The Seed of Hope

by Meadow_Dawn

Rating: teen
Tags: Original Character, Profanity, Adventure, Violence, Princess Celestia, Human, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe
Length: 39550

A pair of unexpected mirror travelers appear in Canterlot castle as Celestia's daughter returns from Zebrican hunting celebrations. Nothing seems quite right as Dusk investigates. Something is ahoof in Equestria, and she is going to find out what.

It has been an interesting time for Equestria of late. Changeling invasions, the return and purification of Nightmare Moon, Discord, the ascension of a new princess, and the threat of Tirek.

Now Celestia's daughter, Dusk Star, has returned from a trip to the Zebrican lands, and no sooner than she is back in Canterlot than a new guest appears in the castle, in a room locked behind princess-only magic. Just having one visitor to the world is one thing, just keep it quiet, impress on them they are trespassing and keep an eye for any sneaking return trip. Having two visitors come in the span of twenty-four hours and one of them breaks through that spell like it wasn't even there? Harmony or some other power must be at work, and it's up to Dusk Star, the princess of protection, to figure out what.

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Art courtesy of Diamond06MLP, commissioned for this story.

Published 2020-03-16 11:20:02 UTC
Last updated 2020-06-23 17:26:31 UTC

1 - Stumbling into Equestria

“W-where am I?” A voice wondered out loud with a groan.

The pony grunted as they tried to get up off the stone-like floor, though it was too smooth for hewn stone and made her think it was tile made to look like stone. It wasn’t until she got her hooves under her that she gasped and pushed herself up and away in surprise, toppling head over tail into a hard surface with a loud groan.

“Ow… what the heck is going on?” She asked as she tried to rub her head, annoyed that her hands felt like they were stuck balled up. She looked back to the thing she ran into and froze, seeing a large eye staring at her.

She jumped and rolled away, seeing more of a light green covered thing in her vision before looking back that way to find a mirror, the same one she had been pulled through.

She blinked, the mirror looking familiar. Her brain felt fuzzy as she tried to recognize the figure in the mirror, then she started to laugh, looking at the little green pony unicorn thing in the mirror. ‘Well, that explains it Jess! You’re dreaming! You worked so hard on the mirror cleanup that you fell asleep!’ She paused and looked herself over and laughed further in her head, ‘Yeah, you’re only physically a girl in your dreams. Meds don’t work that fast!’

She sighed contentedly and approached the mirror. It never bothered her to have four legs and no arms in her dreams, and it happened often enough she could now get her body to move the way she wanted, even finding amusement in the two-toned colored hair. A yellow stripe going down and splitting the vivid green hair off-center around the horn. ‘Of course it’s a dream, green fur and hair aren’t real!’

As she approached the mirror, she stopped, mildly entertained and had a small grin on her face if the mirror was any indication. She wasn’t a person who was in love with ponies or horses much because of their last girlfriend, but she didn’t hold anything against them and it looked absurd enough that she wasn’t feeling threatened by it. She reached a hoof up to the mirror, fully expecting to go back through the mirror like she had in her dream, even if it meant a dark thing reaching out and pulling her through.

…

Nothing. The surface was cold and hard, not giving way. Her amusement turned to concern as she started noticing the surface more and more through her hoof.

‘That’s odd… I’ve not recognized temperature in my dreams… sometimes pain, sure, but not heat or cold…’ Jess thought to herself.

Suddenly, a dark figure appeared in the mirror behind her reflection and acted like it was about to grab her. She yelped and rolled to the side, getting back to her hooves quickly as she thought she could expect to face this dark thing, only to see nothing in the space that was behind her.

Her heart pounded and worry started to gnaw at her. ‘I’ve never noticed my heart pounding like this. Fear, sure, but… is this not a dream? I know I don’t recognize my dreams very often, let alone control them, but this is odd… Come to think of it, I didn’t feel how I moved in my dreams even as a four-legged creature. This is strange.’

Slowly, she approached the mirror from the side but saw nothing. There was almost like a shade behind her in the mirror, but nothing that she could clearly distinguish. A hoof on the mirror showed that nothing was changed, it was still a cold surface that almost seemed to push back at her.

Jess sighed and turned around. If it was a dream, she would have to bear with it until it ended, and even if it wasn’t, she could probably request help to go home. As long as they weren’t some sort of stereotypical evil group, they probably wouldn’t have an issue with helping her get home and out of whatever is going on here.

Looking around the room, the mare noticed tables along the wall, holding cases of items, an occasional pedestal that appeared quite secure and steady interspersed. The mirror was just standing on its support in the middle of the room for no apparent reason.

She frowned and grew bored of the items fairly quickly. Any thought of getting any objects from the room to ‘borrow’ were quickly quashed, as she didn’t want to be accused of stealing if she met someone and it wasn’t a dream.

She reached for the door, grateful it was a lever-handled door as opposed to a knob, since she wasn’t sure how she would have operated it. She tried to jiggle it, only to find it was locked and the lever wouldn’t move. She frowned, trying something that always worked in shows, looking through the keyhole. Much to her expectation, it didn’t show anything through the hole and she frowned, staring at the keyhole, concentrating at it as she considered her options.

She felt strange, a kind of tingling near the top of her head beginning to form. It was a vague reminder she had a horn, and assumed it was some air current tickling it, when she suddenly felt a small zap down from the tip to her head and partway down her spine. She shook her head and pulled back with a start before hearing a small clicking sound being heard from the door.

Jess quickly moved to the side, planning on going under one of the tables to hide if the door opened, but after a full minute, nothing happened and she slowly came out from under the table.

“Ok… no idea what happened there-“ she said out loud as she thought someone was going to come in before another tingling feeling passed her horn and the door lever opened and the door pulled back slightly, leaving it cracked open.

Dawn blinked, standing and watching as the door just opened on its own. She looked up and found no electronic door opener mechanism like she expected. ‘Ok… well, that’s convenient, if strange… let’s go and see who I can ask for help getting back home…’

Quietly, she opened the door, noting the lack of squeaking the door made and a look down the halls showed no one present. It appeared she was in a side room off a hallway that had red carpeting with gold trim laid down the middle of a stone and marble corridor, with several other doors along the hall and a few pieces of art hanging and all lit by gentle candlelight, making her wonder if it was nighttime.

She frowned and tried to make a good note of where she was before venturing out into the halls, conscious of her legs and how they still felt ‘off’ to be used this way. She had no idea where she was going, but the fewer turns she needed to make, the better off she was.

It wasn’t long before she heard the hoofsteps up ahead and she wondered if the other denizens were equine as well. She made sure that she kept her pace slow and deliberate, nervousness causing her to not want to speak up yet until she knew more. A good fifteen paces ahead, a white pony with golden armor on their back and golden helmet walked on, looking ahead with a spear somehow held at his side by his right foreleg before passing Dawn’s sight and heading to the other side of the hall.

‘Ok… the armor and spear tells me that they’re probably a guard, and might not be on patrol if they’re not looking that close… or I just blended in by looking like I belonged here somehow. Good to know. Let’s keep going for a bit before trying to ask one of them for help. Don’t want them to be in trouble for neglecting duties if they’re busy…’ Jess thought.

She walked the halls, still needing to make a few turns, and wondered if she should have turned around to make sure she knew where the room she came from was located when she found a wider hallway with beautiful stained glass windows. It was nighttime outside, or so she thought until almost like a light switched, the land outside seemed to grow bright and the glass showed its vibrancy, making them more stunning to look at than before.

She stopped and turned to them, looking them over with interest, especially with the appearance of sudden daylight. It was a pretty sight. Not very detailed in that the ponies depicted were a bit more blocky than the guards she saw, or her own reflection, but seeing the sunlight go through at just the right angle? It gave her a new appreciation for such a thing she wouldn’t have thought much of otherwise.

After looking over the windows for several minutes, entranced, she found a transparent one that led to a balcony, but the balcony wasn’t what caught her attention. A vast amount of vivid green spread itself past the balcony in rolling hills, a treeline of a forest breaking it and folding the view into a sea of vivid green leaves, only to have a blue sky with thin white clouds in the air to complete the picture.

“Whoah…” She breathed.

“Yes, I do find this to be one of my more favorite views in the castle.” A gentle voice said from next to her.

Jess froze, her heart starting to beat fast as she realized someone snuck up on her and a quick glance made her realize a much bigger white horse was sitting down next to her about a pace away.

“I can see why.” She managed to say, trying to avoid letting her panic show as she attempted to blend in. She couldn’t afford to question that the horse just talked since they both just did. “Can’t say it looks anything like what I have back home.”

“I see. Where are you from little pony?” The voice asked, making Dawn think of a motherly kind of figure from their tone.

“Well, that’s kinda hard to explain.” Jess blushed lightly, feeling her ears move on their own and feeling heavily distracted by the sensation. She didn’t think it was smart to mention where she was from in a broader sense, but she didn’t want to lie. Maybe saying the town name would satisfy them. “Have you heard of a place called Oak Ridge?”

“No. Where is it?” She asked, her voice still being gentle but with an added overtone of curiosity.

“I…” Jess paused before letting out a sigh, not wanting to be rude or have them feel like she was making things up before berating herself for her approach. She had wanted help in getting home hadn’t she? “I might be a bit lost myself. Where am I? Maybe I can figure out how far away I ended up that way.”

“You’re in my castle in the capital city of Equestria, Canterlot.” The white horse answered.

“Oh…” Jess gulped, turning to face the one she presumed to be the ruler then, ears flat against her head without control as she noticed the lithe figure had a gigantic skewer of a horn, large wings against their sides, and she swore she could almost feel a thrum of energy emanating from them. “I think the distance might have to be measured in the amount of time it takes for light to travel or something then… I landed here by accident and tried to go home on my own, but the way I came didn’t exactly work… I’m sorry if I’m intruding.”

“Ah, I believe I know what you are speaking of. Come little pony, let me see you try.” She said, a small smile on her face as Jess only just noticed her flowing mane seemed to change color and move on its own.

“All right. Can’t hurt, right?” she asked nervously, getting up with mild clumsiness and tried to retrace her steps while ignoring how the body felt more ‘off’ as embarrassment surged, “Sorry if I don’t know the fastest way back. I haven’t been here before and am just retracing my steps.”

“That is fine.” The white horse answered, still sounding gentle. “I’m curious myself about how my guards did not notice you were here or perhaps didn’t report an unexpected guest.”

Jess blushed as she continued, “I hope I’m not getting them in trouble then…”

“I may simply need to have them trained more. Do not worry little one.” The white horse said.

“You know,” Dawn chuckled, feeling a small burst of confidence as the figure continued to be kind to her, “I know I’m smaller, but you make it sound like I’m a kid.”

“Compared to me, you are.” She answered with a small, knowing smile.

The pair of them went to the door, which was only just barely open. Jess pushed her head against the door to open the way, making sure to hold it open for this clearly important person saying they were the owner of the place. They stepped inside and the white horse made an “ah” sound.

Jess moved up to the mirror, standing next to it and gesturing with a foreleg out of habit, not realizing her balance was shifting to accommodate subconsciously. “I think I came through here. I bought a mirror just like this at a garage sale, was cleaning it up when I felt something grab my hand and pull me. Next thing I knew, I was on the floor.”

“Ahhh.” The white one nodded, looking over them and moving to get a good view of both the reflection in the mirror and the green pony. “So, how did you try to return?”

“Well,” She answered, moving to demonstrate. “I moved over here, put my han- I guess it’s a hoof now… whatever. I put a part of me up on the mirror surface like this and expected something to pull me through like before.”

“And nothing happened?”

“Well… I briefly saw something big and dark form behind me in the mirror,” She started to explain, looking over to it, only to see the dark figure, though not nearly so big, only just a bit taller than herself but very close, where her reflection would have been. “YEEP!”

The green pony fell over backward at the sudden sight after the yelp, falling heavily on their flank and groaning while the dark pony in the reflection stayed, looking like it was laughing at the green pony.

“Fascinating…” The white pony said, approaching the mirror and the green pony.

The dark pony stayed visible to them both, Jess nearly laying on the floor and looking at it in astonishment. It was a dark purple-blue kind of color, though it had numerous specks of white that imitated starlight in Jess’ eyes. Their mane was a lighter color and their eyes were a deep blue. He was clearly male, built a bit more stockily and having other telltale signs giving it away.

“Do you know this pony?”

“I haven’t exactly seen any ponies before today when I came through. Even my ex only had a couple of horses and he doesn’t look like them.”

“Try to push your way through the mirror.” The white one instructed.

“I… I will try.” She said nervously.

Slowly, Jess got up and approached the mirror. The figure stood there, acting as if he was a wall that would block her way, trying to intimidate her into not trying, even shaking his head slightly.

“Fascinating…” the white one repeated as she watched.

Jess put her hoof on the mirror, and the dark pony put his hoof there, almost seeming to push her back. She frowned, speaking up as she tried to move her hoof. “Please let me pass, I need to go home. Perhaps I can get permission to come back when I have time?”

Despite their plea, the dark pony put their hoof and body in the way, shaking his head repeatedly, then when Jess put her hoof down, looking at them in confusion, he started gesturing. He put a hoof on his chest, then pointed at her, then seemed to stand on two legs and put two hooves together before plopping back down on all fours.

“We are together?” she asked, barely registering a slight tilt to her head.

“I have heard of this phenomenon before.” The white horse said. “There are a few ponies through the last thousand years who are born one way and forced to be a pony they are not through extenuating circumstances. Such ponies are not really themselves until they are turned into what they were meant to be, and most find a way. In rare cases, usually when the pony still has doubts on who they truly are, the process will leave a kind of shadow of the kind of pony they had to be before, kept with them and making them stronger as they remember and accept where they came from until the two are made one once more.”

“I… mind rephrasing that? I think I got it but I don’t know if you’re alluding to the same thing.” Jess asked shyly.

“Of course. Is it safe to say based on this reflection here that you used to be male?”

“Yes…” She said hesitantly, “So you’re telling me this is like a copy of myself and all the male things I had to be and do because of that?”

“That would be correct.” The white horse said.

“Ok… How does this fit into my not going back home?” Jess asked.

“Until the two of you are united in your decision to return home, you cannot, since you would not be whole again without him.”

“But I’m not two people, never was.” She blinked, confused. “That’s making it sound like I’m bipolar or schizophrenic.”

“Here, such a change into the pony you are meant to be is a physical one, and leaves behind who you had been to be their own pony until you accept them.” The white horse explained again before giving a new instruction. “Stand in front of the mirror. You will need to give the two of you suitable names if you are going to stay here.”

“Uhm, I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but- Oh…” She started to say before stopping as the full implications of what was being said hit her. ‘I can’t go back home… Somehow who I used to be is their own person and I get to have the body that best fits me now, but I’m stuck here until we both are ready to go… dammit. Ok… So no matter how weird this feels, this is how things have to be for a bit... Well, sorry grandparents, but while I’ll miss you, there wasn’t exactly a ton of other reasons to miss your world. I moved away from my home state to get a new start around those who would support me, maybe I can make this work and have this be the new start I was looking for, at least till I figure out a way back.’

She moved in front of the mirror, feeling a large sense of gravity to her steps now. She often had dreamed or imagined going to another world, and now here she was. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad?

“What kind of names do people, er, ponies have here?” Jess asked.

“Well, many include colors or descriptions of who they are, or some even coincidentally have their name coincide with their cutie mark.”

“Their what now?” Jess asked in a deadpan voice.

“You might think of it like a mark of destiny, something that shows a core part of who a pony is or their special talent. It shows up on their flanks when they are old enough and understand who they are and what they’re good at.” The white horse suggested, “Names like Cheese Sandwich, Blue Breeze, Sonata Serenade, or Dusk Star, my daughter. I am Celestia.”

“I… sure, why not?” Jess said, shaking her head and looking over herself to see if there was such a thing, only to pause and notice one exactly where she had been told it would be. A mid-dark green mound in front of a yellow circle and several yellow triangles off of the circle, making it look like a sunrise over a hill. She looked over to the other pony who was her… something-or-other twin, and saw one for him as well. He seemed to have a darker black spot on his flanks with three brighter four-pointed star things that seemed to have their own glimmer to them. “I… uhm… so what would ours be for?”

“You don’t know?” the white one asked, amused, “Was there no point in your life where you thought deeply about who you were, or what you were meant to do?”

“I-” She hesitated, pausing as a memory came unbidden, practically swallowing all of her senses.

‘You run on hope…’ A male said to her side as she stood next to her parked car where all her belongings were kept, parked in the church parking lot away from the road. ‘I can see it, the year you’ve had to park here, and your hope draining away. You’re a good person ----.’

‘I just… it feels like with as much effort as I put in, I’d have found a place that would give me a chance so I could get out of this… to get a place of my own and show I am worth the time.’

‘Listen ----. If you need to talk, let me know, but don’t give up hope.’

‘Yeah… I will try.’

She blinked and shook her head briefly before looking down at her hooves as that feeling of certainty and… and completion… there were no better words for it, had fallen over her once more.

“So you do know.” The white one smiled, satisfied.

“Yeah… there was a pastor who helped keep me from getting in trouble with the police for being homeless by letting me stay in their lot at church. He came to me after a year of being homeless and I admitted how I was… not holding up. He reminded me that I ran on hope and it just… fit. The core of who I am is bound up in being hopeful.” She answered, still feeling remnants of the realization from that memory as it faded slowly. “It was starting to wear on me, but hope was what kept me alive when… when a storm came and no one was there to help. Nearly gave up.”

“Interesting…” The white one muttered, looking at her intently. “Well, what does your mark look like to you?”

“A hill… or perhaps a meadow? A meadow in front of a sunrise?” She said, unsure if that was the answer they were looking for.

“One could even call it a ‘Dawn.’” Celestia suggested subtly.

“Hm… If names are descriptive, how well does the name Meadow Dawn fit?” She asked to confirm.

“Sounds perfect. Now, what about this fine stallion?”

Dawn looked them over, thinking. ‘Honestly, the fur reminds me of the night sky, with those white specks looking like stars. The butt mark, or whatever they’re calling it, looks like stars too…’

“What about Starlight Dusk?” she asked, after mulling around several other ideas.

He nodded, giving a small smile and stepped out of the mirror toward Dawn. He was still partially transparent, but a little taller than her and a familiar jingle began to play around them and she heard his voice in the room.

“I am thou, and thou art I-” He started to say before she reached up and bonked him on the top of the head.

“So help me you are not a persona!” Dawn said before starting to laugh.

“But the chariot arcana would be perfect for this! I had one shot at some fun with this and you ruined it!” he said playfully.

“It is nice to meet you both, Starlight, Meadow Dawn.” Celestia said before standing. “Now, come with me. I must give you accommodations and ensure your good behavior before I let the others know what has transpired here.”

Dawn had reached up to the mirror, hoping she could go through, but the mirror was still cold and hard and she looked back to the white horse. “Ensure our good behavior?”

“My daughter is rather diligent about protection, and cases like yours require you to be under watch until a meeting can be held to determine what to do with you.”

“Oh.” Dawn said quietly. “Sorry…”

“For what?” She asked.

“That you feel you have to do that?” Dawn replied, as if unsure of her answer. “I hope it’s clear I’m not trying to make any trouble.”

“Even so, it is good of you to cooperate.” Celestia said, hearing the door to the room close and a small click of the door could be heard, “Ah, thinking of which, how was it you left the room?”

“I… it made a click like that and just creaked open.” Dawn answered, blinking.

“All by itself?” Celestia asked with a mischievous smile.

“I… I think so.” Dawn replied, having a small sense of dread come over her at that smile.

“Well, maybe you can show me anyway.” Celestia encouraged, sitting to the side.

Dawn blinked, and then shrugged, and tried to recreate the approach to the door, and then looked at the door in confusion. It did nothing for a minute and Celestia was only watching her closely. She frowned, looking at the lock, focusing on it and what options she had for opening the door, when she heard it click and the same tingling around her horn trickled down most of her body this time. She quickly lifted a hoof up to her head and rubbed close to the source, only to wince as she accidentally bumped her horn and felt a jolt of pain along the unfamiliar protrusion.

“Interesting.” Celestia said, “I suppose lightning struck twice.”

“I … I guess?” Dawn said with unease, getting used to how her body moved, “Why do I get the feeling you’re messing with me?”

“Me? Playing tricks on my little ponies? Whatever are you talking about?” She asked innocently.

At the same moment, Dawn noticed a glow around their horn and the door at the same time as the door opened fully for them, causing Dawn’s jaw to drop.

“Why are you so surprised? You’re a unicorn. Of course you can use magic.” Celestia said.

Dawn’s jaw stayed open almost as wide as her eyes before she began to comprehend what happened, shaking her head to clear it before staring, “Magic? Real live not-playing-tricks-on-the-mind magic?”

“Well, real magic, yes.” Celestia chuckled, “Now, come and I will have my guard show you to your room until you are summoned for a meeting for your circumstances. I apologize if it is inconvenient, but you will not be permitted to leave until that point. Food will be provided to you at our standard mealtimes. Any other requests you will need to knock on your door and the guard will ask what your request is. Do you understand?”

“I do… and I’d like to think you are simply being cautious until this is sorted out just because this doesn’t happen often or you’ve had bad experiences before. I really don’t want to get out on the wrong foot… or would that be the wrong hoof now?” Dawn asked, blushing at the potential pun.

“That’s right. I am glad you are working with us and it speaks well of what we hope will happen.” Celestia said, leading the mare along.

Dawn was unaware of Starlight’s disappearance and within a minute, Celestia flagged down a pair of guards, who took her orders and escorted Dawn attentively to an unoccupied spare room in the castle. Dawn looked over the clean, if plain, room, then heard the door close behind her.

Dawn took a deep breath and let it out slow, her nervousness causing her to shake before she went to the bed and tried to calm herself as she absorbed what just happened to her. She could do exercises to better adjust to her body later. Right now, a nap seemed like a good idea. If it was a dream, she’d wake up back home anyway. This world might have just had sunrise, but it was nearly 8pm back before she got pulled through the mirror and could use a nap.

Celestia left the mare in the care of her guards and swiftly made her way to her daughter’s quarters. It was fortuitous that they were visiting when this happened, and she knew they would be interested in today’s events.

Climbing up the steps with ease, she knocked on their door and called. “Dusk? Sweetie?”

“I’m here Mother!” Dusk called back through some grunts.

Sounded like her daughter was exercising some new skills they had gained from their last tour. Celestia smiled and opened the door, eager to see what they thought of the situation, though suspecting she knew how that would turn out.

There in the front part of Dusk Star’s room, which was practically a full first floor home’s arrangement, was all of Dusk’s proud accomplishments and trophies. She saw various weapons of different creatures, from a griffon’s iron talons to a minotaur mace, all of them holding a certain degree of importance to Dusk and her accomplishments as the Princess of Protection.

Celestia looked past this entry room, where Dusk normally would entertain potential suitors or invited guests, but Dusk rarely had such ponies to entertain and what they had in physical and martial prowess, they lacked in social charm. Celestia laughed at the irony sometimes, that her daughter was her opposite in handling social circumstances, but she loved them all the same, as any parent should.

