Aspects of Harmony

Chapters

Meeting with Twilight Sparkle
Twilight Sparkle explains it all
Called to the Principal's Office
Loyalty: Enter Rainbow Dash!
The Reformation of Trixie
Side Story: Deep Sea-Diving Adventure
Alex Traveler: Mouse of Harmony
Down on the Apple Farm
Baking up a Storm
Swamp Fever Epidemic
Planning for Next Mission
Return to Ayers' Rock
The Search for Mage Meadowbrook's Satchel
Smith Family Emergency
Questions and Answers: Brian/Babs Seed
Operation: Save Babs Seed!
Preventing A War (The Good Ending)
Returning Home
Honesty: Applejack
New Students: Tempest Flare and Sunset Shimmer

Meeting with Twilight Sparkle

Aspects of Harmony

Ch. 2: Meeting with Twilight Sparkle

The morning after Kurt Smith was transformed into an anthropomorphic version of the My Little Pony character Applejack started as the sun rose over the farm where the new Aspect of Honesty woke up. Rubbing her eyes, she still noticed that she still had the same body that she ended up in after the mysterious message from the computer. After she showered and got dressed in a clean white shirt with a light green collar, blue jeans with a hole for her tail, and her brown Stetson, she checked her e-mail to see if Twilight Sparkle replied to her message. Sure enough, AJ saw Twilight’s response.

Twilight Sparkle: “Kurt?! Is that really you? Well firstly sorry if I dragged you into this, secondly for where we could meet up...how about at the beach. I’ll be looking out at the sea from that natural rock formation that juts out kinda like a mini cape. In about 2 hours, Since we don’t have school today.”

AJ smiled, “Now Ah know Ah’m not th’ only one goin’ through this. Time to reply an’ get to tha bottom o’ this…” She then responded back to her friend within 10 minutes.

AJ: “Sure thing, I got ta do some chores till then, should drag out to a couple of hours. See ya soon Twi. AJ” She sent the message and headed downstairs for breakfast where a list of chores were waiting on her.

AJ read all the chores, which included feeding the chickens, gathering the eggs, and mending the outside fence. After finishing her chores, the orange human/pony hybrid checked her watch and found out she still had time to eat breakfast, make sure her little sister was off to school, and ate some breakfast with her brother and grandmother. She explained that she was to meet her friend from school later on, so she needed to clean up from all the chores.

After cleaning up and putting on a white shirt with an orange work shirt over her undershirt and some modified blue jeans and boots, along with her trusty Stetson, AJ left the farm and walked out towards the bay where she met up with Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight was standing near the rocky shore, lost in her own thoughts. AJ decided to clear her throat to get her friend’s attention, “Ahem, “Hey ther’ Twi” an accented voice greets from behind the lavender anthro pony. Twilight turned around to meet her visitor. From what she could see, Kurt looked just like she did in the picture, everything about her screamed Applejack.

“So Kurt...I mean Ashley, you changed too?”

Ashley replied “Sure did, it was out of ta blue! And Ah’m using ‘Ashley J. Smith’ as an alias at school. Ya can call me AJ if ya want. Cover story is Ah’m Kurt’s long-lost sister stayin’ with the family.”

Twilight raised her brow “How exactly did it happen? That’s what I want to know.”

Ashley shrugged her shoulders, kicking a rock or two with her boot, “It happened through ma computer. This red apple appeared on the screen and when I went ta look at it, I just turned into this.” Ashley gestured to her body. “Ah even have Applejack’s Cutie Mark; three red apples. Ah think they’re supposed ta represent ma love f’r mah family; ya know, my Granny, my brother and little sis. Come ta think about it; Applejack’s immediate family on her farm is exactly like mine.”

“So this happens via our computers....I’m sure the theory analysts got to you too.” Twilight said.

Ashley gave a confused look “What do ya mean? That channel you watch is tha reason for us looking like those extremely dedicated cosplayers? The guys are gonna look at me with tha weirdest faces I’ll ever see.” she finished.

Twilight responded “I’m sure of it. And look, I explained to you guys this predicament and you supported it. If the others did for me I’m sure they will for you. Don’t worry I’ll be right next to you.”

Ashley smiled, knowing that if anyone would be an understanding and sympathetic friend, it would be Twilight Sparkle. “Aww shucks, thanks Twi. Also ma folks know about me looking this way. The students at school may be slightly different though.”

Twilight thought about that. The guys knew of her transformation, and Ashley should be fine in explaining hers. But the school was a whole other story. “Well just face it head on. I’m sure random bystanders will be confused, but we shouldn’t worry about any of that. The school will be our only priority to take.” she stated.

AJ nodded “Sounds good ta me. I’m glad you know about this too, considering being the first to go through it.” Ashley turned her head over towards the beach watching the waves crash on the shore and grinned, “Since we are at ta beach, why not we take a walk. Sound good to you?”

Twilight returned her grin, “Sounds good to me. Besides I have some more info you need to know.” She said as she began to depart the rocks with Ashley in tow.

Ashley rolled her eyes and responded, “Is this about yer confounded ships and shipwrecks again?”

Twilight blushed, “Heh heh...not all of it.”

AJ looked at Twilight with a confused look on her face, “Well, what is it then? Ya know you c’n tell me, right, Twi?”

Twilight Sparkle explains it all

Twilight explained to Ashley about the analysts, she discussed the elements and even showed the Star caster’s wreck to the farm girl.
“Wait a minute ther Twilight. You mean ya can really do Magic?” Ashley asked with amazement.Twilight had just finished explaining her little magic practice she took part in before she arrived at the beach. The anthro alicorn in question nodded her head. She may of been the one explaining it, but even still she felt like it was a dream rather than reality. “Your explanation of the Star caster with those gold necklace things was more believable.

“I sure can. Check this out” she responded by finding a stick lying on the ground and focusing her mind on it. Imagining she was picking it up with her hand, the stick shakily hovered off the ground levitating in a pink glow that also surrounded Twilight’s horn.
Ashley was of all things stunned “Well I’ll be. It really is real” Ashley watched on at the hovering stick. “But what do I get? That’s not real fair of you getting magic and I don’t.”

Twilight dropped the stick and turned around to face Ashley “It’s just the characters we have become AJ. Unicorn’s use magic, Pegasi can fly and control weather and Earth ponies have more endurance, strength and greater defense."

Ashley wondered about that part on the earth ponies, “More endurance, Strength and Defence? That’ll be real effective on the farm and if I get into a fight of sorts." But then she eyed Twilight, “You have both a horn and wings? Does that make your race any different?"

Twilight caught on to the fact that she was an alicorn and not unicorn form. “Well from what we know so far off the show. There is only 5 alicorns and they are all of royalty, so basically an Alicorn is revered as almost a god among normal ponies. They have magic, flight and strength, so really they are the most powerful of pony.” Twilight explained.

Ashley scratched her head at that “This is a lot ta take in but, you seem ta know it better than me or any of tha guys…” Ashley thought “Hang on...our friends! We need to let them know Ah changed too,”

Twilight also realized, “If we both changed, then they also have had a good chance of doing so too. We need to find them now, instead of later.”

Ashley agreed. With sudden speed, they both rushed off the beach back into the street and find the rest of their friends.

Twilight texted Matt to see where he was, and luckily for them, the rest of their friends were at the park. Better time than any to let them know. Arriving at the park, Matt, Harry, Terrance and Rina all pulled equally confused faces. They were aware of John’s change, but who was this other one next to her? They saw a blond girl, about 5'10, with orange fur and a brown Stetson on her head. Her face and pony ears, as well as her emerald green eyes and freckles on her face made her stand out as much as Twilight did with her fur color, wings, and horn.

“John...I mean Twilight is it? Who is that?” Matt pointed to Ashley.

Twilight explained, “Firstly yes it is, secondly this is Ashley...or we know her as Kurt.”

Everyone but the anthro ponies exclaimed “KURT?!”

Ashley gave a slightly hesitant wave. “Hey guys. This was weird for me as well, so your reaction is pretty darn normal to me. But I assure you that I’m still your ol' pal Kurt” Ashley stated.

Harry spoke this time, “Well, we did accept John’s change, so I see no reason to change that with you Kurt...I mean Ashley.” Harry, despite his odd interest for clothes, was a good guy and he wasn’t the type to judge or simply turn his back on someone just because they suddenly changed their appearance; no matter how bad they looked (especially their attire). He was known though to be generous with his creations and the way he was eyeing both Ashley and Twilight, it seemed like he was metaphorically tracing up designs for them to wear.

Rina perked up from her seat on a fallen log, “Yeah, Harry’s right. You guys look like the most extreme cosplayers I’ve ever seen. But I can tell when you guys are you...instead of alien equine beings that intend to replace earth’s population with their own.”

Twilight replied “Uhh thanks Ri, I’m glad you're on our side...I hope.” Twilight liked Rina as a friend but sometimes...she was frightening.
Terrance didn’t really say much, but he seemed okay with it. Matt was frustrated that another of his friends changed, but after some much needed cooling off, he managed to be fine with it.

Ashley whispered to Twilight as the others conversed “Should we tell them about it? The whole possibility of them becoming like us?”

Twilight whispered back “They need to know. If they are aware of the possibility that they may change too, it will be much easier to deal with if it happens. Of course they might panic, but at least they’ll be ready for it.”

“Got ya,” Ashley winked “Alright guys, it’s best you know something else. Twi here will explain,” Ashley announced.

Twilight nodded and then drew in a breath, “Now don’t freak out...much. But you guys may or may not also become like us.

“WHAT?!” they all exclaimed.

“Surprise! You’re all gonna be half pony too..,maybe” Twilight knew that was overkill but she really wanted them to freak out, especially Matt. Payback for all his punches he’s done.

It took about 20 minutes and five slaps to Matt’s face to calm them all down. After they did, Twilight continued “Guys, it’s okay alright? Yes it’s weird and feels strange, but you get used to it. Your families should too, don’t worry, besides you gain certain abilities with your change. Like flight and magic; that’s cool right?”

The others agreed “I guess so. But what about our brains?” Matt asked tapping his head for emphasis.

Twilight responded “Have we changed at all in the mind to you? I’m still John on the inside and Ashley is still Kurt too. We look different but we don’t act different...though with this body we might act a little girly, but not much.”

“Twi’s right guys, we look different, but we are still your friends John and Kurt.” Ashley said resting her arm on Twilight. The guys, looked at each other and smiled, at least they’ve calmed down now. “Now how about we go get something ta eat I’m starving!”

The gang agreed and with Ashley leading the way, they departed for the nearest place for some food. Twilight and Ashley got weird stares from people in the cafe, but they paid it no attention. Rina was first to go about her order and like usual, it was huge. The guys never knew how she was able to store away so much food in her small body and she gained little to no weight at all. A lot of girls at school were envious of this bizarre ability Rina had, while guys just wondered, like her friends, how she was able to eat such copious amounts of food.

The gang was known to crazy antics whenever they went and ate food together at a cafe. Rina would make structures from her food then yell at random people when they told her to stop. Harry would flirt with nearly every girl in there. Matt would try to hold back Rina when she lashed out at people, oddly like a wild animal. Terrance would just sit in silence or talk with John/Twilight about things like the other chaos wasn’t happening and Kurt/Ashley would sigh and pretend like she didn’t know the others. Yep that was the gang for you and this time despite the recent events of anthro ponies, they were still the crazy bunch of friends.

After their meals, Twilight told everyone she had to head home and that she would talk to her friends soon. She also shared her contact info, as did Ashley. "If any o' the rest o' our friends start t' change, you get a hold of Twilight or me."

The friends agreed to let Twilight and Ashley know if and when they started to change. They left the café after Harry paid their bill and each to their own homes. Ashley reported back to her farm and waited for any of the friends to contact her or Twilight if and when something began to happen.

Called to the Principal's Office

Twilight left for school through the front door. Later nearing the school, Twilight found the guys waiting for her. Yesterday they all agreed to meet up just before the front gates so that the bizarre transformations would be less of an impact. Greeting her friends, Twilight was ready to go in. “Don’t worry Twi, we are all here right next to you and Ashley. If they try to do anything, we are here to stop that.” Matt said confidently.

“Alright, let’s get going.” Twilight stated stepping forward, everyone else walking side by side with her. As expected, students and staff looked on in shock, confusion, surprise...basically anything to describe what they saw. Muttering and whispering was heard all around the group, some wondering if they were costumes, others thinking they were aliens and some thought scientific mutation. All much more believable than the real reason. Matt gave disapproving glares at anyone getting the wrong idea towards the Anthro ponies, they all seemed phased by it too.

Before the group could sit down anywhere and talk, a voice could be heard over an intercom near their location.
Principal:” Would these students come to me now. John Radderson, Kurt Smith, Matt Dashel, Harry Delmarity, Rina Palinski and Terrance Valermont. Can you six come to my office immediately.”

Ashley sighed “Great, now tha Principal’s gonna want ta know what happened!”

Terrance spoke up (rare thing to do) “We shouldn’t disobey the order. B-Besides if he understands, then we could get the rest of the school to believe too.”

Twilight nodded “Terrance is right, if we can convince the Principal of what happened, then the rest of the school may follow...emphasis on may.”

“Well let’s not dawdle about any longer, we better get up there.” Harry stated. With a collected nod, the group of friends departed for the Principal’s office.

“So you are telling me that you two turned into these anthropomorphic ponies and girls, if may I add, via your computer screens?” Principal Barwell evaluated.

Twilight spoke for the group “That pretty much covers the gist of it, yes.” Twilight watched as the Principal raised his eyebrow, she gave him a sheepish grin in return.

“Do you expect me to believe that? Honestly, real aliens landing in the school’s grounds is a more believable story.” he stated, the group frowning at the response.

“But Principal Barwell, it’s true. Do you really think they just went and got a sex change in a matter of a few days? Their pony appearance may seem like a costume too, but it’s real check it out.” Matt protested grabbing Ashley’s arm (against her will) and shoving it into the Principal’s face, egging him to feel it.

Hesitantly he does, feeling the very real soft fur on Ashley’s arm. Ashley was still shooting daggers Matt’s way when the principal let go of her arm, to which Matt just grinned at. “You need to do better than that to convince me” Barwell said in monotone.

Ashley pulled her arm back and rubbed it gently as Twilight talked to the principal.

Twilight growled in frustration “What else could we possible do to make you believe us that doesn’t become indecent?” she asked, nearly begging.

Principal Barwell thought for a moment then suddenly came up with something “You said that this...Twilight character can perform magic, is that correct?”

Twilight responded “Y-Yes that’s right.”

“Well if you can perform some sort of simple magic spell, I’ll believe this change is real” Barwell explained. “You can do that?”

Twilight nodded, “I have fortunately practiced a little and I can levitate small objects.”

Barwell sat up in his seat, eliciting Twilight to show him her magic. Twilight took in a deep breath “This is a better time than any to do this right” she focused her mind on a container filled with pencils and imagined picking it up with her hand. At first it wasn’t working and Twilight was beginning to panic, but then she wondered if the pressure she was under was the reason for her problem. Testing this theory, she relaxed her mind of the pressure and just pretended like she was doing it under no watching eyes and slowly, but surely, it lifted up from the desk and hovered about in the pinkish glow.

Everyone but Ashley was in awe. The group was told that she could do magic, but they never saw it in action...until now. After showing off her magic, Twilight dropped the container back to where it was and looked expectedly at the principal to respond to her show.
Barwell was at a lost for words at first, he just looked at the container, than at Twilight. After much contemplating he shook his mind back and spoke up “T-That was very unexpected, so this really means…”

“That we are what we say we are. Yes, yes it does.” Ashley replied.

After everything was cleared up with the Principal, including the part about the others also becoming anthro ponies, the gang left the office feeling much better than they did entering it. The principal still scratched his head at how Twilight was doing her magic, picking up the container to see if strings were attached. There was none. “Unbelievable!” he said.

The school day went it’s course pretty smoothly...well as smoothly as it can when some of the students aren’t even the same race or species anymore. Classes went as they always did; shenanigans happened like normal and the gang where like they always were.

“So what exactly did you want to show us Harry?” Ashley asked as they entered a room. Harry was really ecstatic to show the group something in the home economics classroom at lunch. From what they could imagine it wasn’t good... at least for them.

“Twilight, Ashley. I know you don’t entirely appreciated me doing this behind your back, but I couldn’t help myself” Harry explained.

Ashley sighed “Harry, what did you go and do?”

Harry smiled hesitantly as he opened a closet at the back of the room and revealed two outfits. “You can’t be serious can you?” Twilight said eyeing the outfit in Harry’s grasp.

“He is, we all know that Twi.” Ashley responded.

The outfits Harry was showing the group were very unique: the first one, most likely for Ashley, had denim shorts, an oddly designed white shirt and a brown leather over jacket. Luckily it wasn’t overly girly, but it was a step toward that from Ashley’s current attire.

Unfortunately the same couldn’t be said for Twilight’s: this one had an overly cutesy looking blouse, a purple skirt with a star donning the side (that Twilight swore was something a cheerleader would wear) and a large purplish bow that would be tied onto the back of her head. “Harry, don’t you think you're destroying what’s left of my masculine pride with this outfit? Not saying that it doesn’t look good or anything.” Twilight explained.

Harry looked at the outfit and grinned “What masculine pride do you have left? You're wearing a skirt now... voluntarily too.” Harry pointed at the skirt Twilight wore, she blushed in response.

“Well that’s true ,but at least it isn’t something a bimbo would wear!” Twilight growled.

Harry’s smile only grew. “I could make you look like a bimbo if you wanted. But first, please just try it on!” Harry begged shoving the outfit in her face.

Twilight looked at Ashley “If can wear mine, you can wear yours too.” AJ simply stated. Twilight grumbled as she snatched the outfit from Harry’s grasp and headed for a place to change.

About ten minutes later, they both returned. Ashley didn’t seem as annoyed with the outfit as she thought she would...but Twilight couldn’t bear to look in a mirror.

“Ah think this is actually growin' on me.” Ashley smiled admiring the outfit in the mirror.

Twilight barely managed to open her eyes and what she saw left her to say only a few words “Yep, my male cards are as good as gone.” she looked amazing, she couldn’t deny it, but it was incredibly embarrassing and the skirt felt like it wasn’t covering anything. Matt and Rina’s laughter didn’t soften the blow either.

“Hush you, you look stunning. So what if people look at you, if you don’t care about them, they won’t be a bother.” Harry said as he adjusted the blouse.

“I guess, but I still feel weird. This outfit is so strange on me.” Twilight muttered. Harry managed to just pick up on the words.

“We haven’t even put on the…”finishing touches,” Harry replied as he smiled a very toothy grin.

“I’m in trouble aren't I” Twilight asked slightly scared.

Harry responded with an evil grin “You have no idea...”

Loyalty: Enter Rainbow Dash!

Highschooler Matthew Dashel, simply known as Matt, and his friends Terrance, Rina, and Harry would go to school everyday with John Radderson and Kurt Smith. They still go, despite the fact that John and Kurt were both turned into anthropomorphic versions of cartoon ponies. Twilight and Applejack, respectively. So they went to school, received a couple of weird looks, got called into the principal's office, collected a shark's tooth, confront a bully and somehow not get a visit from a government agency. To his knowledge anyway. Needless to say that Matt had a crazy last couple of days.

And it was about to get crazier.

Matt had just got home and was ready to unwind from the day's events by taking a nice long shower and going on his computer. But first a snack was needed. So he headed towards the pantry for a nice bag of generic chips. As he opened the door and started looking around he couldn't seem to find it. So he did what any sane person his age would do, ask his mother.

“Mom, I can't find the chips,” he said calling for her. “Mom?”

No reply.

“Hmm, maybe she's out buying more chips. Yeah, that's it.” He said to himself. More to reassure himself than anything. “But still she would've left a note…should probably check for that.”

After spending a half-hour searching for the note left by his mother with no results, he decided to give up and wait for her return and ask her where she's been. she's fine. She's got to be...right? he thought to himself. Sighing to himself he went upstairs to his room and turned on his computer. Checking his email he saw to messages waiting for him. One from his mom (which he was relieved to see) and one from an unnamed user. Clicking on the email, a blue glow started to come from the screen, temporarily blinding Matt and forcing him to cover his eyes with his hands to prevent himself from going permanently blind.

After the light level went back to a tolerable amount, he opened his eyes to see a picture of a cloud with a lighting bolt colored rainbow on his screen.

“That was weird…” Matt said with a hint of suspicion as he closed the email “Whatever it was, it's done now.”

Little did Matt know, a set of changes was happening across his body. Starting with blue hairs growing on his legs. Slowly creeping up his entire body. But to Matt it just felt like a small itch around his ankles.

Regardless, he proceeded to gather the things necessary for a shower. After getting the required clothing (a white tank top, underwear, and a pair of black sweatpants) and a towel, he stepped into his bathroom. But before he could even finish removing his pants, he noticed that both of his legs was covered in a cyan blue fur. Thinking he's just seeing things, Matt did a double take just to be sure.

“Yup, that's fur alright,” he said with a suspicious tone. The fur looked and felt real, as if it belonged to some unknown animal.

The strange symbol from the computer, a white cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt appeared on his outer thighs as if it were meant to be there. It blended into the cyan fur nicely.

“Meh, could be about 20% cooler.” Matt said, unintentionally making a reference from the episode Suited for Success, spoken by Rainbow Dash herself.

Next, his hair started getting longer and different strands of it appeared to develop into red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet; the traditional colors of the visible light spectrum, or rainbow. A similarly colored tail burst from his backside, swishing back and forth.

“I-i guess that's what the rainbow portion of the name means, hehe...” He nervously said, slightly startled by the tail’s sudden appearance.

As soon as Matt’s new hair and tail grew in, his face was covered in the same cyan fur as his legs. His eye color shifted to a bright magenta as his face feminized into a muzzle, his teeth shifting into that of the equine/human hybrid he was becoming. Eyelashes appeared around his big eyes.

As Matt adjusted to these new changes, his body began to take on a more athletic but feminine appearance. A pair of cyan pony ears appeared on her head, twitching in response to every sound in the room. Eventually, a pair of cyan feathered wings sprouted from his, or rather her back as the final changes left Matt standing in the bathroom covered in cyan fur, complete with back hooves for feet. When she looked at the bathroom mirror, the reflection of the new

anthropomorphic Rainbow Dash stared back at her. When she tried to talk or breathe, the new voice sounded higher pitched and with a natural rasp.

“Oh my...this is so awesome!” Rainbow Dash flapped her new wings experimentally as she admired her new rainbow mane in the mirror.

Eventually, the new Rainbow Dash wanted to show her new look to her friends, so she texted Ashley and told her to meet her at school, with the explanation that "something awesome" just happened.

Ashley got the text from an excited Matt, claiming something "awesome" just happened and wanted to show something to Twilight and the rest of the close friends at school. "Ya think that this "something awesome" has to do with us becomin' the anthro versions of the Elements o' Harmony bearers, Twi?"

Twilight nodded, "Sounds like Matt has become Rainbow Dash. Just like I predicted. Rina's definetly going to become Pinkie Pie, Terrance will be Fluttershy, and Harry will become Rarity."

The Reformation of Trixie

The battle at school between an Alicorn Amulet-possessed Trixie and Twilight ended with the school closing for repairs and a major investigation by the governmental authorities. Twilight took charge of the situation, ordering Ashley and Fluttershy to take Trixie and head to her house, along with Rainbow Dash. The rest of the group would meet up and they would discuss what would happen next.

“Rainbow, now’s not the time fer one a’ yer pranks! Trixie needs our help!” Ashley demanded after catching her rainbow-maned friend about to spray whipped cream in Trixie’s hand. The group laid Trixie on the couch with a pillow under her head. Fluttershy covered her with a blanket. Somehow, Rainbow Dash thought it would be a great idea to prank Trixie with one of her wing feathers and a can of whipped cream. Rina thought Rainbow Dash should be the best pony or person to perform the prank.

Fluttershy agreed as she placed a tray of food near Trixie’s bedside, in case she was hungry. “I-I agree with Applejack. That’s not really nice.”

Rainbow Dash threw up her hands, “Fine, but ya gotta admit; seeing her with whipped cream all over her face would be priceless!”

Just then, Trixie came to and demanded where she was. She was very disoriented and upset about being in a strange home.

Ashley attempted to calm Trixie down. “Now, calm down, sugarcube! We brought ya here ‘cause Twilight was concerned fer ya. We all were. This here’s Twilight’s house. She’ll be down t’ talk with ya, after y’get somethin’ t’ eat. We fixed ya a li’l somethin’.” A tray was brought over by Fluttershy, which contained some Apple fritters, some apple cider, and an apple brown betty for dessert.

Eventually, Trixie ate some of the food. Twilight entered the room and explained to Trixie what happened. Trixie was given Maestro’s phone number, and she left to talk to him on her phone.

Meanwhile, Ashley talked with the other girls about if Trixie could be trusted. Twilight saw the good in Trixie and believed she would be a valuable asset to the group. Trixie then reentered the room, followed by Maestro, who explained that he had some spells to cast on the group to give them a magical boost in their special pony racial traits. Magic for Trixie, as well as magic, flight, and strength for Twilight, a strength boost for Ashley, as well as a flight boost for Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. He also mentioned that once Pinkie Pie and Rarity joined the group, they would get their respective magical boosts. However, Maestro claimed he was exhausted from all the magical boosts and needed to rest. The group agreed to stay in touch and left Twilight’s home.

As Ashley arrived at her home, she noticed that her little sister bore a striking resemblance to an anthropomorphic version of Apple Bloom. She had yellow eyes, red hair, a pink bow, and yellow fur all over her body. “Oh, sugarcube, how did ya end up as Apple Bloom? And, ya got yer Cutie Mark!”

Apple Bloom turned to show her Cutie Mark was a red, white, and purple shield with an apple emblem in the middle. “Ah got mah Cutie Mark!” She excitedly cheering, hugging her big sister.

Ashley hugged her sister back and then decided to snap a photo to send to Twilight. “Hey, Twi. Just hangin’ out with mah little sister, Apple Bloom!” The caption said. The picture and caption was sent to Twilight’s email.

Side Story: Deep Sea-Diving Adventure

Twilight’s Deep-Sea Diving Adventure

Ashley Smith, better known to her close friends as ‘AJ’, was with Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Florence (formerly Terrance, who was an anthropomorphic version of Fluttershy), Harry (the only male thus far in the group), and Rina at the beach contemplating renting scuba gear and a boat when Excalibur Edge showed up in a red bikini and offered her services and her scuba gear.

“That’s mighty nice o’ ya, Excalibur.” Ashley said as the group walked over to the white alicorn’s boat. While walking towards the shore to check out the boat, Fluttershy quietly talked to Twilight about deciding she would adopt the new name of ‘Florence’ while at school.

Rainbow Dash aka Matt spoke up, complaining why the rest of the group had to change their names, eliciting a punch in the arm by Ashley, “Because we’re tryin’ t’ live our new lives as if nothin’ happened, ‘Rainbow Dash’! If Twilight, me, and Florence changed our names to fit our new roles, Ah reckon we’d at least make sure we try t’ fit in better.”

“Fine, just call me Rainbow Dash, RD, or Dash.” Rainbow Dash rubbed her arm after getting slugged by Applejack.

Twilight suggested ‘Micaela’ would be a better alternative for a human name for the anthro Rainbow Dash, which the rainbow-maned Pegasus reluctantly agreed to.

Just then, Excalibur Edge spoke up, “Okay, follow me. I have something to show you. It’s in the boathouse washrooms.” The white alicorn led the girls and the hesitant Harry up to where the boathouse was docked. Inside the bathrooms, one for male and one for female, were several wetsuits and scuba gear, all in the mane color of each of the ponified girls.

“Knowin’ Harry, he would love these here wetsuits.” Ashley said, looking over at Harry as the apple farmer adjusted her yellow scuba suit. “Ah sure hope mah hat keeps up underwater. If not, Ah want Harry t’ hold onto it if he’s not gonna be part o’ the dive team. Speakin’ o’ which, who’s gonna join Twilight on the dive team?”

Florence, the timid Pegasus anthro, began to fidget nervously, “Not me...the boat feels unsafe...what if we capsize…”

Twilight contemplated slapping Florence to snap her out of it, but Ashley raised her hand, “Ah got this, Twi.” The blond farm girl walked over to the timid girl and began to give her a reassuring hug, “Shhh...it’s ‘kay, sugarcube. The boat ain’t gonna capsize with Captain Excalibur at the helm.” After a while, Florence began to ease up on her nervousness about being out to sea on a boat.

