“Ms. Melody ?”

“Uh ?”

The young woman opened her eyes and immediately rose her head from the small square pillow it was resting on. The seatbelt light had just started blinking, and most passengers on the plane were preparing their belongings, while others were still asleep or simply focused on the travel route displayed on the small screen in front of them.

“Ms. Melody ! The plane’s about to land. The car should be waiting for you outside exit C, it should take you to the mansion in less than an hour.”

“Thank you Harry. What about you ? Will you be alright ?”

“Oh don’t worry, I’ll be just fine. My wife and kids should be… Well, it’s not important, I’m sure you have better things to focus on.”

“Are my parents home ? They didn’t answer my calls today.”

“I’m afraid I haven’t had much chance either. But I’m sure they have their reasons : your mother is a very busy woman, and your father-”

“-Is not the answering type, I know.”

“I heard your family hired a new driver. Hope you two will get along ! After all, you’ll be staying with us for a while this time, won’t you ?”

“Sort of… It depends on the auditorium’s schedule, really.”

“Well, I’m sure everyone at the mansion will be thrilled to have you back !”

“...Everyone ? I’m not so sure about that…” Fortissima Melody thought to herself as the plane’s tires screeched against the fields of Canterlot Airport.

}--oO0Oo--{

The car was gently making its way through the highway, as the cold air of September fogged up the windows as it collided with the warmth inside. Fortissima was simply sitting there, eyes closed, listening to the sounds around her, feeling the vibrations of the world around her. It was funny to her, in a sense : she had never been blind, or anything of the sort, but she had always enjoyed taking moments to appreciate every single bit of sound and motion she could feel in her space. The cars passing by, her suitcases moving in the trunk, the almost indistinguishable classical music coming out of the car’s stereo…

“You’re alright ma’am ? You’ve been awfully silent these past minutes.”

“Oh I’m alright, uhm… Fire Score ?”

“Firestone, ma’am.”

“Oh, I’m awfully sorry, hope I didn’t off-”

“-It’s alright Ms. Melody, I’m brand new here after all.”

The driver took a moment to slightly turn his head around to look at his passenger, hand still firmly gripped on the wheel.

“Oh, is it a bad time ? I don’t want to burst your bubble or anything.”

“No, no, I’m just… It’s been quite some time since I haven’t been able to truly relax and enjoy some true peace and quiet like this…”

“Haha yeah, I feel that. And we’re still on the highway ! Once we arrive at the manor, you’ll have all the peace and quiet that you need, but with less me spoiling your fun.”

“Oh no, you’re not-”

“I’m just messing around. Must be quite the change of atmosphere, after all your trips here and there. Not much time to breathe I imagine.”

“You could say that… It’s just… I missed the peace...”

She looked through the windshield, making the most of the things she could see : the cows and sheeps in the fields, all packed to resist against the cold wind, the wind turbines, going around and around,... The were approaching the city already. She closed her eyes again, hand pressed against the cold glass, ears eager to catch anything they could. Her breath slowed down as she synced with the rhythm of the orchestra she could hear from the radio. For a second, she could almost feel the wind blowing through her hair, despite the steel and glass separating them.

“I’m just not sure that peace is what’s waiting for me here…”

}--oO0Oo--{

Twilight hardly knew what to do. After the bell had rang, Rarity, Pinkie, Applejack and Fluttershy all had left to attend their classes, promising to meet her back at the soccer field during the break to try and talk to this world’s Rainbow Dash. She had been wandering in the school for a while, still wearing Rarity’s costume, with the fake blond hair itching the back of her neck. Spike had fallen asleep twenty minutes ago, and was now resting in her open backpack, drooling on the school supplies she didn’t have.

“Come on Twilight, you can do this… Twenty minutes to go, it’s nothing, nothing at all! Maybe you should just… lay low! And…, uh... go to the library!”

Perfect. She would not even feel time slipping by with a good book. Or two, or three. She walked up the stairs with much difficulty, grasping the handrail with both her palms, a bead of sweat running down her temple as she observed the mere five thousands steps to go. Or at least it felt like it.

“Uhm… Excuse me?”

Twilight let out a small scream of surprise and quickly turned around, only to miss a step and fall off the few ones she had managed to ascend.

“Oh my! Are you alright?!”

Yes, yes she was. And by some miracle, Spike had not woke up. Guess he really did need that sleep.

“I’m so sorry!” The newcomer apologized “I did not mean to startle you!”

Twilight looked up to face her interlocutor. It was another student, by the looks of it. Tall slim, dressed pretty much like her except for the grey and white palette. But perhaps her most noticeable feature was the huge cello case sitting behind her, projecting its shadow over half of the princess's body. She kind of looked… familiar.

