Forbidden Places

by Starscribe

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Violence, Human, Kirins, Drama, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Bat Pony, Changelings, Seaponies
Length: 194007

A group of clandestine explorers stumble into Equestria, emerging from the portal in strange new bodies. Riches and fame await them, if only they can find a safe way home before the magic becomes permanent. It's not as easy as it sounds.

Blake and his friends are urban explorers, venturing into some of the most interesting places that the public isn't allowed to see. They deal with dangerous structures, poison gas, and even the occasional arrest. But when they venture into the bony catacombs of Paris, they could never imagine what they'll find waiting for them.

Now the whole group has been thrust from the world they knew, each one cursed with a terrifying new shape. If they ever want to see their home again, they'll have to work together, searching this strange new world for a return worldgate. But while return portals are numerous, finding one that's safe enough to get them back alive is another matter entirely.

Written thanks to the generosity of donations from Lightfox and Canary in a Coal Mine on my Patreon. Edited by my wonderful team of Two Bit and Sparktail. Cover by Zutcha.

Updates every Monday and most Tuesdays. Will update more frequently until Fimfiction catches up to my Patreon.

Published 2021-01-31 14:30:03 UTC
Last updated 2021-12-30 18:00:04 UTC

Chapter 2: Jordan

Jordan Little hacked and coughed, fighting the burning in his lungs that came from water swallowed where it shouldn't be. The body spat it back up well enough, but the danger was in the second half of that reflex, trying to take in more. He bit down hard, hard enough that he tasted coppery blood against his tongue.

But it worked. Despite the strange numbness in his limbs, and the weight of fabric and gear trying to drag him down, he finally broke the surface of the water. He gasped, and allowed himself to suck in desperate breaths.

His eyes strained in the sunlight. Yet what he saw was impossible.

This wasn't the bottom of some narrow crag of shattered Paris limestone, perhaps fed by a stream untainted by the sewage that had been Jordan's reality for the last day. There were no rock canyons, no skyscrapers and Parisian streets packed dense with history and interesting people.

Instead he saw a wasteland, extending away from the spring he had emerged from within. These were dunes straight out of Saharan nature documentaries, rising to great heights and humming with the wind off their tops. Only the occasional cactus or bit of stubborn brush fought the overwhelming force of nature.

But that was all further away. Jordan paddled awkwardly to the edge of a spring, and his limbs struck against a low brick wall. The water here was clean, with a few wide lilies and green grass against the walls. A few squat buildings hunched together nearby, made of adobe or some other mud brick. "Why didn't you tell me you found the set for 1001 Nights?"

But something must've been wrong with his throat, because it sounded nothing like his voice. Apparently he'd bitten his tongue hard enough to jump two octaves.

He turned, preparing for Ryan's usual pessimism—and didn't see his friends there.

There were two shapes clinging to the wall beside him, and neither of them looked even remotely human. They shared the same basic body plan: quadrupedal, hunched over, with flat hooves emerging from under bodies that didn't quite match Jordan's conception of what a horse ought to look like.

Both the creatures looking at him had crooked, misshapen horns emerging from their heads. But that was where the similarities ended. The closer of the two creatures was more familiar, with fur soaked down with water and a thick reflective line of scales on their face.

The other, floating further away, was like something out of a nightmare. Its skin was black and reflective, and he could see through gaping holes in its forelegs. Its eyes were the worst by far, multifaceted and insectoid and reflecting the sun from overhead.

This was the first to speak, his voice reverberating through the water and echoing until it sounded like a dozen other monsters were speaking along with him. "Oh god, what's going on. What kind of poison was in that bathwater?"

Under all that noise, Jordan could almost make out something familiar. Did he somehow recognize the voice? He knows about the bath. How?

"There has to be a rational explanation," the furry one said, in Blake's voice. He flopped up and over the edge of the low wall, then heaved.

Apparently Jordan was in the midst of a stroke, because the animal was dressed. He recognized those jeans, even if they were more like leg-braces, running halfway up the waist but not actually meeting at the rear. Jordan got a face full of things he'd rather not think about, along with Blake's familiar survival pack stretched across his back.

Of course now that he saw it could be done, Jordan wanted to be out of the water just as much himself. He turned to the side, so he could climb without looking so closely. As he did, he saw the real reason his hands were numb.

He didn't have them either. He saw silvery fur instead of naked skin, then flopped awkwardly to the side. Wet sand stuck to everything, but for the moment he didn't care. From his back, Jordan felt more sensations that didn't make sense, as a vast flat surface of skin pressed between his wet clothes and the ground. He twisted his neck to the side, struggling to get a good look.

There were wings emerging from between his jacket and his pants. Purple skin stretched between a membrane of bony outlines. Those shouldn't be there. I don't have wings. As if responding to that thought, the wing twitched, right along with its twin trapped under Jordan's torso.

He felt it. The skin was tough, but far more sensitive than an arm. It would probably have to be, without the muscle and flesh underneath to give it greater strength. We swam through a hole in the wall into a sun that shouldn't be here. Now we're somewhere else, and we don't look like ourselves.

"There's no explanation. This shouldn't be happening." That was the bug again, which had somehow managed to escape the well on the other side. "I'm an alien. You're all aliens. What happened?" Then, more fearfully, "Where's Kaelynn?"

There were only three of them. Had the best swimmer in their group, at the front somehow been lost in the tunnel?

Jordan tried to stand up, and failed spectacularly. But the body moved on its own, and what should've been his arms caught him before he could fall completely. He stood then, and found the position entirely natural. His wings twitched again, and he shook off a curtain of sand and dirt from that side.

Then he turned, searching the spring for any sign of motion. They hadn't been out of the water for that long, if she'd somehow went down, it probably wasn't too late to save her.

He didn't actually have to search for very long. There was someone in the water, and like them she was dressed in modified versions of exactly what Kaelynn had been wearing when she crossed. She looked much like they did, with a longer, quadrupedal body plan with limbs trailing from her torso.

She was longer and leaner than either of them, with a body that glittered where the sunlight struck it. She had a tail too, though unlike the hair trailing from Jordan's own ass, Kaelynn's was webbed and membranous, trailing lithe muscle that twitched with each foot forward she swam.

Why are there openings in her neck?

Jordan got his answer seconds later, as the swimming creature finally noticed them. She looked up, with Kaelynn's vivid green eyes, rather than some insectoid monster. She swam upward, breaking the surface and resting her forelegs against the stone wall.

She was entirely furless, with a body that was reflective and lean. She opened her mouth, and water dribbled out of her lips, along with sound so feeble that Jordan couldn't even hear it. Then her eyes went wide, and she gasped. Kaelynn clutched at her neck for several long, painful seconds. She's drowning.

Then she stopped fighting, and dropped back into the water. She relaxed instantly, her forelegs falling away from her neck. She began to swim again, circling the little pond twice as fast as before.

"So let me get all this straight," Jordan said. As before, the voice was entirely foreign, with only vague resemblance to what he expected. Not just the difference of hearing himself recorded. This voice was at once much higher pitched without sounding childish.

Like a woman. Neither of his companions sounded that way. "This doesn't look a damn thing like Paris. That wasn't a secret bathhouse, it was a kind of... temple. Going through it took us to... the desert."

"It looks that way," Blake said. "That you with holes in your legs, Ryan?" At the nod, he continued. "And now you've got bat wings, Kaelynn? Which means Jordan must be the unfortunate fish."

Jordan felt his ears press flat as he spoke. His tail did something too, whipping about in a way that was somehow self-conscious. "I'm Jordan. Of course Kaelynn would be the fish."

"She's the... but you sound... not like her." The horse-thing that was Blake began to pace back and forth the way their leader sometimes did. In doing so, Jordan got a better look at the strange mixture of horse and reptile that Blake had become. He had no wings, but did have sturdy looking scales along his back, and a whiplike tail ending in a spray of fur. "You sound like a chick."

"Thanks for pointing that out," he snapped back. "I had no idea. You gonna tell Ryan he sounds like a bug?"

"I don't know what a bug sounds like," Ryan said, sounding very much like a bug. And out of the water, he looked more like one too. He had thin, transparent wings to go with those multifaceted eyes. He had a tail in the same place as Jordan's, but it was made of a thin green membrane that pulsed subtly darker and lighter as he watched it.

That's his heartbeat, isn't it? That's so creepy. Just another detail to the list of how uncanny Ryan had become.

"Fish make noise," Ryan continued, as though trying to distract from his own change. "I bet I can hear Kaelynn if I'm submerged."

He leaned down over the edge, sticking his head straight down into the water. Apparently it worked, because Kaelynn spun on him, swimming over to Ryan and remaining there. Blake and Jordan gathered behind him, though not right behind. Jordan had no desire to see what was under that tail. One face full of alien junk was enough for the day.

Ryan stayed under for long enough that Jordan finally touched one leg against his shoulder, preparing to yank him up. The bug reacted instantly, jerking upward and looking between them.

This close, Jordan could watch a second, fully transparent eyelid move sideways from those eyes, uncovering them. His stomach twisted into another knot. "While we've been up here, Kaelynn explored the whole spring. She thinks its fed by an aquifer in the rock on this side, and it drains back into our universe."

Jordan's mouth fell open, but he didn't have the chance to further question.

"The hole we came through is at the bottom of the well. Bends down instead of sideways, but there's no resistance. She thinks we can swim back through."

"We transformed by coming to this side," Blake said. "It stands to reason that we can reverse it by going back the way we came."

Ryan nodded. "That's what Kaelynn thinks too. But she didn't want to go without us, in case it lets out somewhere else. Also yes, she's a fish. She can't breathe the air at all. Zero."

"We're going back." Blake stepped sideways along the wall, then flung one leg over. "Come on."

Ryan began to obey, but Jordan hesitated. It was certainly true that there were things about this place he didn't want to investigate too closely—mostly about his own body. But at the same time. "Hold on. Look around you for a second, guys."

He pointed upward with one leg, and found his wing on that side did the same. He could probably learn to control the way that moved, with a little more practice. "That's an alien sun. There are buildings right here.A civilization on another world. Forget Aldwych station. We've upgraded to Stargate territory here."

Blake clambered back over the wall, then rested one leg on his shoulder, yanking him forward. Up close, Blake's breath was uncomfortably hot against his skin, like it might burst into flame at any moment. The horse-creature growled at him, every word a threat. "We're out of our fucking depth, Jordan. We don't know how long there will be a way back. Have you looked around? We're in a fucking desert. One of us is a fish. How do you think this goes if we get stuck? We aren't gambling with Kaelynn's life."

Jordan's retort died in his throat, and he nodded weakly. His friend was right, however much it would sting. I'm going to regret leaving this place without looking around, probably for the rest of my life.

But he had no choice. Jordan clambered over the wall with the others, splashing awkwardly into the water.

Kaelynn appeared beside them, swimming lithely between them before finally offering one of her hooves towards Ryan. The bug thing touched it in response, but couldn't grab on. Grabbing took hands, which none of them had anymore.

"We'll have to swim as far as last time," Blake said, returning to his usual tone. Commanding, the way he always was in emergencies. "Practice until you're confident, then we go. Unless you think we should get out the rope and have Kaelynn pull you."

None of them needed that. Despite every medical suggestion to the contrary, despite any rational belief about how long it should take to learn to move in a totally alien body. After only a few minutes, they'd learned enough to sink straight.

"Together," Ryan said. "See you all when this nightmare ends."

Together they sunk into the sunlit spring, guided by a glittering fish that was also their friend.

Chapter 3: Kaelynn

Kaelynn passed through the opening in the world to much the same sensations as her first time. First a current that she couldn't resist, blinding her with light that shouldn't be there. She spun in the water, only this time she had strong fins to right herself. She'd adapted to the absence of her legs so quickly that she managed to keep on course as she passed through.

She could even mark the exact moment that her body changed, an impossible instant where she was suddenly holding her breath again. Where the air had come from that must be in her lungs to stop her from drowning, she couldn't know.

But then she broke the surface of the water, exactly beside where she'd been. Her headlamp was still on her forehead, though of course she didn't need it to be. Sunlight still shone in from the other side of that opening. Either another planet, another place, or another time. She would've thought the latter, except for the transformation. That alone suggested something more complex was happening.

She waited beside the opening, watching for the others to return in their time. She wasn't sure what she could do if they got stuck somewhere in the middle of that process—probably nothing. A single round trip through that opening had taught her that changing direction wasn't going to be possible. Hopefully that meant her friends couldn't get lost somewhere in the middle.

One by one they broke the water, familiar faces with human features. Mercifully, their clothes were just as in place as all their other physical details. And she wouldn't have to stare at them from under the water this time.

"Thank god," Ryan coughed. He scrambled away from the portal, climbing from the ancient bath as though afraid it would drag him back. "You guys have no fucking concept for what I just experienced."

"We don't?" Kaelynn couldn't suppress a laugh. "Dude, ever drowned in the air before? Ever thought you were going to spend eternity in a room maybe ten feet across, because you were a fish in the desert?"

Now if we were out in open water, I would've made you dudes wait a few days while I had the best diving of my life. See you in hell, decompression stops.

"Freaky," Jordan muttered. Though what could've shaken him so much, Kaelynn didn't know. He'd just been a horse thing, right? She hadn't really been trying to get a good look at the time, when she was still trying to process her own transformation.

"I think we're about to change the world," Blake said. He settled on the edge of the bath, legs dangling into the water. His eyes were still fixed on the opening. "Honest to god portal hidden here. Every law we've ever broken, every risk we ever took... all paid off. We'll be so famous people will be begging to let us poke around in their old ruins.”

Kaelynn couldn't help but grin back, taken along by such a powerful wave of positive emotions.

Jordan walked past them out of the water, not fearful the way Ryan was. Rather than just sitting there, he began poking around in the shelves and cabinets on the far wall. Most of what Kaelynn could see looked like crumbling organic ruin, rotted away to nothing. But maybe he'd get lucky and find something useful.

"I don't want to rain on that idea," Jordan said. "This will be fantastic. But there are two big 'ifs.' First, we gotta get someone to believe us."

"I had this clipped to my head the whole time." Kaelynn lifted the GoPro, which was still recording. "You're on now. Smile."

Jordan waved, and the others smiled too, at least while she pointed in their direction. Even Ryan managed.

"That's the easy part," Jordan said. "We need to get back to the surface, while somehow leaving a path we can follow back here. Remember how lost we were? We are still just as lost. This world-shattering discovery was supposed to be our way to climb out of here."

The weight of his words settled on them like a two-tank BC with lead for saltwater. Finding their way back would be simple enough—she had battery and cards for a week of straight recording, so all they had to do was follow it to get back. She could plug the whole thing into her photogrammetry rig at home, make a model they could convert into a proper map.

But that wouldn't help them escape again. It could only serve those who found their corpses, years or even decades later. "We have to survive," she said. "I don't know what the hell this is. I don't know how it works. But I know that people should know. This is going to change... everything."

France had something incredible here, something that the ancients had apparently known about. But did they build this entrance around it, or did they somehow construct the entire thing?

Ryan probably had more idea about that than she could. She turned, and found him already removing the waterproof box from his pack. He settled it onto a sturdy table, and began arranging maps. "We're out of food already. How long can we hike through this place before we're too weak to keep going? Two more days?"

Probably a little pessimistic, but not by much. They had to keep moving, up and down constant changes in elevation, backtracking where passages had collapsed. All of them were in good shape, though by no means Olympian. If she had to bet, Kaelynn would've predicted their death by poison, animal attack, or cave-in long before they actually starved to death.

"We can get far in that much time," Blake said. "Ryan, find the shittiest of those maps, and grab a sharpie. We're making our own from here on out, good enough to follow back here. Surviving is more important, but only barely. We don't get to change the world if we're dead."

"There's another option," Jordan said. He turned towards them, holding something in his arms. It was a vellum scroll, several feet long. He unrolled it over all of Ryan's maps, exposing what he'd been looking at.

Kaelynn reluctantly left the water, standing far enough that she wouldn't drip onto his discovery.

"That's a map of the globe," Ryan said, frustrated. "Come on, Jordan. That won't get us out of..." He trailed off, right as Jordan's grin grew uncomfortably smug. "That's not our globe."

The map had a great deal of detail around the edges, with several different colors used. The writing along the edges was in French, a language none of them could read—but the map itself was entirely made of proper nouns.

Some of the dots were familiar places. "London" or "Rome". But many were less detailed. "Korea, location unknown" "Indian Territory", or even just "Inhospitable mountain".

The other set of names were readable, but that did not mean they were meaningful. Klugetown? Newhaven? Manehattan?

"I'm seeing a lot of horse puns on this thing," Blake said. "You think it's connected to our discovery, somehow?"

"I think I was a horse a few minutes ago," Jordan said. "You two as well. Kaelynn... not sure what you were. I think everything in black on this map is what's on the other side. And the blue writing... those are corresponding locations on our world. See this one for Paris?"

"He's right," Ryan said. "There's no rhyme or reason to these correspondences. These continents aren't even the right shape. But we already know it doesn't match, since there's desert on the other side."

"You're suggesting we... don't try to get through the catacombs at all?" Blake asked.

Jordan nodded. "There's a dot pretty close to here, not sure about the scale. This town here is apparently connected to New York. We could wander around in the catacombs until we're starving, or... we could walk straight to another way out. Even if we can't find it, maybe we could trade for supplies? Come on, you have to be thinking about it. There's another world through there. Forget everything we've ever done, this is bigger. Imagine what we'll discover!"

Kaelynn cleared her throat. "It sounds amazing, Jordan. Everything we ever hoped to accomplish every time we find a sign saying we're not allowed to go any further. But we've got a problem. Assuming the way across does the same thing to us each time—I only had two legs over there. Bigger problem: I had gills. How am I supposed to cross a desert?"

Jordan winced. "We've got plenty of plastic. Bags and tarps and rope. I'm pretty sure I saw carts in one of the old buildings on that side. We could make you a tank, and pull you across."

"And that goes great until it leaks." Blake smacked his fist down on the page. "We're done considering this for now. We can come back here. Maybe we could build something smarter and bring it back with us next time. Kaelynn, any ideas?"

She frowned, looking thoughtful. "Ryan and I could probably make a decent set of back legs with my workshop and a few 3D printer models for human prosthetics. Couldn't we, Ryan?"

He nodded absently. "That's the easy part. Most fish rely on their environment for cooling. Even if you didn't, we would still need to keep the water oxygenated and clear of any other things you breathed into it. Maybe a reserve tank with an aerator. But I don't know how big."

Blake cleared his throat, though he didn't seem half as angry at them as he had been with Jordan. "We'll think about all of this when we get out," he said. "I don't see anything to suggest this portal is going anywhere. It's like any other exploring: we'll come back and do it right."

No one argued—even Jordan seemed resolved. He took a few shots of the map with his phone, and Kaelynn did the same with her camera. Then he rolled it, and tucked it under one arm.

Kaelynn paused in the doorway, framing the best retreating shot of the portal she could. "We've decided to return better prepared," she said, probably to the future of all mankind. "This discovery is incredible, but we have to live to share it with you. We'll be back."

Then they left. They passed through that same perfectly carved passage, even decorated.

"Wonder who put this here," Ryan said. "Looks like someone used to use it all the time. There were even horse carvings on this side, just like we were all quadrupeds when we got there. They knew."

"And somehow we don't," Blake finished for him. "How could something this important be forgotten?"

"It was old," Jordan suggested. "Maybe they just didn't keep good notes? Except for their maps. Secret society then? Maybe the Freemasons or the Bilderbergs, or... who’s the coolest secret society you can think of?"

They moved more slowly than before, when they were just trying to walk to freedom as quickly as they could. Ryan had the blank side of a map turned towards him, and drew with a sharpie as they went. As usual, Kaelynn took one look and felt a pang of jealousy for his perfect script. He was definitely the best one to be taking notes.

"This way," Blake said, pointing in the direction they hadn't gone before. "Maybe we're close to a way out."

They clambered over the pile of collapsed bones, then walked for a while, through a hallway packed to the ceiling with ancient remains. Strange place for a door into another world. Why build it here?

Kaelynn felt a sudden twisting in her gut as she saw another dark lump on the ground in front of her. They'd gone another way, so it wasn't the same corpse. Another explorer.

Except... no. She closed in on it, and fear turned instantly to joy. She ran past the others, scooping up her diving duffel into both hands. "Hell yeah! I missed you, sweetheart!"

She felt the reassuring lump of her rebreather, along with her first mask, the same one she'd bought when she first started industrial diving. "You going to try to tell me to leave it behind again?" she asked Blake, settling it onto her shoulders. "I'm not abandoning her twice in one day."

Blake grunted, folding his arms in a stance somewhere between frustrated and furious. Eventually he shrugged. "Just so long as you don't expect us to carry you when you get too tired from hauling that crap. I told you that you wouldn't want to swim in any of the water we found down here..."

"Except we all did," she pointed out. "And it was the coolest discovery since the moon landing."

Blake's face reddened, and she knew she was going to get an angry reply.

A guttural roar tore through the passage, echoing so loudly that Kaelynn actually covered one ear with her free hand.

Somewhere uncomfortably close by came the sound of crunching stone. It had to be a cave-in, right? The thing she'd been most afraid of, so close it shook the floor under her feet.

By why did it sound like it was alive, and angry?

"Run!" Blake ordered, pointing back the way they'd come.

Kaelynn turned to obey, and as she did she caught the outline of something dark from the passage up ahead, with eyes that reflected their headlamps back at them through a pair of twin pupils.

She tossed her diving gear onto her back, and ran for her life.

Chapter 4: Ryan

I don't know what time it is. I don't know where this is. I don't know when this is. I don't know what I am.

Right. Deep breath, Ryan, we can do this. We can do this. I can do this. Okay, good. The others can't hear me here. God only knows how this recording is going to turn out when this is all said and done, but if I don't get it all down, then I never will.

I'm going to die in this desert, and no one will ever find it. But hey, at least if future archeologists ever find this voice recorder they’ll be able to know everything I went through. Presumably those future archeologists are themselves explorers of this impossible portal. You came here through Paris just like we did, right?

You ended up trapped here, just like we did. And probably you died of dehydration between here and some unpronounceable alien city. I guess you didn't, since you found this. But okay.

Deep breaths Ryan, you can do this. Come on. So a lot has happened since my last recording, which would have been right before we went into the catacombs.

I expected to be telling everyone about all the exciting historical artifacts we saw. There is supposed to be a movie theater down here, and a speakeasy, and all kinds of other relics. All that shit leftover from… it doesn't matter. The point is, we didn't find what we were looking for. It seemed like maybe we were going to die instead.

I guess I should go into a little of the detail, but it doesn't matter right now. We planned on making a few hour expedition for our first trip. Then we would return over the next few days to explore further out. But now the good cameras are sitting in the hotel room, and here we are sitting in another universe.

I couldn't give you an explanation for how we got here. Short answer is that we found a way across and apparently something didn't like that we found this place because it chased us back in here. Or maybe it was just trying to kill us? We escaped either way. We're here now on the other side of who knows where.

What I can say is that it seems to have a single moon, single sun, and a day and night, similar to what you would expect from Earth. Maybe this is Earth far in the future, or some other insert your own dystopian explanation. The physical transportation to another place might actually make the trip interesting, except that unfortunately it had a significant physical effect on all those who traveled to this side.

None of us are human anymore, some less so than others. Unfortunately, I appear to be the most severely affected. Maybe in a future entry I'll go into biological detail. When I understand what it is I've become.

Two of the others appear horse-like, that would be the best description. Kaelynn is a fish or a fish horse. But not a seahorse, that's something else. I appear to be some kind of insect, and that isn't close to the most disturbing reality. Nor is the inevitable death waiting for us.

We can’t go back. There’s something in the catacombs, something we pissed off by opening the door into this place. Our only chance of seeing Earth again, of being human again, is a map Jordan found on the Earth side. Looks leftover from when people built and used this portal, though I couldn’t tell you what they did with it or why.

Apparently there are numerous cities on this end, perhaps the descendants of those first explorers from long ago. I guess they decided to adapt to the strange bodies they've been given.

I can't imagine doing that. It's not just that I resemble an insect. There's something wrong with me. Let me try to explain.

We didn't have food. Of course, we intended to only be down for a few hours, but we found some old cans leftover in the ruin. Simple vegetables and familiar things, not alien fruits to go with this alien planet. String beans and barley. The others ate them and seemed to tolerate them, even Kaelynn. She ate them soggy. But I couldn't. Couldn’t make myself swallow, no matter how hard I tried. God, what does this body eat?

Just made sure no one's listening. I know how they’re thinking, or at least how they’re feeling. It’s like a smell they leak around them, bad BO I can’t ignore except by running away. I know when Blake is frustrated. I know that Kaelynn is growing increasingly fearful, trapped in her spring. She only has two legs, and her body is worse off for the setting than the rest of us.

I don't know why that portal would have created a creature that can’t exist in the desert. But there is so little we understand.

I guess I should back up.

So we returned, we fled here for our lives. No one even got a good look at the damn thing. But I saw the eyes glowing in the dark, and I wasn’t the only one. We didn’t know whether the monster would follow us across and kill Kaelynn in the water. But it didn't, so little blessings.

No one quite had the courage to turn around and go back to Earth, not after that. It was resolved by unanimous consent that we would go with Jordan's original plan, which was to cross to the city on this side. According to this map, it connects to New York back on Earth. Thus we forfeit our hotel deposit and likely lose our expensive DSLRs.

But if we returned to Earth, we'll still be the greatest explorers to live. Suck my dick Lewis and Clark.

But once we were sure that creature wasn't going to come through after us, we searched the nearby buildings for supplies. There was food here. Almost as though the stockpile was left intentionally for us. There were a number of other supplies, camping gear, nothing as good as what we carried. A couple of cargo carts.

There are landmarks on our map. Not very many, but after walking some distance, we should be able to confirm whether or not we're heading towards the city. Based on Jordan's map, I believe the city is approximately 150 miles away. At a fast human pace, that trip would take a week and a half, minimum.

But these are alien bodies, and we will have to bring water for Kaelynn. No telling how hard it will be for horse-creatures to pull a cart.

At least the portal gave Kaelynn one mercy. One detail I haven't mentioned yet is that it isn't just our bodies that have changed when we crossed. Everything we carried transformed as well. Clothing adapts to fit these new bodies (but it doesn’t cover anything useful anymore).

All gear that we carry is altered in subtle ways to be more usable. For instance, my emergency lighter no longer has a guard around the activation button. Instead the button is large and rotated to the side so that it's easy to press with these flat hoof-things. This transformation applied to Kaelynn’s fancy rebreather. It holds water with a strange mechanism that attaches to the side of her neck. She has tested it and found it seems to work, allowing her to leave the water without drowning.

She is still nearly mute, and you need to stand right beside the mask to make sense of what she's trying to say. The bigger problem is that she still has two legs and a large muscular fin, which will not permit travel across this desert.

When the sun comes up again, we'll make use of all the plastic sheeting we have and attempt to adapt one of the carts here to hold as much water as we can. The one advantage to being quadrupedal creatures is that we can pull a cart. Indeed there are harnesses on them that would fit either of the other two. Not me, though—I’m smaller than either of them. More bug more problems.

Perhaps extended use will prove the rebreather will allow Kaelynn significant time outside the water. But none of us are willing to take the chance of the other, darker possibility. What if there’s only a few hours of breathing in that thing, and she suffocates out in the desert somewhere?

We did consider another plan. The water appears to source from a spring on this side and is not in danger of draining. We could pile all the food beside the spring and leave her here. Then the rest of us would cross to the city on this side, travel to New York, build some apparatus or prosthetic for her, then return through New York City. Cross the desert again on this side, return to this oasis, and finally bring her back with us.

Kaelynn rejected that plan. She doesn’t want to be alone for so long. Personally, I'm glad she decided to risk the desert. She's the only one who doesn't look at me like I'm some sort of monster.

Hopefully we'll be able to set out tomorrow. But the food here does seem like it would last for several days. We won't leave until we're sure of whatever we build for her. That should give Kaelynn a little more time to test her rebreather.

Unfortunately, there are no surviving records within the buildings on this side, only supplies. There are empty shelves and storage drawers, which may have once held written records, but either they've been stolen or have decayed to nothing. The construction of the ancient portal room we found looked to be centuries old.

It's possible no one has been here in that time. Though I don't think canned food brought here after Napoleon would still be edible.

We've been trying to figure out more details about where we are. I can confirm that none of the familiar constellations are present in the sky. Though with only a single night and a few minutes of observation, I don't know whether there might be familiar stars yet unseen. This would allow us to determine whether we've shifted in time or space. And of course, there are stranger possibilities. We don’t really have a precedent for people who traveled universes to compare against.

If we survive, we will be more than just the greatest explorers who ever lived. We'll be famous for life. So hey, at least I won't be unemployed anymore. I can go on an interview circuit.

I feel bad for Kaelynn in the water like that. Who knows how long she'll be alone? And once we set off, she'll be trapped in an even smaller space.

The others have already fallen asleep, even her, but I just don't feel tired anymore. I don't feel a lot of things in this body. Part of me wonders if I even have the same range of biological interactions. What I can say with grim certainty is that the familiar organs of mammals are present on the other two members of the group.

Maybe I shouldn't be looking a gift horse in the mouth, considering what happened to Jordan. While I have become some kind of insect, he has become a she. I don't know a she of what, since none of the species we've become are even familiar. We don’t resemble any earth species enough to guess at what animals these are. But none of the others have said a word about instincts or strange thoughts. I’m jealous.

I can tell that Jordan isn't taking this change very well. Silent consent between the rest of us has left us with the unanimous decision to continue to use male pronouns for Jordan and politely pretend that it has not happened.

I wish the others would be similarly polite for the strangeness of what I have suffered. But there’s no justice. Jordan and Blake don’t say they’re disgusted by me, but they don’t have to. I can taste it whenever they look.

Maybe I should make better use of this time and sketch some crude prosthetics. I doubt we'll get our hands on a welder in here, the ball and socket joints necessary for a decent prosthetic. But at the very worst, a brace with large wheels on the end that she could drag along behind her would be better than having no independence at all.

Then maybe she'd be in here with me instead of swimming around in circles. I wish I couldn't know what they're feeling. They don’t mean it, but I think they can’t help their instincts. I’m repulsive. I’ve seen my reflection, I can see why.

I’m so screwed.

Chapter 5: Jordan

Jordan paced around the edge of the room, watching Ryan and Blake work. This was the largest of the ancient outpost's structures, large enough to hold a dozen carts. He might've guessed it was for stabling horses, but that would require animals. As hard as it was to adapt to the conditions of this strange place, having animals around that looked almost identical to them was one bridge he wasn't mentally ready to cross.

"We need more redundancy against leaks," Ryan said, gesturing away from the cart they were working with to one that was little more than a large clay tank with wheels. A cart like that was probably meant to keep an expedition watered during a long trip through the desert. "I know it's heavier, but we'll just have to pull it anyway. That way the plastic isn't doing all the work. There's a good chance that thing is already watertight."

"Ceramics are heavy," Blake argued, again. "More weight will make us go slower. We have to mitigate the risk to Kaelynn to the guarantee of harm if we run out of supplies. We'll all die, she'll just go first."

I can understand why she wouldn't want to wait here alone. But that decision is going to make things more dangerous for all of us. He turned away, slipping out the back door before they could rope him into mediating their decision. That was usually Kaelynn's job, but she was stuck in the well, so...

This should be the most exciting bit of exploration they'd ever had. They would see things that others didn't even know existed, no more finding the signatures of previous crews before them.

Jordan poked into one of the outbuildings, nudging the ancient wooden door open carefully. The climate had preserved much of the ancient buildings, but even near total dryness could keep time at bay for so long.

When he ventured further out, Jordan had found the remains of tile roofs, along with low stone walls emerging from the drifting sand. Only the well and a few central buildings had survived, and only because they were nestled behind the strongest, sturdiest wall, which encircled the inner compound on all sides.

Red sand butted up against the wall all around, sometimes forming a natural ramp all the way to the top. Getting a cart full of water over this wall would be its own adventure, but it was one they could solve a little later.

Jordan didn't flick on his headlamp as he poked into the old outbuilding. Given the nature of their trip, none of them had solar or other renewable power sources. As soon as their batteries went out, they'd be gone for good. But even with the roof and walls intact, so the building was entirely cast in deep shadow, he found he didn't mind. His eyes adjusted, and he forgot that he was in the dark at all.

Something he had in common with Ryan, along with the wings. He might've thought their species were related, if the bug wasn't so subtly disturbing. But would I rather be like him, if I were still male?

It had been long enough now that Jordan ran up against some of the changed biological realities of his situation. They all had to use the same old outhouse, except for Kaelynn. But he couldn't even ask her for advice, on account of communication becoming so difficult.

Jordan stopped abruptly, eyes focused on a bit of glittering metal he hadn't noticed before, shining out from between the loosening boards of a desk.

He approached, feeling along the desk's surface for some way to get it open. But even this cursory inspection was too much for it, and the old wood splintered and crumbled at his touch, collapsing into a mangled heap.

Jordan shoveled through the mangled wood as best he could, until he reached his target. A heavy cloth bag, which unraveled further at his touch. But inside, the unmistakable shape of metal coins. They looked like gold, and when he lifted one in his mouth to carry it out towards the others, felt heavy enough that it might actually be gold.

It was real enough that he wouldn't have left the bag behind, if he thought there was any chance other people were lurking somewhere. But they hadn't seen any hint of other people, horselike or otherwise.

As he returned to the warehouse, he found the others had made more progress on the cart. Apparently the giant clay one had won out, because they had several layers of plastic sheet spread on the ground in front of it, and Ryan was lowering the first piece inside.

Jordan dropped the coin onto a side table, one that didn't instantly collapse at the slightest perturbation. "Hey guys, check this out."

The coin on the table in front of them resembled many ancient currencies Jordan had seen, though he wasn't enough of a nerd to care about the nations and histories behind them. A crude metal disk only approximately shaped like a coin, with an image stamped into its surface. There was a simplistic sun on one side, similar in pattern to the design from the bathhouse walls. Text wrapped around it, reading "The Sun Rules Eternal".

How can I read that? Jordan squinted down at the writing, growing increasingly concerned. Even if these coins had been minted by descendants of the humans who used the portal, shouldn't they be in French, not English?

He had to fidget around with one hoof to flip the coin over, bracing it against the side of the desk, then lifting slowly. The other side depicted a simplistic horse, vaguely resembling Ryan. It was lengthy and far more elegant, but even on a coin Jordan could make out feathery wings and a horn.

"You found a coin?" Blake asked, prodding at it. "A gold coin. Wonder what that's worth."

"I found about fifty of 'em," he corrected. "I think whoever used this place was trying to keep them hidden, but that's hard to do when your furniture is rotting."

"Pity we might have to spend them," Blake muttered, prodding the coin with a hoof. "But it's probably easier to barter with old coins than the gear we brought with us. Do you need help gathering any of it?"

"Probably not," he answered. "My backpack should have the room. What's the story with the cart?"

"Getting there!" Ryan called, poking his head out of the pot. Jordan's stomach twitched at the sight of those insect eyes on a creature so large. The feeling was entirely irrational, and he fought it down as quickly as he could. This was a friend, not some alien monster. He couldn't let himself forget that. "Ten minutes and we should be ready to bring this over to the well and start filling. We don't have any real pumps, so it's gonna be tedious as hell. Don't wander too far, you're helping."

"Sure," he said noncommittally. "I can't wait."

He did help, though several hours spent lifting bucket after bucket out of the water and into the pot made him contemplate going back to try his luck against the monster of Paris.

At least it made for good practice, much as he hated to admit it. Working with hooves instead of hands required constant focus, lest he drop whatever he was trying to grip between his hooves. Using both forelegs was easier, but then he needed something to brace his belly against, otherwise fall over.

None of them—with the possible exception of the fish, could hold a bipedal stance, even for a few seconds. But they brought over some old furniture to use as steps, and soon they had a decent bucket-brigade going.

It was nearly nightfall by the time they finally finished, and the plastic-lined pot was overflowing with water. Despite removing so much liquid, the well had barely dropped a few inches, suggesting some vast reserve they couldn't see.

"It makes the most sense to travel by night," Blake said. "I thought about using two carts, but that would mean nobody gets a break. It will take two to pull a cart full of water. We might as well load up everything we can alongside the tank. Every can of food, every useful object from this base here. It doesn't look like anyone still uses the place to be upset with us for stealing."

"Another entire day here?" Ryan asked, annoyed. "The longer we stay here, the more likely they'll declare us dead."

"Does anyone even know we went into the catacombs?" Jordan asked, circling slowly around the full cart. "I told my family I was going to Europe, but that was it. I'm not in the habit of sharing how I plan on breaking the law."

Blake nodded. "Remember Jolie? I told her to tell the police if I didn't call her for two days. Which means they're probably finding out right about now. If they search at all, they'll start where we went in. Hopefully they don't run into whatever that creature was."

There was a long, painful silence between them. Even Jordan didn't have any quip ready about the demon he'd seen in the shadows. A little like a horse now that he thought about it, with too long limbs and blades twisting to points instead of hooves.

"I didn't believe in monsters," Ryan muttered. "I wish I still didn't."

"Not possible," Jordan said, before he could stop himself. "We're all monsters now. I think you're probably the spookiest of all of us. You could really scare some kids on Halloween with that face."

To his surprise, Ryan actually seemed to understand that he was joking for once. He chuckled, which came off more like a high-pitched vibration than a sound any mammal should make. But he got the point, that was the important thing.

Blake didn't. "Don't be cruel," he said. "We're all freaks now, Jordan. Glass houses. Besides, he kinda looks like the creature on the coin. For all you know, his kind might rule this world. You should practice being more respectful before you insult their king."

That night went much like the night before, sharing a meal of canned food around a small campfire. Pity they hadn't been on a formal camping trip, or else they would've been better equipped for all this. Instead of cooking on a proper camp stove, they had to bend some wire from a camera harness to hold the can directly over open flames. It worked, but wasn't particularly appetizing.

In theory, they'd decided to turn the little building beside the well into their makeshift bedroom. In practice, Kaelynn stayed in the well, Ryan snuck out to join her, and their leader was asleep after the first ten minutes.

That left Jordan alone to stare up at the moon through a narrow opening in the glass. No matter how much he tossed and turned, there was no comfortable way that didn't crush his wings. Or worse, put pressure on the strange configuration of new organs he didn't want to think about.

Ignoring his physical changes did not make them go away. But I don't care. I'm not changing my life, I don't want to change anything. I'm going to swim back the way we came and be the exact same person I was before. There was no fear over having the change "stick" and ruin the rest of his life, he'd already been back through. Just pretend it isn't happening, and life will eventually go back to normal.

Better than normal, assuming they could get anyone to believe their story. But even the convention circuit of flat-Earthers and conspiracy theorists would probably make for a decent side hustle. And unlike the other losers, he could tell them the truth.

Jordan wasn't aware of any moment where his waking state transitioned into unconsciousness. He didn't feel particularly tired with the darkness, probably a product of those stupid wings and the other improper features. But boredom was its own sleeping medication, if he was determined enough to stay in bed.

Soon enough, he realized he wasn't curled in the makeshift sleeping mat. Rather, he stood in a vast, dark space, surrounded by endless stars. Before him was a set of steps, each one so large that he could barely take them without tripping on tiny legs. Jordan was naked here, but this was no source of stress. It wasn't like the clothes he wore did anything to cover him anyway. Some of them could serve a practical purpose, but most seemed like it was just for fashion.

Obviously none of it was needed in a dream.

But in the way of dreams, having the new body didn't seem strange, and neither did the steps. He wasn't just going to sit here and look at the stars: something was calling to him. So he climbed, bouncing from hoof to hoof and occasionally spreading his wings to keep from falling. Unlike in the real world, it seemed perfectly natural to fly here. What was the point of having wings otherwise?

He got into a rhythm, body moving automatically, while his mind focused on the irrelevant physical details. Carved stone platforms, each one disconnected, slightly uneven. Yet covered in toolmarks, as though it had been built with painstaking care.

He was so engrossed in the irrelevance of it all that he bounced off the last step and into open air. He squealed in surprise, an entirely animal high-pitched squeak. As soon as he realized he was falling, the dream complied, and his wings stopped working. He fell. He might've fallen forever, it was hard to know. It certainly felt like that long.

Then he landed, and somehow the impact wasn't fatal. He bounced and rolled, and came to a stop in a strange cavern with stone on every side. A temple, maybe, with carvings on each of the walls? He groaned, but there was no pain, only vertigo and disorientation from being looped over and over so many times.

The room wasn't empty. As Jordan looked up, he realized there was another bat, crouching nearby and watching him nervously. "First time with Oneiromancy?" he asked, offering a hoof toward Jordan.

He took it, pulling himself into a standing position. That single moment of contact was all it took to make the world seem suddenly stable. The bat was taller, just like all but Ryan were taller. Only this wasn't the abandoned waystation in the desert.

"I don't know what that word means," he said, staring at the bat. The horse looked very similar to him, though he was taller, thicker built, and with a pair of larger wings. He had a mark growing on his fur, just like Jordan and Kaelynn did. His mark was distinct, a moon that was either halfway through waxing or waning. There was a way to tell, but Jordan couldn't remember. "This place doesn't feel real, but you do."

The horse smiled at him, with an expression that Jordan recognized. It wasn't the kind he'd felt terribly comfortable receiving before, particularly from someone the same sex. "Oh, I see what this is. You're not practicing in one of Luna's monasteries... you're just talented. Dreamwalking by accident is pretty rare. Might be part of your special talent. Let me get a good look at that cutie mark."

Jordan suppressed a laugh, realizing about halfway through just how absurd his denial would sound. "Dreamwalking" wasn't possible, when changing into a horse and going to another world was? Obviously he needed to rethink all of what he thought was possible.

While Jordan thought, the other bat horse had circled around him, staring straight at his entirely bare ass. "How'd you get this, stranger? Was it for something magical?"

Jordan couldn't even interpret the question at first, expecting it to be about the other biology back there. But something about being with someone so confident made him hesitate. This horse knew things. They didn't act like the character of any dream he could remember, even the lucid ones.

"I got it when I walked through a hole in the universe," he said. "One minute I was in the sewers under the city, the next I was here, looking like a horse, with that mark on my ass."

The bat's frown deepened. "I've never met an ass with a cutie mark. You shouldn't lie, even to strangers. I'm trying to help you."

"And I wasn't lying," he shot back, feeling braver by the second. This bat might be bigger, stronger, and infinitely more knowledgeable—but this was also just a dream. Nothing could hurt him here. "I came through a hole in the universe—an underwater portal, below a city. When I popped up, I had that."

It wasn't much to look at, way less interesting than Kaelynn's. Jordan's mark, apparently his "cutie mark," was a curled mobius strip in the shape of a cartoonish heart. If anything, he thought it was part of the cosmic joke that had left him either worst off for the transformation, or decently in the running.

But this bat didn't seem to think so. He made a few thoughtful sounds, before walking around and resting a hoof on Jordan's shoulder. To be precise, he put an arm there, tilting his head up to meet his eyes. "You dream-traveled into Equestria?"

"If that's what it's called. Didn't feel much like a dream, though. This is a dream. Except you're real. And I'm real... where is this, anyway?"

The horse watched him for a few more awkward seconds before finally letting go. "We're at the threshold to the Dreamlands, where the minds of all sleeping ponies go until they wake. We share the magic of the night princess. Some of us are gifted to imitate her powers—Oneiromancy. Dreamwalking."

He pointed with a wing, and not in the fumbling, awkward way that Jordan could move them. He aimed it, and Jordan realized that wasn't a cave wall at all, but a massive doorway, large enough to swallow a tour-bus and leave room for seconds.

"And why are you out here, instead of through there?" Jordan asked.

His mouth opened, but he didn't reply. After a few seconds his eyes narrowed, and he shook his head. "I don't even know your name, pony. I want to be nice, but... I don't have to answer to you."

"Fair enough." He stuck out his hoof, like he was going to shake. "I'm Jordan!"

The horse—or pony, apparently, took the offered hoof. There was no way to grip it without thumbs, but he bumped up against it in a decently friendly way. "And I'm Pale Light. Jordan, you said? That's a strange one. What clan are—"

But he didn't hear the rest of it. The world swirled and melted together. Before he'd even realized what was happening, it was gone.

Jordan woke up.

Chapter 6: Blake

Blake led the way into the desert.

The location alone was by no means the strangest place they'd gone. At least if he ignored every specific detail about the trip. But for all the abandoned subway stations and hidden churches and bomb shelters they'd snuck into over the years, none had presented them with such directly hostile factors.

The otherworldly waystation had little in the way of useful camping supplies. Given they had expected to spend the night in a hotel, neither did they. But Blake had been a boy scout, which made him the most informed of any in their little group.

They might be doomed.

But he had some useful ideas, anyway. The other two walking members of their group had excellent night vision, so there was no reason not to flip their waking and sleeping around and do their traveling at night. The only tent they'd found in the old base was fallen to pieces and missing its poles, but they could still drape it across the water-cart at night, pin the corners into the sand for stability, and shelter as best they could against the worst of the heat.

That was the idea, anyway. The reality turned out to be a bit more complicated. No sooner did they drag the cart up a makeshift sand ramp and out into the desert proper than the trouble began.

It started with the cart itself, which was probably older than all their years combined, and looked like something thrown together in the middle ages in terms of sophistication. There were no gears, no suspension—just two loose wheels, and a harness.

Blake was the strongest of their number, the only one who had a hope of pulling the cart on his own. The bug species Ryan had become were a full head smaller than the horses, and also significantly weaker. Jordan had likewise shrunk, on account of being female now. The two of them together had barely enough strength to pull Kaelynn in her cart.

But if they were pulling, that meant him walking ahead to try and lead, the only one who couldn't see in the dark. So more often than not, Blake had a harness around his shoulders, pulling more than his fair share of water and fish.

It was nowhere close to the hardest thing he'd done, at least not for the first day. Urban exploring often meant being awake at odd hours, and pushing his body to the limit to climb down some half-rotten building.

There were no trails through the desert, as of course there couldn't be with such active dunes blowing in constant wind. That meant a horse walking in front of the other two, searching for the easiest path with stable enough soil, and navigating with the ancient map.

"We don't even know there's going to be anything when we get there..." Jordan grunted, near morning on the first night. Despite how little he contributed, Jordan was drenched in sweat, and struggled against the harness as though fighting for survival.

Watching Jordan struggle was a bit like walking into a Pilates class, except that instead of deciding who he would pursue for the evening, he had to remind himself that there was a man in there somewhere. His eyes were very little of that equation—it was easy to just see an alien.

But smells went deeper, and he soon suspected these horse creatures relied on it far more than humans did. The harder they worked, the harder it was not to notice.

The sun finally appearing over the horizon was exactly the relief he needed—at least until he realized they'd all be sharing the same pitiful shelter, and they didn't have the water to wash themselves.

It was impossible to be objective about measurements, when everything they wore and every object they carried had been transformed just as they were. But Blake guessed the cart was about ten feet long and eight feet wide, with all but the rims on either side dominated by the gigantic tank. They hadn't filled it all the way—the old wood had started straining under the weight long before that.

There was no way around the danger they faced if their cart failed. They wouldn't just all die of dehydration, but one of Blake's best friends would die right in front of him, without a damn thing any of them could do to help.

Kaelynn poked her head free of the pot as they unrolled the torn and broken tent for the first time. She had a pair of goggles on over her eyes, paradoxically filled with water rather than air, along with a mask in her mouth that extended clear wings over her neck. Straps pressed the seal against her shiny scales, though water still dribbled out the sides.

They could only be grateful whatever species she became could handle freshwater, or else she probably would've begun their expedition into another world by dying right in front of them.

"How was the trip?" she asked. Her real voice was still in there somewhere. But instead of hearing it directly, Blake heard a distorted, singsong version, projected through the rebreather itself using a speaker.

"Exhausting," Ryan said. Blake nearly shouted at the audacity of it—how dare the one who hadn't pulled the cart complain about the difficulty of the trip?

Yet as he looked, the poor bug looked as weighed down as either of them. His clear wings drooped alongside his body, and his cheeks were shallow and sunken with greenish blood visible just under the skin. Or maybe that was a carapace.

"Thanks for the executive treatment," Kaelynn said. "I'd get out and help in a heartbeat, but..." Something broke the surface of the water behind her, a shiny tail ending in transparent fins the same color as she was. "If you see any extra legs out on the sand, you grab them for me."

"Sure thing," Jordan said, collapsing onto the sand just in front of the cart. After self-consciously turning away whenever someone was behind him, for once he didn't seem to notice where he'd gone, just collapsed onto the ground and breathing heavily. "I'd let you borrow mine if it meant I could swim around in there all day."

"We'll see if you make that trade when the sun comes up," Kaelynn replied. "I'd appreciate it if you guys get the canopy up before I'm in full sunlight. We don't exactly have a way of cooling this water down. I don't want to be fish soup today."

They obeyed, though the process was another flavor of hell without hands or the ability to stand up on two legs. Persistence could work as its own decent imitation of competence.

Kaelynn didn't speak to them for long, not when she had to rely on her rebreather just to spend a few minutes out of the water. Unless the population on this side had advanced tremendously since the records stored in Paris, it didn't seem likely they'd be getting their hands on any better local-made versions.

With the canopy over their heads, they did their best to seal the sides with sand, giving them somewhere relatively dark to eat dinner/breakfast and unroll the half-decayed rags they were using to sleep on. But at least we can sleep on something at all, and we aren't alone in a jar.

"You should eat," Blake said, pushing one of the cans towards Ryan, after demolishing several with Jordan. "Seriously, you had to walk as far as we did. You look like shit."

"I don't think I... can," Ryan said. His voice was distant and strained, every bit as weak as Blake thought he was. "I know I need to eat. I'm starving. So hungry you... can't even imagine." He glanced towards the tank. Blake didn't want to think about what kind of food he thought he would find there. "I can't digest whatever's in there. I puked back up the beans I ate the first night. It was... really bad."

Blake ran through the mental math on that process in a few grim seconds. It was possible for a healthy human being to survive three weeks without food, if they had low activity demands, got very lucky, and had a hospital waiting for them. Based on their slow pace that day, it felt like the city was two weeks away.

Could alien bug-horses live that long?

"Did you try looking through the other cans?" Jordan asked. Unlike the bug, he'd recovered a great deal after eating and getting some water in him. He still looked like he was on the edge of exhaustion—but Blake knew that feeling too. "They had labels stamped on the lids."

"I know!" Ryan snapped. "I looked. But it's all vegetarian, every single can. I think I might be..." He trailed off. "Carnivore. Hopefully that's all it is."

"We can carry you on the wagon if you get too weak," Blake said. "I don't want to lose you out here either. You don't weigh much, but... we won't have a scout. If we hit one rock a little too hard, or twist the harness..."

He didn't have to finish the sentence. They all looked back towards the tank, and Kaelynn swimming nervous circles inside.

"I'm having... strange thoughts," Ryan finally said, nudging the edge of the can. "I don't know if I can explain it to you. But I guess you deserve to know. I'm pretty sure I'm like Deanna Troi. I know how you're feeling without even looking at you. No, I'm not going to prove it Blake, I know you don't believe me."

Of course he had felt a surge of doubt at the patently absurd declaration. But that would also be easy to predict. "That's not all it is. I feel like I have eaten, little... scraps, here and there. I don't know how, but I know when." He glanced back at the tank, then took the mostly-full can of fruit chunks and carried it over.

"Kaelynn must want breakfast too." He hopped up onto the edge, wings buzzing as he jumped. He didn't actually fly, though. But two of us do have wings. They can't possibly be big enough to get them airborne, can they?

If he asked, Jordan would just quote Bee Movie again, so Blake didn't voice his concerns.

Blake had his back to the cart, but he felt as Kaelynn swam around within, and heard a brief splash as something dropped into the water.

And she has to live with all that. They had given her privacy to hang her tail over the edge and not piss into the water they all had to drink from at least once that day. Even so, the longer Blake thought about it, the more grateful he was that he wasn't the one who lived in there.

Ryan hopped back down with the empty can a few minutes later. Blake stared, taking a second to process what he was seeing. It was hard to make guesses about a kind of animal so different from the ones he knew. But it looked like Ryan had improved in just a few seconds. There wasn't as much green lurking under his face, and he was actually smiling.

"What just happened?" he asked.

Ryan's ears flattened at the question, and he dropped the can from his lips. "I don't know. It's happened a few times with her before. Does it make sense that... I don't feel hungry after someone is nice to me? I know, it sounds stupid. It probably is stupid. You can't eat being nice."

"It sounds stupid," Jordan agreed. His usual sarcasm was gone. "I'm pretty sure I met a real person in my dreams last night. Is that stupid?"

No one answered. Blake would've answered in the affirmative without hesitation only three days ago. But now—what did they know?

"We're out of our depth," Blake finally said. "Maybe you're losing your mind, or maybe you're right. We'll need to bring both of those things into the real world to test them. Easier with Ryan—we'll just have to try to be nice to you. Won't we, Jordan?"

"Sure," he said. His new voice granted his sarcasm depths few could aspire to reach. "I'll be downright saintly."

Chapter 7: Ryan

Dear journal,

Here's a list of some things that suck.

Item one: traveling through the desert
Item two: drinking gross water through a life straw
Item three: starving to death
Item four: slipping into quicksand
Item five: The way they look at me
Item six: knowing I'm going to die out here.
Item seven: knowing I only have one change of batteries for my voice recorder.
Item eight: being so close to discovering something that might change the world, but knowing I'll be dead and won't get to enjoy it.

That is my list for the day. Thank you for your attention.

Dear journal,

It has now been five days of walking. I can't feel my feet. I think there might be new holes. I don't know where they are, and I don't want to look to find out. I'm pretty sure the others are all asleep now, even Kaelynn, but I've walked off as far from them as I dare to make this recording.

I don't want to be overheard in case this might make me sound crazy or give them more reason to hate me.

I'm pretty sure all those things just happened. I wish I could make it stick. I wish I knew what I was doing, then I wouldn't have to worry about making the others so upset.

And if they weren't so disgusted with my appearance, then maybe they wouldn't feel so negative all the time. And then maybe I wouldn't feel so hungry. Of course it's obviously absurd projection and can't have any real connection to what and why I eat, but I don't really have any other theories or anything else to think about.

In the interest of completeness I should say we walked again tonight. Today. It's getting confusing, but according to the landmarks, we seem to be most of the way to our destination. Jordan disagrees, he thinks that it was just a large rock poking up from the sand. We have no way of knowing, of course, until we either find this city or we run out of water in the desert and die.

There aren't any other landmarks on our path. All we have is my navigation and Blake's suggestions. Unfortunately, we can't even use the stars to navigate since these are different stars. As it stands we're doing most of our reckoning using the sun's rising and setting. We can only hope the planet rotates the same way.

If we’re wrong, then we're going to die here. Well, we might not, if we're going the wrong way, there's a chance we'll reach the coast before we run out of supplies. And in that case at least, well, Kaelynn might not die. If she can breathe saltwater, then she’ll probably be fine. But we don’t have any way of finding out. It seems like an agonizing way to go.

But I'm just putting off getting down the details. So I should just get this all out before it goes fuzzy in my brain. Otherwise I might start thinking I imagined it all.

See, it goes without saying that I'm not like the others. I've written down enough details to convey that clearly enough. What might not be clear is that every one of us has... abilities. Blake's been starting our campfires every night and I'm pretty sure we ran out of matches a few days ago. Jordan claims that on some nights he sees visions of a place that isn't real, but he somehow knows the people he sees are real.

He says that it hasn't happened again in the last few days. Maybe if it does, we'll be able to get some real answers about what this place is and who these people are, who lives here. But the point of all this is to say that I think I've discovered what my purpose is, or at least what my abilities are.

I was with Kaelynn in the water. Well, not in the water, just talking to her. Or giving her someone to talk to anyway. As bad as Jordan and Blake have it pulling her each day, she has things far worse. I can’t imagine how awful it would be to be stuck in that stupid tank, circling endlessly as the water gets harder and harder to breathe. So I try to be around for her as much as I can. It's the only time when I don't feel hungry.

I had my head under there and she was rattling off some ideas she'd had for a filter. Some way to run the water through sand and mechanically strain away the organic debris. The water was crystal clear the first night, but now I can barely see her through it. At least she hasn't cooked alive in there.

We were discussing what materials we might acquire from this city, assuming we reach it. I was growing increasingly frustrated. You can't imagine how annoying it is to have a conversation in single sentences. Then stick your head under water and hold your breath as long as possible.

Passing back and forth is even more difficult. As anyone who's tried to talk underwater knows, it’s not easy. You can imitate sound with effort, but understanding what you’re saying isn’t easy. But somehow she can get her words out without distortion, like those special speakers. It makes sense for an animal designed to live under there.

The only effective way to have a conversation is for me to stick my head under the water, and then for her to poke up above the water, holding her breath in turn. It’s slow, and tedious, and I hate it. The frustration of this process has been growing the longer we continue. I found myself wishing I could just hop in and swim with her. No, I don't have any ulterior motives. Certainly my diary wouldn't record any of them or any feelings I may have had for her in the past. It's incredibly difficult to express feelings for strange, not even horse aliens, but she's the only one who never feels like she’s sick when I’m around.

I just wanted to be in there instead of out here. Then it happened. One minute I was leaning on the side of the tank. The next I was circling around her and breathing that foul water. I can taste why she wants the filter. God, that is awful stuff.

Having that thought, I realized what had happened and where I was. She was staring in shock. According to her, I looked exactly like her. An identical copy down to every biological detail. The shock undid my “powers,” and just like that I was taking in a mouth full of water and choking on it. I crawled out as fast as I could, but I didn't have the courage to stay and talk to her about it. I know she probably wanted me to, and I don't mean that just as a guess, I could feel it.

This could mean a great deal. Obviously I wouldn't spend any of our trip in there, since that would be significant weight wasted. But at least I could give her some company. Company of the wrong sex. But there is the path of madness, so I’m going to not think about that. I think there are some things that would be best left undiscovered.

I can tell staying here is having an adverse effect on everyone, not just me. Every time Blake and Jordan are working together for too long, I can feel the former having a minor existential crisis. Blake tries to reconcile the obvious disagreement of his senses and the instincts. But at least if he's having a crisis of faith over that, Blake isn't disgusted about me.

I don't know for sure, but it seems like Blake and Jordan are getting better about me. I'm beginning to suspect I might be a predator for the other species here. Like a cuckoo, only instead of laying eggs in another nest, I slip in myself and feed on their… attention? That's where the math breaks down a bit. Unfortunately I can't even ask Jordan to look for more information in the unconscious world. After what I just did, maybe the dreams are real. Makes me wonder if all I can do is copy.

If so, I need to focus on copying Blake. He's the only member of our party I can imitate without adding sexual confusion to the list of alien experiences. More importantly, he's the largest and strongest. If we encounter danger, I could either cower uselessly as this pseudo insect or take on a strong, brave body and fight back. Maybe Kaelynn would be more interested in my company if I did something brave.

Dear journal,

More good news. We've seen our first travelers today. I would say the contact was tense, but my companions are relieved to be eating something other than old, canned food.

The strangers appeared closer to Earth horses than any of us in the group. They towered over us, and were able to pull larger carts in their caravan. There were maybe a dozen of them in total, all dressed in pale clothing with most of their bodies covered. Of course they were traveling by day. So they encountered us as we were breaking camp to start travel.

Their leader introduced himself as Hoo'Far and said they had just traveled from our destination. Klugetown, its name hasn't changed from our maps. This produced considerable optimism from us, me included. Once the others weren't feeling beaten down, that meant I felt better as well. They traded some supplies, but the others agreed that we would try to keep as much money in our hands as possible.

We asked Hoo'Far about a portal to a distant land located in Klugetown, and whether or not visitors would be permitted to go through it. He knew nothing about it, nor did any member of his caravan.

This was not the best news we could have received, but it also wasn't terribly surprising. After all, no one knew about the portal on the Paris side. The location seemed to be actively concealed. And either we shared a moment of mass hysteria, or there is a being of some kind defending it. It could be that one or both of these things is true about the passage to New York located in Klugetown.

Unfortunately, the map Jordan found does not include more details about where the passage might be located. Only the name of the city on this side and the name on the other side. It could be this one is closed or hidden or secret. If Klugetown is not the answer, then our maps suggest we will be traveling a great distance.

The next closest passage to the Earth side is located somewhere called a Mount Aris. According to the scale of the map, the trip would be at least another 200 miles south and an indeterminate distance across open ocean. No matter how determined she is, I doubt Kaelynn would feel much like pulling a cart full of air with all of us inside it.

I haven't returned to speak with her again since my accidental discovery or hallucination. She hasn't brought it up with any of the others. She spent most of the day relaying suggestions for ways to make the filter. We purchased a couple of large clay pots from the caravan, along with charcoal and a few other ingredients. So we have the materials to make a filter.

Since we don't have a secondary vessel or pipes, we'll need to manually empty the contents into the filter and then use gravity to clean debris from the water, draining it back into the tank. But we need to do it soon. Kaelynn looks worse and worse every day. Her scales no longer shine, and her eyes are constantly cloudy and unfocused. I think she's going to get sick in there if we don't do something about it.

Fortunately, the caravan confirmed for us that Klugetown has access to ample water, so we should be able to refresh the tank as soon as we get there. Unfortunately that's the end of the good news for Kaelynn. The caravan had only seen people like Jordan before. Hoo'Far could not tell us what Blake, myself, or Kaelynn even were.

At dinner/breakfast we had a long conversation about what this might mean. If traveling through the portal causes such a significant transformation, it might be that the natives here are not descendants of human explorers after all. In fact, the transit mechanism makes us more like them. Or maybe it's none of the above and our theories about what's happening so far are completely wrong.

At least we'll have a city tomorrow. No one in the caravan spoke very highly of Klugetown’s libraries, but we were able to understand their words. The members of the other caravan seemed to speak perfect English.

But when we discussed our meeting after they had gone, Blake wondered how we had understood them as he heard them speak Spanish. That isn’t what I heard, or Jordan. At this point, it seems like every piece of new information just raises 10 more questions.

But we're not dead yet. One or two more days of travel and we will reach civilization. That civilization will probably not be very advanced based on what we saw from the caravan. I would say late middle ages, based on the way everything seemed handmade. But I could be wrong or maybe such a remote place just has less access to technology.

The last bit of information worth mentioning is that Hoo'Far knew nothing of other worlds. When we first asked, he mistook our question to mean we were looking for a way to return to a place called Equestria. He suggested booking an airship in Klugetown and flying there. Unfortunately, when it was clear to him we didn't know what an Equestria was, he didn't share further details with us. It might be something worth investigating when we reach Klugetown.

There is one matter of concern as we prepare to go in. The caravan suggested the city is a lawless and unfriendly place. If we appear weak, it may take advantage of us. When I'm done writing, I'm going to confront Blake and the others with what I think I can do.

If there are two of us that look big and strong, that should make us a less appealing target. Kaelynn also had a can of mace, so that's one weapon. We have plenty of knives that we can't use on account of not having any hands, but that's a challenge we'll face in another two days. We have a little more time to figure out our shit.

Then, hopefully, get home.

Chapter 9: Jordan

Jordan knew beyond any doubt that he had made a mistake. He should have pressured Ryan to go negotiating with Blake, and stayed back with Kaelynn. The fish might not be much of a conversationalist, but at least that way he wouldn't get himself into trouble.

He'd barely been in the other world for a week and already his mind was filled with strange things.

But if there was one way to fight back strange thoughts, it was work.

A bell rang loudly as they stepped into the shop, loud enough that his ears twitched once, and were halfway to covering themselves before the sound stopped. He kept going all the way to the counter, scanning the strange hybrid of shop and museum. The trouble was, he didn't know what they were looking for.

What would a map to a mysterious portal look like? The walls were lined with dirty glass shelves, and each one held something of reported value inside. But Jordan didn't think they could do much with "a piece of the Storm King's scepter" or "Grogar's other bell" whatever the hell either of those things were.

Evidence of more that we don't understand. The temptation to view this world as a featureless wasteland with nothing but a handful of human pioneers and their children inside was tremendous. That had been easy to believe when they just had an abandoned waystation and nothing else. But after their first conversation with Hoo’far, that guess decomposed fast.

The museum around them only amplified that view. There were maps on some of the displays, scrawled text about nations and kingdoms and wars.

At least they weren't left to linger with their doubts, surrounded by relics of unknown places and impossible histories. "Ponies from distant Equestria," said a voice, in a smooth, confident accent. "Exploring the world beneath your borders at last. Braving the strange and the unknown. Have no fear, you're in safe paws today. You'll find no friendlier shop in all of Klugetown."

"We're relieved to hear it," Blake said, vaguely in the direction of the sound. Jordan half expected him to correct the voice, as they'd corrected the merchant horse in the desert. But he didn't. "We've come looking for knowledge. Can you help us?"

Maybe it's better if they don't know we don't have family or clan to care that we're missing. The stronger you think we are, the better.

A figure slipped out from behind an oversized cabinet, stalking towards them. It stood on two legs, and thus towered over both of them. Even Blake seemed small by comparison.

But despite its height, the figure didn't seem that intimidating. He looked like a tabby cat, albeit one with a fancy coat. No boots though, to the disappointment of lovers of nursery rhymes everywhere. "What are the ponies searching for? I'm always happy to help travelers from Equestria. Even if I've never seen another creature quite like them."

He turned on Blake, clearly focusing on his horn and scales. "What kind of unicorn are you, if you don't mind my asking?"

Blake balked at the question, confused. Jordan was still staring himself, though recovering rapidly. Did this town have any rhyme or reason to the way its creatures looked? First the four of them had come out of the portal as horse things, then they met more horses on the road, but now they were surrounded with lizards and felines. Only the bird-things he'd seen flying overhead seemed to belong.

"I see you're worried. Don't be, my new friends. Observe." He made an exaggerated bow, producing something in one claw. A photograph, albeit in black and white. It showed him posing with a handful of... horse-creatures.

Jordan stared in earnest, taking in their distinct details. The horses all looked like girls, which was to say they looked like he did. A few had feathery wings, two had horns, but none had bat wings. None had scales either, which just agreed with what the cat had told them.

"You recognize them, I see. I helped save them from numberless perils while they visited here, and later assisted in the preservation of your entire nation. Don't think it was just ponies kicking the Storm King out. Group effort, group effort."

It was such a vomit of information that Blake's mouth just fell open a little lower. But Jordan was catching up. There was far too much information here for them to process it all at once. He didn't even bother, focusing instead on the most important detail: this cat wanted their trust. It had evidence of working with horses in the past, which might be real. Old-fashioned doctored photos hadn't been terribly convincing, so it probably was.

"We're looking for something especially strange," Jordan said. "My friend and I believe there is a... portal, located in your town. We don't know how to find it, or where it might be. Hopefully you could tell us?"

Jordan didn't own a cat anymore—traveling the world meant that he often couldn't be there to care for one, or make sure its needs were met. But he'd owned one while growing up. Maybe he was just anthropomorphizing the way this one tilted its head slightly, and one ear twitched. Or maybe he was reading it correctly, and he couldn't hide his interest.

"I should tell you I know nothing of it," he said, coat swirling as he turned his back on them. He stalked away, tail emerging from behind. Yet despite his longer legs, he didn't get that far. He wanted them to be close, and listening. “Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Capper, purveyor of rare goods and unknown mysteries.”

One of those people who loves the sound of their own voice. "That is the only safe answer."

"You know more about this, then. Please share," Blake said.

"So many have come searching over the years," Capper continued. "Usually just one creature, sometimes more. They come looking for a Worldgate. But they would be far better off if they did not find it. For most who enter..."

He spun around so abruptly his coat whipped and cracked behind him, little gemstones in the hem glittering in the pale light. "DO NOT RETURN!" He raised both arms then, exaggerating the posture for them. "The dangers are great, ponies. It would be a terrible disservice to the legacy of the Elements of Harmony to allow you to subject yourselves to such dangers."

Jordan nodded knowingly. Suddenly the entire act made sense. "We could reassure you that we're competent explorers, and we know the place we're trying to go. That's all true, but I think it would be easier if we skip past all that. What if we paid you for directions? Whatever happens to us on the other side is entirely our fault."

It was as though he'd spoken a magic spell. The cat smiled slyly at him. "I see the charming mare speaks my language. You thestrals were always a practical tribe. I swear you'll find this knowledge nowhere else. The locals will never speak of the Worldgate—they believe it cursed, as all know some relative or another who ventured through and did not return."

"Is it unsafe?" Blake asked dumbly. Jordan turned to glower at him. You're ruining the haggling ritual! But he was too dense to react, obviously, just blowing right ahead. "We want to know about all the dangers too."

"Oh, extremely dangerous," Capper said. He paraded around the room ahead of them, hopping up onto cabinets and furniture, walking delicately along the edge with just two paws. Somehow he looked built for it, though obviously he resembled no cat either of them had ever seen. "I just told you that creatures go and don't return. Weren't you listening?"

The more dangerous it sounds the more expensive a bribe we have to pay. This time Jordan didn't just hope, he shoved right in front of Blake, smacking him in the face with his tail and spreading both wings as wide as he could. It wasn't quite telling him to shut up, but it might as well be.

"I have a little gold," he said. "Would you accept it for directions? Write them down clearly, and include any details we need to know. We will be coming back this way, and would prefer to have a local informant we can trust."

He felt his tail smack into Blake's face, but ignored the sudden flash of hot indignance in his scent. He was being stupid, he just couldn't be told that yet.

"Of course," the cat said. "A little gold, and some directions. A fair enough exchange for my new pony friends in distress. And if you return, perhaps we will speak again. I know much that might be of service to you."

The actual haggling was just a formality after that—one that Blake mercifully didn't interrupt. Over the next few minutes, Jordan exchanged exactly three of their strange gold coins for a densely scribbled map written on a piece of many-times-erased parchment.

"But remember, the harm you find there is no fault of mine," Capper said, as they were slipping out the way they'd come. "I told you ponies, it was a place of great danger. Those who insist on finding it should not blame the messenger."

Blake shoved past Jordan, turning by the door. This time he just watched. They had the map already, so there wasn't much Blake could say to ruin things. Unless this cat had far more power than his con-artist persona let on. "Are there safer Worldgates anywhere else?"

The cat shrugged an ambivalent shoulder, adjusting his jacket. "Sadly these travelers inquire over a lost art. I specialize in collecting things in the now. But I know that the Worldgate here now is sometimes sought. Who knows—maybe you will find what you're looking for? Maybe that's why all the creatures who go inside don't come back. If you return to share information with me, I may give back some of what you paid me."

The offer would be meaningless if they succeeded—but considering the danger, it might be they would be back in Klugetown far sooner than they would've liked.

They didn't linger in the shop, but slipped back out the way they'd come. There was no reason to tempt fate, and leave the others alone any longer than they had to.

"I was handling it," Blake said, as soon as they were far enough from the shop. "I've dealt with his type before. Can't let them squeeze you, or they'll get you for every dollar."

"I gave them three coins," Jordan countered, sticking his tongue out. "Don't tell me you think we overpaid. We both know that isn't true."

The lizard-horse thing frowned back at him, unwilling to admit he was wrong. But that was Blake's thing. He didn't become their leader because he was easily persuaded.

"I'll decide when we follow the map," Blake finally said. "Maybe what he told us is complete bullshit. Then those coins were a complete waste, and we'll never get them back. Talking to him again would just be a way for him to extort a few more."

They slowed as they returned to street level. Blake glanced subconsciously behind him every few seconds, ears swiveling to try and point to something he couldn't find. But if Blake was right, and they were being followed, the one doing it was too clever to reveal themselves.

At least their cart wasn't a smoking crater, with the water poured out onto the ground and Kaelynn dead. Instead they found Ryan clutching something in one hoof, watching them with relief on his face.

"Thank god you made it back," he said. "Wasn’t sure how much longer we would last. At least three separate little lizard things have tried to rob us." He held up the can of mace with one hoof, shaking it. From the weight alone, Jordan could tell it was now mostly empty. "One of me is not enough to watch the whole cart, and there are so many directions to attack."

"You did good," Blake said, fishing around in his saddlebags a moment before coming up with the map. "Good news from our end too. We have a map. Local says it's dangerous, but I'm not really sure we have a choice."

"As long as there's no wendigo guarding it," Jordan began. "I'm sure it's friendlier than this place. Let's go."

Chapter 10: Kaelynn

Kaelynn watched from within her tank. It was all she could ever do. While her friends were out there putting themselves at risk to fight for her, protecting her from danger, she swam around in a tank, accomplishing nothing and putting everyone at greater risk.

When they arrived at their first real alien city, she was stuck inside the tank, swirling around with only what she could see above them for a view. More than once she started assembling the rebreather, preparing to put it on. But the water had been so dirty that lethargy always returned. She didn't want to do much of anything, there wasn't a point. Even if she did climb out, she was two legs short of enough to move around.

We've made the biggest discovery of our lifetimes and I barely even get to see it.

If only she could file a complaint with the magical portal, and request reassignment to a more useful body. Hell, she'd take getting her sex screwed with like Jordan, so long as it went back to normal when she returned to Earth.

While she agonized and deliberated, her friends dragged her through increasingly narrow alleys, leaving behind the wide boulevards filled with markets and voices so loud she heard them through the water. Now the ride was bumpy and unsteady, jerking her constantly. What happens if they hit a pothole and knock this over?

Of all the ways to die while exploring strange new worlds, Kaelynn would hate for the history books to say she drowned on dry land, flopping like a fish.

With the water clear now, it was easier to think, and even easier to ask. Her body hadn't recovered completely from those last few days—her scales were still faded, and scraps of partially-shed sections clung to her like peeling sunburns. She hadn't felt it before, but now that the water was clear it itched terribly. I need to get a brush in here to get all this off.

But for now, she could focus enough to don the rebreather, this time properly. All the familiar straps had been reconfigured, leaving her guessing while her friends struggled outside. But no matter how confused she always felt at first, there was never a strap or patch of Velcro out of place. Ultimately, everything had a purpose.

The mask covered her whole face, clear and contoured to match the muzzle that she saw whenever she looked down. It had to be, considering it only clung to her with simple pressure, using the straps that compressed the fins along her head. All just slightly uncomfortable.

I could do better with a real workshop. A single good scan, and I could print something to fit perfectly. Maybe one day she would—the portal between worlds didn't seem terribly interested to change the way she looked between visits.

No damn way I’m letting the others monopolize this just because I rolled like shit on my species assignment. She had already had more than one conversation with Ryan about the prosthesis she would eventually use, from the most basic rolling brace for her tail to a multi-thousand-dollar titanium exoskeleton she would probably only ever dream of.

Her getting dressed proved to be a fortunate decision, because soon enough they came to a stop, and Ryan's face appeared in the water above her. Not the copy of Blake this time—she didn't need to wonder who it really was. This was the bug. "We'll have to carry you the last little way," he said. "Get your—" He stopped, staring. "Oh. You already did."

She swam to the surface in a single stroke of her tail, poking out and testing the fit of her mask while she looked around. She twisted, tightening until there was only a faint moistness on her face under the mask.

If she thought they were on a bad side of town before, this was bad. The walls themselves were crumbling around them, with cloth dangling in rotting strands. A layer of garbage under their hooves had decomposed into a knee-high sludge that bogged down the cart and prevented them from moving any further.

Jordan caught her eyes, nodding grimly. "We're two levels down from the street. From the smell, Klugetown doesn't have a working sewer—everything just drifts. You do not want to know how big the rats are." He stood still while Blake loaded things onto his back—two sets of saddlebags, carrying so much that he strained visibly under all of it.

"Neither of you helping with all that?" she asked. There was a radio transmitter in the mask—but since none of the others had masks of their own, it did no good at all amplifying her voice, and she hadn't even switched it on. From the way they reacted, she guessed her voice seemed near whisper level, maybe even quieter.

"We're carrying you," Ryan said simply, gesturing to the ground in front of her. It was a large stretch of not-quite-clear fabric, tied in a tube. Ryan already stood in the middle of it, with his torso trapped. Blake could climb in the other half, and by stepping apart, they would have a makeshift wheelchair. "Yeah, we already checked it. About five minutes from here. There's water, so you'll be able to swim just like the last time."

"Wish we didn't have to leave the cart behind," Blake said. "But we'll just have to hope we don't need to come back for it. We're carrying everything else."

"I'm carrying everything else," Jordan corrected, voice crushed under the tremendous weight. But he managed to take a few steps, wincing with each one. "Dear lord, do we need all these food cans? We're not going to the Himalayas."

"Don't jinx it," Ryan countered. "Pretty sure I saw them on the map somewhere." He looked up, moving a little closer to the edge. "Think you can get yourself out, Kaelynn?"

She didn't wait to answer, hoisting herself over the edge. She fell several feet, landing on the fabric sling with a painful thump. She grunted, rolling slightly to one side to get her fins out from under her. "I am never visiting an aquarium ever again," she said. "Now that I know what dolphins go through in captivity. This is inhumane."

"None of us are human," Jordan said, unhelpfully. "But I don't think aquariums keep dolphins in a 500-gallon tank."

Blake slid into the harness, jostling her again. But she held still, waiting as he straightened, carrying her up with him. After a few seconds of struggling, they finally started forward.

The air burned where it touched scales, like she was sunburning in a matter of seconds. Of course there was no sun down here, nothing but a diffuse glow from either side.

Jordan led the way, though for him the path was almost as difficult. He wobbled while going over even slight inclines, threatening to dump all their stuff into the almost-mud. "So we learned some stuff from the conman who sold us this map," he called back. "Some of it might be useful. Some of it might even be true."

Kaelynn glowered at Jordan's retreating back. Granted, there was little pleasant to see when she did it. They were all fully dressed, or at least as dressed as their bodies had been when they crossed from Earth. For some reason the interdimensional magic powerful enough to rewrite them and everything they carried didn't bother covering their junk.

"Don't freak them out," Blake said. "He sounded honest telling us about the portal. And we're paying customers. He's better off if we come back to ask for more."

Jordan shrugged one of his wings noncommittally. "We know what they're properly called, for one. 'Worldgates.' Also, he said it's dangerous on the other side."

"Are we sure it even goes to our world?" Ryan asked. "Protecting our stuff from those lizard things had me thinking. We look so different than everything else here. Like... the four of us could come from the same planet, you know? Same thing with that merchant we met on the way in. But these lizards, they just don't fit."

"Neither did the con-artist," Jordan offered helpfully. "He was a cat, with everything right except for the spine. And being damn huge compared to us. But other than those things. He doesn't look like a horse at all."

"Exactly." Ryan fell silent for a moment as they descended a ramp.

Kaelynn winced with every bumping step. Her tail sagged from the back of the harness, dragging through the dirt behind them. Everything hurt, and her body felt warmer by the second. This was rapidly turning into a worse trip than crossing the whole desert.

"I'm wondering if maybe this world is some kinda... crossroads. People from lots of other worlds all end up here for some reason. Maybe it isn't the destination that changes us. Maybe the Worldgate changes humans the same way. Because of nature, or common ancestry, or whatever. But for whatever reason, we end up horses, while the otherworlders look like lizards. And... cats, apparently. Two legs?"

"Two legs," Blake confirmed. "But this speculation seems pointless. The map had names of human places next to cities on this side. Seems obvious it's just our world that's connected. Two places tied together, for reasons that we can't understand."

"Nature doesn't really do that number," Ryan argued. "There's zero, one, and infinity."

"Just walk," she grunted, pointing ahead of them with one feeble hoof. "Please. I am turning into a seaweed cracker over here."

They sped up, or at least Blake did. The others were all at the edge of their strength, particularly Jordan. But at least they didn't have much further to go.

There was no diffuse glow of sunlight through water up ahead this time. They passed through a final doorway, then stopped abruptly beside a reservoir.

This water wasn't crystal clear from some deep aquifer. Rather, it smelled exactly like the well-water they had used to fill her tank. She might've complained about it, if her whole body wasn't burning with the unpleasantness of being in the air.

"Don't stare," she barked. "Seriously guys, I'm drying out. Put me in before you stare."

She didn't stop squirming until they finally did, lowering her down beside the tank.

Kaelynn slipped eagerly inside, shoving off the makeshift harness and lifting the mask to perch atop her face. The water didn't taste as clean as the sterile trickle her mask gave her, but it was worlds better than what she'd swam in her last few days.

Kaelynn didn't even care what the others were doing—suddenly she had more room to move than she had at any point on this side. She swam with all her might, giggling to herself as she circled the tank. She could've studied its interlocking ceramic construction, or the writing faintly pressed into the tiles. But she just didn't care.

Whether two minutes or an hour, she couldn't say—but eventually, she realized the others had waded in above her. There were no steps here—they had to tread water above the tank, a subjective twenty feet of liquid. They all wore saddlebags now, instead of just Jordan.

Ryan waved her over, and she took in the biggest breath of water she could, rising out onto land beside him.

"Looks dark down there," he said. "Do you think it's safe, Kaelynn?"

She nodded. She held herself there above the water, despite the mild discomfort on her exposed scales. Compared to the nightmare of being carried down, this might as well be a spa. She couldn't speak to them, at least not very well, but found she didn't have to.

"Help us down," Blake said, swimming over to her in the water. "Just like last time, only further away. Everyone get ready to go under."

The process took longer than if they'd had the right limbs, but fortunately everyone had clothing strapped to them one way or another. Kaelynn waited until they were all close, then counted them off in her loudest shouting just below the water.

"Three... two... one!" She flipped, diving straight down as fast as she could. There was an opening in the bottom of the tank, with a steady current vanishing into indeterminate darkness. She had kept well away from that until now.

But now she dove straight in, dragging the whole group behind her. Her tail worked furiously as she swam. But far from painful, all this work was a relief to her. Finally, Kaelynn could get some of that energy out. Too bad there was no underwater gym equipment.

Then she swam into the flow, and Ryan's hooves on her harness were ripped away. She kept herself steady in the water, holding her breath.

There was no exact moment of transition—she took a breath, and cool air hissed down her throat. She now wore a rebreather over her tight swimsuit, the only piece of clothing she'd still been wearing. Good thing it changed back to serve its original purpose on this side.

She helped the others to the surface of the water one after another, since of course she had practically unlimited bottom time compared to any of them. In the glow of her dive-computer, she could see bricks all around her, repeating in an endless procession of drab red.

She broke the surface last, finally looking around at her surroundings.

They weren't outside—but the dark water had told her that. She could see the ceiling far above, a faint gray suggestion of arches and exposed, slowly-rusting steel. The walls had been cylinders once, and she could guess where they'd ended up.

"Ready to walk with the rest of us, fish?" Ryan asked, lowering one arm down towards her.

Ordinarily she would've been the last one out of the water, and found any excuse to learn what she could about whatever was inside. This time she took the offered hand eagerly, bracing against the wall to help him lift her free.

She panted, flipping the visor off her face and catching her breath. Her skin was red and splotchy, with peeling white patches like two-week-old sunburns.

Around them was the sort of destination they would've normally visited. They were near the side of a rail tunnel, with bricks and mortar worn down and paint faded beyond readability.

Kaelynn's urban explorer instincts kicked in, and her eyes jumped to the collapsed support beams and rusting steel to one side, where the bricks had deformed so much they finally collapsed in an impassable tunnel. Behind them the tunnel widened into the darkness, large enough that their flashlights only caught a few pillars.

"No track below us," Blake said. He sat beside the water, going through his saddlebags. "Not sure which abandoned tunnel this is. Any of you recognize it?"

No one answered in the affirmative. Kaelynn adjusted the straps on her shoulders, then started walking towards the opening. She fiddled with her headlamp as she went, and ignored Blake's call of protest. She hadn't been able to do this for a week now, she was sure as hell going to stretch her legs.

Ryan was the first to catch up with her, oversized flashlight in hand. "You sure we should be getting away from the others?"

"No," she answered, without slowing down. "But I don't know if we're going back yet. This is my first freedom from solitary confinement."

He nodded, then answered in a feeble whisper, "I'd trade with you. I can walk around just fine, but the others have some kinda... instinct. They're afraid of me, and it sucks."

"Afraid why?" she asked, not bothering to lower her voice nearly as much as he had. "Pretty sure you're the smallest one of all of us over there. Those fangs are like, maybe half an inch."

He shrugged. "Instinct, I'm guessing. We haven't had the time for an exhaustive study of how that world works. When it does happen, it probably won't be us. Maybe someone can go over the footage."

He fell silent as they reached the end of the tunnel, stepping out into a much larger space.

Columns rose to either side in a regular grid, with clear openings between them exactly large enough for a train to use.

To the left was a platform, covered in construction equipment. Or rather, it had been, maybe a century ago. Kaelynn could see an honest to god steam shovel parked on the path ahead of them, along with bundles of steel so rusted that red cascaded down from them in thick flakes.

The corpses were the worst, though.

Kaelynn wasn't superstitious, and she usually wasn't bothered by mysterious remains they sometimes stumbled into during their exploration. But there weren't usually so many in one place.

She grunted as she struggled up onto the platform, though the weight of the rebreather on her back meant she didn't make it up very high. But Ryan soon offered her a hand, helping her to her feet.

There were at least a dozen of them, maybe more. The moisture in the air had made short work of whatever they'd once looked like, leaving only vaguely-brown stained bits of cloth and bleached bone with only scraps of flesh.

Every one of them looked human, or as human as bones looked at a glance. She didn't feel much like getting closer.

Is there something in here with us, like last time? She dropped to one knee, glancing feverishly around the station. There were plenty of little places to hide behind pillars and equipment. Not to mention where one of the pillars had collapsed, taking down part of the ceiling with it. Her flashlight shone back against old bricks, catching fragments of words and old white paint.

"What's up there?" Blake asked from somewhere behind them. "Do you see the way up?"

"No," she answered. "Just corpses."

"The cat was right!" Jordan exclaimed, sounding like himself again. "People really did die here!"

Chapter 11: Ryan

Ryan flicked the flashlight through the air ahead of him, scanning the room as rapidly as he could. He'd seen the indistinct nightmare-shape that hunted Paris, so at least he knew what to look for.

He twitched faintly at every noise, whether it be the squelching of Kaelynn's wet shoes or Jordan heaving himself up onto the platform behind him. Anything they did might give them away, or else wake some nightmare-thing dozing in the gloom.

The others joined them on the platform one after another, and still nothing moved. Maybe they were safe. But we didn't see that thing stalking us until our second visit last time.

Maybe the same rule would apply, and they wouldn't be attacked. His heart pounded in his chest for another few seconds, but still nothing jumped at them.

"First order of business, what killed these people?" Blake aimed his headlamp squarely at the nearest corpse, approaching it with a boldness none of them could quite imitate.

Except that Kaelynn was watching, so Ryan straightened and followed. There was little more than bones left of this body, which made it easier to look at. The clothes were entirely unplaceable—not the style of some century-old construction worker, maybe with a steel helmet and gas lamp on the front. The scraps hanging from this poor fellow wrapped in strange patterns, connecting in multiple layers and with strange openings in back.

"Wonder if this was a lizard," Blake said, pointing a boot at the same opening he'd been considering. "Sorry if this shoots holes in your 'crossroads' theory. But this looks like Manhattan to me. Which would make these people..."

Ryan swayed a moment, nearly falling to one knee. Why was his head pounding?

Kaelynn was the first to react. She looked around at the others, slipping her mask down over her face. While he stared, she drew something out from the tube across her chest—a tiny box of waterproof matches.

She struck one. There was a brief flash of white light, then it burned low, quickly turning into an ember.

Even with his head pounding, he knew what that meant—bad air. For it to hit so hard, the oxygen levels in the air around them must be frighteningly low.

He flicked his hand back the way they'd come. He swayed as he reached Jordan, taking one of his arms and dragging him forward. Kaelynn remained nearby, though her rebreather had no octopus to share with them. It wasn't scuba gear—there was only enough air in that thing for a few breaths, getting constantly recycled.

For Ryan, every step was hard. He didn't try to talk. There was nothing to say. He checked once to see that Blake was still following, and he was. He was the tallest and strongest of their number, and seemed a little more resistant. But it would kill him just the same.

They said it was dangerous, said people didn't come back. Doesn't have to be a magical monster hiding in a cavern of bones if there's natural gas in the air, or depleted soil eating up all the oxygen.

The ones who came before had made it further, but not much further. That was the trouble with oxygen deprivation, it was so hard to realize what was happening until you were already screwed.

The short walk back down the tunnel had taken minutes last time, but now it felt like they were hiking halfway up Everest. But Ryan couldn't puke—his stomach had been empty for a week.

Kaelynn slipped into the water without anyone having to suggest it, finally lifting the mask from her face. "A few breaths each," she said. "Take them and go. We can't do it at the same time, but I don't think it matters."

"Air doesn't feel as bad here," Jordan muttered. "We could try something."

"No," Blake said flatly. "I didn't see any exits. Unless Kaelynn wants to stick around and look."

"If I didn't need it more on the other side," she said. "I'm not burning a few hours alone in this super haunted old subway tunnel. Jordan, you're up. Clear your head and go."

He nodded, sloshing into the water beside her. "Goodbye, dick," he said, with an overdramatic pat. "You don't know what I'm sacrificing to survive this."

"No, you don't," Ryan said. It didn't matter how much his head hurt. He stumbled forward into a sitting position beside the water, preparing to go himself. But not standing up would make it easier on his body while he waited. "I'll trade you. You be the freaky predator everyone hates. I'll be the girl."

Jordan made a rude gesture, then vanished under the water. Ryan could only splash vainly after him, as his friend swam away. "Makes it out like it's some curse or something. I'm the one who's cursed."

Kaelynn rolled her eyes, foisting the rebreather on Ryan. He took it, biting into the silicone and breathing deeply, then out. After a few seconds, the headache began to subside. "Everyone thinks they're cursed, except Blake. He did fine."

Blake shrugged. "Sometimes you get lucky. Go on, Ryan. We'll see you there."

He took one last breath, then passed the mouthpiece back and kicked off the side. He had no goggles, no headlamp, so the water burned against his face. But it would soon do a whole lot more.

Indeed, the current grabbed him in an irresistible torrent, tearing him down into the gloom. Every time he passed, Ryan watched for the moment of transition, where his human body became the freak that everyone hated. But again he failed to sense it. Suddenly he was paddling with four legs, with clothes that covered nothing and gear that threatened to drag him down.

He kicked and fought, struggling towards the surface. There was light on this end, albeit faint. He could see another outline above him—Jordan's. But his body was weaker than the others, and he'd come through already drained.

He gasped, wings buzzing now. Maybe he could copy Kaelynn again, and swim to freedom? But there was no one to copy but the pony up above, and he was so weak already... his hooves touched against the bottom of the tank, a short distance from the entrance.

He reached up, struggling to release the saddlebags. Maybe without so much weight, he could float to the surface!

Something gripped him on his saddlebags, yanking him upward through the water. It was Jordan, fighting desperately to lift him to safety. In that instant, Ryan's hunger and fatigue vanished in an eyeblink. Jordan was trying to lift him, and getting dragged down by his weight. He fought anyway.

He couldn't say where the strength came from—but Ryan started kicking again. This time, he pushed upward off the bottom, carrying them both up with him. They drifted together through the water, then broke the surface along the side a few seconds later.

Ryan gasped and panted, then water started pouring out of his throat. His body stiffened and seized, and more came. Several liters worth spilled out of the tank, with him leaning just over the edge, muscles tightening and relaxing involuntarily.

"Alright, that’s... creepy as all hell." The taste of triumph and relief soured with a little familiar revulsion, as Jordan backed away from the water's edge. "Seriously, I did not need to see that."

"See what? You mean spitting up all that water after nearly drowning? Sure, I'll just swallow it." The hostility didn't reach his words. For the first time since arriving in this other world, the hunger wasn't just gone. He actually felt full.

But Jordan was entirely oblivious. He shook himself out, water dripping down his wings, soaking his mane and tail flat to his body. Blake was right about the bat looking cute, even if he'd never admit it. "That wasn't coughing. Your, like... whole shit opened. I think I saw into your veins or something." He shuddered, turning away. "I know we think the lizards don't fit, but damn. That is alien level shit."

Ryan didn't argue. Not only had he not been watching, but he had felt incredibly weird for a second. Muscles contracting and opening all involuntarily. Maybe I don't breathe the same way they do. Bugs have networks of tubes and lots of little holes, but I'm too big for that to work. Unless there's way more oxygen on this side.

There were so many questions about how the other world worked that they couldn't even begin to answer. If only they could find a reliable, safe crossing, they could get proper instruments.

Blake broke the water next, with Kaelynn circling around at almost the same moment. Of course, she didn't have to be strong enough to make it to the surface, just to get to the opening.

"So much for your freedom," Ryan said, letting one hoof trail into the water to get her attention. "We weren't even back for ten minutes."

Kaelynn's smooth outline circled him a few times before she broke the surface. "It blows," she said. "But it's nobody's fault. Fully enclosed tunnel like that could..." She dropped for a moment, then popped back up again. Even still, she was barely audible. Her body just wasn't built for talking above the water. "Bad air. A dozen different ways it could happen. What do we do next?"

Blake and Jordan circled around the opening, close enough to hear. "The next nearest portal is somewhere called Mount Aris," Jordan said. "But it isn't near like this was. If the scale's the same everywhere, it would be hundreds of miles. There are no cities between us and them, at least not marked on the map. So we probably have to charter an airship."

"Sounds pretty badass when you say it like that," Ryan said. Maybe it was just being full for the first time in a week, or maybe it was Jordan being the one to say it. But that enthusiasm was suddenly infectious. "Imagine what it's going to be like to tell this story. Yeah, we survived another universe. No big deal, we just went around in our flying pirate ship."

"It won't be a pirate ship," Blake said. "If it is, we screwed up royally. Seemed like airships were pretty common, if they have their own dock. Hopefully there's a passenger ship already going. The only tricky part will be..."

"Me," Kaelynn spat. "You can come out and say it. I know how inconvenient I am. If you want to call me out for not searching the other side, you can do that too."

Blake didn't. "We're all making it out of this. That doesn't mean it won't be hard, Kaelynn. It isn't your fault we have to make accommodations for you. We just need to realize our limits and work around them. That's going to mean finding a ship that can take you.

"But before we worry about any of that, we need to get back to the cart. I was kinda hoping that we wouldn't need that thing again."

"At least we failed completely," Jordan said. "We've barely been gone ten minutes. If we had to climb all the way to street level, it would be gone for sure."

The optimism might be infectious, but that didn't mean the trip back was pleasant. They still had the cloth they'd used as a harness. At Kaelynn's request, they soaked it completely with water before lifting her inside, and giving Jordan all their weight to carry.

The bat was right about one thing: the cart was still there. Good thing too, since Kaelynn probably would've died without it. After a few minutes of struggle to get her back inside, they packed all their stuff back aboard.

"Are you two going to look for merchants?" Ryan asked, as soon as they were finished. "Honestly, I think we could wait down here. I don't smell anyone on this floor with us. We're probably safer here than we were out in the open."

"Can you live with the smell?" Blake asked, face already turning a shade of green. The smell wasn't so bad close to the portal, but it worsened rapidly out by the road.

"I'll swim," he answered absently. "Kaelynn barely got the chance to talk to anyone. Better to talk to a twin than nobody."

"Isn't that... weird?" Jordan asked. His ears flattened as he said it, tone obviously self-conscious. "I mean, if you're her, then you're her." He swished his tail a few times, though whatever that was supposed to mean, he couldn't tell. "I wouldn't do this to myself if I had a choice."

"You mean being a girl?" That should probably bother me. But when Ryan thought about it, he found only eagerness to spend time with Kaelynn. Copying her was no more significant than putting on a hat. "It's not like it's really me. These bodies aren't real. They're just the way this weird place works. Put it on, take it off."

"Yeah that's weird." Jordan flicked his tail, vanishing out the entrance.

Blake lingered another moment. "Don't get distracted in there," he whispered. "Keep that mace handy, just in case. This might take longer than the last time. We'll have to ask around, check rates and stuff. Might be a few hours."

"We'll be fine," Ryan said, though he wasn't sure where the confidence came from. How could so much change just by not being hungry? "But hurry back, just in case."

Chapter 12: Jordan

Finding a ship wasn't as hard as Jordan might've expected.

He'd seen the docks waiting near the edge of town, and from the constant coming and going of vessels parked there. That meant real commerce taking place in Klugetown, and hopefully an opportunity to find someone to take them away.

It took only a few hours of inquiring before they finally found a ship with the facilities to bring a fish along. Part of the process had just been figuring out what terms to use to communicate their goals.

But then they met Captain Callahan, and suddenly everything made sense. "You're looking for a ship that can fly hippogriffs!" he exclaimed, after ten painful minutes of explanation. "Like one who lost their pearl in a far country. It just so happens that we are so equipped."

Should it have reassured Jordan that the captain was more "like them" and less the bipedal lizard creatures of indeterminate origin and nature? Or maybe he should've been more deeply concerned by the obvious beak and talon that meant him and the rest of his crew were predators.

"How long is the trip?" Jordan asked. "The mountain seemed decently close on maps, but that's still several hundred miles."

"Don't know how you ponies reckon distance," he said, stalking around them. He wore an oversized leather jacket and cap, concealing much of the body beneath. But like the state of their clothing upon arrival, he didn't seem to care what the jacket covered when he moved.

"See that?" He pointed towards the sails overhead, and several thin streamers whipping and cracking in the breeze. "Favorable southerly currents. If you were headed north, it would be another matter entirely. But there's usually a good wind moving south in this corridor. Warmer air spiraling towards the poles. If she turns against us, we will have to make the trip under engine power, and divert away from the water as far as course allows."

Jordan yanked on Blake's collar, meeting his eyes silently. He nodded once, though he didn't dare say more. It wouldn't be right to speak about the bird as though he weren't even there.

"Sounds like you might be the vessel for the job, Captain Callahan. When would we leave?"

"By morning," he answered. "You and the other two passengers could make yourselves at home in the meantime. My crew will need at least an hour's notice to make the cabin ready. And payment in advance."

Without spending time in this strange world, there was no way to be exactly sure about what the money was actually worth. Was five coins per head a good price? It drained their supplies significantly, but if this were the trip that got them home, it wouldn't matter.

"I hope you were sure about that guy," Blake muttered, as they hurried back down the streets of Klugetown towards their hidden cart. "I didn't like the look of his crew. Shady as hell."

"Our instincts are working against us," Jordan said. “Think about Ryan for a minute. He's our friend, and he hasn't changed at all. He's terrifying and he can't help it. I think the other locals might be the same way. Can't listen to your gut when you don't know where we are or why anything works the way it does."

Blake didn't answer for a long time, long enough for them to slip back into the darkest alleys where little light shone down from overhead. Jordan barely even thought about the gloom. Even in near darkness, he hadn't once felt so blind that he couldn't see. Being a bat did come with at least one advantage.

"Not everything my gut tells me is wrong," he said. "Ryan can be different than we expect because he's not from here. He's not a... whatever he is. None of us are. But those birds—maybe they are? I dunno. Is that racist?"

Jordan shrugged. "Callahan seemed fine to me. He volunteered all kinds of information about the journey. If he was trying to rip us off, he could've pressed a lot harder for more gold. He probably guessed we had more."

"You're probably right." Blake glanced over his shoulder, but if they were still being followed their pursuers were too clever to show any sign. "I'll be glad to spend the night aboard a ship, instead of out in the open. I should probably be grateful for that."

They found the cart exactly where they'd left it, and mercifully, with all the passengers intact.

"No visits this time," Ryan said, once he'd clambered from the water and changed back into himself. "Maybe word got around that we're not helpless. Or the smell is so bad nobody wanted to follow."

"The latter," Jordan said, covering his mouth with a bandanna. "Seriously, this is the worst. Let's get to the ship."

Before they left, they had to give Ryan a moment to catch his breath, then dress up like Blake again.

This time instead of looking away and letting fear rule him, Jordan stared, watching the entire process intently. If he could figure out how to imitate those powers, he could get a body more suitable. Even looking like Blake would be preferable. Probably.

"How did you know how to do that?" He asked the off-brand Blake. Ryan's imitations were accurate right down to the clothes, like holding a mirror up to the boss. "Were you expecting to find an alien portal in Paris?"

"No," Ryan said, in Blake's voice. Despite perfectly capturing the tone, he did nothing to imitate the inflections and speech patterns. He must still be Ryan on the inside. "I told you the story, Jordan. I felt it... I can't tell you where it came from. Must be as natural to copy things as to breathe. Neither of you have figured out any powers, have you?"

"No," Jordan snapped. "Unless you count seeing in the dark. But the automatic reflexes don't take figuring out. Eyes just work."

"I think I coughed fire once," Blake said absently. "But maybe that curry had really gone off. Dunno."

"Coughed fire," Ryan repeated. "Not sure what that makes you. Horse dragon thing... but what are any of us?"

"Pony." Jordan tapped his chest with a hoof. "That's what the captain called me. Capper too. When he wasn't calling me a mare, anyway. Guess we are smaller than most of what lives here, so it might be the right word."

"Don't let it get to you." Blake reached over, patting him on the shoulder. "We're going home soon, remember? Focus on that."

"Yeah. I know. I was just... hoping for a magic bullet. Hell, Ryan. Why limit yourself to just copying us? Just be yourself again!"

He rolled his eyes, or at least it looked like he did as Jordan and Blake started securing harnesses. Maybe it would look slightly suspicious to have a bigger, stronger looking 'pony' not helping pull. But having someone who wasn't slowed down with straps and clips would also make them seem better defended.

"I have no reason to believe I can do anything else," Ryan said, as soon as they started moving again. "I'm ditto without the face thing. Exact copies are my jam. Well, exact copies and looking like a hideous bug. Both of those.

They didn't have much time to discuss during the walk back across town. Even if they had been crossing through somewhere perfectly safe, this part of Klugetown was so overgrown and destroyed that they had to focus completely on the cart.

They didn't get to make mistakes. Every time they took a bump too quickly and the cart wobbled to one side or the other, Jordan felt a brief surge of panic. He was the one pulling, could he live with the guilt of accidentally murdering Kaelynn?

They took the trip nice and slow, at least until they got the cart back onto solid ground. Once there, the pressure of fear manifested in the corner of his mind, albeit not as strong as Blake's paranoia. There were eyes on them, that was undeniable—but even without all that, it was getting dark.

Jordan could still see just as well, even better than their guide in fact. Soon he swapped with Ryan, taking over leading them. But just because they wouldn't accidentally crash the cart into a pothole somewhere didn't mean he could lead them safely.

Maybe the shadowy figures marching with metal on their bodies were police patrolling the streets, and that was why nothing attacked them. Alternatively, maybe what Jordan had suggested about ignoring their instincts might be true for the streets as well. Who was to say the locals weren't friendly?

Even so, the hike to the docks took over an hour while pulling a cart. They toiled between mostly shuttered alleys and darkened boulevards, with only slitted eyes from crags of rock to keep them company.

Until they finally reached the docks, and Callahan's ship near the edge of the long expanse.

The docks themselves were built over the jagged edge of a cliff, where Klugetown plummeted down into rocky crags unseen and unimagined. Far in the distance below, Jordan thought he could hear crashing waves and surf. But even his vision wasn't that good.

They found a member of Callahan's crew near the dock, waiting for them. A long ramp was already extended, and beside the predatory bird was a... harness of sorts.

Like a bathtub, except that it had six sets of sturdy wheels, and tall sides. The bottom section was entirely brass, and something inside it hummed constantly.

"Captain said you'd be coming," grunted the sailor. He wore almost nothing, just an oversized cap on his head and a belt with a rusty cutlass that dragged when he turned too quickly. "I assume you're 'Blake' and company? Four passengers, including the hippogriff?"

"That's us," Blake said, unbuckling himself from the harness and stepping forward. "How do we do this?"

The sailor took hold of the rolling contraption, settling it up against the cart. "Your fourth will have to get in on their own. Less space than what you have, but we can't take that much weight of water aboard."

"Get her," Blake said, nodding to Jordan. "Nothing much we can do about the inconvenience. Captain said we'd be able to load the cart dry as part of our passage. I assume that's still fine?"

"Fine," the sailor grumbled, pointing. "You can drain the tank over the cliff there. Not our fault if there are any poor saps flying down there."

Jordan peeked in over the tank, waving one hoof. "Hey!"

Kaelynn swam to the surface in an eyeblink, already dressed in her rebreather harness. "We ready?"

Jordan pointed. "They have a smaller tank for you to travel in. When we talked to the captain earlier today, he was insistent it would be safe for you. They've taken 'hippogriffs' before."

"I'm not a hippogriff," Kaelynn muttered. "Haven't you ever seen harry potter?"

Jordan ignored her, pointing with a wing this time. "We can help you climb down if you need it."

She didn't. Despite being a fish, Kaelynn had surprising strength outside the water with her forelegs. Enough to flop over the side, and splash down the few-foot distance between the large tank and the transport one.

The transport pod had opaque metal sides, which wasn't that surprising. Despite the airships, this world didn't seem nearly as advanced as the one they'd left. Plexiglass just wouldn't exist here.

Even so, Jordan glanced in over the side, squinting down at where Kaelynn now squirmed. The interior wasn't just a blank container, but had a dense mesh along one side, and a spigot near the other, with a thin layer of gravel on the bottom.

Guess there's a way to keep the water clean when someone has to live in it. Not too surprising.

The sailor leaned in over the side, staring just as they did. Finally something made him react with anything more than exasperation. He stared down at Kaelynn, mouth hanging open. "Are you sure that's a hippogriff you're flying with?" he asked. "She doesn't look like any I've seen. Way too small, and the fins are all wrong."

Kaelynn sat up, and doing so brought her head almost to the surface. She only had to push up a short distance to glare at them. "I don't know what I am," she said. "But I'm not a hippogriff. Isn't that what you are?"

The sailor's eyes narrowed. "No, I'm a griffon, obviously." He flopped down onto the ground before them, apparently losing interest. "Empty your cart of water, then follow me. We'll be flying with sunrise, so you'll want to get everything situated now."

"Not exactly first-class airline flying," Jordan whispered. "But I'll take it. So long as it can get us to Mount Aris. I've been saving some battery on the GoPro, so I should be able to get some good footage while we're in the air."

"That could be cool," Ryan agreed. "Most of what we got were pictures of deserts. Don't want to make scientists think this place was Arrakis or whatever. Get more of the diversity on film."

Chapter 13: Jordan

Jordan drifted. There was no telling what caused him to do more than simply sleep; maybe it came from being somewhere he felt safe. Maybe it was just exhaustion, or random chance. Whatever the reason, he drifted.

This time the sensation was not new to him, and he was quick to recognize the strangeness of it. He was flying effortlessly, he no longer felt confused and uncomfortable about his own body, no longer ached to be back home. For a time all he did was drift along those feelings, enjoying the relief that came from a lack of pressure and stress.

The longer he drifted, gliding through foggy starlight on bat wings, the more he wondered. Why did he feel different during his visits than he did in waking? Was something strange erasing his feelings, or only helping illuminate the truth?

There was no one to ask, because he was alone. But he hadn't been last time. Where had he found that other pony again? Down.

Instead of falling, Jordan tilted down into a dive. He didn't know how to fly exactly, but that mattered far less. He knew he wanted to be somewhere else, and that flying would get him there. That was enough for a dream.

Rather than crashing into the stony floor, he skidded to a stop, kicking up dust and sand. But he managed to keep his footing on strange pony legs. They weren't strange here, really. He was the right height off the ground, and the balance of his weight made perfect sense. How else would he look?

There was an opening in the ground before him, just like he'd seen last time. Steps descended into the earth, and he took them two at a time. Now he had a purpose: he was searching for someone. Pale Light—would he find Pale Light here?

The cavern was just as he remembered. Its walls were decorated with scrawling in an unreadable language, ritual patterns and spells that seemed to have meaning but he could not read.

He found no bat waiting for him this time, though, smelling strong and trustworthy.

This time, he found an open door, creaking slowly on its hinges and swinging closed. He had only a split-second to decide—and there was never really any question about his choice. Jordan had devoted his life to exploring forbidden places, not staying where it was safe and googling pictures.

He leapt through the opening, folding his wings to his sides and dodging around the heavy wood. It banged closed behind him, then vanished.

For a second Jordan stood in place, utterly dumbfounded by the transition.

He stood in a dense forest of evergreen trees, with loamy brown soil and many rich ferns unfurling towards the moon.

It shone down on him from overhead, as bright and warm as sunlight on his naked body. Come to think of it, that didn't bother him either.

