Riley Ree

I'd finally worked out the trick to using my magic here. I was an earth pony, so of course I needed some earth! A little bag hung around my neck—it had originally held some pendant or something, but now it held about a half handful of the dirt from around my tree.

"When can we go?" I asked.

Trevor was the best and he'd been assigned to me to help me out doing anything I wanted. In turn, and because I didn't want him to get in trouble, I tried to not do too much or blow up any more security systems. "They're bringing a car around for us."

"Ugh!" I looked at him as if that was the stupidest thing ever. "That's the stupidest thing ever. We can just run down there!"

"You remember what happened yesterday? I'm under orders not to let you run down the street." He sounded like he was struggling not to laugh. Then he stopped struggling and laughed. "Did you see that film crew?"

I jutted out my chin and shook my head. "Nope! They couldn't catch up to us."

"No chance. Their cameraman could run, but he needed to keep their reporter up front. What worries my boss is that the reporter might not be wearing heels today." Trevor reached up to his earpiece and touched it, a sign to me he was listening to someone. He was really good at following two conversations at once, but I didn't want to stress him out, so I waited. "Okay. We can head down."

"Woo! You'll see. I've been saving up magic for today. The tree didn't want it yesterday, but I convinced it that I would help more." I grabbed my backpack and slid off the couch. "Do you wanna run down again?"

"Sure." That's what I really liked about Trevor. He said yes a lot.

We walked out of our rooms into the hallway, but rather than the elevators we turned to the stairwell. "You ready for it?"

He pulled up his wrist and tapped his watch a few times. "Hit i—"

I didn't let him finish. It wasn't a big kick of earth pony magic, but it was enough to make my feet itch like they were hooves and we had miles of road ahead of us.

"—t!" He tapped his screen again and we started running down the stairs. The first time we'd done it, he'd panicked and asked what happened if we'd fall. I'd shown him at the time; I'd faked a trip, bounced down a flight and got my feet back under me again. Earth pony magic made you almost indestructible when you had it boiling through you.

Neither of us had fallen while racing down the stairs, not without meaning to, but that wasn't for lack of trying. We vaulted the rails and raced as quick as we could all the way to the lobby and stopped only when going further would take us to the basement.

We weren't even puffing. Trevor tapped his watch and laughed. "We beat yesterday's time!"

I did a victory dance, which involved me bouncing around a lot. "How much faster?"

"Four seconds. I wonder if we could beat the elevator?" Trevor opened the door that led into the lobby and looked around. "Come on."

It was only him doing his job, and I kinda liked him too much to make him get in trouble. Besides, he did cool stuff with me like running and racing down the stairs. It'd take me days to train another guy, and I don't think I'll be here that long. "Agent Lane, I'm moving in!"

Trevor held his wrist up to his neck and spoke into it. "Acknowledged, Agent Ree. Proceed."

Not caring how silly we looked, I ran out and stood still behind a column in the foyer. "Area is clear. Proceed with formation A. I repeat, proceed with formation A." I watched him walk casually out of the doorway and not show a sign that he was really a Secret Service agent until he jumped behind the pillar beside me. "How did it look?"

"The car's waiting for us. We should probably go before they get bored."

Giggling, I nodded and followed him out and into the car. The ride to the park was short, but I held in my complaint that we could have run there faster. They let us out and Trevor told them to head back. We were on our own, but Trevor knew about my tricks. He knew that if I turned on the pony charm, everyone would just want to stop and watch, and he knew that if I balled up all my magic nothing could hurt me (though he hadn't been interested in testing bullets).

No sooner was I out of the car and walking toward the tree than I slipped my shoes off and pulled my socks free. As my toes touched the grass, I pushed my magic down into the ground. There were so many growing things around me that I started to giggle and twirl around.

"Are you going to do this every time?" Trevor's voice made me look back at him, but he just pointed down at the ground.

Every step I'd taken since removing my socks was sprouting flowers in the pattern of my footsteps. I shrugged. "Maybe. Is it a problem?"

He shrugged. "Just don't let people focus on it too much. Is it okay if I stomp them a little to make it less of a footprint?"

So what he meant to say was Yes, Riley, it's a problem. "Do the ones I've already made if you think it's a good idea. I guess I'll try to stop it." Easing back, I stopped spraying my magic into the ground. Besides, I could save it all for the tree that way.

