose. What with the mine explosion he seemed to have enough on his mind already, and managed a trot without a single stumble. "Just look ahead. Focus on where you are gettin' to, not what you're doing."

"I keep thinking something is wrong with my back legs. And there is." Rose relaxed and kicked out his legs one by one. Moving freely, he was aware of the slight sway between them, and that was what was throwing him off.

Rose took two steps, leaned into a trot, and immediately stumbled again. "How do guys even deal with this?!" He gestured back at his back legs. "I swear, it just sways around. This is the worst!"

Dave snorted—something that was very natural for a pony. "Just don't think about it. It's not like you can change it."

Something odd that Rose hadn't considered was how the aging-down effect had made him and Dave practically brothers in appearance. He looked at Dave and couldn't help to compare the two of them. They were equal size, had the tell-tale tufts on their ears, and both of them had the expansive and expressive bat wings.

"Why don't we fly? We have wings!" Rose spread her leathery wings out, the odd feeling of extra-long fingers with webbing between them striking her as a little strange.

"You haven't worked out walking properly, and you want to try flying?" Rolling his eyes, Dave reached out to Rose with one of his wings and set it over Rose's withers. "Come on, keep time with me."

Pulling his wings back to his sides, Rose shivered a little at Dave's touch. "Okay, so lead with the right?"

"Right-rear and left-front." Dave smiled and gave a nod. Both of them stepped forward, jumping right into a trot. After a few strides, Dave gave Rose's shoulder a little squeeze. "There, now just focus on me."

Having Dave's wing around his shoulders made it much easier for Rose to not think about his own body. The leathery wing, covered with soft, tiny fuzz, was a lot more intimate than Rose knew it was intended, but he couldn't stop the blush from forming at the feel of it.

Wrapped in new emotions, Rose was quite distracted from his legs, and kept up the steady trot all the way back to Dave's house. In the driveway, Rose's mother's wagon was parked, which instantly filled him with trepidation. "What's Mum going to say about—this?" Rose slowed, gesturing to himself with a foreleg.

"No fuckin' clue. She didn't see pony parts all the time, did she?" Dave gave Rose another squeeze of his shoulders, and then Dave pulled his wing back and folded it. "Wonder if she'll see it all now?"

When Rose blew out an exasperated breath, it came out like a whinny. "If we're lucky she—" Rose was interrupted as the front door to the house swung open, and the woman in question staggered out with a pair of large suitcases. "Mum?"

"There you are, Rosetta!" Jenny Stein (Rose's mother) glared at Dave and Rose, but apparently registered nothing different about them. "Get in the car. We aren't staying here a moment longer with these—these freaks!"

"Mum…" Rose trailed off, unable and unwilling to correct his mother on the matter. "What are you doing?"

"We. Are. Leaving!" Punctuating each word with a stomp of a foot, Jenny dragged the cases to the car, opened the side door and started tossing them in. "Get in the car, Rosetta. We are doing here."

Rose turned to look at Dave, then back to her mother. "Mum, I kinda like it here. I fit in here." He watched as anger grew on his mother's face. Being turned into a pony by an explosion was nothing compared to the wrath of his angry mother. "I was about to graduate!"

"You can do that elsewhere, young lady." Jenny's glare turned from her "daughter" and settled on Dave. "This rebellion is your doing, isn't it? I should have known this fucking dump was a bad idea."

Staring in shock, Rose watched as his mother ranted at Dave. She verbally threw everything at him, including his shrewd way with money, his dedication to his work, and finally started blurting hateful words that questioned why he had never slept with her.

Rose was in a nightmare, or so he hoped. When his mother stomped right up to him, Rose had to look upwards to see her face. "Mum." The one word seemed to quell Jenny for a moment, as if she suddenly hoped Rose was going to climb into the car and drive off to safety. "I'm staying he—"

"Get in the car. Now!" Jenny Stein's voice echoed up and down the street, ensuring there was a small audience of people watching from their windows. When Rose didn't move immediately, Jenny opened her mouth to let out another tirade, but Rose beat her to it.