Excalibur then reassured the group they would be safe as she went over the maps with Twilight. The group was directed to find a colorful buoy marking the location of the HMS Lazarus, the shipwreck of Twilight’s investigation. Eventually, Rina, Harry, Ashley, Micaela, and Twilight dove to the submerged wreck site while Excalibur and Florence stayed with the boat once the group gained possession of their quarry.

The dive team, led by Twilight, were able to find the artifact. It was Micalea, the athletic Pegasus, who found the reliquary that Twilight later identified as the Equestrian artifact she had been searching for. Once opened onboard the ship, Twilight felt her magic return to her.

Once the dive team returned to the surface, Twilight attempted to study the artifact’s reliquary and managed to open it with a bit of her magic. The magic surrounded the alicorn anthro and seemed to rest upon her.

Ashley was the first to see her friend in her new state, “How are you feeling, Twilight? Ya feel any different now ya have your artifact?”

Alex Traveler: Mouse of Harmony

A couple months passed since the anthro versions of the Mane 6 helped defeat anthro versions of Nightmare Moon and Discord. The encounters with Maestro Spectrum Star's evil half-brother Chessmaster had become more commonplace. Sure, there were moments of peace where Twilight and her friends would help others learn about Friendship, but one particular acquaintance of Maestro's, Xavier, did not want anything to do with friendship. Ashley sighed as she picked up a bushel of apples and carried them to the barn for sorting. Just then, her cell phone rang. The caller id said, "Rarity", and so Ashley answered;

"Hello, Rarity! What c'n Ah do ya for?" The farm girl said, sitting on a chair after placing the bushel of freshly picked apples on the sorting table of the red barn.

"Ashley, dear. I need a favor to ask of you..." Rarity stated matter of factly...

Ashley sighed again, "Ya know Ah'm not inta all that dressin' fancy like, unless ya insist...whatcha need? Some apples? Cider?"

"No-No-no, darling...maybe some other time. I need a ride to the airport. I'm to meet an online friend. He doesn't know I've transformed into my fabulous self. I did tell him about Twilight and the others, though." The fashionista hoped the farm girl would help her out. After all, Ashley was one of the most dependable of the group.

"Sure thing, sugarcube! Gotta get cleaned up a bit, and Ah'll pick ya up. Look fer mah candy apple red pickup." Ashley said her good-byes and then a text from Twilight reminding her and the other girls about a special dinner date. Ashley smiled and forwarded the text from Twilight to the rest of the girls via group text. All of the girls said they'd be at Twilight's place for the dinner.

After picking Rarity up, the two girls arrived at the airport, looking for Alex, Rarity's online friend. "Ya said he'd be here, Rarity." Ashley scanned the crowd, looking for Alex.

"Ashley, dear, if Alex said he'd be here, he will be here..." Rarity stopped dead in her tracks, "Sweet Celestia, is that a MOUSE!" The indigo-maned fashionista shrieked as she heard loud squeaking coming from a small blonde mouse girl with forest green eyes and white fur.

Ashley rolled her eyes, "Yes, Rarity, that's a mouse all right..." she chuckled as Rarity tried in vain to whack the poor mouse with her purse and then catch the mouse girl with her telekinesis. The mouse girl squeaked as she demanded to be let go, swinging her little arms in defiance of being confined.

Rarity finally calmed down as Ashley held the mouse girl in her hands after her companion retrieved the mouse girl, "Howdy there! Pardon my friend, but you aren't exactly a normal mouse, aren't cha? Ya got yer own Cutie Marks on yer shoulders." She held the mouse girl up to let Rarity examine her.

Rarity looked at the mouse girl and then saw her jump out of Ashley's hands towards her clothing and other personal effects. She picked up the mouse girl's passport and read the name of Alex, her online friend. The mouse girl pointed to the passport photo, squeaking loudly and pointing at herself.

"Ashely, this mouse girl claims she is Alex! " Rarity petted Alex on the head, "Don't worry, my dear friend; we'll talk to Twilight and Flora. They'll know what to do."

Ashley nervously tapped her foot, "We must get a move on. Twilight's waiting on us f'r that dinner party. We can take Alex along after we get her cleaned up and some new clothes." She headed to her truck, and looked back, "Ya comin' Alex?"

Alex defiantly stood on her old possessions, crossing her arms, her tail twitching back and forth, "NOT WITHOUT MY STUFF!" She yelled. To the anthro pony girls, the mouse's shrill remark sounded like a series of agitated squeaks.

Rarity packed up all of Alex's items as the mouse girl inventoried it to make sure everything was in order.. Rarity carried Alex in her hands, while Ashley took all of the mouse girl's possessions to her truck. After leaving the parking lot, Alex made her way to Ashley's Stetson and curled up, taking a much needed rest.

Ashley smiled as Alex made herself comfortable. "Ah wonder how Flora and Twilight will react to meeting our new little friend?"

Rarity sat next to Ashley in the passenger's seat, contacting Flora and Twilight on her phone, held in her telekinetic aura, "I'm sure they will be fine, darling. Think about this as a new experience; a transformee that is not an anthro pony. Twilight would want to know how a mouse has a Cutie Mark, and Flora would be over the moon at the sight of this adorable rodent."

First stop on their adventure was Flora or Florence, who bore a striking resemblance to Fluttershy. She volunteered at the local animal shelter and helped during pet adoption week, which was the week that the girls brought in the mouse known as Alex.

Flora was very happy to meet Alex and kept her from being adopted, suggesting another pet option to an excited potential pet owner. "Oh my, you sure had an adventure today, Alex," Flora said, rubbing the mouse girl's head lovingly. "Can I get you anything to eat or drink?"

Alex's tummy growled, "If you don't mind. This is going to take some time getting used to all this. Just keep me away from reptiles and cats, okay?"

Flora nodded, taking Alex in her hand and finding some cheese and other foods mice eat, according to a book found on rodent care in the animal care center. She told her supervisor she was going to take care of a new animal her friends brought in.

After feeding Alex, brushing her fur and hair, and making sure she looked presentable, the next thing on the list was new rodent-sized clothes. After talking with Alex, Flora relayed to Rarity about the choices of clothes she wanted. Rarity and Ashely left Flora's workplace with Alex, reminding her of the dinner party at Twilight's.

After stopping at Rarity's house, Alex soon saw part of the house had been transformed into the interior of Carousel Boutique. The fashionista pulled out a tape measuring ribbon with her magic, and measured Alex's arms and legs, as well as neck and tail, writing down ideas for the mouse girl to wear. Eventually, Rarity came out, removing her sewing glasses, "Well, now, I must admit making clothes for mouse fashion was a challenge, but with Alex's help and choice of his...er her old clothing, I made it work. Presenting the new and improved Alexandra Traveler in her new Rodent Couture!"

Alex posed in the new solid colors she and Rarity selected while using Rarity's table as a runway. "Just call me Alex, Rarity. Thank you very much. I'm still getting used to how small I am."

Rarity smiled, "Very well, Alex. I am glad you approve of me taking a shot at making you some....ahem...better fitting clothes. You are now ready for our dinner party at our friend Twilight's house. I'll try my best to introduce you without causing her to panic over a mouse showing up and eating the food."

Ashley checked her watch, "Well, we'd better get a move on. Twilight's been texting "Where are you girls at? The food's getting cold!" For several minutes now.

Rarity nodded, "You can leave your old things here and I'll keep them locked in my room, Alex. I'll make sure even my little sister doesn't go through them. She knows better not to snoop through other people's or ponies' personal effects."

Alex nodded as she headed out with Ashley and Rarity to visit Twilight's house. Pinkie Pie, Flora, and Micaela were already there. "Sorry we're late, darlings. "Rarity explained. My dearest friend had a...magical mishap and well, she's right here." She held Alex out for the other girls to see her.

Twilight almost freaked out about the mouse being in her house, "What is that doing in my house?"

Flora tapped Twilight on the shoulder, "Twilight, relax. That's Alexandra, or Alex. She's an anthro female mouse. She's really nice, once you get used to her and get to know her."

Twilight calmed down and pointed her finger as if to shake hands with Alex, "Thank you Flora." She smiled at Alex and cleared her throat. "As the Princess of Friendship, as is my official title here, I welcome you to our little get-together. You know the rest of the girls, right Alex, is it?"

Alex looked up to the other girls, "Let's see; the pink one's Pinkie Pie..."

Pinkie Pie cheered, "Oh wow, you know us! That's really neat! We're going to have soooo much fun together!"

Alex nodded, "Rainbow Dash...like your mane..."

Micaela non-chalantly rubbed the back of her neck, "Thanks. Comes with being, well, awesome." The Pegasus girl said, "The girls call me Micaela though. You already know Ashley, Rarity, and Flora, then."

Alex nods and told Micaela about the airport transformation after the weird email and meeting the girls, "And here we are at some dinner party."

Pinkie Pie cheered, "Oh, I love that story! Especially when you became a cute mouse and Rarity helped you get new clothes!"

Rarity rolled her eyes, "Yes, Pinkie dear; I was the one who helped Alex with her lack of clothing options. She does look much presentable."

Twilight then signaled to the group that dinner was served and the group had a wonderful meal. Ashley rubbed her belly, "Ah, that was a great meal. Ah didn't know you knew how to cook, Twilight?"

Twilight blushed a bit, "Well, I did have some help. My mom helped, and I do have a surprise cook who helped out." She then walked over, "Come on out and meet the girls!"

The figure who came out was a familiar sight to many of the girls. He was covered in purple scales with green spines. He was wearing a white chef's hat and had green eyes, "Hi there...you enjoying the food? It's not to cold or anything?"

Twilight waved her hand towards the mystery chef. "Surprise! We found Spike after school one day and found out he used to be Jason, this student who enjoyed table top role playing games. Somehow he needed a place to stay, so he's going to be staying with me. Just like the show, eh, Spike?"

Spike smiled, "Right. I cannot thank you enough for getting through to me, Twilight. I really needed some friends out there."

Micalea nodded, "Are you kidding me, Spike? You came to me and Pinkie Pie needing help and we took you to Flora, then to Twilight. We never leave a friend hanging!"

Alex nodded, and thought, "Wow, that's just like me wanting to come out here to help Harry. But he's no longer here and "Rarity" is here among this group..." The mouse girl then shook her head and helped herself to the food offered by the levitating serving plates Twilight presented to them.

Author's Note

I would like to acknowledge ScarletRhine for allowing me to use his/her anthro mouse oc, Alexandra Traveler. Alex's story will be in ScarletRhine's own side story, Harmony Mouse.

If you want to be a part of the collab of Lavender Heart as a canon mlp character or as an oc, let me or the others in the collab know.

anthros of harmony

Down on the Apple Farm

Alex was sitting in front of the model of the Golden Oaks Library. She was meditating as she was trying get a hold of her chaos magic. Ashley stormed up to the model and sternly said, “What in tarnation were you thinking when you decked Xavier?” The farm mare looked at her crossly and crossed her arms as she waited for an explanation.

Ayumi walked up and observed her student’s meditating “Settle this later, Ash. Alex is meditating and that means she’s much more prone to lash out instinctively. It’s not a good idea to try talking to her since she’s trying to control two different and godly types of magic. Besides I already got my own punishment for her later;let’s just say it involves pain and sparring.”

Alex tuned Ashley and her teacher’s voices out as she meditated. She focused on finding her chaos magic as it was the magic that was the most familiar. She hadn’t had any luck doing it the traditional way and her lack of results was starting to get frustrating. Then it hit her like ton of bricks. She was going about it the wrong way. The traditional way involved ordering one’s thoughts. Order was the opposite of chaos in order to find her chaos magic she needed to meditate with a method that involved chaos!

Without warning, she grew to her 5’8” frame, destroying the clothes she was wearing and caused her to go flying and land in a heap at Ashley and Ayumi’s feet.

“Ah reckon that’s one thing that c’n happen if yoah concentration is broken.” The farmmare commented wryly. Ayumi nodded with a barely suppressed grin. She then pulled out her phone and took a picture of Alex. When Alex recovered from her latest surge and got up Ayumi asked, “What happened?”

Alex replied, “I realized I was doing the wrong thing for getting control of my chaos magic and it got away and surged.” After that she looked around and noticed the scraps of cloth laying about, the sensation of wind in her fur, Ashley’s surprised yet concerned look, and her sensei's look of anticipation as she cracked her knuckles. She then handed Ashley a stopwatch after starting it and asked, “Would you be so kind and stop it when Alex returns to mouse size?” The farmmare nodded and stepped back.

Alex watched as Ayumi transformed herself into her anthro Tempest form and got into a stance as she said, “I think you just got some control of your Chaos magic and it rebelled by surging. So to test that control we’re going to spar. Also this is a bit of a punishment because you let your temper get the best of you during your time with Xavier that reflects badly on all anthro-kind. Get ready I’m holding back less of my earth pony strength to test your new body.Oh and before we start...” Tempest snapped her claws as a training Gi appeared on Alex’s body “Kinda don’t want the goods on display, I’m not ready to teach you kunoichi yet.”

Alex nodded, “I would have expected no less from you, Sensei.”

With that they both started the spar. Tempest noted that Alex was fighting with a lot more discipline than she originally figured. As they traded blows she noted Alex was also moving faster than expected. She noted that Alex wasn’t kidding about being a trained martial artist which explained the large reserve of ki she showed back at the McDonalds.

Their spar lasted for about an hour and a half before Alex got the over stretched rubber band feeling she got the previous day that warned her the she was about shirk back to mouse size. She put up a guard just before she snapped back to three inches high. Unfortunately for her Tempest had started a spin kick and Alex was still in mid air when the kick arrived.

Tempest’s foot slammed into her and sent her sailing towards the back door of the Raddison home.

Alex’s bad luck worsened when the door opened and Twilight stepped out of her house.

“Okay Granny. I’ll pass i -*OOF!*-” Twilight said as Alex sailed forcibly into her gut knocking her on her butt. “TWILIGHT!!” both of the other mares shouted as they ran up to the pair. Alex lay on Twilight’s belly knocked out. Tempest changed back into Ayumi and asked, “You okay little sis?!”

Twilight groaned and looked to her belly and saw an unconscious Alex. “What happened?” But before anyone could say anything, a voice said, “Twilight? You okay?” Ashley picked up Twilight's phone and said, “Twi’s Okay, Granny. Whatcha want her to pass along?”

Ashley listened for a moment then said, “Ah’ll be home in a few and wash Winona. Bye Granny.” She hung up the phone and handed it back to twilight.

“Sorry, sugarcubes. Granny Smith says Ah gotta go home and give Winona a bath and fix dinner f’r the family. Maybe Ah can bring over some pies and apple fritters for snacks?” Ashley said to the group.

“That’d be great Ash. Also could you also take Alex over to meet Lady Smith and the rest of your family? I think it would be good for my student to meet the families of our friends to learn more about her own.” Ayumi said “Besides I kinda want to talk with Miss Raddison about how I relate to her now that she’s become Lady Velvet. And that’s more of a family thing than not. No offence.”

“None taken.” Ashley replied. She picked up the mouse girl and caught a bundle Twilight teleported from inside the GOL model.

A few minutes later, Alex woke up on the dashboard of Ashley’s truck as she drove back to her farm. “*GROAN!* Sensai kicks like a horse literally.” She moaned, before she noticed she was in Ashley’s truck. “How’d I get here?” the bewildered mouse girl looked about and noted where she was and what her head was laying on. “Okaaayyy’” She said. “What happened after sensei kicked me?”

Ashley chuckled as she replied, “Well, ya ended up knockin’ Twilight over, but not ‘fore ya changed back from a human-sized mouse girl. Twilight got ya some clothes Rarity made f’r ya. Ah need t’ get home and check with mah family. Granny Smith needs me to fix dinner and wash mah dog, Winona. She’s a border collie.”

“Any idea how she’ll react to me? I don’t want a repeat of Opal.”Alex said quickly getting dressed. Alex shuddered at the thought of the close shave with the Delararity family cat. If it hadn't been for a panic surge, would’ve been in for a bit of hurt.

Ashley thought a moment then said, “Most likely lick you to death. Though that might turn literal if we’re not careful.” Alex nodded.

The pair rode in silence as the Truck rolled toward Ashley's farm. A few minutes they started passing acre after acre of of all things apple trees. “H-how many acres your family own?” The mouse girl asked.

“About ten acres more than a hobby farm.” The farmmare said as she turned up the access road to the farm. Alex looked at the sign and did a double take as it said, “Sweet Apple Acres.”

“WTF?!” She thought. “Has Buhe figured out how to return to Earth? Or is this a HUGE coincidence.”

“Hay Alex.” Ashley said. “What are you thinking about?” Alex shook her head to bring herself back to the here and now and said, “Wha? oh! Sorry Ash I just saw the name of your farm. Did you know your farm and the farm of the pony you are the anthro version of have the same name?”

“Huh.” Ashley said. “That’s some coincidence.”

“somemouse may have had a hand or should I say a hoof in it.” the mouse adventuress remarked as they pulled up to the farm house. Ashley shut the truck down and carried Alex to the farm house and set her down on the railing of the porch. “Now wait here while I go tell Granny Smith & Big Mac about ya.” Ashley cautioned. “we dun want a repeat of what happened with Sweetie Belle.”

Alex nodded and watched Ashley enter the house. Alex played down on the railing and waited. After about an hour, Alex dozed off. She slept for about five minutes before she rolled of the railing. Alex woke up a split second before she hit the ground and was blinded by a flash of emerald magic.

When she could see again, she felt something hard strike her and she went sailing over the farm house. She landed with a splat and heard a dog sniffing then Ashley say, “Sorry, girl, just got ya washed up. Ah’m not giving ya ‘nother bath just ‘cause ya chose to get dirty again.” Ashley stooped down to see what her dog was so interested in.

“Alex, that you in that mud puddle?” Ashley began to look for something to help scoop Alex out of the mud when she heard the mud grunt in affirmation.

“May I help you?” Ashley looked up when she heard someone’s voice.

She smiled when she recognized the owner of the question. “Oh, Howdy, Starlight! Just tryin’ to get my mouse friend out of this mud puddle as I wait on mah little sister and her friends. They promised to help me out with some baking. Rarity wanted some o’ mah Apple Fritters.”

“Well, I don't know about the second thing, but I think I can help out with the first thing!” Before Ashley could ask, Starlight's magic was already working. She used a levitation spell to get Alex out of the mud puddle.

Ashley held out her hands to receive Alex from Starlight’s magical aura, “You okay, sugarcube?” Alex nodded, wiping mud out of her eyes. Ashley smiled at Starlight, “Thanks fer helpin’ out. Seems like yer learning a lot about friendship by hangin’ out with us.”

“No problem. And yes, now that I discovered it, friendship is such an amazing thing to learn about.” said Starlight.

Ashley wiped one of her hands on her jeans before directing Starlight to her house. “Well, welcome t’ Sweet Apple Acres. Mah little sister should be coming in anytime now. She’s got red hair, a pink bow and yellow fur.”

“Well, it will be good to meet… um… what’s her name?” asked Starlight, blushing a little.

Ashley sighed as she opened the front door, “Amy was her human name, but she wants to be called Apple Bloom. She’s friends with Rarity’s little sister and Micaela’s sister Sam. Ah also have a big brother, and mah grandmother. Plus lots of other extended relatives all around on their farms.”

“Sounds nice! Oh, and sorry for asking. I’m still used to hearing human names everyday, so these transformation one’s are still strange to me.” Starlight said, plopping down on a couch.

Ashley shook her head as she followed her friends lead. “Ah hear ya. Turns out we have Trixie at school, as well as Sunset Shimmer. Both unicorn anthros.”

“Oh, interesting… Is any of them bad or both of them good?” Starlight looked at her expectantly.

Ashley paused for a second, “Well, Sunset’s really nice and she even sang at a talent show we held. Trixie used to be a bully and even challenged Twilight to a magic duel. But it turns out she wasn’t in her right mind. Apparently there’s this amulet that can cause unicorns to become evil. I think the amulet’s gone now, but this really evil entity has been causing trouble at school lately. He’s been turning humans into anthros without their consent.”

“Well, at least I know that I wasn't turning crazy when all I could see were anthro ponies everywhere.” Joked Starlight, inciting a small laugh from her friend.

Just then, the Ashley’s younger sister ran into the room where the older anthros were talking, skidding to a stop when she saw Starlight, “Sorry, sis! Ah didn’t know we had company!” She panted out as she caught her breath.

“Oh, you must be Apple Bloom! I’m Starlight Glimmer, nice to meet you!” Starlight’s eyes ‘glimmered’ when she saw Applebloom.

Apple Bloom smile and extended her hand to Starlight, “Nice ya meet ya, Starlight! Yer one o’ mah sister’s friends from school, right?”

Starlight got up shook the little girl’s hand. “Correct! And I was doing a visit there, so we could talk about things.” She responded lightly.

“Mighty glad ya stopped by, Starlight. And, here comes the rest of mah family.” Ashley nodded toward the figures coming through the door. “This here’s Granny Smith and my big brother, Big MacIntosh. And before ya say anythin’,yes, mah family’s specialty are apple-based products.”

“I can see that, you do have a lot of apple trees here! That’s so cool!” Starlight squealed.

Ashley nodded, “Well, those there apples we need for some treats Ah’m planning to deliver to Rarity’s. Just need t’ find Sweetie Belle and Sam.”

Apple Bloom interjected, “Sam and Sweetie Belle were behind me coming as fast as they could but for some reason I got here before them.”

Ashley rolled her eyes at her sister. “Ah’m sure they’ll be here any moment.” right on cue, Sweetie burst into the room. “See? There’s Sweetie Belle right there.” Ashley got up and began walking towards the door. “Ah’m gonna go get Sam.”

“There’s no need.” Ashley watched in confusion as a young orange Anthro walked into the room, trying to hide behind her short mane.

“Are you takin’ over for Sam?” The older mare scrutinized the younger one’s face, trying to place why she looked familiar. “Ah’m soory, do ah know you from somewhere?”

The filly seemed to shrink, finally figuring out out to hid behind her mane. In classic fluttershy, she said, “I am Sam.”

“Ah’m sorry sugarcube, ah can’t hear you. What was that?” Ashley leaned closer to the kid, who in turn shrunk even more.

She cleared her throat, and tried to speak up. “I said, I am Sam.”

Ashley blinked, rubbing her ear as she stood back up. “And now ah’m hearing things. Starlight, please tell me what you just heard.”

“I believe she was telling you that she was Sam. What’d you hear?” Ashley’s eyes widened, and she stumbled back to the couch. Starlight looked at her reproachfully. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong? Ah’ll tell you what’s wrong. Sam over there has been stuck in a wheelchair ever since I’ve known her.” Starlight gasped and looked over at the filly, who just smiled at her weakly. Ashley rubbed her eyes.

After examining Sam for a few seconds, Starlight looked at her thoughtfully. “I guess that the transformation could fix previous injuries.”

Ashley sighed and nodded, “So Sam can walk and run again? Ah guess it’s ok if it only healed injuries. How much magic does that take, anyways?” She looked over at her friend, who just shrugged.

“Hell if I know. Oh, speaking of magic and all, I saw something pretty strange on my way here…” Starlight said, changing the subject so as to mask her failure of understanding what she thought was a basic function of the world, however new it was.

Ashley tilted her head, “Ya don’t say. What kinda strange thing, other than us and the other anthros around school?”

“Well, I saw some checkered floor, a house floating around, and some kind of… dragon thing?”

Alex's head snapped to take a look at the anthro version of Starlight Glimmer and asked “Did it have a Dragon’s body, eagle’s claw, a lion’s paw, a bat wing, a feathered wing, and body parts of different animals?” Starlight stared at Alex’s words more from the venom in them than the description she provided. But before the unicorn anthro could say anything the elderly green mare anthro grabbed the the muddy mouse anthro and said “Consarnate varmits are getter bolder by the day.” before she hobbled towards an open window and pulled back to hurl Alex, who squeeked/said “AshpleasestopyourgrandmotherbeforeshegivesmeaflyinglessonandIdon’thavewingsyet!”

“GRANNY NO!” Sweetie Belle shouted as the ancient mare threw Alex. Without thinking, she tried to catch Alex with her magic. Alex gave sigh of relief as Sweetie caught her magically. Sweetie belle also sighed in relief has she brought her tiny friend close to her then hugged her.

“Ack!” Was all Alex said as Sweetie Belle hugged her to small yet ample chest. “Help.” The mouse said as she was being unintentionally suffocated by the filly. “Um… Sweetie Belle?” Ashley queried. “Alex needs to breathe.” Alex’ head swam as she was jerked away from by Sweetie. “SORRY!” Alex nodded the noticed the orange filly anthro w/ a purple mane and tail. “Sc-scootaloo?

“This here is Sam Dashel, Micaela’s adopted little sister.” Ashley said. “Though I believe she would be called Scootaloo, a Pegasus filly." Ashley looked over at Starlight and Alex, "Looks like we have all three Cutie Mark Crusaders.”

Baking up a Storm

Taking a deep breath Ashley opens the door to the kitchen and she and Alex were greeted by the sight of half baked dough and apples all over the place. The anthro CMC and Starlight were covered with some of it.

Starlight held up one finger and said, “Not. One. Word.”

Alex covered her mouth to hide a chuckle.

*poof*! “Hey Ash! I got Star’s text about Scoots. How she taking it?” Ayumi said teleporting into the room. After seeing the mess Ayumi levitated it all off of them. “Better girls?”

Apple Bloom looked at herself and said, “Yes ma'am.” then she looked at the mess on the kitchen and added, “But how did this happen? We followed the recipe exactly.” The young filly anthro held up the recipe cards for Ayumi to examine.

“Did Sweetie use magic? Last time I tried cooking with levitation I kinda blew up my microwave.” Ayumi said.

“I wrecked the toaster oven back home in America when a surge levitated a tray of chocolate chip cookies into it.” Alex said with a shudder.

“Um… yes.” Sweetie Belle said sheepishly.

“I told you ‘don’t try too much with magic yet,.’ Sweetie. Practice the small stuff till I can train you in your magic.” Ayumi said ruffling her mane. “But it’s nice that you’re trying at least.”

“She saved me when Granny Smith mistook me for a regular mouse.” Alex said, after a moment of thought She asked “Sensei, would you know what Cutie Marks mean?”

Who’s cutiemark the Cmc’s or yours? Cause the Cmc should get their canon Cutie Marks soon now that we have them all here.” Ayumi said.

Alex motioned to her shoulders and said, “Mine.”

“Try to grow again so we can take a picture this will be a great way for the Cmc to regain their Cutie Marks, after all it’s the secondary meaning of their Cutie Marks.” Ayumi said turning to the Cmc “Still I hope you three will help regardless.”

Alex focused on her magic, First she tried to access her Chaos magic but it slid away from her. She started to get frustrated and the chaos magic began to build towards a surge when suddenly she felt her alicorn magic latch onto the spell she was trying to cast. Alex’s hands stopped glowing and her eyes started to glow. Then Alex slowly grew to her human size and her clothes weren't destroyed.

“Stop Alex! You’re surging! I meant use your alicorn magic it should be safer!” Alex heard in her head as her magic flowed through her. “Good! Just don’t be surprised when you look in the dining room mirror.”

Alex’s eyes stopped glowing the moment the spell completed.

“Whoa nelly! How’d you get those wings, Alex?” Apple Bloom said.

“Say What?!” Alex said and looked in to the nearest mirror. She watched as they faded away. “Wha-what happened, Sensei?”

“Well I kinda wanted to see your alicorn magic but I forgot to tell you to try using it and you started surging, so I tried using my telepathy to help you but it turns out your alicorn magic had already took over thus your wings.” Ayumi said “Though that makes me wonder if you keep your magic going if you can fly without ki. Oh! i forgot to tell you ki can be used to fly if you have enough of it which you most definitely do.”

“I’ll give it a try later.” Alex said.

Ashley cleared her throat and said, “Well what are we waiting for? Let’s get cooking!”

“Give me a second to take that picture of Alex’s cutie mark and we’ll start.” Ayumi said taking out her phone “Show your cutie mark and stand still Alex.”