He glanced over his shoulder towards the door, and found a broken doorway carved of cracked gray stone, with a few sections hovering just slightly out of position with the rest. There was no door anymore, or sign of the cavern. Just more forest, and the moon shining like the stars.

Crickets chirped, and his nose filled with a familiar pine smell, inviting him to venture deeper into the forest. Jordan had never really been much into camping—it was what people built that fascinated him. But sometimes the most interesting places had been overgrown by nature. Maybe this door was one of many. What else could he find here?

A familiar smell, as it turned out. He hesitated, sniffing eagerly. That same confidence about himself also applied to his senses. That wasn't just a horse smell, he knew that bat.

Jordan didn't think about how he did it, he just took off, dodging up through the canopy and along the numberless trees. Cat eyes stared as he left the ground behind, though he didn't fly far above the trees. His target wasn't really that far away. Flying wasn't practical, it was fun.

The scent was close, or maybe it was more of the strange time of dreams, but suddenly he could see a pony below, searching through a ruin.

It looked a little like a library, if it had been made from a tree as big as a skyscraper, then exploded. The structure had expanded outward in all directions, scattering shelves and books around it for miles. They covered the ground, flattened the trees, and obscured the grass and dirt.

The bat didn't look up—how quiet was he flying, exactly? Didn't matter. Jordan dove again. But the ground here was books, not dirt. They scattered from around him, raining down behind him as though they weighed nothing.

Finally Pale noticed him, spinning and baring his fangs—but only for a second. He caught himself, wings falling limp to either side. "Wait a minute... I know you."

"You do!" he declared, slipping past him to inspect the bookshelf he'd been digging through. He lifted one of the books in his hoof, flipping through it.

He shouldn't have been surprised. Jordan had tried reading in dreams before, and the result here was no different. Sentences were printed inside, but they made less sense than a chatbot. "Where dolls deem lecture gyms army..." He flipped it closed. "The hell are you reading, Pale?"

The bat closed the distance between them in a few steps. "You shouldn't even... be here. Jordan, right? I thought you weren't trained in Oneiromancy. Didn't you say you were just asleep?"

"Yeah." He settled down on his haunches beside the bookshelf, looking up. "I'm asleep. You told me that, remember? This isn't a real place, I'm just like... my mind is here or something."

"The Dreamlands is a real place," Pale Light said flatly. "It's a real, nonphysical place. It's formed of essence organized by sleeping minds. Every ensouled being resides here while they slumber, but..." He trailed off, turning back the way he came. "You descended the 7,770 steps of deeper slumber, and passed into the Dreamlands. Are you Luna's daughter or something? Everypony knows the princesses have been with other ponies before, but..."

"I'm gonna go with no," Jordan said. "I told you before, I'm from another world. I think I'm in yours currently, but... I'm not from here. My parents are from Minnesota, real traditional farmer types. They'd never have a name like 'Luna.’ That's 'hippie shit.' But if you mean that big door, it was kinda already open? I just walked through it."

The bat only seemed more confused, though at least he didn't waste more time questioning Jordan's honesty. "You're the strangest mare I've ever met here," Pale finally said, pushing him gently off the shelf with one hoof. He started digging through it again, inspecting each cover before tossing them aside.

Overhead, burned wood creaked and groaned under their weight. But Pale Light didn't seem particularly bothered by it, so Jordan ignored it too.

"Oh hey! I have like a million questions for you," Jordan continued. He didn't block the shelf this time, but remained just close enough that the bat wouldn't be able to look away.

He didn't look away from his work, though after going through the shelf he soon turned away, trudging over to another and dumping out old books. Many were burned beyond recognition, though Jordan could see a few were intact. Though why anyone would want to read what they said, he couldn't imagine. "That's too bad, Jordan. I don't mean to be unfriendly, but I'm here on a mission. I can't abandon it to help a neophyte with her powers, not now. You should come to Echo Caverns and visit the Monastery. Just wait for nightfall and visit the night district, the first bat you find should be able to point the way."

"Well that was sure a stack of proper nouns I've never heard," he said. He could've asked about any of them, but didn't. He might not get another chance to get answers. He had a list, even.

As he thought about it, the list appeared in the air before him, just as he'd scrawled it on an old receipt from a Paris corner store. Below the fresh baguette he'd ordered, was... a string of nonsense words. "Tamu zap flee mild goog." He tossed it aside, and was halfway to stomping contemptuously on it when he hesitated.

"Wait a minute. I just..." He picked it up again, using dexterity he couldn’t even imagine in the real world. But apparently he could dream of it. "I just imagined the list of questions I had for you, and it... it's here."

Pale Light snatched the list from her with a wing, skimming over it. He grinned. "Well, almost here. I can't read this language, and this other stuff is... well, what I'd expect. Great first steps with your Oneiromancy though. You should keep practicing, you've got some real talent here."

The receipt blackened and burned in his grip, then blew away in an unseen breeze. Where was the lighter? How had he even done that?

Again, there were more important questions. He didn't need the list to ask about all of them. Jordan waited behind the bat, long enough for him to go back to digging. Then he spoke. "One of my friends turned into a fish. Like a tail, only two legs... that one's weird to say. No air. It's real shit for her. Do you know any way to help her?"

The bat looked up. "If you're friends with a hippogriff, they don't need your help. Every one of them gets a little piece of this... pearl. One of the most powerful enchantments in the world. They can use it to switch from sea to bird whenever they want."

He's listening. Unfortunately, what he was saying was also completely unhelpful. "She's not a hippogriff, we learned that from... whatever, doesn't matter. She's actually called a seapony, at least that's what the crew of this ship told us. I have another friend who can transform into copies of people, but Kaelynn can't. At least, I don't think she can. Do seaponies have powers?"

Pale Light groaned, taking another step over the books. “You're not going to let me work, are you?"

Jordan shook his head. "I'll help you if you want! But I need answers while I'm here. If I don't get them, my friend might die. She's one leaky tank away from drowning as it is. Can we do anything for her? Maybe... get her some of this 'pearl' stuff? From the hippogriffs you said?"

"The hippogriffs use the pearl. It works on regular ponies, like you and me, but I've never heard of one who they ever let keep it. I don't know what it would do to a... you actually found a seapony? That's a significant discovery. Most scholars think they went completely extinct during the reign of Discord. His first conquest."

He spoke so solemnly, as though Jordan had accidentally referenced a terrorist attack. But he also seemed to know what a seapony was, which was more than any of them knew. Granted, half his list had been about their new bodies. But it made the most sense to ask about the one who might die.

"So what did scholars know about them?" he continued. "Before they vanished, I mean."

The bat faced him, looking down. "They were one of the early pony tribes, just like pegasi, earth ponies, and unicorns. Not like crystal ponies or bats—they just always existed. They used to visit the land often, and trade with ponies living on the coast. Sometimes they fell in love, and that's what made the other tribes better with music. The better a singer a pony is, the more seapony is in their family tree. So they say."

Well we've gone from listing proper nouns to folktales that make no sense. Still, Jordan began circling the bat, as though he could stop him from taking off, and thus rob him of his only source of reliable information. He'd only dreamed about this bat, yet he knew without knowing how that he could rely on him far more than the weird cat.

"Okay, that's interesting. Do you know anything else? Like... beyond being good at singing?"

"That depends," Pale said. "Will you help me find a book?"

Jordan grinned back at him. "I'm great at finding stuff."

Chapter 14: Ryan

Can anyone hear me? I don't think so.

Oh god, this is awful. Please, let this be a dream. I need to close my eyes and wake up in our Paris hotel. It's gonna be okay. This isn't real.

I'm not waking up. I don't actually sleep, so...

I shouldn't be talking to myself down in the bilge, while they march around on the surface boasting about what they're going to do with us. If they hear me, they could lock me down with the others.

God, I can't do this. Blake's the hero. Even Jordan can come up with clever ideas, now and then. But not me. I've got nothing, and I don't belong here. I'm so screwed, and when they catch me, we all are.

Deep breaths, Ryan. Stay quiet. Nice and easy, yeah? Be smart, and we all get to walk away from this. We can survive.

Don't know what to do.

Okay, Ryan. Go over what you know, think. What's happening?

Sailed away from Klugetown as soon as the others were asleep. I pretended to sleep for a while, for their benefit—then came down here to find a private place to talk. I'm hiding in our empty cart now, where we dumped all the water. It's just boxes and stuff down here, hopefully they don't come to search.

If they do, they'll come looking for me. I'm not in with the others.

We started sailing, and it wasn't light outside. Seemed a little weird at first. Wasn't sure what to do. I went out to ask about it, saw one of the bird-people locking up our bedroom. I panicked, and did the only thing that made sense.

I think they all went to sleep. If they didn't, I'm so screwed. Shouldn’t be talking, Ryan. Bad habit. Recording now? Stupid stupid stupid.

They're not taking us to Mount Aris. There's a mine out in the desert somewhere, we'll be there by morning. They're gonna sell us.

Sell us. Callahan is a slaver. We're so screwed.

More deep breaths. What do we know?

Crew of six. Bird things, bigger than we are. Even if they weren't, outnumber us two to one that can walk. But there are other locked cages. There's another bird locked up in the hold with me, chained up near the back. Don't know if she saw me. There's a few more across the hall from us, locked up just the same.

Six crew. Armed. None of us know how to fight. But if we don't fight, they're gonna sell us.

Others aren't even awake yet. They don't know what happened. Callahan didn't waste time, probably wants to get rid of us as quick as he can.

I have to do something. What's the smart thing to do when you're about to be enslaved? Fight back, obviously. Fight back with... something. No obvious weapons. The sailors only had crude swords, but they're all those bird things too. These claws and beak could rip out a throat even without help.

We might be able to use numbers. If I can get everyone unlocked, we could seize the ship. Together. Better than just waiting here to get dumped, anyway.

This does suggest an answer to something that has been troubling me about this other world thing since we discovered it. That map is covered with portals, and we're at least decently confident they're all in our world. How could this world have gone undiscovered for so long?

One possible answer is hostility. Anyone who tries to cross never comes back. That outcome feels frighteningly likely.

Alright, bird prisoner first, she's closest. Then my friends, then the others. We have to seize this ship before we land, or else... yeah. Don't even want to think about it.

Ryan clicked off the recorder, slipping it into the little bag he kept it concealed in. It was all kinds of flavors of crazy to waste time on it now. It was probably crazy to think he would ever have time to transcribe his ramblings.

Then he moved, climbing up the side of the tank as slowly as he could. Birds didn't have ears to perk high over their heads, revealing them like Jordan might've done with those fluffs he had going.

The cargo hold was almost pitch black. Unlike his native state, Ryan found the darkness practically impenetrable around him in this form. In the light, these eyes were probably the best he'd ever had, but in here...

It was probably working in his favor. If their night vision was a bit better, the crew might've seen him hiding down here. He might be locked up with the others, or dead.

He considered drawing his flashlight, but that was probably stupid for the same reason. Any source of light would attract attention if griffons happened to pass this way. So he slipped back to the bottom of the tank, then forced himself to relax.

Ryan still wasn't sure exactly how the powers worked. Everything worked on instinct, and doing any of it consciously took tons of extra concentration.

He counted his breaths, focused on nothing in particular. Until his body relaxed from the shape he'd copied, like letting the tension out of his shoulders.

Returning to his normal shape didn't drain him of energy the way taking a new one did, though he wasn't sure about why quite yet. Shouldn't changing into another creature involve the same process in both directions?

It didn't. Rather, it meant an end to the energy he'd spent. It's going to be weird when anyone listens to that log and it isn't in my voice.

Suddenly the tank rose far higher around him, almost twice the size it had been moments before. The trade was worth it, though: his eyes could finally focus on the cargo hold. He reached up, wings buzzing quietly to urge him up over the edge.

There was a tiny trickle of light from above, shining down through the boards of an upper floor. It was more than enough for him to see everything.

We should've felt more suspicious when we walked in here. The cargo hold was mostly empty. Even the crates and barrels waiting on shelves seemed empty upon closer inspection. What were the sailors transporting, if not dead cargo?

Living, apparently.

Ryan ignored the boxes, climbing over and around them until he reached the large crate in the back, almost as tall as a shipping container. He'd already peeked inside once, though he didn't need to look to feel what was within.

The creature inside tasted desperate, afraid, and hopeless. And if I'm wrong about what those emotions taste like, I might be damning all of us.

But he didn't have a choice. The others were trapped already, and he didn't have any other tools. A single spray worth of mace would not retake a ship.

He rotated the lock open with his mouth, so slowly that the click was barely audible. The one inside wasn't asleep, despite the hour. Her thoughts felt suddenly more focused, coalescing into fear. She expected something terrible to happen to her again.

Ryan opened the crate, though he'd already seen inside to know what to expect. There was a bird in the center, body wrapped completely with tight restraints. Even her mouth was gagged, such that she could do little more than wiggle back and forth on the floor. She looked up, but there wasn't enough light for a bird to see.

Ryan let the crate close behind him, then began fishing in his bag for the flashlight. "You don't know me," he whispered. "But I want to get you out of here."

Maybe it was unfair that he could sense the emotions of the creature on the ground below him. Her fear hadn't faded, though it was now accompanied by a single slice of desperate hope. "I'm going to turn on a light," he whispered. "Please don't be alarmed. I look... strange. But I promise I'm here to help."

He clicked on the light with a hoof. Even on its lowest setting, the headlamp nearly blinded him at first, filling the crate with a blast so overwhelming that he felt one set of eyelids closing involuntarily. The others remained open, and he could finally see the griffon again.

She was nearly twice his size, or would be when she was untied. In the faint white light, he could see some signs of abuse. There were feathers missing from her coat, and scars on her sides that suggested poor treatment. Then again, every one of the crew above had damage like this. Probably came from a life of violence and conflict.

There were faint undertones of disgust and fear from her, the same ones he often felt from Blake and Jordan. But this bird was so badly beaten down that there wasn't much room for disgust.

"The crew are asleep," he whispered. "But not all of them. I have three friends aboard, and there are more prisoners. Will you help me free them?"

Silence, obviously. The bird stared up at him with a pair of huge eyes, still fearful. She might be bigger, she might have claws that could rip out his throat, but she was also completely restrained. Her emotions barely changed.

"I'm going to remove the gag first," he whispered. "Please don't give us away. I can't stop you... but if we want to get out of this, we have to trust each other. Please don't be loud."

The crate would cover up their whispering well enough, but if she wanted to...

Ryan reached down, biting on the gag with pointed teeth. He tore, then repeated the process a few times. Each time he did, the bird tensed, expecting a blow—but it never came. That faint trickle of hope tasted a little stronger.

Finally he was through, and the canvas fell away from his teeth. The griffon opened her mouth, letting scraps trail away. She looked up at him from the ground, she still radiated fear, mostly.

"Why?" she asked. "What hive?"

I have no idea what that second question means. "Because it's wrong," he said flatly. "I'm not letting them enslave my friends. You help us, you can be free too. Doesn't that sound fair?"

She didn't answer for almost a minute. The ship rocked beneath them, creaking as it settled in the cold desert night. There was something else radiating from the bird now, joining suspicion and fear. Guilt.

"Nothing is fair," she said. "But this... maybe deserved. Bound to be something. Hippogriff's noose, Equestrian stone. Or a dog mine. Comes for all of us."

Her accent was hard enough to understand without speaking every sentence in fragments. "I'm Ryan. What's your name?"

"Galena," she said flatly. Was it as clumsy as he imagined, or was he just projecting?

"Well, Galena, my friends don't deserve it," he said. "Help us, and... I know a place, where no power of this world can find you. My friends and I are travelers from a better land. We'll take you there."

The confused soup of different feelings finally resolved into something. Hope won out, and the griffon nodded sharply. "You know what it means if you fight? Slaves who fight are too dangerous. Can't get a reputation for trading dangerous goods. They'll leave you in the desert, if you live."

He might've asked what was so bad about that—leaving them behind was exactly what they wanted,wasn't it? Except that she thought about the possibility with absolute dread. She'd rather be locked up in this box, subjected to who knew what tortures, than get dropped down below.

Were we in more danger than we realized?

"I understand," he said, resolved. "We'll take that risk. We won't let them take us." He gestured with one hoof. "Roll to the side, if you can. I'm going to cut through those knots."

Galena obeyed, dodging. "Hope you know what you're doing, Ryan. If I did, I wouldn't be here."

Ryan drew his pocketknife from the saddlebags he'd been holding, fumbling with the attachments until the saw flipped out. Galena tensed as she saw what he was doing, feeling a brief moment of fear and hostility—but then he started cutting through the rope, and it faded. "Me too.”

Chapter 15: Blake

Blake had expected more comfortable quarters aboard the ship, particularly when they paid for their passage in gold. If those coins were what they looked like, they would probably be worth several thousand dollars each. They could've flown first class around the world for so much money.

Instead, the quarters provided for them had only bare pallets, separated by a short distance. Even worse, there was no larger tank for Kaelynn. The machine holding her had chains to attach to the wall, along with pipes that trickled and gurgled as it exchanged liquids with the ship. But at least she had a waterbed.

It was a testament to how tired they were that they managed to get any rest at all. But dragging that cart around, climbing through Klugetown twice, all that had taken its toll.

Once he was done tossing and turning, Blake went out like a sack of rocks. He slept so soundly that he barely felt it as something wrapped gently around his mouth. Then he shook, twitching abruptly to one side. He jerked upright, or tried—and found two pairs of hooves holding him down.

Jordan and Ryan both, pressing a cloth over his mouth and a hoof to his shoulder.

The room behind them wasn't as he remembered. There was another creature with them, a griffon who resembled the crew of the Bright Hawk. Though if she were crew, she'd been through a far rougher tour of duty than any of the birds they met so far.

"Don't make a sound. We're in serious danger," Ryan whispered, directly into his ear. He might've thrown the little bug-thing off, if Jordan wasn't there. He could look at the bat without feeling that instinctive sense of dread. He nodded.

They let go, and Ryan continued. "This is a slave ship. They locked you in after you went to sleep. I was outside, heard what they planned to do. They're selling us to a mine, along with some other prisoners." He gestured at the bird. "This is Galena, she was locked up too. We're in this together."

"I expected more from your friends," she whispered, her voice high and harsh just like the other griffons. Her accent was almost identical, in fact. "A bat and a weird pony covered in scales. We can't win. Ponies are too soft, Ryan. They have a few who can fight—but most just curl up and wait for their princess to save them."

Jordan reached into his satchel, then flicked something out from within. A long, folding trench knife, which swung widely, then clicked into place. "Yeah, screw that. I'm not getting sold into anything, especially with this body. Hell no."

Galena's beak fell open, and she stared blankly. Disbelieving. Finally, she managed to shut her mouth. "We've traded ponies a few times," she whispered. "Maybe the stories about Equestria are an exaggeration. But I've never heard any talk like that."

"She's right," Blake agreed, rolling to the side, and getting his hooves under him. "Er, he's right. Sorry." Jordan shrugged one wing ambivalently. Galena only seemed more confused. But none of them volunteered just now.

They already knew they had no weapons. What could they use? Callahan lied to us, he thought, frustration boiling in his chest. We paid for this trip, and he turned around to try and enslave us. How unlucky could his little group possibly be? He just wanted to get them home safe. They were supposed to be taking illegal videos under Paris, not escaping human traffickers and slavers.

He found his own pocket knife in his bag, but ultimately slipped it back inside. It was too short to be useful for fighting, even if he had known how. "What else do we know, Ryan? Anything we can use?"

The bug nodded weakly. "There's another cell across the way. There are five more prisoners in there I was going to go to next."

"Ponies," Galena said, as though that was supposed to mean something. "They're a waste of time, Ryan. You'll see what I mean. Barely even fought when they were brought in."

"I don't like how much you know about that," Blake muttered. But now was a bad time to start rejecting allies. No matter what this bird had done, she was also taller than he was, and had claws and beak as sharp as the ones they would soon have to fight. "They'll help us. With them, we can outnumber Callahan and his crew. If we're quiet enough, maybe we can separate them and fight in two groups. Then they're toasted."

"It's a waste of your time," Galena whispered, insistent. "At least this pony has a horn, and this other one has teeth. That's more than they usually offer. What about the tank? At least a hippogriff is half griffon."

"She needs water to breathe," Ryan whispered. "Blake, you wanna help me with these others? Haven't seen a guard come to patrol, they probably think we're still asleep. But if we move around much more, we're bound to get something. You two stay in here, come up with a plan."

"Oh, sure," Jordan muttered. "Have us come up with the plan while you do the easy part."

"It's not," Galena said. "Asking ponies to fight? They don't do that. Too nice."

Blake bit back the current of rising anger in his chest. He wanted to break something, but he wouldn't start with this bird. They would get even for this betrayal soon enough.

Ryan was first to peek out the hallway. Blake followed close behind, as the bug scuttled across to the other side. Now that he thought about it, it did seem strange that all the quarters had heavy locks on the outside. But how were they supposed to know what customs were just different in this world?

The hallway led towards the stairs to the crew quarters just ahead. Blake could hear at least one quiet conversation up there. The words were distant and the accent strange, but he could make out a few. "Pay... soon. Celebration."

"You... go... in," Ryan mouthed, after clicking the door open. "Otherwise... scared." He opened the door a crack, edging just a tiny bit at a time. "I'll... copy Galena... while talk."

Blake nodded, then slipped his head into the room. There were five of them, just like Ryan had said. How had he known that, exactly?

It was almost identical to the way their bedroom looked, with threadbare pads for sleeping and not much else. There was a privy against the wall in the same place, and a basin that slowly trickled water. But that was all.

As he entered, the horses looked up from their beds. A few curled up against the wall, eyes closed against whatever terror he would inflict. Curiously, they hadn't been bound. He found no restraints on their hooves, or even a gag. They were free to move around as much as they wanted.

These birds really think they won't fight, he thought. It went further than that. They thought the same thing about us. They were so confident they hadn't even been searched for weapons.

He pushed the door shut behind him, then stepped right into the center of the room. He would've liked to get a better look at these creatures—even in the dark, he could tell they came in quite the range of colors. They also had tattoos, in the same place as Jordan.

But discovering more information about their condition would have to come later. It was time to escape. "Hey," he whispered. Anger still raged in him, warmth that got warmer the more it festered. Normally when Blake started feeling this pissed off, he'd go for a run somewhere. Maybe he could run his hooves over some faces.

But not these. Like it or not, these were his new brothers in arms. "Please be as quiet as you can," he whispered. "We're breaking out of here."

The horses sat up, watching. None of them moved, even to get closer. Had they just heard?

"My friends and I got locked up like you," he said. "We're breaking out. But without your help, we aren't sure we can do it."

That did it. At least one of the horses, without wings or Blake's own curved horn, sat up. "You're a Kirin," he whispered back. "I thought you were extinct."

Ryan would probably not be able to resist learning more from a comment like that. Even Blake was curious—you know what I am? But that would have to wait.

"I'm not," he said. "But if we don't fight back, we will be." He flicked his tail back the way they'd come. "Listen, my friends and I are going to fight no matter what. But there's a decent chance we get our asses kicked. These bird things are bigger than we are, and they're better armed. If we fight and lose, you're screwed too. But if you help us, we outnumber them two-to-one."

The first one approached him. He was a little taller, with a body of sturdy muscle. The others followed his lead, standing behind him. Each looked weary with exhaustion and fear. Who knew how long they'd been imprisoned here, waiting for some way to escape?

Galena was clearly wrong about their passivity and fearfulness. But even so, they were smaller than their enemies, and lacked any natural weapons. Two had horns, but like Blake's they didn't seem particularly useful in combat. They'd have to rely on speed and accuracy with their hooves against bladed weapons.

"Your friends are as brave as you?" the first pony asked. "Other kirin?"

"Yes," he answered reflexively. "But no, not kirin. One of them has bat wings, and we have a griffon. I guess... two of them. One of them is a bug, but he's going to be a bird for the fight, they're the strongest."

"Changeling, thestral, kirin, griffon," another of the ponies said. "Are you sure we have to fight? The griffons said they were taking us back to Equestria. They're going to... ransom us. I've heard of that before."

"I'm sure," Blake said, as confidently as he could. "We overheard them talking. They're going to sell us to a mine. I don't know the details, but... it's obvious enough. There are only six of them. With all of us, we'll outnumber them."

And we can only pray to god they don't think to come back for Kaelynn while we're fighting.

"What were they thinking trying to capture you?" asked their leader. "Kirin, if we're going to fight together, I have to ask: please don't burn the whole ship down. The griffons can fly away from this, but we only have Gentle Drift. She can't carry all of us to safety."

Burn the ship down? Blake nodded. "I'll keep that in mind." Probably not the best time to ask them how I actually do that. He probably would have asked anyway, regardless of any risk to losing them as allies. But none of them were “kirin,” so they didn't seem likely to know regardless.

He heard the shout from behind, echoing from a few feet away. "Wake up!" they yelled, voice piercing the ship like the call of a predatory bird. Which it was, obviously. "Prisoners are free! Wake up!"

He didn't even think. Blake spun, kicking open the door with a slam so forceful it banged into the wall.

Or it should have. Actually, it smashed into a bird who had been standing there, shouting. He was out the door a second later, just as the griffon was wobbling to their feet.

Up the stairs, he heard motion. More voices, banging doors, more shouts.

The door across the hall was still open, and stunned faces watched, unmoving.

Blake didn't wait. Before the nearby bird could get his claws under him, Blake tacked into him from the side, smashing him up against the wall. Wood crunched and buckled under the force, and something cracked under him? Ribs? He didn't think, just smashed both hooves down on the top of the bird's head.

The sailor squealed once, then stopped struggling. Blake didn't even look to see if he was still moving, just kicked the sword backward along the ground towards the ponies.

"There!" he yelled. "One down! Five to go!"

Chapter 16: Kaelynn

Kaelynn was helpless.

Her last few weeks of life had made that an almost-daily reality. It didn't matter how long and how successfully she had fought to control her own destiny—this new world had decided to trap her in a tank.

Now she knew the battle taking place outside—Ryan had warned her of what they discovered and where they were. But while her friends fought for their lives, she was trapped in a tank.

This one was even smaller than the one she'd used to cross the desert, so small that she had to roll rather than turn completely around. It was the kind of small that would probably make her go completely insane if she waited too long. At least it had lots of extra length and depth, so she could go up and down, as well as backwards and forwards. That was a petty consolation even when her friends weren't risking their lives. Now, it did nothing to soothe her.

What if one of the pirates realizes I'm down here? They could kill me out of revenge, or take me hostage to use against the others. If that happened, she would be even more than useless, she'd be an active liability. Kaelynn was done being a liability.

She started with what little she could control, swimming over to her mask and gear where it sat near the other end of the tank. At least the water here was clear, so she had no trouble seeing the straps and buttons as she secured them with forelegs and mouth. Still didn't have any fingers, but at least that one wasn't suffering unique to her. They'd all given that up.

While floating neutrally buoyant in the water, the jacket and tank were weightless. But if she left the water, she knew that would change. Kaelynn had already climbed outside the tank enough times to know that her forelegs could hold up her weight. But that back tail—that was where she ran into trouble. She needed a harness, and that was something she just hadn't built yet.

Kaelynn floated near the bottom of the tank, mask resting against her face and straps tight. She left the seal on the mask undone, letting fresh water from outside wash over her gills. But it would take only a twitch of either leg to get the strap tight, and start using the rebreather instead.

Well, that was still how she thought of it. The converted hardware that used water instead of air was a far, far simpler device, which explained its longevity. Removing carbon dioxide from air and replacing it with oxygen required complex chemistry and potentially volatile reactants. But adding oxygen to water and removing the CO2, while surrounded with oxygen-rich air, that was really just a matter of bubbling enough air through it so gasses could be exchanged. Her rebreather would probably keep working for days, maybe weeks—until the battery died.

Thinking about engineering couldn't distract her forever, though. She heard shouts upstairs, and the deck shaking back and forth. The whole tank began to list to the side.

Kaelynn darted to the top of the tank, peeking out into the cell. The door to the cell now hung wide, kept there by the tilt of the ship.

My tank is about to fall over. Already she could see it straining at the clips holding it to the floor, and water began to dribble over the side.

She had a few seconds to decide what to do. Either swim into the bottom and try to counterbalance it with her own weight, or...

The ship continued to list, approaching twenty degrees at least. The little trickle of water over the side became a drizzle. Whatever you guys are doing up there, it's time to fix it! Kaelynn tightened her mask, settling it firmly over her gills and mouth.

Her tank had probably lost a fourth of its water by then, and more by the second. Then she heard a snap, as both clips gave out in a single, terrible moment. Kaelynn swam with all her might, surging ahead of one last wave of water. There was nowhere to go, other than away. She heard the terrible crash as intricate mechanisms shattered, and the sides of the tank caved in—but she was out of it by then, riding the wave towards the door. She glided out into the hall, and by then the water was less than an inch deep under her. She was running out of speed.

The hall was even smokier than their room, with clouds collecting near the ceiling. That smoke wouldn't get her as quickly as it would kill a pony walking through the hall, though it would clog the filter in her rebreather if she were in it for too long.

The ship is burning.

Kaelynn came to a stop beside a corpse, spread haphazardly where it had fallen. One of the pirate crew, with blood pooling around them and a gaping wound in their chest. The blood mixed with what was left of the water, staining it red. Unfortunately, that was also about the time it had spread out so much she had nothing to ride anymore. Kaelynn came to a stop in the hallway, wobbling under her weight. She propped her forelegs under her, rising, with the mask firmly on her face.

She took a breath, and water flowed through the strange openings in her neck. It was a little like breathing from a scuba-tank, with the water feeling a little too cold to be natural. But she wasn't going to drown, that was the important thing. She might still be cooked alive. The smoke had to be coming from somewhere.

Kaelynn took her first nervous step with one hoof. She'd seen ponies walk thousands of times now, so she had some idea of what to do. But what about her tail? The waxy, scaly extension of her body dragged along behind her. For now she was still dripping with water, and so was the hall. She moved, and her tail slid along, a bit like dragging a broken leg. Her tail wasn't broken through—the muscles within were incredibly strong and flexible. Maybe she could use that?

Kaelynn winced as she slid through the bloody water, but she was still moving. It was working! She wasn't helpless! Though the idea of dragging herself through baking sand was still absurd, at least she could move a little.

She reached the stairs, then came to an awkward halt. The steps were unusually tall and steep, a product of the narrow space available aboard a ship. Could she possibly wrench her way up one of them? Kaelynn pressed down on one step, then pushed.

Her leg muscles screamed in protest at the incredible weight, but she lifted, settling her body with a thump on one step.

This is like physical therapy after weeks in a hospital bed. My body doesn't know how to move like this. Even with a harness, she would probably still be in pain.

She climbed another step, then another. As she did, Kaelynn could make out shouting voices from above. They sounded like her friends, though many of them were also strange to her.

"Another bucket!"

"Those dunes are coming up fast!"

"We're not stopping!"

None of those voices sounded like the griffons. But her hearing only partly worked when her head was dry, and she wasn't sure about the details of what she heard.

Blake's voice cut through the crowd, louder than all the others combined. "Brace for impact!"

She only had a second to obey. What could she even do, with only two legs to work with? Kaelynn wrapped both of them through the handrails, not stopping to wonder why a ship of quadrupeds would even have them. It didn't matter, so long as they held.

A second later, they struck. The ship bucked under her, continuing forward with a terrible grinding, crunching slide. People screamed, though the voices weren't familiar to her. Kaelynn's legs almost gave out under her, but she held, even as water sloshed and the corpse bounced around behind her. She gritted her teeth together, waiting for the horror to end.

The ship came to an abrupt stop, wood grinding and crunching as it did. Kaelynn held still, barely moving. Finally she dared open one eye. Through her mask, she was on her side, laying atop the railing rather than below it. She let go, shaking out the strain in her legs. But the stairs had become a nearly flat ramp, with only the handrail to interrupt it.

She dragged herself along. By now, her body already started to feel dry, and her tail caught painfully against some of the wood. She let more of it stretch out behind her, rather than curling the back upward, hoping to spread the weight. It helped, but only made more of it feel irritated. I'm not a snake. I'm not supposed to move like this.

Her body ached, and not just from her legs. But the sideways-door was just ahead. She struggled and grunted, and suddenly she was through, stumbling out onto the ship.

The ship was laying on its side in a desert of wide, flat dunes. It was surrounded by soft sand, with at least the lowest deck probably buried by now. Good thing too, judging by the damage.

Kaelynn couldn't see any of the griffon crew, not a single one. Instead the deck was packed with ponies, at least a dozen of them. Her friends were all here, including two copies of Blake—but other than them and Jordan, the rest of these were all strangers. There was a single griffon among their number, but this one didn't wear the jacket or leather boots, or any belts of weapons. She was as naked as most of the ponies.

A few lay sheltered against the railing somewhere, clutching at bumps, bruises, or breaks. But overall, the crew had survived decently well.

That was more than they could say for the sails. The central mast had toppled sideways, and was now buried in the sand, whipping about in the breeze.

"Everyone stand up," Blake called, over the wind. "Unless you're hurt, then stay where you are. We'll... help everyone as best we can."

The ponies obeyed. So did the griffon, albeit only to storm over to him. "You've doomed us all, dragon pony! Oh sure, you scared off the slavers, by nearly setting the Bright Hawk alight!"

Right, the smoke! Kaelynn didn't see flames up here either, though the raised captain's quarters up ahead did seem blackened and hollowed-out somehow. She couldn't guess how that might've happened, but that also wasn't the first thing on her mind. They'd survived the fight, but the griffon was right. Fighting was the easy part.

"Kaelynn!" said Ryan with Blake's voice—albeit without his tone or speech-patterns. "I was going to go check on you... should you be out here?"

"No," she answered. Her voice was a little louder with the mask, it must've had some passive design to amplify her words. But there were no active speakers. "I'm drying out as we speak. But the tank tipped over, so... what the hell happened?"

Ryan gestured at his double, who had started to organize the injured by now and was asking around about treating them. Three hurt ponies that Kaelynn could see, but only one of them was bleeding. That was probably a good number? How many members of the pirate crew had there been?

"Fight didn't go... quite how we wanted," Ryan said. "Killed one in the hallway, and we backed the others into the captain's quarters. Captain put a knife to Jordan, and..." He gestured vaguely with a hoof. "Blake went nuts with the fire. Like he'd been doing shots of gasoline, looked creepy as hell. Turned their captain into a chicken bake, so that's two dead. The rest of the crew flew off, only a little scorched. But they did something to the helm before they left. We were trying to figure out how to get airborne and put out the fire at the same time."

Two dead. The weight of that was heavier than any news about their crashed ship. Kaelynn hadn't killed anyone before, and she wasn't quite sure she could bear the weight of it if she did. Even in self-defense, that was going to leave scars.

"We need a plan!" she called. Of course she was too quiet to do much—but by then Jordan had noticed them, and he approached. One of his legs was thoroughly bandaged, and he limped forward, putting most of his weight on the other. But he grinned weakly at Kaelynn. "Swam your way up here? Doesn't look wet enough for you, fish."

"You do not need to tell me that," she said, glaring past him at the slowly rising sun. "When that thing comes up, I am going to cook alive. I pray to God the ship's water tank survived the crash, or I am all kinds of screwed."

"We all might be screwed," Blake said, approaching from the other side of the deck. "I don't know if we can get this ship back into the air. None of the horses know how to fly. There's no way a group our size is going to survive hiking across the desert."

But he wasn't alone. The other griffon settled down beside him, her presence intimidating enough that none of the ponies got close. Then again, they seemed to be keeping their distance from Blake too. "I know how to fly her. I think our floatstone survived—if it did, we can get into the sky. What we do after that..." She turned, staring at the broken mast. "We only have the aft sails. We'll be going nowhere fast. But we must move—the crew will want revenge. There is blood on the deck. When they reach Jamacaw, they will raise flags to fight against us. If we're helpless, they'll shell us until we're a stain on the sand."

Chapter 17: Ryan

Ryan looked out around the deck. Ponies whimpered in pain, others huddled in small groups, flush with victory but also overwhelmed by the crash. There was so much to do, and the pressure mounting to get it done. He looked like their leader, but that didn't mean he knew how to lead them.

Then again, who could? Blake had always been in charge, but that was over a hobby! They were supposed to brave forbidden places, not fight for their lives. Not kill people.

"Jordan, you're hurt. You go with the injured. Kaelynn, can you move well enough to treat them? I think they might've got an artery on that pony back there. The others just got bumped around when we hit. Hopefully no concussion."

"Yes," she said, her voice barely audible through the mask. "But I don't know for how long. Holding myself up with two legs is exhausting, and it's getting dry already. Ryan, can you get my first aid kit from below?"

He nodded, then scampered off to obey. At least it wouldn't be hard to find their stuff. Besides, helping her would pay its own dividends in the satisfaction and gratitude she felt when he returned. Ryan clambered through the toppled Bright Hawk, hooves sliding slightly on the floor as he did so.

The interior was mostly dark—mercifully there were no other fires down here, just water and a dead bird. He stepped gingerly around the corpse, doing everything he could not to look in those lifeless eyes. He had to climb up through the door. Ryan resisted the temptation to return to normal, where the faint cracks of light would've been more than enough for him to see everything. Blake's night vision was okay, at least good enough that he could see the shape of their bags scattered everywhere.

He fished around for a moment, then found the heavy first-aid pouch. More than once he'd wondered if they should ditch the stupid thing during their hike across the desert. Apparently their endurance had paid off.

Ryan hurried back up to the top floor, dodging the bloody water and making his slow way up onto the deck. Well some of it was deck—some of the ponies rested on the sand now, sheltered against the side of the ship. He dropped the kit onto the ground in front of Kaelynn. "This?"

She nodded, but didn't say anything else. Blake nudged him. "You'll have to let someone else help her with the injured. Galena says she needs at least two more strong ponies to help get the floatstone working again."

The griffon nodded darkly. "If she's intact, that should get us back up into the sky. If not, the floatstone will fly without us, leaving us stranded. But unless any of you is a shipwright, there's no way to find out."

Blake nodded grimly. "I don't think we have much time to find out." He retreated from them a few steps, raising his voice. "We need to get airborne! I'd like some ponies to help tear down the mast the rest of the way, and gather up the sail. We might need the cloth for other purposes, maybe the wood too. But if we rise with them hanging precariously like that, they might come crashing through the deck. I'd also like some of you to help Kaelynn—the fish here. She knows first aid, but she's a fish. I'm going below to get us floating again!"

To Ryan's surprise, they actually listened. Maybe it was just that Blake was the one who led their escape, or maybe it was how confident he sounded. Either way, there was no argument. The survivors split into groups, and didn't seem to need much direction from there. These creatures weren't helpless.

Galena led them to the lowest level of the Bright Hawk, where heavy iron chains wrapped around a strange box studded with crystal and wrapped in wire. She circled around it several times, prodding at it with a claw. Finally she turned, addressing Blake.

"One of my comrades thought they'd make sure their ship was waiting for them—there's an emergency lever on the helm—disconnects the floatstone for a rapid descent. See the chains there? We have to tighten all four of them at the same time. Once those wires line up with the crystal on the floor, we'll yank back up."

Ryan followed her words, eyeing the wire set into the deck before them. It was as thick around as her claws, though what could be powering it, he couldn't even imagine. "I'm a little shaky on the physics of this thing. You have a way to generate hundreds of tons of negative mass, and you can turn it off? The energies required..."

The griffon squawked loudly in his face, loud enough that he fell abruptly silent. "I don't know a feather about how it works, changeling! We stole it, just like everything on the ship! Do you want to be here when they get back for revenge, or not?"

Ryan retreated, but didn't argue. This bird probably wasn't the one to ask about the finer points of how their world and its technology worked, anyway. Maybe when they'd overcome the shock, some of the ponies on the deck could.

"Ryan, make sure everyone is on the deck. I don't know how long they'll have once we start moving."

"Not long," Galena said. "Probably for the best."

He nodded, turning back the way he'd come. Should he resent being bossed around like that? Maybe not—the others had already started moving, grunting as they settled heavy chains into a set of four pulleys. Ryan looked like his friend, but he'd learned during the fight that he wasn't as strong. Stronger than he'd been before, maybe. But no "dragon-horse". I wonder if I could turn into a freaky fire-ghost like he did. We might need that again if another ship attacks.

He made it back to the deck, passing the message on to the beleaguered ponies. A few shifted off the sand, resting on the railing firmly atop the ship. But most had already been keeping close to the fallen ship, so they didn't have far to move.

"I could use a strong volunteer or two," he said. He pointed to a big pony, lurking near the fallen prow. "Hey, could you help us?"

The pony nodded, hurrying over. "I don't have much to offer, Kirin."

"You're stronger than me, I promise," he answered. "That's all we need right now."

Getting someone else's help didn’t mean Ryan got to watch—there were four pulleys, each with their own crank that needed to be operated. The others had to stop multiple times, waiting for him to grunt and struggle with it. With each click, they lifted the crystal-studded box back into the air, until eventually it was suspended near the center of the ship.

He felt the jerk as it settled into place, heard the sudden strain at all four chains. They weren't made of links as thick as his limbs just for show—this thing had to lift the whole ship.

Lift it did. They tilted violently to the side, so suddenly that he toppled sideways and slid. Most of the cargo was tied down, thankfully—or else he'd probably have been crushed to death by the weight of boxes and crates. Well, mostly empty boxes and crates. The Bright Hawk had been a slaver, after all.

Ryan held still, as wood groaned and creaked. But Galena didn't seem to worry. She stood after only a few seconds, shaking out her wings. "Not dead yet," she said. "Guess that's a point to you, dragon pony. But we're not safe just because we're floating."

Ryan lay by the crank, breathing heavily. He barely noticed as Blake passed him, patting him on the shoulder. "Catch your breath," he said. "But we'll probably need your skills. Ever sailed before?"

"Didn't you do boy scouts?" he countered. "I've never been on a ship that didn't make me puke."

"Oh yeah, guess I did." Blake shrugged one shoulder. "Either way, I was thinking a propeller or something. We've got a hold full of shit, some of it has to fly."

Ryan glared after him. The pony followed, leaving Ryan alone. Just the way he wanted.

Dear Journal,

Technically it's a new day, so this doesn't count as a continued entry from before.

We did it, journal. Lived through the fight. Those pirates did not have a clue what we were capable of. Thought we were going to cower before their threats and wait to be ransomed by some princess—we threw two bodies overboard. The rest flew away, probably to haunt us later. But today we won. Worry about the consequences later.

Actually we're worrying about them now. Three big things:

Ship is busted

Kaelynn

Have to get to safety before the pirates get friends

We're doing our best to fix all of them in turn. The Bright Hawk had another set of smaller sails, and that still works. That's how we're flying now. Not fast enough that any proper ship couldn't catch up with us, though. Mount Aris is still the destination. Don't have the captain's charts, since those burned with the captain's quarters and the captain himself—but we can see the ocean far away, so we're sailing that way. Mostly directly into the wind, which means lots of diagonals back and forth. Tacking, I guess it's called.

Water tank survived, so that's good news. Bad news: seapony machine broke. All those fancy filters and craziness going on, and it's a pile of rubble now. Pretty shit. Even worse, water tank wasn't really meant to be opened or swam in. The Bright Hawk is pretty fancy, all things considered. She has plumbing. But without the life support machine's guts working, Kaelynn has to float in a shallow tub of water. We lost so much in the crash that she didn't risk filling it all the way. We'll just have to filter it and keep changing it out.

But she was so dried out by the time she climbed in that she didn't complain. Poor fish. Maybe she's right about the one who got the worst. Everyone thinks I'm a disgusting bug, but at least I don't live in fear of drowning. It's starvation instead, much slower! But Kaelynn will probably be fine, if we can solve the third problem.

Speed. The pirates have a friendly port not far from Klugetown. Galena used to be one of them—she says they've probably already reached it by now. If we don't make it to 'hippogriff skies' before they manage to raise a crew to come after us, then we'll be in big trouble.

We have to do something, but despite having some incredible magic that lets them lift a ship into the air and fly around, they still use their sails. Most of the other ships back in Klugetown looked the way you'd expected—lighter than air dirigibles, with a gasbag and everything. But not her. She flies around breaking physics and not giving a damn what you have to say about it.

But the second, smaller sail isn't big enough. We still have the old mast, but she's completely broken off, dominating the deck. We'll need a crane to get her back on, or that's what we thought.

Plan is pretty insane, but no less insane than anything else we've done so far. There are two unicorns in the ponies they captured. Working together, they think they can hold the mast up for long enough that the rest of us can reattach it. There's some wood glue aboard, and we'll be using all of it. We have nails and planks too, for what it's worth.

Plan is gluing the split, unicorns lift the mast, we nail it in place, let the glue set.

I wouldn't believe it was possible, except that they're doing it all the time. They can lift things through the air, just by looking at them. I'm not the only one to see the obvious connection with the ship, I'm sure. Galena says I'm right, this ship was stolen from a pony shipyard somewhere. Guess that makes about as much sense as anything.

Someone has the talent to build these portals, right? If they can cross between worlds, maybe that also means other powers, like levitating around.

The strangest part of all that is that they seem insistent that Blake can do it too—and me, but I'm just copying. When he said he didn't know how, they reacted like he was a kid who said he couldn't use a bike.

They're afraid of us. They know people died getting free, and every one of them seems pretty upset about it. They're not the only ones. But what were we supposed to do, stay, and let them enslave us? Let them kill Jordan? Hell no.

Bastards had it coming. I don't know much about slave camps and gulags, but I'm sure they're not humane places to work. We probably saved all these ponies' lives by staging that escape.

We'll have to deal with the consequences when we get to Mount Aris. It's just a matter of getting there before we get caught. Otherwise, the birds will get their revenge.

Galena has been pretty clear with the gruesome form that will take, if they get their claws on us. There's blood on the deck, she says. Now it's war.

Our plan isn't to fight them yet, just to get to safety. I'm still trying to process all this information, but we've learned a little bit. The hippogriffs act in ways we can expect. They still hang pirates, apparently. So hopefully that means we'll be safe long enough to find the portal and get back to Earth.

Guess I'll have to visit a gun-shop before we come back this way.

If we have more time before we get there, I'd like to make progress on a harness for Kaelynn. She's proved that she needs minimal external life support, if it comes to that. So we should be able to reduce the complexity. She just needs a pair of back legs to hold up most of her weight, legs she can drag around to stay mobile.

Don't tell her, but we probably won't have time. Getting the mast fixed is gonna be hell, and even if we do we still won't be able to use the sails properly. Apparently it needs a 'mending spell' before we can rely on it again.

But it seems possible. There is a way out of this.

I'm not getting left for dead in the desert somewhere, chained to a rock. I'm getting home. We'll get all these ponies home while we're at it.

Maybe if I copy Jordan they'll answer more of my questions...

Chapter 18: Jordan

Jordan wasn't unaccustomed to pain.

It wasn't like the governments of various cities and townships all over the world were spiteful or malicious with the places they didn't want people to go. Of course a few were historical locations, with insides vulnerable to destruction under hundreds of careless feet. Those were easy, his friends just weren't careless.

But the second (and much larger) class of forbidden places, those were dangerous. Some were made of toxic chemicals and needed respirators to visit. Others were crumbling and structurally unsound, or filled with other hazards. Exploring any of them meant weeks of research and preparation. But even so, there were accidents. He'd broken a leg, cracked a few ribs, and even been impaled once on a bit of rebar. Lucky that thing missed anything important.

But there was something about being stabbed here that made the whole situation ten times worse than it ought to be. The wound wasn't even that deep, grazing one of his legs and thankfully missing an artery. That poor bird they fought first had ended up suffering far more serious injuries.

But for Jordan, it wasn't the pain. They even had a real first-aid kit, so cleaning and sealing the wound took very little time. But the other ponies—they didn't seem to understand the concept of a minor wound.

For the first few hours after takeoff, they wouldn't even let him leave the makeshift triage—now located in their old cell. Someone asked after him practically every few minutes, or at least it felt that way.

"I'm fine," he grunted, twisting the injured leg around to show the white bandage, unstained with blood. "We used wound-glue. I won't even need stitches." Still, he could hope he'd at least have a scar to show for it. How many people could tell the girls they met in shady bars that they'd taken an injury fighting pirates?

"Miss, you really shouldn't move so much. You lost a lot of blood during the fight. And if you move too much, you could tear open your leg."

That was Foxglove, the only pony with any first aid experience. He'd taken over watching them for Kaelynn once she went back into her tank.

Jordan didn't bother correcting him, just like he hadn't so many times before. Explaining that this body felt more like a loaner from the dealer while his real one was in the shop hadn't exactly been near the top of his list while they were fighting for survival.

Technically, they still were, and Jordan wasn't able to do a damn thing to help. He listened to the shifting of weight on the deck above them. Mostly he heard Blake's voice, giving instructions, and directing the repair.

But it was the rescued ponies who were really doing all the work. The mast probably weighed half a ton, and they could make it float. All the while he listened for the shout of alarm that would mean they were being followed. That would probably mean death—it might mean it was better to glide off the ship, and take his chances with the desert.

"I'm fine, Foxglove," he said, pushing the pony gently away with his undamaged leg. "Really. I just want to get up there and help them keep watch. You know, something useful? Look at these other hurt people. They need you, not me."

Foxglove twitched slightly at the use of the word “people,” but he seemed to guess what it meant from context. At least so far they hadn't bothered explaining anything about their origin. They'd fought together, and maybe that would mean sharing after a little more time. But Blake had suggested waiting until they knew they would get out safely, and Jordan agreed. It didn't make sense to share anything that might be used against them later.

But that alarm never came. From the cheering and shaking on the deck, Jordan assumed that the mast was back in place, or at least not falling over. Of course the real test of that repair comes when they try to raise the sail.

He should be up there helping, his wounds weren't that serious. But arguing with Foxglove was a losing battle. The “earth pony” was so strong that he could keep Jordan trapped in the sleeping bag with a single hoof on his shoulder.

Eventually, the warmth and the gentle rocking of the ship were too much. Being up during the day was the worst. After being trapped in bed for long enough, even he finally slept.

Suddenly he was free again, flying through the air with confidence and dexterity. He glanced down, and sure enough his leg dangled there, wrapped in bandage. It ached when he thought about it, so he focused on other things. It stopped aching.

By now Jordan knew what he was doing. There was no mystery involved in gliding down through what was apparently a fully enclosed cavern, walking down the steps, and finding the door. In the way of dreams, doing something he understood well felt like it only consumed seconds of time, rather than minutes or hours. Just like that he had one hoof up against the doorway leading deeper into the place that Pale called the Dreamlands.

There was only one problem this time: the door was shut. He pushed and shoved against the heavy wood, even bracing his shoulder up against it with all his might. But the door resisted him. Curious, Jordan took a step back, surveying this new obstacle in detail.

Most people would probably have just given up when they encountered a sturdy enough barricade. But getting into places he wasn't supposed to go was kind of Jordan's only hobby.

The double doors stood about twice his height, apparently made of stone. Structurally that didn't make sense—but this place wasn't strictly real, so the usual suite of rules didn't apply. The stone surface was painted completely in strange symbols, written in a language that Jordan couldn't read. But maybe he didn't have to.

Pale Light hadn't had enough time to get too detailed with everything he had to reveal about the Dreamlands. But some of it made sense.

This door was about intention. He had to want to be through it, and to be willing to face the consequences. I'm leaving my own dreams if I step out there. I'm vulnerable.

Jordan advanced on the door again. This time he wasn't trying to force his way through. He belonged on the other side of that door, and he was prepared to face whatever waited for him as a result. If that meant danger, so what? He'd come to other worlds already. He'd fought pirates, crossed a desert, and maybe even killed someone.

The doors rumbled and shook, then swung open a crack. Almost the instant they opened, they began to drift closed again. He hurried through the opening, dodging through the crack just fast enough not to lose his tail in the impact.

This wasn't the forest he'd been expecting. Instead Jordan stood on a stretch of gray sand, extending away from the hollow archway behind him. As before, the doors vanished as soon as they shut, leaving no view of the world behind.

The sky overhead was black and spotted with stars, swirling in patterns more complex than he'd ever observed in the simple night sky.

That wasn't just sand stretching away from him. He saw craters spotted across the strange surface. The plane was pockmarked with them, some so wide and deep that they could swallow whole buildings and still have room for dessert.

But there was no forest this time, teaming with life. For a time Jordan thought he was completely alone, with the oppressive silence and the stars. But hey, at least he wasn't suffocating.

Then he saw a figure—a pair of dark wings in the distance, and a pony's distant outline. They were exploring the bottom of a crater—Pale! Jordan took off, wings spreading wide. It felt far easier to fly here, which made more and less sense at the same moment. The lunar gravity barely even pulled on his wings. But at the same time, there shouldn't be air for them to fight against.

He started to sink, and quickly banished the thought. Confidence and desire seemed to matter most of all. He already knew that he could fly here, so long as he believed it.

But as he closed on the figure, they turned to look back, and he realized it wasn't Pale Light. Those wings had fathers, like the pegasus pony they'd rescued. Not only that, but this creature was so much larger than anyone he'd met yet. They would be even bigger than the griffons.

"Sorry!" He stopped in the air, maybe fifty feet overhead. "I thought you were someone else! I didn't mean to bother you!" He turned off in a random direction, and intended to keep flying that way—but there was a flash of light, and suddenly he was on the ground.

He blinked, wings beating fruitlessly and scattering dust and sand. But his legs were fast enough, and he didn't fall. He looked around in confusion, then looked up at the pony.

She was dark blue, with a mane that his eyes didn't want to focus on. It faded into the stars behind her, with patterns stranger and more complex than even the world of dreams could show. Was he in danger? Such a large creature almost made him want to run. But Jordan hadn't ever been very good about the fear response, and that wasn't about to change now. "I thought there were only bats in here. I guess Pale was wrong."

Was this creature even a pony? She looked down on Jordan with a sweep of her expansive wings, striding around him in a few appraising steps. Jordan tucked his tail self-consciously, puffing out his chest and spreading his wings to be as big as possible. For whatever it was worth. He didn't even have the protection of the useless clothes.

"The Dreamlands are a vast expanse, larger than any single realm. They contain all creatures with minds of their own, great and small."

She sounded a little like she looked, her speech strange and her accent formal. But did she really sound like that, or was Jordan just interpreting it that way?

"It is true that among ponies, only thestrals travel freely in the unwaking world. I am an exception... and it seems you do not know me." She twisted slightly to the side, so Jordan could see her cutie mark clearly. It was almost as hard to accept that stupid name as it was to accept not wearing any pants. "Not even this symbol?"

He considered a moment, then jerked backward suddenly, grinning up at her. "Wait, I have seen that! They were minted on some old coins. Really old, at least a few centuries."

The pony smiled wanly, then left him. She was on her way down towards the center of a crater. There was something in the bottom, though Jordan couldn't quite make it out. "It would need to be far older, or far newer than that. I doubt my mark was used much while I was banished here."

This was his chance to escape. Maybe if he kept flying, he would run into Pale Light eventually. That pony would be able to answer his questions, more than the ones they'd rescued. Those ponies just told him to rest.

"Not just old coins," Jordan continued, trailing along after her. "On some ruins too! There were sun and moon glyphs all over it. Since they were French I was thinking it was a Louis the 14th kinda deal—sun king or whatever. But maybe it didn't have anything to do with my world at all. The moon did look exactly like your tattoo."

That made her stop, glancing back over her shoulder. Like all the other horses, she didn't seem to pay the slightest attention to what Jordan could see from that angle. Nothing he hadn't seen for the last few weeks already. Blake would probably stare like an idiot.

"That's quite the way to assemble your words, young mare. I would think you were a dreamwalker from another realm, except for your appearance. Did you choose to look like that to soothe away my worries? Did you hope to extract information about Equestria, perhaps?"

She stiffened just slightly, her wings open enough to spread her feathers. It was far more dignified than anything Jordan had done.

But Jordan couldn't help himself—he laughed. "If I had any choice about the way I looked, I don't think I would've chosen this. I'm not really sure what all the options were, but 'keeping all my hardware' would've been on the list. Maybe one of those horny things, the unicorns seem to have it made. Levitating things around like they have enough hands to get things done. Not all confused and awkward and flustered by all the smells. The hormones you keep in these brains are downright hellacious."

Being so honest was a risk—he'd known that going in. But of all her reactions, he hadn't expected the horse to smile back at him, wings relaxing. She gestured with her tail, a flick he'd seen from several ponies now. It meant to follow, and he did. "I see what this is. Discord has opened another Worldgate. He didn't waste time using that new authority. Let me guess: you've signed a mysterious contract with a figure you don't understand, and now you're forced to spend time in Equestria? Quite the talent you inherited to Dreamwalk your way here without training..."

Jordan shook his head vigorously. "No, none of that. My friends and I didn't sign anything, we were exploring. Weren't supposed to be down there, I know. People die in the catacombs. Well maybe they don't die, maybe they end up here! Or... okay I saw a body, so I guess some do. But we ended up here! We ran out of supplies, and there was a monster on the other side, and—"

The pony loomed over him, standing in his way so abruptly that Jordan hardly even realized what happened. A set of soft wings wrapped around him. Without knowing why he felt it, Jordan's breathing slowed, and he stopped ranting. He took a few deep breaths, relaxing.

"Peace, Otherworlder. I do not know what you are describing—but my sister will. She ruled during the long years of my absence. If there was traffic between worlds, she would know about it. If you are not bound by contract, there is no reason you could not return the way you came."

He winced. "Well, uh... we can't. There was a monster, like I said. I don't know... exactly what it was. But everyone saw it. Felt like it was chasing us back the way we came. Didn't want us to leave. We tried getting out another way, but the place was full of poison."

They'd been walking long enough that Jordan could finally see what they were approaching. It seemed a little like a stylized Greek temple, built near the bottom of the crater where it would be in perpetual shadow. But neither the lack of air nor the biting cold reached them.

"What is your name, Otherworlder? That I might find you again?"

"Jordan," he answered. "Jordan Little."

"And I am Luna," she answered. "Princess Luna, at least for a little while longer. I am not certain retirement will suit me." She looked away, towards the temple. It was bigger than it looked from a distance, maybe hundreds of feet tall. But Jordan didn't hear anything else.

The world dissolved around him in a swirl of mist and rushing wind. The next thing he knew, Blake was standing over him, with that stupid grin on his face. "Sorry to wake you," he said, not sounding even a little bit sorry. "We made it."

Chapter 19: Blake

This wasn't the first time Jordan had looked particularly grumpy to be disturbed. Between the smell and the graceful way he curled up in his sleep, Blake half-expected to be chastised for breaking into the bedrooms for the wrong sex. Jordan took a moment to rise, shaking the sleepiness from his eyes.

Blake backed away, giving his friend some space. Space would let him ignore his senses, and remind himself of the person living inside that body. These feelings were involuntary, and they were only skin deep. They'd be back on Earth one day, and have to live with what happened on this side.

"We're gonna need some rules about waking me," Jordan finally said. Jordan was the only one left in the makeshift sickbay—every one of the ponies had hobbled or been helped to the surface, watching for their arrival. But Jordan remained, sleeping through everything short of physical contact. "Like how about not touching me while I'm off getting answers. I was talking to a princess that time."

And we're not sure if any of that is real. A “princess” of all things might've made the story even less plausible, if the newly-rescued captives hadn't used that same word so many times. "Right, sorry. But it might mean being asleep during important moments. You've got to see this Mount Aris place. Whatever you were expecting, it isn't that."

Jordan grunted his frustration, then flicked his tail in the pony equivalent of a shrug. "Fine, let's go. That's what we're here for, new lands, new discoveries. Did you get any of the ponies to tell you about a portal?"

"Nope." They walked together up the stairs, past the stained planks where they had fought for their lives. Their group had lived through that exchange, and the pirates had not. Didn't seem to be keeping Jordan up at night though. "We didn't have a lot of time. We were focused on navigating here, and flying this thing. Turns out sailing ships aren't as hard as you'd think. Galena knew what she was doing, even if she couldn't point us in the right direction."

He lowered his voice, leaning down to whisper in his ear. "We don't know how this is gonna go. The hippogriffs should appreciate what we did fighting pirates, but we might need to run some interference for Galena. She risked her life with us, she helped us get to safety, so it doesn't matter what she used to be. If anyone asks, you don't think she used to be part of the crew. She's a victim just like us, nothing else. Got it?"

Jordan nodded. "You don't have to convince me. She was on our team, so we look out for her. Got it."

Blake had been waiting for that confirmation. Once he had it, he stepped aside, and the two of them could finally make their way up onto the deck. The view spoke for itself after that.

Compared to other mountains, Mount Aris wasn't much for size. If anything, its unusual shape made it seem too small for that name. But it wasn't just some dumb pile of rocks, however breathtaking. Mount Aris was a whole island shaped like a skyscraper, with vast sweeping wings of stone to either side to shelter its leafy interior. They were actually wings, not just coincidental blades of rock.

The vast scale of the island became clearer the closer they got, as Blake saw the city arranged near the base. It was easily as large as the settlement they'd left behind. Even from the air, he could see none of the signs of a city suffering that were so obvious in Klugetown. The sky overhead didn't stink, for one thing, and a cloud of smog didn't surround it like a cloak. True, there was nothing particularly advanced about the cluster of a few dozen wooden buildings.

But they didn't need to be, with the rest of the island looming overhead.

"Look how steep that is," Ryan said, in Blake's voice. Maybe he would get used to that if he ignored it long enough, but he hadn't yet. "That has to be at least two kilometers, almost vertical the whole way. He leaned over the edge, staring openly at it. "Blake, that's not natural. There isn't stone at the core of that thing. I'm not even sure nanotubes could do that."

"You know, I got the sense it wasn't natural from the wing sculptures," Jordan said, leaning over the railing on the other side. "But why would someone who can terraform like this live in houses like those?"

Blake couldn't watch for long, he needed to get back to helping Galena and the others with the landing. But he listened another moment longer. "Just be nice when we land," he said flatly. "Remember, we're counting on these people to keep us safe from pirates. They have their own airships, and this space is patrolled. If they kick us out, we're screwed."

He hurried to the stern, where Galena had both claws on the wheel. Occasionally she reached to the side, adjusting another dial with various "lift factors."

"Looks like you've got this under control," he said. "Anything else you need from us?"

She shook her head. "Not at this second. We'll want to trim the sails as we come in towards the docks. We'll coast the rest of the way, and I'll fly across to tie us to the mooring. The navy will fly up to inspect us any moment. That's where you get to help."

She wasn't wrong, either. The city was still at least a kilometer off as a dense group of birds rose from the docks below, flying in tight formation directly towards them. Blake left the helm behind, rejoining the crowd of beleaguered ponies. They'd gathered near the patch that used to be the captain's quarters, but was now just a blackened deck. The Bright Hawk did seem less impressive without it.

The birds flew directly up to them. They were three creatures in all, wearing blue and white uniforms. Two wore crossbows over their backs, while one carried a satchel packed with papers. None drew their weapons.

The ponies started cheering as they came into view. "We made it!" "We're saved!" and other such phrases. As though they hadn't already been saved a few kilometers back.

They looked like griffons from a distance, but as they landed on the deck Blake could see they were something else. They were smaller and leaner than any of the pirates had been, with narrower beaks and manes like Jordan's. They were still bigger than any of the ponies aboard, or Blake himself.

"Interesting ship you've got here," said their leader. His voice was old and worn, a bit like someone who started each morning with a glass full of sandpaper. "From a distance it looked like we had ourselves a stolen ship flying into port."

He fished around in the satchel, lifting something in one claw. They apparently had that advantage too. Lucky. The folio had the look of an official document, with a sketch of their ship. Well it had the hull right, but the captain's quarters were different and there was no mast or sails. Instead it had sweeping aerofoils to either side, attached to the metal sections of the frame that currently held only rust. "Is this the Bright Hawk? That's the name she's been flying under."

Blake felt his opinion of these hippogriffs rising by the second. They had only written records, yet somehow they'd correctly identified their ship in the half hour it took to fly close to their town. But instead of any of the huge airships docked below, they'd sent only three lightly-armed birds. How many cannons on that island are pointed at us right now?

But Blake was too slow, and one of the ponies spoke first. It was the one Blake had first convinced to join their side. "We were their captives, meant to work the mines in Gangue. We fought them off and took the ship, then sailed straight here."

The hippogriffs shared a look of disbelief. But with the broken mast, visible damage to the hull from the impact, and the charred patch that had been the captain’s quarters, there was plenty of evidence.

"That's what happened!" said one of the other ponies. A younger, nervous girl, with wings that she opened and closed every few seconds. "He was the leader!" She seemed confused for a moment, then pointed at Blake. How could she tell which of them was which? Maybe because his "twin" was still leaning over the side staring at the impossible city and muttering to himself.

The hippogriff approached him, cutting through the crowd of nervous ponies. Of course nobody denied the story. Blake didn't move, despite the greater size of this creature. What was the bird going to do, attack him?

Obviously not. "Kirin this far south is a rare thing." He nodded towards the charred patch of deck at their hooves, scratching at it with a claw. "I'm guessing you're the greater part of how this rebellion succeeded. This isn't the first time we've heard of creatures vile enough to trade in other creatures. But it's rare they find their freedom without suffering through hard labor and eventually getting ransomed."

Blake nodded. "No one of us deserves credit for the success. But there were six pirates, and ten of us. We took casualties—four were wounded in the fighting, but none seriously. On our side." He looked briefly down at the deck, shuddering once at the memory. The fight felt like it had happened to someone else. Maybe that was what Jordan saw when he slept. Dreams so real they mixed with reality.

The hippogriff scribbled a few things on the pad of paper he carried, then flipped it closed. "Well then. I'm sure each of you creatures is eager to get home to your families. My patrol birds will assist you into the docks. I believe there's an outstanding bounty for this vessel's safe return to Equestria. How you distribute it is up to you. Is she carrying other stolen goods or contraband that you've seen?"

He believes us. Just like that. But who would've believed a ragged band of beleaguered, frightened-looking horses could be pirates?

"No sir," Blake answered. "The hold has food and spare parts for the ship, nothing else. But there's a member of my group who requires special care... I think she's called a seapony? She's having a rather unpleasant time trapped in a water tank. The wagon we used to transport her was ceramic, and it shattered in the crash. We don't actually know how we'll get her off."

The birds stiffened instantly at his words, all three of them coming alert. Their leader gestured to one, then pointed a wing at the helm. He flew off, and the other two surrounded Blake. "You didn't mention one of our citizens had been taken captive. There will be an additional reward for freeing her, I have no doubt."

"That's what you mean, isn't it?" the other bird said, tossing her crossbow firmly around so it settled against her back. She seemed to be reaching for something else—a necklace, maybe? The hippogriffs did seem to share similar taste in jewelry, even their no-nonsense commander. "When one of you Equestrians says seapony, you mean hippogriff without wings."

"No," said the older pony. "I wouldn't believe it myself if I hadn't seen her. She's a seapony as surely as you stand before us."

Their leader gestured again. "Silk, keep an eye on the deck and make sure docking proceeds smoothly. I'll assist the... seapony." He turned to Blake, extending a claw. "My name is Torrent. Lieutenant Torrent, if you're complaining about me to the navy. But Torrent otherwise."

The gesture had seemed so silly when the ponies tried to do it—what good was a handshake when you couldn't grab anything? But Blake extended his hoof anyway. "I'm Blake. I'd introduce you to the rest of my group, but I think you'll want to meet Kaelynn first. She's below, follow me."

Chapter 20: Kaelynn

Apparently waiting in a tank could get worse. Kaelynn could've been waiting in a tank without proper water circulation. While their desert journey had at least had enough volume that the first few days weren't so bad, the transport tank aboard the Bright Hawk was far smaller. While cheers shook the top of the ship, suggesting rescue in sight, Kaelynn was left to simmer in a gross tank, feeling increasingly like fish soup.

But then she heard footsteps, or hoofsteps anyway. She sat up, shifting her weight beside the harness. She wasn't wearing it—hauling that stupid thing around had put significant strain on her scales, causing discoloration and bruises that ached whenever she touched them. Better to give herself a chance to heal.

That cheering hadn't sounded like they were getting raided by pirates. Besides, would she really be the first target if they'd lost after all? She was helpless in a tank, just like she had been during the fight.

The door banged open, and she sat up, holding her breath, and peeking out over the edge. There were just two people, Blake leading someone who wasn't quite a griffon, wearing a sharp uniform and looking urgent. She couldn't watch them approach, and settled back into the water to wait.

They spoke for a moment in voices she couldn't quite hear, though the words that slipped through were about her. The other voice sounded surprised, and asked Blake several questions he couldn't answer. Finally something hard rapped on the side of the tank. She saw a face appear there just above the water. Slimmer and more graceful than a griffon, with a mane down his back like a pony, but still had a beak.

Kaelynn took a breath, then popped up again above the water to listen. At least if she were in the air she would be able to understand most of what they said, albeit not comfortably.

"Seapony," the creature said, nodding to her in a way that was almost respectful. "I must assume from your present condition that you don't know any of the relevant songs. Do I have your permission to help you onto land for the time being?" He touched something around his neck with one claw, displaying it to her. But it just looked like a bead necklace, or maybe pearls.

Help me onto land? She almost asked, but caught herself. Blake lingering just behind him suggested he was well-meaning, and their group trusted him. And if she said no, she'd have to go back into the tank. She sunk down a little bit, taking a fresh breath of water, then rose, holding her mask in one hoof. "Do I need this?"

It was infuriatingly quiet, but the listener seemed to understand. He shook his head. "You won't need anything. If you've never heard of the Pearl, then... you may find the process slightly uncomfortable. But it will not be permanent. Any hippogriff will be able to return you to your natural shape, or at least any trained to use it on others."

You can make me into something else? She took another breath, then nodded. Just having this conversation made the air burn her face. Of course she wanted to be changed back! Could a necklace really have that power?

The hippogriff reached up, removing the necklace. He extended it towards her, until it touched up against her chest. There was a flash of light, not entirely dissimilar to what she felt going through the portal.

When it faded, Kaelynn felt different. Her tail no longer curled beneath her, and something else touched up against the sides of the tank. More legs? She dropped down into the water by reflex, but there were no longer openings on her neck. She took in a mouthful of water, and tasted just how foul it was. She coughed, jerking out of the water, and rising to her forelegs first. There was a moment of struggling, and back legs settled under her.

She wasn't human again, that would just be way too convenient. But when she took a breath, the air didn't start to drown her. Her eyes focused more easily, and she could see the hippogriff clearly, watching her with sympathy. "Positively deplorable conditions," he muttered, settling the necklace onto his shoulders. "If I thought these ponies had put you here intentionally, there might be criminal charges."

"No!" she blurted, hurrying to the edge of the tank. "They saved my life! Don't charge them with anything unless you do it to me too."

The stranger said nothing, frown deepening.

"Kaelynn, this is Torrent. We've arrived at Mount Aris, and they're escorting us. Also... apparently very magical. You're standing on your own!"

"More than that!" She beamed, flinging herself over the edge of the tank. She fell gracelessly to the floor, but the pain didn't even matter. She righted herself, looking back at the two of them. She was still far smaller than they were, even standing properly. But she wasn't drowning, and the air didn't burn her scales.

Actually, she didn't have scales anymore. Kaelynn glanced back at herself, where she'd been basically a fish for almost two weeks now. She looked exactly like the ponies they'd helped rescue, with a tail and mane made of hair and four legs. The swirling mark from her fin had moved to her butt, exactly where the ponies had it. She didn't have wings, or scales. But after all that time in a tank, being able to "walk" was a superpower all its own.

"I apologize this is necessary," Torrent said. "The Pearl of Transformation cannot imitate the songs you use. But it knows ponies, and this should be better in the short term." He glanced back at the tank, turning up his nose. "The first sign of seaponies in decades, and you almost drown in a broken tank. The queen will be furious."

She nearly hugged him right there. "Don't apologize! I'm not mad, this is..." She took a few cautious steps. It was far easier than dragging her weight along the deck, that was for sure. Didn't feel like she was rubbing her tail raw in the process, either. "This is amazing! I can breathe and walk and everything!"

Torrent cleared his throat. "Yes, well. Your arrival will mean more questions than these others, I'm afraid. We have been searching for what became of Acampus for many years. Too many, given your appearance. Your parents must've survived its destruction. You don't actually know Acampus, do you?"

She nodded. "I'll answer anything you ask—after giving me legs, I'll give you my blood type, my bust size—bloody anything. But I don't actually know what Acampus is. I'm guessing you're gonna be hella disappointed when you find out where we came from."

Torrent whipped out a pad of paper, beak opening to overflow with questions. But then they bumped against something, jostling slightly from the impact. The damaged hull creaked under them, and they fell still. Torrent tucked the notepad away. "This kirin told us there were multiple groups of hostages, and that you were in his group. I suppose it makes sense to debrief all of you separately. Every detail you know is precious, and there's some chance the queen will want to meet with you. I'm afraid it would be impossible to refuse if that happens."

She shrugged. It sounded like the hippogriffs were about to take them to the equivalent of a police station and take all their statements. But they'd also given her legs back, so it felt like a fair trade. "I'll meet with whoever you want. But I won't lie. You probably won't get the answers you're hoping for."

They walked up to the deck. The Bright Hawk had indeed arrived, and was moored to a set of docks that extended a concerning distance over open air, letting their ship hang beside them. Along with the ponies she remembered, there were now a half-dozen hippogriffs wearing uniforms similar to Torrent, all of them armed.

Another officer-looking hippogriff stood on the dock, spreading her wings for their attention. "Gather all of your possessions, and leave them here with the dockmaster. They'll be sent after you by the end of day. You'll have time to discuss your share of bounty after your interview."

Torrent hurried over to the dock, leaving the two of them standing with the others. While they waited, Jordan and Ryan appeared from the crowd. Both stared at Kaelynn, but Ryan was faster. "You're out of the tank!"

"I know!" She pranced around in a slow circle, which was much harder than it looked. Just because she could walk now didn't mean she was very good at it yet. She didn't have all the practice walking on four legs that her friends did. "It's amazing! The hippogriffs used a weird necklace-thing, and it was like... bang! Just like the portals, only now I'm not a fish in a world that isn't fish."

"I'm gonna go grab our gear from downstairs and make sure it's together. We don't have much, so... best not to lose it." Ryan turned, darting back the way they'd come.

"Kirin named Blake." It was one of the older ponies from before, the unicorn. "I know they said we should discuss the bounty later, but we've already made a decision. I hope you will support us."

"I'm sure we will," Blake said flatly. "What were you thinking? A share for everyone who fought?"

The unicorn laughed nervously. "No, no. We have no need of reward. But you and your friends... you are stranded here. You may have a long journey home. The others would only ask enough for train tickets home to Equestria. You and your friends take the rest, and use it to return to your homes."

"That is very generous," Blake said. "You guys agree?"

Kaelynn nodded with the others. Whatever passed for money here might be little more than souvenirs soon anyway. But if the portal at Mount Aris was as dangerous as the others they'd found so far...

"Good. I will inform the hippogriffs of our choice." He slipped back into the crowd.

But as he left, Kaelynn saw another shape appear behind them, looming far larger than any other member of the crowd. Galena, who had been directing the ship during much of the trip over. She looked nervously to either side as she approached, keeping mostly to the shadows. When ponies saw her, a few of them retreated, keeping their distance from the huge bird.

"I should stay with you," she whispered, eyes focused on Blake. "Hippogriffs are not as forgiving as ponies. I would not be hanged after helping you, but... prison, maybe. Please. Your changeling promised you knew somewhere far away from this place, where I could escape old debts. Let me join you."

Their “changeling” appeared from the deck a few moments later, dragging saddlebags and satchels and Kaelynn's rebreather too. He stopped in the center, breathing heavily, then looked up. "Oh, Galena. Hi."

Without any words exchanged between them, the group huddled in closer. Hippogriffs began escorting ponies off the ship, and the other prisoners were eager to go first. That meant they had another minute or so before it was their turn, maybe less.

"Did you promise she could come with us, Ryan?" Blake asked flatly.

"She was in the same situation. Felt like coming back with us was a small price to pay to escape," Ryan said.

Blake nodded. "Then welcome aboard, Galena. I think it would be simpler if we just say you've been with us this whole time. Agreed?"

She squealed eagerly. "Yes. With you means no past to explain. If they believe you, I won't have to answer questions."

"Then you're from Manhattan," Jordan whispered. "Big city, cabs and skyscrapers. Steam spitting out of the sewers. Yeah?"

The griffon stared back, nodding weakly. "I will try to remember."

It probably isn't smart to lie to them, Kaelynn thought. But there was no time for that confrontation—Torrent approached again, gesturing towards the ramp. "We're ready for you, second group. The naval office is waiting."

Chapter 22: Kaelynn

If only other universes had cell coverage, Kaelynn could've told the others what was really going on. Though then again, she'd never held a dive radio that didn't rely on some on-site infrastructure. So even on Earth, she'd probably be stuck just telling the others after it was over.

No sooner were the others walked away than the naval officer doing her interview was replaced with someone else. This creature seemed older, more seasoned somehow. More important?

"Word is already spreading of a seapony who defeated a ship of pirates and freed the captives with her songs. I've received a message ordering me to escort you to meet with the queen and her court."

The bird, a stern, older-looking creature who somehow reminded Kaelynn of her dad,waved a single sheet of paper vaguely in her direction. But she couldn't read the text that was typewritten there.

"I'm afraid I'll be disappointing them," she said. "I already told you, I don't come from wherever you people wish I had. I'm not proof of any survivors, and I definitely didn't sing the ship to safety. My friends fought, and they won. Shouldn't they be coming with us?"

Rivulet shook his head once. "The audience was granted for you. If there's anything you think your companions would wish to share, you should consider it carefully before we arrive, and do it in their stead. But visiting Seaquestria is not a privilege granted to any pony or other creature who sets foot on Mount Aris. But you are a seapony, and should feel at home there."

He led her through a central hallway, then to a stairwell leading down. Given the building's placement on the docks, she couldn't imagine anything waiting down on that level—in a way, there wasn't. There was a large closet for uniforms, and numerous shelves with papers and cameras and other personal effects vulnerable to liquid.

Her escort stripped of everything but his necklace—which probably would've bothered her a little more if their uniforms actually covered things to begin with. As they approached the steps, faces appeared from doors and branches in the hallway, as birds peeked in to watch her. Like she was a specimen on display.

"In your interview you mentioned that you don't know any songs," Rivulet said. "That means you need my help, right? Making the transition?"

She nodded. "I know no songs. If they're so great, maybe you could teach me? My phone can store a few million, so I'd take the FLACs if you have those. Or hell, I'd take an MP3."

"I'm afraid we have neither of those," Rivulet said. He kept his tone neutral, but his voice betrayed his bewilderment. "You may want to ask the court when we arrive. The queen is old, with knowledge stretching back into our past and all that we accomplished. If there are any records of seapony songs, she will know where to find them."

He walked down the steps, until the gently lapping water covered most of his back. It was cold on Kaelynn's skin, cold enough for a wetsuit. But maybe that would change.

Just like Torrent on the docks, Rivulet held his necklace towards her. She watched him for the entire process this time, hoping to learn anything she could about how to reproduce the effect. Being able to summon legs when she needed them was exactly what this trip to another universe required.

A flash of white light spread from their contact, climbing up her limbs and body like a living force all its own. It passed in an eyeblink, and as it did her hindlegs ripped out from under her. She fell, splashing into the water. But not a little tank this time, or a spring she could circle in moments. They were all the way out along the docks, with the coastal water swirling around them.

Kaelynn took a few breaths, and felt her body burning. Water slipped out her lungs and along her back, feeling almost as awful as air. Worse—it was sticking her head into a barrel of rubbing alcohol. It seared her flesh, burning so acutely that her agony smeared her cries into wordless, animal pain.

She felt nothing for a few moments, just pain. But as quickly as it came, it started to fade. Kaelynn blinked, and saw half a dozen fish around her. Rivulet's familiar sea green feathers had turned into a still-recognizable scaly coat. But there were several other naval officers watching, some who had clearly jumped in after her while still in their uniforms.

"Is she okay?" asked one, panicked. "If the seapony dies while we're caring for her..."

"Should we lift her out?"

"No, those are gills. She'll suffocate."

"She's fine, give it a moment," Rivulet called, his voice louder than them all. “See her scales—the spots are fading. She was brought here in fresh water. Her body must adapt to the ocean. There are notes about this in the manual on joint military exercises—just give her space."

"I'm... fine," she squeaked. She still didn't sound it, or feel it. Her neck and throat felt like she'd had strep for a week. But it was getting better. "You could've... warned me. Like knives in my lungs..."

"Warn her about herself?" someone whispered near the back. Unfortunate for them that sound carried so well in water, then. "Is she serious?"

"True what they say. They do sing everything."

She ignored the voices, and so did Rivulet. He waved the others off with his fins, clearing the space around her. With the way so many people had called her a hippogriff herself, she expected the resemblance to be closer, but no—up close, it was obvious they were different species. He had fins on his hooves, while she did not. There was a ridge of finlike, transparent flesh around his neck, the same color his mane had been, and she didn't have that either.

She felt dwarfed by so many other creatures. Every one of them was longer than she was, or at least looked like they should tower over her. It was hard to tell so long as they kept their distance.

"Apologies, Seapony Kaelynn," Rivulet said. "I forget that you aren't what you appear. These others don't know what they're talking about and should be ignored."

She nodded weakly. "Will I have to endure pain like that every time I enter the water and leave again?"

Rivulet shook his head. "Not unless you swim in freshwater again before returning. I am not the bird to be telling you this, though. The queen may be able to answer more of your questions."

He gestured into the blue around them—there were no walls here, of course. Nothing but the support beams of the dock, driven more securely than even Earth construction usually did. But there was motion in the gloom, and a glow emanating from the seabed off to her left, rather than from the sky overhead.

Kaelynn momentarily looked away from Rivulet. The crowd of other fish dispersed around her, several returning to the stairs above them, a few swimming off to whatever tasks that had occupied them before. But she didn't care.

Kaelynn swam. She circled around one of the pillars, moving her tail in a satisfying complete arc behind her. Her fins adjusted without thinking, trimming the motion, and keeping her upright. She drove straight down, all the way to the concrete friction-pile surrounded by volcanic sand, reaching down to touch it with a hoof.

The pain faded from her lungs—or her gills, anyway. None of the familiar irritants came in to take its place. Not just the lack of acidic water on her mouth, but also the rigid silicone mask in her lips. There was no rush of air behind her, no need to adjust her BC after she dove all the way down. She wasn't wearing one. Her life support equipment was for the air.

"I've been missing this," she said. It didn't matter that the visibility was piss and that there were only muscles to see growing on the wooden supports. She couldn't just swim—Kaelynn could live here. "You people come down whenever you want?"

Rivulet had followed her down, though thankfully for her sanity none of the other fish. She wasn't being closely guarded, so apparently she really was just a guest of the queen. A guest of a queen who sensibly kept her court underwater.

"Most birds do," Rivulet said. Somehow his words felt flat, in a way she couldn't quite explain. The whispering had seemed like that too, like it was missing a necessary component. But she could still understand him fine. "I serve on the surface, along with most of the navy these days. But I'm old enough that I prefer it that way. I was born before the Pearl of Transformation created Seaquestria. Many younger birds have known no other life. They didn't want to return to the surface even when the Storm King was defeated.

Kaelynn looked up, where the surface was the familiar inverted mirror speckled with afternoon light. Maybe if she were lucky she'd still be down here after nightfall, when she could see the urchins and other nocturnal residents of the sea emerge from their crags to feed.

"I know why they might," she said. "Where I come from, I could never spend more than a few days underwater—some of them in huge suits, some of it in cramped decompression tubes. But we can't get the bends, can we? We don't breathe air, so there's no nitrogen..."

"Airsickness afflicts only surface-dwellers who travel to the city and are not transformed," Rivulet agreed. "It is one of the reasons we avoid permitting ponies to cross." He adjusted the necklace, somehow emphasizing his words. "The magic works on all creatures of Harmony, but most don't enjoy it. They're not like us, Kaelynn. Even if you are from somewhere else—" He looked away awkwardly. They were underwater, so it was impossible to know for sure. But were those tears? "I did not think I would live to hear those songs again in Seaquestria. You may have come from some far country, but you brought seapony with you all the same."

"Songs?" Even he was saying it—but Kaelynn couldn't hear it. Or maybe she could. The thing missing from Rivulet's words was tonality.Though they were still speaking the same language, for him there was almost no emotion, even while he was plainly on the edge of tears at some painful memory. "I'm not trying to sing."

But just saying those words, the difference was obvious. She turned it into a tune—there was meter, and the beginning of a melody. She just needed a few more voices, and they could make anything entertaining. But she was alone. "I hope the queen doesn't mind."

"She won't," Rivulet said. "The first test was simply whether you could be changed by the Pearl—you can, so you are a creature of Harmony."

He gestured, and they set off into the blue. Despite his claims of preferring the land, he was far more practiced at this. She was soon exerting herself to keep up, and found the rhythm of her movement unsteady and clumsy by comparison. But that was nothing more than a challenge to her, something waiting to be overcome.

The sea transformed before them, from a relatively bare sandy beach to a thriving reef. It was as vivid as anything she'd seen in Australia or Hawaii, without the occasional stretch of bone-white to remind her of her species' failings. It was all alive, with soft yellow and red sponge corals mixing with anemones and many other familiar species. She recognized the fish too, and they seemed to recognize her. Even the smaller reef-dwellers poked out from their coral grazing to investigate her.

Maybe the others could come down here. They're creatures of Harmony too, right? Or at least Ryan. If she didn't share this with anyone, she would die.

But there was something else Kaelynn could do. She could sing.

Chapter 23: Kaelynn

Kaelynn might have a queen waiting for her, but she still didn't take the most direct route. Rivulet and the naval intelligence birds hadn't been lying—there really was a city down here. It was far better to visit in person than anything she'd ever dreamed up watching Little Mermaid as a kid.

The city itself wasn't built directly onto the seafloor. To reach it, they had to pass through lava-tubes that permeated the structure of the island, before emerging in a brilliant bioluminescent glow. Structures had been carved into the rock on every side, and somehow covered over with patches of living coral and other plants.

"Why live in a cave?" she asked, at the conclusion of her little song of joy. "There's a living reef out there!"

"Why don't ponies live in open fields?" Rivulet countered. "In our case, it's because we didn't decide to emigrate here—we fled, when word of the disastrous fall of Acampus reached us. Not every bird could escape the invasion before the Storm King's armies reached us. Given what happened to your city, ours had to be harder to find. Depth of water alone would not protect us."

"Not mine," she corrected, filing away the name Acampus for later. Apparently it wasn't around anymore, but that still might give her more information about her new species. No city was just destroyed with everyone inside it—even nuclear weapons left survivors. Maybe she could find their descendants.

"Even so," Rivulet said. "You see the lenses around the edges of the cavern—those funnel light from the surface. It isn't enough for crops, we grow those beyond the city. But we have cultivated plenty of sea life to make our home more comfortable."

"You did a great job," she said. Though as far as cities went, it couldn't hold that many. From above, she could see most buildings all from the entrance, built in concentric rings around a single large structure. The capital, or maybe the palace? "Your home is beautiful."

"Visit the Harmonizing Heights before you sail for home," Rivulet said flatly. "A seapony in particular should be able to appreciate it. We have done much to make this cavern feel like home—but it is still a shelter, after all these years. The home our ancestors built is above. We are not native to these waters, as you are."

Kaelynn said very little as they swam deeper, approaching the central structure. There were thousands of fish living down here, but most paid her little mind. From a distance, she could pass for one of their children—it was only up close that the differences became obvious. Some did point and mutter. But she saw awe from the crowd, not disgust.

They reached the palace, and fish carrying actual tridents lifted a thin veil to let them pass inside. Through a few secure corridors, then into a vast hall, with a ceiling vaulted almost as high as the cavern itself. Bioluminescence like nothing she'd ever seen shone from behind it, from a strange chandelier shaped vaguely like a jellyfish. But no jellyfish ever glowed like this, bright enough to illuminate the entire space. Cooler blue tendrils covered the windows leading up to the throne, and Kaelynn kept her distance from those. Just because they looked glassy and delicate didn't mean they weren't bursting with neurotoxin.

Fish lingered around the sides of the room, wearing what she could only describe as "fancy shells" in various styles. There were no cloth garments here at all, not even the perfunctory kind that covered nothing.

Atop the grand throne was a fish of white and purple, larger than any of those who filled the room around them. She wore a crown, and watched Kaelynn's approach with the only restraint in the room.

"Oh my gosh!" A yellow blur nearly crashed into her—instead it circled around her, spinning Kaelynn in the motion and disorienting her. She caught a faint glimpse of fluffy blue “mane,” and a set of rear fins so big they were almost wings. "She's a seapony! Mom, she's a seapony! Can you see this? It's real—it actually happened!"

She grabbed Kaelynn by the shoulder, stopping her motion. This fish was big, even bigger than Rivulet, with a graceful, somehow feminine build. "Did you really sing so well a whole crew of pirates flung themselves overboard? Were you in Acampus? Why were you riding around on the surface in the first place? Which is better, kelp or seaweed?"

Finally, something for her to latch onto. "I think kelp is seaweed, isn't it? I was never big into sushi."

"Skystar, darling, give the fish some space! We don't need to scare the seaponies back into extinction a few minutes after coming back." The queen spoke from her throne, in a voice that was somehow regal and relaxed simultaneously.

"Right, sorry." The yellow fish, apparently called "Skystar", circled around her once more, then retreated to linger near the throne. "Sorry again, seapony! It's just that seeing you is so exciting! Seaquestria has been waiting ages to see another creature like you!"

"Queen Novo," said Rivulet hastily. "I'm the officer assigned to this case, apologies for the sudden arrival. This is Kaelynn. Kaelynn, this is Queen Novo, leader of hippogriffs in land and sea, from the greatest peaks to the deepest depths, wise and honored—"

"Enough," the queen said, waving a dismissive leg. "I think she gets the idea. Kaelynn, you said. It is my pleasure to welcome you to Seaquestria. When the Storm King was finally defeated, and we reopened ourselves to the world above, I did hope we would learn what had become of our friends below the waves. I hope a messenger like you came with good news."

Silence descended on the court. It wasn't just the queen and her daughter, who peeked out from the back of the throne and darted away whenever Kaelynn looked. There were the other fancy fish, lingering overhead. They leaned down, watching her closely. And despite knowing none of that was true, for once her officer escort was silent. Apparently being around his queen was just too much pressure.

"I wish I did," she said. It might not be a large court, or a large city—but Kaelynn liked this place. It was a shame it probably wouldn't like her too. "But I'm not what you hope. I don't come from Acampus, but from another world. Actually, I was hoping to ask you about seasponies, since I don't know myself."

She couldn't get anything else out, because the quiet of the room dissolved into muttering. Kaelynn couldn't make out any words specifically, but even their flat voices conveyed disappointment. A few were more hostile than that, wondering if she was some "changeling trick". She didn't bother trying to defend herself—just swaim in place, with the whole room looking down and judging her.

"Well that's awkward," Skystar said—suddenly right in front of her again. "We thought you were here to tell us where Acampus fish had swum off to. But you don't know?"

"I don't know," she agreed. "I'm not even from here. My friends and I—they're still up on the surface—we came to Mount Aris looking for a portal home. We had a map showing it on this island somewhere. That's the reason we came. If I knew anything about the seaponies, I would tell you. But I didn't even know what I was called until a few days ago."

The fish overhead continued their muttered conversations. She could only catch fragments—some wondering how she could sing, others why she'd bothered coming, and a few wondering if she was still somehow the key to finding the lost seaponies.

"Enough," the queen called, just loud enough to silence them. "Apologies, Kaelynn. It's not your fault for not knowing. This is why I usually make creatures wait. A few days is enough time to learn who they are, and what they're doing in Seaquestria. But the news of a seapony, it spread too fast. I had to meet you."

She swam off the throne, though there was something far more dignified about it compared to the other fish Kaelynn had seen so far. "If you're not coming to us as the representative of Acampus, this isn't the venue. There's no reason to have our conversation with so many eyes watching. Join my daughter and I in the parlor—some refreshment perhaps, and we can learn why you're really here."

She nodded eagerly. If only leaders back home were so reasonable. "I'd like that."

The next few hours passed in a blur to Kaelynn, and she spent most of it waiting for the moment when the illusion dissolved and she woke up. She was nobody—a diving welder, and petty trespasser. She'd met policemen all over the world, but not expected to be meeting presidents and queens.

If it weren’t for the long parade of insane things they'd done together, Kaelynn didn't think her friends would even believe her.

After a meal of the first food that wasn't just land stuff dumped into the water to be extra soggy, she told them why they were here. Everything, not just the carefully sheltered bits they'd told their interrogators in the navy building. It was a good thing she hadn't lied in that interview, or else things would probably be getting awkward soon.

But these people were so disarming! From the maternal Novo, to the overeager and stir-crazy Skystar. They wanted her presence here to mean something it didn't. But no matter how much she wanted to help the hippogriffs find their lost city, she couldn't tell them what she didn't know.

Fortunately for Kaelynn, the noble hippogriffs weren't as ignorant as she was.

"We're aware of the Worldgate you came for," Novo said, once dessert was finished and so was her recitation of what she'd learned so far.

"We do?" Skystar asked. "I mean, yeah. Of course we do. Worldgates. What's a Worldgate?"

"More than a portal," Novo explained patiently. "A Worldgate creates a stable connection, converting creatures and materials as they cross from one side to the other. Otherwise, the alien universe waiting on the other side would be too hostile to survive."

"Right, of course! I'm sure I learned about that somewhere." Skystar floated past the table, occasionally glancing down at Kaelynn. "Why didn't we use that while we were hiding from the Storm King?"

"I explored the possibility," Novo said. "But my scouting team did not return. Those birds were some of the fiercest warriors I knew, capable explorers. One of them had circumnavigated the globe on her own wings, and all the others were skilled and loyal."

"The last Worldgate we found led to a tunnel filled with poisonous gas," Kaelynn said, slumping slightly in her seat. "If this one is as unsafe, we'll have to move on. Why do I feel like this is turning into a pattern?"

"It doesn't seem like an accident," Queen Novo said. "I do not know how the magic works, or who originally created them. But I do know where our Worldgate is hidden. If you wish to attempt the crossing with your friends, I will not forbid you. But I warn you to look elsewhere—whatever danger waits beyond, it must be severe."

She nodded. "I know they'll want to try. We'll be better prepared this time. Maybe I could even bring masks for them."

But something else struck her then, something that was so bold she almost didn't ask. But what if this portal failed—what if they had to journey across the world and find another one? "Please, Queen Novo—I've spent my last few weeks stuck in a tank of foul water. It was the only thing my friends could do to keep me alive. But I've noticed your birds carry a kind of... I guess it's magic jewelry. Those necklaces you're wearing. Do you think I could buy one from a jeweler in town before I go? When I arrived, one of your soldiers used it to give me legs. Having a way to go back and forth like you do would be amazing."

The room fell silent, other than the slow, distant rumble of waves crashing against stone somewhere far away. Maybe it was shaking them through the island itself.

"That is not possible," the queen finally said, suddenly stern. "The Pearl of Transformation is attuned to hippogriffs. Every piece I grant to my citizens who travel to the surface, works only for them."

"Oh." She sunk into her seat, a little deeper. The hippogriffs could still transform her when she went back to the surface, they'd already done that once. But if she left, she'd be leaving this behind. She'd be back on land, with all the joys of the ocean stolen from her. "Damn."

Skystar swam up to her from one side, grinning. "Don't be sad, seapony! You don't need pearls, you just need to sing!"

Rivulet said something about that. So did the officer who found me in the tank. They wanted to know if I knew a song. "I don't know how," she said weakly. "In all the time you spent with seaponies, did you save any of their music? Maybe I could borrow some of that instead."

Novo nodded. "We never had any of your spell books—despite all the years we've worked together, I've only ever seen ponies make seapony magic work. Hippogriffs, not so much." She stiffened, indignant. "There are some songs in the palace. I will have copies sent to you on the surface, if you give our scholars some time. It will be up to you to figure out which ones are magical, and which ones are just catchy."

Chapter 24: Kaelynn

Kaelynn was in no hurry to leave the water behind. For the first (and probably, only) time, her body felt like no disadvantage, but uniquely enabled her to enjoy the world she'd been placed in. But it was getting dark—by the time she had a clear view of the water's surface, she could see only darkness above.

So as much as she would've rather spent the time exploring Seaquestria, returning to her friends was more important. She couldn't just send a message back—they'd been caught by enough police in various countries to be skeptical of what they said. Yeah, sure she wasn't being harshly interrogated for endless hours. Without the receipts, any message would be meaningless.

After her visit to the palace, her naval officer escort was replaced with a royal servant of some kind—Kaelynn didn't exactly understand what Rotala's role was, other than knowing she frequently passed between the palace on the mountaintop and the one deep underwater. More importantly for Kaelynn's purposes, she had a magic necklace.

They didn't need to use the stairs in the intelligence building either—as it turned out, there were plenty of transition-spots just like it, with lockers and showers for those coming from sea to land. Granted, the hippogriffs changed more than she did—when the light faded, Rotala had feathers and fur. Kaelynn got two extra legs and some lungs, but otherwise didn't seem to change much.

"Incredible that every one of you can just do that whenever you want," Kaelynn muttered, climbing up the steps. This late in the evening there were few birds in here, and the lights glowed only dimly. "Back home, I didn't want to be stuck with just land or sea either. But getting access to the ocean was a constant hassle."

Rotala smiled politely. While she'd been helpful taking Kaelynn around Seaquestria when the royals were done with her, she wasn't as insightful or helpful as Rivulet had been. She seemed to view escorting Kaelynn no differently than folding sheets or delivering desserts around the palace. "Of course, miss. Wasn't that way for my parents, mind. But birds these days couldn't get along without it. Now come with me, we'll rinse that seawater off and get you back to your friends before the hour's up."

That was exactly what they did. The showers clearly weren't built as a place to relax—rather, they were more like a car-wash, a long tunnel of high-pressure nozzles that blasted soap and then water at her from all directions. But by the time they emerged from the end, the salty smell was gone. Probably for the best—saltwater could wreak havoc on anything not built for it.

"Will I see you again tomorrow?" she asked, as they left the building behind and walked out onto the docks. Walked, under Kaelynn's own power. It was almost as much of an adventure as the underwater world had been, though lots of dark buildings weren't nearly as interesting to look at. There were far fewer birds out than there were fish still awake below—but with so much bioluminescence, night was more of a suggestion down there. "My friends probably won't want to wait to try the portal."

What few were there stared openly at Kaelynn. A few fledglings were even brave enough to come up to her, asking if she was a seapony.

Rotala nodded. "I'll be at your disposal so long as you're at Mount Aris, young miss. Though if I might suggest?" She didn't actually wait for permission, which Kaelynn didn't mind. She wasn't royalty. "The place you're mentioning isn't widely known. I know the queen didn't ask you, but you'd be better off not speaking about it so openly."

Kaelynn nodded. "Sorry. I'll... yeah."

They reached one of the tallest buildings near the docks. Even in another universe, Kaelynn knew a hotel when she saw one, complete with decorative awning and wide windows. The lights remained bright within. Rotala said very little as they stepped inside, other than a brief conversation with the front desk. She obtained a few keys, then took them to the elevator.

The style was as old as everything else—an actual operator sat inside, grinning at them as they entered.

"It is true," he said, adjusting his bright red cap. "Seaponies visit our humble mountain again. Welcome."

She nodded weakly. Being treated like a celebrity was getting old. "Thank you for your hospitality," she said. "But I've had so much of it lately, I think what I really need is a night's sleep."

"Of course." He took them up without another word, all the way to the top floor. A pair of bored-looking naval officers sat in the hallway, playing cards. These didn't even bother carrying spears like the soldiers she'd seen in the undersea castle—clearly they weren't expecting to do much fighting.

The younger of the two sat up abruptly, scattering his cards all over the floor. He hurried over, standing almost to attention as they approached, though he didn't salute. "Oh, good! Our guests were getting restless waiting for you. Do we have new orders from the princess?"

Rotala produced a thick roll of something from her coat, thick enough that it had survived the transition from water to land and kept the words written on it intact. "Here you are."

They continued to the door, leaving the naval birds in the hallway. Rotala opened the door ahead of her, then gave Kaelynn the key. "The crown will provide your accommodations so long as you remain in the city," she said. "I'll see you tomorrow." Then she left, selecting one of the other nearby hotel-rooms and leaving Kaelynn in the doorway.

Her friends were all inside, scattered across the room. Ryan was the first to notice her, though she could see only a single holey leg waving at her from the kitchen. Evidently he didn't want to expose this "true" form to the birds. She stepped inside, shutting the door behind her. She really did feel exhausted. But the others needed to know.

"You're back," Blake said. "We started to wonder if they were ever going to let you see us again."

She nodded, slumping into the first cushion she could find. Other worlds still had sofas, even if there was no television to mindlessly watch mounted to the wall. Now that she looked, there wasn't even a radio. At least they had electric lights. "Yeah. It wasn't bad—they weren't interrogating me or anything."

The others all gathered around, except for Galena. Kaelynn could hear only faint snoring from one of the attached bedrooms, the only sign that the griffon was still with them. But she was only a guest anyway, so she didn't feel the pressure to wake her up.

"Doesn't look like torture either," Jordan said, looking her over. "I guess that means it went well."

"That's a low bar," Ryan said, settling into the seat beside her. He still twitched slightly with anxiety, eyes never leaving her. "What happened, Kaelynn?"

She told them, though thanks to her exhaustion she didn't use nearly the same detail she had with the royals. Besides, it didn't take long to summarize the important parts. Yes, the Worldgate was here. Yes, they were allowed to use it. No, it probably wasn't a safe way home, though they didn't know why.

"And it's worse than just uncertain," she continued. "The Worldgate is under water. I didn't bring any of my equipment, but I'm guessing several hundred feet. Way too far to swim to normally. That means you'll have to change to get to it, and we don't know how the Worldgate will respond when that happens. Even if the danger is gone, or wouldn't be a threat to us, just getting down there will be its own kind of hell."

"We could test it," Ryan said flatly. "I've already gone through looking like you before. I still changed back into myself on the other side. Seeing an underwater city sounds awesome!"

His body vanished in a flash of bright green light, leaving her identical twin settled into the cushion beside her. And speaking with her voice, though Ryan didn't have the same rhythm she did. But would he sound normal underwater, or flat like everyone else? Kaelynn found herself instantly in support of his idea, if only to see how two voices would sound compared to one.

"I don't like it," Blake said. "Splitting up is always bad. What if you don't come back, like the hippogriff search party?"

"Then you know we died," Ryan supplied. "And the rest of you don't have to die too. You can find another way home in our honor."

"Don't be dramatic," Jordan said. "You probably won't die. The hippogriffs were in new bodies in a world they didn't understand. You won't, and you can bring survival gear."

"The alternative is waiting to sail somewhere else," Blake said. "We should hear back about the bounty tomorrow. We can use the gold to charter a hippogriff crew to take us to another Worldgate."

Ryan rose from the table, nearly tripping over his tail as he made his way over to their things. He shuffled with a suitcase, emerging with the map. He unrolled it on the table in front of them, annoyance creeping into his voice. "This should've been the first thing we checked."

Kaelynn leaned down, inspecting the map near Mount Aris. There was the usual pair of names. Unfortunately, this one was the least helpful label they'd seen so far. "Unknown mountain region."

"That's unhelpful," Ryan said, apparently reading the exact thing she had. "Whoever made the map didn't know where this Worldgate went. Just says it's in the mountains, which could mean anywhere."

"And worse to get back to," Blake continued. "Unless it's something as difficult as Everest, getting down shouldn't be hard. But finding our way back with a film crew..."

The hippogriffs probably won't be too happy about that. The queen had been more than helpful so far, but would that change once she turned Seaquestria into the center of a universe-crossing? Would everyone who crossed from Earth for the first time end up a seapony like her, or just drown?

"The more I think about this the worse it sounds," she said. "Worldgates must be hard to find on Earth, or they'd all be known already."

"Basically impossible," Jordan agreed. "But they're not safe on this side either. Deep underwater, a super shady town, out in the middle of the desert. Looks like a pattern to me. Always far from civilization."

Blake sighed. "If you two are willing, I guess you should scout it. Even if we keep looking for somewhere better, it would be good to know what resources we have. Best case, it's safer than we thought. If not, get the hell back as quick as you can. Jordan and I can work out what to do with the local currency, and scout out ships to charter."

"Sure we can trust them to do that?" Ryan asked. "They booked us on a pirate ship last time."

"That was so not our fault," Jordan said. "Okay, maybe a tiny bit our fault. But really, really tiny. Besides, we saved all those ponies from getting sent to the mines, so it worked out."

Kaelynn didn't have the energy to argue. She rose from the seat, shaking out her aching tail. Somehow, all the swimming she'd done still left her feeling sore, though she wasn't sure she even had the same muscles in this body. There'd be no cheesing the back-and-forth transformation Animorphs style.

"Girls on this side?" she asked, stopping in the bedroom door with Galena's snoring. "Or... wait, that doesn't make sense. We're already naked."

Jordan groaned. "I already set up on that side too, if..." He stood, wings opening and closing awkwardly. "The doublethink is getting hard for me. You missed it before, but I'm kinda planning to just roll with being a girl in this universe. But only this universe."

Kaelynn shrugged. "Fine by me. Just don't wake me up before noon."

Chapter 25: Ryan

Dear Journal,

Going under the sea for the portal home tomorrow. Will be with Kaelynn the whole time. See if I can find one of the locals to copy, looking like her would waste the chance. Friendzone? Nozone.

Predictions not good for this crossing. Just like the one in that old city, some locals went through and haven't come back. Though at least this one was a few years ago, so maybe they just got unlucky. I'll pretend to sleep and hide from nightmares of waking up on Everest tomorrow. God that would suck—what if that were the only way back?

What if we spend the next five years going from portal to portal, and every one of them is somewhere unreachable or horribly unsafe? Maybe we make a gun and go back through Paris. Whatever the monster mash was, we can put an end to the graveyard smash.

-Ryan

When they left together the next morning, Ryan found no sign of the guards who had been waiting during most of the day before. There was only someone Kaelynn introduced as Rotala, apparently sent to help them by the royal family. Without any better idea, he just copied the young officer from the day before. He was about their age, anyway, instead of being grizzled and worn from long tours of duty. He caught Kaelynn blush at least once, which was probably enough.

Maybe some parts of being stuck here wouldn't be so bad. I just need to refocus my mindset. I'm not a hideous monster, I'm whatever my partner wants me to be. Most science fiction shows have episodes about people like me.

But now wasn't the time to explore that possibility. Ryan still couldn't be sure that Kaelynn was even interested in him. The sensible plan was probably just to wait until they made it back to Earth. At least that way things wouldn't get awkward until after they had survived the ordeal of a lifetime.

Then they reached one of several passages down beneath the water, and he was left with only one of the locals to copy. There was either the utterly boring castle servant, or Kaelynn herself. He chose the latter, if only thanks to his familiarity.

To his relief, their minder didn't freak the hell out when he transformed in front of her. As soon as she was in the water after them, she only squeaked briefly in surprise, giving him a little distance. "Oh! You have a changeling. I don't recall... I guess the officers never learned that part. Because you were changed."

Ryan nodded. "I hope that won't be a problem. Just like Kaelynn isn't a real seapony, I'm not a real changeling."

"Yes, well..." Though she'd changed into a fish, Rotala sounded almost unchanged from before. She was still about the same size too, just a little bigger than felt comfortable. But in the water the difference in size mattered far less.

"We should visit the city after we've investigated the portal," Kaelynn said. It wasn't the first time Ryan had heard the musical way she spoke under the water—but it was the first time he'd heard it not confined to tiny holes in the ground or little tanks. With the whole ocean around them, it was as though she'd stepped onto a sound-stage, and was doing warmups for a performance. "It's amazing, Ryan, you have to tell the others when we get back."

What he had to do was adjust the waterlogged saddlebags he had brought, and the heavy plastic case. The basic supplies they'd be carrying across, about fifty percent clothing by volume. If the crossing was safe, they weren't going to spoil any chance of getting help by making their rescuers think they were nudists.

"Whatever the young seapony wishes," Rotala said absently. "I cannot lead you away from Mount Aris, but if there is anywhere in either city you wish to see, I will take you there."