"Just shut up!" Rose's blood was boiling in his veins. He had had a rough day, and now his mother was determined to make it worse. "No!" He stepped forward, glaring up at his mother. "I am sick of you doing this. You move in with some guy, use him for his money until no one can stand the sight of you anymore, and then you storm out like a princess. I am sick of it, Mum!"

Rose panted, his feeling boiling up inside. "I want a normal life, Mum. I don't want to spend six months in the next place, only to have to repeat year twelve again. I like it here, and I have finally found something I enjoy." The thudding sound in Rose's ears was his heart, beating rapidly. "So go, but I'm staying!"

"But… You're my little girl. You can't stay here on your own." Staring over Rose's head, Jenny clearly didn't see Rose as a pony.

"I think you will find Rose can live wherever they want." Joyce had been wandering up the street, and had stumbled into the argument by dint of not having anywhere else to go. "Rose is an adult, Jenny." Her tone was even, calm despite the inferno of emotions raging around her.

"But she's my little girl!" Jenny stared from Rose to Joyce, even if not making actual eye contact. Her shoulders suddenly straightened, and her eyes flared with the fire of her own convictions. "I'm going to get the police, and they are going to come here and arrest all of you—you freaks!" She stomped back to her car and slammed the back door closed.

The moment the car started to pull out, Joyce turned to Rose. "Your things?" She pointed one hoof-like hand towards the house.

Rose ran inside, not trusting his own handling of the situation. Racing through the house to find his room, he looked around, finding all his clothes gone. His school books had been roughly thrown to the floor, and two of the rock samples he had collected were now embedded in the wall.

Using his wing-claws, Rose teased the two pieces of quartz from the wall. The first piece was milky quartz, and nothing special—to anyone else. The piece had been polished, and was part of the first rock Rose had thought held a gemstone. The second was something more important to him; it was a piece of rose quartz, and had been polished, like the first, to a bright shine.

Turning, Rose walked back through the house with his two little treasures cupped in one wing. When he reached the front door again, he looked outside to see Joyce and Dave talking quietly. "She packed all my clothes up." He looked at the two little gems in his wing.

"I need to make a call. Rose, something tells me being without your clothes shouldn't be too much of a problem." Joyce wore a slight smile, but she didn't look overly happy. "Dave, can I borrow your phone?"

"Sure, Doc. What's the problem?" Dave gestured back towards the house, and started walking along with Joyce.

Joyce sighed. "Even if Rose is an adult, legally, her—his—mother can try to say things to get him, and you, in a lot of trouble. I am going to make a call to head that off."

Watching Dave and Joyce walk inside, Rose didn't feel like following them to find out who Joyce was calling. He lifted up the rose quartz to look at, and sighed. "Why don't I feel like an adult, then?" All alone, he stared at the gemstones, trying to find an answer to his question in them.

The stones were silent, and no matter how hard Rose stared into them, he didn't hear a magical voice give him any advice, or send him on a magical adventure.

Rose was startled from his contemplation by Joyce's voice. "Hey, kiddo. Lyra thought it would be a good idea to get the town together, and have a talk about what happened today." Joyce stood beside Dave. "She wants to have a potluck, but you don't have to worry about bringing anything if you don't want."

Turning to look at Dave, Rose got a nod and a smile. Standing up, he ruffled his wings and stretched a little. "That sounds really cool, actually. All us 'freaks' have to stick together, after all." He stepped forward as Joyce and Dave passed, falling in beside them. Curiosity started to eat at him, however. "Who did you call?"

"Traralgon police. I let them know that your mother was acting a little irrationally, but not enough to commit. I explained the situation, that nothing untoward has happened, that you are safe, and you don't wish to leave." Without thinking further, Joyce reached out a hand to rub Rose's ear. "They took note of it, and will handle any accusations accordingly."

Rose almost stopped in his tracks. Ear rubs were clearly every pony's absolute weakness. Slowing enough, however, to break the touch, Rose shook his head to clear the fuzz that had momentarily filled it. "Uh, what sort of stuff do you think she will say?"