Alex turned her shoulder so it faced her sensei and froze. She stayed still until her ears picked up a faint click/whir.

“Ok we’re good. By the way what bacon are we cooking or was Granny Smith making lunch earlier when she called?” Ayumi said. “Cause i still smell it.”

“Granny was making lunch.” Ashley replied. “It was the last of the bacon we bought when we bought groceries. We all had Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato sandwiches.”

Apple Bloom added, “Ya, ever since we became earth ponies it started to taste yucky.“ The young filly made a face to show her disgust of the taste of the bacon in the BLT sandwiches..

Ashley nodded, “All of us could barely keep it down; land sakes, it tasted so bad! The lettuce and tomato tasted heavenly though. Don’t rightly know why though.” The apple farm girl shrugged.

Alex thought a moment then said, “Could be you’re vegan biologically. Pegasi & unicorns can eat meat because they need the protein to fuel their magic.”

“Not really, most of us have human digestive systems even normal ponies like Pinkie do eat and enjoy meat still.” Ayumi said confused. “It might be how heavily processed the bacon is here or that it wasn’t applesmoked. After all the whole family is apple based right?”

Alex nodded and said, “Okay let’s clean this place and get cooking.”

After helping to clean up the mess Alex and the others got started on a fresh batch of apple pies. Once finished Alex noticed she was still human sized, but a bit shorter than before.

Ashley looked over at Alex after the last of the pies were placed in the oven, “Alex, is it mah imagination, are are ya a might bit shorter? Ah mean, Ah’m about 6’1” or so.”

“Well she used alicorn magic to grow slowly this time. She might be shrinking slowly as well.” Ayumi said with a chuckle “At least this time her clothes didn’t explode.”

Alex looked at time and added, “I don’t understand; I matched the amount of mana that caused me to grow the last time, or at least I think so.”

“Alicorn magic is structured and has better control over its Mana usage meaning that it would be more efficient in how you grow and Shrink.” Ayumi said “we could also factor in the extra mana that comes from your surges as you almost did surge till your Alicorn magic took over.”

“Oh great.” the mouse groused. “Now I have figure out how much mana to put in to remain human sized until school is out for the day.” By now Alex was able to look the CMC in the eye.

“I could make a mana sink bracelet that’ll be what the spell pulls from, kinda like your translator coin.” Ayumi said “it’ll be a good time to try Skyrim-level enchanting.”

“Erk!” Alex said, “I could never figure that style for enchanting.”

“Soul gems are the problem. We don’t want to use them, due to how you fill them, but something like ‘em. That’s why I was testing crystal batteries back at school.” Ayumi said with a frown “Spike has been looking for better quality gems to help out.”

Alex thought over her adventures as Alex Viator, tapping into her Alicorn magic she remembered a certain box in her bedroom in America. Gathering local mana then shaped the spell. “Abracadabra!” she said. As she prepared the spell, she finished shrinking so the ornate box appeared in midair and dropped to the ground two inches in front of Alex.

“WHAT’S IN THE BOX?!!!!!!!!!!!” Screamed Ayumi as everyone stared at her confused as to why she screamed it out “I always wanted to use that meme so give me a break! Seemed a perfect time to! Anyway WHAT is in the box Alex? The BlackStar? Cause if it is, send it right the fug back home.”

Alex winced at her sensei’s scream. “A gift from Daring Do sent by dragonfire. It contains twenty-five fire rubies. It was supposed to have 30 but Spike the dragon on her side ate five before she could stop him. She sent them to me as thanks for my help with the mirror of Lathrop Htrae adventure.” with that Alex opened the box revealing twenty-five fire rubies scintillating as if radiating heat yet none could felt from it.

“I think those will work but I’ll have to use my dragonfire to charge them,” Ayumi said “by the way the bracelet will be made out of Nightmare metal and an Ice Ruby or Ice Sapphire as it can also be called. That’s cause ruby and sapphire are the same gem, just different colors due to their impurities making the gem blue or red respectively. I was a rockhound well before I became part dragon so i know a lot about gemstones. That’s also why I’m building my home in the Coober Pedy opal mines since you can keep any gems you find.”

“So you can dig up a snack when you feel snacky?” Alex said teasingly.

“That and I can get material for enchanting easily.” Ayumi said with a grin. “I'm already rich so I won't need to sell anything I find. The Nightmare metal will not need to be enchanted to shrink and grow after I tie it to your alicorn magic making for less work for me.”

“I’ve collected a lot of stuff over the three years I’ve been adventuring, some are pretty exotic.” Alex said. “Would some them be useful in enchanting?” Alex then did a ki assisted jump to the tabletop and began using her chaos magic to gather the rest of the remains of the unfortunate pie. She then telekinetically threw the resultant blob into the trash.

Alex then placed her hands on her knees and caught her breathe as the action took more out her than she realized. “I feel like I stayed up for sixty hours straight at a con.” She said as she looked at Ayumi. “Is this what you mean about chaos magic being hard on the body until it aligns with my body?” To which she received a small nod.

“That’s the first stage of chaos magic exhaustion. If you keep going, it’ll start hurting then knock you out for a couple of days.” Ayumi said “So be careful and try using more of your alicorn magic and ki levitation.”

While Sensei and student talked, the new fully anthrofied CMC began making apple fritters with Sweetie Belle mixing the ingredients and dishing it out into chunky balls of dough. Apple Bloom took over by putting them into a dutch oven with boiling oil. Scootaloo finished the job by putting the finished fritters into a large basket.

Alex smiled as she watched the filly anthros work at making the applely treats, sat down at the edge of the table. She felt a sudden sadness as she watched, at her current level of mastery she doubted that she could be more help with her magic.

Ayumi picked her up in her own magic “You shouldn’t be sad, Alice! You helped out so much already; plus you can taste test once the pies are done. So cheer up! At least Pinkie isn’t here to eat it all before anyone else.”

“It’s Alex.” The mouse says with slight annoyance. “Nightmare Moon called me Alice.” She then turned to Ayumi, “Discord visited us earlier. What was that all about?”

Ashley chuckled, “Discord is what we call a being of chaos an’ disharmony. He must have sensed yer chaos magic and wanted to check it out fer himself.”

While they waited for the pies to finish, the newly minted Scootaloo got bored. Picking up a nearby magnifying glass, she carefully examined Alex's cutie mark. The red circle didn't seem special. The shield itself looked like the shield Shining Armor had in his Cutie Mark. The two five pointed stars reminded her of the stars on the American flag. The six pointed star was identical to Twilight’s cutie mark, right down to the tiny stars surrounding it. “OHMYGAWD!!!” Scootaloo exclaimed.

Ashley looked over at Scootaloo, “Whatcha goin’ on about now, Sam? Oh, by the way, Alex’s pies and fritters look delicious, by the way. Nice job foldin’ the dough around those apple slices.”

“Alex’s cutie mark has Twilight’s cutie mark as part of it.” Sam said excitedly as she handed the magnifying glass to Ashley. “Take a look at the six pointed star in her cutie mark and you’ll see what I mean.”

Ashley took the magnifier and looked at Alex’s cutie mark while Alex remained still. “Land sakes, you’re right! Alex, did you ever draw a picture of what your cutie mark would look like?”

“On the plane on the way to Perth from LAX. I got bored and drew it to pass the time.” Alex replied. Unfortunately, my laptop hiccupped and rebooted itself before I could save it.”

Ashley was about to ask about if she saved the e-mail attachment she got from the mlp theorists when something clicked and she asked, “Could you describe this here Buhe fellar fer us?”

Ayumi, Starlight, Sweetie Belle, and Sam looked at Ashley in confusion. Alex thought a moment, then said, “Buhe was described as having the head of a horse, the body of a dragon, the paw of a lion, talon of a raptor, hoof of a goat, claw of a lizard, a bat’s wing, a feathered wing, one antelope horn, one deer antler and the tail of a gator or dragon.”

“Sugarcube, ya just described Discord.” Ashley stated matter-of-factly.

“SAY WHAT!” everybody else but Ayumi shouted. Where as Ayumi shouted “DAMMIT DAD! YOU HAVE SOME SHIT TO ANSWER FOR NOW!”

Suddenly there was a flash and there was the Lord of Chaos, Discord. He was smiling as he looked at Ayumi. “Tempest! My lovely abomination what ‘shit’ do I ha…" he paused, "Oh my, this version of Earth feels familiar, but I can’t put my claw on it.” He said before fidgeting with his beard.

Ashley looked at Alex and saw the mouse girl was outlined in emerald fire and looking pissed. “Come on girls, let’s find the first aid kit.” She said as she herded the CMC out of the room.
.
“But why do you need our help t’ find it?” Apple Bloom asked in confusion.

“I think I’ll help.” Starlight hastily said as she joined them.

Discord watched in a little puzzlement as the anthro equines hurriedly left the room. “Why are they leaving?” He asked Ayumi. Ayumi was fuming and said, “Dad look behind you and meet my student.”

The dragonequis looked behind and saw Alex as she jumped down to the floor and grew to human size. “A mouse girl?” He said in surprise.

Ayumi changed into Tempest then said, “Dad I’d like you to meet Alexandra Traveller, formerly Alexandre Viator.”

Discord looked at the mouse girl as she cracked her knuckles. “Viator? I haven't heard name that since I was on this Earth… 15,000… years… ag...ERK!” Discord said as Alex grabbed him by the throat, lifting him off the ground.

In the hallway out of sight of the Kitchen, Ashley pulled up a large box. Scootaloo was leaning against one shoulder asked, “Why are we all here? You already knew where it is.”

Starlight looked nervously towards the kitchen and said, “You girls probably noticed that Alex looked like she was on fire back there right.” Sweetie Belle got a look of concern and asked, “Why?”

“Don’t rightly know sugarcube.,” Ashley said looking back toward her family's kitchen “All Ah know is that Discord messed with Alex’s family along time ago cursing them with sumthin. I didn’t think it was this Disord though as Ayumi said that her Pony Dad was never truly evil jus’ that he went Mad for awhile.”

Suddenly there was a crash! it was was followed by four more. Worried about what was happening in the kitchen, Ashley picked the first aid kit and hurried back. When they got there, Discord was laying in a hole in the floor that was ironically the same spot the pear jam was hidden “The Perfect Pear” in the show. Alex was still human sized and had her arms crossed as she looked at Ashley and said, “I apologize for the floor, but he had it coming.”

Tempest had an evil smile as she raised her phone and said, “Mama Luna’s going to have a cow for missing this. Momie Selene even more! Good thing I got pictures!”

Alex sat on the nearby table and shrank by to mouse-size. “I want to thank you for giving me the chance to blow off the steam that’s been building up for three years.”

“Hay Alex I think you just combine both of you magics with that flaming cloak!” Tempest said “While I’m proud of you for doing so you should try to control your anger, after all we don’t want a hulk-like situation to come up without need for it.”

“What do you mean by that Sensei?” Alex asked in puzzlement.

“Tempest please don’t give that little mana bomb any ideas please” Moaned Discord before he noticed Tempest dialing on her phone. “uh… Tempest sweetie what are you doing?”

“Oh nothing.” The Alicorn of Destiny said. “Just sending Auntie Celestia, Moma Luna, Momie Seline and Velvet some recently acquired pics.”

Discord groaned. “Your finally getting me back for that pranksgiving last year.”

“Yup.” Tempest said with a cheeky grin “Also nice reference there dad.”

“Well I better leave before Miss mouse-hulk gets pissed at me again and does a repeat performance. “ He says as he crawls out of the hole before teleporting away.

“Now that that’s over what I meant is that not all the threats we’ll face my little sister and her friends elements won’t be able to beat alone.” Tempest said as she reverted back to her normal form of Ayumi “ there will be blood and possibly gore so we train to prevent this.”

Alex started to say something when her cellphone began vibrating in her pocket. “Hello?” Alex asked.

“I almost forgot.” Discord’s voice came back. Alex could almost swear she was hearing the voices of ten individuals, seven of which she thought she recognized, laughing in the background. “During the next week do try to wear denim slacks or shorts. Unless you want your mother to be a grandmother and don’t forget to check the news about swamp fever where you’re at.”

Alex looked at her phone puzzled. “Now that was cryptic.” she said as she put her phone away.

“If I’m right then your alicorn magic might cause a false heat due to adjustments it’ll go through.” Ayumi said with distaste “Dad must have thought it’d be hilarious to speed it along. And before you ask, yes chaos magic links us so I heard it too.”

“Oh great.” Alex said with a heavy dose of sarcasm. “But what did he mean about Swamp Fever though.”

“That i don’t know but it might be a reference to fallout 3 and it’s point lookout dlc or worse the countryside is changing as we do.” Ayumi said a slightly worried expression on her face. “As far as i know there’s no swamp near here, at best the banyon grove could be considered a coastal swamp of sorts.”

Alex facepalmed as a thought occurred to her. “Sensei, we better check the news.” she said.

Sam rushed ahead, enjoying beginning able to run again and turned on the TV. It showed an aerial view of Ayers Rock surrounded by a swamp of all things. All the anthros in the room could say only one thing.

“Aw horseapples.” Ashley exclaimed.

Swamp Fever Epidemic

The group, led by Ayumi, Alex, and Ashley, along with Starlight Glimmer and the Cutie Mark Crusaders went out from Sweet Apple Acres to investigate the Ayers Rock reports. As they cautiously approached the site in question, Alex voiced her concerns to the group, “This is bad.” Alex said with trepidation. “That is no ordinary swamp.”

“Whatcha say that for?” Ashley asked.

“During my last adventure, where I met and teamed up with Daring Do, I visited my neighbor, Dr Henry Jones Jr.” Alex explained. “He told me a theory where he said, ‘one of the signs of a magical age is starting is the appearance of lands in or around areas of magic.’ And Ayers Rock has been stated to be magical.”

Ayumi’s eyes widened as she realized some critical information. “Dad wasn’t referring to the Earth version of swamp fever.” She said. “He meant the Equiis or Equestrian version.”

Alex pulled her phone back out and started to dial a number. “Who’re you calling?” Sweetie Belle as the mouse finished dialing.

“My Mother.” She said. “I am going to ask her to send all my mementos from my past adventures here. Including my dragonfire candles.”

Alex waited as her mother’s phone rang then made a sour face. “Mom forgot to pay her cell phone bill again.”

“Why do you need dragonfire candles? And how do you have in the first place?” Starlight asked.

“To send a message to Daring Do. They came with the fire rubies in a set of 12.”
Alex replied.

“Uh hello, I’m a dragon hybrid!” Ayumi reminded “I can just send it myself! in fact, I can control the place i can send it to, just like Spike; no need for those candles.”

Alex rubbed the back of her head and an embarrassed, “Oh.”

Alex then grew to human size then winced in pain when she was done growing. “Sensei, but how long does chaos magic take to recharge?”

Ashley then asked Alex and Ayumi, “Whatcha know about the Swamp Fever from the show, so we c’n avoid it? Sounds like something we shouldn’t be messin’ with, like Poison Joke.” She looked back to her sister and friends, “Ah don’t want anypony or anyone goin’ near that there swamp fever stuff until we know more ‘bout it.” She really wanted to contact Twilight, Micaela, Flora, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie, but they would probably be busy. “Should we contact the other girls back home? Send them some pictures of this here swamp around Ayers Rock?”

“It’s caused by exposure to the pollen of the flower of trees that is sadly created when Swamp Fever reaches its conclusion. “

Ashley looked back at Starlight and the Crusaders, “Then we’d better not go any further near that there swamp or them flowers. Any known cure if we somehow get exposed? Ah want to be ready fer anything.”

Alex replied. As she began to write a letter. “I am writing Daring Do and ask her to somehow send a few jars of flash bee honey. It’s the only cure for Equestrian Swamp Fever.”

“Good point. And it will be even better if Twilight and the others know about the swamp.” said Starlight.

Ashley nods, “Anything about the symptoms of Equestrian Swamp Fever we should look for?” She said while texting Twilight and the other girls about the swamp around Ayers Rock and to beware of the dreaded Swamp Fever.

“Coughing up bubbles. Orange splotches. Some flu-like symptoms. Sneezing lightning (that can be a shocker). And finally, metamorphosis into the tree with the flowers that make the pollen.”

Ashley shudders, “Well, then, we’d better have some o’ that flash bee honey on-hand in case some o’ us get too close to them flowers. What do the flowers look like so Ah can warn mah sister and her friends?”

Alex thought about what Ashley said, “They are resemble water lilies with blue petals and orange spots, and they shoot a cloud of pollen if they are disturbed. So it be a good idea to avoid going into any form of water that has water lilies, just to be safe.” Starlight wrote the information in a notebook.

Alex finished the letter and put in an envelope then used a seal before handing it to Ayumi who changed into Tempest and sent it on its way.

“Now we wait.”

At that moment, the timer signaled the pies were ready. “Oh, good! The pies are done!” Ashley went to her portable oven and put on some oven mitts, “Now be careful with these here pies; they’re mighty hot. That’s why Ah brought some fresh apple cider for everypony, er and every mouse, creature…”

“They look delicious! But yeah, we'll wait until they're not too hot.” said Starlight.

Alex chuckled. When she realized something, “ Weren’t we making all of the applely good treats for a party or something? “

Some of the pies were packed into a special case. “These cases are f’r the party. Some of the pies are for us and whoever else wants some. Ya never know who ya might meet.”

Just then, some rustling in the nearby bushes revealed an anthro Earth pony stallion with a dark orange coat and a yellow mane and tail, “Oh my stars! Are those apple pies Ah smell? Ah sure am hungry. Ah’m Cattail. Ah’m a local around these here parts.” The earth pony anthro’s stomach growled in response.

Ashley waved to Cattail, “Oh, howdy, Cattail! We were investigatin’ the swamp here.”

As Cattail approached the group, He failed to notice Alex until a green flash occurred and the mouse girl appeared on Ashley's Stetson. “Ow.” The mouse said. “How am I low on chaos magic? “

Ashley looked up at Alex on her hat, “So when ya are low on Chaos magic, ya conserve yer mana by assumin’ yer mouse size?”

Alex gave Ashley a nod. “It seems that way. I’m just learning to control both it and my Alicorn magic.” She replies. “I am going to have to use my Alicorn magic for size changing. By the way Cattail, what are you doing here?”

Cattail nods, “Ah was explorin’ this here large rock area when suddenly, the swamp appeared. Ah knew those trees and flowers weren’t natural ‘round these here parts. Ah’ve been avoidin’ gettin’ near those flowers, with their pollen and all.”

“Good thing you did.” Alex said. “If you were exposed to the pollen you would’ve contracted Equestrian Swamp Fever.”

Ashley looked around for her sister and her friends, “Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo; you gals need ta stay away from them flowers and pollen, y’hear? Ah’m not sure we have the flash bee honey yet.”

Alex gathered some of her alicorn magic, resulting in sprouting wings to fly higher. Taking off she looked around then said, “I don’t see them anywhere!”

Ashley grew very worried about her sister and her friends. The image of three anthro fillies covered in orange splotches, sneezing lightning, blowing bubbles, and growing tree limbs made her even anxious. “Land sakes! Ah told those girls not t’ go wanderin’ off like that!”

“Sounds like they were the CMC in spirit before they anthrofied. “ Alex commented. “You guys go look for them. I’ll stay here and in case they come back or the honey arrives!” She lands and lets her manawings fade.

Ashley nodded and hoped the girls would be okay. “Apple Bloom! Sweetie Belle! Scootaloo!” She called out to the area where the Cutie Mark Crusaders were last at.

“ASHLEY!!!!” Apple Bloom’s high-pitched voice shrieked. The farmmare ran to the sound and skidded to a halt at the sight of a park ranger covered with orange splotches.

Ashley skidded to a stop near her sister, “Apple Bloom, don’t touch him! He’s got Swamp Fever! Where are Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo?” She pulled out her cell phone to contact Alex via text; “Found Apple Bloom. Park Ranger is in need of Flash Bee Honey. Swamp Fever confirmed.”

“We spotted some glowin' bees flyin’ n’ out of a hollow tree. They attacked us, so we ran back toward your location. Then this here ranger tripped over me.” The yellow filly said.

Ashley’s cell phone alerted her of a message received. It read, “Trampled by Sweetie Belle & Scoots. I’m ok though.”

Ashley sighed, “You aren’t infected by the Swamp Fever, are ya, sis?”

Apple Bloom shook her head. “We never saw any of the plague lilies; just the glowin' bees.”

Alex texted Ashley, “Got letter from Daring Do. She wrote that she, Twilight,& Fluttershy were heading to some place called Hayseed Swamp to get the flash bee honey. As well as something else.”

“How long is that gonna take? Ah don’t want the park ranger to end up as a tree.” Ashley texted back as she helped the ranger up to his feet, “Easy does it, sir. We’ll get ya cured in no time.” She hoped she wouldn’t get infected by merely touching the ranger to move him to a safe location.

“So you know of a cure.*COUGH POP POP POP* The ranger says. “Do you know what I got?”

“You got Equestrian Swamp Fever.” A harsh voice said. “Don’t worry. It’s not contagious.” When Ashley looked in the direction of the voice she saw none other than Dr. Caballeron, the arch-nemesis of Daring Do.

Ashley turned to face Dr. Caballeron. “Dr. Caballeron, Ah presume?” She ushered her sister behind her. “What are you doin’ here anyway?”

The good doctor smiled and said, “In the furred flesh.” He then added, “It would seem my reputation precedes me. Now you seem to know something about Swamp Fever.”

“What ‘bout it?” Ashley maintained a defensive stance to protect her sister from Dr. Caballeron. “This here swamp appeared ‘round Ayers Rock, which happens to be one o’ the best known tourist attractions in Australia, next to the Sydney Opera House and Canberra, the capital.”

The tan earth pony anthro frowned and said, “Don’t get on my bad side, Apple.” At the Snap of his fingers six anthros stepped from their hiding spots. “You’re not Daring Do or Alexandre Viator, so you and the filly with you ...”

Ashley was ready to throw down. “Ah hope yer ready fer a fight, ‘cause these here hooves were meant fer Apple Buckin’.” She adjusted her Stetson and clenched her fists.

One of the henchponies looked a little nervous and said, “Uh boss. That mare looks a lot like Applejack.”

Ashley snorted, “That’s ‘cause Ah am Applejack. Bearer o’ the Element o’ Honesty and the most dependable o’ ponies. This lil’ gal’s mah little sister, Apple Bloom. Ya still wanna take a chance yer gonna get bucked t’ next week, be mah guest.”

The hench pony wearing a black vest and Stetson backed up a step.

“That’s what Ah thought. Smart pony.” Ashley kept a wary eye out for the henchponies surrounding her and Apple Bloom, “Man, Ah wish mah friends were here.” She muttered to herself as she kept the henchponies at bay and hopefully, from attacking Apple Bloom or herself.

Three of the hench ponies looked like the anthro versions of the good Doctor’s hench ponies from the show. The others were different. One looked like a Unicorn dressed in a suit that looked more like it belonged in a disco than the Outback. The second was a head shorter and was dressed in black and wearing ill-fitting aviator sunglasses and looked ready to fight, thought the wings on his back somehow ruined the look. The third was an earth pony that was as big as Big Mac dressed in a blue suit. He cracked his knuckles and said, ‘At least we don’t have to worry about Chan spoiling the fun.”

Ashley counted up all the henchponies, “Six on two seems a lil’ unfair, if ya ask me. Thankfully, Ah didn’t come alone.” She whistled to signal for her backup.

A green flash and roman candle effect announced the arrival of Alex. Alex looked around and said, “You called?”

Ashley smiled, “Sure could use some help dealin’ with these guys. Turns out Dr. Caballeron’s up ta something. Man, Micaela would love this; straight out of her Daring Do novels.” She turned to Apple Bloom, “Ya up fer a fight, sugarcube?”

“As ready as Ah’ll ever be.” Apple Bloom said nervously.

“I’ll take the San Fran trio. You get the the derp squad.”

“That leaves these three ta us. Unless somepony else wants to join in.” Ashley smiled as she prepared for battle.

Just as Ashley said that, smoke surrounded their enemies, and one familiar girl was attacking them.

“Starlight? That you, sugarcube?” Ashley called out to her friend.

“That's what they get for messing with my friends.” said Starlight as she appeared.

Ashley smiled, “Told ya! Ah never go anywhere without proper backup.” She sent an Apple buck at the nearest henchpony’s muzzle.

Meanwhile, Dr Caballeron had recovered from the smoke, and was walking towards them.

He didn't get far, though. A thunderbolt struck the ground besides him.

Ashley looked up in search of whatever produced the thunderbolt, only to see an odd-looking pony and a draconequus standing on the clouds.

Alex squared off against the unicorn and performed a roundhouse kick to his horn. He cried out in pain and grabbed the base of his horn as he fell to his knees.

“Two down, four ta go.” Ashley observed as she continued to fight the hench ponies.

The rather large earth pony tried to grab Alex from behind, only for the mouse to apparently vanish in a flash of green. “Where’d she go?” He said confused.

A shrill whistle at his feet caused him to look down. The last conscious thing he saw was a fist surrounded by a roman candle effect as Alex grew under his jaw with a jump to add momentum. He fell onto his partner, knocking him out.

Two of the henchponies were running away while screaming.

“Don’t ya dare come back, y’hear?” Ashley taunted.

“Where are you two going? I was having fun!” said the odd-looking pony. Discord giggled at that.

Apple Bloom was so relieved the hench ponies had ran off. “What about that Dr. Caballeron fella? He took off too?”

Alex dusted herself off and said, “He’ll be back.” She turned to the disco unicorn and said to him, “What are you three doing down under? And how did you become anthrofied?”

Ashley watched as Alex interrogated the fallen unicorn who was wearing a disco-style outfit. “Rarity would probably question his choice of clothing.” She quipped. She then listened as the hired goon told his tale.

Starlight looked around in case anyone could return.

“The Boss reformed the Black Hand. He found some sort of Talisman that turned him into a unicorn made of crystal.”

“King Sombra? He ruled the Crystal Empire until he was defeated at least two separate occasions.” Ashley stated.

The unicorn shook his head. “No, the Talisman was a gold disk. A curved red horn lead him to it.”

“Hold on. The Black Hand?” asked Starlight.

Alex nodded. “A criminal organization I helped render defunct. At least I thought it was.”

“Then Dr. Caballeron somehow promised you something; money and/or power if ya joined his group o’ treasure hunters.” Ashley smiled, “Ah have a friend back home who loves the Daring Do novels.”

“No. Dr. Caballeron is Valmont’s partner. The one in charge speaks through a curved red unicorn horn. A King Sombrero or something.”

“King Sombra.” Ashley corrected. “You have much ta learn ‘bout Equestrian lore, sugarcube.”

“What lore?” The unicorn stammered.

“Let's just say you need some teachers.” Starlight chuckled while saying it.

“Seems Sombra’s horn ended up here on Earth after his second defeat.” Alex commented.

The unicorn squinted at Alex and asked, “Who’re you? The way you speak sounds familiar, but the voice doesn’t ring any bells.”

“You just have to figure it out, Disco dope.” Alex smirked.

Alex turned to the others and said, “Sombra’s Horn on Earth doesn’t bode well.”

Ashley nods, “Darn tootin’. Better call Twilight and the others. Sounds like we’re gonna need everypony’s help on this one. By the way, we still need to cure the park ranger before he starts sproutin’ branches.”

“What are Flash Bees?” Apple Bloom asked nervously near her sister.

“A variety of honey bee from Equestria; they are immune to the pollen and make the cure. They appear at a distance as yellow and blue glowing cloud.” Alex replied.

Apple Bloom gulped, “Ya mean that yellow and blue glowin’ cloud?” She pointed at the yet-far away cloud of bees.

Ashley looked very worried, “Was there some sort of mask that Mage Meadowbrook used t’ collect the honey from their hive t’ make the bees think yer their queen or somethin’?”

“Yes, but it’s in Equestria. Hold on!” Alex teleported everymouse back to the truck where Ayumi, Sweetie Belle, & Scootaloo where waiting.

She promptly shrank and collapsed.

Ashley gently picked up the passed out mouse girl and held her in her hand, “Thanks fer savin’ us from the Flash bees, Alex. You need yer rest.” She petted Alex to make sure she knew her assistance was much appreciated.