"Just the Worldgate first," Ryan said. Maybe he could copy more of what Kaelynn did with her voice? He needed to talk a little more. "However safe that is, the trip should be quick. Or eternal, if we don't come back. but I don't like planning for my own death."

That was probably the wrong thing to say—or sing. Kaelynn fell silent, and they spoke little as they crossed the reef, then through a stone tunnel cut into the rock of the island. Their guide seemed to know where she was going, though the next hour or so left Ryan almost completely lost. He used the silence to try and memorize the way out, or the way in—but the further they went, the clearer it became that Rotala was trying to get them lost. They passed the same tunnels more than once, they opened canvas doorways that were still partially unzipped from previous passages. They went up and down confusing ramps to nowhere.

I guess the queen doesn't trust us quite as much as we thought.

"It's a good thing we can breathe down here," Kaelynn muttered. "This is worse than any cave I've ever dived—worse than any wreck. If I got lost down here, I'd starve before I found the way out."

"That was why we dug them," Rotala said placidly. "Not to harm you, of course, or any other welcome guest of the queen. But the Storm King was determined to find us, and he knew where we'd gone. Only when the path was impossible could we finally feel safe."

But then she stopped, and the passage beyond looked different.It went up, rather than down, and was covered with familiar carvings along the walls. It was bigger too, wide enough that a dozen fish could've swam abreast. "Here is the Worldgate," Rotala said. "I will wait here as long as I can. If I am forced to leave, I will leave a note with instructions for you."

"It won't be long," Kaelynn said, hesitating near the vertical tunnel. "But given the maze, some directions would be good, if you have to leave us." Then she turned to Ryan. "You ready?"

He followed. By now, he'd just about figured out how swimming worked with the seapony tail. Maybe not as good as she could do it, but he was learning fast. Another hour of watching her, and he'd have it mastered.

"Fingers crossed," Kaelynn said, as they swam upward now. The walls were densely covered in unreadable markings—most pictographic, with sun and moon patterns. Others words, though Ryan couldn't read any of them. "Let's bring back some good news."

Just ahead was a patch of swirling gold, and a powerful current. If Ryan wanted out, he'd have to swim sideways as fast as he could. He let the current take him into another world. Home.

He passed through the timeless blur between worlds, and just like that... he was somewhere else. Naked and soggy, weighed down by the straps to a duffel bag wrapped awkwardly around his arms. But there was light above, and a set of bare legs he could swim towards. He followed, and broke the surface of the water.

They were in a cave, with blinding light streaming in towards them from one side. Enough that he could see Kaelynn beside him, clutching on to the edge of the pool. This time looked far less like a bath, and far more like a natural hot-spring, the kind he'd seen on National Geographic in Japan or China. All it was missing were those weird monkeys lounging in the water around them.

Steam rose from the water's surface in a constant trickle, enough to illustrate just how frighteningly cold it must be. Where Ryan's face touched open air, he felt frost forming, and their breath puffed up from around them in a steady stream.

"Outside," Kaelynn panted, pointing with one bare arm. "Clear path to the sky, nothing for gasses to catch on. Moss around the spring, lichen on the walls. Guess we can rule out poison this time."

Unless it was in the water, though that would probably mean it was pouring back across the world into Seaquestria. Ryan nodded absently, finding it very hard to concentrate. Kaelynn finally noticed him staring, and shoved him in the shoulder. "Oh sure, now it's embarrassing. Just give me the swimsuits."

He looked away, face flushing. "Sorry, here." He offered her the whole duffel bag. Fate couldn't possibly have given him a better opportunity than right now—naked together in a remote hot-spring, with the swirling portal to another world at their ankles. What would someone as confident as Blake say?

He didn't say anything, not until Kaelynn turned her back on him. "Tie me. Don't wanna drop our shit."

Not even she said it like she believed it. Ryan took the straps, fingers suddenly slow and clumsy against her back. "I know it probably isn't the time..." he said. "But lasting through that whole desert trip—you're one of the strongest people I know. And the hottest."

She laughed, spinning around in the water fast enough that he lost his grip on the straps completely. She touched his chest with one hand, grinning. "That one was okay. A little more confidence wouldn't be a bad thing, though. Something like 'You look better without the bikini.’ Say it like you mean it."

Ryan might not have any of the otherworldly magic right now, but it sure felt like his face could chameleon to cherry red. "But you just said—"

"Yeah?" She tilted her head to the side. "So what? You're the one who reads emotions. Since when do people ever say what they mean?"

He didn't look away from her this time. "I do think you look better without it," he said lamely. It was true, so at least he had that going for him. "But it looks cold as shit out there."

"But?" She tilted slightly to the side, dislodging the straps from around her neck. She was doing it intentionally. "I'm not gonna make it easy on you. Go on."

"You kept me sane over there," Ryan finally said. "It would be pretty cool if we went out together?"

Kaelynn groaned, wrapping one arm around his neck. "You're lucky I don't mind awkward, Ryan. But you're probably right about the cold. Let's pin this until we get back. Once we do..." She let go, then went back to pulling on the swimsuit. She did it herself in a matter of seconds now, without dropping their duffel. "Is it gross that I'm curious? I can't really explain it anymore, but... I remember. Over there, everything makes sense."

"Sure," he agreed. "I think it's part of the same process that transforms us. We need lower brain function to control new bodies. Pretty sure that lizard brain stuff is where sex-drive lives."

He took the satchel, and dressed before braving the edge of the water. It was every bit as cold as it looked, far worse than hot tubs felt in winter back home. He could practically feel the water freezing against his skin.

"I'm not just saying yes over there," Kaelynn said, staying down to her neck in water. Not like he could blame her, with the way he started shivering the instant he was out of the spring. "I'm still hoping we can cross here. God help us if the others end up like merpeople or something."

A thin layer of ice covered the rough cavern at his feet. He braced one arm against the spring, and managed to keep from falling over as he took his first steps.

"No corpses waiting just outside the water either," he said, keeping his voice neutral. "Toss me the shoes." They hadn't exactly brought mountaineering gear while they visited a secret city under Paris—but he'd take what he could get. Even soggy shoes would be better than nothing, for the short walk to the cavern exit.

Kaelynn flung the duffel over the edge, where it landed just in front of him. While she started climbing, Ryan pulled his shoes on. If he waited much longer, his feet would be too stiff, and he might hurt himself.

The cave wasn't terribly large, all things considered. It stretched past the spring for only a few dozen meters before ending in a rocky wall. The exit was about that distance ahead of them, with plenty of headroom and a ceiling that dripped with water from the spring.

"Can hot springs form naturally this high up?"

"Volcanoes," she answered. "We could be on a volcano. But it's probably not natural." She got her shoes on quicker than he did, before hefting the waterproof box in both hands and opening its clasps one by one. Wallets and IDs were inside, but also a single phone. "That map was hundreds of years old," she said. "Here's hoping the world caught up with this mountain since then."

"And no bone-monsters."

Chapter 26: Jordan

Jordan was getting good at this dream stuff.

By now she knew what to expect when she became aware of the specific actions of her unconscious self—no sooner did she see the misty skies and feel the strange currents on her wings than she would dive, cutting purposefully through the fog until she found the steps.

She took them two or three at a time, hurrying forward through the part of the sleeping world she understood. She could even open the Doors to Deeper Slumber on her own. Even so, she was relieved to find another bat already there, focused intently on opening them. She could be quiet, waiting patiently while Pale Light coaxed them open a crack. Thanks to her last time through, she now knew just how intense that process could be.

Being quiet was easy, if she actually wanted to be. But as soon as the door started swinging open, and Pale Light moved through it—all bets were off. "Hey!" She glided over to him, squeezing through the open doorway without invitation. "Remember me?"

Pale Light rolled his eyes exaggeratedly. But the gesture didn't reach his ears, or his scent. "Couldn't you bond with someone else, stray? There are so many bats flying around here. Spend a few hours with them, get some sympathy going, and let me sleep in peace." They emerged through the doorway in the familiar enchanted forest, filled with glowing plants. Pale Light took off as soon as they were through.

"You don't mean that!" Jordan followed him into the air. Funny that the simple act of letting go of her old self—at least in here—made other dream stuff easier. Flying might not make sense for Jordan, but it was expected for the pony she had become. "I still don't know dreams that well, but I bet you could get rid of me. You haven't."

He looked back, expression unreadable. "Not your fault you're a stray. There are some things that might be, though. Like having a name that's completely unpronounceable."

"The hippogriffs don't mind," she said. Jordan posed in the air, straightening her neck, and adjusting her wings to fly a little smoother, with exaggerated, graceful beats. The way the not-bat named Luna had flown. "If I don't look like a Jordan, what do I look like?"

He slowed, staring at her in the air. His eyes focused mostly on her flank. From the natives, it probably wasn't sexual... but that was the trouble, wasn't it? When you were always naked, you could never tell.

"You might be an Otherworlder, but the stories say our ancestors were too. Between that and your mark, I'd peg you from one of the old tribes, with a traditional name. Like Vesper. Yeah, you could be a Vesper."

"Vesper," she repeated. Maybe it was just because this was dreaming and he had already set her expectations, but it felt easier on her tongue. Her new other-universe identity deserved a new name to go with it. It would only be in the switching between that her adaptation would really be put to the test.

"I could see Vesper. I might keep it, Pale. Thanks."

He groaned, tightening his wings to a dive. She'd barely even noticed what they were flying over—but when she moved to follow, Jordan could see a sandy beach stretching out beneath them. Vaguely square shapes emerged from the sand, eroded, and buried to greater or lesser degrees.

"You tricked me!" he called, speeding up. Now he was trying to get away, maneuvering so steep that Jordan nearly glided right over him. She twisted in the air, then barreled straight down to catch up. It wasn't about actual skill here—just mental flexibility. So long as she kept thinking she could keep up, that was what mattered.

"I didn't trick you!" she yelled after him. "I just asked for a name from someone who would know! I'm working on a new identity here! I wouldn't fit in if I made it all up myself!"

He didn't have much further to flee. He landed in black volcanic sand, spraying surface rocks away from his forelegs and sinking almost to his knees.

She tried at something more graceful, spreading her wings as wide as she could and straightening vertically the way Luna had done. But apparently that maneuver was harder than it looked, because she immediately somersaulted, smacking into the ground and spraying sand in all directions. She rolled painfully for a few feet, scraping and bumping before finally coming to rest against a half-buried wall, flank held awkwardly over her head.

Pale Light twitched once, wings folding back as though he were going to laugh—but then he reached out with a hoof, offering it to her. "Are you alright?"

The smart thing to do was not think about what a crash like that would've done to her in the real world. She wasn't in that world, so considering its rules would only hurt. She took the offered leg, shaking herself out. She felt sore all over, and one of her wings was a little slower to respond than the other. But after a few seconds to shake away the sand, she forced a smile. "Fine! So I'm still working on the landings. I'll be better next time."

"If you're trying to distract me, it won't work," he said, turning his back on her. "You can pretend not to know dreams all you want, but you're being too obvious now. Taking a name I gave you... you might just as well admit you're trying to tighten the sympathetic bond between us. But I can't quite tell why. If you're already an oneiromancer, why bother me?"

She followed him, touching his side with a wing. The gesture felt natural, though she couldn’t quite tell what it meant. Submission? Or maybe just sincerity. "I just asked a question. I won't use the name if it bothers you. But I'm in the market, and you're the only expert I know. I haven't met another bat since coming to your world."

Pale Light turned, looking her over for a few seconds. But whatever he thought he was going to see in her, evidently he didn't find it. "Alright, stray. Suppose I believe you. What barrage of questions are you going to interrupt my work with this time?"

"Just one," she said, though it was absolutely a lie. "Who's Luna?"

That caught him up short. He stopped in place, wings sliding limply down his sides. "You mean our princess? Dark blue with a crescent moon cutie mark over black? Alicorn of terrible power and beauty?"

She nodded. "I guess she's pretty. I'm kinda... completely dysfunctional figuring all that out right now. Worldgate rewired my brain and shit—hopefully you never understand. But yeah, that sounds like her."

"Then I told you." He started off again, navigating through the windswept ruins. He avoided the buildings mostly submerged in sand, and kept to where the waves washed. They had only little tide-pools filled with crabs and starfish and other things to avoid. "She's one of the Diarchs of Equestria. Well... there are four of them now, but ponies still call them that. Haven't we talked about Luna before?"

She nodded. "Yeah, maybe. But I hadn't met her before."

He stopped so suddenly she smacked into him from behind. Her face got a whole lot warmer, and he dodged to the side. "Sorry. But you shouldn't have stopped like that."

"How did you meet the princess?"

She smiled, forcing herself to move slowly, and not betray her excitement. Finally she was the one with the information. "Last night. I woke up on the moon, and found her doing... stuff. Honestly I'm a little shaky on what anyone actually does in this place. You just sorta move around telling me vague shit."

That almost got a laugh—progress, she was making progress! But it was also the truth. "I don't know why she decided to notice me. I wasn't doing anything different. Except..." She trailed off, suddenly thoughtful. "It was the first time I'd opened the door all on my own. Maybe that's why I didn't end up wherever this is? Instead of the forest, I was on the moon."

"Your cutie mark is cheating," he muttered. "Ponies don't usually get a special talent directly in their own magic. That's what made the Elements of Harmony, or at least Princess Twilight. Boosting a unicorn's magic just isn't fair. Same thing is happening here—you shouldn't be able to go somewhere so distant. The moon doesn't have anyone living on it. It's more of a concept, and all the ponies who dream of being there do it a little differently. It takes incredible dexterity to travel somewhere so far."

She shrugged. "Or incredibly dumb luck. I can tell you with confidence I am the dumb luck master. We should've starved to death, and instead we ended up in another universe of horses. Instead of all the safe ships, we booked one with pirates who wanted to sell us to a mine. My luck isn't good or bad, it's just dumb."

Still wasn't smiling. She pouted, exaggerating the gesture as much as she could. Nothing.

"I heard about... a pirate ship? I heard something about that on the evening broadcast. And you did mention hippogriffs..."

"Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees," she said, stretching the word until it was almost a curse. She held up one hoof, and a knife settled there—the same one she'd used. It appeared almost instantly, with barely a thought. Maybe that was more of the sympathy stuff he'd mentioned. Killing someone with a knife connected it to her in ways that a few days just couldn't erase. "We fought for our lives, and sent those bastards flying."

He eyed the knife, pushing her hoof down with one of his. It dissolved into the sand. "You don't need that here, Vesper. Maybe the waking world is full of terrors—but this is Hope, not Anger."

She smiled weakly. "And there's the vague shit. Did I do something bad by talking to the princess? I told her the truth—that I wandered in by mistake, wasn't from Equestria. That we were just trying to find a way home. She said she'd find me, and help if she could."

Pale Light let go, and turned back to his task. "That's our princess. From the beginning, she always cared about bats. It's what got her into so much trouble. Don't believe what unicorns tell you about her being 'jealous of the day'. It's nonsense. She rebelled because of us. And she failed because we weren't strong enough."

Bet Blake won't read that one in the almanac.

"If you want to be easier for the princess to find, don't come here. A sleeper in their dreams is easier to find than a Dreamer. To find you now, she would have to come to this particular shore of Forlorn Hope, and see you. But while you dream like other ponies, you are visible to her. It is her gift, and her unique responsibility."

Specific answers. She kept pace with him, though never blocked his path. Instead, Jordan remained quiet, waiting to be sure he wouldn't say anything else before asking her next question. Maybe if she were careful, never making him feel overwhelmed, he'd actually tell her things.

"Is this all that 'bat magic' does? Take us to this other world to look at stuff?"

Now he laughed—energetically enough that he stopped by a wide tidepool, catching his breath. "You think our magic is about... coming to the Dreamlands to 'look at stuff'?"

"You could've laughed at my jokes," she grumbled.

"Most bats never develop their powers, just as any pegasus ponies who don't work in weather often leave theirs untouched. Coming here is part of it—but letting dreams interact with the world out there is just as important... and more dramatic." He reached down, dragging something out from the sand. It was a book, somehow not water-damaged, though half of it had worn away to flaky black sand. "With the right mindset, I could bring this to the waking world for study. Or a tool, or an illusion, or... many things." He dropped it, and the sand seemed to reach up to swallow the volume, drowning it in seconds. "The most talented dreamers can move through physical space using sleeping ponies' dreams as a gateway. But don't ask for me to teach you—I can't do it."

"That's fine." She grinned at him. "I'll just ask Luna."

"No you bucking won't."

She bucking didn't, at least not that night. Because that was when Jordan woke up. This time it was far less abrupt and painful than it had been aboard the Bright Hawk—it came almost comfortably. But still she was ripped away from her companion, before she could learn anything really interesting.

She groaned, shaking away the last residue of sleep. The afternoon sun stained the windows gold. Blake actually let me sleep late. Was it unfair that she could do things while unconscious that counted as being productive? Jordan found the side-bedroom entirely empty. Kaelynn was probably investigating that portal about now. That meant she had a ship to negotiate, right?

Jordan stumbled over to the bathroom, which was almost the same in this universe as the one she'd left. There was still a door, albeit no lock. Still a mirror, and still bright electric lights overhead. She couldn't make sense of the little containers laid out on the counter for them, a few her companions had opened. One looked like it was filled with wax, but instead of a proper label there was just an image of a feather. Well Jordan didn't have feathers, so she could ignore that.

Instead she shut the door, and found the shower worked just as well as the lights. It was nice to be in civilization for once, instead of an evil pirate ship or a gross dumpster-town full of lizard monsters. There were some hints at how the natives did things, like a long wooden brush with an obvious grip for her mouth, and disposable sponge-heads.

Jordan didn't quite feel brave enough to go on any adventures, mostly she focused on rinsing out her mane and using a little of the local soaps. They smelled harsher than her nose seemed to like, but it would have to do. Maybe a pony hotel would have something that smelled better.

I'm really doing this, she thought, staring back at her steaming reflection. "I'm committing. New universe, new me. Old Jordan can wait until we get back.” Or maybe she'd just use the new name. Whatever a "sympathetic connection" was, it didn't seem so bad. If Pale saw her more often, maybe she could get more information. Or just absorb more about how bats in this world were supposed to behave. It might be useful if they were trapped forever and never saw Earth again.

Sadly the similarities stopped short of a hairdryer, so there would be no easy way to care for the mane. She just dried as best she could, then stumbled back out into the suite's central room.

She half expected to find Blake and Galena already off somewhere, maybe even tired of waiting for her. But no, they were both gathered around the table. Even the bird seemed to be paying attention, rather than just lounging off in a corner somewhere. "What's up?" she asked, bounding over to the table, and opening both her wings as she went. She couldn't quite glide, but the feeling was almost there. For a second, she could feel the ground slipping away from under her hooves. But the sensation was fleeting.

There was an official-looking document on the table in front of them, printed on a single sheet of white paper. "EQUESTRIAN NAVY: OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE" read the heading.

"Right, the bounty!" She tried to squeeze in beside Blake, but for once he didn't cooperate. Just sat there, staring stupidly down at the sheets in front of him. "What's the war chest gonna look like?"

In answer, Blake slid the page over to her, so she could read for herself.

"THE EQUESTRIAN OFFICE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS EXPRESSES ITS GRATITUDE FOR THE RESCUE OF SIX CITIZENS FROM PIRACY. IN CONTINUED EFFORTS TO DETER THESE EVENTS FROM TAKING PLACE IN THE FUTURE, THE REWARD FOR EACH RESCUE WILL BE DOUBLE THE FUNDS TYPICALLY DEMANDED IN RANSOM."

She stopped reading then, looking up. "That seems pretty cool. Maybe a little underhanded, making other people do your rescuing for you. Stories of this get around, and the locals will be jumping to save anypony they hear of. What kind of budget does Equestria have, anyway?"

Blake held up a plain-looking black satchel from the seat beside him, settling it onto the table. It was obviously full of metal, and the effort cost him. An honest to god sack of money.

"Miscounted, though," she said. "There were only five ponies we saved."

"Six," Blake corrected, poking her in the chest. "You're six."

I'm not one of their citizens... But apparently Equestria thought differently. Whatever, she wasn't going to say no to free money. But there was more. That wasn't even half the message.

"GIVEN THE STATE OF THE BRIGHT HAWK, THE NAVY DECLARES THE VESSEL A TOTAL LOSS, FREE TO THE SALVAGERS TO DO WHAT THEY WILL. THE VESSEL ITSELF IS THE ONLY REWARD TO BE OFFERED. THIS MESSAGE CONSTITUTES WRIT OF OWNERSHIP TO THE BRIGHT HAWK AND ALL SHE CONTAINS. EQUESTRIA THANKS THESE BRAVE SOULS FOR THEIR EFFORTS IN RENDERING THE SOUTHERLY TERRITORIES SAFE TO ALL CREATURES."

Jordan read and re-read the message, searching for something she'd missed. But there was nothing—the telegram hadn't left very much to her imagination. "So let me get this straight. They're not paying us for the ship? They're giving us a mostly-broken pirate ship?"

"Yes," Blake said. "That leaves us with two choices. We can sell it to a scrapper here at Mount Aris, and get far less than we hoped for..."

"Or you can use this bounty to outfit her properly," Galena said, resting one claw on the satchel of gold. She held it there for just a little longer than Jordan felt comfortable. "She does not need to be fit for war—just speed. Supplies for a journey, better furnishings perhaps, and you can sail to as many portals as you like."

"And leave you with the ship all to yourself once we've found our way home," Jordan said flatly. There was nothing of argument in her voice—she was just pointing out facts. "Nice haul."

Galena puffed out her chest, sitting suddenly alert in her chair. "I want to go with you," she said, annoyed. "Whatever that place is, better than my life here. Even if we refit, paint pony colors—they will find us if we stay forever. You left some alive—this means revenge. Sooner or later."

"That sounds like an argument to ditch the ship," Jordan said. "If we aren't flying around in a big glowing beacon telling them who we are, they won't find us. Just get train tickets and drive to the next one."

Galena made a frustrated sound, rising from her chair and storming past Jordan, wings half-extended. She made it to the far wall, scooped the map up in her beak, then carried it back to the table. She dropped it atop everything, glaring golden eyes at Jordan and Blake. “Look at these. Only two in Equestria proper, where we ride comfortable trains and arrive with no difficulty. Your Worldgates are scattered to the winds. We must travel into the wilderness for each. Group walking alone is slow and vulnerable. Flying our own ship—maybe too fast to catch. See?"

"I'd like to hear what the others think of the idea," Blake said. "When they get back from the Worldgate under the ocean. We might not need to worry about it at all. Maybe we can just leave from here, never think about it again.

"There are disadvantages. We made it here with Galena's help, but..." He left the rest unsaid. But Jordan didn't need to hear the words to know what he was thinking. If we take the ship, we're at her mercy.

It was his way of saying that he didn't know enough about how they worked to use the thing without her, if her loyalty proved fleeting.

"What about the almanac?" Jordan continued. "Anything useful there?"

Blake nodded. "Loads, but it's a lot to digest in an afternoon. I think Ryan will have better luck when he gets back. Memorizing random shit seems more his speed—but if they'll let us keep it, at least we'll have a little knowledge of where we're going. How's the dream research?"

She shrugged. "I'm learning things. Came up with my new secret identity for this side. From now on, you can call me Vesper over here. A little practice, and I think I can pass completely for one of the natives. Seems good to have at least one of us around who can do that."

"Vesper," Blake repeated, thoughtful. "Suits you. I like it."

That was all the deliberation Vesper needed on the subject.

Chapter 27: Jordan

Of course there was no telling for certain just how long they might be waiting for their friends to return. According to the locals, the Worldgate was so unsafe that a whole team had gone through it and never returned. Maybe planning for what to do once they had everyone back was a fool's task—maybe Vesper and Blake were the only ones left.

There was little to do while they waited, other than traveling briefly down to the ferry station to use the bits to arrange transportation back to Equestria for the ponies they'd rescued. As it turned out, they didn't even have to worry about giving away some of the bounty—a nation that was willing to pay so handsomely for the return of its citizens would certainly not leave them without a way to get home.

In the end, Vesper and Blake were the only ones there to wish them a safe trip home, as they boarded a ferry bound for the mainland visible as a faint shimmer on the water.

"Our long journey ends," Foxglove said, one of the few brave enough to approach and wish them a personal goodbye. "For you, it is only beginning. But you made it this far. I doubt anything could stop you."

Is that even a compliment? Vesper nodded her gratitude anyway. "Maybe we'll see you again. There are a few Worldgates in Equestria. Could you tell us about Echo Caverns before we say goodbye?"

Foxglove stopped on deck, turning back to face her. He grinned, though the gesture still seemed exhausted somehow. "It's the ancestral gathering place of all nocturnal clans. Bats, like yourself. But I do not know where it is. Bat ponies are fiercely protective of the site."

"Thanks!" She waved again, grinning. "We have a map already, so that's very helpful."

Blake remained silent as the ferry pulled away, leaving the two of them together on the dockside. At least the hippogriffs hadn't sent guards to trail them—that would probably spoil the mood.

"Protected by bats sounds way safer than most of what we've dealt with so far," Blake said. "What are you gonna do, squeak at me? Those teeth probably aren't even long enough to get through skin."

She grinned toothily back, exaggerating her fangs as best she could. But he was right—they weren't very large, so she didn't have a lot to work with. "I do not squeak. Let's get back to the room before the bird decides to steal everything and run."

But she hadn't. They found Galena indulging in what was probably a pricy room-service meal of fresh fish and greens. She pulled it closer as they walked past, showing her beak. "Get your own," she insisted.

They didn't. They'd barely even made it back in before the door banged open again, and the missing members of their group arrived. Well Kaelynn looked like herself, anyway. Ryan had taken on the body of the hippogriff officer from the day before. Cute for a bird—not as regal and confident as Blake, though. Some other stuff wasn't as impressive either.

"How was the Worldgate?" Jordan asked. "Good news?"

From the warmth that passed between the two of them, a little hope rose in her. But Kaelynn's words did not match the glow radiating from her.

"Other side of the portal is polar cold, but otherwise safe so far as we could tell. But it's like fifteen thousand feet up—that cave is near the peak of somewhere I'd never feel confident climbing. Icy rock as far as the eye can see, way above the treeline. You start losing oxygen as soon as you cross."

Ryan nodded his birdlike agreement. "I'm guessing the hippogriffs got proud—growing up flying, they must've underestimated the mountain. Or maybe they overestimated how easy it is to be human. Either way, that's probably how they went. Climbing accident."

"Wish we could've brought back any possessions to give them closure..." Kaelynn muttered. "But we would've froze to death before we got anywhere. At least we could pass on what we learned to the hippogriffs."

"Any cell service?" Jordan asked. "We could call for rescue, not worry about climbing ourselves."

Ryan and Kaelynn shook their heads in unison. Ryan explained, "Tried it. No luck. We might have better luck with a proper radio, but we didn't exactly climb under Paris expecting to need one."

"We'll file it away then," Blake said confidently. "Despite the difficulties of reaching it on this side, and the mountaineering on that side—it's still probably our best bet so far. Compared to dodging a monster or digging our way out of an unknown, abandoned tunnel. But if that thing is in northern Canada or some shit, it would still be a death sentence. Just slower."

"What happened while we were gone?" Ryan asked. He glanced at the table, but didn't actually go over to investigate. He remained within reach of Kaelynn. "We should think about our next portal."

Blake caught them up over the next few minutes, while Jordan mostly watched and tried to figure out what secret in-joke was going on between them. She was less successful than Blake, and soon they were all on the same page.

"I like the ship idea," Kaelynn said, as soon as he'd finished. "I always planned to sail the world one day. Visit all the best reefs, meet crazy sailors in portside bars, drink an inordinate amount of rum on international waters..."

"Me too," Ryan said hastily. "Same. All the same."

"Bullshit," Jordan cut in. "You can't just agree because she said it. We'll have to run a boat, Ryan. It's hard work sailing. Just think about getting here, only there's five of us this time. We won't have enough money to hire a crew—from the conversations we had on the docks today, we'll be stretching our gold and cutting corners just to get outfitted and repaired with what we have."

"Unless we do some of it ourselves," Kaelynn said, bouncing over to the table even more energetically. "I bet if I asked the royals would let me use a workshop! And you could do some of it too, Blake! It's like flipping a house, only it flies, and we aren't going to flip it!"

Blake faltered, tail freezing behind him. Even without Ryan's crazy magic, Jordan knew defeat when she saw it. Blake was going to agree.

"We need to be damn sure about this," Jordan said. "We can always pay other people for train tickets and stuff. Ride around, walk the rest of the way to these remote places. There's no GPS in this other universe. We're doing it all ourselves using shitty maps and an astrolabe."

"You make it sound even more badass," Kaelynn countered. "We should take advantage, Jordan! Pretty sure the royals like me enough to cover our expenses while we work. Real world already thinks we're dead, what's another few weeks? Once we find a really good portal, having our own ship will only make things easier. We can give the National Geographic crew and all the ambassadors a world-class tour."

Jordan pouted. But she could recognize a lost cause when she saw one. "I want my own room."

At least all the time working would be an opportunity to keep an eye on Galena. Jordan's worries might be completely unfounded—Galena had fought beside them to escape from captivity, instead of turning them in.

Galena rose from her perch by the window, actually smiling as she approached. "I swear to all of you, you will not regret this choice. I saw the way you sailed, and the way you fought. If you wished it, you could be a fierce crew, and terrify all those who sail your skies."

"We do not wish it," Blake said flatly. "We fought hard because we were fighting for our survival. Trying to screw over other people isn't a very good motivator."

"Even so." Galena was apparently undeterred. "You work together like ponies—this is good. Griffon ships have so many egos. Every bird wants to sit atop the highest perch and lord over the others."

"Teamwork is part of what we do." Ryan circled around the table, watching her closely. His own stolen bird-shape was smaller and leaner by comparison. Though he had a beak, he still seemed to have more in common with Jordan than Galena. That reassured her, even if she couldn't say why. It wasn't a bad form to take, so long as the poor kid didn't pay them another visit. He'd probably have a heart attack from the shock. "We've done plenty of dangerous things before. Climbed places that we weren't allowed to climb. Broke through barriers meant to keep us out. Filmed things we weren't supposed to see."

He crossed to the window, staring down at Mount Aris. "Guess if we were going to take a vacation in another universe, this would be the place. Nice and safe. And if we're lucky, those evil pirates will lose interest in us."

Galena laughed. "Not likely, insect. But they may think we tried to flee. They will grow distracted and slow, for a while. Still... they cannot reach us here. Be glad you didn't anger the Grim-Admiral. He might send assassins after you into Canterlot itself. But my crew were not so well connected. Or I would've let them kill you."

Jordan thought she knew what a refit of the ship would be like—it meant redesigning floorplans, tearing out things they didn't need, installing more modern furniture and fixtures. It meant paying unicorns to cast a proper "mending" spell on the mast, so it wouldn't topple on them in a storm.

As it turned out, the work she was most afraid of ended up not to be necessary. The Bright Hawk was already meant to hold a crew of eight, along with a luxurious captain's suite. The cells they'd been dumped in were meant for the passengers the ship would have carried, or maybe cargo.

But the pirates who had owned the ship before them hadn't exactly taken good care of it. Most of the personal quarters were a mess of mildew, ratty birds’ nest, and empty flagons of alcohol. Getting the smell out meant tearing out the most damaged parts of the floor, and refinishing much of the rest.

But Jordan had imagined knocking out walls and laying new floors over everything, wasting months and months of time floating at dock doing nothing.

She would've preferred to do nothing. But saving as many “bits” as possible meant doing the work themselves. They had to wade through the wreckage the old crew had made, dragging trash-bins, and pushing sweepers. It was a vile task, made more so since only Ryan could simulate hands.

But he didn't use it for the "grunt" work—almost as soon as they began, he took up with Kaelynn in the old captain's quarters, with borrowed machines and a heavy pallet of raw materials. Pipes, metal plate, and even something called a “thaumic arc welder.”

Jordan wasn't allowed to play with the fancy magical welder, or even to have fun painting varnish over the newly sanded walls and floors. Not after knocking over a can of the stuff in a moment of clumsiness with a wing.

So it was that she ended up out on the docks, wandering past the place the Bright Hawk was resting. She could've lingered with Blake and Galena, but not being allowed to do anything but sand... that was too far. Maybe after a few days they'd get bored of doing it all themselves, and let her try again.

Jordan was so lost in her own thoughts that she almost didn't notice the creature that walked past her, scanning the docked ships with interest. They were just another hippogriff, no different than so many others swarming over the docks. There might be slightly fewer of them here than elsewhere in the city, but the difference was minimal. Most of the ships docked still had hippogriff crews, unloaded by hippogriff workers.

The bird who walked past her looked no different than so many others, dressed in a heavy traveling jacket and saddlebags. But of all the people she might find wandering another universe, how many of them had a gigantic American flag on their jacket? In the real world, Jordan might treat someone like that the same way as a poison arrow frog. But here, in another world...

"Excuse me!" She galloped a few steps, opening her wings and flapping them as she moved. It didn't really help, they weren't meant to be used that way. "Miss! I couldn't let you pass without complimenting your jacket! It's so... patriotic!"

And handmade, by the look of it. The stars didn't look quite aligned. Though cut to the same pattern, their tops were slightly askew, and the grid not regular. Like an ancient flag she might find in a museum.

The bird stopped dead, turning to face Jordan. She flicked rapidly from suspicion to relief. Unfortunately, her first words were in Spanish.

The first thing Jordan had ever heard that she couldn't understand, and it was in an Earth language. "Sorry, come again? Mi espanol es muy mal."

The bird suppressed a laugh, then spoke again in only slightly accented English. "I'm looking for a ship with travelers from another world. Guessing that's you?"

Jordan probably wouldn't have admitted it, if it weren’t for the jacket. But it would be hard for this strange bird to broadcast her own nature any louder. She nodded. "That's us."

Chapter 28: Ryan

Journal,

Lot to catch up on. Sorry I haven't had the time to dictate any of this. You'd think that even seeing Kaelynn, I'd still have time, since only one of us sleeps. But one of the biggest advantages to being a hideous freak is the productivity—while everyone but Jordan sleeps, I can keep working on the Bright Hawk.

I really don't care that technically there's no time pressure. We're already declared dead. The search parties would've given up on finding us by now. Hopefully they didn't find an evil monster.

I have less to go back to than any of the others. I'm the only one without family. Or future, come to think. So why push so hard to get home?

I'm not sure. It feels like the thing to do. Having a goal in front of me, I have to press for it. Maybe it's a bug thing? Like if I come from a colony of thousands of black, holey creatures, I bet we could really move mountains.

But we can't work now. Kaelynn just got her hooves on some weird book thing—took longer to copy than they thought, whatever it is. Just looked like music to me. I can't read music.

But without her, I'm not so sure about trying to build any of this filter system myself. I'm really more of an idea bug—designing it is one thing, but someone with machining skills like Kaelynn needs to put it together.

The Bright Hawk is ours now, by the way. Formally ours, since the ponies don't want it. We're getting it ready to sail. Turns out the ponies are pretty advanced, at least more than Mount Aris. Their ship has running water and electricity and everything. Generator is entirely inscrutable to me, looks more like perpetual motion magic, coil, and spring rewinding itself... presumably it will discharge eventually, and we'll need to top it up. Hippogriffs can't tell us anything about it.

Screw this it doesn't matter. Kaelynn and I are dating! Well, what's dating mean when we spend most of our time working? But working together! She isn't just pretending to tolerate me either, it's awesome! I'm never hungry anymore, even though I'm still not eating.

We've had plenty of time alone, enough for... intimate stuff. She's willing, maybe even eager. You know Kaelynn, always wanting to explore strange new worlds...

Should I tell her I'm still a virgin? I know none of the others are. What the hell will happen to my brain if my first time is as a weird alien? But if I do tell her, she'll think it's so weird she probably won't want to be with me anymore. It's pathetic, I know. Laugh.

Other things, better things. We're working on a new circulation system, a tank way bigger than the one that used to be here. The plan is to flood the captain's quarters, but only a little water, barely over her head. It's the only place aboard we could put all that water, so long as we balance things out with the Bright Hawk's actual tank on the stern.

Also means we're using most of our weight allowance on water, so we won't be able to run cargo for some extra cash. Maybe passengers, if it comes to that. Could be fun.

Waterproofing the space isn't that hard—the hippogriffs have lots of ways of building waterproof rooms, seeing as they're fish half the time. The hard part is a filtration system.

You're probably wondering why we're bothering. It's more than just the room, too. We're working on a real prostheticto go with her rebreather, something she can walk around in if she's a fish. A third of the gold we've spent so far is just about keeping Kaelynn going.

Blake asked the sensible question on our first day. The hippogriffs gave her legs, so why bother? That's when it got strange. Kaelynn told him the magic would wear off—that she'd be back to herself unexpectedly, and drown. Everyone believed her.

Except me. I know when people lie, and she was lying.

I didn't tell her I know. I didn't ask what her real reasons are. Cuz I'm a selfish prick, and I'd rather have Kaelynn be happy with me than know our expedition has the most money it can to get home. Jordan and Blake are frothing to get to the next portal and get home, but I don’t care.

Maybe we find our way back, maybe we don't. So long as I'm with Kaelynn, I'll make it work.

Ryan probably would've kept dictating—but he sensed someone coming. The presence of two creatures pressed against his mind as they crossed the deck above. Their emotions were hazy at this distance, it was only minds he felt.

But then they descended belowdecks. Ryan heard Jordan's shout echoing through the Bright Hawk, her voice high in the confined space of the lower decks. Probably evolved to carry that way. Those ears resemble bats', it isn't just their wings. I wonder if she can use echolocation. "Everybody get in the mess now! This is important!"

That might be something for him to try when she wasn't around. Though lately he hadn't copied any of his friends, or any female creatures. Maybe Ryan was less flexible than everyone thought.

Jordan didn't sound worried. As she got closer, Ryan clarified what he felt from her into eagerness. She'd found something she thought they all needed to see.

He walked out of the workshop, alone for the first time in days. Kaelynn was all the way down in the hold with her book, for reasons she hadn't shared but had made her radiate embarrassment when she said it. He would ask later.

Ryan was still wearing the body of the naval officer, and nothing else. With the sweat of hard work and confined quarters, it was far easier not to get their scarce clothes dirty. It wasn't like they covered anything regardless.

Blake and Galena beat him there, smelling like sawdust and varnish. A good smell, far better than what they'd found waiting for them in most of the crew quarters.

"This better be important," Blake muttered, tanged with sour annoyance. "We have to wait 72 hours for the coat to dry. Putting it aside like this is a waste."

"It's damn important." Jordan emerged from the steps, leading a hippogriff behind her. The creature dressed like one of dozens of local sailors they'd seen, with one obvious exception: instead of a magical necklace of fishyness, she wore an honest-to-god cross around her neck.

"Where's Kaelynn? I want everyone here."

"Here," said Kaelynn, passing up the hallway from below. The same hallway where they'd fought for their lives, and left an evil pirate dead. Kaelynn sounded like she'd been up for days taking final exams—and not done well. "What is it?"

"Who," Jordan said, beaming. "Everyone, this is Janet. Janet, this is everyone." She went through them each in turn, including using Galena's fake name, Allison. The one they used whenever they talked about her around hippogriffs. They needed to think she was from Earth, after all.

"That's an interesting name," Blake said. "And your jacket. That's really something."

She grinned, spinning in a slow circle so the others could see. The entire back of the sailor's coat was an American flag, vibrant and impossible to miss. "I don't even have to ask," she said. Ages were hard to read from aliens, but she sounded older than they were. Mid-thirties maybe, with a distinctly Hispanic accent.

"That's good, I'm on the clock. So are all of you, and you didn't even know it. You're damn lucky I found you before you flew off somewhere."

They all stared, completely dumbfounded. Even Jordan's eagerness and pride weighed a tad. Maybe she wasn't so happy with what she'd dragged home after all.

As usual, Blake was the first to respond. "You're from Earth too. We'd love to know which Worldgate—we've been having a helluva time finding one that isn't dangerous and unusable."

She settled down at their table, then helped herself to one of the drinks there—simple glass bottles with corks, which she deftly opened with one of her claws. Only after taking a long sip did she finally speak.

"San Jose to Ponyville," she said. "But you can't use it—Worldgate’s gone. That's why I'm stuck here in the first place, comprende? But you're here now, which means you know about a way back. Wherever it is, we have to go there, right now. Quit this airship shit, close up whatever you've been doing. If you ever want to be human again, we turn around and sail there right now."

Ryan watched from the edge of the room, keeping his expression neutral. The stranger would have no idea that he could read her emotions, no idea that he would sense deception from her as soon as she thought of it herself.

But she wasn't lying. Every word was absolute conviction, tinged with desperation. She's not looking out for us, she's worried about her own skin.

But justifiably so, if what she said was true.

"How did you find us?" Jordan asked. "We only sailed into Mount Aris a week ago. Are birds talking about having aliens in their port?"

She laughed, taking another long draw from the drink. It was just sugary coconut water—the locals didn't seem to have carbonation, and they hadn't bought any alcohol.

Yet.

"They're talking about you everywhere," Janet said. "It was all I've heard since I arrived last night. Travelers from far away fought off pirates, rescued their hostages and set them free.

"No two of them were alike, creatures never before seen and thought extinct. I happen to know what that meant—Worldgates don't have a preference for what they make you, except that it has four legs. Worst you could tell me was that I was wrong. But I'm not wrong."

"Not on that," Blake agreed. "But about what you think—we're not brave explorers making an airship to chart this new world. We're stuck, same as you must be. The way back behind us is blocked, just like yours."

"We are brave explorers," Jordan argued. "We just have priorities. We can't show the world our discovery if we're stuck on this side."

Janet swore, deflating like a punctured gasbag. She banged the glass onto the table, hard. "Then you're as doomed as I am. Stuck, soon to be forever. God didn't lead me to you—maybe Satan instead. Curse me with hope, before the end."

There was a long, awkward silence. Galena looked between them like the newcomer was completely insane, though she didn't actually say anything. Galena was healing well, all things considered. Her patchy feathers were coming in healthy, and her shriveled body was gradually returning to normal with proper meals.

But around strangers, she still didn't speak much. Particularly hippogriffs.

None of the others had to taste that despair. Ryan stiffened, and didn't wait for permission. "We have a map of other Worldgates," he said. "Every one of them has been unsafe so far—but there are dozens. So far, they've all been there. We're retrofitting the Bright Hawk so we can sail between them, and find one that works."

Janet reacted instantly. She sat up, a feeble smile spreading across her beak. "Other Worldgates... you have to take me." She stumbled towards Jordan. "I've been here for months, I know the land! I have connections back in Equestria, and I can work. I know things. Please."

It all came out so fast that even Ryan had a hard time making sense of it all. Jordan's mouth just fell open, confused.

"We'll have to talk about specifics," Blake said. "It wouldn't be a free ride—a ship this big takes work to crew, and work to repair. But if you're willing, then... it would be wrong to leave one of us behind."

Janet nearly jumped up into the air. She spun, and actually glided over to Blake, taking his leg, and shaking it vigorously in both claws. She muttered something incomprehensible in Spanish, then switched back to nervous English. "Thank you, thank you! I swear by the Virgin you won't regret it."

Chapter 29: Blake

What was it supposed to feel like to become captain of a ship?

Blake stood on the high deck, just beside the helm. They'd stripped away much of the pirate's handiwork—he didn't need or want a ship with a cabinet carved into the shape of a nude, supplicating horse-creature, and they'd sanded away all the images of skulls and severed heads and other imposing imagery.

Really, he was just glad that nobody had brought up his failure in booking this ship when a simple trip up here would've revealed exactly what they were getting themselves into. But the only ones to suffer that mistake were a few now-dead pirates, so maybe it had been fate. The ponies had seemed thankful enough for rescue.

He watched Galena from just a few feet behind. He'd seen enough movies to get the gist of how you turned a wheel to steer a ship, but the reality of this ship was far more complex.

"We're far enough from port now," the griffon said, looking up at him. "Hold this course while I lower the mainsail."

He nodded, taking the helm from her with one of his hooves. The new wheel was built for that, with little slots about the right size for a hoof to get good leverage in steering. But he was still no equal of someone with hands doing the same job, or claws.

"We're lowering the mainsail!" he called out over the deck. Hopefully it wouldn't sound too much like an order. The hippogriffs hadn't liked him signing on as captain instead of Kaelynn—but she insisted, and so captain he was. For whatever it was worth.

None of the others complained as they worked the pulleys and hooks, unfurling the huge, repaired sail. At least the pirates hadn't covered that with skulls and evil markings. But if they had, he would've recognized the danger without booking them on it.

"You have to admit, this whole thing is kinda badass," Jordan said, from so close behind him that Blake almost jumped. The wheel wasn't just for turning—and his jolt made them list forward, diving just slightly towards the sea.

It was too subtle for the others to notice at first, but Galena's head whipped back almost instantly, glaring daggers at him until he leveled out again.

"How'd you get up here so quietly?" Blake asked. He tried to muster half of Galena's disapproval, but that was hard with Jordan smiling at him like that. Even being up during early afternoon was a bit of a struggle for her now. Who was Blake to damper her pride? "I didn't hear you come up the stairs."

"Didn't," Jordan replied, opening her wings a little wider. But if she were trying to hint that she'd somehow managed to fly after such a short time in this other world, she didn't elaborate. "But seriously: we showed up in a desert with a fish girl to take care of. Look at us now. Saved us some damsels in distress, won this proud vessel as our reward, and now we're setting off on a new adventure!"

Blake glanced back at the compass, adjusting the wheel slightly as the winds began to buffet them. There was a craft in steering with the sail, one that was harder in its way than the helm. It was a good thing they had at least one person skilled in it, or they'd probably be doomed. "Okay, sure. But don't get too married to it. We didn't abandon the world to be sky-pirates. We're on the clock if we ever want to get home. We'll have to give all this up."

Jordan shrugged her wings, inspecting the helm from just beside him. Quite close, with no respect for his personal space. But Blake didn't shove her away, the way he might've with anyone else. Besides, they would need someone else to learn how to drive sooner or later. Unless the other two tinkering down in their makeshift workshop ever made more progress in their latest scheme, anyway.

"I listened to the things Janet didn't want to say, not just what she did. Travel between worlds isn't impossible, you just need a break between visits. Let things mellow out, let the magic drain, and you can come back here safely." She took a few steps back, posing with both wings outstretched. The wind whipping around them nearly lifted her right off the deck—but then she snapped her wings closed again, and she thumped back down.

"Think about giving up flying, Blake. Janet wants to get back to her family, and her god, and whatever else. But my family only visits a few times a year, I can be home for that. Plus enough times to stop from melting into a bat forever."

She leaned up to his ear, whispering in over the sound of rushing wind. "Just because she sees the whole world in binaries doesn't mean we have to. We can have it both ways."

Blake watched her go, and maybe he should've been keeping a closer eye on his controls. But whatever else might be said for her, the bat had seemed far happier since reaching whatever equilibrium she'd been able to find on her identity. Certainly made things easier in Blake's mind, at least until they made it back home...

"Just so long as we get to share this with the world. Get on all the talk shows, get our book deals and brand endorsements or... whatever. Change the world. Think about how different things will be once we link our worlds together. Everything will change."

Before them, the rest of the crew had finally got the sail secured in place. Well, Galena, Ryan, and Janet. Kaelynn was in her quarters during their launch, floating in her newly constructed tank. Whether that felt like a luxury or a prison, only she could answer now.

"Thinking about it a lot," Jordan said. "Guess it might be different depending on where the portals end up. But the way it looks right now, feels like... an unhappy pressure gradient. This place is way primitive in some basic ways, but also has technologies that we can't even begin to understand. The thing lifting our airship, for example... configurable anti-gravity.It gets crazier from there."

"You sound like Ryan. You want to be an engineer now too, Jordan?"

She shook her head once. "Too slow. It's not about how any of it works, that's for Ryan to stress about and Kaelynn to build. I'm looking at it more practically. If we find or build a real bridge from their side to ours, both sides change forever. Who's to say anyone is happy with the change? Maybe the real reason our worlds aren't already connected is the powers that be like things the way they are. If we try to swim against the current, we might drown."

Galena arrived up the stairs then, and Jordan backed away. All that subtle body-language that passed between them, with Jordan's ears lowering and wings closing, without ever facing away from Galena—it was its own message, even if it took no words. If only he'd learned how to read it as fast as the others learned to speak it.

"We are on course," Galena said flatly. "We can ride the current north. We could fly at this heading for at least a hundred miles. I will listen to the wind and warn you if things change." She nodded towards the wheel, and Blake released it. It wasn't just that he was eager to give it to someone who knew what they were doing—there was still a decision to make belowdecks, one that would wait until he made it.

"Galena, before we took this ship, before your people locked you up, what did you do?"

The wooden wheel creaked slightly under her grip, claws digging. She looked away from him, off to the distant horizon. "I was bosun—master of sail. Would be quartermaster one day, at the rate we were going. But Captain Callahan... I didn't like the way he sailed us. I never felt bad taking from those who had more than we did. The way they get these things, not fair. But taking their lives... that was not fair either. I made too much noise. You saw where that leads."

The magic of their crossing still left her sounding strange. Maybe the magic didn't work as well on griffons? Or maybe she just couldn't speak that clearly, no matter what language she used.

"New life now," Blake said, patting her shoulder once. "You're someone else now."

She tensed, turning her beak briefly towards him. But she didn't strike. "Maybe. Still not sure if the ghost of Captain Callahan is finished with us. Maybe we go far enough into Equestria that we hide under the Alicorns' wings. Maybe they find and kill us all. Guess we'll find out."

Blake left her there, at the helm. But she seemed to like being alone, and anyway she knew what she was doing better than any of them.

"You trust her?" Jordan whispered, only after they'd descended the steps below, and shut the door behind them. Anything less, and they risk the griffon's sensitive hearing picking out their words. "She could just be giving the ship back to those pirates. Maybe she thinks she can trade the ship for getting a place back."

Blake blocked the path ahead of her with his shoulder, putting them suddenly inches apart. He spoke in a low, dangerous whisper. "Questions like that could make that fear come true, Jordan. We trust her, we make her part of what we do. I've seen pain like hers before. She wants to be something different, and that's the opportunity we represent."

"But it's a lie," Jordan said. Her eyes reflected amber in the darkness, slits widening in response. She was so close now that Blake could feel her hot breath against his face. "She killed someone. That never goes away. The nightmares never stop."

Blake glanced once down the stairs into the mess—the others would be gathered there, and they didn't need to hear this. But nobody had showed up to demand they hurry up yet. Blake rested one leg on Jordan's shoulder, and she didn't pull away, or show her teeth. Not that those fangs were big enough to threaten him much.

"I felt like that sometimes, at first. There were guys in my platoon who cried themselves to sleep at night over some of the stuff we saw. But you and I have something Galena doesn't. We were defending ourselves. We would've left the pirates alone; we didn't want to kill anyone. If some bastard makes you choose between his life and yours by coming at you, he made the choice. You just lived."

Jordan leaned up against him, tears streaking down those huge eyes. She kept herself almost silent as she cried, the same as how she moved. But at least that meant no one would hear them down here. "I can tell myself that," she whispered. "Feels like a lie. Was it a lie for you in... Iraq?"

"No. The monsters were real, but I wasn't one of them. Don't think you are either, Jordan. That's the real way they reproduce. Convince you that you're stained forever—there's nowhere to go but down. What difference would it make? You'll find no sanity down that road."

She whimpered, a high-pitched squeak that echoed down the hall ahead of them. She twitched, drying her eyes against his leg, before quickly pulling away. She was just in time to avoid Janet seeing them a few inches away from each other, waving down the hall. "Good, you're here. We're still waiting on that course, Blake. Have you decided?"

He let Jordan trail behind him, giving her a little more time to clean herself up, so the others wouldn't see. The mess was full, just as he'd expected. Even Kaelynn had made her way here, wearing her crude harness and the transformed water-suit over her face.

Only one thing Blake didn't understand—even if the transformation would wear off, why not make the trip on four legs? So long as she kept her gear close by, it didn't seem like changing back would present much danger. The worst it could do was make her into what she'd already become.

Kaelynn hadn't explained herself, and she didn't now, settling into a long harness that would stretch out her body with head and forelegs extended towards the table. God bless Ryan's patience with her increasing eccentricity.

"I've been thinking about it," Blake said, settling down in front of the table. He took closest position to the oversized map—well, tracing of their map. They kept the original stored away now, just in case. Ryan had made this one by combining their information with a modern air-traffic chart they purchased from the hippogriffs. "I'm still not sure I'm convinced. You think we shouldn't go to the closest Worldgate because... it's haunted?"

Jordan slipped through the doorway behind him and took a spot across the table.

"Not haunted, guarded." Janet pointed down at the map, past the place browns were replaced with vibrant greens, and notes on jungle topography. "There's a book series about the place, and I've read some of them. Reading kept away the boredom when I had to avoid people as much as possible. Your map points to a place mentioned in one of the books. Those temples are well guarded, and we'll likely face an attack if we try to use it."

"I still think we should go," Kaelynn said. Her mechanically amplified voice lacked any of the confidence and power of Janet's high-pitched calls. But everyone turned to listen anyway. "The course is almost straight all the way up. If this Worldgate really is too dangerous, we can just leave. But what if your information is out of date?"

"Our map doesn't warn of any danger," Ryan added. "The ones who made it seemed to think it was safe enough. Plus—Louisiana. That's the first confirmed destination in the United States we've had since the time we almost got poisoned."

No surprise you took her side. Blake stared down at the map, as though just looking at the ink long enough would answer his question. But the pages didn't speak to him. The mapmakers hadn't warned of any dangers, not with any of the Worldgates they'd tried so far. It wasn't impossible this one would be dangerous too.

"You're sure about the books you read? Tell me we're wasting our time, Janet, and we can sail another way. Tell me you're sure about them."

The hippogriff hesitated, shifting backward in her seat. "I couldn't... tell if they were real," she admitted. "The fiction blends so freely with fact on this side, and every danger brings 'a thousand years' of awful things. Maybe none of them are serious, maybe all of them are. Figuring it out meant spending too much time with ponies."

Blake tapped one hoof against the little magnet representing their ship. "Then the Bright Hawk will stay on our original course. We'll visit these forbidden temples. If we get sent away, then that's what happens."

Chapter 30: Vesper

Vesper sailed through strange skies.

This time it wasn't just her mind that flew, released from physical bonds into the dreaming, but her body too, tucked away in one of the private quarters of the Bright Hawk. Shame the others overruled her suggestion to give it a different name.

But while the others wiled away their nights confined to their own dreams; Vesper was learning. She'd learned a great deal during the last few weeks, while her friends with more useful skills spent their time rebuilding the airship and preparing for their voyage.

She no longer hesitated when she reached the gates to the Dreamlands and could decide at will whether to turn away back to her own simple dreams, or else continue downward into the domain of Morpheus and the unconscious world of an entire universe.

Well technically it was Luna who ruled this place, so a different dream-god. But she hadn't shown herself to Vesper again since their first, chance encounter. But Pale Light, on the other hand... he was right about taking the name, even if she hadn't understood his meaning at the time. Accepting an identity connected them, giving her a thread to follow whenever she came here.

There had to be something strange about time between the two realms, because he always seemed to be here. Always searching for something, on a quest he never seemed willing to explain. But he also wasn't willing to abandon it just because of her presence, nor had he succeeded in avoiding her. That meant Vesper could pick up a few details of what drove him from the places he went.

"You're not going to be able to practice this here," Pale Light called back to her, as they wandered together through the crumbling ruins of an ancient building. This one was stone, built in a vaguely Mayan style and with similarly themed glyphs. From his angry looks, Pale Light seemed to think that was somehow her fault.

"But I'm doing it all the time now!" she said. "Look." She extended a hoof beside her. In that same moment, she imagined the headlamp she'd been wearing when she went into the catacombs. Not just the word—she pictured the object, right down to the hard orange plastic shell, or the too-tight straps against her head once she'd put it on. The way the silicone button sunk when she pushed it with a finger, and the shape of the beam. Every detail.

A weight settled there at her unspoken command, one strap catching around her hoof. Her grin grew wider, her confidence stronger. The magic of this place still worked and was getting easier the stronger her belief became. It was the same as flying, or anything else that happened here. Believe she had a flashlight, and she had one. Doubt she had wings, and they'd be gone.

"Perfect!" She settled it onto her forehead, pulling the straps down around her ears. She remembered it already adjusted for her size, so of course it was. It turned on when she tapped the side, blasting out a beam of brilliant white light. Uncomfortable to human eyes, and so she expected it to be almost blinding to her sensitive bat vision. She wasn't wrong.

"Turn that bucking thing off!" Pale Light snapped, shielding his head with both wings. He didn't lower them again until she obeyed. "You've migrated the wrong way completely, Vesper. You're getting good at basic dreamwalking, I'll admit it. But no amount of practicing here will elevate you. You need to put in your hours conjuring now, and that practice has to happen in the waking world."

He stopped at a collapsed section of passage, where huge lengths of wood had taken the stone ceiling with them. Pale Light didn't summon a crowbar to shove at them, the way Vesper would've thought to do. His training was so much more than that. He rested one hoof briefly against the door, and the building around them was suddenly new again. Rock rumbled as they passed underneath, as though angry they had found a way through it. But it didn't crush them.

"You say that so easy," Vesper muttered. "But this is the dreamlands, I get that now. Things are supposed to do what you think they should. You can't new-age your way to prosperity in the real world. Gravity is gonna weigh you down, and viruses are gonna make you sick. I need the secret! There's a magical trick to this, there has to be. Something I can do so the universe knows it's okay to give me a break from the rules."

Pale Light considered the question for a few seconds, expression unreadable. Whatever wisdom he was searching for, he apparently got bored of looking for it. "You're serious? Vesper, it really isn't any more complicated. We aren't unicorns. There's no invocation, no rules, no spellcraft. It's no different from the way you fly in the waking world, or pegasus ponies do. Magic requires the willing heart, and it requires intent. Without both, you will manifest nothing. With it..."

He nodded towards her flashlight. "Well, you see what can be done. The dreamstuff of this place is not the same as physical matter—intention gives it shape. Your will brings it into that realm. Once that falters, it dissolves again. It is ephemera."

She followed in silence then, considering thoughtfully. Mostly she watched him, hoping he would let something slip that would tell her what he was up to.

Eventually they reached a stone heart of the ancient structure. Just as with all the other places they'd gone, this was filled with books. Thousands and thousands of them, pressed in shelves that slid along metal tracks. He rotated great wheels like vault doors, and moved the tracks slowly apart, inspecting the books within.

"I know I have to stop dreamwalking if I want the princess to find me," she said. "But I'm not sure what good it would do if I did. Can she send me home without needing to hunt for Worldgates?"

"No," Pale Light said, without hesitation. "Crossing between realms is not a power granted to the Alicorns. Perhaps it could be... but none who lives. There is only one creature who can do so at will, and he is not to be trusted. Then there are natural Worldgates, which form entirely on their own. That makes two of three."

"I know about those," she said, exasperated. "I've seen a few by now—they're all cursed. Either they're way out in the middle of nowhere, or they're full of poison gas, or there's an evil monster that wants to kill you. I hope the rest of them aren’t that way, but I'm starting to have my doubts..."

She trailed off then, gliding across the room to walk beside him as he moved the shelf. "Is it true that magic is transforming me, like... permanently? That's what the other traveler said. She thinks that if we stay too long, we'll become like this forever. But why would being horses take precedence over being human?"

Pale Light shrugged. "If you have reason to trust her, it could be true. Magic isn't just power, it's change. It demands to be used to make things different. Create light in darkness, lift what is too heavy to fly, grow what wilts. Where entropy pulls, magic pushes. If your home has no magic, then... your body would be greedy for it. You want to be changed by it, the same way a rock wants to roll down a mountain."

"That... kinda breaks everything we know about physics," she said, annoyed. "But I guess portals to other universes already do that. I dunno, maybe I'll ask Ryan. Seems like he'd know."

Pale Light reached into a shelf, seemingly at random, drawing out a thin leatherbound folio in his wing. It had clasps on the top and bottom, enough to seal it closed. The markings were completely unreadable to Jordan. "Finally! How many nights I searched for this... and it was right here."

"Searched for what?" Vesper moved close, trying to get a better look. Pale Light didn't pull away from her—like Blake, he didn't seem to mind when she got close. Personal space meant something else when you were a horse. "What is it?"

"A journal," he said, tucking it away into the satchel he always had slung over one shoulder. "Something important. I'm afraid this has to be the end of our lessons for the night, Vesper."

She grinned toothily at him—baring her fangs like that meant something with bats. It usually came with a squeaking sound, but that made her feel too silly. "You didn't even tell me the third way. You can't leave if you know some other way I could get home!"

"I told you already." He took another step back. "The Dreamlands are connected, Vesper. Every sleeping creature visits the same place. Our minds differ, so our dreams are more distant. But there is no reason one could not enter a dream in Equestria and leave in some other realm. If you knew the route."

Light flashed around him, bright enough that she had to lift both wings to shield her face.

She didn't lower them again—instead, she pushed against her bed, glaring at her wooden ceiling.

Why did Pale Light always have to make things so difficult?

For a few seconds Jordan lay motionless in bed, trying to get her bearings. Light streamed in from outside, probably afternoon. The others were fighting a losing battle if they expected her to wake up in the morning. It was because she was a bat, obviously. It wasn't that she was waking up at about the same time she always wanted to.

Hoofsteps moved on the deck overhead, along with the slight scratching of claws on wood that was Galena—or maybe Janet. Hers were just as sharp, even if they weren't as numerous.

We should be arriving soon. A full day of flying was more than Galena expected. Just because Jordan felt better with a proper day's sleep in her didn't mean she wanted to miss out on something as exciting as their next Worldgate.

She glared at the empty room around her. Shame she had so few belongings—a GoPro, a wallet, and a dead phone were the only things left of her old life. Maybe she should've asked for a little gold to decorate the space, the way Blake wanted to. But if we had the same room, he could take care of all that.

She banished those thoughts with a brief, ice-cold shower. It wasn't that the ship couldn't warm things up, but the cold was helpful in this case.

Jordan stared at her reflection, trying to conjure herself something—some familiar soap, maybe. A stick of deodorant from back home. Perfume?

The memories were there, and they felt as strong as anything. Why weren't they enough?

She felt the Bright Hawk slow—subtle enough that she wasn't smacked against the walls, but she knew it all the same. They'd just raised the main sail. If that were true, they'd be going down soon.

She stopped puttering around and hurried up the stairs. Maybe if they had more time and a tailor who could make things that covered anything she would've bothered more with clothes. As it was, her single outfit did nothing to enhance her modesty. She let it be.

The first thing Jordan noticed was the humidity, which smacked into her as she walked outside like a wall. Yet almost as soon as she felt it, it faded to the back of her perception. She breathed a little easier now, felt a little stronger as she stepped out onto the deck, and looked down over the railing.

Not gray-brown shrubland, not swirling dunes—they were surrounded by green. The canopies of trees melded together from this altitude, like a vast green sea. Bright patches of flowers and fruit emerged from some of them, an entire arboreal ecosystem just out of reach. She smiled, and practically skipped her way up to the high deck.

Blake was there, though not barking orders at everyone. Instead he lingered behind Galena, who held the helm in her claws. "This next part is tricky," she was saying. "We must disengage our lift, but slowly. The Bright Hawk is far easier than the old vessels—we can remove some of it, instead of all. Far smoother to go down."

"I'm watching," Blake said. "Take us down gently. We're full of water."

Galena rolled her eyes. "Your seapony will be the death of you all." But she took the controls anyway. Jordan said nothing, though it took only seconds for her to become bored of watching. The mechanics of how the ship worked might as well be a foreign language, one she had no interest in speaking.

On the other hand, Blake's intensity was its own kind of fascinating. He watched Galena with unwavering focus. It was just like the way he looked when they fought for the ship. Blake did everything with intention. Like his own little pirate captain.

In thinking it, Jordan imagined him wearing one of those silly overcoats and old-style leather hats from the pirate movies. They couldn't have possibly dressed like that, but even so... Blake would look good in uniform.

She felt something then, and not just the gradual downward motion of the Bright Hawk. She was suddenly breathing heavily, and found her mind losing focus. What had she been thinking about again?

"Alright, who did this?" Blake's concentration faltered, and he held something high on one leg. A brown and red leather old-fashioned pirate's cap, right down to the feathers and bits of multicolored canvas. Exactly like what Jordan had imagined. "Seriously, we spent money on this?"

"Wasn't me!" Ryan yelled from the base of the stairs. "Talk to the bat, she's right there. Wasn't Galena, that's for damn sure."

Jordan grinned in spite of herself. "We didn't spend anything on it, it's... magic practice? I think? You should put it on either way. You'd look good with a hat."

Blake's expression became unreadable, but only for a second. He settled it gently onto his head. She was right, it did look good on him.

I didn't pull that out of memory—I dreamed that. It was never real.

But her happiness would have to wait. As they descended, something else came into view below them—stone remnants. A city of pyramids and stone buildings, half-swallowed by the jungle. It looked exactly like the largest Mayan ruins, except the ground around it hadn't been cleared, and there weren't any visiting tourists.

"Ryan, get Kaelynn on deck. Tell her we're going down."

Chapter 31: Kaelynn

Kaelynn expected more resistance in separating out their group for this first expedition. Obviously, every human would want to go down to the Worldgate, which would probably make Galena nervous about being left behind. Or worse, maybe they should be afraid of getting their ship stolen. It wouldn’t be so bad as being sold into slavery, but for Kaelynn the result would likely be just as deadly.

That wasn't what happened. They dropped almost all the way to the ground, low enough that they could extend a ramp from the cargo-bay and let her hobble out when the time came. It was only then that they had their first objection.

"I don't want to be the one to search this place," Janet declared. "Easy for all of you to dismiss what I read, but not so easy for me. How about you get me if it doesn't kill you?"

"Fine with me," Blake said. They didn't gather under the deck—with trees crowding close to the clearing and sounds of strange jungle creatures loud in their ears, watching the jungle around them seemed critically important.

Not that Kaelynn would be much use if anything happened. She wore her full rebreather, slung over a harness made of steel. It held up her tail at the same height as her legs—better than her usual vantage of a tank, but she was still shorter than anyone in the group. She'd found the best wheels she could for the biped, but they still relied on constant small adjustments in her tail-muscles, holding her body vertically so the harness could keep her upright.

As primitive as primitive came. Maybe her next model could use a gyroscope to keep itself upright, or even individual mechanical legs to let her walk instead of roll. But those things all took time, the one thing they didn't have.

My best hope probably won't come from anything I build. There's a song to make myself a pony, I just need to figure out the melody. And the words. Basically everything, really.

"I stay too," Galena declared, startling her back to reality. "I have heard stories of this place... Tenochtitlan. City of gold and gemstones. Treasures of the past. But curse to all those who try to rob it. Too many stories of creatures who didn't come back."

Blake's expression hardened. "And you're just mentioning this now?”

Galena shrugged, utterly unashamed. Like she wasn't even listening, really. "I didn't know for sure, never gone this far north. But it matches the stories. Strange stone, too tall buildings, overgrown. Stories say they seem abandoned, and they tempt the greedy with endless wealth. Really, they're guarded by a monster named... Ahuizotl—something. A strange beast, kin to nothing like him. Slew many who wished to carry off the wealth he guards."

Janet nodded. "That matches the books. He's called Ahuizotl in there. Though he isn't written like a guardian, more like a primordial evil, always trying to assemble some ancient device or relic. He's always stopped, but narrowly. Guarding sounds too noble. Either way, I'm staying here. I think you shouldn't go at all. but if something goes wrong, you might need a rescue. I've got tons of experience in the rescuing business."

She didn't elaborate. After a few seconds, Kaelynn broke the silence. "I want to go. I know it's probably not a good idea... traps and ruins or whatever. But we aren't trying to take anything. Maybe if this Ahuizotl is there, we can just tell him we're there to use the Worldgate and pass through without a fight."

Ryan shook his head once. He'd taken one of her favorite forms today, the hippogriff officer from Mount Aris. Granted, the swimming version of that creature was a little more fun to be around. But in terms of disguises, it was her favorite. That was probably why he wore it so often. "Doesn't seem smart to count on. If you go, I go, armed."

"Same," Jordan added, removing a dagger from somewhere—Kaelynn hadn't caught where. But she balanced it in a wing, with dexterity almost like a native. "Plan for the worst. Plus, no telling what we'll find on the other side. What's the map say about this one again?"

"Louisiana," Ryan said. "Didn't get more detailed about where. Given our luck it's probably some spooky cave near the center of the Earth. But maybe we'll get lucky."

"I was thinking alternate history where the south won the civil war," Jordan said flatly, as though her utterly absurd suggestion were perfectly natural. "But I like your idea better. Caves sound great, just no poison gas this time."

"You won't be a bat on that side. If it's a cave, you'll have to climb around on two legs like the rest of us."

"Two legs, how novel," Kaelyn muttered, wistful. "Do tell me what that's like." Of course, her equipment didn't have much sensitivity to volume. But it made her loud enough to hear, and that was something. "Guess the rest of us are going, then? Unless you want to wait up here."

Blake glanced briefly between Jordan and Galena, then shook his head. "I'm going. No weapons we've made so far can compete with fire if we have to. Unless you two birds can't hold down the fort while we're gone."

"Course we can," Galena began, but Janet spoke over her.

"Don't start buying into the lie. We're not birds, we're people."

There was little more debate to be had over the trip—despite all the tools they'd left behind on Earth, and all the exotic places they were equipped to go, they had almost none of it here. They were just supposed to be walking through some tunnels, after all.

Even so, it took about an hour before they were finally descending the ramp to the jungle floor. The passage was steep, enough that Kaelynn began accelerating towards the end, and she could barely stop herself. Even digging her forelegs deep into the dirt barely managed to finally bring her to a stop.

My legs just aren't strong enough for this. I'm not supposed to be carrying my own weight on the surface.

What she needed was to master the songs that would let her change back and forth between forms, the way the hippogriffs went from fins to feathers. Too bad she hadn't been able to make a single one of the songs do anything for her...

"I feel like I've been here before. Palenque?" Ryan was the first to step down off the ramp, scanning their surroundings with sharp bird-eyes. Kaelynn could see decently well with her mask, but she had no illusions about her abilities compared to the others. She was basically blind compared to the birds.

"Too big." Blake took a few steps up a nearby staircase. He had to strain to make it up each one, which promised all kinds of adventures for her. The wheels were built for that, to guide her up steps if she had to. But she still needed the strength from her forelegs to make it happen. "This place was built by giants."

Kaelynn took in the details of the nearby structures—all made of the same black stone, partially swallowed by the jungle. Most were just one story, but there was a ball-court nearby attached to a set of stands, then a pyramid that was even larger.

"Must be ceremonial," Kaelynn suggested. "Like the bathhouse in Paris. This portal had traffic once. And maybe a guardian too, which would make it like Paris in another way."

"It might," Blake agreed. "We should keep the chat to a minimum. Feels like we're being watched already."

Kaelynn couldn’t see any sign of that—there were plenty of animal eyes watching from the jungle. But they were adorable jungle cats, not the dangerous stuff. That was called an ocelot, wasn't it? Nothing that cute could be dangerous.

"Help me get her down the stairs, Blake," Ryan said, as they approached the foot of the pyramid. They needed no conversation to decide on that particular destination. If there was anything magical happening here, it would obviously be under the giant pyramid.

Blake nodded, taking hold near Kaelynn's shoulders. She squirmed at the pressure, but didn't argue. The path downward was just about as uncomfortable as she might've expected, dragged bumping and jerking over steps that were way too big. Ordinarily the high ceilings would've made a space feel luxurious and well planned. But here, it just seemed like they were wandering through a building constructed by aliens.

The stairs opened into a vast chamber, even more absurdly tall than the path inward so far. Strange sculptures lined the walls, in a style that was as eerily reminiscent as everything else they'd encountered so far. Stone figures with crossed legs and flat faces, grinning dragon heads, great birds and warriors wearing strange headdresses.

"Hold on a minute." Ryan let go of her shoulder, wandering off a few steps and gesturing at the wall. "Look at this. Does this face look like a horse to you?"

"No..." Kaelynn followed, wheels squeaking over the stone floor. But she didn't let anyone stop her. At least this room was mostly flat, without any sign of traps placed to kill them. "It doesn't look like... wait." She stopped beside it, looking up. The stone figure was quite a bit taller than any of them, even where Galena would've stood. But the face was unmistakable.

Human, or close to it. The figure rested on crossed legs that might've ended in hooves like a satyr, or maybe it just sat on its knees. Another warrior figure had a great set of feathery wings, but might've just been wearing the feathers on outstretched arms.

"That's not how they work," Jordan said, voice desperate. "We've seen Worldgates. You don't get to come here looking like that. You look like us."

Kaelynn waited long enough for Blake to power on one of their cameras for a brief recording, then shut it down again. They'd taken to doing that more and more lately as their batteries neared full depletion—keep things fully shut down at all times, and only power them on briefly for a few seconds of use. It was what she'd done to her phone when they arrived on that mountain peak, and what she hoped to do again in a few hours. Maybe this time with a more favorable result.

They continued through another doorway, into a room that glittered even in the dimly reflected light from Blake's glowing horn.

Kaelynn nearly bumped into her friends on her way in, who had stopped just through the narrow arch. She opened her mouth to shout some frustrated expletive, then trailed off.

It was a treasure room, like something right out of an Indiana Jones movie. Gold artifacts were arranged in piles, draped across stone models, or settled neatly on shelves. Scepters, bracelets, hair ties, glittering rings...

"Are these real?" Ryan asked, nudging one ring with a claw. He lifted it up into the air, then bit down on the edge. His eyes widened at the result, and he dropped it. "Oh God."

The treasure room had a single clear hallway running through it, all the way to another stairwell leading down. It was maybe fifty feet to cross, with a path of intricately carved stone the whole way.

"Remember why we're here," Jordan said. "We aren't going to take anything, remember? Our treasure is a way home."

"You say that," Ryan snapped, spinning on her in a blur. "But you don't know how much gold is worth. You know how much a kilogram bracelet or headdress would buy, Jordan? Just one of these things, and I'd be set for a decade. Or maybe there's no portal—think of the upgrades we could buy for the Bright Hawk. We could commission a foundry to make our own cannons. We could hire a skilled crew of mercenaries!"

"Or," said another voice. "Your greed could be your undoing, as it has been to all who defiled this tomb before you."

Kaelynn couldn't turn, not with any speed. She rotated painfully to face into the darkness, where Blake's horn outlined only a vague shape, hidden among the treasure. It was leonine in suggestion, though the glittering reflection of eyes didn't look right. All the way down on that sharpened jaw, evolutionarily absurd. But that wouldn't be the first impossible thing they'd encountered thus far.

The figure shook itself free of the gold and gemstones, scattering unimaginable wealth with disinterest. It advanced on them, towering over Blake. Taller than a human being would've stood, though not by much.

"If you thought you could escape the notice of this tomb's protectors, perhaps you shouldn't have come on such a large airship, hmm? The whole jungle saw you. Now that I know of your intentions, there can be no doubt of what happens next."

Chapter 32: Ryan

Ryan backed away from the approaching monster, at least until he smacked into the side of Kaelynn's harness. This creature towered over them—its appearance was alien, and its teeth were glittering sharp. Yet it was also unarmed, and apparently intelligent enough to speak to them. That made about as much sense from the tomb-guardian than anything else they'd encountered so far.

More importantly, Ryan could feel him, the same way he felt the others in their group. He overflowed with satisfaction at having discovered them, and confidence that he was accomplishing his duty. This was not simple malevolence, but this creature seemed to resonate with purpose. It wanted to protect this place, and it knew that it would soon destroy another set of intruders.

"We're not here to rob you," Blake said. He hadn't retreated so far as the others. This was probably a great time for him to whip out the freaky fire-monster and start blasting, but he hadn't done that either. He just faced down the creature, which loomed over him at spectacular size. "We're here to use the Worldgate. We have no ill-will towards this tomb."

The creature laughed, loudly enough that it echoed through the vaulted chamber. As it did so, several animal voices joined in... laughing? Ryan spun, and realized there were suddenly many other eyes around them. Not just this one monster, but cat eyes that peeked out from the rubble, looking around bits of gold, and perched atop intricate sculptures.

"You say this as though it was supposed to convince me! Oh yes, we've only come to desecrate your most sacred artifact! The very thing you were entrusted to guard, yes please let us through. We won't steal anything, only ruin your centuries of vigil for nothing!"

He growled, baring his teeth. Even Blake retreated, though not very fast. He was clearly just as afraid as the others, Ryan could feel it. But he put himself between the rest of them and danger. Even Jordan cowered behind him. And Ryan, for all his size, wasn't doing much better. Could he copy the guardian, maybe fight it hand-to-hand? Or... weird paws to weird paws, anyway.

"If you want to murder us, we won't make it easy on you," Blake said. He drew a rough metal object from his side, a tube with a rudimentary mechanism on the rear. Kaelynn's current masterpiece, a single-shot flintlock pistol. Kaelynn's craftsmanship maybe, but Ryan's idea. "If you expect us to curl up and die, the griffons made that mistake too. We'll fight like hell."

They would fight, but they would probably die. All around the room, jungle cats bared their teeth. Jaguars had always looked like formidable creatures, but now they were taller as well as longer and more muscular. I should be Galena if we fight. That's my best chance to survive this.

"Well, we could," the creature said, puffing out its absurd chest. It reached down, scooping up the gold band Ryan had dislodged, and replacing it on the display. "Or you could go back to where you came from and leave this sacred place alone. But we both know you won't do that. You treasure-hunters are all alike. Pale imitators of my former adversary. But her determination came from competence. You four... not so much."

They shared a look. Ryan could feel it—Kaelynn and Jordan realized it instantly, and only Blake resisted. He actually thought they could win! With a single shot from a gun that didn't shoot straight, a bat that couldn't fly, a seapony who couldn't breathe, and a cowardly shapeshifter.

Ryan shoved past his friend, spreading his wings as he did so to take up more space. He was bigger now, even if that size was only borrowed. It would do. "No, we're nothing like those others. We'll leave. Our airship is waiting—we'll leave your tomb the way we found it."

Blake nudged him with his shoulder, fuming with frustration and anger—but it cooled when the creature spoke.

"Seriously?" He gestured, and at once the yowling felines and crouching monsters guarding the doorway behind them split apart, opening the exit. "All the time we spend cleaning bones out of deathtraps, scrubbing blood out of the stone... it really would be better if you left."

"I'm surprised too..." Blake said. "We're giving up?"

"It's one Worldgate," Ryan said. "We'll go to the next one on the map. They didn't all have armies guarding them."

Now Blake turned properly on him. Heat rose from around him like asphalt in the summer sun, strange lines that warped the air around it.

"Blake," Jordan said. "Chill out a minute, will you? You're scaring me more than the panthers right now."

Blake stopped dead. Jordan's words cut him far deeper than any threat from the guardian. He actually hesitated, shaking his head once to clear it. "I, uh..."

"Don't say anything," Jordan continued. "Just chill. Monster man, we're going! Like they said. But you should know, you're just keeping innocent people from getting home. That's all we wanted."

"Monster man," the thing repeated, indignant. "My name is Ahuizotl."

"Sorry." Jordan wilted, wings folding. "Ahuizotl then. Sorry about disturbing your eternal slumber or whatever. We're leaving." She turned, resting one leg under Kaelynn's shoulder to help her with the stairs. Ryan took the other side—Blake was probably a little too hot to be healthy for the seapony just now. He'd need to lift more of the slack.

Together they passed between watching animals. Ryan could feel from them too, far more than he might've expected from animals. They mostly felt simple loyalty for Ahuizotl, though there might've been something more. They too were satisfied to see the tomb emptied. Only a few were disappointed at the lack of bloodshed today.

The cats left them behind, but the guardian followed, his massive steps shaking the stone slightly behind them. "Since you're the first creatures to listen when I told them to leave, I will share some advice with you. If you continue to the north, there is a Worldgate that opens only in the tempests. A tribe dwells there, fled from terrors lost to time. They will welcome a friendly visitor. So maybe leave the horned one behind."

"You know," Kaelynn said. Her voice was thin and reedy, and Ryan could feel why. She was on the edge of exhaustion from so long outside the water. This trip had already cost her terribly. "You know about the other side. About Earth."

Ryan watched the creature for his reaction. Old instinct, unnecessary now. Interesting that he responded so emotionally similar to the way ponies thought, but he would probably never discover why.

Ahuizotl shrugged, tilting his head to the side. "Of course. But if you think sharing a home with those who placed me here would mean I neglect my duty and look the other way, you are quite wrong. They had many enemies on both sides. Maybe you too. Even so, good luck finding another way. Fly safe back to where you came from."

Fly safe? They trudged back up the steps, and Ryan was out of breath for the next several minutes, distracted with the effort of lifting Kaelynn. The creature didn’t follow them, nor did he respond to their shouted requests for more information.

Blake was still boiling by the time they made it to the airship. But he didn't complain about what had happened, not until they were finally back up the ramp, and beyond the hearing of the watching cats.

"I still think that thing was more bark than bite," Blake said, as soon as they'd lifted the ramp. A few of the cats even perched on bits of ruined building to wave as they flew away. "He knew where we were from, he knew about us... maybe he knows everything! We shouldn't just leave all that information behind."

Galena appeared from the upper decks, looking strangely relieved to see them again. "You went so quickly," she said. "Results not good?"

Kaelynn shook her head. "There were guardians, like you thought. But not as deadly as I expected."

She trailed off, breathing heavily. Well, her neck was twitching, and she felt like someone in pain. Even a trip that long had been enormously difficult for her. I need to get her back to her quarters, where she can swim around. She's drying up out here.

"He gave us new directions too," Jordan said. "And wished us a pleasant trip. I think the Worldgate he mentioned was on the map. Ryan, did it sound familiar?"

Ryan hesitated a moment, thinking back to the map. He'd done his best to memorize the general shape, along with every Worldgate on it. He was still working on their corresponding locations in the real world.

Earth? Real was probably the wrong attitude. "The continents seem to roughly mirror the Earth we know. This would be Central America. The next one would be somewhere in Mexico, about twice as far from here as we've sailed so far."

Blake stamped at the deck, his strange hooves splintering the wood. "We gave up too easily. The guardian was a monkey creature with cats. If I got off a lucky shot, he'd fall, and they would scatter."

Jordan slid past Ryan, resting her wing on Blake's shoulder. It must've been incredibly uncomfortable, with heat like that rising from him. She did it anyway. "You really think it would be right to kill someone like that? He's just doing his job."

"He would've done the same to us," Blake said. But the enthusiasm leached from his words as he said it. The anger bubbled away almost the second Jordan touched him.

"I'd rather not leave it either," Ryan added. "If we had another choice. But we don't. Think about the documentary, Blake. We don't have to make things harder for National Geographic by giving them a murder to deal with."

Kaelynn shuffled a little distance away, towards the stairs. "You talk this out. It's a long way, I already heard that. I need to get this space suit off."

She turned, making her slow way back. Ryan followed just behind her. He reached over to help her down the steps, but indignance rose from her in that same moment, and he backed off. Blake would want his help to set a course and do ship stuff, but the others could do that for once. Maybe his girlfriend.

"I bet we could've convinced him if we met a different way," Kaelynn said, as soon as they'd reached the bottom of the stairs. It was only a short trip from there to the captain's quarters. "But we were right there in the treasure room. Really looked like looters."

And that was mostly my fault. I was the one who had to go and touch it. I'm the only one who ever had to worry about money.

It was wrong to think like that, Ryan knew on an emotional level. Just as he shouldn't hate himself for being cast as a horrible bug by his passage through the Worldgate. His friends had never looked down on him for his financial dependence. They'd invited him along for all their adventures, and never expected him to contribute resources he didn't have.

Didn't mean he could just forget about their differences, though.

Ryan's next few minutes were occupied helping Kaelynn into the tank. Her door didn't just dump water into the hall—there were high walls right around it, with a small room with clothing hooks and a drain. A ramp led up over the high walls, which had a single section they could lift to splash down into the rest of the room.

The water wasn't even two feet deep, enough that he could lay on his back and barely be fully covered. The walls went up far higher than that, more than twice. A precaution against rough weather and difficult maneuvers more than anything. They'd wanted to make them continue all the way to the ceiling, with special windows she could use to watch their flight as they traveled.

They had enough gold, but thanks to Janet's warning, they knew they didn't have enough time.

That didn't mean he had to accept everything she said, though. She wanted all of them to live as magical pariahs, ignoring their abilities and minimizing contact with the outside world. Friendship was magic, and making friends here would trap them in Equestria forever.

But she'd lasted for over half a year now, and still thought she had a shot of getting back. If they could make it back to Earth soon enough to give Janet a shot, he could afford to take a few more risks. If Ryan had to spend the next few weeks of Worldgate-hopping in only one shape, he would lose his mind.

Ryan did a little of that changing now, as Kaelynn slipped gleefully into the tank ahead of him. This water wasn't as pristine-clear as the transport machine had kept it, more like a well-maintained public pool. But that was better than drowning her in her own filth.

He knew exactly what it felt to breathe, because he spent most of his nights with Kaelynn in this very tank. Sometimes, he even slept.

Well, he tried. Sleeping didn’t seem to be a thing that bugs needed to do. Product of being a parasite, or just his slow death in a freak medical condition, he had no way of knowing. If he'd met any other changelings since arriving in Equestria, he hadn't known or been able to ask them.

Amazing how much he could come to love not being stuck after only a few weeks. He touched the edge of the water, then felt for a moment at Kaelynn's emotions. She wanted company, but not that kind of company. Would be a smaller meal for Ryan tonight.

He hung his vest on one of the hooks, then slipped over the edge of the ramp behind her. By the time he hit the water, he no longer looked like a bird. Instead, he was her exact twin. One of the few forms he'd used enough that he didn't even have to think about it.

But Kaelynn didn't make her usual gleeful circuit of the tank, as she often did after returning from some dry-land duty. Instead she slumped onto the floor, where a soft pad of material resembling a sponge was attached to form a "bed" of sorts. Remodeling the ship in a friendly port that catered to an underwater species certainly had its advantages.

Ryan circled her once, humming to a nervous tune. "Are you alright, Kaelynn?"

"Yeah," she lied, curling up around her tail. "Just... gimme a few minutes. Then get that songbook. If I have to do that again, I think I'm gonna drown for sure."

Chapter 33: Blake

Blake soothed his anger at the helm of the Bright Hawk. He might not know its operation half as well as Galena yet, though he was learning quickly. But he needed to do something to keep himself busy. Otherwise he would keep replaying that trip to the ruins in his head, until the frustration boiled back over into anger against his friends.

They were right, obviously they'd been right. Maybe if they'd all been armed and trained to fight, they could've won against odds like those. Maybe if they knew their powers better, they could've avoided attack by the guardians and made it to the Worldgate. But no, they had two others who wanted to travel—they would've needed to go back eventually.

Still, there should've been a way. Blake sailed away from the jungle ruins, and an alien creature who knew the answers to their questions. Ahuizotl and the ruins he guarded might've both been put here by other humans, visitors to Equus long gone. But where had they gone? If Ryan was right and those ruins were approximately Mayan in date and design, that meant centuries unoccupied. The Mayan people on Earth hadn't mysteriously vanished, it was only their civilization that had ended.

Maybe something like that was true here too, and there were descendants living in villages nearby who might soothe Ahuizotl's wrath?

He didn't suggest it, just kept one hoof on the wheel and his eyes to the horizon. He hated being stopped here, in principle as much as in practicality. But this wasn't the last portal they'd ever get to see, and they weren't seconds from being trapped. They had a whole map of other destinations to try, and a ship to sail them there.

He remained at the helm for an entire day. He relieved Galena when morning came, and sailed again the next. From the speed of their progress, it would be over a week before they reached the next possible Worldgate, located somewhere in the desert shrubland that would've been Mexico. That gave them plenty of time to think.

After a day alone, Blake found himself longing for a little company up on the high deck. The winds never bothered him—there was fire inside him, stronger than any cold he'd yet encountered. But without an audiobook to listen to, the horizon and the compass became their own kind of drudgery.

The others always came when he called—mostly to adjust the sails as the winds changed. Once they spent hours together, tacking against the wind as they fought their way north. But then they were through, back to the calm and the heat.

"How's the sailing going?"

Jordan dropped down from the rigging a few feet from him, so silently that Blake nearly jumped. To his credit, he kept his hooves on the wheel this time, and didn't jostle the Bright Hawk in their course. When one of his friends could move as silent as death, he had to adapt to being startled.

"You could just come up the stairs," he said, annoyed. "How do you climb that ladder without claws, anyway?"

He was probably imagining it, but it looked like Jordan's ears were taking a reading of the wind. She took a few steps, then moved up close to him, sheltering from the constant gusts. "I don't climb. I hold on with my hooves and my teeth, then spread my wings to let the ship's movement lift me."

She spread both of them to demonstrate, and immediately lifted off the deck. Jordan squeaked, smacking them both closed and looking sheepish. "I think I could fly now if I wanted. But while we're moving high up, it feels really stupid to try. Did some practice in the empty hold, but you can only fly so far in a room."

Blake finally took his eyes from the horizon. It wasn't like they were going to deviate much if he had a conversation. Besides, he could feel pretty well for the ship's orientation now. If he started to dip down, he'd notice the slope instantly. "You're not worried about what Janet said?"

Jordan stuck her tongue out. "What, that we'll be trapped forever? Hella fuckin' worried, dude. I don't want to be stuck as a horse forever. Do you?"

"No..." And that's why we shouldn't have given up the last Worldgate "But I'm doing what she said. Magic wears away at your humanity until there's none left. Shouldn't you be trying to keep your hooves on the ground?"

Almost by reflex, the bat opened her wings again. This time she moved more slowly, and lifted only a few inches. She wasn't hovering exactly, but drifting backwards towards the railing. So she wasn't quite matched with the speed of the Bright Hawk in terms of flight. "I don't care what she says, flying doesn't count. Flying is wings and I got wings. That's like saying not to use my hands. If I, uh... if I still had those."

She was drifting dangerously close to the edge. Jordan faced him, making subtle adjustments to her wings to stay in the air. But not subtle enough to keep up with her movement.

"Hey, uh... Jordan!" But she wasn't moving fast enough—Blake jumped, wrapping both forelegs around her, tugging her back down to the deck. They crashed down together, tangled on the floor.

"You didn't need to... I knew what I was doing!" she protested. But there was no confidence there. Maybe she didn't even believe it.

"It's very impressive..." Blake said, sitting up beside her. "But do it somewhere you can't drift off into space if you make a mistake, okay? After going through all this hell, I'm not losing someone to a fall now."

She sat up; ears folded flat to the back of her head in embarrassment. Even with the wind whipping around them, there was something strange about her scent. He'd felt it in those few seconds of contact together. "Don't you ever get bored up here, Blake? Lonely?"

"Don't I ever..." He rose, though he didn't leave her, or try to take the wheel yet. The Bright Hawk was well-built enough that she wouldn't start drifting without someone's hands on the helm. The wind might blow them off-course, but the rudder would remain. "Jordan, I'm not the only one who does this. I'm just the one who learned it the fastest. Galena would teach you too if you asked."

She rose, wings splayed awkwardly to her sides. Another one of those physical, animal signs—what did this one mean? Submission? Maybe Jordan had been a horse a little too long. It was getting to all of them. "I'd rather let you do it. Machines aren't as interesting to me as people. Kaelynn would probably enjoy it once she figures out how to walk around in the air without killing herself."

She rested her head against Blake's shoulder, following his gaze to the helm. "I don't care what Galena says about it, but you can teach me if you want. What does this one do?" She reached for the altitude control, with her whole hoof.

Blake caught her. "Hey, easy on that one! That controls our levitation—that one's where it's supposed to be, keeping us just a tiny bit lighter than air." He moved her leg to the wheel. "Start with this. You can tilt this as well as spin it—that controls fins along the sides that angle us slightly up and down, as well as the air-rudder behind us. You can see it if you lean over the back."

Jordan wasn't watching where he pointed, but looking directly up at him. "That's so interesting. Tell me more about it." That thing she was doing with her wings—he could smell it. Intoxicating.

It clouded his thoughts far more than simple anger. "Jordan, what are you doing?"

"You should call me Vesper more," she said. "It would make this less awkward. I'm not Jordan right now, really. That me doesn't get to exist until we make it home. For the rest of our trip, I'm Vesper."

Blake rolled his eyes. Jordan wasn't like Ryan; she didn't have an endless bevy of identities. She was one person, the same as the rest of them. Yet... he couldn't ever imagine Jordan acting this way. So far as he knew, every member of their little team was straight. Was that past tense now, or... Vesper sure didn't look or act much like a guy.

"Vesper," he said anyway. "Are you sure this is the best time? I'm at the helm. If I don't pay attention, I could take us off course. Or into a mountain, or..."

She pushed his mouth closed with a hoof. "I didn't imply anything, that was all you. I'm just trying to keep you company. Ryan and Kaelynn don't need any help staying entertained. But you're up here alone."

Entertained. The word hung on the air between them, joining the strange scent. Not exactly unpleasant—it reminded him of the jungles far below. Not the ruins, where they'd been routed before even getting a glimpse of the Worldgate. This was something wilder, primal.

And dangerous. I need to change course, or this will take me somewhere I might regret.

Blake didn't have the strength to get rid of her—he couldn't back away, or shove her off. But he could search the sky, for any possible excuse. There had to be something...

There was. A dark shape shadowed over the horizon, droning with a distant engine. He probably would've noticed it sooner if it wasn't for Vesper's proximity. An airship, following directly behind them.

"Jordan, look," he pointed, off over the railing. "Look at that, right now. Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

The bat glowered at him, ears flattening. But she followed his gesture anyway.

"Hot damn. You think the hippogriffs got more information? Maybe they sent another team through their Worldgate, and made a safe path down the mountain."

Blake squinted. Without binoculars, he could only make out the general shape of the vessel. Huge, like several sailing ships had been caught in a bizarre mating-pile, and fused together. Their masts were black, without sails. Instead, two gigantic motors extended off the sides, with fans as big as trucks rotating in slow, methodical rhythm. Creatures moved about on the docks, but he couldn't see them clearly from this distance.

"Get Galena," he ordered, gesturing. "She's sleeping, I know. Get her on deck right now. I'll remain on the helm."

"You think another ship is more important?" Vesper asked. "I don't think you really believe that."

Blake stomped the deck once with his hooves, glaring at her. "I don't have time for shit right now, Jordan! Get the fuck down there and bring back the bird. Make a whole lot of noise, and grab the others on your way up. Do it right now."

The pony retreated from him, tucking her tail between her legs like a scolded dog. But she went all the same, hurrying down the steps belowdecks. Blake adjusted the helm slightly, pivoting in a random heading. Then he watched.

"This better be important," Galena squawked, settling onto the deck beside him with a flurry of rustled feathers. She had her belt and cutlass, but nothing else—her usual jacket and hairbands were still in her quarters, apparently. "You woke me up, Blake. I thought you knew what you were doing. I see no storm."

Blake let go of the helm, then pointed behind them. "We are being followed."

The bird twisted her head around unnaturally—or at least it looked unnatural to him. Galena didn't seem to mind it. Her eyes settled on the ship, then focused. Did griffons really see as well as Earth raptors?

"I see the storm now." She hurried to the edge of the railing, looking off for another few seconds. Her claws dug deep into the wood. Yet she left him in painful silence, with only the whipping of the wind through the sails around them.

"What do you see?" he pressed, after waiting for almost a minute. The ship was still distant—whole miles away, though it was hard to be sure about range. His estimates betrayed him up here in the clouds.

"That vessel is called the Eagle's Talon—one of the greatest and most widely feared of its kind. It hosts several dozen fierce warriors, all of which are veterans of many battles. Old Captain Callahan had more friends than I thought. Or maybe they just want to fight this strange crew of ponies who resist them like birds."

Dozens? Blake needed no statistics degree to run those odds. A single gun that could fire once if they were very lucky. Six men against dozens. Doomed. "What do we do?"

"If they catch us, we die," Galena said. "They will not use their cannons, or they might have started firing already to frighten us. Retaking the Bright Hawk will be a mark of pride. So they will grapple our vessels together, then send warriors to kill us. After killing the previous captain, none of us will be spared."

Blake turned away, hurrying back to the helm. "Then we can't let them catch us. What do we do?"

Galena looked up, grinning weakly. "They have no sail. We can turn, put our backs to the wind, and ride her directly. Off course, but... better than dead. The Eagle's Talon have no sails, and are not shaped for a swift chase. We may outrun them."

"You should take this," Blake said, gesturing to the wheel. "I'll get the others up here. Tell us what to do."

Galena nodded. "Pray to every ancestor you know that the wind does not fail us. Then get on the sails. Time to lower the aft and reserve sails as well. We will extract every ounce of speed the wind can spare."

Blake sprinted down the stairs to obey—except for the prayers. It didn't seem like his ancestors would hear him all the way in another universe.

Chapter 34: Vesper

All things considered; Jordan was not having a particularly good day.

It wasn't just that her time with Blake had been rudely interrupted, though considering the hours she had spent getting up the courage to try any of that, it was certainly a factor. Rather, it was that her attempts to get anywhere with Blake had been interrupted by a ship of evil pirates bent on killing them all.

Jordan was no fighter, despite what she'd had to do. Anyone could fight for their survival if it came down to it. But against a ship as large as the one following them, with as many creatures swarming over the deck and bristling with dangerous weapons, she knew any effort would be futile.

She rushed to obey Galena's instructions, along with all the others. Even Kaelynn was on the deck now, though she mostly just sat near the back and used her machine to shout updates about how the ship behind them was doing.

While she sat, the others worked furiously, opening every sail on the ship and turning them into the wind. This was the exact moment they could've really used a better engine.

If only they had a few months back in Mount Aris to build their own engine. It would probably work far better than whatever ugly thing that ship used, spewing a trail of black smoke behind it like a perpetually burning tire-fire.

But there was at least one mercy today: the wind whipped about them with incredible speed, at least forty miles per hour now. Fast enough that it would rip them right off the deck if they weren't careful. For anyone but Galena, that would probably be a death sentence.

It didn't look like they were going the right way anymore. Once the sails were redirected, they rode with the wind on a path that was sharply west, rather than almost directly north. Still, that meant no need to tack with the wind, sacrificing valuable speed with each rotation of the sails.

"Looks like we're getting away!" Kaelynn yelled, or her helmet did anyway. Even so, she was barely audible over the roar of wind. "They're falling behind!"

"Nice!" Ryan cheered from not far away, in the voice of the stolen hippogriff's body. It was a good thing that bird didn't know how often he'd been copied since they flew from Mount Aris. It was hard to resent him, even so. They wouldn't have made much progress without someone to tie knots.

"And we're getting further away. You think we're losing them, Galena?" Blake worked the sails with all of them, so he had to yell back to the high deck and the helm atop it.

Even from this distance, Jordan could hear the bird's pessimism. "Not possible! Now that they have seen us, they will send birds ahead to keep watch, flying after us. They won't attack this way—those birds would be outnumbered and exhausted. But they can wait and report our path to the Eagle's Talon as she reaches them."

Of course. Jordan took one last look at the sails, all successfully tied off. She nodded to Janet, then crested the steps up to the high deck. As much as the bird would probably smell what was really going on with her, Jordan needed to have a look for herself.

The airship was smaller now, about the size it had been when Blake spotted her on the horizon. It was hard to tell for sure, but even from here she thought she could see little specks occasionally rising from the deck, lifting high or even flying ahead of the aircraft.

"That must be exhausting," Jordan said, not needing to shout now that she was up here with most of the others. "Flying ahead of their ship, I mean. How long can they go like that?"

Galena didn't look back. The griffon kept her claws on the wheel, occasionally making subtle adjustments to the controls. Jordan should probably know what any of that crap did by now. But it just wasn't as interesting without Blake as their pilot.

"Griffons are not like ponies. We aren't skeletons, but covered in muscle and claw. Those muscles mean incredible speed over short distance. From a greater height, a griffon will outfly any pony or airship. We tire quickly. But do not forget the wind at our tail. The Eagle's Talon lacks sails, so cannot benefit so much. Birds have wings, and know how to use the wind to carry them. Our only hope of outflying their scouts is to reach the Equestrian border."

"The pirates are too afraid to cross?" Blake guessed.

Galena laughed. "Not of the border—they represent no nation, and dwell far from Equestria's reach. But the ponies know the dangers at their border, and patrols are frequent. Equestrian ships will likely mean retreat. A single team of unicorn warmages could sink their ship without a fight."

"I thought they were out for revenge." Jordan kept her voice as neutral as she could. The former pirate hadn't said anything about her yet—probably best not to anger her. "They aren't willing to fight for it?"

The griffon laughed, even louder than last time. "You ponies really are crazy. You think anyone wants to die for revenge? Maybe the birds of some noble king's army. Not pirates. Any who had a death wish like that are long dead."

The Bright Hawk jerked slightly backward, creaking up and down its masts. Jordan stumbled forward a step before catching herself. She didn't try to suppress her pride at her recovery—she'd come a damn long way since first being transformed, and no longer fell over like an idiot.

"Oh God," Blake muttered. "We just... Galena, where is the wind?"

She worked the wheel, making a few subtle adjustments—testing the path to either side. The sails whipped about unevenly, no longer stretched to full area.

"I was afraid of this. We are out of wind. Ponies, brace yourselves! There is one way left to go!" She took hold of the flat handle, the one that Blake had stopped her from using. Then she shoved, pressing it all the way forward.

Jordan smacked into the deck, as her world became a rapidly accelerating elevator. She looked around, and saw Blake was still on his hooves, though he held to the railing along one side to keep himself standing. He dragged himself along, until he stood beside Galena.

"What are we doing?"

"Searching for a better wind!" she said. "And stopping them from sending birds to dive and attack! This new Equestrian ship can rise far faster than they can!"

Jordan glanced briefly down to the lower deck, and saw the others struggling the same as she was. She planted her hooves securely and shoved, rising into a standing position. It took most of her strength just to stay that way, let alone trying to walk.

They were already so high that the tropical environment under them was a distant blur. It meant she could only rely on the occasional wisp of cloud in the clear sky for any perspective on just how fast they ascended. Too fast, clearly.

"How high can we go?" Blake yelled. The wind whipped around them again, though this time it came from an entirely different direction. "Will the ship give out? If we lose the levitation crystal, we're dead!"

"Eventually!" Galena replied. "But we die a lot sooner than the ship does! Feel that cold? It gets far worse! Air too thin to breathe! Ponies... do better than griffons if they have much magic. Maybe... you live!"

The sails filled again, and the ground lurched out from under Jordan. She slid along the deck as the ship smacked into her from below and also tried to drag itself out from under her. Certainly not a combination she enjoyed.

Her own head was already swimming. She felt her legs bump against the railing, and finally she came to a stop. Good thing the ponies who built this thing hadn't been complacent in their own abilities, or she would’ve just gone right over the side.

It was hard to concentrate. What were they doing again? It was probably working—the Bright Hawk was going really fast now! Where was Blake, he would probably like her more if they were going fast. That made sense.

Blake lay on his side beside the helm, next to a bird. A thin mist of ice covered them all, like a delicate white dust. Pretty.

How high had they gone, anyway? Humans with a lifetime of practice and training could breathe the thin air atop Everest, if they didn't strain their bodies. But most of them brought oxygen.

Something thumped to the deck beside Jordan, then rolled into her. She looked, and found an oversized green tank trailing little white hoses. She'd just been thinking about that! Pale Light would be so happy to hear that she was getting better at her magic.

Why did that matter? There was a reason, but she couldn't remember.

Jordan leaned forward, playing with the edges of the hoses with one hoof. They came untangled, revealing little clear masks on the ends. Four, because she had four friends who had come from Earth. That was just the right number.

That's the worst looking mask I've ever seen. Blake won't want to let me share his room wearing this stupid thing.

Even so, she couldn't help her curiosity. What would it feel like to wear a mask made of dreamstuff?

Vesper pulled it over, with ample difficulty. She was shivering now, and getting colder. But what did that matter? That cold belonged to someone else, not her. She was only borrowing it.

The mask felt like a plastic facemask, as it turned out. It had shapes that matched the general contours of a pony, with a deep, flexible silicone seal and an elastic strap she could tighten.

Jordan tightened it, and took a breath. The headache she didn't even know she'd had begun to ebb. The air was dry and unpleasant on her throat, but it was doing something. Soothing her headache away, maybe?

Jordan took another breath, then another. Why was she laying alone by the railing? Where had this oxygen tank come from?

No matter—the tank was here, and every second with the mask over her animal muzzle brought further clarity. Memory came rushing back to her. They'd been running. The pirates had come out in force, and they wanted to catch the Bright Hawk before they could get too far into Equestrian territory.

She stood, with difficulty. They were still rising, and moving forward so rapidly in the upper air that the mast strained and groaned with the force of it. They probably weren't supposed to just ride the lift crystal this high up.

She glanced behind the ship, and couldn't even make out the enemy vessel anymore. As night approached, her vision would get a little sharper, but she should've been able to make out something so large. Maybe that speck on the horizon far behind? They had to be somewhere.

Jordan took another deep breath, then started dragging the tank along behind her. She made it to the helm, where Blake lay on his side. His eyes were still open, and he grasped feebly at the wheel, out of reach. The bird was in slightly worse shape, as she'd suggested.

Shouldn't griffons be better at altitude than we are? Raptors do heights more often than horses in the real world. It must have something to do with magic, or else maybe she was just making the mistake of trying to compare her universe to another one. Either way she bent down, settling the mask over the griffon's face as best she could.

We're breathing air I pulled out of the dreaming. How long will it help?

Galena did not sit up, though the mask did start to fog on her face. Jordan leaned down over the railing, but saw no sign of Kaelynn or Ryan anymore. There was a thin skein of ice leading down to the stairs, maybe they had something to do with it?

Regardless, she couldn't worry about that. Jordan took the acceleration lever, and lowered it to a flat position. They jerked, the wood groaned in one final protest, then they finally leveled out.

She took a few seconds to recover after that, letting her legs relax in the reduced pressure. She occupied herself with one of the remaining masks, offering it to Blake.

He was still aware enough to grab it when offered, even pulling it on himself. After about a minute, he sat up. "Where the hell did you get this?"

"Good dream," she answered. "Let's see if we can give it a happy ending."

Chapter 35: Kaelynn

It wasn't good to be a fish.

Kaelynn had ample reminders of that fact anytime she wanted to leave her sequestered corner of the Bright Hawk, even for brief social interactions with her friends.

When leaving for anything more, there was a good chance she would end up getting into even more trouble.

I should've just waited in the tank. There wasn't anything I could do to help.

It wasn't true, though. By the time she'd dragged Ryan back to the tank, he barely had enough strength left to change back into something that could swim. Something about his being part-insect struggled with the sudden drop in pressure.

Kaelynn had barely even felt the effect of higher altitude, though she knew instantly she enjoyed only a brief moment of borrowed time. Her rebreather didn't use charged oxygen tanks, or else she would have already exhausted them. Instead, it bubbled external air through the water reserve.

That rebreather now floated in the water beside her, reserve tank split from where the initial acceleration had torn it.

The mechanism is fine. It's okay, Kaelynn, you aren't trapped. You can fix this. She would get a chance to try, assuming they escaped from the pirates who wanted them all dead.

She swam past where her clone floated in the water, still recovering, and over to the windows. They were higher than the water-level, of course, and she could get only vague colors and shapes through them from below the water's surface. Were they still accelerating? From within the water, she couldn't tell anymore.

We need a radio. I wouldn't need to go around the ship to ask questions if they could pass messages to me.

Of course, what Kaelynn really needed was to get her songs right.

"Still out, Ryan?" She nudged the other seapony with a hoof.

They twitched, facing her in the water, but still hanging mostly limp. "Won't we run out of air in here too?"

"Eventually," she said. "But slowly. There's not much we can do to help the others at this point—either they get this plan to work, or we die."

She was getting better at recognizing the melody of her words. Everything had its own little tune; words just didn't make sense without one. She hadn't been so good about hearing and singing it when she was on four legs, but in here it all made sense.

Ryan didn't reply, and she let herself drift past the resting seapony—all the way to her little songbook. Of course the paper used by seaponies and hippogriffs wasn't really paper at all, but something thick and waxy. It made the book incredibly thick in her hooves, even though it had only about fifty pages. But it held together in the water, and whatever it was written with didn't bleed away as she opened to fit through.