Joyce let out a sigh. "Depends on how desperate she feels. She loves you, Rose, and I think she really is trying to do the best she can for you."

"You're not going to tell me?" Rose looked up at Joyce.

"I didn't want to, but the more I talk with you, the more I realize how much you have grown. Your mother will probably start by not telling them your actual age. When that gets her nowhere, she will probably make a lot of very nasty accusations,"—Joyce held a hand up to forestall interruptions—"things that could get you and Dave in a lot of trouble."

Rose blushed, and felt his anger grow. "I never even—"

"I know. I told them I had recently done an exam on you, and that you have not been sexually active." Joyce blew out a breath. "It might be easier if you stay at my place for a few days. If the police do come to investigate, it would go a long way if you weren't living at Dave's, not to mention it would be awkward if they did want to take you to be examined by someone else."

"Huh?" Rose didn't quite follow the reasoning.

Joyce chuckled. "A doctor would be looking at a young stallion instead of the woman they expected. Assuming they don't see you as a man."

Staring for a moment, Rose sighed. "Everything's happening at the worst possible time. Isn't it?" He couldn't help it, he leaned sideways and pressed his shoulder against Joyce's leg.

"Yeah, but that's life, kiddo." Reaching to Rose's ears, Joyce was careful to only rub the sensitive flesh around the base of them. "But you did a brave thing today."

"It doesn't feel brave. I feel like I have abandoned her." His breath calm, mostly due to the reassuring petting, Rose walked with Joyce to the next house on the block.

Author's Note

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Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
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Making a Move

Language check. All in English.

Lyra found her sister trapped under their mother's wing. She was about to ask if Robin wanted some help getting out—as she knew her sister's sleeping pattern mostly involved being awake now—but stopped before she shouted. Taking a deep breath, Lyra slowly built energy in her horn and wrapped a field around her mother's wing and lifted.

A scant few seconds passed, but in that time Robin slipped out and Lyra in.

"Thanks, Ly. You're the best." Robin pressed her cheek to Lyra's. "Make sure I'm awake tomorrow morning—before you go?"

Opening her mouth, Lyra quickly closed it and just nodded.

Joyce picked then to shift in her sleep, pulling on her wing and the daughter her subconscious knew was there.

Robin pulled a cushion over for Lyra to rest her head on, and then stealthily clip-clopped out of the room.

Laying her head down on the soft cushion, Lyra closed her eyes and let dreams of Canterlot flood her head.

Lyra felt something pushing on her dream.

She was in school in a magical castle, and a huge white pony with twelve wings and a dozen horns stuck a funnel in her ear. Books of all shapes and sizes were shoved in, and they shrank as they poured down the funnel.

The edges of her dream rippled, but she liked silly dreams, and easily held the morning (as she thought of it) at bay.

Shaking her head, the funnel went flying, as did the huge pony. Books dribbled out each of Lyra's ears for a few seconds until she found a pair of comically large corks. With her knowledge safely retained, Lyra bowed to the huge white pony and left.

The pony hadn't been huge—Lyra was tiny. She looked up at all the big ponies around her, and used her magic to pick herself up. Imagining giant staircases, Lyra formed her magic into a huge hand with two "walking" fingers.

Again the edges of her dream quivered. This time she had had it with all the normal stuff. "This interruption is no more!" The quivering continued, but got weaker. "It has ceased to be!"

A huge robe pulled around Lyra's body, and she wore a great, pointed hat upon her head. Across the front of her hat was the word "Wizzard." She opened her mouth for the next words of the great banishing spell. "It's passed on! It's expired and gone to meet its maker!"

Lightning and rainbows (she had wanted thunder, but rainbows seemed a better mix for ponies) raced around the sky, and Lyra was thrust upward on a dais. "Vis-a-vis the dreamy-processes, it's 'ad its lot! All statements to the effect that this interruption is still a going concern are from now on, interpretive!"

Lifting her hooves high, Lyra Heartstrings, Wizzard of Equestria, called down the greatest power she could.