Still able to feel the connection with the ground, I felt so excited to just skip and twirl my way across the huge park until I was standing in front of the fence. I wasn't looking at the tree, yet, but the flowers woven into the fence itself. Hundreds of pretty flowers all woven into the wire, but they weren't growing. "People left all this?"

"You didn't watch the news yesterday? Yeah, people have been getting a bit silly. Lots of the hippies are doing it and the Wiccans. A bit crazy if you ask me. It's just magic—not like you're doing anything amazing." He looked at me, and I think he realized what he'd said. "I'm an idiot sometimes. In just over a week I've gotten this used to seeing you and your brother doing magic. Now it seems… normal."

"It is normal. It's as normal as the grass and trees and sunlight!" Without shoes on my toes were perfect to help me climb the fence. The only thing I worried about was my dress. Living as a pony—where clothes were a special-event kind of thing—I guess I didn't want to ruin them. That left one option.

"What are you—? Riley, don't do…"

"What?" I was hanging off the wire at about Trevor's head height, using one hand to tuck my skirt into my underwear. "If you think I'm going to snag my dress on this fence, you've got another thing coming, mister!"

I got the dress tucked in and jumped over the top of the wire. When the ground rushed up to meet me, I landed firmly with a little magic to remind it that I didn't want to be hurt. It listened. "Okay, Mr. Tree, are you ready today?"

As soon as my hand made contact with the tree, I knew how it felt. Worry, fear, excitement, and curiosity all warred within the firm trunk. My breathing slowed and I felt my world narrow down to the tree, its roots, and what it could feel of the world around it.

"You see those other trees over there? I know you can. You need to grow as big as them."

It seemed a little confused.

"You trust me?"

A hint of acceptance.

"Then trust I'm right. Let me help properly."

A lot of fear flooded it, so much I had to know what the source was. A little wordless question and it told me. It could feel the shadows of huge trees early in the morning and late at night.

It took me a while to figure out what it was talking about. It wasn't trees.

"Those are buildings. Like special hills. You won't get as much morning and night sun because of them, but they're not overhead."

The tree wasn't convinced.

"I promise those aren't trees. Have I done anything wrong to you yet?"

It was nervous, but not saying yes.

"So trust me now."

Slowly, even for a tree, it opened up to me. I felt the connection deepen and I opened myself up to it, too. An apologetic rush of empathy hit me like a wave.

"It's okay. You're fine. Not like many people have talked with you before. Now, do you want to do some growing?"

The tree wasn't any smarter for our bond, but it knew a lot more things than the average tree knew about its place in the world. For one thing, it knew there was a small army ready to protect and care for it, that people came just to lay under its branches and enjoy their time with it. But it now knew me.

Building up what magic I could, I shoved it into the tree. It was hungry, and hadn't known true magic before—but the magic knew how to help. Under my fingers the tree started to surge. Its trunk thickened and roots shoved deep underground to find water and nitrogen. New leaves and branches sprouted and grew. The tree shot upward to nearly three times its height and stretched its branches out wide to soak up the sun.

"That's it. Perfect!"

The tree was excited and proud. It had done so much with just a little sip of magic.

"I'll ask if it's okay to give you more. Okay?"

More excitement. The tree didn't know exactly what I needed to do to get permission, but it knew I was trying to do more for it.

"I have to go now. You'll be safe. After all, you're big and strong now. Look!"

I opened my eyes slowly, not remembering when I closed them, but the tree trunk was HUGE now. I was still moving so slowly, but the tree could see through me as I'd seen through it, and it was excited.

Slowly, I pulled my hand back from the tree and felt like I was plunged into time again. The breeze against my hair and skin, the soft grass under my knees, and—There wasn't any sun beating down on me. I looked up and giggled.

"Oh, you're back with us?"

Trevor's voice made me turn around to look at him. Only it wasn't just him. A crowd of people was watching in silence. Some of them looked to be a little strange, while others just wore big grins on their faces. "Uh, hi?"

"How'd you do that?" one woman asked.

"Well, magic. You know who I am, right?" I walked up to the wire and started to climb. "Can you catch me, Agent Lane?"