Discord and the strange pony appeared. The draconequus looked at the mouse girl and said, “She’s got to work on controlling the amount of magic she uses in her spells.”

“Hey guys!” Ayumi called out from the front of the truck, “You might want to take a look at this!”

The portable TV came to life, showing some rather large figures approaching from the sky, “Those cannot be either Twilight or Fluttershy coming with that Flash Bee Honey. What in the wide worlds of Equestria or Earth can that be?” Ashley said, attempting to make out the figures coming towards the group.

“I had left Equestria again a few minutes ago and ended up in that altercation with those thugs accosting the Honesty of Earth and her sister.” The strange pony, who turned out to be Selene Ayumi/Tempest’s other Pony mother said. “By the way dear Tempest, you sent great pictures of Discord being slammed about by that mouse girl.” Discord facepawed and groaned.

“As to those approaching us they appear to be dragons.” Discord pointed out matter-of-factly.

“Shit!” Ayumi said as black and white flames suddenly cloaked her body “Mother, I'll deal with you later. Girls, if we're going to survive this I have to warn you, I'm not going to hold back anything.” The TV zoomed in now showing five large adult dragons. “These may be wild dragons but make no mistake this is one of the threats I mentioned earlier. My Equestrian counterpart was trained in anti-dragon tactics and since I have both her memories and skills; I’m sure I could take down these guys with little trouble but,... I might need some ground control, cause those thugs seem to be riding the first two.”

Ashley began to prepare for a battle, “Alex is out of this one until she can recover her magic. Where should I put her so she won’t get hurt?”

Apple Bloom picked up the passed out mouse girl and joined the rest of the CMC as Scootaloo said, “We’ll take Alex and hide nearby.” The trio of fillies then dashed out of the soon to be battle.

“I hope you won’t mind if I help out.” The former nightmare moon said. Nobody seemed to object to it.

The motley crew were ready to fight, to stave off the dragons. Selene summoned her armor, and took wing. Ayumi changed into Tempest and did likewise. As the alicorns of destiny and nightmare closed with the dragons, the air started to feel charged. “Daughter, the air feels like it does before a thunderstorm.” Selina says. “Though I must admit that all the dragons being blue is pleasing to the eye.”

The lead dragon opened it’s maw and a blue glow can be seen which slowly got brighter. Lighting began arcing across it’s maw.

The growing scent of ozone filled the air.

“Well Mom you ain’t seen nothing yet!” Tempest said and as flames began to cloak Her she started to Change. The dragons let loose lightning but instead of hitting the two alicorns the lightning became drawn to Tempest’s flame cloak and started circling it seeming to further empower this new transformation. The ball of flame and lightning that surrounded Tempest grew to equal the size of a dragon itself. With a hollow ‘BOOM!’ the fire and lighting disappeared and where Tempest the alicorn dragon hybrid once flew was an Elder Dragon with Tempest’s color scheme.

“Tempe what is this?!” Selene asked “we knew of your battle form but... this and your power is rising still!”

“I said I wasn’t holding back, mom! This is the form of my dragon half fully utilized.” Tempest said in a deep yet somehow Still female voice “I was trained in dragon combat by Ember herself back in our home timeline; when I’m in this form not much can hurt me, and I gain my own unique breath attack.” an orb of purple energy suddenly formed in front of Tempest’s Maw, “Antimagic.” with that the energy orb rocketed forward and flew just above the two lead dragons as blue lines of energy were pulled from them and their riders. This loss of magic both grounded the two leaders and knocked out the thugs. “I can’t use that attack again for another minute or so, but at least the girls on the ground will have something to do now. And since my antimagic orb drained those dragons of almost all their magic, it’ll be easy for Ashley and Starlight to knock them out while we finish up the rest up here.”

“Well at least there is some left for me!” Selene said with a laugh “but are you certain that those girls will be ok? I’d think-”

“Mother, there is a law of the multiverse: NEVER and I mean NEVER Tempt Murphy- you almost did. Let's just focus on the guys in the sky, ‘cause it looks like they’re going to fire their lightning again.”

“Oh , right”

Just as the lead dragon was about to fire, a crystal scythe came spinning through it, clean and elegantly. The dragon was burst apart into dark cloud, revealing how false that particular dragon was. They saw the scythe curve back through the air, and it was caught by its owner mid-arc. They saw that it was Maestro- though evident from the look in his eye, this was the one from Equestria. He popped his knuckles. “Alright then. Now that I have your attention, allow me to pose to you a question:” Suddenly, his expression turned serious and full of rage, as his coat, mane, and tail darkened. “Who’s the idiot that had the bright idea to abduct my daughter? Step forward now, and I might be lenient.” His glaring eyes were boring into the dragons, causing them to squirm a little.

However, a bold soul spoke up from among them. “Why should we say? Prism is a dragon; she belongs with us, not a pony like you. Besides, wh-”

The dragon was cut off as Maestro’s scythe arced towards him, and turned into a hammer to knock him out. It flew back to Maestro, but just hovered at his side, ready to attack the next fool. “I’ll ask again. Who among you took my daughter? If none of you step forward…” His coat, mane, and tail darkened a shade more, his eyes following suit as they split coloration. The stripe of what was once turquoise started to pulsate a bit, threatening change. His voice as he spoke sounded a bit distorted, vicious. “I’ll just have to unleash Cacophony upon all of you!”

The dragons squirmed, unsure as to why this one pony was so intimidating. Nevertheless, they parted, and sent forth the fool who had abducted Prism- He even still had her with him, oddly enough. As he let go of her, Prism flew over to Maestro as the changes melted away. “Daddy! Oh, I’m so happy to see you again!” She nuzzled him, and sighed. “I thought I’d never see you again…”

Maestro comforted his daughter, soothingly. “Shh. It’s alright now. Dad’s here. Let’s go home, alright?” The scythe collapsed into a gem, and was pocketed away. He put his arm around her shoulder. “Besides, Trix and I have something we want to tell you…”

Just as he was walking away, Tempest called out. “Wait! Aren’t you going to help us?”

He looked back, and shook his head. “I’m not fond of violence. Sure, I’ll use it if I feel I have to, but never when I can avoid it.” He turned back, and led his adoptive daughter back home.

“Fair enough,” Tempest said “when you get home, send Ember my best.”

Maestro paused, and looked back. He was about to ask why, but shook his head, and thought better of it. He smiled. “Will do.” And with that, they were gone.

Ashley looked to see the dragons were gone. “Wow, that was something….y’all okay?” She asked the assembled anthros.

Starlight nodded in response.

Apple Bloom popped her head from behind a rock formation and said, “Is it safe?”

Tempest landed and became Ayumi. “Yes it is. You can come out now.” The CMC came out from behind the rock formation with Sweetie Belle carrying Alex, who was curled up in her hands. Ayumi looked crossly at the magically drained mouse girl. “How’d get to this point?” She asked.

“Alex teleported AJ, Apple Bloom, Starlight and herself to escape a swarm of flash bees.” explained Sweetie Belle, holding Alex in her hands.

Ayumi nodded then said, “Okay. An emergency teleport is draining under normal circumstances. Doing one when you are low on any form of magic is downright dangerous. She could’ve suffered mana overdraw, or worse, died. We’re lucky that it only took the remainder of her magic supply. She’ll recover with some rest, and some elixir if we can get our hands on it.”

Just then a mirrored disk faded into existence. A few seconds later an anthro pegasus dressed like the classic adventuring archaeologist stepped through.

She was carrying a box under one arm. She looked around and did a double take as she spotted Ashley. “Applejack?” She said in surprise. “How’d you get here before me?” The bottom of a compass could be seen, as well as a barely perceptible bulge in her belly.

“Sorry ma'am.” Ashley replied. “You must be confusing with the mare from your world. Is that what I think it is?”
The pegasus adventurer nodded and said, “12 quarts of flash bee honey and one specially made beekeeper’s suit. Now where is Alex? I have a surprise for him.”

“Dammit Daring! Ring me next time! You can’t go timeline hopping! It can easily break the portals!” A voice similar to Ayumi’s came through another portal “We can’t be doing this again, think of your kid!” Tempest said as she stepped through the portal.

“Alex needs to know, Tempest.” Daring Do says. “This is too important to rely on letters alone.”

Ayumi just chuckles before saying, “Hello Tempest. How’s Equestria?”

Tempest looks at her other self and says, “Still in one piece and dull with a chance of adventures.”

“I have taken on a student.”

“That’s a surprise.”

Daring Do glared at Tempest Flare and Ayumi and said, “You two can catch up later. Where's Alexandre Viator. I got im…. Scoots?” as the pegasus adventurer spotted the local Scootaloo.

Sam stepped up nervously and said, “Hello. My name’s Sam, but I think I’ll change it to Scootaloo.”

Daring Do smiled at Scootaloo then looked at Tempest and Ayumi then asked Ayumi, “Considering the last time I was in this world, the locals I ended up teaming up with were suffering from magical surges. I suspect your student is Alexandre Viator. If so where is he?”

Ashley took a deep breath and let it out before saying, “Alex got turned into a mouse girl shortly after arriving Perth from America. Ayumi here’s teaching her on how to use her magic. She’s currently suffering from using up her magic.”

Tempest sighs as she pulls out a case containing twelve eight ounce bottles of a liquid that had red and blue colors swirling about yet not mixing and saying, “She’s going need these delivered to recover quickly.” She then turns to Daring Do says, “Don’t take too long, unless you want to give birth in this world."

The alicorn then stepped through one of the portals which closed behind her.

Ashley then gathered up the supplies, “So, we have a beekeeper’s suit, 12 jars of the flash bee honey, and the special jars f’r Alex t’ recover her mana. Let’s get the park ranger healed up and head back inta town. Ah have mah own deliveries ta make.” She said, indicating all the still delicious pies and treats to share with those who ordered them. “These here fritters and pies make up most of mah food and beverage sales. Ah sure hate f’r mah hungry customers t’ not be able t’ have their orders fulfilled.”

Planning for Next Mission

Daring Do nodded. “If I was carrying anypony else’s foal, I would’ve started plans to have it given to an orphanage. I’d like for you to come back with me.”

Ayumi walked up and placed a hand on Daring’s shoulder. As Daring turned to face Her, Ayumi slapped her face in anger.

“OW! WHAT WAS THAT FOR!” Daring shouted, rubbing her face in pain.

Ayumi looked at Daring her eyes filled with pure rage “One: you wait this long to tell Alex about her kid. Two: you ask her to come with you when you know that could rip the already unstable fabric that bridges our worlds. And three and this is the big one: YOU ABANDONED BOTH DASH AND SCOOTS BACK ON YOUR HOMEWORLD!!!!!! HELL YOU MET THEM BOTH AND NEVER EVEN TOLD THEM!!!!!!!!” Ayumi roared that Daring a pulsing vein showing on her forehead. “Now you are staying here till your kid is born, don’t worry about your villans, Tia finally knows and is putting them behind bars till you get back. Once the kid is born BOTH you and Alex are going to take care of them. And while you wait, you are going to write a letter to both of your other kids so they can be present for the birth of their younger sibling. GOT IT?!”

Daring wide eyed in fear replied “Yes, my Queen.”

Ashley muttered to herself, “This is so very confusing’” She said, scratching her head, trying to make sense of all the dialogue between Daring Do and Ayumi.

Alex grew to human size and shouted, “RAINBOW DASH AND SCOOTALOO ARE YOUR KIDS!! WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?!” Daring Do winced at both Ayumi’s and Alex’s shouts. “I got family scattered across the multiverse! From the time we teamed up, you never passed up the chance to tell me how proud you were of Rainbow. Answer me this, do they know?”

Daring lowered her head and said, “Yes and No. I got caught in a trap on one my first adventures. I was fortunate that Rainbow’s father, a rainbow maned adventurer named Bow Hothoof freed me from it, but it cost me my virginity. I didn’t even know I had had her until I tracked him down. By that time, he had moved on and Rainbow had been adopted by his new wife, Windy Whistles, and was in flight camp. Scoots was the result of me tripping a trap that would’ve destroyed a village if I hadn't banged the high priest. When I met Dash myself, I learned she had been told that I was actually Windy’s surrogate due to her being infertile. Bow never told her my name to protect her just what I looked like.”

Alex grimaced and said, “Damn. It’s like you're either under a curse yourself or your unlucky regards to breeding traps.”

Daring sighs “I had always suspected as much. I left Scootaloo at an Orphanage in Ponyville to protect her from my enemies. I still regret never leaving a note or something for her to know i cared.”

Apple Bloom looked Ashley with confusion and asked, “How do you bang someone?”

“Tell ya when ya older sis.”

“Okay.” Apple bloom said with some disappointment.

“Miss Do, is it ok if I ask you something?” Sam asked a slightly nervous smile on her face.

“Go ahead.” Daring said already suspecting what the human turned into her daughter wanted to ask.

“Is it ok if me and my sister our Rainbow Dash call you mom? It’s fine if you say no; we have a human mother too but after this happened,” she gestured to her anthro form “I was able to walk again. I’d like to know the mare who brought my other self into the world as thanks and Dash will love to know one of her idols is actually her pony mother.”

“I’d be honored.” Daring said with a grin “Though I think your human mother would want to speak with me on this, as I don’t want to hurt her feelings if she hears about it secondhand.”

“Good point,” Sam said “hey Miss Ayumi, can you teleport me to my mom? I think I should to get home to show her my new look anyways.”

“Sure thing Scoots, think I’ll head with you. I got to check in with Dash anyhow; I had her make me a little something to help with your wings and it should be done by now.” Ayumi opened a small portal “Daring, if you want to head to my penthouse I’ll be there soon” With that both Ayumi and Sam walked through the portal leaving the others to talk among themselves.

Alex sighed and said, “I wanted to be a parent, but I thought I’d have the luxury of it happening after I left high school and I’d be the father. But family history should’ve warned me that wouldn’t be. *SIGH*”

“To be accurate you’re still the father of our kid. You switching genders doesn’t change that fact so don’t feel down about it.” Daring stated “Hope that helps a little”.

Everybody climbed into Ashley’s truck and handed Cattail one of the jars of flash bee honey, “Here you go.” Alex said. “One tablespoon is all you need to cure the ranger.”

“Got it. See you around.”Cattail said as he pat the side of the truck to tell Ashley they could head off.

Daring Do and Starlight sat in the bed while Ashley, Apple Bloom & Sweetie Belle sat in the cab. Alex sat on Daring’s pith helmet as Daring wrote a letter to Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo. She looked up at the equine adventurer and said, “As much as I like to avoid it there's a high probability that our foal’ll will become an adventurer around the time she becomes a teenager.” Daring put a hand on her belly and sighed. “So much for her having a normal life.”

Alex quirked an eyebrow, “Her?” She Asked. “Why’re you so certain our foal will be a filly not a colt?” Daring smiled. “Because for every foal born, there’s a 75% chance it is a filly.”

“oh.” Alex said as she rubbed the back of her head.

“How’s Dr Jones?” Daring asked curiou about the human whose life almost perfectly mirrored hers and Alex’s

Alex’ ears drooped as she replied sadly. “His health is failing. I think the time he got from his cup of water from the Holy Grail is running out.”

“That’s sad.” Daring said. “I've met him only once and I can tell he was a good friend and mentor to you.”

“Yeah. I’ll miss him.” Alex commented with a sad nod of her head.

“This world will be a more dangerous place with him gone.” Daring Do said before smiling at Alex. “But he found a worthy heir in you.”

“Thanks for the compliment.” Alex said with a sad smile.

They travelled for a while with Ashley stopping at a few places and either her or Apple Bloom going out to make the delivery. At one point Ashley dropped one quarter of the bed’s cargo at a mansion and Ashley spoke to a distinguished gentleman before coming back to the truck. She stopped and called back, “Have a nice time, and tell Mr. Rich it’s nice doing business with him.” She tipped her Stetson to the butler, whose name was Randolph before heading back to her vehicle for the rest of her deliveries.

Daring then commented, “It’s kind of comforting to see the family of the element of honesty and the Riches are partnered even in regardless of the realty.” She then pulled out an Equestrian Bit and said, “I’ll have a bag of fritters if you don’t mind, Applejack.”

Apple Bloom, Starlight, and started to laugh and Ashley smiled and took the gold coin before saying as she put twenty-six apple fritters in a bag and handed it to her saying “You had gotten me confused with the pony me. Ah’m Ashley, nice to meetcha.”

Alex pulled out her phone and dialed her mother’s number again. She smiled as her mother picked up. “Hi Mom. I….” she started before pulling her hand away from her head as her mother was shouting at the top of her lungs. “ALEXISAWTHREEPONY-LIKETHINGSFIGHTINGOVERASWAMPTHATWASAROUNDAUERSROCKARETOUALRIGHT?”

“Ow!” Alex said as she slowly brought her phone back to her head. “Mom, I’m OK the dragons were soundly ass kicked.”

“Yes there were dragons there but sensei, one of her mothers and a friend kicked their tails.” Alex said more than a little pride in her sensei. She then got a look of relief as well as a bit of concern.

“Oh That’s why you didn’t pick up. I hope Dr. Chan’s martial arts teaching came in handy.” The reply came.
Perplexed by this information, Alex just had to know how. “Uncle Sea Hearts took care of it? How?”

“He was turned into a classic equestrian unicorn because of a magical mishap.”

“Oh.” Alex said.

“Don’t tell me he turned Hak Foo into a cutie marked mouse.” Alex facepawed as she thought about the one uncle she has that could do magic on Earth. Of course his mastery of magic was on par with Aunt Clara of the TV show Bewitched.

“I told you not to tell me. *sigh* HE WHAT?!” Alex’s tail went straight out at what her mother tolder her.

“WHY’D HE SEND THAT MOUSE TO AUSTRALIA!?!” Alex facepawed again as she loudly shot back at her Mother told her.

“*sigh* Ok Considering the amount of predators mice have, Hak Foo won’t be somemouse I'll have to keep an eye out for.” with relief when her mother told her the reason why. Right before she unloaded another surprise.

“Don’t tell me Hak Foo’s an anthro.” Moaned in dread.

“Why’d you’d tell me?” Alex groaned as she yet again facepawed.

Alex took a deep breath to calm her nerves then said. “Okay the reason I called this soon is Daring Do’s back on Earth from Equis”

“Yes, that ponygirl I went on an adventure with five month ago.” Alex said with relief that her mother was quiet out of curiosity.

“About that, turns out she has bad luck with traps where she has to mate to get out of.” She said before moving the phone away for her sensitive ear in preparation of her mom raised her voice when she responded.

Starlight and Daring listened to Alex’ side of the phone conversation. Starlight asked, “Is it me or is that conversation starting to get weird?”

Daring Do shrugged and said, “Sounds normal to me.”

“How can that be normal?” Starlight said in confusion.

Looking at her incredulously, Daring replied. “You do realize that you’re talking to a born pegasus and not a transformed one, don’t you?”

Starlight thought a moment then said, “Good point.”

Alex in the meantime had placed the phone close to her ear and said in reply tiredly, “Yes, I’ll do good by her. And yes, I’ll marry her if she’ll have me.” The pegasus Adventurer smiled when Alex said that. When Alex finished the call she put it in her pants pocket. She looked at Daring and saw her writing in a small book. The dusty yellow pegasus looked up and said, “I'm thinking about publishing, with your permission, of course, your journals.”

Alex smiled and said, “Go ahead. You think my adventures would go over well with Equestria’s ponies?”

“Considering how well my adventures are over here. Of course.”

Suddenly, Alex’s cell phone returned to its original size, destroying her pants.

“OH COME ON!” Alex shouts. “I shrink you when I get down under and my chaos magic chooses now for the spell to run out of time?!” Alex flops down on Daring’s baby bump and looks up at the sky and pouts. Her small size not causing any disturbance.

Daring Do covers her muzzle to hide a giggle.

They rode in amicable silence as Ashley drove the truck to various places. At each stop either Ashley, Apple Bloom or both would take the deliveries in. Each time a delivery was to an eatery, Alex would lay flat on Daring’s belly so she couldn’t be seen by those within. Starlight had noticed Alex did not seem too upset her pants had been destroyed earlier. “Excuse me.” She said. “Aren’t you worried about what Discord said?”

“I don’t see any reason to.” Alex responded.

“Well your jeans had been destroyed by your cellphone returning to its normal size. You are in heat. Add to that a past foe of yours has been transformed into what can only be your male counterpart.”

Alex shrugged and replied, “what of it?”

Daring Do choose to speak up at that moment to speak up. “Our being sentient doesn’t remove the distracting effects of being in heat. It only tones them down.”

Alex propped herself up before asking,“What distracting effects?“

Daring smiled as she said, “Certain spots on your body get more sensitive. Add to that you will tend to arouse males with your scent. The sight of a male’s crotch tightening in your presence making you wet. That doesn’t cover clopping to fantasies of males pounding your plot and leaving a milk delivery inside you.”

Starlight jerked her hand out of her shorts. Daring gave a knowing nod and asked, “Who's the stallion?”

“I don’t know.” Starlight said with a slight blush that was somehow showing through her fur. “Glimpsed him as we got into the truck and he was buff.”

Daring Do smirked as she said, “Starlight, you might have been thinking of this world’s version of Big Mac, Applejack’s big bro… OW!” Daring Do cried out as Ashley slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting a kangaroo, sending Alex sailing into Daring Do’s breast.

Ashley looked over at the group, “Sorry ‘bout that, sugarcubes. There was a kangaroo in the road. Flora would be upset if Ah hit it. Besides, Ah don’t want t’ cause mah vehicle insurance premiums to rise.” She then looked over Daring, “No offense, Darin’ Do, but you mind keepin’ yer fantasies t’ yourself? Ah don’t want mah little sis gettin bad ideas.”

“I was only telling Starlight and Alex about going into heat.” Daring Do responded. “The first one is always the worst. In fact I advise anyone who was male before their transformation to get certain ...toys and lock yourselves in a room for a month to avoid having foals.”

“Ashley, I wasn’t acting out any fantasy. Your hitting the brakes sent me flying again. Though this time, I landed on something soft.” Alex blushed as she spoke.

Daring couldn't help a smile.

Ashley sighed, “Alright, just try not ta use that kinda language ‘round the young fillies,” she paused, “Ah have enough trouble as it is t’ explain to Apple Bloom ‘bout the “birds and the bees.”

It was mid afternoon when they reached Ashley's last delivery. Ashley asked Starlight and Daring Do to help. After they left, Alex began to wander around the bed trying to find someway to prevent her from flying the next time. Suddenly, she felt a flying kick hit her in the back sending her sprawling. She rolled onto her back to do a kip up and get into a fighting stance, but what met her eyes and nose froze. Standing in front of the anthro female mouse was the anthrofied Hak Foo. He resembled a mouse wearing the clothes he had worn on their last meeting. But the scent of a healthy and aroused male mouse caused not only her to freeze, but spread her legs subconsciously.

“Well. Well.” He said. “Eve is here.” He walked up to Alex slowly, allowing his scent to rob her of the will to fight.

“The satchel of Mage Meadowbrook; where is it?” he inquired as he knelt down and began to unbutton her shirt. Alex's mind wanted to kick Hak Foo in the groin, but her body wanted to be mated and Hak Foo had something it wanted.

“Why do you want it?” She asked, hoping he was so confident about the situation that he’d let his guard down as well as arrogantly give her the info she wanted.

Hak Foo proved to be as arrogant as she hoped as he said, “Sombra wishes to use the homunculus recipe Meadowbrook created to make himself a new body.” He stopped to drop his pants when a blue aura enveloped him and he was lifted up and away from Alex.

With Hak Foo moved far enough, Alex was able to stand. She looked as saw the others had returned and Starlight’s horn was a glow. “Thank Luna you guys got here when you did.” She said.

“You O.K.?” Daring asked. Alex closed her blouse as she answered, “I don’t know what happened. The moment his scent hit my nose, my body just refused to obey my mind.”

Ashley and Starlight got concerned looks. Daring Do just nodded and said, “It was bad luck that he found you when you going through your first heat after you were transformed. The good news is that when your next heat comes, he won’t be able to do that again.”

With the last delivery out of the way they went to drop off Daring at Ayumi’s penthouse in the old opal mines.

“I’m surprised any version of Twilight could live underground.” Daring said as they entered Ayumi’s new living room. “Though i can see why she wanted to move out here less risk of human deaths from her snores. She still snores flames every now and again in her Equestria.”

Alex winces then says, “We got a problem though. Some version of King Sombra survived his fall from the recovery of the Crystal Heart and that his severed horn has fallen into the hands of a criminal mastermind.”

Daring frowned and grimly said, “That is not good. Sombra had enslaved the Crystal Empire before The princesses dealt with him. Not only is he a unicorn, but he has access to and uses dark magic.”

“I was afraid of that.” Alex said glumly.

Daring nodded with a frown. “Not to mention I found five dark magic sites on this world. Any one of them could boost Sombra’s magic. *GASP!* This world has no magic users! If Sombra gets a new body he’ll take over this one.”

Alex shook her head and said, “Right now Earth doesn’t. During the last age of magic we had a lot. There’s bound to be magic texts hidden away and ancient libraries as well academies scattered around the world.” She smirked and added, “There will be a lot of adventurers going out to find them. Of course most of them won’t have advantage of your special talent. Also Sombra is after the homunculus recipe in Mage Meadowbrook’s satchel.”

“I say let Sombra have his new body. The pony on the inside deserves to have a chance to fight back against the Umbrium he came from.”Ayumi said from the kitchen “besides i have to give my father in law a chance. And not all Sombra’s are evil; this one may just want to live his life here on earth and his reputation is what is causing the others to commit evil in his name. You did say his horn is in the hooves of a criminal mastermind.”

Alex grew using her alicorn magic. She stretched and sat down on a couch. Ayumi stepped out of the kitchen to say something else but she noticed Alex’s pants were missing. “What happened to your pants?” She asked with concern.

Daring Do replied as Alex hid her face out of embarrassment, “Alex’s cellphone returned to its original size, destroying them in the process. Also we have confirmation; Alex is in heat.”

Ayumi got a concerned look on her face. “How did we get this confirmation?” She asked.

“I got ambushed by an anthrofied old foe. He was turned into a male cutie marked mouse. The moment his scent hit my nose… my body refused to do anything but lay there and wait to be mated. Daring said it won’t happen again but the fact that it happened at all scared me.”

Ashley drew a sigh of relief and went over to hug Alex, “Ah f’r one am glad y’r all right, sugarcube.”

“Thanks Ash.” Alex said. “But what about when you, Flora, Twilight, Micaela, and Rarity go into heat?”

Daring Do simply said, “They’ll probably have as bad as you since they were male before their transformation.”

Ashley shuddered at the thought, “And just when we were gettin’ used to our new bodies and our special talents that come with them.” She wondered about how Trixie and the new Sunset Shimmer were getting along.

“Well that’s a drawback to maredom.” Daring replied. “Fortunately after your first heat you won’t suffer breeding paralysis if you encounter a non family stallion.”

Starlight did a double take. “Breeding paralysis!? You mean there are males being turned into females on Equestria?”

“Uh about that are there mares with both sets on your Equestria, Daring? Cause my counterpart’s world does have a solution to Breeding Paralysis with temp herm spells.” Ayumi said with a blush “Also Starlight, it seems your counterpart is from my timeline and has both luck for you you didn’t inherent that bit, unlike me.”

“There are only 30 stallions on my Equestria.” Daring says. “And you’d be surprised at how many Drunken stallions get a tg spell only to forget to ask for the temp version.” She says.

“Red Gala? That incident happen?” Ayumi asked.

Ashley thought about that family member, “Red Gala? Isn’t that one of mah family members?”

Daring shook her head.

Alex sat cross legged and started to meditate when a large wisp of smoke drifted into the room swirled into a pile of three boxes which landed with a thump near her.

“What the hay?!” Daring & Alex said in surprise.

“I had Luna send over some heat suppressant amulets and the other two boxes must be from Dash and Scoots, and Windy and Bow.” A fourth box appeared in a flash of white magic. “Dad must have found the object i asked for Somba’s purification.”

Alex was about to say something when another box appeared above her. Alex avoided getting pinned by diving out of the way. The box landed with a thump and the lid popped and fell off as two books were bounced out. One landed on its spine and opened; a label and one of the front page read

Adventures of Alex Viator:
The High Flying search for the mirror of Laptrop Htrae
featuring Daring Do, Equestrian Adventuress extraordinaire.