"It's fucking snuffed it!"

"Lyra!" Joyce bopped her daughter on the nose. "I told you to wake up, silly-Billy."

Having lost the fight, for now, Lyra groaned and leaned her head up. She let out another whimper when her mother kissed her cheek. "Mum!"

"We're going today, Lyra." Delivering another nuzzle, Joyce stretched her wings out and climbed up from the couch. "I could have sworn I fell asleep with a different daughter…?"

"Yeah! We swapped before Robin got bored out of her brain! Night time is go time, remember?!" Lyra finally noticed her loud voice and snapped her mouth shut.

Arching her back like a cat, Joyce staggered out of a huge stretch. "Come on then. Breakfast, then we grab our things, one last goodbye, and we go."

Lyra sometimes wished she had wings. They seemed so good for keeping balance, but then having four legs was still pretty good. She wobbled along after her mother to the kitchen and began the usual things that breakfast entailed: coffee and salad (greens for Lyra, fruit for her mother).

Thudding hooves came down the hall and Robin poked her head around the kitchen doorway before launching herself at Joyce.

Not bothering with words, Joyce cuddled Robin against her.

Still chopping up a further salad for lunch, Lyra quickly put together something for Robin for breakfast. Keeping the kitchen silent, Lyra set a bowl down on the table beside her mother's.

Robin switched targets and pounced at her sister. Catching Lyra with a wing, Robin pulled her big sister into a hug. "Gonna miss you."

Lyra let out a deep sigh and then kissed Robin on the cheek. They held together until Dream Thunder and Candela walked into the kitchen.

Riding on Dream's wing, of course, was Tufts. Rocking his body forward, he spread his wings and only needed two quick flaps to get to Joyce and cling to her wing instead. "Good morning, love." As he spoke, one of his wings reached up to the table and grabbed a piece of cantaloupe.

Too caught up in the emotions of the morning, Joyce leaned her head to the side and kissed Tufts on the nose without thinking about it. She froze for a moment, then drew back. "Good morning, Tufts. Are you ready to go?"

"But of course. I have seen to all my affairs here, and will be free to travel." Tufts stuck the chunk of fruit in his mouth and began masticating enthusiastically.

Remembering the walk she had made to and from Canterlot the first time, Lyra attacked her breakfast the moment Robin let her go. She ate quickly, downed her coffee, and headed for her bedroom. Laying on her bed was her guitar, little amplifier, and her old backpack of pony-fitting clothes.

"Lyra, I need to boop you." Dream Thunder was behind Lyra. "S-So you can go to Equestria."

Nodding her head, Lyra turned around. Instead of a boop, she got a hug. Squeezing back, Lyra ruminated on it being a morning for hugs. As she leaned back, Dream struck.

"Boop. To Equestria you'll go." Pulling her hoof back, Dream set it back on the floor. "I'm gonna miss you. Growing up in Equestria, I didn't realize what it was like to have a big family."

Opening her mouth only to close it again, Lyra took a deep breath. She tilted her head toward Tufts, then looked directly at Dream, and then winked. She had the satisfaction of seeing Dream look a little startled and happy at the same time. "I'll miss you!"

Dream Thunder's ears tucked back with the acoustic assault, but perked back up the moment Lyra's mouth closed. "You'll visit during the holidays, right?"

Lyra just nodded her head.

"I know things are only going to get more crazy, and with the Rainbow Serpent gone I'll be a little on my own, but I can't help feel something big is about to happen, and I'm going to be in the middle of it." As Dream Thunder spoke, she became aware that every eye in the kitchen was focused on her and it wasn't hard to tell that. She suddenly clamped her mouth closed and looked around like a startled bat.

"You'll be awesome!" Lyra hugged Dream again, and felt her adopted sister relax once more. Together, they turned and made a start on breakfast.

No one seemed willing to break the tableau of quiet that settled on the dinner table. Lyra and Joyce both ate hearty meals, and when they were done looked at each other across the table.

