At first glance, there was nothing all that different between Equestria and this new world. The grass felt exactly the same, the sky was the same color, and even the weather was the same. Starlight had already been through the portal once before, so the experience of going from pony anatomy to human anatomy wasn't a surprise. Still, she reasoned that no matter how many times she came through the portal, seeing her new body, the hands, fingers, and only two legs would never cease to surprise her.

“Starlight Glimmer?”

Starlight's balled up fists rubbed her eyes, trying to get acclimated to the bright sunlight after coming from the inside of Twilight's castle library, where Princess Twilight often kept her shades closed to keep the distractions out. She looked up in the direction of the voice to see Sunset Shimmer and her friends sitting right next to the portal on a picnic blanket.

Thank goodness! Starlight thought ecstatically. Just the ponies... er people I was hoping to see.

“Hi girls!”

Starlight took a few tentative steps on two legs towards the girls. Going from pony form to human form was a bit difficult, so she wobbled slightly with every step until Rarity came forward to help her.

“Not that it isn't lovely to see you, darling, but what are you doing here?” Rarity asked as she pulled Starlight into a hug and led her towards their little makeshift picnic area; letting Starlight lean on her until they reached the blanket.

Starlight reached into her messenger bag and pulled out the note that had come through the portal.

“Princess Twilight said that this note came through the portal earlier for me. It's from the Starlight Glimmer in this world, it sounds serious and I was hoping that maybe you girls knew something about it.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow, but reached for the note that protruded out of Starlight's balled up fists. She read it through and turned it upside down and flipped it over countless times as if she expected the letter to spontaneously add several pages that completely detailed exactly when it was written, who wrote it, and how it made its way through the portal.

Unfortunately, it was still just a single piece of paper with only three sentences on it. None of which remotely explained what was going on or why Starlight needed to come through the portal.

“I don't think any of us have ever seen the Starlight Glimmer of this world before!” Rarity piped up.

“Actually, I think...” Fluttershy started.

“No, I definitely have never seen this world's Starlight Glimmer around here,” Applejack interrupted, agreeing with Rarity.

“Maybe one of you guys saw somepony... er somebody, drop this letter off at the portal? I mean it may not have come directly from her, maybe she has a friend or an acquaintance who dropped it off for her?”

The seven girls all shook their head.

“The portal is kinda sorta a secret. Emphasis on sorta,” Pinkie Pie said. “I mean, like, everybody here at Canterlot High knows that there is a portal to another world where there's a pony princess and sure, there are definitely people outside of school who know that magic exists, but I mean, only a few select people at CHS know that there's a portal right here. They just think it's a seemingly normal statue of a horse!” She dropped her voice down to an ominous whisper, “but they'll never know the truth...”

“So then it must be someone from Canterlot High then, right? I mean maybe she doesn't go here, but what if somebody who goes here who told her about the portal? She could have dropped it off or asked that person to drop it off or something?” Starlight asked.

“Well, actually I found this...” Fluttershy started.

“Not exactly,” Sunset Shimmer interrupted as she handed the note back to Starlight, who looked clearly deflated after Sunset shot down her suggestion.

“Around here, we’re kinda known as the Guardians of the Portal,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Since when? Literally nobody has ever called us that,” Applejack argued.

Rainbow Dash ignored her and continued, “most people here don't even know where the portal actually is, but they know that we are Princess Twilight's friends so we obviously know where the portal is; people around here know that. So, ergo, we're the Guardians of the Portal.”

“Maybe it happened when you guys weren't in front of the portal?”

“Didn't you say that it happened today?” Twilight asked.

“I mean, yea, as far as I know. Today was the first day that Princess Twilight said anything about it to me, so I think so?”

“I suppose it's possible,” Twilight admitted.

“It could have happened while we were in class,” Sunset agreed. “If it was somebody from CHS they would have had to skip class to do it because we were out here all morning before school started. Of course, it was somebody else in town or somebody from Crystal Prep, it's possible that they were able to do it while we were in class, but I can't imagine anybody from CHS or Crystal Prep has ever talked about their experiences with Equestrian magic. They would sound insane.”

