Nine Realms

Having all been generously provided with surprise sunglasses by their party-loving friend, the group all looked on at what had to be the inhabitants of this new realm. At first glance, they appeared to be human, but there were important differences between them. Firstly, there was the obvious issue of the light, which had thus far given them a great deal of trouble. For every one of the individuals over there seemed to positively radiate. It was as though they were fairer than the sun itself to gaze upon, and in fact, the ponies worried that they might even go blind if they were to look at them close-up without the aforementioned sunglasses. Secondly, even through this difficulty in seeing them, Twilight and the others could tell that the ends of their ears were pointed slightly, which, when coupled with their largely slender figures, gave the impression that this was a less resilient or hardy lot than what they'd encountered on Midgard.

"Huh...kinda bright, aren't they?" Applejack remarked.

Twilight nodded to this, and began to walk forward, her friends close behind her. As they drew nearer to the group far away, they could see that all of them were clad in bright white clothing, almost akin to dresses, which clung loosely to their bodies, giving a very airy image as they moved. And speaking of movement, whoever these people were, they went about as though they were dancing the whole time, moving through the woods as though nothing physical around them gave them any difficulty or hindrance. What's more, there was the matter of the music. For as they closed the gap between them the ponies could start to hear what appeared to be flute music of some sort, and as they narrowed their eyes, they could see that this instrument was indeed what was being played, though only by a few of their number. Walking alongside her leader, Rarity whispered.

"Well, they certainly don't seem all that stressed by anything."

A chuckle escaped Twilight at that, for she could not fault her friend's words. In truth, it was rather nice that they had finally happened upon some group who had little to no concerns, as every people they'd encountered so far had all been embroiled in some unpleasant undertaking, be it trying to eke out a living, or simply awaiting some future violence, as Surtr had done. But, regardless of what they were doing, or why, they were the only people out here, and as such, Twilight elected to up her pace, trying to catch up to them before they moved away. The others followed suit, and before long, they were walking right alongside these people. But, even upon their approach, the dancing group didn't pay them any attention, even those who actually bothered to open their eyes and see them. Twilight, raising an eyebrow, cleared her throat.

"Um...hello?"

Again, there was no response, merely more dancing and music. It was as if these people had not a care in the word, which contrasted quite a bit with the somewhat haggard-looking Equestrians who were trying so hard to get their attention. Twilight, growing increasingly frustrated with this lack of notice, scoured the group as they moved, and her eyes eventually rested on what appeared to be a female. Like the rest, she was in the middle of her dance-like movements, and though she was always uncertain about interfering with something like this, Twilight felt she had no choice but to press the issue. She stepped forward, right between the female and where she was about to go to, speaking aloud with a firmer tone than before.

"Excuse me?"

Here, her words had the desired effect, as the individual stopped at last. Her eyes opened, and she glanced down at the small equine who had halted her. But, rather than be offended or upset at having been stopped, she simply smiled. Getting down to one knee, she looked Twilight over, before speaking in a quiet, calm and even pleasant-sounding voice.

"Greetings, stranger. What brings you here to Alfheim?"

Smiling at this welcome response, Twilight glanced over her shoulder to the others.

"Well, at least we know what to call this place."

The others nodded back, and soon afterwards, the young Princess looked back to her latest acquaintance.

"I'm sorry for interrupting whatever it was you were doing, but my name is Twilight. My friends and I are far from home and trying to get back."

The female nodded, though her expression did not suggest that she was in any way moved or concerned with the predicament that had been described to her.

"That is most unfortunate. I cannot image such a hardship befalling me or my kin."

Twilight gave a slight bow of her head.

"Thank you for your kind words."

That had largely been a courtesy, because in truth, Twilight could hear in the woman's tone that she did not sound all that worried about them, which, naturally, irked the Princess somewhat. Still, diplomacy was the order of the day, and she would never consider commenting on such a thing. Instead, after taking a few calming breaths, Twilight spoke up again.

"I don't know how much travel you or your people do...but I was wondering if you knew of any means to escape this realm and find another?"

The woman blinked, briefly glancing over to her colleagues, all of whom had simply continued on their way, never stopping to see what she was doing or why she was speaking to these talking multi-coloured ponies. It was as if it was beyond mundane to even consider doing such a thing. So unconcerned were they with what was happening around them that they'd even left her behind somewhat, although, much like everything else, this too seemed of little concern to the woman, who merely shrugged her shoulders before finally answering Twilight's question.

"I am truly sorry, Twilight...but I know of no such way out of this realm, nor have I ever had any real interesting in finding one."

With that, she stood up, giving a quick bow of her head before turning away from Twilight.

"My apologies...but I wish to re-join my people now."

And so, without even saying goodbye, she left, leaving a somewhat bewildered alicorn behind her. Twilight blinked a couple of times to this, and was followed shortly afterwards by her friends.

"Well...that was helpful," Rainbow declared, sounding as appropriately sarcastic as ever.

Twilight genuinely wanted to concur with her on that one, but, she soon let out a sigh.

"Rainbow...if we were in Equestria right now, and someone came up to us and asked us something along the lines of "how do I get to another world", would it be easy for us to answer them?"

Rainbow considered that, for about a second.

"Well...you do have that magic mirror."

Twilight grunted.

"Okay, bad example."

Fluttershy, keeping her eyes where their less-than-helpful new friend had walked off to, eventually turned to their leader once more.

"So...what do we do now?"

Sighing, Twilight gave the only answer she could.

"There has to be someone among them who knows what we need. So for now...we follow...and we keep asking."