However, Lyra watched her mother turn a look on Candela. A chill ran through her at that look.

Candela seemed to read Joyce's look for the pain and hope that was in it, and spoke up. "You can't. You'll have trouble supporting yourself let alone Robin too."

Joyce's expression was hard. "I did my medical doctorate and my veterinary—"

"There was a reason I moved out of Canterlot, Joyce. It is a busy place for one mare to be, but it makes taking care of a filly a full time job." There was pain on Candela's face as she told her close friend, someone as close as a sister, the harsh reality of the magical pony world.

Steel seeped into Joyce's eyes, and the muscles around her mouth tightened. "But I—"

"Mum!" Robin's voice was the only thing that could have stopped Joyce this time. Pushing her chair out from the table, Robin walked around and looked up at her mother. When Joyce slid off her own chair, Robin pulled her mother into a tight hug. "Dream needs me."

Lyra had to clamp down on her own first reaction of shouting out in surprise. She saw her mother's body freeze—hardening like steel. She jumped down and rushed around the table to join the hug. She felt a tingle in her senses—her new senses.

"You heard Dream, Mum. I don't know how I know, but I know she needs someone—" Robin shook her head. "Not someone. She needs me."

Joyce's left wing was around Lyra, letting her eldest daughter hold her up while she hugged her little filly with the other. "But…"

"There's a lot of talk about destiny and that today!" Mentally cursing her inability to keep her voice moderated, Lyra had to push on. "Does this have anything to do with all the magic?!"

"It feels right, Mum." Robin's eyes were as dry as her mother's, which weren't dry at all. "You're going to need to study hard, and you can't do that with me there."

"You just said you need to be here to help Dream." Keeping her wings around her foals, Joyce struggled with the reality of the situation.

Robin almost disappeared into the wing of her mother. "We'll help each other. I can't really figure out why it's important, but it feels important. I don't know how else to say it."

"You sound ten years older than you are." Joyce snorted at her own comment. "I'm going to come and visit every holiday."

"Not if I visit you first!" Sticking her tongue out, Robin giggled like the filly she was. "I love you, Mum."

Joyce squeezed Robin. "I love you too, little bird." When she saw her daughter about to say something, Joyce tapped her on the nose. "You'll always be my little bird, Robin Robertson, no matter how old you are."

While snug against her mother, Lyra started using her magic to collect and shift bowls to the sink. She was so focused on the task—juggling multiple items at a time—that she didn't notice Candela until a chaste kiss landed on her cheek.

"You need to take care of yourself, Lyra Heartstrings." Stretching out a feathered wing to hug Lyra, Candela even hugged with a foreleg, too. "I have some things for you and Joyce to take with you. You might have gotten a direct invite to Princess Celestia's school, but once there they will want an indication of your schooling thus far."

"And Mum needs something to say she is a fully trained doctor, here, right?!" In the moments with her family, Lyra had completely forgotten about her voice.

Unfolding her ears, Candela nodded and drew back from the hug. "I have papers that state her training as clear as I can make it. The medical board will, at the very least, accept you as a new student based off that, Joyce."

"I hope they will let my training count for at least something. Spending six years studying medicine from scratch, again, would be a bit maddening." Joyce let go of her fillies and folded her wings up at her sides.

"They would be quite moronic to not have you teaching at least one class. You're going to Equestria to learn pony medicine." Candela backed away from Joyce and Lyra to let them stand up without being crowded. "I would lay odds on you knowing a few things they don't, too."

Lyra watched her adopted sister approach her mother from a blind side. Before Joyce could react, Dream Thunder lashed out and booped her on the nose.

"Boop! To Equestria with you!" Giggling enough that her words were a struggle to get out, Dream drew her hoof back. "Sorry. It's just too much fun doing that."

"Wait. Are you telling me that that's all it takes to decide who goes to where?" Spinning to look at Lyra, Joyce only got a nod from her eldest daughter. She turned back to Dream. "So what happens when a rush of people come here wanting to go to Equestria?"