"Damn straight, Agent Ree." Trevor's reply made me smile a little more. That he actually caught me was good, because I didn't exactly want to land on anyone who wasn't ready for it. He put me down to the ground and passed me my shoes and socks. "Let's go grab some lunch."

"Yeah yeah. That took a bit out of me. Poor thing was scared and really hungry." Without a skirt-snagging-fence to climb, I pulled my dress out of my pants and let it hang down my legs again. The harder bit was balancing on one leg to put my sock and shoe on the other one. "Ugh. There's a reason ponies have four legs."

Laughing, Trevor looked around us rather than watching me, which was kinda his job, so I couldn't complain about not looking at me while talking. "Ponies wear socks and shoes much?"

"Never. They feel odd on hooves." I had to swap legs to get the other on. "Well, almost never. There's some that are really into fashion. They tend to wear clothes a lot more than the rest of us."

We slipped away since most of the crowd seemed more focused on the tree than me. I guess they were looking for what pony had done it, not realizing it was the kid in a rumpled dress. "What time is it?" I asked.

"Time you got a watch."

"Ha. Ha. Really?"

"It's time we had some lunch. There's a sandwich shop across the street over there. If you can keep from using magic a bit, we might be able to get something there rather than calling the cavalry to take us somewhere." He pointed across the park, seemingly at some shop across the road.

"If they only do meat sandwiches, I'll be cross." Despite my warning, I followed along at Trevor's side and crossed the street with him. Cars were something different to normal life in Equestria. I mean, sure there were pegasi getting around fast and ponies with carts, as well as trains, but I'd never seen an actual car there.

"Ah! Mr. Trevor! How are you doing today?" a female voice called as we walked into the little sandwich shop. "And who is this young lady?"

The woman looked oooold and huge, but she was smiling from ear to ear and looking at me. Her gray hair was in a tight net on top of her head and her hands were in some kind of rubber gloves.

"Mamma Rosie, this is Riley. I'm looking after her for my boss, and she's been doing her absolute best to get me into trouble." Trevor turned his attention to me. "So, Riley, what type of sandwich do you want?"

Him calling the woman "mamma" didn't make sense, they looked nothing alike, so that meant it was just something she was called. I walked up close to the glass counter that the woman was standing behind. "Uh, can I have some egg and lettuce?"

"Egg and—" Looking up at Trevor with a scowl, Rosie opened her mouth to start yelling at him.

"Hold on, Mamma Rosie. I know what you're about to say, but there's a reason she doesn't want any meat." He looked to be avoiding any glances toward Rosie. "Tell her, Riley."

I stared at the crushed up hard boiled eggs in a tray and put on my deepest voice. "I'm an alien! I wish to devour only the unborn!"

"Riley!" Trevor's laughter rang out, and a moment later Rosie's did too.

"Mr. Trevor, where on Earth did you find this girl?" Rosie asked.

Tossing both arms in the air, Trevor got his laughter under control and shook his head. "Well, it isn't classified, so the trick there is I didn't find her on Earth. I should have been a bit clearer, Mamma Rosie. This is Riley Ree, daughter of Ambassador Ree from Equestria."

The big woman stared at me in shock for a few moments. "As I live and breathe. You're one of those pony-people?"

"She was actually a perfectly normal human before she spent half a year or so there. She went native, it seems."

Glaring up at Trevor, I crossed my arms over my chest. "I didn't go native!"

"Mamma, you heard of the tree in the park over there?"

"The one that—" Rosie's eyes widened a little. "As I live and breathe. You're that girl?"

Blushing now, there was something that had started to boil my bacon about all this. I stomped my foot. "Is that all anypony remembers? My mom has been doing so much, and my brother's so awesome I almost can't believe what he does sometimes, and you think making one tree grow a little faster is so amazing?!" I was panting by the end of my rant. "Aggg!"

"Riley?" Trevor asked.

"What?!"

"Calm down, okay? We're just trying to say how cool it is what you do."

"Yeah, but my brother is amazing, my dad can do real magic all the time, and Mom is…" I grumbled under my breath. "It's just not fair to them."

"You're upset because you're hogging the limelight?" Rosie asked. "Well, why don't I just make you a normal sandwich to eat on a normal day so you can go home to your amazing family?" She was smiling for some reason I couldn't figure out.