Alex rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment.

Daring picked up the journal and read the label. She smiled the asked, “I guess you were going to publish them yourself, Ali.”

“ALI!?!” Everyone else but Ayumi shouted in surprise, whereas Ayumi just smiled

“Who in the Hay is ‘Ali?” Ashley asked, wondering about the new turn of events.

“Me.” Alex said. “It’s Daring’s pet name for me.”

Ashley nodded, “Ah see. Kinda like how I prefer AJ to mah close friends?”

Alex nods.

“Anypony want some Hayburgers? Luna and Selene sent me a few hundred bits worth of orders of the triple deckers, seems like my characters love for them is multiversal maybe omniversal.” Ayumi asked. “Before you ask they’re made with some hay as a binder for the tofu in the burgers giving them the unique flavor.”

“I’ll try one.” Alex said.

“Here,” Ayumi said hoofing over a bag and cup. “they came with fries and surprisingly Sunset Sarsaparilla. Always did love New Vegas.”

Alex took a bite and her face literally lit up at the taste. With a hungry squeak she devoured no inhaled it. After that she tried a sip of the Sarsaparilla which she then drained in a few gulps.

“So you like it?” Ayumi asked before giggling. “The fries are really good too.”

Alex tried the fries and made sour face. “Ugh.” She said. “These fries taste worse than hour cold McDonald’s fries”

“Oops forgot the sauce.” Ayumi handed over a bottle of green liquid “It’s a mix of mint and neutralized Dragonsbane should make the taste a lot better.”

Alex tried them with the sauce. The wolfed them down. “Damn better with the sauce” Came the comment.

“The mint keeps the bitterness of the fry oil and the neutralized dragonsbane both heats up the fries and enhances the fried hay’s flavor.” Ayumi said “They use a native Equestrian corn oil. That’s why it’s so bitter.”

“Don’t they have potatoes on Equestria?” Alex asked. “They don’t take on the oil’s flavor.”

“They do have potatoes but hay is safer due to how potatoes tend to grow near gem fields and they’re diamond dogs main crop besides those gems.” Ayumi stated “They’re the prefamie irish equivalent.”

“Can Equestrian potatoes grow any place else or only near gem fields?” Alex asked Daring

“In the Crystal Empire but they tend to be Crystal potatoes and only edible by crystal ponies and dragons.” Daring said “also the other reason is most potatoes also absorb gem shards. Making them very hard to cut up and eat.”

Alex thinks then asks, “So if a farmer was sent a bushel of potatoes from Earth could they grow them?”

“No not unless you give them to the Pies they are the only safe farmers of potatoes in equestria but maybe the dragon kingdom would be better.” Ayumi suggested “After all volcanic soil is super fertile and good for growing.”

“You mean there's no area within Equestria that there are no gem shards in the soil?”

“Not really, at the least not in my Equestria.” Daring said “And I’m pretty sure that follows for all Equestrias. After all gems are common enough to use in everyday clothing in our universe.”

“It’s looking like Equestria will never enjoy french fried potatoes or hash browns.” Alex said glumly.

Alex looked at Ashley and said, “Ashley I think we need to call everybody together. It’s looking like the Elements of Harmony of Earth are in a race against the Black Hand to Locate the Satchel of Meadowbrook & the homunculus recipe.”

“Actually they would never succeed. I’m friends with the deity who actually allows Homunculi to be created.” Ayumi said “I informed Truth of the group and It’s reassured me that if they try it’ll remove them from existence. Though It is a tricky bastard and might still give Sombra the choice to come back.

Also The Pie Family does grow potatoes it’s their second cash crop besides construction rocks. Hash browns and french fries are luxury products but are still available in Equestria.”

Alex then said, “I’m afraid we can’t take that chance. There are recipes that don’t rely on the rules Truth set forth. Homunculi are created on Abeir-Toril with no ill effects to the creators of them. Better to find the satchel than rely on the divine.”

Daring Do added, “not to mention that Earth has several ancient artifacts scattered all over it.”

*****
Thirty minutes later the group had gathered at newly opened sweet shop Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie had managed to get a job there, so the group decided to gather there. Micaela was a little unnerved at how Daring Do was staring at her. When Daring Do introduced herself, she began to geek out. “No way it's the Daring Do! I can't believe you're here!”

Daring gave Micaela a motherly look and said, “Not surprising. I go where the adventure is. I had come back to earth because my partner gave me a little bun that I am now baking in my oven. l had to come back to Earth.”

Micaela nodded “Okay but that doesn’t explain why are you looking at me like that.” The cyan pegasus scooted away from her after that.

“You haven’t talked to your sister yet have you?” Daring asked.

“No.” Micaela admitted. “I haven't gone home yet. I was hanging with Flora and Twi when we got Ashley’s text.”

“Well I’ll let Scootaloo give you the news.” Daring said with a playful grin. “Besides Sombra should be our main focus.”

“Right.” Alex said. “We know is the reformed Black hand is after the satchel of mage Meadowbrook and they’re working for King Sombra. Unfortunately we have three problems. (1) We don’t know where to look save it is in Australia. (2) Dr. Callabron is working with them. (3) We don’t know what it looks like.”

“So an anthrofied crook became a Dr Caballeron anthro. It's Not like we’re dealing with the real Dr. Caballeron himself.” Miceala scoffed.

“Actually we are. Guy’s got all of Caballeron’s memories and skills. I should know; I fought the bucker.” Ayumi said “He must of synced just like Trixie and me. So we should expect him to know just as much as we do.”

Alex nodded. “When me and Daring teamed up, the bad ol’ doc had acquired the mirror of laptrop Hthrae. It allowed him to jump between Equiis and Earth.”

Daring added, “He is one of my foes after all.”

“Just who are these Black Hand fellas anywho?” Ashley asked.

“They were once a very dangerous gang of hoods.” Alex said. “theft, tomb robbing, poaching, slavery, you name it. If there was something illegal going on they had their slimy hands in that pie. I helped ”

Alex nodded to Starlight who used her magic to float necklaces to hover in front of Twilight, Flora, Rarity, Ashley and Micaela. “ What’re these for?” Twilight asked.

“Heat suppression pendants.” Starlight replied. “They’ll weaken your heats.”

“Males that have switched genders or in my case a female who gained the other half tend to experience super strong first heats and the elements enhance all parts of that due to being bonded to a fertility goddess previously,” Ayumi explained “we found out that that those problems crossed the veil as well also both yours and mine are much stronger as we’re alicorns and the Sparkle family tends to naturally have strong heats.”

“Before you guys object those pendants will keep you from experiencing ‘Breeding Paralysis’. If you’re wondering what that is. imagine want to kick a guy in the nuts but all you body does is rip your clothes off, lay down, and spread your legs waiting for the guy to rut you, though that has only happened a few times, mostly you freeze up to the point you can barely breathe. “ Daring said,

“I experienced it. Hak Foo ambushed me and the moment I caught his scent….” Alex said before hugging herself and shuddering. ”trust me it’s not fun even for those of you with a submissive side. If Starlight hadn’t flung him away I would probably be getting ready to have another kid, only it would be me giving birth.”

“Truth is I don’t think any of us should try to walk around during a heat.” Ayumi said “I’m the only one, Pinkie aside, who can still control our bodies during that time. In fact I’m surprised that I’m the only one who has gone through a heat cycle besides Alex we all should have had our first the moment we changed. Even the CMC should be affected.”

“Daring, Mage Meadowbrook was equestrian like yourself were there any descriptions for her satchel?” Starlight asked.

Alex suddenly remembered something. “Starlight may going through a heat cycle.”
Ashley looked over at Starlight while sitting next to Alex on the couch, “You okay, sugarcube?”

“Y-yeah.” Starlight said. “Though I can’t keep from fantasizing about that big red hunk I saw at your farm as we were leaving. Was he a farmhand or something?”

Ashley stared at Starlight then asked, “Did this stallion have a blonde mane and tail?”

Starlight rubbed the back of her head and nervously said, “Y-yes. he was wearing a white muscle shirt that hugged his yummy body.”

Ashley chuckled before saying, “That was my big brother, Big McIntosh.”

Starlight eeped and sunk down to hide.

Apple Bloom chuckled, “Wait a minute, Starlight; ya got a crush on mah brother? Ah thought he’s supposed t’ be seein’ another mare who’s helpin’ out Mrs. Cake at Sugar Cube Corner as an apprentice baker.”

Everyone laughed at that comment, causing more embarrassment from Starlight Glimmer.

Suddenly a wisp of smoke floated in and swirled into a scroll sealed with the seal of the Princess of Friendship.

Ashley took the scroll and held it up for Twilight to see. “Ah believe ya got a scroll, Twi.”

Twilight picked up the scroll and broke the seal and read,

“Dear Twilight Radisson,
“I’m writing to inform you and Daring Do that Dr Caballeron has fled Equestria via the Mirror of Lapt Htrae. He vowed to get even with Daring Do and somepony named Viator, so you’d better warn them. And check out some place called Ayers Rock.
“Signed Princess Twilight Sparkle”

“Just our bucking luck” Ashley, Ayumi, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Starlight groan. “Looks like we are goin’ back t’ Ayers Rock. We have a contact there, Ah believe he’s the anthro version o’ Cattail. He used t’ be a local fella that helped the park rangers with guided tours.” Ashley commented as she contacted Rarity and asked her to get some adventurers' gear for Alex and the others. "Anypony up f'r another adventure?" She asked the group.

Return to Ayers' Rock

As the humvee rolled to a halt near the new ranger station an airboat glided in and slid to a stop at a nearby pier that had also been recently made. The pilot turned out to be none other than Earth’s Cattail and his passenger the ranger they saved. As they got out they heard the tail end of what Cattail was saying to the ranger. “....so don’t be beating yourself up for taking too long. It was just good luck that Apple Bloom tripped over you and her friends were there with the cure. And speak of the devil hear they are.”

Every one exited the humvee Ashley waved to Cattial saying, “Nice seeing you again Cattail.” Cattail waved at them and said, “nice of you to drop in but what are you doing back here?” Alex smiled as she relied, “We got a lead on an artifact somewhere in that swamp and that some lowlife’s are going to go after it“

“Well if you're going into the swamp, you're going to need transportation.” Cattail mentioned. The ranger nodded and added, “We have an airboat and a zodiac available for the trip..”

The ranger looked at the group and said, “Some of you look like the one that saved me. Normally I’d warn you from going in but considering you guys seem to know what you’re doing… just don’t get your selves killed.” The Ranger went into the station.

Daring Do then said, “Ok until we get word on where we should look we should head into the swamp. We’ll head towards Ayers Rock on as a direct path as possible I’ll use my special talent to help us locate the satchel. Rainbow, I mean Micaela, Princess I want you airborne and keeping pace with the boats. Pease call us and warn us if you see large patches of the flowers so we can avoid them. Flut… I mean Flora you will ride in the airboat with me Alex and Cattail. I am hoping you can talk local predators out of putting us on the menu.”

Alex hopped up to Daring Do’s shoulder as everymouse climbed into the boats. Twilight and Micaela took to the air, though Twilight was a little shaky, Daring Do, Flora, Cattail, the anthro CMC and Ayumi boarded the airboat while Rarity, Pinkie, Starlight, Ashley & Rick Boarded the zodiac. Ayumi Shifted into Tempest and pulled out two of her short swords stating “A precaution against hydras and cragodiles. I won’t hurt them too bad if I can avoid it but, I’ll behead the hydras to slow them down if needed.” She then handed Daring a small blue crystal “This thing holds five charges of ice magic I’m handing it over to you due to your knowledge of relics so you should know how to use it effectively just be careful and throw it after the last charge is used. Trust me you’ll understand why I say this when it happens. Also I sent Spike ahead to scout out some of the flash bee hives in case we need to collect our own honey at some point.” After seeing everypony’s looks she added “Dragons are immune to swamp fever and bee stings due to being literally hot blooded and damn near bulletproof. He’ll be fine, my counterpart had her Spike do the same thing.”

“We might have to keep watch for umbrium as well. The Black Hand used to summon Shadow Kahn. Ninjas who’re made of shadows. If we encounter them we might face shadow ponies because of Sombra.” Alex called out from Daring Do’s s shoulder.

“Spike and I can take care of-” Ayumi started sniffing the air “You smell that? Someone’s following us. Keep your eyes open.”

Alex looked about as she sniffed. “I smell the San Fran Trio & Dr. Callabreon’s goons.”

“No this smells like someone worse.” Ayumi said as she tasted the air with her shifted tongue. ”It smells like the Pony of Shadows, Sombra’s elder brother. Though from the smell of it he’s non hostile.”

Alex frowned “The Pony of Shadows?” Alex sat there confused which expressed by asking, “Wasn’t he trapped in Limbo? Pellets. How did he get out of limbo?”

“His host, the unicorn mage apprentice, Stygian, was freed during the 7th season of the show along with the other pillars, including the legendary Starswirl the Bearded.” Ayumi said “I think he’s here for me; I have a shadow form I can take that’s similar to his. If he becomes hostile then I’ll worry but as it sits he may just want to see his kid brother again.”

“Pellets. I think he might have gotten a new host.”

“Your mousefriend isn’t his host my student. Like I said he’s here from me.” Ayumi said darkness in her eyes.

Daring Do nodded. “Mage Meadowbrook Expressed an interest in visiting this world. She said something about wanting to learn about Earth’s ailments and curing them.”

Alex looked at her sensei and asked “Any clue on where we should look in this swamp Sensei?” Alex couldn’t help half liddening her eyes as she enjoyed the breeze of riding on airboats relaxed her in a way she couldn’t place her paw on, yet she enjoyed it.

“Well if she did travel to this world through the natural portal here we should try to find her old camp as there wasn’t a swamp back then.”

Alex frowned and said, “The problem isn’t finding a portal on Earth, it’s keeping them under closed. Portals have been opening and closing at random for over 13, 000 years. Earth seems to have affinity for them. Add to that Pocket realms both natural and artificial.’

Twilight flew lower and said, “We got a Huge Patch of the flowers ahead and a large patch of dry ground just beyond.” Alex shouted, “Can we go around to get to it?”

“ARE THE FLOWERS BLUE LITTLE SIS?!” Ayumi RCV “REMEMBER THIS SWAMP HAS JOKE IN IT!” Ayumi then took to the air herself but stayed next to the airboat. “Sorry bout the rcv guys but i wanted those in the zodiac to hear too the fan is pretty loud after all.”

“Eh?” Alex said as she tried to get her ears to stop ringing.

Twilight looked uncertain as she replied, “They looked like Blue water lilies with orange spots.”

“We do not land there.” Ayumi stated flatly “Those flowers are Fever infected Joke if we get anywhere near we’ll all get infected.”

Alex got a confused look and flew up to Tempest & Twilight and said, “I thought Poison Joke looked more like a blue petaled rose not a water lily.” After saying that she landed back on the boat. She panted as she sat down. She use her alicorn magic to levitate a granola bar to her from the backpack she was sharing with Daring Do then began munching it. The exhaustion she had felt was familiar to her. Daring Do looked at her mousefriend and asked, “Are you ok?”

Alex looked up from the granola bar and replied, “It’s only ki exhaustion. Just a little food and rest and I’ll be as good as new.”

“Swamp Joke is a slightly different subspecies” Ayumi clarified “Even if it’s not Swamp Joke those orange spots indicate fever infection and that stuff can go airborne through flower pollen”

“Ah.” Alex said. As they maneuvered to avoid the swamp joke, she began to feel a subconscious tug on a direction close by. Daring Do noticed and said, “We’re close aren’t we? Like when we teamed up.” Alex nodded.

“Everypony duck!” Ayumi saId as a swarm of Flash bees passed by overhead of those in the watercraft. She the directed her gaze towards the two adventurers. “I heard you two. We’re close enough that those of us with active magic can sense the portal and Meadowbrooks satchel. Be on guard for those ninja. I know how they operate, but I’m wary of fighting them at all.”

“Alex was able to sense the mirror of Latrop Htrae when I was here the first time.” Daring noted.

Alex grew to human size and started scanning the area. “Sounds like you had a few run ins with the Shadow Kahn.” She remarked.

Her tail was twitching at a rapid pace and she lowered her ears closer to her skull.

Ashley spoke up in response to Alex’s body language, “You okay, sugarcube?” She addressed the mouse adventuress.

“More than a few; the other reason I moved to the Siberian wilderness was to hide from the last embers of the Fourth Reich. My uncle Dirk fought them during a NUMA Operation in Antarctica. The embers learned how to use the twelve talismans before they turned into animals,” Ayumi stated “Naturally, the Shadow Kahn stole the monkey and tiger talismans back from us after a few days.”

“Ugh! That was two head aches and a half.” Alex said. “I had to round up the rabbit and it didn’t help I got shrunk to my mouse size for the first time during that escapade. You DON’T want to ride a rabbit bareback. Especially when it runs fast enough to make sonic booms.”

“Rabbits that make sonic booms? That’s so awesome!” Micaela exclaimed. “But not as impressive as my Sonic Rainboom.”

“Two words. Dream Angel.” Ayumi said “Been there, done that.”

As they were talking they came up on a wrecked Airship with the markings of the Australian Armed Forces.

Ashley looked at the wrecked Airship, “Maybe we should send a picture of this aircraft to Shining Armor? He was in the Armed Forces before he became, well, his pony self.”

Having a shocked expression on her face, Alex spoke with disbelief. “I don’t believe it! That’s the Flying Unicorn! She was supposed to be an armored zeppelin. But she disappeared on her maiden flight without a trace. The project was abandoned afterwards.”

“Ya think maybe Twilight knows more about this here zeppelin, or her brother?” Ashley asked.

“If he has the proper level of clearance, he might.”

Both water vehicles slowed down and came to a stop near the wreck. They then noticed it was on a sizable piece of dry land. Everyone disembarked and looked the wrecked airship over from where they stood. It looked like a cross between a zeppelin and a destroyer with a rigid support cage for the armored airbag of which there was no trace of. It looked like it had been in a battle for it’s life…. And lost.

Alex let out a low whistle and commented, “To think that if this poor thing made it into WWII the atom bomb may have never have been invented.”

The CMC announced as one, “This is so awesome!”

Twilight, Micaela, & Ayumi landed and the group got ready to explore the wreck. Alex stayed on Daring’s shoulder, she looked at the Flying Unicorn and said, “The satchel (or at least something that could lead us to it) is somewhere in the there.” She the turned to look at Cattail and said, “Cattail? Would you watch after the fillies?”

Cattail smiled as he replied, “Sure thing.”

”Not cool.” Scootaloo groused.

“I thought we were going to help you!” Sweetie Belle complained.

“We could be a help!” Apple Bloom offered.

“Please?” All three Crusaders said with big pleading eyes, hoping to gain permission from the older adventurers of the group.

“And you can help by watching the boats and staying with Cattail. Especially you young lady.” Daring said focusing on Earth ‘s Scootaloo. “You look too much like my daughter for Dr. Callabron too resist using you as a Hostage.”

“Why would he do that?” Scootaloo asked.

“He’s just the stallion who would do that kind of thing.” Daring Do replied. “He once took the pony version of Miceala hostage in a pyramid near the village of the legendary Somnambula.”

“Don’t forget that he is an experienced adventurer in his own right. With his own bag of tricks.” Alex added.

The anthro CMC looked at each other then at the older anthros and said, “You can count on us!”

“Good.” Ashley remarked. “Now you three mind Mr. Cattail while we're inside and stay outta trouble.” With that the Rest of them approached the crashed ship to find Meadowbrook’s satchel.

The Search for Mage Meadowbrook's Satchel

They enter through the nose area into the bridge. It looked like the bridge of a submarine with the bridge of the USS Enterprise from the original series with the helms in a station at the front, The Captain's chair behind. A plotting table to one side and the stations for communications, engineering and navigation over land in a bank on the other side.

The ten anthros looked around, curiously causing some of them to walk around it. Alex noticed something and hopped down to the engineering station. As she walked on the console she said, “This is amazing! Did you know Australia had planned to build an aerial navy if the Flying Unicorn didn't disappear on its maiden flight?” She hopped back on Daring Do’s shoulder just before the Equestrian adventuress joined the others at the plot table.

“Okay.” Ayumi said. “We got two objectives right now. Locate either Meadowbrook’s Satchel or the portal whichever is here. And we may have to beat the clock on the portal.”

Alex rubbed her head briefly before saying, “That’s what worries me. Portals like the Wondercolt Statue in Equestria Girls would be designed to block magic from flowing between the worlds they link. But that was a creation of Starswirl the Bearded and he was an experienced unicorn sorcerer. If someone from a low magic world was to create a portal without the fail safes to hold back the magic from a high magic world from rushing to the low magic world. In essence we get the magical version of when a window is shot out in a 757 at 10,000 feet.”

Daring Do asked, “What do you mean?”

Starlight commented, “We’re gonna have to show her the final confrontation of the movie ‘Goldfinger’.”

“Anyhow, we're gonna have to split up.” The dragonoid continued. “Daring Do, Alex, Starlight and Ashley. You three got the crew quarters. Flora, Rarity, and Pinkie; you got engineering. Twilight, Micaela, and I will check out the rest.” Ayumi then passed out the heat suppression amulets to everyone except Pinkie and Daring. “Everyone who used to be male put these on. Especially you, Alex.”

“What's wrong with Alex that she has wear some frou frou jewelry?” Demanded Micaela crossly.

“This piece of frou frou jewelry is a heat suppression amulet.” Alex stated as the pendant shrunk down to fit her. “Remember Heat Paralysis? It nearly got me in hot water with Hak Foo, who is now a male mouse.” She shuddered at the thought of giving into her baser urges when around Hak Foo.

Ashley looked at her pendant and placed it around her neck, “Ah hope these pendants don’t interfere none with the Elements o’ Harmony.”

Alex rode on daring Do’s shoulder as she and the other two went to a ladder and climbed up it. They climbed through a tube for a few seconds before they exited into a hallway that went down the length of the wrecked airship and had a total of ten doors. “One of the doors on the end has to be the captain’s quarters and the other the officer’s mess.” Alex observed. The others nodded. On a silent agreement they entered one of the rooms on the side.

Ashley searched her knapsack for a flashlight to help her and her friends explore the room. Upon turning it on, she said, “Starlight, can ya use yer horn to cast some sort o’ illumination spell?”

“Yes.” Starlight responded before she concentrated and a small ball of light came into existence.

The room was set up with two bunk beds on each side, along with two small desks against the far wall. The setup was completed with four foot lockers at the feet of the beds. There was also a secured fold down table (probably for eating meals or a friendly game of cards). Starlight, Ashley, and Daring began to examine the footlockers and the desks. Alex hopped down to the ground and began to check under the desks and beds.

Meanwhile, Pinkie, Rarity and Flora had climbed the ladder up to the crew deck then climbed to a ten by ten room with various gauges covering one wall, a table covered with vacuum tubes and crystals and one wall that had a window that took up a quarter of it overlooking a larger room beyond.

“Um… what are we supposed to look for?” Flora asked as she walk around timidly.

“Anything that could lead us to either Meadowbrook's Satchel or the portal, dahling.” Rarity replied.

Pinkie skipped over to the window to look. “Wouldn’t it be neat if the portal was like the Stargate?” She just before she started to vibrate. “A-a-a-a d-d-d-doooozieeee i-i-isss ab-b-b-bout t-t-t-to hap-p-p-pen!” She announced.

Ayumi, Micaela, and Twilight were searching the bridge for any clue when eight individuals walked in. Dr. Caballeron, a crystal pony unicorn in a green Armani suit known as Valmont, the San Fran Trio, known as Ratso, Finn, and Chow, and the hench ponies who followed Dr. Caballeron.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the Elements of Magic & Loyalty of this world and Tempest Flare.” The tan earth pony anthro said. “Looking for Meadowbrook's satchel, no doubt?”

“Indeed.” The crystal unicorn said. “If the Elements of Harmony are anything like you three, the world will be child’s play.”

“You three!” Dr Caballeron commanded as he pointed to the henchponies. “Head up to Engineering and round up those there. And if any freeze up from breeding paralysis you may rut them before bringing them back.” Valmont looked at the Equestrian anthro and asked, “What the hell is breeding paralysis?”

Dr. Caballeron just smiled and answered, “Breeding Paralysis occurs during the first time they enter heat for the first time. Mares who are transformed stallions are especially vulnerable to it.”

After hearing this something snapped in Tempest’s mind “Girls, I suggest you run,” She said “cause I’m going to Kill them!” and with that she extended her dragonic claws. “I'm not letting you anywhere near my SISTER!”

“Well, you have this handled Sensei.” Alex said fearing for the lives of the thugs in front of them. “Just don't go Nova on them okay?” Both she and Daring backed out of the room.

“Will she really kill them?” Daring asked as the two of them headed back to the bridge. All the while keeping on guard in case the Shadow Kahn showed up.

“No but they'll wish for death when she's done with them.” Alex said remembering the genjutsu based illusion Ayumi showed her back at her penthouse. “Though I don't doubt she'll hurt them. After all they threatened to rape Twilight and the others. I believe that she's giving them just what they deserve.”

Valmont grinned and said, “I think you’ll find it a little difficult to do as so.” The next moment several shadowy anthro ponies stepped out of the shadows, along with an Alicorn made of shadows. “I’m afraid I can’t allow that to happen, Princess Tempest Flare!”

The Hench ponies and San Fran Trio scramble up the ladder as four of the shadow ponies grabbed Twilight & Micaela. “Now unless you want something to happen to your friends, you’ll wait for the others to return. I WILL HAVE MY BABY BROTHER BACK!”

As that was happening, Alex, Ashley, Daring Do, & Starlight were searching the captain's quarters when the San Fran Trio (aka the Enforcers) entered. “Hay look, guys.” the unicorn said. “There's one for each of us. “

“You know they use to be guys, Finn.” The earth pony commented.

The ship started shaking as black flames raced across the wood and metal. An insane laughter was heard from below.

“You!” Alex said “What did you do?! This ship is literally shaking purely from Ayumi's rage!” She asked the four stallions in front of her.

“We did nothing! The Pony of Shadows grabbed your friends and just started laughing like that!” Finn said.

The shaking and laughter suddenly stopped while the black flames created a wall between the two groups.

“The fuck is this stuff?!” The earth pony exclaimed as 5 roughly anthro shaped creatures made of the flames walked out of the fire wall.

“Guess what Ratso… The Pony of Shadows just got my sensei pissed off.” Alex said as she cracked her knuckles before growing to human size.

The pegasus of the three ran for the large window saying “I’m getting out of here. Valmont’s not paying enough for me to fight litteral fire demons and demigods!” but one of the fire demons as they were now called stopped him by grabbing one of his wings burning it. “Aaaaaagghhh!” he screamed in pain as his wing blackened.

“GET YOUR HOOVES OFF MY SISTER!!!!!!!” Was heard throughout the entire swamp.

Alex turned to face face Ratso and Fin and glared at them as green flames surrounded her body. Ashley and Starlight grabbed Daring and pulled her back.

“Now don’t go trying to help her, sugarcube.” Ashley said “Ayumi has been teaching her more than just mana control. Alex has been adamant that she learn how to protect you and your kid in her new form and with her new powers.”

“Ayumi’s been teaching all of the new unicorns in combat magic and Alex is no different.” Starlight said “Those flames around Alex are part of her training. Ayumi’s been showing us that everypony has an elemental power tied to their natural magic.”

Alex had heard the San Fran Trio’s comment when they came in and it got her blood boiling. Her sensei’s shout of rage caused her mind added to it as it leaked a small portion of it to her, feeding her own.

“Rrrrrrarrrrrrgh!!!!!” She shouted as a pulse of elemental magic flew out from her. The elemental magic emanating from Alex washed harmlessly over Daring, Ashley & Starlight, and at the same time, manifested as a wall of fire to destroy the summoned fire demons, extinguishing all of them in the process including their fire wall to keep the heroes contained. Once the fire demons were extinguished, the very angry mouse girl turned her attention to Chow, who was attempting to escape with his dignity intact.

She stormed up to the pegasus anthro and jerked him up by his shirt. “Were you planning to have some ‘fun’ with the pegasus if breeding paralysis affected her, Chow?” She growled, the green flames surrounding her, making the mouse anthro more intimidating than she appeared to be.