Dream Thunder blinked at the question. "Well, I don't boop them? I don't think Princess Celestia is going to want a rush of bat ponies flooding in without somepony to introduce them." She looked between Joyce and Candela. "Right?"

"I'll talk to the Princess!" Having overheard, Lyra considered that since she had spoken to Celestia before, she could probably do so again. "Since I'm going to her school and all!"

"Why'd you teach her to be so brash?" Joyce gestured at Lyra while talking to Candela.

Candela rolled her eyes. "Teach her? I am sure she grew up that way. Blame her mother."

Both mothers looked at each other for a few moments and then cracked up laughing.

Ignoring her parental figures, Lyra left them to their own goodbye and found the gear they were taking with them. She hefted each pile with her magic and found neither particularly heavy, although she was glad to have use of a cart.

The concept of pulling a cart like a horse was somewhat new to Lyra, but she could see the big buckle and strap. Loading all the things into the back of the cart, she walked around to the front and stepped between the two shafts and fastened herself to them with her magic.

One step and then another. Lyra slowly walked the cart around in a circle in her backyard. A screech of excitement announced Tufts' arrival. "I suppose Dream didn't have to boop you?!"

Tufts landed as far forward on the cart's shaft as he could, and shuffled around a little so that he could look up at Lyra. "Of course not." He licked at one foot a few times before considering it clean. "You haven't told her at all. Thank you."

Lyra let out a sigh. She wasn't humble by any means, but it was strange for her to be thanked by a god. "You did kinda save the world!" She actually laughed at how much Tufts suddenly reacted to that.

Ruffling his wings and puffing out his chest, Tufts gave a little nod. A moment later his head snapped around to look at the house. "She's coming. This is so exciting!"

"Yeah!" Lifting her hoof, Lyra reached around and got a wing-to-hoof tap from Tufts. "Hey, Mum! You ready?!"

Leaving her home for the last time, Joyce caught sight of Lyra and Tufts and laughed. "What have you two been conspiring about?"

"Mangoes." Tufts looked back at Joyce as seriously as he could manage. "Lots of mangoes."

Reaching out with a wing, Joyce put a sealed plastic tube of papers into the back of the cart with their things. "Well, I think it's high time we left." She clenched her jaw a moment and then relaxed. "Before I break down and cry again."

Lyra nodded and looked back at the house. "Bye everypony!" Sadness and silliness warred on Lyra's face, but the latter won. Stepping forward, she started to walk the cart while her mother plodded at her side.

The three walked in silence until they reached the edge of the town. Two worlds collided and overlapped starting just before them. Together, Lyra and Joyce stepped through the barrier that wasn't.

Lyra pulled the cart through all the way before stopping. She took a deep breath. "Am I still yelling?!"

Joyce's head snapped around and looked at her daughter in dismay. "I thought this was supposed to stop—?" She cut short her question when she saw Lyra's face sporting a huge grin. "How long did you plan that one for?"

"Since I couldn't stop yelling." Her voice even and at a normal volume, Lyra let out a happy sigh. "Do you have any idea how annoying that was? I couldn't even swear without doing it at full volume."

"Oh, trust us. Everyone knew exactly how annoying it was." Joyce reached out and booped Lyra on the nose with a wing. Movement from the corner of her eye got her attention, and Joyce turned her head to see what it was.

Standing to the side, looking a little bewildered, a fox looked up at Joyce. It turned its head to look at Lyra, then spread a big pair of bat wings. "Well this is different." The voice was unmistakably Tufts', but a little deeper than usual.

"Careful, Mum, he looks a little… crazy…" Lyra could barely hold in her giggles, and finally gave up and let them out.

"Or maybe a little sly." Joyce couldn't stop herself from adding to the gag. "Is that really you, Tufts?"

"Very funny. This feels really odd. I've never had four legs before." Tufts lifted one paw at a time to inspect them, then he noticed his huge tail. "I've got a tail!"

Lyra walked closer to Tufts, pulling the cart with her. "Y-You know what you are, right?" She reached out with her magic and lifted Tufts into the air before depositing him on her own back. "Come on, Mum. You have to have gotten this?"

