It is four o'clock in the evening.

At the moment, Jack and Will are watching the part of Equestria Girls where Twilight meets up with Flash Sentry at the Sweet Shoppe. While they watch the scene, Jack can’t help but feel reminded of having a crush on Emily, especially in the same way Twilight has a crush on Flash.

"Can you believe that Twilight has to crush on Flash?” Will asks, “She doesn’t even live in the human world!”

Jack shrugs. "I don't care."

"I mean, come on. Twilight's your favorite character."

"I know. But, I don't care if Twilight has a crush on somepony else."

Will smirks at Jack. "Is it because of your girlfriend, Emily?"

"She's not my girlfriend!” Jack denies with a blush. “Shut up!"

"Ah, come on. I saw her talking to you while my Dad was picking me up from school."

"But, you didn't saw Henry and his gang?" Jack raises his eyebrow.

"Nope." Will says. “Sorry, dude.”

“That’s alright,” Jack assures. “On brighter notes, Emily asked me to come to her house tomorrow after school."

Will chuckles. "Ooo. Someone is gonna watch My Little Pony with a Dino Expert."

Jack rolls his eyes as he places the palm of his hand on his forehead. "Emily's not a Pegasister, you know.”

"Yeah. Well, she washed your stuffed Twilight Sparkle.”

"And my book," Jack says. "I just asked her to clean it."

Will puts a finger to his chin, finding that to be a good point.

"Well, she's a nice girl. And I think she likes you," he adds in mischievously.

"Knock it off, Will!" Jack punches Will's shoulder. "She's just trying to be generous."

Will is about to say something, but Rarity from the TV screen shouts "I'VE GOT IT!" which startles Will.

“If you say so." He continues to Jack.

As the two friends turn their attention back to the movie, something happens from right under their noses. The icon of the new book Jack found briefly glows as Jack’s palm still rests on it.

"I wish Twilight was real."

"So do I. Although, I mostly prefer Rainbow Dash."

"And if Twilight’s real, I wonder if I could introduce her to my Mom and..." Jack sighs looking depressed.

"What's wrong?"

"I was about to introduce Twilight to Emily, but... she isn't a Pegasister, and I'm not sure if I’d be the guy for her since she already has a boyfriend."

"Cheer up, Jack. Emily broke up with two other guys before. I'm sure the third one will break up with her, and-"

"I really don't think Emily will break up with her fiance. Especially since he‘s really nice to her."

"Well, she likes you."

"That's because she likes everyone in school."

"Just like you liking dinosaurs." Will turns to attention to the movie. "Just like your father."

Jack nods. "Yeah."

Without anyone noticing, a fog of golden aurora flows from the icon of the book to Jack’s hand. The aurora absorbs into Jack's skin until the icon stops glowing.

Jack glances at the book. "Do you really think I should read this book or something? Because you said that the author tag on it is fake."

Will shrugs. "I don't care."

Jack grabs the book, and he opens it.

Suddenly, before Jack is about to read, the words in front of him seem to blur a little and he feels dizzy. Jack shakes his head.

"Jack? Are you alright?" Will asks.

"I feel... kinda funny," Jack says while rubbing his head. "Can you pause for a minute? I gotta go to the bathroom."

"Sure."

After Will pauses the TV, Jack stands up, and he runs to the hallway. He keeps running, but, due to dizziness, he ends up hitting his head against the wall.

"Ow!" Jack yelps.

Jack struggles to run to the bathroom. He makes it to the front door of the bathroom, and he turns on the light. Then, to his shock, he sees that his eyes are glowing gold. As he keeps looking in the mirror, his head begins to hurt and the room begins to spin until finally, he collapses on the ground.

“Jack?” Will calls out, hearing the commotion.

Immediately, Will runs to the bathroom to see what’s going on with his friend. When he arrives, he gasps upon seeing his friend unconscious.

“Jack!" He rushes to the unconscious Jack and shakes him to wake him up. "Jack, say something!"

Will checks Jack's pulse. Jack's still breathing, but, he didn't wake up.

"Stay here, Jack. I'll go call for help." Immediately, Will runs out of the bathroom, pulls out his cell phone, and dials the number of Jack's Mom.

Jack, meanwhile, is still unconscious.

Meanwhile, the pickup truck is driving in the streets of a suburb part of Bozeman. The Mane 6, Starlight, and Spike are still hiding inside the pickup basket filled with antiques. Starlight is impressed with all the stuff she is seeing.

"I didn't think humans could have such impressive things in this world." Starlight says.