The now identified Chow gulped as he looked at the flame shrouded mouse anthro. His sunglasses fell to the ground from his frantic nodding of his head. She pulled him close and he could see he fur starting to change from white to black and her was starting to look like it was made of fire as she growled out, “That mare is pregnant with my foal. AND YOU WERE PLANNING TO RAPE HER, YOU INSECT!”

“Whoa, nelly! Ah’ve never seen Alex this angry before!” Ashley said, attempting to keep out of harm’s way with Starlight. “You were sayin’ somethin’ about each o’ us have some sort o’ magic? Ah believe mine’s super strength, bein’ an Earth pony. Twilight told me ‘bout that when Ah met up with her shortly after Ah became AJ.”

Smith Family Emergency

Ashley Smith, the anthro version of Applejack, was finishing dinner with her friends and family at Sweet Apple Acres. The group just finished a delicious meal Alex had created with apples, tasting like a Dutch Apple pie mixed with lasagna. “Whoo-wee! This apple-themed lasagna is delicious! You really outdone yourself, Alex! Ah reckon yer Uncle Sea Heart’s gonna love the carrot lasagna!”

Alex blushed through her white fur, saying, “I'm glad you liked it. Would you believe making this lasagna was my first attempt at cooking a recipe of my own creation?” She got up and started to help clear the table.

Apple Bloom looked at Alex's belly. “I thought you got pregnant two months ago? Why do you look like it's been six?” Alex's blush got deeper.

Ashley heads over to her sister, “Apple Bloom! Y’know that’s not appropriate to say in front of our friend!” She turned to Alex, “Sorry, ‘bout that, sugar cube! Mah lil’ sister can be very blunt when she’s bein’ honest. Kinda runs in the family!”

Alex nods. “I'm a little surprised I've gotten this big in a short time myself!”

Ashley sighed, and switched on the television.

“And this is the moment when a national scare began, when according to this footage, a young man changed into a horse-like creature.”

"What in the?" asked Apple Bloom.

"This is a US news channel," Alex said.

"Right, let's see what the BBC World Service has got," Ashley cut in, switching channels again.

“According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the incident is being treated as a virus outbreak. New York has been quarantined, and no flights are being permitted in or out of the city. We now go live with the director of the CDC, Robert R. Redfield.”

Redfield came up on screen, seated behind a desk.

“Mr Redfield, what can you tell us about this disease?”

“Well,” Mr Redfield replied, "We at first thought this was an isolated case. But it has subsequently been confirmed that there have been other cases across the globe. Our colleagues in the Australian Border Force have confirmed several cases in Western Australia, and another in Alberta was confirmed by the RCMP. This is a global problem, and we are looking into all issues to solve it.”

The US Government has confirmed that the creature in question, which resembled a character from the television series 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, is safely being held in a secure facility away from the public. We now go to Megan McCarthy, showrunner of 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic'.

“What do you think of this incident?”

“It’s bizarre, to say the least. What is most surprising is that this incident appears to be a background character.”

Two images came up on screen. One was a police capture shot of the suspect, the other of one of the ponies off the show. There was an irritating, earworm-like song playing in the background, which Ashley instantly recognised: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejBKKbA2a7A

“The resemblance to Babs Seed is uncanny, to say the least.”

Ashley looked over at Alex and Apple Bloom. “Uhm, should we call Twilight and the others? Ah’m worried ‘bout that there girl. There’s no tellin’ what she’s goin’ through right now.”

“Ah shoot.” Alex said. “I hope it's NOT a virus!”

“What c’n we do in the meantime? Ashley asked, “Ah have this distant cousin in New York City named Brian, who is an apprentice stylist.” She looked over at Alex for confirmation.

Alex facepaws. “Let me guess, he, now she, lives in Manhattan. And why're looking at me? I lived in Los Angeles.”

Ashley nodded, “It’s okay. The incident with the young girl they found was in New York, Manhattan, right? But we cannot get there ‘cause of that quarantine. How are we t’ find out if she’s okay?”

“I don't know.” Alex sighed “but at least we know who our new pony is.”

Ashley and Apple Bloom saw the picture of Babs Seed on the TV. “So that’s our cousin, huh? She’s ‘bout Apple Bloom’s age, Ah reckon.”

Apple Bloom could not keep her excitement in her, “Ah reckon she and Ah would totally hang out with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo!”

“In the show, Babs lives in Manehattan, the Equestrian equivalent of Manhattan.” Alex said.

Ashley nods, “And mah cousin is a hair stylist. Apprentice, ya see.” She started to text Rarity, Twilight, and the other girls. “Mah cousin from New York may be in trouble! They are quarantining everypony ‘cause they think this may be some kind o’ virus!” She sent the text to the girls and waited for their responses.

Apple Bloom asked, “Anything else we should know ‘bout cousin Babs, in case we actually meet her?”

A loud ‘CRACK!’ sounded out as Ayumi Teleported into the kitchen. “Lock and load girls! We have Black Hawks inbound!”

Alex frowned at that and said, “They can't do that! This farm's Australian territory; the Americans don't have jurisdiction here!”

Suddenly, an object flew through the window and landed on the floor.

"FLASHBANG!" shouted Ayumi. Suddenly, there was a blast of light and sound, and the sparks from the grenade set a nearby curtain on fire.

They were all knocked to the ground, as 4 soldiers entered. Each of them was clad in NCB gear, and carried an MP5.

The first of them spoke. "Targets neutralized!"

A voice responded over the radio. An Australian voice. "Excellent. Get them to the Black Hawks, and transfer to a waiting US Aircraft Carrier."

"Roger that." The first of them walked over to Ashley. The last thing she remembered was a gun butt striking her face, and everything went black.

Questions and Answers: Brian/Babs Seed

Ashley Smith had just been kidnapped, as with her family by some military organization and taken to an undisclosed location somewhere in New York City. Seperated from her family and friends, she woke up in the strange holding cell, wrists cuffed in front of her on the table. The bruise from the gun butt incident was somewhat faded, but she could go for an Asprin about now. “Ugh, mah achin’ face and head!” The farm girl rubbed the bruise on her face and looked around for signs of anyone else who would be there. “Hello? Granny? Daring Do? Big McIntosh? Apple Bloom? Alex? Brian? Anypony?” They most likely took her candy apple red cell phone as with any other communication devices to check contacts. Most of the names in the contacts would be pony-related, such as the names of the anthro ponies Ashley called her close friends; Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy.

“Ouch.” Alex's voice squeaked as she groggily awoke.

Ashley smiled, “Oh, thank heavens yer okay, sugarcube!” She went to give her mouse friend a rub on the head with her finger, “Ah’d be much obliged if these here cuffs weren’t ‘round mah wrists.” She showed Alex the cuffs on her wrists. “Can ya magically pick the lock ‘fore those goons who kidnapped us show up?”

Alex moved her hand as if twisting a key and made a clicking sound and the cuffs snapped open and fell off.

Ashley rubbed her wrists and smiled, “Rarity was right ‘bout ya, Alex. You are always full o’ surprises. Have ya seen mah Stetson? Ah feel so not me without it. It was a gift from mah pa.”

“It's on your head.” Alex said with a smirk as it had appeared when s he flicked her tail.

Ashley adjusted her brown Stetson on her head, “Oh, yeah, thanks again!” She sighed, “Where do ya think they’re holdin’ mah family?”

“Apple Bloom is next door on your left and Mac is in the room to the left of yours. It was lucky/unlucky that they took my satchel. They had no way of knowing I'd shrink without it close to me.”

Ashley listened at the door for any signs of the guards, “I have a bad feelin’ ‘bout this, Alex. Ah’m so worried ‘bout Brian and the rest o’ mah family. If those goons lay a finger on any o’ mah family, they’re gonna deal with a very angry Earth pony.”

Alex used magic to open the door as she said, “They had better not have hurt Daring or the foal or they're going to have a Nightmare 0Night.” Ashley could hear the anger in the mouse voice.

Ashley attempted to calm the slightly angry mouse down, “Watch yer temper, sugarcube. Let’s focus on getting mah family and Darin’ Do out o’ here.”

Alex grew to human size and left the room with Ashley. As the pair left the room, a guard rounded the corner. He froze in surprise and before he could recover, he was briefly surrounded by an emerald glow and he fell asleep. Alex then magically opened the door to Mac's and Apple Bloom’s rooms. And once the Smith siblings were done with their reunion, they turned to collect Granny Smith.

“Hey, Granny. Do ya know where they took Brian?” Ashley asked her grandmother as she escorted the elderly mare to the other Apple family members.

Granny Smith was not sure where they took Brian, and suggested they keep searching each room for Daring Do and Brian.

”So far, so good. Just keep them guards from alertin’ the person in charge, and we’ll get t’ Brian.” Ashley nodded, “Just where would they be keepin’ a young filly like Brian anyway?”

Alex shrank down and jumped to Ashley's shoulder.

Ashley allowed Alex to ride on her shoulder to conserve energy, “Let’s keep movin’ and keep an eye out f’r the guards. Maybe we c’n get some answers from them.”

Meanwhile, while those trapped in the labyrinth of the detainment center were planning their escape and not leaving anypony behind, Ayumi had reached the outskirts of the base and was getting ready to storm in. She realized that the US Military didn’t know about dragons yet. With an evil smirk, Ayumi stored everything away and let her body Shift into her Dragon Form.

The guards posted on the outside fence had no idea what hit them as Ayumi in elder dragon form enhanced further by greed growth rammed through the fence and outer wall. “GIVE ME BACK MY FAMILY!!!!” She roared out as the troops opened fire the bullets harmlessly bouncing off her now 100 foot tall form. “I WILL HAVE THEM BACK BEFORE I LEVEL THIS WHOLE BASE!!!!!”

Ashley was searching rooms for signs of Brian’s whereabouts when the alarms sounded. She made sure they were hidden as the guards ran off to deal with the growing threat. “What in tarnation’s goin’ on out there?”

“Ayumi's here and pissed.” Alex said as they moved. The base shook as a missile launcher was destroyed on the surface.

“Glad she’s on our side. C’mon, one o’ these guards knows where they’re keepin’ Brian and Darin’ Do.” Ashley suggested, searching one of the rooms for the pink maned filly and the famous adventuring Pegasus.

Their luck improved as a guard chose that moment to hustle out of the rest room, pulling his pants up. Alex jumped down, growing to human size and levitated him up for Ashley to ask questions.

“Ahem, Ah beg yer pardon, sir, but you wouldn’t know where they are holdin’ my cousin Brian and a Pegasus named Darin’ Do, would ya?” Ashley asked nicely.

The guard went for his gun only to find it floating behind the golden mare. “Now, now none of that.” The mouse chided.

Ayumi had just crushed a missile launch platform that the puny humans had tried to fire at her. She noticed that one man had stopped firing on her and was talking to someone on the other end of a phone call.

Ashley frowned at the guard’s actions, “Ah was bein’ civil the first time. Next time, Ah won’t be so nice. Now, c’n ya tell me where my cousin Brian and Darin’ Do? Y’see, Ah haven’t seen my cousin in a long time, and Ah brought mah family t’ see her.” She directed the guard’s attention to Apple Bloom, Big MacIntosh, and Granny Smith.

The guard looked at Ashley and opened his mouth, but Alex said, “None of that name, rank and serial number nonsense. Just give us the information we want and be done with it. I don't want to waste energy listening to it.”

Ayumi's advanced hearing picked up the whole conversation that the unnamed officer was having and what she heard pissed her off even more.

“Airstrike inbound what is the status of the target?” The voice on the other end asked.

“Target is currently in the center of the base and we are engaged in holding them off. Hurry, I'm not sure how long we have!.” The officer said as he started firing again.

Suddenly, a translucent emerald dome appeared over the base.

Meanwhile, General Harrison, with Brian in tow, headed down the corridor, armed with a taser and more armed guards. As he reached the group, he held Brian in front of him, as a hostage. The guards aimed their weapons at the group. “I believe she belongs to you?” The General asked. “I’ll let her go if you surrender yourself and tell us what you know about how you came to be the way you are.”

Ashley sighed, “Can Ah at least say howdy t’ mah cousin?”

The General nodded and released Brian to her family. The young girl had a pink mane with magenta highlights with a matching tail, light tan fur and light spring green eyes, and wore the same clothes she was brought in.

She went slowly over to Brian and knelt down facing Brian, “Hey there. You doin’ okay, sugarcube? Ah’m Ashley, and Ah’m yer cousin. This here’s Alex, and o’ course, yer family. Mah brother, Big MacIntosh, Granny Smith, and cousin Apple Bloom!”

“Howdy, cousin! Ah’m so glad t’ meet ya!” Apple Bloom hugged Brian, “You doin’ okay?”

Granny Smith chided her granddaughter, “Now, now, don’t be overcrowdin’ her. Give her a chance to get t’ know us better.” She turned to Brian, “Ah’m yer grandmother, youngin, but ya can call me Granny.”

Brian shoved Apple Bloom back. "Piss off!" she snarled. "The last thing I want is to be related to freaks like you!" The hatred in her voice was enough to send Ashley reeling.

"Babs, Ah thought-" Ashley’s ears wilted, picking up Apple Bloom, herding her towards Granny Smith and Big MacIntosh.

"Don't you fucking call me that!" Brian interrupted before she could continue. "You ruined my life! I was perfectly happy before you sent me that email and those Analysts turned me into a freak."

"The Analysts want to save the world and spread the Magic of Friendship." Ashley stated, reminded of what Twilight told her when they first discovered their current mission after their initial changes.

"And I imagine they also told you it was the Fausticorn's will to risk your ass instead of them doing it?" Brian was clearly furious. "What right do they have to use our world as their playground?"

Ashley couldn't answer. She hadn't even considered that.

Brian continued. "The Army, well, see, they have been keepin' an eye on me. They're already workin' on an antidote for my...condition. And then they can cure us all!"

Ashley looked over at Brian, “A cure? What kinda lies are they feedin’ ya, sugarcube? We aren’t some disease a little needle can fix..”

Just as Ashley reached her cousin, Alex vanished in an emerald flash startling the guards who started to look around.

Alice awoke, sending a flare straight up, creating a spiral cloud bank to appear.

As that was happening inside, Ayumi decided to let Nova take over. Her size instantly tripled and a white light started emanating from cracks in her scales. Letting out a roar of primal Fury Nova started killing the troops standing between her and her child.

“YOU WANT TO KILL YOUR OWN MEN, GENERAL? HERE LET ME HELP YOU!”

The General saw a fire-maned mouse woman glaring at him. “You are not worthy of the rank you hold, hiding behind a noncombatant. You're not worthy of being human, more are those who blindly follow you.”

Harrison laughed. "Says the Servant of an Alicorn too scared to show her own face. Have you really questioned what is happening here?"

He began to step toward her, calmly, his NCB gear clanking as he strode forward. Alex tried to conjure up a spell, but it spluttered and died in her hands as the General got closer.

"What the?" she exclaimed, visibly terrified.

"Not so powerful now, are you?" the General laughed. "It always makes me smile to see my foes shit in their boots, upon realizing what a Hornet's Nest they've kicked up."

With that, he struck her in the face, knocking her out.

Ashley was standing in shock at what Brian had said when suddenly bullets rang out from behind her. Another of those heavily armoured soldiers was approaching from the rear. She ducked behind a desk and grabbed a revolver-only to find she could barely pick it up.

"Wha' in tarnation?" she said. "It's like mah magic's gone!"

"Quite correct," said a voice behind her. Ashley turned to see Brian brandishing a taser.

"No," Ashley whispered. "Don't do this, Brian. Yer family!"

"I have no choice." The other anthro pulled the trigger, and Ashley's world collapsed into electrical sparks and blackness.

The NCB trooper had effortlessly taken down Big Mac and the others, the once powerful stallion capable of lifting cars and trucks now barely able to lift a twig. Apple Bloom was a joke.

He spoke to Brian. "Target's down."

Brian laughed. "Stupid fool. She's so honest she can't even detect when she's being stalled."

Ayumi was also running into problems. She was by far the most powerful of the group psychically, and had thus far effortlessly demolished the defenses of the base. She fired up, preparing the breathe a jet of fire...

...only for nothing to come out. As this realization hit her, her carapace was suddenly hit by Armour-piercing bullets which smashed through effortlessly.

She looked down to see a group of four heavily-armoured soldiers walking forward, apparently not scared of anything. How were they interfering with her magic?

Her form began to shrink, withering until it was reduced to nothing but a human. She could barely move as she heard one of them say, "Target down, prepare for transit."

General Harrison sighed, slinging Alex over his back as he did so. Walking back over to where the rest of the unit had formed up, he saw Brian standing their, with the taser still in her hands.

"Well done," he told her. "You've picked the right side, and stopped a group of extremely dangerous terrorists. Come on, let's go! Get them into storage!"

Operation: Save Babs Seed!

After the group was kidnapped by General Harrison’s troops, they encountered a hostage situation involving Brian Smith, who revealed herself to betray the group in exchange for a cure for the anthrofication that turned several people into various My Little Pony characters.

Ashley woke up in one of those holding container, and tried her best to break free, but her Earth pony strength was nullified. “What in Tarnation?”

Alex woke up in some kind of container with restraints meant to hold a human sized prison surrounding her. “Okay, you guys want to play that way?” She said before releasing a ki pulse that destroyed the container they had placed her in. She looked up at a camera then said. “Okay General you want to play with fire? IT! IS! ON!” A laser thin ki blast obliterated the camera. She then looked around and saw several cylinders using her ki senses she located the ones with her the Apple family, Daring Do and her sensei, Ayumi.

She then got them out, healed and revived them. As Ayumi recovered Alex scanned the ki field and smiled, then said, “That general didn’t count on my recovery rate is faster than a human's nor that my human size isn't my natural size. We're still in the base they brought us to after they kidnapped us.”

Ashley walked up and said, “They got somethin’ that saps magic. How’re we gonna get away if’n they use it again?” She sighs, “Ah cannot believe Brian betrayed us like that. What did they do t’ her?”

Alex smiled and said, “The general caught us off guard with it. Now he's going to learn he can't use the same thing to win twice.”

Ashley checked on Apple Bloom and the others. “Ah cannot believe Brian would do somethin’ stupid like betray us! Does she know we are family, and we want to help her?” Apple Bloom said with anger in her voice.

“Calm down.” Alex said. “She has had her life disrupted. That can make her susceptible to being manipulated.”

Ashley nodded, “That’s totally understandable, but how can we get through to her that we care for her and can help her with this whole bein’, well, this character she’s become without all the anger and sidin’ with the enemy?”

“One thing at a time.” Alex said as she walked to the door. “And I think the good General will turn the tide in our favor without us doing a thing but head out of here.”

Ashley sputtered, “But, Brian? We aren’t just gonna leave out o’ here without gettin’ answers and hopefully get through to her we aren’t her enemy.”

Alex smirked and replied, “We aren't; he's going to bring her to try the same stunt. He's the type that'll use what works to get every advantage.” Just then a person in a lab coat stepped in muttering. He came to a stop when he saw the anthros.

Ashley was ready for a fight, “Howdy! Ya know anythin’ ‘bout nullifying magic?” She asked the lab coat person.

“The n-n-nullifier project?” he stammered. Alex nodded as she cracked her knuckles. “It's supposed to allow us to handle magic using terrorists like you. But how're you free? The holding cylinders have magic dampeners to prevent magic use.”

“Let’s just say my mouse friend’s got a few surprises.” Ashley said, smirking. “Now, Ah wanna know why mah cousin’s workin’ with you guys. Sure, she’s a scared filly who is unsure o’ her place in this world, but we offer her a family who cares fer her.”

“G-general Harrison is using the prototype nullifier to suppress her magic and make her mind open to his suggestions. It's small enough to wear on his belt. But, we just found out background energy has been rising.”

“No wonder she didn’t take kindly to mah hug! She’s not actin’ like herself!” Apple Bloom surmised.

“Ashley nods, “Thank you kindly fer the information. How can we shut this do-hickey down and save mah cousin?”

“The prototype can only be on for three minutes before background energy burns it out.” Their prisoner said. “The field generator will burn out after activation if it's not maintained soon.”

“So we need to get that generator shut down or remove the nullifier away from the general to keep him from manipulating my cousin?” Apple Bloom asked.

The scientist nodded.

Ashley tipped her hat and then went over to the other Anthros. “What’s the game plan, Alex? And what are we gonna do ‘bout that there lab coat fella?”

“Knock him out and stuff him in a closet.” Alex suggested, smirking.

“Big Mac, ya wanna do the honors?” Ashley asked her brother.

“Eeyup!” The red stallion anthro grabbed the lab coat scientist, “Thanks fer yer info. Here’s yer payment.” He took him to the nearest closet and shoved him in there, taking his communications device. “You aren’t gonna need this in there.” He shut and locked the door.

Ashley nodded, “Uhm, they took our cell phones when they nabbed us. We could try to send a message out t’ Twilight and the others, or maybe not, since they may be captured if they try to help us.”

Arriving back at the facility, Harrison and Brian walked back through the base and arrived in the interrogation room. There were all 4 captured anthros, locked in place in storage tanks. They were all visibly struggling as the doctors monitored their vital signs.

“I would give up struggling if I were you,” Harrison told them.

“Why do you fight us?” Apple Bloom asked.

“The same reason I fight any enemy of the United States,” Harrison replied.

“Well Ah’ll be!” said Granny Smith. “How is spreadin’ friendship against American values?”

“You have no idea what’s really going on here. You guys are simply paving the way for an invasion!”

Ashley looked shocked. “Babs, how could ya believe such hogwash! The Princesses-!”

“See us as scum to be wiped out! They forced the Aspect of Honesty on you, just as they forced this form on me!”

Harrison took up the lead. “Well, the tables have turned on them. The USA and NATO have both declared war on Equestria. All we need is a way to get there, and repair the damage already done.”

“We ain’t a disease!” said Big Mac. “How do ya propose correctin’ the problem anyway?”

“Doctor Maynard!”

“Sir!”

“Please explain to them how this antidote works.”

The doctor stepped forward. “The method used by the Analysts was a mutagenetic virus. It rewrote portions of your genetic code. Now, in order to reverse the mutations, we simply needed a sample of your DNA as it was before it was rewritten.”

Harrison interrupted. “Luckily, he’d already had a demo run.” He waved his hand.

The soldiers from the previous day stepped forward.

“Did you think that you were the first?” the General asked. “No, we were. We were the ‘First Six’. We were to be used to clear the way for Equestria. Until we realised the truth, that we were simply brainwashed.”

“Hogwash!” Ashley blurted out. "That's a downright lie if Ah ever heard one before. Yer brainwashin' mah cousin!"

“Let me prove it. You may have heard of ‘Tempest Shadow?’”

Harrison removed his mask and stood straight. Strands of his hair were still purple.

“After they successfully changed us back, we retained our abilities, and became able to interrupt the magic of others. Those generators were developed, by studying us.”

He smiled. “But now, to test the antidote. Brian, considering the situation, I’ll let you choose the test subject.”

Brian smirked. “Ashley,” she said, pointing at her cousin.

Ashley gulped, “Sugarcube, think about what yer doin’ t’ yer own family! Ah’m still yer cousin, whether Ah am Kurt or Ashley. Ah’m still the same person, er pony regardless of who Ah look like now. That’s the honest truth! An’ Ah should know: Ah’m the Element o’ Honesty!” Just then her element glowed a bright orange and fired a beam towards Brian, hoping it would open her eyes to the truth.

The beam ground to a halt in front of her. The field produced by the General and his men was simply too strong.

"You really thought we wouldn't anticipate your little ploy?" Harrison asked mockingly. "We came here with our weapons loaded and our safety's off."

Brian just shook her head. "Ashley," she sighed. "You really are so honest you've forgotten that ponies and people can lie." He signaled Dr Maynard, who opened Ashley's containment chamber, and jammed the needle into her arm. He injected the contents, and stepped back, closing the lid as he did so.

Ashley screamed as a blast of pain shot through her body, the transformation she had gone through a year earlier suddenly going into reverse. Within the space of minutes, where the Element of Honesty was once held, was now plain old Kurt Smith.

Harrison nodded. "One down, 19 to go." He glanced back at Brian. "You made a good choice. Your actions have, in all likelihood, saved humanity."

Ashley, now Kurt, was placed back in the containment chamber. The clothes that he wore as Ashley seemed too small for her, as they would have fitted an athletic girl like Ashley, being an apple farmer. "Ah'm so sorry, sugarcube." He said to Brian.

Apple Bloom was showing a mixture of anger and sorrow, letting out a sound that was somewhere between a shriek and a sob. "What did ya do to mah sister?" she begged.

"You mean your brother," Harrison corrected. "I'm putting an end to this unnatural fuckery."

He pulled a switch, and a rift began to open, revealing a portal to Equestria.

"The portal is open," he radioed. "Commence the invasion."

Preventing A War (The Good Ending)

While Ashley was dealing with her loss of anthrofication and apparent sickness as a result of the so-called "cure", her mouse friend Alex set a trap for unsuspecting guards who had confiscated the groups' communication devices as well as her team's gear. In a storage room nearby a guard went to check contents of a cylinder and froze when he saw that it appeared empty. He got the radio and said in a panic, “General!” The mouse creature has es….” He started before a Roman candle effect preceded a fist connecting with his chin. His unconscious body arced and landed on a stack of boxes, crushing them, revealing her, the Smiths, Daring's and Ayumi's cell phones. As well as her Satchel and Ayumi's backpack.

Taking the time to put everything in her satchel, Alex drew a kanji for "Father" on it and put the phone the her ear. “Dad?” she said. “I ran into a General Harrison and he canceled my magic.”

She listens to what her father and says, “So, if I use a restoration pulse, anyone who has been ‘cured’ will be restored to the forms that're more natural to them?” Alex then felt the ripple cause by a dimensional portal opening. Dad, I got to go, or this general is going to plunge this world into a war it can't win!”

She focuses and teleports to where her friends were. When she arrived her eyes widened at the sight of Kurt Smith. The soldiers raise their weapons when she appears. “Stop right where you are, Viator!”

“Traveller!” Alex corrected. “What did you do to my friend?”

“Alex, so I’m not the only one that poison failed to change.” Ayumi said still in her Alicon form but strapped to a table. “This isn’t the work of the Storm King; it’s Grogar who’s helping the alternate version of Starlight Glimmer! I figured it out when they injected me.”

Kurt headed over to help Ayumi, “Ah’m so sorry, guys. Ah hope we can get through to Brian in time. Ah just want to be back t’ bein’ good ol’ AJ again.” When he heard that Starlight was involved, he shook his head, “You don’t mean our Starlight, do ya? She was Sarah Gaines from school. We helped her with the magic of friendship and she was rewarded with her new anthro unicorn form.” Kurt felt weak without the Earth pony magic infused when he represented the Mane 6 group as their Element of Honesty. “Uh, Alex, Ah don’t feel so good…” She collapsed to one knee. “What did ya do to me?”

“We cured her.” Dr Maynard replied. The Doctor then noticed Alex's swollen belly. “General. The cure will not work on Viator.”

“Traveller!” Alex Corrected again.

General Harrison looks at the Doctor then demands, “Why the Sam Hill not?”

Alex blurs over to Kurt and grabs his arms. The movement was so fast that it bought Alex enough time to scan Kurt. She found the virus and noticed it was in a battle with the spell. She also noted that Kurt's body was rejecting the virus.

Meanwhile Dr Maynard says, “Alex Viator is pregnant. That means she has changes in her body that has locked her in that form. And no, the cure won't work after the birth as her body will reject the cure.”

As Alex took a breath the General and his men closed in. Alex felt their suppression field suppress her Alicorn magic, but her chaos magic; the magic that had been a part of her from birth was unaffected. She smiled as she said, “General Mortimer Harrison, you never learn!” Then to the surprise of the General and his men, Kurt was enveloped in an emerald aura and right before their eyes Kurt Smith was replaced by Ashley Smith.

“Yee-Haw! That’s more like it!” Ashley cheered as she felt her Earth pony strength returning to her. She smiled as her clothes fit her better. “Thank ya kindly, Alex!” She said to her mouse friend.

“Don't mention it.” Alex replied.

Dr Maynard gasped “How'd you change Mr. Smith back into an anthro?”

General Harrison stared at Alex in shock, “How were you able to use a spell now when you couldn't when we met earlier?”