I was about to answer, but my stomach picked then to grumble loudly. Apparently spending all morning and most of lunchtime doing magic made me hungry.

"I know that song. One egg and lettuce sandwich coming up." Rosie pulled out a long sub and started making up my sandwich. "And the usual, Trevor?"

"Thanks, Rosie." Trevor was grinning too, and it annoyed me that they were both doing it now. "Mamma Rosie," he said after a few moments of Rosie staring at him. "That's important, Riley. This is Mamma Rosie, not Rosie, not miss, and certainly not young lady."

"You better believe it!" Rosie said with another laugh before passing me my sandwich over the top of the counter. "What do you say?"

Okay, this I knew. "Thank you Mamma Rosie."

"There's a good'un. Now for yours, Mr. Trevor."

I focused my attention on the sandwich and unwrapped some of the paper covering the end. The first bite seemed to go down without me swallowing it, so I followed it up and was halfway through before I realized how hungry I'd been. Opening my mouth to apologize for being such a hog, I instead burped.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Rosie said.

My brain caught up with the food I was tasting and I realized how good it was. "This is really yummy!"

It was relaxing to eat while Trevor and Rosie chatted about things. I didn't really focus on what they were saying, instead devoting my attention to my sandwich and my own thoughts. What sucked the most about being here for a week or so was missing my classes. Moon's teaching was so different from what I'd had before, and had me constantly working to keep up with her.

The schooling was working, though, and I could see that. It was easier to work out what adults were talking about when I focused on why they would want things, and I knew a little bit about everything now, so I could kinda follow along.

Stuff seemed to be going so fast back home, but here it was boring. Maybe I could convince Trevor to go back to the tree? Maybe I could check out other trees?

The sandwich was really good. I was almost finished when I realized Trevor was looking at me. "Huh?"

"Car's here. Your mom said she needs you back at the White House right away." Trevor had a slightly distracted look like he was listening to something on his earpiece—which meant he was definitely listening to something on his earpiece.

I hadn't even realized I'd sat down in a booth seat, but stood up and started for the door. "Thanks, Mamma Rosie!"

"Riley! Wait!" Trevor rushed past me and opened the door first.

That's when I realized I'd almost screwed up badly. He was meant to look and go everywhere first, and I'd just stood up and was heading to the door. "Sorry."

"It's okay, just wait a moment before coming out." Trevor nodded to the people in the black car that was parked on the curb and looked left and right up the sidewalk. When he gestured to me, I followed him out and to the car.

We climbed in, but no one said anything until the door closed. That's when I realized the car had all our stuff in the back of it too. "What's going on?"

"You're heading back today. Uh, kinda nowish. Something happened and your mom needs to get her tail back to—Wait, is that racist to say?" Trevor looked at me and I tried to give him a deadpan stare back, but I broke into giggles. "I guess it's not racist. Okay, well, they said she needs to scoot back to Equestria for some reason, so the rest of the week's canceled."

Excitement bubbled up and I bounced in my chair. "Woo!"

Everyone looked at me like I was crazy, but Trevor held out his hand—into which the other two guys in the back of the car put money. "I knew exactly how you'd respond to news like that. Who's the best pony?"

I raised my fist and connected it with his as soon as he lifted it. "I am, of course. So this is all our stuff? Are we allowed to take it with us?"

"You remember what my job is, right?" Trevor rolled his eyes at me.

Right. He's only a "grunt" as he put it. He does heavy lifting, sitting, and the occasional shooting, but no thinking. I remembered his words. "Yeah, yeah. Okay, so I guess I find out when we get there. Where's Saf?"

One of the other guys said, "Another car. He was… saying goodbye." The way he said the last bit made me think Saf was caught doing more than saying goodbye.

Well, good luck to him. When we go back he wouldn't be, uh, saying goodbye for a while. Ugh. I don't need to be thinking about this right now. I sat in silence for the loop around to the entrance to the White House's parking area. Trevor climbed out first and led the way inside while the other guys carried our stuff in.

Saffron was inside and waiting for us. He didn't look happy. "Hey, Riley, you know what's going on?"

"We're going back early is all they told me. They brought our stuff." Walking closer to him, I felt a gentle hum in the air. It was our magic and it made me smile despite how upset Saf looked. "You okay?"