"Tell me about it. I didn't even know humans wear clothing like ponies can." Rarity says happily. “This is so exciting!”

"We're ponies, Rarity." Applejack explains. "We don't wear clothing unless we want to. So, why the hay do humans always wear ‘em?"

"To adapt in different climates, and also, um...you wouldn’t want to know the other reason." Twilight replies, blushing in embarrassment. "Trust me."

Rainbow peeks her eyes outside of the tarp to see where they are, and she finds that they're in a town lined with houses. What catches her interest the most though is that the 'carriage' they're in is moving by itself.

"Speaking of humans, how come their carriages aren't powered by any ponies?" Rainbow asks.

"They're called 'cars', Rainbow," Twilight explains. "They have a large machine at the front called an engine. You know, kind of like how an airship is powered.”

"Oh, I get it. How come we don't have any?"

Twilight scratches her head. “Good question. Maybe we're on a different planet with a sapient species more advanced than we are."

"Except the fact they don't have magic." Starlight says. “While we're off of our world, we don't have magic. I still can’t help but find that to be mysterious."

"I've been into the human world where there's a little magic, but this world...is nothing like the one I’ve been on before."

Fluttershy is sitting on the side of the pickup basket staring at a moth on her hoof. "Well, at least this place has animals."

"You're staring at a moth on your hoof." Applejack says.

"I know. This moth looks, um...different compared to Equestrian moths, but, it's so cute."

Twilight's about to say something when the ring starts to glow rapidly.

"Uh, guys. Something's happening!" She announces.

"What is it?" Spike asks.

"Hang on." Twilight tries to take it out, but it won't come off. "What the...?"

"Twilight, take it off," Rainbow says.

"I'm trying, but it's stuck on my horn!" Twilight exclaims.

"Here let me help you." Spike grabs the ring...

ZAP!

"Ow!" Spike yelps.

"Sorry," Twilight apologizes.

The ring glows into a bright light.

"Twilight. Take it off." Starlight says.

Twilight tries to pull the ring off of her horn as the glowing increases. But even after a couple of mighty pulls, it still wouldn’t come off. "Somepony get this thing off my horn!" She cries.

Pinkie looks dumbfounded like the rest of the gang. "Uh...Twilight?"

"What?" Twilight didn't notice the flowing aurora spreading like lava from her horn to her forehead, and then, it keeps spreading.

"It's not just the ring glowing." Applejack says.

"What are you talking about?!" Twilight exclaims, the aurora spreading all over her face and mane.

Shortly as the aurora spreads to her neck, shoulders, and half of her frontal legs.

Twilight sees the aurora spreading around her body. "Um, I don't know what's going on, but PLEASE HELP ME!”

"Stay calm, Twilight. Don’t panic." Starlight says.

"Don't panic!?” She moves her face completely close to Starlight’s. “My body's turning bioluminescent and all you can tell me is to not PANIC!”

After the aurora spreads all over her forelegs, it spreads all over her flank, then her back legs, and then, her tail.

Starlight steps forward. "Let me help you."

Twilight steps back. "DON’T TOUCH ME! YOU MIGHT GET INFECTED!"

As the aurora spreads all over her body, she starts to glow rapidly, and by the second, the glow gets brighter and brighter.

"Twilight!" Spike runs over to Twilight.

But before Spike could reach her, Twilight turns into a bright light and in the blink of an eye...she disappears with the exception of her saddle pack that drops down from midair.

"She's gone!" Rarity exclaims.

"Oh no! The ring is too!” Fluttershy says before tears start to form, “It d...d...disintegrated her!”

With what she said, tears begin to form in the eyes of the ponies, as well as Spike. The only exception is Starlight because she knows what really happened.

"Fluttershy, it’s okay,” Starlight puts a comforting hoof on her shoulder. “Twilight isn’t dead.”

“S-She’s not?” Fluttershy says, tears still in her eyes.

“Of course not.”

“B-but darling? How can you be sure?” Rarity asks, suddenly more confused than sad.

“Everyone come over here,” Starlight motions with a hoof.

Immediately, everyone else comes over to where Twilight has last been seen, and also her saddle pack.

“What do you see?” Starlight asks them.

“Nothin’. Just the mark showing where she was before.” Applejack answers. "Plus her saddle pack."

“Right, but do you see the ring?” Starlight asks again.

“Uh-uh,” Pinkie says. “No sign of it at all.”

“Exactly. If Twilight disintegrated, except her saddle pack, then the ring would have done the same thing since it was on her horn,” Starlight reveals. “That can only mean one thing too: Twilight and the ring teleported somewhere.”