“Simple.” Alex said as she helped Ashley up. “Your suppression field doesn't affect chaos magic and I used it to power a cure spell. And too much time has passed since the transformation, and as a result when the healing spell reinfused Ashley, the spell saw your virus as the danger. Of course it helped that Ashley's body was rejecting the virus.”

Ashley glared at General Harrison, “Ah want you to stop usin’ mah cousin as yer pawn and shut that portal down, pronto! You have no right t’ invade a sovereign nation and kidnap us fer yer sick game!”

Alex then crossed her arms and said, “General. You and I have crossed paths a total of four times. Two out of the previous three you came out on the losing side. The one time you were on the winning side was when you & I teamed up.” Alex placed a hand on her belly, “With that in mind, what are the odds of you winning?“

“Especially when your fighting not only Miss Traveller but a Dno’oove too. Remember what my dad did for your kind.” Ayumi said as she broke her restraints apart. “Don’t make me call my uncle and actually allow him to come here you may know him the NUMA agent Dirk Pitt the man who single handedly made the state count jump by 7 at least. All while killing the corrupt government men and other scum like who stood in his way.”

Alex then added, “Your plan won't work, so might as well give up.” Alex turned to look at her mate showing a digital recorder that was on.

General Harrison smiled and said, “Except for two times my plans have always worked. I'll use whatever tactic I can. Use whoever I choose I'll lie, cheat, steal and murder to get what I want. HELL! I even assassinate the President if he gets in my way!”

“Ya just admitted t’ harmin’ government officials and lyin’ ‘bout that cure of yours. Where’s Brian at? Ah want her to hear how your “cure” isn’t real fer herself.” Ashley demanded.

Daring Do calmly walks in through the door with Brian and a shocked Soldier behind her.

Just then, Ashley's Element of Honesty shot a beam at Brian again. This time, the orange beam surrounded her, and gave her the information needed about the fake cure.

Brian shook her head as she processed the information the Element of Honesty gave her. She looked at the “cure” then gripped the syringe then threw it against the wall, shattering it. She then shouted at General Harrison, “YOU LYING PIECE OF CRAP! THAT WAS NO CURE; IT WAS POISON!”

Ashley smiled at her cousin, “That’s the cousin Ah know. You feelin’ better?”

Brian nodded.

The General just said with a smirk “So what? There's no evidence! It'll be your word against mine!”

Alex shut the recorder off then said, “Ooo! Actually, it’s your word against yours!”

“And surprise, General! Ya just stepped in it deep! Alex has you on recording your lil' monologue 'bout killing the President of the United States.” Ashley smirked.

Alex hit the replay playing, “HELL! I’ll even assassinate the President if he gets in my way.”

“To quote Zootopia, ‘It's called a hustle, sweetheart. BOOM.’” Alex copied Judy Hopps’ line from the movie.

The other soldiers turned their weapons the General provided them and lunged at Alex.

Ashley nodded to Brian, “Ya have a choice, sugarcube. Ya fight with the General or us, your family. Remember who ya are! You are Babs Seed!” She hoped Brian would make the right decision.

Brian looked about then raised the taser. “My parents always told to follow my heart and do the right thing.” The taser was pointed at Alex then swung it at the General and fired. “So I'm doing both.” The taser she was carrying this time had up to 6 charges as it threw an arc of electricity that hit the former general and the five soldiers who were his inner circle and knocked them out.

Brian, no, Babs continued to fire at the General and his troops despite the taser being empty. Ashley touched her cousin's shoulder lightly, "It's over, Babs! They cannot hurt ya anymore. Are ya going t' be okay?” Ashley asked Brian as she went over to her, relieving her of the empty taser, tossing it to her big brother, "See that this is turned over t' the proper authorities."

Big McIntosh smiled as he handed over the taser to Dirk Pitt, Ayumi's uncle, who entered it into evidence, along with the General's confession and any of the research on the "cure." Dr. Maynard also had a change of heart and agreed to turn states' evidence against General Harrison in exchange for a lighter sentence. "Just following orders" was what Dr. Maynard's defense offered.

Babs ran into and hugged Ashley, “Guess I'm more like Babs from the show than I imagined.” She said, though her face being against Ashley's belly muffled it a bit.

Ashley nodded as Babs embraced her cousin, “It’s okay, hun. It’s over. Ya still need to make up with your cousin, Apple Bloom, though.” She lifted her cousin’s face from her belly, “Would ya like to come live with us? We’ll have ta talk with yer parents and help ya find a part-time job.”

Apple Bloom smiled as she went over to Brian, “Ah know we didn’t get off to a good start when we first met ya, but if you want, we can start over. Whatya say, cousin?” She went over for another hug attempt.

Brian, no Babs, pulled Apple Bloom into a hug.

Ashley smiled, holding back a tear as the younger cousins hugged it out and joined the hug herself, followed by Granny Smith and Big MacIntosh. “Ah know this hasn’t been easy fer ya since ya changed, Brian, but we’ll help ya get through this. Maybe talk with yer parents and maybe have ya move in with us? Ah think we can get ya a part-time job at the mall after school.” Ashley stated, talking with Brian/Babs on her level.

Apple Bloom nodded, “And, mah friends Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo an’ Ah formed a club called the ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders.’ We help others find their Cutie Marks, or what they mean.”

Alex groaned then said, “Better stock up on fur shampoo.”

Just then, several soldiers walked in and surrounded General Harrison. “General Harrison, on the charges of kidnapping, Illegal bioweapons research, and attempted terrorism against a foreign power you're hereby relieved of duty. We're to take you into custody and hold you until a court martial can be held.” The former General was led and he glared at Alex before he was out of sight.

Ashley finished speaking with Brian/Babs, then turned to Alex and Ayumi. “Thank you kindly fer getting our family back together. Ah haven’t seen Brian this happy to be around Amy, er Apple Bloom since, Ah’m not sure when…” Ashley scratched her head. “One thing stood out though; mah Element o’ Honesty helped open Babs’ eyes to the lies that fake cure was offerin’.”

“The Elements of Harmony are a constant in every Verse; AJ, you just tapped into your Rainbow Power.” Ayumi said as purple flames spread across her chest revealing the element of magic embedded within. “In my counterpart’s world, the main six are even more the living embodiments of the elements as you can see. It happened when we took down Tirek we each have a copy of the element we represent in our chest binding us further in our cause.” The flames swept over her chest once more hiding the gem beneath her flesh. “It's a part of who we are and a power unlike any other ."

Big Mac walked up wiping the dust off his hands and Said, “But what about the portal?”

“Don't worry about it.” Alex's Father said as he entered. “Me and Dirk Pitt managed to convince NATO & U.S.A to cancel the invasion and the war was not an option. Section Seven is being closed down and replaced. Though everyone working will still pull a paycheck as it's being reorganized into something new.”

Alex’s Father helps Granny Smith out of the cylinder and handed her her cane. The old mare smiled at him saying, “Why thank you Reggie, you are such a gentlestallion.”

Alex leaned over to Ashley and said, “Your Granny is probably the only person he'll let call him that. HE HATES BEING CALLED THAT.”

Ashley chuckled at Alex’s comment,”Duly noted,” still tending to Babs Seed, “Ah’m mighty glad yer okay. Somepony tell Twilight we’re comin’ home and bringin’ along another family member?”

As they leave Apple Bloom pipes up, “Does anypony know how’re we to get home?”

“I can help if you can fix Mary up.” Raven suggested with a very badly injured Mary on her back.

“Land sakes, girl! What happened t’ Mary, er, Crimson Strings, er...uhm, Serine? What is exactly that ponies’ name?” Ashley stammered.

Raven told the group that Serine/Crimson Strings confronted Grogar about the cure and had let it slip it was not a cure at all. She was injected during a distraction and Grogar fled the scene, vowing revenge.

Alex went over to heal Serine/Crimson Strings, using the same magic she used to heal Ashley. After that, Ayumi's Uncle Dirk arrived and offered the group to transport them where they needed to go.

"If it's okay with y'all, we need to get Babs home t' her parents. It's the right thing t' do. Plus, Ah need t' talk to mah relatives in New York and propose Babs come back t' stay with us in Perth. But Ah'll let that be Babs and her parents' decision."

The group boarded the waiting transports to New York City. On the way, Babs fell asleep on Ashley's lap while her older cousin looked out the window from her seat. Apple Bloom sat next to Babs. Ashley sighed as she thought of her friends back home. She texted Twilight, who called back and was very upset about not responding to her texts, "Whoa, slow down, Twi! Take a deep breath. Now, hear me out. We were kidnapped by some evil military organization, and they were using mah cousin Babs as one of their pawns. We stopped them and Babs is okay; a might plum tuckered out and possibly in need of a shower, change of clothes, and a hot meal. Stopping by her place in New York and we should be back home in about a couple days to get things cleared up. Okay, thank ya kindly. Yeah, yeah, Ah'll make sure Ah'll get some shut eye too. Okay, Thanks, Twi. Bye now!" She hung up her phone. "Twilight was really stressed out about our absence back home," she told Alex.

After a restroom break, Ashley dozed off near Babs and Apple Bloom. Just seeing Babs and Apple Bloom bonding together made her feel warm inside. Babs was resting comfortably, and Alex got a blanket and pillows for the group .

The plane landed in New York City and Ayumi woke Babs and Ashley up, "Hey, we are here in New York. I believe Babs gave us her home address before we left."

Ashley got her family and gear and disembarked the plane. The group eventually found Babs Seed's family residence. They found Babs' mother out talking with a female police officer about filing a missing person's report when the group approached.

"Howdy! Y'all can all relax. Babs is right here, safe and sound." She ushered Babs over to her mother. "Brian was transformed into a young filly a while back. She was scared and did not know where to go. Truth is, she ended up saving us all from some evil men who were trying to start a war, which we prevented. You're welcome!"

Returning Home

As they leave Apple Bloom pipes up, “Does anypony know how’re we to get home?”

After closing down the Mysterious Section 7, the Anthro Apples, Daring Do, Ayumi, & Alex, prove a so called cure was not only worthless, but having originated from Grogar, an old enemy of not only the ponies but humanity. Now they have to figure out how to get back to Perth, Western Australia.

Alex and co. were walking in Manhattan towards the apartment building where Babs Seed (formerly Brian Smith) lived. Alex was mouse sized and riding on Ashley's Stetson. Daring was flying slowly and getting more than a few stares.

Ayumi was topless after having talked with the renewed Tempest Shadow about how Grogar found her and brainwashed her with the cure. She gave her top to Tempest Shadow after learning that she had none of her anthro fitted clothes with her. She was drawing some stares as well but she was more concerned with telling the group about a safe house her family kept Upstate.

“My family lived in Rochester for most of my life. I know the city and we will be safe there while I set up our flight home.” She said “As to why I'm topless; laws in New York state let me.”

Ashley nodded, “Ah don’t know about that, Ayumi, but Ah want to make it up to Babs fer helping us by letting her folks know she’s okay and explain she may be coming to live with us, if that’s okay with her and her parents.”

Alex nodded, as she was deep in thought then sighed, “I hope they don't reject her.” She jumps down growing to her 5’8 height. Daring landed and strode with the group. “We're almost there.” She says, “It's two buildings down.”

The lone Equestrian of the group looked about and said, “I've been to Manehattan several times, both book signing and work related and I still can't get over how close the names of this city and the one back on Equestria are.” She then wing hugged Alex before adding, “It's uncanny how this city is laid out. I could go to anyplace in this city by simply remembering how to get to the Equestrian location and comparing the names.”

Ayumi then noticed Alex looking down, “What's wrong, Alex?”

Alex looked up then said, “One of the things I hate about being an adventurer is sometimes an enemy I beat turns out to be a pain of another foe and my beating them destroys them. Take General Harrison; he loved the U.S.A., but he was like Frank Burns from MASH; bigoted, narrow minded, and a fool. His philosophy was the end Justifies the means. Add to that he was a power hungry Patriot. And you get the man we beat. Yet in spite of that, he was a good man and devoted father, And the way we beat him, leaves him with no future but the gallows.”

“Thats where your wrong when i restored Tempest and the other Grogar caught and sent her to our house with the last of my energy i learned that the version of The general we fought was never real just a product of Grogar’s mind magic. If the President asks i’ll explain it plainly someone used a puppet acting like the general to try and destroy the planet. “ Ayumi assured “ Harrison and his family had already moved to Australia when Grogar caught her.”

“Great, seems I just got on another ancient villain's shit list. *SIGH* par for the course.”

Ashley looked over at Babs, “Whatever happens with your parents, just t’ let ya know Ah’ll be there f’r ya.” Ashley gave Babs an encouraging side hug.

Apple Bloom nodded, walking next to Babs, “Same goes fer me, as well! We’re family!”

“Don't count me out!” Alex said. “My family never has let the families of those that help us in the lurch, ever!”

As the group approaches Babs’ parents’ house, Brian's mother steps out of the building with a female police officer saying, “I don't care if my son's turned into an anthro jackrabbit. He's still my baby and I want him back!”

They stop when they spot the group; both women freeze at the sight of the group of anthros. Then Brian's mother drops her shopping bag and charges the group to hug Babs. Knocking a surprised Alex out of the way with an “oof!” Brian/Babs finds herself hugged with strength that would've been unsurprising if it came from Granny Smith.

Ashley smiles and helps Alex up, “Uhm, Howdy, Auntie Smith! Ah’m Brian, er, Babs’ cousin, Ashley, and y’all know mah family; Granny Smith, Big MacIntosh, and mah little sister, Apple Bloom. This here’s Alex, Darin’ Do, and Ayumi. Babs has been on a big adventure since her transformation, and uhm, we wanted to bring her back safe and sound. She will definitely need some food and a bath, as well as a change o’ clothes.”

Mrs Smith nods and invites the group to come on in. She leads them into the house. Then gasps as she sees the condition both Alex and Daring Do are in. “Oh my goodness! You are both pregnant!”

Alex nods suddenly uncertain about her welcome. While Daring Do simply smiled. Mrs Smith then hustles both female anthros to the closest padded seats then says, “You two get off your feet while I get you something good for you and you little ones to eat!” Then looks at her transformed son, saying, “Don't just stand there young lady, help me get something to eat for our guests!”

Ashley removes her Stetson out of respect and has a seat on the couch next to Apple Bloom, Granny Smith, and Big MacIntosh. “Anyway, Ah’m gonna cut right t’ the chase; cousin Brian’s now goin’ by her new name; Babs Seed. And, hear me out now; Ah think she would be better livin’ with her pony kin. It’s up t’ y’all. But ultimately, it’s up to Babs. Ah just want what’s best fer her.”

“Besides, as an Earth pony, she's going have to relearn how to handle things to compensate for her increased strength.” Alex pipes up just before Babs accidentally crushes a glass of apple juice she was handing it to Granny Smith. Mrs Smith was up in a flash and examines Babs’ hand only to find slight scratches.

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t know I’d be this strong!” Babs started to tear up as her mom examined her hand.

Daring takes a glass from the coffee table and says, “One of the good things about her being an Earth pony is she's a bit more durable.”

“And, mah family owns an Apple orchard outside the town where we live. Ah’ll make sure she gets to and from school and we can set up a schedule fer Earth pony trainin’. Plenty of acres t; explore and get in touch with her heritage. Ah also have a friend who is into fashion who might know somepony who can help Babs with her Cutie Mark. Let me guess; a pair of scissors with two halves of a Red Delicious apple for the handles?”

Mrs Smith looks at her daughter and says, “It's Okay. You did nothing wrong. You need to learn of your new heritage and your cousins are offering you a place for that.”

Babs nods, “One moment my butt was bare, the next there it was!”

Apple Bloom hugs her cousin, “Ya got yer Cutie Mark! It represents yer special talent! Ah reckon it’s about bein’ a hairdresser or something?”

Just then Alex's belly jerked a few times causing Alex to put her hand on her belly. “I guess my little ones are happy for you, Babs!” Alex mused. “I just wish they wouldn't use my bladder as a drum.”

Ashley chuckles, “Usually, when a pony earns his or her Cutie Mark, we throw a special party for them. It’s called a Cuteceañera, and our friend Pinkie Pie usually plans those.”

Mrs Smith smiles, looking at Alex and Daring and asks, “If it’s not too.much trouble, when are you both due?”

“Three months!” Both expectant mothers say in unison.

Ashley nods, “Remind Pinkie Pie t’ plan yer foal/baby showers soon as we get home. Ya can pick out names.” She sighed, “We still have to set up that appointment with the local veterinarian Flora works for.”

Alex nods, “I've already picked one name for one. But I am waiting until I either have a naming dream or the mouslings’ nursing at my breast for the other one.”

“Twins?!” Mrs Smith says in surprise. “H-how're you so sure?”

Alex looked at the human saying, “One word, mouse.”

“Well it beats being a shadow.” Raven said.

Ashley asked Raven how Serine was doing since she was attacked. “Ah hope she’ll be all right t’ travel back home. Pinkie Pie will probably want to throw a welcome home party f’r the lot o’ us at Sugar Cube Corner.”

“She should stay with the Crimson Strings form; it's almost impossible for them to die, though the nightmares that come with that form of theirs evens it out.” Raven says.

Babs then looked at Alex and said, “Miss Traveller, how did you get loose?”

Alex grinned and said, ”You remember those cylinders they put us in?”

Babs nodded wondering what Alex was getting at.

“They were built to hold human & human sized anthros.”

“But aren't you human sized?” Babs said in confusion.

Ashley chuckled and said, “Babs. Alex is a mouse. In fact Alex without her satchel, Alex would have to renew the spell that enables her to grow as big as a human. That’s how Alex can come to school with us in her human form. She still keeps her mouse ears and tail.”

Alex nodded. “Well, those cylinders had mystic dampers which is why Mac, Granny, Apple Bloom and Ashley couldn't use their earth pony strength to get out. Well, I couldn't renew the spell so I shrank to my normal three inch size and was able to squeeze my way out. My little passengers were a bit upset but I got out and, you know the rest.”

“Sorry for not helping and coming here unannounced.” Raven says with apologetic look on her face.

Both Alex and Daring jumped at Raven’s comment. While Mrs Smith quickly rolled up a magazine and swatted Raven. “you should be more careful especially around expectant mothers young...er ...lady.” she crossly said to unexpected guest.

Raven disappears, whimpering back into the shadows.

It was at that moment Brian’s Father came home saying as he entered, “Honey! I’m home! Did you finish making the missing persons report to the po….Who are these people?” He looked and the assembled anthros in concern.

“Hi Honey.” Mrs Smith called to her husband, “Brian’s back!”

Mr Smith looked around then said, “Where is he? I don't see him!” In moments he was hit by a equine torpedo as Babs ran up and hugged him. “OOF!” he said from the impact. He then winces from the strength.

“Hi” Babs said as she presented herself to her father. “I'm here Dad, though I've gone through some unexpected changes.” Mr Smith looked at the bufilly in confusion.

Mrs Smith smiles as she says, “Harold, meet the filly Brian turned into, Babs Seed; our Daughter.”

It took me about 2 hours to bring Mr. Harold Smith up to the same page as everybody else.

“ So you wanna take Babs back to Perth with you so she can learn about her abilities and continue school? Mr. Smith asked the group.

Ashley nodded, “Yessir.”

“You'll even help her get a part time job at the mall for after school hours?” he summarizes.

Ashley nodded again, “Ah believe that’s the plan, more or less. Ah still think she would need t’ focus on her academics first ‘fore we start lookin’ fer jobs at the mall that would accept her talents.”

Mr. Smith sighed, then looked at Babs saying, “You’re old enough to start making your own choices in life. Do you want to go with your cousins?”

Babs looked at her Australian anthro cousin, Ashley, then said, “Y-yes. I have less of a chance of getting into trouble there because of my new strength.”

Alex the stood up then walked up to stand close to father and daughter to say, “Plus she won't be the only American Anthro in Perth.”

“And i can all was deliver messages between you guys without any risks” Raven said from the shadow of Alex.

“GAH! RAVEN!!” Alex shouts in fright. Alex then sighs and say to Raven, “Can you even tell who's shadow you come from when you use somemouse’s shadow as an exit?”

Ashley sighed, “Uh, Alex gets startled very easily as a mouse. And the fact she’s expectin’ young; it just makes her more jumpy.”

“Yes i can. I’m in your shadow because i jumped in when the husband came home for it to be easier on you to explain who you were then who i am and also i miss having normal body” raven said while coming out of her shadow.

Mr. Smith looked at the show dog and said, “What's that thing?!”

“I'm a shadow wolf.” Raven says with a sigh.

Mrs Smith then said, “Well, to thank you nice girls for helping Babs, All of you can stay here until you return to Perth. WON'T THEY HAROLD?”

She him a look that promises time on the couch if he disagreed. Harold nodded.

“YAY! SIGHTSEEING TOMORROW!” said a pony Pinkie Pie on the TV. Who then waved at everybody before heading off to do something on the show.

“I swear that Pinkie is actually related to Discord. The way the fourth wall was just broken hints at it.” Alex muttered.

Ashley chuckled, “Rina is totally the same as Pinkie Pie; no wonder she was chosen as the anthro version of the Element of Laughter!”

“I know i think that it's true too.” Raven said in a whisper to Alex.

“Well at least you have a body.” Raven mutters.

“I'll have to do some research but I might be able to make you a body.” Alex whispers to Raven.

“Really, thank you so much! I have been stuck as a shadow for a long time.” Raven whispers back to Alex

“I'll have to access my family's library but I think I can do it.” Alex nods as she waits with the others.

Ashley nodded, “We were plannin’ t use the Legend o’ the Mirror Pool t’ make Alice, Alex’s “sister” a body, so maybe we can get ya one. Maybe that Homunculus recipe from Mage Meadowbrook’s journal? It should be in that there satchel o’ yours, Alex.” Ashley suggested.

Mrs Smith walks into the kitchen and says, “Well I’m about to start cooking dinner so why don’t you get comfortable!”

She then turned to Mr Smith, “Would you be a dear and go to the pet store and buy about ten bottles of flea shampoo so they could get cleaned up before dinner’s ready?” Mr Smith nodded and left. Before he left he hugged his son turned daughter and said, “Go do your homework; your friends from school brought back all your assignments and we got word from your teachers that as long as you turn in all your assignments they won’t penalize you.” Babs sighed and went her room to study.

Daring Do and Alex went to sit with Ayumi on the couch opposite the one the Anthro Apples sat on, then Granny Smith said. “I think we can spend a night here. But we’ll have to move into your safehouse tomorrow, Ayumi.”

Ayumi nodded at the elder Smith. She then said, I hope this adventure is over.”

Apple bloom got up then said, “Ah’ll go help Babs with her homework!”

Ashley nodded, “Good idea, sis! Babs really needs t’ connect with her cousin that is the same age as her. Plus, it’ll be a great way t’ bond with her. Tell me how it goes, ‘kay?”

Apple Bloom hugged her older sister warmly, then went to find Babs Seed’s room. “Babs, hey, ya need some help?” She called out.

“Yes!” Babs called out from her room. Apple Bloom scampered from the living room to head to Babs’ room.

As the young filly left, Alex said, “I hope Babs adapts well to Australia.”

Meanwhile, Apple Bloom entered her cousin’s room, and looked around, “How ya holdin’ up, Babs? Ah mean, with bein’ a filly and all?” She asked, attempting to break the ice, as it were, with her new cousin.

“It's still very difficult.” Babs replied. “My clothes don't fit anymore, I can't wear normal shoes, my skin jerks on its own whenever a bug lands on me, smells have gotten more intense, my hearing's gotten sharper, there's a moist slit between my legs where my junk used to be, and TO TOP IT OFF, I'VE CAUGHT MYSELF EYEBALLING GUYS, AND I'M NOT GAY!” Babs then thumped her head down on her desk.

Apple Bloom sat down next to Babs and said, “Don't worry Babs. My sister and her friends went through what you are going through, so they'll help you out!” The red haired filly puts her arm around Babs to comfort her in her time of need.

Babs nodded her head on her desk.

Elsewhere, in a darkened room a glowing globe sails into a wall to explode. “Graaarg!!!” Shouted an anthro ram who seemed to be mummified. “If I didn't already hate them I'd would hate them. That Tartarus-spawned family has cost me a chance to add both Equestria and this United States of America to Tamblon!!!!!”

A female anthro stepped out of the shadows. She looks like an older version of Starlight Glimmer. She smiled mirthlessly as she said, “I warned you about using that false cure as well as targeting this world’s version of the Apples. So you're going to take our alliance seriously, Grogar?”

“It would appear I have no choice.” Grogar conceded.

“Excellent.” She says.

Back in New York, at the Smith residence…..

“Well if you want I can give you back some of your masculinity.” Ayumi offered. “It can be hard to adjust to suddenly having both genders but it's a hell of an easier time than a full gender swap without the option.”

Babs considered then said, “Thank you, but no. I think I'll stay fully female, as I have a chance to make more friends.”

At that moment a shout of, “Dinner's ready!” calls out.

“JUST FINISHED!” Babs called out from the bathroom. Moments later Babs came walking out to the dining Room wearing a small dress that had been a joke gift from one of his male acquaintances in school. And the fact that it had been given to her when she was still Brian the day before her transformation was a boon. “I'm gonna have to thank my friend Jake Long for this dress.” She said. “ When I can catch up to him. That would be nice, A.J.”

Ashley smiled at her cousin’s choice of attire, “Well then, Ah’ll ask Alex to contact Rarity and maybe she can come up with some ideas. Maybe she needs t’ meet ya so she can get yer measurements.”

Alex's stomach chose that moment to growl loudly followed by Daring Do's. Both expectant mothers blushed as they sat down at the dinner table.

Once everybody was seated Mrs. Smith served dinner. They continued with some idle conversation and stories told between the American and Australian Smiths. While Ayumi, Daring Do, and Alex spoke about the Official forming of the first Earth Anthro Herd in pegasani, the old pre-unification pegasus tongue. After dinner was finished, the Smiths surprised everymouse by once again offering to allow the group to stay with them but they were turned down.

“No offense meant to you, but two of us are in a rather delicate situation and it would be better if all of us took Ayumi's offer of use of her safehouse; It would be better for all parties involved.“ Alex said.

After that Ayumi teleported everyone to the safehouse and they found places to sleep.

Ashley placed her Stetson on her head and went to fetch Babs and Apple Bloom for dinner, “Hey, Babs, you doin’ okay with yer homework? Yer mom says dinner’s ready, so you need to clean up. C’n ya get some new clothes fer Babs? Ah could call Rarity and see if she can help.”

Ashley got settled into the safehouse bedroom, choosing to bunk with Babs and Apple Bloom. “All right, girls. Time fer bed! We have a busy day to transfer Babs’ school records t’ her new school, get her some new clothes, and find a new job when we get to th’ farm.”

Honesty: Applejack

Kurt Smith was seventeen years of age and attended school with his friends Rina, Terrance, Matt, and Harry. Up to now, the group included John Radderson, who had recently underwent a drastic transformation that left him, or rather her, in the form of an anthropomorphic version of the main protagonist of the cartoon My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic; Princess Twilight Sparkle, complete with her horn, fur color, eye color, hooved feet, and wings. Kurt was still Twilight’s friend, regardless of her changes, and supports her in every way.

Kurt usually wore a pair of blue jeans with a white shirt and an orange work shirt, with his work boots to school or on the farm. He had emerald green eyes and short blond hair. While working on the farm, he would wear his brown Stetson, but took it off for school, to eat his meals, and lastly, when he was ready for bed.

As Kurt headed home to his family-owned farm, he looked around at the red barn and the ranch-style house where he lived with his grandmother, an elder brother, and a younger sister. The orchards outside the fields bore many varieties of apples, which were either sold by the bushel or used to make many apple-themed drinks and food items to sell at the market.

Kurt headed into the farmhouse, where the family was preparing dinner. He went up to wash his hands and wondered how Twilight was coping. Perhaps he could get her email address or talk to her at school or if she was around town. After washing his hands, Kurt headed downstairs to talk to his family about the new girl in his school.

“I'll tell ya, John came to us and showed us that she had become Twilight Sparkle. She even had the wings and horn, purple eyes and everything. She even came to school the next day and enrolled as ‘Twilight Radderson'. My friends and I decided ta’ help her out the best we can,” Kurt explained after finishing his meal.