“Maybe the portal is more well known around here than we thought?” Rarity suggested.

“Don't you think there would be a lot more random trips to Equestria? At least just to see if it could be done?” Sunset asked before turning to the new addition to their group this afternoon. “Starlight, have you or Princess Twilight or anypony else in Equestria ever seen anything or anyone strange come through the portal outside of this letter?”

Starlight shook her head.

“I'm not sure we should count out anyone at Canterlot High just yet; It wouldn't be unusual for somebody to skip class. It's probably far more likely than somebody who came all this way just for the portal. Trust me, I've made that trip. It's hard to do it quickly and without somebody at least taking some semblance of notice of a stranger by the portal,” Twilight pointed out.

“I understand that there's probably a lot of possible variations, but could you girls possibly let me know if you find anything else? Anything at all?”

“Of course,” Sunset Shimmer assured her. “Anything we can do to help. That's what friends do, after all. Right girls?”

The other six girls all agreed loudly and pulled Starlight into a group hug. She inwardly thanked the stars that the girls here were almost exactly the same as the ones she left behind in Equestria – the best friends ever and the only girls she would ever entrust with a problem of this magnitude.

“Excuse me, are you Starlight Glimmer?”

Yes, finally! Someone who knows me! This is a good start to this world. Less than ten minutes and I might already have a lead!

Starlight untangled herself from her friends and came face-to-face with a woman that she could only believe was this world's version of Princess Celestia. Thank goodness for another familiar and trustworthy face.

“Why yes I am! Pri...”

“Principal Celestia!” Sunset Shimmer cut in. “How do you know our good friend Starlight Glimmer?”

Celestia ignored the girls comments and kept her focus on Starlight.

“Are you okay? Are you safe?”

Starlight's brow furrowed. “Uh yea, why wouldn't I be?”

Fluttershy cleared her throat, finally prompting the other girls to take notice of her. She pulled a piece of paper out of her backpack. The paper featured a picture of Starlight Glimmer with a large frown on her face. Above her photo in large bold red letters was one word: Missing.

“What?” Starlight whispered to herself as she reached for the paper. Principal Celestia intercepted her before she could grab it and put both her hands on Starlight's shoulders.

“Starlight Glimmer, why don't you join me in my office? I'll make you some tea and we can chat while we wait for your parents to come.”

“My parents?”

* * *

The last time Starlight Glimmer saw her parents was a few months before Sunburst got his cutie mark.

She was raised in a tiny little unicorn town, usually not shown on any maps, despite it being just outside of Canterlot. It was the town that her parents had grown up in as well and they hated it. Even as a filly, Starlight could tell that they not only resented the fact that they were stuck raising her but that they were stuck living in such a small town where everypony was in everypony else's business. Her parents especially hated it because they had aspirations for something greater in life.

Starlight never had the opportunity to find out what those great aspirations they harbored were; when she was a filly, she had never even thought to ask them about it.

And one morning she realized she would never get the chance when she came downstairs for breakfast and found out that they were gone.

While she was asleep they had packed up their bags and slipped out the door in the middle of the night, leaving her to be raised by her sweet, but somewhat disinterested grandmother.

In a twinge of excitement and fear, Starlight hoped that wasn't the case for her counterpart in this world. She unballed her fists and used her extended fingers to brush away the stray hairs from her face.

She wanted to attempt to seem as human as possible for her parents.

Sure, they weren't really her parents, but in a way, they still sort of were and it was the most parenting she would have had in years so she wanted to impress them and she wanted them to love her.

“Is there anything I can get for you while you wait?”

Starlight opened her mouth to speak, she wanted to tell Celestia that she had the wrong girl. Surely, she would understand, she had to have known about the portal, it was literally right in front of the school. She reasoned that it probably wouldn't be difficult or take that much time to explain to her that this world's Starlight was still missing out there and they need to look for her.

It could have been such an easy fix; if only Starlight had been able to form the words to let her know.