"Yeah. No. Kinda. I feel better now…" He looked at me and raised an eyebrow. "You use magic today?"

"Mmhmm. Got that tree all grown up. You should see it, Saf! It's huge now!" That's when it hit me—I wouldn't be coming back anytime soon to help the tree again.

Saffron reached out and used his hand to tilt my chin up. "You just looked like you bit into a lemon. What's up?"

"I didn't get to say goodbye to the tree. Who knows when we'll be coming back again." I leaned sideways and thumped into Saf's side. This was so stupid, just when I get to go home I want to stay so I can say goodbye? Life sucks.

"Saf, Riley. Are you two ready to go?" Dad asked from somewhere down the hall.

I lifted my head and realized I was crying. Reaching a hand up, I scrubbed at each of my eyes to clear the tears away. "This is stupid. I want to say goodbye to my tree!"

Saf put his arm around my shoulder and squeezed. Turning my head, I pressed my face into his shirt—only to realize it wasn't his shirt. Something seemed odd, and I leaned back to look at Saf a little closer.

His shirt was white and looked a little tight around him. "Whose shirt is that?"

Blushing, Saf frowned a little. "It's Kaylee's. I had to get dressed in a hurry."

"You got to say goodbye?" What the heck?! Why was I asking him this? Ewwww.

"That's none of your business, squirt. Come on. At least we'll be ponies again soon." He put his arm back around my shoulders, and we walked toward dad together. "Let's go home."

He was hurting too. This sucked for both of us, and I'd just made it a little worse for him. That meant I had to make it up to him somehow. "You still have your feathers?"

"The braid came undone when I—They're in the box." Saf jerked a thumb of his free hand toward his backpack on his back. "What about you? Need anything in particular?"

I thought about it. It wasn't like I could take my tree with me any more than Saf could take Kaylee—probably less so. "Nah. Everything I want is either back home or about to be back home."

He looked down at me as if I'd said something surprising, then hugged me a bit tighter. "Yeah, me too. C'mon, let's find out what crazy emergency happened."

The explanation was a shock. Mom had been getting daily checkups from a pony doctor who had told her to go back to Equestria immediately. No one was telling us more than that. Not that I was complaining about going home right now, but I wanted to know what was up.

Mom and Dad were first onto the platform. With the new power array crystals, it was far less of a problem for it to send even people without the transmogrithingy doing it's job.

We'd been standing around for almost an hour waiting for it to recharge when there was a commotion behind us. I looked back to see Trevor looking out of breath and—

"Kaylee?" Saf said the name just as I was thinking it.

"They told me you had to rush back. I'm sorry if things didn't go as planned, but I brought you both something." Kaylee walked closer to us, and the first thing she did was hold out a single leaf. "Riley?"

With the tingle in the air from the magic crystals doing their work, I felt a little more boosted with magic than I'd been for most of the time I was here, and that's how I could tell which tree that leaf was from. I rushed closer and took it from her hand.

The moment my fingers made contact, I felt a rush of feeling. Sorrow, joy, excitement, and a little more sorrow of a different kind. "H-How'd it know I was—"

"Your friend. He got all the people there to shout really slow and focus on you having to leave. I don't know if it was magic in the air or the tree, but it dropped a single leaf. That leaf. Mr. Lane said it would work if we took the leaf to you. It did?"

I didn't know where to look. Trevor Lane or Kaylee. They both had big, hopeful smiles on their faces. "It might not be flashy magic like unicorns, but that was—this is—magical. Thanks!"

"And this is your thing to remember Earth by." Kaylee turned to Saf and grabbed his shoulders to pull him down into a kiss.

Staring at them for a moment, I realized they might be a while and grinned—then turned my attention back to my leaf. "Thanks, Trevor."

"We're ready to send you whenever you're ready to go. It was—It was your mom that needed to get back ASAP." When I turned my head to look at who spoke, I saw an orange and white unicorn with a red mane. He looked like a bit of a dork, but also kinda cute. "She said she'll tell you when you get back."

"Can you put this in something, so I don't break it when I change?" I asked.

"I got it, Riley. Here." Saf surprised me by reaching for the leaf. I thought he'd still be kissing Kaylee. He pulled his backpack off and reached inside. When he drew out the box his feathers were in, I couldn't help but giggle. "Gotcha covered."