I was singing when the world tried to crush us. One of these. She flipped through, humming to the tune as she examined page after page.

Understanding this book came to her the same way other languages did. There was magic in it, warping her brain the way the Worldgates also warped her body. It didn't work on Janet's Spanish, but it did work on text.

Apparently it worked on music too. Either that, or seaponies happened to use the western notation she'd grown up seeing since childhood.

Too bad I didn't go further than piano lessons. I might be able to sing these by now.

She stopped on a page, recognizing the tune instantly. A simple glance at the notes and she could practically hear them in her head, exactly as she'd sung in desperation a few minutes back.

The song had a title: "Ceaseless Determination." Instead of volume, the note on the first measure read "with desperate purpose." Well, she'd got that right.

Kaelynn hummed along to the words of "Ceaseless Determination." Instead of the sudden wave of alien strength, nothing happened. Where had all that power come from before? "Do they require a specific emotion? That would be so..."

Impractical, obviously. Incredibly inconvenient, if the only way to cast spells was to embody a specific feeling when she tried to use them. But maybe trying to view the whole through the lens of what made sense as a practical and useful tool was where she'd gone wrong.

Whatever they'd really been like, the hippogriffs spoke about seaponies like an artistic, creative bunch. Basically the opposite of the way she saw the world.

Kaelynn flipped through a few pages, skimming their titles. "Abundant Healing" was the next, followed by "A Feast In Memory of Slain Enemies"

If only the hippogriffs kept better records, I could at least know that all of them were actual spells, instead of songs the birds like listening to.

The ship moved, rocking gently forward, then back. It settled after a few seconds, and Kaelynn looked up. They weren't going up anymore. Did that mean they'd succeeded? They weren't falling to their death, so that had to count for something.

She flipped past a few more spells. "Pressure Mounts to Venture Through the Abyssal Gulfs" included an entire page of catchy percussion accompaniment, but how was she supposed to sing with "looming dread"?

Suppose every single one of these was a spell. Which one gets me out of the damn tank?

There was no guarantee any of them would. Kaelynn had sung every single one by now, sometimes with Ryan singing along. It sounded much better with two voices, but unfortunately that didn't make them more magical.

Something was different up there. I matched the emotion, and the magic actually did something. Unfortunately, it was confounded with lots of other variables. Maybe she'd been using simple adrenaline to make it back to the water, holding her breath as water trailed behind her. Maybe Ryan's own magic had been part of it somehow.

One song caught her eye, and she stopped on the page. "Walking on Air". It was the only title to reference either of those concepts. But could she sing with "innocent curiosity?"

That's probably why this one never worked. I'm not curious about the world out there, it's my world. It isn't new.

Yet, this universe wasn't hers. It was full of great and terrible things. Monsters in ancient ruins that knew of ancient human cultures. Incredible cities of sculpted stones, monarchs who ruled over night and day like Greek gods.

Now probably wasn't the best time to tinker with it, with pirates bearing down on them and death at their heels. But this single rush of potential... she was curious about that. Maybe they could make magic work after all.

If she had trouble roleplaying, she could always pretend she was a little mermaid.

The ship listed, then the water around her tilted forward. Ryan was dragged along for the ride, mostly limp. Kaelynn swam against it, over to the edge. The not-bug seemed to be doing better down here, so she let him rest. Kaelynn didn't much feel like resting now that she was on the edge of something.

She sang. Simple words, about friends waiting for her, all the exciting things they would teach her. The melody was simple too—high and bubbly, with short phrases punctuated by long pauses. Unanswered questions for the universe asked by a curious little fish.

How many times had Kaelynn failed at this song, along with so many others? She should probably be trying something simpler. Maybe she should find the one that purified water, that would probably be useful. Or she could go for the one that sounded like it would help her grow food.

But none of those would get her out of the tank.

As she sang, Kaelynn realized she was curious. It wasn't just that she needed to know if they were going to get killed by pirates, though that was certainly true. There was something else. Once she was caught up in the song, it brought its own emotions along. That had always been the power of music. That was why she might choose to listen to something she liked while feeling depressed, or maybe turn on some Johnny Cash if she really wanted to wallow in it.

She wanted to be out there, needed to be out there.

The song finished, and Kaelynn took a breath—and started to choke. She flopped up and over the edge of the tank, hacking and coughing water as she rolled down the ramp. Her head burned suddenly, nostrils stinging with liquid taken down the wrong pipe.

Liquid in her lungs.

It was chilly out there—not the icy cold above, the ship was insulated better than that. But it wasn't pressurized. This was an incredibly stupid time to be playing with magic.

The realization hit her almost as suddenly as the acceleration had a few minutes before. She was outside, breathing! Her song worked!

It was easier to stand while gently angling down. They weren't falling—they hadn't completely disengaged the crystal. This was the gentle downward path from the ship's helm. It would do them no good to escape the birds only to suffocate or freeze in the upper air.

Kaelynn surged with excitement—she'd done it. Forget the stupid half-broken rebreather. Forget the tank that trapped her. She should've let the hippogriffs leave her this way from the beginning.

The tiny dry section of her room didn't have a mirror, but the polished metal side of the tank wall served almost the same purpose. But her reflection here was... different.

She had wings, for one. Not feathery and graceful like the pegasi they'd met. Not even huge and powerful like Janet's or Galena's. These were waxy and round, like a duck's. They looked a little strange, emerging from the rest of her slightly shiny, scaly body.

Not a frog's skin, that comparison was gross. Not wrinkled like a turtle—she was more like a newt, scales shiny in the thin sliver of light from distant windows. Her tail still ended in fins, though they were far wider now, frilled and clear a little like Ryan's. Ryan... he needed to see this!

She hurried to the edge of the tank, and nearly tripped going back up the ramp. It was the thin air—the key to moving at altitude was slowness. She needed to make each action deliberate.

She made it to the edge of the tank, then splashed with one hoof. The water still felt warm and welcoming. Inviting, particularly now that they were at extreme altitude.

But Kaelynn sure as hell wasn't going to splash back inside to try and reverse her magic now. She wasn't giving up weeks of effort. What about going through a Worldgate? I can't be the next one to test them, just in case.

Her splashing produced the desired effect, though it took almost a minute. Ryan swam over, a light blue shape cutting through the water. Seaponies looked surprisingly graceful from above. Did the others look at her like that?

"You... standing," Ryan whispered, in her voice. Speaking into the air without a machine, her voice was almost inaudible, and lacking all music. "Singing... worked?"

She nodded eagerly. "I'm going to go... up. Check on the others."

But slowly. The air felt like it might be getting better, but her head was already pounding. "You stay here... until you feel better. If we get attacked, you'll hear it."

She spun slowly this time, taking each step like she was an astronaut afraid to bounce off the surface of a light asteroid. She was already too far away to hear Ryan's objections, but that was fine. She didn't need magic emotional senses to know her boyfriend needed some time to recover.

A little thin air wasn't going to keep Kaelynn shut in her room now. She opened the hall, then began her slow way up the stairs. She hadn't been able to help before, but all that had changed.

Kaelynn wasn't going to be helpless anymore. She wouldn't be spending the rest of this expedition in a fishbowl.

She had legs.

Chapter 36: Blake

Blake sat up, shaking off a few stray bits of ice. He took in his surroundings in a few moments, trying to remember how he had gotten there. He was at the helm, which had changed quite a bit since the last time he'd seen it. Great gouges were ripped right into the wood in various places, with the wood compressed from the tight grip of hooves.

His own.

The flight came rushing back to him, the sight of a gigantic flying fortress bearing down on them from behind. The pirates they had defeated weren't quite ready to give up, after all. They had come to take their revenge on him and his friends.

He looked up, clawing himself suddenly to all fours. Was the pirate ship still following them? How long had he been unconscious? He looked, spinning in a slow circle around the deck. He settled quickly on the single other airship in the sky with them—it was heading closer, though not from the direction he would've expected.

Either the pirates were far faster than they were, or they'd gotten completely turned around.

Yet the ship had already come in close enough to make out some details, and it looked nothing like the one that had been following them. Instead of several corpses all glued together, this ship was sleek, with white and gold trim down the sides and a deck thronging with uniformed ponies.

Ponies, every single one of them.

There were canons along both sides, though none had crews. They were tied off and covered, with only their shapes to suggest how well-armed this ship actually was.

As he watched, Galena stumbled up towards him, eyes slightly glazed. She managed to keep herself on her feet, though it looked like a struggle for her. She followed his gaze, though it took her several seconds to manage to say anything. "We are... that's an Equestrian ship. Coming to inspect."

Blake nodded. "Are you... going to be alright, Galena?"

She nodded. It was hard to believe her, watching her struggle that way. "Air is thicker here. Will be fine."

Someone moved on the stairs below. Blake didn't turn to look down—probably Jordan was on her way back. Or Vesper, now. Should he try to think of her by a different name as well as a different sex?

He was adjusting well enough—but the real test wouldn't come until they made it back to Earth.

"I don't really understand why this is harder on you than me. Where I come from, there are birds that go... way up. Way higher than horses do."

Galena laughed bitterly. "Horses and birds—horses do worse than birds by far. But this isn't Saddle Arabia. In both of us is magic, Blake. But ponies always had more. Look at us together. You are smaller, you have no claws, no beak. Pony wings are short and stubby. Why does Equestria hold the fertile farms, while griffons live on the outskirts?"

She leaned in close, speaking low and dangerous. "Magic. I have seen ponies survive what should kill. Smashed, crashed, stabbed, broken... yet you survive, when I would not. You cheat."

The pony made it up the stairs, and Blake's reply died on his lips. He lifted one hoof, pointing shakily up at... Kaelynn?

This form was not entirely new to him. She had been able to walk among the crew on four legs while they docked in Mount Aris, after all. But there were subtle differences. She had fin-ridges running up her tail and along her back, and a ruffled transparent mane around her neck. Her skin was entirely furless, but instead sleek and scaly like a fish, not flat and smooth like sea mammals.

Kaelynn grinned smugly at them both as she approached, apparently enjoying their shock. She practically skipped the last little distance. "Reporting for duty," she said, with an exaggerated salute. "If we're fighting, I'm not spending the battle in a tank."

Blake nodded. "You, uh... wait, are you Ryan? Did he copy what you looked like even though you weren't here?" Even as he said it, his confidence faltered. Ryan had shown he could copy people he had only seen once before, even if they weren't around. But he hadn't yet managed to make something new. This version of Kaelynn didn't match any he'd seen before, not precisely.

"No battle today, thanks to that maneuver," Galena said. "The seapony joins us as Equestria comes about for an inspection. Should cooperate. The benefit of having nothing to hide, yes?"

Blake ignored the question. "How? I thought you'd been trying that for weeks, Kaelynn. Since you got the songbook."

She nodded. "I have been. You think I was just going to keep failing forever? That's not very nice."

"Ahoy!" called a distant voice—but not nearly as far away as Blake might've expected. He looked up, and found a pegasus pony hovering alongside the railing.

She wore a fine white and gold uniform, though it was open at the back for her wings and trailed short enough it didn't even reach her rear legs. Clothing purely for show then, not modesty. Like everything in Equestria so far.

"May I have permission to come aboard?" she asked, looking between them. "The Guardian sent me to make official inspection of your vessel."

They must really not be afraid of us, if they sent a single unarmed pony to talk. In a way, that was the most comforting thing he'd seen so far. The coast guard didn't need to send an army to inspect friendly ships. We're back in civilization.

The pony didn't seem to be asking any one of them specifically. Unlike the hippogriffs, she wasn't assuming the identity of their captain. Even with a seapony right on the deck...

"Of course," Blake said, extending a hoof towards the stranger. "My name is Captain Blake. My crew is... recovering, to be honest. There is a pirate vessel somewhere behind us. It may still be following."

The pony flew over to him, keeping a wide berth from Galena, before finally landing just across from him. She took the offered hoof, albeit briefly. "Is that what that was? My captain will be interested in any information you can give. But first..."

She fished around in her uniform, emerging with a tiny clipboard. "My name is Vanilla Sky. I need to take the name of your vessel, its armaments, and purpose in Equestrian airspace."

Galena moved subtly, backing away from the visiting pony until she was on the edge of the railing. Maybe it was that she didn't want her weakness to be visible to a pony, or maybe she thought that being nearby would get them a less favorable reaction from the inspector.

"We're the Bright Hawk," Blake said. “We have only a handful of small personal tools that could be used as weapons—knives and so on. Our purpose in Equestria is... maybe a little hard to explain." He nodded towards Kaelynn. "Call it scientific. We're hunting for Worldgates."

Vanilla Sky stopped scribbling after a few seconds, looking up again. "Well all that seems simple enough. If I could just take a brief stroll below your deck to verify what you've said, we can be done. If your ship isn't armed, there's no special concerns while visiting Equestria. Though I would not personally recommend a trip below the border without defenses."

"We know," Blake said. "Believe me, we all feel lucky that we made it this far. And you might want to... are you going to do anything about the evil ship following us?"

Vanilla Sky offered the clipboard towards him, and he signed on the line. "We spotted two vessels heading north about a day ago, and we've been flying to investigate. You're an Equestrian design, the other looked like it should crumble right out of the air with a single unsteady breeze. The Guardian is already on full alert, in case the other vessel decides to come north."

She glanced once at Galena, then lowered her voice. "We've had trouble with griffon pirates along this border in the last few years. But they don't fight us directly. The further away from the border you get, the less you have to worry about. Where are you flying, anyway?"

Blake hesitated. Maybe he shouldn't be revealing their mission to just anyone they met. But they'd been honest with the hippogriffs in the south, and that had worked out fine. Equestria had been willing to pay them to save their people. Why would it suddenly turn hostile?

"I think it was called... Canter Creek," Kaelynn said. Just like the last time she'd walked around on four legs, being up here meant a change to the way she sounded. She didn't sing.

"Well that's a little close to the border..." Vanilla began. "Less than a day north from here, even with sails. But a small town should be big enough not to attract the pirates, hopefully. Would be bold of them to attack you while in an Equestrian city."

They proceeded with a brief tour of the ship. Vanilla Sky followed along behind him, paying attention only when they reached the covered gun-ports on the second deck. Of course there was nothing there, and soon enough they were making their way back to the top.

As they walked, Blake kept an eye out for the other members of their little expedition. Technically speaking, he hadn't actually seen some of them since that particularly daring escape maneuver.

He saw glimpses of some. Janet, flopped sideways on the couch in the mess hall. Jordan, resting in her quarters but with the door open. Ryan alone was absent, though he could hear occasional splashing sounds from the captain's quarters.

Kaelynn confirmed this as they passed the door. "That's where I usually stay," she said to Vanilla Sky, practically showing off her legs. "But this time I came out to help. I'm glad we found you instead."

"Me too," Vanilla Sky said. "You're... are you really a seapony, miss? I hope that doesn't sound rude. There are plenty on the Guardian who can't tell the difference between your kind and hippogriffs. But you shouldn't blame them. They don't know what happened to you all, when the Storm King..."

She trailed off, looking suddenly embarrassed. "Sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned him. I should be more sensitive."

Of course Kaelynn showed no sign of offense. Ancient or recent tragedy, it made no difference to them. "I am actually a seapony. I'm still learning what that means." She offered nothing else, and Vanilla Sky didn't pester her.

A few minutes later they'd found their way back to the deck. Galena was gone by the time they arrived, though Blake saw her hanging high in the rigging, making a few subtle adjustments to the sails. The Guardian had come almost alongside, and now kept pace with the Bright Hawk, matching their course and speed.

He might've been worried, if the ponies aboard looked like they were interested in anything hostile. These ponies hadn't even removed the guns from their protective covers. They weren't lined up for a fight.

"What can you tell me about the ones following you?" Vanilla Sky finally asked. She hopped up onto the railing, spreading her wings to hold herself there with only her hindlegs on the wood. "I'm not making any promises, but Equestria needs to know what dangers are on her borders. We may head south to confront them, or at least drive them away from the border."

"They're called the Eagle’s Talon," Blake explained. "They aren't here on some random attack, Vanilla. They want revenge against my crew specifically. This was once their vessel, which we liberated. We returned the pony slaves they had captured to their homes, and drove them off."

"Oh." Vanilla Sky deflated, hopping back off the railing. She walked up to him, speaking directly in his ear. "Captain Blake, I have some advice for you."

He nodded.

"Abandon Canter Creek. Sail to Manehattan, maybe even Canterlot. Sell this ship to scrappers, and never go near the border again. Equestria is a safe place, and no evil pirates will be able to follow you that far. But if you stay out here, a ship like the Guardian won't always be close by.

"Griffons are proud creatures, they can't help it. As long as they think they can catch you, those birds will be watching. I know exactly how the next two days will go—my captain will order a swift advance to the border, and we'll drive them off. But the princess commands we do not pursue beyond our skies, unless engaged. The pirates know this—they will sail away, and wait for us to be ordered elsewhere. Then they will return, looking for you. Do not be here when that happens."

She relaxed, taking off again. "Safe travels in Equestria, Captain Blake. I think you'll enjoy Manehattan."

She turned, spread her wings, and glided the short distance to her ship. Within minutes, her predictions came true, and the big ship turned south. It sped away, leaving the Bright Hawk alone on its original heading.

Chapter 37: Vesper

Vesper hadn't been there for most of the inspection. It wasn't that she didn't want to be around whenever the ship was doing interesting things—every chance to meet ponies in person was interesting!

But after everyone had recovered, she needed time to rest. Even her interest in Blake needed to take a brief backseat. For once, she slept without trying to dream, sprawled awkwardly over the edge of her bed.

But when she did finally wake from her dreamless sleep, it was to his voice, and a quiet rapping of hooves on wood. "Jordan? Or... Vesper? I guess you wanted me to call you that instead.

She stirred, rolling onto her back and looking up at him. She could remember nothing about her time resting, and this time she didn't even mind. Maybe there was nothing to remember. "What?"

She recovered quickly, focusing on him. But she didn't sit up. Maybe she didn't want to.

"We need to talk."

"Oh?" She grinned. "Come in."

Blake didn't move. For a few seconds he just stared, mouth hanging open. Then he recovered, looking awkwardly away. "We're coming up on the next Worldgate. But the pony navy thinks we shouldn't stop. The griffons might come back."

She flopped sideways, defeated. How much longer could Blake keep ignoring her like that? "What do you think we should do?"

"Try anyway," he said, without a second's hesitation. "Even if the evil pirates do try to attack us, they're not close enough to see from right here. They might be hours away, or maybe days. I'm not sure how long the Guardian will chase them before they give up. I think we should try it, and just stay as short as possible."

She rolled onto her belly, stretching both wings. "I agree. If we vote to stay, just get me when we land. I'll be... here."

She closed her eyes, yawning exaggeratedly. It had been some time since she felt sleepy with the sun already down.

Blake stepped through her doorway, lowering his voice. "That magic you did with the oxygen... that was incredible stuff. But you shouldn't strain yourself so much. You know what Janet says about magic."

She groaned, covering her head with a pillow. "I don't care. She was here for almost a year, Blake. I'm not going to just stand there when people are in trouble. I don't even know if we would've survived without a little dream-stuff."

He was silent then, long enough that she wasn't sure if he had gone. But then he spoke, from a little closer this time. Right beside the bed. "Just be careful, Vesper. I don't want Jordan to be stuck here when the rest of us get out. We might be going home in a few minutes."

She laughed, loud enough that the pillow didn't muffle it. "Yeah, sure. Run the odds past the other Worldgates we found and tell me how likely that is."

This time she did hear Blake walk away, vanishing down the hallway and out of sight.

She dozed then, though she couldn't say if it was for a few minutes or a few hours. Eventually she felt the ship settle under her, and then they stopped moving. A few minutes later, and another rap came at the door. It was Kaelynn this time. "Hey! Jordan?"

She sat up, and didn't play games this time. Even so, she froze for a second, staring into the open doorway. "Uh... Kaelynn?"

She slipped down off the side of the bed. "You're walking? That's cool." The seapony looked a little different than the last time, but the differences were subtle. She would've thought she was dreaming it, if she could make that mistake.

But knowing she was dreaming was something Jordan had never needed to learn. She could no more mistake it than not know it was daylight when looking up at the sun.

Kaelynn grinned proudly at her, twisting slightly to one side to show off her tail. "Yeah, it's pretty great. Did it myself this time, no help." She straightened, glancing to one side. "Oh, right! Blake said you wanted to go down and scout this time? I hope so... you're probably the best for the job, since you're the closest thing to normal we have."

"Yep." She kicked the door shut behind her, though there was nothing secret within. Nothing that wouldn't also affect her scent. "Blake's already waiting outside?"

Kaelynn shook her head. "Blake wanted me to go out on this mission instead. Him and Galena are the only ones who know how to fly the ship, so they want to be ready if we need to get out in a hurry."

"Oh." She deflated, tail falling flat. For a few seconds Jordan considered turning and going right back to bed. Let Janet go out on this mission, or maybe Ryan. But that was silly—she wanted to see more of this world, didn't she? "I guess that makes sense. So it's just us?"

Kaelynn nodded. "Ryan is still recovering. He could probably come, but there's no reason to risk it. We're not going down into some ancient ruins this time. Either the Worldgate is here, or it isn't. These are just ponies—the last ones we met were apparently nice."

She didn't sound completely confident, but of course Jordan knew why. She had spent most of the rescue in her tank, so she hadn't actually got the chance to meet them.

"Well if that's what we're doing, you should know something else. I have a pony name now—Vesper. You should call me that when we're down there."

"Oh, really? That's why they were calling you that. I thought it might be Blake's nickname or something."

They walked together through the ship, down to the mostly-empty cargo hold. The ramp was already lowered, and a few ponies were visible outside, watching them.

It was daytime. How long had she been asleep?

"Alright, Vesper," Kaelynn said. "You might end up doing most of the talking down there. I'm not sure how much they'll want to talk to a fish."

It would've been more fun to go with Blake.

Vesper wasn't sure what she was expecting from a town called Canter Creek. All and all, what she was seemed like a decent match. Old style wooden buildings ran down a single central street, with a train station on the near end and an old water tower on the far side.

The pony waiting a few steps from the ramp was an old-timey sheriff, gold badge and leather chaps and all. He even had the accent, though that might just have been the translation magic of the Worldgate.

"Been a mighty long time since we've seen a ship like yours passed this way," the earth pony said, as they neared the bottom of the ramp. "Welcome to Canter Creek."

He extended a hoof towards Jordan, and she took it. "Thank you, uh... Sheriff?"

The pony nodded. "We saw you on your way down. Folks are curious about what your arrival means. Ship as big as yours, in a town small as this. Got ponies nervous."

She nodded. "We're not here to, uh... to cause any trouble, Sheriff. The Bright Hawk is here because of an old map we found." She lowered her voice to a knowing whisper. Playing along wouldn't be that different from anything she'd done with Pale Light in the dreaming. She could have fun with it.

She barely even noticed as the weight of an old brown hat settled onto her head, perfect for the setting. "We're looking for a Worldgate. Somewhere strange. Somewhere ponies go but don't come back. Or maybe somewhere strange creatures come sometimes, and you don't know how they got there."

The pony pulled away from her, eyes widening in recognition. "I know the place." He glanced sidelong at Kaelynn, so briefly that it looked like he was trying to avoid making a scene. "You're looking to take creatures through? Brought guests to Equestria from strange lands?"

Jordan nodded, adjusting her cap with a little unnecessary dramatic flare. "Maybe I am. Like I said, we mean no trouble to your town. Just looking for the way through."

Kaelynn wasn't quite so good at the acting thing. She stared, but not at the pony. Her eyes were fixed on Jordan's hat. "The sooner we find it, the sooner we're gone."

The pony looked away, out into the distance. Away from town, there was very little to see. Red rock desert, bone dry and interrupted only with scraggly underbrush. Great rock formations rose in the far distance, breaking what might otherwise be many miles of sight-lines.

"It isn't my permission you need," he eventually said. "I can tell you where to go, but it's the buffalo who have to let you through. Maybe they let you, maybe they don't."

He leaned in close, expression harsh. "If you go, I want to make something very clear. Canter Creek has worked hard to keep things peaceable with the Burning Sun tribe. We'll not be backing you up to muscle your way somewhere you don't belong. If you get them riled up after you, we'll stand aside and let them stomp all over you. They're our friends, you're just passing through."

Jordan nodded. "We understand. We'll just ask, Sheriff. And if they say no, we'll go elsewhere." We don't have the time to linger for long negotiations and get attacked by pirates. "Where do we find the tribe?"

He pointed off in the direction he'd been staring. "There's a butte maybe three hours trot from here. By airship, no telling how long it is. Look for the banded white and red rock. Start a fire with lots of smoke, and wait for them to come to you. What you negotiate is your business."

He stepped back, grin returning. "Now if you fine ponies need supplies before you go, Canter Creek is the last town in Equestria before the badlands. Finest apple pies south of Ponyville, so they say."

"That sounds g—" Vesper began, but Kaelynn shoved her, and she stopped abruptly.

"We'd like to sheriff. But we should be moving on. If we stay too long, we might bring more trouble without meaning to."

The pony nodded, backing away from the ramp. "Safe travels then, pony and, uh... fish pony." He turned away, and Jordan could still hear him muttering as he walked away. "Strange times with this new princess... strange times."

Jordan glared all the way back up the ramp. "Do you have something against dessert, Kaelynn? He said apple pie.I've been traveling for a week and I'm already sick of canned food."

"Me too. But we've got limited time, remember? We can't be tourists when pirates might be just behind us."

Kaelynn started cranking, raising the ramp. Jordan didn't help this time—she didn't want real food, so let the fish do the work for a bit. She was probably right.

"Tell Blake what we found out," Kaelynn grunted. "Get us back into the air."

Vesper nodded, spreading both wings. She practically glided back across the cargo bay, then back up the stairs. She passed Janet in the hallway, watching her with narrowed eyes.

"No luck?" the hippogriff asked. "Another bad portal?"

Vesper shook her head. "It's a little north of town. Ponies said we need to ask the buffalo about it. Have you heard about them?"

Janet hesitated. "I know there are... if they have four hooves, they're probably intelligent. I never figured out cows, but buffalo are different enough that they're probably just their own civilization."

She nodded, and resumed her trek through the ship. She found Blake and Galena on deck, near the helm. Blake might have refused to help with negotiation, but at least he kept his word about being ready to fly them to safety.

"Didn't expect to see you back so soon, Vesper." Blake glanced over the side, at the town visible close by. "Are they chasing us off?"

She explained the brief exchange, before pointing off in the indicated direction. Even at this distance, she thought she could make out the pillar of red rock. "Over there. They'll sell us stuff too—sounded like good food. But Kaelynn thinks we should get moving."

"Smart fish," Galena said. "We fly, then. Dragon pony, let me see you take off. I will watch and not help, even if you are about to crash."

Jordan glanced between them, eyes narrowing. Had Blake not wanted to come with her so he could spend time with the griffon? She couldn't smell anything, but... it would make sense. The bird hadn't been a guy before, or one of Blake's own friends.

"You're coming with me next time," Vesper said, nudging Blake with a wing. "Kaelynn's nice, but I don't want to negotiate with buffalo without someone who looks big and intimidating."

Chapter 39: Kaelynn

Kaelynn rested on the edge of the railing, staring off into a gigantic herd of moving bodies. Each of them towered over her friends down on the ground, and could probably crush them dead with only a modest effort.

But even in her own world, buffalo weren't terribly aggressive unless provoked. What did that mean when they became intelligent? They'd been gathered around the campfire for over an hour, and there was no blood yet.

Kaelynn turned, hurrying back belowdecks and down the hall to her own quarters. The door was already open, and the ground already wet from previous trips.

Ryan rested just below the surface, though looking at him now was more like looking at a mirror. He was copying her again. Well, her normal self.

"They're still talking," she said. "No, I don't see any griffons coming yet. Maybe the pony navy got them."

The fish emerged from the surface to listen, and remained there to speak in Kaelynn's own voice. "Should we tell them to hurry up?" she whispered.

"Will it help?" Kaelynn asked. "I don't think the ones they're talking to will be rushed into giving us the answer we want. You don't bring hundreds of people when you're only going to talk for a few minutes."

The fish swam in a few nervous circles, back-fins breaking the water behind her. There wasn't exactly enough space in here to spread out comfortably. Now Kaelynn was the one standing on the rubber mat, looking down at a fish trapped by gills and cruel fate.

Except that Ryan wasn't trapped. Kaelynn splashed at the edge of the water with a hoof, agitated.

He emerged another second later, looking up.

"Keep watch with me on deck," she said. "They might need us. You can't help down here, believe me. I was trapped long enough to know."

Ryan splashed away a short distance, fins opening to full size. "What if we have to go back up? It almost killed me last time. I used up so much... it's like I'm hollow inside."

"And I'll help with that," she countered. "If we have to try that again, you can go back in. I'll help you get underwater before we get too high. You can't just hide and hope things go well."

As she said it, something thumped on the deck overhead. A single set of hooves. And Janet can't fly, so it has to be Vesper.

"Come up with me," she said again. "Sounds like Jordan's back. She might finally have some results for us."

Ryan reached out with both forelegs, and Kaelynn caught them. Even transformed to be standing on her own, the gesture felt more than a little strange to her. Like grabbing her reflection out of a mirror.

But Ryan didn't make it out onto the ground, not like that. As she pulled, green light engulfed him, and water sprayed in all directions. He landed as himself, the green insect with shimmering wings. They buzzed once, shaking off the last few drops of water, before folding under a protective shell on his back. "I hope you're right. I need to... conserve, for now. Keep the strength I have left."

They walked back to the deck together. Vesper wasn't the kind of person to just stand up there waiting patiently, and she'd already made it down a few steps looking for them. She stopped as she finally saw them, grinning eagerly.

"Hey, I have good news! And maybe some bad news..."

Kaelynn squeezed past her up to the deck, gesturing for her to follow. Jordan hesitated for a second as she saw Ryan following, but only a second. At least she didn't stare awkwardly or look terrified anymore.

They were all getting used to having the changeling around. Now if only Blake could do similarly well.

Up on deck, Kaelynn saw that some part of the crowd of buffalo was already rising. Most of them seemed to be moving on, while the smaller group by the campfire had already started setting up camp. They had actual tents!

"Good news first," Vesper said, following behind them. "The buffalo will let us through! The Worldgate is part of their sacred history, and they want to make sure anyone who uses it will respect their customs."

"Which I'm guessing won't interfere with getting us home," Ryan said. His voice had that strange echoing quality that no one could quite replicate, enough to make Kaelynn herself do a double-take. It wasn't scary, though. I wonder what it would sound like if he sang with me.

"Right!" Jordan agreed. "But there's something else, and it might."

Kaelynn followed her to the railing. Janet and Blake were making no attempt to return to the ship, but were watching in their direction. Probably waiting for them to bring the phones and stuff to the portal.

Galena dropped from the rigging to the deck beside them. She eyed Ryan warily, keeping a full stride away from him. She said nothing, only listening.

"We're waiting," Ryan said. "What else is there?"

"Well..." she trailed into a high-pitched squeaking sound. Was that a bat's equivalent of a shrug? "We don't completely know. What they say doesn't make a whole lot of sense."

"What was it?" Ryan asked. "What did they say exactly?"

Kaelynn found herself grinning as she watched. The bug was the smallest member of their group when he looked like this.

"The lotus of adhesion has been stripped," Vesper said. "No, I have no idea what that means. They seem to think it makes their Worldgate special. Uniquely dangerous for unprepared travelers, too."

"Did you ask them to explain what that meant?" Kaelynn asked. "I assume that means as little to you as it does to me."

Vesper nodded. "And they said that we should expect extreme danger on the other side." She lowered her voice. "There are monsters on the other side—monsters on two legs that can kill you from hundreds of meters away. They told us to listen to the sound of thunder without lightning. If we hear it, run."

"Uh..." Ryan's wings buzzed nervously. "That sounds a little like... can't be. Why would they say it like that? They'd be on two legs too. People wouldn't be shooting at them. There were human bodies below New York."

Vesper shrugged. "We don't know. We could've kept asking them to explain, and get stuck here negotiating for hours. Or we could get through, and poke around before the Eagle’s Talon gets here to kill us. Blake decided the second one. Grab our bugout bag, and let's go."

"Will you leave me behind again?" Galena asked, suddenly harsh. "More and more of these we visit. Every time I wait behind. What if I wish for proof of your promises? This time, I go."

Vesper's wings folded, ears tucking backward. "I, uh... would that leave anyone on our ship? The buffalo wouldn't steal it, but I know some pirates who might."

"Doesn't matter," Galena said. "If they come with everyone else gone, I couldn't defend her anyway. I am coming."

Vesper squeaked again, then realized what she was doing and covered her mouth with one hoof.

"Then we're all going," Ryan said. "Fine, whatever."

"I'll get the bag." Kaelynn galloped down the steps, then shoved aside a single loose board. A set of heavy saddlebags was inside, so full it barely fit. Their human clothes were inside, along with phones and cameras. Most of what they'd brought between worlds.

She slung it on, tightened the strap, then followed the others down the ramp.

A few buffalo near their ship remained where they'd been standing. They stood as their little group passed by, muttering to each other. Kaelynn couldn't make out the words, but she didn't ask. It probably wasn't meant for her anyway.

Blake hurried over as they made it to the campfire, voice harsh. "Who the hell is watching the Bright Hawk?" he demanded.

"No one," Kaelynn said. "Unless you want to go back. Galena wanted to come through. She's never been, and she wants to know if she can trust us."

Blake groaned. "I can't go back, I'm the one who memorized the whole..." He glanced to the other side of the campfire, and the tents already erected not far away. He lowered his voice. "I'm the one who has to do the ritual. I promised I would... and I think I'm the only reason they're letting us through. I'm almost a dragon, and they respect us for saving their tribe. Even though I... know nothing about it and had nothing to do with it."

"We'll all go," Vesper said. "We just have to do it fast. It's almost night... griffons won't attack in the dark, will they?"

Galena shook her head. "It is hard to see without the sun. Hard to fire cannons accurately, hard to fire crossbows and other weapons too. But they might advance under the cover of darkness, and emerge with dawn to bombard and destroy us."

Ryan groaned. "That is not helpful."

They deliberated for a few minutes more, but Kaelynn had little to add. No one was willing to stay behind, and Galena seemed convinced there would be no attack during the night.

"FINE," Blake finally said, his voice loud enough to attract a few stares from watching Buffalo. "We're all going right now and damn the consequences. We'll just have to make it quick, maybe circle back for another visit if it shows promise."

He walked to the waiting tent, where two buffalo stood with no sign of preparing for rest. They had a strange tray on the ground beside them, with little patches of mud in each corner.

"My friends and I are ready to make the journey," Blake announced. "We wish to travel and return quickly, so danger does not follow us or find your tribe."

Both stood, watching him respectfully. "Stand before us, dragon, and be anointed for the crossing."

He did. Kaelynn watched, and soon found it hard to keep from giggling. The buffalo dipped their hooves in mud of different colors, and started smearing it on Blake. They drew below his eyes, along his back and sides. With two of them working it wasn't a long process, though it did make her wish they had more camera batteries.

Eventually the process finished, leaving Blake's body covered with detailed patterns in red and white mud. They retreated from him, almost bowing. "The dragon is prepared to guide passage between the world of life, and the world of darkness," said one. "Protect these others while you travel."

"I will," Blake said. He led them a short distance away from the camp, towards the massive stone butte. Kaelynn followed with the others, along a trail through the desert plants.

"It was right here the whole time?" she asked.

"Apparently," he answered. "We could go through without their permission, but then we'd make enemies. The Burning Suns seem like reasonable people, rituals aside. If this ends up being the way back and forth, they won't be happy with us. But we'll worry about that if we find it."

"And we probably won’t," Jordan said. "I don't think they'd be so worried about ponies crossing back and forth if it was going to lead somewhere good." She glanced over her shoulder, as though checking to see if any bison were following them. There weren't, or not that Kaelynn could see. Creatures many times her size had never struck her as particularly stealthy.

"They talk about Earth like it's their afterlife. Where all the bad creatures go to be reborn into torment at the hands of... demon-spirits, that hunt for sport and leave mountains of corpses behind. Over and over, in an endless cycle. They used to go back and forth all the time, but the tribe hasn't had anyone go in this whole generation."

They reached the stone wall, and the doorway. This was the least hidden of any of the Worldgates they'd encountered—and also the first that wasn't underwater.

Kaelynn stopped to stare at the strange arch carved in the rock. Light bent and twisted around it, leaving a halo right at the edges. She could see grass on the other side, except that it was pointed the wrong direction, like a wall. Brilliant orange and white stars flickered through the opening, blasting at them before fading into the distance.

The arch itself was tall enough that a single buffalo could pass through it at once, even the largest. The red rock around the opening had many patterns painted on, similar to the ones now flaking off Blake's sides.

"Hold on," Blake said, turning to face them all. "I promised I would do this, so nobody move." He cleared his throat. "Out from the shelter of the sun, we walk. Knowing the danger of our path, we travel. Begging the protection of the dead, we pray."

He dropped down, touching his horn to the ground just beside the opening. The air within seemed to ripple, like water was trapped there and agitated by his touch.

It settled after a few seconds. "Was there a point to that?" Ryan asked, breaking the silence. "It's not like they can hear us."

"Honor," Galena squawked. "Oaths must not be broken, insect. If you do not wish to do, then give no oath. It is simple."

"I'm not a..." Ryan's wings buzzed in agitation, and he trailed off. Maybe not the strongest point he could've made. "That's not very polite."

"Neither is oath breaking." She reached out, toying at the edge of the opening with one claw. But she pulled it back quickly. "Is that all, Blake?"

He nodded. "Stay together, everyone. We'll probably have to donate some clothes for Galena once we get there. We'll be as quick as possible. In, try to call for help, then back out again. Ryan, you can handle that?"

"Call Jolie," Ryan rehearsed. "Give our message, then back through."

They packed in close, hurrying through the opening.

Chapter 40: Ryan

Ryan wasn't the first through the Worldgate, he never was. The back of the group was always the safest place to stand—let the bigger, stronger members be up front, and the brunt of whatever danger waited for them.

Besides, being in back gave him time to move slowly, and appreciate the differences as he passed through. And there were many.

There was no rush of gravity and current pulling him through to the other side. There was no flash, no instantaneous moment of realization that he'd returned to his normal body. They would all show up naked, and it would be far more embarrassing than when he'd passed through with Kaelynn last time.

There was only a sudden tilt in the air, nearly knocking him over. But Ryan's instincts were far stronger than the others—his wings opened, buzzing rapidly as he re-oriented. A few seconds later, his hooves touched down in the mud, and he had landed.

His hooves. And that was only the second-strangest thing—Ryan's senses hadn't returned to normal. He still saw the world in gray, with patches of color surrounding the other members of his party. Kaelynn was the brightest, fueled by their intimate connection. He could feel everything she did—nervousness over the outcome, optimism for finally finding a way out. Then the wave of confusion as she realized exactly what Ryan already had.

"I'm still a horse," Blake declared, so loud that Ryan turned in his direction. Blake's emotions were the dullest to Ryan, more an aftertaste than actual emotions. Maybe it was something about him being a dragon, or maybe he was just the slowest member of the group to adapt and accept to Ryan's presence there. "Why the fuck am I still a horse?"

The Worldgate had taken them to... where, a grassy field?

Galena would be the first to find out, because she took off in a low hover, lifting vertically into the air and surveying the land to either side. "The rock is gone on this side, and it's too green. Light from over there."

Ryan followed her gaze, and she wasn't wrong.

Bright orange streetlights were suspended about 300 feet up, rising from the middle of a highway not too far away. They were the only thing lit in the night, though that was changing fast. That's not right. The sun was just going down. It can't be rising.

Yet it was. Orange bled through the sky in the other direction, and might soon overpower the distant freeway.

There was no mistaking it for anything else, several lanes of cement traffic on either side with heavy steel barricades. Off to one side massive cement pillars stretched down from one, exactly the kind he'd grown up with his whole life. And there were actually cars flowing back and forth on the highway. The lights he'd seen through the portal weren't any kind of magic, that was just the distant glow as they approached, then red as they faded.

Janet finally finished swearing in Spanish long enough for Ryan to catch her words. "This isn't how they work! I'm not supposed to be melted like Tracy... I should be human!" She lifted into a bipedal position, opening and closing both claws. But it wasn't natural, and soon she slumped back into the mud.

"This must be what they meant about the Worldgate being different," Vesper said—or would she rather be called Jordan here? She wasn't Jordan right now, so... "This won't work. We should go straight back."

"Get back down, Galena!" Blake shouted. "We can't be flying here!"

"I see... moving metal chariots, many of them off in the distance. No ponies drive them, and they go so fast! We should investigate."

"No!" he shouted, even louder than before. "I'll tell you all about them, when we get back! This is not how this was supposed to work. Janet, you go first. Kaelynn, you next, then Ryan. This one's a bust."

"Wait!" Ryan said. "We could still call for help, couldn't we? This is the US. We have to be somewhere. Maybe we could cross this side and find another Worldgate from our end. We have a copy of the map."

"No," Blake and Janet said, in exactly the same instant.

But it was her who continued. "I've seen ponies on this side before. Felt like all the police in San Jose showed up because of a single pony. There is no way in hell you have the resources to stay hidden over here. If we try, we're at the mercy of... someone. I don't know, but I won't try it." She turned, hurrying back through the portal without another word.

"We could still get supplies," Ryan said. The sky was getting lighter. He could see the distance between here and the freeway clearly now. A few cars were already pulled off to the side, right by the fence. Were they trying to watch? What would happen if someone put them up on YouTube?

Might help our story later, if we don't get caught before we go back.

"No," Blake said. "Send the backup."

Ryan hurried over to Kaelynn's pack, removing the little waterproof box near the top with his mouth, and fishing around for the phone.

"I'd rather..."

"Everyone, back through the portal," Blake said. "Except Ryan and me. We'll bring up the rear."

Galena moved towards the Worldgate, but didn't go through it yet. Her wings spread, expression frustrated. "Doesn't seem broken to me."

"We shouldn't look like this," Blake explained, frustrated. "Go on. You're not being abandoned. Show her, Kaelynn. Vesper. Go."

They did. Vesper first, flying through almost the instant she was ordered.

Kaelynn lingered in the opening for a few seconds, then vanished without argument, leaving a few faint gasps of disappointment on the air before she was gone.

Ryan, meanwhile, had the phone running. It had less than 10% battery, but there was service. Precious, glorious service. He could argue with Blake, but with the attention already on them, his friend would not likely be very responsive to pressure. Standing near him was like feeling the heat rising off metal in a forge, ready to catch fire and burn when exposed to the air.

Ryan didn't have fingers anymore, so navigating the phone took quite a bit more effort than he might've hoped. But he managed, selecting one of his contacts and opening a voice-text. But he didn't begin dictating.

He cleared his throat, the phone perched on a rock just in front of him. "Blake, I think you should deliver the message. You sound almost the same as a horse—I don't."

He grunted, but made his way over. As he did, Galena finally stepped back through the Worldgate. It was just the two of them now—in the real world, but not the way they'd hoped.

Blake waited for his nod, then began speaking. "Jolie, this is Blake. I'm here with Jordan, Kaelynn, and Ryan. I want you to know we survived the Paris expedition. We didn't die in the catacombs. I can't tell you what happened to us now, you won't believe us."

As he spoke, Ryan became conscious of other emotions—it wasn't just the two of them anymore. He looked up, and realized where they were coming from. People, up on the overpass. A few had gotten out of their cars, and leaned over the fence to get a better view.

It's getting lighter, how long until they can see us clearly?

He gestured with a hoof for Blake to hurry.

"If they haven't already, don't let them declare us dead. Don't let them auction our stuff. Don't let our families think we got stuck. We're not in Paris anymore, but we're still looking for a way back. I need you to gather the biggest kit of expeditionary equipment you can for four people, plus anyone else who can be ready and wants to come. Pack for an extended trip away from electricity, water, and food. Pack for cold, hot, and wet conditions. Most important, bring as much fucking camera memory as you can."

Far away, someone shouted. Ryan felt the instant their emotions changed from light curiosity to utter shock.

"We're out of time!" Ryan hissed. "We need to get back, Blake. Unless we want people stumbling through this Worldgate the wrong way."

Blake covered the mic with one hoof, glaring. But at least this time he seemed to hear.

"Keep the gear packed. Hopefully you hear from me in another few days. You'll need to fly, don't know where. Eastern Europe is next on our list, so make sure the passports are good. We have to go." He gestured, and Blake tapped the screen again with his tongue.

Thank goodness these things were waterproof, or else he wasn't sure how he would've made the thing work for him.

It clicked, then began to spin. A second later, a bright green checkmark and a single line of text appeared. "Delivered."

"They're staring at us!" Ryan shouted. "We have to leave now!"

Blake nodded. "Nothing we can do about it now, come on!"

Ryan took the phone in his mouth, then darted back the way they'd come. He could taste a growing crowd of emotions behind him—doubt, curiosity, confusion, awe.

We could shout for their help. Janet might be wrong.

But he didn't tempt fate. Ryan turned straight for the Worldgate, and leapt through.

His world warped and twisted, just like last time. He stumbled, nearly tripping over himself—but like before, his wings caught him, and he buzzed into a comfortable standing position. His hooves settled on the ground, in exactly the position he'd left.

They'd made it back safely.

"Well that's another fuckin' failure," Blake swore, rising from the mud with half his body now smeared. "How does this keep happening? How can they all be broken?"

The air all around them became suddenly hot. A few branches began to smolder, white smoke rising before the first red signs of ignition appeared on the edges.

Ryan stumbled back from him, recoiling at the overwhelming surge of a single, powerful emotion. His anger boiled and frothed, near to fury in seconds. Returning to Equestria had wreathed them in shadow as full nightfall set in, yet Blake's body seemed darker than all of it, with burning eyes and flickering flames emerging from his horn.

Galena swore loudly, taking off in a wide, terrified arc, so fast that she scattered branches and feathers behind her. Ryan wanted to follow after her, but didn't have the talent. Vesper had learned to fly, but not him. Even though his wings could probably do it easily...

"Blake, take a deep breath!" he shouted. "We're on your side here! Why don't you just... calm down..."

Those burning eyes now turned on him. "Calm down!" he repeated. The ground blackened beneath him, and the wave of heat expanded away in all directions. A few little branches actually caught fire now. Out here in the dry wasteland, the flames burst to life greedily, devouring everything they touched.

"Have you been paying attention, Ryan? It's all trying to kill us! Everywhere we go, something's in the way. Can't stop here, pirates! Can't go out here, it's too far away! Can't go out here, you'll suffocate! Can't go out through Paris, monsters! No matter where we go, we're stuck. Again and again and again!"

Janet took off running, and didn't look back. Kaelynn wasn't far behind her, though she hesitated a few meters away. "Blake, we agree with you! But this isn't helping! We can face this together!"

"Face this!" he yelled back. Flames leapt from his mouth as he did so, consuming the underbrush in front of him. Ryan continued to retreat, ignoring the little tears and cuts of the thorny plants. They couldn't pierce his shell easily, though some could.

They wouldn't sting nearly as bad as the flames Blake produced. How long did it take that griffon captain to die? Five seconds?

A great cloud of black smoke rose from around them now, illuminating Blake's shadowy form like a demonic specter in the center.

Ryan couldn't delay another second—he changed. Not into the dark shape before him, but the normal Blake. The reasonable leader, who held them together under pressure.

As he expected, the heat of the flames growing closer no longer scorched at Ryan's body. The heat and smoke was still there—the ground under his hooves was burning now, grass and all. But it wouldn't burn him. Just so long as he could keep from breathing in the smoke...

"Blake! We're on your side!" he yelled, as loudly as he could. "Snap yourself out of it! You're burning everything!"

Blake turned on him again. This time he wasn't even trying to restrain the fury of those flames. They leapt towards him with a terrible ferocity, turning the bushes behind him to flaky gray ash.

Ryan shuddered at the heat, turning sideways so the flames broke against his scales. He couldn't sense Blake's feelings anymore, yet he didn't need to. The heat of that anger was infectious.

Blake was going to get them all killed! The whole wilderness would burn at this rate. Did he not even care about the buffalo he would hurt? "Run, Kaelynn!" Ryan urged. "Get back to the ship!"

That was all the encouragement she needed, and she took off running. Hopefully she didn't evaporate before she reached the Bright Hawk.

That was when Vesper dropped into view, hovering inches above the blackened ground. She faced directly into the maelstrom.

Chapter 41: Vesper

In an instant, Vesper was plunged back into the fire and blood.

On the worst day of her life, she had already been here—surrounded by screams, as her group and the evil pirates struggled for survival. Yet she had fought then like her life depended on it, because it had.

She still saw that dagger in her nightmares, and the griffon bleeding and gasping before he died. She still saw the spectral outline of the captain before his feathers and flesh turned to ash, and blackened bones crumbled to the deck.

Yet as bad as that was, watching Blake now was worse. Then they'd been fighting together, against an evil enemy. But what enemy did Blake fight against now? As his fury built, the circle of destruction grew larger. Soon it would swallow all of them.

Such terror made whether she could fly or not a secondary concern—of course Vesper could fly, hovering in the air as close as she could without stepping directly into the flames. But her wings were sensitive, even more than the rest of her. Without flesh behind them, such delicate skin would heat quickly, and burn soon after. She would fall in agony.

Unless she stopped this. "Blake!" she yelled, as loud as she could. It wasn't very loud, not compared to the roaring Blake and Ryan were doing. But it was enough to make him stop.

Blake looked up, fixing her with a sudden, intense glare. Would he blast her next? She'd only have a second to find out.

"You're hurting your friends," she said. "You could kill me. Is that what you want?"

Flames licked from around Blake, bright blue and ghostly. Maybe this was the last thing Vesper would see.

Then they went out. A single burst of bright blue light surrounded Blake, and when it was gone the fire went with it.

Well, his flames. The wilderness was still on fire.

Vesper dropped slowly to the ground, settling only when she found a patch of earth that wasn't smoldering. It was a little warm to the touch—despite her previous assumptions, there was sensitive skin tucked away in the center of her hooves. But it was tough enough for a little warmth.

"I don't..." Blake shook himself off, dislodging pale ash from his body. He looked entirely unburned. Even the skin was somehow immune to the flames. Ryan too, though he was backing away now, frightened. "I feel so strange, Vesper. Anger like that—I don’t even know where it came from. What's wrong with me?"

Vesper didn't retreat. Blake wasn't burning with heat anymore, but the heat didn't dissipate immediately. Vesper felt it with every step, like walking closer to an oven left open.

She faced it anyway. "Might be nothing's wrong, Blake. We know less about you than any of us. But we won't find out if you burn up the place."

He nodded, head slumping forward. Whatever the source of his strange anger, it was gone now.

They walked through the blackened underbrush, passing a few patches thick enough that they were still burning. Yet aside from the thick brush directly around this stone pillar, there wasn't actually that much to burn. Did the buffalo know this was going to happen? They ran for ten minutes, trampling everything into the dirt.

Ryan followed close behind them, but Vesper barely paid him a backward glance. She had other worries just now, and the changeling clearly knew what he was doing. He hadn't been burned, anyway.

Her darker fears—that they would find a member of their expedition here, burned away to nothing like Captain Callahan, didn't come to pass. They made it all the way to the former campsite, passing the edge of where the flames had anything to burn.

The buffalo camp was gone, tents ripped up and entirely abandoned. Jordan hadn't even noticed them fleeing—but she had other things on her mind at the time. Guess we're lucky they didn't come in to trample everything.

Thanks to all their running, the fire hadn't made it to the Bright Hawk either. She climbed up the ramp, occasionally nudging Blake to follow when he slowed.

Kaelynn waited just inside, with the others not far behind. They stared as the three of them made their way in, all eyes on Blake. That's no fair at all. Like throwing fire is his fault.

Galena blocked the way up, puffing her chest and spreading her wings. "Sure you're ready to come aboard, Blake? If we burn..."

"I'm sure," he grunted. He sounded so tired,like he'd just been hiking for weeks. It hurt just to hear him talk like that. "Galena, you're in charge. Get us into the air and away from here. We need to get further north. There are other Worldgates that way."

"I will," she said. "The hippogriff and I will get us moving again. Try to remain calm."

And when the murderous pirate tells you that you need to chill out, you should probably listen.

She walked with Blake the rest of the trip, winding between empty cabins all the way to his room. Right beside hers, but not attached. They were still apart.

"We deserve better," Blake said. "How much further do we have to go? How many more Worldgates do we have to try? We didn't ask to be put here."

She followed him through the doorway, though she didn't go further. Blake's room was everything hers wasn't—pristine, perfectly organized. A bulletin board against the far wall had a recreation of their map, marked with the places they'd already tried. He'd even drawn a little path moving up and down to the other worldgates though she couldn't see specifically where the path led.

"I know," she said. "But if you feel like you're the one who has to carry the weight of that responsibility, stop. We're going together. Hopefully that means we claw our way out of this together. If not—then we can crash and burn together."

He winced there at the end, and she looked hastily away. "Well maybe not burn. But find a way to live here. The more it sounds like Janet doesn't want to be here, the more I want to stay. Does that make any sense?"

Blake rolled his eyes. "Don't start talking like that, Jordan. Vesper. Sorry, I'm... I think I just need some rest. All those flames... we should get moving, before the buffalo are following us too. Probably won't be able to come back to this place for help. Not that we could get much use out of this Worldgate. Still horses..."

Could she follow him? Maybe. But that utter exhaustion, weighing on him like a growing pile of bricks—somehow, she doubted he'd be too happy about anything he did tonight.

"You're going to sleep," she said instead. "And I'm gonna make sure I see you doing it. I'll know if you aren't dreaming. It's magic."

"Like flying," he repeated, slumping into bed. "And bringing objects out of nowhere. You're becoming more magical than anyone. You should be... careful with that."

She retreated through the doorway, though she didn't turn away from him. Not yet. "I can't do enough to hurt myself," she countered. "Janet's been here for almost a year. We won't even be here three months. Unless there's no way back, then being careful is pointless."

She rested one hoof on the door, but couldn't quite bring herself to close it. Blake lay on his side, their fearless leader deflated by the force of his own anger. Or more likely, by the magical energy he had used to spray fire everywhere.

"And if you want to talk, bang on something, I'll be awake." She shut the door, glaring down at the floor. Couldn't she think of something smarter to say? What would make him actually want to call her in the middle of the night?

But she said nothing. A few seconds passed, and neither did Blake. He probably did need the actual sleep.

As Vesper made her way up to the deck, she found the ship lurching out from under her hooves. She wobbled for a second, opened her wings, then caught herself. She was used to this by now.

She found Galena and Janet up on the top deck, both at the controls. Kaelynn lingered near the bow, staring off the ship. She couldn't see Ryan anywhere, but the bug was probably lurking close by.

"Hey, bat," Janet said, as she passed. "How'd you calm the kirin down?"

She shrugged. "The truth, I guess. Any sign we're being followed?"

"No," Galena called. "Maybe the ponies are keeping them busy. Maybe they're lurking somewhere I can't see. We share the same strengths in this darkness, and the same weaknesses. Actually... come here, bat. You should search."

Vesper did. Whatever annoyance she might've felt at being called "bat" didn't slow her pace. Besides, she liked being a bat. Even if some of the other stuff had taken time to adjust. Her body wasn't so bad anymore.

"What?" she said, reaching the helm. "If you're asking me to make things on command, forget it. I still don't know why I can do it sometimes and not others. I think it might be a response to danger."

The griffon had a far easier time using it than Blake did. She drove the same way as any experienced driver, barely even paying attention to what she did. Her claws moved, and the ship responded.

"Not that." Galena gestured over the railing. "Your kind cannot see as far as mine by day. But I've heard stories of the night-guard fighting by moonlight. They see as well in total darkness as in sunlight. If we are being followed, you will see what I don't."

She was right about one thing. Vesper could see everything beyond the edge of the railing. Mostly she saw the stars—thousands and thousands of them, with subtle variations of hue and luminance that she'd never noticed on Earth.

Being out here now was a bit like carrying a hobbyist telescope with her at all times. She couldn't see them that much better, but she appreciated what she saw. She recognized familiar constellations, placed where she expected them. Maybe that should terrify her most of all.

She circled all the way around. "I don't see any other ships," she admitted. "But there are... some shadows I can't identify, in the clouds above us. Very small, hard to be sure about them."

Galena gestured with one claw. When Vesper did nothing, she continued. "So identify them. Don't you have that power? That... sound you make? That's how you see in darkness, isn't it?"

"I don't do anything like that," Vesper snapped. "Sounds I make. Come ooooooooon. No way. I have no idea what you're talking ‘bout and I wouldn't know where to start."

Lies, all of it. She did know where to start, because she could already hear its other aspects. When there were only a few sounds around her, she could hear their subtle differences. The way they echoed off soft objects differently from hard ones. The way sounds were modulated in different ways depending on the distance.

"They're above us, but we're getting closer. Not very many, maybe two. Dark blobs in the clouds, almost like they're sitting in them."

"Ah." Galena’s expression hardened, and she made a few adjustments to the helm. "Janet, I need speed. We'll make them work for us."

"Make... who?" But Vesper had to retreat, as Galena began working so intently that she could barely even see what she was doing.

"Scouts," Galena answered. She was no longer distracted, but focused on the sky ahead of them. "It makes sense. If the Eagle’s Talon is harried by a pony vessel, they would want to know where we went. Scouts would sit in the clouds and watch for us, reporting back to the Talon when it comes. We could kill them, prevent the message from reaching the Talon.

Vesper whistled under her breath. "We don't talk like that. And we don't really have the strength. Unless you think you can win."

"Yes. But let's see if I have to. First, we make them fly."

The ground lurched again, and Jordan was floating in the air. Only for a moment, before her hooves smacked back into the deck. At least it didn't hurt.

"Help me, Jordan!" Janet yelled. "These sails are... hard, even with hands."

She twitched once at the name—but the annoyance was mild. The hippogriff wasn't party to any of their official conversations. She only knew the name as disguise. Until she got the courage to tell her otherwise...

"Sure!" Vesper called, hopping down off the deck railing and landing beside her. "Let's lose these bastards!"

Chapter 42: Ryan

Ryan watched the stony wasteland retreat behind them, with only the faint red flicker of embers as any sign of their near-immolation

He hadn't yet returned to his own body. He could've at any moment—yet he couldn't close his eyes without remembering the flames blasting up against him. Would Blake do that again? He might not need to sleep much, but Ryan was near to exhaustion. Surviving our escape burned almost all the magic I had.

Ryan hadn't felt so hungry since his first moments awake.

That alone was a reminder of why he'd come out here in the first place. It was time to make another recording in the journal. Someone needed to keep a record of what they'd done.

If anyone else listens to this before I transcribe it, they're going to have a great time figuring out that it only has one author. But that wasn't a compelling enough reason to change back. He'd already recorded a dozen entries wearing bodies that weren't his own.

"Journal, day... whichever day this is. I think maybe low forties. Late 30s. Somewhere in there."

He didn't actually stand over the edge—holding the recorder over the brink like that was far too frightening. One slip, and every record of their expedition here would vanish forever.

"Landed in Canter Creek, and the ponies there were friendly. Pointed us to the Worldgate. We had to negotiate with buffalo to get in. They let us in, but only after some warnings about the danger. There was something different about the Worldgate. They knew it, knew there was something wrong with it, but we didn't understand what.

"We know now. Canter Creek's Worldgate doesn't transform you as you pass through it. This would've been great if we found it on the Earth side. It's terrible for us trying to make our way home. Part of getting back to Earth is getting to be ourselves again, and that was taken away.

"But there's some good news: we had service! Before we left, we sent a message to Jolie. Let her know we were alive, plus some non-specific details about what happened. Hopefully they can meet up with us at a future Worldgate and get gear for a larger expedition. That would also be a chance for those of us who are completely done with this shit to get out.

"We didn't stay long enough to wait for a reply—people were looking at us from the freeway. I'm not sure they could see, it was still dark and we were far away. But if we waited a little longer, they would've noticed for sure."

He stopped then, staring down at the reflective scales on one hoof. Bits of ash were still stuck in one of them, a faint reminder of what he'd been through earlier today. How much should he include about that?

Footsteps sounded on the deck behind him, somehow softer and lighter than most. Blake wasn't sneaking up on him to scream about how his recording of the day's events wasn't favorable enough. But while disguised, his bug senses didn’t let him judge the feelings of the pony without seeing them.

Vesper and Galena were working to navigate them now, they would be too busy. And besides, it wasn't like Blake hadn't screwed up. They were damn lucky his little outburst hadn't caused an out-of-control wildfire. Yet.

"Blake had some trouble controlling his powers when we came back through. There was a lot of fire. We made it far enough away that no one was hurt, thankfully. Buffalo ran away, so I think they made it to safety too. Hopefully."

Kaelynn appeared behind him. Her body glittered in the light, scaly skin reflecting the moon overhead. He didn't stop—Kaelynn had seen him recording this before. She could listen in if she wanted. She was his girlfriend, after all.

"Not sure where we'll go next. There are other Worldgates down in the outskirts, but the pirates are still following. An Equestrian naval ship told us to stay inland, and I think that's the best move. Maybe it's about time we get to experience the pony country for ourselves."

He ended the recording then, tucking it away just as Kaelynn approached him. "Can you not look like that?" she asked. In this body, her voice was a little less interesting to listen to. It just wasn't as musical. "I want to see you, Ryan."

Normally he'd obey a request like that without even thinking about it. But just now, he hesitated. "I don't have a lot of strength left. If I change, I might not be able to be anything else for a while."

She grinned. "There's a way to fix that, isn't there?" She glanced once up the deck, to where Vesper was fighting with a pully, trimming one of the sails. "I have these brand new legs to test out. You could help me."

"Even if I'm myself?" he asked. "Being Blake might make that easier for you. Instead of a... bug."

She shook her head. "Maybe another night. But after what I just saw, I think I'd rather sleep with you. You might have an exoskeleton, but you didn't almost burn us to death. I'll call that a win."

Even while disguised, he could never miss her desire. It was a confusing mix of intoxicating perfume and the steam rising from an oven filled with food ready to be removed and devoured.

It was impossible for him to resist.

Ryan returned to his own body in a flash. That process barely required any energy, unlike copying anything. There was no strict human analogue for the sensation, but it felt a little like releasing an uncomfortable posture after holding stiff for hours. A slight, subtle decrease in effort, and he was himself again.

The darkness retreated, as his insect eyes made the entire ship and everything around it clearly visible. But most of it was gray and lifeless, like putting a night vision filter over his whole world.

Except for Kaelynn. She radiated her own kind of light, though it didn't reach beyond her body. Her blue coat lit up clearly, with darker patterns forming swirls and patches on her underside and down her hooves.

He could sense again too. Kaelynn did want to be close to him, more than anything else. "You don't want sex," he said, resting one hoof on her shoulder. "You just don't want to be alone tonight." The difference was more disappointing to his human side than this body—affection and closeness would be enough for a meal, even if it didn't go as far as some nights.

She blushed, huge ears folding back. "Its's not fair you can do that. Maybe you should've stayed a dragon."

He shrugged. "A list of disadvantages as long as mine, I was bound to get something good out of all this. Let me just stash my recorder, and we can go back to your room."

"No," she said, blocking him with one leg. "Not mine. Yours. I don't want to try changing back tonight."

He didn't argue. Either way he'd be belowdecks, so less available if they were ambushed in the darkness. But he also wouldn't sleep like the others—when Galena finally collapsed, when Kaelynn was asleep, he could join Jordan on the deck to navigate them through the darkness.

"There's not much in my room," he began. "We probably—"

"I know how you were," Kaelynn said. "If it's as messy as your place back on Earth, I don't care. It's fine."

He meant what he said. When he flung the door open, there was very little on the other side. His bed was pristine, still folded from the time Kaelynn had made it for him. Not a wrinkle or a crease, because he'd never used it.

There were a few notes scattered at the desk, but that was all.

"I've spent the last few weeks with you, Kaelynn," he said. "And it's not like we really own anything. I don't sleep, so I didn't come back here. When I wasn't with you, I was somewhere else."

"Don't sleep." She shuffled nervously on her hooves, by the door. "Does that mean..."

He pulled her inside, clicking the door closed behind them. He even reached up to latch it, just in case the night went somewhere more interesting. "I'd rather be with you than be alone, Kaelynn. And I know you must be tired. When was the last time you slept out in the air?"

"Mount Aris." She pulled the blankets aside, then climbed in. He followed. Her smell wasn't as strong out of the water, though he could somehow recognize it anyway. Ryan was past feeling weird about their physical arrangement. What did it mean that most of their relationship took place underwater?

But then he smelled the ash, and he silenced that part of his brain. They had just survived a struggle for their lives, one that could've burned the whole crew.

Besides, being close to her was its own reward. She said little, curling up against him from below. She was far softer than he was, scales yielding to the touch just as she had been in the water. But out here, her warmth was so much stronger.

"Do you really think he would've burned us?" she whispered, after a while. Hours? Minutes? He couldn't tell. But Kaelynn sounded barely awake. "He stopped..."

"He stopped," Ryan repeated. Did he hit me because he knew it wouldn't hurt? "I don’t think he would've hurt us. Instinct is... powerful. I thought I was the only one who had any, but maybe not. He's part dragon."

Kaelynn made a contemplative sound, a little chirp, one Ryan couldn't even describe. "But it shouldn't be hard not to burn your friends."

He nodded his agreement. "He backed down eventually, I think that means Blake is still in control. He won't let instinct control him, just like I won't."

She nodded, but didn't say anything else. Kaelynn really was exhausted.

Whatever else might be true about the magic or the instincts Ryan felt in this new body, he needed nothing supernatural to appreciate a few hours together with someone he cared about. He never slept exactly, but he did drift, until his time spent with her blurred together.

But eventually she was asleep, and Ryan began to get agitated. If only there weren't evil pirates following us, I could be down here all night.

It was easier to slip away from her when they were underwater—the contact was less direct, and the liquid insulated his movement.

Maybe it was just her exhaustion, or maybe it was good luck. Either way, she didn't stir as he retreated, slipping out from under the blanket. He had no hair to straighten, no clothes to put back on—they were already naked.

He remained by the door, feeling the almost imperceptible pressure of a sleeping mind on the other side. He could sense her clearly, even when she wasn't awake to experience emotions.

There were two other creatures asleep nearby. The closest, coming from Blake's room, tossed and turned in his sleep. Was he reliving the evening's failures, overwhelmed with guilt?

Jordan might be able to feel something like that, or maybe just visit him in the “dream world.” But that was obviously just as real as anyone else's powers.

Ryan walked back up the hall to the deck. He found no one until he was back above. There were two of them up here—Jordan on the helm, and an exhausted Janet working the sails.

Ryan made his way up the secondary stairwell to the helm, waving with one hoof. The bat looked up, obviously seeing him—and showed no sign of disgust. Despite being mostly nocturnal, the only emotion Ryan felt from her was exhaustion. "Hey."

"Hey," Ryan repeated. "Anything following us?"

Vesper nodded. "Scouts. We're flying below the clouds, low enough that they have to keep weaving up and down. If we can keep going all night, we should wear them out."

Ryan gestured at the wheel. "You can do that now?"

The bat grinned toothily at him. "Nope! All I know how to do is keep this mark between these lines." She gestured at the instruments, particularly the one just beside the helm."

"Artificial horizon," Ryan said. "You're keeping us level."

"Trying!" Vesper agreed. "It's straight north until the others wake up, and we can decide where to go next."

"Can I help?"

In answer, the bat stepped aside, taking her hooves off the wheel. "You want to fly us for a while? I need to piss like a racehorse."

Chapter 43: Ryan

Ryan watched the sunrise on an alien world.

It wasn't like this was the first time he'd ever seen it, or even the first time he'd been watching to see an enemy vessel appear to darken the sky behind him. Yet as the sky split with orange and yellow light, he saw no dark outlines emerge from the clouds.

He leaned off the back railing, watching the sky behind them just to be sure. Could the pirates have some other way of hiding from view, and appear now to wreak terrifying revenge?

Not that he saw. "Nothing here!" he called to Galena, whose claws were firmly back on the helm. The bird radiated exhaustion back at him, unsurprisingly. She'd been helping them much of the night, and been part of the expeditions before that. Of course she would be tired.

"Are you certain?" she asked, insistent. "There are many visual tricks to hide a vessel, and the clouds grow thicker as we approach the Equestrian center! They could use them to conceal a ship!"

Ryan was reasonably certain he could fly now, if he wanted to. Between his own instincts and watching so many other creatures do it, imitation felt like it would come naturally. But of all the times to test, when the Bright Hawk was under full sail was probably not a good match.

Ropes creaked and wood strained with every little gust of wind, but she held. He walked back to the helm, instead of flying. Best not get swept up into the blue. "I would feel them if they were within a cloud," he said. "This far away, they would be faint. Just minds. But being able to see doesn't matter."

He pointed down into the deck. "Blake sleeps there. Janet is there. And Kaelynn..." She wasn't asleep. How long had she been up? The seapony felt groggy, like lemonade mixed with too much water. "She's there."

Galena nodded once. “Forgive me, changeling. In my years sailing the skies, I have yet to meet one of your kind who did not try to kill me. My instincts betray.”

He shrugged. "The others trust me, and you should too. I’ve never killed anyone.”

She relaxed her claws on the helm, leaning down over the edge. "Bat, you've done enough! We're firmly in Equestrian skies by now anyway."

Vesper looked up from the lower deck, rope in her mouth. Of all of them, she was the most exhausted—she felt no emotion but tiredness now. Even the deep well of confusing sludge towards Blake had faded. She just wanted somewhere to curl up.

She tied off her line, then spread her wings. She caught the air for an instant, letting it carry her up to the top deck—then she landed beside them. It was made less graceful by her continuing to slide for several meters, until her back legs smacked into the railing.

"Done?" She yawned, stretching with both wings. "I don't wanna die when I go to bed."

"You won't," Galena said. "Changeling here says we are not followed.”

Vesper nodded without hesitation. "That’s a relief. I’m not sure how much longer I can keep sailing.”

"See that mountain in the distance... that is Canterlot, capital of Equestria. If we can see it, Equestrian scouts can see us for many miles. They will see any pirate vessel as well. If we are attacked, we will only need to survive long enough for rescue."

She locked the helm into place, then slumped onto her haunches. She yawned too, stretching like a cat. "Probably the Eagle’s Talon won't come for us here. They will watch, and wait for us to sail away from help. Unless we lost their scouts completely." She eyed Ryan again, and he felt a new wave of suspicion. "I am not certain."

"Great. Want me to get Blake up to take his turn on the helm? Does anyone..." She yawned again. "Does anyone remember where we were sailing to?"

The griffon made no sign of recognition. But Ryan did. "Our next is somewhere called Crystal Caverns. It lined up almost exactly with Canterlot... maybe a nearby mountain?"

"Wherever we sail, the greater concern is ensuring our companion does not burn the vessel under our hooves. Do not wake the dragon unless you are confident you can tame the fury that results."

Vesper rolled her eyes. "Blake has always had anger issues. Most of the time, it's not a problem. He's better about it all the time now, I'm not worried. You shouldn't be either."

I wasn't until yesterday, Ryan thought, watching her as she vanished down the stairs belowdecks. He was silent until she'd completely gone, and a little longer for good measure. Those bat ears could hear things even his couldn't.

"I have begun to understand why you creatures are here," Galena said, after a long silence. "You are each broken, just like my crew. You leave safety to chase riches in faraway lands. If you were not broken, you would stay home."

Ryan chuckled. "Some more than others, Galena. But go, you should sleep too. I'm not tired."

Now he felt a fresh wave of skepticism, even stronger than before. "After last night? Traveling to other worlds, and fleeing all night—you're not tired?"

"I don't think I can," he said. “It isn't worth the trade, I promise. I need positive feelings around me, or I will go hungry and starve. When I use 'magic' to change or move things, I use the same strength I need to live, instead of some replenishing well of endurance like the others. I would happily sleep again if I could be normal."

The griffon looked away. "I have seen others like you, in my travels. You are among the most dangerous cargo we ever carried. There is no way to know if we kept some aboard after that trip. Yet there are others, and stories say they have a compact with Equestria. The ponies must have some willing to accept you, after so many failed attacks."

She left. Ryan was alone on the deck, watching the wilderness go by. There was more to see the longer he waited—bone-dry desert had been replaced with orchards and fields, and occasional patches of buildings he guessed were small villages.

A single iron line connected many of these, snaking its way north roughly along their route. A railway. So that was another little confirmation that Equestria was more advanced than many of their contemporaries.

Galena thinks they dominate because of magic, but maybe that's wrong. Maybe it's technology that sets them apart.

He knew the instant his friends were making their way back to the deck. Blake came first, though other footsteps were only a short distance behind him. Janet was up too, and Kaelynn had apparently abandoned getting more sleep.

Blake made it up the railing, still looking as groggy as his emotions felt. "Vesper says we made it. Pirates of the Caribbean couldn't keep up with us through the night."

He nodded. "We had sails and a ship, they were on their own wings. They can only glide for so long before they had to stop to rest. I guess they didn't think we'd be leaving so fast."

Blake stopped beside the helm, though he didn't unlock it at first. Instead he checked the instruments, reading levels of silvery mercury in one sealed bottle, then taping the compass with a hoof. "Looks like you managed to stay on course, too. We're still headed north to Crystal Caverns."

"We should stop sooner than that," Janet said, from the top of the stairs. She kept her wings folded as she walked, almost deliberately. Like she was trying not to use them for balance, despite the blasting wind. "We're almost there. You know what that means?" She gestured off the nose of the ship, using one of her forelegs instead of a wing.

"You're the local," Blake said. He kept his voice flat, cautious even. "What is it?"

"That's the capital, Canterlot," she said. "And just south, a town called Ponyville. We should stop there."

Blake finally began unhooking the helm, settling his hooves on either side. He made a few slight adjustments, but not quite as far as the griffon had indicated. "I assume there's some reason why?"

She nodded sharply. "The person who brought me here lives in Ponyville. Saving his ass is the reason I still have these." She spread both wings, catching the light of the sun behind them for a second. But she closed them just as quickly, looking away.

"Good kid, bit of an idiot. But it wouldn't be a social call. Tracy's living in one place, living with ponies all the time. He told me he'd kept his ear to the ground about any way back to Earth from this side. He might know things we can use."

"And if we can't, I assume this Ponyville place is gonna be kind to visitors?" Ryan asked. "We should be able to tie up there without getting chased out of town by... whatever the creature of the week is."

"Oh yes. Ponyville has a few emigrants living there now. One of Tracy's friends is there, runs some kinda construction company. There is an exchange student at school too as well. Unfortunately their magic will not serve us.”

Blake cleared his throat, grip tightening on the wheel. "I'm sorry about last night. You all deserve better than having me lose my shit. It's... won't happen again."

He felt sincere as he said it, his mind overflowing with guilt. He expected resistance from them, maybe asking him not to be the captain. But who else would take that job?

"I hope not," Janet said. "For your sake as much as ours. Captain Blake, think about all the fire you conjured—that's magic. Every little bit you use changes you. There comes a point where you've been altered too far, and you lose your humanity forever. Once it happens, there will be no way to return. No amount of tears or begging can reverse the process."

Blake's face remained neutral, staring ahead into the growing sunrise. "I'll be more careful. I know it's no excuse, but... I swear anger feels different in this body. Like I'm burning up from the inside out. It's hard to stop."

"I know how hard instincts can be," Ryan said. "You don't want to know what it feels like to be me. It's the trap of this planet—part of me wonders if that's what happened to the original explorers. Go back and forth from Earth to here enough times, and you get changed, then stuck. Like the planet is trying to wrap its coils around us, and stop us from..."

He trailed off abruptly, staring down at the deck. Kaelynn had been heading up here. She'd stopped, but not in the mess hall. "I'm fine visiting your friend, Janet. If you vote that way too, Blake, that's a majority."

He left, speeding up as he rounded the steps. His wings buzzed to help accelerate him, but he wasn't sure it actually made a difference. Maybe it just felt faster to fly.

He found Kaelynn exactly where he could sense her—collapsed in the middle of the hallway. Her body was sprawled on the ground, like she'd just... fallen asleep?

He nudged her with a hoof. "Kaelynn? Sweetie, are you feeling alright?"

She twitched, then rolled onto her side. If she wasn't in so much trouble, he probably would've stared. They still hadn't had the chance to test out those legs together. "I... I said..." she yawned, stretching both legs. "We need a better nickname, remember? I have way too much WD-40 in my hair to be called 'sweetie'."

She rose. There was nothing obviously unwell about the way she did it. But no matter how convincing her act, she couldn't hide her tiredness from his magical senses. You still feel like you haven't slept. Why?

"We'll think of something," he said. "I could be you, then you could call me sweetie all you wanted. I'm not Vesper, I don't mind. It's all the same to me."

She chuckled. Even her laugh sounded exhausted. "Haven't dated another woman since college, but I'll keep that in mind. Gonna be a shame to give that up when we..." She yawned again. "Sorry. Still waking up. I need coffee bad. It's safe to make a pot, right? We're not going to burn down before we get to our next place?"

"It's safe," he said. "Come on, I'll heat some of it up for you. I... couldn't stomach it myself, but I'll feel better when you do."

She shoved him off, though the gesture was so weak that she slid away from him along the deck, instead of the other way around.

Chapter 44: Blake

Blake wasn't entirely certain the diversion to Ponyville would be worth the cost in effort. But considering he'd nearly barbequed half the team recently, he didn't think of his own position as particularly enviable. It was time to be in the background, cooling off and taking the 'L.'

More importantly, maybe less direct leadership would mean more time to figure out the alien instincts of this body.

The simple exhaustion after the first outburst was enough to help him start recovering—all those flames weren't free, they drew on some source of magical energy. The same one that Janet insisted was transforming them permanently when they used it.

So they touched down in the town of Ponyville, which had seemed far more insignificant at a distance. The closer they came, the more hopeful Blake grew that there might actually be something useful here, besides one of Janet's old friends.

The town was quite a bit bigger than Canter Creek, though the structures looked to date from about the same time period. Well, except for a few—Ponyville had a few shining beacons that transcended age and nature and probably many other things besides.

A gigantic crystal tree rose taller than anything else in the city, so large in fact that Blake couldn't guess easily at how high. Maybe twenty stories, maybe thirty. But it was built naturally, more like a giant real tree had been transfigured into a substance that could somehow uphold its weight. Then a crew of ponies had come along and carved out places for themselves.

Unless the even-more unthinkable was responsible, and somehow it had been grown with its rooms and corridors already in place and fully intact. But if that were true, the natives of this planet would be so far ahead of anything on Earth that it was the other direction of cultural leakage that he should fear.

Ponyville was humble enough that it lacked a dedicated place for them to tie off, just like Canter Creek. Instead, they found themselves an empty field just outside of town, where a vaguely square shape to the grass suggested there might sometimes be crops planted. But there were none now, not even the growing trestle of a vineyard. So they were probably safe to land.

The field was along a road into town, fully unpaved with a little schoolhouse not far off. Aside from a few passing foals, nopony gathered to stare. These creatures had their own lives to live, they weren't stopping for a random ship.

"We don't have to worry about anything here," Janet explained, from inside the cargo bay. "We might want to keep a small team just so that no one gets lost. But Ponyville is about as safe as Equestria gets. We won't be stopped or searched or attacked. There won't be robberies or muggings or fights."

"Sounds like a great place," Ryan said. "What was that other big building, the one that looked like a... hippie compound?"

"That's the friendship school," Janet said. "It basically amounts to the same thing, except they treat it academically. Friendship is a serious subject here, like calculus."

A few of them laughed, Blake included. The idea was so absurd it was almost comical. About as comical as giant horses wandering around.

"Laugh if you want," Janet said, smiling weakly. "Just don’t expect to go far with sarcasm or insincerity with these. They won't understand you. They will start to figure out you're not being nice, though. Then they'll shut you out. The best thing for you to do if you want this to go smoothly, just be nice to everyone we meet. It'll be simple."

Janet opened the door with one hoof, lowering the ramp down. "I'm going to talk to my old friend, Tracy. There's a chance he'll know something useful to us. If he doesn't, I won't keep us here burning daylight. Maybe plan to meet back at the ship at noon. If I don't turn up, it means there was more to it."

"I'd like to meet him," Blake said. And not just to make sure this isn't actually a waste of our time. "There might be some questions you don't even know to ask. I'd like to represent the Bright Hawk."

"Will he not want to go back with us?" Kaelynn asked. She lingered near one wall, leaning up against it and occasionally suppressing a yawn. She did a decent job pretending to be awake, though her lack of interest would've set him off if he actually cared.

But what's bothering her? Is she just burned out and afraid after last night? She hadn't been close to him when the flames started, yet she was also the wettest member of their group. She had scales instead of fur, and always felt like she should be as damp as an amphibian.

Yet she wasn't. "Your friend," she continued. "We're trying to find a way back to Earth. He'll want to use it too, right?"

Janet shook her head once. "Tracy is how I know it happens at all. Maybe you weren't around for when I told the story? He transformed during a standup meeting. Melted into a pony right before our eyes. Raised so much hell on the other side I still don't fully know the consequences. Anyway, he's a pony now. If he used the return Worldgate, it would be no different than your friend here."

She nodded once to Galena. "He'd need to keep using the Worldgate to keep his disguise intact. But Tracy just never had that much of a life to lose back on Earth. Here he has everything he ever wanted."

She spun in a slow circle, facing each of them with an intense glare. "Don't let that be you. You have to resist Equestria's temptations, if you ever want to see your humanity again."

"Resist its temptations," Jordan—Vesper repeated from one shadowy corner. "It isn't hell. Our trip convinces me it isn't paradise either. It's just... a place, like the one we left. Maybe nicer. Jury's still out."

"I'll be back by noon," Janet interrupted. "Blake, you can come or not, I don't care. I'm gonna talk to my contact and head back."

"I'm coming," he said. And he did, following her down the ramp and across the field. Before he knew what had happened, they'd left the Bright Hawk behind. Not one of the other crew followed.

They're afraid of me. They want to keep their distance after last night. Maybe they were right to stay away.

But then they walked into Ponyville, and Blake had a hard time staying mad. Yeah, even Vesper hadn't wanted to come along for this trip, but was that really the end of the world, when the town was so great?

Within seconds of reaching the main road, at least three different ponies had welcomed them to the city. By the time they crossed a bridge and into the town itself, ponies were starting to recognize Janet. They greeted her with comical mispronunciations of her name, and she responded with polite smiles and awkward waves.

The town itself was not particularly advanced, with thatched-roof buildings that never exceeded a few stories, except in its strangest examples. The streets were either cobblestone or simple dirt, and the streetlights were sparse.

Yet just a few steps inside, and Blake felt something different. Like a spirit of the place, a living genus loci that tried to sweep him in under its expansive wings.

The streets were packed with creatures on their daily business, shopping from the various little restaurants and stalls, carrying things back and forth, or meeting in small groups around town. A group of a half-dozen pegasi swept across the sky before him, kicking clouds and clearing away to perfect sunshine.

He stared, unsure of what he was looking at—at least until Janet grabbed him by one leg, dragging him forward. "What are they doing?" he asked. "That's like... are they kicking clouds?"

She nodded. "You're in the core of Equestria now. They produce and distribute their own weather. I know how impossible it sounds, it's completely true. You'll just have to take my word for it.

He didn't argue. There was too little time for that. They stopped in front of a single building among many. The front was obviously meant to be used as a storefront, though he saw none now. Just plain curtains.

Janet hesitated for a second by the door, then rapped against it with her knuckles, a few times.

"We'll just have to hope one of them is in for lunch," she whispered. "Tracy is usually out at his radio project. On some days Rose is here, others she's running the flower stand."

Someone shifted around inside, wood creaking under their hooves. Apparently Blake did have a little luck left, after all.

"Anything I should know?"

Janet shrugged. "Same rules as the whole town. Tracy's gone native, don't try to persuade him otherwise. It's cruel at this point, seeing as he has no way of getting home. The choice was stolen from him."

The door swung open, and a single mare stood inside. She was... pretty, certainly. Blake had long since given up denying that he could find these natives attractive, however much the idea could disgust him in principle.

She was older than some, with a bright red mane and a cream-colored coat. She also seemed to recognize Janet with only a glance, grinning eagerly. "Janet, you're back! I wasn't certain I'd ever see you again." She stopped, finally noticing Blake standing beside her. "Is this the reason why? You did find yourself quite the strange pony. I'm... afraid I don't know what you are."

"He's a kirin," Janet said, before Blake could even open his mouth. "But no, it's not like that. Could we come in? This is important. I can't impress on you enough how urgent this conversation is."

"Sure." Rose stepped aside, though she lingered a little in front of Blake. "I'm Roseluck. I'm certain I would remember if we've met before, so I must assume you're new to Ponyville."

He nodded. "Sure am. I'm not emigrating here, so don't worry. My name is Blake. I'm from the same place Janet is. The same place... I think she said his name was 'Tracy'? Your... boyfriend?"

Just a few steps inside, and Blake knew he was standing somewhere different from the rest of town. A large flatscreen TV was situated against the far wall, with an entertainment center beneath and even surround speakers. There were a few other oddities as well—a few movie posters on the wall, a few photos of places that he couldn't imagine being anywhere in Equestria. One by a bookshelf showed a couple at the aquarium with a stuffed shark—a human couple.

"It's been a long time since anypony used that name," she said. "Tracy is what he used to be called, when he still lived on the other side. Now he's a pony, and he calls himself Spark Gap."

"Oh, sorry," Blake said flatly. He let the emotions wash over him, lingering on nothing. If he got too invested in this conversation, he might burn down a city. Calm, collected. He was just here to observe.

I'm not a wreck. I'm not completely out of control because I failed once. It's okay.

"We'd like to talk to him," Janet said. "I'm sure he'd see us, when you tell him it's about Earth. Can you give him a call?"

Roseluck shook her head once. "Spark is at work. I'm afraid we don't have any radio transmitter on this side that would reach him there. The relay station has all the power. You can either visit him there, or wait for him to be home for lunch. He did say he was coming."

"We'll wait," Blake said, before Janet could drag him back out into the city. The less of this place he saw, the better. I don't need more reasons to stay right now. I'm getting my people home. "But maybe you can help us until he gets here?"

Janet rolled her eyes. "She probably can't. Roseluck doesn't do adventuring. Neither does Tracy, but she has no reason to listen for that kind of thing."

"What kind of thing?" she asked. "I was already making lunch. I'll just... throw in a little extra for you." Her eyes settled on Blake, tracing his scaly back and strange tail. "Do you eat normal food?"

"Yes," he answered, without hesitation. "I spend most of my time on an airship eating things out of cans. Whatever's normal here, I'll take it."

"Thanks, Rose," Janet added. "No pressure if you don't know any of the answers. Tracy might not have them either. But we have to ask. It's about getting home."

Chapter 45: Blake

The native pony stared back at the two of them. For a few seconds, Blake was unsure if she was really seeing them—had Janet somehow spoken forbidden words? But no, a few seconds and she went back to her fridge, removing plastic trays of fresh produce from inside.

Blake hadn't ever been a big fan of simple salads. But the stuff Rose was pulling out of her fridge was so fresh he could smell it. Maybe he'd give it a chance, even if the mare proceeded to remove ingredients for some kind of sandwich. A sandwich with tomatoes and mushrooms instead of meat, apparently.

So maybe the hippogriffs knew how to make a sandwich better than ponies do. Can't expect them to get everything right. He swallowed his annoyance, and focused on the task at hand. "I'm from the same place your... boyfriend is. I have an entire airship of my friends that have been trying to find their way back for over two months now. We're searching for Worldgates, have you heard of them?"

Roseluck nodded, glancing sidelong down a door just behind him. "Used to be one right there that led to somewhere called... San Jose? But Discord took it away as soon as he was finished. Nothing there now."

"Really?" Blake followed her gaze to the back door, resting one hoof against it. "Do you mind if I..."

He didn't actually wait for her confirmation, pushing it open.

There was a coat closet beyond, with a few boots and other gardening tools leaned up against the wall. A heavy steel door was behind it, with an unusually high handle. Blake touched against it with one hoof, confirming the steel plates that made its basic frame, and feeling the metal anti-prybar parallel with the locks. "You guys afraid of a break-in?"

Their front door had felt like balsa wood by comparison.

"Long story," Rose called. From the sound of her voice, she was still in the kitchen, and had made no effort to follow him. "You can go ahead and open it! There's nothing back there anymore. Turns out there was poison joke, but we cleared it. Nice and safe."

He pushed the door, and found it wasn't even locked. What he swore was an Earth brand's logo was stamped into the side of the frame, along with more security features. The other side had just one lock for the deadbolt, but it was another exotic lock, with complex anti-picking mechanisms and a hardened steel shackle.

There was no Worldgate outside, or anything like one. Instead, he found a series of strange holes dug into the ground of a grassy field just behind the building. A few were filled with cement, with steel beams emerging from within. Most were just empty. "And you're sure there's nothing left of it?"

"Nothing," Rose said, her voice faint. "Spark Gap made sure. We didn't want anyone crossing from the other side accidentally. Or... following him intentionally. Either way."

Blake shut the door, then returned. "Sorry, I'm not trying to be rude. It's just that my friends and I are eager to find a way home. Any clue that would help us get back is worth investigating, even if it ultimately doesn't lead anywhere."

She worked fast. Somehow Roseluck had already constructed an entire sandwich tray, and had moved on to slicing fruit. "I understand better than most. I've been with Spark for over a year now. He wasn't very social for most of that time, but I still picked up all kinds of things. I saw movies from your world. Met visitors... like Janet! I assume this airship captain is your latest attempt to find your way back?"

"My last." Janet settled into her seat. She faced the huge glass window to Ponyville, expression distant. "I'm running out of time, Roseluck. If I stay for much longer, or I'm exposed to much more magic... that will be it for me. Stuck."

"And that bothers you," Roseluck supplied. "I remember. I feel fortunate that Spark did not have to make such a choice. He lost his Earth family. It made sense that he decided to spend time around me, to take Everwake...

"Did you have other questions, Blake? I don't want to get into old memories."

He made his way over to the table. "Just one. So Roseluck, we have a map of every Worldgate. We think it's very old. It sends us to places that aren't safe anymore, or that aren't useful on the other side. Worldgates that go to dead ends, or rooms full of poison gas. We're lucky that we have survived each trip so far."

She carried both trays over to the table. She used her mouth, and could only bring one at a time. That didn't seem to bother her, and she managed to keep level despite what would've been an awkward grip. Even fresh grapes didn't tumble off the sides.

"Sounds risky," she said. "More than Spark or I could handle. We like living somewhere stable, somewhere that's not going to catch fire or explode."

The door banged open, and another creature entered. It was a bat—taller and more rugged-looking than Vesper. He wore no more than the other creatures of Ponyville, which for him meant a satchel that jangled and clanked together with bits of metal.

His eyes jumped between them, and settled on Janet within a second. "Janet. I didn't think I'd see you again. I hope this doesn't mean—" His voice was higher than many other ponies, at least the stallions. Like Vesper on that front too.

"Not yet," Janet interrupted. "I must have more time. But that moment is fast approaching. I'm desperate."

He finally seemed to see Blake standing beside her. "You've made an exception to your policy about friends in Equestria? That seems strange to do when you're almost out of time."

"No." Janet reached across with one leg, touching Blake's shoulder. "This is Blake, he... he's the captain of an airship called the Bright Hawk."

"Blake," the bat repeated. "I've never met a pony like you, but I'm going to take a wild guess. You're not from Equestria either?"

"Nope." Blake smiled ruefully. "I came with four others from Earth. We found a Worldgate by mistake. It’s quite the story, actually."

He told it over lunch. He was right that the local fare would be fantastic, even something as simple as pony sandwiches and fresh fruit. They should really stop for resupply more often, if only to get some fresh produce into the hold. Saving their limited gold wouldn't even matter so much if they used some of their weight for trading...

He explained everything, in as much detail as he could without actually telling them about what they kept aboard the Bright Hawk or where they stashed their copies of the original map. There was no reason to keep secrets from the person they hoped would help them find their way to the other side.

"I need to know if you've heard anything else," Janet said. "Any other Worldgate. I don't need it to stay open for long, and I don't care where it goes. Anywhere in the Americas, I'll find my way back. Hell, I'm desperate enough that I'd try for Europe at this point too. Any way back you can find."

The bat pushed his plate aside with one wing. In almost every way, Blake took him for one of the natives. He used his wings interchangeably with his hooves, or even his mouth. He didn't seem particularly shy or embarrassed about wearing so little.

"There is a student here, in the friendship school. He does not have a Worldgate, though... I'm not sure what he's using. I think Starlight Glimmer made him some kind of magical... ward. So far as I know, he's staying until his semester ends in four months. Probably too late for you."

Janet slumped forward, resting her face in her claws. "I've talked to Caleb already. That ward is one-of-a-kind, some magic-draining artifact that she can't make more of. The kind they won't let me borrow."

"Oh." He sighed. "Then I don't have more news for you. I'm sorry."

Blake could feel the hope seeping out of her. It was practically pooling on the floor beneath them. But he wasn't going to give up just because something he didn’t even know existed wasn't going to take the problem away.

"I mentioned this earlier, but we have a map of Worldgates," he said. "Hundreds of them. We probably won't be able to search every single one before we run out of time. But there's one that's close, maybe you can give us some advice. The really hard part hasn't been finding them in this world, but dealing with local conditions once we do."

"Oh, sure." Spark Gap sat up, suddenly more alert. "If we know anything. But we don't travel much. Rose and I both work from Ponyville, and don't go anywhere else that often. I'd like to explore Equestria one day, see the sights... but I haven't got around to it."

"There's a Worldgate in the same place as Canterlot, or almost the same place... but it's labeled something else. "What is Crystal Caverns? Is there anything we need to know before going inside?"

Roseluck and Spark shared a look of instant recognition. It was Rose who finally answered. "Used to be a mine under Canterlot," she explained. "Helped supply the wealth that built the city, until they ran out of gemstones, and all that was left was rock crystal and glass. It's a maze down there."

"And it connects with some sacred sites for the bat-ponies of Equestria," Spark added. "That part is called Echo Caverns, for whatever reason. Used to be totally sealed off, since they didn't want anyone who wasn't a bat to find it. But it's open now. There are festivals down there every year."

"But only bats are allowed to go!" Rose exclaimed. "Even when festivals aren't happening. It's a sacred place, with lots of old traditions. You have to respect their customs."

Blake wasn't exactly sure how to respond to that. He looked between them, then to Janet for help. What did they expect him to say? Of course we'll stay trapped in another universe forever. We couldn't possibly disrespect the religion of some bat-shaped horses!

"We'll do everything we can," Janet said. "Is there anything you can tell us about the local conditions. Maybe... places to avoid? Dangers we could find there. Even just how to make the trip. We're running on limited time, so the less research we have to do, the better."

Roseluck folded her hooves on the table in front of her. "Crystal Caverns has tours that leave from Canterlot once a day, using the old rail-carts. I've done them before, they're... okay. A little touristy. There's no official way to go down there. It's just too dangerous, too easy for ponies to get themselves lost. A lost pony might stumble somewhere they don't belong. Maybe you should just find another Worldgate."

"Janet doesn't have a lot of time," Spark said. "I think I saw a book upstairs about the caves, Rose. Is it okay if we give it to them?"

She twitched, eyebrows going up. From the look on her face, the question had probably earned Spark a night out on the couch. "Of course, how could I forget. We have a book about the cave. I'll... just go get it."

She turned, hurrying away up the stairs.

Only when she was gone did Spark speak again. "She means well. You have to understand, thestrals are kinda her thing. She's forgotten more about their culture and customs than I'll ever know."

Janet leaned across the table, gripping his hoof with one claw. "We're not going to be dicks about local custom, Tracy. I just need a door. Once I use it, I'm gone. The locals can forget they ever met me."

"I hope you can find it," he answered. "Believe me. I'm sorry there wasn't a better way. It still feels wrong, after all these months. Like... Princess Celestia should've done more to help you."

Janet straightened, just as Rose came pounding back down the stairs. She had a book on her back, which she somehow managed to keep balanced as she walked.

"I got this after my last experience with the caves," Roseluck said, her voice stiff. "It wasn’t a... particularly pleasant experience. Maybe it's about the right time for me to move on. Just make sure you two don't get lost. Stay where you belong."

Janet took the book in one outstretched claw. "That's what we'll do," she said. "The sooner I can get back to where I belong, the better."

Chapter 46: Vesper

There were lots of things Vesper could do while docked in a friendly town of ponies. The temptation to go out into the world to meet them was almost irresistible, matched by only one thing: her exhaustion.

Getting the Bright Hawk away from discovery by griffon pirates was no simple task, no more than staying up the long hours necessary to make sure it happened. So however much she wanted to go down into the little pony town and see the creatures it contained, her need for rest took precedence.

So it was that Vesper found her way to the Dreamlands once again. She descended the steps, passed through the gate, and soon was back in slumbering lands unknown. She could easily have drifted there, waiting for Princess Luna to discover her. But waiting for others to decide her fate had never really worked well for her.

Besides, Vesper didn't think anypony else would be rescuing her from Equestria. If she left, it would be because she found a way out, and chose to use it.

Tonight, she was in a strange place—a library, like so many others. But this one had books that were each a single sheet of glass, that revealed their contents only when fitted into special projectors. She searched with some eagerness, though at first she did not know where she was and what she might be looking for.

Eventually she came to a sign, carved into the same glass as the many books. Some things she knew without knowing where that information came from. But other things she could only guess at.

Letters and symbols blurred together before her eyes in simple, untempered chaos. Every time she looked, the sign said something else. I wish you would make sense. She wished it with all her might, just as she had wished for air when ascending far above the heights that she could breathe.

It was the same process—the same magic. Letters settled into place 'Akilineq Archive of Remembrance: General Section'

Vesper lifted into the air, feeling at the glass plate with one wing. The letters here were straight and short, each one like a bone carved by thin fingers. Yet she could still read them.

"I'd ask you what you were doing here," said Pale Light, his voice already one shade into annoyed. "But I know you won't tell me."

There was another bat at her feet, looking up. She waved, then settled down beside him. She landed without tripping over herself this time, or spraying bits of trash and debris from the library around them.

She had clarified the words of a single sign, but that didn't mean the rest of the place was in good shape. Shelves had fallen over completely, their glass contents shattered. Others were vanished in something thick and white, that flooded whole floors of this strange library.

A glow shone in through the windows, more than enough for bat eyes to see everything she could possibly want. One of the advantages of her strange new body.

"That's the opposite how this works," she said. "You're the one who goes from place to place, searching for something you won't describe, never telling me what it is so I can help you find it. All I do is ask so that I can be more useful. Or in rare cases, make myself so annoying you have no choice but to tell me the truth."

He chuckled, but avoided her gaze. "One day, maybe. How's your practice on that side going? I would usually assume that things are going well if I haven't seen someone in a long time. But tracking time between worlds is tricky."

And you're changing the subject already. It wasn't that Vesper didn't already suspect it. But this was as good as confirmation. Her friend was actively hiding things from her. Yet not everything. "Your advice saved my life," she said. "I summoned some air when I needed it to breathe. What else can I bring from the world of dreams?"

He turned, apparently satisfied that his distraction had worked. Suddenly he was feigning disinterest again, looking away from her. "Almost anything that would appear in a dream. Objects are the easiest—easier the less magic they take, or the less complex they are to visualize. Places are a little harder. Whole houses or mansions from the Dreamlands can be brought into the world for a short time."

He trailed off as they approached a hallway, flooded with snow. "Hardest of all, people. To dream of life, and find that life made real. These are fleeting, and last for moments compared to the other kinds of dreams. But they can be the most powerful."

"People," she repeated. Not ponies. "People can be... you can't make people. That's one of the two things that only a god can do—creating people, and bringing the dead back to life. Entries one and two on deific resume. Every other domain has been taken by technology... or magic."

He shrugged. "Then every sleeper is a god unto their own dreams. The Dreamlands are populated by uncounted billions, many shaped by dreamers. Those dreamed by many take form, substance, coherence here in the dreaming. Others are crafted specifically by powerful dreamers, creations with a purpose. Our princess of dreams has made nightmares to torment the wicked, and urge them to repentance. She has made soldiers to patrol dreams for evil intruders. She has made messengers and scholars and many other things, by her will. Powerful dreamers could do likewise."

If Vesper was a permanent resident of this world, she would probably want to learn everything she could, just say whatever she could to get the creature talking and keep him that way. But for now, what mattered most to her was practicality. She needed reasons.

And if I made anyone, I would be their god. I can't claim to have all their answers when I don't even have any for myself. She would just have to be careful never to use that particular power.

"What about something else. You said I could learn to cross worlds without a Worldgate, didn't you? Through sleepers?"

He nodded. "What matters is the strength of your connection to the one who sleeps. Your sympathy, it is called. Children are the strongest, your mate is the next, then your siblings and parents. Lastly, your friends, extending in a web that fades into eternity. The weaker the connection, the harder it will be to use the bond."

She slumped to the floor, right in front of an empty hallway. As she did, harsh white lights came on, illuminating more shelves of flat glass books. Could she read them, the same way she read the sign? "That sounds like a completely useless power, then. Nobody has friends in multiple worlds. You could never discover new horizons that way either, only return to places you've already been."

He shrugged. "And you're saying that wouldn't be a useful ability? Supposing you had friends in many worlds, you could travel freely between them. More importantly, don't you have connections in that other world—the one you're so eager to return to? Who cares if the power could discover anything new. It could bring you home."

You want me to take the bait. Yet you've only told me about it now. "I'm... cautiously optimistic," she said. "I would feel a little better if it wasn't for a disaster I just went through last night, one I'm afraid will repeat itself as soon as I use this power. I found a Worldgate that led to my world without changing me back into a human being. There's no point in going back there if I don't get my old self back. That's... kinda part of the appeal."

Pale Light circled around her once, before resting one wing on her shoulder. "Are you certain you care about that? Before that, remember where you are. This is the dreaming, where words are given substance. Lie here at your peril."

She didn't shove him off. Whatever else could be said about him, she had approached Pale Light,over weeks. This was no careful scheme to gradually catch and trap her. "So maybe I don't care much. Maybe I'm equally happy this way, or with my memories. I want to be standing at the threshold with a choice. I want to make it, without anyone pressuring me."

Pale Light laughed. "If you get it, let me know. You will the first creature in existence to tell reality what to do."

She shrugged. "I don't mind being the first. Now how can I practice summoning things? I'm really not interested in summoning people. But if I could bring a gun in a pinch, that would be fantastic. Just tell me what to do."

He did. They continued together for what felt like days, though it couldn't have been that long. Time was always like that in the Dreamlands, a strange blur that never quite made sense no matter how she looked at the clock.

But eventually she did wake up, to the scraping of ship against the ground, and a sudden lurch forward. They were airborne again, suddenly enough that she nearly toppled out of her narrow bunk.

Vesper groaned, shaking away the delirium of sleep. It was nearly nightfall outside, with only a few last wisps of daylight left. A perfectly comfortable time to be waking up. Too bad the others wouldn't let her sleep in more often.

She followed her nose to the helm, where Blake was directing their ascent. She probably could've guessed that from the inexpert takeoff, though she wouldn't say as much. "Hey! Learn anything fun in the pony city?"

He glanced to the side, but curiously Galena wasn't there. Unusual for the bird not to be around with more of a hand in navigation. Maybe this was the next stage in Blake's training. "A few things. There's no way out here, we're stuck with the Worldgates. But we did get some useful info for the one in Canterlot, so that's something. It's... less known than some. They didn't even think it was down there. But the old story about why they stopped digging doesn't check out with me. Greedy unicorns ran out of gemstones? Good moral lesson, not so much good economics. Otherwise they'd be filling the nearby mountains with holes too, looking for more. They didn't."

He tapped something wedged into the instruments—a thick-covered book? Strange how much of Vesper's life seemed to turn on what knowledge was hidden inside. She flipped through the pages, revealing old maps, pictures of pony miners, and cart layouts.

"Doesn't seem like this is the kind of place they'd want us poking around," she said, slipping it back into the shelter he'd found in the instrument panel. "No government back home would leave somewhere like that open."

"None does here either," he said, keeping both hooves on the wheel. "But they do guided tours. We'll go down with one of those and slip away. You, me, and any more talent we think we need."

"The whole team, obviously," Vesper said, without thinking. "That's how we do things, right? We go together into places people don't want us. We take good pictures, and we put them up online."

He nodded absently. "Sure. Maybe I can talk Galena into staying behind for the next one. Leaving the ship while we were out in the middle of nowhere was one thing. But we'll be in Equestria's capital city. Even if there's no fear of pirate attacks, we could still just have someone steal the damn ship. Assuming Canterlot is half as bad as DC..."

"Ponies? I'm not sure they're capable... of making a city like that." She took a few steps away from him, leaning over the railing. Certainly she wasn't posed any particular way—she was just looking down at Ponyville fading below them, trying to take in the sights she hadn't got to examine in person.

"Oh, here." She reached to one side, then tossed something to him. "Think you dropped this earlier."

Blake caught it in one hoof, then stared down in disbelief. "Shit, where did you get this?" He turned it over in one hoof. A perfect recreation of Captain Jack Sparrow's cap, complete down to the little metal beads and the cracked leather.

"Same place as the last time. Only now I'm pretty sure I can do it on command. Or... hoping I can? Let's both hope I can." She snatched it out of his hooves with her wings, then lifted briefly into the air to settle it onto his head. "Perfect, just like that. Our brave captain is ready to sail us into battle."

"How about sail us to a safe port that wants to let us visit," he said. "The Bright Hawk isn't really rated for battles.

Chapter 47: Vesper

Vesper knew on paper that they were traveling to the capital. This was the center of a nation, maybe the largest country in this entire world. It was bound to be impressive. But even knowing this on paper, she was completely unprepared for what they found.

As the Bright Hawk approached the city from below, she finally realized what she was looking at. This was a more subdued version of Mount Aris, where the city had been built into incongruous mountainside, somehow able to support itself despite the incredible gravity. The city spread below a vast palace, which took the peak of several closely-connected mountains.

At least near the peak, most of the structures were made of the same white stone, probably quarried from the very mountain they were built upon. The sky thronged with activity—hundreds, maybe thousands of ponies flew through the sky, along with dozens of different airships. Many resembled the one they were aboard, huge wooden structures without gasbags to match. But there were a few zeppelins as well, most forced to tether themselves high above the city.

When they were still miles off, a pair of uniformed pegasi arrived on the deck, escorting them though unseen lines of aerial traffic. "Welcome to Canterlot!" shouted one, waving an eager hoof to Blake beside the helm. "I assume you'll want a mooring. Short-term, or extended?"

Blake shrugged, though Jordan could see his casual attitude was entirely forced. His hooves gripped the wheel so tight that it creaked with every adjustment. Galena was nowhere to be seen. Shouldn't she be the one to sail them through this difficult part? "We're planning to stay more than one night, but less than three. Where's that?"

"Long-term," said the pegasus, turning back to the sky. "Follow my partner and I! Don't get off-course, or you might hit somepony. Canterlot has many lanes of air traffic." Then she was gone, leaving a panicked Blake at the helm."

He waited only a few seconds, long enough for the pegasus to fly off the deck. Then he leaned forward, speaking directly into Vesper's ear. "Can you please see if Galena will get up here and help? I don't even know what she's upset about."

Vesper nodded once, then turned to go. "Sure. Looks like you need the help." She hurried down the stairs belowdecks. At this point she followed her scent more than her eyes. Every member of the crew had their own unique smell, some more so than others.

Ryan's was among the strangest, though Galena's wasn't far behind. Predatory, dangerous somehow.

She wasn't lurking in the mess like she usually did, and she didn't smell Galena in her quarters either. That meant she was below.

Vesper followed her scent down the steps, then through another doorway into the hold. Finally she found her, perched on one of the upper shelves, lording over the empty cargo bay.

"Galena!" Vesper called, lifting into a low hover and gliding until she was right in front of her. If the bird wanted to hide up here, she would just get on her level. "I'm pretty sure Blake is having a panic attack at the helm. Don't you think you'd be better getting us to port in one piece?"

Galena didn't move, barely even opened one eye to watch her approach. At least she didn't lift her claws to fend her away. "Why should I? Sailing aboard the ship of broken promises... what concern is mine?"