“I’m fine!” Twilight assured, quickly getting up and dusting her skirt, “Tooootally fine!”

“Oh my! Is there something wrong with your hair?”

“Uh?” Twilight inquired, before realizing half her wig had fallen backwards, mixing the fake blond hair with her original purple color. “That’s… not important!”

“Uhm, forgive me if I’m being discourteous, but aren’t you that student we saw in this video?”

Twilight swallowed the little saliva she had. Of course she was going to be recognized. Even if the wig had held, the costume wouldn’t have fooled anyone for long. What could she do now? Play defensively? Admit everything?

“...Maybe?”

Alright, why not both.

“Oh I’m terribly sorry, I didn’t want to be rude or to put you in a… delicate position. To be perfectly honest, I find Sunset Shimmer’s accusations quite repulsive.”

“You know about Sunset Shimmer? How did- My bad, I’m Twilight Sparkle by the way. And you are?”

“Octavia Melody.”

“Wait, you are?”

“Of course. Why do you ask, if I may?”

This was unexpected. So her six friends weren’t the only ponies with… dopplegangers, or rather counterparts, in this world. She knew she had met Celestia and what she believed was Trixie, but this confirmed her theory: everyone was here. One way or another, everyone she knew now had legs, arms and whatever fingers were.

“No… Nothing! I just thought I’d heard the name before. Yeah, this video is… quite something, isn’t it? To be perfectly honest with you, I don’t know what I’m going to do…”

“Well, my sister would probably say that no matter what people think of you, the only thing that matters is succeeding in the goals you’ve set for yourself, but then again, my family has not always been the most effective source of inspiration…”

“Yeah, family’s tough. I mean, I remember my brother’s wedding, when Queen Chrysalis came and-”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Nothing! Nevermind, just… forget about this!”

“In any case” Octavia continued “ Concerning your concern about this video, I’m sure everything will be fine for you. I mean, I definitely am not a connaisseur on these kinds of things, but I have had my fair share of… difficult… moments. Especially these past weeks. But I’ve found people who helped me, kept me standing, despite my own personal doubts. I’m sure you’ll find such people too eventually.”

Whoah, that was… unexpected. Twilight wasn’t prepared for a conversation like that, especially with a stranger, who had spent her whole life in a world the princess didn’t know a thing about. Granted, she knew the Octavia Melody of her world, but they had never been that close, nor had the cellist been the more outspoken pony out there. This felt… unusual, odd even, but also comforting.

“I… Uh, whoah, thanks… It means a lot, really. I’m… I’m brand new here, and I don’t really know anyone, and that whole video thing really hasn’t been helping…”

“Yes, I would imagine so. Believe me, I know what it is like to feel like a complete stranger amongst other people. Sometimes you don’t know the reason, and sometimes you know it all too well…”

“Yeah, tell me about it….”

“...”

“...”

“But enough about this, you said you wanted to take actions against that Sunset Shimmer, didn’t you?”

“Did I?”

“I would certainly hope so, you cannot possibly let her slander you like this!”

“It sounds like you’re proposing to help me.”

“Thank the lord, not just me, but I do have friends who are quite eager to meet you.”

}--oO0Oo--{

That new girl’s face was feeling oddly familiar. Vinyl couldn’t say, but she definitely had seen her at a bus stop around downtown or something. With glasses. But without wig.

“So you’re that girl from the vid, uh? What’s with the costume?”

“Hello, my name’s Twilight Sparkle, and yeah, I guess you could put it that way… My friend Rarity helped me put this on to avoid being recognized for the time being. Doesn’t look like it’s doing that great of a job though…”

“Twilight Sparkle? What sort of name is that?”

“Says Lyra Heartstrings.”

“...Bon-Bon?”

“Yeah?”

“You think this little mouth of yours can still shut hermetically?”

“Nah.”

“Anyway!” Lyra exclaimed, translating the words Vinyl had started forming through the air, “You said you needed our help?”

“Well, Octavia said it was you who had help to offer…”

“Yeah, that might be it. So you know that bitch, right?”

“That… who?”

“Sunset Shimmer! She brutalized Vinyl -her- and blackmailed all of us into obedience! Just wait until I get my hands on her, I’m gonna fuckin-”

“What Lyra is trying to say” Bon-Bon interrupted “Is that we all have a common interest in taking away the power Sunset has over most people here in school, and it appears she has a certain… interest in you.”

“Wait, she brutalized Vinyl ?”

“No Octavia, she just pushed her around a little, don’t worry about it.”