She watched as her daughter approached from a side room, small beads of sweat rolling down toward a towel over the rose-pearl colored coat of fur. Their shorter tri-colored mane reminded Celestia of herself and her partner those years ago, pink mingling with white and dark blue hair from her mane from the workout they went through. At her daughter’s side was Starry Meadows, a now transparent pony with light green coat of fur and a sky blue mane, whose essence was saved and put into her daughter when they were almost killed and Dusk protected her friend to the very end, earning her wings from the event. Celestia was very proud of them.

“Hey mom. What’s going on?” Dusk asked.

“Remember that traveling mirror we have on the throne room floor, the one that went to a human world without magic?”

“Yes…” Dusk acknowledged, wondering what’s going on.

“Well, something happened,” Celestia said, and then began to relay the events of the last hour or so with a new pony in the palace.

2 - Nightfall

Chris groaned as his head pounded. He laid where he was for several moments, trying to collect himself as a headache tried to crunch his head like a stress toy.

He was in the attic of his grandmother’s place… something grabbed his attention, the old box he was asked to get for something, or was it that he was just curious about what was in it? He pulled it off the shelf, only to feel everything slide from the wall to take its place and a big mirror that had been laying against the wall, supposedly secured to it, ‘happened’ to pop off the wall hook-

Another groan, louder than the first, escaped his lips as he realized it probably fell on him and then to the side. It was odd though, he couldn’t feel any of the dust or graininess of his grandmother’s attic.

He opened his eyes, and it was mildly dark in the room, a set of windows high in the stone like walls. There was this odd gray thing blocking part of his lower vision but he grunted and tried to get up on his feet. Everything about his body felt… wrong.

He pushed up with his hands and wobbled up onto his feet, only to feel like he was about to fall over and landed on his hands with a loud pair of “clops.”

‘Wait… clop?’ He thought, blinking and looking down at the ground around this gray thing always in his vision.

He saw fur down the length of his arms that ended against the marble tile that filled the room. He stood there, staring for a moment, even ignoring a small sound of the same clopping noise outside the room he was in, hearing it just as an echo of the original sound.

Slowly, he turned to look at the rest of himself, finding his neck feeling much more flexible… and longer. He froze again as he saw light gray wings at the side of his body, his mid-gray furred rump beyond those, and a black tail beyond that.

“Okay… this is freaky… Next time… don’t take those double shifts Chris.” He groaned and looked around, swiftly spotting the mirror that fell on him in the room. Ignoring the feeling of wrongness all over him, he shambled over to it. “Fine, if this put me here, this can put me ba-”

His hand-hoof reached out and touched the glass and an ear shattering sound of glass breaking could be heard in the room, spiderweb cracks showing on the surface of the mirror, with a close up view on some of the pieces of the floor, while other pieces showed the ceiling.

He stood, hoof still on the mirror as he stared emptily, brain failing to process what he was seeing when the door opened and multiple hoofsteps could be heard behind him.

Two heavily armored guards bearing spears stood at the side of the door, with a dark horse with a night sky for a mane standing between them, all looking at the scene ahead.

He lowered his hand-hoof to the ground, heart sinking as he thought to his family, his girlfriend, and wondered how he would get back until he heard a throat clear. This didn’t seem real. His head picked up and turned over and he began to stare open mouthed at the scene in front of him.

“We were wondering if there would be another.” The dark, navy blue horse with black clothing stated factually.

“A-another?” He asked.

“Another.” The horse confirmed. “What is your purpose here?”

“I-uh… I was here by accident. I was getting something from my grandmother’s attic and a mirror fell on me… I tried to go back, then… this.” He said, slowly reaching a limb up to the mirror, causing a repeat of the cracking of glass and the split pieces showing two different images.

“You seek a way home?” She asked.

“Yeah… I don’t exactly belong here.”

“That is true.” She said, watching as his posture drooped, perhaps without his intent. “The hour is late. You will come with us and join our sister’s meeting to decide how to handle your return.”

“What?” He asked, blinking before thinking, ‘Great response Chris, totally making a good impression as a cop… really need to stop working so hard.’

“We are going to give you a place to rest and in the morning, we will find a way to send you back.”

“Oh.” He said dumbly, a feeling of numbness spreading over his body.

“What is your name?”

“Chris.”

“Guards, please see Chris to his quarters.” The dark horse said.

“That’s it? No explanation, no answers, no telling me what’s going on?” He protested.

The horse paused and smirked, “Very well, I can entertain you for now. You have landed in Equestria, where I and my sister rule. I am Princess Luna, and you have a broken magic mirror on your hooves.”

“Am I stuck here?”

“That I cannot say.” Luna answered. “Nothing has broken a magic mirror before.”

“Oh.” He said, unable to muster any other questions.

“Come.” She commanded.

The gray pony followed, if only because they had nothing better to do. They led him down the halls and to an empty apartment-like room, where the door closed behind him. He sighed and climbed into bed awkwardly, curling up and already thinking of home as the night lulled him to sleep against his wishes.

The next morning, Celestia, Luna, and Dusk were all in a private royal dining room attended to by their staff with four guards, one per corner, present. Celestia had woken early, while Luna had simply chosen to stay up until the meeting would start. Dusk most likely slept the mere five or six hours she claimed she needed to function and woke up almost as early as Celestia herself.

Celestia eyed them both casually. This was at the tail end of Luna’s nighttime court duties, so this wouldn’t be much of a strain for her unless this lasted until noon. Dusk she wouldn’t have any concerns about, and would likely be harshest on their new guests.

A knock brought their attention to the door and Celestia opened the doors with her magic.

There in the doorway stood the two foreign ponies, surrounded by a total of four guards. Celestia noted with a hint of a smile that Dawn, the lime-colored pony, thanked her guards as if they were simply guiding her to the room, rather than a prisoner about to be interrogated. She looked at the other one, who Luna barely had the chance to tell them about when they first arrived at the meeting dining room.

“Thank you both for coming,” Celestia said.

“Thank you for having us.” Dawn answered, approaching and taking a chair, sitting at one that was opposite Celestia and Dusk, while the other one sat beside them, more distant and sitting across from Luna with a fair bit more shuffling than Dawn.

“I understand that both of you are guests to our land, and we wish to start things on the right hoof.” Celestia said, “First, we are setting some ground rules we wish for you to follow while your options to go home are looked over. After that you will be sent to your rooms as we all have breakfast, and then we can assess your intentions during your stay here.”

After she had gotten nods from both of them, she continued. “What is being said is not to leave this room without our expressed permission. Our guards present already know what we are about to state and the reason for this rule. Ponies are not to learn that other worlds exist at this point in time or for the foreseeable future. That knowledge is dangerous, both for us and for them. Between unknown diseases, possible evil entities, or just power hungry creatures that would misuse the information, we are not going to tolerate this rule being broken. Am I clear?”

“Yes ma’am.” Dawn said promptly.

"You have my word." Chris nodded.

Dusk sat to her mother’s left, watching the two guests intently. Her face was impassive, showing nothing of what she was thinking.

"Good. Dawn, I know some of your circumstances from our initial meeting, and Chris, Luna has given me a brief introduction, but we do not know much about either of you. We need to ensure that you will fit in well in our world, and for that purpose, we ask you to tell us more about what you were like in your worlds and try to place you in similar circumstances." Celestia instructed, turning to Chris, "I would start with you, so we can consider what other name you should use outside this room."

Chris frowned slightly, eyeing Dawn briefly before telling his story again, explaining how he had been a police officer, and generally just wanted to go back to his girlfriend.

Celestia hummed, listening and turning slightly to Dusk, who had an instinctual mastery of military matters. While it was clear he wasn't military, Dusk was the first one to establish something more civilian minded.

"Police officers… if I remember correctly, that is a form of law enforcement yes?" Dusk asked in a cool tone.

"That’s right..." he nodded slowly.

"Hmm, so they’re like our Keepers.” Dusk said thoughtfully, pausing briefly before saying, “Interesting. I am curious about the comparison."

"The what now?" Chris asked, raising his brow at the idea.

'I'd assume that's their version of the police.' Dawn thought. ‘It was clear from their response, wasn’t it?’

"The Keepers of the Law.” Dusk said factually. “They handle all matters of law; enforcing them, escorting prisoners to judges and from there to the dungeons if needed. They ensure peace is maintained. Originally, the royal guard handled it, but it kept our military spread thin, so we made the Keepers."

"I see." Chris hummed, deciding not to voice his concerns about working for another country’s law enforcement that he had no ties to otherwise. "It would be familiar yes, but rules could be different, and I can't exactly fight on four legs. I can barely walk on them right."

"Would it be any issue to ensure we get training for our roles to adjust for differences?" Dawn put forward hopefully.

"Of course. It does us no good sending a foal out to do the work of an adult." The rose-tinted alicorn said as her silver eyes turned to face Dawn

Dawn flinched slightly at the gaze, but nodded as she sensed what they were saying. They weren’t able to mix in even as well as their children

"I mean, we're fairly smart," a voice started to say from Dawn's side, a dark pony beginning to appear, "but piecing it together versus actually being trained is a big difference. So yeah, thanks for the assistance."

Dusk tilted her head. "You must be Starlight, yes?"

"You got it. Pleasure to meet you." He said casually, with his usual boldness that Dawn couldn’t help but snort silently at from familiarity.

Chris eyed the semitransparent pony with caution normally hidden by his several years of experience dealing with the public as a cop, but his new form was more expressive, and he couldn’t control his reactions as well as he wanted. Having a ghost appear was unsettling to say the least.

"I see… curious." Dusk said. "Smart and smart are two very different things. I’ve met several "smart" people I found lacking in that department."

"I mean, I definitely have my clueless moments despite a few different intelligence testings we had finished." Dawn blushed, "but sorry, it’s not my turn here."

Celestia nodded, turning to Dusk to continue considering Chris' outcome.

Dusk turned back to Chris as she considered what Dawn and Starlight had stated. "If you want, I could arrange for you to be shown The Keepers, let you decide if you wish to go that route. As for lodging, it is not much on short notice, but I am sure a moderate apartment could be arranged in one of the cities of your choosing if you wish it."

"It’s worth looking into." He said, "at least till I can get back…"

"I shall inform Head Keeper Gold Shield.” Dusk said with a nod. “As for where you would wish to stay, we have options here in Canterlot, Manehatten, Vanhoover, Fillydelphia, Baltimare, and Luminosia to name the major cities."

Chris blinked, as if absorbing the city names. He stayed quiet for a moment, then said, "Whatever is best for whoever is going to show me the ropes, as long as it’s not too far away from here. I want to be close to my way back home if I can."

"I think Luminosia will be best then, even if it is a little further away." Celestia said. "I know an excellent flight teacher there that can show you the ropes, though he's retired and will need a little coaxing."

"Whoah, whoah. I'm no pilot." He shook his head, waving both hooves at them.

Dusk blinked. "Luminosia is land-locked except for a small river."

"That’s not… why do I need flight lessons?" He asked.

"You're a pegasus are you not?" Luna asked simply.

"I... what?" He countered with confusion.

"You’re a pegasus, meaning you can fly.” Dusk answered, “It would be very odd if a pegasus never learned to fly at flight camp."

"Oh..." he blinked, looking over at his wings and tried to get them to move. They barely shuffled and he wondered how in the hell they were big or strong enough to let a horse fly.

"Yes,” Dusk nodded, seeing the pathetic motion, “I am sure seeing the state you are in, he will be more than happy to teach you."

"Oh, Breezy won’t be too much harder on him than the others." Celestia said with a mischievous grin. "And what about you Dawn?"

Dawn turned to look at Chris before replying to Celestia, "Last night, you told me I could use magic right? I'd like to learn that, possibly even be of help with what might be needed to send him back. I know mine is complicated, but maybe I can help with his situation, whatever it might be."

"Hmm.” Dusk hummed, looking her over, “We can arrange a tutor, same with him. It would be odd for a unicorn not to know at least basic magic. Where would you desire to live?"

"I don’t have any preferences." Dawn said with a shake of her head. “My old jobs were mostly customer service over the phone. Here I don’t know what I’d do, but magic seems like a good idea. Might as well do something I couldn’t do before, right?"

"Phone?" Dusk asked

"Ah, a long-range communication device." Dawn explained.

"Interesting. As far as your living arrangements, I believe it would be good if you both were in the same city, so you can visit and support each other if you wish." Celestia said.

"So Luminosia. Good, that will make it easier to arrange lodgings." Dusk said.

Luna nodded, "It is a city of progress, where many new ideas are tested. They would be more open to learning from ideas from your world."

"Indeed." Celestia nodded, "we would appreciate learning from things your world knows if you wish to share. Now, we must discuss things further, including how much funding you will receive for daily living and for how long. Is there anything else you wish to discuss?"

"So, how long exactly will it be before I can go home?" Chris asked.

"That is something we don’t know yet Chris, though that reminds me of an issue we failed to address, your name."

"What’s wrong with my name?" He said with a frown.

"It isn't a pony name." Dusk said.

"It’s still my name…" he said before accidentally letting out a sigh, "so what kind of 'pony name' are we going to saddle me with?"

Starlight sniggered at his comment and looked away, avoiding the glare he received for it.

"Well, names seem to be descriptive here." Dawn volunteered, trying to be helpful, "take the ponies present here. We have Celestia, Dusk Star, Luna, and I was encouraged to use Meadow Dawn which I got from my mark thing, and he is Starlight Dusk, who I named because of his mark."

Chris looked himself over, considering possible names while looking at himself, lingering on his wings.

"Enh, I’m not getting much inspiration just looking at myself. I've always worked overnight at my job lately."

"Then what about a simple name like Nightfall? Or Night Wing?" Celestia offered.

"Doesn’t look like a Night Wing to me. Too light feathered for that." Luna countered.

"Nightfall would work." Dusk said simply. "If you have experience working at night, then you may be assigned to the nightshift."

"I guess I'll use that... sounds weird to me though." He said, shuffling in place. “Only worked nights because all newbies had to start there.”

"It always does sound weird for the first few weeks you change your name." Dawn told him, "This won’t be my first name change, but it’s still going to take some getting used to."

"Very well, I can't think of any other details to discuss. Do either of you have anything else?" Celestia asked the princesses, just as eager to finish.

Dusk looked at the two. "Just that you both know the safety and stability of this land is my top priority. Any attempts to endanger the safety of our subjects will be dealt with severely… Understand?"

"I would expect nothing less." Dawn said stiffly, sitting rigid at the clear threat.

"Yes." Night said simply.

"Good." Luna followed up, "our guards will take you back to your rooms for a meal if you have yet to have eaten while we discuss other matters. Dismissed."

The two ponies got out of their seats, Starlight fading from view and were guided back to their rooms. Once the door closed, Celestia hummed, "Why do I get the feeling there's something greater at work here?"

"Two people from a different world, arriving mere hours apart? That cannot be a coincidence." Dusk said. "Something is in motion, and whether it is Harmony's will or some darker force remains to be seen."

"Agreed." Luna said. "We should have somepony keeping tabs on them for a while, just to play it safe, learn their intentions and abilities."

"Hm..." Celestia hummed, thoughtful on the subject. She had to agree with what they were saying, though some little instinct kept bugging her, not letting it rest.

"Yes.” Dusk agreed, then began to plan. “Hm… one of my guards would be too obvious, so it would be best if one of the Solar Guard or Lunar Guard did it… besides, they will be in my city so I can have my guards on alert as well."

"I think I know just the guard. He performed well with the changeling invasion we repelled and already expressed interest in Dawn. Apparently her passage did not go unnoticed by him, while others failed their observations." Celestia nodded, "I'll assign him as a guide to her and he'll have lightened duties for a time while he assesses her."

"Why the interest?" Luna asked, eyeing her sister. "Dusk just told you she has it covered with her guards.”

"Call it intuition." Celestia said vaguely.

"Hm… I may assign a ‘guide’ as well… we will see." Dusk said.

"Perhaps the stallion can be assigned a training partner who can serve with him." Luna suggested, her approaches often being just as subtle as Celestia's in her own way.

"Hm… I’ll speak to the Head Keeper about it." Dusk said with a nod. The keepers had been Dusk’s solution to splitting the duties of the public while letting the guards focus on the more militaristic needs of the nation. Their headquarters were in Luminosia and would have an easier time reporting to Dusk.

"Starting with a combat and fitness assessment no doubt." Celestia smirked, "I'm curious about both of them, but I'll trust my guard to assess Dawn subtly. Now, how much funding should we provide them?"

"Considering how much it will cost the crown for housing and tutoring?" Luna asked with a mild frown, "I say 300 bits for food and 50 a month for other expenses."

"That sounds reasonable, though I do think they should be encouraged to find a way to pay themselves." Dusk said. "Supporting them should be only a temporary thing, a few months at most. If they haven’t adjusted and found a way to support themselves by then… well…"

"Agreed.” Celestia nodded, “In that case, Nightfall will be set with a position as a Keeper if they can adjust, but I have concerns on what Dawn can do for an occupation. It seems her skillset might not match anything we have presently, not without digging deeper."

"Perhaps we should have her take an assessment to determine where her talents lie." Luna offered. "What do you think Dusk?"

"That would be best once she learns the basics of magic." She said.

"The difficult thing about that idea is it usually takes far longer than a few months to learn more than a hoof full of spells." Celestia said. "I believe she has a latent talent that could be tapped into for our country’s benefit."

"What makes you say that?" Luna asked.

"She opened the lock to the mirror room she was in without realizing it." Celestia said calmly.

"What, how?" Dusk asked. "That was an alicorn level spell! I put it on the room myself!"

"I know. I redid it and watched her undo it without knowing what she was doing." Celestia said, "She was surprised, and my spell was dispelled in a way that only an alicorn could just brush aside. A faker would have had to tear it apart thread by thread with such concentration that they would have been exposed."

"But that’s… that’s not possible." Dusk said frowning. "The amount of skill it would take to break my lock is… is beyond her."

"Unless there was something about her..." Celestia nodded.

"Or the amount of latent magical energy from an adult not using magic for an extended period of time was sufficient enough that a discharge overrode it." Luna countered, "I know how you feel about destiny sister, but not everything is predetermined. Sometimes it's just a coincidence."

"There are no coincidences,” Dusk said, “not for something like this."

"And if it were latent energy from non-use, it wouldn’t have worked a second time. It's why I'm going to send my solar guardspony to watch her.” Celestia gave a nod of agreement, “He was attentive enough to catch her when others hadn't, but not high enough ranked to be questioned why he would be reassigned."

"What's the name of this pony?" Luna asked.

"Stalwart Shield. Formerly Sergeant, recently promoted to Staff Sergeant." Celestia said.

"Well, he'd better be trained in magic." Luna said.

"He's been educated, but he's an earth pony."

"So he's trained how to fight a magic-user.” Dusk frowned. “That is not ideal, but better than not."

"We can ensure he gets more magic training while there as part of his duties." Celestia offered, "I want him very much aware of what she's doing and how she's doing it in case she starts telling him what she's learning and accidentally reveals something deeper."

"That would be good.” Dusk said, going into thought, then asked, “Are you sure there is not a unicorn guard for the task?"

"None that I could discretely assign to her." Celestia frowned, "It's just horrible timing and after her admission of being ‘smart,’ it would be unwise to treat her differently unless we find out otherwise."

"Having a unicorn guard would be better for this." Luna agreed, noting her sister's unusual dismissal for what might be normally considered.

"Hmm. Then I suppose we have no choice.” Dusk decided. “He will need a crash course in magic so he can follow along as needed."

"Agreed." Luna said, eying her sister critically.

"I will make the arrangements. I simply cannot ignore that no guardspony except for him could see Dawn until I met her in the stain glass hall." Celestia nodded, "Something is just nagging me that it is important somehow."

"Or it could be nothing." Luna countered.

"We could just need to review their patrol routes.” Dusk offered as a compromise. “There may just be a gap she slipped through."

"I did." Celestia smiled, laying out a scroll with a map of the path Dawn took, "Here's the halls she walked down, and there wasn't a point when she wouldn't have been noticed normally, unless most of the guards were severely delayed or early. All of them seemed to reach their checkpoints at their normal times, so that seems unlikely."

"Or she passed through areas before or after they got there.” Dusk said, considering and beginning to worry about a security leak. “Hm. I’d like to look into this Mother, if you don't mind. I know the Solar guard is your responsibility."

"Absolutely Dusk, go ahead." Celestia said with a smile, never feeling bad when Dusk wanted to pitch in. "I may have overlooked something from sheer familiarity."

Luna snorted.

"Possibly. A fresh pair of eyes could help. If I recall correctly, they’ve had the same routes for nearly a decade now, and we never did have anyone come from that mirror before."

"Very well, I shall leave the matter to your care, my daughter." Celestia said gently, with great fondness in her voice.

Dusk nodded. "Now then, anything else we need to discuss here?"

"Nothing yet.” Celestia answered, “I'll summon for Stalwart and debrief him after our meal. Do you know who you'll use for Nightfall's observations?"

"Hm. I am debating between one of my guards or a Keeper. Both have their advantages and disadvantages." Dusk said. "I should know by the time we reach Luminosia.”

"All right." Celestia nodded.

"I will inform you of my choice once it’s made."

After their meal, Stalwart Shield was fetched. He came in and threw a salute to the three princesses.

"Staff Sergeant, We have an assignment for you." Celestia said, "At ease."

Stalwart nodded and stood regularly, looking between them.

"I have a pony I want you to keep tabs on, but not have them realize you're doing so." Celestia said.

"Ma'am?" he blinked, confused.

"I saw your report regarding our newcomer, Meadow Dawn." Celestia said, "I want you to be assigned to keeping tabs on her words and actions. Be her friend if you like, but be discreet about your reports to me."

After a brief pause and a couple blinks, he ventured a small smile, "You know Celestia, I'd almost think this were a prank of yours if the others weren't here. Having said that, usually it's Princess Cadence who is playing matchmaker."

Luna sniggered at the response but stifled it quickly

"This is a matter of the safety of Equestria, Sergeant, not some joke." Dusk said firmly through a frown.

"Of course Princesses, forgive me." Stalwart said smartly before giving a stiff, full bow.

"Dusk," Celestia gently reprimanded, "he hadn’t been given enough information to realize its importance yet, and while I would like to correct him on my matchmaking skills, you are right that this is potentially serious. We can settle the issue of my jokes later.” Celestia finished before turning back to him, her mischievous look disappearing. “Stalwart, this information we are about to reveal related to the assignment is very sensitive to the point very few non-princesses know these details. Will you accept monitoring of Meadow Dawn and her potential as a threat or asset to Equestria and the safekeeping of the secrets that entails?"

"I will." He said seriously, throwing a salute. "Whatever you need Princess."

Dusk’s ears had very subtly folded back, from the reprimand. Only the two princesses would have noticed from sheer familiarity. She formally apologized, "Apologies mother, I did not mean to overstep my bounds"

Celestia looked over to her daughter and noticed the little things her normally aloof daughter still couldn’t suppress. It was the little things, the slight change in her pupil size, very slight lowering of her voice’s pitch. All very small things only Celestia ever noticed, since Dusk was a perfectionist and made very certain the public never got to see any potential signs of weakness.

Celestia frowned. Her daughter always overreacted to reprimand or correction, even in play. She would have to correct it after this meeting, for now, this reply would have to do.

"And now you understand why Dusk was very strict with you Stalwart." Celestia informed him. "Now, we have several things to discuss."

Celestia spent the next hour with him going over the knowledge of other worlds, its dangers, and why Dawn was catching their eye. After they finished, he hummed, thinking deeply.