Once I meet my parents, she reasoned. Then, I can tell everyone that this has all been just a big mistake.

* * *

Every time the door opened, Starlight would perk up. Of course, for the past hour, it had just been Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna coming in and out of the office to check on her and ask if she needed anything.

From her seat in front of the desk, she watched the sun slowly set over the horizon and Starlight had begun to think that even on this world, once again, her parents had forgotten about her. Perhaps this worlds Starlight wasn't actually missing, maybe she realized that she was living with parents that didn't care enough to want to know where she was.

Just as Starlight was beginning to wonder if Principal Celestia would just let her leave her office and go to the safety of one of her friends' homes, she could see several cars with flashing lights on top rush over to the school with several other cars without lights following behind them with just as much haste.

That got her attention. She crept toward the window to watch as the line of cars stopped along the road next to the empty schoolyard. The rest of the students had dispersed hours ago, even her friends had wished her luck while they went home to their own families for dinner. Now, the yard was filled with people again, most of those people were in uniform, but there were a few plain clothed people that Starlight tried to catch a glimpse of as they followed a few of the officers into the building.

Her face flushed. This was it, the moment she had waited for since the day they left. She ran back to her seat wordlessly and straightened herself out just in time for the door to open. Once again, it was just Principal Celestia, and while Starlight knew there were people right outside the door coming to see her, she still felt a slight twinge of disappointment.

“Starlight Glimmer, there are some people here to see you. Please answer them honestly, dear, they are just trying to help you.”

Starlight nodded wordlessly which led to a small, but relieved smile from Celestia. Celestia nodded to people outside the office that Starlight couldn't quite see from her angle, and then left the room. She could feel a pit in her stomach start to form from the nerves, each millisecond that she waited seemed to go on for eternity until a small group of people filed into the room.

She eagerly gave each person a once over trying to watch out for the body language of her parents, were they relieved that she was safe? Were they disinterested and surprised that she... well that their daughter had been missing at all?

As soon as they had all filed into the room around her seat and she had looked at every single person, her heart dropped. Everybody in the room looked like a perfect stranger to her.

Maybe it's just been a while? Maybe they just look different from what I remember, it has been a few years and this is a different world. She thought, trying to reassure herself.

Two of the strangers in the room ran over and engulfed her in a hug. They looked young, far too young to be her parents, and nowhere near what she remembered them to look like. He was tall, a light yellow in color with a bushy burnt orange mustache and hair and she was gray with curly mint hair.

Whoever they were, Starlight definitely felt loved by them, but she couldn't shake the gnawing disappointment that they weren't her real parents.

“Where have you been, Glimmer? We've been so worried!” The woman asked as she pulled Starlight closer to her.

“Well... I...” she didn't know how to answer that anymore. The whole reason she hadn't said anything about coming through the portal sooner was because she wanted to meet her parents, but these people definitely weren't her parents.

“Starlight Glimmer, we talked about this,” another woman in the room said with a heaving sigh. She had soft two toned pink hair wrapped in a tight bun and thick black glasses perched on her ivory skin. “There are consequences to your actions; you can't just run away from your foster families every time something doesn't go your way and expect everything to just be fine. This is serious! Morning Dew and Rondache were worried sick!”

I guess this world's Golden Aura and Quick Charge weren't interested in taking care of me either.

“You see, there's a perfectly good explanation for everything!” Starlight said before adding in a softer voice, “sort of.”

The woman raised an eyebrow and leaned back against Principal Celestia's desk.

“And what would that be?”

The pit in Starlight's stomach returned, but she powered through it and held out the note that she had received in front of her for everybody to see. Under the bright florescent lighting, the handwriting seemed eerie and worrying, especially now that she knew the other Starlight had been missing for several weeks now.

