“-RRHGH. Oof!”

Twilight tried to regain her hooves as she got ejected out of the mirror. She groaned as she reoriented her hooves with the floor. A wave of dizziness washed over her.

“Oh wow… What happened?” she stammered. “I feel like I got caught on the runaway at the Wonderbolts headquarters.”

“I don’t know” Sunset answered “I feel like I wrenched my neck and got hit in the gut…”

“Mmmm… I feel like a bunch of mice went river dancing through one ear and out the other…”

“Huh?” Twilight turned

Lying next to them was a pegasus stallion with a blood orange coat and bright blue coloured mane.

Twilight looked around with rising fear.

“Where’s Starlight?”

“What?” said Sunset

Twilight looked at the stranger and raised him off the ground with her magic.

“What happened? Who are you? Where’s Starlight?!”

The strange stallion groaned again. He blinked as his eyes began to focus.

There was the clutter of hooves and Twilight saw Pinkie Pie and Rarity enter the library.

“Oooh!” said Pinkie Pie “You bought a friend back with you?!”

“I don’t know this pony, Pinkie!” Twilight replied, “He came through the portal and we thought Starlight was just behind us!”

“Princess Twilight.” Sunset said “ Do you think he was passing by the statue when we went through and followed us?”

“Huh?” The stranger murmured. “Pony’s?..... Portals?.....”

He looked up his eye’s narrowed.

“Princess?!”

Twilight set the stallion down on his rump and asked again:

“Where is Starlight?”

“I don’t follow…” he answered

“STARLIGHT! Have you seen her?”

“Umm… Wish I may, wish I might?”

“Starlight Glimmer!” Sunset exclaimed “Do you know what happened to her?!”

The stallion turned to her.

“Still don’t follow! Animal?... Vegetable?... Mineral?”

“A pony called Starlight Glimmer. My student. Went through the portal with us. Have you seen her?!” Twilight stated

“Oh….. you’re asking about another PONY!”

Everyone in the room waited for him to speak.

“….Sorry, I don’t know a Starlight Glimmer.” The stallion finished.

Everyone sighed.

The stallion raised an eyebrow and a small smile touched his face.

“Is this some kind of new hipster trend you’ve all done with your fur? Really interesting…. but I might have to book you for indecency…” Nick groaned “ Gah! Why is everything so bright and why does my head feel heavy and why do I…?”

He trailed off.

Reason being, he raised his right hoof to rub his forehead and he froze when he felt it touch his face.

His eyes widened and he slowly turned to look at it.

He stared at the hoof attached to his arm.

“What is…?”

He looked down at his body.

“OOOOHH MY …GAH!”

He gasped as his wings suddenly whipped out from the shock and he gasped and his head turned when he heard them cutting through the air.

“WHAT THE…?”

He tried to get to his feet.

“WHAT THE HECK AM I?!”

He tried to stand on his back hooves, but his centre of balance was completely off and he landed on his back with his wings still fluttering around his ears.

“Hooves. Check. Tail. Check…” he muttered

He grunted and a short whinny escaped

“Equine vocal chords check. The wings really stump me, but no halo so…”

He looked at Twilight.

“What exactly am I?”

“You’re a Pegasus.”

“What?”

“I’m a Unicorn, well actually not anymore I’m an ali…”

“No!”

“What?”

“There’s no such thing as unicorns!”

“Hey!”

“No,no! Stop talking!”

“But…”

“Stop talking!”

The stallion threw an arm over his eyes.

“Um…”

“Shh! This is just a mess up dream! The stress of the job has finally got to me!”

The pony’s looked at the stallion on the floor covering his eyes for about a minute.

“You still there?” the stallion asked.

“Yes!” said everypony in the room.

“You’re not mascots for some soda company?”

“No!”

The stallion let out another sigh and put his arm down.

“Why am I a pony again?” he asked

“That’s what the portal does when you pass through.” Twilight verified

“Well, in the first place I didn’t ‘pass through’, I was chucked in. Secondly: Where are my clothes and thirdly…. WHY?!”

“Well…I guess it’s the way you can walk around without startling the creatures that live in other worlds…” Twilight said “I went through the first time, I found it pretty disturbing to begin with.”

“The ‘no clothes’ part or the species mutation part?”

“Well, we don’t really wear clothes…” Twilight shrugged “I guess the mirror decides what’s suitable when you pass through.”

The stallion pushed himself up to a seated position with his front hooves spread out to his sides.

“So…you do this regularly?”

“Only once in a blue moon…” Twilight chuckled lightly. Sunset gave a small smile.

“Does… that mean I’ll go back to normal if I go back through?”

“Well…yes…but…?”

“Okay! Great! I’ve got a few things to sort out, and I’ll…”

He paused

“…make… a … report?” He trailed off.

He cast a look to the ponies in the room.

