"Wow." Autumn inclined her head left, then right, then threw out her hooves wide. "Wow!"

Lemon shuffled in place. Before her was Sunburst, the target, but also two kirin. And one of them was huge! "I thought I was..." That was rude, maybe? "I thought I was meeting Sunburst today?"

Susan was far less twitchy. She did not tilt her head. She was just watching Lemon steadily. "He still isn't a hundred percent."

"And I bet you're a nice pony, but you're also a mad pony." Autumn put a hoof to her chest. "I get that! I was kinda annoyed at the doctor that did this." She waved wildly at her form. "Got mostly over it now, but at the time, I thought some not nice things about the guy."

Sunburst advanced with a little smile. "Wow..."

"I've felt that way a lot lately," Lemon got out with a little laugh. "Um, so, hi. This world, it's called Earth, so I am calling you Earth Dad."

Autumn twitched suddenly, one brow quivering. "Dad? What does she mean by that?"

Sunburst was quick to raise and wave his hooves. "Not like that! But, um... Lemon?"

"Uh huh?" She advanced in return, circling her would-be father. "I know you aren't my... Not the usual kind of dad. But you kinda put me here, on this world. You started me, here. So, yeah, dad, you're it." She stopped behind him, sitting down. "You look just like him."

"Like who?" He turned in place to face her again. "I'm so sorry if I hurt you."

"It's the craziest thing." Lemon inclined her head a little. "If I think about... not thinking about it. Ha, that's a twist, but... I can remember you. You were that big friendly thing..." Her eyes went distant, digging into the distant thoughts of her mouse life. "Big and friendly. That's... all I knew you as. Kinda scary a little, but big... and friendly."

Autumn thrust a hoof at Susan. "She's the big one around here."

Lemon looked from Autumn, following the hoof to the giant kirin. "She really is... But I don't know her even a little." She pointed at Sunburst. "My, uh, mousey side knew you, and my pony side, well, I know you're my earth dad." She suddenly clopped the flat of a hood against the side of her head. "Now tell me why!"

"Why?"

Autumn nudged against her clueless stallion. "She's asking why you made her. Oh, wow. I bet some kids ask their parents that, but most don't. I never did."

Susan sat up a little. "My little boy asked that once... He wasn't angry or upset. He was just... curious." Bits of flame touched on her edges, threatening to spread. "He looked me in the eyes and asked why I had a child... 'Didn't it hurt? Wasn't it hard? Why did you go through all that, just for me?' He... He's such a good boy. He... He... felt bad... for me."

Autumn moved over to Susan quickly, leaning against her even as the larger Kirin trembled. "It's alright..." It wasn't alright, but at least Susan wasn't alone.

"Gosh." Lemon was watching the two in their emotional moment. "Was it... so hard for you?" She looked back at Sunburst, one ear up, the other to the side.

Autumn piped up before he could. "Oh wow, yeah. Poor Sunnie hurt his little horn doing that spell. He's not all that good at doing magic, but he's great at making it up."

Lemon blinked softly at that, watching Sunburst as he blushed under the report, truthful as it was. "That's what got you booted out of school... But you were a magic researcher? Gosh!" She slapped the flat of a hoof to her cheek. "The teachers would feel dumb if I... ever see them again." She sagged in place.

"What school?" Sunburst perked, curiosity winning over embarrassment easily. "On your world?"

"Yes, on my world." Lemon tapped at herself for emphasis. "Oh gosh, I think it's my world? Am I a mouse that thinks she's a pony or a pony that remembers a mouse?" She scrunched her face up in ponderance. "I'm going to be stuck on that thought a while, so..." She made a motion as if setting aside a small box. "Putting that aside. You made me, why? I really would like to know."

Sunburst's eyes wandered up and down the pony that had been that mouse, that had been that confused new human he didn't really get to meet. "You must be so confused..."

"That doesn't even scratch the surface." She made a wibbly motion with a hoof as if pawing at the air. "But I really wanna know."

"That's fair." He gathered himself up properly. "Ponid, the thing that made us become ponies, and kirin, instead of humans, has extreme possible medical uses. It could... change the world, for the better." He rubbed behind his head. "But asking the people to also have a high chance of stop being the species they are as a part of it is... not an acceptable offer."

"Gosh." Lemon inclined her head, thinking about that. "Alright... So you have a... thing... that can help humans, but sometimes, pop, pony." She clopped her hooves with the pop. "And you don't want that. With you... I think. So why a mouse to a pony?"

"I... That wasn't the idea," he admitted, deflating a bit in the process. "The idea was to make a spell that turns something into a human. That part... worked... mostly... And the mouse was a human."

"Yay!" Lemon smiled brightly, just for it to fade away. "But seeing as I'm not a human right now, that didn't stick. What happened?"

"Well... That's..."

Autumn suddenly leaned in over Sunburst, half draped over him. "The dumb dumb I love very much got Ponid all over the mouse, and then the mouse was a human, and then the human became a pony. A you-pony specifically."

"A me-pony." Lemon turned a hoof towards her face. "Wow... That is... a lot to take in, but I don't feel like I'm breaking right now. Thank you."