“Well, you see the Starlight Glimmer that you're looking for and me are two completely different beings. I come from this place called Equestria and everyone there is a pony. I got this letter the other day that came through the portal... the portal is in the base of that statue of a horse right outside this school by the way... which is kind of funny right seeing as it's a statue of a horse.” Starlight pointed to the statue right outside the window. The other people in the room humored her by looking outside unenthusiastically and then looking back at her waiting for her to continue. Starlight cleared her throat. “Anyway, the letter was signed by the Starlight Glimmer of this world and she sounded like she was in trouble so I came through the portal to help her. So, really you found the Starlight Glimmer from Equestria when you really need to find the Starlight Glimmer from Earth. She could be in serious danger! So please, promise me that you won't stop looking for her!”

The officers looked at each other and back at Starlight and groaned.

“Starlight Glimmer, you realize that we keep a record of all your stunts, right?” One of the officers asked.

“What? I don't understand.”

“This isn't even the first time you've used the portal to another world excuse before,” the second officer added.

“Miss Care, you want us to do anything about this or do you think you can take it from here?” the first officer asked the pink haired woman.

There has to be something I can say or do to show them I'm not lying. What if I showed them the portal? Would that help? Oh I wish I could just use magic to prove my point, but it works differently here. Ugh, I have to do something! These strangers don't believe me!

“I can take it from here,” Miss Care responded with a curt nod, immediately shutting down any possible plans Starlight had been formulating in her mind. “Thank you for escorting myself and her guardians here. Have a wonderful evening!”

The two officers walked out of the room and the pit in Starlight's stomach seemed to grow. Not only did they not believe her, but now they had given up the search on Starlight Glimmer. If it ever came up that something happened to Starlight Glimmer, she knew that she would never forgive herself because her being here meant that it was her fault that they called off the search.

“Do you two mind leaving Starlight and I alone for a few minutes? I would like to have a talk with her about everything that's been happening in a safe space.”

“Of course!” Morning Dew replied as she led her husband out the door. “We'll just be right outside if you need us, Glimmer!”

Miss Care closed Principal Celestia's office door behind them and sat down on her desk. She rubbed her forehead in frustration while Starlight fidgeted in her seat uncomfortably.

“You promised me that you wouldn't cause any more problems, Starlight. I know that things have been rough for you lately, but running away and making up some bullshit story about that statue being a portal to a horse world? Really?”

“It's the truth!” Starlight argued.

“No, it's not. It wasn't true when you used that excuse to explain the last few times you disappeared for a few days and it's not true now! Every time you say that you lose more credibility with me and the police, you realize that right? And your foster parents, for goodness sakes, you got so lucky with these people, they were so desperately worried sick about you that I got several phone calls a day from them asking about you. These people really care about you, don't you understand that? And where are you? Just running around causing trouble once again? What did you do this time? I hope you realize that I can't always clean up your messes for you. You were incredibly lucky last time that Ms. Abacus Cinch decided against pressing charges because if she did, there wouldn't be much that myself or anybody else could do to help you.”

Starlight sat awestruck in her seat, unsure of how to process this new information.

Abacus who? What is this other Starlight doing? And who is she doing this stuff to? Lying to people about where she's been, running away and causing trouble, and just how long has she known about the portal?

“Don't you have anything to say for yourself?”

She shook her head so quickly that she swore she could hear her brain rattling around.

“I love you, Starlight, I really do. You've been a part of my caseload since you were a kid and I just want the best for you. So help me help you. What's going on? Why did you run?”

“I don't know.”

Miss Care sighed. “You say that every time, but there has to be a reason. A happy person doesn't just run away from home without a word.”

“I really don't know, I'm sorry. Like I said I'm a...”

Miss Care groaned. “Starlight, you aren't a pony from Equestria. Please, don't try to convince me otherwise. Just promise me that you'll try harder to be present in your family, that you'll work hard in school, and that you won't cause any more trouble. Can you do that for me?”

“Yes, I can. I promise.”

“I'm going to send you home with Morning Dew and Rondache tonight. You have my number on your phone if you need anything. Please Starlight, if there's anything bothering you, please just call me before you do something drastic. The two of them have been patient with you so far, but even the most patient people have their breaking point.”

“I know,” Starlight whispered.