Yeah, she asked us to follow you and find incriminating evidence, like the vid you saw - Vinyl wrote on a large sheet of paper - But we haven’t done anything yet.

“Yeah, that video was taken by these two brats who keep following her, nothing to do with us!”

“Calm down Lyra.”

“Oh no! I am so sorry!” Twilight said in confusion, “I had no idea it’d come to this, I didn’t want to get anyone else involved…”

Involved in what?

“Yeah, what are you talking about?”

A bead of sweat ran down Twilight’s face. She had cornered herself, and now she needed to find an explanation, a lie, quickly. It’s not like she could just come up and say “Yeah I’m a pony princess, and my dog’s a dragon, ‘sup?”.

“I definitely can’t tell them the truth…” The princess thought to herself “...But I can tell them bits of it.”

She looked at the confused faces staring at her. How long had she been silent? She wanted to tell them, to have someone to truly talk to, to let go of the burden this whole adventure was. But she couldn’t. Not yet. Not while her world was still endangered.

“You see… I know Sunset Shimmer… I mean, I knew her, before she came around. And recently, she stole a… a very important possession of mine. I don’t know why she did it, but getting it back means a lot to my friends and I.”

Vinyl raised an eyebrow behind her purple glasses, and signed to Lyra, who immediately translated :

“What was that thing she stole ?”

“Oh, um… It’s a… a family heirloom. A crown.”

“A crown uh ? Yeah the bitch looks like she’d be into stealing that.”

“Lyra !”

“Sorry Tavi.”

“One thing I don’t follow you on” Bon-Bon commented “The video said something about you becoming princess of the fall formal ? What’s up with that ?”

“Well, I met with Fluttershy earlier today, who told me she had found the crown and-”

“Neat ! So you have it !”

“...No, she gave it to principal Celestia, who has decided to use it as prize for this year’s fall formal princess.”

What

“That’s the stupidest decision I’ve ever heard.”

“Totally.”

“Oh my, couldn’t you just… explain that whole situation to her ? If she learns the crown was stolen, she will surely give it back to its true owner.”

“But I have no way to prove it actually belongs to me… And since I just arrived here, she has no reason to trust me…”

So what’s happening -Vinyl wrote- Is that you now have two problems : winning that pageant to get your crown back, and dealing with Sunset Shimmer, who by the way has beef with us too, so there’s that

“What ? What happened ? What did she do ?”

“We may or may not have beaten the shit out of her.” Lyra answered with a sadistic grin “But to be fair, she was like, one hundred percent asking for it.”

“I believe you told me about this, yes. She really is something, isn’t she…”

“So what you’re saying is, you don’t have anyone to help you out ?”

“Well, I do actually. I’ve brought together my frien- I mean, a group of students here together, who all have been wronged by Sunset Shimmer in the past. I’m actually on my way to get the help of Rainbow Dash.”

“Oh, Dash ! I like this girl ! Want us to tag along ?”

“It’s okay, I’d rather go on my own. But even with their help, I hardly see how that’d be enough. Sunset Shimmer has been crowned as princess of the fall formal many years in a row, and I hardly know anyone here. And now with this video…”

“Hey, it’s going to be fine, alright ?” Bon-Bon reassured the girl, with a warm smile “I actually know what we can do to help you.”

“You do ?”

“You need to earn the staff and students’ trust right ? Well, who better to help you than someone who knows everyone here ?”

“What are you trying to say, Bon-Bon ?” Octavia asked.

Yeah, who are you talking about ?

“Well…”

Bon-Bon didn’t add anything. She didn’t need to. As soon as Lyra and the others saw that expression in her eye, the entire room exploded.

“No !”

No way !

“Nonononono-”

}--oO0Oo--{

Twilight was confused. And terrified. Mostly terrified. Of all people inhabiting this world, she was not expecting this.

“Why hello there girls ! I see you’ve made a new friend ?”

It couldn’t be.

“Well” Discord continued “It’s about time I came back in this story.”

Author's Note

Good God I hate myself.

I'm still alive though, haven't died from Corona Virus yet, so there's that. Probably going to write more now (yeah right), since I have lots of free time and am not subscribed to Netflix.

Shorter chapter to get back into the mood and characters, but with heavy consequences on where the story is headed, which is : staying canon with the movie while still making some stuff happen behind the scenes. It's not a choice everyone will enjoy, but it certainly is mine.

Anyway I probably lost half my reader base after this SEVEN MONTHS HIATUS JESUS CHRIST but I'm gonna keep going.

Love you all, wash your hands and don't touch your face.

Bisous,

Saga.