"We will trust you to treat this with the utmost care." Celestia said.

"I will. Best course of action that I see is to try and befriend her. I'll test her on occasion, see how much she informs on her own in violation of your agreement and the like, maybe she’ll give up something on how she broke that lock." He nodded, "I can’t deny some interest in her just from passing by, but this takes it to a new level."

Celestia debated if she wanted to make a comment on how he might have only wanted some flank before, but recognized that would be poor taste.

"Sergeant, I trust you won’t take advantage of this assignment for a chance to get laid." Dusk bluntly added with a frown. “If she is not playing games with us, she is a vulnerable mare and abusing that has serious consequences.”

"No ma'am." Stalwart said with a quick salute. "I may like a good partner like anypony, but I understand the gravity of the situation." He thought to himself, 'though if it comes with the territory after enough time that she’s not vulnerable, I won't object.'

"Good. Your duties during this mission will be light, only some paperwork and magic lesson training so you can keep accurate observations on her, any magic she uses, and how, if she tells you or you can deduce it. I'll be assigning a unicorn to your service for that expressed purpose and as a cover for your assignment."

"Any questions Sergeant?" Dusk followed up.

"Not at this time. If I have any, I will forward them as instructed." Stalwart said, saluting once more.

"Good. You begin as soon as you are ready, preferably before the day is out. Dismissed." Celestia said.

Stalwart stayed saluting for a second more than he was required before smartly walking out of the room and beginning his mission.

"Hm.” Dusk thought as she watched him walk away, “Now then, I believe that is all we need to cover."

"Indeed, our official capacities here are over." Celestia said, "Let’s get you back and settled in to get our usual chat."

Dusk nodded and stood. "Then I shall meet you in your study Mother."

Celestia smiled as she saw Dusk leave the room, and walked at her own leisurely pace after her daughter, knowing they would get there well ahead of her. She could see the marching pace Dusk maintained at a near prance. Dusk always did see a destination and moved toward it as quickly as the situation allowed.

Celestia let her daughter go up to the study, mentally calculating the time needed and decided wasting a little magic wouldn’t hurt. She began casting the spell, using her usual designs to mask her doing so, and teleported to just outside the door right as she heard Dusk collapse onto a small couch that gave a signature high pitched squeak when Dusk did so.

3 - A Review of Current Affairs

"Ah, I am glad that is over." Dusk said, sighing as she flopped onto the small couch and smiled at her mother as she entered

"I feel the same." Celestia smiled, moving to the couch meant for her own size to relax comfortably, scaled up from a regular pony furniture’s dimensions. "How is Luminosia doing?"

"Oh you know, hustling and bustling. Lots of people debating ideas, the rivalries between schools and universities… that’s not even counting the ones they have with the universities outside the city."

"I'm still so proud of what you’ve done there." Celestia said with a smile, speaking gently like when she wanted to show her approval, "and what about you? How are you? Did you enjoy your tour?"

"Oh yes. Zebrica is oh so lovely this time of year, and working alongside the hunting parties as we cull the Zenita Beasts is always so refreshing."

"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself." Celestia said, "Did you learn any new techniques like you hoped?"

"Yes, this time I took only the Poloi knife." She said, smiling. "It’s what we'd call a medium dagger."

"Ahh." Celestia said. She was never one for combat, even if she was trained with a spear a long time ago and trained in it only to keep in practice. Even so, she knew her daughter had a love for the physical arts and skills and made no effort to curb what she loved.

"Yeah, seems it has been nearly 250 years since someone took down one of the beasts with it, due to their thick hide." She said, smirking. "I got three before one got a hold of my wing. Luckily, Zenidu was there to bail my flanks out and managed to get a makeshift stretcher put together to get back to the village.”

"I'm glad you made it back," Celestia said with worry. "I'd hate to think what I’d do if I lost my little sunset."

"Oh Mother, come now. It’s me." She said chuckling.

"And what did I teach you about overconfidence?"

"Yes I know, but I had three other experienced hunters with me, plus our natural healing factored in." She said.

Celestia stayed quiet. It was always difficult for her to let her daughter go into danger. She couldn't help but want to do all she could to protect them, yet knew all she could do was encourage their development and prepare them for whatever path they chose.

"And she had me." a cheerful voice chimed in, the little voice of a foalhood friend that now lived with Dusk Star, their fates tied together since that fateful day. They gave the appearance of walking in around the corner, their light blue-furred form being half transparent like a ghost as she walked up to Dusk.

"That too. You know Starry would never let anything happen to me."

"You gave me a bucking run for my bits though." Starry laughed, "I was almost running out of magic stamina by that point!"

"Hey, I knew you could handle it." She said.

"I can't grow stronger with you if we don’t push every now and then." Starry nodded, laying next to Dusk happily.

"Exactly, plus this impressed the village and I am sure it will reach the Ceasar about my prowess with such a weapon. No one ever killed more than two with it, and that was nearly a thousand years ago." She said, smirking.

"And it will greatly strengthen our ties with them." Celestia acknowledged. "Hard to call us soft after that."

Dusk smirked at her mother in response, as if she could possibly be anything but soft.

Celestia smiled at them, "I am very proud of you, even if I do worry like all mothers do."

Dusk’s smirk turned into a smile at that news. Celestia resisted the urge to get up and hug her daughter, nearly smothering them like she used to every time in their first few decades.

"So what about you, mother? What has been happening while I was away?"

"Other than the newcomer, it’s been relatively quiet. Haven’t had issues from the griffon kingdoms in a while either."

"Aww darn. Here I was hoping for a reason to bring the ruckus." Dusk said, but smiled to make it clear she was joking… mostly.

"I think we'll probably be seeing more ruckus soon enough." Celestia chuckled.

"Oh?"

"Nothing concrete, just a feeling."

"Hmm… let’s hope it’s just a feeling."

"Agreed." Celestia nodded.

"So, what all have you been up to then if it’s been so quiet?"

"Not much, the nobles are still vying among each other for position and power, the council is keeping them in check, thankfully."

Dusk nodded. "Anything personal?"

"My attempts to cook anything other than sweets are still as successful as ever." She blushed faintly.

"Yeah… have to admit, that is honestly very strange. But then again, I never thought anyone could burn shredded wheat either…"

"It... it was just that one time!" she protested.

"And one wall… the countertop… a bowl… the cutting board…" Dusk listed off with an amused voice.

"Enough, enough! You made your point." Celestia said, her voice in mock-indignation.

Dusk laughed. Celestia pouted, then laughed with her daughter, unable to fake it much longer.

"So,” Dusk said as the laughter faded, “What do you really make of these two?"

"I think there must be a reason for their presence here in Equestria, we just don't know what yet." Celestia said, "I don't expect to find anything of harmful intent from what we’ve found so far, but you've caught a few plots by being cautious, so we will continue to use the methods you have set for our nation, just in case."

She nodded. "Honestly, I tentatively have to agree. If it was just one of them, I’d not think anything of it. But two of them in such a short amount of time? Something is in motion."

"And neither of them being able to return?" Celestia chuckled. "No, I don't see how Luna says it is just coincidence, except perhaps..."

She got a look on her face, the one she often had shown when she had regretted sealing her sister away. Hundreds of scenarios played out in her head over the millennia they had been gone, and despite her settling the issue for a long time, old wounds reopened at Luna's return less than a few years ago.

Dusk’s face grew serious as she recognized that face. She silently got up and walked over to her mother’s couch, climbing in to embrace them and give her support. Celestia seemed to snap out of the look at being touched and pulled Dusk close with a leg and a wing.

"Thank you… I know I am being silly about this.” She said quietly.

"You never are… I don’t even know what it’s like to have to do something like that.” Dusk said, her throat feeling constricted as she said, “I don’t know what I’d do if I ever had to do that to you…"

"I hope you never have to." She said softly. "So… back to the two 'guests.' Anything about them that interests you that we haven't discussed yet?"

"Besides one of them undoing my lock without any training?" Dusk asked with a raised brow.

"Why do you think we have the guard to watch her?" Celestia smirked.

"True.” Dusk said, settling into her mother’s side, “I am somewhat worried that she could be a master thief playing dumb."

"Always possible… We will find out." Celestia said.

"Yes… What of the other one?"

"He is much harder to figure out." She said more seriously, "He seems genuine like her, and was less trusting of us, though Keepers often are out of survival needs…"

"Yeah, an unexpected side effect of their duties."

"If anything, I'd trust him more at the moment, but we'll keep an eye on both of them. Perhaps we can get Stalwart to explore Dawn's ready acceptance tactfully."

"I’m just concerned he might do a different sort of exploring." She hinted.

"What is it you fear from him then?" Celestia asked, always eager to consider what her daughter thought, though having a good guess at what it was.

"I know how guards can be, and Dawn is an attractive mare who, if she is telling the truth, is lost and alone," Dusk said. "There is temptation."

"Many a guard would simply wish to help her out, though I can see those inclined wishing to woo her as well. We know ponies who are thrust into a new situation can be broken into liking whoever ‘rescues’ them into stability once again." Celestia sighed, "Sadly there aren't much better options. I could also assign a unicorn mare to her, but we then run into the issue regarding the observation skills needed in this situation."

"What do you mean?"

"Like we mentioned in the discussion room, no other pony on the guard route noticed her."

"Did you ask if Dawn saw any guards?” Dusk asked. “I still have yet to interview her about that."

"Fair point." She paused, considering and remembering her answer prior.

"It’s why I want to speak to her and see if there are holes in the patrol routes."

"Then if you feel you must, you have my permission." Celestia nodded.

Dusk nodded back. "I’ll most likely do it after we finish talking.”

"All right. If you feel Stalwart isn't up to the task, you have my permission to reassign him." Celestia said, then frowned at herself, "I suppose I was too hasty in assigning him in that event. I was so certain he’d be the right pick though…"

"We will see."

"Yes, we will."

Dusk nuzzled her mother’s neck, and felt Celestia hug them close, wing stretching over them fully in a blanket of comfort she knew quite well. "So how has Twilight been?"

"She has been well, she's taken to being a princess as well as expected." Celestia said, "I knew she was destined for something special, though I hadn’t expected the number of times she saved Equestria with her friends."

"Oh? Really mother? You not having a plan for it?" Dusk asked with a raised brow.

"I may have given her nudges every now and then. You two can be quite similar in some ways."

"What. How am I in any way similar to her? We have nothing in common."

"You're both perfectionists, and fear a lot from failure," Celestia answered, "just as two examples."

"I don’t fear failure." Dusk protested, sounding almost offended at the idea, but also tired, as if they had this argument far too often.

Celestia let it go. She was positive they did, just by how they reacted to the mere idea of it.

"Anyways what of the other elements? Anything of note?"

"No, they’re all enjoying their daily lives now that things seem to be settling down."

"Ah, I see… so nothing of note happened while I was away?"

"Nothing beyond her visiting her friends on the other side of that school mirror." Celestia said.

"School… mirror?" She asked

"That place she visited about a year ago, she went back again to check on her friends there."

"Wait, what?! I told her not to do that, that it was a bad idea, and just asking for trouble!"

"She still wanted to go and sent her report. Nothing bad happened from her visiting, though the sirens we banished there apparently caused some trouble before she arrived."

"Sirens… Wait, we banished them there!? How is that not trouble?!" Dusk protested.

"Well, there was no magic native to that world. They had a tiny bit of latent magic that stuck with them and they were able to gradually regain power despite our best efforts. Apparently, they transferred to Sunset Shimmer’s school, tried to stir up trouble by taking the school over, only to be thwarted by Shimmer and the rest of Twilight’s counterparts. It was all settled without any need for action on our part." Celestia said with a grin.

"The Exile? Last I heard she was on the wrong side… Hm. Guess Twilight’s assessment wasn’t wrong."

"Yes, from what Twilight tells me, she has grown into a good pony while over there since her defeat." Celestia smiled.

"I’m surprised..." Dusk blinked.

"I'm surprised as well. She’s become humble and has been helping atone for her mistakes while over there. We may need a trial to reconsider her return if this continues." Celestia noted.

"That…” Dusk blinked again at what her mother was proposing. “Has an Exile ever been allowed to return?"

"No, but no exile has had a change of heart with demonstrable results."

Dusk thought about that, seeing her point. "Do we even have laws for this?"

"No." Celestia admitted.

"Huh. Well, this got complicated."

"You're telling me." Celestia sighed. "She was brilliant in her own way, but too ambitious. I'd almost have selected her to look after Dawn if that event didn’t happen… But still, there's no point in wishing for what we cannot have."

"I know." Dusk agreed, hugging her mother again in support. Her mother never liked not giving a second chance to those who sought it. She suspected it was Celestia’s way of atoning for her own sin against her sister.

Celestia hugged her daughter, happy she could spend another moment like this with them and Dusk nuzzled back, always happy to visit her mother and comfort them.

Celestia waited a while, then said, "As much as I hate for us to part and I always love holding my little foal, I believe you have a guest you wanted to visit."

"Yes… I suppose I should." She said with a sigh. "See you later mother."

Dusk nuzzled Celestia affectionately and headed for the door. As soon as the door opened, it was as if a switch was flipped. Her chipper demeanor was replaced by one of impassive stoicism.

"You're still welcome to spend the night in my room if you wish." Celestia reminded her as she walked away.

The castle's corridors were second nature after having spent a few decades in them, and the guards informed her where the two guests were being kept when she asked. Dusk could probably navigate them with her eyes closed if she wanted to, but she made her way to her target’s room and knocked.

Dawn was walked to her room, separating fairly quickly from Nightfall, much to her disappointment. She was curious about the other guest from another world, to see if it was at all like her own, or maybe even her own, but she didn’t want to cause any trouble by stepping out of line.

She didn’t realize she had fallen asleep on the bed when there was a knock and the door opened.

“Hello? Meadow?” a warm voice called.

Dawn grunted a reply and started to get up from the bed, “Sorry, didn’t realize I fell asleep.”

“Hey, it’s no problem. Someone said a guard was needed to run some food for a guest, figured I could do it.” The pony said. His white fur was standard fare for the guards, but he had no helmet on and his two-toned blue mane with purple accent laid behind his head. “You look familiar.”

“Oh, thanks for the food, but I don’t know how I’d be familiar. I only just got here yesterday.” Dawn said, blinking away her sleep and rubbing her eyes with a hoof.

“Oh, that’s where!” he said, making a kind of snapping-clopping sound as his hoof hit the floor. “I thought I saw you then during a patrol. What brought you to Canterlot?”

“Pure accident really.” Dawn said, remembering the warning she had been given by the princesses before. “Bought a relic from a garage sale without realizing what it was, and suddenly landed in a side room here in the castle. It’s sorta the reason why I’m still being watched by the guards out there, or at least, I think they’re still out there. They’re probably worried it’s a dangerous security breach.”

“Heh, yeah, they’re still out there.” He confirmed, mildly entertained at how truthful they were while still hiding they were from another world. “I’m Staff Sergeant Stalwart Shield. What’s your name?”

“Meadow Dawn.” Dawn said after a slight pause to remember it, “I think I’ll prefer to be called Dawn.”

“You think?” He asked, intrigued.

“Went through a name change recently. Still settling into the new name.” Dawn said, trying to dodge where the conversation was going.

“Ahh.” He hummed, giving her a nod. “It’s my day off today, and I don’t have a whole lot going on right now. Would you like some company while you’re waiting on the princesses to let you go?”

“Definitely. The few books that are in here aren’t my preference and I feel like I’m going insane from boredom.” Dawn said sarcastically.

“So you didn’t find the board game in the desk?” He asked, pulling out a drawer and showing a chess set. “Then again, I guess it would be hard to play by yourself. Are you familiar with chess?”

“I haven’t played in a while, but won’t it be hard to move pieces around with hooves?” Dawn asked, intrigued.

Stalwart chuckled and proceeded to lift the box out with a single hoof, “I don’t see why not.”

Dawn hummed, watching with interest and then chuckled to cover for her misunderstanding, “I’ve been a bit of a klutz, but hopefully we can get through a game if you like. I’m up for regular conversation too.”

“That sounds like a good idea.” Stalwart smiled.

Dawn smiled and moved over on the bed, letting them set everything up on a nightstand sitting by it.

“So, bought a magic relic huh?” Stalwart asked as he set his pieces, watching Dawn with curiosity.

Dawn struggled to hold the pieces properly with her hooves, then felt her horn grow slightly warm and saw the piece grabbed like her hand intended. She moved her hoof and piece like she still had a hand and lowered her pieces into place.

“Yeah, someone had a garage sale. Spent some time polishing it up and then poof!” She said with an awkward chuckle.

“Ahh, yeah, that’s not what I would expect either.” He chuckled. “Any family or friends you need to notify?”

“Well, I probably should let my landlord know, or their office. My apartment is paid up for the next few weeks till next month… oh right. Work is going to think I up and left.”

“Maybe you can get a message sent by mail? Strange things happen and I’m sure we can get a seal from the castle proving it.” Stalwart offered.

“Hm… not a bad idea. Not sure if they’d believe it, but there are other technical issues preventing that.” Dawn frowned. At best she could throw a letter through the mirror, but that’d just land in the room, and with no one in the room to deliver it, it just wouldn’t matter other than to be consistent with her cover story.

“So what kind of work did you do?” Stalwart asked.

“I managed people’s insurance policies for their homes and property.” Dawn explained and made her first move. “Focused on the military and their families.”

“Oh cool. Did you like it?”

“You bet your tail I did.” She said, grinning both at her job and the sudden rather fitting substitute. She had no idea if ‘ass’ would mean their backs or an actual animal and cause offense, but that seemed to get the gist across. “Much better than the average person. Great to work with, great to work for, and a lot less bite back when a policy prevents us from helping them out.”

“Is that so?” he smirked. “Hard to picture someone biting back at you unless you bit first.”

“To be fair,” Starlight started to say while fading into view from out of sight, “We did have a rather sarcastic streak and a dry sense of humor.”

“We?” Stalwart asked, turning to face the newcomer and feigning ignorance, “Excuse me, who are you? I didn’t hear you come in.”

“That’s because I was here all along.” Starlight smirked, stepping closer and offering his transparent hoof, “Starlight Dusk, Dawn’s other-self. Nice to meet you.”

“I… nice to meet you too.” He said, blinking again and taking the hoof for a brief shake, “What’s an other-self?”

“It’s not a term we’re familiar with either, but that’s what I was called.” Starlight said, hopping up onto the bed.

“From what I’ve pieced together,” Dawn started to explain as Stalwart made his first move on the board and made her response fairly quickly, “I think it’s something special that only happens to a few people. I wasn’t born a mare. I was a stallion before I came here, and Starlight is like an echo or a shadow or something of what I had been. Not sure why we separated, and I certainly wasn’t two people before, but until I accept him or something, I can’t go back the way I came.”

“Hm… that’s rough.” Stalwart said, thinking as he looked over the board and moved his knight. “Most ponies would freak out over that kind of change. Why not you?”

“Honestly?” She asked before looking away briefly, “I wasn’t exactly attached to how I was before or what had happened. My past is… there’s a lot of issues. Some were caused by me, others by my family. Adjusting to the way I am now, well, I’ve had dreams where half the time I was on two legs, half on four, sometimes mare, sometimes stallion, sometimes a mare, and was comfortable regardless. I know it’s not quite the same as having it really happen, so I’m still nervous, but better to try and keep moving forward than freak out and want the past, especially if you can’t get it back. Besides, this isn’t so bad, just a bit more permanent than a dream.”

“That’s really mature of you.” He nodded, looking at her in a new light. Despite having been a different creature before, a biped according to Celestia, they really didn’t seem to be suffering outwardly, though the ready comment of bipedal dreams didn’t really match their cover story so far. He made a mental note to keep an eye out for lingering mental or behavioral issues specifically, especially since she showed signs of bottling it up. “So, any particular goals now that you’re a mare?”

“Not that I’m aware of… Definitely glad I don’t have to worry about taking medications to adjust.” Dawn chuckled, moving a pawn forward to bait him to weaken a part of his formation.

“Probably just enjoy the differences, see what good mare or stallion drops by, get-” Starlight started to tease before getting a leg through his head. “What? I’m just horsing around.”

“I’m not ready for kids. You know how much that idea scares me.” Dawn said bluntly. “That pun was bad and you should feel bad.”

Stalwart chuckled, feeling mildly startled at her sudden punch to the shadowy form, but he had to admit, he liked the pair. This was going to be a very interesting assignment. The mention of medications was going to be something he’d have to dig for later. If she was playing master thief playing dumb, getting ‘distracted’ to change the subject was a skillful move. Still, she should have said foals, not ‘kids.’ She wasn’t a goat.

They played for a little longer before a knock came to the door.

"Huh? Come in!" Dawn called, unsure who to expect.

The door opened and Dusk stood in the doorway, observing Dawn on the bed, half laying down, and Stalwart sitting across from the nightstand with the chessboard looking almost evenly matched.

"Oh! Princess!" Stalwart said with surprise, shuffling to get up.

Dusk entered. "Hello Sergeant. Would you mind leaving us?"

"Yes, of course." Stalwart said with a bow.

Dawn swallowed nervously and watched as her prospective new friend started to leave the room and the door closed behind him.

"Now then, I want you to tell me your exact route." Dusk said as she approached.

"My… route?" Dawn asked, blinking in transparent confusion.

"From the mirror till you were found by Mother."

"Oh! I think I can still show you if you can show me where I started." She offered willingly.

"Hm. Very well." Dusk accepted, turning to the door and walking back to it without another word. “Staff Sergeant, standby here until we return.”

“Yes, Princess.” He saluted and then took up a post by the door with the other guard still there.

Dawn blinked at their behavior, chalking it up to how royalty acts in front of others, and shuffled off the bed. She clumsily caught herself and then tried to push to catch up in the hallways, then eventually stopped where Dusk did.

"So do you need just the route I took when I arrived?" Dawn confirmed.

"Yes. The exact one." Dusk nodded, watching impassively.

"I’ll give it as well as I can remember…" Dawn said.

She explained what she did, strongly suspecting they were looking for more than just the route, and decided adding other details would only help her case if they were suspecting her of anything more. She retraced her steps, commenting quietly about what she was thinking as she walked by the first time.

She paused at a point before the crossways and explained that she could hear a guard coming and had slowed her pace. She explained how she worried about interrupting if they were doing something important and simply walked on more slowly till he passed. She continued until the second guard encounter, where she expressed similar worries about interruption but a growing urge to ask for directions rather than being thought of as an intruder.

Dusk stayed silent throughout, noting multiple points where today, like yesterday, there were several guards at certain hallway ends or posts and were in plain view of those posts.

Eventually, Dawn stopped by the stained glass windows and finished recounting her meeting up to when Celestia spoke up. She could feel Dusk evaluating her, despite nothing changing about the expression as best she could tell. She shuffled timidly in place, hoping she did the right thing.

"Okay, how many guards did you see exactly?" She asked

"I saw the two, maybe heard two others?"

"Hm.” Dusk paused, thinking for a few seconds, then nodded, “Okay. Thank you."

Dusk said nothing more, beginning to walk toward the halls and leading the way back to Dawn’s room. Dawn frowned, and understood the unspoken order to follow, doing so to avoid trouble.

Dusk said nothing and didn’t even look behind her. She acted like she knew Dawn would follow, and ponies like her always did. Upon reaching their room, she addressed Stalwart. "Apologies for interrupting you, Sergeant. You may resume your guidance." She said to Stalwart before beginning to leave.