Jumping forward once he had the box closed and safe, I jumped into him and hugged him. "I owe you one, Saf."

"Pay me back by not kicking me when we get there, okay?"

"Okay!"

We walked together to the platform. Saf put his bag down on the middle circle and we took up circles as far from each other as we could. This wasn't a hard thing to work out—we didn't want to flail into each other.

"I bet you can't wait to get your own feathers back," I said.

"About as much as you want to be able to push me over with one hoof," Saf said.

"Are you both ready?"

I nodded, and I think Saf nodded too, because they activated the transwhatvertheycallit and time slowed to a crawl.

"This is the best bit!" My shout was dragged out into a slow and low-pitched scream, but I didn't care—I was used to talking with trees. My hands were the first part to go. I stared at my fingers as they melded together and my fingertips fused into a hoof.

My coat started to sprout around my fetlocks, and I clopped my hooves together in glee. This time there was no feeling of nausea, instead it seemed like I was becoming what I should be. The hair growing on my arms became bright pink, and in that instant I knew I was going to be the same pony again.

Turning my head slowly, I caught sight of Saf out of the corner of my eye and saw his arms pulling back and ripping his shirt as they turned into wings. That's when I realized we'd gone in fully clothed.

In slow motion I jumped toward Saf. He was already fumbling at his clothes with his growing forelegs, but they weren't long enough to reach his pants or the belt securing them. As I landed at his side, I wrapped my forelegs around his pants and pulled down with all my might.

If his body hadn't been shrinking at the time, I might have messed it up. As it was, the weight of my body yanked his jeans down just as his tail poked free in a fountain of white hair.

My dress was less of a problem, but I did start to shrink down inside it. I tried to roll back away from Saf, but our clothes were now doing a great job of keeping us tangled up.

My snout pushed forward into my vision just as we both started laughing like idiots. Then time returned to normal.

"What happened?!" the voice I recognized as Starlight Glimmer's asked.

Saf, flailing all six limbs, tried to crawl out of his clothes. "We forgot to"—he giggled some more—"forgot to get undressed. Riley, that was just in time!"

I was kinda stuck on my back with my dress weighing me down. Or I was until I remembered what I was. Magic poured into me as I breathed Equestrian air again, and I channeled it to my body. Fabric ripped and tore, and I quickly shredded my dress, panties, shirt, but my bra had been annoyingly persistent. "Little help?"

"I got it." Saf's wings were free of his shirt mostly because they'd ripped their way out. He reached over to me and pushed me onto my belly first, then undid the bra strap. "If you make a single joke about this…"

"After you saved my leaf? Nah. This will be between us, Saf." That's when it hit me. "Where's Mom and Dad?"

"You'd better follow me. They're all fine." Starlight turned from the platform and started off down the hall.

The words she'd used chilled me in a way I think I've never felt chilled before. "W-What did she mean by 'all'?"

"I don't know, but we're going to find out. You wanna ride there?" Saf reached a wing down to me, and it was right then I realized how small I was again. Saf wasn't a full size pony himself, and I was much smaller than him.

"No. I'm sick of not walking on four legs. Come on." It wasn't so much a flow of magic as a surge. I sent a flood of my power into Saf and myself, and I felt his magic flare as a result. Speed and power—yeah!

We didn't so much start moving as start galloping at full speed. Running after Starlight, we found her in the corridor about to turn into a nearby room. Passing her like she was barely moving, we stopped just inside the door and stared. Mom was laying on a bed while a doctor was showing her a picture that looked like an x-ray.

"What's going on?" Saf asked.

"Yeah!" I said.

"Good news, thankfully." Mom waved us forward and we made our way over to the bed. "My doctor back on Earth had found that our foal wasn't doing so great in a low-magic environment. It took time to figure it out from the scans, but she wasn't growing."

"Not exactly the case, but close." The doctor held out the scan to show us, and Saf reached his wing up to take it. "Everypony has a field of magic around them. In low magic areas it reduces, but our own nature keeps it sustained. A foal this young, however, lacks enough of their own magic to sustain that field."

It made perfect sense. I nodded along to everything he said. "So that's why Mom had to come back?" I leaned forward and urged Saf to lower the scan so I could see it. It wasn't exactly like the diagrams of magic fields Moon Dancer had showed me in class, but I could figure things out reasonably well. "That's about a tenth of the field of a healthy foal."