She is mad about something. But what promises did we break? Hovering here was harder than in the world of dreams, particularly when the ceiling and walls were moving along with her. Every adjustment Blake made might smack her into one of them, if she wasn't watching carefully.

Vesper held herself in the air anyway. "Will you at least tell me what promise you think we broke? We haven't had the opportunity to make very many."

Galena sat up, staring. Her expression was an unreadable, predatory mask. "Do you remember our first words? You promised... when I helped fight beside you, you promised that there was a way for you to take me. Promised that we would leave this awful place.

"But now I learn that there is no escape—there is another world, but I may only visit. There will be no safety for me. You used me."

Vesper landed at the base of the shelf, just as they rocked violently to one side. Galena didn't seem to notice the motion. "We didn't know that, Galena. We still don't know what's waiting for us when we cross through a real Worldgate. All we know is what Janet told us."

"Is that supposed to make me forgive you?" Galena asked. "You cannot understand the risk I undertook. I am banished from my own kind for all of time, bat. If I am remembered, it will only be to find and kill me."

"Equestria seems pretty nice," Vesper said, gesturing up the steps with one of her wings. "I can't see much of it from down here, but the ponies in the last town treated us well."

Galena leapt from the shelf, landing with a painful thump on the wood in front of her. Claws dug into the wood, and she loomed over Vesper. "Such a clever little bat. Just live with the ponies here in Equestria, sure. Why did I not think of that?"

She jerked forward suddenly, baring her beak. But she didn't actually strike Vesper—this was simple intimidation, not an attack. "What I did cannot be forgotten, bat. This ship created victims. Families whose loved ones they will not see again. Our faces on wanted posters. I can keep my head down, stain my feathers as I have done. But sooner or later, someone will recognize me. Then I hang."

The griffon loomed over Vesper, more than a full head taller than she was. Those claws could probably rip her throat out without a thought. She had to consider every word carefully.

"We promised to take you with us," Vesper said slowly. "We can keep that promise. We do know of another world. We will take you." She hesitated—here she spoke with far less confidence. "But if you can't stay, that doesn't mean we won’t do right by you, Galena. We still don't know this world, or how travel between them works.

How was she so big? "You risked your life to free us, and other Equestrian prisoners. I bet we could get you a royal pardon. If I can talk to the princess again, I could ask. You saved a dozen lives—is that enough?"

Galena tensed, like Vesper had just struck her. She didn't answer at first, remaining silent for almost a minute. The Bright Hawk continued to rock unsteadily, as Blake struggled to navigate them into Canterlot. At least they hadn't crashed into anything yet.

"I don't know," she said. "I never took the life of a slave. But many suffered because they flew aboard this ship."

Vesper considered for a long moment—then reached up to touch one leg on her shoulder. That put her in close striking distance. There would be no escaping if the griffon wanted to hit her. Those claws were sharp as knives.

"We were wrong, Galena. Maybe Janet's wrong. But I made that promise to you then, I repeat it now. You're part of this team. You look out for us, we look out for you. We're not going to abandon you."

The griffon met her eyes, expression intense. "You believe the words you speak. I want to trust you. But ponies have never had much sense of honor."

"But I’m not a pony," Vesper said. And perhaps a little braver than she should've been—"Did pirates have much honor? Your captain promised to take us to Mount Aris, then enslaved us."

Galena started laughing, voice bitter. "I suppose not. It does feel nice to say." The humor vanished from her face, and suddenly she was stern again. "I will hold you to this promise, bat. If I tumble from these heights, I will take you with me."

Vesper shrugged. "Just so long as that means you'll help us prevent that in the meantime. We're trying to escape, not crash. And... I'll admit this possibility seems more distant than when we first thought. But we were hoping to take all this incredible news back with us. We thought we'd be rich and famous. If that ends up happening, you can be part of that too."

Galena laughed again, a little more enthusiastic this time. "Even you do not sound like you believe it."

Vesper shrugged with one shoulder. "It would be nice if it could happen that way. But I've lived this long by always expecting the worst. That way if something good ever happens, it's a pleasant surprise."

Galena didn't laugh, but that was fine. She went with Jordan back to the deck.

Blake hadn't crashed the Bright Hawk in their absence, though in the time she was below, another two navigator ponies had arrived to direct the ship, flying back and forth with panicked instructions. Blake practically slumped to the floor as he gave Galena the helm, nodding with relief.

"Good to see you," he said weakly. "Wasn't sure if... you were coming back up."

Navigating them in was practically effortless after that. They flew their way into the dock without much fanfare, and soon enough the Bright Hawk bumped gently up against its mooring.

They waved farewell to the navigation ponies, and Blake stepped ashore to speak to the dockmaster. By the time he returned, the other members of their group found their way onto the lower deck.

Blake didn't even have to say anything for Vesper to sense his nervousness. He thought they still hated him, after his explosion the day before. Without prompting, Vesper stepped up instead.

"So we have some idea of where we're going. Crystal Caverns under this city lead to our next destination. We don't even know where it ends up—but the name on the map sounds Eastern European."

"I think we should check out the city first," Ryan said. "Everywhere else we go, there's critical information in the city itself to point us in the right direction. Searching through an entire mine—that could take months. We might have them, but Janet doesn't."

"Neither does the bat," she said, adjusting her silly flag jacket. "The way she flings magic around, she'll have less time than me soon."

Vesper stuck her tongue out in response. Janet was probably right about the transformative and permanent effects of magic, there was no reason for her to lie. It just didn't mean she would change anything. I have a year. How much of those days are sacrificed every time I use a little magic? How much did Janet's friend use before he got stuck?

"I agree that looking around may be worthwhile," Janet said. "There is a touring company here, and the headquarters of the Equestrian miner's guild. If there was a Worldgate here, they would know. Though they might not share it."

Kaelynn pulled over a stool, slumping into it and glancing around at them all like she was still half-asleep. "Should we try to talk to the king? Or... queen? Whoever rules here... they might be sympathetic if we talk to them. Maybe they can just help us get back."

Janet laughed, bitter and angry, overpowering Kaelynn's feeble speech. "Not worth our time. The old princess was there the day I was trapped here. She knew I was doomed, knew I didn't belong here, and would be stuck forever if nothing was done. So what did she do?"

She gestured vaguely out over the horizon. "Gave me gold, told me Equestria would care for my needs. But every question of how I could be returned was ignored. Her power can move the sun, but it couldn't make a Worldgate. Waste of our time."

Replacement? That brought up Vesper's memories of searching around on the moon, and the strange blue alicorn she had met there. Princess Luna, she knew now. What could that princess have told her? If only they met, maybe she would know.

But they hadn't met, and might never. Their only meeting was an accident, after all.

"We'll search the city," Blake finally agreed. "Until nightfall. That would be the best time to make our move on the mine, if we're going to move."

"I'll go with you!" Vesper exclaimed. "Wherever you're going. I want to get out there and stretch my legs. Dreaming doesn't actually count as exercise."

Chapter 48: Ryan

There were probably more important things Ryan could be doing, more productive ways for him to find useful information. But the words "changeling embassy" had cemented themselves in his brain like a brand scoured on his shell. He had to investigate it for himself.

It would be so easy to lose himself in a city like this. Here he could vanish into the crowd of ponies, let their incredible emotions sweep over and drown him. With such strong feelings pressing in on him from all sides, it was easy to forget himself, and let someone else's emotions drive him. Most of what the ponies felt was positive—how hard would it be to work himself into one of those relationships, and forget he'd ever been anything else.

It was certainly tempting—give up his quest, forget about the world that wouldn't miss him anyway. He could let the others go back to their lives, they actually had them. But for him, this was better.

He might've done it, if it wasn't for one thing: Kaelynn. After a lifetime of disappointment, he'd finally been brave enough to do something right. Now he did have something to lose.

But now she was in trouble too, and refused to listen to him or anyone else. Nevermind that she'd held the same body for days now. She must be magically exhausted, yet she refused to reverse the spell.

Maybe the changeling embassy could give him advice about that too.

Getting to it meant passing through almost the entire city, which certainly wasn't a bad thing. It meant plenty of opportunity to take in the exotic architecture, built along the cliffside of a land-formation that could never have existed back home. He walked a little too slowly, wearing the disguise of a random unicorn mare he'd spotted loading crates on the dock next to theirs. Here in the city of ponies, it made sense to be as the ponies be.

But eventually he found the "high quarter" where many nations from across this other universe had their embassies. Most of them were as ancient-looking as the city itself, with great stone columns, fine glass windows, and gardens outside. Some were more rustic, like the one run by yaks.

Ryan needed no magic to lead him to the one he was looking for.

The "Free Changelings of the Outlands and All Nations" had a plot of land about the same size and on the same street as the fine redoubt of the hippogriffs and the elegant fortress of the griffons. But theirs was... distinctly changeling.

The building was constructed of a transparent green substance, somewhere between glass and slime. In it were chunks of stone, scraps of wood, basically constructed garbage. Ryan stopped to stare, stepping off the main road and letting his mouth fall open.

The embassy had been built with no central plan, like all these other incredible structures. Instead, it seemed that garbage had just been piled here, then it was hollowed and tunneled through to make whatever rooms were required, before securing it in place with cement. Nothing grew on the plot of land—there was only bare rock, with crude-looking sculptures that looked like they'd been carved by children.

There were no windows either, just a layer of slime stretched so thin it was transparent. From the look of the interior, it sunk deep into the rock, carving straight through the mountain under their hooves.

When it caught the light of the sun, the whole building seemed to glow with its own light, illuminating bodies inside.

It was without a doubt the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. There would be somewhere safe and warm inside, somewhere he wouldn't be looking over his shoulder. The people living in there wouldn't call him a bug and think they were being cute.

"Excuse me," said a voice, from not far away. It caught Ryan so completely off-guard that he jumped into the air, spinning to face the new arrival.

They came from within the compound, and hadn't exactly been sneaking. They wore a strange armor, like the shed pieces of exoskeleton had been collected together, hollowed, and cemented, just like the building.

Underneath, the creature looked like nothing he'd yet seen. The colors were garish and bright, but the eyes were insectoid. The voice reverberated slightly as well, as strange organs were used to make familiar words.

But one factor was strange enough that he'd been so frightened—Ryan sensed nothing from this creature, not even the presence of a mind. This was no dumb machine—it was another empath, one who had grown their entire life keeping their feelings carefully hidden.

"Sorry! This one did not mean to cause you so much discomfort. I just wondered if anyone had welcomed you yet."

Ryan straightened, acting as relaxed and comfortable as he could. Yet the body wasn't a very good match for him—it mostly made sense as a way not to attract attention. It had gotten him here.

"Welcomed me?" he asked. "I'm sorry. I don't have an appointment or anything. I just wanted to see it. I heard there were changelings in the city."

"We sure are!" said the guard, grinning. Though maybe that title was wrong—she didn't seem to have an actual weapon. Just the armor, which made her slow and clumsy in her movements. Nothing like the compound guards patrolling the other embassies. "It's a great day for bugs everywhere. If you have been searching for a place to be welcome, this is it."

He straightened, confused. "Hold on... you can tell?" He looked the creature over again. No, she didn't look exactly like he did, even without the armor. But there were some similarities. The basic body shape was the same, even if the colors were a little outrageous compared to his jet black.

"Of course." They reached out, patting him on the shoulder with one leg. "Your disguise is very good. I'm sure ponies are fooled. Very convincing. But you do not taste like one. More like a..." she trailed off. "Not my place. You should be made welcome, speak to the consulate. Are you in distress? He can help—if you are in legal trouble, or confused by this strange world of ponies. Every member of the hive is welcome, even if they were loyal to her. We were all loyal to the queens once."

Queens? Every word she spoke raised a dozen different questions. But he didn't have time to ask them all. We're supposed to get back together by nightfall. Then he would be going down into the crystal mine, back to searching for forbidden places. It was only early afternoon—he still had several hours yet. He'd have to use them well.

He decided to use them for a test. Ryan closed his eyes, then focused on letting go. Losing his form here was a risky move—Kaelynn was in poor health right now, and so could offer him only a small amount of whatever magical energy he required to live.

But today he wasn't feeling particularly wise. Today Ryan took a risk, and banished the illusion of his stolen unicorn body. In a flash of green magic, he was back to the body the Worldgate had given him, black shell and clear wings and all.

"Are you sure?" he asked, looking the not-guard right in the face. This was the moment he always expected harsh reactions. Even members of his own expedition had felt revulsion at his body, and needed weeks to train themselves to treat him like a normal person.

This guard didn't even flinch. If anything, she smiled, and he felt the first flash of emotion from her. A single second of it, like something shared with him deliberately. She was surprised, yes—but it wasn't unpleasant. "I didn't think there were very many left in this part of the world."

Around them, the streets had reacted very differently. Ponies that had been moving about on their daily business without much interest suddenly turned and went the other way, practically sprinting away from him.

A few gasped, dropped what they were carrying—someone even screamed. But Ryan didn't care about any of them. Someone wanted to see him.

"There weren't," he said. "You wouldn't believe where I came from if I told you. I don't... know what I need. Not somewhere to stay, I have friends, I have a crew. But I have questions, and no one who can answer them. Does it matter that I'm not really one of you? I'm false. I pretend."

She laughed, wrapping one leg around his shoulder in a light hug. Somehow, impossibly, he felt nourishment from it. That didn't make sense—if parasites could nourish each other, then couldn't they give up stealing from others?

Yet he felt it all the same. "That's what we are, brother. This one is... amused. You act as though you have not known another. The consul will want to meet with you right away."

He shouldn't. He might run late, his friends would worry. Yet just this once, Ryan let those worries melt away. He'd been doing things for them for weeks. He'd done extra shifts to let Jordan explore her dreams. He had to scatter when Blake decided he was mad and wanted to explode. Now Kaelynn didn't want to listen to him anymore.

He deserved this one thing, an opportunity he might never have again. What if he was trapped as a changeling forever, unable to return home? He needed this.

"And I would like to meet him."

The guard escorted him into the embassy—though embassy was probably not the right word for such a place. Like a living termite mound, it thronged with activity. Within seconds of stepping inside, a dozen other changelings appeared from nearby passages, studying him.

Without fail, they were emotional blanks to him. Rather than radiating their feelings at every moment, Ryan could close his eyes and finally feel a little privacy. His thoughts wouldn't get washed away in so many other feelings. Here at least, the voices could finally stop.

The interior of the strange building certainly wasn't conventionally beautiful. It had low ceilings, and passages that often required him to crawl to pass between them. The air inside was hot and damp, and after passing between a few small rooms, he was soon in total darkness.

Maybe he should be terrified, surrounded by smells he'd never known, and no visual way to identify where he was going. Yet when he looked up and realized he was crawling along a wall, he found he didn't care.

It wasn't the same guard who took him. The one leading him now wore no armor, but had a shell of swirling pink and red. She kept glancing back at Ryan, as though afraid she would lose him somewhere. That made him feel even safer.

"We're almost there!" she said, or maybe thought. Ryan didn't even know, and found he didn't care. "The consul's chambers are just ahead. He's already expecting you."

"I'll admit, this whole thing has me a little nervous," he said. He kept his voice low, though in the strange tunnels there was no guarantee it wouldn't echo to someone listening in the distance. "You've taken me inside as though I was someone important. But I don't represent anyone, I'm not here on official business. I'm not even from the same world as all of you. I'm a changeling by chance."

His escort didn’t seem to understand much of it, though for once Ryan felt blind in knowing for sure. He couldn't sense any of their emotions. Couldn't know if he'd said the right thing, or if he needed to change his attitude for maximum effect. Maybe that was a good thing.

"The consul may not see you for long," she said. "But every new changeling who arrives always gets their time to speak with someone. We are a scattered people, brother. Even before the failed attack on this city, we were scattered a great distance. Those of us who were separated from the hive all developed our own way. Maybe you know—it's easy to conform to expectations. It is harder to know what you should be when no creature is there to make such demands."

They crawled along for only a little further, until they passed up through another strange barrier. It felt wet, clinging to his body, yet he could push his way through. It sounded like sticking his fist into a tray of jello. As he passed through, it slorped closed behind him.

The space beyond was not in total darkness like much of the tunnels. Though what it was actually meant to be was harder to know. There was no furniture inside, though the walls were covered in drawings painted right onto the stone. There was a single awkward bookshelf up against one wall, looking fairly banged-up. Like it had been awkwardly dragged through the tunnels to get it here, with no regard for the fine wood finish being destroyed.

A pool of water bubbled and frothed near one side of the room, keeping the room pleasantly damp. It had even been scented, though Ryan had no word at all for the smell. Something like lifting a rotten log in the woods, and finding cockroaches had colonized its underside. Except the smell was welcoming, pleasant instead of repulsive.

"This is the newcomer," said a voice—a confident, male voice, more direct and forceful than anyone else he'd encountered in the embassy so far. "One of the old blood. He must have interesting stories to tell."

Ryan turned to face the voice, and found himself facing down a bug like none he'd yet seen. The creature towered over him by a full head, though all these bugs were bigger than he was. He had a rack of something like antlers on his head, though they were probably made of the same stuff that formed his shiny green exoskeleton.

"I think I do," Ryan said, hesitating awkwardly in the entrance. Like every other person he'd seen so far, this bug did not share their feelings with him. The confidence he projected was entirely a matter of body-language. "Am I supposed to bow? I don't know... anything, really."

The bug chuckled. "And so honest. I forgot what it was like." They grinned, advancing on Ryan. This creature might be taller and stronger than he was, but they weren't built like a warrior. Changelings didn't come in that flavor, no matter their weird colors. "You could start with your name. I am Pharynx, consul and ambassador to Equestria. I am also here to find and help every lost changeling who wanders in... like you."

"My name is... Ryan," he stammered. He couldn't sense it to be sure, but as he looked around Ryan could see that the room wasn't just the two of them. There were other scents, somehow softer and more welcoming. Female scents. Though what that meant among changelings, he didn't know. Did they have a queen? "Thank you for your time. I don't have much of it myself, but I just thought I should... I saw the signs. Heard ponies talking about it. I wanted to see if any of it was true. There really are changelings living in the open here."

"There are." Pharynx circled around him, with an eye somewhere between a doctor and someone about to auction a farm animal. It probably wasn't meant to be anything unfriendly. "You are in decent shape for a bug living out on their own. You must have hunting grounds of your own. Or..."

He reached forward, and before Ryan could get away, snatched at one of his wings with a hoof. He lifted, pushing the wing until it was upright. Somehow he knew just how to move it without feeling like he was yanking on the limb. This Pharynx knew what it was like to have wings, and how not to cause injury. "No, not hunting. You have a... willing relationship with another creature. Did you do this without hearing of my brother's rebellion?"

Maybe Ryan should've just stayed quiet and answered all Pharynx's questions. But he hadn't come this far just to answer other people without getting any information of his own. "I don't know who your brother is, or any rebellion. But please, what does any of that mean? You're right, I'm close to a pony, I have friends here... but why are we different?"

He took a breath, before vomiting out everything in a rush. "Your sign says changeling, you look and act a little like me, but you're also so different. The ponies outside were scared when they saw me, but they weren’t frightened of you. I can't feel anything from you, when I've been slowly going crazy from all the emotions washing over me, hour after hour, day after day... for months! I don't know how anyone can keep it straight! Sometimes I'm afraid I'll forget that I'm even alive anymore!"

Ryan looked down, and realized he'd lifted into the air as he spoke, meeting eye level with the creature. He settled awkwardly back onto the stone, looking away. A dozen different eyes were staring at him—not just Pharynx, but so many others lurking in distant corners of the room as well.

Pharynx watched him, silent and emotionless. Except—suddenly he wasn't. Suddenly Ryan could feel the warmth the leader felt towards him, and every other changeling. He was curious yes, he didn't understand where Ryan could have come from. But his worry was far stronger, accompanied with a deep resonance of personal duty.

Just as with the guard outside, the feelings lasted only for a second. Once deliberately shared, then withdrawn just as quickly. "That's a lot of questions. Why don't you get comfortable, Ryan? You can tell us about you, and we can teach you what it means to be a changeling."

Chapter 49: Kaelynn

The crew was back by nightfall, wandering back in a few groups. At least the ones who left, anyway. Kaelynn had denied Ryan's request to come with him.

For once, he hadn't been insistent, giving her some time to herself. Kaelynn visited her old water prison, floating along in the surface, skimming her book for useful songs. But mostly she was waiting for the return trip.

Blake and Vesper made it back first, smelling like fried food and looking like they'd been walking through the city taking all sorts of touristy adventures. But Kaelynn could see enough in the frustration on Vesper's face to know she didn't need to ask the important question. There would be no second couple on the deck today.

Janet and Galena returned a few minutes later, carrying sheaves of maps and printouts between them. Galena had acquired a "miners of Equestria" baseball cap, which she now wore awkwardly on her head along with an oversized jacket she'd acquired in Mount Aris.

"Promising lead to the other side," Janet said, as soon as she'd stepped into the mess hall beside Galena. "Galena was right, they didn't take us seriously at all."

"Ponies think we cannot abide to be underground," Galena said, grinning smugly to herself. "That we are scared of stone. But they are wrong—birds appreciate what we find beneath the ground. We are not afraid to work for it."

Ryan was the very last to arrive, so slowly that Kaelynn began to grow nervous. Had he gotten himself into trouble? Maybe the ponies were far less cosmopolitan about the mixing of races and cultures than they'd initially seemed.

The hours ticked along, long enough that Kaelynn's nervousness began to build. Maybe she should do something to go looking for him. They couldn't just sit here and hope the changeling would find his way back.

Then he landed on the deck, with a distinct buzz from his wings that couldn't be anyone else. Kaelynn stumbled away from the mess table, and found him rushing down the stairs.

His face was... different, somehow. Resolved? It was so hard to judge emotions on those fractal eyes. "Didn't you look like something else when you left?"

He waved a dismissive hoof. "I'm not going to hide here anymore. There's a cure for all that, Kaelynn—I don't have to keep living that way. The first step of getting over it is to stop treating myself like I'm a disease."

"I guess that makes sense." She rested one hoof on his shoulder. She wobbled a bit, though she couldn't have said why. She must be getting light-headed from spending so long aboard the ship. "I don't think you're a disease. But everyone else is waiting for you.

"We are!" Vesper called. "We're plotting our course through the mines. Galena's pretty sure she knows where the Worldgate is. We can stay away from the tours completely, go in through a municipal tunnel just here. Might have to pick a lock, but nothing more than that."

Kaelynn rejoined the others, Ryan hurrying along beside her. He didn't change into anything else on his way through the doorway, so he was still the fully-insect creature that had appeared on the other side of the Worldgate.

Only Janet reacted negatively, jolting away from the map spread on the table in front of them, nearly falling over. But she corrected herself quickly, taking a steadying breath. "You... decided to stop changing? That's good. Less magic will give you a larger window."

Ryan nodded. "For now. I'll change if I have a reason. But being with my friends is not a reason."

No one said anything to that. After a few seconds, Blake tapped his foreleg against the table, just beside the map. "If everyone has the energy, it would be better to go straight through tonight. We can sleep in the cavern, continue the rest of the way to the gate by morning, then... find whatever's waiting for us on the other side."

"Fine by me," Ryan answered. "I don't sleep."

The others each answered the same way, one by one. Except for Galena. "I am not staying behind. I still wish to see this other world, to know for myself your promises are true. I will not watch the ship."

"But... someone should," Janet said. "It can't be me. If that Worldgate goes somewhere safe, I'm going to stay on that side, find my own way back to the US. Every Worldgate could be my last trip with this group."

"I'll stay," Kaelynn said. The suggestion of crawling through the dirt of an old mine didn't exactly appeal to her right now. "I need some time to..."

"Change back?" Ryan asked, hopefully. "Before you get so sick you waste away?"

"Maybe." She gestured away from him. "You guys go! I can hold down a ship in a friendly city."

"Thanks, Kaelynn," Blake said. "We'll all take turns if we make it through today. Guess that means you're first."

She watched them go about an hour later, slinking away into the city. Her eyes were on Ryan the longest, watching to see what form he'd copy for the trip up.

None, as it turned out. Good luck, Ryan. I hope I figure out what's going on with me by the time you get back.

It would be so easy for Kaelynn to wander off the deck of the Bright Hawk and explore this huge city of ponies. In many ways, this was exactly the sort of thing she'd come to see—another world, full of incredible mysteries waiting to be discovered. And yet, she was trapped, imprisoned on the Bright Hawk and unable to leave.

Despite the effort in willpower, she managed to remain on the deck, only looking down with longing at the city below. Thousands of creatures moved down there, living entire lives to rhythms that she didn't understand.

I should've taken Ryan up on his offer to stay here. Then there'd be two of us, and we could take turns. But no matter how tempting it could be, getting a route back and forth to Equestria figured out was more important. Once we know we can stay on the Earth side as long as we want, we don't need to worry about being stuck this way.

Obviously being "stuck" this way didn't bother the locals moving back and forth just below the Bright Hawk. The docks were packed with creatures, each one busy with their own lives.

Kaelynn stared at one passing group, a set of muscular earth stallions pulling a fancy white carriage. It looked like there was someone inside, though she couldn't get a good look to tell for sure.

A few even pointed up to her on the deck, about twenty feet higher than the flow of traffic. They waved, and she waved back. Then she got a little too energetic, and the world started to sway.

Kaelynn backed away from the railing, nearly flopping to the ground. She settled down on all four legs, breathing heavily. It was okay, she'd be fine. She'd just had a few bad nights. It wasn't the first time she'd had trouble sleeping.

Hold down the fort, what does that even mean? She wandered to the supply shelf, where they kept refreshments for anyone who happened to be spending a long time on deck. That meant climbing another stairwell to the helm, since it was in a shelf just beside the instruments.

There was a barrel of water inside, along with a ladle. Instead of actually drinking, Kaelynn just stuck her head right inside, practically inhaling the stuff. But she didn't actually try breathing it. That familiar pressure against her lungs, the one that came from old human instincts, remained.

Why did she feel trapped in the open air? She had legs now, she was free to be among other creatures! She wasn't locked in a tank.

Being up here was the entire reason she had fought so hard to figure out the strange magic of her new race. Sure, she felt a little disoriented, a little weaker. But there were other explanations.

Ryan's wrong. There's no reason using a little magic would be harder on me than it is on him. He can change into whatever he wants without an issue. I should be able to stay like this as long as I like.

She continued her patrol of the Bright Hawk, though of course she expected very little. This was the capital of the pony nation called Equestria, apparently the safest place in the entire world. If they could be a little overconfident with their safety anywhere on this alien planet, it was here.

I can go belowdecks and catch my breath. There's no danger there. Kaelynn took one last circuit of the deck, made sure the ramp was still raised, then headed back down the way she'd come.

Maybe this would be the way back her friends had been searching for all this time. Sooner or later, they were bound to try enough portals that they found one that actually did anything.

Kaelynn wandered down past the bedrooms into the place that was called the workshop, where cargo-bay doors could be opened to load the ship whenever they wanted. Of course they were all securely shut—they had precious little gold, and had to guard it carefully.

Even the old shelves were stripped out of the cargo area, all but one. They needed every pound they could to make up for the weight of water loaded into the captain's quarters.

But their equipment was still here, what little they'd bought from supplies in Mount Aris. A single workbench, a few boxes of metal springs and hinges and spare parts. Basic mechanical tools. Everything was manually operated, from the drill to the bandsaw.

That was all they could afford. But then, the hippogriffs had mentioned "thaumic-driven" tools that could be purchased for a lower price in Equestria. Maybe she should run down to the market and take a look around.

No, Kaelynn. We don't need to buy anything on this side. Focus on getting back, then we can have all the tools we want.

The removal of most shelves meant there was plenty of wall space for her sketches and designs, and so most of the space around her workbench was covered with them. Most related to her condition in one way or another—ways to take a body with only two legs and no ability to breathe air, and somehow free herself of those restrictions without transforming.

She already had the v1, the simple harness that held her in damp cloth and relied entirely on the rebreather for air. The v2 was about halfway assembled here.

Instead of a simple v-frame, her improved version had back legs that responded to movements from the tail, and were driven by motors. While on a flat surface, they could lock in place and roll, using her forelegs to drag her along. When she needed to, that mechanism could unlock, and allow her to walk upstairs or over rough terrain.

"Is there any point?" she asked the empty room, smacking one hoof into the side. The harness fit over all four legs, so that the majority of its substantial weight could be channeled around her forelegs, rather than relying on her to lift the whole thing at all times.

But as confident as she was in the mechanical parts, there was one aspect she hadn't yet answered. How would she possibly power the damn thing? Similar mechanisms on Earth required massive battery systems, or fuel cells. She would never have either in this world.

Maybe songs were the better way.

She tinkered with it for a time, relying on something far easier to think about than her friends off on a dangerous mission. Here in the workshop, she might not have all the answers, but she was still in control.It was the way the world ought to be.

She probably kept working for hours, because the next thing she knew, the light streaming in through the porthole above her had turned to the soft amber of streetlights. She groaned, sitting up from her desk. Had she dozed off again?

She barely noticed the hoofsteps behind her, except they had probably been what woke her. Kaelynn turned, expecting to see Ryan standing there. He would have just returned from another portal that was unsafe to use for one reason or another. They'd check a Worldgate off their list, and that would be the depressing reality.

Instead, she found a stranger standing in the hallway. She'd never seen a creature quite like her up close, though she'd now seen plenty from a distance. These were the ones that locals called “unicorns.”

This one was older than most of the natives she had seen, with a bleached white mane and a coat that had lost most of its color. Her horn was almost a full foot long, maybe longer. Was it her imagination, or was it already glowing in the tight confines of the Bright Hawk's corridors?

"Excuse me, are you the captain of this vessel?" The pony sounded friendly, the same way so many other creatures did. Like the grandmother of a personal friend, who had gotten themselves a tad lost. "I'm looking for the captain, and I must assume it's you."

She straightened, shaking off the last vestiges of sleep. Her tail still sagged, and she could feel one fin dragging against the wood. But that was fine, the wood was soft enough.

The unicorn was well-dressed, wearing more than almost any local that Kaelynn had yet seen. It might very well be the first time she'd ever seen another pony dressed as completely as they had been when they first stepped through the Worldgate.

"I'm sorry, I'm not sure the rest of my crew has the time to talk much about..." She took a deep breath, then tried again. "Perhaps you could leave a message, and I'll deliver it when the captain returns? We raised the boarding ramp, we thought that meant..." Apparently there were other customs about wanting visitors and the sanctity of personal space. On Earth, Kaelynn would probably think she was being attacked.

"Certainly," the unicorn said. She stopped in the doorway, blocking Kaelynn's escape. She could easily have shoved past her, but that old pony was so wrinkled and feeble—she had to be careful, or else she might hurt her by accident!

"But are you sure the captain isn't here? I'd like to have a word with the pony in charge. I've heard some remarkable things about this vessel. Like you! I've never seen a mare like you. Is it true that you're an actual seapony? Relic from the past, returned despite the war to the south? Proof of mysterious things forgotten by creatures all over Equestria?"

Someone was bound to make a big deal out of that, she thought. Half of Mount Aris freaked out when I showed up, but here I could walk around in broad daylight and it took hours.

"Positive," Kaelynn said, letting a little of her annoyance finally find its way into her tone. "There's nopony else aboard, miss. I can take your message, but that's it."

"Oh." The old mare shuffled on her hooves, looking away. "That's exactly the kind of news I wanted to hear." Then her horn glowed, lighting instantly to a spotlight on her forehead.

Kaelynn stumbled back, lifting one hoof to try and shield her eyes. But she might as well blow into a hurricane for all the good it did—the illumination was overwhelming.

"I'm afraid this might be a tad uncomfortable, dear. But you should know, it's for your own good."

Suddenly Kaelynn was falling, like she'd just stepped off a balcony and over a cliff. The air rushed past her, yet that air wasn't helping. She coughed and spluttered, her throat suddenly in desperate need of moisture, but finding none. Her head swam, and she flipped head-over-heels, spinning through the air.

She barely got a single glimpse of wood and shelves rushing past, before finally splashing down into the water. A... pool? She took a breath, and found the water slightly stale as it moved down her throat. Somehow, she was swimming again.

She took another breath—but aside from the water being a little stale, she couldn't taste much. The pool was dark, illuminated through a glass side with a shimmering glow of purple.

A face appeared before her, massive and out of focus. For a second she froze, unsure of what she was looking at. How could anything be so... huge? It was like her first time swimming through the Worldgate all over again, with her brain struggling and failing to identify whatever she was seeing.

Then it clicked. A gray pony face, with a few wrinkles and a towering spire of a horn rising up and out of Kaelynn's field of view.

Then a voice shook the water, one that she remembered from moments before—but suddenly it was much deeper, almost out of her ability to understand. "I'm terribly sorry about the inconvenience, mythical seapony. But I have to arrange transport, and I didn't think I had the strength to carry you through Canterlot on my own."

Kaelynn smacked up against the glass with one hoof, freezing there. Through it, she realized what she should've known instantly—that was the interior of the Bright Hawk. There was her workbench, towering like a skyscraper. And her posters against the wall were each like whole city blocks.

"You can't do this!" It was impossible, obviously. Somehow, this unicorn had taken away her legs, and... stuffed her in a bottle?

But the unicorn didn't seem to even hear her. "We'll speak again soon," she promised. "I'm afraid I can't understand you in there. I suspect you will have much to teach me."

Kaelynn's whole world was falling now, vanishing out of sight. She squirmed and fought, swimming up to escape—but soon found herself at the top of a huge space. A jar, with a metal lid securely tightened. There was a little space for air up here, just enough for her to surface.

She didn't, though. Something dark wrapped around her prison on all sides, cutting out what little moonlight made its way inside. Soon enough she was plunged headlong into darkness, and her ship vanished from around her.

She wanted to scream, call out to one of her friends for help. But they weren't even in the same universe, let alone the same ship.

I'm completely screwed.

Chapter 50: Blake

Blake led the way into the crystal caverns, heavy flashlight resting over one shoulder. It was a local model, with something magical in its guts instead of a battery. More importantly, he could use it hands-free, which was a critical quality for an animal without any hands.

"We should be past the last of the barricades now!" Ryan called from just behind him. Several other sets of hoofsteps kept pace, or the staggered mix of claws and hooves that were Janet’s and Galena's.

Only Vesper's were missing, and he needed no flashlight to see why. She flew through the cavern ahead of them, traveling through total darkness before their light had even reached. He couldn't hear her wings, but he could guess where she had gone at any point—occasionally his ears would twitch, and he'd catch a series of high-pitched clicks, echoing from strange directions. Sometimes above, sometimes behind—yet there never came a crash, or scream of pain. Apparently she knew what she was doing.

She could also appear without warning, as she did a few seconds later, emerging from the gloom with a grin plastered to her face and short fangs glinting in the flashlight. Blake managed to keep his cool, but behind him Galena nearly jumped off the narrow walkway they were following, beak bared in agitation.

"Announce yourself, bat! You could be a threat!"

Vesper tilted her head to one side, grin widening. "Hey, so there are some... big bugs flying around here. Like huge." She gestured with her wings, then held one hoof over her stomach. "You guys want me to try and catch you some for the road? They're way more filling than stupid pony salad."

Blake wasn't sure how to answer. It was true that most pony food hadn't been as satisfying to him as some members of their group. But what he really craved was more of the blue stuff the buffalo had served. Somehow, he doubted that they'd be interested in another visit after the fire.

"I don't want to lose my lunch in a Worldgate," Janet said. "Tracy tried to serve that crap to me once. I will never, ever eat a bug."

Blake shook his head too. Though he didn't really want to tell Vesper no. She looked like the consummate explorer, with goggles on her forehead, a set of leathery saddlebags on her back, and bracers running down her forelegs. He hadn't even bothered asking where she got it all.

"Maybe on the way back. But I'm crossing my fingers that we'll be eating lunch somewhere nice on the other side. I could kill for a real steak, some sautéed mushrooms, maybe some wine..."

"Sounds good to me." Vesper slid up next to him, leaning against his left side. "You shouldn't be so afraid of the dark. I bet your eyes work plenty well without the flashlight."

"His might," Galena said, annoyed. "The rest of us, not so much. Still your enthusiasm, bat. This may be your home, but it is not ours. We need to move carefully."

"I'm not the only bat," she muttered, but it wasn't like her anger lasted long. She glanced over her shoulder, at where Ryan trailed behind.

Indeed, he had his own set of dark-skinned wings, and tufty ears. But Ryan had found another local to copy, so there weren't two versions of Vesper flying around. God help Blake if that ever happened.

"The map doesn't show where we're going," Ryan said, before Galena or Vesper could start arguing again. "But it does have some strong warnings of where not to go. Odds are they were trying to keep any miners from stumbling into a functional Worldgate."

"Odds are," Janet repeated. "But caverns like this are dangerous naturally, right? Old mines can have... sinkholes, poisonous gas, landslides..."

"They can," Blake agreed. "Fortunately for you, exploring places like this is kind of our thing. We had a YouTube channel with... you know what, it doesn't matter right now. Point is we know what we're doing. That doesn't mean ignoring the dangers, just that we'll be careful and check for everything we can."

"Unfortunately, there's no canary to send down first," Vesper said. Though the way she glanced between their two part-bird companions, Blake could guess at what she almost said. But she swallowed it, and just turned back towards the darkness. "I think I could bring us an air-quality tester. I'm not... 100% on how accurate the readings will be. I guess that comes down to how well I can dream about it."

She turned towards Janet, raising one wing almost vertically behind her. "And don't you dare lecture me about how I shouldn't be using magic. We either get safety equipment or I don't use magic, but we don't get it both ways. Which would you rather have?"

Janet must have been sweltering in all those clothes. Even down here, where the heat of the planet kept the tunnel about eighty-five degrees. Blake had his own clothing of course, all folded neatly into his own saddlebags. But however embarrassing it could sometimes feel, not wearing that much just made this job easier.

Their fur might be soft, but it was tough enough to stand up to these conditions, just as their hooves could walk over rugged ground without shoes. A quick rinse when they were out of the mine would be far easier than keeping several changes of clothes.

Of course he wouldn't be able to do that once they got to the other side, assuming the Worldgate was even here.

"Jordan, if you could—" Ryan stopped, ears flattening. "Vesper, sorry. Vesper, you should check the map. If you're confident flying through here, you could scout it out for us."

"Sure!" She touched her head once to Blake's shoulder, then turned back, joining Ryan around the map. "Blake, flashlight? I can see walls in the dark, not read."

The tunnel wasn't terribly wide—but there was enough space for him to squeeze back, angling the flashlight at the map. "How's that?"

Vesper squeaked in response, though she might've been trying to say something. Either way, Blake remained where he was, watching the two of them go over the map.

Down in the dark, dodging over turnstiles and picking locks, he could almost imagine this little mission was no different from any of the others they'd gone on before. Kaelynn would be behind them with the Steadicam, getting B-roll for their video, while he kept his eyes open to turn today's location into some narrative. Vesper, naturally, would have to come up with the clickbait thumbnail to get the audience interested.

Okay, so maybe he didn't usually catch himself staring at practically naked members of his team. But she was doing that thing with her tail on purpose. Janet had a flashlight too, but she hadn't asked for her.

Vesper didn't wait much longer—maybe she could read the map without the light. She glanced over her shoulder, grinning at him. "Looks like I can take a shortcut! There's a central chamber that cuts through most of the mine. But some of you can't fly, so you'll have to walk."

"We should wait on the edge," Ryan said, mostly to him. Even back on Earth, his friends always wanted his approval when they made big moves. Someone had to be in charge, or they'd all wander off in different directions and the content wouldn't get made. "She can fly back once she knows whether it's the right way."

Vesper continued through the tunnel, which led into a vast space leading down into blackness. Glittering crystal in the walls caught the light of his flashlight, reflecting and distorting as they angled downward.

He followed, sliding past Janet to reach Vesper before she could jump. "Be careful down there," he said. "Don't take risks. If it's sketchy, we can always find another Worldgate."

She grinned up at him, settling the clear goggles over her eyes. There was no way that could actually be doing anything. But it did make her look good. A rugged adventurer, daring to go where none of the locals would visit. "You're worried about me?"

He nodded. "Of course I am. We've been through another world together, Vesper. One day there's going to be a National Geographic special about us. I don't want to tell them that one of my team died in a mine."

She stuck out her tongue. "You know that's not what I meant." She took a few steps back—right out into open air. But she spread her wings, catching herself as she went down. Blake walked to the edge, watching her bat outline vanish into the dark.

The others followed him into the tunnel beyond. They were mostly silent, particularly Galena. Despite what she insisted about being underground, she did seem uncomfortable to be down here.

Janet didn't, but she had her own map, and kept her eyes on it most of the time. Only Ryan was comfortable enough to follow Blake all the way to the edge, following his gaze. "You really think you're fooling anyone? If you think you're keeping anything secret..."

"There's nothing to keep secret," he said, settling down onto his haunches. He kept his voice as flat as he could—but from the tension he saw in Ryan, maybe he hadn't done such a good job. Did humans express so many feelings physically, but I never noticed? Humans didn't have such convenient ears and tails to watch.

"Shouldn't there be?" Ryan asked, a little quieter. "I know you're not a bloodsucking parasite like me, and I'm jealous. But there's no telling how much longer we'll be stuck here. I promise it's not that weird."

He chuckled. "Ryan is giving me advice on women. Except we're not even talking about a woman, we're talking about someone who used to be Jordan. Doesn't that seem... weird?"

He shrugged. "It was weird not being just one thing, at first. It was weird being a fish, weird sleeping with one. But isn't it up to us to think of something as weird or not? Just don't think of it like that. You met someone cute here, and you got along well. That's not strange."

Janet cleared her throat loudly, enough that both of them turned. And Blake of all people was the one to feel embarrassed. "There's something else for you to consider," she began. "Not that it's any of my business. But the changeling... you're sterile. Parasites have a queen, or had one. But you two—Blake, your girlfriend isn't sterile. I don't know what you are, exactly, but you don't seem like a bug. Whatever you do, don't bring a baby into this world."

She spoke so authoritatively, so commanding—a little like the signs all over the world telling Blake where he wasn't allowed to go. It did more than any encouragement from Ryan could've.

"We're not together," he said. "But maybe that's a mistake. I guess I'll feel things out after this Worldgate."

"Good," Ryan said. "I'm not just saying this because I want more food. Any love is good. But all the stress you've got leading us—you could do with less of it. Also, Vesper's getting so pent-up that sensing her is making me lose it. So maybe hurry up?"

"I'm not a prude, Ryan. If I met a woman like Vesper in Rome or Seoul or wherever, it wouldn’t even be a question. But just because she's a bat now doesn't mean she's going to be one forever. We're trying to stop from being stuck here, remember? You and Kaelynn can still work when we get back to Earth. But I'm not gay, and I didn't think Jordan was either. When we succeed, and I plan on succeeding, it's a guaranteed end to whatever we had."

He lowered his voice, hopefully far enough that the two birds wouldn't hear. It probably wouldn't work in either case—their eyes might not be the best in this darkness, but their hearing wasn't any weaker. "And a guarantee of awkwardness between us for the rest of forever. Even if our team never goes anywhere again, and we live on the royalties for the Equestria documentary, we're still going to be stuck together for the rest of our lives. We're the brave explorers who found it and revealed this place to the world. I don't want those press conferences to be all awkward and weird."

"Whatever. I know you won't take my word for it. But from where I'm standing, it seems like that's gonna happen either way. On the other hand, there's no guarantee we ever get out of this. If we don't, you've at least got something new to keep you going."

Blake couldn't say anything else, because something began ascending from the darkness beneath them. He backed away, grinning as Vesper returned. She was a little dustier from the journey, and her flight faltered a little as she ascended. But she managed to land on the edge without much difficulty.

"Good news!" she called, though she was clearly just watching him. "Looks just like the first one down there! Worldgate is waiting. I didn't stick my head through, but I didn't see anything funny. No poison gas, and I didn't see any monster either. We can go."

"Good." Blake rose, patting Vesper once on the shoulder. "Great job. Keep an eye on us during the way down, just in case."

Chapter 52: Kaelynn

Kaelynn was... somewhere. Nowhere she wanted to be, nowhere she ever planned to visit. But it wasn't like she'd been given a choice.

She spent an eternity of bumping and jostling around, with the voices of other creatures practically right outside. How many of those others might be able to rescue her, if only they had any idea what was happening? Could she somehow sing them a message?

She tried a few tunes, but nothing was louder than the sound of jostling around her.

At least her kidnapper had packed her jar into plenty of dense padding, so she wouldn't be knocked around, or shattered to suffocate in the air.

I should've memorized those songs. The one she'd used to get her legs wasn't that complicated, really. She had tried to memorize it, in her (thus far) failed attempt to reverse her transformation and get back into the water.

But apparently I didn't need to learn that either, because some unicorn can just change me whenever she wants.

She could probably stew with her resentment for another several hours, and maybe she did. There was no frame of reference to the outside world, no way to know how much time was passing. There was only a smooth glass surface, bumping up and down in a way that made her feel gradually sicker the longer she felt it.

Until the bumping stopped. She watched, swimming near the top of the jar to see what might be happening. Then light cracked in through the ceiling, and the whole jar glowed with so much green light around the edges that she could see nothing of the outside world.

She did feel the world moving, listing violently to one side. Then she heard a voice, muted by the glass. Only its terrible volume was enough for her to hear and understand it at all.

"I hope you will find a home here," it said. "I know you may resent me now, but understand that I do this for your own good. I cannot allow something rare and beautiful to die out. I must preserve you, for the sake of the others like you who are not yet born."

"You don't have what you think you do!" she shouted, as loudly as she possibly could. But speaking underwater was a different kind of sound, and she wasn’t even sure it would be audible from outside the jar. Either it wasn't, or the pony wasn't listening.

Through to the other side, she caught a brief glimpse of that old face, holding her over something vast—like a whole ocean, trapped in a room with white walls. Much bigger than a tank for hobby fish—this thing was more like an industrial aquarium. Something that could hold her real self. Though the distance was so incredible...

Suddenly she tilted forward. She kicked her tail, swimming as quickly back the other way as she possibly could.

Nowhere near fast enough, not when all the water in the jar went with her. She slipped out over the edge, then she was falling.

Kaelynn screamed in naked terror—literally. Probably she pissed herself too, as she tumbled apparent hundreds of feet down through the air. Her tail and fins kicked in vain, unable to slow her.

Yet it wasn't falling as she expected. She seemed to be growing towards the water, rather than falling through the air. Her vision distorted and blurred for a moment, then suddenly she could see the whole room more clearly—just in time to drop headfirst into the water.

The cold of it was another shock, stunning her enough that she started shivering. But it wasn't just that. The water burned as it went down her throat, making her whole body twitch and spasm. Could she not even breathe it?

For a few seconds she drifted, hacking and struggling to breathe. She swam upward in the water by reflex, brushing up against the surface. Had she somehow changed back without realizing it? She tried lifting her head above the surface, taking in a mouthful of air—but that did even less, searing as it went down.

She exhaled, and began drifting down to the bottom of the tank. She saw an opening here, a tunnel or maybe a door leading into the rock. Pain passed through her whole body, from her head all the way to her tail. It didn't feel like drowning exactly, though she still screamed madly into the water.

Then it ended. She looked up from a layer of gravel at the bottom, and realized that she wasn't in pain anymore. She blinked, looking around the tank. Why had that hurt so badly... something about the magic forcing her, or maybe being small?

She looked up, taking in her surroundings. The room was roughly square, with stone on five sides, and thick glass on the front. Though it was a room swallowed entirely by stone, with several large drains on the floor directly in front of the glass.

Kaelynn instantly turned for the ceiling, swimming up as quickly as she could. She smacked her head into it after a few seconds, grunting in pain. More metal grate, this one positioned with barely any clearance at all. Probably her kidnapper had smacked it closed while she was suffocating.

"At the front of the enclosure, you'll find a crystal embedded in the glass. It will allow you to speak."

The voice came from the glass, apparently emanating from the crystal itself. But something else caught her eye, on the opposite wall. The corridor she had seen, leading backward into a dark space. Was there motion in the water beyond, the smell of someone else?

She turned away from that opening, making her way over to the crystal. It was a length of some semi-precious stone, carved with lots of little markings. But she didn't need to know how it worked to know she was dealing with a prison PA.

"I felt like I was going to die when I landed," she said. Her voice was far weaker than it had been, barely stable. "Were you trying to torture me?" The cold wasn't exactly pleasant, compared to the relative warmth aboard the Bright Hawk. But it wasn't going to hurt her—it was just a little uncomfortable.

"No." The old mare sat just beside the glass, watching her through her spectacles. "You made the transition from fresh water to salt water. Notice your body has become longer, smoother. You've lost the spots. I wonder if they'd be in the same pattern if we transitioned you back... but that's an experiment for another day."

Now that Kaelynn thought about it, she had endured this pain before. It had been so brief while she was at Mt. Aris, and more importantly she had wanted to change. Now she faced it naked and unprepared.

The pony rose, tapping one hoof gently against the glass. "I'm an old mare, so I will keep this brief. There are two ways out of this tank. One is steel, rated to resist a determined earth pony for many hours. The other is glass, the window between us. I know you could find a way to break it. Before you do, I wish to draw your attention to the drains."

She pointed with one hoof. "The entire tank behind you is higher than this drain. Once that glass breaks, it will drain within thirty seconds, killing you before you can complete any transformation song."

Even if I could make it work. She circled around furiously, taking in the tank. Aside for its single opening, there was a large light overhead—a skylight. The glass looked polarized somehow, so no one would be getting a glimpse of them from above. That explained the darkness of the water, it was still night out there.

But through the glass, a pair of electric lights kept that room at a steady brightness. There wasn't much through there—aside from the huge drains, there were a few benches and bookshelves, a desk, and a heavy jail-looking door.

Finally she rested her foreleg on the communication crystal again. "My friends will give you hell for this," she said. "One of them is a changeling. He probably watched the whole kidnapping."

The old mare actually smiled."If you think the princess is going to help you, you're mistaken. Princess Twilight is far too invested in the transition of power to monitor such little matters as passenger manifests."

"Not her." Kaelynn leaned up close to the glass, baring her teeth. They were flat, unfortunately. She couldn't muster Galena's intimidating beak. "The others with me on that ship aren't from your world, bitch. We're aliens from a world a whole lot less friendly than this one. When they find out who took me, they're not going to ask for help. They'll get me out, no matter the blood it takes to get here.

"We killed a ship full of pirates, asshole. Don't think they won't kill you.”

Maybe it was just the glass, but this time Kaelynn could detect something different in the mare's face. But it didn't last long. "If that's true, you probably shouldn't have told me. I'll increase security until such time as it's clear your changeling bluff doesn't manifest."

She took another step back, and suddenly her voice became deeply muffled. "We'll speak again after I rest. Do let me know if there's anything I could do to improve the accommodations."

Then she turned, waking calmly away into the room. Kaelynn screamed into the water after her, letting loose with every profanity she knew—but it did no good. The old mare didn't so much as slow down. She reached the door, then Kaelynn got a single glimpse outside.

Narrow stone hallway, with bulky pony figures visible beyond. They slammed the door shut, and she imagined she could see several heavy locks closing over one by one, until the door was entirely sealed.

For a few seconds she just floated there in the water, all the energy of rebellion spent for the moment. She wanted someone to rage at, but there was nobody here but her own reflection, visible if she angled herself just so in the water.

Her kidnapper was right—her body was a little longer now, and the many dark spots on her underbelly and tail were gone. The change from fresh water to salt water. But why bother keeping a tank of salt water, when they were living in a city that could probably give her an unlimited supply of fresh?

Why go to all this trouble to kidnap her? Whoever this person was, she'd been able to locate her within a single day of her arrival in Canterlot. Apparently seaponies were that rare and special.

She drifted down towards the bottom, and felt the slight discomfort as her tail brushed against the rocks there. A gentle current seemed to pull down all the time—probably a filter system that she couldn't see.

If she hadn't been dragged here against her will, it might've been decent accommodations. Far better than the foot of water she could keep in the captain's quarters, constantly sloshing around, making the ship difficult to balance, barely enough to move, fouling up in some parts and needing her to swim through to circulate it manually...

This tank was clear, and there was enough water here that she probably wouldn't be able to ruin it faster than it was cleaned and refreshed.

Something moved in the dark water, quiet enough that she might've missed it. But there was a smell that came with it, one that she'd never noticed in anything before.

Something reflected in the electric lights from outside the room, a pair of somethings. As if on cue, the lights went out, plunging her into near-total darkness.

There was only moonlight around her now, streaming through a single central shaft. It was bright enough to show her own scales, which reflected almost metallically in the light.

She felt the water move around her, and this time she was positive she hadn't been swimming.

"Hey!" she called, lifting vertically in the water. Her own fins distorted the current, making it harder to sense whatever she had felt. But she wasn't going to let something mysterious come and attack her without fighting back. "Show yourself! If there are monsters in here to eat me, you should know I studied karate in elementary school!"

It was one of the stupidest things she'd ever said—but she also wasn't a terribly good liar.

Apparently her conviction was enough, because something moved in the water not far away from her. Her eyes caught only its faintest outline—but there was a long tail, and a lithe body, not all that different from her own.

Then a voice, singing in an octave lower than hers. But despite being male, he sounded far less confident. Actually, he seemed terrified. "Sorry! I... I hope I didn't disturb you."

Chapter 53: Ryan

Ryan emptied everything he could onto an ancient bench, arranging the relics of Earth that had survived passage through Equestria. He hadn't brought much, considering the length of the trip so far. At least the whole thing had been wrapped firmly in a dry sack, so his passport and stuff had survived. More important than that, of course, was the phone, his voice recorder, and its spare batteries. That machine took so little power that he could probably keep his journal for months more without needing to swap them out. If he stole a few micro-SD cards, then his habits could continue without interruption until their triumphant return to civilization.

Maybe right now. With the others gathering around him, Ryan fumbled with the phone, switching it back on. The doubt was not over whether it had survived the trip—but would they have any power?

He sighed in relief as the screen kicked on, and he could hear several of the others do so too.

"Not sure if we'll get a signal down here," Blake said absently. "Dunno how thick that stone is."

Ryan took the phone in one hand, scanning the status indicator. Only 5% power remained. Less than he might've hoped for, but it might be all they needed. They only needed to make a single call.

"ROAMING" replaced the name of his network. Then a few seconds later, the phone vibrated several times. First for incoming text messages, then to let him know that they had several new voicemails.

All that excitement probably wasn’t good for the poor thing's struggling battery. "I'll be damned," Janet said from just behind him. Ryan still hadn't fully adjusted to the differences with the two avian members of their crew. On this side, Janet was so small, and Galena... might be an underwear model, or maybe an undercover agent with the special forces. He wasn't sure about which quite yet.

"We'll go through the backlog later," Blake said. "Most recent stuff should be a response to the call we made. Check it out."

Indeed, there was a whole flurry of messages from far earlier. Most of that was probably people wondering if they were dead, or maybe even trying to use their phones to reach the team. He ignored that for now, going straight to the most recent voicemails.

There was one from Jolie near the end, though it wasn't the only one. There was at least one message here from his family, sent after Jolie's message. News must've spread of their survival.

By the time he started playback, every one of the crew was crowded close to listen.

"Bloody hell, Blake," Jolie's voice said. “You're fucking right the world thought you were dead. What were we supposed to think, with you vanished down under Paris without a word? There was an investigation and everything—police went over the videos in the hotel, crawled over the city for you. But they never found a body.

"Whatever this is better be fucking worth it. You won't get everybody—dragging the whole team out into the middle of nowhere after you died isn't going to get a lot of enthusiasm. But send the word, and I'll be there. Might be a few other crazy bastards brave enough to make a trip out. But if you don't have an amazing explanation for everything we went through these last two months, I'll talk to the feds. Wherever the hell you ran to, get back as quick as you can. We deserve an explanation."

The phone beeped, then went silent.

"Do we have a signal?" Blake asked, the first to break the silence.

Ryan fiddled with the phone for a few seconds. "Weak, but yes. I'll burn through the data I put on that international sim way fast if we do anything besides calling."

"Open the map," Janet suggested. "We can't call for rescue if we don't know where we're calling from."

It was a good enough point that Ryan opened it without thinking, then waited with bated breath while a loading bar spun around and around. This time, without success. "GPS signal not found," it declared.

"Outside. We need a clear path to the sky for this to work." Blake gestured, and they made their way out. Ryan resisted the urge to dig into the months’ worth of messages and figure out what had happened in their absence. He could still make a pretty good guess, even without the influx of new data. They'd already inferred most of it from what was left of the voicemail.

He didn't exactly move quickly through the tunnel. It wasn't long, but still he caught himself going through a half-dozen different shapes he could imitate to make this walk easier. Really, anything with hooves would have an easy time here. It wasn't like they had to walk on obsidian or anything, it was just that humans were a little too weak to make the process comfortable.

He didn't actually try to change, though. The entire point of returning through the Worldgate was being human again. Losing his body with no way to return wouldn't serve that end.

Could I make myself human when in Equestria? He wasn't even sure where the thought came from. But given all the exotic things he'd copied so far, humans couldn't be that much harder, could they?

Janet and Galena were the first ones out, despite beginning at the back of the group. Somehow, Galena didn't seem nearly as bothered by being careful. She did seem a little resentful of her thoroughly damp clothes.

"Are you alright?" Ryan asked, as they neared the tunnel's exit. "Is being human stranger than you thought it would be?"

"Anything would be strange," Galena said flatly. "I was not born a changeling. Going from one form to another is not part of my nature. Yet..." She opened one hand, flexing her fingers, before clenching it into a fist. "I feel weaker while wearing this skin. But I am still myself."

Ryan followed her out into the open air, shivering at the cold. At least it didn't look like winter—there was no snow on the ground, and it didn’t feel that cold.

"I didn't recognize the name on our map of Worldgates," Ryan said, pulling out the phone again and trying the maps for the second time. He got the same frustratingly long loading screen, but only for a few moments.

A map appeared before him. Mostly he was standing in a patch of green nothing, but there was a city nearby, and plenty of streets. Its name was completely unpronounceable to him, but he tried anyway. "Looks like we're in... Bydska," he said. "Anyone know that place?"

"Wasn't the name of the town on the map," Blake said. "But who cares? What country is this?"

He zoomed out, then answered that too. "Poland."

"Still in Europe," Janet said, grinning. "Not that I know how a dead person can get a passport when they're in another country. One problem at a time. You said we had someone to talk to, Blake?"

He nodded. "Do it, Ryan. Let's see if she still remembers us."

It took only a few seconds. A few swipes, and the phone started ringing again. It rang, and rang, and... then Jolie's voice. "Ryan, is that you?"

"Yeah," he said.

"Jolie, listen to me! I don't know how much power we have. We're in Bydska, Poland. Everything we talked about before, get it here as quick as possible. We're on a... small mountain cave to the east of the city. No roads go this way, but it looks like there might be hiking trails. We'll set up a flag or something. Got all that?"

There was silence on the other end. Ryan tensed, preparing for his screen to go black unexpectedly. Considering all the other stupid things that had gone wrong so far, they were overdue. What would stop them from escaping this time?

"All of its down. Hell of a flight out there. Do you plan on sharing how you ended up all the way in Poland from Paris? Did you find some hidden dwarves to take you there on a mining train? Dwarves none of the search-parties or police could find..."

Jordan chuckled, but no one else reacted.

"We'll tell you everything when you get here," Blake said. "Given what happened to us, I'm not sure this number isn't monitored."

This time Jolie laughed, equally bitter. "Better fucking hope not, or I might not be the first one you see." She hesitated. "Will we be implicated by helping you?"

"No," Blake said. "Maybe a little petty trespassing. But the police already know about that."

"The laws of physics," Jordan said. "Conservation of mass seems pretty shot."

That only confused Jolie, judging by the sudden silence on the other end. "Three days enough for you to get here?" Blake asked. "Conditions here aren’t great. We might need to..."

"The settlement seems comfortable," Galena interrupted, with no regard for the call. She did keep one eye on the phone at all times, apparently aware that it was responsible for their ability to hold a conversation. She probably thought it was magic. "Could we wait for your friends there?"

"Who's that?"

Blake didn't answer. "You could try the usual suspects in town before going for us. But it's small. Not even sure we'll find someone who speaks something we do. Don't exactly see a Marriot down there."

"One thing," Jolie said. "Before you hang up, I want a promise. Promise me I'm not the one you're fucking with here. If this is a joke, it isn't at my expense."

"We promise," Jordan said. "Jolie, whoever comes here is going to see things that will make you question everything you know about the world, even your own identity. With your help to document it, we'll change the world. We do more than any video of an empty school or an abandoned mansion ever could."

"Blake?" came the voice. "You agree with him? Not that I don't trust you, Jordan, but I don't trust you."

"Yes. Don't skimp. Fly out here expecting an extended visit. There won't be any way to leave early, so make sure everyone you bring with you is damn sure they want to see this."

"Three days isn't long enough. Give us a week, plus time for travel. Call it nine days just to be sure. I tell them they're seeing... what, precisely?"

"LOW BATTERY: POWERING OFF." The screen flashed the Samsung logo one final time, then went black.

That left the five of them all gathered around a black screen, with only their shivering and the breeze to keep them company.

"You think your friend will help?" Janet asked. She removed her heavy jacket, shaking out a little more moisture. It probably wouldn't do much for the water. "She didn't sound convinced."

Ryan tucked the phone away into a pocket. Damp as he was, it was still waterproof.

"Jolie is good people," Blake said, without skipping a beat. "She runs the production, backend, merchandizing... she's never let me down. And she’s based in Paris, so she has the EU citizenship to come out here."

"Good." Janet took a tentative step down the rocky slope before them. It wasn't steep, exactly, though there was no trail anywhere nearby. There were no trees either, at least not until much further down.

That wouldn't be a short walk down to the bottom, particularly without shoes. "We've still got some euros between us, right?" Blake asked. "We should send a group down there, scout out the town. Buy some shoes and clothes for everybody—maybe a room if they've got an inn or a hostel or something."

He turned towards Jordan. "You're the best with languages. Maybe someone down there speaks French."

Jordan chuckled. "English is more likely. We could go together."

"I'm going," Janet exclaimed, without a second's hesitation. "I know I don't have money of my own—but I'm out of time. I have to stay on this side, and that means finding a place. Please tell me I've earned that."

"And I am going also," Galena announced. "I could speak to many tribes in their tongue. I will do the same in this land."

Jordan made a dissatisfied sound that wasn't quite anything Ryan recognized. Was that what a bat squeak translated to on Earth? "I change my mind. Blake, stay here—you need a break. The birds and I will take care of this."

Maybe I should've stayed with you, Kaelynn. This is already painful, and we've only been here half an hour.

"Sounds good." He glanced back towards the opening. "We've got some spare shirts and stuff. We should be able to wrap something around your feet for the way down. Wait here."

"I need no 'wrap'," Galena said. "I am a proud griffon, strong enough of myself."

"You're not a griffon anymore. Just wait another few minutes. We'll get you down with plenty of daylight to go."

Chapter 54: Jordan

It was easily the worst hike of Jordan's life.

Wearing "shoes" that were really just a few pieces of wood wrapped around his feet with strips of ripped shirt certainly didn't help. There was no trail either, just mud and hillside with briars and thorns. Before they even started he was already shivering with cold, thanks to the water in the Worldgate. By the time they got anywhere near the bottom, he'd acquired a handful of brand-new blisters.

He moved roughly beside Galena the whole way down, traveling behind Janet by hundreds of feet. Despite what the former griffon said about her not needing shoes, even the makeshift substitutes clearly hurt her progress. But for all the times she stumbled and scraped herself, she somehow managed to catch up with him. Galena just didn't want to be in back.

"I wish to know," Galena said, as they finally reached flat ground. Janet waited beside a clear trail, one that extended towards the city. "Which tribes of your kind can fly, and why I was not made one of those. That path was a torment."

"None," Janet said. There was far more excitement on her face than either of them had demonstrated. But for her, it had just been a hike. "No humans have wings. We do have machines, like your airships—they move so quickly that even the fastest vessels you've seen would seem like they're crawling."

Jordan sat on the side of a large rock, adjusting his "shoes." What he wouldn't give to summon some sneakers from the Dreamlands right about now. He'd tried, during the walk down... without success. Not exactly surprising, however disappointing it was. No magical souvenirs from Equestria.

Galena laughed, a little of her good humor returning. "You say this thing, yet you have not heard the tale of the Guingelot. They say she could outpace even a pegasus diving with the wind! The village I saw from the mountain will be building no mighty airships, I think."

"They don't, other places do. If you think Canterlot was big, just wait until you see a real city. Stop by London or New York, and you'll know who builds them."

"I would like that," Galena said. "I would like to see your world, as you saw mine. But you say it is not possible."

Janet looked away awkwardly. "I don't know."

They walked along in silence then, long enough that the streets of the distant city finally came into view.

Compared to what Jordan had been seeing these last few weeks—wonders of another world, traveling the unseen mysteries of the Dreaming, it wasn't much. A modest Eastern-European village. Most buildings were packed close together in a few small rows, without even an alley between them. Some looked like they might even date to the Middle Ages.

Conversion to the modern world had been an awkward and piecemeal process for Bydska, with powerlines shoved in wherever they could fit, a few old phone-booths slowly yellowing in the sun with only bare wires hanging out, and plenty of graffiti.

Bydska wasn't much, but it was still the closest thing to Earth Jordan had been in months. This was it, the triumphant return. Bust out the palm fronds and the donkey, the explorers had returned.

Nobody busted out anything, though after only a few steps into town they had attracted a few locals, emerging from second and third story windows to point or snap photos with their phones. They muttered to each other in Polish.

To his surprise, it was Galena who reacted first. "Should we let them talk like that?" she asked, glaring at a little girl pointing at them from inside a shop. Bakery, maybe, judging by the sign. "I would not suffer such things to be said about my crew."

Janet nodded, lowering her voice to a whisper. "Not sure they like you two very much. Were you sure about the country, Jordan? I've never been anywhere but Mexico, but I didn't think the Poles were known for their Spanish."

His mouth fell open, confusion momentarily overtaking all else. They'd made it far enough into town now that there was some car traffic, albeit not much. An old bus traveled its slow circuit of the town, but mostly the residents walked or took bikes. But this place wasn't big enough to attract a proper crowd. Nothing big enough for them to disappear.

Jordan was no polyglot—even his French was only passable. But he knew enough Spanish to know what this wasn't. Maybe he could mistake this for Russian, if he was drunk enough. But Spanish?

"You saw the phone," he said. He pointed at a street sign. "You telling me Spanish has accented Vs and slashy Ls? I'd at least be able to feel out what Spanish might mean."

Janet stopped beside it, staring up in disbelief. "That just says 'Center Street.'" She fell abruptly silent, leaving the two of them to stare.

"That is what it says," Galena agreed. "Center Street. This is a confusing waste of metal. If the street is in the center, the label is not needed."

Finally they'd made enough of a commotion that a group of locals approached them. Teenage boys, by the look of them, dressed about how he expected. They really did wear stripes!

They said a bunch of... something. Polish words. Jordan couldn't be sure, but he was fairly certain one of them was “American.” Or maybe a butchered version of it. They seemed to be mostly pointing at Janet's jacket.

Is Poland one of the countries that hates us? He couldn't quite remember.

Janet answered them in Spanish. She gestured a few times, pointing at the jacket, then the two of them. Jordan could do a little better pulling the meaning out of it—something about them being lost, maybe a tour bus?

As if he wasn't already confused enough, Galena spoke up next, but in English. "She is right. We just looking for... somewhere to buy. Maybe stay for a little while. Where is good in your village?"

I'm missing something here. Jordan retreated from the conversation. He smiled and nodded whenever they pointed at him, but otherwise he stopped paying much attention. Whatever was going on here didn't quite compute anymore.

They're speaking three different languages, he thought. But the teenagers didn't seem to care. They laughed, and began to gesticulate wildly, pointing around town. At buildings, presumably.

They continued like that for what felt like ages. It couldn't have been more than five minutes, with the crowd of locals expanding around them in a circle. Why did I even come here? And even more confusing, When Blake learns about this, he's not going to care about me anymore.

He could understand everything Galena said. But with so many others talking at the same time, in so many languages, he lost track. Besides, she didn't say much—mostly it was Janet, conversing with them in Spanish like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Then a worn taxicab stopped beside the road, and the door opened. The other two members of Jordan's group moved towards it, apparently expecting it. Janet reached back, snatching him by the wrist. "Come on! That woman knows someone with a little house we can rent. We'll stop for clothes after that."

"How?" he stammered, baffled. "Nothing I just saw made any sense."

As he did, someone near the front pointed, grinning. "American!" they said, heavily accented. "You... American?"

"Yes," he said. And nothing else, following the rest of the group into the back of the cab. They rode for a short distance—it wasn't exactly a very large town. Jordan tried to keep the mountain present in the back of his mind, never losing track of it as they turned.

Maybe Bydska was nicer than they'd been expecting. Maybe the locals were actually friendly. But even if that was true, he couldn't forget his friends up on that mountain, still waiting for help. A piece of himself was on the other side of that pond.

They stopped about two minutes later, in front of a modest looking house a short distance down the road. Far enough away from the rest of town that it wasn't attached, and had a little yard of green grass. There was also a goat.

"Pay them," Janet instructed, nudging him. Suddenly she was speaking English again, without missing a beat. "Five euros."

"Highway robbery," he answered, but produced the bill. Good thing Blake gave him all the money—he wasn't sure either of these knew the value.

"I know," Janet answered. "We don't know what we're bringing here. We want a good reputation. It costs."

"I hope you're thinking critically about this, Janet. You shouldn't understand them. I don't know about the griffon, maybe there's some special magic about birds they don't know. But you're one of us. Magic doesn't work on this side."

Janet took the bill, and didn't reply until they were out of the car, waving farewell to the driver. After another brief conversation in a language he didn't understand, they made their way up to the old house, past the goat.

To be honest, Jordan got more from the goat than he did from most of the rapid speech he'd tried and failed to catch. At least he knew the animal didn't care about him.

"Call it a blessing," Janet said, as they made their way up to the worn old door. "Long overdue for me, far as I'm concerned. We can figure out the why once we get settled."

"How can you not understand them, bat?" Galena asked, grinning at him. Blake wasn't around to see it, but he could only imagine the conversation waiting when they got back. These two would certainly brag about how useless his interpretation had been. "It is so simple. Old, tribal tongue. Same as Equestrian, but simpler."

He had no answer to that—and a few seconds later, the door opened. An old woman stood there, face covered in wrinkles and a broom in one hand. She waved it threateningly in their general direction, at least until Janet said something.

Soon enough there was another conversation Jordan couldn't understand. Her expression softened, and soon she was ushering them inside. Jordan watched, saying little and understanding barely more. Only when Galena got involved did it become clear.

At least they were inside. The chill of the outdoors couldn't reach them once they had a space-heater rattling in their face.

"We will do no harm to your property. There are more of us, but they are skilled workers. We will make better improvements, maybe. No harm."

Then when they pointed at him, Galena only said, "Doesn't understand. He crashed a little too often when he was learning to fly."

At least the old woman's face was appropriately baffled at that particular comment. Jordan sipped at the tea he was served, produced a few more bills when Janet asked, and generally tried to make very little fuss.

It took less than an hour for the meeting to conclude. Suddenly they were leaving the house behind, following an old woman wearing slippers past the goat, and across the road to another house.

It was in even worse shape—dirty windows, holes in the roof, and a yard completely overgrown. But when they stepped inside, the lights came on. The water worked too, and she even stopped to point at an old TV.

Better than being out in the cold.

Finally the old woman walked away, clutching a wad of bills in her fingers.

Jordan watched her vanish up the drive, and didn’t say anything else until she'd disappeared from sight. "Do you mind telling me what we just agreed to?" he finally asked. "I'm in favor of getting things figured out, don't get me wrong. But I thought I was going to... help with that."

"Us too," Galena said.

Janet ignored her, walking through the little house opening every door. It had two bedrooms, a single modest bathroom, and a central living area with a simple kitchen. The building wasn't in great shape, and from the look of things the house had dozens or maybe even hundreds of tenants already, all with at least six legs.

"A hundred euros for the month," Janet said, sounding satisfied. "That's more than enough time to wait for our rendezvous. And in the meantime, she says there's a box of old clothes her kids used to wear. We can take that back, get clothes for everyone. Bedding here will be a little tight, but... we can make it work. Should have enough petty cash for meals without cracking the gold."

Jordan groaned. It did sound like a decent rate, assuming the woman didn't go back on her word. He couldn't actually be sure of the veracity of any of it, but from the sound of things... Janet and Galena had somehow made them welcome in a foreign land and got them a place to stay, without going above their means.

"It's good work," he admitted. "Still think I'd rather sleep on that side. The Bright Hawk has really nice quarters. Even if I have to clamber through a cave each way."

"I am... not certain where I go," Galena said. "This place, I do not hate. Tribe is... different. I want to see more."

"Going back isn't smart," Janet said. She fussed about with a nearby cabinet, then finally got the latch to open. Inside was a worn looking carboard box. She heaved it up onto the kitchen table, then flipped it open.

Apparently she could understand what the local woman said. The table transformed into the trash bin of a thrift store, complete with old clothes in varieties and patterns Jordan had never even imagined.

What would happen to that jacket if I took it back with me to Equestria. He decided he needed to know immediately, and snatched it off the table for his own use.

"I know I can't force you," Janet continued. "But you should think about staying here too. Everyone has limited time. Even if you do want to begin some... exploration of Equestria. Even if you want to run headlong into the train that is revealing it to the world, spending time here buys back time to be on that side. It's like... a pressure valve. It needs to be released."

"Maybe. But Kaelynn is still on the other side. If this really is our way out, we'll want to arrange someone to hold onto the ship until the rest of our crew gets here. Then... I dunno. Maybe Blake has some military friends he can talk to. Who do you go to when you want to share some secret with the world?"

He fished through the old clothes with one hand, not actually waiting for an answer. "I'm going back to the others before dark. Galena, you coming?"

"Yes," she said. "But only to bring this to... the others. And be there when you all decide what to do."

"Suit yourselves," Janet said. "I'll find a way to charge your stuff when you get back. Miss Wysocki doesn't have any US-compatible stuff. Obviously."

Chapter 55: Kaelynn

Kaelynn tried to focus on the water around her. There was another creature here, one that was bigger than she was. That explained why she'd never smelled this particular scent before—that was a male seapony. Ryan could copy her, but he hadn't been able to create anything truly new.

Yet for his size, the moonlight did a poor job illuminating him. Or maybe it was just that her eyes were slow to adjust. And apparently his weren't, because nothing had actually touched her yet.

"Who are you?" she asked. Well, sang. Hearing another voice was like a reminder of all the senses she had ignored. She couldn't conceal her emotions, no matter how much she might want to. Her anger, fear, and nervousness all found their way into the song, just like her hostility had been there in her first words of argument.

The water rustled around her, and the shape moved away from her. Even without much vision, she knew where it must've gone—through the opening, down the tunnel into parts unknown. He didn't reply.

She followed, at least as far as the tunnel's edge. Then she smacked her head against the stone, and thought better of it at first. Beyond this dark chamber was a tube of absolute blackness, with an unknown creature lurking within it.

"Hello?" she called again. This time a little shyness and embarrassment found their way into the tune. "I'm not mad at you. If you heard me yelling—it was at the unicorn. The one who locked us here. If you're a prisoner here too, you're on the same side."

More silence. Kaelynn lingered near the opening for a moment longer, feeling it with one foreleg. A square passage cut in the rock, about the size of a pony. It was covered with something tough—a rubber sealant maybe, one that would stop her from giving the tank a slow leak.

Not that she had any intention to. Sabotaging her tank without an escape plan was as good as throwing a toaster into the tank with her. No thanks.

She grunted, then followed. She swam slowly through the tube, running one hoof along the side the entire time. Without any vision of where she was going, she could rely only on her hoof to make sure she didn't smack into something.

Except no, there were ways to deal with the dark. Spells that her book had called songs. The one for the dark was only a single sentence long, more of a little melody she could hum.

It had never done anything before, granted. But she probably hadn't managed to capture the “bleak confusion” required to properly sing it. Kaelynn needed no acting to feel that emotion right now.

"Together we can see the path before us, lighting up as our friendship grows!"

A spark appeared in the water before her, a little flicker that matched the highlights on her scales. It lit up the tunnel around her—which only continued for a few more feet. She twitched her head to one side, and the little light followed her. It wasn't much, maybe the size of a phone flashlight.

First try. Maybe this musical magic stuff wasn't so bad. It wasn't the words that had ever stopped her, or being in the right key. It was the feelings that came with them.

The tunnel wasn't long, really, maybe one body length. The tip of her tailfin probably still extended into the first chamber.

A face appeared in the opening ahead of her, unmistakably a seapony. He was... well, a he. Stockier than she was, with a thicker build and stronger-looking fins. His tail was longer and thicker at the same time.

Maybe it was the magical light, but the first thing she thought of was her own experience being stuck in a tank across the desert. He looked a little sick, his scales pale and his eyes unfocused. "How long have you been trapped here?" she asked.

The male darted away again, though this time he didn't have as far to go. She followed to the edge of the tunnel, then realized why it was so dark. A set of curtains hung here, made of something sturdy and waterproof. Privacy?

The space beyond was several times larger than the other room—a round cavern, big enough to be a swimming pool. She could see strange shapes on the bottom near the curtains—was that furniture?

She swam through, down towards it, causing the outline of the other seapony to flee before her. But he didn't get very far, hanging in the water within view.

Yes, this was furniture—a whole bedroom by the look of it, though not all of it was equally resilient to the water. Plenty of wood was warped here, the cloth looked wispy and frayed, or coated in green.

What good is this stuff if it's dark here all the time? Her little orange spark couldn't even light the whole space—there were other shapes in the water further away, though none of them moved.

At least, she didn't think they did. "You can't keep ignoring me forever," she sang. "We're in this together now. Might as well introduce yourself."

He approached a little closer, hanging in the water in front of her. It was deep enough for him to stretch to full length, though not by much.

There's no way this whole room drains in thirty seconds. That unicorn was full of crap. Maybe she was, but she wasn't stupid. Kaelynn couldn't be sure in the dark, but it did seem like the floor in here was level with the tunnel, above the level of the drains. In fact, the entire chamber seemed to tilt slightly in one direction, towards the tunnel.

It probably would drain, and had been built specifically to do exactly that. It just wouldn't be an Indiana-jones style trap. But how literally would her companion interpret that threat?

"I am Tellin Shell," he said suddenly, swimming around her in a slow circle. He still kept his distance, as though he expected her to turn and attack him at a moment's notice. But she remained in place, and the slower and more gradually she moved, the calmer he became. "Who are you?"

"Kaelynn," she answered. She spun slowly in place as he circled her, so that she could always be looking directly at the person who was speaking. Despite his best efforts, there was something confident and in-control about the way he swam. This was a creature who actually owned the water, instead of just impersonating it like Ryan could.

"How long have you been trapped in here?" She let herself drift slowly down towards the bottom of the tank, resting the edge of her fin against the swollen wood of a desk. "Does she keep you in the dark all the time?"

"Oh, no!" He seemed to grow a little more energetic at her question, circling quickly around her before flying straight over to one wall, and touching a little crystal there.

In an instant, the whole room turned deep blue, as though they were hundreds of feet down. The light came in an even curtain from a set of crystal studs. This isn't a jail, it's a habitat.

The huge space wasn't empty, either—there were other objects spread throughout. Large tires connected by ropes, probably meant to be used for exercise. Cabinets and storage against one wall, and a bookshelf including strange slabs of metal—seapony books?

It was more than she would've expected from most 4-star hotels in major cities, with only one exception. There were no windows, no doors, no entrance or exit except for the tunnel.

"Woah."

"Yeah, isn't it awesome?" He circled once around her, then zipped over to one of the toys. A huge wheel, which he rolled along the stone floor with obvious effort for a few seconds, before letting it fall and zooming over to something else. He carried the box over to her in his hooves, holding it out so she could see inside.

It was jewelry, the kind she might've expected to be worn by island cultures in her own world. Mostly shells, though there were also bits of worked metal mixed in. But how had a culture that lived underwater forged steel?

She chose this single piece from the box, lifting it out with one hoof. A hat of some kind, maybe a crown, with a ring of silvery metal that somehow managed not to rust or corrode. Stainless steel maybe? Pearlescent shells ran around the outside, and the crown held a single small diamond.

Far from putting it on her head, Kaelynn turned it over in her hoof, studying the tool marks along the metal ring for clues. She could see tiny marks, like this had been worked with an actual hammer. Not cast or magically molded then.

"It's really great, and maybe even safer than the ocean!" He settled the box onto the desk beside her, before swimming around again. All the fear was gone from his song now, which was thoroughly transformed to excitement. "I wasn't sure I'd ever see another fish. Years and years Morningtide said she would try and save someone else... that must be you! What ocean were you lost in?"

Oh shit.

Kaelynn reclined up against the desk, pulling the tip of her fin against her chest. "I wasn't lost, Tellin. Morningtide you said her name was? She... captured me. She stole me away from my friends. But don't worry... they're smart, and brave, and very dangerous. They'll get us free."

"Free?" He repeated the word several times, in a different key each time. "How can you get free from..." He swam up to the roof, smacking one hoof against the stone. "There's air up there. And if you make it back to the ocean, there's... monsters. The ones that killed the others like us."

He hummed a few notes of pained melody, discordant and confused. "There's nothing there for us. But Morningtide said she wants to save us! Don't you want a new colony of seaponies, far away from danger?"

Kaelynn should probably be delicate with him. He might be bigger than she was, but he still sounded so... naive. He'd probably never talked to anyone who wasn't his kidnapper for years. She might not be able to judge pony ages very well, but he didn't seem that much younger or older than she was. That probably wouldn't make telling him this any easier.

Trouble was, Kaelynn wasn't a terribly delicate person. Politeness was for someone else. "Let's not talk about that right now. Maybe we can... you can show me around the prison?" She tossed the crown onto the table beside her, then lifted off to swim past him.

"This is your home, so... does she give us anything to eat? I find myself... really hungry all the sudden." She glanced down briefly at her smooth scales missing their spots. Then she blushed—all those weeks getting used to being naked all the time were getting a thorough testing.

"Oh, yeah! That usually comes in through the front room, that's when ponies come to talk to me, and hear me sing and stuff. But I put things away, so I can have snacks for later."

He zipped around the room again, swimming right under the bed. It didn't look like he actually used the thing, judging by the faded strips of cloth drifting in the water. But as she'd already learned, sleeping like a person just didn't translate to the water.

But there was a little box underneath, made of more heavily worn wood. Inside was... another smell, one she hadn't been able to enjoy since leaving Mount Aris. Fish.

"Here! You can have some of mine... just not all of it, okay? I didn't eat much last time."

He held the box towards her, though without half the enthusiasm as the jewelry. His hoof twitched once as she removed the lid, but he didn't take it back.

Storing anything in water left certain limitations. Mixed with the freshly cooked smell, there was also something foul about the odor drifting up from that box.

He must've been using it for a while, saving food with each meal.

She chose the freshest-looking pieces, removing them before he could change his mind. As usual, for her, there wasn't a lot of chewing involved—she was fairly certain she could swallow an entire fish, bones and all. Unfortunately, that also meant less time to appreciate what she was eating.

He snatched the box back after less than a minute, zipping away to replace it under the bed. "You feel better now, right?" he asked nervously. "Now you're not gonna try and run away?"

"Not right now." She gestured around the tank again. "How about you show me your home?" So I can start looking for a way out of this prison.

She could keep bluffing that her friends could solve any problem all day long. Maybe they would find her. She didn't doubt that they would want to.

But Kaelynn wasn't the kind of fish to curl up and wait for rescue. If one didn't come, she'd make her own.

Chapter 56: Blake

Of all the dangerous things Blake had watched his friends do, none gave him more anxiety than watching them go out and interact with other human beings.

When it came to climbing something, picking a lock, or navigating an old building, Blake had little to fear. His friends were all good at what they did. He had no reason to doubt they would succeed, given their skill and the research they'd already done on the various sites they visited.

But as soon as other human beings got involved, suddenly all certainty went out the window. It's okay. We aren't even breaking the law this time. There's nobody to bribe, no one who might not look the other way.

At worst, they wouldn't be able to communicate effectively, and his friends would have to return in defeat. Right? That was what he told himself.

He kept near the entrance to the cave, even though it meant a constant barrage of chilling wind and dust. He needed to know the instant anything happened. Maybe he'd be able to see it from far away, and... and help, somehow?

He watched for over an hour, squinting down at the distant town for any sign of what might be happening to his friends. Well, to Jordan. His skills would be necessary to get them out of this... and that would likely make him the first target if something went wrong.

We should've gone together. We wouldn't seem like as much of a target with five people. Of course, that would make them more intimidating. Five people might be a threat to the little town, or at least feel like one.

Ultimately Blake had no choice but to accept the fact that he'd stayed behind, and there was nothing more he could do to help. He could only wait, and watch, and maybe hope.

Occasionally Ryan poked his head out from the inner cavern. The walk through the tunnel wasn't exactly easy, and he took each step walking precariously over rough rock.

"Any sign of them?" he asked, every few hours.

Each time, Blake shook his head, slumping a little lower against the rock. Except the last, where something finally appeared on the edge of the trail.

Only two figures, carrying something between them. They didn't move slowly and confused, but cut straight up the side of the mountain. Blake stood up, waving energetically. The distant people waved back.

Before they'd even reached the cave entrance, Ryan appeared from behind him again. "You seemed excited. Something going on?"

Blake pointed this time, grinning. "Looks like they made it!"

"What in god's name are they wearing?" Ryan asked, pointing. "I don't think I've ever seen colors like that outside of a movie screen. Even the ponies in Equestria had more sense than that."

Blake didn't answer, just waited for the away group to arrive. There were only two of them, confirming what he thought he'd seen from a distance. Jordan and Galena, both dressed in a mix of what they'd been wearing before and old clothes. They smelled like a thrift store, but at least they weren't freezing.

"Good thing you stood up," Jordan said, settling down a huge cardboard box on the ground in front of him as he arrived. "This cave is invisible from below, just blends right into the rock."

"That's good," Ryan said. "In fact, why don't you all come inside? In case anyone followed you, let's not make finding us easier for them. Don't want to be blamed if someone follows us through and gets killed in a diamond mine."

Even Galena evidently thought that logic was sound, because they hurried through, gathering around an old desk. Ryan had transformed the space in their absence, pulling the functional furniture into the center of the room.

A desk, a few chairs almost made it feel like somewhere people were meant to live.

"So you're not going to believe what happened down there," Jordan said. "In a good way, I think. Maybe?"

"I can speak to them," Galena interrupted. "The natives of this place know the tribal tongue of my ancestors. Even if I do not know all the words they have created. They are a strange people. But perhaps with time they would welcome us?"

"Hold up," Ryan said, looking up from the box of clothes he'd been digging through. "You think the Polish speak... Griffon?"

"I heard them with my own ears," Galena insisted. "And I spoke with them as Janet. She was more persuasive. But the two of us shared this victory. The bat was only an observer."

Jordan stood a little straighter, though even taller than Galena he wasn't built the same. His friend was athletic and lean, maybe even lighter and slimmer than he remembered. "She's not wrong. I don’t speak Polish. Blake, they don't either. Galena spoke English, and Janet was using Spanish. The locals understood them both, even though I couldn't. I have absolutely no idea how it's possible."

But Galena was built like a tank, like some of the female officers he'd met while deployed. She was the kind of woman who made trucks get out of her way just by grimacing at them. "I told you, bat. It was an old tongue, my first. If these creatures can learn it, I believe we will get along. Even if this much clothing is absurd, I do admire the stripes."

"That is... not consistent with the way translation has worked thus far," Ryan said. One hand twitched, and he seemed to be muttering to himself for a few seconds. "So you, Galena... we can guess about you. When we go through a Worldgate, we understand everyone on the other side. Yet the words cannot be the same language—some translation effect is in place."

"And... she's doing the reverse," Blake realized. "She's from that world, and comes into ours. So she can speak to people here. Do you think maybe Janet knew Polish, Jordan? I'm still not convinced we ever knew her that well."

"Not a chance. I might not be able to speak to them, but I know what Spanish and Polish sound like. It seemed like everyone could understand her. Except me."

"Baffling," Blake said. "But... probably academic for right now. We could talk to them, that's good news! What did we learn?"

Jordan explained in a rush. More than once, Galena had to intervene to correct some little detail—she apparently had understood the locals, lending a little more support to that theory. And now her value on any team that travels back across is much higher.

Galena wasn't just the skilled navigator who became dead-weight on these away missions. She was a universal translator for Earth. That alone might make her the most valuable translator in the world. Along with anyone else who ever comes across from Equestria.

Mystery about Janet aside, he learned the details of what they'd negotiated.

"Sounds like a great deal," Ryan said, as soon as they were finished. "We've got a local home base. We'll need it when the crew gets here. How many do you think we'll have, Blake?"

"Uh..." He ticked off the names on his hands for a minute. "Somewhere between five and ten. There's plenty of money in the company accounts, assuming they weren't drained. The real question is how many people are sketched out by our sudden appearance, and what we're asking them to do. But once we charge up our crap, we could give a little more information."

"We should start thinking about how we're going to reveal this to the world," Jordan said. "This quiet little town will become the center of the world. Didn't even have a rail station."

"Not here." Ryan gestured back at the shimmering pool behind them. "Kaelynn deserves to be part of that conversation. Holding down the ship doesn't mean she's out of the team. This is her victory as much as ours. She gets a vote."

Blake nodded. "But we need to work out what to do. We've got nine days to kill. Going through the crystal caverns didn't seem so bad, but we might want to outline the way down. Might have to wait for the crew to get here, they should have UV paint."

It was a common technique they used when working in areas others might see. Didn't want to risk the public or law-enforcement figuring out what they were up to.

They spoke for several minutes, considering different ways of passing information, and ways to separate the group. After being in another world for so long, spending nine whole days on this side seemed like an eternity.

"Alright, I think I know what we should do," Blake declared, after some discussion. "Galena, you don’t mind staying here. Is that right?"

She nodded eagerly. "I wish to learn more of your world, and the people of Bydska. And here, no captain will ever find me. It is as safe as I have ever been."

"Great, fantastic," Jordan exclaimed. "So she stays with Janet, is that the plan?"

Blake nodded. Inwardly though, he was more confused than anything. The bat Vesper hadn't seemed to mind Galena. So why was Jordan so on edge around her? If it was the physical attraction, at least they could relate.

"We'll join Janet down there for the night, get everything we can charged up. In the morning, we'll get Janet a phone, any other supplies we can find, maybe pawn one of our gold coins...

"Galena, you'll be staying behind. You're welcome to spend that time with Janet in town, so long as you visit the cave at least once each day, to wait for messages. Also, don't get into trouble. If you get revealed as an alien, you will probably find the locals become far less accommodating."

She shrugged. "Even if Janet is right about the magic—she said I could remain here for a month, yes? I will be safe enough."

"Sounds perfect," Jordan agreed. "I assume we'll be going back to tell Kaelynn all this, and give her a chance to come across."

Blake nodded. "We'll be back in nine days, unless we hear from the crew sooner that things are changing. We'll have to work out someone else to keep an eye on the ship. And... think about what to do about the locals. We'll need a way to keep it on the downlow that there's a Worldgate a mile from their village."

There was a little more discussion about the details. But soon enough they'd distributed more of the spare clothes, and were on their way back down the mountain. Blake had left a white shirt hanging from the edge of the cave, to help them find their way back. Hopefully one night wouldn't be long enough for the locals to get too curious.

"You think there's enough room in the house for five people?" he asked, when they finally reached the trail. "Or... another ten?"

"No," Jordan said, without skipping a beat. "But it's not a tile floor in an ancient bathhouse."

There wasn't as much activity in the old village as they made their way in for Blake's first time. A few old cars, a bus winding its way through town, and plenty of foot traffic.

They attracted their fair share of stares and raised eyebrows. But ultimately, there were no mobs, no robberies, and they made it to a run-down little farmhouse on the edge of town.

Janet was waiting for them inside, wearing an old apron and holding an unmarked bottle of soapy water and a broom. "You made it. I wasn't sure if you would go straight through to the other side."

"We're hoping to charge up all our batteries first. Is there anything to eat in here?"

"Sure, yeah. Miss Wysocki sent a plate of... I think they're dumplings. Here, they're still warm."

Blake took one from the offered plate, and settled in for the strangest night of his life.

Chapter 57: Blake

Blake slept uneasily his first night as a human being in months. He told himself it was just the product of having his body switched around again—after all, he had plenty of time to adjust to one only to have another take its place. It would pass, and eventually what was proper would become dominant again. It was only a matter of time.

He would never admit that he was relieved when he finally heard the roosters from outside, and the sign that it was time to return to Equestria. It's probably just that we don't have Kaelynn here. Once the group is back together, it won't be so bad.

"You're making a mistake," Janet said, over a breakfast of hot bread stuffed with... something savory? He didn't recognize the flavor, and hadn't asked. Food was always better when you didn't know what was in it. "You should send one pony—the bat girl, she seems best at caves. Have her go in, bring Kaelynn, and come back. I'd suggest Galena, but... no bird, don't say it. We know you don't want to go alone. I'm not saying it should be you."

Blake could imagine the griffon puffed out her chest feathers, looking indignant. The human woman had none of the familiar body language—she didn't fold her arms, just sort of leaned towards Janet a little. It didn't have the same effect. "Good."

"We learned not to split up when we don't have to," Jordan said. And it was Jordan—despite what Blake's memory told him, this was still Jordan. The flirtiness was gone, replaced with his old friend's aggressively relaxed attitude. "I could do it, easy. But I might not be able to convince Kaelynn alone. Maybe Ryan can. But I don't think she'll commit to leave Equestria until she gets to go diving again."

Janet rolled her eyes. "I will not go back. Whatever magic is left over from the Worldgate—I will accept this blessing. I have to make a few phone calls. I'm still not sure how to tell my family without alerting the authorities. I've been gone for so long..."

"Don't tell anyone yet," Blake snapped. His voice was utterly insistent, fixing her with sudden fury. "Please. Once you do, we abandon any chance of secrecy. The way you went missing, with that pony sighting at your work—you will set off flags that a few missing people just won't. Give us a few days to bring Kaelynn back."

"A few days," Janet repeated. "Fine. If Jesus lay in the tomb three days, I can be as patient. That should be time to get to know the town, and plan a way to talk without attracting their attention. Family outside the US will be easier—no one will be watching Baja."

"Then we're decided," Ryan said. He'd eaten in a rush, scooping up a few of the filled meat-rolls and lingering near the door. Apparently he'd expected them to go straight out. When they hadn't, he refused to come to the table. "Let's get to the cave. If someone else finds the Worldgate, we're ten different flavors of screwed."

He was right, unfortunately. Blake rose, and Jordan finally did too. They dressed like they'd just robbed a thrift store, but at least they weren't soaking wet without any shoes. Blake even had an old sweater, that should help with some of the morning chill.

"Please come with us to the trail, Galena," he said. "We might need you to translate for us."

"Sure. But I am not going back to Equestria, not for now. Later, we will see. My mind is not made up."

They gathered up fully recharged phones, cameras, and other gadgets, then shuffled out the door. Blake stopped in the doorway, leaning down towards Janet. "Text my number if something happens. It's not an actual phone—it's a relay. It will get to me, and the phone company won't know what number it went to. Don't let my friends and I walk into a trap. You owe us that much."

Janet nodded. "I'll report any trouble, if I see it. Don't know there would be, though. We're out in the middle of nowhere. Even if we make every tabloid in Poland, we're really just some lost tourists. How long will it take for the internet sleuths to recognize my face?"

She took a step back, looking concerned. "You never heard of a pony in San Jose, did you?"

He shook his head. They'd already had this conversation more than once. "I travel too much to follow much domestic news. I'm sure you can find an internet cafe. Maybe do that before you call back home."

He hurried off to join the others, and they started their trek across Bydska. As before, they attracted stares wherever they went, with plenty of hushed whispers. The townspeople seemed to be growing more comfortable with their presence though, because they didn't scatter and fall silent as they passed. A few even made friendly-looking gestures, saying some incomprehensible words along with "Americans!"

Whether in friendship or insult, he didn't know.

The police didn't come for them, and soon enough they were across town. Only this time there were several locals trailing behind them—quite a distance behind, obviously trying not to be seen. But could he blame them? A group of tourists comes out of the wilderness overnight, buys something with gold, then turns around and never comes back?

"Galena, I need you to go back now," Blake said quietly. "We're being followed. In a second, we're going to start up the slope. You go around the bend, and distract them. We can't let them see the Worldgate cave."

"I will do this," she said. "If you admit that it is good I am staying."

"It's great that you're staying!" Jordan said, without hesitation. "In fact, you should never come back! Poland is great this time of year!"

Blake shivered again—”great” meant somewhere in the mid-forties, and a growing wind. At least there wasn't any snow. "She—" He caught himself. "I agree with Jordan. Thank you for staying behind. We'll be back with Kaelynn soon."

There was no time for more conversation—the longer they lingered here, the greater the chance they would have covert observers with an idea of where the cave was located. Besides, secondhand clothes from ancient times didn't make climbing particularly easy.

There was very little conversation as they made their way up, other than Jordan. "This would be like a thirty second flight," he said, obviously breathing heavily. "Why are we trying so hard to stay on this side again?"

"How about those hands you're using for climbing?" Blake suggested. Compared to the others, he was in the best shape—though no one could last for long on their field team without some level of fitness. Those who didn't want to get sweaty out in some ruin somewhere usually worked behind the scenes instead. It was far safer that way. "Or that phone you just charged."

"Or your family," Ryan added. "You have someone, don't you?"

Jordan shrugged absently. "Two older brothers. A few uncles and cousins I guess, but we weren't ever too close. Whatever I had at work is gone now—even if we can make it back, I took an unscheduled leave for two months. That's toast."

Blake pointed just a little further ahead, where a scrap of fabric stood out from the stone. Fortunately for them, it hadn't been blown free of the entrance and drifted down. It was really here. He carefully removed it on his way inside, silent as he clambered over the rocks. Hopefully Galena had managed to keep the locals from looking long enough.

Someone still might find this place, eventually. It's so close to town. They would need to get some proper maps, maybe walk around town. If they made it seem like they always left in a different direction, the locals might not suspect.

There was no sign anyone else had been into the bathhouse, with every chair and bit of scrap left exactly where it had been the night before.

Ryan paused beside the table, settling each of his electronic devices into their water-box. The others followed, packing them all in. Blake was the last, and clicked it carefully closed when he was done.

Ryan went straight for the water then, without even slowing down. "You think Kaelynn is worried about us?"

Blake shrugged. "I think she knows a delay means success, or that we're dead. Going back for her is definitely the move—can't have her thinking we died in the cave, and sailing off that ship in despair."

Ryan hesitated only for a second, before diving straight through the Worldgate. He swam down towards the bottom, apparently without anything strange—then vanished, in a subtle shimmering near the edge. If Blake stared, he could almost outline the exact point where the Worldgate must be located.

Jordan sat down on the steps, and started carefully removing his shoes, then everything else layer by layer. Blake flushed deep red for a second, before he realized how absurd that was. How often had the two of them shared a hotel room during expeditions? It was an obviously practical choice—they didn't need to look like Eastern European hobos in Equestria.

"You ever think about why they're all underwater?" he asked. He stripped in less than ten seconds, though the military hadn't taught him to fold quite so fast. He piled up everything in a cubby, then walked shivering towards the pool.

"They weren't all underwater," Jordan answered. "Broken one was exposed. Maybe that's not an accident. Water might keep them insulated from damage or something. I'll ask if I ever see the princess again."

Jordan waded into the water, shivering too. It didn't matter if they would both be perfectly comfortable once they had fur, they had none now.

"Did you dream on this side?" Blake asked, following just behind him. "That weird... Dreamlands of yours. Did you go there?"

Jordan shook his head, expression pained. Like someone trying to put on a brave face, after learning their pet would be put down. "I don't remember a thing. First night in... since we went. I don't like it."

Then he jumped, vanishing into the water in a splash. Blake gave him a second, so he wouldn't take a foot to the face. Then he followed.

By now, Blake probably knew what it was like to travel between universes better than almost anyone else. When they made a movie out of all this, they better have someone cool play him. The Rock, maybe?

He broke the surface of the water a second later, in a cavern far darker than the one he'd just left. Blake swam to the edge, no longer shivering. The water on this side was warm, but that wouldn't have made a difference if it wasn't. Flames raged within him, untempered even now. If he walked into the snow, it would probably steam right off him.

Jordan—Vesper waited beside the water, one hoof outstretched. Blake didn't need the help to climb out, but he took it anyway.

It affected him no less than watching Galena emerge from the water on the other side. Water cascading off that fur, those graceful wings and slitted eyes—pretty meant something different in each world. But he was vulnerable in either one.

A soaking wet changeling in silly clothes shuffled about near the water, trying to wiggle out of it all. No reason they couldn't stash it on this side instead—they were screwed no matter which Worldgate was found.

"I marked the map as we went down," Ryan said, through his twitching shivers. "I don't want to stop for anything on the way up. We go straight for the Bright Hawk, not even stopping for food."

"Fine by me." Vesper shook herself off, not entirely unlike a dog. Blake didn't do the same, but he could feel the heat rising through his body. The water was already steaming off, and he didn't even have to do anything. "I need to fly for a bit. Catch you in a few minutes!" And she was up, without even bothering with the flashlight.

"It's just like Janet said. Even if we're not magically trapped here, it still gets into your head. Makes it so you don't want to leave." Ryan finally shrugged off the last of the wet clothes, hurrying forward. "Let's get back to Kaelynn. She looked so sick when we left—I hope she's feeling better."

Chapter 58: Vesper

Vesper was in no hurry to leave the old mine—in terms of places to fly, it was about perfect. Not blinding, like the outside could be during full sun. Most of the cavern was swallowed in total darkness, but occasionally shafts of light pierced through the crystal walls from distant openings.

There were magical lanterns too, but that was exactly where she shouldn't go. If a tour finds us down here, they might up their security.

Maybe she should talk to Pale Light about the Worldgate they'd found—some small town in Poland was close enough to establish contact between worlds. It would soon be time for the talk show tour, the book deals, the fame and fortune. Now if only she could bring herself to care about any of that.

The others trudged their slow way up the same path as before, since they couldn't fly. Even Ryan, curiously. Strange that he wouldn't want to get to know his powers better. He had become so good at changing forms, but couldn't fly with any of them. Maybe she should teach him.

Aside from a single brief scare with a tour-group passing them in the darkness, they encountered no trouble on the return trip. The Crystal Caverns were just too well-made to suffer the usual plight of abandoned places. There was no water, no apparent seismic activity.

Will they build an airport down here, for people to go back and forth between our worlds? Maybe a hotel?

What she really wanted to do—get lost in the caves, looking for that unique cavern reserved only for bats—she didn't dare do. She might feel at home underground, might have senses specifically evolved to thrive down here. But she didn't have a map to those caves. Exploring at random was a swift path to get herself killed. She would not let her transformation make her careless.

They didn't slip into a tour group, the ponies were just too observant for that. But they could wait for the largest gap between groups, then follow into the tour’s exit passage as though they’d been part of it all along. Not exactly the smoothest possible infiltration—but ponies weren’t expecting one, either.

Before the tour-ponies had any idea who they were or where they’d come from, they were already past them.

﻿The first light of the Equestrian sun wasn't exactly a welcome sight for Vesper, not after the comfort of the caves below. Maybe she should've grabbed herself a cheap pair of sunglasses while she was on Earth. She should start keeping a list of things to bring back.

﻿They took a circuitous path around the city at first—not because any of them wanted to avoid bringing the group back together, obviously. But if any of the authorities might be following, it would be a mistake to lead them to the Bright Hawk.

﻿Ryan lingered behind them, changing into a few different ponies when no one was looking, watching their back. Only when they were certain that they didn't have a tail did they finally head for the dock.

﻿The Bright Hawk was exactly where they'd left it, bobbing gently up and down along with the winds. It had its fair-share of onlookers, noting its strange modifications and missing top-deck. They clambered aboard to a deck that was deserted.

﻿"Glad she didn't stay up and wait for us," Ryan said. "You could see it, Kaelynn needed more time in the water. Throw some lunch together, I'll see how she's doing."

﻿Ryan slipped down belowdecks, leaving Vesper and Blake alone. Well, as alone as they could be with dozens of ponies passing all the time on the docks below. "I hope it isn't too hard to get Kaelynn to go home with us," Blake said. He turned vaguely towards the stairs, and the mess, but didn't seem to be in any rush. "I can't leave her here. But dragging a fish through the caves against her will probably isn't possible either."

﻿Vesper could understand that—she wasn't terribly hungry either. "It takes a year for this to be permanent, right? And we have ten more days to wait until the film crew gets here. Is ten days really going to make a difference if she does want to stay? What if I do?"

She watched the kirin with laser-focused intensity. If they'd still been underground, she could've monitored the smell as well, for anything he might give away. Unfortunately, he only looked tired, defeated.

"I'm not worried about the next ten days. I'm worried about what happens when we make this thing public. That's going to turn into the kind of pressure that most people just can't handle. Our videos get millions of views, but they're produced and edited to make us look exactly how we want. Once we put this out there, it's up to the world how they respond. Maybe they carpet-bomb the place."

﻿Vesper followed him through the doorway belowdecks. She was probably ready for a little canned food, so long as it was made the way she wanted. Maybe she could find somewhere to nap while Blake tried to convince Kaelynn to leave.

﻿Hoofsteps pounded on the hallway, and Ryan reappeared. He'd changed back into himself, and had a scroll of something clutched in his mouth. He's coming from the wrong direction. That's the workshop.

Ryan didn't say a word, just hurried straight to the mess table, where he dropped it. He pointed with one hoof, eyes unreadable. Well, freaky insect eyes were terrible at showing emotion in the best of times, so that wasn't anything new.

"What is it?" Blake asked from just beside her. "Where's Kaelynn?"

In answer, Ryan just pointed again, a little more insistently. Blake slowed, probably going to argue with him that he was being overdramatic and stupid. Vesper's curiosity was too intense to wait for all that, so she trotted over, staring down at the letter.

It was written in a perfect imitation of Kaelynn's handwriting, sort of. It was the writing she'd used on many blueprints and sketches, blocky and exaggerated. That was a way to make sure that measurements were correct in construction, and probably a little of her struggling to write with her mouth.

But just as Vesper needed no magic to read Ryan's distress, she needed no degree in criminology to know she was looking at a forgery.

"My friends,

I am sorry, but something important has come up, and I must leave you. It has been a pleasure to serve on the Bright Hawk. I received a message by dragonfire that urgent matters have arisen with my tribe. I'm sorry, but I cannot wait.

I have taken all that I need, you may dispose of the rest as you see fit. Perhaps one day we will meet again.

-Kaelynn"

Vesper tried, very, very hard to keep her emotions in check. Poor Ryan was practically shaking on his hooves, looking like he might collapse into a whimpering heap. This was perhaps the grimmest news they could have received, short of the ship having burned with Kaelynn still aboard.

She fought valiantly, and lost. A giggle escaped her lips, hastily silenced with the side of one leg. "That's... the stupidest..." She held it out to Blake. "Read this."

He did, eyes skimming over it. Then he leaned in, intent.

"How could you?" Ryan asked. "You know what this means, Vesper? Do you have any idea?" He sounded like she'd just strangled one of his pets.

She cleared her throat, wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes. "I'm... I'm sorry, Ryan. This is horrible. I just... I'm trying to put together what kind of sack of shit thought that letter was going to fool us."

Ryan glared, but didn't argue the point.

A few seconds later, and Blake looked up, settling the note back on the table between them. "Did you find anything else?"

"Some signs that someone went through her quarters. The book of seapony songs is gone. They left everything else—money, phone, everything."

"They cared so much about making this seem like it was legit," Vesper said, nudging the note with her muzzle. "Why write something like this? Did they really think we'd buy it?"

"I don't see any signs of codes or ciphers hidden in it," Ryan said, tone defeated. "They didn't let her write her own ransom note."

Blake began to pace back and forth beside the table. "We need to go over the whole ship. There could be sabotage, other things missing we don't know to look for. First thing we have to do is make certain of what happened."