Dawn blinked at their leaving without another word, looking between Dusk and Stalwart with confusion.

“What was that about?” Dawn asked quietly when they were out of earshot, hoping not to offend.

“It’s how Princess Dusk is. Really stiff and stuff to outsiders, but rumor has it she can laugh and relax when around her mother.” Stalwart explained. “Come on, we’ve got a game to finish.”

“Sounds good to me.” Dawn smiled slightly as she began to relax again, leading the way to the room.

‘This mare really needs to learn how to use her tail for a bit of modesty or so help me resisting her is going to be much harder!’ Stalwart thought as he followed and closed the door behind them.

==========

Celestia was still in her study, looking over some reports when there was a knock on her door.

"Come." Celestia said, setting the reports down.

The door opened and revealed Dusk, who entered and closed the door behind her. "Well, finished my interview with the guest."

"Oh? How'd that go?"

"She saw only two guards on her entire route from a short distance and thinks she may have heard one or two." Dusk reported.

"Interesting… I had about five walking in those corridors alone, not counting the guards stationed at specific points that should have seen her walk by… And yet only the one reported her though." Celestia hummed.

"Right… it seems there will need to be a complete overhaul of the locations as there are clearly gaps."

"Or need full retraining." Celestia sighed, starting to frown since the system had worked flawlessly and surely not all of her guards in those areas had slacked off… "Perhaps some kind of admission ribbon system or something else as well... what a nightmare. And what were your impressions of her telling the truth?"

"She seemed genuine to me. So she’s either one of the greatest actors who ever lived, or is telling the truth."

"I see… well, I'm glad you agreed with my assessment." Celestia smirked. "So, do you feel it necessary to have her under a unicorn's watch?"

"Hmm.” Dusk thought, looking at the desk closely as a focal point for her thoughts before shaking her head. “Not at this time, the Sergeant should be fine."

"I'm glad you think so." Celestia smiled. "So, I forgot to ask, how goes the electricity development?"

"It goes… I have to admit, it’s an interesting idea, but I’m not sure if we can really harness the power of lightning like they say. Still, I’m providing funding, as they’ve come up with a theory to try and use the river to generate power. I look forward to their proof of concept they said they should have in a couple of weeks."

"Hm… I wonder if either of our newcomers are familiar with the concept. Perhaps we can ask them what they know and see if any of their concepts work here." Celestia suggested, "Like Dawn's 'phone' thing."

"Right… that sounded very weird.” Dusk admitted with a doubtful frown, “Nearly impossible without dragonfire. Honestly, I wonder if they were joking or not. What’s next, she’d claim to have left the planet like some of those books Twilight is obsessed with talk about?" She said chuckling as she shook her head.

"Well, maybe we can ask." Celestia said seriously.

"Ask what? If they literally entered the void?" Dusk asked flatly.

"Or at least ask if they know about electricity and go from there." Celestia offered. "For all we know, they’re at the same level as us, or could be more or less advanced. Won’t know until we ask.”

"True… It’s worth an ask." Dusk reluctantly agreed with a shrug.

"Exactly." Celestia smiled. "So, what would you do if they had gone up to the void, or other ponies from their world have?"

Dusk snorted. "Mother, how would that be possible? You know what happens to pegasi when they fly too high. How could they when from what Nightfall said, they don’t have wings and are clearly Equus bound."

"Don't ask me, ask them." Celestia laughed, "I'm just saying. You've gotten me curious enough I'd almost want to ask myself!"

Dusk rolled her eyes. "Yeah. I'll ask about the electricity thing and see if they have a clue."

"Good mare." Celestia smiled

Dusk rolled her eyes at that. "What am I a dog?" She asked with a smile.

"Nope, you’re my little sunset, and that’s miles better." Celestia said before she pulled them into a hug.

Dusk smiled and hugged her mother back while nuzzling their neck, receiving firm hugs. Neither of them wanted the moment to end. Dusk held her, head resting against her taller mother’s neck with her eyes closed for several minutes, enjoying the moment.

A faint voice far away chuckled and wrote on some parchment, “And the next thing they knew, it was a thousand years later and they’d been hugging that long, oblivious to the world around them.”

Another faint voice called out a short time later, “DAMMIT JERON!”

"So, plans for the day Mother?" Dusk asked when the time came they finally had to part.

"None come to mind." She shook her head, "preparing for another inane request from the nobles, a 'public' pool that only rich ponies can use, Blueblood put out two of his own proposals, surprisingly enough. He wants to petition increased coal production and lessen the penalties and restrictions for adopting an exotic pet."

"Hmm… interesting."

"I suspect he has his eyes on something, especially since seeing Philomena with me at a day court." Celestia commented.

"Well, she is one of the more exotic." Twilight chuckled. "How is she doing by the way?"

"She's doing well." Celestia smiled. "Spent a few months on her little vacation before coming back. I dare say she is very pleased with her little camping trip."

Dusk chuckled. "You do know you can say she flew East to mate and came back, right Mother? I’m not a little filly anymore."

"I know, but she didn’t lay any eggs, at least so far." Celestia smiled, "still, as long as she's happy.”

Dusk nodded. "So where is she right now?"

"Resting after her long flight." Celestia said, "I’ve made sure her usual spot is unaffected and has plenty of food and water. A cooling spell will keep her comfortable too. Thinking of which, how goes your attempts to find a non-magical cooling system?"

"So far not good… Someone had an idea to use water to cool air but not sure how well that would work as water heats up."

"Hm…" Celestia nodded before summoning her scroll and began writing down the things she wanted to ask Dawn about in the event that they knew about those things, then put the scroll to the side.

"I'm looking into a few other ideas now since opening up more jobs for non-unicorns would be good, despite what the opposition says."

"Fully agreed. There's too many good, hard-working pegasi who are being kicked out of jobs because a spell is faster, easier, and cheaper. Perhaps assigning unicorns to more safety measures would be a good compromise."

"Perhaps. Granted, I do have to agree when they point out there are jobs heavily dominated by pegasi such as weather teams… not sure how to fix that one." Dusk said.

"We can take some small steps. It is hardest to avoid claims of unicorn discrimination, especially with the rising cost of magic education."

"Yeah." Dusk signed. "Oh the woes of leadership…"

"Are one of the few joys I have since ponies still keep surprising me on occasion." Celestia chuckled.

"True… I’m surprised you’ve done this for centuries without a vacation."

"I probably should have one sometime, but it's these sorts of things that keep me going. Because our culture changes over time, it means my job is rarely dull. Even the arguments change sometimes." Celestia said proudly.

"I suppose so… though it could be amusing to take a century or two off and come back to see what happened… Well, you. Not me. I’m too young for a vacation."

"Right." Celestia snorted, "We'd have to come up with a new form of government to operate in my and Luna's absence, and who knows how well that'll be received!"

"I mean there’s me and Twilight." Dusk said.

"True..." Celestia hummed, "And just what plans are you going to implement while I'm gone, hmmm?"

"Huh? Oh no, no, no. I didn’t mean it like that." She said waving a hoof. "I just meant you’ve been at this for over a millennia non-stop… and Aunt Luna, while I know she likes being back, you two haven’t gotten to really connect with each other or spend significant time together and work things out."

"Hm… perhaps that would be good." Celestia considered, thinking, "Come up with some ideas on how you'd run things, and I’ll see how long we could pull this off if we chose to."

"Oh… okay." Dusk nodded.

"Don't be too disappointed," Celestia said with a mischievous smile "If I just handed over the keys to the kingdom, I dare say ponies like Blueblood would ask why they couldn't have that chance as well."

"But I’d be sure to turn out the lights before I left." Dusk protested.

"I'm sure you would." Celestia chuckled, "Probably would get all the guards even further trained than you already have too. I still remember your reaction to the threats from the Griffin Kingdom a while back."

"Oh yes, that was fun." Dusk said smiling. "And we got Crater Lake out of it."

"Yeah…" Celestia said dryly, without any amusement. "At least we didn’t go to war."

"Oh come on. Don’t tell me you’ve never wanted to cut loose like that and show your power?"

"I find that very dangerous…" Celestia warned her daughter. On seeing her daughter’s frown she gave a gentle sigh, repeating a simple lesson on her power, “Look, I worry about the damage my power can do. The sun can cause so many good things. Life can grow, we have warm summer days, sometimes too warm, but-"

Dusk sighed. "Yes, yes. With great power comes great responsibility. I know Mother; however which is better? To have the power to stop needless bloodshed and do nothing, or to use that power to stop it? I am not saying cutting loose all the time is a good idea, but acting like our own power is some sort of monster just waiting to devour us if we blink is just… stupid."

"Perhaps." She said, getting a faraway look to it. "Perhaps I simply am the one who is most afraid of it. I had seen what had happened in using it many years ago against our early enemies… It would seem I have some lessons I have to redo."

Dusk put a hoof on her shoulder. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I… don't know. One day." Celestia said, much as she had before. Dusk sighed and hugged her mother, and Celestia hugged her back, "I'm sorry my little Dusklight… some wounds are better off not being reopen-… no… maybe I should share."

"It is your choice mother." Dusk said quietly, holding her.

Celestia nodded, "I… I should… when we have a few days together. I can't believe I nearly said that some wounds never should be reopened… that's not like me, especially after how many ponies I’ve said needed to open them to give them proper closure."

Dusk nuzzled her mother, and Celestia enjoyed her time together with them for as long as the rest of that day would allow, knowing her child would take the two visitors and Stalwart with her to Luminosia.

Dusk hugged her mother before departing with an “I love you,” and headed for the door, stepping out of the room. Once again, the switch was flipped and Dusk became how the public saw her, cold and stoic as she departed for the train station

"I love you too." She could hear in her ears as she departed, sung quietly almost as if it were a lullaby and a promise of another time of hearing it. Despite seeing no reaction from Dusk, Celestia knew her daughter was smiling on the inside and likely would all the way to the train station.

4 - Arriving at Luminosia, the City of Ideas

The next day, Stalwart received his ticket and orders for relocation to Luminosia when he reported to his station. He wasn’t at all surprised when he saw it and his only regret was leaving some of his squad behind. He put together his belongings in his saddlebag, a larger bag riding on his back as he walked to check on Dawn.

Dawn was amusing to see in the morning. He knocked on her door and entered, only to find her mane and tail with bed-mane, and was sluggish in getting up.

“So, I’ve been transferred to Luminosia-” He started to say.

“And you’re here to pick me up huh?” Dawn asked groggily, rubbing at her eyes with her wrists.

“I… yeah. How’d you know?”

“Got some form from Dusk telling me to expect it and you’d be my escort there.” She said, yawning again as she tried to get out of bed, only to completely fall out of it.

Stalwart winced as he watched the mare demonstrate the antithesis of grace and land chin on the floor with rump and tail in the air. It took a great deal of effort not to laugh. “I see… Well, our ride is going to leave in a couple of hours, so we’d better get moving.

Stalwart waited patiently as the mare tried to get a brush to levitate. He watched the magic waiver, getting stronger and weaker at times, even once getting stuck in the mane before getting un-stuck. She then tried to do her best with the tail, getting readily frustrated with it. Finally, she finished and took a saddlebag that wasn’t there when he last visited and slowly put it on and put the brush away.

They walked to the entrance of the castle, Nightfall already was there and under watch by two guards. Stalwart eyed Dawn and noticed she kept looking to Nightfall, even opened her mouth a little as if she was going to talk along the way, but she grew silent and focused on the path ahead of them.

‘Probably wanting to talk or get some nervous energy out.’ He surmised. ‘The mare wouldn’t stay quiet at all through our time together… not that that has to be a bad thing.’

When the group arrived, the two guards left, though Dawn was reasonably sure they were staying in sight range to keep an eye on them all. They had barely been waiting fifteen minutes when she noticed Princess Dusk walking up to the platform, flanked on each side by Twilight Guards with their signature heavy armor.

"I see you three wasted no time in getting here." Dusk commented.

"Well, I hate being late in general, and on the way here, I realized I wanted to make sure I looked over this list of things Celestia asked me about.” Dawn tried to explain, using the spell she instinctively used earlier to pull out a scroll clumsily from the bag. “I'm familiar with the basic principle of many of these things, though not enough to have prototypes built…”

Dusk nodded as she looked to Nightfall.

Night shrugged, "Couldn’t sleep. Hard for me to settle down without something to do."

"Ah. Well, either way, I am glad I did not have to go and get anyone."

"You’re welcome, I guess." Dawn said, unsure how to take the comment. "Celestia said I should talk to you about these principles behind the devices, so maybe we can do that on the way if you’re boarding too?"

"I am." Dusk said.

"Cool. We can talk about that if you want. I can just write my answers on the way too if that’s easier and if I can manage the spell that long."

"Yes, you may join me in the royal car." Dusk said

"Nice. Still barely getting the hang of using telekinesis as it is, so saying it’s loads easier." Dawn grinned, setting the scroll back into her pack right as a loud whistle blew from the train. Dawn jumped in place at the sound, not having expected it and let out a pant as a hoof found its way to her chest to hold it.

"You ok?" Stalwart asked, surprised at her reaction.

"Yeah, guess I’m just easily startled." Dawn admitted with a shy smile, trying to downplay the issue.

"Hmm." Dusk hummed before she walked toward the back of the train.

Dawn wasn’t sure why Dusk hummed, but followed because of the invitation, and Stalwart and Nightfall followed suit.

They boarded the last train car, seeing it spread out like a spacious small apartment.

Dawn blinked in surprise. In hindsight, she knew she should have expected some luxury for royalty to travel in, but it was still an experience she was unused to. Flying coach on an airplane always meant only enough room to bump knees into the seat in front of you. Here it was like an apartment with the setup she saw. She tried to find a comfortable enough spot that Dusk wasn’t going to use, and got ready to discuss the technology's base concepts like Celestia had requested.

Dusk took a seat on the couch and looked at Dawn.

"So... where do you want me to begin?" Dawn asked, finally mentally ready.

"Preferably at the beginning."

"So... whatever the oldest tech is, or the easiest to explain or what?" Dawn asked, confused.

"I suppose the easiest."

Dawn nodded and began to explain air conditioning, saying the premise surrounding how compressed air heats up while decompressed air cools off rapidly, and various liquids can be used as a more lasting medium to ensure longer-term use, demonstrating most of it relied on electricity.

"Hmm… interesting."

Dawn nodded and tried to explain what she knew of telephones, how a coil would be used to register sound, then duplicate it on the other end with some amplification due to how electricity running in coils could create magnetic effects, which could then move speakers to imitate the sounds.

Dusk stared blankly at her, moreso than she usually would and Dawn grew nervous, trying to do her best to fill in the silence and train sounds with her own nervous talking and elaborating her understanding.

Eventually, Dawn moved on to guesses as to how things worked to help make up the technological gap, but it took a good half an hour after the list was more than adequately covered. When she ran out of things to cover, she fell into an awkward silence.

"Curious… I must admit, I did not understand most of that. I feel your home may have surpassed us since I only understood the air conditioning concepts because we have ponies attempting to make a non-magical means of cooling air."

"Oh..." she said, disappointed they didn’t understand. "Sorry, I had hoped it would be of more use."

"No, it is fine. I am sure your notes will be of use in the future."

"Ok, and hopefully it’ll help point in the right direction, even if it’s not quite right." Dawn said, feeling subdued. When all she got was a nod in return, she continued. “So, was there maybe anything that led questions to, or something else you wanted us to discuss entirely?”

"Not especially."

"Oh." Dawn said, looking at the table and thinking about how big of a change everything she covered would cause.

When Dawn did not speak for a bit, Dusk retrieved a book from the shelf and began to read

Dawn took that as her dismissal and moved to sit by Stalwart, feeling calmer around him after his support the other day. She began piecing together that Dusk wasn’t one for small talk, and Nightfall wasn’t saying much at all unless spoken to.

Nightfall kept to himself while Stalwart talked with Dawn about the public details of his assignment, things he was looking forward to in Luminosia, then began to talk about his placement testing since it came up.

“What placement testing?” Dawn asked.

“I’ve been considering joining the Twilight Guard for a while. There’s a bunch of different parts to the Royal Guard, and I’d been shooting for Captain of the Guard somewhere like my dad and grandfather. Truth of the matter is I won’t reach that rank anytime soon because of how many soldiers there are in the Royal Guard that could be worth promoting.” Stalwart explained, “Might sound a bit lazy, but I stand a better chance of standing out in a more specialized part of the guard.”

“Kinda makes sense. I’d think more soldiers would also mean more administration and leadership positions, but maybe I’m wrong. Why that branch?”

“Because when somepony joins the guard, you’re tested to see if you meet any of the qualifications to join some of the branches. I passed the tests for the Twilight Guard, though I’d like to think it was because of my family’s ‘shield’ name being passed down.” He chuckled.

“That has no bearing on our tests.” Dusk said impassively, not even looking up from her book.

“True, but it’s fun to make up answers for the new recruits.” He chuckled. “Only to tell them the truth of course.”

“So what’s their specialty?” Dawn asked.

“Heavy armor and the like. Front line and area control work.” Stalwart said.

“Sounds dangerous…” Dawn said.

The pair continued to make idle talk as the train rode on into the setting sun’s horizon. The trip approached the end of its third hour and nighttime had started abruptly, something that still made Nightfall and Dawn flinch, and a glow started to appear in the horizon in the place of the sun.

Dawn spotted the glow, at first thinking it was the sunset, but it was too white for that. She took a second look, then began grinning. "Don't tell me you guys have Las Vegas over here!"

"Las Pegasus you mean?" Stalwart asked, surprised at the close guess to the name. "That’s a few hours south and a lot more west at the moment."

"No, it’s night." Dusk said simply, as if that explained everything as the glow was getting closer.

"Right, and I can see all the lights from here." Dawn said, unperturbed by their corrections. "so your city has a night-life huh?"

Stalwart snorted with a smile of amusement.

"It has life." Dusk said.

"You knew what I meant, a figurative one." Dawn said, not believing they meant to take her literally. "I might not stay up too late myself, but its good information to know."

"I did get what you meant, and no it, doesn’t have a night-life. It is always active." She said

"Dusk, that’s a yes in my book, just not that the night-life ever ends. It’s like how Las Vegas is called the city that never sleeps. Yours gives that impression." Dawn clarified

She said nothing as they neared the city and she marked her page before putting it away as the light grew brighter.

Dawn waited with mild excitement and watched as she considered what would be coming up for them while Nightfall seemed to keep to himself in a mildly dour mood.

A massive city began to come into view, most buildings with white walls, torches, and oil lamps dotted the city streets and reflected the moonlight in its own picturesque way. Above the city there was enough light shining that a row of lights in the air could faintly display an airship moving through the night sky, reminding Dawn of a zeppelin before it went out of sight from the buildings and bridges the train went between and under.

"Nice." Dawn nodded approvingly, "A bit more oil lamps than I expected... half thought that you'd have tungsten filament bulbs by now, but…" She facehoofed and asked, "That was something else I didn't explain yet huh?"

"No." Dusk said simply, ready to hear yet another piece of information that their world had.

"Whelp, here we go again." She said, getting a quick sheet of parchment and tried to give as much of an explanation of the details that she could with diagrams, how when a specific current goes through it, light is emitted, as well as heat, and while she wasn't quite sure how much tungsten was needed, or how much current, it was easier to make than the LEDs that she only knew what the name stood for that were much more energy-efficient. She explained how they generally had a vaccuum or low pressure internally, and how she guessed it helped with its longevity. Best part was that when the bulb 'died', it didn't leave a mess and the only danger it poses to health is catching things on fire just from prolonged heat exposure.

"We don’t exactly have electricity… Well, outside of unicorn powered things or the few things we power by lightning." Dusk said. "But that is so costly and time consuming there is no way we could power a city."

"Right, it's why we've typically tried to harness either renewable energy like building a dam and letting water run over the motorwheels to generate the current, using steam to do similarly, or even windmills and solar panels." Dawn nodded, recognizing the issues.

"Wait, water will actually work?" Dusk asked, "Polarize will want to meet you."

"Possibly... that’s if and only if what I remember about magnets and copper coils actually being right and the rules here are the same. It boils down to manipulating the protons in the atoms, but that’s way beyond what I remember from school." Dawn said before Nightfall stamped his hoof down.

"Dawn... are you done spoiling every bit of tech you can think of without thinking through the consequences?" Nightfall asked with a grating tone, almost through gritted teeth.

"Proton? Atoms?" Dusk said before he stamped his hoof and Dusk looked to him. "Something wrong?"

"Yeah, she's just dropping info that might not even be the same here without any kind of thought on how this could affect the world even if it is right." Nightfall replied while glaring at Dawn.

"I prefer to think of it as helping repay them for helping us." Dawn pouted. "I'll have to explain later it seems, Princess Dusk. I know not all of it is understood now, but if it is the same, it might help much later down the line."

"Either way, our scientists will want to speak with you… especially about that using water to make power as there is a test of that scheduled in the next couple of weeks."

"I'm willing to do so." Dawn nodded. "I doubt our education or keeping us integrated is cheap, and I hope it helps make up for it."

Nightfall rolled his eyes and looked away.

"Meh, it’s minor." Dusk said, waving a hoof. "Compared to the other things I spend my bits on anyway."

Dawn nodded and looked back to the city, thinking about what else she might remember they could use. There's bound to be plenty of things school had taught her that could be of use. She would make her part in helping out this world for sure, and beamed that feeling out to the city.

Soon the train was pulling into a large, mostly glass terminal, suggesting to everyone it was time to depart.

Dawn made sure she had her things, what little there were, and made sure she followed Dusk. Nightfall was behind her and Stalwart brought up the rear.

The train station had massive skylights, showing the sky as well as statues of ponies everywhere. Murals were plentiful, white marble as a base and designed with form and function in mind, even with the large fountain they passed as they entered the main doorway to the city.

Dawn smiled approvingly. She liked what she saw and continued to look around.

They stepped through the large doors and seemed to be led into a world of architecture she never had a chance to see before. Buildings seemed to almost naturally be present, as if nature itself had a hand in the location of the city, and the people merely stumbled upon it and made slight alterations to dwell among it in tune with what it had in mind.

The buildings were mostly white with red tiles covering the rooves nearby, though some other colors could be seen in the distance. The massive fountain had hedges around it, but cafes were plentiful along with kiosks and small restaurants. Ahead was a large statue on top of a mountain of marble, a pony in armor with a shield on its side and sword in its mouth. The figure held a defiant look despite subtle signs of exhaustion against the unseen enemy. A bronze plaque was at the base of the fountain for anyone to read.

"Whoah..." Dawn said, thoroughly impressed by the display and theming throughout the city.

Dusk said nothing as she walked through the crowd. Every pony they passed greeted her and bowed, to which Dusk nodded to each and every one of them in acknowledgment.

Dawn followed along, hoping she wouldn't get too much attention for being more clearly escorted through the city. Nightfall simply took it in stride by looking like he didn’t care, and Stalwart sighed contentedly.

"Always did miss visiting this place." Stalwart said.

They walked past the fountain, Dusk having a rather slow and relaxed gait.