“I’ll figure this out later!” He continued “There’s some crooks into some weird stuff, but I can…”

He tapped his hoof against the glass on the mirror.

“Uh… is it supposed to let me in?”

“It is…” Twilight touched the mirror. “Okay… somethings wrong.”

“Do you have to clap your paws or something?”

Clop! Clop!

“Gah!” He jumped

He sighed “Oh. I forgot I had hooves…”

“The portal’s… closed.”

“…But you can get it working?”

Twilight turned.

“Not straight away…” she said.

“How long will it take?”

“I’m not sure…”

The stallion gave her an incredulous look and let out a loud sigh.

“Would you like to sit down, Darling?” Rarity gently asked.

She indicated to a reading chair next to the mirror.

“I think I will…” the stallion sighed

He clambered up onto the cushion and sunk back into the padded backing.

“How about we introduce ourselves first?” Rarity continued. “My name’s Rarity.”

The others moved forward and sat down.

“I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

“I’m Sunset Shimmer.”

“I’m Pinkie Pie!”

The russet stallion was quiet for a moment. He looked across the room to each of them.

“Wilde. My name’s Nick Wilde.” He sighed.

Pinkie Pie turned quietly and whispered to Twilight.

“Nick Wilde? Where he comes from has really strange names…”

“Perhaps you can tell us how you got here…” Rarity continued.

“Sounds like a good place to start…”

A few minutes later

“Then I got thrown into the water, and I came through here…”

“Hmmm… so this colt seemed to know about equestrian magic.”

“He said something interesting as well.” Nick frowned. “Does the name Horais mean anything?”

“No… That doesn’t sound familiar”

“Okay… how about Celestia?”

Everyone in the room gave the new stallion their full attention, if they were daydreaming about cupcakes then it was suddenly cut short.

Nick raised an eyebrow. “Okay… good.”

He reached down and sighed.

“Clothes got vaporised in the portal as well as my notebook.” He frowned “My phone too!”

He looked back up

“Who is this Celestia?” He asked

“She’s the Princess. The ruler of Equestria!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Now that is interesting…” Nick mused. “Any chance I can get an audience with this princess?”

“Well, she’s at a conference in Manehattan at the moment.”

“Alright… annnd you’re a princess too, so does that make you the next in line?”

“NO!...uhhh… yes… um… uh…”

Nick held her gaze with a perplexed expression.

“She rules with her sister.” Twilight finished

“So… she shares responsibility with her sister for the throne?”

“That’s right!”

“And… you’re a princess with other responsibilities?”

“Yes!” Twilight lifted her head.

“As the princess of Friendship I uphold the elements of harmony and ensure that every creature gets along no matter how different they can be”

She smiled “Plus we run a school of friendship where we work on the magic of friendship.”

Nick raised an eyebrow.

“Sounds pretty full on….” He murmured.

Great. Another idealist.

Nick raised his head to the ceiling. “Okay. So…… we got interdimensional crooks in Zootopia?!”

He shook his head.

“Well that changes things… gonna have to bring Savage in on this.”

“So what kind of place is this Zootopia?”

“Well, I’ve never ever known that ponies could come in so many different colours…, but… uh… there are many different animals there. Ponies included.” He replied. “It’s the only place in our world where all sorts of creatures can live side-by-side. Last count I think there were about five hundred different species in the city…”

“Oh!” Twilight’s eye’s sparkled with interest “Well, we got a number of creatures that live here. Ponies, Griffins, Yaks,…”

“Oh. Got them!” Nick exclaimed

“Changelings, Buffalos…

“Them too!”

“Dragons…”

“Dragons?!”

“You have dragons?”

“No, but we have stories about them.” Nick said “Big, scary, firebreathing lizards that snap up little kits and take em to their cave.”

“Hey, Twilight!” said a new voice “I got some cross-referencing done and there were several passages about the Cycad Constellation that you would find interesting.”

Nick saw what looked like a stack of books with a pair of purple scaly legs and wings.

“Good to see you back by the way!” the voice finished

Spike put down the books and turned to the ponies in the room. He stopped when he saw Nick.

“Who’s this?”

“Hi Spike.” Twilight said. “This is Nick.”

Spike frowned at the gaping Pegasus.

“Is he okay?”

“He’s just a little frazzled. First-time cross world traveller!” Pinkie Pie smiled.

“Oh, well I’m a dragon and Princess Twilights assistant!” Spike puffed his chest out. “Need anything just ask me!”

“Thanks…” Nick offered a hoof.

“So where you from?” Spike shook his hoof

“Zootopia… The city of Zootopia”

“Wow! This is exciting!” Spike exclaimed “Shall get a message written up? I know that Celestia and Luna will be interested in meeting you!”

“Draft a letter to Starswirl too Spike.” Twilight added. “I think that he would be helpful in restoring the mirror.”

Spike gave a salute and flew out the door.

Author's Note

The fox has landed!