"Um, what for?" Sunburst raised an ear curiously at Lemon.

"For telling me, for one." She tapped her hooves together. "And if, uh, you squint at it right, you... sorta made me, sorta... changed me." She set her hooves on her chest. "I was a mouse."

Autumn tilted entirely to the side with her head. "What? I thought you were a pony dragged into this from... like another world?"

"That's what it feels like... But that isn't... That isn't what happened." She sat up, looking more confident in it. "You all became ponies, or kirin... So did I, I just had... less stuff in the way. I was just a mouse!" She threw her hooves up wide and high. "I had... mousey thoughts. Little thoughts... Your mice are kinda dumb, by the way. Equestrian mice are way smarter. Um, gosh, getting off topic..."

Sunburst began to smile a little. "I would love to hear about your mice."

Susan snorted from far behind. "This is why you get in trouble with your girl."

"Stop that!" Autumn waved at Susan's comments. "I wanna know about the mice too. Do they talk, like the ponies? That'd be super amazing! Do all the animals talk?!"

"Noooo." Lemon shook her head rapidly. "Only a few ponies can have a chat with a random animal, but they, uh, they're still smarter. If you offer one a treat, they will come right up and take it. If you stop to say hello, most will quack or squeak or whatever at you. What'd they say? Who knows! But they at least knew you were trying to be nice." She set down a hoof, then another far away. "That's a big difference from Earth animals."

Autumn raised a hoof and began to wave it wildly.

Lemon tilted her head at the display. "Autumn Blaze?"

"Yes! I have a question." She leaned in a little. "Can you name the ponies that talked with animals?"

Sunburst's ears quirked right up. "That is an amazingly good question. If we got a copy of them and their talent came with them... Think of the possibilities."

"I am!" sang out Autumn with a big grin.

"Now I'm curious," joined Susan. "Do you know of any of them?"

"Gosh..." Lemon went still a bit to think about it. "I only know one, and only because she's a friend of a friend. Fluttershy."

Sunburst's eyes went wide. "She is pretty great with mice. And she is here. I have so much to ask her." He hopped to his feet, only to hesitate. "Um, did I... answer your question?"

"You... really kinda did." Lemon nodded slowly, unsureness in the motions. "The rest I kinda have to answer for myself. Gosh. Still... here I am... I was a mouse, and now I'm a pony." She smiled a little, the uncertainty only growing. "It's so much easier to understand the pony part, it thinks. It knows. It talks. The mouse side just... lived. It... knew some things, mouse things." She leaned in a little. "Like you were a large friendly thing." She burst into giggles at Sunburst's memory in her mousey side. "It wasn't wrong. Um, her, she wasn't wrong. She still isn't. I still am her. Gosh..."

Sunburst danced in place, sympathy for the mouse-pony wrestling with his urge to dash off, which was won when Autumn casually pushed him over. "You're going nowhere. You still have a sore horn so you get to lay down and be foaled by two kirin that like you. Tough for you, I know."

"Foaled?" chuckled out Susan. "Your 'ponyisms' are wild at times." She had none of them, being entirely human upstairs. She looked to Lemon. "But you do raise a ton of questions. You're as close as we've gotten to talking to someone from this place the others just kinda touch."

Lemon inclined her head at Susan. "I didn't hear your story. You seem a little different." And huge! She was so big! "Would you like to share?"

Susan took a hissing breath, a little fire escaping in the process. "I... still have a lot of feelings about that... But if you're patient, we can try to get through it."

"I am ready to listen." Lemon plopped herself down on her haunches, eyes fixed on Susan. "Please share your story."

And so Lemon learned the tale of the lunch lady that became a kirin. "That doesn't make sense."

Susan blinked. Of all the responses, that was not one she predicted. "What part? My family exploding?"

"I got that part, um, sad as it was." She pointed at Susan. "Why did you skip Ponid? You were a human, then you were a kirin, so shouldn't you... You know?" She tapped her head softly.

Susan smiled a little. "I didn't become a kirin from Ponid though, remember? They cast a spell, and the spell made me a kirin. Ponid wasn't involved, so my brain wasn't lovingly scrambled. You two are great, don't get me wrong, but your heads were definitely shaken up by this."

"I'm still basically me," lamely defended Sunburst. "I basically became a pony version of me, not much scrambling required." He touched his nose to Autumn's cheek. "You went through a lot more."

"Oh, wow, yes. So yes" Autumn nodded, rubbing Sunburst's nose into her fur in the process. "I was a guy!" She threw a hoof wide. "A straight guy with thoughts of bagging a lady some day, pop, turned out I was the lady that got bagged. Oh no!" She flopped against Sunburst. "At least I have a cute boyfriend now."

"If I... became a stallion." Lemon sagged her head against a supporting hoof. "I'm not sure I'd know what to do. I guess I should be thankful the mouse... I was? She was also a she. We're both shes, so we agree, she is it." Her eyes fixed on Autumn sharply. "You're really relaxed about this, gosh."

Author's Note

This is a chapter with a lot of chatting. Good chatting though, I think?

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