Dawn spotted a large museum dedicated to magic on the way to wherever they were headed, then one to history, then pegasi, then unicorns, even seeing one for earth ponies and one for shovels. The idea confused her, yet she saw art galleries, large well-tended parks with fountains and statues of ponies. She saw a large university that proclaimed its dedication to teaching advanced magics, and all along she saw houses big and small that all had different designs yet somehow melded into this cohesive design that Dawn couldn’t deny was elegant in its own eclectic way.

Dawn couldn’t help but chuckle quietly at the sight of foals who came up to Dusk to ask questions. It caused a small delay, yet she stopped for each of them to answer a question with her characteristic stoic but detailed manner until the parents intervened to retrieve the foals. The parents would always apologize profusely with many bows, which in turn would have Dusk inform them of where to go to get more information for the foal if they so chose, and then would resume walking once more.

Stalwart eyed Dawn, not being noticed by her. He found it intriguing that she said she had no interest in having foals, yet it was clear this mare seemed to have a soft spot for them if his judgment meant anything.

Nightfall nodded approvingly about how the situations were handled, as well as his evaluation of how the city was designed. As much as it didn't have some of the tech he was used to, it was definitely the kind of city he wanted to be in for patrols once he knew the place.

“I can tell the ponies here are very proud of their city,” Dawn commented, continuing to look around and feeling pleased with the nature of the city and its buildings, “not to mention it was designed and planned out well even to my untrained eye.”

“Thank you,” Dusk said as she led them toward the massive walled-off area of the city with Equestrian banners on it. They continued to approach a large gate that had many ponies coming and going, mostly going. “I oversaw every step.”

"Nicely done." Dawn repeated her compliment, following along as Nightfall fell into his usual 'casual' observance of passersby.

Dusk gave a nod, finishing their approach to the gate in the wall. Three Twilight Guards stood, yet not one of them spoke to any of the ponies coming in or out of the castle, no matter how heavy or steady the stream was. Despite this, they bowed to Dusk.

Once the group had crossed the threshold, it felt to Dawn like they had entered yet another new world. The path they were on led to a small fountain, a unicorn mare in armor holding a sword in magic looking out defiantly at the gate, also with a plaque at the bottom as most seemed to have. On the right side of the path were rows of odd plants that had a similarly ‘odd but sweet’ smell coming from them, while on the other was an almost wild, overgrown area with trees, vines, and other vegetation that made it look dark and dense except for the path. What surprised Dawn was the rain that fell, as it only fell on the dense area to the left, yet hardly anything went to the right or on the path other than a small drizzle. It reminded her heavily of a jungle from the warm yet humid environment it kept.

‘I don’t know how this is even remotely possible… yet no one is questioning it.’ Dawn thought to herself, feeling quite out of place. ‘Even Nightfall isn’t saying much about it or reacting. Maybe I should ask something else...’ Dawn took a breath and spoke, knowing it was somewhat out of the blue. “So I see some of the guards around, what’s the difference between some of the branches of the guard?”

"The different guards each specialize in different fields and situations." Dusk said as they passed the statue.

‘Gee… no kidding Dusk.’ Dawn thought, ‘That’s a child’s- er, foal’s answer…’

"The Twilight guard specializes in heavy weaponry and heavy armor like we covered on the train. Really tough situations or front line work. The solar guard is general peacekeeping and daylight efforts. The lunar guard is for nighttime issues, search and rescue, things like that." Stalwart volunteered. “We can cover that more once we’re inside.

"Oh cool." Dawn nodded, noticing the path they were taking and how few ponies were around to where it was almost deserted. Maybe it was still safe to talk about things like when they were on the train. "I know some ended up splitting it based on the ground vs air vs sea, like what I’m used to, though I still never understood how the navy had some of the air support or were the ones focused on space flight."

"What flight?" Stalwart asked, thinking quietly, ‘Mare… you’re talking about this stuff in broad daylight practically! Everything screams that you’re not from Equestria! I need to get this in a report and get Dusk to get her to know when to talk about that stuff!’

"Space, the lack of stuff between the planet and the moon and sun?" Dawn said, looking at him with confusion.

Dusk stopped, the others following suit and staring at Dawn, or a glare in Nightfall’s case. Dusk slowly faced the green mare with intense eyes. "You mean… you’ve been to the void… and lived?"

"Me personally? Nooo." She said with a brief head and hoof shake. "But we’ve had four space shuttles that could do it with the help of teams of people coordinated on the ground and the astronauts who went up. Only remember two names though, Explorer and Discovery. Beat another country to the moon, put a flag down, and safely got back about 50 or 60 years ago. Why?"

"You left the planet… How is that possible?" She said staring at Dawn openly.

"It took a lot.” Dawn answered, understanding they likely didn’t mean on a personal level. “High focus on science, understanding the nature of our world, physics ‘n all. I understand fuel ended up being liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as the main boosters to escape the atmosphere, but that stuff is super volatile and dangerous if not handled exactly the right way."

Nightfall sighed and waited, clearly not thrilled she was giving away so much. Stalwart observed the two, returning his main focus to Dawn, who espoused completely foreign ideas without a second thought.

"How do you make a gas a liquid?" Dusk asked with an ever so slight deviation in her voice that those with experience would tell was confusion.

"So any given element is a solid up to a certain temperature, at which point it will melt into a liquid, then another temperature higher up is its evaporation point and is a gas. Haven’t had anything that broke that rule yet." Dawn explained. "Now how they get those so cold it becomes liquid, I have zero idea, but I know that’s the principle behind it."

Dusk stared at her openly, Stalwart giving a similar expression.

Dawn blinked, shuffling in place in nervousness, "What? That’s what little I know... I mean, at least on the fuel anyway."

"You need to talk to our scientists… This is beyond anything we’ve ever even heard of in the craziest of theories."

"Dusk, I mean zero disrespect here, but those scientists are extremely smart and the best of the best. I may be taught basic concepts in school, but I’m not a rocket engineer or an astronomical engineer. It’s much like how you might have a few ponies who can do extremely complicated spells, but everyone else is still taught the general idea behind how the spell works. I can say I have seen one of the four shuttles that got donated to a museum among other things that I’m surprised I still remember from twenty years ago. If you don’t believe me, that's fine." She said, trying to stand her ground as she misunderstood what Dusk intended, "For all I know, your physics might prevent any of what I’m saying from working. I have no idea. I’d have to take you to my place to show you.”

‘This mare… how the buck did that even remotely address the idea that she needs to pass this stuff on to our scientists?’ Stalwart thought, struggling to keep his confusion from being transparent.

Dusk had no such reservation and blinked, “Right… Anyway, tomorrow I’ll introduce you to Dr. Blast. She will want to talk to you.

Dusk turned around and began walking once more, as if no other statements were needed.

"Ok…" Dawn replied with similar confusion as she walked on, feeling like she was missing something..

"So…” Stalwart began to speak, deciding to play innocent and asked, “you were being serious about that?"

"Of course." Dawn said, looking at him with her confusion fading to a mild persistence. "I don’t have anything to gain by making it up, do I?"

“The attention of Princess Dusk and her researchers come to mind…” Stalwart pointed out.

“Oh…” Dawn said, pausing as she said, “Yes, I’m serious.”

“Ah… I just haven’t heard of anyone on Equus doing what you said and it sounds like a fantasy novel idea.” Stalwart said, dropping a subtle hint.

“Oh.” Dawn said, her voice dropping as she realized just how much she rambled about something to someone that shouldn’t have been in the know… on the other hand, she felt mildly comforted that he seemed to give her a correction, which told her he might be in on it but shouldn’t say more. “No comment.”

Stalwart simply chuckled, Dusk not having said any more as the group soon reached the castle’s doors, being met with yet another museum. Dawn was mildly surprised at the first impression of the place is yet another museum, and she was glad to know she wasn’t the only one when Nightfall spoke up.

"Where are we now?"

"My castle." Dusk said as the passed a tour guide leading a group of out-of-town ponies to a set of armors that looked very old.

The walls were covered in old paintings, documents behind glass as well as display cases with weapons, armor, clothing, and other items, even lined with other statues as they made their way to the stairs.

"Your castle is a museum?" Nightfall asked, skeptical.

Dawn looked around passively, rather having expected to be put in an apartment or something, not the castle.

"Just the first three levels." She said as she began to walk up the stairs.

"Oh..." Dawn said, blushing as she realized she was probably going to be worn out after all those stairs.

"Something wrong?" Stalwart asked.

"Just worried for hopefully no reason. I was very out of shape from having a desk job, and I'm hoping I won’t be panting for breath when we get wherever we are going." Dawn admitted.

"You'll get used to it." Dusk said as she climbed the steps, eventually reaching a guarded door. Once they were through, they entered another set of stairs where there weren’t any guests.

Dawn frowned but said nothing as the group followed. She only ended up mildly panting for breath after finishing all the stairs and felt pleased as she hid her heavier breathing, trying to force it to be quiet.

They arrived at a hall decorated with paintings, yet had a pair of guards at periodic paces through the hall, no one else in sight. They traveled along it to an outer area, where there was a window and it displayed the city just barely above the tall walls.

Dawn soldiered on, looking around out of sheer boredom but not being as interested in the art on display much more. Nightfall simply noted the locations of each guard, keeping it in mind for later should the need arise. It wasn’t much longer before they paused at a door.

"This is your room Night.” Dusk informed. “You may use it till I can arrange other lodgings out of the castle."

Nightfall nodded, then went inside with no other preamble. Dawn was surprised at the lack of reaction, then looked to Stalwart and Dusk for direction on what she should do, only to find Dusk had started walking again. She frowned, then began blushing lightly as she realized she was getting a room in the castle too.

"And this will be your room." Dusk said when they arrived at another door a minute later.

"For how long?" Dawn asked, not sure how comfortable she should get.

"Till other living arrangements can be made, if you wish."

"No, no! This is good, I just worried this might be only temporary and didn't know how long I'd be staying." Dawn said. “I get a bit nervous and anxious when I don’t know what to expect.”

"Well, I do not care either way, but if you’d like to stay I need to know."

"I would like to stay for as long as you’ll have me, thank you." Dawn said, giving a bow and going inside.

"I'd better check in to the guard." Stalwart said to Dawn before she closed the door, then turned to Dusk once the door was closed. "That one knows a lot… even with what she says she's forgotten."

She nodded. "Quite. Dr. Blast will want to have a word with her… or a few hundred."

"That’s an understatement… I don't know what budgets you're giving her, but if she does manage to give different ideas that improve our nation, my vote would be to extend it in thanks… Though I know that doesn’t really change much." he said quietly, "I mean if ponies could go to the void like she says… that opens up a lot of ideas and dreams."

"If she’s telling the truth and not just trying to curry favor or work an angle anyway." Dusk said as they walked. "Dr. Blast will be able to figure it out, maybe, but a lot of what she says I question on whether or not it’s real or it’s just made up because it is so out there that it sounds like the ramblings of an insane mind."

"Fair point." He said, "always best to keep a level head. How soon can she be seen and can I be a part of that detail?"

"I imagine Dr. Blast would want to see her as soon as possible once I inform her and you are assigned as her guide."

He nodded and began to follow Dusk down the hall as she began her journey through the castle, "so assume tomorrow. What should my cover story be beyond that I’ve been reassigned here? I have a few days off and thought she'd want company?"

"That was up to you in your assignment, Staff Sergeant.” Dusk informed him, eying his stance as she questioned his assignment. “She won’t know anything so it’s not as if much has changed.”

"Just confirming options and restrictions before I act so everyone’s stories are straight." Stalwart responded, quickly recognizing he was being second-guessed. “Going with a couple of days of leave before starting my duties in the guard with encouragement to explore the city and familiarize myself with it, offering to bring her with me to learn the town together then. I’d better get some rest. By your leave, Princess?

"Your room is next to hers." Dusk said, continuing on her way.

"Thank you." He said, returning the way he came and smiling at the room that was practically next door.

He certainly didn’t plan to violate his promise to take advantage of the mare, but he couldn’t deny he was pleased with the closeness to a cute mare overall. He soon set down his travel pack and saddlebags, knowing that it was almost certain that Dusk was speaking to Dr. Blast. It also wouldn’t surprise him if she didn’t trust his intentions and would increase security due to both the guests and himself, but he wasn’t about to make the choice justified anytime soon...

5 - Adjusting to differences

Dawn settled into her room, feeling anxiety build as she knew that all the things she was going to need to cover couldn’t possibly be handled in one day. She wanted to do her best to help them get whatever they invest in her back, at least, assuming magic isn’t just an easy ‘will it into existence’ type of thing. Her biggest fear is that the little understanding she had regarding the concepts wouldn’t be enough and make it useless and a waste of time.

It was another hour into the early night when a knock came to Dawn’s door. Dawn yawned, having taken a short nap and called out as she started to get up, “Come in!”

The door opened to admit a mare dressed in a suit jacket over a white shirt, complete with a bowtie and mane done up in a bun. She spoke formally, asking, "Dinner will be served within the half-hour. Will you be taking it here or within the main dining hall?"

"Let’s go with the main dining hall." She said, borrowing a brush that was left in the room to get herself in order quickly, grateful her hair and tail were still serviceable.

"I will show you the way." She said and waited beside the door

Dawn nodded, checking the mirror to be sure she didn’t miss anything before following the pony. She barely left the room with the maid and she saw Nightfall down the hall being led out of his room by another, both of them being led by their respective guides.

The four ponies descended the stairs to the lower levels just above the museum. A door opened at the end of their trek and displayed a large dining hall. A table ran along the middle and clearly could feed far more than the two that currently sat at it. Dusk sat at the head of the table, but on her left was a dull orange colored pegasus mare in a short, unkempt brown mane while wearing a rather scorched and stained garment. Dawn could only guess what it was since it was so hard to tell under all the scorches and stains, maybe a lab coat.

Dawn approached, asking, "Should we sit anywhere in particular?"

"As you wish," Dusk said with a slight wave.

The pegasus stared at Dawn, getting a large smile and a strange look to her eyes that bordered on the crazed or obsessed in Dawn’s eyes. A small pit of anxiety started to well up as she realized that mare was probably here for her and her ‘wild’ ideas on how the world worked. Dawn tried to calm herself and stood next to a chair beside them, trying to focus enough magic to scoot it out on her own and flex that ‘muscle.’

Nightfall simply approached the opposite side, leaving a chair empty between himself and Dusk, across from Dawn, and slid his seat out with a hoof before awkwardly sitting on it, shifting as he tried to get accustomed to the position while keenly aware that Dusk was watching them both, even if the strange pegasus was only watching Dawn.

Dawn eventually pulled the chair out and sat down at it, trying to hide her nervousness, staring at the table before looking over to Dusk, then the crazed mare.

"Right. So then, introductions are in order. Nightfall, Dawn, This is Dr. Blast, the head of the Royal Institute of Science and Royal Scientific Advisor." Dusk said and the mare waved.

"Hello! I must say it is such a pleasure to meet you both!" She said rather excitedly.

Dawn nodded a greeting in reply. "Pleasure to meet you. I take it Princess Dusk relayed some of what I had told her about?"

She nodded vigorously while her smile seemed to continue as if plastered on her face.

Dawn chuckled nervously, "Well, I'll explain as best I can. I’m nowhere near an expert and only remember what was covered in school, but more importantly, its possible the same things might not work here, so if nothing else, maybe it can help with some lateral thinking for progression."

"No, not till tomorrow,” Dusk said with a hint of firmness. “Dr. Blast insisted on meeting you tonight though."

"Oh, sorry. Didn’t mean to jump the gun." Dawn blushed, ears going slightly red on the inside.

"Oh, she is just adorable!" Blast nearly squealed.

"No experimenting on her, Dr. Blast." Dusk reminded her, still keeping a nearly even tone throughout.

"Yes, yes. I know you'll pull my funding if I do that again without your approval." The mare waved a hoof.

"Wait, what?" Dawn squeaked, looking at them in surprise, both at the experimenting and the compliment. She wasn’t sure whether to feel worried or happy.

Nightfall quietly snorted, thinking, 'seriously? The airhead is the one who gets to have magic?'

Dr. Blast looked at him and looked him up and down.

"No experimenting on him either." Dusk warned.

"Yes, yes. I am just looking… and thinking."

"Yes, well, quit it. I know what your ‘thinking’ often leads to." Dusk warned again.

"Oh phooey. You are no fun." The mare said crossing her forelegs.

"I have fun in my own way.” Dusk countered. “Most people don't find what you find fun, fun."

"May I ask what they find fun?" Dawn asked.

Nightfall merely eyed the leader and the crazy doctor, wondering what kind of ‘thinking’ this creature would be doing and whether there were laws being broken.

"Oh… this and that and the one thing." Dr. Blast evaded, still smiling wide.

"With all due respect," Dawn said, "I consider that a complete non-answer."

"You wouldn't understand," Dusk said, "but her lab coat should give you some idea."

"Maybe." Dawn hummed.

"Maybe I could show you sometime?" Blast offered.

"Dr. Blast, we are still renovating from the last time you had fun."

Dawn blinked, "Did they do some kind of chemistry and discovered a volatile mix?"

"Something like that."

"It was a big boom!" Dr. Blast said happily

Dawn sighed. "Ah. As long as it can be recreated in a controlled environment for later use in clearing a landblock I guess."

"I have no idea. I was just tossing things together to see what happened." Dr Blast said with a grin. "Don't remember much of what I did and all my notes seem to have blown up along with the lab. Apparently, I was unconscious for a few days, but seeing the lab, I know it was a big boom!"

Dawn facehoofed before wincing, "Ok, that hurts more than I expected… Dr. Blast, I guess your name was quite apt."

"Yup!" She said cheerfully.

Dawn chuckled mildly, "Well, if you keep that recipe, perhaps it'll make tunnelling or land clearing easier."

"Not a clue." She said. "Only remember starting. Everything else got knocked out of my head after that."

"Right..." Dawn sighed, "all it takes is the right mixture in the air for fuel, oxygen to burn, and an ignition source and it can happen..."

"What can happen?" Blast asked, blinking but interested until Dusk cleared her throat.

"We can discuss that later." Dawn said, taking the throat clearing for a signal.

"Aww… okay." she pouted and looked at Night. "You’ve been quiet, Mr. Brooding."

"Not much to say." Nightfall answered.

"Oh, come on. I’m sure you have something to say."

"I don’t." Nightfall said.

"Not yet anyway." Dawn said with a small smile.

"I'd rather observe for a bit." Nightfall finally admitted.

"Oh, that can be fun." She said and reached into her lab coat and pulled out a scroll, inkwell, and quill and slid them across the table to him. "For note-taking, makes watching things sooooo much easier."

Nightfall looked at the pad and then shook his head, "I'll manage."

Blast left it there as a servant arrived to take orders on dinner, dressed the same as all the others.

Dawn realized what was happening and mildly panicked on the inside for not knowing what was normal to eat around here. She opted for staying quiet, and her body posture became stiff and small.

Dusk ordered a simple omelet while Dr. Blast ordered a salad. The servant looked at the other two at the table and Dawn decided to echo the omelet order while Nightfall asked for oatmeal with a little brown sugar. Dawn flinched briefly at the order.

"I trust the rooms were adequate?" Dusk asked the two guests as the servant left.

"Definitely. I miss some things from home, but the sudden move meant leaving them behind." Dawn nodded.

"It is fine. Thank you for providing them." Nightfall said.

Dusk nodded. "I'll have someone look for suitable alternatives tomorrow if you wish."

"No, thank you." Dawn declined, "Many were sentimental, and others wouldn’t run till we get some of what we talked about on the train up and running."

Dusk blinked at her, as did Dr. Blast, who also showed confusion.

Dawn shook her head, "Nevermind. Suffice to say it’s fine. I will do well without them."

"I… what?" Dr. Blast asked, staring at Dawn in open confusion. "You can’t live on the street! That would be improper and I know Dusk wouldn't throw you out of the castle if you didn’t have somewhere to go."

"No no, I'm sorry if I've confused." Dawn said, mildly panicking at her misunderstanding. "I’m glad for the room, and interpreted the question about me missing things to try and replace what I had. Replacing my belongings is impossible at the moment, so I can live without them. I very much do not want to live on the streets."

"I know we can’t replace your things, however, I told you before I’d be finding you both other lodgings if you wish it outside of the castle." Dusk said simply.

"Then I’m sorry I misunderstood." Dawn apologized, "No, the room in the castle is lovely."

Dusk, looked to Nightfall, who replied, "It’s good.”

Dusk nodded, mentally canceling the plan to have someone look for alternative lodging.

Dawn sat in embarrassed silence as she stared at the table nervously. Fortunately for her, food arrived a few minutes later on a cart and was placed before everyone with a bow from the servant before they left.

Dawn smiled at the meal and began to use her magic to move the utensils like she would with hands, wanting to continue practicing using the magic for anything she could.

Dusk watched out the corner of her eyes as she used magic to serve herself, Dr. Blast using her hooves.

Dawn cut her omelet, scooping it up and lifting it to her mouth, only to hit her snout with it. She gave a small squeak of surprise before readjusting and getting the food in. She tried to suppress her embarrassment so she wouldn't stand out, but the inside of her ears started to redden to a light pink.

Nightfall watched Dr. Blast and tried to imitate their use of hooves, quickly becoming surprised at how the utensil stayed in his hoof and defied what he expected.

Dusk’s ear swiveled around to the quiet squeak she heard and she glanced at Dawn as she ate. She saw Dawn using a telekinesis spell to move the fork, maneuver to her muzzle, only to take it too high and bump her snout and elicit another squeak before her inner ears became more noticeably pink.

Dusk continued to watch for a little longer, noticing Dawn managed to correct it further after the third bite and the meal went on with less interruptions.

Nightfall was the first to finish, Dawn and Dr. Blast finished at about the same time from sharing similar basic table manners. Dusk was continuing to eat at her slow methodical manner, and noticed Dawn sitting quietly at the table.

“Does anyone desire dessert?” Dusk offered, answering Dawn’s request for a cue on if she should depart or wait to be excused.

"No, thank you." Dawn said with a small bow of her head.

"I'm good." Nightfall answered.

"I do!" Dr. Blast said happily.

"The usual?" Dusk asked and the pegasus mare nodded

Dawn blinked, curious but not saying anything while having a tinge of regret for having said no.

Dusk nodded and clapped her hooves, summoning a servant. "Dr. Blast would like her usual dessert and I’d like a strawberry upside-down cake."

The servant bowed and departed, Dawn chuckling mildly.

"What is it?" Dusk asked

"I half expected something mildly explosive or carbonated for Dr Blast I guess." Dawn chuckled.

"Why would I want something explosive?" Dusk asked

"There were certain candies that would pop in your mouth because of the mixing of its kind of sugar and saliva." Dawn said, feeling sheepish.

"Pop rocks? Never a fan of them." Dusk said.

"Ah. I wasn’t either, but I wasn’t sure you had them here." Dawn said, her ears showing her blush once more.

Dusk just blinked at her. "If you wish to go since you are done, you two may depart. This is not a formal dinner."

"Ah. I wasn't sure, and with the presence of a doctor, I half wondered if it was partly to have me talk more on things." Dawn said as Nightfall nodded and departed.

"No, she just insisted on being here." Dusk said. "You two will meet in that capacity tomorrow if you don't mind."

"I understand." Dawn nodded, giving a brief bow before walking off toward her room, Nightfall already having almost exited.

Servants were there to guide them back as Dusk and Dr. Blast remained behind to have desert and discuss matters of unimportance, one might even mistake them for friends if one didn’t know Dusk.