The younger sister, Amy, age nine, who had red hair, green eyes and often wore blue overalls and a white shirt underneath it, was ecstatic, shouting, “You’re friends with a pony princess! Oh, wow! She must be really grateful to have friends to help her out. She’s like an exchange student from another world or something!”

Kurt ruffled his sister’s hair, saying, “Kinda like that. Well, I'm gonna get some rest. Tomorrow, I'm gonna meet up with Twilight and see if she needs some help. Maybe share contact information.” He hugged his grandmother, Ms. Smith, who was around her late 70’s, early 80’s, and his older brother named Mac. Mac graduated from school and spent his weekdays on the farm, with the weekends to relax with family or pitch horseshoes, a Smith family tradition.

As Kurt headed to his room, he thought of all the similarities he and his family had to the orange earth pony and her family on the show Twilight came from. He, like Applejack, was honest and and averse to lying. Both had love for the farm, growing plants, and tending to the chores on the farm. If there were any repairs needed on the farm, he and his brother would finish up in time to relax or listen to their grandmother’s stories of her youth. Kurt’s parents were absent from his life shortly after Amy was old enough to attend her first day at kindergarten and was under her grandmother’s care until she broke her left hip. After that, Mac and he took care of Ms. Smith, but were not able to come up with enough money to help with the surgery to fix her hip. So, they had to come up with some creative solutions for ways to make extra money.

As Kurt lay in bed pondering how to help his family and his future appointment with Twilight at school or out in town, he saw an orange glow coming from his computer. Curiously, he opened his computer to see an image of a red apple. The orange glow from the computer and the image of the apple surrounded his body as he shielded his eyes. The mysterious orange glow from the computer faded, leaving Kurt confused, exclaiming, “What in tarnation?” He covered his mouth as the last word slipped from his mouth.

What happened next to Kurt’s body started at his hair, which grew out to be slightly past his shoulder blades, ending in a ponytail. His skin turned light orange as his hands became more slender and were covered by similarly coloured orange fur. Some freckles appeared on his face as it became more feminized, including his eyebrows and eyelashes. His green eyes shone brighter as everything appeared clearer. Kurt went to the mirror in his room to watch in shock as his body became both more athletic and feminine at the same time. A pair of orange pony ears appeared under his hair and twitched in response to his emotional state. As he stood there looking at what appeared to be the beginnings of a muzzle, his chest began to expand into a pair of breasts. His teeth flattened to resemble that of an equine. His legs became more athletic and were covered in orange fur, with his feet changing into hooves. A pair of three red apples, Applejack’s Cutie Mark, appeared on his hips. Eventually, a tail that matched his new hair color sprouted from his rear and grew quite long, also braided like a ponytail. The penultimate changes occurred when he felt the final vestiges of his former male body disappear, leaving him, or her in awe of her new form. Her new voice shifted a few octaves until it matched Applejack’s southern drawl perfectly.

“Land sakes! Not only do Ah sound like Applejack, Ah reckon Ah’m supposed ta’ be her!” The new Element of Honesty reasoned, standing admiring herself in the full-length mirror. She then found some red ribbons and a hairbrush on the desk near the computer, and used said brush to start brushing her hair. When finished brushing her hair, she braided it and tied the red ribbon to hold the braid into place. She did the same to her new tail. “Well, now that the hair’s done, best ta get some decent clothes then tell the folks what happened.”

After finding a white shirt with green trim on top to match her eyes, and some blue jeans she modified for her long tail with a brown belt with the red apple emblem from the computer screen around her waist, she looked around one last time at her reflection. “Somethin’ is missin’ from mah outfit,” she said to herself, and noticed she didn’t have her brown Stetson. She found one in her bed stand and deftly placed it on her head, her ears poking out on either side of the hat. “There, much better. Ah still need ta talk ta Twilight and get some help.”

As the new pony girl came down the stairs, her family starred in shock at the sight. Upon recognizing the color scheme and hair of the one that had just entered the room, she shouted, “Is that Applejack?!” She proceeded to rush up to her and tackled her while hugging very tightly.

“Relax, sugarcube, it’s jus’ me, Kurt. Just ended up becomin’ yer big sis is all.” She ruffled the young girl’s red hair. Amy just squeezed her big sister even tighter, a gesture that was returned by the anthropomorphic Applejack. Amy reminded her so much of Apple Bloom, the youngest member of the Apple family.

Grandma Smith came out with her walker, followed by Mac. “Well, what do we have here? A new member of the family come to visit? You must be Kurt’s cousin. Welcome, hun!” Grandma Smith was not wearing her glasses at the time she beheld her new granddaughter. Mac chuckled and fetched the glasses, giving Grandma Smith a better look at the human/pony Applejack before her.

“No, Granny, Ah’m, er, was yer grandson, Kurt. But I reckon Ah’m yer granddaughter now,” she said, correcting her nearsighted grandmother.

“So, what are ya gonna to do for school? Ya cannot use yer old name…” Mac drawled, looking over his new sister.

The new member of the family thought about names for herself, replying, “Well, Ah’m supposed ta’ be Applejack, so Ah was thinkin’ of usin’ Ashley Jacqueline Smith, or AJ fer short. What do y’all think?”

The family thought about Ashley’s proposed name change. “Well, we need to legally change it at the courthouse and get all the school records changed, and that takes time,” Grandma Smith stated matter-of-factly. “But, we’ll cross that bridge once we get ta it. Until then, ya still have yer chores after school and have ta keep up yer studies so you can graduate.”

Ashley nods, shouting, “Yes ma’am! Ah won’t let you or the family down. Even mah friends…” Just then, she thought of Twilight, “Ah, shoot, Ah plum fergot ‘bout Twilight! Ah need ta contact her and tell her what happened. She’ll know what ta do!” She headed upstairs to try to find Twilight’s contact information. “Come on, where is it. It’s gotta be in one of these here notepads.”

Ashley continued to search for Twilight’s contact information, looking for either an email address or a phone number until she found an email that appeared to be connected with her. “That’s gotta be Twilight’s email.”

Ashley then clicked on the email that Twilight had set up, and sent an email with a picture of herself in her current form. Long blond hair, brown Stetson, orange fur, and bright green eyes.

The message read, “Twi, if you are reading this, I need your help! I’ve turned into Applejack, or an anthropomorphized version of her. I even use her accent. Can we meet someplace in private?” She then signed the email with ‘Love, AJ.’ Then, she sent the picture and email, and waited for Twilight to respond back.

New Students: Tempest Flare and Sunset Shimmer

New Students: Welcome, Sunset Shimmer and Tempest Flare!

A few weeks passed since the anthrofied Mane 6 (Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash) had dealt with another attack from Chessmaster at the school. Fortunately, they were assisted by Maestro Star and his sisters, Janice and Servo. They used the Elements of Harmony on a human who had become possessed by the Nightmare Force that turned them into an anthropomorphic version of Nightmare Moon. There were rumors about some new students arriving at the school. One of them was known to Rina, or Pinkie Pie, as she preferred to be called. Her pen pal from Russia would be staying at her home during the semester while she attended school.

Ayumi's POV:

As I head up to the front door I see a girl standing about 5 feet 10 inches wearing a brown Stetson hat with a white t-shirt with a brown jacket over it. She was also wearing a blue denim skirt. The odd thing was this girl had a blonde tail and hair with orange fur and ears; though not as odd as it once was due to my own changed form.

The blonde girl was looking at her cell phone, texting her friends about the new arrival in the foyer when the new student showed up. “Howdy! You must be Pinkie Pie’s pen pal! Ah’m AJ. Pleased to meet ya!” She headed over to shake hands.

But I backed away due to her overly friendly manner to a complete stranger. “I tend to let off heat from my hands when nervous and I don't want to burn you by accident.”

AJ watches as the new girl explained why she backed off, “Oh, that’s okay, sugarcube! Ya got a name? Ah’m one of Rina, er, Pinkie Pie’s friends. Ya remember Rina, don’tcha?”

“Yeah, but I never met her personally. We used to be pen pals back when snail mail was used more. Now we use email and IM but I always wanted to meet her for real,” I said as a burst of flame popped out my mouth. “Sorry, still getting used to being able to breath different elements.”

AJ smiled, “Ah hear ya. Mah best friends can fly and use magic. Me, Ah got super strength and endurance. Comes in handy f’r workin’ on mah farm.”

“I got all that and more. I think I’m a hybrid of an alicorn and a dragon.” I say as I stretch my wings out.” I was a pegasister before my change, so I know about the show but I liked the basis it gave for fan fictions. Seems I became my favorite OC, Tempest Flare.”

AJ smiles, “So, Ye’r Tempest Flare, huh? Why don’t we meet some o’ mah friends. Ya probably know about Twilight and the others, right?”

“Is she Twilicorn or just unicorn Twilight?” I ask. “Twilicorn means alicorn Twilight by the way.”

AJ chuckles, “Twilight is the Princess of Friendship, so she’s an alicorn all right. She’s got her magic, wings, the Element of Magic, the intelligence, and she’s a great friend t’ talk with. She even forgave Trixie when she was under control of some dark amulet.”

“Good! I hoped she was; I kinda need her help with my magic. I somehow have the burning hands as I told you, and I want to turn that off if I can. Though, can we get some food? I’m craving gems.”

AJ shakes her head, “Uh, sorry to break it t’ ya, Tempest, but this ain’t Equestria. Ya can eat normal pony food, right?”

“I know, but when I crave gems for some reason, candy does the trick if only for a bit. And I got some cash so if we can find a vending machine I’d be very grateful.”

AJ nods, “Ah saw a vendin’ machine down the hall by the cafeteria and the lockers. Ah think they have some candy. Ah prefer apples mahself.”

“Hey can I ask something well something besides this?” I changed the subject as we talked along the way.

AJ nods as she takes Tempest to the vending machines, “Sure, sugarcube. What’s on y’r mind?”

“Who were you before the change?” I asked the anthro farm girl.

After hearing the question Tempest proposed, AJ thought about how to answer, “Ah was known as “Kurt Smith” before Ah ended up as the Element o’ Honesty. It felt really weird bein’ in this here body, but Twilight showed me Ah’m a part o’ this. The gals depend on mah honesty and bein’ there f’r them and others. Ya okay with this, right, Tempest?”

“Call me Ayumi. I always kept my first name in my fanfics and even before the change I had changed my middle names to fit. My old name was Ayumi Alexia Selene Dno’oove. I just switched them. Funnly, I had to change them anyway to actually sign up for the exchange program as another girl had both of my old middle names as her first and last. “

AJ nods as Ayumi explained her story while they approached the vending machines, “Rina, er, Pinkie Pie told us all about ya comin’. She will probably throw ya a 'Welcome to the School Party.;”

“About that; the reason I came here was actually to meet Luna as well as Rina. She was my favorite character in the show and after changing, I hoped that someone had become her. Do you know if somepony has already? Or, am I reaching for the stars?” I chuckled at my joke.

AJ shook her head, “Not sure if anypony became Luna, but Twilight’s been in contact with some folks called the “My Little Pony Analysts.” They’re behind all the strange emails that turned me and mah friends int’ the Mane Six. Another group turned one o’ the local bullies int’ Trixie. Even mah little sis became Apple Bloom!”

“As long as Chrissy isn’t the one behind it, I’m fine. I hate how most think she’s just evil; most of her worst moments are when she’s drunk on power. As most know, power corrupts, so I like to think she just let it go to her head. Hell, I bet in the show Cadance was only so ragged during the wedding due to the overuse of her love magic to feed the other changelings. she looked the same during the crystal empire episodes minus her wedding dress of course.”

AJ chuckles, “Ah hear yah, Ayumi.” The girls approach the vending machine, “Okay, here’s the candy. What would ya like?”

I look at the selection and see a bag of hard candy. ‘Thank the Goddesses they do sell hard candy here!’ I said to myself. I then pointed at the bag of candy I wanted, “Can you pay for me? I still don’t know how to use Aussie money, sorry.”

AJ chuckles, “Sure, Ayumi. This one’s on me today.” She pulls out her change purse and selects some coins. After depositing the coins into the machine. “Okay, push the button for the hard candy ya want.”

“Thanks, AJ! Scientifically speaking hard candy is a type of gem, so it’s the best for my cravings!” I say as I press the button and grab the bag. I popped a piece in my mouth and start gnawing on it with my fangs.

AJ watches as her new friend munches on her candy, “Reminds me o’ a certain dragon from the show who likes gems as much as you do.” She then selects some apple slices from the vending machine. “These aren’t like the ones at mah farm, but they’ll do.”

“Thing is, most dragons eat metals and gems to reinforce their scales and in some fiction this also makes them more magic resistant,” I say as we eat our snacks. “So, what’s next?”

AJ thinks, “Well, we could go find Twilight and the girls. Rainbow Dash would be probably flyin’ around here.” She looked around for the cyan Pegasus.

“Oh Well then, guess I’ll take to the air myself.” I say as I leap up as start flapping my own pair of wings. “I practiced back home and flew to the airport that took me here. So I’ll be right back with Rainbow! If you want to see her spotting me flying near you. I bet yah 10 she’ll rocket toward us to try and tackle me.”

AJ nods, “Ya makin’ a friendly wager, sugarcube? Yer on!” She watches as Rainbow Dash was resting on a cloud. The rainbow maned girl spotted Ayumi flying near her area.

“Huh, who is this?” Rainbow Dash asked herself. She took off towards the newcomer. “Hey, you there! What’s up, besides the sky, that is…” She laughs at her own joke.

I ignore the polychromatic pegasi and smile, “Give her a bit.” I tell AJ.

Applejack continues to watch the two flyers from the ground as she munches on her snack.

Seeing Rainbow still just hovering there, I decided to taunt the Mare. “Oh nothing! I just told AJ here that I could beat your flank from here to Canada and back in ten seconds flat.”

Rainbow glared at Ayumi. “You did NOT just challenge me to a race! You’re crazy if you think that you can beat me!”

A chuckle could be heard, drawing the attention of the mares to the new arrival. “Do you really think that it’s even possible to get from Australia to Canada and back in that amount of time? I mean, you may have supersonic speed, but there are limitations for everyone.” The anthro before them surprised them, but not unpleasantly.

Ashley spoke first. “Twi’s got a point, RD. It’s quite the distance.”

Rainbow huffed. “Of course I can! I’m the fastest flier, after all.”

Ashley watches Ayumi and Rainbow Dash get ready for their race, “Twi, while yer here and all, that other gal is Ayumi. She’s the new “exchange student” Pinkie told us ‘bout. She and her used ta be pen pals. Turns out she’s some sorta dragon hybrid thing. Ah didn’t think that was possible.”

Twilight chuckled nervously. “You’d be surprised at what’s possible, AJ. Maybe you should talk to Maestro- he seems to know a whole bunch about the Equestria we’re connected to.”

Ashley quirked an eyebrow. “Really? Since when?”

Twilight shrugged. “He said something about a talk with somepony on the night his friends flew in from America. That’s all he said about it.”

“I meant it more as a challenge to her martial arts skills if she's anything like the Rainbow Dash the show still have the black belt level karate skill. Also, I won, so AJ, pay up.” I said as I landed next to my fellow alicorn. “Hi Twilight, my name is Ayumi Tempest Flare Dno'oove. I'm an Alicorn and Dragonoid hybrid. Like you I have a special ability but most don't know about. I can see the weave. Basically it's a way to predict the future using probability and some magical foresight. It allows you to see the connections between everyone and where they are going to go. It's not completely accurate I can see the most likely outcome that happens in the next few minutes. Though this ability only works if I concentrate on it.”

Ashley regretfully paid up on the bet, muttering about something. Twilight seemed curious about the future sight thing, but she knew it wouldn’t do much, seeing as it was only into a few minutes. She got her thoughts off of it, and smiled. “It’s good to meet you. Pinkie told us a bit about you.” She shook Ayumi’s outstretched hand, glad to have a new friend. “Say, we can take you over to her house if you like! She’s probably waiting over there with a small party for you.”

“Yeah a ‘small’ party.” I said with air quotes. “Knowing Rina/Pinkie she'll have invited half the town. Especially now that she has Pinkie's unique magic.”

Ashley looked over at Ayumi, “So, you got a place t’ stay while yer attendin’ school?”

“Not really no. And before any of you offer I can literally carve out a cave if I have to but I was hoping to ask Rina’s mother if until I figure out how to use Aussie money then I’ll rent a penthouse apartment for the year.” I said with a chuckle. “Ever since my uncle died I’ve been a multi-millionaire; so yeah, I’m as loaded as Fluttershy more actually as I have full access to my money.”

Ashley thought about the options her friends and her could offer. “Well, Ah live on mah family’s farm, and Twilight’s got a place. There’s also Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. What do ya think, Twi?”

Thinking back to earlier I realized something. “Hey Twilight, sorry to correct you but Rainbow Dash can actually achieve Hypersonic speeds of up to Mach 10. This is due to her pegasi magic allowing her to bypass the normal sound barrier. It’s only at Mach 5 when her magic goes into hyperdrive causing a massive speed boost and that iconic rainbow ring of energy.”

Ashley nods, “Yeah, that’s her Sonic Rainboom maneuver. Ah’m sure Rainbow Dash would find that information ‘awesome’!”

Twilight sighed. “While that may be true, she might be unable to maintain it for long

periods of time. After all, in the show, it’s only ever shown her do it for minutes at a time.”

Rainbow scoffed. “Hey, that doesn’t mean anything! I’ll just have to see how long I can maintain top speed! Later!” She then speeds off into the sky.

Ashley chuckled as Rainbow took off towards the sky. “Looks like Rainbow’s gonna try to test out her new Pegasi abilities. Ah feel mighty strong mahself. Must be the Earth pony traits in me.” She flexed her arm to test out her strength.

A certain mare could be heard, huffing. “Trixie thinks she could do better, if she had wings! How many anthros have those, anyway!? And why doesn’t Trixie have them!?”

Ashley looked over at Trixie, “Howdy, Trixie. Ah’m Applejack, or AJ fer short. Why are ya so upset ‘bout?”

Trixie scowled. “Trixie already knows you, sort of. Remember when you and your friends dragged her to Twilight’s? Trixie still remembers the meal you gave her was overabundant in apple products, with not enough variety! And she’s upset because she knows that she doesn’t have wings! It would make her look so regal!”

Twilight sighed. “You never change, do you? Always had a bit of a jealous side to you even before you became Trixie.”

Ashley shook her head, “Sorry about the meal, Trixie. All the food and drinks we served came from mah farm’s apple orchards. If ya want variety, p’rhaps we can figure out what other foods ya like.”

Trixie grinned. “Do you have… pears?” If she knew anything from reading way too much fanfiction, it was that in any universe, Applejack seemed to have an aversion to pears.

Applejack’s face made a frown, “Sorry, no can do, sugarcube. Ah have three red apples as mah Cutie Mark, not pears. But, p’rhaps if we go t’ the local markets, there may be some. Then again, you like peanut butter crackers, right?”

Trixie was appalled. “Only with the crunchiest of peanut butter! Never one of those disgusting ones they sell that only come with creamy!”

Ashley smiled at Trixie, “Ah’m glad yer feelin’ better, Trixie. How ya holdin’ up with bein’, well, you?”

Trixie shrugged. “Trixie doesn’t mind that she is her. Sure, the third-person speech took awhile to get used to, but she’s used to it now.”

Ashley looked over to Ayumi and then to Twilight, “Well, we have a new student. Ayumi, this is Trixie. Trixie, this is Ayumi. She’ll be hangin’ out with us after school and learnin’ about our unique talents.”

Trixie looked at her, and raised an eyebrow. “Half-dragon, huh? Maestro said such things were possible, even going so far as to say that he’d seen one himself. But he never said one looked quite like… her. Oh well. Trixie’s just going to roll with it.” She then turned her thoughts to the other portion of Ayumi’s reason to be here: to study the talents of the anthros. Perhaps Trixie could dazzle her with her illusions? That would be wonderful!

Ashley thought about the current situation with Twilight and the others, ‘So, this lil’ group’s starting to feel more like Equestria. We have Trixie, as well as the rest of the Mane 6. Ah wonder who else we’ll run into?’

Ashley broke out of her thoughts, “So, Twilight, what did you think of our deep-sea divin’ adventure? Ah knew Rarity didn’t want to get her mane all wet, so she stayed in the boat while we went in and found that artifact yer supposed t’ find.”

Twilight sighed. “Honestly, it feels so far away, like it happened ages ago. I was a bit nervous at the time, but I’m glad we went. Even though I’ve honestly felt a little… strange ever since.”

Trixie usually didn’t show much concern for others, but she was curious. “Strange how?”

Twilight shook her head, flapping her wings absent-mindedly. “I can’t quite put it into words, honestly. I feel stronger, sure, but I also feel… How do I put it, exactly? More… alive, I suppose.”

Ashley nods, “Ah hear ya, Twilight. Ah feel the same way. It was if we were meant to be...us. Ah mean, yer the ‘Princess of Friendship’, Trixie’s a great illusionist, and Ah’m just a simple apple farmer. Rainbow’s a great flyer and loyal friend, Fluttershy enjoys her time at the local animal shelter, Rarity’s designed most of our outfits f’r school and casual wear, and Pinkie’s into bakin’ and throwin’ parties.”

Trixie blinked. Had she felt like that ever since she’d found the dynamo? In fact she did, but she just hadn’t noticed it up until that point. “Weird. You would think that Trixie would have noticed sooner…”

Ashley looked over at Twilight, “What d’ ya think, Twi? ‘Bout the Elements and these artifacts we’ve found so far?” Ashley was indeed wearing the Element of Honesty around her neck. The orange gem representing an apple reflected the sunlight that gleamed off it.

Twilight hummed in thought. “I don’t know. I mean, we’ve already dealt with somebody being forcibly anthrofied into Nightmare Moon. Perhaps the reason we have them is just in case we have to deal with a situation like that? Though, I wonder sometimes if there’s more to it…”

Ashley looks over at Trixie, “What d’ you think, Trixie?”

To say the least, Trixie was surprised. They wanted her input? She seemed to think on it for awhile. She finally decided that she would voice what she thought. “Trixie may not have been there when you found the artifacts, But for some reason she feels almost… necessary to this whole ordeal. Don’t ask her why though, because she has no clue.”

Ashley chuckled and extends her hand to Trixie in friendship, “Ah know we didn’t see eye-to-eye when ya first challenged Twilight, but ya weren’t yerself then, no offense. But, you’ve changed, Trixie, f’r the better. And if ya want us t’ help ya out, we’ll be there f’r ya. Right, Twilight?”

Twilight nodded. “Of course. That’s what friends are for!”

Trixie seemed a bit hesitant, however. She’d never really had friends before. Sure, she was willing to work with them, but friends? Was that the best way to approach this? She then remembered a bit of advice Maestro gave her: If you distance yourself from others and don’t accept friendship, you’ll only end up cold, sad, and alone. True, people may use you sometimes- but not everyone’s like that. If you make friends, look for those that already seem to be good friends with others. They’re the most trust-worthy.

Trixie then shook Ashley’s hand. “Thank you.” Her smug grin then returned. “But don’t expect Trixie to say that often, mon amie.”

Ashley accepted Trixie’s handshake in friendship, “Well, Trixie, let me be the first t’ say, ‘Welcome aboard.’ Ah just hope the other gals will accept ya as easily as Twilight and I did.”

Trixie then seemed to recall something. “Oh yeah! Trixie looked at the registry for new students, and it seems there’s one more that’ll show up soon. The name they go by is Sunset Shimmer.”

Ashley looked over at Twilight, “Ya know anythin’ ‘bout this ‘Sunset Shimmer’ we need ta know, Twilight?”

Twilight recovered a little from the shock of it all. “Yes, actually. She’s from the Equestria Girls movies- you could go so far as to say that she’s the main character of them. But, seeing as it’s going to be an anthro version of her, expect to see her horn. After all, she’s a unicorn.”

Ashley nods, “So, we have Rarity, Trixie, and Sunset Shimmer as unicorns, me and Pinkie as Earth ponies, Rainbow and Fluttershy as Pegasi, and one Alicorn Princess of Friendship, as well as Ayumi, an alicorn/dragon hybrid, and whatever Maestro and his family are?”

Twilight seemed confused. “Why did you say ‘whatever they are?’ They’re just unicorns!” However, underneath, Twilight was sweating bullets. Had one of the others that knew told her? After all, she hadn’t said a word. She looked over to Trixie. I doubt she’d tell anyone about it, knowing that it’d be a misuse of Maestro’s trust.

Ashley looked over at Twilight, “You okay, Twi? Yer as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full o’ rockin’ chairs.” She then sighed, “Take it easy, Twilight, o’ course that Maestro fella’s an unicorn, as are his half-sisters.” She nervously rubbed the back of her head with her hand.

Twilight cursed inwardly. Sometimes she hated the fact that she was so bad at disguising her emotions. She tried to calm down, but only worked to a certain degree. “I’m fine, really.” She then took a deep breath. “I was just a little jumpy about you accusing our mutual friend and his family. I know his half-brother’s against us, but that’s no reason to go and accuse them of lying without much proof!” She told herself to try and keep calm. She knew that AJ meant nothing by it, but her paranoia sometimes got the better of her. “I’m sorry for snapping at you. I just hope you can put a little faith in him. If he feels you are trustworthy enough, he might share a few secrets. That’s all that I’ll say on the matter.” the best of her.

Ashley gave Twilight a side hug, “Feelin’ better? Good t’ hear. Ah didn’t mean to go accusin’ Maestro of wrong-doin’. He’s been mighty friendly since he showed up to save ya from that half-brother o’ his.. It’s just that...ah forget it. We got a new student arrivin’ soon”

Then Ashley changed the subject concerning the new student, “Now, once Sunset Shimmer shows up at school, we shouldn’t overwhelm her too much. Judgin’ by what happened t’ us, she could be someone who got transformed by them Analysts.”

Twilight nodded. “I’ll inform everyone to treat her with the utmost respect.” After texting all of her friends that weren’t there at the moment, Twilight smiled “Thanks for understanding. Now, how about we go see if Sunset’s...” Twilight then shook her head. “No, she’s probably not here yet…”

“Any idea where she would be stayin’ at?” Ashley asked the group.

“Trixie saw a hotel listed, seeing as she’s probably a long way from home. Now, which one was it again…?” She put a finger on her chin, trying to recall where it was. She then noticed something. “Hey, is it just Trixie, or did Ayumi leave?”

Ashley nodded, “She said she was goin’ to find Pinkie Pie and ask to stay at her place. Shoot, if she needed a place to stay f’r the school year, she coulda asked Twilight or me.”

Trixie shook her head. “Trixie thinks Ayumi wanted to be around somebody a little more familiar, even if it is only through letters and e-mail that they know each other.” Trixie then tried to get her thoughts back on track. “Now which hotel did it say Sunset was staying at again...?” Trixie muttered for awhile, but then snapped her fingers. “Trixie may not recall what its name was, but she can remember what it looked like! And there’s only one hotel that she can think of that looks quite like that.” She rustled her cape dramatically, and grinned. “Trixie’ll just find it, and come back here with Sunset! Piece of cake!” She then disappeared in a flash of pink light.

Ashley watched as Trixie teleported out, then asked Twilight, “Did Trixie just learn t’ teleport herself?”

Twilight sighed. “Knowing that she was anthrofied by somebody outside the Analysts that gave her full control and knowledge of her magic from the get-go, I’m presuming that she always knew the spell- but only recently has she ever used it.”

Ashley nodded, “Well, I hope we can solve the case of who anthrofied Trixie in due time. What ‘bout yer contacts, Miss Excalibur and Maestro? They had some theories…”

Twilight had a contemplative look. “Well, Maestro is even more convinced than before that it’s Starlight Glimmer that we’re dealing with, ever since Excalibur revealed to him that the Equestria we’re connected to hasn’t yet experienced the events of the Season 5 finale. He highly doubts it could be anyone else at this point. He says that even with this hunch, there is a slight possibility that he’s wrong on this. He just doesn’t expect it to be the case.”

Ashley nodded, “Well, we need t’ be ready fer whoever’s behind this.” She then smiles at Twilight, “Ah can’t thank ya enough fer bein’ there fer all of us when we...changed like you. It took some adjustin’ to these here new bodies, but we got through it.”

Twilight shook her head. “Just doing what any friend would. If we are there for each other, our bond will never falter.”