The others look at Starlight with wide eyes upon finding this out, Spike and Rarity being the only ones to blink. Then, they smile and sigh with relief.

“Yippee! Twilight’s not dead!” Pinkie exclaims happily until suddenly, her look goes from happy to worried. “Wait! No, yippee! If Twilight and the ring got teleported out of here, then that means she’s MISSING!”

Suddenly, the pickup truck slows down and stops.

"Why are we stopping?" Fluttershy asks.

Starlight peeks her head outside to take a look.

The truck has stopped in front of a traffic light that turned red and it's right next to some trees.

Starlight moves back inside the pickup basket. "We're going to have to get off this thing."

"What about Twilight?" Spike asks.

Starlight grabs Twilight's saddle pack, and put it over her's. Even though it's a little heavier than she thought. "We'll figure it out when we get off. Come on."

Without the driver noticing, the ponies and dragon crawl out of the pickup basket and they quickly run into the trees before the traffic light turns green and the truck moves away.

"Phew. That was close," Rainbow says.

"Now what?" Applejack asks.

"We have to find Twilight. She could be anywhere." Starlight says.

That night, after the sun disappears into the horizon, Jack's Mom is sitting on her son's bed next to Jack's unconscious body, the latter which is lying in his bed.

A physician walks in with his clipboard.

Mom stands up. "How is he?"

"He might have some sort of short-term coma. We're not sure what's causing it." He says to her.

"Will he be okay?"

"He'll be fine in the next few hours,” The physician says. “Unfortunately, he likely won't be going to school tomorrow."

"Okay. Is there anything else?"

"No. The report just about sums it all up.”

"Thank you, doctor."

"You’re welcome,” he responds. “If I may advise, you might want to give him some time to himself in order to recover."

Before doing as she’s told, Mom kisses Jack on his forehead. She walks out of his room and shuts off the lights. The physician closes the door behind him, the two of them leaving Jack alone to continue resting.

Changeling Hive, Equestria

It is nighttime at the Changeling Hive, and most of the Reformed Changelings are sleeping peacefully in their beds including their Changeling King, Thorax, while soldiers guard their hive and their kind from intruders.

A Reformed Changeling Soldier is trotting down the hallway, patrolling the place for intruders and spies. But then, he hears a small noise. He looks around to see where it could be coming from, but, not a single sign of life came forth. Thinking it’s his imagination, he shrugs it off as nothing and continues his rounds.

What he doesn’t notice however is ten pairs of eyes suddenly blinking into existence from the wall, watching him trot on. When he disappears, out of camouflaging from the wall comes Queen Chrysalis and her band of followers.

Without a sound, the ten changelings walk towards a couple of double doors.

“This is it.” The Queen confirms.

She opens the door, without it even making so much as a creak, to reveal the throne room. Thorax, the changeling king, has obviously gone to his room to sleep, so he isn’t around to notice.

Throwing caution to the wind, the group of ten quickly run inside, the two at the rear closing the door behind them.

Chrysalis leads her band behind the throne, and when completely behind it, she inserts her horn in a hole that has apparently been on the back of it the whole time. Her horn glows green with changeling magic, and she takes her horn out of it afterwards. A platform underneath their feet descends into the floor and some stairs begin to form for them to walk down.

Without wasting time, they disappear inside the dark hallway the stairs are inside and the trapdoor shutting above them. They light their horns in order to know where they’re going.

After a few minutes of walking down the long-winding stairs, they finally approach the entrance of the cavern where the stairs ended.

"There it is," Chrysalis smirks.

Looking to see what their queen is seeing, they find that it is a warp-gate made entirely out of alloy and advanced machinery.

"So...what now?" The bewildered changeling beside Chrysalis asks.

"Get that warp-gate online!” Chrysalis commands, pointing at the warp-gate.

"But, shouldn’t you use magic to power it up?"

Chrysalis glares at her worker. “This machine isn't powered by magic and magic never makes it work."

This revelation only makes the worker become more perplexed, as well as ashamed because magic is something that he has known how to do all his life. "I-I don't know how to use it."

Chrysalis growls. "Fine, I'll do it myself, since you nine are apparently useless when it comes to technology!"

The Changeling Queen trots over to the computer next to the warp-gate. With the push of a button, she turns the computer on, before using her hooves to type the buttons with strange symbols to enter a sort of password.

Completely online, she types a square green button. After a few seconds, the portal activates.

Chrysalis steps in front of the vortex with her evil smile, and then...she laughs hysterically.

Author's Note

Stay tuned. Because there's another chapter coming up.