Dawn relaxed in her room, falling asleep without anything better to do, sleeping in the following morning where Nightfall slept fitfully with a lot of frustrations.

At 9am the next day, the pair were visited by a knock on the door and a servant asking about breakfast. Dawn opted to join in the dining hall, while Nightfall chose to eat in his room, unable to sleep well the prior night.

Dawn took only a couple minutes to brush her mane and tail before joining the pegasus maid down to the dining hall. This time, Dusk sat with an orange-red pegasus mare in light armor and was talking with them as Dawn approached before she sat across from the pegasus.

"Morning." Dawn said politely.

The pegasus looked over to Dawn at this, then asked Dusk, "So that's newbie number one, where's the new Keeper?"

"Most likely in his room. I figure he should get some fighting lessons before he meets Gold Shield." Dusk answered, then looked at Dawn. "Dawn, this is Captain Fire Storm, Captain of the Twilight Guard."

"Nice to meet you." Dawn said with a small, timid smile.

"Likewise." She said, then turned to Dusk "I'll see what he can do down there later then."

Dusk nodded. "I honestly don't expect a lot. From what I understand, he didn’t use to be able to fly in his old world."

"Nothing for it but to see. For all we know he could make up for it in other ways." Storm countered, "I still remember what you taught me about underestimating an opponent."

"I believe your words were, ‘no way some pampered rich mare could ever beat me.’" Dusk quoted.

Dawn tilted her head, curious at the story.

"I mean, it was good enough you wanted me in your guard and work up from there, wasn’t it?" Storm smirked.

"Yes, not every day I don’t knock someone out at that level of strength… .you did act drunk though," She said.

"Yeah, concussion’ll do that." Storm said, subtly watching Dawn and thinking she really didn’t have any fighting experience based on their naive responses.

"Still, the fact you were still standing was what piqued my interest."

"Damn right." Storm grinned, "it paid off I'd say."

"Oh yeah. I got someone Storm Guard could feel comfortable leaving in command." Dusk commented, “As good as he was, he was far past retirement age."

"Poor guy. Taught me plenty though." Storm agreed.

"Yes he did. I still get letters from him asking how things are going and giving me updates on his time in Zebrica."

"Right, right. How’d that contest go?" Storm asked

Dawn simply watched and listened politely, intrigued by the discussion, only to get mildly surprised by a ghost-like pony walking into plain sight, standing next to Dusk with a grin.

"We kicked some major tail and got lots of reputation down there!" Starry said, smiling.

"Oh!" Dawn said in surprise, "you have an other-self too?"

Starlight Dusk started to form, curious at this development, and took a seat by Dawn despite not needing one.

Dusk and Starry blinked at the comment. Starry looked at Dusk, a hint of sadness in her voice and expression.

"Ah…” Starry said, “So you too, huh?"

"You too?" Starlight blinked, "What are you talking about?"

"You died didn’t you? And got somewhat fused with Dawn here?" Starry asked, confusion spread over her light green muzzle.

"Noooo…” Starlight said hesitantly before asking, “I’m guessing Celestia didn’t explain our situation?"

"Uhm, so what in Tartarus did happen if you didn’t die and merge with Dawn like Starry did with Dusk?" Storm asked.

Starry winced. As much as she didn’t regret being with her best friend forever, that still didn’t mean she was happy about dying or the implications of living the way she did now. It may be fact, but it was still a touchy subject once a year.

"To make a long story short," Dawn started to explain, "I was born male, kinda went through a period of self-discovery and somehow we split, despite not being two ponies or anything before that. You could say that he is the kind of person I was required to be before my transformation, and I am who I was meant to be or something... I don't fully get it either, it's what Celestia told me when we met, and I only have her answer at the moment."

"No,” Dusk corrected, “She hadn’t shared that, just that you couldn't go home. Mother has a habit of keeping secrets. … Odd… I’ve heard of this, but never seen it."

"Yeah, she called me an ‘otherself,’ so I guess that's what it is." Starlight shrugged. "I mean, we'd call me a Persona because of a set of games we played, but that's more an in-joke than a label."

Storm blinked and shrugged at the label, looking to Dusk for guidance, but even they just stared at the unusual pair.

"I see." Dusk commented neutrally.

"You hear, but don’t get it." Starlight shrugged, "it’s all right. It’s a niche bit of knowledge."

"No, I do. As I said, the phenomenon is no secret, just rare… Though I wonder why you’d split." Dusk countered. "Or create a persona rather than just be yourself like before."

"My best guess?" Dawn said, "is that I want to both be myself, like I seem to be now, yet don’t want to let go of the past and what is familiar… That issue has constantly torn me on the inside, so perhaps it manifested in a more literal tear until I come to an understanding."

"Hard to say." Starlight said, "It’s more guesswork for us than anything."

"That’s pretty much what the information in the records say. It’s rare, but it’s happened a few times, enough to be documented and studied somewhat." Dusk repeated.

"Well, more than we know." Starlight shrugged.

"So, any info on what this otherself stuff can do?" Storm asked.

"More or less what you’re looking at. It’s like… a shadow so to speak. A separate person that exists in the background, almost, but not quite. Not similar to dissociative identity disorder, but unlike that the other person is… well… another person… A full manifestation of an alter ego, and not just mental illness." Dusk said. "They semi-have their own magic, thoughts, feelings, memories, etcetera, and can somewhat exist without the other. Think of it as two minds in one body."

"Sounds about what we were told." Starlight said.

"So, that’s what Starry is for you then. Is there a difference beyond how you both came to be?" Storm asked, referring to Starry and Starlight.

"No, not like Starry. Starry is a soul bound to me through some… things we won’t talk about here." Dusk said, looking around with ears swiveling. "She was an entirely separate entity from me who became one with me. Dawn and Starlight at their core are the same entity, just like a tree struck by lightning is split, but the roots are still one. Me and Starry are like two separate trees that got tangled together."

"But what you both can do is the same it sounds like." Storm said.

"I mean, we wouldn’t know yet what we can do." Starlight said.

"Our separation was… kinda recent." Dawn said.

"Ah. Guess it’ll mean some research. So, what’s your name stallion?" Storm asked.

"For now? Starlight Dusk."

"For now, huh?" Storm asked.

Dusk remained silent, Starry doing similar and seemed to shrink herself to sit on Dusk’s shoulder comfortably.

Starlight shrugged.

"Well, whatever floats your boat, I guess." Storm shrugged.

Dawn waited, fully expecting to go over what she knew again at some point.

Storm waited, "So what'll we be having this morning?"

A servant took that as their cue and entered to take orders

Storm started their orders, starting out with a heavy muffin and berry breakfast to have energy for the day. Dawn took a moment to think, then decided on french toast, only to be surprised they knew what that meant. She didn’t react just in case that was still normal, even if for a different reason. Dusk ordered pancakes, and no sooner than the servant left than Storm spoke up again.

"So, what sorta stuff are you good for?" Storm asked.

"Most of my skills require tools that don't exist." Dawn shook her head. "I hope to learn magic and use it as a new skill that I didn't… couldn't… use before. Just have to find out what I can do."

"Don’t look like much for combat, I'll say that much." Storm said flatly.

"She’s not here to join the guard Storm." Dusk warned.

"We have use of strong defensive magic casters though." Storm said, "Let her decide that."

"I might consider it, but I suspect not." Dawn said with a shake of the head.

Dusk remained quiet. Storm was always on the lookout for new recruits for the Twilight Guard. Dusk suspected she had ideas on how this otherself could be useful in a way that no one else could duplicate.

"If I show any proficiency for what might be useful, let me know since I don’t know what you’re looking for. I still might not mind helping in other ways or might change my mind." Dawn offered neutrally.

"We'll see. I make no promises, looking for results. Talk big, but no results? You get worse than nowhere, you run yourself lower than dirt." Storm warned.

"A mare's word is huge, got it." Dawn nodded, understanding the warning.

The group waited for the food to arrive before Starlight volunteered a new subject, "Got any strategy games?"

"Chess is the most popular one, as is Conquest."

"Chess gets old after a while. What’s Conquest?" Starlight asked.

"You have a board with the current counties on it and you pick a nation and get pieces representing your armies, the point is to take over the world through carefully planned strategy and thinking both short and long term."

"Oh, so another name for Risk." He nodded. "Ok, any others, like Dungeons and Dragons or tactics games like Fire Emblem or whatever?"

"Starlight, they might not know those." Dawn frowned.

"Are you saying you want to go dungeon raiding in the Dragonlands?" Starry said with a dumbfounded expression. "That… is very much not recommended. Dragons are not known for being welcoming."

"They are more known for being rude and generally unpleasant." Dusk said

"Considering we came from an area that thought dragons were myths, no." Dawn said.

"Its meant to be a fantasy setting, with different races, classes and skillsets to go off on an adventure, whether to save a prince or princess, kick some evil villain's butt, or rule a kingdom depending on the scenario." Starlight explained. "And fire emblem is a turn based tactical game series set around specific campaigns and stories in its respective world's history."

"Oh! Ogres and Oubliettes." Starry answered.

"And not sure how you can get story out of a turn based game. It sounds like you’re talking about Conquest, only somehow fitting a story into it." Dusk said.

Starlight snorted. "I'll have to see if I can recreate it. You'll see when it’s in action. It’s nothing like risk. Individual units and stats are involved, like hero units.

"Now it sounds like you are talking about something that combines Ogres and Oubliettes with a board game… and just sounds needlessly complicated. I really can't see anyone wanting to play it with the level of rules, parchment, and other aspects. Plus the pieces sound like it would become expensive."

Starlight sighed in frustration and shrugged, sulking as they waited on food.

It arrived soon after. Dawn wasted little time digging into the meal, and began smiling at the food being cooked to excellence.

"Well, looks like somepony is easy to please." Storm commented.

"Yup, good food will take you far." Dawn agreed. "Especially when life is hell enough to keep you from having any at all sometimes.

Dusk looked at her, tilting her head at the comment as she ate.

"We might have endured some times where we were homeless already and had about a meal a week for three weeks a year or so ago." Dawn said quietly with a mild blush.

Storm gave a low whistle. "Ok, well you've got some guts then, ‘specially with how cheerful you’ve been."

"Why didn't the kingdom help?" Dusk asked.

"Had to have an address to get help… and mom.. " Dawn said, getting a faraway look briefly, hints of sadness still visible before Starlight took over the answer.

"She didn't want our mail going to her anymore… didn’t want much of anything to do with us after our split and I became her otherself and she became a mare." Starlight said bluntly, more anger showing in his expression, though still mild and kept in check. He knew it wasn’t exact truth, but they knew she was trying to hide the full details.

Dusk blinked at her. "I see." Was all she said then went back to eating

Storm hummed, keeping an eye on them as she ate.

"We will live, and it’s why we don’t care much about going back yet. Not much to go back to other than grandparents." Starlight said.

"Oh? Where'd you move from?" Storm asked.

"I… it’s hard to explain." Dawn said.

"Why?" Storm asked.

"We figured out we had a lot of miseducation growing up." Starlight explained with the truth, though not on that subject, then moving on to the lie, "We had a lot of city names wrong, no magic lessons outside of one figure I got to see while Dawn handled other things. We are trying to correct that, and Dusk and the rest of the crown are also helping, but it’s making relaying that kind of thing hard. Not exactly something you want just anyone knowing."

Dusk remained silent as she watched things play out, observing when they seemed to tell the truth and when they lied. They play a dangerous game already.

"I see, so your from some isolated and apparently extremist group from who knows where, most likely some anti-magic cult, and you and the other one escaped somehow and the Crown is overseeing your integration into society." Storm said watching Dawn.

"Close enough." Dawn nodded with a mild frown. "I will do what I can though. Only if we give up trying do we really lose anything."

"Mmm…” Storm hummed before shaking her head mildly, “Yeah, I'd avoid telling anyone that. I really doubt anyone would believe it. There’s not much reason the crown would take interest in educating some ex-cult members with how busy they get. Better to just leave out that part and avoid situations you need magic till you’re able to use it at a basic level."

"That’s the plan anyway." Starlight nodded.

"Could have fooled me since that was the story you came up with.” Storm smirked, calling them out, “Granted, I did put you on the spot, so for making it up on the fly, that was rather good."

Dawn and starlight blinked. They had no idea Storm was filled in, then Dawn hesitantly asked, "So… was that bad somehow?"

"As I said, there is no conceivable reason the Princesses would oversee some random ex-cult members reeducation and introduction into society." Storm explained. "That story would effectively make you the talk of the town and put a big spotlight on you both as people would wonder why the interest."

"Oh." Dawn frowned.

"Yeah, I couldn’t think of anything else in the moment that seemed more plausible." Starlight explained. “Best choice we had without knowing better was to adapt our actual history as close as possible.”

"That's fine.” Storm shrugged. “As I said, I put you on the spot so I could see how you reacted. It’s best you avoid talking about such things with anyone outside of your tutors till you know enough to seem educated, but most people do not recall all the details you learned."

"We will try." Starlight said.

"Better do better than try." Storm warned.

"We will avoid it as best we can. Only other way around it is to come up with a cover story together." Dawn offered.

"If our other knowledge pans out, perhaps that can be the excuse for why the crown is interested in our development?" Starlight offered.

"There really isn’t much reason." Dusk corrected. "Outside of you being rather high ranking nobles, there isn’t much reason for us to have an interest in you. So it is best that, till later on, our connection has to remain undisclosed till such time you can pass as a regular citizen and then we can use your knowledge as a reason for our proximity."

"Very well." Starlight nodded. "We can go that route. I’m guessing that’s why the guard got relocated? To keep an eye and ear on us so we don't slip up?"

"What do you mean, ‘relocated?’" Dusk asked. "They are stationed where they usually are."

"Stalwart Shield." Starlight said. "He came with for the trip to be stationed here."

"He is your guide." Dusk said. "I believe Mother explained this to you before we left."

"Hm." Starlight frowned.

"Star, you're overreacting." Dawn said, missing how Starlight rolled his eyes.

"Also, to avoid attention it would be a good idea if you did not manifest or speak in public Starlight." Dusk said simply.

"I figured as much." He frowned, but gave a shrug of acceptance. "It’s unfortunate, but it’s worse if I show."

"Yes, while we have records of ones such as you, it is not common and most people wouldn't be aware of it. The last recorded otherself was about four centuries ago."

"And once again, the press would be curious." Starlight nodded, gaining a nod in return.

"I suspect we won't be going out of the castle much, not without Stalwart or another to help out then." Dawn hummed thoughtfully.

"For now yes, least not till you know the basics of things."

"Well, hopefully we will avoid cabin fever then." Dawn said wryly.

"You have free rein of the castle and its grounds after 20:00. and before 08:00" Dusk said. "Between those times, you have to stay above the lower three levels."

"Oh. All right." Dawn said, subdued at the idea of being so constrained. She might turn into a night owl in that event. She hoped some would visit, like Stalwart, to break the monotony some too.

"Outside of the lower levels, you can go anywhere you’d like in the castle and its balconies unless a guard says otherwise, as those areas you aren’t allowed are guarded."

"All right." Dawn said, still feeling cowed at the idea of being confined, even though she knew she wasn’t.

Dusk nodded, still displaying minimal emotion, and returned to her meal.

Dawn finished the rest of her meal in peace, sitting still for a minute before asking, "So when will I see your researcher?"

"Within the hour if you do not mind."

"I don't. It'll help with the education you're trying to give me at least." Dawn said, getting up from the table. "I'm ready now then."

Dusk horn glowed and a servant appeared.

"Have you finished your meal Princess?" The servant asked.

"No. Please take Ms. Dawn here to see Dr. Blast."

"As you wish Princess." The servant said and looked at Dawn as Dusk returned to eating.

Dawn turned to follow, feeling some anxiety at not knowing what to expect, but trying to bury it as she walked.

6 - Dr Blast

The servant led Dawn through the castle and began to go down some stairs, cutting through the museum to more stairs that were guarded and down to the castle sublevels.

Dawn gulped internally, suspecting she was going into secure territory.

They went down several sub-levels before entering into a hall that lost all the creativity and artistic merit above in favor of spartan grey walls, and normal lanterns for light hanging from the ceiling.

Dawn walked on, her sense of direction royally ruined by this, even if it was poor already.

There were guards everywhere, as well as ponies going every which way dressed in lab coats. Every turn had signs pointing what was down each of the halls, yet the servant navigated easily through this labyrinth under the castle… or under the city for all Dawn knew.

Dawn followed, trying to quell her nerves until at last, they reached a door that looked like all the others with one exception. The door was covered in scorch marks and the floor, ceiling, and walls all had newer, rougher stone that had yet to dim from wear. A plaque hung on the door, reading, “Research & Development. Head Researcher: Dr. Blast.”

"Ah, this is where Blast works... how much further in?" Dawn asked.

"We are here. I don’t have clearance for any further." The servant answered, giving a bow and turning to leave.

"Ah. Thank you." Dawn said, then, for lack of anything better to do, she knocked on the door.

There was no answer. Dawn stood, unsure if she should knock again or wait. After waiting a minute, she knocked loudly. When there was still no answer, she hummed. She hated the idea of just barging in without permission, but even though Dusk sent her to Dr Blast, she didn’t know how big the area was, or if she should do something specific. She looked around, spotting a nearby patrolling guard and waved to them.

"Excuse me!" Dawn called, trying to avoid yelling.

The guard saw her and approached. "Yes, ma'am?"

"Dusk told me to report to Blast for discussing some things, but they don't seem to be answering. Is there something I'm supposed to do? I'd hate to just enter in the middle of an experiment or something and be reprimanded for it." Dawn said shyly.

"Answering?" The guard said and walked over to the door and opened it, walking inside the door without knocking and disappearing through it.

Dawn blinked, feeling stupid at the example being shown before following. "Oh… I’m supposed to just enter?"

The guard didn't seem to hear her, and inside was a small hallway with multiple doors, each labeled as a lab. Some of the labs had red lanterns hanging outside of them but most did not. The guard went to the first one that didn’t have a red lantern and entered it. The open door let loose the sound of muffled voices from the other side of it.

Dawn followed, waiting politely at the door, suspecting the lanterns indicated if they were busy or an experiment in progress.

The guard came back out as soon as Dawn reached the door to what was labeled as Lab 3, leading a small unicorn mare who bowed several times rapidly as the guard walked off.

"I'm so, so sorry!" The mare said in a quiet voice, sounding embarrassed and genuinely sorry. "I didn't see you at all when you entered!" She said, still bowing apologetically.

"It’s fine." Dawn waved off, trying to give her a smile and offered her hoof. "I’m Meadow Dawn."

"Yes, yes, Dr. Blast is expecting you. She’s in Lab 12." The mare said, seeming to ignore, or perhaps not notice, the hoof.

"Right, I met her yesterday. Should I just enter her lab or knock?" She asked, lowering her hoof nervously.

"As long as the red lantern isn’t up, meaning an experiment is in progress, why wouldn't you?" The mare asked confused

"Mostly cause I worry I would be being rude." Dawn said, then turned to head that way. "Thank you."

The mare blinked at Dawn, confused at the idea before watching her go for a moment, then gave a shrug as she returned to her own lab.

Dawn went to the lab labeled for lab 12 and checked the lantern. When there was none outside of it, she hummed and proceeded to enter the lab.

"Hello? Dr. Blast?"

Dr. Blast was in a room that was clearly renovated many times, as many objects showed varying degrees of wear and tear. The metal supports for different furniture didn’t always match, but it was clearly a functional laboratory with the different metal and wood cabinets filled with who knows what. The mare was at the chalkboard, writing out something but had looked over as soon as the door opened. She seemed to gasp and get a grin on her face as she recognized the entrant.

"Oh! Dawn, you made it!" She said excitedly, zipping over on her wings in surprising agility for the confined quarters.

"You bet." Dawn nodded, surprised at the move but trying not to let it show, "I understand we have a lot of things to go over about what I know?"

"In time!" Dr. Blast said, grabbing Dawn and practically zipped both of them to a side room filled with expensive equipment vaguely reminiscent of primitive computers, along with some medical equipment she could recognize. Dawn was firmly set down into the chair.

"Fascinating..." Dawn hummed before she had been sat down, looking at the contrast and getting swept up in the dissonance.

"Hmm?" Dr. Blast hummed as she strapped Dawn down.

"You have fairly advanced chemical equipment setups, yet the computer here is… I'm not even sure how to describe it." Dawn blinked, then began to realize what they were doing to her, and panic started to set in. "Wait! WHY ARE YOU STRAPPING ME DOWN?"

"So you don’t move of course." She said, placing a helmet with lights on Dawn’s head. "Now hold still, this stuff’s expensive."

"What are you doing though?" Dawn asked, getting very nervous that she was about to be experimented on in very unpleasant ways.

"Studying you."

"For what?" Dawn asked

"You’re from another world.” Dr. Blast said, as if that explained everything.

"Yes, but to test for things you need to know what you're looking for to eliminate variables!" Dawn protested, still nervous but not moving, trying to use reason to get the experiment to stop.

"Which I already know."

“…” Dawn stared Blast down and then gave up, resigning herself to being the doctor's plaything.

Dr. Blast went to the controller of some sort, beginning to flip the switch.

Dawn watched, trying to infer what things meant, but otherwise stayed put, hoping they weren't about to do anything that would hurt.

Dr.Blast came over with a small laser with an adjustable iris. "Look straight ahead."

She sighed and complied, looking straight ahead as she was asked.

The pegasus adjusted the iris so it was a thin beam, and shone it directly into Dawn's eyes, first the left, then the right. She watched them react, then moved to tap on Dawn’s knees with a small reflex hammer, including opening Dawn’s mouth to shove a lantern by her muzzle and looked down her throat.

“Huh… why is it that only now do I realize I don’t need glasses anymore… that’s kinda nice.”

"Hmm… Interesting." Dr. Blast said as she worked, examining Dawn.

"What are you finding out?" Dawn asked.

"If you are different from a pony or are a perfect recreation."

"Oh..." Dawn blinked, "And what's the verdict so far?"

"Don’t know. Still examining you." She said

"Ah." She said, hiding a sigh as they did what they felt they needed to.

Dr. Blst worked, examining everything about Dawn, but soon enough, Dawn was unstrapped and Blast’s attention turned to the machine’s printout. Dawn sighed in relief at being unstrapped and waited patiently.

"Whelp, congrats! You are a perfectly healthy unicorn mare, average in every way." She said, sounding disappointed.

"You sound as disappointed as I feel." Dawn smirked. Part of her hoped that she'd be mildly special because of all the stories of going to other worlds had something special about them or some major event going on.

"Interesting, and what about me?" Starlight smirked, starting to make their appearance to Dawn's side.

"I have absolutely no idea how to scan incorporeal entities." She said.

"Oh." Starlight said, quickly deflating.

"So what now?" Dawn asked.

“I’ll have to ask one of my researchers who are a unicorn." Blast finished.

"So, what about what we know about technology from home like electricity?" Dawn blinked. "I thought that's why I was here."

"Oh, you are." She said. "I just wanted to see… Well, anything really."

"Oh." Dawn blinked, "So what will we do now?

"Well, you talk and I record what you say." She said, getting out a large device with something like a record on it and a microphone and place it before Dawn.

"Ah, a phonograph… wow." Dawn said with a smile. "That's from about a century ago or so for us, I think. How detailed should I get?"