The doctor looked at me for a second, blinked a few times, then reached for the scan with his magic. Holding it up, he nodded. "Closer to an eleventh. You must have been studying an old book—pony magic fields have grown slightly in the past five-hundred years."

Saf snorted and poked me in the ribs. "You got an answer wrong. You're still the smartest pony I know."

I was about to thump him back, but remembered what he'd done—and by then he'd complimented me too. Instead I sighed. "I'll ask Moon Dancer if I can get a more recent book. Is there one you'd recommend?"

"Oh! Uh…" The doctor tapped his chin. "I believe Dr. Bright Meadow's revised edition of her book Metamorphic Magic Fields and Their Effects. It's… advanced reading for a filly."

"She gets that a lot. Sorry to keep you any longer, Dr. Horse, but I think we should probably head back to the chancery." Mom sounded tired. She looked up at Dad, and seemed to say something with just her gaze.

"Uh, Mom?" I asked as I climbed up on the bed.

She turned her attention to me. "What's the matter, Riley?" She sounded concerned.

"Mom, you feel really tired and bent out of shape, right?"

Her concern turned into a big smile. "Of course, honey. We just—"

Mom was smart about a lot of things, but she'd spent way too long on Earth dealing with humans. I leaned forward and pressed my snout to her back hoof—and pushed with my magic.

"What was that?" The orange-haired doctor spun to look at me. "What did you do?"

"Duh. Mom's an earth pony like me. After Saf and me arrived, I felt like poop. He felt like poop too, I bet. So I jolted us both with earth pony magic." It was perfectly logical. I looked at Mom, but without any of the doctor's fancy equipment, I couldn't see if my magic made any difference. "Do you feel better?"

"You never cease to amaze me." Mom sat up and used her forelegs to grab and lift me up.

When she kissed my cheeks repeatedly, I blushed and tried to squirm out of her grip. "Mooom!"

"That was exactly what I needed, dear. Why don't you go and wake your father up too?" She set me back on the bed—aimed toward Dad. "I'll see my doctor in Canterlot tomorrow and arrange further tests with her," she said to the doctor.

Stomping my way to the edge of the bed, I realized Dad looked almost asleep on his hooves. But, being close enough to the bed to boop, I had only one choice with how to give him a jolt. Lifting my hoof up, I pressed it to his nose. "Boop."

The jolt of magic shot Dad's eyes open and his horn flickered a few times with magic. He went cross-eyed looking down his snout at my hoof.

"Feeling better?" I asked.

"Yeah!" Dad used his magic to pick me up and put me on his back. "Doc, requesting permission to take my family home?"

"Just don't rely on whatever it was your daughter just did." He sounded confused about it. I don't know why it was confusing. Maybe he just didn't understand the power of boops.

Reaching out my hoof, I tried to get close enough to the doctor without falling off Dad. I couldn't reach him. "Um, I can show you what I did."

He looked at me skeptically. "Why don't I schedule an appointment where you can come and show me that trick while some ponies who will be really interested in it can watch? If that's alright with your parents?"

Dad tapped his chin for a few moments. "I think we can arrange that. After all, we were meant to have the rest of the week off. When would you like us in?" What I'd also noticed was Dad was looking at Mom a lot. He didn't seem to be worried about her, though. That's when it hit me and I wanted to just nope out of the room.

"Would tomorrow afternoon be alright?"

"Sure."

Author's Note

Steven Colbert: Can we get a rundown of those "preapproved bad jokes" from the show?

"Well, since you asked nicely, I had"—Steven held up a bundle of flash cards—"Why the long face?"—a flash card was tossed away—"Stomp once for yes, twice for no"—another flash card—"There was a jar of peanut butter for her to smear on her teeth so she could talk"—another card gone—"Five jokes from the Mr. Ed show"—one, two, three, four, five cards tossed—"And finally I shook hands with the ambassador and then pretended to have trouble speaking while telling everyone I was feeling a little horse." A pile more flash cards were tossed aside while Steven adjusted his glasses and checked the buttons on his suit.

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post! They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on Patreon or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
CadelDdraigDarkkon
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Ender Voidwalker
KFS Crimson
Sirion123
Vi Watch

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Lab