"The first thing should be getting Kaelynn back!" Ryan snapped. He lifted into the air in a buzzing hover, glaring down at Blake. "Now's not the time to run the inventory of the fucking soup! This is my fault... I let her talk me into this. I should've stayed with her. They couldn't fight two of us."

"They could fight all of us," Vesper said. She slid between the two of them, putting her back to Blake. Whatever else he might do back there, the kirin probably wouldn't burn her to death. Probably. "Ryan, take a deep breath. Obviously we're gonna help her. Compared to that, nothing else matters. But what if there's a bomb under our hooves? We can't save Kaelynn if we blow up. Or I dunno—an ambush?"

"We should see if the dockworkers saw anyone walking onto the ship," Ryan said, like he hadn't heard. "They probably had to take Kaelynn in a cart or something, or wrapped up. There's no way to hide how different she looks. Maybe ponies saw her walking around the city. I can ask."

"Look over the ship first," Blake declared. "I don't think this is an ambush, or there would be no point leaving a note. But we can't be sure. I have no idea what would possess a kidnapper to write a note like that. Whoever it was didn't know anything about Kaelynn."

Ryan landed with a grunt. "Whatever, fine. We'll look. We can figure out what we're going to do to rescue her while we're working."

It took less than an hour to comb over the Bright Hawk. Not that there might not be secret damage to something, or maybe poison hidden away somewhere they wouldn't expect. But they found nothing overt, nothing else missing, and no sign of damage.

They finished their search in Kaelynn's own quarters. The place was utterly undamaged, just like everything else. "We can make a few conclusions, I think..." Vesper said, running her hoof along the wall-separator. "Whoever did this wanted us to believe the story and leave. They didn't take our valuables, or do damage to the Bright Hawk that would keep us here for longer. They didn't put any specifics in the note that would give them away."

Blake nodded. "But they slipped up. They talk about dragonfire,which sure as hell didn't send messages in Game of Thrones. And makes it out like Kaelynn can just go home to her tribe. Did they think she was indigenous or something?"

"No," Vesper replied. "That's the pony way of talking about subspecies. Pegasus, earth pony—or fish. Master forger, but they couldn't copy things they didn't know." She turned towards Ryan. "Does changing into someone give you their handwriting?"

"No." He leaned up against the barrier, dragging one hoof weakly through the water. Whether he was searching for clues, or just wistfully flopping around, Vesper couldn't tell. "Nothing about your mindset. No thoughts, no memories, and no handwriting. But the workshop is full of examples to copy. If they found her working, they'd know it was hers."

"There was no sign of a struggle." Blake turned back towards the hall. Every door was open now, and he had an honest-to-God hippogriff longsword belted to his waist. It made him look even more brave and heroic than he usually did. Unfortunately, it hadn't helped much during the search. "We don't know it happened here. Interviewing on the dock was a solid idea, Ryan. Do we have any others?"

"Can't call her," Vesper said wistfully. "I might be able to find her while she's dreaming. Pale has talked about going between the dreams of sleepers. But I have no practice."

"I'm thinking the authorities," Blake finally said. "Don't look at me like that, Ryan. Equestria's a country! They have police. Clearly they have kidnappings, or we wouldn't be having this conversation. Maybe they have investigators."

Ryan hopped away from the wall, vibrating for a second to shake off the moisture. "This is how we do this. Jordan, ask around, see if you can find any witnesses. Blake, you go to the police." He turned away, glancing out a harborside window.

"What about you?" Vesper asked, tentative. She wanted to give him a hug—clearly the bug could use it. But his stance was so intent, like he might bite anyone who got too close.

"Two days ago, I met some people who I think can help more than the police. I'll talk to the changelings."

Chapter 59: Kaelynn

Kaelynn swam endless circles around her prison. She searched the rock in every corner, checked every seal, and ran her hooves along every scratch and deformation in the carving. Finding her way out wouldn't be that different to getting into one of the places her group liked to film: even an attentive and responsible government body could only leave so much to defend a place. Static defenses were a monument to the hubris of man.

But the one who made these defenses wasn't a man by either definition. It seemed that Morningtide had done a pretty thorough job sealing things up. She had an unfair advantage here, since any large openings would have swiftly drained the aquarium. How could Kaelynn compete, particularly when she didn't have her songbook?

She hummed the song of illumination as she went, finding its emotional requirements came easily to her now. If ever a creature needed a little extra light, it was her.

Tellin followed her as she investigated. At first she wasn't sure what he was up to—whether gawking at her, or considering whether or not to report her desire to escape to their captor. It made no difference—the pony already knew that Kaelynn wasn't going to go quietly. She was no helpless child, complacent in their captivity.

My friends should know I'm gone by now. But how will Blake find me? Kaelynn didn't know their leader as well as she knew some of the others. But she knew one thing with confidence: Blake would not let one of them get kidnapped. He would look for her, using every tool they had.

The real problem was that her friends didn't have many tools. She would have to hope that Morningtide had made some mistake, large enough for them to follow. Either that, or she'd have to somehow lead them here.

Unless I can recite the song of transformation from memory and walk out on my own. She could no longer deny Ryan had been right about that form—she needed to take breaks from it, or else she grew weaker on land. But that initial burst of power would be more than enough to get her out of this place, and safely back to the Bright Hawk.

Her fruitless search was interrupted by a sound from behind her, one that drew her ears as swiftly as a pivoting spotlight might attract her eyes. Shortly after there was a light, and she turned to look.

Tellin sung along with her melody, and had conjured himself a little light. It was orange instead of green, matching his eyes. Or maybe singing the song just made a pony's eyes glow?

It didn't take him long to pick up on her little spell. Maybe an hour following her around? But the light song was one of the simplest in the entire songbook, so it made sense.

She slowed, spinning in the water to face him. "You learned that just by listening?"

He trailed off. The light didn't go out immediately, but lingered around him. Even so, she could see its strength fading. Like a glowstick, slowly dying as its chemicals mixed. "Sure. It's a nice song. Did you bring any more from the sea, before Morningtide rescued you?"

She winced at the question, and all it implied. Kid still didn't seem to realize that he was a captive. Telling him she was from another world hadn't really stuck either—he didn't even know one world. "I got one other to work for me, but that was the only one I memorized. I had a whole songbook from the hippogriffs. I think every single one did something useful."

It made sense, turning musical culture into the method for the preservation of knowledge. So long as the tunes were catchy enough, children could learn their spells without even needing to go to school.

"Can you try now? It feels so... feels like it's something I've been missing for a long time. I need something harder!"

"The other song let us walk around in the air, with other ponies. We can't practice it here—if we get it to work, we'll drown. I never managed to reverse it." Granted, I didn't try that hard. I might not be able to get my legs back if I lost them.

Something rang in the water, loud enough to attract Tellin's notice. She followed his gaze to the opposite side of their cell, and the tunnel leading away. Something was trying to get their attention.

"It's her," Tellin whispered, darting away from her in a flick of his tail. He cut a straight line to the tunnel, like a dog seeing its owner after weeks alone. The persistent bell did remind her a little of a dog whistle, though of course it sounded nothing alike with the water to mute it.

Kaelynn did not rush to the call. Part of her wanted to find the darkest corner to curl up in and hide, even if that meant no food. But rationality prevailed—she needed information, and she needed to keep her strength up if she wanted to have the magical power to sing another spell when the time arrived. If her friends came to rescue her, they probably wouldn't be able to carefully wheel a tank around. She'd need to escape on her own four feet.

And probably take Tellin with us. We can't just leave him trapped here as a slave. Maybe I should practice that song with him.

By the time she reached the tunnel, Tellin emerged from the privacy cloth, clutching a box of food in his forelegs. Fresh fish fillets, by the smell it left in the water. Not much, though—that wasn't meant for her.

"She wants to see you, not me," he said, hesitating in the tunnel. "You should... talk to her. That's how we get her to feed us. We shouldn't share mine all the time, or we'll both be hungry."

Kaelynn nodded grimly. "I'm going. Don't worry about sharing, kid." The words were out before she knew what she was saying, and they instantly made her blush. Tellin wasn't actually younger. He'd just spent years trapped in a tank, so he acted stunted. If we can get him out, he might be able to heal from all this. Maybe the hippogriffs will take him.

She passed through the shade, then swam to the end, and the fishbowl waiting for her.

Well, it felt that way, even if it was only transparent on one side. There was the illuminated wall, the drains, and a little further away—several chairs. Strangely, Morningtide wasn't alone this time, but had the company of several ponies in the seats. Each of them were unicorns, with faces that bespoke the same wealth and privilege that Morningtide came from. Most were younger than she was.

They spoke in hushed voices, though that precaution was largely unnecessary. The barrier between water and air turned even loud conversations into a dull hum, words blending together to an indistinct mess.

At least until Morningtide lifted up the crystal on her side in a faint magical glow, and spoke into it. Her voice echoed through the water, perfectly clear. "How was your first night in my care, Kaelynn?"

There were half a dozen people here—should she make a scene? How much rebellion could she get away with, without provoking a violent response? I could cooperate, try to make her think I'm content to stay here. But that doesn't get me anything.

She swam up to the crystal mounted near the front. Speaking into it would require that she keep close to the front of the tank, where she was in clear spotlights. Not an accident of design—she was obviously meant for display. "Sleepless," Kaelynn answered honestly. "I have been stolen from the company of my lover, my friends, and my home. I am in a cage."

There was harsh muttering on the other side, but she caught very little. She thought she could make out a few words, like “another specimen” and “wasted opportunity”. Whatever it was, these creatures clearly weren't overly concerned about her kidnapping.

The reply took a few moments in coming. Finally, Morningtide said, "There is another seapony on that ship? I haven't heard of others."

"No, he's a—" But she stopped short, just in time. Admitting that the one most interested in finding her was a changeling probably wouldn't be good. Maybe Morningtide would think her previous threats were just desperate nonsense, so they wouldn't take precautions against changeling infiltration.

"You saw me outside this tank. I have the song to walk on four legs. We met on dry land."

Technically even that was a lie. She'd first met Ryan on a dive boat, when she was leading a tour for the exploration group vacationing together. But she wouldn’t lose sleep over lying to these people.

Morningtide said something to the others, though whether she was confirming Kaelynn's story or refuting it, she wouldn't know.

Then something glowed, lifting off the desk. Kaelynn gasped—her songbook! "You have it!" She shouldn't be so surprised—this pony had all the time she wanted, alone on the Bright Hawk. She could've searched through all Kaelynn's possessions.

The pony nodded, obviously satisfied with herself. "There are records of this spellcraft, from its time in prominence among seaponies. Very little of the specifics ever emerged above the water, until this." She flipped through it, holding the book vertically so there was no chance for Kaelynn to even get a glance inside it. "An interesting discipline. Some of this seems almost absurd, yet we know at least some of it must work. Can you demonstrate for us?"

She folded her forelegs, glaring out the tank at the assembled crowd. "Could you let me go?" she asked. "You have no idea what you've done kidnapping me. Whatever eyes-wide-shut illuminati bullshit this is, there's a reckoning coming."

She glared out the tank, as defiant as she could manage. Of course, referencing Earth movies probably wasn't the best way to get her message across. But the words were already out.

Morningtide took less time than she had before. "It's a simple arrangement, really. You can decide to act agreeable, and have a pleasant existence. You can have somewhere comfortable to live, plenty to eat, and knowledge that your children will want for nothing. Alternatively, you can resist. You may succeed at getting yourself killed. More likely, you will simply not be fed for a while. I'll let your water get stale and brackish, until you come to me begging for forgiveness."

She lowered her voice in a dangerous whisper, though it was just for effect. The crystal ensured everyone in the room would hear it. "Your friends left Canterlot this morning, seapony. The Bright Hawk sailed west for Los Pegasus, without you aboard. There is no rescue coming. There is no other life waiting for you."

Someone stood up—a stallion, taller and fitter-looking than Morningtide. Like most of them, he wore a formal suit. But Kaelynn couldn't find pony clothing adorable today. He gestured, and Morningtide offered him the crystal.

"Seapony Kaelynn—I'm terribly sorry for the roughness with which you were brought here. I'm sure everybody here wishes it could have been different. But in desperate times, all creatures can be called to sacrifice for the good of their kin. For your species, this is the most desperate of times. Every individual who survives is inside that tank. Would it be moral for us to let you go extinct? An entirely new school of magic, the history and traditions of an entire civilization, extinguished in a heartbeat. There is nothing outside this tank more important for you than what you can do in there."

The weight of those words settled on her like a flurry of blows, each one heavier than the last. As if the use of the word children wasn't illustration enough. They want me to get together with Tellin. It wouldn't exactly take much pressure to make him comply, trapped in a stupid aquarium alone, having never even seen another of his own kind before.

Will he let me wait? The horror of her confinement grew an entirely new dimension. Rationality failed her, plotting and planning had led to nothing. "I just met him," she said. "I'm with someone else. You can't just expect me to—"

"Not today, not right now," the stallion said. "But consider the importance of your mission. Also consider most of the burden will be his, not yours. What records survive of your species suggest that males incubate your young beyond their initial gestation period."

I'm not hearing this, I'm not hearing this, I'm not hearing this. Kaelynn wrapped her tail around herself, drifting to the bottom of the tank. That made it impossible for her to speak, but did nothing to let voices get in around her. She didn't watch anymore, but she could hear their muttering. Let them say what they wanted, she didn't care what they thought they could do.

I have to get out of here, way sooner than I thought.

"Kaelynn—you see I could be a much more demanding host. Cooperate with me, and I will allow the two of you to take as much time as you need. Resist me, and I will use spellcraft to compel you to act in your own best interest. Do we understand each other now?"

If she wasn't underwater, there would've been tears in Kaelynn's eyes. She nodded, fearful and desperate. Without going for the crystal, she started singing—and soon a light joined her in the water. It was faint, flickering with her emotional turmoil. But it was enough that several ponies outside gaped, some rushing close to the tank to study more closely.

Morningtide nodded her approval, then levitated something up towards the top of the tank—a little wooden box, filled with fish. She dropped it in through the opening, like a trainer throwing the dolphins a treat after performing.

Chapter 60: Ryan

Ryan could've stayed with his friends while they asked around the city, gathering all the information they could on Kaelynn's disappearance. That was probably the smarter play, considering how little they knew. Maybe each of them was a target, and the deceptive note was a multilayered lie, meant to lull them into underestimating their enemy. Maybe they would get picked off one by one.

All that might be true, but he just couldn't bring himself to care. His own selfish eagerness to see Earth again might just have cost the most important person in his life. They'd been together for a short few weeks, the first person he'd cared about in years.

Now he had an entire world to search, without any clues beyond the note. Even worse, this wasn't Earth, where they had friends and fans in cities all over the world who could offer their help. In Equestria, they had almost no allies to speak of.

Maybe the queen of hippogriffs would want to help. They seemed to care about seaponies, since they were supposed to be extinct. But even if they could send a message to Mount Aris, would they even get a reply?

The hippogriffs weren't the first creatures Ryan thought of, anyway. He took on the appearance of one, but that was only out of habit. He needed a shape that would escape notice as he hurried back across Canterlot.

This time he didn't have to wander or ask around. He wasn't quite ready to fly up a cliff to the upper city, and wasn't even sure if Vesper could. But he could take the gondola, then gallop through the diplomatic district to the lopsided Changeling embassy.

He felt stupider and stupider the closer he got. While running past the griffons outside their nest, gleaming swords in their claws, he couldn't help but reflect on how stupid this would sound. Like walking into the Chinese embassy in an American city and demanding they help find your kidnapped girlfriend.

But he didn't let himself slow down. Ryan no longer cared about his magical reserves. He no longer thought about the two members of their expedition they had left behind in Poland. Janet could handle herself, and Galena was more dangerous to the people around her than they were to her. But Kaelynn was a fish, in a world none of them fully understood.

The guards parted for him without so much as a word of challenge. He knew why, now—changelings had a scent, one that stuck to everything they touched. Unless he tried to scrub it off, they would always be able to identify him if he changed back even for a few moments.

In this case, identifying him was exactly what he wanted. He made it inside, to the "secretary" bug behind her desk. Much of the papers around and beside it seemed to be covered in nothing at all, or random scribbles. As though the bugs here had seen other embassies gathering paperwork and just assumed they ought to do it themselves.

"Welcome home, bug," she said. "Please, let us see you."

There weren't just guards inside. Ryan saw eyes peeking up from the many tunnels, attention fixed on him. His last visit gave him enough to guess about why, too. Even if they didn't need to feed on his emotions, they could still sense him. He must be burning like a tire-fire right now.

Ryan changed back in a flash of green light, burning off the disguise with total disregard for efficiency. But changing back never took much power—it was copying that drained him. "I have something urgent for Pharynx," he said. "I don't know if he can help, but I have to ask. Please."

The secretary buzzed, radiating contentment and curiosity. "You are the oldbug... Ryan. I was disappointed when I heard you were already gone. Welcome back."

They're telling stories about me? He didn't have the bandwidth to feel annoyed. "Pleasure to meet you," he said. "Can I have an appointment? If not him, than anyone in charge. I don't know where to turn."

A few watching bugs scattered at his words, buzzing nervously to themselves. Apparently his intensity was too much for them. But just as some fled, others were visibly drawn to the room. More guards, with their assortment of bizarre weapons. Real swords mixed freely with museum replicas, as well as copies of hardened slime that would obviously not survive any real use.

They didn't surround him, but clustered near the entrance, as though expecting an attack any moment. Of course, none came.

"I'm sure he will see you," the bug said. "What is the source of your passion, Ryan? Why are you so upset?"

Should he make something up? But a lie wouldn't serve him here, not surrounded by creatures that could read his emotions. Maybe feeling so strongly about this would earn him more attention. He leaned in, whispering only for her. Of course there was nothing to stop her from repeating it to half this room as soon as he was gone.

"The pony I love was kidnapped. I need to find her."

The secretary nodded without a word. She buzzed away down a tunnel behind the desk, visible crawling through the semi-transparent hardened slime for a few meters before she was completely gone.

More and more bugs poured out of side-passages and tunnels, looking around for something. He could sense the curiosity from many of them. They glanced at Ryan, then out at the guards. "Are we under attack?" one asked.

"Maybe," said a guard. "They attacked him. Could be coming for all of us." As they spoke, they pointed their spear briefly at Ryan. Yet they hadn't tried to interrogate him, or even get closer to overhear his conversation with the secretary.

Too bad humans aren't more like this. One person gets hurt, and we all rush to fix the problem.

They didn't keep him waiting long—another minute, and the secretary returned. "Come, hurry," she said. "Pharynx is here. He will see you right away."

Ryan followed her behind the desk, then crawled. The damp and darkness frightened him even less than they had last time. The world might be ripped out from under him, but here was somewhere safe. Here were bugs that would give him somewhere to hide. Maybe even help him.

The office hadn't changed since last time. Pharynx hadn't either. He welcomed Ryan with salute of his wings, rising as he entered. "I hear you have bad news."

Ryan nodded sharply. "I don't know if there's anything you can do to help."

"I don't know either," Pharynx said flatly. "Tell me, cousin. If there is anything the swarm can offer you, we will provide it."

He explained. Ryan spoke slowly and carefully. He concealed only one thing—where they had gone, saying only that all the members of the crew were away in the city for the night, leaving Kaelynn to protect the ship.

Pharynx could probably sense his reluctance to reveal that particular detail. If he'd pressed, Ryan would've told him everything without resistance. Nothing mattered more than getting Kaelynn back—not fame for the trip, not controlling how the Worldgates were revealed to the authorities of either side.

But these were changelings, creatures of secrets. Pharynx didn't interrogate him.

It took less than ten minutes to explain everything. When they were done, Ryan could feel Pharynx’s sympathy and frustration radiating from him. As with many of these bugs, his emotions were not constant—he was letting Ryan sense it deliberately.

"Know first, that we will not let you starve. No matter what happens, you can come here. We will care for you."

Ryan's wings buzzed in annoyance. He resisted the urge to express his frustration in words. "I am... grateful," he said. It wasn't true now, but it might be later. Once the shock wore off, and long-term feelings like "hunger" could get through.

"I don't wanna tell you bad news. But a lie would be worse. Someone has to make sure you know."

Ryan nodded grimly. "Whatever it is, I'm ready."

"The ponies will probably not be able to help you. Canterlot has so little danger that its authorities do not know what to do when real crime arrives. Equestria is too safe, its ponies are too soft. They won't find your mate."

Pharynx spoke with total conviction, and his words struck Ryan like a physical blow. But he didn't look away. There was no point hiding his tears when the changelings could sense his pain anyway. "What do I do?"

"Would you accept help from us?" Pharynx asked. "We have... experts. I have bugs skilled in infiltration, who survived their assignments under the fallen queen. Those same skills may help find your friend."

Ryan nodded, wiping away the moisture on his face with one leg. "We're not even from here. I'm not a proper changeling. My girlfriend isn't a changeling at all."

"I taught you last time, we do not care." He rose, walking a little closer to Ryan. "I can tell you now, my bugs will compete for the chance to help you in this. There are many in our swarm who were bred for purposes that a life of peace does not provide. To use their training for good is a dream. Stars know I'd do it myself, if I could."

"Oh." Ryan sniffed, then looked up. "Really?"

"I will see who of the swarm is in this hive. But you should know... this is not a promise to save your friend. I do not know what happened, and I don't know if we will be able to find her. But I promise we will try."

"That's enough," he said. "My friends and I—we're not investigators. We're explorers. We need all the help we can get."

He waited in Pharynx’s office then, feeling increasingly anxious. Shame they hadn't been able to bring back devices that would work better in Equestria, like radios. It would be nice to ask what his friends thought about outside help.

But Kaelynn was as much his friend as theirs, and now she was more than that. If anyone was going to make a decision, it would be him.

Under other circumstances, he might've taken the time to inspect the various objects stored in the office. Some looked like weapons, others bizarre cultural or maybe religious artifacts. But he just couldn't bring himself to care about anything else right now.

A few minutes later, and two bugs clambered back inside. Pharynx of course, and another a little shorter than he was. Female, with different shades of crystalline green in her coat and wings. She wore a long jacket that covered much of her body, and probably concealed who knew what kind of strange objects.

"Ryan," Pharynx said, gesturing to his companion. "This is Aerial, one of my most trusted spies. I can't think of anyone better to track down your friend."

The bug nodded once. "I am sorry for the pain you suffer, Ryan. If your friend can be found, I will do it. If her life has been taken, I will help you take another in retribution. This I swear."

Like Pharynx, Ryan could feel nothing coming from this bug, not the slightest shred of deception or hesitation. Of course, if she could hide her emotions from him, then she might be feeling anything. But if she wasn't going to help, why even bother getting involved?

"Thank you. I don't know how much Pharynx told you, but our situation is dire. We need all the help we can get."

"Very little," Aerial replied. "I did not want my perspective tainted by the interpretation of an intermediary, even one skilled and perceptive. Tell me everything, and I will tell you what I think."

He did. As with Pharynx, Aerial didn't interrupt him, remaining quiet and patient until he had rehashed the basic details of the story. But that was when she started asking questions.

She wanted to know all kinds of things—the profiles of his other crewmates, in case they might be suspects. The kinds of cargo they might be carrying, the reasons that someone might want to kidnap Kaelynn. All sensible questions, though of course he could only give unhelpful answers to most of it.

Pharynx remained in attendance while they spoke, though the bug was entirely occupied at his desk, and never interfered. But Ryan had no reason to fear keeping secrets from him. The bug already knew where he had come from, so there was no reason not to tell this investigator. If the bugs wanted to screw them over, there was very little Ryan could do.

"We don't have enemies here, except for the pirates I told you about earlier. We don't have allies either. It's... look, my whole ship isn't from Equus at all. We're from another realm, and we traveled here by Worldgate. That's one of the reasons we instantly knew the note was a fake, since the real Kaelynn could only go home using another Worldgate. If she went off on her own, she would never see her home again. But whoever wrote her goodbye note didn't know that."

Aerial glanced once at Pharynx, thoughtful. Unlike the leader, she never opened her feelings up for Ryan to sense, even for an instant. Ryan couldn't be sure she didn't think the entire conversation was insane.

"He speaks the truth," Pharynx said. "These worlds were known to the swarm, but those we sent to harvest never returned. The fallen queen believed they were wastelands where survival was not possible, and no prey existed."

"Interesting," Aerial muttered. "It may be the opposite was true. Perhaps her investigators discovered a field so ripe with love they never bothered to return. They might still be living there to this day, oblivious that they do not have to live as parasites."

Ryan shrugged. "After we find our missing pony, my friends and I can share what we know, if you'd like to investigate. But... look, just trust me. I know where the Worldgate is, and Kaelynn wasn't using it, because I was there at the time. She's still here. Do you have any idea what might've happened to her?"

Aerial nodded. "A perfect note with imperfect knowledge—that tells me she was kidnapped by a unicorn. A changeling would never have written something with obvious flaws, we would study the role until we could play it properly. Only a pony would grow so confident in their magical superiority that they would attempt such an audacious deception."

"That makes sense. But half this city is unicorns, that doesn't really narrow it down."

Aerial shrugged one shoulder absently. "Take me to the last place you saw her. I will find whatever emotional traces are left behind, and see what else I can tell you. Without that, I can only tell you what you probably already knew.

"No pirate would have left without taking the ship, nor do they have networks of spies. They may be watching from beyond the navy's patrols, but they cannot be here. This means no existing enemy of yours is responsible. It was not a robbery, or else it would be far better to steal your artifacts and gold, leaving the pony behind. Whoever it was cared about her specifically. She is a member of a race believed extinct, since the Storm King's slaughter in the south and near conquest of Equestria. This does provide us a list of suspects, though I'm afraid it is not enough for action."

"Anything is more than we have," he said. "Please, keep going. You're making sense."

"Canterlot has a caste of old unicorns—ancient blood, descended from the Solar Council that once moved the sun and moon in time immemorial. These families have limitless wealth, and strange desires bred of indolence and apathy. Many are patrons of the arts, or artists themselves. Some others are collectors. What could form the centerpiece of a fine collection better than a specimen of an extinct species? Knowing the temperament of ponies, your friend is likely alive, preserved in an aquarium somewhere for the guests of this wealthy pony to ogle. If they were a griffon, she would likely be stuffed, or preserved in oil. So rescuing her may not be impossible."

Ryan twitched at the mention of such a horrible fate for Kaelynn. He could only hope this bug was right in her instincts. "It can't be legal for them to keep people in cages, can it? As soon as Equestria hears about it, they'll let Kaelynn out."

"They won't hear about it," Aerial said. "These families are tightly connected, with oaths and blackmail and threats going back centuries. Waiting for someone who observes your friend to reveal the truth is a doomed endeavor. We will have to find the household, infiltrate it, and set her free ourselves."

Aerial closed the distance between them, grinning slyly. Crazy how an oversized beetle with a bright green shell and glittery wings could somehow look both menacing and sexy at the same time. He'd probably just seen one too many Bond films.

"Even if we do find her, getting in could get us killed. Equestria is not as safe a place as its ponies like to tell themselves. It isn't that there is no evil here—only that those who do evil know they must keep it well hidden. If threatened by some creature who might expose them, they will fight like a starving grub for the last scrap of affection."

"The old houses deeply hate changelings for the invasion," Pharynx said from his desk, conversationally. "If they thought they could get away with killing you, they would probably do it for no reason at all. Is your friend worth that, Ryan?"

"Yes," he answered, defiant. "I don't care if I have to go through hell to get her back—you can book my ticket."

Chapter 61: Vesper

It was a strange thing that sleeping could count as work for Vesper. But after devoting hours to asking dockworkers and anypony she could find along the wharf about their ship, eventually she had to admit that she just wasn't very good at this. Convincing people to talk to her was simple enough—but there just didn't seem to be that much for witnesses to see.

After asking for hours, all she could know for sure was that a few dockhands working across the wharf thought they saw someone walk onto the deck from the city, go below for a few minutes, then leave again, alone. Nothing suspicious, no sounds of a fight. It had been so innocuous that no one had even remembered much about their appearance.

"They wore a jacket." That hadn't seemed unusual to the workers, and why should it? This wasn't the high city, the docks were filled with shady-looking characters all the time. Many of those who worked here at the bottom of society did so because they had nowhere else to go. Plenty had criminal pasts, or lives they wanted to stay away from. When Vesper tried to press, she met swift resistance.

But while there was very little for her to do as an investigator, there was another kind of search she could conduct—into the Dreamlands. Pale Light had explained quite clearly what powers she might wield, to travel between dreams and pass freely through the unconscious world. What she'd taken before to be nearly useless parts of her tribe's gifts might actually turn out to be the most important.

Kaelynn might've been kidnapped, might be held under all kinds of terrible conditions. But she still needed to sleep. Only Ryan's strange species allowed him to escape that requirement.

It was hardly the most comfortable and relaxing circumstances to lull herself to the unconscious world. Blake wasn't entirely unreceptive to her tonight, and her own anxiety over Kaelynn wouldn't just go away. She too couldn't help but think that things might've been different, if only she stayed.

But the bats had substances for that, and so she took a phial of one. Not Everwake, the potion hawked as a cure to bat insomnia Equestria over, but its reverse—Styx. One sip, and all Vesper's anxiety melted away. She collapsed, and within moments found herself in the familiar domain of dream.

She made it to the gate, and was halfway through her usual effort of wedging it open and slipping out of her dream, when something finally stopped her.

In this dream, she was aboard the Bright Hawk, under attack by a veritable army of pirates. They looked like the characters of the Disneyland ride, crude mannequins with waxy human skin and exaggerated costumes. They didn't attack her, but were frozen in a bizarre tableau, raiding the ship and dragging away a dream version of Kaelynn. Here, she was a mermaid in a net, with a seapony tail and her cutie mark.

But dreams didn't have to make sense, and Vesper had learned not to pay much attention. She might not have noticed anything at all, except for one figure that seemed more alive than the others. She turned from the gate—here manifested as the door into Vesper's own room, grown a full story tall without lifting the ceiling in a comical warping of proportions—to the one watching her.

Not a pony pirate, as she'd initially thought. Not even another bat, somehow wormed into her dream. This was someone else, someone she recognized.

Vesper stopped what she was doing, letting the gate slide closed. She turned slowly, lowering her head to the stranger. She didn't bow, exactly—she still wasn't sure she'd ever do that. But it was close. "Are you really here?"

"The answer depends on your perspective," said Princess Luna. Her dream self wasn't so tall and grand this time—she fit easily in the Bright Hawk's cramped hallways, only a head or so taller than Vesper. Her mane was still elegant and otherworldly, rippling to an unseen wind. Where it drifted, it passed through the walls without resistance, more real than anything the dream had manifested around them. "Strictly, no. Spiritually, yes."

Vesper resisted the urge to run over and embrace her. Authority she might be to the creatures of Equestria, she was a total stranger to Vesper. One previous conversation did not qualify the bat as her friend. "I can't tell you how good this timing is, Princess. Seriously... you have no idea."

"Oh?" She tilted her head to the side, and space warped around them. The dream unraveled around her, until whiteness extended on all sides, save for one aspect. The pirate modeled after an Earth celebrity, kidnapping Kaelynn's dream form. "This is not why I sought you out, Vesper. But I may have some wisdom to share regardless."

Vesper considered that. She wasn't likely to keep Luna for long—this pony was one of the most important in all Equestria, even if she wasn't ruling anymore in the strictest sense. She had a whole world of dreams to supervise, not just this one. Or was she just here as a hobby, now that she had retired? Now was the wrong time to ask.

"You first. Why did you come looking for me?"

"Pale Light spoke of you," the princess said. "You met him here, in the Dreaming. You may not remember, I trained him to avoid the lasting memory of creatures he meets."

She grinned weakly. "Pale? I haven't forgotten him. We talk most nights, though I'll admit I don't think he likes spending time with me. It's hard to tell... but he gave me my name, so I guess that makes us friends." Vesper stopped beside the Jack Sparrow animatronic. "You're not asking about these things. You recognize them?"

The princess nodded. "I have seen their like before, who traveled into this realm before you. And you tricked Pale Light into giving you a name?"Her eyes grew wide. "I can see why he recommended I approach you. You're a rare talent—is it true you learned how to travel the Dreaming on your own?"

Vesper nodded absently. It was true her investment in Kaelynn's disappearance wasn't quite as personal as Ryan's. "Not that I don't care about dream stuff—it's better than flying, and way more versatile too. But one of my friends just vanished, probably kidnapped, right in Canterlot. I'm kinda trying to find her through the sleeping world? I was just going to ask Pale about it, but if you're here... do you know how to do that?"

The princess chuckled. "I see the dreams of all sleepers, but through a fog. Oddities draw me, and attacks from beings intruding in the realm of sleep. Finding a specific individual through all that is harder than you might think, even for me."

"She might be the only member of her species?" Vesper offered. "She's a seapony. The creatures at Mount Aris thought they were extinct. Could you find a unique dream like that?"

The princess laughed, grinning weakly at her. "The seaponies, extinct? I'm afraid that theory is mistaken—they live, in their millions. I do not know where, yet they dream in peace, so it must be comfortable enough."

Well shit. She couldn't even give Kaelynn the good news, that there was a species who could actually instruct her in her powers. Not that they would've known where to find them if there was. "So I'm screwed?"

"Colorful," Luna said. "But apt, I suppose. Tell me what you can of your friend, and I will watch for her. But unless her dreams are particularly unusual, it will take more time than you have. I fear that campaign will be fought in the waking world, not the Dreaming."

We're already talking to the authorities. Probably not a lot more a retired princess can do to help there. "Well... damn. Not what I wanted to hear tonight. I'm supposed to ask her where she is, so we can head straight there and rescue her."

The princess shrugged. "If you are as competent in that world as in this one, I have no doubt you will find success. I do not rule in Equestria any longer—yet Princess Twilight Sparkle is wise beyond her youth. If you discover injustice in Canterlot, she will see it corrected."

The implication of those words settled on her like a stack of lead weights. If she discovered injustice. The princess would not be able to help her. "What if I wanted to look for her dreams?" she asked. "Even if I had long odds—even if it was probably just wasting my time. I'm asleep, it's not like I could be doing anything useful anyway. Might as well be rescuing my friend."

"Well... that is why I came," the princess said. She lifted one wing, waving it through the air before her. In an eyeblink, the last remnants of the pirate ship faded, replaced with a... floating city? A castle not unlike the design of Canterlot, but far more beautiful. It grew on all sides of a gigantic stone mountain, like an asteroid in high orbit. Yet there were no domes, but open balconies, with thousands of ponies passing between parts of the impossible city. Bats?

"This is Legacy, have you heard of it?"

Vesper shook her head once. "I haven't been looking for... I've just been looking for a way home. If it wasn't for this disaster, I'd still be looking."

She was hovering—how long had she been doing that? She let the wind carry her a little closer to the impossible city. There was no ground underneath, just stars in every direction. They really were out in space, or at least the Dreamlands version.

"I understand the sincerity of your purpose, and I will not attempt to draw you from it. But look for a moment, see the towers and minarets of Legacy."

She looked, and her mouth fell open. Such things Vesper saw in that place that she could not possibly record. Things she would never admit, even to a lover. Incredible, impossible things.

Vesper tore her eyes away, an effort that cost her dearly. By the time she managed to speak, her voice was hoarse, cracked with emotion. "What is that place?"

The princess waved her wing again, and the vision faded. She was back on her dream of the Bright Hawk, only all the pirates were gone. Her friends were gone too, and the vessel floated alone in a featureless void. "Long ago, the creatures of this planet were ignorant of the dreaming—they worshiped me as its god, just as they revered my sister. I allowed the belief to continue, because it led creatures towards greater mastery. Now those monasteries are abandoned, weathered away. The faith is nearly forgotten, there are no monastic orders to join. Instead, I leave bats an ultimatum. Find us, if you can."

It was exactly the kind of taunt that Vesper needed, something with an incredible goal waiting in the wings. If she wasn't careful, she'd start obsessing over what she saw. She'd try recreating the Dreaming city, using what she saw to help find the real one. She resisted—she could not let herself be distracted while Kaelynn was still gone.

"One day. I have to find my friend first. And there's getting back to the place we came from. My friends still want to return to Earth. We found a Worldgate, I might use it with them."

Luna shrugged her wings. "It is for you to decide how your talent shall be used. If that means you return to the world that you came from, then Equestria will be the poorer for your absence. That is the essence of choice."

She leaned in close, resting one hoof on Vesper's shoulder. "Good luck finding your friend. Now that I have seen your dreams of her, I will watch. But if you wish to find her quickly, I do not think my help will be enough. It took weeks to find you, a child of moonlight intentionally visiting my own realm. This is the fate I invited when I yielded my sovereignty to Twilight Sparkle. Most of my power is now her power."

Vesper should've guessed as much—why else would the princess not care much about her desire to connect worlds? How could the goddess of dreams not find someone in her domain? If most of her power was gone now, obviously.

"Thanks. I hope we talk again sometime—maybe you could give me an instruction manual."

The princess laughed again. "You have seen where to find it." Then she vanished, and the dream ended.

Chapter 62: Ryan

Ryan paced back and forth through the workshop, feeling as though he might be wearing a path down in the deck. It was dark outside, with the lights of Canterlot distant twinkles through the drawn shutters. But he didn’t need to sleep, and Aerial had made no objection to the hour either.

He had known before he even got back to the Bright Hawk that somehow all the pressure would end up falling on him. Blake had reported the disappearance to the Canterlot police, but they could do no more than promise to investigate. Useful if Kaelynn was spotted out in the open, since she'd be incredibly obvious—but if the kidnappers never took her out again, what good would that do?

Vesper had given them at least one new piece of information, confirming that only one pony had walked aboard the Bright Hawk, and only one had left.

"But that does not provide any additional clarity," Aerial had said. "A single unicorn could have teleported our missing pony away. Canterlot has numerous ponies with the skill to do so. Any dockside warehouse could've had a crew waiting with a cart to wheel her away, packed up and gone now."

A “teleport” seemed like quite the stretch in terms of magic. But Ryan had seen enough in Equestria not to even bother arguing with the local expert. It didn't matter if it seemed absurd—if the changeling said it could be done, than it probably could be.

For over an hour now, Aerial had been investigating the Bright Hawk. For a little while, Blake had followed along behind them, until Aerial complained that the additional emotions were confounding the reading she was trying to get. But changeling feelings were apparently different, so Ryan was allowed to remain.

"Ryan," the changeling said, startling him from his thoughts. "Come here."

He did, crossing the workshop to the drafting bench.

"Do you feel it?"

He shook his head once. "I feel furious at myself for letting this happen. I'm worried about what happened to Kaelynn, and where she might be right now. I don't know how they are treating her, or how carefully guarded she would be."

Aerial's wings buzzed briefly in annoyance. "Not that. There is an imprint of emotion upon this place. All creatures leave such traces, though ponies leave the deepest tracks. Unharvested feelings."

Ryan closed his eyes, trying to sense whatever this changeling wanted from him. If he remained still, he could almost feel something. He would've missed it completely, except that it was exactly the mind he was missing. Kaelynn was terrified of something. The impression came to him only for an instant, as though she were several rooms away, right on the edge of his perception.

"She was here! I mean... I know she was here, this is where she spent most of her time."

Aerial nodded, pleased. "Unfortunately it does not tell us much we couldn't already infer. This is where the confrontation took place. She went from feeling sick to surprise, then great fear. This is the same pattern almost any living victim would pass through, realizing too late they were about to be taken. But there is more. The criminal was also here—a single mind, far more confident and collected than your missing pony. This makes her feelings difficult to resolve."

"Her?" Ryan raised an eyebrow. "Vesper said the witnesses didn't know who it was. They couldn't even say for sure it was a unicorn."

"I can." Aerial walked across the room, standing a few paces away from the desk. "She was a unicorn. She walked through the ship, before stopping here. She was overjoyed to see a seapony here, alone. She can't believe her luck, she isn't sure she'll ever get another chance like this. So she acts. She turns around, goes down the hall to Kaelynn's quarters. After a few minutes, she hurries out of the ship, and she's gone into the city."

Ryan sat in place, stunned. If he concentrated really hard, he could imagine there was someone else in the room with him, for just a second. He imagined a stern, older face, like a disapproving librarian. But it didn't last. "I didn't know we could see the past! Can we follow her trail?"

"We can do neither," Aerial said flatly. "We see the feelings ponies had in the past. Yet their traces do not last for long. As soon as she walked off your deck, her traces mingle with tens of thousands of others. I cannot follow her."

"Oh." Ryan's ears folded flat. He pawed at the ground in front of the desk, defeated. "So it was a waste of time? We have some impressions about a suspect, but an 'older unicorn mare' doesn't tell us where to go to save her."

Aerial marched right up to him, fixing his eyes with a burning insectoid glare. "Do not whine to me like a larva, Ryan. You have been away from the hive a long time—you were untrained, and unprepared. You lost a creature who fed you."

She bore her teeth at him, barely even visible in the gloom. The two of them hadn't lit the lantern at any point during this investigation. He hadn't noticed the darkness until right now.

"We are changelings, Ryan. Our lives are surrounded by enemies on every side. There will be a knife against your throat until you die. If you think that's unfair, too bad. The universe is the cruelest queen of all—she does not justify herself, and rewards sanctimony with despair. Do you want to cry, or do you want your lover returned to you?"

He probably was crying—the sudden intensity was so bewildering that Ryan didn't know how to react at first. Pharynx had said Aerial came from the old swarm. Hadn't they invaded Equestria once? She had that kind of edge to her, a blade that could cut him too if he wasn’t careful.

He nodded. "O-ok. So you're saying you... you did learn something."

"I can't follow the pony. I don't know their name from their feelings. But if I get close to them again, I will recognize this mind. All we have to do now is arrange circumstances, so we encounter each other. The wealthy have tremendous resources, but what they lack in is liquidity. Whoever this is cannot simply flee the city with her prize. She will have tenants in her properties, she will have a mansion and servants. They bind her here, for us to find."

"I guess I shouldn't be so quick to assume the worst. You're right, it does feel like we've been getting the worst over and over. But I guess it..." He took another deep, slow breath. "I guess we need to meet a lot of rich people, then? That sounds hard; people like that don't usually like to interact with the peasants."

Aerial grinned at him. "You are not wrong, oldbug. We will need to insert ourselves into their community. Fortunately, you have someone with just the talent to make that happen." Her whole body glowed with faint green light, washing over her in an instant. When it faded, it left... an entirely new pony in her place. A stallion, a full head taller than he was, wearing a sharp suit and a monocle. "I will ask around, do a little digging in high society. If we are quite lucky, our kidnapper will attend one of the upcoming balls. It's likely, given her new acquisition.She will want to brag about it to her peers."

Ryan tensed. "I can't help but notice you said 'you.' Do you seriously expect me to wait?"

The new stallion advanced on him, glowering. "You are from another world, oldbug Ryan. How well do you think you could imitate a wealthy unicorn scholar? How much could you tell them about current thaumic study, or royal gossip? How many fashions do you know, how many local musicians?"

He opened his mouth to answer, then shut it again. She was right, obviously—he didn't know a damn thing. "She's my girlfriend. I can't sit around doing nothing while someone else rescues her."

Aerial patted him on the shoulder with one hoof, grinning like the stallion she was imitating might do. "Have no fear of that! I am gathering information—they will not find me, and they will have no proof to link me to the swarm. I cannot aid your rescue, and violate the neutrality of the swarm here in Canterlot.

"While I work, perhaps you should take this time to think of what you'll do." There was another bright flash of green light, and the changeling had returned. "You will not be able to go to the authorities for help, since you will have no witness to testify. It will be for you to affect a rescue, risking the wrath of an old and wealthy family, and possible arrest at the hooves of Equestrian authorities. If you are lucky. If you are not, the family will dispose of the problem themselves. I don't know which is worse."

She turned to go. Ryan reached after her, but lowered his leg after a second. He might still try to convince her to help with the rescue, but there was no reason to do that now. For all he knew, she wouldn’t be able to find the place.

Probably not the best way to get our worlds to start cooperating. The nobility might hate humans before even really meeting any.

He wouldn't find out what Blake or Jordan would say about that particular suggestion, not until morning. With even Aerial gone, Ryan could do little more than pace back and forth along the deck. He visited Kaelynn's room, stared at the empty tank, went to the workshop and back. Over and over again, without any improvement.

He did take some time with his voice recorder, though recording a journal didn't bring him the relief it usually did.

Journal,

Kaelynn is gone. I should’ve been with her to stop it from happening, I wasn't. The changelings are going to help find her, but their spy won't help with the rescue. It looks like a powerful unicorn here in Canterlot must be responsible. We don't know who yet, but we will.

Janet and Galena are still on Earth. They might be the safest members of our whole team, since they won't be caught up in all this. I'm debating sending them a message—Galena can probably fight better than any of us, so we might need her. Janet won't come back for this, and she probably shouldn't. She's just an office worker, and Kaelynn isn't her friend. She's ours.

Maybe Vesper will have some luck with her dream-magic angle, but I'm not optimistic. She's been able to create objects, but that's totally different from finding someone through a dream.

Aerial will be able to find the house holding her. But what we do after that is on us.

It would probably be the last journal he recorded on the subject. All things considered, contemplating a criminal act in a permanent, recorded form was probably setting up future Ryan for disaster.

Eventually the others woke. Blake first, rising with the dawn. Ryan explained everything he'd learned in the night while Blake ate. His expression grew increasingly grim as Ryan got further.

"Breaking into someone's household to rescue her," he said, when Ryan was done. "That's what you're suggesting? You know this is nothing like our usual operation—whoever lives here knows they're criminal, so they'll have tight security. They might be waiting for us specifically, depending on what they extracted from Kaelynn."

Ryan rose from his chair—there was no food in front of him, since of course he couldn't eat it. His wings opened to full size, and he glowered down at Blake. "What else can we do, ask nicely? They can laugh in our face, move Kaelynn where we'll never find her, and that's it. We never see her again! I'm not leaving her behind, no matter what it takes!"

Blake raised a hoof placatingly. "Hey, Ryan? I know this might seem rich coming from me—but cool it. Deep breaths, okay? When Kaelynn suggested we leave her to die in the desert, I wasn't cool with it then either. We're not going to abandon her. But that doesn't mean we take the most obvious solution to solving every problem. There are other angles."

He probably shouldn't have been shouting so loud. A few minutes later and Vesper dragged herself down into the kitchen. She wore a nightcap, and looked a little like death herself. Clearly she hadn't got much sleep.

She yawned, glaring at them both. "Couldn't give me one more hour?"

"Sorry." Ryan wilted, sinking into his chair. "Please tell me you have good news."

"The retired princess will be keeping an eye out for Kaelynn," she said. She added nothing else as she poured herself a bowl of cereal. When had they even bought Sugar Buggos? Vesper crawled zombie-like to the table, leaning against Blake as she languidly poked at her bowl.

"That's... great!" Ryan didn't smile—these last few days had been far too mired with disappointment to let himself feel anything positive. "How long will it take her to find Kaelynn? Can she bring all of us there, or just you?"

Vesper finished chewing before she answered. Watching her was painful, like a creature in slow-motion. But then, her mind still felt like it was halfway in another world. Equestria had given each of them gifts, but also asked a price. One thing it had taken from Vesper was the ability to wake up during the day with any comfort.

"She isn't optimistic. Princess Luna thinks it could take so long it isn't even helpful to us. We're on our own."

Blake explained, with far too much patience, everything Ryan had already told him. Vesper gradually animated, becoming increasingly alert as Blake spoke.

"So it's a heist," she finally said, with her first hint of real emotion. "I always loved the Ocean’s movies."

Chapter 63: Kaelynn

Kaelynn wasn't a person who could be idle. It didn't matter how much work she'd done before, or how justified her idleness would feel to anyone else. Kaelynn couldn't bear to sit still. She'd been caught before, and spent a few nights in lockup while waiting for the lawyers to do their work. But at least then she had a book to read, or some paper she could use to sketch things out. Anything was better than sitting around to wait.

This time there would be no bribing the police to let her go, there were no legal actions to file, no defense to be made. Kaelynn was trapped, as completely as she could be. She had searched her entire cell and failed to find a way out. Even worse, her captor threatened terrible things if she ever detected a shred of resistance.

For a few hours she had curled up in a corner of the strange prison, as though waiting would eventually wake her up. She'd be back in the Bright Hawk's tank, her friends just returned from their mission to Earth. Maybe the Worldgate would work, maybe it wouldn't. But either way, they would be together again. She wouldn't sleep alone, she wouldn't wake up in fear.

It was just a dream. Kaelynn woke sore and stiff from her position, body wedged awkwardly into an opening barely large enough for her. Nothing whatsoever had improved—not her present, or the outlook for her future. She was doomed.

Kaelynn did not go back to laying in the corner. Ultimately, it didn't matter how bleak things seemed. Morningtide could lie all she wanted about her friends leaving her behind. She could proclaim the cage a perfect prison, and the guards outside eager to kill her.

She can't take my songs away. I've used the transformation spell before, I can use it again. I can walk out of this prison.

Kaelynn searched her prison again, but this time her search was very different. Instead of looking for a flaw in the cell, she searched for resources. What had their jailer given them that they could use?

That proved the first piece of good news she'd seen. Morningtide had filled the cell with all kinds of "comforts" for her captive. It was hard to say what good a grand piano or rugs would do for their morale underwater, slowly corroding. But a piano was a source of cable, wire, and steel. A rug could be sliced and braided into rope. Fine furniture could be shattered into wood and scavenged for screws.

Most important, all this gigantic crap proved there was another way into the tank, a way so obvious she'd almost missed it the first day. There was a steel door on the top of the back section, made of two overlapping plates obviously fastened down together. They couldn't be so lucky as having the mechanism secured on their side, but that wasn't the end of the world.

Steel might be unyielding, but it was ultimately fastened to stone—stone that could be eroded and weakened over time. Stone she could defeat, with the tools and the time. She had an endless supply of the latter, so all that left was the former.

So Kaelynn began gathering up the scrap she'd discovered around the prison. Taking apart Tellin's beloved possessions one by one would probably not earn her much cooperation—but there were plenty of old things left abandoned in corners, gifts that he obviously hadn't cared for. Kaelynn started with those, taking an old basket with a strap covered in deposited saltwater, and gathering up bits of discarded metal and wood that didn't immediately crumble in her grip.

That was what it took for Tellin to finally swim over to her, emerging from hiding near the walls to trail just behind her. He spent a good few minutes in total silence, watching as she dug through sediment on the bottom of the tank, fishing out rusting toys, models of Equestrian buildings. Her most interesting find came after about an hour, when she shook off what she thought was a length of wood, only to expose as a book underneath. A book, with genuine paper pages, almost-leather cover, and everything.

"How..." She settled it down on a clean rock, flipping through it with one foreleg. Yes, it still felt like paper to the touch, and she could turn through its sections without making the entire thing crumble. A physical impossibility, but somehow a clear reality.

"Did Morningtide ask you to clean?" Tellin hummed, finally letting himself drift closer. "She usually lets me do whatever I want in the tank, as long as the display window is nice. Nopony looks back here, you probably don't need to do that."

"I'm not cleaning," she said, eyes skimming over the book. An Illustrated Account of Encounters with Ponies Dwelling Below the Water. The few pages she saw did have images of seaponies, often floating along beside ships. Real ships, not the airships that she'd seen dominate Equestria today. Interesting stuff, but for now she just put it aside with everything else. It wouldn't be useful for making tools, anyway. "I'm collecting materials. I want to make things, but I don't want to break anything you like."

She couldn't conceal her fear—that was the downside of all this singing. Maybe that was why she had got along so well with Ryan. He was going to read her emotions anyway, so it wasn’t like she could hide anything more.

Tellin circled her once, tail dragging slowly with his confusion. "Make things? Why would we need to make things?"

She had to choose her words carefully—any lie she told would come out as an insincere, out of tune mess. But she couldn't be silent and expect someone as emotionally developed as a child not to go repeating what she said to unsavory ears.

"Before I was kidnapped, I was an engineer. I make things even when I don't need to make them. Creation is rewarding all on its own."

He hung in the water there, apparently lost in thought as she continued away from him. She picked up a few more interesting scraps before he caught up with her again. "What are you gonna make?"

"Tools, to start. These will be... the worst possible conditions to begin. No drill, no press, no forge..." She winced. "Basically a desert island, without the coconuts and sunshine. After that, we'll see what I can figure out. I've thought about how seaponies might be able to build a civilization. You can't even swing a hammer properly underwater. Feels like we would be stuck primitive forever."

The hippogriffs had seemed about as advanced as ponies, but half their civilization was above water. Anything they needed to do on dry land they could just build there, then bring underwater. Ryan could probably give her a whole lecture about all the different ways science and technology would be stunted.

I don't have to discover anything, just make some basic tools. Or ask for them... How bold could she get in her requests from Morningtide before she realized she was trying to escape?

"I don't think the others were... stuck." He swam along beside her now, which unfortunately meant he blocked her view of the discarded bits and pieces that might be useful to her. "Morningtide tells me about them, sometime. She wants me to help save them, one day. It doesn't seem right to let the Storm King wipe us out."

She gave up her search, and instead turned her attention on a large desk up against the wall. It was in bad shape, and clearly Tellin didn't use it much. That made it perfect for her.

She would need a chisel and hammer first, something she could use to strike stone. That meant something heavy, cord, and metal strong enough to resist repeated impacts. She started sorting through what she had gathered, pushing aside anything that didn't seem promising.

"I don't think that would be right, either," she said absently. "It's not the worst purpose a pony could have. But I'm not what you think I am, or what Morningtide wants me to be. I'm from another world, kid."

"So?" He watched from the water above her, not actually interfering. That was good, she probably would've snapped at him otherwise. "Lots of us went to other worlds. We had a song that could open... gates? Fish could swim through whenever they wanted. There were songs for all kinds of things—songs to build buildings, songs to heal sick fish, songs to weave cloth—Morningtide knows, ask her!"

She really doesn't think you're an escape risk, if she told you all of that.

Kaelynn stopped, holding up a long shard of metal. It hadn't rusted like much of the other stuff she could find. All it had to do was hold up long enough to pry apart that piano.

"I might," she said, considering different handle materials. She didn't get very far before realizing the obvious—she didn't have hands, so she would need something she could hold in her mouth, while somehow still exerting enough force to use effectively.

A force-dampener system, or maybe a harness for someone's forelegs. She could already imagine a few different designs, using springs and various shapes of jointed metal. Some were simple enough that she could probably throw them together in an afternoon, with a workshop and a pair of hands. Unfortunately, that was her entire problem.

She slumped her head against the desk, and the music of her voice must have conveyed her defeat. "Do you know any of those songs?"

"No," he said. "I thought you did! That light one you used, without even trying! Do you think maybe our other songs work kinda like that one?"

"I'm sure they do," she agreed. "I had a whole songbook—actually, Morningtide has it just outside. She seems to like you better, you should ask her to give it to us. It had all kinds of songs in it."

Kaelynn had tried to sing all of them, before she understood the importance of matching the spell's required emotional tone. Too bad she didn't have the same memory for songs that she did for machines, or maybe she could just try one of those defensive spells from memory.

"Really?" Tellin circled around her once. "I wonder if she's out there now!" He zipped past her, back towards the tunnel.

That left Kaelynn alone with her work, at least for a little while. With her work, and a kid who had spent most of his life in this stupid tank. Tellin wasn't really on her side, yet. Whatever escape she tried would probably take winning him over first. Somehow.

She turned back to her work. She took a lump of wax, and used the desktop to sketch out what she would do. The marks were crude and would wipe away easily, but it was something. Kaelynn hummed quietly to herself as she worked, without even really realizing what she was humming. She needed something to distract her from the painful absence in her tank.

Metal sounded against metal as she finally went to work. She had only scraps of cloth to bind things together, and nothing close to an anvil or hammer. She wasn't going to make excuses for herself. If she started down that road, she might as well just give up and submit to Morningtide's whims.

"Kaelynn!" a voice called from behind her. She turned to look at Tellin, and realized she was both hungry and sore from labor. How long had she even been working? "Kaelynn, you're doing it!"

"Doing what?" Then she looked down, gasping at what she saw on the desk before her.

Somehow, impossibly, Kaelynn had made herself some tools. They were clearly made of the scrap metal she had to work with, speckled with patches of corrosion and rust. They had mouth grips of worn cloth or wood she had scavenged. Yet the quality of the workmanship was... impossible.

There was a wrench here, a hammer, a vice, a hand-drill. "Impossible," she stammered, nudging one of them with one of her hooves but if she expected the hammer to puff away into bubbles before her, she was disappointed. "I don't know any other songs."

"Looks like you do," Tellin hummed. "Show me how you did that!"

Chapter 65: Ryan

Ryan walked with Aerial down the hall towards the exit. "Thank you," he said, and meant it. "You can't possibly know how much this means to me."

"I know exactly how much it means to you," she said, poking him in the chest with one leg. "You radiate it like flames. That kind of love burns all it touches. It burned the queen, and it will burn you if you aren't careful. Like all flames, you must not let it master you."

She fished around in a pocket, withdrawing something with her mouth and tossing it to him. Ryan caught it in his magic, which took far more concentration than when he was pretending to be a unicorn. His reaction time was getting better, though. He'd actually managed it this time. "I'm trusting you with this. When you've learned everything inside, you need to burn it. Don't leave it on this boat when you go on your mission, or the changeling presence in Equestria may be threatened."

He flipped through a few pages, staring down intently. First was a description of a unicorn mare, in meticulous detail right along with a sketch. The same pony she'd been earlier that day. After that came other names, along with relationships. This stallion hated bright colors in clothing, a mare here was fascinated by Aerial's description of farm life.

"Damn," he said. "You wrote all this down?"

She grinned back, entirely uncharacteristic of the nervous messenger-pegasus she was playing now. But there were no non-changelings around to see her break character. "I realize that even though you know nothing about how, you'll probably need to sneak into that mansion. Look at the last page."

He flipped to it. There was a single note here, under "Appointments".

"Tour of the menagerie, including encounter with the last seaponies of their kind, living in sheltered captivity." Other details followed—where and when the meeting was scheduled to take place. "Three days?"

"Soonest I could manage without seeming too eager," she said, though her expression was proud. "Even with all that, I don't recommend you try. A few years of practice... I could make something of you. This wasn't even a moon." She lowered her voice. "If I thought you'd listen, I'd tell you to find somewhere else to feed. But I know love when I feel it. Nothing I said could stop you."

He nodded. "Nothing in this world or mine."

She flew off, then, leaving him alone in the hallway. This wasn't the time to question her. Even if they succeeded, it didn't seem like they'd be able to just walk into the embassy and say thanks.

Canterlot's portal might be "safe", but this rescue might very well transform the city into somewhere too dangerous to visit for entirely mundane reasons.

By the time he made it back into the mess hall, Blake had set his phone up on the table beside the map. In accommodating a pony body, the whole thing had stretched and distorted upon coming into Equestria. It was far closer to a tablet now.

"We can't go in guns blazing," Blake said, sitting up after a few difficult seconds. "I know how much you want to go straight there, Ryan. But that isn't the way to play this. We don't just have to get Kaelynn back. We have to be able to get her away from the ones trying to keep her captive. We know almost nothing about what ponies can do, what the limits of their magic are... this is a worst case scenario for a rescue mission."

Ryan bit back the instinct to argue with him. It was hard not to see anything that would keep him from getting back to Kaelynn as something to rip apart with his bug teeth. Apparently even Aerial had noticed. "I know we only get one chance," he said, settling down into one of the chairs. He perched more than sat, ready to spring out and charge off as soon as they finished. "We can't get caught, we can't get killed, and we can't let them move Kaelynn. But that last part will be really hard, right? She's a fish, in an aquarium."

He squinted down at the map. "There's not a lot of places in the house they could hide something like that. Presumably they don't want everyone who visits to see they've got a slave hidden in their house."

"Two slaves," Vesper said. She didn't shout, but that was just the way she acted around them lately. No matter how angry they got, she somehow kept her cool. "Remember what Aerial said. They think they're saving the species, they have a breeding program. There's at least one male seapony in there. We don't know for sure, but I'll guess there aren't any other girls. Otherwise this whole kidnapping would be a waste of time. Our mare could just keep using the ones she has."

Blake removed a fresh sheet of paper, the same size that Kaelynn used for all her blueprints. Then a nearby pencil began to levitate, moving through the air beside the phone. Ryan only had to watch for a few seconds to realize what he was doing: redrawing the blueprint, but with far less detail. The pencil didn't shake, keeping level in the air as it drew.

"I didn't know you could do that!" Vesper said, pivoting in her seat towards Blake. "Why didn't you tell me you were practicing?"

He shrugged one shoulder, looking as nonchalant as he could. But he stood a little straighter as he did it, obviously proud. "Wasn't sure if I could pull it off. All this time in a city full of unicorns, it felt like I could copy them if I tried hard enough. Looks like I did."

He looked back to his diagram, focusing intently.

You should really just ask him out already, Ryan thought. If he wasn't so upset with Blake lately, he'd probably have suggested that to Vesper by now. Whatever barriers he had to her attention were melting under pressure. "Did you do anything like this while you were in the military, Blake?"

He laughed, bitterly. "Nothing like the way we'll have to do it. When I went into a building, lots of people were never going to walk out again. Whatever else we're here to do, it isn't killing people."

"I know that." Ryan sagged in his chair. "Kaelynn would never forgive me if I did. Even if the one who kidnapped her is a colossal bitch, that house is... not just her. Those guards are just guards. And if she's anything like the other noble unicorns, she probably has a dozen servants in there to every guard."

Blake finished drawing. He'd recreated the house, or at least the ground floor and its lower levels, along with the wall. "I figure there's no chance our seapony—seaponies—are on the upper floors. Every criminal on the planet knows you want to hide something, you hide it underground. We need to get through the wall, into the house, then down. I figure our tank could be anywhere on these bottom three floors. We might need some time to search all of them."

Vesper cleared her throat, settling something on the table in front of her. The object made a heavy thud as it went down, sliding slightly towards Ryan. He turned, then froze in place as he saw it, mouth hanging open.

It was a green paper package, with yellow block letters.

"PLASTIC EXPLOSIVE 1% DMNB"Along with plenty of warning messages, scrolling onto the back and sides of the rectangle.

"Jordan!" Blake snapped, his voice suddenly intense. He jerked away from the table. From the sudden burst of fear that radiated from him, Ryan half-expected him to duck under the table and cower. "Vesper. The hell are you doing with that? Are you insane?"

She smiled innocently at him, then smacked her hoof down on the rectangle. It dissolved into mist before their eyes, puffing away into nothing. "I didn't bring a detonator. Isn't that stuff supposed to be safe?"

Ryan hadn't moved. Despite Blake's fear, he remained in his seat. "Was that your idea? Blow up the wall?"

She shook her head once, gesturing at the diagram again. "This last level of basement, down here. The crystal caverns tour felt like it wasn't much more than ten meters down. The caves go all through the mountain, don't they? Why fight our way through guards if we can just open the place from below? Cave's pretty big, and you have a bat to guide you."

"Not to mention somewhere else to go," Blake said. "Good luck following us all the way to Poland. Getting down that far was a maze on its own. Even if we have to run, it's not like they'll follow us to another world."

"I'm hoping it doesn't go that far," Vesper said. "Since she'd probably leave people to stop us from making it back." She turned towards Ryan. "What do you think? Blast our way in through the bottom?"

He stared down at the map, searching for alternatives. "You make it sound so simple, but it won't be. We'll have to get a high-quality map of the old mine, and cross-reference with the city above. That won't be easy."

"Maybe not," Vesper countered. "But you love maps, you can figure it out!"

He looked over to the detailed city map that Aerial had left behind, skimming it closely for information. Whether by chance or careful planning, she'd chosen an incredibly useful map for him; there were elevation markings, and soil composition notes under several properties. This was surveyor-quality stuff. "I might be able to do it. Might. But if we screw up... we won't get a second shot at something like this. Ponies aren't stupid, they won't just think it's a little earthquake."

"We also can't bring the place down on top of us," Blake said. "I never did demolitions, Vesper. I don't actually know how much of that stuff will open a hole in the floor, and how much would leave the whole house a smoking crater."

Her grin just got wider. "I don't either! But that's not a problem—they work how I think they work. They're magic."

Blake trailed off, looking away awkwardly. "Right. Of course."

Ryan looked over the phone diagram again, turned the sketch over in his mind, searching for any other way in. But all the other ideas that suggested themselves the ponies had already thought of. The roof would have its own guards, the windows were fortified. "I'm a damn changeling," he said, frustrated. "I can look like anyone I want to. I can sound like them, move like them. It feels like that should be enough to get us in."

"Sure," Blake said. "If we're willing to spend more time. We'll have to case the building, watch it for days, see who goes in and out. Maybe you could impersonate one of her guests from another house? Could you turn into that pony Aerial was using earlier?"

Ryan took a moment to focus. Becoming a creature he'd never used before was always hard. Doing it without the reference right in front of him only made it much worse. But if there was anything in the world that would demand his focus, it was this. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then...

Changed. He grew taller, leaner. A ballgown appeared from nowhere, and her mane was suddenly up in an elegant, high braid. Jewelry settled around her neck. She opened her eyes, exhaling heavily. "I believe I've... managed it? Is this who you mean?" She paced in a slow circle, holding her head primly as Aerial had done.

"I have no idea who that is," Vesper said flatly. "I've never seen you in my life." As she said it, she took a few subtle steps towards Blake, one wing opening in his direction. He didn't notice, but Ryan couldn’t miss the strength of her emotions.

"She's the fake identity Aerial used," Ryan answered, reflexively. "The heiress of a house from outside Canterlot, trying to make a name for herself." The body felt like a piece of ill-fitting clothing, like a whole breed of pony that Ryan didn't quite understand. It moved in ways that weren't necessarily intuitive. Yet from the way Blake was staring, they clearly had the right effect.

"I'm overwhelmed with disappointment I never saw her," Vesper said sharply. Then she smiled. "You know, there's no reason any of this stuff has to be separate. You could go in, find out where she is, then give us a signal to bust you out again. Bet I could summon some kind of radio-beacon with enough prep. We don't, uh... we don't quite know what the limits are on those powers. But we wouldn't have to go in without testing it."

Ryan reached over to the table in her magic, levitating the little notebook Aerial had left behind. She flipped through it, and found the notes within in a dozen different sets of handwriting. At one moment elegant and sweeping, the next cramped, then messy and sideways. "Looks like Morningtide is bringing people in... two days from now. That should be more than enough time to prepare."

Ryan flipped through the book again, considering every word Aerial had scribbled here. The level of detail was meticulous—how this fake pony walked, where she was supposed to come from, the way she ate certain types of food. Like the changeling had given her a list of easily-identifiable quirks, an excuse for people to notice those and stop watching.

This is completely out of my league, she thought, going more slowly through the pages. There were names here—contacts, friends this pony had made. The ones she'd used to secure her invitation. Plenty of detail.

"We have our plan," Blake declared, obvious discomfort in his voice. "We'll need somewhere to practice with those explosives. Any ideas?"

"Sure," Vesper said. "But we're gonna have to fly out of here. Probably should anyway—if we stick around, we show that unicorn nag we're suspicious, maybe even that we're planning to get Kaelynn back. We need to fly, and you'll have to do it."

"Great," Blake said. "Without Galena. No way we'll screw that up."

Chapter 66: Kaelynn

Kaelynn was making progress.

Every morning she told herself that—or at least, she assumed they were mornings. Her prison had no windows, nothing more than the magical glow of crystals they could brighten or dim on command. But she could keep track of the days in other ways. The demands of Morningtide made that easy enough.

Most of the time, she just wanted to show her off. Groups of well-dressed ponies visited their tank. They weren't what she imagined when she pictured a group of people willing to look at a kidnapped person locked in a tank, either. Not bulbus and sweaty, covered in gold chains. These were dignified ponies, wearing fine gowns and sharp suits.

Most of them didn't even know she was being held against her will, not after that first group. Morningtide had made it quite clear what she wasn't allowed to talk about on the very next day.

"You will neither state nor insinuate that you are not being well-treated here," Morningtide had said. "The instant you do, my patience will expire." She lifted something into the air—a bottle, with faintly luminous contents. "Know the position you're in, Kaelynn. This potion, added to your tank, will ensure that repopulation efforts begin promptly." She settled it back down, tucking it away behind a stack of books. "I have no desire to escalate to such barbaric measures. Do not force my hoof."

Kaelynn nodded once. She could've raged against her, bashing up against the tank, screamed wild profanities—or she could keep her mouth closed, and wait for an opening. The latter was an easy choice. My friends are coming for me. When they do, you better hope I'm feeling forgiving. "Is there anything else I shouldn't tell them?"

The unicorn waved a dismissive hoof. "This talk into... other worlds that so fascinates you. That theory is known to most ponies who study your species. All reputable scholars have dismissed it. It really would be better if you kept that to yourself."

Kaelynn circled the little fishbowl once in agitation, stirring the water beneath her. As she did, she caught a scent from the tunnel entrance. A pair of eyes watched there, just out of sight. But what else was there for Tellin to do? "You're asking a lot, Morningtide. Do your visitors want the truth, or entertainment?"

"Entertainment." She didn't even hesitate. "You already met with the genuine naturalists. They know as I know that you don't come from an existing colony of seaponies, and so their curiosity waned. Consider this position... elevation. By saving this species, your life will have greater purpose than it ever could have. One day, your descendants will be released into one of Equestria's sheltered lakes to rebuild. Seaponies through all history will have you to thank for their survival."

She curled her tail upward, covering herself subconsciously. Funny how she could come so far in overcoming human taboos since arriving here—but nothing could bring them back faster than being treated like an animal.

Morningtide seemed to sense her hesitation, because she held something up in the air ahead of her. "Don't think I can't be reasoned with, Kaelynn. Cooperation brings great rewards. Look." She held up a single flat page, then dropped it into the metal chute atop the tank. Kaelynn caught it by reflex, balancing it in one hoof.

"For the Nurturing of Useful Plants"

It was a sheet from the hippogriff songbook, drawn on that same waterproof material. It had been sliced away from the binding, but still looked like the original to her. No reason to lie, just give me a song I can't use.

"We would like to see your songs in action," Morningtide went on. "Various magical experts will be in the next group. You should rehearse that before they arrive."

Kaelynn skimmed it, then looked back. "I think I'll need something to grow. And probably Tellin's help. We've had more luck singing together than apart."

"Not unexpected. Speak to him, I'm sure he'll cooperate. I will reward you with more of your collection. Once I've determined the songs are safe, that is."

Maybe this was what Kaelynn was waiting for. Not even the hippogriffs had known what those songs did. Most titles could be interpreted in many different ways—maybe the correct one wouldn't warn Morningtide of the weapon it would be. Or maybe I don't need the songbook at all. There was no song for making tools, not exactly. She'd just wanted to do it, then she had.

Unfortunately for Kaelynn, she hadn't yet been able to reproduce that particular experiment.

That wasn't to say she was wasting her time. Morningtide only visited for a few minutes each day. When she wasn't around, Kaelynn worked. She tried to start with the piano, but had met unexpected resistance from Tellin.

"We can't take an instrument apart!" he had argued, shoving her away from the case with more force than he'd yet touched her. "Morningtide had a pony play it for me—it's beautiful!"

"Out there it is," she said, swimming along to the keys. She pushed a few of them down at random with a hoof. Only one actually played a note, not even resembling the C she'd intended. Not to mention it was so muted it was barely even audible. "Does that sound like beautiful music?"

"Break something else," he argued, determined.

No matter how much she wanted to keep fighting with him, Kaelynn knew it was a battle that couldn't be won. Not because Tellin had ever done anything untoward, or that he'd use his greater size against her. But all he had to do was say one word about what she was doing to Morningtide, and all her preparations would be for nothing.

"Okay. I'll clean up something else." She swam off, and had to make herself content with other ruins. There was plenty to keep her hooves busy—half of what filled the bottom of the tank looked like musical instruments of one sort or another. Most had fared even worse, and barely even suggested their original purpose.

Kaelynn used her tools to make more. She made prybars, wedges, a pair of heavy snips. She made a spear, though Neptune only knew if she would need it. One thing was certain; she wasn't going to attempt her escape unarmed.

Respecting Tellin's precious relics didn't mean she was entirely free of his attention. Most of the time it was simple curiosity. But not always.

"Kaelynn," he hummed, late into the evening another day later. At least, she thought it was night. She couldn't know for sure. "Has Morningtide talked to you about... why she does all this? Why she made us this shelter?"

Kaelynn shook her head. "Any reason she gives is self-serving, Tellin. We're increasing her reputation, her... family's prestige. Every day she brings in another group is another day that ponies get to ogle and clap at how generous she is."

His melody transformed, the beats becoming harsh staccato notes. "Morningtide wants Seaponies to survive," he went on. "We're the last of our kind in the whole world. Morningtide gave us a place to hide, where we could make more creatures like us. Don't you care if we die out? Do you wanna be the last seaponies to ever swim?"

Kaelynn tensed. It would be so easy to come up with a lie. But the music didn't work that way—any emotion she wasn't feeling would sound like a parade of wrong notes. "I care, Tellin." She set down her spear, and its half-finished point. "Maybe that's really what we'll have to do, one day." She rested one hoof on his shoulder. "But not while I'm a prisoner. If we did what she wanted here, we'd bring people into a world of... walls, and cages. The Storm King is dead, Tellin. The ocean is safe. If we were out of here, we could live anywhere we wanted."

He retreated from her, backing away through the water. "You keep saying things about Morningtide, Kaelynn... Are you even paying attention? She protected me from the Storm King, she gives us everything we ask for... why would you even want to leave? Even if the ocean was safe, you wouldn't want to live there! Ponies have a city. What's free even mean, if we have to hunt our own fish and live under a rock?"

He would probably be crying, if they weren't underwater. Oh god. This is so much worse than I thought. You think Morningtide is your mom. Did Kaelynn even have enough time to win him over? "I don't want to upset you, Tellin," she said lamely. "I'm glad Morningtide has taken such good care of you over the years. But can you see that she hasn't taken good care of me? I was happy outside, and she forced me here. She's holding me here against my will."

Tellin didn't even stick around in the water after that. He swam quickly away, vanishing into the gloom in the back of the tank without another word.

Sorry kid. Kaelynn went back to work on her spear, filing away at the blade. She had better hurry if she expected to get out of this tank. It was no wonder that Morningtide was so confident trapping her—she'd turned her fellow prisoner into another jailer.

They slept on separate sides of the tank, so it was nothing strange that Kaelynn didn't see him again until the next morning. He delivered a pine box to the table in front of her, with four little plants packed in gravel inside. Underwater ones by the look of it, with leaves browning on the edges from too long out on the surface.

"Morningtide brought these," he said flatly. "I think we're supposed to practice? Ponies coming over later want to see our songs." He didn't meet her eyes as he settled something down onto the table beside them: the songbook page Morningtide had given her the other day.

She looked from the page to Tellin, then back again. Just as she couldn't lie with her song, his emotionless neutrality sounded hollow to her ears. There was pain under there, poorly concealed.

Kaelynn set down her tools. "I can handle it alone, if you don't want to sing with me," she said. "I can perform for Morningtide and her guests."

"No," he said, a little too quickly. "I mean... I'd still sing with you. I think you're wrong about a lot, Kaelynn. But we're stuck together, so... I'll just have to hope you change your mind."

She smiled weakly back at him. "Alright. Let's try and grow some plants together."

Easier said than done. Their argument the night before meant the two of them were discordant now. Singing a magical song together required a level of cooperation from both parties, one that Kaelynn could hardly feel at first. Until she could, the plants didn't change.

Not only that, but this song specified a "Confident Knowledge of Hunger" required in order to perform the song properly, and the two of them were just too well-fed. At least until they'd been practicing for a few hours, and the time between meals began to stretch. That was the first hint of harmony between the two of them.

They sang of gardens and growing things, of what it was like to swim through a forest of seaweed and beneath bright green lily pads. It was a song only Kaelynn could lead with any authenticity, since she had actually been to places like that. Her diving experience formed the foundation of a song.

She hardly noticed the change, until creeping roots tumbled over the side of the table, and the great central stalk of a length of seaweed began to cover up the sheet music.

"I... think that's enough," she finally said, trailing off abruptly. As it turned out, only two of the plants had grown. Two remained in their pots, unchanged.

"I can't wait until we have the whole songbook," Tellin said. He tore off a large flat leaf of seaweed, then bit into it. He hummed happily at the taste, grinning. "It's so fresh!"

Chapter 67: Blake

Blake didn't crash the Bright Hawk on their flight out of Canterlot. Of course he didn't tell anyone that the real challenge would come when he tried to land anywhere. Taking off was really just a matter of giving them enough lift to go up, then not going into any of the flight-lanes reserved for ponies instead of ships.

His own personal expertise helped a little when choosing a destination. Just because he'd never done anything with demolitions didn't mean he couldn't give some advice. "We need somewhere underground, with a wall of material to reflect sound away from anywhere inhabited," he explained to his friends, as they crowded together over the chart.

"Some old caverns here," Vesper said, touching one hoof to the map. "Only a few hours from the city. Not too far from Ponyville, either. You think we could get Janet's friend to watch our ship for us?"

He nodded, confused. "I don't think we should leave it behind while we're testing bombs. Even if the Equestrian navy is as strong as everyone thinks it is, there are still pirates who want to kill us."

Vesper reached over, nudging his chest with one wing. There was nothing harsh about the gesture. If anything, she moved deliberately, so he would feel the skin there. Softer than he would've expected, and warmer. Was that weird?

He didn't really care anymore. "Not when we're testing the explosives. This is later, when we go for Kaelynn's rescue. If we ride the train into Canterlot instead of our ship, Morningtide won't know we're there. If we're lucky, that means she doesn't connect the heist to the Bright Hawk."

"Sure," Ryan said. At least he wasn't staying that unicorn every second. The body was cute, but knowing Ryan was under all that makeup and perfume made it hard to take her seriously. Not to mention the way Vesper got whenever she was around. "Counterpoint. If we're not lucky, and we need to make a quick getaway... our ship will be in Ponyville, a train ride away."

Vesper shrugged, settling against Blake's leg. "Eh. That's just math, Ryan. And anyway—if we screw up that bad, Equestria has a navy. We're never escaping from them with just the three of us. Who are they going to believe—one of their most respected noble-ponies, or three crazy people who just blew a hole in their city?"

Ryan's wings buzzed, but he put up no further argument.

"Sounds like a good idea," Blake said. "One question though. We're only doing it if you can answer honestly."

She puffed out her chest, grinning at him. But if she was trying to be intimidating, "extra fluffy" really didn't pull that off. "Like I'd do anything else. I always tell the truth, except when I'm lying."

"Are we doing it because you think it's a good idea, or because you want to ride a train in Equestria?"

Vesper's ears flattened. "We have our cameras back," she said. "I was gonna film it. You know the slow channel is gonna love it. Equestria is hella scenic."

Blake reached down, mussing her mane with one hoof. "Only if you can do it without anyone noticing. We're not risking the rescue for a video."

They took half a day to sail to the testing location, high in the mountains and far from any nearby pony settlements. The last thing they needed just now was a group of pony soldiers accidentally stumbling into them, and revealing their preparations to the nobility. Or worse, alerting Equestria’s actual government.

There were few lessons Blake was willing to apply from his time in the service to this new world. But if there was any kind of universal law, government incompetence was probably it.

Touching down in the precise location they were aiming for was a little harder, involving another hour of careful coordination. In the end, Vesper just gave up and flew down with the anchor, wedging the huge chunk of metal into the rocks. That brought the Bright Hawk to a stop, eventually. Not quite as gracefully as Galena would've done it, but... effective.

"I need more time to practice," Ryan said, emerging briefly onto the deck as they finally came to a stop. "I think I'll stay up here while you work. You won't have my help when you use this stuff, so you'll be able to handle it without me, right?"

Blake nodded. "Fewer people we have around explosives, the safer we'll be." What he couldn't quite do was imagine what someone could practice while completely alone on the ship. Didn't the magic do all the difficult stuff?

Before he could ask, Vesper landed gracefully on the deck, breathing heavily. "That was... more difficult than you'd think." With the sails raised, the Bright Hawk mostly stayed in place, though they were drifting slightly in the direction of the wind. The anchor groaned under the weight, but ultimately the line held.

"Great job, Vesper," he said. "This is... mostly your show, unfortunately. Is having me around even good for anything?"

"Sure." She turned on him, grinning. "Bring our flashlights and some snacks. You think you're good for climbing down the anchor line?"

If I was human. He walked to the edge of the Bright Hawk even so, gazing past the railing. The mountains here were as steep as Canterlot, though without any sign of civilization. There was no grading here, no railroad. He'd lowered the ship down as far as he dared, about twenty feet above a little valley between the mountains, where a cave opened up. "I can get down," he said. "I think my magic can help me grip the rope. Getting up, I might need your help. Unless I can just magic myself right up into the air."

Vesper giggled. "Almost two weeks in Canterlot, and I never saw a unicorn flying. I'm pretty sure they would if they could."

He went below for the stuff she'd requested, packing it into his magically-converted backpack/saddlebags. He packed far more supplies than he thought they'd need. Considering this entire expedition had begun after getting trapped underground when the mission was supposed to be brief, he wasn't going to take chances.

He stopped at Ryan's door, knocking once with a hoof. "Hey, Ryan?"

He appeared, or she, in this case. Her face was smudged with pony makeup, expression embarrassed. "What is it?"

"If twelve hours go by and you don't hear from us, please go for help." He nodded towards the window. "Ponyville isn't too far from here, you could probably fly there. Ask for Spark Gap, and tell him you're from Janet’s crew. If any pony can help us, he'll know how."

She nodded. "Twelve hours, really?"

Blake shrugged. "Once we do a surface test or two, we'll probably go down a ways. It could be hours between each blast. Ideally we'll find walls about as thick as the floors we're testing, or maybe caverns layered above each other. Then we'll have to hike our asses far away from anywhere we're about to blow up. I expect it to take way longer than Vesper does."

Ryan glanced through the doorway at the saddlebags, then nodded. "Twelve hours, got it. Good luck." She snapped the door closed, before Blake could see more of that fictional pony than he probably wanted to.

He made his way back to the deck, tightening the straps on his saddlebags with a little magic. The weight was enough to slow him down, though it hardly compared to their painful trip across the desert. At least he wouldn't have to tug a cart full of water.

"I thought we'd just throw one off!" Vesper waited at the top of the stairs, with a little wooden box beside her on the ground. It was covered in US military markings, burned into the wood. Inside were several green paper rectangles, along with a hard plastic box of detonation hardware. "We need a control test, right? So the first one should be out on the surface!"

Blake settled one hoof gently atop hers, pushing the box closed. "Not throw, then. How about 'carefully flown down, set up, and given a generous timer?’"

She turned, grinning slyly up at him. "You could just tell me you care."

"I do." He didn't break eye contact. "You're one of my team, Vesper. I'm getting everyone back to Earth. No casualties, ever. I'm not ruining the record for our channel."

She stuck her tongue out, nudging the crate with her hoof. She flipped off the lid, exposing its dangerous contents for him. "Big assumption that we'll all want to go back. I'd rather make videos from here. Think of all the awesome places we could be filming. We'd get a whole planet wanting to tune in. I wouldn't even need to think about most of them—I could interview random ponies on the street, and they'd be worth watching just because they're so damn cute."

"That works for you too." He levitated the box up into the air, very carefully. But using magic felt safer in its way than touching it with his hooves. Those scales were downright metallic, it wouldn't take much to make a spark. Sure real plastic explosives were harder to detonate than that. But these weren't real. Could a dream bomb kill him? "You would make a cute face for the channel. But with the way you look, you could probably get views reading nursery rhymes."

She flicked him with her tail, hard enough to sting. "Can't do those cursed finger videos with hooves, Blake."

A shame a member of his team had been kidnapped, and two others were lost in another world, or else Blake might've been able to actually relax. As it was, he found himself quickly returning to the task at hand: a box full of magical bombs.

He opened it carefully, settling down the detonation equipment alongside a single block of explosive. The first sensible step was to figure out exactly how big such an explosion would be, without blowing themselves up. "You dreamed all this," he said. "So why don't you tell me how you think it works. Exactly."

Vesper sat beside him, resting against his side in a way that probably should've made him self-conscious. It didn't. "Uh... like in the movies? You put in one of these little timers, enter the fuse time, then press the menacing red button to make it start counting down. Also... probably don't unplug it after that? I'm pretty sure that they're supposed to blow up if you try to mess with them after you set them off."

Blake rolled his eyes. We're using magical bombs dreamed up by someone whose knowledge of military hardware comes from Die Hard movies. "But it won't go off by accident? Or any other way?"

Vesper nodded. "Not unless dream magic works different than I expect. There's probably some limit, right? The power for all this has to come from me, eventually. I couldn't pull in a nuclear bomb... right?"

"We aren't testing that," Blake said flatly. He put one hoof on her head, forcing her to meet his eyes. "No more stupid ideas, okay? Promise."

She giggled. "I'm at least 20% stupid ideas. By volume. But I didn't plan on any war-crimes. There's... probably something to stop that from happening anyway."

Maybe lots of things. "Air masks worked when you brought them," he said. "There's a chance this just... won't. Not sure what we'll do if that happens."

"Real bomb?" she suggested. "Equestria has cannons, that means powder. We could do it ourselves."

"Not in three days." He fiddled with the detonation hardware, very carefully. After messing with the timer thoroughly disconnected from one block, he settled on a time. "Half an hour," he explained, shoving it into the rectangle in front of them. "Is that long enough for you to fly this a ways down the mountain? We need to find a place without line of sight to Ponyville or Canterlot. We need to be so far away from the Bright Hawk that even if it blows way bigger than we're expecting, the ship won’t get damaged."

She yawned exaggeratedly. "That's so much time I'll be back here for most of it, watching the clock." She hesitated. "I'm not exactly sure how far away it can get before I lose focus on it. Everything I summon only kinda exists, so... that is something we have to think about. I can't fire it off for miles. Further it is, the more effort it seems to take. But I haven't really tested what that means yet."

"Then maybe we should start with that."

She groaned, but didn't argue. How could they possibly rely on explosives to get them into the house, and not know if the magic would even work?

Whatever Vesper's limits were, they were wider than the deck of the Bright Hawk could permit. So she ended up flying off with their first bomb after all, albeit with the timer not started. She made it some distance down the mountain before Blake noticed something strange on the table—the crate of unused bombs vanished in a puff of cool morning mist. "Vesper!" he yelled, pointing at the table. Not that he didn't feel quite a bit safer with those bombs not sitting next to him, but even so. "Vesper! They're gone!"

She was much too far to hear him, and too invested in her own task to see him jumping up and down. But she returned a few minutes later, body dripping with sweat and looking like she'd just flown across the country. "Okay, so... that was hard." She pointed back the way she came. "Bomb is maybe a mile away? Feels like that's my limit." She settled right against the railing, probably as close to the location of the bomb as she could be. "But that should be overkill, right? This isn't a bunker-buster or something, we're just trying to blow up a wall."

Blake pointed at the table. "Did you know about that? The other ones...."

She nodded, wings sagging down beside her. "Yeah, I know. Gimme a minute. Still have twenty before the bomb goes off."

He brought her cold water from the mess, and she drained the whole bottle in less than a minute. "My guess is we've got... another ten minutes until it goes." She stared down at the rocky wilderness below, eyes intent on something.

"Can you feel it now? Are you sure it didn't vanish like the rest?"

She looked up at him, with an expression like a beleaguered student after a few days of tests. "Positive. It's a little like... holding something out at arm's length, but with my head. I have to... aggressively remember it's there. Please shut up."

He did, settling down silently on the deck beside her. The chill mountain air whipped at the sails, making their ship drift. As the seconds passed, his doubts began to grow. It probably wasn't a good idea to put their hopes in magic,particularly magic they didn't understand.

Then came the explosion. BANG! A roar went up from below them, and a short wave of hot air blasted past them. Chunks of rock began to rain down from below them, around a huge cloud of white smoke. It blew away in just a few seconds.

Vesper whistled, taking off again and hovering just over the railing. "I'm gonna take a look!"

"Take measurements," he urged. "We need to know how much rock it got through. Give us a baseline."

There was nothing particularly fun about testing things. Blake would deny to anyone who asked that he could possibly enjoy himself at any point over the next few hours. He wasn't a kid, letting off too many fireworks on the Fourth of July. This was a serious matter, and demanded nothing less than unbroken boring old person focus.

There were worse ways to spend an afternoon.

Chapter 68: Vesper

There was only so much Vesper could learn from making a few holes in the mountainside. Ultimately what they really needed to know was how their explosives would work underground. How close was too close? Would they bring down the ceiling?

That was why they'd chosen this specific location to test, of all places. It had a perfect test cave, made of roughly the same materials as the place they'd soon be carrying out their rescue.

Vesper did have one great advantage: her ignorance. Without any real-world knowledge of how explosives should behave, she had only the movies to go on. Movies where shaped-charges could blow perfect holes in the wall, while people covered their heads from a few feet away.

Over several hours of testing, Vesper discovered that her dream-explosives did basically what she expected. Unfortunately, the rock didn't.

Their very first underground test caused a cave-in that made the whole cavern shake for a full terrifying minute. Even worse, the resulting pile of rock collapsed the entrance to that tunnel by the time it was done, preventing them from actually gathering the evidence they were looking for. After some deliberation, they decided to try with smaller explosives and build their way up.

Vesper probably wouldn't have enjoyed it, under other circumstances. But once she was underground, working in narrow, sweaty confines beside Blake, it was easy to forget about the dark reason they had to be working, and focus instead on the far less-dark company.

They were underground long enough that Vesper lost track of time. Three hours, maybe more? Each test meant another long hike to find somewhere they hadn't already weakened, and avoiding tunnels with damage visible from what they'd done.

In the end, she wasn't the only one weighed down with obvious exhaustion from all the hiking. Actually, it was Blake who waved her towards a sheltered cavern they'd passed on their way in, one with a deep pool of water so clear it might as well be distilled.

"We should take a breather," Blake said, gesturing into the entrance. He wore their only light on his head, the magically-transformed headlamp now working again since recharging. "I thought it might happen. Brought supplies."

"Won't hear me complain," Vesper said. She'd long since run out of the energy to scamper ahead of him everywhere, or hover through the caverns instead of just hiking. But she kept the tiredness from her voice. They were blowing things up, how cool was that? "Anything good?" She eyed his heavy saddlebags, inspecting them closely for the first time. The bags were packed to overflowing, the sides bulging with their contents. A large bedroll was strapped to the back—pony supplies, not anything they'd brought.

"I'm not a chef or anything," he said. "But I figured it could be a minute. Plus, you like caves." He lifted the saddlebags off his shoulders and onto a large rock, before spreading things out. Blake had prepared a pair of sandwiches, along with a bottle of something and some glasses. He hadn't done anything fancy, but he had cared enough to make them both vegetarian, even though he generally chose to eat fish in his Equestrian meals when he could.

Vesper let him set it up, instead focusing her attention on the pool. It was far cooler than she would've expected, but she didn't let that bother her. She was already soaking with sweat and grime from the dusty air and crawling through a cave. The pool could only make things better. She didn't mind bathing in near-total darkness, with only the distant glow of Blake's headlamp to remind her that she wasn't alone.

The light appeared nearby. At least he'd switched the lamp to red, so it wouldn't blind her. "Hungry yet, Vesper?"

She grinned up from the edge of the water. Her wings were both plastered down to her sides. They'd still gone numb, though she stayed in. A little shivering never killed anyone. "Starving. Hey Blake, do you think you could use some of that heat on the pool here?" She reached up with one leg, but couldn't quite reach his mouth. "You're like... half dragon, aren't you? Give us a hot tub."

He didn't dismiss her out of hand. Instead he leaned down, touching one cloven-hoof to the water, then pulling it quickly back. "You crazy? That's gotta be snow runoff. You'll freeze your balls off in there."

"Too late." She twisted around, lifting her tail as far back as she could. It wasn't exactly something she'd practiced. Even for ponies, some things still had meaning. "Damn, I am fresh out. Won't you come in and help me, Blake? You know how desperate I'm getting down here."

She met his eyes, and this time didn't look away. Maybe embarrassment could work just as well for warming up the water as a little dragon-fire. She watched him, waiting for one of Blake's usual dismissals. Instead, he settled down on his haunches beside the water, looking distant. "Vesper, stop that. Look at me."

She did, swimming across the little pond to rest beside the shore. She reached out far enough to take one of his hooves, and this time he didn't back away. "You're not some celebate priest, Blake, neither am I. You can’t tell me this is wrong."

He met her eyes, silent. His scent had changed, though. Not the smell of heated metal, like he was about to start yelling about something. This was more interesting.

Finally, he spoke quietly. "You know it's gonna be weird when we go back," he said. "I'm gonna be straight with you—I'm straight. Jordan is a friend, but that's all he can be."

She stepped up out of the water, closing the distance between them. Where it touched his scales, it hissed into steam. After being surrounded by the cold, his presence was the first brush of warmth in her world. But if she got too close, would she burn? "I'm okay with that. Every relationship doesn't have to last forever." She spread her wings wide, then started to shiver all over again.

Probably a mistake. "I know how much you want to get us home. I'm gonna help, but I'm not gonna stay on that side." She gestured all around them with one wing. "I can do magic here. I can fly. There's a whole world of dreams I've barely even touched yet. There's enough to explore for a whole lifetime."

She touched his chest with one hoof. The heat was intense, but nothing like the flames that had burned a hole in buffalo territory. It didn't hurt. "We can explore some of it together. And if you want to go back to Earth after... I won't hate you for it."

He looked down at her hoof, then back up again. "Are you saying that Jordan is... gone? The kid I went to high school with died here in Equestria?"

She wrapped one leg around his, yanking him closer to the water. "Don't be dumb! Vesper is a name, Blake. I'm not a different person, my memories aren't dead. I just like being this bat." She reached up, running one hoof through her unruly wet mane. "And she likes you. She thinks you're brave and clever and also extremely hot. Like damn, you're a dragon."

Blake let her speak without a word. His expression was impossible to read, and Vesper couldn't exactly pull changeling powers like Ryan and read his thoughts. She had to do all this the old-fashioned way and figure out with her senses.

"Promise?" he asked. His voice was barely launder than a whisper. He touched her face with one hoof, pulling her close. "I actually think I'll be going home when this is over. That might be soon—we have that door in Bydska."

She rolled her eyes. She reached up towards his forehead, and pulled the headlamp off his face. She tossed it to the stone, smothering most of the light. "No more talking."

Discussion ended there.

Vesper couldn't say how long it was, without a light or a watch. But she did learn a few interesting things in the next few hours. Kirin, as it turned out, could heat water if they were determined enough.

They could also heat some other things.

Some time later, they actually got around to eating the meal he'd prepared, atop a mostly-intact sleeping bag they would have to share. Well, share again.

Vesper hardly noticed the bread had gone a little stale from sitting out, and she certainly didn't care. She rested more comfortably than she'd ever been in Equestria, nestled up against someone warm and... well, not safe exactly. Blake still burned with heat, and that wasn't going away. But sitting a little too close to the campfire was its own thrill.

"You brought wine," she said, when she finally drank from her glass. She rubbed up against his head with hers. "You were gonna do the same thing I was!"

He poured his own glass with his magic, and it didn't even seem to shake the way some of his levitation had done earlier. Was he getting better? "I was going to call it a date," he admitted. "Most of the girls I've been with over the years want more time before getting so physical. I had enough experience with quick sex in the service."

Her ears flattened involuntarily as he said it. "If that's how you want to think about it, then we've probably been dating for a few months. I kept my door unlocked every night, waiting for you to visit."

To his credit, Blake didn't blush when she said it. Despite the way they'd been acting together the last few months, he wasn't some nervous teenager who'd never been with anyone before.

"Wasn't sure if I would," he answered. "Longer we're stuck, the more likely it felt. Like I said, I'm not really interested in casual sex with strangers anymore. It was either someone who would stick around, or staying focused on our mission."

Vesper sipped at her glass, letting the rich flavor flow over her tongue. It tasted entirely unlike anything she'd had to drink on Earth... but because she was a bat, or because Equestria just made their wines differently, she couldn't tell. The rich flavor was exactly what she wanted after such an exhausting few hours.

His headlamp rested on a large rock, illuminating the wall mostly behind them. More light than she needed, but Blake wasn't comfortable in total darkness. It worked as a decent compromise. Besides, the white of the headlight changed to deep blue when it hit the crystal wall there, making the whole room glow faintly. The shade made her want to close her eyes and dream.

Soon she would, probably.

"We might not get another chance like this," Blake finally said. "When we wake up, we probably have to fly to Ponyville and find somewhere to park the Bright Hawk. Then we'll have to get underground, and find our target before Ryan is inside it. We really cut this down to the wire here."

"You did." Vesper settled her empty glass safely on the floor, then moved up against Blake again. His heat had long since driven out all the moisture of the pool, though patches of ground further away were still damp. She would take all that chaos as a mark of personal pride. "I was ready a month ago."

She closed her eyes, and already started to drift when she felt something—Blake shifting his weight—and a blanket settled down over both of them. For the first time in months, Vesper no longer felt alone.

Now all they had to do was get Kaelynn back, and she could enjoy this without guilt. She heard the click of the light going out again, and made a satisfied sound. "Thanks for... that."

Blake grunted in response, but didn't move. It was true he hadn't been blasting his magic around nearly as much as she had. But it wasn't like he hadn't had a chance to make up for it. "I told... Ryan to come looking for us if we're away for too long. Don't sleep in this time, okay? Wake me up in... four. Or something."

Ryan won't be mad, will he? We got our practice in. We'll have plenty of time to get to the meeting.

Chapter 69: Ryan

On some level, Ryan knew what would happen when Vesper and Blake returned. He didn't need the incredible power of changeling magic to know what two people did when they spent the night together in a romantic spot. Or somewhere he assumed was romantic, anyway. Bats liked caves, it made sense.

Besides, he'd been entirely preoccupied with his own part of the plan, preparing to do the job of a changeling who'd been trained for this her entire life. When he thought about it like that, the weight of his stupidity really started to settle on him. Ryan had two days and a book to prepare himself.

The mission didn't seem completely impossible. All he really had to do was show up at the house at the right time, and impersonate an amazed mare seeing the natural world of Equestria through eyes she'd never imagined. How much did she have to know to say hello, look convincingly fancy, and stare around at everything?

Ryan did not need to sleep. Without any other members of the crew aboard the Bright Hawk with him, he didn't even pretend to try, which meant even more time to prepare for this mission.

Unfortunately the benefits of being a changeling did not come without their cost. For the last few weeks, Kaelynn's presence was always enough to keep him stuffed with food. But the fish was gone now, and with her his usual source of nutrition.

Ryan didn't know how much magic he'd burned through in the last few days, but it had to be a lot. Enough that he began to remember those first days in Equestria, when he'd thought it was a simple diet thing and he'd gone for over a week without a meal. Without Kaelynn, he could still get some nutrition from his friends, when they were around. But they'd gone off on their own, leaving Ryan to fend for himself.

He knew when they'd arrived without needing to listen, without feeling the deck shake, or even reaching out with his mind to search for company. Ryan felt the love radiating down towards him through the ship like an unshielded reactor core.

He stirred, tossing the book aside. Maybe it was time to try and take a break. There was so much in the air that even walking to the deck revitalized him. Though some of that probably came from just how hungry he was. Even the crumbs from the edge of a rich table were more than he had.

"Hey Ryan," Vesper said, between panting breaths. Evidently she'd lifted Blake up to the deck herself. Ryan turned towards him from a few feet away. He'd done a decent job cleaning up from a night in the cave—his mane was swept back, and there was less scent than Ryan expected.

Still so much that he'd have to have a dagger in his chest not to smell it, though. He smelled like Vesper. "Tests were a success," he said. "We can open the ceiling without bringing down a whole cave. Looks like the rescue is a go."

Did it help to be closer? Ryan trotted over to them anyway, and found it was easier to feed that way. Given this love wasn't meant for him, the proximity still helped. It was as fresh as something he'd picked up from the butcher in a brown paper bag.

"Fantastic." He looked between them, tapping one hoof on the deck expectantly. "Are you gonna tell me anything else?"

Blake usually lashed out—some part of Ryan waited for it. At least an argument would help him wake up. But he felt no harsh edge from him this time. Instead he laughed, pulling Vesper over to him with one hoof. "She won, I lost. But don't worry, Ryan. We finished every test I could think of. This doesn't change anything."

"It changes everything," Ryan said, shrugging one dismissive shoulder. "But if you got everything done, it doesn't matter." Or... technically, it was even better than that. Being near the two of them meant he wouldn't be charging into the lion's den while also starving to death.

If Kaelynn wasn't missing, he might've been able to take a little more joy in their incredible awkwardness together. Like they somehow expected him not to notice the way they looked at each other, or the color of their emotions. Over the next few hours, he pretended it worked, if only because it gave them more reason to think of him. He was hungry enough to take whatever trickle he could get his hooves on.

The next few hours weren't easy exactly, but they were the simplest part of Ryan's life for the next two days. They raised anchor, then flew down the mountain for Ponyville. They kept low, so low there was a real chance that ponies in Canterlot wouldn't even be able to notice them over the surrounding countryside.

Blake took care of getting their ship somewhere to mour. Just as he'd suspected, Janet's formerly-human friend was more than willing to help.

So it was that they left in mid-afternoon. Vesper and Blake each had a saddlebag of supplies for their half of the mission, including Kaelynn's dismantled rebreather. Ryan had nothing but the fake body of a messenger stallion he'd seen in Canterlot on his first day there. It wasn't like he'd be able to smuggle a ton of stuff past its guards.

They were past the point of spending their bits conservatively, so they just booked out a private room in the front car, where they could watch the countryside go by.

Ryan twitched as he saw Vesper set up her camera by the window. "Audio's muted," she explained, as soon as it was stable. "We won't be incriminating ourselves, don't worry."

Ryan glared. But making any kind of point with Blake firmly on her side was a doomed venture. "Hopefully there isn't much to talk about. The only chance we have is keeping this simple."

Blake clicked the door locked, then sat beside Vesper. Even so, he kept his eyes on the little glass window at all times. As though House Shimmer had spies on every train station, and had seen them land.

They might have. Maybe Ryan should keep himself more alert for hostile feelings. But Ponyville had almost none, and neither did this car. Just the overwhelming intoxication of a newborn relationship.

"We go underground," Vesper said. "To the place you marked on the map. We wait for you. I guess I'm just trying to connect the... benefit of having you go in there? I know you want to save Kaelynn yourself, but we'd probably do a better job if we all went together."

The temptation to agree was strong. Ryan had no doubt in his mind that the greatest danger would be waiting for him. If Blake and Vesper could avoid blowing themselves up, sneaking past some cave tours should be easy. It was what they'd been doing for years, after all.

"I'm curious too," Blake said. "I can think of a few reasons someone might want to. What are you thinking?"

"It's my confidence in the maps I don't have," he finally answered. "I did my best to compare the maps. My confidence is down to... two hundred feet or so. Maybe a little less." He glanced sidelong at Vesper, with the edge of the rolled map protruding from her saddlebags. It was the closest thing to physical evidence for their heist they had left. The last thing they had left to burn, to destroy any evidence that remained. "If we're lucky, the rich ponies want their houses to connect with the caves, and we don't need to blow up anything. If we're not, I'm wrong by the length of a full house. We blow our way into the wrong basement, reveal our plan and make Morningtide run with Kaelynn."

Vesper nodded. "We can't get closer than that?"

"Not without taking way more measurements. Not from underground either—I'd need to start digging into the rock around the mansions of those ponies. If we could confirm rock types that might be enough to tell us what we need to know. Might. But it also might not have enough information, and we'd just give ourselves away to a dozen different private guards."

"Okay," Blake said. "Not just blindly hoping, it makes sense. But it's a lot of pressure for you. Going in on your own, somehow escaping from the tour, getting down far enough that you're on the lowest level of that basement, and signaling to us. Anywhere in that process, you could get grabbed. Your magic is cool, but it doesn't let you fight."

"Neither does—" he trailed off. But it was wrong for both of them. Vesper's magic was going to magic them up a bomb right now. And Blake could always burn anything that got into his way. "Look. Aerial was pretty clear about our odds if we try to fight on their terms. This is Morningtide's battlefield. She has magical defenses of her own. The only real chance we have is coming in from another angle. She lets me in past her defenses. I think she probably doesn't need to protect random parts of her empty lowest level. She expects attack from the city, not the caves."

He glared out the window, past Vesper's camera still facing down at the countryside. If it wasn't for the painful circumstances, he would probably be able to acknowledge the value that recording would have back on Earth. A video of another world, how cool was that? Losing Kaelynn had ruined his ability to focus on anything else. "We could give up on the meeting and take our chances, if you think we should. If we do, I... we still probably shouldn't wait. We only have a day after this whole mess to get back to Earth and meet with our friends. I don't think bringing more people in when we're about to commit a crime is a good idea."

Vesper nodded. "If this goes tits up, at least Janet got back to her family. And Galena got away from the pirates. That's a win."

"Until Galena transforms back into a bird in a few weeks," Blake added. "Sure. But I agree. Even if I had some special forces buddies to call—I don't, don't give me that look—these aren't conditions they're trained for. We're in another world, with laws that we barely understand. We don't know the enemy. We're also relying on intelligence we can't verify for the whole place. We could be going into a trap."

"We're not," Ryan interrupted, voice acid. "Aerial is good for her word. The changelings aren't lying—I'm staking my freedom on it."

"Okay, but..." Vesper began.

This time, Blake cut her off. "How about this, Ryan: what if we don't get your signal? What do we do?"

At least this was something he'd thought about. "Wait two hours from when I go in. If you haven't heard from me by then, blow the floor." And pray to god I'm not standing on it when that happens.

There was only one final detail of the plan to confirm. Vesper held out a little square device, dropping it onto the table between them. About the size of a phone, though there was no screen. "Here's the wire. I know it's probably not realistic Blake, don't even start with me."

Ryan took it in one hoof, a balance he could manage now only through his many weeks of practice. It didn't weigh much. The thing was really just thin plastic, with a single switch on the side. "How does it work?"

Vesper circled around to him, leaning over to take it. She tossed it up once, flipping the switch as she did so. "It's a penetrating sonar pulse. You need to get it against something solid, preferably the rock itself. It goes with this..." She leaned sideways, flipping open her saddlebags and removing something from within.

A yellow and black device, with a pole on one end connecting to a flat plate. "We'll have this up against the wall, and we can follow your signal. Screen here will show us any voids in the rock between us."

"Sounds perfect," he said. "Really Vesper, that's... amazing. Better than I could've expected. Better than anyone could hope for. You actually made it from... magic?"

She chuckled nervously, painfully. "Well, yeah. It's not quite as perfect as you're probably hoping. There are some limits, maybe... painful limits." She sighed, backing away from him. She retreated along the narrow room, until she was right up against the far wall. "There's a limit on how far apart we can be. I can push it, but that burns magic."

"Too bad we don't have a few more weeks," Blake said. "He could practice being you, Vesper. Then he could summon his own gear."

She stuck her tongue out. "I don't want to think about where an idea that bad came from, but yeah. No time."

Ryan looked over the device, then back to her. "Maybe we should've started with that. What are these limits, exactly?"

"About a mile. So long as we can find an entrance to the caves in the upper city, it should be fine. Just don't wander off, or that thing is gonna vanish from inside your pocket. And if you do it sudden enough, you'll give me the worst migraine. Please don't."

It wasn't exactly a cheerful parting. Ryan did not wave to his friends, didn't even exit the train at the same time as they did. But with Vesper's limits, they couldn't take different paths through Canterlot either. Instead he followed them at a distance, occasionally changing identities when nopony was around.

He followed them across town, more or less in a straight line. They passed a locked-off entrance to the caves hidden behind an old service building, and he waited. Ten minutes later, he passed the door, lock back in place but shackle hanging open. Vesper was bad before. If she can summon lockpicks from the Dreamlands, even that lawyer should be afraid.

There was nothing more he could do to help them now, only hope that a couple of ponies that had just admitted their feelings for each other could somehow stay focused on saving Kaelynn long enough to actually break her free. Ryan didn't have enough space left in his brain to worry about that. He had his own impossible mission to complete.

but for the next few hours, he was stuck in agonizing limbo instead. The meeting with Morningtide wasn't until early evening. So he had no choice but to idle around the rich parts of Canterlot. He toured through fountains and down boulevards, always keeping the street he needed in his sight. He pretended to nap under the sun in a park, he hid in the shade of a gazebo and waited for the occasional royal guard to pass. He took on half a dozen different faces, so nopony would see him when they looked.