"A century? We’ve been using these for about three now." Dr. Blast said. "And the more detailed the better."

"Very well." Dawn said, asking for a subject. Once it was given, she gave everything she knew, including trying to both describe verbally as well as draw a diagram with Starlight's help on a nearby chalkboard.

The process took several hours as she relayed what she knew about electricity, alternating versus direct current, which led to atomic theory. After that subject was exhausted, she moved on to electric lights with tungsten filaments from not knowing how to help with LEDs beyond what it stood for. Then she turned to transportation, giving the basic idea behind how a motor works while repeatedly admitting she didn’t know enough to design one, then went into how jet engines roughly worked, allowing flight using planes. Once that was exhausted, she gave what she could of the knowledge of space flight, which boiled down to knowing the fuel and a little bit about the heat-absorbing materials that helped with reentry into the atmosphere as well as the pressures needed to keep everyone alive.

Throughout it all, Dr. Blast would ask questions when needing clarity or something explained another way. She admitted a lot of the time she didn’t understand what was being talked about, and occasionally had to ask Dawn to pause while the record was replaced with a blank one. She seemed somewhat fascinated by the concept of atomic power, which had led to many, many questions about what atomic meant.

Dawn explained during that time that atoms were the closest thing to the building blocks of things, and that all compounds and reactions relied on that level of interaction to be formulated from. She admitted she knew nothing of atomic or nuclear power other than it created extremely deadly byproducts, and weaponized turned into a very dangerous weapon to all involved for projected centuries.

This resulted in a flurry of questions on atoms, revealing to Dawn how little the world had to anything remotely close to such a concept. It fascinated Dr. Blast to a large extent, only mildly concerned at the idea of an atomic blast affecting miles of area with direct damage, not counting fallout afterward. Many questions kept being asked back and forth, and on more than one occasion, Dawn was genuinely surprised at how much she remembered and tried to explain in comparisons and metaphors for examples, just to help the concept be remotely graspable. The concept itself was so strange, yet so thorough even to this laypony’s understanding, that it went far beyond anything any author had written about even in fantasy.

Dawn did her best to relay everything she could in as much detail as she could. It easily took hours going over what she learned in schools and the barest of basics behind chemistry with this knowledge, including a rough outline of the periodic table's shape, where each general category was, and what made up their characteristics. Dr. Blast was relentless, having numerous thorough questions that tried to leave as little unexplored as possible. It was clear the doctor had a thorough appreciation for both science and the methods science used to find what was most likely true.

Dawn couldn’t help but appreciate the questions, thoroughly enjoying working with her and feeling as if a bond was being shared between them. They barely noticed time go by beyond getting sore occasionally from sitting in one position too long.

It was at that point Dr. Blast noticed the time. "Ah… perhaps we should take a break and return at a later date… It is past dinner."

"Wait, what!?" Dawn exclaimed, completely surprised, then heard her stomach grumble. "Oh..."

"Yes… I tend to get quite wrapped up in work, and more than a few times Dusk has had to come and get me." She chuckled as she put the recordings away, a stack of discs that were being carefully handled.

Dawn smiled, then timidly asked, "I know I confused you sometimes, but do you believe what I'm telling you about? At least that I was taught this stuff I mean?"

"Not one bit." She said in that same cheerful manner.

"Oh… maybe I should rephrase the question." Dawn said timidly. "Do you think I'm making any of this up?"

"Not a clue." She said, the same as before.

"Oh… Well, I must say I’m disappointed, but I understand." Dawn said quietly.

"I am a scientist. I can't just believe what people tell me without proof." She said simply. "If I did, then I’d believe what that crazy stallion on the street corner said about mole people who lived 5 feet under the city and are all named Moe."

"That’s fair." Dawn said, "The hard part I’m afraid of is the idea that what I learned no longer applies… again."

"Again? You’ve been to other worlds before?"

"No… I really was raised by the equivalent of a cult… led to believe a lot of total shit in the end." Dawn said quietly, hoping they didn’t mind the curse. "Left me entering the real world utterly confused till I relearned based on actual evidence, along with struggling with some major self-image issues and other things. I’m just hoping you can eventually test these things and find out… even if it just points a path forward, that'll be enough for me."

"Ah, yes… And I am not sure. Most of this stuff I've never even heard about, even in fantasy books."

"Well... we'll see eventually. I was told you were most interested in the electrical generation by hydropower. I know I tied it in with the bits I knew about atoms, but how soon could we test the bits I could remember for its generation or a lightbulb in a basic circuit?"

"I have a demonstration scheduled for next week. Dr. Zapper's plans look promising." She said. "We just need to show The Princess his working model."

"Ah. this is something you were planning on for a while then. How similar is what Dr. Polarize made to what I tried to describe what I remembered?" Dawn asked.

"Hmm… not sure… Not exactly my expertise as I know chemistry." She said. "But honestly, what details you gave were sort of vague as is, so I suppose close match? As I said we will know next week if what he has works or not."

"Yeah… Shame my limited knowledge of chemistry wasn't much to speak on, but I suppose it makes sense I can't help in every aspect… I'd be way too overpowered if this were a story or something." Dawn chuckled weakly

She chuckled. "Honestly? It’s sort of refreshing."

"Well, at least I can take away something positive then. Can I quote you on that when I need to feel better?" Dawn asked with a nervous smile.

"Quote me on what?"

"How my lack of knowledge in some spots was refreshing?" Dawn said, looking to the door and wondering when they'd head out, or if it'd be together.

"Oh, yes." she said, finishing putting everything away and began to walk toward the door.

Dawn followed her out, assuming they were both about to go get food. If nothing else, she didn't want to be lost and it was hard to be lost when following someone who knows their way around.

"So, I must say while I know the reason why, it is such an odd thing for a full-grown unicorn to not know things." Dr. Blast said as they walked the halls together.

Dawn nodded, growing quiet and a little sad at that news, "I'll try my best to correct that."

"No, no. It’s what’s refreshing about you."

"But… you also said it's an odd thing." Dawn blinked, like she was struggling to make the two descriptions coincide.

She sighed. "Right, new… I should explain huh?".

"I'd appreciate it. Sorry if it's a bother." Dawn apologized timidly.

"It’s no-"she sighed again. "First, what am I, pony wise?"

"Well, you have wings, so that'd make you a Pegasus, right?" Dawn blinked.

Blast nodded. "And do you know how many pegasi researchers there are in Equestria?"

"Not a clue."

"Three." Blast said with finality. "Myself, Dr. Breeze, and Dr. Vector, and we all three work here."

Dawn blinked, "So… There's racism or specism against non-unicorns then? Or are there that few non-unicorns who are interested in such research?"

"I don’t know." Blast admitted. "It’s just… there are expectations for us. Unicorns are smart and magical, Pegasi control the weather and are athletic. Earth Ponies farm, build things, make things, or do other menial tasks. I was a low-level weather pony because all my life I was supposed to do that. I worked out to stay in shape - still do, mind you - as it just… it’s odd not to do it since I did it all my life, even though I don't need to. Was sent to flight camp where I learned all about flying, weather manipulation, and so on. Everyone around me was taught how to either work in the weather factory or weather teams, outside of those who wanted to join the Guard… I went through classes as an average student."

"Hm..." Dawn thought out loud, "I guess that’s one advantage we had back where I came from. With no differences beyond skin tone, we had less physical stereotypes to that extreme, though there were still others that had to be shaken up, sometimes hard… I take it, in the end, you found out what you wanted to do and decided to go for it?"

"Nope." Blast replied, almost giving an empty laugh. "I was bored out of my mind, but had no opportunity for anything else. I was set to be a weather pony and that was what I was for a few years. Just… going through what I was supposed to be, bored out of my mind, but I didn’t know anything else.

“I sort of came here on vacation and went through one of the museums. There was a section on chemistry, and it just… made so much sense! It was fascinating! I was actually interested in something! I started reading through textbooks on the subject, bought some foal chemistry sets by mail as I couldn't get anything higher grade and just… lost hours of the day… but there wasn't much I could do. I tried to apply to a college for chemistry and the admissions office thought it was a prank.”

Blast paused, letting out a sigh as she finished her story. “After the sixth time that happened, a rejection letter making it clear they didn't appreciate their time being wasted on jokes, I gave up and was just a weather pony… Still read every shred of info I could on the subject and played with my chemistry sets when not working."

"Wow… I don't know how that would feel." Dawn said, reaching out empathetically to them and raising a hoof to pat their shoulder supportively. It was such a foreign concept, and yet it echoed certain problems her home had in its past.

"It is what it is.” Blast shrugged. “One day, there was a chemical fire in the town, and I stopped the fire brigade from dousing it with water. That would have made it far worse. I was forced to cut their hoses, they weren't listening to me, and was able to find what I needed on the truck after breaking a few locks on storage compartment and made what was needed to contain the fire. Granted, they didn’t have what was needed to put it out, just keep it from spreading till it ran out of fuel.

“Got myself arrested for destroying city property, but somehow, the Princess heard about it and you could not imagine my reaction when I got a visitor. Turned out to be Princess Dusk in the flesh who spent 3 hours interrogating me about chemistry before she just up and left… Next thing I knew, I got a letter from a school I never applied to offering me a full scholarship to attend in any field I desired, all expenses paid, and after I graduated I got offered a job in a lab. Eventually made my way here as the head of the R&D department where I found other non-unicorn doctors.

“It was very strange, seeing earth ponies and other pegasi in different scientific fields, but it seems common in Luminousia compared to the rest of Equestria." Blast chuckled.

"Ah." Dawn said, removing her hoof from their shoulder. "I'm glad you did what you did... based on what you told me, I have a lot to learn and it seems like I have a decent model to go off of already."

"Yes, there is a reason this is ‘The City of Progress.’ It’s not just meaning scientists, but in everything. You'll find pegasi doing jobs here that have nothing to do with the weather. You'll find unicorns working to coordinate the weather and Earth Ponies doing other tasks."

"Good. Maybe we can get non-pegasi into flight too, if all the stuff I learned works out anyway." Dawn said. "The biggest concern I'd have is the effect the pollution would have, but still."

"Pollution?" Blast asked, tone reflecting that they never heard the word.

"Byproducts of burning fuels that have negative effects on those nearby as well as the atmosphere." Dawn explained. "Remind me to cover it more when we continue... we are continuing eventually right?"

"Yes, of course.' Blast said, as if the answer was obvious while walking through the now-closed museum.

"Good. Now that leaves me wondering when my re-education will be starting and be balanced out by what I’m trying to cover together with you."

"I… don't know." Blast admitted, blinking as they walked and their hooves echoed in the massive empty halls.

"That's fine." Dawn said, not particularly worried by a researcher not knowing what would happen to her as a newcomer.

Dr. Blast walked on with Dawn in tow, not sure what else to talk about. Dawn was lost in thought, wondering how Nightfall's keeper testing might have gone if he went to it today. Her stomach growled loudly and she blushed, then another need made itself known. "Dr. Blast, on the way, can we stop by a restroom?"

"Restroom? Ah! Yes, I suppose we should have gone before we left." She said, turning from the path to the stairs and walked down the dark and empty museum.

"Assuming we both mean the same thing anyway." Dawn said with a blush. "Adjusting to four legs for that was… different."

"Oh, I imagine." Blast said as they reached a set of restrooms with the male and female symbols on the door. "Here we are."

Dawn habitually headed for the male side, only to hear Dr Blast clearing her throat.

Dawn blinked, oblivious, "what?"

"Ms. Dawn, that is the wrong bathroom."

"Huh? But… Oh, right… Sorry, still getting used to being a girl now." Dawn said with a blush and correcting where she was about to enter.

Dr. Blast entered as well to use the facilities before dinner. Once the pair had taken care of their needs, they washed their hooves and left to go back to the stairs, climbing them amidst protesting empty stomachs.

After a short walk, Dawn smiled as they reached the dining room, sitting together at the empty table.

"Looks like we missed everyone else." Blast said as she sat next to Dawn.

"Sadly." Dawn answered. "So what kinds of foods do ponies eat? I’ve been making due when I eat with Dusk, but there’s only so much guesswork before I flop and ask for something unusual."

"Um… We generally have a vegetarian diet, though honestly I think we can eat other food, we just sort of don’t." Blast answered, not expecting that question.

"Ah... hm." Dawn thought out loud, "What kind of food is usually served for dinner?"

"Um… Whatever you want?" Blast blinked. “That’s what the chefs here are for.”

“Oh! I think I know what I’ll ask for then, but… if I’m out in Luminosia, what kinds of food gets sold at restaurants and things so I know what stuff others eat?” Dawn asked

“I mean, I’ve just had whatever I want,” Blast shrugged. “Food is food, so I never really looked. Back when I was on the weather teams, there was all kinds of stuff my coworkers had; cookies, daisy sandwiches, hayburgers, hayshakes… usually the sandwiches to keep from spending too much.”

“Well… hm.” Dawn paused. She was thinking of trying to get pizza, but now she was curious how in the world this world could use hay for burgers. “I think I’ll give the hayburger a try. Sounds strange to me, but we don’t have to get into it.”

“Oh? Why’s that?” Blast asked, pulling out parchment as a servant came forward to take their orders, ready to document more of yet another insight into strange ideas.

Nightfall growled at his predicament in his private testing. Earlier, they handled the physical aptitude tests much like the old police department had, a couple miles of obstacle course to test his ability and willingness to handle said obstacles to get the ‘bad guy’ in a chase. He managed to do just barely good enough for what they wanted, 2 miles in 18 minutes, and that was with him fumbling every now and then from not being used to having four legs!

Now, of course, they wanted to test how well he could defend himself, and after forty bouts with Lieutenant Black Mane, he had just about had enough! It didn’t help Captain Storm was here as well these last few bouts, probably judging him too. He wasn’t a damn pony, he was a human, and a damn capable one at that!

He went down again, the thought ringing even as an encouragement to quit came from the Lieutenant of the keepers.

“Come on recruit, doing the same thing over and over doesn’t change anything… but I’ll give you props for trying to throw me off even if it didn’t work. Stay down. Only Earth Ponies last more than thirty rounds with me. You’ve proven you’re enduring if nothing else.” He tried to compliment.

‘Not a pony… I’m a human!’ He thought as he shook his head and repeated again how he won’t give up until he proved he could do it.

Suddenly, an epiphany struck. He couldn’t fight like a pony, so why keep trying to?

Nightfall began to stand, feeling his balance try to shift him back forward. It was maddening in a way, ‘If only I could stay upright! … wait, I’ve been having these flying lessons for a couple of hours with Breezy. I might not be able to control flight much, but what if they helped balance?’

He pushed himself upright again, the Lieutenant and Captain both eying him with a mix of interest and confusion. It took him a couple of tries before he stood on two legs, wings lightly flapping until he gained just the right balance he looked for.

‘There we go… I can do this.’ He said, adopting a ready stance.

“Son… you ok?” Black mane asked, eying him and trying to ignore the strangeness of what he saw. “Did I buck your head too hard last round?”

“I’m ready. One last go.” Nightfall said, calming his mind with a breathing routine, arms going to a familiar pose before looking at his opponent one more time.

Black mane looked to Storm, who shrugged and gave him a nod. “All right. Last one.”

“It’ll be all I’ll need.” Nightfall said, hardly any emotion attached.

Black mane waited to see what move he would give, then when none came after ten seconds, he moved closer, calmly, as if on a walk. Once he was only two paces away, he sighed, then maneuvered toward Nightfall, aiming to throw a feint at his side.

Nightfall dodged the feint, noticing it was positioned wrong for a hit after all these matches, and used one ‘arm’ to prepare a block on the feint while he prepared the other for the block to the real blow.

Black mane was mildly surprised, but then moved his leg up to hit at his wing. The foal wanted to play at a new fighting style? He’s going to learn the hard way how-

Black mane staggered as a kick hit the back of his head and Nightfall had maneuvered to his side, wobbling slightly, but still as capable at fighting as when they staggered.

“Point to Nightfall.” Storm said with a very slight smirk. “Forty points Black Mane, one point Night. You proved your point with whatever in Tartarus you want to call that stunt… now get your flank over so we can get some food and talk.”

Nightfall chuckled weakly, “It’s all I was looking for… just had to… change how I thought a ‘lil.”

“Well, you got me.” Black mane agreed. “I’d say once you’re ready to train at the academy you’d do just fine, but we’ll worry about that when you’re ready. I’ll give him my approval Storm.”

“Thanks Black Mane.” Storm said, watching him go before turning to Night. “So… done being a bucking bag?”

“Yeah…” Nightfall groaned. “I think I’ll have some bruising, but it comes with the territory.”

“So what was that you tried to pull at the end there?”

“Just some stuff I put together from a bunch of martial arts… no real name to it yet.” He said, “Kinda my own in that way.”

“I mean, it looks different, slightly menacing if you don’t know what you’re doing, but you look like a damn fool to us.” Storm said callously.

“Oh really? Do I need to spar with you to show you different?” He asked wearily.

“Not today, but could be fun. Gonna have to keep those wings closed though.”

“Huh? Why? They helped me balance.”

“Cause they’re giant weak points of a freaking pegasus in combat, and you’re making them even bigger!” She rolled her eyes. “We might have some durability falling from heights or while flying, but those bones are still hollow and break real easy in a fight.”

“Ah…” He frowned, not realizing that detail. He sighed, deflated. “All right. Some other time.”

“Well duh, you’re exhausted from today. You fought as long as an earth pony, I’ll give you credit there.” Storm smirked. “Tell ya what, you do me a favor and teach me more about that style of yours, and I’ll see about teaching you a thing or two later, once you’ve got more of your basics down.”

“I… sure, I guess?” He said, surprised.

“Cool.” Storm said, smiling as she guided him back to the castle grounds.

Author's Note

Hope you all have been enjoying the story so far. Progress is likely to slow down at this point due to a recent job promotion (customer service to WFM Analyst, yay!). I will still do what I can to ensure reasonably timely releases.

7 - Walking through the Past

Dawn really wished she were upright and had her hands. It was very difficult to walk and rub her massive headache from all the aptitude and knowledge testing at the same time. Thankfully a guard pointed her the way to the dinner table and she was ready to make an order for food. If the cooks made it, she knew exactly what she wanted…

When she entered the dining hall she heard a 'scrrt scrrt scrrt' noise in the quiet room. She noticed it was coming from Dr. Blast, who was writing on a scroll at the table, a partially eaten plate of food beside her as she worked.

Dawn briefly flicked an ear at the scribbling on parchment, but walked toward Blast, ready to join them. "Hey doctor, how goes? Able to test anything I mentioned yet?"

Dr. Blast gave a start, looking up to her before answering, "Not good and no not yet." She said.

"Sorry to hear you're not doing well, anything I might be able to help with?" Dawn asked, taking a seat near them while out of the way of their work

"Not unless you can convince Dusk to give me the new key to the lab, she changed the locks on me again."

"Oh? What made her do that?" Dawn asked, giving a small wave to one of the serving staff to indicate she was ready to request food.

"She does this when she thinks I've been spending too much time in the lab and need to go be anywhere else." Dr. Blast said frowning. "It's super annoying and interrupts all my work."

The servant came to take the order as Blast spoke.

"I'd like to have some broccoli cheddar soup if I may, oh, with some sourdough bread too. Is that possible?" Dawn instructs the server, then answered Blast, "I can imagine... What are you working on?"

"Trying that liquid fuel idea you mentioned before." Dr. Blast said as the servant departed.

"I know that involves some fairly heavy machinery and more advanced versions of the air conditioning concept I talked about... maybe we can work on the requisites first?" Dawn offered.

"Maybe, but right now I can't do anything locked out of my lab… I mean honestly who changes the locks to their own R&D wing every couple of weeks then doesn't give the key to the head of the department?"

"I'd have to ask Dusk, but honestly, they probably have a good reason." Dawn answered. "Maybe they're worried about you?"

"What?" She said looking at Dawn with signs of bags under her eyes. "Not sure what she'd be worried about, I'm not a security risk, she knows that. At most an insurance risk."

"Uhm... Blast? have you slept?" Dawn asked. " Your eyes look like you haven't since we last talked."

"Hmm? Yes of course I slept." She said waving a hoof. "I slept...." she started muttering to herself. "23 hours 32 minutes and 12 seconds ago for...4 hours? Yeah, 4 hours."

"Blast, you're gonna need sleep to get any of the formulas right. That stuff is volatile!" Dawn exclaimed.

"Ponies waste, on average, 30 years of their life sleeping. I want to actually use that time more productively. It’s perfectly fine! I have coffee."

"And prolonged exposure to the effects of coffee will shorten your life anyway. It increases your heart rate in a way that, at least for where I'm from, it'll damage you long term while having diminishing effects." Dawn said with worry. "And is it a waste if the time awake is more productive and less prone to needing re-review or retreading existing work if an error isn't caught?”

“What’s this about issues with coffee?” Dr. Blast blinked, “That’s what the coffee is for, so I’m not tired and can focus."

Dawn sighed and shook her head, "It's the caffeine in the coffee... Still, I'll worry about that argument later. Maybe the longer-term health effects hadn't been studied yet or aren’t true here or something."

Dr. Blast looked at Dawn intrigued as she took a bit of her cold food.

"I take it I said something else that hasn't been tested here?" Dawn asked, wondering if they were about to write that detail for study as well.

"Quite,” Blast said as she wrote on her scroll, “I mean, coffee has been a thing for a long while, but I don’t recall anyone testing it outside of ‘does this kill me if I drink it?’"

"Well, the harder part then is whether or not addictions have been explored here either, as that's chemically based." Dawn suggested, suspecting it would get their attention, "Basically certain compounds trigger reactions in our brains and after a while, the brain gets used to having the intake of that chemical and doesn't function as well without it until it re-habilitates itself to not need the chemical. Thankfully coffee, to the best of my knowledge, isn't quite as bad as other chemicals, but it's still able to behave similarly."

"Addiction?" She said perking up

"Yeah..." Dawn said, mildly surprised her idea worked.

"Fascinating …"

"What?" Dawn asked

"This concept of ‘addiction.’”

Now it was Dawn's turn to freeze, taking a moment to process how they didn’t know about addictions. She stared openly for several seconds before taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly.

"What is it?" Dr. Blast asked looking at her.

"I… I couldn't fathom how that wasn't something already known. Forgive me if I offend." Dawn said with a tilt of her head while looking away, as if still processing what she learned.

"I mean,” Dr. Blast hesitated, “not sure what to tell you?”

"It's fine… just another thing we need to find out if it's a thing here or not." Dawn said, trying to be patient as she heard her stomach rumble.

Almost as if on cue, her food was placed before her.

"Thank you." She told the servant.

"I suppose so." Dr. Blast said. "So how are things?"

"Headache inducing." Dawn groaned. "Its been a long time since I had to remember trigonometry, the quadratic equations, or use geometry. I’m positive I got nothing magical right, and have to be taught 'quillmareship' which I can only surmise is ‘penmanship,’ just with quills instead of an actual pen." Dawn sighed before beginning to eat.

"Ah, yes. From what I understand, magic requires a lot of advanced math." Dr. Blast nodded. "All my unicorn researchers are very skilled in the subject."

Dawn gave a small look that suggested 'I guess I should be glad for something, but I don’t feel it matches' and then said, "at least it was my best subject growing up ... I'm genuinely expecting this to be a nightmare and hoping I'm wrong. Growing up with magic gives an inherent learning advantage."