“So please talk to me before you do something you'll regret. I had to pull a lot of strings to even find this family for you after some of the stunts you've pulled in the past. If you ruin this chance, I don't know how many others you'll have. Please tell me you understand that.”

“I understand,” Starlight responded.

She wasn't sure if the other version of her understood that though. Starlight had to admit that she was never exactly the best pony, even with Princess Twilight's help, she was just starting to become better, but this Starlight didn't seem to have the same good influences she had in Equestria.

“So please, stop suggesting that there's a place called Equestria where ponies run free or whatever. Starlight, it's not helping your case. Just keep your head down, do your best, and finish school. You're a smart girl, one of the most gifted I've ever seen and you know your way around technology better than most people. Just don't let the small things get to you. Okay?”

Starlight hesitated. She didn't want the human Starlight to get into any trouble, she knew that this Starlight probably wasn't lucky enough to have friends that could teach her how to better herself, but she hoped that by setting a good example maybe if or, more likely, when the Earth Starlight Glimmer was found she would be inspired to be better too.

“Okay,” Starlight agreed quietly. Miss Care forced a small smile and Starlight wondered how often the other Starlight made false promises to Miss Care over the years. She didn't blame her, if she was in Miss Care's shoes, she probably wouldn't believe her either.

“Okay. Have a good night Starlight, please think about this conversation. Please stop wasting everybody's time.”

Miss Care opened the door to Principal Celestia's office and nodded to the couple right outside the door before walking out of the office. Starlight looked up at the couple and slowly got out of her seat.

“I'm sorry about that,” Starlight said.

“Miss Care said you were a difficult case, Glimmer, but we definitely weren't expecting you to run away within a week of moving in.”

“Right, about that... I wasn't joking. I'm really not your Starlight Glimmer, I really don't think you should give up on the search for her; she's out there somewhere and she could be in danger! Please just let me prove it to you!”

A flash of frustration flew across both Morning Dew and Rondache's faces.

“How about we circle back to this tomorrow, Glimmer? It's been a long day,” Rondache said.

His wife put her arm around Starlight and pulled her closely.

“I'm sure the 'other Starlight Glimmer' will be okay for one more night, dear,” she said with a wink.

“It'll only take a second, I promise. The proof is right outside, I can show you while we are on the way out!”

Her guardians looked at each other with a resigned sigh and nodded in agreement as Morning Dew led her out of the school.

With the sun down, the cool evening air had come over the town. Starlight shivered slightly, but she was determined to show them that she wasn't lying; other Starlight was depending on her. She wriggled out of Morning Dew's grasp and made a beeline to the statue and knelt down in front of it.

“Starlight Glimmer, what's going on?” Morning Dew asked.

“Just give me a second! I promise, it'll all make sense!”

She put her hands on the base of the statue at the exact same place that she had just come out of several hours prior, but instead of her fingers going through the portal where she could show off a brief image of her hooves to her guardians, she was touching cold stone. Starlight's eyes widened in fear, Twilight had rigged the portal to keep it open all the time so that either she could go through the portal to see her friends here or they could come to her. It was almost never used anymore, but Twilight's rig still stood, or at least it had when she had left earlier, but it must have been tampered with. She clawed at the statue's base in vain as if the portal would just pop back to life at a moments notice.

“Glimmer, what are you doing?” Rondache asked.

“It was here just a second ago, I swear!”

“What was?”

“It was a... oh never mind,” Starlight said with a resigned sigh. “It doesn't matter.”

“Come along, dear, it's getting late. Maybe you can show us tomorrow?” Morning Dew suggested as she helped the teenager up off the ground.

Starlight looked back at the statue and bit her lip. The portal being closed threw a wrench in her plan; now she had no way to prove that she wasn't this world's Starlight Glimmer. So far they didn't seem willing to hear her out and without the portal she had no backup plan to make people believe her.

“Right, tomorrow...” she whispered as Morning Dew and Rondache led her to the car.

Author's Note

I've been working on this for National Pony Writing Month so while I've looked it over a few times to make some clarifications and minor edits I may have missed some things. Please let me know if you find anything!