I'm getting you out of this, Kaelynn. One way or another.

Finally, the hour approached. He'd already chosen a particular patch of nearby street to arrive, where many of the local wealthy disembarked from their carriages. But not quite close enough that the lack of a ride here would be noticed. He hoped.

The form of Axiom was a little easier to wear with much practice. Her elegant curves and fine clothing felt more familiar to him now. By chance or intent, Aerial had designed a role that had aspects Ryan could latch onto. Axiom might be a daughter of wealth he couldn't imagine, but she was also an inquisitive, scientific mind. She came to the aquarium to study a species that she didn't believe existed. She knew there were holes in her understanding of Equestria, and she wanted to fill them. Now she could.

Axiom crossed the fine streets, past houses glowing with warm lights and metal walls. A few even had a watchful private guard or two, though they took one look at her and resumed their patrol. Nopony stopped her.

As Aerial's note required, she didn't go straight for the front door, but along the side of the property to the rear entrance. There was a heavy wooden double-door, probably meant for deliveries and servants coming and going. There were no other ponies on the outside, but she could make out quiet voices chatting on the other side. Their accents sounded sophisticated enough that she needed no further information. This was obviously the right place.

She marched directly up to the gate, then allowed herself a moment of hesitation. Axiom was a scientific mind, after all. She was inquisitive and clever, but the idea that she would need to break the law to learn was a novel and painful thing for her. Aerial had written it another way in her personality sketch. Axiom didn't even understand anything wrong was taking place. She understood systems and rules and that was all it took.

So it mattered that Axiom get the knocks right, exactly three with one second between the second and third.

On the other side of the gate, figures shuffled and moved, before one appeared in the narrow opening in front of her. A guard, wearing polished sunglasses even in the dark. They fixed her with what she could only assume was an intense glare. "Why are you here?"

So far, so good, that was the question she was supposed to answer. She retreated a step from the opening, holding her fine dress above the pavement. She couldn't have the hem dragging through the mud. "The Underground Naturalist Society gave me an invitation," she said. "My name is Axiom. I'm on the guest list tonight."

The pony vanished from behind the gate a moment. There was a little more shuffling, papers this time. Finally, the lock clicked, and the guard swung open one side of the double-door.

A little crowd of ponies gathered in the space beyond, on a grassy lawn illuminated with fine lanterns. Stretching out on the grounds was the rest of a party—hundreds of ponies, gathered in little groups, chatting and eating fine foods that Ryan couldn't name, but Axiom better not get wrong.

A little further on, she could even hear a band playing, music echoing out through the open mansion doors.

This was no little tour, as she'd thought. This was one of the banquets that Aerial had mentioned. Oh shit.

"Welcome to the Shimmer estate," the guard said, nodding expectantly. "You do want to come in, don't you?" The stallion was exactly the sort that Aerial had mentioned. A grizzled-looking figure, with scars visible up and down his legs. His muscles were large enough to make his uniform bulge, and those eyes never blinked. Not the kind of guard that would be easily distracted.

Axiom hurried across the threshold, stepping into the party. There was no need to fake her embarrassment, or the faltering way she walked. I am so far out of my league, she thought. Am I even important enough to meet their secret seapony?

"Axiom!" A group of older ponies waved in her direction from beside a table of bubbling crystal glasses. The one who spoke was perhaps the oldest of the lot, a wrinkled unicorn stallion with glasses as thick as her hooves. "We wondered if you were going to make an appearance! Fashionably late, as usual."

She had no choice but to join the party.

Chapter 70: Blake

Blake would never be able to enjoy being underground the way Vesper could. He couldn't quite say what it was—maybe the stone ceilings overhead, maybe the distant sounds he couldn't quite place. Maybe it was the inability to easily flee, or having to trust to stone that might collapse and kill him. It was that same feeling of being unsafe that came from visiting an unfamiliar city. He was out of place, he didn't belong here.

It didn't help that this particular trip was meant intentionally to break the law in a way that might spoil relations with an entire world. Every step he took behind Vesper wasn't just staring at her gently-swaying tail, but remembering just how many ways this could go wrong. Equestria was like a distant rainforest—its people uncontacted and potentially vulnerable, but also dangerous as well. The wildlife was one of a kind, and might carry the cures for numberless rare diseases. If this went badly, if Equestria refused to speak to the humans of Earth again, it would be his fault. He refused to let them have a single pony in payment for passage across the Styx.

He wouldn't change his mind, even now. Kaelynn was one of his crew, and they didn't leave people behind.

"How's the map look?" he asked, speeding up a few steps so he could lean forward and inspect whatever Vesper was doing. She had the detailed trail-map out beside her, and occasionally looked over to study. She'd been making marks as they went, tracking their path to the underground of House Shimmer.

"Close," she said. "But that's the easy part, right? Find our way to the block, that's only where things start. It doesn't help us if we open the basement in one of the nag's neighbors' houses. We get one shot to get Kaelynn out."

"We've got this," he said, with far more confidence than he actually felt. But that was the only thing a leader could do when he depended on the skills of his subordinates. Express confidence, and act for all the world like it couldn't ever be misplaced. "We'll find it. What about the other end?" He nodded towards the mostly-empty saddlebags. They hadn't made the explosives yet, that would just be a waste of magic and physical strength hauling them all around. The tracker was still in there though, so his question was obvious.

"Still there," she said. "Can't tell you more than that. I can't look through it or anything, that's not how my magic works. He's close, over our heads somewhere probably. That's it."

He fell silent while they walked, navigating the narrow tunnels of a mine cut into the rock. Occasionally they would emerge through one into a vein of crystal as clear as glass, which the unicorns of the past had greedily harvested. But they were meticulous folk, so the tunnels were always well-reinforced. He felt no fear of a cave-in. Unfortunately neither did any of the tours. They weren't trying to cut down to some ancient place—this time they were right on the surface, with groups passing every half hour or so.

It meant they had to keep their voices down, whispering and listening to the caves. But Vesper's huge ears weren't just for display, she could make out even small sounds in the dark. It meant they could use only a faint glow from his horn most of the time, instead of the bright headlamps that would light up the whole cave, but also give them away like a searchlight.

Occasionally he glanced down at his wristwatch, well—legwatch now, dragged out of his backpack for this mission. It counted down not to the moment they should detonate and break in, but the final failsafe—when they should assume Ryan had failed and break in anyway. They still had several hours left.

Finally they stepped into a wide, round cavern, with a set of metal tracks passing through it. The ceiling was nearly five meters up, with walls lined with different crystal shades. Tracks in the rubble suggested they weren't the only ones to pass through recently.

"I think this is it," Vesper said, stopping in the center. She flicked her tail up at the ceiling, and gave him a fanged grin. "It's within fifty meters of here. That means this is the hard part."

She fished around with one hoof and produced the sensor. She held it up, extending long plastic arms to either side. The screen started to flash, and it beeped quietly. Even without having ever seen anything like it, Blake could guess what that meant. "Nothing?"

"Nothing," she agreed. "But that's not too weird. We expected to beat him." She took off into the air, somehow managing to balance the machine without dropping it. Her wings were almost silent as she circled around, the device beeping regularly in her grip. She landed on one side of the room after a few seconds, aiming straight towards a wall. "So he's over this way, I'm pretty sure. But the other side isn't close. It's probably still on the surface."

"Meaning we don't want to do anything yet." Blake followed her. He touched one hoof around her shoulder, on the pretense of looking down at the screen. "We might be in the perfect spot once he gets down to this level."

"Yep." She leaned to one side, meeting his eyes. "Too bad we don't have a phone. No way to know when it could be. Maybe a few hours, maybe a few minutes. We have to stay alert."

He kissed her anyway. Lightly enough that her fangs wouldn't be in the way, or he wouldn't be distracted enough to miss the device if it started going off. "It should not have taken me this long to realize you were traveling with me," Blake said, a few seconds later. "I slept on this for months. Kaelynn and Ryan didn't."

She rolled her eyes, but that was all. Vesper showed no sign of wanting to be away from him. "Poor choice of words, Blake. They slept on it plenty."

He groaned, letting go. He needed to move away from her, or he'd want to do more. This was the wrong time for the beginning of a new relationship. He needed to focus on his mission, or they might never see Kaelynn again. "Okay fine, yes. They did. But they didn't know what would happen. Could you imagine how much more awkward this all gets if someone got pregnant? You want to have someone on the Daily Show asking you about how you got a horse pregnant while you were over here?"

She shrugged. "No, obviously. But I think you're being a little too optimistic. We might not get to be part of all those documentaries... we might not be rich and famous. If you had to trade all that for getting everyone home, would you?"

"It's not even a question," he whispered back. "We're here, aren't we? The safe play would just be marching right up to Canterlot Castle and telling the locals about Kaelynn and begging them to help. It's smart, it's legal..."

"And it warns the mark that we're onto them. I can think of a half-dozen countries with names I can't pronounce where that would probably just make them kill Kaelynn. Maybe throw us in prison too for trying to destabilize the state. Whatever charges they can come up with."

He sat down on his haunches, with a clear view of the path leading in and out in both directions. "I'm sure Equestria isn't that way. It seems high trust, low corruption. You heard what the changeling said, they don't even know how to handle real crime in their capital it's so rare. We just have to hope that means they don't know how to react to us either."

"Former Princess Luna knows," Vesper said. "I think she's on our side, but I don't know how much of a difference that makes. Princess Twilight rules the whole country herself now. It was peaceful... Luna wanted to retire I'm pretty sure. But the new princess probably has more to deal with than this. She probably wouldn't have time to listen to us."

The bat nudged her tracker again with one hoof, holding it up into the air overhead. The beeping got louder, and she turned off to one side. "Hmm. I think he's moving down. Progress!"

Together they followed the tracker, walking sideways along the cavern and then sharply into the nearest tunnel.

Around the corner, a light shone so brightly they were nearly blinded by it. Vesper stopped in her tracks, so suddenly that Blake smacked into her behind. She squeaked at the pressure, opening both wings, but didn't budge.

Whatever objection he might've made was silenced in a mouthful of tail, albeit only for a few seconds. Soon he could see past her, though his own eyes burned with the sudden intensity of the light.

There was no need to blow a hole in the wall—there was already a stairwell and loading ramp leading down. A single crystal hung from the ceiling high above an expansive chamber, glowing with the yellow light that had drawn their attention. A heavy wooden door covered the opening, and a single bored-looking pony glared out into the cavern with the expression of an annoyed bouncer at a particularly dull club.

Vesper backed away slowly and silently, pushing him backward with one leg. They retreated around the corner again, as quietly as they possibly could. They made it back into the cavern a few seconds later, with the little tracker still beeping.

"Well that's... not great," Vesper whispered, glancing back the way they'd come. Her ears still pointed towards the hallway, her attention fixed on the black space. "You think he saw us?"

"No," Blake whispered. "He's standing in the light, his night vision is all gone to shit. He'd be vanishing into his post to yell for backup if he saw us." He spoke with total confidence, though of course he couldn't know for sure. "We can't know if it's the right place, though. There could be other reasons to keep an open tunnel leading down here."

Vesper chuckled softly. "Sensor sure as hell points down that way. We know House Shimmer is breaking the law already, we don't know if any of the neighbors are. I say it’s the place."

He settled onto his haunches. Any relaxation was gone. Halfhearted plans for how they could wait for Ryan to be ready dissolved in the blink of an eye in the face of something so much more important. Now his body was tense, and he touched the dagger stashed away on the strap of his saddlebags, just in case. They had the makeshift gun too, though that would be worse. Like an explosive, a firearm would alert everyone underground to their presence, even if the echo would probably conceal their position.

"Then our plan is completely shot. We can't blow a hole in the ceiling, there's a guard. I didn't see a booth, so they're probably on a rotation. Damn, if Ryan smacks into that guy without realizing what's going on, he is so screwed."

"It's not the end of the world," Vesper whispered back, grinning slyly at him. She turned a little dial on the tracker until it stopped beeping, though it was still flashing. Then she offered it to him. He took it in his magic, holding it there. "We just need to improvise. One guard, sitting out all by himself. No radio to call, and I'm not seeing any weapons either." She looked back at him, fangs bared. "Remember what Janet's friend told us? There are bats living in these caves." She opened and closed her wings once, demonstratively. "What if one got lost?"

He shook his head once. "That's a gamble, Vesper. I saw wings on him—he could be fast with those things—maybe he flies for help. Or maybe there's a dozen soldiers through the doors. We don't know."

"It's a risk, I get that," she said. "But I don't mind. Blowing a hole in the ceiling was gonna be a risk too. This feels... simpler." Before he could react, she slipped back down the hall and out of sight.

Chapter 72: Kaelynn

"Where is the other one?" Red Sky asked, his voice even more annoyed and obnoxious than he sounded last time. There were a dozen different ponies waiting in the room with him, so the pony could be only so sharp with her. This would probably just mean worse food tomorrow, or maybe a longer delay until they got the next page of the songbook.

She swam in a slow loop, barely even seeing the different ponies out there. She could just go back the way she came. But Red Sky kept track of how many times they failed to perform. There would be punishment tomorrow, or reward.

If I can only get her to give us something useful by mistake. So she didn't float away, instead settling by the microphone. "Tellin is tired from answering so many questions," she said glumly. "He asked me to visit with the next group."

"Well." Red Sky levitated his basket, flicking through its contents. He sorted them in his magic, tossing a few out into the bin.

"What is it like to live underwater?" he read, his voice as excited with that question as it had been the first six times he read it. He was doing that on purpose, selecting the worst, most meaningless cards first.

"It changes a lot," she answered, drifting closer to the glass and looking out at the latest group. Most of them probably didn't even care about their answers. They were here to gawk at her, visitors to the world's most exclusive zoo. She had no proof, but Kaelynn was positive some of them knew she was a prisoner. How could they look at this cage and think anything else? You didn't need armed guards and a vault on a guestroom.

"It means no fire, it means we can't eat the same things you can. It means no paper books, and no casting metal."

Thus proceeded another boring half hour or so of questions. A few of the questions had been awkward at first, like how seaponies used the bathroom. But she was through caring what any of them felt by now. If she could make them feel uncomfortable, so much the better.

She was barely even paying attention as they got near the end of the list, and Red Sky read out the next one. "When you're singing about life under the sea, do you ever wish ponies could be part of your world?"

She twitched in the water, spinning around once before finally drifting down to look at the squat unicorn. "Sorry, I... must not have been listening. Could you read that one again?"

He glanced down at it, clearly annoyed. "When you're singing about life under the sea, do you ever wish ponies could be part of your world?"

He tossed it straight into the bin as he finished, making it quite clear just how useless he thought the whole thing was. That probably sounded worse to him than the question about life being different underwater.

Kaelynn searched the room, really looked this time. Who snuck that in? At first she despaired—she didn't see a single familiar face amid so many old ponies. Some sketched, some whispered to each other, but she didn't recognize any of them.

Which means it's Ryan. Among so many watching pony faces, she found a single creature near the wall held up a little piece of paper. She was sketching on it, or maybe just pretending to—but the side that faced Kaelynn had a stick figure on it.

A human stick figure, with a stupid smiling face. The pony finally noticed her, and winked, before hastily settling the sheet of paper down, and looking especially focused on whatever they were sketching.

"I, uh..." She drifted back to the microphone, holding it up to her face. "I think a lot about the poor unfortunate souls who never get to see the ocean. There's so much down there, more diversity than you can find in a rainforest. Thousands of different colors of fish. I hope one day it's safe for seaponies to live there again, but in the meantime you land ponies should see it whenever you get the chance. I think hippogriffs in Mount Aris sometimes take ponies down to look. It's worth going if you can."

Red Sky went back to the other questions, paying no more attention than he had during the rest of the list. Kaelynn answered the rest with as much energy as she could muster. Now wasn't the time to attract attention. Still, she barely took her eyes from that strange mare in the corner. A unicorn, dressed about as fancy as any of the other guests in attendance. Too bad there was no better way to communicate without being seen. You're in here, now what?

Her fins flicked gently up and down, and she had to circle the microphone to keep herself from drifting off completely. Fortunately Red Sky didn't pay enough attention to notice that she was acting strange.

And just like that, she watched the group get up and leave. She floated up against the glass, watching them trudge back up the steps. She didn't call out, though she watched the pony bring up the back, glancing at where she'd been sitting. Trying to show Kaelynn something, maybe?

If the others found out where I was, what would they do?

She stayed in the outer tank, even after the metal door slammed shut, leaving the outside in darkness again.

Except for a tiny, regular flash of red light from the ground. It was so small she wouldn't have noticed it, except that the lights were out. What did you leave down there?

She pressed against the glass, straining to see. She could just barely make out some gray metal down there, reflecting with each flash of light. So that's not anything a pony could make.

She retreated from the glass, muttering quietly to herself. "They must know I'll be moved if they try anything. They wouldn't just come down here to look. There's a plan.” That could mean only one thing: if she was ever going to escape, it would be tonight.

Kaelynn spun in the water, bolting back into the back section. She found Tellin sprawled on his back, sleeping on the patch of spongy material that was his bed. She swam past him, not wanting to wake him yet—but that wouldn't work for long. What she was about to do would make noise... and if she didn't get his help, she wasn't even sure it would work.

She spent a few minutes gathering things up—she attached a "hinge" she'd been working on to the end of a rod, and suddenly she had a spear. She tossed a rounded buckler into the pouch too, with a loop to go around a hoof. Lastly went one of the light crystals of their cave, from the far end where Tellin hadn't noticed it went missing. But what she really needed was her drill, handle and all. She stopped at the opening in the ceiling, swimming directly to where she'd marked. Here the bolts pressed through the stone from the other side, holding the metal door locked overhead. Now or never.

She smacked the drill up against the stone, beating her tail with all her might to put pressure between them as she started to twist. The water echoed with a terrible grinding sound, first of rock, then sharp squealing of metal as her drill bit into a bolt.

Bits of metal showered down around her. It took only a few seconds for Tellin to sit up, groggy. He scanned the cavern, then his eyes found her, and he swam straight up. "Kaelynn!" he sang, furious and panicked. "What the buck are you doing? Are you trying to drain the water?"

She bore her teeth at him, and didn't stop turning until the resistance stopped. When she pulled the drill back, she saw a dark space beyond. No water dribbled down from above. She positioned to the next hole. She'd found four of them, covered with paste that crumbled when she scraped at it. The builders had tried to hide them, but not well enough to stop her from noticing.

"It won't drain out the top, Tellin," she said flatly. "I've been waiting for a chance like this."

“A chance like what?" He watched in horror as she started drilling again, backing away from the little shards of metal as they rained down from around her.

She didn't stop, though her strength was already waning. This was much harder underwater, and it would already have been hard enough. "I've tried to tell you this before, Tellin, but you never wanted to hear it." She stopped drilling, looking him directly in the eye. "I'm a prisoner. Morningtide trapped me, but I have friends who have been looking for me. They're here—I don't know the plan, but I know I won't get a better chance to escape. It's now or never."

Tellin stared back, his tail curling up. His voice was still so strained it sounded like he might start crying any second. "Don't you care about saving seaponies? What if Morningtide is right? My family all died, Kaelynn! You're the last fish in the whole world!"

"We don't know that for sure," she shot back, gesturing with the drill in one hoof. "Maybe it is, but maybe it's not! There's a whole ocean out there, do we really think that the Storm King could've killed all the seaponies?" She didn't wait for an answer. She grabbed him with her free hoof, pulling him close. "I would rather die than be Morningtide's prisoner in this tank. It's nothing to do with you—this isn't your fault. But I'm not bowing to her anymore. Morningtide is gonna have to kill me if she thinks I'll keep my head down."

She started drilling again, more energetic than before. There were only the four fasteners—when she finished, hopefully that would mean she could push the door open from beneath. The real question was how secure Morningtide had made it, and whether anyone in the building would hear it. A party going on upstairs was a good way to drown out the noise, but it also might mean more security. Kaelynn had no way to know which would win out.

"So I'll be alone here," he said, deflating. He sank a little lower in the water, fins hanging limply. There was no song in his words anymore, no melody at all. He sounded like a landpony. "Forever, in this tank. No one to sing with, nothing but questions from strangers outside. When I die, there won't be any seaponies left."

The drill broke through another bolt, and she adjusted it again, pressing it against the final metal fastener. She turned it once, then stopped short. Every limb felt weak, overwhelmed with the strain. She needed a few seconds to catch her breath. But was that hoofsteps in the distance, or just her imagination? Had they heard her already?

"No, Tellin. You can come with me!" She gestured urgently at the exit. "My friends will get you out too. We have an airship, we can sail the world! You could live at Mount Aris, surrounded by hippogriffs. Or maybe we'll get the chance to go down into the ocean and find the survivors! You're a prisoner too, Tellin. Come with me!"

He glanced over his shoulder, at the darkened entrance to the bubble. It would probably be a few minutes until the next group got here. But that bell might ring any second. There wasn't any easy way for the ponies to get in here. "How? It's air up there, Kaelynn. Even if I wanted to try it, even if I forgot every good thing Morningtide ever did for me... there's no way up."

"There is," she said, leaning forward and taking one of his hooves again. "I know a song that can give us legs, a song that can let us walk around and breathe in their world. We can run out of here, and get on my airship." Her song got quieter, more desperate. "I don't think I can sing it alone."

Chapter 73: Vesper

So maybe Vesper had underestimated pony strength a little.

They were all so cute, particularly when they dressed up in little outfits. How could a creature like that hurt her?

But the pegasus stallion had been twice her size, and far less interested in her awkward attempts to distract him than she'd hoped. This was not how the fight was supposed to go.

Could a little pony stop her? The answer as it turned out was "easily."

Vesper lay on her side on the cavern floor, blindfolded and hogtied. She ached from a half dozen little bruises, which only got worse the longer she lay there. He probably could've killed me. The fight had been so brief she barely even remembered it—a flash of pain, a tumble to the side, and she was on her back, moaning. She barely even saw what they did with her. She wasn't in the cave anymore, she'd felt a ramp passing under her as they dragged her.

"I think we got off on the wrong hoof," she said, groaning. "Can't we talk this over?"

She heard hoofsteps, and someone stalked over. The next voice came from just beside her, hot breath against her ear. "Quiet, bat, or we'll gag you."

She squeaked, very quietly, pulling her legs a little closer to her chest. But she didn't argue. A gag meant taking her fangs away, and her ability to speak when she needed to most.

"That's right," grunted the pegasus. His voice was rough, like sandpaper against her sensitive ears. All and all, she would have to revise her opinion of being dragged around a cave by a much bigger stallion. Far less enjoyable the second time. "You are going to stay right here. We put out a message to Echo Caverns. We're going to find which clan you're from. You better hope they can pay the wergild."

She swallowed, curling up a little tighter. She reached with her magic—it was still there, being beaten up hadn't erased the tracker. Now if only they hadn't blindfolded her. If ever she needed to dream up something good, it was now.

"Stay still, and they'll get you in one piece," the pegasus continued. "Wouldn't want to hurt you. More."

She didn't move. Her mind raced with different things she could summon—a live grenade seemed like a neat idea, albeit a bit overkill. What happens when they find out I don't have a clan, and they won't get any money from me? She needed to get this stupid blindfold off if she wanted to summon anything, then...

A wave of heat passed overhead, along with a roar of sound that made both her ears press flat. She whimpered, scooting backward along the floor to get as far away from it as she could. Did I summon explosives by mistake? It would be hard to reconcile with Equestria if she left some security guards as dripping red stains on the wall.

The pony took off running from beside her without another word. More shouting sounded from nearby, and the ground shook under her. She tried to wait, but was far too anxious for that. Instead, she counted, slowly and carefully. The further those ponies got, the easier it would be for them to miss what she was doing.

Instead of a grenade, Vesper pictured a knife. She couldn't see it, but she could feel what it would be like, taped to the inside of her leg like a badass bond girl. She didn't need to throw it across the room into the villain’s head though, just...

She felt the weight of cold metal against her skin, as though it had been there all night. She twitched, nudging it a little further down her leg, and into the rope. She was still blindfolded, unable to respond as ponies shouted in the distance. Something broke, ponies' voices were lost in incoherent screaming. She ignored them all.

I'm not waiting for rescue. I don't know what side those ponies are on, but they might not be on mine.

The ponies had only organic fibers for their ropes. She could feel it fraying under her blade, though she could only push gently to either side. She couldn't move it far, or else being too obvious to the ponies rushing past her, or worse, cut into her own leg. She cut, biting her tongue as she moved it a little further...

The ropes groaned, then snapped violently open, freeing her legs at last. She remained still, waiting for the hoofsteps in the room around her to stop before reaching quickly up with one leg, pulling the blindfold off.

The room they'd picked for her had no lights, no furniture—it was really just a square cell in the stone with a door on one side connected to a finished hallway. There was nopony with her anymore, just ponies passing by on the other side of the open door.

Ponies were sprinting for their lives away from her. Shouts about an orderly retreat and a careful strategy melted into screams of abject terror. The formerly cool cavern was now swelteringly hot, soaking her through with sweat. Vesper did not have to wonder what might cause that.

She advanced on the doorway, wings folded sharply to her sides to insulate from the heat. She wasn't going to get caught unaware this time—Vesper was alert, ready to summon something at the slightest threat. She wasn't getting hogtied like an animal twice in one night.

Okay, so maybe this isn't quite going the way we planned. She stopped in the doorway chancing a look down the hall.

On one end was the heavy door leading into the caves. Or rather, it had been there. The door was melted right out of its frame, one section pooling on the floor and the other side warped by incredible heat. Wooden fortifications burned, filling the air of the cavern with dark smoke. A monster stepped through the haze, its mane made of bright blue flames. Blake’s clothes were a charred ruin, only a few faint black scraps clinging to his body. He didn't seem to notice or care, advancing through the ruin like a vengeful spirit.

There was just one problem—on the other end of the hall, a few ponies stood their ground. They had crossbows now, and a bolt went whizzing right past him, scraping the stone along the cavern wall. Blake didn't seem to care, responding with a breath of flame that warped the air around it. Vesper recoiled from the doorway, sheltering behind the door. It was so hot, hot enough to cook a pony alive.

If I don't do something, we're about to get the Equestrian Hometown Barbecue. Either that, or the defenders would get a lucky bolt into Blake somewhere he didn't have scales.

Another bolt smacked into his chest this time, denting sideways and showering the air with sparks. He recoiled, faint blue blood seeping from within—but the bolt hadn't penetrated.

On the other end of the hall, both ponies had dropped behind a toppled table, cranking feverishly on the crossbows. I don't think they'll take a full sixty seconds to reload.

"Frag out!" Vesper leaned out from the door, tossing something through the air with all her might. It didn't matter that it hadn't even existed until that moment—after tinkering with explosives for an entire day, summoning this was child's play.

The three thugs still defending their post stared in shock as the metal object soared towards them, dodging easily out of the way. Vesper curled up inside the hall, pressing her ears closed and covering her eyes with a leg.

Even so, the flashbang was so loud that it nearly knocked her on her ass, filling her with exquisite pain. She couldn't hear herself breathe, couldn't hear herself think anymore, and she'd been ready for it. But when she opened her eyes, at least the flash was gone. Those ponies were probably staring right at it.

She darted out the opening, and passed Blake slumped against the wall. His flaming mane had gone out, and there was a little flicker of recognition on his face. "Wasn't a... frag."

"I know," she said, dodging past him and the still-present heat. It singed at her tail, and might do worse if she stayed still. "I've just always wanted to say it." She could barely hear her own voice—it was more a rumble in her chest, along with a high-pitched ringing in both ears.

She approached the other side, where their attackers now lay in a twitching heap. From the look of it, they'd been staring at the flashbang the moment it went off. Their eyes were wide open, their limbs occasionally twitching.

Before she could second-guess herself, Vesper produced a rope from nowhere in particular, and went to work tying these ponies as she had been tied. She did it just as tightly, or at least she hoped it was. She didn't exactly have as much practice.

But if they recover in time to block our escape, we'll be screwed.

Blake approached from behind her. The dark creature was gone, replaced with the stallion she'd come to know over the last several months. Whether that was because he'd accomplished his goal of rescuing her, or because the flashbang had shocked him back to reality, she didn't exactly know. But she didn't care.

"Guess you didn't need my help," he said. At least dropping him out of that form quickly had another benefit: he hadn't completely exhausted himself with all the flames. He might still be useful. "Was getting the shit kicked out of you part of the plan?"

Her ears felt much better by then. Apparently some of the ponies did too, because one of them started to struggle. She didn't bother gagging him—whatever alarms the building had were already going by now. Blake had certainly taken care of that, even if her own infiltration hadn't.

"Not exactly," she admitted. "I'm glad you showed up. I couldn't escape with some idiot breathing down my neck the whole time. Please tell me you didn't kill anyone."

He looked down at the frightened guards, then back the way he'd come. "I don't... think so. I can't say I didn't hurt anyone. But ponies are tougher than they look."

She nodded, stepping over the struggling guards. She hesitated for just long enough to crush the winding cranks under her hooves, splintering wood and gears. Hopefully that would mean they didn't have crossbows pointed in their direction on the return trip. "It's the magic. For their sake, it's a good thing they have it."

She stared down at the most alert-looking of the guards, the one whose eyes actually tracked her movement. So they were recovering. Unfortunately one of these ponies was a unicorn; when that one could use his magic again, the others would escape.

"You should know: we're here because your mistress kidnapped our friend, a seapony named Kaelynn. We're going to get her back, then leave. If you're smart, you'll stay out of our way."

"And if you're not..." Blake added, leaning down over her shoulder. "If you aim weapons at us again, I won't hold back. Fire is a terrible way to die. I've seen it before—you never forget the screams."

Chapter 74: Kaelynn

Together, Kaelynn and Tellin shoved the metal ceiling out of the way. As she expected, it was hinged, the only way to load or unload anything big in their tank. It took incredible strength to push open, and that was just against the small side. The other metal section was even larger, and would be entirely beyond their ability to move.

Kaelynn stopped beside the water, resting her hooves on the metal lip with her gills just under the surface. There she could observe the room beyond without suffocating.

There wasn't much inside—a heavy wood crank with a coil of rope, attached to the other section of hinged roof. The ceiling overhead was high enough for the metal to swing without scraping against it, but that was all. There was a single wide doorway on the far side, a cargo door that would permit traffic in and out. It didn't look as heavily fortified as the ceiling, at least not through the glow of her salvaged crystal.

"Okay," Tellin said from just beneath her. "We're here. Morningtide will be furious if she finds out. We risk everything she might do if she gets angry. We risk ruining the tank and drowning. Now what?"

Kaelynn tossed her satchel up into the air, tools and weapon and all. If she failed now, it wouldn't matter anyway. "Now we sing," she said, as confidently as she could. "From memory, without the sheet music."

Tellin circled around her tail once more, before popping up to look around the room. It didn't matter how much he defended the honesty of Morningtide, his curiosity was as powerful as she had ever seen it. That's my only advantage. He's desperate to see the world for himself. I can actually promise that, Morningtide never could.

She slipped just beneath the surface. Last time this song worked, she'd been fully submerged for it. She could only assume it would have the same requirements now. "Just try to sing with me the way we did before, okay? It's much easier with your help."

"Okay." He stopped beside her, taking her hoof with his. "I still think you're wrong—but I'd rather go with you than be right all by myself."

"You'll see," she hummed. "When you go out there. There are two worlds worth of amazing things to see. You deserve better than being trapped in a box."

She started by humming, experimenting with different notes until she found the melody. It was still there, mostly thanks to how many hours she had spent trying and failing it. The melody was burned into her brain, and behind it the promise of freedom form captivity.

This was more than simple curiosity, as the songbook required. Kaelynn was part of that world, and she demanded to be part of it again. It wasn't even a song so much as a request she made of the universe.

The words were harder. She kept humming, filling in the phrases she remembered. Simple stuff about walking around friends, smelling the flowers, seeing flames, and other things that only worked on the surface. Tellin followed along, his voice as halting and confused as hers. She could see the doubt in those eyes, and the nervous glances at the surface overhead. Any second now the Shimmer house guards might burst in and slam the door down on them.

From the water beneath, the bell rang, insistent as ever. Tellin twitched away towards it, but she caught him by his hoof, yanking him back. She shook her head, but didn't stop singing to say anything. To stop even for an instant would be to lose the progress she had already made.

She stumbled anyway, over words she barely remembered, and a feeling that wasn't even right for what she felt. This wasn’t a sense of passive curiosity—she was trapped. She wanted to be part of a world that was as much hers as the water.

So she gave up. Kaelynn didn't have the old songbook, but so what? Those songs belonged to a culture she didn't come from, who didn't understand the surface. But her friends were up there, here to set her free at last.

It wouldn't have worked if she was on her own. But for Tellin, not knowing the words wasn't an issue. He didn't know any of the words to her songs, after all. But he could sing along, with an intuitive grasp for music that she couldn't imagine. She had only been one of them for a few months—it was Tellin's whole life.

As with every previous experience, a song this powerful was enough to make time itself blur around her. Kaelynn didn't know if she was singing for a few seconds, or an hour. Afterwards, she couldn't have said what the words were, only that they felt more like something given to her, rather than something she'd invented.

She noticed the change the same way she had the last time something like this happened—when she took a breath, and found herself choking on a mouthful of saltwater. She coughed and spluttered, heaving herself out of the water to hack her lungs free.

"See?" she croaked, her throat still a little raw. From the salt or the singing, she didn't know. "I told you I could—" Tellin wasn't there. She turned, then dove back into the water. She found him there, sinking desperately down to the bottom of the tank, agony on his face. He might not know how to swim without a proper tail, but Kaelynn did. She'd spent her whole life doing it, after all.

She heaved him up over the surface, positioned herself behind him, and squeezed against his belly, expelling a mouthful of water. Tellin hacked and coughed, rolling onto his side and spitting up a little more. Less water than that could be enough to kill someone. But the magic of their transformation probably helped with some of that, or else seaponies would be drowning as often as they succeeded.

Kaelynn scooped up her damp satchel, remaining close beside Tellin. His eyes were dazed, and his breaths came short and sharp—but he was still moving.

"I should've warned you," she said shyly. "We were going above the water, so of course... I just assumed." She felt something strange, like she was shrugging her shoulders, except...

Kaelynn looked down, and froze, staring at herself. Kaelynn had wings. Tellin did too, but she'd been so focused on getting him out of the water that she hadn't even noticed at first. If anything, they resembled Aerial during her brief appearance, clear and vaguely crystalline. But they were more organic than that, like a pair of fins that had grown out of control. At least they didn't feel like they were drying out, the way her fins did when she left them out of the water for too long.

Now that she knew what she was looking for, Kaelynn could open them to either side, stretching like she might after a long time sitting down. The gesture made them darken slightly, as though more blood were filling them after a long time unused. My song was different than the one I memorized.

"I couldn't breathe," Tellin finally said. His voice was even worse than hers had been at first, raw and ragged. "Like I was... ugh... dead. Wished I was dead, maybe." He stopped, expression confused. "No... music."

"Not quite," she said, patting him on the shoulder. "We have music, it's just different. You have to really listen for it." And when I tried to sing my way back, I couldn't last time. Morningtide had to hit me with something to change me back.

But that concern could wait for when they got out. Kaelynn removed her spear from the satchel, resting it on her shoulder and giving it a spin through the air. If only she had arms and legs, she'd feel quite a bit more confident in her ability to fight her way out.

Tellin stood unsteadily. His long, thick tail smacked into the ground several times as he struggled, his expression increasingly pained with each hit. But he managed, looking quite proud of himself. "Like this?"

"Great!" She walked past him, securing the glowstone around her neck. It would be a little disorienting to have it constantly shining into her eyes like that, but it was also the best place to keep it. Hopefully the rest of the mansion would have some light. "Now try to move. I can fight, you don't have to worry about that. Just keep up with me, okay?"

He stumbled forward, shaking with every step. He might've spent his life in a tank, but he'd seen land ponies walk around for most of that time. He imitated, dragging his back legs more than walking along with them. Those are the ones he doesn't know how to control.

"Why would we have to fight anypony, Kaelynn? This is amazing! If we can do this, Morningtide won't have to leave us in the tank all the time! We can be out in Equestria, living with ponies instead of just having them visit! We can go back when we need to, or hide if it seems like the Storm King might find us—"

"He's dead," Kaelynn said, voice utterly flat. "And Morningtide won't let you do that. You're her prize, Tellin. That tank is a display—we have to come when we're called, do tricks or we don't get food. It's Blackfish but you're the one in the aquarium."

"Huh?"

She rolled her eyes, then turned her attention back to the door. She still had the drill, if she needed it. But as she got close, it was abundantly clear she wouldn't. There was a heavy metal latch on this side, rather than a lock. All she had to do was lift it, and she could push the door open. She held it like that, staring out at the space beyond. There wasn't an army pointing their guns waiting here, or anypony at all in fact.

The walls were made of stone, which she expected. They were only one floor up from the aquarium, after all. There was light too, a steady yellow electric glow instead of the magic that was inside her tank. There was only one direction to go, the way closest to them quickly ended in a blank stone wall. But with the door open, it blocked most of the hallway. The floor was flat and the hallway wide enough to permit cargo to pass this way, like the stupid piano.

She stood, waiting in painful silence as Tellin trailed behind her. He stumbled like a toddler taking his first steps, which of course he was. Well, part of it. If he'd actually been a toddler, then there wouldn't be half as much agency about escape.

"I don't know where they are," she said, urging him on. "But my friend Blake, he did two tours, and he's still an absolute badass when someone threatens us. You'll like the Bright Hawk. There's a tank in my quarters for when you want to swim."

Tellin finally made it through the door from the other side, and she let go, letting it bang closed.

As it did, she finally saw what was beyond, leading back the other way.

A single pony stood in the opening, wearing a fine evening-gown and plenty of glittering jewelry. Morningtide's horn glowed a faint green to match her furious expression. Her tail lashed back and forth, the only sign of her emotional state underneath. Her smile was a thin line, like a scalpel before elective surgery.

"I thought about going inside and helping you along," she said, shrugging one shoulder. "I didn't know what kind of magic you were using, but it must've been impressive. Unicorn magic can't get through steel, certainly not this far underground."

"Oh, that?" She grinned, reaching into the satchel to pull out her drill. "The magic of the right tool for the right job." She spun, pivoting the spear through the air, until it rested against one leg, leveled directly at the old mare. "We're leaving now. Get out of the way, and I'll forget everything you ever said or did. I'll leave without sticking this into your head."

Chapter 75: Blake

Blake advanced into the tunnel. Heat still burned in his chest, demanding to be released. It was a little like lighting off a spectacular fireworks display, but giving up halfway through and dousing the whole thing instead. They were close, far closer than he had dared to hope. Somewhere in this building was the last member of his team—once he found her, that would be it. They could rendezvous with Earth, get the film crew here, and he would never leave another team-member on their own again. Certainly not one whose species was so rare she'd be a target for kidnapping...

Maybe it was a mercy he'd burned everything he brought. The watch, his makeshift gun—that stupid thing hadn't even made a noise when his satchel burned off his body. It would probably just have blown up in his magical fingers.

There were more signs of the attack as he walked inside—bits of discarded clothing still smoldered, tossed aside in haste as ponies fled to try to keep themselves from burning alive. He didn't see any collapsed corpses smoldering away, so he could only assume that they'd all made it.

"I don't want to have to do that again, Vesper," he whispered. "Can you give me something better?"

She followed beside him, but a little further away than she usually did. She was afraid of him, obviously. Considering what he'd just done, he could hardly object to someone wanting to keep their distance. Her magic was powerful, but it wouldn't stop her from burning.

"Hmm." She tilted her head to the side, then held out one hoof. Something metal rested there, black with a plastic grip. A tiny handgun, one of the smaller Glock models by the look of it.

He took it in his magic, drawing back the receiver the way he would've done with his hands. "This looks lethal. We might have to kill someone."

"They were shooting at us first," she replied. "Thank god none of those crossbow bolts got you in the face. The first time I went to a shooting range, it was so loud I almost pissed myself. I don't think you'll need to hit anyone."

Something banged from just ahead, loud enough that the two of them fell silent, listening. Metal clattered on stone, and muffled voices echoed through a nearby door. Blake dropped low, levitating the handgun beside him. He could practically feel his fingers on the plastic grip, though of course he didn't have them.

They made it to the end of the hall, past a door still hanging open. The soldiers who stayed to fight were the brave ones—most of them had fled. They didn't even bother to lock the door behind them.

Blake peeked around the corner, and saw what was making all the noise. He also saw Kaelynn, smashed up against a wall along with... a twin? A second seapony shape, though the colors on that one were different and their body was bigger. They both had legs, and a bag of fallen tools lay on the ground in front of them.

A unicorn had her back to him, horn glowing so brightly green it overpowered the lights above her. She advanced slowly on the two helpless creatures, not even glancing behind her.

"It was most illustrative of you to show your magic like this," she said. Kaelynn struggled, but the force holding her there was apparently irresistible. How strong is this pony, anyway?

Blake's instincts kicked in. He slid slightly to the side, picking an angle that wouldn't put either of the fish in his line of fire. It was only a 9mm, that was the best protection his friend would get.

"This means reevaluating your captivity... the water is already being prepared. Once I put you back where you belong, you won't have the wit to think about this again. Look at you, corrupting the poor child. Tellin didn't deserve to get dragged along for this."

"I... told her..." said another voice. He strained, barely able to talk over the force of magic holding him down. "That you were just... keeping us safe. We weren't prisoners."

She clicked her tongue absently. "You weren't before, perhaps. But look at what you did, ruining my trust. Taking part in this exercise... If you'd remained where you belonged, this would not have happened. Your whole life you owe to me, Tellin. I expected so much better."

If she can hold two of them like that, she can do the same to me. I won't even get to fight.

Blake held his breath, took careful aim, and fired. The gun barked, bucking against the magic he used to hold it. There was no flesh involved, no way to absorb through sinew and muscle. Instead the force was like a kick to his skull, threatening to tear completely out of his control. Blake resisted it, the same he would any battlefield injury. Smoke billowed around him, brass clattered to the floor, and he emptied all nine rounds into the pony.

He tried, anyway. He fired so quickly, he almost didn't notice at first—but the bullets didn't make it. The unicorn twitched, then spun around to face the two of them. The air around her shimmered, a small sphere of light that reached to the ground.

There were no bullets, just a faint dusting of mist in the air.

Poor Vesper slumped against the wall, moaning in pain and rubbing one ear with one hoof. Blake was ready for it. His ears still rang with pain, but he fought through it. He had years of practice.

He could still hear her, muffled and slightly out of focus. She wasn't even dirty. "You're the ones Kaelynn spoke of? Her brave rescuers, yet so dull you're using magical weapons inside my own house?"

Fire wouldn't work, not with his friends trapped against the wall just behind her. Kaelynn was more sensitive to heat than any ordinary pony, particularly out of the water. She'd bake like a cracker.

Blake didn't reply. He charged her, extending one hoof to smack into one gangly limb.

He didn't reach her. The air grew thicker by the second, until he was trying to push through steel. He came to a struggling stop, a few inches away.

Her horn glowed even brighter, matched with a similar light from her eyes. "You have no idea who I am, creature. This manse was hewn from the ancient stone after the fall of Luna. Before that, my family sat on the Solar Council, and raised the sun. Do you know how much a star weighs?"

Something threw him, so sharp that his vision went bright red. He smacked into the wall, stumbling to the ground in a tangle of limbs. The pain was so overwhelming he lost focus completely. Someone was... Vesper tried something. More magic flashed through the air, though his ears were still ringing. He barely heard the words, but a few seconds later someone smacked against the wall beside him.

Blake struggled to his hooves, ignoring the pain. Where was the strength of his anger now?

This wasn't anger anymore—it was terror.

"Powerful dream walking. I can see why you were so confident in your friends, Kaelynn. If only they were wise enough to realize whose house they fought in. Trust to steel and iron when magic threatens—they will not deceive. But this opportunity will illustrate, I think."

Blake felt something moving him—magic again. It moved slowly, yet the pressure was irresistible. It lifted him into a sitting position, Vesper beside him. His vision was still blurry, a fountain of pain and confusion. But Kaelynn spun around in the air, facing the two of them.

"See the faces of the ones who came to 'save' you. Know what fate will come to any who fight my work."

"No," Kaelynn whispered. "P-please, no." She was so frail, her voice was barely audible anymore. "Whatever you want, you can have it. I won't fight anymore. I'll... cooperate. Just let them go."

She turned, looking away down the hall. "Guards! Sturdy Anvil, get in here! I know I saw you out there. Somepony didn't flee like a coward."

A pony walked in. He wasn't wearing the armor of a guard, not exactly. But under that orange and yellow uniform were clear signs of metal armor plates. He also had a sword already drawn, levitating in his unicorn magic. "Yes, mistress?"

Blake wasn't struggling anymore. He wasn't completely out of strength, but struggling against this unicorn's holding power was obviously futile. She could just strangle him if she wanted, and what could he do about it?

"The others didn't have the stomach for it, but obviously you do. These two ponies just made an attempt on my life. You know what kind of justice we can expect if we took the matter to the princess. Groveling, sniveling, and some backward attempt to 'reform'. Not tonight. The seaponies need to see."

She gestured for Vesper first. "Kill her. Then whatever this thing is. I don't see scales around his neck, so do it that way."

"No!" Kaelynn screamed. Her pain and confusion was forgotten now, overpowered by fear. "Stop, Morningtide! You made your point! If you do that to my friends, you'll have to kill me too! I'll never do a fucking thing you want! I'll kill you!"

The unicorn barely blinked. Was she even listening to a word they said? She gestured at Vesper again, more urgently. "Come on, Sturdy Anvil. We both know you're capable of doing this again. Make this demonstration, so we can begin to clean the detritus of this awful night away."

The pony approached, brandishing his sword. Vesper struggled, but it made no difference. But if ever Blake was going to get a chance—he started straining too, bucking up against the sourceless force with everything he had. He kicked and struggled, so hard his muscles screamed. Yet still he fought, with every last drop of strength he had.

The unicorn's face twitched, and she gritted her teeth, focusing on him. The force pushing on him shoved down again, crushing his shoulders. He grunted, struggling with everything he had. It still wasn't enough. Skin split, and blood dribbled down his limbs. But his strength wasn't infinite. Soon enough it gave out, and he dropped, panting. "Do it, bitch," he hissed. "We'll be missed. See how that goes."

A feeble protest. Aerial knew they were here, probably. But what could she do, without alerting Equestria to changeling involvement? With all of them dead, it wouldn't matter. Maybe the bugs could rescue Kaelynn.

The soldier lifted his sword, towering over Vesper. Then he swung. He brought the blade down in a wide, curving arc, without actually watching it. He wasn't aiming at the bat at all.

He slammed it down towards Morningtide, cutting straight towards her with unicorn levitation.

Blake watched, mouth agape, as the blade came straight for her neck, in a blur of silvery light.

Chapter 76: Ryan

Ryan swung with all his might. But for as confident as he was, unicorn magic was still totally new to him. He could barely move objects along, let alone do so with any force. How much did it take to kill a powerful old unicorn, anyway?

Too much, as it turned out. The sword deflected off nothing as it got close. Maybe it was the force of the impact, or maybe it was a directed attack by the unicorn he was fighting. Either way, he felt a wave of sudden force, powerful enough to throw him back through the air. Not that far, though—Ryan had been watching everything.

He might not know unicorn magic, but he knew what to expect, and he was ready to fight. Not me! He caught himself, digging in his hooves. His horn flared with light, deflecting the attack, and he landed. He slid to a stop, bearing down on Morningtide.

"You cannot be Sturdy Anvil," Morningtide said. She gestured with one hoof, tossing Kaelynn and the nameless seapony to the far wall. Vesper and Blake followed, before something shimmering blue appeared between them, a wall of force as thick as an aquarium.

Kaelynn rolled over, crawling over to the barrier to watch. She smacked one hoof weakly against it, but it didn't budge. None of the others even had the strength to sit up.

"Sturdy Anvil would know those weapons are enchanted, just like the household. If he wanted to assassinate me, he would've done it using the proud unicorn tradition. Poison in a meal, or an iron dagger by moonlight."

Light flashed, coming straight for him. Ryan reacted, rolling out of the way. The force was meant to kill him. He reacted again, focusing his intention as powerfully as he could to one simple end. He had to survive. He was Kaelynn's last hope now. If he failed, they would all die.

His shield came slower this time, though. Without Kaelynn around, Ryan just wasn't getting as much food as he needed. His magic was running out. He was protected, but still the power ripped through him. While it didn't hit hard enough to damage his body, it did rip the disguise right off him. The unicorn guard dissolved in a sparkle of green light, along with the copied uniform. The sword remained on the ground, because that was real. But every other vestige of it was gone.

"Ah. The seapony told the truth about you too. There really are insects implicated in all this."

They were fighting for their lives, and yet this mare still sounded amused?Each one of them had used their strongest weapons against her, and she hardy even seemed to notice!

"You're not even one of them. Have you been crawling around under a stone since the invasion, insect? I would like to know where to find the others, so I can extinguish them as well. You’ve threatened the good ponies of Canterlot one too many times."

Ryan hovered in the air, wings holding him there in a steady buzz. He wasn't exactly sure when he'd taken off, but it felt like where he belonged. At least he wouldn't have to use any magic to stay disguised. He had so little left.

"I come from another world," he whispered, dangerously. "So do all of them. All of us are here to save our friend from you. Kaelynn isn't going to be your slave."

"No," she agreed. "A slave implies a meaningful relationship is possible between us. She's rejected every gift I tried to give her. A life of plenty and peace would have been hers, if only she obeyed. Is there something about you creatures that has trouble with instructions? Sail on, forget her, you could've continued your lives in peace. Pity."

She turned her horn on him, and he could feel her focusing on something. Her next attack wouldn't just throw him around, or grab him the way she'd done to the others. She saw him as an actual threat, she would end this before it got any further.

I don't know what to do. His eyes wandered, searching for anything he'd missed, anything he could use against this terrible pony. Maybe one of her other guards would take issue with wanton murder in the house? Maybe Princess Twilight would show up to save them? There was nopony down the hall, either mysterious princess or guard with a bleeding heart. So much the better—this pony would probably just kill them anyway.

"I hear my granddaughter went to such a place. Worldgates, as though anything beyond Equestria could ever be of significance. Yet you have provided another specimen for the collection, so maybe. Perhaps there was some merit to her interest. I will ask her for you, next time she visits."

He didn't see so much as feel the spell coming, a force of terrible intent meant to shred his body in a dozen different ways. She felt no hesitation, no remorse—she intended this to be swift and decisive.

And there, on the other side of the room, was Kaelynn, still pressed against the glass. She had legs again, so at least she wasn't suffocating over there. Some friends they'd turned out to be. Instead of saving her, their gift would be a chance to watch their murders. She could live with that in the dark corner of her tank.

The force of her attack blasted him back again, deflected only slightly to either side by the force of his nascent defense. Rock splintered into shards where the spell struck, hissing and dissolving and filling the air with smoke.

The spell manifested when it struck his shield, a cone of darkness with writhing tentacles. Each one wrapping around to try and grab him was another way the magic was trying to kill him. A sphere appeared around him, far smaller than her own, shrinking in a matter of seconds. She'd trained her whole life. His will was unfocused, childish.

It wasn't a spell—Ryan knew no spells, really. His magic depleted in an eyeblink, draining from his body to buy him another second or so. He smacked into the stone wall, held there by the pressure of magic. Her spell closed in around him, and he could feel a dozen different tendrils of death reaching for him.

His body was shriveled, wrung dry of magic. His stomach groaned, twisting in agony. He had no more magic left to give.

I won't let you keep Kaelynn in a tank.

His feeble shield of green light became a magnesium torch. Ryan was momentarily overwhelmed, a conduit for power he had never imagined. A lifetime of hunger passed before his eyes, a need to blood that would wither him and a thousand other changelings besides. He had no more magic left to give, yet... there was magic anyway.

It doesn't matter if she kills me, so long as you get out of here.

Power burned through him, lighting his whole body aflame. Chitin shriveled and transformed, his wings were seared until they crystalized. But Ryan felt no pain—he was far too focused on this final goal. "No." He took one step forward, and the light of his shield became an answering spell.

Morningtide's eyes widened, staring up into the air between them, then back at Ryan. But she didn't even have the chance to scream.

Light filled the hall, so bright that Ryan was blinded. Something was trying to drown out this new source of power, grounding it out into the walls and floors of ancient stone. There was just too much. The faster it ran out, the more magic came. His body burned, like a cheap power strip with a whole house plugged into it. But Ryan didn't care.

Something smacked into the far wall, and the tunnel was filled with the sound of shattering glass.

As quickly as it came, the magic fled. His body stopped glowing, the spotlight from his horn went out. The force pushing him backward stopped.

His eyes adjusted quickly, and he dropped roughly down to all fours. He'd been hovering there the whole time, without even realizing he was flying. Even stranger, the pain was already fading. It felt like his whole body had been burned to a crisp, but when he looked down, he didn't see black anymore.

Instead he saw blues, not that different from Kaelynn's. There was a slight sparkle to it, but it was still chitin, his body didn't have skin or fur or scales. I'm still a bug.

But he was still alive, that was more than could be said for Morningtide.

Huge gouges had been ripped from the wall nearby, opening holes bigger than his whole body. One had even struck the fallen sword, crumbling it to a pile of silvery powder ending in a wrapped handle.

The unicorn was completely gone. Instead, the other side of the room had a... sculpture? It looked like it had been an orange crystal figure, reclining in shock maybe. But something had smashed it against the far wall, cracking it in a dozen different places. A pile of shattered glass lay there now, still sparkling with magic.

That was what she was trying to do to me, he realized. I turned it back against her. Somehow.

Ryan couldn't muster any compassion for Morningtide's death. She had planned on murdering his friends in front of Kaelynn, then confining her to a life of sexual slavery. The changelings were right after all. There is still some evil here, even if it's well hidden.

Now there was a little less.

The glowing wall trapping his friends was completely gone now, without a trace. He approached slowly, his own body still feeling a little strange. Certainly wouldn't look as badass in pastel blue when they finally made the movie.

"Is everyone okay?" he asked. His voice was different again—less strange than he was used to, but still not normal. "Please tell me there wasn't any friendly fire. I have... no idea what just happened."

Kaelynn and the seapony were in better shape than the others—Morningtide hadn't wanted to throw around her prized specimens, probably. She stood up, glancing between him and the shards of broken glass that had been the evil unicorn. "What just happened?" She touched against his chest with one hoof.

There was something there on his neck, like three little gemstones set into his coat. They were the same color as the shattered unicorn. "I love you."

She stared back a few seconds, wings opening in confusion. She had those now, apparently. Then she embraced him, in the tightest hug their awkward bodies could manage. For a few seconds, nothing else mattered. Not the distant screams, not the pounding hoofsteps. It didn't matter that they were still trapped, essentially at the scene of the crime.

They would get out. He wouldn't spend the rest of his life guilty about failing her.

"I don't have a bucking clue what that was..." said a voice. Vesper, hobbling past them. Her coat was singed, and she had a slight limp in one foreleg. But she walked anyway. "But time to get scarce."

Ryan finally let go, opening his eyes. The others were all standing again, even the unknown male seapony. His emotional state was an absolute wreck, a mixture of so many conflicting powerful emotions that he was near to collapse. But Ryan didn't try to understand him. He'd suffered through even more than Kaelynn.

"Won't shed any tears about someone like that." Blake walked past the corpse, catching Vesper with one hoof around her neck to help her forward. He was recovering more quickly—not surprising, considering he was half dragon, and didn't have hollow flight bones. "But yeah, time to go. Don't think we'll get a slap on the wrist for trespassing after all this. Let's go."

"Why did she do that?" asked the strange seapony. "I don't understand."

"I told you," Kaelynn replied. "She was evil. I'm sorry you had to learn it that way." They walked, stumbled, and dragged their way to the hallway. From there it would be a quick trip down the steps, then through Canterlot Caverns.

"Maybe we'll go straight down, lay low for a few days in Bydska," Blake said. "Crew's only a few days out. You think your new friend can handle that, Kaelynn?"

"No," she said flatly. "But it's a good idea anyway."

"I have an alternate suggestion," someone said, stepping out from the hallway. A bright purple pony, so tall her horn practically scraped against the ceiling. She opened a pair of huge wings, blocking off the hall on either side. "Why don't you tell me what's going on?"

Chapter 77: Blake

Blake's instincts went wild. He glanced back the way they'd come, desperate for some other avenue of escape. But there was nothing, other than back into the tank he already knew wouldn't get them out.

He didn't need an introduction to know who this was—if her regal bearing wasn't enough, that six-pointed star cutie mark and crown of white gold was enough to make it clear.

Vesper slumped in his grip, dropping down to the ground in a weak bow. Blake imitated her almost as quickly. Violence was impossible here, and there was no way to run. Even if there had been an escape tunnel inches away, they were in no condition to flee. He'd been beaten so badly he didn't think he would be running for another few days.

The others imitated him, except the seapony male. This wasn't their first time getting arrested. Respecting local customs was the first step to a smooth release. Otherwise they'd be just another set of obstinate westerners, for the police to hit with every punishment their law would permit.

Unfortunately, it didn't look like the Alicorn was impressed. She walked past them without a word, eyes intense. She looked down at the unicorn's remains, horn glowing briefly. The pile of crystal vanished in a faint flash of light. She bent down, picking up a hand drill in her magic, and turning it over.

"Wait there, please," she said, continuing through a set of open doors. Blake stood awkwardly, which made him the first. Kaelynn came next, glancing towards the open hallway, then back at the princess. He pointed at the other seapony, and she shook her head once.

It was the only communication they needed.

I don't think the rest of us would be able to get out faster anyway. They had only one hope left now; Twilight Sparkle's mercy.

The Alicorn was not gone long. A cloud of damp metal shards floated through the air beside her, along with the drill, and fallen spear. Finally she spoke, her tone flat and face unreadable. "Several days ago, Princess Luna informed me of something troubling. Somepony in Canterlot was holding a pair of seaponies hostage. She couldn't tell me where, only that their friends would likely mount their own rescue."

She advanced on Kaelynn, tossing the drill onto the ground at her hooves. "This tank was sealed from the outside, and was drilled from within. Were you a captive here, friend?"

"Yes," Kaelynn said. "Worse. She planned on forcing Tellin and I to breed against our will. She forced us to perform for her visitors, and didn't feed us if we said or did anything she didn't like."

The princess listened without objection, her face remaining that impenetrable mask. She glanced back to Tellin next, her attention just as focused. "To you as well?"

He hesitated, tail curling nervously under his body. His wings twitched irregularly too—clearly he didn't know how to use them. "I didn't think of myself as a prisoner until... Kaelynn came. Morningtide took care of me. She gave me somewhere safe to stay, where the Storm King couldn't find and kill me like the others." He lowered his voice to a fearful whisper. "You know how much he hates us! I know I don't look like a fish right now, but if he saw me he'd still kill me."

Twilight clicked her tongue, then reached out to pat him once on the head with her hoof. "My little pony, the Storm King has been dead for a long time. You were never in any danger." She walked away from him, pacing down to the end of the hall.

As she did, several guards emerged at once, bursting out from above. They weren't wearing city uniforms, but bright yellow and orange vests, along with spears. They saw the princess, then looked to each other before deciding what to do. They bowed, but not very deeply. "Princess? You caught the invaders!"

"Not exactly," she said, flicking her tail to one side. "Have you located the mistress yet?"

They shared another nervous look, before their leader stepped forward again. "I, uh... not yet. We're still searching. I felt magic from up here, and thought she might've gone to intercept the invaders herself."

Twilight shook her head once. "I saw no pony here. Continue your search. Consider these ponies taken into the custody of royal justice."

He stepped forward again, nodding towards the seaponies. "Those two are guests of the house. I know Mistress Shimmer would want you to leave them here. She will have words with you when we find her."

"She may address me in the castle," the princess said. Her horn flashed, and she nodded to the door. "That is all, little ponies. Continue your search."

They left, shooting her dirty looks as they retreated. But like Blake, they could clearly see this wasn't a fight they could win.

"Why?" Ryan asked, as soon as they were gone. One word, but it was all they needed.

"This magic was not done by any changeling," she said, very quietly. "That petrification is an ancient unicorn secret, one you could not have cast no matter how much magic you used. It is clear to me that justice has already been done here. A regrettable, painful decision. She was willing to take your lives. It is so often the case that those who refuse friendship often fall by their own choices."

She glanced between them again, eyes lingering on Vesper's limp, her burns. "This will cause friction in Canterlot's ruling families, but it can't be helped. I have no doubt you creatures have an interesting story to tell me. You can share it in the halls of the castle's medical wing, after Princess Luna arrives. I know she will want to speak for you, before I judge your actions here." She glanced down the hall again, nostrils flaring. She could smell the flames.

"Before we go, I give you one chance to be honest with me. Did you harm anypony here?"

Blake stepped forward. He had led this doomed expedition, so it was only fitting he take responsibility now. Besides, he'd done it. "Yes. We tried to get in peacefully, but failed. I burned through a barricade. There may've been some burns to ponies as well, but I don't think any of them were serious. They ran from us."

The princess watched him. She might be the most masterful politician he'd ever seen—how could she keep from showing any sign of what she really felt? "It's noble to care so much about your friends that you'll do anything to save them. I will need to consider whether those actions were merited here." She glanced back at the open door, and the underwater cage it contained. "These ponies were treated terribly. But I don't recall a visit from anyone in this room asking for my help. I don't know what country you think you grew up in, but in Equestria we have rules in place. Ponies may not take affairs into their own hooves to take a justice they think they're entitled to receive."

As she spoke, her attention was mostly on Vesper now. She was the only “pony” among them, though the others shared much in common. "By the time you're recovered, I will need to have a word with the Kirin consulate, and the Changeling embassy as well. There may be repercussions to this. It depends on how much word reaches the other families of this night, and how much of your involvement they believe contributed. Perhaps they'll blame the Crown for removing the troubling head of a house that has long argued for a return to the Solar Council."

She flicked her tail to one side. "But not here. Keeping a veil of silence around our conversation is giving me a headache. Hold still, everypony."

Light enveloped them, and they vanished from the old house.

The next few hours were spent just as the princess had promised, in the capital of Equestria. The castle had its own medical wing, more than sufficient for their injuries. As he had guessed, Vesper had come out of the encounter the worst, with one of her forelegs actually broken.Blake sat beside her bed as doctors wrapped it in a cast, and explained how she needed to take the potion regularly for the next 48 hours before she removed it.

"Wait, give me that one again," she said. "I can take the cast off in... two days?"

The doctor was an older unicorn, wearing a tight coat and with tighter features. She nodded curtly at the question. "If you were expecting an instant regeneration, that magic is in short supply. We keep it in reserve for life-threatening injuries. Yours is not."

"It's not that." Vesper tried to sit up, but her immobilized leg dragged along the hospital bed, so she just flopped around a little. "I've broken limbs before. It took two months last time I broke an arm."

"Arm," the doctor repeated, confused. "Maybe without potions it would take so long. So drink yours, every six hours. A nurse will wake you to make sure you keep to the schedule." She stalked out without another word.

The other members of their group were all here, scattered around the hospital wing. They'd all been pushed into the corner, giving them relative privacy from the other incidental injuries passing through. Mostly they had the room to themselves in any case. Only Kaelynn and Tellin were missing, still off answering questions with the princess about their time in captivity. But neither had been injured, they were just in shock.

Vesper looked over at him, pleading. "Help me sit up? I'm sick of being stretched like this." She already looked better, even if patches of her coat were shaved down and bandaged, covering a few minor burns with ointment. He'd given her those, without even realizing what he was doing.

He helped her anyway, lifting her up until her back rested against the pillows. He had a few bandages of his own, and a tight wrap around one foreleg. It was still getting off easy compared to some of his friends. "I don't know how I can make it up to you," he whispered, finally letting go. "For doing that. I should've been in more control."

"Maybe." She shrugged. "I don't think we would've made it in without a little heat. Without us, Ryan might've lost. We don't know."

"Right." He reached out, brushing her mane away from her face. At least that had survived his eagerness. "Well, I think we can say I'm the worst at leading infiltration missions. That went tits up before we even got to use the fireworks."

"I hope Ryan is okay. I remember what it's like. Killing someone, even if you're defending yourself. I had nightmares about it. Doesn't matter that those pirates had it coming."

Blake glanced across the room, to Ryan's bed. He was actually in it, asleep. For the first time since his group had arrived in Equestria, Ryan was sleeping. Saving the day really took it out of him.

But would it matter? The princess was probably right—trying to do this on their own had been incredibly reckless. How would she feel about their group being the ones to make contact between worlds?

That was tomorrow's problem.

Chapter 78: Vesper

It didn't matter how hurt she was, and how badly she probably needed it; Vesper couldn't sleep. The moon was high, and with it her anxiety.

The rescue was successful—Kaelynn was free, and a terrible pony who had caused harm to so many wouldn’t be able to hurt anypony else again. It was the kind of results she might've called a "huge success".

But now Equestria knew about them. They were no longer hidden, and their reveal had hardly been positive. Everything Twilight said about the stupidity of their plan, not asking for help—it was all true.

We should've listened to the changeling information on where Kaelynn was being held, and ignored all her instructions for how to rescue her.

Vesper paced back and forth at the edge of the hospital room, beside a single wide window open to the sky. She could probably remove her bandages and escape that way, vanish into the city and flee the legal consequences of what she'd done. She could probably even reach the portal through to Poland and leave Equestria behind.

Blake might suggest escape, if it gets bad enough. What do I tell him then?

"Canterlot is beautiful, isn't it?" said a voice from behind her. So quiet that she almost missed it—the pony obviously didn't want to wake the sleeping injured. Even Ryan was sleeping now.

She didn't turn around, just stared out over the city of cliffs, nodding her appreciation. "There are places like this where I came from, or there used to be."

Princess Luna could try to be subtle and quiet all she liked, her wings would still cast a shadow. Even with her eyes closed, Vesper would've sensed the power there. Like standing beside a campfire, radiating heat that penetrated deep into Vesper's mind.

How could I dream of escaping from her? "Were you just testing us? Waiting to save Kaelynn yourself if Morningtide was ever going to do anything real to her? We fucked that one up."

The princess didn't answer for a long time. Long enough that Vesper could see a little group of ponies moving over the streets far below. She squinted, and her eyes adjusted. They were bats, laughing and singing some raucous song as they passed between buildings on the single street still brightly lit. Night district, right. I really need to check that out.

"I did not lie to you," Princess Luna said. "I could not find her, and you did." She lowered her voice to a throaty whisper. "The creatures of today are too gentle, too unaccustomed to pain. Sometimes a blade is the only solution to evil spreading in your midst.

"The seapony male, Tellin Shell, suffered a life of mistreatment no creature should experience. I fear if that had gone on much longer, he would have been transformed from a victim to an instrument of that same evil. All this accomplished with a minimum of casualties. The staff of House Shimmer will recover. Perhaps in Morningtide's absence, her long-vanished scion will return to take her place in Equestria at last."

Vesper turned, looking up at the strange princess. She expected something more mundane than the vision she saw in dreams—in that space, any creature could look however they wanted. Mastering that magic would not require Luna to look like much.

She was wrong, though. Her mane lifted to an unseen wind—but not unfelt. It was the warmth of another place, somewhere familiar. Through it, she could see the stars of a cloudless night, swirling galaxies, and other things only a fine telescope should have let her see.

"Does that mean we aren't going to be punished?" she asked, cautiously.

Luna shrugged absently. "Equestria has a long history of brave creatures doing what is right, even when it isn't wise. If it were up to me, I would not censure you. But you should understand... your faces are known now, to some of the most powerful families in the nation. Even if Twilight agrees, I would leave this city, and stay away until they find somepony to blame for Morningtide's disappearance. They are all eager to have her gone, they just won't say so out loud."

"We're here from another world," Vesper said. Not that Luna didn't already know—but the more they spoke, the more that part seemed forgotten. "My friends think we both have a lot to benefit from an exchange. Your magic, our technology, cultures... they think it should be shared."

"Do you?"

At least she didn't have to stand there awkwardly, confused about it. Vesper had been thinking about it for weeks. "If it was done right. It could go badly… but it could also help both of us in ways we can't even imagine yet. More to our benefit than yours, if I'm being honest."

Luna looked away, back into the night. "That decision isn't mine to make either. Pieces have been in motion since before you were born—even Princess Twilight has little say in it. Magic is like water, it flows. First a trickle forms a stream, then a river, and finally a canyon is carved."

Luna gestured with a wing, gently pushing Vesper around. "You should sleep now, my little pony. Tomorrow is your judgement—face it on your hooves."

Vesper didn't imagine she'd be able to obey that command—sleeping during the day wasn't just a choice anymore, it was an inevitability. But when she did crawl into the uncomfortable hospital bed, she found consciousness fled from her almost at once. She did not see the gates of deeper slumber that night.

Another shame—she did want to speak to Pale Light, and tell him how her misadventures had gone. But it could probably wait one night.

Princess Luna was right. When the sun came up, a pair of royal guards in bright armor arrived in the hospital, with instructions to bring them to the throne room.

Too bad Vesper didn't have anything nicer to wear. They barely gave her time to change old bandages for fresh ones before they were dragged off, and down the hall through the maze-like castle.

She did her best to memorize where they went, but it was a largely futile effort. Her anxiety was overpowering, and she could think of little else. All around them were artifacts of unbelievably ancient date, scowling rulers of a culture that wasn't theirs.

There was only one consolation; they were together.Kaelynn was here, Ryan and Blake weren't at each other's throats. Most importantly, Vesper had Blake to lean on whenever she felt nervous. So right now.

"This is worse than getting arrested in the Philippines," she whispered. "Who brought the bribe in their socks this time?"

Blake chuckled.

"Don't think they'll take American money here," Ryan said.

"I hope you're not seriously thinking about trying." Kaelynn glowered at her, stern. "We're already gonna look bad enough."

Vesper stuck her tongue out. "Course not. Nice wings, by the way. Do they work?"

The seapony was taken aback, enough that she slowed in the hall. Their escort gave her a pointed gesture, and she hurried to catch up.

"I'm honestly not sure," she said. "Probably. Feels like they should. Maybe you can teach me."

"With Janet complaining every minute, I'm sure," Vesper said. But she trailed off, frowning. She actually remembered those weeks fondly. Traveling through an alien world on their airship, learning how to fly. All they needed was a few solar panels, a projector, and a minifridge of snacks, and they'd be ready.

They reached a set of double doors, flanked by more uniformed guards. Like the ones who brought them here, none of these ponies were even armed. They just wore shiny armor, looking threatening. But some of them are unicorns. They're always armed.

Equestria was such a wonderfully strange place. Hopefully they would let her stay.

The throne room was every bit as awesome as that name implied. Huge stained-glass windows let in a shower of multicolored light. The guards marched them through too fast for her to get a proper view of everything. She saw the shapes of familiar ponies—the princesses, the Elements, and scenes she'd heard about in conversations with the natives.

So not unlike the American capital in that way—history was on display here. But this was a monarchy, and the ponies had clearly spared no expense. The ceiling was stories high, filled with spectacular crystal chandeliers. And at the far end of the hall there was a throne, more impressive than anything since the ancient Xerxes and his mountain of slaves.

There was gold, gemstones, and flowing water into a fountain of living plants and probably fish too. And standing atop it was Princess Twilight Sparkle.

If Princess Luna was a torch, this was a magical bonfire. Vesper didn't doubt that even a human brought here would sense her power. Incredible, intimidating... yet somehow not destructive.

There were seats along the wall, raised wooden benches for an audience. But not a single one of them was occupied today. Their judgement was not to be made before the Equestrian public, it seemed.

They stopped at the base of the throne. "Bow before your princess," instructed their escort. But they'd already started doing exactly that. It was one thing to be a proud foreigner, refusing to submit to the customs of another nation. That was how you ended up with a long time in jail, begging for the embassy to come to your rescue.

But her friends made a career out of breaking laws. That meant equal parts not getting caught, not causing trouble they didn't have to, and acting as humble and contrite as they could when they were caught.

Vesper would've bowed anyway. That kind of power just demanded respect, in a way nothing in her own world ever could.

"I hope your last few days as my guests have been... restful," she said, as soon as they were standing again. With a faint flash of her horn, she vanished from the upper seat, reappearing on the lower one, much closer to them. "Guards, seal the hall."

They saluted, then trotted back the way they'd come. Vesper could detect just a hint of disappointment. There was obviously curiosity here—they wanted to know about this mysterious case, and they wouldn't get the chance. Not this time, anyway.

"Yes, thank you," Vesper said. "I feel much better." She stretched with one wing, straining against her bandages. The damn thing picked a bad time to start itching...

The others muttered similar gratitude, except Kaelynn. She looked distracted, her eyes lingering on the little pool. What had she seen?

"I'll dispense with the formalities," the princess continued. "We all know why you're here. The judgement is already entered, and there's nopony here to perform for. Is that okay?"

"We don't get to defend ourselves?" Blake asked. His tone remained deferential, and he didn't make eye contact. But his words were still uncompromising.

The princess chuckled. "I learned everything I needed to know. Our conversations have been interview enough—with you, and the victims of House Shimmer. As well as yours."

Blake fell silent.

"It is obvious you broke the law. Taking justice into your own hooves, breaking into the house of a noble of Canterlot. Several creatures were injured in that attack, with burns that required magical healing to treat.

"But there were mitigating factors as well. Your friend, foalnapped. You didn't attack indiscriminately, as you could have. Most importantly, Morningtide's death was at her own hooves. I could never release murderers back into Equestria, no matter why they decided to kill. But you didn't."

Vesper could feel the sword hanging over this. All this was the beginning of justification—Twilight was about to bring the hammer down.

"Even if what you did is not well known to other creatures, I can't just release you into Equestria without punishment. Seapony Kaelynn, you have done nothing wrong, and know that this punishment is not yours."

"I don't care," she said. "Whatever they get, I get. They did it for me."

The princess nodded once, respectfully. "I am not... surprised, you feel that way." She turned her attention on Blake and Ryan. "I am not unaware of your origins, creatures. Equestria has decided not to contact the nations that normally represent you. The Kirin are not responsible for you, nor will they be able to rehabilitate you. The same is true of King Thorax. Do you both agree?"

Blake and Ryan nodded. Ryan's relief was visible.

The princess vanished in another flash of light. She reappeared atop the throne, with a scroll levitating beside her.

"This is the judgement of Equestria! For your crimes, Thestral Vesper, Kirin Blake, and Changeling Ryan, will be hereby sentenced to:

"Two weeks of community service."

Chapter 79: Blake

"Two weeks of community service."

Blake had a lifetime of stupid things to his name. He had the entire walk to the throne room to imagine ways the ponies might punish them. He hadn't considered anything like that. Prison, execution, banishment... maybe something weird and magical like being turned to stone.

They'd done more in half a dozen different countries. Or at least, they'd been sentenced to more, before they found a way to get out of it. Here that was part of the equation.

"Fair," Vesper said, from just beside him. "I'm sure everypony here will be happy to pay back our debt to pony society. But before we do, while you're here... there are some things we didn't talk about. I think you should know."

Blake winced. But he couldn't stop Vesper now, assuming she was even wrong. Is now really the best time to tell her about us? She already knows we're not from Equestria, isn't that enough?

Princess Twilight teleported back down to ground level again, in a single flash of magic. I wonder if I could do that.

"I am already familiar with your origin," she said. "There is another case like yours in Ponyville, though that one had Discord's direct involvement. None of you signed a contract, did you?"

Blake shook his head. The others followed.

"Not that," Vesper said. "There are hundreds of worldgates between our worlds. We found one by accident, and we weren't the first. Humans just a few centuries ago knew about you. Once that information gets across to the other side, it won't be able to contain..."

The Alicorn princess stared at Vesper, expression unreadable. Nothing as uncomplicated as anger. "What exactly are you saying, pony?"

"We planned on telling our world about yours. We would stop if you told us not to, we don't want to start some kinda... interdimensional war. But even if you don't want us involved, I think you should take some control. Right now you're the ones with the information, and the magic. You can make contact with Earth on your terms, and let both worlds benefit. Or you could hide and pretend this isn't happening, and wait for someone else to stumble through a Worldgate. It's up to you."

The princess settled back on her haunches in an abrupt thump. Her expression remained stoically unreadable. Blake looked away, unable to maintain eye-contact. What could be going on in the mind of a creature so powerful? How long until she—

Someone started laughing, but it wasn't Twilight. This voice was deeper, echoing through the vast space despite its size. Blake took a step towards Vesper, scanning the room.

"What did I tell you, Twilight? Your first real test as Princess of Equestria! You wanted that crown, didn't you? Heavy hangs the head!"

The princess's stoicism vanished, replaced with real frustration. "Discord. What do you want?"

"To watch." There was another flash of light, far brighter than anything the princess had done. Someone appeared beside them, though his feet didn't actually touch the ground. "You're making history, Princess! Imagine the thrill! New innovations, incredible discoveries, or maybe smoking craters and endless war."

He looked like an old-fashioned Hollywood director, sideways cap and sunglasses and rolled-up white shirt. Except that he wasn't human, or anything Blake had yet seen.

This creature was chaos, as bad as anything Dr. Frankenstein had sewn together in his mad fits of creation. The limbs of a half-dozen different creatures, mismatched and poorly sized, yet somehow none looked rotten.

"If you're going to just barge in on us, maybe you'd like to offer some insight," Twilight said. And just like that, all her neutrality and grace was gone, and she sounded like she was speaking to an old rival. "You have to live here too. You think Fluttershy would appreciate hearing that you started a war?"

Without a word exchanged between them, Blake and his group huddled closer, so they could all watch the strange alien. But Blake didn't speak, and so far none of the others did either. Why risk angering a creature with power like that?

The strange alien laughed again, annoyance on his face this time. "You think you can pressure me into interference with a developing civilization?Don't you want to solve your own problems? Just pretend I'm not even here." His body faded, until it was just a spectral outline in the air. Blake could still clearly see it, and there was no chance the princess couldn't too.

"Well." Twilight cleared her throat, straightening her ethereal mane. She stood, clearly flustered. "I think Equestria should probably handle this the way we've dealt with other nations. We're not unprepared—we've befriended the dragons before. That's a country of nearly-immortal monsters who could all fly here and leave our cities in smoldering ruin, if they wanted. All we have to do is visit, exchange embassies, develop an understanding of each other. This can't be that different."

Discord's voice was as transparent as his body right now, thin and reedy like it was barely meant to be audible. Or maybe not at all. "You're not going to..." He cleared his throat. "Oh, sorry. I didn't say anything!"

"What?" the Alicorn asked, head snapping in his direction again. "Spit it out."

"Oh, okay. Since you asked." The creature extended his jaw, so far down that Blake looked away in discomfort. That was not natural. From that transparent outline, a roll of normal cloth extended, dripping wet but printed with bold letters.

We don't belong here, he realized. This is what we wanted—being part of the decision about how to connect our worlds. But it's completely out of our league. At least on the Earth side of that equation, they could give advice from a human perspective about how to handle the aliens of Equestria. The powers that moved in this world were too far beyond them to be understood. What was even going on in this conversation?

He looked up anyway, unable to resist. “CONTROL THE GATES” was written there, with a stylized decorative border.

The princess read and reread that scroll for a few more seconds, before tossing it aside. It clattered wetly to the polished stone floor.

"You know what, fine. That's a good idea. I'm rethinking your community service, creatures. If there are any days left unused when this is over, I'll still send you where I was thinking. But there's something more important for us to do right now."

"Where were you going to send us?" Kaelynn asked, the only one brave enough to interrupt the conversation so far. Maybe because she wasn't actually a criminal here, unlike the others.

"I know you have an airship," Twilight said, without missing a beat. "I have a little seapony who hasn't even met his tribe before. I was going to send you to deliver him, make sure he finds his place there." She glanced toward the little fountain again. Blake did too, and saw sudden motion from down there. A shimmer of scales, and a pair of eyes vanishing back under the surface. Tellin had been here all along?

"I'll find somepony else to do it, if it comes to that," she continued. "But in the meantime, we have another task. You are going to lead me and an expedition of my wisest unicorn scholars to the nearest Worldgate. Then you will take a few ponies I choose through to the other side, to meet with the princess of your world. Help us secure a friendship between worlds, and Equestria will thank you."

She lowered her voice, dropping the formal tone. "But between us, I would probably stay away from Canterlot when this is over. Your faces are out there, and not in friendship and appreciation. That's the real reason I wanted to send you away. That and Tellin's sake. Ponies liked the old way too much, they don't want strangers coming in and upsetting it."

"They liked thinking they could get away with evil, you mean," Blake said. "Do you worry there might be more happening in Canterlot, like what happened to Kaelynn?"

The princess fixed him with a sudden, intense glare, almost as sharp as what she gave to the strange creature. "I am quite certain I have not found the cure to all evil. Is it different in your world? Perhaps we could learn from you."

Blake couldn't meet those eyes for long. "No, it's... a lot worse."

Twilight cleared her throat. "Well then. That's no reason to be satisfied or get complacent—but leave that to me, please. Social change takes time. It will take a few days to gather a team of experts... I imagined I would be sending you all off on that airship of yours. I'll make accommodations available to you here in the castle until then."

Blake stepped forward again. "Respectfully, Princess, do you think we can be ready to go within... three days?" This was all a little hard to keep track of, but he was fairly certain he still remembered.

"Why?"

"Because we have friends waiting on the other side," Vesper said, speaking up from beside him. "Hopefully a whole film crew. They were going to help us make records to help the creatures on our side understand and appreciate ponies better. There's also a griffon who was traveling with us waiting on that side, and a hippogriff named Janet. I think you might know her?"

The Alicorn shrugged her wings to either side in frustration. "You know what? Fine. Preliminary team then. Three days."

"And you know—" Discord began. He had remained silent for the last few minutes, transparent enough that Blake almost forgot he was there. Apparently the princess had too, because her annoyance returned in a rush. But this time, he wasn't speaking to Equestria's ruler.

"You creatures should think about your own futures. I have no obligation to tell you any of this—I didn't summon you here. My older self may've taken advantage of this opportunity to bind you, but I don't think the old Ball and Chain would appreciate it." He gestured, becoming fully solid again. A heavy steel ball appeared attached to one of his legs, covered in butterfly marks. It dragged him down through the air, crashing to the stone floor heavily enough to crack it.

The princess started tapping one hoof, impatiently.

"So take this warning for free. Travel between a world of magic and a world of causality cannot be undertaken without consequence. Eventually, your home will change. But you are not members of that future species, with magic flowing through your veins. At least a few of you still have choices left to make about where to live. If you value the way you used to be, you should stay on the other side of that Worldgate when you get there. Otherwise, your decision will be made for you."

He vanished, leaving the heavy steel sphere and the damage to the floor behind. Princess Twilight sighed, shaking her head once. "Now you see what I deal with," she said. "But he does make a good point. The last visitor from your world didn't realize he was making his choice about staying by using magic and making friends. When the consequences came, he felt cheated. You creatures still have a chance to decide."

She looked away, suddenly distracted. "If creatures are going to be traveling back and forth, we should really come up with a system for measuring that. Something worn on the body from arrival, perhaps. We just need to know what level of saturation causes a full transfiguration of the creature's essence..."

"I volunteer!" Vesper bounced forward, spreading both wings dramatically. "If you want to take measurements from me. And, uh... if you'll let me stay around." She looked away from Blake and the others. But this wasn't exactly a surprise. Vesper had made her wishes clear enough in the last week. "Equestria's amazing and I hoped to stick around. Maybe if we get an airport or whatever going on the border I'd make some calls back to my side, or lead tours. But otherwise, I don't want to give up magic."

Princess Twilight smiled at her. "Very well, Thestral Vesper. What is it about bats from your world..." She shook her head once.

"You may remain behind a few minutes, while I devise a sensor for you to wear. We won't force a change before it should happen, that might skew the results. But my guess is we won't have to wait long to get the data we're looking for. The rest of you—I'll send a message to my steward to prepare proper guest quarters. A few more days should be long enough to have you restored to full health before we visit the Worldgate."

Chapter 80: Ryan

Dear Journal,

Haven't had the time to record one of these in a while, sorry about that. Turns out there's a lot to get down, and maybe not so much time to do it. Here goes.

We've been in the castle for over a week now, between hospitals and guestrooms. At first we were basically prisoners, with guards waiting just outside the hospital so we couldn't escape. Things are different now, for the better. Princess Twilight was way more accommodating than most leaders would be on our side. She even let us make a trip down to the Bright Hawk to grab our stuff. We didn't fly it back, though.

See, we kinda pissed off the ruling class of Canterlot. They think we're prisoners still, and they don't know about the Bright Hawk as far as we can tell. Best way to keep them from waiting to take 'justice' into their own hooves for that 'attack' on House Shimmer is to make sure they feel like we're getting it even worse from the princess. Given how much they fear her, this works out.

Really it's just Vesper and Blake who have to worry long-term. I'm a changeling, good luck tracking me down. And Kaelynn was a prisoner, she didn't attack anyone. Maybe Blake will stay on Earth so that doesn't become a problem, but that's a long-odds maybe. I can tell how he feels about Vesper.

I'm not the same kind of changeling I was before, and there are some differences. Kept the changing, kept being able to read and feed on feelings. But I don't have to anymore. I can just eat. Have to sleep too, probably the worst part of this whole transformation. Goodbye eight extra hours in the day. Probably why I haven't recorded these as often.

Worth the trade to get Kaelynn back. She's still recovering from her time as a hostage. It feels like she's told me the truth about what happened to her. It wasn't as terrible as it would have become, given enough time. But Morningtide was trying to break her down, and even a week of that leaves scars. She doesn't like being alone, there's this constant fear around her now like she'll be taken all over again. I even went with her when she visited Tellin in the castle's pond.

She needs to spend time underwater, we learned that last time. I can keep her company if that means going under. Poor Tellin isn't a fan of me, probably doesn't think he'll ever get a girlfriend now. But lucky for him, there's apparently more of his kind out there. He's gonna need a lifetime of therapy after where he grew up, but that isn't something we can help with.

Time for the last leg of our mission. It's everything we hoped it would be, maybe—take the pony team across to Earth, help them connect up with the humans on that side. Perfect! Or maybe terrifying. It would be one thing if it was downtown in a country we knew a little better. But nobody speaks the language, except Janet and Galena for some reason. So we're making first contact in a country we barely know, with a language we don't know, for an alien nation we don't know. I see no potential for issues here, none at all.

This is exactly what we hoped for. It's just that most people don’t expect the pressure of a whole civilization to settle on their backs. We made videos about going places you weren't supposed to see. We entertained people with little history lessons while the audience wondered if Kaelynn and I would ever get together.

Guess that story isn't going to end very well. There's all this development, but it happened while we couldn't keep giving them videos. Ah, whatever, they'll have to survive. Maybe with the whole crew we can shoot a dramatization of our time in Equestria.

We spent the last few days talking over how we're going to make this happen. Blake doesn't have special forces friends, but he does have an officer friend who knows someone at the Pentagon. If that doesn't work, we're basically just gonna post our videos all over the internet and hope for the best.

This Worldgate isn't really an American thing anyway. Poland will have control, and the EU in general. We have people in the other crew who might be able to get us the right numbers. But we can't exactly ask them right now, being in another universe and everything.

Vesper's pretty confident in her decision to stay in Equestria. Blake isn't exactly thrilled, but I can't tell how Kaelynn feels. Before she got kidnapped, I think she was going to stay too. But now she has all these dark memories. She says she talks about wanting to help Janet meet back up with her family. Can't lie to me, I feel the fear underneath. I know how scared you are.

Hopefully things get better. She did like the idea of sailing her little project back to Mount Aris, or somewhere else. That's the... only little snag in that math. Once we're south of the border, pirate assholes are waiting to kill us. The Bright Hawk really works better inside Equestria's safe territory.

Maybe if we asked nicely enough, the Equestrians would help us repaint it, rebuild the old top deck. Griffon pirates can't be harassing every single ship, or they'd get themselves killed by now. But would they really wait months on the border to get revenge?

We plan to never find out. And personally, I plan on following Kaelynn wherever she goes. We didn't go through that whole rescue just to lose her out in Poland somewhere.

-Ryan

Compared to sneaking past tour groups, squinting down at old maps, and occasionally dodging bits of collapsing rubble, Ryan preferred traveling with the Equestrian expedition.

They moved at a plodding pace, with two bat cavers at the front to scout the route. More than once Blake had to step forward to argue with the pony team about what direction they would travel. The locals knew their own caves, but the way down to their destination was along a trail of connected passages the ponies really didn't want to use.

That made perfect sense of course—if the path brought them any direction the locals actually used, they would've found it by now.

"We'll have to reinforce the whole tunnel, Miss Dash," said the lead thestral, an older male named Subsonic. He spoke to the Equestrian expedition leader—not the princess herself, she was far too important for that. Apparently she had some close friends for a mission like this, two mares who everyone spoke to with respect and deference.

Ryan lacked the historical context to understand what made them so respected—neither of them had dressed up particularly for the role, though at least they had brought a crate of clothing along with all the other supplies. Blake had the foresight to explain the importance of modesty in the world they would be visiting.

They could only hope their companions wouldn't mind waiting a little past the designated rendezvous time, because such a careful trek into Canterlot Caverns meant that it would be late into the evening on the other side. Still, they eventually found the site. Ryan felt it before he saw it, as a wave of excitement passed through the Equestrian group.

They soon crowded through the doorway, filling the ancient structure with its tile mosaics and marble pillars.

"Ancient Unicornia construction," someone said. "So well preserved! I had no idea they made it this far west!"

"This will rewrite everything we know about the antebellum migration," somepony else said. Ryan rolled his eyes, but didn't correct them. Sure, it looked obviously Roman to him, but maybe that was his own bias at work. Maybe the locals had another name. Or maybe they weren't different societies after all.

We don't know how often travelers made it across.

Some members of the group were more discerning, including the two the princess sent to lead it. They walked all the way over to the pool, staring down through the water at the portal's shimmering barrier. Ryan followed them over, while the other members of his group argued with the archeologists, or explained what they'd done on previous visits.

"You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" asked the earth pony, in an accent as thick as it was familiar.

The blue pegasus nodded sharply, touching one hoof to the water's edge. "I saw something just like this with Starlight. Twenty bits says it's the same magic."

"Twenty?" The mare raised her eyebrows. "Somepony's feeling lucky today."

They finally noticed Ryan approaching, and turned to watch.

It might be annoying to have to sleep every night the way he used to. But there was one benefit so great that Ryan would trade it again without even thinking: he no longer provoked disgust. The Equestrian ambassadors just smiled politely at him, as friendly as anyone. They weren't just forcing it either—even the archeologists, cave explorers, and assistants in the Equestrian expedition didn't seem afraid of him.

"You've done this before, right?" asked the blue one—Rainbow Dash, her name was. "What's it like?"

All around them, the expedition started setting up. They rolled in carts of strange machines, made with equal parts glowing crystals and other inscrutable magical mechanism. Their porters and cave-explorers helped with more mundane tasks, dragging out the old furniture into the cavern, or laying down tarps to protect the delicate tile under their hooves before setting up new furniture. In a few minutes, the darkness was transformed by bright crystal lights, glittering through the room.

"It doesn't hurt. I did almost drown once, but that was when I had..." He reached to the side of his throat with one leg, touching cautiously. Okay, so he still had weird bug holes. He would need to be just as careful when they went through. "Just hold your breath. When the magic hits you, the first instinct is that you must be out in the open, but you're wrong. It's just as much water on that side as this one."

"And get dressed before you cross," Blake added, from not far behind. He stood beside the crate of Equestrian clothes, now open. He selected a jacket and trousers from inside, levitating them on. "The Worldgate changes what you're wearing, and what you're carrying, but we never learned its limits."

"Wet clothes again," Vesper groaned. Yet despite her voice, she still radiated anticipation. Even the one who didn't plan on living in the same world anymore was eager to see how this rendezvous would treat them. Admit it, you can't stand not being part of all the fame and fortune. You want to be interviewed, you want the book deal. You just want to keep flying when it's over.

Maybe there were more complicated gender issues involved in that equation somewhere. Being a changeling made that so much simpler.

"How do you ponies want to handle this?" the earth pony mare asked. Applejack, Ryan thought. "Do ya'll want us leading the way through, or do you want to check it for safety first. You're the experts here, so I reckon we follow your lead."

"More waiting, great," Rainbow whispered, her wings slumping to either side. She pawed at the ground, like she was waiting for the starting pistol in a race. "You didn't have to volunteer that."

Blake was the first one to get dressed. Ryan walked back to the crate, digging through it with his own magic. Convenient, though he suspected it came more sluggish to him than it had to the kirin. Being a changeling meant he could play with almost any of it, but none was "natural" to him either. Levitating more than one thing at a time took some concentration.

Kaelynn didn't have wings anymore, since her last trip into the water and out again. They'd lost her songbook somewhere in House Shimmer, which meant she had to improvise anytime she did magic. This time that meant she had a horn too, though clearly no understanding of how to use it. She dressed with her hooves, the same way the two Equestrians did.

"It makes sense to send us ahead," Blake said confidently. "If things went to plan, there are as many as a dozen humans waiting just across this barrier. It would be best if they see us, instead of strangers."

"Okay," Rainbow said. "You go on then. If you don’t come flying back across screaming in terror, we'll follow a few minutes after you."

Chapter 81: Vesper

Vesper wasn't the first one across the Worldgate. She probably could've been, if she asked loudly enough. But of all the places she wanted to go, Earth was about the bottom of the list. Completing first contact would be a world-shattering accomplishment, but for her it was an obligation.

Vesper spent her whole life pushing the boundaries of what was allowed, exploring places that no one else would dare to see. Now she had a whole world of new mysteries, and she was leaving it behind. For a little while, anyway. We still have the Bright Hawk waiting in Ponyville for us.

Blake was the first one through the portal ahead of her, because of course he was. If there was anything terrible waiting there, he'd be the first one to see it, and maybe flee back across the Worldgate to warn them. When no one did, Kaelynn and Ryan went through together. They didn't have the fingers to hold hands, but they were about as close as they could be, even so.

I hope you heal from this eventually, she thought. But sympathy was all anyone could give the fish right now. No one else had ever suffered through kidnapping like her. The other fish had gone through the same treatment, but in their few conversations he hadn't seemed all there to Vesper. For him the damage might be beyond healing.

She probably wouldn't have bothered wearing any borrowed pony clothes for the crossing, except that she expected a bunch of other crew to be there. Blake didn't matter, and the others would give her privacy if she asked for it. The B crew were all cool people in their own ways, she just hadn't been traveling naked with them for the last three months.

Unfortunately that meant a soggy dress and wet socks as she swam her way to the steps, only dimly aware of her surroundings at first. The cave was lit, she knew that much. But she hadn't had human eyes for almost two weeks now. She moved to the edge of the steps, looking out at her friends out on the surface. She counted, making sure that no one drowned down there in the water.

Something caught her eye past the gentle blur of moving forms, enough that she suddenly came alert. She saw a familiar blue, the same bright shade as Ryan's new body. Only there couldn't be a changeling here on Earth, that just wasn't how the Worldgates worked.

Ryan didn't look like one exactly, but he also didn't look like himself. He was taller than he'd been, with brilliant blue hair the exact same shade as his fins in Equestria. On anyone else, she might've called him unnaturally thin, but on him the features somehow seemed elven and graceful. That was only the second strangest thing Vesper could see.

Looking down was the same graceful bat-dress she'd taken from the ponies, with its star and moon patterns. It was probably straight out of Luna's court. Yet the gown was supposed to look all wrong on a male body. Presumably all that flight and exercise in Equestria would only have made her muscles get broader and more developed.

There shouldn't be breasts, visible through fabric turned almost transparent by water. "Uh..." She tried to say something, and found the same voice she was used to. The one she heard in her head, and whenever she talked to her friends in Equestria. A high mare's voice.

She stood suddenly, and nearly tripped over herself as she clambered out of the water. The chill reached through soaking clothes, making her breath fog up in front of her. Her center of balance was wrong, enough that she nearly fell on her face. Vesper reached up to touch skin, and found she didn't recognize what she felt. That was too smooth, too graceful.

No one was watching her. They were all distracted by the cavern entrance. Vesper would check that soon enough, but just now she couldn't bring herself to care. Her own body was just so unbelievably confusing, she had to know why. What the buck was wrong with her?

There were no members of the B-crew in the cave. There were signs of a camp, including bright propane lights shining down on the Worldgate itself, and a few of the more interesting murals. There were no actual people, though.

Vesper made it to a polished metal surface near the wall. Bathhouses needed mirrors, and now she knew why someone would put them in Worldgates too. She stared transfixed by her reflection.

She was short, maybe five feet on tiptoe. Her pony dress was soaking wet, but that made it easy to see the body underneath. Lean and athletic, like a relay-runner, with hair bright blonde. She touched one hand up against the glass, mouth hanging open. Her brain just wasn't connecting. How can that be me?

"Well, we're screwed," Blake said. He retreated from the cave entrance, turning back towards the Worldgate. "And they know we're here, so that's fantastic. What the hell did Janet do?"

He was so panicked he nearly walked right into her, stopping abruptly. He froze, looking down. Her eyes were now at about the level of his chest. "I'm sorry, which pony are you?"

"Vesper,"she said flatly. "Jordan? I was right behind you, remember?"

He glanced to the side. Like him, Kaelynn seemed entirely unchanged by the transition. She was half a head taller than Vesper, and prettier in other ways. At least she didn't glare at her the way Galena had. "Okay, but... how? Jordan isn't..."

"He wasn't," she said, holding up her bracelet. Twilight's magical sensor had changed from a steady blue glow to a deep red, no longer emitting any light. "But I am, so... I have no idea what the hell this means."

"I can guess," Ryan said. "That creature the princess didn't like, Discord… he said that some of us still had a choice to make. He didn't say we all did."

"Right." Blake stomped one foot—he hadn't had shoes, so it was just wet skin on ground, painful and soft sounding. "Let's put that on the backburner. We need to decide if we tell Equestria the plan is a bust."

"And do what, go back there?" Kaelynn asked, frustrated. "I need time on Earth before I'm ready for that. I want all of Morningtide's evil friends to forget about me. Canterlot isn't safe for us right now. Besides, this is what we came to do. We expected it to be hard."

Vesper could've just asked them—but she wasn't content to just listen. She pushed past them, making her way towards the entrance. It took more steps than she was used to, and balance was still a problem. But through stress or spite, she managed, creeping towards the cavern exit.

There were more signs of occupation along the way. A textured foam surface led straight out, with glowing red warning lights to illustrate the path. A little odd for the film crew—the whole point of what they did was not making a change, so they could leave the locations behind as empty and pure as they found them. It was a lot easier to get out of punishment for breaking in if there was no damage left behind.

But if she had any doubt about where the changes had come from, her first peek outside erased it. The hillside had been flash-cleared, every patch of brush and debris in a circle around the cave entrance. Heavy razor-wire fences encircled the opening, with thick steel support-bars that could probably stop a bus if they had to. At the base of the mountain, between the hill and the little town of Bydska, a makeshift military camp was erected, with tents and trailers stretching out as far as she could see. There were many flags, but she recognized only the EU, German, and Polish at a glance. There were other nations too, but she didn't get the chance to stare.

Soldiers stood on a single security tower, overlooking the fence with a swiveling spotlight shining directly through the entrance at her.

There was something wrong with Bydska too, though she couldn't quite tell at this distance. No more car traffic, not as much smoke rising from the chimneys, too many police cars on the streets.

A single figure stepped over the rocky trail towards her, wearing a bright yellow hazmat suit over their entire body. They carried no weapons, only a single heavy plastic case. They had just started walking, maybe emerged from that gate in the time that her friends turned around. "Hey guys, I think we've got company!" she called back.

Kaelynn appeared beside her in the opening, the others not far behind. "Oh."

"This is fast," Blake muttered. "Like, you don't even know how slow the military moves. Someone burned money like it was oil to get this here so soon."

Vesper nodded. "You think Janet and Galena are okay? Maybe they're still hiding out down in the village."

"I think..." Blake began, speaking very quietly. "That there are probably microphones and cameras in every inch of this room. So choose your words very carefully."

Vesper shut up after that, falling entirely silent. She glanced briefly back towards the pool. It wasn't too late for them to flee back where they'd come. She wasn't going to let them hold her here, not with Equestria so close. But could she run away like Spark Gap had?

She wasn't a coward. Blake didn't run, so neither did she.

As the figure got closer, she could see a spool of wire in their other hand, unrolling back towards the gate. It connected to the box from one end. But it didn't seem to do anything, at least not during their walk. The person inside was a man with graying hair and a muscular build, along with short-cut hair. Probably military, like so much else here.

He stopped just outside the entrance, staring at them all. Finally he spoke, his voice muffled by the suit. "I am looking for four people," he said, in heavily accented English. Still quite distinct to Vesper's ears. "Please tell me your names."

Just getting right into it, huh? Guess they don't have to ask if we came through the portal if they hid cameras.

"I'm Blake Hodges," he said, stepping forward to the front of the group.

The man withdrew just as far from him, holding the case between them. "Please, no closer. Say again."

He did, sounding exasperated. The others did the same, until it was Vesper's turn. "I used to be called... Jordan Little," she said. "But stuff happened. It was a long story."

The speaker didn't look terribly interested in hearing it. He just nodded, then deposited his case on the ground in front of them. He clicked the plastic box open, revealing a strange, old-looking machine. A... landline handset, along with a single flat plastic screen. There were no buttons, though a red light in the corner was flashing.

"We're just people," Blake said. "We're Americans, that's all. We don't have the right to negotiate for anyone, but there's someone coming who does."

"Don't talk to me, talk to them." The soldier pointed down at the old-looking phone. He took another step back, down the path the way he'd come. "Do not leave this cave, or you will be shot. Don't do anything unnatural, or you will be shot. Poland will protect ourselves, if we have to. Keep friendly, yes?"

"Sure," Blake said, voice flat and exasperated. "Talk to them, huh?" He dropped down in front of the box, reaching out for the phone. "Anyone else want to do this?"

Vesper shook her head, along with each of the others in turn. Sure, they all wanted to be out here. But that wasn’t the same as being the one to deal with the consequences.

"Alright. Hopefully this goes peacefully. Get ready to move back into the cave if we have to."

Which means run for our lives and probably never see Earth again, Vesper realized. Was she prepared to make that sacrifice?

Maybe, but she didn't want to. Recent events meant she didn't even have to be awkward around Blake anymore. She could do the TV interviews now, assuming they didn't get shot.

Chapter 82: Blake

Blake lifted the receiver in one shaking hand. It wasn't just his friends depending on him anymore, though they certainly were. He could practically feel the ghostly dots of sniper-rifles on his face, though he couldn't see anything like that aimed at him. So much for a warm welcome for the Equestrians.

This was supposed to happen on our terms. We should've had control over every variable, so we could set this up so everyone wants to cooperate.

But if they'd wanted to do that, they should have stayed on Earth. They had ceded the field to the enemy, and now they faced the consequences.

"This is Blake Hodges," he said.

For a few seconds there was silence on the other line. Or... not quite. There were faint voices—like a room of people whispering. Maybe just a dozen different people on the line.

Finally one voice spoke louder than the others.

"We have that name here," said the voice. Older, female, with a vaguely BBC accent. He couldn't tell more than that. "You went missing in the Paris Catacombs three months ago. Those others with you were similar. Yes?"

He nodded slowly, though of course she couldn't see him. His friends were watching close enough, maybe they could overhear. Shame this phone didn't have a speaker option. "Yes. We were... professional explorers, I guess you'd call us. Semiprofessional. Enough to make it a second career for some." He hesitated. "Who am I speaking with?"

"My name is Officer Watson. I represent the EU Department of Faerie Investigation. But this conversation is being mirrored to representatives from other governments as well. The American Homeworld Security are here, along with the Chinese Ministry of Mediums, and the Polish Land Forces. Are you human, Blake Hodges?"

"I am. But I was something else a few minutes ago. There is a passage in the cave behind us—I'm guessing that you had a team pouring over every inch of it in the last week or two."

"Yes." Someone else, a man's voice this time, with an American accent. "An Einstein-Rosen Permeation. This isn't the first we've detected. Your presence here suggests there is another one underneath Paris, is that right?"

"Just like this one, yes. We think it was built by the same culture of... world travelers, from the past. We have footage from the trip until our batteries ran out. We have recordings of life on the other side."

Vesper leaned in past his shoulder, snatching the handset and pulling it down towards her. Enough for her to reach it, anyway. "We brought ambassadors from the world on the other side! They want to make peaceful contact with Earth!"

Blake let her finish, before gently lifting the handset out of her reach. He glared weakly down in her direction, but couldn't really muster any anger. He was going to tell her all of the same things, when he thought the conversation was ready for it. But considering they might splash out of the water any second now...

"You are saying they already know," said a different voice this time. "The things you call 'Worldgates' were not known to them before. This has changed?"

"Yes," he said. "Also, two of our friends were living in Bydska. And we had some others who were coming to document the other world with us. Have either of them been harmed?"

"No," the first speaker said, the woman representing the EU. "But it was a very close call. You brought an alien bird into a small Polish village. Did you think the mythology would protect her?"

Galena? He shared a look with the others. But it would waste as much time as it would save to explain any of it twice. "She was human when we arrived. We planned to be back for her today, to bring her back across. She wanted to see our world the way we were viewing hers."

Something splashed in the water behind him, bulky enough that it left no doubt in his mind exactly what was happening back there. The Equestrian ambassadors were arriving. He had maybe a few more minutes until they were alert enough to interfere. He covered the mouthpiece anyway, pointing back. "Vesper, please. Talk to them, tell them the situation."

She nodded, hurrying back into the cave.

"We're holding both of them now," the woman said. "One who is human, with observations of... radiation. Then the almost-bird, griffon. If we release them to you, will you take them back across?"

Galena won't be happy about that. Janet either. "That's, uh... that's complicated," he said. "The human, Janet, has been wanting to come back to Earth for a long time. She was trapped on the other side, separated from her family and friends for almost a year. She hopes to go back to the United States and see them again."

This time the line went completely silent, an abrupt click like it had just muted. He kept it to his face in case that changed, finally turning back to look at the others.

"How do you think that's going?" Ryan asked.

"They're taking this... way better than I thought," he said. "They already knew some of it. Worldgates weren't news to them, they had their own name for them and everything. It feels like they had procedures in place for all of this."

He squinted further back into the cave, where Vesper and two humans he'd never seen before were deep in conversation. Curious that neither of them had unnatural features, not like Ryan did. One was stocky and blonde, the other built a lot like Vesper, with her head shaved on one side and a perpetual smirk. So why are the rules different for him?

Vesper was gesturing animatedly, explaining to them. It looked complicated, whatever it was. Maybe she would tell them everything. They'd need to know it all, if they were the ones doing the real negotiating.

"We have someone named Janet here," said the woman again, abruptly. "The bird calls herself that, and has... repeated that story. We had to keep her lightly sedated since capture. The human, Galena, has been more accommodating. She admits to being from across the Worldgate, and shared some details with us about how she came here. Some of it seemed truthful."

The weight of that hit Blake like a truck. The spell was supposed to last longer, and it had—for Galena. "She was human once, I'm sure of it," he said. "Janet... she understood the language, she can use electronics, she introduced me to a friend of hers who also came from Earth with her, human name... Tracy, I think."

Another delay, though they didn't mute the mic this time. He could make out faint discussion in a large, echoing space. Some didn't want to believe him, others suggested taking them captive, asking for their video footage, or a dozen other things. The mic went abruptly silent again after a few seconds of this.

"Look," he said slowly. "I don't know what you think we are, but my friends and I are really just people. We're not ambassadors, we don't represent anyone but ourselves. We found something weird, we wanted to learn about it, and we did. We would love to share what we learned with you, and the whole world. After spending a few months over there, I think we all agree that both sides could learn from each other. My friends and I will cooperate with whatever you ask. But ultimately I think you should come down here, and talk to the ponies who represent Equestria. They've got a lovely country, and we have the pictures to prove it."

Right on time, apparently. Vesper and the ponies weren't talking in a rush anymore, but coming down the tunnel towards him. His time in this role would soon be over.