"I suppose so… like, flight is a super easy subject for me. Sure, I understand the magic behind it and how it all works, but I also grew up being taught it all and can feel how it all works. I can’t imagine what it would be like to learn it without that."

Dawn nodded, "Or if, say, somehow you just got your wings now. Sure, instinct could help if you have any, and in my case, I’ve played a few flight sims, but it’s not the same of course."

She nodded, then paused to ask, "What's a flight sim?"

"Remind me to talk to you about video games… or videos and televisions… and the cathode ray tube…" Dawn frowned and tried to facepalm, only to wince as she felt a hoof so hard it briefly left a mark. "Ow..."

"What are those?” Dr. Blast began to ask, then looked closer, “Are you okay?"

"Yeah… went to facepalm but instead of having a softer muscly appendage, I forgot I had a hoof and it hurts more than when I used to do that. Anyway, I’ll explain the other things when I’m not dealing with a headache made worse by my own stupidity." Dawn said before eating more of her soup.

"That’s odd… facehooves don’t usually hurt."

"But I’m also used to doing it with an appendage that isn’t as hard." Dawn countered.

"Yeah, I mean,” Dr. Blast paused before taking a breath and answering, “We biologically are designed to take that sort of hit. Same with mane and tail pulling, it doesn’t hurt us as we are made to take it. So it’s odd that such a simple action hurt."

Dawn blinked, "Wait, really? Tail pulling and mane pulling doesn’t hurt?!"

"No, like… literally, that’s how a lot of parents pick up their foals or stop them from running around if they have trouble. Like, horses, that would hurt a lot, but us Ponies feel pressure, and that’s it."

"Huh. Neat…" Dawn hummed, eating more soup as she digested the news.

Dr. Blast took a bite of her food and went back to writing

"So Blast, what do you do when you’re not working?" Dawn asked after a few spoonfuls.

"This." She said without looking up.

"Reviewing notes? Hypothesizing?' Dawn guessed.

She nodded.

Dawn chuckled. "I’m beginning to see why the locks were changed."

"What do you mean?"

"Just an hypothesis Dr. Blast." Dawn said, promptly moving to eat the rest of her meal.

Blast blinked and took a bite of her cold food

Dawn sighed and began to eat, mumbling, "One of the rare times I’d go for an ibuprofen…"

"A what?" Dr. Blast asked.

"Headache medicine. Helps the blood vessels dilate safely, relieving the pressure and throbbing since the headache is from tension and constriction of those." Dawn sighed.

"Oh, would you like me to get some?"

"That’d be appreciated." Dawn nodded, continuing to eat.

Dr. Blast got up and left the room leaving her half-eaten meal and notes behind. Dawn finished her soup with a sigh while Blast was gone and she soon returned with a pink vial.

"Here we go, anti-migraine potion." She said, hoofing it to Dawn.

Dawn nodded, humming. "Liquid so it’s absorbed into the bloodstream sooner then?"

"Um, no? It’s liquid because alchemic potions are liquid." Dr. Blast said.

"Curious. So your medicine hasn’t gotten to a gel pill or powder-based pill level yet." Dawn hummed.

"No we have pills too....not sure why powder would be a thing, but the headache medicine is Zebrecian alchemy so is a liquid." She said. "Mind the taste."

"Hm. Is alchemy different from chemistry?" Dawn asked, trying to drink the potion, only to make faces as she tried to ignore the taste.

"Yes, it’s the zebrican form of magic." She said. "Not fully sure what they do or how they do it. The alchemists and shamans are very protective of their secrets."

"Curious. I'm used to alchemy being the thing that led to chemistry. People kept trying to find ways to turn things into gold since it was useful for currency."

"Yeah, that’s not possible, at best you can make something gold colored like bits, but far from gold." Dr. Blast agreed. "Chemistry was created as an attempt to copy Zebrecian alchemy. Didn’t succeed, but hey, we’ve done a lot."

Dawn nodded. "Assuming what I was taught before I came here still applies, understanding atomic makeups will help with making compounds to help in a variety of things, just have to be careful with the whole nuclear radiation and sickness and stuff." Dawn frowned, feeling the headache throb particularly strong.

"Not a clue what half of that means." Dr. Blast said cheerfully, but wrote notes on what was just mentioned.

Dawn groaned, "I feel so overqualified in some ways, despite not remembering most of my education, yet so underqualified for anything that’d actually help me survive here."

"Yup!" Dr. Blast agreed readily.

"Ouch… didn’t have to agree so soon." Dawn winced playfully. "Oh, right… I should put together a resume for working, qualifications and… stuff…" Dawn hesitated as she realized most of her skills for technology were rendered incompatible, and now frowned at how little carried over.

"What is it?"

"Most of my skills require technology that hasn’t been invented yet. At best i can do customer service, but I don’t even know if telephony tech has been invented yet." Dawn frowned.

"Telephony?"

"Yeah, telephones." Dawn said.

"Facinating…" Dr. Blast commented, scribbling in her notes.

"Let me guess, we need to go over some of the concepts behind that tech too?" Dawn asked with a sad sigh, slumping her head onto the table at a clear spot to express her fatigue.

"When you are better…” Dr. Blast consoled, “and I’m sure you got other skills.”

"I genuinely doubt it. I only did entry-level work and hobbies focused on the computer stuff we recorded before."

"We have lots of entry-level jobs."

"Yeah… we'll see." Dawn shrugged. When all she got was a nod back, she let out a small sigh and said, "Well, I suppose I’d better find out what things I can do. Could go out into town to check out options since Dusk got a bit of allowance money to me… Want to come with?"

"Hmm… I probably should so you don’t have any issues." Dr. Blast said getting up. "Just give me a moment to go put my things away.

"Thank you." Dawn blushed. "I don't want to rely on Stalwart for everything, you know?"

"Its fine, Dusk is always telling me I need to get out of the castle." Dr. Blast said as she swiftly left the room.

Dawn blinked, but shrugged and waited where she was.

“Oh hey Dawn,” Stalwart said as his head poked around and spotted her, the rest of him following suit. “How’s it going?”

“I’ve been better, but not too bad.”

“Settling in?”

“Kinda. I usually take a couple weeks to figure out what’s ‘normal’ before answering that kind of question.” She said with a half-smile. “About to head out and get an idea of what kinds of jobs are out there.”

“Oh cool, need me to come with?”

“Oh! No, that’s all right.” Dawn said, raising a hoof and shaking her head as she ignored a small blush in her eartip, “Dr. Blast is coming with me since we can’t get much work done right now.”

“All right,” He chuckled, noting the ears’ more energetic movement before meeting her eyes again, “Well, if you do run into trouble, I’m still here.”

“Thanks Stalwart, I appreciate it.” Dawn said, “Maybe afterward we can go see what fun there is to be had in town?”

“Sounds good.” He smiled, heading out of the room.

‘Not gonna bat your eyelashes at him as he goes?’ Starlight asked Dawn, sounding like he was on her left.

“What? No!” Dawn said, seeing his faint outline and stepping back from it, “Don’t be silly!”

Dawn’s blush returned in full force as she could faintly hear Stalwart chuckling in the hallway.

“Fine, fine, had to say it while I could.” He chuckled, “I’ll keep being in the background I guess.”

“Good,” Dawn said, trying to calm herself with a few deep breaths.

Dr. Blast shortly returned, now without her lab coat. She showed herself as just a red pegasus with a black mane and a water molecule for a mark.

"Shall we go?" Blast asked.

Dawn nodded, making sure her saddlebag that she was given still held her coins, then walked after Dr. Blast.

Dr. Blast headed for the castle gate, asking along the way, "So, got any ideas on things you want to see?"

"Not sure. Maybe a bookstore, a hobby shop, any stuff that might look entertaining."

She nodded as she walked, looking every bit like a sleep-deprived pegasus who had a surprisingly athletic build for a mare who worked in a lab all the time.

Dawn stayed quiet, walking along and observing Blast with mild concern at her fatigue. Despite her concerns, Blast seemed otherwise normal and was humming as they walked along. It wasn’t until they were out of the castle that Dawn began to look around at the town, now being in the main square by its statue outside the castle gates.

"Hmm… now let’s see if I can think about where the jobs are hiding." Dr. Blast said, scratching her chin as she stopped in front of the statue.

Dawn nodded, staying quiet to avoid interrupting their train of thought

"Whelp, I have no clue!" She finally declared. "So we shall do the oldest of scientific methods to find them."

"Hitting the pavement by just exploring and finding out huh?" Dawn asked.

"We call it ‘stumbling blindly around till we smack into something that works,’ but same principle I suppose." She said looking at Dawn. "How did you know such an ancient scientific method?"

"Because that’s how my parents insisted I search when I was old enough to do so, despite most companies switching from in-person applications to other methods." Dawn said, not looking forward to all of the walking.

"How can you take an application any other way?" Dr. Blast asked, intrigued as they walked into the town.

"Make a note of that to talk back at the castle. I'll tell ya there." Dawn answered, knowing she was in a public place and trying to be mindful.

"I should, in theory, remember." She said as they walked. "So, what type of job are we going for?"

"Great question. I wish I knew." Dawn answered, trying not to feel like she was repeating herself. "I've generally been better at brainpower-centric jobs instead of physical ones… I'm embarrassingly out of shape unless my coming over here somehow changed that."

"Hmm, sooo… reception or help-desk type of thing?"

"Very possibly." Dawn nodded.

"So we can check out the museums then. Any particular subject you’d like to go over? We can use this as an educational type of thing."

"I don't know what subject's history to even begin with… I've been horrible with historical events to boot. Doesn't help I was deliberately mistaught growing up." Dawn blushed. "Maybe we can go in and see what I can learn or am comfortable performing and go from there?"

"That… doesn’t help.” Dr. Blast said, blinking at her idea, “There are dozens of museums in this city dedicated to just about everything. It would take at least a week to visit them all, and that’s if you only spent a short time on one, then moved straight to the next one."

"Ouch... " Dawn winced, then resigned herself to repeating her abilities yet again. "Well, generally speaking, I have experience in technology, but as we talked about, a lot of what I know or learned is stuff we don't have… Any idea on things that involve troubleshooting to make things work or… Hm, most repair or troubleshooting would just have me be the repair pony wouldn't it?" Dawn asked as she realized a possible flaw in her idea.

"Well, yeah… If something doesn’t work, you take it to a repair pony, the blacksmith, or replace it if you don't repair it yourself." She answered, thinking. "Hmm… Museum of technology sounds like a place to start."

"Sounds like it… make sure you have your notepad and ink ready. I suspect I'm going to be mentioning more things I've forgotten about or not thought of that we could try to make eventually." Dawn warned.

"I… don’t have it on me.” Dr. Blast answered, “It’s in my lab coat."

"Sooo we need to drop by a quill and ink store then." Dawn smiled.

"I don’t really have any way to carry it." Blast said simply.

Dawn nodded and shrugged. She had made her offers, and now waited for them to lead the way.

"Anyways come on." Dr. Blast said, starting to head into the town.

Dawn followed, the pair walking for a while until they came to a large building. Wide stairs led up to the oversized doors with huge pillars along the front. Over the pillars were the large letters spelling, “National Museum of Technology.”

Dawn observed the title, understanding it was big to get attention and be legible, and then focused more on the items that might have been on display both on the grounds and preparing for the ones inside.

A scaled old steam engine, one-quarter scale sat in view, showing an engine with a cabin barely big enough for an engineer and a small boiler ahead of him. The plaque had a message that was still easily read,

In 1278, blacksmith Iron Hoof was working in his forge late into the night. To remain awake, he had placed a kettle of tea over the forge flame. Becoming distracted by his work, the tea reached boiling, but debris from the forge had clogged the kettle. It built up steam until it exploded with a ‘bang,’ debris lodging itself into the wood. Iron Hoof began experimenting with steam, and in 1280 he unveiled his prototype ‘steam engine’ to his village. The engine only moved 5 feet, but it did so under its own power, beginning a slew of research into the power of steam.

Unfortunately, Iron Hoof never got to see the results of his invention. A few months later, on the eve of 1281, the town woke from a massive explosion from Iron Hoof’s home. The inventor of the steam engine had also discovered the dangers of boilers and the instability of original designs.

Before you is a replica of the original prototype, constructed from eye-witness descriptions and the remains of Iron Hoof's blueprints that survived the fire.

Dawn hummed, curious, but starting to see bits of the design, "Interesting… definitely needed some safety mechanisms though, but I can see the methodology from this."

"Yeah, the original designs were screaming metal death traps, and that was if they didn’t break down. Half the time, they did." Dr. Blast said beside her.

"Yeah… Not sure if I'd enjoy working on one at the moment till I had more control and coordination, but I guess I could learn how to do that, depending." Dawn hummed, seeing each display as a job option she might not have thought of.

"Well, this is just the first expit-… thing… display? Bah who cares." She waved and hoof and started to climb the stairs.

"Yeah, point is I'm spotting ideas for what jobs I think I could try. I know that things will have improved n all since then."

Blast nodded as she climbed the stairs with Dawn following.

Soon, they entered a large entry area with a huge hot-air-balloon suspended from the ceiling.

Dawn chuckled at the hot air balloon and read the inscription before nodding, "Definitely can't do anything like that. terrified of heights, despite my mentioning what I was used to for longer distance travel." Dawn said, hinting at the planes she had somewhat explained before.

"Yeah, these are mostly for fun though." She said. "The airships are the main travel option if you don’t want to go by train." Dr. Blast said as she headed for the desk

"Remind me to drop by those to see where things are now so I can figure out what knowledge might carry over." Dawn nodded and walked with.

She nodded as she signed them in. "Let’s go, on to a wonderful world through technology!" Dr. Blast said, heading deeper in.

Dawn laughed, following them along, "What, am I four and didn't realize it? ... Actually, can magic do that?"

"9th level spell, very rare." She said chuckling

"I… get the feeling I'm a very very long way away from that being an option for me." Dawn chuckled nervously.

"Most likely. It’s an extremely rare spell for a reason."

"I suppose it'd be 'fun' to set that as a goal, even if it's out of reach." Dawn smiled, adding, "For now."

She chuckled. "I'd recommend a more realistic goal, I don’t think Princess Twilight has even reached that level of spell yet and she was the brightest mage of our time."

"That's… that’s fair." Dawn blushed, then grinned. "It would be way too much to think it’s like books I read, where just because of how I got here that I’m exceptional at anything."

"Everyone is exceptional, just some are more exceptional in more noticeable ways." Dr. Blast said as she walked. "And who knows why Fate brought you here."

"I’ve never been one to believe in fate before." Dawn answered with a shrug, "and I wasn’t meaning it like that, more like exceptional magic, physical skills, or something generally valued by the populace."

Dr. Blast nearly stumbled at the first part. "Wh-what?" She asked, looking shocked and plainly staring at Dawn.

"What’d I say?" Dawn blinked.

"Fate is a very real thing, it controls well… most things." She said. "You are literally marked by fate like everyone else."

"So… are we talking a literal thing or an entity, the concept or what? Cause I only know of fate as a concept." Dawn blinked. "How am I marked by fate? What evidence are we talking here?"

Dr. Blast pointed to the mark on Dawn’s flank. "Your Cutie Mark."

"Oh... that. I kinda didn’t get told much about it." Dawn said. "I remember Celestia saying stuff about how it represented who you are, so is it just magic displaying that or what? How's it work?"

"It’s your special talent. It appears when you find what you are meant to do with your life." She said.

"... Seriously? You're kidding right?" Dawn blinked, "I could understand if it were a manifestation of magic as a part of who you are, but you're telling me it dictates what I’m supposed to do?"

"Yes and no." She said.

Dawn blinked, "So… How is it 'fate'?"

"Because it’s what you’re supposed to do, and it’s always something you like. Take mine," Blast said, turning to show dawn her flank and the two hydrogen, one oxygen mark. "I got this when I messed with that chemistry set. However, as I told you before, I didn’t follow it and I was miserable. Then I followed it, and I am happier than ever when I am working. Princess Twilight and her friends are called upon to solve major crises because they are destined heroines, so it’s a good bet they will win."

"Then... how the heck is mine telling me what to do?" Dawn blinked in bewilderment. "I can see how it might be symbolic, but what am I supposed to do, raise the sun since it's a sunrise?"

"Not a clue. You’re… sort of an odd case due to circumstances. We don’t know what yours means, as you didnt get it through normal methods.”

"I mean, from what Celestia said, it sounded like it could also represent something that was core to who you were, in which case, I'd say this represents hope, cause I clung to hope despite rather dire circumstances." Dawn tried to explain, seeing how that might get contradicted by watching Blast closely for any telltale signs. “Though… I think she mentioned something about destiny…”

"That… is semi-right and semi-not." Blast hesitated before taking a deep breath and starting another lecture on something so simple. "What you are supposed to do, and what your Special Talent is, is a core part of you. It’s what you are good at. Take the Element of Honesty for example. Her Cutie Mark is three apples. She was destined to run her family’s apple farm since her entire family are farmers and always have been.

The Element of Kindess is butterflies. She was meant to care for animals, and is one of the kindest, most gentle mares you’ll meet, like a butterfly… You see what I mean?" Dusk paused, continuing at a nod from Dawn. "You clinging to hope in a dark time may be what yours means or you could be destined to be a weather pony. Honestly, I don’t know. Magic isn’t my field and this is more just stuff me and Dusk have spoken of and I cannot say for sure what your mark means."

"I'll have to talk to Dusk, especially since I doubt I'm interested in being a meteorologist." Dawn said, tilting her head briefly as she had considered the idea of being a weather pony, thinking it like a weatherman on the radio or tv. Regardless, something wasn’t adding up to this explanation in her eyes.

"Meteorologist? What do void rocks have to do with weather?"

"I… what!?" Dawn blinked, astonished. "Meteorology is the study of the weather and climates to do weather forecasts. That’s what you meant by weatherpony right?!"

"We know all about weather, not much to study there. And why would we need to forecast the weather?" Blast asked, blinking at Dawn’s results.

"… don’t tell me…" Dawn blinked as the pieces fell together, a look of horror growing on her face as things clicked. "You use magic here to do something to the weather."

"Do… if you mean manufacture weather at the Weather Factory in Cloudsdale, then yes." Blast replied nonchalantly. "Why do you ask?"

Dawn bit her lip, took a deep breath, let it out slow, and tried to control herself so she didn’t draw attention from anyone else before answering, "Because back where I’m from, that’d result in cataclysmic events through the world to the point that the harms would far outweigh the good… Stopping a monsoon somehow as an example would cause issues in the pressure buildup and the flooding would be even more severe in a local area. Breaking up tornados suddenly would cause a wind shear so bad that no buildings made with the usual materials would stand, not to mention potential violations of the law of conservation of energy!"

"Wait… wait, hold up.” Dr. Blast said, raising a hoof before looking Dawn in the eyes. “Your… weather… it behaved on its own?"

"Yeah. No magic there." Dawn said, as if it were obvious.

"That’s… disturbing, and so,” Blast said before shuddering as she finished, “unnatural.”

"Hm." Dawn said quietly, allowing the subject to drop. Who was she to comment about how their magical or supernatural weather control was unnatural compared to their completely natural processes… that and it’d cause too much of a fuss if she pushed. "So what's next?"

"Right… walking through the museum." Dr. Blast said, processing what Dawn had said before starting their slow walk once more, Dawn following behind.

They walked through, seeing many items one would expect and Dawn nodding thoughtfully at a few. Forge bellows, steam engines, a few failed prototypes of steam-propelled carriages, and similar, until they neared the "modern" section.

"This is where I’m guessing more practical applications and ideas for me come in." Dawn quietly said.

"A bit. More just the technology that came about in the last few decades." Blast explained as she entered. The pair were greeted by the sight of a synthesizer hooked up to some speakers which were playing dubstep at low volume.

Dawn blinked at the speaker, then smiled, "I see my suggestions about certain things are already being listened to. What’s the power supply this speaker or amp is using?"

"Huh? What do you mean? We've not been able to test anything you’ve told us yet."

"How the heck is the speaker even working without electricity?" Dawn blinked, flabbergasted.

"Magic." Blast replied, blinking right back. "It runs on magic tech."

Dawn blinked, "Magic makes no sense… not yet anyway. … I'll need to inform you how we did it with electricity later."

"That was sort of why I’ve been talking to you.” Blast reminded the mare, “Yeah, as right now, unicorns have a monopoly on nearly all modern technology."

"Then it’s about time we get some things that don’t rely on magic so more people can do things they never thought they could." Dawn nodded with determination.

"That’s the plan." Dr. Blast said as they walked.

"And I’ll do what I can to help it." Dawn nodded. "The more we can make not magic dependant, the more we can give dreams to those who can’t use it, rather than those who have it and choose to use it."

"That’s somewhat the plan,” Blast nodded, “Obviously we don’t want to go too far and phase out the unicorn’s abilities, but just make things a bit more even."

"I’m not saying phase it out. I’m happy I have magic now, but there’s no harm in helping even the playing field like you said." Dawn nodded.

"Exactly, just being clear, as there are those who want to take it too far."

Dawn nodded her agreement, finishing her observation of the speaker. "That is so jarring… having some tech I’m used to while others are decades behind… onward to the rest!"

"What do you mean?”

"I’ll explain later." Dawn promised.

The pair walked on through a lot of musical equipment, speakers, microphones, and other modern tech.

Dawn was just amazed, often commenting along the lines of "so many similarities" and "how do you play these without fingers?"

"Huh? We… do?" She said. "Innate magics."

"What do you mean?" Dawn blinked.

"In our hooves.” Blast said, raising one, “Innate magic that all ponies, zebra, and horses have.”

Dawn blinked again. "First I’m hearing of it."

"Uh… Okay, I’ll explain later. Okay?"

"Good." Dawn agreed.

Blast nodded as they walked through modern technology, reaching the magical guitars. Dawn was fascinated by many items, making comments on what things she knew concepts behind and what ones she didn't, like the magical guitars, which looked like electric guitars. Dawn saw much in the way of tech she recognized, but sighed as she realized she was no closer to what she wanted or could do.

"Another museum?" Dr. Blast asked as they neared the second hour of exploring.

"That might be wise." Dawn said, mildly worried but trying not to show it. After Dawn walked with them to the other museum, she idly but cheerfully commented, "I’m not quite as out of breath as I feared I would be."

Dr. Blast remained where she was before heading further, Dawn stopping with her. "So, think of any other type of museums you'd like to see?"

"Honestly, this has me doubting myself more, though I know I shouldn't let that stop me." Dawn said with a worried sigh, "Sure, I can see enough about the designs to possibly work on them, but I don't have nearly enough coordination for anything yet."

"That… wasn’t what this was about… this has nothing to do with our work. This is literally if you want to work here." Dr. Blast frowned at Dawn apparently misunderstanding what she was told they came here for.

"I..." Dawn blinked, and then hit her head with her hoof again, wincing as she realized what they were saying, "I'm sorry Dr. Blast, sometimes an idea gets stuck in my head despite correction. Working for the museum could be a possibility."

Several hours later, Dawn felt guilty as they had walked around to other museums and storefronts that Blast suggested. Dawn knew she was repeatedly making social mistakes by overthinking things or missing the obvious. She returned to Dusk with Dr. Blast, half expecting the worst in the report on their progress.