Sighing, Joyce nodded. "But tell me one thing, Lyra Heartstrings. Did you infect this world with your horrible sense of humor?"

"It was already silly when I got here!" Gesturing toward a nearby path, Lyra started walking. "Honest. Although, I don't remember anypony mentioning a flying fox."

Joyce examined Tufts for a few minutes before she spread her wings. "Want to fly?"

Lyra felt the small weight on her back jump, and the flapping of black wings pushed Tufts and Joyce into the sky with ease. "Well, it was silly. Now it's positively batty."

Language check. Everything from this until the end of the chapter is in Equish.

The walk to the Pie's rock farm wasn't a long one, but Lyra did have to walk it while Joyce and Tufts spent most of the morning flying around. Plodding toward the farmhouse, she was aware of how little the wagon seemed to actually tire her.

"Pa wants a talk with you." Limestone Pie, her voice as enchanting and soft as ever, stomped toward Lyra. She got to within a pony length of her target when a shadow caused her to look up.

Joyce landed at her daughter's side, while Tufts landed on Joyce's back. Panting, she waved a hoof to Limestone. "Hi!"

"Wait!" Lyra managed to cut in just before Limestone could reply. Holding her hoof up to her head, Lyra closed her eyes in mock concentration. "I'm sensing something. A large rock—maybe a boulder. I can sense it belonging to or beholden to somepony named Holder. And, Mum, you definitely shouldn't go near it."

Limestone's mouth almost threatened to stop scowling, but she brought herself under control. "Come on. You're wasting enough of my time already."

Stepping to follow Limestone, Joyce got a nudge from Lyra just as she was opening her mouth. She looked at her daughter quizzically.

"Limestone is an adorable mare who loves her family more than anything else in Equestria. She'd never show that, and keeps a defensive wall of antagonistic threat up at all times. Secretly, just between you and me, I think she needs a big hug." Of course, Lyra was speaking loud enough that Limestone could hear, and even heard her give a mocking grunt.

"You're lucky you make me laugh or I'd have to…" Limestone let her threat trail off as they reached the house. Sitting on the porch, in a rocking chair, was Igneous Rock Pie. "Here they are, Dad." Limestone stepped up on the porch and turned around to glare at Lyra and Joyce.

"Limestone," Igneous said. "Go and help your sister." He didn't even turn to look at his eldest daughter, and held his tongue further until Limestone was inside the house. "Lyra Heartstrings. It's good to meet thee once again. This is your sister?"

Lyra cleared her throat to chase away all the jokes that could spill forth if she weren't careful. She knew from experience that Igneous was a big fan of formality. "Igneous Rock Pie, son of Feldspar Granite Pie, this is my mother, Joyce. Mum, this is Igneous Rock Pie."

"You mentioned that magic had changed things a lot, but this is a surprise. I'm pleased to meet you, Joyce, mother of Lyra Heartstrings. Please call me Igneous."

"I'm pleased to meet you, Igneous. Thank you for giving my daughter a little place to get away to." Joyce carefully sat down and gestured to the cart Lyra had been hauling. "As you can see, we're taking a little trip in your lands."

"If it pleases, I would like to get down to business." Igneous put his serious face on (which was hard to tell from his resting or relaxed faces, but that was a Pie family trait all over). "My daughter wishes to see more of Equestria. I persuaded her to go to Canterlot first, and I would beg to ask if you could see your way fit to escorting her there?"

A rush of gray exited the front door of the house at high speed and slammed into Lyra. The only thing that kept her standing was that the missile wrapped their forelegs around Lyra's shoulders and squeezed.

"Marble?" Lyra managed to ask. "What's wrong?"

"Pinkie's going away…" Marble's voice was so soft Lyra barely heard it.

Squeezing back, Lyra hugged Marble. "She's only going to Canterlot. You could visit and you could send letters."