"It would be better to speak in person," said the woman. "There are certain safety concerns in coming to you. Would you consent to come down the mountain, under guard? We will guarantee your safety, so long as you remain compliant."

"I would," he said. "I can't speak for Equestria. Why don't you ask them?" He turned, offering the phone to Applejack. At least, the hair looked similar to her mane. "It's for you."

It wasn't like Blake and his friends didn't do anything after that. Both sides had questions—first over the phone, then much more often when the soldiers came to escort them a short way down the hill.

They'd spent the last three months talking about what it would be like to put the worlds in contact—but mostly they talked about what came after. The interviews, the books, the convention circuit—fame and fortune.

But the actual diplomacy wasn't really their part to play. Their part was making sure that contact could go smoothly, making sure that instead of violence, both sides could talk to each other.

After a few tense hours in a room with bullet-proof glass in the middle, they were escorted to their own tent, while Equestria's ambassadors kept talking in the other room.

That left Vesper standing at the tent flap, glaring through the plastic at the back of a soldier with a baton. In theory it wasn't locked, in theory they could walk right out whenever they wanted... but could they?

"I don't like this," she said, folding her arms. "They're just talking without us. We don't even know what they're agreeing to."

"I mean... yeah," Ryan said flatly. "We're not parties to it. We're... cultural consultants, if that. We don't represent Equestria, or Europe. We wouldn't even represent the US if we were there."

Vesper stalked back over, plopping down into a chair. She sat on it sideways, propping both legs up over the edge. And either she didn't realize or didn't care what that did, because she didn't sit like a lady. Blake looked away from her out of politeness, focused on the single tablet they'd given them. It was old and thick, a military device like so many other things around here. But it did have the internet, even if it felt like every single page they loaded was getting manually approved before it got there.

Of course he had the screen open to their YouTube channel. It wasn't closed or deleted, and there were no community posts describing the death of the crew. There were a few links on the main page, fans linking to the story of disappearances in Paris, and suspecting the 4 people mentioned were the channel's main hosts. But there was nothing beyond that.

He didn't try logging in here, and potentially giving away their details. The EU could probably get them if they wanted, anyway.

"I just hope they were telling the truth," Vesper said, unhappily. "About Janet and Galena, and letting the ambassadors back. If we're the ones who led them to be dissected or something..." She sighed, flopping limply backward into her seat. "They should take me too, because I'm one of them now I guess."

Blake tapped the edge of the tablet impatiently with two fingers. The message was clear, and he didn't have to say it out loud. There were still people listening to them. They didn't know if they were safe yet.

"Neither side opened by shooting at each other," Kaelynn said. "I think everyone will work out their differences. We both have so much to benefit—they don't have much technology, we don't have magic. How does that not just work out?"

Blake shrugged. "Might be it's that simple. Equestria seems like they prefer diplomacy to everything else. I'm not so sure about the people on our side. There are so many pieces we don't know anything about. They knew about Worldgates, they were watching for something like this."

"Enough to stop the other crew before they got here," Ryan supplied. "Guess it makes more sense than letting other people get involved. Fewer people to disappear if you have to."

"We won't be disappearing anyone," said a voice, muffled by fabric. A man without a uniform stood there, wearing a loose tweed suit. There were soldiers behind him, but more importantly, there was also a familiar face. Galena was there, wearing a hospital gown. Just behind her was a familiar hippogriff, cream and blue feathers and all. She had a tight cloth wrap around her back, pinning her wings in place, and little plastic tips over her claws. But otherwise, she too looked unharmed.

The man zipped their tent open, then let himself inside. "Your friends were asking to see you. Can they come in?"

Blake stood. Vesper did too, taking a single step towards him. The others just turned to look.

Chapter 83: Kaelynn

Kaelynn stared at the little incoming group. She didn't get up, but that wasn't out of rudeness. She had her back to the tent, the closest thing to a wall they had. It let her watch both entrances, and she felt safer that way. Even surrounded by her friends, she had to be sure.

No one was going to take her away again.

But this was a time to celebrate, not flee. Their missing companions hadn't been dragged away to some shady government facility to be dissected. They were alive!

"This isn't exactly the way I expected to see you," Blake said, from the front of the tent. "Janet? You're looking, uh... incongruous."

Kaelynn looked, and her mouth fell open. Looking at the bird up close was difficult for her brain, and she had to look twice before she could really see.

The hippogriff wasn't large, maybe half as tall as a human being. Compared to their pony shapes, Janet was quite tall, which meant they'd be even smaller if they had the misfortune of suffering the same fate.

The hippogriff stopped in front of them. When she spoke, she sounded so... defeated. "Yeah. Came as a shock to me too. And Bydska. Everyone loved it."

"They did not!" Galena exclaimed, grinning. She smiled widely at them all, though she wasn't focused on anyone in particular. "They were terrified! We were at a pub when it happened. She is lucky she does not have holes in her body now. Strange weapons they had..."

Kaelynn shuddered, imagining what that might be like. Trapped in a small space with dozens of terrified people, who had no idea what you were. Janet had claws and a sharp beak, she wasn't some placid-looking pony. Just because Kaelynn felt no self-defense instinct around her didn't mean that normal humans wouldn't. They didn't know she was just some middle-manager.

"Even for Equestrians, the spell was supposed to last... a month, didn't you say?" Blake asked.

The soldiers who had brought their friends left the way they'd come, though the civilian remained, watching by the door. His expression remained neutral. At least they weren't pretending to give them privacy this time.

"I should introduce myself, before you continue. My name is Dr. Cooper. I've been assigned to relay the results of our negotiations with the alien civilization on the other side, and decide what to do with you. There is some urgency in resolving this, since exposure to noncausal events has a cumulative effect. But please, pretend I'm not here. You were worried about their safety." He stepped back, falling silent again.

"What went wrong?" Bake continued. The pressure of not asking Dr. Cooper everything was almost overwhelming to Kaelynn too. But friends came first.

Janet lowered her head, defeated. "I have... seen this before. I didn't think I was so far gone... but I was wrong. I am a horse forever now. May the sacred virgin pray for my forgiveness."

"Did you do something wrong?" Vesper asked. That one still took Kaelynn a little thinking too. This wasn't Jordan her old friend, or it was but it also wasn't. This was the human version of the bat pony Vesper, not Jordan returned to human form. It was the same way for Ryan, a human version of a changeling, not the human she knew. "Why would you need forgiveness?"

Janet ignored the question. "Spark Gap, the one you met—same thing happened to him. He went too far, and he transformed in front of a standup meeting. Scared the absolute shit out of my drafting team. Now I know how he felt."

"And I did not change," Galena supplied. "One month, as she said. Has not been a month. We did wonder though, if you had seen the danger, and fled without us. Would not be the first ship to leave me behind."

Kaelynn looked once around the room, eyes settling briefly on their new visitor. "We had some complications," she said, hoping the others would understand. They could talk about this later, when they were back in Equestria. Or at least when there wasn't someone standing right over their shoulder.

The Equestrians hadn't mentioned the kidnapping or the rescue that followed, much to her relief. It wasn't the kind of danger that should be much risk to others. Particularly if they formalized it.

"Have they decided what to do about you?" Kaelynn asked, nervously. "You had family on this side, didn't you? People you didn't want to leave behind."

Janet opened her mouth to answer, but her escort spoke first.

"They're still finalizing details, and probably will be for months. But the preliminary agreement is already signed. I can tell you now though, this isn't like another country. I don't think they want the truth out in the open yet. You might be able to see your family again, Miss Janet. But you couldn't possibly expect them to just let you go. Even if you can return through the Worldgate, and look like us. You're just not human anymore, and the effect would not be permanent."

She slumped limply to the floor at their feet. "I know. But if I can see them, that's something. Maybe... Apex wouldn't take me back anyway. Maybe you need someone to work the place between? I'm sure you'll want to minimize humans going back and forth, or they'll end up like me."

Kaelynn nodded eagerly. "I kinda like that idea too, actually. I'm a pretty good mechanic, handyman, hobbyist engineer. Exactly the kind of person you'd want somewhere remote. So long as I can tell my family I'm still alive, that's enough for me. I can figure visits out later."

The scientist glanced between them again. "Is that an offer you're each willing to make? I could relay it to the DFI for you, if you like. What to do with you is a... bit of an unsolved question. Helping the project in a supervised environment might go over well."

"Yes," Ryan said, resting one hand on her shoulder. "Wherever she goes, I go."

Kaelynn leaned against his arm. It was as affectionate as she would ever get, around strangers.

Blake and Vesper shared a look. But whatever silent communication they exchanged, Kaelynn wasn't on the frequency to hear it. Maybe Ryan could still do that.

Vesper spoke up first. "I was really hoping to spend more time on that side. Did the ponies tell you we have an airship? We do, and it's awesome, and I wanted to see the world. Blake and I have camera experience. Maybe our friends will want to come sometimes, if they want a break from working at a desk."

"Not me," Galena said. "You fly with that ship, you get attacked. I didn't make it all this way to another world to lose my safety now. I can stay. Or go... whatever they are doing, I will do also. I can be useful."

Guess they didn't buy her fake New Yorker origin. Kaelynn hadn't actually heard anyone in the camp mention that part of Galena's apparent past.

"There will be a team," the scientist said. "I cannot reveal the details at this time. But having transport on the other side would be valuable. Your production experience might let us eliminate a few names from the roster as well."

Blake reached down, taking Vesper's fingers in his. "If I go back..." he whispered. "It won't be long until I'm like you, and Ryan."

Vesper smiled weakly at him. "Maybe. You don't use your magic much... isn't it supposed to be a year? Can you tell us how long that first trip will be?"

"A few weeks," he said. "We aren't trying to chart their planet. Most of it will probably be spent in cities, just like the group going from their world to ours. You... aren't allowed to tell anyone any of this. But you don't presently have the means."

Not exactly the homicidal dark sunglasses, unmarked graves type of government agents she'd imagined. Things really were different over here.

"I think we all might need to go back and forth, at least once. Is that expedition going to the ocean?"

The scientist nodded again. "Basic measurements about the biosphere are important. There may be a way to transit human beings, rather than transfiguring the passengers like you."

"Fine," Blake said, exasperated. "I'll go with that team too. It's my ship, I've seen how well she flies it."

Vesper squealed with delight.

It was all much less exciting after that. Things moved at government pace in "Facility P", which was to say agonizingly slow. A few days after arrival, they had their first supervised calls home, using a government channel with a slight delay. Kaelynn wasn't exactly happy to have some random soldier from a country she could barely pronounce listen in to everything she said—but she could tell her sisters she loved them, and she was okay.

No one tried to break the rules, or escape. There was no need, when the burgeoning "Exchange Commission" would soon employ them to do basically what they wanted. Eventually, they would even let her family visit. Or so they said.

Within a week, the tents were replaced with trailers, and a permanent high wall went up around the camp. Utility lines to the little village were built. From what she heard, the little town was having the economic boom of its existence, as every hotel and rental and spare room had been booked by traveling scientists and bureaucrats from parts unknown.

Kaelynn spent most of her time with Ryan. On this side of the Worldgate, she didn't feel sick after a few days of not having water. There was still a price to pay, though; her words had no song. If she was very careful, they never would.

"If you want to stay human, I support you," Ryan said. "But I don't think I can go with you, if they let you leave. I'm..." He patted her hand with one of his. "I made my choice."

"And saved our lives," she finished for him. Even beaten and stunned against the wall, she remembered that fight. Even Vesper's summoned powers from the unconscious world were ultimately made of magic, and powerless to penetrate the skilled unicorn's defenses. Only the strength of Ryan's love was enough. It was almost certainly the reason he'd lost his humanity. "We owe you everything."

He always looked a little strange when she said things like that. Maybe it was related to how little he ate—he could eat now, she'd seen it often enough. But when they were together, he only shared with her. That was all he seemed to need.

Even now, Ryan circled once around their bed, glancing down the hallway. He did it for her, she was certain—and it helped. Knowing someone else was looking out made the camp feel safer.

I'll get better. Morningtide is dead. No one is coming to kidnap me here. In the meantime, she wouldn't have to wait alone.

"I'm happy with the choice I made," he said. There was nothing forced in it. She was always just a little skeptical around him, though. Ryan had the power to lie like no one else. If he was a fish, he could probably even sing one now. "My life sucked, Kaelynn. You guys were the only thing I actually enjoyed. My cut of the channel wasn't enough to live on, and I didn't have a family..."

He clicked the door closed, then crossed to the desk, putting one hand on hers. "You and Blake had things to leave behind, Janet too. Your humanity meant something. Mine didn't." He reached past her with his free hand, drawing the window shades across. "Besides. I didn't give up as much as you think."

He took a deep breath, then his body flashed faintly green. It didn't shock her because it was new, Kaelynn had seen this process a hundred times. But she hadn't expected to see it here, in a world where magic didn't work.

Apparently it did, because when the light faded, Ryan was back. The old one—a little pudgy, a little shorter. The hometown dork she remembered. "See? I don't know why, but... my magic is different than the others. It still works, so long as I have love. Thanks to you, I've got an endless supply."

Kaelynn giggled. "That's... that's amazing, Ryan? Can you do me?"

He lowered his voice to a cheesy whisper. "Any way you like."

Epilogue 1/2: Kaelynn

Kaelynn didn't have to go.

Equestria had found her guilty of no crimes, and imposed no obligation on her. Where most of her friends had already lost their humanity or were pushing the edge of how much magic they could get away with, Kaelynn was still securely human enough to return.

There was enough work for her in the new "Worldgate Friendship Colocation Research Facility." The name rolled off her tongue like a truck off a bridge, but it would still take her if she was willing.

Equestria was dangerous. Her friends had enemies now, who might try to do to them what they had already done once.

But none of that mattered. She couldn't leave them to go deliver Tellin without her. Not for their sake—they were grown-ass adults, they could figure things out without her. But Tellin didn't deserve to be abandoned like that. He was as much a victim as she was, even if he still wouldn't admit it.

So she found herself back aboard the Bright Hawk, sailing from Canterlot again. Not south across the border, presumably back into the waiting hooves of evil pirates. They had a different destination in mind.

"I am sorry that I could not read your mind among the many in Canterlot," Princess Luna said, the day of their departure. She had come to speak with Vesper, but stopped into the chartroom where Kaelynn, Blake, and the UN representatives had been reviewing their travel plans. "I would have relayed your location directly to Twilight Sparkle and the authorities for your swift rescue, if I could."

There were only a handful of UN reps on this trip, the first and bravest of the explorers. All wore military uniforms, which they never removed despite the transition to Equestria. Come sweat or staring locals, they kept wearing those strange European camouflage patterns.

"I don't blame you," Kaelynn answered. She didn't insist on human amounts of clothing on this trip any more than before, despite bringing several humans along. But she had added one thing: a belt with a holster hanging from the side. A handgun was tucked inside, worn under her belly most of the time. "My friends had my back. And here we are, safe. I'm sure you did whatever you could."

Even now, when she walked among the land-ponies, with scales instead of fur. Perhaps especially now. Kaelynn had been kidnapped while on four legs last time. If anypony tried again, she would give them at least four bullets.

I won't be anyone's victim again.

"Yes," Luna said. The princess might not be officially ruling Equestria anymore, but she was still quite a bit larger than any other pony. She towered over even the griffon naval captain. Where was he from again, Austria?

"But I have endeavored to do more, to correct and atone where I had failed. While I could not travel back in time and free you sooner, there is still some service I can offer to the young Tellin. I'm sure he would be happy enough at Mount Aris... but it would be better to take him back to his own kind. My magic has shown me where."

"Through their dreams," Vesper guessed. "Because it isn't just one person you're looking for, but thousands."

The princess nodded. "Many are easier to find than one. I am not certain they are aware that Equestria knows of their continued survival. They have no official contact with us. Yet I believe you could go there, and deliver the child to them."

The kirin had a real captain's hat, not one that would vanish whenever Vesper stopped dreaming. He had his own gun too, something bigger than hers worn openly on the side of his jacket.

They had been planning to sail through territory that contained at least one hostile ship, after all. Even with a few upgrades, several members of the expedition had opted to bring some defenses with them.

They'd all come, though. Kaelynn wasn't even sure if Equestria would try to enforce their sentence from the rescue raid. But they'd come regardless.

Princess Luna strode over to the chart-table at the center, where Equestrian maps covered most of the open space. She circled past where they had been making most of their plans, then pointed at a specific lake. "The largest population is there, about a hundred meters below the surface. Travel there, and you will find a new home for Tellin Shell."

There was silence on the deck—not because the kid was here, of course. He was still in the captain's quarters, floating in that little tank. To think Kaelynn had wanted so badly to have someone to share her tank with. Now she had another full-time fish, and it couldn’t be more awkward.

"Will they be violent?" Kaelynn asked. "If they think they're hidden away, they probably won't be happy if we just show up."

The princess nodded. "They were always a peaceful tribe, even before the Storm King destroyed their saltwater civilization. But if you wish to be certain, take only seaponies. They have done no harm to the local villages, but they would be even less likely to attack their own. You will be safe."

"I'll go with you." Ryan spoke from just behind her. He wore no disguise while on their own ship, looking like any of the Canterlot changelings. Even the local ponies showed no fear around him now that he'd gained so many colors.

There was something significant about that transformation, something she would probably care to investigate if she wasn't so eager to get back to Earth. But just now, she didn't care. Just let the mission end, so she could get back to having a body she understood. "I can... we can do that," she finally said. "I'll take Tellin down. But I'm not going there to stay. I would just be dropping him off."

Luna shrugged. "We understand. I have spoken with Twilight about this matter. She is somewhat surprised you chose to return so soon. She hopes, as I hope that you can find peace after what you suffered."

"What do you say, Captain Pedersen," Blake asked. "Does your team mind the redirection?"

He laughed. "If we were back in Copenhagen, we would have to wait three more weeks to approve such a change. But here—they just want measurements. They do not yet understand this world well enough to know we have given them somewhere different. Does it change the danger of... obstacles along the way, Mr. Hodges?"

He shook his head once. "Yes, for the better. This map shows us never leaving Equestrian territory. Any danger of... interruptions... should be greatly reduced."

"Gone completely," Princess Luna said. "We have considered the matter of the pirate vessel Eagle’s Talon. It has harassed others, not just your expedition. While we have not yet located its port of call, know that we are watching for it. It will not cross into Equestrian airspace without being destroyed and its vile crew subjected to the justice their actions deserve."

"We've got some ideas for finding it," Vesper said. "But that's not what this is about. I want something safe and relaxing for once."

Safe the journey was. A few days by air, sailing north into what would've been the Great Lakes on Earth. But relaxing—not so much. Kaelynn and Tellin were together more than once, but they barely spoke to each other, and remained on opposite sides of the tank. Even when she tried to explain their destination, he answered only with single-word replies, and didn't seem to understand.

She didn't press him—this journey was for his benefit more than anyone else here. She wasn't going to try to impose her version of safety on the poor kid. Kaelynn still didn't have her songbook back, but she didn't need it anymore when it came to changing back and forth. She had learned to be a creature of both worlds now.

I'll come back, one day. Go out to tropical waters and dive without a tank. Spend days down there instead of hours. Go deeper than compressed air would ever let me.

If they ever figured out how to get a Worldgate that didn't transform, industrial divers all over the world would have some serious competition. Assuming the DFI ever told the truth about Equestria.

At least Kaelynn had her friends to keep her company. Ryan kept his distance from the tank, but he was with her whenever she was on the deck. Vesper was around on the sleepless nights when she didn't want to go back into the water, to tell her about her strange adventures in the sleeping world.

"You gave up humanity, just like that?" Kaelynn asked, on the last night of their trip. "I don't get it. You had a life."

"I have a life here too," she answered, sipping at her hot cocoa. Even belowdecks, the chill of northern winter seeped in. They didn't light the fireplace at night, when everyone else was asleep. "But I'm not giving them up. I've written my family, some of my other friends. My dad and I were never close, and my mom... it's just my brother I worry about. If he ever finds out all the juicy details, he won't understand."

"I'm not sure I do. You aren’t Blake... I just hope we get to share all the video one day. The views we're gonna get from this drama." The words felt hollow and empty on her tongue—Kaelynn no longer cared about their exploring channel, not right now. But she should. She remembered what it was like to care. Maybe she would again, with time.

Vesper giggled, high and squeaky even for a bat. "I guess so. Lots of the rules about relationships get rewritten when you turn into someone else." She opened both wings, glancing over her shoulder at them. "Part of me is still waiting for the other shoe to drop. Makes me wonder if I'm going to start hating myself in this body, or maybe... the Worldgate rewrote my brain when I went across the first time."

Her ears pressed flat with discomfort. "I don't know which is worse to imagine. But I like being a bat. Giving up fingers is a worthy sacrifice. Blake will agree with me, you'll see. He just needs more time to appreciate what Equestria has to offer. Now that we're not running down the clock, or running from pirates, he'll fall in love."

Kaelynn's eyebrows went up. Or maybe they were fins? She didn't have hair in Equestria. "With you, or Equestria?"

"Mix of both. I think he's already there on one. Just need to give a little encouragement on the other."

Sipping hot chocolate with Vesper on the deck, Kaelynn could almost imagine going with them on their next adventure. Equestria might still terrify her, but that fear was irrational. Once they were out of Canterlot, they would be fine. Janet had even better reasons to be bitter and resentful, did Kaelynn want to end up like her?

They arrived along the shore of Lake Spur in early afternoon, to a perfect cloudless sky over a lake whipped by chill wind. There were only wisps of jack frost on the grass, and no ice on the water. It was early winter, though she still shivered to even glance at the lake.

Tellin didn't want legs even for the brief walk to the water's edge. They carried him instead, with his head resting in Kaelynn's old air lung. He kept his head down the whole way, and said nothing to the crew. At least he let Kaelynn and Ryan push him down the ramp, all the way to the water's edge.

"This is it?" he asked, staring down at the bleak, cold water. "Freedom? A life of freezing cold water, scavenging for bugs in the mud?" Even through the rebreather speakers, his voice sounded bleak and hopeless.

"No," she argued, frustrated. "There are other fish down there, Tellin. We're not dropping you down here to scavenge. We're going to find you a home."

"There aren't any!" he screamed, so loud that bubbles rose in the tank. Loud enough that the speakers distorted with his voice. "They're all dead, Kaelynn! And now you have a changeling to distract you and there won't be any fish ever again! We'll go extinct!"

How many times had she tried to explain this to him? Dozens? Maybe a hundred? He refused to acknowledge what she said every time. He was refusing even now.

"How about we find that out?" she asked, resting one hoof on his shoulder. He tried to shove her away, but he was trapped in the harness, so he could only swing and struggle. She backed away anyway, letting go of him.

"I'll make you a promise, Tellin. If we don't find fish down there, I'll stay with you. We'll keep searching until we find them. Okay?"

He turned to look at her. She guessed it was tearful, but maybe that was just projection. "Promise?"

She nodded. "Now let us come with you. The princess says they're down there."

"You," he whispered, pointing. "Not him. He sings copies and lies. His music isn't true."

Kaelynn stepped between them. Her fins perked up, like the hackles on a dog.

Ryan beat her to it. "No Kaelynn, it's okay. You went through something together, I didn't. I get why he wouldn't want me there. Unless... you do."

She did. But this isn't about me. She looked at her seapony companion, face desperate with pain and worry. His whole life had been upended thanks to her—adopted mother dead. The grand mission Morningtide had promised him was now taken away, the meaning of his life a lie.

He suffered far more than I did. We should do this his way. "Okay," she said, exasperated. "Fine, we'll go together."

She helped him out of the harness, landing in the water with a heavy splash. There was no dock here—no sign of civilization anywhere other than the Bright Hawk floating behind them, and the team of UN scientists gathering soil and water samples.

She stopped to watch them for a few seconds, grinning at the heavy protection gear they wore. They had inflatable Tyvek suits with plastic hoods, and walked around like they were on the surface of mars or something.

Ryan turned, and grinned. "Guess it could be worse. They could tell us to wear that shit."

She nodded. "If I'm not back by nightfall, come looking for me."

"Alright." He kissed her lightly on the forehead, then settled onto his haunches. "I'll wait right here until you get back, promise."

She splashed down into the water, feeling its freezing touch against her scales.

The song to change back came a little slower to her in the icy chill, with her body curling up and shivering. But she managed—after a few seconds, she took her first mouthful of water.

The cold didn't bite quite so deep once the transition was complete. She still shivered once or twice, her eyes adjusting to the murky gloom. This wasn't the clear visibility of the ocean around Mount Aris—this was like so many other freshwater dives she'd done, with maybe thirty feet of water before everything dissolved into outlines.

Tellin appeared from the gloom around her, circling her once. They had freshwater aboard the Bright Hawk, so at least they didn't have to go through that painful transition again.

"You think fish would want to live here?" he asked, indignant. "What would they sing about, mud?"

She rolled her eyes, drifting past him and down into deeper water. Sometimes visibility got better once you left the shore behind, and there wasn't as much agitation with the soil. She could only hope that would be the case here.

It was, though she still felt like she was taking in bits of dirt and debris in her mouth as she swam her way down, making her cough and splutter in the cold water. She was also faster than Tellin, which surprised her right up until she remembered he had spent his entire life in a tank.

He trailed close behind, fins fighting more desperately against the current just to stay close to her. He accelerated, and was soon breathing heavily just to keep pace. "So... big," he sang. "So much nothing. What's the point of all this space if they didn't put anything in it?"

There was the occasional dark outline of a fish moving past at the corner of their vision, but none got too close. These were fish well used to predators about their size and shape. "There doesn't have to be a point," she said. "It's the wild. The lake is here because it's here. No one built it."

He was silent then. Even without singing, she could see his despondent expression. Did he really think she would just drop him out here?

Without any other landmarks to guide her, Kaelynn just tried to swim deeper. Depth was all they knew from the princess. Depth, so these creatures could keep themselves away from discovery by surface ponies.

She heard the distant songs before she saw anything, not surprising given the poor visibility. Beside her, Tellin's whole body tensed, pointing directly off into the gloom.

"Can't be," he whispered. "There's not—"

But there were—loud enough that Kaelynn could hear them clearly. They sang of moving something heavy, working together to coordinate a large group and the joy of teamwork used to accomplish an impressive goal.

"You should go to them," she said, just as quietly. "They're not all gone!"

He turned on her, taking her foreleg in both of his and forcing her to meet his eyes. "Not you? Can't you hear them? Those are real fish!"

She shook her head gently. "This isn't my world, Tellin. I tried to tell Morningtide that when she took me. I'm going to swim back home now, and I don't know when I'll be back. Maybe never."

The distant singing stopped. Kaelynn turned, worried that they might be about to lose sign of the fish—but her worry was in vain.

A group of four fish appeared in the water. All wore glowing jewelry on their fins, lighting the water behind them in a trail whenever they swam.

"It's not fair," he said, voice cracking. "You were there, Kaelynn. You were the first fish I ever met."

"You'll meet some more." She hugged him, the way she might've one of her little cousins at a family reunion. It didn't matter that he was almost the same age—he didn't act much more mature than they were. Hopefully he would have a chance to grow, now that he was out in the real world. "Right now, actually."

He clung to her for a few more seconds, before letting go abruptly. "Will I see you again?"

"Maybe." The fish closed in around them—three females, one male. They wore toolbelts, but little else other than the light. "One day. When I'm ready. If I can find you again."

"You are strangers," sang one. "You do not sing like one of the rivers. Did you come very far to reach us?"

"Yes," Kaelynn answered. "Very, very far." She shoved Tellin towards them, hard enough that he drifted a short distance through the gloomy water before coming to a stop. "Can you take in a refugee? Where he comes from, there are no seaponies left."

"A refugee?" inquired another. "There are two of you."

She flicked her tail, drifting backward through the water. "Just one."

"Of course," said the first. "Our song can always use more voices. You should come too."

"No." She swam backward, a little faster now. "Maybe one day, but not now. My journey isn't over yet."

Chapter 1: Blake

Blake Hodges knew a desperate situation when he saw one.

It wasn't like leading a group of clandestine, urban explorers had ever been an entirely safe way to spend his time. If anything, the danger was part of the appeal of the hobby. Only an urban explorer could venture down where law enforcement, dangerous gases and structural collapse, were only the beginning of the danger.

But going somewhere that others hadn't seen for decades, maybe even centuries was a thrill that could be matched by little else. Unfortunately, that adrenaline came with a price. The danger had to be real.

It wasn't just that they expected the trip to last only a few hours and brought nothing in the way of food or water. It wasn't just that their map of the Paris catacombs had proved itself inaccurate after only a few minutes away from the public tunnels. It was a combination of all of these, and the knowledge that they hadn't seen the sun for hours. Long enough that they had begun to feel the weight of dehydration, slowing their steps and thoughts.

Blake recognized the danger as soon as it began. As soon as he realized they were in trouble, he refocused the expedition on the only thing that really mattered now: escape.

This was no military expedition, not even a guerrilla corporate filming team. The others trudging along behind him were only his friends, and exploring was only a hobby. Nevertheless, when he ordered the cameras be put away and that Kaelynn abandon her heavy duffel of dive equipment, they obeyed.

“I think we're going down,” Ryan said from just behind, amid the rustling of several layers of paper. Ryan had brought his own maps. Unfortunately they'd proven no more useful than the ones that Blake purchased. Even worse, they disagreed, and may have been the source of their getting lost in the first place.

But Blake wouldn't say that now, as much as he wanted to. Placing blame was for when they all got out of this alive.

“We should have made a left back there,” Ryan finally said, not sounding terribly confident. “I think I saw sunlight.”

“No, I'm pretty sure that was just another service light,” Jordan replied. “If we're lucky, it might've been a connection to the sewers, but probably not. Could be abandoned subway tunnels.”

The two of them looked to Kaelynn to moderate the dispute, as she often did. As the only woman in their party, Kaelynn was easily Blake’s equal for strength and endurance. Through a sweaty tank top smeared with grime were muscles lean from physical labor.

Kaelynn only grunted in response, ignoring both of them. She'd barely said a word since Blake forced her to abandon her gear.

“We will find a way out of this,” Blake declared, perhaps the 10th or 11th time now. Even he was growing weary of saying it. But without the positive reinforcement, his friends might give up. The Paris catacombs were not a place to be navigated by the unwary.

With the increasing weight of exhaustion pressing in on them, the macabre shadows seemed to come alive out of the corner of their headlamps. Numberless skulls and bones arranged into strange shapes that twisted and writhed as the light of their passing group faded. The Paris government's reluctance to make exploring the catacombs accessible to the public was no mere bureaucratic overreach.

The number of urban explorers who had ventured down here and never been seen again numbered in the triple digits at this point. After surviving so many dangerous and exotic places, Blake couldn’t imagine the shame of dying only a hundred meters below the streets of a busy city.

As the shadows parted up ahead, they saw a strange lump on the uneven stone, one that had not merely fallen from its alcove. The clothing was dated, perhaps eighties, flannel, faded and stained by decay. A pair of empty eye sockets stared up as they approached. An old Casio watch caught the reflection of their headlamps from one bony wrist.

“We’re going to fucking die down here,” Ryan muttered, tugging on the straps of his backpack. He stepped wide around the corpse rather than merely over it as the others did. “This'll be us. Two, maybe three days.”

“No, it should be longer than that,” Jordan replied. “Blake's got a LifeStraw, doesn't he? If we swallow our pride about muddy puddles and sewage, we should last at least a week.”

Ryan spun, striking Jordan on the shoulder with an angry fist. The strike would have done little to a man of Jordan's height, but either by poor footing or symptom of dehydration, Jordan reeled to the side. His hand caught the wall for stability, tearing down a stack of carefully arranged bones. There was nothing but friction to keep them in place.

The entire wall collapsed, filling the hall with the clattering echo of tumbling remains. It seemed to grow louder and louder rather than fading, as though numberless dead were jumping from their alcoves to rise to the disturbance.

Even Blake stiffened at the sound, one hand twitching reflexively to the knife at his belt. But if anything lurked this deep, it wouldn't be some mere city thug. Exploring the liminal spaces gave Blake a hardy respect for the unknown. There were things man just wasn’t meant to know.

At least the cavern hadn't caved in. By the time the sound faded, a section of wall in the narrow passage perhaps eight feet across had collapsed. Strangely, there was not mere rough stone behind it, but a gaping opening into a narrower tunnel beyond.

Even stranger, light shone from that tunnel, faintly blue and shimmering, like the sun did when passing through deep water.

“Wait, Ryan,” Kaelynn called.

He did, turning to face them.

Blake approached the opening now drawing the knife. It wasn't as though he expected a previously hidden passage to be more dangerous than the one they were already in, but having the sturdy plastic grip between his fingers made him feel a little braver.

“That can't be a way out,” Kaelynn said. “It was covered.”

“It can't be the way we came in,” Jordan corrected. “That doesn't mean it won't eventually lead to the surface. There's light there. That means either functioning electronics or maybe a section of sewer. I think I hear water.”

He was right. Blake could make out the sound, though at first his mind rejected it. The splashing of water against a bank, like a small pond. Or more likely, a long forgotten eddy of sewage. Yet the smell was not rotten as it had been when they passed through sections of Paris sewer.

He trusted his nose more than his eyes down here. “Mark the wall,” Blake ordered, then began forward into the passage.

He heard the sound of chalk striking against stone. He didn't have to look behind him to see Jordan was the one listening, writing a number into a square on the wall. Those numbers were the hours they'd spent down here, and had already prevented more than one loop through the tunnels.

Blake reached down to his wrist, pressing the timer function on his watch. It beeped cheerfully in reply. “We'll keep going for half an hour, but I don't think we'll need to. That light is close.”

It was, though the brief walk did little to reassure him that they were finding their way out. Rather than numberless burial alcoves, the walls here quickly transitioned to smooth, even stone carved in regular blocks. The shape of bas-reliefs along the wall formed the suggestions of pillars at an even placement about 20 meters apart. Stone molding soon joined them on the bottom and top of the passage.

“I wonder if this went to the palace,” Jordan said. “This is fancier than anything we've seen for hours.”

“Might not mean much if it did,” Ryan said glumly. “All of that would have been sealed by now. They don't want anyone else wandering down here. I think we should have listened this time.”

“We should have been more prepared,” Kaelynn said. “Should’ve gone back when the map was bad, maybe. Doesn’t mean we give up and let them hide all this from us.”

Light reflected off the stone of the floor and ceiling, which was speckled with a strange florescent mineral. It couldn’t be the usual limestone that had built Paris far above. Soon enough, they reached the source of the light, and the entire group was thrown into stunned silence.

It did not look at all like a sewer, but rather an ancient Roman bathhouse hundreds of miles from where any Roman mason had ever worked. The chamber was about a hundred feet square, with stone tables and chairs along the side. The style might have been Renaissance, or perhaps something even older. The color had faded from the fine tile mosaic leading down into the water. Yet Blake could make out suggestions of galloping horses and celestial patterns along the sides of the bath. Stranger still, strange enough that Kaelynn drew her GoPro and began filming again, was that the light did not come from above. There was no ancient skylight, or even a window in the wall where clean water flowed into this ancient bath.

Rather the light came from below the water. The bath itself was perhaps five feet deep at its furthest point, with water that was clear and fresh. Blake’s throat burned at the thought of soon quenching his thirst, and filling every water bottle that he owned. If anything, the water smelled like a flowing river or stream. It had to be safe.

There was an opening on the wall, easily large enough for a person to fit through, and sunlight shone through it as though it opened directly onto a Paris street.

“That's impossible,” Ryan declared. “We must be hundreds of feet down. I know the ground was sloping all the way here. We can't be this close to the surface.” However impossible Ryan's maps suggested, Blake knew sunlight when he saw it. They had found their salvation at last.

“No reason to rush this,” he said, fiddling around in the survival pack on the small of his back. Unlike the others, Blake only brought the bare essentials, but this LifeStraw had saved him more than once. He bent down beside the water, sniffing it more closely just in case. There was no stench of sewage, the only smells were fresh and clean. He began to drink.

It was like tasting heaven. He drank until his thirst was sated, then kept going until it made him sick. Finally he offered the straw to Kaelynn. While she quenched her thirst, he removed the empty bladder from his survival pack and filled it. Then he unfurled the collapsible water bottle and did the same.

Blake stood up to his waist in the water, feeling hope return at last. “We made it,” he said. “I don't care what’s out there. If we've got hundreds of feet to climb, we'll climb it. We have the gear.” The others nodded their agreement.

“And you told me to abandon my dive gear,” Kaelynn said, annoyance in her voice. “If this goes to the surface, I'm going back for it.”

Blake reached down in a flare of anger, grasping her wrist with one hand. “The hell you are Kaelynn. I'll pay for new stuff myself. I am not losing a friend over some plastic and silicone.”

Kaelynn snatched her arm free with surprising strength, but didn't argue.

They didn't rush to get out. Karlynn walked the camera slowly around the room, capturing every aspect of what they'd found here. Ryan packed away his maps and papers in a waterproof box to which they added cell phones and other vulnerable electronics. There was no sense losing equipment if they didn't have to.

“Kaelynn, you're the strongest swimmer,” Blake said, as soon as all bottles were filled, and all thirst was quenched. “How do we get through there safely?”

Kaelynn walked to the opening, wading through the water. The water was perfectly clear to their eyes, without even a layer of moss growing there to obscure biting pests. She bent down, submerging her head underwater for a moment. She rose seconds later, shaking out her long blonde hair.

“Looks like maybe a hundred feet. So long as you can hold your breath for a minute you should be good. I can walk you guys through a breathing exercise. I'll be in front, everyone should hold hands. We're more likely to lose someone in a hundred feet of water than in miles of tunnel.”

Blake deferred to her expertise, going along with the hyperventilation exercise. Then came the plunge.

The sound of strange winds in the catacombs finally faded, replaced by the gentle splashing of water against the bath walls. Kaelynn swam first, with Ryan just behind. Blake brought up the rear, taking one of Jordan's wrists.

The swim wasn't that long. It would have been uneventful, except for the sudden current.

There had clearly been no river here. There was no possibility that water could remain in the bath with such a current present. Yet the water around him began to roar, ripping his hand free of Jordan in a single terrible moment.

He kicked and fought against the current, but in vain. His eyes burned with sudden pressure as the water drew him up into the light.

Chapter 8: Blake

Blake

Walking into Klugetown was a little like seeing a town of survivors after the apocalypse. Considering the state of the waystation where they arrived, maybe this shouldn't be surprising to him. When they eventually returned with an expedition, maybe they could take the time to learn how the world had gotten this way. Maybe it was as simple as immigrants from hundreds of years ago not being able to adapt to having the wrong number of legs. Maybe they were barely surviving after centuries of war?

Whatever the reason, Klugetown wasn't the kind of place Blake wanted to stay at. It was a maze of many layers, with ancient stone structures holding up ramshackle lean-tos. The sky was obscured by makeshift bridges and canopies of cloth.

Their first task was a simple one: find water. As they searched for the public well, Blake felt more and more eyes on his back. He needed no one to tell him what that feeling meant: they weren't safe.

Which was too bad, really, considering how much there was to see. The central streets were lined with stalls hawking all sorts of strange and exotic goods. Skillets sizzled nearby, producing some scents that were intoxicating, and others that were repulsive.

Much like the citizens of this town. Blake couldn't tell if he was looking at two species, or maybe dozens. Either way, it seemed to break every assumption they'd made so far about the portal and how it worked.

Many of the creatures here walked on two legs, or waddled anyway. They came in many shapes and sizes, though all of them looked like lizards of one stripe or another. They all wore clothes, and unlike what the Worldgate had done to theirs, these designs actually cared about modesty.

But while the majority of creatures he saw resembled the breed of strangely upright lizard, there was a decent smattering of four-legged creatures as well. Chief among these were a fully birdlike alien, larger than any member of their party. There were a handful of aliens like Jordan's new form, though none of them had her wings. His wings? Blake still had some trouble with that.

Their little caravan didn't look quite the way he might've expected, thanks to Ryan. His friend didn't look like a mildly terrifying bug anymore—he looked like an identical twin of Blake himself. Watching this happen the first time was as disturbing as seeing the bug creature out of the corner of his eye, a bit like seeing a facehugger burst out of someone's stomach. But as soon as the strange green light faded, there was nothing unusual to see.

It was probably the right choice, considering all the pointing and whispers that followed them. If they had a member of their group who frightened everyone, they might've attracted a mob.

They found the well, eventually, located in the "caravan district," which took a walk through the entire market to reach. But for better or worse, the stretch of naked dirt was empty except for the well at the center. There weren't even posts to tie up animals, which probably made sense in a world where all the horses were people.

"We should probably start by switching out Kaelynn's water," Blake's twin said, in his exact voice. "She looks bad in there."

Blake nodded, inspecting the well. Like the rest of town, it was built with passable mechanical complexity. A bucket-assembly running down into the water attached to a windmill over their heads, with pipes running out from within and into the metal troth at their hooves. As soon as Ryan engaged the mechanism, buckets began to rise.

The process of circulating Kaelynn's water took well over an hour. They couldn't just drain the tank and refill it—they had to empty it halfway, dump what was inside down the Klugetown drain, then repeat the process. After the first time Kaelynn herself roused, and helped with a brush and a net for catching the largest debris.

Eventually the water became merely cloudy. By the time it was clear, every one of them was sweating. Except Kaelynn, who circled around in her cell with visible energy. She already looked healthier.

"Well, we made it," Blake said, after the others had caught their breath. There were no other caravans in town right now, so they had the space to themselves. There was only the occasional peek of slitted eyes through windows above them, and the skittering of clawed feet from streets just out of sight.

They had a bit of privacy, but everything they did would be known. Watching for weakness, Hoo’far said. We can't let them see any.

Blake straightened, circling confidently around his friends and gesturing for them to rise. "We survived the desert without losing anyone. All we have to do now is go back through the portal in this town, and we're famous."

"Technically, we have to find this portal first," Jordan said. He still didn't seem to know what he was doing with his wings. It was kind of adorable, the way they opened halfway when Jordan was acting confident, and dragged when he was tired. But anything with fluffy ears like that and a pair of teeny fangs would be hard pressed not to look cute.

"And then we have to get back to civilization on the other end. I think we can take it as a given that the New York portal will be somewhere just as obscure as the one in Paris. Otherwise someone else would've found it first, and we wouldn't get to be international celebrities."

Kaelynn emerged from the water, her voice a slightly distorted echo on its surface. But Blake was getting better about hearing it, even if he sometimes missed a word. "As long as we don't have company, we can escape," she said. "This time we aren't in a dead shack surrounded by sand. There's a town here. We can keep coming back for supplies as long as our gold holds out."

"I'm not so sure about that.” Blake frowned, eyeing the single entrance to the caravan area. It had never been empty for more than a few seconds. He hopped up onto the cart, speaking quietly. "That guy who told us Klugetown wasn't safe—he was right. If we left this cart behind, I know we'd find it propped up on cinder blocks without any tires. Probably without you inside it, either."

"I believe we should split up," Jordan said, a little louder than Blake would've liked. "Kaelynn is too large to drag through the streets of this place, there's simply no way around it. Most of the city is inaccessible from ground level, and they don't seem to have accessibility codes. One of you twins could stay with her, while I take our gold and make inquiries after the portal.

"I'll stay!" Ryan said, so fast that even Blake's head was left spinning for a second. "People aren't really my strong suit. But if we're in danger, I should at least be able to scare anyone off. I'll put my powers to use."

Blake nodded decisively. Splitting up wasn't a great idea, particularly considering all the attention he'd already seen. But Jordan was right. Even with Kaelynn's apparatus for breathing, she didn't have the legs to walk around. "We'll go as quickly as we can, and not stay away for more than a few hours. Hopefully it won't be too hard to find what we're looking for."

"It might be impossible," Ryan said flatly. "Everything that's true about this portal being hard to find on Earth should be true here too, right? Otherwise people would be coming to Earth from this side all the time."

We don't know they aren't, Blake thought. "We might not find it," he agreed. "But I think we're all on the same page about not going back the way we came. I don't want to be eaten alive by some nameless thing hiding below Paris. Any of you want to try and fight it?"

None of them spoke. Even Kaelynn was silent in her tank, swimming in tight, frustrated circles. So Blake continued. "If we can't find the portal here, we have a map. We'll have to book passage with an airship, like Hoo’far suggested. We passed a dock on the way in, and there were several ships. One of them is bound to be going to a place marked on our map. But I'm going to treat that as a last resort. Until we learn otherwise, the plan is to go back exactly the way we came."

They spent a few minutes gathering supplies. Fortunately they all had saddlebags for carrying gear, so they wouldn't have to keep their sack of money exposed. Blake deliberated over who should keep the mace, before ultimately settling on the other group. Him and Jordan could always run away, but Kaelynn was stuck in the tank. They needed every advantage.

So they set off together, waving a brief and hopefully not final farewell to the other half of their group.

Jordan didn't walk beside him so much as bound from step to step, wings constantly in motion but never actually flying. "I have some ideas about where we could ask," he said. "If you don't have any ideas, I'd like to go there first."

"Sure." Blake wasn't even sure he could name other specific details about the town, when he was so focused on the simple realities of survival. We made it this far, I am not losing anyone to this stupid town. "What did you see?"

Jordan's voice was utterly changed. A few days ago it had been grating, but now he was getting used to it. Jordan's actual speech-patterns were the same underneath, if he could listen past how high and musical he sounded. "It's up a few floors, see? That sign up there." He pointed with a wing, a single act which clearly incited special satisfaction.

Blake followed up the maze of ramps and stairwells, melting into the flow of traffic. The majority of people here barely even noticed them—they were just two more faces in a crowd of strange creatures. But he couldn't quite shake the feeling of being watched, all the way to the building called "Capper's Exotics".

The building was wedged in between a windmill and several other large buildings. Even so, Blake soon had no doubt about why Jordan had focused on this place. The space around the building was covered in signs promising rare imports, exotic goods, and strange experiences.

"You read these from street level?"

Jordan's ears flattened, and his face got a little redder. Probably Blake's imagination. "It's a bat thing, I think. Idiots think bats are blind, but some of them have insane vision. You have to, when you fly around in the dark like that."

"We don't even know if you can fly," Blake said absently. "If I were a betting man, I'd say no. Those wings aren't big enough."

He hadn't expected a reaction—but strangely, Jordan's ears pressed flatter, and he slowed a little. It was hard to tell through all the gross lizard stink, but Blake could've sworn Jordan smelled different too. What is going on?

"I've seen the bird creatures flying since we arrived," Jordan said, his voice tense. It was rare to hear so much self-doubt from the one who usually wore smugness like a badge of honor. "If they can fly, I can fly. It just wouldn't be fair otherwise."

They reached the doors, which were covered with dense script. The interior looked a little like a museum, with far less sense of structure or organization. Blake hesitated at the door, not yet taking it in his mouth. "Every time we talk to someone here, it feels incredible. Like the first steps onto the moon, you know? Going where no man has gone before."

Jordan stuck out his tongue, exposing those adorable fangs for a moment. "Not to kill the moment, but I'm pretty sure we're not the first men here. This place was well known enough that someone built a special entrance, and mapped out the portals. Lewis and Clark seems more apt. Sure, we're sharing this with the world—but it's already inhabited."

Jordan walked in, right past him. Blake gritted his teeth, focused his eyes firmly on the ground and not on anything else, and followed.

Chapter 21: Jordan

This was nothing new for Jordan.

When his favorite (and really, only) hobby involved traveling all over the world to film, explore, and generally poke around in places he wasn't supposed to be, the police getting involved was an inevitability. Part of the way his friends picked their next destination came down to local laws and likely punishments if they got caught.

The hippogriffs were friendlier than any visit to the police he'd experienced before. Instead of bright lights and little food, they spoke in a comfortable conference room, with refreshments always available near the far wall.

They didn’t seem to think Jordan and his friends had done anything wrong in fighting for their freedom. But believing the group hadn't done anything wrong didn't translate into being any less thorough.

If only they'd known a little more about the world they were in, maybe they could give more of the "expected" answers, sparing themselves a more detailed investigation and whatever inconvenient things the hippogriff navy might discover. But they were strangers here, and all they knew they'd picked up from the ponies during their few days together.

But maybe this was really an opportunity. It was possible the ones living in this world would be hostile towards visitors. But maybe they weren't, maybe they were overflowing with information and just waiting for the right questions to help. It took little time for them to get past everything about their booking passage on the pirate ship, along with everything about the fight and its consequences. The interviewers even seemed bored with the answers. They'd heard the same things from the other group.

"And why were you trying to sail here?" she asked. A stern-looking bird with a pair of glasses on her beak and a different uniform than the hippogriffs they met on the dock. "If you're tourists, you're one of the strangest groups I've ever seen."

"No," Jordan said. He might not be in charge, but for whatever reason the hippogriffs seemed to trust his answers a little more, not giving them the same scrutiny as when Blake or Ryan spoke. "We're not tourists. We were following a map that showed there is a portal back to our world located somewhere on Mount Aris."

She dropped her pen, and suddenly started paying attention. What might've been near the end of their interview continued for several hours after that. The naval hippogriffs asked about practically every detail—where the portal was, how they'd found it, what they were doing here... on and on and on. "We're not here to bother you or anyone. We just want to find the portal and go home."

The hippogriff settled the canteen loudly back onto the table between them. "None of you should know about that 'portal'," she said flatly. "It is a state secret of the kingdom of mountain and sea. The fact you know anything about it escalates matters." She sighed, rising to her claws, and gripping her notebook under one wing. "The crown will have to get involved now, to decide what to do with you."

"You could make a suggestion," Jordan said absently. "Sending us through the portal will accomplish our goals, and also get rid of us. We just want to go home."

Not strictly true, of course. They had tons of video footage and physical evidence of this other world, and they didn't intend to let all of it fade into the background. When they made it back, the world would never be the same.

"We'll see," she said. "But given we can't release you, the navy will arrange lodging for your group. There's a hotel on the pier that visiting tourists seem to enjoy. You'll be restricted to an upper floor, without a balcony—but probably not for long."

They didn't argue. After all, there was no evidence yet that these “hippogriffs” wouldn't give them what they wanted.

They left Kaelynn behind for a few more questions, while navy birds in stiff uniforms escorted them to the hotel. Jordan learned everything he needed to know when he saw their upstairs room.

Twice the size of the space they'd rented in Paris, with polished hardwood floors, fine padded furniture, and all their belongings already waiting for them by the door.

One of the sailors followed them inside, adjusting his jacket. He was easily the youngest and smallest Jordan had seen, not much taller than Blake. "I'm Crewman Cloudbank," he said, gesturing with one wing in a way that was almost a salute, but not quite. "I'm to see to your needs while you're staying with us."

Jordan grinned. He probably shouldn't torment this bird. But he couldn't help himself. "I saw a pool down there on the bottom floor. Can we swim later?"

Cloudbank's wings twitched once. "I, uh... could probably arrange something. After it closes to normal guests, maybe. I guess you're here because you know things you shouldn't know. Please don't tell me what they are... but the more creatures you're around, the more you might tell. So they do want you to stay up here..."

"We're fine staying here," Blake said, pushing Jordan back with one leg. "We don't need to use the pool. But we would like a meal as soon as our friend returns. And if you have it, a current World Almanac? Do they print those here?"

He shrugged. "A meal I can do. One griffon, one bat pony, two..." He trailed off, frowning. "Sorry, I don't know what you are. Half dragon?"

"Kirin," Blake said. "I don't know much more than that name. We'll have whatever you normally serve ponies."

"Right." Cloudbank retreated through the door. "I don't know when you friend will be here, but I'll see about finding you an Almanac in the meantime." He vanished, shutting the door behind him.

Almost the instant he was gone, Ryan's body flashed green. He shook himself out, wings and antennae drooping like he'd been the one to carry all their stuff all day. He flopped over the edge of a couch, shiny black coat flush with green blood. "I should've just asked about changelings. If I have to keep pretending like this, I'm gonna... starve."

"Don't be dramatic," Blake said. "You're not starving."

We don't actually know how these powers work. He might be. Jordan approached the edge of the couch, nudging Ryan with a wing. "It probably got melted like... ten million times by now, but I've been saving a Snickers if you want it."

The insect-pony looked up, strange eyes turning towards Jordan. It was hard to see what he was looking at, but this time it was obvious. The pony was watching him. "You've been saving candy since Earth?"

He nodded. "Was saving it for a last meal. But fair warning, it's come far enough that eating it might be your last meal, starving or not."

Ryan shook his head. But he was smiling now. He already looked better. "Thanks, but... no. I don't think I could eat candy any more than the other things I've tried. It just doesn't work."

"The changeling should not fear," Galena said, settling down in a cushion near the wall. "The world is not at war with you anymore. Your king is respected in many lands. Rumor says that you are even building your own nation. But those bugs look different than you. Bright and strange..."

"I'm not taking chances," Ryan said. "These are my friends, and they had to fight their instincts to treat me like a human being. I don't know how natives would act, but they probably wouldn't stay in proximity long enough to learn that I'm not... whatever they fear I am."

Galena shrugged, grabbing a pillow from the nearby couch, and tossing it over her head. "I don't know what a human being is, or why you'd want to be treated like one. But you all seem close enough to me. I'd think you were ponies yourselves, if it weren’t for how you fought."

Jordan turned her back on them both, making his way over to the window and Blake. He was watching the city outside, with much of his attention focused on the mountain overhead. Their room was on the side of the hotel, about five stories up. So small compared to a civilization that could build so tall. Unless they found the mountain, instead of building it.

"How are you feeling?" Blake asked. "Still upset about me waking you up?"

He shrugged his wings absently. "I still think you shouldn't in the future. I know it doesn't look like it, but there's important knowledge in the Dreamlands. Maybe there's a way I could show you." He leaned forward, covering his mouth with a wing. It was so much easier to move those around now that he had practice using them in the subconscious world. "No, don't say it. I probably wouldn't believe it was real if I weren’t surrounded by so many other impossible things. But if you saw it, you'd think differently."

Blake grunted, but didn't argue. He'd been right in his guess, of course. "We might need to break out of here," he whispered. "I'm not blind, all three of you have wings and I don't. If it comes down to it, I want you to leave me and Kaelynn behind. Better for some of us to make it home than none of us."

"We don't need to think about that yet," Jordan said. "And besides that, only one person in this room knows how to fly. I can only dream about flying, which is way easier. Lots of stuff is easier in there." He hopped up onto a chair beside the window, spreading his wings wide. "You'd understand if you went."

Blake rolled his eyes, thumping something up onto the table not far away. It was the rolled-up map of this side, with its many notes and locations. "Oh? You'll have to tell me."

"Well, it's... it's like when you're dreaming. You don't question things about yourself that you might otherwise. Everything feels like it's supposed to be that way. I've got wings, so of course they can fly. I'm a girl, and maybe it's not a bad thing. You don't need air on the moon, because otherwise you couldn't get anything done."

Blake stopped, staring. "What was that middle one?"

Jordan hopped down from the chair, sticking his tongue out. "If you're expecting me to be embarrassed about it, forget it. I'm trying to master that strange power. The power to be whatever I feel like I am, in the moment." He lowered his voice, ears flattening. "There might not be a safe way home, Blake. I'm not sure what ninja-blender that portal took to my brain, but I'd rather not be bothered by it. I want this to be me on this side, and my human self to be me over there."

He frowned, then spread both wings again, gesturing for Ryan. "Come on bug, this matters even more for you. You can be any of us. I heard you were going around as me during part of the trip."

Ryan's wings buzzed nervously, but he followed to the table regardless. "It didn't work as well as I thought it would. They kept telling me to get some rest and heal up. At least Blake's twin got some answers."

Jordan barely even reacted to the admission. Only one part of it mattered to him in this precise moment. "I mean, you were me. You were a... mare, they call it. Does that bother you?"

The bug didn't sit down so much as start pacing back and forth in front of the table. "I thought about that earlier, when I was copying Kaelynn. I just... am something. While I'm you, I feel like that's how I should be. When I'm Blake, that's how I should be. But you shouldn't use me as an example. We're not the same species right now. I read emotions, and I think I might eat them a little bit too. When I copied you, it was because I thought I'd get more food that way. That's all."

It sounded so simple, and also impossible. But was Jordan really afraid of what he'd lost, or discovering he preferred being a bat to what was waiting back home? "I've decided something," he said, before he could chicken out and change his mind. "I'm not sure what this queen and royal thing is gonna be like. But around anyone else, you can use girl words for me while we're in here. And only while we're in here."

He jerked to the side, removing his knife from the open lip of his satchel. He dropped it into the table between them. He'd hoped it would land dramatically—but the case was still on, and it just sorta banged around. "This is just about traveling other universes. I'm not implying anything. Understand?"

"Fine with me," Ryan said. "But in exchange, don't call me a bug again, okay? Is that fair?"

"Sure," Jordan agreed. "I can manage that."

Chapter 38: Blake

It didn't take long to reach the site of their negotiation with the buffalo. That made enough sense to Blake; if they had to go very far, that probably would've meant the map was bad. Either that, or the ponies had lied to them. At least so far, he had no reason to expect either one.

Vesper remained surprisingly close during the brief trip, apparently watching his work. That was fine, the more of their group could sail the better. But it did seem strange that she'd taken a sudden interest, after this long not caring. But it made sense—if anyone on the crew was going to want to sail, it would be Jordan. Ryan was just too timid, and Kaelyn would rather be working maintenance behind the scenes, and let someone else be the one to do the sailing.

When the butte came into view, Blake slowed them to a stop, raising the sails one after another. He still could see no sign of griffon ships on the horizon. But would that change in the next few hours?

There were no buffalo beneath them, or anything else for that matter. The butte formed at the center of a wash, which might've carried a river during the wet season. "Why would they want to meet here?" he asked, leaning over the edge for a few seconds. "There's nothing here."

"Not nothing." Vesper pointed over the side with one wing, grinning. "There's a black spot there, and some rocks around it. Bet that's a fire pit with places to sit. We signal, and they come here to talk."

Blake returned to the controls, settling one hoof on the lift crystal. Lowering them down was simple enough now that he could do it without too much worry, particularly if they were already stopped. "Galena! Galena, what do you think of... buffalo? Have you ever met with them before?"

Jordan pouted, but Blake couldn’t even guess why. Did she not want him to ask the expert?

Galena glided up from the main deck, large coil of rope around her neck and a knife in her mouth. She stuck the knife back in its holster, then looked up. "What does the pony ask?"

"Buffalo," he said again. "What can you tell us about them?"

She looked thoughtful. "I have heard this name. They have stomping grounds far in the wild, where other creatures do not reach. Incredibly strong, but also very heavy. No use as cargo, they weigh too much for the lift crystal. Very difficult as passengers. Not so bad as yaks, though."

"Does that mean we can trust them?" Jordan asked. "We're just trying to get permission to use the Worldgate."

Galena shrugged. "We never had any reason to meet. My ship did not make enemies needlessly. They refused to buy slaves, and did not make good for capturing."

"Morbid," Blake said. "But hopefully we can talk."

"You should go!" called another voice, from the steps. Kaelynn hurried up, taking them two at a time. "Ryan is kinda sick. Not sure if it's from the altitude or what. But he always does better when he has someone else around. I'm gonna stay here."

"That's fine." Blake turned. "Galena, I expect you to keep watch. You get my attention at the first sign of a griffon ship. We can always come back to a safe portal. Not so much if we get blown to shit."

The bird seemed confused by the expression. But she read the sentiment quickly enough, and nodded once. "It would be easier to watch the sky with more eyes. Where is the hippogriff? She could help."

"I'm down here!" Janet made her way up the steps, without any apparent rush. She wasn't wearing her silly jacket, though she hadn't ditched the scarf yet. The lower they got, the hotter the desert became. "I can't keep watch this time, I'm going." She spread both wings just a little, puffing out her chest. Did she think Blake would argue?

"Why?" Vesper asked. So apparently someone wanted to. "Blake and I can handle it."

She shrugged. "Maybe you can, maybe you can't. But you've got more time to waste, bat. I need a way back now. I know this land better than you do. I've done the research, you haven't."

"It's okay, Vesper. You didn't say anything about restricting the number of people who could help negotiate. There's no reason we can't have more help."

Jordan didn't complain as they made their way down to the surface, though she looked sour enough. What had gotten into that pony over the last day, anyway? Was it something about the way she smelled?

Blake didn't quite have the courage to ask.

"Whatever. So long as she helps with the fire, too."

They landed a hundred meters or so from the butte, far enough that there was no danger of a stiff wind smacking them into it. Even with an anchor dragging along the ground, there was no being completely sure the ship wouldn't be affected by the wind. Not without a proper mooring.

Soon enough the three of them were in the center, with bundles of old cloth sending up huge plumes of black smoke.

"And now we have a use for the last of the pirates' cargo," Jordan said, waving one wing through the smoke. Apparently she had reason to regret that, because she pulled it back quickly, hissing. "Still trying to sting us, even now."

Janet found herself a wooden seat to perch on, and was already reclining there. Not to sleep, though—her eyes were on the horizon, watching intently. "What does this Worldgate say, exactly? Which one are we trying to get to?"

"Name was Cahokia. They didn't have notes other than that, really. None have warned us about dangers before."

"Cahokia," Janet repeated. "Hmm. Could be good, could be bad. I hope you two thought about just looking for it ourselves before you sent up that signal. These buffalo might not have noticed us."

Jordan folded her wings, settling down on her haunches beside Blake. Right beside Blake, almost possessive. "We thought about it. But we’re not just trying to find one door to use one time. We're trying to open up travel between worlds. There's another universe in here, and people deserve to know. Think about all the scientific discoveries we could be making."

Janet's mouth fell open. For a few seconds she was completely speechless, beak opening and closing. Finally she looked sharply to Blake. "You agree with her? Are you people actually planning to try and connect Equestria to Earth?"

Blake thought he could hear something in the distance—rocks, maybe? He looked, but there was nothing ahead of them. No cannons blasted down on their ship. He might've thought he was hallucinating, except that Vesper looked up too. So she was hearing it.

"After what we went through, it feels like we should get to be famous for it," he said. "But that's not the only reason we're cooperating. We have hundreds of options, and we've only eliminated a few. I will not risk pissing off a potential ally just because we're in a hurry."

The hippogriff glowered at them both. "Oh, you'll be famous. You'll both be horse famous, because you'll be horses forever. Weird, alien horses. Don't you have families waiting for you?"

"Sure," Vesper said. "But they probably think we're already dead. We were kinda going somewhere we weren't supposed to be, somewhere people die every few years anyway. They aren't going to be any less scarred if we reappear tomorrow, or next month. We've already been gone long enough that they probably did everything you can do. Funerals, tears, the works."

Their conversation couldn't continue, though. The pounding was so loud that not even Janet could ignore it. Blake stood, turning off to the left. The roar was indeed coming from somewhere close—just behind the butte.

Several hundred buffalo crested the hill, a wall of brown fur and black eyes and sharp horns. Fortunately they didn't seem to be charging directly for the fire-pit. Instead they curved around it, raising a great cloud of dust as they circled the pit and the stationary Bright Hawk nearby.

This wasn't quite the size of the great herds that Blake knew had once roamed the American West. There were hundreds, not tens of thousands. Even so, he found himself wrapping one protective leg around Jordan. Maybe he was glad he'd come after all.

They circled around the group several rotations, until their different speeds made a dusty circle that turned the sun a deep red in the sky, and Blake could see no individual animals.

Finally, a few pealed away from the edge, moving in on the circle. There were two of them, one larger and one smaller. Even the smaller of the two was about as long as Blake himself, and several times bulkier. The larger was easily twice the size of Galena, maybe more.

They reached the campfire. As they did, the great crowd of buffalo slowed, then stopped. The dust began to disperse, and the smoke of their little campfire was visible again.

"Ya'll got here quick," Jordan said, grinning across the campfire at their new companions. "But you didn't all have to come. We're not worth that much of your time."

"We know," said the smaller of the two—a female's voice, though much deeper than Jordan's high squeak. "But we enjoy running. Anything new is an excuse to travel."

"Wisdom, as always," said the larger. "From my mate, Little Strongheart, of the Wandering Brush tribe. I am Chief Stoneback of the Burning Sun tribe. Who are you, strangers? Your boat is far from water."

Many of the animals started laughing. Even Blake smiled. "True. We've come a long way."

His words provoked nervous whispers from several. A few of the nearby buffalo even bowed to him. Not these two negotiators, though.

"To ask permission," Janet said. She was the only one who hadn't stood. "We've come to speak to you about your Worldgate."

Silence descended on the crowd, and any laughter died. Little Strongheart and Stoneback looked at each other, expressions unreadable.

Blake winced. We could've been a little more delicate. Make them feel like our friends first. "Have you been running far?" he asked, before they could interrupt to tell them no. "We have cold water aboard the Bright Hawk. Not enough for so many of you, unfortunately. We are a small ship, with a small crew. But we would like to share."

Though they both recognize what we were talking about. The map proves it's right again. Maybe not useful,given they'd failed to find a portal they could use safely. But right.

"Water, yes," said Little Strongheart. "That would be good. We will bring refreshment. The five of us may eat, then we will talk."

Vesper stood suddenly, stretching her wings. "I'll get it, Captain! Be right back!" She took a few nervous steps back, spreading her wings wide. Then she took off—haltingly at first, dipping so low she almost smacked into a buffalo on the edge of the watching crowd. But she made it, flying the short distance to the ship.

Blake wanted to cheer. He stamped one of his hooves, before he realized how silly it would make him look. He settled for a noble smile instead. He could congratulate her later.

"Forgive us, visitor. But we have stories of your noble kind. Ponies and dragons together, a union of magic and strength. We honor your arrival." Stoneback nodded respectfully to him. At least he didn't bow. "We would request your name.”

"Oh, right!" Blake's ears folded back, tail whipping back and forth behind him anxiously. "I'm called Blake. This is Janet, and the bat is Vesper."

They're not bowing to the others. What's different about me?

Another buffalo emerged from the crowd, heavily burdened with saddlebags bursting with cargo. Little Strongheart rushed over, unloading several sacks beside the fire. All of it looked hand-made, or hoof-made in this case. Amazing that creatures looking like they weighed in the tons were able to do any kind of precision work.

"Blake," said Stoneback. "Blake the half-dragon, who travels with a flying ship. Is that why you seek the Worldgate—to extend your dominion to the place beyond?"

He hesitated, watching as Vesper took to the air again, flying back with their own contributions. Not graceful exactly, this flying thing was far newer to her than it was to Galena or any of the natives. But her determination, biting her tongue and staring forward with absolute focus as she came in for a landing—that was a pony who didn't give up.

Apparently that was too long a delay, because Little Strongheart spoke up from just ahead of him, portioning out several bowls of a grainy snack. Though one was different from the others—were those blue rocks?

"Not to give the dragon-pony directions, but I would find another place to go. The world on the other side is not one you want to visit. It is a place of endless death, where many have perished. Lucky is the buffalo who can escape through to this side, and endless the tears over those who remain trapped."

Jordan landed awkwardly, kicking and spraying sand to stop herself. But she managed not to fall over, or to lose the heavy pitcher of water emerging from her saddlebags. "Back! I brought better than water—Ryan was making lemonade! You do like lemonade, right?"

Blake didn't—it was too sugary, too tart. But maybe if this bat was the one to bring it...

Chapter 51: Vesper

Vesper was the first to pass through the Worldgate. This was a fitting reward, since she had been the one to track this one down. With several maps and some educated guesses from a book on the subject, maybe. But if it got them back to Earth, it still counted.

By now she was more than prepared for the rush of water and sudden moment of painful transition. She was even expecting the stretching that came when her bat body became something that wasn't a bat anymore.

But the water wasn't usually that deep, and this time was no exception. Vesper swam upward, breaking the surface with one arm, then clambering out of the way for the rest of the group to pass.

She'd gone through dressed, knowing full well what this transition would entail if it worked properly. And work it had.

In the blink of an eye, Vesper was no more. Jordan had returned, in time for the rest of this exploration. His last? That was less certain.

He shouldn't feel so disoriented to be back in his own body. It must've just been the damp cloth, transformed back in ways that weren’t always easy to predict from the other side. Yet there was something off—what was bothering him?

Jordan stood up slowly, unsure of what would be waiting for them. After all, Paris had begun their whole adventure with a plunge against their will back into a world that wasn't theirs. Another creature like that could be waiting right now, and his friends were just a few feet behind.

The room did resemble that space in Paris—a Roman bathhouse of sorts, at least in basic layout. But he doubted any Roman had planned on swimming in water so cold.

He started shivering instantly, and moved one shoulder to try and cover himself with his wings—except there were no wings. Only damp clothing, that soaked straight through to his skin beneath, sucking the heat away from his body with alarming rapidity.

There was only a single door leading outward. There was light in that direction, though diffuse enough that it clearly didn't lead directly out into the sun.

Other splashes came from behind him, but Jordan was momentarily too distracted with other things. He was himself again, old body and all. This should feel good—this was the relief he'd been waiting for.

This was the entire reason they fought so hard, wasn't it? They didn't want to be stuck. It should be like a breath of fresh air.

Jordan felt like his whole body had been tightened a few notches, or maybe wrapped in rubber bands. Everything was where it ought to be, as though he'd never gone to Equestria. As though Vesper was never born.

Somehow, he found he wasn't a fan of the experience. If only he'd kept some piece of her, to remember his time in Equestria. Maybe it wouldn't be so hard to let go.

"That was... thoroughly unpleasant," Ryan exclaimed, flopping sideways out of the water to roll a few feet towards him. "But hey, you're back! Looks like this one works!"

There was no predicting precisely how their clothes would adapt to the new bodies transformation gave them—but the same basic ideas held. Being fully dressed in Equestria meant they would have a full set of clothing here.

"Yeah," Jordan said. His ears twitched, or maybe that was just his imagination. His voice wasn't supposed to sound like that.

Deep breaths. I've had less than a minute to adjust.

Jordan backed away from the opening, watching as the others came through one at a time. He just needed a little more time—there were plenty of other members of the expedition to take the lead while he figured out what was going on.

Blake emerged from the water next, kicking powerfully to the surface and heaving himself into a crouching position with one arm. He stood a few seconds later, shaking away the moisture. "Cold on this side. Wasn't expecting that."

Was it, even? Jordan shivered once, shaking a little water out onto the ground. It was cooler than he would've liked, though that was mostly from the water. That wasn't what bothered him about all this.

Janet broke the surface of the water a few seconds later, kicking and struggling with every breath. She flailed wildly with her arms, and might've gone back down into the darkness if it wasn't for Blake there to catch her. Jordan stood beside him, and together heaved the woman from the water.

She was wearing the most clothing by far, enough that her heavy jacket and trousers soaked completely full and began to drag her downwards towards the Worldgate below.

Jordan was strong enough to help Blake get her up into the air, though it burned both arms as he did it. So maybe he hadn't spent as much time adjusting lines and hauling water as some other members of the team. It wasn't his fault that the Dreamlands were so much more interesting!

"Gracias..." Janet muttered, shivering visibly. She was instantly the shortest member of the group, gone from towering over Jordan to a head shorter than he was in a single instant. "Wait a minute. Where's the bat girl?"

"Right here," he said, backing away from the opening. There was still another figure to make it up from below, one heading rapidly to the surface. Apparently griffons did know how to swim.

"I don't see it," Janet said. She seemed more confused than anything. "Are you sure?"

Jordan didn't continue to explain, just backed away from the opening. Blake did too, so the two of them gave it plenty of space as another shape surfaced from deep below.

Galena came up, struggling through the water and hauling herself onto the shore. She rolled onto her back, tangling a little in the backpack as she finally stopped. "That was much worse than last time. Ancestors punish those who built such a thing."

Though bits of cloth poked out the open flap of her backpack, Galena was as naked as she had been in the world they left behind. But unlike Janet, and apparently Jordan himself, she looked exactly the way he'd expected.

She was tall, probably equal with Jordan. Her hair was mottled brown and tan, mixed in a way he'd never seen before. Her build was incredibly fit, lean muscle on every limb broken only by frequent scars. Dripping wet and panting like that, this could just as easily be a photoshoot for some "gentleman's" magazine.

Jordan turned away in frustration. Blake just kept staring, for another few seconds.

"Wait, uh... Galena? Those clothes, you should put them on."

She looked down at herself, then back up. The disorientation was similar to what Jordan himself remembered—and that made perfect sense. She had just changed as radically as they had when they first arrived.

"I'm wet, as is that clothing. It may be cold, but wet cloth will make it colder." She sat up, grinning playfully at them. "You're the ones who insist on freezing to death."

Jordan groaned. "We have modesty on this side, Galena. It means we always wear clothing when we're around other people. You can't leave like that." He snatched the satchel from the ground beside her, dumping her clothes out onto the slightly dusty bathhouse floor. "Get dressed."

Galena stared up at him, her confusion growing. Like she didn't know what she was doing. Blake just kept staring—and how could he not? "You are distressed. Did the Worldgate confuse me less than you?" How could she sit there like that, without feeling even a little embarrassed? "We do not even appear to differ in tribe anymore. Is there something here you haven't seen before?"

She grinned, though she did occasionally glance down at herself. Jordan's attention might've riled her up, but Galena was new to her body.

Jordan grunted, turning his back on the stupid naked griffon. He stormed past open-mouthed Blake, to where Ryan was investigating something on a back wall. He rubbed it clean with the back of one sleeve, clearing away the dirt.

It was another map, one carved painstakingly in wood, then painted. Most of that paint was gone now, though the underlying design had mostly survived. In it was an image of Earth, one that focused on the globe in a way he'd never seen it before. Not even Europe was properly centered.

The Equestrian side was recognizable to him by now, thanks to the number of times he'd poured over the Worldgate diagrams. Unlike the other one, this showed both sides of the globe... but not with worldgates. This one seemed to be a monument of population centers. Maybe they had full city names once, but they'd mostly faded away to nothing by now.

"The style is the same," Ryan said, apparently oblivious to the drama behind him. Jordan kept glancing back to see. It did seem that Janet was trying to convince Galena. Maybe she would have more luck, since they were both birds.

"Same ones who made the map under Paris?" Jordan suggested.

Ryan nodded. "The manner is distinct. Same style in the construction, same lettering. But the language isn't French. It's too worn for me to read it. Good thing the one we found was in better condition, or we wouldn't have a clue where we were going."

Jordan slid past it, still shivering as he made his way into the single doorway leading out. This was what really mattered—the one thing that would decide if they remained through this portal for any length of time, or slid quickly back through to Equestria.

He couldn't let himself get too hung up on how annoying the griffon was acting and wish for a swifter return trip. The others wanted to get home. And he probably did too?

Jordan made it only a few steps before he realized what he was missing here—shoes. Away from the bathhouse, the ground was rough and rocky, cut unevenly from the cavern. He glanced back through to the bathhouse, and found only Janet had shoes. For the rest of them, the strange hoof-wraps they'd appeared wearing had evidently slipped their minds and not been replaced.

Jordan flipped open his own saddlebag, which was now a plain-looking backpack with crude buttons instead of a zipper. There was camera equipment inside, a few extra batteries, and all his identification, passport, and cash. His phone was inside too, packed in a dry bag. But its battery had long since exhausted. Ryan had their last working device.

Instead of striding comfortably out, Jordan had to walk on tiptoe, moving slowly and precariously towards the light.

"Where are you going?" Ryan asked. "Shouldn't we go together?"

"No," Jordan answered. He didn't look back, or even slow down. It was hard enough walking that turning around would be its own adventure. "There's sunlight this way, I'm gonna check where we are. Might not need to waste time here."

Ryan didn't say anything else, so Jordan made his way through the tunnel. It wasn't just the rocks that made the process slow and awkward. Though he did catch himself trying to spread his wings to help him balance, something that he just couldn't do anymore. Of course, a little rough stone wouldn't have given hooves trouble either way.

The cold started to get to him as he reached the end of a tunnel, through to a horizontal crack in the wall at about waist level. He bent down, squirmed through, then peeked out into the world.

They were on a rocky hillside, covered with the occasional patches of wildflowers and sparse grasses. But the most interesting thing by far was what he saw when he looked down.

Down the hill, no more than a few miles away, a little town stood surrounded by sparse farms and patches of trees. The place wasn't in the best shape, with narrow buildings only a few stories tall, many with peeling paint or corroded metal rooves. But there were powerlines, narrow roads, and actual cars driving on them!

We found a way out. Jordan should've felt more excited about that. Wherever this was, it would help them get back to civilization. He should be thrilled.

Jordan made his slow way back down the tunnel to the hidden passage—not so well hidden, considering how close it was to civilization. At least by the time he made it back, Galena had put some clothes on. Kaelynn's, he guessed, though they couldn't possibly be the same size. How did that work?

"How was it?" Blake asked, as he made his way back in. "What was out there?"

He almost lied. But his friends deserved better than that. "Civilization. I don't know where, but maybe it doesn't matter. Cold as butt, though. It's nicer in here."

Chapter 64: Vesper

What could their little group do while they waited for information?

Days passed, days spent in miserable friction. Even Vesper could only do so much to keep people focused—Ryan wanted to break into every house in the city if that was what it took to find Kaelynn. Blake, meanwhile, had to threaten to lock him up more than once.

Vesper tried to mitigate the conflict between them. She begged and pleaded for wiser voices to prevail, and it mostly worked. But each day she kept people calm was harder than the last. Soon enough it would just be impossible, and nopony would listen to her anymore.

They could do some things. Ryan and Blake labored for several hours each day in the workshop, making weapons and tools they guessed might be needed to break into the fine mansion of a wealthy pony. Vesper's own preparation came in the form of practicing her dream-magic. She spent at least a few hours each day trying to summon things on command.

Despite how incredible magic felt, there was an order to the way things worked. She could summon things only from dreams she had actually experienced. But she didn't necessarily have to remember experiencing them. Practically speaking, that limit meant things outside Vesper's usual context wouldn't be possible for her.

Unfortunately, she didn't dream about fighting often. So on the third night, she finally managed to track down Pale Light. "Hey!" she said, landing beside him in a windswept ruin. This one was a treehouse, with its glass windows cracked and furniture weathered away. But like each of the other places she'd seen him, this was a library, and books were scattered everywhere.

Pale stiffened through the embrace, but didn't shove her off. "I wasn't sure I'd see you again. After you met with the princess..."

Vesper shrugged her wings, rolling off his back onto the space beside him. "Princess Luna? She was nice I guess. Not sure why that would make me not want to see you again. She didn't teach me anything. Besides, you're my friend."

The bat walked past her, pretending to be focused on his work. He dug through books in various stages of decomposition, shuffling through the pages. But he wasn't really watching them. Vesper didn't need to be a changeling to read his tension. "You can't be friend with somepony who doesn't exist. You only believe you are—like making friends with a mirror."

Vesper rolled her eyes, following him. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Pale. You're right here, in the Dreamlands. I had a dream question for you, actually. Do you think you could help me create a specific dream?"

He rounded on her, dropping the ruined book he was holding. For a few seconds he just looked her over, silent. When he did speak, it was quiet, cautious. "Princess Luna should've told you by now, but if she didn't then I will: I'm a construct. I have no parents, no real life. I was created here in the Dreaming."

Vesper twitched once as he said it, wings opening and closing halfway. Now that he mentioned it, Princess Luna hadn’t said that exactly, but she had said something about assigning someone who had met with her before... "Sorry, I probably would've realized. I've been a little distracted by getting one of my friends kidnapped and everything..."

She crossed the distance between them in a few steps, looking up at him. "If you say all that's true, then I'll believe you. But I won't know what it means." She walked a slow circle around him, as though searching for... what, a maker's mark? A signature, like he was a portrait? Of course the princess had left nothing like that.

"You're wasting your time with me," he answered, a little too quickly. "You can't be friends with me, I'm not real. Every drop of attention you give helps sustain me, because I'm interacting with a dreamer. You bring connection with the waking world, and I need some to continue to exist. I'm like... an evil changeling, harvesting you. But I can't help it."

"I'm friends with a changeling too. He's a pretty cool guy. Pissed all the time, but that's par for the course with Kaelynn gone." Vesper shoved him lightly with one hoof, enough that he stumbled in the ashy remnants of the tree. "That's enough, Pale. I don't let people talk about my friends that way."

"I can't—"

"You are,"she said, speaking over him. "You were here when I landed in Equestria, helping when no one else would. Everything I know about my powers I learned from you. Besides, it's not like I feel drained when I leave. Maybe you do work the same way as changelings. Ryan wore us out with that emotional feeding thing, until we realized what was going on and started interacting with him normally. Since he's been with Kaelynn, he always had enough."

Pale Light stared. She tried to judge his expression, but it was too unfamiliar. Maybe he was about to run, or maybe cry. "I am... confused. You have no reason to rely on me anymore. You are in Canterlot—there are repositories of Dreamwalker lore in the library there. Any question you have can be answered. Every tool I have to examine here is a mere shadow and suggestion of the greater truth you'll find there."

She waved a dismissive wing. "You don't have to help me, Pale Light. But it would mean a lot to me if you did. My friend was kidnapped, and I'm about to go in and try to get her back. Thanks to you, I've got pretty good at bringing things into the waking world from in here. But I need to have the things to bring in."

She lowered her voice, grinning mischievously at him. "I need to dream of a specific thing. How do we do that? I remember you saying that was one of the simplest things we could do."

"Yes," he agreed. He still sounded confused, like someone who had just won the lottery on a ticket they'd forgotten they bought. "Get a specific dream, right." He scrunched up his face into a frustrated frown. "You're interrupting my work. I'm upset at how belligerent you are."

Vesper leaned over to him, embracing the bat in an equine hug she'd seen dozens of times before. "Yeah, you big loser. I'm incredibly impatient, and I'm a danger to myself and all those around me. You really should help so I don't mess things up even worse."

He grunted once. "Follow my instructions then, Vesper. Crafting a dream for yourself is the easiest kind. You begin by mapping the emotional resonance you're looking for with the right constellation. Let me draw you a chart..."

She spent the lesson in the timeless dreaming, and couldn't say exactly how long it took. He was right, though—compared to trying to pull objects out of a dream, this seemed simple. And if it wasn't for her other power, there wouldn't be a lot of direct use.

Maybe in hospitals, or to treat people with mental health problems. Jordan used to have problems with nightmares. Not anymore.

She didn't get the chance to properly explore the subject with Pale Light, though. As it often seemed to happen lately, the waking world tore her away.

Someone banged loudly on the door of her cabin. Her ears pressed flat, and for a few seconds she jammed her head under her pillow, waiting for the noise to stop.

Ryan was relentless, however. "Information is here, Vesper. We know where they're holding Kaelynn."

She yawned and stretched, rolling out of bed. "Alright, alright. Give me a... minute. Right there." She shielded her face from the window—even the little crack of sunlight streaming in from out there was painful on her retinas. At a glance, it was probably around noon. Maybe a little later.

She washed her face in a basin near the mirror, brushing back her mane into something that didn't look quite like she'd just rolled out of bed. Nothing as fancy as the mares in Canterlot could get, but... she would learn.

By the time she made it out, the rest of the crew had gathered in the mess. There was no food on the table, but as she walked in Blake offered her something on a tray. She took it in one wing, dragging herself into a seat. She mumbled something that was almost a few different things, barely even recognizing what she was looking at. A few maps, arranged in a way that probably made sense if you were the crazy person who'd sorted them that way.

"I wouldn't want to drag you here normally," Ryan said, at least managing to look a little sheepish. "But we don't have time to wait. Kaelynn doesn't have time to wait."

The tray was just a bowl of the bat-branded morning cereal, in milk. She settled it down on the far side of the table, so she wouldn't spill it all over critical mission notes if she fumbled something. A frequent occurrence when they woke her up too early. "Go ahead. I'll try to listen. But my brain is like a diesel motor in the morning. Might need to repeat a bit.

She hadn't even noticed the stranger in the room. They'd been a pony, until their body dissolved in a flash of green light. Then they were the changeling investigator that had been “underground” searching for Kaelynn.

"Good news is there's no way to hide something this big. If you had six months, I'd say the best solution was just to spin a cocoon and wait a little while. They're so excited about their find they've already started making promises. Adoption contracts, breeding rights, that sort of thing."

Vesper dropped her spoon into the bowl. "What the hell did you just say?"

Ryan's visage suddenly didn't look blurred anymore. He looked up at the changeling, his eyes practically glowing with rage. "They're doing what?"

Blake touched one leg over his shoulder. "Deep breath, Ryan. Let her finish so we can save our friend."

Ryan shook his leg free, but at least it didn't turn into a brawl.

"It's the Shimmer house," she went on, without missing a beat. "They're one of the oldest families in Equestria, known for their skill at spellcraft. Go back enough generations, and you'll find them leading the Solar Council. Not anymore, though. No children, house is run by an older mare now, last survivor situation. Looks like she's been looking for a way to leave a mark on things when she's gone, you know the type. Lots of money and not a lot of years left to spend it. Really thinks she'll be able to save the seapony race on her own. Asking around, it seemed like lots of ponies didn't agree with her methods. But when the seaponies are extinct, who's gonna argue?"

Vesper cleared her throat, looking up from her mostly empty bowl. The strange savory crunch of its contents did a decent job waking her up. She didn't know what she was eating, nor did she much want to know. "Fancy unicorn whoever is full of shit, anyway. Seaponies aren't gone. Princess Luna told me—they're still dreaming, somewhere. Means they lived through whatever that Storm King tried to do."

"Really?" Blake asked. He was the only one that seemed interested.

Ryan grunted once. "I don't think we'll be able to tell the unicorns that to convince them to let her go."

"Unfortunately not," Aerial agreed. "Even if we had proof, that would only reveal their hypocrisy. Deep down all the upper-crust ponies know they're full of it. They just don't usually have anyone brave enough to tell it to their face."

Vesper was awake enough to lean forward and investigate the table's contents. It was a Canterlot map, or at least a map of something called the "upper city." Lots of fine looking houses and streets named after fancy dead ponies, with the castle and its walls located in the center. Beside it was a dense scroll, bound with twine. As she watched, Aerial unrolled that scroll onto the table.

"I had to get persuasive with the planning office to get a copy of this. And I can only borrow it for a few more minutes, so you should study quickly."

"I'll get a camera," Blake muttered, walking out without another word.

Vesper moved her empty bowl aside, making more room for the map.

There wasn't anything terribly surprising about the blueprint. It looked about what she expected the layout of an incredibly expensive property to be. Except that it didn't just go up into the air—it had many floors underground, delving deep into the rock.

"I asked around about her—covertly. We could always dig up more, but it's a balancing act. Get too curious about something, and next thing you know they're layering another meter of slime to keep us out." She pointed towards the front. "Manor has walls, obviously. Two private guards at all times, Royal Guard veterans. Those lower windows aren't glass either, they're thaumalite—hard as steel, and tougher to break by magic."

"This is very useful," Ryan said. He remained up on the table, staring down at the blueprint. "Seriously, Aerial. This is incredible stuff. I'm not sure what we'd do without you."

"Not find your mate," she answered, without a second's hesitation. "Whatever questions you have, ask them quickly. I will need to go to ground when I depart. If you are caught, the Embassy will have no record of my presence there, or my decision to help you." Her wings buzzed for a second, but Vesper couldn't have said what the gesture was meant to be. A shrug, maybe? "This is why we keep no records of anything. Very hard to prove anything happened. The ponies just think we are absent-minded."

Blake returned a few moments later. Not with one of their high-quality cameras, but a phone. The decision was obvious enough that no one asked why he was doing it—a phone would have the biggest screen. He waved it over the map for a few seconds. "Done."

"Two questions, then you can go," Ryan said. "First; what other defenses would you expect the Shimmer house to keep hidden. Even if you couldn't confirm it?"

"If there are two guards outside, there are at least ten on their staff," she said. Her eyes lingered on the phone, but then she noticed them watching her, and looked away again. "The main defenses of an old house like this won't be swords and armor, though. They're unicorns, they use magic. Whatever magic they're using will be... subtle. A house as old as they are could not possibly remain in power if all they could do is blast spells around."

She tapped one hoof on the edge of the map, expression grim. "Please don't take this the wrong way, but the defenses around this place will be out of your league. There is no chance of you getting in there without setting off the alarm. That leaves you with two hard questions: what do you do to the creatures who try and stop you? And how do you get out again, with half the Canterlot Royal Guard breaking down the doors behind you? Answer those before you go in. A well-planned mission is a mission you survive."

"I think—"

She shoved a hoof in Ryan's mouth, silencing him. "I think that I need to be gone before you plan anything. I don't know anything." She pulled her leg free, then went to work rolling up the map. She left the city-scale map behind, spread across the table. "Anything else?"

"One more question," Ryan said. "If this was your mission, and you had to get your friend out, how would you do it?"

She packed the map carefully into her saddlebag, then... changed. She became a young, willowy pegasus girl, wearing a tight uniform. "Fet-Ex delivery services." No way a name like that was a coincidence.

When she spoke, her voice had completely changed. Even her diction was changed—nervous, halting, her eyes darting between them like she'd suddenly become frightened to be near them. "I, uh... I'd decide if saving my friend was worth losing my freedom. And if the answer was, uh... if the answer was yes, I'd have a way out of the city."

She glanced down the open hallway, then back to Ryan. "If you, uh... if you do this. Even if you get away, you'll... make a powerful enemy. Morningtide will make you pay for robbing from her. So wear a good disguise, so she doesn't know who you are! That's what I'd do."

Chapter 71: Ryan

Ryan was doing pretty good at this spy stuff.

Yeah, she didn't know exactly how unicorns acted some of the time, and that meant a few awkward looks. Her ability to imitate their magic to move objects around was obviously weaker than it should've been, judging by the way people stared. She didn't do it for very long at a time, and things got even better.

But as eager as she was to charge right into the mansion and look for Kaelynn, she had to resist the urge. Getting dragged out by the guards and thrown onto the street would not help get her friend freed, and it might end up with her slumped in an Equestrian prison. Somehow she didn't think the American Embassy would have her back on this one.

All she had to do was work her way through the crowd, making convincing small talk with the unicorns present. Aerial had given her at least one unexpected advantage: while she didn't have a lifetime of experience with infiltration, she did have a smattering of university biology courses, and a lifetime spent watching Netflix nature documentaries.

So it was she bluffed her way into a crowd near the house. Without having ever seen the old pony who kidnapped Kaelynn, she could tell that this was her. Everyone watched her for approval, everyone laughed at all her jokes. It wasn't love they felt for her, but something almost opposite. Fear mixed with respect.

"My colleagues all agree: seaponies aren't apex predators, the structure of jaw remains clearly show flattened molars without predator incisors. They couldn't hunt fish with a mouth like that." Ryan spoke with confidence, the way she'd done everything. Nothing was better for convincing bullshit than sounding more convinced the stupider it was.

The circle turned to Morningtide for approval, waiting to see what she would say. "Your colleagues may be working on incomplete samples then, Miss Axiom. Your specimen might be from an earlier period, or maybe it represents the freshwater variety of seapony. I can assure you that the saltwater fish have pointed incisors, even more pronounced than a thestral’s. They quite enjoy fresh fish, so long as its provided in moderation. They don't seem to enjoy being carnivores, but they can't stay healthy like an earth pony when fed on grass alone."

"That would be... revolutionary," Ryan said. "There's so much you can learn about a species from the structure of its jaw alone. The tragedy of studying seaponies is just how few fossils have survived to examine. The ancient seas must have been a hostile place to leave so little behind."

The other ponies muttered to each other, impressed. One, an older stallion with a lopsided monocle, watched her with something that was half intellectual interest, half something else. Ryan's changeling senses did not leave a lot to the imagination.

"You'll have to tell me more about your work, Axiom. Fossilized teeth for identification of ancient biological niche—that's entirely novel."

It's probably not, even here, she thought.

"Later," Morningtide said. "Miss Axiom, I think there are some things that are best observed, rather than speculated. Besides, I think you'll find it unnecessary to interrogate the bones of a creature when you can simply ask your questions and obtain a response. There's another group forming in the study, and I believe you should join it. I am assembling a detailed physiological text of the species, in case the worst should happen to the program. I think it could benefit from your expertise."

Ryan pretended to consider—but only for a second. It helped that she was supposed to be a very junior scientist, who would probably never get a chance like this in her lifetime. It was a series of Ariel-engineered happy accidents that she had even made it this far. If this works, I'll invite Aerial to the wedding.

"That sounds like a rare opportunity," she said. "I would be honored!" She turned, bowing her respect to the unicorn stallion. She didn't know his name, but anyone important enough to be in this conversation was obviously not someone to upset. "Later tonight, perhaps?"

"Of course," he grumbled, feeling obvious disappointment. He barely let it show in his face. "That makes sense. Observe Morningtide's exhibit, and we can speak more seriously about the matter of preservation."

Morningtide pointed up a cobblestone path towards the mansion. "Through those doors into the study, dear. My assistant will be taking you through. There will be others, so think carefully about any questions. You'll be lucky to get one."

Ryan nodded profusely, then darted up the intended path. She caught herself after just a few steps, adjusting her dress. This wasn't the kind of party where people ran around. She made a show of relaxing, then walking the rest of the way.

The older ponies chuckled, watching her go. She felt at their emotions until she was completely out of reach. There was plenty of indignance—she was a stranger to this world, far too lowly to be welcome here. A few wondered when she would be politely asked to leave. Others were impressed by her work, and felt eager to have her around.

Morningtide was harder to read, and Ryan couldn't quite tell where she was located on that spectrum. She barely felt anything about Ryan at all, like she was completely beneath her notice.

Well that was exactly where a changeling felt the safest: so far beneath Morningtide's attention that she wouldn't even think about her again. Let the mare keep thinking she would make a few quick notes in the book about seapony teeth structure or diet in the wild, and Ryan could hastily escort Kaelynn to safety in the meantime.

There were servants already waiting just inside the house, so there was no chance for Ryan to "accidentally" get lost, wandering off another path. She tried anyway, but didn't make it more than a few steps before one of them stopped her.

"Miss? It's this way," said an earth pony in a red-orange uniform.

"Right, right. Forgive me, I'm just so excited to be here... I didn't think I'd actually get invited to something like this." She turned, and she could feel their many eyes on her this time. Suspicion was a scent she seemed particularly attuned to, like the stink of rotten food. It might be the most offensive emotion to her magical senses. Hate was only subtly different from love, after all.

She found the study surprisingly empty—there were less than a dozen ponies inside. Most looked like academics, though there were some who were obviously just here for the spectacle. All radiated eagerness and anticipation, and barely even looked at her.

"They're extinct," a bat whispered to her companion. "Extinct, can you believe that? Only missed them by a century."

"No," said the little pegasus beside her. There was something strange about her scent, but it was probably nothing. "I don't believe it."

"It's true," said someone else—a stallion this time, wearing an oversized jacket and hat. "They were thought extinct more than once before, of course. But the Storm King made it official. A terrible hurricane, right over their capital. Ripped up all the water for miles around."

No he didn't! she thought, indignant. But while Ryan was running over the mental math for how much energy it would take to lift up a whole sea, someone stepped in through the opposite door.

Where Morningtide was elegant, this pony was the same age, yet shrunken in on himself instead of stretched thin. He wore glasses as thick as his hooves, and his horn glowed constantly, but Ryan couldn't actually see anything magical happening around him.

"Alright everypony, it's time to begin. My name is Red Sky, I’ll be supervising this meeting today. There are some instructions for you to follow, so listen closely."

They fell silent. Everyone spread out into a roughly even circle, so they could all see him. A bulky earth pony stallion lingered in the doorway just behind him, out of sight. He watched everyone inside, looking intimidating.

"The seaponies are extremely temperamental. We can't guarantee a very long sighting. Sometimes they'll linger with us for an extended conversation, other times they'll grow bored and swim away after just a few seconds. There's nothing I can do to bring them back if they decide to leave. They're sheltered here, this isn't a zoo."

A wave of nods passed through the group. Ryan was the last, inclining her head so shallowly it was barely even a flick. Liar. It's a prison. "If they decide to speak with you, you'll have to write your questions for me on a slip of paper. I will approve your questions, or not. You will not ask anything I do not approve, or..."

He trailed off, flicking his tail towards the open doorway. A few ponies shuffled around awkwardly, moving closer to each other. Yet when he finally spoke, it was something far less threatening. "Or you'll be asked to leave, and you won't get your answer."

"That seems harsh," said someone—the bat. "Why not just let us have a conversation with the seapony?"

"Because they're very easily frightened," he snapped back, eyes narrowing at the finely-dressed bat. "Their mental health is extremely delicate. They're the last survivors of a nearly extinct race. I have a list of topics I'm forbidden to let you bring up. If you want your questions approved, don't ask them about their dead relatives, I won't allow it. Don't ask them about leaving the tank either, as they're unable to do so yet. Do you understand?"

Ponies nodded again.

"One final matter." He pointed towards the table. "You'll find release forms waiting for you. I know they're eight pages, but I can tell you what it says. You will not share what you see here tonight with anypony. You have been permitted an early chance to enjoy Lady Shimmer's remarkable discovery. How she chooses to make that final reveal to Equestria is her decision, not yours."

There was a little more debate about that, more energetic than previously. But Ryan barely paid attention. They were about to stage a jailbreak, getting into a legal contract with a pony was the least of her concern. What good does she think this would do if Equestria realizes she kidnapped Kaelynn?

Ryan waited her turn, then signed her fake name like so many others. She had a brief spike of fear as the squat little pony squinted at her signature, then he shrugged and tossed it into the pile with the others.

Only when this was finished did they descend the stone steps of the manor, down past a few basement floors. Ryan could smell the water before she saw it. There was a heavy metal door swung open, like something out of the most secure bank. Two thugs waited outside.

One of them actually carried a sword, the first weapon she'd seen in the fancy manor house thus far. The guards barely paid them any attention as they passed inside—they didn't check Ryan's purse. And inside, inside was a tank.

It was big enough that even a large Earthside aquarium would've been jealous, an outward-facing bubble of something thick—crystal, maybe? It didn't reflect like the acrylic a human tank would've used. There were grates in the floor in front, and two rows of seats looking in.

Kaelynn wasn't inside, nobody was. There was a single metal rod hanging down on the inside, along with gravel on the bottom with a few underwater plants growing to try and make it look more alive.

"You'll find slips of paper and pencils on the seats," said their guide. "Please, any questions you have. Send them to me."

Ryan squeezed her way through—not to the front of the crowd, but the back, so she could sit up against one of the stone walls. While the others started scribbling their frantic questions for a creature that might not even appear, she levitated the tracker out from inside, peeled the double-sided tape, and pressed it up against the wall under the desk.

Their guide pulled something beside the tank—a bell. The sound was muffled, barely audible from where Ryan was sitting. After a few seconds, a creature drifted in through the attached tunnel, making Ryan freeze in place to stare.

It was Kaelynn, looking the worse for wear. Her scales were faded, her eyes distant and unfocused. Her emotions were so muted he could barely sense her. This was defeat.

"Questions here," said the assistant, passing a little basket down the row. Ryan scrambled to write something, then tossed it in amid the others, before returning the basket to the front.

Then she watched.

Epilogue 2/2: Vesper

A little while later.

Vesper stared across a vast gulf, hovering in the air on a pair of membranous wings. Before her was a terrible vortex of stormy sky, where gale winds lifted chunks of rock as big as houses and flung them like toys. The desert landscape beneath it was scoured clean, with huge gaps and craters that suggested a sustained bombardment. Vesper adjusted the goggles over her eyes, keeping out the moisture as best she could.

The wind howled, but she kept herself still in the air. At least around her, the Dreamlands remained stable—she was an island in a sea of destruction. When rocks came closer to her, they dissolved to dust, because she did not will them here.

"We don't have enough time," Pale Light said, glancing once more through the metal astrolabe in one hoof. It was only one of many instruments he could summon—this one looked across to the world she'd come from. The awake world, but not her only one. She had three, actually. "It's well past sunrise now. You will wake up any second."

When she'd been less skilled, she would've had to shout to be heard through conditions like this. But these days, Vesper just didn't let the roaring thunder get in with its full strength, and she muffled the wind until it was something manageable. Even so, she was no Princess Luna. She couldn't keep the Dreaming from touching her completely. Yet.

"We could try to bend time a little further," she said, touching down reluctantly on the edge of a ridge. It looked out over that vast valley, rough black rock with patches of stubborn lichen and moss clinging where they could. But there was precious little place for them to find purchase. "The princess spends years of time every night, doesn't she?"

"The princess does," Pale agreed. He touched down beside her, hooves splashing in the mud. He followed her to the edge, but didn't step over it. "You will need years of physical practice to do likewise. Perhaps in time, if you are dedicated. Likely not. Most cannot coexist in two times at once."

She grinned. "Saying it like that is just going to make me more focused." She squinted down through the storm, trying to see her goal through all that wind and water. This far out, it was easy to dissolve the protective magic's attempt to kill her. But when she went in closer, it would be harder. Near the center, it would be impossible.

Somewhere in all that was a library, the one Pale had been looking for after all this time. If only she could figure out how to get inside without getting her dream-self killed again. "Tomorrow night. We can track it now, that's a step. We'll get through."

"Maybe." The bat touched her shoulder with one hoof, meeting her eyes. "There's no need to exhaust yourself on my behalf, Vesper. I am timeless, and you have a whole lifetime ahead of you. Take your time."

How long a lifetime that would be was another detail Vesper was still getting her head around. She really needed to push on that a little harder with Blake. Was having free reign of Earth really worth everything Equestria could give them?

"I'm not exhausted, Pale. I need a chase. That's why I came to Equestria in the first place, and it's why I'll be the first one to get inside that library."

He chuckled, releasing her shoulder. His eyes lingered on her belly for a moment, though she couldn't imagine why. "We'll see. Those priorities might shift for the next few years. Try and remember me when you have other dreams on your mind, alright? It would be a shame to let your talent go to waste. Legacy needs ponies like you."

She tilted her head to one side. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Something loud banged through her ears, echoing from one world and into the next. She groaned, and found her body laying in an oversized bed.

She looked up, but of course Blake wasn't there. The light of full day streamed in through a crack in the blinds, but not onto her face. Despite Vesper's reminder that she could be woken up "if anything important happened" Blake almost always just left her here, to wake when she was ready. Stars bless that horse.

She might even love him. That would take a little more time to be sure about. She wasn't ready to rush in or anything.

Their bedroom aboard the Bright Hawk was greatly transformed since their desperate trek across Equestria. There were a proper number of passengers this time, and a whole cargo of weapons and scientific equipment. But Blake was the captain, and it wouldn't be right for him to be crammed in a crew berth barely wider than a cot.

Theirs was double-sized, with a proper Equestrian bed taking up most of the far wall. The room was a mix of worlds now—there were color portraits of the two of them together on the walls, in this world and the one they'd come from. There was a laptop on the desk, and a mini-fridge in a corner well stocked with energy drinks.

Being the only bat around a crew of day ponies took a steady supply of energy drinks to keep her going, lest war erupt. She probably would've cracked open one of them now, if she didn’t hear another distant rumble. This time she was awake enough not to mistake it for another crash of dream-thunder. She recognized the sound; that was a cannonfire. Far away, maybe, but the whistle of metal told her it was on the way.

She hesitated by the mirror and their open wardrobe just long enough to grab a cap to cover up her unruly mane. It was true that over half the creatures on this ship were still human, and dressed religiously every day regardless of local custom. But this was another aspect where practicality was the clear victor over tradition.

The new captain's quarters was on the reconstructed top-deck, so she didn't have to climb up the stairs. Just a few steps down the hall, and she was out into the chaos.

The deck of the Bright Hawk still looked very much the way it had during most of their adventure across Equestria, other than the repairs. And the solar panels covered with textured plexiglass. Or the giant transmission antenna that ran up the mast. There were practical limitations to what could be brought across, but they'd sure pushed them with this ship. And what they couldn't bring, they could buy.

She could always find her friends, because they weren't completely overdressed. Besides, the scientists, international observers, and bureaucrats were fleeing in panic.

But Blake was just outside. He didn't dress like a pirate, as much as he probably wanted to—but he had a long coat in old-fashioned naval blue, matching the local style. There wasn't much underneath, that would just be too formal for a pony.

He wasn't one yet, technically. But if he came along with the Bright Hawk for a third trip, that would probably be the end of it.

Too bad he seemed to be having so much fun. "Vesper, you're just in time! We finally lured them out." He pointed off the deck with one hoof, and she followed his gaze.

Sure enough, the Eagle’s Talon was visible out there in the distance, a menacing bulbus shadow against the horizon. They clearly recognized the Bright Hawk, or else they'd grown a lot bolder in attacking random ships that grew too close to the Equestrian border. "You know how long Equestria's been waiting for this. Time to nip a thorn from their side."

Vesper brushed up against him, then hurried up the steps to the helm. They had already come to a stop, sails down and all engines cut. The bait was working, because the Eagle’s Talon seemed to be accelerating, making for them with eager haste.

"Captain Hodges," snapped a voice. A pegasus wearing a military uniform—but none native to Equestria. He saluted, foreleg and wing moving together. At least they were practical enough to leave openings. "Civilians are all below. You should prepare to give the signal to Equestria now. We can't risk one of those cannonballs landing."

Blake nodded once. "They aren't aiming for us, I don't think. It's just to keep us in place. They don't want their kill getting too far away."

He followed Vesper up to the helm. Ryan stood beside it now, though they weren't actually going anywhere. The deck looked so empty with everyone below.

"You sure you don't want to just summon a rocket or something and send them all to hell?" he asked. "You know they deserve it."

She nodded absently. She didn't actually know the limits of her magic, though she shuddered to think of what calling so much power from the Dreaming would do. It wasn't the explosion that frightened her, it was using magic to kill. "Positive. This is Equestria, so we do it the Equestrian way."

"Technically these are the Badlands," Ryan countered. "But sure. I don't think any of those scientists expected us to actually get attacked. Probably didn't even read that part of the release."

"Equestria explained the risks, I was there," Blake said. "They didn't consider the chance of a successful attack very high. That's why we have ten scientists and four marines, and not the other way around." He nudged Vesper in the rear with one hoof, gently. He wasn't trying to be distracting this time. "Better dial them up, bat. You know they don't actually have to get here... griffons can fly."

"Yeah, yeah." She pushed him back with a wing, then closed her eyes. This would probably be a little easier on her if she had drained an energy drink. Why couldn't the stupid pirates just attack at night like normal people?

Vesper dreamed—she dreamed of a rune in the sky overhead, one drawn by Princess Luna herself. It was only smoke—thank the stars Vesper didn't have to power this herself. Each complex shape was easily as far across as the entire Bright Hawk, with a faint internal glow. Soon there was an entire circle of them, two dozen characters that appeared beside them in the air.

Her legs began to shake, her mind wavering under the incredible focus required. In its way, bringing so much into the physical was as hard as piercing the protective spells around the ancient sanctums of the Dreaming. But that was exactly why she was so prepared. Equestria could've sent their own warmage to remain aboard the Bright Hawk, but they hadn't.

Or rather, they considered Vesper their representative. She could aspire to few honors as great.

Finally, the diagram was complete. She felt the instant it happened, and Princess Luna's Alicorn magic flowed across the divide between waking and dreaming. A single peal of thunder cracked through the air, and the space inside the diagram shifted. The sky beyond wasn't the cloudless blue of the desert—it was gray, with distant cities built of the same fluffy material. It wasn't just a sky, though—there was a fleet formation on that side.

A huge zeppelin passed through the opening, a rigid-bodied craft with sun and moon markings along the sides. It took ten full seconds to transit, at least a hundred meters in length. It flew away from them, directly at the pirate ship.

The Eagle’s Talon didn't seem so big anymore, not compared to that. Its cannons fired madly, this time directly at the airship. They slowed as they passed through the air, and a brief flash of blue echoed around the vessel. They dropped to the ground moments later, tumbling out of sight. It wasn't much of a fight after that.

Vesper waited until the battle was over to bring out the camera, securing the Steadicam rig onto her shoulder the way she might've done for any number of videos.

"What do you think, Blake?" she asked, angling up at him from the side. Even Vesper, about as “native” now as it was possible to go, didn't like the idea of her junk preserved on some EU DFI recording somewhere. But all she had to do was film from the side or the front, and that wasn't much of a problem. "We could get some footage of that Equestrian warship flying off."

"They're never gonna let us post any of it," he said. "There's no telling when they make Equestria public. Might be never."

"Might be," she agreed. "But could you pose for me anyway? Just like that... don't want a reflection off your scales."

Vesper could scarcely imagine where her life had gone. But now that she was here, she couldn't dream of anything better.