Pinkie Pie left the house next. She looked to be in almost physical pain at the sight of her little sister so distraught. With her ears tucked back, she moved and stood next to her father. "Ever since that light I knew I had to be somewhere else. It's what my cutie mark tells me."

Marble glanced back at Pinkie Pie for a moment, then turned to Lyra again. "I don't want her to go."

Shooting a pointed look at Pinkie, Lyra managed a little smile when Marble's sister was close. Magic, Lyra knew, was the cheating way to do anything. But cheating was the best way of getting things done. She poked Pinkie Pie in the back and pulled her into the hug.

"I'm gonna miss you so much!" Suddenly clinging to Pinkie Pie like a limpet, Marble Pie lost all hint of composure.

Joyce smiled at Igneous as best she could. "Of course we can take Pinkie Pie with us. She spent so much time in my house learning guitar that she almost feels like family."

"Pinkamena said the same thing about you and yours. Still, I'd like to give you a little compensation." Igneous, his face as even and severe as ever, reached for something and tossed it to Joyce. "This should help you get established."

Joyce shook her head, not daring to open the bag. "This is too much! You don't need to pay us to—"

"That boy of yours—now girl of yours—made my little fillies smile." Igneous rocked a few times in his chair, looking past Joyce at Pinkie and Marble hugging. "Their smiles are worth more than anything you could put in a bag."

Tucking the bag away in her saddlebags, Joyce bowed her head. "Thank you."

"I don't expect ye to take care of her forever, of course. She will probably move on from Canterlot fairly quickly, if I know our Pinkamena." Igneous shared a smile with Joyce that was returned, each of them knowing parents. "Thank you, Joyce."

"You've said goodbye?" Joyce's eyes flicked to Pinkie Pie.

Igneous nodded. "Ye are leaving now?"

Lyra, who had been trying not to listen in on her mother and Igneous talking, decided it was better to announce herself rather then keep eavesdropping. "Pinkie said she's ready to go."

Narrowing his eyes on Lyra, Igneous let out a deep sigh. "Cloudy Quartz's leg started twitching last night. Then her tail seemed to squirm. She said it means harmony is working nearby. You, and those near you, are destined for big things, Lyra Heartstrings. Be sure you stand tall and face them." Igneous stood up and turned for the front door of the house and then entered it—closing the door behind him.

"Is he always like that?" Joyce ruffled her wings and turned to Lyra. "He didn't seem hostile, but…"

"He's a very proud stallion, Mum. His little girl is leaving, maybe forever. Come on." Putting some space between them and the house, Lyra sighed. "He didn't want us to see him cry. It's a man-thing."

"I did not just get a lecture from my own daughter on 'man things,' did I?" Poking Lyra in the shoulder with one wing, Joyce made her way over to Pinkie and Marble. "Are you ready, Pinkie?"

Marble, who was used to being around Joyce more than the average stranger, let out a little whine as she let go of her sister. "Come visit."

"Silly Billy. Of course I'll come visit!" Pinkie Pie looked around for Lyra, and spotted her climbing back into the harness of the cart. "I left your guitar with Marble if that's okay?"

"Sure. I can always get a new one." In the harness, Lyra waited for Joyce and Pinkie to walk up to her. "Are we all ready?"

Pinkie Pie froze in place and turned to regard empty space. "Are we? Yeah. I think we are." She turned back to face her friends. "I hope everypony likes sequels."

"Sequels? What are—" Lyra cut herself off, but it was too late.

Pinkie Pie giggled. "Well duh. We're leaving on a big adventure in a new city. Seems like a great sequel to me."

Author's Note

Tufts: On a scale of one to habanero mangos how hot is Joyce?

"My love for her cannot be measured, though I have heard some bats have a scale. It normally runs out of 10, correct?" Tufts snagged a grape with one thumb and inspected it. "If I had a bowl of ten mangoes, I would still pick Joyce. If I had a world filled with mangoes, I would still pick Joyce." The bat arches his back to look directly at the question asker. "I would hazard to rate Joyce on a number scale you cannot conceive of, and she would still not be done justice." He popped the grape in his mouth and started chewing happily.

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